A/n: I missed doing pointless oneshots, so here is a collection to satisfy my cravings; each part is based on a coupling and an unstated colour theme. Just for fun. Enjoy, and please review! Guess the colour? (Though it's not hard in some cases!)
'We are a Box of Crayons
Each of us unique,
But when we get together
The picture is complete.'
(- Shane DeRolf)
Part 1
Pieces of Sun
"Ooh, you stupid chocobo, come back here!"
For a brief second, Bobby Corwen stops and turns. He considers the girl and the mage and the consequences of disobeying, then chirps delightedly and (oblivious to the wrath of such impetuous summoner) dashes off again, a feather drifting between long fingers of grass as he kicks the turf in an excited beat.
Rejected, Eiko slams her fists against her hips, then tempestuously declares, "I'm gonna make that bird into a cushion when I get my hands on him, that good-for-nothing old chocobo!"
Vivi pauses to her right. He timidly chides, "Aw, don't be mad. He's just happy to be out of the stable. You'd be happy too."
"I most certainly would not!" the girl snaps, for the sake of contradicting him, then rampages through the meadow in a huff. Flowers sneeze off their petals. The grass is flattened in her wake.
Vivi totters after her and squints at the bird, who plays a mad game of running circles. Just watching him makes Vivi thirsty, so he politely suggests that here would be a good place to unpack the picnic Dagger made (with Eiko's help, the child is quick to amend, so Vivi fears for the condition of his tummy hours later) and Eiko ceases her stampede.
They lay the blanket where the swishing grass is shorter and the moss is faded from the heat, and sit beneath a tree where the sun is broken sequins between verdant leaves. Vivi contemplates this as he munches on a sandwich, then says, "What do you think the sun tastes like?"
"You sound like Quina!" Eiko chortles delightedly, and they both giggle. Then she says, "Like buttercups," and a little more solemnly: "but really really hot."
"Buttercups?"
She nods, then leans across to pluck the unsuspecting buttercup peeping over the blanket's edge. The sun catches the petals and a bauble of light dances across her cheek. She explains, "They are little bits of sun that fell down and grew into the earth."
Vivi takes the flower from her, eyes aglow with curiosity. He twirls it between thumb and forefinger and wonders if a splodge of butter-light dances on his face, too.
"So… if the sun tastes like buttercups…what do buttercups taste like?"
Eiko shrugs, then her face grows sly. "Wanna find out?"
The boy blinks. "You mean…?"
She leans across and snatches another flower from a grassy nook. She brandishes it the way Zidane would brandish a sword. "I will do it too! We will eat pieces of the sun and glow from the inside out!"
"U-um…"
"Ready?"
"Ah…"
"1…2…3!"
The flowers disappear simultaneously. Vivi chews and watches Eiko and just as her face crinkles like paper he tastes the sour plant-stuff too and they both spit the pieces of sun onto the grass. He drinks deep from a flask of lemonade and Eiko busily paws her tongue, but when he catches her eye they break apart in fits of giggles.
Bobby Corwen, who is close enough to cock a baffled eye at the pair, decides to investigate, and his curiosity is rewarded with Gysahl Greens, so he nests in the blanket and lets Vivi ruffle his feathers.
"Aw, we killed them," Eiko says after a moment, and gestures to the petals, all soggy, chewed-up and torn like broken butterfly wings.
Vivi picks up one such petal and thinks. Then he says, "Well… they're not really dead."
"How do you mean?"
"They'll be alive in our memory I guess. 'Cause we wont forget this moment."
"No," Eiko agrees after some sober consideration. "I'll remember that buttercups don't taste nice for future reference. I wouldn't want my stews tasting bad."
Vivi hums a vague agreement, then promptly changes the subject.
-
And Eiko always remembers to leave bundles of wild buttercups on Vivi's grave, because they taught her that nothing precious ever truly dies.