A/N: What do you say when you haven't updated in 4 years? The show must go on…. We'll be taking a new direction, but for now a slow chapter.
Vanille's hands pressed flat against a smooth surface, she breathed in, counted to ten, and breathed out. Her spreading fingers splayed a hot trail on a cool metal surface, thoughts of Lightning's skin pressed into her hands caused her to flinch and retract her hands from the counter. She hummed, and pulled them to her apron and tugged at the string that hung it from her neck.
It wasn't a fun job, but it was something, and Fang couldn't be the only person dirtying her hands to keep them happy and dry. Dealing with people wasn't her forte, though she made a show of it with bright smiles and loud laughter. Sometimes she wondered if those things seemed forced, it never really came into question however. Nobody really paid much mind to her as she juggled orders behind the counter.
Right now she was in the kitchen, anyway. She patted her hands together, clouds of flour puffed into the air and decorated her unprotected shirt. The redhead didn't really care that it was dirtied now, her shift was almost over and her home was only fifteen minutes away.
Life was too short to worry about silly things.
It had been a month since the school dance, and since then, Vanille hadn't made much progress with Lightning. In fact, her classmate spent more time ducking out of sight and meeting with strange men in the soccer field than she did seated with her friends during lunch, or even in class for that matter. Lightning wasn't an educational delinquent, that much Vanille knew, she was too straightlaced to miss assignments, and she rarely stumbled into class late unless something had happened. Not like Fang, who used any excuse she could to escape tests she didn't study for, who would wait in the bathroom twenty minutes after the warning bell rang and strut into class as if she owned the school.
Silly things, and life being too short, she had thought to herself. Lacing her fingers and leaning back against the opposite, much cleaner counter.
But life was too short, and Lightning wasn't a silly thing. More often than not Vanille lay awake clutching at her phone and worrying her bottom lip. Small words of reassurance were the only things that allowed her to slip into any form of sleep.
Though she had figured she wasn't one to talk. Lightning was haggard at most, eyes hollowed with dark rings. Recently she had adopted a limp, and Vanille worried that had meant she had been in another fight.
She worried if Lightning would live long enough to become a soldier.
A short sigh escaped the young woman's lips as she pushed off the counter, not caring much for the flour that stained imprints of her hands on the clean surface. Let it be the next shift's problem. She already had enough.
Sweat clung her shirt to her back as she arched, almost cat like, and pushed herself off of the ground. The last fight she had been in had nearly been a disaster. One wrong move and she would have woken up weeks later in a hospital bed, victim to Serah's unforgiving scrutiny.
The man had a laughable nickname, the kind of name one would make up as a kid for their imaginary friend. His skill, however, was nowhere near as funny.
He had been called Steel, and he was a solid block of man.
Lightning's hand was wrapped twice over in a brace, their fight had been days ago and yet it still throbbed from the blow she delivered to his jaw.
She braced herself against a rail, and doubled over as she breathed out shallow, hot breaths. Indeed, her new contact had warned her he'd come for her. She wasn't prepared, she should have been.
"I should have been." She muttered, flexing her fists around the bar. The pain in her hand was nothing like the pain in her hips and right knee. Often she found herself favoring her left leg, now she was alternating in a slow pace, pulling on knee up and setting it down to pull the other. Her teeth gritted as she leaned against her injured leg.
She wasn't going to give in to the pain this time.
She was however, going to take a short break, she decided, crouching down and exhaling a sharp sigh as pain shot through her abdomen.
It had been the only holiday they had all month, and she opted to spend it training. If Serah was disappointed in her, she certainly hadn't made a show of it. As much as she despised the thought, she decided it was best for Serah to relinquish her time to Snow anyhow. The last thing she needed was Serah brooding about the house because of her. That was Lightning's job, afterall. Her shoulders tensed as she heard shuffling feet behind her, she shot a glance over and her voice caught in her throat in a low croak, nearly stumbling over in surprise.
Vanille hadn't noticed her, thankfully. But the girl was downcast and kicking her feet at loose pebbles, hands behind her back, fingers laced around the handles of a plastic bag.
Lightning bit her lip, the girl was absolutely gorgeous and radiant in the Spring sunset. She wasn't sure what had come over her, but she pushed herself off the ground, ignoring the dull ache and slowly paced towards her. Lightning swallowed, suddenly aware of the heat rising to her face.
She'd always thought Vanille was beautiful, but seeing her covered head to two in flour with a loosely drawn ponytail sent butterflies skittering across her chest. It was oddly endearing and a feeling, Lightning thought, she could get used it.
As she approached the girl in question, she became alarmingly aware of the fact that she had nothing to say to her, so instead she settled for lamely pointing to her bag and offering, "do you need help with that, Vanille?"
"Do you need help with that, Vanille?"
Startled out of her extreme focus on the pebbles she had been carelessly kicking Vanille jumped as she noticed she had more reason to startle as the person talking to her happened to be Lightning herself.
Though she wasn't sure if she was more startled because of her painfully obvious crush on the girl, or the fact that said girl hadn't spoken to her in weeks, only to appear out of the blue to carry a bag that weighed nothing more than a feather. "I'm fine, thank you." She paused and gave the pink haired girl a once over.
She had clearly been working out again, her shirt sleeves were carelessly pushed up revealing comical tan lines along her toned arms. Sweat beaded her hairline and the girl was oddly pale despite what she had been doing, aside from the tint of pink that flared in her cheeks from, Vanille assumed, obvious embarrassment over asking such an awful question. Her shirt stuck to her body in ways Vanille had to will her eyes to ignore, falling on the wrapped up hand instead.
Lightning had looked more worn and weary than she could possibly imagine, Vanille decided the safest thing to do was to ignore her hand as well. After weeks of the other girl ducking behind crowds to avoid conversation with her, Vanille knew it wouldn't be smart to start an argument concerning her own safety. So, instead Vanille shrugged and nodded down the street, "want to walk home with me?"
The nervous expression on the older girl's face lit up slightly, Vanille's heart skipped a beat as Lightning fell beside her. Any trace of a smile barely graced her face, but the shift in her aura told the shorter girl that she was relieved. Lightning's shoulders sagged slightly, and she carded her fingers through her hair, brushing her bangs back in a way that caused them to stand at odd angles.
Vanille wondered how silly they would look on a street full of bustling traffic, one girl with flour smeared carelessly across her cheeks and forehead, the other girl slick with sweat smelling of gym socks after a four mile run.
Not that vanille had minded the smell. Lightning rarely wore perfume, and even when she did it was faint and trailed off before it reached her nose.
Besides, she grew up rough housing with Fang, and she was used to odd scents of dirt and sweat clinging to her nose. It was only natural, she thought, natural really did fit Lightning. The taller of the two pulled ahead slightly, and Vanille couldn't help but admire her strong shoulder, eyes trailing down her back.
A blush crept across her cheeks as she thought about the girl in a Guardian Corps uniform, the fitted garment would compliment her muscular build.
Her hands flexed as thoughts of Lightning's skin under them overwhelmed her mind, she shook her head noticing the object of her thoughts glancing back towards her.
"What was that?" Vanille worried her lips, hoping her voice didn't give away what she'd been thinking.
Lightning on huffed quietly, oblivious to Vanille's anxiousness. "I was asking where you were coming from."
"Work…" She dropped her hands to her sides, the contents of her bags jumped around, but she didn't care. What was one ruined cake, anyhow? Fang would still gratefully tear into it like she'd never eaten anyway. She swallowed, tracing a line back down the road to avoid any other awkward glimpses. "I work at the Meringue Moogle."
"A cafe," Lightning hummed in approval. "Serah loves that place." She pulled a face that told Vanille, more than she'd like. She suppressed a giggle, it was a pretty expensive cafe, the sweets were too rich for her, but she was allowed to sneak off with treats for herself.
Vanille decided that this was nice. Being able to walk home with Lightning, it was almost normal. And though she ignored Lightning's limp, and worry for their future gnawed at her stomach, she brushed it aside and settled back next to Lightning, hazarding brushing her hand against the other girl's on "accident". If Lightning noticed, she couldn't tell.
The future could wait for another day, she decided as the sunset danced on fiery bangs. Beautiful, crystal eyes traced her face curiously as the taller girl intertwined their pinkies.
Life was short.