Sorry for the late and AU. 8) Fairy tale-ish. Expect…*shrug* iono, illogical stuff? Sorry for errors.
For The Sacred and Profane, Two Gems. And Elly is his.
He balled his fists in rage and stormed away from his laughing friends. Over a distance, fairly obscured by trees, a lone ivory statue perched on a pedestal with one hand on her obviously large belly. A statue of a pregnant woman, something weird thought to have existed since the town was established. The young redhead looked up at her.
"Yer smilin', yo," he told her. "…as always."
True. A soft smile was carved on her perfect symmetrical face and she always had her head hung low, gazing to her womb with her two garnets, like how a mother lovingly expected a child.
He continued to stare at her. Sitting at his favorite spot beside her, he began telling about a dare he accepted, just to please a girl he had a crush on, who was with the others. His friends had dared him to stay with the statue for twenty minutes alone at night.
"Sometimes I wish someone would look at me. Not as whom I was born as, but as myself."
Silence. He sighed. The hell… I'm talking to a piece of rock.
A clear voice interrupted his train of thoughts and a dark shadow flitted down to the ground from nowhere, right in front of him and the statue.
"You sound like a girl, yapping away like that." He gawked. It was a girl, around his age. Where had she come from? Finding his words, he cleared his throat.
"Tch. Can't help it. No one to talk to."
The girl smiled. "Then allow me to accompany you for the twenty minutes."
They talked, until he realized, it was midnight. More than just twenty minutes. Hours, even.
"Yo, I didn't get to know your name—"
The girl had vanished, and he stared back at the statue. On closer inspection, their hair lengths were the same, dropping to the waist. He clicked his tongue in annoyance and left. The next night, even without any dare whatsoever, he returned to the statue. He glanced around to look for her. There was not even a slightest rustle, a change in air pressure around him, or shadows. Sighing, he sat on that same spot.
"Hello," her voice suddenly chirped in. He smirked at the source. She was sitting at the other end of the pedestal so now they were sandwiching the statue.
"I thought you're not gonna come, babe," he said. She shrugged unresponsively.
"I might. If you don't sigh. So how's Elena? Or was it Yuffie? No, no, no. Did you get to impress Aerith?" she asked him excitedly. She was crawling across the lap to his side of the pedestal and slipped accidentally, making both of them topple off. He broke their fall and she laughed. He ended gazing into her intense dark eyes.
Brown. Red rings—like garnet.
They parted, coughing and clearing their throats.
"Just so you know, I'm not into impressing anyone right now," he said. She pouted.
"Not even me?" she asked. He grinned, knowing that the girl wasn't just an ordinary girl.
"I'd give it a try. Let's start with your name."
"I'm Tifa Lockhart."
They resumed talking until midnight, and that was when she would disappear without a trail. They had made a friend out of each other, though he knew that there was more to their relationship than meets the eye. Being with her simply made him forgot about everything around him, and he was sure he was smitten. He kept his thoughts mostly to himself, though. This went on for months, and things led to things. One night, she was the one who waited for him, leaning on the statue itself.
"Do you know her story?" Tifa asked him, staring up to the two garnets embedded on the statue's face. He shrugged, clearly not knowing what to say. In fact, no one knew.
"She was waiting. She had a companion. They were blessed and cursed. He died, leaving her alone with her unborn child. She died soon after. After their rebirth, the cycle continued. It is sad. On her last death, she vowed to alter the curse but she wasn't heard from ever since."
"Ehh…" he mumbled. "What the fuck ever. I don't give a shit." All in all, he didn't really listen to her except for the last part, 'wasn't heard from ever since'. She laughed, in fact that was the only time she laughed…before disappearing.
"I won't be returning soon," she announced one night. That caught his attention and he scowled. She's gonna leave me? He never liked the fact that she always vanished into thin air. He couldn't find his voice, trying to hold her back for whatever reason he could think of. His eyes glanced everywhere, lost and looking for a reason but he then watched her tiptoe and reached for the two garnets and handed him one.
"As a parting gift," she said, grinning.
"Fer real?" She nodded.
"The entire cursed statue was mine. I have the right of what to do with it. 'Til we meet again, Reno."
And this time, he got to see how she left. She was engulfed in flames and the statue melted into dusts, flowing with the night wind. He clenched the gem in his hand. A feeling of loss overwhelmed him. They said that absence makes the heart grow fonder. It was true for him. He let the warm moisture pour down, just this once.
"I never did get to tell her my name."
He gazed at the empty spot. He was older now, wiser. His heart was taken away the first time he met her there. He had struggled to remember her small tale about the statue. The same breeze breathed, refusing to forget her existence like he did. She wasn't there yet, he noted. Upon turning to leave, a little girl bumped to him and they stared for a long time.
He was looking at the dark orbs of the beautiful child and her hair was waist-length, as red as his. He saw her and him in that child. Shaking his head furiously, he ruffled her hair.
"Sorry, kid," he muttered. She shook her head and smiled. More memories of her flashed within his mind.
"I'm okay. Are you?"
"…Think so." She scrutinized him, unconvinced. She placed something small and round on his palm.
"Here. Mama told me to give it to someone who wants to heal a broken heart."
A red garnet, the same one of the pair.
"I'm Elhaym Van Lockhart. What's your name?"
Lockhart. The name that never failed to leave his memory.
"Re—"
"Elly?" a familiar voice called.
He glanced up, seeing the girl run up to a dark-haired woman. She spun her head when the girl called her 'mama'. He met her gaze.
"Tifa…"
Tifa smiled as she walked to him with Elly at her side. "…I'm back, Reno." The curse had broken.
-- -- --
"Papa, that's a good story!" Elly snuggled up to him. "Isn't it, mama?" Tifa nodded and smiled down at her.
"Mmhm."
"Papa, question!" Reno raised his eyebrow. "Where do I come from?" Tifa stifled a laugh.
"You came from your mother's belly, of course," he said after a pause. Elly began tickling his sides.
"Wrong! Mama said I came from a fairy tale!" Reno struggled to get away from his daughter's attack. He grabbed a pillow and grinned at both of them.
"If that's what she said, she'll receive divine punishment from me."
"Yay! Mama, join us!"
"Oh. No—" Squeals and gasps.
Reno and his two gems started their pillow fight and lying on the bed table, the familiar two garnets sparkled.