Alyssa opened the door to Sora. Well, at least she could remember Sora. He was Hope's only friend since the move to LA - not that Hope had any friends to begin with. She couldn't keep up with Riku's rate of friend-making, though.

"Merry Christmas, Alyssa!" He greeted with his usual smile. "Is Hope home?"

"No, can't, must study" came the reply from upstairs.

"You heard the man," Alyssa said, pointing up. "I don't know what's gotten into him but Hope doesn't study."

"He just wants to graduate early and go to Stanford and get a degree in neuroscience before going to neurosurgery but I have a feeling it's more about getting away from this place and less about his degree. Is Riku home then?"

That was the moment Riku came running. He accidentally stepped on Sora's foot while rushing inside.

"Now he is," Alyssa said with a smile. "Oh, come on. Get in. I'm not letting you stay outside like this." Sora kept his big smile, although it faltered a bit. He got inside and headed to the living room. "Want anything?"

"A hot cocoa?"

"Right at y-"

"Can you make it like Nora does, though? No offense to you, Alyssa, but I prefer Nora's." 'I like it better when she's not locked in her room.'

Alyssa hesitated a bit. "Okay." She went upstairs and Sora turned the TV on. There was nothing really interesting so he settled on the only thing he deemed fitting, Pixar's Up. There were bangs coming from the upper floor. Screaming, too. As a regular house guest of the Estheims, Sora knew the meaning of this behavior. It still freaked him out every time Nora started losing it. The last time he brought Roxas with him because his twin, apparently, had a biology project to do with Hope, and then Nora lost it again. It was over something as small as losing her earrings, a pair she was going to wear to a party with Bart's colleagues, but a losing moment nontheless. Roxas was so scared that he told Sora the next day he was going to ask for another partner just so he wouldn't have to go through that again.

Riku joined Sora halfway through the losing moment. "Harsh, isn't it?"

"I've lived through worse," the younger teen said with a sigh. The fact that they didn't even need to say hello was incredible for Sora, being in love and all.

"It's the worst this week."

After a losing moment of fifteen minutes Nora came down, looking as relaxed and content as she usually was around other people. The boys were glued to the movie. They waited until the credits started rolling to start drinking from the mugs of hot chocolate that were placed before them.

"You really outdone yourself today, Mom," Riku said between sips. "With the behavior."

"Dr. Raines said I need to start going on a larger dose of Zoloft, Riku. Don't even think about it." She sat down and crossed her arms. "Hey, Sora. Hope's studying for that chemistry midterm-"

"I got that. I can hang out with Riku instead."

"What? No." The silver-haired woman covered herself up even more with her robe. "What I was going to ask is, why aren't you studying?"

"He's not taking anything with Hope," Riku said, not letting Sora a chance to open his mouth. Rapid knocks on the door came following as Hope, putting on a shirt, came running down the stairs and opened the door.

"Hey, Vanille!"

"Hey Hope," the girl said before being grabbed by him and rushed upstairs.

"Mom, we're going to be upstairs!"

"Alright, but no funny business!"

"You heard her, Vanille. No funny business."

"Can anyone explain that to me?" Alyssa asked after moments of silence. "Is that his girlfriend?"

"Hopefully she will be soon" came the answer from both of the boys.

"Hope has a girlfriend. I thought the day will never come."

"I'm going back to Australia soon." Hope stopped pacing and stared at his friend. "What?"

"No you don't. I know you told me they don't want you back, but I know you're still going."

Vanille was busy playing with Alexander's ears to pay attention to what Hope said. The young German Shepherd puppy was happy at the attention given to him. "It's not such a big deal, silly!"

"It is a big deal when your parents tell you they don't want to see you again, Vanille."

"You wouldn't know it-"

"My mother can't live through a day without pills and my father doesn't even acknowledge my existence. It's feels the same as is they would tell me to never show my face to them. My god, Vanille, you can't be that naive!"

"I'm not naive!" Alexander ran to hide under the desk. "I know what I'm doing!"

"So why are you going back to Rio?" Hope started pacing again. "Why? It's the wrong thing to do-"

"My mother is sick, okay? I'm going back to Rio to help her. Merry Christmas to you too, Hope." The redhead stood up and left the room. Then she turned back. "And Alexander too." And then she left again.

Hope dropped on his bed, grunting in frustration. Alexander hopped on Hope's chest, crushing him. He may have been just a puppy but he was as heavy as the dog the family had before. Vanille was going to see her parents in Rio. Hope was her man of secrets, he knew everything there was to know about her - and still she was going to see her family. The people who threw her out. The more he thought he understood, the less he actually had.

"Alyssa!"

Seconds later, his sister burst through the door. "Yes, sir! I shall answer to your every command!"

"Not funny."

"There was a girl who came here and left literally ten minutes later. Care to explain that to me?"

"I'm not telling secrets I swore to keep a secret." He wasn't lying. Hope was a terrible liar. It was one thing he didn't learn from Claire, thank goodness. "Can you make sure that I don't leave the house any time soon?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because otherwise I'll be in Rio in a few days and no one will know why, and I don't want to be there."

Vanille had two pets. Hope knew them. Two cats, one called Anima and the other called Hecatoncheir. If she went to see her parents, it meant someone had to take care of them. He didn't want to do it, though. He couldn't do it. For the same reason he didn't want to go to Rio after Vanille. And he didn't want to know why he was thinking about her pets at a time like this.

A pink-haired girl got out of a black car and headed to the Estheim house. Vanille was tired of following people with her eyes and ran to the pink-haired girl.

"Excuse me!"

"Yes?" The girl's eyes were very much like Hope's. Too blue and too angry, but very much like Hope's. "Can I help you?"

"I'm trying to go into that house..." Vanille pointed at the Estheim house. "My friend is there and I need his help-"

"You do know that this is an invites-only event, right...?" The pink-haired girl crossed her arms and Vanille looked at her pleadingly. "What do you need from there?"

"As I said, my friend is there and I need his help." She tugged her coat tighter. "I told him I was going somewhere and I don't know how to tell him that I didn't go there anyway..."

"Can I help, then?"

"What do you understand about this problem?"

"A lot of things." The girl took out a cigarette packet and a lighter. "I always do that to my sister. I wish I could stop." She lit a cigarette and put it in her mouth. "I can help. Believe me."

"Thank you, eh..."

"Lightning. Call me Lightning."

"Okay. I'm Vanille. It's nice to meet you."

A/N: Vanille's other cat's name, Anima, means soul in Catalan, Italian and Latin and I'm sure it does in some other languages too. I had to reference Lightning Returns, obviously.

I want to update quicker (even though this is the only update so far) but I can't. I have a writer's block. Had one for a long, long time. So that. But I will update.