"The city is much quieter than I expected it to be… Almost a bit too quiet, if you ask me," a harshly gruff voice choked out into the night.

"Snow, that really doesn't hurt yer voice when ya talk like that?"

"Overbite! What did I say about using our secret identities?! Call me by my super hero name."

"Snowman?"

"Thank you."

"This is ridiculous."

"Sounds like Colonel Killjoy is ready for another refreshment. Do ya want a juice box or a fruit cup?"

"I can't believe you guys brought a cooler to superhero night…"

"We weren't supposed to? I thought that's what they did on the TV shows."

"No! That's for stakeouts, Fan—I mean, Overbite."

Snow took a step back from the railing that he was leaning against to give Fang a chastising look while Fang tried to hold in a snicker. "Are you laughing at my mask again?" he asked.

Fang silently nodded, her lip quivering as she continued to hold her laughter in. To perfect his superhero persona, the boy had cut two eyeholes in one of his bandanas and pulled it down halfway over his face as a makeshift mask. He seemed quite pissed when Fang had picked them up and he saw that neither girl had prepared as properly.

Nonetheless, he had Fang drive them to the touristy section of Bodhum, which was right near the beach. From there, they set up shop on the roof of one of the popular open-air bar-slash-taco huts in the area. Fang and Lightning currently sat leaning forward on the wide, bar railing that enclosed the roof, their feet dangling over the side while Snow stood against it, watching the activity down below. The multicolored party lights that lined the building gave them sufficient lighting along with a warm glow that perfectly matched the music and fun sounds that rose from the ground.

"You know what the problem is?" Snow asked. Both Fang and Lightning looked up at him with a questioning expression. Each had given him enough shit throughout the night to the point where to keep continuing it just seemed cruel. "We picked a bad area. No one's going to commit any worthwhile crimes at a taco joint."

"I dunno. Look at that guy. White bell-bottomed suit with a shiny red shirt? That's a crime if I ever saw one," Fang chuckled softly, pointing down to one particular man who was trying to coerce a bunch of ladies to dance with him.

Lightning huffed in agreement, watching the man with a disapproving expression. "He does look like he's had a bit too much, though. If you want to be a gentleman, you could escort him away from those women. They look like they don't want to be bothered."

"Super gentleman?" Snow asked in a flat tone. It wasn't until Lightning turned her head to give him a scrutinizing look that he remembered he was trying to court her younger sister. "Sounds like a job for Snowman!"

He leaned over the railing, calculating the distance to the ground before making a face. "I think I'll take the stairs."

"Shout for back-up if ya need us," Fang teased with a soft smile as Snow jogged toward the door.

The door slammed, leaving the two girls on the roof alone. Lightning rested her chin on one of the bars of the railing and looked out toward the ocean. There was something calming about watching the waves roll back and forth, perfectly illuminated by the moon and beach lights.

Fang anxiously eyed the pinkette from beside her, shiftily glancing from her to the crowd below while trying to think of how to word what she wanted to say next. "Superheroes…" she began, leading Lightning's attention away from the ocean and to her instead, "Ya know, if the Guardian Corps did their jobs right, Snow wouldn't have even thought of this. Wouldn't think there'd be a need for superheroes."

Lightning could hear a hint of bitterness in Fang's voice as the she spoke and watched the crowd below, not giving her any eye contact. Lightning leaned forward on the railing a bit to look at the crowd of dancers as well. Snow had successfully pulled the man in the white suit away from the women, but unfortunately (and to the amusement of those surrounding them) had been pulled into an awkward dance with the drunkard instead.

Lightning chuckled to herself. "Right. Because what Bodhum needs is its police force down at a taco tiki to dancing with the drunks."

"You're right. Then who'd they have left to beat up on the young girls in museums?" The tone remained lighthearted, but there was still a small bite to question.

Lightning's brows scrunched as she looked back up to study Fang. The girl's chin rested on one of her arms, which was draped over the railing. One of her legs was tucked into her lap while the other lazily dangled over the side of the building. Her eyes gazed out towards the ocean, and the warm lights that drifted up from the festivities below highlighted her facial features.

Lightning silently took the sight in. She couldn't deny how attractive of a girl Fang was. She was stunning. She would even go as far to say that the foreigner had a natural beauty that outshined a number of the famous fashion models she had seen on the covers of Serah's magazines. No wonder she was so cocky. With looks like those, Lightning was surprised that the whole world didn't bend over backwards to try and please her. Or maybe it did… on her world. Lightning felt a little twinge of guilt at the thought but pushed it aside.

Maybe that was why she kept getting so agitated about the law. If she had been treated the way Fang had, she'd probably have biases against the Guardian Corps too. "They're not all bad, you know," she said quietly. "They do do a lot of good around here."

"Doesn't excuse 'em for all the bad," Fang replied. "Ya know, sometimes I wonder... Do ya think they start off good or bad as recruits? Do they just stay the same or get indoctrinated as they go along?"

Lightning's jaw tightened. This conversation was teetering along a dangerous path, and the worst part about it was that Fang was clueless to it all. If the girl wanted to vent, then fine. Let her vent. But there was no way for her to know that Lightning was training to enter the Guardian Corps and that she was one more snide comment about new recruits away from blowing her patience. Lightning had no choice but to think of a subject changer.

"So we're thinking about going back to the Vestige to look for the fal'Cie near the end of next week."

"So soon?" Fang asked sardonically. There was still that slight bitterness in her tone but at least they were on a subject that both of them could be bitter about.

"Well, we think we should get a few more training sessions under our belts first. It makes no sense going back in there if we're just going to get manhandled again. Snow's getting so confident about it, he's been postponing his and Gadot's party til afterwards."

Fang nodded, not seeming too confident about it herself. "I understand y'all are doing all y'all can do… " She reached up to run a hand through her hair, something that Lightning was starting to notice she did when she was nervous or tense. "I don't mean to push y'all or anything, but I just can't shake this feeling that this focus is a bigger deal than we think, ya know?"

"I know, but we can't let this focus dictate our lives. If we just drop everything, throw caution to the wind, and dive head first into it without looking for any other options, we're doing exactly what the fal'Cie wants us to do."

"Have ya ever thought that maybe that's our best option?"

Lightning let her eyes drift upwards to the dark sky. "Right now, I think it's best if we don't think like that. If it looks like we have the time to build a strategy, then maybe we should use it. Not too long ago, someone told me, 'Slow and steady wins the race, sweetheart.' Maybe she was right."

Fang allowed the hint of a smile to play on her face on hearing Lightning repeat her words from their sparring match earlier. "Must've been a wise person ya heard that from."

"Mm." Lightning hummed indifferently, looking back towards the ocean. "I wouldn't say wise so much as over-chatty. She spouts so much shit during the day that the odds of probability call for at least one thing to be smart."

"Sounds like a bit of an over-exaggeration, don't ya think?"

"Not really. She's always biting off more than she can chew. I think she believes half the stuff she says is true, when most of it is questionable at best."

"I think I get the point now."

"She's also a bit of a narcissist. And a moocher. Quite pigheaded too, while we're at."

"Okay, okay!" Fang interrupted with a chuckle, softly shaking her head.

Lightning felt the workings of a relieved smile playing at the corner of her lips as well. She leaned forward against the railing to continue peering at the sky, looking up at the artificial starring above as silence fell between the two.

Fang leaned against the railing to search the crowd below for the whereabouts of Snow. A soft smile spread across her face when she found him sitting at a table, one leg crossed over the other, conversing and sipping coffee with the drunkard. He probably wouldn't be back up for another while. She then took a glimpse at Lightning, the smile on her face warming at the sight of her staring up so peacefully at the sky.

"Ya know, back on Gran Pulse, the sky was filled will stars every night. Not these artificial ones, but real ones. Hundreds of 'em. It was like looking into another galaxy. And there was a story behind each constellation."

"Sounds interesting." Lightning turned to look at Fang with slightly raised eyebrows. "Did you all make any for the ones here or are they not up to your star standard?"

Fang smirked and gave her a guilty shrug. "They're not as nice, but we've got a few stories. Here, let me tell 'em to ya."

Before Lightning could protest, Fang had slid in closer so that her right side was lightly pressed against Lightning's left. Lightning silently grunted at the intrusion of her personal space. The thought of scooting away quickly crossed her mind but faded just as fast. It could've been the warmth. It could've been the softness. It could've been the faint scent of spices and flowers that radiated from her. Lightning couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but she couldn't deny that there was a certain comfort that she found in being so close to Fang.

"…so that's why that one is The Untied Shoe. And that one right there we call The Drunken Knight." Fang had already begun her storytelling and was pointing to the sky with her left hand, a pleasant expression on her face as she looked upward.

"The Drunken Knight?" Lightning asked with amusement in her voice. "What's the story behind that?"

"Well, see how the stars are pretty evenly spaced going up like that, but then a line of them juts out like that?" Fang leaned in and reached an arm around Lightning's shoulders, pulling Light in closer to her body in order to get a clearer look at the outline her finger was tracing in the sky. "They say it looks like a man poorly holding a sword."

Lightning squinted and slowly nodded. "I see it." She subconsciously moved her shoulders around lightly and scooted in closer, allowing herself to settle more comfortably into Fang's side.

"At first we called it pitching a tent, but the elders didn't think that'd be a nice story to pass along to the younger children."

Lightning let out an audible sigh. A Fang story couldn't really be a Fang story without some random raunch being thrown in it. "Yet somehow you still heard about it."

"Heard about it?" Fang asked in an offended tone. "I helped create it." Lightning shook her head and smiled to herself as Fang scooted closer as well. She let her hand slide down from Lightning's shoulder to plant it on the ground beside the pinkette's rear, leaning her shoulder in and pressing her arm snugly against Light's opposite side as a way to keep her in their light embrace. "Y'all didn't already have some stories for the stars up here, Lightjack?"

"None that I know of," Lightning admitted. Her family wasn't really one that would just stop to stare at the stars. "And call me Light."

Fang's face perked up in surprise. Lightning could sense one of her infamous quips coming along, so she cut it off before the Pulsian had a chance to voice it. "Since you have so much trouble with the whole thing, you can just call me Light for short."

"Light." Fang tested the nickname out, letting it roll off her tongue. "Yea, doesn't really leave much room for error, does it?"

"So it really must be foolproof."

"Heyyyy. Watch it, you," Fang growled playfully, using her arm to press Lightning to her body in a brief, tight squeeze.

Both teens smiled to themselves before quietly looking back up to the sky, still in their embrace…

BRRRRRMMMM! BRRRRMMMMM!

Lightning and Fang jumped at the violent vibration that shook both of them in their hip area. Lightning's face instantly turned pink when she noticed how close the two had been sitting while Fang dug in her pocket to fish out the source of the rumbling. Lightning took this as a good chance to look the opposite way in an attempt to hide the blush that she could feel burning on her cheeks.

When Fang was finally able to wrestle her phone from her tight pocket, she glimpsed a look at the caller i.d.: TAMMY. Her eyes immediately flew up to look at Lightning, but the girl seemed extremely divested in something on the opposite side of the roof. Fang bit the inside of her cheek before looking down at the caller i.d. again and making a snap decision.

Meanwhile, Lightning took a deep breath and turned her head back to face Fang, confident that the color in her cheeks must've died down. It looked like Fang had just finished clicking the ignore button on the side of her phone before shoving it back into her pocket. Lightning looked at her curiously, figuring that it might have been Vanille who was calling. "You didn't have to answer that?"

"Nah," Fang said with a shrug, tucking her knees to her chest and peeping over the railing. "Wasn't important. Only person I really feel like talking to right now is—"

"GUYS! UP TOP! NEED BACK UP!"

"Seriously?" Fang griped as Lightning jumped up to peer over the railing. Still grumbling, Fang pulled herself to her feet as well to look down below.

A group of about three masked men were weaving their way through the dancing crowd below. Snow had yanked one back by the collar of his shirt and slammed him to the ground, but the other two were still making a fast getaway.

"Well I'll be damned, he actually found a crime," Fang laughed with a hint of awe in her voice, staring down at them. "Wonder what they did."

"Fang! Not the time!" Lightning had already started jogging along the side of the building. "We need to catch them!"

"Huh?" Fang swiveled around just in time to see Lightning fly across the gap between the roof of the taco shack and the neighboring building. "Oh."

Fang took off after her, leaping the gap between the buildings as well and glancing to her side to peek over the building and see where the perpetrators were. Her tight jeans uncomfortably rubbed at her thighs as she ran. Maybe Snow had been right about not coming out in 'civilian clothes'. It was getting pretty uncomfortable running around and jumping in these things.

"Jump number two!" Lightning called, pushing off from the edge of their current building and flipping in mid-air before landing on the roof of the next one.

"Show off!" Fang shouted with a grin, making a graceful leap to the next rooftop from behind her.

After another rooftop jump, the two l'Cie found a pole to slide down to get them to the street. It was here that they were able to quickly gain more ground on the men they were chasing.

"Go that way!" one of the men shouted, pushing his partner in a different direction once they had reached an intersection. The man quickly obeyed, rushing off and splitting the team.

"You go after him!" Fang called from behind Lightning, who was burning rubber a few feet ahead of her. "I'll get the other one!" Lightning sped down the turn that one man had taken while Fang turned to follow the other.

Fang had to give the man credit where it was due. He was fast. And agile. He squeezed through pedestrians and weaved through cars on the street without missing a step. It was just unfortunate that the person running after him was just as agile and probably a bit faster.

The man skidded to turn into an alleyway between two buildings and slowed to a stop on seeing a high fence blocking his forward path. Fang was too quick for him to be able to scale it without her catching him and he knew it.

"Alright, pal," Fang breathed, as she slowed into a jog down the alley. She eyed the stuffed bag that he had tucked under his arm. "Ya kinda ruined a moment that I was having a while back, so the least ya can do to repay me is to just hand the goods over without a fuss."

The man stood still with his back to Fang, facing the fence. 'Probably still trying to think of a getaway,' she thought to herself as she strode up behind him.

"Aye, buddy!" She gripped his upper arm to turn him around and was met by angry hazelish-golden eyes that glared at her through the mask. Familiar hazelish-golden eyes.

"What the hell, Fang?!" Dane's voice hissed at her through the mask.

Fang immediately dropped the boy's arm and took a step back in shock, staring at Dane with her mouth slightly agape and a bewildered expression on her face.

"Fang? You down there?" Now Lightning's voice was calling her from the opposite side of the alley.

Dane rolled his eyes exasperatedly and with a grunt, turned to quickly scale the fence. Fang just watched him in silence, listening as the footsteps pounding the pavement behind her grew louder.

"Fang?" Lightning breathed. She slowed to a stop next to the girl, squinting to stare through the gate where she could make out the masked man turning another corner in the distance. "He got away?"

"Uh… yeah. Snow was right about bringing the right clothes. Wasn't wearing my good running shoes and I slipped," Fang stated, turning around to lead the way out of the alley. "Where's yours?"

"Trapped in a dumpster," Lightning replied, glancing curiously over her shoulder in the direction that the man had ran. "Do you think we could head him off somewhere?"

"Nah," Fang replied in a low voice. Lightning guessed that she must've been quite upset on letting him slip away. "He's long gone. Didn't seem armed either, so I don't think he'll be hurting anyone, but if your precious Guardian Corps are on the job, maybe they'll catch him."

Lightning slowed her pace and allowed Fang to march ahead of her. She watched the scraggly head of hair continue to move forward with a disturbed expression before glancing over her shoulder one last time to peer through the fence.

"See! This was awesome," Snow cheered. He raised his celebratory hot dog in the air while Lightning eyed the loaded thing in disgust. "We should make this a weekly gig! Just for the older crowd. Kickin' ass and takin' names all for the greater good."

"Do NOT confirm me for that," Lightning commanded. She made a sickened face as a glob of chili dropped down from Snow's wiener to hit the pavement. How the boy could even stomach chili so close the hedge-frog fiasco was beyond her. Just thinking about it made her stomach churn. Oh, no... "Can you two wait up for a minute? I have to take a restroom break."

"Sure," Snow said with a smile as Lightning stepped into the nearest shop.

Fang stared after her. She waited until the door had fully closed before quickly turning to Snow. "You've known Light all yer life, right?"

"Most of it," Snow answered nonchalantly. He slowly turned his hotdog around in different angles in front of his face, trying to plan the best mode of attack.

"Okay. So do you know, uh… What's her… What do ya think her interests are?"

"Interests?" Snow asked with a full mouth. He had just finished taking off half the hotdog in one bite.

Fang bobbled her head a little anxiously before giving Snow an impatient look. "You know. Like… d'ya think she'd be interested in, uh, me…?"

"Oh. OHHHHH!" His eyebrows nearly reached his hairline in realization. "INTERESTS! I, uh, I don't really know. I've always kind of thought of her as asexual. Like one day she'd just decide to procreate and pop off a Lightning clone that would be just as pissed off at the world as she is. Why? Have you been trying to put the moves on my neighbor?"

Fang made an exaggerated facial expression of indifferent guilt and shrugged. From the first day of history class, when she had walked in and seen the beautiful pink-haired girl organizing syllabi and handouts at her desk, she had thought that she was captivating. It wasn't until the trip to the Vestige that she had started to wonder if she maybe had a shot with her. However, she also thought that the trip to the Vestige had single handedly killed that dream.

Truthfully, that was the story of every time that Fang tried to get closer to the pinkette. At Light's house, she had simply tried handholding, and it seemed like the other girl was digging it… until she burned her. Then there was earlier today when they had been sparring. The way Light had been staring at her during their wrestling bout sent chills down Fang's spine… until she gave Fang such a horrified look that it made Fang sorry that she had even flipped them over in the first place. And last but not least, there was the "cuddling" on the rooftop. Fang hadn't actually been trying to hold Lightning. It just happened. And amazingly, Lightning hadn't pulled away, caused her bodily harm, or looked at her like a monster. It actually felt like she was snuggling closer. If it wasn't for Tammy…

"Fuckin' Tammy…" Fang mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Snow asked.

"Huh? Oh. Oh, nothing. But, uh, let's just say that I've been trying to read her and I'm a bit confused. I can't tell if she hates me or if she likes me. Seems to be a thinner line than ya'd think..." Fang sheepishly ran a hand through her hair.

"Aww," Snow cooed with a wide grin. "The mighty Oerba Yun Fang is crushing? With all the play you get around school, I didn't think you'd get so nervous about a 'Cocoonian chick'." Snow put air quotes around the last two words. "But as Serah's maybe one day boyfriend and as someone who doesn't want awkward group meetings, please tell me you're not just in this for the booty."

"Nah," Fang said, quickly shaking her head. "It's not like that. Most girls at school only want me as a fling. Rebeling against their Gran Pulse-hating daddies, making their exes jealous, trying something new to brag about so they don't seem so plain type of thing. Lightning… Lightning seems different, like she wouldn't treat me like a tool or a resumé builder. Plus she's got this spirit to her. This spunk…"

"Spirit?" Snow looked at Fang dubiously. "Well, it's better than you saying her positive outlook or cheerful personality reeled you in. Cause then I wouldn't believe you. But as much as it pains me to say," he reached out to rest a hand on Fang's shoulder, "I think you're barking up the wrong tree. I'm pretty sure if she was into girls, Serah definitely would've told me. I think she had actually had a boyfriend late freshman, early sophomore year, and since then she hasn't really seemed that interested in the whole dating scene. Sorry, Fang..."

"Nah, nah, nah. It's okay." Fang forced a smile but couldn't stop her shoulders from drooping. Snow watched, seriously upset that he had to break it to her. "With what we're going through, I shouldn't even be thinking of that kinda stuff anyway. There's a good chance we won't have the time for it."

Now Snow just felt like a dick. Before he could give her any uplifting words of encouragement, Lightning strode back through the door. She slowly looked from Snow to Fang. Both of them seemed eerily upset, Snow especially. "Did I miss something?"

"Nope. Just shooting the breeze," Fang replied, still forcing a light smile that Lightning was easily able to see through. If nothing else, the Pulsian's eyes gave it all away. There wasn't that usual spark to them that was even present when the girl got angry. "C'mon. Let's go grab the cooler so I can get y'all home."