Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone for reading this story and sending in reviews! To respond to the last review I got, the next few chapters are kind of short, but they'll get longer again so that everyone will be able to read into them more.

Also I was surprised and happy at the mention of the new story I have yet to post. Thank you for mentioning it! About that, for anyone who is interested in hearing an update about it, it still won't be coming out for a while, but I can say that it will most likely come out by the end of this year or definitely no longer than really early next year. I'm really excited for posting that one!

If interested, I've decided to put up early a little teaser about the story on my blog if anyone wants to check it out. I can also put up a release date for when I know for sure it's going to be posted.

Other than that I hope that you will enjoy this chapter of the story!

Chapter 4: What Kind of Season Is This?!:

"I can't believe this."

Curiously, Lightning's eyes traveled over to Hope as she was sitting beside him on the floor inside of his office. "What?" she asked.

He placed his hand to his head. "This is getting out of control."

Her eyes drifted downwards. "Yeah. I know."

Hope raised his hand up toward the screen. "There are so many sequels to everything. How is anyone supposed to keep up?"

Lightning reached over and turned off his television. "I thought that you meant about the other situation."

Hope was curious as to what she was talking about. "What? Oh right!" He stood up from the ground and went over to the window. "This cat thing is spreading. It's surprising. Who knew that many people would bite other people? I think that the whole city has turned."

Lightning went over and joined in beside him. "Any ideas for a cure?"

He shook his head. "No. Well... It's not so bad being like this. I mean my cute rating has gone through the roof." Out of the corner of Lightning's eyes, she stared at him. Her eyes began to narrow. For some reason, she felt the need to pounce, but kept it to herself. What was this feeling going on inside of her? Finally able to brush it aside, she started listening again to him ramble. "So like I said it's not so bad being like this. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Director!" When they looked behind them, Hope saw a familiar face. His expression changed to surprised. "Alyssa?! What are you doing here?!"

Alyssa grinned. "I'm back!"

Hope blinked as he was still surprised by her appearance. "But how?"

Alyssa placed her hand on her side as she smiled. "I know. You don't see me at the end there, but who cares? Now I get to come back!"

Hope placed his hands on Lightning shoulders as he stepped behind her. She looked behind her curious as to what he was doing. "What-?"

Hope lowered his head a little more toward her shoulder. "See if you can get rid of her. I can't have her constantly following me around again."

"But I don't know who she is."

Alyssa stepped over and placed a file on his desk. "I'm the Director's assistant."

"Was my assistant. Not anymore. What was that you just brought in?"

"Oh! I just found this on one of the scientists' desk and brought it right over. It was something you wanted to see."

Hesitant at first, Hope grabbed Lightning's gunblade from her carrier. She became curious. "What are you doing?" He used the sword to make the folder slide over toward him. Unfortunately, Alyssa who was sitting on his desk placed her fingers on the file and slid it over in the opposite direction toward her. Hope let out a sigh and tried again, but the sword fell out of his hand. Lightning shook her head. "Why don't you just go over there and get-?"

She was about to go over, but Hope held her back. "Don't go any closer. She might start following you around too, or find some way to trick you into a place you can't come back from unless you're one of the main characters." He turned Lightning to him so that she could face him. "All right. I will go in for you. If I don't make it through, just know that…it was all for nothing." Lightning stared at him confused. Slowly, he stepped over toward Alyssa still seeing the smile displayed clearly on her face. Her tail rose up and down more the closer he came. Carefully, he opened the folder. Suddenly, he stepped back. "No!"

Lightning became surprised to his reaction. "What?" She stepped over beside him. "What is it?"

"Someone took my lunch and I got stuck with the bill. It's right up the street. I don't know why they just couldn't hand deliver it to me instead of reception." Upset, Lightning scratched and knocked the bill out of his hand. His eyes traveled over to the other paper that was in the folder. "Oh! I didn't see this. According to research that the scientists sent, who somehow look the same no matter what time period you go to, it appears that it's some sort of mating season. Ohh! Maybe that's why I see so many people standing outside of the building."

Lightning arched her eyebrow. "If it's those women again-."

Hope gave a look of concern at her. "I'm afraid that's it more than just women this time." Hearing that had caused Lightning surprise.

"Oh Director!" Hope looked down outside toward the male voice. "Come over to our side!" the guy sung sweetly.

Hope let out a sigh as he closed the window. "I'm not sure if we can even leave."

Lightning placed her hand at her waist. "All we need is an distraction to get out." She tilted her head over toward Alyssa. "I say we just throw her out there."

Hope placed his fingers to his chin. "That…could be an idea."

Alyssa leaned her head on her hands. "Or you can just stay right here with me Director. I'll be your mate."

Hope looked nervous as he shook his head and held up his hands. "No no no…no…..no…"

Sweetly Alyssa smiled. "Sure you won't change your mind?"

Hope groaned. "Do I have to?"

Lightning nudged Hope, but then frowned as she crossed her arms at Alyssa. "No now get out."

Alyssa's ears tilted back. "You get out." The two stared each other down.

Then, Hope slammed his fist in his hand as he smiled. "I got it!"

Lightning kept her arms crossed. "Good. Now you can tell her that there's no way that you're doing anything with her."

"That's not what I was thinking. I was thinking that if you two fight, then it will actually be a cat fight and not just two girls fighting." He sat down in his chair. "I wanna see this. And… go!"

Lightning sighed and grabbed onto the back of Alyssa jacket and threw her out of the door. "Get this straight. No one is following through with this stupid mating thing. You would seriously have to be crazy to-."

Suddenly, a crowd ran in knocking her over. Hope's eyes widened in surprised. On the floor, Lightning sat on one knee as she shook her head and placed her hand aside of it. "Where did that come from?" When she looked over, she saw the women there in front of his desk all talking at once. Lightning walked over and spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd. "Fang? Vanille? What are you guys doing here?"

Fang shrugged. "I don't know. I just ended up here."

Vanille placed her hands together. "Oh! My cat instincts just told me to go find someone and now I'm here!"

Lightning's eyes traveled over and spotted Serah. She was surprised to see her there. "Serah? Are you here for this mating thing too?"

"Yeah!"

"Wait a minute. You still got Snow or maybe even Noel?"

"Well…I guess that's true... Doesn't hurt to see how this will turn out!"

Lightning sighed. There had to be a way to clear out the crowd. When she tried scaring them off, they all just hissed at her, so now it was down to trying more extreme measures...

She whistled to get everyone's attention. Out of her pouch, she pulled out a ball of yarn. Instantly, everyone's ears and eyes perked up. "You want it? Go get it." She threw it out into the hall.

Everyone rushed outside to try and get it. Through the running crowd, she managed to grab Hope by the back of his collar and drag him away before he ran out of the door as well. She closed and locked the door behind her. Hope fell back against his chair. Lightning leaned forward with her hands on the chair's armrests. Her eyes pierced toward him. Her tail swayed from side to side. He wasn't sure why she was staring at him that way. All he knew was he could smell her scent getting stronger. "Umm…?" He wanted to say something, but there wasn't much he could say since she wouldn't even blink.

Finally, she lifted up and walked away. Hope blinked surprised and somewhat confused. "Was there…something you wanted?"

"I know somewhere you can go where you can be safe. At least until all this nonsense is over."

"Okay…" He wanted to ask why she was standing so close to him just then, but decided that it was nothing. Out of this whole situation, she seemed to be the sanest one there. A gentle smile appeared until he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes. For some reason, his jacket and part of his shirt was ripped open. He didn't understand how it happened. He saw her hands on the armrests the whole time. Curiously, he looked at Lightning who was sitting on the other side of the room on the couch. "Um? Just asking, but… did you see how this happened?"

Lightning leaned her head on her hand and closed her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Hope watched her for a few more seconds before he let it go. If she really did do it, then she was very quick with her hands. He had to watch her.

As the day continued to progress, once again Hope lifted his eyes uneasy. Over on the other side of the room, he could feel a pair of eyes staring at him. It seemed as if she hadn't taken her eyes off of him. There on the couch, she kept repeating the same action of her tail waving up and down. "You know…you don't have to stay here…"

"As long as I'm here, nothing bad will happen." Then, she stood up and headed toward the door.

He looked surprised. "Where are you doing?"

"I'm leaving."

He looked worried. "But you just said as long as you're here, nothing bad will happen."

"Oh right… good luck with that. I'll see you later." Afterwards, she left.

He couldn't believe what she did. For now, he sat in his office worried of what would happen. He pressed one of the buttons on the intercom. "Director! We need help down here! We're being attacked!" Hope sighed as he leaned his head on his hand. It was going to be a hard choice between trying to leave now or risk it later.

Later, Hope walked down the hallway of an apartment complex. "All right. I got through the day without too much damage. If I sleep it off, it'll all be over…unless something tries to break into my house." He opened the door with the key he had. When he stepped inside, he looked surprised. In the living room, he saw Lightning sitting on the couch. Once he looked around, he sighed. "This isn't my apartment again. I really need to find where that is." He looked down at his key. "Hey! This isn't my key. This is your key. Where did you put my key?"

Lightning looked to the side. "I don't know what you're talking about." Around her finger, she turned a ring with a key on it. Afterwards, she placed it in the safest place she could think of tuck in between the couch.

"Well is there any way you can get me into my apartment and…maybe tell me where it is?" Without a word, she stepped over toward him. His eyes looked over and noticed that there was food on the counter in the kitchen. "Hey! Did you make this?" He was about to reach over, but she slapped his hand away. "Ow! Still not feeding me are you?" She grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him further inside.

Minutes later, Hope fell back against the couch. He looked over at Lightning that was sitting on the other end. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"What's that?"

A curious look came on his face. "You didn't bring me over here to seduce me did you?"

"No! That's ridiculous. What makes you say that?"

"I mean I'm probably reading too much into it. I could be wrong, but you tore my jacket and shirt open."

She shrugged. "You were probably going to get them off anyway."

"I guess... You actually made food."

"I was hungry."

"Yeah. That makes sense although it hasn't been eaten yet. Then how come you're wearing that?"

"Wearing what?" She looked down at herself. Below she was wearing a black, see through, thin coat that stopped at her waist. Underneath she had on black laced bra and underwear. "This thing? It's just something that I wear around the house."

"Oh!"

"If you want, you can eat now."

He smiled. "Thank you! I haven't eaten all day." He headed over into the kitchen and ate what was on the plate. "Hmm…This is really good." Suddenly, his eyes closed as he fell on the floor, passed out.

Lightning sighed. "What am I doing? This is stupid." Her eyes traveled over to Hope lying on the floor. She took some time to think about what to do next.

Later that night, Hope groaned as he woke up. He tried to move, but he really couldn't move. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was tied up with rope around him. He was sitting on the couch in the living room. "What just happened?"

Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Lightning step in from the hall. She looked over at him. "What are you doing? Why did you knock me out? Did you take advantage of me while I was out?"

"Maybe a little, but that's not the point. Just find a cure already. Being a cat is driving me crazy."

"Knocking me out is not going to help. It's only going to make me not find one."

She crossed her arms as she looked to the side. "I guess not."

"Why did you knock me out?"

Her eyes drifted off to the side. "I don't know. I was just trying to decide what to do with you. If you were knocked out, then that would probably not make me do anything. Probably…"

He looked confused. "You could just let me go?"

"No. Then you might-."

"Might what?" She turned quiet. His expression changed to surprise as he thought of a reason. "I see. You didn't want me to mate with anyone else."

"That's not it." She was about to walk away, but he frowned. "If I remember right, I believe that someone placed a picture in my desk saying maybe he'll make a move now."

She stopped at his words and looked back at him. "You can remember that, but you can't remember where your own house is?"

"Hey…! That is very hard to remember." Lightning shook her head and walked into the hall out of sight. "Light! Come back here and untie me!" Seeing that she wasn't going to come back, he sighed as he held his head down. "She can't serious leave me here all night."

"Yes I can." he heard her voice from the background.

"If you didn't want me to be around, then why don't you just let me go?"

"…I don't know…"

Hope shook his head. For a few minutes, he tried to figure out what to do. He could feel the hunger going on in his stomach. When he looked over, he saw the food on the counter. He struggled, but couldn't get loose. She had the rope tied well around him. Finally out of frustration, he burst free from his hold.

Lightning stepped back into the living room. When she looked over at the couch, she was surprised. She saw that he was gone. She placed her hand on her hip. "Wow! He must've escaped. Probably was for the best anyway." She was about to turn around, but suddenly she felt something grab her arm. Surprised, she looked back and saw him. Before she could say anything, he pulled her in to a kiss. "Hope? What are you doing?"

"Getting two things I want." He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down right now! I mean-! Wait! What two things are you talking about?"

He grinned. "For one some of this." He reached over and grabbed something off of the plate in the kitchen.

She looked surprised. "Wait! How are you not knocked out? I put enough stuff in there to kill a horse."

Hope smiled. "I feel fine." Afterwards, he fell on the floor taking Lightning with him. He passed out.

That's it for this chapter! As always, let me know what you think and I'll be back to update!