This is my first story, just a quick little fanfic of my favorite pairing - Hope / Lightning. Just a small story I have in my head. Also heavily inspired by " Find a Way " by Safetysuit, thus the title. Also a small mix of " Fix You " by Coldplay in there somehwere.

Thanks for reading (If anyone even does..)

/

He missed her. That much was very clear to him, and probably Serah and Snow too. Heck, even Dajh might have noticed.

A twelve year old can probably tell. That's definitely NOT a good thing...

Escaping a small dinner party that Serah and Snow had thrown for the first year anniversary, Hope walked down the side streets of New Boduhm and was already wishing he had grabbed his jacket. He didn't want Serah to worry about him and wonder where he'd gone so he had left it. He intended to return, anyway. He just had to see one thing first..

Bad choice. Didn't remember old Bodhum being this cold.

Maybe it wasn't the cold that was getting to him. He stopped where the street took a different curve and followed along the path. The flowers here smelled sickly sweet and he couldn't help but take in their aroma. They reminded him of playing in the park with his mother when he was young. He stopped next to a chained fence that read 'CLOSED' and brushed his fingers against the metal. The sign above read 'Memorial Lane' and he felt a twist of rage building up inside him. It was good that the city had chosen to remember the l'Cie that were still crystallized, but did they have to display them? It didn't seem right.

Lightning wouldn't have liked it either

The small voice in the back of his head always whispered her name somehow into his thoughts. Six years ago today he had come unfrozen, Serah four months before that and Snow just three after Hope. Even Sazh and Dajh were together again, and now Hope was the only one left without his practical second half.

Lightning...

He was happy for the couple, who seemed overjoyed to be together again, but he still felt a bittersweet sickness in his heart when he looked at pictures of his friends being happy. He couldn't help but feel the slight jealousy and selfish feeling that just came naturally to him these days.

I thought I was past all of this angsty teen stuff.

He clambered over the fence easily, as he did every weekend, and dropped down on the other side. He strolled through the pathway with a little more hurry to his step. Clouded green eyes staring at the signs as he passed them, he finally came upon his almost- destination. A large stone stood in the center of a fork, and a silver plaque read, " May we always remember their sacrifice. "

Damn right...Still, what I wouldn't give for all of us to be here...

He clenched his fists and kept walking down the left path, hands at his sides. He came upon the sight and immediately looked up at the mounted crystal...person.

I refuse to call her a statue. Shes just sleeping..

He reached a hand out and touched her own, feeling no warmth beneath his fingers. Just smooth, cold crystal. But he knew she was in there, somewhere. She had completed her focus...She was just sleeping. She had to be.

The others all woke up so fast though...what if she -

" No! " He smashed his other hand against the base of the stone, crumpling to his knees but still holding her hand firmly. He squeezed it once, not expecting her to squeeze back. The glowing blue of the frozen girl shone down on him, but he just stared back up at her with his green eyes, pleading her to give him some sort of sign to give him hope.

' Living without hope isn't a way to live, only a way to die. '

He remembered everything she told him so clearly... it burned him. He never repeated the words she had told him to anyone else but himself, and remembered the way she alone could comfort him. Just simple gestures, a pat on the shoulder or mussing up his hair. He would do anything for her to be standing here right now screaming at him, as long as she was there.

He looked down at the ground, clenching his teeth as his fist shook at his side. He was filled with so much regret, guilt, anger and hatred. The Fal'Cie had done this...taken her away. Taken away his hopes, his dreams as well as hers. It wasn't fair that he got a second chance while she was stuck in endless sleep.

What if she becomes like Fang and Vanille? Crystal state for..for 500 years?

He would like to have told himself he would wait for her, but even then it just made him angrier at his own stupidity. " She wouldn't have waited that long for me... She would have stuck to a goal and moved on, like always.." He whispered to himself.

He was so busy in his ranting and angry thoughts that he didn't notice the warmth on his hand or the steadily brighter light in front of him that began to fade. Tears gently rolled down his cheeks, just a couple at a time as he fought them. He didn't notice anything except the suffocating anger in his chest until he felt a gentle squeeze on his hand. Bewildered, he snapped his head up and saw the crystal fading from around her. Like it was being washed off by an invisible rain, it glowed dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared all together. He sat there on his knees staring at her with wide eyes like saucers.

" Light! " He finally choked out, breaking from his trance to leap to his feet.

He was so eager he skidded on the pavement and came back to his knees on the mount she had previously been crystallized on. He opened his arms to catch her as she collapsed, clearly unconscious still, and just held her there for a moment.

" Light! Lightning! Its me, Hope! Wake up! " He shook her shoulders, frantic. He thought of a small idea, though he doubted it would work. " Its time for watch! Wake up! Come on.." He gripped her shoulder.

He sighed heavily, not knowing what to do. He glanced desperately around and saw the flickering sign of the nearest hospital. He tightened his grip on her shoulders and nodded to himself once.

Hospital. I need to take her to the hospital.

He hoisted her up into his arms and as he ran towards the hospital, his mind marveled at how light she was. Then again, she was very acrobatic.

You would need to be slim and light to be as fast as she was...

He shook the thoughts away and ran until he he crashed through the doors of the hospital.

" Help! Help! S-she.." He couldn't finish the rest of his sentence, so he just let the doctors surround him. He knew they would not recognize her, even if every one of them had seen the crystal statue. She was in uniform here and the crystal did make it pretty hard to make out detailed features, like the color of her hair or where she kept her gunblade holstered...

Or the way her eyes glittered when she was surprised...

He swallowed the thoughts like a bad piece of meatloaf, snarling inside his head,

Not now, dumbass! Focus! Lightning is here and shes unfrozen and..and..

He felt light headed and as he helped the doctors take her to a room and lay her down, he uneasily slumped into the chair and held his head between his hands.

A little while later, within no more than a half an hour or forty five minutes, a nurse came and told him that he could go into the room now that the examination was over.

" How long has she been out, son? " An older man - Hope guessed a doctor, by the looks of him, - asked him with genuine concern on his face. Well, as genuine as a doctor can get. He always had trouble believing them when they told him things. Like the needle wouldn't hurt - ha!

He tried to think of a believable story and as his mind grasped at straws he hoped the doctor would pass off his hesitation as a case of shock.

" Er..Sh-she just collapsed. Yeah, we were just walking and she collapsed and I don't know what else happened. " He hurriedly told the doctor, deciding to stay closer to the truth. He didn't know why it happened, and she had just collapsed, though he silently added,

But she just woke from a crystal state and shes been asleep for six years...

The doctor pulled up a swivel chair and sat across from him with a clipboard and a pen, and began to ask him questions.

" How old is she? " Asked the doctor, and Hope realized he probably thought himself too shook up to fill out the patient's information. Clearly most of it had been done already, except for a couple of things.

" She just turned 21 a couple of months ago. " He answered.

The rest of the questions grew steadily more and more uncomfortable.

" Her name? "

" Lightning Farron " He replied instantly, as if he had said the name too many times. The doctor picked right up on that too. With another harmless chuckle, he just adjusted his glasses and went along with it.

" Her last menstrual cycle? "

" I-i don't know! " He answered incredulously, and the doctor couldn't help but chuckle at his response.

" Okay. All I need is your name, and we can assume that Miss Lightning is your girlfriend, correct? " He finished, totally innocent about the whole thing. Or so his face said. Hope didn't trust that face.

" Uh-huh-huh.." He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. He was about to answer when the doctor's pager beeped and he left the clipboard and pen with him. He hurriedly excused himself and trotted out of the room and left Hope with the 'sheet of death'.

" Relation to patient..." He mumbled, hand shaking. He thought of the possible stories and for one reason or another, he put down the most truthful answer he could think of. He muttered it under his breath as he did so.

" Name: Hope Esthiem. Relation to patient: one sided / friend, " Then finished off the rest of the information easier.

After that he sat back down in the chair and held Lightning's hand, his stomach aching from happiness. He felt the warmth beneath her skin now and when he closed his eyes he prayed he would wake up and she would be okay.

/

They got the call several hours before but only now could Snow and Serah make it over to the hospital. She had rushed through the halls as fast as the could, Serah's heart pounding in her chest and a goofy smile plastered all over Snow's face.

They had received a call from the hospital because they were the only phone number Hope had written down, and so they were of course confused. Lightning Farron was struck with strong fatigue and her 'unsure' friend was refusing to leave the room.

Serah burst into the room with the jumbo-goof at her heels but she stopped dead when she saw the scene before her. Lightning was asleep in the bright white bed, everything normal according to the beeping heart monitor. The only thing she wouldn't see as normal was Hope.

Sitting straight up in the chair, asleep, Hope had her sister's hand clutched loyally in his as he snored softly. She smiled at it and they both sat down in the waiting room again, deciding to wait for either of them to wake up.

/

Her eyes fluttered open and the first thing she saw was a blindingly white ceiling above her head. She blinked several more times and looked around groggily.

Where am I?

She noticed the familier set-up of a hospital room. She was confused but instantly alert, rushing to sit up in bed and immediately reaching for her gunblade. Of course it wasn't strapped to her still, and Lightning cursed herself for being so slow. She sensed a warm feeling on her other hand, so she looked over to see a very grown looking Hope, holding her hand and snoring softly in the chair. She gently pulled her hand away and it instantly woke him, as if his senses had been trained for that particular moment.

He looked at her and for a second she was startled.

That cant be Hope! Can It? The eyes..

She scanned his face, almost aggressive with her eyes, raking them over his features roughly. He was lean but still muscled in just the right places. He was taller, taller than her probably but not even close to Snow's height. His bandana was tied around his wrist instead of his neck and his jaw was more defined though still rounded. She settled on his eyes finally and she didn't doubt it anymore. The man sitting beside her was Hope Esthiem.

His smile was definitely the same and he clutched her shoulder again and whispered, almost in shock, " Light! Y-your..your awake! " His green eyes were so full of delight she almost second guessed herself. She remembered the fourteen year old kid who almost never smiled, and was still struggling with his mother's death. Not...like this.

She realized he was waiting for her to say something, so she cleared her throat and rasped, " Hey.. " because she couldn't think of any other response, intelligent or otherwise. Hope's response to that was a chuckle that almost sounded giddy.

But still...the look on his face, she couldn't help but smile at it, though she did not do so voluntarily. He smiled back even more, if that was even possible. Maybe his eyes did, because something about him radiated happiness. She looked down at her hand and noticed while her other one was freezing, this one was perfectly warm.

He must have been holding it for a while.

She sat up while Hope began to explain everything, starting out slow and going into a rush when he explained her awakening.

She listened to his explanation with super-soldier focus and zoned in on his voice alone, taking in the details of how everyone had been for..how long did he say? Six years?

Hope plunged into the story, going over everyone on what must have been a mental check-list. The news startled her but she continued to listen to the whole thing..

" So..Serah runs a day-care for single parents now, and Snow still leads NORA but they work more on 'special ops' , " He quoted the air with an almost annoyed look on his face, " than rebellion these days. Snow and Serah just celebrated their first year anniversary together, actually..." He rubbed his arm uncomfortably but continued on with another nudge from Light's intense focus on the information. It disguised her true feelings well.

They got married...and I didn't get to see it? I know the guy is annoying but...I missed my little sister's wedding!

She felt a sharp ache in her heart as she thought of this, but Hope must have caught the look on her face and helped to move her along with a pat on her shoulder.

" Sazh has a company for some weird techie-stuff I don't know anything about. All I do know is its called 'Chocobo X' and it mainly focuses on computer technologies and stuff.." Hope looked genuinely lost, as if he had been explained before about it but still didn't really grasp the details. " Dajh is 12 now, and I think hes a genius. Very smart kid, probably takes after Sazh.." He couldn't help but chuckle and at the sound of this Lightning let a small smile twitch at her lips, but nothing more.

" Fang and Vanille..." He sighed, pained. " Nobody knows where they are. They just kind of..." He put his hands on his lap and closed his eyes. Clearly this was a touchy subject - she would make notes not to talk about it to the others if she could help it. She felt a pang of sadness inside herself when she remembered the pair, and frowned lightly at the mention. Hopes voice started up once again and brought her out of contemplation, however.

" Nobody knows where they are. We don't know if they are un- crystallized or what but...Nobody knows. " He just finished with a frustrated sigh and a sad look to his downcast green eyes. She squeezed his hand a little, the way she had when he broke down that day and he suddenly went on with renewed energy.

" PSICOM crumbled shortly after I woke up. There were so mainly civilians coming out with reports of all the horrible things they did they just couldn't keep afloat and eventually the Guardian Corps took over. Any decent soldiers left in PSICOM just became Guardian Corps, I guess. They have this huge facility and everything, Lightning! You'd - "

" I told you to call me Light, didn't I? " She cut him off with a raised brow.

He nodded and just said simply, " I didn't know if it still applied. "

Before she could reply he just launched back into the telling of how it all went down, but halfway through he got distracted when he got a text on his phone. He looked frustrated and texted back rapidly, but then a smile crept onto his face yet again, "Oh yeah..you know that girl Lebreau? " He began mischeviously, eyes practically shining with anticipation. SHe half expected him to tell her he was dating her, but she held off and nodded back to him. She vaguely remembered the NORA members from previously meeting them at some party a while ago. A long while ago, now.

" Well Lebreau and Maqui - you know, tall blonde kid, spiky hair, goggles and a headset? " She nodded once, remembering more clearly now. Maqui - an eager little teenager who followed Snow's every word like it was the most important lesson in the world.

" Him and Lebreau started dating about six months ago. So if they seem a little...different, thats probably why. " He chose the word carefully, hinting at something more. She was too tired and, frankly, too anxious to really put any thought into it.

Finally, he clasped his hands together, deliberately avoiding her eye contact, " So yeah. That's everyone. "

" What about you? " She asked, crossing her arms and looking at him. He seemed surprised, so she said, " What? You thought I would just forget? "

" I was kind of hoping, yeah.." He answered awkwardly, giving her a sheepish grin. She just shot back a glare that said 'yeah right' and he sighed and hesitantly told about himself.

" Well, Light..." He looked down at his shoes before clenching his fists and confidently daring to look right back at her deep blue eyes. She was a little surprised by this action but not because he had never done it before - because she felt a small lump form in her throat when he did so.

" I joined NORA last year and I work with whatever Maqui and Snow have me doing. I don't know what sole purpose I serve there just yet, but I'm training under everybody when they can take me. I can still do good and get stronger without having to worry about holding people back. " His voice was slightly bitter, as if he was remembering the guilt he felt about holding Lightning back all those years ago. Not that he had anyway, once he learned to toughen up.

Hope put both hands on her shoulders tentatively , as if afraid she was going to rip them off at any second, and gently laid her down against the bed. " Get some rest. I'll give you more details later, Okay...Light? "He asked with a smile, clearly exhausted himself. Bags under his eyes, silver hair messed up every possible way, his whole body screaming for more sleep. She nodded and closed her eyes.

Before Hope had even settled in the chair again she asked quietly, " Hope? How old are you, exactly? "

" Twenty...Why? " He asked, already sounding confused and sleepy.

Twenty? Damn, he sure caught up fast, didn't he?

" No reason. " She replied shortly, then added, " 'night. "

/

I originally intended this to be a quick oneshot story but...Hey, whatever.

Read and Review, but take it easy :) First time writing anything close to fanfiction before.

Next Chapter soon, I promise. Unless I get REALLY negative reviews...than in which case I will never dip my toe in the water again :3