The Train
Summary: "Hey Hope." "Yeah, what is it?" "Will you promise me we'll always meet here every year when you come here every summer holiday?" "I ... I promise, Claire."
Two children meet at the train station. They become friends. They wait for a whole year to see each other, and do so every year for many years. Follow the story of young friendship and companionship turned into young love, and feel their happiness, sadness, loneliness and longing. Has nothing to do with Final Fantasy XIII storyline, four-shot, AU.
Here we are again and say goodbye
I see a face that I won't forget (forget)
All the people in the station walk on by
Now the train is ready to set (to set)
And now I count the days from A to Z
Until the train will bring you back (back)
And then we raving up on the DJ set
Until the next time that the train will bring you back
Trains departed and arrived on their own designated schedule as people moved quickly through the busy crowd. Everyone's face is a blur; the only ones looking at them are those trying to find certain people. A female voiceover announcer called out "Train 291 is approaching the station. Please make way on the landing platform for the arriving visitors and line up orderly to board for the return trip back to the city of Palumpolum. Thank you and have a nice day here in sunny Bodhum."
The 291 train docked at Bodhum Train Station and another big crowd poured off of it. There were lots of people down at Bodhum at this time of year for the school and Christmas holidays and everyone that went there usually came back with a nice tan. A certain family of three got off of the 291 train and walked off of the platform, taking in the surroundings and the youngest, a little boy of five jumped up and down eagerly, unable to wait for the fun and games in store for him. He pulled on his mother's hand and said excitedly and bubbly "Yay! We're finally here! Come on, mum and dad! Let's go and have fun!"
The happy young parents looked down at their enthusiastic son, chuckling to themselves, and his mother replied "We know, son. But first, we need to check in at our hotel. Then afterwards, we can have a good sleep from our long travel and go down the jetty and have some nice, delicious ice-cream."
His face lit up at the mention of ice-cream and he started to jump around excitedly. "YAHOO!" he cried, "ICE-CREAM! ICE-CREAM! ICE-CREAM! ICE-CREAM!" His loving parents smiled at each other before smiling down at him and together they walked off the platform, their enthusiastic son leading a couple of paces in front of them.
The little boy looked around him in awe, seeing the many people rush by and looking at the many lights. In his rush, he accidently bumped into someone and fell onto him backside with a yelp. He shook his head and looked up, seeing a little girl of five with pink hair also on her hide, rubbing the top of her head. He got up and asked her "I'm soo sorry, are you alright?!" She looked up and looked at him, saying "It's alright, I'm okay." He smiled and held out a hand to her, the little girl grasping it and helping herself up.
She smiled and said "By the way, my name's Claire! What's your name?" He eagerly replied "Hope! Hope Estheim! I'm staying here for the summer holidays." Her smile got wider and she exclaimed "That's awesome! I live here with my little sister and my parents! Coming to think of it, are those your parents over there?" Hope looked where Claire was pointing and saw his parents slightly jogging towards them. They caught up with him and his mother exclaimed "Hope! Don't run off like that; we were worried you were lost!" He looked down at his feet and mumbled "Sorry mum."
She shook her head and gently smiled, saying "It's alright. Just don't run off without telling us next time." She turned to look at Claire and her smile got wider. "Hello there!" she cried, "What's your name?" Claire beamed and replied "Claire! Claire Farron!" Hope's father smiled at her to and exclaimed "That's a wonderful name! I'm Bartholomew and this is my wife, Nora. We're Hope's parents." She nodded and looked over their shoulders. Her face lit up even more and she pointed, yelling "There's mummy and daddy! MUM! DAD! OVER HERE!"
Another young couple turned around at the sound of the child's cry and immediately spotted their daughter. They rushed over to her, the mother carrying a younger daughter, and let out their breaths of relief when they reached the fairly small group. "Claire!" the mother cried, "Don't scare us like that; we thought we'd lost you!" She looked at the ground and mumbled "Sorry mummy!" Hope looked at Claire and back to her mother and said "Please, don't be mad at her! We just accidently crashed into each other and talked to each other, that's all!"
They looked down at his surprised, but soon their faces melted into smiles and the father said "Don't worry, son. We're not mad at her; we were just worried about her, that's all." He looked up to look at Nora and Bartholomew and said "Thank you for looking out for her." Nora shook her head and replied "No worries. Actually, Bartholomew and I were in quite the same dilemma. Hope had run off and we didn't know where on Cocoon he was. So really, you should be thanking my son, Hope, here." They smiled back down at him and the mother said "Thank you, Hope!" He beamed and replied "No problem!"
The fathers shook hands with each other and Claire's dad introduced himself. "My name is Arthur Farron," he said "it's an honour to meet you!" Bartholomew smiled and replied "I'm Bartholomew Estheim. It's great to meet you." Arthur gestured to his wife and said "This is my wife, Ada, and your met our eldest, but this is our youngest, Serah." Bartholomew wrapped an arm around Nora and said "This is Nora, and you've already met Hope. We come from Palumpolum."
They nodded and Arthur asked "If you guys want; we can direct you to your hotel or wherever you're staying." Bartholomew smiled and said "That'll be great! Are you sure we won't impose or anything?" Arthur waved and said "It's no problem at all! In fact, we could go walking down the jetty later tonight once you've settled in." Bartholomew exclaimed "Great idea! Will that be okay Nora?" She beamed and said "Of course it will." Arthur nodded and said "It's settled then. We'll meet at 5:30, just before sunset to see the sun go down."
And with that, the Farron family took the Estheim family to their hotel room and came back at 5:30 on the dot. They reached the beach and Nora gasped "Wow! It's so beautiful!" It was indeed, with a pink and orange sky and a dark blue sea with people on the beach and on the jetty to watch the sunset and sit in a comfortable, serene mode. The children got their ice-creams and sat on the end of the jetty, their legs dangling over the edge.
Hope, who was licking a chocolate ice-cream, turned to Claire with a smile and said "This has been one of the best days of my life, Claire! I'm so glad I met you!" Claire grinned back at him over her slightly eaten vanilla ice-cream and replied happily "Same here!" They sat in a couple of moments of friendly and relaxed silence as the sun was halfway down below the horizon until Claire said "Hey Hope." Hope looked at her and asked "Yeah, what is it?" She turned to him and held out her pinkie finger towards Hope. He looked at her quizzically and she asked "Will you promise me that we'll always meet here every year when you come over every summer holiday?" Hope looked at Claire before reaching out and replied "I ... I promise, Claire." Hope linked his pinkie around hers and made the promise of a lifetime.