Remembering Noel (A FFXIII Fan Fiction)

Chapter 17

Vanille pushed a few loose strands of her pink hair out of her eyes. She smiled faintly and put the picture she held down on the desk. She stood up abruptly and walked over to her bed, the heels of her boots clicking loudly on the wood floor. She sprawled on the soft covers and lost herself in a memory.

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"Hey sugar can you tell me if you like this design?" Izzabel called Vanille in a light drawl. She was poring over a drawing of a mannequin at her craft table.

The mannequin was sketched messily but over it a design of a beautiful wedding dress was drawn perfectly. The dress started with traditional white at the top but had a blue sash at the waist and had a subtle ombre to light blue at the bottom. The skirt was pulled up in several twists that looked vaguely like roses and the messy notes on the side pointed out that it would look best in silk.

Vanille gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my goodness it's beautiful!"

"I knew you'd like it," Izzabel turned and looked at the girl with pink hair. Vanille could now see the face of her beautiful girlfriend-fiancé, that is. Her eyes were a muted green, and were very beautiful, but nobody ever noticed them until they looked her deep in the eyes. Her hair was a perfect mix of long brown and blonde, making a caramel color that looked amazing wavy (as it usually was). "It's yours." her voice was a smooth drawl that, right now, came out as a purr.

"Are you ever going to get around to designing yours?" Vanille chuckled and moved around the chair to lean down and kiss Izzabel sweetly.

"All I can do is imagine you in your dream dress. Now I've finished it, maybe I'll get around to designing it. I could always just buy one of Magnus's if I don't...He'd make sure to get it cheap, just for me." She smiled into Vanille's kiss.

"Well if you're done imagining me in my dream dress, maybe you can imagine me in something else." she purred into Izzy's ear. "Or maybe, nothing." Izzy smiled and stood abruptly, easily picking Vanille up, who was now straddling her. She carried her into their bedroom and laid her down on their soft covers gently and kissed her again, this time on the neck.

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Vanille was snapped out of her daydream by a knock at the door of her bedroom.

"Breakfast is ready, sleepyhead!" Fang called and Vanille smiled. They had been best friends for years and Fang had decided to move in with her after the creation of Bhunivelze, to ward off her loneliness...after Izzy.

She stood up from her bed and tried to skip like she used to before. It felt fake, so she stopped, walking with only a little enthusiasm. Fang's breakfast foods were very good. Years in the wild making Behemoth bacon probably helped.

"So, there's good news!" Fang said with her very noticeable Pulsian lilt.

"Is there?" Vanille said, sounding moderately convincing.

"Yeah, Serah's been remembering, you know? Last night she remembered Snow, and she's a little miffed, but turns out she didn't really love him." Fang gossiped idly as she flipped the last pancake onto a plate and brought it to the table which was laden with syrup, butter, powdered sugar, and strawberries.

"But anyway, that means she's remembering everybody. Maybe she'll be able to tell you..." She grimaced a little and realized that she probably shouldn't have said anything about that. Mentioning the loss of Izzy in the fall of Cocoon. She wasn't dead, as far as they knew, but they hadn't been able to find her. Gran Pulse was very vast, and they'd only been searching for so long.

They'd been needed on Bhunivelze, what with the AI acting up, but as soon as they were done cleaning up the overridden AI they would be back to searching on Pulse.

Vanille smiled weakly for a moment and began putting syrup on her pancakes. Fang quickly changed the subject to the renovations on the Academy tower that had started when the AI began to destroy the tower in spite of their makers. Vanille made a small effort in this conversation while still spacing off.

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Serah had been trying to fall asleep for a few hours, but the adrenaline over being so angry with the guys kept her awake for much too long. She finally drifted to sleep with the memories from the day still swimming in her mind.

She faced the hallway again, it took much less time for her to get there than usual. She walked quickly down the hallway, eager to get to the next door. When she arrived at the door whose plaque read 'Izzabel' , it looked relatively simple. The doors thus far had been more ornate the more important the person was in her life. She looked at Noel's, one door over. It was the second most ornate one she'd seen, second only to Lightning's, but it'd been so long since she'd been through Lightning's door.

Serah sighed and put her hand on the handle, which opened easily. When she entered the room, she immediately thought of Vanille, before she was enveloped once again in the now familiar white light.

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"When I come back to life I'll probably be in Aggra's Pasture. That's where I was when I finished my focus. It's this beautiful clearing hidden by mountains. There was a pest there, but it was my focus to defeat it, so I did."

"Tell Vanille where I am when you can. She'll want to find me." Izzabel smiled gently and waved at Serah as she faded back into existence on Pulse, and away from existence with Izzabel.

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Apparently they'd met in their dreams during their crystal sleep. Hadn't Vanille asked about someone named Izzabel the other day? Serah sat up in her bed, and stood up, deciding to go see Vanille right away.