Common sense tells Lightning that being in enemy territory is not in her best interests, but there's nothing she can do. Fang and Serah are at her sides and everyone else seems mostly fine with their arrangements, even though they're not at all too happy about it. Sazh holds his son closer to him as the airship door hisses open and Snow clenches his fists a bit harder than necessary when he sees the guards outside.
Lightning used to see them regularly when she was on duty. They're not usually in their full riot gear. The sleek dark plating and the assault rifles are only reserved for the more dangerous jobs they have to take on, yet there they are, even though they're only here to shop and return as fast as possible.
She'd like to spit on them and all they stand for.
They know the drill, except for Fang and Vanille, of course, but they follow when the rest calmly walk outside. Their eyes are still trained on the gunmen lined up outside, and theirs are on them too. Fingers are stiff and ready to pull the trigger. Fang seems indifferent as usual, but Lightning spots the scowl of disgust she makes when she thinks no one is looking. Vanille is more readable. Despite her earlier cheeriness, the disappointment carved on her face can't be any more obvious.
They deserve better than this. The former soldier makes sure to glare at every single one of the guards as she passes them, although the dark visors on their helmets prevent her from actually seeing their eyes. She thinks she hears more than one of them gulp, though, and that brings a small dose of satisfaction to her. It's entirely possible that some of these people were trainees she once trained. She never did like training people that much.
With no small amount of hesitation, she steps past the last guard.
Cocoon. Cars zipping about, the trains zooming past, stores bustling as always. It's like nothing has changed one bit. The roads have been fixed and the towers have been patched up to the point of gleaming. There's no trace of what happened just a few months ago. The bodies are gone and the people have forgotten, predictably.
Lightning can't believe it, but she's actually glad she can't be around them too much. She wouldn't be able to hide the desire to knock some sense into every single little head of these people, otherwise.
"Ah, nothing like the smell of steel and concrete." Fang takes a deep inhalation. "Kinda missed going to the bar."
"We can pay a visit to the liquor store." Lightning suggests. As much as she tolerates Lebreau, she can't stand to be with so many of these damn people in such a small space.
"Why let's go visit Lebreau!" Vanille immediately loses the gloom when she thinks of her favorite bar owner. "I miss her a lot. I wonder if she even remembers me..." Her voice trails off at the end of the sentence.
"She's been asking about you every time we visit." Serah hopes the knowledge will at least bring her some comfort.
Snow pats her back with that large hand of his, grinning reassuringly. "Yeah. She's one of us, you know that."
"Let's just go straight to the bar." Fang smirks. "You know we don't need these packaged stuff to survive down there."
Vanille nods furiously. "Yeah! I've been foraging since I was really small and you've got a purebred Yun huntress over here." She proudly gestures to the fellow Oerban.
"Stop talkin' about me like I'm a prize winning chocobo." Fang throws her arm around her and gives the shorter girl a noogie. She lets her go before she messes up her hair too much, because even she doesn't have a death wish.
"Come on, you two don't wanna go shopping for chocolate?" Serah pouts.
"I've got to get some diapers for Dajh too." Sazh coughs.
"Of course I want some chocolate." Vanille gapes at her incredulously. "I always want chocolate."
"Then let's go to the store." Fang's resolve folds like a cheap tent. "We'll to the bar after that, yeah?"
"Hell yeah." Snow pumps his fist. "I'm gonna call NORA to meet up there. They've been waiting enough!"
Lightning sighs quietly. Great, now she'll have to deal with NORA too. She does appreciate them, but sometimes their noise makes a vein pop in her head.
"Hey, son, watch the language!" Sazh closes his son's ears.
"Sorry!"
"Why are you buying that?" Lightning balks at the amount of of powdered milk Fang put in the shopping cart, and then some more when she sees her reaching for more.
"It says it builds muscle." Fang's strong arm flexes as she stretches it out. "Why not, right?"
"I already have enough in the pantry." The former soldier tells her. "More than enough for the two of us and Snow."
"Oh yeah?" Fang doesn't seem perturbed as she halts and begins to put the large containers back on the shelf. It's colored obnoxiously with an emphasis of neon green and a picture of a very fit man and woman in workout gear takes up the majority of the space. "Figures."
It's another bait for the pink haired woman to take so Fang can tease her some more, and so she ignores her. "It's all advertising, anyway. I've seen plenty of lazy recruits downing one of those every morning and night, thinking it would somehow turn them strong. I ran most of them out before the first week of training ended."
Fang looks slightly forlorn. "So it doesn't actually work?"
"It only helps if you don't sit around and show of your guns all day." Lightning scowls at the thought of the stupid teenagers she had to deal with. She's certain that after a few days with her, they were forever scarred by the blowing of a whistle or the sight of a track field.
In fact, she's so busy internally cussing out the silly young men and women who expected a free uniform to come with said gun that she doesn't realize what she said before it's too late.
Fang is already sporting a grin the size of a dinner plate. "Y'know, if you wanna see me show you what I can do instead of just talk about it, you just gotta ask."
"I've seen enough, no thank you." Lightning quickly finishes the conversation before it can go anywhere. She knows how strong the Pulsian is, but she isn't and will probably never stroke that ego of hers. "The point is that you can have my rations. There are three flavors and Snow hoards the vanilla ones. I usually have the chocolate, so there should be lots of strawberry flavored ones left—and don't make a joke about it."
The Oerban shuts her opened mouth. "Okay, okay. So, we really need all of this?" She gestures to a very full shopping cart full of things she's never even seen before. Grocery shopping wasn't the focus of her days during her last time on Cocoon.
"Yes, because I don't want to see Snow and Hope's attempts at hunting ever again." They also have another shopping cart that's probably even more packed than this one.
"You've got a few kinks to work out yourself, Sunshine." Fang recalls that the pink haired woman really needs to remember that most non predatory animals will flee at the sight of her alone. "We can work on it. We've got time, right?"
"Yes, and your swings leave yourself open for too long, at times." Lightning replies.
Fang frowns a bit at the mention of one of her few flaws in battle. She'll need to get rid of the problem soon. "Seems like we're gonna spend a lot of time together, hm?"
"It seems like it. Now, let's get to the cashier before Serah buys too much sugar." She says, when she spies her little sister shoving handfuls of candy bars into her shopping cart a few steps away.
The cashier doesn't even request any kind of compensation. He refuses to look at them in the eye as he sorts the items they gathered in bags before he simply stands there and waits for them to leave. No warm smile or a goodbye. It doesn't stop the more friendly of the group to thank him. Snow's bellowing thanks is loud as usual, but Serah and Vanille are both more soft spoken than the tall man. They both wait for him to reply, and their faces only fall more when he doesn't.
However, it surprises most when Fang doesn't just pass by him. She stands there, refusing to leave until the shorter man looks up and meets her stare. Then, when he gulps and averts his gaze once more, she chuckles and finally goes. She looks back as she follows the rest of her companions. "You know we're not the ones you should be worried about."
Lightning leaves her alone at first, but once they're out of the shop, she wraps her fingers around the dark skinned Oerban's wrist and pulls hard. "What were you thinking?" She scowls, her strength impressive even when incapacitated.
Click.
"Sis..." Serah looks too tired to intervene.
Perfectly aware of the stares they're receiving from the people walking the streets, the older Farron bites down and lowers her voice as she moves closer to speak in Fang's ear. "I've handled cases like this before. They'll think you're an enemy of Cocoon. Spreading propaganda isn't taken lightly, Fang."
Click.
"Seriously?" Fang is thankful for the information, but she isn't impressed at all. "You can't even tell people what's going on in your head up here?"
The soldier from last year won't believe what she's saying now. "No. Even if it's true."
Snow whistles. "That's hardcore."
Sazh sighs as he cradles his cooing son in his arms. "You military types." He shakes his head. "Always so intense."
"It's politics." Lightning corrects him. "The military is often involved in it." She huffs, before she begins to walk again. Her pace is slower due to the crutches she dislikes so much.
Click. Fang grabs her arm, nearly throwing her off balance. Lightning barely manages to catch herself before she comes tumbling down, fortunately able to balance herself on her good leg. She doesn't pull away, but the cross glare she's aiming at the taller of the two is enough to make a grown adult cry.
"What are you doing, Fang?" She hisses.
"I saw a flash." Fang's eyes dart around the crowds of people walking through the streets. The colors all blend into one, green hair and white jackets to pink shirts and neon yellow shoes, but her trained eyes still focus.
"What—" Lightning's words die in realization. "Fang, keep moving."
That's code enough for her and she nods to everyone else in a silent gesture to follow. They move in silence, noting the looks and the wide berths given to them like they're predators amidst a pen of helpless animals. Minutes pass and she can't see anything suspicious in the middle of the bustling groups of people. Not even one thing out of place. She slows her pace to let Lightning catch up, subtly closing the distance between them. "What is it?" She says, when she's close enough to say it without alerting anyone around them.
"Act normal." She curtly informs the group, not even glancing back.
"Claire," Serah breaks into a jog to her sister's side. "What is it?"
Flashes. Flashes mean cameras, or just one. Police officers don't use the flashing ones, they're too obvious. "Someone's keeping an eye on us." She quickly says.
Sazh lowers his son so that he can shield the toddler with his chest, eyes nervously scanning for anything he thinks is out of the ordinary. "What? Why?"
Lightning doesn't have to explain. "You know why."
Snow crosses his arms and smiles like there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. "Then let's give them something to see."
I know my update times are horrible and I'm very, very sorry. I'm thinking of doing a binge-writing so I can update lots within a small period of time because it's basically impossible to not miss a few dates with the amount of stuff I'm writing. (Yes, I made the mistake of doing too many stories boohoo).