Wrote this in a hurry once, then reread it and rewrote it partially because I didn't like the ending..
(still don't, frankly) I haven't finished playing the game so please no spoilers, and if I get a character's behavior wrong then I'm sorry.
This is just how they act in my head.
I hope you will enjoy reading.

The room was darkly lit. Spirals of cigarette smoke made it seem like misting inside, hiding the personalities of the people in the room from one another. If you didn't want to speak out, it was alright. You could just sit and enjoy the show. But Fang was no type to not speak up herself. And there was this guy who had been staring at her from beneath his brows the entire evening she felt like needing to talk to.

The air in the room felt humid against her skin as she stood from the sofa and strode towards the man at the bar, who put down his drink as she approached him to give her a better look. She saw his eyes shimmer in the dim light and felt excitement boiling in her veins as she felt his appraising look sliding over her body. She knew that she was worth looking at. That's why she barely put on anything. But who gives – it was working.

"You like what y'see?"she whispered seductively, pouting her lips just a very little while asking him, putting one leg a tad in front of the other to tilt her hips and make her waist seem smaller. You needed to know the tricks to do things right, and Fang knew them all. Heck, she invented most of them.

The man smirked, she could see the light reflect of his teeth. "Hell yes I do, love." He shifted on his seat. "What about I buy you a drink? I'm sure a lady like you would appreciate that."

Fang felt her cheeks flush. This one was actually mannered, in contrary to all the other douches she had previously met in this place. "Hm. I guess one drink won't be hurtin' anyone." And she sat down on the stool next to the man, making sure her sari covered less than it showed. The guy nearly drooled and she smiled contently.

"What would you like?" He still sounded polite. She acted as if she thought about what to answer.

"Whatever you're havin' will suit me fine, sweetheart." She shifted her weight on the stool and scooted a little towards the man. He grinned as he turned to the barman and ordered something that didn't just sound fancy – it sounded like it contained a lot of alcohol. Just about what Fang needed.

Her world got blurry quite soon. Flashes of the guy – he remained nameless for the entire evening, although she could've just forgotten his name – as he gave her another drink, as they were dancing, as he was standing even closer to her, as he was kissing her neck… His warm body, all over her, around her, inside of her – and then the grand finale after which she suddenly found herself alone and stripped in the ladies' room of a café she didn't recognize. Disorientated, she tried to get up only to fall to her knees again and throw up on the filthy tiles, that were rippling and waving like water in random patterns, making her feel dizzy and lightheaded.

Clothes, she thought. Where…

She had to use one of the toilet block's doors to get herself to her feet and even then the world was spinning around too fast for her to realize what she was seeing; her own murky reflection in an even grimier mirror. She staggered and tripped into the toilet block, finding her grubby sari lingering on the floor as she fell with her nose right into it. Not remembering how she put it on, she was outside all of a sudden, still not recognizing the area she was in, and she looked around, puzzled with her surroundings.

"Whoa…" she closed her eyes and set a few steps back until she could lean against the brick wall of the café, afraid she might fall over if she didn't. "Dammit… Should've… listened to ya, Vanille…" Still muttering, she wobbled along the pavement, crashing into several people who commented on her being so openly drunk. She couldn't even answer, afraid she might vomit all over them.

Reeling, she couldn't stop herself in time to prevent herself from bumping right into someone again. She was already making excuses in nearly inaudible mutterings, when she realized the person was talking to her.

"…Fang?"

She tried to focus on the person's face but saw nothing more than a pinkish blur. "How… d'ya know my name?" her tongue was still thick with the alcohol. The person didn't answer, but instead put a strong arm around her shoulders and started walking, dragging her along. Fang tried to resist but was too feeble to even stand a chance. "Hey, hey you!" Fang felt bad, really bad. She just wanted to lie down, what was this person thinking he was, anyway? Why not let her stumble around? "…yeah, you, I was talkin' to ya! I'm… I'm not coming with you, I don't even know ya name…!" and she made another fruitless attempt on getting away.

"I'd stay still if I were you, Fang," the person spoke in a ladies' voice. "I should be arresting you for being drunk in the open. I am doing you a favor right now."

Fang frowned. "…Farron?"

No answer.

"…Lieutenant Farron?"

A sigh. "Yes…?"

"Ah…" Fang stopped struggling and tried to walk along as good as she could. "…ya takin' me home?"

"I am, yes." Silence again. Fang furrowed her brows trying to concentrate on her feet. After a long quiet, Lightning broke it. "Why did you ask?"

Fang groaned. She felt sick and didn't want to think about Vanille's reaction when getting home, when the only thing she wanted right now was a bed to lie in and sleep. "Cuz Vanille," she said, "is gonna kill me when I get home like… this." She still had trouble thinking clearly, but the walk was slowly dissolving the grip the alcohol had on her brains, making talking a bit easier. "She told me not to get drunk – ah, well, I can't resist the temptation, too damn weak, that's what I am." She spat the last remains of the alcoholic taste in her mouth out on the streets. "I just wanna go sleepin'. But Vanille's going to want to lecture me right away." She pulled a face.

Lightning had no comment.

Fang licked her lips. She was slowly managing to walk by herself and her vision was getting clearer as well, allowing her to see that it was indeed Lightning walking right next to her. She had a stern look on her face and her eyes were fixed tightly on the road in front of them, her pink hair moving in a slow cadence as they continued to walk. "Say, Light," Fang began slowly, trying to sound as sober as she could. "There ain't no chance you're lettin' me sleep at your place? I mean, the couch is perfect, or even the floor, I just don't wanna go home to Va-"

"Forget it." Lightning didn't even look at her. Fang cussed and silence fell upon the two again as the continued walking. Then Lightning's voice: "Get in the car. I'll drive you home."

Sitting down felt like a major relief and Fang noticed how tired she actually was. Also, her groin hurt and she bit her lip trying to remember what had happened in that ladies' room. But aside the pain, she had no physical reminders and her memory was too blurry to remember from, leaving her speculating about how rough things had been. Pretty damn violent, probably.

The car wobbled as Lightning got in and soon after that she fired the engine. Its humming sound filled Fang's ears to a quite nice level, buzzing out unwanted flashes of nausea or thoughts, and she rested her head, sighing. Lightning was probably driving just below speed limit – or exactly on it – and she took the corners in the road with a gentleness Fang hadn't suspected her to control.

"So," Fang said, breaking the silence. "Say, Farron, what were you doin' in the middle of the night in town? Pardon me sayin', but you don't really seem to be the partyin' type." She glanced at the woman behind the wheel briefly. Her face was as emotionless as always, but she thought she saw her pressing her lips on each other. "Ah, well, anyway, probably on patrol or somethin' like that, right?" She sniffed. "At least ya found me. Gotta say thank you for that."

"Welcome." The response was quick, nearly sharp. Fang raised an eyebrow. She was feeling better with the second and her mind was nearing a normal, lucid state. Perhaps it hadn't just been alcohol in her drinks – that would take a lot longer to lose its effect on her. Now being able to see the road they were driving on and recognizing it as a road quite close to her home, she realized she was about to get shouted at by Vanille and she huffed. Then she decided to give it one more shot.

"Farron?"

"What."

"…There must be somethin' I can do to let me sleep at your place." She nearly heard Lightning groan. "Anything. I really don't wanna go home." She was well aware that she was actually begging Lightning to give in to her question, but she had no choice. Going home to a fuming Vanille was by no means an option. Lightning kept her eyes fixed on the road as she said: "I am taking you home, Fang, and that's it."

Fang grumbled and threw her head in her neck. "Just to let me get shouted at by that annoying little brat of a sister? Jeez, Light, come on, you've got to help me out here – besides, what's the big deal?" She studied Lightning's features as she asked, but her face remained as impassive as stone during the question and she didn't answer. "Is it because your house is a mess or something' like that? Or…" Fang paused to think. "Or because you have to go back to the city again? On duty?" But Lightning kept her lips pressed firmly on each other and didn't answer. Fang glared at her. "Or, perhaps," she whispered, thinking of her last possibility to lure Lightning out of her defense. "Perhaps you've got your guy waiting for you at home and you don't want good ol' Fang to ruin all the fun?"

Bingo. A small twitch, just above her right eye.

"Ah, so that's it! Hah!" Fang slapped her thighs. "Who would have thought…! Lightning Farron, having a date without anyone else knowin' about it. Wow, gotta say, you're doin' a pretty damn good job keeping that a secret to everyone! Now how is he like, is he…"

"There is no guy," Lightning spat at her, interrupting her roughly. Surprised, Fang stopped talking and stared at the woman sitting next to her. She noticed that her knuckles were white while clutching the steering wheel firmly. And if she looked closely enough, she saw the muscles in her arm tremble ever so slightly.

"Woah, you mad, Lightning?" Fang felt as if she had said something inappropriate. "…Sorry if that pissed ya off, didn't mean to be rude…"

"Forget it," Lightning sneered back. "I'll let you sleep on my couch then, if you really want it so much that you'll go into trying to blackmail me."

Her face gleamed with perspiration as she bit the words into Fang's face and Fang studied her features again, puzzled by her sudden change in attitude. Where the heck did that come from?

They took a sharp turn right and were accelerating quickly, speeding quite soon after that. "…you sure y're not offended?" Fang glanced at her, but Lightning ignored her question again, only intensifying her grip on the wheel.

Then she stopped the car quite abruptly, making Fang happy she'd buckled up when getting in. "We're here." Lightning stopped the engine and got out of the car, leaving a started Fang behind inside. Before she could think about what had gotten into her, the door was opened and Lightning pulled her out, totally ignoring Fang's remarks that she was able to walk on her own now. They strode towards Lightning's house, with Lightning still holding Fang's wrist, until they reached the front door and Lightning had to let go of Fang to get her keys.

Then she nearly kicked the door out of its hangings while opening it and jerked Fang inside with her, giving her no time at all to take off her shoes or anything like that. Fang was too stunned to even remark Lightning's strange behavior and wasn't let go off until they arrived in the living room, which was quite sober and sparely decorated.

"There's your couch." Lightning nearly spat the words in Fang's face. "Sleep tight."

She turned on her heels and left the room, her boots ticking softly but frantically on the wooden floor, and vanished behind a corner, probably to the stairs. Fang stared at the empty space where Lightning had just been, before she sat down on the couch slowly, a bit blown over by the sudden hostility of someone she considered a friend. She had always known that Lightning wasn't much of a talker and preferred actions over words, but never had she actually been rude like this.

She glowered. This was actually really strange. Lightning had always been nice to her, perhaps even treated her better than she treated the others, even though she had no idea why. Perhaps Lightning saw Fang as a sort of equal, as they met on terms of strength and battle tactics. Or perhaps she just took a liking to her – which seemed really ridiculous though, if there was one thing Fang and Lightning had in common personal-wise, she yet had to find out what it was.

Either way this came out as strange and Fang was starting to get curious to find out what the reason behind Lightning's behavior might be. She probably had nothing to do with it at all, and it was most likely something she shouldn't stick her nose into – but she couldn't help herself. This was just too inviting.

After all, all she wanted to know was whether Lightning just had a bad day or something and decided to blow off some steam, or really had an issue with her being around. Fang shuddered. She'd rather have a fuming Vanille than being in one house with an agitated soldier.

Although she felt a little uneasy with her behavior, she got up from the couch and followed to where Lightning had disappeared, finding a large stairway in what seemed to be the center of the house. The ceiling was high here, and the sparse light from the moon could barely illuminate the white walls and gray stone floor. Shivering with cold – did Lightning have the air-conditioning running all day? – she climbed the stairs, the wood squeaking just a little beneath her bare feet, her flip flops left downstairs.

Reaching the end of the stairs, she set foot in a narrow but again high hallway with windows just below the roof, letting in the night sky. It was absolutely and completely silent in Lightning's house and Fang's feet on the wooden floor sounded like crashing cymbals to her ears.

Now where could that Lightning girl have run off to…

A small streak of light on the floor caught her attention, coming from below one of the – also white – doors that interrupted the otherwise downright empty walls. She snuck up to that door and stopped just a yard in front of it, leaning in to put her ear to the wood to listen whether she could hear someone inside. Soft, rummaging sounds were audible through the door. Lightning was there.

Fang hesitated just a little before deciding to knock twice, the sound of her knuckles ripping the silence in the house apart. She didn't wait for Lightning to grant her permission to enter as she thought she wouldn't, and opened the door slowly to peek inside.

Lightning stood in the center of the room, barely dressed – just shorts and tank, her skin gleaming with what seemed to be perspiration. A dark blue exercise mat lay on the floor next to her, the print of her sweaty back still visible on the fabric. Fang blinked a couple of times while looking at Lightning, who returned her gaze with as much intensity.

"What," Lightning started, "are you doing here?" Her voice was cold, her expression inscrutable. Fang swallowed seeing the fire smoldering in the other's eyes, then got herself together. She was here to do an investigation. Not to chicken out.

"I am here to settle things with ya, love," Fang said, putting her hand on her side. "I don't know just what got into that brain of yours, but I know one thing and that is that there is no need to be all rude with me. I mean okay, I asked to stay at your place, ya didn't really seem to like that, I can understand." She sniffed. "But what I can't understand is your total idiotic attitude. Ya either kick me out, or lemme stay and be happy with it!"

Lightning stared at her for a long time, remaining totally silent. Fang started to wonder whether she could still talk when she emitted a low, hissing sound that sent shivers right up Fang's spine. Then, without saying another word, she lay down onto the exercise mat again and started doing vicious pushups, her face bearing a nearly violent expression of anger. Fang glared at her, bewildered once again.

"What," Fang spat, "ya not gonna answer me?"

No word.

"How old are ya? Five? Could ya at least act your age and, for god's sake, talk to me?"

But once again there was no reaction. Lightning kept doing her exercises, acting as if she was completely ignorant of Fang's presence at all. She had smoothened her face but her physical language was not to be mistaken. Then she spoke, in between pushups, her voice just below freezing.

"You should… be happy… and sleep… and stop… asking… questions."

"Like hell I aren't." Fang folded her arms in front of her chest and stared at Lightning, anger now boiling in her gut. She didn't like the games Lightning was playing with her, avoiding the questions. Besides, she barely knew her and she wasn't really treated with respect or any sign of friendliness. No, Fang knew what she had to do.

"Ya know, I'll leave." She said it bluntly. "You want me gone that badly, I'll go. But don't be mistaken, miss, 'cuz I will remember this." Silence as an answer. "That much for thinking we were friends." Fang's voice was low.

"Don't be ridiculous." Lightning had stopped her pushups to glare at Fang, her arms stretched fully, her muscles tensing. "I don't want you gone. I just want you to stop whining and go to your couch."

"Then why does your entire body speak for ya, huh, shouting that you want me to get the hell out?" Fang was getting agitated. Lightning bared her teeth in a grimace and got up from the mat, standing exactly in front of Fang, eyes shooting fire.

"Does my body speak for me, Fang? Does it? Then what does it say?" Her voice was demanding, her pose provoking and her lips no more than a thin stripe.

Fang answered with as much fire. "That you, Lightning Farron, have a serious issue in believin' people, or showin' trust in them! That is what your body's tellin' me!" She stood with her feet quite some space apart, her most stable poise, her entire form shaking with anger now.

She saw the blow before it hit, but wasn't in time to prevent it from landing. It didn't hurt as much physical as it did mentally – Lightning had struck with her palm, fingers stretched fully, giving her an ordinary arrogant slap in the face – but enlightened Fang's anger even more.

"My body tells you nothing," Lightning sneered dangerously. "You know nothing about me. Nothing. All it will tell you is what I want it to tell you." She sniffed. "And that was what I wanted to tell you."

Fang snarled at Lightning and then hurled herself at her. They hit the floor hard, Lightning crashing below Fang, letting out just a small cry of surprise. The struggle that followed was both a struggle for honor as it was for anger, and was fought with fire. But even though both were furious fighters, no one used fists to seriously hurt each other.

Lightning wrapped an arm around Fang's neck and pulled her close to her chest, tightening her grip, suffocating the other. With scratching fingers, Fang resisted viciously, then stood from the floor, dragging Lightning up with her only to fall down the other way, her back crashing into the wood hard. Lightning's grip on her neck had weakened enough for Fang to seize control by then and roll them both over, pushing Lightning hard into the floor, her fingers digging into the skin of her shoulders. But it still wasn't over. Lightning brought up her knee in one, quick blow, and hit Fang full in the guts, making her collapse. Taking advantage of the sudden lack of power, she reached for Fang's face and pushed her off her, head and neck first, until they rolled over the floor scratching and biting.

And then there was suddenly no more movement. Fang had been put in a total body lock. All her limbs were immobilized, and Lightning lay on top of her, breathing heavily, her pink bangs falling onto Fang's chest and neck, her eyes still blazing with the heat of the fight. Fang tried once more to free herself of the iron grip on her body, but to no avail.

"You won," she hissed through clenched teeth. "Now at least lemme go so I can go back home."

There was a twitch below Lightning's right eye, which she furiously tried to blink away. There was no movement in her body and neither was there in Fang's, and as the silence continued and Lightning made no attempt whatsoever to free Fang of her grip, Fang was starting to believe they'd be there the entire night.

"I won't."

Fang blinked. "'Scuse me?"

Lightning clenched her teeth on each other and looked Fang in the eye. "I won't let you go home."

Fang shivered with no particular reason as she stared back at Lightning. Suddenly the closeness of their bodies felt strange, too intimate, too suffocating. She struggled against her hold but was once again proven too weak to break it. "…I won't." The words seemed to cause Lightning pain.

"I won't let you go."

There was no time between her words and her act. Strong, hot lips crashed onto Fang's, beating the air out of her lungs in less than a millisecond, and Fang's eyes flew wide open as Lightning kissed her, tongue and all. She tasted sweat, she tasted anger in the way their teeth clanged against each other, she tasted Lightning in a way odder than she had ever thought. And Lightning pulled her into an even closer embrace, all their skin seeming to touch each other, Lightning's being on fire and Fang not knowing what her reaction ought to be.

Then, as sudden as it started, Lightning's lips let go of Fang's and shaped the words that echoed in Fang's ears long after:

"I can't let you go."