Chapter 10

Hope could have sworn that he was so tired on the evening before, that he would even sleep through the entire next day, but to his own surprize, he woke up at a time where the sun wasn't even visible on the sky.
It was still dark in the room, where they all spent the night and Snows snoring was another proof for him that it wasn't the time for their group to set off, but he was sure that something had woken him up on purpose.
Suddenly Hope felt a hand on his arm, which gently shook at him and he was startled by virtue of this unexpected touch.
There followed a whisper from a familar voice and he was unsure if he was still dreaming.
He just heard the damped whisper from the person that came noticeable nearer now:
,,Hope? Hope are you awake?"
,,Yes, whats going on?" He asked still a bit drowsy while he was finally able to recognize the conspicuous red hair that almost hang in his face
,,I want to show you something, just follow me" She whispered to him and sneaked thereupon out of the room.

Hope wanted to reply something but she was already gone again.
He just sighed quietly and decided to get up slowly, in order to carefully surmount the way between his mattress and the old door that led to the outside.
It was still pretty cold to this time and Hope began to freeze a bit, while he walked down the rosty stairs.
Vanille already waited in front of the house for him when he came down, she grabbed his arm and started to run without any warning.

,,Is it really necessary that we run like this?" Hope asked confused, while he tried to keep pace.

,,We should better be back before the others wake up" she answered cheerfully

,,Did you at least informed someone about this little walk?" He wanted to know, even if he could already imagine the answer.

,,Nope" She replied shortly and slowed down the tempo a bit as they arrived at a, for Hope unknown place that was different than the rest of Oerba, not so destroyed.
They entered a surprisingly large meadow, which roughly had the same size of the central place of Oerba.
There were flowers all over the place and Hope could imagine why Vanille was so impressed of the place.

,,I never thought that such a beautiful place like this still exists here" He said astonished

,,Fang and I had found this place yesterday when we were looking for something relevant" she replied and began to lead him through the flower Meadow.

,,I guess thats the reason why you two were away so long?" He asked smiling

,,This is quite possible, Fang wanted to go back, but I didn't even wanted to think about leaving this place so quickly. It's like a little paradise for me that helps me a bit to forget our bleak situation" Vanille said while she looked at the colorful flowers

,,I'm glad to hear that, I was a bit worried about you because you seemed a bit dejected after you saw the current situation of Oerba" Hope commented thoughtfully

,,Yes I was, but I realized some things that helped me to surmount this thoughts, so I can face it later. By the way, it's sweet that you're worried, Thank you" She smiled warmly at him and made a few steps towards him.

The shortened distance to Vanille made him a bit nervous again, it wasn't the first time that they were so close to each other but nethertheless he felt like everytime before, nervous and somewhat excited.
Suddenly he remembered the photo that he found, it was still in his jacket pocket and he decided that this was a good time to give it to her.

,,Äh, I found this in one of the houses yesterday" He took the photo out of his pocket and handed it to her. She looked surprized at the old photo and began to giggle slightly

,,I wouldn't have expected that this photo still exists, we had taken the photo after we finished our first hunt together, how the time flies" She said this visible happy, rather to herself than to him.

Hope was happy that she seemed to be pleased about the found photo, but he also noticed that the dawn already had began which means that it was time to go back.

The others will probably wake up soon and I don't want to imagine how upset Fang will be when she realizes that Vanille isn't there. He became a bit uneasy, while he thought about the possible consequences.

,,Well, I think it's probably time to go back, the others could be already awake" He turned to the rising sun while he said this.

,,Hmm, but there is one other thing I want to do, before we go" She shortened the distance to him again and laid her left hand on his right shoulder.

He felt her hand and was confused because he couldn't imagine what she wanted to do now, there was not really any time at the moment, at least thats what he thought at this time.
He turned around to her, but he couldn't even say a word as she put her arms around his upper body while she leaned her whole body against him and began to press her lips against his.
Hope felt how he lost his balance as a result of this unexpected kiss, he eventually fell with her backwards into the grass.
Now he layed their in the meadow between grass and flowers, while Vanille layed on top of him, she folded her arms on his chest and began to giggle:

,,I admit, that was unexpected" she said giggling.

The completely confused and happy boy could barely form a word, he just stuttered:
,,D-Do you really think I was prepared for this? It's the first time that I got kissed by a girl like this"

,,For me it was the first real kiss too and it was so wonderful wasn't it?"

,,Of course it was" He admitted still smiling, unable to do something else at this moment.
This feeling was much better than he ever thought it would be and he completly discarded the idea to go back, he just wanted to stay here with Vanille.
Something inside him told him that he wouldn't regret it.

Vanille was sure that it was time now to play with open cards, now that she layed on top of the boy for whom she raved.
At the time where she had planned this, she thought it would already satisfy her to kiss him, she almost swore to herself to not overdo it, but now where Vanille saw his confused but sweet smile it overcame her a certain desire for more.

It cannot hurt to go a little bit further she thought and started to kiss him again.

After a while she felt that Hope began to reciprocate her kisses and it kinda excited her even more.
Vanille started to increase the intensity of her kisses while she slowly rolled off him and onto her side, she pulled him close again until there was no place between them while the intensity and the amount of their kisses continued to grow, but she still wanted more even if she was totally aware about their age and the limit which they should keep, nethertheless they were almost still kids.
This fact was the only thing that still made it possible for her to hold back for now, even if she was almost on the best way to flout this unspoken limit.
She hooked her legs into his to build up more contact while she thought about possibilitys to inflame the atmosphere a bit more, without risking an escalation.
While thinking about this, she suddenly felt Hopes hands on a surprisingly high position on her thigs, she gasped slightly and noted with pleasure that he seems to become braver now.
,,S-sorry" Hope said sheepish while he hesitantly started to take his hands of her thighs. Probably he interpreted her reaction wrong.
She immediately took his hands and put them back where they were.
,,Don't be silly, you may place your hands everywhere you want, as long as you keep them on me" she smiled reassuringly and brought her lips back to his with more urgency to emphasize her desire for him.
In her point of view, this was perfect and she wanted to make this moment even more perfect, something inside her told her that it was time for the next stage.
Maybe the current situation blurred her mind a bit, but at the moment she felt more than ready to go further with him, she just wanted to forget everything that was happening around them.
He unknowingly gave her all those feelings for which she longingly had been waited a long time now and so she finally decided to go on, in the hope that he felt the same.

,,Hope?" She spoke to him between kisses

,,Yes?"

,,Can I ask you something?" she asked hesitantly and felt that her heart began to race.

,,Sure" He answered visible in love and she began to kiss him again, while she started to tell him her idea

,,I would like to go further than this... I mean just if you want, we could-" Her sentence was interrupted by an audible sigh from a few meters away and the two passionate loving ones seperated their united lips instantaneous by the shock of the sudden sound.

,,Why did I know that I would find you two here" It was Fang and they both were startled by her sudden appearing

,,Wh-What are you doing here Fang?" Vanille asked while she blushed just like Hope

,,What I do here? I should ask you the same question because we searched for you two everywhere here in Oerba" Fang replied slightly annoyed

,,Sorry, I just showed Hope the place which we found yesterday" She tried to explain desperately

,,Just showing him the place, of course" She called with a slight smile, after a moment she added:
,,Better you two get ready now, we all wanted to explore the old railway bridge today to search for something that could help us with the L'Cie thing, the others are already waiting down the road" She told them this and went back to probably meet up with the others again.

,,She was not as upset as I thought she would be" Hope said hesitantly while he stood up.

He offered Vanille his hand to help her up and she took it thankfully. Her thoughts were still a bit blurred because she was brought out of her uncontrolled and passionate feelings so sudden, but maybe it was the best for them to wait with advanced actions like this, even if they still have no guarantee whether they will ever get the chance to do something like this again because of their L'Cie problem.

,,Do you think we'll be able to repeat this someday?" Vanille eventually asked him

,,We'll have enough time to do everything what you want, if we have finally solved this L'Cie issue" He replied with a warm smile

,,Ok lets make a promise, that we'll stay together like this in the future" She held her pinky finger in his direction.

,,No matter what, promised" He smiled at her and linked his pinky in hers.

,,Shall we go now?" He asked after a while

,,Sure" she answered and they started to go hand in hand along the overgrown way to meet their friends again

Fang finally was back at the forked road where she left the other three L'Cie and she could already imagine the bewildered faces of her comrades when she'll has to explain where Hope and Vanille were and what they did there.
Lightning was the first one who took the word:

,,Do you found them?" she asked with a mix of worry and annoyance

,,Yep I did, they were exactly where I expected them to be" Fank told her pink haired mate with a relaxed voice.

,,And why the hell did they go without saying a word?" Lightning seemed pretty upset

,,Hmm I cant tell for sure, but I could imagine that they wanted some privacy for their little... lovegames" Fang proclaimed with a mischievous smile on her lips

,,Lovegames?" The ex-soldier seemed pretty irritated now.

Snows big hand landed on her shoulder while he laughed loudly:

,,Seems like little Hope and Vanille slowly grow up sis"

,,I'm still not your sister!" she said annoyed

,,Wait, wait Fang, are you really saying that those two innocent kids were... I- I mean they really had se-?" Sazh involved himselve in the talk now with a distraught facial impression, but Fang interrupted him before he could speak it out.

,,Oh god no! No they still had there clothes on, they didn't go THAT far" This was a picture that not even she wanted to have in her thoughts.

,,But..." she finally continued with a laugh ,,As far as I could read Vanilles gaze, this hadn't lasted much longer, she stared at him like a famished beast of prey and they both seemed pretty unrestrained as they lay on the ground there and did their thing"

,,We really should have an eye on this, I mean they're still kids" Sazh sighed

,,Come on, we should let them their freedom, as long as it doesn't totally escalate" Snow interjected understandingly

,,I really don't need to see that again" Fang said a bit quieter because she already saw the young pair, that finally came towards her and the others.

,,Are we going now?" Her red haired friend asked them innocently

,,Äh right, the railway bridge, sure, we were just waiting for you two" Sazh answered and started as the first one to walk, Lightning and Snow followed him shortly thereafter, while Fang started to go on as the last one, she went directly behind Vanille and Hope.
The woman looked at the hand in hand walking kids with curiosity.

,,Are you two feeling good?" She asked after a while

,,Yep, very good" They both answered nearly simultaneously before they started to giggle

,,You're crazy" Fang said smiling as she clapped them gently from behind onto their shoulders

She could already see their decided destination from down here, and just for a little second there she thought that there was something at the end of the bridge, some kind of silhouette.
Unfortunately the sun was blinding her too much and she was forced to look away for a short time, but the silhouette seemed to be dissappeard as she looked in the direction again.

This Chapter is the end of the Story, I hope you enjoyed it at least a bit and I also would like to hear your opinions about this Story, no matter if positive or negative ones. I will also continue to work on the Story, because I want to try to erase at least a few mistakes that I might find and I still don't know how to rate the Story, I think chapter 1-9 are ok if I rate it 'T' but I don't know if I have to rate the Story 'M' now because of the last chapter (I really don't know the limits there), maybe you have some suggestions regarding this.
I will also make a new story with the older Hope soon. (edit: Will take a bit longer, got a lot of pressure with work the last few months, sorry about this)
Thank you for reading this story and thank you for any possible kind of Review. I appreciate it. :)
Nice Greetings ~SKape