Lightning made a face as she bent over in front of the oven to inspect the roast that was slowly cooking inside. "About how much more time do you think it needs?" she asked, looking over her shoulder to Serah, who was mixing vegetables for a salad on the island.
"I dunno. Mr. Rosch looks like a guy who eats his meat raw anyway, so probably not that much," Serah answered, stopping her mixing only for a moment to shiver. "That guy gives me the creeps."
"You and me both," Lightning breathed, closing the oven and standing straight. "But don't say that so loudly. He might be able to hear you."
"With what? Freakish demon hearing?" Serah laughed to herself. Lightning threw Serah a disapproving look and Serah shrugged innocently in return. She had been getting a bit more flip and frequent with her side comments since joining the cheerleading squad. "Okay, okay. Salad's ready."
Lightning grabbed a pitcher of water out of the fridge and led the way into the dining room where her father and Rosch were seated at the table talking.
"The roast should be done in a few more minutes. Sorry about the wait. We weren't expecting you to be so early," Lightning apologized, filling all the glasses at the table while Serah dished out salad onto everyone's plate.
"Oh, it's fine. The food is simply an additional benefit to enjoying your company," Rosch said politely, wearing an eerie half-smile.
"Kiss ass…" Light could hear Serah whisper under her breath. She gave her younger sibling a hard nudge in the side to signal for her to be more respectful, or to at least wait until the man had left their house before trash talking. Serah shot her another innocent glance in response before taking a seat at the table.
"So Lightning," Rosch began after taking a sip of water. "We're still in the middle of our investigation at the Vestige, but we should be done by the end of the week, just in case you and your friends were interested in returning as soon as possible."
Lightning had just pulled her chair out from under the table and was in the motion of sitting down when Rosch sneak attacked her with that statement. Her ass immediately plopped onto the seat from the sudden shock as her father, who had already started digging in on his salad, started choking on a piece of lettuce. "Excuse me?" Farron coughed before making a few more rumbling sounds in his throat and taking a huge gulp of water.
"Oh," Rosch said, turning sincerely to Colonel Farron. "I ran into Lightning with some of her friends at the Vestige yesterday. However, the premises were closed due to investigation so I had to turn them around."
"So Claire was at the Vestige yesterday?" Farron turned to eye Light suspiciously while Light looked down at her plate to avoid eye contact. "Seems like my daughter had quite the busy day yesterday. Which friends did you go with?"
"Just a couple of the neighbors," Lightning replied in a muffled tone.
"Oh, the brawny boy and the silver-haired child live in the neighborhood?" Rosch asked, feigning interest.
Colonel Farron's eyes looked as if they could start a fire right now and they were aimed directly at Lightning. "And no one else?"
This time Lightning raised her head to look her father in the face when she answered. "No one else."
Farron was still irked by the idea that Lightning had been at the Vestige with Snow and Hope before visiting him at PSICOM HQ, but he at least found some relief that she hadn't been with the two Pulsian girls as well, the taller wild-looking one especially. "But you say there's an investigation going on at the Vestige," he now turned his attention to Rosch while Serah leaned her head forward over the table to try and catch Lightning's attention. When she finally succeeded she mouthed the word, 'Snow?' and Lightning promptly disregarded her as the colonel continued to talk to Rosch, "I wasn't aware there was an investigation going on at the Vestige."
"It was pretty much a flash call," Rosch replied. "Ordered by the Primarch."
"By the Primarch?" Farron's eyes widened a small bit. "Sounds serious."
"It is," Rosch confirmed. "As I explained to Lightning yesterday, a very important artifact apparently appeared then disappeared from the facility. It is of grave importance that we retrieve it, but we have no leads on the case. The only interesting thing we seem to have come across is a high school rumour concerning a trespassing month ago. We're having a hard time believing that high schoolers could be responsible, but the approximate timing and amount of credible information we've been able to find on it have made it a curious source. You wouldn't happen to have any information regarding that, would you Colonel?" Rosch's eyes lit up as they landed on his old mentor.
Farron evenly stared back at the silver haired man before taking a long sip of water. Lightning didn't want to give anything away but watched her father through the corner of her eye. She swore that she could feel the disappointment emanating from him. "Did you find anything in the records?"
"No," Rosch responded, his tone sounding much more pleasant than the steely look that his eyes displayed.
Farron tilted his head in a half shrug motion. "Then you know as much as I do."
Lightning kept her eyes trained on her plate. It was the only thing she could do to keep herself from showing any of the surprise she felt towards her father's outright lie to a superior.
"I should have figured so much," Rosch sighed. "But we do have another idea, loosely based off of the same tip. There is a concern that a group of Pulsian rebels may have forced their way into the Vestige to steal the artifact. It's a much more believable idea than a small group of teenagers doing so, especially concerning the artifact's origins and the gifts it is said to grant the people of Pulse."
"Gran Pulse," Lightning corrected under her breath before quickly shutting her mouth. Shit. Why was that becoming so automatic now?
Farron glanced at her reproachfully while Rosch raised his eyebrows in amusement. "I apologize. I didn't know you had such an penchant for the textbook name of the planet."
"Claire has a penchant for calling everything by its official name except herself," Farron answered for her. "But what is this idea you have about the Pulsians rebelling? Have there been any stories of unrest?" He didn't even try to add the 'Gran' in its correct place.
"There's always unrest when it comes to the Gran Pulsians," Rosch stated. "They're a group that can never be satisfied. This morning we took a trip to the local reservation and were met with nothing but hostility. It's more than likely that they're hiding something."
"Maybe they just don't like PSICOM," Lightning offered, despite her own bumpy experience with most of the reservation's residents.
"Heh, those who break the law never do care for those who uphold it," Rosch chuckled lightly.
"Who says they're all lawbreakers?" Lightning asked, now looking fiercely in Rosch's direction. "Word through the grapevine is that one might be up for a full-ride university scholarship for athletics."
Rosch smirked and opened his palms in a welcoming gesture. "Statistics show that most Pulse-borns have already been booked for at least one crime by the age of fourteen, two by seventeen, and are usually expecting children by nineteen. It's nice that one may qualify for a scholarship now, but I couldn't see any respectable university taking the risk in using one of their scholarships to enroll someone from such a historically troubled race."
"What?" Lightning shot in disbelief. "You don't even know—"
"Claire." Farron cut in with a loud, commanding voice. "You should probably check on the roast now, don't you think? Serah, you should go with her."
Lightning didn't even notice that she had stood up. Her father calmly watched her through stern eyes. Lightning only glanced in his direction for a quick milli-second before nodding and following Serah to the kitchen. She hadn't even been fully out of the dining room when she heard him apologizing on her behalf.
Serah already had her head in the stove when Lightning reached the island. "So… when were you going to tell me that you started hanging out with Snow? Or that you suddenly became the spokeswoman for Pulsian culture?" she asked before standing straight up and closing the oven door to let the roast cook longer.
"Sorry. You've been occupied with cheer," Lightning answered without answering, to Serah's dismay. She was visibly still seething over what had just happened in the living room. Serah wasn't sure what had done it exactly, but something definitely struck a raw nerve in there.
"You know, you can talk to me about these things…" Lightning was pulled from her thoughts of stabbing Rosch in the leg with a fork by the gentle hand that rested on her upper arm. "I'm starting to feel like I don't know what's going on in your life anymore."
Serah looked so hurt, but there was nothing that Lightning could do to comfort her right now. Not when she was this mad. "Then can you do me a favor?"
It wasn't the response that she was expecting, but Serah nodded anyway. Lightning strode over the freezer and dug all the way in the back to retrieve a block of brownish looking ice. She then placed it in a pot and set it over a high fire on the stove.
"This," Lightning began, leaning over the pot to watch the ice begin to thaw, "is leftover hedgehog chili soup. Since the roast still isn't done, serve this as the next course. But whatever you do, don't eat any yourself. If you can get away with it, don't give any to dad either, okay? Tell him it has that fish he's allergic to in it or something."
"Wait, you're going somewhere?" Serah asked as Lightning made her way to the kitchen door.
"I can't be here with him," Lightning admitted. "And at this point, I'm sure that dad would rather if I just left too."
"That's not true…"
"Just tell dad I wasn't feeling too good. I'll be back later tonight." Lightning didn't wait for another response before quickly slipping out the kitchen door.
"Soooo…" Snow dragged out nervously. "I'm just going to take that as a 'no, dinner didn't go so well'." He cautiously eyed the pinkette who marched next to him, her lips pursed in a tight line. As broody as she still seemed now, Snow had to admit that she was in a much better mood than she had been when she first appeared at his house. When he had first asked how her dinner with Yaag Rosch had gone, she got so worked up that she set a poor and defenseless nearby bush on fire. But a car ride downtown and a few blocks of walking later, she seemed to be more at peace over what had happened. Still tense as fuck… but nonetheless more at peace.
"You can say that," Lightning muttered, still not being able to get Rosch's eerie voice out of her head. She led the way, weaving through the people downstairs at the taco shack on her way to the other side of the building where the stairs to the roof were. It had been decided that they would all convene at their Hero Night meet-up spot to talk about their next steps forward after Light's dinner, with Hope being the only one left out due to his curfew.
"Was it bad in a 'the food was overcooked' kinda way, or bad in a 'oh my gosh, me and my team are totally screwed' kinda way?" Snow continued to prod as they ascended the stairs.
Lightning growled. "We're almost there. Can't you just wait until we get to the roof so I can tell everyone at the same time?" As the question escaped her lips, she forcefully pushed open the door at the top of the stairs.
Fang and Vanille sat against the railing that lined the side of the roof. Both of their heads whipped around at the sound of the door bursting open mixed with Lightning's annoyed voice. "Oi… that can't be good…" Fang murmured, looking toward Lightning with a hint of concern in her eyes.
"Hey, guys," Vanille greeted, although her tone also held a bit of worry to it. "Were you able to get any good information off the PSICOM guy?"
"Nothing useful," Lightning gruffly answered, walking to the middle of the roof. "Just that Rosch is a bigot. It sounds like they have no idea where the fal'Cie is and they're ready to place all the blame on the Gran Pulsians."
"So that good, huh?" Fang asked humourlessly, pulling away from the railing and getting to her feet. "Did he mention anything about what they're plannin' next?"
"Nothing." Lightning shook her head. "Just that they think a group of Gran Pulsian rebels broke into the Vestige to meet the fal'Cie. I think their agenda may be revolving around that idea."
"Hmm…" Fang looked to Vanille, who was rising to her feet beside her. "Well, his theory's kinda half right. I just wish he might have a bit of an idea of where Anima might've gone. Sets us back a bit with getting rid of this focus."
Lightning let her head drop to look at the floor. She had been so wrapped up in her feelings of disgust toward Rosch that she hadn't really thought about what their next step would be with getting rid of their curse. They had pretty much put all of their chickens in a basket for the 'fighting the fal'Cie' idea and they still had no clue as to what any of the images for their focus meant.
"I have an idea," she finally said after a silent moment of thought.
"That's a relief. I was pretty much shooting blanks," Snow commented, raising his hands behind his head.
"We tell my dad."
"Whoaaa, ho, ho!" Fang's immediately cut in. "I thought we already talked about that being a bad idea!"
"We talked about it being a bad idea AT THE TIME," Lightning corrected, staring hard into Fang's disturbed face. "You weren't at the dinner. He defended us when Rosch was trying to dig into our Vestige details. I'm sure he'll be willing to help us out. Plus, you said yourself that if your plan didn't work, we could go to him."
"Well, there's still one part of our plan that we haven't tried out yet." Vanille piped in timidly, attracting all eyes in her direction. "Probably a more stable plan than the last one, too. We can talk to Dia Opie."
"Dia Opie?" Snow asked. "Oh, let me guess. That means he comes from the same village as you, right?"
"Nah. No one knows exactly where he comes from," Fang informed, peeling her eyes away from Lightning to look at Snow instead. "Either that or no one wants to claim him. He's the oldest elder on the reservation anyway, so there probably aren't many people alive who can even confirm where he's from."
"That's all fine and mysterious, but how is he supposed to help us?" Lightning asked sharply, crossing her arms.
"He's a prophesier, one of the best there was in all of Gran Pulse," Vanille responded. "People used to travel far and wide to get their fortunes told by him. And even when he lost his vision, he was such a good prophesier, that it didn't even make a difference!"
Lightning quirked an eyebrow and turned her head in Fang's direction with a look of pure skepticism plastered across her face. "He's blind and he's a fortune teller?"
Fang shrugged. "If ya don't want to believe in that, he used to be a historian as well. Guy as old as him with that kind of info, he's definitely got some knowledge on the past l'cie ordeals. It'll probably be a major help."
"Tch." Lightning sucked her teeth and turned her head away. "If he'd be such a major help, then why are we just now deciding to see him?"
"He doesn't live in the main living area with the rest of us, so we had to track him down first," Vanille informed. "We only found out where he was staying a couple of weeks ago."
"And we couldn't have gone to see him then?"
"We had a plan then," Fang said. "So at the time, it didn't seem like the greatest option. We're a tight knit community on that reservation. When someone's been cast out to that extent… it's for a reason."
Lightning couldn't help but feel the hairs tingle along her spine at Fang's statement. Fang looked the girl's way and immediately picked up on her discomfort, so to quickly combat it, she followed up with, "But it's nothing to worry about. I remember him from when we fist moved here. He's a… lively soul. And I promise you, if this one doesn't lead anywhere, then we can tell yer dad everything."
Lightning sighed. "Now why do I feel like I've heard that one before?"
Fang just shrugged and tried to put on her most apologetic smile.
"Alrighty then," Snow announced, stretching his arms. "This meeting was much shorter yet just as stressful than I thought it'd be. But it's been settled! We go see Fang and Vanille's creepy old man, and if it doesn't work out, we get help from Lightning's creepy old man." Snow grinned at his cleverness but the grin quickly faltered and fizzled out into a grimace when he caught Lightning's hate-glare locked onto him. "Uhhhh, anybody up for ice cream?!" He broke into a power walk towards the door.
"I am!" Vanille called, jumping up to follow.
Lightning softly shook her head at Snow's attempt of avoidance. "I'll pass. I'm supposed to be meeting Lebreau at the arcade place down the block."
"You like arcades?" Fang asked, stepping to walk besides Lightning as the other two l'cie waited impatiently at the door.
"I like them better than home right now," Lightning returned.
Fang just nodded before looking towards Snow and Vanille. "Uhh, you two go on ahead. I'll walk with Light to the arcade and meet up with y'all after."
"Want me to buy you anything?" Vanille asked
Fang shook her head in response and Vanille just shrugged, still holding the door for the older teens to enter before making her way down the stairs after Snow.
Fang and Lightning remained quiet until Snow and Vanille made a turn down the street towards the ice cream place. Fang turned her head to look after them for a moment before resting her sights on Light. "We… Guess we haven't really had much time to talk these past couple days, huh?"
Lightning allowed her brows to furrow a slight bit while she continued to look forward down the street as she walked. It air seemed to be much warmer down here than it was on the roof, causing Lightning to uncomfortably roll her shoulders as she felt sweat beginning to form under her arms. "We've talked a lot these past couple days."
"Technically, yeah," Fang breathed out lightheartedly, lifting her hand to run through her hair. "I guess what I meant to say is, we haven't really non-strategized. Or, uh, we haven't really had time to just talk. Alone."
Lightning could feel a nervous flutter stir within her stomach. She hadn't really realized it, but the last time that the two of them had been alone was on her doorstep those couple of nights ago. Or maybe she had realized it, and in the back of her mind kept plotting ways to keep her distance. Either way, it didn't matter now. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you valued our one-on-one time so much." Lightning internally winced. That came out sounding a bit harsher than she had expected.
Fang smiled sheepishly for a quick moment and stuffed her hands in her pockets, hiking her shoulders. "I do."
Light's whole stomach was definitely aflutter now, and to top it off, those traitorous cheeks of hers were already warming up. Fang nervously peeped at Light beside her and slowly exhaled before continuing. "And I guess I'm sorry about being all combative up there. It's just that anything PSICOM kinda makes my skin crawl, ya know? D'ya think your dad's still mad at me?"
Light's head darted in Fang's direction for a brief moment, not being able to control the look of surprise that flashed across her face before turning forward again. Neither the question nor idea was shocking at all. It was just that Lightning's body was slowly starting to become more aware that this was the first time she and Fang had been alone since that kiss and it was, for lack of a better phrase, pretty much starting to freak out. She wasn't sure what she had originally expected to hear from Fang, but for some reason she couldn't stop herself from being anxious about what would be said next while being somewhat upset that the first subject of conversation was the kiss Fang had shared with her father. Lightning shook her head of it and sighed. "There's so many things that piss him off in a day, it's hard to tell whether you're what he's currently mad at or not."
"Heh," Fang let out a relieved breath. "I knew I should've called him back in the morning." Light's face remained stoic and unphased by the joke, which made Fang feel uneasier than she already was. "I should probably start apologizing to him too in case this Dia Opie thing doesn't pan out. Like send him a fruit basket. Or a water bottle filled with the tears of Gran Pulsian children."
"Fang…"
"Sorry. Couldn't help myself with that one." Fang lightly grinned at her joke before earnestly peering at Lightning. "And the two of us… I didn't make it weird or take it too far the other day, did—"
"No."
Fang's brows lifted and a small light lit behind her eyes at Light's immediate answer. On the other hand, Lightning's face flared as she wished that there were a way to go back in time and stop herself from just blurting the first word that had popped into her head. She didn't mean to sound that enthusiastic. She hadn't really been thinking with her brain at all when Fang was talking. The word just seemed to fly out. "I-I mean, we're okay. I know how you are," she quickly recovered. "No need to worry about it."
"Oh." That light in Fang's eyes dimmed. "Yeah, guess ya do know how I am."
A weird silence fell between the two as they continued to walk. Lightning was usually one who favored these types of moments over others, but she had to admit that this silence was even uncomfortable for her. "So," she began, wanting anything to break the tension, "how did your track meet go?"
"Not bad," Fang replied, lightening back up a little. "I placed in all my events, and I heard the team got second overall. Remember that recruiter I told ya about the other day? Turns out, he's comin' to the meet this weekend. He's mostly looking at seniors, but my coach tells me there's word that I'm on the radar for recruitment next year."
"Wow." The side of Lightning's mouth pulled up into a bit of an admiring smile. "That's great."
"Yeah," Fang grinned modestly. "Ya know, if you're not doing anything that day, you should come. They're usually a lot of fun, and it might make me look better if I have a bigger cheering section than just Vanille. You can even bring your sister. She's a professional, right?"
"Sure, she is," Light chuckled lightly, rolling her eyes. "But it does sound fun. I'll be there."
A pleased smile spread across Fang's face before her green eyes locked onto something down the street. "There's Lebreau."
Lightning followed her gaze, and sure enough found Lebreau standing farther down the sidewalk waiting for them. She stood with her arms loosely folded against her chest and her weight shifted to one side so that her hip was jutting out. On her face, she wore a subdued, close-lipped grin.
"Fang, I didn't expect to see you here," the brunette greeted in an amused voice as the two approached her.
"Yeah, I bumped into Light a couple blocks away and thought I'd just walk her over," Fang replied, her smile still lingering from moments ago. "But now that she's here and you're here, I should probably be going back over there."
Lightning softly smiled at Fang's wordplay, even more so at the hand motions she had used when accentuating the 'heres' and 'theres'.
"Aww, you don't want to stay and hang with us?" Lebreau asked somewhat dejectedly.
"Wish I could, but I've gotta find Vanille and return the car home. Ya know how it goes," Fang said with a shrug.
"That's too bad. But your ass is definitely going to Snow and Gadot's party this weekend, right? Should be interesting. I'm handling the refreshments and Light's finally going to be forced to partake in organized fun."
"Oh, really?" Fang asked as Lightning gave Lebreau an annoyed look. "If that's the case, I guess my ass can't refuse, now can it?"
"That's the spirit!"
Fang chuckled and lightly shook her head. "Alright, alright. See ya, Lebreau. And guess I'll catch ya later, Light." Fang nodded her head as a good-bye gesture and let her eyes rest on Light for one last second before turning to head back down the street again.
"Bye," Lightning nodded, letting a soft smile remain on her face as she watched Fang leave.
Lebreau's eyes jumped back and forth from the back of Fang's head to Lightning's face for a moment. They then slit as she watched Lightning's face a little more closely, before turning to Fang again. So her friend wasn't exactly checking out the Pulsian's backside as she walked away, but the elongated lingering gaze was more than enough proof for her that something was up. "Alright, Googly Eyes," she finally called in a loud voice to startle Lightning. "So how long has this Fang thing been going on?"
"Fang thing?"
"Don't play coy with me," Lebreau warned, pointing an admonishing finger in Light's direction. "I could smell, hell, damn near taste the pheromones coming off of you two! And from the thickness of it," Lebreau paused to take two loud sniffs in the air, "you've been liking on her for over a month!"
"Liking? Just calm down a second, Breau. I DON'T like Fang. Like, like-like Fang," Lightning defended, raising a hand defensively at Lebreau.
In return, Lebreau gave her a dull look. "Oh, you don't? Then why are your cheeks pinker than your roots? And why are you still smiling? You never smile like that! Last time I looked that goofy watching a person leave was when… nooo. HAVE YOU TWO GOTTEN PHYSICAL?!"
"What?" Lightning's brows made a heavy crease and she could now feel her skin burning. "No! I mean, she did kiss me that one time—"
"She kissed you?!" In the blink of an eye, Lebreau had appeared all up in Lightning's personal bubble and was tightly grasping her hands as she leaned forward into the girl's face. "When? How? For how long? I need deets! What did you do after?"
"Well…" Light's eyes fell downward as she recollected the memory in her head. "It all happened so fast, I didn't really have much time to do anything before she kissed my dad."
"Oh." Lebreau's grip on Light's hands loosened a bit. "Kinky…"
"Breau!"
"My bad. So how did it feel?"
Light looked at her friend with a confused expression, causing Lebreau to sigh in exasperation. "The kiss! How did it feel when she kissed you?"
"Oh." Lightning looked back down to think again. How could she properly describe it? Soft. Warm. Gentle. Nice. She could probably try to explain how when their lips touched, it felt as if everything somehow sped up but slowed down at the exact same time. She could also try to explain how her body's thermostat went totally haywire. Or maybe she could talk about how even though the kiss lasted for only a second, she could still feel Fang's lips against hers for the rest of the night… could vividly remember their closeness and the heat emanating from her body. Or how all these feelings seemed to come back again once she and Fang had gotten alone together, so much so that she had actually found herself a bit disappointed when Fang had walked away without wishing her luck.
Lightning's eyes widened as she lifted her head in realization.
Holy shit…
She liked Fang.
Lebreau gave Light's hands a tight squeeze as she smiled giddily across from her.
"Yes! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!" Lebreau was practically singing.
Lightning was still in a state of shock when Lebreau had started skipping around her in circles singing some song about getting it on. "Breau, can you at least pretend to not enjoy this so much?" Light groaned.
"I don't know. Can you at least pretend to enjoy it a little bit more?" Lebreau returned. "So you like Fang, and Fang's a babe. When are you going to make a move?"
Lightning's dumbfounded expression was enough of an answer.
"Light! You just can't sit on this information! Fang's already kissed you and the man responsible for your creation once. The ball's in your court, honey. You've got to start making plays! Ooohh! Ooooh! Etro, why are we so slow?! The party! You can make a move on her at the party! It's perfect!"
"Lebreau, I don't think this is such a good idea."
"Why not? This doesn't have anything to do with her being Pulsian, does it? I mean, some people might not like it, but it's none of their business."
"No, of course that's not it. And it's Gran Pulsian. It's just… it's just not good timing. I'm not even sure how Fang feels about me—"
"False," Lebreau cut in bluntly, giving a Lightning a smart look.
Light only paused to meet Lebreau's challenging stare for a short moment before continuing on, "And there's a lot going on in my life right now that doesn't need that type of attention drawn to it. So can you do me a favor and just leave it alone?"
Lebreau glared at Light through uncomprehending eyes but still nodded. "Whatever you say."
A small wave of relief smoothed over and relaxed Lightning's features. "Thanks. Now let's get inside. I skipped dinner, so I could use something to eat."
"Sure thing." Lebreau followed Lightning into the arcade building with a devious spark in her eyes. Whether Lightning agreed to it or not, something was going to happen at that party.