Piper: Testing myself to see if I'm qualified for writing Final Fantasy 13.

Paring: Lightning/Hope

Inspiration: A spontaneous impulse.

WARNINGS: AU, Maybe language, ONE-SHOT

The Babysitter

Hope Estheim couldn't believe what he was hearing when his mother, Nora, told him that he was going to need a babysitter. Him, now a freshman in high school and recently turned fifteen, need a babysitter? It was outrageous! But as he thought back on it, he had never truly been alone before. His mother was home when his father wasn't, and his father was home when his mother wasn't. This weekend could've been his first time home alone, because his father's business was having a special dinner that invited the workers and their spouse, partner, or who they were currently dating.

But, of course, the dream of staying up all night working on defeating the villain on his latest XBOX 360 game while stuffing his face with the junk food his mother would disapprove of was gone. The thought of being home alone for a few hours was a radical explosion, and his mother telling him she hired a babysitter was the mushroom cloud blowing away in the wind.

His father attempted to sway his mother into letting Hope stay home by himself, and that dream almost seemed within reach again until his mother managed to come back with a punch, and persuaded his father into agreeing with her. He wanted to pull his hair out when his father announced that he was on his mother's side with this decision, and the weekend drew nearer.

During school he had explained his problem to his only two friends he had, Vanille, a freshman like him, and Fang, a junior. Vanille gave him her pity with a giggle, but Fang actually gave him an idea. Butter his mother up, and put on his boyish charm to try and sway her into getting his way himself.

...Did he even have boyish charm? He remembered when he was younger, around five or six; he would always give his mother a small pout to get his way. Usually getting his way meant getting an ice-cream cone on the way back from shopping. He wondered if it still worked, and decided against the pout after practicing a little in the mirror. He practiced a convincing voice with Fang and Vanille all through the lunch hour, only getting distracted when he caught sight of his long time crush, Lightning Farron.

Lightning was a junior, and was seventeen. She was older, and taller, then him. His feelings didn't let that get in the way, and he found himself stumbling when she passed. Fang and Vanille found it cute, and often teased him about his little attraction to the long legged girl.

She was a beautiful girl, with porcelain skin and hair a mixture between light brown and powder pink. She was five feet, nine inches tall, and towered over his five foot two. No one knew much about her, except that she was the sister of Serah and Cloud Farron. That was what drew a good fraction of the male population towards her. Hope couldn't help but burn with anger and jealousy when boys talked about her in the locker room, some claiming to have slept with her or had some kind of physical relationship with her. He usually cooled off after watching the mysterious Farron beat the boy talking about her to a bloody pulp, leaving no mercy until one of her siblings would come and calm her down. That was another thing that made most guys attracted to her; she was strong and stealthy.

Hope was snapped away from his thoughts about his crush when Fang gave him a good punch on the shoulder, yelling at him to focus if he wanted to convince his parents he was fit to stay alone. He snapped into attention instantly, and he thought he saw Lightning glance at him as he turned back towards his friends. He was tempted to turn back to check if his eyes were right, when Vanille put her hands on his shoulders and made her repeat after him in a sugary tone.

Thursday, the day before his parents were going to leave, he sat down at the dinner table as his mother filled both his and his father's plates. He glanced over his potatoes and steak, glancing at his mother as she took dainty bites from her plate. Then he looked towards his father, who was drinking from his water glass. Hope watched the lump on his father's throat bob up and down as he drank, and lifted a self conscious hand to his own throat.

He shook his head a little to get back into focus, and worked up the courage to say, "Mom? Dad?"

Nora Estheim smiled at him, and Bartholomew Estheim answered, "Yes, son?"

Hope glanced at his plate, and moved his throat to say in the tone Vanille and Fang has worked on him with, "I wanted to ask...Could we cancel the babysitter? Please? I'm old enough to not need a babysitter!" His hopes skyrocketed when his parent's faces went thoughtful, but he had to keep running his mouth, "I mean, don't you trust me?"

It wasn't wise to ask parents if they trusted their fifteen year old son. The babysitter would be there the next day.

Hope told his friends of his failure, and got a good bop on the head from Fang. He explained how it went on the way to lunch, and Fang lectured him about his mistake all through the lunch line. Vanille finally got Fang to quiet after a while. Hope was thankful to have Vanille as a friend, even though her bubbly personality was a bit much at times.

As he bit into his pizza, thinking about how his babysitter would be there an hour or two after he got home from school, his eyes were caught. He looked up as Lightning Farron walked past his table. She was dressed in a black zip-up jacket with a dark colored band logo printed on the front. The hood and sleeves had white stitches on them, making line on the hood and spirals up to the shoulders on her sleeves. Her baggy black jeans were very baggy, and seemed to be staying up only because of a belt hidden by her jacket, which went to upper-thigh. The tips of black, flat bottom work boots peaked out from the town bottoms of her jeans. Her darkness added to the mystery most boys saw in her.

He thought he saw her crystal blue eyes looking at him from the side, but he couldn't be sure she passed by in less then five seconds. Fang flicked a chip at him when she felt that he had stared long enough, "You're gunna be labeled a creeper if you keep that up," She stated before taking a bite of her own pizza.

Vanille giggled, and patted his hand in sympathy.

Hope almost didn't care, because examining Lightning made him forget about his babysitting problem. And now it was back.

Watching his mother flutter about the house, Hope couldn't help but try a few more times with some exaggerated sighing. Then he tried contact, which both parents avoided well. He wondered how they did that, because when they wanted his eye contact he had no will power to keep looking away. Parents had a certain power to them that kind of scared him a little.

"Mom, c'mon, I can-" He lost his mother's focus when the door bell rang.

Clack, clack, clack. His mother's heels tapped the floor on the way to the door, and Hope watched his mother's back disappear around the corner with a slightly sour look. When she was gone he let out a giant puff of frustration and sank in the couch. He wondered what his babysitter would look like. His imagination started to expand, and a list of words came to mind.

Old, dusty-

Clack, clack, clack...

Thump, thump, thump...

Wrinkly, stern, and...

Beautiful.

Hope's thoughts screeched to a halt as his mother entered the room, a five foot nine figure following close behind. His mother chatted away, showing where everything was and reciting all the numbers the figure would need.

With the sound of footsteps that had been following his mother's dainty steps, he would've expected a plump woman with heavy steps, but he was very mistaken. The thumps had been created by heavy flat bottom work boots, all but the toes hidden by torn jean bottoms. His eyes trailed upward, seeing a familiar band jacket with white trim on the hood and sleeves, skimming up a pale neck, and connecting with crystal blue orbs he was familiar with.

Hope never, in his wildest dreams, thought Lightning Farron would ever be in his house, let alone as his babysitter.

'Wait, back that up,' Hope thought as heat built up in his face, 'Lightning...is my babysitter?'

Blood rushed to his face as embarrassment hollowed out his stomach. He literally wanted nothing more then for the couch to come alive and devour him whole. He couldn't believe that his crush, who was only a few years older then him, was his babysitter! Was his mother absolutely insane? It would seem so.

His mother finally stopped talking about the twenty-five bucks they could use for ordering pizza and smiled at Lightning, "And this is my son, Hope."

Lightning raised a fine light pink-brown eye brow at him, and he could feel his face turn a darker shade then it already was. He swallowed thickly, and managed a small, embarrassing wave. Lightning tilted her head in greeting, looking a bit more then amused.

'Great, now she's going to think I'm a momma's boy!' Hope thought to himself, feeling a bit depressed at the moment. Now would definitely be a good time for the couch to spark a heart beat and acquire a taste for fifteen year old boys. Oh, if only!

Bartholomew strolled around the corner, gave a greeting to the babysitter, and swept his mother away. There was a faint good bye to their son followed by the front door clicking shut. Hope looked any where but the seventeen year old girl in the room, wishing that he had turned the television on earlier so that he had an excuse to stare at it. His breath caught as the couch sank, the older teen making herself comfortable on the other end of the couch.

Swallowing, he looked towards her. She was looking around the living room, taking in her surroundings. He looked away, feeling a bit sick to his stomach as the full affect of the situation settled in. When he looked back her way, she had her phone out. Her fingers raced across the pull-out text board of her phone, and Hope summoned up a bit of courage and scrambled to fix some words together.

"So...who're you talking to?" He wanted to will those words back into his mouth and rewind.

She glanced at him, and said in a simple reply, "My brother."

"Oh." He looked around, thinking to himself, 'Think, Hope, think!'

He spotted something along the wall, and whipped back towards her, "Want to watch a movie?"

She snapped her text board up, pushing it into her pocket. She nodded, and he didn't know if it was in agreement that she wanted to watch or movie or that she, too, wanted to try a blow away the awkward air surrounding them. He pulled a random horror film off the shelf and slid it into the DVD player, and waited for the movie to start.

After an hour, they decided it was time for food... Well, Hope's stomach growled and Lightning rose off the couch and headed for the kitchen. Hope paused the movie and followed her. Lightning glanced at the phone with distaste, and the twenty-five his mother had gave them to order pizza.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

Lightning glanced at him, "You know how to make pizza?"

Hope blinked, before nodding, "Yeah, I guess. Why? Can't we just order it?" When did he get enough courage to speak more then five words at a time?

"Reno works at the pizza place on Friday nights," Was her simple answer, and Hope realized why she didn't want to call and order the pizza. Reno was one of the boys in his gym class that had claimed to have had the mysterious Lightning Farron in his bed, and get beat up about it a few minutes after.

"Oh, right... Well, I'm sure mom has the stuff for it. Let me look," He said, and after a few moments of him digging through the shelves and refrigerator with Lightning watching him with a slightly amused glint in her eye, he had everything they needed out on the table in front of them. They decided on a simple, yet tasty, type of pizza. Cheese pizza.

Lightning unzipped her jacket, and hung it over the back of her chair. Hope couldn't help but glance at her a little. Underneath she wore a regular red shirt with a black design on it, but this was her size. It wasn't baggy like the rest of her clothes, but it wasn't tight. It just seemed much different, because the only time anyone had seen the slender form of Lightning Farron, was in her gym class. The school gym uniform was a short sleeve white shirt, with black shorts that ended above the knees. Yes, if only Hope would have been lucky enough to be in that gym class.

They got to work on the pizza crust in a much more comfortable silence then the one in the living room, and Hope was becoming more at ease. He was relaxing, but it still didn't take away all of his embarrassment.

Once they got the dough, Hope was working on cleaning up some flour they had used when Lighting spoke up, "Where's the rolling pin?"

Not looking away from his cleaning, Hope wracked his brains for where he has placed the pin the needed to flatten the dough when it came to him. He threw his hand out in the direction it was, pointing, when he froze. He looked over at Lightning, and blinked in shock.

He couldn't believe he had just flicked flour all over Lightning.

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and that was the only change in her usual cold mask. Hope sputtered out an apology, and tried to fix what he had done through jumbled words and flashes of embarrassment. He stopped attempting to talk when a puff of flour hit him in the mouth.

He held his breath as the flour tickled the back of his throat, before the air burst forward in a visible cough. Lightning watched with an amused shine in her eyes as a white cloud came from his mouth when he did so. Frowning lightly after his throat settled, he retaliated with a fist full of left over flour.

And the war began.

Hope had never seen the mystery that was Lightning Farron smile before, but he could have sworn that through the stray bursts of flour and dodging, he saw her lips quirk upwards. He found an opening and opened his palm full of dusty white flour, watching as it exploded softly against her side and rained down towards the linoleum floor. He left an opening as he watched his work and the next thing he knew he was in a head lock and Lightning was rubbing flour into the roots of his hair.

He couldn't help but noticed as he struggled, that she smelled good. It was a soft mix of fruit smells that blended perfectly, and Hope tried to make sure that he didn't look like he was sniffing her arm as he tried to pull away.

When she finally pulled away he missed the warmth she created. He quickly shoved that thought off a mental cliff, blushing to himself slightly.

He avoided her eyes and shuffled his toe against the flour dirtied floor, "We should...clean this up..."

Lightning nodded in agreement and reached for the broom and dust pan set next to the refrigerator.

Now, Lightning Farron wasn't clumsy, but, a slip of mind could happen to anyone. The flour she was preparing to clean had coated the bottom of her boots, and the slick floor slid her foot backwards as she went forward. Hope saw her slip and bent forward to try and steady her, but ended up sliding his foot just like Lightning had done before. Hope fell, and Lightning came down on top of him seconds later.

Hope gave a small grunt at the impact, but that was it. The tall girl was lighter then he had prepared for. In fact, his back slamming on the linoleum was a lot more painful then having Lightning fall on him. Hope dizzily moved around a bit, checking for any injury. There was none, and he looked towards Lightning.

Her head lifted from its place on his chest, where it had fallen, and Hope blushed as she gazed up at him. He watched as she shifted, not breaking eye contact with him once. His eyes swept across her cheeks, nose, lashes, eyes, and then mouth. His face colored red, and he could feel the heat radiating off his cheeks. Lightning blinked, and he watched her full lashes brush her cheeks.

Lightning let out a small breath, and Hope smelled the sweet fragrance of the peppermint she had chewed earlier during the movie. She moved forward slightly, and his heart just about broke one of his ribs while restarting, and he could hear each thud rushing in his ears. He was so sure she could hear it, too.

His eyes caught hers, and their lips brushed. He felt her eyelashes flutter shut against his cheeks. He followed example, and leaned in slightly. She felt her hand brush his side as she put her hand down on the floor to steady herself, and leaned upward more so that she wouldn't have to crane her neck as much.

The kiss lasted only seven seconds. Yes, Hope had to count. Who wouldn't count their moments of bliss? His face felt hot all over, and he knew he was blushing. He didn't feel as embarrassed about it, seeing the slightest tinge across Lightning's cheeks as she slowly moved away.

Hope had to know. It would drive him crazy if he didn't, but the words just wouldn't come out right if he asked them the way he wanted to. So he settled for a different approach.

"Lightning?"

Crystal blue eyes locked onto his.

"Would you baby-sit me again next Friday?"

A smirk, then a nod, "Yeah."

They could call it a date, but that would ruin the fun of it all.

Hope's mother and father returned home a couple hours later, and Hope gave Lightning a quick goodbye. He pecked her cheek when his parents weren't looking, and she left the house while leaving her phone number written on his palm. Hope's mother came over to him, and placed her hands on his shoulders.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" She asked.

Hope shook his head, making his parents smile, and took a familiar voice taught to him by a certain friend of his, "And, you know? Why don't you and dad go out for your anniversary next Friday? I'm sure you guys would like to get away for something that special, since I'm okay with the babysitter."

His parents agreed, and Hope couldn't wait to tell Fang and Vanille about his new babysitter.

Piper: Okay. I'm actually feeling good about this. I got stuck a little in the middle, but I think I did good overall.

Some feedback would be kind, so that I can tell if I'm cut out for writing Lightning/Hope fanfictions. I have a POLL on my profile, so if you think I could write a full Hope/Lightning fanfiction, then vote for it please!

Please review, and thanks for reading!