A/N: Whoa guys I am so sorry I haven't posted in forever. This story kind of died for me a little. I started college and I had some major writer's block for a while. However I am determined to finish this story! Let me know where you wanna see things go? And if you're still following up to this point, I don't have enough words to tell you how much I appreciate you!3 So here it goes.

Refresher: Claire snatched her head out of her sister's hands and gave her a slight nod, then brushed past her and disappeared down the street.

-The Farron Household-

-One Week Later-

Vanille was sitting on the toilet in the guest bathroom. How had such events occurred that she was considered a guest in her own home? Thoughts of this nature tortured her continuously when she found herself in a moment of silence. Claire had rarely been home, and when the soldier had decided to show her face, it was seen in the most drunken of stupors.
Serah and Fang had made their request rather prevalent that they would not allow Vanille to prolong her stay if she should continue her usage of drugs. However, in the course of a week the young ginger's appearance had not improved to any degree. Her frame was still slender and sickly. The radiance of her eyes and skin tone had not returned, nor had the scars faded from her body with ease as they had previously done. Unbeknownst to Serah and Fang she had no intention of quitting her usage.

Snow's court hearing was in three days, and she had survived a whole week without a single dose of the life-threatening substance, but she could only last so long. Her determination had withered severely upon waking up one day with a nauseating feeling that would not disappear. Claire was of course no where to be found, and Serah had woken her up earlier in the day to tell her that she and Fang would be getting groceries. She had said that they would be gone for several hours, so Vanille had the house to herself. With this newfound privacy should would quench her thirst.

After throwing up several times she walked back out of her bathroom and calmly walked about the house. She examined the bedrooms belonging to her roommates and pretended to search for food she knew she would not eat in the kitchen. When she realized the house was entirely empty she quickly walked back into her bedroom and reached under her mattress for her hidden bag of supplies. Excitement was rushing through her veins as she burst into the bathroom and took a seat on the floor, leaning on the side of the bathtub. In record time she had the tourniquet wrapped tightly around her arm and a fuller-than-normal syringe embedded into her vein.

As the warm liquid spread throughout her body she felt the aches and nausea dissipate almost immediately. She sighed heavily as she slowly injected the rest of the substance inside her body. She assumed that her week of sobriety would require a heavier dose than normal. Several minutes had passed by as she climbed up to that high her body so desperately missed. She had relaxed and had her head leaned back on the tub as she let out another sigh.
Once her mind was at ease she decided it was time to get up. Upon leaning her head forward and opening her eyes though, she saw Claire leaning against her bed directly in front of the open bathroom door. Vanille jumped as she felt her heart palpitate. The woman's face in front of her was stoic and hard. Even though the woman on the floor was aware of her presence her countenance did not indicate so.
Vanille quickly unwrapped the tight rubber chord from her arm and slid the syringe out of her vein and threw it away as she stood up and ran towards her wife.
"Claire.", she begged tugging at the woman's arms. "Please, don't tell anybody. Please?", Vanille had switched her grasp from Lightning's arms to her face, then shoulders, then back to her wrists. The same stoic expression remained on the latter's face as she shook her head quietly.
"Baby, please? Please, I'm sorry.", Vanille had tears pouring from her eyes as she wrapped her arms around the soldier in a tight embrace. This was the first time in a little over a month that the pair had any sort of contact. The unexpected action had caught Claire off guard, and she kept her hands behind her on the edge of the bed. As Vanille shoved her head into the nook of her wife's shoulder she could smell the liquor on her, confirming that she was yet again intoxicated.

"Vanille.", Claire's voice came out rough, as if it had been a very long time since she last spoke. "What the hell are you doing?", she questioned without moving. With this question, Vanille withdrew her arms and placed her hands on either side of her wife by the bed. She looked up at the soldier with her dull wet green eyes.

"Why are you here?", the ginger questioned her in a croaky voice.

"I.. was checking to see if you were home.", Claire admitted somewhat shamefully.

"Why?", Vanille pressed her. Their lips were hovering just inches from each other.

"I wanted to apologize.", she bit her lip for a long while before those words escaped her mouth. Vanille crossed her arms with a stern look on her face and backed away from the soldier. After a few moments of silence the ginger nodded her head urging Claire to continue. "I know I shouldn't have pushed you away the way I did. I'm sorry I left you when you needed me. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough. I'm.. sorry that I kicked you out. This whole time I've understood that it was my fault." At this point the soldier paused. After she took so long acquiring the courage to begin this conversation she had no idea where to end it. Now as she stood in front of her wife, she realized that the long hours she spent rehearsing her speech were wasted, and every point she had meant to bring up was lost.

"That it?", Vanille kept her arms crossed, the same hard look remained on her face for the duration of the apology. She had tears drying on her cheeks, which took away from her attempt at a threatening demeanor. Claire sighed heavily, and ran her fingers through her hair.

"No.", Claire sighed heavily as she bit her lip tightly in an attempt to gather whatever courage she had left. Here we go.

"You left me too Vanille. You abandoned me in the same way I did to you. You cheated on me, and dropped off the map after that. Then, you got the bright idea to start doing heroin? As if I didn't have enough shit on my plate.", she paused here to inhale sharply. Her sudden burst of anger immediately caused Vanille to drop her attitude. Her arms fell to her sides, and for the first time since Claire saw her a week ago her eyes didn't look like empty pits.

"Claire-"

"Not only did I have to fucking deal with getting raped, but then I had to deal with you cheating on me. So I have to go on a mission across the fucking universe, where every day it's at the least 10 degrees below freezing, with the full knowledge that you're not going to be there to welcome me back." Another pause here. Claire was feeling her temper get out of hand as she remembered the woman in the hangar who resembled her wife. She remembered the way her heart beat in her chest, and how her feet glided her towards the woman thinking it was her wife.

"You left out the part where you cheated on me.", Vanille added angrily with a noticeable crack in her voice as she spoke. This action caused the woman in front of her to flex her arms and clench her fists threateningly.

"I also forgot the part where you fucked whoever the hell you wanted for that entire month I was gone.", Claire spoke through clenched teeth as she had a fist full of blanked clutched tightly in her hands. "Don't play this shit with me Vanille. I wanted to make things right between us, but-"

"But what? Now all of a sudden I'm not worth it anymore?" Vanille closed the distance between the two again, breathing heavily. Her green eyes were glistening with tears again.

"That depends.", Claire answered her in a soft voice, although her temper was still rising.

"On?"

"You have to quit.", she answered sternly.

"Quit?"

"Yes Vanille. Quit. As in quit injecting yourself with that fucking shit. Go back to smoking cigarettes, or weed. Hell, start drinking. Anything but this."

"That's not a decision for you to make."

"You're right. It's your decision, but if you don't want to quit, then I can't be with you.", There it was, Vanille felt her heart sink as the ultimatum hit her.

It was between the love of her life and her newfound addiction, and the choice should have been easy. So why the hell was she hesitating? Why couldn't she just let those words of agreement escape her mouth? She knew Claire would be by her side every step of the way if she said okay. The soldier saw her hesitation.

"If you really have to think about it.. You have until tonight. You know where my bedroom is. If you're not there by 11:00, then I'm not going to bother with this anymore.", She was satisfied with her decision, and walked out of the room without another word, and slammed the door behind her.

-The Hallway; The Farron Household-

-Later That Night; 10:59-

Vanille's heart was pounding as she stood outside the door to Claire's bedroom. Her mind was racing. What the hell am I supposed to say? The ginger was thinking to herself for several minutes before her frustration got the better of her. With an angry sigh she reached down to open the door and found the knob slipping between her fingers. The next second Claire's tense body was in the frame.

"Oh..", The soldier jumped as she noticed Vanille standing in front of her.

"Uh, hi. Are you.. Leaving?"

"Oh. No. Not anymore.", Claire's answers came with long pauses in between. "I wasn't expecting you to come.", she added in a soft voice, her anger had completely dissipated from their previous encounter.

"Can I come in?", Vanille asked quietly, unsure of how to continue with her plan. There was no way she could admit that she wasn't so sure about coming either. As she followed her wife into her former bedroom the anxiety in her chest rose. She noticed the sheets in the bed had been changed from the brilliant white to a more dull crimson color, and the memory of Claire barging into the room while she was on top of Yuj flashed in her mind. She felt as though she was walking in slow motion towards the bed as she remembered the curtains blowing around in the wind, and the sound of Claire's fist making contact with the boy's nose.

"Have you been crying?", Claire's voice came out soft as she took a spot on the bed closest to the pillows. She sat Indian-style as she unrelentingly stared at Vanille, waiting for her to do the same. Her stare wasn't a harsh one, but as Vanille's green eyes quickly skimmed over her lovers deep blue ones she couldn't pin point the emotion in them.

"Uhm..", Vanille tucked her hair behind her ear as she sat on the bed in front of her wife. The bed sank in under her weight and she mimicked the Indian-style Claire was sitting in as her eyes flickered across the patterns on the bed. Surely her anxiety was obvious due to her blatant lack of eye contact and the constant fiddling of her fingers. At least she hasn't picked up that I'm high.

"I feel like you didn't come here for the reason I thought you did.", the statement came out as more of a question as Claire's hands fell into her lap. Vanille's heart started pounding harder in her chest.

"I wouldn't have come here if it wasn't for the reason that you thought. I just… I don't know where to start.", Vanille let out a soft chuckle with the last part of the sentence. She wasn't sure why this was so hard, but she hated feeling like a stranger around someone she was so familiar with. Maybe it's cause I'm high out of my mind.

"Well, don't feel pressured or anything, you can.. start wherever you want.", the sound of her voice was so low and hesitant that all of her words blurred together as Vanille heard them. After a few seconds of continuously playing with her fingers and roughly biting at her chapped lips, the orange-haired woman finally looked up at her wife. Claire's eyes were still fixed on hers.

"You told me I have to quit before we can.. Try to fix things right?", Vanille started out confidently, pausing every few seconds to think about the order in which she placed her words.

"Yeah. That's the deal.", Claire replied crossing her arms and leaning her back against the wall.

"Well then I have to be honest with you before anything happens.", Vanille spurted out. The words stung in her eyes as she looked back down at her lap. Calm down. Just a few feet away from her Claire remained silent. "More than anything.. I want to fix things with you. I took the last of it before I came and saw you, and I understand if that changes the deal we were supposed to be making.", she paused here to assess her wife's features, seeing if the new information had caused a change. However, the soldier continued sitting with her legs and arms crossed and an unrelenting stare. Okay, I guess no response is better than getting yelled at. Vanille was thankful for that at least. "I need to clean up though.. I want to be better. I want to be with you.", Vanille was shaking slightly as she spoke, and as she continued staring back at her wife she was finding it impossible to keep her vision straight. There was loud buzzing in her brain as she felt a tear slip down her cheek. After the slurred words spilled out of her mouth Claire continued to stare at her for a while before she spoke.

"I want you to give me that bag you're keeping all your stuff in.", her voice came out more confidently this time. Hard. It resonated through their bedroom with absoluteness, leaving no room for Vanille to argue. "You can get better. Things are just going to take some time.", the strong tone in her voice had disappeared as Vanille felt the weight in the bed shift and noticed her wife scooting closer to her. Her calloused hands gently took Vanille's as their knees touched.

Vanille looked up from her lap into the stormy deep blue eyes of her wife as she noticed it becoming harder and harder to distinguish between the pink in her hair, the blue in her eyes, and the lightness of her skin. Despite the difficulty she was having in keeping everything straight, she saw the same care and compassion that she was once so familiar with for the first time in over a month. However, the vision began fading away from her in slow motion as she found herself slipping off the bed, losing the warm touch of Claire's hands around hers, and falling to the floor with a resounding thud.

Would it really be a part of my story if I didn't have a cliff-hanger at the end of the chapter? Please don't hate me. I'll update soon enough that you won't go crazy knowing what's gonna happen next.

I love you guys! Thanks for reading. Leave a review?3