two roads; au

For once in his life, Hope found his mind wandering during a routine business meeting - maybe because it wasn't a typical one with the higher-ups at all, but rather what was supposed to be "date" with his "girlfriend," Alyssa. Their parents had insisted they make an appearance at some kind of function his father's company was hosting. Hope knew better than to protest.

After all, the one time he'd disobeyed had only led to the desire replaying over and over in his mind.

He'd do anything to feel her slender hands on his skin again, leaving trails of fire in their wake. No other person had ever conjured such a feeling within him from such a simple touch.

All they'd done was share a few long, heated kisses, but that night continued to plague him insistently. It didn't help that sometimes he saw her out of the corner of his eye - so close, and yet completely unreachable.

It had to stay that way. She told him they were from two different worlds. Whatever they were feeling, they could never explore it. This was the way it had to be.

Hope had never wanted to protest anything more than that.

"Lightning…" he murmured into her neck during a particularly passionate moment. She responded with a shaky little inhale, her hands curling into the back of his shirt. It was such a minuet reaction, something anyone else would gloss over, but he completely indulged in it. Everything she did was proof that she felt the same. "Stay here tonight." His lips grazed her earlobe. "Please."

Despite the way she pulled him closer, her head shook a little. "You can't. You know that."

"No one would know."

"But I would." With obvious reluctance, she pulled away enough to look him in the eye. They spoke of all of the insecurity she never outwardly displayed, and the strength of the woman within.

…Not to mention the need. The need for him, for the two of them to be together.

"Please."

She shook her head again. "Your family would never approve of me. And I - "

"Don't say it." He attempted to silence her with a kiss, but the words came anyway.

"…I'm not good enough for you. You have a lot going for you. I'd just get in your way."

"How could you get in my way when you're by my side?"

That sentence seemed to strike a chord in her. Lightning stared at him with widened eyes, and he could tell that she so badly wanted to say yes. They wanted to experience the fire between them, instead of the mere spark they felt between others.

To his surprise, she reached up and grasped the collar of his shirt, pulling their lips together in a somewhat hesitant kiss, but he realized it was just because of what she wanted to say.

"…One night."

It was more than he could have ever dared to hope for, and yet he knew it would never be enough. His heart, his body, his very soul knew that life would be a mere shadow of what it could be unless he had Lightning beside him.

But he knew he couldn't ask for more. Instead, he leaned down and captured her lips heatedly, answering with a wordless agreement before it came in an unnecessary whisper.

"One night."

There was no way he could ever forget that night. Hope replayed it over and over and over in his mind, along with the fact that he had to break off this arrangement with Alyssa. He knew their families would not like it. There was the possibility he would get disowned, or written out of the will. He could lose everything by choosing to be with someone who, as far as the high-class business world went, was nobody.

Except, of course, to him.

Hope watched Lightning go through the motions of her menial server job as the conversation around them progressed to something he didn't care to pay attention to. It didn't matter to him anymore.

The road to something far more worthwhile was one he would gladly walk.