Musings of Emerald and Silver: a set of 30 drabbles about the One Winged Angel and his flower girl.
By Turtlerad17
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7.
Drabble 1: Watching
He had been watching her for what seemed like forever. Her innocent aura was what first had attracted him. In this dark and polluted city filled with so much crime and corruption her innocence stood out to him among her fellow human beings. Her aura was so bright, like a pink flower among so many scraggly weeds. So he watched her from the shadows, a powerful hunter hidden in the midst of so many hapless sheep that followed the system blindly trying to get ahead in the rat race of life. Few if any ever bothered to raise their heads from their dreary paths of life, too beaten down by the city and having any hope sucked out of them years ago to try and reach for a better existence.
He was not like them.
He had been inquisitive as a child, always wanting to know how something worked, what made things the way they were, was it possible for things to change, and above all, the omnipresent and all encompassing why? He had asked questions, lots of them. But some of those questions had been the wrong ones to ask.
His curiosity had gotten him into more close encounters than he could recall. The adults at the facility that he had grown up in were very good at evading his questions and giving vague and misleading answers. They never tried lying to him for they soon found out that he had an uncanny ability to detect falsehood. So if the adults would not give him his answers, he would go get them himself.
What he had discovered in the dusty archives of the facility opened his eyes to the world. The knowledge that he had gained, if ever discovered that he had it, could easily have lead him having to a "mysterious accident" after which he would never be heard from again. The most startling things he had found had been the files on himself that had described the adult's plan for his future. He was being trained to be an unthinking weapon, a monster.
He would have nothing to do with it.
So in the dead of night he had set fire to the archives and had slipped off into the shadows that came to serve him so well in the coming months. He had become just one predator among many in the bowels of the city, his enhanced abilities and sharp instincts swiftly making him one of the most powerful and feared.
His very name sent shivers down the spines of anyone who had even the slightest involvement in the city's underworld. He not only lived in the shadows, he thrived in them. No one knew where he had come from and they really didn't want to find out. The best tactic that came to dealing with him was to avoid him at all costs.
And then he had seen her.
He had just attained unspoken title of most feared, powerful and dangerous when a flash of color caught his attention from the corner of his eye. He had followed the glimpse of color silently and undetected. When he saw what had caught his attention he was both caught off guard and slightly disappointed. It was a wisp of a girl, just on the verge of womanhood in a cheery pink dress and small red jacket. Her luxurious golden brown hair went just past her shoulders. Despite being stick thin and looking slightly underfed, she was the picture of good health.
It was off that one of her class, judging by the slightly frayed hems of her dress and jacket and often worn look of her clothing, was in such good physical condition. The girl was as weak as a mouse and yet walked through the slums without the slightest feeling of being in danger. She radiated good cheer and her aura just reeked of innocence.
It was almost miraculous that this female had survived so long with her purity intact, unsoiled by this dark and dreary city. Such state of being surely couldn't survive in this place without becoming like the rest of the trudging and miserable masses. As the girl turned to continue on her way, he found himself shadowing her. His curiosity had been aroused by this girl in pink. He followed her home and watched her receive a worried welcome from a woman he assumed was the girl's mother.
The next day he found himself hidden in a nearby alley waiting for her to come out again. He observed her actions throughout the day as she came out of the house with a basket full of flowers and situated herself on a busy corner selling her flowers at a ridiculously cheap price. In the late afternoon as the shadows started growing longer she gathered her belongings and made her way to an abandoned and falling apart church. He didn't follow her into the place, just waited till she came out again as dusk was falling. He once again followed her home and watched her receive another worried welcome from her mother.
The next day he came back and followed her again through the day. He returned the day after and the one after that. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years. He was no longer shadowing her from dawn to dusk, just observing her for about an hour a day at random intervals.
He soon discovered that her bright and innocent appearance was a bit deceptive. There were times when she thought that when no one was looking she leaned back or sat down and sighed, a deep and far away look coming into her eyes. He soon found himself looking more closely at her aura more and more often. Her aura was always as pure and untouched by the dreary city and its inhabitants as the day he first had glimpsed her. It was the soft undertones that told him that different things were lurking below the surface.
He soon discovered what one of those unexpected parts of her was. It seemed that people came to her for more than just flowers. On several occasions he observed the most random of people approach her with some problem or another. She was a surprising fountain of good advice. The sort of things she told such people came from knowledge and wisdom that most people had who were much older and more experienced than this teenaged girl.
Where was this worldly wisdom coming from that the girl had? For once in his life he was truly stumped. She was an enigma and a mystery wrapped up in a pink package of youth and innocence. His confusion became even greater as he discovered even more unexpected abilities that the girl-child had. For not only did she possess uncanny knowledge and wisdom, she also was good at predicting the outcomes of many different events. And no matter how bad the weather was nor the season she always came out with a basket of flowers each morning and always went home with an empty basket. It was when he saw that she had abilities that existed outside the normal limitations human ability was when interest turned into obsession.
It was right before his very eyes, not fifteen feet away from him that he saw the girl heal a bad wound on a stray dog without anything but her own willpower that he began to suspect that she was not entirely human. Indeed, the fact that the girl might not be of like the rest of the hopelessly human inhabitants of the city was a very good explanation for her so far lifelong aura of innocence and other abilities she had.
Now, once again, he was following her practically throughout the entire day. It was so obviously apparent to him now that the girl was anything but normal. She was something special and unexpected in this place of human filth and it surprised him that no one else seemed to see the things about her that he did now that his eyes had been opened.
As he discovered more and more uncanny things about her, obsession slowly turned into the need to possess. Now instead of just merely observing and following her, he began to slowly isolate her from the people around her. Even people that had hardly any sensitivity felt his claim on her and those with malicious intentions were steering clear of her for the first time in her life.
As a result of the cloak of dark warding that he had cast around the unknowing girl, for the first time in her life, her daily life became so much easier and by noon all of her flowers were sold, no matter how she had brought with her. Soon she had to make another trip to her garden in the middle of the day to get another load of flowers that would sell just as quickly as the first batch. Her single midday trips quickly turned into multiple trips, her flowers selling so fast that she hardly arrived on her corner before they were all snatched up.
It was apparent that the girl had no idea what to do about the situation. She was being overwhelmed by the amount of customers she was getting and the number of people that were seeking her advice was increasing as well. She was now stumbling home every day totally spent, her pockets bulging with the day's profits. As her business went up and the number of supplicants seeking her advice increased, dark circles started appearing under her eyes and signs of stress were becoming noticeable on her frame.
As her face became thinner and more haggard, and her movements slower and jerkier he started becoming more worried. He soon determined that she was stretching herself thin between her business and helping the people that came looking for her. So he also started warding off not only those with malicious intentions but also the weak willed as well. The change was immediate and drastic. The number of supplicants for her help as well as the number of customers dropped significantly, closer to the numbers she had before he had staked his claim on her.
Now the only people that came to her were those of strong character and good will. The type of people who easily made friends and attracted the attention of others. Suddenly the people that were coming up to her were becoming much more interested in her than a normal person would have. The number of close acquaintances she had as well as the number of new friends she made went up greatly. Boys in particular were taking a much greater interest in this blossoming woman and they were not interested in being friends.
After the first confidant boy had approached her asking her out on a date, he became insanely jealous. For the first time he started noticing her as a woman rather than a girl. The interest and attention she was attracting from both boys and men did not sit well with him. He frowned, he had never thought about the girl in such terms and now instead of only wanting to claim her for her innocence and otherworldly abilities he wanted to claim her as his woman as well.
His eyes burned with jealousy every time a male approached her and an odd pain clenched his heart at the thought of some other male gaining her attraction other than him. Soon he decided. Soon he would make his presence known to her after all these years and sweep her off into the shadows away from all others. He would hold this special and unique woman mind, heart, body and soul and she would have his. For one such as her deserved nothing but the best and he was it.
She would never see it coming.
I know that I should be working on the next chapter of Pawns of Prophecy, but after reading some of the drabbles on the live journal group 100 situations, I just had to put this down. As the title implies, this will eventually be a set of thirty drabbles on varying topics and prompts. Some of them will be in a continuation of others and some will be distinct and on their own. All of my drabbles will be strictly AS but I may include other secondary shippings as well.
This is how it will work: I want my reviewers to either give me a prompt word to base the theme of the next story off of or a challenge that they would like me to answer. I will pick my favorite from all I receive in my reviews and post a ficlit on that prompt topic or challenge. If I get no challenges or prompts, I will pick a prompt from a random word generator website and will write one about that.
As a side note, I do intend to write a sequel/companion piece to this first one at some point. Just don't know when.
So review and give me some suggestions, I will update faster if I get some ideas from my readers.