Speech
Fujin looked in her bathroom mirror, pushing her platinum hair out of the way of her eye patch. She stared at her reflection, her sole crimson eye blinking every so often. She stood on her tiptoes to get a better view of herself, then lowered herself back onto the soles of her feet. She sighed softly, and looked away from the mirror, the movement causing her hair to fall back in front of her eye patch. The more the better…
A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. She considered not answering it, but when whoever it was knocked again she walked out of the bathroom and to the door, opening it to see Raijin. "WHAT WANT?" she asked, her voice toneless.
"Me 'n Seifer are heading over to the Cafeteria. Coming?" he asked. When Fujin didn't answer, he did. "We'll save a seat for ya, ya know?"
Fujin nodded once, a stiff, swift motion, and then shut the door in his face. Food was exactly the first thing on her mind at the moment.
She sat down on her couch heavily, her crimson eye trained to the floor. RAGE. AFFRIMATIVE. NEGATIVE, she thought to herself bitterly. Is that all I can manage to say? She sighed in frustration. No matter how hard she tried, how hard she practiced, she still couldn't over-come her speech disability. Speech, she thought to herself. It is something so simple that even a five year old can master it. Everyone has mastered it…
Everyone but me.
Simple, one syllable words are hard enough, let alone perfectly sounding sentences. I can never express myself, and I can only hope that whomever I'm talking to can understand. It's a pain to explain something to someone three times because they didn't understand me the first time. It's not like they can't understand the words I'm saying, they just can't understand what I'm trying to say. They take speech for granted. They expect me to be able to master it, and talk like they do. When I can't talk like them, they instantly shun me-not once have I ever been asked except by Seifer why I can not talk 'normal.' A knock at the door awakened her from her thoughts again. "COME SOON," she said, a hint of frustration in her voice. Why wouldn't they leave her alone?
Fujin ignored the knock and entered her thoughts again. They don't understand. I try to talk normal. I try. I can't. But they don't understand. They think I talk this way because I choose to, or because I want to sound 'tough.' I'm freakish. I'm different. What they don't understand, they separate themselves from it. They're afraid of me. They tease me all the time. I remembered being teased when I was five…all through the ages, not once has any one ever left me alone. Can't they see that it hurts me? Can't they see that I try? When I lost my eye, it only made the teasing worse, especially when I ran into things the first week I lost it. It's not my fault-when you lose an eye your sense of depth and your vision is screwed up.
A short, quick knock was accompanied by the turning of the knob- whoever was out there was coming in.
Fujin looked up, her crimson eye meeting concerned jade ones. "Fuj?" he asked. He saw the defeated look in her eye and shut the door, walking over to her. "Fuj? You coming? … What's wrong?"
Fujin looked up at him as she tried to unsuccessfully blink away the tears forming in her eye. "… Sei… Seifer…" she murmured.
Instantly he knew what this was about and sat down beside her, pulling her into one of his rare hugs. "It's all right, Fuj."
Fujin cried silently into Seifer's shoulder, thinking to herself. No, I was wrong.
Seifer understands.
Author's Note: This is a cute (but very short) ficlet I decided to make when I was playing the game again. I was wondering why Fujin talked the way she does, and decided to write a ficlet about it. Hope you enjoyed!
Please, review! And thanks if you do!
