*Leaves this and hides under a rock*
Fang vaulted out of the bar, glancing around frantically. A blue velocycle with a pink haired rider shot past her nearly running an unsuspecting group of people down.
"Shit! Light- ah, gods damn it."
Fang's shoulders slumped with a frustrated sigh. Growling, she quickly looked around for her velocycle, yanking out her key, before realizing that Lightning had just taken off on it.
She must have wired it. That's gonna be an expensive fix.
Shaking her head clear of the thought, she quickly began to search for another method of transportation. She had a much more urgent issue right now than the maintenance of her bike.
Cursing under her breath again, Fang noted the dire lack of usable vehicles around her, until a low rumble behind her sounded. Spinning on her heel, her face broke out in a grin.
"Kodi, I need a lift, you up for a run?"
The beast rumbled again, an excited gleam in his eyes.
-x-x-x-
"Light? Lightning!"
Lightning steeled herself as she heard the door slam, and the new arrival stumble in to the house, clearly out of breath.
Fang tumbled into the dining room where the older Farron sat with work files spread before her. Her eyes lit up as she found the pink-haired girl; perhaps she still had a chance.
"Light! Hey, look, what you saw at the bar with that girl, it wasn't- I mean-It wasn't what it—"
Lightning turned her face to the stuttering Oerban, her eyes cold and indifferent.
"I don't particularly care who you screw Fang."
Fang blinked in confusion. "Huh? But…I mean…I thought…"
Lightning stood up squaring herself to Fang. "Look, I had just been coming over to ask you if I could have the keys to your velocycle so I could come home and get some paper work done, but you looked a bit occupied so I left."
Fang frowned, shaking her head. "No…No, Sunshine, it wasn't like that—"
"It's Lightning. And do you need something? I have work to do. I bet if you go back to the bar, your fangirl will still be there, she seemed to be dying for your attention." The soldier's voice came out as a growl. All trace of the affection the shorter woman held for the Oerban was gone. Nothing but the same cold harshness Lightning usually used with new recruits or people she wasn't particularly fond of. Fang suddenly felt sick.
"Light…"
"Look, I don't have time for this Fang. Do you need something or not?"
Fang opened her mouth to say something but immediately shut it again, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Everything she had wanted to say died on her tongue. She wanted to argue. She wanted to tell her how she felt. But it wouldn't matter any way. Deep inside, she knew it wasn't her fault; she hadn't been the one to force herself on that wretched blonde woman. But all she could see was what she presumed was hatred when she looked in the soldier's eyes. Nothing she could say right now would make the soldier believe her. She had lost her trust.
She had lost her.
Maybe, if she was lucky, if she backed away now, they could still be friends.
I took two steps forward and a million back, didn't I, my love?
"No. No, sorry I bothered you."
Lightning shifted slightly, her eyes still hard.
Fang dropped her gaze, gritting her teeth; the pain in her chest was far worse than the pain in her stomach wound had ever been.
"I'm- I'm just gonna leave now."
Turning away from the painful stare, she pushed herself towards the door, dazedly grabbing her lance as she went.
Lightning stared into the silence for a few moments before finally losing her carefully controlled composure as soon as she heard the door click. Biting back sobs nearly as hard as she had been biting her tongue, the officer let her shoulders slump. She hadn't expected watching Fang walk away to hurt so badly.
As much as she tried to convince herself that she had done the right thing, that it would hurt less now, that she didn't care about Fang that way anymore, a small voice in her head nagged like a broken record. "Damn it, Claire, there you go again, chasing everyone who might try to love you out of your life. Remember what happened last time? You became a l'cie and almost lost Serah for good."
"Shut up." Lightning growled aloud despite no one being around to hear her. Regardless, the nagging voice responded.
"You keep this up, and you're going to end up alone."
Lightning collapsed, choking back sobs. Her fist collided with the floor with a resounding thud.
-x-x-x-
Caleb frowned when he looked outside the bar and found Kodi missing. He had witnessed what had happened after he and Fang had gotten off stage and he was worried.
Quickly turning from the window, he made his way over to where his friends sat chatting amongst themselves and immediately sought out Vanille and Serah.
"Hey guys, where did Fang and Farron go?"
The two girls glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes and giggled.
Serah shrugged. "Ohh I don't know. Hopefully to go release some tension."
The corner of Caleb's mouth rose at the implication, but then was pulled back into a frown.
"Well here's the thing. I saw the two of them a second ago. But there was this blond chick. She just kinda forced herself on Yun. Fang pushed her back, but not before Farron saw them and ran off. I saw Fang take off after her, spitting some pretty venomous words at our blonde friend, but I don't she caught up to her. Both Kodi and Fang's velocycle are missing."
Both girls stared at the soldier for a moment before standing and quickly gathering their belongings. Little Farron looked absolutely livid while the younger Oerban looked immensely worried.
Caleb raised an eyebrow as, for a teacher of young children, the younger Farron knew a slew of some rather foul words.
Noticing the slight commotion, Snow walked over to them, a concerned expression on his face.
"Hey, everything okay?" The tall man rubbed his wife back soothingly.
Serah let out a frustrated noise and shook her head, her jaw set in agitation. She looked very much like a smaller version of a very frustrated Lightning.
Vanille spoke first, the concern in her voice apparent.
"That blonde woman we saw earlier kissed Fang, and Light saw."
A somewhat amused smile appeared on Snow's face for about a split second until he saw the scowl on Serah's face.
Caleb shifted where he stood slightly, mildly confused.
"Fang went after her, can't she just explain that she didn't want any part of it, and things will be fine?"
There was a scoff from the younger Farron, accompanied by a roll of her eyes.
"If only it was that easy with my sister. Snow, remember when we were talking about getting a dog, and she overheard me saying something about the babies being the cutest and she immediately jumped to the conclusion that we were trying to have a child and knocked you out?"
Snow nodded as he rubbed the side of his head, obviously in remembrance of that particular injury. Serah sighed, shaking her head.
"Well this is going to be kinda like that. As intelligent as she is, she can be really dense sometimes. Right now, she's probably angry and hurting because she jumped to a false conclusion, and that false conclusion is telling her she can't trust Fang because she let her in and now she thinks she betrayed her."
Vanille huffed, shaking her head sadly. "But she didn't! Caleb, you saw it, Fang pushed that dumb lady away!"
Serah merely sighed again.
Vanille's frown deepened. "And Fang's just gonna let her go because she'd rather live with never getting the chance to prove how much she loves her, than to lose her all together."
"So what do we do now?" Snow looked down at his wife, an equally deep frown on his face.
Serah straightened her jacket. "I'm gonna go talk to my sister, maybe I can talk some sense in to her annoyingly stubborn thick skull."
"Alright, I'll drive." Snow nodded and walked back to the group to bid them farewell and retrieve his keys.
Vanille looked up at Caleb, made a thoughtful noise and then offered a small smile.
"Why don't we go find Fang and talk to her. Maybe if we double team her we can get her to come around."
Caleb returned her smile and nodded.
After finally gathering their belongings, the four headed outside only to be greeted by an oversized gorgonopsid. Caleb was the first to greet him.
"Hey bud, where is—hey, what do you have in your mouth?"
The gorgonopsid waged his tail happily as Caleb carefully retrieved the piece of paper from his mouth.
Unrolling the partially slobber saturated parchment (the top five inches were purposely void of writing for that reason), Caleb frowned. The script was Gran Pulsian and while Fang had taught him how to read and write in it, he still struggled with a couple of the letters. Vanille helped translate as he read it aloud.
Caleb,
Going out hunting for a few days. Just need some space. Tell Vanille I love her and I'll be careful. No giga-behemoths, I promise. I already checked out with Reyes, he said you'll be partnered with Jaxon while I am out. Don't worry about me and please don't come looking.
Fang
"Great. Well that just put a big strike on our to-do list." Caleb handed the note to Vanille.
A collective sigh sounded from the small group.
"I guess that means we're all going to talk to Light then."
-x-x-x-
The four arrived at the house via Snow and Serah's vehicle, and were about to enter when the younger Farron stopped them.
"Wait…just, maybe I should go talk to her first. It'll make it worse if we all start in on her at once, and that'll either make her shut us out entirely or piss her off and that'll get ugly."
The remaining three nodded in agreement and took a seat on the front porch.
Slowly making her way through the house, Serah finally pinpointed her sister's location to her room. Knocking softly, she counted to ten before entering, half expecting a fight waiting on the other side. Instead, what she saw made her heart ache.
Lightning sat on the floor, leaning against the bed. Her face was buried in her knees which were pulled tightly to her chest. When Serah took a step towards her, the soldier lifted her head, her bright eyes brimming with tears. She spoke in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
"I fucked up."
Serah quickly closed the distance between herself and her sister and pulled her into her arms. Her older sister immediately clung to her, burying her face into her shoulder.
"It's gonna be okay."
"I-"
"I know."
"And that woman-"
"Fang didn't even know her."
"And she just-"
"Yep."
"And Fang?"
"Shoved her away."
"You're sure?"
"Caleb saw the whole thing."
"And after I left?"
"Fang yelled at the woman. Caleb said she called you her girlfriend and told her to leave you both the hell alone."
Lightning swallowed hard.
"Why did she-"
"Because she's in love with you, you dolt."
Lightning winced this time.
"I'm in love her too Serah."
"I know Claire."
"Where is she?"
Unfolding the note from her pocket, she handed it to Lightning. Serah had asked Vanille to leave translation notes on it so they could read it easier.
Lightning sighed as she finished the note, running a hand through her spikey bangs, careful to avoid the look Serah was giving her, which questioned the cause of the abrupt departure of the Pulsian woman.
"I—I was angry."
"Obviously."
"I think—I think I made her think that I hate her."
"Oh Claire."
"I fucked up."
"I know."
"How am I going to fix this?"
Serah took the note from her sister.
"It says she's going to be back in a few days. I say wait and then talk to her when she comes back. I think you both need some time to gather your thoughts."
"And if, when she comes back-"
Lightning's voice cracked.
Serah grimaced slightly. "If I know Fang like I think I know Fang, she'll still be in love with you."
Both girls remained quiet for a few long moments.
"I'm scared."
"I know. It's going to be okay."
Okay, so I am really super freaking sorry that I haven't worked on this story in so long. I'd really like to thank all the kind people who have followed, favorited, and reviewed this story. I've started working on it again, and am working on it with every spare moment that I have (which is rather difficult due to work and finals). I had originally intended to end this story with this chapter, but due to how long it has been since I have updated, I thought I might extend it and explore new friendships and also explore new areas of the FFXIII world. So thanks again for everything and bare with me, I'm trying! Due tell me what you think!
