Lightning's Thoughts 12: Flirting

Flirting

"What about you, Light?" Fang asked. They had been trading stories about their lives before all the l'cie craziness began. Hope had talked about starting his freshman year at high school in the fall, the classes he was taking, and the kids from his neighborhood. Sazh explained his career as an aircraft engineer and the type of ships he worked on. Snow went on about NORA and Serah. Fang and Vanille explained their culture and village.

"There's not much to tell," Lightning muttered.

"Oh come on," Snow laughed, "you could at least tell the story about when you tried to arrest me!"

"I did arrest you, more than once." Lighting glared at him. That was what he was going to bring up? "The Lieutenant just let you off every time."

"I said it before and I'll say it again," Sazh sounded exasperated, "you have one messed up family."

"We are not family yet," Lighting made sure to remind everyone of this at every chance she could get.

"Yet," Snow exclaimed triumphantly, "I heard a 'yet!'" Lightning rolled her eyes, she would let him have his victory for now.

"So, Lightning?" Vanille asked, getting uncomfortably close. "How about it? Do you have a special someone too?"

Lightning leaned away from her, "uh…"

"Lightning's a lone wolf!" Snow exclaimed, clapping her on the back.

She swatted him away, face getting red. "What do you know?"

"You do!" Vanille squealed, her face lighting up with excitement. Even Sazh and Fang leaned forward, curious in the thought that the ex-soldier might have a love life. Hope, on the other hand, looked rather sick.

"Uh…well, no." She could feel her face going hot. It was incredibly embarrassing to have them asking about that kind of thing. She'd rather have the tough lone wolf image just about then, rather than some doting damsel in love.

"Ha! You're blushing!" Fang seemed to find this all too funny.

Lighting rolled her eyes and huffed. This wasn't something she liked taking about, the only person she felt comfortable with when it came to that subject was her sister. Even then, she still didn't like to talk about it much. Knowing this group though, they were going to pester her until she either gave them what they want or blow up at them. She decided to try and worm her way out of it. "What about you, then, huh Fang?" She smirked, watching the other woman squirm. "Have a special someone?"

Fang leaned away, her cocky posture gone. She quickly glanced at Vanille and then the ground. "Uh…"

"Hey, that's no fair!" Vanille butted in, ruining her chances. "We asked first!"

Lighting narrowed her eyes at the pair of them. "Fine!" She folded her arms. "You want to know?" She knew she couldn't lie while looking any of them in the eye, so she focused on the campfire instead. "Sure, I get admirers here and there," She was certain they wouldn't buy it, hating how fake it sounded to her ears, "but I don't have the time to spare between the military and taking care of Serah."

The group murmured their dissent at the uninteresting story. "How about you kiddo?" Sazh playfully shoved Hope. "Got a little miss?'

Lighting let out a tense sigh of relief. Thank goodness she hadn't had to tell them the truth. What she had told them had at one point been true, but she had long ran out of admirers by now.

She had past the time where her fellow soldiers would hit on her, all of them quickly coming to respect her as an equal rather than a piece of meat. Lighting was not only perfectly fine with that, and rather preferred it. Her issue was with the typical way of finding a man, the club scene.

She unintentionally had a…habit of scaring men off.

---

"Hello there, beautiful!"

Lightning glanced up from her drink. He was attractive, had a nice smile and good teeth. She tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace.

"I'm Brad, what's you're name?"

"Lightning."

"That's an interesting name,"

"My parents died."

It was never as if she spoke to much, she just said all the wrong things. More often than not, she was too honest. It didn't take her long to realize that "I kill people" wasn't a good response for the question "what do you do for a living?"

But, when people asked, she couldn't just lie. Not to someone who could potentially become an important part of her and her sister's life.

She always had her sister in the back of her mind. She was always fighting over being single and therefore showing that Serah didn't need a man to be successful or finding a man that could also be a good male role-model for her sister, who didn't remember their father at all.

"Are you even trying?" Serah would ask. "I'm saying this honestly, as you're sister, it's a bit sad that you haven't ever had a real date."

"Yeah, thanks Serah," Lightning muttered. She kept her arms folded and legs crossed, eyes set on the television, flipping the channels.

"I don't mean it like that!" Serah exclaimed, laying on the sofa next to her. She lifted the bowl of popcorn she had resting on her stomach up, at Lightning's shoulder. The older sister took a handful and she brought the bowl back down, throwing a kernel up in the air to catch in her mouth. "I mean, you have a great body, guys are sure to be all over you."

"Must be my charming personality," Lightning said sarcastically.

"Ha, ha," Serah mocked. "Now I'm being serious here-"

"So am I."

"Do you know how to flirt?" The younger sister asked bluntly.

Lightning looked taken aback. "What?" She was bewildered by the question. "I mean, uh, yeah. Of course."

Serah stood up, placing the bowl of popcorn where she had been sitting. "Pretend I'm a guy."

"No, gross." Lightning looked away, trying not to laugh at Serah's excitement. "You're my sister."

Serah placed her hands on her hips. "As long as your idea of flirting isn't making-out with the first guy you see, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. Come on," she motioned for her to stand up, "get up." Lighting ignored her. Serah lowered her voice, trying to sound like a man, "hey there, sexy!"

Lighting chuckled.

"How about I buy you a drink?"

"No way!" Lighting laughed.

Serah dropped her man-voice, "why not? I'm a very sexy man," she motioned to herself, "obviously!" Lighting just shook her head, hand resting on her temple, still laughing away. "You're hopeless!" Serah huffed, falling back on the couch.

"I think I'm better off finding a guy myself, Serah."

"Just wait," Serah mumbled, mouth already full of popcorn again, "you'll be begging me to come back as you're love coach."

Lighting raised an eyebrow, "Love coach? Maybe I should be asking what you have been up to lately?"

"I go to public high school, Light," Serah spoke mater-of-fact-ly, "there's nothing I haven't seen in those halls." While that may be true, Lighting eyed her sister suspiciously before focusing on the television again. Hopefully she wouldn't have do deal with her sister dating for a long time.