Author's Note: Hi! ...I apologize a lot, don't I? Well, here we go again: Sorry I took so long! But you know, I'm really getting back into the swing of things, and I'm hoping that I have a lot more new updates for you in this new year.
Here's to hoping!
When Hope awoke the following morning, he was a lot closer to Vanille than he remembered being. Her back was pressed up against his, where he could feel her breathe. Deep, soft breaths. If she had any nightmares, she did a good job hiding it.
He was glad she was okay, but he suddenly felt very odd about lying in bed with her, like a kid watching a movie he knew he wasn't supposed to, feeling both guilty and a rush at the same time.
It was probably safer if he got out of bed.
Thankfully, the hotel mattress didn't creak as he carefully rose, trying to move her as little as possible. As far as sleepers went, Vanille was neither light nor heavy; who knew what would wake her?
Fang probably knew, something told him.
Fang... She was the one person Snow had no leads on. There had been some on him, and Noel, and he currently was following a few on Sazh, but nothing on Fang. It was really hard for Vanille. There were pieces of her heart that only the elder Oerban could hold. In fact, Fang had those pieces now. Vanille was brave, far braver than he could ever be, to continue on without those pieces. He still had a few fragments about himself. They all did. It would be impossible to get them all back, but finishing their family puzzle was a good start.
They would do it. They had to.
Stretching his slightly stiff limbs to his satisfaction, Hope glanced toward the clock on the bedside table. 8:13. He suddenly grew a sense of urgency. They had to be on their train in just over an hour. He'd have to wake Vanille.
He didn't really want to, but he turned to her and shook her gently, "Vanille?" he said softly, "You need to get up."
She moaned a little, and made a motion as if to shoo him away, but he persisted.
"We need to go, the train leaves in an hour," he explained, "Come on, get up."
Vanille rolled onto her back and looked up at him with a half-awake gaze, "Already?"
He smiled, if only slightly. "Yes, already. Don't you want to get back to your smelly dog?"
She hit him...sort of. She hit the mattress, but it was aimed at him. "Of course I do."
"Then get up." Hope grabbed her by the arms and began to pull her off the bed. This went well for all of three seconds, until she started pulling back. He'd forgotten how strong she was. His simple plan soon turned into a bit of a contest. Her newly awakened eyes shone with the challenge, otherwise he would've just let go and allowed her to fall back onto the bed.
In the end, she did. But he fell, too. She gave a final tug that unbalanced him, and he toppled forward onto her. Hope quickly stood back up, cheeks burning. Vanille just laughed at him, "I'll get up, I promise."
"You'd better," he replied, falsely stern.
Vanille shooed him again, "I don't want you to watch me getting dressed, go!" But she was smiling.
Hope laughed as he went back to his room. He supposed she'd finally answered that question.
While he changed into fresh clothes, he regretted the fact that they had to go. One day didn't make up for the hundreds of years he'd missed with Noel, and that was the first time he'd actually met Yeul. Vanille hadn't ever met either of them. He kept telling himself that wasn't the end, they'd see them again. But he had a hard time accepting it. He kept expecting something else to happen just around the corner.
After giving his bag a once-over to make sure he didn't leave anything - though since they'd only been there since the previous morning, that was unlikely - he pulled out his phone and started to call Serah. He figured he should let her know they were heading home.
"Hello?"
"Good morning, Serah."
"Oh, hey, Hope." She let out a bit of a yawn.
Hope glanced at the time, "Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"
"Only a little. Bhakti woke me up about a half hour ago, Snow let him out and he started barking like crazy. I only kind of fell back asleep. So, what's up?"
"Just thought I'd let you know what's going on. The train leaves in about an hour, so we're heading out as soon as Vanille finishes getting ready."
"Oh, that's right, I forgot you guys were coming back today. How late will it be when you guys get back?"
Hope zipped up his bag and began to check once more around the room, "Too late. I'm not sure, but I'll try to call you again when I find out."
"Alright." Pause. "Hey, what about Noel and Yeul?"
Finding no more of his possessions, Hope sat down on the bed. He mentally hesitated for a moment, she was going to be disappointed with his answer, "They're not coming back with us, Noel said he couldn't get away from work."
"...Oh."
"But I have his number, Serah. You can talk to him whenever you want until they can make it."
"That'll have to do." But he could hear her smile. She was the first of them to get close to Noel. The first to know about Yeul. Lightning dispatched him, but she didn't know who he was. Hope had the pleasure of meeting him next. It was odd at the time, seeing Serah show up out of the blue with a stranger, but he liked to think that he and Noel had become quite good friends since then. He certainly had a different connection with the hunter than with the others.
"He said he was going to try and get time off as soon as possible. I know he really wants to see you, Serah."
"I want to see him, too. The last time I saw him was, well..."
As she trailed off, Vanille poked her head in through the connecting door, "Ready to go?"
Hope looked up at her with a slight smile, "Yeah, I was just waiting for you, slowpoke."
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Is that Vanille?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, I'll let you go, tell her I say hi. Oh! And call me again when you're getting close so I can come get you, okay?"
"It's going to be pretty late, remember?"
"So? I haven't seen you in centuries, deal with it." She laughed a little. "Call me."
"Alright, I will. Goodbye."
"Bye."
Hope stuck his phone back in his pocket as Vanille came in with her bag and plopped it down on his bed next to him, "Were you talking to Serah?"
"Yeah, I was just letting her know we were leaving. She says hi, by the way."
Vanille smiled. To his understanding, the two had grown close since their chance reunion. Frankly, that wasn't a surprise.
"Well," she said, "shouldn't we be going, then?"
Hope glanced at the clock, "Yeah, we should. Do you have everything?"
"Yup!" she declared, "I didn't bring much, anyway."
"Me neither." He stood and picked up both of their bags in one hand, gesturing toward the door, "Let's go."
Avoiding the death trap out-of-order elevator for the fourth time, they checked out of the hotel and quickly grabbed a cab to the train station. Unfortunately, they ran into horrible traffic as they approached, and the station itself was packed. Hope and Vanille made it just as the doors were closing, much to his relief. They had to, respectfully, push their way through three cars before they found seats. Vanille opted for the window again.
Hope stuck their bags under their seats and practically collapsed into his, staring up at the ceiling. The constant physical obstacles slowing them down had stressed him out. Punctuality was instinctively important to him.
Vanille giggled, "We made it, stop worrying."
"We took the same trip, right? You saw how close that was," he sighed, "Next time, we're leaving earlier."
She poked his arm, "Don't be like that, stuff happens."
"Yeah, I guess." He looked at her, "So, did you dream last night?"
She shook her head, "Nope, not a thing," she smiled, "Thanks for staying with me."
"Hey, no problem. What are friends for?"
"Still, you didn't have to. I wasn't even going to ask..."
"...You know, I almost didn't..."
Vanille cocked her head, "Really?"
Hope suddenly found it difficult to look at her, so he stared down at the worn knees of his pants, "Really. I - I didn't know if I should, or..."
He felt her hand on his arm, and he knew she was smiling, "Hey, I'm glad you did. Hope, you've always been there for me when you could, I don't know where I'd be if you weren't so kind."
He found himself looking at her again, and suddenly he couldn't breathe. The most beautiful woman in any of the worlds he'd ever lived in was just inches away...her warm breath brushing against his face...her gorgeous eyes nervously flicking back and forth...her teeth indecisively gnawing at her lip...
Stop it, stop it, stop it...
The two of them stared at each other for a few more minutes, neither of them moving, neither of them speaking. Hope was dying to lean forward and kiss her, but something was holding him back, and besides, she wasn't leaning in either. Maybe he shouldn't...but goddess did he want to...
Someone gasped behind him, "Director?"
Hope froze. He remembered that voice. Was it...could it be...?
He turned and was faced with the same excited blue eyes and messy blonde hair that he worked with for nearly his entire adult career before the whole...incident. He'd nearly forgotten about her, but now all the memories started to rush back, "A-Alyssa?"
"Oooh, Director!" His former assistant hugged him the way she never would have on the job. His awkward boyhood habits resurfaced in his inability to hug back. He glanced back at Vanille almost apologetically until he was released. Alyssa smiled brightly, "I can't believe it's you! It's been so long! How have you been?"
"Oh, uh, I - I've been alright. I've had to get used to living a relatively normal life again, but so has everyone else."
Alyssa nodded, "Yeah, I get what you mean. This whole thing's been pretty crazy, hasn't it?" she cocked her head to the side a little, "Who's your friend?"
"Well," Hope turned to Vanille and put an arm around her, almost possessively, "this...this is Vanille."
"Oh, so this is her," Alyssa nodded slightly, "Well, it's nice to finally meet you. The Director has told me a lot about you."
"He - he has?"
"Of course."
Hope was blushing for about the millionth time, "Y-yeah, we talked about you a few times..." he cleared his throat, "You don't need to call me 'Director' anymore, Alyssa. I stopped being your boss a long time ago. Just call me Hope."
"But that's no fun." She smiled, which gave him an odd sense of nostalgia, "Let's call it a nickname, okay? That way everyone wins."
He smiled, too, "Sure."
"Um, excuse me," Vanille interjected, looking slightly bothered for some reason, "how do you know Hope?"
"Oh, well, we worked together for quite some time," Alyssa replied, friendly as ever, "Well, actually, he was my boss, like he said, but I - well, the whole team - saw him as more of a colleague."
"It's nice to know my authority was recognized," Hope returned jokingly.
She laughed, "Don't get me wrong, we completely respected you, and your authority. But you connected with us all so well, it felt like you were just one of us, you know?"
Vanille linked her arm with Hope's and put herself more at his side versus behind him, "It must've been great to work with him."
"Oh, it really was."
There was something slightly hostile in Alyssa's smile this time, and suddenly, images from multiple pasts flashed in his mind's eye. The barrel of a gun, a mechanical fal'Cie, her being shoved down by a couple of officers. His head began to spin. How could he have forgotten? This woman betrayed him, she tried to kill him, tried to kill Noel and Serah. She helped Caius in his endeavor to destroy the world. She was a snake, a deceiver. This conversation suddenly felt wrong. A part of him wanted to forgive her, to give her a second chance in this second life. The rest of him took Vanille's hand in his and said, "Well, it was nice talking to you again."
Alyssa kept up her smile, but her eyes fell at the obvious dismissal. She had harbored feelings for him the entire time they worked together, and he knew that. But it was never her, it was always Vanille. And now she knew that.
"Yeah, it really was," offering a wave goodbye, she turned on her heels and continued on. She wasn't happy about it, and some of that negative energy lingered around the two she left behind.
In the silence that followed, Hope felt himself shaking. He'd never done anything like that before, and certainly not to someone he knew - or, thought he knew so well. He wasn't sure if he should feel good about this or not.
Vanille held onto his arm, much like Alyssa used to, except in the fact that it was completely different, "Hey, are you okay?"
Hope honestly wasn't sure, "Uh, yeah, it's just..."
Vanille shook her head, "No, it's okay, I understand. You used to like her, didn't you?"
"Wh-what? No, Vanille, I didn't."
There was that bothered look again, "Are you sure? Because she sure seemed to like you."
Hope just shook his head. He was hoping she wouldn't read that from Alyssa, "Yes, I'm sure. Vanille, I had five hundred years to fall for her. But even if I had forever, it would never happen. She's just not for me, and besides, she tried to kill me."
Vanille sat back in her seat and stared out the window, "Yes, I suppose that's true."
More silence followed this. But it wasn't the same silence as before, it was more like the silence from the other day, after he helped the old woman on their other train trip. Simply described as odd. It somehow made Hope feel like he did something wrong. Had he offended her somehow by telling the truth? He hadn't fallen for Alyssa...he'd fallen for her...
Stop, stop.
Vanille cut through the thick silence a lot faster than the last time, "...Hope?"
He turned to her, trying to look up at her face instead of down at her hands, but once again, he found that task difficult, "Yeah?"
She hung her head, "I'm sorry about how I acted...I just didn't know how to respond..."
Hope unconsciously compromised his concentrational dilemma by looking at her face and holding her hands, "It's alright. I could've handled the situation with Alyssa better myself."
She blushed, taking her hands back and looking away. She fingered the bangles she wore around her wrists, "Yes..." Vanille was distracted. Even though he couldn't see her face, he knew her captivating green eyes were flitting back and forth as whatever was on her mind rushed through her thoughts. He wouldn't be surprised if she was chewing on her bottom lip again, either. He watched as she worked through her thought process.
"Hope," she turned back to him, something akin to worry etched on her face, "You said you didn't fall for her..."
He nodded, "That's right, I didn't. And I mean it," he paused, he really should ask, "Is something wrong?"
"...Never mind."
