"Are you sure you don't want to tell the others?" Vanille gently pressed the question once more as they drew closer to the Skyreach, hand in hand, slowing their pace to a stop as they approached the middle of the clearing. Fang smiled and extended a slim finger to brush the hair from her companion's face.

"Don't worry...we can do this thing the Cocoon way, too. Just like Snow and Serah did it – fancy food and big dresses and lots of people. I wanna share it with 'em too. But, right now..." Fang paused, her eyes drifting towards the white Oerban lily that she plucked from inside her sari. A wide grin spread across Vanille's face as the flower was held up for her to admire and inhale the familiar scent, before it was tucked behind her ear, now an accessory to her hair, which was now a glistening bronze in the radiant sunset.

"...there's no one else I want to share this moment with."

Vanille giggled, and Fang cocked an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?"

"It's just that...we kept our promise, didn't we? We said we'd always be together, and that we'd come home together. There were hard times when I couldn't see how that would be possible, but now that I'm here; with you...I can't believe I ever thought something so silly..."

Fang noticed that in spite of Vanille's laughter, there was a tear rolling down her smooth cheek. It was wiped away by a swift rub of Fang's thumb.

"Hey now..." she spoke softly and low as she wrapped her arms tightly around Vanille, pressing their foreheads against one another. "Those times are behind us now. Our past, our focus...it's just a memory. " Fang pulled away slightly, her eyes meeting Vanille's tear-glazed ones. But they weren't tears of sadness anymore. For too long she'd been crying over her past, mourning for a future that she couldn't see. Now she could see her future. It was a future with Fang, on Gran Pulse. The very thought of that was so wonderfully perfect; she couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"I'm ready." Vanille beamed up at Fang, who responded with a nod. This was a moment they had been longing for, to declare their love for one another and be joined for eternity in the eyes of Pulse. Fang inhaled deeply, the silence spreading across the vast landscape, as if the whole world and all its creatures had stopped just for them. Fingers tightly entwined, they recited the prayer.

"With the Hallowed Pulse as our witness,

We pledge our eternal devotion.

You will feel no rain, for I will be your shelter.

You will feel no cold, for I will be your warmth.

You will never know loneliness, for I will always be by your side.

Now we are two people, but there is only one life before us."