AN- Happy New Year all- Hope everyone had a great one, and are onwards to excellent things in 2019. Since the Great Purge I have moved to Twitter ( Hoorayimuseful1) but still have an active presence on Tumblr (hoorayimuseful dot tumblr dot com). Gonna be focusing on this for a while so strap in! Have a fluff chapter in the interim.


Fang woke to a sliver of sunlight peeking through the curtains of the hotel in Alemania. The war had yet to reach the city, but she was well aware of it still on the peripherals of the border, and her mind. She glared at the offending light, willing it to go away. When the sun refused to bow to her demands, Fang sighed and rolled over, burying her head in the crook of Lightning's neck.

"Mm… Good morning to you too." The pinkette murmured, idly toying with Fang's hair as she slowly woke to the warm weight of the Pulsian pressing into her. "Do you think they can put the war on hold long enough for us to order a bunch of room service and stay in bed all day?"

There was a muffled laugh before Fang rolled on her back and yawned, pulling Lightning with her into a tight embrace. "I say we give it a go anyway. Order room service, turn our phones off and just lounge until they come looking for us." She answered, capping her suggestion with a long yawn. It had been a long night after the base infiltration, with a debrief followed by a military flight into Alemania at some obscure hour of the morning. They'd managed to get a decent amount of sleep judging by the sun's position in the sky, but neither seemed willing to face the day and whatever calamity lay ahead.

Fang was still admittedly rattled, the killings fresh on her mind like they always were. Her time fighting in the War of Revelations alongside Lightning was quick and brutal, but her time in the War of Transgressions was far more ingrained into her psyche. She could compartmentalise all she liked, but in the early hours of the morning, before she had the strength and willpower to force the memories down, it haunted her. The sheets were awash with blood that had dripped from her hands, and the screams and gunfire rung in her ears.

Still, Lightning acted as a salve for her aching heart, her sundered soul that threatened to break with every life she took. Every smile, every kiss, every declaration of love brought a piece of her soul back, and she was reminded of the pinkette's words the night before. She was fighting for her family, for those she loved. It wasn't the first time she had heard the sentiment, either. The words echoed across centuries of time, once said to her in a time of despair, and now again from a Cocoonian, no less. Or whatever they were to be considered now. They had fought hard to gain this new world, this second chance. And gods be damned, Fang wanted to preserve it.

Lightning sat up and climbed on top of Fang, straddling her waist as she leant down to kiss her. "I still want a coffee. Make sure you order a coffee if we're doing this ignore the world thing today. Let's just hide in bed and-" Fang's phone rang, and Vanille's face on the screen merited an answer, Lightning begrudgingly thought. She reached over and grabbed the phone, answering it for her. "Hey, Vanille. What's up?"

"Already answering each other's phones I see."

"Fang's… In disposed at present." Lightning answered with a grin, putting a hand over the brunette's mouth to stifle any protest. "What can I do for you?"

"Actually it's what you can do for Rygdea. He's asked if you can come down for a briefing in about twenty minutes."

Lightning groaned and rest her forehead against Fang's, trying not to break the phone in her hand. "And let me guess, he had you call because we'd ignore him otherwise. Put him on, please."

Rygdea's laughter could be heard in the background, and she deduced they were on speaker at the other end. "Sorry girly, I know you guys have more than earned your R&R, but this is important."

"Is it something that can wait until later? Much later? Does the outcome of the war hinge on us being ready and downstairs in less than twenty minutes? Does the fate of the world rest on our ability to get dressed right now?" Lightning complained, glaring as Fang licked the palm of her hand in an attempt to get it off her mouth.

"…. With your track record? More than likely. Come down for the briefing, and I'll leave you alone for the rest of the day. How does that sound?"

Lightning heaved a loud sigh and stared at the phone. "Fuck you, Rygdea. We'll be downstairs in twenty minutes." She sighed and hung up the phone, throwing it across the room. Fang gave an angry yell that was muffled by her hand as she glared in outrage. Finally freeing the Pulsian from her silent confinement, Lightning rolled off her and padded across the room to the adjacent bathroom to wash her face and start getting ready.

"Can you stop throwing my damn phone around woman? I literally just got that replaced after Hellersdorf." Fang complained, scrambling out of bed and chasing the pinkette into the bathroom. She grabbed Lightning around the waist and threw her over her shoulder, carrying her back to bed while ignoring the startled squeal of protest.

"Fang! What are you doing?" Lightning demanded, though her laughter belied her angry tone she was attempting to project.

"I hadn't finished with you this morning, so I'm taking you back to bed." Fang answered simply, throwing her down onto the mattress and jumping on top of her. She pinned Lightning's wrists above her head and leant down to nip at her neck, delighting in the rich laughter that came from the pinkette.

"So what do you plan on doing with me now that you've caught me and have me all to yourself?" Lightning asked, amused at Fang's playful antics. Fang paused and let go of her wrists, reaching down to cup her face gently and lean in for a kiss.

"I'm going to love you, is what I'm doing. Just love you, Lightning Farron. In this moment, just for ourselves. Before Rygdea can annoy us with more fucking briefings." She answered, dipping down and capturing the pinkette's lips with a happy hum. The briefing could wait. The world, could wait. Fang wanted her time.


Fang waltzed into the restaurant in the hotel looking very pleased with herself, with an exhausted looking Lightning trailing in behind her. She sat down and stared in amused contempt at Rygdea and his insistence for yet another briefing while he scowled at her. Lightning sat down and immediately reached for the coffee in silence.

"Downstairs in twenty minutes, my ass." Rygdea muttered, rolling his eyes at the cheshire grin Fang wore as she leant back in her chair. "Do I need to get you two a watch? Because forty-five goddamn minutes doesn't look like twenty goddamn minutes."

Fang snickered and grabbed some bacon and eggs off the large serving plate in the middle of the table, giving a lazy shrug. "Considering we single-handedly took on that fucking base last night, Ryg, I'd say we earned our goddamn rest." She bit back, mocking his accent. While she was still riding on her high from her morning start with Lightning, his insistence on interrupting them and his attitude irritated her. The world wasn't going to end because they took an extra twenty minutes or so for themselves.

"Fang, please. The sooner we get through this the sooner we can go back to bed. As promised." Lightning added with a firm glare at Rygdea who winced at her reminder. Vanille and Serah exchanged knowing glances at each other while Snow was content to load his plate up with food and tuck in, ignoring everyone in favour of way too much bacon. Serah glared at him until he sighed and put some back on the platter.

"Yeah yeah, as promised. So we analysed the intel and based on your suggestions, Lightning, it looks like Neo-Sanctum are targeting Ambassador Heinrich Vogel, with the amount of times he's mentioned in the comms chatter and what you two found at the base." Rygdea began, as Lightning sighed and sipped her coffee.

"So their plan is to assassinate the ambassador? Why?"

Rygdea shrugged, taking a plate of food for himself. "We're not entirely sure. It isn't as high profile as taking our Alemania's Prime Minister, but she's under close guard. The ambassador might be the easier target for them to hit. Still create a statement, force more border closures and unrest."

Fang frowned. From her experience, killing an ambassador generally cut off lines of communication from the hierarchy of temples that guarded the various Fal'cie across Gran Pulse. But that wasn't the case in this world, the ambassadors played a vastly different role than what she was used to. Something didn't quite fit, but she couldn't figure out what. "What do we know about this Vogel?" She asked, idly stabbing at the food on her plate.

"Only that his name is mentioned one hundred and seventy-six times in the last six months over the communications we've caught." Rygdea responded, which only raised more questions for Fang. "Vogel mostly keeps to himself, regular ambassador duties and whatnot. Family man, pillar of the community type guy. We've looked into him and he checks out, no mystery payments, no suspicious offshore bank accounts, no company fronts, no secret rendezvous or any suggestion that he holds any views deemed… inflammatory."

"Any contact with the Prime Minister?" Fang pressed, still feeling like there was something she was missing. Lightning curiously watched the interaction, secretly loving watching Fang's mind working, building the puzzle, looking at all the angles. While a part of her acknowledged the mind was honed in battle, Lightning chastised her past self for her initial assessment in Palumpolum that Fang was just a brute who could swing a stick. How wrong she was, she thought with mild amusement.

"No more than usual, so I couldn't even say they're using him to get to her." Rygdea answered, before pausing to east some breakfast before it got cold. Lightning leant forward, hugging her coffee mug with a frown.

"If I were to want to make an impact, I'd go for a visible target. Remember that we found they were going to target the embassy during a state dinner? That's going to be televised because of the awards they're handing out. Vogel is the one hosting it." Lightning theorised, feeling Fang's sharp gaze on her.

"Is that the link? Take out the presenter while the world watches?" Fang asked, tilting her head towards the pinkette. Lightning gave a shrug and took another sip of her life-preserving coffee.

"It's the only one that makes sense from what I can see."

Fang hummed in thought, tapping her fingers against the table. So it was about the message, not the person. "So this Vogel bloke, his name was what was mentioned repeatedly in these communications?"

Rygdea nodded, flipping open his phone and bringing up the encrypted data. "Numerous mentionings of his name along with the date and location of this dinner he's hosting, coupled with confirmations of what they were planning on doing with him by way of the codename of their operation, translated as bird song."

"You sure, Light?" Fang asked, not wanting to question her but still feeling off all the same. Lightning nodded and downed the rest of her coffee.

"The dinner is three days away, and I anticipate they'll lay low until then. Which means I get to catch up on sleep, order room service and be left alone until then while the initial prep is done by people who are paid far higher than we are. We know what they're targeting, now we just need to do our jobs and stop them. We do that, we can go home." Lightning responded resolutely, wanting the meeting to be done so she could go and spend the much needed time with Fang.

Rygdea sighed and poured himself another coffee. "Can't say you guys haven't earned it, after all. Take some rec days for yourselves for the next day or so, we'll reconvene tomorrow to make plans, over breakfast, so you can then have the rest of the day to yourselves. And no more of this forty-five minutes bullshit, Fang. If I say be here at nine, be here at fuckin' nine."

"Aye aye, Cap'n!" Fang drawled with a mock salute, before grabbing a piece of bacon and sticking it between her teeth. Lightning sighed and grabbed her by the shirt, dragging her out of the restaurant. Rygdea watched them go with a quirk of his eyebrow before turning to the others with a gesture towards their retreating forms.

"Are those two always like that?"

"No," Serah answered, stealing a glance at Vanille who was rolling her eyes at them both. "But leave them be. They're catching on what they've missed by being procrastinating idiots."

Vanille laughed and choked on her tea, pointing accusingly at the younger Farron. "That night in Pariz, right? Where we were both waiting for them to make a move and they didn't? What a ridiculously obtuse pair they are sometimes."

"Yep. I mean come on, Vanille. I think we both knew what was up the minute they saw each other again in Londres." Serah agreed, Snow stealing another piece of bacon while his wife was distracted. "Claire was so distant during that year while we tried to find you after waking in the new world, it wasn't until I saw her embracing Fang at the airport like her life depended on it that I knew what, or rather who it was she was missing."

Giving a happy sigh, Vanille stirred more sugar into her tea and smiled. "All the war stuff aside of course… It's just nice to see them together, living normal lives as normal people."

A staff member entered the restaurant and walked past the group to head towards the kitchen. He leant over the counter to get the cook's attention. "Hey, the couple up in room three-oh-four are asking for strawberries with dipping chocolate? Emphasis on the extra dipping chocolate apparently? Do we even serve that this early in the morning?"

Serah and Vanille stared at each other while Rygdea busied himself with the contents of his coffee mug. The redhead groaned and buried her head in her hands. "Never mind, our sisters are not the slightest bit normal and are freaking ridiculous."


Lightning lay back on the bed in one of the fluffy hotel robes, having just answered the door and collected her room service. Fang arched an eyebrow at her order and gestured towards the platter as she entered from the bathroom, drying her hair.

"And all of this would be for… What exactly?"

"I wanted something sweet." Lightning answered simply with a shrug. Fang peered at the rather large bowl of strawberries and the accompanying amount of liquid chocolate and gave her a sardonic glance.

"It's not even midday. And besides, am I not sweet enough for you?"

"I can't eat you."

Delighting at the opening Lightning had left her, she merely quirked her eyebrows at her and smiled. "Oh darling, I beg to differ."

"Hush." Lightning rolled her eyes and took a strawberry, dipping it into the chocolate before eating it with a defiant glare at the brunette. "What? Don't look at me like that. I have a sweet tooth, we have the day to lounge in bed and I felt like being decadent. On Rygdea's tab, no less. Teach him to use Vanille to get us to a briefing."

Fang grinned and crawled onto the bed, careful not to spill the platter beside her. She undid the pinkette's robe and parted it, taking a strawberry and dipping it in the chocolate as well. "Well maybe I feel like being decadent as well…" She mused, proceeding to dab the chocolate down Lightning's exposed front.

"Ah! Fang! At least warn me if you're going to do that, the chocolate is cold!"

"Well allow me to warm you up then…" Fang purred, pressing her lips against the drops of chocolate she had left behind and licking up the excess.

"Fang..."

The Pulsian smiled, leaning up and dabbing the chocolate on Lightning's nose. "I do enjoy when you say my name like that. I look forward to getting every opportunity to hear it."

Lightning looked up at her mischievous gaze, wanting to take in every inch of Fang's face. She had succumbed to an impulsive moment, ordering the sweet dessert at eleven in the morning, but then she felt like being more impulsive with Fang in her life. Lightning smiled and wrapped her arms around the brunette's neck, pulling her down into a kiss. "As do I, my love." She answered, seeing the way Fang's eyes lit up at her words.

"Well aren't you just full of affection this morning?" Fang observed, moving the tray out of the way to get comfy on the bed. She received a slight pout for getting in between Lightning and her chocolate but she figured she could easily melt that grumpiness with a bit of affection of her own. Fang leant down and kissed her again, delighting in the sweet taste of her lips. "You're right. Chocolate before midday is a great idea."

Lightning rolled her eyes and snuggled into Fang's side, resting her head on her shoulder. "I do have good ideas sometimes, you know. Though…" She paused, uncertain how to continue. "I do wonder about my idea earlier… About the target."

A groan left Fang as she reached over and grabbed another strawberry. "If I hand feed you these will you stop talking about the war? I really don't want to think about it right now."

"I'm serious, Fang. I need… I need to know I've made the right decision, and I'm not sure I have considering you questioned it."

After gently guiding Lightning off her shoulder, Fang sat up and crossed her legs, idly swirling a strawberry through the chocolate by her side. "We don't have anything else to go on at this point, and if Rygdea's crew with all their intelligence and tactical knowledge aren't coming up with anything different, we have to run with the only solid lead we have."

"But you don't think it's correct, do you?" Lightning pressed, not wanting to be proven wrong but trusting Fang's judgement all the same.

Fang sighed, resigning herself to this conversation whether she liked it or not. "It's… The wind's not blowing right on this one. That is to say, things add up but not in a way that would be considered an accidental fuck up on their part. The information was left for us to find. Jihl's a smart woman, she wouldn't leave any of this shit to chance with so much riding on the line for Neo Sanctum."

"So you think we're headed for a trap." Lightning concluded. She couldn't fault the logic, given what she knew of Nabaat's calculated nature. Fang nodded with a hum and took a bite of the strawberry in her hands and winced at the sting in her jaw from the sweetness.

"Gah! That's rich. I think I prefer to eat it off you in small doses. But yes. As I was saying, I know we're headed for a trap. These are breadcrumbs that are being laid out for us to follow, Light. And I don't think either of us are going to like where it leads."

Lightning fell silent after that, processing the Pulsian's wisdom. She valued Fang's input, her keen hunter senses and tactical knowledge from the old world still holding strong. While she had seen much in Valhalla, one day she wanted to sit down with Fang and hear her perspective on the war, the things she went through.

"But enough about that. We will handle whatever we need to handle, and face it head on like we always do." Fang continued, drawing Lightning's attention back to her. She ran her hands along the pale sides, eyeing off the sweets beside them. "Until we need to worry about it, that is. I have much better plans for you today, seeing as you were so helpful to order something fun for me."

"Oh, is that so?" Lightning mused with a smile, leaning up and taking a bite out of the strawberry in Fang's hand. "Well if that's the case, we better make the most of this momentary reprieve we've been given."

"More than fine by me, Sunshine. More than fine by me."


NB- In this Chapter, Vanille and Serah are both referring to two separate incidences that have one shots prequels that will be posted... eeeeh eventually. We'll get through this first.