Claire Notices Things

The first one to notice when Vanille and Hope's friendship took a turn toward the romantic wasn't Fang or Lightning. It wasn't even Serah, despite the fact that Vanille spent at least a few hours each week at the pink haired woman's house gossiping while Claire and Snow quietly snuck ice cream out of the fridge (the ice cream always tasted better that way). No, the first person to notice anything was Claire.

It happened on a day at the park. Her mommy and daddy were spending the day with her Aunt Lightning and her Aunt Fang. Her daddy called it a couple's day or something like that. All Claire knew was that her mommy practically skipped out the door while her Aunt Lightning scowled at everything, even the rose bush on the front lawn. Most people would have been scared when her Aunt Lightning started scowling like that, but Claire had seen so it so much she barely even noticed. It would have been scarier if her Aunt Lightning started grinning all the time like her Aunt Fang.

So while her mommy and daddy were out with her Aunt Lightning and Aunt Fang, she spent the day with her Aunt Vanille and Uncle Hope. Diana and Averia were there too, of course, and after lunch they all went to the park. At the park, she and Averia spent all their time looking for plants for their school project while Diana spent her time on the swings with some of her friends who'd also come to the park.

At first, everything was like it always was. Diana made loud, happy noises and Averia frowned a lot since she knew her plant would probably die soon (Averia's plants always died). But as Diana waved goodbye to her friends, something different happened, and Claire noticed something.

Diana grabbed her Aunt Vanille with one hand and her Uncle Hope with the other and dragged the two adults over to the climbing frame. And that's when her Aunt Vanille looked first at Diana and then at her Uncle Hope. It wasn't the usual look – the one that said she was happy to help Diana make mischief – it was something else, something deeper that Claire couldn't quite understand. Her mommy and daddy looked at her that way sometimes, and when they did, she always felt so loved, like she was the most precious thing in the world. Then her Aunt Vanille looked at her Uncle Hope and it was the exact same look her mommy always gave her daddy. And just like that Claire knew.

Her Aunt Vanille and her Uncle Hope were in love. Maybe they didn't know it yet, or maybe they didn't want to tell anyone, but they were in love as surely as her mommy and her daddy were.

As the two adults watched Diana climb all over the climbing frame, Claire put her plant down and sat on a tree stump. Should she tell someone?

"Averia," Claire asked as the other girl continued to look for more plants, enough that she'd have something left for school even if most of them died. "If Aunt Vanille was with someone – you know like how my mommy is with my daddy – what would your mommy do?"

"Spear them." Averia shrugged. "And then my mom would probably help her hide the body."

"Oh." Claire winced. Maybe it would be better if she didn't say anything at all, at least for now. "Hey, why don't you let me look after your plant? That way it won't die, and we can go play with Diana."

Averia Notices Things

Averia knew what love was – at least she was pretty sure she did. Love was all about looking after the people you cared about and punching anything that tried to hurt them. Sure there were things she couldn't punch (like the cold that had Diana sniffling and wheezing for a week, or the shyness that made some of her friends at school afraid to talk to new people), but there was plenty of stuff she could punch. If anyone messed with Diana, they'd get punched. And if anyone messed with Claire, they'd get punched too (if Claire didn't get them first). And if something or someone was too big for her to punch, then she'd just wait until she was bigger too.

There was other stuff too when it came to love… mushy stuff that was in those books she read sometimes even though she probably wasn't supposed to (but then why did her Aunt Serah leave them out?). Like, when people loved each other, they did stuff like kissing and touching and… and… other things (she skipped over those bits as much as she could, but sometimes the book just opened there, and it wasn't her fault if she read a bit). And people were supposed to say stuff too, hopefully with wine and roses and lots of other things that cost a lot of money and didn't make much sense to her.

She'd seen some of that other stuff. Her mommy and her mom kissed all the time (and she'd tried to get them to stop doing it where she could see them, but they never listened!), and her mommy and mom always said they loved each other. Sure, her mom kind of whispered, but her mommy said it loudly and with a big smile on her face and her mom would blush and scowl at the same time and sometimes try to punch her mommy in the head. But Averia could tell her mom wasn't really annoyed, since the punch was always so slow even she could have dodged it, and her mommy would always grin, grab her mom's hand and kiss it. It was weird.

But she'd never understood love – not really – until one night, she got thirsty and went downstairs for a glass of juice. It wasn't that late – her clock said it was a bit after midnight – so her parents might still be awake. She crept downstairs and then stopped at the door into the living room. The lights were off, but there was music playing, nice music, like the music she was learning to play on the piano. It was the music they played in all the movies when people were dancing in dresses and suits and fancy things.

And her parents were dancing.

Sort of.

Her mommy was holding her mom from behind, her arms wrapped around her mom's waist, her head resting on her mom's shoulder. The two of them were just swaying to the music with their eyes closed and their lips almost touching. There was enough light coming from the hallway for Averia to make out their faces, and for a second, she almost didn't recognise them.

Her mom was supposed to be calm and stern, but right now, there was a gentle smile on her face, one that made her look like she was dreaming something nice. And her mommy wasn't grinning, or laughing, or smiling so widely it made Averia wonder how anyone could have a smile so big. No, her mommy had that same gentle look on her face, and the two of them – her mom and her mommy – were talking, whispering so quietly that Averia couldn't make out the words.

She needed to go past them to get to the kitchen, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. They looked… they looked right like that, like it was how they were meant to be, and it would have been wrong to make them stop. Some things were too nice and pretty to touch, and she knew, somehow, that this was one of them. So she turned around and went back to bed. She could always get her glass of juice in the morning.

The next morning, she went to school, but all she could think about was what she'd seen. She couldn't put it into words, couldn't find a way to talk about it. But it was something that would stick with her, something she'd forget after a while only to remember later when she was old enough to love someone the way her parents loved each other: her mommy and her mom dancing in the dark as perfect as anything could be.

Diana Notices Things (Sort Of)

Arguing was awesome, and sometimes Diana did it just for fun since her sister was so easy to tease. Sometimes she'd ask silly questions, like whether Gary could beat Mr Snaggles in a fight (which was stupid since everyone knew a gorgonopsid couldn't beat a dragon in a fight), and Averia's eyes would get all narrow and she'd scowl exactly like their mom.

Most people would get scared and run away, but Diana never did. Averia hardly ever got mad at her for real, and even when she did, she never stayed mad for long. Then, once she was done scowling, Averia would start talking, explaining why Diana was wrong with big words and big gestures, and she'd go on and on and on. That was when things got fun. Diana would grin – and she grinned like a mix of her mommy and her Aunt Vanille – and say: "I thought so."

It always took Averia a few seconds to understand that Diana had tricked her again (Diana always knew the answer to the question she asked), and then she'd lunge, hands like claws. But Diana would be one step ahead, running away and laughing at the same time. Averia wouldn't hurt her, but she would definitely noogie her if she could catch her.

Diana wasn't the only one in their family who liked arguing either. In fact, she noticed that everyone in her family liked arguing. Her mommy and mom argued all the time. Sometimes it was about weapons (was a spear or a sword better? Diana wasn't sure, but she'd rather have a dragon), or about Eidolons (Mr Snaggles was way better than Odin), but lots of times it was about little things that didn't matter all that much. But the whole time, no matter how loudly they were arguing, they were smiling. Well, her mommy was smiling, grinning like she usually was, but her mom would have that little lip twitch that meant she was having fun, and her eyes would go all bright and blue and happy.

Sometimes her friends saw her parents arguing, and they wondered why that didn't make Diana sad. Lots of people's parents argued, but those arguments were different. Those parents got all red in the face and they said mean things that made the other person act like they'd been punched and their eyes weren't happy at all – they were red and puffy and no one was smiling.

One time, one of her classmate's parents had started yelling at each other at the front gate of the school. Everyone had stared, but they'd kept on yelling and yelling and her classmate had run away and hidden in a tree. Diana knew because it was her favourite tree, and she'd gone up there to offer some of her candy since candy always made her feel better when she was sad.

But her friends didn't understand. Some people liked arguing. It made them happy, and they weren't mean about it. It was like how she and Averia would fight sometimes. It was always for fun, and they never hit each other hard enough to hurt.

So long as her mommy and her mom had happy eyes when they were fighting, she knew it was only for fun. And they weren't the only ones to argue either. Her mom argued with her Uncle Snow all the time, but she could tell that it was only for fun too. Her mom would scowl and growl and shake her fist, but her eyes were warm, not cold, and her Uncle Snow would grin and laugh. It was the same with her Aunt Serah. Sometimes her Aunt Serah would grab her mom and start lecturing (her Aunt Serah was almost as good at that as her mom) and her mom would lecture back, and they'd both stare and scowl. But in the end, her mom would give in (she always gave in to her Aunt Serah) and the two of them would smile again and her mom would mutter something about "troublesome little sisters" while her mommy looked at Aunt Vanille and nodded.

Yep, lots of people liked arguing in her family.

Maybe she should go argue with Averia now. There was still another half an hour until that show about the ocean came on. But what should she argue about? She saw the pizza coupon pinned to the fridge and grinned. They could argue about what the best flavour of pizza was. It didn't matter that they liked the same flavour. All she had to do was say one thing and Averia would start lecturing. Averia wouldn't even notice what was going on until it was too late. And if Diana got into trouble, her mommy (also known as "the safe zone") was on the couch.

Hehehehe.

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off of this.

Children see a lot of things, but not all of them make sense until they are older. Some things (like romantic love), we can't ever understand until we're old enough to feel it for ourselves. Other things, like our families, we can't ever appreciate properly until we've seen other families that don't fit together as well. This chapter was trying to capture some of that feeling of puzzlement and wonder (and sadness too, sometimes) that children feel when they see things.

With regards to the final part (Diana's), this is something I've noticed in my life. My sister and I are very close, but if you listened to us to talk to each other sometimes, you'd think we dislike each other. We regularly throw insults of varying degrees of cleverness at each other, but those insults are always delivered with genuine affection. I consider it a mark of how well we get along that she can tell me I'm full of crap whenever she thinks I'm being ridiculous (which seems to be very often), and that we often discuss when would be the best time to kick the other in the back (the answer is: whenever the other isn't looking). All of the best friends I've ever had were people I could argue with, and I think there's a lot to be said about not having to temper your words around someone because you understand each other well enough to know when words are meant in jest and good humour, and when they are meant in malice.

Finally, in my profile you can find links to my blog and deviant art. I've recently put up a post talking about what I would ship if I didn't ship FLight! Redkid11 has also made a wonderful comic covering Chapter 12 of Whispers of the Gods. It's called 'The Broken Sword' and I have a link to her deviant art in my profile as well. Check it out!

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.