In no way, shape or form do I take credit for creation or ownership of the Final Fantasy series. That is the property of Square-Enix.

Bright.

It really was the most fitting description - the atmosphere, the sky, the future.

Everything seemed bright.

Celes Chere stood atop the deck of the Falcon, her hair lifted about her in the high winds generated by flight. Everything around her was so surreal, so like a dream, that she nearly forgot to breathe. Perhaps it was more due to the sights she was taking in, the feelings welling up within her, which stole her breath from her lungs; she couldn't care less at the moment.

Had flowing fields of green grass and clear blue waters always been this beautiful? Was the clean air always so sweet to inhale? So long had Celes seen dusty, war-torn earth littered with dying grasses, oceans a sickly hue of dusky violet resting under a scorched sky, that she had forgotten how vibrant the world she lived in once was. Celes wondered in the back of her mind how long it had been. How many months had passed between their failure upon the floating continent and the coming of this day?

Her own unconscious year aside, it had taken weeks to find the others. Long weeks that had faded into months and almost an entire year must have passed from the time she had awoken to a dying world until they had wrested the very health and life of the planet back from Kefka, a crazed madman that had at one time almost been like a brother to her. Long gone were those days of her youth, of mindlessly training to be the Emperor's little puppet; only to be replaced with the freedom of being her own person, of thinking for herself and deciding what was honorable and right by following her heart. She had learned so much even in the short months between defecting from the empire and the shifting of the balance of magic in the world by Kefka when he disrupted the statues of the goddesses.

Gone was the eighteen-year-old girl finding for the first time that she too was a person… that she was more to some people than a weapon… that her feelings mattered too.

In her place now stood a young woman of twenty-one, confident in her worth as a person and sure that while not always easy, life was worth living and that emotions were to be embraced and shared, not bottled away and ignored.

Pulling her eyes from the enchanting scenery on the ground below and the clouds lazily traversing the sky, she turned and looked back onto the deck of the Falcon, gazing upon her friends. The Empire having fallen to shambles, she had no home to return to, no family to call her own, no remaining links to her past; she had made herself an orphan of war in all senses of the term. She was alone in the world, and yet, as she gazed upon those scattered among the deck around her, she knew this was no longer the case. As long as she had her friends, she would never be alone again.

She smiled.

Relm, still a child herself, but blossoming into her teenage years, was talking animatedly with her grandfather, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she reenacted some part of their recent battles to Strago while he nodded acceptingly, his eyes sparkling with pride as he gazed upon the young girl. Seated not far away from them was the hulking Umaro with Gau happily seated upon his shoulders, the small-statured Mog flitting about the boy's head on his tiny wings, trying in vain to remove him from the snow-ape.

Sabin, having left his brother's side, was deep in conversation with Cyan and the few motions they did make left no clues as to what they were discussing, yet their countenances seemed hopeful more than grim. Setzer was piloting, his hands comfortably gripping the controls while he talked gaily with Terra, her unbound hair fluttering behind her with a life of its own as she laughed at some joke made by the gambler. Never had she seemed so vivacious, positively radiant in her joy. Across the deck, Edgar leaned back against the railing behind him, a besotted smile upon his face as gazed in the direction of Terra's tinkling laughter; a few feet off Gogo mimicked Setzer's flying, though the masked figure seemed to be watching him more than his actions, the movements of Gogo's arms almost more natural than mere imitations.

Shaking her head and chuckling at the look crossing Edgar's features, Celes redirected her own attention back outward for a few moments before shyly looking to her immediate right.

Brown eyes danced at her merrily and her heart fluttered in her chest as Locke smiled at her.

She'd long known what she felt for the brash treasure hunter was no passing fancy and had hoped for what felt like a lifetime that hers would not end up an unrequited love. Finding his bandana when all hope seemed lost had given her the strength to go on, to search for other survivors from the Returners and yet she had nearly lost the will to live when she saw the glazed look in his eyes as he explained the myth of the Phoenix esper deep beneath the ground, the oppressive heat in the cave suffocating her as she fell into Setzer's waiting arms, refusing to cry and just barely surviving once he turned his back to her and she fought the urge to faint, the majority of her weight supported by the strong hands of her friend.

Hours later in Kohlingen, after Rachel had truly passed, he approached her with more self-assurance in his stride than she had ever seen and the look in his eyes had spoken volumes to her that he could not put into words at the time, told her that her hope was not in vain. He looked deep into her eyes that day, smiled faintly and nodded once before they headed off to the airship together, their fingers brushing and twining together for the barest of moments before releasing one another again.

That look, she'd seen it again, so recently the fresh memory still sped her heart when she thought of it. His words "…I have learned to celebrate life, and the living," echoed through her mind as his eyes met hers now, the intensity in his brown orbs the same now as it was then. When she had found her voice and spoken, she'd done so without thinking, and yet, her words rang true in her mind, she saw acceptance and so much more in his eyes when he looked at her like that.

He took a step closer to her as she turned to fully face him and hesitantly took her hands in his. Smiling at his nervousness that befit her own thundering pulse, she squeezed his hands and felt her smaller ones become engulfed in his gentle grip in response. His gloves had been removed and his palms felt warm against her skin as he held her hands with more confidence than he'd had when he first took them in his own.

For long moments, her bright blue eyes remained locked with his until an errant lock of her blonde hair flicked up between them on the wind, breaking the spell upon them that had frozen them in place.

Lowering his head nearer so Celes could hear his low tones, Locke finally spoke, his eyes mirroring the hope she had been holding on to for so very long. "I want to kiss you," he said simply, his hands beginning to shake ever so slightly as he waited for a reply to his huskily-voiced request.

Acting on an instinct she didn't know she had, Celes felt her eyes drift closed as she leaned up to meet him, her lips brushing against his in the barest of touches. Before she could say anything, Locke had followed her as she began to pull away, his lips capturing hers in a fuller kiss this time. He released her and they slowly opened their eyes, both smiling shyly at the other. Celes closed the distance between them, their hands still entangled at their mutual sides and Locke mumbled "Stay with me," before kissing her yet again, his lips softly moving against hers, parting them just enough for their tongues to brush against one another for a few blissful moments before they broke from the kiss.

Celes nodded in response to his entreaty, smiling brilliantly at him before moving to kiss him again.

Yes, the future looked especially bright.