"Okay, now remember babe, our budget is around two thousand gil, yeah?"

"Mmhmm."

Fang grabbed her more-than-slightly distracted, pink-haired girlfriend gently but firmly by the arm as they entered the large auction hall. She maneuvered her significant other until they were facing one another, eye to eye.

"I'm serious. I know how much you've being going on about this couch but we can't be going too crazy now, right?"

"I know." Lightning merely nodded, flashing her trademark shadow of a smile, "Two thousand gil." Fang hesitated before loosening her grip on the pinkette's arm.

"…Alright."

"Don't worry." Lightning continued with a small peck to Fang's cheek, "Should be fine." Another smile. Despite the quick gesture of affection causing fluttering in her stomach and goosebumps up and down her entire body, whenever Lightning was the one reassuring Fang that everything "should be fine", something unexpected was always bound to happen. Be it something good or bad, it was always… something. Unexpected.

The taller of the two allowed herself to be led through the small maze created with the various pieces that were set to be auctioned off. Occasionally the two would stop and examine something that caught their eye—mostly Lightning's eye. Fang seemed much more understanding of why particular items were up for auction in the first place.

"Seriously, what would you even use that for?" Fang motioned to the object her girlfriend was studying with great interest.

"You could use it to display something." Lightning explained, "Like my gunblade for example, or your lance."

"Why would I need something like that to hold my lance?" Fang made a face. The pinkette merely clicked her tongue, placing the said item back on its display.

"Not everyone is comfortable leaving their things—namely weapons—lying around on the floor, Fang." The darker-haired woman cleared her throat, avoiding the quirked eyebrow she knew her girlfriend was giving her. It took almost all her strength to keep her eyes away as Lightning's arms snaked around her own.

"Hey, it was perfectly fine against the wall." Fang muttered as she was pulled farther into the room by her arm, "Someone must've... knocked it over… or something…" She finished lamely, earning nothing but a scoff in response.

"I'm just saying, you could at least put it in the corner of the room, or in the closet-"

"Did you seriously just suggest I keep my lance in the closet?" Fang finally turned to her girlfriend, a chuckle escaping her throat as she found them both slow to a stop again.

"You could seriously hurt something if you stepped on it or-"

"Well, would you put your Blazefire Saber in the closet?" Fang interrupted, attempting to make a point by turning Lightning's suggestion against her.

"Of course not." The pinkette merely shook her head before releasing her hold on Fang's arm and sitting down on the item they were there for in the first place, "But no one's ever tripped over it, have they?"

"That was-"

"Twice."

"Yeah but-"

"In the same day."

"Okay, it just-"

"In the span of twenty minutes."

Fang grumbled in defeat as she obeyed Lightning's instruction for her to sit next to her via the patting of the couch at her side. The Oerban sat, silent for a moment before shifting slightly and leaning back to fully relax on the couch. It was comfortable enough but she honestly didn't see what was so special about this particular one. She briefly registered the auctioneer begin to take bids on the piece of furniture they'd both gotten comfortable on. Hearing the starting bid at seven hundred gil, she had a bad feeling her girlfriend's forecast of them being fine—whatever it really meant—would turn out... inaccurate.

"One thousand gil." Lightning's stern, sharp voice snapped Fang's attention briefly towards the pinkette before looking towards the front where the auctioneer enthusiastically accepted her bid.

"So tell me again why we're going through all of this for a couch?"

"This one is... perfect for us." Once again Fang examined the couch and once again, she found nothing particularly exceptional about it.

"I don't get it, it's no bigger or smaller than our last couch." She bounced up and down a few times in her seat, "I guess the material's a little softer but doesn't seem to make that big a difference…"

"One thousand three hundred gil." Lightning's second bid came with little hesitation.

Fang had already agreed to join her girlfriend on her quest to acquire her perfect piece of living room furniture and had done so almost sure the pinkette would get her way. But seeing the look of subtle yet crystal clear concentration on Lightning's face, it seemed more or less a given that she would have her couch and no level of questioning, bargaining or compromising on Fang's part—or anyone else's for that matter—would stop her. Still, Fang was curious as to why it had to be this particular couch…

"Hmm… does our couch need to be this big?" She wondered aloud, stretching out along it, propping herself on the armrest and throwing her feet up into her girlfriend's lap. Lightning didn't resist and only briefly threw the Oerban a glance.

"Because you hog it whenever we're on it." Came the blunt response in the tone that was so matter-of-fact, Fang hesitated before responding.

"I do not!" The slightly delayed retort came with a laugh.

"Mmhmm." Came Lightning's response, accompanied by a pat to the Oerban's legs, "One thousand five hundred gil." Allowing herself to relax while observing the pinkette, Fang finally realized their current position on the couch was so comfortable, so natural, it was likely the position they were most in while sitting on one. Lightning sitting on one side, Fang stretched out with her legs in her lap… hogging the rest of it. She chuckled again as yet another wave of defeat seemed to sweep through her.

"Two thousand two hundred gil." It took Fang a second to process Lightning's latest bid. When she did, she jumped up in time to hear another voice raise the bid by yet another two hundred gil. Her girlfriend was not happy.

"Light…" She scooted closer to the pinkette, "We can't-"

"Two thousand six!"

"Hey!" Fang grabbed her hand to get her attention, "Light, hun, I know you really want this couch but we had a budget. We agreed, c'mon now." The Oerban almost cooed at the look of disappointment that fell across the pinkette's face. She gave Lightning a smile, catching her gaze, "Look, I'm sure we could find a couch for half the cost of this one." Lightning's expression did not change. Fang could almost see the puppy-dog eyes incoming and was already bracing for it, "It might be a little smaller but hey-" She wrapped and arm around Lightning's waist and gently nipped the pinkette's ear, "-All the better to cuddle with, yeah?"

This time Lightning let out a scoff. Curious, Fang looked over expectantly, silently questioning the reason behind it.

"I checked out this couch the other day, to make sure it was "All the better to cuddle with"…for us anyway." Fang raised an eyebrow, growing confused. She motioning to the good area of space beside her, beckoning to her stretch out and, in fact, cease to cuddle with her girlfriend.

"That's… a little hard to believe… There's… way too much space, isn't there?" Lightning cleared her throat in response and when Fang turned back to the pinkette, she noticed her hair was no longer the only pink on her. There was a subtle yet clearly distinct blush on her cheeks.

"I find it hard to believe you forget that cuddling doesn't usually... stay cuddling... for long." The pinkette mumbled almost inaudibly. Fang blinked, understanding the comment but not quite processing it fast enough. Lightning noticed this, "The space isn't the issue…"

"...Uh-"

"Don't tell me you forgot the entire reason why we need a new couch…" The pinkette frowned despite her deepening blush. Still, all Fang could do was blink, even while recalling the events of a few nights prior. Cuddling, kissing, more kissing, more cuddling—the more aggressive type of 'cuddling', the snap of more than one couch leg leading to the painfully abrupt halt of said 'cuddling', all of which left her more frustrated than she'd been in a long while-

The click of Lightning's tongue snapped Fang back to the present. She stared dumbly as the pinkette got to her feet with a heavy sigh. Fang suddenly felt a bizarre mixture of confusion, fervor and utter fear she'd greatly disappointed her girlfriend.

"Fine, just don't blame me if we have to interrupt any more... "cuddling" because we settled for a less than stable couch." As the implication slowly but surely set in her mind, Fang grabbed the pinkette firmly by the shoulders and sat her back down before turning towards the auctioneer and raising her hand.

"Five thousand gil!"


A/N:.

Oh look! More fluff!

Ah Fang...
Fang, Fang, Fang...

50 gold stars to whoever knows where I borrowed (morelikeshamelesslystole) the auction/couch scenario from =]