Chapter 10

"You sure you'll be all right, Fang? I mean, you're gonna be taking care of three little kids tonight."

"Don't worry about me, Vanille," the raven-haired woman reassured. "I can handle a little babysitting, can't I?"

Vanille frowned at her optimistic cousin. She wasn't entirely convinced of her constant reassurances. "But remember that time when you gave the kids too much candy? Honestly, it took hours for Laris and I to put Kyra to sleep that night!"

Fang sighed and rolled her eyes. "Relax, will ya'? I've got tonight covered," she said. "Just go and have fun. Besides, I can always call Lebreau if I need any help or some company. Have a little faith in me."

"I think I'd rather have Lebreau babysit 'em," Vanille muttered to herself once Fang turned around. And then an idea came to mind; a mischievous smile crept onto her face. "So Fang what's this I hear about you and Rygdea?"

Fang seemed to freeze for a second but quickly recomposed herself and scoffed. "W-What did you hear about us?" She mentally slapped herself for stuttering like an idiot. If only she had been drinking a glass of water again she could have turned the outcome into what had happened back at the café.

Vanille smiled innocently. "Oh just that I heard from Serah, who was told by Snow, who was told by Lebreau that you looked quite joyous when you came back, is all."

Damn that woman, the dark-haired lady thought with a slight grimace. How many people did Lebreau even tell? Vanille noticed her small frown and laughed.

"Hey, I think it's great that you're movin' on," she said. "You can't stay single forever, Fang."

Fang opened her mouth to say something but quickly closed it and grinned lightly. She knew she would have her cousin's support all the time even though there would be times she would get on her nerves. Nonetheless, she was family and her family was the most important thing to her.

"It's nothing serious." Yet, Fang added in her head. There was no doubt that Rygdea could be the person for another chance of love. But she knew there would always be a place in her heart for Zane's father, the first man she had ever fallen in love with. Rygdea was a new start for her whether or not in the end they would end up together or remain as just friends. In the pit of her stomach, however, she felt that odd sensation of having a small crush on someone whenever she thought about him.

"But I think I could be warming up to…" Her words trailed off when she started turning a bit red in the face. Vanille smiled genuinely at Fang and understood what she meant to say.

"I think you two are good for each other," said Vanille in all honesty. "He's got that familiar presence like Raines had, I think." She chuckled lightly. "Well they were good friends, right?"

Fang nodded in response and looked away, still feeling a bit uncomfortable when talking about him. But Vanille knew better than to push the subject further. Even though she never talked to her about it, the redhead couldn't help but still feel curious about what her thoughts were on him. Thankfully, the doorbell rang soon after, before she could say another word.

Vanille rushed forward to open the door and greeted the two standing on the other side.

"Hey you guys!" said Vanille in her usual peppy tone, the previous conversation swept away to the back of her mind. Fang took a second to compose herself and waved at the two Farrons entering her home.

"Kyra and Zane are in the living room, hun," she said to Skye who nodded and proceeded into her home. Fang heard the other two kids greet Skye with a loud exclaim that made her chuckle.

"Well, you guys all set?" She turned to the other two women who were talking to each other. They both looked at her at the same time with worried looks. The raven-haired frowned. "What?"

"Are you sure you can handle tonight?" Vanille repeated the same question from before. "'Cause it's fine with me if I should go call Lebreau and -"

"Vanille!" Fang's voice boomed making the younger girl pause with a jump. "I'll have everythin' under control, all right?" she said softer this time with a smirk.

"All right, I guess I'll just have to trust you on this one," Vanille sighed. Still not convinced but forced herself to place her trust in her cousin on this one.

"But if I come back and Skye's hyped up on too much sugar again," Lightning warned in a dangerously calm tone (Fang was unaffected by this and merely had her signature smirk pasted onto her lips). "I'll be sure to bring her to someone else next time."

"Well it's fine with me now. Let's get goin', shall we?" Vanille said to Lightning who nodded as they started to exit the house.

"Kids they're leavin'!" Fang yelled suddenly. Her loud voice made the other two women cringe. The younger ones replied with simultaneous cries of 'bye' and 'see you later' to them from the living room.

Vanille waved at the raven-haired from the car and soon started to pull out of the driveway letting another car pass by as she did so.

From the passenger seat, Lightning was feeling quite anxious as to what to expect from the dinner tonight. It was setup as a blind date for her, not knowing who the other man was going to be. Her mind wished for it to be the dark-haired man she was still in love with. But that wouldn't be possible. He was an engaged man, for Etro's sake! He would be cheating on his fiancée if he did. However, if that were to happen -somehow- she would have to keep her guard up if her were to ask her anything. She knew she couldn't act like this forever, though. Her love for him was just too much to bear. If it were to stay like this for years to come, Lightning knew she would have to move on.

And maybe, just maybe, the upcoming blind date would be her ticket there.

"Feeling nervous?"

Noctis, playing with the cuffs of his black dress shirt, jerked his head sideways to Laris in the driver's seat. The blond had just admitted to him minutes ago that his blind date would be the same woman he still had feelings for. This dinner, he thought, was just a friendly get together with his friend, his wife, and another person that he wasn't expecting to hook up with. Now, that didn't mean that he was certain in the end he would hook up with the pink-haired woman, but since he found out Lightning was coming along, everything around him didn't seem to matter anymore. He did think of what he would say the next time he would see her but he didn't expect for it to be so soon!

As of now, Noctis was panicking in his head. He could feel his hands starting to turn cold so he clenched his fists and replied, "No not really." His lie sounded believable until Laris glanced at his clenched fists.

"You are," the blond said keeping his eyes on the road when the red light turned green. "Hey, it'll be fine. Just don't do anything stupid."

"How could you set the both of us up without our consent?" Noctis demanded.

"If we told Lightning that you would be the blind date, she would have denied the invitation without any reasoning," Laris explained. "She would've been furious if she knew it was you, I can tell you that."

Noctis had to agree he was right. He could still remember the way she looked at him when he admitted he broke up with her for no reason. What kind of guy would even think about doing that to a girl? he thought but smirked bitterly in his head. Someone like me, I guess…

He still felt horrible for the events that happened. Those memories would never fade away. But he wasn't going to give up on her just yet. If he told her the truth about his feelings for her then maybe she would give him a break at the slightest.

Laris made a turn into the parking lot, all the while Noctis' heart pounding in his chest at the anticipation. He parked the car in one of the spaces near the restaurant.

"So much for a surprise date, huh?" Noctis murmured as they got out of the car.

Laris shrugged. "At least I gave you some time to think," he said but then paused. "You did think about what you were going to say, right?"

The dark-haired man smirked at his friend as they entered the restaurant. "I'm not stupid, Laris. I know how to plan things ahead."

While they waited in line to get their reservation table, Noctis looked around the restaurant. The walls were painted a dark red making the whole room look dark were it not for the chandeliers hanging around the tables to make the room look brighter. At the back of the restaurant was where the windows were placed letting the sunset light into the room. The tables were adorned with white table cloths with the usual cutlery placed neatly on the sides of the table. In the middle of each was a burning red candle inside a small glass bowl that matched the color theme in the restaurant. Plants were hung against corners of the walls as well.

When they finally got to the maître de that showed them to their seat, Noctis couldn't help but hope that Laris' wife and Lightning would already be there. But he frowned slightly when he noticed that they weren't. Their table was empty until the two men sat down.

"I just hope they come soon because I'm starting to get really hungry," Laris said as he looked through the menu.

Hunger was the last thing on Noctis' mind at that moment. He wondered if, once the two women arrived, whether he should greet Lightning or just simply nod at her. Of course, she would be in shock at seeing him there first before even thinking of wanting to say 'hello' to him. But a simple act of politeness was common sense for Noctis. Even if she wouldn't reply back, at least he would give it a go at being polite.

"-oct? Noct!"

Noctis turned looked at his friend once more as he jerked him out of his thoughts once again. "What is it?" he asked completely missing the question the blond had asked.

"I asked what you were going to order," Laris repeated slowly but then noticed his clenched fists once again. "Noct there's really no need to be nervous. I may have no experience in what you're about to face but just stay calm and be yourself." Noctis tried taking in deep breaths as his friend continued, "If it helps, I could whisk Vanille and I away later so that you two could be left alone for a bit."

He shook his head and tried emptying his mind to keep calm. He was known for keeping up a mask to hide his emotions. And though Laris couldn't see it on his face the blond was smart enough to know through his actions how he was feeling. To distract himself, he picked up one of the menus and started browsing through it hoping that it would keep him from feeling anxious again.

Vanille's silver car finally made it to the restaurant parking lot. She spotted Laris' car by the front but frowned when there were no available parking spaces near his car so she took an empty one five spaces to the left of his car. As they got out, Lightning straightened out the black skirt she was wearing as well as her white blouse that she decided not to tuck in. She was feeling a little bit nervous to find out who this person was. She even tried to get Vanille to spill and tell her who it was during the car ride but the redhead kept her mouth shut and didn't reply to her curiosity about the blind date.

"He's a great guy," was the only reply that would come out if she tried asking him what this man was like. Prying her wouldn't help so she decided to be patient and wait until she saw. Thankfully if she didn't like how the night was going she was able to leave after an hour. She remembered she made Vanille promise her that. But she soon realized she had no means of transportation back home since she came along with Vanille and the redhead was most likely going to stay longer. Lightning wondered if Vanille had known also and agreed to it on purpose so that she would stay longer until they finally decided to leave. But if she tried telling her now, Vanille would take advantage of this and force her to stay just to give her a ride back home. Of course, there was always the bus for another way home…

They entered the restaurant and were immediately met with the different aromas of the food wavering from the kitchen into the restaurant. Lightning was distracted by the aromas that she didn't even notice a dark-haired man stare directly at her from one of the tables. Vanille pointed towards a table and waved at her husband who was waving back. She noticed Noctis immediately and hoped that Lightning wouldn't cause too much trouble tonight.

When Lightning looked to where the redhead was pointing to, she froze on the spot and parted her mouth slightly in shock. She couldn't believe her eyes. Emotions started to run through her as she stood there. Noctis looked over at her and their eyes instantly met. She couldn't believe that Laris and Vanille set her up on a blind date with Noctis. Part of her was relieved that it was him but then anger started to sink in. He was still an engaged man, wasn't he? Why was he here?

"Light, let's go," Vanille said pulling on her wrist. Lightning didn't respond but kept her expression calm though inside she was feeling so very confused. She looked away from Noctis so as to not bump into any tables they were trying to weave through.

They reached the table in a matter of seconds. She frowned, however, when she noticed the way the seats were placed. It was a square table with four chairs on each side. Laris was on one side while Noctis was sitting to the right of him. She wanted so badly to take the seat next to Laris but seeing as it would be odd for Vanille to be separated from her husband, she was forced to take the seat next to Noctis. Lightning was considering leaving but remembered that even though there were buses as transportation, she had no money on her. Lightning cursed mentally in her head when she scolded herself for not thinking things through if worse came to worse.

Vanille soon took her seat which meant that she had to as well. She met eyes with Noctis for a second, seeing him smile lightly directly at her. She didn't return the smile but instead placed the napkin on her lap. It looked like she was going to have to stay after all.

"Well I'm glad you ladies finally decided to show up," Laris said through the intense silence that had befallen upon the table. "I was getting pretty hungry and tired of waiting for you guys."

"We only had to wait ten minutes, Laris," murmured Noctis. The blond was about to reply when the waiter finally came with a notepad in hand.

"Ready to order now?" he asked noticing that the group was finally all there.

Laris nodded and began to list a few things when Vanille interjected him and told him he was ordering too much for his stomach to handle. Noctis was continuing to look through the menus when at the corner of his eye he noticed Lightning reaching for the stray menus beside him. Wanting to set off a good atmosphere he passed a menu to her, nodding shortly as she took it. He swore he could have heard her mutter a 'thank you' in return.

"And you, sir?" the waiter addressed Noctis once Laris was done listing a few items down because Vanille demanded he take it easy.

Lightning watched as he said his order smoothly, taking a sip of the red wine in his glass. He looked directly at her causing her to avert her eyes quick enough so that he wouldn't see her staring. Once the waiter took down all their orders he left them to converse, though mainly it was just Vanille and Laris murmuring things to each other while the other two remained in silence.

Many questions were arousing in Lightning's head, them focusing mainly on Noctis. Why was he here when he was an engaged man? It didn't make any sense for him to be here on a date, which he probably agreed to not knowing it would be her in the end. She was glaring at the candle in the center while Noctis looked around trying to find something to distract himself.

It occurred to him that he most likely should speak to her about something to let the tension break away. But he was afraid of what he would say would cause her to react coldly. Though she often acted like she was a cold person, Noctis knew the better side of her than anyone else.

"So Noct," Laris' voice drawled in all their ears. Noctis looked at his friend with a grim expression and raised a brow curiously. "You broke off the engagement with Stella, right?"

Lightning simply gawked at what the blond had just blabbed. Her assumptions of Noctis being here meant that he was cheating on his fiancée seemed to falter in her mind now that she just found out he wasn't engaged anymore. But it sounded do sudden to her as to why he called it off. Curiosity was getting to the best of her as she started making assumptions as to why he did but stopped herself before she thought of anything absurd. Noctis looked at Lightning who managed to close her mouth and cleared her throat like nothing happened. He smirked slightly and stared at his empty plate.

"I'm not with Stella anymore, that's correct," he confirmed. The words burned in Lightning's head trying to sort out the meaning though the meaning was obvious to everyone who would've heard. "But it wasn't a mistake for me to have proposed to her. We were good friends for a really long time before I started having feelings for her." It took all of Lightning's mentality not to scoff. "And I truly wish now that we could still remain good friends for the time being."

"Have you spoken to her at all since?"

Noctis was surprised that Lightning had asked that question but glad that she decided to speak at all at the same time. He shook his head in response. "It happened only this weekend," he admitted in a quiet tone.

"Stella must be devastated," Vanille murmured to no one in particular which made Noctis feel bad for hearing her say that, her words sinking into his brain. What he did was all in the past, and there was no way to change it. But knowing Stella, she would come back to her normal self and hopefully want to stay friends with Noctis still.

Lightning didn't know how to feel now. Should she be glad that he was single again just like her and finally have a chance with him? But she didn't want to sound desperate and claim him as hers once more so soon.

And then suddenly Laris seemed to have an excited grin on his face as his eyes were following a moving figure. Noctis followed his gaze and grinned at his friend when a few waiters came with their dishes. There had to be so many waiters because most of them were Laris' dishes while the other three adults only ordered one item. The blond grinned sheepishly at his wife when she shot him a disapproving look. The waiters dispersed, bidding them to enjoy their meal, once all the food was placed on the table (albeit the table could only fit so many plates).

"Well I don't know about you guys but I'm going to start eating what I can finish," he said grabbing a plate of ravioli and starting to eat into it. Vanille followed right after him starting to poke into her Caesar salad and taking the first bite. It seemed that everyone was focused on their food except for Lightning who was just staring blankly at her dish. Too many things were on her mind that it made it hard for her to concentrate on wanting to fill her stomach with something before it growled in response.

"Something wrong?"

She looked up to meet eyes with dark blue ones and shook her head. "I'm just not very hungry," Lightning answered. A sudden thought dawned upon her: she was surprised she made it good so far into the evening without bursting out. She felt a whole different atmosphere near Noctis when it was revealed Stella was no longer with him. When he smiled at her she felt warm inside. The feeling was all too familiar for her.

Noctis nodded once and continued eating. Lightning decided that she should eat part of her dish so as to not starve herself throughout the night if she didn't eat anything. She was anticipating if anything good would come out of tonight. Whatever it was, something was going to come out of tonight good or bad.

*does a happy dance* I HAS FINISHED DIS CHAPTAR! All in one day too. :) If there are any grammar mistakes please feel free to point 'em out.

Well...I actually can't believe I managed to finish this before my Spring Break ended. But really, if it hadn't been for Zomg1010, who asked me when I was going to get the next chapter, I wouldn't have gotten the guts to hurry it up and finish already. I guess you guys are kinda angry at me for waiting so long huh? :S

Moving onto some better news: this chapter was one I actually enjoyed writing (I hope you guys'll be satisfied too 'cause I am), despite the fact that I had to sit on my bum for a little over five hours just to get this done. I've never written so much in my life! I think it's safe to say that my writing's improved since the start? :D Originally, I intended for this to have more stuff in it but seeing as the chapter was getting to be a bit long, I kinda decided that the rest will be in the next chapter which means I've decided that there'll be 12 chapters and an epilogue (possibly an epilogue :P ).

And I know I haven't focused on Fang's background a whole lot so if anyone objects to what I've done with Fang's relationship with Rygdea, please tell me what you think about it if you can. :D

Also, since the release of Noctis' gang's official names, I've decided that I'll be leaving their current names in my story as is. So sad...I wish Prompto's name was Laris... I kinda thought that Yuki's name for him fit. D: I might decide to revise my whole story to change their names and a few key things I need to fix up in the story. MAYBE. Unless you guys want me to. O_O

But anyway, again I apologize for the three month long wait guys, but I can't promise you guys that next chapter will be anytime soon. I've got this stupid geography project due next week and it's got me panicking cause I don't do well when we have presentations in front of the class... BUT NONETHELESS, I hope you guys will leave a review! I've reached 100 reviews! :DD THANK YOU Z! MOAR CYBER COOKIES FOR EVERYONE! XD