![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cursedwithpuns[Hope had gotten up early this morning. After speaking to Lightning on the phone everyday since he arrived? The anticipation of seeing her again was making him fidget. His Absol was standing down by his feet. Watching him pace.
Hope is basically waiting for his welcome wagon to arrive. Feel free to stop by and poke him, call him on the cell or whatever you please really.]
Hope is basically waiting for his welcome wagon to arrive. Feel free to stop by and poke him, call him on the cell or whatever you please really.]
[Action]
Date: 16/2/12 18:58 (UTC)I'm dead, Hope. Been dead for almost a year now.
[She knows it's not going to make any sense to him, what with his grip on her hand, but....he has to know. Better he find out now than another, more vulnerable time.]
Re: [Action]
Date: 16/2/12 20:13 (UTC)[No. No. Just- No! You can't tell me that! You're not dead. You can't be dead. You're here now. You're here. I'm holding your hand- you can't- you can't take her away from me! Not again!
The numbness visibly spreads through his body and his back goes rigid. His eyes glaze over, tears welling up slowly, falling as his eyes can barely contain them any more. He attempts to stand, to run away but his body won't move.]
No.
[It started softly, but the fire ignited, spreading until it burst out of his mouth.]
No! You're not dead. You're not!
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 03:42 (UTC)So she stands up, keeping her hand under his as she turns to put the other on his other shoulder, looking him directly in the eye. He'll know she's not lying because Lightning doesn't lie, not when it's this important, but...she doesn't know what else to do.]
Hope, listen to me! There's no other way things could be right now. I felt myself die in a place where there was no healing magic or way out. There's no other way for things to be.
Re: [Action]
Date: 17/2/12 09:58 (UTC)[He yelled at her. He wanted to shrug her away and run away. Out into the cold. Either that or to hurt something. Someone. What use was everything he went through if not to be able to use it-
But he wasn't home. He couldn't just blast things at will, he couldn't even heal her. Call her back. He stood frozen his expression frozen in anger as he can't look up into her eyes. She can't be dead. You can't be dead.]
If you're here you can't be dead. You might have been close but you can't have been dead.
[Don't tell me I'm wrong. he prayed desperately. Every last drop of pain and confusion had to be released at least temporarily, for him to look up at Lightning. His eyes lost behind a veil of angry and crushed tears.]
Please. Don't... just... don't tell me I'm wrong.
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 10:06 (UTC)I wish I could tell you that, Hope. I wish you were right. But I know what happened, and if this place could bring Snow when he was a Cie'th, there's nothing stopping it from bringing the dead here. I'm sorry.
Re: [Action]
Date: 17/2/12 10:15 (UTC)[Lightning, you weren't supposed to tell him that.
His knees buckle as the familiar pain of losing a family member wraps it's icy tendrils around him. The tears would come this time, not like the last. He sobs, large, heavy tear laden sobs that shake his entire body.]
I-I can't take... I can't take this.
[The words slip out between racking sobs. He clings to her clothes. It wasn't a hug, it was a primal instinct, as if she was going to try and leave. He grabs a fistful and squeezes so hard that under his gloves his knuckles are white.]
How... How could you do this to me?!
[The anger swallows him for a moment before he realises what he's saying and a wave of guilt spirals around him. How could he yell at Lightning like that? A very broken boy falls against wherever his head would land when he's on his knees and just sobs.]
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 10:28 (UTC)She'll be here for every minute of it, and his head falls to her chest when he finally gives in, but she doesn't care. She just wraps him in both her arms and hangs on for all she has. Because he's her family and she wishes she could have given him good news, but she can't and she won't leave him to find out from someone who won't even comfort him if it got out. She just wishes there was something more she could do than hold him close and press a kiss to the top of his head. She knows this won't help him much at all and that hurts her.]
Re: [Action]
Date: 17/2/12 10:40 (UTC)The swarm of chaotic thoughts in head were buzzing too loud for him to think of anything. He felt her lips, which only dimmed the storm slightly before it erupted another wave of nausea.
He clutched his stomach. He would have been sick if he hadn't seen all he had seen, but he knew how to stop that feeling by now. He looked up at her pain, pure unfiltered heart crushing pain in his eyes.]
I'm sorry...
[For your loss? For his loss? He didn't know what he was sorry for. But that unrelenting clingyness hasn't lessened.]
D-Don't leave me. Please. [While we were here? It wasn't happening. She wasn't dead. She was alive. And that is how it was going to stay. Without Lightning? He wasn't going back.]
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 10:53 (UTC)She meets his eyes when he looks up, however, and knows that some of that pain is mirrored in her own gaze even as she shakes her head. He shouldn't apologize for what he's been told. She's alright with being gone because it probably protected Hope and Serah somehow, but watching him like this...watching him like this makes her want to go back to that fateful day and run until she's safe and can get back to them. But she can't. She can't do anything but hold him and let him cling.]
I'm not going anywhere. [She doesn't add "I promise" onto it because she can't promise Johto won't send her flying back the way she came, but if it's down to her choice? She's staying with him until they both get to go back. That's what family does.]
Re: [Action]
Date: 17/2/12 13:05 (UTC)He leaned into her, as a child would. He knew his mother was gone, and the closest thing he had, his big sister was telling him that she was gone too, the poor broken boy was at limits end. Not seconds after being told he could be reunited with his mother...
Rock bottom felt low, lower than he'd ever been. Even as it had happened he'd had a support system, the survival, the fighting his family. But now... what did he have here?
Could it be the same? He doubted it.]
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 13:15 (UTC)There is one thing she can try, but...she hasn't done it in years and she was probably rusty as an abandoned weapon, but...what did they stand to lose? She had to try.
So with both arms wrapped tight around her little brother, she started to hum a wordless little tune, the same she'd sung to Serah all those years ago when their parents died. Maybe it wouldn't help Hope, but she had to try. There was nothing else she could do to ease this pain she'd caused.]
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 13:22 (UTC)He clung tighter for a moment before rationality started to fight it's way to clarity. Whatever time they had, shouldn't be filled with pain. It wouldn't be worth it to be so... wrapped up in the thought of the end. Take each day as it comes.
He looked up at her. This was Lightning. If anyone could escape death? If anyone could die and not be dead? It was his big sis. The sobs started to shake his body less, and the crying thinned, the tears still rolled down his cheeks as little waterfalls of pain, but he was regaining control.
He wiped one eye with a gloved hand. M-Mom... He prayed internally. Mom... if... Lightning is really up there with you... Can you... can you look after her for me? Till... Till I'm ready to catch you up?
Maybe it was the crying, maybe it was the hysteria, but he swore he heard a little matronly chuckle and his shoulder felt a cool, yet warming touch. A motherly one.]
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 13:38 (UTC)But for now, she would focus on Hope. On her family. On helping him and wiping the tears from his other eye with her thumb, one arm still wrapped tight around his shoulders. She was still here and going nowhere. She swore that to anyone who would listen, and perhaps her parents were among them. Maybe they could buy her just a little more time. She hoped.]
I won't abandon you, Hope. I promise.
Re: [Action]
Date: 17/2/12 13:53 (UTC)He looked up at her and smiled. It was faint, it was weak, but the power of his mothers touch and his new found clarity allowed those words to reign true. Doubt reared, but was instantly battled by faith. By hope.
His grip lessened and he wiped his eyes again, they were red and puffy, and the tears hadn't quite stopped yet. He shook his head slightly, his hair tickling at her.]
I know.
[It was all he could muster, and the torn fragments of his being were pulled back together, glued faintly by the words Lightning had spoken, and the want and belief in Hope. He knew that whatever time he had left was going to be special, and while he knew that... if she did leave he would be crushed again. But he had to believe that he was going to be okay.
That no matter what, they would never truely be alone.]
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 14:20 (UTC)For now, she just shifts, relaxing her hold on him enough that he can get more comfortable if he wants but careful to keep physical contact. She gets the feeling her needs it...or maybe she does. Either way, she's not letting go until he wants to, whenever that is. She can wait, she can be patient. He's family and she will. not. abandon. him. Ever.]
Think you can stand? You'll be more comfortable on the bed than the floor.
[She might try and get him to rest, though. that much crying takes a lot out of people.]
[Action]
Date: 17/2/12 18:08 (UTC)I can't.
[He shook his head, struggling to try again. But to no avail. He sighed wiping his eye again. The shock still claimed his knees. He fell against Lightning. The frustration wasn't an easy thing to add in, but... the maelstrom was still quieting thanks to Lightnings embrace.]
C-Can you help me up?
[His body was ravaged by the shock, the pain and the crying. He hadn't felt this week in a long time. Not since...
Well. It wasn't time to dwell on that.]
[Action]
Date: 18/2/12 04:56 (UTC)[That's pretty much the only warning he gets before Lightning shifts, moving in a way that lets her pick him up with both arms as she stands. It's a good thing that the bed is literally right behind him, because his legs aren't the only ones that don't want to behave properly.
She'd been able to lift Snow in Palompolum. But that was when she was in military shape. Now...now she can lift Hope for the few seconds it takes to get him onto the bed again, barely. She's definitely gotten soft around the edges after a near year and a half here.]
[Action]
Date: 18/2/12 11:11 (UTC)He looked up at Lightning, and put his hand on her arm.]
Can I... Can I rest for a bit?
[He was hesitant. If he took his eyes off of her... she could disappear couldn't she? He grabbed her hand.]
Bu-But you can't leave. Stay here. With me.
[He squeezes her hand.]
[Action]
Date: 18/2/12 11:21 (UTC)I told you: I'm not going anywhere. Just rest.
Re: [Action]
Date: 19/2/12 11:23 (UTC)[He laid back and stared at the ceiling for a little while. His head was still swimming. He tried not to think about it, but the thoughts just kept coming back.
Eventually, he falls into a shallow, fitful sleep. The troubles of the day spreading to his dreams.]