And some more of this story... getting good though, also final silly chapter for a while.

Chapter 10:

Pressing the bell, Vanille looked towards her friend who had an exhausted look on her face. Something that she knew without even asking that it was from said woman probably coming straight from her morning workout to be here. An idea that was reaffirmed by the smell coming off of her.

"Do you seriously not believe in showering after working out? You smell and we are going into a school." Vanille asked as she could feel her blood slightly boil at the sight of Fang rolling her eyes. As if this was just nothing that was an inconvenience to her. "You are so lucky I need someone here with me and Claire is working on getting next big school holiday off." Vanille hissed towards her friend as she could see the black haired principal walking towards them.

As she opened the door Vanille smiled at the step back the woman had from the same thing that Vanille was smelling. "It doesn't smell that bad." Fang corrected the principal as she turned towards Vanille. "Now come on Van, why am I here?" Fang asked as Vanille groaned softly at the sound of her phone ringing letting her know she has a message she should check.

"Just... trust me. I mean worse thing I'll do is give you a grey hair or two. Meanwhile you've probably shortened my life." Vanille said as she turned to the curious gaze of the faculty as Vanille just smiled faintly. "This is something else we probably should talk about... just not today. I'd actually need my wife with me." Vanille said gesturing up to the bandages still wrapped around her head as she began to walk quickly into the building.

She was at least a little happy that it seemed her answer to the unasked question was satisfactory. After all, Vanille had no doubt that even if her father wasn't there she would have been called in to discuss Lumina after school. It was actually probably a lot better that she was in this early and her father was there because it meant that the search light that had been on Lumina would be dimmer.

Which would at least bring the staff back partially to the need of evidence of Lumina doing something wrong. Even the threat of Lightning getting the teacher's union involved didn't seem to shake anyone's conviction that Lumina was the culprit. But Vanille would be the first to admit that her daughter actually was one to cause some of the things.

"So I was surprised to receive your call today Vanille. But with Lumina's... reputation on this day it does make me feel a lot safer knowing that she probably won't do anything." Lulu said as Vanille just frowned before she elbowed Fang knowing that the same argument that she had herself countless times before would be the result.

"To be fair Lulu. I don't fault her for that. Academics are probably the worst you can have to tell you about the culture you were raised in... and she was heavily raised in it." Vanille said as Lulu lead them to a door that Vanille just took a deep breath as she could see the educator's hand reaching for the handle. It was almost like time had slowed down to a crawl.

It felt like she was having an entire life in those few seconds causing her to latch onto Fang's hand quickly. She knew that her fingers were digging into the bronze skin of Fang, something that even in Vanille's slowed down time loop world.

As the door began to creak open, Vanille frowned as she could hear the unmistakable sound of her father laughing as she could feel Fang tense up at the same sound as she could see Fang look at her the door opened fully. Letting go of Fang's hand, Vanille began to take some steps into the room. She winced slightly at the sight of her Father turning around towards her.

As their eyes met, Vanille felt slightly smaller but it was overcast by the simultaneous shout of parent and child screaming "You!" followed by Vanille quickly stepping to the side to see them quickly latching onto each other followed by rolling around on the floor causing Vanille to almost simultaneously sigh with her father.

"You see that... that is why you shouldn't have multiple Yuns together. That and they just never add to conversations. Unlike Nsus... they tend to be only conversation and would rather avoid any and all arguments. Makes them kind of boring." The red haired man spoke as Vanille sighed just holding up her hand to Lulu.

"You don't need to introduce us..." Vanille said softly as she turned to Fang and Jaeger. Normally she'd laugh at the sight of both of them holding each other like they were but there was larger discussions to have and it couldn't wait for them to settle whatever score they had.

Grabbing an ear of each, Vanille gave them sharp tugs up ignoring her father's laugh. "Both of you need to not do this here. It is a school. And these people don't get the customs of our people." Vanille hissed as she began to walk back towards the table to unceremoniously toss the both of them into the first free chair she could see. She didn't care who they previously belonged to, all she cared about was stopping this match before someone started to bleed and cops would be called.

"So Vani? What are you doing here? Did Sparkler tell on me? And what is with the head wrappings? Are you hurt?" The man asked as Vanille sighed softly as she came to a seat next to him.

"It is a long story... a long story that I don't want to get into right now. Why did you come up? You both hate Cocoon." Vanille asked as she could see her father just laughing at the simple question.

"Well, to make sure Sparkler was looked after. Last time she came to the village she could barely hold her own against a chocobo."

Groaning softly, Vanille looked into her father's green eyes debating what mountain she should tackle first because it was certainly becoming a harder and harder thing to decide on which part. "She doesn't like fighting daidí. She is a Dia through and through. Plus she would never harm a chocobo." Vanille corrected her father who just rolled his eyes causing her to take a deep breath as she counted quickly to ten just so she didn't risk smacking her remaining parent until he died.

"Anyways daidí, Cocoon isn't one that is really big on fighting and lets you advance when you are smart. Which she is." Vanille said as she could feel her father quickly pulling her into a hug.

Smiling at the feeling of contact with her father, Vanille knew that it felt a lot better than the gut wrenching feeling of knowing that she is really lying to the man at this point. But she was positive once she got in proper contact with Lightning that she would remove all of those feelings and actually confess to him the news that they found.

But she knew that in reality she could have the entire village's scorn for them, as long as she had her father's support with her family. That was what mattered to her. Even if it meant that most of the time it was going to be hard for her to go back, it would still be a lot better than if she had the village's support and her father's scorn.

"So, out of curiosity, why do you call Lumina 'Sparkler'? It is just so rare we get someone so illustrious that has a grandchild with us and he never uses her real name." Lulu asked softly placing a tray down on the table stacked with cups and a teapot.

"Vani... what the hell does illustrious mean? You know Cocoon speak." The man whispered into Vanille's ear causing her to just sigh.

"It means the same respect Elders have. But she means it because Dia is one of the old clans. Most of the time they just have either people who study the clans, or a much newer clan like Kreiss or Ballad." Vanille responded as she pulled two cups towards her as she reached for the pot. As she took the lid off she smiled at the sound of Jaeger and her father laughing.

Belching softly as he accepted the cup of tea that Vanille had poured for him, Citra took a deep breath as he looked at the confused look of the principal. "We are far from elders. And what is with you people always acting like the situation of birth is such a big thing? But if you wanted to just mock our culture, couldn't have picked better clans."

"They aren't really respected in many villages because they are seen as some of the traitors for adopting too many Cocoon customs and seemingly forgetting which Clan was truly theirs. Not to say other clans won't bring them back in... just they aren't really considered Pulse born... more so Etro born." Vanille said softly filling in the gaps her father was creating as she placed the teapot back down. "And like with most nicknames Lumina has, it comes from when she was young where it is obvious she was a Dia."

As Vanille spoke she took a deep breath as she could hear Fang and her father laughing. It was something that was beyond a reason to make Vanille regret her choice in emotional back up, especially how Fang always seemed to regress and tried to make everything a competition.

"You mean a stupid book learner. Not like that beast of a father of her's. Even the elders were impressed as she took Fang down with ease during the fight." Jaeger boasted as she clapped Fang's back causing Vanille to just take a deep breath to calm herself down knowing it was just someone trying to egg her on.

A feat that much to Vanille's shame was an easy thing to happen. Especially when Lightning wasn't there to reel her in. "Trust a monkey to not know what is important." Citra laughed as Vanille smiled softly at the sound of the chair scrapping out from the other side of the tables.

"Who you calling monkey you book worm!?" Jaeger yelled as Vanille glanced towards Fang who shrunk a little in her own seat.

"You are! I can't count the number of times I've been called for to remove your head or hand from something! Or worse the six times I've been called to remove your dick from a toaster." Citra yelled back standing causing Vanille to grab a hold of his arm trying to tug the man back down as she pleaded with Fang to do the same. As she could see Fang giving her parent a sharp tug down Vanille rolled her eyes at the gesture.

"As you can see... the clans are very competitive with each other. Even though they each tend to be better at different things. Yuns are fighters, Dias are teachers or scientists..." Vanille said as Fang and Jaeger began to take turns punching each other's arm causing Vanille to just take a sharp inhale as she gestured towards the tea in her father's cup. "Which isn't to say you can't be a fighter that is a Dia, or a teacher that is a Yun. It is just not common... and this argument will blow over quickly. They always do." Vanille said calmly as she raised the mug to take a small sip as she smiled at the sight of Lulu relaxing from the fight that had transpired.

Coughing into her hand gently, Lulu took a mouthful of tea as she looked between Jaeger and Citra. "I hope so. They are fuming." Lulu said taking another gulp as she looked towards Vanille. "But that does also explain why you went into teaching and why Lumina excels in her science classes."

"She has always been interested in science... especially light. I mean she loved watching fireworks and trying to figure out how the colours happen. Hence the name Sparkler. Nearly set off the black powder stores when she figured magnesium burns white hot... that was not a fun panic attack." Citra spoke as Vanille just laughed at the memory of the panic of them taking their eyes off the four year old for a few minutes while she was in her Citra's lab. The type that lead to her nickname that Vanille was positive she wasn't going to live down, nor does she really mind it despite the fact that she claimed it annoys her a little.

"I guess she has a history of causing trouble then." Lulu muttered as Citra just laughed softly.

"It is only trouble when she doesn't learn something. Since that incident she learned magnesium burns super hot, and can ignite just about anything. And even a small spark can burn flesh or even set off black powder." Citra said with a smile remembering how Lumina had practically begged for his forgiveness like she didn't already have it. "I mean worst that would happen structurally is my lab would be gone. I couldn't live though if my only granddaughter was harmed." Citra said as he lowered the mug and began to show the inside of his palm to the principal. "So as far as I'm concerned, the only trouble is the fact she didn't learn then how precious her life is to the likes of me or her parents."

Rolling her eyes at the comment, Vanille lightly nudged her father. "Daidí, Cocoon still doesn't believe in things like that." Vanille hissed as she heard her phone go off again causing her to remember she had a message she had received. Placing her cup down, Vanille reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone seeing two panicked messages from Lightning.

"Who that Vani?" Her father asked looking over her shoulder as Vanille just frowned softly at the reminder of how her father had the tendency to invade her privacy.

"It is Claire... she just wants to know how I'm feeling." Vanille said as she began to twist her body away from her father just to make it harder for him to read the messages. As she quickly filled Lightning in on the situation she locked her phone and began to sit right.

"Don't tell me you are like a Cocoon born and are embarrassed by natural things a body does." Citra asked as Vanille quickly looked towards him with a small glare.

"No. It is just nothing that concerns you right now daidí. You know if it comes down to it, I'll let you know what it is about." Vanille corrected as her father just seemed to smile softly before taking a quick gulp from his mug before standing up to stretch a bit.

"Doesn't matter. By my count, it is nearly time to teach this people correctly about Gran Pulse life."

Sighing as Lightning read the message on her phone, for the seventh time in she had no idea how many hours. Certainly felt like it was more than necessary to have something sink in, but here she was dreading even going home knowing that so much worse would come from that one feat, but she also knew after her talk with the mayor that there really was nothing that she could do. Especially if she tried to clock in over time so soon.

She still had the lecture from everyone stuck in her mind after she told him that Vanille was expecting a bundle of joy and said joy was Lumina. It was almost as bad as the tongue lashing she received from Serah when she found out that Lightning had worked ninety six hours just the week previous to that incident.

Even though Lightning maintained it was still better than dealing with a very hormonal woman who would go from being horny to bitchy that would make Lightning eventually slink away to work just so she could avoid the constant minefield of questions that had no right answers.

"Chief, Mayor is on. Line two." Lightning heard the blonde voice as Lightning just waved her hand away that she heard the message.

Picking the phone up, Lightning took a deep breath before hitting the flashing red light on the phone. "Mayor Amodar. To what do I owe this pho-"

"What are you still doing there Farron? Your family needs you and not just a phone call. As your boss I demand you hang up the phone and clock off." Lightning heard her boss' voice causing her to sigh softly. "Now Farron. Or I swear you are getting bumped down to beat cop."

"Amodar, Normally I'd agree with you. But I still have some paperwork that needs to be signed that can't wait." Lightning said as she pinched the phone between her shoulder as she grabbed the pen that was sitting by the computer screen. "Vanille already knows I'm going to be about half an hour late."

"When I call in half an hour, with the threat of suspension you best not be there." Amodar said as Lightning just smiled faintly knowing that it wouldn't be the first time she had been suspended for simply working too long when she probably should be home.

"I promise to be on the road home by that point." Lightning said with a smile. "If that is all Mayor, I should really get off the phone so I can quickly finish up here." Lightning continued as she dragged a folder in front of her as she reached up to the phone.

"Half an hour Lightning. Any more and suspended. I still have enough swing with the union that they'll see it my way." The boisterous man on the other end said as Lightning smiled before lowered the phone down. As she could see the line going dead, Lightning just smiled faintly from how she knew that the man wasn't making an idle threat.

Rubbing her eyes out of exhaustion Lightning took a deep breath as she contemplated if she should risk it. Sighing as she placed the pen down, Lightning just knew that she had no choice. She needed this job even if she was at the point where she would rather just be here than deal with her father in law as he was told that his only daughter might die long before him.

Sighing softly as she grabbed the suit jacket from the hook, Lightning quickly slipped it on as she took a deep breath walking out of her office, at least enjoying the sight of one of the victims from her anger for making her work even harder.

Walking up towards the near exhausted man, Lightning smacked the top of the desk jostling the man causing him to look up at Lightning. "Trey, clock out. And if I ever see a news article from your girlfriend talking about an active case, I'm going to bury you under paperwork making you wish the union would let me fire you for it." Lightning deadpanned as the man quickly nodded. "Do I make myself clear? I don't care if she constantly says it will be off the record, you do not speak of an active case to anyone that doesn't have a badge on them from this precinct. Or this trivial task of organising the unsolved cases by chronological date will be nothing."

Seeing the man's face pale, Lightning spun on her heel as she started to walk towards the elevator as she pulled her phone out. Quickly dialling Vanille's number, Lightning was at the point where she was just wanting this whole nightmare to be over and this was seemingly the only way that she could get that.

"Claire? I was just about to text you. How late are you going to be?" Vanille asked as Lightning just rolled her eyes at the questions.

"I'm just leaving now." Lightning said pushing the button as she just smiled at the near ancient beast coming to life. "Do you want me to pick up anything? Because it looks like I won't be allowed to do over time for a long time to come." Lightning said softly rubbing her eyes as she knew that was probably the best news Vanille probably heard in a long time.

"That's great news. But if you can, I need more oranges to really finish dinner. By the way, my father demanded to go on a jog with Lumina before dinner. So if you hurry up you might get to see Lumina coughing up her lungs because she hasn't been on a jog more than a few feet let alone the three miles my dad normally takes when he is taking it easy like she made him promise it would be in a long time." Vanille said as Lightning chuckled softly just imagining that sight.

"Make sure we have something to help her breathe. Because I don't want her to have an asthma attack." Lightning said as she walked into the elevator and pressing the button. "Like I don't care that she hasn't had one in twelve years. I don't like running that risk." Lightning said softly as she could hear Vanille cooing softly at the very thing that Lightning was worried about. "Vanille, focus. I don't want to have to make a rush to the hospital again."

Smiling as she could hear Vanille still smiling at the idea. "Yes she still has a few that you keep hiding on her because you are worried that twelve years still isn't long enough, and I keep telling you that it is fine." Vanille said as Lightning just rolled her eyes at the comment before taking a few steps out of the elevator into the parking lot. "Just hurry up either way. Because I think I know where one is... but I don't know if it is the recent one."

Hearing the slight panic at the simple thought of Lumina choking on her own lungs when there was a remedy in the house that would stop that. Even though the odds of it happening were still pretty slim.

"Drawer in table in the hallway by the front door. Under my address book. At least that is where I have it." Lightning started as she reached into her pocket pulling out her keys to just click them. "And I'm about to get into my car, so I'll see you soon. If you think of anything besides oranges that we need just text me. I don't have my handsfree today." Lightning spoke as she took her seat and began to fiddle with her keys just to get it into the ignition.

"Okay. But seriously... hurry up. I'd feel a lot better knowing you are here if she does have an asthma attack and the inhaler wasn't where you said it was. I don't think I could forgive myself if I let that happen to our Sunshine." Vanille said calmly with a small twinge of panic in her voice that Lightning could empathise with.

"I know Van. Believe me I know. Now I can't drive while we are still talking like this. I'll see you in like twenty minutes. With Lumina it should take about that long for Citra to get halfway through that jog." Lightning said calmly as Vanille chuckled at that fact. "Love you Van."

"I love you too Claire. Oh and we are out lube. I mean if you are going anyways, it would be nice to have. Don't get the fruity kind again... I don't want to bite you again by mistake." Vanille said calmly as Lightning winced a little from the memory. "And I think whipped cream. But just don't let me put it on your penis again... again I don't mean to bite."

Closing her legs a little tighter, Lightning just took a deep breath. "Okay. Now I should seriously go. See you in a bit Van."

"Bye."

Author's Note:

And there is another chapter... let's see what happens next.