So sorry it's a little late. I got caught up with work and today was my birthday party (I'm 20! YAYYY) Also my beta had some computer trouble, so that hindered the updating a tad. I'm so glad I have a couple days off; I'm so frikkin tired it's ridiculous.

Anyways, thank you for the reviews. :3 Hope to see more!

SinisterPurr beta'd!

Because I Can Make You Smile

Luck

"I cannot believe you've never been fishing."

Lightning shot a look over at Snow as Vanille lead them plus Hope down towards where the river was bustling and moving at a steady pace. The orge didn't seem that fazed by the look, only shrugging in return.

"Oh, come on, even Serah has gone fishing."

I'm not Serah. She growled, though the words never managed to escape her. Instead she just settled for an irritated look and her disapproving:

"Tch."

"It's easy." Hope added in, smiling weakly. "If I can do it, you shouldn't have a problem with it."

It's not that the woman thought she'd be challenged by the act, it's the fact she had no desire to learn. They were perfectly capable of catching various creatures out in this forest, so why had they opted for by far the most tedious and boring option? And if the three of them were so educated in the matter, why on Cocoon did she have to come?

Last night had at least been tolerable, she had told her story and was mildly satisfied. They had all laughed, which was something the sergeant would be secretly proud of. But now, she was forced to journey with, in all accounts, three children.

Lightning hated children.

"Why I am here?" She questioned, brow furrowed. Her hand rested on her hip as the other played with the handle of her gun.

"Because you need a laugh." Snow offered, rolling his eyes at the look he received.

"What's the harm in learning?" Vanille smiled innocently, as she picked out a spot on the riverbank.

"What's the point of learning?" The sour woman countered, receiving a huff from the girl.

"You can watch then." The boy officially conceded their defeat.

As boring as fishing was, watching somebody else fish was that much worse. Lightning had sat herself on a log, and for about an hour, watched the three of them chat and laugh between themselves. All the while she had noted how the makeshift bobbers Vanille had tied onto the cables of the binding rod would drop underwater occasionally.

She has a fish. Lightning dully noted, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. I wonder how long it'll take her to notice.

A minute had passed by, and still the chirpy girl hadn't even glanced at it.

Such a lack of attention to subtle details was beginning to drive the woman mad. Their conversation was on chocobos for crying out loud, how in the world the girl couldn't manage a pointless conversation and a boring 'sport' was beyond Lightning.

Serah would tell you to help out.

That was nice, her sister wasn't here. So that idea was out the window.

Not that the gesture could hurt, she had heard the explanation from Hope when he had futility attempted to drag her into the conversation. The bobbers go down, you yank on the rod, and you reel in. Bigger fish, bigger fight. Simple enough, and not at all stimulating to the mind.

Two more minutes, now it had grated on her patience.

"Vanille…" She finally spoke, grabbing the girl's attention with her low voice.

"Hm?" She leaned her head back as far as she could go without falling over. Lightning's eyebrow ever so slightly raised a tad at the childish display.

"You've got something."

Vanille blinked for a moment, before it clicked and her eyes darted to the bobbers.

All four were under.

"Oh!" She cried, and yanked as hard as she could.

Well, she hooked something.

Something big.

The reels spun the wrong way, and as they hit the end of their tether, whatever the girl had hooked tested her strength. It pulled her so hard that she literally flew, until she roughly smacked back down into the water. Snow and Hope were up in a second, but Lightning was faster.

She was already in the water, feeling it's cold sting all over her as she discovered the river dropped off rather suddenly. She cursed, not seeing the redhead above water only meant the girl has somehow failed to let go of the rod and was under.

Or, the girl was the equivalent of a stone in water and had sunk.

Neither were good. Not if Fang found out. Lightning dove under, eyes burning briefly as she opened them and scanned the sun spotted, slightly illuminated depths of the waterscape.

What would Fang do? "Hey, where's Vanille?"

"Oh, she hooked a giant…" What fish are there out here? "Giant… Trout, yes. A giant rainbow trout and it dragged her under. Oh, and she drowned. That a problem?"

Somehow, Lightning doubted there was a graceful way of telling Fang that they let her best friend die. Not exactly in the most pleasant of methods either, for all Lightning knew that supposed giant trout had turned around and gobbled her up.

Except there was a hope for them yet. Vanille was a little deeper down, floating limply.

Shit.

No hope then, but at least they'd have something to bring back.

Lightning hurried, feeling her own lungs begin to burn as they began to require oxygen. By the time she grabbed the girl and headed towards the surface, the burning had almost become unbearable.

The soldier broke the surface hard, gasping desperately for air before she forced Vanille up, struggling to keep her face above water. Choking, the woman suddenly realized that jumping in to save the girl had inadvertly exposed both of them to the powerful current.

They were nowhere near the fishing spot, and even further from camp.

"Eden-" Lightning gagged, sputtering water as she guided them both towards the shore. "Be damned. I-" Another harsh cough, but land was close. "Told you… Fishing was a.. Bad idea."

Her feet touched the riverbed and Lightning found herself standing, she had picked Vanille up, cradling the girl in her arms as she waded out of the shallow end and collapsed onto the grass. The redhead rolled away from her, lifeless. Lightning gritted her teeth, hurrying over to her side and rolling her onto her back.

"Vanille?" She questioned loudly, stomping her hands next to the girl's head. "Vanille?" Gently she pressed on the back of the girl's neck, making her head lean back and mouth open just a smidge.

Of course she's drowned… The sergeant glowered, opening the girl's mouth more. Why would my luck suddenly change for the better?

Gently plugging the girl's nose, Lightning bent down and clamped her mouth over Vanille's. She forced air out and into the girl's lungs, watching as her chest inflated.

True to her name, Lightning pulled away wicked fast as Vanille sputtered, water being forced out of her. She gasped, eyes opening as she sat up, trying to recover from what just happened.


Vanille was horribly confused. She remembered hitting the water and being pulled under, and then nothing. The world had gone fuzzy and then dark. She could distantly recalling something or someone grabbing her, but then a blank was drawn. Now, she was on land again, and was having one hell of a coughing fit. Her lungs protested to the amount of water the girl had inhaled, making the coughing that much worse with the sensation of horrible burning.

A comforting hand rested on her back and another on her knee. Immediately she thought of Fang, somehow managing to save her again. But as she looked blurry-eyed to her right, she saw the vague semblance of a person with pink hair.

"L-Lightning?" Vanille choked.

"Stop trying to talk." The voice confirmed it; it was stern and disapproving. "Just focus on breathing."

The girl felt incredibly silly, she had tried to get Lightning into the sport of fishing, and instead she had been pulled into the river by what she had hoped would've been their meal. She let out a quiet whimper, something she hoped the sergeant hadn't heard only because Lightning didn't seem to have a lot of patience for babies.

"I'm sorry…" She murmured, glancing up at the woman as her vision returned to normal. Lightning had sat down next to her and her apology only got her a passing glance.

"It's fine." She went back to staring across the river.

"But you were right, it was a bad idea…"

Lightning looked at the ground, face contemplative. "Vanille, did you know you'd hook monster?"

"No…"

"Then it's not your fault. So stop apologizing."

Logical words and though they made the girl feel a bit better, she was now cold, hungry and miserable. She didn't dare speak, but the loud grumble from her stomach broke the silence. Lightning looked at her, eyebrow raised a tad.

"Eh heh…" Vanille brushed a few of her bangs from her face. "I'm hungry…"

"I'll catch dinner." Lightning stood up, unfazed by the fact she was soaking wet. She offered her hand to Vanille, who took it appreciatively. "Start a fire."


There was no point dragging a drenched and unhappy teen around a dark forest. Vanille, as chipper as she acted, was quieter now. She sat by the fire, occasionally glancing at the sunset sky with a faded smile. She had left the cooking to Lightning, who didn't seem to mind. Fang usually did the cooking; she had plenty of experience from Pulse…

Lightning had never spoken up when other's wanted to cook. It seemed the sergeant wanted to be the last choice. Vanille didn't know why, there was no way she was worse than Snow (not that Vanille had experience eating what the man made). But the sergeant had always been content to hunt the meat, just never prepare it.

Hunters don't cook? Fang hunts too… Huh..

"Hey, Light," She caught the woman's attention, she could tell by how the soldier shifted her weight as she tossed more wood onto the fire. "Did you cook before all this?"

Lightning paused her actions for a millisecond, considering the question at a wicked pace.

"As much as I needed to."

"How often was that?"

"Serah liked to cook," The sergeant offered that as an answer.

"Was she good?"

"Good enough."

Vanille frowned, and wrapped her arms around her knees, pressing them to her chest. "You really don't like conversation?"

There was a sigh. "It's… Fine."

"You just… Don't seem that interested in it."

"I'm reserved."

The girl giggled. "I've noticed… What did you like to cook?"

Lightning frowned; she had never much liked to cook anything. She cooked because she and her sister needed to eat, and at that time Serah didn't feel like doing it herself. She wasn't one of the fanatics who enjoyed the art of cooking; she simply did it out of necessity: you need to eat; you cook. It was that simple.

But how to tell Vanille that she had never enjoyed the art. "I never thought about it."

"Never?"

The woman nodded, checking the meat. It was almost ready.

"So… What did you do for fun?"

Lightning was tempted to say nothing; one more little lie in her long history of lying wouldn't hurt. She glanced at Vanille, her hard eyes softening a tad at the curious look the girl was giving her. Some things about her reminded the sergeant of her sister, it was odd and somewhat uncomfortable. Vanille wasn't her sister, but they shared such similarities that the girl could get away with asking her a hundred questions.

"Light?"

Lightning blinked, coming out of her thought. "Hm?"

"What were you thinking about?"

"My sister."

"Serah?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because…" She trailed off uncomfortably; she was apprehensive about talking about Serah. They had only mentioned her as a motivation for the group to keep going, nothing more. Only Snow knew more and that was because the man was engaged to her.

"Worst birthday ever."

Lightning inwardly winced at the memory of not believing her sister and making her run off.

"If you're a l'Cie, it's my job to deal with you."

For a soldier, she was certainly blind.

"Because?" Vanille had inched closer; head tilted and eyes sparkling with interest. Lightning frowned and pushed the girl a bit back with her finger on the girl's forehead.

"You remind me of her, a little." Secretly amused as the girl bounced back on her bum.

The girl smiled shyly, not sure how to take it. She pushed passed the awkwardness, glancing at the meat near the fire. "Is the food ready?"

Lightning looked at it, taking out her knife Hope had returned to her. Her eyes lingered on it for a moment, remembering her birthday all over again. But her stare broke away and she cut a small hunk of meat off the larger piece.

"It's ready."


"Lightning?"

The soldier looked over, blue eyes almost appearing black in the darkness of the forest. The fire provided little light now that it had died down a bit, the soldier estimated it was around midnight and to her knowledge Vanille had been sleeping for a while now. So why was she up?

Stepping through the trees, the sergeant broke back into the camp. Vanille looked up at her, eyes a little wide.

"What's wrong?"

The redhead looked down at the ground before she shuddered.

"I'm cold."

Lightning's face stayed even. "Oh." She threw another log on the fire before she slunk down and leaned against a tree. She gestured to the girl to come closer.

Vanille swiftly scurried over, quickly invading the nook that was created when she lifted up Lightning's arm. She snuggled close; body eagerly gobbling up what heat Lightning's managed to give off. The sergeant blinked; slowly bring her arm down so it was resting on Vanille's shoulder.

She is cold. Lightning noted, leaning her head back against the tree. She could just see the stars through the branches, sparkling and shining in the night.

"Stargazing."

Vanille's eyes cracked open, and she looked up at her friend, confused. "Pardon?"

"You asked me what I did for fun." Lightning replied, eyes meeting Vanille's for a second before they traveled back up to the sky. "I stargazed."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I would've thought you did something more exciting, being part of the army."

"I had my fill of excitement from the army." Lightning admitted. "I liked the quiet that midnight offered compared to the hustle and bustle of the day."

"What else did you do?" Vanille questioned, yawning.

"… I also liked swimming."

"Did you save poor fisherwomen then too?"

"No, I would have to say today was my first time doing that particular exercise."

The peppy-girl grinned up at Lightning and giggled. "Do you like fishing then?"

Her eyes narrowed a little thoughtfully. "It's growing on me."

"Good," Vanille snuggled more into Lightning, closing her eyes. "Wouldn't want you to be bored next time we try…"

Next time?

"Goodnight, Vanille."

The girl gave a final yawn. "Night…"