I couldn't resist writing some Married!LightxHope. I realize that Lightning is more than a little OOC here, but hey...considering the circumstances of the story...she could have changed a little bit. Whatever. Just read it. XD

This is the result of more half-asleep writing. I tried to go over it and fix any mistakes, but I have a tendency to miss the big ones. xD

I hope you like it~

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! I wish I had time these to reply to all of you...someday. Someday I'll actually get it done. :3

Enlightenment had never come on like a slap in the face before Hope Estheim stumbled through the front door of his home one evening. He dropped his briefcase on the tile and fell against the door, the wood cooled by the frigid night air. He tugged at the silken torture device knotted around his neck, eyes closed and a sigh slipping from his lungs.

"You look like the goddess nailed you with a bolt of divine lightning, Hope. Bad day?"

A smile broke out on Hope's face. Without opening his eyes, he reached out and looped his arms around the waist he knew would be there and kissed the lips that lay a few inches below his own.

"Indeed she did," he murmured, pulling away. "She hit me with you a long time ago. Knocked me flat on my ass, and I got right back up to fall for you all over again."

Hope opened his eyes when his wife playfully punched him, her aquamarine eyes sparkling while a faint blush dusted her cheeks.

"She didn't hit you with me," Lightning muttered. Hope smiled and kissed her nose.

"Sure she did. I'm still shocked every morning when I wake up and realize that the rest of my life wasn't a dream."

Lightning pulled him down by his tie, silencing him with a kiss.

"Alright, Romeo." Her face grew a bit more serious. "Now really, what dawned on you just now?"

Hope sighed, pulling her to his chest. Their six years of marriage had rekindled Lightning's formerly dead desire for physical contact – with Hope, anyway – and he had decided to seize every opportunity he had to hold her.

"I just understood and forgave my dad for never being around," he murmured, running a hand through the short upper layers of her hair. "If working in global consolidation is this bad, I don't even want to know what the workload is like for a Sanctum politician."

"…if you're worried about not being home enough – "

" – No! No, I'm just worried that…that maybe my job is taking too much out of me and my life here."

Lightning yanked on his tie, freeing him from its silken clutches before holding it up. "Obviously it isn't. If it was, you might not have proof hanging around your neck."

Smiley faces, misshapen hearts, clumsy stars, and swirling 'I –heart- you's danced in various colors of magic marker around one of the most heart-warming statements Hope believed to exist in the English language.

# I DAD

Hope felt his heart soar at the thought of the source of ingenuity behind the artwork on his tie. Before he could speak, Lightning stepped to the side, smiling.

"There's a surprise from us in the bedroom. Dinner's almost ready, so make it fast."

Pressing a quick kiss to Lightning's lips, Hope darted across the living room, up the stairs, and down the hall to his and Lightning's bedroom. He slowly opened the door and peered into the darkness, the light from the hallway illuminating the floor leading to the closet and not much else. He opened the door a little more to reach in and turn the light on, still seeing nothing. He shrugged and walked in, walking to the bed and falling back onto it, heaving a tired sigh.

No sooner had his back hit the bed than two small shadows descended on him.

"GOTCHA, DAD!"

"Nuh-uh, I got Daddy!"

"I'm older. I got him first."

"But…"

"Whoa, whoa, hey," Hope chuckled, gently silencing them both. "No fighting over Dad."

"But we've been waiting for you to get home aaaallll day!" the older one groaned, green eyes flashing with enthusiasm as he sat back, absent-mindedly tugging at the sea green bandanna around his neck – Hope's old bandanna and currently Tori Estheim's most prized possession. "We made you a buncha stuff!"

Hope smiled and ruffled the choppy cuts of pink hair atop Tori's head. "Like what?"

Six year-old Tori jumped off of the bed, sticking his tongue out at his little sister, who stuck her lip out at him in retaliation. Hope sat up and picked her up, setting four year-old Nora in his lap – her favorite place to sit at any given moment. She giggled and snuggled into him, content to let her brother do all the running around gathering the fruits of their labor.

"We saw a whole bunch of ties when Mom took us shopping today and she bought one," he began, body almost trembling with excitement as he held up a shopping bag. "We drew you a bunch of pictures too!"

Hope smiled and took the bag, peering in to see another lavishly decorated tie inside. Their designs hadn't deviated much, but instead of displaying their adoration, they'd penned their names. Tori had obviously written his himself, but the neatness of Nora's name suggesting her mother's heavy aid in the task.

"I can almost write my name, Daddy!" Nora bubbled, looking up at him through her platinum bangs. "Mama only had to move my hand." Her bright blue eyes narrowed as she looked over at Tori. "Tori can do it all by himself though. Mama made him sit in the corner 'cause he made fun of me.

Hope chuckled, kissing her forehead while Tori glowered. For being four years old, Nora was extremely aware of her surroundings and spoke English much better than other children her age. "Well, Tori's older," he began. "He's learned more." When Nora sighed in resignation, Hope continued. "Soon you'll be able to write your name by yourself, too, don't worry." He smiled at her. "Promise."

Nora giggled and grabbed his hands, clapping them in front of her. Tori jumped off the bed again and retrieved several pieces of paper from the dressing table.

"We drew these for you, too!" he explained, holding up several colorful works of art in the kids' favorite medium – crayons. They'd depicted their family in smiling faces in front of an impression of their house, New Palumpolum sunsets, chocobos, sheep, and full portraits of Hope, 'Happy Birthday' written on every masterpiece.

Though touched and impressed with their efforts, Hope couldn't help noticing the tie and briefcase making cameos in each of the drawings of him. Had those two things become so normal in their views of him that they merited appearances in his children's impressions of him? Was that an indication of him working too much?

"These are beautiful," he murmured, still managing a genuine smile despite his worries. "I think this is my best birthday present yet."

Tori and Nora grinned in satisfaction just before Lightning's voice drifted into the room.

"Dinner's ready, you three!"

"Come on," Hope said, standing and settling Nora on his hip. "Lets go eat."

"Now, let me think…was I the same when I woke up this morning?" Hope paused to glance at his children, both of whom had long fallen fast asleep. He looked back down at the storybook and located his final line.

"But if I'm not me, then who in the world am I?"

He let the sentence hang for a second or two before closing the book and setting it in its place on the bookshelf behind him. He allowed himself a few seconds to smile at Tori and Nora, who slumbered peacefully in their beds, before rising to tuck them both him.

"You do bedtime stories so much better than I do," Lightning said, smiling at Hope from her place on the bed when he came into their room. He plopped down beside her and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling his face into her neck.

"Don't worry, you do more than enough during the day to make up for it."

Lightning tangled her fingers into Hope's hair and met his lips with hers.

"Hope…there's something we need to talk about," she murmured, pulling away for air.

"Oh shit," Hope chuckled, brushing their noses together. "Am I in trouble?"

"Depends on how you look at it."

The seriousness in her voice caught him off guard, and Hope felt his body go rigid with apprehensive curiosity. "Is something wrong?" he asked quietly, urgently searching her eyes.

Lightning's smile reduced Hope to a grinning, lovestruck teenager in just a second. "Not at all. We just need to talk."

"But it's my birthday," Hope playfully whined, resting his head on her chest to look up at her like a kicked puppy. He and Lightning knew what he'd had in mind – his nocturnal gift from Lightning. She flicked his forehead, huffing.

"That's exactly why we have to talk."

Hope sighed. "Alright. What do we need to talk about?"

Though Lightning's killer straight face remained firmly in place, it was sorely betrayed by the excited sparkle in her eyes.

"Names."

Several seconds passed in silence after Lightning's last word. Hope blankly stared into her eyes before understanding practically placed a lightbulb over the mop of shimmering platinum atop his head, jaw dropping.

"You…you're…?"

Lightning laughed – legitimately laughed. "Hope, I've told you this twice before. You're allowed to say 'pregnant.'" Hope noticed with a bit of amusement that even she stumbled over the word in a way.

"Aren't I allowed to be speechless?" he asked, grinning as he pulled her up into a hug. "It's not every day I get a baby for my birthday!"

Lightning returned his hug, somehow managing to keep a lid on her urge to laugh at her husband's antics. "You get a pending baby for your birthday." She pulled away and gestured at the graphic Hope hadn't noticed – a yellow traffic button over her stomach reading "Daddy's Project: Under Construction."

Hope chuckled and leaned in to kiss her. "I love you so much, Lightning," he whispered into her mouth.

"I love you too," Lightning replied with a heated nip at his lower lip. "You want your usual gift still? There are other ways to get the job done without putting the baby in danger – "

"Screw it," Hope laughed, hugging her with all the enthusiasm of a child. "You've already made me the happiest man in the world."

I have no idea what people read to their kinds for bedtime stories anymore...so I just kinda...used whatever story Jack reads to Aaron in that one flash-forward in season 4 of Lost. XD -lazy-

And my cousin had Lightning's shirt when she was pregnant. Cutest damn thing ever. XD