Chapter 8: The Apology

Fang quickly leapt out from the door way of the home and ran toward Lightning as the pinkette started to stumble. The huntress spread out her arms and caught the drunken soldier with ease before holding the woman for a moment before gently resting a hand on the center of the soldier's back, working as a safeguard as Fang slowly started to guide her back into the home. "Light what the hell were you thinkin?! Going out and getting yourself drunk senseless? Why?!" The pinkette struggled to tilt her head up to stare up at the pulsian currently keeping her balanced and just huffed. "I don't need you..hic..to babysit me...hic..leave me alone silly."

Fang quirked a brow at the soldier's slanted words and random bursts of laughter. The huntress didn't need any more convincing that the soldier was drunk off her ass. Fang only shook her head and guided the giggling pinkette toward the nearby couch until Lightning started to gag and the pulsian already knew what was coming next. The pulsian quickly dragged Lightning with her to the bathroom and practically kicked the door open, rushing Lightning in shortly after and pulled back the sweating pink strands from her face as she proceeded to hurl down into the toilet.

Fang knelled down behind the soldier after Lightning was done cleaning out her stomach and flushed down the vomit. The huntress leaned the soldier toward her chest before gently folding her arms around the woman's waist as the huntress softly ran her fingers through the pink strands. "Dear Etro how much did you have to drink? You weigh as much as a toothpick!" Lightning wiggled around in Fang's grasp, attempting to escape but was very quick to give up the fight and sigh. "Shut your mouth..hic..I can drink as much as I want to! Let me go or I'll show you what a toothpick can do!"

Fang only rolled her eyes and pulled the woman closer to her, bringing her forehead down to snuggle through the pink strands and rested against the back of the woman's head before whispering. "Calm down love and stop moving around so much you'll only upset your stomach worse." Lightning weakly attempted to wiggle out of the bear-like grasp once more but was only met with the same result shortly after. "Why so you can take advantage of me? Do things to me..hic..while I'm all defenseless and vulnerable..hic..have some dignity!"

Fang let out a heavy sigh and just continued to hold onto her lover. To make sure Lightning was safe and secure even if it meant she would have to stay up all night with her if she had to. Hell it was her fault that Lightning went and did this to herself, all because she slipped up and said something so stupid to Lightning. Now Fang was ready to take responsibility for her own idiotic actions. The huntress wrapped her arms around the soldiers middle, easing the pinkette into her chest further and to her surprise, Lightning actually started to snuggle back into her.

The pulsian's lips twitched at the response and brought her hands up back to Lightning stomach as they proceeded to massage the belly with skilled, gentle fingers. Fang could practically hear Lightning purring as the soldiers weight started to sink into her chest, giving the huntress a good indication that Lightning was starting to doze off. Fang continued the attention to the soldiers belly as she started to whisper once again. "I'd never take advantage of you like that Light..I'm so sorry that this happened..I should have never said anything so stupid..I should have went after you damn it and prevented this. Please forgive me..."

Fang felt a deep stabbing pain at the center of her heart as she briefly opened her eyes, only to meet a trail of tears dripping down her tanned cheeks. The pulsian couldn't even remember the last time she felt her own tears fall like this, or even the last time she balled for that matter. She was always supposed to be strong for Vanille growing up, she had to steel her resolve and never show weakness of any form. With Vanille, Fang was always in control, always there to protect her younger adoptive sibling but Lightning was a whole different story.

Fang thought she had the soldier all figured out after their whole l'cie journey but tonight proved she had much more to learn and would definitely not let something like this happen again. Fang would just have to apologize in the morning and try to do whatever she could to make up for this mistake. With that in mind the huntress brought her cheek to rest against Lightning's left shoulder, using the rhythm of the soldiers breathing as a lullaby and found herself falling asleep in minutes.

xxx

Earlier that night...

Eliza nursed from the glassed water cup gradually while being lost deep in her thoughts. Lightning was constantly on her mind the past few weeks and it hadn't taken the young brunette very long to figure out why, she realized she was madly in love with the pinkette. The young soldier tried multiple times in the past to confess her hidden feelings for Lightning but the timing was always off somehow. Light would never give Eliza much of a break during their patrols, it was one creature after another, no breaks, it was as if the woman was upset about something and just wanted to use the job as a outlet.

There was that issue at work, then there was situations off the job like tonight where Lightning would not even bother to talk to Eliza about anything on her day off. The farron hardly ever returned her phone calls, bothered to visit, or even just sit down and have a nice conversation. It broke her heart. All the brunette wanted to do was help Light in any way she could, Eliza could easily see Lightning was hurting, though the cause of the pain was still unknown to her, probably always would be. Even with all these obstacles, giving up was never a option. She will confess to Lightning how she feels but only when the timing is perfect.

Eliza was torn away from her thoughts as Bartrand dipped some more ice cold water down into the woman's half-full glass and gave brunette a concerned gaze followed with a aggravated sigh. "You two kids are killin' me. Why don't ya just tell the soldier girl how you feel? I'm getting tired of you coming out here and moping all damn day every time this happens. 'Liza you're a stunning lass, you have nothing to worry about, just catch her alone one night and open up. Have some confidence will ya?"

Eliza chuckled before gripping the middle of the cup and brought the glass to her lips, taking a quick swig before dropping it back down. "It's not a confidence issue it's just..I don't exactly know when would be a good time to express myself. She is always busy doing something after work, even when we are patrolling I still can't even get through to her. I'll figure out something though I'm sure." The brunette gazed up to Bartrand, her lips twitching into a smile. "Thanks for the advice though. I don't know what I would do without you old man."

xxx

The following morning...

Vanille's eye lids squinted open as the pulsian sunlight beamed through the window shades and caused the small woman to groan out in displeasure. The red-head brought her tiny hands upward to rub at her closed eyelids, rubbing away the fog from her vision and when she opened her eyes, she took a quick glance around the room. How did she end up back in the spare bedroom? The last thing the pulsian remembered was snuggling up next to Hope on the couch while they all watched a movie. She must have dozed off sometime during the film and hadn't realized it.

Oh wait, if she fell asleep beside Hope, was he the one that carried her into this room? Vanille quickly lifted up the covers to check herself and huffed out a relieved sigh as she was still fully clothed. She highly doubted Hope would have taken advantage of her like that but the boy was older now, so the idea was not all that unlikely. The young red-head stretched her arms out and followed with a yawn, ending with a very cute audible squeak and pounced off the bed before heading out her bedroom door.

Vanille instantly smelled something delicious emanating from the kitchen after taking a few steps into the hallway and hurried off into the living room, peeking toward the kitchen to find Serah cooking this time around. Serah looked up from the sizzling skillet to find Vanille watching her and smiled. "Morning! I'm making some scrambled eggs and I got some waffles in the toaster. I'm not making too much since Snow is probably going to be sleeping in today and I'm going to visit sis later today." Vanille grinned and skipped into the kitchen, halting right beside Serah. "Sounds good! Do you need any help making breakfast? After we finish I can go with you if that's alright? I want to see how whipped Fang's gotten." The red-head chirped.

The two young girls shared a giggle before Serah pointed over to the toaster where a small plate already had a small building stack of waffles. "Sure thing! If you really want to help can you toss some more waffles into the toaster and make a separate stack with some cinnamon sprinkled on them? Snow prefers them that way, I'm going to box some for him for when he wakes up. Also I don't mind if you come along, I only hope they are decent when we get there." Vanille giggled, nodding as she skipped over to the toaster and reached up to the cupboards above her to tug out another plate. "Decent? I wouldn't count on it!"

xxx

Lightning rustled slightly before bellowing out a painful groan. It felt almost as if her skull took a direct blow from a juggernaught's fist. If the constant thudding pain in her head wasn't enough, the blinding light searing through the curtains was definitely not helping to soothe the pain. Now that Lightning thought about it, she placed up shades in her room to block out all the sunlight and why was someone's arms around her waist? Lightning was about to panic before she dropped her head down to view her captors arms and found them to be a familiar tanned shade. It was Fang. Lightning huffed out a breath of relief before sinking back into pulsian's arms. The soldier then proceeded to wonder how she even ended up in the bathroom? The last thing she remembered was talking to Eliza back at the bar and then storming off shortly after. She really needed to take the woman's advice and stop drinking.

Lightning could feel Fang's head slowly lift off from her shoulder and could hear the pulsian's heavenly-like accent gently speak into the soldier's ear. "Morning love. How are ya feelin'?" Lightning could only respond with a grunt before weakly turning in the huntress's arms and buried her face into the pulsian's shoulder, shielding her eyes from the blinding light. Fang lightly chuckled before she brought her chin down to rest on the top of Lightning's head as her hands traced down the soldier's spine.

"Listen Light..I really want to apologize for what I said last night. I didn't think anything through when I said it and I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I only want you to be happy Light, no matter what happens and that's what I was-" Fang was abruptly cut off as Lightning's fingertips brushed against the huntress's lips, lightly stroking them before they lazily trailed down her chin. The soldier peeked up from the huntress's shoulder before lightly whispering. "I am happy Fang..I'm happy with you. I'm happy that you came back to me after I thought you was gone from my life forever. Fang you are the only one I could ever see myself being with and you should know that."

Fang couldn't help but smile at the soldier's words before dropping her forehead down, brushing it against the pinkette's while her hands came up to cup the soldier's cheeks lightly. "I know that now love and I feel the exact same way. However that still doesn't make up for what happened last night when you got yourself smashed like that. It's my fault all that happened and I'll make up for it, I promise. Just I beg you Light, please don't do anything stupid like that again?"

Lightning muffled out a small chuckle while snuggling deeper into Fang's warmth. "I don't have any plans on drinking ever again after this." Fang shared a laugh with the soldier before the huntress pushed herself onto her knees and slowly started to pull herself up along with Lightning. "Come on now, we can't stay in here all day, we should probably get you to a bed. More comfy than using my chest as a pillow yeah?"

Lightning grunted, showing no resistance as Fang literally had to pull the soldier up from the ground and into a standing position. The pulsian knew all too well that the soldier was in no condition to walk, knowing that the soldier could probably only muster about two steps before tripping over herself and possibly getting injured in the process. Fang wouldn't have any of that. So the pulsians strong arms looped down and scooped Lightning up into a bridal position and proceeded to exit the room, heading down the hall and into the soldiers bedroom.

Lighting's arms instinctively hooked around Fang's neck as her whole body was scooped up. The action was so random and quick that she felt her stomach start to cringe, the vomit starting to rush upward not long after. Thankfully for Fang, Lightning was able to catch it before it reached her mouth and managed to swallow it back down. It was a good thing she didn't eat too much the night before, otherwise it would have been much worse she imagined. Fang made her way down the length of the hallway and twisted the door open to the pinkette's room. The huntress gave no hesitation before entering the surprisingly girly-like room and dropped the soldier down gently onto the soft feathered mattress.

Fang eyed the soldier for a few minutes to monitor her condition further to make sure she had no immediate need to puke up the rest of her insides before heading outside the door and towards the bathroom. The pulsian searched through the many drawers and cabinets inside the small room to search for a cloth to water down before finally stumbling upon a nice pair of folded towels and rags.

Fang instantly grabbed a small pink rag, finding it the most fitting, and brought it up to the sink to water the cloth down with some cold water. The huntress wasted no time in watering down the cloth and rushing back down the hallway into light's room. Fang halted after only taking a few short steps into the room to find the pinkette already fast asleep once again. Chuckling to herself at the image, Fang sauntered off to the bed and bent over, giving the soldiers forehead a smooch.

She held the kiss there for what seemed like an hour before hesitantly pulling away, replacing her lips with the rag before it started to dry out and lose its effect. Lightning only mumbled and wiggled around slightly in response and Fang only watched the woman with a smile. "I'll let you sleep love. It's the least I can do after what I did.." The woman's lips switched to a disappointed frown at the reminder as she lifted herself from the bed and headed outside the soldiers room as quietly as she could without waking her. Fang proceeded to quietly close the door to the soldiers room and made her way back down into the living room while becoming lost in her thoughts. She really needed to be more careful next time, so that incidents like this won't happen again. Lightning deserved the best and nothing less, Fang was determined to give that to her.

xxx

Later that morning...

Serah and Vanille had just finished their breakfast, now currently was busy cleaning the few dishes they used while there was a sudden knock at the door. The two girls shared a look before Serah dropped the dish she was currently cleaning back into the sink as the smaller farron made her way to the door. "It's probably not Fang and my sister is it? I doubt they would be up this early, especially with Lightning being on vacation and from what they have been doing recently..." Serah shivered at the reminder before reaching toward the door knob and twisted it open. To her surprise, it was neither of who she expected, instead Eliza was standing at her doorstep.

"Hey Serah..I'm sorry to bother you this early in the morning but I was wondering if Lightning ever came here last night? I've been trying to call her but she hasn't been answering. She seemed a little off last night at the bar." Serah's eyes widened at the latter part of the sentence. Why in the world was her sister back at the bar again? She understood why she made frequent visits there back before Fang returned, even with her constant protests to urge her sister not to drink herself down in depression, but now? What reason would she have to return there now?

Serah shook the thoughts away before stepping back. "Oh I'm sorry, please come on in!" Eliza nodded her head gratefully before entering the home as Serah closed the door behind her as the two walked over to the couch. "To answer your question she never stopped by last night. Though why was she at the bar? Did she tell you? I don't understand why after -" Vanille interrupted the smaller farron as she skipped into the room and practically yelled. "Fang probably said or did something she shouldn't have. Back in stasis the memories and thoughts we shared...Fang can really get pretty twisted when she -" Serah's face flushed to a complete shade of pink before glaring back up at Vanille. "I told you I don't want to hear any of that! It's my sister were talking about here."

Eliza looked between the two girls in confusion before finally starting to speak up. "Fang? You mean one of the pulsians that saved Cocoon from falling into Gran Pulse? So that means you must be.." Vanille smiled and practically chirped. "Yup! Oerba Dia Vanille here in the flesh! The famous heroine that saved both Cocoon and Gran Pulse from utter doom!" Vanille proceeded to strike a pose that made Serah and Eliza both giggle. "I see. Well it's a pleasure to meet you miss heroine! My name is Eliza Fellwood. I work in the same squad as Lightning, I met Serah through her actually. She used to bring Lightning lunch over all the time before we would go out in the field, I would hope to consider us friends but I wouldn't want to assume anything."

Serah giggled and waved her arms in response. "Of course we are! We used to talk pretty often before Lightning told me to stop fussing over her lunches. I guess she won't have to worry about that anymore with Fang around to make lunch for her." Vanille chuckled as she started to join in. "Fang making Lightning lunch? I'd love to see that. Fangs too lazy to even make herself lunch most of the time! When we was growing up she would just go out and hunt a gorgonoscopid and bring it home for the maiden to skin and cook." Serah glanced back over at Vanille and huffed in response. "Have you seen my sisters cooking? She burns anything she touches. When we was kids I had to force down whatever she cooked until I started to become old enough to prepare meals myself."

As the two girls went back and forth about their sisters culinary skills, Eliza pondered about what Serah talked about in the very beginning. Was Fang romantically involved with Lightning? They are living together apparently and Lightning did talk about the older pulsian quiet a bit, more so than the other l'cie. Though how Lightning described Fang, she made it seem as if the pulsian was insufferable, at least at first. Lightning never told Eliza about any romantic involvement with Fang and she never asked. It wasn't any of her business to know. Though if those two are together...

"What about your family Eliza? You never mentioned them before I don't think." Eliza jumped slightly at the sound of Serah's voice and turned to meet the woman gaze with a weak smile. "Well my father never cooked and I was a only child. I tried to cook for my parents but I was never great at it myself." Vanille quirked her brow before blurting out. "What about your mother?" Eliza's expression instantly changed to a dark, depressed feature at the mention.

"My mother was a great cook. Every meal was always delicious and there was never a day I hadn't looked forward to find out what she made next. Whenever I got high scores on my school exams she always made this lovely lemon cake to celebrate. She tried to teach me when I was about thirteen but I never could really pick it up the way she did. She started at a much earlier age when she attempted to teach me however, my grandmother worked in a few five star restaurants back in her day. I guess cooking has always ran in the family but there is always a few bad apples down the tree right?"

Serah's lips slanted into a frown before reaching over to caress Eliza's shoulder. "Oh don't say that! I'm sure you're a amazing cook! Even if someone is not that great at one thing doesn't mean they are a bad apple, everybody has stuff their bad and great at. I mean both you and my sister are great at fighting, especially if Amodar put you in the same squad as Lightning knowing you could keep up with her!"

Eliza forced herself to smile at that before waving her arms in protest. "I'm not all that great but thank you. Also I apologize, I didn't mean to ruin the mood when you asked me that." Vanille shook her head. "No It's okay, I probably shouldn't have asked." Eliza looked over to Vanille and back to Serah before rising up from the couch and headed towards the door. "I should probably be heading back, work starts in about a hour and I like to be somewhat early. If you happen to see Lightning today tell her I stopped by for me please?"

Serah nodded as her and Vanille both rose up from the couch as well to follow Eliza out. "Yeah we were planning on visiting them later today anyway, I'll make sure to let her know." Eliza smiled and nodded, extending her arms open to briefly hug Serah. Serah smiled warmly and returned the gesture before Eliza gently pulled away and headed out the door. "Thanks! I really appreciate it. Take it easy Serah and it was nice meeting you Vanille!" Vanille waved out the door and yelled. "You as well!"

Serah waited a few moments before closing the door and turned to Vanille. "That was the first time Eliza has ever visited me in months and every time she comes over it's about my sister. I'm still confused as to why Lightning was even drinking to begin with. All of this makes no sense." Vanille giggled. "Try not to think about it too much, they probably just had a small argument or something. Besides we'll find out later tonight won't we?"

xxx

Authors Notes: Here is once again another update for you guys! Now first things first, I have never been drunk personally nor have I witnessed that many people drunk so I apologize if the drunk lightning seems poorly done or just seems off. Another thing I want to apologize for is how long it took to get this chapter out there! I have been very distracted the past few weeks as a lot of things started to pop up but everything is starting to get back under control now. So with all that said, my posting schedule should be back to normal, normal being 1-2 chapters every two weeks.

Overall with this chapter it served more of a purpose to elaborate further into what happened last chapter and to give you guys a little bit more knowledge on Eliza's past. In the following chapter I will bring more light into what happened in Eliza's past, not all of which is very good but you'll find out soon! Also I mentioned something in the very beginning chapters about providing more action scenes for you guys and I meant it! Beginning with Chapter 9, action scenes will start to become regular throughout the duration of the story. As always, I appreciate all the kind and loving feedback, support, and advice from you guys and I really do hope to hear more from you all soon! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and the story so far!