[SO2] Risk and Reward (Opera/Celine, T)

[wallwalker]

Title: Risk and Reward
Author: Wallwalker
Fandom: Star Ocean 2
Rating: Teen and up
Characters: Opera/Celine (vague mentions of Claude/Chisato and past Ernest/Opera)
Word Count: 5362
Content Notes: None. Just fluff and adventures and social parties, not necessarily in that order.
Other Notes: For gamera on yuri_challenge. Essentially it's a "5 Things" fic that doesn't include the sixth thing that they usually include. I had a lot of fun with this one!

---

These parties were so boring and tiresome. Opera desperately needed some air.

She excused herself from whatever minor functionary she had been talking to at the time and stepped outside, heels clicking on the marble floor of the balcony as she leaned over the railing. The lights of Tetragene spread out before her - the skyline of Vectra City was second to none, and that much she would admit that she had missed. The people, and especially the trappings of high society, not so much.

Which of the other houses had invited her to this one? Honestly, Opera couldn’t remember; she hoped that her mother didn't decide to quiz her again. Mother and father had insisted that she come to this one, and bring her new paramour with her; the people were already spreading rumors about the lover that the eldest Vectra daughter had taken from an undeveloped planet, and things were rapidly approaching the absolute heights of scandal. She needed to introduce Celine Jules to the world, her mother had stressed, so that they would know that she was a woman of wealth and refinement, despite her humble origins. Home planet shouldn't matter so much, Opera thought, although she knew very well that it did; she just hadn't cared.

Celine was handling herself extraordinarily well; in fact, Opera was fairly certain that she was actually enjoying herself. She had handily defied all attempts of the rest of the guests to treat her as a rube and had proven herself more of an authority on Symbology than most of the experts in attendance. True, much of that had been thanks to her mother's crash courses on Tetrageniot society, but that she'd managed to learn so much from a few short lessons was still impressive. Opera had checked on her several times throughout the party, but she needn't have worried; she was perpetually surrounded by curious guests and clearly having the time of her life.

She was glad that one of them was enjoying themselves, Opera thought with a smile. For her part, she was ready to leave as soon as etiquette dictated that they could.

"Darling?"

Celine's voice from the hall jolted her from her reverie. "Yes?" she asked, turning around.

"I was just making sure you were all right," she said. "I hadn't seen you for some time."

"I'm fine," she said, laughing nervously. "I needed some air. And some peace and quiet."

"Is that so? I expected you to be more at home in society," Celine teased, plucking two glasses of champagne from a moving tray like one would pick a pear. She stepped out onto the balcony and offered one of them to Opera. "Everyone seems to know you here, after all."

Opera rolled her eyes. "Of course they do, for all that half of them have never met me," she said, with a weary smile, although she did take the glass anyway. "Everyone here either does know me or wants to know me. And my mother and father, and my sister, for all that she cares about politics. It comes with the name."

Celine raised her eyebrows. "You talk almost as if you were royalty."

"We are, if you ask my mother." She sipped the champagne - at least that was good. "And most of the rest of this planet, too. I'm getting the feeling that I never really expressed exactly how much the rest of this planet treats House Vectra, did I?"

"Not really." Celine ran one hand through her hair. "Well. That explains a few things."

"What?" Opera's head snapped up at that. "Don't tell me they've mistreated you, Celine. I've been in a foul mood all evening, and if I were to challenge anyone tonight -"

"Oh, no, not at all. Forgive me, darling, I didn't mean to give that impression." She leaned against the nearby pillar, smoothing down her long velvet gown. For all that it covered quite a bit more than her usual dresses, it still couldn't exactly be called modest, with its plunging neckline and long slit up the leg. It suited her, though. She looked fantastic in that shade of blue. "It's just the opposite, really. They've been extraordinarily polite - not that I'm complaining, of course not, but usually I expect to have to singe a few fingers at a gathering like this."

That made Opera smile in spite of herself. They'd seen Celine come in on her arm, of course, and they were treating her like they would Opera - holding her at arm's length, being excruciatingly polite in case she should take offense to the smallest slight and attempt to ruin them. "I can easily imagine that," she murmured. "You do seem to enjoy these sorts of affairs, don't you?"

"I do, yes," she said, finishing her champagne. "I went to a few of Krosse's balls when I was a child - my mother won a few honors from the king for her research. I begged them and begged them to take me with them, in that ridiculous pink gown... it was just wonderful, darling. Made me feel like a princess." She smiled, sighing at the memory. "I suppose it would have lost some of its savor, were I to have been in your shoes. Perhaps I should be grateful."

"Well," Opera said, "they have these sort of events every few days here." She let a wry smile cross her face. "I can hardly dodge them all and I don't typically have the strength to try. And having you here does make them infinitely more bearable."

"Oh, darling, I wouldn't want to impose," she said, but there was a thrill in her voice that sounded suspiciously like hope.

"It's all right, Celine. No bother, really." She lowered her voice. "As long as I don't have to go to every minor soire from every lesser House on Tetragene, it's all right. I suppose I do have to take a few of my responsibilities seriously, now that I'm home."

Her father had always said that a good relationship of any sort was about compromise - that if one politician, business partner, or especially lover was happy all of the time, then the entire thing was probably doomed to failure. At one time Opera had thought that was the sheerest and most ridiculous lie; why would anyone want to do something they didn't want to do? It seemed like a complete paradox, and that offended her logical mind.

She was older now, though, and she was starting to understand a bit more. Seeing the look on Celine's face, the gratitude and happiness there as she leaned in to plant a kiss on her cheek, was enough to affirm to her that she had made the right decision, and she would have turned her head and asked for more, if only public displays of affection were not so horribly taboo at these sorts of gatherings. Later, perhaps. "Thank you, my dear," Celine said, and her voice rang with sincerity.

"Mmm. Don't mention it." She looped her arm back through Celine's. "Now, let's get back before they send another waiter after us."

"If you've had enough time away," Celine said. "You'll stay with me for a while, won't you?"

Opera smiled back at her. "All you had to do was ask."

---

"Ugh," Celine said, brushing her way through spider webs. "This place hasn't been disturbed in a long time, has it?"

"That's what makes it a good find," Opera said absently. "You could let me walk ahead, you know. I'm the one that's dressed for this."

"Oh, don't worry, darling. I'm fine." She brushed away more webbing, her mouth twisted in a disgusted pout. "That doesn't meant that I have to particularly enjoy crawling through spider webs. I just happen to be well aware that it comes with the territory."

Opera resisted the urge to make yet another comment. She had probably made her point.

The university had provided equipment for this venture, which Opera was making full use of - she didn't need such things, really, but she liked to use them if she had them. They had been happy to have her back as a researcher, and no one else had objected too seriously; just because she was back at home didn't mean she saw the need to give up her research interests, and honestly, having a researcher from House Vectra was as much an honor for the university as it would have been for anyone else. Even her parents were somewhat calmer about it than they had once been before, partially because Opa had come home and was finally showing something of an interest in planetary politics; her mother had been beside herself with joy at that development.

Celine, on the other hand, hadn't taken any equipment with her. She traveled with just her usual travel dress and staff - no heavy pack on her back, no heavy boots or protective jumpsuit or traveling gear. And she still looked absolutely perfect, as if she had just stepped out for an evening.

Opera shook her head and looked down at the survey information. "There should be an open chamber somewhere over here," she said. "Look for an opening."

"Right here, darling," Celine said. "Would you like me to try to widen it a bit?" Fire danced around her fingers, and she toyed with it idly. "I'm sure this would do the trick -"

"We'd better not," Opera said hastily. "This area isn't exactly stable, according to the sensors, and we'd probably end up bringing something down on our heads. We should try to crawl through."

Celine sighed slightly. "Something else that comes with the territory, I suppose. Would you like me to go first?"

"Hm." Opera shook her head. "I'll go." Her shoulders were broader than Celine's, she thought. If she could make it through, Celine certainly could.

She got on her hands and knees and shimmied into the small opening. It was tough - she felt the weight around her shoulders, crushing her, and for a second she couldn't breathe. If she had been claustrophobic, she never would have lasted in this field, she thought as she pulled herself through, inch by careful inch.

For a second there was a moment when she had thought she was stuck, when she didn't think she could go either forward or backwards, and the panic began to set in. Most of the casualities among xenoarcheologists came from people who got stuck, who couldn't breathe -

Celine's hand was gentle against her back, but firm. Opera held her breath and pushed her way through, felt the rock snagging her jumpsuit; she felt the cloth give way, ripping away as she pushed her hips through the opening. Then she was out, free, and all that remained was to pull her legs through.

Celine, as she had hoped, wriggled through easily, and came out of the other side without a single smear of mud. Opera looked at her - she should have been covered in dirt, water, and the blood of the few aggressive beasts that they had already fought, and instead she still looked perfectly pristine. "Honestly," she asked, "how do you do it?"

Celine smiled as she pushed herself back up. "Symbology, darling," she said. "What else?"

"Ah." Opera turned away, hiding a smile - it seemed ridiculously vain, in a way, to waste energy on making sure that one's clothes were never ruined. A very pleasant effect, yes, but not necessary - not when jumpsuits and the like were cheap and plentiful and made to be ruined

Celine picked up on it, of course, and shrugged her lovely bare shoulders. "It has its advantages," she said.

"We're in an ancient ruin that no one seems to have set foot in for a century, at the very least," Opera said. "This isn't a likely place for a den of thieves."

"Ah, but did you know that before we arrived? I didn't."

Opera nodded. "Your point is taken. And we should get going before something else hears us and decides to come looking."

She shouldered her gun and started to walk forward, and stopped short when she felt Celine's hand on her waist. "Your suit is already torn," she said, and she could hear the wicked smile in her voice. "They don't last terribly long, do they?"

"Not really," she said, taking Celine's hand in hers. "Celine, love, we don't have time for -"

"I know," she said. "I just wanted to express that I do understand the appeal of these sorts of things. And to say that perhaps later I can demonstrate that for you, if you'd like."

It took a lot of self-control for Opera not to melt right there. "Once we're safely above ground," she whispered, "I'll hold you to that."

"I hope so, darling." Celine withdrew, took a few long strides to stand beside her, rod held tightly in both hands. "It gives us more incentive to finish exploring this place a bit more quickly."

---

There was no real rhyme or reason to the dangers that were present on various planets, and it certainly didn't follow the same rules that Ern had been so fond of showing her on his old vids. Some places were desolate balls of rock and sand with not much to fear but the occasional rockslide or sandstorm - which were fearsome enough, make no mistake, but it was at least possible to mitigate the danger somewhat through careful planning of routes and campsites. The beautiful garden worlds were usually more dangerous, because garden worlds were far more likely to have the sort of ecosystem that supported massive apex predators, the sort that weren't afraid of a pair of two-legged creatures.

Opera had learned this the hard way a long time ago. It didn't make the discovery of the dangers any easier, or the pain of being tossed across a clearing by a massive claw any less. Hearing Celine scream out her name didn't do much to dull any of that, either.

She tried to stand up. She needed to stand up - the thing would concentrate on Celine, now, with the more aggressive threat out of commission, and Celine wasn't a fighter, she could rain down destruction on a truly impressive and epic scale but she couldn't fight something that liked to get up close and personal. She had to get up and help her, do something. But her ankle hurt and her arm felt like it was broken and her mind was fuzzy - she'd never really explained that her gun required a certain amount of concentration to use properly, and had just quietly and surreptitiously eaten the tiny black berries and drank the sour-tasting elixirs to keep her mind clear, thinking that explaining that her gun wasn't a magic wand even though it acted a lot like one would be too complicated. She wasn't sure if it was from the stress or from the fall - had she hit her head? She wasn't even really sure - but she just couldn't focus.

She could still see, at least, although focusing her three eyes on the same thing was a hell of an effort. Celine was already running, trying to get as far away from the creature as she could. It wasn't chasing her yet, thank goodness - it was still growling and standing on its hind legs, looking as impressive as possible, she thought dimly. Dominant behavior, clearly - they'd really screwed up, coming onto this thing's territory; it had viewed them as a threat, not as food. Although she had no doubt that if she didn't do something she'd be eaten as an afterthought.

She fumbled around in her satchel as best she could, looking for something - anything - that could distract it. Celine would be fine if she had a chance to use her symbological powers, but that thing had a killer charge, and if she didn't distract it - Celine was already chanting something, and Opera could feel the humming of energy in the air around her, but the beast was nearly done showing off and was lowering its horned head for another charge...

Her hand closed around one of the small, round explosive devices that she'd made out of boredom on the long ship journey. It wasn't very powerful, she knew, but it would work. It had to work.

"Hey!" she yelled, or tried to - it came out as more of a croak. But the creature's head swung around regardless, and its mouth gaped open, showing its impressive rows of teeth. She gritted her teeth, pressed the arming switch to set it off on impact, and threw the thing as hard as she could at the open mouth - no time for clever one-liners, even if Opera had been mentally capable of thinking of one at that particular moment.

The thing did exactly as she'd hoped, snapping at the little incendiary - which promptly proceeded to go off as soon as its jaws closed around it, blasting half of its teeth out of its mouth and making it howl in pain. Thick black smoke rose out of its mouth and nostrils, into its huge yellow eyes, making them water.

It only had a moment to suffer, at least - Celine finished her chant, and a storm of electricity erupted around it, striking it in a dozen different places as it thrashed and screamed. It was over quickly, almost mercifully so; it fell silent and still, and the next thing she knew Celine was running again, this time towards her.

"Opera," she said, kneeling down next to her. "Thank goodness, darling, I thought you were done for -"

"You thought I was...?" She trailed off, smiling - there had been more in her head, but somehow she just couldn't get the words out. "I was afraid you... I thought it would...."

Celine frowned, her brow furrowed with worry. "This can't be good," she said. "Here, darling, drink this. We have to get back to that base camp and have you treated, and you'll need to walk."

"Why?" she asked, blearily.

"You mustn't fall asleep," she said, passing her a small bottle of odd liquid. "You feel it, don't you?"

Opera shook her head and took a drink from the little bottle. The sweet-and-sour taste of it filled her nostrils, and her head cleared, if only a little. The aches and pains lessened in her arm and her head - oh. She'd hit her head after all. The thought came from a strange, detached place in her mind.

"Then trust me, please. We have to get back." She propped her up, one arm around her waist. "One foot in front of the other, darling. Come on."

The trip back to base camp was a blur, although she did think she managed to stay awake for most of it - Celine's steady insistence that she keep moving had helped, as had the intense pain in her arm. She had vague memories of the medic from the ship leaning over her and trying to tell her to count her fingers, and she distinctly remembered lying on a bed with Celine's hand in hers, but aside from that there was very little.

The next thing she remembered was opening her eyes in the medical bay on the ship. Celine was sitting next to her, dozing in a chair. "Celine," she croaked, reaching out to her. "Celine?"

"Hmm," she said, opening her big red eyes. "Opera?" She smiled widely as she took her hand. "You're all right! I was afraid you'd never wake up, an injury like that back at home would've been..."

Opera cracked a smile - it only hurt a little, now. "We have better medical technology, 'member?" Her voice was still a little slurred. "The doctor...?"

"He says it'll be a few days. You're going to have to sit out the rest of the expedition, I'm afraid." She smiled, a little bit sadly. "I'm sorry."

Opera started to shake her head, and winced. "No," she said instead. "You saved m' life. Thank you."

A tear rolled down Celine's cheek, but she seemed to ignore it. "It wasn't... entirely selfless, darling," she said.

"I know," Opera said, squeezing her hand. "'m glad for that, too."

----

"Pause lesson! Now, dammit!"

Opera forced herself not to wince as Celine hit the floor for the third time since they'd begun practice, groaning slightly - at least she hadn't hit her head yet - and rubbing her shoulder. She was wearing a standard gi - Opera had insisted on it that time, and Celine had frowned a bit more but had gone along with it - although on Celine's voluptuous frame it was hardly ordinary, and Opera had caught herself being distracted a bit by that, as well.

"Not bad," she said instead, swallowing the rest of those feelings; she needed to stay on task. "You've learned to take a fall very well."

"I suppose that's meant to be reassuring?" Celine said wryly as she pushed herself back up.

"I know it's not much comfort, but it's still a good thing. Everyone ought to know how to take a fall without hurting themselves."

"Honestly, darling," she said, her breath catching as she caught her balance, "it seems the better option would be never to fall at all."

"That's not always possible, and you know it." She shook her head, a lock of her long blonde hair falling out of its bun and falling into her eyes, prompting her to curse and push it hastily back. "Yes, you're usually good at staying out of the way. But what about the times when you can't?"

Celine pressed her lips together, but said nothing. They both knew that she was right - Opera's arm still ached from time to time from the fall she'd taken, and it had taken weeks of careful observation and medical care before she had finally felt entirely right in the head again. There hadn't been any permanent damage, from all accounts, and a few of the doctors had reassured her that the fuzziness was all in her mind, a result of her worries more than anything else. Opera wasn't quite sure she believed it, but whatever it was, it had apparently gone away.

Anyone could've seen that Celine wasn't exactly enjoying this. The only reason she'd agreed to it at all was because Opera was able to promise her privacy; the room that they were in was one of the exercise rooms in the Vectra mansion. Even so, Celine had probably agreed to it partially because Opera had taken her to the society balls that she'd loved so well, and because she'd known very well how little Opera had actually cared for them. It was reassuring to know that the spirit of compromise was alive and well in their relationship.

"All right," Celine said, "let's get through this lesson, and then we'll have some dinner, if you don't mind. This falling works up quite the appetite."

Opera grinned. "That's the spirit," she said. "Resume lesson!"

The holographic tutor snapped back into life. "Lesson resuming," it said in its gentle voice.

The rest of the lesson went smoothly, at least - it was a very basic course, stances and simple movements. Celine wasn't the best student - it took her several tries for a few of the lessons - but she kept at it, and Opera smiled encouragingly and kept encouraging her as best she could without pushing her - she wanted to encourage her, not turn her off of taking more lessons altogether by patronizing her.

Finally the hologram pronounced the lesson ended, and the recorded sequence switched off. "Well," Celine said, wiping sweat off of her forehead - apparently she hadn't activated whatever Symbological ability that kept her looking fresh and pristine all the time. "That was... tiring."

"Don't worry," Opera says, brushing dust off of her own gi. "It comes with practice."

"Most things do," Celine said, tilting her head.

"Yes, well, you asked for dinner after this was over, so what would you like?" She offered Celine her arm. "We can have just about anything -"

Celine ignored her hand and went straight for her shoulders, pushing her back. Opera, caught off guard, had her back against the wall before she could regain her composure - or start to regain it, before feeling Celine's lips against her neck. "I'm not in any sort of hurry," she whispered. "And I currently have something else on my mind. I think that you do, as well."

Opera laughed. "How'd you guess?"

"Your eyes always give it away, darling."

"I was - mmmm - going to wait until after dinner -"

Celine's hands were surprisingly strong against her hips. "Why put things off?" she said, before kissing her again.

It was truly fortunate that the exercise room was private. In fact - although it didn't really occur to Opera until they had cleaned up some time later and sat down to their dinner - it was very likely what Celine had had in mind all along.

---

Celine had been very quiet since they had left Expel.

The two of them had been alone on the ship for a while, since Claude and Chisato had gone off somewhere, and Opera was keeping an eye on her as best she could. She was somewhat distracted by a few things, mostly by keeping a careful eye on the smugglers who were arranging their transport; she was trying to discern if they had recognized her, and if they intended to do something stupid, like try to sell her to someone who might try to hold her for ransom. Considering that one of the scions of the Vectra family and the son of one of the more well-known officers of the Earth Federation were both on the cramped ship - although it didn't seem to have occurred to Claude that he should worry - she thought that the risk should at least be considered. She didn't think they would be so idiotic as to try it - the last ones who'd tried had ended up stranded on an undeveloped planet while Opera had flown away with their spacefaring pile of junk, and she and Ern had made sure that everyone knew it. Besides, Ernest only dealt with smugglers that he knew and trusted.

Honestly, she was glad to be off of Expel. She would've thought that an ocean would have been enough distance, but when she had the return home to look forward to it hadn't been large enough at all. It wasn't that she was particularly angry at Ern - it hadn't been that sort of breakup, except for the few times on Nede she'd been drunk and a bit on edge. But... well, in all honestly she was glad that he'd decided to stay behind on Expel with Noel and continue his studies for a while longer. It was harder to avoid people on these tiny ships, and she didn't know what to say to him besides the basest pleasantries.

It hadn't been working for a long time, and they both knew it in the end; that was why they'd at least been able to split with relatively few hard feelings. It had always been about the chase - Ern would run away, Opera would chase after him and bring him back. It had been great fun for a while, but she was getting awfully tired of running, and it had never been easy anyway. She wanted to stop and find someone who would stand with her for a while.

Had she found someone? She wasn't sure, not yet. Her last few months in Marze had been happy ones, and she'd spent a lot of wonderful moments with her, but it was too early to tell... which was why she had been so surprised that Celine had jumped at the chance to come with her. And worried, to be honest. This must have been absolutely overwhelming for her, leaving her home planet for what might be a very long time, after barely having been aware that Expel really wasn't the only place in the universe. And honestly, Opera couldn't deny that she felt a little bit guilty that Celine had done it for her.

"You know," Celine said, "I always dreamed of this."

"What?" Opera said, a bit startled. "Dreamed of what? Leaving Expel?"

"Yes, although not in those terms." She turned to Opera. Her face was a bit sad - her eyes were slightly puffy, had been ever since she had said goodbye to her family. Opera had warned her that although they might be able to visit them, she couldn’t assume that the Federation would allow them, and smugglers were notoriously unreliable. She'd half-expected that to be enough to make Celine change her mind. Still, there was a small, bittersweet smile on her face. "I don't suppose you heard any of our old folk stories while you traveled, did you?"

"A few, but I didn't really have time to study them," Opera admitted. "I was a bit busy trying to find a way home."

"That's all right. This one is somewhat obscure, anyway." She turned back to the stars. "Some people in Marze say that the stars are really a curtain of shimmering lights, and if we could go far enough beyond it we could find the faeries living there. And sometimes, they say, faeries come to Expel, and they walk among us and grant our wishes. They talk about children who suddenly appear, or others who are born with special gifts - boons from the faeries to couples who desperately want children. And sometimes they talk about people who would leave with the faeries and go beyond the curtain, never to come home again."

Opera swallowed hard - it was so typical, such a common sort of fairytale on pre-spaceflight planets when visitors had come, that she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Not when Celine's recounting was so very sincere.

"It was my favorite faerie story," Celine said, and smiled back at Opera. "Do you know, I always dreamed of going beyond the curtain of lights? I once told my mother that I wanted to meet one of the faeries, someone tall and dignified, with golden hair and a beautiful smile. I wanted to go beyond the curtain with them and live in a beautiful palace, forever and ever." She laughed, just a little. "And, you know, three out of four isn't too bad, is it?"

Opera laughed too, in spite of herself. "I get nervous, you know," she said. "Sometimes I'm afraid you'll regret coming with me, that you'll hate me for it in the end."

"Regret coming with you?" She took Opera's hand. "Opera, darling, please. After all we've been through? All of the times you saved my life, all of the places we've seen together? Even if I started regretting anything, I certainly could never hate you."

Opera squeezed her hand back, then let go and wrapped an arm around her waist, pushing the cape aside. "You don't think we're moving too quickly?" she said.

"I make my living crawling through caves, darling. My entire life has been a calculated risk, and I decided long ago to treat love the same way." She laid her head on Opera's shoulder. "You should understand that; you don't play things safe anymore than I do."

"No," Opera answered. "Not really."

"Then try not to worry. There's no fun in worrying so much. Tell me something - more about your home, perhaps. What is your... your planet... like?"

Opera took a deep breath. Celine was right, of course. She couldn’t spend all of her time worrying. She'd taken chances before, and some of them had worked out and some of them hadn't. She didn't know which one this was going to be, but she was young and reckless and maybe a little foolish, and Celine was beautiful and clever and cunning, and she was going to give it a shot.

"It's beautiful," she said. "Bright and so full of lights. The skyline is one of the most impressive that I've seen in the entire galaxy."

"See?" Celine said, smiling contentedly. "It sounds delightful already." And she sounded so happy, so full of optimism, that Opera couldn't help but relax. Maybe everything would be fine after all.