Chapter 6: Normal Life
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Fang lay on her back on the couch with her head nestled into Lightning's lap as the two found themselves watching television as Vanille and Serah was in her room talking no doubt. "Nothing good to watch is ever on these things, I'm not sure is with you cocoonians and your soap operas along with your incredible fake action movies." Fang spoke as she released a sigh. Lightning only looked down at her lover with a chuckle before running her hands through Fang's hair. "Serah likes to watch shows like these so I'd always record them for her when she still lived with me. I hardly ever had a chance to watch television, I constantly busied myself over at the Guardian Corps to ever get a chance to relax like this."
Fang purred as the soft pinkette's hands massaged and scratched at her scalp before pulling her eyes from the television and directed them upwards to her lover. "Well It's good for you to take some time to relax, you was killin' yourself working there as much as you did. Serah told me what happened the past few years and how you pretty much secluded yourself from everybody. Light you really need to get out and be with your friends and family more often, now that I'm back that shouldn't be a problem right?" Fang spoke with a grin.
Lightning let out a disgusted sigh at the thought. She loved Serah to death but after the younger sibling started to slowly return back to normal, the more she started to become the little annoyingly lovable sister that she grew up with. Serah always would find her on what rare few days she had off and always wanted to take the older women shopping or trying to bring her out to see some movie. Before, Lightning wanted to be alone after what happened to Fang but now that her lover was finally back, was there any reason to still avoid such things?
Lightning leaned her head down to plant a soft kiss upon Fang's forehead before she gently spoke. "I guess you're right. If we decided to go out we'll have to try and keep it to ourselves though. The general public still doesn't know about you and Vanille, I'd like to avoid you two getting swarmed by random mobs of people." Fang chuckled. "Light we'll be okay. Try not to worry about it so much we can take care of ourselves yeah?"
The two looked up to the door as two distinctly knocks was heard. As if on cue, the young redhead bolted out of Serah's room and into the living room towards the door. Vanille grabbed the handle and launched the door open, hoping to see the silver-haired boy on the other side but was greeted by two much taller men. Vanille's eyes lit up as she saw Sazh standing beside the tall blonde and immediately wrapped her tiny limbs around the man's middle and squealed.
"Sazh! It's so good to see you again!" The older man chuckled as he returned the hug and gave the girl's head a gentle pat. "Hey there red! It's sure been a while since I last saw you, It's great to see your doing okay." Vanille pulled away from the taller man as she looked past him and saw the old man's son, Dajh, standing behind him. "He's grown so much hasn't he?!" Sazh followed the girls gaze and laughed as he gave his son's hair a quick ruffle. "Yup, like a weed. It won't be too much longer before he starts to outgrow his old man."
Vanille beamed a smile up at the older man as her head tilted to the side in question. "Are you two planning on staying for a while?" The young red head chirped. Sazh chuckled and gave the younger pulsian's head a quick rub. "I wish I could but I have to get back to the ranch here soon, chocobo's to feed and what not." Sazh spoke before he looked past Vanille for a moment as he started notice Fang was still not present.
"Where is Fang and soldier girl? I'd figure they would be around here somewhere." Vanille giggled before moving herself out of the way of the door opening and pointed over at the couch at the cuddling couple. "Over here!" Sazh looked over at the pointed direction and immediately wished he hadn't. Fang had her arms wrapped upward around Lightning's neck as she was giving the older pinkette a affectionate kiss to the cheek. Lightning caught Sazh's gaze and instantly turned her face away with a glare, her cheeks starting to flush a deep red as the whole room seemed to stare at the couple.
Sazh stumbled over his words as he carefully tried to make sense of the situation. "So this whole time you two have been..you mean while we was..I mean I always had my suspicions but was you ever going to tell any of us?!" Fang chuckled as she released her blushing victim before hoping off the women's lap and onto her feet. "Sunshine here thought it best we should have kept it a secret at the time with the whole world ending and all. Though now that all that mess is over with, I'm sure she'll have no problem screaming to the world about our love isn't that right?" Fang teased as she gave Lightning a quick peck on the cheek.
Lightning turned to glare at Fang before giving a huff of annoyance. "Shut up." She spoke flatly. Fang gave Lightning a pouting face before she tilted Lightning's chin over to face her as she started to slowly straddle the women's waist teasingly. "I love it when you get all worked up like this love, it's so-" Sazh interrupted with a cough. "Excuse me you rabbits there are children present! " The older man shielded his son's eyes before turning around to make his way out of the door. "We have to get back anyway, let me know whenever you guys are wanting to get together, preferably whenever those two are decent!"
Lightning gazed to Fang with the fiercest death glare she ever figured imaginable as the pinkette shoved the brunette from her lap and onto the couch beside her. "Get off me. Stop doing that whenever we're around other people." Fang gave a defeated huff and figured to just let it go for now as she slumped back into the couch, eyeing Snow as the tall man cautiously entered the home. "So what all did I miss?" The big lug spoke dumbfounded.
Vanille smiled as she turned herself away from the door and gazed towards the huge man. "Oh nothing too big me and Serah went shopping while -those- two seemed to be using the house for their own-" The young perky red-head was interrupted by Lightning's fixated glare, causing the girl to forcefully swallow down the giant lump in her throat. "Never mind. Anyways how was your day at work?" Snow itched at the back of his head chuckling nervously. "The same as every night I guess, today was not as busy thankfully. Have any of you guys seen Serah around?"
As if on cue, the pinkette stumbled out from the hallway and stepped into the living room giving her future husband a gentle smile as she wrapped her arms around the man's middle. "Hey there, I missed you. You didn't have any trouble today did you?" Snow smiled in return and planted a kiss on his girlfriend's forehead. "I'm alright everything went pretty good today thankfully." The tall man could practically feel the two women's eyes piercing through him from their position on the couch as he tilted his head further down to whisper to the smaller farron. "Could I talk to you later whenever Fang and Lightning head back?"
Serah nodded in return before peeking back over to the two love birds. Fang continued her teasing on the older farron by making kissy-faces towards the annoyed soldier as her muscular tanned arms wrapped themselves around the woman's waist, refusing to release her as much as the pinkette struggled to escape. The smaller pinkette giggled at the sight of her older sister's helpless captivity before turning back to her boyfriend. "Sure thing. Though I think they probably won't be leaving anytime soon I think."
Vanille smiled as she moved herself between the two and looked to them both with a scandalous plan already forming itself inside the young red-head's mind. "I think I might be able to help with that! Besides once Hope finally gets here Fang won't let me anywhere near him once she finally realizes I fell for him. So here is what we will do..."
Fang finally yielded her teasing assault on Lightning and turned her view over to the small gang hovering by the door as they was all mysteriously whispering. The older pulsian furrowed her brow as she attempted to listen in on what the former l'cie were up to before she felt her lithe counterpart slip through her arms during the distraction. The huntress made a face to return the darkening glare she was receiving from the older farron before she spoke.
"Hey! You cheated on that one, I was distracted for only like two seconds!" Lightning's shoulders tensed as she looked away from Fang and towards the group as her inner frustrations started to build up. She was always victimized by Fang's teases, even back when they was still l'cie, but all this was still happening too fast for her. Lightning wasn't exactly ready to open up fully to her lover, not with everyone in the room at least, in private it was a whole different story though she still lacked the courage to return such affections in public.
Fang sighed before scooting closer on the couch to Lightning, carefully placing a hand beside the women's leg. "Light come on you told me earlier 'ya would at least try opening up to your friends but I won't prod. I'm sorry if I seem like I'm trying to rush this." Lightning folded her arms together and dared a glance over at Fang and immediately regretted it. Fang used her kicked-puppy face and Lightning's will started to slowly melt away. Damn it why did she have to be so cute? Lightning rolled her eyes and hopped off the couch with a scoff before turning around to Fang.
"We should probably get back home. I have enough room for both you and Vanille if you two decide you would like to live with me..I mean if you would want to." Lightning looked away from her lover as a faint blush started to color her cheeks as Fang chuckled, getting up as well. The older pulsian brought her hands to gently ghost down the older farron's shoulders and down the length of the women's arms before whispering. "Of course love, I'd be happy to. Let me just get Vanille and we'll get going. I'll let Serah know to tell Hope to stop by whenever he's done here alright?"
Lightning huffed as she switched over her gaze back to Fang before slowly giving the women a reassuring nod when the older pinkette let herself lean into the pulsian's strong frame. Fang smiled as her arms folded around the soldiers middle and the two just sat there for a few moments, taking in each other's warmth before reluctantly pulling away.
The pair walked up to the scheming group as Fang butted-in with a cough. "Me and Sunshine are going to head back home, it's been a pretty long day so far yeah?" The group agreed with a nod as Fang peered behind her over to the soldier as she grabbed the women's hand, leading her to the door. Fang gripped the knob and tugged the door open, stopping a few steps short of exiting before turning her head back. "Vanille! 'Ya comin' or what?"
The young red-head jumped slightly at the mentioning of her name before slowly turning around, quickly trying to think of some excuse to stay. "O-Oh no I'll catch up with you two later! I'd like to stay and catch up with Serah and Snow for a bit longer." Fang eyed the younger pulsian for a moment, studying the girls timid movements and the shaky tone in her voice was all too familiar, she was plotting something. Fang shrugged it off, just wanting to hurry up and be alone with Lightning for the rest of the evening until Hope was going to arrive and started to head out the door.
"Whenever Hope gets here tell him he can find us at sunshine's place, he should know where it's at. Alright well if you're not back by midnight I'll be comin' to find you. Let me know if you need anything." With that, the pair walked off outside the home and started along the path to the beach. Serah ran beside Vanille towards the door and waved toward the fleeing lovers. Vanille let out a relieved sigh as the two girls walked back inside the home as the door quickly shut behind them. "See? I told you I had a plan and it worked out perfectly!"
Serah eyed the younger pulsian in confusion before speaking. "What plan? We didn't even have a chance to do anything. I figured they would have at least stayed until Hope got here." Snow and Vanille both shrugged in agreement as a sudden knock was heard at the door. Vanille huffed and walked up to door already expecting who it was. "Darn it! I figured she knew I was fibbing, she's always been able to tell!" She pouted.
Vanille gripped at the door knob aggressively before swinging the door open, already expecting to see Fang and Lightning on the other side. "Alright I'm sorry-" Vanille cut herself off at the sight of the silver-haired visitor. The young red-head wanted to panic as she simply gawked at the older and now taller Hope, much different from when she saw him three years ago. The boy hit a growth spurt the past three years and now Vanille actually had to look up to meet his eyes. Hope definitely grew up to be a very handsome attractive young man. Hope started to scratch his head nervously as Vanille just awkwardly started to stare and found it necessary to break the silence. "Umm..Sorry for what?"
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Author's Notes: I'm sorry! This chapter is much smaller than the rest and it took twice the time and for that I deeply apologize. As most of you know Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was released a few weeks ago and I started to get sucked in to that pretty quickly. Anyways this chapter also served as a reminder that I did -not- give up on this fic and leave you guys hanging, I was just sucked up in other things at the time.
I hope you guys can forgive me for the wait and the shortness of the chapter, I assure you the next chapters to come will return to full-length after this update. Also for anybody else that picked up FFXIV I'd love to get on and play with you guys! I'm on the world Coeurl and my username is Lucianna Raveborn so if you guys would like to hop on, send me a tell or a friend request and we can definitely do something :)!
Again I'd love to thank you guys for your continued support and kind reviews you have left for my chapters, it means the world to me it really does, love you guys and I hope to hear more from you soon! Please let me know how you felt about the direction of the story thus far!