This is one of my favorites.

Academia 4XX AF

Hope was alive, Serah had really managed to change the future just by screaming at it… In a way, he could very clearly see how Lightning and Serah were related. For a while there he really thought one of them was adopted or something.

He suddenly felt an unrelenting calm overtake him as he watched Hope smile up at the suspicious Mog inspecting him, reaching a gentle hand out as if to pet the creature. Mog evaded him, instead spinning over Alyssa and then zipping back to Serah, seeming satisfied with the presence of their friends in the future. At first, Noel couldn't really care less that Hope and Alyssa were in a part of the timeline that they were not supposed to be anywhere near, but in defense of the time guardian title he claimed to have, he had just been happy to see them surviving the timeline to begin with.

When they finally reached the Academy, after a torturously long detour through the confusing passages of the city and horribly monotonous quizzes at those stupid "Brain Blast!" terminals before being ambushed by some creepy guy that Serah seemed to know named "Captain Cryptic," they finally reached Hope once more. Hearing the other man's side of the story, he felt all fear for the timeline and any paradox that may occur from their presence set aside, as it seemed that their time capsules were less a way of time travel and more a way to put a person in storage for a later date… like meat.

Later, when it was just him and Hope, and Noel explained his understanding of their messing with the timeline and any possible paradoxes, Hope had just laughed at him. Chuckling at him, he shook his head in a way that made Noel also smile a bit, a small quirk in his lips that pulled up from watching the Director laugh over his invention being compared to how the hunter would preserve dinner.

The Academy of the future seemed to revere Hope as being something close to a demi-God of a sort, what with the way they did whatever bidding he demanded. When Noel had asked what perks came with the job title of Director, Hope showed him his living space at the very top of one of the pillars in the giant building, making Noel gape slightly at not just the luxurious apartment sized area that Hope had to himself, but also the magnificent view outside the windows.

"And they just gave this to you?"

Hope ran his fingers through his hair slightly, smiling a little bashfully as he walked towards the couch, "Well, I didn't have much say in the matter. I was asleep for nearly 400 years, they decided on their own that it would be healthier for Alyssa and I to stay in an environment where we could be monitored for any complications that could develop from our stay in the time capsule…" Noel drifted off for a slight bit of time as Hope prattled on about the reasoning behind the Academy having him live there. He was still a little stuck at the part where Alyssa was apparently also staying there, at the Academy…

"So… Alyssa lives here too?" He hadn't meant the bitter tone that had accidentally slipped into his words, he also didn't mean to feel so bothered by the idea of the girl living in the same place as Hope. It wasn't completely unexpected after all, she practically hung off the Director, and she even went almost 400 years into the future with him… If anything, she would be the one he would expect Hope to be close to. Still, he didn't like the idea of her living with the other man.

Hope seemed completely unbothered by both his tone and his question though, chuckling lightly, "No, no, they gave her a place to stay in the other tower, top floor like this. She's like my second-in-command and had used the time capsule too, so she needs to be monitored like me."

The amount of relief Noel had felt when he heard she wasn't living with the other man was just plain ridiculous. Really, of all things to worry about he worries about whether his friend is living with a woman or not. Why was he so worried in the first place? Glancing over his shoulder to the platinum haired man on the couch, he wondered for a moment why everything lately seemed to be so wrapped up in Hope in his head. What was it about this man that distorted his mind? Sighing quietly, he turned around and began walking towards the couch to sit beside his friend.

And just like that, they instantly began to settle into their same old routine once more. Talking about the future and the past, about everything that had happened to them, that will happen to them, and in Hope's case, what should have happened to him before Noel intervened. It was a familiar conversation in an unfamiliar environment, and as the sun began to set and Noel watched the warm colors fill the pale complexion beside him, he couldn't help but feel something was not at all right with the entire situation. It wasn't that they were nearly 400 years into the future since they last met, and it wasn't this overly-luxurious apartment that they were sitting in with each other, but rather…

"Is anyone in the Research Facility right now?" Noel began standing as Hope just looked up at him in confusion.

"Uh, not right now, after 5 most of them move to their offices to write reports on their findings for the day," Seeing the hunter move towards the door back into the hall, the Director also finally stood and began following after him, wondering just what it was the other man was planning to do in the Research Facility at this time. Meeting him in the elevator before the hunter could figure out how to make it work, he just shrugged it off because he would find out in a moment anyways.

Reaching said facility, he watched Noel run off to the side for something, leaving Hope to walk up to his small platform that stood precariously before the holographic image of Cocoon. Hearing a soft clanging behind him, he turned slowly to see Noel rolling a couple chairs from the terminals up the stairs down to sit just before Hope's platform, facing them to face the glowing green Cocoon. Grinning, he walked back towards the hunter who was already taking a seat and waiting for him, Hope just shook his head at the other man's antics, "So you would rather watch a glowing green image of Cocoon than a sun setting over Academia? And here I thought a hunter who grew up on Pulse would have a better appreciation of nature."

Noel just snorted at him, nodding to the seat beside him, watching in satisfaction as Hope finally settled down next to him, "I've seen plenty of sunsets, and sun rises, and an eclipse even. My appreciation has been filled for those things," Glancing to his side, his grin unconsciously grew softer as he watched the soft green light bathe the pale form beside him, making those already intensely green eyes glow even brighter. It was just like back in Yaschas Massif.

It was a moment that he knew would never be wiped from his memory, not like so many others that had already left him, he would always remember the way Hope looked here being bathed in the artificial light of the holographic Cocoon. He could forget everything that happened before and after, but he was sure that he wouldn't forget this scene.

It felt like something was squirming in his stomach, making him feel more nervous than he should from just sitting beside a friend. His thoughts were still partially curious with that strange ache he had felt before seeing Noel and Serah again, but it was temporarily forgotten as the two sat beside one another. Just like 400 years ago, back in Yaschas Massif, he was once again asking Noel as many questions as he could. For the couple years that he and Alyssa spent building the time capsules not a day went by that Hope didn't feel regretful that he hadn't learned more about the hunter before they left. Sure, he had a secret hope that at any moment they would reappear, back for another visit that Serah had told him Noel always insisted on…

Obviously, those visits had stopped very suddenly, and while Hope was worried for the two, he also had the feeling that it wouldn't be the last they would see of them. When he saw the prophecy recorded on the Oracle Drive, he was beyond excited at the idea of seeing them again, and in the future. He had started keeping mental track of all the questions he still had for Noel, for the time he came from, for how he lived then and the people he knew, about the Farseers, and about the Seeress Yeul.

And yet, here he was, with his opportunity to ask any and all of these questions… and he forgot nearly all of them the moment his eyes landed on the familiar figure of the hunter. Instead, he sat there, enraptured by a tale of the hunter managing to have once taken down a full-grown adult Feral Behemoth all by himself. He felt like their time together was so short, that he would never be able to ask all of the questions he really wanted to anyways, and that ultimately all he would be able to do is just sit there and listen as much as possible.

He wanted to know so much more now though; he wanted to know everything he could find out, everything he could know about Noel.

The night would eventually end though, and he and Serah would have to go through another gate… and who knows when Hope would get to see them again. Then he felt that same ache from before blossom from his chest, realizing that he was feeling from the thought of Noel leaving again.

Everyone was always leaving him in the end.