Barely reaching the fifth hour into the party, and things were going full swing. More friends of the newlywed couple showed up during that time, and promptly filled most of the huge living room with chatter. The front door was wide open as well, as some of the people had spilled outside onto the yard and were partaking in a few friendly sports - which Snow had the pleasure of leading.
Fang on the other hand, had confined herself to that recliner and refused to budge for anything. There were too many people around now; and the number of looks coming her way was increasing by each passing minute, much to her dismay.
She was only thankful for the fact everyone was more interested in the party itself, than to bother walking over and trying to talk to her about the blasted eye. Fang was still tempted to leave though, but knew better than to try sneaking out after having promised Serah she'd stay til the end.
"I'm back, Fang~!" Vanille called out towards the older pulsian, while pushing past a few people here and there before flopping down in the seat next to Fang.
"I can see that." The huntress replied, while turning her head to glance out the window where Snow and a few of his friends were goofing around. "So... How was his lil toast or whatever? I couldn't hear him in here, but I still watched." It was really only for a lack of nothing better to do, but it had been amusing at least from what she witnessed.
"Oh! It was great!" Vanille leaned over the side of her chair, and rested her elbows on the black leather of the recliner's arm. She seemed really into this topic, and Fang was sure she was about to get every little detail shoved at her. It honestly didn't bother her; as long as Vanille was having fun, that was all that mattered to her.
"Snow started off by thanking everyone for coming out to the party, and then talked about how lucky he was to have found Serah. It was all so sweet!" Vanille's eyes were practically sparkling as she spoke, and Fang just rolled her eye at how excitable the younger girl was when romance was involved.
"Not sure I'd call it sweet though. If ya ask me, Snow sure looked pretty damn wobbly standin' on that table they dragged out there. Coulda swore he would have fallen off it too." Fang chuckled softly, and cast a quick look out the window where their friend was running around clumsily. "Startin' to think he's had one too many beers too, y'know? I mean look at that big goof out there.."
Vanille joined Fang in staring outside, and watching the odd sport being played out by the two groups of men. Neither of them understood the rules, but they did know it had something to do with keeping the ball away from the other team for as long as possible. Points were seemingly given by the number of 30 second intervals passed while holding onto the ball, beyond that though the rules varied by who played. This game seemed to be relatively rough, as was noted by how people were getting tackled left and right into the ground.
Cocoonian males were truly into some weird games.
"So, anyway~" Vanille resumed facing Fang, with a wide grin set onto her face. "Despite all the beers he had, I think his toast was good." A pale finger came up to her chin, and she lightly tapped against it in thought for a moment. "You know... I'm surprised Serah didn't say anything afterwards though, you know.. Since they're now married and all that. I was so sure she would too. Then again, she hasn't been looking that well either.."
Fang just rolled her shoulder in a slight shrug, "Think so? Maybe she's jus' a lil worn out from the party, Vanille. I mean, it can't be easy maintainin' order with so many people about, and havin' your spouse on the verge of bein' totally drunk along with that."
Vanille seemed to think on this for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders as well and getting back to telling Fang everything about the toast. Despite how eager the red head was about it, Fang wasn't truly interested in it so she pretended to listen for the time being - but her mind was elsewhere.
The huntress did catch a few words here and there, and of course nodded whenever Vanille poked and asked if she was listening. Her attention was mostly directed towards the window though, and watching the men fool around.
At some point, Vanille had stopped speaking and was looking towards the front hall. Fang had missed it due to being more than a little zoned out, but there had been faint knocking on the open door to the house. The younger pulsian watched as Serah came running down the hall from the kitchen, and immediately pulled the person who met her halfway into a hug; Lightning.
"Sis! I'm so glad you came... I was beginning to worry. You didn't answer any of my calls or texts, and no one knew where you were either.." Serah squeezed her sister even tighter, and buried her face into Lightning's shoulder.
While resting her chin on Serah's head, the soldier let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, Serah.. I just needed some time to my self, after getting today off duty. It wasn't my intent to make you worry, especially during your own party.. Some things did keep me from contacting you though yesterday, and I'm sorry for that as well."
Lightning pulled away after a bit more of hugging her sister close, and lightly poked the younger girl's forehead. "I'm here now though, right?" A small smile graced her lips, once Serah nodded in agreement and motioned towards the party going on around them. "Feel free to join in whenever, Claire. I know a few people were looking for you."
...Looking for me?
The roseate gave Serah a weird look, but it was deflected easily when the girl slipped away and back into the kitchen, leaving Lightning to stand there awkwardly.
Vanille saw this as an opening, and quickly hopped onto the couch right across from where Fang was sitting. She leaned over the back of the sofa, and waved over to Lightning to try and get her attention. "Hiya, Light!"
Upon hearing her sister pulsian speak the soldier's name, Fang stiffened in her seat but refused to look in Vanille's direction. Oi... You've gotta be shittin' me. She actually came? Suddenly staring out the window became the most fascinating thing ever to her.
Lightning turned her body a fraction, as beryl hues rested on the cheerful face of Vanille who looked more than happy to see her. "—Hey, Vanille." She offered a faint smile, and a slight wave of her hand in return. Though her gaze slowly drifted behind the girl, to fixate on Fang; and more importantly the gauze patch covering part of her face.
I didn't think she'd be here...
Now if it hadn't been for Snow stumbling inside and bumping into her just then, Lightning probably would have kept staring until the huntress would have taken notice of her.
"Sorry bout that, sis." Snow flashed her a lopsided grin, and patted her on the shoulder. "Glad you made it though!" Lightning rolled her eyes, and lifted her right hand up to flick his own away from her shoulder. The gesture caused the blonde to pause a moment, before he went right back to patting her other shoulder instead.
"C'mon! You need to lighten up, Lightning, and join the party.." Snow started to laugh like it was the funniest thing he had ever heard or said. "You get it, right? Lighten up?"
Lightning didn't think twice about jabbing him in the side with her elbow, and let out a satisfied huff when he whined at being hit. "—You should stop with the lame jokes, and get back to hosting your party. Don't you think?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going already, geez." Snow turned to leave back out the front door, but stopped and looked over his shoulder at Lightning. "Being serious though, Light. Loosen up a bit, it'll do you some good." And with that said, the blonde left to return to his group of friends.
Azure eyes watched him go, though Lightning didn't even try to cover up the frown that had settled onto her face. Do me some good? Yeah right... If he had been annoying when he was sober, Snow was at least twice as much when alcohol was involved. How her sister put up with it was beyond her.
Lightning turned back to face the main living room, and the dozens of people scattered about and conversing. She had never been much of a party person, but since it was for Serah there was nothing to do but grin and bear it. A few people warmly greeted her as she stepped into the room, and even more gave her a look of recognition before returning to their idle chatter. Of course everyone knew who she was, but it did little to keep the awkward feeling from settling into her being.
Reaching the table with the various snacks and cooler full of drinks, she just let her eyes settle onto the beers and wander from one label to the next. Lightning hadn't had a drink in over 36 hours, due to being preoccupied with a certain night's events that she couldn't recall still. While beer wasn't her preferred alcoholic drink of choice either, it was better than nothing after a long day of paperwork that she hadn't finished from the day before due to some unforeseen things happening.
The roseate turned around on the spot, while popping open her bottle of beer, and glanced over towards where Vanille and Fang were still seated. The younger of the pair had flipped around on the couch, and was now staring quite intently at the brunette across from her. Fang on the other hand... Was still looking out that window, as if oblivious to everything around her. Lightning was tempted to go over to them; to try and strike up a conversations at least, or ask Fang how her eye was.
But Lightning knew better than to do so, especially when the huntress was making it a big deal to ignore the fact she was even there.
Looking over to her left, Lightning scanned a few of the small groups lingering around the room. No one she really knew, though it was to be expected although a few people did look a tad familiar. It wasn't until her gaze settled on the back of the room, that she caught a glimpse of two taller guys and a younger woman beckoning her over to them. Hesitating for a mere moment, Lightning looked the trio over before recognizing them as a few of the new recruits she had been supervising within the last few weeks.
"Miss Lightning! It's a pleasure to see you, as always." The three of them greeted her in unison, standing straight as well while saluting her. Lightning could only smile and hold up her free hand in a halting motion. "Formalities aren't necessary here, it's just a party. Though I'm curious why you'd be here of all places.."
"Oh, that's no big deal." The male closest to her spoke up; Bryan was his name, if she recalled correctly. "Mr. Villiers had been up at Headquarters the other day, and said anyone who wanted to come, could stop by today."
"Of course, not everyone could come as you know... Since there have been quite a few disturbances in the city lately, making patrols need a few extra men. But a few of us managed to get off, so we came here to relax." Anne, the smaller blonde chimed in after Ryan and shuffled closer to Lightning. "Been meaning to ask you something though, Sergeant Farron.. Is it true you took out that huge group of thugs by yourself the other day?"
Lightning could only inwardly sigh at the question, wondering how fast the news had gotten out that she had done it. Truthfully, she had just been walking aimlessly through town and ended up in a gang's territory, but they had made the mistake of pissing her off more than she already had been at that point.
Suffice to say, many of them ended up in the hospital with severe injuries.
Amodar on the other hand, had been thoroughly pleased by her performance of dealing with one of their bigger problems as of late - single-handedly on top of that. Due to her efforts, he had given her the day off with pay which was rare, even for her.
"—Yeah, it's true." Just in her confirmation of the deed, the recruits broke out into excited chatter amongst themselves. Lightning stared at them curiously for a time, even nodding her head when a question was directed towards her once more. Eventually her eyes wandered over to the other side of the room, and settled on Fang.
Vanille, who had still been watching her sister pulsian like a hawk, seemed to notice Lightning's attention being drawn in their direction. The roseate had already turned her gaze back towards Anne and her comrades by then, but the red head let her own eyes linger on Lightning.
"You know, she was looking at you a second ago, Fang.." Vanille whispered, so only the huntress could hear her. "Eh? So she'll stare at me from the other side of the room, but won't even man up and come over to apologize? Figures." Fang scoffed, and refused to tear her eyes away from the window she had been staring out of for the last half hour.
"Maybe she doesn't know how to say it..?" Vanille was starting to really hope that was the case, because she hated seeing her friends acting this way towards each other. Fang and Lightning had been close friends for many months now, but this little fight - or whatever they wanted to call it - was beginning to get ridiculous. She just wished there was a way to remedy the situation, though already knew it wasn't her place to get involved.
"Oh!" Vanille squeaked softly, after having caught Lightning looking at Fang again from the corners of her eyes. "Faaaang... She did it again!"
"So? I really don't care if she keeps lookin' or not." Fang finally turned her head to face her sister pulsian, and crinkled her nose in an annoyed display. "Doesn't make much of a difference anyway, since she isn't botherin' to actually come over here herself."
"I guess that's a good point.." Vanille replied softly, while toying with the many bracelets covering her wrists. Her thoughts wandered off, while Fang went back to being more than content to stare out that window.
Was it really that hard for the two of them to put their pride away, and just talk things out? If this kept on much longer, Vanille was sure the two of them would never speak again. Granted, Fang probably shouldn't have kissed Lightning while she was drunk, and had behemoth blood in her system as well that night... But that didn't give the soldier the right to hit Fang to begin with, even if she was upset over what had happened.
Why did everything have to be so darn complicated anyway? Vanille knew Fang was suffering, more than anyone could truly ever understand, just because of how much she cared for the Farron. It had been more than obvious to those around them how she felt too, so why was it that Lightning hadn't taken notice yet? Or on the off-chance she had, why hadn't she bothered to say anything?
It left Vanille baffled, and she was already getting a small headache from trying to think up a solution to get them back to being friendly.
Fang shifted in her recliner, and looked over Vanille's head towards the front hall that led into the kitchen. "—Hey, Vanille? Do you know if there are any grilled fish left in the kitchen?" She inquired, while getting off her seat and stretching slightly. The brunette took a few steps around the low table, and purposely kept her back towards Lightning the whole time.
"Hmm.. I think so! I made so much, remember? So there's bound to be some left! We should go look~" Vanille easily shoved all her previous thoughts away, to focus on the task of getting some food in her belly. She reached out and grabbed Fang by the wrist, and gently pulled her towards the hall.
Fang didn't seem to mind that much though, and was frankly glad to be getting out of the roseate's sight. There was so much tension between them while being in the same room, and she had no real plan on going back in there any time soon. Etro, if she was lucky she could stay in the kitchen for the rest of the party, and not have to deal with Lightning just yet.
Then again, she doubted there would be an easy way out of talking to Lightning, given how they both were finally in the same place for once. Fang could only hope there would be enough time to think of what to say, before that inevitable chat came to pass.