Happy With You
Lightning and the group had just gotten to Pulse after fighting Cid Raines. They had made Pulse pretty homey, or just about as homey as you could make a savage planet with man-eating monsters and unpredictable wild-life. The camp was set in a three tent system with Lightning and Hope in the first tent, Sazh and Snow in the second, and Vanille and Fang in the third. Two groups looked for food and water while the third group took care of any monsters too close to home. The camp did alright most of the time, but that was the camp. One of it's occupants, a boy with white-ish grey hair was NOT fine by any means of the word. You see, he has a little attraction problem, but not just ANY attraction problem, an attraction problem to the soldier about a foot away from him doing push-ups.
Hope stood in Lightning and his tent twiddling his thumbs, thinking about his dire situation. 'What would she do if I told her I was attracted to her?' He thought. But he already knew the answer to that. She would say she went through the same thing and it's something every teen has to go through. 'But what did she do to supress her horomones? Oh, who am I kidding? She's probably an expert at holding them back.' Hope was still lost in thought when Sazh poked his head through the flaps of the tent.
"Time for you guys to gather food." He said.
Lightning wiped the beads of sweat off of her forehead with a towel and changed into her usual attire. As she was changing, Lightning noticed the faraway look on Hope's face. "Hope are you ready?" She asked.
Still lost in the recesses of his mind, Hope was silent.
"Hope?"
No reply.
"Hope!"
"Huh, what?" He said snapping out of his zombie-like trance.
"I said, are you ready?" Lightning told him. Her voice was scornful, but the little hint of concern didn't go unnoticed.
"Yeah, sure." Hope said hurrily.
"Hope, are you alright?" Lightning said concerned.
"I'm fine." Hope said. There wasn't much conviction to his tone, but Lightning seemed satisfied enough.
"Alright. Let's go." She said.
They navigated the plains very quickly and avoided many unecissary conflicts until they came to they're favorite spot for gathering food. It was a large clearing with many fruit-bearing trees that also spawned beautiful white flowers. The petals of said flower were all over the ground of the clearing, making the scene even more beautiful.
Lightning and Hope commenced in putting various fruits in their grey sacks. Once again, Hope seemed like he wasn't all there with the empty look on his face. Lightning took note of this behavior and kept on picking. Pretty soon, they were done and headed back to the camp. During the trip, Hope finally broke the silence.
"Light have you ever had trouble dealing with an attraction?" He asked.
"No." She said. "I didn't have time to develop a feeling like that for anyone. Protecting Serah came first."
"Oh." Hope said.
"Why do you ask?" She said mildly curious.
"No particular reason. Just curious." Hope said.
Lightning raised her eyebrow suspiciously. 'Why are you curious? Why now?' She thought.
They both ended the conversation there and finished the rest of the trip in silence. When they returned Snow greeted them.
"Hey guys, guess what?" He said with a big foolish grin.
"What?" Lightning replied dryly.
"We're eating good tonight!" Snow said holding up a big net of fish.
"Great, now if only some of that protein would go to your brain." Lightning said. Snow look hurt.
"Sis, why you gotta be so mean?" He said.
"I'm not you're sister." Lightning said coldly. She walked away leaving Snow behind. Lightning walked back to the tent and began to work-out. While Lightning worked-out she thought about why she had snapped at Snow earlier. After thinking through several possible and impossible reasons, she came across one daunting solution that she refused to believe. 'Am I sexually deprived?' She thought. Deciding that a nice bath would sort her thoughts, Lightning exited the tent to find Hope and bring him along as well.
Night had fell as she approached the camp fire, surrounded by her groupmates.
"Has anyone seen Hope?" Lightning asked.
"Last time I saw 'im he went toward that way." Fang said pointing in the direction of a wooded area.
"He said something about needing to clear his head." Snow said.
"Oh." Lightning said. She left the group to their own devices as she went to look for Hope. As she looked for Hope her thoughts started to wander. 'What's up with him he's been acting wierd all day.' She thought. Lightning slowly started to put the pieces together. The wierd behavior, the question about her being attracted to anyone, his zoning out, the squimish behavior. Finally she formulated a question in her head; 'Is Hope attracted to me?' After thinking for a while, she thought of a plan to draw it out of him. Five minutes later, she found Hope in a grassy clearing, the moon cast a shadow over his form, and the wind blew his hair to the side of his face.
"Who's there?" Hope asked.
"Just me." Lightning said in a calm voice.
"Hey Light." Hope said in a flat tone.
"We need to talk." Lightning said.
'Oh no.' Hope thought. 'Did she find out?' His only salvation would be a quick death.
"But I don't think this is the best place." Lightning continued. "Follow me." She said motioning with a finger.
Hope stood up and followed her, silently accepting his bleak fate. She led them to a secluded lake in the forests of the Yaschas Massif.
"I think this is a much better place. Don't you think?" Lightning said.
"Yeah." Hope said, silently regarding the seclusive nature of the lake. Lightning caught his expression and told him,
"I didn't want Snow to get any ideas to eavesdrop." Lightning said.
"Um... So what did you want to talk about Light?" Hope asked as if he didn't already know.
Lightning didn't waste any time in getting straight to the point. "Hope are you attracted to me?"
All the color drained out of Hope's face. He turned his eyes downwards, looking at his shoes. "How did you find out?" He asked.
"It wasn't that hard, just had to put the pieces together." Lightning said. 'Phase one complete.' She said in the back of her mind.
"Your not mad at me, are you?" Hope asked, still looking at his shoes.
"Not at all." Lightning said tilting his head to face her. The relief on Hope's face was immesurable.
"Why would you think that?" Lightning said.
"I don't know. I guess I just figured in the middle of all of this, you didn't need anything getting in your way." Hope said.
"That might have been true at one time, but you changed me Hope." Lightning said.
"Thanks Light." Hope said. He was unprepared when Lightning pulled him into a bear hug. She and Hope stood there for a minute in each other's embrace. Lightning released him saying,
"Care to join me?" She said gesturing to the lake.
Hope's face turned beet red. "Um, sure Light."
Lightning smirked inwardly. 'Hook, line, and sinker.' She began undressing, and soon after Hope grew very uncomfortable.
"Light, are you sure we need to get naked?" Hope said, his voice faltering slightly.
"What, you've never swam nude before?" Lightning asked, already sure of his response. Hope's sheltered lifestyle, prior to becoming a L'cie had probably prevented him from doing anything of the sort.
"No." He said nervously.
Lightning stood waist deep in the water now as she said, "Are you gonna come in and join me or not?"
"I'm coming." Hope said as he began undressing. After Hope finished undressing, he had gotten knee-deep in the water and stopped.
"What's wrong?" Lightning said, some distance away from him.
"It's cold." Hope said simply.
"Oh, c'mon Hope" Lightning said with a warm smile as she swam toward him. She wrapped him in an embrace.
"Let me warm you up." Lightning said. Hope lost himself in her generous bosom, and was taken by suprise as he was pulled into the cool water. Hope resurfaced like an ice-cube.
"C-C-C-Cold!" Hope said hugging his shoulders.
Lightning floated a few feet from him laughing.
Hope frowned at her. His frown, however quickly turned into a smirk as he got an idea. Hope ducked under the water and swam toward Lightning.
Lightning's laughter dissipated as she noticed Hope had disappeared. "Hope?" She said with concern. She suddenly shrieked as she was grabbed just under the breasts and suplexed into the water. Lightning surfaced quickly. She looked over and this time it was Hope's turn to laugh.
"You should've seen the look on your face." He said.
"I-I just didn't know you were that strong." Lightning said blushing.
Hope continued to laugh. And soon Lightning laughed with him. A short time after their swim, Lightning and Hope lay on the sand in a comfortable silence. A silence that Hope broke with, "Thanks Light. This was pretty nice."
"Considering all this L'cie and saving Cocoon mumbo jumbo, I'd say it was pretty nice, too." Lightning said. Hope warmly smiled at her.
"But there is something I need to get off of my chest." Lightning said.
"Go ahead." Hope said. "You can share anything with me." It was true. Hope's and Lightning's bond was something special. They shared things with each other that they would think twice about sharing with other people. And often the two could break down each other's walls and dance inside them like they were nothing.
"Hope you know how you said you were attracted to me?" Lightning asked.
Hope nodded slowly.
Lightning hesitated before saying, "The truth is... I'm attracted to you too."
"Really?" Hope said.
Lightning pulled Hope's face close to hers and captured his lips with a kiss. "Yes, really." She said smiling. She and Hope headed back to camp but what awaited them unsettled them both down to their very core. THAT, and it gave them both an immense desire to kill Snow.
"Lightning and Hope sitting in a tree. K i ss ing..." Snow chanted.
"I'm going to kill him." Hope said with his eyebrow twitching.
"Not if I get there first." Lightning said with her eyebrow twitching as well. They both descended on him like a pair of ravenous wolves. And well... You can tell Snow's future was very bleak.
"C'mon guys I was just kidding." Snow said.
Lightning and Hope moved ever closer until they pounced on him like a predator and it's prey.
"AAAAAHHHH!" Snow's screams echoed into the night.
A/N:
I'm baaack! *evil-ish laugh*
Originally this story had a lemon but I didn't put it in. Don't fret! This story is still on my Notes on my iPod, so I'll probably re-post it with the lemon later.
So what you guys think? I think it's the best one-shot I've ever written, but that's just me.
I think I got Lightning and Hope in character pretty well, but please, tell me in the reviews how I did.
That's right! R/R please! Thanks!
See ya!
-A