Hello Hello~

Sorry it took me awhile to update. First I hit a snag in writing and then I got sick with a cold. It also might be awhile for the next chapter since I'm going to NYC for a concert and won't be able to work on the fanfic much.

Now time for replies~

Guest 1: You are correct the names come from regions in Tokyo and actually you were the first and only one to guess. There are actually three new characters introduced or mentioned here. One of which is Jihl Nabaat. I actually decided to add her in because of your comment so thank you for the idea. So a virtual hug, cookie and bunny for you!

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

I love knowing what everyone thinks of this and am open for constructive criticism too so please leave me a review.

Disclaimer: Still don't own FFXIII or any of the characters. I just play the games and write fanfics for them.

Now on to the fanfic!

Chapter 4: Recovering and Friends

Hope suddenly heard someone moving around the room he was sleeping in. He slowly woke up to see if it was the nurse.

"Oh, did I wake you up?" A soft young voice said to the boy. Hope looked at the small girl who had long blue hair. She noticed she was around his age and was wearing the school uniform so she couldn't be the nurse.

"No, it's fine... where's the nurse?" Hope asked looking around the room before he looked back at the girl.

"She had to go do something. She told me not to bother you as you sleep. Reading this note left by Miss Lightning, I assume you're Hope Estheim?" The girl asked as she picked up a piece of paper that Lightning left for the nurse.

"Yes, I'm Hope. Who are you and what time is it?" The silver-haired boy asked very confused about this girl.

"I'm Paddra Nsu-Yeul and now morning break time just started." Yeul responded with a smile on her face.

"I guess I've been out of it for a while now... So, what are you doing here?" Hope asked with a confused look on his face.

"Oh, I'm a member of the Health Committee. Since I started this year I've been helping out here. I'm a first-year just like you." The blue-haired girl said to Hope who was surprised she knew his next question.

"What about you? What happened that caused you to be in the nurse's office all morning?" Yeul asked with interest that surprised the boy.

Hope looked away from the girl who asked the question."Well, these guys beat me up pretty bad. I was going to go back to class after Light fixed me up but she said I had to rest."

Yeul laughed at Hope's explanation about everything. "Well, Miss Nabaat said that you should rest until lunch. But I can keep you company if you like."

"Sure." Hope responded with a huge smile on his face.

The two talked and laughed until break was over and Yeul had to go back to class but she promised to come back during lunch. Hope was just really happy to have made another friend.

It was lunch time so Lightning and the rest of the group decided to go get Hope for lunch.

"I hope that he is feeling better. From what Lightning and Snow said it sounds like he took quite a beating." Vanille said with a worried look on her face.

"I'm sure the kid is fine if he listened to Sunshine here and rested during the day." Fang responded with a reassuring smile.

"I think if Hope would listen to anyone it would definitely be Sis." Serah said trying to reassure Vanille as well.

When they got to the door they heard talking between two people. It sounded like Hope and a girl were talking about something interesting.

"Do we go in?" Snow asked clueless about what to do.

"Sounds like he might have a friend in there with him." Maqui chimed in as he listened in through the door.

"Or a girlfriend." Yuj said in a joking tone. All the girls and Yuj noticed Lightning grip what she was holding harder obviously irritated.

"Man if he has a girlfriend already then I'm going to need him to give me some pointers." Gadot laughed out not noticing Light becoming more and more irritated.

"Hey! What about me? I'm your girlfriend, in case you forgot." Lebreau began lecturing Gadot for what he said.

Serah noticed that Lightning was carrying two lunches instead of just her's and decided to question it. "Hey Claire? Where did you get that other lunch and who is it for?"

Lightning blushed and looked away from her sister. She quickly moved past everyone and knocked on the door hoping someone would open the door soon.

After a few seconds a girl answered the door with a soft smile. "Oh, I guess you are all here for Hope." Yeul said with a look at the group.

Hope looked toward the door and saw his group of friends looking at him. "Hey, you guys!" He said cheerfully as he got up and went to the door.

"Hey kid! Ya feelin' better than earlier?" Fang asked Hope looking at his injures which looked just fine compared to what Snow said earlier.

"I'm just fine now. Oh, I'd like you all to meet Paddra Nsu-Yeul." Hope introduced Yeul to everyone with a cute smile.

"Hi..." Yeul answered shyly looking down as she felt everyone's eyes on her.

"Is it okay with you guys if Yeul and her friend sit with us at lunch? She's really cool and can even tell your fortune if you want." Hope said very fast looking directly at Lightning thinking her opinion was the most important.

Everyone decided it was okay for her and her friend join them making Hope very happy that he couldn't help but grin. 'He looks so happy even though he got beaten up earlier. He kinda looks cute when he grins like that... Hang on, Lightning. You did not just think he looked cute. Let's just push that thought out of your mind. It's not important, at the moment his health is what is important.' Lightning brushed the thought off like nothing.

"I'll meet you guys at the lunchroom then. I'm glad I get to introduce you to Noel by the way Hope. I feel like you two are going to be great friends." Yeul said to Hope before beginning to leave.

Light payed no attention to the girl until the girl walked right by her and whispered something only the two of them could hear. "It's not good to hide your feelings, Miss Lightning..."

Lightning was stunned for a second before turning around to see the girl already down the hall.

Hope noticed a slight distressed look on her face as did Serah while everyone else talked. Hope looked down to see what Light was holding her hands.

"Light, is that my lunch?" He asked as he noticed her holding two lunches and one that looked a lot like his.

Lightning snapped out of her state of shocked to look at what the silver-haired boy was pointing at and noticed that it was in fact his lunch.

"Yes, it is. I figured that you might want it but might not be up to getting it yourself." The rose-haired girl said as she handed Hope his lunch.

"Thanks Light. I really means a lot to me." The boy said sweetly as he smiled and looked into Lightning's crystal blue eyes with his emerald ones.

Lightning couldn't help but blush at sincerity. To her he seemed so... handsome at that moment and it made her heart race. She quickly turned around with her face calm and eyes closed before she replied. "Don't read too much into it. It's not a big deal." After she said those words she began walking to the cafeteria with the rest following her.

Hope stood there a little hurt by what she said and looked down at his lunch now in his hands. Serah noticed that he wasn't following them and decided to cheer him up.

"Don't worry about Sis. She's just not use to people but I can tell she has taken a liking to you." The younger of the Farron sisters said with a caring smile.

"I'm not sure if she really likes me..." Hope responded looking down at his feet sadly. He just realized his feeling for Lightning that day but he felt he was already rejected.

Serah giggled a bit from what Hope said. "Light would never treat someone's wounds if she didn't like them or bring them their lunch. She won't even do that for her friends which makes you already higher than everyone else in the group. Well, everyone except me but I don't think I count since I'm her sister and all." She finished with a slight chuckle that made Hope chuckle as well.

"Thanks Serah. It's good to know that I'm actually cared about." Hope said smiling again feeling a lot better after Serah's reassuring and began following the others while still talking to the girl.

"Yeah, Claire is a very caring person but she is to simply put it, socially awkward. She is beautiful which I'm sure you noticed." Hope blushed at Serah's statement as she looked over at him before she continued.

"She has plenty of fans who would give anything to date her but because of her cold and harsh personality she scares them all away or just flat-out rejects them. Those guys that beat you up today all asked her out at some point and she rejected them. They felt insulted and I guess when they saw you two getting along they decided to get back at her by hurting you." Serah looked at Hope with an apologetic look that made him feel like she was worried about how he would react.

"Those guys were just jerks and don't deserve someone as amazing as Light anyway." Hope said in a determined tone that made Serah know just how the boy felt.

"Yeah, but I do feel bad for them... Mr. Dysley is letting Lightning handle their punishment instead of the staff. Usually he lets the staff handle it but sometimes he'll let the Disciplinary Committee handle the situation simply because he finds it more amusing. In this case it is obvious that, as Snow put it, Lightning is pissed. So the guys who did this to you will be wanting the staff to handle it instead because Lightning's going to hurt them the same they hurt you or worse." Serah finished as they finally reached the lunchroom and the rest of their friends.

"You two sure did take your time getting here." Fang said as the two sat down in their spots.

"I was just getting to know Hope here. He is just the sweetest person you could ever know." Serah said with a giggle as she and the rest of the group noticed Hope blush.

"I can totally see that. He does seem to have that way about him." Fang nodded in agreement to what Serah said.

"Aww, and he's so cute when he's blushing! If I was that way I would totally go for a guy like Hope." Vanille chimed in causing Hope to blush more and Fang to become a little jealous.

"Well lucky for me you don't swing that way." Fang said wrapping her arm around Vanille and pulling her close.

"No PDA Fang. You may be my friend but that doesn't mean you can break the rules." Lightning said as she began to eat barely glancing at the two girls.

"You're no fair, Sunshine. Just because you're single means you have to ruin the fun for the rest of us." Fang shot back sticking her tongue out at the older of the Farron sisters. Everyone laughed as Lightning just rolled her eyes.

Before anyone could say anything they heard someone clear their throat. They looked to see who it was and saw Yeul with a brown-haired blue-eyed guy who no one seem to know.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything. But if I remember correctly Hope offered to let us eat lunch with you all." Yeul said with a soft smile to everyone at the table.

"Of course you can sit right beside Hope if you both want." Serah offered with a smile as Hope welcomed the two to sit next to him. Lightning could help but feel a tinge of irritation when the blue-haired girl sat on the other side of Hope.

"Thank you all for letting us join. This is my childhood friend Noel Kreiss. We grew up together." Yeul said before everyone began introducing themselves to the newcomers.

"You two are welcome to sit with us at any time." Snow said with a grin on his face.

"So that makes three first-years, one second-year, four third-years and four fourth-years in our little group." Lebreau said as she sat back thinking about it.

"Yeah, that's all of us. Sorry Maqui you're all alone." Hope said with a little laugh.

"It's all cool. Just makes me more unique. So Noel, have you decided what club you want to join?" Maqui asked with a curious look on his face.

"I'm not sure but I think I might join the Disciplinary Committee. I was worried about being the only newcomer there but seeing as Hope is there I think I will join." Noel said with a nod to himself.

"Well then welcome to the club." Snow said with a grin on his face.

Lightning noticed that Hope was holding his arm a little which caused her to worry. "Hope. Are you okay?" She asked before she could stop herself shocking everyone.

"I'm fine just feeling a little sore from earlier is all." Hope said with an unconvincing smile on his face.

"Well if that's the case you don't have to go to today's meeting. Just go straight home and rest." Light's statement was final and he had no reason to argue.

"Okay then I'll be sure to rest up." Hope said with a huge smile toward his crush.

Lightning saw the look on Hope's face and started to feel her face turn red. She quickly turned her head only to notice Serah smirking at her.

Hope decided to change the subject with what he had been meaning to ask everyone. "Hey you guys. I was talking to my parents about you all last night and they were wondering if you guys can all come over this weekend on Saturday for dinner..." He asked embarrassed and looking down at his lunch as he felt everyone's eyes on him.

Everyone was quiet and didn't say a word making Hope feel very uncomfortable. Just when he was about to say something someone spoke up. "We'll go. Serah and I will at least. Right Serah?" Light said with a small tilt of her head while still covering her reddening cheeks.

'Why am I embarrassing myself so much today? It's all this new kid's fault.' Light felt so uncomfortable she tried to never show much emotions because when she was a kid everyone made fun of her for crying so much. 'I can deal with this problem some other time. Maybe this will go away once I'm use to Hope being around. He's a good kid and I'm sure we can be good friends.'

"Yeah. Since Saturday is Lightning's turn to cook and I don't feel like eating steak this week which is like the only thing she knows how to cook." Serah said with a laugh as Lightning glared at her.

"If Serah is going then I'll be going too!" Snow shouted happy hugging his girlfriend close.

"Where Snow goes NORA goes too! Plus with a thing like free food I don't think we can really refuse." Maqui said as the rest of the members of team NORA agreed.

"Snow, like I said to Fang, no PDA." Light said with a sharp glare to the boy who quickly dropped his arms from Serah and starting to whine.

"Are you going to come too, Noel and Yeul?" Hope asked as he ignored Snow whining about Light being unfair.

"If it's okay with you we would love to come." Yeul said as she smiled to Noel who smiled back.

"Of course you can come too. You two are our friends now." Hope responded smiling to the two. Hope noticed how Yeul and Noel acted almost like a couple but they didn't seem be dating.

"Then we will be there too." Noel responded with a nod feeling like him and Yeul were finally making more friends and one of which seemed to be in his grade.

After Hope told everyone the time to be there the bell rang and they all had to go to class with Serah reminding Hope to rest and not strain himself.

"So, what class are you in Hope?" Noel asked after Yeul went to her class leaving the two boys by themselves.

"I'm in class 1-A. What about you?" Hope responded and asked the brown-haired boy.

"I'm in 1-A as well so I guess we are in the same class!" Noel said with a grin and a laugh.

Hope laughed along with the boy as they walked to class. They did seem to get along very well and became quick friends. Once they reached their classroom they sat down in their seats and got ready for class.

Hope felt better than earlier after he rested but he was very glad that Lightning let him just go straight home when school was over. 'I'll tell Mom that my friends are coming over when I get home today and then I'll go straight to bed. There are only two more days left before the weekend and then my parents can meet my friends. It's so hard to believe almost four weeks have passed since this school year has started and I already have many friends.'

This chapter was hard to write but it was fun because I got to write embarrassed Lightning. The characters mentioned or introduced are Yeul, Noel and Nabaat! Yeul and Noel are major characters in this and Nabaat is just a side character.

I will try to update sooner but I don't when I will be able to work on this because of my trip but I'll try.

Also if you see any errors or incorrect spelling please tell me. Also I accept constructive criticism so if you have any feel free to tell me.

Please review! I'm not a bad person and will give everyone hugs~

Thank you and love you all~ ^_^