Lightning and Starlight

Playful

Neera went back to her room after her conversation with Badiah and changed into training clothes. Vincent groaned and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. "Meeting over?"

Neera laughed and threw her nice blouse at him. "Lazy! Have you been asleep since I left?"

"Well, duh," Vincent replied, laughing. That response earned him a pair of jeans to the face.

Neera went to the bathroom, and when she exited, Vincent was pulling athletic shorts on. He reached in the drawer of athletic clothes he kept in her room and pulled a black shirt out. Neera came up behind him and snatched the shirt away.

"Hey!" Vincent protested. "My shirt!"

"You just woke up. You still look half-asleep. Are you seriously coming with me to train?"

Vincent lunged for his shirt, but Neera darted away. "Yes, I'm going with you to train. I'm feeling clingy this morning, and you already left me once."

Vincent watched suspiciously as Neera walked up to him with his shirt held out. Instead of grabbing it, he grabbed Neera's arm and pulled her into him.

"Why don't we just stay in bed for a little bit longer?" Vincent asked, a smirk resting on his face. His green eyes sparkled with mischief, and Neera laughed.

Neera ran her hands over Vincent's chest, feeling his muscled, bare skin beneath her fingers. She smiled absently. Vincent leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss against her lips, then moved his lips to the top of her head.

Neera stepped out of his embrace and held the shirt out again. "I'm going to train. With or without you. And I have no qualms against you going shirtless, but I'd rather not have all the girls in this base talking about how hot your naked chest is for the next week until newer, hotter gossip comes along."

Vincent took his shirt and pulled it over his head. "You saying there's hotter gossip than me?"

Neera smacked his chest, and Vincent made a noise of protest and hurt.

⚡️⚡️⚡️

Neera pushed open the training room door and lazily held it open long enough for Vincent to grab. Neera went straight for the waters.

Vincent plopped himself down onto the mat and looked like he was taking a nap. Neera grabbed a water for each of them and went over to Vincent, dropping his water straight onto his stomach. He grunted and folded into himself. Neera smiled innocently, and, eventually, he relaxed and smiled softly back. He slowly sat up and let his head fall back.

"You aren't going to kill me today, are you?" Vincent asked. "Because I am voluntarily here. I could be sleeping right now."

"One," Neera started. "You aren't voluntarily here because Verena wants us putting a lot of hours in for training, and, two, I'll try not to kill you, Astraeus."

Vincent's head moved back to face Neera. He smiled. "Astraeus? The greek god thingy? Didn't take you for a myth nerd, let alone a greek myth nerd."

Neera rolled her eyes. "I'm running out of nickname ideas here. You have an overwhelming amount with the lightning and energy stuff. And I could go on forever with your nicknames if so many of the ones I think of aren't female nicknames. I can't call you Starfire or Starlight Glimmer or something."

Vincent was silent for a moment before giving her a look. "Um, I think I shouldn't know what those characters are, but alas. Let's not focus on that minor detail. Let's focus on the fact that you can repeat the nicknames, and you can call me nicknames that are technically female characters. I think I've called you a few male character nicknames."