chapter one

"No."

"But, Lightning! I really want to take these classes!"

"I said no, Serah! Do you know how much this class costs? An arm and a leg!"

"Pleeeeeease~! I swear, I'll work off all the money owed back! Please, please, please, please, pleeeeease? My friends are taking these classes and-

"Serah. I'm not repeating myself. Get out of my face."

"But, Light-

"Serah!"

An awkward, tense silence hovered between both women.

"FINE!" the younger girl growled, stomping her foot and stormed out from the kitchen, upset. Sighing, Lightning watched as Serah slammed the door. 'Is it me, or did a hinge come out of place?' she knitted her brows, hurrying to the door, trying to screw the hinge back in place, breaking the rusted metal. "Damn it!" she kicked the door, making all the hinges break off from the moldy door frame, falling to the hard, wooden ground.

Lightning shook her head, running her slim fingers through her strawberry blond hair, agitated. 'How much will this cost me?' she pondered, picking up the door and leaning it against the wall nearest the exit. She dusted her hands, and patted down her black pencil skirt. Without knowing, she smudged a bit of rust left over from touching the hinge she tried to fix on her white blouse as she tried to adjust her skirt along her waist.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME-? Okay... Breathe. Breathe, Lightning, breathe" she sighed, trying to relax.

*bleep, bleep... bleep, bleep*

"SHIT!" Lightning screamed, running to the counter top and snatching her keys while trying to slip into her black stiletto pumps while rushing to the door.

"Late again! My boss is gonna kill me this time- AH!" her heel got caught in one of the many holes on the metal stairs from her apartment building, making her lose balance. Just as she thought she was going to go head first down the stairs, her hand felt a soft fabric... but instead of stopping fall, she ended up pulling this thing down with her, losing her left shoe in the process.

It had felt like eternity while falling down the stairs, crashing to the dirt ground.

"Ahhhhhowwwwwggggghhhh!" she growled, getting up immediately, rubbing her sides. She looked down at her attire and grunted loudly. "Damn my life!" she screamed at herself, grabbing her keys from beside her fall and ran to her small, brown mini van and revved out from the apartment parking lot and zoomed down the street.

Just as she was leaving, shocking crimson eyes watched her every movement.


9.37am...

Lightning busted through the office doors, holding her pair-less stiletto in her hand while trying to rush to her small desk at the end of the building floor she had just entered. She could feel disgusted glances from all the workers she never really took a liking to, which made her feel uncomfortable. Hanging her head low, she sped up a bit, trying to avoid each and every one's glance.

'Look at her...'

'Um... I'm sure she's going to be fired. That's inappropriate work wear.' It started to become intense, so she shot each and every one of them a pissed glare, making them get back to work.

One of the traits Lightning had that made her so... friendless. Especially with a background such as being an Ex-Soldier working in the Cocoon Army for many years of her youth. She is now 24 years old, and look where she is. A P.A in Pulse Magazines, who gets the least pay in the whole building!

"Light! Where have you been? The meeting started ten minutes ago and... Oh my god. Look at you!"

"Shut up, Fang. Where is the meeting?"

"Girl, you ain't goin' anywhere with what you're wearing. Come with me"

"I need to get to that meeting-

"Not in those clothes, you're not!"

"Argh, hurry up then!"

The tall, brunette woman grinned, grabbing Lightning's hand and dragged her to the ladies room. Lightning was confused when she saw that Fang started stripping. "F-Fang! What are you doing?"

"Swap clothes!"

"Huh?"

"Hurry up!"

Lightning sighed, unbuttoning her dusty blouse and unzipped her skirt. Fang threw her clothes at Lightning, vice versa. Fang's eyes then travelled to the large bruises on her hips and upper thigh.

"What the hell happened?"

"Nothing. C'mon, I need to get to that meeting before Raines actually chews my head off!"

Fang sighed. It took only three minutes for Lighting to change into a tight fitting, baby blue pencil dress that cut just above the knee with a white boob jacket and silver open-toe pumps. She looked at Fang who was shoving Lightning's other clothes into the waste bin.

"Fang! What're you doing? Those cost me my whole pay last week!"

"Well, you're in need of a new set of skirts and blouses from now on. After work today, you and I are going shopping. Thank your lucky stars that I had left my spare set of clothes here when we cancelled the gym spin class session yesterday. You owe me, Light. These clothes need a damn wash" Fang grunted, pulling out a white frilly t-shirt that loosened at the sleeves and a gray waist skirt that cut at mid thigh. She slipped into white strap heels decorated with creamed frills. She also grabbed out her 'dolce and gabbana' perfume, spraying twice on both herself and Lightning. Fang dusted her attire off and smiled, guiding Lightning out of the ladies room to the meeting room down the hallway.

"Your excuse is that you had your car towed away and the asshole at the info desk wouldn't give it back until he got some ass" Fang explained, dusting Lightning's shoulders off.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Lightning brushed her off and entered through the large mahogany doors that held more than twenty elders on the other side of the doors.

"You're late... Again." Lightning twitched, bowing her head at the arrogant man who clasped his hands, resting his chin on top of them, ashamed of looking at her. Lightning trotted to his side and murmured an apology.

"Thank you gentlemen for your time. My assistant here was a tad bit late, so no notes were able to be copied down. E-mail me the ideas as soon as possible, if that's okay with you all."

"Thank you, Raines." men acknowledged and took their leave. Lightning winced, sighing. She knew what she was going to get... Another lecture.

"Lightning. To my office."


The oxygen in the room felt thin. Serah sighed as she watched the magnificent body of the dance instructor twirl her best friend, ending off with a dip. Her head had bent back as far as she could with her arm extended back, nearly touching the wooden ground. Serah's heart skipped a beat when she had watched as he dipped his head toward her neck, his lips lining her neckline, yet not touching her. She could feel her stomach tingle with the sensation as if she were in Vanille's place. The music ended, causing a thunderous applaud, and standing ovation. Vanille shied away and twittered with her index fingers, blushing, rushing back to Serah who was grinning widely.

"Wow, Vanille! You were awesome!" Serah exclaimed, jumping up and down with Vanille who still needed air to seize her blushing. "Thank you, Serah!" she giggled.

"So! Did your sister give you the okay to take ballroom classes with me?" Vanille asked, grabbing her bottle, gulping down as much as she could.

"She said no. It was too expensive."

"Darn. Did you tell her that I would be glad to pay for half of the price?"

"No, Vanille. I'll pay for my own. Thank you for your offer, though. You're way too kind"

"Don't worry about it! My Aunt would be happy to help out with paying for this. She and your sister are close aren't they?"

"Yeah. Thanks so much, Vanille. I'll ask Lightning once more" she assured, giggling. Both girls looked over their shoulders to see that the instructor was limping a bit toward his bottle of water that he neglected for the past six minutes of dancing.

"Is he okay?" Serah asked, a little worried.

"Oh my gosh. I didn't realise that he was hurt! He was perfectly fine when we were dancing." Vanille trotted over to the instructor. Serah and Vanille, and the other students of the class watched as he unzipped his black hooded leather jacket, revealing a thin black singlet and silver plain, blank dog chain hanging from his neck. Before even asking a question, they drowned their minds with the handsome features the instructor held, making them swoon a bit.

"Did you both need something?" his voice was soft and husky.

Breaking their concentration, they blinked a couple of times before actually snapping back to reality. "S-sorry. Uhh, we came over to ask if your leg was okay?" Serah muttered, shying away. He looked down at his left leg that bugged him.

"Some crazy woman fell down the set of stairs outside one of my friend's apartment, pulling me down with her" he sighed, dusting the remains of neglected dust on his denim black jeans, a little pissed about talking about it. Serah had found that her brows are knitted, feeling sorry for this handsome man.

"What an idiot!"

"Yeah. She didn't even apologise, and just left." he rolled his eyes, checking his fabulous silver 'Guess' wrist watch.

"Damn it." he sneered, looking up at the girls who were ogling him. Clearing his throat, he looked away.

"I need to leave now. Lesson's over" he announced, asking for them all to leave... hopefully getting them to stop looking at him like how they were. He could hear girl moaning and saw a couple of them pouting. He smirked, shaking his head, ushering them out of the mirrored room.

"Is there another lesson tomorrow?" he turned back to see that Serah hadn't left yet, whereas her friend was skipping down the hallway. He locked the room and faintly smiled.

"Yeah. Same time." he replied, tucking the keys into his jacket pocket.

"COOL! See you tomorrow!" she exclaimed, waving at him, sprinting down the hallway to catch up with Vanille. He watched as she turned the corner toward the exit.

'She looks just like the woman who pulled me down the staircase...' he muttered.

Just as he thought he was finally at peace, his iphone had suddenly began to ring.

"Yeah?"

'Noct. Where are you? Your uncle is expecting you in ten minutes'

"I know. I'm coming now."

'How was class?'

"Good. Why?"

'You know. The girls? Were there any cute ones? Hint, hint!'

"Goodbye, Ven."

'NO! WAIT-'

Noctis sighed, cutting his line off. "Perve..."


note: yay! the first chapter done! alright!

chapter two will be up soon.

I hope this AU story was okay, though. I haven't written a story in so long! I have just taken a liking to Lightning and Noctis after reading this really cute one shot of them both with the song 'Dark Waltz' by Hayley Westenra... yeah, I forgot it completely, and I forgot to favourite it, and I loved it!

Well, this is my first fanfic of the cute couple. so please be nice. Excuse any sort of grammar mistake within this chapter. please. lol. thank you!

bye bye!