Here it is. The end of our journey! It's been a blast writing this, and i just want to say thanks to all you guys who've stuck by me! Thanks for all the reviews and cheerful words!
Enjoy
He's not the same.
Of course he's not. He never will be, but Finn had watched with sadness in his eyes and all his friends expected him to immediately bounce back when he just couldn't. He was a lot quieter, and a lot more feeble when he talked. He still talked with authority, but there was a missing edge that he had before. His physical rehabilitation had been a walk in the park compared to his psychological help, but they hadn't given up. They never would.
And he was doing better, able to carry on a full conversation without stuttering and finally cleared by his psychologist to drive again when he relapsed.
It had been an honest mistake, and no one had known it was a trigger.
Someone had lit a match.
They had called Finn almost immediately. He was the only one Lightning would relax fully around. He had been there the first night and the night after that... and the night after that. When he had found him, he was hiding underneath a table and Flo's shaking and crying. Finn had slowly slid up and held him. After about and hour of whispering soothing things in his ear, Lightning managed to calm himself down enough to escape to his cozy cone, where he locked himself in for two days.
But it had been months since his last relapse, and the sunset looked beautiful today.
Finn sat down next to him on the edge of the cliff and let his feet dangle. He handed Lightning his coffee and stared at the disappearing sun. He knew his companions' eyes were glaring at the bottom of the trench. He knew Lightning was feeling the urge again.
It didn't happen often, but sometimes he would stare and a knife, or a cliff, or even at a tree while driving his car and think 'I could just do it'. It would be quick and mostly painless. But even when his fingers began to itch for the knife, Finn was there to distract him with some tale of how he had once had to dye a tiger green for a disguise. He had always been there for him, but Lightning had never really, truly opened up.
"Loviatar killed Tamalia."
Finn didn't say anything. In his original story, Tamalia had hit her mother over the head and then stabbed herself in grief. Finn had known he was lying from the start, but had decided to wai instead of saying anything. He knew he would open up when he was ready.
"I killed Loviatar."
And then it all made sense. Why this affected him so deeply. He killed someone. No matter how bad the woman was, he had taken someone's life.
"I'm sorry you had to do that." Finn said quietly, "But I'm glad it was her and not you."
Lightning didn't reply. Finn sipped at his coffee and watched the sunset.
It looked like fire.