Link held back a sigh of frustration as he kept walking. He wasn't sure how exactly he got into this situation, but what he did know that he had no way of avoiding it.
"Niichan! Slow down! I'm not as fast as you!"
Link glanced back at the person following him. She was slightly younger than him and had the same blonde hair and blue eyes that he had, except her hair was tied up into two braids that framed the sides of her face. Her outfit was also similar to his own, but much more feminine and had a hood instead of a cap.
"I thought I told you not to follow me," said Link as he gave the girl a narrowed look.
The girl gave him a pout in return. "That's not fair, Niichan! I want to go on adventures just like you do!"
"I'm not going on an adventure," replied Link with a growl. "All I was going to do was meet up with Zelda."
The girl's eyes lit up at the mention of the princess' name. "Ooh! Does this mean I finally get to meet your girlfriend? Yay!"
"No, you don't get to meet her," stated Link as he turned the girl around and started to push her away. "You will be going back home and staying out of trouble."
Another pout came from the young blonde. "You're being mean, Niichan."
"So sue me," said Link in a deadpan tone.
"Link? Is something wrong?"
The two green-clad Hylians turned to the source of the voice to see Zelda looking at the scene before her with confusion. Before Link could say anything, the girl bounded over to the princess with a beaming smile.
"Hi! You must be Zelda! I've heard so much about you!"
Zelda stared at the girl in front of her before turning to her Hero. "Link?"
Letting out a sigh, the swordsman decided to get it over with and introduce the two to each other. "Zelda, this is Linkle…my little sister."
Zelda blinked in confusion. "Little…sister?"
"Yup!" chirped Linkle with a grin.
"…Link, how come you've never told me that you had a little sister?" questioned Zelda.
"Because I just found out about her awhile ago," replied Link with a sigh, earning a pout from Linkle.
"And he's been mean ever since! He won't take me on any of his adventures!" exclaimed Linkle with a pouty glare.
Zelda glanced over towards her Hero to see that he looked ready to strangle the younger blonde. She was about to say something to try and calm Link down when a new voice interrupted them.
"So you have one too, huh?"
The three Hylians turned to see Cloud Strife coming their way and with him were Tifa Lockhart and a pink-haired woman they didn't recognize.
"Cloud," greeted Link with a nod.
"Link," said Cloud, returning the greeting to his rival.
Tifa rolled her eyes at the two. "Neither of you are in a battle right now, so can we keep the machismo down a notch?"
The two swordsmen grimaced while their women could only giggle in amusement. Linkle on the other hand looked at the pink-haired woman, who glared back at her.
"What?" questioned the woman, starting to get annoyed with Linkle.
The young archer gave off a beaming smile. "Hi! My name's Linkle! What's yours?"
"None of your business," replied the woman with a growl, earning a pout from Linkle.
"Lightning, we told you to be nice," stated Tifa with a warning tone as she glanced over towards the swordswoman. Another growl could be heard from Lightning. Tifa then turned back to Link and Zelda with a smile. "Anyway, this is Lightning Farron. She's Cloud's sister."
That was something the two Hylians did not expect to hear. As far as they knew, Cloud was an only child. Then again, Zelda thought Link was an only child and look how that turned out.
"She's not really my sister, Tifa," replied Cloud with a sigh.
"I'm not your sister, period," added Lightning with a frown. She didn't really like Cloud all that much. She felt too overshadowed by him for some reason.
"Cloud, let's be honest here. You and Lightning are too similar not to be siblings. Besides, Denzel likes it when Lightning visits."
"Wh-What?" questioned Lightning, startled by what Tifa said.
"Denzel refers to you as his favorite aunt," answered Tifa with a giggle.
A light blush came upon Lightning's cheeks as she turned away with a scowl. "Wh-Why would he foolishly think something like that?"
Tifa and Zelda couldn't help but giggle again as they watched Lightning go into tsundere mode. While the two women continued to tease Lightning the two men talked amongst themselves.
"So who is Lightning exactly, Cloud?" asked Link with a raised brow.
A sigh came from the former SOLDIER. "I guess Tifa is slightly right when she said that Lightning is my sister. I guess you could say she is to me what Linkle is to you."
"Ah," replied Link, now understanding what Cloud meant.
As Link and Cloud conversed, Linkle watched on and as she watched the two swordsmen an idea popped into her little head.
"Lightning-chan! Let's have a spar!"
Everyone turned to the young blonde with wide eyes, unsure of what she was thinking.
"Wh-What? Why would you want to spar with me? And where the hell did "Lightning-chan" come from?!" demanded Lightning as she glared at the archer.
"Well, since my Niichan and your Niichan are rivals I thought you and I could be rivals!" chirped Linkle with a beaming smile.
Lightning could feel her eye twitch in annoyance. "If I was going to have a rival of any sort, it certainly wouldn't be you."
Linkle could only pout. "Aw, why not?"
"You're annoying," deadpanned Lightning as she turned and left.
"I am not! Come on, Lightning-chan! Let's be rivals!" exclaimed Linkle as she followed after the pink-haired woman.
"I said no!"
The two couples watched in silence as the two young women walk away. Tifa and Zelda then turned to Cloud and Link.
"We'll go and make sure they don't get into any trouble," stated Zelda.
"That or keep Lightning from losing her temper and try and kill Linkle," added Tifa.
The two women hurried to catch up with Lightning and Linkle, leaving the two swordsmen to walk back towards the Mansion and resume their previous conversation.
"How did we end up in this situation?" asked Cloud with a frown.
"Think of it this way, Cloud; it could have been worse."
Cloud glanced at the Hylian. "How could it have been worse?"
"For one thing, we could have ended up in a situation like Robin and Corrin."
The spiky-haired blond had to hold back a shudder. The thought of having a full-on genderbent was something he did not want to deal with. Bad enough he had to cross-dress that one time.
"So what's the other thing that could have made this worse?"
Link gave off a smirk. "We don't have to deal with someone who is clingy…"
"Ryu-san! Where are you?!" called out Sakura as she continued her search for the wandering warrior.
"…Or someone who would remind us of just how old we really are."
"Lord Marth, I challenge you to another sparring battle!" exclaimed Lucina with a determined look. Marth could only give off a tired groan since this was the tenth time today his descendant challenged him.
Cloud watched on as Sakura and Lucina look for Ryu and spar with a worn out Marth respectively. He then turned back towards Link.
"You make a very good point."
Link gave off a grin. "What can I say? Some of Zelda's wisdom must have rubbed off on me."
Cloud could only roll his eyes. Sometimes he wondered how Link became his rival in the first place.
FIN
-:-
I do not like Final Fantasy XIII and never planned on writing anything about it or the characters from it…but this idea just wouldn't go away. Both Lightning and Linkle were designed to be female versions of Cloud and Link respectively. Of course unlike say Fem!Robin and Fem!Corrin, Linkle and Lightning are their own characters from their respective games.
The main idea of this one-shot was since Linkle was designed to be Link's little sister, what if Lightning was Cloud's little sister. Because of this, Linkle would want to make Lightning her rival so she could be even more like her Niichan. And because Lucina was designed to be a female version of Marth, Linkle would probably want her as her best friend just like how Link and Marth are best friends. Not real sure what Sakura (who is designed to be a female version of Ryu) would be to Linkle since Ryu is more associated with Little Mac than Link, Marth, or Cloud.
Anyway, I guess that's it for this one-shot. If I do ever lose more of my sanity and write anything involving FF13 it would probably about Hope…as Sephiroth's son. Both have silver hair, the ability to summon meteors, and are pretty much momma's boys.
Lastly, if Link is equal to a wolf, would that make Linkle equal to a puppy?
Fun Fact: Paine from Final Fantasy X-2 was designed to be a female version of Squall Leonhart.