tifa. (lockedheart) wrote in missions, @ 2012-08-29 12:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! narrative, tifa lockhart |
howling ghosts they reappear in mountains that are stacked with fear.
WHO: Tifa Lockhart and Zangan.
WHAT: Zangan gives Tifa a letter.
WHERE: Her room.
WHEN: This morning, just before Zangan left the Garden.
"Do you remember how you got that scar?"
Tifa turned the letter over in her hands as if it were made of gossamer thread, or an unstable materia, liable to crumble or explode at the slightest touch. The envelope was thick; she recognizes her name in Zangan's familiar scrawl on the front. Her teacher, usually so stern, had handed it to her almost--deferentially. Like an apology. He wouldn't explain himself before he slipped out the door and off the grounds.
She hadn't known how to answer that question, not really, when he'd gestured at the smooth patch of pink-white skin below her left breast. A mirror of it pulled at her back, amid half-healed burn scars that cobwebbed over her spine. Though Zangan had seen her through the worst parts of her life, had been there when her mother died, had seen her sweat and cry and break bones twice over--her hand still came up instinctively to cover the ugly mark on her ribs. They both knew how she'd gotten it, just like she'd gotten the burns: in the fire at Nibelheim, where her father and the rest of the town had died. It seemed such a stupid question from Zangan. Almost offensive. He'd been there, after all: why was he asking her now? Was his memory going? He wasn't that old, and she didn't think she could handle one more person who couldn't remember her.
But he had only sighed, reached into his traveling cloak, and produced the envelope she held in her hands. "Don't read it until I'm gone," he said, and opened his mouth to say something else--but stopped himself, his eyebrows knitting together. They hugged briefly before he went, his limp audible for a few moments as he made his way out of the dorms. Then Tifa locked the door and, her fingers only hesitating briefly at the seal, tore the envelope open.
Tifa, |