A/N: So, this is my first fanfiction to be published. Hope you enjoy it!

Lightning's Theme
Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy XIII)

Chapter 1 -Prelude-

I glanced down at my wrist, moving the black sleeve out of the way. A watch was revealed. The hands within ticked to a pattern. I soon blocked out all other noise, the chatter of people, and the sounds of smartphones. The ticks of second passing by began to match my heartbeat, and thoughts. My nervousness and worries moved with the hands of the clock. I was paranoid, that's all. Paranoid that my family will fall apart.

I was brought back to my attention when 'Here Comes the Bride' began to play. I stood up, and tried to look down the aisle. From my spot here in the front row, I couldn't exactly see her. Tensing up immediately, I began to think various possible conclusions to this whole event.

'Light you better get here quick!'

Then, I saw my magnificent cousin/sister appear in an elegant wedding dress walking arm to arm with her best friend of practically her whole life, Noel. Her styled pink hair was back in a nice half-bun, curled and crimped all mixed together. I've been living with girls way too long, as they always ask me of my opinions on things. 'Cept it's only ever her that asks my opinion on feminine matters.

She turned around, and Noel gave her a kiss on the cheek. Her 'fiancé' was alright with Noel's action, as he had asked him if it was okay beforehand. Apparently, all he thinks of Noel, is a friend, and nothing else.

She walked her way up to the stage set before her. Everyone was told to sit down. I sat back down quickly and tapped my foot, fixing my gaze to the seat beside me.

'She should be here by now.'

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. If Light doesn't get here... Serah, won't be able to forgive her...

My blade swung back, and I prepared for another line of attacks I was about to execute. My partner, Leon, was breathing heavily, although he hasn't been here long. Well not as long as I've been. I rushed up to the behemoth and shot him up to the air, and began to just assualt the monster with attack after attack. I was sure to be cautious of the magic that was flying up beside me to our target, probably summoned from my partner.

This was the last one. This was it. If I could just finish him, I might be able to get to Serah's wedding. As much as I'd rather not see her get married to that idiot, I have to watch my little sis get married. She's the girl that cried beside me, who I held in my arms, and told her, my name was Lightning. I told her I'd grow up, I'd protect her, I'd support her. I can't see her leave me angered, my fault.

I know she wants me to find someone. She's been bugging me about it recently, but I've always said that I don't have time for romantic crap. I've got my job, and that takes up a lot of my time. And then my family. Serah and Ven, my sister and brother. Even though Ven's not my real brother, just my cousin, he's been around long enough. He is my little brother.

I slashed at the beast before me once more, and he began to evaporate into thin air. As I landed on the ground, I saw Leon rush up to me, "The last one". I put away my gunblade, as he did with his. They called us the Gunblade Duo, a childish nickname, as I wish weren't called that.

"I have to go Leon. Serah will be incredibly pissed if I don't get there in time." I told him as we headed back toward the border of town.

Leon shot me a glance of sympathy. As I ran past him, he slid his hand on my shoulder. He knew quite well of my troubles with my sister. She didn't want me working quite so much, and he had heard this all before, his brother had said something like this before to him. In fact, I'm pretty sure Serah and Noel collaborated on this. Serah complained to me; Noel complained to Leon.

I hopped in my car, and rushed out onto the highway. I sighed, finding myself in a bumper-to-bumper backup not long after. I quickly fooled with the radio, and heard that it's practically a huge backup straight across town. I banged my head against the steering wheel, nearly missing the horn.

As I waited in the long line of cars, I looked down to my clothes, and saw that my uniform wasn't in good condition. Serah wouldn't like this. All guards are required to have tinted windows in their cars, to avoid accident, so I happen to have really dark windows. I, of course, always kept a clean outfit in the car for these kind of occasions. As I stripped out of my dirty attire, I kept looking at the clock.

'Please, Serah. Forgive me. I'm trying. I'll get there. I'll see how beautiful you look in your dress, how you'll cry when that idiot puts the ring on your finger. I'll wince away when you two start to kiss. Anything. Just please, I'll be there. I'm not letting you go!'

After I sat back down, my lane had not moved an inch. I fished for my phone, and quickly texted Ven my whereabouts and situation, and asked how far they had gotten.

Serah and Snow requested that the wedding not take as long as ones normally take. They weren't rushing or anything, but Serah felt it time-consuming. She was impatient to get married.

She had tons of friends, but only a few got to be bridesmaids.

One was Vanille Dia. She, was a friend from high school. Not the quietest, or smartest, she certainly is bright and cheerful. She didn't go to college, but somehow found a job working history teacher to young kids in a library.

Another is Alyssa Zaidelle. She's apparently a college friend, who's a science teacher at the school Serah works at. Apparently, Alyssa almost broke the news to Serah that Snow was gonna propose, and almost broke the news again to Lightning that she had gotten proposed. Alyssa tends to start rumors, as well as keeping ones alive. I don't know why she and Serah have turned out to be good friends.

Lebreau McAfee, but she's more Snow's friend, who Serah came to know. She's a professional volleyball player, but apparently all the competitions are in Bodhum or Destiny Islands, because I always see her around town. She's never gone! I often see her on the beach with the other NORA members.

Sadly, Serah's best girl-friend, Aqua Holland is terribly sick, and couldn't have made it. Despite their age difference, Aqua is 18 just graduating high school last spring, the two became great friends. They were in most of the same clubs together, even live near each other. I think Light was slightly happy when Serah actually got a friend, other than Noel.

The grooms on the other hand, are in plenty all thanks to Snow.

The other three NORA members are present. Gadot Hanks, occupation unknown. Maqui Daniels, occupation unknown. Yuj Fischer, occupation unknown. All of them, I have no idea. I would like to believe that Maqui and Yuj are in school, but I don't know which.

Noel, though is up there standing among the 'idiots' as Lightning calls them. Noel. He has been Serah's best friend since they were in Preschool. But when they were young, they only ever had each other. They never had any other friends. Even though all that time spent together, neither of them made an effort to date with one another. I think cause Serah always thought Noel didn't like her in that sense, but more of a friend, because that's all he comes off as.

The bridesmaids were all dressed in a light pink, long, strapless dress. The color nicely matched Serah's hair. It was Noel's idea for the color for the dresses, and Serah continued this by making all the groomsmen wear a pink tie. Snow, tried to fight this though, by saying his guys would be caught dead wearing pink ties, even Yuj who proclaims to be a fashion expert, and said that a pink tie wouldn't go well with his hair color. Noel on the other hand thought it was a great idea, and was more than happy to wear it.

The two were onto their vows, so I turned around to watch the door on the sides, and the back of the hall. I tapped my foot. I was particularly worried that Lightning wouldn't get here at all. I was more worried for Lightning's sake than Serah's, since I know how Serah can get.

They were putting rings on each other's fingers. I fidgeted a lot, from looking at the doors, to looking at the seat beside me, to looking at my watch, to just flinching at every sound.

'Lightning will be here. She will. She wouldn't miss this. I know it. She loves Serah too much to see her depart from her security, without a final goodbye. She wouldn't. Never!'

…

…

The sound…

The sound of applause…

Applause, all around me.

'I'm sorry Serah. You know she wanted to be here.'

Serah looked down to me, quickly after kissing Snow, finalizing their marriage. She had a huge smile on her face, teeth baring and all. Her eyes told a different story.

'Why isn't she here? She said she would be! Why can't she be here?'

I saw her look down, in sadness, for only a second. A days worth of festivities was set before her. She had to stay happy. She didn't want to give her friends the wrong idea.

I was almost to the parking lot. I was going well over the speed limit, but I couldn't slow down. It was well past when the wedding started. All I had to do was hope. Hope that there had been a delay. It was going much slower than planned. Maybe Serah had second thoughts? No. She would never ditch Snow, not on their wedding day.

I found a parking spot quickly. Hopped out of the car, and sped toward the building, my speed what some call me my name for. I burst through the doors, and found where the ceremony was supposed to be happening, and found not a soul. Something dropped in my heart. Was it over?

I walked rather slowly for myself to the reception room. My boots tapping on the floor. I saw the double doors up ahead. My head fell down, and I fell into an abyss of thoughts. I found myself standing in front of the right door. My hand on the handle.

I braced myself for what was going to happen. What was going to be yelled to me. Accused. Blamed. Hated. I sighed. I could handle that kind of behavior with other people, because I took it as nothing. When Serah spoke it, it was turned into a million things for me. She tell me she hated me, I would understand that she could never see me again, that I had failed at raising her, and that I had nothing left to do but apologize, and hope she forgive me. Because I knew that was going to happen when I walked through the doors.

I turned the handle, and slid into the room, pairs of eyes turned to me, a certain pink haired woman in a white elegant wedding dress turned around as well. "Serah."

"Ven" Lightning began to speak.

It was an hour after the reception. Both of us had intended on staying much longer, even to help with cleaning and what not. But Serah had other ideas for what we could do, leave. I stayed, for the most part, quiet. Sure I grew up with the two sisters, knew them like the back of my hand, but we weren't blood, and I wasn't there when they were a happy family. I know that even though they consider me their brother, sometimes I just don't. I appreciate that they've included me a lot, but there are some things I just have to stay out of.

I was staring off into the moving night sky, as we were returning from the reception. The stars above were mesmerizing. The car ride had been silent up until now.

"Yes?" I responded.

"Things around here, are going to change."

"Because Serah's out of the house?"

"Yes that too."

I wondered about that. Lately, she has been saying things about getting more time off, shorter hours, better pay, but she hasn't particularly revealed why. I didn't ask because I knew she would tell me, in time.

"Lightning?" I started, wondering about something else.

"Huh, yeah Ven?"

"I'm just. Do you think that things will get better?"

"In what way?"

"Well…" I began twiddling my thumbs. "With Serah. Will you two, get better?"

"I don't know Ven. I understand a lot of this is my fault, and the last thing I want and can do is blame Serah for this. Sure I think she overreacted and that she should've been used to this type of behavior from me, but this is my problem, and if I want things to correct themselves, I have to do it. I have to make things better, I can't just expect Serah to come home and say she forgives me without properly apologizing. I need to let Serah see that things are better, and that I truly am sorry."

"Are you sad Lightning? Sad about what Serah said to you."

"I, personally, can't be sad. I can't let emotions come in the way of my work, or supporting you, let alone raising you."

"If you were a different person. If you had a different personality, would you be sad?"

"Devastated."

That one word, proved to me that there was a human inside Lightning. Often times, she comes off cold, and non-caring. Sure she's strong and is somewhat a celebrity among guards, but she doesn't let that go to her head. She's strict and unforgiving. But when she's with me or Serah, she can seem the complete opposite. I think she's even starting to open up to Noel, after all these years, and in connection, Leon, who she often partners with on missions. It might not seem like it, but Light is actually really sarcastic and funny. But no one ever knows that because she puts up a defense shield. I know it's to protect us, but I wish she could just open up.

We were pulling up in our driveway, and I leaned my head against the door beside me. I felt a hand on my shoulder. "I promise". Promise. That's one thing Lighting is. She's dependable and faithful, both sides of her.

She always keeps a promise.

A/N: Constructive criticism is gladly accepted! Please, criticism about the way I write, not about the story. Just to let you know, all characters are from the FFXII universe (including XIII-2 and LR:FFXIII) and KH, as well as any characters or events/objects/anything referenced in either universe (such as Rinoa(KH) or Biggs and Wedge(FFXIII)). I am a huge fan of both series, and I'm really excited to see how this story plays out!

Until Next Time! Kupo.