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[FFXIII-2] In Medias Res (3179words)
Title: In Medias Res
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Character/Pairing(s): Noel/Hope, WELL MORE PRE-EVERYTHING, their first meeting?, Alyssa Zaidelle, Serah Farron
Rating: G
Warning: nothing whatsoever
Summary: Prompt: "Stop trying to cheer me up!", which was a little skewed in this. Hope's first time seeing Serah and Noel together.
There was something to be said about the satisfaction of solving a mystery, especially when that mystery pertained to oneself. For the past several weeks, Hope Estheim had been behaving strangely to friends and colleagues alike with first his inattention to his work and then a strange travel-longing. While he tried to play off excuses when he signed up for the Paddra excavation, he was not the only person to notice that it was yet another strange event in a line of events which was starting to get quite sizable. Strange event in that it would be something he might ‘waste his time on’, to be put in not so many words by Alyssa.
After all, a director of the Academy didn’t have enough time on their hands to begin with, and if they did, then they were given more to do. As Director of Research, Hope had been swamped with project assessments and reports, mandates and politics, for months upon months. He could barely remember the last time he managed to get a full night’s sleep rather than be awakened by his assistant urging him to settle a dispute between scientists and government issues on either ethical views or budget restrictions. Overall, it was a stressful job, but worth every second whenever there was no more breakthrough thanks to the Academy and one more tiny push to a brighter future.
So it was a well earned satisfaction that settled deep in his core when Serah and a newcomer showed up in the Paddrean ruins, surprised and delighted to see him for some odd reason. Hope himself was delighted to see Serah, especially having heard her missing for the past seven years. It was like a miracle, one of the people he lost finally coming back. Perhaps an omen of good things to come.
(Like how if he wished hard enough, maybe Snow and Sazh and Dajh would return… and if he worked hard enough, then one day he would free Vanille and Fang. One day he’d find Lightning again. And if miracles and time travel really did exist…. then… maybe he’d be able to save his mother as well.)
On her part, Serah was pleased to see him, but didn’t seem as excited as he was to see her. Then again, it hadn’t been seven years for her — perhaps a few weeks at the most. She flitted between her excitement upon seeing him again and banter with Alyssa, who took to greeting Serah like an old friend although she never stopped giving Hope curious stares to wonder just how he knew the pair would arrive just there at just that time.
The simple answer was: he didn’t know.
There had been no mention in the Oracle Drive, yet Hope had felt a strange need to be at Paddra in such an unremarkable time. He had said so himself many times when Alyssa demanded an explanation, confused as to why they were doing their work in such a secluded place.
"I need to be here." Hope would responded each and every time, and when Alyssa pressed further for comprehensive answers, Hope would be unable to reply.
Now that feeling paid off, yet the satisfaction was tinged by even more questions. Just how did he know that they would be coming? He hadn’t known, but somehow there had been a feeling he couldn’t shake off. And more than that feeling were all the questions that Serah’s arrival brought: questions on time travel, on powers beyond that of humans or fal’Cie, about what the future might bring, about how she had been chosen for this task, and even about her unknown companion.
Noel Kreiss dressed like one born and raised on Gran Pulse rather than the soft-skinned people of Cocoon. He moved with a fluidity that Hope hadn’t seen in years, or at least not since the last time he watched Fang in action. It was fascinating to watch, if only because the stranger (now acquaintance?) reminded him so much of a time long gone. A time in his life fraught with hardships, yet a time he wouldn’t give up for anything.
Hope found himself gravitating toward Serah, subconsciously trying to hear everything she had to say and piece together whatever small parts of the puzzle he could. Perhaps a stray comment would be important later on, or she might know something she didn’t understand as important to him. Naturally, with his pull, Alyssa came along as well, sticking to him like a burr the more he tried to speak with Serah on occasion. This also led to him having more conversations with Noel as his assistant honed in to conversing with Serah cheerfully regarding things Hope couldn’t make out at all.
It was a refreshing experience, however, to speak to someone who didn’t look upon him with a mixture of awe and fear the way Hope had acclimated himself to, being both a Director of the Academy and a known ex-l’Cie. It was something he hadn’t known he missed in the years following everyone’s disappearance.
He listened as Serah and Noel regaled him the tale of having met him in another timeline (and wasn’t that a shock?) when Fenrir had taken over the sky and the lands were dark with paradoxes. Serah spoke animatedly about how he took down a large paradox monster with a single strike, and Noel laughed at how he had somehow manage to take their last blow.
"You… do believe us, don’t you?" Serah asked hesitantly after their tale was over, and Hope mused upon the new information provided. They were seated within one of the command tents, cleared out for this occasion, but Hope assumed there were a few ears outside listening in curiously as well.
"Of course." He reassured her without hesitation. As grand and fantastical as the tale was, the proof was right before his eyes. Hope wasn’t one to cling to denial any longer than he could help it. "Of course I do. You have no reason to lie."
Her eyes softened noticeably, looking almost tearful before Alyssa drew Serah’s attention away with gossip of what happened while they were gone. Noel, sitting next to Serah, didn’t allow him to be as easily distracted.
"It’s funny," the other man told Hope quietly as Alyssa and Serah chatted animatedly besides them. "You believed us last time, too."
"Good." Hope informed him, feeling distinctly pleased with the under layer of affection in Serah and Noel’s tones. He didn’t know where it came from, perhaps from another timeline with another version of him doing things that he hadn’t done, but he was pleased with it nevertheless. "I would hate to think of myself as that distrustful in any timeline."
Noel’s lips quirked up in a wry grin, blue eyes assessing him carefully. “Guess some things don’t change no matter what, huh?”
Even that brought up more questions in Hope’s mind. “Were things truly that different in the other timeline? Have you encountered more differences? Given the similarities, what would you consider the most changed—?”
He was interrupted by a burst of laughter from the brunet, who also managed to catch Serah and Alyssa’s attention as well.
"Some things really don’t change.” Noel reiterated after he finished laughing, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand as Hope tried not to look miffed. “That’s good to know. I wondered.”
"Of course not." Serah told him, sounding pleased. "Paradoxes can’t change everything."
Hope let out an exasperated breath as Alyssa joined in with conspicuous looks his direction, smiling as she recanted a tale of him bulldozing his way through a meeting with his questions and not so much as allowing anyone the breath to answer.
"Wow." Noel commented even as Serah agreed with quick nods as she tried to hide a smile. "Guess we’ll have to make more stops here, then, whenever we find out more about what’s going on."
"We’ll have to," Serah said as her smile widened. "Otherwise Hope might actually invent time travel by himself and then chase us down."
"I’d be there with him!" Alyssa insisted stubbornly, leaning over closer to where Hope sat even as he leaned away just out of habit, already far too used to his assistant’s overbearing displays of affection. She pouted at his response, undeterred. "I wouldn’t let Director Hope set out like that by himself. He’d need someone to make sure he comes back at all!"
"There’s little chance of that happening." Hope demurred. "From what you’ve revealed, our highest priority now is finding a way for humanity to survive. If indeed Cocoon’s fall leads to the end of everything, then we’ll have to find a way of preventing that future from coming to pass."
The conversation smoothed out from there until Hope excused himself to take a call, promising a meal delivered to the time travellers and a safe place for them to rest before they continued on their way.
He set himself to straighten out the eavesdroppers (because of course there would be a few, sheepish and stuttering at being caught before they made quick excuses to get back to work) and finish up his reports for the day, Alyssa trailing behind as she chattered cheerfully and reminded him of various details he might have otherwise missed.
It was nearing sunset when he took a quick break (upon his assistant’s insistence), ordering the simplest foods so that he could catch up on messages and project reports while he ate such that nothing could be spilled and create a disaster. He originally wanted to seek Serah and Noel out to ask more questions, but if they promised to come back in the future, then he should allow them to rest up first. His curiosity could wait until later.
As such, he nearly jumped out of his skin when a warm hand landed on his shoulder and a familiar voice asked, “Do you really work even when you’re eating?”
It wasn’t often that someone could sneak up on him at all. Hope’s experiences usually had him tensing at the slightest sound or disturbance, and it was only the best of the best military personnel who learned that he could be caught off guard at all. In this instance, he fumbled as his grip on his coffee mug slipped and —
A hand reached out and caught it before anything could be spilled.
"Whoa there," Noel chuckled, close enough that Hope could feel the warmth of his breath on his skin. "Wouldn’t want to drop that. It looks pretty hot."
It was strange and awkward but for that single moment Hope was more concerned about slowing his heart rate rather than the proximity of another person who seemed to settle just fine well into his personal space. He pressed the heel of a gloved hand against his chest even as the tablet on his lap teetered precariously. “Don’t do that!”
"Sorry." The hunter apologized, although he didn’t seem too torn up over it. Noel moved to sit next to Hope, still holding onto his coffee for him even as he pressed a knee lightly against the other. "Aren’t you supposed to be on break or something?"
"Aren’t you supposed to be resting?" Hope shot back, but then winced at his own sarcastic tone. It had been a while since he was anything other than perfectly cordial with anyone. Luckily, that seemed a fact Noel didn’t know, as the younger man just shrugged and handed the coffee over.
"I’m resting." The younger man protested, and shrugged. "The beds were nice. Serah’s asleep already, but…"
He let the statement trail off, and Hope just nodded in understanding. It wasn’t that late yet, and sometimes it just didn’t do to force sleep.
"Didn’t think I’d find you here, though." Noel admitted somewhat sheepishly. "Thought you’d be with someone else getting food. I heard Alyssa downstairs looking for you."
That was one of the reasons why Hope didn’t take meals with everyone else if he could help it. A little bit because he didn’t tend to volunteer himself to be crowded, and a lot more because Alyssa had a tendency of not only situating herself right next to him as close as possible, but also watched him as he ate.
Which was… a disorienting and somewhat unpleasant experience.
Noel must have seen the expression on his face, as the young man chuckled. “That bad?”
"I prefer the open sky." Hope reasoned instead. "It’s… quieter outside. It seems I’m not the only one."
"Yeah, well, crowds aren’t really my thing."
"Oh?"
Noel just shrugged, and leaned back against his hands, looking up at the evening sky. Hope took that as his que to return to his work, setting his cooling coffee next to the half forgotten bread and protein bar.
There were several minutes of comfortable silence as Hope perused reports and Noel continued to stare up at the sky where the stars were just starting to come out.
"Hey," Noel finally volunteered after a while. "The point of food is to eat it."
Hope didn’t look away from the glowing tablet. “I’ll get to it.”
"After you’ve saved the world? You might need to eat a bit before that happens."
"While it would be preferable that the future can be assured within such a time period, I do understand the unlikeliness of that to happen.”
Besides him, Noel snorted, although it was soft. “Definitely still the same.”
Hope couldn’t exactly confirm the personality traits of an alternate timeline version of himself, but instead nudged the younger man with his knee. “You’ll need to acclimate yourself to crowds when the future’s been saved. There will be people everywhere.”
"Well, now I can’t tell if you’re trying to cheer me up or make me go away."
"Perhaps I am merely redirecting the conversation onto a different vein," Hope admitted. He glanced down at the corner for his tablet for the time, and frowned. Dinner time was would over soon, and Alyssa would surely not take long to find him unless he moved. She often insisted on spending their spare time together as well.
"Stop trying to cheer me up, then." The words were accompanied by a grin thrown in his direction, and Hope found himself relaxing rather than focusing on the reminder that he might soon be found by his overly rambunctious assistant again. "You’re not very good at it."
"It’s a skill that might improve should you and Serah return more often."
"If that’s the case, we’re definitely stopping by more often." Noel told him cheerfully, but then sobered quickly. "But I don’t know when or where we end up whenever we leave. I don’t know how I found Lightning the first time, and getting Serah to her might take a really long time… but hey. Maybe in-between we’ll have the time to help save the world with you. Just… at a different place and time."
"The Gates don’t tell you where it leads." Hope concluded for him, having already deciphered that for himself. "I know. You can’t promise to bring Serah back here."
"Well, no, not like that." The hunter raised an arm to the back of his neck thoughtfully, sitting up fully. "We don’t know where we’re going, sure, or where we’ll end up, but we can always come back here. I just can’t… promise that you might see us in the future. But as long as this Gate is open, we can always come back here. We can leave for months and come back, and it would still be the same day for you.”
Hope tried to imagine the scenario: waiting the decade that he did to see everyone again, only to have Noel and Serah show up out of the blue one day and… keep showing up between visiting other places and time periods all within the span of a day. Watching their entire escapade within such a short time period.
Would it be weeks for them? Months? Years? Decades?
He might watch them grow old within a day, while they kept fighting for years on end.
It was that thought which prompted him to reach out with a hand to grasp at Noel’s arm, the warmth of skin startling underneath his gloves.
At the moment, Noel Kreiss seemed near a stranger to him. Hope had only met him several hours prior, after all, despite Noel having known him for longer than that. Within the next few hours, Hope might watch the rest of Noel’s life fly by.
He wondered if his slow path, his waiting years for friends who jumped through the timeline, might actually have been the more merciful one.
"Keep coming back." He told a startled Noel, who was glancing down at where Hope was holding onto him, surprised that the scientist would reach out at all. "Tell me all about what happens. And when you find another Gate leading to a future where I’m at… then keep going there, and don’t look back here anymore. You’ll find the right Gate."
Noel’s eyes were a startling blue as he stared at Hope. “You don’t want to know if we find the right Gate?”
"I do." Hope corrected him, nodding. "I want you to keep coming back, remember? But when you stop coming back, that’s when I’ll know that you found a better Gate. Or maybe the right one."
"We could come back one more time." Noel suggested. "After we find it. To tell you when and where it is."
The temptation to agree to that was nearly overwhelming. A part of him wanted to know everything, and what Noel was suggesting made him head spin. If they went far into the future and brought knowledge back, then Hope would be able to shave years off research, would be able to—
But that would just be another paradox.
"I’ll know." Hope repeated instead, smiling slightly. He refused to believe that he could watch Serah and Noel waste away within the span of a day for him. "That I’ll find you guys again in the future, and we can continue there."
He wasn’t out of the running yet when it came to helping save the world. Just because he was taking the slow path didn’t mean that his path was any less important. For his part, Hope would have to have faith: in Serah and Noel, in Lightning, in everything coming together in a way that meant humanity could be saved.
Noel let out a sharp breath, and then drew back slightly with a startled laugh, looking away. Hope let go as well, feeling rather embarrassed for his display.
"What do you know," the brunet finally said, a smile tugging at his lips. "You’re great at cheering people up after all."
"It’s a work in progress." Hope demurred. "Keep coming back. I’ll get better at it."
And maybe one day, they would be more than mere strangers and Hope would be able to recount Noel with the same fondness that the other seemed to hold for him.
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Character/Pairing(s): Noel/Hope, WELL MORE PRE-EVERYTHING, their first meeting?, Alyssa Zaidelle, Serah Farron
Rating: G
Warning: nothing whatsoever
Summary: Prompt: "Stop trying to cheer me up!", which was a little skewed in this. Hope's first time seeing Serah and Noel together.
There was something to be said about the satisfaction of solving a mystery, especially when that mystery pertained to oneself. For the past several weeks, Hope Estheim had been behaving strangely to friends and colleagues alike with first his inattention to his work and then a strange travel-longing. While he tried to play off excuses when he signed up for the Paddra excavation, he was not the only person to notice that it was yet another strange event in a line of events which was starting to get quite sizable. Strange event in that it would be something he might ‘waste his time on’, to be put in not so many words by Alyssa.
After all, a director of the Academy didn’t have enough time on their hands to begin with, and if they did, then they were given more to do. As Director of Research, Hope had been swamped with project assessments and reports, mandates and politics, for months upon months. He could barely remember the last time he managed to get a full night’s sleep rather than be awakened by his assistant urging him to settle a dispute between scientists and government issues on either ethical views or budget restrictions. Overall, it was a stressful job, but worth every second whenever there was no more breakthrough thanks to the Academy and one more tiny push to a brighter future.
So it was a well earned satisfaction that settled deep in his core when Serah and a newcomer showed up in the Paddrean ruins, surprised and delighted to see him for some odd reason. Hope himself was delighted to see Serah, especially having heard her missing for the past seven years. It was like a miracle, one of the people he lost finally coming back. Perhaps an omen of good things to come.
(Like how if he wished hard enough, maybe Snow and Sazh and Dajh would return… and if he worked hard enough, then one day he would free Vanille and Fang. One day he’d find Lightning again. And if miracles and time travel really did exist…. then… maybe he’d be able to save his mother as well.)
On her part, Serah was pleased to see him, but didn’t seem as excited as he was to see her. Then again, it hadn’t been seven years for her — perhaps a few weeks at the most. She flitted between her excitement upon seeing him again and banter with Alyssa, who took to greeting Serah like an old friend although she never stopped giving Hope curious stares to wonder just how he knew the pair would arrive just there at just that time.
The simple answer was: he didn’t know.
There had been no mention in the Oracle Drive, yet Hope had felt a strange need to be at Paddra in such an unremarkable time. He had said so himself many times when Alyssa demanded an explanation, confused as to why they were doing their work in such a secluded place.
"I need to be here." Hope would responded each and every time, and when Alyssa pressed further for comprehensive answers, Hope would be unable to reply.
Now that feeling paid off, yet the satisfaction was tinged by even more questions. Just how did he know that they would be coming? He hadn’t known, but somehow there had been a feeling he couldn’t shake off. And more than that feeling were all the questions that Serah’s arrival brought: questions on time travel, on powers beyond that of humans or fal’Cie, about what the future might bring, about how she had been chosen for this task, and even about her unknown companion.
Noel Kreiss dressed like one born and raised on Gran Pulse rather than the soft-skinned people of Cocoon. He moved with a fluidity that Hope hadn’t seen in years, or at least not since the last time he watched Fang in action. It was fascinating to watch, if only because the stranger (now acquaintance?) reminded him so much of a time long gone. A time in his life fraught with hardships, yet a time he wouldn’t give up for anything.
Hope found himself gravitating toward Serah, subconsciously trying to hear everything she had to say and piece together whatever small parts of the puzzle he could. Perhaps a stray comment would be important later on, or she might know something she didn’t understand as important to him. Naturally, with his pull, Alyssa came along as well, sticking to him like a burr the more he tried to speak with Serah on occasion. This also led to him having more conversations with Noel as his assistant honed in to conversing with Serah cheerfully regarding things Hope couldn’t make out at all.
It was a refreshing experience, however, to speak to someone who didn’t look upon him with a mixture of awe and fear the way Hope had acclimated himself to, being both a Director of the Academy and a known ex-l’Cie. It was something he hadn’t known he missed in the years following everyone’s disappearance.
He listened as Serah and Noel regaled him the tale of having met him in another timeline (and wasn’t that a shock?) when Fenrir had taken over the sky and the lands were dark with paradoxes. Serah spoke animatedly about how he took down a large paradox monster with a single strike, and Noel laughed at how he had somehow manage to take their last blow.
"You… do believe us, don’t you?" Serah asked hesitantly after their tale was over, and Hope mused upon the new information provided. They were seated within one of the command tents, cleared out for this occasion, but Hope assumed there were a few ears outside listening in curiously as well.
"Of course." He reassured her without hesitation. As grand and fantastical as the tale was, the proof was right before his eyes. Hope wasn’t one to cling to denial any longer than he could help it. "Of course I do. You have no reason to lie."
Her eyes softened noticeably, looking almost tearful before Alyssa drew Serah’s attention away with gossip of what happened while they were gone. Noel, sitting next to Serah, didn’t allow him to be as easily distracted.
"It’s funny," the other man told Hope quietly as Alyssa and Serah chatted animatedly besides them. "You believed us last time, too."
"Good." Hope informed him, feeling distinctly pleased with the under layer of affection in Serah and Noel’s tones. He didn’t know where it came from, perhaps from another timeline with another version of him doing things that he hadn’t done, but he was pleased with it nevertheless. "I would hate to think of myself as that distrustful in any timeline."
Noel’s lips quirked up in a wry grin, blue eyes assessing him carefully. “Guess some things don’t change no matter what, huh?”
Even that brought up more questions in Hope’s mind. “Were things truly that different in the other timeline? Have you encountered more differences? Given the similarities, what would you consider the most changed—?”
He was interrupted by a burst of laughter from the brunet, who also managed to catch Serah and Alyssa’s attention as well.
"Some things really don’t change.” Noel reiterated after he finished laughing, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand as Hope tried not to look miffed. “That’s good to know. I wondered.”
"Of course not." Serah told him, sounding pleased. "Paradoxes can’t change everything."
Hope let out an exasperated breath as Alyssa joined in with conspicuous looks his direction, smiling as she recanted a tale of him bulldozing his way through a meeting with his questions and not so much as allowing anyone the breath to answer.
"Wow." Noel commented even as Serah agreed with quick nods as she tried to hide a smile. "Guess we’ll have to make more stops here, then, whenever we find out more about what’s going on."
"We’ll have to," Serah said as her smile widened. "Otherwise Hope might actually invent time travel by himself and then chase us down."
"I’d be there with him!" Alyssa insisted stubbornly, leaning over closer to where Hope sat even as he leaned away just out of habit, already far too used to his assistant’s overbearing displays of affection. She pouted at his response, undeterred. "I wouldn’t let Director Hope set out like that by himself. He’d need someone to make sure he comes back at all!"
"There’s little chance of that happening." Hope demurred. "From what you’ve revealed, our highest priority now is finding a way for humanity to survive. If indeed Cocoon’s fall leads to the end of everything, then we’ll have to find a way of preventing that future from coming to pass."
The conversation smoothed out from there until Hope excused himself to take a call, promising a meal delivered to the time travellers and a safe place for them to rest before they continued on their way.
He set himself to straighten out the eavesdroppers (because of course there would be a few, sheepish and stuttering at being caught before they made quick excuses to get back to work) and finish up his reports for the day, Alyssa trailing behind as she chattered cheerfully and reminded him of various details he might have otherwise missed.
It was nearing sunset when he took a quick break (upon his assistant’s insistence), ordering the simplest foods so that he could catch up on messages and project reports while he ate such that nothing could be spilled and create a disaster. He originally wanted to seek Serah and Noel out to ask more questions, but if they promised to come back in the future, then he should allow them to rest up first. His curiosity could wait until later.
As such, he nearly jumped out of his skin when a warm hand landed on his shoulder and a familiar voice asked, “Do you really work even when you’re eating?”
It wasn’t often that someone could sneak up on him at all. Hope’s experiences usually had him tensing at the slightest sound or disturbance, and it was only the best of the best military personnel who learned that he could be caught off guard at all. In this instance, he fumbled as his grip on his coffee mug slipped and —
A hand reached out and caught it before anything could be spilled.
"Whoa there," Noel chuckled, close enough that Hope could feel the warmth of his breath on his skin. "Wouldn’t want to drop that. It looks pretty hot."
It was strange and awkward but for that single moment Hope was more concerned about slowing his heart rate rather than the proximity of another person who seemed to settle just fine well into his personal space. He pressed the heel of a gloved hand against his chest even as the tablet on his lap teetered precariously. “Don’t do that!”
"Sorry." The hunter apologized, although he didn’t seem too torn up over it. Noel moved to sit next to Hope, still holding onto his coffee for him even as he pressed a knee lightly against the other. "Aren’t you supposed to be on break or something?"
"Aren’t you supposed to be resting?" Hope shot back, but then winced at his own sarcastic tone. It had been a while since he was anything other than perfectly cordial with anyone. Luckily, that seemed a fact Noel didn’t know, as the younger man just shrugged and handed the coffee over.
"I’m resting." The younger man protested, and shrugged. "The beds were nice. Serah’s asleep already, but…"
He let the statement trail off, and Hope just nodded in understanding. It wasn’t that late yet, and sometimes it just didn’t do to force sleep.
"Didn’t think I’d find you here, though." Noel admitted somewhat sheepishly. "Thought you’d be with someone else getting food. I heard Alyssa downstairs looking for you."
That was one of the reasons why Hope didn’t take meals with everyone else if he could help it. A little bit because he didn’t tend to volunteer himself to be crowded, and a lot more because Alyssa had a tendency of not only situating herself right next to him as close as possible, but also watched him as he ate.
Which was… a disorienting and somewhat unpleasant experience.
Noel must have seen the expression on his face, as the young man chuckled. “That bad?”
"I prefer the open sky." Hope reasoned instead. "It’s… quieter outside. It seems I’m not the only one."
"Yeah, well, crowds aren’t really my thing."
"Oh?"
Noel just shrugged, and leaned back against his hands, looking up at the evening sky. Hope took that as his que to return to his work, setting his cooling coffee next to the half forgotten bread and protein bar.
There were several minutes of comfortable silence as Hope perused reports and Noel continued to stare up at the sky where the stars were just starting to come out.
"Hey," Noel finally volunteered after a while. "The point of food is to eat it."
Hope didn’t look away from the glowing tablet. “I’ll get to it.”
"After you’ve saved the world? You might need to eat a bit before that happens."
"While it would be preferable that the future can be assured within such a time period, I do understand the unlikeliness of that to happen.”
Besides him, Noel snorted, although it was soft. “Definitely still the same.”
Hope couldn’t exactly confirm the personality traits of an alternate timeline version of himself, but instead nudged the younger man with his knee. “You’ll need to acclimate yourself to crowds when the future’s been saved. There will be people everywhere.”
"Well, now I can’t tell if you’re trying to cheer me up or make me go away."
"Perhaps I am merely redirecting the conversation onto a different vein," Hope admitted. He glanced down at the corner for his tablet for the time, and frowned. Dinner time was would over soon, and Alyssa would surely not take long to find him unless he moved. She often insisted on spending their spare time together as well.
"Stop trying to cheer me up, then." The words were accompanied by a grin thrown in his direction, and Hope found himself relaxing rather than focusing on the reminder that he might soon be found by his overly rambunctious assistant again. "You’re not very good at it."
"It’s a skill that might improve should you and Serah return more often."
"If that’s the case, we’re definitely stopping by more often." Noel told him cheerfully, but then sobered quickly. "But I don’t know when or where we end up whenever we leave. I don’t know how I found Lightning the first time, and getting Serah to her might take a really long time… but hey. Maybe in-between we’ll have the time to help save the world with you. Just… at a different place and time."
"The Gates don’t tell you where it leads." Hope concluded for him, having already deciphered that for himself. "I know. You can’t promise to bring Serah back here."
"Well, no, not like that." The hunter raised an arm to the back of his neck thoughtfully, sitting up fully. "We don’t know where we’re going, sure, or where we’ll end up, but we can always come back here. I just can’t… promise that you might see us in the future. But as long as this Gate is open, we can always come back here. We can leave for months and come back, and it would still be the same day for you.”
Hope tried to imagine the scenario: waiting the decade that he did to see everyone again, only to have Noel and Serah show up out of the blue one day and… keep showing up between visiting other places and time periods all within the span of a day. Watching their entire escapade within such a short time period.
Would it be weeks for them? Months? Years? Decades?
He might watch them grow old within a day, while they kept fighting for years on end.
It was that thought which prompted him to reach out with a hand to grasp at Noel’s arm, the warmth of skin startling underneath his gloves.
At the moment, Noel Kreiss seemed near a stranger to him. Hope had only met him several hours prior, after all, despite Noel having known him for longer than that. Within the next few hours, Hope might watch the rest of Noel’s life fly by.
He wondered if his slow path, his waiting years for friends who jumped through the timeline, might actually have been the more merciful one.
"Keep coming back." He told a startled Noel, who was glancing down at where Hope was holding onto him, surprised that the scientist would reach out at all. "Tell me all about what happens. And when you find another Gate leading to a future where I’m at… then keep going there, and don’t look back here anymore. You’ll find the right Gate."
Noel’s eyes were a startling blue as he stared at Hope. “You don’t want to know if we find the right Gate?”
"I do." Hope corrected him, nodding. "I want you to keep coming back, remember? But when you stop coming back, that’s when I’ll know that you found a better Gate. Or maybe the right one."
"We could come back one more time." Noel suggested. "After we find it. To tell you when and where it is."
The temptation to agree to that was nearly overwhelming. A part of him wanted to know everything, and what Noel was suggesting made him head spin. If they went far into the future and brought knowledge back, then Hope would be able to shave years off research, would be able to—
But that would just be another paradox.
"I’ll know." Hope repeated instead, smiling slightly. He refused to believe that he could watch Serah and Noel waste away within the span of a day for him. "That I’ll find you guys again in the future, and we can continue there."
He wasn’t out of the running yet when it came to helping save the world. Just because he was taking the slow path didn’t mean that his path was any less important. For his part, Hope would have to have faith: in Serah and Noel, in Lightning, in everything coming together in a way that meant humanity could be saved.
Noel let out a sharp breath, and then drew back slightly with a startled laugh, looking away. Hope let go as well, feeling rather embarrassed for his display.
"What do you know," the brunet finally said, a smile tugging at his lips. "You’re great at cheering people up after all."
"It’s a work in progress." Hope demurred. "Keep coming back. I’ll get better at it."
And maybe one day, they would be more than mere strangers and Hope would be able to recount Noel with the same fondness that the other seemed to hold for him.