A/N: I know I categorized this as Hope&Vanille being the two main characters, but please don't confuse that for a Hope&Vanille pairing. It's not. It's Hope&Lightning, and Vanille&Fang. But everything that happens here kind of revolves around Hope and Vanille's friendship, so sorry if the categorizing by character names was confusing to you. I hope you'll read it anyway. :D Enjoy!
Also, the story isn't out of order. It's all in chronological order, but it starts during the night. That's why it does Night 1 - Day 1 - Night 2, etc. Just to clarify any confusion.
After hours of Vanille's begging and pleading, and several more hours of travel time after an agreement was reluctantly made, the six l'Cie finally rested in Oerba before reaching the Narthex at Orphan's Cradle.
"Bhakti!" Vanille shouted, smiling and rushing toward her miniature, robotic companion across the room.
"We came all the way out here," Sazh sighed, "when the clocks above our heads are about to reach Cie'th time, so you can play with your toys?"
"Bhakti is not a toy!" she quickly defended as Lightning made her way into the private bedroom with, to her surprise, six beds and hardly enough room for two people to stand. "We came out here to get back some really useful items, remember? Tell him, Fang!"
"Vanille, calm down. Sazh, she's right. Let's just get them quickly," Fang responded, nearing Vanille who was now leaning over Bhakti, silently with her arm stretched out.
"Are you serious? You're crying now?" Sazh demanded after noticing Vanille sniffle and hide her face.
"Bhakti's broken!" the pigtailed girl cried out in disappointment.
"Hey now, don't cry... I'm sure I can fix your robot right up," he made his attempt at comforting the girl, who, much to his surprise, jumped right up to give him her gratitude.
"Thank you, Sazh!" her frown disappeared and restored in its place her usual, cheerful smile.
"I'll have to know what parts it needs, but I think we should just rest up here tonight. It's getting late," Sazh reminded everyone with a yawn on his face.
Vanille marched merrily on into her room, staking her claim on the top bed on the right side. Fang declared the right side of the room the "all girls' side" when she climbed into the middle bunk, right above Lightning. Hope silently sat down on the opposite bunk nearest the floor, while Snow occupied the middle bunk and Sazh, a bit peeved, reached the top.
"I'm getting too old for this. Climbing triple bunk beds..." he uttered, annoyed, and for a moment Hope thought to trade places with Sazh but quickly remembered the time he slept over at his cousin's house in his childhood and fell out of the top bunk. It was a good thing Hope had the fast, almost cat-like reflexes he posessed, otherwise he would have quite easily busted his skull on the nightstand below and not even be here today.