Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Many thanks to all that reviewed. They were very much appreciated. Honestly I didn't think I'd get that much feedback. I'm writing this for personal satisfaction, first and foremost but it's a long journey to the end and support will help me get there. I could have just written a oneshot and get it over with, but more than just writing a Fang/Light, I wanted to build their relationship. So yes, many thanks and I hope you all continue to stick with me for chapters to come. Comments and criticisms are most welcomed.


Serah – In the Dark

She drank again yesterday.

Serah Farron stood over the kitchen counter, chopping up some fruits to blend into a fruit juice. The recipe was supposedly good for hangovers, though she couldn't know for sure. She's never had one. And her sister, who was the one she's making the drink for, apparently has never had one either. The juice was merely a means of precaution to the 'what if' situation that her sister does indeed wake up feeling like her head would explode.

Just because it didn't happen the other times, didn't mean it never would.

She picked up all the fruits on the chopping board, unceremoniously dropping them into the juicer. Positioning a tall glass in place to catch the juice, she put on the lid on the machine and pressed the button. The motor whirred to life, sending the flesh of the fruits splattering against the juicer's wall. The glass began to fill.

Serah sighed. Lightning came home late last night. Or maybe it was early this morning. She wasn't even sure what time exactly her sister checked in. Only that the elder Farron did it again. She didn't have to ask, and Lightning didn't have to tell her. Her clothes in the laundry basket that reeked of alcohol were more than enough an answer. Hence, the hangover remedy.

Honestly, the younger Farron was puzzled. Her sister never liked to drink. Her face would scrunch up in disgust at the very sight, at the very smell of the intoxicating liquid. So much so that it even instilled the dislike of alcohol within her. But now…what happened?

She knew it started some time about a year ago. After Cocoon's fall. When she came to, she found herself on a vast open field, unlike anything she has ever seen before. There was a little boy with an afro next to her, looking just as confused. Then she looked behind her, and what she saw left her completely mystified. Cocoon- crystallized. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped. She could not believe what she saw. Yet at the same time, it all made sense. They did it. Snow, her sister, they've fulfilled their focus.

She had looked at the boy, and somehow they both knew where to go. They didn't have to walk long for in the distance, she made out two very familiar figures. She ran to them. Snow first, and then her sister. She was ecstatic. Lightning even approved of her marriage. That is, until they filled her in with the details. For one, they were on Gran Pulse. She never imagined she'd ever see this place, and she was already on it.

But there was something else. Vanille, the girl she met on the beach in Bodhum, was a l'Cie as well. And there was another one too, Fang. She could tell they were valued friends, especially from the forlorn way the young boy Hope and her sister kept looking at their crystallized former home. Now the home of the two Pulsians instead. She had been optimistic, convincing them that the two would wake, just like she and Dajh did. It would just take more time.

She wasn't sure she believed that anymore. Minutes had turned into hours. They all knew then that the main concern was adapting to Gran Pulse. Many Cocoonians did indeed manage to evacuate from the falling planet and now they all have to rebuild their lives and homes in this new world. It would be a daunting task. Gran Pulse was thought to be hell. The only ones then that had any experience living here was those four; Lightning, Snow, Hope and Sazh. Even though they were the feared l'Cie, suddenly everyone sought their council.

Hours turned into days. Lightning rejoined the Guardian Corps at her request because right now, they needed her and because she knew this was what her sister was good at and because even if she didn't mention it, Lightning would have done it eventually. The older girl worked around the clock at first, but once everything had settled down, she requested fixed hours and refused the promotion they had for her, stating that she didn't want additional responsibilities to take her away from her family. Serah had noticed something different about her sister since they reunited, but it was then that she was convinced their ordeal had changed Lightning, for the better.

Days turned into weeks. Oerba was her home now, a decision the rest came to an agreement upon without a shadow of doubt. Snow had told her that it was Vanille and Fang's home and when, not if, when they wake up, this is where they will return to and we're going to be here to greet them. So armed with family, friends and some new faces, they've refurbished and repopulated Oerba, breathing the very life back into her. She imagined that even those two would be proud of the work they've done here.

Weeks turned into months and Lightning became increasingly…agitated, somewhat. Serah couldn't really describe what it was, but it was there, and everyone else noticed it too. While Lightning still went about as usual, work, home, there was an edge about her. Serah told herself that it was good enough that her sister spent more time with her and was generally more open with her feelings, even with the binges that happened every now and then. Lightning never talked about those instances, so she stopped asking. But from what Snow has told her about their journey, coupled with all the times she caught her sister just looking up at Cocoon, she'd pieced that it had something to do with the Pulsians. No, that wasn't right. It had something to do with one Pulsian in particular. Fang.

She failed to notice her soldier sister strolling into the kitchen behind her over the whirring of the juicer.

"Good morning."

Serah jumped, nearly knocking over the glass. She cursed under her breath, because Lightning would give her hell if she heard it, before turning around with a cover up smile.

"Morning, Sis."

Her smile promptly disappeared upon seeing her sister. Lightning slid onto one of the chairs at the table, a small smile present on her features but her movements were slower than usual. She seemed so tired, and the dark rings under her eyes only confirmed the notion even more.

Serah dreaded to think what would happen if the months turned into years. Would it take another five centuries?

The juicer finally came to a stop. She waited for the last of the juice to drip out, flipping the main switch off before picking up the almost full glass and setting it on the table in front of her sister. It didn't look like there was a hangover after all, but a fruit juice was always a good morning starter.

"Here, drink this."

Lightning took the glass. "Thanks."

Serah smiled, turning back to the counter to prepare the food. "What would you like in your sandwich? Behemoth, or Gorgonopsid?"

Lightning made a grunting sound. "Can I say no to both? I'll have a vege sandwich."

The younger Farron cut up the vegetables, placing them on the bread. "You need protein, considering your lifestyle."

"I'll grab some fried worms later."

Serah's stomach churned. Fried worms? She heard from the rest that they ate that sometimes while in Gran Pulse when they needed something quick and easy. Apparently it was an everyday food in Oerba five hundred years ago. And now, without any fal'Cie like Carbuncle to provide food here in Pulse, it's beginning to take hold again.

But that's…disgusting.

She herself has never tried the delicacy, the very sight of it made her nauseous. She slapped a hearty slice of Gorgonopsid on the vegetables, before completing the meal with another piece of bread. The sandwich then found itself placed before the elder Farron.

"You're getting Gorgonopsid. I don't know how you eat that stuff."

Lightning smirked, looking pointedly at Serah. "It's protein," she reached for her breakfast, disinterestedly holding it up. Her voice dropped. "Survival at all costs."

That last bit sounded a tad serious. "What?" she had heard it loud and clear, but there was another part to that, and it wasn't going to come out without prodding. She felt her sister's eyes on her, voice dropping even lower.

"Fang told me that."

Fang. Serah didn't know a lot about Fang. The Pulsian hunter was the only one of the party that she hadn't met, or rather, hadn't consciously met. It seems that from what she's been told, they had met once in the Vestige when she first became a l'Cie, but she was unconscious then. The photograph of her and Vanille from five hundred years ago was Serah's only clue to how Fang looked like but as for the Pulsian's personality, Snow's description was…vague, to put it simply. He later said to ask Lightning, saying that after Vanille, Lightning probably knew her best. But that's the problem.

Lightning rarely spoke of Fang. Even when she got Lightning to talk about their journey, where they went, what they did, the battles they fought, her sister seemed to make it a point to mention Fang the least. And during the times when she did, she never delves into the details, leaving it as a fleeting mention. But that told Serah, in almost certainty, that whatever it is that was bugging her sister, whenever her sister looked up at Cocoon, she's looking at Fang. That part within Lightning that seemed so lost had something, or maybe everything, to do with Fang.

Occasionally though, like now, Lightning would just randomly mention Fang of her own volition, but when Serah tried to pursue Lightning would clam up. It confused her to no end at first but eventually Serah figured that maybe, Lightning wasn't mentioning Fang because she wanted to talk about it. She was mentioning Fang for herself. To keep the memory of Fang around.

Serah cleared her throat. There would be no need to pursue this one either. She decided instead to change the topic.

"Where were you last night?"

Lightning chewed on her sandwich thoughtfully, picking up her glass of juice as she swallowed. "Around."

"Outside Oerba?" There was only one bar in Oerba currently, and that was Lebreau's. Café by morning, bar by night. Lightning definitely wasn't there last night. She had called to make sure.

The soldier drank a mouthful of juice. "I think."

Serah raised an eyebrow. "You think?" She'd established earlier on that she couldn't get Lightning to stop her binges, or tell her what it's all about, but at the very least she would appreciate it if she knew where her sister went. This wasn't Cocoon. Gran Pulse was a dangerous place, even for a trained soldier.

"Serah," Lightning called, putting her sandwich down. "I'm fine."

Yeah, this time. She sighed, opting not to go into another lecture about safety with her sister. The irony didn't escape her. Lightning was always the level-headed one. "I'm going to laugh when you land in the hospital."

They both knew that the opposite of that was more likely to occur, but at least Serah could relish in the sound of Lightning's mirth. That was, just like mentions of one Pulsian woman, so very rare.

Lightning folded her arms on the table, gazing adoringly at her little sister. "How was the celebration last night?"

"Great," she answered. "You'd know if you were here."

Guilt trip doesn't work either, but always worth a shot.

Lightning merely smiled. "You were with Snow?"

And she was right. Lightning doesn't even apologize anymore.

Serah nodded. "With Sazh and Dajh too."

"And Hope?"

"He celebrated with his father," she replied, taking a seat opposite her sibling. She leant back on the chair, carefully observing the other's expression. "You should have been with us, Sis. It's a big day."

Lightning smiled apologetically, but otherwise said nothing. Her eyes however, darted out the window and locked on to something in the distance. Serah didn't have to see to know what it was.

There was that one instance when they were clearing up their current residence and moving in whatever little belongings that they had, that Serah had stumbled upon a possession of Lightning's. It was tucked in between some of her sister's clothes and while it wasn't any of her business, curiosity got the better of her and she peeked. She spied a necklace, with an ivory pendant shaped like a fang.

She didn't know Lightning to be a fan of fang-shaped things, but on closer inspection she realized it wasn't something Lightning could have bought. The fang was rough around the edges and very much unpolished. Everything about it screamed handmade. But if so, then by who? She had no idea then, now she could only think of one person. What did this mean?

"What are you looking at?"

She had almost jumped out of her skin when Lightning popped up behind her. Just how was she so stealthy?

"Ah, this," Serah showed her the necklace. "I found it with your clothes."

Lightning looked at the item, before gingerly taking it from Serah's hands.

"Where did you get it?"

She was met with silence for a while, but then watched in awe as Lightning clasped the accessory around her neck. She has known her sister all her life, and she has never seen her wear anything else on her neck besides the lightning pendant.

"It was a gift."

Serah could see the chain showing around Lightning's neck. There were two chains. Like the lightning pendant, Lightning hasn't taken the fang necklace off since that day. She stared at her sister staring at Cocoon. Staring at Fang.

Just what exactly happened between those two?