AN - Once again, I have been to the dentist and can't feel my face. Therefore, CHAPTER. Honestly I don't know how the two equate I guess I just like writing or something.
At some point during the night, Fang was once more having fitful sleep. Lightning awoke again to the Pulsian twitching and mumbling in her sleep, face contorted in pain. She rolled over and pulled the woman close, whispering in her ear to comfort her.
"Is this the price I pay for duty? All my friends gone, turned to Cie'th. After everything we went through, it was all for nothing."
Fang braced for the inevitable impact from the cold stone her friends had become as she did every time she was trapped in this nightmare, but it didn't come. Instead, gentle hands slipped around her waist and she was met with the scent of sweet roses that she had learnt to associate with Lightning.
"It's ok Fang, none of this is real."
"Light? What are you…? How are you…?"
The pinkette turned Fang away from the looming Fal'Cie and pressed her forehead to hers. "Just focus on my voice Fang, come back to me. This place can't hurt you anymore. Focus on anything else but this place. Focus on my voice. Focus on me."
Their surroundings shifted until they were no longer in Orphan's chamber but on the fields in the Archylte Steppe. The two women stood in the open, still holding onto each other. Lightning leant forward and kissed the brunette on the forehead in a surprisingly affectionate gesture that felt vividly real.
Fang's eyes snapped open to find Lightning's lips were in fact where she was dreaming them. She suppressed a gasp and feigned sleep so as not to startle her friend. Fang felt the pinkette run a thumb over her eyebrows in an attempt to smooth out the frowns and the Pulsian couldn't stop the contented hum from escaping her throat.
"That's better." Lightning whispered as she smiled at her with a soft gaze, "I won't let them hurt you anymore. "
Fang fell back to sleep, not haunted by nightmares for the first time in a long time. She began to suspect why when she awoke the next morning to find herself once again tangled up close with Lightning. She chanced a look at the pinkette who was just as curled up into her and felt her heart skip a beat. It wouldn't be the first time that Fang had harboured feelings for the woman before her, but it was the first time she felt something more than infatuation.
From the first time she saw Lightning, the Pulsian was enthralled. As she sped around the plaza on the back of Snow's bike watching the pinkette take on an entire squad of Psicom operatives, Fang admitted there were a fair few inappropriate thoughts that entered her mind. Lightning was focused, determined and confident in her skills. When she fought, Fang didn't just witness Lightning; she witnessed the whole storm.
But this side of Lightning she had never seen before. Beyond the overprotective nature towards her sister, Fang was surprised to see that same fierce protectiveness directed towards her. It made her giddy and she leant into snuggle the pinkette with a contented sigh. The sound and accompanying sensation of Fang nuzzling into her woke Lightning once more, but not in the same startling way as the night before. She had expected it, and a part of her even welcomed it.
She wasn't certain of where the Pulsian woman's feelings lay in regards to her, but Lightning knew there was something more than friendship growing between them. What that meant for Fang, and herself for that matter, however, was anyone's guess.
"Come on Fang you gotta come out of that booth at some point!" Snow called out to the Pulsian who had hidden away in the corner of Lebreau's bar. It was Vanille's farewell before her trip to Academia, so by all rights, Fang should be in the thick of the celebrations. Instead, she felt edgy and nervous about being in a room with so many people between her and the nearest exits. Lightning was running late from work, but she promised she'd make an appearance. Until then, Fang was staying put. Vanille ran over and leapt onto the seat next to her, wrapping her arms around the brunette's neck.
"Faaaaaaang you should be out on the floor with us!"
"I can see you just fine from here love. Go on, go dance with your friends. I'm just waiting for Lightning." Vanille smiled with a knowing look, humming with a wiggle of her eyebrows. "Be gone demon child!" Fang yelled at her giggling sibling as the redhead finally skipped off, disappearing into the crowd. The Pulsian sighed and started circling the glass with her finger. Lightning should have been here by now. The longer the evening went on, the more agitated Fang became.
The others came over and sat at the booth for a while to keep her company. Vanille knew that her adopted sibling wasn't dealing well with the crowded establishment, so brought Serah, Snow and Hope over to check up on her. The redhead slid into the booth and rested her head on the tall, tattooed shoulder. "Are... You going to be ok while I'm away, Fang?"
The elder Pulsian nodded and lightly hugged Vanille. "I'll be alright missy. You'll see. Lightning has… Been a huge help tightening those loose screws." Fang excused herself from the group for a moment to go fetch herself another drink.
She approached the bar and waved Lebreau over. "Hey gorgeous, where's your partner in crime tonight?" Fang shrugged and just pushed her empty glass back over the bar for a refill.
"Just put it in there love, save you the washing up."
The dark-haired bar owner smiled and took the glass with a swish of her hand. "Always know the right things to say to make a girl's heart flutter don't you darling?" Fang chuckled and hung her head to hide her grimace as she tried to drown out the din around her.
"What you drinkin' girly?" a voice called out behind her. Fang turned with a smile, ready for a sarcastic retort for the often annoying Rygdea, but it died in her throat when she realised it wasn't him but someone else entirely. A drunk who reeked of sweat and poor choices. Her expression fell and she turned back to the bar.
"For one tonight mate, best you move along." She called over her shoulder, hoping he'd get the message.
She nodded in thanks as Lebreau finished fixing her refill. "Come on girly, let me buy you a drink. I'm feeling charitable." The drunken brute was obviously not taking the hint.
"I'll pass. Thank you. Enjoy your evening."
"Come on buddy you heard the lady, move along." Snow yelled out from nearby, standing up from their booth. Fang shook her head and signalled for him sit back down. She paid Lebreau for her drink and moved to return to her seat when a dirty hand landed on her shoulder.
"Why you being such a stuck up bitch?" the drunk man whined, "jus' wanna buy you a drink and you're acting like you're too good for me ACK-"
His voice was cut off by pale fingers crushing his hand and pulling his arm slowly back off Fang's shoulder. "Unless you're deaf, she has told you to leave her be twice now. I suggest you do it before sore fingers are the least of your concerns." An icy voice growled as Lightning stepped into view. The pinkette threw his arm from Fang, causing him to stagger backwards and fall over. Once Lightning was satisfied he was going to keep his distance, she turned to her friend who was smiling warmly at her.
"Thanks for the assist Sunshine, was beginning to think he needed to eat my fist to get the point." If Fang wasn't agitated before, she definitely was now. The drunken lout didn't appear to be finished, staggering to his feet.
"Waitaminute… I recognise you now that your girlfriend is here... You're one of them L'Cie freaks aren't you? Should have all burned in the purge and we wouldn't be living in this hell. Ugh. L'Cie. Shoulda killed youse when we had the chance. Without the Fal'Cie, there's no other way to use them."
Vanille's head snapped up at the man's eerily familiar words as Fang clutched at her arm with a grunt of pain.
"The only reason they take care of orphans is so they can become L'cie. There is no other way to use them." The priest sneered at the brunette, as he brutally revealed the truth of their village. "You're nothing but a fool. You couldn't even read the true intentions of those who took care of you."
"You son of a-" Fang lurched forward, grabbing the knife from the priest's belt and moved to stab him in a rage.
"No! Fang!" Vanille's voice cried out as she reached for her sister.
"Come on Fang, he ain't worth it." Snow's giant arms wrapped around her to hold her back from the snivelling priest on the floor. Confused, the brunette staggered back and turned to stare at her tall Cocoonian friend in disbelief.
"How are you here? Wait, this isn't…"
Fang looked around to see she wasn't in the temple in Oerba but the bar amongst friends in New Bodhum. Her hand stung from the glass she had smashed and was gripping a shard so tightly it had cut into her skin.
Lightning motioned quietly for Snow to release her, and she asked Lebreau to call her office to send someone for the drunk. "Consider your days in our town done, asshole." She growled at the whimpering idiot on the floor who had just come close to a brush with death from Ragnarok. The pinkette turned to Fang and gently ran her fingers down her arm until they reached her hand, and gently pried her fingers away from the glass.
"Come on out back love, let's get that cleaned up." Lebreau whispered at Lightning's side, and they retreated to the kitchen. Vanille and Serah followed shortly after but stayed by the doorway to not crowd the place.
Lebreau gave Lightning a cloth the clean up the wound while she went hunting for the medic kit, and the pinkette was as gentle as she could possibly be. "Where'd you go earlier?" she said quietly, so as not to startle the Pulsian.
Fang winced as the dabbing stung her wounds and she looked away with a set jaw. "Oerba. Temple. Something he said. No other use…" She ground out her words between her clenched teeth, heart rate through the roof and breathing heavy.
"You remembered those priests didn't you?" Vanille called out from the doorway with a sad note to her voice. Fang merely nodded.
"Did… Did I kill them 'Nille?"
The redhead looked away, remembering the fateful day herself. "Not all of them. You got a few though. You were intent on taking on the Fal'Cie itself to stop anyone else being made into a L'Cie. You even attempted to stab Anima with the spear."
Fang took a shuddering breath. Even though it was no longer there, the spot on her arm where her brand once resided burned, as it did any time a memory was triggered in relation to Ragnarok. It made her more terrified that the beast still lay within her, and she felt tears prick at her eyes.
"Vanille, Serah, could you give us a minute please?" Lightning asked without turning. The girls both nodded and left to check on Snow, who had been watching over the drunk while they waited for the Guardian Corps to arrive to arrest him. "I know that you don't like having witnesses around when you're like this." Lightning whispered, her hands hovering over the wound. Fang looked over at her and felt relieved. "Shame we aren't L'Cie anymore really, could have this fixed up super… Quick…" The pinkette trailed off as the Pulsian looked at her with a quizzical expression.
Lightning felt a strange tickling in the back of her mind, the same she felt whenever she would use magic back while they were on the run. Whether it was just phantom sensations or something more she wasn't sure, but felt like testing the theory anyway. Fang saw the concentration on her friend's face and smiled. "Pretty sure that you're tapped out there, Sunshine."
"Shut up. I'm just… Checking… Shut up." Both their eyes widened as a tiny dull green glow began to emanate from Lightning's fingertips.
"No fucking way..." Fang breathed, astonished at the reality defying scene unfolding before them. "But… We're not…" she watched with fascination as the glow increased as the pinkette's brow furrowed. The wound started to close and her tanned skin began to knit back together as Lightning strained to finish healing her. It was never this hard when they were L'Cie, the magic flowed like water. This was like half frozen molasses being forced through a thin tube.
As the last layer of skin webbed over Lightning slumped forward with exhaustion, resting her head against Fang's shoulder as the Pulsian caught her. "Light... How did you…"
"Not sure," the pinkette gasped between breaths, "Just… Really wanted to fix that cut."
"Claire! What happened?" Serah's voice rang out from the doorway as the younger Farron rushed towards her sister.
Lightning drew her finger gently over Fang's palm where there was now no trace of injury. "I fixed it. I wanted Fang to be healed, so I did it." She replied matter-of-factly, suddenly overwhelmed with tiredness.
"You… Used magic? How is that…?"
"Don't know, don't say anything. Not until I'm sure of what it means."
Glancing down at Fang's hand, Lightning realised she was still drawing patterns in the tanned palm. The Pulsian hadn't said anything, but every now and again a barely audible murmur of contentment would escape her throat and her eyes fluttered closed. She filed that away for the next time she woke up to Fang having nightmares again.
"Lebreau? Mind if we leave via the back door? I'd like to get Fang home without having her questioned by the GC."
The bartender reappeared, medic kit in hand and looked at the now uninjured hand. "Riiiiiight… Looks like this won't be needed," she held up a hand when Lightning looked to interject, "And please. I didn't see anything, now get out of here before I make you do dishes to replace the broken glass." Lebreau went back out the front to keep the GC away from them.
The pinkette gave her thanks and gave her sister a brief hug. "Tell the others to come over later?" Serah nodded and exited the kitchen, leaving the two women alone. "Come on, let's get out of here and head home Fang, enough excitement for one night I think."
They walked home slowly after sneaking out the back of Lebreau's bar, and the Pulsian looked down to find Lightning walking with a mild limp. "You ok Sunshine?" She asked, pointing at the area of concern.
"Hm? Oh. Right. Forgot about that with everything that happened at the bar. Reason I was running late." Lightning replied with a wince, and stopped to rest a moment. "Got caught in a nest of gorgonopsids. Nothing I couldn't handle I just… was distracted and thinking about something as I was finishing up and… slipped."
Fang's eyebrows raised higher than imaginable. "You slipped? You. Major Lightning Farron, fastest on her feet alive, slipped. What could you have possibly been thinking about to cause that fumble?"
More like who… The pinkette thought with a scowl. "Nothing. Not important. Shut up."
They continued walking on in silence, with Fang looking out to sea and back towards the crystal pillar holding up Cocoon in the distance. She drew a shaky breath and turned to find Lightning watching her. "Do you think… If you were able to call up healing magic that… other powers we were given as L'Cie could still be floating around in here?"
Lightning knew immediately what she was referring to and put a hand on the Pulsian's shoulder. "Not a chance. Besides, that took an incredible amount of effort to heal that small injury on your hand and now I feel like I could go home and sleep for a week. I don't want to even fathom the amount of focus it would require to summon Ragnarok."
"Am I that transparent?" Fang asked with a sigh. The pinkette shrugged and continued walking.
"Don't worry Fang. I won't let that happen to you again." Lightning watched the contemplative look on the Pulsian's face. "Want to talk about what you saw back there?"
The brunette grimaced and huffed out a breath. "We were… Back in the temple back when… We were branded. Bunch of showmanship bullshit. Lots of prayers and steps and more prayers. Didn't go as planned. The priests tried to kill me, I reacted and killed a few of them, aaand then Vanille took the fall for my actions. Offered herself as a sacrifice to atone for my sins. So she got branded alongside of me. Pretty sure the only reason they didn't say screw it and kill us was because of the damn oracle drive."
Lightning looked at her blankly. "Oracle… Drive?"
"Yeah. Device that if any of your historians find will probably make them have a heart attack on the spot. Managed to record any visions from the appointed Nsu clan Seeress, and I heard somewhere down the line before the 'big crack' that we were mentioned in one. Two l'Cie are they, the Chosen, and from the North they hail. Endowed are they with fal'Cie Focus, to bear the burden of the Beast. Bunch of Falak'nara, the lot of them."
"I'm… going to assume that's an insult."
Fang nodded and continued. "I won't bother with the translation, but use your imagination. It's colourful. But yeah. I was next in line to be branded, and Vanille was with me for the 'send off' so to speak. But you know, I wanted to have a word with Anima and… Voice my concerns with his plans to continuously brand us to fight against Cocoon, to die or turn Cie'th. I wanted our lives back, I wanted it to get up off its mechanical arse and do something more than just send us all to our deaths."
Lightning thought back to her meeting with Anima and shook her head. "You know Snow did the same thing when we were in the vestige? Wanted to go and talk to it, convince it to give Serah back."
"No Kidding?" Fang laughed thinking of the image. "Bet you followed him in there to knock his block off for being so crazy." When Lightning didn't respond she laughed harder. Fang took a breath and silenced herself when she saw the look on the pinkette's face. "Shit. Sorry love. Those were… Rough times for you weren't they?"
The soldier gave Fang a shrug. "Sometimes it's funny, other times it... Hurts. Especially in light of Serah being gone now. She was my only family after our parents died, all I had left. I worked so hard to provide for her, to be the responsible one I was too busy to be there for her when she needed me the most. Now she's gone all over again." Fang frowned, and then moved up to the pinkette to wrap her arms around her from behind.
"You haven't lost her Sunshine," She said, whispering in Lightning's ear, "She's still here. Just a few doors down. Besides, you've got me to worry about now right? You can fuss over me any time." Fang released her hold on Lightning as the woman blushed and looked away.
"I guess I do have you now, don't I..." She said quietly to herself.
"And come on Light, you really want that lummox in your house with your sister? He's like twice her size for Etro's sake! Ugh just imagine hearing them having sex, you'd be scarred for life!"
"FANG."
And with that, the moment was ruined.