Be Mine

It was that time of year again; Hope Estheim knew this without even bothering to check a calendar. He had felt it the moment he had entered school that morning and seen his classmates being more twitterpatted and obnoxious than they normally were. And that could only mean that Valentine's Day was soon to be upon them.

Hope scowled inwardly, glancing upwards from his purposefully isolated seat in the cafeteria. It was all around him, Student Council had made sure of that, and there was no escaping from it. Everything in Hope's sight was red, pink, or white, starting with ridiculous quantities of ribbons, streamers, and heart shaped items and ending with the enormous poster that took up half of the cafeteria wall. How had the school administration even approved of this gaudy display?

Shaking his head, Hope gazed back down into the pages of his beloved physics book and tried to tune out all the commotion and excitement. But that was a fat chance.

What was it about Valentine's Day anyways that made everyone lose their minds? It wasn't even a real holiday; it was just a date in history that Hallmark decided to exploit. But did anyone seem to pick up on that?

Apparently not.

Hope really didn't mean to seem like the Grinch of Valentine's Day, but for years the existence of this pointless holiday had bugged him to no end. For the entire day, couples would be swooning over each other with ostentatious displays of their supposed love for one another. The day was made out to seem so romantic and magical, but Hope failed to see this completely. The boyfriends, at least from what Hope had seen, always just went through the motions of what they thought they were supposed to do to please the women in their lives; buy chocolates, flowers, and a sappy, unoriginal Hallmark card. "Oh," Hope imagined one saying, i"I want to tell you how much you mean to me by buying your affections and using other people's words in a card millions of others have no doubt bought." What?! How was that in any bit amorous or sentimental? But even still, those stolen words of adoration made girls left and right swoon. Then there were the people that went absolutely berserk with gift flowery, and Hope had always felt that these were the couples who were just trying to compensate for love itself.

Hope had given up trying to argue with this logic at this point.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if the holiday wasn't so commercialized to the point where people everywhere felt obligated to do or buy something extraordinary. Just a simple gesture was all it took. Or not even. Shouldn't people always be celebrating the people they love?

But in this day and age, that simplicity was unfortunately a way of the past. And for that reason, Hope wanted to have nothing to do with Valentine's Day.

Hope shook his head to rid himself of his infuriated thoughts and went back to doing homework. It was always so therapeutic, and for a good minute or so it gave Hope an escape from the pandemonium around him. Hope tensed, his senses detecting the distinctive abrasive stride and booming voice from the other end of the cafeteria heading in his direction. He rolled his eyes with exasperation, pretending to busy himself in his work as Snow Villier neared.

"HEEEEY!" Snow, the burly, six-foot tall football player called out to Hope, grinning as he unhesitantly grabbed a chair to sit. The chair scrapped clamorously across the floor, stopping once it was practically centimeters away from Hope's. Snow plopped down in the chair, sitting in it backwards with his muscular arms folded against the chair's back. He slapped Hope on the back in casual greeting. "Hey there little man, how's life treating you?" Snow grinned jovially, acting like the two of them were long time best friends. He seemed blindly unaware of the fact that he was uninvited at this table or that the sole person sitting here wanted nothing to do with him.

Finally glancing up, Hope gave him a pointed glare, instantly inhaling Snow's potent cologne. Gagging inwardly, Hope tried to keep a straight face as he stared tiredly at Snow. "What Snow?"

Snow removed his hand from Hope's back and refolded arms. "What kind of way is that to great me huh?" He chuckled to himself, again not noticing Hope as he rolled his eyes in aggravation. Regardless, the real reason for Snow's visit came tumbling out not a second later. "Alright, man, listen, you gotta help me! You know that term paper you didn't do for me. Yeah, well I had to do it myself and it came out like shit." He grinned almost at that, as if he were proud of the fact, "But now they tell me I can't go to the Winter Ball if I don't pass it."

Hope frowned. Well that sucks for you, he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue as Snow went on.

"So just fix it for me. I mean don't make it obvious that you did it by talking about astero-blah blah or crap. I just need a C to pass this, and I think they'd be able to buy that, don't you think." Snow grinned cockily, tapping his temple with his index finger, "Trust me, I figured all this out. We have to make this look authentic."

If authentic is what you're going for, even the C is a bit of a stretch, Hope thought to himself, trying not to laugh. He cleared his throat however and spoke up. "Snow, we went through this. I'm done doing your homework for you."

Snow frowned, "Yeah, and you only decided to do that once Vanille told me off about it."

Hope tried not to let his lip turn up in a smile at the memory of that. He sighed, "That's beside the point. I have too much homework of my own, never mind yours."

"Please, Hope, buddy, you gotta," Snow beseeched his voice growing louder as he went on. He was desperate at this point. "I promised Serah I'd take her to the Winter Ball and she's already bought her dress and everything. Do you have any idea how pissed she'd be at me if I screwed up her plans? Don't do it for me, do it for Serah!"

Hope groaned, idly glancing across the cafeteria at the large rectangular table were Serah and the rest of the Student Council were selling Winter Ball tickets and candy grams for Valentine's Day. Regrettably, Hope liked Serah and thought she was a nice enough girl. Granted she had poor choice in men, but she shouldn't be punished because of that when she had worked so hard to plan this dance.

Unable to meet Snow gaze, Hope glared off into space. "Fine…" he said in a tight voice, fumes practically sizzling off his words.

"Oh damn Hopey, you da man," Snow grinned, almost expectantly as if he had known all along that he would get Hope to cave. Then again, that was usually how it went. "I'll pay you back for this."

"Mmhm," Hope hummed, not the slightest bit convinced.

"Seriously though," Snow said, leaning away from his chair as he fished around in his interior coat pocket. He retrieved a crinkled, demolished mess of folded paper that was in scrutinized in a sea of red correction pen and handed it to Hope. Hope presumed it was Snow's term paper. "You saved my ass from possibly one of the worst Valentine's Days ever."

And wouldn't that have been a shame, Hope thought sarcastically.

"But just don't let your girlfriend know about this okay?" Snow added quickly, "I don't feel like having any more girls getting pissed off at me."

Hope almost laughed at the second half of what Snow said, but he was too busy fighting back the blush swelling his entire face. He must have looked like one of those love struck teenybopper girls who were obsessed with One Direction. But then the real mortification hit him when he realized that Snow had addressed Vanille as his girlfriend. Where had he gotten that from? Sure, Hope was practically in love with the girl, and they had kissed once, but they certainly weren't dating. If someone as dense as Snow had picked up on their romantically awkward relationship, what did everyone else think?!

"Vanille is not my girlfriend," Hope mumbled in a low, indignant voice. He hoped that his tone would dissuade Snow from the notion that Vanille and he were dating.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say," Snow went on dubiously, "Like you're not going to buy her chocolate and flowers on Valentine's Day. Right."

Hope wanted to punch Snow in the face, but he knew he'd be crucified if he did as much. So instead he repeated his prior statement in the same grumpy tone. "Vanille is not my girlfriend."

"Well what the hell are you waiting for then little man?" Snow bellowed at him, slapping him brotherly on the back again. Hope knew Snow meant it in a harmless gesture, but still his entire body was enflamed in pain from Snow's blow. Hope grimaced and suppressed the cry of discomfort rising in his voice, instead scooting his chair a good foot and a half away. Unfortunately, Snow leaned across the table towards Hope.

"Seriously, you guys aren't going out yet?" Snow pressed.

Hope frowned, but said nothing. It wasn't his business anyways.

"And what, your going to send her some dumb anonymous candy gram on Valentines Day?" Snow shook his head, "Seriously, she's into you so ask her out already. Impress her on Valentine's Day, and then she's yours." Snow open his hands, "Simple."

Hope rolled his eyes, "There's no point in impressing her on Valentine's Day. It's just a dumb holiday. I wasn't planning on getting her or anyone anything."

"Woah, ho, ho, stop right there." Snow fixed a stern expression on his face. "Not getting a girl anything on Valentine's Day is a suicide. If you ignore her that day, you might as well ignore her for the rest of your life."

"I doubt that," Hope countered dryly.

Snow shrugged, "Well hey, suit yourself. But I'm telling you from personal experience that girls get extremely sensitive on this day. Even if you hate the holiday, if you like the girl enough, you suck it up and just do it to please her. Relationships are about sacrifice after all right?"

Hope frowned. "I didn't ask for your advice," he snapped moodily.

Snow grinned endearingly, "Well clearly you need it." He shook his head in comically dismay, "Man, oh, man for a smart kid you are really dumb when it comes to women."

Hope frowned, feeling completely humiliated at this point. But even still, Snow's words had managed to slither into Hope's mind, and now poisoned his once unyielding determination to boycott Valentine's Day. Hope had always despised the idea of conforming to his peers. But if he didn't, what would the ramifications of that entail regarding Vanille? If Hope didn't do anything for Vanille, would she understand his personal vendetta against this holiday, or would she feel that Hope was simply rejecting her. Hope would hate for that to happen. But here was no way of knowing if Vanille was one of the girls, few and far between, that wouldn't be bothered. So was it worth taking that risk? Maybe after all, Snow –curse the day– was right…

"Ahh," Snow broke through Hope's thoughts, grinning arrogantly as he took notice of Hope's pensive expression, "It's okay little man to be wrong. I mean, it's about time I get to prove I'm smarter than you right?"

Hope frowned and gave Snow a pointed glare, hoping his angered stare was enough to speak for him.

Snow chuckled, roughly messing up Hope's hair before he stood. "Best of luck to ya and your lady friend. And make sure you get me a passing grade on that paper." And with the flash of his Hollywood smile, Snow Villiers was gone, hurtling through the cafeteria so he could go make-out with Serah.

Hope rolled his eyes, lazily looking down at Snow's term paper again before tossing it aside and succumbing to his obsessive thoughts of the vivacious redhead whose radiant smile never left his mind.

"Vanille…?"

Spinning around in a pirouette, the girl with the fiery crown of curly hair turned away from her large crowd of friends and came to face Hope. Instantaneously Hope felt his heart clench inside of his chest as he met her mesmerizing emerald eyes and gazed upon her eternally blissfully smile. Holding her gaze like this was enough for Hope to feel happy for the rest of his life.

Today was the big awaited day: Valentine's Day. The day Hope had originally thought he'd be dreading, but instead had been anxiously anticipating. Granted, nothing had changed as far as how Hope felt about Valentine's Day. He still hated it and berated himself for falling into the same rhythm as every our testosterone-driven male, but for Vanille's sake he wanted to make this day special. It had taken a long internal war to final get to where Hope was now. Half of the struggle was deciding whether or not to listen to Snow's advice, and the second half was fighting up the nerve to confront Vanille. It was a miracle that he had even gotten past the first half. Now phase two had been commenced, and he damn hoped that this would all be worth it in the end.

Above the overwhelming excited chatter of other students exchanging gifts and gossip, Hope could very vividly hear the beating of his own heart. It was practically leaping from his chest, and he wondered if Vanille noticed. All he knew for sure was that she looked beautiful. She wore a simple light pink baby-doll T-shirt with small fire-red hearts, and a flowy red skirt that went passed her mid thigh. Vanille curly copper red locks were pulled into their usual low pigtails, except today it was adorned with pink and red ribbons. Balanced in her arms was a large Tupperware that was filled with what looked like to be cupcakes. She looked like the fairy princess of Valentine's Day.

"Hi Hope," Vanille rang out melodically, her voice being drowned out by the laughter behind her as she went on.

"What?" Hope asked, raising his voice to break through the background noise.

Knowingly, Vanille smiled, beckoning Hope with a nod of her head to move to a quieter place to talk. They weaved around other people and Hope followed Vanille into a sparsely populated homeroom. She giggled, "Sorry about that. This is okay right?"

Hope shook his head, "Yeah sure. No, I just wanted a chance to see you today, and…" Hope fought the urge not too look away, but his voice lowered several octaves when he mumbled, "…wish you a Happy Valentine's Day."

Vanille's expression lit up like a Christmas Tree at that, like that was the most wonderful thing anyone had ever said to her. "Really? Thanks," she beamed, "Happy Valentine's Day yourself."

Hope exhaled, suddenly fearing that he'd start sweating bullets any second now. When had the classroom gotten so hot? And why did it fell like it was slowly shrinking around him and Vanille to the point where he could barely breathe? Vanille seemed entirely unfazed, so Hope hoped it was only him.

Steadying inhaling now, Hope felt Vanille's strawberry signature sent fill his nasal passage and send tingling sensations through his body. In just a second's time, he felt like a complete wreck again. Pull it together Hope!

By the time Hope regained control over himself, he noticed Vanille's giddy smile as she stared down at the flowers Hope was poorly hiding behind his back.

"Are those for me?" she asked in an adorably innocent voice, and Hope's voice became caught in his throat.

"Yes, no-yes, yes, um…" Hope shook his head, hoping his face didn't turn the shade of one of those red heart-shaped candy boxes. Sheepishly he extended the bouquet out to Vanille. "Here…" he said in a faltering voice as he looked down at the ground.

All at once, Vanille set her Tupperware on the floor and graciously accepted the flowers in her hands. "Hope…" she said, her voice soft and almost breathless as she gazed down at her flowers in awe. It was a bouquet of sunflowers with a soft spray of baby's breath around the edges.

Hope dared again to look up in time to see Vanille's reaction. She was stunned, actually speechless in fact. Hope lowered his face slightly and chuckled quietly to himself, hoping Vanille didn't notice or think he was making fun of her.

As the laughter stifled, Hope watched on as Vanille continued to gaze adoring upon her flowers. When ordering it at the store, the people behind the counter had gravely advised Hope that girls wanted roses on Valentine's Day. But Hope had insisted with the sunflowers. And boy was he glad that he did. Roses for Vanille hadn't seemed quite right to Hope, at least not in the way the sunflowers did. Perhaps it was their bright, irresistible optimism that had caused Hope to gravitate towards them, in the same way he gravitated towards Vanille. It suited her all to well.

Vanille gentle slide her dainty fingers in-between the flowers to receive the small card nestled inside the bouquet. On it in Hope's neat angular writing it said:

Happy Valentine's Day Vanille. Don't ever change. I mean that. Sincerely Hope.

Vanille's head shot up as her bright inquisitive eyes bore into Hope. For a moment she seemed too flustered to speak, but finally she let out a nervous laugh and look away. When she turned back, she tilted her head to the side softly, "Why did you do this for me?"

Now I was Hope's turn to be flustered beyond words. He grinned foolishly, unable to help it.

Vanille giggled, tiers of color filling in her cheeks. She bit down on her bottom lip, as if to prevent the shrill girlish squeal that inevitably escaped from her mouth when she came full force at Hope and pulled him into the tightest hug she could manage. Hope didn't move in her arms; at first he jumped and had began talking in protest, but now he had become rendered. She held him close, so close she could feel his rate racing.

Vanille smiled, squeezing him extra tightly one last time as she lowered her mouth so it was parallel to his ear. "Hope Estheim," she told him in a excited whisper, "You are officially the sweetest boy I have ever known."

Giggling shamelessly again as she pulled away, Vanille stared at Hope's expression and nervously nibbled down on her bottom lip. Her mouth spread in a wide smile, and she cradled her flowers against her chest.

Hope began to rub the back of his neck, unable to meet Vanille's eyes, "Well, um…"

Vanille released her grip on her bottom lip and smiled full on this time to him. She shook her head, "You know, I could have sworn you told me that you hated Valentine's Day a week ago. And then…all of this?" she giggled.

Hope shrugged, "Well I can change my mind right?"

Vanille smiled and nodded, "Yup, and I really glad you did. I mean, I agree with you about Valentine's Day. But even if it is kind of overrated, it's still a cute holiday to give your loved one's a little something extra." She giggled, pointing down at her Tupperware full of cupcakes, "Like frosting on a cupcake."

Hope couldn't help but laugh, as corny as she was. "Oh, so that's why you made cupcakes?"

Vanille shrugged, "Nope. Not really. I just kinda thought of that now actually." She smiled, "Oh, did you want one by the way?"

Hope nodded, "Yeah, of course." He reached out to hold Vanille's bouquet as she leaned down to open up her Tupperware. Humming to herself as she set the lid aside, Vanille took her time selecting a cupcake, as if looking for the perfect one to give to Hope. Beaming successfully, Vanille returned to her normal height with the chosen cupcake.

"So far they've been a big hit with my friends, so I hope it taste good enough for you," Vanille cooed, exchanging the cupcake for her sunflower bouquet with Hope.

Hope glanced down at the pink, heart shaped cupcake briefly before returning his gaze to Vanille. "Thanks a lot."

"You're so welcome," Vanille giggled, taking a moment to inhale the fresh smell of her sunflowers. She moaned pleasantly, and then smiled to Hope as he held her gaze. There was an awkward silence that filtered in between them then, accompanied by a flurry of butterflies flapping madly in the pit of both of their stomachs. And those butterflies didn't go away even after the two had hurried off in their separate directions in the school.

Blushing all the way there, Hope just made it to his seat before the bell rang. He sat in class, taking his notes idly while occasionally glancing up at the cupcake Vanille had given him, placed on the corner of his desk. He saved the cupcake for a few periods before he curiosity got the best of him and he simply had to try the delectable pastry.

It was as delicious as to be expected, except when Hope reach the center of the cupcake and nearly choked. While recovering for his near death experience, Hope uncovered the cause of his choking; A small folded up piece of wax paper. Upon unfolding it, Hope found a poem inscribed on the parchment, and with words of beauty, the true essence of Valentine's day flooded forth:

Roses are red, violets are not blue

Sugar is sweet, but incomparable to you.

You may find me silly, or just a bit odd,

But trust me assure; what I say is no fraud.

My heart beats fast, and sometimes slow

When in your presence, and in your glow.

This feeling is strange; curious and strong,

But all the more natural, as if it's been there all along.

Love is infinite, unrestrained and true

It surpasses time, never saying adieu.

One day a year is never quite enough

To cherish its joy, and all that good stuff.

So don't wait, if love is what you seek

Whatever the answer, I await the words you speak.

Seize the day, and then give me a sign

That you too, wish to be my Valentine.

But not just today, nor for tomorrow

But for forever and always, and whatever else shall follow…

~ Vanille