Final Fantasy XIII 1. Hope Returns

A/N: Having been playing Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 over the last few months, I've become really enamoured by the Hope/Lightning pair, and this story has been tickling my brain for the last little while. It's AU (as I can't seem to come up with any fic that isn't :P ), and features adult Hope, with Lightning only a few years older than him. Not really sure yet where this is going, but I hope for your patience and support.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Driving the hover car, Hope could see the glint of the ocean on the horizon. How long had it been since he'd last been to Bodhum? Six years? From the air highway, he could see the buildings of the tourist city beginning to spring up, hiding the ocean from view. Somehow, the thought of what could await him there made his heart beat an arrhythmic tattoo inside his chest, and he swallowed, trying to force down his sudden nervousness. One particular face sprang to mind—the thought of _her_, of seeing _her_ after all these years...it was difficult to stop the excited thrum that rode his nerve-endings, and he impatiently beat his palms against the steering wheel in an effort to curb it.

On hearing the incessant tapping, Noel woke from the passenger seat beside him and stared at him groggily, shielding his eyes from the glare of the bright sunlight reflected from the windows of the buildings ahead.

Hope glanced over at him. "Sorry if I woke you."

Noel just shook his head. "Looks like we're close."

"Yeah."

The younger man yawned, stretching his arms above his head.

"We'll be arriving soon," said Hope. "So if you don't mind calling ahead to the villa so they'd know to expect us in a half-hour or so—"

"Yeah, sure."

"Here." Hope handed his phone over. "It's number 9. Brenda ought to be up by now."

Noel took the phone and dialed the number, head cocked to the side as he waited for his call to go through.

After the third ring, a voice answered, "Estheim Residence, Brenda speaking, how may I help you?"

"Uh, hi, Brenda? This is Noel."

"Oh, good morning, Master Noel."

"Morning to you too. Just wanted to let you know me and big bro will be arriving soon."

"Very good, sir, we'll have your rooms ready for you."

"Thanks. Possibly breakfast too?"

"Of course, sir."

"Great. See you in thirty minutes or so."

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, bye."

"Goodbye."

"Here," said Noel, tossing the phone back to Hope.

"Thanks." The silver-haired young man pocketed the phone, all the while clicking on the signal to leave the air highway for the Bodhum exit. This early in the morning, the city was only waking up, with very few traffic lining the streets. Orange lights on either side lined the air highway as he began to make the descent to the ramp that made way for the concrete road, both of them letting out a small oomph at the not-so-smooth landing.

Noel laughed, and Hope only shook his head, muttering, "Yeah, yeah," as he drove on.

Bodhum had grown so much over the years. More hotels now lined the main street along the beach. There were a number of people already up and about: surfers riding the early tide, and joggers and bikers on the pathways. Small breakfast bars and restaurants have opened up, scattered here and there.

A longing to see what else was different from his memory of the place sprang inside him. _Later_, Hope thought, _after we've settled in. There'll be plenty of time to explore our new home._

Hope Estheim was the tentative heir to Estheim Industries. Somewhat of a prodigy, he had skipped several grades all throughout his school years from elementary to post-secondary, and at the young age of twenty, had just finished his post-graduate studies and a short tenure teaching Chrono-Science and Technology at The Academy. He had made an agreement with his father, Bartholomew Estheim, founder and head of Estheim Industries, to work at one of the company's smaller branches in order to gain experience in case he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and head the company.

He had taken his adoptive brother, Noel Kreiss, along. The latter, having just finished high school, hadn't been in any hurry to decide which career path to take, and Nora had suggested that being in a new environment might help him see what he wanted to do.

From Main Street, they headed north, up the hill to the residential area of the city, and then westbound to the district called Village on the Hill—more commonly known as Snob Hill, Hope recalled, where the residences were separated by gates and walls, each house trying to outdo each other in terms of opulence.

Driving up into a non-imposing metallic gate, he grabbed the keycard from the side pocket of his door, and rolled down his window, pushing the card through the slot at the side wall. With a buzz, the gates began to open, and he drove up the short driveway lined with colourful flowers and stopping in front of a two-storey, fifteen-room house—modest compared to their neighbours'.

At the door, the head housekeeper, Brenda, greeted them as they got out of the car. "Master Hope, Master Noel, welcome."

Noel gave a nod and a wave before making his way to the trunk.

"Good morning, Brenda," said Hope with a smile. "And thanks for the welcome."

"Sirs, if you'll leave your luggage there and make your way to the dining room, I'll see to it that they get to your bedrooms. Somehow, it seems like I'm the only one here, and I'm really sorry for being short-staffed."

"No, it's okay," Hope replied as he helped Noel unload their stuff. "I was actually the one who requested only one housekeeper is needed. The two of us should be able to get by on our own."

"Are you sure, sir?"

"Yep."

"But—"

"Really, we don't really need all the space in the house, and I'm sure we won't be using all the rooms while we're here."

"But the cleaning and cooking...?"

Hope thought for a moment. He began to feel bad since he was essentially telling Brenda her services were not required and taking her job from her, but he felt that not having any help around would be beneficial in letting them learn to fend for themselves. They were adults now, after all. "How about coming by once a week for general housekeeping? And possibly groceries? You'll still be paid the same as when you had a full duty, if that's what you're worried about."

Brenda bit her lip in an uncustomary show of apprehension. "I suppose that will be acceptable, sir," she conceded, wringing her hands as she watched the masters of the house empty out the hover car. The Estheims were what would be considered "new money", and being wealthy, had to be allowed their display of eccentricities. She couldn't help pursing her lips as she watched the younger of the two, and shook her head at the wisdom of adopting someone who had been found on the wilds of Pulse. She schooled her features and wiped disdain from her expression. It just did not do to be openly disapproving of her employers' children.

"And that's it," said Noel, beating his fists together. "That's all of them."

"Great," replied Hope, reaching for something from the backseat of the car. "Just give me a minute to set things up." He held two triangular objects in his hands, which he began to set on either end of their luggage pile, appearing to be doing some mental calculations as he adjusted the objects. "That should do it...I think."

"Well, if it doesn't work, I guess we'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way," chuckled Noel.

"Okay, on a count of three, press the blue button. One...two...three."

Blue light emitted from the sides of each triangle, connecting together with a small buzzing sound, and the luggage pile began to float.

"Seems to be holding," commented Hope with a dubious edge to his tone. "Oh well, let's take them up." He began to gently push the floating baggage from the back, while Noel assisted at the front, opening the other half of the double front doors so they could fit their pile through.

Into the foyer and up the staircase that led to the bedrooms they went, without any mishap or dropped bags—a fact of which Hope was happy about as it meant the experiment with his invention of the floatation device was a success. Each of them randomly picked out a bedroom, hoisting their own belongings from the pile and dropping them wither and yon into their room of choice.

Hope had chosen a room near the end of the hallway, with its windows facing north and east, adjoining the wrap-around balcony that circled the entire second floor. From the hillside, beyond the trees, he saw the ocean, sparkling brightly even from this vantage point.

With a smile, he turned and surveyed his new room. The walls were pale teal, bordered by cream, and a king bed stood at the centre over a round rug. Off to the side by the northern windows was the walk-in closet beside an adjoining bathroom, and an oak desk and leather chair were set at the corner of the north and east windows.

He rubbed his chin as he thought. _Maybe I ought to put shelves along that whole wall there. Or maybe turn the next room into an office. I guess I should wait and see until next week when I'm scheduled to show up at the branch office before I start redecorating here. Yeah, I guess I'll just do that._

Sighing over the mess of his stuff on the floor, he began to collect them and made a show of tidying up and unpacking.

* * *

After the better part of an hour of unpacking and showering, Hope finally emerged from his room and made his way down to the breakfast area adjacent to the living room. Noel was already at the table, and Brenda was nowhere to be found.

Hope gave his brother a questioning look, to which Noel replied with a shrug.

"Mom called," said the brunette in between bites of eggs benedict.

"Already?" asked Hope as he reached for the pot of coffee.

"You know her. Told her we were fine. We didn't run over or into svarogs or anything, and even the main highways were monster-free."

"Was she relieved?"

"Not really."

They both chuckled.

Hope checked his watch. It was nearing noon; no doubt the beach would be bustling with people by now. He wondered if the girls he used to meet down at the boardwalk were still around. Would they remember him?

"So what's the plan?" asked Noel as he rose from the table and made his way to the sink with his dishes.

"Well, I need to figure out where Estheim Bodhum is located, but I'm not really in a hurry since it's still a week before I have to officially go there. We can check out the downtown area, though. I think there's an annual fireworks festival coming up in a few days."

Noel turned the faucet off and dried his hands with a towel. "Say, um, if I were to meet, say, a girl..."

Hope looked up. _It's already come to that, huh?_ "Are you asking me if you can bring them over?"

Noel nodded.

"I suppose that would be okay." Hope thought and quickly said, "Your business is your business. I guess, just keep it to your side of the house? And, you know, be responsible?"

"The same rule applies to you, too, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, of course. But I _am_ here to work, you know?"

"Oh, come on, you can't just be all work and no play. You're at a beach city, you should have some fun."

"Inventing gadgets is fun," replied Hope grudgingly.

"I mean, you should let loose once in a while. Hang out with friends. Hang out with _girls_." Noel emphasized the latter with a nod. "And speaking of, we should go down to the beach and check out what's out there."

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Apr/2012


	2. Boomerang of Love

A/N: Thanks very much to those who decided to give this fic a chance! I hope you like this chapter :)

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

At fourteen, two months before he was set to leave for Gran Pulse to study in Academia, Hope accompanied his parents to Bodhum to oversee the opening of the city's smaller branch of Estheim Industries. It was very seldom that Bartholomew brought his family with him on business trips, but considering the fact that his own son would be departing for another world, he had to make every small moment that he could spare count.

But even through this good intention, Bartholomew still couldn't escape from his job, and Nora ushered Hope out of the office with a sigh and commanded him to explore the beach. Trudging down Main Street despite the heat, Hope wandered through each and every single shop, browsing through their wares, even occasionally buying something: ultra-sweet ice cream from the fudge factory; and the Airwing, the latest model of hunting boomerang that he had seen at a catalogue back in Palumpolum that seemed to have been quickly sold out everywhere—except for here, apparently, of which he felt truly lucky.

After finding a wide enough spot that didn't have much people around, he'd try some practice swings with the new boomerang, just to break it in and to get himself used to the feel of it, mentally trying to come up with strategies on how to move from third place to first at the next championship in Palumpolum, despite knowing he wouldn't be able to compete anyway because he'd be at the Academy.

Lowering himself at a bench scattered along the boardwalk, he folded and unfolded his new toy, wondering what it would be like for him to live so far from home, away from everyone he knew, and down at Gran Pulse at that. While the fal'Cie still thrived and looked after Cocoon like they always had, the fal'Cie of Pulse seemed to have abandoned their duties, and it was still impressive that for all the wildness of Gran Pulse, the humans there built a city that rivaled the advanced technology of Cocoon, even going so far as founding the most prestigious school that specialized in furthering research and knowledge in its growth and advancement.

While he felt fortunate at even being accepted to study there at such a young age, trepidation still filled him. He'd been practically lonely his whole life; he made friends easily, but maintaining it was a different matter since he found that he was only befriended because he was smart and those so-called "friends" figured that he'd do their schoolwork for them. Naturally the friendship would devolve into bullying. He'd gotten proficient at boomerang-throwing initially out of self-preservation from the schoolmates.

He sighed. This wasn't really how he pictured his life—and he knew how futile it was to even begin to dream to live in a different situation. He knew that for all the bad things that happened, the good things far outweighed them. He could only look forward to what the future had in store, and shape it through his own mind, his hands, and his experiences.

A female voice interrupted his musing. "Are you a lost little boy?"

He looked up. Two girls close to his age ogled at him, and he almost shrank back at the bench by the weight of their stares. He couldn't help but take issue with what he deemed to be the most important part of their question.

"I'm not little," replied Hope.

The girl with her red hair in pigtails giggled, her green eyes flashing mischievously, and he assumed she was the one who'd posited the question.

"Let's see," said the other girl with pink hair held in a side ponytail, grabbing his hand and pulling him from the bench. She held her other hand from the top of his head and pulled it towards her. "Hmm, just a little over my eyebrows. That means you're still little compared to me."

Somehow, he felt his hackles rise at that.

The red-haired girl released another giggle as she took his other hand. "Well, it doesn't matter to me how tall you are. You're still cute and you're now my boyfriend."

_Whoa, what?_ Did he really just hear her say...? Hope tried vainly to pull his hands from their grasp. "I don't even know who you guys are. And how do you know I don't already have a girlfriend?"

"Well, my name is Vanille," said the redhead. "And I don't care if you already have a girlfriend." She leaned close to whisper in his ear, "What she doesn't know won't kill her." She stepped back and winked at him.

"Well, Vanille, he _does_ have a girlfriend," said the pink-haired girl as she began to tug him away from her friend. "Her name is Serah, and she is me."

"No way! I saw him first."

"He's mine!"

"No, he's not!"

"Let go of me!" yelled Hope.

"Yeah, Vanille, let go!"

"No, you let go, Serah!"

"—please stop!—" Hope interjected, finally managing to wrest his hands from their grip. "Sorry, but I'm not interested in either of you."

The pink-haired girl—Serah—looked suddenly contrite, scuffing the toe of her sandals on the ground. With a pout, she asked, "So, you don't want either of us?"

Vanille held her hands behind her back, swinging gently from side to side, with an apologetic look on her face.

Somehow, their sudden change in demeanour to something wholly innocent and pure but still with a devilish glint made him swallow thickly, and he could feel heat traveling up to colour his cheeks red. _What's up with these girls anyway?_ he thought. He tried very hard not to notice a couple of things below Vanille's neck that were swaying along with her, or that Serah's very short dress was...well, very short.

"Er..." was all he could accomplish.

"We're really sorry," began Serah. "Obviously, we started on the wrong foot here, and if you don't mind, can we start over?"

"Yeah," continued Vanille. "We were just teasing, and we didn't mean for it to turn out this way. Can you forgive us?"

Hope couldn't help the sudden guilt that overcame him at that question. Despite his mistrust and misgivings about these strange girls, he couldn't help feeling flattered by their attention. He hardly had any friends his age as he was usually surrounded by older students in school, and he had to admit that, even if they were only teasing, them fighting over him made a small part of him swell up in pride.

"Sure. I'd like to start over," he conceded, and held out his hand. "My name is Hope, and it's very nice to meet you."

* * *

Lured back to the present, Hope heaved a sigh and rubbed the back of his head. Walking down the boardwalk with Noel, the sights and sounds, although different now, still somehow brought back memories. Across the street, he noticed that Sig's Arcade still stood, now with updated games. He remembered spending a lot of time there with the girls, competing with each other, and sometimes even trying to win prizes for each other. Hanging out with them had certainly made that summer invigorating. It saddened him that he hadn't been able to keep in touch with either of them when he left for Gran Pulse. They had been his first true friends.

Straight ahead, proudly standing at the centre of the boardwalk was a place called Sazh's, an open and airy place that offered shelter from the hot sun and refreshments to the beach-goers, and seemed to be populated by gorgeous girls serving drinks. As he felt the tips of his ears heat up, he knew he wouldn't mind checking the place out later. And he wouldn't really have a choice with it, judging from the sudden spring in Noel's gait.

Something colourful caught his eye as they passed by a sports and weapons store, and he tapped Noel on the shoulder and tilted his head toward the place. They both headed in, but Hope gravitated straight towards the boomerang display. He remembered buying the Airwing from here years ago, and he was held by a sense of nostalgia as he gazed upon the rows of new and old models alike. He lifted a sleek, grey boomerang, checking its balance and weight, and testing how it fit in his hand.

_Nue_, he read the tag. The design was a little flashy, but he couldn't help succumbing to its pull. It was seldom that he felt that out-of-control "must have it, must buy" feeling, and he _had_ to go with his gut instinct for this one particular quirk.

"You're seriously gonna get that?" exclaimed Noel from his spot by the double swords section, shaking his head.

"It's sexy," quipped Hope.

"It's a boomerang."

"That's why it's sexy."

"The hell?"

Hope just laughed as he made his way to the cashier.

* * *

Outside again, he started playing with the boomerang as he sat on a bench, waiting for Noel, who'd gone off to buy some drinks.

He quite liked the handle on one end, appreciating the curvy design and knowing it was to better control the trajectory and flight. He couldn't help but do some practice swings as he sat, getting used to its weight, and feeling muscles wake to the memory of the boomerang throw.

"Well, well," a familiar voice interrupted his moment of enlightenment with his new toy, his ears perking up as his eyes traveled up from nimble feet on a pair of sandals, running up to bare, slender legs to a flowy, short dress and up into a pair of playful green eyes. "I never thought I'd see this ever again." She shook her head as a big smile began to stretch on her lips. "Are you a lost little boy?"

He couldn't help the answering grin that splayed on his lips as he rose to his full height, spreading his arms wide. "I'm not little."

With a squeal that made him fear for his hearing, she launched herself at him, giggling madly. "Hope! I can't believe it!"

"It's great to see you, Vanille," he said as he squeezed back.

"You remembered me."

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I thought the prestige of Academia had gone over your head or something." She held him back at arm's length. "But my, you've grown. You're so tall."

"Can't stay fourteen and short forever, you know."

"Oh, you." She playfully swatted his shoulder. "So, what are you doing here? Vacationing?"

"Actually, no. Work."

"Really?" She thought for a moment. "Oh, for your dad's company?"

"Yeah, but just for a couple of years or so. So, what are you up to now?"

Vanille shrugged, pointing to a quaint four-storey building set near the south end of Main Street. "I work as a waitress at the breakfast and lunch bar of the Fahrenheit Hotel."

He looked over his shoulder, a smirk teasing the corner of his lips. "Oh, really? I should go there some time and hassle you."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "No can do, Hope. We serve hotel guests only."

"Just kidding."

"I know."

They both laughed.

It was...strange. Here they were, clearly somewhat different people now, and yet, it felt so easy to slip back into how they used to be all those years ago, as though nothing had changed.

"Wow, don't tell me that boomerang is actually a chick magnet," came Noel's disbelieving voice from the side as he held two water bottles.

Hope held Nue aloft. "Told you it's sexy." He caught the bottle that Noel tossed to him. "Vanille, this is my brother, Noel. Noel, this is Vanille."

She caught his hand in a handshake. "Nice to meet you, Noel."

"Same."

A frown furrowed her brows. "Wait, I thought you were an only child, Hope."

"I'm adopted," answered Noel.

"Ah, well, that explains it. If you're curious but were afraid to ask, I'm Hope's ex-girlfriend."

"Ex-girlfriend? Are you serious? Him?"

"Hey!" exclaimed Hope, untwisting the cap from the bottle and offering it to Vanille.

"Thanks," said Vanille as she took it and sipped, a fond feeling overcoming her that he was as thoughtful as she remembered. "Yep," answered she as she handed the bottle back, addressing the brown-haired younger man. "He was two-timing me."

The continuous look of disbelief that held Noel expression was almost comical. "You're talking about this guy, right?"

"Two-timing? You and Serah were the ones fighting over me. I had no say in the matter." He turned to his brother. "No matter what she says, don't believe her. She and Serah had this habit of victimizing isolated boys and just claiming him to be their boyfriend."

Releasing a huff of aggravation, she began beating both her hands against Hope's arm. "It was just the one time, and it happened to be you. And it turns out you're still a prick."

Hope chuckled, edging away from the wrath of the woman scorned, chagrined at the thought that he had to resort to hiding behind his younger brother.

"Well, Noel, if you must know, he left me and Serah for another woman," claimed Vanille as she crossed her arms over her chest. "He saw her and then it was like no-one else existed in the world. Hmph."

"I think you should shut up now, Vanille," said Hope.

"I hit a nerve, didn't I?" Her smile held the promise of yet more torturous things to come.

An alarm was ringing inside Hope's head, but despite the need for self-preservation, he couldn't help but prolong the reunion. He knew he was going to regret the massive damage his pride was going to get later, but he was truly happy to see a familiar face that he was willing to risk it.

"Who's Serah?" asked Noel.

"Just another crazy woman like Vanille," quipped Hope.

"I'll tell her you said that!" exclaimed the redhead.

"It's nothing but the truth."

She gasped, but there was playfulness in her eyes.

"Where is she, anyway? I thought you're always together."

"She's working as a school teacher, and school should be out by now."

"Wow, that's great. I didn't know she wanted to teach."

"I think it's your smartness that got to her." She shook her head in mock disapproval.

Hope chuckled, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, the smile fading from his lips as he thought. "What about...?" he trailed off.

"Hmm?" Vanille drawled with a knowing smirk. "Come on, you can say it."

"Nothing. Forget it."

She laughed, hooking her arm through Noel's. "Well, Noel, what say we leave your meanie brother behind?"

"Sure. I'm all for it," replied Noel with excitement.

"Hey! I'm not mean!" objected Hope.

"Yes, you are." Vanille turned around to stick her tongue out at him. "Here we are in our reunion and all you can think about is the woman you left me and Serah for."

Hope felt his lips twist in a wry smile. That one was a particular memory he could never escape from, and in all these years, he never really wanted to.

"Oh, fine." She sighed dramatically as she dragged Noel back to where Hope still stood, hooking her other arm through his. "You can come along."

"Where are we going anyway?" asked Noel.

She nodded to the building ahead. "To Sazh's. I'm to meet Serah there. She'll be thrilled to see you again, Hope, I'm sure. And who knows, you might..."

"I might what?" Hope questioned puzzledly.

"Nothing," answered Vanille in a sing-song voice that had CODE RED-type alarm bells ringing inside Hope's head.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Apr/2012


	3. The Farron Sisters

A/N: I'm really glad you enjoyed the previous chapter, thank you very much :) I've upped the rating for this fic because I'm going to be delving into mature themes in later chapters. I just hope you'll like this third installment of the fic as well.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Lightning used her order tablet as a fan in an attempt to cool down as she sat on a bar-stool, contemplating dousing herself with iced water. While the idea had a refreshing ring to it in helping her abate the heat, the thought that the male patrons of Sazh's would take the act as some sort of prelude to an impromptu strip show wasn't appealing. At all.

She supposed there was much to be said about the wisdom of Sazh's choice of uniforms for them. Or rather, that he left the choice up to them so long as their clothes consisted of either shorts or a skirt, any kind of top (be it a tank, a net shirt, or even a button-up with long sleeves) as long as it was white, worn over a bathing suit—although Lebreau chose to wear hers the other way around, garnering her a lot of tips from most of the male customers. Lightning had to admit that most of the time, their "uniforms" had done a good job at keeping them cool on hot, sunny days, but she was getting close to her limit to the point that she was beginning to consider stripping down to her bathing suit. Which brought her circling back to her number one reason for not dousing herself with iced water in the first place.

She sighed, stretching the kinks from her neck. Today's afternoon crowd wasn't really that bad; some elderly folks were out in the shaded part of the patio, enjoying the view of the ocean, and she could hear the murmur of their voices as they lost themselves to reminiscences. She knew that soon, the target demographic of twenties-to-thirties would be well on their way to populate Sazh's, and those of them that didn't know the iron law of groping the waitresses would find themselves beaten down and kicked out by the very same waitresses before their bouncer, Gadot, could even have time to give them his special brand of "friendly" warning.

Sazh stepped out of the kitchen behind the bar and spread his hands on the counter-top as he eyed her. "You look just about ready to murder someone," he commented.

She glared at him from beneath her bangs. "If only I could reach up to the fal'Cie Phoenix," muttered she in return.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Well, missy—"

At the name-calling, she increased the magnitude of her glare.

He flinched. "Ouch. I really felt that."

She smirked. "Good."

He stumbled back as though he was shot and made mock choking sounds. "Struck by Lightning."

"Haha, aren't you just hilarious today, Sazh." She turned away from him on her stool with a frustrated sigh, her frown only lightening up as she spied her sister, holding on to the hand of Dajh, Sazh's son, as they entered the restaurant.

"Hi Lightning," said Dajh as he let go of Serah's hand and made his way towards the bar.

She nodded in reply. "Dajh."

"Daddy!" yelled the boy as he ran to his father.

"Hey little man!" laughed Sazh as his son glomped him. "How's school today?"

"It was great! We learned about the number thirteen today."

"Really. Wow, that's a pretty high number."

"Hi Sis! Hi Sazh!" greeted the younger Farron as she finally reached them.

"Serah," acknowledged Lightning with a nod.

"Hi Serah," said Sazh. "Thanks again for bringing Dajh from school."

"Oh, Sazh, you know I don't mind at all." She gave a small laugh as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "The first drink being free whenever I do is a very fair exchange."

"Well, make that the first two. I'm feeling generous today."

"Really, Sazh? Thanks!"

"Well, Lightning," he turned to her, hitching his son up in his arms. "I'm leaving the fort to you while I bring Dajh home."

Lightning just gave him a salute as an answer.

"Thanks again, Serah. See you guys later."

"Goodbye Lightning. Goodbye Miss Farron."

"Bye Dajh. Later, Sazh," waved Serah as they watched them leave. The younger of the two pink-haired women perched on the stool next to Lightning, giving her a very sweet look.

The older sister eyed her warily, sensing something afoot. Serah was really her only weakness, and from the expression she was being given, it would be tough for her to resist.

"Lightning," Serah began, and Lightning mentally braced herself for the onslaught. "My strong, beautiful, gorgeous, kind, wonderful—"

And she found that she already couldn't take it.

"What do you want?" she asked in a clipped tone.

Serah brightened up. "You, for a weekend. _Any_ weekend off that you have, although I'd prefer if it was a whole week, but a weekend is fine."

Lightning raised a brow. "Why?"

"I want you to come to Palumpolum with me."

If anything, her brow rose higher. "What for?"

"To help me look for my wedding dre—"

"No."

"Lightning!"

She winced at the whine in Serah's voice. "You know I'd do anything for you, Serah—"

"Then, you will—"

"—except for this. Definitely No."

"But whhhhyyy?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"My gorgeous—"

"No."

"Did I mention gentle and kind—"

"No."

"—sister who just said she'd do anything for me?"

"I said anything but this, Serah."

The younger Farron blew a raspberry out of frustration, blinking her eyes rapidly as she stared upwards. A hitching breath issued from her chest as she fanned herself with her hands. "I'm only asking because this is an important time for me, Lightning," she said tearfully in a small voice.

_I'm getting sucked in, aren't I?_ Lightning thought. _But of all people to marry—_

"I want you to be there when I pick my dress because you're my only family left, and I want to share this moment of helping me choose it because mom isn't—" Serah covered her mouth and turned away.

Somewhere inside, the ice within her began to thaw a little, and she awkwardly patted her sister's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Please, Claire?"

At the use of her real name out of desperation, Lightning gave her sister's shoulder a squeeze. "Why all the way to Palumpolum? You'll find more choices if you go online shopping."

Serah wiped her eyes as she turned to face her. "It's not quite the same with online shopping. I want to feel that magical moment of knowing I've found the right dress if I actually go to a store to try it on."

"There are serviceable stores here, Serah."

"But Palumpolum has the biggest selection, you know, since it's the Center of Commerce."

"Also expensive."

"No, Lightning, it doesn't have to be. You go to a store and let them know what your budget is, and then they direct you to the correct section to choose your dress from. And since we're there, we can also find your maid-of-honour dress."

Lightning cringed. "Just pick whatever, I'll wear it."

"No, I can't do that! I want you to choose something you'll be comfortable with. And if we can't find something during that weekend, we can always go back some time later and try again."

Lightning stared at her. Serah had a pleading look on her face reminiscent of a pitiful puppy. She sighed in defeat, giving in with a nod of her head.

Serah squealed and grabbed her in a hug that seemed more of a choke-hold in her excitement. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lightning!"

"Yeah, yeah." Lightning waved her off.

"Thank you. This really means a lot to me, Lightning."

"I know."

"I'll go tell Vanille."

"You do that."

"And don't forget to let me know which weekend you have free so we can plan our trip."

"I'll have to check my schedule with Sazh."

"I'm sure he'll work something out with you. You're way overdue a vacation, you know. I'll be at my usual spot. See you later."

"Bye."

Lightning turned again on the bar-stool, leaned her arms over the counter-top and slumped over them. _I wish this shift would end already_, she thought.

Someone cleared their throat behind her, and she turned, spying the elderly group standing beside the cash register near the front. She tried to school her features into a smile as she walked over, but could really care less that it seemed to be unsuccessful judging from the way they backed away as she neared. Giving off an air of disinterest in any kind of conversation, she just loaded up their order number onto the computer, told them their total, and went through the routine of payment and thanks-for-coming-and-have-a-nice-day.

Outside, Lebreau and the other girls were already preparing the closed-off section of the patio for the later crowd, and Lightning surveyed their work from her spot. The area to the right would be the busiest, as it always was every evening, since it held the outdoor dance floor and DJ booth. As with the uniforms, Sazh allowed the waitresses the choice to dance there during their break, but any other kind of fraternizing with customers during work hours was frowned upon.

"You know, every time I see your face, I always think there's trouble in paradise," came Rygdea's smiling voice from behind her as he began his prep-work at the bar.

Lightning rolled her eyes and didn't bother turning her head to acknowledge his presence.

"Ouch. Extra icy today, eh?" He chuckled. "You know, it still boggles my mind."

She sighed, accepting the fact that he'd just continue conversing regardless of whether or not she contributed. She decided that she might as well give him a break before he talked her ear off. "What does?"

"This 'open relationship' you and Fang and Jihl seem to have. How exactly does that work?"

She turned finally and made her way over to where he stood behind the bar, even going so far as to give him a small smile. "It works because it's none of your business."

He threw his head back and laughed. "Well, can't blame me for trying, I'm just curious, that's all. I mean, three beautiful women together..."

"I'll thank you to stop right there, Rygdea."

At the hard edge to her tone, he straightened. "Yes, ma'am. No disrespect intended."

"If you don't want me to steal your wife..." she said in a mocking tone, and was rewarded with a look of fear.

"Stopping now."

"Good."

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Apr/2012


	4. Reunions and Embarrassments Therein

A/N: Double chapter update! (and possibly the only time this will happen ever) Hooray for off days at work that can be dedicated to writing. My muse is on a roll...for this story at least.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Despite the nearness, it actually took the three of them longer to reach Sazh's, having taken many stops along the way as Vanille regaled Noel with stories that had Hope immediately correcting her version for one that didn't make him look too much like an idiot.

_Maybe it's not too late to turn tail and go home_, thought Hope as he pressed a palm to his face over Vanille's continued antics. _Maybe I should meet Serah some other day. With the two of them together, I'd get double the dose of this._

"Here we are," claimed Vanille as she bounced in front of an imposing-looking man standing guard by the entrance to Sazh's. "Hi Gadot."

"Vanille," greeted he with a nod.

"These are friends of mine."

Gadot held out a hand towards Hope's chest to stop him from proceeding, but still addressing the redhead. "You know the rule, Vanille. If you wanna head to the lounge, I need to check for ID. I know _you_, so you're cleared, but these guys have to pass the test first."

"Uh, ID, sure," said Hope as he reached for his wallet, producing his Academia identification card.

Gadot raised an eyebrow as he inspected the card, peering at Hope dubiously. "Professor, huh?"

Hope laughed nervously. "I'm between careers right now."

"Gadot!" Vanille whined behind him. "Hurry up."

The giant turned. "Don't tell me to do my job." He handed the ID back to Hope and nodded to Noel, holding out his hand.

The younger man handed in his ID, and the bouncer perused it with a frown.

"Just eighteen, huh."

Noel straightened. "Yeah? What about it?"

Gadot leaned in close. "Just an advice, kid, since you just became legal: don't let the women here drink you under the table," he said as he handed the card back. "Man's gotta have pride."

"Uh, thanks for the advice," chuckled Noel.

"Head in, you guys are cleared."

"Thank you, Gadot," said Hope.

"Come on." Vanille grabbed both their hands and dragged them through the side, following the wraparound patio until they reached the bigger area with the dance floor.

"Hiya Lebreau!" she waved to the waitress wiping a table as they passed by.

The brunette straightened, her eyes widening in delight as she spied the two that accompanied Vanille. "Hi there," she greeted with a coy smile.

Hope couldn't help the way his cheeks warmed. "Hi," he replied, congratulating himself that he managed to sound normal.

"Hi," waved Noel.

Lebreau drew Vanille to her and whispered, "I have to thank you for dragging in some delicious hunk of meat."

"They're both single," Vanille whispered back.

"Oh?"

"But I'd steer clear of the one with the white hair."

"Oh. Gay?"

"No, he isn—actually...wait. I'll have to get back to you on that one."

"Okay. I'll be around. The other one seems really eager though."

"He said that before they left, their mom was joking to them about sowing their seeds to the wind or something."

Lebreau laughed. "They're brothers? Well, it seems we have permission."

Vanille answered with a giggle. "Damn right. Later." She went back to where the two men stood and proceeded to direct them to her usual table. "Sorry for the wait."

"No worries," responded Noel.

As she spied a head of pink hair bent over some papers strewn on their table, she stopped, putting a finger to her mouth and making a hushing sound even as her eyes danced with mirth.

"Oi, Serah," she called.

The head didn't bother turning. "Hey Vanille."

"I have a surprise for you."

The pink-haired sighed. "I'm grading papers right now."

"Oh, I promise you you'd love this surprise."

Serah lifted her head and put down her pen, saying as she turned, "This better be goo-AAAHHH!"

But even as she covered her mouth with her hands she still couldn't stop her scream, drowned out by their laughter. She stood and made her way to the trio bent over themselves at her expense.

"Hi Serah," greeted Hope in between chuckles.

She swatted his arm, and then proceeded to hug him. "Oh my gosh. Hope! I can't believe this."

"It's good to see you."

She drew back, unable stop the grin that spread through her lips.

"Shh, quiet down, guys," came the brunette waitress's voice behind them, eyeing Hope and Serah curiously.

The four muttered a chorus of apologies to Lebreau, making way for the table that Serah had been occupying, which she then proceeded to empty of her teaching paraphernalia.

"Oh, if you have work," said Hope as he took a seat, "you don't have to—"

"No, silly, it's okay. These papers aren't due until next week and I figured I'd give them a head start while waiting for Vanille. I always do this anyway."

"I guess if you say it's alright."

Noel cleared his throat.

Vanille piped up. "Serah, this is Noel, Hope's adopted brother. Noel, this is Serah, another ex-girlfriend."

They all laughed.

"Hello."

"Hey."

"So when did you guys get here?" asked Serah as the four of them settled around the table, Noel and Vanille leaving the two to their own conversation.

"Just this morning," answered Hope.

"Oh. From Palumpolum?"

"Yes."

"How was Academia?"

"It's pretty good."

"So are you finished over there?"

"Not quite."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I got offered a permanent position there, but I felt that I still have some unfinished business here in Cocoon."

"Oh." Serah drew a disappointed sigh, an expression of utter dejection descending over her features. "I'm very sorry, Hope."

He frowned. "About what?"

"If I had known you felt that way, I'd have waited for you." She pulled a necklace from under her shirt with an exaggerated pout. "I'm already taken." She wiped a fake tear from her eye.

Hope couldn't help chuckling, sobering as he tapped his chest dramatically. "That does strike a painful chord here. You wound me." He reached for the pendant and examined it. "It's beautiful, Serah. Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"So when's the big day?"

"August next year. And you definitely have to come. Wait for the invite."

"Are you sure your husband-to-be wouldn't mind you inviting your ex-boyfriend along?" he asked teasingly.

"Oh, Hope, tsk-tsk." Serah shook her head. "I want you to see the one you let get away walking down the aisle towards another man."

Hope rubbed his forehead as he laughed.

"But then again, maybe not," continued Serah in a teasing tone. "Your eyes would probably be glued on to someone else during the whole ceremony—"

"Ugh," muttered Hope as he dropped his head onto the tabletop, rattling it.

Noel and Vanille turned from their conversation to stare at him.

The younger man poked him in the head. "What's wrong with you?"

"I just can't win."

Noel shook his head with a smile.

"Hey...Noel, right?" asked Serah.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know the story of how me and Vanille met Hope?"

"Yeah, Vanille was telling me on the way here."

"Oh. Did she tell you how he broke up with us?"

"Oh, please, no," mumbled Hope from the table.

Noel shifted in his seat. "I'd heard bits and pieces, but I'd love to hear more."

Vanille giggled evilly beside him.

"Someone kill me now," said Hope.

"So everyday we'd hang around Main Street," began Serah. "This was, what? Two, three weeks—?"

"Around that, yeah," contributed Vanille.

"—Into our relationship, and so far we got to meet his parents, and he got to meet Vanille's cousin who she was living with. And we're on our way to the beach when he sees this girl just coming out of the water."

"And he gets this look on his face," continued Vanille as she proceeded to imitate what she remembered of their victim—er, ex-boyfriend's expression. Her jaw fell slack, and her eyes rounded and seemed to glow with a starry glint. Noel couldn't help but laugh, and she turned to him. "Like he was struck by awe, or...or..."

"Or by lightning," said Serah, and she and Vanille erupted into fits of uncontrollable giggles.

"You guys are so funny," came a small voice from the table. Vanille reached over to pat his head.

"So what happened?" asked Noel.

"He goes up to her and takes her hands." Serah grabbed Vanille's hands across the table, and dramatically intoned, "'You. You're my destiny.'"

"Are you serious?" laughed Noel.

Vanille took up the story-telling, and exaggerated further in a deep voice. "'I promise to be with you forever. We're meant to be, baby.'"

Noel bent over himself, cracking up so hard he felt a stitch at his side.

Hope raised his head. "That's just wrong. I didn't say that."

"So what _did_ you say, then?" challenged Noel.

Hope released a defeated exhale. Since it had come to this anyway, he might as well get it all over with. "I went up to her and I took her hands—"

"So that part was true?"

"Yes, it was. So, I took her hands, and I said..." He gulped, trying to swallow the words back even as the memory of that day in crystal clarity played back in his mind, the way the afternoon sun haloed her hair and the way the ocean water clung to her body. "I said..."

Noel raised an eyebrow, while Vanille and Serah both drew closer to hear his words.

With a deep breath, Hope took the plunge.

"'I'm going to marry you someday.'"

The silence stretched, prolonging the moment of heady embarrassment, and all three gaped at him for a space of nearly two minutes before erupting into squeals of laughter.

As much as their ribbing stung what ever was left of his pride, it didn't colour his vision of that particular time. It remained removed from their raillery. Maybe he really was a fool for keeping that moment close to his heart, but what he'd felt that day, the way his heart expanded so much he was afraid it would fly away, and the strength of conviction that gripped him, of knowing that this was _it_, that _she_ was _it_...that there would be no one else for him...

Maybe he really was a fool. He was simply a kid then, after all. A claim like that hadn't been taken seriously then, as the pain in his jaw that followed after could attest, and even less so now.

The three wiped tears from their eyes, and Noel jibed as he began to calm down. "So that's why you chose this place instead of the branch at Eden or Palumpolum. You had an ulterior motive."

"Contrary to what you think, I chose Bodhum because it takes smaller projects. Smaller projects mean they don't take too much time to finish, which means I can accomplish more within my two-year contract with dad. I really _am_ here to work."

"Whatever you say, bro."

"And I felt bad for dad because he knew we both weren't interested in heading the company. But I figured I'd give working for him a shot anyway."

"Uh-huh."

"What ever I learn from here can always be applied to my future work at the Academy."

At this, Noel sobered up. "Are you really serious about staying there permanently after this?"

"Professor Thorne really opened up my eyes on the things that we could do for the future, and—" Hope stopped and scratched his head, finally noticing the shock looks that Serah and Vanille wore. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"No, no," waved Serah. "It's just a surprise to see you so passionate. And about Academia, at that."

"What's so surprising about that?"

Vanille piped up, "It just felt like you were already so far away from us, and you just got here."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. This is a part of you that's nice to learn about. We're all catching up to the people we now are."

"Here, here," said Noel as he tapped the table. "We need to drink to this." He rose, and waved towards a waitress he spied inside the restaurant, sitting back down when he saw he got her attention.

"Here, here," repeated Vanille. "I'm all for that."

Serah reached over and squeezed Hope's hand. "Oh, Hope. Why are you so grown-up?"

"Can't stay a kid forever, Serah," was his amused reply. And then he felt it, what signaled _her_ presence: as though a burst of static energy engulfed the area that had his nerve-ends tingling from the sensation and had the hair rising at the back of his head.

"What do you guys want?" came _her_ exasperated tone.

Hope nearly tripped over himself standing up, the chair falling over in his haste, and he turned and beheld the one who'd caught his heart all those years ago. He barely heard the giggling of the spectators behind him; he could only register that the rest of the world seemed to have fallen away as he stared down into a pair of icy blue eyes, rose-pink hair framing a heart-shaped face.

_Thud-thud, thud-thud_. Could she hear it? The sound of his heartbeat that filled his own ears? Almost desperately, he wanted to reach out just to test her realness.

"Lightning," he breathed.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Apr/2012


	5. Stirring Memories

A/N: Thanks very much! Really glad the updates brightened your day, dear lovely generous reviewers ^_^ I hope you'll continue to enjoy this fic :)

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Lightning frowned at the silver-haired guy that almost stumbled over as he stood, mumbling her name as he gazed down upon her. There was something about him that seemed familiar, tickling at the corners of her mind.

The seconds ticked by as they just stared at each other, something that she should've been discomfited by by now, but she found that she couldn't look away from his clear green eyes, a slight tingle running down her spine at the contact.

A tug on her wrist brought her back to the present, and she turned to face her sister, who had been watching amused from her seat.

"Lightning," said Serah as she let go of her wrist. "Do you remember Hope?"

From her periphery, she saw the guy shake himself and hold out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Hope Estheim."

She turned back to him and eyed his hand, watching it nervously waver and begin to lower before she finally decided to catch it in a handshake.

"Don't know if I should still tell you my name since you already know it," responded Lightning.

He winced, rubbing the back of his head with his other hand.

"Sorry about that."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"Because I know your name." His nose and eyebrows scrunched together in a cringe, and she found herself quite amused by his expression although she dared not show it. "And now you think I'm a stalker or something." Finally realizing that he still held her hand, he quickly dropped it. "Sorry."

There was something about his awkward earnestness that settled her memory. "Hope...you're that boy that proposed to me when I was eighteen."

His eyes widened and he took a few steps back. "You remembered that?"

She shrugged. "It's not everyday someone comes up to me out of the blue and tells me he's going to marry me. How's your jaw, by the way?"

At the mention, he started rubbing the spot her punch had landed in after his declaration. "Uh, much better now after all these years, thanks."

She surprised herself by actually reaching up and touching his face. "Let's see."

He had a deer-that-was-caught-in-the-headlights look, and seemed to be holding his breath. She could feel the way his pulse jumped beneath her fingers as she ran them over his neck. _What am I doing?_ she asked herself. But she felt a heady sense of power as she watched him, feeling as though she had an incredible amount of control over him. It felt so invigorating, electrifying. And she found that she liked it. Of course, she still kept her face neutral, betraying neither her thoughts or feelings.

"Breathe," she commanded when she noticed his face was beginning to turn from red to blue.

"Huh?"

"I said, 'breathe.'"

He exhaled deeply, shakily, and she finally released him.

"Call me Light," she said before turning to the spectators at the table. "So, what will it be?"

* * *

Hope could feel his heart beating a mile a minute, and he made an effort to compose himself as he reached down and righted up the chair that had fallen, hearing introductions and orders being made as he gingerly took a seat.

_How can she still have this effect on me?_ he asked himself. _Calm. I need to calm down. I'm here on business, not because of her. You're an adult now, Hope. Twenty years old, no longer fourteen. Academia showed you the truth of science. 'Love at first sight' has no basis in science. Chemical reactions between two people however...well, okay, there's truth and science in that too. But..._

"So what do you want, Hope?" Her blue eyes pierced him as she turned to him.

'You and the chemical reactions we could create between us' was the first thing that came to mind, and he tried to keep the blush that was spreading across his cheeks to a minimum, seeing her narrow her eyes as though she had an inkling of what he'd just thought, and made a monumental effort to take control of his vocal chords to actually say, "Tea, please."

She raised an eyebrow at that, and he felt compelled to explain himself sheepishly. "I'm the designated driver."

"Hmm. What kind? Green? Earl Grey?"

"Green tea is good, thanks."

Lightning merely nodded as she punched his order in her ordering tablet. "Be right back."

His eyes were glued to her figure as she walked back to the restaurant.

"Maker, it's that look!" exclaimed Vanille as she pointed at him, with Noel and Serah turning and laughing at him.

Startled, Hope faced them. "What are you talking about?"

"You were just making the same face you made like the first time you saw her!"

"I was not!" denied Hope.

"You totally were," agreed Serah. "You were, like, all googly-eyed."

He scoffed, and tried to think of a quick way to steer the conversation away from him, mentally sighing in relief that he was saved when a sleepy-eyed, blue-haired guy stumbled on their table.

"Yo, Vanille, Serah," the newcomer greeted in a drowsy voice.

"Hi Yuj," replied the redhead.

"Hey," said Serah. "Oh Yuj, these are Noel and Hope. Yuj is the DJ here."

"Yo."

"Hey."

"Hello."

Yuj peered at them from droopy eyelids. "Here for vacation?"

"No, for work," answered Hope, to which he received a frown from the DJ.

"Are you replacing me? Sazh never said anything—"

"Oh, no, no, not here in the restaurant."

"Oh, okay, that's cool then," said Yuj with a relieved sigh before leaning over conspiratorially. "But, just so you know, man, Serah's engaged."

Confused by what the other man seemed to be implying, Hope responded, "I know. She showed me her engagement pendant."

"Oh, that's great, man," said the blue-haired DJ as he patted him on the shoulder, making his way to the DJ booth to start his preparations. "Just don't wanna see Snow crush you to the ground for taking his girl."

"Yuj!" exclaimed Serah with a frown. "Snow's not like that."

"Not like what, babe?" came a booming voice from behind her.

Serah's face lit up, and she rose, running up to hug a hulking figure of a man with blond hair, who'd caught her and twirled her around as they kissed. As they broke apart, they seemed to be murmuring sweet nothings to each other as she led him to the table.

"Snow, I want you to meet Hope and Noel. Hope's an old friend and Noel's his brother. Guys, this is my fiance, Snow."

"Snow Villiers, nice to meet you," said the big guy as he shook both of their hands.

Although Hope had no expectation of what kind of man Serah's fiance was, he was still taken by surprise."I'm Hope Estheim, nice to meet you too."

"Noel. Noel Kreiss."

"Wait," said Snow with a confused look on his face as he took the seat next to Serah. "I thought you two are brothers. How come your last names are different?"

"I'm adopted," said Noel.

"Oh, okay."

"Congrats, by the way."

"Thanks."

"Congratulations, Snow," said Hope. "You and Serah look really happy together."

"Ah, thanks, man. Serah's just perfect for me. I'm really glad we met." He leaned down to plant a kiss on her forehead. "So how do you all know each other?"

At this, there was a moment of awkward silence, before Hope, Vanille, and Serah simultaneously piped up.

"—Serah, Vanille, and I were just friends—"

"—Hope is my and Serah's ex-boyfriend—"

"—Vanille and I used to go out with him—"

Noel covered his mouth with his hand to hide his laughter, and Hope kicked him under the table...at least, he hoped it was his leg that he kicked.

"What was that?" asked Snow with a frown.

For some reason, Yuj's words "crushed to the ground" kept playing in Hope's mind. It was a phrase that was usually used figuratively, but he could see that the DJ actually meant it literally.

"Vanille and I used to go out with him," repeated Serah in an annoyed tone. "Remember? I told you about it before."

"You both went out with him at the same time?"

"Yes."

"Huh." Snow's blue eyes lit up as he remembered. "Oh. _That_ time when you were just fifteen. He's the one who walked up to Lightning and promised he'd marry her."

Hope sighed. "Does everyone know about that?"

"Yes," answered Vanille and Serah in unison.

"Oh, man, what I wouldn't give to have seen that." Snow reached over and shook Hope's hand again. "I salute you for surviving her wrath."

"Keep going like that and you won't survive my wrath next time," said Lightning from behind him, brandishing a tray with their order.

"Hey, sis, how's it going?"

She fixed him a glare as she gave Serah her drink. "Don't call me 'sis'."

"Thanks, Light," said Hope as she set his mug of tea in front of him.

She just gave him a "hmm" of acknowledgement before making her way to give Noel and Vanille their orders.

"'Light?'" questioned Snow with a playful grin, but even Lightning's murderous stare wasn't enough to shut his mouth. "Already down to pet names, are we? Is there something I'm missing here? Don't tell me you two _are_ getting married? Is that why you're here, Hope? To make good on that promise?"

Lightning's mouth had set in a thin line with every word he uttered, looking ready to lunge and hit the blond over the head with her tray.

"No!" said Hope, a little too quickly. "We just met. We're not getting married."

Lightning turned to him; there was a glint in her eyes that Hope couldn't even begin to decipher. "Oh, so you're not a man of your word? Making a declaration like that and not going through with it?"

Hope felt his chest constrict at her accusing tone. "N-no, i-it's not like that at all. I-it still stands, if y-you want." He couldn't help the hopeful tone that came over his voice nor that his mouth kept on talking without consulting his brain first. "D-do you want to get married?"

She pursed her lips. "We just met. We don't even know each other...but then again, that didn't stop you then."

Hope gulped, feeling an unbelievable amount of pressure descending upon him, but somehow, coming from her, he found that he didn't mind it one bit. "Well, we could get to know each other first?"

He was jolted back to himself by Noel pounding his fists onto the table as he buried his face in his arms, lost in hysterical laughter.

A small, barely-there smile graced her lips. "Hmm," she muttered noncommittally, squeezing his shoulder as she passed by. "Just joking," she whispered, and then moved her hand up to ruffle his hair before walking away.

"Hey, sis, my drink—?" Snow called out.

"Go get it yourself," she barked as she stomped back to the restaurant.

Hope knew that the heat that enflamed his face wouldn't be going away for a long while.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Apr/2012


	6. Stirring Other Things

A/N: Thanks very much for reading/reviewing/subscribing/favouriting! Hope you'll find delight in this chapter ^^

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Snow chuckled, shrugging off Lightning's hostility towards him, a look of sympathy coming over his features as he took a look at Hope.

"Man, I'm really sorry," said the blond as he patted Hope's shoulder.

Startled, the silver-haired asked, "For what?"

"Looks like you got it bad for her. And well...let me just tell you it's gonna be a tough one if you wanna try to get with her."

Hope took a sip of his tea in an effort to take control of himself and of the situation. "Haha, that was all just for fun. I was just going with the moment and acting out."

"Sure didn't look like it," jibed Noel.

"You were laughing your head off," Hope pointed out. "That shows how funny it was, therefore it was all a joke." He looked to the women for confirmation. "Right?"

Vanille replied in a singsong voice, "No comment."

Serah just gave him a knowing smile as she rose. "Anyone up for pizza? Fries? Wings?"

Hope reached for his wallet. "Oh, I can get it."

"No, you stay. I'm just heading over to the ladies' room and figured I might as well make an order on the way."

"Oh, okay. Anything's good. Thanks, Serah."

"Yeah, whatever's fine," added Noel.

"Thanks, babe," said Snow, reaching over to squeeze her arm.

"I'll get your drink, too, Snow. You want the usual?"

"Yep."

"Okay." She leaned over to kiss him. "I'll be back."

"I'll come with you," called Vanille as she rose from her seat.

When they were out of the men's earshot within the confines of the comfort room, Vanille and Serah exploded into excited giggles.

"Oh, Maker!" exclaimed the redhead when she could finally catch her breath. "I almost can't believe what happened there!"

"I know!" replied Serah as she fixed her side-ponytail. "It's pretty unreal, isn't it?"

"Maybe there's hope for your sister yet." Realizing what she'd just said, Vanille erupted into a fresh bout of laughter.

"That's just bad," smiled Serah as she shook her head.

"But it's interesting, isn't it? So are you going to ask Lightning about it?"

The pink-haired just shrugged. "Let me handle it. You know how she could get."

"Oh, she's all yours. I'm just going along to watch."

"Let's go."

Stepping out of the washroom and into the restaurant, they made straight for the bar where Lightning sat, looking as though she was suffering through Rygdea's attempts at conversation. The two women settled themselves on either side of their target, smiling pointedly.

The elder Farron eyed them with a sigh. "What do you want?"

"We forgot to order our food," answered Serah.

Lightning handed her the ordering tablet. "Help yourself."

Serah scrolled through the menu options and tapped in her choices, clicking the 'Send' button when she was done. "So..." she began, looking askance at her sister from beneath her lashes, seeing her shoulders stiffen.

"What."

She could see that Lightning wouldn't make things easy for her, so she decided to just get straight to the point. From her periphery, Rygdea watched them with mild interest, taking a sip of mineral water from a bottle.

"What's with you being all touchy-feely with my ex-boyfriend?"

Rygdea sprayed out what he was drinking in surprise, and from behind Lightning, Vanille tried to stifle her laughter with her hands.

"Lightning touching a man?" Rygdea exclaimed in surprise. "Are you serious?"

The elder sister blew at her bangs exasperatedly. "I shook his hand. I was being polite since we were introducing ourselves. Didn't know a handshake was such a big deal."

"You touched his face," pointed out Serah.

"I punched him and wanted to check if the bruise is still there."

"After six years?"

"Some scars last for a lifetime," was Lightning's ready reply, giving Rygdea a glare that promised pain to him if he uttered a single word that added to her growing infuriation with Serah, who was the only one immune to her anger—although that could change if her sister persisted in this line of questioning.

"Okay, so then, what's with you running your hand through his hair?"

At this, Lightning had had enough, and she not-so-gently grabbed her tablet from Serah and made her way to the front of the restaurant where a cluster of customers had formed a line-up, waiting to be seated.

Rygdea leaned forward on the counter. "Is it true?"

Serah turned to him, bouncing in her seat. "Yes, it is."

"And your ex at that."

"_Our_ ex," corrected Vanille.

The bartender was taken aback, raising an eyebrow and opening his mouth but finding nothing to say. After rearranging his thoughts, he went back to the subject of Lightning. "Maker. But I thought she's into women."

Vanille scoffed. "Fang and her are just friends with benefits. Fang told me."

"And Jihl?"

"Same."

"Ah, young people today." Rygdea sighed, shaking his head. "What ever happened to good old-fashioned monogamy?"

Serah waved her pendant at him as she rose, hearing Yuj starting up the music. "It's still around. Later, Rygdea."

"Yeah, see you."

"Bye."

* * *

The blasting music held sway over him on the dance floor, with Vanille weaving between him and Noel. Hope's heart matched the rhythm of the beat, the sound seeming to encompass his head to the point where he felt light-headed, preventing him from thinking much about the events that had passed since he arrived in Bodhum this morning and holding at bay the tiredness that had begun to set on his shoulders. He simply surrendered to the bump and grind of the bodies out on the floor.

After a while, Noel tapped him on the shoulder. "We're going back," he yelled through the noise, and Hope nodded, following them along.

Noel panted as they reached their table, fanning himself at the neckline of his shirt. "Whoo! It's crazy out there."

"It's like that every night," stated Vanille as she flopped down on her seat.

"Looks like you guys are having fun," said Serah from where she sat, snuggled up against Snow.

Hope reached for a cold slice of pizza, biting absentmindedly into it and contemplating about the stuffiness he felt around his ears from the music.

"Hey, Hope, are you okay?" asked Vanille, waving a hand over his face.

He groggily looked up, chewing thoughtfully. After swallowing, he replied, "I'm just getting really tired. I woke up pretty early to drive here this morning."

"Oh, well, if you're ready to turn in, we're also thinking about heading home," said Serah, moving over to her chair to get her bag. "Do you want to meet up here again tomorrow?"

"Sure, that'd be great." He turned to his brother. "What about you, Noel?"

"Yeah, it's cool with me."

"Wonderful," smiled Serah, reaching over to push a red button set in the middle of the table to signal that they were ready for the bill and then fishing around her bag for her wallet.

Following her example, the others also reached for their gil, and Lightning materialized from the busy throng of tables.

"Are you guys ready?" she asked, holding her tablet, and turned to Hope. "Do you want me to start a tab for you?"

At the touch of her blue eyes, he swallowed, frowning at his own tired thoughts that he was pretty sure he wouldn't dare think if he had full control of his brain. _She wants me. She totally wants me to come back. All right!_

_Shut up_, he admonished himself.

"Sure, but I can pay for our order right now," he managed to reply, handing her some gil.

She eyed the money with a raised eyebrow. "Just wait, I'll get your change."

"No, that's okay. It's your tip."

She rolled her eyes and made her way back to the restaurant. "Wait there. I'll be right back."

He sighed, shrugging, and turned back to the group. "Snow, it's very nice to meet you, and congratulations again." He reached over to shake hands with the blond.

"Likewise, Hope. Don't be a stranger. You, too, Noel." He waved to the younger man across the table.

"Vanille," said Hope as he walked over and enveloped her in a hug. "It's great to see you again."

"Oh, you silly man!" She squeezed him. "You won't get rid of me so soon. Noel just offered me a lift."

He stepped back, his eyes flitting between her and his brother, an eyebrow raised in a question. She wiggled her own brows in response, and gave him a big smile.

_Well, okay then_, he thought, directing a smirk at his brother, while Noel shrugged at him.

In his tiredness, Hope wasn't really thinking much nor was he looking closely when he turned. He just saw the pink hair in his periphery and pulled the figure into his arms.

He frowned. _Why is Serah looking at me from over her own shoulder?_ he asked himself, extremely baffled by the stricken look she was giving him. _I must be really tired. There are two Serahs existing right this moment. Is the world about to implode from this paradox? _Then his eyes widened. _Oh shit._

He gulped, finally realizing his mistake at not noticing Lightning's quiet return to their table. His Adam's apple bobbed nervously in his throat. He knew that as soon as he released her, her fists would come flying at him.

And he couldn't really hold onto her like this forever, no matter how appealing the notion, and he was certain she didn't really appreciate being held like this by some stranger. He sighed. Well, since he was in for it anyway, he might as well go all the way.

Hope lifted his head from her shoulder, eyeing her thunderous expression. Before she could utter a single angered reprimand, he quickly leaned down to touch his lips to hers.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Apr/2012


	7. No End to the Trouble

A/N: I'm really glad you guys liked the last chapter XD

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

As bright sunlight touched his face, Hope blearily opened his eyes, squinting, and then winced as he felt as though parts of his face were sore and swollen. There was a throbbing pain at the corner of his eye and beside his lip, and he gingerly touched them, flinching back as the pain intensified.

Turning over, he stared at the ceiling. He was pretty sure the ceiling of his room in his Academia apartment was white, and the ceiling of his old room at his parent's house in Palumpolum was green. But what was above him was cream, and he was pretty sure he didn't have these many windows that let in so much daylight in any of the places he'd inhabited. He rose from the bed groggily, toes curling in reflex at the feel of cool tiles on the floor, and walked towards the source of the light, opening the door and stepping out into the balcony, and seeing the ocean far beyond.

And it all came crashing back in his mind. Bodhum. He'd arrived yesterday morning with Noel, and in the afternoon went down to check out the beach. Met Vanille. Serah was also there, and she was getting married. And then there was—

He sucked in a breath, gently poking at the bruises on his face. _Ah, yes. That's it._

Heading back into the bedroom, he went to the adjoining bathroom and inspected himself in front of the mirror.

Lightning had struck. Twice.

And he hadn't remembered much beyond her fists landing on him.

He would've smiled to himself if he could. _So that's the price of a kiss. Huh._

Leaning over to inspect the purple and yellow blotches on his face, he wondered if he should bring out the prototype manadrive that he'd been fiddling around with before he left Academia. It had been donated by the Cocoon military to be studied and enhanced by the Academy. Should he heal the bruises away using its magic? Or should he keep them as a reminder? The irrefutable proof that he'd kissed the woman he'd said he would marry some day and that she'd kissed right back with her fist.

Maybe this was a sign that he and relationships just weren't meant to be.

Not that he was really looking to be in one. The last one still left a sting in his chest whenever he thought about her. He had been receiving calls and text messages from her since he got back in Cocoon, but he hadn't answered back. He didn't know what to say to her anyway, and couldn't even begin to guess what she wanted from him.

Maybe all these relationship business and opposite gender interactions were merely tests to see how living in pursuit of knowledge and the future were really what was in store for him. Merely bumps to the inevitable road he was meant to travel. His mentor, Professor Thorne, had had a choice like that once, hadn't he?

He sighed, turning away to walk towards the shower. He still had two years to figure things out. He should be able to come to a decision by the time his contract with his father was up.

* * *

Out in the driveway, he inspected the state of his car. He was supposed to be the designated driver last night, but due to a certain circumstance, Noel had had to drive them both and Vanille home. He wasn't really worried over the fact that Noel was drunk; Hope had been prepared just in case something happened to him and had programmed the car to be on autopilot whenever he wasn't the one behind the wheel and had coded in the house's address and coordinates into the navigation system. So Noel actually hadn't driven at all, just sat at the driver's seat while the car itself did all the work.

The car had been one of Hope's class projects at the Academy. He had taken a simple, older model hover car, broke it apart, and then put it back together again to the point where only the exterior and seating actually still looked like a car. Aside from the auto-navigation system, he'd also installed an interface where he could load himself into the car's mainframe and drive using his mind—which had been a crowning achievement for him, and impressed the faculty so much that he'd gotten an A-plus for the project. It had been a dangerous, life-threatening endeavour though, and since the Academy considered him to be an important asset, they forbade him from interfacing with the car again. Although they did allow him to keep it.

He got in behind the wheel and reached out into the front passenger pocket, taking out a set of customized earphones and his multipurpose magnifying goggles and gloves. Plugging the earphones into his ears and its cable into the jack behind the steering wheel, he placed the goggles over his eyes, the gloves on his hands, and the keys into the ignition. He swallowed, his ears popping as he felt as though his brain was being invaded, hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. It took a few minutes before he got used to the pressure in his head, and then began to run a system scan on the car.

_Front left wheel is a little soft; needs more air. Right front wheel is okay. Both back wheels are fine, too. No scratches or leaks. Good._

_Did Vanille make it home okay?_ he wondered. He really should've been more responsible with his actions last night. He wasn't sure if Noel even knew how to input new destinations into the navigation control.

He loaded the system memory map. _Before arriving at the Estheim villa, where—?_

He was startled by the passenger door slamming. "What the hell are you doing!" exclaimed Noel.

Hope quickly held out a hand. "Give me a sec to log out."

"You're not supposed to do this, you know!"

"Just hang on. I don't really want to leave my brain behind." He turned the ignition off.

"Good! I don't want my brother to turn into a fucking car. How am I gonna explain that to mom and dad!"

With a loud gasp, Hope removed the goggles and earphones, and shakily burst out of the car, managing to crawl to the lawn just in time as his stomach heaved and emptied itself on the grass.

He felt a hand rubbing his back as he continued to hurl, the gentle touch belying the desperate and angry tone of his brother. "What the fuck were you thinking? Seriously, can't you use your brain to think about your own safety?"

Hope rolled over to lie on his back, his eyelids fluttering uncontrollably, willing his mind to settle down. "I was just doing a system's check. I wasn't intending to drive."

"Doesn't matter." Noel collapsed beside him, his head dropping on his brother's stomach, and Hope swallowed back the bile that had once again risen up his throat from the impact. "It doesn't matter what you intended. You're so reckless." Noel rubbed a hand over his face in frustration.

"You're one to talk. You're more reckless than I am."

"Shut up," came his brother's shaky voice.

Hope started at his tone, then lifted a trembling hand and patted him on the head. "I'm sorry, Noel. For worrying you."

The younger man sniffed and rubbed his nose. "Will you be okay?"

"I just need some time to get used to being in my body again."

"That's just freaky."

For lack of anything else, they both couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

Walking beside Vanille and Noel, Hope pulled the cap lower over his face, zoning out of the two's conversation, and just quietly stared at the surrounding buildings as the redhead led them both by the arm. He felt just a little bit apprehensive as they headed towards Sazh's. From what he could surmise from what he had seen of Lightning's behaviour, he should probably expect to get treated the same way as Snow from now on.

Gadot stood guard by the entrance again, and Vanille greeted him as per her usual way, and he waved her and Noel inside. As Hope began to pass him by, Gadot stopped him.

"Sorry, prof. You've been blacklisted."

"Oh, okay," replied Hope, putting his hands in his pockets with a resigned sigh. "That's understandable."

"What!" exclaimed Vanille, turning and stomping back towards the two. "Why?"

"Them's the rule of Sazh's," answered the bouncer. "No touching the waitresses."

Noel stepped down the stairs. "I guess we can always head to another place," he said, looking over at Hope with an anxious expression.

The silver-haired just smiled in an attempt to alleviate his brother's concern for him. "No, it's okay. Don't worry about it. I trespassed, and this is my punishment. You crazy kids go in and have fun."

"No, Hope, we're not leaving you out," said Vanille.

He laughed. "I really don't wanna play third wheel between you guys. I'll be okay. I'll keep Gadot here company." He fished for his car keys in his pocket and tossed them to Noel. "Go on."

The younger man caught them, worry still on his brow over what had happened at home earlier. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. The car's been programmed again, so knock yourself out and have fun. It'll take you home safe."

"What about you?"

"I can walk. No car, no trouble. Seriously, get going. And tell Serah that I'm sorry I couldn't make it."

Noel sighed, nodding, and took Vanille by the hand and began to lead her into the restaurant.

"Oh, Vanille?" Hope called out just as they opened the door. The two turned. "Be gentle with him."

Vanille gasped, narrowing her eyes at him and shaking her head before stomping her way inside. Noel gave him the finger before following after her.

Gadot chuckled. "Smooth, bro." He peered under the brim of Hope's hat. "That's quite the shiner you got. Lightning got you good, huh?"

Hope laughed, tenderly thumbing the bruise at the corner of his lip, hitching himself up to perch on the patio fence. "Yeah, forbidden fruit and all that stuff."

"Well, all I gotta say is that you got guts, prof. So kudos to you for even attempting it."

"Uh, thanks, I guess." He rubbed the back of his head, feeling as though an electric current was discharging through the surroundings. _Oh_, he thought, already knowing _she_ was behind him before she spoke.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

He turned. Lightning stood by the restaurant doors with arms crossed over her chest and fixing him with a murderous glare.

"You're not allowed to be in here," she continued.

"I'm not," he replied, immediately dropping down from his perch. "Look, I just want to say I'm sorry about last night."

"You're sorry?" She stepped down the stairs and slowly walked toward him, seeming to grow angrier the closer she came. "For what, exactly?"

Hope gulped, fighting the urge to flee. "For...kissing...you..."

The corners of her lips turned down and she looked almost upset, much to Hope's immense puzzlement.

"So you didn't want to kiss me?"

He froze, eyes widening. How should he answer that question in such a way that wouldn't result in his own demise? From her reaction last night, it certainly seemed like she didn't welcome it...but what was she trying to say now, exactly? He was utterly confused.

He was only trying to apologize and make things right, but it seemed as though he was only making things worse the more he opened his mouth. He looked behind her to get some measure of male support from Gadot, but the bouncer was finding the sky extremely captivating as he whistled quietly to himself.

"I'm talking to you!" she barked, and he flinched and quickly tried to think of something to say.

"I...uh...did?"

"Did what?"

Hope swallowed the lump of fear that had risen in his throat at her suddenly too-deathly silent voice. "I'm sorry for everything and I'm sorry for kissing you and I'm sorry for wanting to kiss you and I promise it will never happen again and I'm really sorry if it does happen again but you didn't want it and I'm sorry I was being dumb and stupid and an idiot and for making you angry and I'm sorry that you hate me and I'm sorry that you confuse me and I'm really really sorry about your cat dying even though I don't know if you actually have a cat and I'm sorry I don't know why I just thought of that and I'm really sorry but I think I gotta go now. I'm sorry and goodbye."

He turned and ran.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	8. Passing Days

A/N: Thanks very much for your wonderful responses to the previous chapters! It really made my day to know that you enjoyed them :)

Warning: There's adult content in this chapter, though not graphic like other stuff I've written before. Just wanted to give you guys a head's up.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Lightning pursed her lips, a storm of emotions roiling within her as she watched Hope's retreating figure, fists clenching at her sides.

Turning swiftly, she faced Gadot and snarled, "Do I look like the kind of person that would own a cat?"

The bouncer immediately stood to attention, back ramrod straight and eyes facing forward. "Ma'am, no, ma'am. You do not look like a cat lady, ma'am."

Releasing a huff of frustration, she headed back into the restaurant. She couldn't figure out why she was so bothered by that silver-haired man that had so recently walked back into her life. Her mind kept replaying the memory of that kiss; it wasn't even a full, passionate, open-mouthed, desire-filled kiss. It was just a light press of his lips on hers, but she found that she hadn't been able to stop thinking about it or about him.

This just wasn't like her at all, and she struggled to retrieve her composure back. She was Lightning—tough, no-nonsense, doesn't-let-any-man-get-under-her-skin-and-keeps-t hem-at-a-distance Lightning Farron. What ever she was currently feeling about him right now would soon pass. It had to.

* * *

A week flew by, and that annoying, antsy feeling remained. Every time Noel and Vanille entered the restaurant to meet Serah, Lightning found herself hoping to catch a glimpse of _him_ behind them, but since she'd chased him off, she hadn't seen him at all. She'd overheard Noel say that Hope had found the local library and had been spending most of his time there. She'd briefly contemplated heading over there—but she'd quickly squashed the thought. Despite the fluttering of butterflies in her belly at the thought of him, she _didn't_ want to see him. She truly didn't. And she was not in denial. At all.

As she put their order on the table, Lightning couldn't help listening in on their conversation.

"Yeah, he started work today," Noel was saying.

"Oh." Serah perked up. "How was it?"

"Not sure. He hasn't called."

"Well, what time did he go there?"

"Seven a.m."

"That early? On his first day?" said Vanille. "But it's now nearly six p.m."

"Yeah, I heard he has a tendency to be a workaholic." Noel shrugged. "It was one of the complaints of his girlfriend—"

The plate of spaghetti in Lightning's hand rattled when she set it down in front Vanille.

Noel looked up in surprise before continuing, "Before she broke up with him."

Serah's eyes sparkled in a mischievous light, trying not to look at her sister. "Oh, really? Hope had a girlfriend? How long were they together for?"

"Nearly three years," said Noel as he began to dig into his food. "They seemed pretty serious. I mean, both our families met, and even did stuff like spend the holidays together whenever the two of them came back from the Academy for vacation. Then, all of a sudden, she left him in Academia and returned to Cocoon, and told her and my parents that it was over between them."

"Oh, that's sad," commented Vanille. "Betcha he was pretty devastated."

"He lost himself even more with his work at the Academy and did some really stupid stuff." Noel shook his head.

"Like what?"

"There's this thing about the car..." He sighed, putting his fork down. "I'll tell you about it some other time. It's not really a good story to tell while eating."

"Sounds pretty serious," said Lightning contemplatively as she hugged her tray, her curiosity piqued despite herself.

The three on the table looked up, and she realized that she was still standing there and that she'd spoken aloud. She cleared her throat and fixed them with her customary glare. "You want anything else?"

"—No, we're good—"

"—Thanks for the food—"

"—No, thank you—"

"All right. Enjoy." And she left.

Curling her fists along the rim of her tray, she couldn't help the surge of annoyance that rose within her at the mention of Hope's girlfriend. _Former_ girlfriend, she corrected herself. If he'd said that he was going to marry _her_—as in, Lightning—some day, then why had he allowed himself to enter into a serious relationship with another woman?

Feeling the plastic crack beneath her hands, she looked down. And this was the reason why she shouldn't trust men. Especially silver-haired ones with pale green eyes that left her feeling a lot of confusing emotions, and who couldn't even bother to show himself so she could air out her issues with him (preferably with punches and kicks), never mind the fact that the reason why he hadn't shown up was because he was banned from the premises.

She was really, definitely, _not_ interested in Hope Estheim at all.

And she certainly did not want more of his stupid kisses.

* * *

Fang rolled over and lay on her back. "You seem really distracted," she commented to the woman beside her.

"I'm not," replied Lightning, frustratedly rubbing her face with her hands.

"I heard some guy's been trying to woo you or something."

The pink-haired frowned. "Where did you hear that?"

"From my cousin, Vanille."

"Well, you're wrong. And so is she."

The dark-haired woman laughed. "Come on, I know you. You've been acting differently for a week now."

"Nothing's been different about me."

"Ah, sweetie, it's alright. Nobody says you can't be attracted to a man. We're all free spirits and can look for love wherever we please."

"Shut up."

Fang chuckled, and leaned herself up on an elbow, her other hand darting down to stroke Lightning's belly button ring. "I heard he fiddles around with machines. You know what that means." Her green eyes watched as Lightning bit her lip. She lowered her hand further below the pink-haired's navel, leaning down to whisper, "He'd be good with his hands." And was awarded with a moan as her hand reached its destination. "You're imagining it's him touching you right now, aren't you?"

"N-no. No, I'm not," said Lightning breathlessly as Fang continued her teasing strokes. Then, in a smaller voice, whispered, "Yes." The pink-haired covered her mouth with a hand to muffle her moans.

A smile teased the corner of the dark-haired woman's lips as she watched the one under her ministrations. "If he's making your vajayjay all tingly, you should just go for it and get it over with. Get him out of your system."

"I don't want him."

"Uh-huh. Sure you don't, honey."

"I really, really, don't."

"Just let it go."

"No, no, no, no, no...Hope!"

* * *

Hope rolled over and fell off his chair, waking himself up in the process. Limbs askew on the floor, he stared at his surroundings. _Where am I?_

He sat up, rolling the kink from his neck, his eyes falling on the sign on the wall: Estheim Industries, Bodhum Branch, Special Projects.

He blinked groggily, feeling his stomach grumble, his eyes widening as he checked the time. _Two a.m._, his watch read.

His first day at work, and already way into overtime. Collapsing back down on the floor, he contemplated today's events.

After meeting up with Chief Officer Thurston, the executive department head of the branch, he'd been led throughout the building for orientation, and was briefed on the current work that each division was working on. He'd then been directed towards the Special Projects Department, headed and manned by a single worker, Maqui. Hope had been surprised to find that there was actually nothing at all happening with Special Projects after the chief had left.

"They probably dumped you here because you're the CEO's son," commented Maqui as he chewed on the end of a pen, "and they figured they'd take it easy on you by not letting you do anything at all. You know, just to humour the owner by letting his son feel like he's part of the company."

"I'm not really looking to take over the weapons design or the airship department or anything exciting like that," said Hope as he took a seat on the lab table across from Maqui. "So what are we doing here then?"

"Special Projects is where they leave the people the other departments don't really want."

"Well, if you're stranded here doing nothing, why don't you quit?"

The blond shrugged. "I get paid for doing nothing."

"But you're getting way below the minimum wage anyway because you are doing nothing."

"I still get paid. And I get access to certain materials for personal projects that I otherwise wouldn't have."

Hope nodded, not really mad at Maqui's careless attitude towards his father's company, although he knew he had every right to do so. He reached over to the scattered blueprints and data sheets on the table, and examined them, seeing Maqui's signature on the sheets. He had to admit the blond had some pretty interesting ideas. He couldn't imagine why the other departments wouldn't want a brilliant mind like his to work with them. But he also didn't like the idea of idling around, and he was pretty sure this wasn't what his dad had in mind for him when they made the contract. He'd have to speak to Bartholomew about what the Bodhum branch had descended into in his absence.

"So, are you, like, my boss now?" asked Maqui, glancing at him furtively.

"No," replied Hope, shaking his head absentmindedly, wholly intrigued by one of the sheets he was perusing. "You're still the Special Projects Department Chief." He put down the paper and tapped a finger on it. "Ever thought about actually working on this one?"

Maqui reached over and looked at the proposed project. The blond eyed him dubiously. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Looks to be an interesting concept," answered Hope.

Maqui laughed. "I was just playing around. The ramen noodles I'd brought from home the other day wasn't that tasty since it had grown cold, and this thought just popped into my head while I was eating."

"Well, the idea has merit. Nobody wants to eat congealed food especially when you don't have access to a microwave oven. So, this device here would make everything pretty convenient since it's small enough to take with you anywhere."

"Isn't that the purpose of insulated plastic food containers?"

"Yes, but those are limited depending on the plastic grade, and some manufacturers don't even make them all that well. As proven by not keeping your ramen noodles warm."

"Yeah, I guess..." The blond conceded, scratching the side of his cheek. "But the key thing here," he pointed to the blueprint, "is the impossible feat of manipulating time and energy just to keep food warm."

"Ah," Hope nodded, a smile forming on his lips as he rubbed his hands together. "But you see, I specialized in studying Chrono-Science. I even taught it. On the subject of time, I'm the man for this job."

After that, they'd spent the rest of the day reworking Maqui's design and brainstorming how to execute the theory. Somewhere along the way, Maqui had gone home while Hope stayed, making a list of the materials they'd need to hand in to the Supplies Department so they could get the project started. And then, with his brain working overtime, he'd fallen asleep.

And that was how he found himself on the floor on his first day at work. Stretching, he rose, making his way to the table to write a note to Maqui that he'd most likely be late tomorro—later this morning. Possibly noonish.

Well, if the other departments already thought of him as the CEO's useless son, he didn't really care what they'd say about him coming late for work the next day.

Finally leaving the lab, he made his way down the meandering corridors to the hall with the elevators, getting stopped by the security at the reception desk.

Upon showing his identification card, he had to admit that he was grateful that his dad had the foresight to create executive all-access IDs to all the Estheim Industries locations for him and Noel, making it convenient for him to bypass questions about his purpose in the company that would inevitably get asked by the personnel. _Hooray for nepotism_, he thought ruefully as his card was handed back to him, waving goodbye to Buddy, the security guard.

After the descent through the elevator to the parking lot, he made his way to the car. Sighing as he put the key in the ignition, he thought about a place he could go to for food this late—or early in the morning. Calling up the map of Bodhum on the navigation screen, he keyed in a search for a twenty-four-hour eatery, finding several scattered throughout the city, and drove to the one closest to the company as his stomach grumbled loudly.

As he munched on potato pancakes with sunny-side eggs, he checked his phone. He'd put in on silent mode during work hours, and he was surprised to find several messages and voice mails waiting for him, wincing as he realized he should've called his brother and checked in with him.

There was a text from Noel asking to use the car next weekend, saying that he'd offered to drive Vanille, Serah, and Lightning to Palumpolum. On seeing _her_ name, Hope felt a topsy-turvy sensation settle in his chest, lips twisting wryly at the massive mess he'd found himself in with her. His bruises had quickly healed thanks to the manadrive that he'd ended up fixing last week, opting to use its magic when the librarians kept giving him shifty looks whenever he'd drop by the library.

He moved on to the next message, a sinking feeling taking over him as he read the name of the sender, and promptly deleted the message and put his phone down, roughly stabbing at his food with the fork.

Residual heartache on the one hand and getting punished for a kiss on the other...yep, relationships and women weren't things he should be pursuing right now.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	9. Mindset and Motive

A/N: As always, thanks very much for continuing to read and enjoy this fic :)

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 and characters from other Final Fantasy games that are alluded to in this chapter all belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Ten days later, Hope found himself throwing Nue out the window contemplatively, swinging three-hundred-and-sixty degrees around in his chair, and then catching the boomerang with his other hand as it flew back. Taking up a pen, he pulled the Project Alexander blueprint close, examining the robot design with pursed lips before leaning down to doodle a mustache on the robot's face. He looked up and eyed the cup of coffee in the middle of the lab table. It was under an umbrella-like lid with transparent, membranous panels. The control at the top of the lid was about the size of his palm with a simple on-and-off switch, and with the smallest letters possible, the surface was engraved with "Estheim Industries, Prototype: Food Temperature Maintainer." He checked the timer in his watch. _Forty more minutes to go before the experiment ends_, he thought. For lack of anything else to do, he threw the boomerang out the window again.

The lab door slid open just as he caught the boomerang.

"Hey, so how's the coffee?" asked Maqui as he entered, peering into the transparent cover of the device. Steam rose from the cup, but was held frozen. The liquid did not even move or spill out when he gently shook the table.

"Still stable, as you can see," answered Hope, folding Nue and putting it back in his pocket.

"That's just freaky. I can't believe we stopped time for that cup of coffee."

"That's the purpose of that device anyway."

"But time stopped so that the coffee will stay fresh. Doesn't that just boggle your mind by how ridiculous that sounds? Stopping time itself around an object."

"It's the kind of thinking you do in Academia."

"Man, you guys must be smoking a lot of shit to be able to think of stuff like this."

"You're the one who came up with the idea because you wanted to keep your ramen warm."

"I know, but...well, whatever. I guess we'll see just how fresh that coffee is. How long do we have left?"

Hope checked his watch. "Thirty-five minutes."

Maqui took a seat, brightening up as he remembered something, and reached down for his bag. "Guess what I brought?" He pulled the corner of a glossy magazine from his bag, and Hope leaned over, mouth hanging agape as he caught the title.

"No way!" the silver-haired exclaimed excitedly. "Is that—?"

"Uh-huh," nodded the blond, pulling the magazine all the way out and placing it reverently on the table.

"The ultra, super special, limited edition," whispered Hope, eyeing the cover on which a green-eyed blonde woman in a yellow bikini gave them a come-hither expression. "Where did you get it?"

"Subscription."

"Oh man. This is the one thing that Academia doesn't have that I really missed from Cocoon."

"Shall we get started on seeing its contents?"

"Hang on." Hope ran to the opened window to close it. Seeing this, Maqui went to the door and took a furtive glance outside before locking it. Then the two met up at the table and sat down.

"Ready?" Maqui took the corner of the magazine cover, ready to flip it over.

Hope nodded, concentrating on what was about to unfold, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating.

And then, afterwards, there was a chorus of "Ooohhhhhhh."

* * *

Noel stepped up to the reception desk of Estheim Industries. "Hi, I'm here to see Hope Estheim."

The woman looked up from her terminal. "Do you have an appointment?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir. Appointments only."

"Did Hope say that?"

"No, sir."

"So why do I need to make an appointment?"

"All our researchers are always busy, sir."

Noel sighed. He really didn't want to abuse any kind of authority when it came to his adopted father's company; it was why he opted to keep his own last name—a decision that the Estheims wholly understood and respected. But he supposed there was no other choice if he wanted to see Hope.

He took out his executive all-access ID and showed it to the receptionist, watching as her eyes grew round.

"Oh, sir, Mr Kreiss, I'm really sorry. I didn't recognize you. Please forgive me. Mr Estheim is on the seventh floor, room 7-CC."

"Thank you..." He leaned over to read her name tag. "Pat. Have a nice day."

"You as well, sir. Sorry again."

Noel waved and made his way just in time as a lab-coated worker stepped out of an elevator, quickly letting himself in and pressing the button for the seventh floor. Upon arriving, he scanned the signs on the winding hallways, following the arrows that directed him to room 7-CC. The door was locked, and a key pad was set on the wall beside it. He scratched his head, wondering if his ID was really an all-access type, before inserting it into the keycard slot, and issuing a sigh of relief when the light turned green and the door slid open.

Inside, two figures were hunched over a lab table set in the middle of the room.

"Oh, would you look at that!"

"That...that's really hot. Like, seriously."

"Aw, man, is she really doing that?"

"I didn't even know that's possible."

"Oh, oh, wow, just wow. Look at her."

"I know. Can't believe she's doing that with her mouth."

Noel's lips thinned as he made his way to the two. Here he was, worried that work had totally taken control of his brother's life when, from the sound of things, he was perving over a dirty magazine. Finally reaching them, he snatched the book from under their noses.

"Hey!" They both exclaimed.

"Oh, Noel," said Hope in a surprised voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Who's he?" asked the blond.

"My brother," answered Hope.

Ignoring them, Noel flipped through the glossy pages of women. There was a large-breasted cowgirl with long dark hair; a flower girl with bright green eyes and brown hair; a very sexy black-haired woman wearing what appeared to be a skirt made entirely out of belts; and many others, each in a provocative pose and wearing seductive expressions. And they all had one thing in common.

He finally looked up, incredulous. "Boomerangs? Seriously? You guys are perving over a boomerang magazine?"

"Hot women doing awesome stuff with boomerangs," corrected the blond.

"You guys seriously need to get out of here and get laid. Go out there and find yourselves a girlfriend. Have you seen the beach? It's teeming with hot, _live_ girls."

"Do they have boomerangs?"

"What the fuck?"

"What are you doing here, anyway?" interjected Hope, seeing how livid Noel was becoming. Maqui just shrugged and pulled the blueprint from under Hope's elbow and began to make notes on it.

"I haven't seen you in over a week," replied the younger man. "You don't even call or anything. Did you even get my message about borrowing the car this coming weekend?"

"Yeah, I did. Didn't you get my text saying yes?"

"Did you even really send it?" countered Noel.

Hope thought for a moment and frowned. "Didn't I?" He reached for his phone in his pocket. "Oh. I forgot to charge it."

Noel sighed. "Do you even come home?"

"Yeah. I go home to shower and change."

"Where do you sleep?"

Hope glanced around. "Can't remember if it was on the table or the floor. Or maybe the car."

"The hell?"

Hope shrugged, pointing to the device over a coffee mug on the table. "I was trying to finish that as quickly as possible. Contrary to what you saw us doing, we really were working. We were just on a break."

"What is that anyway?"

"It's a cup of coffee that's existing outside of time."

Noel looked up. "What?"

"Basically, we isolated a small area and made it exist out of time. Since it's suspended in that vacuous space, the idea is that it's not expending or exchanging energy with its environment, therefore keeping its temperature the same as when the coffee was first made. So that by the time you're ready to drink it again, it's still as hot and as fresh as when you first got it."

Noel just stared at him with his mouth open. "What the—what kind—what, just what?" After several seconds of processing what he'd just been told, he asked, "Can't you just reheat it? Isn't manipulating time dangerous?"

"Well, yes, you can reheat it, but it's preserving its freshness that's the key here. And yes, manipulating time is dangerous, that's why we only made two prototypes and destroyed everything else related to this project. We don't want to mass-produce something like this that can easily be used for non-food-related things."

Noel just sighed, pulling a chair and flopping down on it, dropping the magazine on the table.

"Watch it!" said Maqui, looking up. "That's a limited edition. Handle with care, please."

"Sorry," said Noel as he began to flip through the pages. "Hope, about the car for this weekend—"

"I already said yes, you can have it," Hope cut in, tilting his head so he can better see the magazine.

"I'll need for you to come with us."

Hope looked up. "Why?"

"To visit Mom!" Noel swatted his head.

"Ow!"

"She's been asking about you. And also, just in case the car breaks down along the way, I'll need for you to be there to fix it. Your car doesn't even have a normal car engine, and I don't really feel like explaining to a mechanic how it runs."

The silver-haired shifted in his seat, clearing his throat. "Who else is going again?"

"Serah, Vanille, and Lightning."

"I thought so," Hope muttered. "Why are they going to Palumpolum anyway?"

"It's because Serah wants to look for her wedding dress there. And rather than letting them go on an eight-hour train ride, I figured I'd offer to drive so they'll be able to get there in half the time."

"Oh." He drummed his fingers on the table and released a deep exhale. "Fine, I'll go. But I get to drive."

Noel looked up. "Fine. But you can't drive using your mind."

Hope shrunk back, looking away guiltily. "I wasn't even thinking about that."

"Uh-huh, sure you weren't." Noel ran a hand through his brown hair. "Look, what ever issues you have with Lightning, confront it head on. Don't run. Man up."

"I don't have issues with her." Hope nervously looked at his brother from the corner of his eye. "D-did she say she has issues with me? Is she still mad?"

A smile almost stretched the corner of the younger man's mouth, but he stifled it before it could grow. "You'll have to see for yourself."

Hope sighed. "You know, I've been thinking about her…"

Noel coughed to hide his smile.

"And about, well, you-know-who."

"Oh?"

"And about where everything started and where everything went wrong. In a way, I realized that, subconsciously, there _was_ a reason why I decided to pick Bodhum instead of Eden or Palumpolum. There was something here that I wanted to test, something of myself. Lightning...when I was fourteen, I had an indescribable moment of clarity the first time I saw her. It was almost unbelievable to be so overcome with absolute conviction, with absolute inescapable truth...Then I went to the Academy, and for the past six years I've been trained to think beyond what I'm capable of, to do or make something beyond what I'm able to, and throughout then, I began to question: what if that moment of clarity can be experienced again with another person? Can I recreate it? Would I feel the same? Or was it solely with that one person that I'm able to feel it?

"It became an experiment for me. There was a girl; she was bright and beautiful, and she said she liked me. And I thought: why not? So I went through the motions of being her boyfriend, all the while waiting, hoping, wishing for that moment of truth. And over time, I think she began to notice that what I felt for her didn't even come close to what she felt for me, that there was a part of me closed off and just watching the two of us from a distance. And when she left me to pursue her dream of singing...despite myself, it still hurt, because I didn't realize I'd become attached to what we had, even if it was only an illusion. And I don't know how I could face her now, or even know what words I could say to her if I ever meet her again.

"So then, now, here I am, back to the place where I'd felt that moment of conviction. It's still there, but...it's faint. It wasn't as strong a pull as when I'd first experienced it. And I wonder, was it because I was young and naive then, and that moment was coloured with the romantic ideals of a child? I guess I came here to find that out."

Hope jumped, startled from his musings by the beeping of his watch, while both men stared at him, mouths agape. Silence reigned while he reached over to the device and flicked the Off switch, watching as the membrane-like panels began to recede into the device, and the steam over the coffee began to curl up and evaporate. As he pulled the cup up to his lips, Maqui finally found his voice, "That's just deep, man. All the stuff you just said."

Hope took a sip while they watched, beheld by anticipation.

"How is it?" asked the blond.

"Like regular coffee," answered Hope after swallowing, handing the cup over to him.

Maqui drank, then swished the liquid inside his mouth before gulping it down. "Yeah, it doesn't taste different. I guess the experiment's a success?"

"Guess so," agreed the silver-haired, taking the cup and holding it out to Noel. "Wanna try it?"

The younger man took the proffered cup, eyeing it thoughtfully before speaking up. "Why do you have to treat it as an experiment?"

Both stared dubiously at him.

"So we can test to see if the thing we invented actually worked," replied Maqui. "Isn't it obvious?"

"No, I don't mean about the coffee," answered Noel as he turned to his brother. "Hope, about you and Lightning and you-know-who...why does that all have to be an experiment to you? And I know you said that that's how you were trained to think, that if this-and-so happens, then that-and-so would happen. But love and feelings aren't things you can qualitatively measure, you know? That they'd have an effect on your whole being, no matter how big or small."

"I know," said Hope as he took the cup back from Noel's unresisting hold and drank some more of the coffee. "And that's the thing. I don't really know how to answer all that. And that's why I'm here now."

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	10. Making Progress, Sorta

A/N: Thanks very much to the lovely new and continuing readers :)  
I took some liberties with Jihl's characterization, since you only get to see her a few times in the game and she wasn't really that developed (and I still haven't beaten her DLC). Sorry to Jihl fans ^^;

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

They rolled around the bed in a tangle of arms and legs, moans issuing from pressed lips, filling the room with the sound of their heavy breathing.

Lightning released an exasperated exhale. "Fang, Jihl, can you do that somewhere else? I've been trying to pack and you keep pushing off the clothes I just folded."

The two on the bed broke apart. Jihl adjusted her glasses as she knelt up over Fang's body. "Where are you going anyway?" asked the blonde as she smoothed out her hair.

"To Palumpolum to help Serah find her dress."

"Oh." She dismounted, while Fang sat up, and they both watched Lightning. "Aren't you late for the daily train that heads there?"

"She got herself a ride," offered Fang with a smile in her voice, "from the man who asked her to marry him twice, according to Vanille."

Lightning shook her head and kept on packing, trying to ignore them.

"What? Propose? What has been going on here lately?"

"Nothing," said Lightning, heading to her closet to grab a pair of sweats to use for sleeping.

"Oh, sweetie," said Jihl, shaking her head when she spied the item in the pink-haired's hand. "If you're going with your fiance, you don't wear that. I have some negligees and teddies I can lend you, if you want."

Lightning glared at the blonde and pointedly packed away the offending sweats into the bag. "Jihl, I don't know if you ever noticed, but your girls are bigger than mine." She pointed to her chest. "Thanks anyway."

"Oh, so the thought did cross your mind about wearing sexy lingerie for this trip," said Fang.

A blush suffused Lightning's cheeks. "No. What are you on about? I'm just pointing out that her stuff wouldn't fit me, so it's all pointless."

"Oh, come off it. You know you want to. Stop denying yourself."

"I'm not in denial."

"Okay, okay," piped in Jihl. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"Nothing is going on," repeated Lightning.

"Oh, there's plenty, alright," countered Fang. "Basically, according to Vanille since Lightning wouldn't talk about it, this bloke who said he'd marry her years ago just returned and asked her again if she wanted to get married—"

"Ugh, just stop," Lightning interjected.

"—Then he kissed her, and she punched his lights out, and when he apologized, she chased him off, and she hadn't seen him since. Then, when Serah mentioned going to Palumpolum, the bloke's brother offered to give them a ride there since that's where the two of them came from, and since the car belongs to the bloke, he's going to be coming along to drive it. And now here's our little Lightning, undecided about whether to bring sexy clothes or not for the trip."

"I'm not bringing sexy clothes. I don't _have_ sexy clothes. Never needed them, and will not start now. We're just going to Palumpolum to shop."

"Oh, well then shop for sexy lingerie and entice him back into your arms," suggested Jihl. "You shouldn't scare him off if you want him to ask for your hand a third time."

"Who says I want to get married? Can we stop talking about this? I'm trying to finish here before they pick me up."

"Oh, so he's driving here for you? We get to meet him then. Is he hot?"

Lightning pursed her lips and made a show of ignoring them.

Jihl turned to the other woman. "Fang?"

"Vanille says he is. I only met him once years ago when he used to hang out with Vanille and Serah, and he used to be like this adorable little puppy that you can't help wanting to squish. I heard he's tall now."

"Well, Lightning, if you don't want him, can I have him? It should be interesting to sleep with a man who has marriage on his mind first before sex. There's a kind on innocence to it that's kind of exciting. Maybe he's even saving himself for the one and only."

The pink-haired raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you already bring home a man last night?"

"Yeah, he's still in my bed, sleeping. I wore him out." Jihl brightened. "Are you telling me to stay away from your not-fiance?"

"I'm not telling you to do anything," replied Lightning through tight lips.

"If you say so. So, what does he do anyway?"

"He's here working for his father's company, inventing or something similar," supplied Fang, amusement dancing in her eyes as she watched Lightning continue to pack, reading irritation and something else in the rigid set of her shoulders.

"Shall we inspect for ourselves if he's good enough for our Lightning?" Jihl asked, wrapping her arms around Fang's shoulders.

"Don't," said Lightning quietly, zipping up her bag.

"'Don't' what, sweetie?" asked Fang.

The pink-haired looked up, blue eyes cold. "Don't play your little games with him."

Fang held up her hands. "Sorry. We get it. He's yours, and we're not to trifle with him."

"That's not what I'm saying."

"Uh-huh."

"Whatever. I'm waiting for them downstairs." Lightning took her bag and made her way for the bedroom door.

"Wait, Lightning," Jihl called out.

She turned back and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Shouldn't you change?"

She looked down at her plain shirt and jeans. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"You wore those yesterday," Fang pointed out.

"They're still clean."

"Well, at least you showered this morning."

"Tell you what," offered Jihl, "let us pick your clothes and then we'll stop bugging you. We won't touch what you've already packed. We just want to change what you're wearing now. Deal?"

Lightning dropped the bag. "Fine. If this really means you'll stop, then go ahead."

Both women giggled in delight as they rose from the bed.

"But," Lightning called out one last time before they started going really crazy. "I want my own clothes, none of yours."

"Fair enough. I'm sure we can come up with something from here," said Fang as she made her way to the closet.

* * *

After several vetoes, the three women called a truce and settled for a brown miniskirt (to show off her legs and booty (which would allow him easy access to a certain area, Fang thought to herself)) and a cropped, sleeveless turtleneck (to show off her slender arms, trim waist, and most importantly, her belly button ring (which should be a point of absolute interest for him, thought Jihl)). Lightning paired the outfit off with her serviceable knee-high boots. While not as 'sexy' as the others would've preferred, it was comfort she was going for, especially since she was the one who had to sit through a several-hour car ride (she didn't know of the others' ulterior motive for agreeing with this set of clothes).

While Fang and Jihl stared out the living room window, Lightning paced in front of the sofa, reaching down for her phone as it began to ring and checking the name displayed on the screen.

"Serah," she greeted.

"Hi Lightning. Hope should be there soon, and then he'll come back here for us."

"Wait, why aren't you with him?"

"I'm waiting for Snow to come home."

"Snow's going with us?"

"No, I just want to say goodbye to him. We should be ready by the time you guys get back here."

"_We?_ Serah, what—"

"See you later." _Click_.

Did her sister really just hang up on her? Serah never did that. She had a sneaking suspicion that she had somehow been set up. She had a mad urge to squeeze her phone, but she refrained from doing so, spying from the window a car pulling up in front of the house.

"Is that him?" asked Jihl excitedly.

A head of silver hair rose from the driver's side door, and the figure began to walk up the path to the house's front entrance. Lightning felt her pulse quicken at the sight of him. She hated to admit it, but he looked...

"Delicious," said the blonde as she licked her lips.

She glared at the back of Jihl's head, although she couldn't help but agree.

"I got it," said Fang, turning the doorknob before the bell could be rung. "Hello, you must be Hope."

Lightning grabbed her bag and made her way over to them, Jihl running past her.

"Uh, hi. Nice to meet you again, uh...Fang, right?" He held out his hand and she grasped it.

"Oh, you remember me?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, how sweet."

"I'm Jihl," said the blonde as she took his other hand.

"I'm Hope. Nice to meet you too."

Fang held up the hand she was still clasping. "My, you have nice hands."

"Uh, thanks?" His eyes fell on the pink-haired woman as she approached them. "Hi, Light...ning."

She nodded once in greeting, seeing him deflate at her lack of further response.

"Hey, Lightning," Fang called out. "Don't you think so?"

She glanced at the dark-haired woman, her blue eyes widening.

Fang was stroking Hope's index and middle finger together. "They're very long and thick."

"Hmm," agreed Jihl, repeating Fang's actions.

Hope pried his hands from their grasps and hid them behind his back, looking red-faced and bewildered, and began to not-so-surreptitiously back away. "Uh, Light...ning, are you ready?"

"Hmph," was Lightning's abrupt answer, walking past the three toward the car.

"See you, Lightning!" yelled the two women.

"Uh, nice to meet you again, Jihl, Fang. Goodbye."

"Have a safe trip."

"Thanks."

* * *

Hope ran to where Lightning stood by the trunk of the car, and he opened it for her so she could set her bag down. As she was doing that, he made his way to the passenger door, holding the door open so she could seat herself, then walking back to the trunk to secure it, before making his way to the driver's seat.

He glanced furtively at her as he started the car up, nodding to the two smiling women at the house before driving off. Lightning sat rigidly in her seat, staring out the window with the utmost concentration, the tension between them so palpable it made the air stuffy. Obviously, she was still angry with him, and from past experience, it would be better for him if he just kept himself quiet.

If only he had been allowed to interface his mind to the car, he'd be concentrating so much with being one with the machine and driving that there wouldn't be any room in his thoughts to be filled with her. Maybe once they reached Serah's place, she'd choose to sit at the back, and perhaps he'd feel relieved with that. The only advantage of the present was that she hadn't punched him yet.

Maybe it was just as well that things between them were at a standstill. Maybe this, right here, at this impasse that they found themselves in, was the answer he was seeking. Maybe that moment of clarity from six years ago was simply a fluke, nothing more than the notion of youth, of someone inexperienced with the world; that what he'd felt for her was nothing more than simple base and ephemeral crush. He had romanticized that moment too much: he'd put her up on a pedestal so high that no other woman could even dare to match up to how he'd seen her in his mind, and that he'd mistaken that feeling as coming from his heart. And now that he was confronted with the real person...

Well, perhaps it was way past the time to draw a conclusion to this experiment. It was tiring to constantly feel this way anyway. And with this much distance between them, he really had no right to call her something as seemingly intimate as "Light."

Now, if only he could will the rest of his body to comply, berating his heart for skipping a beat at the sight of her bare, slender legs. He licked his suddenly dry lips, and with much effort tried to stifle the rush of desire that fluttered in his belly all the way down to his toes as he caught sight of a glint on her navel. Was that a ring?

He straightened in his seat.

_Concentrate. Road. Drive. Think of other things. Work. Project Alexander. How it'll be so awesome to build a giant robot that can transform into a fortress. Maybe program an invisibility mode into the car, because that'll be so cool. Look forward to the end of these two years, because by then you'll be going back to Academia where you truly belong._

_That's the only goal that's worth working towards now._

He risked another glance to the side, and released a forlorn sigh.

_You should stop yearning for something you can't have._

* * *

Because of what Fang had said, Lightning now couldn't help staring at his hands from the corner of her eye. Images assaulted her mind of those hands on her body, and the words "long and thick" kept repeating inside her head. She shifted in her seat, squeezing her legs together, and fanned herself with her hands, feeling flushed.

Hope looked over. "Uh, are you okay?"

"Fine," came her clipped reply through tightly clenched lips.

"I-If you're feeling hot, here." He reached over and turned the air conditioner on. "Is that okay?"

_No, it's not okay_, she answered inside her mind. If anything, the cold air blowing straight at her made things worse. It made her nipples hard, and she had to cross her arms over chest so he wouldn't notice them poking through her bra and shirt.

Glancing at her new stance worriedly, he reached into the open backpack beside his seat and brought out a sweater. "Sorry about that. Here." He handed her the garment and then reached over to turn the air conditioner down.

She muffled her growl of frustration. Did he not notice that it was _him_ that was affecting her and driving her crazy with want? Because if anything, now that she could smell his scent so closely through his clothing, she got even more aroused.

_Get a hold of yourself, Lightning. You're twenty-four. You should know how to bloody well control your hormones._

She took a deep breath and released it in an annoyed puff.

"I-if you hate my sweater, I-I'll take it back...?"

"No, it's fine."

"No, i-it's okay. You're obviously not comfortable, and I can't seem to do anything to make you comfortable, and I'm really sorry. J-just sorry." His mouth tightened, and he released a resigned exhale. He pulled up in front of the house that Serah shared with Snow, seeing the couple waiting outside with Vanille and Noel. Exiting, he made his way to the trunk and opened it, assisting with the loading of the luggage they'd brought.

Lightning stayed inside, and rubbed her face with her hand, feeling her body finally cool down. She didn't know what was wrong with her anymore. He made her feel out of sorts, and he didn't even seem to be aware of it. She hated feeling like this; she didn't know what to make of it. And she hated to admit that being uncertain of where it could lead alarmed her.

Still, she wasn't ignorant of his concern; even if the effect of it was the opposite of what he'd intended, she still appreciated his thoughtfulness.

There was a rap on the window. "Hey, sis, you okay?" asked Snow through the glass.

To show a modicum of normalcy, she raised her head and gave him the usual glare.

He held out his hands in surrender. "Alright. You're okay, then."

She watched as he and Serah embraced once more as the others entered the vehicle, a pang of longing spreading through her chest. She turned away as her sister finally came on board, and buried her face in the sweater. The scent of its owner hit her: acute, a little sweet, and seemed to go straight to her heart.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	11. Intelligent Discussions on Procreation

A/N: Thank you to everyone, as always. I don't think I can really express how truly grateful I am for you being super generous in sharing your thoughts on how I've done with the story so far (haha, sorry I couldn't help it ^^; ). As thanks, I hope you'll find something rather nice and "KYA~!" -inducing in this chapter *crosses fingers*

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

The ride was smooth for the most part. What could've been an uncomfortable silence was dispersed by the idle chatter of the three sitting at the back and the driver (who was extremely grateful for the distraction the others provided), while the other front-side passenger remained quiet in her own contemplation (suffering through what she referred to as driver-induced personal torture, even as she refused to relinquish his sweater).

"Did you really build this car, Hope?" asked Serah.

He quickly glanced at her before eyeing the air highway once more, fiddling with the controls by the steering wheel and checking the navigation screen. "Yes, I did."

"By yourself?"

"I had to. It was an individual project at the Academy."

"Ooh, ooh! Show her the cool stuff this car can do," said Vanille excitedly.

"What cool stuff?" asked Serah, intrigued.

"It can drive by itself!" exclaimed Vanille.

"What?"

"I installed an autopilot programming into it," offered Hope, and then, pointedly not meeting Noel's eyes (who was glaring at him from the mirror) said, "I can also drive it with my mind."

"No way! Are you serious?"

"Yeah, resulting in a coma that lasted almost three months," said Noel disapprovingly.

"What?" yelled Vanille and Serah in unison. Even that grabbed Lightning's attention, although she hid her surprise.

"Well, it _was_ a previously untested method, a new technology," admitted Hope, chagrined. "So it was understandable that there were unforeseen setbacks."

"Did you really just spout that crap? Your life in danger is a setback?" asked Noel, a vein popping in his forehead.

"Noel, that's how technology improves and evolves. There are risks involved in it, and consequences that can't be calculated until it happens. It's just how it is. At the risk of our lives as scientists and researchers, in order for us to move forward into the future, we have to test and cover new ground. Besides, I'm still alive, aren't I?"

The younger man opened and closed his mouth, choosing to scowl at the window instead when he couldn't find the right words to express how he felt about that. Being the only survivor of a village that had been wiped out by wild monsters in Gran Pulse, and consequently being adopted by the Estheims after they heard what had happened, the thought that he almost lost a member of his new family was almost like reliving the fate of his village all over again. He was upset by Hope's cold and matter-of-fact tone, as though the worth of his own life hardly mattered as long as his invention was able to pave the way to a future success. "I'm not discussing this further with you."

The women in the back looked back and forth between the two, sensing that there was a deeper meaning to the discussion but not knowing what it could be. Aside from the fact that he had been adopted, Noel had chosen not to expound about his past before he came to be with the Estheims.

Vanille took his hand, squeezing it. "Hey," she said softly. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, still staring out the window, but tightened his hand in hers. She pursed her lips, trying to think of a way to lighten up the suddenly heavy mood. And then said the first thing that popped into her head.

"So, who in this car is still a virgin?" There was silence that only lasted for a few seconds before everyone (save one who just rolled her eyes) began laughing.

"What kind of a question is that?" asked Hope.

"An important one, of course," replied Vanille. "Well? Aren't you going to answer?"

"I think I'll leave it up to your imagination."

The redhead cackled. "Oh, you're still one?"

"Oh Vanille, if you want a live demonstration of my prowess, you only need to ask," he teased.

Lightning couldn't help feeling flushed by that declaration, and she resolved to keep her face turned away lest the others notice her predicament. She had to shake her head at her sudden inability to stop her imagination from going haywire when it came to him.

"Hey!" exclaimed Noel. "That's my girlfriend you just offered sex to."

"What? Are you telling me that you guys weren't taking advantage of the fact that I'm hardly at home?"

"Shut up."

"Didn't you ask my permission to bring—"

"I said shut up." Noel swatted his head.

"Ow."

"So who did you practice your 'prowess' on, Hope?" asked Serah. "Your right hand or your left?"

"You're so scornful, Serah. Don't tell me you're regretting the fact that I left before giving you and Vanille the chance to ravish me all those years ago?"

Incensed, Serah and Vanille both reached over to hit him and pull at his hair.

"Watch it! If the car wasn't already on autopilot, we'd have been in an accident."

"Well, since you're not actually driving..."

The two continued their attack, with Noel joining in.

"Ow, ow, ow! I give! I give!"

"Stop that," came Lightning's sharp but quiet voice as she felt Serah accidentally elbow her in the face. The three immediately straightened back in their seats.

"Thanks," said Hope, clutching at what remained of his hair, and taking control of the wheel once more.

Halfway through to Palumpolum, they stopped over at a rest area with shops, restaurants, and public washrooms.

The back passengers immediately jumped out of the car, Serah and Vanille chatting about grabbing some snacks for everyone with Noel tagging along. As Hope was pulling the key out of the ignition he happened to glance over at the passenger's side. Lightning's back was turned to him and she was rising out of her seat on her way outside. Her short skirt had ridden up, allowing him a glimpse of—

He felt his face heat up, and he turned quickly away, stepping out and making sure the car was locked.

Stretching his arms over his head, he tried to control his breathing. _Okay, so you saw...but it's not like she meant for you to see it and that you're really wanting to, you know. It's an accident. No big deal. It's not like this is the first time you've seen something like that...something nice and round and clad in black—okay, stop thinking about it. Don't really need to get yourself turned on._

After doing his business in the washroom, he took Nue out of his pocket and practiced some throws in the open field by the parking lot. The field had a playground that looked like a castle, consisting of wooden bridges and towers, interspersed here and there with monkey bars and various slides. It was devoid of any visitors though. Pocketing the boomerang, he jumped up and took hold of one of the higher monkey bars, swinging himself over to the other end to help pass the time.

But the image of Lightning's wardrobe malfunction kept playing over in his mind, and he almost lost his grip of the next bar as he swung.

_T__hink of something else. Something mundane and boring. Anything. Recite the periodic table of elements if you have to. Okay, let's go. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, oxygen that she'd be breathing heavily in because I'd be—okay, no, no, no! Bad! Think of—Flans! How do flans procreate anyway? They're gooey, and where would they keep their bits to be able to have sex, and how exactly would it work, and how were they able to tell the male flan from the female flan... Huh. Actually, that's a good question. They're known to merge to form a bigger flan, but does that also work in reverse? Is that how baby flans are born? Monster Biology wasn't my field of study, but this is pretty fascinating. I should read up on it, or take a class when I return to Academia..._

He sighed, dropping down from the bar. _I can't believe I actually just wondered about the sex lives of flans. I kinda feel dirty._

Peering over to the parking lot, he noted that the others still weren't back, and he decided to explore more of the playground. He made his way over to one of the towers where a long slide was leading down from. As he circled around to get to the stairs, he caught a glimpse of pink and felt a hand grab the front of his shirt when he walked into the tower's entrance. He stumbled as the figure dragged him further into the tower that led to the spiral staircase.

"Light...ning?"

Still holding him by the shirt, she pulled him down towards her, and he couldn't help his shock.

_Maker! Is she kissing me? She _is_ kissing me! What do I do? What do I do?_

_Kiss her back, stupid!_

_Oh. But what about my decision to forget about her?_

_Forget about that and start kissing her back!_

_Alright._

And caught her lips just as she began to pull away.

* * *

After a few hours of sitting in the car with his sweater around her, and his scent surrounding her and driving her crazy, Lightning felt as though she had had enough.

Those lips, and yes, those hands—she wanted them on her. And Fang was right: she shouldn't deny herself any longer.

When she first pressed her lips against his, he'd just stood there, unmoving yet unresisting, and she felt her resolve waver. Was she wrong? Did he not want her as badly as she wanted him? The small moments when the weight of his gaze fell on her, she had felt something. Or was it only one-sided, a product of her imagination?

It wasn't until she began to draw away that he'd finally responded, and she couldn't help the moan that escaped her at the welcome pressure of his lips.

Tightening her grip on his shirt, she felt his hands wander down her back, eliciting a tingle down her spine that made her arch against him. She wanted his hands to touch her everywhere, to undo the zip at the front of her shirt and cup her breasts. But he kept his hands confined to her middle, one hand resting on her hip, and the other wandering down her exposed waist to thumb her belly button ring, making her stomach jump, and her own arms to wrap around him to clasp his back. _Closer. More_, she thought as she sucked his lower lip and pushed her tongue into his mouth.

She swallowed his gasp as their tongues parried and stroked against each other; their lips were in a constant rhythm of press and retreat that had him nibbling her lower lip before smoothing the slight pain with a flick of his tongue. As she slipped her hand underneath his shirt to feel his warm skin and the curve of his back, she felt something hard poking against her belly.

"That's not your boomerang, is it?" she breathed against his lips.

"You can call it that, if you want," he huskily replied before drawing away, breathing heavily, his hands withdrawing from her body to rest against the wall behind her, while a displeased moan escaped her lips. Forehead to forehead, both tried to catch their breaths.

* * *

Through half-mast eyes, Hope watched the way she licked her lips as though trying to capture traces of him that lingered there, the way she'd taken hold of his shirtfront again as though unwilling to put too much distance between their bodies.

But there was only such a limited amount of flans that could occupy his brain when she was this close to him, and it was with an incredible effort that he tried to keep his desire in check. This was not the place for this, and he said as much.

"I know," she admitted breathlessly, hungrily, and it almost unmade him.

She embodied her name fully: a flash, strong and bright, and in her wake she left him both hot and cold, breaking down his walls so effortlessly, and having him waver between resolutions and decisions in the blink of an eye. But he found that he wouldn't have her any other way.

When she finally caught her breath, Lightning opened her eyes, their pale blue piercing him. "Don't look at me like that," she said.

"I can't help it. You're incredible, and I think I love you."

A slight frown furrowed her brows, and he tried to smooth them down with his lips. Her hold tightened on his shirt, almost choking him at the neckline.

"I just can't figure you out, Hope, and I don't think I ever will."

"Same here."

"You do things backwards. You say you wanted to marry me before you even kissed me or bothered to know me at all. And now you say you love me. Most men would've given up but you just keep coming back."

"I guess I'm a sucker for your kind of punishment."

A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and she reached up, a finger running over the spots where his bruises used to be. "Sorry for punching you."

Taking hold of her hand, he kissed it, his green gaze unwavering on hers. "Apology accepted."

Stepping back finally, she leaned back against the wall, allowing herself to cool down and her momentary craziness to subside. "We should head back."

"Yeah." He pushed off from the wall and put his hands in his pockets in an effort to curb the incessant need to keep on touching her.

Lightning reached out and smoothed down his shirt, something akin to pleading in her gaze. "I would prefer it if we keep this between us."

Something almost like disappointment pulled his heart in a vice-like grip, but Hope quickly dispelled the feeling. He swallowed before saying, "I feel the same." Leaning down to steal one last kiss, he whispered, "You should go first."

Her soft hand cupped his cheek, and then she was gone.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	12. Safe Arrival, More or Less

A/N: WOW You guys are seriously made of so much AWESOME! Thank you! And I'm really glad you liked the previous chapter and even went "KYA~!" for it regardless of gender XD Really made my day!

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Palumpolum in the evening shone like a beacon of brightly coloured lights, a siren inviting wayward shoppers onto its shores. The lights of hover cars meandered between its buildings, weaving a pattern among other lights advertising sales and shops upon walls and billboards.

It wasn't that long ago that Hope and Noel left, but the silver-haired had to admit it felt good to be back home. He followed along a trail of hover cars on the air highway heading for the exit for the Capital of Commerce.

"So which hotel did you guys book into?" asked Hope as he began to prepare for the landing on the exit ramp.

"Hotel?" Vanille questioned back.

"Yeah. Didn't you book a hotel to stay in for the weekend?"

"Actually, they're staying over at our place," answered Noel from the back.

"Oh." Hope's fingers flexed around the steering wheel, and he tried to keep his breathing even, struggling to prevent himself from glancing to the figure sitting beside him. "Does mom know?"

"Yeah," continued his brother. "She's the one who made the offer."

"I see."

The redhead laughed, reaching over to ruffle his hair. "You won't get rid of us so easily, Hope."

"Haha, it seems not." He concentrated on where the concrete road began, the wheels skidding a bit from the impact. _Well, much better landing this time around than what happened in Bodhum_, he thought. _I wouldn't hear the end of it if I fumbled it up_.

Deep in thought, he called to the younger Farron. "Hey, Serah?"

She turned from the window. "Yes, Hope?"

"Where will you be doing your shopping tomorrow?"

"Hang on." She reached for her purse, pulling out an agenda book and flipping through it. "I have an appointment with M&M Bridals at nine-thirty in the morning since they don't do walk-ins. If I don't find anything there, I have a list of other places we can check out since you don't need to make an appointment with them."

"Where's that shop located?"

"At the Palumpolum Garden Mall."

"Okay, I know where that is. I can drop you off, if you want."

"Of course you are. You're our hired chauffeur for this trip, you know," she said with an impish grin.

He eyed her from the mirror, surprise evident on his face. "Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"If I'm hired, what are you going to pay me?"

"Our unending love and adoration."

"Haha. Aren't you cute." Well, he really wouldn't mind it from one particular person anyway. "Hey, Noel, you should call mom and let her know we'll be arriving soon."

"Already texted her," said his brother, putting his phone in his pocket.

"Oh, okay. That's good then." He headed for the hills away from the port side of the city, towards the residential area of Felix Heights.

"Eeek!" screamed Vanille, and startled, Hope pressed hard on the brakes, throwing everyone forward in the process, and he instinctively flung his arm out to the passenger's side to bar Lightning from pitching toward the dashboard.

"What's wrong?" questioned Noel, alarmed.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Hope worriedly, looking back and lowering his arm when he felt Lightning settling back in her seat.

Screeching out an unintelligible reply, Vanille pointed to a billboard outside showing a picture of a long-haired woman with her back facing them, and they all peered out the window.

The moving sign read: _Sensational singer Elida Karmic, coming to greet her fans at the Palumpolum Garden Mall this Saturday to promote her latest song. You won't want to miss the chance to meet her face to face._

"Elida Karmic? Really?" shouted Serah excitedly as she read. "I can't believe it!"

"Oh, Maker, I love her," said Vanille when she finally found her voice. They turned to each other and squealed, clutching each other's hands and jumping in their seats. "We should totally go see her some time tomorrow, before or after your appointment."

"Oh, definitely! This is so exciting!"

A car honked behind them, and Hope resumed driving, putting his other hand back on the steering wheel, and tried not to think about what he'd accidentally touched. _I hope she doesn't think that I copped a feel intentionally. Please blame Vanille._

"Oh, her voice! Just, ugh, I can't even," continued the culprit.

"I know what you mean. The first time I heard her voice, it sent chills down my spine, and the song she was singing made me cry."

"Is that 'Hoping for the Best', her debut single?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"You can really feel how heartbroken she was in that song."

"Quiet," said Lightning sharply. She ran a hand through her hair, feeling feverish at the brush of Hope's hand against her chest. She _had_ wanted him to touch her breasts earlier, but that wasn't quite what she had in mind. Now, her breast ached, making her feel uneven since the nipple on that side was now hard and tender, and she wished he'd had a chance to do the same to the other. Scowling, she instead directed her annoyance towards her sister and Vanille.

"Sorry," said the redhead sheepishly, and her boyfriend reached out and patted her hand.

Hope met Noel's eyes through the mirror, and the younger man gave him an imperceptible shake of his head. He looked away and tried to keep his mind empty, reaching for the navigational screen and loading their destination information before switching to autopilot. In case of further distractions, it was better to leave the driving to the car since it was impervious to its occupants' behaviours.

* * *

Nora greeted them with a big smile at the entrance to the main Estheim residence as they alighted from the hover car, Hope and Noel enveloping her in a hug and kissing her cheek.

"Hello, Mrs Estheim," said the redhead as she walked up to the woman after they relinquished her. "Thank you so much for letting us stay here."

"It is my pleasure, Vanille, please think nothing of it." Nora took her by the shoulders. "You've grown into such a lovely young woman." She looked to the pink-haired beside her. "Serah! How are you?"

"Hello, Mrs Estheim," greeted Serah. "Thank you as well."

"Please, it's my pleasure to have my sons' friends come over. And I heard congratulations are in order. Your young man is very lucky."

"Thank you," repeated Serah with a smile, pulling the older Farron forward. "This is my sister, Lightning."

"Mrs Estheim, hello. How are you?"

"Hello, dear, nice to meet you, and I'm very well. Please come on in, make yourselves at home. I hope you're all hungry?"

"Of course, we are, mom," replied Noel as he helped Hope unload the luggage from the trunk. "Wouldn't want to miss your cooking."

"Oh, you. Well, we'll leave the bags to the boys; they'll bring them up to the guest's wing. If you'll follow me, we can get you fed. I'm sure you're all tired from the trip."

"Are you sure we don't need to help them?"

"No, we're fine here," Noel brushed off. "You all go on ahead. We'll follow when we're done."

"Please forgive the lack of housekeepers," said Nora as she led them toward the dining room. "I've already sent them home for the day, and I rather like doing the house chores myself."

"Oh, no need to apologize," said Serah, waving her hands. "We weren't expecting anything like that, and we really do appreciate your hospitality."

"Is Mr Estheim home?" asked Vanille.

Nora gave them a wan smile. "He's up in Eden for business, as usual." Entering the dining room, she held out her hand to the table. "Please take a seat anywhere and help yourselves."

The three younger women uttered a chorus of "thank-yous" and sat themselves around the table. Nora had prepared roasted chicken with steamed vegetables and baked potatoes, and their mouths watered at the wonderful aroma. Nora herself sat at the head and proceeded to eat.

"I must say it's truly lovely to have you here. It's been lonely without the boys around."

"It's very nice of you to have us over, Mrs Estheim," responded Lightning.

"No, really. I'm truly glad. Hope just came back from Gran Pulse, and then he was off again for Bodhum with Noel." She sighed, smiling. "I was half-expecting them to come back with a new sibling to keep me company."

At this, the guests' curiosity was piqued.

"Is that how Noel came to be here?" asked Vanille, slightly nervous with the question.

"I know Noel doesn't like to talk about it," answered Nora. "But I consider him to be Hope's gift to me. My son was off in Gran Pulse and my husband was away for work. I have to admit it had been really lonely. And then, when I heard about a tragedy that happened to a small village in Pulse that had Academia investigating it...and that Hope had found the only survivor, and that he was negotiating with the Academy about what to do with him... Bartholomew and I made an offer. Noel was so precious, and just looked so..." She stopped, covering her mouth. "I'm sorry, this isn't really a proper topic over a meal."

"Oh, no, not at all," said Serah. "It's good to learn more about Noel and Hope."

"Yes," said Vanille. "Noel doesn't really talk about that, and we haven't really seen much of Hope to ask him."

"I hope they are behaving themselves there?"

"Of course," piped in Noel as he and Hope entered the dining room and took up seats on either side of Nora.

"Always," said Hope.

"Yeah, always at work, that one."

"My reason for being there."

"You're not already overworking yourself, are you?" asked Nora with concern.

Hope tried not to look too guilty. "Haha, of course not."

"Tch, you." She reached over to ruffle his hair. "What am I going to do with you? Just like Bartholomew."

"I—"

"No, go eat."

"Yes, mom."

The women laughed, and they all continued to dine, expressing their delight for the meal. After the dessert of strawberry cheesecake, Nora led the group for a tour of the house.

"Which rooms did you pick for our guests?" asked Nora as they headed for the guest's wing.

"The lilies room for Serah, the roses room for Lightning, and the daffodils room for Vanille," answered Noel.

"Ah, wonderful choices."

"Although we're not sure whose luggage is whose, so they'll probably switch around because of it."

Nora laughed. "That's fine." After presenting the rooms to the guests, she thanked them again and bade them goodnight.

The luggage drop off turned out to be of little mishap, and after exchanging minor items there had been no need for switches, although each women expressed delight and awe about each other's rooms. Heading for the sitting area at the top of the stairs, they all sat over for tea and coffee, talking about their plans for the next day.

"The mall will be super busy tomorrow, huh?" stated Vanille as she cuddled with Noel on the loveseat. "With Elida being there and all."

"That's right," said Serah, putting down her phone after she finished texting Snow, and pulling her legs up under her on the sofa she shared with Lightning. "This is just so unreal."

Vanille turned to her boyfriend. "Do you like her, Noel?"

The younger man stilled beside her, then shrugged. "She sings nice."

"Have you met her?"

"I've seen her around."

"Oh, I just remembered. Didn't she go to Academia for a time?" She turned to his brother. "Did you ever meet her, Hope?"

The silver-haired looked to the side as he thought. "Probably. Although we were in different departments, I think."

"It must be nice to be so famous."

He shrugged. "I guess."

"I can't believe we didn't know she was going to be here in Palumpolum. It's almost like she's raining on your parade, Serah."

The pink-haired released a petulant sigh. "I love her, but my dress comes first."

Chuckling, Hope offered, "We can probably work out the best route to take to the shop without having to attack a wall of people to get there. I'll check the mall map online."

"Thank you, my sweet chauffeur. Even inside the mall, you're still our navigator."

He rolled his eyes, stretching as he stood up. "Well, I'll be turning in."

"Oh, where's your room at, Hope?" asked Vanille.

"Why? So you can sneak in when everyone else is asleep?" he teased.

Lightning avoided looking at him as she shifted in her seat.

"Hey!" said Noel.

"No, so I know which door to nail closed," answered Vanille, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Haha, like I'll tell you. It'll be really funny if you end up sneaking inside mom's room instead. Goodnight. I'll see you all tomorrow."

A chorus of "goodnights" followed him as he left.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	13. Headlong Whirligig

A/N: Chapter 13 for a FFXIII fic on the 13th (on the other side of the world as of this moment haha). Many thanks for the wonderful thoughts/experiences/speculations that you shared :)

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

After a shower and a change of clothing, Hope rolled the kinks out of his neck and stretched his arms over his head, stepping out into the terrace that overlooked the back garden. Nora had been hard at work, he saw, the night air scented with sweet, pungent jasmine, and the walkways bordered by various colourful flora. He used to help her when he was younger, feeling the green and dirt and life between their fingers as they toiled. He wondered if Noel had taken his place in the years and months he hadn't had a chance to be here for her.

He yawned, then rubbed his face. He was tired but his mind was restless, feeling as though he'd gone through a multi-loop roller coaster, and it was all thanks to a certain pink-haired woman whose name was not Serah. He frowned. _What is Lightning's real name anyway?_ he thought. _Am I back to calling her Light?_ The kiss at the playground...where did they now really stand after that? And what about the decision he made prior to the kiss? He supposed that would have to be put on hold until further notice—at least until some sort of definition for what the two of them were supposed to be was made and agreed upon. It was clear she was set upon some boundaries from her desire to keep what was between them, well, between them. And he was the observe-first-before-coming-to-a-decision kind of guy anyway, so he didn't mind that.

And as much as he would have liked to go to her room to talk to her about this, it wouldn't really be all that wise. After all, it was more likely that there really wouldn't be much talking involved. And she was a guest, and that would be taking advantage of her if they just suddenly picked up where they'd left off at the playground. It wasn't as though they were dating or anything, like Vanille and Noel, where it was acceptable to go into each other's rooms. What did he and Lightning really have anyway? Attraction, one. A prolonged series of kisses, two.

And that was it, if his occasional idiosyncratic behaviour and her subsequent reactions to it weren't factored in.

Speaking of idiosyncratic behaviour, he now somehow found himself in front of the terrace doors that led to her room with a fist raised, ready to knock. He took a large step back. And another. And another. And several others until the back of his legs hit the terrace rail that would've plunged him down into the rose bush at the bottom of the wall if he wasn't careful, and sat down on its baluster-supported surface. _Okay, space is good_, he thought. _It's good that we have this space, and most importantly, a door, and even more importantly, a closed one, between us. Yes_. He gripped the edge of the balustrade. _What am I doing anyway? What did I come here for? What do I want?_

_I want something I shouldn't want._

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds before releasing it. Opening his eyes, he stood and headed back where he came from.

_Maybe now's a good time to look up any books about flans in dad's library. He's bound to have one stashed somewhere._

And then the impossible happened.

Her door was opened.

* * *

After Hope left, Lightning decided to head into her room as well, bidding goodnight to the others in the sitting room.

Briefly, the thought came to her mind of asking Noel for directions to Hope's room under the pretense of returning his sweater—although she was loathe to truly part with it—but quickly scrapped the thought. She wouldn't want the jibes that were sure to come, although most likely not straight to her face, but she was pretty sure knowing looks would be shared between the three. And that would be just...no. Her business would stay her business, and she didn't want the meddling that was certain to happen should any of their friends become aware of what was going on between her and Hope.

Pacing back and forth in her Jihl-hated sweats and a tank top, she looked up to the ceiling and released a frustrated breath. This wasn't like her at all. Why had she suddenly become this snivelling, this yearning, this...this... Ugh, she couldn't even come up with the word for it. She was starting to hate herself for feeling like this, but it was being overshadowed by the stronger desire to see Hope, to feel him touching her, to have him close and looking at her the way he did.

It was all his fault! Why did he have to return to Bodhum and stir up memories, causing the peace and routine of her life to go awry? She had been just fine before, but now she was consumed by tumultuous feelings for him that made her feel as though she was a constant contradiction: she wanted to punch him one second, kiss him senseless the next, push him away so that these feelings would stop, but grab him back so that they'd build up and storm all over her.

She took a shaky breath. She needed air. Stuffed up in this room inside his house with her mind constantly swirling with thoughts of him, she felt as though she couldn't breathe. Lightning looked at her bedroom door, but that led to more rooms and halls deeper in the house. A window! She ran over to the floor-to-ceiling curtains that ran along one whole wall and flung the closest one aside, finding herself facing a set of balcony doors that led out to a grand garden. Opening both, the scent of jasmine hit her, sweet and fresh. And from the corner of her eye, she caught a movement and a flash of silver hair in the dim light.

Her heart sped up.

* * *

Heralded by the shiver that ran down his spine and the tingle of the hairs at his nape, Hope felt her blue gaze on him. Stuffing his hands in the pockets of his sweats, he squeezed his phone, feet frozen in place, unable and unwilling to take one more step away.

"Hey," he said over his shoulder.

Lightning cleared her throat. "Hey."

In the stillness and silence, he asked himself: _What now? If I go there, I will know for sure that I lack self-control when it comes to you. Heck, finding myself here is already proof of that. This isn't the moment of truth that I had been hoping to feel again, but I'm drawn to you, pulled to your presence like a magnet. Is this how 'us' begins? The taste we had of it and of each other in the playground—we both want more of that, don't we?_

His gaze spanned over the garden under the cover of night. The part of him that measured, that weighed, that judged, and remained distant, looked out through his eyes: _I'm testing my threshold. How far can I stand to be under your hold before I take the lead? Would you like it? Would you relinquish? How long before this boundary you've erected between us dissolves away? How long before you really let me in in the same way you've wormed yourself into my heart? How long can you keep resisting? What about your own control on yourself? Will you be able to hold on to it, Light?_

_I'll wait and see. Observe, and then conclude._

And then he felt it: the brush of her hand at the back of his shirt, her head resting between his shoulder blades.

His stomach jumped, electrified, at the feel of her lips at his nape, of her hands along his back, up to the curve of his shoulders, down to his protruding elbows to tug his hands out of his pockets. Allowing himself to be turned, his head descended to meet hers, engulfing her ready lips with his own, her hands tangling up in his hair as his ran down her back.

_Here is truth_, he thought as she drew him deeper, as her moans filled his ears, as he felt how hard and how fast her pulse raced and matched his. As he slowly but surely drew themselves back into her room. As his hand snaked under her shirt to feel her burning skin. As her hands pulled his head down to her neck and tightened in his hair. As her spine arched when he cupped her breasts.

_I surrender_, he thought.

* * *

She gasped for momentary air before drawing his head back up to capture his lips once more. At the back of her feverish mind, Lightning wondered how she came to be lying on her back on her bed with Hope on top of her, a leg thrown over his hip while the other was trapped between both of his. _Doesn't matter_, she realized as she plunged her tongue in his mouth.

The kiss deepened amid a clash of lips, tongues, and teeth. Her hands explored down his back, lifting up the hem of his shirt to scratch at his skin, making him arch up against her. A long, drawn out moan escaped her as she felt his hands on her breasts, fingers twisting her nipples through the cloth of her top, his lips leaving a trail of kisses down her neck. She couldn't help crying out when she felt a vibration against her crotch.

_What the—!_

Hope lifted his head from her collarbone, frowning, as the vibration resumed a second later, earning a whimper from her. "I think that's my phone," he muttered groggily.

As much as his phone added to her enjoyment of him, she couldn't help but be annoyed at the distraction it caused.

He sat up, straddling one of her legs as he took the offending device from his pocket, apprehension filling him as he read the caller's name.

She watched the change in his expression as he stared at his phone as though any time soon it would explode. She panted, trying to catch her breath, feeling her own passion cool down at his prolonged motionlessness. "You should answer it," she said as the phone continued to ring, unhooking her leg from his hip. "Maybe it's something important."

His green eyes flickered to her briefly, too fast but enough that she was able to read regret, guilt, and apology in them that made her heart sink, before he got off of her bed.

* * *

Hope ran a hand through his mussed hair as he debated with himself whether to answer or not. _I can't keep running away_, he thought. _And this is not really the time for this._

_But..._

With a heavy heart, he pressed the phone to his ear. "Hello."

There was a gasp of surprise on the other end. "Hope...hi. Y-you answered."

He nodded, even though he knew she—his caller—couldn't see him. Words failed him as he had failed her during their time together. He could feel the weight of Lightning's gaze at his back, his mouth twisting wryly at the sordid situation he found himself in, sandwiched between past and present. His head felt light suddenly, and he walked out the open door to the terrace.

Against his ear, the caller continued in her voice, hesitant, but still rich in its melodious twang that enticed and impressed so many in its power and emotion. "I-I never thought you'd finally answer."

He could only give a grunt in reply to let her know he was still listening.

"I...I missed you." There was a laugh, followed by a sniff. "It's funny, isn't it? I was the one who left, and even after all this time, I miss you so badly. Pathetic, isn't it?" She said the last tremulously.

He closed his eyes, the weight of guilt heavy in his chest, overpowering, a warning and reminder of how he'd wronged her, and he forced his voice to finally sound out, gently, softly, "Are you crying?"

"No," she answered in a small voice, followed by a trembling inhale. "I'm not. I'm not." There was a long moment where all he could hear was her trying to calm down her sobs enough for her to speak coherently. "I-if it's okay with you, I'd really like to see you."

Opening his eyes, he swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat. _Don't run_, he told himself. _Face her. In facing her, both of you can finally move forward. She deserves that much from you. And you'll finally be free with a clean slate on your conscience to pursue what ever is brewing between you and Light._

After a lengthy pause where all he heard were the tears she tried to stifle, he finally said, "I know where you'll be tomorrow."

There was a gasp on the other end. "S-so you really are in Palumpolum?"

"Yes."

"Okay. That's...okay." A sniff. "Thank you."

"Yeah."

"Bye."

* * *

This wasn't like her at all: following after him, leaning against her door, listening in on his conversation. But ever since he came into her life, Lightning hadn't acted like herself.

A hot, uncompromising surge of jealousy flooded through her. _Is that his ex? _she wondered. On his side of the call, he mostly responded with silence, but his voice held pain, regret, and resignation on the few words he'd spoken.

It didn't matter at all that she had been the one who suggested to him to answer his phone. Irrationality came over her, filling her heart, overtaking everything else. And she couldn't begin to figure out who she was truly angry with: herself or him.

She watched him walking back to her, but their passion had shattered, and faced with so many things within herself that she couldn't sort or comprehend, she couldn't bear to look at him.

She closed her door and flung the curtains shut before he had a chance to reach her.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	14. Awkward Roundabout

A/N: As always, thank you very much for your continued reading and support :) This here's a bit of a transitional chapter, a kind of a breather after the previous.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

Breakfast was provided by a smiling Mrs Estheim and aided by Noel. Lightning made her way to the table with her sister and Vanille, the latter already bouncing this early in the morning. She gritted her teeth, feeling as though her nerve-endings were frayed, her heart beating too fast at the possibility that she would have to face _him_ at the breakfast table. But after a filling meal of pancakes with strawberries and syrup, coffee and juice, after discussions on shopping sprees and wedding dress shapes and fabrics—none of which she provided much contribution to—one part of her was relieved and a greater part worried that she hadn't seen him at all.

_Maybe he went to see his former girlfriend last night after what happened between us_, was the unfair and begrudging thought that sprang to mind which she quickly tried to suppress. She _had_ pushed him away, literally shut the door in his face. It shouldn't be surprising if he should turn to another, someone less confusing, someone more certain of herself and her feelings.

After a concerned look from Nora, Noel offered to search for his wayward brother, and twenty minutes later, returned to say he'd found him asleep in the library, buried under books on monster biology.

Lightning closed her eyes, feeling sick at being mistrustful.

"Hey," said Serah, noticing that her usual silence held something more, and touched her tense shoulder. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, and replied curtly, "Just didn't sleep well."

After getting ready for the rest of the day, she waited with the others by the hover car in the driveway, leant against the back passenger door and tried not to twist her hands together. She didn't _do_ nervous, and she willed herself to calm down, reaching deep inside for the pool of anger that was constant, that made her hard, insurmountable, unreachable. Her mask in place, when he finally appeared—hair still wet with a crumbled pancake in his mouth and a coffee thermos in his hand—their eyes met briefly before each quickly looked away. Serah stared puzzledly at her when she found Lightning had taken her spot, before shrugging and making her way for the front passenger seat.

It didn't take long to reach the Palumpolum Garden Mall. At nine in the morning, the external doors were already open but only the food courts and restaurants were bustling with activity. The stores themselves officially opened at nine-thirty. The main promenade of the mall was almost packed with people anticipating the main event of the day, and Hope led them through the side, almost empty avenue that led to the specialty, non-franchise shops where Serah's appointment was located.

On seeing the store windows of M&M Bridals with its displays of various wedding gowns, her sister and Vanille ran excitedly towards it, peering and pointing like children at a candy store. Noel and Hope, on the other hand, gravitated towards the store right across from it.

"Ars Amatoria Love Shop," read Noel aloud, eyes flickering to its covered door and lone display window.

"That's pretty redundant," remarked Hope with a tilt of his head.

"How so?"

"It means 'The Art of Love' Love Shop."

"Huh."

Lightning stood in the middle between the two stores, trying to surreptitiously see over the men's shoulders at the display. She could make out a torso of a mannequin wearing a contraption of lace, hardly providing support nor leaving much to the imagination. Scowling—and trying to keep her blush to a minimum—she couldn't help wondering if _he_ would like to see her in something like that, the kind of 'clothing' Jihl recommended she bring for the trip.

But there wouldn't be much of a chance of that happening, now, would it? Not until she could sort herself out. It didn't take a genius to know that, with all the grievous bodily and emotional harm she'd done to him, he'd have reached his limit and would think twice about approaching her again. Exhaling a breath, she walked over to where the two women still fawned at the bridal gowns, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she got closer, trying not to imagine herself in those poofy, fairy tale concoctions, and attempted to drown out the remembrance of the first words he ever spoke to her.

This was Serah's day, and she wouldn't let herself be swept away by the dreamy words of a boy from long ago. After all, that wouldn't be like her at all.

* * *

The eyes of the young men roamed over the goods promised beyond the window they gazed at. The offering was sedate, tame—considering that around this area there was a chance that children might pass by—but there was enough to entice adults into checking out what else lay beyond the door of the Ars Amatoria Love Shop.

On a dais was a mannequin's torso wearing a teddy of black and red lace, with garters dangling in front of where the legs should be. On a swirl of satin fabric below it was a pair of matching ruffled panties, and to the side on an easel was a book bearing the title of _Daily Positions: 365 Ways to Make Love_.

Hope gave his younger brother a teasing nudge with his elbow. "You wanna go in?"

"No!" exclaimed Noel quickly. Then hesitatingly, in sotto voce admitted, "Kind of."

The silver-haired laughed. "Well, you're allowed now, so you should go for it. Could learn a thing or two."

"Shut up, okay. So I'm waiting for the right moment. Vanille and I just started up. And I want it to be special." The last word was mumbled almost incoherently.

Hope rubbed his head. "That's sweet."

Noel swatted his hand away. "Fuck off."

Hope laughed. "No, really. It's good that you're really serious about her. So how far have you gotten?"

"Like I'll really tell you."

"Actually, come to think of it, I don't really want to know. She's still my ex, after all. And that's just...yeah, no." Another laugh.

Noel cleared his throat, eyes concentrated on the book prominently showcased. "So."

Hope's eyes flickered to him at his sudden change in tone, coldness and detachment hooding the clear green. "So," he parroted.

"You weren't in your room."

"Yes?"

"And your balcony door was open."

"Yes?"

"Aren't you...? Did something...?"

"Couldn't sleep. Went to the library," was the swift evasive reply. "Been curious about flans lately."

Noel gave him a weird look before shaking his head and chalking that up to Hope's general strangeness and constant need to learn about things. "Do I wanna know what brought that on?"

"Only if you really, really _want_ to know, like would-die-not-knowing want to know."

"Ugh. No, thanks."

A small laugh, and then, quietly, Hope continued, "I guess you could call it a defence mechanism."

"Flans?"

"Yeah, in a way."

"Um. What?"

"When you're robbed of everything else, you only have your mind left, really."

"Okay. You lost me."

"That's okay. It's just as well. It's about nothing anyway." His green eyes landed on Lightning's reflection at the window, a smile he did not feel tugged at the corner of his lips. "Maybe in the end, that's all everything is."

"Is this still about flans?"

Hope sighed, pushing his hands in his pockets. "Yes. Everything is about flans."

"Well, I'm talking about you and..." Noel tilted his head to the figure behind them, and his brother just gave him a questioning look.

"Who?"

"You know."

"You-know-who?"

"No, not that one."

"Who?"

"Stop being obtuse!"

"I'm not. I honestly don't know who you're talking about."

"Uh, the one you're supposed to man up to."

Hope scratched his head, sighing. "Do you know that flans are—"

"I don't bloody well want to know about flans!"

"O-kay."

"I'm trying to have a proper conversation here."

Hope opened his mouth, but was cut off.

"And don't mention flans being a proper topic to talk about."

The silver-haired deflated. "What's there to say?"

"Serah, Vanille, and I gave you two a lot of opportunities to be alone to work whatever issues you guys have—"

"I noticed."

"—and you didn't even bother to do anything about it. You're hopeless, seriously."

"What can I say? It's all complicated."

"What's complicated about it? You're crazy about her—everyone can see that. And Serah said that Lightning had been behaving differently since the day she beat you up. All you need to do is to sit down and communicate."

"Ah, it's nice to be so young and look at things simplistically."

Noel swatted his head.

"Ow."

"You're seriously pissing me off."

"And your voice is pretty loud, you know. I think she heard everything you said."

The younger man shook his head in exasperation and leaned in to whisper, "Seriously, just drop everything and talk it out."

"Why all this interest in my nonexistent love life? Do you ever think that maybe it's not meant to be? That there's a reason why nothing's happening? Look at it this way—hypothetically speaking, mind you—maybe something already has happened, but we're like two magnets that have strong magnetic properties, and despite the attractive force pulling us together, we just can't connect. I don't believe in kismet, but I'm starting to think that all these starts and fumbles, all these pulls and pushes is the universe's way of saying 'Let it go. Give up. The future, _my_ future, isn't here.' I was fourteen, a kid who didn't really know anything, and now that I'm older, I shouldn't idealize something that in the end meant absolutely nothing."

"Is that how you feel now?"

"I'm kind of wishing I don't feel anything, actually. You-know-who gave me a call again."

Noel pursed his lips as he shook his head. "Like always?"

"Yeah. And this time I answered. I'll be meeting her later, after she's done with what she's here for."

"About that..."

Hope looked at him, sensing the hint of guilt in his voice. "What?"

"Mom said that her doing all this here at this mall was very last minute."

At his brother's continued silence, Noel went on, "Our mom and her mom still talk, you know, and well, normally, something like this is planned way in advance and you'll see it advertised throughout Cocoon. That's why it's only Palumpolum that knows about her appearing here, because when mom told her mom that you'll be here—"

"I get it."

"Sorry, bro."

"No. I think it's time to move on, anyway. Finally air everything out. Doesn't really matter where it's gonna happen. We both need to let go."

Noel breathed out a laugh. "Maybe she'll write another song about it."

Hope bopped him on the head.

"Whatcha guys doing over here?" asked Vanille as she walked over to them. "M&M Bridals has opened. Let's go." She grabbed both their arms and began to pull them away.

"Actually, we'll be over here," replied Hope, pointing to the Ars Amatoria Love Shop and trying to pry himself from her grip. "You guys go on and do your wedding stuff."

"Oooh," said Vanille as she peered at the window, interest brightening her eyes as she sighed. "Well, that's a trip for later. You boys are coming with us. No questions."

"But—"

"Nu-uh." She silenced him with a glare. "We need both of your inputs on Serah's dress."

"Why?"

"Well, to see if guys would find it as gorgeous as we would, of course."

"I don't really know anything about dresses," said Noel.

"Well, now's a good time to learn. We can go to the sex shop and try out the toys after we're done."

Resignedly, both Hope and Noel allowed Vanille to drag them to the bridal store.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	15. What Does This Mean?

A/N: I'm sick, sorry for the delay. Anything that doesn't make sense, please blame it on the meds ^^;  
Thanks for liking the last chapter. Noel/Hope interaction was fun to write ^^

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 belong to Square Enix.

* * *

As much as Lightning tried, with her being this close to these many wedding dresses, her mind just wouldn't stop its merry-go-round of remembrance: _I'm going to marry you someday...Do you want to get married...I'm going to marry you someday...Do you want to get married..._

And with those words running through her head, she couldn't help imagining herself in one of the gowns on display, walking down the aisle towards a certain silver-haired man that waited for her at the altar. She shook her head vigorously in an effort to dispel the image, growling softly to herself. She started, brought back to reality at a touch on her shoulder.

"Lightning, are you okay?" asked Serah, worry on her brow. Vanille was off to the other end of the window, the older Farron was relieved to see, not liking the thought of someone other than Serah being witness to a moment of weakness.

"Fine," she murmured, though with only a modicum of conviction.

Her sister rolled her eyes. "Sure. Look, I know you've been off lately. You can tell me what's bothering you, you know. It's not good to keep it bottled in."

"I'm fine, Serah—"

"—Lightning—"

"There's nothing bothering me."

"Ligh—"

"Drop it."

"Hope is nothing like _him_."

Lightning gritted her teeth, a muscle ticking in her jaw, and she tried to lessen the venom pouring from her gaze.

"Not all men are like _him_, Lightning," continued Serah.

"I know," Lightning stated in a clipped tone.

"You _know_, but do you _believe_ it? I know you don't want to talk about it. But you're not the only one who was hurt. Me and mom too. And since mom died, you've been doing everything you can to take care of me. You gave up a lot: a life of normalcy, growing up and experiencing the same things other kids your age were going through...you sacrificed everything for me. But Lightning, I'm grown up now. I'm getting married. You don't have to take care of me anymore. It's time you look after you. I want you to be happy. I want you to have what I have with Snow. And I think Hope could be good for you, if you give him a chance. Just think about it." Serah punctuated the last with a reassuring smile and gave her arm a squeeze, turning away just as the doors to M&M Bridals were opened.

As Lightning followed her sister, she felt the constant pool of anger in her drain away little by little. Last night, without knowing anything, she had lashed out at Hope, harsh and presumptuous. She knew she ought to give him the benefit of the doubt; if anything, he had been accepting and somewhat patient of her behaviour towards him since the beginning. Maybe it had really been his former flame who had called in the middle of their tryst, and from what she had heard, they were to meet. Maybe he had a good reason for it. The least she could do was let him explain himself. And perhaps, in the process, she could open up as well.

She didn't want to keep feeling lost anymore.

* * *

Serah and Lightning were already in the waiting room, chatting with a pair of sisters by the names of Marie and Millie—who were the proprietors of M&M Bridals—about the upcoming nuptials and possible dress choices. Still arm in arm, Vanille led Hope and Noel to where they sat, exchanging greetings and pleasantries with the sisters before they were all led to the show room that had rows and walls of bridal gowns covered in garment bags. In that sea of white, they couldn't help feeling overwhelmed, and both Vanille and Serah ran towards several dresses that have already caught their eyes.

"Go on, don't be shy," said Millie—or possibly Marie. "Go ahead and pick out a dress that you think would look good on Serah."

Three pairs of eyes looked at her for a moment before its owners headed off to the displays. As Hope grabbed a random gown by the hanger, he couldn't help remarking to no one in particular, "Ever notice that most wedding dresses are strapless? Is that some kind of rule?"

He was awarded by a shake of the head from Noel and eyerolls from Serah and Vanille. Biting his lip, he couldn't resist glancing sidelong at Lightning, but her back was turned to him, being occupied with a gown that she was reaching for.

Not really looking, he grabbed three more hangers from the rack and dragged them over to the assigned changing room, earning raised eyebrows from Marie—or maybe Millie. He shrugged, scratching his head as he made his way to the couch in front of a small stage and a large mirror. Flopping down on one end with arms and legs akimbo, he heaved a huge sigh, wishing he'd brought along one of the books about flans that he had been reading last night. He closed his eyes, still tired from a sleepless night, feeling the cushion to the side collapse and hearing Vanille and Noel's voices as they murmured to each other.

He felt a nudge on his foot.

"Scoot over."

Startled that _she_ actually spoke to him, he straightened and made room for her in the couch between him and Vanille, a tense silence between them. The redhead and his brother seemed lost in their own conversation, so there would be no help coming from them, Hope knew. And it felt impolite to talk over Lightning's head, and the last thing he wanted was to make her feel as though he was ignoring her. He peered at her from the corner of his eye. She was staring straight ahead, with arms crossed over her chest.

Deflating at the air of unapproachableness that she was exuding, he grabbed a bridal magazine from the corner table beside the couch and perused its contents. _Yet more strapless dresses_, he thought. _What is up with that? Not that there's anything wrong with it, but just..._

_Would Lightning wear something like this?_

His eyes widened. Where did that thought come from?

Well, he did tell her he was going to marry her someday, but he had to admit he never envisioned an actual wedding taking place. They were just together. And happy.

...And that was it.

Breathing out a small chuckle, his lips twisted at the irony of their current situation.

Over half a magazine later, Serah finally came out of the changing room and walked up to the stage, twirling as she modelled the first dress. There was a row of clamps running down her back, putting him to mind of a stegosaurus in a dress, though he realized it was to help fit the garment on her figure. Millie—or most likely Marie—announced, "Here we have a ballgown in satin with an overlay of ruched organza on the bodice and skirt, and liberally decorated with starflowers. This is Serah's pick."

The pink-haired looked at them expectantly.

"It's so pretty!" cried out Vanille, clapping her hands.

"It's...busy," remarked Lightning tonelessly.

"It's, uh, shiny," uttered Noel nervously.

"It's strapless," pointed out Hope, and he shrunk back from the glares he received from everyone. He coughed, and made another attempt at a commentary. "It's...um, kind of overwhelming, isn't it? You kind of look like you're drowning in it, like the dress is wearing you instead of the other way around."

"Oh...yeah, I can see that," the redhead reluctantly agreed, her smile faltering. "I love it, and I wish this is The One."

"Oh," breathed out Serah with an air of disappointment, hands spreading out the skirt. "Any others? Noel? Lightning?"

"Sorry," said the younger man, while her sister just shook her head.

"Oh, well, time for the next one." Serah walked back into the dressing room with one of the M-sisters.

"That's too bad," said Vanille, "she looks so pretty in it. I love the flowers."

"She kind of looks like a cake," said Noel. "A shiny cake with lots of swirly, wavy thingies."

"Oh, shut it, you."

Picking up the discarded magazine again, Hope flipped through the pages, trying to remember where he'd left off, then shrugged and just started up at a random page. He felt a slight weight on his arm; Lightning had leaned in and was peering over his shoulder.

_O-kay_, he thought. _What does this mean?_

_Does it have to mean anything?_ answered himself. _Maybe she just wants to see the magazine._

_Is she still mad about last night?_

_We really have no way of knowing that, do we?_

_That's true. Sorry._

_...unless you want to ask her._

_At this point, I'd rather not risk it out of self-preservation, but thanks for the suggestion._

_Maybe you should turn the page now. Pretend you didn't notice._

_Okay._

A little subtly, he moved the magazine so that she could see it better, flipping the page every few seconds. After one and a half magazine perusals, Serah came out of the dressing room.

"This is one of Vanille's choices," commentated Marie. "It's embroidered taffeta with a fitted bodice and a mermaid skirt made up of layers of flounces, ending in a short train."

The bride-to-be was all smiles when she walked up to the stage, almost jumping giddily. "So, what do you guys think?" she asked.

"I love it! It's so pretty!" burst out Vanille.

"I know! Isn't it?" Serah asserted just as excitedly. "Good choice, Vanille."

"Of course!"

"Wow," said Noel. "Just wow."

"Hmm," commented Lightning.

"It's strap—" Hope cleared his throat. "It's...yeah."

At that, Serah put her hands on her waist, pouting, hackles raised. "What does that mean? Is that a good 'yeah' or a bad 'yeah?'"

Feeling put on the spot, Hope thought of the best possible way to say what he thought without offending her. "Well, the dress is gorgeous, and without question, you look amazing in it. But, let's consider Snow's size into the equation. You have on a very slim-fitting dress, and you're already petite. I just think that maybe Snow would look like he's dwarfing you with this kind of dress." He looked to the side to the other spectators. "Right?"

Lightning raised her eyebrows in agreement, while Noel clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. "I guess," he said.

"But it's so pretty," whined Vanille.

"You said that about the last dress."

"But they _are_ pretty. Why can't she have the pretty stuff? She's the bride! Who cares about what Snow looks like."

"I do." Serah sighed and began to walk back to the dressing room where Millie waited to assist her. "Well, there's more pretty stuff to try out."

Dress three hadn't fared much better than its predecessors ("Too flamboyant," said Lightning with disgust), and neither had the fourth dress ("I have no words," said Lightning. "Sis!" exclaimed Serah in shocked disbelief). Dress five resulted in a chuckle that three out the four spectators tried to muffle, while dress six had the opinions split between the men and the women ("The cleavage and the thigh slit—" "No!").

Two hours and the tenth dress later, a dejected Serah left the stage to the try on another gown. Vanille rose from her seat, stretching, muttering something about refreshments that Hope only half-heard, having leaned back against the couch and let out a loud yawn. Through closed eyes, he mumbled "coffee" to the question in Noel's voice, and then hearing only silence when he and his girlfriend left on their errand.

He stirred, spurred by nervousness into tapping his hands against his lap to fill the void. Lightning must have found it annoying, but it nevertheless caught him by surprise to find her hand on his, stopping his own from moving. He couldn't resist looking at her.

"Sorry," he stammered, keeping his hand still, afraid that she would take her own hand away, wanting the contact to last.

Furthering his surprise, she squeezed her grip on his. "I should be the one saying that."

"No," he said, "I know the tapping is annoying and—"

"No, I meant...how I've been towards you. I'm sorry."

Hope blinked, at a loss, settling instead for squeezing her hand back for lack of any other response.

"I've been unfair to you," continued Lightning. "And jumping to too many conclusions when I don't really know you that well at all. And you've been taking my behaviour in stride, and there's just a lot of—about me...and...and..." She looked down at their joined hands and took a deep breath. "If you're willing to, I'd like to start over."

He felt as though his chest could burst, and he couldn't help the crack that came over his voice. "Us?"

She looked up, met his eyes, and nodded. "Yes."

"I-I love yo—I mean, I'd l-love that." _One thing at a time_, he thought, his heart swelling with relief, and he couldn't help the nervous smile that spread across his lips, seeing her answering smile in return, albeit small, but still there.

"I'd love that," he repeated, calmly this time.

"Good." She raised her other hand to cup his cheek, her thumb stroking his lips, and he couldn't help placing a kiss there.

And then she drew his head close, and kissed him softly.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
May/2012


	16. Forward & Back, Forward & Back

A/N: Sorry. Had a brutal case of writer's block. Probably won't be able to update as often as I used to simply because of real life getting in the way. So here's the longest chapter ever for this fic as apology.

Who else is excited about the news that Hope will be in touch with Lightning through wireless communication in _Lightning Returns_ and whose mind immediately went to 'phone sex' at this prospect? Come on! I can't be the only one *lol*

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII compilation belongs to Square Enix.

* * *

The kiss this time was slow, not as desperate, but no less fervent. It was simply a matter of a leisurely tasting of each other, of getting acquainted. When they parted, Lightning couldn't help biting her lower lip, her eyes opening slowly to find his watching her, his cheeks flushed.

Hope felt so light he could float, but instead he cleared his throat and sat back, her hand falling away from his cheek in the process, though the other still held on to his.

At the quickening of her pulse, she took her other hand back, and placed both under her knees to stop herself from pulling him closer, afraid of becoming addicted to his kiss. She cleared her throat, scrambled around her mind for a safe topic to dispel the headiness that had surrounded them.

_Now what? _she thought, and was startled that she'd actually spoken it aloud when he replied with: "Well, for starters, you can tell me your real name."

Sharply, her head turned, and he in turn, chagrined, scratched the back of his head with a small chuckle.

"I was just curious since everyone knows you by 'Lightning'. There's no way your parents would give you a name like that, would they?"

She should be insulted, but she caught the teasing note in his voice. Smirking, feeling almost coy, she leaned back against the couch and crossed her legs, placing her hands on top of her knee, noting the way his eyes lingered on the flash of skin displayed by her artfully ripped jeans.

"And what would you do with it if I tell you?" Feeling flushed at the husky way her voice inadvertently sounded, she half wanted to berate herself for not acting like her usual. She was _not _a flirtatious person by any means, and she couldn't help feeling idiotic about it. And yet—

A pensive expression came over his features. "I was thinking of yelling it out loud in the heat of passion," he quipped.

Hope exploded into laughter as she reached up to push at his face with one hand while the other playfully pulled at his hair, his own hands grabbing her wrists in a gentle hold, thumbs stroking her pulse-points. She wondered if he could feel how fast her pulse was racing, wondered how much of his tone belied the intention behind the words, and wondered exactly how he would sound should he be given the chance to actualize what he'd said.

She was saved from further musings by the reappearance of her sister in her eleventh dress, and she couldn't say she was entirely grateful for the distraction. Her gaze softened. Serah looked radiant in a flowing gown of delicate lace with a silver beaded belt around her waist, carefully stepping up the stage so as not to trip herself from the layers of tulle under the skirt, a slight frown marring her brow when she spied their compromising position and the lack of posse.

"Where's everyone? And what are you guys doing? Are you fighting?"

"—Noel and Vanille went to get some drinks—"

"—We're not fighting—"

They both answered simultaneously while letting go of each other and straightening themselves on the couch.

Still disbelieving, Serah put her hands on her waist, staring pointedly at them. "Can you please behave yourselves? Beating him up even here...honestly, Lightning."

"We weren't doing anything—"

"Right." Releasing an exasperated sigh, she raised her arms, the frown evaporating and she was all smiles again, twirling around as she held out the voluminous skirt. "Let's get back to me, then. What do you think?"

Leaning forward, Hope propped his chin in his hand, his elbow on his knee, and perused her thoughtfully. "It's got...va-voom," he finally said after a fashion.

She laughed. "Va-voom? What the hell does that mean?"

Even Lightning couldn't help raising an eyebrow. _Where does he even come up with this? _she thought.

"You know..." He waved his hand. "Oomph."

Serah's smile grew, and she couldn't help the giddy giggle that erupted out of her. "That's good. That's what I'm going for."

"I don't know," said Lightning, tilting her head to the side thoughtfully. "It's pretty, but it seems so ordinary."

"Ordinary?" repeated Serah, her smile wavering. "You don't feel the oomph?"

Her older sister rolled her eyes. "No, I don't feel the oomph."

"Oh, come on," said Hope. "That dress has got va-voom and oomph rolled into one."

Lightning turned to him. "It's the bling, isn't it?" she responded drily. "You're only saying you like it because of the shiny belt."

He laughed. "I was not."

"Seriously, guys," called out Serah, her voice oozing with dejectedness. "Is this the one or not?"

Facing her again, Lightning released a deep exhale. "What do _you_ think, Serah? How do you _feel _about the dress? More importantly, what does the dress make you feel when you're wearing it? Let's focus on that. Do you feel that that's the one you're going to get married in? Or are you liking it simply because it's pretty? I thought you wanted the magical moment of knowing you've found the one. Have you felt that yet?"

The younger Farron looked down, running her hands over the material that encased her body, then turned around to look at the mirror behind her, clasping her hands together.

"'I, Serah Farron, take you, Snow Villiers, to be my husband...'" Her voice trailed off, lips twisting in disappointment as she looked down at the dress. Her brows furrowed, and she shook her head as she turned back to face them. "Yeah, this isn't the one."

She flopped down on the couch next to her sister, wincing as the clamps that held the dress together hit her in the back.

As much as Lightning didn't like the thought of Serah marrying Snow, she _was _made maid-of-honour for a reason, and it was time she took on the job of a supporter.

Hiding her grimace, she put a gentle inflection in her voice when she asked, "What is it exactly that you're looking for in the dress?"

Pouting, Serah became pensive. She wanted a dress that everyone liked, but also one that her sister approved of. She knew that Snow was Lightning's least favourite person, but as her only family, she wanted her sister to be part of the wedding experience, to be part of her happiness. And even though Lightning wasn't an outwardly affectionate person, Serah could tell that she _was _trying to be supportive in her own way.

Being excited to finally shop for her dress, she had lost sight of her objective. She remembered looking through their parents' wedding album and being moved to tears at the picture of their mom in her own dress. It was simple; it had an understated elegance. But above all, it was _perfect_. Perfect for that moment when the dream became reality. The years and the hardship of a love shattered afterwards hadn't marred the memory or the image of happiness it exuded.

She took a deep breath in an effort to dispel the sudden pang of pain that struck her, and blinked away tears. Reaching for Lightning's hand, she squeezed it. "I want one that would make me feel like a princess," she said mockingly, and despite her tone, her older sister understood the sentiment.

"A magical princess dress?" asked Hope, rising from his seat and stretching his arms up above him. "I'm sure there's one randomly lying around here somewhere."

Two sets of blue eyes glared at him, but were missed because he was too busy spanning his gaze to the ceiling as he rolled his neck.

"Thanks, Hope," said Serah in a thickly sweet tone.

Puzzled, his eyes landed on her, suspicion descending on his brow. "For what?"

"For volunteering to look for my magical princess dress, of course."

A look of alarm crossed his features. "Aw, come on."

Ignoring the plea in his voice, Serah continued, "You're so nice. First you're our driver, and now you're in charge of finding my perfect dress."

"Ugh."

"You should feel honoured."

"Already jumping with joy. Yay."

Laughing, she rose from the couch and pushed him in the direction of the showroom. "Away with you."

His feet skidded to a halt in time to stop him from barrelling into a mannequin. Hope gave her a look over his shoulder. "Well, you better not bitch about the dress I'm gonna be bringing you."

"Well, it better be the best and most princessy of all the princess dresses."

"Are you sure you don't want the slutty dress you tried on before instead?"

At this, Serah stamped her foot and made as if to punch him, and he quickly ran away, laughing.

Feigning an air of nonchalance, Lightning rose from the couch and followed after Hope. "You better get out of that dress," she told her sister over her shoulder. "Millie's waiting for you in the fitting room."

"Keep him in check," called out Serah as she headed back to change into another gown from the already big pile of choices they'd set aside for her. "You have my permission to beat him up as you see fit."

Lightning meandered down through the labyrinthine puffs of white among aisles and aisles of racks, wondering where Hope had disappeared to, and was only able to find him after he made an exclamation of triumph. Running towards the sound, she stopped, and with lips pursed and an eyebrow raised, she glared at the..._thing _that Hope held. Mustering a tone of finality into her voice, Lightning barked out, "No."

Wry amusement stretched the corners of Hope's lips as he appraised what hung on the hanger at arm's length. "'No'? Really?" Putting a hand to his chin in deep thought, he continued, "I don't know. I think it's got a certain...panache."

She rolled her eyes, wishing he'd put it back on the rack. "It's got something, alright," she muttered.

Ignoring her tone, he excitedly remarked, "Yeah, _sleeves_."

At this, Lightning had to turn away to hide the smile that was threatening to spread on her lips. Inhaling deeply in an effort to stifle the laughter that was on the verge of bubbling out, it took her a few seconds to compose herself enough to respond. "It's hideous. And as much as I hate Snow, I'm not cruel enough to subject Serah to the horror of wearing that."

"I think it's elegant."

She turned back to face him. "I want you to say that again with a straight face."

He laughed. "I'm serious."

"Uh-huh. Very convincing."

"Serah said she wanted a princess dress, right? Doesn't this look like it came out of a fairy tale?"

"Oh yeah, the old kind that ends in blood and tragedy. Put it away. I mean it."

He held the dress in front of her and she promptly pushed him back in mock disgust.

"C'mon, Light. Just bear with me, okay?"

At the puppy dog look he was giving her, she resignedly allowed him to pull her in front of a full-length mirror where he held the dress in front of her. She stared stone-facedly at her reflection.

"Aren't weddings supposed to be fairy tale-like?" said Hope, not really expecting an answer as he gazed upon her. "You can't get any more fairy tale-like than this dress."

Lightning sighed, stroking the material held over her torso. The dress was made from an iridescent, shimmery fabric with intricate beadwork and appliqué on the bodice. It had a sweetheart neckline, off-shoulder mutton sleeves, and a big poofy skirt.

Behind her, still holding the hanger, he asked, "What do you think?"

She frowned, a memory tickling at the edge of her mind as she took a closer look. "This dress reminds me of a movie I saw when I was a kid."

Hope snapped his fingers, taking the dress from her and smiling as he looked at it. "That's why this looks familiar. The movie's something about a girl who had to rescue her baby brother from the goblin king or something, right?"

"Something like that." She crossed her arms, exhaling in relief when he finally hung it back on the rack, following him as he scrutinized a display case of tiaras.

Having allowed herself to open up on what she and Hope _could _be, she couldn't help but feel unnerved that their beginning would be in, of all places, a bridal store. It was like an anvil to the head, and she couldn't help the minute flashes of images she kept getting of herself dressed in one of the gowns off the rack walking towards a particular smiling silver-haired man. Even worse, she kept imagining herself in the dress he'd held out to her, complete with a big pompadour hairstyle similar to the one the heroine sported from the movie the dress had reminded them of. She shook her head to drive the images out, doing it often enough that had said silver-haired man noticing the act and looking back at her worriedly.

She averted her eyes after the umpteenth time she'd done so and pored over a floral coronet, a finger absentmindedly tapping on the glass over it.

"Maybe real flowers would be nicer," remarked Hope.

"Hmm," she muttered noncommittally.

As he began to step towards the next case, she caught his sleeve. Startled, he looked back. "Light?"

"..."

Well, she had his attention, so now what? What made her grab at him like that anyway? She bit her lip, starting to become mad at her uncertainty.

He turned around fully and stepped into her personal space and lightly pressed his lips to her forehead. She didn't resist when he leaned down to catch her lower lip from her teeth so he could suck on it, her own tongue snaking out to lick his upper lip.

"What's wrong?" he whispered against her lips.

A sudden fierce longing squeezed her belly. _Damn hormones_, she answered in her head before giving in and wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him closer.

Heady satisfaction filled her at the sound of his moan against her mouth, feeling his fingers tangling in her hair. _More_, she thought. Her hands descended to lift his shirt from his abdomen, her nails lightly scraping at his skin.

A needling thought seeded inside her mind. _We shouldn't be doing this here, of all places. We could get caught_.

With a final nibble on his lower lip, she reluctantly stepped back, making an effort to straighten his shirt as she did so, although unable to resist tugging at his waistband.

"Tease," he murmured with a smirk, stepping back himself to keep her hands from wandering further.

She bristled, but only half-seriously, and primly cleared her throat. "So, how many other women have you proposed to?" The words burst out of her before she could really think about it.

Startled, Hope blinked, a little too dazed to process her question, and then felt abashed when it finally sunk in. "J-just you," he stammered, the warmth on his cheeks spreading to his ears. "I don't actually make a habit of just walking up to anyone and telling them I'm going to be marrying them, if that's what you're thinking."

A warm flutter unsettled her stomach, and she felt her toes curl up. _Maybe this isn't the right thing to talk about right now_, she thought. But still, she couldn't seem to help herself. "What made you say it?"

A wry smile twisted his lips and his flush deepened. "It was something I felt. I saw you, and then I just knew, and I couldn't help myself." He laughed. "You probably think I'm a sap or something—"

"Yeah, just a little."

They both laughed.

_Distance_, she thought. She walked around the glass case, keeping it between them to stop herself from reaching for him again, even going so far as to put her hands in her back pockets to hide the way they trembled in the need to touch him.

"Well...was it something about me in particular that made you feel...?"

A pensive look came over him, his mouth opening and closing a few times as he struggled to find the words. "It was... " he began, then cleared his throat and unwaveringly held her gaze with his.

"Everything. About you. I mean, you're beautiful. Something rich and strange that was borne out of the water, very earthly but at the same time, out of this world...and I just felt as though everything about me woke up. I felt like before that...I'd been asleep, just going through life like a routine. And then, there you were, and all of a sudden I was aware..."

Blinking, she tore her eyes from his. Her knees felt weak, as though if she held his gaze for longer she would melt. She didn't know what to make of his confession. There was a naïveté and earnestness to him that was fresh, but they were things that she hadn't had any experience dealing with in regards to herself. Was she truly ready for this? Other than knowing that she liked him and his touch and his kisses and the way he made her feel as though she was the only person in the room, as though she was beautiful, whenever he looked at her, she couldn't be certain of what else she felt about him. That he could easily talk of marriage and love, that he could get her to picture themselves in a fairy tale setting, when those were things she could not imagine ever applying to herself...

She had always held the philosophy that those were things that happened to other people, never her—but she realized that it was because she had never let any opportunity like it to come to her. Not since their father left them and their mother wasted away until she died.

A grain of fear ignited inside her heart. Fang had been someone who was safe for her; a friendly arrangement. Same with Jihl.

But all these awakenings of feelings—they felt exciting and novel, but most important of all, they didn't feel safe.

She didn't know how she would be able to deal with just feelings.

* * *

Hope's voice trailed off when she turned away, and he swallowed the rest of what he was going to say, feeling his own heart sink inside his chest.

He recalled what he'd told Noel earlier: that he and Lightning were trapped in a constant pull and push, start and fumble; there were moments when he thought everything was going so well, and then all of a sudden a storm would break over, and all progress made would be halted and they were back to where they began.

Maybe he was coming on too strong, that he was forcing his feelings onto her when she obviously wasn't ready for or welcoming of it. She seemed to like him well enough, and he couldn't deny that the sexual attraction between them was strong—and perhaps that was all she was ready for. He ought to just step back and take things slowly at her pace, let her lead. Beyond the two years he was given, he'd likely not have another opportunity like this.

_Think of this as a continuation of the experiment_, he told himself. _Bury your feelings for now since you're not on the same wavelength; it'll be easier that way. Less painful. And at the end of two years, well...better to love and lose, right?  
_

Fisting his hands so as not to reach for her, he decided to leave her to her contemplation. Letting himself get lost in the aisles, he absentmindedly poked and prodded various dresses, wondering half-heartedly why women went through so much for a dress they'd only wear once. Was it like an artwork, where, as the artist of the piece, the designer infused a lot of their own feelings into fabrics that rendered its wearer into an emotional wreck? He himself hadn't attended weddings much, and couldn't even begin to wonder how emotions could play into the ceremony.

Frowning, he wondered how serious Serah was in getting him to pick out a gown for her. He really hoped she was only joking around. Since he didn't know much about dresses, he hated to be the one who screwed up her dream wedding. And the dress from before—the one that reminded him of a childhood movie—that one hadn't really been a serious contender for the "princessy" gown she claimed she was after.

He looked up when he heard the tinkling of bells over the shop door, and moved towards the sound. His brother and Vanille arrived, hands full with the loot they'd promised to bring a while ago. Almost salivating, he gravitated straight towards the steaming paper cup in Noel's hand, snatching it from the younger man and downing nearly half of its contents before his brother could utter a sound of greeting or protest.

"Oh, that hit the spot," muttered Hope contentedly before gulping down the rest.

"Wow," said Vanille, blinking owlishly.

"Was thirsty," was all Hope offered as a response.

"Were you hanging around here just waiting to pounce on us the moment we came in?"

He appeared to think for a moment. "Something like that."

"By the way, you're welcome," said Noel drily.

"Haha, thanks," replied Hope, scratching the back of his head. "You didn't by any chance get me a second cup, huh?" He eyed the cardboard tray in Noel's other hand.

"No, that's all we got you."

Hope sighed forlornly as he stared at his empty cup.

"I'm surprised you didn't burn your throat the way you just chugged it down," remarked Vanille as she led them back to the couch.

"It wasn't even that hot," responded Hope almost begrudgingly as he sat down in his old spot.

"Well, we got busy fighting our way through a mob of Elida fans," grumbled Noel. "It's lucky we even managed to get to a coffee shop."

"Oooh, ooh, I caught a glimpse of her!" exclaimed Vanille excitedly. "She's so gorgeous! Kinda makes you wonder who would be fool enough to get her to write and sing so many songs about heartache." A thoughtful look came over her features. "You know, I never noticed before just how much she uses the word 'hope' in her songs. I mean, sure, it sends a wonderful message and all, but of all words, 'hope' is —" Her green eyes landed on Hope, and they narrowed into slits. Then she shook her head, laughing. "I just had the weirdest thought there."

The subject of her scrutiny raised an eyebrow. "Well, I think it's best that you keep that thought to yourself."

She stuck her tongue out at him, then addressed the figure behind him. "Hey, Lightning, I know you didn't ask for it but we got you something."

The older Farron took her previous place beside Hope and accepted the cup and the straw that Noel held out with a nod. "Thanks."

The four settled back down just as Serah stepped out of the fitting room in tears.

The spectators on the couch would've been alarmed were it not for the contradictory big smile that stretched upon her lips as she walked up the stage. She glowed, and Vanille couldn't help crying and smiling along with her, clutching her hands to her chest, while an expression of awe came over Noel's face. Marie followed the bride-to-be and arranged Serah's hair, placing a matching veil on her head.

"This is it," whispered Serah. "I found my dress." She covered her face as more tears flowed down, and Lightning stood to envelop her sister into a hug.

"You look beautiful," said the older Farron. "Mom would've loved to see you in this dress."

Serah tried to control her sobbing. "I know. As soon as I put it on, I just knew. It was like she was here with me."

While all eyes were on Serah, Hope's were on someone else. A smile had spread on Lightning's lips, full of pride and love, a glimpse of something rare and rich and radiant.

Something twisted inside himself, like a knife to his gut as he realized that it was a smile reserved solely for Serah, and he couldn't help the tug of jealousy in his heart.

_What I wouldn't give to see you smile at me like that._

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Sept/2012


	17. On Seduction By…

A/N: Thanks as always for still reading and sharing your thoughts about this fic :)  
Sorry for the lateness. I've had Bleach on the brain for most of last month, and it was kind of a trippy mental transition to go from writing extreme angst and deal with character death to writing fluff with some humour thrown in.

For Elida's song, you can sing along to the first stanza of "Real Emotion" from Final Fantasy X-2 :P  
(I was gonna use "My Hands" but my version really sucked and it was easier to replace words with _hope_ in "Real Emotion" *lol*)

Disclaimer: FF13 and its sequels are Square Enix's.

* * *

Antsy, with hands in his pockets, Hope fidgeted, shifting from foot to foot as he stood outside the entrance to M&M Bridals. The women were still inside: Serah was finishing up the paperwork, working out the payment method, and getting her measurement taken for the dress that she'd chosen, while Lightning and Vanille were browsing through the bridesmaids' section as they waited for her. Beside him, Noel stared at the store across, eyes skimming away when he felt his face redden, then attempt to surreptitiously gaze back at Ars Amatoria Love Shop. The younger man cleared his throat, and Hope's eyes darted towards him and he was given a slight nod towards the store.

Sucking in his cheeks, Hope looked behind him, finding the three women seemingly still busy inside the bridal shop, and gave an answering nod back to his brother.

Appearing casual, with Noel mutely whistling to himself, his hand was on the door to the love shop when they both felt a hand on each of their shoulders.

"And where do you think you're going?" Vanille asked in a sickly sweet voice. Startling them like this made her seem as though she had come out of thin air.

"Ahem," was all Hope could muster while beside him his brother's reply came out in a sputter of unintelligible words. Taking pity on him, Hope thought quickly and mentioned the first thing that popped into his head. "Inside to check out their boomerang display."

Over her head, Noel stopped stuttering long enough to frown at him. _That's the best you can come up with?_

She gave him a dry look. "Boomerangs. In the sex shop. What."

Hope shrugged, appearing nonchalant and just ran with the idea. "You'd be surprised at the kinky stuff they could come up with."

Blinking, unamused, she just crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow instead of voicing out her question, and he raised his hands. "Hey, I'm just saying that people who make sex toys are weird."

"Do I even want to know what kind of stuff you've done with your boomerangs?" Vanille grimaced, and shook her head vigorously. "You know what? Nevermind. I don't want to know. Is that why you collect them?"

"Didn't you just say you didn't want to know?"

"Okay! Shut up. I really don't. Eugh. How would you use it for _that_ anyway?"

"You just said—"

"Shut up!"

Hope placed his hands in his pockets, stifling his laughter. "Make up your mind."

"I really don't want to know."

"Then stop asking questions."

"Fine. I'm stopping."

"Or you might give Noel ideas."

At this, his brother finally snapped to attention and hit him on the head. "Fuck you."

He couldn't help but laugh, staggering away from the couple.

Surprising the two males, Vanille grabbed Noel by the arm and hauled him forward into the store. "Oh, all right. Might as well see the toys."

"Oh, so now you want to see their boomerangs, don't ya?" Hope quipped, chuckling at the rude hand gesture Vanille sent him as they disappeared through the door. And then he felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise. _Lightning_.

"Boomerangs, huh?" Her voice was low, husky, and so close to his ear that it sent shivers down his spine, making his stomach jump.

"Uh-huh." He suddenly felt as though his mind was suffused by a haze, making it difficult for him to concentrate or think clearly whenever she happened to be near. "I believe you felt my boomerang yesterday."

_Shit...I just said something stupid to add to all the stupid things I've been saying, didn't I?_

Despite the embarrassment that diffused the fog in his mind, he couldn't help turning to face her to see her reaction, and only then did he realized just how close she was as his nose brushed against hers.

If ever there was a single word to describe him, it was "know". His mind was but an empty vessel that he could fill with everything there was for him to "know". Learning things just came so easily. Reading, looking, seeking...sometimes he didn't even know exactly how knowledge came to him, only that it did, and it led him to a place, to Academia, where there was nothing else to do but learn and know.

But here he was facing a whole universe's worth of knowledge in a single person that his mind couldn't seem to fully encompass. What were her thoughts? What were her feelings? Why did a simple barely-there brush of her skin against his seemed to reduce him to mush?

Strung along by the incessant, ineffable _need_ to know everything there was to know about her, he felt his heart hitch and expand. And with a small grin playing at the corner of his lips, he asked, "Miss Farron, would you do me the honour of allowing me to seduce you with ice cream?"

Stepping back, she peered at him with a raised eyebrow. "Ice cream."

"I know a place that makes the meanest banana split, guaranteed to make you melt." He wiggled his eyebrows. "I'll even let you have three-quarters of the banana."

He was delighted to see the almost-smile teasing at the corner of her lip. _It's a start_, he thought.

An exaggerated sigh escaped her. "With an offer like that, how can I possibly refuse?" With a tilt of her head and a mocking flourish of her hand, she said, "Lead on."

Even though she hadn't intended for him to do so, he took hold of her hand, noting her startled expression, feeling bold and just a slight bit euphoric. _I just hope that ice cream place is still there or else I'll look stupid_. His brows furrowed as he tried to remember the direction to The Moogle Creamery, feet taking them out into the main promenade of the mall where they were greeted by what seemed to be the whole population of Palumpolum, singing along to the blasting loudspeakers.

_How can I hope for you?_  
_How can I hope for you?_  
_How can I hope for you?_  
_I can't reach you_

He felt his ears redden and his grip on her hand tighten, reminded all too well of last night's phone call, and had half a mind to turn back but for the throng that surrounded them making it nearly impossible to move anywhere but forward. But he pressed on, persevering through the thicket of people to a side gallery of small boutiques where a directory map stood at the centre, and headed for it. With a quick skim, he was relieved to find that The Moogle Creamery was still in the same spot, and mentally mapped out its location. Spying the escalators near the exit doors at this part of the mall, he led Lightning to them, relieved that she hadn't once tried to retract her hand from his.

Through the ascent, Hope couldn't help staring at her profile, green eyes glassy as they traced over the line of her nose, the curve of her cheek, and the wisps of her hair.

An amused smirk lifted the corner of her lip. "Watch your step," she warned.

"Wha—ooaaagh!" He stumbled as his foot caught on the top step of the escalator, and were it not for her hand in his he would've utterly lost his balance.

"I told you," she said with a bemused sigh, helping him right himself.

Cheeks aflame as he chuckled out his embarrassment, he mumbled, "Yeah, thanks."

Lightning brushed an errant lint from his shirt, and seeing the amusement in her blue eyes made his clumsiness seem worth it. "Your 'seductive techniques' need some work."

At this, he couldn't help throwing back his head and laughing out loud, tugging her along as he indicated the direction that they should head into. "The seduction hasn't started yet. Ice cream, remember?"

"Hmm, so that escalator ride isn't even part of the preliminary seduction?"

"Totally discounted. And I'd be much obliged if you forget that whole fail there. Or if not, then count yourself to be the one to blame for distracting me."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I wasn't even doing anything."

He bit his lip, chagrined. "Well, to be honest, you don't really need to be doing anything to distract me."

And then, she caught him by surprise when she stepped in front of him, halting him in his tracks. She grabbed him by the collar and gave him a series of quick pecks on the lips. "Fine, I'll let it go," she murmured, so close that he felt more than heard what she said.

"Thank you," he replied between kisses. His euphoric level was rising with each meeting of lips, and he was sure he was not alone in wanting to take things further. Even though this part of the mall was deserted—no doubt with most of the shoppers converged in the main atrium to meet popular idol Elida Karmic—he and Lightning were still in a public place, and for all that she wanted whatever was between them secret, continuing this here would defeat the purpose of keeping it as such. So it was with great reluctance that he drew away, nuzzling his nose against hers before smiling as he once again led her by the hand towards The Moogle Creamery.

* * *

Unusual from what he remembered, The Moogle Creamery was not packed up for a Saturday. The last time he had been back to Cocoon, Hope never liked coming by during the weekend because it was nearly impossible to find a seat and the lineup for even a takeout stretched outside the shop. He supposed he had Elida to thank for the nearly intimate ambiance The Moogle Creamery was exuding for this day.

Inside, the walls were painted in shades of pastel and the seats were shaped like moogles, cactuars, tonberries, and chocobos. He and Lightning took a table near the back, and he only took a minute glance at the menu before deciding what he wanted to order (that way he had more time for resting his eyes on someone more appealing to look at).

A frown furrowed her brows as she perused the menu. "They don't seem to have banana split in here."

"Oh, don't worry. They have their own special banana split."

She put down the booklet and leaned her arms on the small table between them, almost brushing his own. If she came forward a bit more she could easily kiss him again.

"So."

"So."

"Are you going to tell me just what I'm store for?"

"It wouldn't be a surprise now, would it?"

"At least give me a clue."

"Well, alright." Hope picked up the menu and opened it to the last page. "It's one of their specials."

Her eyes darted from the section he indicated and back to him. "Is it 'Final Heaven'?"

A smirk wormed its way on his lips. "Sadly no."

"Don't tell me it's 'Omnislash Version 5'?"

He couldn't help chuckling and just shook his head, listening to her finger tapping on the table as she perused the extensive list of specials in the menu.

"Somehow, I'm betting it's either going to be 'Last Resort' or 'Army of One'."

"How so?"

"Well, they're the only ones that have 'banana' listed as one of the ingredients."

Hope peered at their description. "Ah, but those are banana ice cream, not just the fruit."

The tapping stopped and she narrowed her eyes at him, and seeing this, he put the menu down and held up his hands in surrender. "Relax, you're in good hands."

At the mention of said body part, Lightning couldn't help remembering Fang's comment about them, and she inwardly cursed herself for the heat that was suddenly permeating her even as her eyes traced over their shape and size. She cleared her throat in an effort to prevent her mind from straying to the desire to go find someplace more secluded just to test how much in 'good hands' she was.

It was to her great relief that a waitress in a Moogle outfit bounced their way, offering welcome distraction.

"Hello, kupo! Welcome to The Moogle Creamery, kupo. Are you ready to order, kupo?"

Smiling, Hope replied, his eyes on Lightning, "Yes, we'll have one Limit Break, please."

The waitress's eyes rounded in wonder. "Wow, really? Sure, kupopo. Limit Break coming up, kupo."

Frowning, the pink-haired grabbed the menu and looked up said order. Upon seeing it separated in its own section, her frown deepened with each item she read. "You can't be serious," muttered Lightning.

"It'll be fine," reassured the silver-haired. "It'll be fun. Us working our way through it will give us plenty of time to get to know each other."

Her narrowed gaze turned to him. "I'm feeling like I'll be too busy getting an overdose of sugar to notice your seduction."

Laughing, he lightly ran his fingers in random patterns on her arm. "That's the power of the Dark Side. The Dark Side of ice cream."

A half-exhale, half-laugh escaped her, the corners of her lips stretching a little, and he felt the pitter-patter of his pulse at the sight of it. Her smile was small, barely there, but the way her eyes brightened and the crinkling at their corners made him feel as though he'd accomplished something grand, something so much better than getting magna cum laude at the Academy.

She cleared her throat again. "So..."

"So..." he repeated, putting his hand back down on the table.

Her eyes darted away from him as she scrounged around her scattered mind for something, anything, to talk about. Her gaze landed on the muted television perched in the corner near the ceiling, seeing a familiar news anchor on the screen while a headline flashed along the bottom followed by the image of the world below Cocoon. Turning back to him, she asked, "Do you miss being in Academia?"

Surprise lit his eyes, but before he could answer, she pressed on, "I mean, you've been living there by yourself for a long time, right? Being back in Cocoon must seem strange to you."

He shook his head. "No, not really. Academia's been home, but Cocoon is also my first home. There's been a lot of things that have changed here, but that's only to be expected. I couldn't visit often because it's far and expensive, but of the times I did manage to come back while I was studying, I did things that made the trip worth it."

"And you're going back down there?"

Hope bit his lip, nodding. "They made me an offer that I'd be a fool to turn down."

Her brows furrowed. "So you being back here instead of there taking this offer...?"

"It's them giving me time to think things over. The offer they gave...it's the most tenure of all tenure-y things, you might say. At least, by the Academy's standards."

Her elbows on the table, she perched her chin on her steepled fingers. "A job for life?"

"Yeah."

"So this job-for-life means you can't ever come back here?"

He appeared to think for a moment, making a clucking sound. "Hard to say, but for certain events or things, I think I'd be required to."

A heaviness hung in the air, and silence fell between them. Left to his own thoughts, he couldn't help but wonder if there was a smidgeon of disappointment he sensed in her voice, or perhaps it was simply his imagination. He felt as though he was standing at the crossroads of his future, split down between Lightning and Academia, when all he wanted was to have both.

For her part, there was a niggling in the centre of her chest, feeling as though she'd already lost something before she could even claim it. For most of her life, she'd gotten used to simply letting go of things that had passed on, not dwelling on their loss. But for once, she felt different. For the first time, she wanted to hold on to something that might prove to be more precious to her than anything she'd ever considered as important in her life.

The heaviness dissipated with the arrival of the waitress, plucking down what seemed to be a gigantic wine glass, and a look of horror briefly passed on Lightning's face.

"Kupopo-popo, please enjoy!"

Inside the glass bowl were nine scoops of ice cream (three of each of strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla); on top were sprinkled bits of mini-caramel creams, bite-sized tiramisu and brownies, tiny chocolate chips and chocolate truffles; over all of these were a liberal dose of hardened chocolate syrup and whipped topping, and of course, scattered all over were sliced pieces of bananas.

"Goddess Etro is gonna die," mumbled Lightning. "This _is_ mean. You're right. This is the meanest banana split I've ever seen."

"We can make it," said Hope, brandishing a spoon and already popping one of the brownies in his mouth.

Rolling her eyes, she picked up the other spoon sticking out from the...confection, feeling as though it was almost sacrilegious to mar the way it was expertly put together. She decided the scoop up the safest thing within her vicinity.

"Three-quarters of the banana, right?"

"You can eat as much as you want, whatever you want, you know," said the silver-haired with a laugh, breaking through the chocolate shell for the strawberry ice cream underneath.

At his example, Lightning succumbed, and went for the vanilla ice cream under the syrup. She had to admit, despite the overwhelming feeling it first imposed, Limit Break was delicious. While the sensible side of her was clamouring that it would take months to work all these sugary goodness off, the rest of her stopped caring and just let her enjoy herself.

Before she knew it, they were more than halfway through and still going strong, in between learning about each other, in between letting him in step by step and bite after bite into her heart, in between letting him see facets of herself that only a handful ever got to see.

Under the small table, their knees and feet were touching, playfully bouncing against each other as they were almost forehead to forehead leaning over the ice cream dish.

Slicing the last piece of banana, Hope pushed one half towards her before scooping the other into his mouth. After swallowing, he cleared his throat. "So, um..."

She made a humming sound as question as she chewed on the last piece of the fruit.

"Can you envision yourself leaving Bodhum to live someplace else? Like, um, Academia?"

Putting her spoon down, she reached for a serviette and wiped her lips with it. "I can't say I really thought much about leaving Bodhum. Never really figured there's much out there for me in places like Palumpolum or Eden, much less somewhere much farther like Academia."

"Ah. So that's a no?" His voice sounded small at the last word.

"Why?"

He couldn't help the loud gulp that issued from his throat. He couldn't very well scare her off by telling her he wanted her to come with him to Gran Pulse when it came time for him to leave. He didn't want to ruin things this early. And he had made his resolve, right? The one he decided on but seemed to always waver over. About first seeing how things would work out between them. This early in the game, she was only still just letting him in, but at any time she could up and close herself off again.

He made an attempt at being flippant, and shrugged. "Just curious." Straying his gaze from hers lest she see just how affected he actually was, his eyes wandered over her head to the other television set on the corner, and couldn't help grimacing when it showed Elida Karmic on the screen. Remembering last night and Lightning's reaction after he answered his phone—as much as it was painful, he wanted to clarify something with her.

"Light..."

"Hmm?"

"About last night...there's something I need to tell you."

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Nov/2012


	18. Not Supposed To But Going To Anyway

A/N: So when I first saw the shorter English trailer for Lightning Returns, the moment I heard Lightning's voice, and then Hope's, it was like my brain just shut down and I started flailing around, going "OMG my ship! OMG!"...which wasn't exactly the thing I should be doing at work ^^; In any case I just put the trailer on repeat and listened to it over and over (and actually listened to the words being said and not just the sound of voices to find that there really wasn't anything remotely shippy about it, but it was still Lightning and Hope so it didn't matter) whilst doing my paperwork and reports when visions of the ending of this fic came to me. Which is stuff I need to write down ASAP so that I can plan how to get to that point that the ending is in. It might be a while though and I can't really say how many chapters it will take to get there, so please hang in there.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Disclaimer: FF13 and its sequels are Square Enix's.

* * *

Silence. It rang, echoed, drowned out the white noise of the moogle waitress's chatter as she returned to take back the empty dish and ask them how everything was, leaving quickly as she seemed to sense the suddenly tense atmosphere.

Something inside Lightning froze, covering her in ice, and she couldn't help the frost that veiled her eyes as she gazed at Hope, suffused by a sudden coldness where a few scant seconds before she basked in warmth. What had happened last night wasn't exactly coitus interruptus, but nevertheless...

She watched his hand reach out across the table, hesitant, stopping a few centimetres from her arm.

"Last night...you mean the call," she remarked impassively.

"I'm sorry about the call—I mean taking the call while we were—"

"I was the one who said you should take it," she interjected, trying to keep her voice even, soft, knowing part of the blame was hers as well.

Hope bit his lip. "T-the caller was, um...someone...someone I used to care for a lot—I mean, I still care, but not as much as I used to—I mean—"

"Your ex-girlfriend."

Hope swallowed, eyes wide and worried. "...Yeah. But it's over between us," he clarified hurriedly, earnestly. "It has been for a while. She dumped me about a year ago, and I've made my peace with it. We were together for almost three years, but we'd grown into different people. We were heading in different directions. It hurt at first, but I've let it go."

The green eyes that bore into hers were sincere, supplicating for her belief, and she could feel herself thaw a little, and even went so far as to show it by laying her fingertips over his. Gratefulness sprang in his gaze.

"Last night wasn't the first time she called me," he continued. "But it was the first time I answered, and finally speaking to her made me realize that she hadn't seem to have been able to let go as I have." Emboldened by her touch, he twined his fingers through hers, squeezing gently. "I want _us_, Light, more than anything. I want you to know that. I mean, for a very long time I've been in love with you—I mean, even with her, you've been..." He trailed off, grimacing at the callous way he'd made himself seem, but pressed on. "I'm meeting her today to let her know that."

Little by little, Lightning felt the tension ease from her shoulders as she realized that this situation wasn't easy for him. And she herself hadn't contributed much to making things less difficult for him either. Resting her other hand on top of their intertwined hands, she said the only word she could think of, however inadequate it felt. "Okay."

"Light?"

"Okay," she repeated, exhaling, then elaborated, "Thank you, I guess, for telling me about this."

"It really is over between me and her."

"I understand."

"And I wasn't really expecting her to be here of all places."

Frowning, she couldn't help becoming curious. "What do you mean?"

Hope shrugged. "I just...well, I figured she has other, more important places to be than a mall in Palumpolum."

She couldn't help her lips from pursing. "What, is she some sort of celebrity or something?"

At this, a look akin to a deer caught in the headlights came over his features. "...I can't really answer that."

"Why?"

His other hand rose to scratch the back of his head. "I, um, signed a contract that says I can't talk about any associations, past or present, with her."

An eyebrow ascended over a sharp blue eye. "A contract."

"Yeah. Me and my family, really."

Obviously, she couldn't help but be puzzled over this predicament. Her gaze drifted to the television over his shoulder. On the muted screen flashed the image of a well-known singing idol, and on the scrolling headline was the news that she was spending the day in this very mall to promote her new song, "1000 Hopes". A frown furrowed Lightning's brow as a thought took root in her mind, her eyes running from the song title to the young man sitting in front of her, and then back to the singer on the screen. She slumped back in her seat, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of her. _It can't be_, she thought.

"No way," murmured Lightning.

"Huh?"

"Elida Karmic?"

"Um..."

"As in _the_ Elida Karmic is your ex?"

"Er..."

_It's too much of a coincidence for it not to be connected_, she thought. She recalled what she could hear of his side of the phone call last night, something about knowing where the caller would be, which turned out to be this very mall. And then she thought about what she'd overheard Vanille saying in the bridal shop, something about Elida's lyrics, a certain word that was always mentioned in any of her songs one way or another.

"You," said Lightning, and she couldn't help sounding dumbfounded. "You're the one she's always singing about."

Hope rubbed his face with his hands. "I can't answer that," he mumbled.

"I...I really don't know what to say."

Releasing an exasperated sigh, he dropped his hands on the table. "To be honest, I didn't know she was going to be here until Vanille started squealing about it in the car last night. I thought she'd be in Eden or something."

"Why would you think that?"

"You know, because that's where the studios are. I honestly thought she'd be up there filming some show."

Lightning couldn't help the surge of jealousy that rose within her. "So you are keeping track of her. I thought you weren't keeping in touch with her."

"No, seriously. She'd been calling me for a while now, but last night was honestly the first and only time I took the call. I just figured that, with her work in show business and all, she'd be at the place for it in Eden."

Disbelief over this whole ordeal still held her, and she couldn't help just shaking her head about it all. "So what's with this contract anyway?"

A tired sigh escaped him as he slumped forward, grabbing a serviette and proceeded to rip it into neat little pieces. "It's her talent agency. They're marketing her as this sweet and innocent idol, and I think she's only allowed to date someone that the agency approves of to maintain the image, so past relationships are to be kept secret or buried or something. That's why my family and I have to make it seem like we don't know her at all."

"And that was fine with you? You just happily went along with it?"

He looked up, green eyes direct and straightforward. "It's not like that, Light. She loved to sing. It's her dream to sing. And I really didn't want to get in the way of that dream. It was important to her. I mean, in the end, it had come down to a choice between staying with me in Academia or launching her career here in Cocoon, and I do believe she made the correct decision. The last thing I wanted was for her to regret choosing the wrong option. There really was nothing for her in Academia. I mean, all the stuff that she'd accomplished since coming back here in Cocoon...she wouldn't have been able to achieve any of that if she stayed down there."

After hearing all that, she honestly didn't know how she felt anymore. In some sense, a part of her envied his easily-given acceptance of his previous situation with the relationship with this former girlfriend. It was too logical, too precise, too generous that she couldn't help wondering how he'd truly felt for the other woman. From what she could gather, he hadn't loved Elida enough since he claimed that he had been in love with her, Lightning. On the other hand, he had loved Elida enough to let her go free. Would he be as easily accepting if things shouldn't work out between the two of them? Would he have this same kind of attitude if or when the time comes that one of them wanted to be free? At fourteen, upon first meeting her, he'd confidently walked up to her and said he was going to marry her someday. To Lightning, he seemed to be someone who could look into the future and see exactly where he would be in life, whose gaze was always forward; an attribute she couldn't help but want for herself since she could only see the present, the now. She couldn't imagine what her life would be like a few months from now; couldn't imagine where the two of them would be by then. She could only deal with things, with moments, one step at a time.

And at present, as her heart pounded in uncustomary nervousness that she tried to trample down with all her might, as her imagination ran amok with images of him and the other woman that made her heart curl up and ache inside her chest, the only thing to worry about in the immediate future was: "So when are you meeting her?"

He checked his watch, then shrugged. "I'm not sure. When she's done with the event. I didn't really ask."

Leaning forward with elbows on the table, she schooled her features free of worry or frustration, then reached over to poke his forehead. Startled, his worried gaze met hers.

"And afterwards, what then?" Her voice was low, subdued, utterly lacking the coldness she'd felt before.

His eyes softened and a small smile tugged at the corner of his lip as she drew him close with a hand bunched at his shirt collar. Against her lips, he answered, "I'm all yours."

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Dec/2012


	19. It's All About the Ruse…Uh-huh

Outside The Moogle Creamery, looking over the rail at the mass of people converged on a shining figure below, Lightning curled her fists reflexively. From where she leaned against the mezzanine, it looked as though the crowd hadn't let up at all, gathered in a messed up line that approached their idol with all the swiftness and urgency of a moving glacier that had all of ten million years to melt its way down a mountain. Usually she didn't really care much for any figures in the entertainment industry, only managing to snag up any news and gossip about them from snatches of conversation overheard from her coworkers and friends or even the television...but for this one in particular, she couldn't help getting her interest piqued. Perhaps it was the surge of possessiveness that gripped her that she couldn't help narrowing her eyes at a possible competition. And she hated herself for it; this wasn't like her at all.

There could be no doubt that the other woman was gorgeous and glamourous with her perfectly coiffed hair, meticulous make up, and figure-enhancing clothing. Despite herself, Lightning couldn't help comparing her own get-up of black lace-up vest, ripped jeans, and knee-high boots. A begrudging thought sprang in her mind that Elida's cheeks should've been stiff by now from all the smiles she had been sending to everyone that flocked to her. As the pink-haired slammed a fist into the palm of her other hand, she wondered what it would be like to punch that perfect little bitch, consequences be damned.

At this, she had to turn her face away, rubbing her forehead in frustration. What was wrong with her? She had never been the possessive type. _Protective_, yes, but nothing in her life so far had ever warranted a need for the annihilation of another party, especially when it came to relationships, how ever few she'd deigned to let herself have them. This jealousy she was feeling was really...for lack of anything else, petty.

On her shoulder, she felt Hope's lips, before his arms snaked around her waist, a finger teasing her belly button ring. Stiffening at the touch, it only took the deep, mostly private part of her a microsecond to protest before the rest of her shushed it, and she allowed her body to melt against his, a hand reaching up to intertwine among the silver strands of his hair, feeling his lips travel up to her neck and planting ghostly kisses near her ear. Inside her mind, she allowed herself a modicum of smugness that she had something in her grasp that the other woman no longer held. Lightning had never been one for public displays of affection; she had always been among those who would scoff with disapproval—but for this one time, to appease the jealousy brewing within her, she gave herself permission, eliciting illicit acts that under normal circumstances she would've been adamant against committing. Besides, down there all eyes were attentive towards their idol and up here there was only the two of them, so it was alright.

As he buried his face in the crook of her neck, scattering kisses up to her chin, he whispered, "Is there a particular place you wanted to go to?"

_Out of here_, she wanted to reply, leaning her head back and catching his lips, thoughts swimming around with the need to work off all the sugar she had ingested, and interestingly, the only activity that came to mind involved a lot nudity and sexual content, and she would take almost any place as long as it was slightly private. _What about his car?_ came the next thought. She had noticed that its windows were darkly tinted, and that she hadn't been able to see the interior when she'd stood outside that morning as she and the others waited for him. Quickly, she struck the thought down. She was sure the others would immediately notice the unmistakable smell of sex when they get back to it. Perhaps some other time.

She couldn't help releasing a moan, her stomach caving in with a hitched breath as he continued teasing her navel, fingers dipping a centimetre beneath her waistband. _Two can play this game_, she thought, smirking as she rolled her hips back and was rewarded with his surprised gasp and a hard evidence that his 'other brain' had thoughts that were running along a similar path as hers. Maybe it was being in a public place that was rendering them to let go of propriety, but surely if they went any further it would be contrary to keeping their budding relationship a secret, and it was that that had her finally turning in his arms and with her hands on his chest gently pushed him away.

Grasping the rail behind her, he stepped back at arm's length, wry chuckles escaping him.

Smoothing his shirtfront, she leaned up and swallowed his amusement, cutting it short and wringing a groan from him, her tongue swirling out to taste the residual sweetness of ice cream on his lips before dipping inside his mouth. Vaguely, she realized just how contrary this was as to why she had pushed from him just scant seconds before, and she ended the kiss before that decision turned entirely futile.

Lightning gazed up into pale green eyes, slightly dazed, before ducking under his arm and trying to even out her breathing.

He released a drawn-out sigh as he enlarged the space between them with several steps back, although keeping them connected as he took her hand. "You know, I can't tell anymore who is doing the seducing here," commented Hope as he began to walk.

She followed suit, matching his pace, her eyebrows rising in amusement. "So I don't need to wear fetishistic gear to seduce you, is that what you're saying?" the pink-haired quipped.

He turned to her, glazed eyes roving her form from head to toe, so heated that she could feel her own temperature rise and butterflies flutter in her belly. "Hmm, I wouldn't mind being seduced by you in fetishistic gear. It's only fair since I _did_ have to resort to using the ice cream card just to get you to myself, you know."

Briefly, she considered any number of nonchalant replies before settling with, "If you must know, it was well played. Who would ever turn down ice cream?"

"Who indeed?" He squeezed her hand as she intertwined their fingers together, raising it so he could kiss her knuckles.

In a comfortable, companionable silence, they walked, mostly window-shopping, sometimes even bothering to browse inside a store, still hand in hand. There was a kind of gratifying peace that had settled over them, Lightning realized, that was broken only when her phone rang, bearing a message from Serah about the next appointment, this time for the bridesmaid dresses. She sighed as she showed the text to Hope, regretting that their time alone together was hampered down by her promise to return to her sister.

In order to keep up the ruse, they didn't return to M&M Bridals together. Lightning headed in first, seeing the other three already at the counter. Serah looked as though she was experiencing an all-time high, a big giddy smile encompassing her lips, heaving a delighted sigh once in a while as she held her chosen wedding dress against her chest. Vanille was jumping and laughing along with her as they discussed possible hairstyles and jewelry and shoes to go with the dress, while Noel stood off to the side, looking for all the world like a lost little puppy. Taking pity on him, the older Farron sister walked to where he stood, and she received a frown in greeting.

"Hope's not with you?" asked Noel.

Startled, and more than a little vexed, she straightened her spine as she spat out, "What makes you think he's with me?"

The younger man held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa. Sorry. I mean—I just—I didn't mean anything by it, I swear. Sorry."

She huffed, feeling her heart beating wildly, suspicious of their own suspicions about her and Hope.

"Oh, Lightning, there you are!" greeted Serah, waving, and then releasing a pained whine as she handed her dress over to one of the proprietors of the bridal shop. "I wanted to take it home and wear it forever."

"There, there," comforted Vanille as she patted her best friend's shoulder. "You'll see your dress again. We took pictures of you wearing it, so you can always look at it whenever you miss it."

The younger Farron gasped, and covered her mouth. "I think I love that dress more than I love Snow."

Lightning was taken aback, but she quickly warmed up to the idea. "Well, then I give you all my blessing."

Serah sniffed, and actually, much to their surprise, wiped some tears from the corners of her eyes. "Hahaha, I figured you would." Closing her eyes, she clapped her hands against her cheeks and exhaled deeply. "Alright, now it's time for bridesmaid dress shopping."

"Yeah!" Vanille waved a fist in the air.

The lone male cleared his throat. "Is it really necessary for me to here?" The whole time, he had been begrudging Hope for having the foresight to stay away when he finally managed to escape, and repeated texts sent to his brother asking for rescue had received no replies. He couldn't help feeling more than a little betrayed.

"Of course it is," replied his girlfriend as she marched over and hooked her arm with his, dragging him to follow Marie's (or possibly Millie's) figure as she led them to the bridesmaid area of the shop.

Luckily, there had been a cancellation for this afternoon appointment (likely due to Elida's appearance), and so the M-sisters have been more than happy to let Serah fill in (as it would also mean more sale for them).

Upon entering this side of the store, they were greeted with such stark contrast from the bridal area with all the splashes of unnameable colours on display.

Vanille immediately released Noel as she ran over to the racks, already picking out dresses that caught her fancy. Lightning hung back, interested despite herself as she listened to Serah explain to Millie what she was looking for in terms of style and colour.

"Silver or grey," her sister was saying, "something that wouldn't clash with my maid-of-honour or my bridesmaid's hair, something flowy and would really complement my dress—"

"—do you want long or short?" asked the shopkeeper.

"Either or, like tea-length, maybe. I think that's what it's called—"

"You mean, halfway between the knee and the calf?"

"Yeah. Something classy, not trashy."

Millie laughed. "I'm sure we can find something. What about the bodice? Straps? Strapless?"

"Actually, I'm kinda liking the idea of one-shouldered, but I'm not opposed to having two straps."

"Hmm...alright, let's get looking, shall we?"

After hearing all that, Lightning couldn't help but stagger back, bumping into Noel in the process. It seemed that, like her, he would rather be any place but here. After mumbling an apology, she steeled herself. _This is for Serah_, she thought, _Might as well get this over with_. And, grabbing Noel by the arm and taking no heed of his yelps of protest, she stepped forward into what would pass as horror for her.

* * *

For all the nonstop ringing of his phone, Hope had only been cognizant of one particular message. For the last few hours, because of that one text, he had been making preparations for his companions, already having the prescience to figure out that his meeting with Elida would take longer than planned, what with the huge delay presented by her greeting her multitude of fans.

His shopping done, he made his way to the M&M Bridals, greeting Marie and being directed to the bridesmaid area. Although the space was smaller, the set up was the same with a small stage set at the centre, and comfortable seats in front of it that were occupied by Serah and Noel.

He tossed his car keys to Noel, startling the younger man. "Hey—what the—Hope, where the hell have you been?"

"Sorry. I just came to drop those off."

Picking up the keys, understanding dawned in Noel's blue eyes as he mouthed, _You-know-who?_

The silver-haired nodded. The younger man clucked his tongue and tried to look sympathetic.

"Wait," said Serah, "why were you dropping those off for, Hope?"

"So you can go whenever you're ready," was his prepared reply. He held up his newly acquired merchandise. "I just bought a hover board and figured I'd test it out."

"Hmm. You know I never pegged you for the physical activity type."

"Oh, Serah." To annoy her, he leaned over and ruffled her hair. "I never pegged you to be smart enough to be a teacher, but hey, surprises happen."

"Augh!" was her indignant reply.

Noel laughed, then reached over to punch his brother in the arm. Hard.

"Ow!" screamed Hope as he rubbed the offended limb.

"That's too low, bro," uttered the younger man disapprovingly. Plus, it was his revenge for Hope abandoning him to hours of sitting around and watching the parade of dresses and being expected to make useful comments. It was hell.

"Thank you, Noel. Serves you right, Hope. Hmph." Her pride appeased with Noel's act, the younger Farron crossed her arms and turned away from the offender.

At that moment, Millie appeared from the dressing rooms at the back, and announced, "Alright, Serah, here are the dresses you've picked out out of all the ones they've tried on. Come on out, Miss Bridesmaid."

Amidst much giggling and twirling in excitement, out stepped Vanille and up the stage she went.

"Here we have a V-neck Empire-waist with ruched bodice in silver chiffon, with a matching ruched band under the bust."

Noel showed his approval with a wolf-whistle.

"I absolutely love that dress," claimed Serah as she clapped her hands.

"You clean up nicely, Vanille," commented Hope, and he was graced with an eyeroll from the redhead, making it clear that no matter what he said her delight would not be erased.

"And now, here's Miss Maid-of-Honour," announced the proprietor.

The silver-haired felt as though the breath had been knocked out of him as he watched Lightning take her place beside Vanille.

"Here we have a one-shouldered silver chiffon gown with a crisscrossing of ruching and beaded detail on the bodice."

"Wow," was all he could say, not even caring that he couldn't keep control of his expression and that he had become the subject of three out of five people's laughter. As his gaze wandered up to meet Lightning's eyes, he could just make out a smile in them, and he couldn't help his own from fully breaking out. "Wow."

"Well, I say we have a true winner in that dress if even Hope is rendered speechless," remarked Serah, a knowing grin spreading her lips.

He couldn't even be bothered to come up with a rebuttal, settling instead with an extremely awed, "Wow."

_You're really beautiful, Light_.

* * *

Thanks for reading :)  
Apr/2013

Disclaimer: FF13 and its sequels are Square Enix's.

Too much shit going on in real life. Had to take priority. Hope you enjoyed reading anyway


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Final Fantasy XIII, Friendship, Romance