Gem: I'm in rare form tonight. Normally I do not churn out oneshots this fast. Some ending spoilers in here. I own a mostly empty bag of Tostitos chips and a bottle of root beer but no rights to Josh Groban or FFIX.
I know you're gone
I watched you leave
I always thought
That it was me
You made it clear
With that last kiss
You couldn't live a life
With maybe's and whatif's
She knew he was gone because she had watched him leave. She thought that it was her but he and their friends assured her that it wasn't her. He needed answers; he had always needed answers. He had given her one last kiss before saying he was going to stay. The others had turned their backs so that the two of them could say a final goodbye.
When every boat
Has sailed away
And every path
Is marked and paved
When every road
Has had its say
Then I'll be bringing you back
Home to stay
He would take every boat he could and every path he could before he would come home. She knew that before he came home, he would find the answers he had sought his entire life. And ironically the answers lay in the man who tried to destroy the world. She wanted him to come home to her.
I have the cards you sent to me
You wrote of trains and Paris galleries
This spring you'll draw
Canals, and frescoed walls
Look how far your dreaming's gone
She had no idea he knew how to read and write until the one day when she caught him teaching Eiko. She had been busy doing or helping with something else and it surprised her that he would be willing to sit down and teach.
Freya had told her once that he also had a very good eye for art. That surprised her more than his knowledge of reading and writing. But then again, it seemed like his boss wanted all of them to be able to succeed in the world and so gave them lessons in things besides acting and thieving.
When every town looks just the same
When every choice gets hard to make
When every map is put away
Then I'll be bringing you back
Home to stay
She wondered if at some point, all the towns started to look the same to him. He also had to make some very hard choices before he was ready. It was a hard choice to leave the only family you ever know to go looking for something that only had one clue. But there were times when she saw him go off of instinct and not the map. Maybe his hard choices had taught him that. She wanted him to come back home to her, to stay forever.
And now I know why you had to go alone
Isn't there a place between
Now nearly a year after he left, she understood why he had to go alone. Tantalus and Freya explained the why to her. After he found his answers, he would find a way home even if it killed him.
When every boat
Has sailed away
And every path
Is marked and paved
Every boat had sailed away and he had gone down every path. She had been the last to see him as he prepared to get his answers.
When every road
Has had its say
Then I'll be bringing you back
Home to stay
Every road they had taken had had its say about their life. But the roads didn't provide answers and only then would he come home.
Reach out to me
Call out my name
And I would bring you back again
Today
She wanted him to call her name one more time. The name she had used on their adventure. She was startled out of her thoughts when 'Marcus' threw off his cloak and was really him. As she ran towards him, she only had one thought in her head.
"He's home!"