A/N: So, yeah, this is basically set 500 or so years before the story of XIII. If you haven't gotten to the point where Vanille is reuinited with Fang, I guess there will be some spoilers here and there, because I've tried to base my writing on facts I've read about Fang and Vanille's history. Of course, it will contain yuri, so if you're not a fan of that the later chapters probably won't be for you. -- saying that probably gives you a hint that I'll be writing quite a few chapters to this, so please bare with me :3. (Also, I think the way I've wrote this one is a bit different to how I usually write, so hopefully it's better LOL). There are a few OC characters lying about, here and there, but they won't be too integral to future narratives. I only created them so that the village of Oerba would see more 'organic'.

Of course, reviews, good and bad, are always welcome; but I hope y'all enjoy my story.

1
Calycanthus

"Just make sure you don't wander off into—"

Before the spiky haired matron had gotten the chance to finish her sentence, a flurry of golden feathers had come tearing through the rocky path, with an enormous cloud of dust following closely behind it.

The matron -- with a bright assortment of beads threaded through her thick blonde curls -- had been watching over Vanille, as she picked flowers from the road's side. Never in her life had Vanille seen such bright hues of pink, and no matter how hard they tried to cultivate a similar variety in the orphanage's garden, their colour would never be as amazing as the ones growing in the wild brush. Usually, there would be a vast array of pink, yellow and blue petals scattered across the road's side come Vanille's birthday, but this year there had been a prolonged winter, and most of the wild life seemed as though it was developing a few months later than usual.

"Is that Yun Fang?" Matron asked, vaguely, as she watched the crazed bird hop down the runway. She noticed the bird was flapping its large wings about its sides furiously, as though it had been attempting to catch flight. Luckily, for the black-haired figure straddling its back, the chocobo's wings were small in relation to its wide stomach.

Vanille gasped, as Matron pushed her gently into the safety of the brush, overlooking the road. She watched with a mixture of curiosity and excitement, as the over-sized bird galloped past them in a flash of frenzied feathers. Its big brown eyes had locked onto a target of elderly men, fishing by the river's edge. Peacefully, they smoked their thick cigars, discussed the oddity of the prolonged winter, and watched over the translucent waters below their rods. They were perfect victims.

The village elder, Yun Barthelous, immerged from his metal shack, as the chocobo stamped its feet at the anglers. Squawking Kwehh loudly, the pest managed to chase them back towards the safety of their nearby residence, scaring them all within an inch of their lives. Vanille and Matron watched in amusement, as Barthelous pulled out his bright red spear and nicked the chocobo's beak with its blunt end. The chocobo hopped up in surprise, and then flapped its wings about in a random fashion, staggered by the thumping pain now stretching across the entirety of its head.

"Get down from there, right this instant!" Barthelous ordered, pointing his stick directly at Fang's chin. Even riding the chocobo, Fang was no match for the elder's superior strength and height. Vanille chuckled to herself, as she watched the events unfold.

Barthelous was a tall and muscular man. He was one of the strongest men in Oerba, despite his mature age. During his younger years, it had been rumoured that he had once defeated a Greater Behemoth by himself, although Fang, personally, questioned whether there was any truth to that tale. She and the elder shared a love hate relationship, and despite their constant and renowned arguments, Berthelous secretly looked to Fang as the daughter he had lost to Cocoon's fal'Cie, many years previously. During Fang's earlier years, back when she was barely even a teenager, the elder had been the one to help quench her curiosity for the surrounding wilderness of Gran Pulse, by allowing her to explore it with him. He had been the one to teach her how to swing a lance effectively, protect herself against damning blows and exploit enemy weaknesses using destructive magic.

Fang was only seventeen, but he had already passed most of his knowledge down to her. All that was left, he often thought to himself as she continued to cause havoc for the people of Oerba, was for her to inherit his wisdom.

Admitting defeat, the rebellious teen jumped down from the feathery fiend's back. Taking his opportunity, Barthelous waved his spear around in the air, hissed, and chased the creature back up the road it had come from.

Vanille flew back into the brush, as the chocobo galloped back up the path. Apologetically, Matron held out a hand to help the tiny redhead to her feet.

"You need to stop this kind of behaviour Fang," the matron warned, pointing directly at Fang, "Before someone gets seriously injured, or worst." To her, Fang was still the rebellious eleven-year-old who had refused to do her chores around the orphanage.

Fang sighed and then shrugged apprehensively, digging her open toed boots into the soil beneath her. Staring at the floor, she noticed a pulverised pile of red flowers, embedded in the soil, beneath one of the chocobo's giant claw-prints.

"Oh no," Vanille whimpered, "my flowers!" She ran to the beaten petals and scooped them up into the palm of her hand, pitifully.

"It's okay," Matron said, gently rubbing Vanille's back reassuringly, "there's plenty up the pa—" her voice trailed off as soon as she realised there were no more pink petals left poking through the bright green bracken.

It was silly, but every year on her birthday, since she had lived at the orphanage, Vanille and Matron had gone up to the front of the village, where the rare flowers grew, and picked them. After they had enough of the pink petals, they would put the selection inside of a vase and place it in the kitchen window, above the giant sink. Even though she was turning fifteen that year, the angelic redhead still craved the sentiment. Just the smell of them warmed her soul, and helped her to carry on smiling, even through the darkness inside of herself that scared her so.

Even though Vanille and Fang had both grown into two remarkably beautiful teenagers, they both seemed exactly how the matron remembered, back all those years ago, when Vanille was first taken into the orphanage's care.

Matron could remember -- Fang and Shinra, one of the boys her age, had been wrestling in the garden when Matron had arrived with the tiny Vanille running far ahead of her.

"Please don't fight!" Vanille had said to the pair, stamping her feet in protest. She had thrown the stuffed moomba she had been carrying at them, but it had only seemed to encourage their fight. Even back then, aged only ten, Vanille had known how to make people feel at ease; or at least, she had known how to try.

Matron could not remember exactly why they had been fighting that time, but she was sure it was nothing of any great importance. They would find the pettiest of things to fight over, Matron recalled, often injuring each other over the most mundane of disputes. If Shinra had slightly more food than Fang, she would reach over and pull him violently by his ear. Similarly, if Matron allowed Fang one minute extra with the sheep, Shinra would pull her hair.

They had both looked up in surprise at the unfamiliarly high voice shouting at them to stop.

"Stupid idiot stole my chocobo," Shinra had screamed, kicking the girl one last time before he had made an effort to stop the fight. Fang, of course, had retaliated with a swift jab to his ribs, which had left him winded for a few seconds.

"Please, stop with the constant fighting and name calling," Matron had spoke with a soft tone, in the hope that it would calm them down.

Fang had fallen silent the moment she had caught a glimpse of the new girl. Matron did not know exactly why Fang had been so transfixed by Vanille's arrival, but after watching their relationship unfold over the passing years, she had soon come to realise that they were just two strong forces, obviously attracted to each other through some divine force.

"I'm sorry," Fang rasped with guilt, "I was only—"

Vanille closed her eyes and smiled, although Fang was sure she had seen a slight sigh escape her mouth.

"It's fine Fang, I'm sure we can just use some flowers from the orphanage's garden instead." Vanille spoke with an optimistically high tone, although something about it did not seem genuine to Fang.

Desperately, Fang tried to think back to where she had seen a marvellous array of ferocious crimson buds, growing somewhere outside of the village.

*

Almost as soon as she had re-entered the village through the enormous steel gates protecting its rear, where wild fal'Cie often attacked from, Fang could smell the rich aroma of hickory woodchips burning against the flesh of a sweet salmon. She suspected a majority of the villagers would already be gathering around the barbeque set up in the middle of the village, waiting with their pink – pink because that was Vanille's favourite colour and no one dared to be any different – presents in their hands.

Fang dared to be different, that was why most of the villagers found her to be an annoyance; and that was why Vanille found her to be so interesting. Although Vanille had become good at pleasing everyone, Fang knew the truth. She found particular people annoying, just as anyone else did. That was the biggest difference between them, Fang always trusted her initial impressions; whereas Vanille liked to see the best in people, regardless of the way they treated her.

"Vanille," Fang shouted, as she crashed through the orphanage's large glass doors, with a handful of dripping wet stems, "Vanille?" She repeated, this time raising her voice and heading into the living room. Her voice always rasped and sounded as though she was exhausted.

"She isn't here," Shinra said, sliding down the stairs leading from the dwellings upstairs. "Last time I saw her she was with Gramps."

He had grown into quite the hunter, just like Fang. Instead of opting to fight her for an extra slice of carrot, as he had done in the past, he chose to irritate her with constant pranks and continued immaturity, now that they were older. Occasionally he would even take to flirting with Vanille, though she was unsure of whether he did that on purpose, to annoy her, or whether he was just a failed attempt at being the village's Casanova.

"Where is she?" Fang retorted, with a snap.

Shinra eyed the red flowers hanging loosely through Fang's grasp, raising an eyebrow with suspicion.

"Are those for Vanille?" He asked, edging closer. Fang knew he was about to attempt to snatch them from her.

"Get lost," Fang snapped, "and don't bother trying to snatch 'em off me, I saw you coming the second you moved."

She spun on her heel and stormed back out of the building, holding the fiery-red flowers up to her chest. Hearing the air whoosh past her ear, Fang felt the numbing pain of a wooden slab whack her around her temple. The wooden slab had hit her with such a force; it pushed her completely off balance. Unable to gain control of the situation, Fang's body doubled over.

"I can't wait to see the smile on Vanille's face once I give her these!" Shinra mocked as he scooped the flowers out from Fang's open hand and jogged off through the wide open doors.

She mumbled under her breath as she struggled to fight the creeping darkness trying to force her into a brief state of unconsciousness. Knowing she was strong enough to fight and defeat its tempting offer, she scraped herself up from the floor and stumbled outside; the side of her head throbbing intensely with pain.

"Oi!" Fang rasped, her voice not projecting across the village to where she could see Vanille and Shinra standing. She stumbled towards them, nevertheless, forcing herself to stand up against the pain gnawing away at her brain.

"Thank you," Vanille beamed, as she accepted the flowers from the boy's sweaty grasp. She felt uncomfortable around Shinra, mainly because of the way he had seemed to gawk down at her, ever since she had turned thirteen.

Vanille looked past the tall blonde-haired boy, and towards Fang who was stumbling towards them with her fists clenched angrily. She knew the boy had not picked them himself, almost as soon as he had presented her with them, which had only left her with one question left in her mind: who did pick them?

Fang, Vanille said under her breath, her smile softening.

Fang stood up straight and scratched her head, noticing Vanille was watching her with her real smile across her lips. After years of observation, she had finally begun to see that when she was genuinely happy, the corners of her mouth would lift up even higher, and her emerald green eyes would shine even brighter.

Vanille pushed past Shinra and rushed to the injured girl's side. Shinra was obviously disappointed by her seeing through him, or else he would not have thrown the flowers into the gently swaying current of the nearby river.

"Are you okay?" Vanille asked, as she wrapped her arm around Fang's waist, to help her stand easier.

Fang groaned a little, and then reached into the inside of her blue sari for something. Feeling as though she should look away, the younger redhead turned her head around in embarrassment.

"I kept one here," Fang said, "before that swine whacked me over the head."