A/N: Didn't that Hope and Vanille moment at the concert just melt your hearts? We are now on the final day, day thirteen. But we are far from the Fireworks. The group are now enjoying they're day at the beach, like everyone would do on a special day.
Day 13
Hope gets a good night sleep, overwhelmed with happiness about the concert last night. Vanille's the same thing as well. All though from her, it's just her usual self. It's morning and Serah's the first to awaken. She's already in the kitchen, working on breakfast. Hope slept in a little since he's tried from the concert last night. Lightning is the next one to awaken.
Lightning walks into the kitchen, yawning, still in her pajamas with her bedhead hair. Serah smiles, looking at her sister. "Morning, sis."
Lightning looks at Serah and offers a small smile. "Morning, Serah."
Lightning goes into the fridge, she takes out a carton of orange juice, then a glass cup. Lightning pours herself some orange juice. "Hey, Lightning?" Lightning stops pouring to look up at her sister. "Tonight's the fireworks festival. Is Hope going?"
Lightning thinks for a moment, she honestly has no idea. "I haven't really thought of it." Lightning sets the carton down. "Well, he has doing much better since we first asked him."
"I know, but still. He was gonna go with his..." Serah was silent afterwards, but Lightning knew what she was talking about.
"I know, Serah." Lightning puts the carton away in the fridge. She grabs the glass of orange juice and takes a sip. "Well, I'll talk to him, see if he's well enough to come."
"Okay." Serah says.
Lightning sits on the table, waiting for her breakfast. She wonders how to talk to Hope. She at least wants to spare his feelings about going without his mother. Serah walks in the dinning room with some eggs and toast for Lightning. Lightning eats her breakfast in silence, she was having a peaceful moment until someone slams the door open.
"Hello!" Lightning frowns and groans in annoyance. It's her 'brother'. Snow walks into the dinning room, there he sees Lightning. "Hey, sis."
Lightning shots Snow a glare, impaling her fork in the small pile of scrambled eggs. "I am not your sister!" She growls.
"Geez, take it easy." Snow seats on the table across from Lightning. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
Lightning isn't happy hearing Snow say that. Serah walks into the dinning room. "Hey, Snow. You about ready?"
"Yep. Got everything outside." Snow says.
Lightning is curious at what they're up to. "What are you two doing?"
"We're all going to the beach." Serah says.
Lightning raises her eyebrows, she isn't to pleased to hear that. "By 'all', I hope you mean you two, your silly gang and Hope."
"And you and Vanille and Fang." Snow says.
"No way!" Lightning says.
"Come on, sis." Serah pleads. "It's a beautiful day outside, and we all have the day off cause of the festival tonight."
"I don't care. I'm not going, and that's final!" Lightning says.
Just like that, Lightning storms off. Serah sighs, her sister is pretty stubborn. Just then, Hope walks right into the dinning room. The kid is just waking up.
"Hey, what's going on?" Hope asks.
"Nothing." Serah says. "Hey, Hope. I was wondering." Hope looks at Serah, wondering what it is she wants. "As you know, tonight is the fireworks festival. Do you wanna go?"
Hope seems surprised, he nearly forgot about the festival. He remembered that Serah and Lightning offered to take them there, for an answer, he's not sure, cause he thought it would be too sad, going there without his mother. But he's feeling a lot better then he was then.
For an answer, Hope nods. "Yes, I wanna go."
Serah smiles, and claps her hands together. "Great!"
Serah was able to beg Lightning to come to the beach with them. Took a lot of convincing, or in Lightning's case annoyance, but she agreed to go to the beach, but she promises she's not gonna have a good time.
Lightning can't believe she's actually going to the beach. I know, Lightning lives in a town where it has a huge lovely beach. The soldier girl isn't too fond with beaches. It could be because every time Lightning goes to the beach, she's always hanging out with team NORA. They just annoy her. The worse is when they play volleyball, they sometimes shoot the ball too far, they sometimes hit Lightning.
By noon, the group arrives at the beach with team NORA. Lightning is wearing a black one piece swimsuit that has lightning bolts on them, sunglasses, and a pair of shorts as well. Snow is in some blue swim trucks with waves on them, he's also wearing his trench coat. Serah is in a red bikini, wearing a jacket for some cover. Hope is in black and gray swim trunks. Lebreau in a purple bikini, Yuj in green trunks, Maqui in orange, yellow trunks, also wearing a white sleeveless shirt and Gadot in red trunks.
Snow is carrying everything like a packed male. Highlight of Lightning's day so far, seeing the doofus having some misery. When they arrived at the beach, Snow and the gang set everything up. Lightning just took out and unfold a beach chair, then sits on it reading a book.
"Sis! You're just gonna sit there and read!" Serah complains.
Lightning lays her book down at her lap then stares at her sister with irritation. "Serah! You brought me here. Don't push it!" Lightning returns her attention to her book.
"Maybe we shouldn't bother her." Hope says. Everyone else agrees.
Vanille and Fang meets up with the group at the beach. Fang is in a black one piece just like Lightning, but without the lightning bolts, and Vanille's in a white bikini. Hope is pretty stunned to see Vanille, she looks stunning. The kid can feel his cheeks burning red. Fang already warned the kid not to get any funny ideas, he doesn't need to be reminded of her warning.
Team NORA find a spot of their own at the beach, since they know they would feel uncomfortable, mostly Maqui, to be at the presence of Lightning.
"It's such a beautiful day." Lebreau says.
"It sure is." Maqui says.
Yuj takes out the beach umbrella. "I can't wait for the festival tonight." Yuj plants the umbrella into the sand. The moment he does, he notices something he hit. "What the..." Yuj removes the Umbrella. Maqui and Gadot gathers around him. Yuja picks up an old sandy piece of paper. "What is it?"
Maqui takes the object, he realizes what it is. "It's a treasure map."
"Let me see." Gadot takes the map, he looks over it. "Yo, man. This could be the map to the treasure chest on Blindbeard the Pirate!"
"You serious, man?" Yuj asks.
"I'm drop dead serious! If we find this treasure chest, we're going to be rich!" Gadot says.
Maqui and Yuj joins in as well, excited. "Well, count me out." Lebreau says, putting on her sunglasses then lays on the beach chair. "I'd wither spend my time in this gorgeous day."
Gadot shrugs his shoulders. "Suit yourself, more treasure for us!"
The boys cheered and they take off on their little treasure hunt. Lebreau just watches them leave, then she shakes her head and gives a sigh. "Boys..."
Maqui, Yuj and Gadot being their little treasure hunt. The map first tells them to find the upside down anchor then take sixty paces south to the next location.
Everyone else is having a good time at the beach. Lightning's having an okay time, she's able to read her book without any interruptions of any kind. Serah and Snow are sitting in the sand in front of the shores, the waters of the ocean sometimes waves in and soaks their feet. Hope and Vanille are making sand castles together. Fang is just laying down on a towel, getting tanned.
Serah and Snow are being all lovey-dovey with each other, which is hard for Lightning to ignore. Vanille and Hope finishes their sand castle. Vanille stands up. "There! All done!"
Lightning looks at the sand castle they made. She just groan and turns her attention back to her book. "Childish." She muttered.
Hope stands up. "It looks great."
Serah and Snow looks at the sand castle. "Hey, great job you two." Serah says.
Snow stands up, walking over to the sand castle. He bends down, looking down upon it. "I must say, that's pretty good." Snow stands up, waving his arms, doing some stretches. "Well, I'm up for a game of Volleyball." Lightning's on the alert with the word 'Volleyball' "Who's in?"
"No! No Volleyball!" Lightning shouts.
Everyone looks at Lightning as if she committed murder. No one said anything, but Lightning does return to her book. "What's with her?" Fang asks.
"She just doesn't like volleyball cause it's a bit distracting to her." Snow says.
Lightning looks at Snow with disapproval. "A bit? You guys are always shooting that thing at me. And I was on the other side of the beach for one of those." Lightning's tone was a bit harsh.
Fang stands up, walks up to behind Lightning. "Well, love. You won't have a problem with the ball if you're playing in the game. What'd say, Light? One set, first to 21?"
"Not happening. I just want some peace and quiet." Lightning says, continuing her attention to the book. All though her tone on that comment made it hard to believe that's what she really wants.
"Come on, sis. Please just play." Serah says. "I brought you out here on a beautiful day just to have fun."
Lightning slams her book closed, grunts in defeat. "Fine! I'll play your stupid little game!"
Lebreau is just laying on her chair, looking up at the sky. The girl is having a relaxing moment. Snow walks towards Lebreau, waving. "Hey, Lebreau."
Lebreau seats up, then raises her sunglasses up to her forehead. "Snow? What's up?"
"Just about to play Volleyball." Snow then realizes that Lebreau is al alone. "Hey, where's everyone else?"
"The boys are out on some silly treasure hunt." Snow seems confused, he's about to ask but Lebreau speaks further. "Don't ask."
"Okay...You wanna join us?" Snow asks.
"Sure." Lebreau gets out of her chair then follows Snow to the court.
Meanwhile, Maqui, Yuj and Gadot are moving on in their treasure hunt. Yuj is reading the map for Gadot is holding on to the shovels and a pick axe. After arriving at the upside down anchor, they head south in sixty paces. At the destination, which was the beach parking lot, and now they start at the old oak tree that was split by lightning, which was twenty feet from the parking lot on a street island, they had to move 500 yards southeast.
When they arrived at the destination, they didn't pay attention at where they were heading. They noticed the location they're at is the household of Serah and Lightning and Hope.
"Hey, this is Serah's house." Maqui says.
"Maybe the treasure is buried in here!" Gadot says.
"Let's find out." Yuj looks back at the map and reads it. "All right. At the destination, turn left, then take about thirty steps." The gang turns left, and starts walking.
The gang just looks down at their feet, counting. At about fifteen, Maqui looks up. He gasps horrified, grabs Gadot and Yuj and pulls them back. "Wait stop!"
Yuj and Gadot looks at Maqui. "What's the problem, man?" Gadot asks.
"Do you guys realize where you're heading?" Gadot and Yuj looks head, noticing the double doors. "That's the parents room. You guys know Lightning forbids anyone from entering!"
"Relax, Maqui.." Yuj says.
"So you forgot what she did to Snow after the last time he tried to enter?" Maqui says.
They couldn't forget, they still have nightmares after seeing Lightning in that fit of rage. "She's not gonna find out. We're just gonna go in, do what the map says and get out." Gadot says.
Maqui still has a bad feeling about this. So they went in, arrive at the thirty steps, which is the very center of the room. Yuj looks back at the map. "All right. 'X marks the spot. You have found the treasure. Happy digging'."
Yuj drops the map. "We're gonna have to dig from here."
Maqui is suddenly horrified hearing that. "What? Oh! No, no, no, no, no!" Yuj and Gadot looks at Maqui. "Okay, this is where I draw the line! If Lightning finds out what we're doing in here, she's going to MURDER us!"
Gadot hands Yuj a shovel, then he puts the other on down while he wields the pick axe. "Quit complaining, Maqui. If you're so worried, why don't you make yourself useful and go keep watch?"
Gadot slams the pick axe on the carpeted wooden ground. Maqui flinched and silently moaned like that strike really hurt him too. As Gadot and Yuj do their work, Maqui decided to do what they suggested. He stands out on the entrance of the hallway (The entrance by the living room, not by the bedroom doors) to keep an eye out for Lightning.
Back at the beach, the group is setting everything up for a game of Volleyball. Lebreau is setting up the net, Snow and Fang are at one side of the court, warming up. Lightning is standing in front of Serah, Vanille and Hope, who are sitting on the bench. Lightning's trying to decide who to pick for a partner. Lightning can tell that Serah and Vanille are pretty much aren't going to be any help since she's going against Fang and Snow. Then again, they would also be a pro that Fang and Snow might go easy if one of them was on her team.
...Nah, she's not going to take the risk. Plus she knows that Serah's not that good in Volleyball. So Lightning's only other choice was to have Hope on her team. Hopefully (Ha, ha. Little joke right there) the kid doesn't stink at all at this sport, despite his height that is.
Lightning and Hope now stand on the other side of the volleyball court, opposite side of Snow and Fang. When Lebreau was done setting up the net, she sat on the bench with Serah and Vanille.
Fang holds the volleyball in her hand. "You ready to get served, Light?" Fang asks with that smirk on her face.
Lightning squinted her eyes, offendedly. Lightning slightly tilted her neck side to side, the joints on her neck cracking, then Lightning positions herself. "I'm going to make you eat those words, Fang."
"Let's see what Lady Luck thinks." Fang tosses the volleyball above her, then makes the first strike.
The ball was coming at Hope. Lightning pays close attention to the ball, she was even surprised to see Hope return the service. The ball is flying towards Snow. Snow strikes the ball and it's now flying towards Lightning. The ball was close to the net, so Lightning was able to jump up and give Fang a spike strike.
The ball lands right in front of Fang. Sand blasted from the balls impact and hits Fang. Fang also fell back. Serah, Vanille and Lebreau were surprised to see that. Vanille was also worried a little. Fang looks up at Lightning with a surprised look.
Lightning looks down at Fang. "Still believing in Lady Luck?"
Fang gives a soft chuckle and gets back on her feet. "All right, soldier." Fang stands back up and wipes the sand off of her. "Let's see what you're made of." Fang picks up the ball and serves it.
The game goes on for about thirty minutes. The score was 20-20. Both teams needed a game point. Hope was being to reach his limits. The kid is bending down a little, hands on his knees, panting in exhaustion. Lightning notices Hope getting tired, but doesn't bother. She just focuses on the game. Now it's Snows turn to serve the ball.
Serah, Vanille and Lebreau all watch closely at the game like it was a sudden death challenge in a deathly pit coliseum in Hades. Vanille is nervously biting her nails. The girl is mostly on the pressure cause she doesn't know who to root for: Her guardian or her boyfriend. It's eating the poor girl alive.
"You ready to lose, Lightning?" Fang asks, teasing Lightning.
"In your dreams, Fang." Lightning turns to Snow. "Serve it up!"
Snow tosses the ball above him, then strikes it. The volleyball comes to Hope. When it's fallen, he realizes what's happening, then makes a return serve, a wither rusty one. Fang strikes the ball, making another return, then Lightning strikes back. The ball flies high, Snow and Fang keeps their eyes on it, but the ball flies into the sun and the sunlight shines in their eyes, blinding them.
The ball comes down. Fang jumps and slides on the sand on her stomach to catch the ball, but was too late, for the ball lands on the sand inches from her hands. Lightning smirks down at Fang, pleased with her victory.
Fang gets back on her feet, groaning. "All right, you win." Fang walks away in defeat.
Lightning turns to Hope, walks up to him. She puts a hand on his shoulder. "You all right?"
"Yeah, just exhausted." Hope bends down, sitting down on the sand.
Everyone gathers in the middle of the court. "Okay. How about we go and get some ice cream?" Vanille says.
"Yeah. we can all go to Winter Wonderland." Serah says.
Lightning agrees. "I think I have some cash at the house."
Lightning, Serah and Hope heads for the house.
Maqui paces around the hallway, he's suppose to keep watch, but he's really nervous. If Lightning comes home, what is she gonna say, or react? Yuj and Gadot are still digging inside the room. Maqui groans and he walks to the bedroom. He looks in to see digging still happening.
"I'm telling you guys, this is a bad idea!" Maqui says.
Yuj pops his head out of the hole, most of his face is covered in dirt. "Would you stop worrying, Maqui. I'm telling you, Lightning's not gonna find out."
Yuj dives back into the hole and continues digging. Maqui groans in disappointment and goes back into the hallway. Lightning, Hope and Serah returns to the house. they went upstairs and gets changed. Lightning was the first to get done changing. She heads for the kitchen. Maqui walks out of the hallway, he notices Lightning coming up to him.
Maqui yells with worry, which startles Lightning. Maqui hangs against a wall, trying to act cool and hide his worry. "Uh, err. Lightning...hey...How's it going?"
Lightning seems curious. "I'm fine...What are you doing here?"
"Uh, I was looking for Serah or Snow. I couldn't find them at the beach so I thought I'd look here." Maqui says.
Lightning knows he's lying. Maqui is a terrible liar, even when he's nervous. "What are you hiding from me, Maqui?" Lightning says wither coldly.
"Nothing..." Is all Maqui says.
Lightning tries to get past Maqui. Everytime she tries, Maqui just blocks her way. Lightning tries for a minute, then just pushes Maqui aside and marches down the hallway. Maqui becomes very nervous as Lightning walks to the parents bedroom.
Lightning enters the room, the moment she enters, she is horrified at what's happening. There's a large hole in the center of the room, and dirt everywhere on the floor, and the bed. Lightning couldn't breath.
"Hey! We hit something!" Lightning turns her attention to the hole when she heard that. Yuj and Gadot pulls the large treasure chest out of the hole. They toss it onto the ground beside the hole. Yuj and Gadot pops their heads out of the hole. They were happy at first, then they seem to worry when they see Lightning.
"Uh-oh..." They both softly say.
Lightning can feel her anger and rage building up. She's starting to breath heavily, getting louder and sounding more angrier. Maqui stands next to Lightning. "Lightning, I would like to say for the record...I was against this whole thing from the start! It was all their fault, I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to me. No, no, no. They just want to dig up their stupid little-"
Maqui becomes cut off when Lightning gives him an iron grip on his throat. Maqui chokes and coughs, he gasps for air as Lightning tightens her hand over his throat. Serah and Hope walks into the bedroom.
"Lightning. What's going..." When she's in, she realizes what's happening. "Oh dear."
Hope and Serah notices Lightning getting angrier. She's like a volcano that's about to erupt. "Uh...is Lightning okay?" Hope whispers to Serah.
Serah turns to Hope and starts pushing him. "We need to get out of here. Trust me, we shouldn't be around when she's about to burst." Serah and Hope makes a run for it. Lightning's outrage builds up with an angered scream.
Serah and Hope makes it out of the house. By twenty feet, they stop and look back, to see Lightning's outrage unleashed by having the house exploding (Not literally, just for effect) by jumping off the ground and a massive blast of flare bursting out of the roof.