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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 19, 2006 3:28:15 GMT
nikky sighed slightly. this is going to be harder than i thought... she looked up from her cards and smiled. ''well... no better time to learn. here...'' she picked his cards up and held them correctly for him. ''hold your cards like this...'' she handed them back gently. ''and the object of the game is to make as many matches as you can.... each of the cards have symbols on them. you need to match them to another of the same. but if you don't have any matches then you ask me if i have if i have one... if i don't....'' she pointed to the stack of remaining cards. ''then i say 'go fish' and you pick up a card. then its my turn... you get it so far?'' she asked softly and patiently. she hoped she could get the kid to warm up to her... she missed having someone to talk to. she missed her child companion....
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Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Nov 19, 2006 3:35:53 GMT
He ran the rules over and over in his head, but he thought he was probably missing something... because most of his cards had symbols that matched another one. It can't be THAT easy. There must be something I'm misunderstanding.
He picked out a two of hearts and a three of hearts. "Like this?" His question was tentative... he figured he had it wrong, but he hated being wrong... What do I care if I have it right?
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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 19, 2006 3:44:07 GMT
nikky looked at the cards and then back at him. she smiled softly. ''i'm sorry....'' she said quietky. ''i forgot a rule...'' she sat back, the smile never faltering. it was amused but not mocking. she patiently said the rest...
''the rule i forgot was this... there are symbols and numbers. each small set of cards with a symbol but also a number of symbols on it... you see??'' she asked softly. ''you need to match both... both the numbers and the symbols. thats what makes it harder.'' she smiled still, her warmer heart showing... which she hardly did for fear of being hurt. but she was drawn to fruxas. she felt the need to gain his trust and to help him... not out of pity... but out of love. maybe it was just a motherly thing... but she felt the urge to hold him and to call him her own. she knew she couldn't but wanted to still. her heart wanted to embrace him and protect him... just as she had done so many years ago....
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Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Nov 19, 2006 3:52:17 GMT
Fruxas nodded. "OK..." He studied his cards. None of them seemed to match now.
He felt something familiar about this girl... something warm that reached out for him... something he had only felt from his mother before.
He gave her a tiny smile.
"Got any... um... pointy black things that there are five of?"
((Got to log off... sorry!))
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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 19, 2006 3:57:19 GMT
she smiled at his nod, relieved that she did not have to explain all over again. she watched him patiently as he scanned his cards. she watched him with warm eyes, making sure he did not frown or not get it....
she saw the smile and smiled warmly back at him before laughing softly. ''you mean the spades? no... go fish.'' she grinned slightly and laughed a little more, but not at him...
((okay... laterz.))
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Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Nov 20, 2006 20:16:06 GMT
He gave Nikky a funny look before drawing a card. What kind of girl IS this, anyway?
He looked at his card... it still didn't match any of the others.
He glanced at her again. Maybe she's crazy. Yeah, that has to be it. She's nuts.
He decided to keep playing and humor her. Even is she is crazy... she seems awful nice. But so did my mother.
****
Kadaj started poking around the inn's kitchen for food. G**, I'm bored.
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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 20, 2006 23:45:32 GMT
nikky didn't see the funny look as she looked threw her cards. ''got a 6 of hearts?'' she looked back up and smiled warmly. she was glad that she at least got far enough to play the game...
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Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Nov 21, 2006 1:37:05 GMT
He looked. No, he didn't. "Go fish."
He sighed. "What's the point of this? Why are we doing it?" He couldn't understand what this could possibly be teaching him. It was only keeping him still longer in the real world... a world he was thoroughly sick of. He wanted to go to sleep and never wake up.
****
About ten years later...
A lone figure stood on the edges of Midgar's ruin, staring in at a crumbling mako reactor.
He checked his watch. Still two hours to go.
He started to pick his way down into the abandoned buildings.
Someone was watching him... two someones, neither conscious of the other. The first had an unruly red ponytail, green eyes, and was wearing a green dress... a girl about his age.
The other looked about five years younger than him... a bushy pink wig and a red school uniform.
Both took their seperate, hidden routes into the ruin, following him.
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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 21, 2006 3:10:03 GMT
nikky picked a card but then set her cards down, face down. she looked up at him sadly now, definetly defeated. ''i was trying to get you comfortable.... since you looked sad i did the only thing a know how to do: play cards. i would have taught you poker... but i think you are a little young to be gambling.'' she flashed a weak grin. '' but in the end i guess.... i guess i was hoping to get close to you so that you could be my friend.'' she sighed and looked away, staring off at the wall. ''i knew a little boy, about your age. he was orphaned and alone. i took him in and took care of him. for years we were best friends.... but then he died. and i had no one.'' she looked back, her blunt story already showing much about her. ''you just brought back those memories of him.... and i guess the softer, weaker side of me.... wanted you to be that boy.'' she attempted to smile but the pain showed through. she wasn't lie... she couldn't lie. not about wiz... the little boy who had first showed her love.
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Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Nov 21, 2006 3:28:03 GMT
Suddenly, Fruxas felt unaccountably bad about his behavior. He shouldn't care about this girl... she was one of the ones responsible for his mother's death... but when her pain began to reverberate through the room, it felt almost like his own.
He dropped his eyes and looked at the cheap hotel room comforter. "I'm sorry." He really was. He meant it. "I just... don't understand." He took a deep breath. "I don't understand anything. I don't understand this game, I don't understand this place, I don't understand why my mother had to die..." He lapsed into silence, shaking, trying very hard to not cry. Don't you dare cry. You've shown them too much weakness already.
****
There used to be a barbed wire fence here, but it had corroded to almost nothing. He stepped over it and kept going. The nearest entrance was probably about fifty feet straight up... a broken skylight.
It would be risky. But it WAS his birthday. He could afford to take a few risks just for the h**l of it. He started climbing.
The redhead scoffed. Sheesh. There's an easier way in... he's just not got enough patience or brains to look for it. She went inside to wait for him to catch up.
The girl with the wig perched on a hunk of cement in the shadows. She had no interest in this decrepit place... she'd already combed it from top to bottom. Nothing of value was in there.
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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 21, 2006 3:37:08 GMT
nikky sighed heavily.''its okay.... i should have explained. i am sorry fruxas... my actions were incomplete.'' she watched him softly, the smile gone so she didn't seem to mock him. she was also silenced at the thought of his now dead mother. even though she held her grudges... she still felt bad for the kid. she bit her lip slightly and leaned in to place a light hand on his shoulder. ''fruxas.... its okay to cry.... if you need to.'' she tried to comfort him, knowing that loosing your parent... or parents, is the hardest thing a child can go through.... alone. she desperately wanted to hold him, comfort him, tell him everything was going to be okay....
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Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Nov 21, 2006 3:52:13 GMT
All he wanted was to shut her out, brave it through, conquer the world on his own. But he couldn't.
As much as he tried to deny it and pretend he was something else... he was still a little boy.
A dam broke inside him, and he leaned on Nikky, sobbing. He clung to her, trying to pretend she was his mother... but it wasn't the same.
****
He had gained the skylight and was lowering himself through...
"Jared!"
"G**!" He lost his grip and fell to the dusty wood-paneled floor with a resounding thump. He turned angrily on the source of the voice: the redhead, smirking at him. "Are you nuts?!"
She just grinned wider. "Thank G**, you finally noticed."
He stood and rubbed his lower back. I'm going to be feeling this in the morning. "Joey, what is your problem? You wanna kill me or something?"
She shook her head. "If I wanted that, I'd just do it instead of following you out here across h**k and half of Junon. What the zark are you doing out here anyway, yo?"
He shook his head. "None of your business. Can't a guy get any privacy around you?"
"Nope."
"Why did I not see that answer coming?" He sighed. "Just give me five minutes, Joe. Five minutes, all right? I got stuff to do here."
"Like what? This place is a wreck."
"I'm looking for something."
She crossed her arms. "What?"
He paused. "I don't know." He moved off into the musty corridors. "Five minutes. I'll be right back."
She huffed. "Four minutes."
He waved her off and kept going.
This whole place felt disturbingly familiar...
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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 21, 2006 3:54:52 GMT
nikky blinked and almost gasped at the sudden change but then wrapped her arms around him and held him close. ''shhh... shh its okay....'' she said softly, rocking him and stroking his hair. she had to wonder though... why was he like this? what broke down to make him cling to her so suddenly? but now was not the time. she held him close and tried her best to comfort him....
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Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Nov 21, 2006 4:21:58 GMT
No, it isn't. My mother's dead, and nobody can tell me that's OK. He wanted to say that. But all he could do was cry and let her hold him. He just leaned on her and cried until he fell asleep on her, tears still running down his face.
He managed to not notice they were being watched. Kadaj was leaning against the door, watching them. He shook his head. "That kid has some rough going ahead for him."
He sat by the table and clarified. "Just think. The illegitimate son of Rufus Shinra and a Sephiroth clone. They'll expect miracles from him the rest of his life. And eventually..." He shook his head. "They'll ask him to take over an entire empire." His look went from pitying to grim. "Unless his sister beats him to it." Which is why it's vital we find Sigma and the baby.
****
Jared caught his reflection in a peice of dusty glass. Long white jacket, going all the way down to the seat of his pants. Baggy jeans. Black hairband and black T-shirt. Sandy hair, just about the fashionable length for boys these days, uncombed.
Green cat eyes.
He sighed and kept walking through the half light of this dead place. To think my father ever found this place liveable. It reeks of evil and death. He shook it off. My parents reeked of it too, once upon a time... but I'd been born with the stench. I never recognized the smell for what it was... until after both were dead. He sighed. I've run it through my head so many times... how it could have been if we'd stayed a family. And every time, it ends in disaster. G**, I was one stupid kid.
He spotted a door, cracked open, sunlight coming through. Curiosly, he inched it open.
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Post by *~Nikkole~* on Nov 21, 2006 4:27:46 GMT
nikky held him and pulled him up more into her lap. she rocked him and wiped at the tears on his face. she looked up at kadaj, not the least bit shocked or startled. she nodded and sighed, looking back down. she pushed the hair out of his face gently. ''what can we do.... to help him?'' she looked back up at him sadly. ''he can't be alone....'' i won't let him be alone....
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