ii. Deus tantum me iudicabit
Selphie notes how close they're standing to each other.
'It's been such a long time.' Almost shoulder to shoulder. Her memories are always collecting sepia tones, but she has to remind herself it's only the wind, the cold late-winter afternoon and the human instinct of gathering together to keep warm that has brought them together this time. And Squall, for the last time. It's all they've got now, really. Memories and compulsions. It's a sad existence
She's missed their faces though, she's realized. And Selphie almost smiles. But the gap of doing and almost is far too wide and deep to jump.
Everyone's leaving. Quietly, they've packed into their cars and driven off. Five silhouettes still linger by the graveside. They've descended the hill and stood a ways away to give them the privacy of grief. They still glance upwards from time to time, however. To watch, and wait for their turn.
And Selphie, she sees as well. Her eyes still hold a glimmer of sun even after so many years of iron clouds. So instead of graves she watches the faces she hasn't seen in a long time, and smiles at the frost sparkling in Quistis' hair. She is glad for its presence.
"Are you staying?" She asks quietly. Her optimism might not be quenched, but her voice as of late is now softer. Less prone to singing, but of soothing instead. Many late nights she's had to talk away ghosts and dark phantoms.
Her friend turns away from the hill, and smiles. "Maybe. I'm not sure yet. I've missed all of you, though."
'I believe it', Selphie thinks, 'I do. But I'm right here now; why do you still stand so apart from me?'
A frustrated sound comes from beside her, and she watches worriedly as he suddenly turns his back on them and strides a little ways away. Selphie know that now everyone will have noticed what she's had to see. No matter how tall she tries to build him up, he has become small. His hat tilts up to the sky and smoke curls into the air.
"Irvine." She calls cautiously. "Please."
He doesn't reply. The ground is stiff with ice. It chills them down to the bones. The congregation of shadows begins their way down the hill. Selphie starts to reach for him.
"Why did she suddenly come back?" He suddenly questions, before she is able to touch him. His words shatter the thin veneer of frost that has trembled underneath the day's noise. Selphie stops. "Why?"
Eyes of sunshine. They threaten to spill over, and match the gold of the ring on her left hand. To fall and be absorbed into the dirt. Selphie notes how far apart they are. 'It's been such a long time.'
Of them, Quistis is the first to lift her head at the squeal of tires that shatter the frosted silence and before long, the slamming of the car door. The frantic calling. The approaching footsteps.
Dark forms make their way towards them from both sides. Irvine turns one way, Quistis the other. Selphie looks up at the gray skies and wonders.
'Was this what you tried to escape, Rinoa?'