Chapter four: Sarah
AN:
madmaz - thank you very much.
Eika - Hehe, well you should know me better. Lol. If I can be mean, I will be!
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His heart feeling lighter then it had the day before, Zidane hummed to himself as he bounded down the steps into the dungeon; the two knights on duty snapped salutes as he appeared. Looking past the guards, Zidane grinned at Vivi who was sitting on the bench, swinging his legs absently; this was a definite improvement over the day before. "It's a good thing you spoke to Laudo yesterday sir," one of the knights told him with a smile. "He came back to the mess blubbering like a babe, hilarious in it's way but also kind of touching sir."
Haagen jerked his head towards Vivi, "He's seemed a lot better today sir, I'd forgotten that he was something other then a pair of wings of late. I think he tried to say thanks for breakfast even if he didn't keep it down, like usual." Despite how worried by this he was, Zidane smiled when Vivi shot Haagen a very hard look; he may well have been silenced but his hearing was fine. He grabbed the writing stuff from the day before, Haagen opened the door for him and Zidane nodded a quick thanks.
Vivi moved to kneel on the ground next to the bed, so that he could lean on it to write; Zidane passed him the writing equipment with a smile. "I'd do something about your clothes if I could it's … disgusting." Almost as soon as Vivi started to write, the genome realised what he was going to put.
'Nowhere as near as disgusting as the things I did, Zidane.'
Companionably, Zidane rested a hand on the waltz shoulder for a moment. "Your worse then the rest of us when you want to punish yourself. It wasn't your fault." He offered, knowing that Vivi had always been good at finding the fault in himself, this was just one ,ore reason for him to hate himself. "How are you feeling today?" Vivi shook his lowered head; not sure if this meant he felt bad or if it meant he didn't know, Zidane sighed. "Why do u keep being sick? I thought yesterday was the first time but Haagen said you've not kept a thing down." This drew no response from the waltz, "I'll guess then, your reliving it vividly and your sickened by what you did." The waltz nodded, his good wing folded around himself as the broken one drooped down his back. "I guess your always going to have to live with that, and it's…"
"Daddy are you down here?" Sarah's voice called, small footsteps taking the stairs two at a time as she jogged down the steps. There was a thud behind Zidane as Vivi lowered his head onto the bench, he was not certain he was ready to see her yet. "Hello Mr.Knight have you seen my dad?" The 8 year old asked of Haagen, who looked towards the cell.
"I'm in here, Sarah."
She turned to face the cell and Zidane moved to the door so she could see him; she looked passed him to the folded form of the godfather. "He looks all broken," she murmured, her eyes still on the wounded Waltz. "It was easy to hate him and be angry when he was all big and scary and his eyes were red but now… he just looks sad."
A proud smile met Zidane's face as he looked at his daughter, "Do you want to come in Sarah?" He queried, knowing that Sarah still adored her favourite uncle, and that he loved her in return. If she could find it in her heart to forgive him, despite how badly hurt she'd been, then anyone could.
Memories of his assault on Sarah corrupted the front of Vivi's brain as he listened to the young summoner talk; her tiny features had been stained by blood and tears as she looked at him with desperation and confusion in her eyes. He had enjoyed in, he had relished the look of fear in her eyes as he readied the spell that would kill her. Frantically, Vivi ducked his head and battled against the nausea that threatened to overtake him, scribbling something on a sheet of parchment.
Something hit Zidane in the back, he turned to look questioningly to Vivi; the Waltz did not look back, quite clearly trying to stop himself from being sick, head buried in his folded arms that were rested on the bed. Zidane reached down to pick up the note, reading it before turning the sheet around to show Sarah. 'I am so so sorry Sarah,'
Bravely, the little girl nodded but there was an obvious tremble in her lip as she fought against her fears; at only eight years old, she had had to face an awful ordeal that few people had to face. There had always been talk of what the heroes wanted for their children, and nobody wanted them to face the same things that they had on their adventure. "Alright Haagen, let the bravest princess in." Zidane instructed noticing the worried look that the knight flicked to Vivi; the Genome smiled at Haagen slightly. "It'll be okay, Vivi's not going to hurt her; I'll break his other wing myself if he tries it."
Vivi forced himself upright and moved to join Zidane, prodding his friend in the side playfully. "Okay, okay, I'm kidding, stop with the pointy. I'm not gonna touch your wing." This good humoured repartee did not have the desired effect as Sarah looked anywhere but at Vivi, the Waltz crouched to her level and seeing him do this, Zidane nodded in understanding. The Genome crouched to his daughters level next to Vivi, "Sarah, honey, please look up." The child did so, expecting to only see her father but to be greeted by both of them.
There was a small sad smile to the air as Vivi looked into Sarah's blue eyes, "Your all yellow again," The princess said in an awed voice, snaking a hand toward her Godfather's face as Zidane smiled proudly. Vivi crouched perfectly still, not wanting to scare Sarah or to force her into accepting that he was not going to hurt her. "I didn't think I'd ever see the yellow you ever again."
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AN: A step in the right direction, a faultering towards understanding. Will this continue? Find out in chapter 5 of Forever Damaged - Family