This is the last chapter of this particular AU and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Thank you all for sticking with this fic til the end!

And with that, enjoy the fic!

Lion's den be damned, as the two arrived at Lightning and Serah's place Hope decided that it was much more like being delicately shoved off a cliff and falling into a feeding frenzy of sharks. Definitely more accurate. His fingers squeezed at Snow's hand desperately and halted their approach to the door.

For a moment, Hope just gazed around at the yard. The grass was dying in a few patches and the garden was having its last bloom before winter came in. The house was nice too, quaint almost with its chipped blue paint and freshly painted shutters. He wondered if he and Snow would ever buy a house together in the future, though Hope enjoyed their apartment as well.

"Hope?" Snow asked softly, pulling him from his thoughts.

Hope turned his eyes to Snow. "I don't think I can do this," Hope admitted hesitantly.

Snow sighed and pulled Hope to his chest. Hope breathed in Snow's calming scent and released a shuddering breath. "It will be fine, I promise. If at any point you feel like it's getting to be too much, just let me know and I'll take you out of there alright?"

"I know I just- I haven't seen them in so long. What am I supposed to say?"

Snow shrugged. "You don't have to say anything, you can just answer some of their questions and any questions they ask about us I can answer."

Hope wondered if it'd really be that simple, but the words were reassuring enough to get him to step away from Snow's embrace. He coughed nervously and gestured to the door. "I guess we should go then?"

Snow smiled and leaned down to place a kiss against his cheek. "Well come on then, times a moving now unlike it was before."

Hope snorted. "That was so bad."

"And yet you still laughed."

Hope stuck his tongue out at Snow, letting himself be childish for once. Before straightening his back and walking towards the door, Snow quickly following him. Before he could knock, Snow gently moved him behind him. He must have seen the curious look Hope was giving him because he quickly explained himself. "Thought you might want me to introduce you."

Hope quickly nodded his head and lightly grasped the back of Snow's shirt as he knocked on the door. For once he was happy that Snow was still so much taller than he was because he made the perfect hiding spot. He felt his breath hitch as footsteps approached the door and if wasn't for his fear of being spotted, Hope probably would have run away. It was weird to be this apprehensive of his own friends, but he couldn't help it.

"Snow, you made it!" Hope recognized the cheerful voice of Serah and felt his shoulders relax a little. At least it wasn't Lightning who'd answered the door.

"Of course I did, you asked me to come, remember?" Snow said.

Serah giggled softly and paused for a moment. "You didn't bring your girlfriend?"

Hope resisted his desire to laugh by burying his face in Snow's back. Snow had no qualms about holding in his laughter and Hope felt the vibrations travel through him. "Well, he's pretty shy, but ah he's behind me is all."

"Oh I'm so sorry, I just didn't- that's completely- I didn't know it was a boyfriend." Serah's stammering apology warmed Hope's heart with its familiarity. "But, he's okay with meeting us right? Like, he knows that we're nice?"

"Oh he knows alright," Hope whispered.

Serah seemed to have grown impatient of waiting for Snow to introduce him and decided to introduce herself first as she pushed Snow to the side as well as she could. "Hi there I'm Serah, and it's so nice to-"

Hope watched warily as Serah's voice died off as she realized who she was talking to. Hope desperately wished he was better at reading emotions in that moment. And the anxiety that had started to settle flared up so fast in Hope's stomach he thought he was going to throw up right there. He felt Snow places a calming hand on his lower back, but it did little to help him.

Hope scrambled for something to say, something that would explain himself or what was going on. "Surprise?" Hope said hesitantly. It seemed his eloquence flew the coop along with his courage, wonderful.

Serah shook her head a few times and continued to shift her eyes from Hope to Snow. "Hope?" Serah asked. Hope wasn't sure whether she was addressing Hope's sudden reappearance or his status as Snow's boyfriend, but nodded his head to confirm both questions.

Serah released a soft squeak and quickly scampered back in the house, leaving the door open. Hope gave Snow a bewildered look. "So do we go in?" Hope asked.

Chuckling, Snow swept his arm forward. "After you, honored guest," Snow said.

"I don't know if I feel very honored, she could only say one word to me after she found out it was me."

"Eh, you just surprised her is all, besides she's probably scrambling to tell everyone that you're here."

"If she can get the words out."

Snow laughed and nodded his head before pulling Hope into the house with him. Hope listened to the cacophony coming from what he assumed to be the living room and laughed as he heard Serah trying to explain why she was in such shock. Like they did at the door, Snow made sure that everyone would see him first before they saw Hope.

"Serah, you're not making any sense, can you please calm down and explain clearly?" Lightning asked. "You keep saying something about Snow and his… boyfriend?"

"Yes, boyfriend is correct, sis," Snow said happily and not for the first time did Hope envy Snow's optimism.

"I'm not your sister," Lightning reminded calmly.

Fang snorted loudly. "Of course that's what you got outta that. What I wanna know is when Snow here decided he was batting for the other team," Fang said.

"He's a special guy, you know," Snow said.

"Well, I for one, wanna meet the man who captured your heart," Vanille said happily.

Noel crossed his arms. "I just want to know why it has Serah in a tizzy," he said.

Taking that as his cue, Hope mustered up his courage and stepped out from behind Snow. "Hello again everyone," he said softly. He congratulated himself on getting the words out and waited for the groups reactions. For a moment or two the room was silent, and those few seconds seemed to stretch for minutes before everyone started talking at once. Hope tried to pick out all the questions he was being asked, but they were all scrambling together and he couldn't make any sense of the questions. Seeming to sense Hope becoming overwhelmed, Snow quickly shouted for everyone to be quiet.

"Now, can you all ask one at a time or something? Even Hope can't process all those questions at once," Snow said.

The group sat there awkwardly for a moment and Hope fidgeted slightly before Noel spoke up.

"So, you're dating Snow?" Noel asked. Hope laughed nervously and nodded his head. "How long?"

Snow winced and scratched the back of his head. "Uh, not too long, just… a couple of months…" Snow said, letting his voice trail off. Hope knew they should have told everyone before, but he didn't exactly regret not telling anyone that he'd been found.

Lightning seemed to care though, as she narrowed her eyes and practically growled at Snow, "And you didn't even let us know that you found him? Don't you think we had a right to know that you'd found Hope?"

"Well, he was going to," Hope said, widening his eyes at his own words. "It- Well, when Snow found me, he sent an email to my work email, I told him that I wanted to… keep him… all to myself…" Well, now that he already looked pathetic, he could try to redeem himself a little. "But I was planning on telling you guys," eventually "but I'm here now and yeah."

The room was quiet again before he heard Sazh sigh. "I'm getting to old for all of this, just come give this old man a hug Hope," Sazh said, opening up his arms.

Hope felt a grin spread across his face as he quickly walked over and hugged Sazh. It wasn't as nice as hugging Snow, but it was still enjoyable and warm. He felt little arms wrap around his waist and looked down to see Dajh who was giving him a toothy grin.

"Group hug!" Vanille shouted, before wrapping herself around Sazh and Hope. Hope groaned slightly as everyone's weight seemed to be crushing him, but he couldn't say that it wasn't a nice feeling.

"Alright, enough of this mushy stuff," Fang said, separating herself from the hug, quickly followed by everyone else.

Hope turned to look at everyone, his nerves still going strong. "So, you uh, approve of Snow's boyfriend then?" he asked.

Serah was the one who spoke up. "If you two are truly happy, then I don't see the problem with it," she said before a sly grin formed on her face. "I should've known though, the way you were back in Academia 400 AF, you guys were already being mushy together."

Everyone laughed at Snow and Hope's sputtering and Hope felt his nervousness fade away. He really should have known it would go well, these were his friends of course they would want him to be happy.

"You're going to have to share him now though Snow, I can't have you monopolizing all of Hopes' time," Lightning said crossing her arms again and giving Snow a no-nonsense look.

Snow let out an indignant huff before grabbing onto Hope. "Hope likes me monopolizing his time though, and it should be his decision," Snow said.

Hope saw a couple of people roll their eyes and felt himself grin. Everything would be fine.

And if he still happened to tell the others he was busy more often than not so he could spend more time with Snow, well, they didn't have to know that.

Thank you all so much for reading! *gives you all a plate of cookies and a glass of milk* Please leave a review and tell me what you thought of the fic :)

If you have any prompts you'd like me to write, send them to me in an ask on tumblr to the username cakelanguage.