stars; au

If he hadn't known that the woman beside him was just as new to dating as he was, Hope would have been a lot more nervous…which was saying quite a bit, considering his nerves were jumping around his stomach like a frog.

But nerves or not, he was going to take advantage of this and show Lightning a nice night. After all, if anything, she completely deserved it. He couldn't imagine that someone working three dead-end jobs to support a sister in college got many opportunities for fun. Hope really, well, hoped that she would like the idea he'd concocted. He'd never really cared for any of the girls that his father always tried to set him up with and never made any effort to be romantic with them. He was just polite.

Meeting Lightning had changed his whole world, and continued to do so. She'd been the first person in a long, long while who wanted to actually get to know him and didn't seem to give a damn about his family name or money, despite the fact that she was just barely keeping her head above the poverty line.

Then of course, there was the fact that she was beautiful, sharp as a whip, and a lot smarter than he was sure people gave her credit for. Evidence came up for that quite often…like right now.

"…We're not going out to dinner, are we?"

Hope shifted in the driver's seat, trying to keep his voice even. "Of course we are. What gave you the idea that we aren't?"

"I've been serving down this way," she replied, referring to one of her jobs helping out with a catering company. "There's a couple of multimillion-dollar places out here, but no restaurants or anything." She turned to him with a slightly tense expression. "…We're not having dinner with some client of your father's or something, are we?"

"No," Hope answered, maybe a little too quickly. He cleared his throat. "No, of course not. You'll see."

Lightning rolled her eyes a little, clearly not one to like surprises, but fell quiet. Hope always imagined it was because she was mentally relaxing herself or something - from the start, she'd always looked incredibly tense sitting in his expensive car, like she would taint it or something ridiculous like that.

He reached over and squeezed her shoulder lightly, giving her a slight smile before his eyes returned to the road, looking for the right turnoff. It was past the expensive houses she'd mentioned. The farther along he drove, the more he could practically feel her curiosity as a tangible thing.

Man, he really hoped this would go over well.

"…Where are we?" she asked in confusion, after he'd parked in a random patch of grass.

"I call it my hideout, even though it's out in the open." He smiled, resting his fingertips between her shoulder blades once they were both out of the car. She tensed a little at first at the touch, but quickly relaxed. It was one of her subtle signs that she was beginning to truly trust him. "Once I got my first car, I'd come out here when I needed to get away. Y'know, be alone."

"So how come you brought me?"

"I…" Aaaand here was the part he was always bad at - talking about his feelings. The older he got, the harder it seemed to put them into actual words. He wanted to blame his father - emotion had no room in the high-class business world - but Hope knew it was likely his own awkwardness. "I just…I figured it was somewhere where we didn't have to pretend. We have to live behind these roles, and it gets so tiring. Not to mention…" He smiled at her shocked face, gesturing to an area he'd had someone set up a couple feet away, "there's a dinner waiting for us."

Lightning's stunned expression grew even more so at the sight of the large picnic blanket spread out on the grass. There was an assortment of food in plastic containers, along with plates and silverware.

"Hope…"

"C'mon." He tugged on her arm, leading her to the nighttime picnic. "Let's eat."

Usually he was more than content to have a leisurely meal, but this time, he wanted to hurry through it. Lightning didn't seem to mind, though Hope couldn't help but wonder in the back of his mind if she had enough money for basic groceries - she was eating an awful lot.

Then again, it'd been a long day.

There was an awkward pause when they'd finished eating that just so happened to come with a lull in conversation. After a moment's hesitance, Hope pulled Lightning against him, his arm around her shoulders. She hesitated some more, but his patience was rewarded when her head fell to rest on his shoulder, fitting so naturally like it was meant to be there.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hope saw it.

Perfect timing.

"Look up," he murmured into her hair.

Lightning obeyed, and he chuckled under his breath at her confused expression. All that was there was the dark, star-studded sky, and he knew she was going to ask him what he was talking about - until she saw it too.

She gasped quietly, her eyes growing wide with wonder at the display of dozens of falling stars streaking across the sky. "A meteor shower," she murmured, turning to look at Hope. "Did you plan this?"

"Maybe." He smiled, squeezing her shoulder.

Her gaze returned to the sky as she brought her knees up to her chest, leaning into Hope a little more. "I haven't seen one since I was a little girl," she said quietly, swallowing a sudden lump in her throat. "It's one of the few memories I have with my entire family."

"….." His hold on her tightened at hearing this. Luckily, she didn't seem to mind, and Hope made a promise to himself to give her as many good moments like this as possible. She deserved it, but above all…he simply wanted to make her happy.

They watched in silence as the stars continued to fall. A minute later, Hope spoke again. "Did you make a wish?"

She huffed in amusement. "Do you really think that works?"

"It couldn't hurt," he pointed out with a smile. "There's a lot of stars to help out."

"…Yeah. I guess." Her eyes closed momentarily, and he could've sworn they looked a little glassy when she opened them. After a respectable amount of quiet, Lightning glanced up at him. "What about you?"

"Hm?"

"Did you make a wish?"

Hope's eyes flickered to the display in the sky, then back down to the woman in his arms - the woman he'd found he would gladly give up everything for, whose happiness he valued above all, who deserved so much more than she had.

His reply came after a soft, sweet kiss that nearly left the two of them breathless. "I'd have to be the greediest man in the world to wish for anything right now."