Title: Odds Are...
Prompt: Hope Estheim; the matchmaker (from ghostdriving)
Rating: T, for alcohol (there's virtually none though)
Words: 4308
Commentary: This one was not supposed to turn out this long, but I just couldn't see Hope as a willing matchmaker without some external pressure, and then the whole Academy muscled their way in on the matchmaking, and... this is the result! I sincerely hope you all enjoy! It was pretty entertaining to write.

(This has been posted in celebration of my tenth year on this site! Party time!)

After a few questions from employees, too many lunch hour discussions, and what turned out to be an unsurprisingly embarrassing and unwanted betting pool, Hope decided to pay a little more attention to the relationship between Serah and Noel. Eavesdropping revealed that the Academy was split into messy factions - some believed Serah liked Noel with Noel none the wiser, some thought Noel had it bad for Serah and Serah was clueless, some thought they were just very, inappropriately close friends, some thought they were full-out dating. The general consensus was that something was going on, they just had yet to put their finger on it. As for himself, Hope wondered if there was really so little else to do around here that his co-workers needed to resort to this kind of speculation.

From his station at the bridge, Hope gazed up at the hologram of Bhunivelze. His biggest worry was making his own deadline for this project. They had to start on it as soon as possible, despite the technology that was bound to improve over the years. They wouldn't get anywhere by just waiting.

The main doors whirred open then, trilling laughter echoing along the corridor. Serah's. The baritone of Noel's voice followed soon after, only to elicit more laughter. What an entrance.

A gust of wind blew by, and Hope looked over to the expanse in front of him. One of the male employees, Ven, had ridden a hover-terminal over and was waggling his eyebrows. "What do you think, Director? Odds are-"

Hope gave him a frowning smile. "Back to work, Ven," Hope told him, simultaneously dismissing a couple of other curious employees who were listening in. Sure, he'd pledged to pay more attention to whatever was going on between the time travellers, but he wasn't placing any bets. He turned in place to welcome them both back, "I see you've made it back safely."

Up they sauntered. "Hi, Hope!" Serah greeted perkily, smiling. Noel gave her a poke, which seemed to be very funny, since she let out a loud laugh and swatted at his hand. He chuckled in response, a sparkle in his eye.

Noel, apparently all business with Hope though, held out a hand. "Hey, Hope, got core alpha for you," he announced.

"Thanks, Noel, Serah," Hope said, nodding and taking the core in hand. He examined it critically, going so far as to take one of his gloves off.

Just as he ran his thumb over a groove in the core, Serah let out a yell.

Hope looked up fast, eyes flying open wide. "What's wrong?" he blurted.

And then he saw Serah and Noel in some weird kind of faceoff. There seemed to be an invisible barrier between them that they were currently circling. Noel was smiling and Serah was trying not to.

"Uh, guys?" Hope asked, worriedly running a finger back and forth against the core.

Noel lunged to his right, and Serah somewhat breathlessly reacted by running off to her own right. "What's wrong is that Noel is a bul-ly!" she squeaked, dodging Noel yet again.

Hope watched them. Were they really doing this in his control centre?

"We just found out that she's ticklish. Really ticklish, on the inside of her elbow," Noel said like it was most normal thing in the world.

Hope stared at them uncomprehendingly. Serah sprinted down the ramp and out of the room. Noel followed suit, calling to her.

"Okay, bye," Hope said to the closing doors, still holding the alpha core in his fingers.

He felt the whole room inhale. And then Ven's voice was booming through the sound system: "Everyone, care to adjust your bets?"

"Could I tell you something?"

Hope recognized this sentence as a coercion into secrecy. But Serah was Serah, and he couldn't tell her no. So instead he speared a stalk of asparagus and teased her, "Depends what it is."

She tried to pout at him and failed. It was cute, though, he gave her that. The sip of wine she took after was not cute. It was probably the wine that had her a tad looser than usual. She'd actually had the audacity to take food off of his plate earlier. She peered at him. "I'm telling you anyway," she announced.

He just popped his asparagus into his mouth and waved for her to go ahead. He arranged his potatoes into a heap.

He heard Serah's fork hit her plate. A deep breath in, and, "I'm really happy."

He looked up at her. She was looking at her hands, which were entwined together in her lap. There was something about the way she'd said it that had him wondering. "And is that a bad thing?"

She kept her focus on her fingers, dug each nail into the pads of her thumbs. "I just- it's just that- it's weird that I can be so happy... with Lightning and Snow missing."

Hope inhaled sharply, set his fork down, and twitched his napkin into place. He started, softly, cautiously, "Serah, you're allowed to enjoy yourself."

She went on fidgeting, picking dead skin from beneath her nails. She darted her gaze up to him for mere moments before returning her focus to her fingers. "Oh, I know. The times in New Bodhum when I was teaching were some of the nicest times I've had."

"I'm glad," he said. Then, just as gently, he asked her, "So, why do I get the feeling that you're hiding something from me?"

Her neck flushed pink. Her voicebox jumped beneath the skin of her throat. "I'm not. I'm getting to it," she said a little defiantly.

To encourage her to get on with it, he scooched his chair in a bit and picked up his utensils again. Nothing could get her going like her temper could. He played as if he were disinterested and began eating again.

Bingo. Her head whipped up and she gave him the stink eye. "It's Noel," she delivered, frowning.

He looked her dead in the eyes and forked more potatoes into his mouth.

"I'm- I'm happy with Noel around," she said, gaze falling once again to her lap. She found a lot of ways to link her fingers together. Her eyebrows came together. "I can't ever forget that they've left, but it's not so bad when I'm talking to Noel."

Hope stopped chewing his potatoes. This wasn't a side of Serah he'd seen often.

She looked up at him now, and the sight of her watery eyes made him swallow his mouthful of food.

She smiled a shaky smile, one that pulled her lips too flat against her teeth. "I don't think I was ever... really happy after Snow left. I just lived in this state of waiting. Waiting for someone to come back. Waiting for some news, waiting for anything... I was so scared, and no one would believe me about Lightning..." And before Hope could leave his seat, she was crying and shaking her head, batting at her eyes, maybe only halfway understanding her tears.

"Serah," he murmured, kneeling at her side, a glove-free hand resting on her upper arm.

She was pressing her napkin to her face. Her words were muffled intermittently by the cloth. "I just forgot what it was like to be happy. Really, truly happy. The only thing I could feel during that time was relief. I didn't realize how badly I needed it. To be happy again."

Hope stayed silently at her side as she soaked the napkin, then when it got too waterlogged, offered her his own. He replaced her wine with water. As he watched her slowly recover, sniffling, he replayed her words, her actions, in his mind. He guided her to the nearby couch and laid a blanket over her once she fell asleep. He took a seat across from her in the big armchair, and watching the rise and fall of her breathing, he came to his own conclusions.

Hope turned Flame Fossil over and over in his hands. He took it by the hilt, flexing his wrist. He could probably design Odinblade with more durable material and, provided his team used the correct alloys, lighten the sword by up to a third. Since Noel's swords could combine into a spear, Hope wanted to keep this feature available for use. His team would have fun with this one.

He looked up to see Noel unintentionally charming one of the Academy employees. She was practically melting on the spot, looking so doofy Hope could only feel second-hand embarassment for her. "Hey, Noel, got some news for you," Hope called across the lab.

Noel gave her a dorky wave, which Hope supposed balanced out the doofy grin on the female employee's face. "Hey, so what can your team do?" Noel asked upon his approach.

Hope handed Flame Fossil over to Noel. Noel sheathed the swords expertly.

"With the chaos crystal, I think we can do a lot. We can potentially design a sword that will let you attack faster due to its lighter weight, but deal just as much damage. If not, more damage," Hope said, smiling.

Noel gave a half-smile in return. "Really? You've got my Flame Fossil feeling a little inadequate," he joked, patting the sword on his back.

Hope smiled. It wasn't unheard of for a fighter to become so attached to their weapon. He certainly would never give up Nue. He piqued his eyebrows. "If you're not up for it, we could always redesign Serah's bowsword," he joked back. While it was true, Noel probably needed the upgrade more than Serah did. Their materials and gil had largely gone toward bettering her weaponry. Noel's Flame Fossil had taken quite a beating over their journey.

Noel didn't take it as a joke though. He smiled wide. "Really? That would be great. Think you could improve on Mog that much?" he laughed.

Hope tilted his head at the younger man. "You don't want Odinblade?"

"Is that what you've named it? Nice. What would Serah's be? Odin... bolt?"

Hope just stared at Noel.

Noel shifted his eyes. "What is it?"

Not enough yet. Not enough to draw any conclusions, and not enough to act. He'd need more data. But what Hope said outloud was, "Odinbolt. I like it. We'll upgrade Mog, then."

There wasn't an ounce of regret in Noel's expression. "Great! Little guy needs it, if you ask me," he joked again, crossing his arms over his torso. "Need me to go get Serah?"

Hope held out a hand in a signal for stop. "Not yet. I wanted to ask you something," he revealed.

"Yeah? Well, fire away," Noel said, bringing a hand up to the nape of his neck.

Hope tried not to look at the other man too intensely, but he felt as if something very, very important hinged upon the question he was about to ask. "Has the journey changed you, Noel?"

Noel blinked. He took a moment to think. "Yeah. It's given me faith that a better future exists out there."

Hope let silence fall between them, hoping that Noel would choose fill it. He kept his gaze steady though, and attentive.

Noel seemed to sense that Hope wanted more. He swallowed roughly, alleviating the dryness of his throat. "It's been nice to be around people again, too, you know?" - a half-hearted laugh - "I was getting pretty lonely. Now I've got Serah and Mog to think about. It's... great, actually," he admitted softly. Then he flicked his gaze up to Hope and there was a slight upturn of his lips. "When she smiles, it feels like a job well done."

Hope gave Noel the chance to say more, but nothing else came. He stepped forward and put a palm to Noel's shoulder. "Thanks," he said. Noel nodded.

The last dot connected.

Another day spent pounding out the details on Bhunivelze. It was strange - things like roadways, dwellings and facilities felt small in the grander plan of this planet, but when it would come to actually living there, these seemingly small details would make all the difference. Jumping from something as important as the composition of the atmosphere to something so miniscule as the height of a door was almost overwhelming. Everything needed to be planned to perfection. Thank goodness for his Bhunivelze team.

"Hey, boss," Ven approached him, blueprints flapping in his hands, "I've got something you need to approve." Ven spread the thin paper out over the table in front of Hope.

At first glance, they looked to be designs for a mansion. There were even outlines of a garage and a... pond of some kind. Then he looked to the title of the document. He cast a glare up at his co-worker. "Ven."

Ven shrugged, smiling in his rakishly charming way. "What? The girls and I thought it would be a great idea."

Hoep ignored some of the positive exclaimations that erupted from the remainder of the group. "Serah and Noel's Mansion?" Hope intoned, annoyed. "Are you guys playing dollhouse? Not funny."

Ven shrugged again. "They're gonna get together, right? We're just planning ahead for them. It's really considerate of us, if you think about it. Speaking of, Director, would you finally like to get in on the betting? Odds are-"

Hope let out a long-suffering sigh. With all of Ven's blathering and all the reinvigorated chatter, he broke.

"Yes."

The room literally fell silent. Ven spoke, "Come again?"

"You all heard me," Hope said, standing from his chair. He leant over and laid his hands out flat on the table in front of him, cutting a menacing figure. "I'm in."

Ven's jaw worked silently for some time before he spat out, "Serah likes, Noel likes, they aren't, or they are?"

Hope let himself smirk. "They are."

The problem with Hope's bet was that he didn't actually think Serah and Noel were doing anything beyond innocent. He just knew that there was definitely something tangible there, and that it was present on both sides. He also knew that they deserved each other. Serah's happiness and Noel's smile were evidence enough. It was simple, in the end.

And if he happened to make a buck off of his patience-testing employees, who would it hurt?

He cracked a couple of knuckles, sat himself down and started to plan.

... An hour later, Hope had a stiff back, a bunch of illegible doodles and a whole lot of nothing. Judging from his notes, at some point, he'd done some math and determined that there was a 68% chance that Serah liked Noel, a 61% chance that Noel liked Serah (- he was a tad thick-headed when it came to females. The doofy female employee had proved that -) a 99% chance that they would reciprocate each other's feelings, romantic or not, and a 35% chance that they would express such feelings in public. How did he even crunch these numbers...?

He jiggled his knee. Okay, this was all useless. What was his angle? Should he be present to guide them toward each other? Oh- maybe he could invent some kind of truth serum!

Hope let his head fall into his hands. He wasn't cut out for this. He wasn't meddling enough.

"Hey, guys, come over for a second, would you?"

Hope narrowed his eyes at Ven and the rest of his contingent. Hope might not be meddling enough, but Ven sure was. Hope took a sip of his tea to curb his urge to run over.

"Sure," Noel said. The time-travelling duo had just delivered graviton core gamma and were about to leave again when some employees extended an invitation for a tour of the facility.

Noel looked to Serah and did a little jerk of his head over toward the blueprints Ven had laid out. They walked up to the table, where a female employee named Colette promptly began stabbing different parts of the diagrams with her finger. Noel and Serah barely seemed to follow, even tossing each other questioning looks. The looks grew increasingly amused over time.

Hope wondered just what Ven was up to. Did he plan to have them bond over how weird everyone else was?

Just then, Hope caught sight of Ven positioned at the end of a rug, bending at the knees. The rug that Noel and Serah were currently standing on.

Of course Ven's plans couldn't be that subtle. The Academy employees were about as subtle as brick walls. Hope tried not to sigh at how transparent the plan was. They didn't even have rugs around the headquarters - they all must have chipped in and bought one. The dear gods. Ven was positioned at the end of the rug closest to Serah. According to the laws of physics, when Ven pulled that rug from beneath their feet, momentum would cause Serah to fall right into Noel.

Ven's forearms tensed. And- there it was.

Everyone seemed to scream right at the same time, except for Hope himself. He held his mug up to his mouth so as to not betray the slightest hint of emotion. He watched as Noel tumbled to the ground, landing hard on his side, and Serah followed...

Landing face-first into Noel's elbow.

Hope was standing in an instant. If she was hurt, he was firing Ven. "Serah!"

Ven was making signals with every part of his body to leave them alone, but Hope brushed them all off. "Serah, are you alright?" He walked over quickly, kneeling before their aching bodies.

Serah's eyes were watering as she sat up, tenderly holding her nose. She seemed to have trouble speaking, and he immediately glared a thousand daggers at Ven. "I think I need a doctor," she said.

"We'll call the hospital," Hope said, immediately reaching into his pocket for his phone.

"I'll take her," Noel said firmly. "Can you stand?" he asked her. The way he asked her this question, as simple as it was, sounded so tender and private to Hope's ears that it was almost uncomfortable to hear.

Serah nodded and stood. Her eyes couldn't seem to stop watering. Though the tears weren't borne from sadness, Noel couldn't seem to stand it. He crouched before her. She seemed to know what to do, and looped her arms around his neck. He matched the crooks of his elbows to the backs of her knees. Had they done this before?

"See you later," Noel said quickly, then began to half-walk, half-run out of the building.

Once they had left and Hope had finished dialling ahead to the hospital, he turned on Ven.

"What? They're together, aren't they?" Ven asked, daring to smile.

Hope's glare only intensified. "Oh, yeah, a piggyback to the hospital bodes well for their relationship," he said flatly. "How do you feel about unemployment?"

She looked awful.

"You look awful," he told her.

She reached across the space between them and punched him in the arm, then quickly put her fingers to her nose. Aside from the broken nose (which the doctors had reset wonderfully, they assured him), she had two black eyes that were healing slowly, edging more on browny-reddish eyes.

"You shouldn't touch it," Noel told her.

She made a face at him, but took her fingers from her nose.

"I don't think she looks awful," Ven piped up from his station. "What do you think, Noel?"

Hope's gaze hardened. Haven't you done enough, you nuisance? he communicated silently. "You're just saying that because it was your rug," he shot back.

"I'm not! But what do you think, Noel?" the ingrate asked with the subtlety of a bullet train.

Hope could practically feel the anticipation in the room. Here was the part where Noel said Serah looked beautiful all the time, and Serah melted into his arms and they rode off into the sunset on a impeccably manicured chocobo.

Noel frowned and addressed Ven, "It was your rug?"

Hope coughed, then cleared his throat and spoke up, annoyance abundant in his tone, "Yes, it was. I'm thinking of burning the rug. And firing Ven. Opinions, everyone?"

Most of the employees, familiar with Hope's brand of humour, began to laugh. But there were two standouts...

"No!" Serah exclaimed, eyes flying wide open.

"Sure," Noel said at the exact same time, crossing his arms.

Hope immediately wore a frowning smile. Jackpot.

"Wait, what?" Serah turned to Noel, tweaking at her nose again. Noel's hand rose to take her fingers away, but she seemed not to notice. "You're joking."

Noel gave a single shake of his head. "Nope."

Serah's eyes lit up with mild disbelief and anger, but were tempered by her more rational side. She took Noel by the bicep and led him down the corridor. Fortunately for the entirety of the room, this did nothing to diminish the volume of their voices. Hope almost, almost got up to tell her, but he had a feeling about this. They listened in silence, rapt.

"Noel," she began sternly, "I'm pretty sure Hope was just kidding, but are you serious? You'd have that man fired for an accident?"

Noel's reply was coolheaded in contrast to Serah's dialogue. "That was no accident. Rugs don't just slip and knock over two people."

Hope shot a smug look Ven's way. Busted. You don't get something that simple past a hunter.

"Regardless, this is his job we're talking about," Serah insisted. "He needs this job to put food on the table. My nose will heal."

"It's not about your nose," he replied quietly, then quickly recovered with, "You're right, though. It's not enough to justify him losing his job."

A tense silence. Then, "Good."

They waited for more. For something, maybe for them to walk back into the room, for more talking, for the swipe of closing doors. But then, Hope decided he'd had enough of guesswork and probabilities and odds for or against.

"Tell her it's because you hate seeing her cry," Hope called loudly, loud enough, he was certain, to reach into the hallway.

Silence.

"And tell him that you were miserable before, and that you're happy now, and even though you're angry right now, it's still better than any other time in your life," he added.

Silence.

The whole of the Academy was split between staring at him and at the entrance to the corridor.

But there was nothing. It would be a war of attrition, then. He was certain that it wouldn't be him to crack first.

And it wasn't. But when they finally did something, what they did was leave.

They stayed away for a full three weeks. He wasn't sure if it was that long for them, too - time travel worked in strange ways. The betting pool was markedly less enthusiastic and jokey, and Hope honestly didn't mind. They got a lot more done that way. They did pin the blueprints for "Noel and Serah's dream house" to the bulletin board in the kitchen though. People slowly added to it, drawing in chocobo pens and bathtubs with jets.

That wasn't to say he didn't wonder about Serah and Noel though. He usually just concluded that they could handle themselves and went back to working on whatever was in front of him. He didn't regret what he'd said to them both.

When they did return, the skin around Serah's eyes was fading to a greenish-yellow, and her nose had a new support constructed around it. So they had been back.

"Serah, Noel," Hope greeted, standing from his place at the head of the conference table. Other conversation in the room was gradually dying down at the new arrivals.

"Hope," Noel saluted.

Serah did not say anything, just sort of ducked behind the cover of Noel's arm. Noel darted a look around the room, perhaps a bit put-off by the number of eyes focused on him.

"How are you?" Hope asked finally, capping a pen.

"I'm good," Noel answered. There was a pause. Then he smiled. "We're good."

Hope's lips slowly curved upward. His eyebrows rose. "You're both good?"

Serah cleared her throat and piped up, avoiding Hope's gaze, "Yes." She was blushing madly.

Some time passed. The news and all its implications sunk in.

Hope decided to put them all out of their misery. "So, you're...?"

Noel looked at Serah. She hesitantly looked back at him, then nodded. She took his hand in hers. He leant down to kiss her.

The room burst into a cacophony of noise. It startled them both, and they jumped, bonking noses. Serah let out a yelp, eyelids fluttering and hands flying to her face. Noel just smiled, steadied her, ran a thumb over her cheek. Then he took her chin between his fingers and kissed her full on the lips, to even more noise. Someone even ripped up (what Hope believed) was unneeded paper, and threw it into the air, makeshift confetti.

When they parted, there were stars in both sets of eyes. Hope smiled a full-blown smile. Colette ran in with the extended dream house blueprints and wrapped the papers around them both.

"You guys are crazy," Noel said, trying to scowl.

"You're welcome!" Ven called back, vindicated.

Hope turned and hollered over his shoulder, "Get out of here! Take vacation, I don't care, Ven. Just leave!" Someone, somewhere was still ripping up confetti, and a healthy chunk of it landed in Hope's hair.

Ven duly ignored Hope. "Naysayers, pay up, and direct your bets toward the Director!" he hollered cheerily.

Uh oh. He felt the heat of Serah's glare before he saw it. When he turned to her, she was glowering at him, tucked against Noel's side and looking misleadingly delicate, and her still-healing eyes made it all the more menacing. "What bets?" she asked.

He really, really should've fired Ven.