~1000~

Only Heaven

a Songstress and a BlitzBall Player

In honor of the love couple, Shuin and Lenne.

Pardon me, for I have never played FFX-2 before.

As always

Mysterio000

p.s. the almighty one!

*

It was another tiring day after a long game of BlitzBall under the scorching sun. Sturdy and handsome Shuin who stood at a towering height quickly dried his blond wisps of hair that were drenched with beads of perspiration before he grabbed his sling bag and made his way out of the stadium. As expected, a humongous crowd of screaming fans started to squeeze in, despite the protests of the security guards that were struggling to keep the excitement down.

Quickly wanting to get out of here as soon as possible, Shuin threw a smile as he hastily signed his autograph for several girl fanatics that were beginning to jump on him. Behind, the door yanked open and the rest of his teammates strolled out. There were even more screams and the crowd began to move towards the larger group. Shuin took this chance to sneak out of the doorway.

Once outside, he instantly welcomed the cool evening air that greeted him. His footsteps picked up a leisurely pace and he decided to grab a bite somewhere to quell the growl in his stomach. Silently glad that it had been another successful game after he had scored the last goal for the team, it was time to disappear into the city and relax.

An immediate picture formed in his head. A certain picture of a beautiful lady and the familiar sparkle in her hazel eyes. As usual, he felt his heart beginning to beat several notches faster and he hastened his pace in anticipation.

Valentino, he remembered. He would head to Valentino Bar tonight for a cup of cider. If he had not been wrong, she would be there tonight with a performance. She had informed him just yesterday that the manager at the bar had paid her quite an amount to sing in that posh place. Shuin couldn't help feeling rather proud himself either.

The moment he stepped into Valentino, his bluish eyes shot to the stage. It was still dimmed in the darkness and he could not wait to see it light with his angel on the stage.

On cue with the minute hand that striked 2100 hours on the wall clock, the lights surrounding the stage began to shine all sorts of beams upon it. Blue, pink, purple all meshed into one uplifted the radiance of the stage, beginning to dance around it with such magic. The effect was immediate and it caught hold of everyone's attention, having his or her pair of eyes trained upon it. Shuin was no exceptional.

And then she came.

There were wolf whistles and plenty of applause. Anticipation was high up in the air as she took her entrance onto the stage once more.

Like what everybody remembered her by, her hair, a rare dark wheat color that matched the attractive pair of hazel orbs in her eyes, flowed down to the long of her back. There was no question to the silkiness of her well-kept tresses that swayed behind when she made her way to the center of the stage.

She donned a pale purple outfit that highlighted her perfect outlines even more, if that was ever possible. Her top vest laced with thick ruffles of white traveled all the way down to her thighs. Her black mini skirt held secure by a belt with a silver buckle showed off her slim legs and her brown tight-fitting boots. Her ivory arms were embraced with wraps of purple that glided along with the black ribbons tying them around.

And that familiar smile on her petal-like lips…Shuin could never forget that perfect picture, right down to the last detail.

He thought his heart must have surely stopped beating.

From the back, the strumming of a guitar started before breaking up into a mid-tempo rhythm. Gradually as the music began to build up, the songstress raised the microphone to her lips and sung.

ame ga fureba itsumo yori mo yorisoi

waraiatte ita noni ne...

kasa mo sasanaide ame ni utare

hoho wo tsutau kono omoi

When it rained, I snuggled up to you more than usual

& we smiled at each other...

Without an umbrella, I got rained on

I just go along with these feelings

As if to bring out her expressions even more, the wheat brown-haired lady lifted an arm to her neck, her eyes closed in serenity, in another world of her own.

chigau michi eranda no wa watashi no hou datta noni ne

[Though] I was the one who chose a different path..

Shuin smiled a little. He recognized the song in which she had first sung when he had first set eyes upon her in another bar a few months back. Her crystal clear and strong vocals remained vivid in his mind. When singing, she had always this much emotions in the way she pronounced her words. It melted his defenses, one by one, away.

kimi wa namida mo misezu ni sotto te o furi aruite yuku

kore ijou jama wa dekinai

konna ai shikata shika dekinakute hontou ni gomen ne

mou nido to itsumo no wagamama mo ienai n da ne

Without showing me your tears, you waved your hand & walked on

It can't interfere more than this

I couldn't love you any way but this &

I'm really sorry I couldn't say my usual selfish things like I always did

Her vocals easily soared through the chorus, pronouncing each words with such clarity that nothing of it could bring an onlooker away. Her hand gestures were addictive, and even several of the audience had unconsciously began to mimick them, their eyes never leaving her actions.

Shuin didn't realize how long he had been holding his breath. She had always been beautiful, be it on stage or down. But this…This was simply ethereal.

Then her eyes floated across the audience and settled upon his.

Her voice continued with the melody but there was no question to that dreamy look in her eyes all of a sudden. Then a smile lit her face, accompanied by the light pink flush coloring her cheeks.

sasai na koto de itsumo kenka shiteta

sono tabi ni tomatteta

daiji na jikan muda na yaritori

wakattetemo sunao ni narenai

We were always fighting over stupid things

Whenever we ended [our relationship],

The times when we were serious, we uselessly argued back & forth

Even though I understood, I couldn't be honest

As their eyes met across the distances, Shuin allowed a smile to curl his lips and he answered her gaze with a longing look in his eyes, equaling the love in her own honey-colored ones. She had known of his presence now.

She was the first to break the eye contact, but there was a promise setting aglow in her eyes that he would still remain clear in her thoughts.

otagai ga kagayakereba yokatta hazu na noni ne

It should've been better if we both could shine

Her strong voice reverberated across the bar, rendering the audience speechless with fascination. Despite the onlookers' close scrutiny, her expression was effortlessly calm. It was magical in how she was still able to express so much in front of so many.

kimi no mirai wo kowashite shimaisou de kowakatta n da

watashi to sugosu hibi no naka de

neta furi no watashi ni KISU nokoshiteku yasashisa mo zenbu

mou nido to togire saseta omoi mune ni himete...

It seems like I destroyed your future & I was afraid

During those days you spent with me

the kisses you gave me when I pretended to sleep lingers,

as does the kindness... everything...

I'll keep the feelings that ended in my heart again

Shuin continued to watch the illuminating figure on stage. Her feminine frame, outlined by the shining lights circled along the stage made her even more beautiful, if that was even capable of. When was the last time he had reminded himself to breathe? Shuin could not recall.

mou ichido wagamama iitakatta

I wanted to say something selfish once more

With the final words, the music slowly came to an end and the lights that were once lit up began to dim away. The last thing Shuin saw before darkness claimed the stage was his angel extending an arm to give a polite bow to the audience.

*

It was hard to wait until everybody in the bar had left but in the end, he managed to.

Shuin waited outside the bar, leaning against the railings that ran along the line of a river beneath. The stars were peeking out of the gray clouds now, their shimmering white colors a brilliant mark in the sky. Nights with Lenne were always this beautiful and kind.

His built-in radar for sensing his angel alerted his senses like a sledgehammer and he instantly turned to meet her before she could reach his side in time. Already, he was crossing towards her in quick strides. Before she could even look up and acknowledge him, he had already slid his arms around her slender waist and brought her into his embrace.

His neck arched to allow his head to rest on the nape of her shoulders, he sniffed in the familiar lavender fragrance of her. Closing his eyes in comfort and pleasure, he realized how much he had missed her in just one day.

"I didn't expect you to come." She spoke into the silence, lifting her head up to smile into his light blue eyes. Were they always so beautiful and alluring that she could find no sense to look away?

"I always do." He responded almost quietly, not bearing her to leave his embrace still. His eyes, still as blue, now beheld something definable in those depths. Love. "You were great out there."

"You always say that." Lenne said, but as much as she was used to that remark, nevertheless it still caused the pink stains to surface on her cheeks. It made Shuin adore her even more. "You must be tired." She had heard of his game this afternoon.

"No, not really." Just missing you, he added quietly as he embraced her once more. Times with Lenne had always been the most precious. "Are you hungry?"

A giggle escaped from her throat, and she lifted a finger to playfully touch his nose, "I should have known. You think of food as much as you think of BlitzBall."

"Apart from you, that is." He corrected, a wistful smile teasing his lips as he finally released her. He gently took her hand in his, their footsteps pacing out to move on towards the streets.

"How are you?" Lenne asked softly, her kind hazel eyes trained upon his.

He smiled reassuringly, giving her hand a special squeeze, "I'm fine." The look in his eyes told her that the BlitzBall game had been another good one. Surely her star BlitzBall boyfriend had scored heaps of goals today again. Lenne couldn't help a smile as she looked away into the distance once more, the bridge stretching out before their sight.

"I like it when you sing that song." Shuin commented, giving another one of his rare warm smiles to the lady beside him. The sincerity in his eyes was true and honest as his fingers intertwined around her slender digits.

Lenne answered back with a knowing smile. She didn't have to speak to know why. It had been the song she had sang when Shuin had first noticed her. Those images…As much distant they seemed to be now, they remained clear in her mind. How could she wash away those memories that she had held so deeply in her heart?

Rolling back on those months, she had only been a mere substitute singer of another small bar. Labeled 'Lavender Snow' by the manager and the stage crew, that was what the audience continued to know her as. When Shuin first had his eyes on her, he thought the name suited her perfectly. She was always in purple.

"Is your name really Lavender?" Those were his first words to her when they had met after the performance outside the bar. She was leaning against the railings and he had coincidentally walked in at the moment.

Lenne dipped her head down, a smile setting her features aglow. How could she ever forget the times they had spent together outside the bar at the balcony? After their first conversation together, Shuin had constantly been returning back to watch her performances everyday.

And then it had all led to this in the end.

"Have you still been writing songs lately?" Shuin asked, looking down onto Lenne. He had known her to have a habit of expressing her thoughts into poetry and song. In ways she couldn't voice out in real life, she could effortlessly weave them into words onto papers.

Lenne nodded, her velvety hair swaying behind her back, "I was thinking of writing another song."

"What will you write about?" Shuin asked, his voice warm and deep.

"I don't know," Lenne confessed, "I've been thinking for awhile but…"

Shuin gave her hand another squeeze, "It'll come slowly."

Lenne looked into his oceans of blue for a while and then smiled secretively. Shuin caught hold of it easily, reading through her different shades of smiles like the back of his palm. He shook his head, as though disagreeing.

"Are you thinking of writing about me again?"

When Lenne nodded, Shuin looked away to fight a surfacing blush on his cheeks. He slid his hands into his pockets, not knowing what to say. He had seen her previous works where she had wrote about the moments she had spent with him. No, of course it wasn't a bad thing. She had viewed everything in such a mature way that those words had touched him immensely. When she had even chose to sing those songs on stage on her own, he couldn't help the slightest bit of tear threatening at the corner of his eyes each time.

It was like when she had stood on stage to sing her song for him, she had sung out their story, too.

"You shouldn't," Shuin said, causing the girl to arch a curious eyebrow, "You'll get bored with me someday."

It caused a giggle to bubble within her. As if to reassure him, she laced her fingers around his with a twinkle in her eyes, "That wouldn't happen, Shuin."

His eyes locked onto hers for a long while before he shrugged his shoulders, "…Really?"

She turned to face him, her face earnest. She leant forward to brush a few strands of his blond hair away from his eyes before nodding. "Really."

Their eyes gazing intently into each other's once more, Shuin couldn't find a reason to look away. Why did he have to when all he had to do was look into those beautiful orbs and see Heaven through those eyes? His face warmed under her close scrutiny but he was ignorant to it. The effects were always there - multiplied speed of his heart hammering against his ribcage painfully, the sudden wobbliness in his knees, the butterflies centering in his stomach.

Obviously this girl didn't know the power she had on him.

Slowly releasing his fingers to wrap them around her waist, he brought forth her body to meld into his, feeling the comfort once more. It was as if he was home again.

There were no more words.

Lenne splayed her fingers across his strong chest, lifting her head higher to drown herself in those endless marine oceans. She was lost forever, if not for his gentle touch placed beneath her chin.

Shuin snaked his arms around her waist, bringing her closer into his embrace. The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes was she, too, ever so slowly closing hers. Then she had tilted her head up and the distance between them was no more.

This was Heaven, in its own sweet loving way.

Owari~*

Credit goes to Koda Kumi, for her song 'Rain' in here. It is a nice mid-tempo moving ballad and I really find the chorus beautiful and totally Lenne-like, so I thought it would be perfect if I use it here. And another thing about their conversation at the end where Lenne had suggested writing another song for Shuin would lead to the introduction of 1000 no Kotoba.

If you have seen the *spoiler ahead* reunion of Shuenne, you would have know that Lenne asked Shuin if she have "heard her new song for him". This is why I included the bit of conversation at the end there. I hope you get it, anyway.

I apologize if I have gotten some facts wrong anywhere. I have never played FFX-2 before.

As always

Mysterio000

p.s. the almighty one!