Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII does not belong to me.

Author's Note: This will be entirely written from Claire's perspective, and so the first few chapters where she is a child take a bit to get through. Bear with me. Also, please drop me a review if you enjoy this!

The One Where Hope is Horrible At Naming Worlds and You Can't Just 'Build' A fal'Cie, Silly

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The first time Claire is babysat by Hope, it is because Serah Farron absolutely loves Snow Villiers. Claire is not entirely sure why, because typically it takes much coaxing and sweets to convince her little sister to talk to strangers, though she suspects it is because the man is so big that he has no issues lifting up her sister and flying her around in circles.

"How about you, Claire?" Said neighbour calls over to her from where he's holding Serah aloft, making zooming noises as he sweeps her in arcs in the vicinity around him. Serah's giggles fill the air as she extends her arms and makes noises along with him, her cheeks bright pink and her hair getting caught up in her mouth from where it's escaping her ponytails. "Want me to fly you around before I go?"

Claire's face flushes, starting with her ears as it typically does and coloring her entire face red. "No thank you," she replies, because she is seven (almost eight!) and she does not like to still be treated like a little girl. Serah is allowed to do this because Serah is little, but Claire is older. Claire is not jealous of Serah for getting to fly around in the air like that.

Stupid Teenager Hope, sitting beside her on the front porch of the Villiers' house, chuckles. Claire suspects it's because he knows what she is thinking – he seems to be very good at talking to her, and Claire refuses to believe it's because of anything other than mind reading powers. No teenager (and no boy, especially!) can be that nice, or that good at talking to girls.

"Awwwww!" Serah voices her opinion at being set back down on the ground quite loudly in front of them, though her face lights up again when Mr. Villiers reaches down to tug at her two pigtails. "Don't go!" She exclaims, springing forward to try her best to latch on around his waist. But her little sister is short, and Mr. Villiers is huge, and so Serah is left hugging one of his legs close to her.

Claire sighs. She just doesn't get it – her sister doesn't even hug her like that anymore. What makes Mr. Villiers so special?

The man laughs and tries to fix Serah's bangs, which are so messy that Claire has to wince – their mother would have a small fit, were she to see Serah's hair like that. "Work calls, kiddo," he says, and gives up on fixing Serah's hair after another moment. He pats her on the head instead and tries to remove her little body from around his leg. "But you and Hope and Claire will have tons of fun, so you won't even miss me!"

Serah does her wide eyed look with the pouting lips, the one that Claire just can't right for the life of her. "I always miss you," she replies and Claire can almost see the moment the man dies a little inside from how absolutely adorable her sister is. Claire knows this to be a fact – strangers stop on the streets to coo over Serah. It makes Claire feel nervous, like some random person is going to just come and snatch her little sister while their mother isn't looking.

(She feels a little jealous… but only a little. Because Serah still loves her best. It's a proven fact.)

"Don't worry," Hope tells her (like he's reading her mind! Again!) and reaches over to pat her on the head, much like his brother just did with Serah. "You're adorable, too."

"I don't care about that!" Claire squeaks out, mortified and swearing that her entire face is on fire; she ducks out from under his hand and shuffles farther away from him. "Shut up, Hope!"

The teenager laughs her at her and stands up, hands in his pockets as he calls out for Serah to join them back at the house. Her sister stares at Mr. Villiers' back for a few moments longer as the man leaves for work before turning around and running up to them, her face already brighter as she attaches herself to Claire. Claire clenches one hand in her sister's shirt. Mr. Villiers was not going to steal Serah away from her.

(Not that she didn't trust Mr. Villiers – he seemed like an okay adult, and their mother trusted him enough to babysit them, but Serah just adored him. Claire didn't like it.)

Hope leads them inside the house and shuts the front door. Serah is immediately off, running towards the couch in the living room and exclaiming over the rather large TV screen the two brothers have set up. Claire, instead, takes the time to inspect the Villiers' residence for the first time – the inside looks identical to their house, but with different wallpaper and furniture setup. She tries to see if there are any picture frames anywhere in the room but comes up empty – she feels sad for them, just a little, because even though her father is dead, her mother keeps a picture of him in the living room all the same. Claire wonders if whatever happened to Mr. and Mrs. Villiers was so bad that Hope and Mr. Villiers didn't like the reminder.

Hope must have caught her looking, because he comes up to stand closer to her and squeezes her shoulder. "It's not really lived in in, I know," he offers, smiling down at her as if she is supposed to feel better after his words. Claire is caught up between being embarrassed and insulted, and still feeling sad for him. She settles on a mild glare and wrenching her shoulder away from him.

"So, what are we going to do?" She asks and goes to join Serah on the couch, who has by now found the remote and is clicking through all the channels with a glazed look over her eyes. "I hope you weren't planning on letting us watch TV all day, because our mom doesn't like that."

Hope's mouth shuts, and Claire sends him a suspicious look. "You do have something planned, right? You're not a very good babysitter if you don't." Hope's eyes slide away from hers and to her giddy excitement, she can see his face turning pink. She wants to dance because Stupid Teenager Hope has finally messed up and she can make fun of him!

"My parents used to let me do that," she thinks she hears him mumble, but that can't be right, because if there are no photos, then certainly a teenager like him won't want to talk to her about his missing family. So she ignores it and keeps on grinning wide, like she's finally won. Which she has.

She also wonders if he has a robot building station somewhere, since he likes to makes things. So she asks him.

"What?" Now Hope is looking at her like she's the stupid one. "Why would I have something like that?"

"You like to build things," Claire states, hands on her hips as she sits up on the couch and eyes him. "So I want to see you build something. Like a robot."

They stare at each other for a moment longer before he smiles, but it looks weird. Claire has only seen her mother smile like that. "Alright. I'll build you a fal'Cie," he says, and Claire bursts out laughing. She knew he was a stupid teenager, even with his mind reading powers.

"Nobody can build a fal'Cie," she says in the same way her teacher answered the question from one of her classmates once, all nonsense and patience. "Don't be silly, Hope."

The teenager grins at her and walks over to lean on the back of the couch she and Serah are sitting on. "Okay. How about an entire world, then? It'll be just like Cocoon. I'll build it just for you."

The question makes Claire pause. She knows that there is no way Hope can build a world like that, that only the fal'Cie can, and if he can't build that then he certainly can't make an entire world. But still, a world just for her? "What would you name it?" She asks because she's curious – if she had an entire world to herself, then she'd name it something fun. Like after a Chocobo, or a Moogle. Or maybe Claire's Super Duper World of Fun (No Boys Allowed!).

Hope says a word that she can't quite understand, and she scrunches up her nose in response. "What a weird name. Why would you name it something like that?"

"Why indeed," he laughs, and it sounds like her mom's laughter, sometimes when she thinks that no one is around to see her talk to the photo of their father in the living room. All of a sudden Claire is uncomfortable and she doesn't know why.

"I'm hungry," she demands instead because as it turns out, talking about robots with Hope is not as fun as she expected. "What did you make for us?"

The awkward look is back on his face again, and Claire feels victorious. "You did make us something to eat, right? If you feed us junk food, our mom won't be happy!"

Stupid Teenager Hope sucks at babysitting, and Claire decides that teasing him back about is great.

(He tries to make them pasta. He fails, so they end up eating mac and cheese heated up in a pot. When their mother comes to pick them up, Claire decides not to tell her, because despite all the silly things about Stupid Teenager Hope, he's a Stupid Teenager who at least doesn't tug at her hair.)