Thanks for the reviews!

ben4kevin and Roxprincess741: Yes Sandra got it unlike Noel and Hope she isn't blind to the obvious :)
Rizuvel: I hope it was a good emotional
ccsakura21: Hope you other personality isn't disappointed.

Chapter 5

Hope felt depressed as he looked out the window. It had been storming for over a week now and it had been nine days since Noel had left. To say that he was worried would be an understatement. If it wasn't for the storm Hope would have believed that Noel disappeared like everyone else. If he was being completely honest with himself he was still worried that might be the case.

There was a bright flash of lightning and loud bang of thunder that made the windows rattle. Hope moved away and sat on the couch. He just hoped that Noel was taking cover at the hunter's camp and not trying to get home. He didn't realize it when he first met Noel but after spending a week with him Hoe came to find out that Noel was a worrier.

In some ways it was annoying. He was a grown man and he could take care of himself. In other ways it was nice. It had been so long since someone had taken care of him in any way he almost forgot what it felt like to just let himself relax. Of course when Noel left he took that feeling with him.

Thunder boomed, hail started pounding against the window, the lights flickered and then went out. Hope sighed. The electricity didn't run out this far so Noel ran his home off of a generator. The generator was kept in a small shed next to the house. Normally Hope wouldn't have a problem going out there and fixing it but he wasn't too fond of going out into the storm. Then again if he didn't check it the motor could burn out.

Hope got up and threw the coat on that Noel had loaned him. He grumbled when he had to roll up the sleeves. He really was that much smaller than the other man. He pulled up the hood and ran outside. The wind whipped making the hail feel as if he was being pelted with rocks. He wrenched the door open to the shed and quickly closed the door behind him just as more thunder rumble off in the distance.

Once inside Hope turned on the small battery operated light, took off the coat that was now soaking wet, and began to look over the machine. It wasn't as bad as it could have been but it wasn't good either. Luckily he got plenty of experience fixing and building machinery while he was in the Academy. He grabbed the tools and parts he needed from the top shelf and began to work. It felt good to be doing something that was familiar.

After an hour working on it Hope finally got it running again. He thought that the storm might have calm down by then at least a little bit but he had no such luck. In fact it sounded worse. The hail bouncing off of the shed roof was almost deafening. The thunder was louder too. Hope stopped a moment and listened closer. Something didn't sound right about the thunder. When he heard the thunder again his blood ran cold. He knew that sound. When opened the doors his fears were confirmed. Standing not twenty feet away was a behemoth.

Noel cursed the foul weather as he looked out in the direction of his home. He had been away for two weeks now and he had a bad feeling that he was needed. He wished that the Hunters still had their weather machine. Noel had asked them about it when he first found the camp but they didn't know what he was talking about it. He decided that he didn't care how bad the weather was tomorrow, he would head home anyway. He needed to get back to Hope. Noel didn't want to leave him alone in the first place and he had been gone a lot longer than he wanted to be.

"What are you planning?" Thaddeus came up and asked him. Thaddeus was the leader of this particular camp.

"I need to leave tomorrow," Noel told him. Out all of the people that he had met since he returned Thaddeus was the one Noel got along best with. The man respected the fact that Noel was choosing to live a solitary life.

"With the way it has been raining there is a good chance that the plains you have to cross have been flooded. You would do your friend no good if you got swept away," Thaddeus told him. Noel sighed knowing that the older man was right.

"I told him that I wouldn't be gone for more than a week and it's been two. I'm worried that he might come looking for me," Noel told him.

"You can see by the clouds that it is storming by your home too. I'm sure that your friend realizes this," Thaddeus pointed out.

"I hope you're right," Noel told him as he watched lightning streak across the sky.

"I am. I have to say I was surprised when Sandra mentioned you have someone living with you now. I know how you value you your privacy," Thaddeus said. Noel recognized it as the man's way of asking him a question without actually asking it.

"Hope's different and he's an old friend that needs me," Noel told him. Thaddeus nodded and looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Perhaps you need him as well," Thaddeus said and then left him to his thoughts.

"You better be alright Hope," Noel said as he continued to watch the storm.

AN: Don't kill me for how I ended things with Hope (runs and hides). Good news is I have Chapter 6 done and am working on the next chapter. Chapter 6 will be up by Sunday or maybe earlier. Please leave a review and let me know what you think.