Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with the story and sending in reviews.
Last chapter, there was a lot of drama, but for this one it's a short read and less drama and one that had to get split up too from the next chapter so that it wouldn't be too long. I hope that you will enjoy reading this one.
Chapter 12: Our Night Alone:
"The time is coming isn't it?" Fang stretched out her arms as she stood on the sand near Lightning. Her eyes traveled over to her. "That conference that you're going to, you'll have to leave soon right?"
Slightly distracted, Lightning continued staring out toward the beach. "Yeah."
"Wow! These last six months went by fast. So? You want me to watch Serah again while you're gone?"
"If you want but I figured that Hope could just watch her. That way, she'll already be home and she wouldn't need to take anything with her."
Fang pretended to be hurt that she didn't ask her. "Oh right! Get the boyfriend to do it. When do you have to leave?"
"A few days from now." Lightning answered.
"Well that's going to be interesting. The Academy still couldn't find their Director."
"As far as I know they're still coming to this thing."
Fang was curious. Even with the signs, she thought for sure that Hope was the Academy's missing leader. "So he wasn't the Director at all?"
Lightning glanced at Fang before her eyes drifted toward the ground. That was something she didn't like to think about too much. There were times that doubt crossed her mind, but she stuck with Hope's word that he was telling her the truth. Since their time in Nautilus and the few months after, she continued her relationship on with him as normal. "He told me that he wasn't."
"It's still weird. Same first name and he's a scientist."
Lightning shrugged. "Coincidence I guess."
Fang noticed that she didn't really seem to be paying complete attention to the conversation but only enough to respond. "What's going on now?"
Lightning looked over at her. "What?"
"What's going on in that head of yours now?"
Lightning crossed her arms. This seemed like a good opportunity to ask Fang for something. "I was wondering if you could watch after Serah tonight."
Fang was curious to her request. "Sure! Why?"
Lightning felt unsure about telling her, but she needed to give her some reason or she would keep hounding her for one. "Hope and I are having dinner together alone."
A sly smirk came on Fang's face. She nudged Lightning's arm. "I see and I take it that you want Serah to stay all night with me and go to school the next morning."
"Yeah. I don't know when we'll be back and we're leaving out of Bodhum for this one."
"Ah! So this relationship is getting serious. Where are you going?"
"He told me that the restaurant was kind of fancy."
"And do you have something appropriate to wear? I'm not talking about some skirt or anything."
Lightning looked to the side, thinking. "Haven't really worn a dress in a long time."
Fang grabbed onto her arm. "Good! That will give us a chance to go shopping for something that he'll really like."
Lightning sighed as she closed her eyes. With Fang helping her to shop, this was going to be interesting. "Just know that I have standards."
Later after they were off duty, they stopped by one of the clothing stores a little outside of New Bodhum and started searching around. Lightning seemed uneasy with all the dresses she found. Some of them were too short, too revealing, or both, and there wasn't any that she liked. "Why did I let you or him talk me into this?"
"Oh relax! You'll survive the night. Tonight you're going to go all out. You might want to call him and tell him that you'll meet him at the restaurant."
Lightning was curious as to what Fang was up to. It concerned her a little. "What are you planning to do to me?"
Fang let out a smirk. "Make you over so good that you'll have him drowning in his own drool."
Lightning crossed her arms. The idea didn't sound appealing. "I'm not out to kill him."
"Just call him." Fang urged her along. Lightning pulled out her phone and called him. After talking for a few minutes, she agreed to meet with Hope at the restaurant. Once Lightning was done, Fang placed her hands on her sides. "Now that it's settled, let's get started. I wished you would have told me earlier. Have more time to work."
Lightning wondered what she meant by that. "What are you trying to say?"
Fang grabbed onto her arm and pulled her along. "Let's just find a dress first." For a few hours, Lightning tried on a few while Fang gave her opinion. Most of them, she gave a no and a few maybes. Finally, Lightning came out in a dress that she really liked. "I think we have a winner."
Lightning stood in a strapless, black dress that stopped at the top of her legs with a low cut heart shape top. There was a little red at the top but it was overlaid with black at the front. It hugged around her, showing off the curves of her body. She pulled down the bottoms of it, seeing if it would go any lower. "I think that this is too short."
Fang waved her hand down. "It's fine. You can still bend over without showing anything." She stood up from her seat and inspected the dress from up close. She tilted her head over to see the back. It came up to the same height as it did on her chest. "Hmm… It's a dress for easy access but maybe we can go a size lower to make that chest come out more."
Lightning arched her eyebrow after hearing the words "easy access". "What do you think is going to happen on this date?"
"You told me that you wanted me to keep Serah for the night."
"Yes because I don't know when we'll be back not for anything else."
"Tell me something. You still haven't tested "other" things out with him?"
Lightning looked serious. "No. Just because we're going on this date doesn't mean that anything is going to happen."
"Really? I'm surprised. You lived with him for a while. I just thought that something would have happened by now."
Lightning's eyes traveled along the ground. "Well it hasn't."
Fang was still surprised to hear so. "What? Is he not making a move?"
"No. It's not that."
Fang tried to read her expression but Lightning kept her eyes turned away. "What is it then?"
No longer did Lightning want to talk about it. "I'm changing out of this."
Fang didn't want to let the subject go that easily. "Tell me what it is."
"I'm not sure if I want to with him yet or…if he's the right one." Lightning spoke lowly. She turned and headed back into the dressing room.
Fang took a few seconds to think about what she said. An idea crossed her mind which made her surprised. "Wait. Have you ever been with anyone before?" Behind the curtain, Fang didn't hear a word out of her. Since she was silent, she figured that must have been it. "That's it isn't it?"
Lightning pulled back the curtain, upset. "Just drop it."
"Its fine you know." Fang tried to assure her.
Lightning sat down on a couch. "You can laugh now."
Fang sat beside her and leaned back on the couch. "Now why would I do that?"
Lightning tilted her head back. "I just haven't found the right one yet that's all…"
"But...?"
Lightning sat back up. "I guess…I feel like this one… is different."
Fang smiled as she closed her eyes. "It's all right to wait you know. Maybe you will find that thing you call love someday. Haven't really found it myself. At least if you do it with someone you really care about that you want to spend a long time with, it will mean more right?" Lightning was surprised. She was expecting Fang to make a joke or tease her with something, but she was actually being insightful about it. "Anyway, you decide what you want to get so we can get out of here. If you think that dress is too much, then we'll pick another one."
Lightning thought about it. She placed the dress over her arm. "I'll stick with it just in case."
"In case you change your mind about him?"
"Yeah."
A smile came to Fang's lips. Lightning seemed more at ease after their conversation. "If that's the case, if you're going to go with that dress, then you'll need to get some new underwear."
Lightning was surprised. "What?"
"You got your choice. We can go with the ones that show up in the dress, or none at all, or if you really think that tonight will be the night and you want to spice things up, then try these." Fang tossed some toward her which she caught. Lightning looked at them. "What's different about these?"
A smirk appeared on Fang's face. "They're edible."
Lightning frowned. Her face began to heat up at the thought of what he could do with those. "What kind of store did you bring me to?"
After shopping, they returned back to Fang's house where she did her makeup and hair. Sometime later, Fang stood up straight and put her hands on her sides. "Well I've done all that I can. It's up to you now."
Serah and Vanille looked at Lightning and smiled. "You look really nice sis."
Lightning smiled a little as she looked over. "Thanks Serah."
Fang waved her finger. "Now don't walk to close to traffic or guys might think that you're out looking for a good time."Instantly, Lightning frowned at her statement.
Later that night, Hope was sitting at a table at the restaurant that he told Lightning that he would be at. Waiting patiently, he placed his head on his hand. He glanced down at his watch. She was a little late but only by a few minutes. He looked down at his clothes to make sure that things looked okay. He wore a white buttoned up shirt with two button loose at the top along with a black jacket, pants, and dressed shoes. While he wasn't looking, a figure placed down a bag on the table and stepped toward him. "I'm not too late am I?"
Hope smiled once he recognized the voice. "No. Not at all." Once he looked over, he froze with a stunned expression on his face and his mouth opened a little. There, he saw her standing in the black and red dress that she picked out at the store. Her bangs covered over her right eye and the rest of her hair flowed down straight, partly over her shoulder and partly on her back. Lilac eye shadow covered over her eyelids and gloss brought out her lips more. On her feet, she wore opened toe high heel shoes. She placed her hand on her hip. "Are you just going to sit there with your mouth open or are you going to offer me a seat?"
Finally, he blinked and stood up quick. He went to the other side of the table and pulled out her chair. "Right! Sorry."
A smile came upon her face. It seemed that her dressing up was at least worth the look that he gave her. She picked the gift bag that she brought in with her and set it beside the table. After she sat down, she gazed out toward the window. From there, she could see the view of some of the city. It was a beautiful sight to gaze upon with the lights down below. Hope sat back in his chair and smiled as he looked over at the window as well. "I thought that you might like to sit somewhere with the view like this."
"It's nice."
"Did you get here by yourself okay?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Just wondering."
Lightning read the expression on his face. There seemed to be some unease. "You weren't actually worried about me were you?"
"Well I didn't want you to travel alone but now, I just wanted to make sure that you weren't bothered on the way up here."
"I can handle myself you know."
"I know. I don't doubt that. It's just…Wow… You look really… beautiful tonight."
A small smile came on her lips. "Thank you. You don't know what I had to go through just to get this way so you better make this dinner a good one."
Hope laughed a little. "I'll try my best." Through dinner, they ate and continued talking. After dinner was over, Hope thought it was the best time to pull out his surprise. "Before we go, there's something I wanted to give you." He reached down toward the floor. When he came back up, he had a box wrapped up in a bow. He placed it on the table in front of her. "We've been together for a few months now so I just thought maybe I should do something for the occasion."
"You really didn't have to."
"I wanted to."
Lightning unwrapped the bow and opened the box. Her expression turned into surprise. "You got me a knife?" She picked it up and flipped it open.
Hope looked a little nervous. "I probably wouldn't show that in a restaurant." It was black at the handle with gold designs covering over it. The steel blade was shiny and had a sharp point at the end. "Honestly, I wasn't sure what to get you but I figured that this would keep you safe someday maybe. If you don't like it, I brought something else." He reached down and pulled out another gift wrapped box.
Lightning looked over curious. "What's this?" She picked it up. It felt lighter than the box that the knife was in. When she opened it, she saw a silver necklace with a small pink stone shaped like a diamond on the end of it. "A necklace?"
"I didn't know if you were a jewelry kind of woman but I thought maybe you would like this. I wasn't sure."
"Hope. It's fine." She hooked the necklace around her neck and gave a small smile. "Thank you." Hope smiled back nervously. He wasn't sure what she thought about them but he guessed her not saying that she didn't like them meant that they were okay. Lightning reached over and pulled the big gift bag that she brought in with her. "I guess someone was right in saying that I should give you a present as well." She placed the bag on the table.
Hope became curious. He looked inside and pulled out the box that was in it. Afterwards, a grin came on his face. "Wow! A science kit with several experiments you can do like making a volcano and it's just safe for kids! Light?! How did you know I wanted one of these?!"
Lightning wanted to laugh at the sound of his voice and his so called excitement over the kit. She placed her head on her hand as her smile grew bigger. "Just a hunch."
He laughed a little which made her laugh somewhat as well. He placed his gift back in the bag. "I can't wait to try it when we get back!"
"Well not tonight. Don't forget that I have you for the rest of the night."
He moaned in disappointment which made her grin. "I guess…"
After they left the restaurant, they sat on a train heading back to New Bodhum. The train was quiet as there were very few people on board. The two of them sat somewhere quiet where no one else was sitting nearby. Lightning gazed out of the window as she watched the passing scenery. Hope placed his hand on top of hers. "Did you like tonight?"
"Yeah. If I could get rid of these shoes, it would be even better." He laughed a little. When he opened his eyes, he found hers staring back at him. "Things will be quiet tonight since it'll be just the two of us."
"Really?" The two stared at each other in silence trying to read what the other was thinking. There really wasn't much left to say between them. Both of them leaned in with their faces getting closer to each other. Like hers, his eyes traveled between the eyes and lips. Soon, his lips met with hers in a kiss. At that moment, it didn't matter where they were. There was no one around but them. Tension began to build between them as the spent minutes in a world of their own. His hands caressed along her sides and back as they moved in close as they could to each other. Her hands rose up and slid against his chest. Her hands slipped into his shirt rubbing on his skin. She opened his shirt a little more, exposing his chest. Her body sat up more onto her legs as she pressed herself more against him.
When they parted, their eyes opened to each other. Hope gave a look of confusion as he tried to read what she was trying to say to him. Then again, he thought that he might have been reading too much into it. Curiously, he leaned in toward her ear. Lightning closed her eyes as she listened to his whispers. After hearing him, she thought about what he was asking. For some time, she remained silent until he pulled away from her. Her eyes met with his again. It took some time but she gave him an answer.
And that's it for this chapter! I wanted there to be some humor in it. As always, let me know what you think. Until the next chapter!
