[FFML] [Kiddy Grade]Gazing at the Cosmos - Chap 1

[NiteFlier]

Kiddy Grade copyright 2004 gimik - GONZO/GOTT. Licensed by
FUNimation(r) Productions, Ltd.

Gazing at the Cosmos

Chapter One - When All Else Fails
Chronicled by Dro'gan, called NiteFlier

Sana walked uncertainly to the Information Desk from the changing
room. Éclair and Lumière had been gone for several days on 'business'.
They had disappeared several times before for their 'E Shift', and
whenever she asked, they had just shook their heads and said "Need to
know."

It was a bit annoying to have a ten year old tell her that she wasn't
allowed to know something.

When she had asked Liquiy about it, the blond had been surprisingly
cryptic for her normally open self. "Its part of their primary duties.
Once you get past your internship, we can tell you more."

She rolled her eyes as she rode the slideway to the front hall. As
expected, Éclair and Lumière were standing at the desk, greeting those
early risers that came to the GOTT.

"Good morning, Lumière, Éclair," she called as she approached the
desk. "Did you have a nice trip?"

The pair smiled at her. "Good morning, Sana. It was a bit dull,
compared to what we are used to, but it was interesting none the less."
replied Lumière.

"Good morning, Sana. The most interesting thing about the trip was
probably the return." Éclair smiled at her, as Lumière turned to look
at her partner. "After all, it was a most... refreshing conversation,
right, Lumière?"

The small girl smiled softly. "Indeed, Éclair. Most refreshing."

Sana blinked at the difference between the two. Before this last trip,
Éclair had seemed almost melancholy, and Lumière had been unsuccessful
at bringing her out of it. *Well, whatever happened between the two of
them, its not really my business.* she thought.

She slipped in between them and made ready for another day.

* * * * *

"So what do you have planned for Miss Sana?"

Éclair looked at her partner as the two of them walked home. "I don't
know what you mean."

Lumière sighed as they turned off into the train station. "When she
walked up this morning, you were eying her." They slipped easily to the
train, their cards granting them easy passage.

Éclair grinned slyly as they boarded the train. "As if I really needed
a reason to watch 'Miss Sana'? She's quite enough to draw the eye on
her own, you know."

Lumière turned to her partner and frowned furiously. "You aren't
thinking of-!"

Éclair cut her off by touching a finger to the smaller woman's lips.
"Now Lumière! I'm surprised you would believe I would think that."

"Oh, you!" Lumière sniffed superiorly and sat, watching the buildings
go by. She watched out of the corner of her eye as her partner sat
beside her with a huge grin on her face. "If you are quite done teasing
me?"

Éclair nodded irreverently, knowing that it would upset 'Prim and
Proper' Lumière.

"Well?" asked Lumière.

"Well, what?" came the reply.

Lumière harrumphed. "Why were you watching her?" She turned to Éclair
when she didn't reply immediately. The red haired woman was staring out
the window, the cityscape turned countryside.

Éclair sighed. "I'll tell you at home."

* * * * *

The walk form the train station was short. Both of them knew the path
well, and while Lumière had the resources to have them picked up at
GOTT headquarters and driven the thirty kilometers out here, both of
them enjoyed exercise outside of their duties.

Lumière's mansion was huge. Two wings of more than twenty rooms each,
it required over fifty robot servants to tend the house and grounds.
Éclair sometimes wondered what had possessed her partner to have the
place built, for she never entertained, and it was so large, that she
must have been lonely before Éclair moved in.

After Lumière had temporarily lost her powers in the realignment,
Éclair had moved into her mansion full time, selling the small
apartment that she had been living in. Éclair just hadn't felt right,
when Caprice didn't know she was alive, to keep living there, and going
past the coffee shop every day.

"Where did we go wrong, Lumi?" Éclair sighed as she sat down on a
couch.

Lumière looked at her oddly, as she sat down, and took a cup of tea
from the service the servants had provided. "You will have to tell me
what exactly is 'wrong' first, you know."

"Why did you live in this manse by yourself? And don't try to tell me
that you had the robots. They aren't sentient, not like Donner and
Wirbelwind are." Éclair growled and looked out the bay windows to the
gardens outside.

"Well," said Lumière, trying to put some levity into the conversation,
"I lived here because you didn't have a manse of your own." She was
slightly surprised at the look of almost guilt on her partner's face.
"Moving backward, why were you watching Sana?"

"Ah, that." Éclair shook herself. "She's one of us."

Lumière blinked. "Could you perhaps be a bit more obscure?"

Éclair growled and stood. "She's one of us, just not yet. Maybe not
ever." Upon seeing Lumière's continued confusion, she started pacing.
"She has the potential to become an ES Member. She has it in her, she
just hasn't let it loose, or it hasn't come to the fore."

Lumière frowned slightly. "And how do you know this?"

Éclair growled in frustration, and flopped down on the couch again.
"Can't you feel other ES Members when they're near?" At Lumière's
negative, she frowned. "Not even when they're close, like twenty feet
or so? But..."

"I don't feel them. The only other ES Member that I've 'felt' like you
say, is *you*. Moreso now than before Deucalion, but I think that is
because of our 'merging'." She stopped at Éclair's look.

"Every ES Member. From Tweedledee and Tweedledum, when we first found
them, to Eclipse, when she confronted us that very first time. Even
when I hadn't met them, I could feel that they were near. The only time
I couldn't..." Éclair took on a mildly confused look. "The only time I
couldn't was when I found an orphan in an alleyway..."

Lumière bowed her head for a moment. "Once we got to know each other,
we gained our awareness of each other. But you can locate any ES
Member, whether you know them or not." She raised her head and looked
at Éclair. "Is it another facet of your 'Power'? Éclair?"

Éclair shook herself. "No, no I think its something different. I did a
bit of research once... Ah, forget it. If its that, then it won't be a
problem." She looked over at Lumière. "Er. Seriously. It has to do with
my, er, relation with them. Ha. Relation, that's a good way to put it."

Lumière sighed. "One of these days..."

"Yeah, one of these days." Éclair waved it off. "Anyway, that's why I
was so intent on her today. I hadn't really noticed it before, so it
kind of took me by surprise."

"Could her power be maturing?"

Éclair opened her mouth to answer but hesitated. "No," she said
slowly. "No, I think it has more to do with my outlook than with her. I
think that her power will need something else to bring it to the
fore..."

"I would hope that your outlook has improved?" Lumière asked.

Éclair grinned again. "Yep. Haven't gotten a chance to needle you like
that in a long time."

"Éclair!"

* * * * *

Life, Sana mused, has a way of turning you about when you least expect
it.

She had arrived to work early for once, and had seen Éclair and
Lumière come in the front doors. Strangely enough, they had been
together. She shook her head over that. Didn't the two of them spend
enough time together? What with working the Information Desk, and
traveling about?

The strangest thing about their entrance, though, was that both of
them were laughing at something. She had seen Éclair laugh
occasionally, but had never heard Lumière so much as giggle. They had
waved to her, then gone off down the hall to the changing room.

They had returned a short while later, Éclair still grinning, Lumière
with a smug smile on her face.

They had gone about their business, when about halfway through the
shift, one of the ES Members had approached the desk!

"Hello, A-uo," spoke up Éclair, "Something wrong?"

Sana was appalled at the ease that she spoke to him, after all, he
reported directly to the head of the GOTT!

But apparently the dark skinned man thought nothing of it. "Nothing is
wrong, Éclair. Un-ou and I are headed out soon. Just sent to tell you
that 'E Shift' starts in five hours."

"Thank you, A-uo." Lumière said. "Are we perhaps...?"

The ES Member shook his head. "I don't believe so. Un-ou is waiting
for me."

"Later, A-uo!" Éclair called.

"Goodbye, A-uo," Lumière said calmly.

The large man had nodded, and left.

Seeing no one else was headed for the desk, Sana turned to Éclair and
forcefully whispered to her, "You can't just talk to an ES Member like
that!"

Éclair blinked. "But its just A-uo."

Sana felt a touch on her arm, and turned to Lumière, who was smiling
softly. "Éclair is right, Sana. ES Members aren't all that threatening
once you get to know them. If you don't believe us, talk to Liquiy
about it."

"But, but they..." she started.

"Are nothing more than people with a few abilities that normal people
don't share." Lumière stated. "They have their own problems to deal
with, you know. Right Éclair?" Lumière looked to her partner, but
Éclair seemed to just be staring off into space. "Eclair?"

The girl started. Shaking her head. "What? Lumière? Oh, sorry." Éclair
looked to Sana. "Do you want to be an ES Member, Sana?"

Sana heard Lumière's sharp, short intake of breath, and she looked at
Éclair closely. "What do you mean? Its not that simple, right?"

The red haired girl smiled grimly. "If you didn't know the price to
pay- like you don't now- would you choose to be an ES Member?"

Somehow, it felt to Sana as if the world had gone dim, sounds and
light from outside of their little area muted, and the three of them in
the Information Desk were highlighted, the colors of their clothes and
hair brighter, as if they were the only things to consider in the
world.

"I... I don't know," Sana stuttered. "I mean, I guess I would, but...
but..." She stared into Éclair's eyes, not knowing of Lumière's slight
look of amazement. "What price, power?"

Éclair's smile turned kindly. "I'm sorry, Sana. I shouldn't have
asked."

Slowly, their brightness faded, and the world around them lost its
muted quality. Sounds and movement from the entrance hall became
commonplace again.

Éclair turned back to the desk as a customer came up, wanting to get
directions to one of the many departments. Sana just looked at her
curiously, feeling strangely tired.

Unnoticed by either of them, Lumière had a small look of wonderment on
her face.

* * * * *

The two of them were sitting in a cafe after work a few days later,
idly sipping coffee and tea, neither of them sure of where to start the
conversation.

"She's not yet come into her ability."

Lumière looked to her partner. "And yet, she can do something like
that? I realize that even C Class abilities can show before they come
to full bloom, but something like that..."

Éclair nodded. "S Class, if not G Class, like us."

The small woman sighed, and sipped her tea. "This is the first time
we've encountered another G Class, even one that hasn't awakened."

"Yeah," Éclair growled. "You'd think that in all the galaxy we've
explored, we'd've found another one... Lumière? What's wrong?"

Lumière started guiltily. "Oh, its nothing, Éclair." She frowned at
Éclair's continued examination of her.

"I felt something, Lumi. Almost got a good grasp on it before you hid
it." She leaned over the table. "What's wrong? Or should it be, what's
right?"

Fighting a blush, Lumière stood. "Its nothing that you can help with,
Éclair. You haven't been able to before, you know."

As she stood, Éclair smirked. "I see now. Cute guy caught your eye?
That hasn't happened in a while."

"Eclair! Its best just for us to forget it. Nothing can be done in
this situation." Lumière turned and walked out of the cafe, apparently
not noting if Éclair followed.

The red haired woman had stopped, but only for a moment. Something had
occurred to her, and if it were possible, it could be the answer to a
problem that kept cropping up every few years...

Smiling unabashedly now, she followed her partner.

* * * * *

She found Lumiere in the gardens, watching the orchids sway in the
breeze. She had to have taken a taxi or called for a ride, for she
hadn't seen her on the train.

"I would prefer to be left alone, if you don't mind."

"Unfortunatly, I do." Eclair responded. "Lumi, I know what's wrong."
Eclair saw her partner shrug. "I think I can help..."

Lumiere turned to her. "You aren't that way, and neither am I, Eclair.
Just forget about it."

"Lumiere! Stop being so stubborn." Eclair kneeled before Lumiere. "Do
you trust me, oh Light of my life?"

The younger woman paused. It was a phrase that had become almost
ritual for them. "Always and forever, my Lightning and Shield. Always
and forever."

Eclair gathered the smaller woman in her lap, embracing her tightly.
"Can you feel me, Lumi?" She felt Lumiere nod against her chest. "Push
yourself to me..."

Lumiere felt the essence, the mind of her partner, and moved her own
essence to that of Eclair's. She felt Eclair grow closer, and suddenly,
felt Eclair pass her, and she was falling, falling into...

Lumiere felt strange, she felt too large, almost as if she were in her
adult form, but it was vastly different, all curves and muscles. Even
stranger, she felt someone sitting in her lap. Opening her eyes, she
gasped, seeing her own face with a mischevious grin looking up at her.

"E-Eclair?" Her voice had dropped from her own soprano to a rich
alto... Eclair's voice.

"Yes, Lumiere," her own voice answered. "I told you we were close."

"But... This is... We've just..." Lumiere couldn't find the words to
express the imposibility of what was happening.

"I know." Lumiere watched as her own head drooped to Eclair's breast,
and she felt a terrible exaustion hovering over her.

Suddenly, she was falling again.

Her cheek was pressed against the smooth silk of Eclair's blouse, her
hands in her lap, and that terrible feeling of tiredness settling on
her. She felt Eclair's chest rise and fall in a sigh, "That took more
out of me than I thought. You all right, Lumi?"

"Yes," Lumiere whispered. "Just tired..."

"So am I. I think this is going to need a bit of work." Lumiere felt
Eclair's arms around her, then there was a dizzying sensation of
free-fall as the other woman shakily stood. "Lets both get to bed."

* * * * *

"You can't really think to use this tecnique here, do you Eclair?"

Eclair looked over at Lumiere, who was placing the trays and dishes
from their weekly picnic lunch with Liquiy away. "Well, It'll only be a
few hours, and we've been able to stay switched for that long before.
Why not?"

Lumiere sighed. Over the past month, they had switched bodies at least
once every day, testing the distance and stress limits of being in a
different body. "Its less that, and more that its like we're lying to
our friends."

Eclair paused for a moment. "Its still us. Still Eclair and Lumiere.
We're just not wearing the same faces we usualy wear."

"They might place us as different, you know. What if one of them wants
to talk to us alone?" She cast a worried glance down the hall.

"Now your just being stubborn." Eclair put her hands on her hips.
"When has anyone wanted to talk to one of us but not the other?"

"All right, all right," she sighed. "Lets go."

* * * * *
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