Delicate Nightmare

"Mom, mom, mom, mom. C'mon, mom, wake uuuuuuup!"

A groan escaped Lightning's mouth as she turned in her sleep, trying to get away from a rather repetitive and infuriating noise that grew louder each time.

"Shh! Stop that, let her sleep! You know as well as I do that she worked extra hard yesterday!"

"Okay so she got rid of a bunch of bad guys and saved us all. That's great, I know, but it's not going to keep me well fed."

"You're such an idiot!"

The voices grew louder and louder until she found herself being brought back to full consciousness.

"Shut u- Oh look! She's waking up!"

"I told you not to-"

"What's going on here? It better be something important if you're willing to risk your safety by waking me up." Very annoyed, Lightning's gaze narrowed at the children near the foot of her bed. She spoke softly and in a controlled manner, but that made it all the more intimidating.

"It was his fault, mom! I tried to stop him!" Angry blue eyes turned to glare at the child next to her – her brother.

The girl in question here is none other than Hope and Lightning's daughter. Sporting her mother's icy blue eyes and her father's silver hair, she was the younger of the two – albeit she was only younger by a few minutes.

She pointed at her brother as she spoke. "He just didn't listen to me! You should punish him!"

"But I'm hungry! What was I supposed to do?" the boy cut in swiftly, visibly gulping, fearing actually being punished. The boy currently in question was Hope and Lightning's son, the older of the two (by a few minutes). He had his father's green eyes, but, for better or worse, he had also obtained his mother's pink hair.

The fraternal twins were 10 years old and growing fast. The girl seemed to enjoy her father's more intellectual interests (though she would sometimes watch her mother spar with an expression of pure amazement) while the boy was mostly fond of watching Lightning spar. She would constantly try to sneak into The Academy (which her father was the leader of) to see what the scientists and researchers were working on. Sadly, her plans always failed since her parents knew very well what her tactics were and had informed everyone. On the other side, the boy would pester his mother constantly, saying that he wanted his very own weapon. He also tried to sneak into her work, but since it was a government military base under her command, he couldn't even get near enough to see the guards before one of them would appear behind him and drag him home. Of course, this was not limited to them individually, as some days they would try to team up in order to invade one of the two work places. The outcome, however, was always the same and they were delivered back to their home or school. Worst case scenarios being when their parents were contacted and they were the ones to come pick them up. It was safe to say that everyone knew very well who those kids belonged to. In general, both children had the tendency to be sneaky and had obvious potential. They could very well follow their parents' footsteps if they chose to. Personality-wise, they were a bag of surprises. The girl seemed to be more reserved and generally cheery and cooperative, but if you made her angry, may Etro have pity upon your soul because you were about to encounter a second Lightning. She reminded Lightning of Serah, who by now had a reputation for being a mean teacher when upset. The boy on the other hand, was louder and more childish. Strangely, he had the tendency to shy away from strangers – a quality shared with his sister – but unfortunately for his parents, he was also a force to be reckoned with when angry. Not surprisingly, both children were very fond of their uncle Snow, much to Lightning's dismay.

But back to current events, Lightning pinched the bridge of her nose as she spoke. "What about your father? Can't he get you some food instead?"

"He, uh, had to go! Something about work and discovering some weird ruins or statues or something somewhere!" The boy replied.

"I see. Alright just give me a few minutes, okay?" Lightning threw the blankets off of her as she stood up, stretched and reached for the phone. She dialed a number she now knew by heart. "Hello? Yes, I'd like to make an order. Two large ones. Yes. Alright, thank you." She hung up the phone and looked at her kids, who were watching her intently, huge grins on their faces. "Pizza. It'll be here in like 15 minutes."

"ALRIGHT! PIZZA!" Both kids yelled in unison as they ran out the door and down the stairs, throwing their arms in the air.

Lightning smiled, watching her kid's backs as they practically flew down the stairs, most likely to go sit by the door or window. Her son's hair, a wavy mess of pink locks jumped up and down while her daughter's straight silver hair seemed to go everywhere, minus a braid she had at the side which mimicked her brother's hair.

"It's a miracle they don't roll down the stairs instead." she smirked.

Following her kids, she went down the stairs. Upon her arrival at the first floor, though, she noticed her kids whispering something to each other before noticing she was there. Upon noticing, their faces changed into sheepish grins, their eyes narrowing a little. Their expressions obviously forced. "They're onto something" Lightning instantly knew.

"Oh you're awake! I was wondering why the kids were so excited. I was going to go check up on you just now, actually. I thought they had probably pulled a prank on you or something of the sort."

Lightning turned to look at none other than Hope, the father of her children, the one who was supposed to be away on work-related business. "Hey, Hope. No pranks but guess who told me you were away on work and had me call for pizza."

"Really now? I wonder who could've done that." Hope looked at his children sitting by the door. "Do you two have any idea?" He faked confusion.

"I think we got caught." the boy whispered to his sister.

"Yeah, obviously." she replied.

"Don't worry about it though, no harm done." Hope walked towards them and smiled lightly, he lowered himself in front of them, ruffling their hair at the same time before turning more serious. "Just be honest next time, alright? I know your mother isn't the best of cooks out there but pizza every day won't do us all any good in the long run either. You could've told me to make you something too, you know." Immediately the kids screeched "No thanks!".

In the distance Lightning was heard. "Hmph. I feel insulted." She looked away for a moment before turning back. "You'll be paying for that later, Hope."

"I don't mind." Hope glanced at her and stood back up, proceeding to walk towards her. When he was about a foot or two away from Lightning though, he winked at her and continued to pass by, later reaching for his wallet which had been left on the coffee table behind.

"We'll see." she later replied as she turned to him. She took a few steps and in a few seconds, her face was inches away from his. She took the wallet from his hands and walked to the door as the doorbell rang, as if on cue, while the children cheered loudly.

She paid for the pizzas and handed a box to each of the kids. "Take those to the table over there." And just then, Hope leaned in behind her, he put his hands around her waist and whispered into her ear. "Wake up, Light."

"Light."

"Light, c'mon wake up."

"It's 2 in the afternoon, Light."

A muffled "No." came out of Lightning's mouth. Suddenly though, memories hit her. The kids. Food. Were they real or were they fantasy? She awoke in an instant, basically launching Hope off of her as she sat upright. "No pizza!" she sternly said before reality and dream separated from each other in her mind. She looked around her, only to find her room empty, save for Hope who was currently on the other edge of the bed rubbing his forehead and muttering an "ouch". Embarrassment took her over as she rushed to Hope. "I'm sorry, are you alright?" Just then she silently realized "I guess that's why I never knew their names, just who they were…"

"Yeah I'm fine." He winced a little but quickly composed himself. He sat upright, remembering what Lightning had said a few seconds before and spoke "But what was that about pizza? Were you dreaming about food or something?" he chuckled at the thought of it. He pictured Lightning probably awestruck in an all you can eat buffet or something of the sort, getting offended when someone suggests going for pizza instead.

"In a way." she nodded, unable to contain the memories of her dream. Then, a small blush tinged her cheeks as she thought about the ending, specifically the wink part.

Hope immediately caught sight of the blush. He figured the buffet wasn't what she was dreaming about. "I wonder what…" He found his mind straying off into certain places he shouldn't be thinking about at the moment and he felt that familiar tingling, warm sensation rise as consequence. Well this was an uncomfortable position to be in… This was tension at its finest.

A/N: That's it for Chapter 2, if it can even be considered that. As I explained on the edit at the first chapter, this will now be a series of related one-shots. Meaning that even though they are tied due to some aspects and may follow some sort of time frame, they can function separately as well.

As I mentioned, feel free to leave a suggestion or prompt for a possible next chapter. Thank you for your time and feel free to notify me of any possible typos!

ALSO I made some sort of drawing of how the kids should look like. I'm not a pro but you can take a look here:

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Please remove the spaces before putting that in your browser. It's the only way to make it appear here. I hope it works...