Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VI

Hi everyone! It's been a minute. So, I've rearranged this series and edited them to catch typos/mistakes/just plain ol' bad writing, and here we are! Welcome to the new beginning!

Enjoy!

006. Soft

He hadn't been back to Thamasa in a long time. Eight and a half years, to be precise. Eight and a half years ago, when he'd left Thamasa and his name and his family and his hopes and dreams and heart behind. He never thought of that time, and he vowed to himself that he'd never come back. But circumstances change and here he was, Shadow, the cut-throat assassin who'd 'slit his mama's throat for a nickel', sitting in the bar of Thamasa he used to frequent.

The carpet was still precisely the same. Dark green, old, and very slightly sticky around the bar. The whitewashed walls even now were tinged yellow with tobacco; the paintings all across the walls shabbily framed, hiding the stained walls. Those paintings used to be Ruby's; paintings of landscapes they'd been to together, or places they'd imagined. Now they'd been replaced; fruit bowls and people and buildings littered the sticky, stained walls. Whoever painted them was skilled, he acknowledged, but they weren't the same. Some things about this old bar had changed, just as the paintings had. The seat he sat on was new - taller, with a cushion of red velvet. No, a cheap imitation of velvet. There were lines on the barmaid's face that hadn't been there before, and a different man was by her side.

Shadow took his drink in his hand again - a pint of Thamasa's own draft beer - and drank just a little. Tonight, he felt miserable. As though the moment he stepped back into the town, that rotten corpse of a heart he'd left behind had given a few, spluttering, feeble beats.

No. This wasn't him. This wasn't who he was anymore. It took years and years to stop calling himself that old name in his head - he wasn't going to start doing it now. He couldn't afford to remember.

But that girl...

The barmaid called over a new patron with a warm smile and Shadow pulled up his mask, retreating into the persona he'd crafted. He wasn't a person, barely a human anymore. He was a shadow. Shadow. He scratched Interceptor behind the ear as he casually glanced over at the newcomer.

It was an old man. No, the old man. That old man. He looked as though these past years had been hard on him - his hair was thoroughly white now, and his thick moustache was thinner than it had once been. But he was still strong, stronger than anyone would think, with thick arms and a sturdy build hidden under bright clothes and a cloak and the bumbling mannerisms of a geriatric. He noticed Shadow.

"Good evening."

Shadow nodded, and the man came to sit next to him, taking careful steps as though he were trying not to wake a sleeping lion.

"We meet again." He added when Shadow said nothing.

"Indeed." Shadow knew that his voice was different. Deeper, deader, more gravelly due to a throat injury than it once had been. But Strago would know - of course he would.

Neither said anything for a long time. Neither had to. The air hung thick between them.

"My granddaughter took a liking to your dog." The old man said.

"Yes."

The bluntness of his answers clearly perturbed Strago. The barmaid was off around the back now, leaving the limited patrons to their own business. "Does the dog often take to people?"

"No."

Strago sighed and obviously had something desperate to say on the tip of his tongue. Shadow felt a lump in his chest too, but he could no longer tell if it was words balled up in his chest, years and years of pain, or just indigestion.

The old man turned to Shadow and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the true toll of the years. Those eyes… they were tired, so tired.

"I have one request." He had a slightly harassed tone, as though he knew he was asking a great deal but needed it, and needed it quickly. "Show me your face." Shadow was about to start before he was silenced by a discreet hand. "Even if you are him, I have no intention of wasting time trying to talk you into staying." He paused for a moment, and his jaw tightened a little. "I want to know… for Relm's sake…" His eyes looked even more tired than usual, and somehow, he seemed broken. More hunched over and broken by the years than Shadow had first thought.

Shadow darted his eyes around, and making sure that his back was still to the rest of the room, he ever so slightly removed his mask, and turned his eyes - actually a warm green, not the red that he projected to the world - over to the man that once, he'd been about to call his own father. He looked different, he knew. A slash across the throat and jaw that never healed, skin that was now deathly pale and slightly strange in tone. Skin haggard from the elements and more lines across his face that had once known so many smiles.

The old man swallowed sadly and looked away, nodding his head. They both knew that it'd be simpler if he'd died. It was probably what he'd told the girl. If he had been the one to die then, if it hadn't had to be Ruby, she would've had a better life. He knew what he was doing when he left - how he was sentencing this man to the grief of a lost daughter, and the trouble of raising a granddaughter - one who wasn't even related to him by blood. But he'd never thought twice at the time, only thinking of himself. And then, with time, he didn't think at all. He knew that when Strago looked into his face, he was most sad at seeing his eyes, the hollow, empty eyes he had. A man like him would never stay for a girl he'd only met for a few minutes. Not even if Interceptor had pointed out the daughter he'd chosen to never think of because he couldn't bear to look at her.

Strago heaved a shaky sigh. "Thank you… Shadow." Both of them knew that he wasn't thankful, not in the least bit. This scarred man, this empty killer of a monster wasn't the father he'd wanted for his granddaughter. "…Come, let's have a drink."

Shadow didn't want to touch any drink. He couldn't afford to get soft, not after all this time. So he watched as Strago drank in silence, and excused himself when there was still some left in his glass.

Shadow watched as the door shut behind the old man, when he walked out into the dark Thamasan night.

He had to leave. He had to leave her, again.

So, this was actually inspired by a scene that the developers were going to have in-game, but was taken out last minute (I believe). The dialogue is actually the dialogue they were going to have in-game. What do you guys think about that - do you think they should've kept in-game? I'm not sure, actually, I'm a big fan of all the implications not the straight out confirmations, but then again it would've been nice to see a Strago/Shadow interaction scene. I don't know, let me know what you think!

Anyway, please review if you've got time and follow for more. Thanks!