DISCLAIMER: Characters/setting/etc not mine liek whoa. Square pwns your souls.

02. Smile

You don't smile much, do you?

Zack had been the first to make that observation. I supposed it was true; I didn't have a lot to smile about. Or I thought I didn't. Even after Sephiroth was dead, really dead this time, the relief I felt only lasted a short time. I couldn't find reasons to smile, simply because I never really had. I can't say how that happened really... It seemed a shame to have spent 23 years alive, and having so few reasons to laugh or smile.

But standing in that spring, surrounded by laughing children who were so happy, splashing water at each other and me, or just throwing it up in the air. I couldn't help but smile at their antics. I ought to take a lesson from them, I thought, looking around. I recognized a lot of them from the Forgotten Capital, pawns under Kadaj's promise of being cured. Children who'd been afflicted by Geostigma, and hadn't forgotten the joy in their young lives.. I could learn from that.

Then I saw her.

No... It couldn't be...

But it was. Exactly as I remembered her, pink dress, steel-toed boots, ponytail and all. She was crouching, talking to a pair of children on the floor, children who hung onto her every word, even as she rose and started to walk away. Every muscle and bone in my body froze, and even my breath seemed to stop in my throat. I wanted to say something, do something.. but I couldn't. Even less so, when I saw what she was walking towards... and who waited there.

If I believed in a supreme being, I would have been on my knees, begging for forgiveness. The two people I worried most about having to see in whatever afterlife there may be. The two people I felt personally responsible for their untimely deaths. How could I tell them how sorry I was? I had sat back and watched them die. And how could I apologize for butchering Zack's personality so badly?

How could I meet them again, with a face that wasn't clouded by guilt?

Nearly at the portal where nothing but white beyond, she stopped, and turned. She was so far away, but I could still hear her voice as clear as if she was standing next to me. Then she smiled in that way of hers, turned back, and walked into the white with confidence.

My eyes darted to the side.

He tipped his head, gave a casual wave, and also disappeared.

I felt a smile stretching my lips... what an odd sensation. Finally, I felt... almost at peace. We would talk later. For now, I had friends. And reasons to smile.