A/N: Lightning's sick, Hope's having his teeth removed. Just a terrific day for Serah. Being the care taker of her older sister and her younger foster brother. It's a good thing she has her boyfriend and her new neighbors to help her out, am I right?
There's a slight breeze coming in through the windows. Clear blue skies and bright sunlight shining in. It's a lovely day outside in Palumpolum, but he's stuck inside, sick. It's not so bad. He could miss a day of school. He doesn't hate it or anything, he just can't stand being bullied. All the kids picking on him and calling him a wimp. It's just sad.
Hope lays asleep on his side. All he wanted is to forget what he saw, the terrible events that caused his mothers death. But still, he's getting this hollow feeling, like there's something missing in his life.
Nora walks into Hope's room, she looks at her tired, sickly son. It's a shame. It's such a beautiful day today, and he's stuck here with the flu. Nora walks up to her son. She puts a damp cloth on his forehead. Hope doesn't react or make any movement to the cold touch on his head.
"I had the worst dream." Hope's tone was quiet and hollow. "We were on our way to Bodhum. An accident happened...and it killed you." Nora doesn't say anything. Hope curls up even more, until he looked like a ball. "I was so scared."
Nora sits on the edge of Hope's bed, behind him. She reaches for her son and lays a hand on the side of his head, gently stroking him with the gentle waves of her fingers.
Hope feels lost from the gentle touch of her mothers loving hand. He's just glad it was only a nightmare. If Nora was really gone, how would he life? He would even miss this gentleness she gives him. Nora leans into Hopes face, moving closer and closer, until she gives him a kiss on the cheek.
Hope makes no different expression, but instead, tries to return to his peaceful slumber. Nora moves to Hopes ear and whispers.
"Hope." Hope shoot his eyes open. It's his mother talking, but that's not her voice. "Hope." Hope turns his head over his shoulder, looking at Nora, who's just looking at him with a smile.
Nora starts to vanish, and then his surroundings starts to vanish as well, until everything turns black. Then a bright light shines in the darkness. Hope's vision is very, very blurry. All he's seeing is a bright light and a large pink blur in that vision of light.
"Hello? Hope?" The voice is very faint, like it's calling him at the very edge of the sound barrier. His vision starts to clear, but not as much. It's still a complete blur, but he's now starting to see something white skin and two tiny blue dots. "Can you hear me? Hello?"
Hope lays on the chair, his eyes slightly open. Serah is trying to wake him up. Even though his eyes are open, very slightly, Serah can tell that Hope's still out.
Hope just got his wisdom teeth removed, and he's still under the affects of the anesthesia. Serah waits patiently for Hope to make a respond, but instead, he closed his eyes again. Serah sighs and sits back, letting the kid rest.
Serah puts a hand on Hope's swollen face, giving him a gentle stroke on his cheek. The Dr. Lloyd returns, looking at Hope's chart. "Well, the surgery went very well."
Serah looks at the doctor. "Is he going to be okay? He won't wake up."
"He'll be fine. He's probably still under the affects of the anesthesia. It could take a while for it to wear off." Dr. Lloyd says. "So, I'm prescribing hime some antibiotics to prevent the infection during the healing. He's to take one everyday." Serah nods as she listens, understanding the doctor's orders. "I'm also filling out one for Oxycodone and one for Etodolac. The Etodolac helps ease the pain. But if it doesn't help, he should take the Oxycodone, mainly if the pain is severe."
"Got it." Serah says.
The doctor gives Serah the prescription for Hope's medication. Serah tries to carry Hope. She's not as muscular as her sister and Snow are, so carrying the boy is a struggle for her. What she does is she slides and moves Hope into a sitting position, she rests his arm over her shoulders and grabs hold of it. She wraps an arm around his waist and makes him stand.
Serah loses control holding on to Hope at first, the kid even nearly collapsed on the floor. Serah regains her balance and grip. She now has Hope standing up, with her bent down a little bit. She's still a little taller then Hope.
Serah slowly makes her way out of the office and out the building. Serah sets Hope in the hover car, on the passengers side. After she sets his seatbelt, Serah gets on the drivers seat and does the same.
Serah starts up the car, but doesn't take off. She looks at the dazed, sleeping Hope. She reaches for him and gives him a ruffle on his hair. The shaking causes Hope to lean towards Serah until his head lands on her lap. Serah couldn't help but laugh, she sat Hope back up, then takes off.
Serah drives to the market to pick up Hope's medicine. While she's gone, Hope starts to wake up, only very slightly, still under the affects of the anesthesia. It's no different then how he 'awaken' in the room.
Serah returns with a beg filled with the medication. Serah starts up the car again, only to hear a soft murmur. "Ma...m."
Serah looks at Hope, she can see the kid has his eyes open very slightly. "Mum..."
The kid can hardly speak with his swollen face and the gauze in his mouth. Even under that, Serah can tell he's trying to say 'mom', then he goes back to sleep.
Serah smiles a little, turns on the engine and then takes off.
Snow carries Lightning back into the living room. The girl is now wearing a pink bathroom. Snow just gave her a bath, and he's sure to be on Lightning's death list. I wouldn't be surprised if he's number one on the list.
Snow lays Lightning back on the couch. "Okay. There you go." When he sets her down, he looks to notice Lightning is giving him a cold, squinty eye death glare, growling in a low hostile tone, but also a bit scratchy. "Oh come on, don't be like that. I only did it for your health."
"Hmm...you're right." Lightning says, instantly turning from angry to careless. "Hey, Snow. I have something to tell you."
"Oh, well what is it, sis?" Snow asks.
"First off: I'm not your sister!" Lightning points out. "Secondly, come closer." Snow kneels down and looks directly at Lightning. "Closer." Snow leans in. "Closer." He leans in further until they're face to face.
Lightning opens her mouth, but doesn't speak. What she does instead is...sneezed. "Gah!" Snow retreats, wiping his face. "Lightning!"
Lightning snickers at Snow. "I've been holding that in since you volunteered. Worth it."
Snow stands up, still wiping his face. "That's just gross!"
Lightning smiles at Snow's misery as he walks away, wiping his face from Lightning's germs. Snow walks outside, then noticed Serah's hover car is arriving. Serah parks it in the driveway, then comes out.
"Hey, Serah." Snow says, walking up to his girlfriend.
"Hey, Snow. How's Lightning?" Serah asks.
"She's doing fine. She got sick." Snow says.
Serah's shocked to hear that. "Oh no."
"Yeah, I just gave her a bath, then she sneezed in my face." Serah seems a bit irritated to hear the bathing part. Snow can see that disappointed and offended look Serah's making. "Oh come on, I only did it for her health. Fang suggested it."
"Okay then." Serah says. "Can do you me a favor and carry Hope into his room?"
Snow moves to the passenger side of the car. "What's up with the kid?" Snow asked when he noticed Hope's asleep, and his face is swollen.
"He just had his wisdom teeth removed." Serah explains.
Snow opens the door and carries Hope. "Whoa. That's pretty rough." Snow carries Hope towards the house, but stops when he notices the kid is starting to wake up. "Hey, he's waking up."
Hope opens his eyes a little. Serah looks at Hope. "Hey." She says sweetly. "You okay?"
"Serah?" Hope's tone was quiet but also muffled from the gauze in his mouth.
"Yes, it's me." Serah says.
"My mouth...hurts." Hope says.
Serah laughs a little. "Don't worry, we'll fix you up. Let's get you into bed."
Snow carries Hope into the house. Serah doesn't follow him, she just goes into the living room to check on her sick sister. Snow takes Hope into his new room. Luckily, the kid's bed was already set up. Snow removes the kids regular clothes and puts him into his comfortable pajamas. If he wasn't under the affects of the anesthesia, he would feel embarrassed or something. Then again, he really would be if it was one of the Farron sisters. They are girls after all.
When Hope's suited up for resting, Snow lays him on the bed and just leaves him to rest.
"Wait, he had his teeth removed?" Lightning asks.
Serah walks up to Lightning with a cup of tea. "Yeah. The poor kid was scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed. Apparently, it was happening sooner then planed." Serah sits on the edge of the couch, by Lightning's feet. "How are you feeling?"
"I was doing fine before you sent that big oaf to this house. I won't even tell what I'm gonna have planned for him after he bathed me." Lightning takes a sip of the tea. After one little sip, she retreats the mug from her lips and gags painfully. It's not gross or anything, just hot and it burns her sore throat. "So where's the kid?"
"Snow took him into his room." Serah stands up. "Speaking of which, I should check on him. He needs to take his pills and to ice his face."
Serah goes into the kitchen, she gets the antibiotic and the etodolac pills for Hope to take, then a glass of water to drink with the pills, and two packs of ice. Serah makes her way into Hopes room, to aid the little kid. Snow leaves and makes his way back to his poker game. He knows he must have them waiting for a long time.
As Snow makes his way to the cafe, he bumps into Fang. "Snow, what's up?"
"Nothing much. Just going back to my poker game." Snow says.
"Poker, huh? I'm in." Fang says.
"Great." Snow and Fang heads for the cafe.
Serah arrives at Hope's room. She's actually quite surprised at the set up. It looks nice and all. Up ahead, she sees the poor kid laying in bed, with his hands on his puffy cheeks. Serah walks up to him, Hope turns to see Serah as soon as her shadow casted over him.
"You okay?" Serah asks.
"My face hurts." Hope whines.
Serah retreated Hopes hands from his face. She reaches into his mouth, removing the soaked, bloody gauzes. She shuddered and gives a disgusted look looking at the bloody puffs. Serah places the pills in his mouth, and gives him the glass of water to drink.
Hope didn't really like what he was tasting, water mixed with his gum blood. He only drank half of the water. When he did, the water turned clear red. Hope gags distastefully, Serah can tell he had a bad taste when drinking. She can understand that.
"Now, before we put new gauzes in, we should really get you something to eat." Serah says. "I'm going to make some soup for Lightning, would you like some?"
Hope hesitated to answer, then nods. He knows that he won't enjoy the taste of soup, not cause Serah's a terrible cook or anything, but with a different reason. A bloody one.
So Serah gets up and leaves Hope's room. She goes into the kitchen to make the soup for her sister and her younger brother.
Snow and Fang returns to the NORA cafe. "Hey guys, I'm bac-" Snow is surprised to see what's happening, piles of empty bottles everywhere, on the table and the floor. Gabot and Yuj looked completely dazed, they're pretty damn drunk. Lebreau and Maqui are fiddling with the deck of cards.
When they heard Snow, they both look up. "About damn time, where have you been?" Lebreau asks.
"Sorry, got held up." Snow says.
Yuj's arm crashes onto the table, then Yuj turns his attention to Gadot. "So..." Yuj notices Gadot is knocked out. He slaps the big guy in the shoulder, waking him up. "It was a...bear?"
Yuj takes a sip of his bottle, only to find out it's empty. "In a tutu." Gadot says. Gadot looks very dazed then his head slams down onto the table, knocked out.
Yuj tosses away his empty bottle. He looks at the bottle Gadots holding, grabs it. Yuj tries to take it, but can hardly fight Gadots massive strength. Bit by bit, the bottle moves close. Yuj nearly got his lips on it, but Gadot loses his grab and the bottle slams into Yuj's face.
Yuj falls down on the floor, then Gadots loose weight causes him to slide to the side and fall onto Yuj. "What's up with them?"
"They've been drinking a lot cause they got tired of waiting." Maqui notices Fang and his eyes suddenly light up. He stands up and approaches at the lady. "Well, well. Who's the chick, Snow?"
Fang raises an eyebrow. "Chick?" Fang gives Maqui a bump on the head. "Don't get cute with me, kid."
"Well, enough talk, let's play some poker." Snow says.
Snow and Fang moves Gadot and Yuj out of the way, then they all start playing.
An hour has passed, the group has played five rounds and Fang has won four of them. Lebreau and Maqui, mostly Lebreau, are accusing Fang of cheating. Maqui and Lebreau folded, it's now just Snow and Fang.
Fang looks at Snow with a smirk. "All right, cheeky boy. I raise...2,000 Gil." Fang says.
Snow looks very nervous. "You're crazy. I don't have that kind of money!" Snow says.
"You don't? Well, then, how about a bet instead?" Fang asks.
Snow looks ay Fang suspiciously. "I'm listening."
"How about this: If you win, you get the pile." Fang says.
Snow decided to add a little something to Fang's bet. "And you'll...have to date Maqui."
Fang looks at the boy, who's eyes are light up from surprise. Fang smirks and looks at Snow. "All right, deal. But if I win, you'll have to come to the Sunleth Waterscrape with me and Vanille tomorrow for a little campout."
Snow nods. "Deal."
Maqui leans close to Snow. "You better win, boss!"
Snow can tell he's serious. "All right, hero boy. I've got..." Fang lays her cards down. "Straight nines."
Snow looks at his hand, he only has 2's and 3's. In defeat, he throws his hand of cards in the air. "Oh shit! I lost!"
Lebreau and Maqui, mostly Maqui, groan in disappointment. Snow slams his hands on the table, then his head crashes down on it. Fang stands up, looking down at Snow as she passes him.
"See ya tomorrow in the Sunleth." Fang laughs as she leaves the cafe.
Lightning's starting to get her strength back. She's about to do some more walking around, but she's still pretty sick. Serah is right now resting, she's pretty exhausted with taking care of Lightning and Hope today.
Lightning makes her way up the stairs. She wanted to see Hope since she heard that he had his teeth removed.
Lightning heads up the stairs and head into Hope's room. She is surprised to see his room is all set up. It's a nice room to her. Up ahead, she sees Hope laying in bed, just staring at the ceiling.
Lightning approaches at the young boy. "Hey."
Hope was startled, he turns to see it's only Lightning. "Lightning. How are you feeling?" Hope asks.
"Sick. But better then this morning." Lightning grabs a nearby chair and sits next to Hope. "How are you feeling?"
"In pain." Hope says.
Lightning chuckles a little. "Yeah. I remember when I had my teeth removed. I was pretty miserable. Do you need anything?"
"I'm fine now. Serah has taken good care of me. She's really nice." Hope says.
"Yeah, Serah's a good sister." Lightning says. "You should get some rest, Hope. I need to get some as well."
Lightning stands up. He makes her leave, then stops when Hope calls her. "Lightning." Lightning turns back to see Hope. "Take care."
Lightning smiles a little and nods. "You two."