Sharing Is Caring

Their trip was supposed to be quick, and it was supposed to be fun. It turned out to be neither. They'd barely made it halfway up the mountain road before the blizzard struck. It was luck more than anything else that let them reach the hotel before all the snow buried their van.

"Finally." Diana shivered and climbed up onto one of the chairs in the hotel lobby. "I thought I was going to die out there!"

The little girl's statement was not that much of an exaggeration. Due to her small stature, Fang had been forced to carry Diana into the lobby. No matter how energetic she was, there was no way that Diana would have been able to slog through snow that went up to her chest.

"Well, you're safe now." Fang tugged off her parka and wrapped it around Diana. All of her expeditions into the mountains had given her a healthy respect for the power of the weather, as well as a thick skin when it came to the cold. "Okay. Stay here with Averia and Claire while I go help your mom reserve a room."

Diana nodded and crawled over to her older sister and cousin. The three of them huddled together for warmth. Averia pulled Diana into her lap and wrapped one arm around Claire. They made quite a picture, actually, three faces sticking out from under Fang's big parka.

"All right." Fang ambled over to the counter and slung one arm around Lightning. The other woman had left her parka on, and the garment made it all but impossible to notice her slim figure. "What's the hold up?"

"They've only got one room left." Vanille jabbed one finger at the poor chap behind the desk as both Serah and Lightning added their glares to the mix. "One room!"

The young man held up his hands in surrender. "Look, I'm sorry, ma'am, but you're not the only ones taking shelter from the storm here. Nobody saw this blizzard coming. We've had more than a dozen vehicles stop here for the night. That room is the only room we have."

"But –" Vanille was about to jump over the desk when Fang grabbed her by the collar of her parka.

"If it's the only room, it's the only room." Fang smiled. "We'll take it, thank you." As the young man handed the key to the room over, she turned and waved at the kids. "Come on, you lot. We've got a room. Let's go get warm."

The seven of them – Fang, Lightning, Serah, Vanille, Claire, Averia, and Diana – tromped over to one of the elevators before making their way down a winding corridor to their room. The hotel was one of the biggest on the mountain, and every room was full. Along the way, they met a few other groups who must have only recently arrived. Most of them still had their parkas on, and quite a few were shivering and rubbing their hands together despite the warmth of the hotel.

Honestly, the trip wasn't supposed to go like this. With Snow and Hope away on a mission, Fang and Lightning had hoped to take Serah, Vanille, and the kids out for a weekend of camping in the mountains. But the blizzard had put paid to that.

"All right, guys." Fang opened the hotel room with a flourish and a bow. "Welcome to our new home."

"Well." Serah stared. "I suppose it's better than freezing to death."

It was – but probably not by much. The room had clearly been designed with two people in made. But the staff had somehow managed to cram three beds into it. Two of them were side by side while the third lay lengthwise at the feet of the other two. The arrangement meant that the beds took up almost the entire room.

Lightning sighed. From the look on her face, Fang was certain that the other woman had already come to the same conclusion that she had. Their sleeping arrangements would be the opposite of pleasant. "I guess we should get settled –"

"Yay! Three beds!" Diana darted past Fang – the time in the lobby had restored her energy levels to their obnoxious maximum. She shucked off her soggy clothes and then hurled herself onto the closest bed. The little girl bounced right off it and onto one of the other beds. "This is awesome! Come on, guys. We have to jump on all of them!"

"Diana, maybe you should have a bath first." Fang's lips twitched. It had been a while since she'd jumped up and down on a bed. She had better things to do when she was in bed, and most of them involved Lightning and a distinct lack of clothes. Those things were also quite inappropriate given her present company. "We can dry our clothes out in front of the heater."

"And then can I jump up and down on the beds?" Diana had chosen to lie down on the bed and stretch her arms and legs out. There was nothing better than a really big, soft bed.

"Maybe." Lightning went over to pick Diana up. She tucked the girl under one arm and bundled her into the shower before she went back to look through their bags for Diana's spare clothes. It wasn't long, however, before Averia and Claire were forced to go into the bathroom to keep Diana from either drowning herself or flooding the room.

With the three kids bathing, the four adults were left with the unpleasant task of deciding who should sleep where.

"Okay." Fang nodded sagely. "Lightning and I can take one bed and –"

"Not happening." Serah folded her arms over her chest and scowled. "Not a chance."

"Serah –" Lightning barely got the word out before Vanille cut in.

"Yeah, I'm with Serah. You and Fang are not sharing a bed." The redhead grabbed Fang and pulled her toward one bed as Serah grabbed Lightning and pulled her toward another bed. "I know how you two are. If we put you two in the same bed, then I have absolutely zero doubt that you two will get busy, and then everyone in this room is going to end up mentally scarred."

"We are not that bad, Vanille." Lightning tried to pull away from Serah, but the younger woman had a grip like iron.

"Really?" Vanille raised one eyebrow. "Remember that time we left you and Fang alone in the car at the rest stop while Serah and I went to buy some snacks?"

"No…" Lightning tried to look innocent, she really did. But she wasn't fooling anybody, least of all Fang. Fang remembered what they've gotten up too very clearly. The inside of the car was cramped, but Lightning was wonderfully flexible. And Vanille and Serah had taken their sweet time buying the snacks.

"You so remember!" Vanille growled. "I don't know about Serah, but I never want to see that much of you again!"

"Hey!" Serah's jaw clenched. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means." Vanille tugged Fang toward the bed. "Fang, you are not sharing a bed with Lightning. I'd prefer it you didn't mentally scar me more than you already have. Or is that what you want, to mentally scar your favourite little sister?"

"You are my only little sister." Fang rolled her eyes and let Vanille pull her over to the bed. But Vanille did have a point. Even after all these years of marriage, Lightning was still far too sexy for her own good. Not that Fang minded. In fact, she happened to think it was pretty awesome. "Fine, we'll do things your way."

"Which means I'll be sharing with Serah then, right?" Lightning ran one hand through her hair. "While you and Vanille share."

"Hmm…" Vanille giggled. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea. With you and Serah sharing a bed, I might end up getting mentally scarred anyway – oof!"

Serah had just punched Vanille in the gut. The redhead folded like a paper bag and sank to the floor, her hands on her stomach.

"What's wrong with Aunt Vanille?" Diana ambled out of the bathroom in her pyjamas and poked Vanille with one foot. "Does she have a stomach ache?"

"You could say that." Vanille crawled over to her bed. "I'm sharing this bed with your mommy, Diana."

"And your Aunt Serah and I have this one." Lightning took off her parka and stretched. "Once the kids are done, we should all have a shower and then head to bed."

"That means this is my bed." Diana leapt onto the third bed and hugged it. "All mine!"

"It's not just yours." Averia had finished showering too. Unlike Diana who wore Gary-print pyjamas, she'd opted for a plain blue set. "So move over."

Diana looked about furtively. Clearly, Averia's attempt to secure a reasonable portion of the bed was yet another example of the tyranny of older sisters. That left her with no choice but to defend her territory – to the death.

What followed was Diana's valiant attempt to defend her rightful territory. To Fang and the others, however, it was more of a massacre. Averia simply used her superior size, speed, and strength to gently – but firmly – claim her half of the bed. But that equilibrium only lasted until Claire came back and hopped onto the bed as well.

"Move over." Claire grinned. "We can share this bed between the three of us."

"What?" Diana jumped to her feet. "But why do the three of us have to be in one bed?"

"Because we're the smallest," Averia said. "And we all know that you'd end up crawling into my bed anyway."

To Fang's amusement, Diana didn't bother to argue. Instead, she just latched onto her big sister's middle. "It's because you're so cuddly. You're way better than a pillow!"

"I am not cuddly." Averia tried to pry Diana off, but the cuddling had given her little sister superhuman strength.

"Yes, you are, actually." Claire joined in, making it a group hug. "See?"

"Does that remind you of anyone?" Fang smirked at Lightning. "Being cuddly must be a Farron family trait." Her eyes twinkled. "Although I'll have to check just to be sure."

"Oh no." Lightning backed away as Fang advanced. But Serah was there to keep her in place, and Vanille was right there as well. "Don't even think about –"

"Everyone hug, Lightning!" Serah shouted.

"Gah!"

It took Lightning a minute to stop struggling, and by then everyone in the room was hugging her. When they finally pulled away, it was Serah who was the last to let go. That prompted another giggle from Vanille.

"And here I thought Fang was the one married to your sister…"

Serah didn't reply with words. If a punch to the gut weren't enough to discourage Vanille, she'd just have to go with something a little bit stronger. She grabbed a pillow and then whacked her friend over the head. The blow actually sent Vanille crashing into one of the beds, but Serah wasn't about to let her off that easily. The pink-haired woman continued to pummel the other woman without mercy.

Claire watched her mother massacre her aunt and grabbed a pillow of her own. "Pillow fight!"

There was a split-second of silence before the others moved. The battle was on.

Chaos reigned as sister turned against sister, mother against daughter. At the heart of it all was Serah. Vanille's teasing didn't usually get to her, but the poor weather combined with her hours spent in the van as they chugged through the snow had left her in a very, very bad mood.

Fang should have been busy helping Vanille, but she was too busy laughing – until Lightning wiped the smile off her face with a well-aimed pillow. Wife or not, Fang wasn't about to let that go without some retaliation. Unfortunately, pillows were closer to swords, and Lightning was much better with a sword. The score was soon 2-0 in favour of the Farrons with the Yun and the Dia at the mercy of the pink-haired harridans.

And what about the girls? It was a struggle for territory. To make up for her disadvantage in size, Diana had grabbed a second pillow and was busy whacking away at her sister and cousin – not that it was doing much. Averia and Claire were determined to deal with each other first before turning on Diana.

It was a good fifteen minutes before they finally stopped.

"Okay." Serah got to her feet and dragged in a deep breath. "I'm going to go have a shower now."

Vanille whimpered and twitched on the ground. "What did you put in that pillow, Serah? Rocks? I think you broke my spine."

"Oh, stop complaining." Fang glared at Lightning. The other woman had clearly gotten the better of her. "You're fine."

"I am not." Vanille made a gagging noise. "I think Serah ruptured my spleen."

"Keep talking and I will." Serah grinned. "Ah, I feel much better now."

"Because violence always makes a Farron feel better – agh!" Lightning's pillow caught Vanille square in the face.

"Quit while you're ahead, Dia."

X X X

It was took another hour before everyone was showered and ready for bed. Fang had wanted to have a shower with Lightning, but Serah and Vanille had vetoed to that idea. Instead, they had to shower alone. Fang passed the time imagining what it would be like to slip in with Lightning only to realise what a bad idea that was when the other woman came out looking absolutely delectable in a pair of pyjamas with her hair damp and her cheeks flushed.

"Fang," Vanille said. "I can tell what you're thinking. You better not confuse me with Lightning while you're asleep."

"Oh, be quiet." Fang smiled at Lightning. They could always catch up when they got home. Maybe they could even give Snow and Hope the kids for a day or two. "Let's just get to sleep."

But sleep, as it turned out, was not going to come that easily.

X X X

Averia couldn't sleep, and not just because she was thinking about the big school project that was due in next week. And it wasn't because she wasn't tired – she was, very much so. But it was hard to sleep in the position she was in.

Somehow, she had ended up in the middle of the bed. Diana was curled up to her front, and she was all pointy elbows and knobby knees. Really, how could her sister be so small and skinny when she ate so much? And if that wasn't bad enough, Diana's hair was doing its usual thing and poking her in the eye. It was a miracle that she wasn't blind yet. And it wasn't like she could move Diana either. Her little sister was like a barnacle. It didn't seem to matter that Diana was tiny – she was impossible to pry off.

And then there was Claire. Her cousin had never been the clingy type, but it was hard to be sure. Maybe she was clingy, and she simply never got the chance to act that way since she lived next door as opposed to sharing a room with Averia like Diana did.

Claire had chosen to snuggle up to Averia's back, and her hair had fallen forward onto Averia's face. Now, Claire's hair wasn't nearly as pointy as Diana's, but there was no way Averia could sleep with so much of it on her face. To make matters worse, Claire had also decided to use her as a teddy bear, which meant that Averia's arms were trapped firmly against her sides.

Was this what being a big sister was all about? No wonder her parents could be so grouchy sometimes.

And then, somehow, it managed to get worse.

Diana began to mumble in her sleep. One of her elbows caught Averia in the ribs, and one of her knees bumped into Averia's thigh.

"No, Gary! You have to run! Don't let my mom spear you! No, Gary! No!" Diana thrashed a moment longer before she awakened. Her head jerked up sharply, and the top of her head thumped into Averia's chin.

Averia hissed, certain that she tasted blood, and her own head jerked back into Claire. "Ouch!"

Claire cried out and slid off the bed. She made a frantic grab for the covers, but all she managed to do was grab Averia and Diana. All three of them ended up on the floor in a heap. For a moment, there was absolute silence. Then Diana spoke, and Averia thought she summed it up very well.

"Owie."

X X X

Fang was not having a wonderful night either. She had dozed off quickly enough with Vanille snuggled up to her back. It had been a while since they'd done this – she spent most of her nights snuggled up to Lightning now – but she and Vanille had shared a bed fairly often when they'd been younger. At first it had been for warmth. They'd been orphans, and they hadn't had the money for a lot of blankets or two beds. Then the war had come. Sharing a bed had been as much about keeping warm as reminding each other that they were still alive and everything was okay.

In the years since, she'd forgotten most of Vanille's bad habits, but the redhead had done a fine job of reminding her. Fang had woken in the middle of the night to find something – or someone – tugging on her hair. She had tried to turn around, but Vanille had established a death grip on her middle. The tugging sensation continued, followed by a sucking noise. Vanille was chewing on Fang's hair in her sleep.

"I like ice cream," Vanille mumbled. "Especially strawberry with a cherry on top."

Fang shuddered. It was weird enough that Vanille talked in her sleep, but did she have to talk about food and try and eat Fang's hair at the same time? This, amongst other things, was why Fang usually made a point of not letting Vanille sleep behind her. One of these days, she was either going to wake up bald, or Vanille was going to choke.

"So yummy." Vanille licked her lips. "So good."

A bit of drool landed on the back of Fang's neck. She twitched. Damn it. She didn't want to have to wake Vanille up, so hopefully someone – or something – would do it for her.

X X X

Lightning wasn't getting much sleep either. Certain people – mostly Fang and Vanille – had always joked about her having an unhealthily strong fixation on her sister. But for some reason, Serah always got a free pass. That bothered Lightning because as overprotective as she'd been when Serah met Snow, her younger sister had been equally greedy for her attention. In fact, she had it on good authority that Serah had put Fang through the wringer when the dark-haired woman had made her intentions toward Lightning plain. And Serah could be very scary – Fang had, with a completely straight face, mentioned something about knives, handcuffs, and a laser.

Perhaps it was because of Lightning's years of aloofness, but Serah had become much more physically affectionate after their reconciliation. She hugged Lightning whenever she had the chance, and she was always holding her hand or sitting next to her. And Lightning let her. Part of it was guilt – even though she and Serah had reconciled, it was hard not to feel guilty about some of the things they had said and done to each other. But most of it was because Lightning was more at ease with her feelings. She would never be in Diana's league when it came to physical affection – jumping on people and trying to hug them to death would be less cute and more scary coming from her – but she was better than she used to be. And the smile Serah gave her every time they hugged was worth its weight in gold.

Every time Lightning did something affectionate, the others would, in their own kind but dopey way, joke around. But no one ever questioned when Serah was affectionate. No one even thought it was weird that Serah sometimes called her to see where she was. After all, Serah was the innocent younger sister and Lightning was the evil older sister. But the others didn't now what Serah was like. Sure, Lightning could be clingy, but Serah could be just as bad.

Take right now, for example.

Serah was busy nuzzling her chest, which was just plain wrong. The only one who was supposed to nuzzle her chest was Fang and maybe Diana since her younger daughter was just like that. The only thing freakier than having Serah nuzzle her chest would be if Averia did since the girl was as reticent about physical affection as Lightning was.

It didn't help one bit that Serah had started to make weird noises – really weird noises. And was that a hand roaming up her thigh? Please, Lightning thought, please, please let something happen to wake Serah up.

X X X

The three kids hitting the ground was a blessing in disguise.

The ruckus they made woke Vanille up. The redhead bolted off the bed and made a grab for her binding rod, only to trip and hit the floor face first. Normally, Fang would have been right there to pick her up, but she was too busy wiping the drool off her hair and making sure that all of her hair was still on her head.

Likewise, the noise woke up Serah. The younger Farron took one look at where her hands and face were and then threw herself off the bed. One of her ankles tangled in the blankets and she joined Vanille in the 'face meets floor' club.

"Ew…" Vanille rolled onto her back and rubbed her face before she stuck out her tongue "Why does my mouth taste like hair?" She picked a long, dark hair out of her mouth. "What the? Were you trying to suffocate me in my sleep, Fang?"

"Maybe." Fang padded toward the bathroom. She was not going back to sleep with drool on her hair. "Or maybe you were trying to eat my hair in your sleep again."

"Again?" Lightning helped Serah off the floor.

"It's a long story," Fang said. "Trust me."

"What was that noise?" Serah asked. "I heard a bang and… oh." She'd spotted the trio on the floor.

"Uh, hi." Diana giggled. "We fell off the bed."

"I can see that." Diana had ended up on the top of the pile, and she was perfectly content to use her sister and cousin as cushions. At the bottom of the pile, Claire was less than impressed. Lightning smiled. "Maybe we should change the sleeping arrangements."

It was a good idea. The execution, however, was… interesting.

At Averia and Fang's insistence, Vanille agreed to share a bed with her faithful minion, Diana. The spikiness of the little girl's hair should keep any hair eating to a minimum. The pair would also be free to sleep-talk to their hearts' content. Fang could imagine it now: they'd probably get into an argument over whether strawberry ice cream was better than Gary.

Fang and Lightning took one of the other beds, but Averia was there in between them to make sure that they didn't get up to any funny business. Nothing killed the mood more than having a nine-year-old around to glare whenever one of them so much as thought about getting frisky.

Serah and Claire took the other bed. It wasn't long before Claire was asleep, curled up against her mother's back while Serah hugged a pillow.

X X X

Morning came, and with it came another round of complaints.

"Ah!" Diana thrashed and squirmed. "Help! Help! Aunt Vanille is trying to eat my head!"

Vanille blinked blearily. Oh crap. She was chewing on Diana's hair. "Wait! Wait! I am not trying to eat your head." She twisted away as Diana swung one fist at her jaw. "Calm down!"

"Be quiet." Fang yawned and rubbed her eyes before leaning over to kiss Lightning. Her lips never got there. Instead, a small hand blocked her path. She glanced down. Averia glared up at her.

"No kissing!" Averia said. "It's weird."

"Seriously?" Fang shot Lightning a pleading look. The other woman just yawned and closed her eyes before rolling over to try and get more sleep. "If I didn't like kissing your mom so much, you wouldn't be here."

Averia glared harder. "No kissing."

In the other bed Serah and Claire continued to snooze away. They made quite a picture… until Serah began to snuggle up to the pillow she'd grabbed while mumbling in her sleep.

"Lightning…"

Lightning sat up. "Okay, no more sleeping." She clapped her hands. "Everyone up. We're going downstairs to get some breakfast."

Breakfast was pancakes and hot chocolate at the hotel's restaurant. Averia was happy to go since her parents could hardly do too much kissing while they were eating. Serah and Claire were both pleased to have breakfast. And Diana was just happy that Vanille had something else to eat instead of her head.

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off of this.

This chapter was supposed to be short – a thousand words or so. But, as so often is the case, it got a little out of control. Basically, I enjoyed writing the last chapter of Lightning and Fang Sitting in a Tree, and I decided that I wanted to muck around with the idea (bed sharing) a little more. So, in this chapter, I decided to add the kids to the mix. Hopefully, adding them added a bit more humour to the scenario.

And hotels can be funny places. I once had to share a bed with my sister because there weren't enough rooms. I woke up in the middle of the night after she punched me in the face during one of her dreams. I never let her forget it.

I also write original fiction. If you like my fan fiction, I'm sure you love my original stuff. My newest original story, Durendal, is now available on Amazon! It runs to ~80,000 words, making it the first novel-length original story that I've made available to the public! It's a coming-of-age story and a Western with elements of science fiction. If you've enjoyed my other stories, I know you'll love this one. You can find links to it in my profile (along with links to a longer preview and the rest of my original fiction). Here's the blurb:

Twelve-year-old Billy Winchester's got a feeling that the war made Duren a monster, but maybe he and his sister can make him a man again.

Billy's always dreamed of leaving Sahara VII, a backwater mining planet, for some adventure. But with the galaxy still reeling from decades of war, and an older sister desperate to hang onto the only family she's got left, he's not having much luck.

Then he meets Duren, and suddenly adventure's right on his doorstep.

The rugged stranger from another planet is everything Billy wishes he could be. When his sister hires Duren to help at their diner, Billy does his best to make him a part of their family. Trouble is, Duren's got a past, and it's the worst sort of bloody. To Billy though, he's just a man, and a good one at that.

But danger's never far on a planet like Sahara VII.

A cruel mining magnate, Stratton sets his eyes on Billy's sister, and he won't take no for an answer. When Stratton kidnaps her, Billy's going to need the man Duren used to be, the man he hoped Billy would never have to see.

But Stratton isn't stupid, and he isn't alone. He knows Duren is coming for him, and there are people who've been waiting a long time for Duren to show himself. Duren won't have to beat just Stratton and his men – he'll have to stand toe-to-toe with the vengeful ghosts of his past while keeping Billy clear of the crossfire. Billy's finally got his adventure, but it might cost him the only family he's ever known.

If you're not into Westerns, you don't have to worry (although you can always have a look at The Gunslinger and the Necromancer if you're after a paranormal Western with a good sense of humour). Most of my other original stuff is fantasy. If you like fantasy check out The Last Huntress, I'm sure you'll love it. If you're in the mood for fantasy with a more 'old-fashioned' feel, then take a look at The Burning Mountains.

Finally, if you're not sure if you want to try my original fiction, then mark this Sunday 27th April (Pacific Standard Time) down on your calendar – The Last Huntress will be free on Amazon, so give it a try!

As always I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.