It was late when Claire Farron woke up the next morning. The sun already high in the sky, she could tell from the angle the light entered through her bedoom window that it had to be past ten already. She couldn't remember having slept that long in years.
The memories of the past night flooding back to her, she just stayed tucked under the covers for a little longer, let the all the information she'd received last night filter through her sleepy brain.
How the General had approached her in the hallway.
How she had walked back to the table, acting as if nothing had happened.
How he had joined a few minutes later.
How she had caught him staring at her from the other side of the table several times.
How she had wished he wouldn´t do that, wouldn´t do that to her, because it made things so much more complicated, so much harder for her.
How Serah had invited them to stay a little while longer. At least until the wedding, to which she had invited them too.
How she had escaped to the kitchen shortly afterwards, just to be interrogated by her annoying little sister. How she'd given her the letter. And how she'd met the general's eyes throught the backyard kitchen window.
How she'd darted up to her room to finally read the letter.
Oh that letter.
If only she had read it earlier...
'There's so many things I wanted to say to you...' the silver haired first class had written.
And that he'd missed her.
Well... None of the things proved that he did have feelings for her exactly. He could have missed her as a comrade or as a chaperone for Zack and Cloud.
But none of the things he'd written suggested that he didn't want to see her again, or that he didn't care about her or what had happened between them either.
Quite the opposite actually.
There were things he wanted to talk to her about.
There were things he wanted to talk to her about and she had pushed him away the second he had opened his mouth.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
She had been so sure that he was going to turn her down that she hadn't even considered that he might have wanted to say somethign else. Not even for a tiny second.
Well, it doesn't matter anyway, a tiny voice of reason piped up from somewhere at the back of her head.
Nothing good could have come from any of it anyway. This way or the other. She'd known that all along. The few words in the letter, they didn't change a thing. Shouldn't change a thing.
It was what she had been telling herself ever since she'd settled in her bed to sleep the night before, which she'd done to lie there, tossing and turning, and looking up at the darkened night sky through her window, unable to find some rest, unable to get that pair of mako green eyes out of her head.
Damn.
If it weren't for those eyes. If it weren't for the way he looked at her.
Giving a deep drawn sigh the pink haired woman pushed herself up in her bed and groggily got to her feet to put on yet another summer dress before she made her way over to the bathroom to make herself look somewhat representable.
It was out on the landing the she realized how quiet the house was.
Unusually quiet in fact for a house bursting with eight people residing in it at the same time. At this hour of the day it should be bustling with voices, should be buzzing with the momentum of all those body moving around.
Making her way downstairs she found that the living room was empty. As was the porch.
Looking through the other rooms, she didn´t encounter anybody until she made her way outside onto the front lawn, where she found Genesis standing with his back to her, dressed in a crazy patterned hawaiian shirt and a pair of bright red speedos that left only very little to the imagination, shamelessly peeing into her front yard.
'Genesis Rhapsodos! What do you think you are doing?!' she yelled at him once she realized it was he was actually doing.
'Uhm... Watering the flowers?' the redhead replied nonchalantly.
Lightning scowled.
Well, at least he was descent enough to put away his d*** before he turned around to face her.
The front of his shirt unbuttoned to reveal his well trained abs, that mischievous smile she knew so well tugging at his lips again told her he hadn´t missed the way her eyes had roamed his body to subconsciously check him out.
Fuck, what was wrong with her lately?!
Couldn't she even keep her eyes in check?!
It was very quickly that she chided herself in her head for letting him catch her doing something embarrassing like that.
'Where is everyone?!' Lightning swiftly changed the subject, hoping the redhead would just leave it at that.
She was lucky this time it semmed.
'Went down to the beach couple of hours ago... I actually only came back to the house to check on you.' He said, twinkling at her seductively.
'Oh shut up, you jerk!' Claire Farron snapped, turning around to head back inside to find her beach mat and hopefully one of Serah´s old bikinis.
Going up and into her sister's room she rummaged through her cupboard to produce a cute white one. It wasn´t exactly Victoria Secret, but it would have to do.
Getting up to go back to the bathroom to put it on, she found the annoying redhead leaning in the doorway.
What the fuck was he doing here?!
'Get lost you perv.' the pink haired female yelled at him before careful not to touch his naked thorso, she quickly make to push him out.
'Uhm... You wouldn´t happen to know, by any chance, where your sister keeps her booze...?' the irritating First Class began.
'No, I certainly don´t!' she barked at him, then pushed him out of the way to lock herself inside the bathroom.
It was about quarter an hour later that she arrived at the beach.
Luckily Genesis had already vanished once she´d come out of the bathroom and now she spotted him in the water a fair distance away, a tiny crimson spot bobbing up and down in the waves, accompanied by a silver and a black one. Sephiroth and Angeal.
'There you are!' she heard Serah´s voice from a nearby beach chair, greeting her with one of her cheery smiles.
'I didn´t want to wake you, you know...' she quickly added taking in her sister´s stern expression.
'That´s okay.' Lightning said somewhat reserved, spreading her beach mat next to her sister's and taking a seat.
It was kind of funny. She couldn't really remember much about how she had been attacked at Corel, but somehow still even after all this time walking on a beach did give her goosebumps.
'Where is Snow?' she asked, if only just to keept the conversation going.
Scanning the beach for the burly blonde, she found him down at the shore, where he appeared to be engaged in a fight with Zack and Cloud, who were busy hitting themselves over the head with a couple of ownerless parasols.
Children...
'Oh... I see.' she commented dryly, making Serah giggle.
'It suits you!' her sister said.
'Huh?'
'My bikini... It suits you.' she clarified. Looking down at her exposed skin, belly button piercing sparkling in the summer sun, Lightning couldn´t help but feel self-conscious and stupid. She hadn´t been this scantily dressed in public for ages. And now she was, her soft pale skin for everyone on display, including her former colleagues who'd only ever seen her in her baggy soldier pants.
Well, except for Sephiroth that was.
The thought of it... It didn't exactly make things easier.
It didn´t take long for the guys to join them. The First Class elite apparently done with swimming, they had picked up the others and were now approaching them together, all of them glistening wet and sexily shirtless.
Lightning had to admit they were quite the sight.
Even Cloud did not cut too bad a figure.
How come she had never realized before she had been working with a bunch of porn stars?!
It was Zack who reached them first, running on ahead of the others like the little pup he was.
'Hey girls... Everything alright?' He asked, sounding slightly out of breath and letting his body fall onto the beach mat next to Lightning´s where he made to shake his head, sprinkling them all with seawater.
Well. Tiny little pup indeed.
Serah Farron, eager to engage in conversation immediately, Claire Farron let her do the talking and just gave him a tiny nod, her gaze wandering to the group of men approaching and trained on the well defined chest of a certain fellow First Class in black board shorts he had to have borrowed from Snow, that made his perfect alabaster skin stand out even more.
Damn.
These things really had to stop.
She had a hard time forcing herself to look away this time.
Really, what the fuck was wrong with her lately?!
'So, what´s next?!' Zack Fair asked excitedly. The timeout on the beach obviously had him jumping with joy, waiting for more.
He reminded her of Serah and herself when they'd still been kids, never tired of adventure, when their parents had taken them out on holidays.
'What about a beach volleyball match?!' Snow suggested, rummaging through his beach bag to produce a battered looking ball.
'Cloud, Zack and me against you three guys.' he said, motioning towards Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal.
It seemed like he had been waiting to suggest it for quite some time now.
'Oh no! You can count me out!' Cloud Strife cried immediately.
'I´m not going to play against him.' He added matter of factly as he extended his arm to point directly at Sephiroth, causing the other First Classes to erupt in chuckles.
'NO WAY!'
Taking a deep breath, Lightning dared another glimpse at the silver haired general in question, just in time to catch one of those adorable half smiles of his. Letting her eyes linger there for just a few seconds too long, she couldn´t help but notice the way the sun reflected in the waterdrops running down his still wet skin, making their way from his hair to his chest down his abdomen and – FUCK!
She hated this guy, hated him so much for just being him, for doing this to her, for affecting her like that.
Jenova cells or not.
That man was a fucking sex god.
How was she supposed to resist him?!
What was she supposed to do?!
Fuck. It wasn´t fair.
'Oh come on Cloud, without you we´d be uneven!' Zack tried, but it was no use.
'It´d be uneven anyway! No matter how many people play on our side!' the cowardly blonde threw in.
He was right of course... But still... Cloud could be such a pussy sometimes!
'It´s okay, guys, I´ll take him on.' Lightning heard herself speak up.
Now where had that come from?!
Getting up and brushing the sand off her legs, she found all the others staring at her crazily.
The pink haired woman didn´t care.
It were the general´s eyes she met, those beautiful mako green eyes, that would haunt her like forever no matter how hard she tried to forget about them.
The silver haired man in question rewarded her with a curious stare.
Standing there in only Serah´s tiny bikini, the stupid thing leaving her practically naked, Lightning couldn´t help but feel uncomfortable.
Oh, how much she wished she could don her baggy SOLDIER pants!
Well they weren't exactly beach fit. Were completely out of the question.
Besides they were all wearing beach wear, allowing her eyes to roam their bodies. It was only fair she did the same. Plus Serah didn't seem to have a problem either. And she was only half as trained as Lightning was.
'Okay guys! Then let's go!' Snow cried excitedly, motioning over to the beach-volleyball court.
The remainder of the morning passed by in a blur.
The volleyball-match intended a pastime among friends, soon turned into a fierce battle between Zack, Genesis, Sephiroth and her, with Angeal and Snow wisely keeping to the background and Serah and Cloud watching from a safe distance.
That friendly contest, it got nastier and nastier by the minute, until it was really nothing more than a blur of fast and violent balls hurled back and forth between the general and his pink haired former student. Even Genesis and Zack had dropped out of that crazy game and it was really only thanks to her Jenova enhanced cells that Lightning could keep up with him at all, if only barely so.
She might have roughly had the same enhancement as Sephiroth had, she might have bee trained and well rested and tough but still, no matter how much she concentrated, no matter how hard she forced her body to keep up with his, no matter how hard she even tried to try, still in the end it was her body that from the force of his last attack, was knocked down to the ground.
It earned the general a round of ooohs and aaahs from curious bystanders.
Lightning wasn´t hurt, except for her ego maybe, but still, it took her a few seconds until she managed to push herself up onto her knees.
That match, it had been quite exhausting.
She was used to the general, being superior at everything. But still...
If only she could best him just one time. Just one. Single. Time.
It was quite irritating, the way the silver haired first class always bested her. Bested everyone really.
She was about to get up on her feet when suddenly the man in question was right next to her, offering one of his still unfamiliar ungloved hands.
'Are you okay?' he asked, offering a small but friendly smile.
Looking up at him, into his handsome features, the way he was studying her face, sincerely concerned, curious, the pink haired female couldn´t help but wonder.
Was he talking about her face hitting the sand or about something else entirely?
Lightning wasn´t sure.
'Yes... I´m okay.' the pink haired first class lied as she took his hand and let him pull her up onto her feet.
General Sephiroth Crescent had always wondered what his female comrade actually liked.
You know, like Angeal liked stuffing his face with food or Genesis´ obsession with his stupid book...
He didn't know about Lightning's favourite food or whether she even liked to read.
Didn't know what kind of things she actually enjoyed or what kind of hobbies she might have. What kind of things made her laugh or smile.
He'd never heard her talk about any of these things, had never had the guts to ask, and Lightning herself had not let on exactly much, had she?
Not unlike himself, Lightning was always serious, practical. He'd rarely seen her crack a smile, had he?
Well, it was that same day at dinner, their second night in Bodhum that at least one of those questions was to be answered.
Serah and Snow had decided to throw some kind of party and had invited all of their friends, a bunch of guys from Snow's neighbourhood watch, self funded by the operation of some sorts of seaside café they all referred to as 'the clubhouse'.
Sephiroth didn't know what it was a neighbourhood watch did exactly, but appearantly it had to do with patrolling the vicinity of Bodhum for trouble. With 'trouble' consisting of encroachment by some local forms of wildlife.
All in all it did not sound too exciting.
Still the people there seemed quite alright.
There was Gadot, a childhoodfriends of Snow's, Maqui who was the group's mechanic and Yuj, whom Sephiroth suspected to be homosexual and then there was Lebreau. Pretty sweet Lebreau, the 'Clubhouse's' chef. Somehow the silver haired first class could not overlook the way Zack was staring at her tits, a puppy that had sensed a bone, eager for the treat.
Well... Sephiroth didn't really envy her.
They were all there now gathered on the porch behind the Lightning's old beach house where several tables had been pushed together to accomodate the group of them and it was right there and then with all of them together, that General Sephiroth Crescent realised that he had never actually seen Lightning genuinely happy before.
Maybe it was the presence of all of her friends together at one table, or the fact that Genesis had bought them all ridiculous beach hats that afternoon they were now all dutifully sporting, or maybe it were the barrels of seafood that were wighting down the table, Sephiroth could not really tell for sure, the only thing he did know was that he had never seen Lightning look so radiant.
She was seated on a bench next to her sister not too far away from him this time, her hair in a braid, wearing yet another flower patterned summer dress and a genuine happy smile on her pretty pinkish lips.
It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
He had seen her smile before of course. On quite some occassions. But never like this, never this carefree.
Well, their time in soldier had seldom been carefree. But even on those rare occassions, something always had been missing. It had to have been Serah.
Soldier had seperated the Farron sisters, Sephiroth had known that for a long time now, had known that Lightning had longed to be with her sister, with her family, but it wasn't until now that he saw the two of them together, that finally he began to understand how much it actually meant to her.
What family meant to her. Or what family meant in general.
It wasn't a concept he was especially familiar with.
He had never had a family.
Suddenly that fact seemed to trouble him much more then he would have thought.
That precious evening in Bodhum, spent sitting around the ladden table with all of her favourite comrades and with all her childhood friends, to Claire Farron it was bliss, was paradise, felt like something from a dream.
All the hard feelings from the day before were suddenly gone, dissipated into thin air and replaced by a beautiful feeling of peace, of joy, of floating. Yes. She felt like floating.
She couldn't believe all the things that had happened in the last 24 hours, in just a single days really, couldn't believe how fast and out of nothing everything had just rightened itself. The whole day seemed like something from a dream a movie.
They'd spent lunch over at 'Cid's', Serah's favourite place for pasta salads where Lightning had shared a huge bowl of Chicken Ceasar Noodles with Zack and after that Genesis had had the brilliant idea to rent themselves some chocobos and take them all for what he called a romantic seaside trailride, that quickly escalated into a neckbreaking race that ended up with Cloud in a tree, Zack on Angeal, Angeal on his buttocks and a bunch of big yellow birds escaping to the Bodhum wilderness.
Luckily nobody had gotten severely injured and they had spent the remainder of the afternoon searching for their lost mounts.
It had all been rather funny.
A great day, with a whole bunch of happy memories.
Lightning had gained so much those last few days, those weeks. She'd gotten back Serah and Bodhum, had reunited with her childhood friends, had gotten back her comrades too and now she even somewhat got along with Sephiroth again.
He had actually gone out of his way this afternoon to be civil to her and had made a big deal out of helping her up onto her chocobo.
Never had she dared to hope that everything would work out quite so perfectly, never would she have thought she´d see all of them together gathered in one place at the same time, all the people that mattered... And Snow.
Somehow she wished she could just freeze that moment, freeze it, frame it and keep it forever in her heart to go and come back to it in the future whenever she wanted, how often she wanted.
The evening was beautiful, was perfect.
Serah and Lebreau had outdone themselves cooking seafood, her favorite dish, while Lightning herself, useless in the kitchen as usual, had spent the previous two hours trying to help them bake some bread. A futile attempt resulting in something the dog´s might eat, but certainly not something that could be served their guests on a table.
Well, her two friends had made for up for her mistakes a dozen times.
Seafood...
Her mouth watering at the sight of the delicious meal already, Lightning dug in hungrily. She already had forgotten how much she had missed the food from home. It was something unheard of in Midgar, was something unavailable.
Serah, Snow and the Norah guys merrily followed her example.
She was halfway through her first serving when finally she looked up at her comrades faces and found she couldn´t stifle a laugh at taking in the way they looked at the prawns, lobsters and calamari on their plates in front of them.
This time it was her for once, spraying everyone with food, not Angeal, as usual.
She had completely forgotten that with none of them having lived at a beach before, they weren´t exactly used to seafood.
While Zack and Sephiroth seemed brave enough to give it all a try, and Angeal, after skeptically taking a few first bites dug in as usual, it was the way Cloud was eyeing his plate suspiciously and Genesis who had his nose scrunched up as though he'd been served a personal insult again that almost made her choke from trying to hide her obvious amusement.
'Oh come on guys! It's seafood! It's my favourite dish actually!' the pink haired first class managed between bursts of laughter.
The redhead and the blonde rewarding her with incredulous stares, it did very little to dampen her amusement.
Her good mood wasn't destined to last long though, as it was just a few seconds later that Serah took out the breadbasket, not only revealing her own perfectly made loaf of fluffy white bread, but also, to her horror, that damn charred thing she had fabricated in the stove earlier.
Snow the oaf, being the first to realize, he pointed towards the partly burned chunks and started to laugh immediately.
'Hey Serah... Why do you serve our guests that dog food?' he began somewhat playfully.
Genesis, Yuj, Maqui and Gadot catching on next, they all bust out with laughter instantly.
Oh how much Lightning hated that guy!
Snow...
'Well actually...' Serah started, turning to look at her, 'It was Lightning who made that bread. It was her first time, so I figured it´d be rude to just throw it away...'
Sending her sister a withering glance Lightning herself wished nothing more than the things to waste away in the depts of the dustbin.
Her sister's fiancé, picking up a chunk of her failed creation, he curiously held it up against the light to examine it's texture, then tried to give it a squeeze with his giant fingers. The bread as hard as stone, it didn´t budge even a tiny little bit. Didn't really crumble either.
It was a fucking nightmare.
'Maybe you should stick to killing monsters instead of wasting your time in the kitchen Lightning... I mean... you could easily club someone to death with this.' the stupid oaf of a man said, causing the others to erupt in laughter again.
The others busy making fun now of her no doubt miserable cooking skills, if Lightning thought it couldn't have gotten any worse she found she was mistaken dearly.
It was Sephiroth who took a sample next.
Bringing a slice of charred black rock up to his lips he took a brave small bite, chewed on it for a while, then gave a tiny shrug.
Claire Farron completely horrified, she couldn't help but stare.
They could hear the hard charred pieces crunch between his teeth, but the first class general, he ate it all without complain.
The other´s laughter dying down to stifled chuckles, everybody watching on expectantly, the General looked up to meet his former students gaze.
'Well... It actually isn't that bad.' was his final verdict.
Lightning couldn´t help but avert her eyes in shame.
He was a bad liar too, Lightning was aware, but at least it was enough to silence the others.
Thankfully nobody else dared to touch her bread thereafter.
Still, the pink haired warrior, she couldn´t imagine a dinner scenario more embarrassing.
Thank you Serah.
She kept sending her sister angry glares for the rest of the evening but it would do no good. The annoying wench just kept smiling back at her cheerfully, winking at her whenever their eyes caught.
Well, Lightning guessed that was what you had younger siblings for. To have somebody you could count on to get stabbed in the back by.
It was later, when the two of them went back into the house again, carrying in all the dishes to prepare the desert, that the little rat started one of her annoying talks again.
'This guy must really like you.' Serah said once Lightning had put the dirty plates down on the kitchen counter and the two were out of earshot.
'What are you on about again.' Claire Farron rolled her eyes.
'The General...' her younger sister prompted.
'I mean... He actually ate that bread of yours...' she joked, making her sister look away in dismay.
Turning around Lightning made to go back outside when Serah addressed her again, her next comment catching her completely off guard.
'I had been right. It had been him all along, right?' Serah said, giving her a knowing smile.
Lightning didn´t know what to answer.
'It´s the way you look at him that gives you away.' her sister explained.
'Well... What are you waiting for? Why don´t you make the first move?' she added somewhat eagerly.
Claire Farron only stared.
What was it she was waiting for?
Well...
Things were complicated between her and Sephiroth lately, weren´t they?
Serah had no idea...
Choosing to remain silent instead of saying something stupid, Claire Farron just chose to go back to the others.
It was such a beautiful evening. She was not going to let Serah spoil it. Or her own desperate little thoughts.
No way.
'Genesis what exactly is the gift of the goddess?' Zack asked out of nowhere.
It was late in the night already and the six of them former SOLDIER members where lounging on the sandy beach behind the house, watching the dark waves roll by.
From somewhere behind her Lightning heard Angeal Hewley give a tortured groan.
'Oh... Nice of you to ask but that's a question impossible to answer...' the redhead replied instantly.
He was wearing that ridiculous hawaiian shirt again he must have bought somewhere in town.
'It manifests itself differently for everybody.' he explained.
'Yeah... For me it´d be an antidote to your constant drivel.' Sephiroth said dryly, making Zack and Cloud laugh out loud. Lightning couldn´t keep a smile form forming on her face either.
Genesis Rhapsodos' monolgoues could get quite... Well...
Looking over at the silver haired general sitting not too far from her, Lightning could easily make out one of his adorable half-smiles illuminated by the pale white light of the moon. Their eyes locking for a tiny moment, she realized she loved to see him have some fun, to be relaxed, at ease.
Of course she had seen him like this before, on several occasions, but seeing him like this here in Bodhum, it was something different alltogether.
Could Serah be right?
Was there really a chance he liked her too?
He'd written that he'd missed her...
Well... Lightning had missed him to.
She really had.
Genesis Rhapsodos' voice trailing off into one of his lenghty explanations about why the nature of the godess' gift lay in mistery exactly, Lightning's eyes rested on her former mentor's green ones.
It was right then that she felt it again. That very peculiar feeling she had had before, that there was something waking, stirring. Something other than herself, something deep inside her that had once reached out for the stars, the universe, now reaching out for him.
It was a painful longing, was a powerful urge, was the desperate need to fill some empty dark void inside her, fill it with him.
It were the Jenova cells, she was aware now. Knew that they were craving the reunion.
Yes, she knew these things now. Had done her research, understood the theory. Still, nothing could have prepared her for the real thing, for the intensity of it.
It was almost irrestistable. Was almost unbearable. Was maddening. Frightening.
Could he feel it too?
Technically yes, he had to. The jenova cells worked both ways. Worked every way really. Or at least they were supposed to.
But if he did indeed, there was nothing about him that gave him away.
Two peaceful orbs of mako green, glowing slightly in the darkness, looking back at her, the man in question rewarded her with a tiny encouraging smile.
No. There definitely was nothing lost yet. There'd never been anything lost between the two of them. How could there?
They were one of a kind. The only ones of their kind.
