Hiya! Jesus it's been a while. I just remembered I still had this story so sorry for taking such a fucking long time! Hope you'll still like it :) Love ya
"Apparently yeah, that's what Fang told me at least" she said while turning the steaks over while Snow was taking care of Daniel by playing with Lego's. "They had dinner and everything. But it's weird since Lightning sees someone else…"
"Maybe it's over? I don't know…" Serah shook her head and looked down at the phone to look at Vanille's frown thanks to FaceTime, her Bluetooth headset proving exceptionally useful in the situation. "What else did she tell you?"
"What Rhea had done, so what I already told you. And that Lightning had been lovely. I don't know much…" she frowned, grabbing the spatula standing a little further away to look at her rice nicely cooking in the saucepan before giving her steaks another turn so everything would be perfectly cooked and quickly grabbed a plate behind her to place the three pieces of meat on it before drip-drying the rice in the colander. "I'll keep you in touch anyway, I have to go to feed my men. Love you!"
"Love you too!" Serah smiled and waved at her phone before snatching it back from the counter to place it back inside her pocket and began to put the rice in the three different plates, carefully bringing the first two ones with her gaze fixed upon the floor so she wouldn't accidentally walk on a little piece of the most painful toy ever, asking Snow to grab the last one as she was urging Daniel to go sit down.
"How's Vanille?" Snow asked with his innocent look as he sat down with the plate in hand, winking at his son cutting his meat perfectly, just like he had taught him to do.
"Good! Did you know that Light and Fang had dinner last Thursday? With Elia and Rhea." The light-haired man raised an eyebrow in surprise, not expecting this kind of information at all since the last time he had seen the two women together, they had barely talked to each other, even running away in different direction during the entire evening. "I know, I had Fang on the phone yesterday. I knew she was supposed to see her to talk about Rhea's mischiefs, but I didn't expect that."
"Yeah, it's weird… Do you think it means something? Your Sis always seemed to hold a grudge onto Fang so…" Serah nodded as she began to cut her own piece of meat with her steak knife, casting quick glances in her son's direction to see if everything was alright. "Although, it would be great if they were getting back together again."
"Yeah. But—." Serah started. She shut her mouth back, remembering she had sworn to keep her mouth strictly shut about Lightning's date and shook her head as Snow was getting more and more interested to hear the dirt. "I can't tell you."
"You wouldn't tell your amazing and cool husband I have to say, I'm hurt." Daniel laughed diabolically, quickly receiving strange looks that made his mouth close back to chew on his food quietly. "Come on Serah!"
"Nu-uh, Lightning will kill me if she finds out I told you." – "And I'm sure you told Vanille! Even if she's Fang's sister, you know her ex-wife?" Serah flinched at the use of the word ex-wife and felt a frown reaching her forehead in a matter of seconds. Maybe he will even try and help me. I have to tell her.
"Fine, come next to me then." She threw a look in Daniel's direction still eating his food cheerfully while Snow was slowly standing up from his chair to go next to his own wife, Serah already clearing her throat as anxiety rush through her veins. She came closer to his ear in order to only provide a whisper so her son wouldn't hear and then tell the entire planet about this particular fact. "Lightning is dating a girl named Alex. It's been two weeks, something like this."
She slowly pulled away from her husband's face to look at the mix of feelings crossing his face, mostly being confusion, concerned and incomprehension and focused her attention back on her plate so she could finish eating in order to get ready to go to the park with Dan and Snow. "Are you sure?" He asked discreetly.
"I am. But I've never seen her, I'm supposed to meet her tonight actually, we're having dinner at Light's house since the girls are at Fang's for the week."
"So you are going to meet her?
"Yes Snow, that's basically what I said." Serah answered with an amused smile before finishing her plate by sponging the sauce with a piece of bread. "I'll keep you posted anyway."
The pink-haired girl smiled as Snow went back to his own seat before thoughts began to collide inside her mind. She was thinking about the fact that Fang had been hopping onto something that might not even be worth fighting for, since Lightning seemed pretty confident in her new relationship with Alex to the point where she was even allowed to meet the girl. She frowned but smirked nonetheless as she was trying to think of things to say to make everyone more uncomfortable than anything else, the words Fang, Australia, Kangaroos and Koala's quickly reaching her brain to make her smirk grow only wider. "You're thinking about something. You always have that smile when you're going to do something bad."
"That's not true!"
"Trust me it is! You're always like this with Vanille, you look like two teenagers plotting for a coup." Serah opened her mouth wide in shock, already grabbing the three empty plates to bring them back inside the kitchen and pointing towards the rest of the objects on the table for Snow to bring them back, carefully thinking about that smile she had when she was conspiring. I don't have a smile every time. "Yep, you have something in mind."
"Yeah, well it's not because I'm thirty-six that I can't have some fun!"
"I never said you couldn't babe, I just wonder what you're actually planning…" the pink-haired girl snickered, casting one other glance in her son's direction to make sure prying ears were staying for away from her only to see him building his Lego Death Star that had been in motion for the six months and sharply focused her attention back on her husband.
"Okay. I'm thinking of ways to remind Lightning about Fang, her one and only love." Snow began to stroke his chin, wondering what his wife could actually come up with in a casual and delicate way in order to make his sister in law keep her mind focused on the tanned woman rather than the other unknown female.
"You could mention Christmas. And everything they lived ever since they met. And tell her that Fang will be there, this kind of things. It's also Rhea's birthday on the 14th of January, so that's reason number two…" Serah nodded in approval, amazed by the great ideas Snow actually had in stock and couldn't help but to beam in his direction.
"That's good… I should come to you more often when I'm scheming…"
"How often are you doing this exactly Serah?" Innocently, Serah chuckled and quickly fled the kitchen to go back inside the living'room but this time, forgot to look where she was actually walking. So as her foot landed on the head of Darth Vador, the pink-haired girl roughly clenched her fists and jaw as rage was consuming her.
She turned around extremely slowly and raised her foot from the ground to look at the piece of toy on the ground before glaring at both Snow and Daniel who were keeping their mouths strictly shut in fear as they could see the pinky's eyes slowly turning black until a wink finally made its appearance, her schemes starting again as she walked away to go back inside her own bedroom, the sly grin quickly reaching her lips in excitement.
Fang was in front of the console with Rhea. They were both teaming up with Charlotte and her father in an alien kind of game. It was teams of four where the player could choose its own race, going from the Asari being represented by blue women to Geth, a race of machine having an important role in the story of the game. "Rhea there's a horde of stupid Reapers next to ya!"
"I know Mum! I'm trying but I only have a Mattock, this is kinda difficult!"
"Then switch Weapons!"
"Yeah!" they heard from the Kinect placed in front of them both.
Fang sneered as she hid behind a wall at the sight of a Banshee, a terrible and frankly horrible beast looking like a freaking tall pregnant skeleton and grabbed her collector rifle instead of the N7 Eagle.
"Take that ya bitch!"
"Well Fang! I'm surprised to hear this kind of words coming out from your mouth!" the tanned woman snickered as she was shooting an entire magazine inside the Banshee's head, quickly glancing at the other TV in the room to look at her daughter trying to stay alive by keeping herself safe under a bridge while behind shot at by a horde of Brutes.
"Rhea, run away!"
"I'm here to save you!" Fang laughed heartily in front of her TV, not surprised to hear Charlotte running like a brave soldier towards her girlfriend's position before they both ended up dead on her screen. "What the hell?!"
"There was the spider-Rachni thing behind you!"
"Oh shit!"
Glancing in her daughter's direction, Fang couldn't help but to sneer with pride. Observing the drop of sweat running from her eyebrow, she could see Rhea's geek side blazing like a fire.
"Ya both suck, let Mark and I handle this like grown-ups."
"No come save me Mum!"
"You too Dad!"
Fang quickly rushed towards her daughter's position, looking right and left to make sure everything was in order for her to pass through, throwing a biotic grenade on her way and grabbed the missile launcher to shot inside this pile of monsters before jumping from the bridge to land above the two bodies.
"There, go, go!"
"Thanks Mum!"
"Thank you miss Yun!"
"Charlotte! We're playin' Mass Effect together, call me Fang!"
Rhea threw a glance in her mother's direction, quickly spotting the fag between her lips and discreetly cursed between her teeth since she could actually use one too, the stress of round 6 slowly starting to be felt inside her bones. "
Go, Rhea, follow me since you can't keep yourself alive!"
"Mum this is the platinum Level, of course I can't keep myself alive!"
"It's the PLATINUM LEVEL?"
"Of course it is, my mum likes a challenge!"
Fang laughed again as she was switching weapons, watching the rifle going back on her back to be exchanged with her N7 Crusader and began to fire inside the Geth's faces, a smirk on her lips as they were all getting blown away in a matter of seconds.
"Bam, bam! Mark, how are ya holdin' up?"
"I'm managing, thank god I have the AT12 Raider, I'd be dead otherwise," he playfully said.
"Are you always playing this game together?"
"It happened on numerous occasions yes!" Fang nodded in front of the TV although she knew no one except her daughter could see before raising her fist in the air in victory at the sight of the 'Round 6 won'.
"Yes! Get ready ladies and gentlemen, this is goin' to be even tougher!"
"The tenth is the worst, been there already Rhea?"
"Yeah, twice. I died like a thousand times. My Mum was goin' insane."
"Goin'?" Fang sneered, proud to see her daughter was slowly catching her accent while the blondie was throwing a scowling look in her direction, the brunette only being able to wink in amusement. "You're talking like an Australian!"
"That's not true!"
"It is honey, but it's alright, it's cool."
Fang winked in her daughter's direction quickly placing the ashes inside the ashtray before grabbing her controller again to start the seventh wave, her character, a Krogan basically looking like a Dinosaur grunting in front of the three other characters.
"Let's do this people! Rhea, Charlotte; please try to stay alive, yeah?"
"Yeah, we have enough problems on our own!"
"Mum? Where is Elia actually?"
"Phone, as always honey."
Rhea rolled up her eyes in despair before looking at the TV in front of her again, quickly grabbing her Sniper rifle, aiming at the first heads appearing in front of her lens, watching the Collectors appearing in a mass while her heart was slowly thumping inside her chest.
"Rhea be careful, the collector's Generals are real…ya know."
"Real SOB's!" Fang wasn't the only one laughing anymore as Rhea couldn't help but to burst into laughter at her girlfriend's father's interjection, quickly throwing a dark Channel upon a Geth Prime barging in front of her.
"I hate them!"
"Come on honey! The fuckin' Pretorian are far worse, especially the possessed ones! I have one in front of my face and I don't complain."
"That's because you're a nerd Mum!"
"Hm, I think ya are right."
Fang sneered again as she grabbed her biotic grenades to throw them around her daughter as she could spot the few husks surrounding her and rushed in her direction to help her against the Geth Prime who didn't seem to want to die.
"Mark, Charlotte? Everythin' goin' good?"
"Yes! I'm trying to save her from the Rachni but she's not really efficient…"
"You know I can hear you right? I may be in my room but I can."
Rhea chuckled until her face got distorted by confusion. She watched her Character, a Salarian, flying in the air completely inert and managed to fall in front of Charlotte's character, a small blush reaching her cheeks for god knew why.
"Oh, hey Rhea, you're looking fit today" she said as she was trying to heal the girl.
"Charlotte behind you!" Rhea yelled, nearly standing up from the sofa as if she could go inside the TV to protect her friend from a certain and inevitable death.
"Charlotte; run! Leave her!"
"I can't do that!" she said.
But it was too late. Her Quarian character was dead and buried, executed by a Banshee she hadn't seen in the most brutal way as the enemy's arm went through the chest cavity of the girl without any traces of remorse.
And now, it was only Fang and Mark. Rhea was seeing where the man was going, allowing her to look over her shoulder to see where her mother was too and noticed they were both standing next to each other. Fang was desperately trying to move, but the Bosses were all on their tail. She could see the Pretorian, Banshees and Geth Primes all striking at the same time and wondered how her mother could even survive more than five seconds with all the concentration of enemies in front of them both.
"Trowin' a grenade!" she said, the three biotics bubbles all falling on the ground to provide loud detonation and barely –or so it seemed- to touch any of the enemies around. "Dammit!"
"Hey what's going here,' Elia said as she strode out of her room with an arched brow.
"Not now Elia! Mum is trying to achieve the impossible with Mark, sit down and shush!" Fang frowned as her teeth began to grit together in annoyance, reloading her rifle before trying to escape this location that was nothing but a death trap.
"Mark, I'm going inside the temple this is too hot!"
"Roger that Commander!" the brunette smiled and felt her two daughters slowly and discreetly coming next to her to look at the one screen, trying to keep her entire focus on the video game whilst taking out a few cannibals and collectors on her way there. "Fuck I forgot Cerberus existed in that game! So I'm facing a beautiful Atlas!"
"Missile Launcher Mark! Blow his head out!" Indeed, the minute Mark warned about Cerberus, Fang could already spot the nemesis and phantoms coming her way, quickly throwing her grenades all around her to make them vanish from her position before shooting in every possible direction to defend herself however she could. "Fuck, I need stupid Ammo!"
"I spotted some near the Monument! Go, go, I'll cover you!"
"Thanks!"
With her controller firmly grasped in her hand, Fang's character began to rush towards the outside of the building, taking a few bullets on her way whilst a dragoon was stumbling in front of her face. She frowned and performed a Melee attack in his stupid face a few times before rushing back towards the place faster than the speed of light.
"Okay, got some! How many are left,' Fang asked as the pressure in her heart dramatically increased.
"I'd say five to ten, but it's the big ones!"
"Mum, on your right! Look on your right!"
Fang heard, quickly turning her character in that position to stare at the two Atlas's slowly coming her way. She looked on the left of the screen nodding inwardly to herself since she still had two Missiles Launcher Ammo and didn't hesitate to grab the weapon from her back before aiming carefully, and shooting. She observed the first one exploding without any trouble while the second one still had 6 bars of life, quickly grabbing the shotgun back from her belt to empty an entire magazine inside the robot's stupid ugly face.
"Die, die!"
"Yeah!" Rhea and Elia both clapped their hands in pleasure at the sight of the last Atlas exploding in front of their mum's character, proud of the achievement the woman had managed to achieve alone. "You rock—No!" Fang opened wide eyes. She stood up from the sofa with her right hand above her mouth, watching the phantom stabbing her from behind like a coward before falling on the ground defeated, unable to respawn thanks to first aid kits. "Nooo!"
"Shit! I'm surrounded! I'm not going to make it!" Fang froze, looking at the sole person alive in the middle of the temple whilst dragoons and phantoms were surrounding his position.
"Come on Dad!"
"Dammit! It's too much!" she could feel the tension rushing inside her body, standing still in front of the plasma TV.
"You can make it! You can make it!" The human character was bouncing in every direction, avoiding direct fire however he could whilst throwing grenades behind him. "Take the Missile Launcher!" She observed the man obeying before shooting behind him, everyone standing still in front of the TV. "Is it done? Is it over?"
"No, there's still one….here!" Fang looked at the indication on her screen pointing to the last enemy alive, flinching at the sight of a scion, vicious, disgusting and terribly strong creatures only being able to be slain with at least two people. "Okay, this is going to be tough."
"Don't rush into it Mark, we need this victory!"
And it started. She observed every bullet reaching the Collector standing a little further away, shooting his own bullets in Mark's direction through his arm. She frowned and drew her lip between her teeth, her heart thumping inside her chest with the amount of stress she was currently feeling because of the game, her eyes growing eve, wider and wider every second of fighting until it was finally over. She raised her fist in the air while her two girls were bouncing from the Sofa to cheer.
"What a great time to be alive!"
"Dad! You rock! This was brilliant!"
"Ladies I am exhausted! But this isn't over! Round 8, everyone needs to be at their best!"
"Acknowledge!" Fang said while sitting back down on the couch, Rhea rushing on the other side to go back to her remote controller as the round begun. "Okay, everyone, good freakin' luck."
"We can do this!" Fang winked in her daughter's direction as the first shootings were heard, the two heads focusing their attention back to their screen while Elia was looking back and forth at both of them with a grin on her face and a fast beating heart.
Lightning was feeling incredibly stressed out. She was going back and forth inside the kitchen, checking on the appetizers slowly warming up in her oven while the chicken was casually cooking inside a saucepan, the smell invading the entire house.
She didn't know what was the most stressful for her between the fact to invite Alex in her home, or to know that Serah is going to be impossible the entire evening since the only word she seemed to have on the tip of her tongue was 'Fang' over and over again. It's like she's doing it on purpose! Lightning scratched her forehead and sighed loudly as she grabbed her glass of wine back from the counter, slowly heading herself towards the living room to look at the table she had already put in place and stared at the three glasses standing on the coffee table in front of the TV. She needed everything to be perfect, and right now, everything looked perfect.
She smiled inwardly to herself as a small knock on the door resonated in the living room, quickly recognizing her sister's discretion and made her way towards the door to open it, smiling at the sight of the shorter pink-haired girl standing in front of her with a smile.
"Hey Light! First one here?"
"Yes, I told Alex to be there at 7:30 so you and I could have a chat before."
As she observed Serah's brow arching on her forehead, Lightning couldn't help but to smile at the desired effect. If there was something she liked, it was to make her sister worry about the conversation she might have with her, the fact to see her face quickly being deformed by apprehension and worriedness in the blink of an eye.
"What about sis?"
"About you trying to ruin the dinner tonight." She said as she started to walk away and back towards the living room, sharply turning back around to look at her sister concerned. "So, what have you planned tonight?"
"Wha—? I don't know what you're talking about, Light" Serah lied, looking straight back at her sister with a slightly shocked face.
"Serah, I have a daughter who is a professional actress; I lied my way through my entire twenties, I know when I'm being lied to."
Lightning arched a brow while her sister was starting to mumble something she couldn't quite understand but knew she had hit the right spot. She knew Serah had been onto something ever since she had talked about her first date with Alex and had organized this dinner, so her sister could actually see that Fang or not, Alex was a delight.
"So, Serah… What's your plan?"
"It's nothing! I swear Light! I'm not going to do anything!" The two pink-haired girl exchanged a long eye contact, trying to decrypt each other carefully to see who might be in a defensive position, Lightning slightly frowning in the end as she brought her glass to her lips. "I swear."
"Very well. I think I have no other choice than to believe you."
The Doctor sighed, sharply going back inside the kitchen to check on her appetizers and casting a glance towards the clock on the wall. 7:14, still have fifteen minutes.
"So things you have to know, Serah. Alexandra is British, she was born in London. She's thirty-five. She was married once. No kids, her parent's both still live in London."
"British?" Serah asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice. She knew that the British accent was actually the best there was, being sensual and so smooth but also meant an incredible danger. Darn she thought as she watched Lightning grabbing the appetizers from the oven to place them on the hotplates.
"Yes, Serah. She's British." Lightning responded with furrowed brows as she watched her sister making her way towards the living room to look at the view.
"How are the girls doing?"
"Good. We're keeping an eye on them. They pout, but they work. Elia has straight A's, Rhea managed to get an A-, so it's good news." Serah grinned as Lightning poured her glass with Red Wine but quickly nibbled on her lip.
She was afraid that she might actually like this woman, meaning she would betray Fang in the most horrible way possible. She was her agent and couldn't possibly screw this up.
"Okay, that's great. And Rhea, still smoking?"
"Yes. I saw her in front of her high-school on Thursday." Lightning answered as she made her way back towards the kitchen to grab the bottle of Champagne from the fridge in order to place it in the ice-bucket in the middle of the table. "She's kind of stupid since she knows I'm driving in front of it to go to work. And my car is pretty easy to spot…"
"Maybe she doesn't want to hide, now that you know? See what I mean?"
With a quick bob of the head, Lightning smiled, thinking that she had done the exact same when her own mother had learned about the fact that she was smoking before shifting her attention towards the door at a few knocks. She took a deep breath, placing her glass back in the kitchen and swiftly made her way towards the door to reveal the redheaded British woman grinning and holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands.
"Hi Lightning, how are you?" Lightning smiled cheerfully, placing a kiss on the girl's lips before letting her go inside the house.
"I'm great. What about you Alex?"
"Perfect. This is for you." She watched the flowers going in her direction, a mix of roses, lily's, tulips and leaves, casually grabbing the bouquet with a grin on her lips as she looked at the woman again.
"Thank you Alex. You shouldn't have."
The woman chuckled, Lightning leading them both back inside the living room to present her date to her sister, the shorter pinky swallowing hole at the sight of the tall redhead walking and smiling in her direction.
"Alex, this is my sister, Serah. Serah, this is Alex."
The taller pink-haired girl smiled in her sister's direction before making her way towards the kitchen to grab a vase in order to place the bouquet inside, her smile staying printed on her lips. She glanced in her sister's direction talking with Alex and sighed in relief as the two girls had managed to find a topic to talk about before making her way back inside the living room with the vase that she placed on the dining table.
"You didn't tell me Alex was a Journalist!"
"I know I didn't tell you" Lightning answered with a quick wink as she stepped towards the two women, inviting them to sit down while she was handling the bottle of Champagne.
"And you Serah, what are you doing for a living?"
"Me? I'm a teacher for the 3rd grade."
"Oh that's brilliant! You really must love children."
"I do, I love them." The pink-haired girl chuckled as she handed the two glasses to her guests before sitting down next to Alex with a small smile drawn on her lips. "How long have you lived in the US, Alex?"
"It's been six years now. I was working on the national TV channel in London and was promoted here. I handle a section in the LA newspaper and am live from 9AM to 2PM." Dammit, why is she cool?! Serah asked herself with a pinched mouth as she brought the glass to her lips to hide her facial expression. You're not making this easy Lightning, a British, gorgeous, polite and apparently nice girl? Who brought you flowers? Why is the world against me?!
Lightning arched a brow at her sister's behavior, wondering what was currently going on inside that brain of hers but focused her attention back on Alex, the girl placing a hand on her knee to brush it with her fingernails.
"So, Serah. Light told me you also had a child? Daniel is that right?"
"Yes! He's seven years old. And I'm married to Snow."
"That's great!" Alex answered with an enthusiastic tone as her fingers intertwined with Lightning's, Serah narrowing her eyes to look at the contact performed in front of her very eyes. She's invading your space Lightning!
Serah licked her teeth discreetly but could feel the insistent stare of her sister, locking eyes with her to observe the glare she was throwing at her for her childish behavior and quickly cleared her throat to think about something else. "Have you seen Light's two girls?"
Silence. Lightning slightly opened her mouth, feeling the discomfort settling between the three persons sitting in the room while Serah was slowly wincing, thinking about the wrath she would have to go through after the dinner for asking such a sensitive issue. It was obvious that Lightning hadn't planned on presenting her two girls to her new companion and wasn't even sure that the subject had been discussed between the two of them.
"I haven't actually, but I think that considering the rather early divorce, that Lightning prefers to keep them in the dark a while longer, don't you Light?"
"Yes. I know we haven't talked about this before but—."
"Lightning it's fine. I perfectly understand. You need to be ready and so do they. I will wait how long you need me to." Fuck! And now she's comprehensive! This is a nightmare, a nightmare… Dammit. What am I going to do? I don't want Alex in the family pictures for the rest of my life!
But sadly, as the rest of the evening was going surprisingly well, Serah couldn't help but admit that Alexandra was a lovely woman full of life and wit, and that she was evidently making her sister happy. So as they both left the house and greeted each other goodbye, Serah automatically called her best friend to tell her everything there was to know about the dinner-date she had just been to.
"Serah, finally I—."
"Vanille! I don't know what to do! Alex is great, she's nice, smart! She's perfect for Lightning!"
"Alright… She's really all things?"
"Yes. I want to tear my head out, I laughed the entire time, it's awful."
"Okay. But Serah, you're forgetting one thing."
The pinky arched a brow as she took a turn to the right, drumming her fingernails on the wheel in anguish before a grin reached her lips as her best friend spoke up again.
"You're forgetting that this Alex, is not Fang."