Author's Note: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong to their respective owners.

Notice: Aww HECK YEAH! THREE THOUSANDS VIEWS AND STILL KICKING IT! And that's all thanks to you, my fellow readers. Without your support I never would have made it this far and Destinies Intertwined would never be what it had become. I'm so happy I could sing! (But I won't) So for all of you who take the time to read this story, here the next chapter for you!

Last chapter…

The Ushumgal Subjugator from before shuddered, and made a dying whir of defiance. Time seemed to slow down, and I looked at it until I saw the glowing targeting circle appear around Light. My eye widening, time returned to normal, and I rushing forward. Instead of beams, bolts of electricity shot down from the heavens, and headed down for the pink-haired soldier. "LIGHTNING!" I shoved her out of the way, and the bolts hit me straight on my back. Electricity coursed through my body, and in less than a second the pain became so great I couldn't even speak. I writhed and jerked in series of muscle spasms, until my body went slack and fell onto the ground. Someone may have been running to me, and I think I heard the word "Deiru!"

Then I closed my eyes and fell into darkness.

xxx

Ch.21 Feelings and Joining

(Point of view change: Lightning)

I watched as Deiru pushed me out of the path of the lightning bolts, and they hit him on his back. He looked in random directions in complete agony, before his eye rolled into his head and fell to the ground. "Deiru!" I screamed. The machine that had caused the attack whirred again, and my blood boiled in rage. I turned to it and hit it with the most savage thunder spell I had ever cast as a l'Cie. It creaked and shuddered before slumping on the ground, dead for real this time. Now it had a taste of its own medicine.

After that I turned to run toward Deiru, turning him over to see what the damned machine had done. There was a hole in the black leather of his trench coat about the size of my hand and fingers, and his skin was almost completely burnt off that part of his back. A very small trail of smoke trailed from the wound, and even though I was touching the wound I could feel the heat from it. "Lightning!" I heard Fang called. She ran over and immediately took Deiru from me, inspecting the wound.

I knew that an injury like that wasn't good, but I had to ask. "How bad is it?" "Not very good," Fang said. "It's a good thing he was wearing that coat, or this could have been a lot worse. As it is, we need to get him somewhere same where we can patch him up. Along with Snow over there." Then Fang added "You should count yourself lucky." I raised an eyebrow and asked "Just how would that be?" Fang pointed at the burn. "Look at this thing. That bolt burnt off all the skin right there and even managed to burn some muscle. That bolt was heading straight for your head, and if it had hit it would have made the same hole in the side of your head. You'd have been dead in seconds."

My eyes widened and I asked "So what are you saying?" "I'm saying," Fang said seriously "That Spiky here just saved your life." I was silent for a moment, looking at Deiru, until I tore my gaze away and saw Snow still lying there. I sighed and nodded. "All right, let's keep going to Hope's place; we can take care of things there. You and Hope take care of Snow. I'll carry Deiru."

Fang nodded and held out her arms. I gently lifted Deiru out of her arms and held him against my chest. His head lay against my arm, and he almost appeared to be sleeping. The thought caused me chuckle humorlessly. He wasn't sleeping. Fang and Snow each lifted Snow up with an arm over their shoulders, and we began to slowly make our way from there to Felix Heights.

We made it to the Estheim residence without any more trouble, and I thanked whatever force of nature that had decided to give us that. Hope walked up to the front door and hesitated for a moment before pressing a button that served as a doorbell. A second later a man that I then guessed was Hope's father stepped out. He was a middle-aged man with short brown hair, a short beard and glasses. He wore a black suit with pants and a gray tie.

The moment he saw his son at his door step, Bartholomew's eyes widened, and he said "Hope!" Hope was silent for a moment, and then he said "Mom's gone." His father blinked and gasped. "You don't mean…" he breathed. "I promise I'll explain later, but right now we need your help. Some of us are injured, and pretty badly," Hope said. It was then that Hope's father noticed all of us, and looked at Snow, who Fang was holding up, and then at Deiru, who I was carrying.

"I see. Well get them inside, they do look like they need help." Hope nodded his thanks and went back to helping Fang move Snow, and I followed after. Inside the Estheim Residence was pretty well furnished, and it looked like a good deal of money had gone into making it. "There is a pair of guest rooms down the hallway over there. Your huge friend can stay in one room while he stays in another," Bartholomew said, nodding at Deiru.

Without waiting I carried Deiru down the hall and shouldered open the first door on my left. Inside was a bed with brown blankets, beige pillows and a small nightstand with a lamp on it. I walked over to the bed and gently placed Deiru on top of it before I turned the lamp on and placed his sword against the nightstand. I turned him over so that he was lying on his stomach and pulled off his coat and the white T-shirt he had on underneath. In the light of the lamp the wound looked even worse than before, and I pulled off my gloves to start working.

My hands glowed with green light and I slowly cast small cure spells of his wound. This wasn't like a simple scratch or broken bone, and I had to be careful. From what I knew, the human body had at three main layers of skin, and they had to be healed from the bottom starting up, along with any muscle that had been injured as well. So I focused my healing abilities into my fingertips and ran them slowly over the muscle in the wound, getting rid of the burnt parts to make way from new muscle to be placed.

After I had taken care of the muscle, I started on the lowest layer of skin on the body, the subcutaneous, and I slowly ran my fingers above it to repair that layer before I started on the middle layer, the dermis, before finally taking care of the final and outermost layer, the epidermis, and making sure that was healed before I finished. The process was simple enough, but I wanted to make sure that it was done right and that there were no mistakes, ending in the process taking more than an hour.

When I finished a took a deep breath and stood, wiping the sweat off my brow. I wasn't the best healer in our group, Hope was, but I did what I could. I sat in chair for a second before rising up and walking out to grab some bandages. I saw through a crack in a door that Hope was talking to his father. Good for him. I walked farther on opened the door to the bathroom, went inside and opened a small cabinet. Inside was a thermometer, a canister of aspirin, and just what I was looking for, a large bag of bandages. Grabbing the box and leaving the bathroom, I walked back to Deiru's room and opened the door.

Without a hole in his back he looked better, but I could see that the injury would leave a mark on his back. There was nothing I could do about that, but I could finish patching him up. But I couldn't wrap his side properly while he was sleeping, so I just had to wait. I pulled up the chair and sat next to his bed, intent on waiting. The room was silent save for Deiru's and my breathing, and the silence gave the ability to think. Or more specifically, about Deiru.

I hadn't known him for a very long, but from our time together I could amass a good deal of information about him. He wasn't from Cocoon or Pulse, but from someplace entirely. He knew who it was that sent him here and why, but it seemed that he was forbidden from telling. But despite that, he had shown to be an honest man, and dedicated to what he believed. He also saw through the pain I had felt when I made the decision to fight the Sanctum, and had come with me and Hope, so that he could be there for me. To catch me when I fell.

On the field of battle, he had also proven to be someone I could trust in a fight as well. He wasn't as strong in a fight as me or Snow, but he was a good strategist and that used his fighting knowledge to help us out of more than a few scrapes. I hadn't trusted him at first, but he had been able to gain my trust both in and out of battle, something few people ever did. And then there were times when one of us felt embarrassed around the other, even though there was never anything to be embarrassed about.

One example was when I realized how foolish my vendetta had been, and Deiru said that he had come so help me get back on my feet. I had done a good job of hiding it, but I was amazed that someone would go to such great lengths to help me and for nothing in return. Then there was when I ever thanked him for something, I could see his face turn red, and he sometimes stuttered his words, which he wouldn't do otherwise.

After that came when Deiru had fallen unconscious to heal me after our fight with a Behemoth, and I was again surprised someone could go to such great lengths and to sacrifice themself. Then there was when I let Fang look at the brand on my chest to see how much time I had left. I had been uncomfortable, but even before my mind thought about that, it had jumped to Deiru and I had glanced over to see him looking. He had ben forcefully staring in another direction, and his face all the way to the tips of ears had been red.

Then came what had only occurred a few hours ago. How Deiru had again sacrificed himself for my wellbeing, and this time he had sustained even greater damage than before. The thought that someone cared for me so much made my heart beat faster.

Wait a minute.

The moment my heart did that I stopped and focused on that, wondering what was going on. Then it hit me. Deiru had done so much for me, cared about me so much, that there was the chance I had started to have hose feeling in return.

There's no way. There isn't any possible way. I can't possibly have feeling for him… can I? I thought. I wanted to stop thinking about it, but my inability to leave things unchecked forced me to consider what would happen if I did have feelings for Deiru. On one hand I could keep these feelings to myself and not let them affect me, him, or the group. But I could almost feel my heart protesting that, and I considered the other option; telling him.

If I told Deiru of these feelings I had for him, could go one of any numerous ways. He could be offended and say that he had never felt such feelings, or he be cold say that they were unnecessary, or he could be nice and put me down easy. The thought of any of the three caused me despair, and I thought about what would happen if he accepted them. Deiru could say that he didn't feel the same way but he would try, he could say he was glad that she found someone and was lucky enough to be that one, he could accept them and respond with feelings of his own.

The last one was probably the least likely, and yet it made my heart beat all the faster. That confirmed it; I did have feelings for Deiru. But would I tell him? Could I? There was the chance he would accept them, but I knew that if I opened myself to him that much only to be rejected it would hurt that much more. And I wasn't even sure if he did feel the same way. I won't tell him until I know, I thought. If he ever shows feelings for me, then I'll tell him. Otherwise, I'll keep these feelings a secret.

xxx

(Point of View change: Deiru)

I floated in darkness, unable to tell where I was or even what had happened to me. The pain from the Ushumgal Subjugator's bolt had knocked me clean unconscious, and with it I lost sense of where I had been. I tried to push through the darkness, find a way to get back to Lightning and the others, but I couldn't, and the part of my back the bolt had it throbbed.

So I had no choice but to stay there, mired in darkness, for a time that I didn't even know. Until, after a while, I felt a cooling sensation on my back. It was too high up and my back for me to see it, but I could feel what was happening. Muscles and skin were being repaired, restored and stitched back together. The process was long and slow, but when it was over the wound and pain in my back had almost completely disappeared, and I was able to think clearly once.

That's when a light shone in the darkness around me. I rushed to it, and for a second the light enveloped me before it faded, and I was standing in a place I recognized. It was a room in Hope's house in Palumpolum. Lightning was sitting in a chair, looking thoroughly exhausted. On a bed next to her was someone, and when I looked at that person I was surprised to find out that it was me. I had heard of this happening, being asleep and see yourself from outside your body, but I had never heard of it happening in real life. Interesting.

I walked over, my dream form making no sound, and I looked at my face from an opposite point of view. Finding nothing different, I looked at myself again and noticed a few things. One was my body no longer had on a coat or shirt, leaving my upper half bare, and my boots and socks had even come off. I was lying face down with my back exposed, and I saw that the wound in my back had been completely healed, save for a circular burn mark about four inches in diameter.

I had a feeling I would be keeping that scar, but the reason I had gotten it I didn't regret. I had been marked for life, but I had also saved Lightning. Then I stopped and thought about that statement. I had sacrificed myself to save Lightning. She had been in danger, and I pushed myself in the path of that bolt and her out of it without a single thought, let alone a second one. But why had I done that?

I looked at Light before slowly gathering my thoughts, and I went over what could be the causes of my actions. It took a while, but I came up with a small number of possibilities. One was I was simply worried about her as a teammate, and that had been simply a more courageous move than usual. I pondered that, until I realized that wasn't right and moved onto the next one. I had just finished my battle against Regnuma, and when I did that I had been too exhausted to think clearly. This was discarded too; I knew exactly what I had been doing.

The third option was I had pushed her out of the way and I thought I was quick enough to dodge the bolt after that, but the theory was thrown away too. No one, not even Lightning, was that fast. Which left me with one other serious option: I had done it because I cared for her.

That reason would explain why I had done it, and why I had been acting so strange ever since I left with her from the Vile Peaks. The fact I had left to be there for her in her pain, times I had been almost too embarrassed to speak whenever she was kind to me, the blood heating up and burning in my face Etro-knows-how-many times. I ran over these thoughts and compared them to my other theories, but over and over again I came to that exact same conclusion. I had actually fallen in love with Claire "Lightning" Farron.

The thought was almost too incredible to be believed, but even asleep I could feel my heart beating in my chest, and I knew it was true. But what do I tell her? Should I tell her? As far as I knew, Lightning would never let down her walls enough to let someone in her heart like that. And even if she did, there was an even smaller chance that she would admit those feelings. I tried to think about what I should do, but I ended up groaning in frustration. All the technical and tactical knowledge in the world wasn't helping me here.

Then my real body shuffled slightly, and I heard myself mutter "Lightning…" I about near bolted back awake when I heard myself say that, but then my attention was drawn to the very person whose name I had spoken. The moment I said it she whipped her head around and looked at my sleeping body, and her face was a faint dusting of pink on her cheeks. Hold on, since when did Lightning blush? That happened about as often as someone walking a trapeze line on a unicycle, that being next to never.

Then she looked got off her chair and walked toward me, and placed a hand on my face, holding me cheek. "Deiru…" she said softly. I was shocked, too shocked, and suddenly everything went black. The opened my eye again, and this time I was seeing through the eye of my real body. The moment I did Lightning's hand jerked back and I wondered what she had been doing. I blinked a few times before I said "Hey, I'm back."

She was silent for a moment before saying "It's good to see you're awake. How are you feeling?" I smiled and tried to sit up, groaning as it stretched the muscles in my back. "Well, now I can claim to know how bugs feel when they touch a UV lamp. But beyond that, I feel pretty good. Was it you that healed me?" I asked. She nodded, and then she picked up a box of bandages off the nightstand. "I still haven't finished. I need you to sit up straight so I can bandage your lower back."

I was about to protest, telling her that it wasn't necessary, but the look in her face left no tone for argument, so I rolled my eyes and swung my legs off the edge of the bed. She came forward and pulled a roll of bandage out, and began wrapping it around my stomach. She took a minute, but when she was done my stomach and lower back were completely wrapped in bandage, and Light used a pair of scissors to cut it away from the rest of the roll.

"Thanks," I said, to which she replied "Don't mention it." We were silent for a moment, until Lightning said "there's something I need to ask you." I looked up and said "Yeah? What?" "Before your Eidolon appeared, you said that you knew our Focus and how our journey ends. Can you tell us?" she asked. I blinked before groaning and putting my head in my hands. Me and my big mouth.

"Lightning, I wish I could tell you that, but the truth is I can't." She was about to say something, so I hurriedly said "It's not that I don't want to, but the one that brought me into this world did so specifically so I can keep things in this world from being destroyed. And if I reveal too much of the truth, then the disaster might be unthinkable. We'll all figure out our Focus eventually, but please don't ask me now."

Light was again silent, contemplating the words I had said, before she said slowly "Then just tell me one thing. Will I ever see Serah again?" I paused, surprised by the question, but I looked at her expression and I saw just how much he question meant to her. I decided that I could at least reveal that much, and said "Your time together will be short, your conversation brief, but yeah, you'll see her again." She gasped, and then slowly she made a small smile and said "Thank you."

Once again my face heated up, only it was worse now that I knew why. "It's nothing, you deserve to know," I told her. Silence fell between us, and neither of us could think of anything to say. Eventually I asked "Can you help me up so I can go to the other room? I want to see Hope's talked-about father live and in the flesh." She nodded, and grabbed my outstretched hand to pull me up. I stood, and I was about to go to the other room when Lighting's help.

Until I took a step forward and tripped on Indomitus, which was leaning against the nightstand.

My eye widened and I said "Whoa!" falling down through the air to the ground. But I still had a grip on Lightning's hand, and with a cry of surprise she fell down too. I landed on the floor and she fell on top of me, and our lips accidently collided against each others.

They moment they did my eye went as wide as a dinner plate, and I could see that Lightning's were too. My face went hotter than a summer in Phoenix, Arizona, but my body refused to move. Eventually Lightning pushed herself off me and stood up, and I did too. "I… I'm sorry," she said, looking anywhere but at me. She said "I'll be going now," and started walking toward the door. Before I knew what I was doing, I reached out and grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Lightning," I said breathed. She looked back at me, and I was stunned. I usually thought the expression "the eyes are windows to the soul" was a load of bull, but at that moment I could see Lightning for all she was and all she ever had been. And none of it turned me away. With the same strength I had used to push her out of the harm's way, I pulled her back towards me and wrapped and arm around her back. "You've done nothing to apologize for," I told her, before gently pressing my lips back onto hers.

She stiffened at the kiss, and I expected her to push me back, punch me in the face, and probably throw me an insult or two. She did none of those things, and instead she relaxed and wrapped her arms her arms around my neck, kissing back. I was in heaven, and my mind had dissolved into a series of fireworks. Every time one of us exhaled, a Roman candle whizzed around in my skull. Whenever I breathed in her scent, roses mixed with cherries, a streamer flew threw and further fizzed away any more of my thoughts. And when our lips moved against one another, a full-on mortar when off in my head.

We stayed that way, lost in each other and enveloped in utter bliss, until our bodies began crying for air and we had to separate. By them more fireworks had gone off in my head than at the Bodhum fireworks display, and went I looked at her face another half-dozen more went off. Her cheeks were a rose pink, her lips a dark red from the kissing, and when she looked at me her pupils were large, every one of her walls completely lowered down.

She had never looked more beautiful.

We wrapped our arms around each other and were about to resume when there was a loud knocking on the door. Lightning yelped in surprise and shoved me back onto the bed, which I feel on with a slight shout of surprise. Lightning hurriedly fixed her hair and tried to straighten her expression, and she said "Come in," although her voice was an octave higher than usual. The door opened and Hope walked in, looking at Lightning and then at me. Luckily he didn't notice our expressions, and said "My dad wants to talk to you all," before backing out and closing the door.

I looked at Light and asked "Should we go?" She didn't say anything for a moment, before saying "Yeah, we should. We can't stay in here forever and keep…" She trailed, too embarrassed to actually say what she had just done. What we had just been doing. I stood up and walked over, standing in front of her and cupping her cheek. Again she didn't push me away, and that gave me the confidence to say what I had been about to admit. "Lightning, I know that you may not feel the same way for me, but I just want you to know…" I looked her straight in the eye. "That I love you Lightning. And I never want to be apart from you."

She gasped and suddenly kissed for a second, before she pulled back and said "Deiru… I love you too." I smiled, one of pure happiness, and she did too. "You know," I commented. "You look more beautiful when you smile. You should do it more often." She smiled again and punched me in the shoulder, not hard enough to hurt but not softly either. "Keep saying things like that and I might change my mind. Now get your shirt and coat on; I'll be waiting out in the hall."

I did a military salute and said "Yes Sergeant Farron," before going to grab my shirt. This earned me another punch to the shoulder, but she smiled and walked out the door, closing it behind her. I hurriedly put my shirt and trench coat back on, before I strapped Indomitus onto my back, glad I had ever gotten the sword. I walked out the door to find Lightning waiting for as promised, and when she saw me she said "Let's go," before walking down the hallway. I walked next to her and I looked over and smiled at her, and she did to me.

Whatever happened, we had each other.

xxx

Aww, how cute for Deiru and Lightning. But moving past the brightly blooming romance between the two, you can guess what came next, primarily one very annoying Havoc Skytank!

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