I made this worth a crapload of themes, because I broke my own heart with it. Storm, sunshine, strong willed, the other side and mercy.
Watch out for Iliyana's companion drabble.
He wanted me to kill him. All throughout the war, he stood there, and he looked like himself; proud, in control, laughing. It wasn't until I got a closer look that I knew my lover wasn't himself. It was his eyes that gave it away; just his eyes, and that was all. She had such a fine control over him, but she couldn't control how he felt inside, and I saw that in his eyes.
Defeat. Betrayal. He had trusted her. He needed me. Needed me to do what no one else would, if they knew. We both knew he would never be free of her. Some things just can't be redeemed once they're done, some crimes are too horrible for a soul to go on, whether it did them willing or not. Having sold his soul, Seifer knew what was going to happen. She told him, I think, and I'm sure some of it probably involved what he was going to do to me, under her control.
As I met his eyes then, for a single stunned moment that knew no battle, no mission, I knew what he wanted me to do.
This wasn't one of his petty whims, none of his playing around. I didn't show a sign of it then, but I accepted my new mission. Defeating the sorceress became just an extra task; the main goal was to kill Seifer. To give him that last mercy, save his dignity and his pride, by not letting him back into a world where he had caused so much suffering. She was a part of him, and the only way to truly rid the world of her was to rid the world of her puppet.
It didn't matter to me that her puppet was the man I loved.
Or, rather, it did. It made it matter so much that after we returned to Garden, I finished up everything I had on hand, told Cid I was taking leave and I went to find Seifer. He was too proud to ask me to do it, or maybe that was her presence still in him - the dead tell no secrets - but I knew from the haunted look in his eyes that he still wanted me to.
I thought that maybe she still had enough control over him to make him run, but no. He was always strong willed, and he fought with everything he had to remain still as I swung Lionheart upwards. It was an act of mercy, because SeeDs - and sorceresses - don't take prisoners.
The blood gushed out, startling red in the sunshine, in the warmth of the day, livid against the blue sky. It would be a sunny day, of course; we loved the storms, so it's only fitting that the sun shines brightly on the day I kill him and break my own heart.
A stab in the heart, sliding up under his ribs. "True friends stab you in the front," someone told me, once, in response to the quote pinned up somewhere about friends and stabbing in the back. It wasn't him, but that hardly matters.
I've been a true friend today.
His eyes told me thank you, as his mouth never would, before he fell forward.
I caught him, cradled his head against my shoulder, kissed him goodbye - his mouth stained with blood, I must have hit his lung as well - for the last time.