The ocean beneath the edge of the crumbling cliff foamed with surf, waves crashing but in his mind he could only hear their song, a song of joy and of summer days and hot winds raking his dark hair. Squall had his gunblade resting on his shoulder, but suddenly the memory of that joyful music drove him to set it down at his side, the weight suddenly unbearable.
It had been a summer romance, but a summer romance cut short by inevitable change. Their natures were too different; they came from different worlds. He; a budding SeeD, destined to germinate his powers into a greater world. And...Jumbo Cactaur, a 50 foot tall Cactuar with curling mustachios, destined to roam free, shaking needles of stinging, blissful agony at anything it found threatening.
He had first seen it from afar, a glistening mop of blonde hair that he had mistook for a rising sand dune, shimmering in the hot afternoon sun. But as he drew near he realized that it belonged to a creature of sublime beauty and innumerable spines, a creature that stiffened and leapt into the air with a floating grace, leaving him shaken to the core.
He had never seen one such as Jumbo Cactaur. The platinum blonde wig, the twitching little mustaches that seemed to have a life of their own, the face frozen in perpetual shock. Perhaps it was the dehydration or the exhaustion or the lack of oxygen, but his body knew immediately that this was the one entity that understood him; that saw to the deep core of his center; that loved him as he loved it.
But it was not meant to be. Oh, those stinging needles, that white-hot ecstasy. Oh, that fleeting moment when their limbs touched and he felt those needles press against his flesh, not quite entering him, just digging into his skin with a pressure that seemed almost unendurable.
It had cost him 1,000 points of damage, but the real damage was not to his body, but his heart.
Their summer was over too soon.
And here he was, a broken man, unable to live without his Jumbo Cactaur.
"Jumbo...Cactaur." He whispered, and the wind took his breath away, stealing his words. "I...you..."
He could no longer continue, not without Jumbo Cactaur. The wind howled cold and empty, and he knew what he had to do.
He dropped his gunblade and leapt.
And for a brief moment he imagined it was this leap of passion, of pain and longing and a floating grace, that brought him closer to Jumbo Cactaur's spirit than he could ever experience in life.
The waves crashed, briefly red, before receding to foam.