"And as you turn the corner, the sound sharpens."

They met again at the train station a week later. Snow and Serah had somehow gotten him to succumb to a simple schedule that included him making sure Lightning was ferried around properly. He wasn't so sure how thrilled the recruit herself would be about this; and truthfully, he wasn't sure how thrilled he himself was.

He spotted her out of the corner of his eye as he handed his luggage to the carrier. She seemed to reciprocate, marching straight in his direction after making eye contact.

"Did you navigate through the train station okay?" He asked conversationally in greeting. Might as well start somewhere.

"It's a train station, not a maze," she deadpanned, handing off her bag to the same carrier.

This was going to be a long train ride, Hope thought.

He looked around. "Snow and Serah aren't here to see you off?"

She frowned as if she wasn't already grimacing slightly. "I told them the train left an hour later."

"And. . . how okay are they going to be with that when they find out you lied?"

"They'll have to deal with it." Lightning passed him, heading towards the boarding platform. "And besides, it was their collective assumption that I need looking after."

So she's proving that she can be independent, Hope thought dully in his head, and making sure they know she's pissed. In a way, it was a little bit childish, but at the same time, most kids wouldn't have the gall to actually do it. (He wouldn't at that age anyhow, or even currently.)

The train seating was divided into six-seat rooms, four rooms per car. Bodhum was much more of a vacation destination than Palumpolum – the real human traffic was on the train going in the opposite direction, so Hope and Lightning found they had a section to themselves. Since they had enough room, the two of them sat across from each other, Lightning staring absently out the window, Hope reading a book.

Well, pretending to read. He never had much of an attention span for literature unless it was extremely captivating.

After about half an hour of this, Hope abandoned the book. Lightning was still looking out the window absent-mindedly – what was so interesting about the metropolis scenery anyhow?

"So . . ." he tried striking conversation; catch her attention with something relating to her, he thought. "Your name isn't actually Lightning, is it?"

When he first spoke up, she had only turned an eye to him. Now that the topic was on her, she looked at him completely. Looking at her now, if she didn't wear such an irked expression all the time, she would be quite pretty for her age. Not like what a lot of girls would assume make them pretty – buying makeup years ahead of them and doing their hair for hours. She was much more natural looking – no false beautification. The prettiest roses have the sharpest thorns, after all.

"It is now," Lightning responded. It took Hope a minute to remember he had asked about her name. She looked over to her carry on bag – a worn old backpack – and pulled out a set of printed papers stapled together. Holding them out for him to see, he noticed they were registration forms. Enlisting papers.

'Farron, Lightning E.' read on the top.

". . . Ah," was all he found he could say.

She put the papers back, and eyed him for a moment. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Your name," She clarified, " 'Hope' isn't common for a boy."

"Well 'Lightning' isn't common for anyone."

"Neither is 'Snow', but I didn't say anything."

He choked on a laugh; not quite expecting her to have a sense of humour – even if it was a dry one. The story behind his name was, in his opinion, a little lame, but he never really minded elaborating on memories of his mother.

"My mom picked my name – apparently she got sick when she was pregnant. Even thought about not having the baby, it was so bad. But once I was born, she didn't regret anything she had gone through – I was her 'Hope'."

Lightning was quiet. A minute was long enough for him to feel awkward.

"Or so she told me, anyhow," He added on quickly.

"It's a nice story." For a minute, he thought she was going to smile. And she almost did – almost. Her emotionless frown loosened for a fraction of a second.

Subject change. "Out of curiosity, what made you enlist?" he asked after a moment. Might as well keep their unsaid game of twenty questions going, otherwise the train ride was going to take forever.

"I want a job with good pay and good training," She answered like it was rehearsed. Her gaze delved back to the window. "And. . ."

"And?"

Her frown creased a little more. "I don't want to be stuck in the house all summer."

Hope rested his elbow on the edge armrest, and in turn his head in his palm. "Is it about your sister and brother-in-law?"

"He's not my brother," she glared.

"Well he's marrying Serah, isn't he? And Serah's your sister, so –"

"He's not going to marry her," Lightning crossed her arms. "He's muscle and that's it. He's dumb as a bag of hammers – and you'd probably pay more for that than him."

Harsh, Hope mentally winced; Snow had it harder with his in-law than he would've thought.

Thinking back though, Hope didn't like Snow much – if at all – when they first met. "Snow sucks at first impressions, doesn't he."

"I don't know what Serah sees in him."

Serah, with his little knowledge of her personality, seemed like someone who wouldn't leave anyone out. Hope had a feeling that despite the closeness of the sisters, Lightning was feeling something like a third wheel.

He mentally noted to chide Snow next time they met up.

The train ride had been a solid six hours or so, so they arrived in Palumpolum in the late afternoon. The rest of the ride was half simple chatter, half comfortable silence. Lightning somehow managed to fit his first impressions of her, and at the same time be much more than that with the way she talked. She was strong for her age in many aspects.

The Sanctum Recruit Training Regimen (the mouthful had been shortened to SRTR) started tomorrow. They had a spare bedroom in the Estheim household anyhow, but his father would be away for the next few months due to politics and events in Eden - in the end, there was more than enough space to let Lightning stay for the night. Originally, he was a little surprised Serah and Snow asked him to let Lightning stay with him before the recruit training - He was a healthy young man after all, and she was a young girl. Taking her personality into account, and whatever training she's already had, he came to assume that possible physical harm to her wasn't anything to worry about.

It was weird for him to be walking back into his house. Maybe because he'd been away all year. He hadn't come back on the winter break; his dad was away then too, what would be the point of coming back? The only equivalent feeling to nostalgia that was inside him was a growing anonymity of it all. And the two feelings never mix.

"It's bigger than I thought," Lightning remarked after he set down the things in the entry hall. "Then again, so was your apartment . . ."

"Hm?" He couldn't hear her mutters as he chucked his shoes to the side.

"Nothing," She said, leaving her bag by the side – there was no point unpacking if she was leaving for the base the next day. "Do you live alone?"

"My Dad lives here too," Hope answered, setting his own things next to the stairs so he would remember to bring them back to his room. "But he's away for the time being; a business trip in Eden."

Walking into the kitchen, Hope searched the cupboards and fridge for something to fix for dinner for the two of them, while Lightning looked around the house. He expected the cupboards to be a little bare, and they didn't disappoint – which was why he subjected to ordering pizza.

He decided, for the sake of not starving to death, he'd go grocery shopping tomorrow after seeing Lightning off to the base.

AN:

I know, I know, I break chapters at such weird points. ;;;; I'm having more fun with the banter between a young-but-mature Lightning and an actually-mature Hope. I love writing for the two of them normally anyhow, though. SO, how's everyone faring with my headcanon for this AU?

I also know I said I'm doing a lot of work at school right now, yet I'm updating. . . ha ha. ;;;;;; well I finished a big project today, so I was feeling like I deserved a bit of writing time.

Just as well, I'm going to try and get more romantic aspects into this, I'm getting there, promise. . . OTL. This is what I get for messing with the make-or-break dynamic of a pairing!

AND, a little note on my rendition of Snow and Serah in this:

Serah and Lightning are close, so naturally they're protective of each other; this is still present in this AU. And Snow. . . is Snow. His million-dollar lottery ticket prize is his big happy family, right? I feel he'd become concerned with Lightning's well-being quickly in the prospect of being related some day, whether she likes it or not. (Like the game.) But because now Lightning is the younger one, I can imagine Serah and Snow would sort of subconsciously try and take more parental-roles in regards to Light. (Again, whether she likes it or not.) But I have a feeling those kind of concerns and closeness would only make Lightning, the lone wolf she is, feel awkward. I hope this helps everyone see where I'm coming from for this fic.

Please continue to follow and support me in this. 3