concoursec | Office Hours 2: The Officehouring

Does Snow mind cat-calling? Well, it doesn't really matter— she'll do it anyway! Not that she means anything by it other than to be silly. She just happened to be skipping by the room when she spotted him inside, and couldn't resist stopping by to say hello, and also couldn't resist cheering him on— by whistling, then jumping up and down.

"Go, Snow!"

Vanille wasn't Serah, but she's cute and a friend of his. So he won't complain about the cat-calling... though her enthusiasm makes him smile, then chuckle, then laugh hard enough that he has no choice but to stop and lean against the wall before he hurts himself.

"Hey, Vanille," he said, grinning at the girl.

The laughing is appreciated and she skips the rest of the way into the room, smiling all the while. That's what she likes to see and hear, after all: big smiles and happy laughter. "Hey! Looking good, there!" And she flexes her own arm... Considerably less muscular than his own.

"Keeping in shape?"

Maybe so, but of the two of them, which had killed a bear solo and made its fur into a skirt?

"Didn't get this big by sitting around on the beach all day," he said. "How're classes going for you?"

Hey, for all you know she could have snuck up on it while it was sleeping, took its fur and then cried about it for weeks.

"Fine!" She turns around, running a hand over the tops of the mats he's got stacked up, his makeshift office. "Some of them are pretty hard, but the other ones are fun!"

She was having particular trouble with anything that involved, in any small amount, reading.

She hadn't shown any remorse over those sheep. Why would the bear be different?

"What's giving you trouble?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow. Privately he couldn't help but feel that of everyone here, Vanille needed the most support. Serah and Lighting had each other and him unspokenly, of course, but without Hope and Fang around, it was up to him and the Farrons to pick up the slack.

She didn't have to kill the sheep... And they were still friends, afterward!

"Um... Well..." She's still pacing around, looking around the room. Maybe something like this helps her think, or maybe everything is just catching her attention and preventing her from thinking... Either way, there's a long pause before she stops walking, threading her fingers together in front of her.

"Cadet Training is hard!" She starts, and once she starts... She probably isn't going to stop. "It's hard to be that serious all the time. I don't know how anyone does it! Then, there's Field training, which sounds like the same thing, but it isn't! And then there's weapons training and that makes me so tired that I don't even want to go to my next class, and I already know what I want to use, and then—" she puffs up her cheeks for the grand finale: "No matter how much I learn about this place or that place, since I haven't been there, I don't really feel like I know anything about it..!"

She sighs, places her hands on her hips, and then turns to look at him, face set in a frown disguising itself as more of a pout. "And then after all that I still have to go back to my room and do homework... I'm tired!"

At that, she plops down on the mats, taking a seat. She didn't mean to rant, but... Keeping up has been really hard so far. She doesn't know how people like Serah do it.

Snow listened to that rant patiently. He could understand it. He and Light and Serah had all been through the Sanctum-sponsored schools on Cocoon, after all; they were used to a level of formalized education. Snow guessed Oerba wasn't quite like that. As for how Serah did it? She had two huge sources of emotional support on top of everything.

When she wrapped up, he thought a moment longer, then said, "Well, let's start with the first problem. How about this weekend you and me and Serah all go down to Balamb and just get a few hours away? You sound like you need the break."

School in Oerba was definitely different. They learned things about history, about the Gods and how to be self sufficient, how to read and how to write. It was never this complex, and there was never this much work to it. There were just too many things going on to worry so much about studies, like keeping the village safe. She was a bit overwhelmed, even though she liked it here.

She felt worn out, letting all of that spill out at once, but a trip outside of Garden— her first, actually— was enough to perk her right back up. "Really? We can go..?"

She'd wanted to see more of this world as it was, and Serah had mentioned a bit about Balamb already... Not to menton— and she knew it was a long shot— she wanted to opportunity to look for Fang.

"Of course really! You sound like you need a break, and it'll help you to see what at least one place out there is like, right?"

Good. That had helped. Now to see if he could give some encouragement in a couple of other areas. "And I know it's tiring, but don't knock the weapons training too badly. It's a good thing to know your way around different weapons just a littl" He smiled a little at the memories he was bringing back up. "You missed it, you were off with Sazh, but when Fang and I were rescuing Light and Hope in Palumpolum, Fang got her hands on an assault rifle. Managed to do quite a lot of damage with it, too. Her knowing how to use that made a big difference. So even if you only rarely pick up things like that again, that's the sort of knowledge that can help out a lot someday."

"Right!" It was a good double-excuse to go have fun, and really, Vanille only needed one excuse to have a good time— and sometimes, no excuse at all!

She listens to him talk about the weapons, but, she knows she doesn't have the physical strength to use much of anything. It was why she was always with Fang— she was magical support, and Fang was the strong one. It had always been like that for the two of them. "I used a gun before! Remember?" Well, she didn't actually use it when he'd handed it to her after everyone had been pulled out of the Purge trains. But she had used one while she was with Sazh, and that counted. "But you're right. I guess it can't hurt to know." She's just tired of being tired after class all the time, especially when she has more classes after that..!

Honestly, his memories of that Purge train revolved almost solely around a different l'cie, and his mother. Forgive him if he's all but forgotten Vanille was there.

"You stick with Serah. She's used to schooling like this -- she was going to go to university before. You know... everything. If anyone can help you out and teach you some good study strategies, it's her. And if you can make time, we can always blow off some steam in the training center, or hang out on weekends. Just because you're a student and I'm an Instructor doesn't change the fact that we're still family!"

Family...

"Right."

She nodded, switching her hips to lock her arms behind her, a hint of sheepishness playing at her expression. It wasn't that she'd forgotten that she could rely on them, but, she'd been trying so hard to get by on her own. She knew she didn't need to— but, she'd wanted to. To be strong enough to face Fang, wherever she might be. To be strong enough to take care of herself as not to worry anyone thinking she might need their help. To stand on her own two feet.

They were all good things to strive for, except that she'd forgotten one vital thing: that she didn't need to rely only on herself. She had family here to rely on, to help make her stronger. There wasn't any shame in that, as long as they were all helping one another.

"... Thanks, Snow."

He lifted a fist with one of those grins that was really just a soft smile, if you looked at his eyes instead of his mouth.

"Hey, every once in a while I have to do something to keep my hero credentials, right?"

Vanille laughed. He didn't need to, she thought, but she nodded.

"I don't think you could ever stop being a hero, though!"

"I can't stop trying, anyway," Snow said. "Sometimes that's the most important thing."

She knew Snow wouldn't give that up, ever. It was just who he was. He never gave up on Serah, or anyone else, so why would anything here be any different. She'd followed along with him before as a means to an end— part of her hoping that if she believed hard enough, that his thoughts and visions would be the truth. That their Focus was to save Cocoon, rather than doing the exact opposite. The real truth was that she was just running away from the reality of their Focus. She was still doing battle with all of the guilt trapped inside of her, after all... But she knew one thing for sure: she wanted to be more like him. Stronger, like that.

But...

"Ah— so!" Enough of that gloomy stuff! She already felt overwhelmed as it was, and she knew better than to load herself down with things she couldn't do anything about. Or, at the very least, she knew she shouldn't, even though she did anyway. Best not to let Snow see something like that, though, when she'd already worried him enough as it was! "When do you think we can go?"

"Oh, there's a couple nice places in Balamb. Some places to eat, and we can go see the ocean at the docks. And I'll take you and Serah for a ride on my hoverbike! It's here, in the garage!"

How that had happened, he still couldn't explain. But it didn't matter; it could carry Snow and two light girls, so it would.

"We'll make it a little business and a little pleasure. Serah can give you some pointers on your classes, and I can... be tall. I'm good at that, right?"

He won't overdo the message in words, but he'll live it to the best of his abilities: Vanille is not alone, and never will be.

She nodded, linking her arms behind her back. It did sound really nice. "Sounds like fun to me." She was really curious to see what it was like, too, since she'd already read about it. It would be good to see it up close and personal— especially the personal part. Of course, all of that took a backseat to the main bullet point of such a trip: to have fun. She was all for that!

At the mention of the hover bike, she tilted her head, and remembered the one she and Snow had crash-landed. It wasn't surprising that Snow would know how to work one (and much better than Hope, she hoped) or that he would want one, given what his Eidolon turned out to be. Either way, that sounded like fun, too. Fun... And maybe a little scary, but fun!

"Really good at being tall. No doubt about that!" She laughed and walked over to him, standing on her tip-toes to try to touch the top of his head.

And Vanille clearly needed some fun.

"You need a ladder? Or maybe you ought to stand on the mats?"

He'd forgotten, after all the time apart, that he'd never really told her much about life on Cocoon -- especially not things like his hoverbike, and how he proposed to Serah. He really ought to at some point. She'd probably get a kick out of it!

Vanille puffed up her cheeks in anger, poking Snow in the sternum. "I don't! I bet if I stepped on your toes I could reach." Not that she would, considering that would probably hurt, but, after a few more stretches, finally getting her fingertips to the top of his head, he gives it a rest, lowering her arms to her sides.

"Fine! You're tall. But I can still reach at least..!"

Laughing, Snow just reached out to clap a hand on Vanille's shoulder. He'd missed her more than he'd realized. "That just means whenever someone needs something up high, they'll be bothering me while you get to sit back and laugh, you know."

"I wouldn't laugh!"

She pouted, crossing her arms, and then took a moment to think about it... Snow reaching for something really high off the ground, that no one else could reach. It was funny, even if it was just another reason he was a good hero— he could reach things other people couldn't. "Okay, I wouldn't laugh too much. Better?"

"You can go ahead and laugh," he assured her. "Serah'll probably do it someday just for the laughs. 'Snow, can you get that? Oh Snow, can you reach that?' Who knows, if it's at my expense we might even get a smile out of Light!"

She laughed then, too. "That would really be something if we did, huh?"

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