Reversed Misfortune

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A/n: Has it been 2 weeks already? I've been so busy lately I lost track DDD8 PLEAAASE FORGIVE ME. (Especially since this is a short chapter DDDDD'8)

Disclaimer: I own Final Fantasy XIII... ahaha, April Fools! :P

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If I close my eyes, maybe this'll all turn out to be a dream.

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Chapter three: Tension on the road

"That was fast. I hope it wasn't too much of a bother." Serah continued to smile, clearly enjoying the current situation a bit too much.

Hope turned away from 'Serah' and faced 'Lightning' with a small grin of his own. "Yeah, there weren't a lot of people so I got the shopping done fast. And don't worry about it, Light," he said sweetly. "Where do you want me to put the bags?" Hope asked while lifting up the bags to show Serah.

"You can just put them on the kitchen table; I'll put them away later." Hope nodded, his eyes never leaving 'Lightning'. He tilted his head to the side a bit as he studied her outward appearance.

"Are those new clothes, Light?"

Serah's eyebrows shot up slightly before returning another smile. "Yes, they are."

Hope's face flushed a light pink. "They look nice on you," he spoke, his face turning an even darker shade of pink. He directed his attention to the floor as an attempt to hide his bright face while Serah turned to Lightning with a small smug smile on her face.

Hope glanced up once he felt his face starting to cool down. On the side, he noticed 'Serah' standing nearby and immediately felt guilty for not properly greeting her earlier. He had almost forgotten about her presence once he had laid eyes on 'Lightning'.

"Serah…" It took Lightning a while to respond as she turned to him, realizing that he was talking to her. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" He smiled. "I haven't seen you since the wedding."

Lightning nodded. "Yes, it's been a while…" she said awkwardly, hoping that it wouldn't show. While Snow wasn't the brightest person in the world, Hope was a different story. He was smart and very observant. If she were to make one slip up, Hope would most likely catch it. "How have you been?"

"I've been good," he replied. "Light talks about you a lot."

Serah's ears perked up at this as she raised an amused eyebrow.

"Oh, does she now?" Lightning asked, attempting to sound surprised.

"But only the good things," Serah added in. "… right?"

Hope chuckled softly as he nodded before heading to the kitchen to put the shopping bags away.

"Well then," Serah sighed while briefly swinging her arms back and forth. "I'm sorry, Hope, but I'm going to be heading out with si—uh—Serah. Call me if you need anything," she informed.

Returning to the living room, Hope looked slightly disappointed. "Oh… okay. See you later then." Serah nodded as she went to put on her shoes. Hope glanced over to Lightning as their eyes met.

"It was nice to see you again, Serah," Hope approached her with his arms slightly outstretched for a friendly hug. Lightning hesitantly agreed, weakly returning the hug. "Please do come and visit more often." Lightning nodded as Serah started to pull on her arm. They waved to Hope before walking out the door.

Once the door was closed, Hope dropped his hand back to his side before bringing the other up to scratch his messy silver locks.

"Was it just me, or did Serah seem… different?" he quietly asked himself. When she was over just a second ago, she hadn't said much and only responded when spoken to. He'd expected Serah's bubbly self to be talking nonstop the second she entered the apartment but she had remained silent.

Hope turned on his heel and started walking towards the kitchen. "Maybe she was just tired…" I mean, she does have to put up with Snow everyday, he thought jokingly.

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Serah attempted to get into the driver's seat but Lightning quickly got there before her and refused to move aside.

"But you don't even have a driver's license!" Serah tried to reason.

"No, I do. You're the one who doesn't," Lightning replied firmly, playfully poking Serah's head back with a finger. "And plus…," she reached into her pocket and pulled out something. "… you're not the one with the keys to the locked car." She mocked while dangling the set of keys in front of Serah whose mouth was slightly agape. Frowning, she gave up and walked over to the passenger's seat.

Once Lightning got into the driver's seat, Serah spoke. "I can not believe that you didn't tell me that Hope was going to be coming over and staying!" she said. "You have no idea how shocked I was when he just showed up at your door!"

"Sorry… it slipped my mind." Lightning apologized. "I didn't realize that you would've gotten this angry about it…"

Serah sighed and leaned back against the soft cushions of the seat. "No… sorry, I'm not angry… just very surprised." She admitted while running her hand through her neatly brushed hair. "You just never seemed like a person to willingly invite someone to stay over your house for an extended period of time."

Lightning remained silent, unmoving in her seat as Serah glanced over. "Guess I was wrong…"

"So… why did you decide to drag me to my car of all places?" Lightning asked nonchalantly after a moment of silence, half-hoping that it would change the subject.

Serah shrugged. "I just thought that it would be a good place to talk about this… situation, you know, a place away from unwanted ears… I also didn't expect Hope to be back so soon when you came over." She said. "I also wanted to see if you would let me drive your car." She admitted with an innocent chuckle.

Lightning furrowed her brows, staring at Serah as if she was crazy before she suddenly remembered something important. "Oh, before I forget, about the GC, I made a call to them before I came over."

Serah turned to Lightning with her full attention. "And what did you tell them?" she asked while gripping lightly onto Lightning's arm.

"I told them that my sister wasn't feeling well… So you don't have to go to work pretending to be me…" Lightning could only imagine how terrible that would end up.

Sighing in relief, Serah placed her hand over her heart. "Oh my god, I totally forgot about your crazy job as a soldier! Good call… I would've gotten myself killed." She said. Serah didn't even know anything to do with combat, let alone how to properly hold or use that strange contraption of a weapon her sister used. "But were they okay with it? Obviously it won't take me a day to get over this 'cold'." Serah said with air quotes around "cold".

Lightning scoffed. "Are you kidding me? Captain Amodar practically gave you a week of vacation… said something about how I seriously needed it," she said, the last part mostly to herself. "We just better hope that Maqui can fix this within a week. If he doesn't, I swear I will—"

"Claire!"

"What?" Lightning retorted. "You obviously can't be happy with this situation, can you?"

"O-of course not!" Serah said quietly. "As kind and sweet Hope is, I miss my big heroic teddy bear!" Lightning rolled her eyes in response as Serah stuck her tongue out in a playful manner.

"Oh yes, one more thing I needed to tell you, sis," Serah said slowly as Lightning grew suspicious at the way her voice sounded. She had noted how it was slightly higher than normal and it brought her back to her childhood, specifically whenever Serah wanted to tell her something that she knew that Lightning wouldn't be pleased to hear.

"What?"

Serah stirred a bit in her seat, nervous. "Um, unlike your job and your relationship with your captain, I can't exactly call in sick for a week…" she said with a sheepish smile. Lightning's face dropped, eyes filled with a flash of horror. I knew it…

"You have got to be kidding me." Lightning said. "No, there is no way in hell, Serah. No." she said firmly with a hint of anger and annoyance. "Isn't it bad enough that I have to pretend to be Snow's wife?" She asked. "Listen to me, Serah; nothing will make me go over there as you and say—"

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"Hello, I'm Serah Villiers and I will be your server for today. Can I get you anything to drink?"

Oh, it was going to be one long and torturous night for Lightning Farron…

… and she was not looking forward to it at all.

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Chapter three [END]

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A/n: Fanfiction(dot)net has been acting strange lately... first it deletes my exclamation points and then it takes away all the spaces in between italicized words. [/FLIPS TABLE]

OOOOOHMAAAAAIMOOOOGLE, has anyone seen all the new recent FF13-2 trailers? I know I have lool (EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM LOLOL;;; [/no life]) It's even gotten to the point where I can recite lines from the Japanese TGS trailers and match them up with the messed up lip-syncing in the English version lool;;;;

But luckily, with the new one from Comic-Con, it looks like it's been fixed 8DD

And older!Hope... all I can say is Lightning will certainty be proud when she sees him, AHURHURHUR.

And before you guys decide to put my head on a pitchfork for delaying this chapter only to be treated with a short chapter... please understand that I didn't think that it was suitable for this chapter to be combined with the next chapter (which, as a warning, is also slightly short DX) BUT THERE WILL BE MORE HOPE LATER, I PROMISE~

I seriously tried everything I could to make this longer though, I swear D8

Preview: Lightning looked up, her eyebrows slightly furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Review, s'il vous plait? C8