AN : There'd be a Lightis moment a little for this chapter, so beware you guys, hehehe xD and maybe Lightning or Noctis would probably OOC, but that's why I made this story as an AU, right?

Title : Hikari no Nocturne
Rating : T
Summary : She was once the 'legend' knight, yet now she is just an ordinary blacksmith. He was the prince, yet disguised himself as her assistant. But one day, the secret will be revealed and the journey of the crystals will begin. Will romance spark between them?

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Chapter 6

"Blossom"

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was night already yet she didn't have the willing to go to bed just yet. She needed to refresh herself after what had happened that day. She walked out from her shop to the garden, where she usually stayed whenever she had a thing or two. She liked the breezing wind touched her skin and she enjoyed the night view very well. The most important thing was the silence that she was searching. She looked around to spot her favorite bench and it was empty like it had been waiting for her. She walked towards it slowly and put herself on it. That and the wind always did the trick. Now, she felt more relax and thus she stared at the sky. The stars were twinkling like they were there to accompany and comfort her. She smiled with the thought.

Out of sudden, she saw a shooting star. She knew about the 'wishing upon a star' thing and just chuckled with whoever made the statement. Either it was a silly thought or it was a hopeless thought. If everything can be done easily by wishing upon a star, people will not have to work hard again, will they? Yet, she found herself wished upon it and still hope for a miracle that maybe, just maybe, she could at least get close with her wish. She knew her wish wouldn't come true no matter how hard she tried to gain it and no matter how persistent she was. The more she wishes, the more she knew it was useless and she was tired to hope in nothing and believe in nonsense.

After a moment staring at the sky, she shook her head. She slapped her cheeks softly to bring back her consciousness and herself. Why the hell did she sound so weak? She had to be strong. She needed to move on. Ah, speaking of moving on, the thought of that day's incident suddenly popped out in her mind. She was wondering why her father came to her place before? Was it really because of his –not so- broken sword or was it just because he wanted to visit and check her? Or was there something that she didn't know yet? Whatever it was, surely, she didn't want to know that yet. She was just afraid of finding the truth.

Suddenly, something occurred in her mind. 'Could it be?' she thought and then suddenly shook her head just to ignore the stupid thought in her mind. Yet, she found herself still hanging with the idea. 'Could it be that…'

~*~*~*~

"Dad, it's so beautiful!" Little Lightning was staring at her father's favorite sword, Buster Sword. She always found herself mesmerized by the beautiful sword that her father always brought. She always wanted to touch it and to know what it would be like to hold it and to use it.

Cloud chuckled upon hearing what his daughter had said. He had realized and known that Lightning was different from any other girls. If the other girls like to play with dolls or something, she will always find a way to avoid them and try to do something more challenging. She was masculine and that was what he always told her. It was no harm with that. He smiled softly to her and kneeled down so that they could face each other. He patted her long brownish blonde hair and said softly, "Not yet, Light."

"Why not?" She pouted and looked sad then avoid Cloud's gaze.

His father just smiled and pulled her chin slowly so that they were facing each other again. He could see that she was pouting and maybe she was trying to ignore the man in front of her like he had done so many mistakes to her. "Light, you are still so young."

"That again." She mourned. "I know, but still." She looked away again.

This time, Cloud didn't pull her head to face him, instead he just said, "Well, if it's the time already, I'll let you to hold it, Light."

"When is it going to be?" She asked softly yet it was so obvious that there's anger in it.

"How about when you turn 10?" He said softly and suddenly she turned her head to face him. She smiled widely and clapped her hands. Surely she was very excited with what he had said before.

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows and he nodded with a big smile. She hugged his neck excitedly and tightly. "You're the best, dad." She shouted happily.

"Yeah, I am." He answered with a giggle.

However, when she turned 10, their promised never came true. Her father was too busy at her tenth birthday that he didn't come home and attend her birthday party. She was really sad and at that time she learned about devastation. Yet, she didn't hate her father because of that. She knew that her father had something to do, something that was about protecting her and her mother, so, she didn't hate him. Sure, she ignored him for few days after he had gotten from his job, but after that, she acted like usual to him. Though she hadn't yet gained the courage to ask another promise from him.

~*~*~*~

"So, I see the famous blacksmith Lightning Strife is tired." A deep masculine within mocking tone was taking her consciousness back. She pulled her head down to find the source of the familiar voice. Her eyes widened and she felt annoyed.

There, in front her, was the last person she wanted to see and yet there he was, standing with a grin on his face. His blonde hair looked shining because of the moon reflection. She let out a sigh and tried to stand up, but he stopped her by pushing her back. That made her glared at him. She felt infuriated. She didn't need another trouble and more complication for that day. Her father sudden arrival had made her day complicated already. Yet she felt a bit shivered staring with most penetrating vulgar pair of blue eyes that she had found herself mesmerized by before. She tried to avoid his gaze, afraid that it might absorbed her strength.

"Not so fast, I think." He said with a smirk.

"What do you want?" She asked within anger. His smirk didn't leave his face and that irritated Lightning. "And scrap that smirk of yours!" She shouted again.

Everyone in that garden was now staring at them and finding that they were the most interesting thing in that garden. A glare from her good enough to make them to continue their activity before and ignored her. They realized that she was Lightning and they knew better than to make trouble with her.

"You didn't change a lot, Light." He said again.

"Why should I?" She asked sarcastically with a higher tone.

"Now, now, with the attitude." He shook his point finger in front his face and shook his head playfully with a grin plastered on his face. He grabbed both her shoulder tightly made her felt uncomfortable and helpless. She tried to struggle and she knew she could fight him, but she didn't want to search trouble with him. If she punched him, like she usually did, he would probably irritate her more and she didn't want that. So, what should she do then? Should she scream? Nah, it was helpless and besides, who wanted to help her after they realized who he truly was?

That left her one choice, she had to obey and let him finish what he had intending to do before. "What do you want?" Lightning found herself asked that question with a helpless feeling. Why she had to be that weak? She still struggled and found herself being freed by his hands. She stood up and glared at him.

He grinned, "My, my, Lightning, you sure are something." He said playfully. "Well, I just want to know what is the famous Lightning Strife doing at here, at night?" He emphasized the word night and gained another glare from Lightning. He always found her amusing and everything that she had done always gain his interest. He wondered why. She was very different from any other girls that he had known before. And despite all that, she was beautiful with her long brownish blonde hair, attractive red lips, mesmerizing green eyes –that she got from his father-, her masculine act she gained from her mother and everything about her just made her perfect. He bit his lips in amusement.

"One thing for sure, it is not to be annoyed by a merely man like you." Another masculine voice entered the conversation and it did take their attention. The voice was so deep and the owner said that statement sarcastically.

-x-

Her sad face, her angry face, why did that bothered him so much? He came to that Kingdom to look for the blacksmith, not to search for a fancy woman being. Sigh, he knew she was not a fancy woman. She was indeed an independent one, one would never hold herself into other, one who always mind her own business and never let anyone to interrupt. That day, when he had seen her father -the legendary Cloud Strife-, he found another interesting fact about her. That was her love-hate relationship with her father and thus it had nothing to do with his searching.

He needed to find his attention back to his mission and realized the only way to do that was to have a refresh air. He needed to take a break from his mission and he needed to convince himself with his task. He knew his friend, Clyde, wouldn't give much help for the former at the moment because somehow, the latter kept brooding about something and no matter how hard Noctis tried to talk to his talkative friend, the latter seemed not responding to the question. Okay, now it was really annoying. I meant, Noctis never seemed to be the one who try to talk. It had always to be Clyde and when he did, Clyde seemed not to be interested and responded.

That's why he took a walk that night to search for composure. He didn't realize that he had walked far away from his staying. But anyway, he had always managed to get back to his staying, so, there wasn't any problem with that. Later he found himself walking into a garden, where there was a fountain located in the middle of it. He heard a shouting across him. He turned right to look what cause the shouting and the attraction. Then, across him with the fountain in between, was his boss or the blacksmith –so he called her-.

He wasn't sure if it was truly her or not because he could barely see her but her long brownish blonde - which he could never describe the color- hair was convincing enough with his idea. He tried to take a good look with the man who was standing in front of her. He wore a sharp uniform of white and had a bleach blonde hair. Everything about the man in front of her was white and it would make him looked pure if only he didn't act like that.

He walked closer to them, trying to closing their distance carefully and unnoticeably. The last thing he wanted was she looked at him and made the man in front of her noticed Noctis arrival.

"My, my, Lightning, you sure are something." Noctis could hear the man said playfully and Noctis didn't like the way he called her.

"Well, I just want to know what is the famous Lightning Strife doing at here, at night?" The blonde man continued.

Realizing that their distance was close enough, he put his hand on the man's shoulder and said, "One thing for sure, it is not to be annoyed by a merely man like you." The blonde man turned around slowly to look and face Noctis. Now, the penetrating blue eyes met with another pair of threatening darker blue eyes.

"Noctis?" Slowly she murmured his name. Surely, she was very confused with his sudden arrival. She was glad that someone had saved her, but to find that someone turned to be Noctis, she didn't know whether to thank her fate or not.

"So, your name is Noctis? I see." The blonde man said softly while nodding his head many times as he was inserting the information into his head. "Then, you must be the new guy right?"

Noctis didn't answer. He stared at him blankly and found himself nodded slowly to the question.

"I see, you are quite charming as I've been told. In fact, you are more than charming, you are…what should I say? Gorgeous?" He chuckled with his own sentence. Noctis was confused. How could the blonde man knew about the former? But maybe the blonde man was mistaking him for someone else. Besides, there had to be many newcomers to the town right?

"Well, anyway, my name is Rufus Shinra." He gave his hand, but hanging in the air because Noctis didn't shake it nor look at it. He took back his hand. "No?" He asked with a slight smile. He nodded then and turned to see Lightning.

"Even though I find it is quite tempting to stay at here and to take you with me, Light, I have to go now or the elders will be very mad with me." He said with a fake smile.

Lightning murmured, "Like I care about it."

He nodded and turned to face Noctis again. "I guess, I should leave you with her then. You have to protect her for me, okay? She is rare, you know?" He whispered in Noctis ear.

Either Noctis was really stoic or he was too slow to input what he had heard before or he was too busy to care of someone's business. Even after Rufus' departure, Lightning found her savior was still staring at Rufus in confusion. He didn't even look behind to check if she was alright or not. She didn't have to be checked or to be cared like that, but still.

"Are you alright?" He asked softly while he was walking closer to her.

If it's not because of the darkness that night and the dimmed light in the garden, Noctis could probably notice how red she was then. Everyone in the garden was slowly decreased as it was getting darker and darker. Now, at the garden were Noctis and Lightning and probably with one or two couples, who were hanging out with their couple to even care with them.

Noctis stared at her, who was staring at her feet, intently and there was a glint of satisfaction that she was alright and softness within his dark blue eyes.

Lightning didn't know why she acted that way. Usually, she didn't find any trouble with other's attention towards her, but why the hell did she blush because of his sudden care?

"So, I see that you are alright." Lightning looked up to find he smiled genuinely to her and suddenly she found herself captured by that smile.

He hardly smiled, but finding that she was alright, couldn't stop him to have a smile on his face, a very genuine to add.

"Thank you." She finally found her composure to reply. He, out of sudden, patted her hair -liked her father had always done to her when she had done a great job- and she found herself blushed by his sudden action again. "I'm okay. You don't have to worry. If you don't come back then, I could probably give one or two punches to his face."

Noctis chuckled and Lightning found herself amused by that. "What?" She glared at him and suddenly returned back to her personality, strong and independent. Noctis found himself liked this Lightning, the strong than the weak one because he just couldn't help himself to hug her when he saw her weak.

"Nothing, really. So, do you want to go home now? It's getting darker."

"Yeah." Noctis turned around. He thought that she would follow her, but when she didn't, he turned around and saw her confused face.

"What?" asked him.

"Don't you want to ask who he is?" Lightning asked.

Now that she mentioned it. He badly wanted to know who that man was and why he seemed so close with Lightning. "Alright, if you want to answer that question, I'll hear that."

Lightning bit her lip. Maybe telling him wasn't a great thing and why did she stop him before? Why the hell did she want to clarify about the blonde man to him? The man she had just met for two days. She didn't know where to begin with and she could feel the tense between them increased as the silence continued to stay.

"If you don't want, I don't find any harm in it." He finally said.

"Wait! It just…err…how do I say this? Well…" She sighed then finally be herself. "He was my partner before in doing the blacksmith job, but turned out he shouldn't do the job."

"I see." He said. "Okay, here's the thing. It's getting darker now and it's not a good thing for a woman to walk by herself in the night like this, so I'll accompany you back to your shop and well maybe we can continue this tomorrow when you have been a lot better. How's that sound?" Okay, he had to admit that it was one of the rare things in the world that he had done. Did he just say more than one sentence? Yeah, he did. And yet he found it quite enjoying and comfortable. He thought he would find it awkward, but no, he found it was so comfortable and really fun, another new word to his life.

Lightning nodded happily and walked side by side with him. While they went to the shop, they barely talked to each other, yet they found that they like the moment and they wished maybe it could last a bit longer.

-x-

Meanwhile…

Vanille was lying on her bed and put both her hands on her red cheeks. She had been in that position ever since she had arrived in her room. She was blushing because of a certain blonde guy. She knew what that feeling called, but was it just her thought? She could hardly imagine herself having the same feeling like that and for different men at the same time! How could she?

~*~*~*~

They were walking out from Lightning's shop after Lightning's sudden attitude. Vanille and Clyde found themselves walking alone again like before. The different was the aura between them. If before, there's happiness and excitement, this one was filled with confusion and a bit of sadness. He rubbed his hair. He hated the silence and yet he found himself stuck with that again and with the woman, who seemed to be in her own world.

"There's something wrong about her." Vanille murmured slowly. Clyde put his hand beside him and turned to glance at her. He tried hard to hear her whisper. "I don't know what it is, but there has to be a great reason behind this. I hope…I hope you don't mad with her, Clyde."

So, that was it? She looked sad all the time because she was afraid that her friend sudden attitude might hurt his feeling. He chuckled. That confused Vanille. She turned around to find he tried to hold his laughter. His hands were hugging his stomach and he laughed really loud. She felt annoyed with the sudden outburst. She punched his shoulder hard. He shouted.

"What was that for?" He asked playfully.

"That for laughing at me for no reason." She stated that within annoyed tone and turned around, trying to be hurt with his sudden act. He knew it was an act, yet he played along with her.

"Okay, I'm sorry. It's just that, it's funny." She looked at him, raising her eyebrows. Funny? She didn't believe it! She was afraid that he might be hurt because of Lightning's harsh comment just now and she tried to find a way to apologize for that and he said that funny. Now that's very annoying.

"Damn you." She muttered slowly.

"Alright, I'm sorry, okay? It just, you don't have to worry about that. Okay? No harm taken, happy?" He smiled to her. She sighed, knowing that she could hardly mad at him because of his cheer.

"Alright, but never ever do that again, okay?" She punched him slightly on his shoulder.

They talked again like usual and the silence between them had vanished away. When Vanille realized that she was almost close to her palace, she mentioned to Clyde that she would go then by herself and made sure that she was okay. Clyde didn't agree at first, but Vanille said her parents would pick her up, so, he nodded reluctantly and let her to go by herself.

She had taken a few steps, but stopped by his shout. "Wait!"

That confused Vanille. She turned around to see him ran to her and smiled softly then quickly gave a peck to her cheek. Slowly, Vanille put her hand to her right cheek, where he had pecked before, and blushed.

"Bye then." He said awkwardly. She nodded and waved in awkward. She turned around and sometimes turned her head back to see him still staring at her until she was nowhere to be seen.

~*~*~*~

Little did she know that Clyde was thinking the same moment and he was still brooding about it. Vanille was too busy with her own mind that she didn't realize her door had been opened slowly and revealed a blonde man in white sharp uniform.

"Vanille?" His voice startled her and she stood up abruptly from her bed and faced the same blonde man who approached Lightning before.

"Rufus! You know you have to knock a lady's room before you come in." She retorted quickly, crossing her hands in front of her chest.

"I know, but I've been knocking it and no response did I get from you, so, since you don't lock it, I come in slowly. You know I don't like sneaking to someone's room like that." He defended himself. He had knocked many times, that was the truth, and she didn't open the door just yet, so, he decided to come inside slowly.

"Geez..okay, okay. Even though you are my cousin, you're still a man, you know? What do you want? It's so late now, shouldn't you go to sleep?" She asked. He looked around her room, trying to find if it was safe or not and when he had done it, he closed the door and walked closer to her.

She didn't walk back because she knew he would do no harm to her and besides, if he did, she just simply screamed and guards would dash to her room as fast as wind. "What is it?" She asked again after gain no response from him.

"Sit down first, shall we?" He asked and let Vanille to sit beside her at the edge of her bed. Vanille walked reluctantly and sat beside him.

"I want you to be honest." She nodded reluctantly. "Who is Noctis?"

-x-

To be continued…

-x-

eL :Yay, an update from me!! ^^ I like this chapter so far because it has Lightis moment in this chapter. Yay, finally I made a Lightis moment, hehe xD

Lightning : Finally, you update. I am so glad. I'm just worry that you might be ignoring this story or maybe you've forgotten about us.

eL : *turned to look at Lightning* Wow, it's you Light?! I will never ever forget you guys, you're awesome and you're the most perfect couple I've ever seen!

Lightning and Noctis : *blushing*

eL : See? That's what makes you guys lovely! *hugged them tightly*

Snow : Hey, why don't I have my part in here?

eL : Not yet, Snow. Everyone will have their part in this story, just not yet.

Snow : *mumbling* Yeah, yeah, whatever

Cloud : Oh, and eL, why did you suddenly use Rufus? Speaking of him, where is he?

Tifa : Oh, Rufus? I think I saw him being chased by Scarlet before. I think he went that way *pointing to somewhere particular*

eL : Okay, at first. I want to use Seifer, you know the guy from FF8? But then, suddenly I realize I found myself attracted to Rufus *blushing* Yay, I just said it, didn't I?

Everyone nodded and sweatdropped

eL : *clear throat* So, that's the reason why I used him oh and that I just found he was almost look like Vanille, hehe… and that just made reason for him to be her cousin, right?

Okay, guys, before I'm getting out of the topic even more. I think I should end it here. You know, your feedback is a very great thing for me and it's like a support for me to continue writing. So, guys, you know you want to push the green button below xD

Lol, tq guys

Luph u all

eL-ch4n