Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII does not belong to me.

Author's Note: Here comes the sad. Sorry folks, it had to be done. (A review brought to my attention that since I rarely read these over after I type them, a miswording was present that could cause some issues in the future. It's since then been fixed.)

The One Without Loneliness

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The first time Claire cries in front of Hope Villiers is when she is fifteen and they are burying her mother in the ground.

The small graveyard is silent except for the sounds of Serah's wailing and Claire's sniffling, the sea breeze of Bodhum all too cheerful and familiar for the occasion. Claire can barely even see her sister, who's so wrapped up in Snow as he tries to comfort her that only the pink of her hair is visible against the stark black of their clothes. The funeral party consists of only them four – wellwishers from her mother's work, and the several friends she managed to keep in-between her working schedule have already come and gone and the four of them have been standing in front of her mother's tombstone for the past half hour, silent and uncertain.

The tears just will not stop coming from Claire's eyes and she rubs away at them, frustrated because she was doing so well about not crying, too. Hope's arm around her shoulder tightens and she lets herself be drawn into the embrace. The suit jacket he has on still has its new-clothes smell and for some reason that makes the tears come even faster, until she realizes she's been sobbing into his chest (and his new jacket, too) for so long that her eyes are now stinging and her throat feels raw.

"It's okay," he tells her before she even starts moving away, the grip he has on her tightening for a moment before it turns gentle again. "I don't mind."

"Okay," she mutters into his chest and closes her eyes. "Where's Serah?" She asks once she realizes that she can't hear her sister's grieving anymore, pulling away in a slight panic as the thought sets in.

Hope lets her go this time, his hands dropping to rest at her elbows, and she is immensely glad because she feels like if he lets her go, she'll suddenly have no one to turn to and then it will be just her and Serah alone in the world. "Snow took her home a while ago," he tells her and she stills.

"I didn't realize I was… sorry." A silence drops between them as he lets her be with her thoughts, which turn this way and that until she has difficulty breathing and the ground spins out from underneath her. When she opens her eyes (she hadn't realized she had even closed them) she's sitting on the ground, still held onto by Hope as he sits beside her.

"It's okay to talk to me about what you're going through," he says to her quietly and she looks at him, kind and sad and almost asks him, for the first time in all their eight years of knowing each other, how did your parents die?

But instead, what comes out is, "Serah and I are all alone now. I don't know what I can do. There's nothing I can do." She could get emancipated (if that would even go through), take care of Serah and find a job that would pay enough to keep them alive, something like the military or the Guardian Corps sect in Bodhum—

"You have me and Snow," Hope says then, one hand moving to grip her shoulder in comfort. "It's not even a question of what's going to happen, Claire. Snow and I will take care of you." He pauses and a look of uncertainty passes across his face. "If you're okay with that, of course, but even if you're not Snow and I will still take care of you and Serah as much as we can. You'll never have to deal with this alone—"

She cuts him off by throwing herself at him because she's crying again, and because he's such a good friend, and she doesn't want to deal with this alone. She would walk to the ends of Cocoon for her sister's happiness and safety – but Claire is still fifteen, and she is scared, but she is not alone.

His hands come up around her back and hug her back. "Everything will be okay," Hope promises, and Claire believes him.

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The papers for Snow to obtain legal guardianship over Serah and Claire go through surprisingly quickly, but no one dares question it in worry of some sort of error being found and the decision redacted. The Farron house is gutted of anything they can fit into the Villiers' residence as the two sisters move in, but barely a month passes before Snow sits them down at breakfast one morning and suggests they move to Eden.

It'll be good for Hope, he says, who is still a student there and as a masters candidate, does not have as much free time to visit back in Bodhum as before. The public schools for Claire and Serah there are good too, and Snow can easily get transferred into the Eden branch of the government job he's working at. It'll be a pretty big change of scenery, but it is something to consider.

The two talk it through the night, because moving away from Bodhum – the place where all their memories are, for Claire of their father, too – would be hard but at the same time they can't take living next to their house anymore, because even if it is up for sale and some family will eventually move in, it will always be theirs and they will always remember their mother.

So they pack up and move to Eden and life goes on. Hope keeps to his word and visits the two as much as he can inbetween classes and thesis papers and tutors them in subjects they find difficult, and entertains them with stories of his studies, and makes sure that they always have someone to talk to when they need it. Snow gets swamped at work as he begins working with the Cavalry unit but tries his best to do the same, and drags them out to events around the city in a bid to distract them from their gloom.

Claire and Serah are not alone after their mother's death, and they visit Bodhum for the annual fireworks every year, and everything turns out as okay as it could possibly be. Serah becomes an instant hit with her new classmates and is always in and out of the house, sleeping over at friends' places and going rollerblading down the streets and always surrounded by a large group of friends. The girls come over and giggle over how handsome Hope is, and how nice and funny Snow is, and how cool Claire is. The boys come over and shyly talk to Serah and Snow and Hope and, well, everybody, and stare at Serah and blush when she smiles at them and stumble over their words until Hope and Snow have to exit the room to hide their laughter. Claire just glares at them the moment they dare sit too close to her sister.

"You'll feel differently when you get a boyfriend," Hope teases her one day, lounging in the living room as they wait for Serah's latest cooking experiment to finish up.

Claire snorts and continues leafing through her magazine. "Doubtful. Serah's too young to be dating. All those boys wouldn't treat her well, anyway." She pauses, and then shrugs. "Besides, I don't want a boyfriend."

"Really? A pretty girl like you hasn't been asked out yet?" Her cheeks darken and she picks up a pillow to hurl in Hope's direction, who lets it thump against his chest.

"I've been asked out plenty of times. Stop teasing me," she glares at him and focuses back on the glossy pages of her magazine. Hope laughs in response, and Claire's shoulders drop.

She's sixteen, and still wants Stupid No Longer a Teenager Hope. If she thought being twelve and having a crush sucked, being sixteen with him in the room was much worse.