Hey, there!
A tip from a fellow fan: Final Fantasy XIII's Piano Collections is out, and, truly, Lightning's theme a go for the very best. Aki Kuroda is playing them; it's the same pianist back from Final Fantasy X's PC. Totally worth it, so go download it, children.
On another side note, I turn 18 this wednesday. Narcissistic, I know, but I really wanted to let you know. You are very dear to me, whoever you are. Really.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Square. If I did, I would probably sell them for ice cream.
Chapter 5 ~ Same Mistakes
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In the end they all managed to cross the Subterra in one day straight. Snow eventually replaced Hope's position in their main fighting party due to the enemies' resistance to staggering strategies, making the boy fall behind with Fang and Vanille, who were currently pestering him about supposed crush on Lightning. Fang threw her head back and laughed loudly as the boy tumbled in his speech and turned red, while Vanille kept thinking of ways to make him miserable.
The whole scene dragged down until they reached Atomos' currently digging spot and Hope made a scene out of falling from a Juggernaut, much to Lightning's irritated dismay. After nearly killing himself by falling from the height of a building head first into the ground, his mechanical mates jumped in the fal'Cie's path to save him and ended up stopping Atomos in the way, enabling the group to ride it until the end of the tunnels.
Since dusk had already fallen upon the Sulyya Springs when the group got there, they only advanced enough to find a good resting spot. Snow and Sazh wandered around for a little, gathering large branches of wood and pilling them nearby for Hope to set them on fire. The rest of them immediately made their camp around the campfire, much to Lightning's protest that they could have made it further before calling it a day.
It was an unusually cheerful night; Sazh and Vanille were sitting side by side chatting lively while Snow was sparring with Hope, which actually consisted of Hope running away and often throwing his boomerang in Snow's direction, making the massive man perform ridiculous efforts to avoid being hit.
Fang was sitting next to Vanille, but not paying any attention to the conversation next to her. Instead, her eyes were following closely their leader's movement, who was sitting leaned against a nearby rock close enough to use the light emanating from their fire to help her sharpen her sword with a small, clean rock; the constant sound of the grinding between the two objects in her hand making up a comfortable background noise, along with Snow's eventfully swears.
Hope was eventually defeated by his sparring partner after Snow caught his boomerang in midair with a proud, cocky smile. He returned it to the boy and swiftly captured him in a headlock, ruffling his hair with his closed fist, despite the protests. Hope then cast his hand downward in the direction of Snow's feet and conjured a small thunder spell, only strong enough to make the blond man jump in surprise and let him go.
"Hey, when did you get so smartass?" Snow asked playfully while sitting on the gap between Fang and Lightning.
"As soon as I started spending more time with you", the boy replied bitterly, trying to brush his hair back into place and taking a seat close to Lightning. The two newcomers to the group were almost instantly dragged in Vanille and Sazh small talk, a comfortable mood befalling them. Even Fang and Lightning made their comments once in a while, and the evening soon came to an easygoing pace.
Fang couldn't quite remember if they went going like that for minutes or hours, but she could remember as clear as day the expression on Lightning's face when Snow mentioned Serah. The man turned to fire with a somewhat serious expression on his face, as if focusing on a math problem that became too hard for him to solve.
"She would have loved this place, wouldn't she?" he quietly asked the fire, and despite the confuse expression on most of their companions, the swift noise of Lightning's blade being sharpened immediately came to a halt. They crossed gazes in common understatement, pain clear in Snow's usually playful eyes and guilt shining bright on Lightning's.
"My wife", he explained to the rest of the group, his voice still heavy with tension. "I mean, she will be, as soon as we get out of this mess and bring her back!" Snow said while punching the air to make his point.
"Easy there, Hero. Save some for the Cie'th, will ya?" Sazh tried to cheer him up a little, who smirked shyly like a little boy. Vanille soon jumped in as well.
"Yeah, he's right! Plus, you can still take her here when all of this is over. We can all come together, how about it?"
"Sounds like a promise to me", Hope soon agreed, somewhat disturbed by seeing Snow in such a sad spirit.
"I'm sure in", Fang joined without much enthusiasm, far too worried about Lightning's dead expression facing the ground. Vanille was blathering lively in the background when the soldier quietly got up and walked away from the group, with Snow following her with a confused gaze.
"Sis?", he asked a bit worried.
"Leave her be, she just needs some time", Sazh explained with his father tone. Vanille quickly got up to occupy the empty space next to Hope, apparently trying to teach him some magic trick, much to his dismay. Snow and Sazh quickly engaged into conversation as well, among the lines of 'kids these days, uh' and other things.
Fang got up sometime after, apparently not being noticed by anyone, and quickly made her way towards the path Lightning had been. She found her not far away; they could still hear Hope's cries as he groaned in frustration of Vanille's tricks. The soldier had her hands down to her sides, clutched into fists, and was staring at Cocoon through the night sky of Pulse.
Fang sat down next to the stoic pose of their leader, facing forwards as she spoke with her casual tone, despite the aching in her heart for seeing Lightning in such a way.
"He didn't mean it like that."
"He's an idiot", came her almost instant reply.
"He doesn't blame you, Light"
"It still doesn't change a thing." she snapped at her angrily. Lightning sighed heavily and sat in next to Fang, clutching her knees loosely the same way Serah did. She turned to the warrior and looked her in the eyes for the first time since that morning, much too tired to be angry or exasperated.
"What are you doing here?"
"Making sure you don't kill yourself; I'm so not leading those fellas if something happens to you…"
There was a pause, as if Lightning didn't know whether she was joking or not.
"Snow's the second in charge, don't worry."
"Yeah, since he's the brain of this whole thing, it makes perfect sense. I really don't know why we are still wasting our time following your red cape around, really." she said jokingly while trying to cope with the idea of Snow blindly leading their team mates.
Lightning smiled lightly at her sarcasm. "He's the most… stable of you all…", she tried to explain.
"You mean he's too hardheaded to see anything else but Serah?"
She shot her a sideway glance at this, any traces of her smile already faded by the mention of her sister. They sat in awkward silence until Fang spoke, a confident smirk on her face as she, too, stared at Cocoon.
"They're all fighting for her, you know."
Another pause; this time, Fang received no answer.
"You're gonna make it, Light.", she said and reached for her companion's hand, giving it a light squeeze. Lightning turned to her and gazed into Fang's hypnotizing green eyes, looking deep into them for some sort of answer.
"Why are you here, Fang?" she asked again, peacefully.
"I don't know… I just can't keep myself away from you", she answered honestly to the stars without meeting Light's blue eyes. Silence befell them again; long enough for Fang to feel her heartbeat reverberating through her chest painfully, barely noticing when Lightning broke the silence.
"I'm sorry about this morning…" the soldier apologized coolly.
"I'm sorry, too." she confessed, her spirit almost shattered and hopeless. And then she looked at her, and guilty green eyes met confused blue ones. Fang noticed their hands were still intertwined, and Lightning made no movement whatsoever to move them away.
They sat in silence for far too long, holding gazes. Fang started to caress Lightning's hand with her thumb and, conscious or not, was all so slowly tumbling down towards the pink haired soldier. The two girls were literally face to face when Lightning whispered, surprised to find her own voice heavy with desire.
"This is a really bad idea…"
"I know…" Fang whispered back, closing the gap between the two with unexpected gentleness. Her lips were easy at first, pushing against Lightning's with a calm and soft pressure, but soon started begging more and more with an unmatched passion. Fang could remember the feel of Lightning's soft hair on her fingers and the heat of her body against her own.
Lightning kissed her back hungrily, moving their bodies so that she would trap Fang beneath her. She then pushed herself up, supporting her own weight in her arms, and saw the wild ravished look that Fang had beneath her, the warrior's eyes burning with fire and surprise, a look that probably mirrored her own.
"I think I better go now."
The soldier disentangled herself from the dark haired woman and got up swiftly, adjusting her tarnished clothes while Fang brought herself up to a sitting position. When she actually gathered the courage to look up to Lightning, she was already making her way back to the camp, her cape swaying with her every move.
Fang knew it was useless to follow; the soldier was already back to her stoic, cold and distance self. Only one thing was sure in her now chaotic mind: Vanille was sure right about talking it out.
Thanks for reading!