Hey there!

Once again I managed to beat my own deadline - just goes to show how magic can happen when you sit yourself down and let yourself be inspired by your thoughts.

So once again, thanks to all the reviews (even if you don't agree with my ideas/where I'm going with this - and that's okay; not everyone can accept what others like) and the people who have added me to story alert - you guys know who you are, and it really makes me want to keep going, knowing that you guys care about this fic! (Special shoutout to Sniperrolf & ziel101)

So finally some Serah & Snow moments for those who've been waiting for it! It's my first try at some fluff? I think is what you guys call it here? Anyways, me trying to portray some cutesy scenes between the two, hope I got their interaction right. n_n
Let me know how I did.

Disclaimer: Don't own XIII, never will.

Chapter 4: Blinded by Light

Lightning stretched tiredly as the sun peeked over the distant horizon, illuminating the crystal shell of Cocoon just a little bit to the east of New Bodhum. Snow had been meant to take the next shift, but when she'd walked over to wake him, the sight of him curled protectively around her sister had stopped her. She didn't need to ruin that moment.

Sure, he'll probably hate me for it in a bit, but he was there for Serah last night. He calmed her down, and well, I know she needs him…

Hope was the only one who she'd awakened as she walked in the now non existent patio door, her boot accidentally crushing pieces of glass on her way in.

"Sorry," she muttered, raking her hands through her messy pink hair. She stifled a yawn, watching the teenager pick himself up off the couch and make his way over to her.

"You alright, Light?" There was concern in his voice.

And there would have been a time where I would have snapped at you for caring about me. But you're still a kid, and I know that… well, shutting people out isn't always the best thing to do. You taught me that.

She sighed. "Well, I suppose I could have seen better days, but nothing a couple cups of coffee wouldn't fix. A good hour or two wouldn't hurt either."

She examined the teenager carefully, taking in his tousled bed head and his rumpled clothes, resisting the small urge to laugh.

"You okay, though, Hope? None of those creeps got you, did they?"

It felt natural for her to care about him in a way she couldn't achieve for Snow. Maybe it was because he was younger than her, or because she knew… well, in any case, he was like the little sibling she had to protect.

"Nope." His offhand voice suited the crumpled silver hair at the back of his head.

"Light?"

She answered his query with a hum, observing the sun rising just over the bottom curve of Cocoon's crystal.

"Who d'you think ordered those monsters here?"

Lightning turned around, crossing her arms over her chest. Obviously Hope caught onto these things much faster than Snow, and for the kid to have thought of the possibility of it not being an accident just showed…

…how much he's learned from us, and how much he's grown.

She made her way over to the armrest of the couch, sitting down on it and flicking her cape behind her.

"Well, let's see now… We know that whoever is after us, presumably the same person who's claiming he can kill a fal'Cie, or whatever - knows who I am and where I work. That's classified info to begin with. Military files are not available to just anyone. In fact, I think you have to be cleared by a certain level at Pulse Management to even have access those files."

Hope nodded as Lightning furrowed her brows, drumming the fingers of one gloved hand on her other arm.

"And then there's the power issue. You turned the lights back on after we killed those monsters, which means it wasn't broken. First off, that means whoever it is knows where we live. Second, they'd have to be pretty important at Pulse Management to have access to any power grid, and be able to turn it on or off at will."

"So that means they're someone important, right?" Hope's voice suddenly turned harsh, reminding her of the way he'd spoken in the Gapra Whitewood when he'd planned Operation Nora.

"Exactly," she growled. "Which means, they're serious, and so we'd better get serious about this. I'll ask Amodar to look into the power issue when I go back to work tomorrow, but if they're as high up as I think they are, he won't find anything."

She made her way tiredly into the kitchen, hoping to find some coffee in a cupboard.

Anything to stop that oaf of Serah's from calling me a zombie when he stops snoring.

Serah woke to the soft snort of Snow in her ear, and the creak of the couch as he turned. She hoisted herself over the mess of blankets, and rubbed her eyes against the blinding morning light. She wondered for a moment why it was so alarmingly bright, before the sparkling dazzle of the pieces of glass on the floor caught her eye.

Oh, of course. Glass shards reflect light.

But where did those monster remains go…?

Serah tried to carefully ease Snow's arm off her stomach without waking him, but it didn't work – the moment she delicately dropped his thick arm onto his side, he woke with a snort.

He let out a huge yawn as Serah giggled. His bandanna was crooked, and his coat was all rumpled – but she did pause to admire just how sexy he looked when he was relaxed. His arms instantly wrapped around her.

"Hey baby, you okay now?" His voice was lowered to a coo as Serah snuggled against him.

"My hero always makes me feel better," she replied happily, and she was so absorbed into staring at Snow she didn't see her sister stalk out of the kitchen with a mug of coffee and with Hope trailing behind her, a cold waffle stuffed in his mouth.

"You guys are gross," her sister snapped. "I don't need to see that sort of thing first thing in the morning, okay?"

"But Claire…" Serah turned her voice into a somewhat indignant whine. "You wouldn't get it, you're not married."

Her sister let out an irritated snort. "After watching you guys cling to each other like that, I don't think I want to get married, thanks." Serah was slightly annoyed to see Hope giggle through his waffle at this.

Of course you'd take her side to this.

But then Serah felt Snow tense beside her.

"Wait, Sis… didn't you—weren't you supposed to wake me up?" Snow sounded offended that Claire hadn't done whatever she was supposed to do.

Lightning crossed her arms over her chest, holding the mug with one hand, looking amused.

"Sorry, hero, you looked like a nice blanket for Serah, and I'd hate to take that away from her. Don't worry though, I didn't see anything I needed a hero to help with."

Oh Claire, that's just your way of telling him you care. I know you pretend you can't stand him most of the time, but I know that you know he's part of your family... whether you like it or not.

Serah watched her sister tramp upstairs, calling over her shoulder she was going to see exactly what Snow had done to her house the previous night.

I guess that was a little too soon for that comment. Still, you do care, don't you Claire?

And it wasn't five heartbeats later that Lightning's furious shouts came from upstairs, causing Hope to drop whatever food he had gone back to the kitchen to look for, and Snow to quickly detach himself from her, and jump off the couch. Serah brushed off the rest of the blankets and scampered off after her husband and Hope, following them as they bounded up the steps.

Lightning was standing in the middle of the upstairs hallway, blue eyes blazing with fury.

"Snow. What the hell did you do to my room? It looks like a freaking –" And Lightning stopped herself before she finished her sentence, when she saw her sister glance awkwardly at Hope, before realizing she had been about to swear… worse than she already had.

"Awh, Sis, it's just a little mess… The monsters came through your room, and I hadta stop them before they got downstairs..." Snow's hopeful voice trailed off at the look on Lightning's face.

"You had to mess up my room in the process, didn't you? And look what's on the wall – you had to punch in several parts of the plaster as well? Is your aim that bad?"

And at this point Serah had to suppress a giggle. Claire was always complaining how messy Snow was, how he was trashing their house, which was why she wouldn't let him in her room. Claire was a neat freak to the point where Snow had thought she had obsessive compulsive disorder when it came to her room.

Lightning had stomped downstairs, dragging Hope with her, hissing that she'd better clean up the mess in the living room before she inspected the damages to the other parts of her house, Hope giving Serah a scared glance as she pulled him down by the hand – Serah didn't blame him, Claire looked ready to kill something.

She turned to her husband, finding that he looked embarrassed and sheepish after Lightning's furious outburst at him. And this time Serah couldn't contain the giggles, happy that she could find something amusing in all this.

"Snow, don't worry about it. You know how neat Claire insists on this place being, she's probably just upset that she has to clean her room now. You know how she is – she'll forget about it in a few hours."

"And yell at me for something else," he muttered darkly. But Serah was glad to see that his usual happy expression had returned to his face as he pulled her into his arms. Delicately, she reached up to give him a kiss.

Lightning kicked through the remnants of glass on her floor.

That damn oaf just couldn't resist making a mess of my room, could he?
I freaking gave him and Serah the master bedroom for a reason.

Pulling a broom from the closet, she shoved a dustpan into Hope's hands, and they went around the living room, picking up the glass that lay littered in front of the patio window.

And that's when she came across something interesting – a torn piece of white cloth that hadn't vanished when the monster's bodies did. She inspected it closely, rubbing it between her fingers.

The texture was smooth – it reminded her of a doctor's coat, but her gut told her that that was unlikely. It was also worn, as if it had been washed thousands of times.

Maybe not a doctor's, but a research lab coat…?

"Hope," she hissed. The teenager came over, still holding the dustpan. She held out the scrap of material to him, and watched as he mulled it over.

"You found this?" He asked, and as she nodded, realization flashed in his eyes - understanding where she was going with this in an instant.

"So you think…"

"That whoever sent these monsters here owned whatever this came from. Looks like our assailant wasn't as clever as we thought he was."

Hope glanced at her again, and Lightning recognized the determined look on his face.

"And whoever he is," she snarled, voice lowering to a growl, "he'd better be ready to answer some of my questions."

And oooh, the ominous Lightning threat we're all so used to! Whoever owns that coat (yes, it was a lab coat) had better watch out, Light is not happy and she's not afraid to show she's not!

If you're wondering what happened to the monster remains, you know how after you kill enemies in XIII and XIII-2, and they like, vanish into black smoke or fog or whatever you want to name that black stuff? Yeah, that's what I was trying to portray. (And why Serah doesn't know why they disappeared - she never fought in XIII, and XIII-2 is non existent in this fic) Probably not the way monsters actually die, but I wanted to make a spoof on Squeenix's convenient way of getting out of making a dying animation, and also to spare Light from touching dead monsters on her living room floor, that neat freak.

Which brings me to my final point - Light freaking out cuz Snow messed up her room. In XIII Light came off to me as someone who would never ever lose or misplace something, who was always on time, etc. I wanted to goof around with my perception of her, hence, Light screeched her head off at Snow for putting holes in her walls.

Anyways, I have work all this weekend, so probably not much time to write (but once again this whole arc has already been planned out) so I'll try to get the next chapter(s?) up by Sunday. I know Sazh hasn't had a huge part yet - I've been saving him so I could give him a badass part in the next arc. 8D

Review monster is always hungry - and still no Beta.

Mwah!