After basic training, Hope gets a week off.
During the two months left that he has of BT before he completes his courses, Alyssa keeps bumping into him at the oddest of times. Normally, he'd figure, he wouldn't be able to see her, since she works with talent scouting and he's...well, just a green recruit that's in the middle of basic training. He's already at West Point, and she should be traveling, right? Well, that's what he thought.
But no, Alyssa would find him in the mess hall, or in between training, or out of the showers, or right before bed. In no time, she'd found out that he liked to sit in the library, and she'd come and wave at him, or talk to him in the most inopportune moments.
It had made him so angry. At each turn, he was more and more short with her. She obviously had interest in talking to him, on more than just a friendly level, and nothing could be more repulsing to Hope.
In a last, desperate attempt to get the woman to leave him alone, he finally agreed to hang out with Alyssa outside of the school when he finished his basic training.
"So, it's standard BT until the middle of February," Alyssa was talking to herself within earshot of Hope in the library one afternoon. Hope was, at that time, engrossed in a book, as always. "I have off in February. Do you have a lot of friends, Hope?"
That last question, unfortunately, catches the young man off guard, and he snaps to irritated attention. "Huh? What?"
"I asked if you had any friends. Basically, I'm trying to feel you out to see if you're gonna be busy after your break." Alyssa states bluntly to Hope over the rim of his novel.
Hope is grudgingly impressed by her bluntness. "I...er...no. I don't. I can't think of hardly ANY friends that I have, except those I made on the old world. Well, and a few enemies, too." Hoping the woman would get the point, Hope turns back to reading, angry that she had succeeded in pulling him out of his thoughts in the first place.
"Well, good. I thought so." Boy, she was irritating. "I was thinking, I'm an old friend. I knew you in the old world. A lot of people from Cocoon and Pulse are busy during that time in February, but I'm not! I know you probably wanna go home for a bit, like most do, but since you live so close...why don't we do something during your week off?"
"Sure." Hope finds himself saying. He is used to going, "Mmm hmm," and, "Oh," to add off-hand interjections to Alyssa's prattling, so saying "Sure" is just a natural reaction to her speaking by now. It's something that he has gotten conditioned to saying whenever she launches into a diatribe. He's found out that it's quicker to get her to shut up by just nodding and agreeing with whatever she's saying than to actually listen and add an opinion to what she thinks. He's caught in his own trap, and it's too late.
"Oh, great! So, I'll call you at your house sometime a day or two after your release." Alyssa is already jumping up from her seat and pushing her chair gratingly back under the table. "See you then, bye!" With a jaunty wave of her digits, the blonde is flouncing off, humming to herself loudly in the otherwise quiet library.
Hope remembers groaning and closing his book with a hopeless snap. "Oh, no, what have I gotten myself into?"
Alyssa keeps true to her word.
Hope had just settled back into his old room, which his mom had kept up to specs since he'd left. His father, surprisingly, had also made an appearance to welcome his son back home from basic training, and to be there to spend time with his family. It was the first year that the family hadn't celebrated Christmas together since Hope could remember, either in this world, or the last, due to the fact that he had been at West Point. His dad said that in turn for working this past Christmas, he had arranged for time off when Hope would have a brief respite after BT.
Hope's relationship with Bartholomew had been anything but spectacular, but Hope had learned to give grudging respect to the head of his household. Bartholomew had proven that he had faith in his son on the previous world, when he gave refuge to Hope and his friends after they were wanted by the state.
In this reincarnation, Bartholomew had continued in his efforts to put work and career first, and it seemed such a waste to Hope. Now that Hope understood that his parents perfectly retained all of their memories from the past, he has been more distant as of late with his father. Needless to say, his homecoming, and the surprise of his father by his mother's side when he came home, wasn't as pleasant as it normally should have been. Bartholomew understood what had kept his family distant, and gained insight and wisdom when Nora had died in the old world. Only after the loss of his wife, had he understood that his family, and his relationship with his son, was the most important. Now that he literally had a second chance, an opportunity that most don't have, he has fallen back into his old habits.
When Hope was growing up on Earth, he had seen his father fall back into his reclusive, workaholic traits, and had chalked this attitude up toward ignorance. After all, he thought he was crazy, and his parents had been steadily maintaining the facade that Hope was suffering from delusions. He had thought that his father was a victim to his habits, and an unconscious party to the quiet detachment he gave toward his house.
With the coming of Hope's birthday, he realized that Bartholomew knew all along where he had come from, and the fact that he couldn't use the excuse of ignorance of his past life no longer shielded his actions from Hope's judgement. Now, Bartholomew could be held fully accountable for not taking this second chance by the horns and correcting past mistakes. He could become more interactive with his family. Instead, he willingly falls back into the lonely provider, and Hope hasn't been able to talk with his dad about how that had made him feel.
Hope doesn't think he'll ever have that talk with his dad. He keeps his adopted attitude of bored teenager, a shield which he can now use when his parents try to entice him with talk. He tells little white lies that he figures most green recruits tell their parents after their basic training, of how exaggerated the stories of the physical regime are. It's simple. Too simple. His brain needs entertainment.
Enter Alyssa Zedielle.
For better or for worse, her call on the second day of Hope's week off comes as an excuse to get out and be away from the thoughts of his family, and his newfound feelings toward his father. He doesn't have to worry about instigating what would no doubt prove to be an uncomfortable conversation with Bartholomew if he goes out with Alyssa. Besides, he's only off for a week. It'd be kind of cruel to start a fight with his dad in such a short amount of time.
Telling himself that no matter what Alyssa has cooked up, it had to be better than his home life, he picks up when she calls.
That's how he finds himself on what could only be termed as a date with her the next day.
It was textbook. She wanted dinner and a movie, then hanging at her place. He'd said okay. Snow and Serah were honeymooning, Sazh was on a mission overseas, and things with Light were shaky. He couldn't hang out at home...so that had left Fang and Vanille, actually, but he wanted to talk to Fang about her relationship with Vanille, and didn't think THAT conversation would turn out well, either.
He has it in his plans this week to drop by and pay them a visit, either together or separate, but Alyssa's fanciful notion of a "date" with him beforehand clears up some time that he suddenly finds himself overflowing with.
Dinner's first. Of course. They decide to meet up at a local burger joint, nothing too fancy. Alyssa had insisted on "keeping it casual." Hope had said over the phone that he wasn't interested in romantic association, but had pretty much stated that he was bored and he was using the outing as something to do. Just to establish ground rules and to let it be understood that he wasn't into Alyssa as a girlfriend.
Alyssa had said she understood. Hope didn't really care if she truly did or not. As soon as they sit down in their chairs, Hope is telling the bored-looking waitress that the checks are going to be separate. Alyssa smiles and bats her eyelashes. She's wearing some sort of new perfume, and the stink of it is making Hope's nose itch from across the table.
"Thanks for meeting with me tonight, Hope. Although I was sure you'd come." Alyssa says confidently, and it immediately puts Hope in an irritated mood. Though, truth be told, he had already been irritated before he ever showed up, so it was kind of a moot point.
"What do you mean, you'd know I'd show up?" He asks, scanning through the menu and just wanting the food to get to the table already. He was hungry, and it beat getting delivery or having to sit down at a formal table with his dad.
"Oh, well, I know that it isn't the best situation with your home life right now, besides, I don't think you'd want to be hanging out with the friends you'd known in your high school. There's so much different between what you know now, and what you were denying yourself then."
She's right about both points, and it's grating. "That's quite a bold statement to make about my family. How do you know you're right?"
Alyssa smiles. "I went to your house, remember? I think I'm the only one that's actually talked to your mother, outside of the birthday party and the wedding. I was in the environment. I got the feeling that Bartholomew isn't around much. The things you told me about your childhood back in the old planet are happening again here, right? 'Cept now, there's no excuse. You're stuck between resentment and wanting to put the past aside. I can understand." Alyssa reaches out across the table to touch Hope's arm, and he finds himself pulling back slightly.
Miffed, Alyssa retreats back. "Your silence is complicit. You don't have to say anything else." She smiles coyly. "I knew I was right."
Hope decides to not dignify the statement with a response.
The rest of the meal actually goes okay, the food is decent, hot, and cheap. Alyssa drones on about her own life, and for a moment or two, Hope gets lost in the rhythm of pretending to listen and nod. Focusing on the mundane actually takes his mind off more pressing matters, and Alyssa is the perfect diversion to reality that Hope needs in his life just then.
They take the subway to the movie, Hope suggesting the method of transportation in order to stick them both in as crowded a place as possible.
They wait in line for tickets, then Hope brusquely tells Alyssa that if she wants her own refreshments, it's on her dime. Alyssa pretends not to mind. They file into a full theater.
To Hope's chagrin, it's packed enough that he can't justify having a space between them in the row. They have to sit next to each other. Alyssa is beaming, he can see her grin as she snuggles in next to him out of the corner of his eye, even in the low lighting.
The speakers are playing loud music as people filter in, and Hope turns to catch her in her goofy grin.
"Do you like me?" He asks the question bluntly, out of the blue, on purpose.
Alyssa doesn't seem to be put off guard. She blinks at him. "Why, yes, Hope. I always kind of have. You know that. I know you've never returned the feelings though. And that's okay, as long as I can get to hang out with you. I mean, I guess it's better than you hating me, after what happened between us so long ago."
Hope opens his mouth to speak, but someone in the row behind them loudly shushes him before he can. Angry, he blinks, but then dramatically faces forward. There is a tense pause, but he can't hold in his comment any longer. Unfazed, he whips back around to his date.
"Why do you push yourself at someone that you know has never liked you back? What, you can't find someone else in this town? Or do you have a masochistic streak that I don't wanna know about?"
Hope promptly gets shushed once more, and unable to contain his anger and feelings just between him and Alyssa, he instead directs it at the person in the row behind him.
"What, are you serious? It's the PREVIEWS, dude. I'm not being any louder than your obnoxious shushing. Why don't you get mad when the movie actually starts."
Alyssa giggles, and when Hope turns around, she lobs a popcorn kernel at him. Hope can't help but sort of grin back. Looking out of the corner of his eye, he can see that her shoulders are shaking violently with laughter, and her hand is clapped over her mouth.
"What?" He mutters, brushing the popcorn she threw at him on the floor.
"I've never seen you get that angry before. I mean, I know you HAD, just...not around me. You'd always sent me away before you got to the point of anger."
"That's because you were annoying, and I didn't want you around."
"And now?"
"Now? Well...you're still annoying. But I guess I have to give you a pass, because everyone else is saying I should." He pauses. "Light trusts you. So. That's it, then."
The mood between them is palpably different once Hope mentions Light's name, and Alyssa sits back in her seat once more. They are quiet for a while. The guy behind them is probably appeased. This time, however, Alyssa breaks their silence, unable to hold what she's thinking inside.
"You like her, don't you?"
"What?" Hope asks, irritation still clear in his voice.
"SHH!" The same guy is louder now, obviously angry.
Hope twists around once more. "What, she gets to ask me a question and you don't say anything to her, but I say one word in response, and I'm the one you tell to be quiet?"
"Sir, ma'am, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to be quiet, or leave." An usher is now included in the fray, and a bright red baton gleams menacingly at the end of the aisle. "We've been getting complaints about the amount of noise level here. This is your warning. Next time, you will be escorted out of the theater. No refunds."
The usher leaves, point having been made. A satisfying chortle sounds as the usher walks away, and another voice can be heard, "About time they showed up."
Hope is genuinely shocked. "Welp, I've never been threatened for noise BEFORE a movie starts before. This is a first." He looks at Alyssa. "It's your fault. They can somehow sense just how much your voice talking through the whole thing is going to be a distraction to everyone in the whole damn theater."
Alyssa blinks, crams a fistful of popcorn in her mouth, chews, and gulps from the oversized straw. "Okay." She smacks as she sets the drink down. "Let's leave."
"What? You crazy?" Hope snorts.
"Let's go somewhere where we can talk. And let's ask for our money back now before the movie starts. I don't wanna wait for them to come back. C'mon, let's go." Mind made up, she promptly stands up and bends over, holding out her hand to Hope.
Hope is irritated that everyone behind them is now being made to wait for him to make up his mind to leave or stay, based on how Alyssa is purposely standing to block their view. It's such a set up, so obvious what she is doing, that he can't even be mad.
Sighing, Hope gets up to leave, the smattering of applause following him out of the theater.
"Fine, but where are we going?" He queries Alyssa, who is apologizing to the other people in the row as they scoot out toward the aisle.
"I dunno...why not your favorite place, the library? We can go to the big one!" Alyssa chirps behind Hope's shoulder as they make their way out into the lobby. They are both shrugging into their coats, and Hope is fishing out his stub for his refund at the customer service counter.
Hope rolls his eyes at the ceiling. At this rate, he wouldn't be surprised if she knew what his favorite foods were.
"The library isn't exactly the best place to talk, Alyssa. It IS a library, you know. Not a place where people can talk."
"Oh, right." The young blonde looks crestfallen, but only for a moment. She visibly brightens, and tugs on his shirt coat. "Oh! I know! How about my place! I live by myself, you know. Well, almost. With a roommate. But they're never home. We can talk there!"
Hope visibly winces. He's being set up. Again. After making his request for a refund known to the clerk, he turns back to a smiling upturned face.
"Fine. But only because it's better than being at home."
"I KNEW it!" The old betrayer sounds too happy. Hope groans. He hopes that he isn't making a big mistake.