AN - Another rainy day, another chapter. I've been living with the "in-laws" for the last 3mths while we finish saving up a deposit for a house. This benefits you lot because if I don't write I may burn the house down. So that just means you get a lot of frequent updates. hoorayimuseful. tumblr dot etc for updates, artwork and general flight obsessiveness.

This time it was Fang that was roused from her sleep, with the pink-haired woman tossing and turning so much she may as well been one of the wind turbines back home in Oerba. "Light, by Etro would you lay still for five bloody minutes...?" The Pulsian muttered, burying her head underneath her pillow.

"No..." Came the response from Lightning, her voice sounding pained. Fang uncovered her head and sat up, looking over the pale form of her friend. She nudged her gently, figuring she was having a nightmare. "Serah... No please... Don't leave me alone..." The soldier whimpered in her sleep, and Fang felt her heart clench.

"Hey, Light, come on darlin', you're having a bad dream."

"Please don't leave... Fang... Please... I can't..."

Fang's hand stilled at the sound of her name, and she felt her heart in her throat. Lightning was dreaming about her? Before she could process that, the pinkette suddenly sat bolt upright in bed with a gasp, narrowly avoiding head-butting Fang in the process. She clutched at her chest, breathing heavily. She turned to find the Pulsian sitting beside her, looking concerned.

"Light?"

She was there. Fang was there. She wasn't still in crystal, wasn't being taken from her. The relief and fear of loss mixed in and fought with her mind until her emotions overwhelmed her.

"Fang. You're here." She said meekly, her voice torn and shaking with her feelings. Lightning felt the tears before she could stop them, and bit back a sob. Fang immediately bundled the pinkette up in her arms, holding her tight.

"Course I am, Light. I'm not going anywhere." She replied, stroking her friend's back to try to soothe her anxieties. The brunette held onto her for some time, smiling sadly at the way Lightning clutched onto her shirt like a lifeline. All the time spent in crystal she thought that the loneliness and isolation she could feel pouring from the soldier were just terrible dreams. But instead they were her reality, for three years as Lightning worked obsessively to free the Oerban siblings.

She felt helpless, trying desperately to awaken so she could alleviate the pain that bled from the pink-haired woman. The pain she felt was mirrored in her own heart, feelings that had begun to surface towards the end of their journey to save Cocoon that may well be never recognised in her glass prison. But that was all behind her know, as Fang felt Lightning tighten her hold on her shirt.

"Gods... I'm so sorry..."

"Sorry... For what...?" the pinkette replied, evidently confused by the statement. Fang wiped away some wayward tears with her thumb. Even now at the peak of emotion, Lightning was still the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. She allowed that thought to settle in her mind for a moment and smiled softly.

"I'm sorry I made you go it alone for these last few years, but I'm here now ok? I'm here. You're not alone anymore either, ok Sunshine?" Fang said firmly, brushing stray hairs from the pinkette's face. She felt Lightning lean into the touch, and it made her heart race. The brunette smiled softly and leant back from her friend. "Come on. We're both awake now, let's go watch a movie or something. Take your mind off things."

Lightning nodded slowly, giving the Pulsian a once over and allowed herself to be led into the lounge room. Fang disappeared for a few minutes, and she could be heard rummaging around in different parts of the house. When she returned she had one of her treated furs around her shoulders and balancing two mugs in one hand. She placed them down on the table in front of the couch and threw the fur over the pinkette with a wink.

Once she'd arranged a movie on the television, she settled back on the couch and sipped her tea. Lightning leant forward and grabbed a mug for herself, humming as she took a sip as well. It was her favourite peach tea, which certainly helped soothe her frayed nerves. She finished it quickly, hoping the warmth would settle her down a little. Looking over towards the brunette, she watched Fang's calm expression as the film flickered away on the television.

As the movie progressed, Lightning dared to use the heightened emotions as an excuse and nestled in with Fang. She felt the Pulsian's body tense for the briefest of seconds before finally relaxing underneath her. All her usual instincts about close proximities muted in the wake of needing comfort. She felt safe, curled up against Fang. Where she could hear the heartbeat that let her know that her friend was alive, and with her. She hummed with contentment as the brunette threaded her fingers through her hair, idly playing with the pale strands.

The film was merely background noise at that point, neither focused on the television at all. The fur that was draped over them both kept them warm and so did their closeness, allowing Lightning to drift off to sleep while still in Fang's arms. The brunette watched her friend's breathing even out, and continued stroking her hair. "Looks like I'm not the only one stuck in an endless battle... But we'll find a way through it together, Light." She whispered, her voice breaking from heartache.

"I know we will." Came the quiet reply from below, and Fang looked down to find the pinkette staring sleepily up at her. She didn't need to respond. Her heartbeat was all Lightning needed to hear.

Neither of them could pinpoint the exact moment they fell into a comfortable companionship with each other. Lightning still worked, but had reduced her hours to something more normal in comparison to her previous gruelling schedule. She never overstayed her shifts and refused any operations that took her out of Bodhum, looking forward to going home and seeing Fang. Morning routines went as they did, with Fang working on her meditations and stretching in front of the large window to the back deck while Lightning tried hard to focus on the coffee in her hands instead of the bare skin that was becoming increasingly distracting.

A further testament to Fang's hobby of working with her hands, every now and again Lightning would come home to find a new tiny carving put on the bookshelves or beside her bed. The Pulsian had been doing much better over the months, her form returning to the athletic build Lightning knew and admired. And admire she did, especially when Fang began getting back into her workout routines. The Pulsian used her own body weight to push herself back into fighting form and had even taken to light sparring with the pinkette. While rusty at first, as her physical health improved so too did her skill which put Lightning through her paces.

They still hadn't bothered getting a bed for the spare room, with Fang still sharing with the soldier. Nightmares were still an issue, so Lightning surmised it was better to keep her close. That was the excuse she was using anyway. They had developed some sort of comfortability with each other during that time, where waking up tangled up with each other was no longer anything of concern, beyond a small awkward smile and a blush from both parties. There was obviously something unspoken there, but neither were willing to be the first one to voice it aloud or take the next step.

When the pinkette returned home that afternoon her hand hesitated by the doorknob, keys clutched in her hand. She could hear banging in the backyard and wondered what it could be. "Ok ready? And lift! I said lift! Come on ya mug, a goblin runt could go better!" Fang's voice rang out from behind the house and the pinkette moved quietly through the side entrance to investigate.

Lightning rounded the corner to find Fang lifting a large beam onto the deck with Snow. The way the Pulsian was holding the weight of the beam made her regained muscles in her arms pop with the strain, and had dragged the tank top up her body to reveal her beautifully restored abdomen. Lightning couldn't help but stare at the display, and couldn't suppress the groan that came from her throat.

"Goddess…" She whispered, eyes practically falling out of her head. Fang heard her and dropped the beam.

"Shit sorry Light, was hoping we'd be done before you got home! I just… Uh… Wanted to surprise you with a roof for the deck. Snow's been helping me get it done."

"Huh? Oh. Thank you." The pinkette replied, shaking herself back into reality before the gawking roused any suspicion. "You didn't have to do that." Fang jogged over while pulling her shirt back down, the action drawing Lightning's gaze to the muscles across her stomach disappearing under the cloth. "Really didn't have to... Do that…"

"You feeling alright Sunshine? You look a little dazed." Fang reached forward to feel the pinkette's forehead. "Yep, feeling hot too. Why don't you go and get your gear off and I'll fix you a cold drink? I'm about finished here."

Lightning's mind took Fang's suggestion and ran away with it, leaving her to merely gulp and nod, retreating quickly into the house. She mentally kicked herself. It wasn't new that she noticed the Pulsian's body, but still, it unnerved her every time like the first.

"Come on Light, Bismarck's over the other side of the springs and he knows well enough to leave us be. The boys have gone hunting for some breakfast, which means us girls can go get cleaned up in peace."

Lightning scowled at the Pulsian, not the slightest bit interested in sharing any sort of bathing time. "Someone has to keep watch, Fang. These ceratosaurs are relentless." She said curtly, watching the jade eyes roll in disdain.

"Don't tell me you're shy…" Fang purred, trailing fingers along the pinkette's arm. Her attentions were swatted away by the soldier, who glared angrily. "Look, I promise you we don't have any bits that are different to your bits. We've been on the run for days now and we haven't had a chance to stop. Nothing personal Sunshine, but we all smell like a behemoth took a shit in an enclosed space. It will do all of us the world of good."

She shrugged off the scowl Lightning gave her and sauntered back over to the water's edge. The pinkette suppressed a gasp and looked away when Fang simply began disrobing then and there, not caring for anyone around her. The Pulsian turned to regard the soldier with a wink. "I don't mind the audience you know, you did say someone needed to watch after all…"

"KEEP watch, Fang. I said KEEP watch." Lightning snapped as she turned back to the huntress. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Fang's full form in the sun peeking through the top of the spring cavern. A life of a hunter indeed, if those muscles were anything to go by. The pinkette adjusted her collar, feeling suddenly stuffy despite the wide cool chambers they were in. Suddenly the Pulsian wavered, and she looked faint. She took a couple of staggered steps backward and with a groan slipped off the edge of the platform and into the spring.

"Fang!"

Lightning raced forward to the edge of the water, looking frantically for where Fang had fallen. Suddenly tanned arms shot out of the water and gripped the soldier's wrists. Cerulean eyes darted up to meet mischievous jade ones and she growled.

"Fang… Don't. You. Dare."

The Pulsian gave a huge grin and pulled hard, sending Lightning tumbling into the water, clothes and all. The pinkette resurfaced with a snarl and tried to locate where her pending murder victim was. Fang had kicked away from her and was further in, closer to Vanille.

"Life's all about being daring Sunshine, it's the only way we'll make it out of this alive."

There wasn't a response that would satiate her need for revenge, but the words rang true in her mind. She sighed in resignation and took her clothes off, laying them in the sun on back on the platform she'd fallen from. She turned and found Fang treading water close by with a gentle smile. Any anger she felt towards the Pulsian seemed to dissipate in the wake of her calm expression.

"I'm still going to kick your ass for that once we're out of here." Lightning mumbled, swimming towards the waterfall. Fang's appreciative gaze followed her and she chucked low.

"Duly noted."

Lightning finished her shower with a smile on her face. Remembering how mad she was that Fang had managed to invade her personal space without her even realizing it. Now it would seem, as she watched the Pulsian putting the finishing touches on the deck from her bedroom window, Fang had managed to invade her heart with equal stealth and precision. She realised how protective she had become of Fang, and how close she had gotten with the woman. Apart from Serah, she never let anyone else into her life, and yet opened her home and her heart to this wild hunter from the north. Considering her first meeting ended with a slap to the face, Lightning laughed quietly to herself about how far she'd come with Fang getting into her personal space all the time.

Lightning made her way to the kitchen and prepared dinner for the two of them, and smiled as the Pulsian came in from the deck and made a beeline for the fridge. Fang paused to bump the pinkette with her hip as she passed."Hope you weren't too annoyed by me doing some construction for you, Sunshine…" her voice rang out from behind the open fridge door.

Not sparing a glance from her cooking, Lightning frowned at the pan. "Why would it bother me? One less thing I have to procrastinate about."

"Oh," Fang replied as she closed the door, bottle of water in hand, "You just sounded annoyed when you rocked up, that's all. You made a noise when you saw us messing about with that beam."

"I… did?" The pinkette blushed as she recalled the reason for her uncontrolled outburst and became very focused on cooking dinner. "I… Don't recall, must be tired."

Fang hummed in response as she perched herself on the bench next to the stove. The two spoke about their respective days, and Lightning asked how the deciphering was going. The Pulsian huffed and rolled her eyes. "About as well as a behemoth trying to put on pants… I don't know why I thought I could do this, I'm not the brains of this operation. 'Nille always was."

Lightning shook her head and placed her hand on Fang's tanned arm. "I don't believe that for a second. You know just as much about your history as she does, just because your memory is a little scattered from the crystallisation and -let's face it, copious amounts of trauma- doesn't mean you won't crack the code and get the information from the artefact." The slightest of blushes appeared on Fang's face, and she ducked her head with a smile.

"Why don't you talk to me about it? About the data, what you remember. It might help you think of something." Lightning served their dinner and handed over a plate, leading the brunette to the dining room. "What was it like with the different clans? Any other settlements beyond Oerba and Paddra that you can tell me about?"

They sat down at the table and Fang frowned at her food. "There were a few. Oerba is bigger than you've seen. That bridge we were on back when... You know... It actually ran across the lake to the rest of the town. It's where the vestige was, Anima's temple. They kept the orphanage on the outskirts because of all the skirmishes between Cocoon and Pulse." Fang paused, scoffing with a dismissive flick of her wrist. "In retrospect, it was probably to keep us out of the line of fire for branding cattle."

Lightning winced at the description, though the brunette was probably not wrong. "Would you like to explore the rest of Oerba? We can go together, if you'd like. None of the patrols have been up that way since the Fall, so we'd be the first."

A small smile crossed Fang's face as she considered a holiday alone with the pinkette, her features reddening as her thoughts turned mildly more inappropriate. "Uh. Yeah sounds good." She replied, clearing her throat and her mind of wayward distractions. "So other clans... The main ones were the Yun, Dia, Nsu, Tzun, Rayn, Pol, Edaan and Ain. While back in the early days we may have all stuck with the clans but I'd say around the time Cocoon was built civilisation was far enough along where it became unnecessary to split up. Clans became towns, towns became villages, and villages became cities. Depending on where you were would determine how much you had to adhere to the old ways." Fang explained between bites of her dinner.

She regaled Lightning with a few tales of their customs, occasionally pausing to groan in contentment at a piece of food. Once they'd finished the meal they cleaned up together, the process taking a bit longer than usual due to Fang constantly flicking water at the pinkette and then being chased around the kitchen with Lightning using the towel as a whip.

They wound up in the lounge room together, with Fang hunched over the coffee table trying to make sense of the images on the parchment. The pinkette was curled up on the couch sipping a tea, watching her friend pour over her notes. She was always fascinated by Fang's handwriting, the curving slopes of Pulsian script always looking more like art than lettering. The brunette suddenly scowled and scrunched up the paper she was writing on, throwing it across the room with a growl.

"This is useless!" She complained, putting her head in her hands. Lightning scooted over on the couch and started rubbing the back of her neck gently, trying to ease the tension she could see. Fang's eyes opened for a moment, startled by the affectionate gesture but quickly found her eyelids slipping closed again as she leant back into the touch.

"You're over-thinking it," The pinkette said, looking over the parchment. The symbols, writing and mismatched images made no sense whatsoever to her, but she supposed that was the whole point. "The maps are obviously designed to not be understood by anyone from Cocoon in case it wound up in their hands. What do you do when you don't want me to know what you're talking about when you're on the phone to Vanille? You speak in your traditional language."

The brunette winced from her spot on the couch. She had hoped she wasn't that transparent. Most of her arguments on the phone with Vanille had lately been about the pinkette, with the redhead trying to goad her adopted sister into making a move.

"That being said," Lightning continued, interrupting Fang's thoughts, "I've already figured out the words for hello, yes, no, shut up and when you're talking about me. Languages can be learnt. Deciphered. Think older, what is something that no viper is going to know?"

Fang frowned and opened her eyes, looking back over the papers. "The old stories. They were forbidden from being transcribed and were only taught in oral tradition. They didn't want Cocoon knowing our history. Because then our past could be turned against us."

Lightning nodded, letting go of the tanned neck with a smile. "So it stands to reason that they could be using the old tales as a cypher of sorts. Figure out what stories they're using, figure out the map."

Silence descended in the room while Fang pondered the idea. She suddenly leant sideways and collapsed in Lightning's lap, hugging her around the waist. "You're a friggin' genius, you know that?" The pinkette smiled, unconsciously running a hand through the dark hair. "I dunno where I'd be without you..." Fang mumbled a little quieter, but Lightning heard it.

"You'd still be a pain in the ass." Lightning replied with a chuckle. "But your recovery is on you and you alone, Fang."

The Pulsian snorted and shook her head, nuzzling closer into Lightning's shoulder. The soldier shifted on the couch to make more room, allowing her friend to get more comfortable. She really couldn't place when she had allowed this kind of contact, a part of her felt like she should be more uncomfortable with it, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"You cared enough to come get me. To risk whatever anger and wrath that awaited you in Oerba. You cared enough to pull me out of my nightmares, out of... My grief. You've done more than you know, Light. I know I've done a lot of work to get back to fighting form but… Don't discredit your part in that. I won't let you." Fang said quietly, sitting up slowly. The pinkette nudged her shoulder and stretched from her place on the couch.

"It's what friends are for. Besides, you've done a lot for me as well you know. Being here, doesn't make things feel so lonely."

She looked around the room to see how much more it had started to become a home, with Fang's carvings, treated furs and other little touches around the place that made the space feel far less sparse. Glancing over at Fang, she realised just how much she was at home with the Pulsian.

Lightning was just fine with that.