[FIC] (Sleeping) Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Title: (Sleeping) Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Author: Me
Genre: Romance/Humour
Characters/Pairings: LightningxHope (or vise versa, but really.)
Rating/Warnings: K
Summary: “I can’t tell if it’s cradle robbing or cougar town.”
Notes: I needed to write something for Final Fantasy XIII like burning mad. I love Lightning, I ADORE Hope, so naturally, I’m completely infatuated with LightningxHope. [/staples shipping goggles to face] Which is why I wrote this before beating the game. ;;;;;;;
Comments and such are loved! <3
“I can’t tell if it’s cradle robbing or cougar town.”
“ . . . Both, maybe?”
“Hmm. He’s grown balls over the past little while, and she’s oblivious to this kind of thing . . .”
“So it’s either him being cunning and taking advantage of her . . .”
“Or being a mama’s boy and looking at her like a mum.”
Sazh looked up from the campfire. “Oh quit it you guys. Lightning actually laid down and agreed to sleep, don’t bug ‘em.”
Snow, Vanille and Fang all looked up from their perch, staring at their sleeping companions off to the side. Snow began to protest. “But Sazh, it’s just hard to wrap your head around! I mean, think about it -“
“I think they’re cute,” Vanille gushed, coming over to sit next to Sazh as he poked more wood into the fire. “You know, in a mother-son sense or a lover sense.”
“I dunno ‘bout lovers. Hope looks like the type to look like jailbait until he’s thirty with a baby face like that.” Fang snorted a laugh, turning around to face the radiating heat of the fire in the cool night. Sazh sighed. They weren’t going to give it up. Snow laughed at Fang’s quip though.
“Pfft, it’s hard to imagine Miss up-in-arms with a boy toy,” Snow said, turning around to join the conversation. He couldn’t help but think he felt someone kick his back, but it definitely wasn’t Lightning’s commando boots.
- - - - -
“I’ll take watch, you guys sleep.” Lightning, as usual, had taken command once the group had decided to settle for the night in their travels.
Hope was the first one to speak up. “But you always take first shift. And you had to deal with that larger monster earlier while we took out the ones around it,” He reasoned. Most of the group didn’t know what he was getting at. “I mean, you’ve done the most work. Why not rest?”
The rest of the group ‘hmm, he’s right’-ed and nodded in agreement. Lightning, as usual, was a workaholic.
“I’m fine. Go to sleep,” She shook her head, tossing skewed branches into a pile to light for warmth.
“But Light . . .”
He didn’t mean to, really. Hope ended up angled just so that his head was tilted down into an almost pitiful light, like that puppy everyone passes on the street in the box that says ‘adopt me’. Lips all pouty, brow furrowed and -
“Fine,” She caved with an irate sigh, tossing the final branch and letting Sazh set the wood ablaze with magic. “But wake me up for second shift.” Her stern voice never let up. Ever.
“Well, the kid and I can keep first watch then,” Snow opted. Hope nodded in agreement.
Lightning set herself off to the side for the night, laid out in the grass, turned away from the grouping around the fire. Nobody really could guess if she had actually fallen asleep though - her one hand kept on the hilt of her blade at her side. Sazh claimed not to be tired (Even if he made his Old man notations throughout the day) and sat by the fire while casually chatting with Vanille and Fang as they laid down to sleep.
“-ould hit the hay, maybe?”
Hope zoned, straining to keep his eyes open. He didn’t really absorb any of the conversation around him, until Snow literally snapped him out of it by snapping his fingers just before Hope’s nose. The boy blinked a few times.
“If you’re tired, go to sleep,” Snow said, leaning back on his hands. Hope shook his head.
“I’m okay.”
“Liar.” Snow flicked the boy’s forehead, to stop it from bobbing like a fishing line. “Sazh is still up and at ‘em. He’ll take the shift.”
With less protest than one would’ve thought, Hope nodded and walked off to find somewhere to sleep. He saw Lightning’s sleeping form, rolled to her side and facing the other way. Across from her was enough empty space on the grass for him to fit, though limited because of a large boulder.
Oh the irony.
Should he do it? He should. He had to be brave. He was getting stronger for a reason, right? She was his reason. His reason, his means, his goal, his everything.
Hope gingerly layed himself down next to Lightning’s back, deciding to face away from her in fear that his face would explode from blushing.
Now normally, he didn’t move all that much when he was sleeping. And yeah, he had gotten used to sleeping in the most unorthodox places on this journey, but everyone was given a little leeway, right? He just didn’t expect accidentally nudging Lightning’s foot would end with her blade stabbed into the grass only inches from his nose. He couldn’t contain the squeak of surprise he let out. Damn puberty, he silently thought in the back of his mind. Eyes wide, he traced the blade’s form up to see Lightning’s hand at the hilt, following the arm to see a concentrated pair of blue eyes.
Never try and surprise Lightning, Hope mentally noted. I’ll end up getting shot.
“What’re you doing?” Quick to the point, clipped and short, as usual. She sheathed her sword again, and laid back down on her back, now that it was confirmed there was no threat.
“S-sleeping. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” Out of embarrassment, Hope looked away, turning on his side. At the moment, it looked like the rock was going to be his companion for the night. What would Snow and the others say if they found him asleep next to Lightning in the morning anyhow? He shuddered at the thought.
And then a pair of arms were around him. If he wasn’t so surprised, he would’ve melted into the ground. “L-Light-san?”
“You shivered. I thought you were cold.” She deadpanned. How anticlimactic, Hope thought, though the other half of his brain, mainly his teen hormones were screaming CHANCE! Take it take it take it take it take it -
“Y-yeah, it is pretty cold tonight. Thank-thank you,” He stuttered, as smoothly as possible - also known as the smoothness of a pothole. He shifted slightly, but only slightly, afraid of nearly being stabbed again. Luckily, no weapon was drawn. Yet. Well, let’s see how long this hormone-induced bravery could stretch . . .
“Do you mind if, erm, I turn around? I-it’s kind of uncomfortable this way.”
“If you want. I’m going back to sleep anyhow.” Lightning was actually quite oblivious. Still, she would admit to the boundaries of her mind, holding his warmth was a much more comfortable way to spend the night.
He shifted, turning to face her, who had already closed her eyes to sleep again. For the moment Hope felt very alone in his heart racing next to this woman. Did she have no personal bubble? No space to invade? No sense of gender-oriented awkwardness? His heart sank. Maybe she just didn’t see him as a man.
“Goodnight,” He mumbled. She was already asleep. Fast to sleep too, even with him right there . . . this was hopeless, despite his namesake. He closed his eyes and slowly nudged closer, into the safest space he’d ever known. In her grasp.
- - - - -
“So you’re sure?”
“Definitely. Lightning was always too busy working in the army to even think about kids, let alone look at one weirdly.”
“Huh, guess it’s just Hope then.”
“Well, he is quite cute. I would cuddle him too!”
“Yeah, but Vanille, you’d hug anything with big doe eyes.”