no time; au full of holiday fluff
When Lightning's eyes blearily blinked open, she found with some surprise that the numbers of her alarm clock read just five minutes before six. This was initially met with confusion since it usually didn't go off until an hour later.
However, the light scraping of snowfall against the window reminded her and her stomach was instantly filled with butterflies.
It was Christmas morning…and more specifically, her first Christmas morning with Hope.
She supposed waking at this hour was habit. No matter how old they'd gotten, Serah would always charge into her sister's room to wake her up at this ungodly hour, and they'd open their gifts as the sun rose. It never took long, especially when they were younger and money had been tight, but it'd always been clear that the sisters enjoyed the bonding time more than anything else.
Lightning half expected Serah to barge into her room simply out of tradition, but instead, she felt Hope's arm tighten around her waist as he made an intelligible noise and seemed to burrow closer to her. With a smile, she carefully turned on her side so she was looking at him, bringing the covers over the two of them.
The snowfall had turned silent, and even this close, she could barely hear Hope's breathing since it was so quiet. Another little smile formed on her face as she brushed the bangs out of his closed eyes.
It was strange how different this felt as compared to Christmas mornings with her family. When she'd been a child and her parents were alive, there was so much excitement in the air that it was practically tangible. The first holiday after their mother had died had been incredibly depressing, but it'd gradually gotten better after that. And Serah learned that she could get away with waking her sister at an unreasonable hour.
But right now, here all warm and snug in Hope's arms, she felt like they could simply stay here forever. They were in that suspended moment where there was no time, only pure feeling. It only seemed to come on this particular morning - when she'd been a child, it'd been right before she was able to come down the stairs, hand-in-hand with Serah. Getting older, it'd become after the gifts were unwrapped and the two of them realized once again that they would always have each other.
Lightning smiled again as her fingers lightly traced over Hope's face. He didn't wake, though seemed to lean into her touch, pulling her closer again until there was no cold space in between them.
She buried her face against his neck with a content sigh, thinking that this sort of Christmas morning was the most preferable. All of this uninterrupted time with Hope, to simply lay with him and feel their love with every slight touch…there was no better gift she could ask for.