Disclaimer- Dissidia and all its characters belong to Square Enix
"Hey, Squall!"
I didn't bother to turn at the voice, and I knew it wouldn't stop him- he'd just keep talking to me anyway. "Zidane and Bartz were looking all over for you. I think they wanted to go around and explore with you or something. Maybe get you to open up a little and talk more." There was a joking tone in his voice.
I sighed, sometimes those two were impossible to handle. Just because we helped each other a bit while finding our crystals, they thought we'd all be joined at the hip or something. And they were both way too energetic and didn't understand the meaning of personal space. "Whatever."
He stopped next to me. "Aren't you gonna go find them?"
Why can't people leave me alone? Warrior of Light rarely talks, but nobody bothers him. "I really couldn't care less."
He frowned. "They're just trying to spend more time with you now, since when this is all over, we'll have to separate and go back to our home worlds."
He wasn't going to leave me alone anytime soon, and it looked like I had to spell everything out for him. "All the more I think it's a waste. Why go through all the trouble getting to know each other when there's a big chance we might never see each other again?"
"Well, it's so that we can have good memories of everyone, and of our journey."
I gave a small snort. "If everyone's just going to leave me in the end, what do I need memories for if I can't be with them later."
He scowled. "You know, I think you're being too childish about this."
He was calling me a child? "What did you say?"
He crossed his arms. "It's not like everyone's trying to hang out with you just to dump you off to the side once they go home. They really wanna get to know you and become friends. What's so bad about that?"
I brought my hand to my head, massaging it. This guy doesn't know when to quit. "I'm fine being by myself."
"But you can't be alone forever. There's always gonna be someone who wants to talk with you no matter where you go, as long as you're alive."
I couldn't take it anymore. I started to walk away, hoping he'd finally get the hint to get off my back. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to get it.
"You're just afraid that everyone's going to leave you."
That struck a nerve. I turned to look at him, glaring daggers at him. He wasn't moved at all and kept talking. "You don't wanna get close to people and have good times with them because you're afraid that they'll leave and forget all about you, like the times you spent together meant nothing to them."
I clenched my fist. "Shut up."
"But you know what? Even though we wanna stay together forever, there's gonna be times when we have to leave each other. If it's only for a little bit or for thousands of years, we don't know. But it happens, and we have to learn to deal with it."
I was sorely tempted to punch his lights out. "Shut up!" He finally decided to shut his mouth. "You don't know what it's like, to have someone you really cared for and depended on to just leave without a word, only to have them come back years later and expect everything to be fine between you. Or someone who left you long before and expects you to welcome them with open arms, just because you're related to them."
"You're not the only one who's lost people, or have people leave them before." He was blinking a lot, was he trying not to cry? "How do you think I felt when I saw my old man again, when I thought he was dead for most of my life? How do you think I felt when I saw my mom's life fade away when she was upset that my old man was gone?"
"That just adds to my point of why I don't need to interact with people. Everyone ends up leaving."
He threw his hands into the air. "Ugh, you are impossible!" He pointed a finger at me. "You know, it does suck for the people that's left behind. But don't you think the people that leave us feel bad about it too? It's not like they leave so they get a kick out of it. If they really cared for each other, then people never wanna be separated. But sometimes, we have to leave each other."
That was true, I never really took time to understand why Ellone had to leave me. When I was a kid, I thought she abandoned me, like I thought my parents had. "But why do they have to leave us?"
He brushed his arm against his eyes. "Sometimes, we just have to. Like right now, you're here with us, but you have friends waiting for you back home, right? You couldn't control it, but you're the one who left everyone back home."
That was another way to look at things, but was anyone at home even aware that I was gone? How much time had passed at home since I came here? "I guess, you're right, in some weird way."
He nodded, and seemed to cheer up a bit. "When you go back home, you can be with your friends again. You can laugh together, go to places together, and just be with them." He crossed his arms again. "And when you can't be together anymore, you still have the memories of the good times you had with each other. It may hurt, and it's not as good as the real thing, but it helps."
I crossed my arms, a bit embarrassed that I was being lectured to by someone the same age. "You need to go back to the people you left too, right? I bet they're really worried about you."
He smiled, although it wasn't his usual smile that lit up his eyes. "Sometimes, no matter how hard we wish for it, we can't go back." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I just came here to tell you Zidane and Bartz were looking for you. You should go see them." And with a wave, he walked away.
I realized that throughout our journey, he'd always be talking with everyone and making them smile. I thought he was just an overly friendly guy, but he was trying to make good memories with everyone together, so he'd have something to remember them by when they were gone.
Perhaps, he understood the pain of being separated more than anyone else.
