Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine. This prompt lured some of my mischief out of me. This ditty is set deep into my little universe that I've made myself comfortable in. In this particular universe, a quick and dirty explanation of Squall's parents is that after Raine died shortly after childbirth, he was adopted by his Uncle and Aunt Leonhart. This has been hinted at in earlier stories of mine, and isn't really a spoiler, but it will be one of the plotlines in a future story, for those who care. Enjoy!

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022 – Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

(For The Sacred and Profane; Prompt: 'Tifa and Squall as children living in Radiant Garden somehow find a mirror that lets them look into the future and both are grossed out by their future selves married life.')

When you're nine years old, spending the afternoon helping your dad clean out his storage room is not exactly at the top of your list of fun things to do.

Yet there was where Tifa found herself, sifting through boxes that were covered in dust and full of crap. Chairs, furniture, toys, clothes, more boxes: it was a nightmare…until a mirror caught her eye. Since her mother had passed away, they hadn't really had a mirror in their house. Mom had been the one who cared about appearances, and it wasn't a trait that she had passed onto her daughter. So Tifa initially thought nothing of it as she glanced at the intricate wooden framing around the outside of the glass.

Something in the reflection caught her eye though, and she paused. Well, that didn't look right. Blinking, she turned to look behind her. Just more boxes and crates and old furniture looked back at her. She frowned and turned her gaze to the mirror again. The reflection was bright, much brighter than the dusty darkness of the storage room. Actually, she could see a window in that room: letting in sunlight!

There were no windows in this storage room.

Utterly confused, the child scooted closer, moving side to side to get more of a peripheral view inside the mirror. She distinctly saw a woman in the mirror world—and this had to be another world that she was looking into—who had long dark hair kind of like Tifa's. The woman almost looked like her mother, but she was tending to a little boy who looked barely a year old, while a girl with brown hair who looked a little younger than Tifa was just visible in the room in the far back of the mirror, playing dolls with someone who was probably her father, judging by the matching brown hair.

The woman brushed her hair from her neck and Tifa noticed a small birth mark just behind the woman's ear…a birth mark that exactly matched the one that Tifa had behind HER ear! She lifted her fingers to the spot, as if to make sure for herself.

What…Was this…her future? Was that HER in the mirror?

She was…a housewife? Barf.

But…she had been learning martial arts under her Teacher for almost two years now. Why wasn't she some big…butt kicking…super woman? Instead, she's taking care of babies. Not that babies weren't…cool, she supposed…

And where was Cloud?

Cloud Strife was her best friend, had been nearly since birth, and where was he in all this madness? Okay, babies she could handle, and the no combat thing sucked, but no Cloud? What kind of messed up future was that? And who was that guy in the background? Her husband?

She wasn't sure she liked this future. In fact, she was pretty sure that she didn't.

"Tifa?" Her dad choked on dust, straightening from whatever pile that he'd been sorting through.

Tifa blinked and lifted a hand, "Over here. Hey, what's with this mirror?"

Her dad crossed over to her, looked past her to the mirror, and his gaze softened. "Ah, there it is." He said, almost warmly, as he approached. "I've been looking for this."

"Yeah, no surprise, considering all this crap in here." Tifa gestured to the boxes.

Her father gave her a slight reprimanding look, but quickly returned to gazing at the mirror. "No, I've got a guy in the other residential district wanting to buy it."

"Really?" Tifa asked, hugging her knees. "What's a man want with a mirror?"

"Gift for his wife, I guess." Her dad shrugged, lifting up the thing.

"I don't think it's a mirror." Tifa said, getting to her feet and dusting herself off.

"Oh?" Her dad said, walking out of the room. "Why say that?"

Tifa followed him out, "It—I mean, I thought I saw—not my reflection."

"Well, it IS a bit dusty in there. Your reflection probably looked like a dust monster." Her dad grinned, ruffling her hair.

She ducked away from the petting and looked under his elbow at the mirror in his hands. "No, not that. It was like…looking into a completely different…world…"

Her dad paused, looking pensively into the mirror. From this angle, Tifa could see into the mirror also, but it appeared to just be her father's reflection. Maybe you had to be directly in front of it before it started showing you weird stuff. Like a future with no Cloud and no martial arts training.

"What do you see, Dad?" She asked, noting the faraway look in his eyes.

He blinked and seemed to come back to himself. "Hm? Oh…just…me." He tilted the mirror slightly as if to show her his own reflection.

He was lying. She was nine; she wasn't stupid.

"Who wants it?" She asked, hopping up onto the kitchen chair as her father set the mirror down on the table.

"You remember Colonel Leonhart?" Her father said, getting a rag to properly clean the dust away from the woodwork.

"Not really."

"Well, him."

As he walked away to get more cleaning supplies, Tifa leaned over the table and looked down into the mirror again.

There she was, all grown up and married…to a boy…bleh. That was just depressing. And boring. Depressing and boring: unacceptable.

"I'm taking it over in an hour. You want to tag along?" Her dad said, bringing in some padded cloths to transport the mirror without breaking it.

"Nah." Tifa shook her head, "I'm going over to Cloud's later."

Her dad looked hesitant but canted his head, "All right, just be careful."

Not wanting to pick a fight about why her dad didn't like Cloud, Tifa skipped out the door and started down the sidewalk. Along the way, she did a few little air kicks that Teacher had taught her last week.

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"Tada." Colonel Leonhart announced, unveiling the mirror not five minutes after the man, Mr. Lockhart, if Squall remembered right, had left it there.

"It's…a mirror." Squall remarked flatly. Any eight year old could see that.

His father looked at him. "Well, yes, but your mother will like it." He glanced at the intricate woodwork, not really looking into the mirror itself. "It's…pretty, right?"

Squall tilted his head at the thing and shrugged. "I guess."

His mother was more enthused when his father presented it to her.

"Oh, it's lovely!" She hailed, running her fingers over the carved framing. "It looks like an antique. I didn't know these still existed!"

Squall and his father both exchanged confused looks. The Colonel hastily took his leave. He tended not to linger around fanciful things like this, retreating instead to his study.

"Mom…it's a mirror." Squall said slowly.

"Yes, BUT it is a special type of mirror." She said, smiling. "Come and look."

As she ushered him over, he remained expressionless. His mom tended to get really excited about fanciful things like this…so…whatever. He could humor her.

Her eyes were bright, "This is a future-telling mirror, sweetie."

His raised eyebrows must have betrayed him, because she chuckled.

"You look inside it, and your reflection is whatever the future holds for you." She said, looking into it with a warm expression.

From where he was staying, Squall could only see her reflection.

"So…what do you see?" He asked…y'know, just to humor her.

"I—" She paused, looking in the mirror. A streak of…something…flashed through her eyes, and she abruptly looked away, back to him. She forced a smile. "I see my little man growing up to be a big, strong man." She patted his head.

"Mom." He leaned away from the touch. "That's my future, not yours."

"You are my future, baby." She kissed the top of his head, "And don't you forget it."

With that, she stepped away from the mirror, most likely to go jabber at Dad about this mirror thing. It didn't look too special to Squall. But Mom had said to stand in front of it.

Making sure no one else was watching, he side stepped until he was standing directly in front of the mirror. He felt stupid, but he was also curious as he looked into the mirror's glass.

At first, all he could see was pink.

Grimacing, he looked away and then cautiously back at it. Pink? What, his future was to have a pink room? That was dumb.

…

Pink?

He glanced behind himself, at the quiet pastel colors of the living room…the room was definitely not pink…but the mirror's reflection was…It actually worked? Eager now, he squinted at the horrid pink reflection again, desperate to see something other than that stupid girl color.

Then he saw a man sitting on the floor…That had to be him, just with a different hair cut. He was wearing black as a grown up…which was kinda weird…but the guy in the pink room was wearing the Leonhart family crest as a necklace…and Squall didn't have any brothers.

So why was the man in black sitting in a pink room?

Upon further inspection, Squall noted that there was a little girl in the room, maybe the age that he was now in the present, playing with dolls on the floor. So…when he was grown up, he played dolls with little girls? That seemed a little creepy. Maybe she was his daughter; that made more sense.

He frowned. Okay, so it was a dad's job to play with kids, even dumb stuff like dolls, he knew that. But was he a cool dad, like his dad, Colonel Leonhart? After all, his future self looked a little…bad ass…if that was the same word that that teenager who mowed the lawn used. Cid…Squall thought his name was.

There was apparently movement beyond the mirror, before future-him looked up, and Squall gasped. What had happened to his face? He had a big scar running between his eyes! That wasn't okay! As the man in the mirror stood, the reflection seemed to follow him down the hall of this strange house—no more pink, thank goodness—to a kitchen, where a dark haired woman was cooking at the stove.

Well, Squall figured it was cooking, though he was sure the stove wasn't supposed to smoke up like that. He grimaced. Was that supposed to be his wife? He was married? And had a pink room? And played dolls?

Gross.

But at least he looked pretty cool…aside from the scar. That was kind of hideous.

"Mom, can a person change his future?" He asked later that evening.

She paused in her reading and looked melancholic for a moment. "Why?"

He didn't really want to admit that he'd believed the story about the mirror, not to mention looked into and now really believed it…So he just squirmed.

"Just…'cause." He shrugged. "I mean, if you went to a crystal ball lady and she said your future was just going to be this big, boring…pink room…Could you change it?"

"There's no such thing as a boring future." She stated.

"But…" He inhaled. "Dad talks about growing up during the Sorcerer's War, and the stories are always so heroic and brave and…it's awesome." He bounced a little in his seat, and he swore he saw his mother cringe. "Why can't my future be like that?"

His mother glanced toward the mirror and compulsively swallowed, drawing a measured breath. "Well…of course you can change your future, honey." She smiled, though it didn't reach her moistened eyes. "But your father never tells you the sad stories of his time in the war."

Well, no, he didn't, Squall thought. He didn't have to. He could just see it in the way his father looked at old pictures or talked to his old war buddies sometimes. That sadness just lingered there, just behind his eyes, but it practically screamed for all Squall could detect it.

Had his future self had eyes like that? Would he have eyes like that?

Why did Mom look so pained about this whole conversation?

"Mom, what did you really see in the mirror?" He pressed.

She swallowed again and sat up in her seat on the sofa, setting her book aside. "Squall, sometimes things happen, okay? Good things, bad things, some things you can't explain and CANNOT prevent, you understand?"

He wasn't sure that he did, but he humored her, like he always did. "Yeah."

"Everyone has bad things and good things. I think this 'pink room' is a good thing."

Squall was utterly confused at this point, and he regretted asking since it seemed to make Mom sad, so he kept a stiff upper lip. "Fine, but I'm avoiding girls with dark hair for a while."

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A/N: I had too much fun with this. And not fluffy, 'haha' fun, but the twisted, 'teehee' kind of fun. And yes, the Sorcerer's War is another part in my future story, titled Hands that Weave Webs, which may not come out for a LONG time because free time is an elusive beast that thwarts me sometimes.