triangle; au

For the most part, Lightning was a fairly light sleeper. She'd always attributed that quirk of hers from being left over from her teenage days, when she'd had to listen out for Serah. It'd gotten a little better when Hope came into her life, but after she had their son, the instinct to keep one ear open came back in full force, and it was still there after a little more than two years.

…Which completely explained why she was so confused when she woke up in the middle of one night to an empty bed.

She flickered her eyes towards the clock, groaning a little at the time. Two in the morning, hmph. Her gaze went back to the empty half of the bed where Hope was supposed to be. The sheets were rumpled, indicating he'd gotten up in hurry. Likely that meant he'd heard Soren crying or something, since they were usually both so exhausted this time of night that getting up for no reason was out of their realm of possibility.

If their son had been crying, he wasn't now. Lightning couldn't hear a thing, except the silence of the house. It was a little eerie, since over the years, she'd grown completely used to being able to burrow herself against Hope at night.

Though every ounce of her exhausted being was telling her to go back to sleep, she simply couldn't listen. It was always hard to relax when her husband wasn't right beside her, anyway.

Quietly, she made her way down the hallway towards Soren's room, all but tiptoeing when she realized she could hear muffled voices. A dim, thin sliver of light was peeking out from the almost-closed door. As she quietly opened it, she was all set to whisper out a greeting, but the sight she was met with stopped her.

"Okay, what's this color?" Hope murmured, adjusting Soren in his lap and pointing at something in an open book. Their son responded with something that sounded like "geen" and Hope grinned. "That's right, green. Do you know the shape?"

"Ty-an-guh."

"Yep, a triangle. Good job." There was a giggle, and Lightning edged herself into the room further to see Hope lightly tickling Soren's side, both of them grinning widely. Neither of them noticed her, which was fine with her. She opted to lean against the doorframe and quietly observe.

While she knew that logic dictated that they needed to put Soren back to sleep and get rest themselves, Lightning couldn't really fathom that the more she watched. Hope and Soren were looking through some oversized children's book, the kind with thick, cardboard pages. A shape in every basic color adorned each page, clearly an aid to help children learn them. She vaguely recognized the book as something Snow and Serah's daughter had outgrown a few years ago.

"What's that one?"

"Scaaah."

"Did you mean square?" Hope chuckled. "Well, that's right. You're a smart one, kiddo. You're gonna have to show this to mom tomorrow."

Lightning shook her head in amusement. Hope was usually acutely aware of her presence at any given time, but either he was distracted with Soren or his lack of sleep was catching up with him.

Father and son continued going through the book, and she continued to watch, the smile on her face softening. Throughout the discussion of whether they should have kids at all and during her pregnancy, she'd never doubted for a second that Hope would be an amazing father. He'd proved that thought time and time again…and still was, even now.

It was strange - after spending a lifetime of looking after her sister, Lightning couldn't imagine being responsible for another person. But at seeing her two boys in the middle of the night without a care in the world, she wondered how she ever could have thought she didn't want this.

Eventually, her responsible side took over and she cleared her throat. Hope's head snapped up towards the door, obviously startled for a second, but immediately relaxed at the sight of his wife.

"Hey," he greeted quietly, offering her a smile, but otherwise didn't move. "Did we wake you?"

"More like a lack of you woke me." She chuckled at his expression and walked into the room, sitting down next to him. Soren didn't seem to notice, likely because he was too busy flipping a page of the book back and forth - circle, triangle, circle, triangle.

"Sorry." Hope kissed the side of her head sweetly. "I got up to use the restroom, and he was just starting to have a bad dream. I wanted to distract him from it." He looked down at their son. "I think I succeeded."

"Perhaps too well." She smiled, finally getting Soren's attention with a touch to his head. He turned in his father's lap, immediately brightening at the sight of his mother and tried to wriggle his way onto her lap. She complied, chuckling a little at how he curled up into her. "It's way past your bedtime, you know."

"I guess it's showing." Hope nodded a little when Soren yawned. "Maybe he'll let you put him to bed."

"Guess we'll find out." Lightning adjusted her son in her arms, wondering when he'd gotten so big, and carefully got to her feet with Hope's help. Whether it was the motion or just being close to someone he loved, Soren's eyes had already closed and he was asleep by the time she'd finished tucking the covers around him.

"Hm." Hope smiled, snaking an arm around Lightning's shoulders. "Seems like you have the magic touch."

"Guess so." She glanced at the still-open book on the floor, where it was on the green triangle. The image of father and son smiling without a care in the world was still burned into her mind. "You have something special with him, too."

"Do you think so?"

She turned to face him a little better, planting a sweet kiss on his lips. "I know so."