Loveless

I don’t own this, Square does. 11 Salvation It was quiet in the old house, and dark, as Cid stepped into the foyer. He rested his pike in the entryway, and inhaled deep the breath of a house he thought he’d never see again. He could smell tea brewed not too long ago, and the sharp tang of tobacco. With a start, he realized that he hadn’t lit up a cigarette since right before they ascended the Northern Cave. No one was in the house save himself. With a pang, he worried the knots on his gloves open with his teeth, and hooked his scarf off with his trembling fingers. He piled the flight gear on the kitchen table, and dropped his goggles on the untidy pile. He willed the shakes to piss off, and when they didn’t he busied his hands by raking his fingers through his now-freed hair. It’s so quiet, and so lonely in this big, empty house. Cid looked at his boot-tops a moment, then slowly made his way into the study. Once, he hated to go in there, but now… The big bay window, so empty now, once housed a myriad of plant life. It even was home to a giant tree once a year, one bedecked with garland and tinsel and great glass globes, and atop this tree was a star that his own Gramps had made for Skye, the first year of her life, and the last year of his. That first year Skye was too young to enjoy Yule very much, but the next year…she had shrieked and giggled at all the finery and her presents, and she had fallen asleep beneath the big hoary tree that Cid had felled himself the night before. He glanced at the wall. All the pictures were still there. The first time he held Skye when he had returned from Wutai; that time he took Skye out on the Highwind, before the Shin-Ra had commandeered it; when he took Shera to Costa Del Sol, he had posed for the camera by grinning like an idiot and flipping the camera off; countless other memories hung before his eyes. That was all he had left. Memories. Cid finally addressed the empty house. “For what it’s worth, Shera, I’m sorry. I know I told ya that before I left, but…I wish I could take back those six years we lost. If I was here standin’ in front of that other me from ten years ago, I’d tell him not to be such a fuckin’ asshole.” He fetched a deep sigh. “I never even got to tell ya how much ya mean to me. I…we…ya know I love you. I do, that’s forever—but it ain’t the same. I realized that you’re the reason I fight. You’re the reason I go on livin’ my life, even when there’s nothin’ left.” He buried his face in his hands. “I’d give anything just to see you again. Just once. Just so I could say thank you for all you’ve done...and to beg you to forgive me.” He stood that way for some time, and mourned all that he had lost. “Cid…” He gasped, and whirled around, and saw what he thought he’d never see again. Shera. His mother’s ring winked at him from her left hand. “Shera…I—I saw the most incredible thing. Did you see the Lifestream?” Shera nodded. She had read the Study of Planet Life when she was in engineering school, and she knew the Lifestream was all around them. “It was beautiful.” He nodded, and incredibly, was near tears. “Shera, I—Skyler…I felt Skyler’s presence. She forgave me.” She approached Cid, and embraced his careworn face between her palms. He dropped his head on her shoulder, and she held him close. And whispered his salvation. “I forgive you, too.”