Author's Note: I haven't written anything even remotely close to fanfiction in years, so bear with me here. This is just a little something that popped into my head and I figured I'd scribble it down in hopes that it'll get me writing again. Kind of pointless and random, no real pairings, but there's possible Valenwind if you want to see it that way, but it's also completely possible to look at it as friendship. Concrit is more than welcome, and yes, I know, my paragraph structure is pretty awful. Enjoy!
Description: Little Marlene, with the help of Reno, decides to draw the AVALANCHE men pictures of what she thinks they love best.
The Things We Love Best
"But Cloud told me not to interrupt the grownups when they're talking," Barret, Cloud, Cid and Vincent looked up from their drinks as they heard Marlene's small voice speak up suddenly, followed by a loud laugh from the redhead.
"I'm sure it'll be just fine this time, Marlene," he spoke cheerfully, guiding the child towards the table. "You can tell them it was all my fault, they don't like me anyway." The small girl nodded happily and marched proudly up to the table where the four warriors sat.
"Me and Mr. Reno drew you pictures," she spoke as-a-matter-of-factly, glancing down at the papers in her tiny hands before passing them out to the respective owners. "We wanted to make pictures of happy things. Mr. Reno drew the pictures and I colored them in."
The little pieces of art were full of a certain comic beauty that none of them could deny. Intricate, artful sketches overlaid with the heartfelt chaos of a child's truest attempt at coloring. For a party of men as rough around the edges as that particular lot, all their mouths hung agape with wonder and their silence drew Tifa across the bar to see firsthand what had left them so awestruck.
The first shoulder she leaned over was Barret and the mountain of a man was barely containing his sniffles. The most prominent feature in the picture, of course, was the man himself standing front and center with Marlene in his arms, but they stood not in Seventh Heaven where the two most often saw each other, but in Corel. Corel as it had been before the fire that changed everything for the AVALANCHE founder. In the clouds, wispy and barely visible was the figure of a smiling woman, which could only have been the presence of Myrna, even though the features were vague and generic. But of course they were, the two didn't know what she had looked like.
Next, she peered at Cloud's, which was more of a collage of images than a happy scene. Inside a beaten down old church, the entire planet perched itself upon a pedestal of a single yellow lily and standing around it in a pool of water was the entire AVALANCHE crew, smiling. In the dreamlike, watery reflection of the group, two additional figures appeared. Smiling wider than the rest were Aeris and Zack flanking Cloud himself on each side.
Cid was having a difficult time picking out each specific detail of his, but he knew that the picture as a whole had slapped him right upside the head. He appeared, flying the Tiny Bronco amongst crimson stars, each fiery sphere holding one of his friends. His airship could be seen in the distance, parked on the Cheshire face of the moon. Tifa wasn't surprised to see that the ghostly mouth of the moon held a smoking cigarette.
Approaching the last of the four, Tifa glanced from the paper to Vincent, to Reno and Marlene and lastly back to Vincent who simply gazed resolutely at the drawing. After seeing the others', the bartender had expected to find a portrait of Vincent obscured and alone somewhere in the darkness, but boy, was she wrong. Vincent was kneeling in the center of the photo and in place of his cloak were enormous white wings, casting a halo of light around him. His head was down, but he was smiling, surrounded by the same people that surrounded him now, all looking on with tearful joy. The whole thing was so bright, as if the paper itself was glowing, but neither of them could tear their eyes away from it.
"Don't look at me like that. Marlene here is the one that told me what should be in them. I just drew them the best way I could figure, yo." Reno finally broke the silence, tossing his shoulders into a casual shrug as he lit up a cigarette and flopped into the chair next to Cloud.
"Don't you guys like them?" Marlene asked nervously, a slight tinge of disappointment finding its way into her tiny voice as she fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. Thinking maybe she should explain them, just in case the men were confused, she began her own way around the table, starting with her father.
"We wanted you to have reminders of the things that make you happy," she started wisely, "things that you love... that way even when you're far away, you won't forget and get sad. See, Daddy, yours is of home and our family, there's me and you and Miss Myrna up in the clouds looking down at us, like she really does." Barrett sniffled loudly, trying to pass it off as though he was clearing his throat as she moved on to Cid.
"And Uncle Cid, yours is up in space in your plane, 'cause Tifa says you like flying and being free best of all." Then she gestured at the people on the stars. "So you can be free and fly until you can't fly anymore, but when you need someone, no matter which star you land on you'll have a friend to help you."
She moved on determinedly.
"Cloud, yours was the hardest 'cause you love lots of things, that's why the whole planet is on there. And there's me and Denzel and Tifa and everyone else and I told Mr. Reno to make Uncle Cid smoking but he said that that was not one of the things you like about him, so I changed my mind." This drew a simultaneous snort of laughter from both Cloud and the pilot as they both knew she was right. "And the flowerlady and your friend are with you in the water, 'cause just 'cause they died doesn't mean they're gone as long as we remember them... Right, Tifa?" Marlene looked a little bit unsure about this concept, but the martial artists reassuring, albeit tear-filled smile made her feel much better.
Marlene looked extremely nervous as she moved around to the other side of the table and approached the sniper. She knew Vincent wasn't as scary as he sometimes tried to be, but Cloud had taken the time to explain to her one day that he didn't like to talk about his feelings and that was why certain questions she asked were a little bit inappropriate.
"I like yours the most, Uncle Vincent," she admitted innocently and slid a bit closer. "That's you in the middle the way other people see you and I thought that would make you the happiest, that's why you're smiling. And 'cause you should smile more in real life. Cloud and Tifa like to talk about how you want to be forgiven for the bad things you used to do, but I think…" She paused for a second, her little eyebrows knitting together in deep concentration before she shook her head. "But I just know you've already been forgiven, because bad people don't have all these really good friends, and bad people aren't loved by lots of people like you. And I don't think really bad people can love, either and we know you love us, even when you're being a goddamned grumpy old bastard like Uncle Cid says." If not for the sentiment she was trying to express, the Captain was pretty damn sure Tifa would have whooped him all the way back to Rocket Town for that one, if not simply for the smug grin on his face. "So now you can be happier, because it should only matter if you're forgiven by people that love you and we did that a long time ago and when we look at you, we see you like this and I wanted you to remember that wherever you go. So, yeah…" Her words slipped into a yawn as she rubbed her drowsy eyes, offering no objections when Tifa scooped her up to bring her to bed.
None of the men could muster up the words to thank her for their pictures, but the fact that they were all smiling softly was enough for her. After all, that was the thing that made Marlene the happiest.
"Hey, kid?" Cid hollered gruffly, taking one more thorough glance at the drawing before him, and though they were already halfway up the stairs, Marlene lifted her head from Tifa's shoulder to look back at him with a curious smile. "How come you made all the stars red?"
"Cause red reminds you of one of the things you love best," she said simply, sleepily. "And you forgave him first."