Vanille·Hope Friendship
[summary] She was prone to lying. It was often just little things, but she had done it so often that it had become an irritating habit. ["I mean would you— would you promise to come back to Pulse with me?" He was suddenly aware that her cheeks were an apparent hue of a delicate, unsullied rose.]

Inspiration for this short story came from an optional cutscene in gran pulse. (www[dot]youtube[dot]com/ watch?v=6YB7Tfa-eNQ SPOILER! Don't click unless you want to see it) It's adorable and I highly suggest watching it because I do reference one part in it, but don't watch it if you don't want to spoil chapter 11! I'm not usually a huge Vanille x Hope fan, but the scene was so cute that I had too.

I absolutely love listening to the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack when reading or writing. I recommend listening to Terra Incognita, Vanille's Theme, Face it Later, A Brief Respite, The Road Home, and Sulyya Springs.

Anyways on with the story!

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"I mean maybe we both forgot. Maybe we did promise to see Gran Pulse together—and Cocoon.

"Thanks Hope."

"Do something for me, will you? Keep smiling. I—it makes me happy when you smile."

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Broken Promises

She was prone to lying. It was often just little things, but she had done it so often that it had become an irritating habit. At some point she had forgotten what was really the truth and what was really the lie.

All she could do was runaway—runaway from her fate and runaway from her lies.

And finally on one balmy, ambrosial day in Pulse she faced her fate—faced all her lies. He had told her that in the end, it didn't matter. What really mattered was what you did after you lied.

And so from then on she desperately clung to the shred of morality he bestowed upon her.

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It was the night before they returned to Eden.

Lightning and Snow had walked away—well, Lightning had stormed off and Snow followed her. Again, she disagreed with his reckless, semi-unconventional methods and castigated his lack of common sense. And again he attempted to cajole her into just getting on the goddamn motorcycle and rampaging through the city of Eden.

"Have you ever once thought about the ramifications?" Lightning hissed, pulling her gunblade out threateningly.

"Uh…no…" Snow scratched the back of his head, trying to quickly think up of a counter response. He proudly shouted, "Heroes don't need plans!"

Lightning growled, her body seething with frustration. "No, but heroes need brains!" She yelled and then stormed off angrily.

Sazh, on the other hand, needed some time alone so he took the chocobo and roamed as far as he possibly could. Fang opted to stay back and watch the fire, but Vanille knew she just needed some time alone. Each day as Hope grew more and more sure of himself, Vanille noticed that Fang became more and more doubtful of herself. And often she needed to stop and reassure herself that this was right—they were doing the right thing, even if it meant sacrifice.

Meanwhile Hope and Vanille had wandered off in search of firewood.

"Hope," Vanille softly called out, her head askew.

He turned to her, a weary smile on his face, as he mindlessly picked up firewood. "Yeah?"

"If we—um—if we ever make it out alive…" Vanille fidgeted nervously, toying with the beads on her skirt.

He turned to her and observed her carefully. He was suddenly aware that her cheeks were an apparent hue of a delicate, unsullied rose.

"Could you—" She stammered nervously, her hands flailing as if to take the words back, "I mean would you—" She spun in the other direction and sighed as she stared at Cocoon floating above. "Would you promise to come back to Pulse with me?"

The firewood slipped from his fingers.

She immediately spun back around as soon as she heard the soft thud of the firewood on the dirt.

"I—I—well, it's…it's like you said…it only matters what you do after you lie…I want my lie to become true."

His countenance was absolutely unreadable and it nearly drove her insane. The doubts soon manifested in her mind and she desperately wished she could retract everything she said. Maybe he was annoyed because this would be another one of her broken promises—or maybe he thought she was kidding or maybe—

"And Cocoon too?" He asked hopefully extending his hand for a handshake.

She froze for a second as she attempted to process the three words that came out of his mouth.

She nodded vigorously, all the tension building up inside of her releasing rapidly. She couldn't contain herself—instead of shaking his hand, she ran over and enveloped him in a tight hug.

"You promise?" She pleaded as she buried her face in his soft silvery hair.

"I promise," Hope stated firmly. "You promise?"

Vanille pulled back, her hands now placed firmly on his shoulders. She quickly swiped her eyes with her arm to hide the tears that were threatening to fall. Once she had collected herself, she looked straight into his eyes and stated with as much conviction as possible, "Yes, I promise."

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But that was months ago.

And here Hope was back in Pulse—without her.

He watched as the sunlight refracted through her. She had become a floating lifeless crystal, her body on display for the world to revere. She was curled in a fetal like position, her hands in Fang's—and if there was one person in the world he would trust to hold Vanille's delicate hands, it was Fang. Here she was, frozen in time forever. She had been granted eternal life…and death.

He could still feel her smile in the warmth of the sunlight and her laugh in the lightness of the wind; she was everywhere—she was alive in his heart.

"You promised," He whispered, a broken smile on his face. He gently chuckled and whispered endearingly, "You always break your promises."

Somewhere inside, he still believed that she would come back, even though it was impossible.

But she had defied fate once; she could do it again.

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I hope you enjoyed my story!

Please leave feedback if you have any! Reviews are love. I absolutely love responding to reviewers!

I usually proofread my own work and I tend to be unintentionally biased towards my own work (oops). So, please excuse any grammatical errors.

You know, for some reason all the guys I know that play the game hate Hope, but I love him! I think he has the best character growth and says the most insightful comments! And of course I love Vanille as well! I think both she and Hope brought some innocence to the group.

Again, thanks for reading!

- Elle.