Halloween specia!

teamwork; au

It was unfortunate that as an adult, Lightning found little use for Halloween. Since there was a lack of free candy - which was really the torturous part; not that she'd ever admit that out loud - all it became was an excuse to get drunk while dressed as something ridiculous.

Figures that her 'friends' (and she used the term very loosely) would think of something completely different.

"Come on, Lightning." Lebreau grinned, nudging her with her elbow. "Going through a haunted house is pretty much mandatory on Halloween. Even Serah went through it earlier."

"Good for her," Lightning grumbled in response. At this point, she'd take getting drunk over this. "Let me guess - the others are going to pop out with sheets over their heads? Or maybe you splurged and got cheap rubber masks?"

"Serah wasn't this hard to convince." Lebreau chuckled.

"I bet she went in with Snow."

"Which is all the more reason that you should! You don't want the big guy to one-up you, right?"

Honestly, Lebreau was a terrible liar. There was definitely some kind of bigger reason she was urging this so much. The problem was, Lightning had absolutely no idea what the heck that reason could be.

Finally, she sighed heavily and started walking inside. "I can't believe this," she muttered, completely missing the triumphant grin on Lebreau's face.

Just as she'd suspected, the inside was nothing more than some dark, dingy rooms. Separators had been temporarily put in to create a maze, and there was the faint noise of a 'spooky' track in the background - probably from the CD player and put on repeat.

To her surprise, there didn't seem to be anyone else in this little maze - not even people out to 'scare' her. It was just the extremely dim lighting and her footsteps echoing, which she had to admit was a bit creepy. That was completely the only reason she jumped when she heard the creaky hinges of a door opening. A bit of light entered the room, and she could have sworn she heard shouting and catcalls, but it was extremely muffled.

All she knew was that she suddenly, quite literally, walked into someone. She instinctively grabbed their arm to keep from falling over.

"What the - "

"…Light?"

"Hope?" Lightning paused in surprise, squinting through the dimness as she looked up. She could just barely make out Hope's confused expression. "…Let me guess. Lebreau?"

"More like Maqui and Yuj," he murmured, almost in embarrassment. She wondered why, until she realized too late that she was still holding onto his arm and hastily moved her hand away.

"I wonder who's in here, then," she said quietly, clenching and unclenching her fingers.

"What do you mean?"

"The point of a haunted house is to be scared, right? Usually that means people jumping out behind walls or something ridiculous like that."

Hope shrugged. "I saw Gadot talking to Snow before the others shoved me in here, so I'm not sure who could be - " His sentence was interrupted by a voice - though it didn't sound familiar to either of them - echoing though the room.

"RUNNN AWAAAAY IF YOU WAAAANT TO LIIIIVE!"

Lightning immediately whirled around like she was going to punch something, missing the way Hope jumped - not out of fear, but just from surprise. A glare formed on her face, but it was so dark that she couldn't see if someone had made that noise, or if it was some kind of recording.

The two of them took a couple of steps when there was another string of gibberish, trying to locate the source of the noise, but it was so dim that it was difficult to tell. They went around in circles for what seemed like ages (which it was really only a couple minutes) until Lightning's aggravation grew obvious.

"Let's just get out of here," she muttered…

…apparently to annoyed to realize that she'd grabbed Hope's hand to lead him. She was looking around for the exit, so she completely missed the way his face flushed and the way his eyes darted down to their joined hands like this was a joke he was missing the punchline of. What she didn't miss was the way his fingers tightened around hers…and truth be told, it was pretty nice.

"Hey…Light?"

"Yes?" She was still searching for the elusive exit.

"I - "

Once again, Hope was interrupted by what was probably supposed to be 'scary' noises…only this time, they sounded live. More importantly, they sounded like they were coming from outside.

"Here," she muttered, going to a random wall and kicking it. A hidden door creaked open, much to her surprise. She hadn't expected that to work that well.

Nor had she expected everyone to be standing there and staring with expectant looks on their faces. She frowned, especially when Serah let out a little squeal. Snow started laughing, Lebreau and Gadot were smirking, and she saw Yuj and Maqui give each other a high five.

"It worked!" Snow yelled in triumph.

Lightning was not amused. "What worked?"

Serah was giggling. "Got a little scared in there, didn't you, sis?"

"What are you talking about?"

Eerily, everyone's gaze seemed to stray downwards at the exact same time. Seconds too late, she realized what they were looking at.

She was still holding Hope's hand.

They all started laughing again when she obviously realized it. Luckily, they were all too busy congratulating each other about how they 'finally managed to get those two alone' to see how Lightning was still holding on, and tugged a blushing Hope aside.

"Um, sorry about this." He unenthusiastically tried to take back his hand, looking up at Lightning in surprise when she wouldn't let him.

"You know…" she murmured, glancing at their joined fingers, suddenly having a hunch as to what Hope was going to say back in that 'haunted' house. "If they went through this much trouble just to get something as platonic as holding hands, it makes me wonder if they'll team up and devise something even more elaborate for the holidays." At Hope's confused expression, she raised her eyebrows. "They'll be putting mistletoe in every doorway."

Had he been drinking something, Hope probably would've choked on it. As it was, his mouth opened a little like the breath was falling out of him. "Would…would you be okay with that?"

She suddenly heard clattering coming from nearby - probably from the others tearing down those makeshift walls in the house. The background noise of 'spooky' noises was suddenly full-blast, and Lightning had to learn in close for her response, squeezing his hand as she spoke.

"You'll find out."

Suddenly, she couldn't wait for the next stupid plan the others would inevitably come up with.