A/N: This drabble was based on a dream I had some months ago. In that dream, Hope was in his 14-year-old body from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and so I had a headcanon in which he didn't get back his adult body at the end of the game. It was written before the novel was released so we know what happened to him, and some of these stories revolve around this dynamic. You may consider it a possible alternate ending.
Fragments of Time
Twilight
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Lightning Farron's icy-blue eyes slowly opened in the dim light of the twilight that came through the window. She stirred lazily on the bed, still sleepy. She loved to enjoy the peace she had finally found in the new world.
She slightly moved her head to the window. There, silhouetted against the reddish light, was a slender teen around fifteen, almost sixteen, with messy silver hair and soft, sweet features. His loose white shirt and gray pants made him look older than he was.
Or maybe that's what Lightning thought, since she knew the secret of the soul the boy who lived with her harbored.
The teen turned to her when he noticed she was awake. A warm half-smile spread across his face, which seemed to light up when he laid eyes on her.
Lightning thought there was nothing more beautiful and mesmerizing than Hope Estheim's smile.
As if he read her thoughts, Hope's smile widened. He turned to the window and carefully downed the orange-colored fabric blind, which under the light of the sunset tinged the room with amber shades.
In that warm penumbra, Lightning delved into the sight of Hope's frame. Her heart was pounding, something that only this boy had managed to do. He turned to her again, with that smile that absolutely captivated her. She was trapped in his net.
Hope moved towards her, climbed into the bed and, still smiling, he got on top of her. Lightning couldn't help but lose herself into the loving stare of his green eyes, her heart beating rapidly and her cheeks dyed scarlet. She let out a content sigh as she felt the boy's breath next to her ear.
"How was your nap?", Hope whispered to her; his sweet, caressing voice, deep like an adult's, sent a shiver down of her spine. She needed to hear his voice every day, so close and warm: it reminded her that he actually was an almost twenty-seven-year-old young man, who was so much in love with her as she was with him.
"Pretty niceā¦", Lightning replied in the same tone, sighing when she felt Hope's lips gently grazing her earlobe, and then going down her neck. "The only thing left for being completely perfect was you."
He softly chuckled, slowly trailing his lips along her jaw, the soft curves of her cheekbones, tracing every line of her face, before pressing them on Lightning's lips, caressing them gently and gingerly with his, briefly pulling away every few seconds to let the young woman catch her breath before kissing her over and over, drinking into the happiness and joy of being together at last, after so many centuries separated in time and space, in this new beginning.
"Here I am."
