Thank you for all the follows, faves and reviews. You guys are amazing and make me pull this face *drops jaw*.
Apologies for the slow updates but my life is a bit messy at the moment. Been some big changes, but good changes...at least some of them are (emphasis on the some).
The world is really f**cked up, so let's take a moment to enjoy a bit of silliness. Here's to the people who can make us laugh even in our darkness moments. This is dedicated to my friend Apo.
Now on with the mate date...
Lightning looked up at the tall foreboding gates and back down at the piece of paper holding Fang's address.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon on the day of Fang and Lightning's mate-date and, even though the brunette had protested that it wasn't necessary, Lightning had insisted on picking Fang up at her home (because it may be a mate-date not a date-date but Lightning was a perfectionist and when she decided to do something she was always determined to do it right...mate-date or date-date. Plus Fang had paid a great deal of money for this date so it had to be perfect, or at least as perfect as an antisocial loner who hates dating can make it. Talk about pressure).
Once Fang was convinced that Lightning would not even consider meeting her in New Bodhum, her directions had seemed a little vague and worryingly short for the fastidious woman. - Just head east out of Bodhum on the main road, go past the last house, travel for about another ten miles and we're the first house on the left. Ya can't miss it. - But her journey had been exactly as Fang had described. And now here she was, in the middle of nowhere and at the only address for miles.
She checked the address against the gate. It seemed like the right place but the tall double gates and high brick wall obstructed the view of anything beyond it. Lifting her sunglasses she squinted against the bright sunshine as she looked up and down the empty dirt road, and found that the wall on either side of the gate ran far into the distance before it began to curve in. It had to be enclosing something, Lightning reasoned, something big.
I guess there's only one way to find out.
She dropped her sunglasses back onto her nose, pocketed the address and stretched her arm out of her open car window to press the electronic intercom. And after a few moments of silence the distorted sound of a Cocoonian's woman's voice came through the small, buzzing speaker. "Name please."
"Good afternoon, is this the Oerba Yun Fang residence?"
"Name please," the intercom repeated with a bored sigh. The Guardian Corp would have applauded the woman's confidentiality if it wasn't currently irritating her.
"Farron," Lightning answered through a growl, and at the mere mention of her name, as if by magic, the large gates began to open in front of her. "Guess this is the place," she had to assume since there were no further instructions from the intercom.
Putting her car into gear she drove through the slowly opening gates, and her jaw dropped open at the astonishing sight that greeted her. Either side of the avenue she found herself driving along, wasn't a garden but a landscape. Miles of undulating grassland that rolled, with hills, valleys and tall rocky outcrops. Large mature trees lined the road and spotted across the landscape, occasionally grouping together on the hilly terrain to creating patches of small, shady woodlands.
From her travels through Gran Pulse Lightning knew that most of the vegetation wasn't local, and so surmised that they must have brought in the plants especially to create a landscape which was so familiar to the ex-l'Cie she wouldn't have been surprised to see a giant Adamantoise slowly making its way across the estate. Fortunately for the unarmed shoulder there were no giant reptiles, or any other dangerous predators of the steppe. But in the distance a group of round fluffy sheep grazed down by a large lake and the soldier nearly swerved off the road when a large multicoloured herd of Chocobos galloped pass the front of her car, and squawked their way down the hill to the join the grazing flock.
The estate was even larger than it had looked from the outside, and from the outside it had looked enormous. She had been driving through its grounds for around twenty minutes before she even saw any trace of a house. Turning a sharp corner in the road, and passing through a circle of trees, it rose in front of her, a beautiful mansion of red brick and white sash windows pleasantly situated in a large round courtyard surrounded by borders crammed full of bright beautiful flowers.
Lightning pulled her car on to the gravel drive and looked up at the grand three storey building in awe.
It was larger than her entire apartment complex.
The sight of Fang's giant mansion made her feel - not nervous, Lightning Farron was never nervous - but perhaps a little unsure. As an officer, she earned a decent wage but this place cost more than Lightning could earn in a lifetime. In two lifetimes!
Suddenly everything felt like a bad decision. She felt underdressed in her light blue button-down, skinny white jeans and sandals. And she really wished she hadn't let Serah convince that her second-hand beat up blue car was better for picking up a date than her almost new velocycle (something about the velocycle messing up her date's hair...she hadn't really been listening to Serah's long list of 'do's and don'ts on a date'. It had been a very long list). And as for her plans for today's mate date, they now seemed like the most boring and worst ideas for a date that anyone has ever come up with in the history of dating.
Fang was obviously rich enough to do anything she wanted, go anywhere she ever wanted. And Lightning's idea of a date was showing her around New Bodhum! Why did she think someone like Fang would enjoy something like that!
"Pull yourself together Farron," she told herself sharply, rolling her eyes at her momentary lapse in confidence
This was all Serah's fault.
Lightning wasn't usually this agitated about a date, in fact she was generally apathetic about them. But Serah, well aware of her sister's typical attitude towards dating, was determined that Lightning's outing with the wealthy brunette/ potential future charity benefactor would be a success. Her little sister and had taken to advising/harassing Lightning about the intricate details of the date every chance she got, had prepared an itemised list about what Lightning should and shouldn't do during their date (a list which was currently crammed into her jean pocket), had stipulated that dinner and a movie was not a good enough idea for a date, and had finished by warning Lightning when she left this morning that Fang had better enjoy herself.
Lightning huffed. Serah was acting like she'd never been on a date before. She'd been on plenty. Like that last guy, what was his name? Jared, Jerome, Jarhead. You know the blond guy, with the things...bangs. And before that had been...errrrr...the other guy...baldy, big hands. She crossed her arms and tutted. Okay maybe Serah had a right to be worried. Perhaps she was a little too apathetic about her dates, but making her apprehensive about screwing it up wasn't exactly a stellar move on Serah's part.
Lightning took a deep steadying breath.
Stay focussed, stick to the plan, but be adaptable.
When faced with the unpredictable, it was a proven strategy that had worked for the soldier time and time again. Sure, it was one she reserved for battles, but she was confident that it could be applied to any encounter even a mate-date with a rich brunette bachelorette.
With her restored military backbone and a new found determination, she threw her sunglasses into the glove compartment, grabbed her grey short jacket from the passenger seat, stepped out of her car, and donned her coat while she marched the short distance to the mansion. Storming up the front steps she quickly reached out to pull the bell before she had a chance to change her mind.
Before the door bell had finished its first ring, the door was torn open but the dark haired woman standing there in a fashionable black a-line dress wasn't anyone that the soldier recognised, and her glare was not welcoming. With raised eyebrows and her tongue in her cheek, the stranger slowly looked the soldier up and down, and Lightning knew from the derisive look on the woman's face - even before she had opened her mouth - that this was the rude women from the intercom. Lightning's eyes narrowed in response.
"Hi," she greeted in an overly cheerful tone that was in complete opposition to the bored and condescending expression on her face. Well it would have been, until Lightning realised that she had said it without moving her lips.
"Hi," the friendly voice repeated, and to Lightning's surprise the real owner of the perky voice, the petite redhead that had been harassing Snow at the meet and greet, popped out from behind the black haired women and excitedly told the dark haired woman, apparently called Lulu, that she could greet Fang's guest. The woman reluctantly sauntered away but not with giving the soldier one last warning glare over her shoulder. Though what the warning was about, was a complete mystery to the soldier.
"Hi Lightning, it's nice to finally meet you in person. I'm Vanille," the red haired woman said as she held out her hand to attract the soldier's attention from her glaring match with Lulu.
"Nice to meet you" Lightning replied as she finally looked down at the petite woman and returned the handshake with a faint smile.
"You're just as pretty as I remember."
Lightning felt her face flush. "Errr...thank you," she replied after a moment, unsure of how else to respond since her brain had been momentarily taken aback by the unexpected compliment from a near stranger. She looked down at Vanille's hand that was still firmly holding onto hers despite them finishing their handshake and back up to find the smaller woman looking at her with a mischievous grin. Vanille's eyes twinkled in a way that reminded Lightning of Fang with its mix of amusement and victory, as if the faint blush on Lightning's cheeks was exactly the reaction she had wanted or hoped for. Seeing the aloof, blushing woman's pointed look at their joined hands, Vanille released Lightning's hand with a giggle, but only to replace it with her other hand.
"I would have bid for you myself," Vanille continued as she led Lightning into the entrance hall swinging their joined hands, "but it's no use competing with Fang when she has her mind set on something, she always gets what she wants." Lightning choose not respond to such information and instead remained judiciously silent. The thought of the two sisters competing over her as if she was a prize to won or in this case bought, made her purse her lips in distaste. But then after seeing Vanille's treatment of Snow at the party she eventually concluded that she was slightly grateful for Fang's competitive nature. Fang's teasing she could probably handle, but Vanille's flamboyant mischiefs were in an entirely different league.
Besides, any clever reprimand that she could have thought of would have died on her lips as she was once again staggered by the size and beauty of Fang and Vanille's home.
The entrance hall alone was bigger than her entire apartment.
The heels of Lightning's sandals clicked against the dark wooden floors as Vanille led her further into her home. It was a large room, but it was surprisingly bright and cosy. A large, soft red patterned rug covered the centre of the floor and there were other homely touches such as large potted house plants around the edges of the room and photos and paintings covering very inch of the wood panelled walls. Doors lead off from the hall on both sides and at the end of hall a wide carpeted staircase led upwards to a wall covered in windows, where the stairway split in both directions to join the next floor.
Once they had reached the middle of the hall, Vanille let of Lightning's hand. "I'll let Fang know that ya here," Vanille grinned and Lightning nodded in response. Assuming that Vanille had left her alone to find Fang, Lighting took a moment to look down at her clothes and smooth down her shirt, unaware that Vanille hadn't moved an inch.
"FFFFAAAAAAAANNNNG!"
Lightning entire body instinctively jerked away from the loud screaming woman, nearly leaping across the hall as the small woman still standing beside her yelled up the stairs at the top of her lungs.
"WHHAAAA-T?" A distant voice replied from somewhere above them.
Still in shock, the typically quiet and composed soldier watched in wide-eyed bewilderment as the small woman standing next to her began to turn red as she continued to 'converse' with her sister on another floor. Wincing with each ear-piercing word, the eye closest to the screeching banshee began to close slightly in empathy for her poor ears.
"LIGHTNING'S HERE. I'M GONNA TAKE HER INTO THE STUDY."
"OKAY, DOWN IN A SEC."
Dazed by her still ringing ears, the soldier didn't resist when Vanille grabbed her hand again and lead her into the nearest room. The large sunlit room was just as beautiful as the hall. This study had the same dark wooden floors, houseplants and a central rug like the hall but in this room the panelled walls were painted a beautiful shade of light blue. In front of a fireplace was a couple of leather chairs and at the end of the room a desk faced the large patio windows so that anyone sitting there could look out into the beautifully tended back gardens. But what really caught the soldier's attention were that each of its alcoves was lined with books that made the bookworm in Lightning itch with a desire to read each and every spine.
"You have a beautiful home."
"Thanks. It's a replica of an old Gran Pulsian home that I saw once before the War of Transgression," Vanille replied motioning for Lightning to take one of the leather chairs while she took the other.
"Oh. Where?" Lightning asked with genuine curiosity as she sat down and crossed her legs. Travelling across Pulse, Lightning had been intrigued by the ruins of solitary houses had she had seen scattered across the countryside, but they had been nothing but grass covered bricks and most of the records on the history of Pulse has been lost to the ravages of time. She never imagined that their houses would look anything like this.
Vanille paused in the middle of sitting down and for the first time since greeting the soldier the smile dropped from her lips. "What?"
Lightning frowned in confusion at why such a question would result in such a guilty expression on the young women's face. Perhaps she had misheard her. "Where did you see the house?" She clarified.
"Oh...errrm...in a history book." Vanille said, looking off to the side and then back at the Guardian Corp. "Yeah a book," she repeated nervously playing with her fingers. Lightning's frown deepened but before she could question her the redhead was tearing back out of her seat. "Look we have lots of books," she said quickly and waved Lightning over to the nearest shelf.
The bookworm didn't need to be invited twice.
Lightning learned that Vanille had a keen interest on preserving the history of Pulse, or Gran Pulse as Vanille had corrected her, and had spent a great deal of her fortune collecting any books, texts or records from before the War of Transgression. Vanille pointed out some of the books she thought Lightning would enjoy while they talked about them and it seemed to Lightning, everything else in the entire world. Despite being a poor conversationalist, Lightning found that she was actually enjoying talking to the younger woman. She was friendly and flirty, just like Fang, but while Fang's flirts was laid back and smooth Vanille's were blunt and bubbly. She was wide-eyed and excitable. She was brimming with enthusiasm about everything Lightning told her and asking her a thousand questions a minute - from the books she liked, to the weather, to her job, to her plans for her mate-date with Fang. But behind all her child-like energy there was a keen intelligence and Lightning could see why the woman was so successful in business, because in the space of a few minutes Vanille had probably managed to extract enough information from the famously stoic Lightning Farron to write her biography.
Now seated back on the leather chairs, with a few borrowed books on Lightning's lap there was a pause in their conversation. Vanille had her elbows on the arms of her chair and her fingers steepled under her chin. She seemed to be assessing her and Lightning squirmed slightly under the silent woman's scrutiny. "You seem like a super nice person Lightning," Vanille said in her perky voice," but I'm still going to tell you the same thing that I tell all of Fang's dates. If you hurt my sister in any way, I have the means and the imagination to make the rest of your life a living hell. M-kay?"
Lightning blinked. She was surprised by the sudden change in the cheerful woman's demeanour but in no doubt that the woman meant every single word of her threat. Because she may have maintained her friendly tone and smiled as she spoke those words, but her eyes gave this hard glint of seriousness that told the woman that she was not joking around.
Lightning could have said for what felt like the twentieth time that day that it wasn't a date, and opened her mouth to say just that, but Lightning reasoned that whether not or not it was a mate-date or a date-date mattered to Fang's little sister, it certainly wouldn't have mattered to her if she had been in Vanille's position and intimidating one of Serah's dates. Plus she had always admired such a protective nature between siblings. So feeling that Vanille's attitude towards her sister was something to be encouraged not disparaged, she didn't argue with the small red head instead she replied, "Fair enough." And Vanille feeling her sister's date had been suitably warned, gave a satisfied nod of approval.
"VANILLE? VANILLE WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?" They both turned their heads to the closed door as they heard Fang calling from the hall.
"We're in here Fang," Vanille said jumping up to open the door for the flummoxed brunette.
Throwing her hands up in mild irritation, she walked into the room still frowning at her sister. "Thought you said you'd be in the study! I've been looking everywhere for you pair!" She turned her attention away from Vanille as Lightning stood to greet her and Fang's gaze softened at the sight of her date for the day. "Hi Lightning," she smiled and moved to meet the soldier. Lightning held out her hand. Smirking at the gesture Fang took Lightning's hand to pull her into a brief friendly hug. Fang pulled away keeping her hands on the other woman's biceps to look the stunned woman up and down. "Wow you look great."
"Thanks...you too," Lightning mumbled, glancing away shyly. Lightning was too honest not to admit that Fang was looking good in her tight black trousers, black leather boots, faded grey band T-shirt, short black leather jacket. Even wearing light, natural makeup and without her tuxedo she was just as pretty as Lightning remembered.
She felt Fang's hands drop away from her arms. "I'm underdressed aren't I?" Lightning's head snapped back to the brunette at the sound of the nervousness in the woman's voice. "I knew I should have put on something a bit smarter." Lightning smiled slightly as Fang's looked down and began to worry about her attire. It actually made her feel better to know that Fang was as apprehensive about their date as she was. "Just give me ten more minutes and I can change into-"
Lightning's smile dropped. "N-no you look perfect." Lightning interrupted, she didn't want them to start the date by having Fang mistake her reserved nature for scorn or distain. Fang's eyes widened in surprise at Lightning's sudden outburst, but then seeing the flush across Lightning's cheeks, the corners of her eyes crinkled in amusement and she smiled at the stuttering pink-haired beauty. Sighing in mild irritation at the brunette's smirk, Lightning licked her dry lips and crossed her arms, trying to restore some of her stoicism. "I mean what you're wearing is perfect for what we are doing….today…on our date..mate-date. I mean mate-date."
Luckily Vanille, who had been watching the hilarity of their awkward exchange from the door, decided to save the soldier from her mounting embarrassment. She liked Lightning a lot even if she was a bit aloof, and sometimes Fang took her teasing a little too far. She didn't want Lightning to start her date feeling uncomfortable or have Fang thinking that she had the upper hand over the soldier, so she decided to show Lightning that the laidback huntress was just as easily ruffled as anyone else. Especially by her little sister.
"This is the study," Vanille said, goading Fang into an argument. She grinned as Fang turned on her with an affronted expression on her face.
"No it isn't," Fang immediately began arguing, pointing her finger in the direction of another room, "that's the study. This is the second living room"
"This is the study and that's the library. It's got books in it."
"This has books in it."
"So how can it be a living room?"
Lightning felt herself relax as Fang's attention was drawn elsewhere. Her relieved outward breath turned into a quiet chuckle as Fang bent over so she was nose-to-nose with her smiling sister as they bickered. It reminded her of such exchanges with Serah, more playful banter and teasing than anything seriously. I mean how could it be when they were arguing about room delegation. The familiarity of the situation put Lightning at ease and it was amusing to find that Fang wasn't always laidback and suave, and that she didn't always win the argument.
"...I told ya this bloody house has too many bloody rooms for two people. It has too many rooms for fifty people!" Growling at the victorious grin on her little sister's face, Fang marched back to Lightning and grabbed her hand. "Come on Lightning," she said and began pulling her out of the study, "take me away from this monstrosity of a house."
"Awwww she's so cute when she's angry," Vanille said in an oversweet voice and gave Fang's cheek a pinch as she passed by. Without pausing in her stride Fang swatted her sister's hand away with a grumble and dragged Lightning out of the front door, while Lightning wondered if it was too late to tell the two sister's that she was really comfortable with hand-holding, or physical contact, or being dragged everywhere.
"Bye Fang. See later Lightning," Vanille added as she excitedly waved to them from the front step. "Have fun on your date. Sorry, I mean mate-date. Have fun on your mate-date it's gonna be great!"
AN: Short but hopefully sweet. Not much Fang in this one but don't worry the remaining chapters will have lots of the lovely brunette.
I hope you guys enjoyed it and your thoughts and comments are always appreciated, plus they give me a happy - 'ooo-a-review' - buzz. Although if you keep being so nice to me my jaw is likely to drop off and then how in the world will I eat my cereal.