A/N: This one-shot has been on my computer ever since last year and a incomplete draft for some time. I was inspired by posts, fanart, and fanfictions headcanons on tumblr and deviantART mentioning a young!Noctis meeting a Goddess!Lightning, most notably this fanart I just had to use for the cover image. I've done a poor job at crediting people OTL. It was drawn by relear on deviantART titled "can't forget" in the artist's gallery. Normally, I'm really selective and picky of what interpretations of the pairing I like so I don't aim to offend anyone. I don't ship a child with an adult, Noctis would get older and then it can work from there. This is just my take on the idea and how Noctis obtained his power to foresee a person's death from his near-death experience. XD Also, Noctis is like twelve years old in this, still a kid and pretty inept and unaware of his inherited powers from daddy Regis, and pretty bright (though not as bright as childhood friend Ignis) to have the thoughts and comprehension of the events that happened to him, yeah? Note too that Lightning can travel timelines, see into parts of the future so she can rearrange events however she likes, but at a cost.

Be prepared for more Lightis one-shots because there's more where this is coming from and they may be as long as this one! Thanks a bunch to my boyfriend who is an excellent BEC (beta/editor/corrector)!

Once upon a time ago, in a kingdom far far away, a young prince met a beautiful goddess…

It sounded like a fairy tale, a fairy tale that Noctis couldn't believe himself. Not even when he chronicled it to his friends they still didn't believe it.

He met a goddess.

He couldn't forget the first moment he laid eyes on her. And time seemed to have stood still as she departed this world and unto the next.

Perhaps that is why his heart wouldn't let go.

He was all but a child on that day, surely too young and naive to experience what love was truly like, but you can say it was a crush that developed on its own at first sight.

Noctis Lucis Caelum had always a rebellious streak much to the dismay of nurses and nannies placed in charge of him. He also disliked following the rules and did what pleased him. He hated being cooped up indoors and would find every opportunity to venture far past the royal gardens and adult supervision to the meadows. He would run as far as his legs could endure and air in his lungs could sustain where the ground nearly touched the sky that you could reach out to feel the clouds and bathe in the radiance of gentle sunlight.

Despite his mischievous behavior, it is ironic to say that it gave him the spirit to survive and live.

The boy was born frail and with a poor constitution. It was said that he would not survive infancy at one time, unacceptable as he is the only heir of the Lucis bloodline and the recent king refuses to remarry after losing the late queen to complications during childbirth. Noctis would be succeeding his father when he takes the throne as the one hundred and fourteenth king. Doctors have advised that he were to stay indoors and not participate in any strenuous physical activity. When he's not bedridden, he would be studying with private tutors. Still, it was best for him to go and stay within garden walls to breathe in the fresh air and to be in the company of his closest childhood friends. Unfortunately, Ignis had been preoccupied with his privileged education provided by special tutors to be able to play with Noctis as much as he used to. As for the oldest of the three, Gladiolus, who felt closer as an older brother, had other responsibilities as the eldest brother of his household but was more available for Noctis in his spare time.

It wasn't the same for Noctis to be causing trouble alone without Ignis, who can rarely avoid the prince's grand schemes of endless shenanigans and would unfailingly attempt to take the fall and place blame on himself when they are caught. The latter wasn't very fun as Noctis had to apologize for actions he didn't regret doing and grovel for forgiveness, but punishments for a future royal advisor would have been far more severe than for a prince. Then Gladiolus pulling the seniority card would protect the two of them and say it was his fault because he didn't stop his youngest friends, but does so with a grin on his face. Consequences were the same for the three of them but they were brothers and that was all it mattered.

Regardless, neither of them got off the hook without a scolding and a penalty that was meant to deter them from relating incidents in the future. Not that those could stop the three of them when they're together – you would have to separate the three boys apart to do that.

At the time, he didn't fully understand what Ignis Stupeo Scientia's duties would be placed upon his shoulders but the young prince knew that it was determined since the day they were introduced that Ignis was exceedingly gifted. He already understood what Gladiolus' role when he's older. He would be tasked, as his father before him, to protect the Lucis family – an Amicitia tradition that would continue for generations when the oldest descendant comes to age. Noctis wouldn't mind having these two at his side; he wouldn't have it any other way.

On that day, both Ignis and Gladiolus couldn't spend time with Noctis, yet the young prince waited in the gardens as though he were expecting them. In reality, he could have been expecting anything, but it wouldn't happen with him just sitting here. One of his nannies fanned herself with an open hand, mumbling how on Lucis could a child stay out in this unforgiving weather.

"You're not too hot, are you, Your Highness? Do you wish to return back inside?"

He shook his head.

Honestly, the prince didn't feel the least bit bothered by the stifling heat that tells that summer was on its way despite wearing darker clothing. It was welcoming just to inhale the scent of earth and close his eyes and listen to birds actively chirping. The nannies have been overbearing and wouldn't let him do much under their supervision so he resigned to sitting on one of the stone benches. He hated being coddled because of his health, but he accepted this sort of treatment.

"Then I shall fetch some ice-cold lemonade for us. This weather is perfect for it, wouldn't you say?" She offered, not waiting for Noctis' reply as she retreated indoors. It is expected as Noctis doesn't speak to those he was unfamiliar with unless it were Ignis and Gladiolus so for staff members of the castle, it became a habit to answer questions they have immediately when inquiring the Lucis heir.

Noctis listened until she was out of earshot and pushed himself off the bench. Out of those out of sight, out of mind scenarios when he could at least take a stroll around without someone warning him to be cautious. He made his way with stealthily passing by occupied gardeners and towards a hidden gate that Gladiolus found him that leads to the meadows. Quietly, he pushed until it gave way and held the gate so the rusted bolts wouldn't alert anyone as it closed.

He was free.

He began to sprint, tripping unsteadily at first before taking off again. Thankfully, he didn't have to hear the nanny's alarmed cry and panic.

I'll be long gone before she notices I'm gone and back before they can look for me! Noctis thought, mentally giving himself a high five and gratitude that adults aren't as smart as they think they are.

He suddenly wished that Ignis and Gladiolus was here with him to embrace this sense of freedom outside castle walls. There is no greater thrill than this. To lose yourself outside the name of duty.

He came across a herd of chocobo. It made the young prince wish that he had carried a pouch of Gysahl Greens on his person. The stables and farm nearby the castle had tame and domesticated chocobos, but these large avian creatures were wild. He approached them cautiously and caught a whiff of the infamous musky odor found on all chocobos. Not that he minded the smell, he was used to it.

As he drew closer, the full-grown chocobos stared back at him with beady, black eyes until the youngest chicks fluttered their wings playfully around Noctis. He held out his palm for one of them to land on his hand. It cooed as he took his finger to stroke under its beak while the others looked on approvingly and returned to grazing.

"KWEH!"

An alarmed cry rang out, causing the herd to cease grazing and Noctis look up to see what the commotion was. The chocobo chick that was on his palm flew off to join its family and the other chicks followed suit.

A pack of behemoths that must have traveled in a group of three glowered hauntingly upon the defenseless chocobo herd. One of them, the leader roared, violently enough to make the ground quake. That roar was like an order and it sprung the other two into action and to attack.

Noctis didn't know what came over him. He should have run away. Almost immediately without giving any thought to it, his tiny hands began flinging rocks at the invaders, hoping to distract their attention from the chocobos. One rock struck the snout of one of them. It grunted and snarled at him. With that consequence raised the other two's attention at him. Their predatory eyes were on him.

He gulped but he held both of his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Hey, you! You stupid ugly monsters!" His conviction behind his words rang true but his voice cracked behind them regardless. He suddenly felt regret for the words that came out of his mouth. "Come and get me!"

He ran for his life. Adrenaline was the only reason he barely escaped the jaws of his end.

Gotta hide before they find me!

He maneuvered instinctively, managing to lose one of them with two at his tail. The two beasts separated and one was chasing Noctis. The young prince dove between two trees with just enough space for him to squeeze through. The result was a couple scrapes here and there, flying salvia and tree bark at his face, but he was alive. Incredulously, he hastily backed away, kicking forward dirt and dried leaves from the treacherous maws of the behemoth, still vying to clamp down on him. It would be foolish to take the time to mock the beast when he isn't even completely safe and not positive about how long that'll keep it.

He just doesn't want to give up… I won't either!

He found himself on his feet, brushing the debris off his closer while attempting to gather his bearings. He can't be lost, he's been here numerous times… Just never by himself before.

It was at that moment a behemoth pommeled him hard to the ground. It reared its massive head back to reveal glistening rotted fangs to lunge at the prince's throat. Noctis protectively shielded himself with his arm and screamed. The beast threatened to tear his arm off as Noctis frantically searched with his other hand for a weapon, anything. His fingers clumsily came across a sturdy stick and stabbed hard at its snout then at its eye.

Noctis had never harmed a living creature in his life.

Blood spurted at the areas he struck and streamed down his face and arms. Noctis felt very weak then, too weak to fight opposed to the vicious beast that had ceased trying to maim him. It attacked his throat. It squeezed it as in an iron vise and it wasn't long before he was choking on the metallic fluid invading his mouth.

Then there was this light.

He couldn't recall where it was coming from. Is this what the After-Life feels like? Had he really perished that day?

Stupidstupidstupid! If you haven't left, you would still be there! Now Father, Ignis, Gladiolus will—

Wait. Is that a woman? What is she doing there…? Go, don't let the beasts hurt you too…

Would be what he would be thinking at his final moments, but he was past the point of emotions of what-could-have-beens and too exhausted to care. Slipping, slipping, gone to a new plane of existence he felt no fear going now.

The darkness enveloped him in a cold he cannot protest to and his mind went white.

Then a miracle happened.

He inhaled sharply as though he had been holding his breath for a long time and warmth filled his body whole, welcoming it as it expeditiously reached even to this fingers and toes. Something was tickling his face made the prince's eyes flutter wide open. Awakening first to the long strands of pink hair belonging to a benevolent and majestic woman hovering over his form with an armored hand over his chest and awaiting for him to awaken.

Noctis jerked back, staring back at her with incredulous eyes.

It wasn't a dream after all… Why is my heart beating so fast?

Immediately, he ran his hands over his body, but have yet to find a single mark on his body. He was healed.

The woman didn't seem shocked with the prince's reaction to her, standing to her feet. "It is too dangerous for anyone to be wandering here aimlessly. You should steer clear from trouble in the future."

"Who… Who are you?"

Never failing to tear apart from their shared eye contact, he could feel her reading him like an open book: his fears, his uncertainty, his apprehension, his curiosity. She sought to cease those and assuage him. Falling down to one knee, she touched the golden seal of a winged creature on her chest, closing her eyes. She bowed her head. She was bowing to him.

Whatever for? Was it because he was an exalted heir? It should be the other way around with him bowing to her! She just saved his life. But the young prince was too stunned to move. His lips moved but failed to formulate with words. He hastily blurted.

"Are you a goddess?" He inched closer to confirm that he wasn't imagining this. A woman so pristine and beautiful appeared before him. A figment of his imagination, perhaps? He reached out a hand cautiously for the hair framing her heart-shaped face.

She peered up at him, halting him from continuing to come any closer with those intense icy blue eyes of hers. "I am called Lightning and I am your savior as you will be mine in the time to come, Prince Noctis."

It was then when Noctis discovered something he had never seen before.

An ominous and mysterious aura surrounded the woman as though creating a halo of death about her, but doesn't cling to the divine visage of her being.

Like oil to water.

She wasn't a bad person, how he knew that, he couldn't explain other than he just did, but this feeling made Noctis' stomach lurch in dread. What is this that he's seeing? Her calm features reveal nothing to the horror written in his expression and she was staring, not as his face, but seemingly straight into his soul. Did she know what he saw? He didn't know what he was seeing, but the feeling he had… This woman…

She was going to expire soon. That's what the aura acknowledged to him.

Noctis burst into full speed, ignoring the tremors that ran through his body and his heart begging for him to slow that. He couldn't just do that, he had to go even faster. To see her once more. He willed his brain to intake more oxygen into his lungs and the burning sensation in his legs to lessen until he reaches her.

Light… Light… Did she get tired of waiting for me?

He arrived at the destination that he first met her and again when he previously visited her. Lying under the haven of a single tree encircled by a mass of flowers. Chest heaving and heart racing faster than he ever experienced, he frantically searched for her. But she was nowhere in sight.

I should have known… I should have known that she wouldn't have waited. She is just like those adults making a promise they couldn't make! He thought bitterly, clutching where his heart is in an effort to soothe it in its ache and disappointment. He knew that in his heart that he just thought wasn't true though, she is not just like the other adults she was someone that would patiently converse with him. When he would talk, she waits until he is finished rather than make assumptions to finish off his sentences for him. She saw him for more than just a child even when his request to wait for him did sound childish. She never belittled him.

Come back, Light. Don't leave me alone…

A solidary figure materialized a few feet away from him in a flash of light. It stepped out, her feathered skirt, her armored legs, her silver and gold Valkyrie clad body, and that round shield on her arm.

"You're here… How?"

"Your prayers brought me here or am I wrong?"

Noctis stared at her with a dazed expression on his face. His bottom lip quivered and his vision of her distorted by the familiar sting in his eyes. This moment was exactly what he dreamt of, except there she was before him. The first thing that comes to mind is to run to her and wrap his arms around her waist, wail into her torso and stumble into her arms, taking her with him and to beg her never to leave him. His wet tears on her for emphasis of the torment he put himself through thinking that he would never see her again. He's not a baby though and even if he were to cry, a child with a tear-stained and a complete snot-infested mess of face would prove unsettling to someone as pure as her. He sincerely felt aware of those vile thoughts he had and immediately regretted as the sinking feeling in his stomach was known.

To his stunned astonishment, the goddess kneeled before him with a softened expression that reached her usually bold and fearless eyes and delicately stroked the young prince's cheek. "No tears, Prince Noctis. I shall impart some knowledge you need to hear for the future.

"Walk with me."

"On the day we met… You weren't to survive the encounter with those beasts…"

"Yeah, I know. But you saved me."

"No, you died and I brought you back to life."

"Light, what are you trying to tell me…?"

"Understand that I shall never hurt you and always protect you, but you should not be kept in the dark unknowing what took place in our meeting simply because you're a child. You weren't meant to live and you weren't meant to come back. It was written in your destiny and that was your fate. The death of the only heir of Lucis and the bloodline and kingdom would have ended with you. I… I harvested your soul and kindled the spark that was your life from the Kingdom of the Dead and back to the land of the living. But it came at a cost."

Noctis withdrew from reality, clearly at a loss for words. His mind was having difficulty assembling what was being said. Countless thoughts and questions inundated his mind at the time. For a pregnant silence, neither Noctis nor Lightning said anything. She was waiting for his response, and he gulped and gave a meek, "What's that?"

"You've been gifted by Etro. It'll be a blessing and a curse… I had to save you and it had its consequences. Every action we make has its drawbacks, whether good or bad consequences are echoed of its effects in the future…"

"So… What I saw…" He drawled, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, recalling that suspicious aura that still continues to follow Lightning like a second shadow.

"I'm a timeline traveler, Etro's chosen champion. I cannot stay in one timeline for too long, collecting souls on my journey sustains me and would eventually achieve my goal. I could die if I'm not careful and my actions reflect on my life. I fear my lifespan is coming to a close, but you could sense when that time is… I do not regret saving you that day, but I do regret having to burden you… I hope you would come to forgive me."

Noctis was given permission to despise her for placing upon a divinity obligation over his life. He wanted to be upset, but failed to be so to the woman who saved him. He didn't feel that this was a shocking revelation as it should be, it was as he's heard it all before. He was told in the past that he was important by divine rite, but this was something he never anticipated, he wondered if they knew. Instead, a greater fear rises before his bestowed "gift", it's the concern he holds for the goddess. Her end was inevitable. She will die. The future ever-changing and unpredictable except for the truths of his gift exposes.

He died once and now forever imprinted unto him was this ability to foresee a person's death. Could this mean he could find a way to prevent death?

"Thank you… For saving me. And someday, I'm going to make it up to you. I promise."

He held out a single pinky finger, grinning cheekily. The goddess stared down at it for a moment intently.

Oh, right. Noctis mentally reminded himself hesitantly. She wouldn't know what that—

She wrapped her own finger around his with a serene smile upon her lips. "It's a promise then."

"Will I ever see you again?"

It was time for her to leave, she couldn't stay in this timeline any longer and had to keep traveling in her journey.

The goddess smiled faintly before disappearing from his sight. Noctis wasn't sure if her smile was telling him something that he already knew or if a promise were to be made it would have to be kept.

Disclaimer: No chocobos were harmed in the making of this fic, just Noctis. XD