TITLE: HABITUAL
PAIR/S: HxL+F
SUMMARY: Not much of fluff (a reminder!), Lightning and Fang talks about Hope and how the ex-soldier found his company more than bearable.
A/N: Not much to say, I suddenly had the idea pop into my head and it wrote itself while I watch the words flow out on the keyboard. Getting Fang's character right was harder than I expected, kinda like Hope and his pride. Please tell me what you think :D
HABITUAL
{HxL}
After hours of trekking the unknown slopes of Gran Pulse, everyone fell right out after setting up camp—one particularly was Hope. He'd been running for miles, and though his stamina had developed to the point of catching up with Lightning, jumping and flipping about was something he was still getting the hang of. His limbs were sore, and the figure in front of him only made his manly ego fall. Snow and Sazh had no problem with disowning their 'manly pride' if it was theirs versus Lightning's—they'd yield immediately.
Sazh would say: 'Man, Lightning can whoop any ass with a flick of her finger, I don't wanna be that ass' as for Snow's it was along the lines of 'If it weren't for Serah, I would've high-tailed it to the nearest mountain to get away from her. Have you felt her punch, ? You'll feel sorry for the punching bag.'
Hope remembers that day at Lake Bresha, and at the Vestige. Snow had his ass handed to him thrice by Lightning. He had been watching her, cowering next to Vanille, clutching her hand/arm tight, afraid. 'As you should be' added Snow and Sazh. But there was one difference between Snow, Sazh and Hope—that does not include physical attributes and emotional trauma.
He likes Lightning, and he wanted to make her see that he wasn't a little kid anymore.
"Which is proving harder than I planned it to be…"
"What is?" Lightning's hearing was sharp, and he had forgotten that while being absorbed in his thoughts. She stops, arcs her brow and watches him stutter for an explanation.
A dangerous action he would never dare repeat.
Damn.
"…trekking that is…" in times like this, Hope had learned never to say 'nothing', because Lightning would know nothing is actually something and would do anything in the light of day to find out what it was.
She pats his shoulder lightly, kneeling down to eye level with him. "You're doing fine." Was all she said and Hope found himself smiling brightly, void of any aches and pains from the recent trek.
His head ducks and all she could do was smile at the embarrassed boy in front of her. She hadn't been blind to the growing affections he had for her: it was seen when they fight, walk or even had a group meeting. Hope would frequently heal her first, even if others were suffering more injury than her—his reason? Light has to be in better form, she's the one beating them. During a scouting mission, he'd sneak away and cling to where she was. It was flattering for Lightning—slightly annoying to those left without a medic.
"Hey," she nudges his chin to look up, "Take a break, hm?" she shows him that heart-melting smile only he has the privilege to see. He never questioned her why she only smiles like that when he's around, afraid that maybe she'd take it the wrong way and stop smiling altogether. But his curiosity was nagging at the back of his mind, eating slowly at his brain that kept the 'what if's locked and sealed.
He bit his lip, reminding himself not to stare for too long. Lightning was unforgiving, so to speak, when it came down to being held waiting. She wasn't always the patient person—Hope found that out when she left him behind at the Vile Peaks. Never happening again. He mentally noted and met her eyes.
"You should rest too, you've been taking out monsters left and right, Sazh and Snow have first shift—" His eyes flicker at the two, both tucked inside their makeshift bed, asleep.
Her eyes gleamed amusement, "I'm alright. You go ahead, Fang and I will take shift."
"But—"
"—Hope," his compliant dried in his throat. "That's an order."
And that was that. He sighs, laid down and stared at the retreating form of the ex-soldier. There was nothing he could do, when Lightning uses that voice and avoids eye-contact. He wanted to be seen, to be acknowledged, and if it wasn't pushing it, loved by Lightning. But as a fourteen year-old, all he could do was admire her from afar, watch her walk in front of him in everything.
Because the one fact Hope had noted down and never dared to forget it was that Lightning isn't a patient person at all. So how could he ask Lightning the one question that's been bothering and eating him from the inside out, when deftly he already knew the answer.
"Will you wait for me, Light?"
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"What are you going to do with that kid, Light?"
Her light blue eyes trailed over Hope, "I don't know what you mean." He rolls over, his face turned away from them. A small smile appears on her lips, "Ask him."
"Light, you're not seriously playing dumb about him, are you?"
The question was simple, too simple she hadn't even thought about it yet. She had been turning a blind eye towards Hope's antics; it was just another habit he picked up along the way, Lightning had always thought. "It doesn't bother me, having Hope around, it's actually… kind of nice."
Fang gawks at her, and then breaks out laughing, "You have got to take a serious look at the question there Light." She knew that Lightning was a sharp character, but when it came down to where it really matters—she was just a rookie.
Lightning shrugs, "It's not my call—"
"Not your call? Light, the boy is in-love with you, and you say it not your call? Ridiculous." It was only this Pulsian woman that can conclude such results through stretched out facts and light innuendoes. She, herself knew that this was a farfetched conclusion but this was Lightning Farron—anything is possible.
"You're the only person I know that could make such outrageous, utterly out of line-" Lightning smiles, "but correct assumptions." Fang sighs.
"Is there anything at all you see in that kid?" it was question to test the waters, she wasn't going to shoot down Sergeant Farron's easy opening—no, she was going to exploit it. By the look of her pale blue eyes and that kind hearted smile that nobody sees during the day, Fang was winning.
Lightning chuckles, "There's definitely something lucky about a kid named Hope, following you."
The Pulsian's eyes grew wide. She was expecting a different answer, a more secretive and hard to figure out puzzle. When Lightning had said he was a sort of 'lucky charm', she almost at all lost her control over her emotions. The only thing that kept from laughing out loud to wake Pulse from its evening slumber was Vanille's sleeping face. Not even for this reason, will I wake her up.
"I heard you left him at the Vile Peaks, Vanille had thrown the little fact around for quite some time. Didn't believe it when I saw you half-screaming at the jammed communicator though."
The pale-eyed ex-soldier hums, she did try to leave him behind—twice—and her lack of human compassion for anything around her at the time was the one that pushed her to jumping up that wall. She wasn't going to deny that Hope was deadweight during their early meeting. He's grown from that, he's capable now. She thought and looks to where he lay sleeping, "I was forced to make the right decision…" she trails, remembering her biting words that nearly tore Hope apart. "When Eidolon's pop out of nowhere to make it for you, you have to make one, right or wrong."
"Odin gave you a hard beating?" Fang snickers, imagining the cool, collected Lightning running away like mad from Odin in his gestalt mode.
She laughs, "That would have been a lot easier, but when Odin appeared—I was mad, angry at Hope for… being how he was at that time. Odin, heard this and went straight to eliminate him, cut through the obstruction in my path." She smiles gently, "Without thinking, I rushed forward, parrying his blade with mine. In the end, I figured I did want to protect him—it's just that I was to blind to see it in the first place."
"Let me get this straight," Lightning nods, "Hope was attacked by Odin, and only during life or death can you decide whether you want him or not?" a curt nod; Fang lets out a soft laugh—feeling both pity and amusement for the ex-soldier. "So deciding between your feelings for him is platonic or not is going to take another death situation, Light. You have problem."
"I do not," she stresses the syllables, "I know what I feel."
Fang lets out an exasperated sigh, "Then let's go back to the first question shall we? What are you going to do about him?"
Lightning gives a cocky smile, and chuckles: "Keep him around."
The simple question rang clearly in the night sky, Fang's curiosity fed and happy and Lightning's mind cool and at ease. Having Hope around isn't necessary because of 'luck'; nope, luck had nothing to do with it—thought she could think another four letter-L word to suffice that—truth was, hearing Hope run to her for guidance and protection was growing on her. It was annoying at first, then flattering—then it completely turned routine. And one thing that all soldiers liked in common was routine. The predictability and the norm she was comfortable with, but too much of that and boring would hit you square in the face. When Hope grew a backbone, and started to fight for his life and hers, she began to see him in a new light—a twist from routine—and when he outright acted like a lovesick puppy, she was surprised and satisfied.
If anything at all, Hope isn't a schedule accident. Hope just has the habit of making her feel special, without actually meaning to.
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