Bad Language

Chapter 1

For the thirteenth time that afternoon, the Gran Pulse duo had unintentionally made Lightning feel left out as they giggled and presumably joked on in Pulsian.

It wasn't just the three of them, which is why she felt it was unintentional, but as the group's day at the beach went on, the more it irked her. It would be a massive lie to say Lightning knew much of the language, and so she couldn't even hazard a guess as to what they were even talking about. Although her gunblade did say 'Invoke my name – I am Spark' in Pulsian alphabet, Lightning didn't know how to pronounce it, and only found out what it meant when Fang happened to spot it one day. The intrigue in her voice had been unmistakable, and she had paused mid-spar to inspect Lightning's weapon further.

Idly drawing a lightning bolt shaped pattern in the sand, she watched through her sunglasses as Fang and Vanille finally ceased talking when Vanille skipped off towards the water. Serah and Snow were already there, playing with a bat and ball with the water up to their shins, making any sort of running difficult while playing.

A part of her expected Fang to begin talking to her instead, and another part of her experienced the worst sinking feeling in her chest when she didn't. Instead Fang turned her attention to sunbathing, lying on her front and sighing in content.

Lightning quickly blamed the fact she was sitting in the shade looking immersed in her book. Fang was only a few metres away and she couldn't even bring herself to get the woman's attention. Meanwhile, Fang had all of hers whilst in that black two-piece.

Frustrated and without meaning to, Light slammed the book shut, causing Fang to finally look up at her. 'Favourite character just die?' she queried, dropping her sunglasses down her nose.

Lightning looked from the book and back. She was only fifty or so pages in and not yet invested in the characters to be upset. 'No, I'm just bored with it.'

'Do you want to join everyone in the water?'

She hadn't planned on going on the water, but as soon as Fang suggested it she began liking the idea. 'Sure, why not?' Lightning threw her book into her beach bag and grabbed sun lotion instead, but as she started applying it to her arms she said, 'we can't leave all our stuff on its own.'

'I don't think anyone is gonna steal ex-l'Cie possessions. They'll get my lance up their ass.'

Lightning shook her head. 'Yes you'd think crime rates would drop on Gran Pulse, but it still happens. We can't leave everything.'

Fang quickly perked up with an idea. 'I could drop the bags off behind the bar Lebreau's? I'll make sure the others know.'

And with the elegance of a prowling feral cat Fang headed to the edge of the shore, and Lightning stared on, still rubbing her arm despite the lotion already being absorbed.

When Fang returned, the others had come with her, jogging over the hot sand to their towels. Snow's hair had bleached tremendously in the sunlight, and the bridge of Serah's nose was tinted red, and when Lightning gestured to the burn, Serah immediately slapped on more cream.

'You could've warned me I'd caught the sun, Snow!' Serah wrinkled her nose when the cream hit the burn. 'I'm going to look stupid now.'

Vanille dropped into the shade besides Lightning, laughing. 'You look stupid anyway, so there's really no difference.'

Understandably, Serah wasn't pleased. 'Watch your back, Vanille. If you fall asleep, you're getting a dick drawn on you with lotion.'

Vanille narrowed her eyes. 'You wouldn't.'

'Just don't fall asleep, Red.'

Snow laughed, placing himself between the pretend conflict. 'And suddenly I'm afraid to sunbathe now. Hey Light, Fang told her she was gonna give our stuff to Lebreau, but we were going to head over there for a drink anyway, so we can take it over.'

'Perfect.' Fang removed her sunglasses and threw them onto her towel; she winced with the brightness of the sun, using her hand to shield her eyes. 'Me and Light will have a quick dip then probably join you, yeah?'

Lightning made a noise of affirmation in her throat. 'Yeah.'

The water was lukewarm and therefore faultless. Lightning waded up to her neck, her toes just touching the sand if she pointed them enough. Behind her, Fang was making a tremendous effort to reach her, jumping as best she could when the water hit her waist, and wasting no time in getting her hair wet as she dived, swimming the rest of the gap.

Knowing what was next, Lightning pre-emptively shut her eyes in time for Fang to emerge and spray salt water everywhere. Then she remembered she was still wearing sunglasses.

'Someone's eager,' Fang grinned.

'Says the one who's just raced all the way here. I just wanted to cool off.'

Fang had to squint in the sun to even see Lightning properly, her dark lashes almost completely obscuring the whites of her eyes. 'You're still happy being the loner type, aren't you?'

Lightning frowned, her eyebrows disappearing behind her lenses at the sudden character assessment. 'You got all that from me swimming ahead?'

'And reading in the shade by yourself.'

'People don't often read out loud in groups, Fang.' At that, Fang splashed water at her; leaving Lightning's vision with nothing but droplets. 'Guess that means I have a point.'

Fang spared her a glance, circling around Lightning so that the sun wasn't directly in her eyes. 'Okay there you might have a point, but I'm not wrong.'

Wondering what Fang was even getting at, Lightning tried not to sound hurt about the fact. 'It's a hard habit to break when it's all you've known for a good portion of your life.'

'Well, we're gonna break that habit. We're gonna have you laughing and joking and joining in on all the conversations from now on.'

If Fang felt this way then why make her feel so uninvolved earlier? This was the perfect chance to ask about the sudden Pulsian-speak that had accompanied the entire day out at the beach. 'So what were you and Vanille talking about all today?'

The Oerban's smirk minutely faltered. 'What do you mean? When?'

'You two have been doing it all day,' Lightning pointed out. 'Speaking in Pulsian. You want me to get involved with conversations, but you throw in a language barrier.'

Sinking lower into the water as though ashamed, Fang looked away. 'Ah, sorry. It's usually personal, secret stuff when we talk. Or inside jokes. Sometimes it doesn't translate well in your language, so we say it in ours.'

A part of Lightning wondered when and how Fang and Vanille had come to speak her native tongue, especially with the war between Cocoon and Gran Pulse. She uncharacteristically romanticised the notion that somewhere down the line, maybe a few children had been born to parents from both Cocoon and Pulse, learning both languages along the way. An alternative sprung to mind, of times that had been a lot more peaceful once, allowing people to learn from each other.

'Sounds like speaking two languages could be useful.'

She watched as Fang floated on her back, eyes shut. A deep sigh escaped the Oerban's lips like she wanted the sea to hurry up and carry her out. 'Not when you're only one of two living people who know it.'

Sadness had crept into Fang's tone, and Lightning was desperate to get rid of it, or otherwise spoil a good day with a bad moment. Taking Fang's lowered guard as an opportunity, Lightning let her palm slice across the water to splash the other woman, who certainly wasn't expecting it.

Fang coughed and spluttered, arms flailing. She could've drowned had they been any deeper, but Lightning took the few precious moments she had to quickly paddle back to shore before Fang got her own back. The urge to laugh was impossible to keep to herself, though the promise of drinking saltwater was enough for Lightning to see it through until she was in a better depth of water.

'Not so fast, Farron.'

The splashing behind her increased and Fang closed some distance; thankfully Lightning was too far ahead, and she ran the rest of the way back to their towels.

Lightning was already reapplying sun lotion when Fang finally caught up, panting heavily. 'Can't believe you let me choke on seawater.'

'You'd have drowned me in revenge otherwise,' Lightning said, allowing a small chuckle to escape her lips.

After drying off and collecting their towels, the duo dragged their feet through the rest of the beach towards Lebreau's bar and café in a comfortable silence. Lightning had a sneaking suspicion that Fang was mulling over ideas on ways to get back at her, so she slowed her steps to be slightly behind, in case that moment was then and there.

There was no denying that Lightning had enjoyed having Fang's sole attention, even for a short while. An idea sparked in her mind about how she could steal more of Fang's time.

Only two people could speak Pulsian, you say?

That would have to change.