through the fire; au

For the most part, Lightning kept to herself. Even though this housing complex she's just moved into had boasted its 'friendly neighborhood' as one of its positive traits, she had no interested in seeing if it was true or not.

It wasn't as though she was rude to people she passed by or anything - she just didn't put in the effort to make friends of her neighbors. There was no point, not when Serah was visiting every other day. Plus, she had no idea who her neighbors were.

Well, okay, she was aware of one of them - an older woman that seemed to do nothing but bake pies. She even left them on the kitchen windowsill to cool off. Lightning had never spoken to her and all she knew of the woman was the pies.

Her other neighbor…she'd never seen. That was fine, because she had no interest.

Her sister didn't seem to understand that at all.

"For all you know, he could be a cute guy!" Serah admonished, actually wagging a finger at Lightning. "You should be more friendly!"

"No thanks." Lightning slid Serah's cup of tea to her. "I'd never date one of my neighbors, anyway. It'd be too awkward whenever we inevitably break up."

Serah was unimpressed. "You need to have a little faith, sis. You could be walking past your soul mate one day and not even know it."

"Then this conversation is irrelevant to my neighbors since I never walk by them." Lightning also made a mental note to find our where Serah was getting her romance novels and stay far, far away from that place.

"Lightning, come on. I'm not saying that you need a boyfriend - "

"Could've fooled me."

" - But you never give romance a shot at all. I just…I don't want you to be alone."

"Serah." Lightning rested her hand on her sister's arm. "I'm fine, okay? I have you. I have everybody at work. I have Fang and Vanille, unfortunately for me." A little smile formed on her face. "You don't need to worry about anything concerning my romantic life, or social life, or anything about that. I'm perfectly happy."

Though Serah didn't look totally convinced, she finally relented with a sigh. "Okay, okay. I'll stop meddling." A slow, smirky smile appeared. "I'll stop meddling…if you introduce yourself to your neighbor. Not the pie lady! The other one!"

Lightning frowned. "Why?"

"I just have a good feeling about them." Serah smiled widely in a way that made Lightning immediately suspicious. "Will you introduce yourself? Pleeease?"

Even though she immediately wanted to decline, there was little Lightning could deny Serah of…and really, what harm could it do? So she introduced herself to one neighbor. They'd probably never speak again afterwards and would just give each other nods of acknowledgement if they passed by. She could handle that.

"Fine," she finally agreed. "I'll go over there tomorrow."

She ignored the obnoxiously loud, triumphant noise Serah made in response.

—

Hours later, another loud sound interrupted her, though this one was invasive, somehow. There was no escaping it, no matter how much she tossed and turned -

BANG!

Lightning's eyes flew open instantly, her heart pounding for some reason. Had she been dreaming? It seemed likely. Except…

BANG BANG BANG.

In a sleepy daze, she realized that the noise was coming from the front door, which immediately made her sit up with wide eyes and grab her phone in case she needed to dial an emergency service…or use it to knock someone out. She wasn't above doing that.

But then she heard something…or someone, rather.

"Get up! C'mon, please! You have to!"

Spurred on by more of the panicky tone in the unfamiliar voice than the actual words, Lightning bolted out of bed and made a mad dash for the door, the faint smell of smoke invading her senses. It wasn't that pungent; instead, it was like someone was barbequing in the neighborhood on a windy day.

Only this time, she was sure there wasn't any steak involved.

The smell grew a little more intense when she flung open the door, but that's not what shocked her.

Because standing on her front porch was a frazzled-looking, silver-haired man - probably about her age - with the worst bedhead she'd ever seen…

…Dressed only in his boxer shorts.

"I'm sorry for waking you," he blurted out after what was an oddly awkward pause where they both just stared at each other, considering the frantic way he'd been pounding on her door, "but I think my house is on fire and I got out of there before I could call anyone. Could I use your phone?"

"What?!" Lightning's struggle to follow what he was saying - her mind was still half-asleep - was tossed aside when she dashed out onto her front lawn. Sure enough, smoking was pouring from her neighbor's house…incidentally, the neighbor she promised Serah she'd introduce herself to.

"My smoke alarm woke me up. I can't believe it didn't alert the entire neighborhood." The guy was still staring at her, though she couldn't imagine why. She was barely dressed as well, in a pair of shorts and a thin tank top. "Are you able to call someone?"

Amazingly, Lightning realized that she was still clutching her phone from when she'd grabbed it earlier. She immediately dialed the fire department and handed the phone to her neighbor, who assured them that no one was in the house and he wasn't sure what had caused the smoke.

"Thank you," he gushed after hanging up and handing his phone back to her. She could already hear sirens in the distance. "I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't woken up."

"Ruin someone else's beauty sleep, I'm sure," she replied, though it was an in obviously teasing tone.

"Not that it looks like you need it."

She couldn't stop the blush that immediately formed on her cheeks, suddenly incredibly aware of the fact that not only was this man her neighbor, but all he had covering him were those boxers…not to mention that her clothing wasn't much better.

Not that she had anything to hide…and neither did he, it seemed.

Oh yes, and she was also aware that there was the possibility that his house was burning down.

"Er…" The guy cleared his throat in an almost nervous manner. "I'm sorry if that was out of line. But I am really glad that you were able to call the fire department for me." He stuck out his hand with an easy smile that made her immediately forget about their state of undress. "My name's Hope."

She flicked his eyes down to his hand, the corners of her lips curving, like it was an impulse she couldn't quite stop, and grasped his hand, shaking it gently. "Lightning."

"Lightning," he repeated, his smile widening a bit. His eyes, which were a startling green color, never left her face. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"'Finally'?" she echoed. "What - "

Before she could finish the question, a firetruck and two police cars pulled up in front of the house. Lightning actually jumped a little, because she'd barely heard the sirens getting closer…and naturally, she hadn't noticed that the smoke was pouring out of Hope's place at an alarming rate.

Some more people on the block were starting to come out of their homes now, either because they'd smelled the smoke or the sirens had woken them up, which made Lightning realize that Hope was wearing basically nothing. For whatever reason, she had no desire for anybody else to see him in this state…though for all she knew, he got the morning paper in his boxers and she was just never awake to see it.

"Do you want me to…find you a shirt or something?" she asked before all the firefighters rushed over to them.

He blinked in surprise, as though he'd just realized people other than the two of them were there and looked down at himself, his face turning a little red. "Um. Well, I wouldn't be opposed, exactly…"

"I've got you covered." She smiled a little and rushed back into her own home, taking a moment to throw on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. She didn't consider herself modest, exactly, but she had no desire for the whole block to know what she wore to bed.

Though the fact that Hope knew didn't matter to her as much, for some reason…

It took a bit of digging around in her closet, but she finally found a plain black shirt that was a size too big - something she must have gotten in a thrift store or whatever. Either way, it would do.

When she went back outside to deliver the garment to Hope, he was standing next to one of the firefighters, a dark-skinned man with the name 'Sazh Katzroy' stamped on his badge.

"It's lookin' pretty bad in there," he said grimly, "but luckily, most of it's contained to the kitchen. Might be an electrical fault. Good thing your smoke detectors are up to code."

"Yeah," Hope replied, sounding relieved. He ran a hand through his hair, which did nothing to help the absolute mess it was still in.

For some reason, that made Lightning smile and prompted her to offer the shirt to Hope. "Here."

He spun around, eyes lighting up like he hadn't expected to see her back so soon. "Thank you," he said, pulling the shirt over his head with some relief.

Sazh quirked a brow. "Are you also an occupant in Mr. Estheim's home?"

Her face flared. "No! We're…we're just….neighbors."

Though Sazh didn't say anything, Hope continued, "I woke her up because I smelled the smoke and knew I had to get out of there. I forgot to bring my phone, though, so she let me use hers after I explained."

"Smart of ya." The fireman nodded in approval. "Smoke damage is often more damaging than any actual flame. Gotta be careful in both instances."

"Was there an actual fire?" Lightning wanted to know, though she couldn't imagine why. This wasn't her house. "Or just smoke?"

"Just smoke. We're takin' care of it." There was a pause when someone called for him and Sazh expertly put on his protective gear. "Duty calls!"

Lightning stayed put - next to Hope - and slid her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, idly watching Hope's home. A part of her expected it to go up in flames at any moment, but she could tell whatever was wrong was already being contained - the amount of smoke pouring out into the air was already lessening by quite a bit.

Still, when all was said and done, she had no idea how livable the house would be, even if it was just the kitchen. Surely the stench would linger for quite some time - not to mention that the kitchen was one of the more important rooms.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" she blurted out.

Hope had been staring at the house, but now whirled his gaze to her. "What?"

"I mean - " What the hell was wrong with her? "I can't imagine you'll just be able to crawl back into bed after the firefighters take care of this." She gestured to the house.

"I…" Apparently, the thought hadn't even occurred to him and he shrugged. "I'll get a hotel or something. Especially since I'm sure I'll be able to pack along some more shirts this time," he added with a grin.

She chuckled, about to leave it at that - she hardly knew the guy, except that he looked quite…appealing without a shirt on - but something compelled her to keep talking. "I have a pull-out couch in my spare room. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but my kitchen didn't go up in smoke or anything, so…"

Now he was staring at her in utter wonder. "You'd do that for me?"

Why was he looking at her like that? "Sure." She nodded a little. "It's no trouble at all. Just don't set my kitchen on fire and we're good to go."

Hope actually laughed. "Seriously?"

Had she done something wrong? Wasn't this what…neighbors were supposed to do? "It's okay if you'd rather not, I just thought - "

"Lightning." He hesitantly reached out, only resting his hand on her shoulder when she didn't move away at all. "You don't have to do that if you don't want to. You helped save my house from possibly going up in flames…not to mention saved my dignity a little." He tugged on the hem of the shirt with his free hand. "You've done more than enough."

She should've left at that. All logic dictated that it'd be better if she did.

But for once, she threw that logic out the window.

"I really don't mind." She leaned into his hand a bit. "I shared a place with my sister for most of my life. It's fine."

Hope stared at her some more, completely ignoring the shouts of the firefighters. "Really?"

"Yes."

A smile stretched over his lips. "Okay, then. I accept…if you let me pay you back."

"You don't need to pay me any - "

"With dinner."

That stopped her. "What?"

"Let me take you out to dinner to…thank you. For all this." His smile widened a little. "But at an actual restaurant where they presumably don't have faulty wiring that could potentially go up in smoke."

She couldn't help but huff a laugh, the shouting and sirens and even the stench of the smoke seeming far away. A part of her wondered it would be like to feel like that more often.

"…Okay." Lightning took one of her hands out of her hoodie pocket, letting it grasp Hope's when he slid his off her shoulder. "It's a date."

Luckily, after that, the worst of the damage was contained, but Hope was highly advised against staying in the house for the next few days in case of potential health hazards. He was pleased to inform Sazh that he already had a place to stay and was escorted into the house so he could pack some things.

Lightning went back into her own smoke-and-fire-free home and started pulling out the couch into a bed, a smile still on her face.

Perhaps Serah had been right, as much as she hated to admit it.

It was worth it to get to know her neighbors after all…even through the smoke and fire.