I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.
Returned
Lightning leaned her head on Tyler's shoulder, smiling and fidgeting with the new ring he'd bought her to replace the one she'd lost when she was thrown into the Realm of Darkness. After a minute, Tyler slipped his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together, and Lightning smiled, kissing him.
"Your friends are late," Steven said from off to the side after they'd spent a few minutes kissing.
"They'll be here," Lightning said. "They're travelling between different worlds. It's not a fast process."
Steven sighed, nodding. "Fair enough."
After another half hour, the front gate of Traverse Town finally groaned open and Serah, Fang, and Vanille all walked through, Serah instantly squealing in delight and sprinting to them, flinging her arms around Lightning and Tyler.
"You made it!" Serah all but sobbed happily just as Vanille reached them and also flung herself at them, actually knocking all three backward onto the stairs they'd been sitting on.
Tyler glanced at Steven, seeing him smoothing his hair and straightening up and laughed. "They're all spoken for, Steven."
Steven deflated instantly. "No fair! How did Mr. Single wind up travelling around the freaking universe with four supermodels, engaged to one, and didn't find one for me?"
"To be fair, I had no idea you were even alive," Tyler pointed out.
"Fair enough," Steven sighed. "Well, we should probably get going."
Everyone nodded and they all headed to the Gummi ship. Tyler gave Steven a tour and then showed him which room he could use, then headed up to the cockpit, sitting beside Lightning.
"Let's do it," Lightning said.
"What?" Tyler frowned.
"Get married," Lightning said. "Let's go now. I don't want to wait any longer. I want to get married before anything bad happens again."
Tyler smiled and nodded, looking over at Oswald. "Do you know anywhere good for a wedding?"
"I do," Oswald nodded. "We can be there tomorrow."
Serah and Vanille both squealed in delight, then grabbed Lightning by the arms and sprinted out of the room, saying something about dresses. Tyler smiled and shook his head, looking over at Steven, who still had Alice in his arms, as he had since he had gotten there. After a bit, Tyler stood, tapping Steven on the shoulder and motioning for him to follow him. Steven raised an eyebrow and did as instructed. After a few minutes, they reached the room where Tyler trained with the others and Tyler picked up a sword, passing it to Steven.
"If you're going to stay with us, you're going to need to be able to fight the Heartless," Tyler said. "At least enough to protect Alice."
Steven nodded, holding the sword out to the side with both hands, only for Tyler to snort and shake his head.
"You're not protected that way," Tyler said, walking over and guiding Steven's arms around so that the sword was held in front of himself at an angle. "Always keep your weapon between your enemy and you if you're less experienced than your opponent."
"I assume that includes you?" Steven asked.
"Tyler's arguably the best fighter on the ship," Fang said, walking into the room. "It used to be Lightning, then me, but now I've been kicked down to third."
"Should I start out training with you then?" Steven asked.
Tyler snorted. "You're welcome to if you want, but I'll warn you ahead of time, if you train with her or Lightning, you'll have more bruises than hairs on your head."
Steven blinked in surprise and looked at Fang, who grinned predatorially. Steven nodded and retook the position Tyler had made him get into. Fang nodded approvingly, picking up her staff and walking over, resting it on her shoulder.
"I'm going to help out after all," Fang said. "Since he's your family, I think you'll be too soft."
Tyler smirked. "Steven, you're going to try to block my strikes. I'm going to use what I've learned from my own training methods in order to make your training faster."
"How did you learn?" Steven asked.
"Lightning and I beat him black and blue until he finally learned to defend himself," Fang said.
"So, how am I getting trained?" Steven asked.
"You're going to block my strikes," Tyler said. "I'll start off easy." He summoned his gunblade, and Steven eyed it warily. "It won't cut you if I don't want it too. It's magic. That sword of yours, however, is sharp. That's why you're not attacking yet."
Steven smirked. "Afraid you won't be able to keep up?"
"Afraid you're going to do something stupid by accident and hurt yourself," Tyler said. "Ready?"
Steven nodded, and Tyler stepped forward, calling out which side he'd attack from before slashing. Steven tried to twist his arms to block it from above, but as a result, Tyler knocked the sword out of his hands.
"Don't be fancy," Tyler said, smacking him in the shin with his keyblade, making Steven yelp in pain before picking the sword back up. "First learn to block. Then we'll teach you style."
Steven nodded and Tyler tried again, Steven doing better this time. For the first two strikes. Then, he stumbled and Tyler's keyblade smacked into his ribs painfully. Steven glared at him, but retook his beginning stance without comment. They continued in this fashion for hours, Tyler slowly speeding up and delivering his strikes with more power. After about four hours, Steven was able to more or less keep up with a decent pace, so Tyler allowed him to start trying to strike back. Then, for the next couple of hours, he taught him, rather painfully, though helpfully, that he couldn't drop his defense entirely in order to strike. Finally, they took a break to eat before returning. This time, it was Fang's turn. She held back, but Steven did poorly, all the same. Then, after a few hours, just as he was getting the hang of fighting against Fang, Lightning walked in, raising an eyebrow.
"I would have figured you'd train him yourself in order to spare him Fang's brutality," Lightning said.
"He's up against you next, if you want a crack at him," Tyler smiled, kissing her. "How'd it go?"
"We got my dress picked out," Lightning said. "And Oswald says we'll be wherever we're going in about half a day."
Tyler nodded. "So, you want next turn?"
"Definitely," Lightning nodded, summoning her own gunblade. "After you and I settle who's the better fighter now."
"I don't think we have enough time or room to really find that out, given how the fight in the Realm of Darkness went," Tyler said. "But, it's worth a shot."
Lightning grinned just as Fang's staff tapped her on the shoulder.
"Is that what I think it is?" Fang asked, tapping her gunblade with her staff.
"It is," Lightning nodded. "I summoned it the first time in the Realm of Darkness to protect Tyler."
Fang shook her head. "You two are something else, you know that? Alright. Let's see the fight."
Lightning nodded, then struck at Tyler before he even had time to prepare. Fortunately, he'd been with her long enough to guess that would be the case, and ducked under her blade before countering. She spun around his strike, and he spun, blocking hers. Then, they both got serious and began to fight their way around and around the room, their blades clashing over and over in showers of sparks, Tyler alternating combining blocks with his keyblade with use of barriers, while Lightning alternated strikes with her keyblade with attack spells. During their brutal, violent sparring match, Fang watched with one eyebrow raised as Tyler gaped in awe.
As Tyler blocked Lightning's keyblade with a barrier, he narrowed his eyes slightly as her free hand swung around toward him, lightning forming in her palm. he hadn't realized her control over magic had increased to be able to manipulate spells, rather than the standard uses, but since keyblades made magic easier for their wielders, he shouldn't be surprised. He spun around her, the lightning bolt launched from her hand blasting a scorch mark onto the wall, then slashed at her back, only for her to flip backward over it, and spin, slamming a kick into his head and flipping him to the ground. As she dropped to place her blade at his throat, however, his own blade pressed against her side.
"Draw," Fang said. "Impressive."
"Impressive?" Steven scoffed. "That was fucking amazing! Where did you learn to fight like that!?"
"From these two," Tyler said, standing. "Well, Lightning more than Fang, but these two were my teachers. That, and all of the times I had to fight someone or something to the death in order to survive."
Steven shook his head in amazement before glancing at Lightning, who was watching him with a smirk. She gestured with her keyblade for him to ready his sword, and the instant he had it up, she began. Tyler winced in sympathy, seeing that Lightning was only barely holding back, and most of that just because she wasn't using magic.
Tyler stared at Lighting in awe and adoration as she made her way down the aisle. She looked beautiful with an elegant white dress with ruffles down the front, a white rose at the center of her waist, detachable sleeves, and low white heels. She was blushing slightly, a wide, nervous smile gracing her lips, and was fidgeting with the bouquet slightly. Tyler took her hand as she reached the altar and gave it a light squeeze as she joined him in front of Oswald, who had agreed to officiate the wedding.
"You look beautiful," Tyler smiled.
"Thank you," Lightning smiled. "You clean up pretty well yourself."
Tyler smiled, glancing behind Lightning at Serah, who was beaming proudly, her eyes red from crying out of joy for her sister. Tyler also heard Steven sniff behind himself and grinned widely, glancing at him and seeing him pretending he was fine, though his face was turning red from having to hold his breath, since his nose was apparently too stuffed up to breathe through.
"As per your request, I'm going to skip to the vows," Oswald said.
"Thank you," Lightning said. "This dress may be beautiful, but Serah and I are definitely not the same size."
"Warn me if you start to pass out," Tyler said as Serah giggled.
Lightning shot him a dirty look and Oswald cleared his throat.
"Do you, Tyler, take Light-"
"Claire," Lightning corrected.
Oswald rolled his eyes, but nodded. "-take Claire to be your semi-lawfully wedded wife?"
"Semi?" Tyler asked, he and Lightning both raising an eyebrow.
"Do I look like a priest to you?" Oswald asked.
"Valid point," Tyler said. "And yes I do."
"And do you, Ligh...Claire, take Tyler to be your lawfully wedded husband?" Oswald asked.
"I do," Lightning nodded.
"Then I now pronounce you man and wife," Oswald said. "Since we're not doing rings, kiss her, throw the flowers, and let's get going. We were supposed to meet Mickey yesterday."
Tyler and Lightning both laughed before kissing. After a few seconds, they pulled away and Serah rushed down from the altar, Oswald all but dragging Steven out of the way as well so Serah could take a picture. Then, Lightning motioned for the other girls to all group up. Once they had, she tossed the flowers into the air, aiming for Serah, only for Fang to lift Vanille, who snatched them out of the air.
"Hey!" Serah whined. "No fair!"
"Tough," Fang said. "We're next."
Serah rolled her eyes as Vanille gave Fang a kiss before they all left the small chapel to the Gummi Ship.
"So, we're heading back to Merlin's Tower, right?" Sazh asked.
"Yes," Oswald nodded. "We'll be there in about nineteen hours."
"Reception time!" Fang cheered.
"Pass," Lightning said, grimacing. "I've got to get out of this dress before I really do pass out."
"Then we'll hold the reception, and you two can skip to the fun bit," Fang said.
Tyler gave her an unimpressed look but followed lightning to their room, since he'd given his to Steven as he wouldn't be needing it anyway, and helped her get out of the dress. He was surprised she'd managed to get into it at all. Finally, after nearly fifteen minutes of struggling, the dress finally fell to the floor and Lightning sighed in relief, turning back to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him.
"Thank you," Lightning smiled. "That dress was torture."
Tyler chuckled. "Worth it?"
"Definitely," Lightning smiled, kissing him again. After a few minutes, however, she pulled away. "You know...technically, my body was destroyed when you beat my Heartless and Nobody. Which means...I'm technically a virgin again. We could redo the first time, if you want."
Tyler's eyes widened before softening, a grateful, adoring smile forming. "You know I love you, don't you?"
"I know," Lightning smiled, kissing him and backing up to the bed, pulling him down with her.
Leave a review.