The Price of Feathers

No body told you to look

Tinkerbell and Vex were racing each other on the treadmills.

"Woo, who knew a wee little fairy could run so fast... too bad you still ate my ass, I mean my dust," Vex laughed and covered his lips in faux embarrassment like he was a manga schoolgirl who upset her sempai.

Tinkerbell was still heaving from the marathon that they'd just completed but she managed to reach out and steal Vex's water bottle and press the spray button on the water bottle. She relished in the refreshing mist that helped to cool down her face. The pinked haired girl took a gulped down the water like she'd just escaped the desert but Vex didn't let her enjoy it for too long before he snatched his water back and sprinted out of their gym facilities.

He was laughing, slightly cough. He tilted his head back and raised him bottle above his head, pouring the water into his mouth from above.

He was backing away from the fuming Tinkerbell. He was trying not to spit out the water in his mouth while laughing and holding his free arm out in case the enflamed pixie wanted to have a go at him. It was even more amusing consider she was furious about him reclaiming a water bottle that she initially stole from her. He backed up almost against the wall before a door swung directly into his back.

"Ou---Ch! What the hell was—" he yelled and turned around to see the dragoness that he recognised as the girl who killed Sabre. He wasn't too pissed because Sabre was overpowered as is so it wasn't like he really needed the training time before the tournament but now, given the news about the new tournament rules, there was a part of him that was worried that his old friend might be gone for good. Oh well, at least he doesn't have to share his room. HE was so occupied with his own thoughts about the benefits of having a room to himself, that the trickster didn't even realise that Raven slipped past him and was not being confronted by the pinked haired fairy.

"You have a hell of a lot of nerve showing up here after the stunt you pulled in the secret room!" Tinkerbell spat at the dragoness.

Vex' ears perked when he heard "secret room".

"Secret Room? What secret room?" he asked. He was a head taller than both girls but they still ignored him as if he was a piece of furniture in stead of a curious, and slightly annoying demi-god.

"Stunt? Do you mean when I exposed this place for what it really was and proved that A-Lucifer is up to shit. I mean I suppose I should have guessed she was trouble. You don't go around being nicknamed after the devil without pissing off a few people but this really took the cake. It's like she wants us to die in here or something, trapped forever in an endless loop of torment and misery," Raven was speaking more to herself that the furrow browed fairy in front of her.

"Are you even listening to yourself. Lucy wants to help us escape this place!" Tinkerbell screamed back.

Raven rolled her eyes.

"Lucy? Since when are you two so close and yeah sure. We all know that she could have gotten her dad to stop the games a while ago if she really wanted to but no we just have to fight one last time," Raven laugh sardonically. She raked her hands through her ash coloured black and silver hair and took a step further into the Light territory, past Tinkerbell, before turning around and staring through the two confused Light team members. "You know, she probably wants us all to die in the tournament and then we'll actually be reborn with our memories wiped and we'll be back here all over again but this time they'll make sure we don't rediscover the truth. No! I'm not going to let her win!"

At the same time, while all the commotion was going on, Godric over head the conversation and made a detour towards his leaders room, which was where the actually door was supposed to open into, although it did have a habit of moving from time to time, and knocked on her door.

"Oi Oi, Angie!" Godric called from outside of Angelica's room.

He kept his ear alert to whose turn it was to scream while he patiently knocked on the door to the tune of "Day dreamer" by Aurora, his favourite Norwegian artist from the new world. It was ironically the very South African screaming her lungs out in the next room that introduced him to the fantastical singer from his homeland.

"What is it, Rick?" Angelica ground, pealing off the face mask after opening her bedroom door. She was busy taking a well-deserved rejuvenation session in the jacuzzi while drinking a smoky cabernet sauvignon with lavender droplets in her water. She was the picture of serenity and carefreeness and certainly not the image of a leader about to defuse and inter territory war dispute.

She didn't have to wait for Godric's answer because she heard the shouting from the other room and stormed into towards the violent voices with her hand firmly gripped around the knot of her Japanese cotton bath towels.

"...I see the way you look at her. Now wonder you're here but let me tell you this. As long as I'm alive, I'm not letting you anywhere near here ever again!" Tinkerbell growled and Raven laughed her.

"I don't think you have any say in who she spends her time. If she wants to come an-"Raven stopped speak and looked down at the floor when Angelica came into vision wearing only a town with her platinum blonde locks wet and dangling over her sculpted collar bone. That particular part of the body had always been a weakness for the South African.

Angelica marched in between the fuming women and smirked when she noticed that both of them immediately shut up and turned red in the face. For good measure she dropped the towel. Tinkerbell instantly excused herself from the room while Vex blatantly starred at her. Raven on the other had not only a red face but blazing red eyes directed at Vex. There were sparks of fire spilling out of her mouth and she was prowling towards the trickster who's smirk instantly disappeared when he saw the deadly expression on the dragoness's face.

"I...I'll check on Tink," he said and scurried off in the same direction his teammate ran off in.

Raven turned on her heels and picked up the towel from the floor shoving it in the taller woman's hands.

"Show some decency and cover yourself!" she growled, not looking at Angelica's body at all.

Angelica was far too amused and turned on by the women in front of her to pass up this opportunity to tease her.

"What? Are you not going even look at me when you speak," she purred and stepped closer to her. She held the towel away from her body, slightly behind her, and dropped it on the floor, stepping over it and closer to her prey. "Come on, Ray, look at me. You used to love studying me and I miss you eyes on me, trailing along my skin," she breathed out, only a feather's length away from the woman she loved. She missed a lot more than just the dragon's eyes on her but she would keep that to herself for now.

Raven growled and marched right past her, marching straight to Angelica's room. Angelica scoffed at being ignored but skipped after her retreating lover when she realised where they were headed.

"I see you remember the directions very well. I mean you should since not so long ago, this used to be your bedroom too," she said, leaning against the doorframe and still as naked as the day she fell to Earth.

"I need your help, Lydia," Raven said with her back turned to the Leader of the Light. Angelica walked towards her lover and wrapped her arms around the shorted girl's shoulders, moulding their bodies together and savouring both the feeling of Raven's body against hers but also the simple pleasure of having the women she loved back in her arms after a few long torturous weeks of agonising separation.

"What is it, my love?" she breathed out with a soft smile on her face. She rested her chin on Raven's shoulder and pouted when the girl moved. To her pleasure, Raven didn't detach from her and simply rotated in her arms looking up at her with soft hazel eyes.

"I don't trust your sister and I need your help to find out what she's hiding," She finally revealed and someone in Angelica's heart grew three sizes bigger. This was her chance to drive a wedge between Raven and Amara for one and for all and prevent her from having to share Raven with her sister.

"Of course, I'll help you with whatever you need," she said and to her surprise and delight, Raven beamed and hugged her. The orphan didn't to mind her nakedness anymore and Angelica nestled her hair feeling happier than she'd felt in the longest time.