Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and its compilation are the creations of Square Enix, not mine.
Summary: Rosso was beautiful.
Author's notes: Fic #5 for Livejournal community Ficlets on Demand's Fic a Day June Challenge '0. Requst: Female character with scars by rosehiptea.
Through Stained Glasses
by monitor screen
-o-
In those kinds of places, people think strange things.
It was not in Rosso to be sisterly, and no one sane would regard her thus. But Shelke had been young; young and scared and alone. Rosso could be terrifying, she could be cruel, and she had these horrible, horrible views on fun and human lives; but Rosso was not cold like Nero, or rough like Azul. Rosso talked to Shelke.
Rosso had smiled at her. No matter how tainted it had been, the pretence of affability was burnt into Shelke's mind. It twisted her feelings, muddled her grasp on their relation, and allowed her solace when none was offered.
Shelke would always think of her recollections of Rosso fondly. She remembered that one time, when Rosso had stripped bare in front of her - looking back, Shelke knew this to be an act of taunt, flaunting a physique her own childlike body could never attend. But she also remembered how at the time, the sense of connection and intimacy such a move had brought.
Rosso was beautiful; Shelke did not think anyone could deny that. She had this exquisite combination of grace and force in her, that no amount of experiment could mar.
For experiments there had been. Scars had turned Rosso's pale back into a mystic, entrancing map; scars had run along the backs those shapely legs well up to the thighs; and it had to be Shelke's induced imagination, for the impression of delicacy to be assigned to wrists that had never seen light.
Rosso had laughed when Shelke - young, scared, lonely Shelke - tentatively reached out to trace a child's finger along the scars. She had laughed, loud and long and haunting.
When Vincent Valentine told her of the end of Rosso the Crimson, Shelke imagined Rosso's last breath would be that laugh.
-o-