Fang woke up the next morning, wondering how she had even managed to land in her own bed considering the night she had spent, especially since she was experiencing a growing migraine. She felt like her head was being crushed against a wall over and over again and put a hand on her forehead to ease the pain before closing her eyes. She stood up carefully, trying not to move her head too drastically in order not to accentuate the pain and put a hand on the doorknob to open her bedroom door, her eyes hurting because of the blinding light coming from the living room.

"Fuck, what time is it?" Fang walked in the hallway, screwing up her eyes to prevent the light from causing more damage and reached the kitchen painfully, grabbing the box of ibuprofen and put two pills in her mouth, swallowing them with a glass of water. She then sat down on the bar stool and rubbed her temples with her fingers, trying to eradicate the pain however she could, the slight feeling that this particular pain wouldn't go away so easily.

Twenty minutes after taking the pills, she was starting to feel better and stood up from the stool she had been sitting on wondering where Snow actually was and saw him lying on the couch, covering the whole surface with her huge body and snoring cheerfully. She smirked at the sight of the man and wondered what she could do to wake him up, a small smirk reaching her lips.

"Screamin'? No, too childish, Vanille would do that. Music? No…" she thought more carefully about it and saw the bottle of beer on the table, grabbed it and dropped it on the floor, releasing a huge sound from the impact while hundreds of pieces of glass were being shattered on the ground. She looked down and regretted her action immediately, figuring that know, she had to clean all this mess but felt satisfied as Snow woke up in distress, his eyes being torn because of the light.

"You're no fun Fang!" he yelled, putting his hand in front of his eyes, hearing her friend laughing frenetically above him. He put his hand away and frowned to look into her eyes while Fang was winking at him and headed to the bathroom in order to take her shower the next following second. She walked down the hallway, and started to think about everything they could possibly do to find their friends; the fact that Snow had already visited cities making their task a little easier but suddenly felt distress as she figured that her friends were possibly looking in these exact same cities.

She shook her head, feeling the headache coming back and emptied her mind as the water was warming her body up. She came out of the shower ten minutes later and tried to dry her hair by rubbing them in a towel, hating the feel of a hair dryer brushing her entire face. She quickly abandoned the task and looked at herself in the mirror to put some mascara and eye-liner and stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around her waist quickly going inside her bedroom. Before doing anything, she looked at the clock and saw it was already 10:32AM and quickly snatched her cellphone from the nightstand to call the airport in order to warn them she couldn't make it today. I'm sick. Yeah they're not going to buy it but whatever.

After the painful call where her boss had been yelling at her, Fang put her favorite blue sari since she had always been lucky while wearing it and looked at her own reflection with a big grin before making the decision to rejoin Snow and saw that he was now sitting. She cleared her throat to indicate her presence and saw the huge man smiling in her direction as he turned around. "Want a coffee or somethin' big guy?". As he nodded, Fang couldn't help but think that he was looking Like the little doggies usually being placed in the back of some cars and prevented the urge to laugh out loud, quickly heading towards the kitchen to fill the two mugs.

After finishing preparing the coffees, Fang sat next to Snow and saw that he had drown on a map of the world the different courses, and looked intense. Snow had labeled cities he wanted to visit, Sydney, Prague, Mexico but was surprised not to see Boston and pointed the city at him. «Really? You think we'll find something there?" he asked, drinking his coffee slowly.

"A city with an important crime rate? I wouldn't be surprised if our bossy Lightnin' was there." She said, apparently confident in her speech as she placed the mug back on the table to cross her arms on her chest.

"If you think it's a good idea. Where do you want to start?" asked Snow, his head now in his hands, apparently still tired from the night before. You couldn't actually blame him, since they spend the time drinking and eating pizza until 3AM, until they both finally crashed on the bed and sofa.

"I don't know. But I doubt that someone is in Mexico. We should focus on English speaking' countries, Snow" she said with a soft voice, her accent resonating in the man's ears. Snow nodded again and smiled before crossing Mexico off the map, placing the pen back between his lips the following second.

They both continued searching for cities the next hour, looking for prices for their plane tickets. They actually didn't know where to start, having 11 cities to visit now.

Boston, Toronto, Liverpool, Barcelona, Dubai, Prague, Sydney, Melbourne, Bangkok, Seattle, Amsterdam, these were all the cities they needed to visit right away, and taking a plain today was the smartest thing to do. The problem was, the two were in conflict because Snow thought it was a better idea to start with Sydney and finish by the US, and Fang argued because she thought it was better to start with Seattle or Boston, and finish by Sydney.

"Stupid drongo" thought Fang as she was grinning her teeth together. She slowly stood up from the leather sofa and went into the kitchen, trying to calm herself down as she could feel her blood pumping in her veins and was pretty sure the man had seen her jaw twitching.

She wasn't angry at Snow, well he was annoying her but she was mostly angry because they weren't making any progress, and by the time they would decide where to go, everyone would probably be dead and buried six feet underground.

She sighed discreetly and grabbed an apple before heading back next to Snow, the man apparently experiencing the same inner-conflict as he was breathing loudly though his nose with a slight frown on his forehead. Fang put her hand on his shoulder and winked at him as it turned his head to face her, giving her a soft smile and a quick nod in return. She wanted to ask him if he had made up his mind yet, but refrained herself, worried about starting another never-ending conflict.

As she was about to sit back down on the sofa, Fang heard knock on the door and went towards with a raised eyebrow, wondering what it could have been and saw a mailman standing in front of it as she opened the door carefully to hand her a box. She raised her brows and took the package after signing to acknowledge the reception of the package before closing the door behind her with her foot. She put the package on the table and opened it, remembering that she had ordered another blue sari that she looked at with a smile before she quickly put it back in the box, heading to Snow to sit next to him.

He was still thinking about their destination and dropped his shoulder in defeat "Fine, let's go to Boston." Fang smiled and ran in her bedroom to pack a bag, taking a couple of underwear, t shirts, jeans and her new sari along with a grin and then went back to the living room. She placed her bag on her shoulder and checked if everything was turned off, checking the oven and hotplates carefully along with all the lights while snow was patiently waiting behind her.

She then made her way to the door after closing the rolling shutters and carefully locked it behind her as she was standing still in front of it. "Let's do this."

By the time they were on the plain, it was 3PM, and Fang knew that in about six hours, they would finally land. She looked at Snow sitting next to her and took his hand, smiling wide.

Lightning was sitting at her desk, looking at her picture. She watched Serah's beautiful smile and shivered in anxiety, the hope of seeing her younger sister coming back to the surface to gently caress her thoughts.

She had no case today, since whatshisname had already questioned the killer who claimed guilty and was now stuck in her office without doing anything interesting. Lightning was actually waiting for Sazh and Dajh, since they were supposed to bring back a board to note everything they knew thinking that it would also fill up her empty room with a least one object and smirked at the thought. As the minutes were starting to feel like hours, Lightning decided to turn her computer on to look at any interesting news she could find.

"Not interesting. Stupid. Who cares? Whatever." She quickly turned it off, annoyed by the lack news, seeing some only about animals or kids going to school. She sighed and shook her head before standing up to go grab a coffee in the resting room, opening her door and following the hallway. She came inside and smirked when her colleagues stopped talking, heading to the coffee maker.

Lightning wasn't a mean person, she was just bossy and hatted mistakes more than anything, remembering the time she had actually yelled at one of her co-workers because he wasn't wearing a tie as she had asked. I was having a bad day, so it's justified.

She took her coffee and a sugar before heading back to her desk, making the people in the room sigh in relief as she left the room.

She entered her room and almost had a heart attack when she saw her friend standing in the right corner, putting the map on the board. He waved at her while Dajh ran to hug her and smiled softly as she received the little boy in her arms.

After a cheerful hug, Lightning stood back up from the ground and put the empty mug in the trashcan before she turned around, coming closer to the board in order to carefully look at everything. She put her hand on her forehead and stayed like that for a few minutes, anger rushing back inside her mind again.

"What's the matter soldier?" she heard, making her turn around and staring at Sazh.

"This is so frustrating. We spend almost 3 years searching for each other, I'm so sick of it." she said, with a husky voice, her tone managing to scare the little boy as Lightning's piercing eyes were focusing back on the board. She closed temps eyes and crossed her arms on her chest, breathing heavily through her nose. She snapped them open to look at the board again and started to nibble on her lip while Sazh was coming next to her in order to look at the board too.

"Let's cross the cities you've already called okay?" She sighed and took a red pen, starting to cross the major cities, and felt annoyed as her hand started to shake in anguish. What if this is useless? They could be dead for all I know. Fuck.

Yes she was angry, she was anxious and felt hopeless. How the hell could they find each other on this stupid huge planet? "What a nightmare." She wanted to throw the board out the window and had to refrain herself from doing just that as her eyes opened wide. She clenched her fist roughly and took a step back while Dajh was looking at her concerned.

"Are you okay Lightning?" he asked, his soft voice making her smile as she fixed her gaze upon the little boy.

"I'm fine little guy, I just want to find them" she answered, putting a hand in his hair. She smiled again before looking at her computer with a frown and noticed that it was already 1:27PM and that neither of them had eaten anything. "I'm going to go grab some found, you want something?" she asked while putting her scarf around her neck.

"Oh yeah, Chinese food?" – "Alright. I'll be back in twenty minutes." Lightning cleared her throat and grabbed the doorknob to open the door, quickly leaving the building.

Lightning walked down the street, her eyes scanning everyone extremely carefully and was fortunate to know where the Chinese restaurant actually was. She growled in frustration as she saw a line inside, but walked in anyway. As she had been waiting for more than ten minutes, Lightning grabbed her phone from her pocket in order to warn Sazh she would be a little late before staring at the people ordering their food extremely slowly. Get a move on people, it's just food for god's sake.

The pink-haired girl growled discreetly and opened her coat as the heat of the place was starting to overwhelm her along with her usual anger.

After five more minutes of tapping the ground with her foot it was finally her turn to order. "I'd like an assortment for four people." She watched the man grabbing different boxes to fill them with noodles, spring rolls and pork before paying and leaving the establishment quickly without giving the man a single look.

She made her way back to the station with her coat still open, not giving a single care in the world about the cold wind brushing her body, and opened the front door, quickly walking up the stairs to go back to her office.

She pushed the door roughly and smiled at the two people inside her office before placing the food on the desk and grabbed two boxes from the bag to give them to Sazh and the other to Dajh. She then took her own box and sat on the floor in front of the board and saw that Sazh had wrote on it, showing her possible cities in the US, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. She took a bite of her spring roll and swallowed heavily, frustration rushing back to her. All I want is to be with my sister again, why was it so damn complicated? First she turns to crystal, then I disappear in freaking Valhalla and then she dies. Fucking shit.

Lightning took another bite and decided to call the first two cities after finishing her lunch, a heavy sigh leaving her lips the next second as she was absolutely certain that it would probably last more than an hour only to receive a negative answer. Fang, where is your lady luck?

It was already 4PM. Vanille had gone home but had promised her to come back tonight to keep her mind off things. But at this very second, Serah didn't need anything to actually take her mind off things since the kids she was guarding today were being an absolute drag, struggling to keep some apart while others were screaming and yelling at each other.

Serah inhaled deeply and fought very hard the urge to slap them all, raising her hand in the air to make it land in her hair in order to brush them angrily.

She went to the kitchen and grabbed one of the yelling kids in the process to keep them apart "You have to stop yelling. That's not nice." The kid just stared at her and crossed his arms on his chest in order to defy her, Serah only being able to stare at him, fighting the urge again not to throw the little kid out of the window. Dammit I'm like Lightning now. Well no, she would've actually done it.

The only thing she could actually do was to give him a small tap on the hand before watching him leave to sit down on the couch to pout.

Serah came outside the kitchen and went towards the kids crying and sat down next to them. "What happened here?" They both looked at her and the little girl pointed at her Lego tower destroyed by the boy. Serak took a deep breath and smiled at the little girl with pain. "Listen, it's not because you want to play too that you can destroy her tower okay? What you're both going to do now is to build a new one together, okay?" The little girl looked at the mean boy and nodded before taking a small piece in order to build a brand new tower.

Serah sighed in relief as she stood up and turned the TV on to put on a cartoon, praying it wouldn't be as dull as the one she had seen the day before and felt a smile reaching her lips as The Aristocats appeared on her screen. Thank god.

The two playing kids raised their heads as they heard O'Malley singing and rushed on the couch, almost throwing Serah off it in excitement while the pink-haired girl was shaking her head in amusement and sat down on an armchair while the five kids were all singing the famous song.

She cheerfully joined them and clapped her hands at the end of the song to congratulate them all, receiving huge smiles from each and every one of them. She shook her head in amusement again and stood up from her chair in order to reach the kitchen, thinking it was probably time for their hot beverages.

Like the day before, she grabbed a saucepan to put a huge amount of milk in it, taking 4 mugs as the milk warmed up. At the end of the movie, the hot chocolates were ready, Serah now going back and forth from the kitchen to the living room in order to bring the mugs two by two to the kids, warning them again to be careful since it was still pretty hot.

She sat down next to them and started thinking about Vanille. She had told her to think about a way to find their friends, but they didn't have enough money to travel, or only inside the US and with a car, which would be a huge waste of time. Serah frowned and shook her head, concentrating on the kids who were still drinking their beverage happily.

At 6PM sharp, the doorbell rang and the parents came to pick up their children, paying Serah in the process. Today she made 146 gils, which was a great amount of money but she knew needed to find a decent job. Being a nanny wasn't going to cut it anymore, especially since she was going to ask Vanille to move in with her. We've spent too much time apart, let's make the most of it.

She put the money in her wallet and waited for Vanille, who was, just like always, late again and took the time given to her to put the toys away and walked on a small piece of Lego. The girl winced in pain and grabbed her foot tightly in her hand while cursing between her teeth, wondering if the inventors of this silly game had made it their goal to hurt grown-ups before snatching the small red piece from the ground in order to put it in the box, far away from her.

As she heard someone knocking she rushed back to the door and opened it to let a soaking wet Vanille inside. She laughed at the situation and took her coat off her shoulder to hand it behind the door, showing her friend the way to the shower. She noticed that Vanille had a small bag, and figured out that she had planned to stay more than just one night and smiled softly at the thought. Sleeping alone depressed her more than anything, and Vanille was apparently feeling the same way.

Vanille let the water run down and took her skirt and pink top before popping into the shower, relieved to have hot water running down on her body, shampooed her hair and washed her body. She stayed a long time in the shower, maybe fifteen minutes and heard Serah's voice coming from behind the door.

"Are you okay Van?" Vanille smiled and turned the water off, grabbing a fresh towel from the cupboards, and said "Yep! It just felt so nice I didn't want to leave!" She then dried her body with the towel and came outside only to stumble face to face with Serah, nearly dropping her towel in surprise. The two girls looked at each other with bright smiles before bursting into laughter.

"The bedroom is here so you can change!" Serah smiled from ear to ear as the redheaded winked at her before making her way back towards the living room to sit down on the chair, waiting for her friend to be fully dressed.

It was now 6:45PM and the two girls were sitting face to face. They didn't know what to do, but they knew they had to do something, anything in order to find their friends, family and fiancé.

Vanille had brought a map of the United States, and watched all the big cities, from Seattle to Las Vegas to Miami. They were trying to figure out where to start, and how to start. Like Serah had thought about it earlier, they were low on cash and knew that it would take them at least 10 hours to go to New York, and by the time they would get there, someone could've leave. Serah took her head in her hands, and simply said: "we post an announcement. In every newspaper, internet website, and then we'll see what happens."

"Alright. Let's do this, I'm done waiting."