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Summary- Lightning and her friends have won. Now they have a new world that they must make their own. Though they know that together they can do anything.

Chapter 8: Warmth

…

Hope stares at me for a moment as what I say registers in his mind. Then he gives me the widest smile I think I've ever seen from him.

"Really Light? You mean it?"

"What you don't believe me?" I cock my head to the side giving him a smirk.

"No.. no it's just I've waited for this so long. I can't believe it's really happening."

I laugh a little at his excitement before giving him a real smile. "I've thought about this for a while and I realized that there is no one else I'd rather have by my side. We've been partners all this time, it just makes sense. As long as you want me I will be yours."

Hope looks as if he's going to say something, but instead he pulls me back into his arms and holds me tight. He nuzzles his face into my hair and I can hear him start to laugh. Soon he's in a full blown laughing fit. His mood is so contagious that I start laughing too. We laugh so hard that we fall to the ground, still holding onto one another.

When we finally calm down Hope is on his knees in front of me and I'm sitting in front of him. All of the sudden he grabs hold of me and pulls me so I am laying down next to him. He looks into my eyes before pressing his lips to mine. The kiss is soft and gentle. We pull away and he places another quick kiss on my lips, then he moves to my cheek, he kisses his way up my jawline until he reaches my ear. His breath is hot on my skin and I can hear him breathing fast.

"I love you." He whispers softly. He pulls away and is looking to my eyes again.

"Hope, I…" I stumble trying to find what to say.

"Shh. Light you don't have to say anything right now. As much as I would love to hear you say it back, I would never presser you into it. If or when you say it I want it to be because you want to. I love you Light. Right now this is enough for me."

"Hope, thank you." We then shift so that I am resting my head on his chest. I can hear his heart beating wildly. He wraps his arms around me and I snuggle into his side. Laying there I can feel him kiss the top of my head as his heartbeat lulls me to sleep.

…

Several hours later I wake up still in Hope's arms. I inhale his scent and feel his warmth all around me. Part of me can't believe that this is happening. Who would have thought that scrawny little kid who followed my back when we were first branded would grow up and become a man that I care for more than anyone, except maybe Serah. The other part of my though just feels right. I feel Hope stir beneath me and I pretend to still be asleep.

"So it really wasn't a dream." I hear him whisper to himself. He lets out a breathy laugh and I pretend to wake up. "Oh sorry Light, I didn't mean to wake you up."

I shake my head to help clear my mind. "No don't worry about it. We should be waking up anyway." I sit up then grab Hope's hand to help pull him up too.

"Yea, I guess you're right, as usual. Look at the sky, it's getting pretty late." He smiles at me, shakes his head then moves to stand up. I stand up as well and he grabs my hand and pulls me to him. Resting his forehead on mine he quietly says, "This is really happening right? Please tell me that I'm not just dreaming." I pull away then kiss his cheek.

"Nope, this is real. 100%. No dream. Come on now. We should probably start heading back. Serah must be worried out of her mind." I pull him in the direction of our camp and he follows willingly.

"Yea. She was pretty upset when you took off. Took me forever to convince her to let me come after you instead of her coming herself. I swear she's almost as stubborn as you." I swat at his arm for that comment.

"Watch it you. We're together a few hours and you're already trying to get on my bad side." He holds him hands up in a surrendering motion.

"No way Light. I know better than to get you mad at me. You'd probably kill me. And besides, I love how stubborn you can be sometimes." I shake my head at him.

"You're lucky you're cute Estheim."

"Aww, I love you too Light."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to."

…

By the time we get back it's almost dark. I can see the fire Serah and Snow have going. As we got closer I could see Serah huddled next to the fire while Snow was pacing around.

"Damnit! They should be back by now!" I can hear Snow yelling, they apparently hadn't noticed us yet. "Grah Why did I have to open my big mouth? I know Sis wouldn't listen to Caius if she thought something was up."

"Snow please calm down. I'm worried too, but I'm sure they're okay. She just probably needed some time to cool off. I have no doubt that Hope found her and they are together. They'll probably be back soon. Just give it some time. And I'm sure once she does calm down she will see that you were only concerned about our safety."

"Still I feel like such an idiot."

"About time you admitted to it." I say as I walk up to the fire.

"SIS!" They both exclaim in unison.

"I'm so glad you're back. I was getting worried. Where did you go?"

"Look Sis, I am so sorry. What I said was stupid and if you want you can go ahead and hit me. Just please don't be mad at me."

"Look I'm not going to hit you… this time. Let's just please drop it. I really don't want to talk about it now. And Serah, I'm sorry we took so long and I'm sorry that I worried you. Now is there anything to eat? I'm starving." I start looking around for something to eat.

"Here Light, I'll go get you some of the food we have stored away. I'm sure there's still some meat left."

"Thanks Hope." His hand brushes my arm as he walks past me.

"No problem." He smiles at me and I give him a small smile back. "Why don't you sit down and rest. It was a long walk." I put my hands on my hips.

"You walked just as far."

"Yea, but I've eaten today. You took off before you had anything, so you sit and I'll get you something to eat."

"And you were calling me stubborn. Fine you win this time." I sit down on one of our make-shift seats and Snow and Serah sit across from me. "Next time I won't give up so easily."

"I don't doubt it." He says as he comes back with a lot of food, more than I could eat.

"Please tell me some of that is for you." I say as he sits down beside me close enough that our arms are touching, and hands me some fruit and a chunk of dried deer meat.

"Yes, some of it is for me. Now please eat and relax." I take a bit of the fruit. It's really sweet and juicy.

"Fine. Will you leave me alone now?" I say sarcastically.

"Do you really want me to leave you alone?" He retorts with fake hurt.

I look him in the eye as I say, "Never."

He smiles at me. "Then I won't." I'm about to lean in and kiss him when my sister and her idiot decide to make themselves known.

"Umm, so is there something you guys need to tell us?" Serah asks cocking her head to the side.

"Uh yea. 'Cus you two are close and all, but that's something else."

We are saved from having to answer when we hear someone yelling. On instinct Hope and I jump up ready to defend ourselves. Out of the corner of my eye I see Snow doing the same, moving to cover Serah if necessary. Looking around we finally spot where the noise is coming from. We see a large group of people heading our way. Still in defensive mode I move to try and see who it is.

I see someone jumping up and down at the front of the group and it takes me a minute to focus on who it is. I realize that it's Vanille and walking next to her is Fang. There looks to be about fifty people with them, but I don't see Noel or Yuel.

Hope seems to recognize them about the same time I do.

"Hey relax everyone it's the others. They're back." I look at my lover and can see an almost giddiness in his eyes. I know he's been worried about the rest of our family, and I will admit that I'm happy to see them as well.

"Yea, but look at all those people with them. Where did they find them all?" Snow walks around the fire and stands next to me. I just shake my head and start moving to meet the mass of people heading towards us. Hope and Serah both run ahead to greet our friends. Snow catches up to me laughing at the two.

"Look at them. They're both so happy. That's what this world is about isn't it. It's a chance for all of to live and be happy."

I look at him for a moment before responding. "Yeah, I guess it is. It is nice to see them so happy. After everything they've been through they deserve it." He puts him hand on my shoulder and we stop walking.

"So do you Sis. You've been through as much, is not more than any of us. You deserve a chance to find happiness too. Look I am sorry for blowing up like that earlier. We all know how much of a knucklehead I can be. If you think that what Caius said was the truth, then I trust your judgment."

"I do, I really think they're trying to help us." I start walking again. "And don't worry, I think I might have found something already."

"That's great Sis." We walk in silence for about a minute before he opens him big mouth again. "So you and the kid huh?"

"He's hardly a kid anymore. He's grown a lot, and I don't just mean physically."

"Yea I guess you're right. Though I can't say I'm all that surprised. I mean it's almost like you two were made for each other. In fact I'll bet that even if it all ended with the fall of Cocoon you two would have still ended up together, probably would have waited until he was of age and all that, but it still would have happened."

I stare at him incredulously. "Oh yea, and how do you figure that?"

"I dunno, it's just the way you were with each other. For starters it was pretty damn obvious that the kid practically worshiped you. You ruined him for other girls without even trying."

'I did no.." I try saying before Snow interrupts me.

"Yea you did." He says smirking.

"Whatever." I cross my arms, looking away from him.

"Anyways. I knew that he was it for you by how you reacted to him. The way you let him in. He changed you. You became more open to all of us after that time you spent with him. I won't pretend to know what all happened between you two, but whatever it was he managed to break through your tough exterior. Serah always said that if you found someone other than her that you truly loved and cared for then you would open up and become more of your old self again. And she was right. Serah used to tell me about what you were like as a kid and I always just laughed it off, not being able to imagine you as anything other than this tough soldier who like to hit me a lot. But the more time I spent around you when you were with him, the more I saw of it. We all noticed it and over time you were the one that brought us all together as a family. As much as some of us might not like to admit it, you became our leader. You kept us focused on our goal and because of you we all managed to survive the impossible. You held us together."

"I think you're giving me more credit than I deserve."

'Nah, I mean look what happened when you were taken from us. We all drifted apart. Sure circumstances weren't entirely in our control, but it still happened. And then look who it was that got us all back together again. Like it or not Sis you're an important part of this family."

"Whatever, come on let's go catch up to the others." I can hear him laugh as I run to where the others are. As I draw near I can hear Vanille talking excitedly. She notices Snow and me approaching.

"HHHHEEEEEYYYY! What took you two so long? Slowpokes." She then rushes up and gives me a bone crushing hug. I give Hope a look saying 'help me' and he steps in.

"Come on Vanille let her breath."

'Okay." She pops off of me and turns to hug Snow. Hope chuckles at the girl's antics and turns to me.

"You okay Light?" He asks putting him and on my forearm.

"Yea I'm fine. Just a bit winded." He full out laughs at this.

"Yea she got me too a few minutes ago." He pulls me into a light embrace and kisses the top of my head. I lean in and rest my forehead against him collar bone, both of us forgetting all the people around us. Next thing we know we hear Serah and Vanille.

"AAWWWW! That is so cute!" Serah jumps up and down excitedly before rushing over and hugging us both.

"I know that's like the most adorable thing I've ever seen!" Vanille then joins Serah wrapping her arms around all three of us.

I burry my face in Hope's chest as the two girls squeeze us tighter. I can feel him trying to hold back laughter. He then leans down and whispers in my ear.

"I guess cait sith's out of the bag now." I look up at him.

"Yea no kidding." I say to him before addressing the two girls currently crushing us. 'Alright can you two please let us go now?"

"Nope." Vanille says as she squeezes tighter.

"Come on guys, it's getting kind of hard to breath." Hope pleads with them.

"But we're just so happy for you guys." Serah responds.

"Yes, well you can be happy for us without cutting off circulation."

"Oh fine." "You two are such party poopers." Vanille and Serah say as the finally let us go. I remove myself from Hopes arms, instantly missing his warmth, but not wanting to encourage Serah and Vanille's enthusiasm. I look up to see Snow and Fang on the ground laughing and a bunch of really confused looking people surrounding us. Hope comes up behind me and wraps him arms around my waist. I give him a slightly angry questioning look.

'What? They already know, so I'm going to take advantage of the situation and be close to you." He kisses my cheek then rests him head on my shoulder. I can feel a blush covering my face, but make no move to get away. I hear Serah and Vanille 'awwing' again.

"So when did this happen?" Fang asks gesturing to Hope's arms around me.

'It's recent." Is all I say before changing the subject. "So who are all of these people?" I ask looking around that the crowd surrounding us.

"They're like us. All from the old world and woke up in random places. Some were near their families and some weren't. We all decided that it would be best to stick together and help each other out and hope the missing people find their way here too. Got some pretty talented people here to. The way we figure it, between everyone it shouldn't take too long to get some sort of real civilization going here."

"That's great, do any of them know how to work with raw materials?" I ask looking at the people more closely, trying to memorize faces.

"Yep, we even found a mine about two day's walk from here. Some people stayed behind to start working out the best way to go about getting it out. We've also had people finding random stuff all over the place. We've got nails, saws, hammers, and a whole bunch of other stuff. You guys had anything like that happen?"

"Yea, we found my survival knife just yesterday."

"Huh, any idea where it's all coming from?"

"Yes, but we can talk more about that later. Did you manage find Sazh or Dajh?" I ask wondering about our missing friends.

"No, but we did hear about another group settling a few days that way." She points in the direction opposite where they came from. "We figured we'd get this lot here so work can begin getting shelters and such, and a small group of us can go see what we can find."

"Sounds like a good idea. Where's Noel and Yuel?" I ask looking around for them.

'They stayed back with the guys at the mine. Noel wanted to learn some of their trades and he knows the way back here, so once they get enough he can show them the way. And Yuel, well you know her, didn't want to get to far from Noel."

"That's understandable. After being apart for so long no one would want to get to far from their loved ones." Serah chimes in holding Snow's arm. He pulls it out of her grip then wraps it around her waist.

"No kidding." He says pulling Serah closer. Hope doesn't say anything, just tightens his hold on me and I lean more into him feeling his hot breath on my neck. Fang and Vanille look at each other. All of us reveling in being near the ones we love the most.

…

A/N: Yay! Another chapter out. I hope you all like it. I'm already working on the next chapter so hopefully it won't take too long to get out. I want to thank those who reviewed the last chapter and invite you all to review this one as well. Getting your point of view will only be able to help me enhance the story and improve my ability as a writer. I thank you all for taking time to read this and I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.