Serah—

In case you ever come back to Academia. (I don't really expect you to.)

Alyssa said a lot of things—most of them weren't true. (You do deserve my protection, even if you'll never know about it.) But she's still in league with Caius. I still can't figure out why. (Boredom mainly. Some twisted way to get to Hope.) Caius wants us separated. He meant to trap us in alternate dimensions where we would have no memory of each other. (You were probably happier there, in a world without me.) Those dimensions still exist. Be careful. Snow might not recognize the trap a second time. Hope is fine. He never really needed a bodyguard. (You knew, didn't you?) He's learned to be a little less trusting. Alyssa may have done him a favor by betraying him. I'm going to Oerba. I expect I'll find some trace of Caius there. I'll leave a message for you if I find anything interesting.(Another letter you'll never read. Soon there'll be hundreds of them…scattered across the crux…useless letters)How's the adventure going? Find all 13 crystals?(Desperate attempt to sound cheery. Really should have taken that out.) Say hello to Snow for me. But not Mog. Kidding. It isn't the same, Serah. Not resolving paradoxes. I miss it.(Not it. You. I couldn't write that. Even if it's true.)

Noel

Noel read over his letter to Serah one last time before sliding it into an envelope and placing it on the desk. Hope would give it to her. If she ever came. His imagination seized on the image of a bedraggled Serah, her face crestfallen as Hope handed her his letter with the simple explanation"he left." The sight pleased him more than it should have. He continued the fantasy for a moment longer, envisioning Serah following him across the crux but always just missing him, sometimes only by minutes. His lips curved in a faint smile and then he blinked the image away. He would see her again. Someday. An inner part of him knew it. His soul, maybe. But his path would cross hers. One more time at least.

Noel gave the letter one last glance and exited the rooms that had been designated as his during his time in Academia 4XX. Between guard duty and not sleeping, he hadn't spent much time in them really. Even the few free moments he'd allowed himself hadn't been spent there. It wasn't so much the place he would miss as the knowledge it was the first place Serah would look for him if/when she ever came looking. He'd miss Hope. The young Academy Director had become a friend despite their utter lack of anything in common, except a desire to save the world, a strained relationship with Snow...and the Farron sisters. He wondered if Hope really would break down and talk to Alyssa once he left. He knew Alyssa was counting on it.

His footsteps echoed shrilly against the polished floors, reverberating against the walls and giving him the impression that someone was following him even though he knew he was alone. Twice he almost looked back over his shoulder. His feet were heavy, heavier than the swords strapped to his back. The corridor stretched ever onward...as if it was getting longer instead of shorter. He had to leave. Even if leaving would sever the only tie he had left to Serah.

His progress through the lower floors of Headquarters was slowed somewhat by the well-wishes of the guards he had trained and the few members of the Academy staff he had gotten to know during his exile. He would miss them. Only briefly. He smiled and waved at all the right times, however. No one, even those who knew him well, would have guessed he was anything but pleased about moving forward in his journey across time. Noel waved one last time, relief coursing through him as he exited into the Academy's reception area.

No one really knew him in here, apart from the receptionist who had fallen more than a bit in love with him and the master monster catcher who had never forgiven him and Serah for surpassing his collection. He had become adept at avoiding both of them, particularly in the last few days when all Adele only managed the feeblest of smiles at his appearance and looked at him with too-sad eyes. Falling into step alongside a group of tourists, Noel slipped past the reception area without attracting the attention of Adele and the monster catcher. He looked back over his shoulder as he reached the doors, just in case she had spotted him(sometimes you really are a jerk, Kreiss)and left the Academy behind.

A misshapen ball of white hurtled into his chest, a familiar red jewel scraping against his chin and his heart thudded dully against the little white being clinging to him.

"Mog?" The moogle sniffed and nodded against his chest, his grip tight.

"Yes, Kupo! I've had a horrific experience, kupo." Several different possibilities came to mind, but Noel opted not to voice any of them. "I was imprisoned in a vault full of Gil, Kupo."

"But you love Gil, Mog."

"It was horrible, kupo!"

The moogle shook against him and Noel unthinkingly patted the creature's head in reassurance.

"I'm getting the impression you might have missed me, Mog."

The moogle twitched against his chest and retreated from him with a flurry of purple wings.

"I didn't miss you, kupo. Things weren't the same, kupo. For Serah, too."

"She's with you?"

His stomach lurched in two different directions at once and then settled. Mog bobbed in the air.

"Talking to Hope, kupo."

For the first time, Noel allowed himself to look beyond the hovering moogle at the courtyard. A familiar slender figure stood talking to Hope, her hands clasped loosely behind her back, her head tilted slightly to the left as she listened to the Academy Director. Noel's stomach moved in opposing directions a second time and then his gaze moved past the talking Serah and Hope to the glowering shape of Snow a few feet away.

Reclining against his motorcycle, Snow's overly-muscled arms were crossed over his chest, his beanie keeping his chocobo blond hair in check. His matching engagement pendant was still missing from his neck. Snow jerked his head in the universal signal for conversation and Noel took a breath.

"Showtime," he muttered and stepped forward. "Stay with Serah," he added as Mog flew forward as if to follow him. Hope looked up as Noel passed, but Noel kept his gaze on Snow. He wouldn't acknowledge her. Not yet. Coming to a halt in front of Snow, Noel resisted the impulse to mimic him and cross his arms in front of his chest as well. Snow's features were unreadable, his gaze hard as it ran along Noel's features without comment.

"Found all thirteen crystals?" Noel asked, one corner of his mouth lifting as if to smile.

"Just two. We've decided to split the remaining eleven. Six for me, five for you and Serah. She said she had to come back. Something about being on the wrong path."

Noel's brows arched and he nodded, refusing to let himself look away from Snow. Snow studied him for several moments and then his arms fell from his chest.

"I thought her path was the same as mine…guess I was wrong."

"Right now it isn't. But it could be again. Someday."

"Right now it's with you. I get that. But I don't like it."

Snow looked him over several times and Noel couldn't help smiling.

"I wouldn't either if I was you."

Snow half-laughed.

"You'll take care of her?"

"Serah can take care of herself."

"Yes…I'm starting to realize that."

Snow's gaze drifted past him to where she stood, still conversing with Hope and his eyes misted over.

"But when she can't, I'll make sure she doesn't come to any harm. You can count on that, Snow."

Unnecessarily Noel made a fist over his heart and Snow's gaze reluctantly returned to him.

"I've always been able to count on you for that, Noel."

Again Snow's gaze assessed him and Noel wondered what it was about him that wasn't measuring up to Snow's standards. He was less muscled, sure, and younger, but neither were things he could entirely help. He could keep Serah safe just as well as Snow could…if not better. Something of his defiance must have shown in his face as Snow's eyes flickered and his mouth curved with a hint of amusement.

"I'd better get going. Crystals to find. Worlds to save. Serah and I agreed to meet back here once we've finished finding the crystals. It's the one time period we can all count on being safe in."

Noel nodded and retreated as Snow straddled his motorcycle and started the engine.

"You're not going to say good-bye?"

"We've said our good-byes already, Noel. You keep her safe. Even if she doesn't want you to. You'll have me to answer to if you don't."

Snow's gaze hardened and Noel nodded. Snow looked over at Serah, raised a hand in farewell and the motorcycle zoomed upward into the sky before it vanished on the horizon.

"I'll keep her safe." Noel said to Snow's vanished image, promising himself as much as Serah's on again off again fiancé. He didn't know if Hope was still talking to Serah nor did he want to find out.

Part of him wanted to prolong this moment, before he turned around, for as long as possible. He'd never really believed she would come back to him. He'd believed he would see her again, one day, but only after time had passed and her desertion of him no longer stung. Knowing she was there, just a few feet behind him, had thrown him into an unexpected state of confusion. Part of him wanted to yell at her for leaving him behind without a second's thought while the other wanted to hold her so tightly she wouldn't even think of leaving him again. She'll leave you for him again someday, his own voice whispered in his mind and Noel acknowledged the truth of it even as he dismissed it. It didn't matter if Serah eventually left him for Snow; he would cherish the time he had with her until that day came. If it ever came. And when it did…maybe…he wouldn't simply stand by and let her go. Not without a fight. Noel turned around.

"Serah! You're back! In time!"

Hope was there beside her before Serah could even start to slide off Snow's motorcycle, his white hair whipping crazily in the aftermath of Snow's descent.

"Nice to see you, too, Hope. In time for what?"

Snow killed the engine and Serah slid to the ground, her hands falling into Hope's outstretched ones. Mog zoomed above her head.

"Noel's leaving Academia 4XX today."

Serah didn't hear another word he said. She nodded and smiled in all the right places as Hope filled her in on his botched assassination attempt, Caius' appearance in Alyssa's cell and Noel's decision to dance to Caius' tune alone, but she heard none of it.

Noel had been…was leaving? Today? Hope seemed certain he hadn't left without his knowledge, but what if he had managed to leave undetected and she had missed him only by moments? Hope knew where he was going so she had a good chance of catching him before he disappeared into a different time period, but…she didn't think she could bear just missing him. She would have hurt Snow for nothing. Worn that stupid dress and put up with the Duke's hideous advances all for nothing if Noel wasn't still here for her to come back to.

Hope's posture altered at the same time that Snow stiffened where he stood, reclining against his motorcycle and when Mog suddenly burst into flight at something behind her, she knew he was there. Relief flooded over her so strongly it was almost overwhelming and she was aware of a slight trembling in her knees. Terror swiftly replaced the relief and she was rooted firmly in place. Hope was still talking to her but she couldn't have made herself turn around even if she had wanted to. Moments stretched into eternities and Hope's mouth started to move in slow motion, his words blurring into sounds that had no meaning. Footsteps thundered behind her, accompanied by the faint hum of Mog's wings and her breath caught. Heat flooded her body as every part of her became aware of him passing just a few feet away from her and then...he kept walking. To Snow.

Something plummeted in her stomach and her insides deflated like a balloon as she watched Noel walk toward Snow. Her gaze devoured the sight of him, as if she was dying of thirst and he was the first drink she found. He hadn't changed. His brown hair was still shaggy, his swords still strapped to his back, his arms still wrapped with cords for reasons she still didn't know and hadn't ever had the courage to ask. He was still Noel.

Her lips curved as if to smile and then her stomach plummeted again. He hadn't looked at her or even acknowledged her. That wasn't like him. Her smile faded and she barely remembered to answer the question Hope asked her. Snow wasn't paying any attention to her either; he was watching Noel as closely as Noel was watching him. Someday she knew the two of them were going to come to blows–over her or something else–she only hoped today wasn't the day.

"Why did you come back, Serah?"

She blinked and looked away from the stand-off between Noel and Snow. Hope's lips curved faintly at the corners, a glimmer of understanding in his eyes that she forced herself to ignore.

"I don't know really."

"Yes, you do." Hope's gaze deliberately slid to where Noel stood, tensely conversing with Snow, before returning to her. Serah prayed she wasn't flushing as she shrugged and replied,

"I have to finish what I started. I was on a mission and I abandoned it because…"

"Snow didn't give you much choice. He never does." Serah glanced at her fiancé at the same moment his gaze drifted to her and affection for the big blond idiot stubbornly swelled within her.

"No. But he means well. Our paths aren't the same right now…that doesn't mean they won't be again someday."

"Maybe sooner than you think. Has it occurred to you that Noel might not want to go back to resolving paradoxes?"

Serah flinched as if he had struck her and her gaze flew to Noel's shaggy brown head.

"No…" She whispered, one hand clenching into a fist at her side while the other clasped the engagement necklace whose weight against her chest had suddenly increased tenfold.

"I can't pretend to know Noel better than you do, Serah, but I have learned a few things about him while he's been here. Every person he's ever cared about has left him…including you."

Serah blinked, trying desperately to get something to come into focus, but all she could see was nothingness. Hope smiled faintly and moved to leave, touching her shoulder as he passed.

"You're also the only one who came back," he added. Serah's surroundings came back into focus and she looked at Hope over her shoulder. He smiled and resumed walking back to Academy Headquarters.

Noel…not want to resume their search for the paradoxes? The possibility had never occurred to her, though she now supposed it should have. She was being just like Snow, assuming Noel wanted to come with her because he had wanted to before. But she had left him. Without a moment of hesitation. She had left him, just like Caius and Yuel had left him, though Yuel hadn't meant to. Hope was wrong—Caius had come back to Noel, too, just not as the friend and mentor he had known before. It would serve her right if Noel kept going wherever it was he was going—Hope had mentioned it but she hadn't heard him. She'd left him without a thought; she shouldn't expect him to do anything else.

Snow's motorcycle revved and Serah's gaze moved to where the two men stood. Noel had retreated a few paces, his posture slightly more relaxed than it had been before. Snow lifted a hand in farewell and zoomed upwards into the sky toward another timeline. Serah stared up at the skyline until even the blip he had once been was no longer visible, unaware of Noel doing the same. With the exception of the uncharacteristically silent Mog hovering somewhere behind her, she was alone with him now. The irritating trembling in her knees resumed and she wished futilely for a pillar or something to steady herself against. She couldn't remember ever being afraid to be alone with Noel before. She was afraid now. She both wanted him to turn around and for him to stay as he was, his back facing her, the familiar winged pattern across it. She didn't know what she would say to him. Sorry didn't seem enough, somehow.

Noel turned around.

Everything else around Serah vanished. Academia was remarkably unpopulated for this time of day, but she could have been surrounded by people and still all she would have seen was Noel. She wondered if she seemed different to him or the same. She never knew how many minutes passed where the two of them just stood, staring at each other. Only a few feet separated them, but it might have been miles, he felt so far away from her. Outwardly there was nothing different about his appearance; his hair was still brown and shaggy, his outfit the same one he had worn through their travels together and yet...there was something closed off about him that hadn't been there before. An invisible wall where once there had been nothing. All because she had left with Snow...without looking back.

Serah took half a step toward him and then retreated, the hand she had raised without knowing it falling uselessly back to her side. Noel's brows arched as his gaze followed the movement but his position didn't alter. Mog hovered between the two of them, his tiny hands clasped together, his expression almost worried.

"I shouldn't have left with Snow, Noel. I'm sorry." Serah dropped his gaze and stared down at the ground.

"I know why you did."

"I shouldn't have left without asking you. I'm sorry." She looked up at him and then dropped his gaze again.

"He's your fiancé, Serah, and he asked you to go on an adventure with him. What were you supposed to do? Say no?" Her gaze flickered to him again and he smiled, the old carefree smile she knew so well, but the emotion didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I was already on an adventure. With you. I shouldn't have abandoned it before it was completed." Something flickered in his eyes and he stepped toward her.

"Why did you come back?" Her mouth opened and closed several times and she shrugged with a carelessness she didn't really feel.

"It was the wrong adventure. When Snow and I were apart...all I could think about was how nice it would be if we could be together...all the time. And then we were together and things were...off. I've spent so little time with Snow, I don't really know how to be around him. He doesn't know how to be around me. I was happy when I was with him, but I always felt like I was supposed to be somewhere else. Doing something else. I missed you." The last came out almost in a whisper and he started in surprise.

"I missed you, too."

"Really?" He nodded and Mog spiraled upwards with a soft "kupo."

"So what's this about five crystals we're supposed to find?"

His smile was genuine, familiar, and he crossed the remaining distance between them. Warmth flooded Serah at his nearness which she ignored as she fished for the piece of paper Snow had given her.

"Snow sat in this trance-like state for maybe thirty minutes. It was kind of creepy. He held the two crystals we already found in each hand and came up with a list of one word clues. I have an idea of where to go for one of them, but he says it just kind of comes to you. I was hoping it might go along with resolving paradoxes somehow."

Noel took the list from her and read it over several times, frowning. Serah shifted her weight from one foot to the other while Mog flew back and forth between them.

"None of it makes any sense to me. Where to?" He handed the list back to her and Serah returned it to one of the mysterious pockets in her clothing that only appeared when she needed one.

"Oerba." He emitted something that sounded something like a laugh.

"Oerba?" She nodded and Noel shook his head, his shoulders shaking even though he still wasn't laughing aloud. "That was where I was headed."

Serah's eyes widened and something inside her stilled. If he had left before she came back and if she had gone on alone...she still would have found him. Noel rubbed the back of his neck and gestured into Academia proper. Serah hesitated and then moved forward, falling into step alongside him just as she always had, but without the old ease. She was uncomfortably ultra-aware of his presence beside her and she briefly longed for the days when being with Noel was as easy as breathing. Stepping onto the arrow paths, she glanced at him and said,

"I heard something about you sleeping here?"

Noel actually flushed, his hand drifting to the back of his neck.

"Hope has a big mouth."

"You didn't really, did you?"

"It was comfortable."

"More comfortable than your bed?"

He shrugged and stepped off the path ahead of her. She was only teasing–he would still know that, wouldn't he? Serah glanced over her shoulder to find Mog and gasped when Noel unexpectedly seized a hold of her elbow. Wordlessly he embraced her, holding her so tightly against him Serah feared his necklace was going to leave an imprint against her skin alongside the one from her own. He smelled the same way she remembered, like wind and grass with a faint whiff of chocobo and something else that was indecipherably Noel.

"Don't leave me again, Serah. Please." She stilled within his arms.

"I won't, Noel. Not if I can help it." She tilted her head back to look at him, startled by the urgency in his eyes.

"You promise?" She blinked while her heart thudded painfully against her chest as she took in his expression.

"I promise."

He stared at her for several moments, his grip tightening around her until he appeared to be satisfied and released her. A sense of emptiness settled over her and she dropped his gaze. This wasn't going exactly as she had expected. She wasn't sure what she had expected him to do. Make some sort of declaration? That was Snow's thing. And when it came to her...she didn't want Noel to be like Snow. Not at all.

"Serah? You coming?"

She looked up and blinked at the sight of his hand, outstretched before her, wrapped with its inexplicable cords. Her gaze moved from his hand to his face and then back again before her fingers moved of their own accord and clasped his. Noel smiled and drew her along after him into the crowds of Academia 4XX. Her arm brushed against his, sending a shiver running all the way down to her toes and she tightened her grip on his fingers.

"Noel?" He looked over at her, a familiar light of affection in his eyes, even if it was slightly dimmer than she remembered.

"You...you wouldn't ever leave me, would you?"

He halted and Mog zoomed several feet in front of them before he realized they had stopped. For several moments Noel simply stared at her while the residents of Academia 4XX bustled past them. One man bumped into Noel, jarring his left shoulder and still his gaze did not leave her.

"No, Serah. I wouldn't leave you. Not if I could help it."

He smiled weakly and moved as if to continue their journey to the gate but she pressed her forehead against his arm and rooted him in place. His muscle tightened and then loosened and his other hand tentatively touched the top of her head. His fingers felt strange and right in her hair at the same time.

"We started resolving paradoxes together. And we'll finish resolving them. Together," Noel said, staring at some distant point over the top of her head.

"Right. Together," Serah repeated, beaming up at him for no reason at all. Noel's fingers fell from her hair and his gaze met hers briefly before he pulled her back into the bustle of the streets.

"Don't forget me, Kupo!" Mog added, buzzing around their heads.

"I couldn't forget you, Piggy Kitty."

"Stop calling me that, Kupo!" Mog zoomed close into Noel's face, halting just inches from his face.

"Piggy Kitty."

Noel poked Mog in the nose. The moogle sputtered and shot upward out of Noel's reach. Serah smiled as a sense of rightness settled over her, a sensation that had been missing ever since she left Noel to go on her adventure with Snow.

I will stay with you, Noel. Until we've resolved all the paradoxes. And after. If you'll let me. She looked up at his profile. A few strands of shaggy brown hair fell over his forehead and his lips twitched occasionally with repressed smiles. It would take some time to repair the damage she had done by leaving him but she would fix it. He was still her Noel and she belonged wherever he was. Whether it was as his friend or maybe someday something more, she wasn't going to leave him again. Ever.

As if aware of her thoughts, Noel looked down at her, his lips curving into the familiar affectionate smile she knew so well. No, definitely not ever. Her path was forever linked with Noel's. Snow would always be her hero but...she didn't need a hero anymore. She had Noel.

A/N: I know it has been months and months since I updated this. I never meant to let it go this long. It sat for a long time in a state of almost being finished. I apologize for the wait and sincerely hope those of you who enjoyed reading it up to this point read the conclusion. I lost a family member shortly before Christmas and it took a long time for things to get back to anything resembling normal. I apologize for not really putting them together. I'm afraid many of you will be disappointed I didn't, but the way I see Noel, I don't see him there yet. I don't think romance was ever really on his radar screen and while he knows Serah is more than a friend to him, he's not ready to act on it. Thank you to everyone who read and wrote reviews! They've helped me so much during my writing slumps over the past year. I haven't forgotten about a sequel to Not My Serah either. I hope I can still write it. Preferably before Lightning Returns is released and ruins everything. But here is your conclusion at last and thank you again so much for reading!