Source is おり on Pixiv. Haven't translated anything in awhile and am replaying Star Ocean 2, so this was too adorable not to share. I love Leon so much ;_;
Title: Weather
Fandom: Star Ocean 2
Characters: Claude/Precis/Rena
Precis has a few science questions. Written for PolyamShippingDay at @polyamships, prompt was Weather.
"Is it true that there's no weather in space?" Precis had asked during one of his visits, lounging on her bed as Rena went over her notes.
Claude had been quiet for a moment, and Rena could see the crease in his forehead that showed up when one of them had asked a question that he wasn't sure how to answer. The last time she'd seen it was when he'd told them that a rainbow was light being refracted by the rain, and Precis had asked him if that "faster than light" travel that he'd mentioned would let someone get to the end of it and find the spirits that the legends talked about.
"Not as we know it," he finally said, "but that's because the kind of weather we see on planets like this one relies on there being an atmosphere. There has to be air, and water vapor in the air, and heat from the sun, or else there's no rain. If there's no air, we can't have windy days."
"Huh," she said. "I still don't get how there can't be any air out there. How do you live out there with no air?"
"Didn't he explain this before?" Rena asked, looking up from the notes. "They take their own air. Right, Claude?"
He'd nodded along with her. "It's more complicated than that, but yes, that's the simple explanation. If we didn't have air, we'd die."
"Does that mean you have weather on the ships?"
"Only the really big ones," Claude said, a bit more quickly, and Rena can see he's smiling. "That's on purpose, though - they make it rain like it does on Earth or Expel, so that they can grow plants."
"Wow." She leaned back, closing her eyes. "You're going to take us up to space one day, right? Rena and I, I mean?"
Rena sighed quietly. Precis had been asking him that ever since he'd told her the truth about who he was and where he was from, and every time she'd asked, Claude had just looked worried. "I can't make promises about that," he'd told Rena privately, "even though I want to. But the Federation... I still don't know what they'd say if I told them. I'd like to think they'd let Excel join them within our lifetime, but... it can take years. Decades, even."
Precis reached out, took Claude's hand. "You always look sad when I say that," she said. "It must be tough."
"I... it is," he admitted.
"So why don't we help? If Poppa and I could build something that could go to space ourselves, they couldn't really stop us. Could they?"
"That... would be a lot harder than you think," he managed, but Rena could see the delight in his eyes.
"But could we do it?" Precis pressed.
"Yeah, of course. If you could make a ship capable of surviving in space, they'd probably let the planet join on the spot."
"Sounds like a fun challenge!" Precis laughed, still lying on the couch, and opened her eyes to look at Rena. "You'd help us, right? Then we could visit Claude at home, for once!"
Rena looked from one to the other, Precis smiling like a troublemaker and Claude clearly impressed and worried at the same time. "I don't know if we could do it," Rena said, "but for that, I'd try."
Claude shook his head. "I don't think I could stop you if I tried," he said, the slightest hint of a groan audible in his voice, "but promise me you'll be careful. There's a lot that can go wrong, and that's before you get off the ground."
"Oh, don't worry. This isn't my first time building really crazy stuff." Precis opened her eyes just long enough to wink at him before settling back down, leaving Claude and Rena looking at each other. Claude looked so flustered, as was so often the case with Precis; Rena was sure that she did it on purpose.
She also knew that she couldn't possibly hide her amusement, so she didn't try.
Nightly Rituals (Star Ocean: Second Evolution, Rena/Precis, SFW)
I actually wrote something for Femslash Friday on a Friday! So here, have some cute post-game established-relationship fic about college girlfriends.
Everything's finally starting to come together!
You've been spending a long time staring at these plans. You've been trying to build a follow-up to the last Mujin you created - something bigger and flashier, and more efficient than the ones that your best friend Leon's been coming up with using Symbology in Lacour. And this is the best part of your work - the part where things start to click together, where the calculations start to make sense and you think that the hard part is finally over.
Just a little more work, you think. A little more, and you'll be done -
"Precis?" Rena's voice only startles you a little, because she's good at being quiet. Good thing your pencil wasn't on the paper, though. "Aren't you going to come to bed soon?"
You turn to look at her. She's already wearing her pajamas, and her hair is mussed. Her eyes are already sleepy. "Isn't it... wait, what time is it?" you ask. "Hasn't it only been a few hours, or something?"
"It's only a few hours til sunrise, Precis," Rena said, and she's trying to be nice, but you've been with her long enough to catch when she's exasperated and trying to hide it. Not that she was every good at hiding her feelings from you, even back when you'd first met her. "And you wanted to see Leon's presentation tomorrow morning, remember? You won't be able to sleep in before class."
Oh, right. You'd forgotten about that, in your excitement. Leon's never going to let you live it down if you don't show up. Still, though...! "I'm on a roll here, Rena!" you protest, waving your hand toward the paper. "I mean, I could finish this tonight if I tried! This is really important -"
"So is your health, Precis," Rena protests, and carefully reaches for your arm. "Come on, please. You're letting yourself get too distracted!"
You grin at that, and for a second you think about reminding her of a couple of things. "What about last week, when Professor Krasner gave you those old history texts and you nearly stayed up all night and I had to cut the power to the lights to convince you to go to bed, huh?" It's practically a nightly ritual at this point, one of you having to convince the other to come to bed already, and it's not like it's always you.
But Rena gets kind of upset when you bring those things up. She would just say that she knows, but that doesn't mean that you should do the same thing! Besides, you know that she's right. You've fallen asleep in the middle of working on a project before, and it scared your Poppa half to death! You don't want to scare her that way. "Okay, okay," you say as you push yourself up. "I can probably finish this tomorrow, I guess."
"I'm sure that you can," Rena agrees, moving to support you as you both walk back to the bedroom that you actually use as a bedroom. Your dad's paying for the place with the extra room - he insisted that you and Rena would need the space - but it's easier to just sleep in one and keep the other as a combination study room and workshop. You can't use it for both at the same time, but it's worked out well enough so far.
You don't even bother to take off your clothes; you just sink down face-first onto the bed, your brain still abuzz with all of the calculations you've been working on for hours. For a bit you don't think you're going to be able to sleep anyway! You're about to say that out loud, because if you're going to be designing new robots in your head, you might as well be at the drawing board when you do it. Then Rena slips into bed beside you and starts rubbing your back through your shirt, and that helps, because it gives your brain another thing to focus on for a while.
"That's better," she says, and keeps one hand on your back as she curls up beside you. The other's busy for a second, pulling the one blanket that you have over you. You have more, if it gets cold, but so far one's all you've ever needed. "Good night, Precis."
"Mmmmph," you manage, voice half-smothered by the soft feather pillows. You always forget how nice going to bed is, up until the nights that Rena makes sure that you do. "G'night."
