Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 13 and it's charcters does not belong to me.

Author's Note: This is my second fic (more of a drabble, really) after a really long time and my first hopexlight fic. I hope you guys enjoy this one. Please review and feel free to give constructive criticism and suggestions.

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"If Only I Could Taste You..."
by Wolf of the Feitas

It was one of those nights when Hope needed a place to bunk in when he had these long projects and assignments to do. That place happened to be Lightning's apartment, which was just a stone's throw away from his school. Sure, who would think that the stone cold, deadly, Lightning Farron would allow just anyone into her house.

But only a few know that Lightning had a heart for Hope Estheim and they would not live to let the word out, lest the Maker have mercy on their souls.

Hope sat amidst a sea of papers, trying to make a cohesive sense of all the chaos that lay before him. Drafts of theses he'd made weeks before and old research papers were strewn across Lightning's dining table, and an empty computer screen stood proudly before him.

"Alright, here we go, Estheim", he said to himself.

The percussive chattering of the keyboard filled the room. Hope, focused, determined, poured out all his energy and it was beginning to show on his face as two hours passed.

Lightning had finished some household chores about half an hour ago and had emerged from her room after a quick shower.

"Hope, I'll be brewing some coffee. You want some?" Lightning asked.

"Sure," Hope replied, eyes still glued to the screen.

She set a percolator on a burner in the kitchen and prepared two porcelain mugs, and some sugar and cream on the side. In minutes, the aroma of coffee filled the air and Hope couldn't help but close his eyes take a whiff of it. It was enough to jolt his senses; strength slowly creeping into his tired fingers. Lightning laid Hope's mug right beside him and sat at a chair adjacent to Hope's.

"Really smells nice, Light. Thanks." Hope said before taking a sip from his mug.

"Yeah, um sure, no problem, Hope." Lightning replied using her pink tendrils to try to cover the growing blush in her cheeks and taking a sip from her own mug for extra measure.

Claire, focus. He's just complementing your coffee. Nothing else. He's just here to finish up some work. He's not here for you to get close with him. Lightning thought to herself.

"It also tastes good as well," commented Hope, pulling away Lightning from her thoughts and making her blush deepen.

Hope set down his mug and began to type on his laptop again.

"Wait, there's a typo error over here." Lighting interruped.

"Really? Wait...oh yeah..." Hope said, immediately highlighting the error and correcting it.

"There's one here as well, and here, and...Hope, I think I better look through this paper of yours." Lightning commented.

"Alright," Hope said and turned the laptop towards her tentatively.

She slowly explained his errors to him, one by one. At first Hope paid close attention to what she was saying, keeping in mind stuff like common errors in subject-verb-agreement that the paper seemed to be rife with. But as minutes turned to hours Hope's thoughts drifted away from his work and more towards Lightning. The way she moved to take a sip from her mug, her strawberry blonde hair that seemed to fall just nicely over her shoulders and how it seemed to radiate under the light from the lamps in the dining area.

Then his eyes fell on her lips, sensually moving as she spoke, glistening from a fresh sip of coffee. Oh how he wanted to just taste them for one moment, to savour them and take in their full flavour; bittersweet, intense, with a passionate warmth.

"Hope, you got that... Hope?" Lightning said, snapping Hope out of his daydream.

"What? Oh yeah, Light. I got it." Hope replied, a tinge of red slightly crawling up his cheeks.

"You sure, Hope? You don't have to be shy. I mean we've been friends for the longest time and you know I won't mind if you need some re-explaining." Lightning said. "So what is it?"

"Um well...you have some coffee on your cheek." Hope replied, thanking the Maker for that small brown smear that sat on Lightning's cheek that saved him from an embarassing situation...well for him at least.

"Oh, erm, well, excuse me..." Lightning said before quickly wiping off the stain with her hand.

She's blushing again, and it's not like her to be so particular about these things... Hope noticed, trying to hide a smirk.

"Is it gone, Hope?" She asked.

"Yes it is..." Hope replied.

Hope just stared at her for a while just amused at what happened, while at the same time just admiring an inquisitive puppy-eyed look on her face. And it dawned on Lightning that Hope wasn't really bothered about the stain and she just looked into his emerald eyes. She brought her head closer to Hope, curious, almost in a trance, eyes moving from his eyes to his lips and back.

The mildly sweet smell of Lightning's hair, and a slight tinge of the aroma of coffee, tickled Hope's nostrils, teasing them, enticing them. The warmth from their faces intense and evident on the red on their cheeks, seemed to take control of their movements. As luck would have it, a flash of lightning and the boom of thunder that followed snapped them out of their reverie.

"It looks like it's gonna rain," Hope said with a slight look of worry, looking outside a window.

"Well...you could stay here for the night," Lightning said averting her gaze from Hope to avoid revealing her blush. "And besides, it's getting really late" she added.

Hope could've sworn he heard a bit of excitement in her voice.

"Yeah, I'd probably be home by one if I left now," Hope said. Looking at the clock that told him that it was half an hour before midnight. "Let's get finished up so we can sleep soon," he said.

Lightning nodded in reply.

Fifteen minutes later, they had finished editing Hope's work. Lightning went off to clear the residual contents of the coffee mugs while Hope packed his rucksack and checked that he was ready to go first thing in the morning.

"I don't have a guest bed here, since it's usually just Serah who stays over from time to time." Lightning told Hope after clearing the dining table. "So maybe you could sleep on the couch." She added. " Snow had also bunked in here once and he told me it was fine, so I hope it'll do for you."

"It should, Light," Hope replied. "since you offered to let me stay for the night in the first place."

"Alright good night, Hope," Lightning said.

"G'night." Hope replied before Lightning closed the door to her room only for her to open it just ever so slightly just to take one more peek of him pulling out his school necktie.

Later that night...

It's 3 a.m... Lightning thought to herself. She found herself thirsty and rose from her bed and turned on the lamp in her room and ever so gently open the bedroom door. She made her way to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and drank from it. Why would she keep of bottles of water in her own home? Well that's just one of the strange things Serah strongly insisted. Like having keys to each others houses "in case they missed each other," as Serah would explain even thought their houses were only five blocks apart. Lightning couldn't help but smile at the thought that the water bottle idea was actually useful in situations when your body will only move at an adamantoise's pace.

She was dragging herself towards her bedroom but stopped midway. The sight of a sleeping Hope on her couch brought back fond memories of those nights back in the wilds of Gran Pulse. She remembers holding a slumbering young Hope in her arms while the rest of the party was a sleep. Often he would mumble his mother's name in his sleep and Lightning knew that it wasn't because of a very pleasant dream. She had always wanted to relieve Hope of that pain; the pain she had felt when her own parents had passed away.

She approached the couch and kneeled beside Hope's sleeping head. She gently moved her hand across his white hair, moving a few bangs to reveal the face of an angel. Her angel. She watched his chest rise and fall as he slept in peace.

Five years down the road had made such a difference in Hope's life. He had become a happier person. Lightning would sometimes meet Hope and some of his friends from school on her way home from work. He had moved on, to a better life, no doubt. And the reality hurt Lightning like a knife: Hope didn't need her to protect him anymore.

Yet she longed for Hope; she wanted to be there just by his side. For good, for eternity.

She stroked his hair one more time, caressing his head in her hand.

"I don't want to lose you, Hope," Lightning whimpered, tears now slowly flowing from her eyes. She leaned her head towards his, closed her eyes and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. She remained there, wishing that this night could last forever.

The heat from her tears was suddenly overwhelmed with a different warmth. Lightning opened her eyes to see Hope wiping away her tears.

"I'm not going anywhere, Light," He told her with a small smile on his face that gave Lightning the comfort she needed. "I'm here now with you." Hope whispered into her ears, slowly bringing himself upright on the couch and pulling Lightning towards him in an embrace.

They stared into each other's eyes, faces illuminiated my the Pulsian night sky.

"Hope, I..."

"Shhh...That's enough, Light."

Hope bent in and let their lips meet. Their breaths were an unbearable heat in the cold of the night. Passionate, yet with the innocence that their love had. They held each other as if their lives depended on it; their warmth creating a small cocoon of comfort.

It was all they would have ever wanted; to find solace in each other.

After what seemed to be several minutes, Lightning laid in Hope's arms, snuggling close to him and wrapping a throw blanket around them. Though they knew that the morning would come, they fell asleep in peace, knowing that at least for now they were together, undisturbed.

The next day...

Serah was furious.

Never had a man called her house so many times in one morning. Hope's dad had been so worried since Hope never called him to tell him where he was staying for the night at least. Needless to say, she wasn't all "sugar and rainbows" in the morning, as Sazh had once put it after his Chocobo had wreaked havoc on her front yard.

Her intuition told her that Hope was probably over at Lightning's place. Sure, Lightning would put up a front of "just helping Hope out," but it was just so darn obvious that she was into Hope. So she put on a sweater and some used jeans from the previous day and marched down towards Lightning's apartment.

She wasted no time in unlocking the front door of her apartment with the spare keys she had. She entered and was about to yell at the top of her lungs until she saw the most adorable thing: Lightning, sleeping with Hope, in one of the most compromising positions she had seen her sister in her entire life.

Unable to contain her excitement, she brought out her handphone and started taking a few pictures with its camera.

"Oh this is going into my special file!" Serah squealed and immediately ran home, removing all evidence of her presence, and forgetting the reason why she actually went to Lightning's house in the first place.

The two lovers woke up unaware of the sneaky devil that had taken perhaps the most valuable treasure she could ever find. It took them a while to figure out that they were already a few hours late for work and school. And the chaos that ensued was only part of the troubles they were going to face in the following days.

Author's Note: Yay! That's done. A few rough edges here and there but otherwise not too shabby if I may say so myself. This one's dedicated to haikomori and AkiraDawn who's writtings have served both as a sort of inspiration and entertainment as well. I wrote this under the influence of coffee and Final Fantasy 13 Piano Collections as well. Hope you guys enjoyed this fic!

AND

EXTRA STUFF:

Lightning was casually browsing through her email inbox. Notices, letters from superior officers in the Corps, etc.

All of a sudden a new email arrived.

"Take a peak, if you dare..." says the email.

Hmph, must be one of Serah's joke emails again... Lightning thought.

She clicked on the title to open up the email.

It read:

Lightning and Hope,
Sitting in a tree...

She scrolled down even further

Lightning's eyes widened at what she saw...

Lo and behold a picture of Hope and Lightning on her couch.

Sure it was a bit kinky but she was far too infuriated with Serah to really care.

At the bottom of the letter, it said

Don't worry, Hope and our friends will get a copy of this email. Mwahahahahahahaha!

Your loving sister,

Serah Farron-Villiers

And so Lightning sat in front of her computer, silently begging mercy from the maker...for Serah's sake.