A/N- So a good friend of mine has recently gotten me hella addicted Final Fantasy XIII, and it's characters. Namely the ship Snow x Serah. And while I myself have not actually played any of the games (alas, I am strongly lacking in an xbox or other supporting system right now.), I have in fact done a little bit of research into my adorable children and would like to share with the world this beautiful work of AU-ness. I hope you enjoy. (and I will be working to avoid any authors notes beyond this one in the future.
Chapter One: And So It Begins
Serah Farron had always been a particularly studious girl. Her attention hadn't strayed far from studies and when it did, it didn't go far beyond the safety of what was deemed normal for her life. What exactly classified as normal, you might be asking yourself. Well, that was an easy answer. Normal was dinner with Lightning every night when she came home from work after a long shift. Normal was homework done before she thought about anything else, usually it was done before Lightning got home from work, and checked, and double checked. Normal, for Serah, was spending her nights alone pretending the world beyond the fragile life she tended to lead didn't exist.
After all, she lived in a world where it seemed if one thing was out of place within a routine everything would come tumbling apart. It'd been that way for a while. Since she was seven to be exact. And she was seventeen now.
High school.
It was a nightmare, even for seasoned veterens of the world. If you didn't fit in, normally you were bullied, and tormented and hated on until everything seemed like it didn't matter anymore. For Serah though, she just ignored it. It was another constant. Another thing that fit into her routine just as easily as everything else.
And that was likely why the pinkette was ignoring those who were attempting to no avail to press her buttons.
"Come on, Serah. We know you have the answers. Give them to us."The boy who spoke was a tall male, captain of one of the schools many sports teams, his girlfriend, who joined him in his harassment was as well.
"I wouldn't have to give you the answers if you'd just pay attention in class, Jamie."Serah kept her tone as level, and as even as possible. Some would even dare to say she added a little twinge of her normal happy sounding tone to the words.
Of course, that would've been if anybody within the school had actually known what the sound of her voice was when she wasn't fending off her bullies, or answering a question in the classroom. That was another thing about Serah, she didn't really talk much. She didn't have friends, either. She'd never been very good at the friend vibe, and to be fair, she didn't feel like she needed them. She had a plan set in motion, a plan that required most of her focus and didn't leave time for a social life. A fact she was more than okay with.
She felt the books falling from her grasp as she toyed with her locker trying to get it to spring open, and Bianca, did nothing to stop them, in fact, Serah didn't seem shocked when the girl reached forward and knocked the books down completely. "Oops. Sorry my hand slipped."
If it hadn't been for Serah's perfect attendance record and lack of trouble, she may have caught herself wishing that she could hit the girl, but she didn't. She knew better. She knew the consequences if she took that leap and they would not bode well for any of her future plans. She opened the blue locker, finally and squatted to collect all of her books from the floor, but alas, her homework for her first class was missing.
"Looking for something?"Jamie's voice taunted as he held the paper above her head, and out of her reach. God how she hated being so short. It was like a curse. What bothered her though, was that she didn't even seem to see either of them bend down to remove it from her book.
"Give it back, Jamie."Her tone was laced with impatience, her innocence gone. She was angry. If she didn't have that paper, her perfect grades were going to go right down the tubes, and she'd lose everything she worked so hard for. After all, it was hard work to get into an Ivy League college on a full scholarship.
"You heard the girl, give it back."Serah was caught off guard by the new voice that had presented itself into the conversation. Her eyes turned up, to find the source of it, and she was shocked. The guy didn't even look like he should be in high school. He was tall. So much taller than her. She felt like a dwarf in his presence. For a moment, her attention was gone from the assignment that Jamie had been dangling above her head – a dangerous thing really- as she allowed her eyes to trail over the mysterious male who had come to her rescue.
He was, as she'd already thought, massive in both height and muscle mass. And to her, she could only find the perfect way to describe him as the type of boy Lightning would murder if she ever brought him home. He was clad in dark jeans and a tank-top in a dingy grey color. But what stood out more importantly above the rest, was the white leather trench coat the color of freshly fallen snow that was as long as he was tall. Blonde hair framed his features, and he offered her a lazy smile before it faded as he turned his attention back to the bullies.
"I thought I told you to give it back." His tone was darker, and some how more dangerous, and she felt a tinge of fear bubble up inside of her. She made a mental note to avoid him like the plague. God only knew what kind of trouble he'd present if she kept him around.
Needless to say his tactic was effective. The paper, while not handed back to her directly, floated to the floor as both Jamie and Bianca walked off, to do whatever those two did, when they didn't make it their life's mission to make her miserable. She turned her attention back to her rescuer, who bent down to pick up the paper, and hand it back to her.
She took it, an almost dumbstruck look on her face.
"My knight in shining leather."She let out an almost anxious laugh, and then realized what she said, "I'm sorry, that was not an extremely pathetic attempt at flirting. I- I um- Thanks. I'm Serah."
She felt so damn awkward. It was odd. The clunky way the words fell from her lips in a series of rambles and awkward pauses with a mess of non-words. Way to make a good first impression. Not that it mattered. She'd already made her intentions to avoid him pretty clear to herself. Not that it'd really do her much good to try. Fate had a funny way of making certain things happen. Not that she knew that herself.
Though she was a strong believer in fate. In fact, it was her belief in fate that had gotten her through the deaths of her parents when she was younger. She had firmly convinced herself that them dying had to be fate, and nothing else. Probably because she couldn't bring herself to place blame on the animals that had caused the crash that killed them.
"No worries, Serah. The names Snow."
She fought the urge to laugh. What kind of boy's name was Snow? It left her a bit confused as well, though she supposed it could work. And from the looks of it, he liked to play into the name. What with the trench coat and all.
"Well thank you, for rescuing my homework for me, Snow. But I think I should be heading to class now. Maybe I'll see you around."
She hoped not.
He intimidated the hell of out her, not to mention he seemed to be a loose canon, she didn't want to be around when he finally exploded. Serah finished gathering her books, and shoved the few she didn't need in her locker before plucking her notebooks and a few pencils free, and letting the blue door slam with a sound that resounded down the hall.
She walked off, none the wiser to the fact that Snow was watching her go.
-/-
Snow Villiers was for lack of a better word, a hero. He enjoyed protecting those who couldn't protect themselves, and often found himself in endless bouts of trouble with his foster family for the fights he'd get in with the schools variety of bullies. And while his reputation often proceeded him, he wasn't a terrible student. Nor was he really all that bad of a guy. At least that's what he thought.
In reality, Snow was actually quite the fun loving dork, when he wasn't masquerading as a full time hero. Those who were actually close enough to him to know that side of him were few and far between though. His sister, Frost, was one of them. Along side his best friends, Hope and Noel.
Though to be fair, him and Noel didn't actually start as friends, in fact, Noel hated him in the beginning. Apparently he wasn't a big fan of the hero types. Snow had just laughed it off and offered up friendship and boom, magic happened. Wasn't it just great how the world worked in such mysterious ways?
The blonde male allowed himself to walk towards the general direction of his classroom in a slow mosey, hands in the pockets of his jeans as he moved like a lion. His motions were long and lithe, despite their obvious slowness, Snow wasn't exactly worried about being late, despite the fact that the warning bell had already rang, and the final bell was well on it's way.
He didn't have to be on time to have good grades.
At the forefront of his mind for the time being wasn't the lesson on the board that the teacher seemed to drone about, no, it was a girl with pink hair and the most beautiful pair of blue eyes he'd ever seen in his life.
It was funny how it seemed to play out, Snow Villiers who'd never so much as had a girlfriend, laid eyes on Serah and something in him just clicked. Like a peace of him knew that there was meant to be something between them.
He just didn't know how true that nagging suspicion was.
As class droned on, he caught whispers of a prank. Pranks were things that happened often at their school, normally it was the seniors doing their Senior Pranks. He'd been saving his for something big. Something really big. His friends had even volunteered to help out. It was gonna be pretty great.
O f course hearing about the prank didn't pique his curiousity, it wasn't really anything to worry about. All in good fun, he let out a deep chuckle to himself. Kicking back and allowing the morning to continue to play out before him, completely carefree.