Light lay in Hope's lap as she contemplated his words. He had said he was in love with her. Hope was in love with Light. She felt her lips curl up in a smile, though she imagined it probably looked strange on a cat. She found herself purring, leaning in to Hope's hand as he pet her.

However, her mind brewed a dark storm. They were here, underground, with the possibility of dying if they got lost in these passageways. All because she wanted to be human. But she couldn't imagine Hope abandoning this mission. If he really was in love with her, then he would stay down here and search for her until he found her. Even if she was the one sitting in his lap right now.

She hopped from his lap and meowed at him, then began her descent down a flight of stairs to their left. She flicked her tail at him when he shouted for her to slow down. He quickly caught up with her, understanding her behavior, so she leapt onto his shoulder. Careful not to claw him, she hung on to his shirt collar, observing the world from a height she hadn't been in many years.

She brought her nose to Hope's cheek and sniffed.

"Ha-ha! Hey, watch it. That tickles." Hope's shoulders rose to his ears as he laughed.

Light nearly fell off, so she backed away from his face. He was much more open and comfortable right now than he ever had been. She thought him adorable. But then other thoughts, doubts mostly, permeated her happiness. She shouldn't think about him in any way other than a fourteen-year-old comrade until she was human again. There was too much at stake.

Then a sound jerked her from her reverie. It was a curious sound that confused her. Could it be what she thought it was? The whooshing grew louder as they walked farther along the cliff side. As they passed a passageway, Light could swear she heard the sound as clear as day from down the dark path. Now she knew what she heard was real. It was crystal clear. The sound of rushing water.

She accidentally scratched Hope's neck, who cried out and cursed under his breath, as she flew through the air for the passageway. She ran down the pitch black corridor, sprinting as fast as she could, the water now a rushing waterfall in her ears.

"Hey, cat! Wait! Stop! What are you doing?" Hope ran as fast as he could, trying his hardest to keep up with the cat, but she was faster than he was.

Dark as it was, Light could easily sense the rock walls around her, the floor beneath her, and the boy behind her. But somehow the darkness grew so black that she couldn't even feel the walls around her anymore. It was a frightening blindness that encompassed her. She was terrified. She had never felt so helpless before. She skidded to a halt, afraid that she might run into something.

Hope didn't notice her hesitation to move forward. He unknowingly bolted past her for several yards. And then he yelled, and the yell grew quieter as it persisted. And then silence.

Hope was shocked awake by a sickening pain in his left ankle. The pain was needle sharp and stole his whole focus. He grasped at his ankle, missing it once in the blinding blackness, but quickly found it and held it. He felt like it would shatter into a million pieces if he let it go. He winced and moaned, then heard something thump on the ground not far from him. He caught his breath.

The cat meowed loudly, and Hope could hear her moving around in the darkness, trying to find him. So even she couldn't see. That wasn't as nearly relieving as he hoped it would be. In fact, that notion struck him down with fear.

"Curasa," he whispered, holding his hand over his injured ankle. He didn't see the ghostly green light, but he felt the icy fluid of relief gush from his ankle and up his leg.

Once the cat had found him, she rubbed her cheek against his forearm, then sniffed down his body to his ankle.

"I'm fine. I healed myself." Hope looked around him, but couldn't see anything. If it wasn't for the rough ground beneath him, he would have felt like he was floating in oblivion with no sense of direction. It was dizzying. "I'm gonna light a fire, so you might want to watch out, cat." He carefully brought himself to his feet and held his hand out at a safe distance. He was nervous he might hurt himself.

However, when he said the incantation, and even felt the heat of the flame, the darkness did not retreat. If anything, the darkness grew more powerful, thicker, and seemed to suffocate him. He was stunned and quickly became a nervous wreck. What kind of trap were they in? The heat of the fire instantly disappeared as he spoke his next words.

"Hey, do you hear that?" For a moment, Hope thought he heard rushing water.

But then it turned into a haunting melody. It was the sound of a song that crept into his subconscious and ruled his dreams. It was the sound of a song his mother would hum when she was in an exceptionally good mood. Sometimes the beat would change, because she tended to forget the song. It wasn't popular in mainstream scenes, but it was popular back at home.

The melody was sweet and sent tearful pains to his heart. He felt his chest constrict, a lump clog his throat, and his head throb. Tears pricked his eyes, begging him to let them dance down his cheeks, invisible in the pitch black.

"Mom," his voice cracked.

Light did not notice Hope's tension. Earlier, she found that she was able to smell it, but as soon as Hope asked if she heard something, Light concentrated on a faint sound coming from their right. Her hackles rose when she could clearly hear the singsong voice.

"Li-ightning," the beautiful voice sang, "oh Li-ightning. Where did you go? It's so dark and I'm so cold. I'm sinking. I'm sinking, Lightning. I can't hear mommy and daddy anymore. I think they've-"

An ear-grating hiss issued from Light. This sounded like Serah, smelled like Serah, had the memories of Serah, but it was not Serah. Serah was crystallized. This could not be her. Light could smell the magic dripping from this sound. She bit Hope's ankle, who shouted and hop-stepped away from her.

"Hey!" He shouted. "What's your-"

Suddenly, the walls around them began to shake violently, as if they were heaving. And soon it began spitting out boulders and sharp pebbles that cut Hope's skin. He threw himself to the ground, feeling around for the cat. When he found her, he stuffed her into his shirt and huddled against a quivering wall, covering his head with his arms.

He never knew a fear like this. Dying alone, in the dark, unseeing, unknowing. It could happen any minute and he wouldn't know, and that's what really scared him. Not knowing. He would die at any moment, and as a failure. A failure who couldn't save Light. She was probably just as alone and helpless as he was, and he could do nothing to protect her.

Something heavy and hard slammed into the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. His last thought was that he had failed.

He had a dream that he was at home with his mother, waiting for her to finish cooking dinner. She had made spaghetti and meatballs, but wouldn't let him eat until the garlic bread had finished toasting. He complained about how he could wait for the bread, but she insisted. She insisted that their meal be complete when they started eating.

He tapped his finger on the marble countertop, impatiently waiting for dinner. He was starving. When he looked back down at his finger, still tapping the counter, he found that he couldn't hear it. It could feel the cool marble, feel the vibration of the impact in his hand, but he couldn't hear the thump thump thump he heard at first. It was if everything was muted. Except his mother's lovely voice.

She hummed that ghostly tune as she pulled out the pan from the oven. She looked up at him, still humming that beautiful song, and then changed the beat of it. She took the oven mitts off her hands, set them aside, and began filling his plate with food. She wouldn't stop singing.

He opened his eyes with a sob and bolted upright. He was sweating, and angry, and hungry. His stomach rumbled and he glared down at it.

"I-I can see," he said with a thick voice. He raised his hand to brush away something soft that tickled his face. He touched tears instead.

Light looked up at him, worried, a shape of dark rose pink in the dim light. She sat next to his legs, intently watching him. She wondered what he had dreamt about to make him cry out like that- to make him cry, period. What had he heard just before the collapse of the cavern they were in? She knew it had haunted him to this moment. She could sense his fear, his anxiety, his great sadness.

"My-My mother," he whispered. "I dreamt about my mom. She was cooking me dinner, and she was humming her favorite song. She always did that. And-And before the collapse, I heard her humming it. I heard her." He clamped his eyes shut when it became difficult to keep the tears back. And when he couldn't shut them in any longer, he tried to dust them away before they could get too far down his cheeks. But eventually he gave up. And cried. And heaved. And sobbed. He missed his mother. That was all.

Light went up to him and rubbed her cheek against his arm again. She tried so hard to comfort him, but quickly grew angry with herself because she couldn't properly soothe this wounded boy like she so desperately wanted. Her aching heart went out to him, empathizing with his pain. She knew the hurt of the loss of a parent. She knew that hurt all too well, more than she would wish on anyone.

The moment was sad and long and filled with Hope's sobs. Light knew he had never had the chance to mourn his mother's death, so she thought it only right to give him this time to grieve. He would often mutter for his mother in his sleep. She heard that almost every night, and it made her go to sleep with pinpricks in her eyes. It wasn't right that he had suffered so much. It wasn't right that he was alone when he released this pain. He needed someone to hug him, someone to care for him, someone to show him love, that he was not alone. Because he was not. And Light would show him that as soon as she could.

She remembered crying like this for weeks on end every night with Serah after their parents' death. It was an agonizing time in their life that Light hated to look back on. Their parents' death had created a huge black hole of wasted days in their life. Those were the dark, unrememered times that gave them refuge from the bottled pain. Hope did not have that relief.

"I miss her so much. She was my everything. She understood me. She could talk to me. She loved me. She cared for me. Now all I have left is my dad, and he never really talked to me- before. What'll happen now? He'll blame me. He'll-He'll say it's my fault that she- my mom-" He bit his lip and stopped talking.

Light sat in his lap again, nuzzled against his neck and licked his chin, but still felt helpless. She was wrong about being absolutely helpless in the blinding blackness earlier. This was true helplessness. She could do nothing for him in this body, nothing that she wanted.

And she just wanted to love him.

A/N: I hope that wasn't too creepy for some people. I mean, I don't intend for this to seem like bestiality (it's absolutely not supposed to be that), but I just want Lightning to comfort him so bad. So I'm having her do this stuff. So don't say anything nasty in your review. Anyway. I know this is kind of sad. But. Necessary, I guess.

Peace and review, please~