Title: My Bleeding Heart, Your Kingdom
Author: Warangel88
Pairing: Stella/Noctis, onesided Noctis x OC
Warnings/Spoilers: Slightly AU,
Author Note: I really don't like writing main charctars with OCs, but considering Stella is the only one confirmed in Versus and I especially hate crossovers I guess I had no choice. Plus I want to experiment a bit.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy Versus XIII

This is my last goodbye
Leaving all the memories of you behind
I will not wait here
And waste my whole life
Waste my whole life...
My passion, my poison
The life and death of me
I can't take you taking everything
From a love never meant to be

~My Last Goodbye - Trading Yesterday

Somehow, Stella had always known that Noctis would marry a princess, someone who was beautiful -- perhaps a bit of a damsel in distress -- but was nonetheless someone who cared very much for the kingdom.

Someone unlike her, although she had been told that she posessed quite a few qualities that would make her a good ruler and a good queen.

Perhaps Stella could, if it weren't for the fact that she was a middle-class woman somewhere in between commoner and a noblewoman. It was only a matter of luck that she was able to get in the good graces of the Tenebrean king and that he had even appointed her as a peace ambassador shortly before her eighteenth birthday, mostly because of her strong sense of wisdom and her true desire for peace, despite her young age.

But Stella would never be a princess or a queen, and princes sure as hell didn't marry peace ambassadors, even if they may have had a fling in the past and might possibly be in love with each other.

Stella really didn't want to see Noctis with his soon-to-be wife, someone that his parents had chosen for him since they were kids, she believed. And his fiancé was gorgeous -- she would give the woman that much -- with long, dark-midnight hair, snow-white skin, and emerald-green eyes that seemed to be full of life.

Stella's black heels softly clicked against the stone steps, and she noticed that her limousine was waiting for her with her most trusted driver and friend Miles behind the wheel.
He was either going to take her back to the hotel or back to Tenebrae, and going back to Tenebrae honestly sounded really good to her just then.

Stella would be able to avoid Noctis more until either she was able to mend her broken heart, or until he learned to love his fiancé, because as much as she wanted to, she knew that she couldn't be selfish.

Stella knew that if Noctis broke his engagement to Liara that war would probably break out between the two kingdoms, and she honestly didn't want to see more bloodshed because of a selfish decision.

"Stella?" Stella heard a familiar voice call out to her and slowly turned around to face Noctis, pausing to notice that he was still dressed in his suit.

"What is it, Lord Noctis?" Stella replied a bit formally, which caused Noctis to slightly frown, although he probably shouldn't have expected anything else from her.

"I don't love her," Noctis said. Stella thought that perhaps this was some weak attempt by him to get her to stay, or to make her truly believe that the time they spent together wasn't fake, or because he simply wanted to be unfaithful to his fiancé.

"It doesn't really matter if you do or don't, Noctis," Stella replied, "what matters is whether or not you can save your kingdom from war." She curled her lips into a sad smile before deciding to continue, vaguely remembering Noctis' proposal to her the night before in their one last moment together. "If we ran away together we could be happy, we would, but Liara's father would never stop hunting us. He would kill everyone that you care about, your people, just to find us."

Noctis frowned slightly, allowing the reasons why he must marry Liara to sink in.

"I want you to try and love Liara and be faithful to her," Stella continued. She noticed a slight hitch in her voice, either because she wasn't being entirely truthful with that comment or because she was telling the person that she loved to love someone else. "If your heart is only faithful to me because of the love that we share, then both you and Liara would be in a miserable marriage, and I don't want you to be miserable."

"I believe that is my choice," Noctis replied, causing Stella to slightly nod in agreement; it wasn't as if she could really control what Noctis would do, anyway.

Stella could only make a few arguments and pray that he would listen to her. She didn't want Noctis to be miserable for the rest of his life because he felt that he needed to be faithful to her and wouldn't allow himself to love the woman he was marrying.

"You know I will always love you," Noctis replied sincerely, yet almost vehemently, as if he were trying to put his point across which caused Stella to nod lightly.

"And I will always love you Noct," Stella replied, moving slightly closer to him. She moved up to kiss him softly on the corner of his mouth before pulling back again, deciding to give herself and him a bit of hope. "Maybe someday we would be together, either in this life or the next one, but until that time comes we must part ways."

Noctis smiled lightly at that remark and moved in to kiss her again, the kiss tasting bittersweet, even more so than the previous kisses that they had shared.

Perhaps it was because they both knew that kiss might possibly be their last one; one last kiss goodbye before they parted ways.

"Good bye, Noctis," Stella said, slowly pulling him away from him before walking down the steps to where Miles was waiting for her. Miles opened the door of the limousine for her and then closed it after she got in. Stella knew that Miles had probably witnessed the kiss that she shared with Noctis, and perhaps even heard the words they exchanged.

"Are you alright, Stella?" she heard Miles say in a warm and caring voice a few moments later as they were driving down the streets of the large capital city.

"I will be," Stella replied, although she could feel the tears roll down her face as she silently glanced at the landscape before quietly whispering to herself, "in time."

Stella knew what she did was the right thing to do, despite the fact that she could feel her heart breaking. But she also knew that at least there wouldn't be a war between the two nations.

The last thing that she wanted was for more people to die in a senseless war, especially if she was able to prevent it.

"If we are meant to be, Noct, then it will happen," Stella silently mused to herself before falling into a deep slumber and dreaming about the past.......her past with Noctis.

-the end

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