Author's Note: This is my first fanfic, so I apologize of it's not any good! I am a huge Final Fantasy fan, and this idea has been in my head for a while. . . It takes place 600 years after the ending of FF-13, but nothing from FF 13-2 is taken into account. This fanfic ignores all of that. Anyhoo, I must make this clear, there are some parts in this story that might make it seem like I support Hope&Lightning, but I don't. I support Hope&Vanille all the way! Hope and Lightning are good friends, but that's all there is to it.

Getting back to the point, hope you enjoy the story!

Hope Estheim had abandoned society long ago. It had nothing to offer him, in fact, large clusters of people made him claustrophobic, smothering him with the memory of what had been lost. He was eighteen years old then.

But centuries had passed since then, and the only places on the planet he hadn't been were cities. He'd experienced nearly everything imaginable, and relied on no one but himself.

He had no particular destination that day. He was driven by a strong sense that he should be going that way.

Hope had learned to trust feelings like that.

Being in the middle of the forest, his surroundings stayed pretty much the same. Foliage, the occasional animal. Everything being so similar, any little difference did not go unnoticed.

In this case, the difference was the smell of smoke.

There was a nice wind blowing, so realistically, the source of the smell could have been anywhere in a several mile radius.

But it wasn't.

It was still a good distance away though. It took another half hour of walking before he found it.

And them.

The source of the smell turned out to be a huge, charred, stinking chunk of forest that had been mostly burned to the ground. . . and was covered in dead bodies.

Or. . . what was left of them.

That same feeling he'd felt earlier compelled Hope to walk among the wreckage, searching for what had drawn him there. He pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth, trying not to breathe in the ashes he kicked up, trying not to wonder who he might be breathing in.

But there was one thing he did wonder, what happened?

There were some small fires still burning, and the whole place gave off heat, indicating that this happened only a few hours ago. The area was almost perfectly rounded, like a bomb had done this. But what was there to bomb out here?

He glanced down at one of the bodies. These guys, apparently.

He heard a moan from behind him.

He pivoted around so quickly that he kicked up a cloud of ash and forgot to hold his shirt over his mouth. As he coughed and waved away the ashes floating in front of his face, he tried to find who had moaned. At first he didn't see anything, it was all dead. He thought maybe he'd imagined the moan.

But then it happened again.

This time he didn't just stand and look; he searched. He was sure now that he'd heard something, and if someone really was alive, he had to make sure they stayed that way.

After fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, Hope was about ready to give up. Maybe he really had imagined it.

He was giving the area one last visual sweep when he saw movement. A hand flexing it's fingers. He rushed over, careful not to step on anyone. The person was trapped under a fallen tree. They moaned again.

Hope proceeded to lift the burned, crumbling tree off of them, As he did, the person below him whispered his name.

"H-Hope?"

Hope stared into the familliar blue eyes of his friend, not believing it was actually her, "Lightning?"

Her reply was weak, "I-" her eyelids fluttered and she went limp.

"Lightning!"

He set down the tree and knelt beside her. Her breathing was shallow but steady. It was really her. He'd never seen her so vulnerable. It was odd.

Hope felt eyes on the back of his neck. He froze on instinct, but turned around after a few seconds. He scanned the treeline. He didn't see anyone, but he didn't let his guard down.

Throwing one last suspicious glance at the trees, he turned back to Lightning. She'd be alright, he knew that better than anyone, but he still had to take care of her. Aside from a bad burn on her left arm, she appeared, outwardly, to be okay.

The feeling that he was being watched intensified and he trusted it. Someone was out there.

But for now, they were just watching.

And he would take advantage of that. By pretending he didn't know they were there, but all the while not letting his guard down.

He had to take Lightning somewhere safe. He rembered following a stream, sort of, a ways back. He'd eventually abandoned it because the stream doubled back. But he rembered passing a cave. A small one, only about as deep as a full-grown man was tall, but that didn't matter.

He picked Lightning up, careful not to jostle her, and marched back the way he came. He kept his eyes and ears open, sure he was being followed.

After about an hour he realized that the stream and the cave were farther away than he thought. But it mattered little, distance and time didn't mean much to him anymore.

Suddenly, Lightning stirred in his arms. She moaned and opened her eyes. Blinked twice.

"Wha-?" she looked around, dazed.

"Hey, Light." Hope said.

She stared up at him, "Hope? You're-you're alive? I- we, thought you were. . . you were gone so long. . ."

Hope held her close as he ducked under a particularly low branch, "Yeah." he said as he continued on, "Sorry about that."

"Where are we?" Lightning asked him.

"Middle of the woods." he said cryptically.

"Why are you in the middle of the woods?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Hope deflected.

"Good question." she said, staring up at the trees.

"Hold on tight." Hope instructed her. She did so, wrapping her arms around his neck. He jumped into a stream.

"Where are we going?" Lightning asked. She felt like a child, asking all these simple questions.

"Shelter." was all Hope said.

All of a sudden, Lightning's left arm felt like it was on fire.

"Damnit!" she cried.

Hope stopped walking, "What?"

"My arm." she said through gritted teeth.

"Oh yeah, you've got a nasty burn there." Hope began walking again.

He sounded as though it was as serious as a paper cut. Lightning stared at the inflamed flesh on her arm. How did that happen? she thought.

"How did that happen?" she asked.

"Beats me." Hope manuvered through some large rocks, "But I'm assuming you came in contact with fire." he used overexaggerated sarcasm.

"No." she said with an equal amount of sarcasm.

"Yeah, wierd isn't it?" he laughed, a welcome sound. A sound she hadn't heard in a long time.

Lightning tightened her grip on Hope's neck. It finally sunk in that he was carrying her. She'd forgotten that he was bigger than her now. And probably stronger too, she could feel that in the firmness with which he held her. She knew that he would not drop her. She felt safe in his arms.

What a twist. she thought. When she'd met him, he was this small, weak kid. But now. . . now he was all grown up. Strong. she studied his face, and found that she could still see the boy behind the man's features.

"What are you staring at?" he joked.

"How old are you?" she asked, suddenly curious.

"Physically, you mean? Uh. . ." he thought for a moment, "Twenty-two."

"You sure?"

"Yup."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Don't know. I just do." he smiled triumphantly, "Here we are." He'd finally found the cave.

He set Lightning down just inside the cave, "I'll be right back." he told her. Then he dissappeared behind some trees.

Lightning made herself comfortable, and pressed her burnt arm against the cool rock to draw the heat out. It brought wondrous relief.

But why is he out here? was her next thought. She got the sense that he was no stranger to the woods. But why? And how was it that he just happened to be in the same part of the woods that she was in? Why was she in the woods? So many questions, not enough information. Come to think of it, she had no memory of the last several weeks.

Hope came back then with some logs. He arranged then in a pile and took a match out of his pocket. He swiped it until it lit, then threw it on the logs, which caught instantly.

"You've done that before." Lightning stated.

"A few times." Hope replied. He glanced up at the darkening sky, "It's getting dark." his eyes swept the surrounding trees, "You should rest."

Lightning thought he was acting a little odd, but she was a little tired, "Okay." she said. But before she even thought about lying down, she added, "Hey, Hope?"

"Hm?"

She hesitated, "I. . . missed you."

He gave her a slow nod, "I missed you too."

And thus, the first chapter ends. Sorry if it was a little boring, again, I'm new at this. But believe me, the next chapter will be better.