A small prelude. This happens about 11 years after the events of FFXIII. I'm going to write a prequel of sorts, concentrating on Snow and Serah more than Hope and Light, but here's a quick overview of the events leading up to this: Snow and Serah have two girls and a boy and are as close as ever to Hope and Light. Hope owns a company that manufactures weapons for the Guardian Corps, Snow works for him, Serah is a house wife of sorts, and Light is still part of the GC. Hope and Light have been dating for a while and are still boyfriend and girlfriend when the events below occur. Now that you have been briefed, enjoy! x3

Sergeant Claire "Lightning" Farron stared down at the third offending piece of plastic she had used. "What... the... hell?", she ground out, dropping down onto her toilet seat. "This can't happen... no... no... not now. We just... ugh. How will I tell him?", she stared at the plastic, and promptly vomited all over it. "Good. At least the kid hates you too.", she whispered and vomited some more.

Light glared at the door, just about ready to tear it down, when she, to her own surprise, knocked quietly. "God, I'm turning into Serah...", she thought as the door opened and she came face to face with her silver-haired lover.

"Hey there Light.", Hope smiled, always happy to see her, "What's up?" "Nothing... can I come in? Or are you busy?", Lightning asked and looked over his shoulder to check, slightly worried that he might be there with someone else. "Che. Being paranoid.", she thought, shaking her head. "Nah, come on in.", he opened the door all the way and closed it behind them. "Okay. Thanks, Hope.", she said, smiling rather sadly as she was walking over his threshold.

Hope noticed immediately and asked, "Something wrong?" "No... No, of course not! Why could there be anything wrong at all?", Light said quickly, attempting to cover for the fact that she was a horrible liar. Hope's eyebrows furrowed but he said, "Uhn, okay." He lead her to the couch and said, "You want a drink or something?"

"Nah. Can't drink cause I'm- wait, what?", Light asked, turning her head toward Hope. Hope tilted to the side confusedly, "I just wanted to know if you wanted something to drink. Like water or soda or something..." "Err... water, please.", she replied, a slight flush creeping up her face. "Okay.", he said, getting out two glasses, "So is there something you want to talk about?" "No. Nothing.", she answered too quickly, causing some concern on Hope's part.

"Are you sure...?", Hope asked, slowly drifting back to the couch with the water glasses. "Yeah. Of course.", she said, faking a smile, and attempting to ignore the acid rising at the back of her mouth. Hope handed her the glass of water and examined her face, "You feeling alright?" She swallowed the vomit-like material coming from her throat while making an unpleasant face and said, "Sure. Can I go... use the bathroom?" Hope nodded, taking her glass from her and putting it down, "Yeah sure go ahead."

Lightning ran down the hallway at a near blinding speed and into the bathroom with Hope close behind, entering stalker mode. He called in surprise, "Hey! Light, are you sick?" She slammed the door in his face as an answer. He stubbornly waited outside until he heard violent retching coming from inside. He knocked on the door, "Are you okay? Do you need something?" "Hair band!", she managed to say in between pukes.

He scurried around, finally locating a rubber band and knocking, "I've got it!" Light opened the door and Hope blinked at all the vomit she had created. "Light, you're really sick!", he said as he tied her hair up for her. "Tell me something I don't know.", she said sarcastically right before a puke. He rubbed her back, "You're okay, you're okay..."

"No I'm not! I'm-", a loud boat horn blew right outside the window, through which Hope was staring at the sky, conveniently assuring that he did not hear anything Light said.

He sighed, "So... how did you get so sick?" "Dunno... it just started happening a week ago, but it wasn't this bad until today.", she finished, and retched some more. He shot her a look, "Well why didn't you tell me before? I could have taken care of you..." "I didn't want to- PUKE bother you. PUKE I thought you'd be busy with Estheim Corp- PUKE", she replied, pausing intermittently to vomit.

Hope exhaled, "Oh Light, you know you'd never bother me. I care for you more than anything else and you know that!" "I PUKE understand... Hope. We better figure out where this relationship is going taking this... inconvenient surprise into account.", Light said, surprisingly not puking for the rest of the sentence.

He was unassumingly confused, "Wait, you mean you want to break up or something? All because you don't want to bother me?" "No! Before we come to that conclusion, I need to know what you think about-", she puked and the horn blew again, definitely ensuring that he did not hear ANYTHING.

He cocked his head back in confusion, "Wait so... you want to know what I think about you being sick? It's not bothering me at all! What bothers me is that I don't understand what you're saying..." "You know what? I've tried to tell you three times today! THIS SUCKS! PUKE", she yelled. He made her turn to face him, "Light, just say it then. Right now. Point blank. I want to understand."

"I'M CARRYING YOUR GODDAMN CHILD!", Lightning yelled and then puked all over Hope rather anticlimactically.

Hope's eyes widened, "Wait...YOU'RE WHAT?" "I'M PREGNANT!", Light yelled and puked all over him again.

His pupils shrank into dots and he looked at her like she was a ghost, "You're-you're not serious are you?" "WOULD I LIE ABOUT- PUKE", thankfully, Light got it in the toilet this time.

He grabbed the side of the sink with one hand to anchor himself as he thought it over, "But how-?" "We did... remember?", she asked, worried that he wouldn't remember at all. He nodded slowly, "Yeah but... we used protection and we've only done it once and-!" "It was only 99%, Hope. PUKE This is an extraordinary kid right here PUUUUUUUUKE", the upchuck at the end was especially nasty.

He stared at her blankly, "But-it's just-oh my god..." "What? Think 24's a bit young for this? I thought so. If you don't want this, just tell me. We can get the abortion and just forget this happened.", Light said, making to walk off angrily, but collapsing into his arms out of lack of energy. "No... no way...", Hope fainted from shock, her falling on top of him, both hitting the floor.

Serah knocked on the door. "Hey... Hope? You here?", she asked. "I found Light's key at our place and..", she walked in, looking for signs of human presence until she found them both unconscious and covered in Light's puke, on the bathroom floor. "Oh... I think we should get to the hospital... I think.", Serah said, and pulled out her phone to contact her husband.