night; au holiday fluff

Lightning wasn't too fond of parties and big get-togethers - and by 'big', she meant more than herself and maybe someone else. It wasn't as though she necessarily disliked all the people she was around right now; it was simply that she preferred things a lot more low-key.

Too bad ringing in the new year generally meant being surrounded by people…idiotic drunk people, at that.

"C'mon Light, live a little!" Snow held up the glass he'd been drinking from. It was his fourth one tonight. "Lemme mix you up something."

Lightning shook her head. "No, thanks." It wasn't the first time she'd refused tonight. Lebreau, Maqui, and even Sazh had all tried to get her to 'live a little', but she wasn't having any of it. Not that she couldn't hold her alcohol; she just didn't see the point.

In all honesty, she didn't see the point of this whole holiday. Tch, New Year's Eve - what a joke. Time continued onward no matter what. Tomorrow would come and they'd all sink in to another dull day. Honestly, this whole shebang was just an excuse for everyone to get drunk.

She got up from the chair she'd been sitting in, just needing to get away for a moment. At least Serah was having fun, she noticed with a faint smile. Her sister was in a rapid conversation with Yuj. She'd basically been the star of the party the whole night, now that she was legally old enough to partake in drunken idiocy…not that she did. Much.

To her surprise, when Lightning opened the sliding door to patio outside, she spotted Hope just standing around. Come to think of it, she did recall seeing him in the mass of people earlier, but apparently he'd somehow managed to escape her watchful eye.

He turned when he heard the sliding door open, his expression softening slightly as he set the mostly-full glass in his hand on the nearby table. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask the same." Lightning closed the door behind her and walked up a little closer. "It's almost midnight."

"Yeah, well…" He shrugged. "This has never really been my favorite holiday. I like everyone in there and all, but…"

"…It's too much at once, right?"

"Right." His eyes flickered over towards her and didn't leave. Instead, he chuckled a bit under his breath. "I should have known you'd feel the same way."

She mirrored his shrug. "I only came because Serah asked me to. I've never really celebrated this holiday before." She crossed her arms. "I guess I never had a reason to."

"You haven't?" Hope turned to face her a little better. "Not even some party when you were a kid and ate too much sugar in an effort to stay up?"

"No," she replied with a snort of amusement, adding, "though that sounds exactly like something you would do as a child."

"Maybe." He grinned sheepishly, but it faded as he brought back his original question. "So you've never celebrated the New Year?"

"No."

"Not even watching that ball drop thing on TV?"

"No."

"Not even - " Hope cut himself off at her raised eyebrows and held a hand up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I get the picture." After a pause, he asked in a quiet, somewhat nervous tone that suggested it was taking him a lot of courage to ask this, "…Which means you've never had a kiss at midnight?"

Lightning's eyebrows shot up. "No. I had no idea that was even a tradition."

"…Yeah." Hope's steps shuffled, perhaps in an effort to get warm. It wasn't freezing out, but the air wasn't exactly balmy, either. "It is," he continued after clearing his throat. "It's supposed to bring good luck or something. I don't remember the exact meaning behind it."

"Surprising." She quirked a bit of a smile that just barely tugged the corner of her mouth. "So you've had one?"

"Huh?"

She tried not to laugh at his utterly confused expression and stepped even closer, standing right in front of him. "You've had a New Year's kiss?"

"…Oh. Uh, no." He shook his head, seemingly composing himself. "No." There was a long pause and Lightning realized she could hear muffled yelling coming from inside the house. It sounded far away, so it took her a moment to realize they were counting down from ten.

Was it that close to midnight?

"…Not yet."

Lightning's eyes darted to meet Hope's when it registered that he'd spoken, her heart unnecessarily racing at his strange words - even moreso when she echoed them. "Not yet?"

He shook his head slightly, staring at her like he was looking at her for the first time…or, she realized, like someone who was finally going to do something about feelings that'd captured him for quite some time.

"Light…"

Vaguely, she could make out the voices of everyone inside again, simply because they grew louder. It was a ringing in her ears that was muffled by the whoosh of feeling coursing through her that'd honestly come out of nowhere.

"Three! Two! …One!"

At the final second in the countdown, Hope reached out and cupped Lightning's face in his hands, his expression slightly apprehensive but his body and heart moving on autopilot as he leaned forward and captured her lips in an utterly tender, sweet kiss that had her sighing in contentment automatically. It was as though this all happened in slow motion - the cheering inside sounded like it was miles away. All that existed was this one moment, the exact second the new year began and it was as young as it could possibly be.

They broke the kiss what seemed like hours later, though Lightning could still hear yelling in the house, so it couldn't have been that long. At some point, her hands had moved to rest on Hope's chest of their own accord, and she left them there as she stared at him with a slightly dazed expression, like she couldn't believe that had happened.

Hope only gave her gentle smile, one thumb stroking her cheek as he really took in his moment - they both were, because they knew in this one night, in this one second, everything had changed.

"Happy New Year, Light," he murmured softly.

She smiled in return, her hands sliding up his chest, one cupping the back of his neck and replying quietly before their lips met again.

"I'd say so."