Etro's Keepers
A/N: Here's my first attempt at something funny, cute and just plain fluffy. Unlike my current more serious fanfiction titled Tainted Fal'Cie, this story will not update on a regular schedule. This fic is unbetaed and all errors are mine. Updates will be, at best, sporadic and on the spur of the moment. As comedy is not my strong suit, expect OOCness from our heroes. Beyond that, I hope you enjoy the story, wherever it may go. XD
A huge thank you goes out to denebtenoh for drawing up the cover for this piece. To see the original image, go here: denebtenoh[ pp ee rr ii oo dd]deviantart[ pp ee rr ii oo dd]com/#/art/Battle-Partners-v-2-333304576?hf=1
*coughs* shameless plug *coughs*
And also, if you haven't read my other stories, I highly encourage you to do so, starting with Finding Home followed by Tainted Fal'Cie.
Warning: There is some mild language in this chapter.
Disclaimer: The characters and the worlds I write in do not belong to me. The stories that I write are intended for entertainment purposes. I do not make any money from them.
*** ~ Chapter 1: Rude Awakenings ~ ***
Serah Farron smiled happily, snuggled deep in the soft fluffiness of her blanket. Morning was upon her, the sunlight now peering through the window and warming her face with its golden light. Soon, the smell of sizzling Gorgonopsid meat wafted to her nose, a tell tale sign that her fiancé and husband to be was already up and in the kitchen.
Despite having no talent whatsoever when it came to the culinary arts, the blonde giant known as Snow was not deterred from trying his hand at breakfast occasionally. Often his attempts to impress his already enraptured girlfriend and soon to be wife ended in the need of a fire extinguisher, and sometimes the whole New Oerba fire department, but that
did little to sway the youngest Farron's opinion of the NORA leader. To Serah, Snow was perfect in every single way.
Serah rolled over to face the opposite side of the bed, where a certain someone normally slept. But as he was preparing breakfast, all which remained of him was rumpled sheets and the smell of… well… Snow. Shimming herself across the bed to her fiance's side, Serah curled into the rumpled sheets and breathed deeply. A smile of pure, sweet happiness stretched across her sleepy face, Serah letting herself fall back to sleep inhaling Snow's scent.
With Orphan vanquished, along with Barthandelus and the other fal'Cies, things had significantly quieted down for the former l'Cies. Cocoon was crystal and the survivors now lived on Gran Pulse. Cocoonians showed a great resilience despite their pampered upbringing and quickly adjusted to the harsher and more exciting environment of the Gran Pulse wilderness.
Word spread quickly amongst the survivors about the government's corruption, and how they all would have been slaughtered had Lightning and the others not intervened. The former l'Cies were now heroes in the eyes of the people, a surprising yet welcomed change of heart considering they were public enemies number one not too long ago. And with that, their lives soon became peaceful again, the former l'Cies helping to rebuild New Oerba in memory of the two family members who were no longer with them.
But all of them should have known that peace would not last long.
A blood curdling scream.
Lightning Farron was normally a very light sleeper. Having been a part of the military for years, seeing more than her fair share of action, it was a habit she developed earlier on in her career as a soldier. You never knew when you'd be deployed next after all. Lightning trained herself to awaken at a moment's notice, in a complete state of awareness, the moment she felt the tiniest bit of danger lurking nearby. That ability had saved her life, and the life of her now extended family, many times now, especially put to good use when they were on the run as l'Cies months ago.
So when she awoke in a daze on this particular morning, Lightning should have been alarmed. Concerned even, as she could not immediately remember the events from the night before. But as things were, she was not. Perhaps she had finally come to accept this quiet and admittedly boring life, along with the pure uneventfulness that came with it. Or perhaps she just had one too many shots at Lebreau's bar last night (as she was now starting to recall), when they all celebrated the bar's opening day. Either way, Lightning was not bothered. Yet something tickled at the back of her mind and she didn't know why.
The eldest Farron stared at the ceiling blankly, locks of pick hair partially obscuring her vision. Glancing around, Lightning was relieved to see everything was where she left it. Her gunblade was propped up against the side of her bed in sword form. The curtains were partially drawn, enough to let some light in to let her know when morning arrived. Hell, even the kitchen was spotless and all dishes were hidden in their respective cupboards and cabinets. But something still felt amiss.
Lightning sighed, bringing up a hand to her face, her fingers combing through her hair.
Then the blanket moved. Specifically the portion of blanket covering her chest, moved.
Lightning blinked.
The pinkette quickly glanced around the room before looking at her blanket covered chest again. Blue eyes squinted, critically inspecting the material which kept her warm overnight. When silent seconds passed by and nothing happened, Lightning sighed again and closed her eyes.
"Never again am I drinking Lebreau's mystery drink."
And the blanket moved again.
Blue eyes snapped open, Lightning's hand shooting out to grab her gunblade. She had felt it this time. Something moving on her well endowed chest. The same time the blanket shifted. Only now did Lightning realize there was a soft weight on her gracious bosom.
A soft, warm weight.
A soft, warm weight that moved.
A soft, warm weight that moved, again. This time, unprovoked by her movements.
And it made a sound. Like the sound of a yawning kitten.
Damn it. Lightning liked kittens. She thought they were cute. Not that the soldier would openly admit that to anyone. Even so, Lightning was as sure as hell right now that this was no kitten.
Shit.
With her heart hammering madly in her chest, Lightning slowly reached for the edge of the blanket. How this unknown entity snuck up on her without her realizing it, Lightning didn't know. She blamed that on Lebreau's fruity tasting, multi-coloured, foul smelling, concoction the woman made her drink last night as the reason for her dulled senses. If she survived this confrontation, Lightning would visit the raven haired barmaid to have a few choice words with her.
As her fingers clenched the edge of the fabric, Lightning unconsciously held her breath in nervous anticipation. But despite all the training she received as a soldier, and all her experience in the field, nothing could prepare her for what happened next. Before she could even finish the mental countdown in her head, something slid across her left breast and squeezed.
Lightning screamed.
"Claire!" Serah raced up the metal staircase faster than she had ever run before. Currently, she and Snow shared a house with her older sister, Lightning taking the upper floor as her primary residence with Snow and Serah taking the main floor. A metal staircase outside of the residence connected the two levels together. It was only a temporary arrangement, until the young couple could get a place of their own.
At the entrance to Lightning's level, Serah yanked open the door, almost tearing it from its hinges. Never in her life had Lightning ever screamed like that, as of the grim reaper himself was hacking her to pieces. Not even when their neighbour's son's girlfriend's aunt's chocobo's chick that Lightning thought was cute but wouldn't admitted it to Serah because of its weirdly coloured spotted white mohawk and pouty beak fell into a puddle and drowned, did Lightning scream. Which meant, whatever was attacking her right now, was something truly horrifying.
"Cla-Woah!" Serah slid to a halt just two steps through the door.
Inches away, Lightning sailed past the youngest Farron upside down in the air, in the middle of one of her signature flips.
"Holy mother of Etro!" came a deep voice behind Serah.
Snow, wearing nothing more than a pair of boxers, found himself gawking at the sight of the eldest Farron in nothing but a large, oversized t-shirt and racy neon pink panties. He too had heard Lightning's scream, something that scared him more than he'd ever admit. But not having the quickness and agility that Serah had – a trait all Farron women seemed to have – it took him just a bit longer to navigate the hurdles that were the walls in his house before he lumbered up the stairs in hot pursuit of his fiancé.
The moment Snow stepped through the open doorway, he was immediately greeted with a pink blur darting across his line of vision, his eyes instantly locking onto Lightning's less than conservative underwear. Due to this distraction, Snow failed to notice Serah stopped in front of him and ended up bowling the smaller pinkette over when he failed to stop. Serah tumbled to the ground on her hands and knees with a yelp.
Lightning landed in a crouch to Serah's and Snow's right, the soldier flinching at this new intrusion. Her gunblade was instantly pointed at them in reflex, the weapon itself shaking in her hand, Lightning red-face and absolutely flustered. "S-Serah? Snow?"
Serah's eyes widened. Lightning was shaking. "Claire? What-"
A squeak from Lightning's bed caused the trio to turn and stare at the intruder. The heap of blanket on Lightning's bed shook and twisted, squeaks and growls sounding all throughout. Snow pulled his fiancé to her feet, moving to stand protectively in front of her fists raised. Lightning remained rooted in her spot, sweat drizzling down the side of her cheeks and the back of her neck.
Then the blanket ceased to move.
Everyone stared in frozen silence.
RIP!
In a flash of movement, something poked up from the middle of the blanket and sheared the material in half. There was a gust of wind and the two pieces of blanket shot up into the air, to either side, clearly revealing the thing which scared the living daylights out of Lightning.
Snow's jaw dropped. "Is that… Odin?" he said.
Peeking her head around Snow's large frame, Serah caught sight of their enemy. Though, maybe that wasn't the right word to describe it. The thing, dubbed Odin by Snow, looked to be a tiny white knight of some sort. Onyx and gold plating made up his armor. Yes, a him, as Serah noted the absence of a key feminine body part. Namely, boobs. In his left hand was a shield which matched his armor. And in his right, was an S-shaped jagged blade.
Lightning barely spoke of her Eidolon. With the disappearance of their brands, not only did their ability to wield magic disappear, but also their ability to call on their Eidolon partners as well. When Lightning did talk of her battle partner, Serah couldn't but feel a sense of awe and reverence for the Eidolon. The way Lightning described him was just… magnificent. And while Lightning's description of her partner matched that of what she currently saw, there was one notable... Well, there were a lot of notable differences between what Lightning described him to be and what Serah currently stared at.
Unlike the Odin which Lightning described as over fifteen feet tall, the Odin Serah stared at currently didn't even reach the height of Lightning's knee. Nor did he look like the tough and intimidating knight Serah expected him to be either. His features were soft, rounded and just plain cute. For a lack of a better word, this Odin was chibi-fied. Yes. That was the more appropriate term. Instead of mighty Eidolon Odin standing before them, here stood chibi Odin.
Serah squealed. "He is so cute!"
Lightning jumped at the sound of her sister's voice, her head snapping to the side only to find her sister gone. Snow looked back at Lightning, blinking.
"Ser-"
"Can we keep him Claire? Can we?" Serah was already half way across the room, nuzzling the chibi Eidolon against her cheek.
Chibi Odin squeaked. Lightning face palmed.
Snow couldn't but chuckle at the sight of his future wife cuddling Light's mini Eidolon to her chest. Serah always loved cute things, very much like Vanille did. It was no wonder those two got along so well. Two small forms peeked out from behind Snow's legs, curiously looking at the scene.
"If she likes Odin so much, maybe I shouldn't tell her about you two just yet" Snow said looking down at his feet.
Lightning made a disgusted sound, running a hand over her face. There was going to be hell to pay for this!
"Not the way you thought you'd wake up in the morning, huh Sis?" Snow smiled when he merely received a groan as a reply.
"Snow, if you tell anyone about this, with Etro as my witness…" Lightning didn't need to finish her words for Snow to know what she was threatening.
Snow chuckled, the former sentinel raising his hands up signalling defeat. "I won't, don't worry."
Lightning didn't believe his words one bit. "Tch."
Snow's eyes looked downwards, a grin stretching over the blonde's face. "Pink looks good on your Sis-"
Snow was ducking a gunblade even before he could finish his words.
A/N: Kudos goes to DezoPenguin for inspiring the chibi Eidolons idea. After reading DezoPenguin's fanfiction called "Taking Wind" (which can be found here: (ffnet)/s/7025144/1/Taking_Wing), where in the My-Hime world, the characters' CHILDs ran around in chibi form, I just had to write a chibi Eidolon piece. The idea has been used with permission.
If you haven't read DP's story, I encourage you to do so. It's just wonderful. XD