((Alright, so this is a fanfic that I actually started way back in grade 9. This is the third complete rewrite of it, and I'm determined to actually finish it this time and not start all over! Anyway, the main characters in this are all original characters, and then other characters from other things just crossover randomly. Enjoy!))

Chapter 1

A Bet and a Guide

"Bobo!" Captain called from inside the store room. For the love of Pete, where was that guy?

"Hold your chocobos you old fart, I'm coming!" he yelled as he entered the storage room. "What do you want?"

"Has the new shipment of moth wings come in yet?" he asked as he jumped down from the ladder he had been standing on to reach the higher shelves.

"What 'new shipment' There's only been one shipment."

The eleven of them had decided to start up a shop. Well, less of decided and more of they'd been forced to. Stupid Minstrel Imps.

Anyway, they'd only actually opened their shop today, and so far the flow of traffic in and out had been non-existent. It must seem weird, three imps, a chocobo, a bomb, a cactuar, a Moogle, a White Mage, a Cait Sith, and baby Midgar Zolem and a Tonberry running a shop.

Except that they weren't all running a shop. Moglie, their resident Moogle and Peacekeeper along with Kaeru, was missing. She'd just taken off two days ago saying that she had 'important business' to attend to and that she would be back soon, which was completely out of character for her.

"There was supposed to be a replacement shipment coming in today. Something happened to the other one."

"How do you manage to lose one extra large shipment of moth wings in less than a day? What kind of an idiot are you?"

"You really can't be nice to anyone, can you?" Captain muttered.

"Sure I can!" Bobo replied, and Captain was shocked that he had even gotten a reply at all.

"Really?'

"Really."

"Fine then, show me," Captain demanded.

"Bobo looked stunned for a second, he hadn't really expected the conversation to get this far.

"How?" he half squeaked.

"Go outside and nicely help at least one person come to this store."

"And what's in it for me?" he asked, now back to his regular cocky self.

"Oh, I don't know. Pride, bragging rights, 10,000 gil," Captain saw Bobo's eyes light up at the mention of money.

"Sign me up!" he was practically drooling as he walked towards the door. "Just you wait, come lunchtime you'll be out 10,000 gil!"

He looked around as he exited the store. On either side of the torch light that lit up a small area around the entrance of their shop was darkness. It wasn't even night yet! Though that was probably what you got for setting up shop in the worst area of town.

Due to the fact that he didn't really want to get pummeled to a bloody pulp by anyone who he would offer to help around here he decided that the centre square where the market place was was a much safer option.

He had just closed the gate door behind him and turned around when he was hit right over by what appeared to be a girl completely dressed in white driving a kiosk cart.

"Watch where you're going!" He yelled as he rubbed his now aching head.

"Sorry, so sorry!" she exclaimed, and actually picked him up and put him back on his feet. He swatted her hand away. What, did she think that just because he was small that she could treat him like a child?

"Sorry," she said again, obviously seeing the annoyance in his expression.

"It's fine, you were just trying to help" he said, forcing himself to smile. No way he was losing this bet.

There was and odd silence between them, then she started talking. "Do you know where the Moogles are?"

"Didn't they leave a few days ago?"

"Ya, I'm trying to figure out why. I'm afraid that something horrible might have happened to them!"

"Sorry, don't know anything."

"Oh, alright," she said, sounding disappointed. "Well, I've got to go. See you." She then pushed her cart out through the gate.

Bobo stood there for a moment, trying to figure out whether or not that had counted. He finally sighed. Who the heck was he kidding? There was no way that that had counted. Not when this entire thing was just a clever way for Captain to get him to get customers to their shop.

He looked over towards the center of the square. There were two other people standing around the fountain, fiddling with a map, and one of them looked nice enough. Or as nice as someone who had fluffy white wings on their back and a ring over top of their head standing beside a girl with fake horns and a tail could look. It must be convention season, he'd heard from the locals that the cosplayers came in droves around this time of year.

Well, might as well give it another shot. No way he was losing this bet!

She tapped her foot impatiently on the cobblestone floor and looked over at her sister. How long did it take to read a map anyway? She sighed, hoping that she would pick up on her ever so subtle hint. She glanced over at her again. No response, her brow was still furrowed in concentration. She sighed again, louder this time. Still nothing. She then sighed so loudly that the people around them started staring at her, probably wondering what on earth was wrong with this girl and yet she was still looking at that stupid map. God her sister was dense.

Now thoroughly fed up she snatched the map away from her sister.

"Hey! I was looking at that!"

"Her eyes skimmed the semi-torn piece of parchment. "Ya, well you take too long," she could practically hear her pout. "Where did you think we were on here anyway?"

"Here," she pointed to a blank spot on the map marked 'Middle of Nowhere Fields'.

She raised an eyebrow."Does this look like Middle of Nowhere Fields to you?"

"No, but we went through part of Inari Woods and Rien Swamp, so we should be there," she defended. "Maps don't lie Sis."

She was right, for once. They must have just gotten turned around somewhere. She carefully rolled up the map.

"Well let's just ask around a bit-" she looked down to see an imp standing at her feet.

"Hello?"

"Good day dear ladies, where may you be off to?" Bobo asked, imitating Captain to the best of his ability.

"We're heading to Middle of Nowhere Fields for a picnic!" her sister answered.

"Ah, may I interest you in some- I'm sorry, I don't believe that I've gotten your names," Captain always asked that. Something about making a connection with the customers. No idea why he did that. Who really cared as long as they gave you their money?

"I'm Kat, she's Faith."

He laughed mentally. Weird names. "Ah, so, Cat-" he burst out laughing.

"It's not spelt like that you stupid-head! K-A-T! Short for Katherine. God you're dense!"

"Oh, of course," he quickly recovered. "My apologies. So you two are sisters?"

"Twins!" Faith chimed.

"Obviously fraternal."

"Right, well, may I interest you in some supplies for your journey?"

"No," Kat said, and began to walk away.

"Oh no you don't!" he yelled, dropping his charade. "You're coming with me whether you like it or not!"

"You know that you're like the world's worst salesman, right?"

"Be nice!" Faith scolded. "We'll come with you Mr. Imp."

"It's Bobo," he said, and now it was Kat's turn to laugh out loud.

"My full name is Sir Bobolackey Minion Dude the third! I come from a long line of-"

"-Right, cause that's so much better," Kat interrupted, still laughing.

"Can we just head to the shop already? Please?"

"Ya, sure. Whatever you say."