-Five Words, Five Ways-
Number One: Armour.
It had taken them years, but each had constructed for themselves a tough suit of armour, nigh impenetrable. But while Tora's armour was built on her solid belief that she was a curse to all men after the death of her father and the disappearance of her twin brother Ryu, Leon's armour was built around trying to forget his experiences with SeeD, especially his old lover, Rinoa. But even the toughest armour has its chinks, and will eventually crumble. And when these two soldiers met, it was if all their armour had rusted right through and collapsed.
"Name's Tora. Remember it.
"Leon."
"You're a man of few words, aren't you? I can tell. I'm sure your weapon does all the compensating for you.
"Would you like to find out?"
Number Two: Crystal.
A single white gem sat in the centre of the pendant that always hung around Tora's neck. Whenever she touched it, it brought back memories of her father and his amazing synthesis skills. Leon asked her about the pendant once, but instead of a lengthy response, all he got out of his girlfriend was "Memories." It wasn't until later, when she was laying on the ground, nearly dying after a long battle, did he realise what she meant. As he knelt beside her, his knees soaking in the muddy ground, he touched the pendant, and smiled at all the memories that suddenly came flooding back to him.
"Told...you so..."
"Don't move, Tora. You're going to be alright."
"I'm fully aware...ow...of that..."
"Good to see your sense of humour hasn't been injured."
Number Three: Music.
If anyone asked Leon what his favourite thing about Tora was, he would simply reply "Her music. A nightingale must reside in her throat." Whenever Tora felt happy, furious, depressed or scared, she would simply sing to relieve her head of all foreign thought that may distract her from her light. So it's no surprise that it was a song, of all the magical items in the world, a song that brought these two warriors back together after a period of unrest.
"I knew I was too good to resist."
"In what fantasy?"
"Ha ha. But it's so good to see you after so long. I missed you."
"I just wanted to hear your voice again, Tora. I missed you too."
Number Four: Silver.
Apart from the colour green, Tora loved anything the colour of silver. The silver skies during a thunderstorm, the silver wedding band around her ring finger, her silver glitter. But the one thing that she could not get enough of was the colour her husband's eyes whenever he smiled. They faded from a harsh and cold steel to a warm and soft silver, and she could get lost in them forever. No matter how many times Leon argued that her eyes were the colour of molten gold whenever she smiled and that they were more precious than said metal, Tora just shook her head and maintained her gaze on the silver orbs she loved.
"You're distracting me by staring, Tora."
"Can I not look into your eyes and think they're the most amazing colour?"
"What is it about my eyes you find so enchanting?"
"The colour. They're so...silver."
Number Five: Zephyr.
There was a small clearing in Radiant Gardens that only Leon knew of. Where the grass remained undisturbed, where the trees swayed musically, where only the slightest zephyr blew. Not even Rinoa knew of or had even seen this clearing. Although, after all these years of keeping this secret, he was tired of its solitude. So when he brought his four-year-old daughter to the sanctuary for the first time, her first instinct was to run to the centre of the clearing and twirl around, the breeze ruffling her rusty orange hair.
"Daddy! Daddy! Look at me!"
"That's very beautiful, Amy."
"Hey, Daddy, did you feel that? It felt like Mummy! Maybe Mummy's here with us now, in this clearing! The wind must've blown her here from heaven!"
"I did feel that, honey, and I'm sure your mother is here with us right now, watching over us, like the wind will forever watch over her."
