AN: Hey guys! This is an AU fic for the Fanille pairing!

Just something I wanted to mention before you start reading: Everyone looks quite like in XIII, just their clothing is different from in the game. And Hope is older here and therefore you can imagine him looking more like in XIII-2. :)

And now ... have a nice read and enjoy!

Chapter One

It had been a long day so far. A very long day indeed. Vanille normally quite enjoyed even her hardest days at university, but today she just wanted to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather. And she finally got the chance to do just that when the lecture was over.

She sighed contentedly and grabbed her bag to leave. Normally, Serah would have attended the lecture with her, as both of them studied literature, but her best friend had decided to stay home today to enjoy this wonderful day.

I should have done the same., Vanille thought to herself while making her way through one of these endless corridors of the university. But that was just not like Vanille at all. She had always been a hardworking student, and she hardly ever allowed herself to skip lectures.

Serah, however, was a bit different. The pink-haired girl was not a lazy student, no, but she saw no harm in missing a lecture every once in a while either. At least when there was a good reason for it.

The weather certainly was one of those good reasons, Vanille inwardly agreed once she had opened the door and stepped outside of the big building. It was really beautiful. The sun shone bright and it was pleasantly warm.

The girl smiled happily to herself and left the campus. She then walked her usual route home. It was only a few minutes from the university.

As the University of Bodhum was located directly near the core of its city, Vanille had to walk through the city centre every time. Needless to say, more often than not she and Serah found themselves stopping in front of shops to have a look. Bodhum was not such a big city but still, there were quite a lot of good opportunities to do some shopping.

Vanille was completely lost in her thoughts and daydreams as she passed through the city centre, trying her best to ignore the shops and their inviting offers that were all over the place.

However, there was one thing that suddenly caught her attention and dragged her out of her thoughts with a force. On a wall to her right there was a huge poster. "Fighting Fate" was written on its top in bold letters. She immediately walked closer to have a look at this.

And she almost squealed loudly when she read what this was about. Yes, it was her favourite band, Fighting Fate, that was shown on this poster. And even better, they would be coming to Bodhum for a concert next week. Vanille couldn't believe it. This just had to be the most exciting thing ever! She had to tell Serah.

She took another look at the big poster. All four band members were on it, but her glance was immediately almost magically drawn to one in particular: There she was, on the right, holding her guitar and smirking confidently. Fang. Vanille's smile widened as she stared for some more moments before forcing herself to avert her gaze from the stunning woman that she had a crush on.

There was no more time for that now, she had to go home and tell Serah about the concert. She had no idea how the two of them could've missed an event like this for so long, but now that Vanille got to know about it, she just had to inform her best friend. Hopefully, they would still be able to grab tickets for this.

Serah sat on the couch and occupied herself with watching some boring TV series she wasn't even really interested in when she heard the front door opening and immediately after closing loudly. This had to be Vanille, Lightning never threw the door closed like this.

And indeed it was. "Seraaaah! I'm home and I absolutely need to tell you something!", Serah didn't even have a chance to get up from the couch before her best friend entered the living room with a big excited smile on her face.

Serah found herself smiling back straight away - she couldn't help it, Vanille's smile was just contagious. "What is it? Tell me", she said with a curious tone to her voice.

Vanille smiled even more when she opened her mouth to speak. "Well...", she began, placing her bag on the floor before she sat down beside the pink-haired girl. "Apparently...", again, she paused. She knew this made Serah mad, it always did once she was eager to get to know something. It was a sadistic game she loved to play with her best friend.

"Oh come on now, Vanille, tell me!", Serah said desperately and leaned in closer to the redhead in anticipation. Vanille only giggled at this, but then decided to relieve Serah of this immense burden the curiosity seemed to have put on her shoulders.

"Fighting Fate are coming to Bodhum next week! They'll play a concert here!", she blurted out in what seemed like merely a second.

Serah couldn't help but scream in excitement. "SERIOUSLY? I mean ... seriously-seriously?", she almost squealed.

"Yep!", Vanille cried out. She had known Serah would find this just as exciting as she did.

They had never been to a concert of Fighting Fate before as they had only discovered the band some months ago and hadn't had the opportunity yet, but they had definitely hoped for their favourite musicians to come to their town all this time. And now this wish had become reality.

"So ... you said this is next week, right? We'll need to be quick then if we want to get some tickets!", Serah finally said once they had calmed down a bit. Vanille only nodded to this and then got up before she turned around to her still sitting friend.

"I guess we shouldn't waste any time then! Come on, let's see if we can get us some tickets to this!", she exclaimed happily and waited for Serah to get up.

There was a lot of hectic activity on and behind the stage, just as usual.

It was only hours until the audience would be let in for the concert. And then about another hour with a quite average supporting act before they would walk onto the stage to greet their fans and give them what they had all waited for, play their songs for them, put on a fancy show. Just as usual.

And damn, she loved it. She loved every last bit of this life she hadn't even been dreaming about not so long ago. She would be playing in front of quite a big crowd in Eden, the capital of Cocoon. This was really something special.

"Fang? Are you even listening to what I'm saying?", Hope said confusedly.

Fang looked up at him before shaking her head. "No, sorry. I guess I've been daydreamin' a bit", she said and followed it with a lazy smirk. The young man could only smile at this. This reaction was just so Fang.

"Well, I was just talking about tonight. How do you feel about it?", he scratched his head and looked at her with a questioning look on his face.

"The concert you mean?", Fang asked before leaning back in her chair. Hope nodded. "I guess just as usual, I'm alright. Why do you ask?", she answered.

"I don't know. I'm just still very nervous, every time we play.", he replied and got up from his chair across Fang to check his appearance once again in the big mirror that was in the room.

Fang smiled. "You'll get used to it sooner or later. And it is still quite new, it's not like we've been doing this for years already, right?", she assured him.

She knew that Hope was quite a shy person and not nearly as self-confident as she was. But he was improving, and she knew that probably a good part of that improvement was thanks to her taking him under her wing, being some kind of role model for him he could learn from.

It was more an unspoken, passive thing, though. She didn't actively do much herself to help him. It was more that she allowed him to watch her attitude, her behaviour, her way to do things and occasionally gave him the assurance he lacked every now and then. Just like now. It wasn't much that she actually did, but then again she wasn't his mother.

She only noticed that she'd once again lost herself in thoughts when the door to the small room opened and Sazh came in, followed by Cid.

"Hey guys", Sazh said cheerfully and Cid only nodded before he closed the door behind them.

"Nervous, old man?", Fang provoked Sazh playfully, her typical smirk playing around her lips. Sazh only replied to this with a hearty laugh. "No, no, not really, girl.", he winked.

"I guess I'm too old and already too used to this to be nervous.", he replied truthfully and sat down on the chair that had been occupied by Hope moments ago.

A smile came to his features. "Well, okay, a little bit maybe. But that's not wrong, is it?", he spoke and leaned back in the chair.

"If you're not at least a tad bit nervous, you're doing it wrong", Cid piped up before Fang could say anything. He leaned against the wall beside Sazh before he continued.

"I'm always a bit afraid that I might lose my voice or something, this fear is there every concert. Or that I might screw up.", he smiled faintly. "But it's alright", he shrugged his shoulders, "I believe this makes me perform better on stage, so I don't complain."

Sazh only nodded in agreement before he turned to Fang again. "What about you? You ever nervous?"

Fang didn't have to think long to answer that question for herself. "I am, but once we're on stage and start playin', it's completely gone", she replied confidently, clasping her hands.

Hope had been completely silent during the entire conversation. Everyone knew that he was the most nervous person of them all when it came to playing on stage. He didn't need to say it.

"Anyway, we still got some time before we need to worry about nervousness, so how about some poker, guys?", Sazh finally suggested and got up, stretching his arms and yawning briefly.

"I'm game", they heard Fang's accented voice reply before Cid also agreed grinning widely and Hope nodded his consent. It had become quite a tradition of them to play some kind of card game, mostly poker, before the concerts. This time wasn't any different, even though they had never before played in front of such a large crowd.

"Well, I guess that was to be expected...", Vanille sighed while she and Serah went home again. It was a long day and they had literally gone to every ticket shop of Bodhum they knew.

"Mhh... did you check the internet shops?", Serah asked, a spark of hope igniting her eyes for a brief moment. As if for emphasis, Vanille patted the phone in her pocket and nodded.

"Yes, I did check everywhere. I guess it's just a bit too late...", the redhead said sadly. She really had hoped that somehow, somewhere, there would have been some tickets left for the concert. But it wasn't a big surprise to anyone that there weren't, in fact. After all, Fighting Fate were one of the most popular bands of Cocoon at the moment, so there were obviously a lot of people to visit their concerts.

The rest of the walk home was spent in silence; neither of them knew what to say, and even the nice weather did not make up for the disappointment.

Once they reached their home again and entered, they heard a female voice coming from the kitchen. Apparently, Lightning had returned from work.

They made their way to the kitchen to see that she was not alone: Serah's boyfriend, Snow, was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Serah, Vanille! You're back", Lightning said matter-of-factly as she saw the two girls enter the room.

At this, Snow placed his cup on the table and turned around in his chair, only to get up not one second later to practically storm towards his girlfriend and give her a big bear hug. "Serah!", he exclaimed happily.

Vanille could only giggle. This was just too cute. She went over to Lightning, who was currently making a sandwich for herself, and poked her gently on the shoulder. "You let him in? I mean ... voluntarily?", she teased her playfully.

She knew Lightning wasn't fond of her behaving this way to her, but Vanille had become a part of the family and therefore some kind of second younger sister to Lightning so the redhead could push her boundaries a bit without having to fear much coming back from the stoic woman.

"Yes. I ... had a good day, lucky for him.", Lightning replied coolly, a hint of a smirk playing around her lips as she took her sandwich and sat down on a chair. Vanille followed her example.

Meanwhile, Serah and Snow had sat down as well. "So, where have you guys been?", Snow finally asked.

"We heard that Fighting Fate are coming to the city next week and tried to grab some tickets.", Serah replied, the disappointment evident in her voice. "But there were none left", Vanille added.

"Oh thank Etro", it slipped Lightning out. She couldn't stand their fan girl behaviour.

It was already quite annoying, for example when they would turn up the music volume so much that Lightning could also 'enjoy' it wherever she was in the house - and their house wasn't small - or when they would just get the sudden idea that whatever happened with the band was exciting enough that they had to tell Lightning as well, whether she wanted or not. And that did happen often.

Needless to say, it would've been a disaster for the older Farron if the girls had gotten tickets for a concert. They would have driven her insane with their excitement, she was certain of that.

"Lightning!", Serah exclaimed at her sister's mean remark and balled her small hands into fists for a second. She wasn't really angry, though. She was too used to this sort of reaction from her older sister for that. Lightning couldn't help but chuckle at Serah's cute reaction.

"Wait, wait, wait! So you said you were looking for tickets for the Fighting Fate concert next Friday here in Bodhum, right?", Snow piped up.

"Yep!", Vanille answered.

A grin formed on Snow's lips. Oh, Lightning would kill him for that. "Well...", he started, glancing over to Lightning shortly before turning to Serah again. "Then you still have a chance for two tickets, guys!", he stated happily.

"What?", all three women in the room exclaimed in unison. The only difference being was that Lightning didn't look nearly as happy as Serah and Vanille did.

"You heard me right, ladies", he grinned. "There is a little competition tomorrow at my radio station. You call, and if you're lucky you get through. Then you answer the question right and you win two tickets for the concert", he explained.

The two girls couldn't help but scream happily at this. There was still hope that they might just make it to the concert with a bit of luck on their side!

Snow raised his fist in victory. He loved to see Serah so happy, it was just contagious. He shot over a quick glance to Lightning. And he believed he had never seen her having a so utterly shocked facial expression before. It just screamed "WHY?", and he couldn't help but find it amusing.

But Lightning was quick to recover. "You're doing this ... competition, Snow?", she asked him coolly. She had returned to her typical self, it seemed.

Snow nodded. "Yeah, why?" What was she up to? A small smile appeared on Lightning's face. She tried to hide it but there was no use.

"They will accuse you of favouring Serah if she wins this", the older Farron pointed out. And she had a point, everyone knew that. But that didn't stop Snow from trying to get it out of the way.

"No problem with that. We have more than enough radio hosts, I can just ask someone else to do this competition for me. Problem fixed", he winked at Lightning.

"Damn it!", she almost whispered and gently hit the table with her fist for emphasis.

Vanille giggled. "Come on, Light! We haven't even won yet! And even if we do, we'll behave ourselves, okay? Promise!", the girl smiled broadly. She really meant what she said, she knew that her and Serah's love for Fighting Fate annoyed Lightning more than just a bit.

"She's right, sis! We'll try to be a bit more normal and less the biggest fans in the world that we are", Serah supported Vanille and looked over to Lightning for some kind of reaction.

"As if I could stop you from trying anything possible to attend that concert anyway", Lightning gave in with a sigh and got up from her chair to put her empty plate into the sink.

The rest of the sunny day was spent in harmony and they decided to make use of the great weather and grilled in the garden that lay behind the house. They hardly noticed the time flying by and soon, Snow said his goodbyes and left.

Despite the late hour, Serah and Vanille spent another two hours in the redhead's room, talking about the band and - of course - listening to their music while doing so.

When they finally lay down to get some rest, it put a smile on Vanille's face to think about her crush once more. She was just gorgeous, and talented as well. Etro, even her name sounded glorious. Fang. Actually, the girl couldn't find anything about Fang that she did not adore. She had a heavy crush on the woman, after all.

Vanille took a quick glance at the alarm clock on her nightstand which read 12.13 am. So late already. She wondered what Fang was doing right now and began thinking about the endless possibilities before she drifted off into a deep sleep.

It had been a fantastic concert for the band.

From the moment Fang had made her way onto the stage with the others and had picked up her guitar to the final minutes when they had bowed before the audience and had smiled happily again before leaving the stage for good for this evening, it had been a truly great concert for the young woman and time had definitely flown by as if they had only been playing there for seconds.

But right now, Fang had other things in mind as she hastily pushed open the door to the hotel room and dragged the young woman into it with her before slamming the door shut and pressing her against it, wasting no time and kissing her wildly.

The woman's name was Neera, that was about all she knew about her. Well, and that she was a fan of Fighting Fate. She had attended the concert and afterwards, when the band had given an autograph session, Fang had taken a liking to her and that was how they had ended up here, in this small hotel room Fang had quickly rented for one night.

It wasn't really the first time Fang had taken a groupie to a room for one night of pleasure, though. Far from it. It happened almost every concert and whenever there was an opportunity and a girl Fang liked. Therefore, she was already well-known for her flirtatious behaviour and more so for her promiscuity with groupies.

It wasn't exactly bad publicity, though. In fact, there were a lot of girls approaching her to get a chance at a night with her, especially since they had gained more and more popularity and her habit had become common knowledge.

Still, her attitude towards groupies was obviously quite controversial but that was to be expected. But apparently it didn't affect the band in any negative way, so there wasn't really much reason for Fang to change her behaviour. It was her way of living, after all.

The two women went over to the bed that stood in the middle of the small room and Fang pushed the other woman onto the mattress and threw her leatherjacket on the floor next to the bed.

She cast a brief glance over to the clock on the nightstand which displayed 12:13 am in bold red-glowing numbers before quickly climbing on top of the handsome woman that lay before her.

It was early in the morning when Fang awoke with the woman still lying there next to her. She smirked more to herself before getting up quietly. As this was already so much routine to her, it really didn't take her long at all to find and put on her clothes and leave the room quickly without waking the still sleeping woman.

She then took a cab to the hotel she and the band stayed at in Eden. Of course, she would never take a groupie with her to her real accommodation.

She always chose another hotel for the nights she shared with groupies. It was safer for her and the band and that way she could just grab her things and leave the next morning without any trouble.

When she finally arrived at the hotel, she quickly went upstairs to her room and took a much needed shower before changing and going downstairs again to meet up with the band for breakfast.

She knew she was a few minutes late today, so everyone was already sitting at their table and eating when she arrived and wished everyone a good morning.

Everyone shot her this knowing glance for a brief moment before turning back to their normal selves, greeting her kindly.

"Hey Fang, had a long night, huh?", Cid commented when Fang sat down beside him.

She smirked, "Of course, what did you think?", she replied and her grin only widened when Sazh facepalmed.

She knew very well that he didn't really approve of her 'activities' with groupies but he rarely said anything against it, knowing that she didn't want to change this anyway. They had had this discussion often enough already.

Hope, however, just remained silent and ate his bacon with eggs. Fang's behaviour didn't bother him. On the contrary, he sometimes found himself even getting a bit envious of how everyone just admired and loved Fang and how she just seemed to have no trouble at all seducing any girl she wanted.

He was gay, however, so the girls weren't even what this was about. It was about Fang's talent to be popular with people, to be admired and liked by everyone. It was what he wanted as well. And he wanted to be self-confident about it.

"So, how's the plan for today?", Fang asked into the silence. She was aware that she should know this herself and she probably would, but right now she was just still so tired that she couldn't find the will to think about it herself.

"Nothing special, we'll only practise some later and that's about it for today.", Sazh replied while eating his cereal. "Our next concert will only be next Friday in Bodhum, up to then it's only some interviews, a press conference and practising, basically", he added while chewing.

"So nothing special really", she agreed and got up to help herself to some breakfast.

It would be quite a normal week until their next concert in Bodhum. They had been there before but that had been quite some time ago when they hadn't yet been as famous as they were now. Therefore, this would be their first large-scale concert in the beachside city. Fang was looking forward to it.

Vanille had already been super excited the moment she had woken up this morning, knowing that today she and Serah would try and win the last two remaining tickets for the Fighting Fate concert.

The competition held by Snow's radio station Bodhum 101 would be at 12 and they had agreed that Serah would be the one calling while Vanille would be sitting beside her.

Finally, it was time to make the call and Serah dialled the number, hoping she would be the one getting through.

They had their radio with them in the room so they were able to hear the radio host's deep voice greeting the caller that had just gotten through to him - unfortunately, it was not them but a young man. The girls let out a loud sigh at this.

"So, Ralis, can you answer me the following question? How often have Fighting Fate already been here in Bodhum to play a concert?", it sounded from the radio. Both Vanille and Serah hoped for their own sake that the man didn't know the answer to this.

"Ehm ... two times, I think?", the caller replied nervously.

"Ha, that's wrong, they've only been here once!", Vanille almost screamed to her best friend and before Serah could say anything the radio host unknowingly agreed with Vanille.

"Noooo! They've only been here once so far, mate! Wrong answer, sorry!", it came out of the radio.

"Aaand we got the next caller on the line! Who am I talking to?" Vanille had to put both her hands on her mouth to stop herself from screaming out. Serah had just gotten through and now held their ultimate chance in her hands to win the tickets. She couldn't believe it!

"This is Serah Farron", Serah replied nervously. "Hey Serah! So are you ready for your chance to win two tickets for the awesome Fighting Fate concert on Friday?", the host asked with an almost overly motivated voice.

"Sure I am!", Serah answered quickly.

"Great! So here's your question! What was the exact date of Fighting Fate's formation?", the host wanted to know.

Vanille had to stop herself from giggling hysterically. She knew the answer to this. She almost wanted to grab the phone away from Serah to answer the question herself but it wasn't necessary. "It's the 19th of March last year", Serah said with all the calmness she could muster.

"And this is correct of course! CONGRATULATIONS!", the radio host almost screamed out of the radio and into their very hearts, it seemed.

"You have just won the last two remaining tickets for the Fighting Fate concert next week, Serah Farron!", he told her and the two girls couldn't keep themselves calm any longer as both started cheering loudly for some seconds before they had to calm down again for Serah to give her thanks.

She was then put through to another staff member who told her when and where she would be able to pick up her tickets.

It was not much later when Serah and Vanille had picked up their tickets and returned home as excited as they could be. "This is so amazing, Vanille! I still can't believe that we won this!", Serah cried out when they sat down on her bed together.

Vanille nodded her head quickly and started laughing out of sheer happiness. Serah was right, this was just awesome. And she would finally be able to see Fang in person, not only on a television screen. She was already feeling so nervous she was afraid her heart might as well jump out of her chest at any moment.

"Etro, I'm already so excited about this!", Vanille exclaimed before jumping off of the bed and pacing around the small room that was Serah's.

Serah could only smile at this. Her best friend really seemed totally excited, even more so than she was. It was great to see Vanille that happy about the upcoming event, and Serah decided this was a good moment to listen to some music of their favourite musicians and turned on the radio to play their latest album.

Vanille immediately started squealing when the intro of the album came to her ears, a catchy guitar solo played by Fang.

"I love this solo, she's such a talented player, Serah!", Vanille said, her voice full of enthusiasm and her eyes having a strange spark to them.

Serah couldn't help but find this a bit odd. When had she seen this spark before? She tried to remember. Her eyes widened when the sudden realisation hit her. She had seen it before when Vanille had had a crush on that girl from their neighbourhood not so long ago! Could that mean that she ... ?

Maybe. Serah knew the best way to find out whether she was just imagining things or not would be to simply ask openly so that was what she did. "Vanille?"

"Mh?", the girl sat down beside her pink-haired friend again.

"Could it be that you have a crush on Fang?", she asked plainly with a sweet smile playing around her lips. And she got all the confirmation she needed when Vanille immediately turned a bright shade of pink. She had always been bad at hiding things.

"Ehm ... I- ...", she stammered helplessly. Serah couldn't help but giggle before drawing the poor girl beside her into a tight hug.

"It's ok, Vanille! Nothing to be ashamed about, I just noticed your odd behaviour and wanted to know if my guess was right!", Serah comforted her cheerfully and it didn't take long until Vanille, too, found herself laughing again before they parted again.

"So you want to make a move after the concert or so?", Serah finally asked her.

"I don't know ... I haven't given this much thought or even hope to be honest", Vanille confessed while looking down at the bed with a bit of a sad expression. "I mean, she's famous and she has a lot of girls fancying her-"

"Plus you don't only want to have her for one steamy night like all the other groupies, got it", Serah interrupted and finished for her.

"I know this might sound overly optimistic, but why don't you just try it despite the odds? Approach her, be nice, be yourself and maybe you're lucky! You never know what life has in store for you!", Serah encouraged her and patted her on her shoulder lightly.

Vanille smiled despite herself. Normally, she was the optimist of them, but when it came to the endless story of trying to find a girlfriend, she was probably an even bigger pessimist than Lightning.

After all, she'd just recently turned 18 and had still not even kissed a girl, let alone had a girlfriend. She had just never had much luck when it came to love.

"Well, I guess I can try ... somehow", Vanille finally replied shyly and Serah nodded in content. Vanille still wasn't convinced how she - the little, shy, inexperienced Vanille - should even have the slightest chance with the self-confident, tough Fang who was approached regularly by dozens of pretty girls, but then again you really never knew and in her heart she hoped that Serah was right with what she'd said.

The next days passed by quickly and before they knew it, it was finally Friday, the day they had so much waited for.

AN: So this is the first chapter of my very first multi-chapter story in English! Please let me know what you think in the reviews! :)

It's actually funny how I got the idea for the story. I play the guitar myself and I had the thought that it would be pretty cool if Fang were a guitarist of a famous rock band. It just created a cool image of her playing on stage in my mind and I went on thinking about it until I got the idea for this Fanille story.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it so far and I'll most likely upload the next chapter within the next days.