(Authors Note: Here are the next five in the series, number 9 has something special for you, an added alternate ending! Please enjoy!)
6: Shy
Fang marveled that even after countless times of lovemaking that her beloved soldier could still have this gentle shyness about her, about them. She was a passionate lover, but sometimes her moods were reminiscent of times past. An unsure Lightning who had a hard time meeting her eyes. A woman who had spent a life time denying that her heart could ever find love.
Fang was gentle with her during these times, cautious with her own needs, because there was something Lightning needed more. Her compassion and understanding, things that Fang was just as eager to fulfill for her soldier girl as she was any other desire.
Her actions were slow but sure, gently she took Lightnings face in her hands turning her so she might bestow a kiss on her forehead. Hands came to her wrists but she didn't fight the gentle guidance. Another kiss was placed on the bridge of her nose and still Lightning did not fight her. When it came to perfect lips, Fang nuzzled them and found a smile pulling at her own as a swift breath was pulled through them.
"I love ya Sunshine." She shared a slow kiss with her wife, reveling in the feel of small hands sliding through her dark mane.
7: Shorts
The laughter was joyous, the mood infections, their play was something that would have attracted others. A sharp girly cry of protest and the rich contralto of her huntress.
"NO!" But Fang was not ready to give up. Light lunged aside feeling hands slide down her back, missing the top of her swim suit. They hooked into the waste band of her shorts and dragged dangerously down over her bottom.
"FANG!" She twisted trying to break her lovers grasp but the huntress planted her feet on the clear sandy bottom of the spring and hauled back dragging her struggling Soldier off her feet and pulling Light into strong arms. Fang caught her rolling under until Lights back was pressed into the sandy bottom.
Lightning struggled under the clear water but Fang had the advantage. Realizing that she was without a doubt caught the struggle fled her, and she became lax at the bottom of the spring.
Fang smiled a beautiful triumphant smile and laughed a barking bubbling noise under the water. Placing her feet on either side of Lightning Fang pulled them both to the surface, holding her captured prize.
"I have you now sunshine." Fang replied.
"Only because of my shorts..." Light groused giving angry eyes to her partner, but it wasn't anything more than a show.
"Bad shorts!" Fang growled with a chuckle turning Lightning into her chest.
"I win." She murmured into a perfect ear.
"You did." Light acknowledged to the raven haired huntresses delight.
"Then you will do it?" Leaning over Lightnings shoulder she caught blue eyes that dropped with a worried expression.
"If I must." Lightning bowed to the terms of their game said she must.
A deep chuckle rolled through the taller Yun warriors chest. "You must." She whispered huskily.
"So be it." Light said already wearing an embarrassed expression...
8: Chocolate
"So? What do you think?"
Fang made a face as she gazed into the mixing bowl that her little sister was holding up. The scent was sweet and yet bitter the paste was a dark earthy color.
"What is it?" Fang asked while wearing a dubious expression.
Nora stopped what she was doing with the crystallized Jamba sugar looking across at the dark haired Oerbian.
"It's Chocolate." She said reaching out a hand to dip two fingers into the dark concoction.
Vanille almost protested, but then thought better of it. After all it was Nora's recipe.
Dark brows raised as Nora brought the fingers to her lips and sucked it into her mouth. Both Oerbian sisters stared at her as her eyes rolled closed and a soft "Mmmmnh." escaped her. This seemed to give the dark gooey substance more credence at least to Fang but she still wasn't sure if she had the right motivation to try it.
"Wait a minute."
The taller of the two sisters stepped to the front door and called out.
"Hey, Lightnin come'ea a minute?"
Light looked up from the book she had been reading to Fang at the top of the steps. Shutting the bestiary the light haired soldier came trotting up the steps to follow Fang into the house.
The familiar dark scent of chocolate filled the kitchen and instantly caused her mouth to water.
"What do ya think about chocolate?" Fang asked stepping to the other side of Vanille who tipped the bowl full of yummy goodness towards her sister-in-law.
Blue eyes darkened at the sight and a pink tongue darted out to lick lips.
"Nora..." Lightning breathed as she stepped forward to gaze into the bowl with what could only be described as desire.
"How?"
Nora grinned. "Anell brought coco pods with her, we have been growing them in the green house since it was built. A little bit of Jamba sugar with some milk and butter from Sheepy and..."
"May I?" Light asked eagerly.
Nora laughed turned to the cabinet and fished out a spoon for the soldier. This she handed over with a pleased expression.
What ever reservations Fang might have had about the slightly bitter scented candy from Cocoon was lost the moment Lightning showed her appreciation for the coveted treat. A moan growled from her throat and a light flush rose across her creamy skin. But juuuust to be sure Fang kissed her.
Shock writ its self across the Soldiers and raced through her whole body making her cheeks burned with this sensual intrusion. She tried to retreat but found instead that they back stepped together, a strong arm sliding around Lights body so she could not pull away from the tongue Fang thrust into her mouth to taste this dark potion of pleasure. Despite herself she groaned again, small hands curling into her lovers shirt, as the wall came against her back. By that time the fight had already bled out of her as she responded to the insistent kiss. When their lips finally parted Lightning drew in a shaky breath and looked up to her saucy smiling wife.
Fangs easy grin spread across her lips.
"Ya know..." She licked her lips and smiled again. "I could really get use ta chocolate."
Lightning punched her, but Fang was ready for her, catching her fist in a hand and leaning down to capture soft lips again.
Vanille looked from the married couple to Nora. "It's an aphrodisiac?"
Nora laughed. "Like they need a reason." she said to the astonished healer.
9: Lost
Lightning crashed to a halt in the corner of the dark hall way disoriented but desperate to find her family. Behind her bloody foot steps led back the way she had stumbled from. A gloved hand wrapped around Fang's Bladed Lance. She hadn't the strength to raise it, but could not bring herself to to drop it... her other hand was pressed to her chest, the last vial of Potion clutched dearly against her breast.
"Fang..." She called in a hoarse whisper trying to regulate her rapid breathing. The great Ta'arith had opened a door way that had sucked all that she loved through it, only she had not been able to go through before it was closed leaving her to defeat the strange sentient mad beast. Before the door way closed however, Lightning had glimpsed one of the many endless tangled maze like hallways of the derelict underground compound deep under the decaying city of Brasil.
A pink head thumped back against the wall as her senses began to grow jumbled.
"Work through it.." She growled at herself. The hand that was clutching the potion reached down checking the bandage tied above what should have been a gaping wound. Three potions later it had sealed most of the damage and slowed the bleeding into a slow oozing trickle that she was still not able to stop. With only one potion left she found herself in a situation where she could not bring herself to use it... having been cut off from the rest of her party she did not know if one of them were in a more desperate straight than she, and so despite the pain, and the bleeding... Lightning carried her last potion.
Squeezing blurry eyes closed she fought back the feeling of hopelessness. Somewhere out there Fang was searching for her... she had to keep going. Tears escaped her grasp on sanity and trickled down blood spattered cheeks, running through the remains from the death stroke. Angrily she dashed them away smearing the dirty tears, leaving darker viscera behind.
She had to go, had to get moving again. Using the wall Lightning pushed forward, stumbling several steps using her wifes beloved bladed lance to help her remain on tired numb limbs.
"Fang!" She tried again after what seemed hours but only amounted to minutes of her life. The soldier peered through the darkness feeling her way in the gloom when the light was not enough. The temperature was unbearable, the heat and humidity in the derelict compound caused sweat to pour from the struggling woman. A whimper came from closed lips when a distant voice called out for her.
"Lightnin..." it was faint, so weak that she had nearly missed it.
"Fang?!" She asked the gloom trying to see through it to her wife. But there was no sign that her beloved was near. She held her breath straining to hear that cry again.
"Lightnin!"
The soldier stumbled heading the direction she thought it was coming from, the dead weight of her own limbs dragged her down. Her fall was not something pretty but in the last minute the soldier was able to drop the lance and curl into the fall, twisting in such a manner her injured leg was not the one taking the brunt. With her one free hand she slapped the ground dispersing as much of the kinetic energy as she was able, protecting her body from the worst of the fall.
It took a considerable amount of effort to regroup, gathering herself back onto legs that had gone dead. Light crawled over to her lovers bladed lance wrapping determined fingers around it to help her back up. A bloody smear was left along the wall but the determined woman regained her feet. Leaning against the wall Lightning listened for that distant cry, it took time but when she could hear past the thunder of her own heart Fangs strong voice was even more distant. They were moving away from her!
Lightning didn't have the energy to race after them, her progress was at best a Flan's pace. Her only hope was to capture the notice of Fang or one of the others who were traveling with her. Light panted at the prospect of being left alone in these dark musty sweltering hallways until her life expired... a sob bubbled forth as she gazed into the maw of oblivion alone. She clamped her mouth shut pushing a hand against her lips and panted through her nose until she was sure the need to continue that particular unfruitful endeavor passed.
"Fang!" She cried and knew it was not yet enough. But it got her started, another breath and she tried again.
"FANG!" Stronger it was but wherever her other half was it didn't feel like enough. Drawing more stable breaths she braced herself against the wall of the hallway, and screamed, the desperate woman put every negative emotion she had felt since they began this damnable quest into her cry for help. It wasn't a word, just anguish and anger.
Anger Lightning knew well... her life had been nothing but that before she met her raven haired lover. The dark temptress who owned her body and soul. Her cry stuttered into a weak sob that was cut off as she drew in another breath. Holding onto the bladed lance Lightning belted that raw emotion out into the decaying hall way of the once imperial research facility beneath Brasil. It bounced through halls and corridors pushing through crumbling stone walls reaching through earth. One cry was pushed upon the next, sending every last bit of her energy outward into the maze for her loved ones to hear.
"Goddess Etro... please let them hear." She said in a voice gone rough with her cries, seeking aid from a goddess that only her lover believed in...
"Fang" She cried out roughly feeling spent.
"LIGHTNING!"
It was closer this time, still distant, still a ways off but blessedly closer. The relieved soldier put her head back against the wall and for a moment gave in to the overwhelming need to laugh and cry.
"LIGHT! LIGHTNIN!"
"Here!" She cried unable to gather the strength needed to push away from the wall one last time.
The sound of foot steps brought further hope to the exhausted soldier, but they passed her and still she did not see them.
"F-fang!" She called as the steps began receding. It was then that she realized they were in parallel hall ways. Her lovers curses could be heard through rock and earth.
"Hold on Sunshine." Came a muffled cry.
"BAHAMUT!"
"Fang he doesn't f-AGH!" The sound of something large crashing into the wall from the other side, the dragon king roared at the tight space he had been called into.
"BLAST IT!" She told him marking the wall several meters down from her wife's last call.
Light remained barely standing as a laser beam from the first sire pierced through the walls, burning away debris and scattering a dust cloud like a bomb down the hall way. Raising her cloak up she wrapped it around her face before it struck her, enveloping her in a cloud of agitated dirt and still burning vines.
"Lightnin!" Fang stepping through the decimated hallway was the most beautiful sight she could remember seeing since the day they met. Her caramel skin smeared with grit and grime, a face pinched in intense emotions. Lightning stared in complete awe, as she moved forward as if part of the debris cloud. Strong arms came around her, wrapping her aching exhausted form in the sweetest of embraces. When Fang stooped to slide an arm under her legs she didn't protest, there was no strength left with in her to fight, she felt like drowning in relief as she pressed her face into a strong sweaty neck.
For a long moment they held one another, Lightning's arms encircling Fang's neck, her cloak falling over her wife's shoulder.
"I got you, I've got you now sunshine." Fang breathed a sigh of relief.
Lightning wrapped arms about her shoulders and held on as if life its self were sustained by this embrace... and at that moment, the soldier was convinced it was. She pressed lips tightly closed as a strained noise much like crying tried once more to fall from her lips.
Fang nuzzled her brow and pressed a kiss to it, as her own breathing began to settle.
Neither of them expressed how afraid they were they had lost the other... perhaps this time for good.
"Bahamut..." Fang's voice was shaky, deep with the relief she felt at having her wife back again. "Get us out of here." She was tired... and after finding Lightning there was no way she wanted to walk the twisting deathtrap back out.
The cramped ediolin turned his snout towards the ceiling, gathering his strength gears and cogs turning as it was channeled into a transistor and blast at an angle that would take them up through the earth towards the sunlight in the distance.
Top side...
Serah jumped as a crimson beam as large as a King Behemoth blasted up through the ground. Fang had told them to wait for a sign... did she ever know how to give one! Vanille gathered her bag the two sisters racing forward to give aid after the defeat of a ruthless and trying enemy. They left a group of frightened children scattered as they raced towards what only appeared as destruction to them.
Fang came walking out of the tunnel her features dirty, smudged in soot, grime and messier things. Behind her came Snow, his features as dirty, a hint of a grin on his face as he saw his young wife racing towards them.
"Goddess! You're bleeding!" Vanille said to Fang who had her wifes blood trickling down her left side giving the younger Oerbian sister a fright.
Fang growled as she settled her injured partner on the grass several steps from the tunnels entrance.
"It' isn't mine." She told her sister. The short walk up the tunnel she had felt Lightning's grasp growing weaker, her tears slowing as her breaths evened out. But after such a difficult battle none of them had the provisions needed to give Lightning the aid she desperately needed.
Fang pulled back the cloak as she lay Light down and cursed all that was unholy when the white cap of the wax sealed Potion from cocoon was seen in a bloodied fist.
"Damn it! You are a stubborn woman Lightnin Farron Yun!" She peeled the potion out of her lovers grasp and caught it with her teeth breaking the seal as Serah and Vanille began stripping her trying to find the worst of her damage. The nasty half healed wound of her leg was the one leaking blood but there were worse damages with in, proof by the dark bruises on the soldiers chest and abdomen. Fang slid an arm under her wife's shoulders and back pulling her mouth open as she spit the seal out. The potion glittered as it was poured into her mouth.
For a moment nothing happened as it went down her throat, when it began to heal her she jerked, limbs thrashing as the potion burned through her, tearing a scream from achy tired lungs. Blue eyes squeezed shut as her body lost all coordination under its effects. Arms flaile, legs jerked and tried to run from a laying down position.
Snow pounced forward catching a wildly flailing leg. Hope followed his lead and caught the other one but not before a knee rudely crashed into his jaw. He saw stars and fell like a dead weight upon her thrashing limb.
"By the Goddess you couldn't have warned us first?" Vanille groused as she was getting back up off her butt to capture a madly swinging fist. There was a red spot on her face where it had struck.
Fang held a hand out for another one. "Give me another, and then get back, all of you." She told them. Holding some as strong as Lightning could cause more damages as she fought them rather then letting her thrash.
"Can she take another one?" Serah asked a little frightened by her sisters reaction to the potion.
"She can, give it now." Fang growled shaking her hand for emphasis.
Vanille put her knee on Lightnings still weakly struggling hand before she handed another potion over, this one made by her, not as strong as those mass produced on Cocoon, but with a slower, longer lasting healing cycle. One that was not anything like the potions of Cocoon.
Fang tore the seal off it as she fixed her hold on her now unconscious wife.
"Back!" She said as she poured this one too down Lightnings throat. The injured unconscious woman sputtered, coughed and swallowed the potion, there was no scream this time nor a violent jerking, but she trembled fiercely under its power, Muscles in her back and legs tightening, bowing the woman in her lovers arms. Blue eyes were open now staring up into the crustal blue sky ruled over by an quiet Goddess.
She drew in a gasping breath as her body fell back against Fangs, a broken stuttering sigh and a look of adoration before she closed those amazing eyes once more. There was a weak smile on her lips as she slipped into a healing coma...
Fang studied her raising her battle vest and the brown under shirt to gaze at the slightly changing bruises.
"Van?" Fang asked calling her sister forward to inspect and give her prognosis.
The younger Oerbian placed her hand upon Lights abdomen feeling for any heat, proof she was still bleeding inside. Sitting back she shook her head. "Time will tell, but I feel she is stabilized." The thorough healer checked Lights eyes, looked into her mouth, fingered through matted dirty hair, and peeled a bloodied tourniquet from an already sealed thigh.
"I am sure she will be alright." Vanille put a hand on her sisters shoulder gazing at her with compassionate eyes.
"What happened?" She kept her hand there though a disgusted vicious snarl curled her sisters lips.
"The Ta'arith ejected us from the battle, all of us accept Lightnin."
"And is it... dead?"
That had been the whole purpose of their quest, to stop the beast from slaying Purgee's in New Brasil.
"I am sure of it." Fang said gazing into the bloody face of her slumbering wife.
Tallon and Saber came out of the blazed tunnel with their sisters in arms. The five of them having stayed with in to take out any monsters attracted by the cries, blood, and blasting.
Tallon pointed to the hole they came walking out of with a stern expression.
"Yun, we need to seal the tunnel before more abominations make it to the surface. Your Eidolin is here, let him finish the job."
Fang spared him a glance. He did not look the best, he had blocked a blow from striking Starchild while she retrieved another arrow. His own blade had been smashed back onto him cutting his left shoulder and arm. It was bound by Willows soft belt. She gave a nod and looked across to the patiently waiting Bahamut.
His dark eyes turned towards her as she got his attention with her thoughts.
"Seal the tunnel." Fang gathered Lightning into her arms and the lot of them backed away so that he could do so with out causing harm to any of them.
They walked into the center of New Brasil where the purgee's had been working on making a home. The new occupants were respectfully quiet as the most intimidating of their new friends appeared from the far side of the town where the industrial section of the once great city had been.
"Please, bring her in here, you can use my home." A brave man called out stepping aside so that the dirty dark warrior could have a place to lay her injured companion.
"Please, it is the least I can do since you save all our lives."
Later that night Fang sat awake vigilantly watching over her lover, both of them were washed and now Lightning lay nude on the bed of a thankful Brasilian only a sheet and bandages covering her body. Fang caressed soft pink hair repeatedly thanking Etro for her mercy... If ever the Destroyer would have a good reason to take complete and total hold of the dark haired woman it would have been the moment her wife had moved from this plane of life...
"I almost lost you..." She murmured as she caressed a bruised cheek.
"Thank ya for being so stubborn." She whispered to her lover pressing her forehead against the still unconscious Lightning.
"Sleep." She whispered with a broken voice.
"I will be here when you wake."
Alternate ending to lost
Fang emerged from the blast radius of the tunnel Bahamut had created, hurriedly putting Light down as their sisters came rushing up. Lightnings breathing was shallow and rapid, the look on her face said she felt pain. Fang pulled at her tattered clothes revealing the dark bruising of stomach and abdomen.
"She's bleeding inside." Vanille said what Fang already feared.
"Give me a potion." Fang ordered raising a hand to Vanille who was already reaching for one of the Oerbian made potions that protected life in even the most dire circumstances. Lightning turned her hand upward and revealed the white vial of a Cocoon potion. Fang drew in a hissing breath as she snatched it from a bloodied hand.
"Stubborn woman." She growled thinking how foolish Lightning was that she hadn't already imbibed the potion.
A faint smile twinged with pain crossed the still shallow breathing Soldiers face.
Fang tore at the seal with her teeth turning to spit the wax cap out to the side.
"Open." She said to Lightning. Fierce green eyes begged for her compliance, and though utterly exhausted and the pain she was yet to face Lightning open her mouth.
There was nothing but trust in Light's eyes as she allowed Fang to pour the potion down her throat. She had a moment to take in a shuddering breath as it pooled into her stomach and disseminated from there. But it burned, it hurt worse than the blow she had gotten that caused the internal bleeding. If she had the option to explain it rather than scream her agony she would have chosen that path, but it tore from her throat raw and ragged. Pulling at heart strings of every warrior and healer present as she thrashed in Fangs arms,
The dark huntress curled herself over Lightnings body, as she thrashed, cushioning her trunk from more damage as Lightning writhe and bucked. Fang took every blow as if she deserved it from bloodied hands and clenched fists.
"Van." Fang said when Lightnings thrashing slowed and she lay breathing still shallow still fast.
Vanille slid her hand up under Lightnings shirt feeling the heat still with in the angry flesh, and the slight bloating to her system. She shook her head.
"Another." Fang instructed reaching this time for the one Vanille had pulled free. It too was a white caped wax sealed Cocoon made potion. They were violent but quick at healing. Something that had saved her own life once or twice.
"Goddess knows I love you." She said to a silently weeping soldier. "Forgive me." She said as she used a finger to pry Lights parted lips further open and pour a second violent healing potion down her throat. Throwing it aside she again wrapped herself around the injured soldiers broken body and absorbed as much of the damage as she was able as Lightnings body fought through the cure. Her screams echoed all the way back to the living quarter of the new Brasilian inhabitants.
"Van, another." Fang said determined to make sure the job was done with time.
Lightning took in a gasping breath and made a noise of protest not yet able to form words.
Fang grimaced as her sister handed a third precious potion over. She looked at it in her own calloused and roughened hand before looking to Light who couldn't help the tears overflowing from blue eyes.
"I cant' loose ya... Forgive me sweetheart." She caressed dirty sweaty hair at Lights temples with a painful gentleness even as Lightning tried to shake her head no.
Despite the weakened soldiers protests Fang poured the third potion down her throat, Lightning coughed and sputtered instead of screaming she made a low keening noise, pathetic and pained trying to curl up upon herself as her senses were blazed by the forceful healing.
Fang curled around her wife wracked by sobs of guilt and desperation as her lover kicked and thrashed under the power of the Cocoon potion.
"Forgive me." She murmured again when her wife's body lay softly twitching.
Blue eyes were closed everything felt like fire had eaten her body and soul, and still the low moaning sobs of her savior drew actions of compassion.
Drawing her hand up required every thought she had left, and this too was difficult, she failed several times before a silently crying Starchild knelt to capture the flailing weak limb and press it over the huntresses wracking back. Starchild held it there gaining a tired glance of gratitude from the speechless soldier.
"Fang." Vanille whispered as the Huntress tried to gain control of emotions that refused to be bridled. She turned a tear streaked face up to her sister getting a soft gasp from Vanille.
"You don't have to let go, but I need ta check her. Ok?" She asked placing a hand on Fangs shoulder. The still crying huntress no doubt overwhelmed by emotions of release at the safety of retrieving her wife nodded. It was not completely out of character for Fang to be moved this deeply, especially when it came to Lightning.
Serah scoot closer to her still conscious sister and took her other hand, wrapping it in her warm smaller hands. The faint smile returned on Lightnings lips as she lost the battle for consciousness.
"She checks out." Vanille said to all worried witnesses.
"We need to move her from this place, some where she can be safe while she heals before we try to take her back through the way stones."
A brave man approached the still keyed hunting party.
"I have a place you can put her. You are all welcome to rest there."
Fang returned to curling around her wife as she lay unconscious on the bloodied grass.
Vanille looked to him and nodded their thanks.
"That is kind of you, thanks. Tallon can you... help..." She looked up to see him emerging from the tunnel his arm bloodied.
"My brother is willing." He said offering the ever quiet Saber. I will stay back with Willow and SkyFire to seal this tunnel." He pulled a black crystal from under his bloodied shirt.
Fang carried Lightning but on either side of her there was an honor guard. A grim faced proud warrior. Snow walked just behind with Serah as Lightning got an Oerbian escort to the house of Thomas in the living quarter of the new people of Brasil.
Fang dutifully washed her injured wife and refused any help but that of the two healers from their home. She was agitated and anxious though Lightning was out of the worst of the dangers. Sleep did not come easily that night.
Vanille sat quietly watching over both women wondering at her sisters strange and powerful reactions. Fang lay now with Lightning, curled protectively in her arms. Their heads on the same pillow, arms and legs entwined. Still there was tension in her sisters back, as if she expected something to go wrong with Lightnings healing... It wasn't just the worries of a wife... she wondered how deeply these two were connected... Huntress and Soldier from two worlds... they had both been lost until that fateful day had set them on the right path towards one another.
10: Death
The morning was bright and sunny, the village of Oerba alive with the sounds of children being herded around to play and learn of their town. But Lightning didn't feel any of those things. Her eyes were glued on the little life that was no more. Her demeanor was cold, the very air around her something more chill than the burning of the warm sun outside. Her features were frozen into a mask of disgust and anger. The only things left her after having poured her very existence into nurturing the lost little cast away since the big rain… Tight lips trembled when a sleepy huntress shuffled in telling her good morning.
A body that had been warm and inviting had suddenly become something rigid and aloof as Fang tried to spoon against Lightnings back. The last few days had been rough, they were sleep deprived and been riding an emotional roller coaster that came to a crashing halt with the now dead little chocobo chick. It took a moment to realize what was wrong having no external help from her girl friend save the fine tremble that caused taut muscles to quake.
Green eyes caught sight of the little golden bird and frowned realizing now why Lightning was this totally different person this morning.
Instinctively Fang wrapped herself tighter around her soldier girl feeling the woman she loved resist the urge to fight her. To push her away physically for the pain she felt. Lightning was good at that, pushing people away… it was still shocking how cold the vibrant pink haired soldier could become. But they were confirmed lovers and Fang hoped that gave her a little bit of special consideration.
"He tried." She whispered wanting to sooth the truly sensitive soul locked under all that ice…
"He tried hard for ya." She drawled reaching up to gently close the box that the little bird had been put in near the fire. She continued even when Lightnings hand came to her wrist. Not sure if she was helping or wanting to stop her, Fang closed up the box and laid their joined hands over the top.
"I know just tha place for him." She said picking up the box. The box which Lightning liberated from her in silent grim faced determination. There was a hardness to her lovers blue eyes, but Fang didn't protest the possessive streak for the little bird… Lightning had claimed him when they found the half drowned chicks after the last seasonal rain. The little bird had held on for two weeks before today, and for a time he seemed to be getting better, happy to curl against a warm hand, or nestle against a chest as he was preened by a surrogate mother who fell in love with him as his own had…
Fang ached for her silent companion feeling tears sting her eyes, she turned dashing them away afraid her own emotions might break the somber soldier.
"Come with me." She said and drew Lightning from the house back towards the remains of the humble grave yard near the outskirts of town. No monsters seemed interested in the little procession and if they were near by they seemed to keep their distance, letting the two women pass unmolested.
Fang led her through the grave stones until she stopped at a small one. Kneeling down the dark haired huntress released Lightnings wrist to run a calloused palm over the weathered and worn head stone. Brushing away years of crystal powder until the earth beneath was revealed.
"Here will be the best place for him." She said as she began digging into the earth pushing away the crystal sands and dirt to make a grave adequate enough to hold the small box and little bird with in. Lightning stood ramrod straight above Fang glassy blue eyes observing as if some militaristic honor guard for the fallen little chocobo. Fang worked harder whispering an unheard prayer to their benevolent goddess Etro to protect the gentle soul trapped in the rigid soldiers body as they lay the bird in its final resting place.
"He always wanted a chocobo… they will watch over one another." Fang murmured as Lightning knelt in the white sand and placed the little box into the earth. Trembling hands gave away her quiet lovers true emotional state as they brushed dirt onto the little box. Reaching hands forward Fang caught those trembling hands and strengthened them, together they covered over the fallen chocobo and gently pat it down into place.
Two weeks of endless care … Fang thought and glimpsed the dark shadows in her soldiers face. The haunted look as if she relived some horrible memory. Full lips pulled taut as she held her emotions in that iron grip used only for herself.
"It's okay ta cry." She whispered not wanting to startle her tightly wound girlfriend. This thinly pressed lips contorted and a pink head shook fiercely casting pink tresses over blue eyes and across her brow. They lingered by the little grave, Fang more worried about the woman than the bird who was not in Etro's care.
Lightning was still very rigid as she knelt there in the white sands of Oerba, toes dug into the ground, hands resting on thighs, her back straight as an iron rod. It took time but there came a point when Lighting seemed to have drawn herself back into functioning mode… at least the appearance of it. She rose up sharply and teetered on the verge of stumbling, pivoted and practically began marching back towards the home they shared.
Fang would have sighed if she were not so quickly left behind. Lurching forward a cloud of white sand raising behind her as she shot off after her soldier. Some how there had to be a way to keep her from going into this painful automaton mode through the rest of the day and who knew how long after that, destroying all the good progress they had been making on those emotional walls that cordoned her soldier off in some cold place with out her…
Catching up to the rigid woman she reached out catching her hand, Lightning tried to pull away but Fang used the landscape to her advantage. Pushing her against the face of their home while she clung to that errant limb still trying to pull free. Realizing it was both futile and foolish Lightning stopped her struggle giving those angry eyes to her lover.
"I need you." Fang drew out the words, softening them trying to reach the place in her soldiers heart she knew was just for her. Blue eyes seemed skeptical… always the optimist…
Fang pulled the captured hand to her cheek and pressed it against her skin giving hurt green eyes to the still rigid and raging soldier.
"I need you sunshine." A tick of annoyance passed in blue eyes and Fang hoped that was a sign she was reaching past those frigid walls, and not that she was about to get decked… again.
"Please, Lightnin."
Her disturbed girlfriend seemed to study her gauging the truth of her words, the validity of her request and the means with which best to respond. Anger was always there… something she could touch at any moment, something to draw upon and strengthen herself… but this did not feel like the right choice… not today.
"We don't have ta talk, please, just be with me."
Lightning didn't fight as Fang stepped closer, coming to her deeply wounded lover rather than forcing Lightning to move.
Angry blue eyes seemed to feel something else… hurt… and for a moment Fang thought she had pushed too much. She held Lightning tighter, pulling her gently out of the public's eye and into their home.
"Come with me." While she had her lover moving Fang drew her into their bedroom and pushing her onto the bed, sitting her down.
"I just want to hold ya." She confessed. Again she gave time for Lightning to make her choice and while there was no nod or okay Lightning spoke by actions, curling onto Fangs side, nuzzling into her pillow and giving her back to her lover.
The Oerbian huntress did not question this, or fix their position, she simply circled around and climbed in on Lightnings side, sliding across the bed to wrap arms around her injured soldier. Spooning her back until there was no space left between them.
Lightning was rigid again, body tense as if expecting to be struck. Fang let her be that way simply holding her and praying that they didn't back slide into the bodily harm phase of their relationship again.
The two women spent the day in bed together, and surprisingly they were left to their mourning in peace...