Sweet
Description: Sometimes all it takes is a simple moment to realize that you're falling in love with someone. HopexVanille.
"Hey, Vanille, catch!"
She turned her flame colored head just in time to see a yellow apple fly out of Hope's gloved hand. A broad smile graced her features, and she spun around to catch the brightly colored fruit. She gracefully finished her spin- a complete three-sixty- then playfully bowed for him.
The fourteen year old boy laughed as he approached her. Vanille pulled out of her bow to meet her friend's amused turquoise eyes.
"Nice catch," he complimented her.
She giggled. "Why thank you dear sir," she replied playfully.
Her emerald eyes watched him grin at her, before he took a bite of his own yellow apple.
She mimicked him. The apple tasted incredibly sweet. She then said, "I see you found my little hiding place." She gestured to the small, grassy alcove surrounding them.
"I was following you," he answered casually- after swallowing his food first. "I didn't want to listen to the others argue about where to camp tonight either."
The young woman discovered a comfortable looking spot of grass. She laid down on her belly, with feet in the air, and happily continued to snack on her apple.
"Fang and Lightning are both pretty stubborn, aren't they?" she asked her companion, just as he laid down beside her, copying her position.
"Yeah. They both just want to make sure everybody's safe though," he replied.
"True," she agreed. She leaned closer to him, and linked her arm through his before taking another bite of her saccharine fruit. "So, what do you want to do while we wait for them to finally figure out we're gone?" she asked.
She felt him shrug. "I don't know. We could just talk, I guess."
"Mmk," she was amenable to that, "Anything in particular you want to talk about?"
"Hmm… Well, I don't really know that much about your family. You know all about mine now, so it's only fair."
She giggled. "Okay. Well… let's see… I'm the youngest child of four. I had three older brothers."
"Three brothers? Wow, what was that like?" the silver-haired boy asked.
She felt another giggle escape her lips. "Crazy," she replied, "They were all hunters, like me and Fang, only they were all very competitive. They always tried to out-do each other. They all adored me though," she felt the smile creep onto her lips, "Between them and Daddy, I was always getting spoiled."
"What about your mom?" he asked.
She rested her head on his shoulder. "I never knew her," she answered wistfully, "she died giving birth to me."
"I-I'm sorry," he quietly stuttered. They were both mother-less children. It was just another thing they had in common- like their shared love for fruits...
It was her turn to shrug. "It's okay," she assured him, "women dying in childbirth was pretty common for us." She bit into her apple again, then smiled. "Daddy always talked about how she was the prettiest girl his age. He said I looked just like her- except my hair's a little bit lighter red. My brothers were all blonde, like Daddy."
"What about your eyes?" Hope asked as he leaned his silver head onto hers, "Who did you get those from?"
"Daddy," she answered, "Daddy's family has had green eyes for generations. Did you ever notice that Fang has green eyes, too?" She asked him.
She felt him nod his head in the affirmative. "I figured it was just an Oerba thing. So she's related to you? Is she your cousin?"
She pondered that for a moment. "Technically, she would be my second cousin, at least I think that's how it works. One of Daddy's cousins married Fang's dad."
"I guess that makes sense," he said quietly, obviously deep in thought, "I get now why the whole 'family' thing is so important to her."
"Mmhmm," the young woman responded, "Oerba's small enough, that we were almost all related somewhere down the line, though. Not like people on the Cocoon. There are so many people there," she continued rambling awe, "and there's so many different types of people. Take you for example," she said, taking his free hand into hers and lacing their fingers together as she spoke, "I've never seen anybody so young with hair like yours before!"
She giggled. "And your eyes…" she continued, turning her head just enough to meet with those turquoise eyes. "They're such a peculiar shade. One moment they look blue, but then when the light changes they look almost green… They remind me of the ocean…" she softly mused.
They were both silently staring into one another's eyes. They were lost together. Vanille didn't even know what they were doing until her eyes finally flickered down to the goofy half-smile on Hope's face. She wore the same silly smile. It was that moment, as she stared at his pale lips, that she realized: she wanted to kiss him.
She leaned her face forward, and she swore she almost did kiss him, but she swerved her head away. She made it appear as if she had merely wanted to lean her head against his again. She unlinked their fingers, and brought her hand up to cover her own lips as she giggled to hide these new feelings that threatened to bubble over.
"We both probably look like dorks right now, don't we?" she asked him, hiding in her joke.
"Uh… yeah, probably…" he dazedly agreed, as he unlinked their arms and took another bite from his almost forgotten apple.
She mirrored him, sinking her teeth into her own apple. She twirled the sweet fruit around between her hands.
What was she thinking? Was she crazy? Sure, he was only five years younger than her… physically at least. They were both teenagers who were thrown together by chance (or perhaps destiny?) and were forced to share the same fate… It all sounded pretty on paper, and their interactions with each other since being reunited definitely came off as sweet and- dare she think it?- romantic. However, the timing was wrong. It was all wrong, and Vanille knew it. Hope had just barely begun puberty- his voice had changed, yes, but that was about it. He probably wasn't even at a stage of his life yet where he could even think about girls romantically- none-the-less her. He liked to tease her with his sweet comments, but he probably didn't even realize the effect that he, apparently, had on her. She was falling head over heels for him.
She rolled over onto her back and sighed. "Maybe in a few years…" she mumbled quietly to herself.
However, she was still close enough for her companion to hear her…
"'Maybe in a few years' what?" he asked, with confusion etched onto his smooth, pale face.
She giggled, and bit into the yellow flesh of the apple once again. "Oh, it's nothing important," she answered, "I was just thinking how it would be fun if we could still hang out like this, just you and me, even when we're all grown up."
He scooted closer, apparently he already missed their previous close proximity. "We will," he affirmed, "Even if we're living in different places, I'll buy you a phone so we can talk whenever we want."
"Sounds good to me!" She giggled, then finished off the last bit of her sweet fruit. As she gently tossed away the apple's core, she raised her free pinky up to him and said, "Friends forever?"
He smiled, and linked his pinky into hers. "Yeah… even if it is a cheesy concept," he joked.
Vanille giggled, and watched Hope as he finished eating his own sweet, yellow apple.
Yes. She could wait to make him hers. But just because he was too young now didn't mean that she was banned from some harmless flirting, right? Right. And perhaps the seeds were somehow already planted in his head, and all she needed to do was continue to be herself, and be affectionate with him. He was a smart boy. He would figure it out eventually.
Hope tossed away his apple core and laid down on his back as well. Just as his light teal eyes turned to stare at the clouds in the sky, Vanille closed the distance between them. She felt his eyes watch her as she lifted his arm up so that she could sweetly snuggle up against his side. Once her head rested comfortably in the crook of his neck, she moved his misplaced arm so that it rested on her waist. He didn't speak a single word as she rested her arm across his chest and closed her eyes. He didn't move an inch. Apparently she wasn't going to be rejected. Might as well take a nap.
The last thing she remembered was the feeling of his free hand resting on the soft skin of her upper arm.
When Vanille awoke, dawn was almost upon them. She was still snug within Hope's sleeping arms- only now a blanket was draped over them. She moved her head just enough to peer around them in the dim early morning light. The grown-ups all laid around them, sound asleep.
They must have been asleep for a good, long while, because it had still been late afternoon when she and Hope had curled up together. She felt wonderfully well rested. The redhead carefully extracted herself from the boy's arms, and deftly wandered to the alcove's exit. She found a good spot up against a rock formation, and sat down to watch the sunrise. She wore that goofy smile again.
"So let me guess," whispered Fang as she came to sit beside Vanille, "you fancy the boy, don't you?"
"Is it that obvious?" she responded, still smiling. She really wasn't surprised that Fang had heard her leave and woken up as a result. The older woman was always a light sleeper.
"Well," her best friend replied, "only because I've known you your whole life. So tell me," the tall woman gently patted the shorter one on the hand, "what is it about Hope that makes him more special than any of the boys back home?"
Vanille felt herself shrug as she stared at the rising sun. "I don't know. I guess he's just… sweet."
~fin