(4,335 words, yay) Well here is the story that I created in my head during a maths lesson because i had gone with the wind stuck in my head three days ago. The plots decently developed. But won't be able to update really fast because I have six stories that are all being written at the same time, plus I do have three assignments to finish. But anyway, I hope the people that read this (and with my luck that's probably not going to be many) like it. It's basically olden days america ffxiii style, weird idea don't you think. It's inspired by my favourite book, Paint the wind, which is absolutely brilliant, I reccomend reading it if you can find it, I don't think it ended up being really popular, but it's awesome none the less. Damn does Lightning make a good fancy.

I hope you enjoy my little puppy ( yes this is a puppy)

Disclaimer: I no own ffxiii, just wish I'd did (cause Serah's adorable and I wanna be her)

Nyan

Dance against the wind

Chapter 1: Unwanted life

The sun had risen and shone in through the window. It was bright but she stayed in her bed. Wrapped up in her many blankets, in the most comfortable position. The sun creeping in through open windows hit against her closed eyelids but she didn't wake up. Outside water dropping from leaf to leaf on the trees could be heard, the cause was the many showers that had kept her up last night.

she was a bad sleeper, always feeling more tired than she should be, she slept in late everyday, but it didn't help. Today she was especially tired, as before mentioned rain had forced her awake on more than one occasion. Most people called her lazy, never did they listen to her about her sleeping problems. She was tired in every way possible, literally and simply a strong boredom over her own life. Soon she expected, her mother would force someone to come and wake her up.

She moved her position, getting more comfortable, her mess of pink hair plopped itself on her face and she was made to flick it over her shoulder. It was annoying when that happened, and her mother questioned why she wouldn't grow it.

She could hear the pitter patter of footsteps outside her double doors. People had been up and about for hours now, waking before dawn some. They had yet to disturb her rest, she would prefer they didn't, but her Mother had made plans today, and obviously she wouldn't let her child out of them. Soon her attempt at sleeping came to a fast end, she could clearly hear the sound of rushed footsteps getting closer. And before she would have been able to blink her doors opened wide letting the culprit of the sounds be in sight. She knew who it was before looking, always was it the same. Butterfly McQueen was one of her fathers slaves, put with the the task of dealing with his eldest daughter, because his wife and many others has given up long ago.

"Miss Claire! How can you still rest? it's so lazy!" She gave a quick pause before realising she had been too rude in what she had said, well aware she was not allowed to do so, so as to not get in trouble later she added in,

"Behaviour such as that is not very befitting a woman of your status, Madam Farron shall be quite angry with you if you choose to not get up soon."

She walked up to the bed, prepared to pull the woman out if she resisted commands. Claire made sure to give her a glare before doing anything else. Butterfly gave a shiver, such an easy girl to scare she was.

"And you should stop doing that as well young miss, Madam Farron don't like that either." She tried to scold her. Her high pitched voice was not any bit intimidating, causing all she said to be ignored even more. Truly just going in one ear and out the other.

Claire, against what she wanted, did get out of her comfortable bed. When Butterfly gave up her mother would be sent in, and that would be when it would all go to hell, so if she could, she'd do anything to stop it.

The dark skinned woman stepped to the side for the older woman, because despite being called 'young miss' Claire was a good two years older, as Butterfly couldn't be much over sixteen.

Claire looked at herself in the mirror seeing what mess her bed had made her hair, how her mother had such hatreds for bad hair, she didn't want her to be yelling like a maniac like so many times before. The waves had made themselves more pronounced, as they did when they turned into such a mess. Any shine it had, had gone; only to return after much brushing.

she sighed and wiped the sleep out of her eyes, she felt so tired, but now that she was awake she would not be allowed to go back back to her bed until late at night.

"Do you need any help, young miss?" Butterfly asked in a quiet voice, trying to sound polite. Unlike her, the other gave a very intimidating impression on people. Her height was apart of the reasons, she wasn't the tallest person, but for a woman she was. The other reason was plainly the way she acted, not a people person that was for sure. It wouldn't be a lie to say that Butterfly was somewhat scared of her.

"No thanks, I'll be fine." The reply came out without much thought.

"Alright then. If you need any help you can call me. Bye young miss" She walked over to the door, which upon opening she was forced to quickly dodge as a person dashed past her. With a silent sigh she left without a complaint, for she knew she wasn't allowed to.

Claire had heard the other girl run in, and had no need to look to know who it had been.

"Claire! You can't be serious? You're not even dressed yet?!" The younger person set right off on complaining.

The other turned back now to look at her room's little intruder.

"Serah, I just woke up, does it matter?"

"Just woke up! Sis it's way past noon. The party begins in three hours!" She continued complaining.

'Party, oh goddess save me.'

Claire sat down on her bed and began taking the knots out of her hair. She absolutely hated parties. And her mum organised so many. Nowadays she was using them to try and find guys she could hopefully marry her daughters off to. For the younger one that wasn't going to be hard.

Just look at her, her hair naturally had such a shine to it, that took Claire many brushes to get. The waves and curls were so perfectly shaped, not that her older sister didn't have them, but hers were bigger and more beautiful. She didn't need to wear a spot of make up, she already was stunning, a perfect complexion. Claire was close to having that, but she was so pale, she didn't have that glow the other had. Even looking at her now, the difference between them was obvious. The dress she wore at the moment, was a snowy white one that even in such a bright room looked like it was lighting up. It had many frills up and down it. cream lace ribbons decorated said frills and on the sleeves. She was so pretty right now in it, with her luscious blondish-pink hair tied into a high ponytail on her right with a ribbon of cream to match the ones on her dress.

To add to her physical beauty, she was also am extremely kind person, her beauty ran more then just skin deep. But Claire on the other hand, to be honest, was cold. She never let people in, always putting walls to stop them invading her space, hiding anything nice in her personality that she had. Her cerulean eyes always seemed so icy. No one liked her besides her family. No one would waste their time getting to truly know her. So no one understood her, none at all.

After brushing out the knots caused by excessive sleeping, meaning her hair's waves had smallened by quite a lot. Claire walked over to her wardrobe, she had to get dressed now, she didn't have the choice of returning to bed. She opened the hard wooden doors and took a look at the mass of dresses. Her father spent a lot of money buying his family fancy things, and that of course included dresses, she hadn't worn most of these in all honesty, she didn't even like dresses. Sometimes she got envious of what men got to wear, they didn't have to deal with layer after layer of unneeded fabrics trying to put something on that in her mind didn't even look good.

Serah sat on the end of her bed watching without making a noise. Most likely she was seeing what her sister was going to choose, their mother had gone off more than once for her eldest wearing plain dresses at formal occasions. She was getting sick of it, so deciding to elude the likely scolding she would get for wearing what she wanted, she picked out one of the more fancier ones, for it was a fancy occasion. Serah always went on joking how you must be fancy at fancy occasions, fashion included in the somewhat joke.

The dress she had taken out was burgundy red and black at the edges. It wasn't anything near what her little sister had on, but at least of wasn't something overly plain. The bottom of the dress had purple ribbons tied to the bottom, that was a strong reason why it wasn't as plain as usual, she mostly steered away from anything with ribbons. It was black at the hips with small pieces of lace the same colour of the ribbons going around it. Hopefully this will do.

"I'm not going to be yelled at if I were this am I?" She asked Serah, she trusted her sisters judgement better than her own, she was far better on this subject.

"Bit dark isn't it?"

"Does it matter?" Her sister retorted, trying not to sound mean.

"Well for you this is an improvement, I'll tell Mother that and you'll have less chance of getting a yelling."

"I'll just have to hope you're right."

Serah didn't say anything more until her sister was almost fully dressed.

"Don't forget a corset, mamma shall yell at you if you don't" Serah giggled in a sing-song voice.

"I hate corsets, I barely see the point." Claire grumbled

"Still have to wear them, I know they're uncomfortable."

"They're not uncomfortable, they hurt." She continued in a bad mood.

"Do you want to be yelled at again?" Serah asked with another giggle.

"I'll be yelled at for anything. Mother's always out to get me." She stated. She was truly beginning to believe that whole heartedly.

"Only 'cause you make her."

Claire pulled the burgundy dress up over her head and tugged it into a proper position.

"If she's the one yelling she's the one making her do it" Claire gave her reply bluntly. Before brushing her hair to the side and leaving the room.

Claire walked past some of her father's slaves cleaning like mad men getting the house in top shape ready for the party that would begin in only a matter of hours. She would be left with nothing to do, she never had a thing to do. There wasn't much point in getting up in the morning really. One of her father's friends walked by her heading for her father's study where she could guess and say her father was somewhere near there. The man greeted her warmly before starting down the stairs. Down the hall she knew she had just spotted her mother, and quickly making the decision to avoid her, she made a run for the staircase. Lifting up the ends of her long dress she dashed right past the man who had past her only moments before, he was rather startled by her but hid it as best he could.

Claire continued running away from her mother, knowing that she would catch up eventually, she knew this house far better than her daughter, blame that on sleeping too much. She ran down the lengths of whole hallways, dodging between the servants as she did so. She did know good places to hide in this house, thanks to all the times she and Serah had played hide and seek as kids, but it wouldn't be easy to get into those places, she'd grown quite a lot since those times. Luckily for her she did have places that for reasons she wasn't that sure of, her mother never thought to look there for her. You'd think she would think too, after many times of finding her daughter hiding there.

Claire opened the doors to the courtyard hoping she'd gotten far enough away that no one had spotted her doing so. All the best places to hide that she could still get to, were out here. They were little places for her to escape from what she was made to deal with on a daily basis. And sure as hell did she hate all of it. She knew what her mother would want to talk to her about, and she sure didn't want to hear a word of it.

She moved to the back passing by the glistering water fountain in the middle of the grey stoned square, crouching down low so she wasn't visible from the windows. At the end of the courtyard was a small wooden and steel railed bridge that made a passageway over a little river from the home to a nicely kept field. She usually hang out here for the lack of people. She wouldn't have to deal with her mother's nagging or having to talk to Serah on subjects she had no interest in, plus she wouldn't be bumping into people constantly, as not many did go near here. Some slaves cut the grass and watered the flowers and plants to keep it in best possible shape. Not like people always walked about here, but it being just behind the house, it would make a bad sight from the windows, and nobody wanted that. Though Claire couldn't give a damn, if it was messy it would be a better place to hide.

She crossed the wooden planks at a slowed pace from before, if she kept on going she would puff herself out, causing more yelling when her mother finally caught up to her. She lifted up the ends of her dress to keep it above the pea green grass, that her mother probably thought looked brilliant with how shiny it appeared to be. The Rain that hadn't happened very long before had turned the dirt to mud and in places it had yet to turn back.

'Oh won't mother be angry to know I've gone and got myself covered in mud' She laughed in her head. She had no shoes on but truly couldn't give a damn about it, the grass felt good beneath her feet, Though the mud was beginning to feel annoying.

Claire took off to where some of the trees got closer together. The mud jumped up on her legs with the fastened pace but her dress stayed just out of reach for the brown guck to grab hold of. The emerald green leaves were dropping water droplets on her head as she rushed past knocking them out of places. They hang so low here, it was brilliant cover. Hiding admist the dark greens and browns that covered everything good enough that looking in from outside you wouldn't even be able to catch the deep red of her dress or the pale pink of her hair, certainly this was the best hiding spot.

In the middle of the swaying trees was a seat under the biggest one around. The tree in particular leave's were so abundant and close together that even in the most harshest rain you could stay dry in it's cover. The leaves at the bottom were dry besides the water that had fallen from much higher up, that proved it pretty good.

She sat down on the stone seat under the only dry tree around. The grass was longer in this part and covered her feet. It tickled but she had gotten used to the feeling running around this place as a child, she liked it actually. Once upon a time this was a place where Serah and her had played. They would spend hours a day here running around, climbing up and down the trees. It had been so fun, this place was very nostalgic. But Serah didn't come here anymore, she remembered it had been Butterfly's mum, who had died some years ago, who had spotted them here one day. And damn did she go off her head, Scared the hell out of both girls, but they had been kids, and a angry woman that towers over you would have been pretty freaky as a kid. And since then Serah stopped coming, because she didn't want to be yelled at like she had that day. The younger sister wasn't as accustomed to getting scolded like the older one, and she seriously didn't want to have to deal with it again. But Claire who had been used to it even by then didn't see it as anything, and still came to this place. Most people weren't even aware she still did go, no one payed very much attention to her; no one wanted to know her. Too cold of a person for their liking.

She laid down on the cold grey seat, it was old and had crumbled at the edges, but was strong enough to hold her weight. She felt the wind go past her, it was so calming here, The sound of birds chirping could be heard every now and then, but never for long, and it was usually very quiet. This place was quiet enough she could hear the birds wings as they fluttered off. She felt the leaves fall off the swaying trees encircling her, some landed on her arms and other places, the water that covered them found it's way onto her before the leaves were pushed off with a new wind blowing past to take them away, only to replace them with new ones. The water moved with each wind but didn't fall off as fast as the light weighted leaves, it was refreshingly cold. Strands of her blondish-pink hair hit her face but she wasn't bothered. She closed her eyes and rested drifting into a sleep listening to the calming sounds of tweeting birds and the leaves caught in the wind.

But not so long after that this calming peace was forcefully interrupted by expected yells from a certain older woman.

"Claire, what on earth are you doing out here?!"

She opened her eyes to look at her mother's angry face. First thing she noticed was that she had taken a pair of shoes off one of the slaves, of course she don't wanna get her shoes dirty, doesn't matter to her if someone else's does. To be honest her shoes were unreasonably expensive, and the shoes she'd taken were probably home made from the looks of them. So at least her reason made sense, even if it still seemed stupid to her daughter, they were only shoes after all.

The elder woman gave out a long sigh and adjusted her dress so she had better grips on it, this woman would be utterly terrified to get a dress of such high quality covered with the icky brown ooze that she was rather alien to her called mud.

"Oh Claire, what am I going to do with you?" She took a couple steps toward the girl on the stone bench, her feet made squishing sounds from each step, mud jumped up and covered the partially destroyed old shoes.

Her daughter sat upright, she wasn't giving room for her mother to sit down, the older one would never take a seat on something so old, dusty and just plain dirty. A look was delivered to said chair from her though, after Claire had moved. It was visible now the condition of it. Another long sigh escaped her red painted lips.

"You need to act proper. I don't know of other woman of your age and status running like a child through a muddy field. And then to sit on something like...that." She pointed to the bench like she was revolted by it, probably was no doubt.

"Why does it matter how I act, I'm not the one who is paid any attention now am I?" Her daughter shot back icily.

Her mother gave her a look none too pleasant.

"They give enough for you to make them dislike you. Do you want that? It's an insult." She drabbled on, this was a conversation they had had many times, never did it do anything. Her daughter made no reply.

"Why do you make so many people hate you like this? You don't act like you should, and you are always being so mean to guests. I don't think I'd be lying if I said you're more nicer to the slaves than them, Slaves for the goddess's sake!" Her mum spoke poisonously the last part. She didn't value people of darker skin as people at all. It was sickening.

"What do you mean I don't act like I should. I'm myself and I know who I am. No one but me can say if I'm acting right! Why should I care how I act to others?!" Claire spat out in deep anger.

Her mother fell silent. No one had won the argument yet. Both were extremely stubborn when you came down to it. The older woman was running out of anything to say, but her side of the fight would never stop unless she was the victor. Which her daughter hoped would never happen.

"If you keep acting like this you will never find yourself a husband." Her mother came out with after much thinking.

The result was something almost like a growl from the younger one.

"What if I don't want one!" She screamed out, very pissed off from all this.

Her mother's face went blank, like she'd been told the most worst thing in the world. She didn't say a word for a long time. The space between them became so quiet that the only sound was from the wind and their breaths.

"How can you say that? What Woman doesn't want a husband? It's unheard of!" And oh goddess the bitch was confused.

"You stupid old hag. There's nothing wrong with me if I don't want one. I'm damn sure as hell I'm not the first, what are you going on about saying it's unheard of?" Her daughter snapped. Her look consumed with hatred.

Clearly her mother was hurt, judging the look on her face. But it was her fault. She'd brought her daughter to calling her an 'old hag'. You can't get away with saying such things without a punishment.

"Who do you have to act like this?" Her mother breathed out. "It so unbecoming of someone with a life like this. Why can't you be more like Serah? She's such a nice girl."

If she saw the venomous scowl that was aimed at her, she payed it no attention. Claire never felt this angry. Her mother usually stopped arguments quickly, always saying that it's not right for people like them. She didn't hate this woman, she loved her parents, she truly did, but right now it was looking like her mother was intent on changing that.

"Maybe that's because I'm not Serah,That girl lives in fairy tales." She paused half regretting saying something so mean about someone she loved so much. "I'm myself. I'm not nice and charming like you'd like me to be, but I don't care. I don't need someone to tell me how to act, or how to live out my life. I'm fine without you trying to control me."

A silence came down once again, it wasn't because they didn't know what to say, it was because her mother had accepted that arguing would get her nowhere.

"If you decide to act like a normal person. You can follow me back, but if not. Stay here for as long as you want. I see no point in you attending the party." With that she pivoted and took her leave, not before her daughter remembered to say,

"Just because their skin isn't white doesn't mean their not human." Referring to her mother's earlier comment.

"Tsk" Her mother then left, making the tree filled field empty but for one person.

Claire sighed and moved strands of hair that had fallen on her face behind her ear. She brushed off leaves that had snapped off branches during all that. The sun was getting lower, the party that for days her mother had been unable to speak of anything else would soon be starting. Whether she went to it or not, she would be yelled at. There was no escaping that. Her mother had such a problem with her, only because her daughter wanted to act like how she wanted to be, not how someone else wanted her to.

She didn't want this life, she fit in nowhere, it didn't matter where she went. Everyone hated her excluding her father and little sister. No one and that meant absolutely no one understood her. Why did her life have to be like this?

Did you enjoy it? Hope you did, this is gonna be a fun story, specially 'cause Fang is an important character in it, And she's like the freaking aussie in the group, so pretty much mean that she's epic.

Augh, everyones talking in southern american accents in my head.

I will absolutely love you if you review, I have increasing mental problems and sending me a review will help me keep a better grasp on my sanity. Jess and Claire, you don't count but reviews from you will still be appreciated, just getting them from complete randoms will make me more happy because i expect you to review because you know how happy they make me.

But yes anyway, review and you shall be doing a good deed.

~Serah Villiers Valentine