Author's Note: The idea for this fic just sort of jumped out at me, and the more I thought about the story details for this fic the more I got excited to actually write it.
Title: Avenue Café
Rating: M for language, sex, and violence
Summary: AU. Lightning works as a VIP hostess at the Lucille Hostess Club, and Hope Estheim is the heir to the Nautilus Malls and Nautilus Theme Parks Conglomerate. Soon the two find themselves drawn to each other, but the important people in their lives will do anything in their power to keep them apart. HopexLightning and SnowxLightning
Settings: Cocoon is a futuristic utopia with technological advances just like in the game. This story takes place mainly in the city of Palumpolum.
Gran Pulse on the other hand is behind on the times and is not as technologically advanced as Cocoon, but is slowly abandoning the old ways of life and taking on a more modern day style. In the old traditions of Gran Pulse life people lived a more traditional life and were either hunters, gatherers, performers, or farmers, and each town had a different cultural art that it specialized in. Gran Pulse even now still very much has a rural countryside feel and architecture to it.
Key Story Notes: A hostess club employs primarily female staff and cater to males seeking drinks and attentive conversation.
Snow in this story works as a chef at a small restaurant in downtown Palumpolum.
Lightning and Snow live together in a townhouse in downtown Palumpolum.
Fang is Lightning's best friend and the person who scored her the hostess job.
Serah Farron was soon to be married to Snow, but died two years prior to the start of the story in a car accident.
In this story Hope is 25, Lightning is 23, and Snow is 24.
I'll let you know about other characters and key story information as we get to them.
Chapter 1 Club Lucille
"That does it! This is the last damn time that I hold a business meeting in the evening." Hope thought as he drove his sleek custom made black convertible through the cool fall night. These back-to-back business meetings regarding new business ventures for the Nautilus Malls and theme parks were increasingly becoming murderous, and adding to Hope's already rising stress levels.
Sometimes being the heir to a multi-million dollar business could be a real bitch, but in the end the positives definitely outweighed the negatives.
Hope made a smooth right turn as he drove through the night city lights of downtown Palumpolum until he reached his destination Club Lucille.
Once there, Hope pulled into the car crowded parking lot and eased the convertible into the nearest open parking spot that he could find. Before taking the keys out of the ignition Hope raised the convertible top back up and rolled the car's windows all the way up.
Hope then slid on his sunglasses and suave black fedora before stepping out of the car. He didn't care that the sunlight had long since past, but he sure in hell didn't want to be easily recognized as his mom would surely raise down hell on him if she ever found out that he came here and he really didn't want that.
Hope closed the car door and locked it before going to get in what was a long line in front of the entrance as people were waiting to be serviced. "Wow! This place must be that good if there are this many amounts of men waiting to be seated." Hope couldn't help but to think. Hope's friend Cid Raines was the one to recommend this place to him and urged that it was the perfect place to relieve one's stress.
Hope was doubtful of course, but a hostess club where beautiful woman were dolled up, poured your drinks, and listened to you attentively didn't really sound like a bad idea and hell it wouldn't hurt to try it. Hope pressed some crinkles out of his black business suit as he patiently waited his turn in line. "This better be worth the damn long wait." Hope mumbled under his breath.
After fifteen minutes or so it was finally Hope's turn in line. When Hope entered the club he was immediately astonished by the oriental interior design and scenery within the club. The club building from the outside was pretty large in size, but the inside seemed to be on an even larger scale in size compared to the outside. I guess this shouldn't have been too surprising considering that Club Lucille was supposedly the largest hostess club within the city of Palumpolum.
Hope was soon greeted by a woman with shoulder length black hair who was clad in a jade green qipao that had a medium length slit that went up on the left side of it.
"Hello, sir. I apologize for the long wait that may have inconvenienced you. My name is Lebreau and I will be your guide for today. Here at Club Lucille we have two different types of services we have the regular service and the VIP service."
"What's the difference between the two?"
"To briefly put it, the regular hostess service is our more affordable service for the average man while the VIP service is for our more high-class and high-end customers, and of course it's more expensive than the regular service."
Without a second thought Hope instantly picked the VIP service there was no way in hell that he was choosing the regular service he definitely wanted to get his money's worth. After Hope paid the $5000 upfront fee Lebreau then led him behind some red curtains to the VIP hostess selection room.
"These are our current VIP hostesses please pick one that you like." Lebreau said as she presented the hostesses to him.
There was a wide selection of hostesses to choose from. Each of them was dressed in different styles of dress kimonos, qipaos, and cocktail dresses that accentuated their assents.
As Hope looked over the selection of hostesses and as his eyes passed over them he saw most of them immediately become giddy with excitement or perky. Towards the end of the line of hostesses a hostess with silky pink hair and cerulean blue eyes caught Hope's attention and his eyes lingered on her for what felt like hours. She was dressed in a scarlet floral designed short kimono dress that showed off her sleek toned legs and wore simple black high heeled sandals.
As Hope's eyes lingered on her a sense of nostalgia flooded him. He felt like he had met this pink-haired woman before but he couldn't quite place his finger on it.
"Uhm…sir have you found a hostess that you like?"
Hope snapped out of his thoughts and replied, "Yes, I want her." Hope said as he pointed at the pink-haired cerulean eyed beauty. Lebreau subtlety gave Hope a worrisome look but Hope easily dismissed it as nothing.
Lebreau then handed the pink-haired woman a drinks menu off of one of the nearby wooden tables in the room. Hope intently watched the exchange as Lebreau whispered something into the pink-haired woman's ear this only piqued Hope's interest even further in her.
After Lebreau was done the pink-haired woman turned to Hope and said, "Follow me, sir." Hope immediately followed the woman as she led the way up the grandeur grand staircase adorned with little red lanterns to the second floor of the club that was reserved for VIP customers. She then led Hope to a vacant seating booth at the far end of the room as they passed by other hostesses engaging with their male clients. The room was dimly-lit by wall lamps and the candles on the tables of the seating booths.
Hope and his hostess took a seat at the booth as she casually slid him the drinks menu. Hope picked up the menu and skimmed through the array of drinks that were listed until he found the one that he would order before placing the menu back down on the table.
"My name is Lightning and I'll be your hostess for the duration of the night." She greeted as they waited for the server of the drinks cart to come their way.
Hope could smell Lightning's intoxicating rose perfume from across the table where she sat it was a welcomed addition. As Hope stared at Lightning from across the table he couldn't help, but still think that they've met somewhere before and it bugged the hell out of him that he still couldn't quite place where.
"Sir, are you alright?"
"Oh, yes I'm fine and please call me Hope. It's just that I can't help but think that you look familiar to me. Have we met somewhere before, perhaps?"
Lightning pondered Hope's question for a bit before responding. "No, not anywhere that I can think of and you having those sunglasses on don't help me in anyway either."
"Sorry but the sunglasses stay." Hope couldn't risk the chance of her or let alone anybody else in the club recognizing him. Even though he hasn't been in the public eye very much at all he didn't want to sully his reputation before even fully heading the company which his mom was currently the face of. It may have seemed silly but Hope couldn't help but to be cautious.
Lightning gave Hope a little smirk just as the drinks sever stopped at their seating booth. She promptly asked Hope, "Sir, have you decided what drink or drinks that you would like to order?"
"Yes, milk tea." Hope replied. Hope paid the female server as she placed a teapot full of milk tea and a medium empty tea cup and saucer onto the table before handing Hope a receipt of his purchase.
Lightning elegantly poured the milk tea from the teapot into the tea cup and sat the tea cup on the saucer before placing them both in front of Hope. As Hope took a sip of his milk tea Lightning continued on with their conversation from before.
"What's on your mind?" Lightning asked as she crossed her legs. Hope got a little more excited at that transaction than he should have. He set the teacup down as he replied, "To be honest, I've just been really stressed lately in relations to my job and I've been desperately looking for ways to relieve myself of that perpetual stress. A very good friend of mine recommended this place to as a way to do that."
This man intrigued Lightning since he wasn't like her usual clients. Usually her clients were instantly throwing themselves at her and tried to get into her panties on the first visit, but she quickly smashed their hopes and sent them home with not only emotional wounds but physical wounds too. Lightning couldn't begin to count how many times that she's almost lost her job because of her horny clients, but she was thankful that the main boss understood her dilemma and let her keep the job.
What also added to Lightning's intrigue in Hope was the fact that she also felt that Hope was familiar to her too, but she wouldn't allow herself to linger on the thought of it for too long.
In a sultry voice Lightning said, "Well I have faith that I can help you in accomplishing that goal."
"Hmm, so you're that confident." Hope said playfully. Hope liked a confident woman he found it extremely sexy and a turn on.
During the duration of the night Hope expressed his deepest thoughts, turmoil's, and problems while Lightning listened attentively and consoled him. When it was near business closing time Hope and Lightning exchanged goodbyes and he ensured Lightning that he would definitely be returning.
As Hope made it back to the entranceway of the club he was greeted by Lebreau again. "Thank you for patronage sir and we hope that you will visit us again. Also, if you enjoyed your hostess you can sign her up as your designated hostess for every time you come and visit us."
"Actually, I would very much like to do that."
"Okay sir, follow me." Lebreau led Hope to the front desk she then pulled out a detailed form that Hope had to fill out. Once Hope was done filling out the form she thoroughly glanced over it to make sure that everything was filled out before placing an approval stamp on it signifying that it was a done deal.
It was a little after 3 o'clock in the morning as Lightning sluggishly unlocked and opened the door to the townhouse that Snow and her shared. She closed the door behind her and soon made her way to her bedroom.
"Hey, you're home." Snow greeted from kitchen.
"Yeah, I'm home." Lightning greeted.
"Do you want something to eat? I could whip up something quick if you'd like."
"No, I'll eat a little later." Lightning yawned.
"So, how was work? Did you send another client out of there with a bloody nose again?" Snow quipped.
"Surprisingly work went very smoothly for a change."
"I see. Goodnight Lightning."
"Goodnight Snow."
Snow for quite some time has tried to talk Lightning into quitting the hostess job and finding work elsewhere, but Lightning's educational background didn't really allow for that seeing as she and her family are originally from Oerba, Pulse and there wasn't really much of any of a school system there on the same caliber as Cocoon's.
Lightning and Serah's father died on Pulse when they were very young.
After living what Lightning and Serah's mom deemed a fruitless life. Their mom decided that the family should migrate to Cocoon, and so they migrated to Cocoon when Lightning was just thirteen years old and Serah was eleven years old. It was by a stroke of luck that they met Snow's family who helped them in more ways than they could have ever imagined. In gratitude for helping our family out it was decided that Snow and Serah would marry when they were of proper age, but as fate would have it one snowy day as Serah was walking home from the local bakery shop a drunk driver came almost out of nowhere and hit Serah ending her life. She died when she was only nineteen years old.
It wasn't too long after that incident that Lightning's mom fell into a deep depression that eventually she couldn't recover from and it soon claimed her life as well.
Lightning was then left alone and in the care of Snow's family ever since. Snow has really been a pillar of emotional support for Lightning and she's very thankful to him. She may have even held some romantic interest in him, but if she did she wouldn't let herself act on it. Snow was supposed to be married to Serah and Lightning felt like she would be betraying her sister if she made a move on him.
Once Lightning was in her room she immediately plummeted onto her soft bed. She didn't even give a damn about changing out of her hostess clothes beforehand. As she laid there she thought about her mysterious yet alluring client Hope. He was a very interesting character and Lightning even surprised herself as she was strangely looking forward to their future encounters.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Reviews are greatly appreciated. Let me know your thoughts about the story so far.