Lightning x Hope: Final Fantasy XIII- You are My Hope

Chapter 8-2: Round 2 of the Date

Round 1 of the date went to Lightning, who found a plethora of ways to make Hope's ideal date as difficult as possible. Hope had imagined this going much smoother, possibility overestimating himself a little too much. After all, Hope wasn't exactly some suave ladies' man. He had let Lightning walk all over him at lunch. Hope wouldn't let her take over again on this date. At least that was the plan.

"So, Hope. Our date doesn't end here does it?"

"Haha, no. Theres still a few things I wanna do today."

"Oh." Lightning played with the loose strands of her pink hair, twirling and twisting it around her long, slender fingers.

"O-oh?" Hope asked flustered. "Would that not be okay?"

"Well, it isnt really a date if you just take me out for lunch. Ending things here would be most dissapointing, no?"

"R-right." Hope grasped onto the steering wheel tightly and let out a small sigh.

"I'm sorry, Light. I'm really bad at this. I just wanted to ask you out today because-"

"Because what", Lightning interjected, still playing her her hair.

"Because I care about you. I know you have your work and all, but youre always so busy. And yet, sometimes you look so unfulfilled. Sometimes you look like you're just going through the motions. I just thought coming out today, I could get a read on you. You know... to see if there was anything I could do."

"Huh. I didn't know you paid so much attention to me, Hope. It makes me happy." A smile formed on Lightning's face, faint but noticeable.

Hope's eyes lit up. "It does?"

"Yeah. It does. But..."

"But?"

"You should focus less on me and more on the road."

An hour passes and Lightning and Hope arrive at LOVELESS, a popular outlet mall in the downtown area. A trendy, upper-middle class shopping mall with tons of clothing shops and restaurants. It was a fairly well known  spot for couples. Hope wasn't exactly an expert on shopping locations either, but he had heard of the mall from Serah. Serah often frequented LOVELESS with her husband Snow. Apparently, there was a motorbike repair shop here as well, where Snow would often spend hours staring at engine parts. Snow had pleaded for Hope to come with him sometime for his engineering advice. He was sure that Snow just wanted him to make his bike faster, though.

"Wow, Hope. I'm genuinely impressed. LOVELESS huh? And here I was almost expecting some dingy mall in the outskirts of town." Lightning snickered.

"Don't make fun of me, Light. I'm  actually much more knowledgeable on these things than I look." Hope puffed out his chest, a confident smirk on his face.

"Yes. I'll be sure to thank Serah for that."

"Huh? How did you know Serah told me about this place?"

"Oh. I let her know about our little date last week when you asked me. I told her, "If Hope asks you where he should take me, say LOVELESS."

Lightning casually walked away, her own smirk forming on her face.

"Damn she's good." Hope soon followed her lead into the mall.

"So, where we go first, Light? Theres some clothing stores on the second floor, some perfume places-"

"Let's have some fun first."

"F-fun? What do you mean?"

Hope's heart started to  beat. What on earth did Lightning mean by that? What was even her definition of fun? For as long as he had known her, Lightning had been the image of a super soldier. He couldnt even imagine what kind of "fun" she wanted to have with him. Or could it be-

"Hrm... let's go here for first."

Lightning pointed towards a large entrance with a neon sign out front, with lights flashing from within...

... it was an arcade.

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