Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy XIII

Chapter One
A Night of Meeting

One more hour until closing and Fang couldn't be happier. After all, it had been a long day.

With nearly all the bar's customers gone, Fang's only job was to begin the closing process and keep an eye on the rest of the customers that still lingered. Though they usually were too drunk to be of any trouble.

Unfortunately, this was only the start of Fang's difficult work week. Lebreau, the woman who owned said bar, was on vacation. And since Fang was her most trusted employee, guess who got stuck with an entire week of long hours. Noon to closing.

It was damn awful. But Lebreau seemed to understand that, and was paying her extra.

So Fang complained less.

The black haired woman quietly hummed to herself as she cleaned off the bar's main counter. No one was sitting there; the few patrons left had camped out at the small tables littered around the room.

Ding.

Fang looked up as the bell on the door chimed. A customer? At this hour?

To Fang's inner delight, a goddess walked into the bar. She wore a Guardian Corps uniform and a scowl, the latter sending a stronger message than the former. And she had pink hair to complete her attractive figure. Fang was almost speechless.

Almost.

"You're out late," Fang commented. "Anything I can get you?"

The woman sat down in front of Fang in silence. Fang was about to say something when the roseate muttered, "Get me something strong."

"Any preference?" Fang asked as she turned to prepare what the customer wanted.

"No," was the woman's cold reply.

Fang bit her lip and scurried to get the pink haired woman something. A minute later Fang had a nice bottle of booze for her.

The roseate simply nodded and popped the top off the bottle. As Fang continued cleaning, she watched the woman from the corner of her eye. The way the soldier drank without even flinching astounded Fang. Fang couldn't hold her liquor nearly as well as this woman.

Half an hour later, Fang finally set down her cleaning rag. She walked around the bar and sat down next to the roseate.

"Do you want something?" she asked, bluntly.

Fang shrugged, "I just wondered what your story was. The bar doesn't get many customers this late."

"Yours was open, so I came here. Is there a problem with that?" the woman retorted.

"No," Fang said quickly. "But I do wonder what makes a woman such as yourself come and drink so much. Half of that bottle would knock out some of the people I know for a good few hours."

"I came here to forget, not to remember," the woman practically snarled.

Fang nodded, but not relenting, "I understand."

"Do you?"

"Several years ago, my parents died. I came and almost drank myself into a coma before Lebreau helped me out. Now I work here," Fang said, her voice turning a pitch lighter.

"Heh, nice sob story," the woman said between sips from the bottle.

Fang flinched, hurt. She was almost tempted to walk away right there, but her subconscious attributed the roseate's words to drunkenness.

Plus, the woman intrigued her. Not often was the pattern of customers broken. And when it was, it usually had a fascinating story behind it.

"Alright then," Fang said slowly. "Then let me help you with forgetting. What do you like to do for fun?"

"What are you blathering about?" asked the woman.

"I'm getting to know you. Friends tend help forget sorrows," Fang said.

"I don't need any friends."

"Don't be daft, everyone needs friends," Fang insisted.

"Not this soldier," she replied.

Fang folded her arms, "And why is that?"

The soldier shook her head, "Just more people inevitably hurt you. It's not worth it."

"Sounds like you haven't had many good friendships," Fang observed.

"Nice one, detective," she responded, irked.

Fang almost laughed. This one woman, being sarcastic? The bartender hadn't pegged the roseate for a sarcastic one.

"You still didn't answer my question," Fang smirked, unhindered by the woman's attitude.

"Don't you ever let up?" the woman muttered under her breath, but Fang heard it. "Alright, I work. That's what I do for fun."

"And I assume you work at with the Guardian Corps?" Fang said.

"Yes. I hunt down creatures that get too close to Bodhum."

"See? Now we're getting somewhere," Fang chuckled. "Did you kill anything today?"

"Nothing big," the woman said, slightly embarrassed. Fang got the feeling that this woman didn't get much appreciation for the work she did.

"So if anything ever comes to eat me up, I should call you first?" Fang grinned.

That got a small grin out of the woman, "Yeah. I'll come and shoot the damn thing up."

"How sweet of you," Fang said flirtatiously.

The roseate picked up her bottle and seemed surprised that it was empty. Wordlessly, she reached into a pocket and pulled out some gil. Dropping it on the counter, she said, "Keep the change."

The roseate stood up. Fang stood up as well and followed her to the exit.

"You going to follow me home?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I just haven't gotten your name yet," Fang said with a smirk.

"Call me Lightning," she said softly. "And what's your name while we're at it?"

"I'm Fang," the black haired woman said. "Do you think you'll be back again any time soon?"

"I expect I'll be back tomorrow," Lightning said, her voice turning monotonic. "Will you be here?"

"I'll be here. Why, is the cold soldier starting to care about me?" teased Fang.

Lightning rolled her eyes and spoke, "I figured that's what friends do, meet up."

"So I'm your friend now?" Fang asked, a smile threatening to unfurl on her face.

"Hmph," Lightning looked away, not seeming fond of the moment she and Fang were having. "Fine," she finally said.

"You were the one who called me a friend," Fang grinned playfully.

"See you tomorrow, Fang," Lightning said with finality. She walked out the door without a second glance.

Fang laughed to herself and retreated back behind the counter.

Now she had a reason to look forward to tomorrow.

Author Note: And I'm back with another multichapter fanfic of FLight. Not only was Writers Alike so well received, but some of you told me how much you couldn't wait for the next one. So here's the solution to all of the above.

As usual with my small fics like this, it's all written already. So expect one chapter a day!

Also, New neighbors got added to a community apparently. Whoever did that, thanks! That's the first time a fic of mine has been added to a community!

Want to support me? I have a ko-fi now! If you're feeling generous, I'd really appreciate it.

ko-fi . com (slash) cormagravenstaff