Team Building with Jack Landors (SPD, A Squad, #22, K)
characters: SPD’s A Squad (Bridge/Z)
prompt #22: fire
word count: 750
rating: K
summary: "You promised to light a candle with me. Darkest day of the year... time to light up the night."
Team Building with Jack Landors (fire)
by *Andrea
He liked to see people having fun. It wasn’t his kind of party, but he liked the balcony view. They shouldn’t have open flames on the main level of the mess hall anyway, not with all the people and dancing and climbing up on things. Ladders, and chairs... tables. Whatever was handy.
It wasn’t actually that rowdy yet, but it would be. Bridge had seen both bowls of punch spiked by now, and the volume of the music was creeping up. He smiled at the commotion on the improvised dance floor, where Jack had made C Squad cordon off a section for “solving disagreements.” Of course a cadets-only party at SPD would involve fighting.
The balcony was calmer, less crowded, if not any quieter. People didn’t swirl around each other up here, tugging and bumping and constantly touching. Motions were more deliberate around the ceremonial candles, almost entirely enclosed by glass spheres but still a fire hazard if they weren’t careful. He was happy to spend some time tending the flames.
“Hi,” Z said, slipping up to the railing beside him. He smiled again, because he was more happy to do it with her there. It wasn’t like he was taking Z away from anything, either: she could be up here with him, down there dancing, and harassing Sky all at once.
“You promised to light a candle with me,” she was saying as she nudged his shoulder companionably. Her closeness was expected, the opposite of annoying. “Darkest day of the year. Time to light up the night.”
The menorahs on the balcony were all out. They’d burned symbolically low and been extinguished after this, the last day of the Festival of Lights. Individual candles had been lit in between them, on tables and on the wall and on display, everywhere.
Solstice: the day the sun stopped. It had taken up the torch of celebration.
“I got you a present,” Bridge told her.
She turned to him playfully, golden aura glittering bright and curious as she cocked her head. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said. She was happy about it, though.
“Well, you don’t have to take it.” It was a gift he didn’t offer many people, although some of them had shared it by accident. Some people didn’t think it was a gift at all. But he thought she would like it. “You know how I can see auras?”
Z smiled, puzzled but patient. “Yeah?”
“It turns out I’m not the only one,” he said. He pulled the glove off of his right hand and held it out, palm up.
Her eyes flicked from his to his hand, her smile fading. “Really?”
They all knew. Bridge hadn’t told them, but they knew. He thought maybe Sky had said, at some point, to spare him the questions or the discomfort or something. Even now, she wasn’t asking if he was telling the truth. She was asking if he was really offering what she thought he was offering.
He raised his eyebrows, daring her, and she took his hand without any more hesitation. Her eyes widened, scanning him, lifting involuntarily to the rest of the room, and he smiled to himself. Yeah. It had definitely been Sky. She was thinking of the ocean, wave after wave... the same image Sky used for background noise.
“Wow,” Z said, with an appreciation bordering on reverence. “You see this all the time?”
Bridge followed her gaze, looking out over the bright rainbow hues of the party below. Ranger auras shimmered through the crowd, Sky’s a bright beacon in the middle of the room where he and Jack were slow-dancing to the pounding music, while the pink of Syd and Rose together almost drowned out Charlie by one of the punch bowls. Dan’s soft glow lit up the tree, peaceful in a way Boom’s aura never was, and Sophie was blue like colored glass beside him.
“Pretty much,” he agreed. The times he didn’t weren’t worth talking about. “Yeah.”
“Wow,” Z repeated. “It’s like when two of me look at the same thing.”
“Is it?” he asked curiously.
“Yeah,” she said, delighted grin spreading across her face. “Kaleidoscopic.”
Pleased, he lifted their clasped hands above her head and turned around her, so they could both lean against the railing to look out over the hall. Candles burning behind them, ocean waves still whispering in his head. Z’s focus was sharp and easy, which he’d kind of expected, and it made the contact comfortable while they stood there together.
Watching the light.
prompt #22: fire
word count: 750
rating: K
summary: "You promised to light a candle with me. Darkest day of the year... time to light up the night."
Team Building with Jack Landors (fire)
by *Andrea
He liked to see people having fun. It wasn’t his kind of party, but he liked the balcony view. They shouldn’t have open flames on the main level of the mess hall anyway, not with all the people and dancing and climbing up on things. Ladders, and chairs... tables. Whatever was handy.
It wasn’t actually that rowdy yet, but it would be. Bridge had seen both bowls of punch spiked by now, and the volume of the music was creeping up. He smiled at the commotion on the improvised dance floor, where Jack had made C Squad cordon off a section for “solving disagreements.” Of course a cadets-only party at SPD would involve fighting.
The balcony was calmer, less crowded, if not any quieter. People didn’t swirl around each other up here, tugging and bumping and constantly touching. Motions were more deliberate around the ceremonial candles, almost entirely enclosed by glass spheres but still a fire hazard if they weren’t careful. He was happy to spend some time tending the flames.
“Hi,” Z said, slipping up to the railing beside him. He smiled again, because he was more happy to do it with her there. It wasn’t like he was taking Z away from anything, either: she could be up here with him, down there dancing, and harassing Sky all at once.
“You promised to light a candle with me,” she was saying as she nudged his shoulder companionably. Her closeness was expected, the opposite of annoying. “Darkest day of the year. Time to light up the night.”
The menorahs on the balcony were all out. They’d burned symbolically low and been extinguished after this, the last day of the Festival of Lights. Individual candles had been lit in between them, on tables and on the wall and on display, everywhere.
Solstice: the day the sun stopped. It had taken up the torch of celebration.
“I got you a present,” Bridge told her.
She turned to him playfully, golden aura glittering bright and curious as she cocked her head. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said. She was happy about it, though.
“Well, you don’t have to take it.” It was a gift he didn’t offer many people, although some of them had shared it by accident. Some people didn’t think it was a gift at all. But he thought she would like it. “You know how I can see auras?”
Z smiled, puzzled but patient. “Yeah?”
“It turns out I’m not the only one,” he said. He pulled the glove off of his right hand and held it out, palm up.
Her eyes flicked from his to his hand, her smile fading. “Really?”
They all knew. Bridge hadn’t told them, but they knew. He thought maybe Sky had said, at some point, to spare him the questions or the discomfort or something. Even now, she wasn’t asking if he was telling the truth. She was asking if he was really offering what she thought he was offering.
He raised his eyebrows, daring her, and she took his hand without any more hesitation. Her eyes widened, scanning him, lifting involuntarily to the rest of the room, and he smiled to himself. Yeah. It had definitely been Sky. She was thinking of the ocean, wave after wave... the same image Sky used for background noise.
“Wow,” Z said, with an appreciation bordering on reverence. “You see this all the time?”
Bridge followed her gaze, looking out over the bright rainbow hues of the party below. Ranger auras shimmered through the crowd, Sky’s a bright beacon in the middle of the room where he and Jack were slow-dancing to the pounding music, while the pink of Syd and Rose together almost drowned out Charlie by one of the punch bowls. Dan’s soft glow lit up the tree, peaceful in a way Boom’s aura never was, and Sophie was blue like colored glass beside him.
“Pretty much,” he agreed. The times he didn’t weren’t worth talking about. “Yeah.”
“Wow,” Z repeated. “It’s like when two of me look at the same thing.”
“Is it?” he asked curiously.
“Yeah,” she said, delighted grin spreading across her face. “Kaleidoscopic.”
Pleased, he lifted their clasped hands above her head and turned around her, so they could both lean against the railing to look out over the hall. Candles burning behind them, ocean waves still whispering in his head. Z’s focus was sharp and easy, which he’d kind of expected, and it made the contact comfortable while they stood there together.
Watching the light.