Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"We that are twain by day
at night are one
A dream can bring me to
your arms once more."
He comes to me in dreams. His silver eyes shining, hiding his thoughts. He offers me his hand, and I take it. Sometimes he brings me to wonderful places, rivaling Heaven in their joy. Others, I'm lead to dark, thundering places, fog surrounding us, and growls emitting throughout the air. Sometimes we stay in my house and never leave the safe confines of my bedroom. I enjoy looking at him, his dark shoulder length hair brushing against his face. He's a handsome man, with his long lashes, straight white teeth, dark brows, and creamy skin. He has a sexy wolfish smile that makes me both nervous and intrigued. He tells me I'm beautiful and that we are deeply connected in some way. He never tells me how, just that 'blood' is the key. He haunts me.
I had the same encounters when I was a child. It began right before my mother died. The dreams are always different. He came to me one night, and he looked exactly the same as he does now. Only he seemed a lot bigger then. I dreampt that I was at the old well, sitting in my turquoise dress, admiring the stars. The fact that the rest of Nibelheim was absolutely silent never crossed my mind. I was dreaming, after all. That's why I didn't notice him until he was sitting right beside me. He greeted me like an old friend.
"There are no stars, you know." Those were his first words to me. His voice was smooth like silk slipping cool, hard marble.
"Where are they hiding? I replied, never turning to face him.
"They are dumbstruck. You honor them with your gaze." I could tell he too was searching the now starless sky.
"I want them to come back."
"So be it."
And they did.
He shifted.
"Why is it you favor the stars over the moon?" He asked, a smile in his voice.
"The moon is weak. It depends on the sun for it's power. Weakness gets people killed." I replied, frowning at the glowing white orb.
"So do humans. They need the light in order to make their way through the world." He stated, issuing a challenge.
"I never said humanity wasn't weak." I snapped back.
"You sound as if you're different than them." He whispered cryptically.
"No. I just have more perspective......" I whispered back, unsure,
"I think it's more than that." He said huskily, drawing my gaze.
That was the first time I saw his eyes. Silver with black pupils. They shined with an inner light.
"Y-your eyes, they-"
He gently placed a finger over my mouth. Slowly shortening the space between our lips, he murmured.
"She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and in her eyes."
And with that he lightly brushed his lips against mine. I closed my eyes as Mom and Papa do when they kiss. That was my first kiss. I was only eleven. When I opened my eyes, he was gone. I was in my bed, looking at the ceiling. I was awake. I was going to go back to sleep, when I realized there was a carefully folded sheet of paper in my hand It read:
'My dearest Tifa. Your sweet lips murmured like a brook. A wordless muse and a face so fair. Stirr'd with your dream as rose leaves with the air. O thou art fairer than the evening air, clad in the beauty of a thousand stars. And stolen kisses are far sweeter. But remember that someday I'll find you, the moonlight behind you, true to the dream I am dreaming. By my blood, we will meet again.'
I knew then.
A few days later, my mother died.
For the next few years I never saw him, only found the occasional note on my bedside table. He scrawled me poems, most about love, the world, blood, and darkness.
I tried to tell Papa, but he was a broken man. It would be like shooting someone 47 times in their vital organs, then decapitating them just to make sure they're dead. It was pointless. So I ignored the notes and stored them in a wooden box, which I still have today.
He came to me again the night before the Great General Sephiroth came to Nibelheim to inspect the reactor. He told me that when my blood flowed, he would be by my side and he would save me. And that I would be possessed by wrath and make an utterly foolish decision. And when he found me, I would be in the arms of a human. He would change me. And that he would come to me again someday to finish the 'Trilogy of Darkness', as he called it. And then he left.
The burning of Nibelheim occurred, and after I was slashed by Sephiroth, Cloud came to my rescue, and took me to someone who later brought me to Midgar. Or so I figured. Because lately, I've been feeling strange. Like there's an itch I can't scratch. There's something missing in my life.
Until now.....
....because....
He's back.
Author's Notes: Ha! How's that for a prologue! Stay tuned, more to come!