"Coming in close, moving far away, being in sight – I'm not touched by these things."

After a night of pizza and mild jabs at cooking skills (or lack thereof), Lightning retired at eleven, saying she should sleep early to be ready for tomorrow. Hope, having little else to do, did the same, though not for the same reasons. He just genuinely wanted to sleep.

He set his alarm to what he thought was early enough, though it wasn't, apparently, since Lightning was up earlier than him. He could smell something pleasant, and simple; toast?

In a most gracious manner (sleepily stumbling down the stairs with a hand up his shirt, scratching at an itch on his back) he found his houseguest in the kitchen pouring cereal into a bowl.

Tell you a secret: Hope's never woken up to a woman in the house since he was fourteen, and that was his mother.

"I'm surprised you salvaged something out of those bare cupboards," he mused mildly. Lightning didn't face him directly, only grunt in reply and set two bowls of cereal on the table, and a stack of toast. Hope was a little surprised. "I didn't think I would get some too."

"It's not like I'm going to be ungrateful," Lightning looked at him now, unemotional as the day before.

"That's not – well, thanks." Hope dug out some cutlery for the two of them, sitting down across from Lightning.

"I'm surprised someone actually lives here day by day," Lightning said between spoonfuls of cereal. She was still in her pajamas, so she couldn't have been up much earlier than he. "There's nothing in the cupboards."

Hope laughed dryly. "Someone lives here, yeah, but you can't really call it 'day by day'. My Dad's never home for more than a week, and he can't cook to save his life, so he orders out all the time."

"And you?"

"Me? I don't normally live here; not since I started university."

The morning was fairly quiet, and once the food was no longer in sight, Hope took the dishes.

"You want to go get ready? I'll clean up."

She nodded, and walked back to the second floor.

Hope had loaded her bags – well, bag – into the car when Lightning came back down with her carry-on knapsack. She had something of a militia-style uniform, a high-necked tunic-like jacket with knee-length cargos, plentiful of pockets and belt loops to carry supplies and the like, all of which being within a gray and black colour scheme. The only thing that wasn't monochrome coloured were the brown calf-high boots. Even the shoulder guard insets that glowed faintly were white, symbolizing no specified rank; that in itself being the rank of a recruit.

"Ready to go?"

She nodded.

Lightning hadn't expected Hope to be a good driver, or even know how to drive, but he surprised her. He didn't have a car when he was in Bodhum, as far as she knew – he must've learned pre-post-secondary.

The car ride was mostly silent. Not as awkward as the train ride, but the lack of noise was noticeable.

"Did you knock on my door in Bodhum because you knew I was coming back to Palumpolum, and thought you could hitch a ride?"

She looked to him. He wasn't looking at her, he was looking at the road like a good driver should.

"Out of mild curiosity, I'm just wondering," Hope continued, "I've never been Nicky-Nine-door'd before." They stopped at a red light.

She shrugged, leaning against the arm rest of her seat. "I wasn't going to ring and run, if that's what you mean. Yeah, I thought I could get a ride to Palumpolum without Serah and Snow's help. They talked about you before."

"You're really against them, aren't you?" He turned onto another road, changing lanes.

"Not them," Lightning corrected. "Just Snow." She frowned out the window. "He's an idiot. I come home and find the two of them there, and he jumps up and says, 'welcome home, little sis!' like a moron."

Hope laughed dryly. "That does sound like him."

"Before I even knew he proposed, too. It was stupid."

"And you . . . ?"

"Kneed him in the crotch."

As hard as it was to imagine a man two metres tall crumbling before a fifteen-year-old girl, the thought was terribly amusing.

"Well there's something else you'll get out of Sanctum training," they turned onto another road; the waterfront and PSICOM base in sight, "more ways to keep Snow off of Serah."

She smirked. "Damn straight."

He pulled up at the side of the base, wired fences lining the piping and buildings that made up the complex of the Bayside PSICOM set-up. He had seen it a lot in his childhood, and besides the few modernizations here and there, the layout was basically the same. As usual, PSICOM grunts stood at each entrance as well as within the fences.

"Can you navigate through the base?" He asked. Hope couldn't picture Lightning getting lost, but a government army base was hardly accommodating to newcomers.

"I have directions; and people will know I'm in the SRTR," She motioned to the glowing stripes on her shoulder guard.

Hope hummed. "Do you have days outside of the base? Like days off of training."

She thought a moment. "SRTR functions six days a week from six am to six pm in various locations each week. Sundays we're allowed to leave the base, unless we're in another location at the time."

"Then I'll pick you up on Sunday."

She narrowed her gaze. "Why? I can stay at the base, I don't have to leave."

Hope shrugged. "Well, why not? Everyone needs a break from stuff; C'mon, you don't have to be a workaholic at fifteen. I'll show you around Palumpolum so you won't get lost if you're on your own."

"I won't get lost," she grunted, but continued, "But I do want to see Palumpolum."

He was going to take that as a yes, he will pick her up on Sunday.

Lightning turned to leave without much more than that.

"Hey, Lightning?"

She turned back to him. "What?"

"Don't get too blinded by focus," he chuckled. "Snow's an idiot, but he makes Serah happy, doesn't he?"

She frowned again. ". . . Yeah, he does." Lightning turned to go a second time, and stopped, a second time.

"Thanks, Estheim."

He quirked a brow. "Estheim? You're making me feel like my father. Just call me Hope."

She gave a sigh of fake exasperation, rolling her eyes. "Well I'm not gonna say it again, Hope, if that's what you wanted."

He defended Snow. What possessed him to do that? Hope rested his head on the back of his seat, hands on the wheel even if the car wasn't going anywhere.

Snow wasn't by nature a bad person, he knew that. He had bad habits, yes, but he never had bad intentions. Hope had no real desire to associate with Snow other than knowing his name, but now he was accommodating (partially) the man's supposed sister-in-law.

Hope would admit his inner jealousy for the brash man. Snow had purpose in him, he knew what he was going to do with his life, when and where it was going to go down. He and Serah were probably back in Bodhum thinking of names for whatever kids they have right now. Probably planning out a wedding, small enough to be quaint but with a rowdy enough party to be fun. They were engaged for a few months now, as far as Hope could vaguely remember being told. Snow was hardly the average man, but even Hope could picture him going straight from the wedding ceremony to the classic white-fenced house for a family of four, complete with pets and barbeques and domestication as far as the eye can see. (Though he really had to wonder how long domestication would hold on someone like Snow.)

Then there was Hope. Mother died young, Father constantly working in the bureaucracy. Going into university because, really, nobody can hold a job with just basic skills any more. But what was he going to do with his life? Hell if he knew. School courses didn't interest him, and he never really connected to anyone on or off campus.

And now a teenage girl knew more about her future than he did at twenty-one. Lightning knew what she was going to be doing; joining the army, making money, providing for her family, and keeping Snow off Serah.

"I just need to sort out my own damn life, not worry about others'," Hope sighed to nobody. He leaned forward onto the wheel—

HRRRRN

–only to sit back up, startled by the horn of the car going off thanks to his head butt. A few PSICOM heads turned, he noticed.

Hope decided it was probably best to pull out of the lot now . . .

AN:

I'm sorry for the delay! School is done, roleplays are back into my to-do list, and all of a sudden everyone wants me around for one reason or another. I'm going to try and update more regularly now. Please continue read along, and tell me what you think!

Thank you to everyone for their kind reviews, faves and watches! I'm so glad this story has gone over so well, I honestly never expected it to. I'm slowly chugging along, thinking of storyline plot, but if anyone has a suggestion or something they'd like to see, feel free to mention it! I'm always open to suggestions.

Next up will be Lightning's first week of training. I'm gonna slowly try and worm other characters in as well, though I don't know if I'll play with their ages too. I'm going to try and not, but we'll see how things go. (That is, unless everyone wants to other see age switched characters? Like I said, suggestions are super awesome.) I'm also still trying to work in something a little more humourous without being either out of place nor forced. I forgot how hard it was to work with humour in a non-humour-centric story. [/cries]