AN: Woot, back here again for another 3 chapter update.
Also, thank you Bekas Strife for the lovely review...
Hope sits in his office. It's been 3 weeks since Noel and Serah left. So far, they had only brought back 2 of the graviton cores that he and Alyssa had needed for the raising of the new Cocoon. They had left with a promise to not come back until they had found the rest. While that was commendable and something Hope would have probably done. It made the scientist miserable.
The great Director Estheim, the something of Academia, he never remembered how his title went, sat all alone in his office moping. He was filled with longing which felt like the purplest of prose to him. But even though Noel's touch was something barely felt he missed it. He missed it as much as he missed his mother's touch. At first, he thought it was childish that Noel would be gone so long. That he and Serah wouldn't come back to recover. 400AF was afterall, the safest place for them in any part of the timeline.
And then he realized that Noel wasn't gone to punish him, but to get over him. And that hurt more then he wanted to admit. Hope wasn't good with emotions, not really. He recognized pain and suffering. He knew happiness though sometimes that felt like a distant memory. What made things worse was that Hope did care for Noel. Somewhere in the murky place just before love. An intimacy that he'd never experienced before was what he often dreamed of experiencing with Noel.
The problem was, despite all the signs of mutual affection was that Hope believed he didn't deserve such a relationship. Nothing that deep, distracting or... important. He had set his path and that was to finish his work and then travel to 500AF to see the new Cocoon rise and fight whatever Caius might send their way. If he survived the transition and he planned to. He was sure that his mark would ensure his change back into crystal. And if not that... well, hopefully he wouldn't turn into a cieth.
"Hope!" He jerked up and stared at Alyssa who was looking at him with a strange look on her face. "The meeting started 20 minutes ago and here you are lost in your own head! Come on, come on! We have to go and start figuring out how we're going to levitate this miracle of yours! "
She reached out and grabbed for his arm to pull him up for the chair and he dodge it swiftly heading for the door. Hope Estheim was not one to be touched. He blocked off the part of his mind that thought about Noel and shifted back into business mode. Maybe if he focused on his work more he wouldn't have to worry. Especially since after this meeting was also when the new analysis of the crystal pillar was set to come out.