A/N: So I am a huge sucker for this ship.

Swingline

Hope was more than a little confused about this position—bent over his own desk with his pants down to his ankles while an eighteen-year-old rammed himself steadily into his ass. He was a little put-out, too, that he was the one taking it, but it was a small unhappiness that was easily swept away by a hand on his cock.

He wasn't really sure how they ended up here, doing their damned best to skew his perception of his office forever, but he was pretty sure it started soon after Serah and Noel had arrived in Academia. Explanations about graviton cores finished, Alyssa could barely contain her excitement. As girls do, she was quick to envelope Serah in a shopping expedition, claiming Academia was sure to carry anything their time traveling friends would need and that she knew the perfect shoe shop.

Hope had laughed, then, because he knew Alyssa had the tenacity of any feral beast out in the outstretching lands of Gran Pulse. Serah didn't stand a chance.

Noel, on the other hand, was quick to tense up. He figured he could understand, maybe—Farron girls were easy to get attached to, and if all was to be expected, danger followed the two everywhere they popped by in the time line. Assuring Noel that Academia was safe and secure took a few repeatedly desperate tries—Alyssa, it seemed, wasn't the only one who could bite down on a bone and never let it go—but he managed to convince the boy to let down.

Then things became exceedingly awkward. It was the sort of happenstance that reminded Hope of how he used to be, nervous and pitiful, and he very much liked to think he'd grown out of that old self. After all, he'd had the strength to defy a fal'Cie and survive. Standing around with Noel, the guy toeing the line between stranger and acquaintance if only because of Serah, really shouldn't have been such a trial.

Fortunately, Noel seemed immune to the discomforting silence and asked, "Since you've made yourself a staple in the history of the Academy, I bet you've got yourself quite a few perks. Or are you too humble to accept them?"

He waved it off with a smile. "I guess I'm a little humble, but my office is a real thing of beauty."

With a snort, Noel replied, "An office? You've stuck your thumb in Oracle Drives, the time capsule, once upon a time you built a fal'Cie, and now you've got plausible plans to build a planet. And all you think you should have is a fancy office?"

Well, when he put it like that, it kind of made Hope flush. "I don't need a lot of flash and pomp, Noel. I just want to help everyone."

Noel's hands went up in mock surrender as he smirked a little, the cocksure punk. "Hey, hey. Didn't mean anything by it. So, how about it? Let's go see the office you're so proud of, yeah? And when the girls come back, it's not like they'll have a hard time finding us."

"If you really want to, I can take you down to it," Hope agreed amiably. He waved Noel after him as he made his way out of the room.

Fast on his feet, Noel caught up with him swiftly. "I think I'll be the judge of whether or not you're getting all you deserve. This office of yours better be astounding, or else I'm gonna start busting some heads."

"That's really not necessary," Hope almost pleaded even as a smile pulled on his lips.

The elevator trip down was almost uneventful, but at one point the doors slid open to reveal a massive man Hope recognized from the maintenance team for the bots. He tipped his head in greeting before pulling a large cart into the elevator shaft, explaining he only needed to descend a couple floors further to make a few repairs. Hope, no stranger to the bots in question, could only think that something was going catastrophically wrong on the floor with the broken bot, because that was a lot of equipment.

Unfortunately, the crewman's hulking frame and cart needed most of the elevator's open space. Hope, unwilling to be crushed by neither man nor equipment, stepped to the side. His boot caught on Noel's and he teetered unsteadily.

He was saved from an intimate meeting with the floor or the wall by strong hands bracing his upper arms, stopping his fall short of Noel's chest. It was a wall of muscle before his face, the scent of natural fibers and the various places he'd traveled wafting off from the dark material. "A-ah, thank you."

"You've got thin arms, Hope. How'd you manage to hit that monster at the Paddra ruins so hard?"

Hope frowned. He wasn't a man to be underestimated, not anymore. "I know I can take care of myself in a fight, ever since I was younger than you are now. I think. How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Right, since I was younger than you. Light made sure of that."

"Wait, Light? Lightning? Serah's sister?"

Hope nodded. He tried to shift out of Noel's strong grasp and only caused further trouble with his legs in the small amount of space he occupied. Sending a grudging glance at the maintenance man, Hope gave up and just stood half-fallen. "Yeah, that's the one. She really toughened me up. Lightning always meant business and falling behind was not allowed."

Finally, the big man's floor came to be and the elevator's doors slid open. Almost instantly a beam of blinding red shot into the elevator. Hope flinched hard and his feet gave up all together, sending him crashing chest to chest into Noel, one of his legs crooked dangerously between the younger boy's.

"Hey!" bellowed the maintenance worker. "Damn security bot, don't be shootin' that manadrive in here! My apologies, sirs, I'll be outta here and fixin' it in no time." True to his word, he practically snarled as he charged through the doors, cart floating behind on its hovers.

As the doors slid shut behind them, enclosing them alone in the elevator, neither moved. If anything, Hope was beginning to notice the barely perceptible tightening of Noel's fingers. "Um, Noel?"

He looked to Noel's face for answers, but all he saw was a very serious expression around dark, heated eyes. "You really are tiny."

Hope couldn't convince Noel to release him until they arrived at the floor Hope's supposed legendary office was situated. And they found that office in the far end of the east wing and Noel was surprised when they entered.

"Those walls were solid just a minute ago," he stated. "But from inside here, I can see the whole corridor."

"It's for privacy," Hope explained, leaning against the platinum desk neatly centered at the back wall. "No one can see me in here, but I can tell if anyone's coming my way. The windows are made from the same stuff, but I can change the settings to turn them completely transparent any time I want."

"You guys have everything in this time period."

"Except for graviton cores."

"When Serah gets back, we'll get right on that. We want to save the future just as much as you."

Hope smiled and nodded. "What all this is...it's a miracle. That we would be granted the chance to fix things, it's really something."

"And you know what's not something of a miracle?" Noel asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "Your office. It's got the neat walls and windows, but it's lacking anything really special. You're letting yourself accept this and only this?"

Hope liked to think he'd learned patience, no longer blowing up at everything that was out to get him, but Noel was beginning to push some buttons. "I told you, I don't want anything big."

"You're gonna be a big hero, Hope, once that new Cocoon of yours goes up. And all you want is an office."

Here Noel advanced toward Hope's perched position, watching him carefully. Hope felt an uneasy stirring in his stomach—he felt much like something's prey.

"All I need is an—!" Hope's declaration was cut off by Noel's mouth against his, and the first thing that came to Hope's mind was the word chapped followed by what in the world?

"Sorry," Noel murmured against his lips. "I need this. It's been so long since...and Serah's engaged, and I just...I need–"

"Okay," Hope replied before the bells went off in his head. What in the world was he thinking, agreeing to this sort of thing so readily? He was a professional, and somehow anything of this nature seemed just a few pegs lower than professional to him, but it seemed Noel didn't mind. With his casual, unthinking acceptance as a green light, Noel was suddenly pressed to him in ways that were familiar and yet not.

It's not like sex was new to him, having lost his virginity somewhere in the two years following the destruction of Orphan to a girl that just happened to be there and didn't mind, and Alyssa had been more than eager during restless nights of research or frivolity. They were nothing more than friends with benefits, of course, and Alyssa was a valuable assistant in his efforts, so Hope had long since come to terms with the curves and dips of the female body.

Noel, however, was definitely male, and all muscle. His insistence wasn't something easily denied, his motions always fast, deep, and somehow meaningful, despite how this would only end up a curious fling. Hope could almost say Noel was acting so roughly out of fright that Hope might disappear in the next moment, and with the future Noel told of, he decided it could be a rational explanation.

Rationality began to dissolve quickly, though, by a warm palm traveling into his trousers.

Getting from that point to the next involved hasty motions to move this there and that here, and Hope couldn't quite understand how he ended up bottoming for this kid, but he was bracing his hands against the desk as he felt Noel's hips piston again and his dick brush something absolutely wonderful inside. Indignant thoughts being hard to come by, Hope just gave up on trying to care.

Noel's hands were different than Alyssa's, the difference immediately noticeable. Noel had the hands of a warrior, calloused and confident, while Alyssa only let her confidence shine through in her research, leaving her with soft hands and gentle caresses. Sex with Noel was a shocking contrast in comparison to sex with Alyssa, and it was one Hope found he really didn't mind.

Embarrassment flooded his cheeks with red, though, when he was the one to climax first. He'd had no idea he could be spent so quickly, and after he could think about it he'd come to a reasonable conclusion to soothe his ego, but at the moment he was one step away from limp on his desk. Noel came soon after, a few more pumps inside of him, and Hope heard his happy sigh.

"If you're finished," Hope gasped, rising from his slouch with shaking arms. "I think we should clean up. There's bodily fluids in my astounding office that don't need to be there."

"Neat freak."

Hope lorded some kind of pride over Noel during the time he'd made the younger boy wipe clean his office, because really, he did like his office, whether Noel approved or not, and he was still smug as he sat (uncomfortably, painfully) in his chair, waiting for the girls to return. In time, they did, giggling about something as they walked down the long hall, Mog's bob flashing light on the walls, unaware of his eyes on them.

Alyssa opened the door with a swipe of her hand on the sensor and a cheery, "Hope, we're back! And you have to see the shoes she got!"

"Why do I have to see the shoes?"

"You got new shoes?" Noel asked from his spot on one of the couches positioned before his desk. Briefly Hope wondered if he'd have been more comfortable if they fucked there instead of on his desk, but he shut that thought down in a heartbeat.

Serah nodded quickly, pulling the silver boots from the orb container. "I got these. Alyssa helped me decide between this pair and some red ones."

Noel frowned. "You sure about these? I kind of liked your other shoes. Can they stay in piece during battle or are you going to snap the heels?"

"Noel!" Serah frowned.

Alyssa laughed out loud before patting Serah comfortingly on the shoulder. "Don't worry, you guys, those boots will hold out. I buy from that retailer all the time, they don't sell shoddy stuff. Now, don't you guys have some time traveling to do?"

Serah had the grace to look moderately bashful. "That's right! Oh no, and I spent so much time at the shops. What was I thinking?"

"Hey, don't worry about," Noel butt in. "We've been through a few turbulent zones recently, I don't mind if you take a quick break. But if that break's over...?"

"Right!" Serah piped up quickly, fists clenched in all her seriousness. Hope had only seen Lightning's determination close up, and he figured the older sister was easier to take seriously, even if Serah's eyes proved to be reminiscent of Lightning's own. "We need to go! Five graviton cores, right? We need to start searching right away!"

Alyssa offered to show them out after a glance at Hope (and a smile, and Hope really didn't understand what that smile could have meant), and Noel left with the phrase, "Stay thin, man, you're the wiry type of strong!"

When she returned her smile turned toothy. "I never would have guessed, Hope. Thinking on it, though, I can't say I'm entirely too surprised. Take a load off, but be prepared to get back to work lickity-split! They could be back any moment, you know."

She left after that, a certain skip to her step, and Hope could only stare down at his desk and sigh.