Lightning's head felt like it was swirling, "did Fang just... Did she really just say that? Don't be stupid, youre looking into this too much. Ugh and you're talking to yourself again Light." Without even realising, the others had already reached her and were standing about, happily talking between them. Luckily they hadn't noticed the soldier's bemused state, so she decided to snap out of it before they did.
"What are you guys doing out this way?" Lightning asked, doubting it was pure coincidence they had been found
"Actually we had just gone for a wander, you two took off in the other direction but with the way you spar I'm surprised you didn't wind up on Cocoon!" Snows voice boomed through Lightning's skull and she rubbed her temples, wondering why he had to be so annoying.
"I suppose we must have gotten carried away. Considering you're all here, should we get a move on or what?" Snow shrugged and Fang looked around
"Well how about we head back to Oerba and make a decision based on that, considering we've pretty much gone backwards."
"Alright, let's get moving then." The older Farron turned her back and briskly began walking towards where the others had originally come from. They all followed quickly behind her while Fang and Vanille drifted back until they could safely speak
"You have some explaining to do Fang" Vanille whispered, her tone filled with anger.
"I don't have to explain anythin' Van, stop acting like you're my mother"
"Fang we've been together for theoretically 500 years, so I'm sorry if I'm slightly annoyed at you for keeping this from me." Fang sighed and made sure no one had noticed their drifting before turning back to the small redhead
"Vanille, what do you expect me to say? It's not exactly easy to explain to you lot that I slept with Farron."
"Oh Maker! You did what?" Vanille stared at her open mouthed and Fang quickly closed it for her, frowning and looking about frantically
"You didn't figure that much out? Jeez Vanille, why are you so mad then?" the small girl shrugged her shoulders, eyes still wide.
"I just thought you had some kind of weird flirty thing going on together, I didn't realise you were... y'know." Fang glared at her as she trailed off, implying there was nothing to it
"You already know I liked her Vanille, I made that quite clear to you, but how I went about that was my business. The fact that Farron just happened to reciprocate those feelings was just... I really have no idea what I'd call that, dumb luck probably. Or a miracle..." Vanille's mouth dropped again and Fang growled at her, snapping it shut again
"Oh for Etros sake. You do not breathe a word of this Vanille, you hear me?"
"And what if I did Fang? What's stopping me from screaming it at the top of my lungs, what would you do?" Fang looked genuinely hurt by the small girls comment and sighed
"Y'know what Van? There's nothing. There's absolutely nothing stopping you doing just that if you wanted to, but if you did want to you would have already. So don't try that one on me." Vanille crossed her arms and they continued to walk in silence
"Do you love her then?" the question caught Fang off guard and she stumbled over her own two feet, frowning to herself.
"Well? You can't just go fucking Lightning Farron and expect nothing to come of it so answer me, do you love her?"
"Oh maker, keep your voice down Vanille, you gotta remember, they don't know, and you should pretend not to as well." Vanille raised an eyebrow and her jaw tensed, showing her intense frustration
"I'm gonna ask once more Fang, do you love her or not?" Fang hesitated; she hadn't fully admitted to herself that she was in love with the stoic woman, let alone to anyone else. She had intense feelings for the girl, yes but did she really love her?
"I uh... Well I" she had no idea why she was speechless, confident, arrogant Fang completely and utterly speechless.
"Fang! I swear to god I'm going to ki-"Fang covered the small girl's mouth and just shook her head
"Vanille shut up and listen to me, just for one second. I didn't answer you because I can't explain it, she makes me feel really strange, like, things are different when she's around, when I look into her eyes my whole damn world is turned completely upside down and I don't understand why. So please don't expect me to tell you how I feel, okay? Just, leave it alone." She small girl looked up at her with a sad expression as her oldest friend battled with her feelings, refusing eye contact as she walked off ahead.
Vanille sighed as she picked up her pace and skipped forwards between Hope and Sazh
"How can you always be so happy Vanille?" Hope asked, sadness filling his voice "I mean, everything just seems to go from bad to worse and you always manage to keep a smile on your face." Vanille took the boys hand and began skipping in circles, dragging him along with her
"All you have to do is skip!" she sang aloud, the small boy stumbling due to the constant jolts. Snow and Sazh were chuckling at the terrified expression on Hope's face as the bubbly woman continued to drag him, paying no attention to his cries for help.
Further up ahead, the two older women walked in total silence, neither knowing what to say to one another.
"Fang" Lightning began to speak but her words failed her,
"Light I think maybe we need to chat" Fang spoke, her eyes not leaving the trees in front of her
"About what?" Light looked up at her companion and Fang's breathing quickened, closing her eyes
"I think we should just leave it till later. We'll stay in Oerba one more night, say just to give me an actual night's sleep rather than being passed out and we'll start off bright and early tomorrow morning, that okay with you?" Light nodded her head, but remained speechless, her heart hammering in her chest.
"Alright, we'll wait till they go to bed and have our guard times one after another, we can do it then." The soldier replied, hiding the concern from her voice.
"Don't worry Light, I promise you there's no reason to worry." The soldier frowned and exhaled heavily
"Well when someone says we need to chat it doesn't really make you feel very relaxed does it?" Fang finally made eye contact and she was shocked to see a sparkle in Fang's eyes she hadn't seen before, it made her stomach drop and her heart stop.
"O-kay" was all she could manage, the tone of her voice barely a whisper.
They had made quite a bit of progress back to Oerba, so they had relaxed the pace, laughing and joking among one another. They would have continued at their sluggish pace if they hadn't of heard an ear piercing shriek that echoed through the air around them.
Their stances hardened and they scanned the skies above them, looking for the creature that emitted such a sound
"Guys, lets speed up the pace, we may have got lucky and it hasn't seen us, come on!" Lightning had already worked her body into a sprint, running along their now dangerous path. She could hear the others groaning behind her but she didn't care, all that mattered was getting home safely.
Before anyone could think twice, they heard the screech again, only this time, it was directly above them, beating its wings with such force they could hear the thumps rumbling through the air.
"What the hell is a Zirnitra doing out here?" Snow exclaimed as it swooped them for the first time
"I don't know, but we don't have the time to just stand around wondering!" Sazh yelled as he was knocked onto his stomach.
"Okay guys, let's go!" Vanille chirped as they took to their regular battle positions.
As Fang dodged a close blow to the head, she looked over at Lightning "How much more can this thing take?" she was panting as she began another series of attacks against the bird,
"More to the point, I don't think I can take much more of this myself" They were all clearly fatigued and someone was going down soon. Vanille growled at herself and cast yet another death spell
"Why does this stupid spell never work! I don't know why I bother!" Hope shifted closer to the small woman as he cast another barrage of spells it's way
"it hurts it too Van, just keep casting and It's bound to work soon." Vanille gasped and Hope followed her line of sight. Snow, Fang and Light had all been swept off their feet and were on the ground, looking rather battered and bruised
"C'MON YOU OVERSIZED BIRD, COME AT ME! STEELGUARD!" Snow was provoking the beast and taking some hard hits, the strain evident in his voice.
As the creature was flying backwards to fly at them again, Vanille's death finally worked, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud rumble, followed closely by Fang and Snow. They had all taken some heavy damage, so Hope and Vanille set out healing them all one by one. Lightning however, refused and stood around, impatiently tapping her foot
"Light is there some reason you aren't just letting them fix you up?"
"I never used to need any of this crap, I'll heal up fine." She took one step and much to her dismay, her knees gave way underneath her.
"Fine, just make it quick" she reluctantly agreed to the healing and they all took a moment to rest
"That was an unexpected battle" Hope sighed as they began heading back to Oerba, all still on edge for other assailants lurking
"Yeah no kiddin' we held up our end damn well though!" Sazh added, looking rather proud. They idly talked between themselves excluding Lightning, who still didn't really see the point in idle chit chat so she kept to herself.
"Ladies and Gentlemen we have reached our destination-" Fang chimed as Oerba came into view "-please keep all arms and legs inside the vehicle until we have come to a complete stop. Thankyou for travelling with Fang travel agents."
Lightning turned and stared at Fang with an utterly blank expression and her companions laughed, Fang giving her the cheesiest smile she could muster.
"You loved it Light" The soldier let a small smile creep over her lips and shook her head
"You're not right sometimes Fang, I'm sure of it" As the Pulsian mocked sadness and fell on the ground, the younger woman crossed her arms
"WHY MAKER WHY! WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ME SO DIFFERENT FROM THE ALMIGHTY LIGHTNING"
"Stop making a scene and get off the ground" Lightning was now freely smiling as she yanked the warrior off the ground, stumbling backwards as Fang pretended to let go
"Saved your life!" Fang yelled as she sprinted back into the village
"What in the name of Etro has gotten into that woman?" Hope asked, looking slightly confused.
"I honestly have no idea, maybe she's officially cracked and gone insane" Vanille pondered the thought for a moment when Hope suddenly yanked her hand, dragging her along behind him.
"You reckon that's payback for the skipping incident?"
"Definitely" Snow laughed and they all reached the house they had all grown rather fond of.