Lightning's Thoughts

On Vanille

There was something off about that girl. Maybe it was just because she was young, but then she really wasn't that young. She had been surprised when Vanille had told her that she was actually nineteen. Lightning had thought she was sixteen or seventeen.

The girl radiated brightness and a false sense of optimism. She giggled and skipped along as they walked through the wilderness of Pulse. Almost every noise that came from her mouth pierced her skull and made her ears want to bleed. Lightning had just about had it.

If it wasn't for the fact that they were all in the same boat and that they really did need to work together, then Lightning would probably have screamed at her. She was just that close to snapping.

"Hey, Light?" Vanille strolled up to walk alongside her, tilting her head curiously. "Are you okay?"

"I have a headache," she snapped.

"Oh, well that just won't do!" Lighting wanted to barf and not just out of utter repulsion that the girl was trying to mom her, but because then she might just be able to throw up all over the girl just to spite her. That would wipe that annoying smile off of her face.

She didn't know what it was about her. Maybe it was that the girl, despite her flowers and sugar and joy, she seemed to be walking on egg-shells. It was like she was hiding something. It was unnatural for anyone to be so peppy in their situation and it felt like the girl was forcing herself to smile. It was an act.

And maybe that was her copping method. Lightning really couldn't blame her for that, it wasn't as if she was any better in that aspect. They had all seen her let out her frustration with her fists, her words, and her walls.

Lighting sighed, "Alright, we'll stop here to rest." The last thing she wanted was to have to deal with Vanille pouting and fussing over her, so she gave in.

"Great!" Vanille exclaimed with a gasp and a jump. Lightning raised her hand to rub her temple. They must not have bras on Gran Pulse.

Hope glanced in her direction and hurried over. "Are you feeling okay? Is it your brand?" Lightning was certain that her headache was just a result of having to listen to Vanille's obnoxious noises all day.

"Oh," But, it didn't hurt to check. Lightning shot the group a look that sent them all turning around or adverting their eyes. She turned away from them and unzipped her turtleneck. It didn't look any different, maybe there was another arrow but she couldn't tell. She zipped back up and cleared her throat. "It's fine."

"Whew," Vanille let out an over-exaggerated deep breath. "Well, now that that's settled Fang and I should scout around." The girl glanced around at the group. "Because we know this area more than anyone else."

"Yeah, sounds good!" Snow agreed. Sazh stretched and flopped onto his back, letting out a sigh of relief.

Lightning sat down in the grass, resting her back against a rock. She didn't like being the reason they had to stop, but she was glad to have Vanille out of her hearing range.

She wondered how those two were so close. Fang didn't seem like the type of person who would hang around a girl like Vanille.

It was weird, it was almost as if Vanille had been looking for a reason to get Fang and herself away from the group.

Some time passed and her headache had waned. Vanille and Fang hadn't came back yet. "I'll go check on them," Lighting huffed, reluctantly pushing herself to her feet. They were probably just talking or something. They hadn't had the chance to catch up privately since they were reunited, but it was still good to make sure they hadn't gotten eaten or something.

A little voice in the back of her mind told her that this felt like a scene in a horror movie. Two girls go missing from the group, one person goes out to search for them and doesn't come back, that pretty much happened in every horror movie she had seen.

Lighting brushed a giant fern out of the way to see Fang and Vanille standing not to far away. As she guessed, they were just talking. She ducked into the foliage, not wanting to be seen and accused of eves-dropping.

She could hear their voices from where she hid.

"You already knew," Fang was speaking, "you knew Ragnarok was the name of destruction."

"It wasn't fair!" Vanille protested, "you had to do all the horrible stuff and I didn't have to do anyth-!"

"That is no reason to lie to me!" Fang shouted. Lighting felt her stomach drop. She didn't want to hear this argument. "You think that's what I want? You of all people!" Lightning closed her eyes, trying to shut the sound out. Fang's voice softened. "Poor kid. You've had it rough."

"Fang…"

"Listen," Lightning thought about attempting to creep away through the bushes and trees, maybe they wouldn't see her. "You're not alone anymore. "

"I'm so sorry," Vanille was crying. Lightning felt terrible for thinking what she had about the girl. If she had followed the conversation correctly, then Vanille had been trying to protect Fang from the memory of what she had done. She had been ashamed for being too weak to help her friend when she sacrificed everything.

"Keep that up, and you'll have me crying soon." Lightning inched a little bit away, making as little noise as possible. "We have a new family now. We stick together, you hear me?"

The problem was, her uniform didn't make for good camouflage. White, and her hair color, would stick out like a sore thumb among all the green. If they looked in her direction she would be seen. She pressed herself completely against the earth, doing the crawl the way she had been taught in her military training.

What she didn't know was that there was a rare type of snake native to the Oerba area that was white and giant. This snake also happened to be Fang's favorite treat. From their vantage point, Lightning looked like that snake slithering through the undergrowth.

The tip of Fang's spear burrowed into the earth far too close to Lightning's head, and she gasped as fang landed on to of her.

"Just what are you doing?" Fang exclaimed, half surprised and half angry to find that her prey was actually just her comrade.

"What are you doing!" Lighting shouted, moving to push Fang off.

"Ah, ah, ah, not so fast," Fang kept Lighting against the ground, gravity working to her advantage. "What are you doing spying on us?"

Vanille peeked over Fang's shoulder and giggled. "Caught you, Light!"

Lighting sighed, despite her newfound respect for Vanille, she was still annoying.


A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing! :D