songerein | closed ⚡🌠 burn it down one more time

[She tucks her hair back when she senses what he's doing, and there's a brief moment of silence as she watches his expression carefully, noticing the subtle changes as his fingers run over the chain.

There it is again, that pang of guilt. That little seed of doubt.

But she ignores it and slowly, she slides her glove from her hand so that she can finally reach up and press the warmth of her palm against his cheek. Tifa rises up on her tiptoes, but that's as far as she gets before she hesitates, and with a small, unsure noise, she drops back down to the balls of her feet as her other hand clasps around her pendant.]

Yeah. I know. We got this, yeah...? We always do.

[He had leaned into her palm, eyes half closing both to momentarily allow himself that bit of respite as well in preparation for the expected kiss...

...But when it doesn't come, his eyes open in some surprise...and then to stare down at her. He wants to ask her what's wrong, why she seems to be pulling back... But before he can answer or ask, the wisp comes up to them all abuzz.

"Aahh... I can't thank you two enough!" it hums, the once dark gray wisp now a brighter white. "Truthfully I wasn't sure if you two were gonna make it, but boy am I glad to be wrong, haha!!" It even bounces a bit in mid-air before it moves to between them. "But you two look pretty beat. Better get back home, yeah?"

Eustace gazes at the wisp before sighing a little and looking past it to Tifa. There are questions in his eyes...but.]

...Yeah. Let's go home.

[She can see the question in his eyes when they look at each other, and her lip twitches slightly with a somewhat reassuring smile... but maybe it's for the best that he didn't ask now because the wisp swoops in and flies about with little to no regard for the way the silence seems to hang between them.

So, she pulls back immediately with a sigh, her fingers curling into fists as she drops her hands to her sides. She turns sharp on her heel and stalks away back in the direction they came, away from the lake, leaving Eustace and the wisp behind.

"What's up with her? Tired, I bet...?"

Hearing it, Tifa pauses but doesn't turn back.]

Yeah. Tired. [A pause.] If you find anything, let us know, okay? You'll probably find us at the same place. And come visit when you're back to your old self.

[With that, she keeps walking.]

[The wisp mutters in confusion and turns to Eustace—only to find that he had already disappeared to follow after Tifa. There are some shouts and exclamations, but it just huffs to go back to the kirins to see what it can do since there was no safer place than with them.

Meanwhile...

Eustace lets Tifa walk ahead until they're back in the trees and only then does he reach out and grab her hand, stopping her.]

Tifa.

[It's just her name, a quiet calm, but his voice and his grip carries the unsaid question of what's on her mind.]

[With the wisp and the kirins taken care of, she doesn't look back. Not even when she hears Eustace's long strides coming after her. If anything, it makes her pick up her pace until she feels him grab hold of her hand, and the sound of her name makes her heart flip.

It is enough to make her stop, but she doesn't turn to face him. She remains still, except for the small shake of her head.

Now that they're in the security of the trees without the eyes and ears of the kirins and the wisp...

There's a long stretch of silence before she finally breaks it with another sigh.]

... Did I just condemn you?

[...What?]

What are you talking about?

[Condemn...?]

[There's another stretch where she says nothing, the only sound her steady breaths.

Her own fingers curl around his hand, silently seeking out his reassurance, testing the waters again as that small voice in the back of her head whispers to her.]

... Guilt.

[It's all she says at first, so quietly that perhaps she hasn't even said it at all.]

About wanting to save the kirin.

[Biting her lip, Tifa turns to look at him. She doesn't wear anger or sadness, but uncertainty.]

The way you looked at it...

[His eyes widen upon hearing her words before he's closing whatever distance between them, his fingers gripping hers tightly as the other raises to her arm.]

No, that wasn't it. Rather...

[He would have felt the guilt regardless, whether she agreed with his methods or not. So he just shakes his head.]

The guilt I felt was already there. We just had a difference in opinion, but neither were wrong choices.

[Her own eyes go round when he moves, breaching the cold air between them, and Tifa immediately feels his warmth take over, so sure. The one thing in her life that remains a constant. Still, she searches his face as he speaks, gaze flitting across his expression, looking, watching... before her own softens a touch.

What he says does help to ease some of that doubt. That seed that's trying so hard to grow within her trembles under the weight of his words, her own guilt over the issue slowly withering away...]

I just... I thought that maybe I made the wrong call.

[Her free hand reaches up to grab hold of him, her fingers curling around the sleeve of his jacket and clinging tight.]

Not for the kirin, but for you. [A pause.] For a while, I was afraid that you might... resent me for it.

[The last of those words die away quietly into a mutter.]

[Again he can only look at her in consternation.]

Why would I resent you? [It's such a bizarre notion that he can only shake his head before he's now pulling her to him, wrapping her in his arms.

This girl...what nonsense is she thinking now? ...Rather...what nonsense has he done to make her feel so insecure like that?]

[It isn't something he has done to make her feel anything, though she knows exactly what he might be thinking. And as he pulls her close, she exhales, as if all the air—everything—that she'd been holding in can finally be let go.

She shakes her head and lets it fall against his shoulder, and she takes a moment to close her eyes and breathe in his scent. It's masked by the thick, cooler air around them, and the heat of battle that still lingers, but it's there as it always is...]

I don't know.

[She really, really doesn't. But when her heart wavers, it's less like a ripple and more like a violent tide that rocks through every part of her.]

If you felt guilty about it... for prolonging that kirin's suffering... it would be my fault. And when I asked... that look on your face after...

[Tifa's voice begins to break.]

I was mad at myself.

[...So it was something he did. He lets out a small sigh as he just hugs her tighter to him.]

No...I still wouldn't resent you. I did worry whether if it would be able to handle living with the consequences of its actions without support. Knowing how difficult it would be... I could understand and see the pain it was going through, that it, too, wanted an end to it.

But I also knew where you were coming from...and I was honestly glad you wanted to save it.

[The tiniest sob escapes her, though not one out of sadness. The relief she feels is palpable, so much so that it manifests around them, several flowers blooming across the canopy of dead, barren branches over their heads, and her arms come up to wrap around him in return, and she squeezes, hard, not letting up as she, for the first time today, lets those emotions take hold.

That fear and doubt that she felt so strongly through all of this that she'd swallowed down for his sake... but now that she has him here, safe and with her, it's a little less scary.]

I saw us... I saw us in those two, and I couldn't... I know it's wrong. I know I shouldn't make choices like that for others, but I remembered what it was like.

[Is it so wrong? Is she just projecting her own feelings onto the creatures?

Did the kirin really wish for an end like Eustace had back then? She thought, in the moment, that she was making the right choice, but the further she got from it all, the more she started to wonder, and the more she wanted to run away from that feeling.]

[His eyes close tightly as he gently rubs her back, letting her hold and sob onto him for as long as she wants...while also trying to give her the reassurance she needed.]

If they wanted to stop us... They could have. And I believe they also wanted him to live.

[He, too, had felt that familiarity...and furthermore—]

The kirins seem to be more intelligent than normal beasts... Like the other fae animal we've found. [The corgis, the flower dogs, the ones at the café...] Perhaps that, too, will help.

[An ability to come to some kind of understanding, and perhaps acceptance as well.]

I don't think there was a wrong choice... They might have been prepared for him to die. But I think they were happier with him saved instead.

[She nods slowly.

Tifa was honestly amazed by how aware the kirins seemed. She's never seen one so close, never met one before, and she knew that, like so many others here they had magic, but them being so... astute to the situation was a pleasant surprise.

It was like that kirin knew what Tifa was thinking... That it was empathetic to her feelings on the matter. It was a strange moment, although brief, where she felt a bit of a connection with her. It could be that it's all in her imagination, and that she is searching for the things she wants to find to make herself feel better about the choices she's made today...

Who's to say anymore?

But in her deepest of hearts, she knows that what Eustace is saying is right.]

I think so, too. I don't think they wanted to lose him...

[Or she'd like to think, but there is a very poignant squeeze of her arms before she lifts her head from his shoulder to look up at him, the true depth of those words swimming in her eyes.]

And you... [she finally says after a breath.] I... I wanna help you, too.

You already are.

[A soft gaze as he brushes away the hair from her faces before gently cupping it in his palm.]

You always have...and you always will.

Mm...

[Just a soft hum in understanding, leaning into the warmth of his hand, and the flowers begin to spread, creating a small bed of colour over the dirt.]

We can keep coming back to check on this place, too... maybe turn it back to the way it was before. Slowly.

[A somber smile crosses over her expression. It would take a lot of work, but she knows there may be no better people to do it than them. And Eustace deserves to see it restored, at the very least.

Rising up on her tiptoes again, Tifa seeks out that kiss that she had held back earlier, and with it, that silent promise that she will take care of him, just like she always has. He has a ways to go before he can fully harness that nightmare energy of his, but he's shown today that he's made some progress. For that, she couldn't be more proud...

And she hopes that he can find all of that in the tender way her lips press to his.]

...I would like that.

[There's a bit more of a somber weight in his voice, but it's only because he has to think of the damage he's done, damage that still remains. However, even if there is that weight, there's also a little bit of hope, a longing of wanting to believe in her words and follow through with it. It carries through into the kiss, his movements just as tender as his arms tighten around her.

Again and again... How grateful he feels to have her. Grateful to be loved...and to have someone to love in return.

They'll linger there for a few moments more before he pulls back, his thumb gently brushing against her cheek as he just...looks at her. Takes in this gentle warmth that surrounds them, so gentle it's as if the nightmare they just went through was a lie.]

...Let's go home.

[She smiles with equal warmth, noting the flowers and the leaves that grow across the trees behind him, even as she gazes up into his eyes, finding the strength that she needs within them. The strength that she needs to hold him up should he stumble on the way. It isn't much, but it's something... a little bit of colour and life in an otherwise bleak landscape, but it's a start, and proof that they really can heal this place. Even if it took them weeks, months, years, she would refuse to give up on it.

As his fingers caress her cheek, she closes her eyes and holds him tight, taking a moment to soak this in. After everything that they've had to go through today, in such a short and sudden span of time too, she figures that she isn't the only one that needs a moment to just breathe.]

Mm. The horses are probably worried.

[Her arm slips out from around him to touch his necklace, the empty glass charm dangling within her line of sight, and she holds it against her palm. Hollow as it is, however, there is a single drop of blue within, shimmering as bright as ever.]

Gotta get back to filling these up again, too.

[Surely they will fill by the time the night is through...

For now, she's happy to just be walking with him, safe and sound, her hand in his, and in their wake, they unknowingly leave a trail of flower buds. They may not see them fully bloom, and they may wither by the time they leave, but it's that small glimmer of hope that this place, and the kirins, need.

...

Now, and in the months to come...]

closed ⚡🌠 burn it down one more time

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