Chapter 4:

Gently fixing her position on the seat, Lightning just took a deep breath as she proceeded to get comfortable on the chair, simply laying down as she could see Rosa leaning back in her seat as she got comfortable.

"You are aware there is a couch just behind this right? I don't mind which chair I sit in. Or which chair I need to move." Rosa said as Lightning just sighed gently.

"I don't particularly care. I'm pretty comfortable here. Plus you have that same look in your eyes that Yuna had earlier... like you are going to hug me if I let you and I really don't want or need another hug. Why do you both always seem to want a hug from me when you watch some of that?" Lightning asked as Rosa just took a deep breath and leaned back as she crossed one leg over the other.

"I know for me... it is a comfort. It is a reminder that you are in fact alive and somehow... sane... ish." Rosa said as she took a deep breath. "Mind you I'm a little pissed at Yuna. I thought it was my turn for the hug. But I'll chalk that up to her being sleep deprived." Rosa continued as she just began to rub her eyes.

"It wasn't that bad. Once you get used to the thought that no one is coming for you... and you can't escape... it just becomes routine. And at least my Dad did try and get it through to them that he wasn't going to budge on the topic... they just thought he was bluffing." Lightning said as she just sighed gently. "Those videos are what happens when other people try and play the game my family has mastered. Granted to an extreme degree... but the point still stands. You can't manipulate us and the only reason we let you play is to humour you... or to make you crash down harder. At least if you believe what my grandfather always said. And I tend to. He was a lot like me and hated my Father and his ideas that we should in reality start to apply pressure to some of the kingdoms, as to prevent us losing money if they collapsed."

"But your family isn't held up for money... seriously... Serah donated and I wish I was joking about this, one hundred and sixty million for holiday presents alone this year and to decorate areas and literally couldn't grasp the concept of how in reality it would cost much less than that... and she has promised to donate much more than that next year. Even showed me the trust or whatever you want to call it that she created... there was literally twelve figures before the decimal point... and that isn't even counting what your mother gave us or what both have donated towards understanding mental health and the campaigns to make it less and less of a stigma and somehow under her doing all that your family has gotten richer somehow?"

"I told you when my father died that as a Farron you need to be careful with what you say. Especially when you are the head. She also bailed out a Kingdom and brokered peace between several including two about to go to war. So in her helping and doing the right thing... we prosper... if she did the wrong thing, we'd still prosper. There is a reason people use the phrase untouchable to describe my family... even if it has caused people to become vicious... up there when they find out we bleed like everyone else." Lightning said as she could see Rosa quickly covering her mouth as she just took a deep breath as if she was trying to stomp down her own nausea. "Which part?"

"The mentions of you bleedi-" Rosa began before she cut herself off before placing her hand over her mouth. "Just... I've never seen someone get stabbed so many times... and then..."

"That is because it isn't a commonly done thing. Unless you want to kill the person. I've looked it up a few years ago. I seriously doubted that I could have lived through it if I was a lesser person and wasn't filled with so much hate and anger towards my father." Lightning said as she could see Rosa just taking a deep breath. "You feeling better?"

"Should be." Rosa said, taking a deep breath. "Seeing as you brought it up, how are you feeling about me and Yuna still watching it?" Rosa asked as Lightning just began to grumble softly as she got comfortable all over again.

"I'm not crazy about all the hugging. So I've been stabbed and electrocuted... and drowned... and had multiple bones broken... and had to patch up where I've been stabbed. At least where I could reach. It isn't all that bad. You know once I figured out how to tie a stitch properly. And they typically wouldn't be that cruel until I was healed up again. Or at least until the wounds closed up." Lightning said as Rosa just sighed. "And no. That doesn't sound like a sad thing to me. People may be crueler than anyone can imagine... but they are also a lot stronger."

"On that front we both can agree on. The videos are proof of the former and you are proof of the latter." Rosa said as she just took a deep breath. "On a different topic, can you stop Vanille requesting a double room? I don't even support your two relationship..." Rosa began before she just paled a little. "Not because it is wrong to be attracted to her. It is however wrong to be in one with a patient while you both are healing because of the worst case scenario would send you both tumbling all the way back to the starting point."

"I doubt that would happen to me... the voice even doubts it. But any time I say something stupid and hurt Vanille it screams at me and demands I apologise immediately."

"Does that happen often?" Rosa asked as Lightning grumbled softly. It simply spoke volumes to Rosa without anything else needing to be said. "How often?"

"That I intentionally do it? Never. But I've said something stupid and ended up needing to eat crow a few too many times. I mean how am I meant to respond when someone asks if I need to write what she perceives as me just insulting my father and mother... despite the fact that I wasn't so I called her paranoid. And don't get me started on when I write a letter... granted I could have used more tact... and possibly less hurtful words... but she proceeded to nearly cry and I apologised that I didn't think what I was saying but she shouldn't be that paranoid. I don't hide things from her." Lightning said in a soft tone as she just started to sit up properly. "But even if those times still aren't overly common. Like once every few months. I'm just not fond of eating crow."

"Nobody wants to. But if you have to, how does the saying go? If you must eat crow it is best to do so while it is young and tender. Something like that. But I think the voice is missing out on the key issue. You need to see it from Vanille's perspective. She is someone who never had many things growing up. Things that people often take for granted. So she does have a low sense of self worth. Something that isn't really helped by the fact that you seemingly were given everything that she never had and extras. As such she probably feels like she doesn't measure up to you as worthy at points." Rosa spoke as she lightly tapped her knee as if trying to think about how she was meant to phrase the next part. "Added with the fact that she has the same nasty habit you do and tends to bottle things up for any sort of reason... so all that she tends to lash out when those bottles are reaching their capacity."

Sighing a little, Lightning crossed her arms over her chest as she just took a deep breath. "You act like I had a great childhood... for a decade people that mattered tended to not really care about what happened to me... one of which just actually wanted me to die... and the others just wanted me to suffer. None of which really cared about how I was feeling."

"I'm not saying you didn't have a valid reason as to bottling your emotions up. Which for the record you don't now. But the habit isn't something that is exclusive to you. Vanille does it more out of a sense of altruism. She figures everyone else's problems should take a sense of priority. Then when they break and we force her to talk about it... then she gets a little mad." Rosa explained as she just smiled at Lightning. "Meanwhile, you bottle things up for the fact that no one really cared when you were young and a case closer to being a martyr. At least when it came to your sister and now Vanille."

"I... okay you have a point. I do sometimes do stupid things to make sure Serah and Vanille are well looked after. But... people are beyond cruel. And who knows it better than someone who lived through a constant shit show of a life."

"With what I've seen of what you went through... I can verify. You can safely say people can be god awful towards others. But you also aren't the only person, and not all people are. Just because you have the potential to be an awful person, it doesn't mean they are. The world sadly isn't like that." Rosa said in a soft tone as she just took a deep breath as she looked at the clock.

She knew that this was going to be a case of a mountain of an uphill battle but she also didn't have very long on the time left of their meeting to bring it up. "Lightning, do you remember Cecil?" Rosa asked as Lightning just nodded her head. "He has asked if I could share some of the video with him. He is a psychiatrist and does understand that it can't leave his lips if he is given that privilege, and it would only be a tiny portion."

Taking a deep breath, Lightning just started to take a deep breath as she felt a little lost. "But he isn't my doctor... what is stopping him from talking about it?" Lightning asked as Rosa just simply smiled at her as if it was a trivial fix that they would need to make.

"If you are worried about that, I can organise a meeting later today where you can talk to him in my office... thereby making him one of your doctors. Or you can simply deny me the right if you would rather that." Rosa spoke as Lightning just stared into her eyes.

"Do you trust him not to talk about it to anyone? And in general trust him?"

"Lightning, I'm not going to say this because he is my husband and we've been married since before you were born or the fact that he is a veteran. But I'd trust Cecil with my life. No matter what, he has always done what he feels is the right thing even going against my father's wishes which caused him to be nearly drowned. And I'd go as far as to say that if he told me to jump off a cliff... I would know that I'd be safe." Rosa said as Lightning just took a deep breath to calm herself.

"If you trust him... you can show him whatever it was that caused you to gag like that just thinking about me bleeding. Just destroy the copy fully once he is done." Lightning said as Rosa raised a hand to cover her mouth. "What is so wrong about it?"

"A lot of it is. But I'll be sure to show him that two hour segment."

"Okay."

Sitting down on the bed, Lightning just smiled as she could see Vanille skipping into her room before she jumped up to fall down onto Lightning's lap. No matter how many times, Lightning had seen her do this, it still brought a smile to her face. It was as if this was the best thing that could ever possibly happen to Vanille and she wasn't going to wait long enough for Lightning to even move her hands.

Just wrapping Lightning in a hug, Vanille just took a deep breath as she felt Lightning return the hug the best she could with one arm. Something that didn't really matter to Vanille. She just knew that she was going to enjoy the moment she did have.

"Don't be mad." Vanille said as Lightning looked towards her with a slight curious glare in her eyes. "Nothing bad. Just I found out there are some new people coming in from the east building and I offered to let them eat dinner with us... and word has it Hope is the first person since my being admitted is being moved from the north building back here... and I kind of invited him to join us as well." Vanille continued as Lightning just took a deep breath and looked into the worried emerald orbs.

"Why would I be mad? Hope is a jackass that constantly thinks I'm the devil and wouldn't come... as for the people from the east building... why were they even there?" Lightning asked as Vanille just frowned and lulled her head back.

"I don't know. I couldn't find out. From the main theories... they just kind of broke down one day and just stayed stock still for months baring to walk around from their house to the coffee shop they worked part time at. And when they came to they swore up and down there was a talking fox that followed them around and even told one of them he should start jumping off tall buildings because he is stupid." Vanille gasped out in such a long winded manner before she simply took a deep breath. "They are twins though... so it was kind of weird that they had the same issue... but their mother became super worried about them especially because they said she was dead and acted like people were out to kill them." Vanille said before she simply nuzzled into Lightning where she smiled faintly. "They seem pretty nice though. You know not counting the hallucinations, minor suicidal tendencies and paranoia. Even though the rumours also say that they sleep in the same bed which according to you is a bit gross. I just don't get that."

Smiling as she freed her other hand to hold onto Vanille, Lightning just took a deep breath. "It is weird when it is brother and sister Vanille. At least depending on their age. It isn't gross if there is no relation between them." Lightning explained as she smiled at her as Vanille pulled back with a look of question. "So yes it is still fine if you sleep in the same bed as Fang or if it wasn't against the rules in the same bed as me."

"Good. And I swear the second they would let us, you would not get me out of this bed short of food... the bathroom... showers and that would be it. They would need to drag me to my group stuff... even music and arts and crafts." Vanille said as she began to bounce on Lightning's lap "So how has your day been?"

"Rosa asked if she could show Cecil some of the video of me being tortured for some reason. And any time I mentioned me bleeding she proceeded to just barely hold back herself wanting to vomit." Lightning said as Vanille just began to look at her curious. "Some of the scars you always love to trace when my shirt is hiked up are from people stabbing me and shoving things such as sex toys and penises into the holes." Lightning said as she could see some more confusion being present on Vanille's face.

"What is a sex toy? I mean if it is a toy in the bedroom when you have sex... aren't all toys sex toys?" Vanille asked as Lightning just chuckled. One that did let Vanille know something. "How far am I off? And what are they?" Vanille asked as she rocked Lightning to lay down on the bed with her just laying on top.

"They are things people can use to stimulate themselves to orgasm... or in some cases deny themselves of that... people are weird." Lightning started as she just took a deep breath as she smiled at the feeling of Vanille's hand suddenly starting to trace the marks that she had long since memorised of their locations. "As for why they stabbed me to use those holes... I couldn't tell you. You know besides just trying to be as graphic as possible to get a stone wall of a man to do something that he never intended on doing and instead watched that and so many others so much that it was apparently difficult to get them transferred onto one disk"

"When I say this I don't mean anything bad about you... but I'm glad he is dead. I just hope it wasn't a quick death with what he put you through." Vanille said softly as she just sighed happily.

"No one would assume you meant anything bad towards me. The man was a monster and you haven't even and hopefully never will see the tapes. Once Yuna and Rosa are done I already asked them to destroy it." Lightning said as she just smiled as Vanille began to let out a somewhat happy sounding noise.

"I don't want to watch it. I'm just happy you are here."

"I'm happy I'm here too."

'Gay'

"Shut up."

Author's Note:

And done.