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Language:
English
Series:
Part 6 of Phantom Future
Stats:
Published:
2025-09-26
Words:
500
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
4
Kudos:
5
Hits:
44

Phantoms

Summary:

Phantoms are all that remains.

Work Text:

He’s here.

Of course he is.

Despite the anger he deserves to feel. Despite the lie that tore his life apart. Despite everything.

He’s here.

The tree’s at my back. The one on the hill overlooking my grave marker. My lie. It’s a cherry tree in full bloom. The petals fall all around us. A quiet storm of life and death.

He’s getting closer.

I need to move. To run. Save him from me.

I don’t.

“Say something!” I beg. The way he looks at me is too much. And not enough.

Seifer’s face doesn’t change. It’s full of awe and love, each step making clearer and clearer. All of it for me. I can’t take it. I don’t deserve it.

Hatred. Vitriol. Those I deserve.

All too quickly, he looms over me. The look in his gorgeous green eyes nearly makes my heart burst. His hand finds my cheek, the warmth making me quiver. Every iota of my mind is focused on the sensation of his skin on mine. A breath held for years lets go, flowing out of my mouth.

“Missed you.”

I don’t have time to marvel at his beautiful voice. His lips find mine and I lose my fucking mind.

He is air and I’ve been drowning for half a decade. It’s different from our last kiss. No quick taste and cowardly flight. I’m not running. I can’t anymore. Not from this. Life flows back into me. Nerves long thought dead prickle awake.

My heart beats.

When it’s over, we just stare. I gather my courage before it’s too late. I want to be selfish, yet…

“I can’t ask you to come with me…”

His mouth brushes up to mine.

“Never had to ask. Never will. Been with you this whole time.”

I know. I’ve known all along.

 

******

 

“Dad?”

Malcolm’s voice pulls me out of my head. He looks up at me with his mother’s brown eyes underneath a wild bush of messy brown hair. I smile at him.

“Yeah?”

“I thought I saw something. Up there by the tree.” I watch my son point up the hill. The cherry tree is still there. Branches full of leaves.

I see them. Barely. Two shadowy blurs. I blink and they’re gone. My mouth twitches into a small smile.

“Miss you guys too.” I whisper under my breath. 

Warm fingers intertwine with mine. Rinoa takes my arm, laying her head against my shoulder. I squeeze back.

My other hand goes to the top of Malcolm’s head.

“Just phantoms.” I tell him.

“Ghosts?!” There’s a little panic in his voice.

“Nothing to be afraid of.” Rinoa explains kindly. “Our friends just miss us as much as we miss them.” 

We stare at the tree for a little longer but they don’t come back. Best that way. I glance at the two headstones. Quistis and Seifer names lay side by side, carved into stone. A quiet testament to their unbroken bond.

At once truth and lie, these markers. Beautiful, regardless.

 

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