"Vanille, it's your robot so I think you should come with me to get the parts," Sazh suggested. "Plus, I don't know this place very well."
"Fair enough. Fang, we'll be back later today," she said to her friend before exiting. Fang sighed in disappointment as she watched Vanille leave with the older man.
"If you wanted to go with her, why not just go?" Hope caught on quickly to Fang's feelings for Vanille, although nobody else had seemed to pay any attention.
"Somebody's gotta guard the house," she replied straightforwardly.
"I'll watch it. I think I can handle it, especially with Snow around," the young boy replies.
"No, you can't. Someone needs to watch Lightning and you're the only one available with medic skills," she answered him, but only confusing him.
"What's wrong with Lightning?" his voice went a little higher as he asked this, filled with curiosity and worry.
"She's sick. She's been in bed all day and she was up all night moaning. Kept me up half the night, too," she explained just before being instructed to leave by Snow.
"I need a partner out here, you know!" the blonde shouted hintingly at Fang, who then left Lightning in Hope's care.
Not knowing what was wrong with Lightning, he sat in his bed and watched her intently, noting any changes in movement or breathing. He watched the young woman's arm and leg dangle helplessly off the side of the bed where her smiling face rested. She looked so peaceful, it was hard for Hope to believe she wasn't feeling well. When she opened her eyes for the first time that day, Hope pretended to be minding his own business and looked off to the side, so as not to startle her by staring at her in her wake.
"Feeling okay?" he quietly asked a few moments later after her smile slowly vanished, skin still glowing with sleep.
The expression on her face quickly turned to be what Hope associated with a negative attitude before she answered him. "I'm fine. Why?"
"Fang told me you were sick and making a lot of noise last night. She told me I should stay here to take care of you," he answered. Lightning sat up, face slightly red with what seemed to be a look of embarassment upon her face.
"Nope," she denied, running her fingers through her hair. "How long have I slept?"
"About eleven hours," Hope responded, unconsiously tapping the toes of his feet together.
"Ha," she let out a short chuckle before pushing her entire body up so that her back stood straight, legs crossed with her hands resting on the edge of the mattress. "I can't believe I slept that long, wearing this." She straightened out her skirt which was hiked up a little bit from moving around so much in the bed, then straightened her collar before pulling the sides of her shirt down. Hope notices an usual look in her eye, like she was about to laugh, a look that pierced his pale green eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" he wondered aloud and curiously. She stopped.
"Sorry. I just woke up." After responding, Lightning stood up and walked out the bedroom door. "Where is everyone?"
"Sazh and Vanille went to get parts to fix Bhakti. Snow and Fang are outside guarding the house," Hope answered in shout before getting up to follow Lightning.
"Yes! He's fixed!" Vanille shouted joyously, hours later, as Sazh set aside everything he didn't use to fix Bhakti. "Thank you so much, Sazh!"
"Yeah, you owe me," he joked.
Lightning was now with Fang guarding the Oerba home, and Hope was still inside with a resting Snow and recently returning Sazh and Vanille. The two men, exhausted from a hard day's work, went straight to bed and Vanille rejoiced the fixing of her beloved robot when Hope insisted on aiding the house watch with Lightning and Fang.
"Hope, wait up!" Vanille quickly tore herself away from her robot, noticing Lightning outside the window but unable to see Fang.
"What's up, Vanille?" the boy turned around to look at his friend with a worried look on her face.
"I... need to talk to you about something. And I don't really know how to say it," she started, fiddling with her fingers nervously.
"You can tell me anything, Vanille. You're my best friend," he reassured her, standing against the wall with his attention completely devoted to Vanille.
"I know, and that's just it... I think I'm starting to get a crush on you..." she followed up, avoiding all eye contact.
"...You what?" he choked up, not expecting to hear that from Vanille.
"I mean, it's nothing big... but I mean, you're really cute and I can't stop thinking about you lately, I just had to get that off my chest."
"...I see..." the boy responded in shock, unsure of what to say. "To be honest, Vanille-"
Her lips pressed against his, interrupting his words. Her entire body smashed into his as she trapped him against the wall, kissing him furiously. She slowly came to a stop after realizing Hope did not return the kiss.
"You..." the usually cheerful girl, now with a saddened expression on her face, could not even finish her sentence.
"I'm sorry Vanille... I just don't see you that way," he calmly stated, hoping to not offend her. After all, she was his dearest and closest friend.
Unable to form words through her embarassment, she simply turned around and walked into an unseen area of the house. Hope noticed, through the corner of his eye, Lightning, Fang, and Sazh's chocobo all looking through the window. They quickly looked away when they noticed Hope turning around to face them, alone now.