The Deadlock

Lightning Farron's pitching has decayed a bit from where it was at the end of the last season. Her arm is starting to look generally weaker and with the new rising star Yun Fang on their team, I'd be watching my back if I was her.

Lightning changed the channel, I don't know why I bother watching that show, it always pisses me off. It was a warm day outside indicating the approach of summer and one hundred degree weather. Lightning much preferred the cold and was usually miserable and cranky during the hot Texas summers. At least we have a lot of away games.

She sat now on her couch in jogging shorts and a tank top watching some old war movie on TV. Her phone rang and she was reticent to even look at it. After some mental wrestling she finally acquiesced to at least look at her phone to see who was calling. 'Fang 3' She sighed and answered, "Hi, Fang."

"Hey, Light, what're ya doing?"

Lightning looked down at herself, "Just sitting on the couch watching some movie I don't even know the name of."

"Fun, listen I was supposed to go do this thing with Vanille but she had to work today. I was wondering if you'd want to go with me?"

Lightning mentally checked her schedule, free and clear. "What thing would I be going to?"

"That's the thing, you have to agree to go with me before I tell you where we're going."

Lightning was a bit perturbed, "Why can't you just tell me?"

"Why can't you trust me?"

Lightning sighed, "Fine, I'll go, but if you take me to something stupid I'm going to wring your neck."

"Is that what you think of me? No, we were going to play paintball, but if you're so against going..."

Lightning gasped, "Paintball? Why didn't you just say that in the first place? Hell yeah I'll go."

Fang laughed on the other side of the phone, "I thought you'd say that, be ready in thirty minutes. I'll come by to get ya."

Lightning hung up the phone and practically jumped out of her couch, ran to her room and pulled a case out of her closet. She opened the case and checked her replica AR-15 paintball gun with attached sight and under barrel paint shotgun. Perfect.

-DSOF-

Fang pulled up to the Farron house and sent Lightning a text. She pushed send and, not a minute later, Lightning practically hopped down the sidewalk and into the car, tossing a large black case into the back seat. Fang gave her a look and she smirked back, "You might regret this, Fang, I'm really good at paintball."

Lightning noticed a similar case in the back seat, "Don't sell me short, Light, I'm a pretty mean player myself."

She started driving and the radio started playing a soft melody. "What is this? Is this how you get psyched for paintball?"

The lyrics to 'I Want to Know What Love Is' by Foreigner started playing. "Not exactly." Lightning, who at first didn't like it, started to find the song relaxing after a bit. She looked over and noticed a distant, almost sad look in Fang's eyes. "Hey, you okay?"

"I'm fine, it's just that Vanille was supposed to come with me, but she bailed. She said she had to work, but I know the truth, we're just growing apart." Fang's look remained distant, "I remember when we were growing up we would spend all our time together, she's been a sister to me for all my life. Now it feels like I don't fit into her life anymore. It just...hurts, ya know."

"I know. When Serah got accepted to UT Arlington I was happy for her, but sad at the same time. It's like she grew ahead of me, while I'm stuck in the past she's moved on. Now she has her friends, her classes, her life. Maybe we just need to find that too."

The song ended and the next song, 'I've Been Waiting for a Girl Like You' started playing, "To spite my outward appearance, I'm not so good with the friend thing, Light. I just don't trust easy."

"Neither do I." They rode the rest of the way to the place in silence.

-DSOF-

Lightning stepped onto the field wearing khaki pants and a camouflage shirt under her vest, she had her mask flipped up and held her AR-15 over her shoulder. She looked around for Fang before spotting her apart from the other players, wearing black pants and a black tank top with no vest on, her tanned muscular arms shining in the sun. She held a replica M4 paint rifle on her shoulder while she scanned the area trying to get a feel for the battleground. Lightning noticed a large tribal tattoo on her right arm, she approached Fang who noticed her and smiled, "You look like you're ready to go, sunshine."

Lightning stood next to her, "Yeah, it feels good, I'm pumped. I like the tattoo, by the way, does it have any special meaning?"

"Yeah, I was a hunter in the old country and this is a hunter's mark, given to me after my first kill."

"What was your first kill?"

"A wild pig, I had been stalking it for most of an afternoon when it saw me and charged. I panicked, and shot my .308 Winchester wide. He almost hit me, but I managed to reload and shot it in the head. I carried that heavy bastard all the way back to the village, then I got the mark."

"Alright everyone," all attention turned to the hosts, "I see most of you have your own equipment so we're going to divide into two teams, red and blue, and play a little capture the flag. There's two flags, the red one is set up in an encampment on one side of the field. The other is in a trench on the other side. Head and torso shots only, first to score wins."

A young man started handing out headbands, blue and red to separate teams. Lightning and Fang were both handed blue ones, but Fang traded her's with the man standing next to her for his red one. "I'll see you on the field, Light."

"No, you won't." Lightning strutted away and Fang watched her for a minute before she turned and headed to the encampment. There they set up a watch and decided to let the other team make the first move. They didn't wait long.

Paint started flying from the surrounding area and the red defenders fired back, Fang crept around to the side and took out three men forcing the blue team to retreat. Seeing an opportunity most of the red team, including Fang, set out for the blue flag. They intercepted the remains of the blue team and a fire fight ensued, Fang slipped away and made for the flag alone.

She approached the trench and found it empty, she peeked around a tree and paint splashed mere inches from her face. She sprinted towards a nearby barrier and tripped over a rock, a paintball nearly hit her head as she fell. Fang rolled with the impact and fell behind the barrier. Damn, she's a good shot. I've gotta play this cool.

-RB-

Lightning spotted Fang behind a tree. Pretty careless for a huntress. She fired a shot that struck the tree beside her. She ran for the nearest cover, Lightning sighted her in and fired. Fang tripped and the shot missed, she rolled with the momentum and fell behind cover. Good move, Fang, but I'm not done yet.

She moved from her cover to wrap around Fang's position, but she stumbled upon two red team members stalking towards the flag. Am I the only one left? She fired two shots and tagged each on the mask, leaving just her and Fang to duel it out for the flag.

She approached Fang's last known location, but she wasn't there anymore. She looked for the flag and found it still there. Her footsteps were silent as she crept towards the barrier, she knelt near where Fang had been trying to find any hint of where she might have gone. A paintball exploded near her face, she fell onto the other side of the barrier. She was now the hunted.

She took off her vest and tossed it to the right, when she heard the shot she took off in the other direction making for the tree-line. She got there and found cover behind a large tree, she peeked around it and scanned the area for Fang. A paintball struck the tree she was hiding behind, Lightning followed the shot and caught a glimpse of tanned skin and a sub machine gun.

She spun around the tree and sprinted at Fang, firing her rifle at full auto. Fang met her challenge and charged through the fire, letting her SMG spray paint at her foe. They met in the middle, neither had been hit and both held a gun to the other's head. Fang smirked, "Here we are, sunshine, what happens now?"

"You could always surrender." Fang laughed and Lightning smiled, "I thought so. Then there's only one way this can end." They both pulled the trigger at the same time.

-RB-

The drive home was quieter, both women were tired from their exertions. Fang was listening to more Foreigner while Lightning talked to Serah on the phone. "It was fun, you know how long it's been since I've played paintball." Serah's voice spoke over the phone, "I'll be home soon, we can talk then. Bye." Lightning hung up the phone and sat quietly for a while. "Fang, can I ask you a personal question?"

Fang had been lost in the music, but she turned it down to answer, "No harm in asking."

"Do you like women?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

Lightning shook her head, "No, I was just curious."

Fang raised an eyebrow, "Interesting choice of words. What about you, whom do you like?"

Lightning got a distant look in her eyes, "Nobody."

"Bullshit."

Lightning was a little perturbed, "Then maybe both."

"More bullshit."

Lightning was angry now, "Then I don't know."

Fang nodded her head, "Now that I believe." She turned the music up and they drove the rest of the way to the Farron house in silence. Lightning took her gun case and opened the door, "Thanks for the day out, Fang, it was a lot of fun."

"What would you have done if we hadn't gone paintballing?"

"I don't know, probably just sat around the house watching TV and eating junk food. What about you?"

Fang chuckled, "About the same. See ya, Light."

"Bye." Lightning closed the door and walked into the house, Fang put her head on the steering wheel. It's still a game, Fang, it's still just a game. She's a friend, now, just a friend. She drove the rest of the way home in a somber mood.