Author's Note: This fanfic is for the Crystal Hearts Contest. And it belongs in the General category. It's a SerahxSnow fic with Snow Angst. Post-game *spoiler alert*
All characters and Final Fantasy XIII belong to Square Enix.
Hope you enjoy it!
Our Hands
by Wolf of the Feitas
************
Snow Villers-Farron couldn't sleep that night. His mind filled with thoughts. He turned to his side and looked at Serah, her graceful figure slumbering and her face illuminated by the moonlight that entered through their windows. Snow quietly got out of their bed, moving ever so slowly so as not to wake up Serah.
He donned a black tank top and some jeans and silently made his way down the stairs of their home and into his backyard.
From the bushes near the house he brought out ten large stumps with a deep groove in each one. In another bush was a pile of wooden planks he had bought. He took ten of the planks and shoved them into the grooves in the stumps.
It's been a year since their lives changed, although the memories of the struggles still burned fresh in his mind as if the events just happened yesterday. He opened his palm and looked at it. Empty, yet he still felt the desperate grip of those whom he was too weak to save; his beloved Serah and Hope's mother, Nora. Snow wanted to change that. No longer would he lose another person to cruel fate. Never again would he be a victim of circumstance.
Never again...
He conjured images of enemies he had encountered before in his mind. Foul beasts and PSICOM soldiers are what became of the wooden boards. Anger and hate filled and clouded Snow's inner being and made its way into every bone and muscle. He clenched his fist and took a deep breath. Setting his body into a stance, he focused his eyes towards his first victim.
The first plank broke with a resonating crack that filled the quiet night. Snow released a volley of punches at the remaining boards. He imagined that his foes fell to his blows. He did a roundhouse kick on one and a solid punch to where the sternum of his enemy would be on another. There was no doubt about Snow's wrath. As he demolished the last of the boards, he stood still, not panting, but still. Despite the chaotic mess that lay before him and the beads of sweat that formed on his face, he still didn't feel satisfied.
He shook of the remains of the planks still embedded into the stumps and shoved in a fresh plank in each of them. He summoned his rage again, took a deep breath and unleashed a combination of lethal blows on the planks and decimated them in moments, a sharp breath escaping his mouth as he destroyed the last board.
Ignoring the throbbing pain of his knuckles, he went to the bushes again to retrieve some more wooden planks only to find none remaining. He kicked the scraps of wood on the floor in frustration and looked for something to vent his anger on. After a few moments, he found some remaining heavy duty metal panels that were used to build his home. He placed two of the stumps beside a wall of the house and lifted a heavy panel of metal and fitted it onto the stumps such that it leaned against the wall of the house.
It wasn't long before Snow started bashing the metal. Each blow resounded with a percussive reverberating sound; his bare knuckles connecting with the metal. Despite his efforts, the metal panel never gave way. It just stood there, as if Snow had not touched it at all.
I'm not letting a piece of metal beat me...Snow thought to himself.
And he resumed punching the metal; his punches becoming more desperate, more feral. It's like someone had snuffed the humanity from him and replaced it with this...this beast. He increased the speed and the ferocity of his blows, still ignoring his fatigue and his knuckles which would be seriously damaged if he didn't stop.
Serah shifted in her bed due to the ruckus outside.
"Snow, could you check that out?" She asked, unaware that Snow was causing the noise. "Snow?"
She looked around only to find that Snow wasn't in the room with her. She immediately put on her bath robe and quickly made her way down the stairs, careful to watch her step in the darkness. Serah found the sliding door to the backyard open and the splinters and pieces of wood that lay on the grass. She entered the backyard and tried to look for the source of the banging noise.
"Snow?" she beckoned.
And there he lay. Exhausted. Tired. But the anger lines were still engraved on his face. He rose up and tried to punch the metal panel one more time, only to stumble.
"Snow, what are you," Serah said unable to complete her sentence due to her sheer panic.
"Leave me alone, Serah." Snow growled while trying to get up. He raised his fist and charged towards the panel only to be interrupted by Serah.
"Snow, look at yourself! Why are you doing this? What's bothering you, Snow?" Serah's desparation and confusion was already creeping into her voice. She grabbed hold of Snow's arm and tried to stop him from hurting himself.
"I said leave me alone!" Snow bellowed at Serah, nearly making her stumble.
And by the time the words came out of his mouth he realised it he had just done it again. He stood there in silence and saw the hurt in Serah's eyes. Snow had failed Serah, twice. And he didn't do anything as he saw her walk back into the house. It wasn't that he let her go, it's just that he didn't know what to do. It felt like losing Serah to fate for another time.
And it was his fault.
He slumped on the grass and looked at his knuckles. They were bruised and full of cuts and scrapes. Painful they were, but no so much as the pain and guilt he felt within. Snow sat there just wondering what the Maker had in store for him. He wouldn't mind death. After all, who needed a big oaf like him to mess up everything? Snow sat in a meditative silence for what seemed to be a couple of hours, pondering on how he could ever be of any good. His thoughts were cut short but the sound of grass being crushed underfoot.
Snow looked up and saw Serah carrying a small red pouch. She unzipped it and took out some sterilised bandages, gauze and antiseptic and kneeled beside Snow and started applying the antiseptic on his cuts and bruises.
"Serah, it's alright, I'm the one..."
"Snow, " Serah interrupted, Snow's eyes now focused on hers. "These hands are the hands that bore the weight of the world." She said slowly while applying the gauze. "These hands bore the burden of a l'cie's fate, and they have sacrificed so much. " Serah began to caress the bandaged hands. "Yet these hands are the reason why I am alive and they are part and parcel of the man I chose to be with 'till the day I die."
Snow simply listened and and stared at her, unable to say anything.
"You've been through so much, Snow." Serah said, her voice quaking. "But I can't bare to see you hurt yourself. It hurts me, Snow." Teardrops were beginning to form on her eyes.
Snow realised how much more of a fool he had been. He reached out his hand to wipe Serah's face. She clasped her hands onto his and cherished the warmth of his large palm.
"I'm sorry, Serah." Snow said.
"I know , I know." Serah replied. She embraced Snow and bent forward and kissed him lightly on the lips and sat down beside him. They gazed into the night sky and peacefully sat there, Serah's left hand interlaced with Snow's right hand. Despite the difference in size between their hand sizes, it felt like a perfect match. And for a while, all of their tense feelings just seemed to fly away and they lost themselves in the beautiful Pulsian constellations above.
Serah then broke the silence asking, "Snow, do you remember what you told me the evening after we got married?"
"Uh, no, Serah." Snow said, now slightly apprehensive at how she would react.
Serah just shook her head, smiled and said, "You told me that we were one. That no matter how difficult the times to come may be, we'll always be one with each other." And she lifted their interlaced hands in front of them and said, "Just like now, Snow. Remember that I'm here now. What's done is done, Snow. And don't ever think for once that you're useless, alright?" Serah said with a hint of optimism in her voice.
"A-Alright," Snow replied. Snow just marvelled at how she could just read him like a book and make it all better just like that.
"Good." Serah said before closing her eyes and leaned on Snow's shoulder.
"Serah, you do know that we'll catch a cold if we sleep out here," Snow said.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll find a way to keep me nice and warm through the night, dear." Serah teased throwing Snow a playful smirk.
"Alright, come here," Snow said, lifting Serah onto his body by her small waist.
"Hey, that tickles!" Serah said giggling all the while. She snuggled up against Snow's chest and closed her eyes.
"Good night, Serah." Snow whispered and kissed Serah's eyebrow before closing his own eyes.
Serah could only mumble an incohesive "good night," before both of them drifted off to sleep.