soggypastry | 030 [Action for Olivine Pokemon Center/Text]

[She doesn't think anything of it, at first. There's another three day hole in her memory and she assumes that he's just out of the city or dealing with something. It's happened before and she knows he'll call sooner or later. But when the call doesn't come, even after noon has come and gone, Lightning begins to worry. She tries to call his gear, but there's no answer other than what she's feared the most ever since people started to disappear on her. That cold, robotic tone telling her that he is gone and she wasn't even there when he disappeared.

That well known sentence that leaves no question he won't be answering her again, and he may not even remember her and everything they are. Still, she doesn't cry. Not even when Strike and Lucky pad into her room, Leon's bag in Strike's paws before she gives it to Lightning and goes to Sen, curling into his embrace as Lucky whines, putting her head on Lightning's lap as the woman digs into Leon's bag and comes out with his coat and a letter that she reads once, twice, three times over before it finally sinks in. Now she cries, one broken sounding sob that shouldn't come from a woman who is normally so strong, but when her world has just been rocked upside down...she's not sure what else to do.

Not sure what else she can do but slowly get out of bed and sit with her arms around Lucky, quietly ignoring the world around them for a long time. Those that come into her room will find her like that, Leon's jacket draped around her shoulders and Lucky's head in her lap. She's not likely to move anytime soon, either.]

Leon's gone. He said to tell you he was sorry.

[Private text to: Ventus]
Can you come by for a minute? I need your help with something.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Like I said, we're better off being here. Nine months of memories is better than never remembering anything about it.

[Foe Yay is a thing, but...well. It's easier to fall in love with someone who isn't trying to kill you at every turn.]

There is also always the chance that he might return, though that can take some time.

[...Not that memories are always part of that particular package. Still no chance of Foe Yay, at least.]

Not that it'll matter if he doesn't remember me if he comes back. I'm not sure I could convince him relationships we build here are worth fighting for a second time.

[Being that the first time ended up with her punching him twice and a whole lot of yelling and pressing on raw nerves. It's not something she'd like to have to do all over again, no matter how much she loves him.]

If anyone can knock some desperately needed sense into a man, it's you.

[Though he could understand why she would not want to do it again.]

Before or after I have to break his nose? Just talking never seems to work.

[And violence never solves anything, either.]

...Tie him down and force him to listen until you are done speaking, so that he may make a completely informed decision, at least.

[Because the possibility that he might not fall for her again does exist, even if that would be a shame.]

Cecil, you know Leon. How well do you honestly think something like that would work? If he doesn't want to listen, I could be holding his family at gunpoint and he still wouldn't.

[It's the truth; Leon is the most stubborn man this side of Pulse and they know it. Look how long it took to get their relationship going this time around?]

...Chances are he'll refuse to listen. Chances are he'll refuse to even consider it. But you should still try.

[He's not the only stubborn person there, after all.]

I never said I wouldn't try. I'm just telling you it's probably not going to work.

[Because when stubborn meets stubborn it's a head on collision on a one way street. Never ends well.]

...If it does not work at first, it might still work with time.

[Don't give up, get your man! But that would be a very undignified thing to say.]

If we have that time. It took nearly four months to bring him around to the idea the first time. People have disappeared in less than that.

[Very undignified. But she'll try anyway! She makes the impossible possible! ...even if she has to break his nose to do it.]

And others have stayed six times as long. The odds are bad, but I think it'd be worth it.

[...Waste of a perfectly fine nose.]

You're probably right. But I'm not sure if I could get through having to do it again.

[And there it is; for all her strength, Lightning is not good at living through emotional loss. If Leon comes back and leaves again...well. It won't be pretty, and the waste of his fine nose would be the least of their issues.]

...If you start thinking like that, what's the point of befriending our fellow trainers?

[What's the point of befriending even their fellow warriors of Cosmos, even? They all already know the wound is coming, no matter who gets it.]

Because losing a friend hurts, but not as badly as losing the person you loved.

[It's a different kind of wound. Yes, she loves her friends and it will hurt to lose them, but it's not the same. Those wounds eventually scab over. This? Will be a weeping wound for quite some time.]

...Since you do not have the certainty of returning home to him, it makes sense that you'd see it that way.

[It's small things like this that remind him that he's comparatively very lucky.]

I never had that option to begin with, Cecil. We're not from the same world.

[He has Rosa and Kain and everyone else waiting for him at home. Lightning...she has her family there, sure, but Leon? That was the issue with falling for someone from another world.]

I wonder if that can be changed? ...I wonder if we'd wish to change it, even if it could.

[Because abandoning your whole world would be a very difficult choice, even for love.]

I don't think anyone knows. Not before you've weighed all your other options.

[It's one of the hardest choices she'd know. On the one hand, Leon and a fresh start. On the other, comforting familiarity and her family. She can't abandon them but the idea of living without him is still hard to wrap her head around. With time, it'll get easier, but right now...if the option came she may just make the leap. Maybe.]

And even then, we'd undoubtedly find ourselves hesitating until the last possible moment.

[Or so he says, but if it came down to it he's already made up his mind.]

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