Jan. 31st

It had been one of those weeks that she just wanted to drop her fake smiles and let everyone know she wasn't doing okay. But still her smile remained, an uplift to some and noone knew what she was going through otherwise. She wasn't as strong as her sister thought she was. As strong as she was pushed to be. And if she was she didn't feel it then and there. She tried drinking away everything.

Taking a booth in the inn with her Guinness and a bottle of whiskey she listened to the ongoings while not actually participating in anything. She was in a near drunk stupor and happily so when Arthour approached her booth.

"Serah? I need to talk to you"

He was greeted with a yawn of sorts and she blinked over to him. "Huh? Oh..sure? Take a seat?"

He took a seat. And peered at Serah for a few moments. "Okay. First things first, whats up?"

"Just a really crappy week." Folding her arms she settled her chin on top of them. "What is it you need to talk to me about, Arthour?"

"Ah....Erm...Well. I think it's about to get worse" He replied with a sigh. "Have you seen Claire recently?"

She shook her head. "It has been a few months. She barely has even talked to me on the phone let alone seen me in person." Okay yeah instant depression there. "I think she is avoiding me again or something. Plus she has been busy with her duels and her life with Noctis. She just.." Her voice dropped a little, "Doesn't have time for me." It clicked..a little late though. Frowning she eyed Arthour. "Did something happen to her?"

"No, Serah...." He replied shaking his head slightly "Thats not it....She...When did you last see her? Two months ago, or longer?"

"Seen her. Face to face? November? Longer. I don't remember. It has been really long time." Sitting up she lowered her arms and frowned at him. "It isn't like I haven't tried to if that is what you are going to say."

"She thinks you died before the pair of you arrived in Rhy'din"

She wasn't even sure how to address that statement. "What?"

Wincing, that made that clear. He was going to have a long, long conversation with Zack, and maybe even Noctis "Last time I talked to Claire in the duels, she said you were dead. I'd been gone a month or so, didn't know if it had happened recently...When I asked her, she said you'd died ages ago. I think...She's been having these nightmares...She hasn't slept in two months, she might be getting confused..." He totally had meant to go back to Lucy, but....

She was pissed. Royally. The subject? Noctis. Why hadn't he told her?! Why hadn't he even tried to contact her? Why the HELL was she finding this out from a third party? Her lips quivered and pursed into a thin like, her expression as if she were about to fall into tears. She didn't even know what to do with the information but it damn well hurt, that much she knew.

Understandable. "Serah...I'm..Sorry, you shouldn't...I shouldn't have been the one telling you, but someone mentioned you to Claire a few hours ago and it damned near had her in tears. I had to convince her they meant a different Serah, or it was the Nexus messing things around...You needed to know before someone else brought it up....I'd thought..Zack, or even Noctis had told you by now.."

"Thanks Arthour." She scooted to the edge of the booth. "Maybe it is better to leave her thinking I am dead." It wouldn't be too hard to change her name and hair. She was trying not to cry but damn if the tears were not riding on her lashes.

"No." He leaned forwards, placing a hand on the table: "What in heavens makes you think that would be a good idea, at all? She was practically distraught at the mention of your name, Serah. It's tearing her apart. People telling her you're alive, when she's convinced your dead? She thinks she''s gone mad. Completely lost it" Arthour frowned, looking at Serah critically.

"It is that very reason she is distraught, Arthour! People are telling her I am alive. I shouldn't be. And in time I won't be. It will save her for having to face that reality in the long run." Her head snapped to face him. "Besides she's already forgotten I exist! Telling or her trying to convince her otherwise will only hurt her more! Just ..let her think I am a ghost or something. Just.." Her lips trembled, "let it be."

He tapped a finger on the table slightly, continuing to frown. The gears turned in his mind, and eventually, his face softened, and he shook his head gently. "What do you mean, you shouldn't be?"

"I don't want to talk about it Arthour. It won't matter. Few months probably past summer I'll be gone. She has Noctis who apparently doesn't think I need to be involved so he will help her figure things out. As long as she has him," she didn't finish her sentence.

He shook his head softly. "I don't really care what Noctis thinks, nor if Claire figure's things out. Honestly? Kind of don't care you don't want to talk about it, Serah. You don't tell a friend to let their sister think their dead with out explaining. I'm sorry Serah, but I'm not letting this drop. Because, funnily enough, despite what you say? It does matter and it will matter." He rubbed the tip of his nose slightly, before carrying on. "You, are a friend. That, and the fact you're hurting, is all that matters, really."

Her hands curled like she was about to punch Arthour and she was so tempted. Right in the face. "You have no idea how much I am hurting. How long I have been hurting." Her hands relaxed then curled back up. "She thinks I am dead for how long now? How changing that any better, Arthour? Me going to her might only make her worse. Hell it has made it worse from what it sounds like." She grabbed her coat and started for the door.

He wouldn't stop her hitting him, certainly wouldn't stop her leaving. Would he follow her to the door? Damn right. Slipping out from the booth, he did follow. "Why does she think it, though Serah? And what makes you so certain you're going to be gone in the summer?" He asked after her, following at a slower pace.

Persistent wasn't he? "Because she was stolen from our world I was more or less dead. At least to her I was." She stopped short of the door and turned to face him. "Because I am dying, Arthour. Okay? Is that what you want to hear?"

"Not particularly, no, But it is what I expected" Persistent doesn't cover the half of it. He gestured to the front door "Lets step outside."

He just kept on pushing and she was likely to break but she didn't say anything against it. Instead she stepped outside while slipping on her coat.

Better she broke in private, then in front of everyone, no? He stepped outside behind Serah, watching her

Stopping on the porch she swung around to stare at Arthour. "What do you want Arthour?"

"What do I want? I want a lot of things" He replied with a little shrug "Right now, I kinda want Claire to stop looking like she's a minuet away from dropping dead on her feet, you to stop looking like you're about to burst into tears, and frankly for you to tell me whats going on. What's really, going on." Arthour said, looking at her still, before peering up at the sky "I'm a stubborn, old, idiotic man, Serah. But I'm also an idealist"

"I haven't the damnest clue what is going on with her Arthour. She never talks to me! Hell the people at the duels see her more than I do!" The coat was pulled close. "Knowing isn't going to do you any good Arthour. You can't do anything about it. Nobody can. It was ..it is just my fate."

"We're all Fated to die, we're not all Destined to die the way we think" He retorted "You're talking to a man that spent sixty years trying to stop a cataclysm from finishing and spat in the face of the Kai'Thee'um. I am not, going to accept that because it's your fate, that means it's a closed case" Did he mention he's also quite arrogant?

She was about to smack that down right flat. "When you have seen your own death? When you see the fate of a world you were born into. Visions, Arthour. That is what is killing me." She swallowed her words and watched the limping fella heading on in. Normally she would of offered some assistance or asked if he was okay. Right now? She just wanted to run away. Run away far.

He paused for a few moments. True, he'd not had a vision of his homeland being ripped apart, but he had lived through it.. Arthour rubbed the tip of his nose slightly "What do you expect, Serah? That I'll just shrug, say it was nice knowing you and walk away? Destiny plays a part in everything. I'll be damned if I don't even *try* and help" He said after a moment, moving towards the railing to lean on it and look out at the sky again "I'm not accustomed to just letting people die, you know? Kinda goes against, well...Everything." He spun on the heel of his boot to look at Serah once again.

"Like I said. I shouldn't be alive." She smiled faintly to him. "I do understand what you are saying. I do. But for Claire just don't push it okay? It could make her worse and I don't want that. I really don't. And there isn't anything really that can be done for me." She shook her head and took out her phone. "Can you give me a sec? I need to make a call." She didn't wait for him to answer. Instead she moved off to the side of the porch to make said call.

He sighed softly, nodding, moving to lean against the porch railing once again. If nothing else, his own nature was at fault here really. He couldn't leave well enough alone, not when he thought he could help....That, perhaps, was his only redeeming feature. That he tried to help people.

When she came back it seemed Arthour had fallen asleep so she used that moment to slip off the porch and head home to think. She didn't like what she had heard and she felt so absolutely helpless. At the same time it left her with question that hit far too deep to her core. Was she nothing but a ghost? Was she from a paralleled world? Was she a mistake that time was fixing?