Because You Are Here…
… I can go forward.
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A/n: Yay! Second chapter this week C8 Hope you guys enjoy the surprise and this chapter 8DD
On another note... I seriously do not understand people DDD8
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter XDD (I wonder how it came out since I was pretty pissed when writing this XDD)
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII belongs to Square Enix.
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Do I have the right to ask for your forgiveness?
+Chapter seven: The Unspoken Words of Yesterday+
Hope sat outside in the school courtyard, sketchbook in hand, pencil in the other, trying to focus on the landscape in front of him, but unfortunately for him, he had other things on his mind.
It's been about five days since the festival. Normally, the fact that it's been five days since that fun night wouldn't bother him, let alone resurface in his head more than once, but it was because of the fact that Lightning had been avoiding him since. He had gone to all the places he would usually see her and she was never there, almost like she didn't want to see him.
Did he do something wrong? It didn't seen like she was angry at him, maybe slightly annoyed that night, but that had changed once the fireworks came on and even after then, nothing seemed to be wrong after they separated and went back to their rooms. Hope was completely stumped.
Looks like its back square one.
With that in mind, Hope couldn't concentrate on anything interesting in the courtyard to sketch, his mind wavering and trying to figure out the reasons behind Lightning's strange behavior. Maybe Serah had something in mind that would spark some creativity in him or some answers to his many questions about Lightning.
Hope lightly elbowed Serah so that he wouldn't mess her up on her drawing but that seemed to fail when she jumped dramatically and dropped her pencil, her heart racing.
Blinking, he cautiously poked her arm. "Serah? I—um—didn't mean to scare you… Are you okay?"
Serah quickly calmed down and reached down to pick up her pencil. "Mm, yeah, why do you ask?" she asked with a smile. Hope hovered over her sketchbook and raised an eyebrow.
"Is there any reason why there's a picture of Light in your sketchbook?" Serah let out a yelp and proceeded in erasing her picture. Hope brought his hands up to try to stop her. "Wait Serah, don't get me wrong, it's good, it's just that I don't think that Light is part of the scenery…"
Serah slowly stopped erasing leaving only the hair untouched by the eraser. There was something bothering her, Hope could sense it. She wasn't acting like her usual bubbly self, something he often found himself looking forward to every art class.
Great, now both of the Farrons are acting weirdly, Hope thought dryly.
He reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to look over to him. "Is there something wrong?" he glanced at the half-erased picture of Lightning. "Did something happen to Light?"
She smiled sadly. "Yeah, and it's all my fault." She said, her voice trailing off and Hope had to strain his ears to catch the last part of her sentence.
Hope's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"She hasn't talked to me since the festival."
Hope moved back a bit in shock. "You can't be serious, can you? She didn't even say a word to you?"
"She did, maybe a word or two now and then, but I could tell that she wasn't in the best mood."
"What happened?" Hope asked. It was obvious how precious Serah was to Lightning, going as far as doing everything in her power in keeping her own boyfriend away from her. The fact that Lightning wasn't talking to Serah was shocking. Sure, they were sisters and it was normal for siblings to argue over something but for Lightning to ignore her for five days was unusual. Sure, she ignored him for five days but he didn't hold such a high place in her heart.
She clutched her fist and slowly turned away.
"I can't tell you," she whispered.
Hope slowly nodded, hurt that she couldn't tell him. But he had to try to smile for Serah or else she'll try to blame everything on her again.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure it'll blow over soon," Hope said reassuringly.
Serah shot her head up, shaking her head. "No Hope, you don't understand, she—"
"—loves and cherishes you with all her heart, way too much to hold a grudge against you for long."
Serah lowered her head. There was no use in trying to convince Hope otherwise. She couldn't even tell him why Lightning was mad in the first place, knowing of the consequences to come once she found out Hope knew. But it bothered her! She was so tempted to just let it out, to tell him the truth so that he would know that his days of searching for Claire were over. But it wasn't something she could say easily, and plus, it wasn't her place to tell Hope. The person who had to tell him was Lightning herself but she knew that day would probably never come, not with the way Lightning was now.
"I hope you're right."
Hope softly laughed, hoping to cheer her up a bit. "I hope I am too," Serah slightly smiled despite the emotions she was feeling inside.
He really was too kind. He didn't deserve to have such a big secret hidden from him.
Once Hope saw Serah's small smile, he felt confident that she was feeling better and returned to his work and tried focusing on something to draw. He started his pencil once he caught something interesting to draw.
"Um, Hope?" he quickly finished the rough sketch before turning to Serah. "Can I ask you for a favor?"
"Sure, what is it?"
She slowly brought her head up, turning to Hope.
"Can you try to get closer to Light? You know, get her to open up more?"
Hope slightly lowered his head before answering. "Oh, about that Serah, I don't think I can—"
Serah reached over and grabbed his hand. "I believe you can," Hope was about to open his mouth to ask her why but Serah wasn't done talking. "I saw how happy she was at the festival, it's been a while since she's smiled like that." Serah paused. "So please? Just this one favor?"
She released his hand as Hope went to scratch his head, avoiding her gaze. "I, um, don't know about that…"
"Please…" she begged. Hope gave her one last look before giving in to her pleading eyes. He sighed.
"I'll try…"
"Thank you," she said while leaning over to loosely hug him. Once she broke the hug Hope could see the hopefulness she had on her face, the complete opposite of how he was feeling. The two turned away and returned to their work and Hope once again found his focus wavering.
He let out a breath. But Serah, she only sees me as a child…
"Don't waste your breath, kid."
"Maybe, kid."
And who would want to open up to a kid?
-xxx-
Hope walked out of the Art Building with his head down, his eyes focused on his dark shoes walking in front of each other, sighing.
Serah really had too much faith in him.
Sure, Hope would like to believe that Light didn't completely think of him as an annoyance but she didn't actually talk to him all that much. How was he going to make her "open up" to him? He would probably be the last person she would want to open up to.
If Serah couldn't do it, how on earth was he going to?
Though, with the ways things were before, it could've been possible but with her ignoring him now, it was nearly impossible.
"Did I do something wrong?" Hope asked to no one in particular. She seemed fine on Friday at the festival, well, maybe not in the beginning (she was kind of pissed off) but as the night went on, she seemed to loosen up a little. And she did smile that beautiful smile of hers; that had to be something.
Hope froze.
That was what, at least the fifth time that today that Lightning was on his mind. Recently, she was all he thought about, day and night, almost to the point where it was getting a little bit creepy.
I-I mean, she is harsh most of the times b-but it's kinda cute when she smi— Hope didn't allow himself to finish the thought and started to slap his face repeatedly, earning him questioning looks by onlookers, his cheeks burning. He shouldn't be having these kinds of thoughts about Lightning. She would probably kill him if she even knew half the things he was thinking about her.
But even so, his mind didn't listen to him, suddenly all he was thinking about was Lightning, the way her soft pink hair would softly blow in the wind, the fierceness she held in her deep blue eyes that were partially hidden by her fringe, and how very rarely the corners of her lips would slightly twitch into a small but sincere smile. Hope felt his cheeks heat up even more and was thankful that no one like Vanille or Fang were around to tease him. After smashing the last image of Lightning out of his head, Hope stormed off to class, hoping that that would be the last time he would be thinking of Lightning.
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Hope sat at his regular lab table with his classmates, waiting for the teacher to arrive. He quickly took out his notebook ready to take notes, fully aware of the fact that his teacher hated the idea of coming into a class with a bunch of kids goofing around and unprepared for class.
Suddenly, in the corner of his eyes, Hope saw Vanille race into the classroom and jumped behind Hope.
"Surprise!" she cheered.
He smiled weakly, laughing slightly. "It doesn't work when I saw you."
Vanille pouted and took her seat besides him. "Oh well," she smiled, reaching for her notebook in her bag. Once she plopped the notebook in front of her she paused for a second and placed a finger to her lips.
"Say, Hope…." He glanced over to Vanille while she continued. "Have you seen Lightning lately?"
It was an innocent question really. But that didn't stop Hope from jumping and falling off his seat in an embarrassing manner causing all the chatter in the classroom to seize and everyone's attention to turn to the boy, cheeks ablaze.
Once they saw that he was still moving and okay, they turned away and continued on talking like nothing had happened.
Hope reached up and grabbed his seat, lifting his body up and laying on his chair, still feeling jittery, face still red as a tomato.
"W-wh-what makes you say that?" he finally choked out, his voice slightly squeaking. Vanille held back an amused laugh. Hope got back on his two feet and sat back down in his chair.
"Oh, I was just wondering if you knew why she's been acting differently lately."
Hope scratched his head. "What do you mean?"
Vanille leaned back in her chair, slightly spinning it around. "She's more distant… like more than usual. I don't know, something just seems a little off about her." She faced him. "Do you have any idea on why she's acting like this?"
Hope snorted. "Pssh, how would I know?" As cheerful as he tried to sound, Hope couldn't stop the tingle of sadness he felt at the pit of his stomach. Hopefully Vanille wouldn't notice and the feeling would go away before she did.
She shrugged. "I don't know, you two seemed to be close from what I saw at the festival."
Soon, the teacher showed up and everyone ran back to their seats and the lesson started.
"You're just imagining things."
Hope scribbled the notes on the board to his notebook, trying to keep his mind focused on the lesson but he couldn't help but wonder back to Vanille's question from earlier. And the sting of sadness found its way back to him.
The more Hope thought about Lightning's strange behavior, the more he questioned his relationship with her. He was confident before that they were somewhat friends and that he would finally learn something about her. But instead of talking about her problems, she chose to avoid everyone despite the fact that something was obviously bothering her, not even going to Serah to talk.
Maybe, she just didn't trust him as much as he originally thought.
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Once the last dish was placed on the table, Serah walked to her seat and waited for her sister to join her. Handing her a napkin, Lightning took her seat across from Serah and the two started their silent dinner.
Out of all the dinners and meals Serah had shared Lightning so far, they had never been as silent and awkward as this. Usually Lightning would ask of her day and she would go off on how good or day it was and eventually, once she was done explaining her day, Serah would ask Lightning the same question, her answer always the usual "Nothing special" and the topic would go off to something else.
That was usually how dinner went, but not tonight.
Serah stirred in her seat uncomfortably. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. It wasn't supposed to be awkward between the two sisters and Serah hated the silence that surrounded them. Glancing across the table, Lightning acted like usual, like today was as normal as it could be. Only that she still wasn't talking. She was still mad.
Taking her fork in her hand, she silently played with the food resting on her plate. "Um, Sis?"
"Hmm?" she asked without bringing her head up, continuing to eat. Serah placed her fork down and placed her hands on her lap.
"I'm sorry," Once her apology left her mouth, Lightning tilted her head up slightly, emotionless as always. "I-I shouldn't have said the things I've said…" she swallowed and glanced at Lightning to check if she was still listening. "But I—"
Lightning lowered her head back down. "It's fine, Serah."
Eyes wide, Serah fully lifted her head up. "A-are you sure? I mean you—"
"It's fine."
Though her words didn't mean to sound menacing, that didn't stop Serah from thinking that way. She shrunk back in her seat and started to eat while Lightning was already halfway done.
And throughout the rest of dinner, even though she had said it was fine, it didn't feel that way at all.
She still wasn't forgiven.
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Lightning was done with her dinner way before Serah, who was quietly taking her time. She had gone to the living room to read, waiting for Serah to finish up. Once she had cleared her plate, the clank of the silverware and plates to the sink caused Lightning to get off of the couch and walk over to the kitchen, gently scooting Serah to the side while she turned on the water.
"No, it's okay, I'll wash the dishes." Serah offered.
Without taking her eyes off the dirty dishes, she replied. "It's fine, I'll do it." her words empty and without emotion.
Serah lowered her head and silently watched her sister scrub the dishes with soap. "I'm sorry, Light."
She sighed. "Don't be ridiculous, Serah."
Slowly nodding, she walked away into her room knowing that would be the last word they would exchange with each other that night.
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Chapter seven [END]
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A/n: Wow... haha... the fanfiction isn't even 1/3 done... oh god...
But on another note, thank you so much for the reviews! (I have never gotten this many before XDD) almost to 100! lol
Preview: He shouldn't have gone over. His worse fears were confirmed.
Please Review 8D
