This is an AU. I really hope you enjoy it. I, sadly, don't own Final Fantasy. Square Enix does.
Enjoy!
Claire stretched like she did every afternoon. She smiled over at Hope who was doing the same thing.
"What do you want to practice first," she asked turning her head.
"Whatever your mom wants us to practice," he replied.
Claire nodded as the two stood up and sat at the bench near the far wall off the dance floor.
"Do you think the competition this weekend will be hard," Hope asked when they sat down.
"Mom said it would be difficult this year, but don't worry we'll do great," Claire smiled.
Before Hope could respond the doors swung open to reveal a woman in her mid thirties with rose curly hair tied in a pony tail and bright blue eyes. Two girls followed behind her. One was a small girl probably the same age as Claire's little sister, fourteen, with vibrant red hair and innocent green eyes. Her hair was pulled up into two very curly pig tails. The other one was tall and looked like she was seventeen like Claire. She had brown hair that looked slightly red at the tips. She had a braid peeking out behind her left ear and a beauty mark underneath her right eye. Her eyes were an electric green. They both were dressed weirdly. The taller one was dressed in a blue dress of sorts that seemed somewhat wrapped around her; under it she had just a black halter like shirt. Strapped to the side of her waist was what looked like a fur pelt. She had tan leather open-toed sandals on. The shorter one was in a pink halter top, and ombré orange and yellow skirt that was attached to the shirt by a string of beads and had a fur pelt around her waist. She also had beige boots.
"This is our main dance room. This is where I do all of the try out evaluations and most of our group dances. The dancers are also allowed to practice in here," Claire's mother explained as she smiled at her eldest daughter.
"Good you're here. Have you seen your sister? I was hoping she could help me," her mom asked.
Claire stood up and walked over to her mother, "she's in the next room practicing her contemporary number with Eli. Who's this?"
"Claire I would like you to meet Oerba Yun Fang and her little sister Oerba Dia Vanille. Vanille here wants to be a dancer. I was hoping maybe Serah could help put something together before try outs next week," she smiled.
"Oh," Claire nodded, "so you want to be a dancer."
Vanille nodded excitedly, "oh yes. I've always wanted to since I was little."
Claire arched an eyebrow, "you're from Pulse?"
"Gran Pulse," Fang corrected, "and yeah got a problem with it?"
Claire just smirked, "nope."
Fang looked the girl up and down. She was in a brown zipped turtle neck half shirt and black spandex shorts. Her hair was a rose color that was pretty frayed looking in the bangs and curly everywhere else. She had pale blue eyes. She constantly flicked her bangs out of her right eye and pulled the rest of her hair over her left shoulder. She didn't have shoes on but had these weird looking things that stopped mid-foot and was between her big toe and the rest.
"Look Vanille has never danced in her life but she's a damn fast learner, yeah?"
Claire cocked her head to the side, "okay well how about we show her just how hard it is to get in this dance company and see if she wants to try out. If she does I'll go get Serah."
Fang and Claire were toe and toe now, "okay."
Claire spun on her heals, "take a seat. Hope we're doing 'Lemme See'."
Fang watched as Claire pulled off the weird things and tie on a pair of boots that reached mid-calf. She reached for a long skirt that only covered up her left leg and tied it on. She watched the boy named Hope place a chair in the middle of the floor and hand Claire what looked like a shopping bag. Mrs. Farron walked over to a cabinet type thing that had a bunch of buttons and devices on it. She pressed a few buttons as music started playing through unseen speakers. It was a slow yet contagious beat and Claire and Hope started to dance. Fang watched in awe as the girl danced around the room. She never once tripped over her feet or ran into the chair. In fact Fang thought the chair bit was her favorite part of the whole dance. Claire seemed to have this way of captivating you whenever she danced and boy was Fang captivated. Fang was very excited for some reason to see what would come out of the bag only to be let down to see it was a simple white laced scarf. (The dance I referenced this from: watch?v=26NcmQyYk0Q )
Claire looked over at her mother, "what do I need to fix?"
Her mother tapped her chin, "well for starters your feet were apart in the first half of the dance where they didn't need to be apart. Your chair number could be a little more flawless but instead it was choppy. Hope get in position where you spin her in the chair."
Hope did as he was told as Claire sat in the chair. For the next few minutes Claire and Hope practiced that one segment before her mother was critiquing other things and making them practice it over and over again. By the time they were allowed to stop both were sweating and panting. Claire walked over and sat in front of Fang and chugged half a bottle of water before lying on the floor spread out.
"Why is it so hot in here," she whined.
Her mother laughed, "Your father has got to call and get the air fixed again."
Claire groaned, "That's the third time in two months."
Hope sat down beside Claire panting, "It's always hotter after we dance."
Claire sat up and glared at him, "you're kidding?"
Hope shook his head and nudged her with his shoulder.
Claire turned her attention to Fang and Vanille, "so what do you think Vanille? Think you could handle it?"
Vanille looked worried for a moment before smiling, "there's nothing I can do but try, right?"
Claire nodded her head, "that's all anyone asks of you. Come on I'll show you to Serah."
"Here Claire I'll do it," Hope stood up quickly.
Claire arched a brow, "Okay?"
Hope helped Vanille up before exiting the room with Claire's mother in tow.
Claire looked at Fang, "what did you think?"
"You're very talented, yeah? How long have ya been dancin'," Fang asked as she sat down next to her.
"Let's see I've been dancing in the company for fourteen years and competitively for ten years," Claire answered.
She laughed at Fangs face, which was one of shock. She liked the Pulsian.
"That's a long time. Do you think Vanille will be good?"
Claire watched Fang's face go from shocked to worried, "you said she's a fast learner so why not. Is she flexible?"
"I guess she is, yeah. She's been wanting to do this since she was a kid. This is the only chance she's got."
Claire nodded. The two sat in comfortable silence. Claire stole side glances at the girl beside her. She looked so exotic and her accent was so sultry. Claire blushed and looked away. Her sexuality had always been an issue for her. Sure she thought some guys were cute heck she even dated one when she was in high school but she never got those feelings that everyone described. She was never attracted to guys. She talked to her mom about all of this when she was fifteen and her mom did a good job of explaining it to her and that it was okay for her to feel that way. She still felt like a fish out of water because of it.
"Something on ya mind, Sunshine," Fang asked.
Claire jumped as she was roughly pulled out of her thoughts, "no. Wait, Sunshine?"
"Yeah. You like it love? You're like this huge ray of sunshine when you dance. I have this thing for nicknames by the way," Fang explained with a smile.
Claire blushed but smiled back, "thanks I guess. Well if I get a nickname you get one to, right Snaggletooth?"
Fang frowned, "Snaggletooth?"
"Yeah because one of your teeth overlaps the other one in the front," Claire laughed.
Fang furrowed her brows and pouted, "Not my fault."
Claire started to laugh harder, "aw little pouty baby."
Fang started to laugh with her before they were lying on the floor clutching their sides. Once they died down to little giggles here and there they looked at each other.
Claire stared at her, "what's Pulse like?"
"Gran Pulse. It's beautiful and real, not like all this fake stuff in Cocoon. Animals roam free and its green fields for miles. Down there on Gran Pulse you're free like ya wouldn't believe, Sunshine," Fang explained getting lost in some memory that Claire couldn't see.
"The sanctum always said it was dangerous and inhabited."
Fang looked up at the glass ceiling at the ground of Gran Pulse, "it's dangerous but not inhabited. There's tons of lil' villages. It's so strange to see Gran Pulse as a sky, yeah?"
Claire shook her head, "not for us. It's always been like that for us."
Claire watched as Fang stared at the ceiling. They laid like that for the better part of an hour. It was strange to Claire. It was like she knew Fang, like they had met before.
"Do you know where a seventeen year old could get a job," Fang spoke up finally.
"Why do you need a job? Aren't you here with your parents?"
Fang sat up sighing and running a hand through her messy hair, "no, their back on Gran Pulse. I only have six months to prove I can take care of 'Nille up here and I'm running out of money pretty quick. We've been staying at this Motel down the street and if 'Nille wants to dance I would have to pay for that to, yeah?"
Claire sat up with her and looked worried, "how much gil do you have?"
"Maybe twenty thousand at the most, not nearly enough to pay for this and the motel," Fang sighed again.
"Hold on okay," Claire said as she stood up and walked out of the room.
She searched the dance studio until she found her mother, "hey mom can I speak with you please?"
Her mother looked up, "of course, Claire. What is it?"
"Well how much exactly is it to dance here?"
Her mother looked at her perplexed, "well standing fees are around five hundred plus getting all the shoes you need which each cost around fifty to a hundred then the thousand for each class you take. You then have to add in how much each costume would be and those can be expensive then travels for competitions and the entry fee. If you were doing all of that like you are it would be around thirteen thousand. Why the sudden interest Claire?"
"Well Fang and Vanille are living in a motel by themselves and only have maybe twenty thousand Gil to their name so Vanille wouldn't be able to dance here," Claire explained.
She watched her mother's heart break on her face. She had always been one to help children in need.
"Well let's see if I can talk to your father about something. Are you guys still in the main room?"
Claire nodded, "yeah we were talking."
"Okay. I'll call your father and see what we can do. I'll come talk to you in a moment."
Her mother shooed her off and she went back to hang out with Fang. Fang looked at her curiously when Claire returned with a smile on her face.
"What's with the grin Sunshine," Fang asked.
"You'll see. My mother will be in here in a few minutes with a solution to your problems," Claire explained.
"No, Claire I can't take anything from you and your family. You barely know us," Fang said before Claire just waved her off.
"It's just what my mother does. She can't stand to see kids struggling."
Fang just stared at her before wrapping her arms around Claire's shorter form and sighing, "thank you, Sunshine."
Claire hugged back, "don't thank me, thank my mother."
As they pulled apart Claire's mother walked in, "Fang I just want to talk to you. Claire explained your situation and I've talked to my husband about this. First were going to let your sister dance her on full scholarship if she gets in. Does she go to school?"
Fang nodded while she listened to Mrs. Farron continue, "Good. She'll have to keep up her grades to stay on full scholarship and it'll put her on the fast track through school."
"Wait, what does that mean?"
"It means she'll finish school early like I did. I finished high school at fifteen," Claire interjected.
Mrs. Farron nodded, "exactly that. Now for your living arrangements you two will have your own bedroom at our house. It's big enough."
Fang shook her head, "we don't want to intrude really we can stay at the motel. I can get a job; the scholarship is more than enough help, yeah?"
"Nonsense. Our home is big enough for three families to fit and then some, what's two more children," Mrs. Farron smiled.
Fang considered it for a moment before nodding, "thank you so much, you to, Sunshine."
Claire smiled as her mother hugged the both of them before leaving.
"You'll love the house. It's huge," Claire said.
Fang walked over and kissed Claire on the cheek, "you're something else, Sunshine. Thank you."
Fang left the room to find Vanille leaving a shocked Claire blushing and holding her cheek. This was going to be interesting.
Well that was fun to write! Hope you liked it. Please R&R!
Ciao~
-ShortStuff24