Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII. Fujin, Seifer, and Ultimecia belong to Squaresoft. I make no money from this. Insert witty comment here.
"orphandreaming" by code_epic.
Rating: PG-13.
Word Count: 500.
Warnings: Sappy bed scene.
Spoilers: A very oblique reference to what happens to Seifer in the end.
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orphandreaming
She wonders what he sees, in those dark folds between one dream and the next. (not separate discrete units dreams really are
an undulating river with whorls eddies dancings of
silver memories fantasies all repetitions riffs on a handful of the same few
hopes worn smooth small like some child s worrystones.)
At the Garden she was told that all orphans dream of home.
(about dreams the sorceress told her about their power such that the special holy insane ones touched by hyne can reach into the dreamriver ride the currents wings catching nightmares if she catches enough she can unlink past from future cause from effect.) It may be that he sees a timeworn stone house by the dark cerulean ocean, where the air is not salty as one would expect. (but sweet as flowers
thousands of them a whole field of wildflowers cant you smell them daughter? yes daughter I said.)
Amid the eerie chambers of Lunatic Pandora, during one of the rare moments she was not shadowing Seifer, she had been approached. She remembers only how the jagged edge of her black wings bled onto the air, one plane of reality superimposing itself over another.
(you charmed cursed windchild too are touched by hyne cant you feel it a secret heartdream tucked behind your ribs pulsing slowly like the tide powerful as all the world s oceans wouldnt you like to wake it up?) Remembered also are unfathomable gold eyes that do not look at her but at her dreams. (wake it up see his dreams? you lie awake i know at nights wondering what he dreams of.)
Late every night in the still hours when the stars hanging low over Balamb Ocean are cold pinprick contradictions to the fire that drove--drives? will drive?--Ultimecia, she rouses herself and watches the man sleeping beside her. His face is gentle and slack, revealing nothing of his dreams. (glory crosses of scarlet or of blood crusade battles grinding bodies down into pulp gunblades clanging flashing
scars
romance knight and his sorceress devotion eclipsing time itself but in the end swallowed in the end by time compression crushed into meaninglessness childhood s river broken what is left? what is left oh matron what is left what is left what is--)
His face is weary and beautiful. She wonders if, in the end after all, he dreams simply of home. (how can you choose no? how can you not want the power the dreams his dreams
his?) This night she shivers, and Seifer opens one eye. The usual jade color of his iris is bleached sea-green by the moonlight. Wordlessly, still half-asleep, he gathers her thin form to his bare chest. She feels like she is being wrapped in warmth, with his arm folded along her back so his callused hand rests on her hip, and she can hear his slumber-slow heartbeat. "Dream of me," he mumbles, and the revelation that they both are home spears Fujin's heart sweetly.
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Reviews and feedback are appreciated, as well as (I need amusement) flames. Many thanks to Kitian and Pretty Green Eyes for taking the time to review my first FF.net story, "Through A Mirror Darkly." More of my writing can be found on my LJ, which is linked to in my author profile.