![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
[Lightning Returns] First Impressions (5066words)
Title: First Impressions
Fandom: Lightning Returns
Character/Pairing(s): CHIBI CUTE NOEL/HOPE, Serah Farron (laughing in the background)
Rating: G
Warning: FLUFFY MCFLUFFFLUFF CUTENESS
Summary: (New World) Hope agrees to take on Serah's babysitting duties, and gets far more than he expected when the kid develops a puppy crush on him. From this.
(Sequel here!)
It was all Serah's fault, Hope thought despondently. She was the one who said it would be an easy job, that she needed the night to study for her test (when she didn't even study! Snow took her out for a night on the town!), and then told him where Hope went to school.
Yes. It was all her fault that Hope was currently stuck in a circle of cooing girls with no way of escape.
It all started the Thursday prior.
"Pretty please?" Serah crooned through the phone, and Hope felt himself wilting against her pout (which he couldn't see, but could practically hear). "I have a history paper to do and then the professor just sprouted this test on us out of nowhere! It wasn't even on the syllabus, I swear, but he said it'd be an exam for the next class and that's in two days and I've barely paid attention to that course all term because I thought I'd just binge-study for the final."
"I have a test, too." Hope protested weakly, having already abandoned all pretenses of actually studying while on the phone with her. He had plenty of tests, since his teachers were trying to see if he should skip another grade or not.
"Yeah, but you're going to ace it, and we all know it. You already know all the course material, you don't need to study at all." Serah heaved a huge sigh at that. "Keep going like this and you're going to skip through all the best years of high school, Hope."
He thought otherwise. There were no best years of high school.
"Besides, you're good with kids." Serah's voice perked up again. "You like them, don't you? It's just for a night, and Noel's the sweetest thing — he won't be any trouble at all!"
"Yeah, but it's not about that—" Hope tried to protest, but Serah only heard the confirmation.
"Great!" She enthused. "I'll text you the address, then. It's tomorrow from six to ten, but it might go on a bit later if Mrs. Kreiss gets out late, but that doesn't happen too often and she always comes back with cookies if she does. Thanks so much, Hope, you're a life-saver! I've got to study now, so I'll talk to you later! Bye!"
She hung up immediately after that, leaving Hope to blink at his phone for a second before getting up from his chair to inform his mother (whom he was sure overheard the conversation anyway, possibly from the kitchen phone, since otherwise Serah would have called him on his cell instead), who turned a tad overprotective after he started hanging out with Lightning, and subsequently Serah and Team NORA as well.
Guess he couldn't go on that shopping trip with her, after all.
.
.
.
"Thank you for this." Mrs. Kreiss told him on Friday night, looking somewhat harried as she grabbed for her purse and shoes, curly brown hair salted with white and falling out of a hasty bun. She looked younger than what he expected a grandmother to look like, tall and strong with only the wrinkles around her eyes and her dulling hair betraying her age. Her voice was lilting and accented. "He is upstairs napping right now, but make sure he doesn't sleep for more than half an hour after I leave, or he'll refuse to go to bed tonight if he sleeps any longer than that. There is dinner in the microwave, and if he wants sweets before that, don’t let him have any. If he finds sweets somehow, feel free to take it and eat it in front of him. Also…”
The middle-aged woman sighed, but quirked her lips up in amusement. “Tell him if he’s a good boy and finishes all his homework before I get back, then I’ll take him out to the park tomorrow and and he can take his net.”
Hope just nodded absentmindedly, feeling slightly overwhelmed.
“There are emergency numbers on the fridge, but he shouldn’t be any trouble. Noel’s old enough to know what not to do already, and he’s got the numbers memorized as well. Don’t let him talk you into anything. And Hope—” He turned roving eyes seeking out the kitchen back to her with a questioning hum. “Thank you again.”
She was out the door in a flurry, and Hope felt himself floundering as the sudden silence surrounded him. He looked around, still in his coat and shoes, taking in the small two storied apartment. He had seen home designs like this before in his father’s office, although Bartholomew more often than not designed corporate structures. Small kitchen and living area on the bottom floor for entertaining, and probably two tiny bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.
Unlike the designs, however, the place looked warm and welcoming, walls covered with framed pictures and paintings, crates of toys shoved against dressers which had plenty of books, figurines, and flowers. There was a faux fireplace in the living area, above which depicted a beautiful painting of Mary surrounded by candles. Warm colored quilts were thrown over all the sofas and chairs, and every inch of space looked like it was being utilized.
He toed off his shoes and unwrapped his scarf, still taking in his surroundings when a voice sounded out, “I haven’t taken naps in years. Nana still thinks I’m a little kid.”
Hope looked up from where he was putting his coat on the hanger, and saw a brunet child sitting on the stairs turned in his direction, chin in hands and both elbows on his knees as the child peered at him with bright blue eyes.
“You’re not Serah.”
“I’m not.” Hope confirmed, and smiled at the child. “She’s busy tonight. I’m her friend, Hope.”
“That’s a girl’s name.” The boy complained, looking put out for a moment before he brightened, and stood from where he had been sitting. “How old are you? We should go to the park and play!”
Hope felt his smile strain as he ignored the first comment. “I’m fourteen. And you’re supposed to finish your homework tonight.”
“I can finish that anytime.” The child, Noel, bounded over to him from the stairs, covering the area with three running steps. “You can’t be fourteen. I’m eight, you know.” He raised a hand to the top of his head, leaning closer to Hope who leaned away. The hand came level with Hope’s nose, much to his consternation. “No way you’re six years older than me.”
It wasn’t, Hope realized in that moment, going to be a very good night.
.
.
.
“How do you even know all of this?” Noel demanded, looking awed at the full page of explanations Hope managed to diagram for him to help with his math homework. “Serah just stops after what I’m supposed to know for homework.”
Hope raised a hand to the bridge of his nose, rubbing at the skin between his eyes with his pencil and smiling slightly. Despite initial impressions, Noel was a boisterous and cheerful boy who just tended to have a foot in his mouth frequently but with all the best intentions in mind.
“Sorry,” he said, “I got a little carried away, didn’t I?”
“Nuh-uh,” Noel said, shaking his head. “That’s amazing! I mean, long division’s so boring. I didn’t know you can do all these weird number things with it!”
“Wait, you understand this?” Hope asked, brightening slightly.
“Not at all!” Noel answered cheerfully. “But it looks really cool.”
“Oh.” Hope felt himself deflate. “I guess Serah would explain it a lot better…”
“She does.” And at this, Noel nodded sagely, but then leaned toward Hope eagerly as he pointed to the paper. “But it doesn’t look so cool! Hey, hey, can you come help me with my math homework all the time? How about tomorrow? You’ll help me with this tomorrow too, won’t you?”
Taken aback by the boy’s enthusiasm, Hope couldn’t find himself refusing in time.
.
.
.
“Uh…” It felt like the surprises just wouldn’t stop, not when Noel was enthusiastically piling layers of macaroni and cheese onto Hope’s plate. “Noel. Stop. Stop. What are you doing?”
“Making you eat more.” Noel responded honestly, spoon filled with cheesy pasta halfway to Hope’s plate. His eyes were wide and innocent. “Nana says you have to eat to grow. And you need to grow more than I do!”
“I don’t!” Hope retorted, not able to catch that childish retort in time. He flushed, mentally berating himself for arguing with a child. “I eat plenty at home, Noel. My mom makes sure of it.”
“You don’t like nana’s cooking?” And there was that wide-eyed pout again. “If you don’t like this, I can share some of the candy I’ve got stashed away—”
“You’re not supposed to have that!” Hope protested once his brain caught up with him again.
“Serah let me get away with it.” Noel responded cheekily. He squinted at Hope for a moment, and then said, “You have really pretty hair, Hope. It’s kinda like my cousin’s — Yeul’s the prettiest girl in the world, ever — I mean, she’s five and she’s already the prettiest, and her hair color’s a lot like yours except darker. Actually, her eye color’s a lot like yours but darker, too! Are you related to Yeul?”
“I—” Hope blinked at the sudden topic change. “Not that I know of. I don’t have any cousins.”
“Oh, okay, good.” Noel told him, and then plopped the entire spoonful of macaroni and cheese into his mouth, his words slurred around the food. “‘Cause I wanted to marry Yeul when I was little, but Caius said I couldn’t ‘cause she’s my cousin. And Serah’s the third prettiest person I’ve ever seen so I asked if I could marry her, like, forever ago, but she said she already agreed to marry someone else.
“And you’re, like, the fourth prettiest person ever! Will you marry me when I grow up?”
“You shouldn’t marry someone just because they’re pretty.” Hope told him, trying to ignore the red on his cheeks. “It’s a very important decision.”
“I know.” Noel told him, and swallowed his food. “So will you?”
“No.” Hope told him, figuring that if he attempted any way to let the boy down gently, Noel would just wheedle his way into getting what he wanted again. Not that he was taking this seriously. He distinctly remembered his father laughing about how he used to walk around boasting about marrying his mom when he grew up. Granted, he had been much younger than Noel, but the core of the thought was the same. “Who’s the second prettiest person?”
“Huh?” Noel asked in-between bites.
“You said your cousin’s the prettiest.” Hope reminded him. “And Serah’s third. Who’s the second?”
“Nana, of course.” Noel said, making a face that said obviously. “Who else can it be? You’ve seen her, right? Isn’t she just the prettiest?”
Hope found himself softening at that, reminded of his own constant statements about how his mom was the prettiest ever while he was growing up. He was probably overdue to tell her that lately. “She really is.”
“So you’re really not going to eat that?” Noel asked, pointing at the food with his spoon. Hope just shook his head, glad that Noel had already forgotten about his marriage proposal. The boy shrugged at the response, and then pulled the entire bowl toward him. “I guess I’ve gotta eat it, then. Hey, maybe I’ll be taller than you after this!”
“Oh,” Hope grouched, tugging Noel’s spoon away. “Fine. Give me that.”
The boy only grinned unrepentantly at him.
.
.
.
“What do you think of beetles?” Noel asked randomly in the middle of his cartoons, lying on the stomach in front of the television and swinging socked feet in the air. “I think they’re super cool. Did you know that most beetles have two pairs of wings? Like, forty percent of all known insects are beetles, and they make up about twenty-five percent of all the known species in the world.”
“That’s… nice.” Hope responded, unsure where the topic was going. He didn’t particularly like thinking about that sheer number of winged insects. His mother freaked out when insects got into the house, and while Hope remained somewhat indifferent, he associated her negative reactions with them.
“What about butterflies, then?” Noel asked, looking slightly dejected. “I think they’re, um, pretty, right? They’ve got some really nice wings. Of course, some of them are poisonous — they have this powder on their wings that’s very bad so bigger things won’t eat them, and then some of them aren’t poisonous, but they look poisonous because they don’t want things to eat them, either.”
Hope was starting to get an idea of what Mrs. Kreiss meant when she said that Noel would be awarded for good behavior with a trip to the park with his net. “I guess butterflies are okay.”
“Yeah, their wings look great.” Noel enthused, cartoon show entirely forgotten now as he scooted on his stomach to face Hope. “It’s too bad you can’t really collect them when they’re caterpillars, though. There are some black and spiky ones that are cool, but most of them are just green and squishy. Nana had a tomato plant once and there was this giant caterpillar — it was bigger than my finger!” He held up his index finger to show . “She screamed and attacked it with a pair of scissors. Cut it straight in two, and guess what? It was nothing but green goo in green skin! The skin just went flat and it dripped green goo everywhere ‘cause it was so big.”
Hope felt the recently ingested food churn in his stomach at the descriptor. Noel must have noticed his expression as well, since the boy’s excited expression deflated as surely as the caterpillar must have.
“I guess not butterflies too, huh.”
Hope gave the boy a hesitant smile. “You really like insects, huh.”
“Mostly beetles.” Noel admitted. “Nana doesn’t like them, but she got me a case last Christmas and said I could keep some only if I make sure everything’s clean and keep them in the case. I’ve been trying to find the best ones, but most of those live across the world.”
“Sorry,” Hope told him with a strained smile. “I’ve never collected bugs before.”
Hope had always been an indoors child, preferring his models and video games over playgrounds and skinned knees.
“It’s okay.” Noel said, chin in his palm. “I didn’t think you did. But it’s kinda cool, right?”
“What is?”
“That I know so much about bugs!” Noel gushed. “You know lots and lots about math, and that’s super cool even if I’m not very good at it and don’t really like it much. So c’mon, I’m a little cool, right? If that’s not enough, I also take defense classes and I’m on the school football team!”
Hope couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing, attempting to smother the sound with a hand even as he doubled over from where he was sitting on the couch.
“What? What?” Noel demanded, pushing himself up on his elbows. “But what’s so funny? I’m really good at football! Swear! Coach says I’ll make the middle school team for sure, and then I’ll make the high school team, too!”
“I don’t doubt it.” Hope struggled to say through his laughter, feeling tears at the corner of his eyes as Noel pouted at him. “I’m sure you’re a great athlete.”
“I can do a flip.” Noel offered. “And I know how to skateboard, and nana got me this huge model train set that I’d share. I can show you right now.”
Hope was saved from having to respond to that when the door opened, and Mrs. Kreiss’s voice called, “I’m home! Did you miss me, conejito?”
This time, it was Noel who turned a bright red as he looked up from the carpet toward the doorway, hissing loudly, “That’s not my name, nana!”
“Of course, of course.” She agreed readily, dropping off her coat and a large paper bag near the entrance, slipping out of her shoes to step onto the carpet as she came over to drop a quick kiss on Noel’s head. “Thank you so much for watching him tonight, Hope. He didn’t misbehave too much, did he?”
“Not at all,” Hope confirmed at Noel’s pleading look. He stood from the couch with a polite smile. “He’s a great kid. Finished his homework tonight, too. I’ll just—” The words were stopped by an arm around his ankle, Noel clinging on with his life from where he was still lying on the floor.
“Don’t make Hope go, nana!” Noel protested, staring up with sad blue eyes. “Can’t he stay here, please? Pleeeease?”
“Oh, Noel.” Mrs. Kreiss looked torn between exasperated fondness and weariness. “Where would he stay, my bunny? We’ve only got the two rooms.”
“He can stay in my room.” Noel insisted stubbornly. “I’ll clean up everything, promise. We did that when Yeul stayed with us — before Caius took her away, too.”
Hope felt a lump form in his throat at the murmured bitterness in those words, noting the old loneliness. It was Mrs. Kreiss who shook her head, crouching down to pry Noel’s fingers away despite the boy’s whining protests. Hope stood there awkwardly, unsure what he was supposed to do.
“He has to go home now, cariño.” Mrs. Kreiss told Noel, who was now sitting up and pouting relentlessly. “His family will be waiting for him.”
The boy heaved an explosive sigh, shoulders slouching. “Fine. Okay.” He then turned pleading blue eyes in Hope’s direction, staring up pitifully. “But you’ll come back, right, Hope? Soon?”
Hope blinked, and then gave a genuine smile, somewhat stirred by Noel’s pleading. Despite the awkwardness and the strange moments, the night really hadn’t been all too bad. He was still glad to have come here rather than endure hours of his mother making him change into different outfits again and again (no matter how much he loved his mom, Hope’s patience for clothes shopping could only endure for so long).
“Sure.” He agreed readily. Noel really was a cute kid. He crouched down as well, hands on his knees as he balanced on his toes to address the boy’s pout. “Maybe next time we’ll get to go to the park.”
.
.
.
Saturday was a flurry of panicked studying (because despite what Serah said, Hope didn’t know all the stuff he had to. Besides, if he did know all the stuff, they would just continue testing until he didn’t know something, and he wanted to answer as many questions as possible before that happened), with his parents checking in on him every couple of hours, usually to remind him to get up and stretch once in a while, to take a break, or to bring him snacks.
“Don’t work too hard.” His mom murmured into his hair as she brought him a cup of cocoa and kissed him atop his head. “We don’t want your brain exploding. It’d be a pain to clean up the mess and get your father to replace you with a robot.”
“Okay, mom.” Hope told her absentmindedly, never taking his attention away from the philosophy segment.
She took a moment to card fingers through his hair before stepping to leave his room.
Hope paused for a moment, mind distracted from the source material. He turned in his chair, the hinges squeaking just slightly to let him know that it needed to be oiled soon. “Hey, mom? Have I told you lately that you’re really pretty?”
She stopped in her tracks, looking bewildered. “Hope? Honey? Don’t tell me all that studying really has started to melt your brain.”
He grinned at her, pretending to wipe under his nose. “Nope, no brain matter yet. Just thought it was something I didn’t say enough.”
He turned back to his study books, feeling a bit more refreshed.
.
.
.
Sunday passed in the same manner, and Hope finally sludged back to school on Monday feeling half dead from not enough sleep and also slightly buzzed from the amount of caffeinated pop he ingested the past twenty hours. He barely paid attention through his classes until one of the assistant teachers called for him and led him to a small room off the teachers’ lounge where several people in suits and tablets waited for him to sit before handing him a large stack of papers.
“Good luck, son.” An older man with a bushy brown mustache told him, smiling.
“Thanks.” Hope responded in a murmur, and then picked up the standardized pencil and got to work.
.
.
.
His cellphone buzzed Tuesday evening, and Hope nearly dropped the brush he had been using to paint parts of his latest model before he caught himself, and picked up his phone with a free hand. “Hello?”
“Congratulations!” Came a dissonant dual tone from over the phone before Serah said, “You’re done with your tests now, right? Or is there more that I missed?”
“I think I’m done.” Hope told her, balancing the thin phone between his shoulder and ear. It had been a long two days of testing, mostly because he answered well enough that he went on a second day. His mom had been ecstatic so Tuesday evening had been filled with way too much food. “Is Snow with you?” It didn’t sound like Snow, though.
“Nope!” Noel’s excited voice butted in. “It’s me! Hi, Hope!”
Serah giggled a short distance from the phone. “He’s been asking me allll about you,” she drawled, sounding more like a kid than he did at that moment, her voice singsong as a girl sounded when she lilted out someone’s got a cru~ush, except Noel didn’t sound like he minded at all. “Here, go on, Noel, tell him about the assignment your teacher gave you.”
“Oh, yeah.” There was a quick rustling sound, and then some uneven footsteps accompanied by Serah’s giggling before the rustling sounds appeared again. “Uh, here. Mrs. Firch said we had to write out ten things we wanted to do when we grew up. Yanny wrote, like, fifty. It was crazy!”
“Tell him about what you wrote,” urged Serah.
“Okay!” This time there was the sound of crinkling paper, and Noel read with excitement, “I’m going to be Yeul’s bodyguard when she grows up ‘cause she’s totally going to be an idol and I’m gunna fight people off with sticks if I have to — that’s number one. I’m also gunna be this great football player when I grow up so I can make lots of money and get nana a bigger place to make sure she never has to work again.”
There were the sounds of Serah cooing in the background.
“Three, I’ll fly to Australia! They’ve got these awesome gold stag beetles that have this green-gold shell, did you know? And I really want one of those! Uh, oh yeah, four. When I make it big, I’m going to say that Serah used to look out for me and that she’s an amazing tutor and every kid who needs help should go to her.”
“I swear I didn’t make him put that in!” Serah inputted cheerfully.
“Number five, I’m going to be number one at defense in the whole world so I can kick Caius’s butt whenever he’s being all smug, and so I can protect the people who I love. I’m going to be better at it than everyone. Six, I’m going to be a Pokemon master. Because that’s cool.”
In that background, it sounded like Serah was starting to laugh herself breathless.
“Seven, I’m going to come up with a way to solve world hunger. It can’t be that hard, right? There’s lots of food! People just need to learn to share. Eight, I’ll make sure every kid in the world has extra time to play by getting rid of all homework. That leads to nine, where I’m king of the world and get rid of all sickness and people can live forever if they want so nana never has to worry about being old.”
Hope wasn’t sure what to think by this point, and whether he should be laughing alongside Serah. The goals were just getting more and more ridiculous.
“And then,” Noel announced triumphantly. “I’ll get you to agree to marry me and we’ll live happily ever after.”
“It literally says ‘I will marry Hope and we will live happily ever after.’” Serah quoted cheerfully, and then paused. “Oh, Noel. We’re going to have to work on your spelling.”
“Yeah, but you could read what it said so that’s good enough, right?” Noel responded.
Hope was tempted at this point to just hang up on the both of them. He didn’t remember Serah being so childish before. Lightning had always spoken about her mature and collected little sister, but Hope didn’t see an ounce of that in her now.
He set his paintbrush down carefully, contemplating his words. He didn’t know just how Noel got so attached to him in the first place, not when they barely spent a few hours together in all. He could say that Pokemon weren’t real or that being king of the world would be impossible, but it was probably better that he focused on the bit aimed at him. “Noel, I’m not going to marry you.”
“Why not?” The boy demanded over the phone. “I already said — I’ll be king of the world then! That’s good, right? And, and — oh.” He deflated suddenly. “It’s okay. I’ve got a long time to get you to say yes. This is supposed to be for when I grow up, anyway. Do you need a ring? Because nana has a ring. I’m sure I can get it.”
Hope wondered which one of the (numerous) reasonings he should point out before finally settling on, “You know I’m a lot older than you, right?”
“So’s Serah!” Noel proclaimed. “And she said she’d marry me if she hadn’t already promised to marry someone else!”
“Yeah, Hope,” Serah drawled, sounding far too amused. “Love triumphs age difference.”
“Anyway,” Noel’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial mock whisper, “I think your parents lied to you, Hope. I’m pretty sure you’re only, like, twelve. You’re too small for fourteen—”
This time, Hope did hang up on them.
.
.
.
Which brought him to Wednesday.
His current dilemma.
“Oh, but he’s adorable!” One of the older girls cooed, a head taller than Hope and shoving against his side to get a better look at Noel, who apparently managed to get out of school early and raced all the way to the high school Hope was at (knowledge given to him courtesy of Serah, who used the tidbit of information to make the boy revise his entire goals list the night previous so that it was spelled correctly and grammatically correct). The child in question was beaming brightly at all the attention, clinging to Hope’s hand with both of his own as he widened his eyes to look even cuter and younger than he was.
“You’re really cute, too.” He told the girl, who just gasped and clutched at her heart, cooing at him.
The circle of girls was increasing, and Hope’s chances of escape was growing dimmer and dimmer.
“Aww, sweetie,” another girl asked, her tone sugary-sweet. “What’s your name? How old are you? Are you waiting for your older sibling?”
“I’m Noel, and I’m eight.” He answered, nodding along with his words. “I’m an only child. But I’m here to ask Hope out! ‘Cause, uh, Serah said you need to ask people out first lots of times before you ask them to marry you, so I might have been doing things backwards for a while.”
Hope cringed, but it seemed the group of girls were only more enamored by the information, whispering amongst themselves in hushed tones with words like ‘oh, that’s so cute!’ tossed about.
“Here,” Noel released his hold on Hope’s hand (except not really, since he still had the other hand clinging tightly) in order to rummage through the pockets of his large and baggy pants, pulling out a handful of wilted daffodils and broken dandelion stems to present to Hope. The child frowned when he caught sight of that. “...I swear that looked a lot nicer earlier.”
There was more cooing from the ever encroaching circle of girls, and a hissed ‘take the flowers!’ from behind him which prompted Hope to accept the gift and Noel to beam even brighter.
“It’s okay if you won’t say yes right now.” Noel told him almost sympathetically. “But please, please say it’s okay for me to keep asking you, okay? I super promise that I’ll keep asking until you say yes, too. Nana said lots of people lose interest and that’s how people don’t always work out, but I promise I’ll keep asking! I mean, can I? Ask? If you say yes, then I’ll stop asking you to marry me for right now but that means I get to ask you again when I’m eighteen, okay? So please?”
The entire argument felt far too confusing to Hope. All he managed to make out was that if he said yes now, it would mean Noel would stop asking him to marry him until the kid was eighteen.
By then, Hope was positive Noel would find other people to be interested in.
“Oh, alright.” Hope breathed out, and then quirked a smile despite himself. No matter how much trouble Noel was, he was still a cute kid. Hope reached out to ruffle the boy’s hair, which made Noel laugh joyously. “You can ask me again if you still want to — but only after you turn eighteen.”
Noel threw his arms up and cheered his victory as the circle of girls around them clapped and sighed dreamily.
Yes, Hope thought, face flushed. It really was all Serah’s fault.
But he supposed he could live with it.
Fandom: Lightning Returns
Character/Pairing(s): CHIBI CUTE NOEL/HOPE, Serah Farron (laughing in the background)
Rating: G
Warning: FLUFFY MCFLUFFFLUFF CUTENESS
Summary: (New World) Hope agrees to take on Serah's babysitting duties, and gets far more than he expected when the kid develops a puppy crush on him. From this.
(Sequel here!)
It was all Serah's fault, Hope thought despondently. She was the one who said it would be an easy job, that she needed the night to study for her test (when she didn't even study! Snow took her out for a night on the town!), and then told him where Hope went to school.
Yes. It was all her fault that Hope was currently stuck in a circle of cooing girls with no way of escape.
It all started the Thursday prior.
"Pretty please?" Serah crooned through the phone, and Hope felt himself wilting against her pout (which he couldn't see, but could practically hear). "I have a history paper to do and then the professor just sprouted this test on us out of nowhere! It wasn't even on the syllabus, I swear, but he said it'd be an exam for the next class and that's in two days and I've barely paid attention to that course all term because I thought I'd just binge-study for the final."
"I have a test, too." Hope protested weakly, having already abandoned all pretenses of actually studying while on the phone with her. He had plenty of tests, since his teachers were trying to see if he should skip another grade or not.
"Yeah, but you're going to ace it, and we all know it. You already know all the course material, you don't need to study at all." Serah heaved a huge sigh at that. "Keep going like this and you're going to skip through all the best years of high school, Hope."
He thought otherwise. There were no best years of high school.
"Besides, you're good with kids." Serah's voice perked up again. "You like them, don't you? It's just for a night, and Noel's the sweetest thing — he won't be any trouble at all!"
"Yeah, but it's not about that—" Hope tried to protest, but Serah only heard the confirmation.
"Great!" She enthused. "I'll text you the address, then. It's tomorrow from six to ten, but it might go on a bit later if Mrs. Kreiss gets out late, but that doesn't happen too often and she always comes back with cookies if she does. Thanks so much, Hope, you're a life-saver! I've got to study now, so I'll talk to you later! Bye!"
She hung up immediately after that, leaving Hope to blink at his phone for a second before getting up from his chair to inform his mother (whom he was sure overheard the conversation anyway, possibly from the kitchen phone, since otherwise Serah would have called him on his cell instead), who turned a tad overprotective after he started hanging out with Lightning, and subsequently Serah and Team NORA as well.
Guess he couldn't go on that shopping trip with her, after all.
.
.
.
"Thank you for this." Mrs. Kreiss told him on Friday night, looking somewhat harried as she grabbed for her purse and shoes, curly brown hair salted with white and falling out of a hasty bun. She looked younger than what he expected a grandmother to look like, tall and strong with only the wrinkles around her eyes and her dulling hair betraying her age. Her voice was lilting and accented. "He is upstairs napping right now, but make sure he doesn't sleep for more than half an hour after I leave, or he'll refuse to go to bed tonight if he sleeps any longer than that. There is dinner in the microwave, and if he wants sweets before that, don’t let him have any. If he finds sweets somehow, feel free to take it and eat it in front of him. Also…”
The middle-aged woman sighed, but quirked her lips up in amusement. “Tell him if he’s a good boy and finishes all his homework before I get back, then I’ll take him out to the park tomorrow and and he can take his net.”
Hope just nodded absentmindedly, feeling slightly overwhelmed.
“There are emergency numbers on the fridge, but he shouldn’t be any trouble. Noel’s old enough to know what not to do already, and he’s got the numbers memorized as well. Don’t let him talk you into anything. And Hope—” He turned roving eyes seeking out the kitchen back to her with a questioning hum. “Thank you again.”
She was out the door in a flurry, and Hope felt himself floundering as the sudden silence surrounded him. He looked around, still in his coat and shoes, taking in the small two storied apartment. He had seen home designs like this before in his father’s office, although Bartholomew more often than not designed corporate structures. Small kitchen and living area on the bottom floor for entertaining, and probably two tiny bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.
Unlike the designs, however, the place looked warm and welcoming, walls covered with framed pictures and paintings, crates of toys shoved against dressers which had plenty of books, figurines, and flowers. There was a faux fireplace in the living area, above which depicted a beautiful painting of Mary surrounded by candles. Warm colored quilts were thrown over all the sofas and chairs, and every inch of space looked like it was being utilized.
He toed off his shoes and unwrapped his scarf, still taking in his surroundings when a voice sounded out, “I haven’t taken naps in years. Nana still thinks I’m a little kid.”
Hope looked up from where he was putting his coat on the hanger, and saw a brunet child sitting on the stairs turned in his direction, chin in hands and both elbows on his knees as the child peered at him with bright blue eyes.
“You’re not Serah.”
“I’m not.” Hope confirmed, and smiled at the child. “She’s busy tonight. I’m her friend, Hope.”
“That’s a girl’s name.” The boy complained, looking put out for a moment before he brightened, and stood from where he had been sitting. “How old are you? We should go to the park and play!”
Hope felt his smile strain as he ignored the first comment. “I’m fourteen. And you’re supposed to finish your homework tonight.”
“I can finish that anytime.” The child, Noel, bounded over to him from the stairs, covering the area with three running steps. “You can’t be fourteen. I’m eight, you know.” He raised a hand to the top of his head, leaning closer to Hope who leaned away. The hand came level with Hope’s nose, much to his consternation. “No way you’re six years older than me.”
It wasn’t, Hope realized in that moment, going to be a very good night.
.
.
.
“How do you even know all of this?” Noel demanded, looking awed at the full page of explanations Hope managed to diagram for him to help with his math homework. “Serah just stops after what I’m supposed to know for homework.”
Hope raised a hand to the bridge of his nose, rubbing at the skin between his eyes with his pencil and smiling slightly. Despite initial impressions, Noel was a boisterous and cheerful boy who just tended to have a foot in his mouth frequently but with all the best intentions in mind.
“Sorry,” he said, “I got a little carried away, didn’t I?”
“Nuh-uh,” Noel said, shaking his head. “That’s amazing! I mean, long division’s so boring. I didn’t know you can do all these weird number things with it!”
“Wait, you understand this?” Hope asked, brightening slightly.
“Not at all!” Noel answered cheerfully. “But it looks really cool.”
“Oh.” Hope felt himself deflate. “I guess Serah would explain it a lot better…”
“She does.” And at this, Noel nodded sagely, but then leaned toward Hope eagerly as he pointed to the paper. “But it doesn’t look so cool! Hey, hey, can you come help me with my math homework all the time? How about tomorrow? You’ll help me with this tomorrow too, won’t you?”
Taken aback by the boy’s enthusiasm, Hope couldn’t find himself refusing in time.
.
.
.
“Uh…” It felt like the surprises just wouldn’t stop, not when Noel was enthusiastically piling layers of macaroni and cheese onto Hope’s plate. “Noel. Stop. Stop. What are you doing?”
“Making you eat more.” Noel responded honestly, spoon filled with cheesy pasta halfway to Hope’s plate. His eyes were wide and innocent. “Nana says you have to eat to grow. And you need to grow more than I do!”
“I don’t!” Hope retorted, not able to catch that childish retort in time. He flushed, mentally berating himself for arguing with a child. “I eat plenty at home, Noel. My mom makes sure of it.”
“You don’t like nana’s cooking?” And there was that wide-eyed pout again. “If you don’t like this, I can share some of the candy I’ve got stashed away—”
“You’re not supposed to have that!” Hope protested once his brain caught up with him again.
“Serah let me get away with it.” Noel responded cheekily. He squinted at Hope for a moment, and then said, “You have really pretty hair, Hope. It’s kinda like my cousin’s — Yeul’s the prettiest girl in the world, ever — I mean, she’s five and she’s already the prettiest, and her hair color’s a lot like yours except darker. Actually, her eye color’s a lot like yours but darker, too! Are you related to Yeul?”
“I—” Hope blinked at the sudden topic change. “Not that I know of. I don’t have any cousins.”
“Oh, okay, good.” Noel told him, and then plopped the entire spoonful of macaroni and cheese into his mouth, his words slurred around the food. “‘Cause I wanted to marry Yeul when I was little, but Caius said I couldn’t ‘cause she’s my cousin. And Serah’s the third prettiest person I’ve ever seen so I asked if I could marry her, like, forever ago, but she said she already agreed to marry someone else.
“And you’re, like, the fourth prettiest person ever! Will you marry me when I grow up?”
“You shouldn’t marry someone just because they’re pretty.” Hope told him, trying to ignore the red on his cheeks. “It’s a very important decision.”
“I know.” Noel told him, and swallowed his food. “So will you?”
“No.” Hope told him, figuring that if he attempted any way to let the boy down gently, Noel would just wheedle his way into getting what he wanted again. Not that he was taking this seriously. He distinctly remembered his father laughing about how he used to walk around boasting about marrying his mom when he grew up. Granted, he had been much younger than Noel, but the core of the thought was the same. “Who’s the second prettiest person?”
“Huh?” Noel asked in-between bites.
“You said your cousin’s the prettiest.” Hope reminded him. “And Serah’s third. Who’s the second?”
“Nana, of course.” Noel said, making a face that said obviously. “Who else can it be? You’ve seen her, right? Isn’t she just the prettiest?”
Hope found himself softening at that, reminded of his own constant statements about how his mom was the prettiest ever while he was growing up. He was probably overdue to tell her that lately. “She really is.”
“So you’re really not going to eat that?” Noel asked, pointing at the food with his spoon. Hope just shook his head, glad that Noel had already forgotten about his marriage proposal. The boy shrugged at the response, and then pulled the entire bowl toward him. “I guess I’ve gotta eat it, then. Hey, maybe I’ll be taller than you after this!”
“Oh,” Hope grouched, tugging Noel’s spoon away. “Fine. Give me that.”
The boy only grinned unrepentantly at him.
.
.
.
“What do you think of beetles?” Noel asked randomly in the middle of his cartoons, lying on the stomach in front of the television and swinging socked feet in the air. “I think they’re super cool. Did you know that most beetles have two pairs of wings? Like, forty percent of all known insects are beetles, and they make up about twenty-five percent of all the known species in the world.”
“That’s… nice.” Hope responded, unsure where the topic was going. He didn’t particularly like thinking about that sheer number of winged insects. His mother freaked out when insects got into the house, and while Hope remained somewhat indifferent, he associated her negative reactions with them.
“What about butterflies, then?” Noel asked, looking slightly dejected. “I think they’re, um, pretty, right? They’ve got some really nice wings. Of course, some of them are poisonous — they have this powder on their wings that’s very bad so bigger things won’t eat them, and then some of them aren’t poisonous, but they look poisonous because they don’t want things to eat them, either.”
Hope was starting to get an idea of what Mrs. Kreiss meant when she said that Noel would be awarded for good behavior with a trip to the park with his net. “I guess butterflies are okay.”
“Yeah, their wings look great.” Noel enthused, cartoon show entirely forgotten now as he scooted on his stomach to face Hope. “It’s too bad you can’t really collect them when they’re caterpillars, though. There are some black and spiky ones that are cool, but most of them are just green and squishy. Nana had a tomato plant once and there was this giant caterpillar — it was bigger than my finger!” He held up his index finger to show . “She screamed and attacked it with a pair of scissors. Cut it straight in two, and guess what? It was nothing but green goo in green skin! The skin just went flat and it dripped green goo everywhere ‘cause it was so big.”
Hope felt the recently ingested food churn in his stomach at the descriptor. Noel must have noticed his expression as well, since the boy’s excited expression deflated as surely as the caterpillar must have.
“I guess not butterflies too, huh.”
Hope gave the boy a hesitant smile. “You really like insects, huh.”
“Mostly beetles.” Noel admitted. “Nana doesn’t like them, but she got me a case last Christmas and said I could keep some only if I make sure everything’s clean and keep them in the case. I’ve been trying to find the best ones, but most of those live across the world.”
“Sorry,” Hope told him with a strained smile. “I’ve never collected bugs before.”
Hope had always been an indoors child, preferring his models and video games over playgrounds and skinned knees.
“It’s okay.” Noel said, chin in his palm. “I didn’t think you did. But it’s kinda cool, right?”
“What is?”
“That I know so much about bugs!” Noel gushed. “You know lots and lots about math, and that’s super cool even if I’m not very good at it and don’t really like it much. So c’mon, I’m a little cool, right? If that’s not enough, I also take defense classes and I’m on the school football team!”
Hope couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing, attempting to smother the sound with a hand even as he doubled over from where he was sitting on the couch.
“What? What?” Noel demanded, pushing himself up on his elbows. “But what’s so funny? I’m really good at football! Swear! Coach says I’ll make the middle school team for sure, and then I’ll make the high school team, too!”
“I don’t doubt it.” Hope struggled to say through his laughter, feeling tears at the corner of his eyes as Noel pouted at him. “I’m sure you’re a great athlete.”
“I can do a flip.” Noel offered. “And I know how to skateboard, and nana got me this huge model train set that I’d share. I can show you right now.”
Hope was saved from having to respond to that when the door opened, and Mrs. Kreiss’s voice called, “I’m home! Did you miss me, conejito?”
This time, it was Noel who turned a bright red as he looked up from the carpet toward the doorway, hissing loudly, “That’s not my name, nana!”
“Of course, of course.” She agreed readily, dropping off her coat and a large paper bag near the entrance, slipping out of her shoes to step onto the carpet as she came over to drop a quick kiss on Noel’s head. “Thank you so much for watching him tonight, Hope. He didn’t misbehave too much, did he?”
“Not at all,” Hope confirmed at Noel’s pleading look. He stood from the couch with a polite smile. “He’s a great kid. Finished his homework tonight, too. I’ll just—” The words were stopped by an arm around his ankle, Noel clinging on with his life from where he was still lying on the floor.
“Don’t make Hope go, nana!” Noel protested, staring up with sad blue eyes. “Can’t he stay here, please? Pleeeease?”
“Oh, Noel.” Mrs. Kreiss looked torn between exasperated fondness and weariness. “Where would he stay, my bunny? We’ve only got the two rooms.”
“He can stay in my room.” Noel insisted stubbornly. “I’ll clean up everything, promise. We did that when Yeul stayed with us — before Caius took her away, too.”
Hope felt a lump form in his throat at the murmured bitterness in those words, noting the old loneliness. It was Mrs. Kreiss who shook her head, crouching down to pry Noel’s fingers away despite the boy’s whining protests. Hope stood there awkwardly, unsure what he was supposed to do.
“He has to go home now, cariño.” Mrs. Kreiss told Noel, who was now sitting up and pouting relentlessly. “His family will be waiting for him.”
The boy heaved an explosive sigh, shoulders slouching. “Fine. Okay.” He then turned pleading blue eyes in Hope’s direction, staring up pitifully. “But you’ll come back, right, Hope? Soon?”
Hope blinked, and then gave a genuine smile, somewhat stirred by Noel’s pleading. Despite the awkwardness and the strange moments, the night really hadn’t been all too bad. He was still glad to have come here rather than endure hours of his mother making him change into different outfits again and again (no matter how much he loved his mom, Hope’s patience for clothes shopping could only endure for so long).
“Sure.” He agreed readily. Noel really was a cute kid. He crouched down as well, hands on his knees as he balanced on his toes to address the boy’s pout. “Maybe next time we’ll get to go to the park.”
.
.
.
Saturday was a flurry of panicked studying (because despite what Serah said, Hope didn’t know all the stuff he had to. Besides, if he did know all the stuff, they would just continue testing until he didn’t know something, and he wanted to answer as many questions as possible before that happened), with his parents checking in on him every couple of hours, usually to remind him to get up and stretch once in a while, to take a break, or to bring him snacks.
“Don’t work too hard.” His mom murmured into his hair as she brought him a cup of cocoa and kissed him atop his head. “We don’t want your brain exploding. It’d be a pain to clean up the mess and get your father to replace you with a robot.”
“Okay, mom.” Hope told her absentmindedly, never taking his attention away from the philosophy segment.
She took a moment to card fingers through his hair before stepping to leave his room.
Hope paused for a moment, mind distracted from the source material. He turned in his chair, the hinges squeaking just slightly to let him know that it needed to be oiled soon. “Hey, mom? Have I told you lately that you’re really pretty?”
She stopped in her tracks, looking bewildered. “Hope? Honey? Don’t tell me all that studying really has started to melt your brain.”
He grinned at her, pretending to wipe under his nose. “Nope, no brain matter yet. Just thought it was something I didn’t say enough.”
He turned back to his study books, feeling a bit more refreshed.
.
.
.
Sunday passed in the same manner, and Hope finally sludged back to school on Monday feeling half dead from not enough sleep and also slightly buzzed from the amount of caffeinated pop he ingested the past twenty hours. He barely paid attention through his classes until one of the assistant teachers called for him and led him to a small room off the teachers’ lounge where several people in suits and tablets waited for him to sit before handing him a large stack of papers.
“Good luck, son.” An older man with a bushy brown mustache told him, smiling.
“Thanks.” Hope responded in a murmur, and then picked up the standardized pencil and got to work.
.
.
.
His cellphone buzzed Tuesday evening, and Hope nearly dropped the brush he had been using to paint parts of his latest model before he caught himself, and picked up his phone with a free hand. “Hello?”
“Congratulations!” Came a dissonant dual tone from over the phone before Serah said, “You’re done with your tests now, right? Or is there more that I missed?”
“I think I’m done.” Hope told her, balancing the thin phone between his shoulder and ear. It had been a long two days of testing, mostly because he answered well enough that he went on a second day. His mom had been ecstatic so Tuesday evening had been filled with way too much food. “Is Snow with you?” It didn’t sound like Snow, though.
“Nope!” Noel’s excited voice butted in. “It’s me! Hi, Hope!”
Serah giggled a short distance from the phone. “He’s been asking me allll about you,” she drawled, sounding more like a kid than he did at that moment, her voice singsong as a girl sounded when she lilted out someone’s got a cru~ush, except Noel didn’t sound like he minded at all. “Here, go on, Noel, tell him about the assignment your teacher gave you.”
“Oh, yeah.” There was a quick rustling sound, and then some uneven footsteps accompanied by Serah’s giggling before the rustling sounds appeared again. “Uh, here. Mrs. Firch said we had to write out ten things we wanted to do when we grew up. Yanny wrote, like, fifty. It was crazy!”
“Tell him about what you wrote,” urged Serah.
“Okay!” This time there was the sound of crinkling paper, and Noel read with excitement, “I’m going to be Yeul’s bodyguard when she grows up ‘cause she’s totally going to be an idol and I’m gunna fight people off with sticks if I have to — that’s number one. I’m also gunna be this great football player when I grow up so I can make lots of money and get nana a bigger place to make sure she never has to work again.”
There were the sounds of Serah cooing in the background.
“Three, I’ll fly to Australia! They’ve got these awesome gold stag beetles that have this green-gold shell, did you know? And I really want one of those! Uh, oh yeah, four. When I make it big, I’m going to say that Serah used to look out for me and that she’s an amazing tutor and every kid who needs help should go to her.”
“I swear I didn’t make him put that in!” Serah inputted cheerfully.
“Number five, I’m going to be number one at defense in the whole world so I can kick Caius’s butt whenever he’s being all smug, and so I can protect the people who I love. I’m going to be better at it than everyone. Six, I’m going to be a Pokemon master. Because that’s cool.”
In that background, it sounded like Serah was starting to laugh herself breathless.
“Seven, I’m going to come up with a way to solve world hunger. It can’t be that hard, right? There’s lots of food! People just need to learn to share. Eight, I’ll make sure every kid in the world has extra time to play by getting rid of all homework. That leads to nine, where I’m king of the world and get rid of all sickness and people can live forever if they want so nana never has to worry about being old.”
Hope wasn’t sure what to think by this point, and whether he should be laughing alongside Serah. The goals were just getting more and more ridiculous.
“And then,” Noel announced triumphantly. “I’ll get you to agree to marry me and we’ll live happily ever after.”
“It literally says ‘I will marry Hope and we will live happily ever after.’” Serah quoted cheerfully, and then paused. “Oh, Noel. We’re going to have to work on your spelling.”
“Yeah, but you could read what it said so that’s good enough, right?” Noel responded.
Hope was tempted at this point to just hang up on the both of them. He didn’t remember Serah being so childish before. Lightning had always spoken about her mature and collected little sister, but Hope didn’t see an ounce of that in her now.
He set his paintbrush down carefully, contemplating his words. He didn’t know just how Noel got so attached to him in the first place, not when they barely spent a few hours together in all. He could say that Pokemon weren’t real or that being king of the world would be impossible, but it was probably better that he focused on the bit aimed at him. “Noel, I’m not going to marry you.”
“Why not?” The boy demanded over the phone. “I already said — I’ll be king of the world then! That’s good, right? And, and — oh.” He deflated suddenly. “It’s okay. I’ve got a long time to get you to say yes. This is supposed to be for when I grow up, anyway. Do you need a ring? Because nana has a ring. I’m sure I can get it.”
Hope wondered which one of the (numerous) reasonings he should point out before finally settling on, “You know I’m a lot older than you, right?”
“So’s Serah!” Noel proclaimed. “And she said she’d marry me if she hadn’t already promised to marry someone else!”
“Yeah, Hope,” Serah drawled, sounding far too amused. “Love triumphs age difference.”
“Anyway,” Noel’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial mock whisper, “I think your parents lied to you, Hope. I’m pretty sure you’re only, like, twelve. You’re too small for fourteen—”
This time, Hope did hang up on them.
.
.
.
Which brought him to Wednesday.
His current dilemma.
“Oh, but he’s adorable!” One of the older girls cooed, a head taller than Hope and shoving against his side to get a better look at Noel, who apparently managed to get out of school early and raced all the way to the high school Hope was at (knowledge given to him courtesy of Serah, who used the tidbit of information to make the boy revise his entire goals list the night previous so that it was spelled correctly and grammatically correct). The child in question was beaming brightly at all the attention, clinging to Hope’s hand with both of his own as he widened his eyes to look even cuter and younger than he was.
“You’re really cute, too.” He told the girl, who just gasped and clutched at her heart, cooing at him.
The circle of girls was increasing, and Hope’s chances of escape was growing dimmer and dimmer.
“Aww, sweetie,” another girl asked, her tone sugary-sweet. “What’s your name? How old are you? Are you waiting for your older sibling?”
“I’m Noel, and I’m eight.” He answered, nodding along with his words. “I’m an only child. But I’m here to ask Hope out! ‘Cause, uh, Serah said you need to ask people out first lots of times before you ask them to marry you, so I might have been doing things backwards for a while.”
Hope cringed, but it seemed the group of girls were only more enamored by the information, whispering amongst themselves in hushed tones with words like ‘oh, that’s so cute!’ tossed about.
“Here,” Noel released his hold on Hope’s hand (except not really, since he still had the other hand clinging tightly) in order to rummage through the pockets of his large and baggy pants, pulling out a handful of wilted daffodils and broken dandelion stems to present to Hope. The child frowned when he caught sight of that. “...I swear that looked a lot nicer earlier.”
There was more cooing from the ever encroaching circle of girls, and a hissed ‘take the flowers!’ from behind him which prompted Hope to accept the gift and Noel to beam even brighter.
“It’s okay if you won’t say yes right now.” Noel told him almost sympathetically. “But please, please say it’s okay for me to keep asking you, okay? I super promise that I’ll keep asking until you say yes, too. Nana said lots of people lose interest and that’s how people don’t always work out, but I promise I’ll keep asking! I mean, can I? Ask? If you say yes, then I’ll stop asking you to marry me for right now but that means I get to ask you again when I’m eighteen, okay? So please?”
The entire argument felt far too confusing to Hope. All he managed to make out was that if he said yes now, it would mean Noel would stop asking him to marry him until the kid was eighteen.
By then, Hope was positive Noel would find other people to be interested in.
“Oh, alright.” Hope breathed out, and then quirked a smile despite himself. No matter how much trouble Noel was, he was still a cute kid. Hope reached out to ruffle the boy’s hair, which made Noel laugh joyously. “You can ask me again if you still want to — but only after you turn eighteen.”
Noel threw his arms up and cheered his victory as the circle of girls around them clapped and sighed dreamily.
Yes, Hope thought, face flushed. It really was all Serah’s fault.
But he supposed he could live with it.