Disclaimer: I thought I would go back and write a drabble to jog my mind so that I would be able to go back into the groove of writing once again. That is how Chronicles began and how it helped. So let's see if it can still give me the drive I need.

NOTICE: These drabbles contain Lightis and some other couples depending on the story, and are in no particular order, nor do they tell a specific tale of just one story. Some of the drabbles might have a second part in later chapters, and if readers become fond of a certain drabble story, that drabble might have the chance to become a new full story.

CHRONICLES

Chapter L: A Step Back

Rating: T

Genre: Romance, Friendship

Characters: Lightning, Noctis

Pair: Lightis

Notes: If life gets hectic and your mind begins running with too many thoughts, sometimes it is best to just take a step back.

CAUTION: Part of the "My Cat and I" arc.


Lightning stared blankly at the television in front of her. It was not even on but her mind was not set on watching anything anyway, and her eyes were not even seeing anything. She allowed her thoughts to wander despite how weary she felt. Lightning wanted nothing more than to go the sleep and regain some of her lost energy, but her thoughts would not let her be.

A pair of strong arms embraced Lightning's shoulders and she relaxed slightly. She shivered when his hot breath blew into her ear.

"Hungry? I can make us dinner." Noctis offered, sensing his partner's distress. Lightning shook her head and leaned back against the couch. The dark-haired man buried his face on the top of her head and sighed while he moved his hands stroked the woman's shoulders gently; he could feel the tenseness of her body.

Lightning's keen senses alerted her of Noctis' worry over her health so she leaned her head back and stared up at him. "Stop fussing. I am just a little sleepy."

Noctis frowned and took a seat beside her on the couch. He stroked Lightning's hair like he usually would stroke her fur when she was in her true form.
Lightning did not protest and allowed herself to indulge in the strokes and soothing hands of her human partner. She purred, revealing a bit of her true nature. Noctis chuckled at the cat sounds coming out from the supposedly human woman beside him.

"Relax Lightning. We're home now so just cut loose," Noctis whispered in her ear. Hearing those words made her feel relieved and without a moment's hesitation, her human façade was gone and instantly replaced with her true feline body.

The white cat collapsed onto her human's lap, finally showing her apparent exhaustion. Noctis hated it when Lightning overexerted herself; he knew that she was strong, durable, independent—what cat wasn't?—and determined. But there were times when he wished she did not spend her energy too much to the point that she would collapse. But for now he was just thankful that she managed to wait out long enough until they were home where she could drop comfortably.

His white feline companion's body moved up and down with every breath she took in her sleep. Noctis continued to stroke her fur gently, caressing the soft and smooth white coat that covered his beloved feline companion's body.

Lightning's black left paw was stretched out lazily while her right paw, which was as white as the rest of her, was fold up against her chest. Obviously she was too tired to even lie down properly like she usually does. Noctis thought back to the moment that forced the both of them to expend their energy into the entire fight; Lightning had been wounded but she'd recover faster than any normal cat or any normal animal for that matter.
Despite this advantage, Noctis refused to let her go on anymore in her condition. Still, ever the loyal guardian, Lightning continued to fight by his side until he was sure she would fall to her knees. He was still surprised she managed to stay on her feet this whole time or even stay awake after the entire ordeal.

Noctis thought back to their opponent. The man they had gone up against was someone of importance, yet his black heart and corrupted soul was possessed by an entity as cruel as its host. Despite wishing he could have saved the man, Noctis knew he was beyond saving when he saw just how at home the host was with his evil spirit of a parasite.

It made no sense at first as to why he was possessed by such a being until Lightning brought it all into the light; the man was a business tycoon but a ruthless one. He seemed to be impossibly smart, sometimes beyond the level of a genius. His ruthlessness was what attracted the entity to him, and that same entity was what allowed him to have it all a hundredfold. But like all beings of darkness, this one had to go, but its host was not going to part with his out worldly business partner.

Lightning had taken extra pains in making sure Noctis was unharmed and in making sure she landed painful blows to the enemy. It hurt Noctis just as much to see Lightning—both her human and her feline form—spend so much of her power on that one battle. It had been nothing too drastic but the feline had been working and training nonstop to the point that it concerned Noctis.

Of course Lightning was stubborn and argued with him about it. But when she did admit she was tired, she did not let on just how tired she truly was.

Maintaining and shifting into human form was the same as breathing for Lightning; she did not exert or spend any of her energy when shifting between her human and cat form and unlike the way superstitions depicted 'werecats'—which Lightning assured him she was not—Lightning's transformation happens within a blink of an eye. An assurance that whoever saw her would think they were merely seeing things.

Lightning twitched underneath Noctis' hand and he looked down at her. The feline was glancing up at him, her blue eyes seemed distant. "Something wrong, furball?" Noctis asked lightheartedly, playfully tapping the cat's pink nose with the tip of his index finger.

The cat stretched her legs and claws out, opening her mouth wide and showing her sharp fangs as she yawned. She tried to stand but her body felt too spent to even do just that. Cursing under her breath, Lightning settled for facing Noctis in her current position on his lap. She hoped he would take her seriously because she was trying to look serious, not cuddly.
"Sorry." Lightning said in a low tone but Noctis heard her. He raised an eyebrow at her. "For what? You're the one who's dead tired." He stroked that special spot behind the cat's ear, making her purr.

Lightning pushed his hand away with her black paw. "I meant sorry for…turning your life upside down too much."

Her words surprised Noctis and he stared at her in disbelief. Before he could say anything, the cat leaned up and pressed her paw against his mouth. If the situation had not been serious, Noctis would have chuckled at how soft her paw was.

"Why would you be sorry? I haven't had this much fun before!" Noctis tried to reassure his feline companion with a smile but Lightning seemed to frown. The cat tried to stand again but her exhausted body still refused to listen to her. The cat growled before replying, "I know how much you wish you could just be a regular human…but your family's line holds the blood of those who have a certain duty and must harbor a guardian animal. Your father told me that when I was very young, before you and I met. But I knew that he was telling me about the duties the Caelum had many decades ago…" Lightning trailed off, unsure how she wanted to continue but she knew she could not just stop there.

"I have noticed how you would look at other humans; humans who live their life normally unlike you because of what you have to do, and also because they don't have a talking pet. Believe me, I am sorry for…making life complicated. I hate seeing you upset, no matter what the reason; it is my nature to feel concerned over the human I have to protect, but…it's also because…I know that I messed everything up." Lightning confessed, finally removing her paw from her companion's lips and letting her body lie flat until she looked like a thick white rolled up towel.

Noctis shook his head. "Where is this coming from? I was in high school when I said that, Light. But I never meant it; I was just angry—" "And with good reason," Lightning interrupted, "I have been with you for a long time now Noctis, and I like to believe I know you better than anyone. I know you still feel that way. I have seen how a normal human life looks like, and I don't blame you for wishing you had that. It does seem relaxing to just lie back for a whole day once in a while, but what do I know? I am not a normal cat that likes to lie around the house. I am practically a wild animal."

"No, you're not!" Noctis insisted, "Listen Lightning, I don't know why you suddenly feel like I would want to trade the life I have now for normalcy. Sure there are times when I wish I could take a long vacation from all the supernatural and whatnot, but that never meant I want to change my life."

The cat stared into his eyes, gazing into his very soul in order to search for the truth. "Is that so? In the very back of your mind you know you wish you could just live a life with a normal job with normal friends along with those three stooges you hang out with."
Noctis stroked her back gently and savored the feeling of the smooth fur. "I wish you would stop blaming yourself for everything. When I was in high school I didn't understand completely why Dad sent you to me or why I was a part of a bloodline that had some sort of duty; I was a kid. I was selfish and I only wanted to have fun. That is what every kid experiences once they are teenagers, but when you never came home…I thought I scared off my best friend permanently." Noctis lifted Lightning up to his chest and carefully hugged the exhausted cat.

"The more we went through, the more I understood why Dad loved Fenrir so much and why they went everywhere together. At first I was upset that my father would rather come and go instead of stay home for good, I was disappointed that he could only take Fenrir but not me as well even though I knew he wanted to. I never even knew why Fenrir would stick to my dad's hip at all times…" The Caelum paused for a moment to pull Lightning away from his chest in order to look at her blue feline eyes. "I finally got my answers while you and I grew up. Dad went through the same thing with Fenrir and I knew that he would never leave that old dog behind. So because of that…I realized won't ever want to leave my grumpy little tiger behind."

Lightning snorted in response. However this made Noctis all the more curious. "What made you doubt anyway? This whole thing just came of the blue." "It wasn't out of the blue." The cat growled, "I have been noticing how much you watch the humans lately. The humans who don't have to worry about the so-called fictional elements they thought only existed in books."

"Did you think that just because I wondered what it would have been like to be normal, I would just…give all this, give you up?" Noctis was not sure why his loyal companion suddenly felt like beating herself up over something he sometimes imagined about having. Noctis admitted that he wondered what a normal life would be like, but he already had that with Lightning when nothing was trying to destroy the city or murder people.

He also knew that Lightning lived for others and not for herself; she did not know it but she was caring and selfless despite how harsh and stoic, and intimidating she seemed.

Noctis knew Lightning was saying all this out of her instinctual desire to serve him until her very last breath, but sometimes he wished that she could see that he did not want to trade this life he had now. Lightning was too important to him and it would feel lonely without her there to retort at him or bat at his face whenever he tried to sleep in, or to fight with him over the last piece of sushi.

Lightning may be good at observing, but Noctis had observed her as well. Lightning was stubborn, determined, concentrated, and independent. She was also loyal and foolhardy; willing to leap into harm's way just to ensure his safety at the cost of her own.
Though there were also times when Noctis would see her eyes lose their shine when she thought he was not looking. He knew Lightning was lonely; she had admitted that old Fenrir spoke to her and told her of how her mother died right after she had been born, along with a younger sister that lived somewhere in the world with a normal but loving family.

Lightning had learned to embrace her duty and her training as a way to distract her from the painful emptiness.

Cats were known to just come and go whenever they liked and most cats did not need human affection unless it was in their breed's genetics to do so. But Lightning was not an ordinary cat. She had a secret gentle heart that had been kept hidden underneath a stand-offish mask and fierce claws and fangs—the result of an orphaned newborn kitten who wanted to forget the pain and loneliness.

"Look, you're still tired," Noctis said as he placed the cat back down on his lap, "Just try to get some sleep okay? I won't be going anywhere, and neither will you." He scratched under her chin until she relaxed and began closing her eyes despite her protests. When the cat out cold, Noctis gently lifted her up and retreated into his bedroom where he placed his longtime friend on one of the pillows.

He lied down as well, staring at the sleeping feline. He felt bad for making her give in to sleep when she obviously wanted to say more, but she was too tired to do much. He would allow her to continue this conversation once she awakens and recovers.

Whoever made her think the way she did would be getting a black eye once he got a name from Lightning but for now, it was best if he went to sleep as well; Lightning was not the only one who had exerted a lot of effort into the last battle.
Yawning, Noctis placed a gentle hand on the cat's side in a reassuring gesture he knew she secretly appreciated. He smiled at her when she twitched in her sleep and closed his eyes, letting his thoughts fade into dreams.

As soon as he was asleep, Lightning opened one eye and sighed. She placed her only black paw on his cheek and went back to sleep.


It has been forever since I updated Chronicles. I had been so busy with finals (which are now done with) that I could hardly concentrate on these fics. I decided to write for Chronicles first so it would reawaken my writing drive and urge.

As always, pick your favorite story arc and we'll see which one comes on top and be written as the new story once Sanctuaire ends. Speaking of which, I am currently writing the new chapter for Sanctuaire as I upload this chapter.

Hope you enjoyed this little piece of drabble. See you guys soon in the next chapter I make.

Until then…