Chapter 14: Hope Springs Eternal

I awoke to the lingering scent of roses sprouting from the damp earth after a rain shower. Burying my nose into her hair, I took in a deep breath. She smelled as enticing as always.

"You have no idea how much I missed you."

"I've been here the whole time." Her voice sounded raspy from sleep.

She would have no way of knowing the dream I'd just had. Months spent away from her, doing all that I could just to return to this. Nothing could compare to lying against her in bed and knowing that she loved me equally. I moved her hair away from her neck, so I could kiss and suck at what I now knew was a sensitive bit of skin below her ear. She moaned and then yelped in surprise.

"You want me to stop?" I leaned over to whisper in her ear.

She remained quiet before wriggling and then finally answering, "No. Keep going."

Well, that was odd. She was usually pretty eager in the mornings, to the point of waking me. Sometimes her work schedule dictated her leaving before the sun came up. All of my classes and work didn't start until a reasonable hour. On the mornings when I could manage more than a sleepy goodbye kiss, she was usually less coy than this.

Resuming my kisses, I decided to make busy work for my hands. From what information I gathered, she was in far more sleep clothes than she'd become accustomed to wearing recently. Right now, she was in a t-shirt and underwear. Anytime I'd run my hand over her body she'd back into me and make pleased little hums.

"Someone's excited," I said before nipping at her earlobe.

When my hand glided across her abdomen, I flicked her navel ring. As my tongue wound down her ear, I noticed the absence of something. She wasn't wearing her stud. I immediately pulled away. But in my effort to disconnect with her, I over-guessed how much of the bed was left. I ended up falling off, whacking my head, and wedging myself between the side of the bed and wall.

"I'm so sorry!" I shouted, trying to stand up, but instead knocking over a nightstand and its lamp. "Forgive me. I totally thought you were someone else. Forget this ever happened. I'm so sorry," I repeated.

Lightning sat up in the bed to stare at me. Her hair was a mass of tangles and the collar of her men's T-shirt hung limply over her shoulder. Kneeling, she leaned over the edge of the bed to hook my armpits and yank me back onto the bed. I could see the entirety of her breasts through the sagging collar. Once I was sitting beside her, I couldn't manage to make any sort of eye contact. I adjusted the comforter so it was fully covering her exposed lap.

"I'm…"

"If you apologize one more time, I'm going to punch you," she said, cutting me off.

"Ok," I said, a little defeated. "You mind telling me where we are?"

I took in the room we were in. The walls, bedding, furniture, and curtains were all white. The lamp, small vases, pictures, and various little knickknacks were in shades of grey and yellow. Early morning light splayed across the room through an enormous window. The bustling city center of Academia was visible through the glass.

"The Director's apartment."

"Why are you dressed like that?" I waved in her general direction.

It only then occurred to me that I was dressed in far less. Most of my clothes were scattered haphazardly across the carpet, and the only thing left on my body were my briefs. When I pulled the comforter up to cover myself, Lightning snorted.

"You vomited down my shirt. The Director was kind enough to lend me some pajamas. But this room was too hot so I took off the pants."

"Bigger question. Why are, you know, in bed with me?"

"You vomited a couple more times in that trashcan," she said before pointing at a large cylinder on the floor at the end of the bed. "I needed to make sure you were ok." She brushed my bangs from my face before looking at me with concern. "Last night, the Director went to lock up his office and found the two of you. Alyssa was passed out on his desk. She seemed fine enough, and from what he told me, she goes out drinking pretty regularly with their colleagues. But you," she cupped her hand around the back of my neck, "don't scare me like that. You were lying there next to a pile of puke and almost unresponsive. It took my magic to even wake you up. The Director wanted to drag you to the infirmary, but once I woke you, you managed to heal yourself up. It did nothing for your drunken state, but it did clear up whatever hell you wrought on your organs." She flicked my forehead. "After that you were fine, but still an idiot. You spoke nonsense and insisted on a piggyback the whole way back to your apartment. It took everything the Director had to convince you to just come two floors up to his home instead of forcing me to carry you between buildings."

I blurted out a thought before I could wrangle its implications. "You let me kiss all over you with a barf-y mouth?"

Her eyebrows pinched together and began to lift in the center, one of the few instances I'd seen her genuinely embarrassed. "You brushed your teeth each time. And insisted on blowing in my face saying shit like 'mm minty fresh. I love to lick my clean enamel'. You were full of stupidity last night."

"Did you…think that this morning was nonsense too? If I did anything to hurt you last night feel free to kill me."

I threw myself flat on my back and covered my head with the blankets.

"No. You were just really uninhibited last night. But I promise that nothing happened. You weren't even interested in me…like that… last night."

I could feel her legs squirm. She peeled the blanket down past my nose.

"Is there really all that much difference between her and me?"

"You knew?"

She searched beneath the covers and drew out my left hand in hers. "How many times do you think I've seen you with your gloves off? A lightning scar isn't exactly discreet, Hope." She didn't let me pull my arm free. "How long have you been married?"

"I'd say good morning, but it looks like some of us are faring better than others." Serah was seated at the dining table, serving Alyssa a beverage that could only be described as brown and gloopy. There was a strong possibility it was actually the contents of my trashcan.

Lightning, now in pants, strutted her way over to Serah. Gods above, she got over things quickly. She'd gone from forcibly questioning me to becoming a mother hen at the sight of her sister. The sound of her sister's voice had completely cut off our conversation. I'd barely answered that I was engaged, not married, when she'd scrambled into clothes and raced out of the room.

"Hangover?" Serah asked, offering a cup to Lightning.

She didn't accept, but gestured at me with her chin. "When did you learn to make something like that?"

"NORA crew runs a bar. Snow and Gadot have no self-control. It was one of the first things Labreau taught me when I started running with them."

Lightning rolled her eyes, took the cup and shoved it at me. "I knew they were a bad influence."

Serah clicked her tongue and then grinned at the Director, who was cooking a particularly greasy breakfast. "Can you believe her? Talking crap about my friends when she runs around with that." Then she turned to me. "There are ladies present."

I downed the entire viscous-barf-juice, barely able to swallow. Then I noticed that everyone was staring at me. Alyssa snorted into her drink, causing a froth of bubbles to bloop over the rim. The Director even blushed, embarrassed for me.

"What?"

The door to the main bathroom slid open. Noel entered the dining area. His eyes settled on me just like everyone else's had.

"Where the hell are your pants, man? The girls don't need to see your flangonzola."

Lightning had put on pants. In my rush to chase after her, I had somehow forgotten to. Rightly so, because those things covering her legs? My pants.

"If you'd please excuse me," I said, ducking my head and thrusting my cup at Lightning, "I'll be right back."

I fled to the Director's bedroom where he thankfully had a private bathroom and a closet filled with clothes. As I collected what I needed, I could hear snickering.

Alyssa even claimed, "At least now we know you don't have to worry about chucking your mattress." Her sentiment was immediately followed by a shout of pain.

"You deserved that," Lightning said, but I couldn't tell if she was the one who'd hit her.

Bladder empty and clothes on, I returned to the group. Clapping my hands together, I joined them at the table.

"I know why we're here, but what brought you guys?"

"A functional alcoholic," Noel said, making faces at Alyssa. She gave him a mock-flirtatious bat of her eyelashes. This only further irritated him.

"Hope knows," Serah started before pausing and pointing at the Director. "The Director knows that when I wasn't teaching, I was helping at the NORA house. Since Lightning wouldn't take you to see a doctor, he called me in to handle the fallout. Also, Noel and I had other business anyway."

The Director brought a skillet of bacon and a tray of other assorted cured meats to the table. Next to them he placed a bowl of lazily scrambled eggs. No seasonings, no fluffiness, no flavor. Notably, he served Lightning a personal dish with steak.

"Why don't you have a cute little nickname?" Alyssa asked with bacon grease dripping down her chin. "Director is a title. He shouldn't be forced to use it when he's among friends."

"I second." Serah poked at the rubbery eggs on her plate. "Is there anything else they call you?"

"Kid." Lightning smiled as she cut into her steak and blood oozed out.

I'd spent a veritable lifetime trying to be her equal. Yes, I was still younger than her, but I was not going to stand for this.

"You're not calling me 'kid' or 'the Kid' or 'kiddo' or any variation of child."

"Exactly what a kid would say."

"So, you're ok with spending all your time with a kid then?"

A hush fell over the room, but neither of us noticed.

"You are what you are."

"We're almost the same damn age."

"Doesn't change how I see you."

Which was a lie, because she'd let me make out with her neck less than ten minutes prior. She'd been taking pity on me. Suddenly shy and demure when he'd fed her her favorite food. It didn't take a genius to know the things she liked. And on that list of things, second to the top, was apparently the Director.

I grabbed her wrist and re-aimed her fork. I bit the cube of steak off the end. It wasn't even that good. She snarled and buried the fork, tines first, into the wooden table.

"That was aggressive," Noel breathed out.

"If anyone else calls me a kid, I'm eating their food too."

Noel leaned forward, cupping his hand over Alyssa's ear. He whispered something, but I only caught the tail end which I swore was 'burn the bed.' Hangover juice shot out of the corner of her mouth when she cackled.

I combed my hands through my hair and glared at Noel. "So, what business do you have?"

Serah touched my knee gently, "Don't take him seriously, he's always like this."