[Lightning Returns] Inverse Theory (1411 words)

[shamera]

Title: Inverse Theory
Fandom: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Character/Pairing(s): Lightning Farron, Hope Estheim
Rating: PG
Warning: regarding this outfit, because... c'mon, you must have questioned it.
Summary: Lightning has a hidden appreciation for fashion, but Hope might be taking it a little too far.

 

It wasn’t like Lightning Farron particularly cared about the clothes provided to her on her journey to save as many souls as possible from Nova Chrysalia. The first outfit was provided by God, after all, and despite the complexity of the numerous metal bits and revealed skin, the armor was sturdy and comfortable without debilitating her dexterity. Other outfits proved functional as well, if more stylish, often with spells embedded in the fabric to help her cast and therefore facilitate her job.

The red mage, Lightning thought originally when Hope presented it to her, seemed a bit much. While she approved of the fabrics, she hadn’t been very sure about the bright red attention grabbing aspect.

“Didn’t you say something about sneaking into Snow’s palace?” She drawled dryly, still baffled by the idea that Snow would have a palace of all things, and that she would actually have a hard time getting in.

“Trust me,” Hope told her then. “Sometimes drawing attention is the best way to sneak past a crowd.”

That made absolutely no sense to her, but then again, Hope was the smart one who came up with some of the strangest strategies back when they were both l’Cie and managed to actually make it work. Seeing as he was the only one she could rely on now in this strange new world, she wasn’t going to question it.

The clothes ended up being exactly as Hope said it would — most people, while they stared at first, would look away quickly enough and tended to avoid her if she were running past them. The bright red just meant she ran into less people now that they could see her coming, and most tended to let her do as she wanted because of the uniform.

Convenient, she couldn’t help but think, even when attacked by a soldier and two flanitors. Even as the soldier shot at her, the cape of her outfit never broke, never tore. As she slashed the creatures down following a fire spell, she asked Hope over the comms, “Just what are these things made of?”

“Um,” Hope sounded rather taken aback, “…flan?”

“Not the monsters,” she corrected him, sheathing her sword. She pulled on a corner of the red cape with gloved fingertips, and then dropped it as she finished a thorough examination to find not even the slightest bit of goo accumulated. “The clothes you give me.”

“Oh. It’s just something I’ve been working on.” The answer sounded elusive, even to her. “Self-repairing, self-cleaning, and it adjusts to the temperature exposed.”

Actually, that made a lot of sense. She hadn’t felt the least bit over-heated despite all the running she’d been doing. “Hope. Am I wearing robots on my skin?”

“They’re nanodroids.” Hope sounded affronted by the term ‘robots’. “Synthesized to co-exist within the polyester fibers to enhance strength and durability of the clothes. I’ve tried numerous formations to enhance your magic as well as defend against enemy attacks, but they don’t always like to work together and—”

Lightning listened with half a mind as she continued fighting her way through Yuusnan, making sufficient noises whenever Hope paused to see if she was still listening, even as his recounts of different experimentation with fabrics faded into etymologies and why proper terminology was important because robot actually meant slave and that shouldn’t be a name given to things that were trying to help them, after all.

As useful as all that information was, Lightning was eventually forced to switch into a long formal dress anyway in order to play ‘the savior’ in the show that would get her to Snow (once they added a few explosives, that was).

(Lightning felt she probably needed to have a talk with Hope about whatever hidden pyromaniac tendencies he might have. As if she could believe he had miscalculated the fireworks.)

—

All in all, Lightning felt that whatever Hope was providing her with in terms of outfits (did he actually make those himself? Some were actually rather stylish) was far superior to some of the… stranger fashion senses out on Nova Chrysalia at the moment. (Because the large and rounded thick-framed hot pink glasses some residents wore as she walked by them made her recoil just the slightest.) Lightning had gotten rather attached to finding different outfits, even down on Nova Chrysalia, especially as the clothes would occasionally contain spells she had yet to pick up.

There might have been some teasing from Snow about the evening gown, but that was his own fault for putting on a show where the ‘savior’ wore an extremely impractical dress on stage. Just how was she (the character, Lightning figured) supposed to fight in something like that? She might just go back to Yuusnan if she had to time and have a few words with the director of that play.

Maybe after she finished helping Sazh find the soul fragments for Dajh.

“It’s almost six am,” Hope’s voice said through the comms. “Are you ready to come back to the Ark now?”

Lightning frowned and looked around her, her sword still out even as the monster before her took its last breath and faded away, taking the chaos around her with it. A few gleaming pieces of purple light later, and Lightning gave a quick nod, crouching down. She knew that Hope could see her movements. “Yeah. Go ahead, Mr. Hope Estheim.”

“Light…” Hope’s tone was exasperated; embarrassed. She found that it was harder and harder to get an emotive response from him, and congratulated herself each time she succeeded. “Not this again.”

Even as his dismay rang through her ears, Lightning could see the rest of the world fading away, could feel her limbs lift up in the sudden weightlessness as she passed through the gears of a God’s pathway toward the shining white Ark. For a moment she tensed, wondered if she was going to be taken away again to her own mind where she would be forced to confront riddles she had yet to figure out.

But that didn’t happen, and she found herself re-materialized within the Ark, ready to offer up the Eradia she collected for the day to Yggdrasil.

“Welcome back.” Hope greeted her, this time not standing from his seat before the collection of computer screens. He looked rather immersed in the information he was gathering, so Lightning let him be.

She needed in greeting, and then headed toward the other side of the platform after depositing the Eradia, where a white shining box awaited her. While she wasn’t ready to admit it in any way or form, Lightning found herself looking forward to the small bit of rest she got on the Ark, and for the next outfit and weapon that Hope provided. He had done a good job so far, crafting excellent weapons and clothing, and she sometimes wondered if he was bored up here all by himself to create such things on a daily basis.

But then again, time passed differently on the Ark. For all she knew, her twenty-four hour limit each day could feel like more than double, triple, that for him. She certainly rested there for more than the split second that pass down on Nova Chrysalia.

Amazon Warrior, she read at the top of the box with a quirk of her lips, eyes skimming over the details and abilities that would come with the outfit. The name of the outfit was rather flattering, she thought, and the abilities were no slouch, either. Raising strength and constitution as well as providing the spell to help her guard against enemy attacks…

She opened the box and then pulled out some rather impressive boots, making a brief and quiet noise of approval before finding the spaulder and vambrance, the under armor and…

She frowned. Wait. Where was the rest?
 

Hope was working on compiling a detailed map of various areas in Nova Chrysalia with the highest statistics of containing the soul fragments Lightning was so determined to find when he felt a heavy hand on his head, stilling his movements as he squeaked out a breath.

“Hope Estheim,” Lightning’s voice was low and dangerous even as Hope froze in place with his hands still lingering above his keyboard, and he darted wide eyes in her direction to see her thunderous expression. “We need to have a talk about what constitutes as an entire outfit and what’s appropriate to wear in public, young man.”