Welcome to Gaia! ::

Saffy, our head b***h mod-lady, is having her 17th on tuesday. ^__^

*cough* I still need to make/give presents to our two other people ._.'

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*coughs* HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Three: *covering ears* OW!

Ahhh ... I need a title.

Three: crap?

*nods* seems good. Lol.

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Feathers and scales
Pilotslover
Written for Saffire's birthday smile

~*~*~

The former mage could feel Seymour’s spell leaving him; it could not have been more then an hour since it had been cast but on some level, Vivi knew that he could not go berserk again so soon after his last attack. He looked towards Freya, who was reading the manga that he had passed her, “I - I’m sorry Freya,” Vivi murmured; the Burmecian looked towards him, dark green eyes seeming startled. “I - I know you told me that I shouldn’t feel sorry for myself but … I keep hurting people.” He looked to his clawed hands for a few moments.

Lightly, she touched his shoulder, crouching to her level whilst using her lance as a prop. “You aren’t the one to hurt people, Vivi.” She told him gently, “I read a story once about a person who did bad things,” Instantly, the little mage was captivated, no one talked to him like he was a child any more; their new companions not even awarding the boy a second chance. “He used to hurt people, say nasty things and do things that were utterly against character. Everyone turned against him, except his very dearest friends.”

“Sounds just like me,”

Moving her hand, she stood. “He proved them all wrong, Vivi and I know that you can do the same.”

‘Shows what she knows,’

Silently, Vivi got to his feet, wings flapping a few times, launching a host of midnight and white feathers into the air. “Freya, I need to tell you something,” He said in a very small voice. Freya did not look at him, she knew that Vivi would clam up if he felt worried and something told her that this was important. “I - I … have this … voice in my head,” He spoke in such a small voice that even Freya’s rodent-like ears could not hear him clearly. “It … keeps saying bad things, and it makes me really mad so that I hurt people.”

Uncertainly, Freya squatted to his level; part of her refused to believe that she had been the one to slap him and reduce him to tears but his behaviour had merited it. The two had rarely spoken when they had journeyed together but Freya has always had the impression that Vivi was kind, gentle and polite if not a little prone to growing depressed; this place had driven his personality to a lot of weird things.

Yet, when she considered it, her own personality had not escaped unscathed; she had been snappy and easy to annoy, her bouts of nausea making her far worse then that.

They had latched onto one another, desperate in their own ways for someone they could rely on. Steiner and Vivi’s relationship had been strained as both strove to understand what the mage was going through and Zidane and Dagger had one another. Freya’s relationships were largely unchanged, but she had never latched onto anyone save Sir. Fratley. Yet, with Vivi, a boy who needed mothering and telling off in the same breath, she had offered small pieces of her soul.

She could not even begin to fathom what he felt about her, his eyes as hard to read as ever, save when they became venomous red with anger. “D - Does that mean I’m broken Freya?”

Startled, Freya looked towards him, her hand going to where his chin should be but she found nothing. Earnest, innocent yellow eyes drifted up to her concerned green ones, “Why is it that you insist on being broken so often?” She queried, her tones filled with concern and bafflement. “I so often forget that you aren’t like any other child your age.” She touched his arm, “Like Prince Puck.”

“However, every time you remind me, I feel sorrowful.” She sat down fully, legs crossed with the spear across her lap. “No matter how hard I strive to understand you, you manage to evade any kind of convention.” Freya’s eyes drifted closed, she did not want to look at the confused boy before her. “A unique Black Mage -”

“I’m a Black Waltz,” He insisted; having heard about Black Waltz’s from Zidane, Freya did not want to use that tag for Vivi.

She chose to ignore this interruption, “- with wings, the prototype of his entire species.” Slowly, Freya opened her eyes and she looked down at her lance. “Something of a miracle, as no other mage, created by Kuja has lasted as long as you have. You can say with complete certainty that you are nine, rather then stopping after a year.” There was a rustle and Freya looked up, she saw his wings had bristled up and she realised that she had made him angry.

Clearly, this was a sensitive topic for him; to Vivi, the length of his life was a matter of great distress. Freya knew that she could not begin to understand what the boy felt. Freya stood, wrapping Vivi in a tight hug, her snout into his neck as she hugged her back. She smiled at him when she released him, watching as he pulled a pure white feather from one of his lower wings with a slight wince. “Vivi!” She scolded, refusing to believe that he was hurting himself again, “What are you -”

He took her hand, pushing the feather into her palm, “I think your wings are like me,” He murmured, not looking at her. “When I’m angry, my real self is hidden by whatever is inside me.” Vivi’s glowing yellow eyes lingered on the feather she held in her palm. “You hold onto a part of me, Freya; I want that to remind you that even when I’m hurting people, I’m still here.”

Gently, she closed her hands around the feather, “I shall hold onto this for you Vivi,” Freya told him, opening her coat to place it into her pocket; fingers brushing against a sealed vial. He watched as she pulled the vial out, in its bottom was a host of green circles. “These scales are from the first dragon I killed,” She revealed, pulling the bung from the vial, she tipped on into her palm.

Curiously, he leant over to look at the scale, which glinted a rich dark green in the light. Wrapping the scale in a piece of tissue, she pushed it into his hand. “If I hold a part of you -” As Freya spoke, she sealed the vial and put it in her pocket. “- then you should have a part of me.” With the care she had used with his feather, Vivi placed the wrapped scale into his inner pocket. She laughed, drawing his yellow eyes to her face. “We have a link now, much like Queen Garnet and Eiko.”

She rested a hand on his shoulder, “We all have our inner demons, Vivi; yours just speaks to you far more obviously then ours do.” Freya told him, her eyes lingered with Vivi’s. “The most powerful people have the most persuasive demons.”

~*~*~

End

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Doesn't amount to Kyou's. His rocks!

Hope you have a good one!

PL

Thanks PL! ^__^

I really loved yours though, the exchange made me teary eyed, especially when Vivi will probably end up going on a rampage one way or another.

Fireflies isnt that good. Its just chock full of fluffy smut. ^__^" The fluff-smut clouds the mind you see. :3