AN: Here's the next chapter! Have fun reading :)
I know it's really short (as you'll notice, this one's doing a lot of the explaining again), but the next one will be pretty long again, and as I've been working on the story a lot in the last two days, it's actually quite likely that Chapter Nine will be up even before Friday.
Chapter Eight
It was already quite late when Fang returned from her date with Vanille, feeling a bit tired. She was just about to open the door to her room when she remembered that Sazh had wanted to talk about something important - she wondered if he still wanted to do it so late in the evening.
There was only one way to find out, and so she walked the few steps over to his room and knocked on the wooden door. A few moments later, she heard steps from the other side, and then the door was unlocked and opened, revealing her band colleague in his white-blue striped pyjamas.
Fang smirked at the sight. "Have I woken ya?"
Sazh smiled, shaking his head. "No, I've been readin' a little. What's up, girl?"
"Well, ya told me we'd have an important talk after my date, so I wanted to check if this was still true despite the late hour", she explained, wiping a strand of hair from her face.
The man chuckled, propping his arm against the doorframe. "No, it's alright. We'll do it tomorrow, okay? I'd actually thought your date wouldn't take as long as it did, and when it got later and later, we just decided to discuss it tomorrow"
"But it's okay, really. Don't worry, we're not mad at ya", he quickly added as he saw concern in Fang's face for the split of a second.
"I see ... will ya just let me know what this is about? I mean, you sounded quite serious when ya told me we'd have to discuss somethin'", Fang asked of the man, smiling lazily in an attempt to hide the mix of nervousness and curiosity she felt about this matter, whatever it was.
Sazh found himself smiling at the question, lifting an eyebrow when he realised how eager Fang seemed to be to learn more about the matter.
"Sure, actually it should be somethin' ya can be happy about", he slowly began, a small grin forming on his lips.
"I mean, at least if your date went well ... and if ya like Bodhum", he added, his grin widening a little at his cryptic words.
"What do ya mean? Come on, don't put me on the rack any longer", Fang smirked, realising the amusement Sazh drew out of the situation.
"Alright.", he chuckled briefly, "It's simple: The record label gave me an unexpected call yesterday, informin' me that they'll close the studio in Eden because of financial reasons. They still have studios in Palumpolum and Bodhum, so we'd have to move to either of these cities", he said, stroking over his chin in thought.
Fang's eyes shortly widened in surprise at the unexpected news, and it was quickly followed by a smile when she realised what this could mean for her and Vanille should they decide to move to the beach city.
"So is it already settled that we'll go along with this, and we'll just decide on which city we choose tomorrow, or what?", the brunette asked for clarification after a moment, furrowing her brows as thousands of thoughts flooded her mind at the new information presented to her, desperately trying to process and think everything through.
"Actually, there's a clause in our contract that they're in their rights to, yeah, 'move' us like that if it's not too far away. So, to put it this way, according to the contract, we have to go along with it.", the man explained seriously.
Fang nodded, understanding. "So we'll just have to decide which city we want, yeah?", she concluded.
"Yeah. I've already had a brief talk with the guys, and it seems like they prefer Palumpolum, but maybe you can convince them otherwise...", he smiled, winking to the woman before him.
"Maybe. I'll try", Fang winked back. There was a moment of silence before the woman looked at her colleague again.
"Alright then, I'll go hit the sac now, yeah? Sleep tight, Sazh"
"G'night, Fang", he nodded and yawned before closing the door.
The next morning approached quickly and soon, after a long, enjoyable breakfast with the guys, Fang found herself with them in Sazh's room for their talk.
Everyone sat down where it suited them best, and then Sazh cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"So, y'all know why we're sittin' here. We wanna decide which city we'll choose to move to.", he began, leaning forward a little on his chair.
He was interrupted, however, when Cid suddenly spoke up with a grin on his face. "First, I'd like to know where you've been all night yesterday, Fang", he playfully asked of the woman.
Fang couldn't help but smirk in return as Sazh just facepalmed at the question but stayed quiet for now, while Hope had a subtle smile on his face as well - after all, everyone except Cid knew very well where she'd been, and with whom.
"I've been on a date", she self-confidently blurted out with an even more self-confident smile on her face.
Cid's jaw dropped immediately. "You- what? A date? I mean- you on a date?", he stammered incredulously.
Fang nodded, smirking smugly at the surprised reaction. "Yep, a date", she confirmed again.
Cid shook his head in disbelief. "But - just for clarification - you're telling me it's a real date, not some one night stand stuff, yes?"
"Yep, I've had my second date with her tonight and there's been no sex so far. I haven't even touched her sexually yet, if you must know", Fang explained nonchalantly.
Now that she came to think of it, it actually made her wonder herself that she had had no problems with the lack of sex so far, seeing how in the past, she'd done nothing but have one night stands with women she'd only barely known from a concert or so. Therefore, it seemed so unlike her, but it was no lie that she hadn't really given sex much thought so far with Vanille.
It just felt too early, simply not right yet. And now that she had found out the girl had never kissed someone before her and therefore must also be a virgin, she certainly wouldn't start pushing for it. No, it was just one more good reason to wait for the right time.
"Oookay ... well seems like our predator here is retiring from the wild hunt at long last, huh?", Cid joked, wiping a strand of dark hair from his face.
Fang laughed. "Seems so. At least I've gotten more clarity today and I'm sure now that I really wanna be together with her. I wanna make this work. It feels right, you know, guys", she was addressing everyone in the room now.
And even though it sounded so relaxed like the woman Fang was, this statement was a big step for her because it meant finally fully acknowledging her feelings not only before the others but also before herself. It meant admitting and recognising the emotions she had just voiced.
But it felt easier than she would've thought. Probably because she had once already openly explained her emotions to Vanille and, unknowingly at first, to Serah and Lightning last night.
"I see. Well congratulations, hope it works out for you guys", Cid smiled to her. "And if it does, then maybe you'll introduce her to us one day, yes?", he added with a wink.
"Sure, why not. She happens to be a fan of the band anyway, so I think she'd love that.", she smiled.
"And actually, she is also the reason why I'd prefer moving to Bodhum, ya know", she added then, remembering that they'd actually come together here to make a decision where to move and not to talk about her and Vanille.
And Sazh seemed to be thankful for that as he sighed in content.
Cid nodded. "I understand. I guess then we could also go to Bodhum, if you ask me. I just preferred Palumpolum because I'm not such a big fan of beach cities. But if moving here helps you keeping contact with your girlfriend, then I'll do you that favour"
"She's not my girlfriend yet", Fang corrected.
Cid shrugged in response. "Well, if not that then you at least sure as hell sounded like she'll be soon, so...", he smiled, trailing off.
"So what about you, Hope? You also okay with Bodhum, or what's your take on this?", Sazh then wanted to know, turning to the silver-haired man.
Hope scratched his chin. "I would love to go to Palumpolum, but for Fang I'm also willing to choose Bodhum. It's not a bad city, too, so I'll be fine", he said with a kind smile to the woman, who nodded in approval.
"Thank you, guys. Both of you. It means a lot", she addressed them, giving a smile to the men.
It made Sazh's features soften as well as he once again spoke up. "So it's settled then. We'll choose Bodhum. I'll contact the label and inform them about this right away", he said and got up, stretching briefly before making his way to the phone.
"And guys? I'd already start lookin' for a place to live as soon as possible, so no dawdling, yes?", he smiled, though it belied the seriousness of his statement.
Everyone nodded and voiced their consent and then quickly left the room to leave their manager to his business.
Fang smiled when she entered her room and her gaze fell upon her mobile phone. It seemed like a perfect moment to call Vanille and tell her the good news. She was sure the girl would be quite happy to learn that Fang would move to her city soon.
So she picked up the phone and called her, explaining the situation to the redhead. To say she was happy would've been an understatement. In fact, she almost screamed so loudly Fang had to quickly draw the phone away from her ear.
"This is so great, Fang! I actually thought we'd try and keep contact over the distance once you would've returned to Eden! But now ... we can continue seeing each other!", Vanille exclaimed happily.
"Yeah that's right. But don't forget I'll still have to go back to Eden for at least some weeks to sort everything out before. You don't just move like that, it'll take some organising and time", she reminded the girl kindly with a smile on her lips.
"Sure, that's alright. By the way, do you wanna go to the cinema on Saturday?", Vanille asked.
"Yeah, let's do that. At seven at your place?"
"Yep!", the girl replied, and they talked for another few minutes before hanging up.
The rest of the week passed by quickly, and now that Fang had given her number to Vanille as well, it quickly became some sort of ritual for them to talk to each other on the phone, mostly in the evening, to share their daily events with the other and discuss various topics.
And before they knew it, it was already Saturday.
AN: Thanks for reading and for your support, as always. Any suggestions, opinions or criticism? Put it in the reviews! :)
AN²: Finally, I'd like to address one of my guest reviewers, Dorkswag:
Thanks for the suggestion you made. I think it was good and actually somewhat necessary that someone reminded me to do something about the conflict aspect of the story. You know, it had been on my mind for some time now that I felt quite the same as you. I thought: This is great but we need more drama, more conflicts, or strife, as you put it. But until I saw your review this morning, I'd actually planned on building their relationship, letting them get comfortable with each other and then adding a major conflict. It felt like the only thing I could come up with, and I wasn't entirely happy with it. Well, and when I read the review it was like a kick in the ass, somehow, and I sat down and began rewriting the complete Chapter Nine (yes, it had already been done, though not proofread^^) to add not a major, but a minor conflict there. It was all I could do without having to completely throw over my concept for the following chapters, which I really really didn't want to do. I hope you will like what I came up with in terms of conflict! Also, I'm glad that you like the story and its fluff so far and enjoy it :)