A/N:

I'm back! So soon too! It's all thanks to the great amount of feedback I got from the last chapter (you guys are awesome!). Coupled with a few hours of free time...and here you go!

This one's kind of interesting as well...

Disclaimer: Nope, still doesn't belong to me. The story does though!

His brief pep talk with Sazh, if anything, helped calm him down. He had a direction now. He knew what he was going to do, and all he had to do was work out a few, um, minor details. Sure, it would be easy to just walk right up to her, admit his feelings, and leave it at that. But Hope knew that wasn't exactly what he wanted. He could have told her how he felt years ago with the same kind of result.

But now…now he was older. Lightning might not laugh at him. She might actually like the idea, which was a completely foreign thought to Hope. You don't know how she feels. That realization struck him tremendously. He doesn't know how she feels, and yes, he was pretty sure that four years ago Lightning did not have a crush on him (although Hope would have liked that, it may have been a little awkward…). But who's to say she couldn't change her mind?

That's my new mission. Though he didn't know how he would ever accomplish it. I'll tell her I like her when I know for sure how she feels.

Hope made his way back down the stairs, a new found smile on his face. He sat next to Dajh, who was still sitting statuesque in front of the TV, trying to organize the never-ending stream of thoughts swarming his brain.

There were only two options as far as Hope was concerned. One was (and this one was by far his favorite), that he somehow gets Lightning to realize her feelings for him, and they both admit their undying love for each other.

The other was that Hope relentlessly does romantic gesture after romantic gesture until Lightning finally gets suspicious, calls him out on it, and he's forced to admit how he feels. And he was pretty sure that option would turn out very horribly.

It was also, probably, the more realistic situation, which made Hope have to wonder. How do I get her to like me without being obvious?

"You okay there?"

Hope blinked at Sazh, breaking his thoughts. He didn't speak though, just in case Sazh was talking to his son and not him.

"Hey, Hope? You dazed or something?"

"What? Oh, no." Hope sat up from the couch and walked around to the other side to talk to Sazh. "What's up?"

"Just checking on you. Got something figured out?"

Hope sighed, "Er…sort of."

"Well you better figure it out soon. Your train leaves tonight, right?"

He hadn't thought about the time crunch. It was surely impossible to get Lighting to fall in love with him in one night, especially because she was still nowhere to be seen. "I think I'm staying actually."

"You're staying Hope! Great!" Snow walked over, catching only the end of their conversation. "We'll work out where you're sleeping after we play the game."

Hope backed away a little, "What game?"

"Eh, just a little game Serah put together, come on."

Everyone else was already gathering around the empty space between the couch and the kitchen. NORA was already sitting on the floor, and soon Dajh and Sazh joined them. Serah was still standing, holding Eira. "Where's my sister?"

"She'll be down here eventually." Snow waved her off and grabbed a small basket on the glass side table. "Now, I'm assuming everyone knows how to play charades?"

The group nodded and Hope sat down towards the outer end. Whatever slight nervousness he had soon left him. They were just going to play a little game, and Lighting wasn't even down here. Snow continued, "Awesome, we'll divide into groups then."

Serah didn't want to play, it not being easy to move around while holding the baby. That left Snow and the rest of NORA on one team and Sazh, Dajh, and Hope on the other. Hope didn't comment how they were at an extreme disadvantage. Not only were they down a player, but Sazh wasn't exactly too good at these sorts of things.

Snow volunteered to go first, and his team got it easy enough. A quick gesture of starting an engine and Maqui immediately screamed motorcycle.

Sazh then offered to go, pulling out a slip of white paper from the basket. "…Oh, let's see uh…" He held up one finger.

"One word?"

Sazh nodded at Hope's guess and held out his arms and started running around the room.

The teenager stifled his laugh, ignoring how ridiculous Sazh looked. They were on a slight time constraint. "Plane?"

Sazh kept going, that obviously not being the answer.

"Um…pilot?"

Not right either. Hope started to wish Sazh would do something else, but he just kept going, running around the room in small circles.

Serah glanced at her watch, "20 seconds!"

"Bird!"

Sazh halted a bit at this and nodded his head, but then just kept on going.

A type of bird?

"10 seconds..."

But what bird is one word and can fly? "Parakeet, robin, crow, um…"

All no's.

"5 seconds!"

Dajh just sat there quietly, not offering Hope any advice.

"4, 3, 2, 1…sorry guys. Time's up."

The bird-man sat down, a little frustrated. "You were so close! Why didn't you keep guessing?"

Hope shrugged, "What were you?"

"A chocobo!"

What? "Sazh…chocobos don't fly. Well, maybe yours did a couple of times, but not generally."

"Hey, it was the best I could do."

Hope nodded, knowing that was the truth.

NORA guessed right again, signaling that this game was certainly just going to go downhill from here. It was Hope's turn now, and he was just about to quit, to make the teams even, when footsteps could be heard.

"There you are!" Serah immediately left the game and walked towards the staircase. She intercepted Lighting quickly, and the two started chatting a bit. Serah then grabbed her hand and directed her to the floor, "It'll be fun. We'll only play a few more rounds before cake."

The former soldier didn't look too amused at all, but she sat down on the ground next to Hope, albeit reluctantly. "Let's just get this over with."

"Right." Hope stood up and grabbed a piece of paper from the basket. "You'll be on our team, okay Light?"

She didn't look at him directly, but nodded her head nevertheless. What's up with her?

Hope ignored it and read the slip. Knife. Okay then. He held up a single finger.

"Umm…first word!" Sazh said immediately.

Hope shook his head.

"One word then." Sazh smiled seeing that Hope agreed. "Alright Hope, we got this."

Hope cracked a smile and then quickly made a stabbing motion to his chest, knocking him down to the ground. He thought he saw Lightning tense up a little when his back made a hard noise on the floor, but then again, he was probably just being delusional.

"Die! Hurt! Stab!"

"All such happy words, huh Sazh?" Snow cracked a grin. "Your time's running out guys."

Hope got up from the ground and pointed to his hand, which was in a clasp shape, as if he were holding a hilt.

"Sword? Weapon?"

The teenager shook his head at Sazh's wrong guesses.

"10 seconds guys," Serah muttered.

Another idea hit him. It was a little hopeless to try and get Sazh to guess, so Hope directed this to Lightning. He pointed to Serah, then to her, and then back to him and his hand.

It barely took Lightning a second to get it, "…Knife."

Hope nodded, and Sazh grinned, "Great! Good job Lightning."

She cracked a slight smile and directed her attention back downwards, not paying any attention to Hope. But he couldn't have that. "Good guess, Light."

"It was obvious."

Hope scratched his silver hair and leaned back on his arm, "Yeah, well I guess I was just happy you remembered it."

"Of course I do. It wasn't that long ago." Lightning stood up, crossing her arms and barely glancing an inch in the teenager's direction. "Serah, want me to go get the baby's bib? We'll do cake now."

Serah nodded, "Okay. I'll come with you."

The two women left the room and headed up the stairs, leaving Snow to get out the cake. Sazh stood up and patted Hope on the shoulder, "Good luck with that one."

"Yeah…thanks." Hope stood up and brushed away the wrinkles in his pants. I'll need it.

"No."

"Lightning..."

"No, absolutely not."

Serah rocked the baby softly in her arms, "But I don't understand…why not? You like Hope." Her younger sister smiled mischievously, "And if I understood him correctly, you like him enough to give him my birthday present."

Lightning turned away, letting her pink bangs cover the majority of her eyes, "That was before…"

"Before? Before what?"

She didn't answer. She couldn't answer. What was it? Was it before she overheard him talking? Or was it before he…before he…"Why can't he stay here?"

"There's no room for him Claire. And I'd think he'd prefer staying with you over NORA."

Lightning snuffed. Probably considering… "I just don't know about this."

"You'll enjoy the company."

"Not this 'I'm lonely' thing again. Serah, I'm fin…"

"Sure, you're fine. Perfectly fine." Serah was headed towards the doorway, "So you won't mind taking Hope in…if you're fine."

Lightning sensed herself start to stammer, "But…"

But Serah was already resigned to the set up, "I mean, just think about it this way. He'll remind you of the past. That might make you feel less old, won't it?" She laughed at that, but quickly stopped seeing Lightning's less than amused expression. "Look, Claire, unless you have some really legitimate reason why you can't take Hope for a couple of nights, I really hope you will. It's hard enough taking care of a new baby, and now with two other people in the house…it would really be a huge help."

She was still tempted to say no. A large part of her knew it would be easier that way. But who would it be easier for exactly? Just her, which was too overwhelming selfish. Besides, this is Hope we're talking about. Just Hope. Though that thought wasn't helping her out at all. "Fine."

"That's…one giant cake, Snow." Hope eyed the five tier cake in slight awe. It was frosted white with different sets of pink piping lining the outer tiers. On the base of some of the layers were tiny baby's blocks, and on the top sat a small, edible stuffed carbuncle.

"Only the best for my little Eira." Snow's smile only grew as the Serah walked into the kitchen, baby in her arms. "And there she is. Should we sing now?"

Lightning smirked, trailing behind her sister, "For what? Her 0th birthday?"

"How about we just say something?" Hope suggested.

Serah nodded at that idea, "Okay! We can all say a little something while Snow cuts the cake!"

Snow obliged and started passing out pieces while Serah started, "I want to thank everyone for coming here. Especially Sazh, Dajh, and Hope, who traveled so far to be with us. I know Eira can't thank you now, but I'm sure one day she'll be so grateful for the great family she's been blessed with." Serah then turned to her left, "Lightning?"

"Eira's a good kid with good parents. She'll be fine." Lightning turned and looked at the audience, seeing that they all expected more. She didn't offer anything else, but just reached for a slice of cake in front of her.

"You have a way with words, Sis." Snow laughed, "Well, guess it's my turn then. As my lovely wife said, thank you all for coming. I hope, Sazh, Dajh, and Hope, that you have a much better time in Bodhum than you did last time…though that shouldn't exactly be hard to beat." Snow paused a bit, seemingly thinking. "Then again…if all that didn't happen, we wouldn't have all met. And then we'd all be a little unhappier, right Lightning?"

It wasn't exactly clear to Hope why, but for whatever the reason, Lightning suddenly dropped her cake and fork, clasping for her throat. Snow immediately stopped his speech, but Serah started screaming. "She's choking! Call the ambulance!" The baby started crying as well, sensing something was wrong

Lightning fell harshly on her knees, her oxygen supply desperately cut short. Her hands moved away from her throat and to her stomach, but it all seemed futile.

Desperation and panic were the only two things Hope could think of. "Here!" He dug through his pocket and grabbed out his cell phone, passing the small device to Sazh. "Call the medics." He then rushed over and kneeled next to the fallen soldier, "Light…Light…can you talk?"

She shook her head furiously, tears beginning to stream out of her eyes. The air was slowly leaving her, and Hope knew she would faint any minute now.

"Hello? Hello?" Sazh was yelling, and the other members of NORA were rushing to their own phones, while Lebreau went to get a glass of water for Lightning. "Damn it…they're not picking up!"

"How can they not?" Hope brushed her pink hair back that was currently sticking to her face from the sudden flash of sweat. "I'll try not to hurt you, okay?" But she wasn't really paying attention anymore. Her once strong body was now practically lifeless. It took Hope some, but not all, of his strength to haul her up, where he placed his arms around her back and to her stomach. He forced his fists into an upward motion until the tiny bits of cake and frosting seemed to get dislodged.

But that wasn't the end of it.

Lightning's eyes were still closed, and even though nothing was really blocking her air pipe, she still wasn't breathing. Through all the panic and the worry, Hope tried to keep himself calm. Just breathe. Just do it. He locked his fingers together and started compressions on her chest after laying her flat on her back. Hope then moved his head up to hers, where he paused.

Just two breaths.

He locked his lips on to hers, so tightly, not because, yeah, he's been waiting to have contact with her like this for a long time, but because he needed an air tight seal if he wanted it to work. Hope slowly let a stream of air fill her mouth, trying to refocus his attention, not on how soft her lips felt on his, but on actually saving her.

Hope unlocked himself from her and looked up for a brief second. Another inhale of breath, and he was back over Lightning, probably enjoying himself a little too much for an emergency. His lips were hovering millimeters over hers when a sudden gasp stopped him.

"…Hope?"

"Light!" He sat up immediately, forgetting whatever embarrassment he should have been feeling in the sheer excitement of her safety. "How are you?"

Lightning coughed a little before sitting up as well. Her light blue eyes darted to Hope and then back to the ground, "I'll get back to you on that."

A/N:

Thanks guys for reading! Let's see if you can beat the review record from last time...

But really, I just hope you enjoyed it!

-ASX