Disclaimer: Do not own the characters... do own the bad writing. =p

chealsecharm requested- Could you do a NoelxLightning where Lightning and Noel are in battle and Light gets hurt; then Noel tries to take care of her, she refuses at first, and then eventually opens up to him? :) Setting is up to you.

Post LR, in a world which is somewhat similar to both our own and Gran Pulse. Yay for open-ended endings!

It was the hiss of pain that alerted Noel to Lightning's predicament. Spinning around, the hunter attached his swords together to form a lance and threw it into the head of the monster that currently had Lightning's arm captured into it's mouth causing the creature to drop, though it did not loosen the creatures jaws. "Dammit." Noel cursed under his breath. He had been hoping that the attack would free Lightning enough to get up but the shield she had normally in her hands was on the ground at her side and she looked more than a little injured. Luckily it seemed the beast that had been trying to take off her arm was the last of the creatures they needed to fight. "You okay?"

"Peachy." Noel winced at the pained tone in her voice, the ex-soldier/warrior-goddess/savior had already pulled out Noel's weapon from the head of the monster and was now struggling one handed to open the jaws of the beast that was still in her arm.

"Let me help you." Noel went to his knees beside Lightning and assisted with prying the beasts jaws off, only stopping once the older woman was able to pull away her arm, clutching it to her chest as it bled out onto her shirt. "Looks nasty."

"You think?" She kept her arm held close as she made her way to stand up.

"Hey, let me look at it." The young hunter reached out to stop Lightning only to have his hand slapped away and blood smattered across his clothes. "Lightning you're still bleeding. Let me see it already."

"I'm fine." Lightning bit out as she finally stood, holding her wounded arm close to her chest and turning away.

"You're not fine, you're bleeding out." He grabbed at her un-wounded arm and pulled her towards him as he stood. "There's no magic in this world Lightning, so you can't just heal it and walk away like it's nothing." The pink-haired woman grimaced as she hesitantly let him take a look, not saying a word although Noel could tell she was fuming inside.

The wound was pretty bad and looked deep. He'd try to stop the bleeding first before they went anywhere otherwise she would wind up passing out due to blood loss and there was also a good chance they wouldn't make it to a hospital for her to get treated. "Lie down and keep your arm up." Taking what water he had on him he washed the wound and tore up the bottom of his shirt so he could wrap it and apply pressure. "What were you doing out here anyways?"

"Usual patrol. Keeping monsters from coming into the village since no one else seems to be doing it."

"Bullshit." Noel scoffed. He knew just as well as she did that there were plenty of patrols keeping monsters from actually entering the village since he was part of them. Lightning however always liked to sneak off when no one was looking and go the extra mile to scout further for possible threats on her own. "You need to stop doing this. It's worrying Serah."

"Is that why you've been trailing me these last few weeks?" She winced as he pressed his hand down a bit more firmly to try and stop the blood. So far it seemed like it was working although she was looking pretty pale.

"I had a choice. Face your wrath or hers and she's just a whole lot scarier now that she's in her third trimester." That remark surprisingly got a laugh out of Lightning. It was true, since Serah and Snow had married and decided to start having a family the younger Farron had become a lot more strict with everyone around her. "So, what's really going on?"

"Nothing." She winced as he pressed more. "Stop that. You're just going to make it worse." He loosening his grip and inspected the wound. For the most part it looked like the bleeding had stopped but they still had to get back to have her treated. Letting her get herself up again, Noel stayed close by, paying attention to her facial expressions in case she seemed faint. Her face was already plenty pale and her eyes made it look like she hadn't slept in days. The two continued on in silence for several minutes before Lightning staggered and stopped to lean against a nearby tree.

"You're going to kill yourself doing this." Noel noted. "Why?" Since their rebirth in this new world and adapting to a new reality, everyone had taken on new ventures in life. Sazh went back to being a pilot, Snow ran the local bar assisted by Serah, Hope had returned to school to learn more about the current world and Noel, Fang and Vanille all took positions with the patrols. Everyone had taken steps to move on, except Lightning.

"I… don't know what else to do." Lightning whispered, letting her body slowly slide down to the ground again. "I knew that we'd still have to work hard to make this living in this new world work but it seems all I can do is keep fighting." Ah, so that was it. Noel understood all too well. Ever since he'd been able to hold a blade in his hands as a child he'd been learning how to fight so he could protect both himself and Yeul.

"You don't have to fight anymore Lightning." Noel offered, not knowing if anything he said would reach her like this. "Everyone is doing their part to make this world a place we can all live in. You already did your part by getting us here."

"So I should just sit back and let everyone else do all the work?" She snapped, swatting his hand away as he moved to collect her from where she had set down at the base of the tree. Instead of being deterred though he reached out again and caught her hand the second time she made to shoo him off and slung her body over his shoulder, taking care to keep her wounded arm from getting hurt. "The hell are you doing Kreiss?"

"Carrying you. Keep your wounded arm up." With her no longer stumbling around he could keep a good pace and get them back in time for the arm to probably avoid major infection. With how deep the wound was and just water to wash it off, he wasn't sure if it wouldn't have any.

"I don't know how to move on." The confession was so quiet, Noel wasn't sure it was real. The pink haired woman looked so strong but carrying her over his shoulders he could feel how light she was in contrast. "Serah has Snow now. She doesn't need me anymore even though we're closer than we've ever been. But they're starting a family and…"

"You don't know your place anymore." Noel understood too well how she felt. Though he and Yeul had been reunited in this new world as he'd hoped since beginning his journey the ex-seeress had made it clear that her feelings for him were exactly the same as those she once had for Caius and like Caius, she didn't want to hold him back from living. She'd left shortly afterwards, saying she'd keep in touch as long as she knew he was moving on.

Yet another harsh reality he'd had to learn to live with. The one person he thought would need him didn't and from her letters she was living quite happily without him.

"Thinking about her again?" Noel chuckled. It wasn't a surprise that Lighting called him out of his thoughts. Shortly after Yeul had left him, he'd wound up on Serah and Snow's couch for several weeks nursing the heartache until he found a way to move on by joining the patrols and staying close to those others he cared about. He didn't want to lose anyone else precious to him.

"Just thinking about how I understand how you feel. It took me a while to sort out what I wanted to do too but Lightning, even though you don't know what to do with yourself it doesn't mean people don't care about you. So, take care of yourself or let one of us help you when you don't know what to do." They were almost at the village, good.

"Is that your way of saying I should join the patrols?" Noel shrugged.

"Only if you want to but it sounds like you're tired of fighting. Maybe you should take up knitting?" That remark earned him a swat on the ass, which jolted him. She must have really been out of it since he sincerely doubted she'd do that under normal circumstances.

"I think we're here." Sure enough they'd made it back in one piece.

"I'll take you to the hospital and let Serah know what happened." Noel offered as he picked up his pace. It wasn't far since it was a relatively small village. Mostly populated by those who had been reborn along with the rest of them. He took his leave shortly after dropping her at the ER, leaving Lightning to ponder her situation.

"Sis!" 8 months of pregnancy still didn't stop Serah from wrapping her arms around her sister the moment she walked through the door, leaving Lightning feeling foolish for being reckless. "Noel told me what happened. What were you thinking?"

"I'm sorry Serah." Slowly she returned the embrace, taking care to avoid getting her wounded arm caught anywhere. It hurt like a bitch but she had been lucky. If Noel hadn't been there to assist when she'd been attacked she wouldn't be here now. She wouldn't see her new niece or nephew or her own sister that she sacrificed everything for again. All because she couldn't adapt to the new life she'd tried so hard to build.

How could she be so foolish? Being lonely was no excuse. After all, even Noel found a way to move on.

"I'm just glad Noel was there with you."

"I'm just lucky that you sent him to look after me." At that, Serah pulled away and gave Lightning a questioning look.

"I never sent Noel to do that. I didn't even know you'd been going off on your own until today."

"What?" He'd been following her for weeks, she was sure of it. He'd even admitted to it! She must have had one hell of an expression on her face because Serah couldn't stop from giggling at her. "What's so funny?" The giggles turned into full on laughter.

"Sorry sis. I think I just figured out how Noel started to move on."

Fin.