Wildflowers

A Luc/Sarah one-shot for Athena. This was requested a long time ago and I'm sorry I did not get to it before. This is now the revised version and not quite as short as the last one, though it is still pretty short. I hope you like it.

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Luc wandered aimlessly in the Black Forest, looking for the young girl he had helped raise. Sarah, early in her teen years, had taken to wandering off lately which irritated the Wind Mage, for it was he who was going to find her. She would constantly worry him for it was difficult to find her in such a large forest. The fact that she would wander off the winding, dirt path did not help to find her.

"Sarah?" he called. "Where are you?"

"I'm over here," he heard her reply. "Come here, there's something I want to show you." Luc wandered off of the pathway to where he had heard the voice from and saw Sarah kneeling over something. What it was, he could not tell.

"Sarah, I've been looking for you for two hours, I've been getting—"

"Shh," she said, as means of hushing him. "Look." Luc crouched down next to her to see a flower in bloom. It was a bright red, which stood out against the dark colors of the forest. It was quite a strange sight to see.

"What is this?" he asked, bemused. "Flowers never bloom in the Black Forest."

"I guess this one did," Sarah said, indicating the flower.

"This is the first one I have seen in long time," Luc told her.

"Do you think it might be lonely?" she asked. "It's all alone, there are no other flowers nearby."

"What?" he asked, confused. "Lonely? Sarah, my dear, flowers cannot get 'lonely'. They are, pretty much, inanimate objects."

"They are alive, aren't they?" she asked. "What if they can think but we just can't understand them? They must have minds of their own, if they're alive, I mean. What if they talk to each other and we do not know? What if they can hear us too? I don't think they would like you calling them inanimate."

"Sarah—" She looked at him with pale blue eyes, regarding him questioningly. She believed that he knew almost everything and followed his every whim, even now, in her teen years. She, this time however, did not seem to think he was right. She had developed her own mind, somewhat, and had taken to questioning him on things she did not understand.

"If they are alive they must think," Sarah said, pointedly. Luc had to admit that she did have point. Though, the thought that flowers could think and talk to one another did not appeal to his thoughts.

"It's so pretty," she said, changing the subject.

"Yeah," Luc answered, nonchalantly. "It is."

"Why do they just pop out of nowhere sometimes," she began. "And others we have to plant them to make them grow?"

"I don't know," he said honestly.

"Why aren't they born like people?" she asked. "It would make it less complicated if everything was born the same way."

"That's true," Luc admitted. "But then nothing would be questionable. We would have most of the logic in this world and we could not amuse ourselves with questions of the unknown." Luc knew he must have sounded intelligent to the young teen, but to him it sounded ridiculous.

"Luc?" she asked. "What will happen when we put your plan into effect? What will happen to us? Me and you, I mean." Luc had not the heart to answer her. She did not need to know, though, when could she? He could not tell her just yet, she was too young, and the thought of saddening her even further was not desirable.

"I'm… not sure," he decided to answer. "It will all come to play in time."

"Will we still be together?" This question caught Luc off-guard.

"What?" he asked. "Why would you ask a question like that?" A sadness lurked about her as she asked the question.

"Well," she said. "I feel that we'll be parted some day. Maybe after your plan is all put together. I don't want that to happen. Please tell me that we'll be together forever…"

"I… can't," he said honestly, lying, even for a child, was not one of his best talents. Her eyes welled up with tears.

"I don't want you to leave," she said, bending her head down. "Promise me you won't leave." Her shoulders shook with emotion and Luc could not bear to see her in this state.

"I promise," he said sincerely. "We'll stay together… no matter what happens."

"I promise too," she said the tears seeming to vanish. She then put her arms around his neck and hugged him close. This action caught him off-guard and caused him to tumble backwards into the dirt, though Sarah still clung to him as though her very life depended on it. Luc, regaining his composure, slipped his arms under hers and embraced her as well. He then bent his head down and kissed her forehead gently and caressed her head closely to him.

"We will be together," he said quietly in her ear. "Forever…"

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I am so sorry that took so long, and it is so short too! Grr… oh, well. It cannot be helped. I hope this revised version is slightly better then the last one. I have a major bout of writer's block after my last fic and I cannot seem to shake it. Oh, but how I ramble and complain…Review please!

Love always,

Lily