Notes: This story is AU. No real pairings as of now, aside from SnowxSerah.

Thank you for reading.

"But you know I don't want to work for dad!" Hope sighed as his mother grabbed his arm and dragged him to the next shop window. The silver-haired woman glanced around at the dresses while making a few notes on a small pad of paper. Hope resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "And I thought you were supposed to buy a blue dress? All of these are green and pink."

Nora nodded, straightening up and cracking her back. She turned green eyes to her son, smiling a bit at his pout. She pinched his cheek, giggling when he turned away and stuck out his tongue. "I forget how much you look like me sometimes! Your father's right, that pout is irresistible. Which means some ice cream!"

"If you think you can bribe me with ice cream, you are absolutely right!" Nora snorted at his response, peering into the shop. Hope glanced at the window as well, catching his reflection on the bright and clear glass. He glanced at his mother, then himself, watching both sets of eyes. He was pale like her too, and slender, with a bit of baby fat still clinging to fourteen-year-old cheeks. But his silver locks were what really stood out; an odd color for anyone.

I don't know if I should be happy or glad about it...

"Maybe they'll have different colors inside?" Nora said, glancing at Hope. Hope raised an eyebrow at her and she rolled her eyes, smirking. "Fine, fine, ice cream, then we'll find the dress."

"Thank you!"

Nora shook her head and led the way around the shop, smiling at Hope. Her eyes darkened though and Hope sped up, biting his lip. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I...I know you're angry with your father, but if you give him a chance-"

"I already said that I didn't want to work for him."

"That's not what I mean, Hope," Nora said firmly. Hope blinked at the tone, tilting his head at his mother. She grabbed Hope's hand and led him to the nearest ice cream shop, nodding at a few people as she passed by. "You haven't spoken to him in two weeks."

Hope's chest tightened and his bright eyes dulled. "Maybe if he were around, it'd be harder pull off."

"You don't want to talk to him when he calls, you're never around when he's home, and it's just-it's not healthy." She paused on the sidewalk, turning to him. "I don't want to see the two most important men in my life fight like this. It's not even about the company anymore, he just wants to talk with you, Hope."

Hope bit his lip harder at the sight of his mother's pleading eyes, but he squared his shoulders. "If he really wanted to talk with me, he would have come on this trip! He wouldn't have let work take him away! He'd be here with us if he really gave damn!"

Hope's head snapped to the side, his cheek throbbing. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the ground, but his hand went to cover the now red cheek. He heard his mother's shuffling clothes and blinked at her, watching her kneel to the ground so they were eye level.

"He loves the both of us, Hope. I know it's hard to see, but-"

"Then why did you cry when he canceled?" Hope hated the way the words tasted in his mouth; hated them more when his mother flinched.

But-but she was crying. She stayed in there for an hour, sobbing. I'm not the only one who's sick of it. I'm not the only one frustrated with dad! Why? Why don't you say something to him, mom? He might listen to you, he might-

"...know better than to press your ear to our door, Hope." Hope jerked himself out of his thought, shoulders sagging when Nora stood and led him by the arm again.

They stopped in front of the ice cream shop and Hope stared at the bright, blinding white of the building. The sun's rays were beaming off the paint and Hope quickly looked at the ground. Blue and green spots danced on the pavement, and Hope listened as Nora ordered two vanilla ice creams.

Now I feel bad... Hope sighed, rubbing his temple. But how do I say sorry when I don't mean it? I suck at lying to her, she always knows what I'm doing... Maybe if I say I'm sorry for hurting her? That's the truth.

"Would you like sprinkles with that?"

"No," Hope mumbled, looking off into the distance. Sprinkles? What am I, five? A few cars were stuck behind a giant truck, and Hope paused at the name, bold and blue on the white truck.

Orphan Medical.

Hope sneered at the vehicle and turned around again, smiling when his mother held the ice cream in front of him.

Then he screamed when his mother clawed his shoulder and threw him away. Somewhere there was a boom; so loud that Hope couldn't catch his mother's words. Only her eyes, wide and fearful.

Heat burned on all sides and his body skidded a few feet away. Bits of metal and glass littered Hope's hair and his head pounded. Blood slid down his temple where his skull had cracked the pavement, but he shook his head and pushed himself up, eyes flickering, trying to catch a glimpse of Nora.

"Grab him! Someone grab him and get him away!" Hope's stomach bottomed out. He sucked on the air but his lungs just deflated the moment he took a breath. His mother was yelling something at him, pinned under a large sheet of metal. Blood was pooling around her, but she propped herself up on her arms and shouted at him as if it were nothing.

As if sitting in a lake of her own blood was nothing.

"Someone grab my son and get him out of here! He doesn't-he doesn't need to see this! Grab him! Don't you see he's bleeding, someone grab him!"

Hope shook his head, pushing himself to his knees and then trying to stand up. His legs wobbled and someone lightly touched his shoulder. His body tensed and he flinched, jumping away. His shaky eyes turned to his mother again and he ran toward her, dropping to his knees and leaning toward her face.

"No. No, no...no... Mom-mom, how do I help? I want to help but I-" My voice. My voice won't stop shaking. Why won't it stop shaking?

"You need to go, Hope," Nora said. Her chest heaved and she clamped her mouth shut, shuddering as blood pooled in her mouth, slivers of the red liquid dribbling down her lip.

Hope's eyes widened at the sight of red on her lips. His heart just skipped and skipped and skipped. Everything around him tilted.

"I mean it, Hope! That-that bus could go any time."

Bus? What bus? Hope shook his head, reaching for his mom's face but she did her best to back away.

"I said go!" Nora's eyes flickered above Hope's head and he whipped around, coming face to face with a police officer. He barely had time to register her strawberry hair before he was being dragged away by the woman, her grip unnaturally strong.

"N-No! Don't save me, save my mom! That's what you're supposed to do, you're supposed to save her!" Hope growled when the woman didn't even speak. He yanked and pulled at her grip until he felt the fingers peel off his shoulder. He threw himself forward and grasped his mother's blood-stained hand, shaking his head as she said 'leave' over and over again.

Hope's eyes widened when the grip came back, digging into his shoulders and pulling on him again. Distantly he could hear the voices, but it all seemed to dull with the crackling of the flames and his mother's voice. He curled his fingers around his mother's own, ignoring the ache in his muscles or the way his skin slid on the blood.

I'm not letting go, I'm not letting go. I won't let you take her from me!

"Do whatever you can to keep him safe!" Nora yelled, covering her mouth when more blood came up. Hope shook his head; whipped it from side to side and he kicked at the officer.

"No! Quit saying stupid things like that! We need to find that stupid dress! We need to leave, mom! We'll miss the train back and you promised."

Hope roared when the officer clawed him and yanked him away again. She dragged him several feet away and stood in front of him, crouching slightly and holding him in place. Her form shielded his mother from view, but a voice called above the din. "Don't worry too much, sis! I'll get her out in no time!"

Hope's breath caught in his throat and he peeked around the officer, spotting a tall, muscled blond man lifting the metal from his mother. Hope gasped, his chest and stomach releasing. He watched the man talk with his mother, odd with the bus and two other cars burning in the background. The police woman said something, but Hope didn't care. Didn't care that he couldn't hear what they said or that he was bleeding and that everything just ached.

His mother would be safe. That was all that mattered.

"Get out of there, Snow!"

"The bus-"

Hope felt the rumble rather than hear it. His eyes flickered to the giant cloud of black soot and orange fire blooming in the air. More metal and glass shattered, tore, and flew. Hope saw it rain down; tearing street and skin alike.

He saw the big blond man being thrown back, his skull bouncing off the ground.

He glanced at his mother, covered in metal and glass and blood.

Mom?

The police woman leaned over him, shaking his shoulder and trying to pull him up.

No... Go help her. She needs it. She needs your help. Go help her!

"I can't help her." Hope blinked but shook his head, not aware he was muttering his thoughts. Briefly, he wondered why the woman sounded so gruff and sad.

"But that man-"

"He couldn't save her."

The words hit him like a train. His eyes burned and he could feel the sob bubbling up his throat before he could stop it.

"Nnnggh." Hope shook his head as his eyes burned harder. Clamped his mouth down and forced the sob into a strange, strangled noise. "But he-but maybe she's still al-"

But she's so still under the metal. And the fire. And the blood. She's not moving. She's not-not telling me to run away. She's not telling me not to look. She wouldn't want me to. She just said she didn't want me to see!

"He was supposed to save her! Why didn't he save her? Why didn't he save her, she was right there, he could have done it! Why didn't he save her! She was free! All he had to do was pull, why didn't he save her?" Hope's voice rose with each word, even as the air around him thinned. His body shook and quaked. His legs kept buckling each time the officer pulled him up.

Nora still didn't move from beneath the metal.

"Why didn't he save her! Why! He was-why. Why? Why?" Hope repeated the words until his breath caught and the world dimmed. Until everything gave way to darkness and nothing; until he could only think the word, switching between why and mommy.

And once everything just stopped, his body gave way in the woman's arms.

It would be the one and only time he did not dream of his mother.

And the one and only time he did not dream of the man called Snow.

Hope leaned back in his father's soft, large chair, being sure not to tilt so far as to make the wheels turn. But then the back trembled and Hope threw himself forward to the desk, heart skipping at the brief terror of falling backwards.

Feeling his cheeks warm, he rested his chin on his hand, suppressing a yawn and watching his father gather the last few bits of paperwork for the night. The glasses were slipping off his father's worn face, and Bartholomew kept running a hand through his short brown bristles whenever something fell to the floor.

"Are you all right, Hope?" Bartholomew asked, glancing at his son. "You seem off today."

"I'm fine, dad," Hope said, glancing at the windows. He could see the skyline, stars mingling with the lights given off by other buildings in the small city of Cocoon. Way more interesting than this place, I'm sure.

"Well, how is your time at the Academy going? The lessons are working well, right?"

Hope hummed, his father's voice a distant ring. I wonder if Lightning is out there, kicking some criminal ass.

She's so cool.

"Hope..." Hope jumped at how close his father sounded, clattering in the chair and giving Bartholomew a sheepish smile.

"Sorry 'bout that. Guess I'm...tired." Hope's cheeks flushed and Bartholomew rolled his eyes, throwing a few loose pieces of paper into his suitcase and snapping it shut.

"Straight to bed when we get home then. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah." Hope let his shoulders slack, leaning back into the chair. "Get me when the car is here."

"You're such a lazy bum sometimes." Bartholomew said, smiling at his son. He started across the room, waving at Hope. "I'll let you off for now. I've heard about this Iron Rose and she is no walk in the picnic."

"It's park, dad. And don't call Lightning Iron Rose! You already met her! You know who she is! How long has it been now?" Hope cried, nearly shooting out of his chair.

"I know you think she's the coolest thing, too." Hope gaped at that, his cheeks turning redder by the minute.

"How do I not catch saying that?" Hope said, putting his face in his hands. "I mean, you'd think I'd hear myself talk."

There was a small, short silence between them before Bartholomew cleared his throat. "It'll be three years on the dot tomorrow." Hope narrowed his eyes and nodded, not looking up from his hands.

"We're still going, right?" Hope asked, slowly lifting his face from his hands. He stared long and hard at his father, brown eyes on green.

"It's not even a question. Every meeting has been cleared, the phones will be shut off, and the Iron Rose will have to wait for her protege." Bartholomew's lips didn't even twitch up.

Neither did Hope's.

"I miss her," Hope mumbled, glaring at the floor.

"I... I know, Hope. I wish I could make it better."

"You miss her too, don't you?" Hope asked, unable to keep the hard accusation from his tone.

"That's not a question either." Bartholomew shook his head when Hope's face dropped, an apology already coming from Hope. "It's all right. It's not as if I've made my grief apparent." Bartholomew gave Hope a small smile, his lined eyes sad as they fell on his son. "But I want to help you more than myself. It's part pf being a parent."

Hope nodded, his throat tightening.

Mom did it for me, too. She made sacrifices. Protected me.

Even in the end, she was protecting me.

Hope clenched his hands, looking back at the floor.

"When we get back, we'll be dealing with the new security squad recruits. Quite an odd bunch this time," Bartholomew said lightly, his eyes trained on Hope. "But I'm sure they'll work out. Check out the names on the list, you might recognize one." Bartholomew pointed to the clipboard still sitting on the desk, a small checklist of names running down the paper.

Hope blinked and pulled the list toward him, flinching when the elevator pinged and his father disappeared behind the metal sliding doors. Stupid, nervous reflexes.

Hope watched the small light of the elevator for a moment before turning back to the list, eyes instantly lighting up at the name, Kai Ichizo.

He smiled, holding back a chuckle. "No way, he actually made squad? And I thought he was full of hot air." Hope went to put the list down, but another name caught his eye. For a second, the same moment his heart skipped, he thought he'd misread it. But he pulled the list closer, eyes instantly snapping to the name.

Snow Villiers.

Hope blinked, reading and rereading the name typed on the list complete with a small check mark in the box next to it.

Snow Villiers.

Snow Villiers.

Snow...

Hope's eyes dulled, any light vanishing in that instant. A sneer made its way to his face before twisting into a smirk, and he flipped the clipboard over, shooting away from the chair. His heart roared; pounded in his chest and drummed in his head.

"So, Snow Villiers is coming to Orphan Medical...to work as security."

Do you really think it's the same guy?

"Who else could it be? How many people could possibly be naming their kid Snow?" Shadows fell across Hope's face, dead eyes glaring at the skyline. "Who else is it but him?"

"Hope, you ready to go?" Hope closed his eyes at his father's voice. I didn't hear the ping! Calm down, calm down. Take a deep breath, look him straight in the eye, stop talking to yourself, and just-

"Yeah, sorry dad!" Hope said, grinning brightly at his father. He kept his eyes shut tight until he was sure he had recovered, giving his father a smaller smile. "I can't believe Kai is coming here."

"I thought you'd be excited about that! That kid has been nothing but an inferno since you two met in school..."

Hope nodded, following his father to the elevator as Bartholomew started on Kai. But the name was running through his mind like a mantra.

Snow Villiers. Snow Villiers. Snow Villiers. Snow Villiers.

Hope held back another sneer, knowing he'd have plenty of time to be dark and gloomy and brood over this new development in the coming hours. He would think of his mother and the man that had left her to die. He would stew in his hate and his pain and all the rage that just screamed and tore at his brain.

And once I get back, Hope said, almost smiling, although his chest was clenching and tightening at the thought, he'll be here to take it out on.

-A small note on Kai. Briefly, I remember reading that Hope had a friend named Kai in canon history. He did not have a last name, so I made one up for him, and decided to put him in this fic.