Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII. Square Enix owns it. I do not own anything. Do not sue me.

Author's Note: And here you guys thought you wouldn't get an update for a month. ;) FFXIII-2 was awesome. Much better than XIII. Go get it. Lightning's awesome.

Special thanks to Haruka-Chan 212 –

Not Over You

Chapter Thirteen - Gone

So I'll just hang around / And find some things to do / To take my mind off missing you / And I know in my heart / You can't say that you don't love me too / Please say you do… -"Gone" by NSYNC

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"We have to do something," Lebreau told her three good friends. "She's brooding. And it's driving me crazy."

Serah nodded and played with her small cup of coffee while Vanille took a sip of her soda. "Fang's been the same. All she does is sleep and work, she hardly ever even eats anymore." The younger Farron sighed and shook her head.

"Lightning's just as bad. It's like they took two steps forward and three steps back. Did you see the way they looked at each other Christmas Day? That was something I hadn't seen for months. Why did Fang have to go and leave like that?"

"It's not Fang's fault, Serah," Vanille defended. "Lightning shouldn't have slapped Fang."

"What even happened?" Snow asked, "Does anybody know? I've obviously been kept out of the loop."

Serah let out a heavy sigh. She knew Lightning had trusted her with the information but hated being the only person to know and unable to talk to anybody. "They slept together on Christmas night after we all left… the next morning, Fang apparently bolted before Lightning woke up."

The table was silent. Lebreau wanted to jump in joy upon hearing they slept together, but her joy turned to anger the moment Serah said that Fang bolted. "She did what now? She bolted? After they had sex?"

"Apparently, yeah…"

"Why would she do something like that?" Vanille's voice rang out. She knew Fang better than Fang knew herself, or so she thought. She knew that the older woman had some issues but never expected her to actually run away from them.

Serah didn't know whether to ignore or just yell at Vanille for defending the woman who hurt her sister – again. "Well it happened. Why would Lightning lie about something like that? She wouldn't slap Fang if it wasn't necessary."

Silence fell over the group of friends as they all allowed the new information to fully sink in. "So, Fang got scared then?" Snow lifted his hand to scratch the back of his head. It was the best he could come up with.

"Guess so," Lebreau started. "But that's no excuse for leaving Lightning. Also, Lightning shouldn't have slapped Fang. That was unnecessary, Serah. I know you love your sister, but each side has three stories. Lightning's, Fang's, and the truth."

"I'm sure Lightning's telling the truth. I'm sure Fang is too, but either way we need to try to fix this. If we don't…" Snow let his voice trail off. He knew that if it didn't get fixed now, it never would.

"If we don't, then we all continue to live through the hell they're putting everybody through," Lebreau stated, leaving minimal room for discussion on that topic.

Vanille huffed, "there's a problem though…" When she saw her friends looking at her, she elaborated, "how?"

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The bar was dark and dank. The cigarette smoke cover flooded her senses. She didn't smell anything but the smoke and alcohol. And honestly, she didn't care. Lebreau's bar was full of lesbians. She just had to get an urge for a beer on Lebreau's monthly 'coming out' night…

She'd lost track of how many drinks she had. All she knew was that as long as the bartender kept sliding her new beers, she'd keep drinking them. Just as she lifted a new bottle to her lips, she spotted her walking between the rows of tables.

Should she go and apologize? Her mind was boggled with thoughts of absolute nothingness, and the woman singing karaoke (badly, might she add) wasn't helping. The song definitely wasn't helping.

Lightning stood up and walked over to the woman at the other end of the bar. "Can I sit?" Lightning asked. The woman glanced up and nodded. Lightning sat and put her beer down. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Slapping you," the woman rose a brow. "I love you and I was so angry and I was angry and felt used and that's why I was so angry. I wish you woulda have stayed… I thought we were okay 'til you left and made me angry."

"But…"

"Let me finish!" Lightning nearly screamed. The woman looked around and saw the bars patrons looking in their direction. "I love you and I was so angry… I'm so in love with you. So much that it scares me. Yes something actually scares me. That something is you. Everything I feel for you scares me and I don't know how to deal with it all. That's why I lashed out at you like I did. I'm so sorry, I don't regret what we did. I don't regret a moment of it, but I regret that you left and didn't talk to me about it. That was the best night of my life and I'd do anything to get it back."

Lebreau knew she had to call Fang. Lightning was going on and on about how sorry she was.

"But you don't love me."

"Yes, I do! Why would you question something like that? I've never loved anybody as much as I love you. I need you, Fang. Oh, how I need you. I don't even know how I function each day without you in my life anymore. I… I don't know how much longer I can keep going on without you."

Lebreau looked over her best friend's shoulder in time to see Snow walking through the front door. Perfect timing. "Listen, Light… You're drunk. You need some help."

"I don't need anything but you," she stumbled over her words.

"I'm not Fang…" Lebreau spoke softly.

"You… you're not?"

Lebreau cracked a sad smile to Lightning. "You're really drunk, Light. You need to go home and sleep all this off."

"But I need to talk to Fang. Do you know where she is?"

Just as Lebreau started to reach for her phone, Snow stepped up to them, "hey, is everything okay?"

"Snow!" Lightning called out to him. He flinched back, expecting the worst. "Do you know where Fang is?"

Snow looked at his sister-in-law with a mixture of fear and confusion. Sure, he'd seen Lightning drunk before, but it never got to the point where she was being friendly to him. "She's probably sleeping."

Lightning frowned. "But I have to tell her how much I love her."

The detective's rant was quickly drowned out when Lebreau started talking. "Listen, Snow… Could you take her home. Get her to bed. You know the drill. I can't leave right now. We're too busy in here and I'm lucky I'm even on break."

He glanced between Lebreau and Lightning, who was now talking to herself quietly. "Do you want me to die?"

"She's drunk. You know how her coordination gets. She yells at you, just push her some. She'll topple over like a one legged chocobo. Thanks Snow!" Lebreau quickly walked off, leaving Snow with drunk Lightning.

"Oh Etro… I'm gonna die."

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Snow wrapped his arms around his sister-in-law as he helped her out of the car. The snow was melting, finally, but the water had turned to ice and caused the walkway to be extremely slick. He stumbled a couple of times and it didn't help that Lightning was very drunk. "Oops!" Lightning said loudly as she knocked over the landlords garden gnome.

"Light, be quiet. It's past midnight. You'll wake everyone up," Snow scolded. 'You just had to move to the quiet side of Bodhum, didn't ya sis?' He chuckled and helped her up the stairs, or tried to anyway. Lightning slipped on the stairs but Snow picked her up and put her over his shoulder.

"Oohh! Easy ride!"

'I'm going to die in the morning…' Snow gulped and reached into his pocket, pulling out Lightning's keys. "Come on, Lightning. Stop squirmin' and screamin' like that… the neighbors are gonna get the wrong idea."

"Get the wrong idea? About what? Me… with you?" She suddenly burst into laughter at the thought. "Not in your wildest dreams!"

Snow whispered a soft prayer directed to Etro herself before pushing open the door and carrying the detective into her own apartment. "You stay put and be quiet." He told her as soon as he placed her on the sofa.

He sighed while walking into the kitchen. It was going to be a long night and he knew this. He could hear Lightning's mumblings. The only time she had shut up about the apology was when Snow was 'escorting' her to her apartment. He pulled out his phone and called a friend.

"You do realize it's past midnight, right?" Fang mumbled into the phone.

"You need to hear this… She's been repeating the same thing over and over again," Snow whispered, grabbing a bottle of water. He walked into the living room and put the phone down on the coffee table. "Here, Light. Drink this."

"I don't wanna drink! I want Fang! How many times do I have to tell you that I need her? I need her so bad that it hurts me inside. I don't even know how to go through each of my days without even hearing her voice. Just seeing her again would be amazing, even in passing. I need her like the air in my lungs, Snow! Why can't any of you see that?"

Snow could just imagine the thoughts running through Fang's mind. He just hoped he'd live in the morning.

"Why the hell did ya call me to listen to her?" Fang's voice came loudly from the phone on the coffee table.

"Because we're all tired of this and you need to hear it! I'm sick of you two being like this. It's killing Serah AND Vanille. We need you to fix it!"

Lightning gasped. "Is that Fang?" She reached for the phone, but Snow pulled it out of her hands before she put it to her ear. "Can I talk to her? I wanted to talk to her for weeks! Please, please, please let me talk to her. I need to tell her how sorry I am!"

"Is she drunk?" Fang asked. Snow's silence was her answer. "You know, she promised she'd changed. And I guess she didn't. Goodnight, Snow."

"Wait! You know how she is when she's drunk, Fang. She can't lie. Even if she tries to, she just can't do it."

"Don't care, Snow. Need to be up in five hours." With that, Fang hung up.

"Fang's gone…" Lightning's eyes welled up with tears. "Gone… for… forever," she hiccupped.

"Oh… oh! Don't cry! Come on, Light. Don't cry, please…" Her shoulders started to shake.

"I lost her, Snow… I messed up. Again…"

"You didn't lose her."

"Yes, I did!" Lightning wiped a tear. "You really are that stupid, aren't you?"

Snow scoffed. "You didn't… I know she loves you. You just need to get your life straightened out. You're too defensive. It's getting the best of you." And Lightning cried. Snow hated it when women cried. He wrapped his arms around Lightning, who just gripped his trench coat. "It's okay, Light. It'll be okay."

At least he hoped it would.

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Who could go back to sleep after that kind of phone call? Listening to your ex pour her heart out… her drunken heart out, does a lot to a person. The only thing that lingered in Fang's mind was that Lightning was drunk. Things were right back where they'd started… with Lightning drunk. That was most of the original problem for Fang. Sure, there was nothing wrong with a few social drinks, but the detective drank after nearly every shift.

Fang was at a loss for what to really do. She knew that Snow had said about Lightning not being able to lie when she was drunk. Not even if she tried. She knew it was true. Lightning didn't know how to lie when there was alcohol involved. She never imagined she'd ever hear such a heartfelt apology from her ex girlfriend. She wanted to believe it but how could she? How could she believe words that couldn't be spoken when sober?

After sighing in frustration, she threw back the blankets and sat up in bed. There was no point in even attempting to sleep anymore now. She was wide awake, and her rampant thoughts wouldn't allow her a moments rest. Her eyes dared to look at the clock. At least she'd been able to get three hours of sleep before the horrible wake up call.

If Lightning couldn't lie when drunk, then that meant everything she was honest. She did feel bad for everything. She did love Fang. She did want to make things better… Fang knew, in the back of her mind, that she was in the wrong. She should never have, in a million years, said what she said to Lightning. 'This is turnin' out to be a bloody soap opera.'

She made her way into the kitchen, trying her hardest to remain quiet so she didn't wake Vanille. The last thing she needed was handling a million questions at a quarter past one in the morning. How would she be able to answer Vanille's questions when she couldn't even answer the ones running through her own head?

After starting a pot of coffee, Fang allowed her forehead to rest against the cabinet right above the machine. She knew she'd have to drink a lot of coffee in order to survive her day. With limited sleep, and nothing but thoughts about Lightning, it was going to make for a very long day for her.

What if she gave Lightning another chance? Things would probably go right back to the way they were before. Fang knew that deep down inside, the detective hadn't changed any. The drunken confession just proved that to her. Things between her and Lightning would be fine for a few weeks, possibly a few months, then Lightning would go right back to insisting that everything was her responsibility, and belittling her job. A job she actually enjoyed.

Sure, Fang's job wasn't a high profile one like Lightning's, but at least it was safe. The odds of Fang being blown up at work were as high as Snow earning a doctorate. Fang chuckled humorlessly at her own thoughts.

Fang poured herself a coffee and walked into the living room. She curled up on the couch and nursed her warm coffee. She didn't risk turning the heater on because she knew it would wake up Vanille. She couldn't risk the questions.

'What was Lightnin' thinkin'?' Fang asked herself. She rubbed her temples and laid her head on the back of the couch. She didn't know what to do. Something in the bottom of her heart was telling her that she should forgive and forget. But her head was telling her to just ignore it all and continue living her life as she was…

Lightning free.

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So what did you guys think of this chapter? And has anyone played FFXIII-2? :)