So here's the first chapter of "In Love with a Stranger" and I hope you guys like it. It's kinda hard budgeting the time now, now that I have two fics on the go. Oh well, it's fun anyway! So anyway, these are the pairing: Noctis x Lightning(obviously), Prompto (Shotgun Guy's real name) x Vanille, and slight Snow x Serah. And just so you know, Noctis and Stella are siblings here.

Now that that's all settled, let the cameras roll!

In Love with a Stranger

Chapter I: Lost

"Okay that does it! This is the fifth time we passed these area, we've been going around in circles! Somebody has got to tell me where the hell we are!" Fang said as she looked around, which came as a slight difficulty, judging how dark it is inside this…whatever.

"You're complaining won't get us anywhere. And if I actually knew where we are, I'd gladly tell you. As it is, we can only hope to get out of this…this…whatever you call this place, as soon as we can." answered Sazh, looking around the dark place.

Behind everyone, Serah was trialing them, her eyes glued to the floor. She was so out of it that she nearly jumped in shock when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Serah didn't bother to look up; she knew very well who it was anyway.

"Your gloomy mood isn't going to help finding her any easier you know." Snow said. He was worried about his fiancé's mental stability a bit ever since they got sent here by some strange bright light.

"But, who knows what happened to her? She hit her head pretty hard back then! I saw it! She was bleeding! Onee-chan should be here with us, but she's not! I don't even know where I am! How am I supposed to know where to start looking for her? And it's all my fa-"

"Stop blaming yourself. No one said it was your fault!" everyone turned to Vanille, who had her arms crossed and was giving Serah the looks, "Like Snow said, it won't help to felr bad about yourself, so let's just go and look for her instead of mopping around here why don't we?" that being said, the orange-haired woman started walking again, almost like dancing in a child-like manner.

'She's right. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we'll find onee-chan.' Serah thought to herself as she shoved aside all her self-blaming.

"Not to be rude and all, but who the hell are you guys?"

They turned around to see three men standing and giving them strange looks. The one on the left had somewhat brown hair and he wore glasses. When they turned to the guy on the right, the first thing that they thought was 'That's gotta hurt…', since the first thing that they actually saw was the scar on his left eye, and that made Fang wonder, 'How can he still see with that? Better yet, somebody tell me how his eye is still in there.' And lastly, the guy in the middle, he has pale blond hair, and his eyes where a strange shade of blue.

'Still, he is kind of cute.' Vanille shook that thought away, she barely knew the guy! Still… "Uh… Sorry for intruding, if we are. I'm Vanille, the little boy is Hope, the guy with a chocobo on his head is Sazh, the big guy over there is Snow, the girl beside Snow is Serah, and that one over there with the lance is Fang. Now that I've introduced all of us, it's your turn then we can all be friends!" 'Way to go on hiding your thoughts Vanille. That was very smart of you.' The orange-haired woman said in her head as she mentally slapped herself in the face.

The three men exchanged glances, as if they were actually considering it. Just when Vanille started to get nervous, the blond man in the middle suddenly went straight to her, shook both her hands with his own and was grinning like a mad man, "Hi Vanille! I'm Prompto! Eyeglass dude over there is Ignis; Scarface guy over there is Gladiolus. But let's just ignore them now shall we? I'm very happy to meet you and I hope we get along great! Hey, if you like, would you go out with me?"

The two men behind him, Gladiolus and Ignis, Prompto had said, looked at the blond with strange faces. Ignis was now pinching his nose in an effort to calm down it seemed. Whereas Gladiolus looked like he was actually considering on smacking Prompto around the head anytime.

Vanille looked at him with starry eyes and smile widely, "Sure! It'll be fun to get out of this place! That's so nice of you! And now that we're all friends, let's all go out together!"

There was silence, and there was silence. This seemed to be the latter.

Then there was a loud burst of laughter from the two men beside the blond. And Prompto… well, he looked like if he just got shot by a lightning bolt. 'Is this girl whacked or something?' the blond man thought to himself. And the orange-haired woman once again flashed a smile to him that made him fell like his face was burning. 'Well, maybe she's just too innocent for things like these.'

"Uh, I hate to interrupt your 'moment', but shouldn't we be looking for Light?"

…

…

…

…

"You're right, let's go!"

"I ain't trying to ruin your energy Vanille, but do you even know where you're going?"

"…Where am I going?" Vanille asked, turning to Laris.

The blond turned to look at the direction the orange-haired woman was about to take, "Beats me," he said and shrugged, "I've never really figured out how things go around in these places. And that makes me wonder how Noct managed to memorize this place. But then again, he does live here…"

Fang looked up and closed her eyes. "What are you thinking about Fang?" Vanille asked the raven-haired woman.

"I'm just imagining what that guy would look like. Sadly, the only thing that's coming in my head is an image of a dark lord…" Fang answered. Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis exchanged glances, before erupting in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Fang gave them the look, "What? I'm just saying things as I see it! I don't see anything funny about that, so stop laughing! Can you just tell us what he looks like then? And stop laughing will' ya!"

Prompto gave them all a sheepish grin, "Oh we'll tell you."

With a smile, Ignis adjusted his eyeglasses a little bit, "Ladies define him as tall, dark, handsome and mysterious. They say that being mysterious makes him more attractive than he already is, much to Noct's dismay of course. The poor guy…"

Prompto smiled at them, more like grinned actually, "He usually hides himself in formal gatherings too, avoiding attentions. And just so you know, he's currently frowning at you right now because of that Dark Lord comment earlier."

"How do you know he's currently frowning?"

The blond man widened the grin that was on his face, if that was even possible, and said, "Because he's standing right behind you!"

The six felt a sudden chill down their spines, and slowly turned around. There was a long period of silence when, surprisingly, it wasn't Vanille nor Prompto who broke the silence.

"DARK LORD-SAMA!" Fang shouted as she pointed an accusing finger at the new comer.

Actually, the new comer didn't look like Satan…..much. He was tall, not as tall as Snow since that would make him a giant, he had raven dark hair with all of its messy glory, and eyes like the deep blue night sky. It was hard to say he wasn't attractive. But the fact that this man lives in a dark castle that hardly has any light in it, the fact that everything that he's wearing right now is pure black…

"Vanille look! It's Dark Lord-sama in the flesh!"

Ignis looked at the dark haired woman and the orange haired one, then turned to Prompto, "You know, you and Vanilla-girl over there are going to get along just fine." He told the blond, purposely changing the name to see what his friend's reaction would be.

Prompto looked back at him and grinned, "You think so? I knew we look great together!" insert frown here please, "And her name is Vanille not Vanilla you idiot. There's a huge difference."

Ignis rolled his eyes at the last sentence and wanted nothing more than to tell his friend that 'It means the same thing you imbecile.´ but kept his thoughts to himself, Prompto had enough after what the orange-haired girl had said to his earlier offer.

Noctis felt a tug on his shoulder, and when he looked down, he saw, from what he's heard earlier from the orange-haired woman's introduction, Serah. He didn't know why, but the expression of the small female made him compare her to that of a child asking for a candy but was not allowed to. Suddenly she spoke, "C-can you help us? From what your friends here say, you know this place better than anyone."

Noctis looked at her for a few moments, thinking about whether she'd help her or not. 'Well, wouldn't hurt to help people you don't know.' "What do you want me to help you with?"

Serah looked down, an effort to hide her face, "You see, we don't even belong in this world. The last thing I remember was a bright light, and when I woke up, we were all here…with the exception of my sister…"

Light bulb there, "So, you want me to go look for her here?"

"…. Yes."

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…

…

…

…

"Alright then, I'll help."

To say that Stella was irritated was a horrible understatement. First, she had a party to arrange, and now, she had someone nagging behind her. Self-control was the only thing that stopped her from snapping at the person behind her. 'Does she ever shut up? Ah well, now I know the effect I have whenever I'm bugging the hell out of my brother. I'm never gonna talk like that again if this is the price…' the blonde princess thought to herself in the darkest place of her mind. As she tried her best to ignore the maid behind her, her eyes traveled everywhere in the dark castle that she happens to live in.

'Let's see. We have Mom's vase that I almost broke yesterday, Gladiolus' favorite shades, Ignis' schedule notebook-I'm gonna get that later if it still happens to be there- and are those Prompto's socks yesterday? Geez… Okay, where was I? Ah, now I remember. So, there are some smudges here and there, a trail of blood and…..'

"A TRAIL OF BLOOD?"

The maid behind her was startled and followed the blonde princess's gaze and true enough, there was blood trails somewhere around the floor. Without any second thoughts, Stella rushed to follow the trails. A few moments later, and it led to a door. And its door was slightly open.

"That's weird. This door was never left open before…." Stella muttered. It was true though, this room was rarely used so there was no reason for it to be left open, unless there was someone who went in and forgot to close it. Or maybe didn't forget to close it, maybe it was too weak to do so. The blonde slowly opened the dark room and-

"OH MY GOD THERE'S A PERSON RIGHT THERE!" That. Was. IT!

"Do you mind? I'm right beside you and you're yelling straight at my ear! Now be useful and help me get him!" Stella ordered. It usually took more than this to get her off the hook, but this was an exception. And when she tried to carry the person in her arms… "Okay, let me rephrase that. Help me get her." Now she was feeling a bit conscious. The woman in her arms is bigger than her in ways more than one. And the height was not even included there yet. Fortunately, the maid she was yelling at earlier had the sense –finally – to help her.

It's been a while since Stella had brought the mysterious woman in her room and had treated her wounds and bruises. Apparently, it wasn't that bad, considering what else could have happened. But the woman seemed to have bumped her head way too hard. It took quite some time to stop the bleeding and wrap it in bandages. And also, Stella needed to buy some new clothes for this woman as well. She wasn't about to let such an attractive woman go walking on the streets with blood-soaked clothes. Speaking of attractive, her eyes automatically gravitated to the woman she had let sleep in her bed.

The woman was absolutely gorgeous at best, attractive without deny at worse. She had long, strawberry-blonde hair –that Stella had decided to tie in a loose ponytail- long eyelashes, smooth, porcelain skin, and –as embarrassing as it is to think, since Stella was a woman as well- had all things in the right places. Not that she saw everything; she left the underwear on while she told the maid to wash her clothes. And right now, she was still waiting for the woman to regain consciousness. Her hopes reached up to the highest level when the woman's eyes started to flutter open. The woman's eyes were blue, and looked liked crystals. They were beautiful. But what made Stella frown was that the woman tried to get up.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't get up just yet! Your wounds are still fresh and they might bleed again!" Stella said as she gently laid the woman back to lie down.

The woman looked at her with bland confusion, "I appreciate the concern, but who are you?"

The blonde princess smiled the sweetest and sunniest smile that she could muster, "I am Princess Stella Nox Caelum, the second born of my parents. I have an older brother though. Speaking of my brother… Hold on. I'm just gonna give him a call." She turned around and took her phone out of her pocket and dialed her brother's number.

Noctis felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and took it out to answer it. "What is it Stella?"

"Hey Noct! You'll never guess what I found!"

Noctis sighed, "Prompto's socks yesterday?"

"… How did you know I saw Prompto's socks? But that's not the point here! I just saw a woman! And not just any woman! It's like she's from a whole other world! She dresses differently-"

The phrase 'other world caught his attention then, "Does she have strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes?"

"Uh… Yeah? How did you-"

"Stella, tell me where you are."

"I'm here at my room. Oh and before you come here, be sure to bring some food for the girl, okay? Okay, Bye!"

"Wait! What are you- argh!" she hung up on him. AGAIN! He turned to the people he was with, "My sister found her. Let's go," and started walking away.

Prompto looked at the dark-haired prince confusingly, "Uh, Noct? We're supposed to go to Stell's room right? Why are headed to the kitchen?"

"Don't make me answer that, please."

Stella grinned savagely as she closed her phone. No matter what the situation may be, she loved annoying the living daylights out of her brother. Now that she thought about it, she sort of regrets doing it. Not that it has anything to do with her brother's well-being, it was just that the maid she was with earlier would probably annoy her the same way in the future. But that's not her main concern right now. The strawberry-blonde haired woman had managed to sit up without doing herself any damage by the time Stella turned back to her. This woman was stubborn.

Soon, the woman opened her lips, "Why am I here? How did I end up here?"

Stella went and sat beside her on the bed, "Well you see, I was passing by and went to a room that you happened to be in. And I saw you all alone and almost bleeding to death. Speaking of that, how did you end up there anyway?"

Before the woman could respond, there was a knock that came at the door. Stella grinned wildly again and turned to the door, "Come in."

And the door suddenly busted open with six people trying to get in all at once.

"I wanna see Light! Get out of my way!" Screamed Vanille as she pushed herself to get in, and sadly failed on that attempt.

Hope frowned, apparently, he was beside the orange-haired woman, "Well, you're not the only one who wants to see her! So just give way already!"

Sazh mentally slapped himself, "Why am I being dragged here too? You youngsters just go on in one by one!"

"Hey! Serah should be the first to see Light and you know it!" Snow said as he tried to push the others away to make way for his fiancé.

Fang struggled to get away from the conflict at the door, but unfortunately, she was in the middle, "Listen to the old black man over there will you? And I wanna see Light too so just make way!"

"Do you guys mind? If Vanille wants to see her friend then let her!" Prompto shouted and tried to push the others away.

Stella and the strawberry-blonde haired woman both stared at the six people. And apparently, both of them had the same thing in mind, 'Common sense seemed to be very unused nowadays…'

Soon enough, they had managed to get inside, all of them. And in that very moment, Serah had rushed towards the woman and hugged her, making sure not to cause any pain seeing as her body way covered with wounds and bruises. "I was so worried Lightning! I thought I would never see you again!" and tears fell down from Serah's cheeks to the shoulders of the woman in her arms.

Lightning, or so Serah had identified her to be, turned a little to see the woman that was hugging her, "I'm touched by your concern and all but…"

She slightly moved away to look at Serah straight in the eyes what was filled with joy and concerned while her own was filled with confusion. It took a few moments before Lightning got the words out of lips, "Who are you?"

And CUT! That's all for now. Please review! I wanna know what you guys think about this one! And if you have any suggestions, don't be shy to send me note! Please! I'll give you a cookie! XD