Hello there! Wow, I'm just back from my Halloween weekend. I'm so beat! I disguised myself as Sheik, from Zelda's game, once more, and it was hot under all of the parts of this disguise! No one recognized the character I was incarnating, since I was working behind my cash register, as always… No one plays Zelda around here. T_T. I disguised myself as the queen of Flowers Saturday, I had put on make up I made myself (took half an hour to draw all over my face) and there were only a few persons to say it was pretty. It put me down, but I was in the Halloween spirit and nothing could get me out of it! Fortunately, it is now over, my face is clean, my feet are killing me (high heels of death) and this gave me ideas for writing…
So this here is a little one shot, prequel to my fic Black Faction. How did Noctis and Lightning first met before that it all began? In a Halloween party, of all things… I hope you'll like it. It's my late gift for Halloween. Just one day late, at least. XD
To set you in the mood, this is a multi crossover fic involving FFVII, FFVIII, FFXIII and Versus. Cloud is Lightning twin's brother in this. And both Lightning and Noctis are about 22 years old. That sums it up, I guess… Have a nice time reading and see ya all around!
Candies or love?
Noctis sighed as he made his way through the building. He felt stupid dressed up like this. The tight clothing was pitch black and two antennas were pointing on the top of his head. His face was all painted in black and if it weren't for the antennas, he would have looked as a thief from the old movies. But he had a right to dress up as a Heartless today, since it was the 31th October. Halloween, the one day of the year when everyone were disguising themselves just for the fun of it, and mostly for the candies…
Noctis was disguising himself all the rest of the year, but never as clearly as he was today. After all, he was a secret agent for the Black Faction and had to make himself look as a prince, a director, a sportive and even a mercenary quite a lot. He had taken all of these roles and even more, so often that he wasn't really sure who he was under all of the masks he had worn.
Known as Raven, he was only 22 years old, had served the Black Faction for two years already, achieving so many missions he had lost count himself, and he made it a personal goal to keep anything about his real life and past hidden to anyone. Still single and freshly shaved, he entered the central office room of Boston's HQ for the Black Faction agency. He hadn't been in this city for very long. Born on a far away human colony, he had grown up in space before to land on the Earth to earn his living. He could have been a prince if it wasn't for terrorism and his parents' death, but well, that was a long story and he wasn't really thinking about it as he entered the room. He was surprised by the number of costumes and colorful people that were standing in this place. A Tinker bell was dancing with two ogres in a corner, while a witch was serving drinks to the rest of the crowd.
Halloween music was playing in the background and every kind of disguise, from the cutest to the sexiest, while the whole horror's theme was extremely exploited, was filling the view.
"Wow, man, you really made it. Hey, boss, look this way, it's the guy I was talking about the other day. Raven."
Rufus Shinra turned around with a motion of his dark cape. It was easy to recognize him, even with the crown and the knight's outfit. The great boss of the American's branch would never look bad even on Halloween's day.
"What are you, exactly, Raven?"
"I'm a Heartless, sir."
"Well, that's original." Rufus chuckled, clearly not knowing from where Heartless could be coming from.
"I guess we could postpone our first meeting for tomorrow, when we'll look normal."
Noctis had just been moved from the Asian's branch to the American's and he wasn't sure a Halloween's party was the better time to make a good impression on his new boss. Rufus smiled and turned back to the girls he had been talking with, giving Noctis a chance to wonder around.
The young man was a bit ashamed of his disguise, because he hadn't entirely chosen to wear it and mostly because of the weird looks he was getting of most the people around him. After walking a bit, just spacing out, he stopped in a quieter corner of the room where there was fewer persons.
…
"Cloud, Cloud, you won't believe it! Vincent accepted to let me choose his costume! He's gonna be the most awesome of every of us!"
Yuffie was jumping from excitement and Cloud felt sorry for Vincent. Just to believe that crazy girl had managed to convince Valentine to disguise himself… He looked around, sighing deeply. Lightning and Serah were no where to be seen. He wished that his little sisters were a little more careful. This was Lightning's working place, not his, but she had still managed to bring him here just because Serah wanted to attend a disguised party with her brother and sister. She was 20 years old, for heaven sake, would she ever grow up?
"Don't tell me he's going to be disguised as a materia, Yuffie."
"How did you find out?" Yuffie asked, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Oh my god, I don't want to see that." he thought out loud.
…
Lightning, on her side, had managed to lose sight of Serah. For some reason, a guy dressed in Buzz Lighthear had just walked off with her sister. Lightning's mummy's outfit had decided to give her some problem at that moment and one of her bandage had started going loose, before that someone walked on it as she tried to follow the Buzz guy, to no avail.
"Could you try to watch where you step?" she hissed to the guy which had stepped on her bandage.
"Well, if you weren't losing pieces, it would be easier," the stranger replied.
His eyes were bright circles of gold in his dark face and his outfit was nothing but black, with palmed feet and two antennas on top of his head.
"Wow." was all she could blurt out at first.
He wasn't ashamed of his looks; his clothing was so tight she could see each of his muscles under it! He smiled at her reaction, and she blushed under the bandages covering her face.
"I mean, wha… what exactly are you?"
"A heartless."
Lightning still wanted to go check on her sister, but she was really surprised by this guy. She couldn't recognize him, if he was one of her coworkers or not, she couldn't tell and that kinda irritate her. At least, people had been able to tell she was Lightning seeing the few pink locks coming out from her bandages, around her head.
"Sounds cute. But the floor where we give candy to the kids isn't this one." she said arrogantly.
"Well, I'm obviously not a kid, miss Mummy. And I'm actually going to work around this floor for some times as a part of the Black Faction, so…"
Oh, so you don't like jokes. You should have chosen another disguise in that case, she thought to herself.
"Could I just have my bandages back?" she cut him off.
She was worried about that Buzz Lightyear guy. He looked big standing next to Serah and she wanted to see where those two had gone. And she had to make sure Cloud wasn't getting bored in his corner. She noticed him standing in a corner, listening to Yuffie and looking around to spot someone more interesting. The vampire's fangs Serah had forced him to put on weren't really fitting with his clothes, but Cloud was a fun killer and he hated Halloween.
"Try not to get in my way if we ever have to work together," Lightning told the Heartless dude as he removed his feet from her bandages.
Noctis smiled at the woman's attitude. She had a hell of a temper; that was already clear. But he smiled as she clumsily wrapped the bandages back around her leg while rushing off. There was something in her blue green eyes that had surprised him as she was looking at him. She reminded him of someone. There was a familiar impression about her. And he had liked her first reaction to his disguise. He had felt manly for a moment, even if he looked like an idiot.
"I'll try, miss Mummy. But I can't promise you anything."
…
After looking all over the place and bumping in a few people, Lightning managed to find her sister. The young girl was sitting in one of the office, her cat's ear still pointing out of her hair, her white clothing a little messed up. Her face was pink and she looked like she had been crying. Lightning felt her mother instinct burning up, and was ready to get in and punch the guy if he had done anything bad to her little sister, when she realized that the young girl was indeed lauging softly. She was even more surprised to see that Serah and the Buzz Lightyear guy were talking as close friends. As she sneaked up on them, she realized that the Buzz was a college friend of Serah.
I guess I can let them be. But I'll check on her later, Lightning decided.
As she headed back to the center of the party, she felt a bit sad, since Squall was out on a mission and as she spotted Cloud who was now with Tifa, his current girlfriend. Even Serah was having fun, while this was Lightning's work place. Unfortunately for her, she had been so busy she had never the time to make a lot of friends. And she mostly did as she never needed any…
She made her way to the bar, to at least do something, not wanting someone to notice that she was bored. As she came close to the counter, she realized there was only one seat left and that the Heartless' guy was the first next to it. Sighing inwardly, she did as if she hadn't seen him and sat next to him. Noctis pretended not to notice her, even if he had, sipping his drink. Lightning was hesitating. Should she order something or just wait like this? She didn't really want to drink. She started to hit repeatedly the counter with her fingers, off in her mind.
"Could you stop doing that?", Noctis asked her after sometimes of her little game.
"Why, does it disturb you from drink?"
"I don't know if every mummy are in foul mood like you, but…"
"Oh, don't try to psychoanalyze me or something, heartless."
She was still hitting the counter with her fingers and Noctis' nerves couldn't accept it anymore. He grabbed her hand, lifting it off the counter.
"The name's Raven. I'm not here to mess around, I politely asked you to stop doing that."
"And I politely decline, Raven."
"Good, we're able to talk as civilized people."
"Let go of my hand." she coldly asked him in response.
If he thought he was funny, well, he wasn't.
"You're losing your bandages again." he replied back. "Here… It should hold on for the rest of the night." he added after fixing the bandages back in place.
"What kind of guy are you?" she asked herself out loud.
"I'd go for crazy if I really had to answer you. But this wasn't really a question. I guess I'll just let you be, miss Mummy."
Lightning remembered he was supposed to start working here and that Rufus had told her a new agent named Raven was arriving for November. Maybe was it him? And if he was, she would be working with him on some case. Squall was switching partners, since the agency had thought they'd been in the same team for too long. –They didn't know they were putting him up with his girlfriend Rinoa instead of best friend, but who would go and tell them?-
"Hey, wait."
She held back his hand, not entirely knowing why she was.
"It's Lightning. And I'm just not the party type. Usually, I'm not that harsh with people."
Noctis smiled playfully.
"Let me guess, you're worse."
Her mouth hanged open at the sudden attack. It was maybe a joke, but this time, he was going too far!
"You… your disguise is quite fitting as I see, Raven." she managed to bark back.
For some reason, that remark bit Noctis' heart as if he'd known Lightning for a long time. He was a joker and sometimes ended up saying the wrong things. And he understood he had hit a fragile nerve.
"I… I didn't mean it like that…"
He sat back and Lightning looked away, chuckling.
"It's not as if you could hurt me just with that." she tried to defend herself.
She shook her head and the bandages wrapped on her head started falling down, revealing her hair and face. And for a single instant, she looked vulnerable and Noctis understood.
"Sometimes, it doesn't take a lot when you're holding back too much."
She was replacing the bandages around her head and bit her lower lip, feeling discovered. She looked around and saw Cloud with Tifa, in a corner of the room. They were kissing each other, gently, and Lightning could guess that Serah was doing the very same thing with that Buzz Lightyear guy in one of the office. Halloween's parties didn't always ended up like that, but somehow… All kind of things could happen.
"I should go check…"
"Wait, I'm… I'm really sorry." Noctis whispered.
"I said I was okay!" she replied a bit too strongly.
"Alright then, why don't we talk a bit more? After all, my boss told me I was supposed to be teamed up with a Lightning girl, so… I guess it's you."
"Ah, don't tell me you're that Raven."
She couldn't believe she had shown off any of her weakness in front of a new partner. She never did that before. Squall was her friend, but they weren't that close already… If only that Heartless' guy could have only be a stranger that would just rush out of her life as fast as he had came.
"I am. And there's nothing to be ashamed of. I like to work with human people, even if our job is sometimes inhuman in itself."
"What is that supposed to mean? I looked inhuman a moment ago?"
"No, but you looked cold."
Lightning felt like turning cold again. He hadn't the right to barge in her life and talk to her like that. She didn't need that. She didn't know what she needed, but it wasn't…
"Well, Mummies are supposed to be dead, aren't they?"
He laughed a little at that and his smile looked unreal in his dark face.
"You got a point, Lightning."
She relaxed at the sound of her name in his mouth. And she stared at him for the second time, unable to believe any sane grown man would wear such a daring outfit for Halloween.
"I'll ask you just one question, then, I'll have to leave, since it's running late."
"Shoot."
"Where does that disguise come from?" she asked, pointing at his right antenna, that was now brushing the tip of her head.
"Oh… I lose a bet and ended up having to wear this. Otherwise… I guess I'd be in an old uniform or something."
"I see."
Suddenly, that Heartless felt a lot more sympathetic to her. And as she walked off, she was smiling. Maybe was he sane finally. And maybe would he be a good partner. At that time, she didn't know how much more he would be for her… But they would surely never forget their first meeting in that weird Halloween party.
-the end-
So here it is. A quick and nice one-shot for Halloween. I think it was cute, but I'm not entirely happy with their last discussion. Suggestions for improvement are welcome. Anyway, the buzz lightyear guy was Snow. Why would he dress like that, I don't know, but I spent a whole weekend of three days working while being disguised and seeing disguised people the whole three days. It was long and I've seen my share of weird costumes and freaks. The giraffe little boy was still the cutest. I'll never forget him. ^w^. I hope that you liked it. Oh, and Vincent never showed up in his materia's disguise. Even that guy has his limits. XD