Hello readers, my name is FerusOlan. I'm happy to introduce you to this story.

I've always loved this pairing. Hope and Lightning are so close throughout the games and they really compliment each other well. The feelings they had felt so real and dynamic, and I was sad to see it all end.

Many fans believe the pairing to be canon, and I could see it too, especially after xiii-3's ending. Despite the qualms against Lightning and Hope, my own included at the time, given a few more years alive under my belt and my perspective on age differences has changed. I know now that feelings, passion, love, and to truly care for someone supersedes any predetermined notion of sex, race, culture, religion, and yes, even age. This is especially true in the world of fiction.

Rated M for language, sexuality, and some violence.

1

At Least I'll Try

Hope sat on the asphalt letting the peach red sun blast his face. He clutched the knife Lightning gave him years ago. He remembered the day he first received it. It was perhaps the first gift of his life that had real meaning. He had given it back to her, but she regifted it to him the day he moved in with her. He kept it with him everywhere he went, any time of day. It was a constant reminder of someone dear to him, someone he was afraid to be without.

Hope's knuckles played with different colors as his fingers clenched around the sheathed knife. He gazed into the setting sun and reminisced the countless sunsets he shared with Snow, Vanille, Fang, Sazh, and especially Lightning. During the days following the Purge, he remembered watching many sunsets with them. One by one the party would return to where they set up camp to rest. At the end of the days, witnessing the setting sun, it was in those moments that he was reminded of his mother. The fading of the sun and the light and life it gave always reminded him of watching his mother fall from Hanging Edge. With each passing moment, he became more and more separated from the reality she was once a part of.

Whenever he wasn't fighting PSICOM or Pulsian monsters his mind would replay those dreaded seconds over and over and over. As the sun would finally set and the light of the sun vanished beneath the horizon, so too would his hopes of finding peace with his mother's death. With each passing day of running for his life and fighting for what little of it remained, Lightning took more notice of her newfound partner's turmoil. Many times they found themselves together and separated from the others. Those days, when they witnessed the sunsets, she could see the pain and the dread in his eyes. It was in those moments that she too wondered if the sun had set for good on their hopes of peace. Would she see Serah again? Would she succumb to the l'Cie curse she now bore? She prayed to see the sun again, to know she would have another day, another chance to fight again.

Hope remembered those days and the hopelessness he felt until Lightning had given him her knife. It was a gesture, a caring, and personal one. Lightning rarely engaged in those kinds of things, something he knew well. He felt accepted by her in those moments, and he felt protected and engaged. The first time, Lightning embraced him, and she told him she would watch out for him. He tried to reciprocate the gesture, but it was all he could do: try. She understood him. She understood what he was trying to promise. He felt understood, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he felt loved by someone.

Hope's mobile stirred him from his dreams of the past. The sun was now fully set and tucked away. What felt like warmth from the sun had become cool goosebumps that accompanied the night. A simple message displayed on the screen. Hope picked himself up from his place on the ground and trudged toward the doors of the building his back had rested against. Less staff and fewer people were inside than when he had first brought her in. He proceeded to the elevators and called for an upward lift. He stepped inside and hit the button for floor 4th-floor northeast ward: recovery.

Her room was not far from the elevator doors, in fact, it was the first room in front of them. The panel read 2, then read 3. An eternity and an eternity again passed before the display read "4". He moved forward, still gazing at the panel and smacked his forehead in the door in his impatience to wait for them to open. When they finally did, he saw her, he saw Lightning lying in the hospital bed. He saw Serah and Snow standing outside the door with little Nellie in Snow's arms, her sleeping head buried into his father's broad shoulder. Sazh had draped himself over a bench a few paces away, his mouth wide and producing the sleeping noises of a behemoth. Vanille and Fang were sitting together on the floor next to the doorway. Serah and company turned their gaze from the woman lying in the bed in the room to Hope stepping out of the elevator, at least those awake enough did.

"Hope!" Serah exclaimed, "Thank heavens you came."

Hope did his best to keep a smile as he approached the younger Farron. "Of course. It's Lightning, of course, I'd be here for her." Despite the sincerity in his words, he immediately understood how they sounded. Hope tried to hide the redness in his face while Fang playfully scoffed and Vanille chuckled into her hand all followed by one of Serah's "Oh Hope, you sweet young man" routines.

Snow, uncharacteristically, tried to come to his rescue. "Leave the kid be, he's just trying to do right by sis," He said.

Vanille's chuckles became more boisterous as Fang retorted Snow. "Bout damn time! I think we'd all like to see that."

Vanille's heavy chuckles turned into bellied laughter making Hope turn a deep seeded, hot red.

Snow threw his arm around Hope,"Sorry kid, I tried to help".

"Gee, thanks a bunch, Snow," Hope said with a hint of sarcasm. Vanille's laughter woke Sazh who fell from his bench. After picking himself up, he rejoined the others.

"What'd I miss?" He asked.

Fang was the first to answer keying in on Hope's supposed Lightning complex. Hope laughed with them as they did to hide the pain he felt in those words. It's not a "complex" he thought to himself. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was hurting him and that it wasn't something he could laugh at. The gang had always ribbed Hope about his questioningly intimate relationship with Lightning, but since his last birthday, they had become a bit more aggressive. At least Fang had.

Serah approached him. "Thank you for bringing her here when you did and as quickly as you did too. The staff here said you were pretty competent and hands on keeping her stable," She said to Hope, "The GC has taught you something pretty handy".

He assumed a humble posture bringing his hand behind his head. "I just did what she would have done for me," He replied.

Fang, without the comedic tone in her voice this time, said,"That's right Hope, and she knows. She's been calling for you since you brought her here and called us. She wasn't too thrilled with you bringing her here and then taking off like that."

Hope let his eyes find the tips of his boots. "I know."

Being together as a group like this again made Hope think of the past. After the purge and their final struggle, Lightning settled on the idea of taking Hope home with her. At the gang's first real reunion following their victory, Hope had boldly proposed that he should live with Lightning. His father struggled with the idea at first, but after all Hope and Lightning had been through, he was in no position to argue. Despite Light's verbal resistance to Hope's cohabitation proposition, Bartholomew noticed the change in her eyes when he had first dismissed the idea. It wasn't the first time he had seen pain on someone's face. Hope was much easier to read. He had actually started to cry a bit. Granted he was younger, but his father couldn't help but feel Hope was being unnecessary. When Light tucked him into her arms and began consoling him, promising to call him every day and visit often, he caved.

"He's in your hands I guess," Bartholomew had told her.

"Really?" Hope asked ecstatically, "Are you sure?"

"We'll discuss this when the time comes, Hope. For now, I see that it would be best...I think," His father replied, slurring his words as he noticed Lightning's death grip on his orange jacket as she tucked him away between her arms.

"I'll do my best," Lightning told Bartholomew, "He's like a...well no...he's dear to me, sir. I won't let him go." As she said those words, she could feel Hope's arms constrict tighter around her waist. She noticed Snow watching the two intently and couldn't help but think he was thinking something he shouldn't, and that his thoughts would manifest into words he shouldn't say to someone he shouldn't have said them to whether in her presence or not. She feared more for the latter.

Lightning assumed a quasi-guardian-like role in his life. As broken as Hope was, he was stronger and more independent for his experiences. However, he never felt quite enough for her. She stayed in the service after the Purge. Seeing her leave their apartment for a mission and wondering if he'd see her again drove him crazy for four years. He would stay up late, or at least try to, so as to see her when she returned. When she found him waiting at the door or passed out on the couch, she would scold him, sometimes harshly. She reminded him of his duties, of school, and keeping himself healthy. Despite her best efforts, even in the early hours of the morning when she did return home he would still bring her night clothes and make her something to eat or at least bring her a drink before helping her battered and broken body into her bedroom.

Once he was old enough, with his "guardian's" well-coaxed permission, he joined the Guardian Corps. He claimed it was all a sense of duty to protect others, or even to support her during her service but he knew he needed to be stronger. Light proposed that Hope should go to school. His father's new Academia had some excellent opportunities to do so, but Hope was insistent. He needed to be stronger for her. He made a 'futile promise' he thought, he promised to at least try to protect her. Now, as his feelings changed, that was not even close to good enough. Upon completing GC basic, he requested station at the same base and her. She was the senior non-com officer, becoming a warrant officer quickly due to her knowledge of Pulse and ability to train those under her, and he was a lowly corpsman. As a corpsman, it was the closest to being a medic in the same manner he once complimented Light when they first fought side by side. Despite his best efforts, they had yet to be deployed together.

Even when his work was completed and it was late in the night, he would wait for her outside the command building. His presence, no matter how many times he would wait for her, always startled her. He would salute her, she would salute back, exchange formal greetings, and then make their way off base to the transit stop toward their apartment. They rarely spoke on base and never eluded to their shared domicile. They did so partly because of their positions, but partly because sharing the apartment in secret, even the idea of it in secret, made it more personal and cherished to them. As time went on, Hope or Lightning, especially on the harder days, became bolder with each other when they got on the tram. They would occasionally embrace. Hugging wasn't abnormal. They needed each other. They trusted each other, and at the end of a bad day, it felt good to be needed and trusted by someone again.

Hope peered into her room and gently turned the doorknob. He walked in while removing his standard issue cap and jacket, placing them on the chair closest to the door while seating himself in the chair closest to the bed. She rolled over, facing him.

"Hope..." Came a pale response to his presence.

She turned her head toward the door to see Serah and company peering their heads in. Serah alluded,"I think we're gonna head out then, give you guys some time".

Serah mushed her companions away towards the elevator, much to Fang's and Vanille's discontent.

"You really need to take care of yourself," Hope began, "The doctor said something about vaso-syncope and also a potential nutrient and solute deficiency. You weren't responsive so they tried moving your extremities a bit to increase blood flow. You became more coherent with the IV fluids and liquid nutrients to stabilize sugar and solute levels but there was concern considering you weren't..."

"Hope, Hope, I know, I know," She interrupted. She raised her arm, showing the IV insertion and pointed to her tray with a strangely viscous drink on it.

"I waited for you outside the command building as usual but you never came out. I went inside and found you passed out in the non-com pool of desks and I panicked when I couldn't get your attention. You were cold and your lips were blue and…" He trailed as he pressed his face into his hands in helpless frustration, "I was afraid. I hadn't seen you like that since taking those airship blasts during the purge".

Lightning sighed as she let her head sink further back into her pillow. "I was just exhausted Hope, we all have our moments, you know? Gotta eat more, sleep more, worry less, and so on..."

He sighed as he lifted his head away from his palms. He pulled his seat closer to her and glanced up at the door and window. It was late, no one was there. He knelt onto the floor and draped his left arm over her waist with his right arm cupping the back of her head as rested his head against her shoulder. He could feel her heart beat faster as well as his own. He pulled away, clearing his throat and looking away, blushing in confusion. This was a new feeling to him or at least the first time he became aware of it.

*Ahem* "Anyway, the doctor said you should be able to go home as long as you commit to resting for a while. He's a solid guy, an ex-military doctor who I guess knows your immediate superior so he was able to convince him to give you a few days," Hope explained while twirling his thumbs, "And since I have time coming up tomorrow I thought that...umm..maybe we could...I guess..if you maybe want to.."

"Sure, Hope. Just you and me," Light replied, face emblazoned with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. Hope reciprocated her smile with one of his own and replaced himself at her bedside. She ran a hand through his hair while he stroked his thumb across her abdomen. He began to feel tired, very tired. As he let sleep overtake him, he cherished one of the few moments in which he knew when he would wake, she would be there by his side safe and sound one more time.