Antidote

Summary: Lightning was unsure of this. Being so close to him without the others around, but Hope needed help now and the camp was still a ways off. What a late night patrol this had turned out to be.

This is basically just a fluffy one-shot from back on Gran Pulse.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 13

The white flare from the gun flashed in the night, the sound of a bullet being released echoing off the cliff walls. A snarl came from the dark corner before disapearing further in. Lightning spun around fitting her gunblade into the sheath attached to her hip with the knowledge that the Gorgonosipid was dying in the cave it had sprung out of moments ago to attack their small scouting party.

She moved towards the rocks where she had left him, after it tore savagely at his leg. The muscles in her face tightened at the recent memory. They had just been walking in Gran Pulse out on patrol looking for a city or village of some sort that wasn't in ruins. Night was a good time to do this, most of the creatures would be asleep as they were more active at day running along the hills. Atleast they didn't have to worry about any Svarog, those gigantic birds that flew around in circles overhead seemed to hate the cold.

Still, she hadn't expected that blasted dog thing to come out of nowhere like that. They had spotted them sleeping the plains below the cliffs plenty of times, never inside a cave. She should have been more vigilant, then it wouldn't have snuck up behind them and grabbed Hope, almost dragging it off back to the den. Thankfully it had been alone.

Forcing the scowl away she jumped over the rock into the small circle they created. Lightning crouched down next to the silver haired boy who was breathing heavily as a trembling hand kept his bandana on the scarred leg. Fang marks were deep in the flesh, having hit bone and they were jagged from the uneven beast's teeth. Blood was seeping through his pale fingers as he gasped in pain.

She glanced towards his face. It seemed even paler than usual in the soft moon light streaming from above. "Calm down," she whispered softly, seeing the fear still evident in his eyes. It had scared her as well, and his sudden screaming still echoed dully in her ears. "it's dead."

Hope glanced towards her as if just noticing her, his face was twisted in pain. "Light," He hissed between clentched teeth.

She pulled off her gloves in a matter of seconds bending over his injury to asses the damage, letting the small bits of cloth land in packed dirt next to her. "Don't say anything, stay still while I fix this." She quickly shushed him before turning to look at his leg again. Lightning reached out with a hand and pulled the bandana off the worst of the bite, the part where skin and muscle had been torn off, the hole five inches across in all directions going so deep you could see where the bone in his leg had broken in two. The bit of flesh that creature had eaten before Light could even react to save him.

Setting the green cloth down on a nearby slab of rock where his gloves also lay she reached out her hand to lay on his leg. Her fingers twitched as they came in contact with the blood and saliva stained skin. She set her jaw and pressed her hand firmly over it earning a gasp from Hope. Lightning paused, she was hesitant as her skin felt his along the edges of her hand, warm from heat rather than just blood.

She had never been this close to him before, in such a situation. Closing her eyes she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She had to do this or he would bleed out, now was not the time to freeze up. Yet seeing so much blood, and the bone smashed as it was, it didn't do much to help her. Even with the darkness of her eye lids in her vision it came up in her mind. She opened her eyes staring at it in the dim light she forced her I'Cie powers to come forth. Her brand glowed green softly as the healing powers started to surge through her.

The hand echoed this light and pushed it down into his leg. She kept her eyes wide open, watching the bone mend and making sure it did so correctly. When Hope started to squirm from the pain her unbusy right hand shot out to hold his left and his fingers quicly entagled into hers, his grip tightning every second, as long as it took for his bone to mend. The preasure on her hand lossened after a moment then tightened again.

Lightning took this into small notice as she poured more of her healing energy into the hole and it started to close up. She knew this must feel unpleasant to him and didn't mind the contact as long as it helped him get through it. If the others were here Vanille could have and it would have gone faster. Everyone else could be saying something encouraging to him like Hope had done so many times for them.

Her cheek felt hot then and she shifted her shoulder trying to swipe the tear from her skin. Seeing him in this pain was hurting her deeply, more than seeing Serah turn into crystal back on Cocoon. She hadn't cried then and she didn't want to now. Biting softly into her toung she fought the rest back, simply watching as his skin came together beneath her fingers, feeling it grow whole. She turned her attension to the smaller cuts and healed them as well, going faster only because the damage was minimal in those areas. Even if the scars were as thin as a fingernail she healed it. Those probably hadn't even been caused by the beast but from sharp leaves.

The ragged breathing from before had evened out, becoming steady and strong. The glow from her Pulse I'Cie mark had gone down when there was nothing left on his leg to heal. She raised her head slowly to look over at him, seeing the color back in his face stilled her frantically beating heart.

The thought of losing him hurt her, and she had almost thought she was too late from the rate he had been bleeding out while fighting the beast. It filled her with a sort of joy to see he was well again and not in pain. She never wanted to see those eyes filled with such hurt or hear his voice tremble like that again.

"Thanks Light." Hope's voice wrenched her from her current thoughts and her eyes rose to meet his light green orbs. His lips moved up into a small smile telling her he was fine. When his fingers loosened their grip once again from hers she was aware that their hands were still touching.

Lightning ducked her head down like an embaressed child as her cheeks grew warm and become a light red from her blush. She didn't want him to see her reaction when she herself didn't even fully understand why she felt this way about him. Just a simple touch of skin shouldn't leave her in this predicament.

"Are you okay?" A hand placed itself on her shoulder and she was aware of her own now empty and cold wihtout his to warm it.

The concern laced in those words surprised her and she glanced up before the blush had completely gone away, just a simple pink still evident along her cheek bones. Her fingers twitched with acnowledging the loss and her hand went up to her shoulder, practically shoving his off her.

Hope's eyes widened in alarm and his hand started to retract at her reaction to what should have been a comforting gesture. In the next moment she could see surprise there when her hand didn't just fall to the ground and instead pressed up against his own. Her fingertips were met with cool air as his hand was smaller than hers but she didn't mind. Lightning looked over to their hands like that, joined together.

She wanted to stay like that forever, for some reason she wanted to stay at his side, watch over him and make him happy. Her emotions danced in the corners of her in the twilight.

A breath was took and held by her companion, her gaze traveled back to his own that must have seen some of those thoughts just now in her expression. A shift in her posture that alerted him to something besides just friendship.

Lightning leaned forward her mind a jumbled mess. She stopped the movement so close to him that she was sure he could feel her breath along the side of his face. Her voice came out quite, a small shiver in it when she spoke, lips trembling when they parted, "Don't scare me like that again."

With those words she stood up quickly leaving his hand hanging alone in the cold air. She turned quickly, her cape billowing from the movement for a second. "We should get back to the camp, keep your weapon at the ready this time." She said, her voice coming out with her usual strength while she pushed their small interaction to the back of her mind.

What did you all think? Like it or no? It's my first Lightning x Hope fic, I plan to have a lot more though.