A/N:

Chapter 4; You ready for this? I know I am.

Thanks, as always, for all the lovely reviews. I am updating today because of them, some sleepless nights of sketching, and fabulous coffee.

Happy reading.

After a long day of working and running patrols in Oerba, even Lightning was welcoming the idea of going home and relaxing a bit. Even the best of soldiers needed rest occasionally, after all. Three behemoths in one day with L'Cie powers would be challenge enough, without them, facing the unbelievably large and irate creatures alone becomes nearly impossible. She couldn't remember ever being more thankful for backup.

Unlocking the door to her apartment and taking one step inside, she tensed, hand instinctively reaching for her gun blade. Something was off. Closing the door behind her quietly, Lightning stealthily made her way towards the kitchen, only to be stopped by an obstacle in the way. A very human obstacle.

Now, the only person besides herself with a key to her apartment was Serah, and the shape of this person was undoubtedly male and smelled faintly of Cyprus trees. Definitely not Serah. She swung her gun blade up to the throat of the person, whose identity was still hidden in the darkness of the room.

"Woah, woah, woah! Take it easy, Light! It's me, Hope!" The figure in front of her said, raising his hands in an unmistakable gesture of surrender. He took a step back. Lightning eased up on the blade, sheathing it again behind her.

"Why are you here?" She asked, wasting no time in getting to the point.

"Um, Serah lent me the key, because….well, let's have dinner first, shall we?" He asked, sheepishly, running a hand through his hair nervously. He gestured to the kitchen, where the light was turned on and the small table set.

"Dinner?" Light asked with a quirked eyebrow. She had been planning on using up some of the leftovers in the fridge tonight, but her stomach growled in betrayal at the smell that was carrying over to her from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I made dinner for you. Thought it'd be nice to have a cooked meal after a long day of work, right?" Hope answered, as though it was a normal thing for someone to borrow a key and enter an apartment to cook dinner for someone uninvited.

"You can cook?" Lightning asked, her face emotionless, but finding the idea of Hope cooking rather amusing. Though she wouldn't admit it aloud, anyone's cooking would beat the rather lackluster meals she made for herself.

"You'd be surprised, cooking actually comes pretty naturally to me," Hope said, chuckling a bit. She really wasn't all that surprised. Hope had always had an artist-like attitude about him.

"Then what's that burnt smell?" Lightning asked, testing the smell in the air a few times. Hope's face, now that her eyes had adjusted to seeing detail, lit up in horror and shock. She was beginning to have second thoughts about his ability to cook…

"Um, that's just, I, ….oh! Hold on a second! Don't move!" He pleaded, rushing in to the kitchen, practically sliding on the tile floor. Lightning followed behind, not willing to let her home go up in flames just because he asked her to stand still. No way.

When she arrived in the kitchen, the scene she found was almost comical. It would have been, had it been on some television show rather than her home. Evidently, Hope had left the stovetop burner on, and smoke was filling most of the kitchen. The paper towel roll next to the stove had caught on fire.

Irritated, Lightning jumped up to hit the fire sprinklers on the ceiling, angry that it wasn't already on. Stupid things. Before she managed to activate it with force, she heard something familiar she hadn't heard in a long time.

"Waterga!" Hope shouted out with conviction, like he actually expected his L'Cie powers to respond after being dormant for so long. She would have laughed with humorlessly, but miraculously, the spell did come, dousing the fire instantly, but leaving the kitchen a wet mess. Water was all over the floor and the counter. She brought her hand up to her forehead, glad the danger was gone, but upset with the mess, and also the loss of what may have been a descent dinner.

"How did you…?" She asked, suddenly remembering that it should have been impossible for him to cast any magic spells now.

"Ha ha, well, it's a magic drive, a birthday present from my dad," He said, showing her the black glove with a pure white crystal in the center of the topside. "It's not as strong as the L'Cie stuff, but it gets the job done,"

"You almost burnt my apartment down," Lightning said, venom beginning to sink into her tone. Hope looked back at her, fear and apology in his eyes. He took another step back. Smart move.

"I'm sorry Light! I was just trying to do something nice for you, I've never felt like such an idiot in my life," Hope said, looking all sorts of sorry. She contemplated hitting him, but this was Hope.

"Just get out," She said, fighting the urge to get violent.

"At least let me clean up and order pizza or something,"

"….."

Somehow, he took her silence as an okay. A few minutes later, he had mopped up the kitchen and wiped down the counters and pizza had arrived. Somehow, Lightning forgot to finish kicking him out, instead sitting down to eat with him. At the scent of food, her anger all but evaporated.

"Um, Light?" Hope began, hesitance in his voice. He seemed to think that she was still ready to rip his head off. To be honest, she had only a few threads of patience left, so he probably wasn't too far off.

"Hmm?" She replied simply, mouth full of warm pizza.

"I know this is probably a bad time, since my act of kindness backfired and all, but….I need a place to stay and Serah said that I should ask you,"

"Why do you need a new place, Hope? What about your father?"

"Well, you see, I'm a musician and I have to write songs, but no inspiration has come to me lately…I think the change of scenery will really help me. And besides, there's a lot of demand for concerts around here…So what do you say, Light, can you help me out?"

"For how long?" She inquired, not really sure if this would be a good idea or not. More than likely it would turn out to be a mistake.

"I'm not sure, inspiration isn't something you can put a time limit on," Hope said, using typical musician logic.

"Fine, but one wrong move and—" Lightning was cut off as Hope pulled her into a bear hug, causing her to lose all the breath in her lungs.

"Air," She rasped out, lungs feeling the pressure of Hope's strong arms wrapped around her so tightly. She shook her head a little as he released her, trying not to think too much about his masculine smell that had invaded her senses.

"Thank you, Light! I knew I could count on you!" Hope said, smiling a brilliant smile.

"One condition," She stated, her hands going to her hips.

"What's that?"

"Stay out of trouble….and the kitchen," She said, grinning back at him.

A/N:

I found that this chapter was quite enjoyable to write.

Let me know what you think please! Reviews really do inspire faster updates and more interesting chapters, believe me! Thanks as always,

-Micchi-Chan-