Lightning arrived back at camp about an hour after noon. She had beaten Fang back, not to her surprise at all. Fang would have been right on her tail in perfect health, but with a bum shoulder she wouldn't have been able to keep up if her life depended on it. Light was still planning on taking a second round of missions despite the unfortunate event, that happened earlier that day.
When she got back to the camp Snow, and Hope were no where in sight. The first thing she saw Sazh past out and Vanille sitting next to him, holding a damp cloth over his fore head. The sight of Vanille made Lightning seriously reconsider, taking the second round of missions. The fact, that Vanille was Fang's ex-girlfriend, pretty much sealed the deal and took the cake of the most awkward situation of the entire journey. It was going to be unavoidably awkward for at least the next couple days.
"Oh hey Light! Where's Fang?" Vanille asked in her ever so naturally innocent tone of voice. Which caused Light's mind to spiral out of control. If this girl dated Fang for nearly an entire year… There is no possible way she is as innocent as she seems. Talk about deceiving looks. Light smirked but shuttered slightly at the thought.
She had almost been ravaged by Fang, and that was the Hunter's controlled side.
"Oh uh she will probably be back in a few minutes, I'm not sure when I lost her though. So it's hard to say." Light shrugged.
"She can barely keep up with you on one of her good days." Vanille giggle and shook her head. She picked up the clothe and dipped into some cool water. She rung it out and then placed it back on Sazh's forehead.
"What's with him?" Light gestured towards Sazh. She didn't ask in concern, because she knew he would be fine. She just wondered why Sazh was passed out and Snow was out running around doing god knows what.
"Sazh got the second round of needles, they're much more severe then what Snow got hit with. They are smaller and are laced with an irritant poison. He broke out in fever after I got all of them out. He will be fine, but he will be benched for tomorrow. Or at least that's what I reckon would be best, but it's up to you." The red head spoke insightfully, yet submissively.
"Yeah whatever you think is best. You know more about this stuff than I do. Hey where are the other boys?"
"Can't say. They ran of a little while ago in that direction, they shouldn't be to far from camp though. I hear them every now and again laughing or shouting. I don't even want to know what they are up to, but I noticed once Sazh passed out, that his favorite pair of pistols were missing. I think I hear something like a gun shot every once in a while, in the direction that they went off to, but I can't be sure." Vanille pointed in the opposite direction Light had just come from.
"Oh great. I'll go find them. Hey are you up for a second round of missions? From the sounds of it Snow is fine, if you want to stay and take care of Sazh, I think the boys and I can handle it." Light offered as she began to walk off.
"Sounds like a plan. Though I am fine I'd rather keep an eye on him. Don't get me wrong I love Fang and all, but she isn't the best caretaker." Vanille giggled at the thought of Fang tending to a mans needs.
Though Fang could take care of people, she was more of a protecter not a nurturer, still Fang used to take care of her when she got hurt. She supposed it was more that almost anyone Fang tended to was a woman or a child. That was how Fang got half the women that she did. Vanille shook her head at how shameless her friend used to be.
She wondered if Lightning would have fallen for some of Fangs old tricks. To be honest Vanille thought the Huntress was losing her touch, when she was failing at getting Lights attention. Back in the day Fang could just smile and have any woman fall straight into her arms. In Oerba almost everyone was bisexual, but Fang was just so gay. She never really cared much for men, although, at one point or another all the single men in the entire Village wanted Fang in their bed, of course that didn't happen. Most of the people ended up with an opposite sex mate, but it wasn't anything odd to see two married men, or women either.
The red head realized the cultures of Pulse and Cocoon where incomparable. When she was at Nautilus she learned quickly that many people on Cocoon were narrow minded. She met a charming young woman there, she was the owner of the best bar in the park. Vanille and Sazh had stopped there to rest. The woman gave them a couple of drinks on the house. She was flirting with Vanille the whole time.
"Hey pretty girl you look tired. You two together?" She gestured to Sahz in a curious tone. Vanille couldn't blame the woman. Sahz and Vanille looked weird together. He couldn't have been her father or of any relation to her, but she was too young for them two have a relationship of any sort.
"Yeah she is my adoptive daughter of sorts." Sahz answered, and it was slightly true. Though the group was early in on their journey they were all starting to become a make shift family in their separate ways.
"Well old man you look thirsty. What will ya' have it's on the house. You too strawberry cupcake." The young woman offered.
"Well in that case I'll take a screw driver, heavy on the Vodka. Nah I'm just kidding this old man will have a good old beer." Sahz joked causing the three to laugh. The bar tender handed Sahz a canned beer.
"Wow this is the good stuff straight from Eden. I thought that was the only place you could get it." Sahz said as he took a swig.
"This is the only bar in Cocoon where you can get it, besides the ones in Eden. They figure the city of dreams is a good place for advertizing product. But I'm the only bar in Nautilus that has it." She smirked.
Her grin reminded Vanille, of Fangs. Confident yet charming.
"What about you girly?" She asked ready to get anything she wanted.
"I want uh.. A pina Colada! Oh I haven't had one of those in forever!" Vanille squeaked in excitement. She wondered how the people on Cocoon made her favorite beverage.
"One pina colada coming right up!" The bartender announced as she got started on Vanille's drink.
The red head giggled with excitement, it was nice to take a break for once. Sahz chuckled at the girl, but he was glad she was having a good time at least for a little while.
"Here ya go!" She said as she set the fruity, creamy drink in front of the girl. Vanille took a sip and smiled.
"This is so good! Thank you!" Vanille blurted excitedly.
"Glad you like it. You guys need anything else just let me know. The names Leigh." She introduced herself. Leigh was about Sahz's height, and she had short black curly hair. She had naturally olive skin slightly darker than Fang's, and a few tattoos on each arm. Her eyes where a deep chocolate brown, and her face was young and soft. But her eyes, showed strength.
"Thank you Leigh. I'm Sahz and that cherry bomb right there is Vanille. It was nice to meet you." He responded politely.
"It was nice to meet you too." She said with a wink to Vanille, and then went off to her other customers. The wink caused Vanille to blush, all she could do was sip on her drink.
"Ha! Looks like you got an admirer kiddo! She was flirting it up with you." Sahz offered two his cents that Vanille didn't welcome. She told him to shut up, because he was embarrassing her just like a dad would.
Vanille and Sahz were just about to leave when Liegh slipped a piece of paper, to Vanille. The red head opened it to see that it was a phone number. She blushed again and got up, when she turned around there were two young men right behind her. The were attractive.
"Hey Leigh we'll have the usual today." One of the men said . The two were holding hands.
"I'ma go to the little boys room, okay babe." The slightly smaller one said and kissed the bigger one on the lips quickly.
As the man walked off one of the men from the bar stood up and blocked his path.
"Excuse me." The man said trying to be polite and get around his road block.
"What? Are you talking to me? What do you like what you see? Get away from me Fag!" The drunk man shouted and pushed the polite man Violently.
"Whoa hey that was out of line!" Sazh defended the gay man. His partner had rushed to him to see if he was okay, and took him the rest of the way to the bathroom.
"That's right get a room fags!" The drunk man's buddy shouted and threw an empty beer can at them.
"Hey cut it out ass holes! What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Sazh confronted the angrily.
"What are you one of them too? You got a bone to pick?" The first antagonist spoke. He was as big as Snow, but older and uglier.
"No I'm not gay, but yeah I do have a bone to pick. What makes you think you are better then them huh?" Sazh asked starting to get mildly aggressive towards the pair of friends.
"Mind your business old man." The buddy threatened.
"Stop! That is it get out of my bar now!" Leigh ordered the two men out.
"Shut up you stupid Dyke, can't you see this is a conversation between men. Just because you chase girls around doesn't mean you can associate yourself with us." The buddy spat at her.
"The lady said to leave." Sazh pulled his jacket back to show them one of his guns. The men quietly left after that.
"Thank you for getting those guys out of here. I usually have to end up calling security to get the bashers and homophobic's out of here." Leigh thanked Sazh and went to the back of her store.
"Does she mean to say that this happens often?" Vanille asked completely astounded.
"Yeah kid. The world can be a cruel place sometimes. Lets get out of here." Sazh requested and they left.
After that she saw a few more same sex couples in the park. Some people paid no attention to them, but most people stared. One person shouted "how dare you act so disgusting in a children's park." To a lesbian couple. They were only holding hands. She also saw parents cover their children's eyes and told them not to look. Vanille couldn't believe it.
"Okay… I'm going to find Hope and Snow." Light said dragging Vanille out of her thoughts. Vanille only nodded.
The red head could see why Lightning's shell was much harder to break when she thought about the type of world she grew up in. 9 out of every 10 family's raised their children to think it was wrong. Sazh was one of the few that didn't believe it to be strange or wrong.
"Hey!" Fang called out to her friend bent over and out of breath. The red head smiled and shook her head. She was glad that Light an actual challenge for Fang. All of her other girlfriends Vanille could beat with her eyes closed. Lightning actually gave Fang a run for her money which was a good thing. Light could actually tame the wild woman if she wanted to.
"Where is Light?" Fang huffed as she walked over to Vanille, visibly show her fatigue.
"She went to go find Hope and Snow. She is taking them on the second round of missions." Vanille explained. Fang sat down next to her friend .
"What? Your not going?" Fang asked in confusion.
"Well if you haven't noticed. I kind of have my hands full." Vanille gestured to Sazh.
"Oh ouch! He must have gotten the second round of needles. Ah those are nasty little buggers. I feel sorry for the old man. He just can't seem to catch a break." Fang sympathized.
"Yeah, but well he kind of had it coming." The red head spoke apologetically.
"Wow why do you say that you sound like Light."
"Well he did pick the fight Fang, after I had warned him about this. I told him that when they feel threatened the release needles, much worse than just a little cactaur. He still just blew it off and went for the kill. Wonder where he got that from." The younger girl glared at her friend, because of her recklessness. She was rubbing off on some of the team members.
"What it's not my fault if they want to live a little and take a risk every now and again. Don't look at me like that." The huntress defended herself.
"Fang there is a difference between a calculated risk and just plain recklessness. And getting stung with hundreds of gigantaur needles isn't my definition of living." She scolded
"Ah come on it's a quality life experience. Not everyone gets stung by a gigantaur you know. Now he has a story to tell, to his friends on cocoon." Fang smirked
"Some times I think you are really beyond help Fang." Vanille sighed and put her head in her hand. Fang only laughed and laid down next to her friend .
LIGHTNING
The soldier walked calmly towards two male voices.
"Wow, man this looks so awesome. Talk about a really cool trophy. Now I'm kind of jealous." She heard Snow say from a distance.
"I think its cool that we found a way to customize the rounds with the smaller needles. These round will do a lot of damage, especially since they are laced with poison from the gigantaur. I'm glad Light and Vanille swiped it. We maxed out his guns with all these needles." Hope exclaimed happily.
Light finally spotted the young boy, and man, each of them holding a pretty nice looking gun.
"Hey sis! Check these out! What do you think about these? In a professional opinion." Snow snatched the other gun from Hope, gripped the barrels facing himself and offered the grip ends to Light.
Light accepted the weapons by their handles. She tested their weight in her hands and then twirled them a round a couple of times. She had obviously handled guns before, not just her gun blade. She inspected them both very carefully. All the customizing had turned the pistols a dark metallic lime green. The grips would be a nice fit for some one with slightly larger hands than Lightning's, but smaller than Snow. The hammers had three nice sized, but dulled gigantaur needles sticking out of them, so that the wouldn't harm the user. The special rounds looked like regular bullets, but they were the same color of the guns, and had small needles sticking out of the front ends.
"Pretty good actually, this is pretty impressive. I honestly don't think the pilot could have done better himself." Light praised their work truthfully.
"Really thanks it was Snow's idea, but I helped a little." Hope said modestly.
"Are you kidding kid you practically did the whole thing yourself, but the spikes on the hammer was my idea." Snow happily let the boy take the credit.
"Okay lets check back into camp, then it'll just be me and you guys for the rest of the day. So lets get to it. We didn't cover much ground this morning." Light ordered and handed the pistols back to the boys.
BACK AT CAMP
"So are you goin to tell me about your 'talk' with Light?" Vanille asked suggestively knowing full well about Fang's sexual nature.
"Why do you have to say it all dirty like that, huh? God with the way you make it seem, people would think all I think about is sex." Fang acted offended
"Fang. Sex is all you think about." Vanille stated truthfully. "90% percent of your relationships are sex, and the other 10% is your sappy romantic charm you use, to get that person into bed." Vanille spoke dryly.
"Hey! I am not that bad, well not anymore at least. I'll admit I used to be like that, but Light is different." Fang defended honestly.
"Ha! So she denied you! No wonder you want her so bad!" Vanille barked with laughter.
"Tsk! Shut up!" Fang slapped her friend playfully.
"Hey. I found Sazh's pistols the boys had them. They customized them for him out of the loot from the gigantaur." Light said as she set the guns on the pilots pack.
"So we are going to head out now we will be back a little before sun down." Light spoke and began to walk towards where the boys were waiting for her.
"Hey!" Fang jumped to her feet as quickly as she could with out hurting her self.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Fang smirked and looked off to the side and winked at the boys. Light crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She reluctantly walked over to Fang and planted her feet.
"What!" Light hissed through a whisper.
"What? No goodbye kiss?" Fang asked confidently. She was treading in shark infested water. Even though everyone knew something was going on between the two, Light wasn't one for PDA.
Surprisingly Light leaned in like she was going to kiss the Pulsian, but then she stopped right before their lips touched. Fang tried to close the distance, but Light quickly pulled to the side and gave Fang a quick peck on the cheek.
"Two can play games Fang." Light said with a smirk as she walked of towards Hope and Snow.
Vanille busted out in an uncontrollable laughter. Sazh had apparently woken up to see the whole thing. He joined the red head in her laughter. Fang gawked as she saw Light high five Snow and Hope. Then the three made their exit. This sight caused Vanille and Sazh to laugh even more.
Fang walked back over to Vanille and plopped down next to her friend. She looked as if she were pouting.
"What's so funny aye! You don't see me laughing." Fang continued to pout
"Fang that is called getting served. Soldier girl just gave you a taste of your own medicine." Sazh choked out through his laughter.
"Oh well you seem to be feeling better! Are you hungry? Cause you can eat my fist!" Fang lunged for Sazh, but Vanille pushed the Huntress back down.
"Stop it! You are just mad cause you have finally met your match." Vanille giggled. "Besides you love it. Or at least you should. She just flirted with you in front of all of us, and high-fived Snow and Hope! She is getting more comfortable with you. That's a good thing Fang."
"She is right Fang it is a good thing. You're getting soldier girl to lighten up. So what if the jokes on you every once in awhile at least she isn't punching you. She has punched 3 out of the 5 of us." Sazh added.
Fang shrugged in hesitant agreement.
"I suppose you're right seeing as not even a half hour ago she was throwing giant rocks at me trying to kill me." Fang shrugged
"Uh why?…" Vanille asked
"Cause I kind of let slip that back in the day I was with a few women. Oh wait it gets better than I said almost all of them were gone. Yeah she caught the almost part. Yup she was pretty pissed that I hadn't told her that you were my ex." Fang told the story as briefly as she could.
Vanille snorted at Fang's stupidity.
"What you two? You were? Wait I thought." Sazh tripped over his words.
"It is ancient history, we are really more like sisters honestly." Vanille reassured the man.
"Hey by the way Snow and Hope did something for you check at your pistols." Vanilled nodded towards his pack.
"Whoa! Are those my babies? They.. They made them even more beautiful." Sazh gasped as he rose to his feet to pick up his pistols.
"They customized them from the gigantaur loot." Vanille explained. Sazh looked like a kid in a candy shop. His chocobo popped out of his head and squeaked in excitement with Sazh.
The two women laughed. They were glad the old man was feeling better. They really were a makeshift family.
What can i say? :-) three chapters in four days. Idk i have just been feeling the story i guess. :-)