Title: Watching Her

Characters: Hope/Vanille

Rating: Teen

Disclaimers: I do not own anyone/anything from the forum Final Fantasy. Square Soft/Enix owns Final Fantasy and its characters. There is no copyright infringement intended. I do not make any profit/money or take any credit.

Summary: He may be a fourteen year old, stuck in a death and death situation where neither one held any attraction but he can still appreciate the fine vision of the image before him

A/N: Prompt for September 8th – Hope/Vanille – Voyeurism – 'Hope likes to watch Vanille.'

Timeline: During Gran Pulse (XIII)

Word Count: 1,290

Betaed: Nope

Watching Her

Hope sighed as he stretched his arms, enjoying the way his muscles were being stretched before he brought his arms down. The sun was shining brightly and there was a nice breeze every now and then which prevented them from over-heating. Not that it stopped Sazh and Snow from complaining. Hope shook his head at the sight of the older men working to clear some of the monsters that wandered a little too close to their resting spot.

The only reason they had that job was because they kept pissing Fang off by dissing her home. One would think they would learn not to say anything bad about her home but nope, they continued to do thus end up getting the dangerous jobs.

They had complained that Hope was getting it easy when both Vanille and Lightning joined in with Fang. They all had excuses for why Hope wasn't to fight. He was the youngest one (Lightning), he is to take it easy after scaring them (Vanille) and he hasn't said anything bad about Gran Pulse (Fang).

Hope just gloated to the men out of the women ear-shot that he was getting it easy. Although he preferred to do his part, he knew that that he couldn't push himself. Besides, he wasn't going to complain about watching the men shout and yell whenever it looked like a monster was getting close to hitting them.

Besides, he didn't have any complaints about Gran Pulse. Yeah, it could be hot but he expected it by Vanille and Fang's outfit. He liked Gran Pulse; it was so different from Cocoon. Cocoon, while it was beautiful, it was mostly artificial while Gran Pulse was all real. It was beautiful and dangerous.

Hope brought his head down, alarmed, when he heard Vanille shout only to relax when he spotted her smiling brightly, coming toward him with a bunch of bright flowers in her arms. Her coral pink hair shone in the sunlight, her dark green eyes bright with happiness.

Her skin glowed slightly under the sunlight as she skipped happily. He felt his lips own lips curl up in a smile. He liked it when she was happy, it made him feel happy.

He watched as Fang and Lightning walk over to Vanille, Fang's lips curving into a smile when she saw the flowers while Lightning took a few, smelling them before saying something to Fang who nodded.

He felt two thuds on either side of him and glanced to see Snow and Sazh were now sitting down, sweating. Both men had removed their jackets a long time ago, which had been placed into the cave near them for safety.

"Having fun?" Sazh asked once his breathing slowed down. Hope grinned as he looked toward the women, who were now glaring at the two men.

"A blast," Hope said cheerfully when he felt both men flinch at the sight of the women.

"Yeah, keep it up kid," Snow muttered under his breath, leaning backward and slipping his hands under his head. "I'll take you out myself."

"I'd like to see you try," Hope taunted without any malice. He had lost his anger to the older man for the death of his mother a while ago and felt lighter as a result.

"It's not fair you get off," Sazh complained. Hope shrugged.

"I'm not talking trash about Fang's home. Quit saying its hell and she'll lighten up," Hope pointed out before pointing a thumb in Snow's direction. "And he needs to stop complaining about the heat."

"It's too hot!" Snow complained.

"And you make it worse by complaining," Hope pointed out as he looked toward the women, giving them a bright carefree smile. They smiled back, assured that he was okay before turning back to the flowers.

"What do you know about girls?" Snow scoffed.

"Enough to make sure I don't annoy them," Hope reminded in a sing-song. Snow just growled while Sazh shook his head as he also laid back, closing his eyes.

Hope just continued to stare at Vanille. She was now standing near the edge of the hill, watching the animals below them with a wistful smile. He guessed she was thinking of her home that they making their way to.

The breeze tugged at her clothes, pushing the bear skirt back to show more of her slim legs, he had to admit that he really liked her legs. Her jewellery jingled as she slowly swayed to an inward beat that only she could hear.

He may be a fourteen year old, stuck in a death and death situation where neither one held any attraction but he can still appreciate the fine vision of the image before him.

He couldn't help but be attracted to Vanille. Her never-ending cheerfulness, the way she would skip when she was happy, the way she danced and taunted the monsters when they were in battles.

He liked the way her hair would brush against his cheek whenever they slept close together. At first, it had been a way for the kids to stay safe in the middle surrounded by the adults but later, the two of them drifted closer to each other, no matter where they were.

They would sometimes link hands together while they were sleeping, a way of assuring them that the other was still there. Sazh's chocobo would sometimes sleep on top of their linked hands. He liked the feel of her hand in his; it was warm and soft with small calluses from using her binding rod.

Their hands were roughly the same size but Hope knew his would get bigger as he got older and he liked the thought that his hands would be bigger than hers, it made him feel protective. Vanille would giggle whenever their hands were pressed against each other. They made a game out of it; they would sit across from each other, legs crossed, hands and foreheads pressed against each other as they stared into each other eyes without blinking.

The first one to blink would be the loser and would have to do something the winner wanted. Snow and Sazh had wondered what the kids were doing when they first saw them but Lightning and Fang had enjoyed watching the kids. It was nice to see them acting like children in the midst of danger.

Vanille turned around, feeling someone eyes on her and she smiled shyly when she spotted Hope watching her. She gave him a smile, a faint blush colouring her cheek. Hope returned the wave, feeling shy himself before he shook his head. There was no need to be shy.

Vanille seemed to understanding what he was thinking and giggled, her head tilting to the side as her fingers came up to her bottom lip. He wondered what it would be like to kiss those pale rose lips. He wondered what she tasted like and he wanted nothing more than to find out but he had always held back.

One, she was nineteen and he was fourteen. Of course, if you add in the fact that Vanille had spent 500 years in a crystal stasis…the other one was he knew that Snow and Sazh would have a problem with the two of them being together. They had taken upon themselves to be the parents of the group.

He wondered if he should ask Vanille out, they could keep their relationship a secret, just until after they finished what they were to do and then they could come out to everyone, once everything has settled down.

He heard someone clearing her throat and looked up to see Fang looking at him with a knowing smirk and gulped. That is…if Fang doesn't kill him first.

The End

This, originally, was going to go a different way.