Alpha: ah, same as the first.
Disclaimer: SAME AS THE FIRST!
Many Worlds One Shot Collection
Cruel (Lightning/Hope)
Their so pretty and carefree, they're bright and intelligent, can be flirty and coy.
But sometimes Hope can forget that teenage girls can be very mean and nasty and very, very cruel. He never gave it much thought before. The females he ever interacted and got to know were already adults. Independent, motherly, protective, strong-willed, graceful, beautiful, and powerful individuals who didn't have a cruel bone in their bodies. Sure, they each had their moments. Light especially, but they had never been the epitome of cruel.
And since they were, including his own mother his impression of what all females should be like, it never crossed his mind that his own friend, Elida could be that way.
He should have known to pay more attention to the warning bells that went off in his head when he saw Lightning sitting alone in the classroom after the students left some time ago for the rest of the evening. She was busy glancing every few seconds to her own reflection in a small violet compact before looking away. She had a blank and somber expression, lost in her own thoughts. Her defenses were down now, believing that no one was near to see the vulnerability she kept inside.
Light didn't know he was there, silently observing her peculiar behavior. Other than looking back and away from herself in the small round mirror, she was forging this habit of playing with the tresses of her hair that hung over her left shoulder with her hands.
He softly knocked on the slightly ajar door, peeking further inside the room at his temporary math professor.
"Light, are you busy?"
She paused her hands from playing in her hair, bringing them to rest on her thighs and turned her attention to the young teen making his way into the room. She gave a small curt nod and a slight smile, inviting him inside.
"Why are you still here, did you leave something behind?" she asked him.
"Uh— no, I had a surprised student council meeting earlier…" he trailed off. Looking at Light with a worried expression.
"What about you? I thought you would be gone by now."
"Busy with last minute notes for the pop quiz tomorrow," she said with a straight face, seeing she forgot the compact still out and not a paper full of Algebra II notes in sight. She quickly did away with the small make-up case, refusing to let her obvious embarrassment show at the lie she just gave.
Hope had a slight smirk on his face even as he felt a little perplexed at seeing Light with such a feminine object, "You know Light, you don't have to be embarrassed about keeping a little make-up kit—"
"It's not mines!" she shouted, her anger directed more on whatever she was thinking and not truly with him, "I am not insecure at all about my looks and could really careless what others think about me!"
He looked a little poignant just then, knowing she was lying, "Of course not Light, your confidence in yourself is what makes you all the more alluring."
The strawberry haired woman looked up with much awe at the honesty and sincerity of Hope's words. A blush was fighting to make itself known all over her face but she pushed it down, instead looking away from the young man.
It was silent between them for a while and the silver haired boy shuffled his feet.
"I should be going now, see ya in the morning," he smiled awkwardly at the woman who refused to glance back at him. He turned on his heels to leave her in peace.
"Hope?"
And he paused in his step at her small and meek voice.
He never heard Light sound so unlike her usual self.
Or maybe this shy, unsure, fragile side of Light was also her true self that she kept hidden underneath?
He looked back at her and was surprise to see a look of timidity there, "What is it Light?"
"Do you mean that?" she was apprehensive of his answer.
He smiled genuinely to her, nodding his head, "Yes I do."
She smiled a little seeming pleased with his answer, but he continued on anyway. "See Light, I've always thought you were pretty before, but when you show more of your real self, I find it endearing and think it makes you more beautiful."
It was Lightning's turn to be in momentary shock as she watched the youth walk out of the classroom and into the empty halls of the Academy.
When he was gone, she looked at the violet compact, snorted, shook her head in disbelief, and dumped the god awful thing in the trash bin, never to grace her eyes again.
Outside in the halls as he walked, Hope remembered seeing his friend Elida with that same violet compact. The same one Light had confiscated from her earlier today during third period while Light was giving instructions to the class for the first half of the period.
He frowned. He didn't know Elida to be a snob, she was soo…sugary sweet and nice that it would overwhelm even Vanille.
So he was having a hard time seeing her any different.
He didn't know how or when it started or how she done it, but he was confident she was responsible in some form with Light's short relapse into herself not too long ago in the classroom.
No question it was about her looks.
He was beginning to realize that women were horrendous monsters when it suited them.