Ahh this chapter is just going to be kind of a filler, but it helps develop a bondage sort of with Adeline and Lightning since so far they've never really had that much interaction and stuff....yup! Well hope you guys like it anyways :)

BTW who wore green on Earth Day? I did! :) Support our Earth! Lol

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I've Got You

Chapter 7: "Bonding"

It was starting to get pretty late, and I when I mean "pretty late" I actually mean really super duper late. I decided not to really say anything. I mean I wasn't sleepy or anything, but maybe five minutes to rest would be nice. Yeah...but I didn't want to ask Light though. I didn't want to "slow her down." Besides, like I said, I'm really not that tired. I did for a fact know that Hope was. It's really not that hard to notice. He probably didn't want Light to know, ever since our little incident a few hours ago.

Half and hour passed by, and my legs were starting to ache and feel sore. Ugh okay now I wanted to rest. Maybe I should just ask? I mean we have been walking non-stop...and maybe Lightning's a little tired too! Hey, it's a possibility.

As if my prayers have just been answered, Light stopped in her tracks. "We'll stop here," she announced, "I'll look around the area, you two rest up." Yes! Thank you to whoever is up there for this small gift! Hope pretty much just fell straight to the ground. He was sitting down, leaning on a bulky boulder while I sat on the opposite side facing him.

He was really exhausted, no doubt about that. You could easily tell.

"Hey," he spoke up tiredly, his eyes half open "...wake me up when Light gets back...so we can...keep moving and..." His eyes lazily closed as he drfited to sleep.

"Sweet dreams, Hope." I said quietly, smiling.

So, a few minutes later I decided maybe I should get some sleep. That didn't work out so well. Apparently when I said that I only needed a five minute break....I actually meant it. I'm completely not tired anymore! No, actually I probably am. In fact, I'm probably really tired, but I'm so tired that I don't feel like I am and I'm really wide awake right now. Yeah...that probably didn't make any sense, but you know the feeling, right? Well, that's just great! I can't get to sleep, I'm bored, and I can't even talk to anyone since Hope's fast asleep and Lightning's...somewhere.

I heard footsteps coming up from behind. Startled, I twisted my head around just to find out it was Light. Oh ha, I so knew it was her.

She looked at Hope, sleeping peacefully. "Fell asleep, huh?" she said, taking a seat next to me while putting her gunblade to the side.

"Yeah."

"You're not tired?"

"No, not really."

Out of no where, we both heard Hope mumbling something. We looked at him. He was still sleeping. Oh, so Hope's a sleep talker! How fun will this be from now on!

"....Mom?" Hope said, still sleeping.

"Tch, not by a long shot." I heard Lightning say quietly. I glanced at her curiously to find her with a small smile on her face. Oh my goodness, Lightning smiled! Five children have been reborn!

I smirked, letting out a small scoff-laugh. Lightning looked at me oddly. "What?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing, it's just the first time I've ever really seen you smile."

"Oh..." she said, doing her best to hide the embarassment in her voice. Wow, Lightning is actually capable of smiling and getting embarassed. Who would've thought?

"Smiling's nothing to be embarassed about." I assured her.

She looked at me and frowned. "Who said I was ever embarassed?" she said with a tinge of annoyance. Alright, guess my fun's over! I decided to shut up after that. Both of us just sat there, not saying a word. Uhh talk about awkward! Well, for me, atleast. Maybe it is for Lightning, since I've recently discovered that it is possible for her to have emotioins and all that jazz. I idly fumbled around with my sword-whip. That made me realize something, I never really used the sword part, just the whip. What a sad truth... I just...found the whip a lot more easier to use for some reason. Maybe it was about time I start learning how to use the sword.

Maybe...I could ask Lightning to help! She does use that gunblade more as a blade rather than a gun. Doesn't hurt to ask, does it? Besides, it's really not that intimidating to ask her anymore. After all, she actually has emotions! Um, yeah, I just can't get that thought out of my head. Okay...I'll just go for it.

"I don't really know how to use a sword that well...so that's why I always use this as a whip." I blurted out. Not really the way I wanted to get this conversation started, but whatever.

She raised her eyebrows. "You don't know how to use a sword?" I shook my head. "Still not tired?" I nodded. She got up suddenly, picking up her gunblade. I gave her a confused look. What's she up to?

"There's a small area not far from here. We should go there...that way we won't be able to wake him up." She said.

"Wake him up? Wait...why are we going there anyways?" I asked, still confused.

"Because...you need to learn how to use that sword. It will be more useful if you know how to fight with both parts of your weapon." She actually was going to help me out? That's cool! I mean, how many teenagers can say they've done training with a Guardian Corps soldier? Not that many. I got up with my sword-whip already in my and followed her, making sure not to wake up Hope.

The area we were going to train at was literally only eight minutes away. There was a a decent sized lake here. Hope I don't fall in there on accident!

"Okay, show me what you've got." She said while pulling out her gunblade and getting into a fighting position.

"W-what?" I was completely baffled.

"It will be easier to get better at if you actually spar with someone....Don't worry I promise I won't hurt you."

Nervously, I got out my sword-whip and got into my battle position. She lunged her gunblade at me. Quickly, I blocked it with my sword. I dodged as she came in with another blow. I tried to take a good swipe at her, but she easily blocks my shot.

We continued for a good twenty minutes. We were both attacking, blocking, dodging... I've got to say, I was really getting the hang of using my sword-whip! Like...the sword part.

"Not too shabby." Light commented. Coming from her, that's a pretty good compliment if you ask me.

"Thanks." I said smiling.

Our sparring only lasted a few more minutes. It was going good. Trying to dodge Lightning's blows were not that easy, but I managed. However, while I was trying to block her sword, I was off time and tried to dodge it as I felt her blade slide by the bottom of my knee. I cringed.

"Are you okay?" I heard Lightning asked me. The look on her face...she looked worried.

"I'm fine...it's just a little cut." I said examining my knee. It wasn't that bad. Sure it hurt a little, but it was fine. I could barely even see any blood.

She looked at me uncertainly, but decided to let it go. "Let's call it a night."

In the middle of our short walk back, I started to feel a sharp pain on my knee. I ignored it, though. I just needed to rest, it will be fine tomorrow. The pain started to get worse, though. I clutched it for a while, but then I felt something on my hands. Quickly, I took my hand back to find it covered in blood. My eyes widened as I looked down at my knee. It was bleeding pretty badly, and the pain was not helping.

"Uh...Light..." I said weakly. She looked back at me, and her eyes widened when she saw my knee. I was about to say something, but I fell to the ground instead, groaning in pain.

"Adeline!" I heard her yell. After that, I totally blacked out.

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I woke up. It was morning, and the sun was shining brightly in my face. Great, I actually had to open my eyes now. Wait...my knee. What happened last night after I fainted? I glanced down at it to find a light green scarf wrapped around it. Light green scarf...oh! Is it...is it Hope's!? I looked across from me to find Hope still asleep. He wasn't wearing his scarf. So it is his scarf.... Well, that's nice, now I've just gotten blood all over it! I got up and stretched. I tried walking around a little to see if my knee was really okay. It didn't hurt at all anymore. I carefully untied the neatly tied knot. The bleeding stopped too. Thank goodness!

I decided to go to that lake area from last night to try and get all of this blood washed off of this scarf. When I finally got there, I saw Lightning sitting there cleaning her gunblade. She obviously heard my footsteps and looked back.

"Morning." She said.

"Morning." I said as I walked over to the lake. I began to wash the blood off.

"Is your knee okay?"

"It's fine...but what happened last night anyways?" I asked curiously.

"Oh...well after you fainted I just carried you back." Talk about embarassing! Suddely, I feel like a big wimp. She continued, "Hope woke up and started freaking out. Since we didn't have any bandages or anything he insisted that we just use his scarf." I swear my face turned a pinkish color. He is probably like the sweetest guy ever!

"Uh...thanks for carrying me back then. I guess I'm going to have to thank Hope later." I said as a continued to wash the scarf.

"He cares about you a lot, you know." She said.

I blushed. "Oh, uh really?"

"The whole night he was worried about you." She simply said as she got up. "I'm going to go check ahead, I'll meet back where Hope is, okay?"

"Got it." I said as she walked off.

It took a while, but I finally got Hope's scarf to become completely spotless. I was really proud of myself at the moment. I made my way back to the camp site.

When I got back, Hope was still asleep. As much as I didn't want to wake him up, I had to. Light would be here any minute now. I shook him lightly.

"Hope...wake up sleepyhead." I said in a sing-song voice sort of.

His eyes fluttered open. Once he was fully awake he took a quick look at me knee. "Does your knee feel better?" he asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah...oh here you go." I said while handing him back his scarf. "Don't worry, I washed it."

"Oh, thanks..." He said nervously. Why was he so nervous all of a sudden? Oh, I don't know! Nor did I care really, he's just way too cute.

I smiled at him and gave him a kiss on his cheek...again. "Thanks for letting me use it!" I said while smiling brightly.

"I-uh, you're welcome." He stuttered, totally blushing.

I giggled. "We should go catch up with Light, she's not too far ahead."

He shyly nodded as we walked off to find her.

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Haha, I was actually planning to make this kind of short, but look how that turned out! Well anyways reviews always make me happy, so yeah tell me what you think! :)