Lightning coughed for what felt like the millionth time into her balled fist. Her eyes stung and she could barely see anything through the thick smoke that clouded the inside of the room. Worst of all, it was now starting to burn both her nose and her throat when she breathed, which was perfectly understandable because at this point Lightning was sure that overly-fragrant smoke had singed all of her nose hairs.

"Ohhhmmmmm…" a high pitched voice hummed from somewhere nearby, its owner's body successfully cloaked by all the smoke. "Ohhhmmmm… C'mon, Lightning! Now what are you supposed to be saying?"

Lightning rumbled, trying her best to clear her throat for a few seconds before attempting to speak. "I'm-" the first word was choked out, "going to kill Fang."

"No! Don't say that! Murder plans are complex and elaborate and take your concentration away from the task at hand! Try something simpler. Like an 'ohm'. Or maybe an 'ahm'. It helps clear the mind!

Lightning audibly growled, partly from being pissed and partly from still feeling the need to clear her throat. Apparently Fang had gone home and bothered Vanille about Lightning's medic abilities still not being up to standard. Vanille had already forbade any of the l'cie from training after school today, saying that they needed to rest up for the Vestige tomorrow, so as a compromise, Vanille had stolen Lightning away during lunch for an 'incense therapy' session in the janitor's closet.

"For Etro's sake, Vanille, I can't take this anymore," Lightning blurted, barreling forward through the smoke in hopes that she was moving in the right direction towards the door.

"Lightning, wait!" Vanille called as the door flung open and smoke spilled out of the room.

Lightning heaved in a huge gulp of fresh air before leaning on her knees and roughly coughing it out. Footsteps approached followed by a gentle hand patting her back. "So I guess it didn't work, huh?"

Lightning turned to peer at Vanille over her shoulder, her eyes ablaze with a look that screamed, 'Are you kidding me?!' "Yeah, Vanille, I think it's safe to say it didn't work."

"Well, I guess that's alright. I've been working on some herbal remedies with the elders back on the reservation. If you think you'll need any for healing, just in case, I'd be happy to give some to you!"

"Thanks for the thought, Vanille." Lightning slowly rose into a standing position. "But I think I'm covered on the help for now."

"Okay! Well here. Since I made you miss so much of lunch, let me at least buy you something from the vending machine!"

"No, Vanille, that's al-riighhhttt!" Lightning was immediately thrown off guard by Vanille grabbing her hand and yanking her down the hallway in a jog.

Out on the yard, Fang laid with her arms folded behind her head across one of the smaller lunch tables, her legs bending and swinging over the sides. She usually ate lunch with Vanille, but due to the emergency medic training session that Fang had talked her into conducting, she was left alone on the yard. Eating took much less time than usual since she didn't have to entertain Vanille as well, so she just decided to relax for the rest of the period.

"Fang?"

The Pulsian's head turned to the side to take in the short, silver-haired boy who was about eye-level with her since she was lying on the table. "Hope? I didn't know you got to school this early. What can I do ya for?"

"Uh… nothing really. I just wanted to talk. Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"Not at all," Fang answered, rising so that she was now sitting straight up on the table with her feet planted on the bench below.

Hope nodded his head nervously and sat on the bench a little bit away from her legs. Fang watched with a bit of amusement as he quietly began pulling his lunch out of a crumpled brown paper bag. "So how are classes going?" he asked, sheepishly glancing up to look at Fang's face.

"Meh," Fang congenially answered with a shrug. "They're goin' somewhere. Where, I can't exactly tell yet. But they're goin'."

"Oh. Okay." He looked down, racking his brain for something else to say before lifting his head up again. "What about the weather?"

Fang crinkled her brow and gave him a critical look. "Alright, you. What's goin' on?"

"Huh?" Poor Hope looked like a deer caught in headlights. "What are you talking about?"

"Hope, you're a smart kid. So seriously? How's the weather?"

Hope's expression slid from surprised to embarrassed. "I guess there's no point in beating around the bush with you. Fang, are we… friends?"

Now it was Fang's turn to look like a deer playing chicken with an eighteen-wheeler. "What? Course we are. Did ya think we were nemeses?" Although, she wouldn't put the thought past him. For someone who didn't even look like he had hit puberty yet, he got awfully territorial over Vanille.

"No, no. It's just that we practically hang out every day after school and whenever you and Vanille walk with me to my last period class, I don't get picked on or shoved into lockers or anything… And with us going to the Vestige tomorrow…"

Fang let out a soft sigh as she began to understand what he was getting at. "You're afraid that we won't talk to each other anymore once all this is over," she finished for him.

"Yeah," he nodded, looking like a guilty puppy dog with his lowered head but uplifted eyes.

"You don't have anything to worry about, kiddo," Fang reassured him with a smile. "The worst thing that could've happened to you lot on that field trip is that ya got stuck with us... and for a long time. Whether ya like it or not. And trust me, it feels like it's all sugarplums and rainbows now, but our company wears on ya after awhile."

Hope tried to smile with her but he still didn't look convinced. "Do you mean that or are you just saying that because of how things are now? You don't think anything will change once we're free? Like you and Lightning," he turned his head around. As if on cue, Lightning and Vanille stepped out of the cafeteria together. A pleasant feeling washed over Fang on seeing Vanille's mouth moving a mile a minute with Lightning standing next to her, a tired expression on her face.

"What? Ya don't think me and Strawberry Shortcake would still be friends? Look at her over there. She loves us."

Hope looked to Fang unsurely before taking a peep back in Vanille and Lightning's direction.

Lightning's face looked as if there were no greater hell than the one she was currently standing in.

Hope's eyes soon landed back on Fang, asking for an explanation. Fang noticed this as well and quickly covered, "Does it count for anythin' that that's usually as happy as she gets anyway?"

"It's just that we don't do anything with you two besides training stuff. What's going to keep us together when that's done? You and Lightning seem to spend the most time together out of everyone, but you don't even talk to each other in school. When would we all hang out when this is over?"

"That's only because she doesn't want people to get suspicious," Fang excused. "What reason would she have to wanna avoid me after all this is over?"

Hope just gave her a sad look that Fang was able to read immediately. There were a number of reasons why someone would try to avoid her during school, especially someone who had climbed the social ladder as quickly as Lightning had. Fang anxiously rubbed the back of her neck. She was still coming to terms with the reality that Lightning wouldn't want to be anything more than friends with her. She wasn't sure if she was ready to accept the possibility that being friends was too much to ask for as well.

"Hope," she said seriously, tearing her eyes away from her best friend and crush to look at the younger boy, "I promise you. When this is all over, we'll still hang out. I'm sure there are some things we can find in common to do together besides beating the crap outta each other in a desolate field."

Hope lightly smiled at that and nodded his head slowly. "I hope so."

Across the yard, Lightning rubbed her temples as Vanille relentlessly talked her ear off. "…so everything should be good in that aspect. This is your table here, isn't it? Guess I should just skedaddle along and leave you with your friends."

Lightning let out a deep breath of gratefulness. "Thanks, Vanille. And I really did appreciate the effort."

Vanille just gave Lightning a sweet smile as the two happened upon the table where Alyssa was sitting with her friends and a few guys from the basketball team. As Lightning took a seat, Vanille continued to walk.

"Hey! Vanilla!"

Lightning's head shot up and snapped to the opposite side of the bench where Alyssa sat. Vanille stopped walking and turned to give Alyssa her attention as well. She looked around and over her shoulders before looking back to Alyssa. "Me?"

"Yes, you!" Alyssa giggled with a wide, excited smile.

"Alyssa, what are you doing?" Lightning asked in a low voice.

"Nothing. Just admiring Vanilla's choice of clothing today. What is that thing wrapped around your waist?" Alyssa leaned forward on her elbows, her smile widening even more as some of the other teens at the table snickered.

"This?" Vanille lifted the pelt that she had decided to wear over her skirt today. "It's a bear pelt. I killed and skinned it myself."

Lightning mentally groaned and dropped her head into her hands as more teens around the table started to chuckle and feign interest. "Oh, really?" Alyssa crooned excitedly. "That makes so much sense! I thought you may have gotten it off the floor from some elderly man's bachelor pad, but seeing how shaggy chic it looks on you, it makes so much more sense that it's something you ran down and killed." More snickers erupted around the table. "What about that necklace you're wearing? It's so thick, it almost looks like a choke collar."

"Oh," Vanille's face looked a bit lost as she tried to process what Alyssa was saying. Nonetheless she put on a polite smile and nodded along with slight enthusiasm. "Thank you. And no, it's not tight enough to choke me."

"I bet not…" Alyssa tapped her chin deviously, thinking of what next to say. "You know, I am so inspired by your wardrobe, would you mind if I take a picture of you? I'm editing a page just for fashion in the yearbook, and I think you would be great for one of the main shots."

Vanille's face lit up with excitement. "Oh, that would be—"

"Alyssa, would you chill out?" Lightning interrupted, finally raising her head from her hands. She knew that Fang didn't want her 'meddling' when it came to people talking down to them, but she was sure that this didn't count. Hell, at this point she didn't even care. She wouldn't let Vanille fall prey to Alyssa without even knowing that she was being made fun of.

"Whatever do you mean, Lightning? I just think that Vanilla's unique sense of fashion should be showcased," Alyssa looked to Lightning challengingly while Vanille glanced between the two with a confused expression.

"Will her spread be showcased right under yours for unique haircuts?" Lightning asked, raising her eyebrows. "Because the style is very spherical chic. If I may ask, which brand of salad bowl do you use to shape it?"

Alyssa grimaced as the teens at the table now started laughing at her expense, some of the guys even 'oooh-ing' and whispering agreement. Lightning gave her one hard glare before standing up. "I'm going to see what Lebreau is up to. Vanille," she made sure to loudly and clearly annunciate the girl's name correctly, "you should probably get back to your table."

Alyssa watched Lightning walk away with dark, vengeful eyes.

Vanille made her way to the table that she usually shared with Fang and was pleasantly surprised to see Hope sitting there as well, laughing at a story Fang was animatedly retelling about trying to catch a pet microchu and accidentally waking a large mama ochu in the process.

"Vanille!" Fang greeted with a smile when she had finished. "How'd the aromatherapy thing go?"

Vanille shook her head, pulling a sandwich from her bag. "Not too well. I think you might be right about the whole stressing too much thing. She's really uptight. She even got upset when your class president offered to do a spread on my clothes for the yearbook."

One of Fang's eyebrows shot up. "Say what about a yearbook spread?"

"That girl, the kinda snobby one whose yard we walked into when we were looking for Lightning's house? She starting asking me questions about my bearskin pelt and then asked if she could write about it in the yearbook. Then Lightning said something about her having a unique hairstyle and told me to come sit by you. I think the stress is really getting to her…"

Fang's face quickly transitioned from expressions of curiosity to ones of anger then understanding. She looked past Vanille to shoot an angry glare in the direction of Alyssa's table. Bitch… She then scanned the yard to find Lightning, who was sitting with Lebreau and peering in Fang's direction as well. The girl knew they were talking about her and was studying Fang for a reaction. Her face looked guilty but at the same time unapologetic.

"Vanille, if Alyssa ever asks about taking pictures of you again, politely tell her to fuck off, okay?" Fang instructed, pulling her phone from her pocket. She pounded out a quick text message and looked back across the yard. Sure enough, Lightning was looking down to her lap and reaching for the phone in her pocket. "Excuse me, you two," Fang said, still watching Lightning as she hopped down from on top the table. "I'll be back in a jiff."

Fang walked straight through the yard and into the school building, not stopping until she reached the freshman English classroom. This was the class that her track coach taught, and she knew that he always left school midday because he didn't have to teach during the period after lunch. Fang took a seat on top the teacher's desk in the front and waited.

Lightning entered the room, perfectly on time, five minutes later. Fang didn't even have the opportunity to open her mouth to speak before Lightning had already started talking, something wholly uncharacteristic in their relationship. "I know you said that I shouldn't help you guys out or whatever when people talk down to you and stuff, but I couldn't just sit back and watch that. Alyssa was totally out of line and Vanille thought they were complimenting…"

As Lightning talked, Fang just watched. Lightning's body was tense and she had a fiery look in her eyes as she continued to state in a commanding tone as to why she wasn't sorry for sticking up for Vanille and how she would gladly do it again. Fang's eyes slowly roved Light's body as she started pacing, still quickly rattling on about how Alyssa deserved it. She really couldn't think of a time where she had been more turned on by the Cocoonian. It was taking most of her self-control right now to stop herself from grabbing the girl by the waist, pushing her up on one of the desks, and catching those lips with her own to silence her…

"…so if you're going to be mad, then so be it," Lightning finished, folding her arms tightly across her chest as she waited for Fang's reply.

Fang's head quickly lifted and her eyebrows perked up when she registered that Lightning had stopped talking and that the girl was now staring at her with an impatient, hiked eyebrow.

"It's kinda funny, ya think?" Fang finally let out as chuckled breath. Lightning now raised both eyebrows in questioning. Fang just shook her head with a soft smile and continued. "That ya told Alyssa off by talking about unique haircuts." Fang raised a finger to point at Lightning's own interesting hairstyle.

Light's eyes narrowed and she shifted her weight to one side. "Says the girl whose arch rival is the comb."

Fang laughed to herself. Lightning grinned as well as and let her eyes drop to the ground, seemingly relieved that Fang hadn't called her in here to fuss at her. Then why had she called her in here? Lightning looked back to Fang with a puzzled expression. Fang knew exactly what she was thinking. "You don't have anything planned after school today, do ya? There's something we need to do before y'all go to the Vestige."

Lightning crinkled her brows. "I thought we weren't supposed to train today."

"It's not training," Fang stated, sliding off the desk to stand in front of Light. "Although it could be seen as an exercise to help ya out. Besides Snow's superhero nights, all we ever do together is train. It'd be nice to do something different for a change, don't ya think?"

Lightning didn't answer but stared blankly at Fang instead, processing the information. Fang just watched her expectantly. Just thinking of Hope's conversation with her outside was making the suspense of waiting for an answer almost unbearable. "Okay. Where are we going?"

Fang smirked as a huge wave of relief washed over her. "You'll see."

"It's pretty," Lightning commented, staring out at the lake that she and Fang stood along the bank of. Fang had parked her car a bit of a hike away, taking a bag out of her trunk to carry as she led them through the woods to this destination. Lightning studied the area in silent awe. It was so peaceful…"What are we supposed to do here?"

"Well," Fang began as she removed the bag on her back. "There's this lil' exercise I thought might be kinda good for ya." She dug a hand into the bag and pulled out a worn-looking boot with some type of gadget melded to its sole.

Lightning's face took on a puzzled expression as she reached out to take the boot from Fang. She slowly spun it in her hands, studying the thing but not knowing what to make of it. "What is it?"

"Something I kinda constructed," Fang answered, pulling the boot's counterpart from her bag. "Well, with Maqui's help, of course. See that thingy-majig there on the bottom? That's a mini-hover pad. I got it from my, uh… Shit, what in the hell would I call him? I guess my Sazh's place and I got Maqui to find a way to attach it to some shoes."

"So if you wear the boots, you should be able to hover off the ground?" Lightning asked, looking up to Fang for confirmation.

"Exactly," Fang nodded. "With our powers, we definitely have enough strength to control the force of it, but it still takes a lot coordination and stuff to handle without busting yer ass." Fang pulled out another pair of boots from the bag.

"A coordination exercise…" Lightning trailed, taking the second boot into one of her hands.

"At first it'll be," Fang clarified. "It doesn't take long to catch on to, though. So after that, it'll just be a relaxing exercise. Get ya to loosen up a bit, Tighty."

Lightning gave Fang a dull look. "Watch it, Oerba. I'm not against shoving this boot up your ass and letting it 'hover' there for awhile." She then pulled the tongue of one of the boots up to survey how funky the inside of it might be.

"Oh, how I love it when ya talk dirty to me…" Fang chuckled before grabbing at the bottom of her shirt to pull it over her head.

"Whatever, Fan—" Lightning's eyes grew the size of saucers when she looked up from the boots to get a full on glimpse of Fang's toned torso, muscles stretching as she lifted her arms to pull off her shirt. "What are you doing?"

When Fang had finally gotten her head out of her shirt hole, she looked at Lightning curiously. "What? Once you get the hang of how to use the boots, we're gonna be hovering out over the water, so there's a chance we might get wet. I don't have a change of clothes, and it's too long a ride to wear wet ones to drop ya off home. If ya don't have any extras, I'd actually suggest you do the same."

Lightning just stared. She hadn't expected this when she agreed to hang out with Fang after school, and Fang didn't seem to be shy about stripping down to her sports bra and boy short underwear at all. Lightning just shook it off. This should be just like changing in the locker rooms for PE, shouldn't it? Then why did it feel so… different? Apprehensively, Lightning began to strip down as well so that she was left in a tight tank top that only reached down to right above her belly button, bra, and undies.

To say that she was blushing was an understatement. She could feel her whole body flushing as she stripped. She didn't even have the courage to look over in Fang's direction yet. She didn't know if she was prepared to face any of the girl's usual sexual innuendo when she was feeling this exposed. So instead, she bent over to start strapping on the hover boots.

A few feet away, Fang quietly stole glances in Lightning's direction. She was trying her best not to stare too much at Lightning's slender, exposed legs or that tight butt whose cheeks peeked out from the bottom of her bikini-cut underwear, or even her lower midsection, where she could make out the bottom creases of the girl's abs. Snow had warned her about getting herself into the 'danger zone' with being around Lightning so much while harboring feelings for her, but she didn't think it'd be such a big deal until now. She let out a pent up breath before taking a seat on the ground to put her boots on too.

Meanwhile, Lightning finally gathered enough confidence to chance a look in Fang's direction. The other girl sat with a determined face, tying her boots; it didn't even look like she was planning an inappropriate joke in her mind. This put Lightning a little more at ease, so she allowed her eyes to slowly roam and study the Pulsian's body as she sat. She didn't know if it was something normal to feel about the sitting position, but she found something weirdly sexy in the way Fang's back curved and her finely sculpted stomach muscles bent as she leaned forward to tie her boots. It was even more alluring how her tight boy shorts slightly rode up as she bent her knees, revealing more and more of those shapely thighs…

WHOA. Lightning quickly bit her tongue and flicked her eyes upward. Now her eyes landed on Fang's inked upper arm. She had noticed Fang's tattoo the first day the two had spoken, but had never really asked about it. "Hey, Fang? What's your tattoo supposed to be of?"

Fang's eyes lifted from her boots to land on Light, brows raised. "Hm?" Her eyes then moved to rest on her arm. "Oh. Back on Gran Pulse, some clans take a lot of pride in the skills and trades they're best known for. So when a young'in perfects a trade or completes a task related to it, it can sometimes be considered as them entering adulthood. My clan, the Yuns, are known for being great hunters. It wasn't really long before the Initiative happened, but I killed my first behemoth and was able to get a tattoo for it. Vanille's the one who actually designed it. See here? That's supposed to signify the jaws of the behemoth. And these pointy things down here? Those signify the heads of a spear. Usually some folk just get the outline of the animal or their weapon. This one right here was considered the sickest Yun tat in Oerba."

"It is pretty badass," Lightning agreed, studying the tattoo a bit more critically now that she knew the back-story. "But weren't you kind of young when the evacuations started? And aren't the behemoths the really big dogs? How'd you pull that off?"

"Heh…" Fang's eyes dropped to the floor as she chuckled to herself and reminisced. "I was out with a big hunting party, just tryna get a feel for it all. No one was expecting to run into anything bigger than a goblin, so of course we ran into a behemoth. Everyone attacked and told us kids to fall back. I wasn't exactly too privy to the idea so I ran after them. Chucked my spear back and let it fly. The adults had whooped the behemoth's ass damn near to a pulp by then, but it was still my spear that delivered the final blow. The elders wanted to argue about the legitimacy of labeling the kill as mine, but soon came off it."

"Being hardheaded, going against authority, and throwing things… All this story's missing is you making a comment about the behemoth's ass, and it'd be quintessential Fang."

"Who says I didn't?" Fang returned with a sly grin.

Lightning smirked and shook her head lightly in disbelief. "What about the scratches on your other arm? I don't remember them being there before the Vestige trip. Where'd they come from?"

"A different hunting trip." Fang finished tying up her last boot and planted a hand in the ground to lift herself up. Lightning just gave her an uncomprehending look. "In the, uh, prison, there was an animal control problem that the guards wanted me to investigate. Just got a couple of scratches from it. Funny thing is, it's when I first noticed my powers."

Lightning silently nodded. Her expression had slowly transformed from puzzled to sympathetic. Fang figured that with her dad's position in PSICOM, she knew enough about procedures to understand that there was no good reason for Fang to be near any animals in the prison. "Mind if I take a closer look?"

"Uh, sure. Go ahead."

Fang took a few steps closer and turned for Lightning to get a better view of her arm. In her stripping, she had taken off the nylon sleeve that usually covered her brand, leaving it exposed. "Why didn't you get Vanille to heal you?"

A small shiver ran up Fang's spine as Lightning's fingers gently grazed the roughed skin. She slowly gulped before answering, "I thought they looked kinda cool. It'd be kind of nice to have something besides a cheap behemoth kill to signify I'm a hunter…" Fang turned her head to watch the Cocoonian, who stood staring at her arm with her brows creased, still tenderly rubbing over the marks. Fang felt a painful tug to her heartstrings as she watched the other girl. The way that Light was looking at her, touching her… maybe she was getting too far into this danger zone. "Erm!" Fang uncomfortably cleared her throat and shrugged her shoulder away from Light's hands. "So yeah! We should probably get started. Think you're ready?"

"Yeah," Lightning answered, finally looking up from Fang's arm and taking a step back. "So how do these things work?"

"I think they have some sort of force or pressure switch or something. So ya pretty much turn them on by hitting them together at the heels."

"Clicking the heels together? You're joking, right?"

"Serious as sin," Fang said, slightly grinning when she realized how cliché the on/off mechanism really was. "But here," she reached out to grasp Light's forearms and nodded her head down in a motion to encourage Lightning to do the same. "It's gonna be a bit of a shock when you first start 'em up. It helps if ya have something to hold on to… if ya know—"

"No." Lightning quickly cut off whatever dirty direction that statement was heading in as she reached out to grab Fang's forearms as well. "Okay. Ready."

"So together on the count of three. One... Two… THREE!"

Lightning slapped her heels together and immediately felt her feet shoot off from the ground and wobble in the air. "Ahh!" she gasped, teetering a few inches above ground and feeling as if she were about to lose her balance.

Fang, who had had much more practice in the boots, winced. She steadily hovered across from Lightning, but once they left the ground, the Cocoonian's grip on her arms had tightened to the point where she just knew she'd be bruised afterwards. "Just settle down a bit, I've got ya," she soothed, trying to get Lightning's attention back to her.

Lightning gazed down at the ground below her, seemingly amazed by it all, before looking back up to Fang. "This is unbelievable," she practically whispered. "What next?"

"Well, next ya try moving in 'em. So I'm gonna skate backwards a bit and I just want ya to follow me. Okay?"

"Okay," Lightning nodded, her eyes bright with an excitement that made Fang warm up with enthusiasm as well.

So slowly, Fang trailed her left foot backwards, then her right. Lightning slowly did the same, but moving forward in Fang's direction instead. After each step, Fang worked to make bigger strides with Lightning trying to match each one, teetering just a bit now and then and tightening her grip around Fang's arms when she did so.

"You're going too fast."

"Nah, you're doing perfect."

"No, no, I think I'm losing my balance!"

"It just feels that way. It'll all wear—woah!"

"Ahhh!"

Lightning had indeed lost her balance. One of her hover-technology propelled feet flew forward from under her, causing her to fly back in panic despite the firm grip she had had around Fang's arm. Foolishly, Fang lunged forward in an attempt to catch her, but was met by Lightning's boot flying upward into her stomach. "Ohhhh…." Fang groaned, grabbing her stomach and doubling over as Lightning's back crashed into the dirt, her feet still hovering off the ground as the rest of her body lay flat against it.

"Oh sweet giblets," Fang wheezed. She had clicked her heels to turn her boots off and was now leaning over, still tightly holding her aching midsection. "You alright?"

"Physically or spiritually?" Lightning's voice floated from off the ground. She felt more than a little embarrassed by what had just happened. Fang forced a chuckle and took a few more breaths before straightening out and helping Lightning to her feet to get back at it again.

Fang lagged behind as she levitated over the lake's surface, watching from a short distance away as Lightning gracefully glided ahead, the wind pushing her hair back as she flew forwards. In no time at all, Lightning had really gotten the hang of the hover boots. So much so, that skill-wise she was almost starting to give Fang a run for her money.

Almost.

The two had silently been challenging each other with short races and tiny jumps, but now that Lightning was starting to loosen up more and show more skill in handling herself in the boots, Fang felt that it was time to make things a bit more interesting. With her eyes trained to the back of Lightning's head, she bent over to speed up as she started skating towards the girl.

Lightning first caught sight of Fang catching up to her from the corner of her eye. The dark haired girl approached skating backwards so that she was staring Lightning right in the eyes, a cocky grin on her face, as she pulled a bit ahead of her, weaving her feet to make figure eight shapes as she moved over the water. Lightning arched an unimpressed eyebrow at the Pulsian in return. Fang's grin widened and she sped up to pull ahead even further before rounding so that she was now skating in backwards circles around Lightning.

Lightning chuckled and shook her head. Not wanting to be outdone, she started jumping, spinning in the air before nimbly landing and lowering into a crouching position to make more elegant spins on the water's surface as Fang continued to circle her. When she had finished she looked back up to Fang, who had slowed so that she was skating backwards beside her again. Fang simply raised both her eyebrows, a challenging look in her eye, and spun around so that she was now facing in the same direction as Light.

With the markings of a faint, confident grin on her face, the Gran Pulsian brought her hands up in front of her chest. Lightning watched with interest as a glowing, white bulb slowly formed and grew between them, one of Fang's ruinga spells. Once the bulb had grown to a size where Fang's arms had to stretch out past her sides to contain it, the girl turned to grin at Lightning… and wink. Lightning just stared with a puzzled expression as Fang then shot the ball forward, further down the lake.

There was a loud 'WHOOSH' sound as the water ahead of them immediately began to rise up in huge wave. Lightning's balance wavered as the water below her boots began to violently lap and roll. She quickly shot Fang an annoyed look before focusing on the huge onrush of water that was ripping their way. Almost instinctively, she quickly raised her hands skyward. The oncoming wave stopped its forward rush towards them and instead rose further upward in height, swirling in the air until it formed a tall ramp upwards to the sky.

Fang looked up, gaping at the large aqua-structure as Lightning sped past, making sure to turn around and give the Gran Pulsian a wink of her own before skating onto the water ramp. Fang's grin turned goofy as she bent down to accelerate and catch up with the Cocoonian. They both glided up the ramp, which Lightning actively added curves and gaps to, mostly so she could show off by making more spins and graceful flips across them.

When they had reached the end of the ramp, Lightning looked down thoughtfully at the pool below. She raised one of her hands again, this time with a plume of fire dancing above it. She then aimed downwards to shoot a long string of flames across certain parts of the water's surface. Fang peeped over the edge of their aqua ramp curiously as steam began to rise from the surface below, clouding their vision of the lake. When she lifted her head to look at Lightning again, the girl was smirking smugly at her. She playfully arched an eyebrow at Fang before simply hopping off the end of the ramp and into the steam below.

Fang softly shook her head in disbelief, but followed suit nonetheless.

Now it had turned into a game of hide and seek. The warm fog was thick enough and tall enough to hide the pinkette from view, and Fang had guessed that that was the game Lightning was playing at. Fang continued to slowly skate in circles around the lake, keeping her eyes peeled until she could finally make out the outline of her favorite pink-head in the near distance. A devious smile crept across her face.

Meanwhile, Lightning lazily moved over the water's surface. She thought that she would've been able to keep better track of Fang in the fog, but she had apparently thought wrong. Suddenly her ears perked She could hear the loud displacement of water coming from behind her. She swiftly turned around just in time to see Fang collide into her.

The taller girl snugly wrapped her arms around Light's back and pulled her in close so that their bodies were tightly pressed together. Her thighs clamped tightly around Light's to keep them in place and her face immediately buried itself in the crook of her neck. "Wha?" Light could barely make out before she felt the heavy slap of Fang's boots banging against the heels of her own. Her stomach dropped as they plummeted downwards and all she could see, think, and hear was water as they were swallowed by the lake.

Fang was the first one to shoot up from under the water's surface. She spit out a wide spray of water and rubbed a wet hand over her face, twirling around in search of Lightning. Lightning emerged a moment later, sputtering and throwing her head back to swing the wet hair out of her face. Her eyes widened when she saw Fang swimming a few feet away from her. "You jerk!" she accused with a light smile of disbelief, pushing her palm forward to splash Fang in the face with a small wave of water.

"Heyyy!" Fang returned, using both hands to splash Lightning back.

Lightning retaliated with another splash, this time using her magic to send a bigger wave in Fang's direction.

"Cheater!" Fang called with a smile, now rubbing at her eyes after so much water had blasted them. "Is that the thanks I get for helping ya find your mojo?"

Lightning paused for a moment to mull the question over in her mind. She then narrowed her eyelids seductively in Fang's direction and slowly started to swim closer. "Oh, you want some sort of payment for that?"

Light's voice had taken a darker tone. A sexy, dark tone that was making it a bit harder for Fang to breathe at the moment, but also dark enough to make her wonder whether or not this was the part where she should start swimming away. "Maybe?"

Lightning smirked. "Well, let's see how well you and Snow have been doing with strength training."

"Huh?"

Lightning's hands grasped Fang's waist under the water, and before Fang could register what was happening, the two shot up from the surface, Light's boots sputtering at her feet, to crash back down into the water (Fang-first, of course) a couple yards away. When Fang swam her way back up to the top again, she found Lightning looking at her through squinted eyes. Her face was semi-crinkled and her shoulders hunched up and down with each huff of air that escaped her nostrils as she tried to stifle the laughter that she was holding in behind a wide, close-lipped smile.

"So ya think that's funny?" Fang asked, not that she didn't think it was a good trick herself. "Then this means war!" she exclaimed, making a jump for Lightning, who tried to splash at her in defense.

"Ahh!"

The two wrestled, splashed, and hovered together until well after the sky grew dark.

Fang parked in front of Lightning's house. Usually she would just watch the other girl walk in from her car, but tonight, walking her to her door just felt more appropriate. Lightning ran a hand through her damp hair as she exited the vehicle, not minding at all that Fang was getting out as well. "So do ya feel any more confident about using your powers tomorrow?" Fang asked, walking around the front of the car to meet Lightning on the other side.

"Yeah. A lot, actually. I guess you were on to something with the just needing to relax… Thanks." Lightning gave Fang a quick, appreciative glance as the two slowly moseyed up the pathway to her house together.

"Don't mention it. It's the least I can do since I'll be at that track meet tomorrow instead of outside the Vestige. Are you still sure it doesn't bother ya? The field events should end relatively early, so I might be able to make it over there before y'all go in."

"No, it's fine. It's not like you'd be able to come in, and after what happened last time, I wouldn't want you to. This meet sounds important to you, anyways."

"Yeah," Fang breathed, letting her eyes drop down to look at the ground for a moment as she walked. "Word through the grapevine is there might be a scout coming to one of 'em down here soon. I figure if I keep doing well, maybe I can get a scholarship and be able to afford getting into a university. Help make a better name for my people up here, ya know."

Lightning eyed Fang earnestly. "You shouldn't let what Palmer said about your people get to you. Not everyone thinks of them like that."

Fang let out a humorless snort. "It wasn't anything Palmer said. I just realized that me and Van going to a real public school means a lot more for the future generations than we thought. I've gotta do my part to help pave the way."

Lightning nodded. "I see… I guess it also helps that you've got all these extra power boosts to help out."

"A little bit," Fang agreed, rubbing her arm. "But I've been practicing ways to keep my measurements similar to the way they were before we changed, so on paper I haven't really improved much. I was just that kick ass to begin with. That and I've got more lucky charms than a cereal aisle. Like see this necklace? My mum had it blessed by a priestess and it's been good luck ever since."

Lightning let out a lighthearted breath. She thought the pencil issue with Craig had been a joke, but she was now starting to realize just how superstitious her Gran Pulsian friend actually was. "How much luck can you really credit the necklace for if you wear it all the time? If you never take it off, it's bound to be there when something lucky happens."

Fang just smirked. "You were one of those kids in grade two who took all the kindergarteners in the bathroom to tell 'em that Santa Clause didn't exist, weren't ya?"

Lightning rolled her eyes. "First of all, he's an obese man who only works one day a year, and his success is based on slavery, animal cruelty, breaking and entering, and lies told to young children. Not to mention, he spends the rest of the year sitting on his fat ass spying on and judging you… they were better off knowing the truth. Second of all, you don't find it uncanny that the harder a person works, the more 'luck' they get?" She stopped walking when the two reached her doorstep and turned on the step to face Fang.

"Karma?"

"No, hard work, perseverance, and discipline actually paying off."

"So you're saying I'm a persevering and disciplined hardworker?" Fang asked, allowing her smirk to widen.

Lightning sighed. "I guess I'm saying that the anomalies believe in luck. It should be a crime how you do so well at everything you try." She looked down to dig in her bag for her keys. "You're a hell of a fighter. It looks like you do nothing with your hair in the morning and your clothes have more holes than most soap opera plots, but you still come to school looking like you've stepped off a runway…"

Fang crinkled her eyebrows and picked at her shirt curiously. It wasn't that holey—WAIT A MINUTE. Fang's head shot up to study the pink-head who was still digging in her bag. Did Light just call her pretty?

"…You're up for a track scholarship. You probably know more about Cocoon history than Mr. Palmer…"

Fang's thoughts were just running rampant now as she listened to Lightning talk. It was kind of unfair for Lightning to be casually showering her in compliments like this after the day they had just had together. It was also unfair that she had to do it while standing there with damp tousled hair and a t-shirt that clung and pulled in all the right places after being tugged onto perfect, wet skin. For something that she didn't even think existed twenty-four hours ago, she had gotten herself into the Danger Zone at least three times today.

"…And if you weren't so raunchy all the time, you'd probably have a good sense of humor too…"

As Lightning continued to talk and search her bag, Fang wordlessly ascended the step to stand in front of her, not truthfully being able to think straight from all the noise going on in her head. The timing was, for lack of a better word, perfect. No, maybe there was a better word: dire. They had just come back from having the most fun Fang had had in awhile. Lightning was going in to battle the next day. The moon was bright and the weather was perfect. It was probably the stupid thing to do… but fuck it. Just like Hope had said, no one was sure what would happen once they were all freed from the fal'Cie. Even if Lightning didn't feel the same way, she knew she'd regret it if she just let this moment slip by.

"Hell," Light finally managed to locate her keys, which had been hiding at the bottom of her bag amid a mess of loose school supplies, "Maybe I should be taking some tips from you on the luck front. Know any ways you could transfer some of yours on to me?"

"I… think I know a lil' somethin' that'll work."

"And what's-" Light hadn't even fully lifted her head from her bag when Fang took her chance. The Gran Pulsian slightly tilted her head and swooped in, closing her lips over Lightning's and tenderly holding them there for a brief moment before slowly pulling away.

"Good luck," the Gran Pulsian exhaled, still standing so close to Lightning that their noses were still grazing each other.

Fang's heart was running a mile a minute as she gazed nervously down at the girl.

Lightning's heart felt as if it had stopped; she just stared at Fang through wide, astonished eyes, still in too much shock to give Fang a readable response to the kiss yet.

"Claire!" a gruff voice shouted from behind them.

Lightning's eyes widened even more and her expression turned horrorstricken. She immediately took a step away from Fang. "Dad…" she breathed.

"Shit…" Fang breathed as well. She turned her head to see a built, pink-haired man in a suit marching across the grass and away from a large, anti-gravity jeep. So this was the illustrious Colonel Farron...

"What's going on out here?" the colonel demanded, coming to a stop next to his daughter and turning to glare at Fang through stern, steel blue eyes.

"Dad. This is my, um, sparring partner. Fang. She was just dropping me off home from a swim workout at the pool. Fang, this is my father," Lightning introduced, shiftily glancing between Fang and her dad.

Even with all of the l'cie ordeals, Fang had never seen Lightning this nervous. Fang looked to Colonel Farron, who was still unblinkingly glaring at her. The family resemblance was a bit too uncanny. "Nice to meet you, sir," she said in a tone that sounded anything but sincere, stretching out her hand.

The colonel just stared at it. "Fang… Pulsian, I presume?"

"Dad…"

"Gran Pulsian, sir," Fang corrected, now giving the man her own, albeit much less intense, glare. The colonel knew exactly who she was. More than likely knew her better than most of her friends did. Fang had no reservations that he had probably pulled her file the day they had all been arrested. Although it wasn't a rare occurrence on the reservation, it would explain how he knew that Vanille and Fang were orphans.

"May I ask what it is the two of you are doing out here?" He aimed his fierce stare to Lightning when he asked this, and from his tone, it was obvious that this was not an optional question.

Lightning eyes darted to the ground to think before apprehensively rising back up to meet her father's. "Dad, I was… we were just talking abou—"

"I was wishing her luck." Fang quickly stated, not allowing Lightning to finish her sentence. The colonel looked back to her, seemingly angry that she had cut his daughter off. "You know how that old saying goes about Lady Luck smiling more upon lovers… so it's only right to give a person a kiss when ya wanna wish them luck."

Both Lightning and her father stared at Fang in confusion. Fang steeled herself and took a deep breath… this wasn't going to be pretty, but the reaction would probably be sure in the hell worth it. "Ya know, I hear that you have quite the hectic work schedule." Then, quick like a cobra, she rose on her toes and ducked in to plant a speedy kiss on Colonel Farron's lips before hastily moving back again. "Good luck handling that."

Lightning gaped at Fang as her father's face turned beet red, his anger swelling up inside him. "Off of my lawn…" he bellowed, pointing a shaky finger towards the street. "Now."

Fang stumbled back a step from the intensity of Colonel Farron's order. "Yes, sir. Guess it's just a Gran Pulsian custom, eh?" Farron's glare remained steadfast and strong. "Well, uh, good—"

The door to the Farron household slammed shut.

"—night…" In that short amount of time, the colonel had managed to grab Lightning, unlock the door, and usher both of them into the house to slam the door in Fang's face before she could even say a proper goodbye.

Fang let out a deep sigh and walked back to her car. She sat in the driver's seat for a minute, silently replaying everything that had just happened in her head. "Idiot!" she groaned, mentally cursing herself and dropping her head to hit the steering wheel before starting the car. If she hadn't been scared of Hope's prediction before, she was definitely afraid of it now…

Danger Zone, indeed.

"I don't want you seeing that girl anymore!" Farron roared at his daughter, finger pointed to the front door of the house.

Lightning grimaced as the words were shouted at her, keeping her feet planted to the floor yet timidly leaning away from her father as he yelled. "But dad… It was just a misunderstanding."

"She is a troublemaker and a hoodlum! The same one who got you arrested awhile back, or did I misunderstand that too?"

Lightning quietly looked down at her feet. "No, sir. It's just…"

"It's just what?!"

Lightning hesitantly looked up to make eye contact with her father again. "She's one of the best sparring partners I've ever had… and it helps me learn more about Gran Pulsian fighting techniques, which might be seen as a positive on my application. Fang's my best choice for getting in."

Farron's chest heaved as he stared down at his daughter, anger still swimming in his eyes. A moment passed of him mulling the information over in his mind before he finally seemed to settle on a conclusion. "Fine, then. But unless it's in school or strictly for sparring, I don't want you spending time with her, you hear me? I want a copy of your sparring schedule as well. ASAP."

"Dad, the kisses were just joke—"

"We don't joke like that in this family," the colonel snarled firmly, pointing an angry finger downwards in her direction. "Now it's getting late. You should be going to bed."

It wasn't that late at all. It wasn't even a school night, but Lightning knew better than to go against her father when he was like this. She turned to head to her room, checking her phone when she was safe behind the confines of her door. She sat cross-legged on her bed to check the two text messages that she had received in the meantime.

The first was from Serah:

"Idk what u did, but sounds like u got one more strike til military school… not like that'd be punishment for u. Knock if u need 2 talk"

The second was from Fang. Lightning hovered over the unopened text for a moment, reading over the name a couple of times before finally opening it:

"sorry. guess the kiss wasn't so lucky after all"

Lightning just stared at the words in the text.

For some reason, she couldn't help but feel sorry as well. So did that mean it actually was a joke? Knowing Fang, it probably was... but she should probably respond anyway, right?

She clicked the REPLY button on her phone and let her fingers ghost over the keys. She felt like she should send something back, but she just wasn't sure of what. Maybe a "don't be" or "it wasn't so bad"?

"Arghhh…" Lightning groaned and dropped backwards onto her mattress, tossing the phone to her side. She ran her hands over her face, letting her fingers pause near the bottom to slowly trace over her lips. For a silly joke of a good luck kiss, why was she feeling so muddled inside?

So much for a good night's sleep before heading out to the Vestige.