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Disclaimer: I don't own Square. There would actually be Yuffentine if I did.
Chapter 4 ~ Heat Of The Soul
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The brightly colorful explosions that cut through the strong blue morning sky eventually came to a halt soon after Hope had barely energy left to stand on both feet. The moment the silver haired boy saw the marker in the distance he asked Snow to pull him up to his shoulders, which made him stand at least twice taller than any of his comrades, since Snow was riding a fairly tall chocobo they had crossed paths with earlier that morning.
"You think they saw it?", the boy asked ecstatic while panting to catch his breath.
"I'm sure they did, kid. Now, don't overdo it, okay?", Snow answered while swiftly grabbing Hope's collar and putting him down with no effort whatsoever. He nearly fell to the ground the minute his body touched the land, and immediately bended his body to support his weight on his knees.
"Why only you get to ride?", he accused Snow from below, his eyes glaring to the now infinitely taller man. The self appointed leader smiled a mischievous smile, the one angered teenagers often do when given the possibility of taking vantage of smaller children.
"'Cuz I'm taller!" Snow smiled his grin, acting like a kid whose mom went away for the day and he could finally vex his little brothers. Hope rolled his eyes the older man's stupid explanation but laughed to himself nonetheless. They were getting along really great after leaving their conflicts on the past, with Snow easy going attitude getting into him and soothing his agitated mind.
The boy almost didn't notice when his admired mentor entered his sight, all death glares and silences. Had the circumstances been any different, he would be childishly hugging her to him or poking on her hand, but Hope had the impression that if as much as stepped into Lightning's personal space he was sure to be dead meat.
Lightning's initial shock to the party was interrupted by Snow's happy toned welcome. "About time, eh, Sis! Wherever did you get yourselves into? We've been looking for you all morning!"
The soldier lifted her head to meet Snow's eyes, giving him a sharp glare that made him shock to his bones. She noticed Fang catching up her pace and going to stand at a fair distance from her, in the middle of the group, watching the plains. Lightning sighed.
"We've found a path.", she said, ever stoically. "It's a short trip north of here; if we make haste, we can cross it before nightfall. And loose the bird, it might attract unwanted attention."
"Aw, come on!", Snow started complaining. "It's extremely useful, just look at him!"
"You have feet for one sole purpose, Snow." Lightning said while rubbing her temples, like if talking to a misbehaved kid. "For you to walk on them."
"But we've only just found him, Sis!" he ignored her and pleaded like the mischievous older brother, opening his arms wide in his frustration.
"I'm not your sister." she said mindlessly before lifting her eyes to the blonde pair. "Stop wasting time and get off that bird."
The group had fallen silent in between, watching the oddly off-character discussion between their two appointed leaders. Lightning stared up at Snow and his bird, her pose resembling one of a western sheriff in the way of convincing bandits to give up while Snow stood tall and proud in his chocobo, one that seemed as empty headed as his rider and inflated his chest to look as important as him.
Their scenery only last a couple of seconds before Lightning brought out her sword for the second time that day in the direction of a comrade, and shoot. Snow recoiled surprised at this, barely having time to notice the bullet ripping the air at mere inches from his left ear. The chocobo, however, didn't have the same amount of courage as the blond hero and and shock his whole body before running off in a frenzy, dropping Snow to the ground.
Lightning spared him a quick emotionless look before taking point, Hope following behind from a safe distance and Sazh strolling not far away, looking much too tired to care about it all. Fang followed as Vanille went to help Snow get to his feet, who quickly ran ahead to bother Lightning some more, perhaps with a bit more anger this time around.
They reached the tunnels not much time after, with Lightning giving hell to everything that moved on their path. The two pulsians had fallen at a comfortable distance at the back of the group, close enough so that they would still hear their leader's battle orders being shouted to the air. It was Vanille who started the conversation, touching on the subject as if she was asking Fang her favorite ice cream flavor.
"So…" she started with her cute accented tone, dragging the word forever. "You gonna tell me what happened or I'll have to ask?"
"You should ask," Fang replied, looking sideways to the bubbly redhead. "It suits us more."
"What happened?" Vanille indeed asked, moving her hand closer to Fang's neck to emit a small cure spell on her cut. "Whatever you did sure got her PMSing about it."
The warrior took a deep breath at this, her gaze going all the way up to Lightning. "Light ain't PMSing, I'm just an idiot…", her voice went down a tone, all self-pity like.
"You told her you have a thing for her?" she asked innocently, hands behind her back and her feet twirling on the ground.
"Hey, I do not have a thing for her.", Fang warned her with her eyes. "I was just… intrigued." Her smaller friend laughed at her poor excuse for a crush.
"So, you told her?" she asked with huge eyes like the fascinated 5 year old girl she never stopped being.
"Nope."
"Then what is she PMSing about?" They had reached a wide area by then, and, even at the back of the group they could hear Snow's one sided attempts at conversation with Lightning. Fang's gaze followed their leader's movements until the whole group came to a halt, probably due to the blonde man's incessant pleading.
"I kissed her", she admitted in a way that matched those of killers confessing their more barbarous crimes, guilt written all over her. Vanille turned to her with sparkling eyes and the cutest sweet expression on her face, as if she told she would be given a pet puppy.
"Don't even start it…" Fang pleaded, rolling her eyes at her excitement. "I'm a mess.", she sighed and lamented it.
"Well, don't be." Vanille said ever so cheerfully, sitting down and patting the space next to her for Fang to follow. "Why don't you talk to her?"
"She tried to rip my neck off this morning; I don't really think that's such a grand idea." In the meanwhile, Snow and Sazh were both nodding their heads in common agreement on whatever subject they were talking about. Lightning roamed about the place restlessly, but seemed a little bit more at peace. Hope had sat in the grass in a similar way to Vanille, his eyes following his leader's movement like a trained dog.
"Light will calm down eventually, you know." she suggested it while waving childishly at the silver haired boy, an equally silly smile pasted to her lips. "Talk to her then; or else you'll probably lose her to Hope"
Fang laughed lighthearted at her statement, "He sure can't keep his eyes off her."
"Looks like competition to me!" Vanille added. "And some pretty strong one at that."
"Yeah, I should probably just give up now and go for Sazh…"
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, with Lightning surprisingly sitting down next to Hope and messed lightly with his hair, the two trading small talk. Vanille elbowed Fang at this, who pretend to be eagerly crushed and and swayed her hand hand to dry her imaginary tears. She kept watching Lightning for a while after her internal joke with Vanille, a small smile brought to her lips for being able to see her at her most reserved self.
"You know what?" she said while still looking at the odd pair. "I think I'll do that."
"What, compete?" Vanille asked, suddenly worried that things might get rough on Hope's end.
"No, you silly. Talk to her"
Almost as if on cue, Lightning's gaze came across Fang's for a brief moment. The soldier turned away quickly, almost as if ashamed, and got up to her feet, lending a hand to help the boy up as well.
"Time to go, Vanille."
"Aw, already?" the redheaded complained in a whining and almost irritating voice, causing Fang to smirk at her.
Once in their feet, Fang pulled Vanille in a tight embrace and murmured a small 'thanks' to her. Indeed, nothing would ever tear them apart; they were all in this together, and for better or worse they had a new family this time around.
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