Holiday Conspiracy

Lightning tried to place the cake decorations in some manner that resembled elegant three times before Hope sympathetically offered to help. She had bought the cake, she wouldn't even attempt to make one herself, but the plan she had in place required a bit more flare on the top. She tapped her foot against the floor impatiently as she nudged the decorations set aside toward him.

"I won't forget," he assured her as he leaned over to check the symmetry of the little chocolate flowers around the edges.

"I'm trusting you not to mess this up," she said seriously.

"Don't worry," he said lightly.

"It has to look inconspicuous, like good camouflage," she lectured, unable to help but forget that he was technically several years her senior now. "You have to be very careful to remember which piece it is, it has to be served to Snow."

"Right," he nodded, unfazed by the way she spoke to him.

She kept an eye on him to finish the groundwork of their plot until she was satisfied that Snow's piece of cake looked innocent enough not to seem incriminating while still different enough not to be given to someone else.

The guests arrived and the dinner went as most holiday dinners did; they were loud, made a mess, Snow had fifth and sixth helpings of everything, and ate all of Lightning's favorite side dishes. She went along with it all, no grumpier than usual, but she was eager for dessert to start. So eager, in fact, that she insisted they leave all the dishes and mess for after dessert. Hope looked at her a bit skeptically, since her actions were hinging on suspicious, but she was too eager to execute their plan to care.

"Are you sure about this?" Hope muttered when they were alone in the kitchen. "Doesn't this seem a little odd?"

"Snow's gullible, he won't notice anything strange," she said dismissively.

Lightning carried the cake out of the kitchen and set it down on the table carefully, with the marked piece facing Snow's seat. She reached for the knife when Serah suddenly called her from within the kitchen. She hesitated for a moment, but Hope appeared beside her, smiling cheerfully.

"I'll take care of it, Light," he volunteered.

She was hesitant to agree, but she heard Serah calling again. "Lightning! Come here!"

Lightning didn't like to trust important duties to other people, but she resigned herself to let Hope carry out the plan. She went back to the kitchen to help Serah carry the rest of the desserts out and returned when Hope finished cutting the chocolate cake. She was tempted to intervene and take care of it herself, but it would simply look too suspicious if she suddenly jumped in to serve the cake instead of him.

"Here you go, Snow," Hope said with a perfectly pleasant smile.

Lightning watched him serve the piece of cake and tried not to smirk once she saw that it was indeed the correct one. She met her co-conspirator's gaze for a moment and smiled before taking her seat at the table. Snow dug into his piece of cake without any hesitation or worry; their plan was right on course.

When the shockball game started, Snow jumped up from the couch and started shouting over enthusiastically as soon as the players hit the field. Lightning and Hope exchanged looks of varying degrees of exasperation, while Serah just seemed entertained by her fiancé's exuberance. A few minutes passed with just cheering and exclamations so loud as to make conversation impossible before Snow helped himself to the bowls of snacks lad out on the table.

"Light, did you get anything cheesy?" Snow asked hopefully.

"There are more bags in the kitchen," she replied, making no movement to go fetch them.

"I'll go check!" Serah said cheerfully as she hopped to her feet.

Serah returned with a large bowl of cheesy snacks mixed with trail mix and Snow held the bowl on his lap. Lightning felt herself becoming impatient; there was no sign of any effects of her brother-in-law succumbing to their plan. When there are barely a dent in the massive amount of junk food in the bowl, one of the players came down with an interception. Lightning closed her eyes and pursed her lips as Snow jumped up in triumph, sending the full bowl pouting all over the floor in a wave of wasted food and hellacious mess. Hope looked at the mess mournfully, but Snow fell silent suddenly and grimaced.

"Are you okay?" Serah asked, instantly concerned.

"Uh…fine…I'll be right back!" Snow said, suddenly rushing away from the living room.

A smirk pulled at Lightning's lips as she heard the bathroom door slam shut. She looked to Hope, who was a bit too cheerful as he went to get the vacuum. Serah looked toward the hallway where Snow disappeared worriedly, then back to her sister.

"Do you think he's okay?" Serah asked worriedly.

"It's Snow," she said dismissively. "He's fine."

With that said, she lifted the overturned bowl off the floor and followed Hope. When they were in the kitchen and out of sight, she gave him a high five then held on to his hand with a triumphant smirk.

"Good job," she said approvingly. "He won't be out of that bathroom for more than a minute for the rest of the evening."

"It was your plan," he reminded. "I don't think I would have come up with chocolate laxatives."

"No, you're too nice," she said bemusedly. "But you make a good co-conspirator."

Once every crumb and cracker was liberated from the carpet, they were able to enjoy the evening with minimal loud intervention from Snow. They sat side by side and Lightning rested her head on his shoulder, satisfied by the success of the day's scheming.

So I was watching the paradox ending where Snow busts Alyssa and runs off with Serah and Hope gets pretty annoyed with him for just popping up and leaving with little explanation. It occurred to me that even grown up, he still had some Snow issues.

…Which led to this. XD That's the logic.

This was for day three of HopeRai week with the prompt of "trust." Everyone was doing beautifully pieces of art and literature that was serious and amazing.

So I wrote AU derp. :B