I don't own any of the FF characters or anything so yeah. This is a "what if" story so tell me what you think about it, if I should change anything, and if you liked it. Thanks.
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~Chapter One~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Esthar~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have never liked my father. He was never there for us, me, my mom, or Ellone. He had his job and he appeared to love it. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't like him. He was never there. I barely knew him. Sometimes he was in Esthar, sometimes who knows where with his friends Kiros and Ward, but never in Winhill with us. I spent my childhood there, in a small apartment over my mom's bar. Laguna never took us to live in Esthar with him.
My childhood was simple but short. I didn't have a care in the world. Just sis and me running through the fields around Winhill, mom and me shopping, or even sometimes when I still liked him Laguna and me. It all changed. I went from a carefree five-year-old to a motherless six-year-old. My birth had taken so much out of my mother that the doctors said she shouldn't have any more kids. Laguna wanted more even though I don't know why. He was great with other people's kids even Ellone but when it came to me his own child he just couldn't talk to me. Maybe that was why he wanted another child, he didn't understand me I was weird to him. My mother understood me, understood that I was quiet that I couldn't put my feelings into words easily. She understood and cared for me but Laguna couldn't. He insisted on having another child, and so my mother complied.
She died giving birth to my little brother. A little brother I hated for two reasons. One: I was convinced at the time that he killed my mother after a while I realized it was Laguna. Two: My father loved him like he couldn't or wouldn't love me. I was jealous and I hated myself for that. Ian was my brother cursed name. The name I often said with bitterness.
Sis seemed to try to take over my mom's place but she couldn't. I loved her and she loved me she understood me too but she still couldn't take mom's place no one could, especially not my stepmother. She thought I was strange or stupid. I never talked to her not on the day I met her, not on the day she married Laguna, and not on the day he died. It had been barely a year and a half since my mom died when Laguna announced his engagement to her.
Ellone, Ian, and I were living in Esthar at that time. Ellone was going to some sort of school and I had started second grade. I was unhappy, Ian and Ellone weren't but I was. Laguna treated Ellone as he always had and Ian as if he were a king. I was pushed into the background but I had plans.
I started making my plans at Laguna's and Veronica's wedding, while I was sitting in the audience alone. I wasn't in the wedding ceremony. Ellone was the flower girl and Ian was the ring bearer (I didn't even get the job of pushing the little twerp's carriage down the aisle. I was lucky to have been invited at all). I knew at that time that Laguna really didn't care for me. I had tried to ignore it but I had to accept the truth since it was staring me in the face. I was a bother to him and a painful reminder of my mother. I looked too much like her and he had at one time loved her but to him she left and it was her fault not his, never his, he was mad about that.
My plans were always of ways to get away from Laguna. I had many most of which couldn't work but all of them were ways of leaving this life behind and starting anew. Nine years old, that was when I really left childhood, I had forgotten about it when I was six but left it at nine. I signed up at Balamb Garden to train to become a SeeD. I knew Ian would never follow me there so I could escape from being overshadowed by him. Laguna didn't seem happy about me going to the Garden but I didn't care. It was to late for him to be concerned about me. I wanted nothing more to do with him. Sis was sad to see me go and she wasn't allowed to go with me. She didn't want to anyway she just didn't want to be left alone with Ian. He was spoiled and she knew it. She loved me and would miss me. I said goodbye only to her and left quietly not even waiting for Laguna to take me to the train station. That marked the first step I took on the path that I was going to make for myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Deling City~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mom are you going to be okay?" a little girl with pale skin and black hair asked.
"Yes Rinoa, I'll be fine. I just have to go to the hospital for a few days. I'll be all better when it get back." Julia told her daughter.
"Ok. Feel better mom" Rinoa waved at her mother from a window.
"I hope she's going to be alright," thought Rinoa out loud.
She then went upstairs to her room. It was decorated in all pink even though she hated that color. Her father had picked everything out even after her mom told him that his daughter's favorite color was blue. He had ignored her so now Rinoa's room was just one big fluffy, lacy, and pink speck on the earth.
Rinoa dove under her bed and pulled out a dark brown case. In it was her weapon the blaster edge, Pinwheel. She had just started to train with it after she had begged her mother to let her cancel either dance lessons or piano lessons and take fighting ones. Julia had been reluctant but she let her. Knowing how to fight was important these days with all the monsters, resistance groups, and wars around. Rinoa figured she would practice with her weapon for a while to ease away some of the worry she had for her mom. Julia had been getting sick a lot and her father didn't seem to care. He only cared about his job and keeping his family locked away from the outside world. He coddled them but not with love but with the want to alienate them from the world and keep them to himself. It was smothering. "He used to care," Rinoa remembered. "He used to be there, we used to do things together as a family." "Just let mom get better and I'll try to like my father more." Rinoa bargained with unseen force before she left her room to train.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dollet~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Damn you boy. What the hell do you think you're doing?" a strong looking man picked up his son by the back of his neck and shook him.
"Leave him alone Darrel," the man's wife cried.
The man threw the boy at her and said, "That's right you just go baby him forever Liza. See what good it'll do ya. You'll just turn him into a big sissy."
The boy's eyes started to fill with tears that he would not let fall. Darrel left.
"Seifer are you okay?" Liza asked.
"Yeah mom I'm fine, and one day everything here is going to be fine. I'm gonna grow up and train to become strong then I'm gonna come back here for you. He won't be able to stop me," he told her.
"You shouldn't think about hurting your father."
"Why not? He hurts us all the time. I'm gonna get strong and show him how it feels to be beaten."
"Oh Seifer. You shouldn't do that. Go and train to get strong but go protect others don't fight your father."
"Yes mom." "That's my good son. The son I know ands love." Liza hugged her son.
"Where do you think you're going to go train?" she asked.
"Well I was hoping you could convince dad to pay for lessons."
"What you don't want to go to a Garden like your friends Fujin and Rajin."
"Nah. I wanna stay here and protect you."
"Honey you don't have to do that. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Tomorrow we'll get your father to sign you up for whichever Garden you want. You'll not be kept from your dreams on my account."
"Thanks mom you're the best." Seifer leaned against his mom and she put her arm around his shoulder, just mother and son for now, no worries about the father, just happy to be in each other's presence.