InsaneJournal

Vigil, Final Fantasy VII (Tifa)

Title: Vigil
Author: GuiltyRed
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Word count: 225
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Tifa: tattoo - Her father had been furious
Summary: Daughter, student, warrior, mother – Tifa wears them all upon her skin.
A/N: I did some research on existing martial arts forms, and decided that the one best suited to Tifa’s style would be this.


Her father had been furious.

He didn’t know she was home, certainly didn’t expect her to be changing with the door open.

At the first sight of his daughter’s bare back, he averted his eyes and began to speak, to alert her to his presence. Then his mind realized what, exactly, he’d just seen, and rage stole his voice.

She’d tried to explain, tried to cover herself, but the sin lay not before her but behind.

Hours upon hours of endurance and strength, torn down by her father’s tears like stone before a hundred years of rain.

The next time she saw the man who had marked her, who had painted her flesh with the power and the promise that she carried in her soul, her father lay among the dead in a city that no longer existed.

Only the ink remained, an improbable bond between warrior, apprentice, and child.

Now, with so much in the past, so many battles fought, so dear the cost of every one – now she sought another artist to complete the work begun so long ago.

She had children to care for now, to protect, with or without a mate.

And when the needles ceased their dance, two cubs had been born beneath a steady hand, drawn in pigment, blood and sweat.

Above them, as always, the leopardess kept vigil.