Rating: K+

World: After Final Fantasy XIII

Paring: Lightning/Fang

Part: Oneshot

Description: It was a quiet morning at Lightning's house and starting the day off with her usual fresh cup of coffee before work but with Fang back in her life you'll never know what happens next.

What Happens Next?

After a restful night's sleep from working overtime yesterday Lightning awoke refreshed and ready to take on another day on Grand Pulse, she didn't need to be ready and uniformed until 11:00am. Two years after the events of Cocoon transpired, she had been reappointed lieutenant by her captain Amador of the new Guardian Corps to be in charge of the leading rescue, migration and restoration efforts here on Grand Pulse. It had been a chaotic two years since the fall of Cocoon but it didn't go without its casualties and hardships but luckily Snow and the others joined in to help as much as they could while trying to establishing their own lives. Lightning was regarded as a hero and praised by the people of the settlements for saving the remaining survivors from the fall but deep down she knew she wasn't a hero and she didn't do it alone.

"don't think for a second you're going to do this by yourself we caused this and we are going to fix it"

Lightning snapped back from that fateful memory and focused her attention out the window to the empty shell that floated above, she knew it wasn't healthy for her to look back on the past but the real heroes were the ones that were trapped in a crystal stasis for two years. The only thing that kept her sane in those two years was the fact that there was so much work to do to re-establish on Grand Pulse and there wasn't time to dwell on emotions so she did what she knew best and blocked them. Deep down her heart panged for the one she became vulnerable to that night the one that broke the walls and melted her barriers.

Lightning turned around and headed for the kitchen "it's still only 8:35am and I still have about two and half hours to go" Lightning proceed to pour fresh ground coffee into the coffee maker and then headed up stairs to take a quick shower, she grabbed a fresh towel from her dresser and headed into the bathroom. Sarah had finally moved out just about two weeks ago to live with Snow and Lightning glared at the thought of her little sister Sarah with that bafone "tch" Lightning began to undress her night clothes and turned on the shower the hot steam bringing a content "sigh" to the soldier and it was quite nice to finally have a peaceful quiet shower.

She squeezed out some soap from the handmade bottle and began to lather it into her pink hair and body, Fang had made it for her out of various vegetation and fruits from the wilds of Grand Pulse and it smelled wonderful, the fruity scent mixed with the steam intoxicated her senses and she couldn't help but to smile softly and drift back to the memory.

"What's so funny Fang? Lightning said with a glare beginning to already form and Fang chuckled, nothing sunshine it's just..Fang couldn't hold her composer any longer and busted out laughing, hahaha you call that little' piece of nothing soap? That soap is practically air. Lightning glared daggers at the pulsian "Fang, you've only been here a few days and I'm already ready to send you back to crystal stasis myself and it's all I have left from the recovered survival kits from Cocoon" Lightning reaching for a utensil. Fang threw her hands up in a sarcastic defeat "whoow there Sunshine, I'm not fully recovered yet for a beating from miss Guardian Corps" Fang said with some laughter in her tone "I think you need a beating now" Lightning said "quit acting like some damsel that can't defend yourself" Fang grinned and started to crack her knuckles and form a battle stance "then I think I need to work off some of this sleep then ya' and I don't mind it bein' you Sunshine" Fang grinned deeper. "that's it" Lightning positioned in her battle stance but before they could tare each other apart and the house down the front door abruptly opened to reveal Vanille and Sarah coming back from the local market. "CLAIRE!" Sarah yelled and hastily walked up to the both of them "every time I come home you two are either fighting or all over each other!" Lightning cheeks began to blush light red "that's not true Sarah! this idiot just takes pleasure in getting on my last nerves" Lightning slowly got out of her stance and turned to finish making her coffee with a huff and Fang did the same looking to Vanille with a childlike "I didn't do it she did it" look on her face.

Vanile looked to Fang as well and spoke a piece of her mind too "Bacht de vok closte un skyt tov't nget!" Fang sighed and said "kmight co'vekt tyve de zook nebkt heni gwosh zee" Vanille looked to Lightning with a smile and then back to Fang "wyd gob slove nekt fyuof nebkt gee youe?" Fang shook her head agreeing with her sister and it's not like she couldn't say no to Vanille either. Fang scratched the back of her dark messy hair "well Sunshine how about a truce ya'?" Lightning just stood there and looked at Fang while she took a sip of her coffee calculating what the pulsian native was up to next "how bout' I just make you some soap? A woman like you don't deserve to be washing with that tiny thing anyway" Fang said with a more sincere look on her face. "why prince charming suddenly?" Lightning said curious as to why the pulsian was being so nice all of a sudden. "well Nille' practically grilled me for teasing ya' bout the soap so she said to go out and make you some" Lightning still sipping on her coffee "tch' fine then" Fang grinned and then let out a big yawn as she stretched her arms out "alright then Sunshine I'll be back later" Fang grabbed her lance and gave a quick wink to Lightning just before she headed out the door."

Lightning snapped out of her memory the water not even hot anymore since her body temperature adjusted she hadn't known how long she was standing in the shower but she judged at least an hour and a half went by. Lightning stepped out and turned the shower handle off and proceeded to dry herself smelling like the scent of the soap Fang had made for her she then changed into her newly designed Guardian Corps uniform, she looked into the bathroom mirror to give herself a once over and smiled she thought to herself "idiot" and walked out the door.

It was 10:00am and she was precisely right looking at her watch as she came downstairs a strong scent off dark roasted coffee took over the house. She made her way to the kitchen and took out a mug from the cupboard and proceeded to pour herself a fresh cup of coffee and took a sip "ahh, I don't think I could live without it" Lightning but put her mug down and checked her watch again it was 10:10am she still had some time before she had to leave. Hearing all the birds, critters and nature outside she figured it was a good time to pick up her novel and finish the chapter where she left off last week so she made her way to the couch with her cup of coffee and proceed to finish her chapter of "the lady and the knight"

As Lightning was reading not even three pages into her chapter a loud "bang" could be heard at the door and Lightning not anticipating it jumped slightly, she sighed setting her book down on the table and walked to the door "must be snaggletooth" she said under her breath and a native pulsian accent belonging none other than Fang could be heard at the door "I heard that Sunshine now open up" Lightning raised a brow "excuse me? You don't demand me to open my door and I'm not having any of this barbaric behavior today" "oh come off it princess and let me in…please?" Fang practically pouted through the door and already feeling a slight headache coming on she sighed and opened the door for Fang.

Fang as Lightning anticipated waltzed in dirty, smelly and covered in bits of blood which could be seen on her sari "hey sunshine you're awfully in a good mood today" Fang said sarcastically as she put her sack and lance down by the door "Fang don't push your luck" Lightning said with annoyance present in her tone, small sounds could be heard from Fang's sack but Lightning disregarded it yet she could still hear the small sounds anyway. Fang turned to Lightning but before she could speak "firstly, before you even say a word you're going to take a bath" Fang chuckled "You cocoon folk are too soft can't handle a bit of Grand Pulse" Fang said in a smug tone but before Lightning could snap back she caught from her superior peripheral vision the sack move "Fang what is that moving in the sack?" she said in annoyance and crossed her arms firmly. "oh that?" Fang scratched her head and could practically feel Lightning burning into her soul at this point "well that was supposed to be a surprise but I guess it can't wait since you already know" Fang inwardly cursed before she picked up her sack to show Lightning her "surprise" when you have an angry Lightning standing in front of you ready to turn you into dirt you pretty much have no choice.

"come on out little fella" Fang opened her sack and Lightning couldn't believe what she saw the cactuar sprang out the sack and bounce all over the house "a wild cactuar really? Fang are you some child that always brings home everything you see?" "come on Sunshine no need to get bitter bout' it I just thought maybe this will lighten the mood up since you're always in soldier mode half tha' time" Lightning looked down at her watch it was 10:35am and glared at Fang "you have approximately five minutes to get this cactuar out of my house" she said in a calm but cold tone "alright, alright aren't you just a ray of sunshine" Fang tuned to the cactuar still but yet in motion "Well princess here says you gotta' go so I have to take you back" strangely it's like the cactuar understood what Fang said and it proceeded to bounce and flip to get away "See this is why they belong out in the wild and not in my house" Fang proceed to chase the cactuar around the house leaving a mess in her wake "come on fella" Fang jumped over the couch to try and grab him but she ended up knocking the table over instead "CRASH" he was just to fast for the former saboteur sentinel.

Fang cursed "shit!" Fang stood up and shook her head out of the daze thinking quickly of her next plan of attack to finally capture the cactuar but it was too late and it seemed Lightning was one step ahead of Fang when she saw Lightning with her special issued gunblade drawn out pointed towards the cactuar "If you can't do the job then I'll take it in my own hands" Lightning said firmly and Fang gasped "NO! Lightning he's gonna do it!" the cactuar stood its ground to Lightning ready to release its natural defense mechanism against her. Lightning turned her head to Fang "what?" the moment Lightning turned her head was a grave mistake and Fang cursed, like in slow motion she saw the first needle fly towards Lightning and she ran as fast as her body would allow her and jumped towards Lightning to block the 1,000 needles attack and with her gunblade still pointed at the attacking cactuar Lightning stared at Fang with wide eyes as a bulldozer was about to crash into her. "UMPHF" they both crashed to the floor.

"OOOOOWWWWWW!" "OWWW OWW! OWWW BLOODY H- OWWWWW!" Lightning didn't know what was going on since Fang was on top of her like a shield but guessing from all the curses coming from Fang it wasn't good at all, since their brands were deactivated they did not have their quote on quote "powers" anymore which came with dear consequences if they were not careful.

"ten minutes later"

"Vanille I'm sure you can handle the situation from here right?" Lightning said as Vanille observed all the needles from Fangs backside and bottom "of course!" Vanille giggled "Fang I can't believe you tried to give Lightning a cactuar as a gift you know those cactuar's were used as punishment when we were children if we didn't listen to our elders" Fang bit back a curse as the slightest move cause pain "Nille' I don't want to hear it just get these damn needles outta' me" Vanille smiled as she began to pull the first needle out "OW! not so hard Nille' I do feel pain ya' know" Vanille had to bite back a laugh "Fang it's the only way they will come out so that's what you get for being thick headed miss invincible"

Lightning looked down at her watch which beeped at 11:00am "alright I'm leaving for work take as much time as you need" and Lightning proceeded to close the door only to hear the loud agony of Fang. "OWW!" Lightning smiled as she walked away and thought "what happens next?"

Author notes: I'm guilty this was connected to the previous chapter fate or destiny. I did enjoy writing this and I thank everyone who took the time out to read my stories. Much more to come if you stick around :D Please rate and review.

Lightnings book the lady and the knight she refers to Fang as being her knight in the novel.