Edited in August 2017.
I don't own Final Fantasy XIII or its sequels.

fandom: final fantasy xiii and its sequels
characters/pairings: platonic hoperai
summary: their journey has come to an end.
a/n: set post lr

Me no mae no kimi wa
Ima no, ima dake no, kimi ja nai
Deatta ikutsu mo no yorokobi ya
Kanashimi to issho ni ikiteru

(The you before my eyes
isn't the you, the only you, before me now
You're living together with all the countless joy
and sorrow you've encountered)

Maaya Sakamoto, More than Words.

alternative universe (day five)

Claire sees him again in that godless, beautiful world. He looks older than her.

She's crushed against his firm body before she can even react. Hope has pulled her into a tight embrace, with his toned arms circling her, brushing past her hips—making her quiver because she's not used to be touched like this—and his hands, so much larger than she remembers are resting on her lower back, so warm and gentle.

She feels his warmth, hears his heartbeat beating so fast against his chest and smells him, that scent of cologne and perspiration so foreign because he's a man now and yet so comforting because he has become a man. She feels like closing her eyes and enjoys the moment but instead she tenses up as it occurs her that he's actually embracing her.

He never hugged her before. Even when they stood in front of his house back in Palumpolum when Cocoon still existed, he hadn't returned her hug—understandable since she had only reacted on the spur of the moment—and here they are, a millennium after in a new world and their role reversed.

Hope is the one embracing her and she's the one doing utterly nothing.

He's taller than her. She has to look up to look at him but in his embrace she only sees the way the strands of silver hair at the back of his neck flicker by the spring breeze. She feels his rapid pulse against her cheek. It's him, she begins to realize and she feels her own heart pounding harder, faster. It's him.

He's here.

This fact sends a shiver down her spine and her arms tremble as she attempts to lift them up, wanting to return his embrace but they don't react to her desires, flat on her sides. Eventually she grips his hips, her hands clutching onto the white fabric of his shirt as she buries her face deeper in the hollow of his neck, closing her eyes, feeling finally at peace.

Her gesture only makes him tighten his grip on her even more and she feels his cheekbone rest against her head, nuzzling his face into her hair and hears him take a deep, long breath, inhaling her scent of fresh mint and her hands, in small tremors she can't control finally travel slowly from his hips to his upper back, gripping his shirt again with her fists and pressing herself heartily against his toned chest.

"Light," he murmurs in a low, soft voice and that he's calling her by that long forgotten name draws a faint, contented smile on her lips. "Light." Hope repeats and she feels his boyish grin on his gentle tone, his hot breath tickling her ear and she just clutches him tighter.

They have waited a millennium to finally embrace each other.

.

.

Thank you for reading.