Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X
This one's quite short, just as a forewarning. That makes it sound like it's harmful because it's short... it's a one inch punch of a one-shot? I've got no idea anymore... Enjoy!
026. Confide
"So, Auron, how's it going?" I asked the air. Well, not the air - there was actually something there at least. Auron. Made from the colourful, beautiful, morbid pyreflies. He floated, so unlike in life, on a backdrop of vibrant, sherbert-magenta swirled sky, and a field of red and purple and pink and orange flowers far off from this dingy outcrop of harsh dirt and rock, and the waterfall that split the two, huge beds, roared like a hungry behemoth in the distance. I've always wondered where the water goes to - it trails down, down, down, and then fades into the cushioned bed of cloud laying far off in the distance.
"Yeah - I know. You're dead. You can't hear me. I don't know why I do this really, I mean, it's not like you can hear me, and it just hurts me more than anything. But Hazel likes coming to visit her Pops, so it's all worth it in the end I guess." My three-year-old daughter, the handful she was, was always placated by seeing Auron's hollow self. Her hazel swirled eyes widen in awe, and her brown eyebrows raise as her mouth drop. Every time. Without fail. She's with Yunie and Tidus and Alex - I swear, those two are almost twins, like some father-son crazy doppelganger thing.
"Hazel really, really misses you... Not that she ever knew you in the first place, but she does want to know you so badly. And, y'know, there are only so many stories that I can teller her about you that don't make you sound awful. Because it's not like you ever told me anything about yourself." I paused and thought to myself. I'd often thought about this, but I'd never said it aloud.
"Actually, why didn't you ever tell me anything about yourself?" I asked, even if I knew it was purely rhetorical. "It really kinda hurt me, right here." I tapped over my heart and winced, shutting my eyes. It'd plagued me since the day he was sent - how little I really knew about him, and how much I thought I knew.
"I went to Bevelle with Yunie and Hazel once and tried to find you on any records. The nuns tried to bless me, you know?" I giggled, looking up to the endless peachy sky as I reminisced. "Said I was 'not too far from salvation' after one look at my eyes and Hazel. Of course, Yunie stepped in..." I trailed off. I'd thought, naively, that such persecution of the Al Bhed would stop after Sin's death, but it took a lot longer. I'd also thought the whole single-mother thing would be a-okay but apparently, that wasn't as easy as I thought, either.
"Where was I? Oh, yeah. I couldn't find any records about you at all. They said you basically didn't exist. I was so glad that Yunie was entertaining Hazel, because I could barely keep it all together myself, never mind trying to explain why I was so sad to a one and a half year old."
I looked him up and down and got up from my place on the floor, dusting the dry, chalky earth from my clothes.
"I've no idea why I confide all this in you. It's not like you got any answered for me." I looked for his blank, unblinking face and sighed. "I'll go. Later." I turned my back and left, trying not to think about him anymore; I couldn't be sad in front of Hazel!
But little did I know that that was the last time I'd have to go to the Far Plains to see him. And that the next time I'd see him, he'd be a great deal more fleshy and responsive.
I did say it was short! Please, review if you'd like, and follow for updates. Thanks!