Chapter I: Face Down
With her sister safely settled into Eden's private boarding school, Lightning's nerves were less tense as she entered her new school. Now this school was anything but ordinary. Her school was the prestigious Eden Military Peristylium, located on Cocoon's capital – a ways away from her seaside hometown of Bodhum. She donned a khaki short-sleeve top with the Peristylium's insignia of the white fal'Cie on her left breast, matching shorts and her favorite combat boots, showing she was a soldier trainee while many of her fellow females donned the color white, showing they were training to be medics.
Lightning thought nothing of the fellow females, who were bonding with each other – picking out which of the upperclassmen caught their eyes. She merely rolled her eyes and walked on ahead, her strawberry blonde head sticking out like a sore thumb and her backpack slung over her shoulder. Her 'de facto' guardian Aerith Gainesbrough would send the rest of her stuff down soon enough. Though she may have looked the least feminine out of the others, she stood out a lot. In the sea of medic trainees, she was one of few female soldier trainees in the freshman class. She could already hear the fellow freshman talking.
"Who is she?"
"What? She's only got a backpack! Doesn't she know we're going to live here?"
"Lightning something."
"She's going to be a solider?"
"Lightning? Really, what? Are her brothers Cloud and Squall?"
There was a fit of laughter following her, assuming that was her real name. She heard this a lot since her name change. Rolling her piercing blue eyes, she shrugged off the comments. Just four years, she reminded herself. Four years of training, enlist and protect her sister. Those people didn't matter at all.
"Name," demanded the orientation supervisor when she arrived at the check-in desk.
"Farron, Lightning." She replied.
"Farron, huh? We've heard quite a bit about you," answered the orientation supervisor. He was a pale man clothed in a dark suit and a tie. He had red eyes, but his dark bangs covered the left side of his face. Emo much, Lightning had to refrain from commenting. She eyed his nametag: Vincent Valentine.
"I bet, Sir." Lightning settled with those words. Her record wasn't exactly clean – not that she got in trouble with the law, only with fellow classmates in her previous schools. When it came down to it, she was quite the fighter, standing up to anything unjust – probably the main reason why she had gotten an acceptance letter to EMP. They needed people like that to fight for Cocoon, to fight for their country and for what's right.
The supervisor handed over her ID card, which contained a rather recent picture of herself frowning and a device that closely resembled an old school flip-phone. She scowled, remembering that she had taken that photo twenty minutes earlier. "That serves as your identification card and room keycard. Your assigned quarters will be displayed on your Mognet."
Lightning raised an eyebrow, mumbling a word of thanks before dismissing herself. Walking away from the check-in stand, she shoved her ID card in her pocket and flipped open the Mognet. A blue digital map of the campus shot out from the screen. A black spot near the front gates represented her at her current location. Her assigned quarters were across campus to the west, marked by a bright red x on her map.
At the bottom of the map, her objective was written: report to Phoenix Residence Hall, East Wing's Third Floor.
"Understood." Lightning mumbled. Then on her map, a path was marked for her, leading her from point A to point B, her destination. She smirked. Well, that cut her work out for her.
"Roommates again, Cid?" joked a dark-haired youth as he lay on his dormbed. It was easy to tell that Rygdea was the joker of the two, compared to his roommate. Both were clothed in the soldier's khaki shirt and sweats. Rygdea placed his hands behind his head. Both second-years had left their stuff unpacked and double room virtually empty. It was relatively empty except for their fridge, which was stuffed with hot pockets and various other frozen foods, water and juice. Even the microwave was empty – for now. Their Mognets were on their respective desks, flipped open in case of emergency announcements.
It was also easy to mistake Cid's thinking for brooding when he was sitting on his bed, leaning against the wall, head bend down, deep in though. The grey-eyed Cid looked up slowly, smirking. "Of course, everyone else can't keep up."
"Right." Rygdea shrugged. "We gotta set some ground rules."
Cid shook his head. "Simple. We use last year's roommate contract. Rock, paper, scissors if we can't solve anything logically."
Rygdea suddenly shot up upon realizing something. He turned to look at Cid, shock all over his head. It looked like he had been slapped. "And what about chicks?"
"What about them?" Cid asked nonchalantly.
Rygdea clenched his fist, knowing full well Cid was baiting him. Oh, this guy. They both had seen the influx of freshman, including the new girls. The appearance of girls – no, young women were becoming more common within EMP. However, the majority was training to be medics.
There was a sly grin on Rygdea's face. More girls to play doctor with, then. At that moment, a pillow was thrown across the room, striking Rygdea in the face, who quickly recovered from the hit. "Raines, what the hell was that for?"
"No playing doctor more than once a day." Cid replied rather monotone. "I will not be sexiled more than once a day."
Rygdea rolled his eyes. "Likewise, Cid. But if ya ask me, you'll be asking to change that rule when it happens."
"Heh, yeah right." Cid answered, moving to get out of his sitting position. He stretched his broad arms and legs before picking up his Mognet. "Actually, make that once every three days."
"Oh, come on!" Rygdea complained. "Hey, wait. Where are you going?"
"Lunch, let's go." With that, Cid left with a smirk. His roommate sighed, shaking his head before trailing behind him. Their room automatically locked. They were on the third floor of the Phoenix, Residence Hall so it was a way down to the dining hall.
On the way down, they passed by a young lady clothed in khaki – the same as them, but the sweats were replaced with shorts. Her hair was odd – strawberry blonde, definitely more pink than blonde though. Her piercing blue eyes glanced up occasionally, but her eyes did meet Cid's once quickly before she looked away. She moved past them quickly with her backpack on her shoulder and Mognet in hand.
"Wonder where she's going." Rygdea replied.
"Yes, I wonder." Cid mumbled.
Her roommate was a blonde with short hair and brown eyes, introducing herself as Elena. She too was wearing an identical outfit as Lightning herself. Now, they would have to face scrutiny together. Lightning wondered how many more freshmen girls were training to be soldiers. Not many, she knew probably could count them.
Setting her stuff down, she glanced at the time on her Mognet. It was definitely lunchtime. Her stomach growled right after.
"Hungry, Lightning?" Elena asked.
"Yeah," Lightning nodded. "And call me Light. It's shorter."
How practical. Only Serah and Aerith called her Light. Elena nodded in acknowledgement, picking up her own Mognet and ID card. Lightning felt her own pockets, checking if she still had her ID card. Thankfully, she did. Without an argument, both girls headed out of their room and down to the dining hall on the first floor.
Phoenix Residence Hall did not have an elevator - probably to enforce fitness among its residents. So they had taken the stairs, talking quietly about their backgrounds. Elena had come from Midgar and had a sister graduate from EMP. She had a desire to step out of her sister's shadow, to make a name for herself. Lightning did not mention much about her own background, aside from coming from Bodhum, the accident that claimed her parents. As they descended the final flight of stairs, Lightning remembered the pair of eyes whose gaze she caught.
When Elena and Lightning swiped in, the dining hall was packed. That immediately took Lightning's mind off the guy. There were lines for all the food, including Light's favorite seafood. And the culprits were undoubtedly the freshman girls clothed in medic white. Lightning frowned at this, her stomach growling a bit louder than earlier.
"Maybe, we should have showed up earlier." Elena noted.
"Better luck next time then." Lightning remarked. "Come on, let's find some decent food before they take it all. They're only gonna serve good food tonight. Then, it'll be whatever the Sanctum feeds PSICOM and the Guardian Corps on active duty." Both girls fell into line at the seafood booth, seeing that it was relatively the shortest out of all the lines. Light chatters were heard here and there, left and right, but those came to a halt when all eyes fell on them.
"Ignore it, Elena." Lightning advised. Of course, they would be stared down. They were different from the norm – they weren't wearing medic white, but soldier khaki. The newly-forming cliques were beginning to talk again. Etro, it was like middle school all over again. Only this time, these people could be more vicious.
"Isn't that-?"
"That's the girl with the name. Thunder or something."
Lightning shook her head. They were doing it to spite her. She clenched her fists as she and Elena kept moving up the line. Thank Etro she was blessed with a strong right hook. And she was not afraid to use it. Elena observed her roommate carefully as they neared the food. Lightning inhaled the scent and a small gasp left her lips. Holy Etro – they were serving shrimp, her absolute favorite. When she reached for her serving, something – no, someone bummed into her, causing her favorite food to slip out of her hands, falling onto the floor rather loudly. That was a waste of a decent meal. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a smirk on the boy's face. When she glanced to her right side, she saw some girls in white giggling.
No, they didn't.
Oh yes, they did.
Nobody messed with Lightning Farron and got away with it. This was so junior high school. Rolling her eyes, she decided to send a warning. She was serious about being here. After handing her now-empty platter to Elena, Lightning turned deaf ear to her roommate's pleas and called after the boy. "Hey."
The boy turned around. He didn't seem that older than her; she thought he was either a freshman like her or just a young-looking second-year. Odd, the first thing that crossed Lightning's mind was that at first glance, this guy looked like a girl with his red hair tied in a ponytail. He flipped red bangs away from his eyes and gave her a sly smile. "Hey sweetcheeks."
Neither Lightning nor Elena was impressed. In fact, the strange black tattoos under his eyes bothered them.
"And who are you fooling?" Lightning was a no-nonsense kind of girl. Sweet-talking her got a man nowhere. Elena had figured that much out when Lightning folded her arms, glaring. "Apologize."
"And if I don't, sweet-"
"I'm giving you a warning." Oh, how Lightning hated pet names. She cracked her knuckles. Elena, on the other hand, ignored her roommate and grabbed another platter of food – just in case, stepping over the mess Lightning was 'trying to fix'.
His smirk only grew. Still, he said nothing, drawing closer to her. Arrogant bastard, Lightning thought. Man, she was going to give him a piece of her mind. Within the span of several seconds, she had drawn her right fist back and threw a punch straight at his pretty face. As the force knocked him onto his back, Lightning grabbed his right arm and twisted it in such a way that she pressed it against his back. The boy doubled over, howling with pain.
Cid was picking at his steak, enjoying the last good meal he'd have. He was savoring the moment until Rygdea had poked his arm with his fork. Cid, being a steak lover, raised his eyes to glare, but his glare softened when he noticed the look of shock all over his roommate's face.
"Some shit is going down."
"Already?" Cid reached for the A1 sauce to pour it on what was left of his steak. His response was nonchalant, as if he hardly cared. In fact, he wasn't really paying attention to what everyone else was focused on. All he wanted was to eat.
"It's pink-head from the stairs." Rygdea muttered. "She took down Reno with a punch."
Now, that statement made Cid drop his fork. Moving his line of vision, he found her twisting Reno's arm near wasted food. Quickly, he assessed the situation. The food must have been hers. Reno must have been attempting to woo some new girl by causing trouble to the oddball. Too bad, the tables had turned. That was some punch that girl had. It must have hurt Reno's pride – to be punched and knocked to the ground by a girl.
"Farron!" boomed a voice.
All continuing students stood and saluted to the man entering the dining hall. Elena, as well as the other first-years, followed suit. Lightning, begrudgingly forced to release Reno, straightened up and saluted as well. Vice-Provost Vincent Valentine had entered the premises, glaring at Reno and then, at the girl called "Farron". Cid quickly assumed this was her last name. Vincent never called anyone by first names; it was against protocol.
"Sir." She answered.
"Come with me. Everyone else, return to what you were doing." Vincent said sternly. He then turned away, expecting her to follow him. Lightning did without question, looking over her shoulder once to say something to the blonde that came with her. It was silent until Vice-Provost Valentine departed from commons. Then, the whispers erupted.
And the topic was what would happen to that girl, Farron.
"First day and she's made an impression." Rygdea wolf-whistled.
Cid nodded. "She has quite the right hook."
"And she's my roommate." A blonde girl, clothed in khaki said in passing.
Cid heard what was spoken and stood up, causing Rygdea to raise an eyebrow. The dark-haired, grey-blue-eyed teen swiftly moved to the blonde's side. He was rather curious to know who the blonde's roommate was, what kind of person she was and if she would fit in his 'squadron'.
"Would you like to sit with us?" Cid offered.
The blonde turned around, revealing that she was holding two shrimp plates. Her body language showed that she did not entirely trust him as she held the plates close to her. However, her expression showed that she was rather tired of holding them. She'd have no choice but to comply. She sighed, "Only if you tell what might happen to her."
"Very well." Cid agreed. "May I take one of these?"
The blonde nodded, allowing Cid to take one of the plates she had. He guided back to the table, introducing himself and his roommate. Likewise, the blonde had introduced herself as Elena.
"And that pink-haired girl is your roommate, right?" Rygdea asked.
"Yes, her name is Lightning Farron." The blonde answered. "We're in Phoenix, Third Floor."
"We…are too." The two young men said in unison. Cid and Rygdea glanced at each other. That would be rather interesting. That was their floor. So they'd be hallmates with the now infamous Lightning Farron if the Vice-Provost didn't dismiss her on day one.
So it turned out that the orientation supervisor was Vice-Provost. Who would have known? Clearly, she didn't expect that.
Lightning sat crossed-legged and arms relaxed at her sides. It was a familiar scene, being called into an authority figure's office for misbehavior. However, this office was plain, so barren, empty of color compared to the others she had been in. Sure, there were medals decorated in frames, but they lacked a variety of colors. There were no photographs on his desk. Nothing, it was so plain.
She was digressing. This time, Lightning wondered if the punishment would be much more severe. After all, it was a military academy. Would she have to expect lashes on her back? Rough detentions composed of heavy training? Or whatever the military movies showed?
Regardless, it would help her become stronger.
"Farron, do you know why you're in this office?" asked Provost Valentine.
Lightning cleared her throat. "Sir, he wasted my food. He literally knocked it out of my hands. He would not apologize."
"And why is this relevant?"
"Lack of food is a cause of death, sir. If a soldier is not fed, he or she will not be at the conditions of his or her best performance. And if a soldier is malnourished, their thought patterns are affected. They will not be able to make the best decisions possible, sir." She had the perfect answer.
The room was then silent.
"Well for a soldier trainee, that was an intelligent answer."
"I grew up, learning not to waste resources, Sir." Lightning replied.
"I see." Vincent remarked, "And it was a practical answer as well, but I still have to deliver a punishment. You are suspended from using any kind of weaponry in the first quarter of the year."
First quarter? A quarter was two months! Lightning froze. That was all her coursework. First quarter was dedicated to weaponry specialization. With her suspension placed on her head, she'd be behind everyone else, relying on her acrobatics and fists to fight for two months!
"Welcome to Eden Military Peristylium, Lightning Farron." The Vice-Provost added after she failed to answer. "You may go."
"Sir." Lightning forced herself to stand and salute before leaving his presence. As soon as she departed from his office, she fumed and stormed through campus, clutching her Mognet rather tightly. Her blue eyes grew dark with fury. She was surprised that her Mognet wasn't breaking under all that pressure. She found her way through, back to Phoenix building, climbing up the stairs to find Elena sitting outside their room discussing something with two young men – the ones she saw descending when she was making her way to her room.
"Light, you're back." Elena sounded relieved. "These two are-"
"I'm Rygdea Kase, second year," Introduced the one with the messier, black hair and sky blue eyes. This one merely waved to her from behind Elena.
"Cid Raines, second year as well." The second of the two – the one with grey-blue eyes – outstretched his hand. His grey-blue eyes met hers like they did earlier at the stairs. She moved to shake his hand, seeing it was proper. When their hands touched, there was a kind of spark that went off in her head. Everything she was upset about quickly wilted away. And Lightning could hear her personal warning sirens go off.
Oh freaking Etro, this was not happening.
Well, after some reviews and a livejournal comment, I was inspired to continue Teenage Dream by jumping back in time, imagining the events leading up to Cid and Lightning hooking up. They're in school together. Kyaaaah, Who wouldn't want to see Cid in a school uniform? Dude, I'd dedicate a chapter to someone who would sketch that. I bet Cid would be freaking sexy.
Disclamer: I do not own the Final Fantasy series referenced in this work (XIII, VII and VIII). What? Seriously, I needed to place filler characters so I used pre-existing characters.
Please leave a review. It would make me a happy camper. Plus, Cid x Lightning need more love around here. More reviews mean I'm more likely to be inspired and update more often. So please review.