Life's Little Triumphs: Locke Cole
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Insomnia, while it's murder on someone who needs as much sleep as I do, is a pretty good cure for writer's block.  The near-kiss scene in this story, for example, was conceived during a particularly long bout of not being able to fall asleep.
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	They stared into each others eyes.  He felt himself being pulled towards her by some invisible force, and she to him.  Slowly, her eyes began to close and her chin lifted in anticipation of being kissed.  Oblidginly, he brought his lips closer to hers.

	She stopped.

	"I'm sorry..." She drew back, lowering her eyes.  "It's just...I feel like...like I don't deserve this."

	"Don't say that." He touched her face, lightly, gently.

	Tears brimmed at the edges of her eyes.  "I don't want to hurt you..."

	"You won't."

	"But what if this doesn't work out? What if I'm not the right one for you?"

	He smiled sadly.  "I'm willing to take that chance."

	Their gazes locked again.  Time slowed to an agonizing crawl as he drew to her a second time.  His heart seemed to stop beating as they became closer, and closer, and--


	First contact.

	He felt her shudder, and a similar jolt ran through his own body.  His eyes shot open to see her looking back at him, hovering below his chin, not quite daring to touch, asking the silent question.  But both of them knew that it was over.

	"I--"

	"Shh." He pressed a finger to her lips.  "It's okay."

	She took his outstretched hand into hers.  "Can I...have a hug instead?"

	This time, there was no hesitation at all.

	As they held onto each other, new desires surged through them:  To be needed, and to need.  To be protected, and to protect.  To be accepted, and to accept.

	To be loved.

	To love.

	Unconditionally.  Abolutely.  "Till death do we part."

	It was like getting a little taste of heaven.


	They didn't let go for a very, very long time.


	When Locke first 'met' Celes in South Figaro, he had offered his protection to her simply out of his guilt over what had happened to Rachel.  As time passed, he knew that he was gradually being attracted towards Celes, but kept himself distant fearing that he was thinking of her simply as a replacement for his lost love.  A great weight was lifted from his heart after Rachel told him to let go of the past, but Locke was still unsure of how Celes felt about him.

	Then, during their escape from Kefka's tower, Celes nearly died in the same manner as Rachel.  It was in that moment as Locke dived towards Celes that he realized what she meant to him, and he to her.  That he loved her--and she loved him back--for no other reason than love.

	And his heart soared.


	Locke woke up, and panicked briefly when he realized that Celes was still hugging him.  Then, he remembered how they had gotten into this position in the first place, and relaxed.

	Celes' eyes fluttered open, and she reached up to caress Locke's face.  "Locke."

	He took her hand in his.  "I'm here.  And I'll always be.  I promise."

	She looked back at him, her eyes glittering.  "I know."
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Author's notes, for those of you who haven't drowned in the WAFF (Warm And Fuzzy Feelings) yet ^_^:

*gasp* *pant* *wheeze*
Man, that was an emotionally draining experience.

This little piece was conceived out of my long-standing dislike of the tendancy for Hollywood to show how much characters 'loved' one another by having them make passionate sex on the screen.  In other words, I wanted to write an emotionally intense scene with as little physical contact as possible.  Finally, on that horrible night when I couldn't sleep, I hit upon the near-kiss scene.  The rest of the story wasn't conceived until much later.  (In retrospect, writing a steamy lemon story probably would have been much easier :P)

I was going to substitute 'Locke' and 'Celes' for the 'he' and 'she' whenever appropriate, and write a build-up to the scene, but then I decided that I liked the scene better as it was.

One more note: no, they didn't.  You can get your heads out of the gutter now. ^_^
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Sabin's part coming soon, hopefully.  (Yes, I'm planning to write at least a little bit on all 14 playable characters.  I have no idea what I'm going to do for Mog and Umaro, though. ^^;)
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-"Dot"
http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/italian/70
http://members.xoom.com/dotchan (mirror)

Writer of Unnecessarily Long Author's Notes and Bad Spamfics. ^^;
Bane of the FFML since 1998. ^_^
Coming soon to your local inbox: Dragon Ball stories 
with -gasp- plot! ^_^


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