AN - Guys, please let me know what you think of this. I honestly have no idea.

Trading Smirks

A year since the nightmare of the North and he still hasn't kissed her again. The weak and dazed state she was in, he doubts she remembers it. She certainly hasn't brought it up. What's he waiting for? More to the point, what's she waiting for? Can I, will I, should I, might I, could I, the if's will rip him apart.

The moments when her top rides up, exposing the shallow scars from Nanqu's teeth, tears him into indecision. The spinning currents that catch the sun and radiate beams out of Sapphire's drifting hair hold him captivated. The dark material covering her legs, the stuff she calls jeans, the little thought shoved to the far point of his mind wonders what the smooth skin would feel like without them on. He is going crazy waiting. He's not even sure what he's waiting for.

The sun shines white on the skin of the water, which refracts thousands of golden drops of light throughout Ingo. Tropical fish spin around and around Sapphire's legs, creating a cyclone that slowly engulfs her, until all Faro can see is a blur of spinning fish and hair. He laughs, and grabs her hand, pulling her out of the whirl of colour. They're just curious. The last time they saw a human safe in Ingo was years and years ago.

"Hurry up, slow coach" he smirks, tail flicking the water in satisfaction. "If you want to see the reef labyrinth in daylight…" She punches him the arm, and throws away his hand, swooping through the water with her hair streaming behind her like seaweed caught in the tide. He stays behind her long enough to subtly admire the shape of her neck, the way her singlet has ridden up her lower back from her speed, the way her body flows seamlessly down into her legs, where they split…

Immediately banishing his thoughts and hoping she didn't hear them in his mind, he shoots past her, showering her with bubbles that trickle up to the surface and leave her spluttering indignantly. Try as she might, she won't catch him. Surprisingly however, she lets the insult go without saying a word, and the pair swim on, side by side, with hands brushing together only to jerk away in a quiet peace.

Or so he thought.

He has pulled a little way ahead of her when she attacks him from behind, seizing his arms and locking them behind his back as her legs wrap around his waist, not letting him go. He throws his body into dozens of somersaults, hurling himself through golden-tinged water in an attempt to throw her off, but somehow, to no luck. A slim hand reaches around his neck and pulls his head back, and he freezes as he feels her lips ghosting against his ear, her hair feathering, tickling over his chest. "Say sorry!"

Faro laughs, and torpedoes himself up through the water, shooting through the skin of Ingo like a dolphin, effortlessly cutting through the surface and hurtling into the air. The surprise makes Sapphire's arms limp with shock, and Faro twists and flips himself into a dive, in time to see Sapphire fall ungracefully through the skin. He uses his momentum to pin her arms behind her back and flies down through the shallow water until her back hits the sand, arms locked over her head. "Never," he snarls, a wide grin of gleaming teeth on his face. Sapphire bucks her legs and pushes her arms to try and fight him off, but Faro holds her legs to the sand with the strong, rippling muscle of his tail. He moves his face forward until he is an inch from hers, still with his shining grin of triumph. "Admit defeat."

She stares at him defiantly, trying to break him with her gaze. But her impatience is to Faro's benefit, and soon she cannot help yelling at him, laughing through her teeth while calling him all sorts of human insults, and unceremoniously bucking with her legs and torso to get him off. He holds her there, in his never-ending patience, until she has exhausted herself and lies there with her eyes closed, annoyed and beaten.

But his traitorous body has picked this moment to realise the very intimate position they are in, their bodies locked together against the sand and his face only an inch from her own. He swallows unwittingly, and her eyes open in time to see the Adam's Apple bob against the flawless skin of his neck.

She's been waiting to time her move for days, and now the smooth smirk is sliding onto her lips. Cocking an eyebrow, she relaxes completely beneath him, allowing her straining arms to sink against the sand. "So if I don't admit defeat… What comes next?"

Faro locks a portcullis over his thoughts, which are shifting and swirling like sand in a king tide, and does his best to appear as confident and arrogant as he is usually told off for. Sadly for him, he's fairly sure he's failing miserably. "What do you think?" His cheeks begin to grow warm as she rakes her gaze over him, resting on where his tail pins her legs to the sand. He throws pressure over his body, to be still, to stiffen, to remain his normal colour. Too late. The traitorous blush that started across his cheekbones is spreading, his entire face is going red. His tail prickles, the smooth muscle tensing hundreds of nerves. Blue blood thrums like the tide in his veins.

His fingers slacken hold on her arms, and Sapphire pulls them easily from his grasp, stretching them out under her head like a pillow. Grinning up at him, the position of her head is now even closer to his. "You tell me Faro." He floats up a little and ducks his head, desperate to at least try to keep his pride intact. It's his fatal mistake. Sapphire slides down a little in the constricted space, oblivious to the little ring of seahorses that have gotten caught in floating tendrils of her hair. Her laugh huffs softly against the smooth skin of his neck, and she presses a gentle kiss to it, slowly making her way up to his jaw. "Still think we shouldn't do this?"

Faro is as rigid as human metal, his indecisive mind flooding with thoughts that crash through his head like huge, rolling waves. It's when her lips touch just gently, so lightly, to the pulse point, the delicate skin at the most sensitive part of his neck that the wave in his mind breaks, flooding through the rest of his body.

He pulls her up to his mouth roughly, tail sweeping them back upright as he claims her as his own. He takes her mouth greedily, and without mercy, he too oblivious to the ring of dislodged seahorses laughing in a halo around their heads. Her fingers lock into his hair, pulling and twisting herself as close as she can to him, kissing him back as fiercely as she knows how. His tail curls around her legs, pulling her flush against him as his arms lock around her ribs and back. They spin in mindless circles, joined as one as her hair floats around them both, curtaining them in privacy from the rest of the world.

He traces her face with his fingers, and then his lips, as she runs gentle fingertips over his broad shoulders and chest. Her legs curl around him, securing her to him like she is trying to weave them together, like soft hair in a bracelet. The kiss becomes gentle, as he recaptures her mouth with his, hair waving gently in the whirlpool they have created together. Soon enough though, they give over to passion once more, holding each other so tightly they will leave bruises, kisses searing across lips and bare skin.

When they do break apart panting, both faces are flushed, with swollen lips and bright eyes. She keeps her fingers locked securely in his hair, and he keeps his tail curled tightly around her legs. Both have hair tangled and knotty, tiny minnows dart through the strands as they gasp for breath. He bends his forehead to rest against hers, and both his hands stretch out, catching hers and twining their fingers together. He holds them close to their hearts, both beating in a pounding rhythm that cannot be distinguished from the other. The silken hair of their deubleks shift against each other, against skin. Together they smile, remembering.

Faro smirks, pushing his mouth gently into the skin of her neck so she can feel it. She laughs in return, teasingly drawing her mouth over the skin beneath his ear. Smirk or not, she still won. Except the barriers held tight in her mind have loosened in their frenzy, and he hears her thoughts like she's whispered them in his ear. And so he grabs her hands again, kissing her hard, and then softly, before ever so gently, three times, before his seductive sweetness drives her mad, and she admits his victory to a familiar, triumphant laugh.

They swim on, quietly sharing memories and laughing, surrounded by schools of parrot fish whose rainbow stripes glint in the flickering water. A migrating wave of turtles parade peacefully over their heads, the noise of hundreds of flippers similar to booming thunder in storm clouds. They reach the reef shelf, and hundreds of kilometres of coral stretch before them, bursting with colour and light and noise. Holding hands, deubleks linked, both lift their faces to the sun, seemingly shimmering in it's dazzling white glory only a dozen meters above.

Some patterns, once begun, will never end.

They are one.

AN -This is the part where you review, and I jump up and down and squeal when I get an email telling me someone's left a review. Yay!