breaking the rules; au. people on tumblr had been asking me for an AU where Hope and Light are both teachers for ages, so I finally did it :P

Those who can't do, teach.

Honestly, Hope had always found that phrase a tad insulting. It was an honor, he thought, to be able to spread his wealth of knowledge to other eager students.

Or in his case, it was more like 'half-asleep high school students', but he'd take what he could get.

Considering that his particular chemistry class was so high-leveled - you needed to take certain courses over the years and make certain grades to even qualify for it - Hope sometimes wondered why his students weren't more involved. They did want to be here, according to transcripts. But as time went on, he figured that as long as they made the right grade, that was all that really mattered in the end.

Still, he wished they'd pay attention more. Hope considered himself a very attentive person.

Which was why it completely shocked him when someone he'd never seen before appeared in the teacher's lounge one day, as though by magic.

"Uh - " Hope coughed, somehow managing not to spill his coffee. As it was, a few drops splattered onto his lap and he tried not to wince. At least it didn't burn, since the coffeemakers here hadn't been upgraded for centuries, probably. "You - uh…"

The newcomer glanced at him and Hope immediately wanted to melt into the floor. Not only was she absolutely gorgeous, but there was something piercing in her stare that made him just want to sit and listen to her speak in rapt fascination.

She had to be a new teacher on the staff. Hopefully.

"Are you all right?" she asked, still staring at him.

"Fine!" he answered maybe a little too quickly, getting to his feet. "I just - I didn't recognize you."

"You shouldn't, considering this is my first day." She crossed the room and extended her hand. "Lightning Farron."

"Farron?" he asked. "Is Serah your sister?" Serah Farron taught fourth-grade English at the attached elementary school.

"Younger, yeah."

"She's a fairly good friend of mine." He smiled and finally took the proffered hand. "I'm Hope Estheim." He shook her hand slowly, holding onto it for maybe a few moments longer than necessary. She didn't seem to mind. "What are you here for?"

"French." She gave him a little smile. "I don't suppose you know how the language department is here."

"They didn't tell you that when you were hired?"

"I'd rather hear it coming from an insider."

"I'm flattered." At her confused expression, Hope continued with a chuckle, "I teach chemistry, so I can't say I'm too familiar with the language department. I've never heard any complaints, though."

"Because you must be hearing plenty yourself." She raised her eyebrows. "Chemistry?"

"Yes." He felt even more flattered by the impressed look on her face. "I got my doctorate here in Academia."

"Should I call you Dr. Estheim, then?"

For whatever reason - oh hell, he knew the reason - a flush ran through his body that he couldn't quite hide on his face. "No, no, that's not necessary." He ducked his head a bit, attempting to hide his blush. "Just Hope is fine."

"Okay…Hope." She smiled, finally getting her coffee and holding up the mug as though in a toast. "Call me Light."

–

The language department wasn't very close to the science hall, but Hope suddenly found himself trying to pass by it more and more. Usually it was when classes were in the middle of changing, or when he had a free period.

It was always nice when he was able to sneak by during those free periods. Most teachers kept their doors closed when class was in session, and Lightning was no exception, but somehow, her door never really closed all the way. He wasn't sure if it was on purpose or a fault with the door itself, but he didn't mind, because it meant he could listen to her teach.

Not that he listened very often, because that would be weird.

From what he could hear, though, she had an incredibly believable French accent. The words sounded like music whenever she spoke, and he had to imagine that the students were mesmerized. How could they be anything else?

'Hope?"

It was all he could do not to jump six feet in the air. As it was, he let out an extremely unmanly noise as he spun around. "Light!" he practically squeaked. "Er - " He cleared his throat and straightened his tie a little, noticing a ton of students milling around. Had the bell rung? "Ms. Farron."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I…" Damnit. How had he lost track of time so fast? "I, uh…was wondering if you wanted to get some coffee with me? If you have a free period?"

Now both of her eyebrows went up. "You came all the way over here to ask that?"

"Uh…um, well…" He was all too aware that a few students were staring at the two of them - possibly because they were in the middle of the hall, but more likely because of the conversation. "I was going to deliver something to a student, but then I passed by and I thought that since you're new – well, of course not that new, but - "

Lightning's face twisted into a weird expression, like she couldn't decide whether to laugh or not. Finally, she nodded, a little smile forming on her face. "I do have a free period, and coffee sounds nice."

"Really?" Too late, he realized he'd said this a little too loudly. Students' heads perked up from out of their lockers and up from their phones, though most of them went back to what they were doing when they saw it was just a teacher who'd made that noise.

Oddly enough, Lightning didn't seem all that fazed. "Sure. Lead the way."

Still somewhat in shock, Hope gestured down the hall for her to follow. He could've sworn he heard a couple of camera phones snapping away, but couldn't be bothered to reprimand any students.

Besides, why would they care about what their teachers were doing, anyway?

–

It turned out that they cared a lot.

Hope had taken it upon himself to ask Lightning for coffee during most of their free periods together. Most of the time, she took him up on his offer and always looked genuinely disappointed when there was something else she needed to do.

Honestly, he wasn't totally sure how he felt about this. Asking Lightning for coffee was very much a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing. If only she realized just how rare it was for him to be totally spontaneous like that…

But he was glad for it. Though he'd initially been taken in by her looks and demeanor, all of these little coffee…visits (he was not going to call them dates) had pretty much determined that Lightning Farron was close to a perfect person in his eyes. She'd lived and studied abroad in France for two semesters during college, and then had moved back there for another year before the unfortunate death of her mother had forced her to come back to her hometown. Luckily, her sister Serah already had an in at Academia's schooling system, which allowed Lightning to get a job here at the high school teaching.

"I would like to go back to France someday," she'd said wistfully during one of their coffee…visits. "I feel like it's calmer over there. Academia's a little too busy for my tastes."

"Do you like it otherwise?"

"I do. I mean, Serah's here. And there's always something going on. I'm just not sure if I'd want to end up retiring here. Not that I have to worry about that yet."

Then she'd smiled at him and it was all he could do to keep from swooning. Because people didn't really swoon in real life. That was ridiculous.

He'd swooned on the inside instead.

Apparently, this was obvious to many of his students, as he soon figured out several weeks later during the class before his free period.

"In contrast to endothermic reactions, exothermic reactions result in energy as a product." He scribbled on the whiteboard in front of him, a surefire hint that this would be on the test. "As you can see here, after threshold, the particles' potent energy falls - "

"Mr. Estheim?"

Since he had his back turned, he couldn't blame someone for calling out. He turned around with a little nod, seeing one of his best students, a girl with black hair – he was horrible with names and could never really remember; it began with a 'J', he was sure – and nodded towards her. "Yes?"

"Sir…" She slammed down her pen. "What we need is the reaction between you and Mademoiselle Farron!"

Hope nearly dropped the marker he'd been holding. "Wh-what?!"

"Your relationship is endothermic!" someone else called out. Pretty much the entire class was laughing and shouting now.

"We need to see results!"

"Just do something already!"

We're in the middle of class! Hope wanted to shout, but he only stared open-mouthed at his students, totally flabbergasted. People had noticed him and Lightning?! Students, nonetheless?!

The same girl who'd started this grinned. "You like her, don't you, sir? You should let her know! Everyone's rooting for you!"

"I - " He cleared his throat, which made everyone calm down somewhat. "I highly doubt that. Now, please, can we get back to the subject at hand?" Even if it meant doing so with an incredibly obvious blush on his face, but nobody had pointed that out. Thank goodness.

Somehow, the class finally got back to work and he continued his lecture without any other…unnecessary interruptions, despite the fact that everyone's mind, including his, was clearly elsewhere.

When the bell rang, it was met with a big, mutual sigh of relief on everybody's part. After all, this was now his free period. He could just make his usual walk over to the language department…

Today, though, Hope couldn't help but notice that the halls were much more crowded than usual, and he could have sworn he heard more cameras go off on people's phones when he and Lightning wandered off to the teacher's lounge.

–

"I don't know what to do, Noel." Hope groaned, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his hands over his face. "There are students who are arriving late to class because they take the long way to see us. They have their phones out all the time. If this gets any more out of hand, I'm afraid the administration is going to discourage us from being seen together, even though it isn't against any rules."

"Huh." Noel Kreiss, the head nurse at Academia High, finished putting away some of the supplies he needed for the day. "Is it against the rules if you two date?"

"Date?!" Hope dropped his hands from his face with a particularly unmanly squeak. "W-We're nowhere near that point! I doubt we ever will be!"

Noel raised an eyebrow and just stared. They'd been friends for years, however, and at this point, Hope was pretty much immune to that no-nonsense glare of his that seemed to send teenage girls (and a few boys) swooning.

Speaking of swooning…

"We're just friends," Hope continued to insist. He'd gone to Noel in a fit of desperation, because now he was at the point where he'd be walking past the language department six times a day, just to see if Lightning was around. Lightning, thankfully, remained oblivious to all of this. "We just go for coffee…visits."

At this, Noel barked out a laugh. "Visit? Is that what you're calling it?"

"They're not dates!"

"Uh huh." Noel shook his head with an easy grin. "Have you tried, oh, I don't know…actually asking her out on a real date?"

"No."

Not that he hadn't thought about it. He knew darn well – mostly from Serah – that Lightning was single and wasn't seeing anyone socially at all. On top of that, a new French restaurant had just opened up in town. It was like fate was nudging him in that direction.

But actually going there, well…

"There's your answer. Ask her out. What's the worst that could happen?"

Everything, Hope thought. Instead, he replied with, "I don't know if the school board would like it. I wouldn't want to get my hopes up and then find out I'm breaking all these rules."

"Bull," Noel replied easily. "Isn't the kindergarten teacher at the elementary school married to the girl's P.E. teacher here?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Exactly."

A loud flurry of activity could be heard, indicating that students were beginning to arrive. The first bell was going to ring soon. Hope sighed and got up, knowing he had to head to his classroom. "I'll think about it."

"You'd better. I've got fifty bucks riding on you two getting together."

"Wait, what?!"

–

Good morning, Light. How would you like to…

Hey, Lightning. Want to grab some dinner?

Light. Let's go out to dinner…

Ugh, no, no, and no.

Hope let out a forlorn sigh, leaning back in his chair and running his fingers through his hair. Over the past week, he'd decided that Noel was right – he should just ask Lightning out. It actually wasn't breaking any rules (he'd read the staff handbook cover-to-cover one sleepless night and didn't see a single mention of teachers getting up close and personal), so he couldn't even use that as an excuse anymore.

Nope. He just had to do it.

Somehow.

"Hope?"

At the sound of his name, Hope let out a very unmanly yell. He quickly lost his balance and fell backwards in his chair, just narrowly bonking his head against the wall.

For a second, it was totally quiet, but then strangely familiar footsteps hurried over to him. "Oh my god, are you all right?! Hope?"

"L-Light?" he squeaked out. Oh man, why was she in here? It wasn't as though they had coffee together pretty much every morning before needing to head to their classrooms.

Oh, wait.

That totally wasn't why he needed to ask her out or anything at all. They didn't share most of their mornings together, or have their little coffee visits during their free periods. Definitely not.

"That was a pretty spectacular fall," she teased once they were both sure he was all right and they both stood. "You looked lost in thought. Is everything okay?"

"Y-Yeah." Why couldn't he stop stuttering? "I mean, uh – yeah."

Lightning raised her eyebrows. "You don't sound so sure."

"I.." This was it. The moment of truth. Those cheesy lines he'd been thinking about before she'd literally made him fall head over heels were going to come to fruition. It was like everything out of a novel – she was standing close by, staring at him expectantly. They were alone in the room with only a sense of anticipation between them. He could so do this.

"Lightning, will you - "

"Gooooood morning, Academia High!"

They both jumped at the extremely shrill announcement blaring over the loudspeaker in the room. Lightning's eyes immediately glanced at the wall clock and she gasped. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was so late One of my students was supposed to be coming by early for some extra help. Can we talk later?"

"Of course," Hope blurted out in reply, almost wanting to fall over again when she smiled at him and dashed out of the room.

He was so gone.

And, as he glanced at the clock himself, he had to be gone in a literal sense, too, or he was going to be late…though something told him his students wouldn't mind if they knew who he'd been with.

–

Hope had grown accustomed to roaming the halls of the language department before Lightning's free period like he actually belonged there. Or maybe people were just now used to seeing him.

Either way, it was a good thing, since it meant people generally left him alone, so he didn't really have any qualms about listening in on Lightning's class when she left the door somewhat open, but lately, he had to wonder if students were doing that on purpose.

Not that he minded.

"Mademoiselle Farron?"

"Oui?"

He couldn't help but grin. Lightning's French accent was always completely on point. In fact, it sounded way more natural than the stilted, stuttered words that came from the student's mouth, but she sounded a lot like she was giggling, so maybe that was why.

"Je pense que vous et que professeur de chimie devrie jour!"

The resulting cheers and catcalls that got made him blush, though he didn't know why. He didn't know a lick of French, after all.

Unfortunately, the bell rang before he could hear a reply – not that he would have understood it, really. Then again, there was probably an app that could translate stuff on his phone…

"Hope?"

He smiled when Lightning sought him out, which seemed to be happening more and more often. It was a nice feeling…oh, who was he kidding? He was so far gone. "Hey." After looking at her a bit more carefully, he noticed something curious. "Why is your face so red?"

"N-Nothing." She cleared her throat, looking away. "It's just…hot in my classroom, is all."

Immediately, Hope's concern took a more logical route. "Then we should definitely get you some coffee. Hot drinks are actually more effective at cooling someone down than cold ones."

"Really?" Now she smiled, which made him all but swoon. He pretended not to be aware of the camera phones going off as they walked down the hall through the throngs of students to the teacher's lounge. "And why is that?"

"It has to do with your internal body temperature, and how it reacts to hot drinks. You see…" He couldn't help but launch himself into a full explanation, which Lightning actually seemed interested in.

He also could not help but notice that her blush didn't recede at all during their little coffee 'visit'…but surely he could blame that on the drink.

Right?

–

Somehow, in all the hubbub of his non-existent love life, Hope had nearly forgotten about Academia High's homecoming dance, despite the fact there were posters advertising it everywhere and students were able to buy tickets during lunch. Honestly, it wouldn't have registered on his radar at all, except that the principal had asked him to chaperone since the 'students liked him well enough.' Hope didn't have the heart to tell the guy that they enjoyed watching his non-existent love life better.

Being a chaperone would have been fine and dandy, however, except for one thing…

"You're chaperoning too?!" Hope cried when Lightning told him the news.

"Apparently." She took a sip of her coffee. "I had a meeting with Mr. Katzroy the other day, and apparently a lot of students speak highly of me, so he asked if I'd do it. I guess there are worse ways to spend a Saturday night."

This was just one of many perfect openings. Hope knew Lightning well enough by now to realize that, much like him, she rarely went out. He knew any other non-chaperoning Saturday would likely be free for her. He could do it…he could ask her…

"Yeah, like with lesson plans."

IDIOT!

"Been there, done that," she replied with a smirk. "I guess this will be fun, though. I've never actually been to a homecoming dance."

"You haven't?"

"No." She shrugged. "I wasn't too interested my freshman year, and then I was too busy helping take care of Serah and studying after that. So even if we have to be in charge…it'll be nice to go to one." Her smirk turned into a smile. "Even if it's several years late."

"I went to the dance my senior year," Hope mused aloud, "but my date ended up ditching me."

"That's horrible!"

He shrugged. "I went home early and caught up on some reading, so, y'know. Not a bad night."

She smiled again. "Hopefully that won't be the case here. At least you know that I wouldn't ditch you."

"Yeah…wait - " His eyes practically bugged out of his head.

Had she just said…?

"We're both the chaperones," she replied. "We might as well be each others' dates, right?"

"Uh – um – uh…" Hope cleared his throat for what felt like five minutes straight. "It's…it's a date. Chaperone date." Lightning smiled in reply.

The bell rang just then, but it took Hope a good thirty seconds for him to scrape his jaw off the floor and actually leave the lounge. At least he made it to his class in time. The final warning bell had barely stopped ringing before a student had her hand in the air.

"Yes…?"

"Is it true that you and Ms. Farron are chaperoning at the homecoming dance?"

How the heck did word travel so fast around here? Hope blamed the advance of smartphones. "Erm – yes, actually. We'll still expect you all to behave properly."

"Oh, of course we will," another student piped up. For some reason, practically the entire class was wearing the same wicked grin.

"Uh – right. Then I guess I'll see everyone who's going on Saturday." He turned to the whiteboard. "Now, if you'll all turn to page 313 in your textbooks…"

Though there was nothing amusing about what he was teaching, he could have sworn he heard quiet sounds of giggling behind him all day long, but everyone was always wearing that same wicked grin every time he turned around.

Kids these days.

–

Saturday came none too quickly. Although this was just a high school dance, it was still an important one to the students, and Hope figured that was reason enough to look his best. It had absolutely nothing to do with Lightning being his date. Nope.

Seriously. She wasn't even his date. She was his chaperone date. Biiiiig difference.

Though he was fairly sure that students wouldn't be fancy enough to wear ties, Hope wore one anyway, thinking it would help signify him as a person of authority at this dance. Chaperone date or not, he and Lightning were still in charge of helping things run smoothly, and he took that responsibility very seriously.

All thoughts of responsibility vanished, though, when he stepped into the school's gymnasium and instantly found Lightning.

She was chatting with Mr. Katzroy, the principal, but he barely noticed that. All he saw was her. She wasn't really any more or less dressed up than most of the students, but she just looked…amazing under those lights, in a simple blue sleeveless dress that fell in graceful folds a couple of inches above her knees. On anyone else, such a simple dress might have looked plain, but on her…

"Hope!" She had to shout to be heard over the music, which was blasting at a practically ear-shattering volume. "There you are."

"Yeah," he replied in a somewhat strangled tone. "You…you look…"

"Oh." She glanced down at her dress. "I know it's probably not fashionable or whatever, but it was the only thing I had on short notice."

"No," he said quickly. "No, that's not what I meant. I mean, you look really – you look – I think…"

How easy would it be to kiss her right now, he wondered? In front of his boss and what had to be at least half the school, no less?

…But Hope reminded himself that this wasn't a date. They were chaperones. They were in charge here and needed to act as such.

"…You look really nice," he finally managed to say without stammering. "It suits you."

Though he could probably blame it on the lighting, he could have sworn Lightning blushed a bit. As it was, she smiled and squeezed his arm. "So do you."

"Thanks," he answered, clearly surprised, though it was more at the touch to his arm than anything. "Uh…well…."

"I guess we'd better actually chaperone."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Good idea."

She smiled again, looping her arm through his as they circled the room, careful not to get in the way, but staying close enough to keep an eye on things. The amount of times he heard people giggling when they approached happened far too often to be coincidental, but Hope managed to ignore it. He even pretended not to see all the camera phones.

This was ridiculous. He needed to ask Lightning on a real date, so people wouldn't stare at them all the time.

"Light…?"

"Yes?"

"Do you…" Naturally, what he wanted to say didn't come out of his mouth at all. Instead, he found himself asking, "Do you want to dance with me?"

She blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Well, I mean," he hurriedly said, racking his brain for some kind of explanation, "you said you never went to any of your own homecoming dances, so I just thought that…"

After a pause that went on for a bit too long, Hope was contemplating on staying on the other side of the room for the rest of the night due to rejection, but then she smiled again and nodded. "You're right. What's a dance otherwise, right?"

"R-Right," he choked out, managing to avoid sounding like a complete fool, even when she grabbed his hand and led him out onto the dance floor…

…At the exact moment the DJ switched to a slow song.

Honestly. How was this even his life?

"…Do you still want to dance?" he asked, after they'd awkwardly stood there for a moment.

Lightning didn't verbally reply, but instead rested her hands on his shoulders for a moment before they slowly twined around his neck. Hope just stood there, dumbfounded, before he finally had the sense to put his hands on her waist. They began to sway in time with the music, just as awkwardly as most of the teenagers in the room.

He didn't even mind the camera phones.

"It's probably a good thing this is slow," she murmured after awhile. "I'd probably step on your feet otherwise."

"I doubt that."

"Why?"

"It'd be the other way around."

She chuckled under her breath, the smile fading into a more natural – but still obviously happy – expression as they stared at each other. Somehow, she looked so different in this light, rather than under the florescent bulbs of the lounge and hallways. She just seemed more…real, like it was confirmation for his mind that his crush on her hadn't been just for silly reasons.

When the song faded away, they didn't let go of each other – not until they realized that the music hadn't segued into another song and now someone was speaking. The broke apart and faced the stage, where Hope vaguely recognized the person at the microphone – she was the student council president or something.

"I'm very pleased to announce this year's Homecoming King and Queen!" she practically squealed, dramatically opening an envelope. "It was a near-unanimous vote after it was assured that this wouldn't be breaking any rules, but it just may break tradition!"

"What's she talking about?" Lightning murmured.

"This year's King and Queen of the Homecoming Court…" There was a dramatic pause, and Hope could have sworn he heard more giggling. But why?

"…Mr. Estheim and Mademoiselle Farron!"

Instantly, the entire crowd broke into cheers, screaming and flailing around while they looked for the teachers in question. Hope's jaw had hit the floor at the announcement and he hadn't moved an inch. Lightning had a practically identical expression on her face.

What the hell is going on here?!

He was afraid he'd voiced that thought out loud when the screaming got louder, but it was only because students were physically pulling the two of them towards the stage. Still feeling dazed and flabbergasted, a plastic crown was soon put on his head, and then on Lightning's. She immediately reached up to adjust it, staring out at all of the students like she had absolutely no idea what was happening.

"I don't get it," he said to the student council president. "There had to be someone better than us. Isn't this against the rules?"

"Nope!" she replied with a huge grin. "You two are the it couple of the school, and you're not even a couple! We all thought this would give you incentive!"

Figured. His students had a better handle on his love life than he did.

Fortunately, Lightning hadn't heard that conversation. She still looked dazed…and even moreso when he took her hand, right up there on stage in front of half the school.

Instantly, the crowd went silent.

"Lightning…" he said, preferring to save her nickname for a more private setting. "I was hoping it wouldn't take something this dramatic to get me to ask you this, but…" He looked her right in the eye. "Would you like to go out to dinner with me next Saturday?"

There was another hush in the room. Hope could tell that everyone was waiting with baited breath for the answer…but no one more than him, of course.

Silence still went on and he began to panic a little. What if she didn't like this? Lightning was a fairly private person, after all – damnit, he should've asked her before all this -

But then she smiled, and he knew the answer before she even spoke it.

"I'd love to."

The entire room started screaming with joy, waving their phones around with videos and pictures, and a bunch dancing even though the music hadn't started back up yet. About a hundred people came up to the stage to congratulate him (or at least, that was what it felt like) and it seemed like forever before he and Lightning were able to walk off of it and the music came on again.

"Well," she said when they were finally somewhat alone, though students kept shooting them grins. "Good thing I never went to homecoming when I was a teenager."

"Why not?"

She squeezed his hand, glancing around before standing up on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek, much to the joy of the people who were still watching them.

"There's no way it ever would have topped this one."

–

"Come on, Mr. Estheim! Tell us! How was your date?"

"Are you two official now?"

"Did you give her an exothermic reaction?!"

Though Hope had, well, hoped to keep the details of his first real, non-homecoming date with Lightning to himself, he knew that wouldn't happen with his classes so involved. After all, after the dance, he and Lightning had become notorious around the school, though apparently it'd been going on for longer than he even wanted to think about. Even the principal thought they made a good couple.

He figured that he might as well give them some of what they wanted.

"I'll answer a few questions…" he trailed off before adding, "on the condition that you don't take out your phones or take notes."

"Why not?!" someone protested.

Hope grinned. "None of this will be on the test."

Thank you all for your reviews so far :) I do intend on finishing all the themes one day, so just hang in there...