[FFXIII] Five Minutes (1954words)

[shamera]

Title: Five Minutes
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII series
Character/Pairing(s): Noel Kreiss, Hope Estheim, Alyssa Zaidelle, Serah Farron (hinted Noel/Hope)
Rating: PG
Warning: New World AU? Or just AU? Or just modern AU? WHO KNOWS.
Summary: "Do you mind if I just sit here and pretend to be your boyfriend for the next five minutes?"

Going 2 be late. Traffic jam. :(

Noel didn’t so much as bother to take his earbuds out as he typed out an affirmative response to Serah on his phone, which was very much just a very basic saluting emoticon to acknowledge that he got the message and it was fine. It wasn’t the first time she got caught up in a traffic jam due to the streets being under reconstruction, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last due to her insistence in taking familiar roads. Noel had gotten to expect her being late until the entire construction business was over.

In fact, it was due to those very same road constructions that had them move their weekly Sunday brunches to a small cafe four blocks away from their usual place, and even then (and with the earbuds in) Noel could still hear the distant sounds of roadwork.

Maybe the noise would distract Serah’s recent attempts at setting him up after she arrived, he thought cheerily. She had been not so subtly hinting at blind dates for the past six weeks, ever since Yeul had announced her intent to actively court Caius once she comes of age. Noel had known it was coming for a long while, of course he did, but… well, it didn’t matter anymore. He would be supportive and encouraging and break Caius in half if the man broke Yeul’s heart.

So he might have been a bit mopey since then. He was allowed time, wasn’t he? And his heartbreak playlists. The music helped, it really did! Serah wasn’t allowed to complain about it either since she was happily engaged and had been for the past several months. He wasn’t so sure that splurging on expensive cafe muffins and hot chocolate helped, but hey, it couldn’t hurt.

He was still rearranging his playlist on his phone and waiting for Serah to arrive when someone very much not Serah sat down in the seat opposite him at his table.

Noel looked up with the expected, Sorry man, seat’s taken. This place is only half full anyway, why don’t you go take the corner table? except his words died in his throat.

“Sorry,” the stranger looked rather apologetic and somewhat frazzled, gloved hands gripping at the edge of the table. The young man wore an oddly formal outfit for the weekend, dress shirt immaculate and held together by a pale blue tie, although there was no coat to go with it. Stranger still were the pale eyes framed by pale skin and haloed by a mess of platinum blond hair that looked nearly white and glowing under the sunlight. “My— my assistant's looking for me, and she won’t take no for an answer; do you mind if I just sit here and pretend to be your boyfriend for the next five minutes?”

I don’t mind at all. Pretend as long as you need to. Five minutes, ten, a week, a year, forever…

“S-sure. No problem.” Noel took a quick sip of his hot chocolate to hopefully cover up the unintended stutter, yanking his earbuds out with his other hand quickly to stop the droning, melancholy music that had been playing in his ears. The other man looked so relieved that he couldn’t help but ask, “If she’s your assistant, why do you need a boyfriend?”

The other man, currently ‘boyfriend’, flushed with embarrassment. “Oh, um. She really wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I’m trying something new.”

“Guess I’m the lucky person.” Noel concluded with a nod, and then grinned in what he hoped was a reassuring manner and stuck out his hand. “Since we’re going to be in a relationship for the next, oh, four and a half minutes, I should introduce myself. I’m Noel.”

“Hope.” The other responded, reaching out with a slight smile to shake his hand. His grip was warm and strong, a contact which, in Noel’s opinion, could have lasted longer. “And yes, that’s actually my name.”

“That’s a great name.” Noel blurted out before he ducked his head slightly and tried to amend, “I mean. It’s a really nice name. Unique, too! I’ve never met a guy named Hope before.”

“Neither has anyone else I’ve ever met for the first time.” Hope agreed amiably, but then his eyes widened and he slouched down into his seat. “Oh, no. I think she’s found us.”

Noel followed his line of vision to see a petite blond girl who was most definitely zeroing in on them from across the street, wearing what looked to be a similar outfit to Hope’s if that outfit included shorts so short if definitely wouldn’t be allowed in a professional workplace. She had really nice legs, he noted absently, although it was really her strangely stern/determined expression that was off putting right now. It was just something about the way her eyes found Hope and glued to him as she made her way over.

“How much does she know about your personal life?” Noel asked Hope quickly.

“Not much. I try not to talk about it.”

“Okay.” Noel decided. “Don’t freak out, okay?”

“Wha—?”

It was a spur of the moment ‘I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing’ thought which made Noel lean over the small cafe table and gently, slowly enough that he wouldn’t accidentally bump heads with the other man and so Hope could pull back if he really hated it, pressed his lips just against the corner of Hope’s mouth, just quickly enough that he could feel the warmth radiating from the other and smell the faint scent of a generic shampoo before he pulled back and said rather loudly, “And here I thought you would be late! You didn’t get held up by the traffic?”

By this time, the assistant had already crossed the street and was rapidly closing in on their little outdoor cafe table.

Hope gaped for just a moment, and Noel was almost sure their little game would be given away by the brilliant flush on the man’s cheeks. Seeing the assistant coming closer with quite the indignant expression, Noel reached over to hold Hope’s hands between his own atop the table.

“N-no.” Hope managed to compose himself relatively quickly, and leaned forward to place his elbows on the table as well. “Of course not. I said I wouldn’t miss this, didn’t I?”

“Director Hope!” The blond assistant (and Noel would probably need a name for her soon) called out, quickly reaching their table. She had her hands on her hips and looked rather indignant in a cute manner, although her frown was severe. “Who is this?”

“You must be Hope’s assistant,” Noel interjected before Hope could sputter out a response, letting go of the other man’s hands. “He’s told me a bit about you. I’m Noel, hi.”

The girl’s frown only deepened. “He didn’t tell me anything about you.”

“Yeah, well,” Noel smiled in Hope’s direction. “He doesn’t really like talking about his personal life a lot, I get it. He didn’t tell me you would be coming today, though…?”

“She’s not.” Hope agreed hastily, and turned his attention to the girl. “I’m sorry, Alyssa. Did I leave something at the office?”

The blond, Alyssa, looked slightly uncertain at their unified front. “No, but… you left in such a hurry!”

“That would be my fault.” Noel covered for him, once again reaching for Hope’s hands and this time bringing them up to smile against the black gloves. “We have a date. See, today’s our—” He floundered only for the slightest moment before continuing, “Anniversary! It’s the day we first met.”

Hope’s eyes widened a fraction, and then he ducked his head to hide his amused smile.

“Life changing day.” Noel concluded, watching him. “It’s very important to us.”

If nothing else, Alyssa’s brows drew together in frustration before she huffed out a long breath, deflating down as she dropped her arms from her hips. She eyed them critically for another moment, frowning as she watched Hope smile.

“...You didn’t leave anything.” She told Hope, pouting. “I was just worried about you, hurrying off like that.”

“Thank you for the concern.” Hope responded cordially. “I’ll warn you in advance next time.”

She looked like she wanted desperately to say something else, and stood there for several long seconds just staring at them before huffing. Noel thought that she didn’t believe in their little pretend relationship at all, and didn’t blame her. But then again, he was trying hard with what little he had to work with. He didn’t even notice how tense he was until Hope shifted and twined their fingers together.

“Oh, okay,” Alyssa finally relented, despite still looking suspicious. “Next time you should just tell me you had an important date to go to, Director Hope!”

While Hope stammered out an agreement and Alyssa finally left (with more than a few backward looks), the two of them collectively breathed out a sigh of relief before Hope started chuckling, finally letting go of their hands.

“That,” he breathed out between laughter, “Worked out better than I could have hoped for!”

“She’s intense,” Noel told him. He pulled back his hands to his side of the table, for some reason already missing the warmth. Maybe he should get some gloves soon. The weather could be turning. “I can see why you’d need a pretend boyfriend just to get her off your case!”

“Yes,” and Hope let out a breath. “Thank you for this.”

“Hey, we’ve still got over three minutes as boyfriends.” Noel joked. “You don’t have to thank me yet. I could still turn out to be an awful significant other.”

“I think you’ll do alright provided you’re not secretly a serial killer.” The man smiled, although this time there was a different kind of awkwardness to it. “There’s, um. I apologize if I disturbed your lunch.”

There was a formality to his tone that hadn’t been there before when Hope had been desperately trying to avoid his assistant, and Noel found that he didn’t like it. He shook his head, raising his hands even as he protested, “You haven’t disturbed anything at all. I’m glad I could help you with this. I’m just here waiting for a friend, anyway.”

Hope looked about to respond when they were interrupted by a light laugh.

“Sorry I’m late!” Serah quipped, her keys still in hand even as she jogged up to the table. Her hair was in disarray even as she continued, “The traffic around here is nuts! And I just saw Alyssa around the corner, and she looked like she just lost a puppy.”

She blinked at the scene in front of her, with Noel and Hope sitting across from each other, both of them staring at her incredulously.

“Oh, hey!” Her tone was bright. “Looks like you guys are getting along well enough. Noel, this is Hope. Hope, Noel. I’ve been trying to introduce you guys for the past month, and you’ve both just been avoiding me about it. It’s good to know that I’m not wrong about you guys getting along, though. What did I miss?”

“Oh, nothing much.” Noel intoned casually, and he watched Hope smile. “You’re just on time. Hope, you’re still my boyfriend for another… two and a half minutes, right?”

Later, Noel would marvel at how that brunch would be the first time in well over a month that he put away his music entirely and relaxed into the conversation. It was the first time since Yeul’s announcement that he managed to not think about what she said and feel heaviness in his heart.

At that moment, Noel would instead just bask in Hope’s warm laughter as Serah demanded to know just what happened in her absence.