And some more...

Chapter 6:

"And normally you need to wait in the line, but tonight because of everything we get to skip it." Vanille said as she gestured for the trio to follow her.

"I'll wait in the line Vanille. I'm not sitting with her." The silver haired boy said as Vanille just rolled her eyes.

"Fine Hope. Be that way. It is an open invitation. Although you and I both know you aren't ever going to get past the north building if you keep all this hate for someone you don't even know all that well." Vanille said shrugging her shoulders as she started to lead the now slightly skittish duo out of the line as she knew that Hope was going to continue his sulking and even muttering outright lies like he has been. "Ignoring him, normally the meals are at eight, noon and six. But if you have a medical condition or if you are experiencing certain side effects of your medication that can all change which your doctors here will explain if you fall into that category." Vanille said as she just took a deep breath as she walked up to the counter and smiled. "Hey Kain. These are the two new people... also Hope is back and in the line. Still his crazy self and is being a... how do I put this tactfully... an ass."

Nodding towards the new comers, Kain just took a deep breath. "I'm Kain, the head chef of this building. Tonight we've got stroganoff. If you've got dietary restrictions, don't stay quiet about it. We need to know."

"We are just vegetarians." The boy said softly as Vanille just smiled as she could see Kain just smiling at them as he picked up two bowls. "What are in the other pots?" The boy continued to ask as Kain just continued to smile at him.

"Different types of the same dish, all involving meats. What starch would you like to eat? We've got rice, potatoes and pasta." Kain clarified as he could see them nodding and sharing a simple look.

"Pasta for the both of us." The girl said as Kain just nodded his head at them and reached into one pot to grab a large spoonful and began to simply just make the dishes they requested. "So Vanille... what is so bad about this woman? Hope seems pretty level headed."

"Not when it comes to Lightning." Vanille said as Kain handed the two trays out for the people with Vanille to take. "And can you give me that beef one with some rice? The mushroom one last time gave me a tummy ache." Vanille asked, patting her stomach a little as Kain just glared lightly at her.

"You ate nineteen cookies before you took a bit of it, then turned to eat nineteen more. That wasn't my cooking that was you eating so many cookies trying to keep up with Lightning." Kain said as Vanille just pouted at him as he handed her a bowl. "Enjoy." Kain said with a smile Vanille accepted the bowl and started to lead the duo towards the cutlery.

"Anyways, you talk to whoever is on the counter there, they'll give you the options, then you get some forks... or spoons... or whatever you need then find a table. But Lightning already has one... don't worry about it if she talks to herself a bit, she is mostly harmless. Just don't walk behind her and if she says give her space then give her some. But she normally just eats a lot due to her body just going through the stuff quickly. It is actually a bit of a marvel." Vanille said as she led the group towards the lone table in the corner where Lightning had been sitting as she scooped up a mouthful of the food.

"Light, I want you to meet Lann and Reynn. They are the people from the east building I was telling you about." Vanille said as she placed her bowl next to where Lightning was. "Lann, Reynn, meet Lightning. Don't believe the rumours. She is super nice." Vanille said as she quickly looked around as she started to jump onto the bench before walking over and plopping down next to Lightning. "Also... that is super against the rules. Not so much from them wanting to be buzz kills, but for safety. I just am not in the mood to walk around the table... plus I have the valid reason of how I can't read the signs."

"Vanille... don't get them in trouble. And you know you can read those signs." Lightning said as Vanille just pouted as she stared at Lightning.

"Yeah but the docs don't know how good I can read..." Vanille said with a pout as she picked up a spoon. "Anyways, once we are done eating, I was asked to bring you up to Rosa. It is probably just to get used to you two and you both used to her and so you three can go over everything. Because not a lot of information is transferred from one building to another. Just really your medications, and if you have any pressing allergies. Like how Lightning is allergic to some of the paralytics they use when patients are getting out of hand to a dangerous degree. Instead she gets taken down by nine or ten orderlies as they try and hold her still long enough to get some melatonin into her and letting that take effect. But that hasn't had to have been done for over a year... and in her defence the guy tried to slug Lightning first."

"In his defence... I didn't listen to the not invading his space warning. I know how much that annoys me. I should have known better than to invade it during arts and crafts." Lightning said as she just started to stand up. "And I need to go up and get my blood sugar checked. I only had two bowls and you know how screwy my blood can get."

"We'll be here."

"And this would be Rosa's office." Vanille said as she rapped her knuckles on the door. Just going to be happy that once they were in there she would be allowed to go to Lightning and they could just cuddle up as she read to her. Especially after she felt so happy that she could at least recognise some of the words that came up.

"Come in." Rosa said as Vanille just smiled as she opened the door and began to walk in. "Ah Vanille, and I'm to assume these are the new arrivals?" Rosa asked as she stood up.

"Yup. These are Lann and Reynn. Hope didn't want to eat with us because he is still afraid of Lightning and refused to come up" Vanille said as she could see Rosa gesturing for the seats across from the table as the duo walked around Vanille to have a seat in the chairs that the doctor pointed to. "If that is everything... can I go now? Lightning promised to read to me and teach me a bit more."

"You may go Vanille. I'll call Hope up later. There is a lot more I need to discuss with him. Which will take at least an hour if not two." Rosa began as she just took a deep breath. "I'll lead them to their rooms from here. Go and enjoy your reading." Rosa said as she waved Vanille off who smiled brightly as she started to skip out of the room. Just happy that her duties were done. And she could relax with Lightning.

Practically running down the stairs, Vanille just smiled as she got more and more giddy at the thought of being able to cuddle up next to Lightning as she was being read some story and Lightning occasionally letting her read a sentence or two.

Humming to herself as she rounded the corner Vanille could feel herself getting more excited as she started to skip towards the door that she needed. Quickly tossing it open, Vanille just smiled as she could see Lightning just simply working out.

A sight that no matter how often Vanille had seen it, it had always been one of the best things that Vanille could watch. "Please tell me that you are going to take your shirt off soon. I mean you must be getting sweaty." Vanille said as she quickly scurried over to the bed as she could see Lightning pushing herself up onto her knees. "Please? It can be my reward for reading so much without you needing to help me."

"Fine." Lightning said with a smirk as she reached down and quickly tugged off her hoodie and shirt before tossing it onto the bed next to Vanille who had started to jump happily in her spot as she clapped her hands happily. "The bra stays on though until I see you write two paragraphs like hop on pop with the same rhyming scheme." Lightning says as Vanille just fell backwards letting out a groan.

"But that is the hard part!" Vanille complained before she realised what she was looking at instead of what she wanted. Quickly sitting upright again, Vanille just smiled as she could see Lightning quickly jumping onto her feet as she started to jog in place a bit as Vanille just smiled brightly before she dropped to the floor to perform some more pushups. "I forgot entirely what we were talking about..."

"Bra stays on until I read two paragraphs of you continuing on the style of the book you read today." Lightning said as she quickly jumped up to perform some jumping jacks. "Vanille... you're drooling."

Rolling her eyes as she stopped her working out, Lightning walked up to Vanille and covered her eyes. "Your drooling again Vanille. I feel like every single time I take my clothes off to work out this happens." Lightning continued as Vanille raised a hand to just wipe the spittle from the corner of her mouth.

"It isn't fair. You are pretty and worst of all you know you are pretty. And that I can't think straight when you get like that." Vanille said as Lightning just rolled her eyes as she just knew that Vanille wasn't going to see her. "Can I get the reward for the writing now and just do it tomorrow?"

"No, you won't be incentivised to do it otherwise. But I'll stop working out for now so as to not make your brain melt through your ears." Lightning said as Vanille quickly pulled back to just look at her. "No, it can't actually do that. I was making a joke."

"Don't joke like that... you know I don't know what the brain can and can't do. I mean I didn't even know that the blood is what the body needs to fight off colds." Vanille said softly as Lightning just shook her head as she began to climb onto the bed behind Vanille who just seemed to smile as they began to lay down.

"I'm sorry. But come on. I'll read some more to you. And seeing as we finished off the last book you know what that means."

"New book time... yay. I'll get the next one." Vanille said as she was about to jump off the bed when Lightning caught her hands.

"No. I thought about what we talked about. So I went to the library and found a pretty easy lengthy book for me and you to read." Lightning said as Vanille just smiled as she reached and picked up the book that had been resting there. "It is called 'The Greatest Ship'. I remember my sister and me reading it as part of our schooling which often led into our history lessons." Lightning began as Vanille just felt her brow furrow. "It is a fictional telling of a real life cruise ship that unfortunately sank. Most of the people made it off, and it is one of the reasons my family's name became worth so much more."

"Is it sad?" Vanille asked softly looking at Lightning, not wanting the first big book she was going to read with the pink haired woman being a sad one.

"It's an alternate timeline of that. It is about a small girl and her talking chocobo chick helping to prevent it." Lightning said with a smile as she could see Vanille just brightening up as she began to get comfortable as she snatched the book from Lightning's hands before quickly flipping it open as Lightning just smiled and began to pull her back.

"Why didn't you say that? I'm a sucker for chocobo chicks. Especially in tv shows... and recently books. It reminds me of home." Vanille said as she placed her finger onto the page.

"I've gathered. One of the reasons I picked it. Another is because I know you always want to get some grasp on what I've done before, just so happens that this book contains a chocobo chick, a mystery, an evil organisation and a happy ending." Lightning said as Vanille just smiled brighter.

"Yay..." Vanille said as she began to bouncy a little again. "Chapter one..."

Covering his mouth Cecil began to shiver a little as he quickly ejected the disk and dropped it onto the ground before slamming his foot down onto it shattering it into tiny pieces. Something that Rosa could agree with. "And you say there is more than a thousand hours more of that?" Cecil said softly as Rosa nodded gently. "How... how... how is she?"

"Believe me Cecil. I wish I knew. She just seems not bothered by this all and talks about it like we talk about the weather." Rosa said as she just accepted the hug coming from her husband. "But you can understand now a bit better why I'm not typically keen on you holding me after I watched something new instead of something that I've had to intentionally numb myself to knowing that we'd be watching it. And she was able to maintain all her sanity bar for some PTSD, and auditory hallucinations. You know provided you don't trigger a repressed memory or surprise her at night when she feels like she is going to be attacked." Rosa said with a calm tone as she could just feel Cecil freeze a little.

"I don't believe you..." Cecil said as he just took a deep breath. "Because there is bound to be something worse in her mind."

"Shockingly there isn't. Not even a trace of suicidal thoughts. Some self harm when she is trying to protect people... but nothing else."

"She is either insanely lucky or insanely tough."

"It is both. I mean her and Vanille thankfully do compliment each other and the only issue is that they are still adamant to be dating and Vanille keeps pestering me every other day to be allowed to share a room together." Rosa spoke softly as she separated from the hug and started to take a seat when she could see Cecil just rubbing his eyes.

"If them dating and breaking up is the worst case scenario for her... I shudder to think how strong she could be at full mental health. I mean her younger sister who I met has brokered several peace deals... and she wasn't groomed to lead the family." Cecil spoke as he took a deep breath as Rosa simply nodded her head in understanding. "I mean... I can't even begin to imagine how little what I've seen compares. And you're positive it gets worse?"

"I swear that Yuna and myself have seen a lot worse. And Lightning even claims that one of those segments is a part even she blocks out... but nothing of what you've seen comes even close to what I've watched." Rosa said as she just took a deep breath. "And you can imagine I want to talk to you about it more... like a lot more because I really miss your comforting hugs and you just holding me... but was all she has allowed for you to see. And it was only after I assured her you would destroy it once you got done watching it..."

"What is she afraid of? Her sister would destroy anyone that published it." Cecil said as Rosa just took a few steps away from him as she shivered a little.

"I feel like it is less about that which she is well aware of... more so... she doesn't want it to become the new standard people shoot for when they are trying to be awful... which is a lot closer to her character than fearful of people trying to attack her character. She freely gives out information about herself." Rosa said as she took a deep breath. "Seriously, you've got no idea how freely she gives information. She even talked to Kain about it and he was shocked at how casual she is with it."

"The fact anyone can be casual about it... I mean... you know how I've done a lot of terrible things... especially under your father?" Cecil spoke as Rosa nodded her head in understanding about what he was getting at. Or at least what she had hoped he was getting at. "I'd take doing those a thousand times over every day if I didn't need to watch more of that... let alone actually live it." Cecil said as Rosa simply nodded her head.

"I don't envy what she has experienced no matter how perfect from the outside her family life is. That video is proof if she can heal like she has been... then there is no one that is too far gone... and suicide is all kinds of stupid. Seriously the idea has never entered her mind... but could you blame her if she did try?"

"If what you say about the videos you have is true... then no. I'd say that would have been the healthiest option... but if we ever have a daughter... I'd be happy if she was even a fraction of the mental strength as Lightning."

"Yuna and I both are in agreement with you there... but I wouldn't want any children we'd have to go through that..."

"Agreed."

Author's Note:

And there we go. Another chapter is done.