"Can I kiss her?" Jihl asked.

"Jihl…" Jeanne cautioned.

"Oh, come on!" Jihl complained, "First my vag will snap her fingers, now I can't even mouth over her with my lips?"

Cereza seemed supremely amused, if anything. "The tongue is the strongest muscle of the body…"

"Mum!" Jihl whined.

Lightning reached out to touch her pretty face. "Don't move," she commanded, stroking back a few strands of hair. Jihl looked at her with pleading eyes. Lightning moved in gently and touched her mouth with wanton lips. She kissed over them until Jihl groaned.

"That was supposed to help?" Jihl whimpered as Lightning pulled away with a smile, eyes shining on her girlfriend.

"I'm here," Serah announced, coming in alone after separating from Rhea and Fang. She stopped when she saw all the adults with Jihl and Lightning's parents in the room. She looked between them timidly. "What's going on?"

"We're curing Lightning," Jihl patted the bed beside her, which dipped in dangerously with a loud creak. "Sit down." Serah moved over to that side of the room. Lightning glanced around all the occupants with a nervous eye; she hadn't quite expected everyone to be there. "What are you waiting for?" Jihl asked, "Take your shirt off."

"Just like your mother," Farron said with a grin that made Lightning's face hot. Lightning coughed in the back of her throat and shifted only to face Jihl, who rolled her eyes as Lightning started to remove her shirt facing that way and lengthened her hair as she did so.

"She's got a thing about family nakedness," Jihl shook her head to Jeanne's eyebrow.

"How did both our daughters inherit that?"

Cereza shrugged.

Lightning pulled her shirt off fully, hair lengthening to cover her front. Jihl sighed wistfully, eyes dropping to her chest. Lightning knew she wanted to touch them. "Behave," she warned, lying down on her front. Serah was frowning at her; Lightning assumed it was the mark. "It's okay, Serah."

"No, it's…" Serah touched at her lengthened hair where the color split. "You're right…" Serah murmured. "How does Fang's hair work…?" Raina brushed at her covering hair, moving it aside from Lightning's side. "Claire!" Serah's question cut off in a gasp when the spot on her back showed, and Raina's eyes reflected pain. Farron gripped her fists in anger.

"I'm going to kill them, Claire."

Jeanne exchanged a worried look with Cereza, and Lightning tried to sooth all present. "It's okay. They don't have me anymore." Raina gripped her hand.

"Right here for you, Light." Jihl promised, unable to touch her, but trying to give what she could. Lightning gave her an appreciative smile. She felt her mother's hand.

"We've got you, Claire." Raina promised, fingers trailing over the scar on her back. "This shouldn't hurt."

"Go ahead, Mom," Lightning encouraged, ready to have it off in the presence of her family. Something warm touched her back and spread over the lines of the marking. Lightning closed her eyes. She wasn't owned by him. Sage wouldn't have her again.

With the soothing warmth of the magic, she could feel the evidence changing, smooth skin settling over the mark of her owning. With it, Sage's last reminder on her literally closing over itself, so did the last hold he'd ever hold over her. All those memories rushed of his every kindness, kindnesses he'd taken to insure her loyalty over so many years of blindness and pain.

"You okay?" Jihl asked sweetly, and Lightning's eyes opened to her lovely face.

Lightning smiled with glowing eyes, lifted on a hand, and kissed her girlfriend before she could react. "Come on, then," Lightning said, pulling up to pick up her shirt and cast a look to her parents. "Let's do this haircut thing."

XXX

"You're making me want to hump you so baaad."

Farron quirked an amused eyebrow in the girlfriend's direction. Since coming into the same room as her, she'd made endless pleas to touch Lightning, seemingly with no concern of anyone around it. It reminded Farron a lot of Raina's favorable traits. She was really starting to like the girl for it. Poor thing with that deadly touch. She was in agony.

Farron pulled away the clippers so Claire could check herself in the mirror. "How's that?" Claire touched at her hair, newly pink like light champagne. Farron thought it beautiful on her, though she had a bit of bias concerning the matter.

"One moment," Claire asked, and her hair extended in parts. The back lengthened a little more with a wave, the front side short and spiky, a bit to the style of Farron's longer middle strip of pink that jutted down between her eyes. Claire's spiked to the right instead.

"Can anyone agree with me how hot she looks?" Jihl complained.

"You look good, Claire," Serah complimented softly, and Farron finally put the clippers away.

"Do you like it?" Farron asked with proud, hopeful eyes.

"It's going to take some getting used to," Lightning confessed, obviously not familiar with wearing the color enough, "But it's come out pretty nice this way."

Farron gave her a small, side-hug. "That's my girl."

"Are you going to make the curtains match the drapes?" Jihl asked eagerly, making Lightning's cheeks color a pinker closer to her hair.

"Serah, take Jihl downstairs," Lightning requested. "She needs a snack before bed to settle down, and she can't get one herself. I'm going to clean up my hair."

"Okay, Claire," Serah agreed, then hugged her before she started to leave. "Goodnight." Farron put a hand on her daughter's shoulder warmly.

"You need some help?"

Lightning looked at her warmly with a smile, but decidedly shook her head. "You should probably follow them. Knowing Jihl, she'll try to start talking sex positions with Serah or something."

Farron chuckled and patted her back. "Okay, Claire. I hope you're happy with it. I like seeing you with it." She gave her girl a little back rub and promised. "We're just downstairs if you need anything before Jihl gets back. Otherwise, get a good rest tonight."

"I will, Dad," Lightning promised, "Thanks." With one last smile for her daughter, Farron took off after following her younger one to the kitchen where Serah was just disappearing downstairs. Jihl sat miserably at the table with a pout, picking at her hand, and with a glance after her youngest, Farron could see the top, splintered wood of the railing heading down into the cellar below.

"No go on the stairs, huh?"

"No go on anything," Jihl grumbled, squeezing splinters out of her hand. She glanced back over her shoulder, "Oh, hey there. Thought you were Lightning."

Farron nodded as she came up and sat next to the pregnant girl. "You need some help there?" she offered, seeing Jihl struggle with the pieces with fingers too strong for the delicate work of tweezing.

"If you can, yeah." Jihl agreed, seeming defeated with it all as she held out her hand for Farron. Farron took it gently to pull at the splinters there. "Thanks." Farron offered the poor thing a smile, and pulled out a small, leather pouch attached to her belt. Unraveling it, she selected two fine needle pins to help with the chore. Jihl gazed in interest at the rest of the small kit. "Nice tools you've got there. Looks like a thief's kit."

Farron smiled greater an her total lack of inhabitation to say so. "It is," she confessed freely, "I thought I might need it when I got here."

"Fair enough," Jihl measured speculatively.

"You know how long this strength will plague you?" Farron asked, turning the subject back on the girl in question seeing her daughter currently. She'd like to know as much as she could about the prospect for Claire.

"Mums say a couple or a few days if I keep practicing at it." Jihl explained, "She said other Umbra have more control over it immediately, but since Lightning and I never reached our full strength, it was just a lot to pull in at once and handle."

Jihl averted her eyes. "Not that, you know, I should complain over a few days…"

"It's okay," Farron forgave, "It must be tough not to touch anything."

"I'll get control over it soon." Jihl passed on, "So, uhm," Jihl cleared her throat, seeming a little more twitchy than that blunt girl Farron had witnessed in the bedroom. "You have a nice walk with Lightning?"

"We did," Farron confirmed, trying to make something of her new shyness. "Claire seems to be doing better after your chat about the invasion."

"Yeah…" Jihl agreed hesitantly, "Mums seemed pretty content with how the meeting turned out."

If that'd been a good day at the council, Farron felt a hundred times worse for the poor Elder in dealing with that. "You don't sound so sure."

"Ah. Just sounds… a little more dangerous than if they all went." Jihl confessed with a worried glimpse up at her. "Lightning had the right idea in confessing going back on it; Mums would've got in real trouble if it'd come out, but… there's just too many Umbra I care about going."

Farron frowned. With the inclination she'd gotten from Lightning, her daughter seemed soothed after the interrogation. Jihl didn't sound so easy about it. "Did they say it was going to be bad?"

"No, they seemed okay." Jihl admitted, "It's… just a feeling you get sometimes." Jihl shook her head and steered the topic away, obviously not wanting to divulge too much into it. Farron didn't blame her for not wanting to focus on her mothers marching into war. "Light was right to tell them, though… at least they'll know what they'll be facing as much as they can."

"The Umbra are strong," Farron said to reassure the girl, "They'll pull through." Jihl offered her a meager smile she didn't really feel about it. Originally, Farron would say to trust her instincts, but the girl was scared, was all. She didn't want to see anything happen to those she cared about period. Poor thing. "What about you and Claire?" Farron helped her shift the focus. "How are you doing with your pregnancy?"

Jihl winced a little at the mention of it, "Did you and Light talk about it?" she hurried on to say, "No matter what Light says about it, it's not her fault that I'm pregnant. Karma's maybe, but not hers." Farron hiked a pink eyebrow at the immediate claim. "…if that's what she said," Jihl added, seeing the curious look she was getting. Farron knew from her confession how Claire felt about the rape, but she hadn't asked much beyond that of yet. "Lightning likes to take the blame for things," Jihl explained with a long sigh. "She's… got a bigger conscience than me. Maybe she took mine for the both of us."

Jihl shook her head, then addressed with a flinch. "Farron," Farron quirked her head at the unexpected, direct address. "I don't know what you've heard about me yet, but everything isn't great. Even my mothers could tell you some unfavorable things about me. I just want you to know… for everything I lack in… in things like compassion and empathy… I wouldn't be anyone's first choice for a suitor, but Lightning means everything to me. I'd never treat her wrong, and I fully intend to make and keep her happy every day that I'm able. She's more to me than anything. I wouldn't hurt her. Whatever you hear about me, it's probably true… but none of it applies to Lightning."

Farron's lips quirked first. She hadn't heard anything bad about Jihl had; hadn't been here enough to speak about the girlfriend with Raina, but what she saw now already added up immensely. It took guts to admit faults, and more to Yun father than anything. Farron didn't know of these 'faults' Claire had mentioned, but Jihl had been giving her a good feeling since she saw her, and even more now with this. "It sounds like you intend to marry or mate my daughter, Jihl."

Jihl smiled a little, very faintly, lowering her eyes. "Maybe someday. When we're both ready." Her cloudy green eyes lifted back to Farron again where she said. "A father should know the girl her daughter is seeing. You can pry into my faults if you want."

"Claire hasn't told me anything," Farron shared, which didn't seem to surprise Jihl.

"She wouldn't," Jihl confessed, "Lightning's too considerate… taking the blame for things."

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" Farron asked kindly, "I haven't heard anything bad, and I'm already liking what I see for Claire."

Jihl almost smiled, but it was meager, "Well," she started into it, deciding what to say in telling. "You know about… raping Fang. I wasn't so innocent in that." Farron stayed quiet to let her speak and say it, "I knew our mission was bullshit, and I was just waiting for Lightning to wake up from it the whole time when we took Fang. I… enjoyed the sex too. Completely pushed aside what we were doing… I only really had focus on Lightning."

Farron nodded, taking it in without showing signs of trouble. "It sounds like you regret it now. That because of the baby?"

"No," Jihl winced, "The baby's fine. I wouldn't mind raising a family with Lightning at all. And it seems to make Fang happier."

"So," Farron nodded in understanding, "You regret it for other reasons."

"I know it was wrong," Jihl said with a sigh, "And Fang didn't… she has enough to deal with. I just… I don't think of it as often as Lightning. And I try not to think of rape in association. It just… doesn't bring back the best of memories." Jihl sighed again. "I guess that's selfish, but I rather not dwell. It's just depressing."

"That's understandable considering where you and Lightning came out of." Farron pointed out. "Not dwelling; you must've had to utilize a method of coping to come through what you did. Kind of sounds like you picked up that."

"Yeah, well," Jihl breathed out, "If I did, Lightning picked up guilt for the both of us. What we did was wrong— though, she did it for the right reason— but I don't want her always thinking on it or dwelling either. She deserves better than that."

For what the girl had said so far, Farron wasn't coming up with a higher negative. Jihl seemed to know of her faults just fine; dealing was another thing, but for what both she and Claire had come through, forgetting it might've been the best way to deal for both of them. Jihl had simply tried to pass on the tactic to everything that'd been going wrong in her life. Farron could hardly blame her with the girl outright confessing everything she held for blame. "I can see where you care so much about Claire," Farron pointed out. "Sacrificing other things for her."

"I don't consider that a fault," Jihl told brazenly. "I'd do it all again if I knew it was the only way to bring her out of it." Jihl cast her eyes at the table, as if she knew that should be considered a fault of her own and wasn't. "I really love your daughter, Farron."

"I can see that," Farron nodded with a small smile. "Love always has its faults." Jihl inclined her head. "And Jihl," Farron added, seeing her eyes dart up again, "I couldn't have asked for someone better suited for my Claire."