Hello Hello~

I'm sorry it's been so long. I tried really hard to update this on time but a lot of personal things got in the way. I'm thinking of starting another fanfic but this one is a Vanille X Fang fanfic but with HopeRai as the second pair. Tell me if anyone is interested in this.

Now time for replies~

Panda: Thank you for the review. I understand that school can get in the way most of the time since that's what keeps me from updating my fics.

Thank you all for the views, reviews, follows, and favs.

I would really like to hear everyone's thoughts on this so pretty please leave a review.

Now on to the fanfic!

Disclaimer: I do not own FFXIII or anything related to it. If I did then there is no way it would be this big.

Chapter 3: Morning Watch

It was a beautiful day and Hope's first day on morning watch. He got up really early in the morning. In fact it was so early he was up at the same time as his father.

"Hey son, you're up early this morning." His father, Bartholomew, said with a slight note of surprise in his voice.

"Yeah, I have morning watch as a member of Disciplinary Committee." Hope responded as he sat down for breakfast.

"Disciplinary Committee?" Bartholomew questioned slightly before Nora walked in from the kitchen.

"Good morning, Hope. Sorry Bartholomew, I forgot to mention that Hope decided to join the Disciplinary Committee and has made a lot of new friends." Nora said with a smile to the two men sitting at the table as she walked back to finish making breakfast and lunches for the two guys.

"Well it's good that you are getting along with people there." Bartholomew said as he took a drink of coffee.

"Yeah sure..." Hope said with indifference to his father as he looked at the clock to check the time. He had about a half hour before having to leave.

The two guys sat in silence for a few minutes before Nora appeared again with breakfast. Hope was thankful that he didn't have to sit in awkward silence with his dad any longer than necessary.

"Thanks, Mom." Hope said with a smile before he began eating.

"So, Hope, I was thinking that you could bring your friends over for dinner this Saturday. I would really like to meet them all." Nora said as she gave Bartholomew his breakfast and began eating her own.

"I'll ask them but I don't know if they can make it. Well I'm done, I better get going. Love you both!" The silver-haired boy said as he got up and grabbed his lunch before heading out the door.

Hope wanted to leave as soon as possible, partly because he wanted to get to school as soon as possible and partly because he didn't want to spend any time sitting with his parents in awkward silence.

Hope had a good relationship with his mom but him and his father were very distant. 'It's because he's always working that he never spends time with us. He doesn't even try to get to know me now! I doubt he even cares...' Hope thought to himself sighing sadly a little.

When the 14 year-old made it to the school he hurried up and put all his stuff away in the classroom. The following thing he did was go to the club room to see if someone was there to give him instructions about what he had to do for morning watch.

Hope opened the door slowly just in case someone was in the room and didn't want to be messed with. "Um... good morning?" Hope said once the door opened fully to revel Lightning sitting at the table focused on what looked like paperwork.

"Good morning, Hope. You're just on time the other students should all be arriving soon. So, why don't I go over what you are going to do today?" The rose-haired girl said with less authority in her voice today then in the past weeks as she looked up at the boy.

"Sure, I was kinda hoping someone would be here to explain everything." Hope laughed a little when he said that.

"Well, lucky for you Serah and I always come here early. Mostly because she is a member of the student council." Lightning responded in a teasing tone and a slight smirk.

When Hope saw Lightning's look after she made that statement he couldn't help but blush. 'She looks kinda cute like that... Wait! This is Lightning you are thinking about Hope. She would beat you if she knew you thought that.'

Hope shook his previous thought out of his head before sitting down at the table with Lightning. "Anyway, so what exactly am I doing?" Hope asked his cheeks still a little pink from his earlier thoughts.

"Well Hope, what you are going to do is very simple. You will take the name of anyone disobeying the rules. It could be because they are bullying someone or because they are disobeying the dress-code. If you write them up you have to give me the reason they are written up. All the names and reasons should be written down on this piece of paper." Lightning said as she slid a paper on a clipboard over to Hope who just took it with a nod.

"Do you understand what you have to do? If you do you can just give me the report during lunch but the sooner the better." The rose-haired girl asked with a serious look on face.

"Yes! I will try my best. I guess I should go get started than." The green-eyed boy said before getting up and heading outside to do his job.

Hope stood outside the school watching as students entered the gates. He wrote down a few names and talked to the people who he wrote down and told them what they did wrong.

So far it was as kids who disobeyed the dress-code which didn't really bother Hope much. Everything seemed to be going fine until he turned around and bumped into a big guy with black hair and green eyes. He looked to be in Snow and Lightning's grade which was 12th grade.

"Hey brat! Watch what you are doing!" The guy yelled to Hope who got up from the ground.

"You should apologize to the boss!" A slightly smaller guy with short red hair and bright yellow eyes. He was probably a 11th grader.

Hope didn't say anything as he looked at the two guys who were yelling at him as he noticed a look of recognition cross the third guys face.

"Hey! You're that first year brat who is in advanced classes and in the Disciplinary Committee, right?" The third guy with blond hair and purple eyes. He also had black rimmed glasses and looked like he was a 11th grader as well.

"Oh? So you're Lightning's new lackey? Now that I think about it you were sitting with her at lunch yesterday. I bet you follow her around like a lost puppy." The leader laughed out with a smirk.

Hope just stood there saying nothing to the three guys. He was use to this kind of treatment since he had been bullied at his last school.

"You know she's such a bitch. I bet she's thinks you're just a burden. Why don't I just show her how weak you are?" The guy raised his fist up and punched Hope in the face for no reason.

Hope finally decided to speak up. "I hope you know that it's against the rules to hit other students and curse. I'm sorry for bumping into you earlier but that gives you no reason to hit me or call Lightning a bitch. I'm going to have to write you up." Hope finished looking at the guys as he held up his clipboard with papers to write their names.

"What did you say?! How dare you act all high and mighty with me! Come on boys let's show this little brat here that we aren't messing around." The black-haired guy commanded as he went in for another punch.

Hope flinched as he was hit in the jaw again by the big guy. He was use to being bullied but he was never ganged up on before. If he was being honest, Hope was scared and really wanted to run away.

Before, Hope could make a move to run he felt his feet get knocked out from underneath him and fell on his back.

"Ugh..." The silver-haired boy groaned in pain from the impact before he felt himself getting kicked in the side by the blond guy with glasses.

After a minute of beating on Hope the three guys stopped on looked at the boy. Hope was curled up and coughing harshly. He had scratches all over his body and had a small trail of blood on the side of his mouth.

"In cases you still want our names, I'm Cyril Akihabara." The leader said with a smirk on his face.

"I'm Damien Harajuku." The red-haired guy said with a huge grin on his face.

"And I'm Rèmi Shinjuku." The blond guy said as he pushed his glasses up on face.

"I hope you can remember to write all those names for your leader, girly boy." Cyril said one more time before he turned around laughing with his lackeys.

Hope groaned in pain again before he reached for his clipboard and wrote their names down for his report.

'I need to give this to Lightning. She did say the sooner she got this the better... Plus I should go to the infirmary after giving her this.' Hope thought to himself as he got up still in a lot of pain and limping to the clubroom.

He knocked on the door while leaning against the frame before he fell over. When he heard a voice command him to come in he slowly opened the door. He opened it just a little to where the person int the room could only slightly see his hair, when he heard a cheerful and manly voice. "Oh, it's just you Hope. I thought Sis told you to give her the report at..." Snow trailed off when he caught full sight of Hope.

Hearing Snow get quiet Lightning looked up from her work to see what made the normally talkative man shut his mouth. The first thing she noticed was the way Hope looked.

"Yeah she told me to give her it at lunch but she mentioned the sooner she gets this the better." Hope said showing the clipboard before sliding down the door-frame to the floor coughing.

The poor boy was covered in bruises and seemed to be barely able to stand. Lightning could see that he was really hurt she wanted to yell at him but lucky her Snow did it for her. "Hope! What the hell happened to you? Who did this?"

"You can read about this in the report I did for the watch. Lucky for me they gave me their names..." Hope mumble trying really hard to breathe even if it hurt.

Lightning got up from her spot at the table and headed toward Hope. She took the clipboard from Hope and noted the names down in her memory before giving the clipboard to Snow.

"Snow, inform Dysley of what has happened and ask him how he wants to handle this. I'm taking Hope to the infirmary so I can fix him up." Lightning said in a serious commanding tone.

"Of course! I'll tell you what he decides on. Please feel better Hope." Snow said with a sympathetic look in his eyes before going off.

"Come on. We need to get you some help." The pink-haired girl said as dragged Hope to his feet with one of his arms of her shoulder.

Hope couldn't help but notice that she smelled nice when she was this close to him which caused him to blush. The whole way to the nurse's office was silent as neither one knew what to say.

'Why am I helping this kid? He's not important or anything well... besides the fact that he is prodigy but since when have I cared about that. Well he's not a bad person and he is hurt... I really hope that Dysley will let me take care of those guys instead of the staff.' Lightning thought to herself as they arrived at the infirmary.

They noticed that the nurse wasn't there much to Lightning's annoyance since it was the nurse's job to be there on time so she can take of the students.

She sat Hope down on the first bed in the office as she went to get some bandages and stuff. "Take off your shirt." Lightning commanded with a serious look on her face but that didn't stop Hope from being embarrassed.

"Wha-what?" Hope said blushing brightly at Lightning's words.

"I said to take off you shirt. I need to check to see if you have any bruises underneath your shirt since I'm assuming they didn't just hit your face." Lightning responded with a hint of teasing that Hope caught which made him blush more.

"Oh yeah... They really did a number on me. Heh..." Hope said really embarrassed as he began to take his shirt off for her to look.

Lightning looked at the bruises and scrapes up closely and touched a few that seemed the worse which made Hope flinch and hiss in pain.

"Hmm... Well, you're pretty beaten up but I'll patch you up." Lightning said before she quietly began to bandage him up.

The green-eyed boy couldn't help but blush since this was the first time a girl ever patched him. 'Especially one I have a crush on... Wait! I don't have a crush on Lightning! I mean sure she is pretty, beautiful even. Aww hell she's down right gorgeous. She's kindhearted even if she comes off as cold. She didn't have to help me but she did... Damn... I do have a crush on her...' Hope blushed even brighter at the realization he came to.

Lightning noticed the shade of his face and looked at him worried. "Hey, you're not getting a fever now are you?" She asked looking closely at the boy who turned a deeper shade of red and backed away from her.

"No, I'm fine. In fact, I think I can go back to class now." Hope responded about to get up before being pushed down on the bed again this time being made to lay down.

"Oh no, you are going to rest right here. I'll tell Sazh that you are resting here after getting hurt. He'll understand. I'll leave a note for the nurse to tell them that you are laying in this bed. Just focus on getting better." Lightning might have been trying to comfort him but she made it sound more like an order.

"Okay... Hey Lightning?" Hope asked as she was about to leave.

When she turned her head he decided to continue talking. "I'm not a burden to you, am I?" He asked hating how insecure he sounded.

"No, but if you don't get better you will be. How about this? When you are all healed up I'll teach you some self-defense techniques I learned through the years. That way if this happens again then you can defend yourself." Lightning said with a hint of a smile on her face.

"Yeah... Thank you, Lightning." Hope said in a sincere tone that caused Lightning to feel flushed a little by the tone.

"You're welcome, Hope. Also, please call me Light." She said as the last thing before leaving the room hiding her pink cheeks.

"Thank you, Light." Hope said right before falling asleep on the bed with a smile, feeling happy that he had gotten closer to Lightning or Light as she said to call her.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter! I'll give anyone who can guess how I came up with the names of the OCs that appear in this chapter from a virtual hug and cookie. Next chapter another character from the game will be introduced and I will give anyone who guesses the character right a virtual bunny.

If you see any errors or incorrect spellings please tell and I'll correct them.

Once again please review! I will give everyone hugs~

Until next time, thank you and love you all~ ^_^