Battle of the Mages
"I'll Open My Heart to You"
"Oh, look Cloud look! It's the mall! Park! Park! Park!" The last three words had been said so quickly that Cloud hadn't been able to understand them.
"Bark?"
Kylie rolled her eyes. "Park! P A R K. Park. How'd you get 'bark' out of that?"
"There's only a one letter difference," Cloud mumbled as he parked.
"We're here we'reherewe'reherewe'reherewe'rehere! "Let'sgolet'sgolet'sgolet'sgo!" Kylie cried, bouncing up and down.
Cloud laughed. "You're like a little kid at Christmas."
"So? Cloud, I don't think you're comprehending this. It's. The. Mall. And I haven't been to one in ages!" Kylie jumped out of the gummi ship, closing the door behind her. Cloud shook his head, amused, before following her out. He stretched, and the loose long sleeve of his shirt went up to his elbow. He saw the skin of his left arm, infected with Geostigma, and sighed, pushing the sleeve back down. He didn't want to tell Kylie that he was going to die.
"Come on Cloud!" the girl in question yelled, waving in the middle of the parking lot.
Cloud saw some guys who looked to be about Kylie's age pass her. They glanced flirtatiously at her, but she ignored them. Cloud felt a hot, burning ball in his chest. It was so intense that he felt like he was going to explode.
As he got closer to Kylie, he broke into a jog and saw her smiling just for him. The feeling slowly faded.
"Feeling better?" she asked as he came up to her.
"What?"
"When those guys passed me you looked like you were about to kill them with your bare hands," Cloud then realized that that feeling had been jealousy.
"Come on!" Kylie grabbed his wrist and began dragging him into the mall. His wrist tingled as she touched it. He sped up until they were walking side by side, then he twisted his hand so that they were holding hands. Kylie blushed lightly, but didn't draw her hand away.
They were still holding hands as they walked into the mall. As soon as they walked in, she let go of his hand and ran to the map right in front of them. Cloud closed his eyes and shook his head, amused. When he reached her, she was still peering at the map.
"What are you doing?" he asked, standing right behind her.
"We're gonna go here, and here, and here, and here, and here!" Kylie exclaimed happily, pointing to many different stores. Cloud shrugged. It was his day off and he wanted to be asleep. Kylie turned to him, hands on her hips, and bumped her nose into the hollow of his throat. He was much closer to her than she'd thought. She placed a hand on his chest and pushed. "Back up a little bit." He took several steps back, and Kylie resumed her rant, hands returning to her hips. Before she started, she looked him up and down.
"You're freakishly tall."
"I'm five-ten!"
"Wow, that's kind of short for a guy."
Cloud rolled his eyes. He had always been shorter than everybody else. "Yeah, I know."
"Which makes me freakishly short," Kylie sighed, defeated. She hated being short. "I mean, I'm only five-four and a half, five-five-ish."
"Were you going to say something to me before you got distracted by our height?"
Kylie raised her eyebrows as she remembered. "Yes, I was! Cloud, I am excited to be here, can't you at least pretend to be happy?" Cloud was surprised. Once again, Kylie had managed to throw him off balance.
"Sorry."
"S'alright. Come on, let's go!"
"Actually, I need to get you a birthday present."
Kylie looked surprised. "You don't have to do that."
"I know, but..." Cloud looked at her, an unfamiliar emotion to both of them rising unbidden to his eyes. "...I want to," he finished quietly. Kylie nodded. She turned to the map and quickly studied it for a few seconds.
"Let's meet here in an hour and a half, okay?" she said, pointing to a large bookstore. Cloud nodded. Kylie smiled. Suddenly, Cloud didn't want to be separated from Kylie anymore than he wanted to gouge his own eyeballs out.
"See you in a bit," said Kylie, giving him a small wave before turning and walking away.
"Yeah...see you," he said, wanting to follow her. As soon as she was out of sight, Cloud studied the map. He had no clue where to start looking for a birthday present. What would a girl like Kylie like for her nineteenth birthday? Cloud decided to just browse, and buy whatever caught his eye.
After walking for a few minutes, he spotted a jewelry store. Cloud recalled that whenever Kylie wore jewelry, it was silver. She looked better in silver than gold, because silver matched her skin tone better. Cloud walked into the store. He was immediately met by a female clerk.
"Hello sir, and what might you be looking for today?" she asked, trying and failing to flirt with him. Cloud always ignored flirtatious girls.
"I'm just browsing," he said, brushing past her. She looked sad.
Cloud walked to the counter, looking for silver jewelry. Only a small section of the jewelry was silver.
Cloud was almost through looking for jewelry when he spotted the perfect piece. It was a silver bracelet, made of little twisted pieces of silver. A small tear shaped ruby hung in the middle, and small round rubies were set into it.
"Miss," called Cloud. The clerk hurried over. "I would like this bracelet." The clerk nodded, got it out of the display case, and wrapped it. Cloud handed her the munny.
"Is this for your girlfriend?" she asked as she was handing it over. Cloud suddenly imagined how nice it would be to have Kylie as a girlfriend, but then he shook his head. "Friend," he said, turning to leave the store.
As he was leaving, a ring caught his eye. It was silver with a red ruby set into it, instead of a diamond.
"That's an engagement ring," said the clerk, walking over. Cloud had spotted engraving on the bottom of the ring. It was in Japanese.
"Would you like to look at it?" the clerk asked. Cloud nodded. She took it out and handed it to him. He read the engraving. Lovely Angel. A picture of Kylie smiling at him suddenly popped into his head.
"How long is the warranty?" Cloud asked, figuring that he could always return the ring if nothing ever happened between him and Kylie.
"Ten years."
"I'll take it."
The clerk nodded, and rung it up. Cloud paid and left the store.
He browsed for a little while longer, until it was time to meet Kylie. He hid both boxes in his pocket, and set out to meet her.
As he neared the bookstore, he saw her standing outside, talking to some guy. She looked very uncomfortable, and kept glancing nervously around. Cloud quickened his pace, and, remembering what Kylie had said earlier, kept his face smooth.
As he walked up, he heard Kylie say, "I really have to go," and tried to edge away. The guy walked closer, and grabbed her arm. Kylie looked ready to either panic or beat him up.
"Don't touch me," she said lowly, dangerously. The guy's grip tightened. Kylie glared, and kneed him in the stomach, just as some of his friends walked up.
"Hey!" One of them yelled, coming to the guy's help. The new guy grabbed both of Kylie's arms, swung her around, and shoved her back. The other friend's came to join the fight. Kylie knew she could torch them, or just scare them away, but she wanted to keep the fact that she was a Mage a secret as long as possible, especially from Cloud.
Cloud reached the fight, and immediately fought his way through to get to Kylie. He beat the crap out of three guys before he reached her. Her captor was having a very hard time keeping a hold on her. She was squirming, hitting, kicking scratching, and biting. As her teeth sunk into his arm, he shouted out, but kept a hold on her. Cloud jumped into the air, foot ready to smash his nose into his brain and kill him. Kylie saw what he was doing, and twisted, so that Cloud's foot smashed into his forehead instead of his nose. He let go, and staggered away, followed by his friends.
Cloud hurried to Kylie's side.
"Are you okay?" he asked, professionally checking her for broken bones or bruises.
"I'm fine. We need to talk Cloud." She wasn't smiling in relief as he had expected her to. Cloud nodded, and they walked to a nearby bench and sat down.
"Why did you try to kill him?" she asked, fists clenched tightly in her lap.
Cloud was surprised. "I -"
"Do you like killing Cloud?"
"No -"
"Then why did you try to kill him?"
"He was trying to hurt you."
"I can take care of myself Cloud!" Kylie burst out.
"Sometimes you have to kill," said Cloud coldly, not looking at her. "Have you ever killed?"
Her head whipped around to stare at him. "I agree. Sometimes you have to kill. This was not one of those times! You kill to destroy evil, or preserve your life! Although," she laughed hollowly, "You kill for money."
"I've stopped!"
"After I told you that I hated it when you kill for no reason!" Something suddenly clicked in Kylie's brain. Maybe she was the one who could erase all his pain. Maybe that's why he stopped killing when she asked.
"Why are you so against killing?"
Kylie stood up, and grabbed his arm, and led him outside, onto a grassy hill. They sat down.
"Why are you so against killing?"
Kylie ignored his question, and stared out across the field they were looking over. Cloud opened his mouth to repeat his question a third time, but Kylie interrupted him.
"When's your birthday, Cloud?"
Confused, Cloud answered, "I don't have a birthday."
"Everybody has a birthday."
"I don't have a friggin birthday!" shouted Cloud, looking wildly into her eyes, pain spilling over. His eyes were bright with unshed tears. He couldn't cry.
Kylie felt her heart wrench. She wanted to make his pain go away. Kylie opened her arms. Cloud hesitated for a few seconds, then fell into them, sobbing wildly. Kylie held him as he shook, shedding tears that he had never been able to shed.
"What happened to you?" asked Kylie softly.
"My...my family and friends...all murdered...because of me."
"Why was it your fault?"
"There was a...a gang, where I lived. They wanted me in it. I refused, and they said that they would take everything precious away from me. I didn't...I didn't believe them." Cloud stopped for a few seconds. He was crying too hard to continue.
"So...slowly...one by one...they killed my family...and my friends...and after they killed them, they would come and yell...'It's your fault that they're dead, that they're suffering!' I killed my mother, on my birthday. She had gotten hurt in an attack, and she was dying. I couldn't save her. So I took a knife and I...I killed her!"
Cloud stopped, sobbing. A minute later he started again.
"I whispered...'I love you mom.' And she gave me a look of complete trust...then I killed her! It's all my fault that they all died! I killed them all!"
Kylie started rocking him back and forth slightly.
"Before you came to the Coliseum...before I met you...I was going to kill myself. That battle that I had just finished was going to be my last. I was going to go back to my room, clean my sword, slit my wrists, then, right before I bled out, slit my throat," Cloud heard a sharp intake of breath from Kylie.
"I got so angry when I found out that you cut yourself...because I cut myself too." Kylie eyed his arms.
"Not on my arms. My legs and my back. Places people can't see. I didn't want you to cut yourself because...I didn't want you to have to live through my life. I wanted you to live."
Cloud couldn't talk anymore. They just sat there, Cloud crying. Kylie was astonished that Cloud had all this bottled up inside. She was glad that he had told her. Hopefully, now he would begin to heal. After a while, Cloud calmed down, and the two sat there together.
"You're my drug," he whispered quietly.
For once, Kylie didn't blush.
"I hate myself," he whispered.
"Why?" asked Kylie gently.
"Because I am so weak and pathetic. Suicide is one of the weakest things a person could do, and I almost committed it," Another sob escaped him. "How? How can you be so strong, when I am so weak?"
Kylie started crying.
"I'm not strong," she whispered. "Not at all."
They sat in silence for a while longer.