"So... you're saying that she can't remember? How?"
Vanille and Lightning sat in the kitchen she grew up in, talking.
"It's a syndrome triggered by emotionally traumatic events. The memory begins to consume the mind, so the brain tells itself not to remember it. It's common in soldiers; I've met a lot of men with it."
"So, what's going to happen to her?"
"Well we have two choices, we can let her memory take it's natural coarse, and when she realizes she's not gaining any weight, she'll trigger the memory, or I can tell her."
"I can tell you've already made a choice."
Lightning nodded, "Yeah, I'm going to tell her tonight."
Vanille feared the way Lightning's hands trembled as they sat on the table.
Serah was slowly getting better, and seemed happier. She was able now to get around on crutches, to a point.
She came down the stairs, running into Hope.
"Morning, Serah. How do you feel?"
She nodded, "I'm getting better. My wounds are still pretty bad, but I feel okay."
"That's great, hey, have you seen Light?"
She shook her head, "No, but if I had to guess, you should check the training grounds are father built out in the woods."
Hope narrowed his eyes, "Training grounds?"
"Yes, our father was a solider, PSICOM actually. Before they went crazy and all. He built it so he could stay at home and train."
"I figured he had some well paying job in the city or something."
She giggled, "Far from it."
Hope carried his sword at his side, walking out into the woods. There was an overgrown trail and he followed it. Ten minutes into his walk he came to a clearing where a well-built training ground stood. He saw his former mentor training by hitting a dummy.
He noticed that she was barefoot and wasn't wearing her normal Guardian Corp uniform. Instead she wore a black top that looked much like what Fang wore under her sari, and a pair of light gray sweatpants. She had her hair pulled up in a ponytail and her bands fell down over her face.
She stopped in her tracks looking over at Hope who was standing over at the entrance.
"How'd you get here?"
"S-Serah told me."
She put her hand over her face, "Damn, that girl does not know how to keep a secret. Whatever, come in then."
He walked over, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand.
"So why'd you come here anyways?"
"I dunno, there wasn't anything to do."
She laughed, "Then let me give you something."
She walked over to the side of the grounds where a holder for long wooden poles sat. She grabbed two, easily lifting the poles that were a foot taller than Hope.
She quickly threw one at Hope who fumbled then dropped it.
"You need quicker reflexes. You're a lot slower from when you were fourteen."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
She laughed, "Nothing, nothing."
"Now, this exercise is to increase your strategy without worrying about handling a blade."
The two stood five feet away, Lightning stood with her feet together, and the pole by her side.
"Okay, Hope, give it your best shot."
He ran at her, swinging the pole as he came near. Lightning jumped her bare foot touching his shoulder as she jumped over him to his backside.
He quickly spun around bringing his pole down hard to the ground. Lightning did a cartwheel using her pole for balance and evaded Hope. He ran swinging again and she used the pole to swing around to his opposite side then swung her pole sweeping his feet from under him.
Hope lied on the ground, staring up at her. She reached out a hand, and then helped him up.
He shook the dirt out of his hair as he stood up.
"Man, Light."
"Here's your problem Hope, you run blindly into a fight going for the most obvious approach. Try to change it up a bit. Now again. You're only going to get better through practice. I get first hit."
The two foot smaller Lightning ran at him, backflipping over his head. As she came down, Hope spun around, hitting her before she hit the ground. She landed crouched and rolled out of the way before his vertical strike came down on her.
She stood up and Hope ran at her. He hit her pole, and the sudden force knocked it out of her hands. As it fell to the ground and Lightning was distracted, Hope used her signature more and swept her feet out from under her.
She sat on the ground, staring up at him smiling.
"Very good. But I went easy on you."
"Are you saying you let me win?"
She stood up, "More or less."
"Damn."
She patted him on the back, "Don't sweat it, I've been fighting since I was fifteen, it takes practice."
After an hour of practice, the pair sat on the ground across from each other. The sun was almost finished setting and a small fire sat between them.
"So, tell me about your parents, Light. Since you know everything about mine."
"Like what?"
"Well for starters, who were they?"
"Aryll and Nikolas Farron."
"Aryll and Niko, huh?"
She nodded, "Yes."
"So... how'd they meet?"
She laughed, "My mother was an heiress to my grandfather's fortune. He had heard rumors that bandits were out to kill their family and collect the profit. So, he hired a guard to protect his only daughter."
"And the guard was Nikolas, right?"
She nodded, "Yeah, long story short, my mother fell in love with her bodyguard but couldn't bring herself to tell my grandfather."
"So, what happened?"
"Well, when Dad asked to marry her, she got up the courage to tell him, and he was infuriated, told my mom that she was not allowed to marry him. She was only twenty two at the time, and in the middle of the night, they ran away from Nautilus to Bodhum. They got married and lived in a small apartment. Three years into their marriage, they found out my mother was pregnant with a girl."
"It was you, wasn't it?"
She smiled and nodded, "Yep. It was me. Just before I was born, my mother received news that her father who she hadn't spoke to since her marriage was deathly sick. She then went back to visit him, and I was born on their visit. My grandfather held me an hour before he died. When he did die, my mother inherited his fortune, and they moved into the house were staying at now."
"Ooooh, so that's how they had such a big house. You were a rich girl."
She nodded, "After that, when I was three, they told me I was going to have a little sister. I was worried about if I would be a good sister, and my mother had to reassure me that I would do fine. So, Serah was born, and the rest is history."
"What about when they died...?"
She stared at him, her face went pale. She quickly stood up, "I think it's time we start heading back."
"No, what happened?"
"It's late, Hope."
"Claire, what's wrong? Why won't you tell me?"
"It's nothing, I'm fine."
She stood facing away from him as he came over, placing a hand on her bare shoulder, "...are you okay?"
She shook her head, staring down at her feet.
Hope saw the tears from her eyes fall down to the ground. He quickly spun her around, and she looked up at him.
She reached up, pulling him down, and kissed him.
Hope was taken by surprise, but quickly gave in.
She leaned back, and Hope felt her legs go weak, and sat down, holding her in his lap. He had remembered her being so large and intimidating all those years ago.
Now as he looked at her in his lap, she seemed but a small lost girl who fought to keep the memories away.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again.
Thoughts raced in his mind of what it might mean.
Did she actually like him? Or was she too lost to notice what she was doing?
He pushed her back, "Claire...?"
She started to get up, shaking her head. "No, no, this is wrong. I'm too old for you."
He grabbed her wrist, "Sit down, and tell me what's going on."
She obeyed and sat back down beside him.
"Hope... when I first saw you in that spring at Gran Pulse... something, something changed inside me... Back when we were fighting for Cocoon, I knew you had feelings for me. But you were a hormonal kid, and I was an adult. I knew the difference. I felt protective of you, almost like a mother... but now, I don't know. There's this urge in me of something more. I know it's not right, and I shouldn't have done what I did."
Hope looked at her, "It's okay, Claire... to be honest, I've loved you since we were alone in the Gapra Whitewood, and I was hoping that maybe now since I was older, maybe something could happen..."
"But it's wrong... "
He crawled over to where she sat, kissing her, "Doesn't mean we have to tell anyone..."
Hope slowly opened his eyes, seeing Lightning curled by beside him. She had fallen asleep after their tough training, even on the cold ground. She rolled over, opening her eyes and smiling.
Hope looked down to her torso, where a bellybutton ring sat.
"How long have you had that?"
She laughed, "Since I was fifteen."
"Why'd you get it?"
She looked up at the sky, "I wanted to be such a rebel before my parents died, and they always forbade me from getting a bellybutton ring. They would literally check every week to see if I had one. After they died, I decided I'd get one. It hurt so much, I told myself to never let it grow over. So I've had it ever since. I thought it'd make me an adult, but I was just a kid. A kid so lost, that she never found her way back."
Hope stared at her. He was seeing a side of Lightning that was at her very core. He used to believe that she was a cold solider who cared nothing about anything, but it was obvious now that she was just an orphan who lost her way through years and years of pain, and all she wanted was someone to tell her that it'd all be okay.
One way or another.
