Catch You, Catch Me (FFXIII Modern AU)

Chapter One: Cool Smoke

The Palumpolum Club was bustling with life and light, yet it was still mainly dark. All spotlights were on the preformers and the main cast and crew. In other words, the fan favorites.

Yet one stood apart to the eyes of the leader of the city's most notorious gangs. A little shy girl, smiling awkwardly and doing her best. Yet the leader loved the girl's bouncy orange curls and the way her grassy green eyes lit up in the light. A beautiful specimen.

"Whatchya thinkin', Boss?" One lackey noticed his leader, eyeing the crowd with a curious frown.

"Nothin' really.. let's get going before the Chief finds wind of us in public spaces." The woman, presumably the leader, flicked a few ashes from her cigarette before blowing the toxic smoke into the heated air. She hated to leave so early before she even got the number of the girl, but they had a reputation. They would all get arrested. Plus, she didn't want to share her current prey with anyone else. The woman would rather come back alone, hopefully to glance at the plain beauty.

They left without as much as a thank you to the staff, opting to exit as fast as they could.

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"So you're telling me that you want me to take the day off on my birthday." Chief Lightning Farron was a simple gal, with the same every day schedule. Eat, make sure her sister got to school on time, work 16 hours, sleep for 4. She could not afford to had a dent in her perfect schedule.

Yet, here she was. Sitting at the dinner table across from her sister who was asking her to dent it.

"Light, it's your birthday. We gotta celebrate it, you'll be 21 on Friday. I'll cook for you and you don't have to think about work!" Not think about work? Was her sister crazy?

"Serah.. I have a mountain of cases on my desk, I can't just take off."

"Sure you can, you're the chief, aren't you? C'mon sis! For me?" The chief knew Serah meant business as soon as she threw down the puppy eyes. Lightning would never hear the end of it. Yet, she couldn't leave her post. Too many papers meant a lot of angry people. People with missing family members and friends, people who lost their lives too early. People who needed to be put behind bars. Yet the officer sighed before giving in.

"Fine.. but only to stop you from giving me that look."

Serah smiled brightly, giving Lightning a small hope that everything would go right that day. Making Serah happy had been the chief's goal since day one. Ever since their parents had passed away. When their mom had died of cancer, it left Serah destroyed and helpless, at the age of 9. Lightning was 12. Lightning had woken up that next morning to find their father hanging from the window in his office. She made sure Serah never knew how their father died. It would've destroyed her more. All Serah knew was that he went away somewhere and never returned.

From then on, Lightning had joined the force, working hard to give them a home so no one would take Serah away or have them separated. She had come close to dying several times herself. Gunshot wounds, stabbings, beatings, burns.. everything in between. She had seen all kinds of deaths, and saved many more. She was a hero. Everyone loved her. Especially Serah.

But the job weighed heavily. The sisters fought more and more. Mainly about Serah's safety. It usually ended up with Serah leaving and Lightning drinking. Serah never saw her sister unless it was late at night. Serah was concerned that Lightning was losing sleep and food. She never ate, never slept. Yet Lightning just brushed her off, told her to go to bed or do her homework. Serah only got more agitated with it, just wanting to see Lightning smile at least once.

But how could she? When so many people were missing and dead because of her.