(4,819 words) I've been slacking with my writing, I could've updated this a week ago, but I was't writing it at all. Sorry for that, I finished this late night and intended to update in the morning, but my sister had the computer all day as she was watching Resident Evil and reading fanfiction.

And there's something I should say which is what confuses me why I wasn't in the mood to finish this was I've wanted to say this for over a month now. I'm so so so sorry for what I said in the last chapter, I never meant to sound so mean. I forgot what I was going to say and settled for hate because I felt like that was what I was saying anyway but far more politely. I'm going to quote my big sister here from when we were talking about the negative reviews I got from you,

'This story is not a match-up story, it should not be judged for what match-ups are in it. It doesn't matter who the hell Lightning is with during the course of the story. It's about not being who people want you to be, who they say you have to be, it's about being who you want to be, to dance against the wind.

See? That was why it was annoying me, yes I'm happy for the 6000+ hits, yes I'm happy for the 38 reviews (Nine of which were a reaction to what I said last chapter and because of that being my record is why I'm not depressed) but I want people to talk about the story, not that Lightning NEEDS to be with a certain Pulsian woman. I'm paranoid, so I really need to hear people tell me that it is good, or if I need improvement, because otherwise I feel like I'm useless and that no one really cares at all

I'll shut up soon there's one more thing I have to say, two of those nine reviews were especially harsh. Two people decided to tell me that I'm stupid, worthless that this is the worst thing they've ever read, I should definitely discontinue this because this absolutely horrible. Apparently I'm also the worst writer on the site, which I know is incorrect because yes I'm not the best, but hey, I'm a 15 year old ninth grader living in Australia who's only been writing for a year, but I've found people far worse than me. You can trust me on that one. Just one question for these people, if you hate me and my story so much, why were you reading it to the ninth chapter? That's 40000 words!

I'm confused. Not trying to be mean. But something doesn't add up here.

Disclaimer: I don't own FFXIII, I'm just writing this.

Dance against the wind

Chapter 10: Exploration

The carriage pulled up in front of a grand house late afternoon just as the sun began to set. Fang put her head out the window, the cool wind made her raven hair whip around her face. The house was large, not as big as hers had been, but still large all the same. It blocked out the sun and cast it in shadow; it was of a magnificent design, and by appearance was far more pristine than the mansion she had grown up in.

Fang whistled, laughed then put her head back in. "Didn't expect it to look like that." She chuckled, "Your dad likes spending money doesn't he?"

"If you've met the man, surely you would've known that already." Cid sighed, the man he called his father was obsessed with his riches. If he had the opportunity to buy something he'd buy the most extravagant thing money could buy, nothing was excluded. Sickenly enough most people living in wealth were just like the man, no understanding of the word restraint.

The doors opened with a slight creak, the room was covered mostly in darkness, with the exclusion of small spots close to the windows lit up a bright fiery orange. Fang took a quick look around the room, taking in the new place, before sitting down on the last step. She waited for the others to enter. Sheerly because of how glad she was to have finally gotten out of the carriage she'd been stuck in all morning, she had gone at a far faster pace than the others. Of course to do that she had to lift up the ends of her godforsaken dress, she got so envious of men sometimes, it must be tonnes easier to move about in pants. Unfortunately she didn't doubt that if she ever wore a pair people would value her as crazy.

"Are you excited?" A high-pitched voice asked from the doorway, Fang looked up to see the girl, Jane, who was previously one of her father's slaves who they had been partly forced to take her with them. She was chosen for the simple reason she was Ben's sister and it would make it less complicated with it being her instead of anyone else. From what little Fang had been told of the teenager was that she and her older brother were quite like twins, despite the difference of a good couple years. She could never dare to judge her brother, so it was clear she wouldn't be able to judge the man she worked for.

"Cid was thanking the driver; my brother chose to help with the bags. I would have but I know I've never been a strong one, and he did warn me I probably wouldn't even get them off the ground." Jane tried an attempt of a smile, it worked but felt sad. Obviously she was bothered by her physical weakness, but was strong enough in the other sense to try to not let it bother her.

Despite her expression Fang couldn't help but laugh over something completely different the young girl wouldn't have even noticed she'd done.

"Umm." She stuttered as her mouth couldn't form the question running about in her head.

"I'm sorry." Fang waved her hand as she tried to stop herself, but the act of trying to stop just made her laugh more. "It just took me by surprise when you called him 'Cid'. Seems really friendly is all, even I didn't call him by his first name when we first met."

Jane nodded in understanding, "I was calling him sir but he said he'd rather I not say it as the word reminds him of his father. All that I've been told of him is that he has quite the ugly personality. And even besides that fact it'd still be fine considering his relationship with my elder brother."

"Right." Fang agreed on the last part and stood up just as the other two entered. She smiled her usual Fang smile and had to comment on how tired her husband was looking now.

"You look like you could fall onto a bed and sleep for a thousand years." She chuckled and rested her head on the balustrade, she was feeling like sleep was a nice idea too, even so early as it was, but not near as bad as Cid seemed to.

"Blame last night's little distraction." He rubbed his face, he was talking seriously but her laughing didn't stop and her smile didn't falter. Because of the distance they had to travel, a business partner of her father had offered to let them stay the night at his manor, thanks to it being fairly close to what would be considered the half-way mark. What was not mentioned was that he and his wife had just had a new baby and the boy had not stopped crying the entire night. Fang had luckily all throughout her life lived in a room at the back of her house, and on a quiet night, the slave's quarters were easy to hear. Babies crying were not uncommon, and it usually would be more than one that she'd have to deal with. So that baby from last night hadn't kept her up at all and she'd had a fine sleep. It was questionable why she felt tired at all.

Cid eyed her happy face with slight annoyance, she could have at least tried to seem sorry; but this was Fang, he'd known the woman his entire life, far too jovial for that.

Fang was chuckling quietly to herself for some while. Her mind had wandered off the conversation, but not off the track and remained on similar things. She had gotten so distracted by her thoughts as she stood at the bottom of the stairwell that she failure to notice anyone leaving the room until Jane walked into her line of sight, and broke through her trance. When she finally looked around, it was only them in the room.

Jane looked remarkably like her elder brother, but with a feminine figure and a child's face. Her eyes seemed so bright, even more now that the last rays of burning sunlight reflected in her dark eyes. She leaned on the window sill on and put a dainty hand against the glass, smiling calmly.

"Pretty is it?" Fang asked, not too sure how else to start a conversation with a woman she hardly knew.

She nodded, widening her smile a crack. "I've never lived in a house that wasn't about to break apart. Your dad got mean sometimes for sure. Whatever we had we made ourselves and what we had was never good enough for what we were trying to use it for. It just feels weird, being in a completely different environment you know?"

"Yeah, I can understand. I know it's probably not as weird for me seeing as I always got to live in unneeded extravagance, but the different environment, I do at least fully understand that." Fang sat down on the step, holding her legs closer with her arms, dresses were not comfortable to wear when you always tried to sit in the positions she always tried to. So the one she was in now was one she quite commonly got stuck doing.

She sighed and laid back, she wasn't bothered when the step above dug into her back. The room seemed small to her, but to Jane it must've been amazing seeing as this alone was bigger than the house she grew up in. The double doors that made the entrance were wooden just like the ones back home. On the side were large windows with cushioned sills big enough and low enough to use as seats and had purple silk curtains decorating the sides. Directly in the middle was the staircase, made of the same white stone as the floor. The rails were made of wood, a darker one than the door was made of. To the sides of said staircase were doors, one of both sides. She was yet to know what was beyond them. It was clear enough to her that the rest of the home was situated at the top of the stairs.

"Do you think you'll be treated any better now because of Cocoon not legally having slaves?" Fang asked as the subject passed by in her head. It was because of that law that they were here now, and so they could be as far away as their relatives as possible. It made things less complicated and much easier.

Jane looked back at her like she had been frightened, the question seemed sudden to her, by appearance it looked to be she didn't know how to answer. But Fang's thoughts were proved wrong when not a minute later she was given the answer the girl before her believed in.

"I really wonder that. Frankly I'm still having trouble getting it through my head that I'm not considered a slave anymore, that I'm more simply a 'maid' now. Truly I would love to be treated fairer, you and Cid shall, that I don't doubt, but for others I'm still made to wonder. I've been told, that despite having a war started over the issue of slavery, that even in Cocoon my kind have it rough." She replied solemnly.

Fang frowned at the response, a part of her mind was agreeing with Jane yes, but really hearing it said that way made something feel wrong. Who would declare war on their own country to make certain individuals life easier and more humane, when you still treat them like they were no better than common fiends?

"You know what, if someone goes about treating you like shit, I'll shoot them how 'bout that?" She decided.

Jane blinked at the odd decision, "Um, shoot them Miss? But where on earth would you get the gun? By being a woman you're still considering inferior yourself, I don't understand how you could get your hands on one. The way you said it made it seem easy." She stumbled with her words, she had had a fair warning that the raven haired Pulsian had her strange moments, but this was the first time she'd gotten to see it.

"Hmm…" Fang put her hand to her chin on thought, "I could go steal one easy enough, guess I'll just figure it out when that time comes."

Jane nodded, still feeling a mite weirded out by her, but trying not to let it show by convincing her mind that this was normal whilst truly knowing it to be quite the lie.

She blinked and tilted her head up when Fang stood up and began making her way up the stairs, "Miss?"

"I'm going to explore the house; I'm going to do what I didn't do last time, make sure that I never get lost in my house after living in it for years. Don't want to do that again." She reached the top and turned back one last time. "Oh right, I'd like to explore town tomorrow, would you mind coming with me? Something tells me a woman walking round a strange place all by herself is an incredibly stupid idea and I'm going to let the boys be by themselves for a bit. It's the fair thing."

"You'd like me to come with you?" Jane repeated it like it was the most impossible thing she'd ever heard. "I'd love to, thank you miss!"

"Call me Fang next time okay? I see you later." She was told before the other disappeared around a corner and went out of sight.

Jane smiled pleasantly to herself, she was strange but at least she was a nice person. She ran up the stairs with the intention of turning in, as like the others, she'd hardly gotten a wink of sleep. But it was just as she found a vacant bedroom, something hit her and she confused herself over how she failed to notice it before,

Did Fang just say she got lost in the same house she'd lived eighteen years of her life in?

Fang's exploration of her new house took a smaller amount of time than she had initially believed it would. The house was of the same simple design all over; the floors on the top floor were wood planks, whilst the walls were plaster. Windows dotted the wall ever now and then, letting in the same orange light she'd been greeted with downstairs. She found a handful of spare bedrooms and two bathrooms. When she returned to downstairs she opened the door on the right first, finding the dining room and the kitchen behind it. The left door led to a long sitting room, with it'd left wall consisting of on large window filling the room to the brim with shining rays of sunlight. A row of empty bookshelves took up the full length of the right wall. This would be the type of room that normal people would invite guests for tea and to chat. But Fang predicted as she was not that type she'd sit in it all day and have conversations with herself. A habit she'd always had, usually deemed insane.

Just as she went searching for a vacant room to sleep she came across a miniscule room with one tiny window near the roof, and books scattered all over. Obviously left from the previous owner; she shrugged it off believing she wouldn't have a reason to enter there again. She found a suitable room just down the hall from it. It wasn't that she felt tired, more for the sake of being lazy and bored did she choose to go to bed this early. She could feel pangs of hunger but they went ignored as she climbed into the covers and slept.

The sun lit up the room from a window on the left wall. It had no curtains and so the occupant was left to suffer all of the yellow orb's fury as a rude awakening. Fang turned in the sheets and shielded her face from the bright room, all looked white each time she opened her eyes. She got up into a sitting position but used the thin sheet to make things appear darker and as an extra precaution she kept her head turned to the right, opposite to the damned window. She blinked twice and slowly removed the sheet and lowered it back down. She couldn't remember a morning as bright as this; her surroundings still looked off to her. Either she'd slept in late or the sun rose earlier here. She took the later as considering she hadn't been tired the day before there was no reason for her to stay asleep for a long period of time.

She shook her head to get her ruffled locks off her shoulder; she regarded her hair in the morning as nothing but a raven puffball. She stretched, yawned and rubbed her eyes as she become more awake. The bed had been more comfortable than she'd expected, it had been an enjoyable sleep. Fang flopped back down on the covers, limbs outstretched lazily.

She yawned again and pushed back the hair that had landed on her face. She didn't particularly feel like getting up at all today, but the pangs of hunger she had felt before her rest had turned into a growling monster.

Reluctantly she hopped up onto her feet. Fang finger brushed her hair to make it look a semblance of neat, she could never get the mess to ever become such. But she could improve it greatly from its current puffball state; even if she was too idle to find a brush.

Luckily Fang had been lazily enough to sleep in her clothes that night, it had made the sleep a tad unpleasant at times; she was rather lucky the bed itself was good or that night would have been a horror. Even if she was one of those annoying type of girls that were so obsessed with appearance, she still wouldn't have checked her appearance in the mirror, mainly because one didn't exist in the room. Which had surprised Fang Some considering that if everyone cared so much about how they looked like wouldn't they choose to have mirrors everywhere so they could know if they still looked good? Plenty of people she'd met before were like that, her mother for example.

Fang left the room after that thought, she could hear sounds coming from downstairs and curiosity made her head in that direction. When she reached the stairs, it occurred to her the sounds were coming to the left of her, through the door she had found an elaborate looking dining room. Her curiosity left in an instant, it was nothing peculiar at this point of the day. Surely if anyone else was awake they'd be staving? It was common self wasn't it?

Fang entered through the door to see a glimpse of Jane's small form. She strode forward and found her in the kitchen cooking up herself breakfast. A full minute past before the teen took notice of her presence,

She had turned around almost absentmindedly, going to reach something Fang predicted from going off the looks, but Jane paused midway when she noticed the Pulsian woman staring at her with mild interest.

"Ah, Fang, I didn't notice you were there! I'm sorry I didn't wake you did I? I was really hungry and I really couldn't wait for the others to wake. If I did I apologise so-"

"Quick to apologise aren't you?" The other laughed, one which turned into a sigh halfway through. "Don't act like that; I wouldn't go off at you even if you did wake me up. No the sun decided it'd give me the rude wake-up call it always does." She smiled at the end.

Jane blinked at the odd choice of words, "The…sun…um." She shook her head and got to saying what she'd intended to, "I'm sorry; it's just a habit of mine."

"An instinct?" Fang interrupted.

Jane looked up from her fiddling fingers, again curious and confused over the raven hair's choice of words. "Why would you say it's an instinct? I don't understand." She questioned in a timid voice.

"I don't really think it's the type of thing I'd call a habit. I mean your whole family's been treated roughly by my stupid relatives. It's an instinct because every time you've made a mistake or done something wrong you've had someone going off their head at you for it. You expect to be reprimanded so completely that the words must be coming out without you thinking them."

Jane nodded and put a finger to her lip in thought, humming to herself softly. "Do you like helping people?"

Fang shrugged her shoulders and scratched her head. "I don't think it's that. I just hate jackasses. It was my sister who liked to help."

She looked back to Jane when she heard a soft giggle.

"What?" She asked, puzzled over the teen's reaction.

"Vanille right? I don't remember her very well. But I recall she was very nice." Jane paused and lowered her eyes, thinking back to what memories she did retain. "But Master Oerba told us she died, a sickness he claimed but no one could remember her being sick." When she lifted up her gaze back to Fang's she was startled by her shocked and horrified expression.

"HE SAID WHAT!" She yelled, Jane put her hands to her ears to weaken the sound, but it failed to work well. The woman had screamed fairly loud.

"The bastard, she continued, ignoring the perplexed and slightly terrified face of the young girl in front of her. "I can't believe that man. Loves his lies don't he?"

"Um Fang, what really happened?" Jane tried to interrupt, and flinched when she got Fang to look her way. She could hear a sigh, probably the response to Jane's overreaction.

"Started just from an innocent little question father asked, 'who's your best friend?' Simple right, well apparently not when you name one of your father's slaves. So the bastard shipped her off to a mental asylum to live out her life because both he and his wife sincerely thought she was off her rocker." Fang clenched her fists tightly, even mentioning it pissed her off. It was her parents who had lost it, the delusional freaks.

Jane bit her lip, not sure how she should be responding, "I'm sorry, that's horrible."

"It's alright." Fang stopped her right there. She bit her lip hard when tears decided it would be a good idea to fall, she wasn't a weak person; she refused to let them fall in the presence of another.

"Because I'm going to find her and get her out of there." She self-assuredly stated.

"You're a very confident person aren't you?" Jane asked, after hearing the tone of her statement.

Fang smirked, her previous emotions evaporated, "I wouldn't be me if I wasn't."

As promised the day before, When Fang left the house mid-morning she took Jane with her, the contents of their last conversation forcefully forgotten. It seemed to be the kind of thing that would put one in a sour mood. The house was situated on the edge of north Bodhum, in an area covered in small hills. South Bodhum was far worse as she'd heard, but that was obvious enough as it did happen to have a multitude of gold mines scattered about. The trees were a deep vibrant green, as was the grass. The minute that she left the house that had caught her attention; she had grown up living in a region with leaves being pea-green and yellow green, her surroundings looked like they had something wrong with them to her. Jane laughed at her constant comment on it as they walked into town. Though not knowing very much about it she thought it was because the leaves had a shorter lifespan because they fell off in the winter. But Fang made a strange statement on that as well, Jane was clueless if it meant she agreed with her or not, calling Pulsian leaves stronger and Cocoonian ones scared of the cold didn't actually make sense.

Eventually she was able to get the woman off the topic as each sentence was beginning to make less and less sense of what little sense they had in the first place. Jane felt relief hit her as they reached town, for the green that had started the conversation was replaced with the pale brown of wooden planks. Bodhum was originally a small town, but when its massive deposits of silver and gold were found, men from all over came to get their hands on a chance of riches. And in turn, the town gradually grew to support them. As time went on more people came for the business opportunities in the bustling township. As few miners got lucky, rich people began living in Bodhum as well; so many large mansions were built for them. To add to those numbers a number of advantaged people also moved up to live in North Bodhum. But no matter what, the town still showed its roots of a mining town everywhere you looked. It didn't have stone roads and streetlamps that didn't have to use a candle, its road were dirt and its paths were basic planks of wood lined up against the buildings, made of the same material.

Though bigger than what she was used to since where she lived everywhere was far apart, Fang found that the place seemed smaller than her expectations. The main road was the first place she came across, and when she did Jane stayed closer to her than before, Fang couldn't blame her for being uncomfortable under white men's looks; she'd heard some nasty stories herself. The main road had a few general stores littered here and there. Fang's assumption was that this part of town was for the miners and poorer citizens.

When she and Jane took a left she found herself slowly falling into the area clearly for the rich. She couldn't help but feel bothered by the fact that she knew that she was right in the middle of the usual rat-faces she always had to deal with. Even more so for the looks they were giving to Jane, who with worry walked at her heels, scared to be any further away. It was sickening how this people could be so against slavery, but at the same time be revolted to view people different to them as equal. It made you doubt their ability to think.

She forced herself not to look into their disgusted expression. She only wanted to map out the town, nothing more. She was glad that there wasn't much in this section of town. Only a couple of restaurants, and the small theatre she noticed as way as the little pub and lady's lounge adjacent.

When she left those couple of streets, she decided to end her exploration there, she knew there was another part she'd left to touch but even from a glance you'd know it was a place to avoid. It was the 'bad part' of town to put it nicely. She guessed that from not only the shady looking men she could quite clearly see, but for the places that looked to be something along the lines of a whorehouse. She knew well that they existed here but she had decided from the start not to even dare step upon same ground. Just as Fang was leading Jane back to the house, Fang was distracted by angry yelling coming from the closest building. Now this was a very normal thing yes, but not so when it was a woman doing the yelling. Fang read the name plastered on the wall besides the door, 'Rose Lovers'. It from what she could see and hear inside that it was a saloon, but judging from the name, it would be no surprise if it was a whorehouse as well.

She shrugged it off, it there was any woman in there they would certainly be no 'lady'. One screaming her head off didn't seem too strange an idea now. But just as she was about to leave a woman's voice with hints of anger called out to her,

"Oi, Pulsian girl! Have you seen a blonde haired man around here?" Fang turned on her heel to see a woman not much older than her standing at the doors of the place she was getting away from. Her black hair was tied up with roses to make a messy beehive shape on her head, the dress she wore was stretched out and hung on the sides of her shoulders, and she held the bottom of her dress so high her knees were visible. Behind her Jane's eyes opened wide at the woman being so unconcerned about her revealing outfit, but Fang might as well have not noticed at all. In fact she found her confidence amusing that she dared to wear such around here, you could tell from looking at her, this woman wasn't a common whore.

"I've seen to many guys, go look yourself lazy." Fang answered lazily before finally getting her chance to leave and forcefully dragged Jane with her. In the background she could hear the woman laughing cheerily, leaving Jane confused, and Fang not one bit surprised.

"Well hello to you to lazy, I'm Dẻteste, pleasure to meet you!" She screamed sarcastically whilst laughing like a mad man. Fang smirked. Something about that woman had strangely reminded her of herself; she couldn't put her finger on it. Maybe she'd gotten it from her stance, but she had an amazing confident aura about her. Despite the fact that whore or not, this 'Dẻteste' would have no good occupation, she wouldn't mind meeting her again.

I'm sorry the top note was long, but that apology needed to be said. I felt really bad about it.

Well hope you liked this chapter, I'm glad for the reviews I've been given whether they were nice or not. More would be a very nice thing, let's just hope I don't have a repeat of last time.

Jya ne

~Serah Villiers Valentine