[It's a warm day. Hot, actually. A little too hot for her liking. The sun, at its highest point in the sky, is beating down so bright that not even the thick canopies of the trees can save her from its heat. One would think, being so close to the creek would help to cool things down, but there are beads of sweat forming on her brow as she wanders through the forest. She isn't lost—at least, she doesn't think so. This place feels familiar in a strange, subconscious way. It's as if her feet know where they're taking her but at the same time, she feels like she's strolling aimlessly, searching for something she knows deep down is there, but not where to find it.
How long she searches, Tifa doesn't quite know. She's lost all sense of time and direction, but somewhere not so distant, she hears a voice. A low, familiar one. One that makes her heart skip a beat every time she hears it. She follows the sound, not able to make out the words that he's saying, and they draw her through the trees, off the beaten path to a small clearing with a watery alcove, and within that clearing is a cottage. A simple, elegant cottage with what appears to be fruit trees scattered about the yard. It's not big, but how did she not see this before? She's sure that she's come through here a number of times in her wanderings, and she would have—should have—spotted something as obvious as this.
Strange, but she tries not to think too much of it. Maybe she's mistaking this beaten path for a different one. She's much more interested in that voice, who she's certain is Eustace's, and what he's saying.]
... Eustace?
[Tifa calls out to him. She can hear him, though not clear enough just yet, but when he doesn't answer her, she gives a confused tip of her head and wanders up to the cottage's door. She reaches for its handle, and it clicks open easily, unlocked as if he had been expecting her to come.
The place itself isn't much bigger on the inside. It's quite small, actually, compared to their treehouse back in the city, but the many windows are large and brighten the whole place. The kitchen is a fair size larger though, and along the windowsills are small planters of herbs. The living room looks comfortable, with plenty of books stacked next to the couch, and in the next room, she can see the four-poster bed with hundreds of pillows and blankets that look like she could sink into them...
This is...]
warning for some weird spice??? idk save me... 2/4
[The entire thing has her freezing in the doorway, but nothing quite as much as what she sees at the dining table.
There sits Eustace, shirtless, his skin glistening with sweat. She can see the beads of them falling over the muscles in his neck, how his lean shoulders shine whenever he moves... Tifa immediately feels her throat dry up, and a sharp twinge of heat pool in her stomach. She lets out a sigh as she watches him, but he doesn’t seem to notice her standing there...
Because in his hands, he holds his gun. Flamek. He seems to be too preoccupied with cleaning it—a task she's seen him do plenty of times before, but this time... this time feels different. Her gaze roves over him, drinking him in. From his neck to his shoulders, his lean arms, all the way down to his hands as they deftly glide over the gun's metal barrel. She watches as his fingers, so strong and so firm, wipe away every last piece of dust before he brings it close to his mouth and... breathes on it. When she hears that puff of air pass over his parted lips, as if he were breathing into her ear instead, she feels her own catch in her throat, and she gasps with him.
Shivers shoot up her spine when he picks up the cloth and polishes it, the steel shining brilliantly in the sun. The way his hands curl over the weapon, so delicately, so lovingly, makes her knees tremble. It's so much like how he moves them when he's touching her...
And that's when she feels it.
Something dark, something twisted that's rooted deep within her resurfacing again. It makes her blood run hot and her mind white out with an uncharacteristic fury. Her chest suddenly feels heavy, her face warm and red, and her lungs like they've run out of air. Her heart beats so furiously that she fears it might burst right out of her. But why...? She's seen him with Flamek, cleaning it, so many times before. She's seen him use it, and never has it ever provoked such a visceral reaction out of her. Such an ugly feeling that boils in her core and wipes her mind clean of everything but what she sees before her—
Him holding the gun close to his lips. A shudder passes over her as his long fingers dip a thin cloth into the gun's barrel to clean its insides. It's the way they slide so easily out only to drive back in again and again, each time a little deeper that has her still frozen... But she's so mesmerized that she can't take her eyes away, no matter what kind of terrible things it stirs in her. She watches, with dreadful anticipation, as his lips part to murmur something to it...
"I'll never let you go..." She feels her heart leap up into her throat and choke her. She's heard those words before... uttered to her. They were meant for her. "You're the one thing I truly call my partner," he goes on, as if she isn't there. "The one thing I wholly trust..."
Tifa tries to shake her head at that. At the words that she refuses to give any more meaning to, or the emotions that she felt when she heard them. She didn't like them. She still doesn't like them. No, she's just imagining this. It's all just a dream, right? A stupid dream and nothing more.
Her eyes screw shut in an attempt to wake herself up from this miserable place. She blinks hard, again, and then again, but when she opens them and checks, she's still standing in the doorway of the cottage, unable to move her feet. Unable to move her body to lunge forward and slap the gun right out of his hands. Unable to take its place.
But when her vision adjusts...
...????????
Eustace is no longer holding a gun, but... a woman? An Erune, no doubt, with ears just like his that prick in Tifa's direction. She's curvy with the longest legs she's ever seen, hair so long that it cascades down her arched back like water. She's confident, graceful, beautiful—the kind of beautiful that Tifa always wished she could be, and this beautiful woman is on Eustace's lap, straddling him with her legs wrapped around his body. His hands slide from the nape of her neck all the way down her bared back, over the curves of her hips where he stops to squeeze.
She leans in over him, bringing her mouth close to his to breathe him in, but her eyes, bright and playful and reflecting the same deep lust in Eustace's—that same one that he only ever holds for Tifa—fix on her at the door. They never once break from Tifa's gaze as Eustace's lips and teeth graze over her jaw and he growls into the crook of her neck.
"I've chosen you..." Tifa's breathing stops when he says the words—to her... to her!—and when the woman winks and presses a coy finger to her lips. "As my partner for life. ... You're mine."
And that's when Tifa finally finds her voice.]
STOP!
[She refuses to suffer through any more of this!
The entire room comes to a grinding halt, the image of them so, so close to sharing a heated kiss frozen in time before it all starts to spin and vanish around her, swirling with fire as it burns away into something else. And in the background, she can hear... are those church bells...?]
[The scene shifts in such a jarring manner that she can't even process it before it all comes together. One second, she's standing in the entrance of a cottage and the next, in the pews of a big, brilliant church with hundreds of others. Some faces she recognizes as friends in Reverein, others from the dream that Eustace had shown her—his own friends from his own world, and the rest are faces she can't quite place.
At the front of the church stands the same woman. Her white gown is the most beautiful dress she's ever seen. Simple but elegant, its train flowing down the red velvet steps while her long veil flutters in the breeze. Across from her is Eustace in an equally brilliant white suit, looking down at her with the awe and love that Tifa recognizes in him and knows so well. The kind that was for her. Only her...
So why...?
"And do you, Eustace, take Flamek to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
What!? Tifa wants to scream as she leaps to her feet, causing a commotion of offended murmurs in the pews, but when she opens her mouth, nothing comes but a gasp, as if her voice had been stolen from her again. She sees Eustace smile.
"I do."
Her heart sinks. No, no, no... what's happening? He had said all of those things to her, and now here he was, promising himself to someone else? This woman, of all people? Tifa wastes no time in shuffling her way out of her seat, her shoving past the people without an apology so uncharacteristic of her that she's alarmed by her rudeness, but she needs to get to him before this goes any further. Before this all comes to an end, and she has to watch everything she ever wished for in her future crumble at the hands of another. She could never live with herself if she didn't stop it.
"Should anyone present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony—"
She will burn this entire place down if it means that it will stop this. This is wrong. If he chose someone else, if there were anyone besides her that made him happy, she would let him go, but... not like this. Not before she heard his reasons why. Not before she could do something to fight for them...
Embers rise begin to rise around her. I object! She tries to shout it, but nothing comes out. Flames cross over her knuckles. I object! She tries again, but still, nothing.
"—speak now, or forever hold your peace."]
I said I OBJECT!
[Her voice bellows out loud through the chambers, echoing off of the high cathedral walls, and flames erupt around her hands as she reels a fist back and charges forward, fire shooting from her hand as she punches, but before it can reach the couple at the altar, it dissipates, and it's as if she isn't even there. Not a single soul turns to look at her, all of them too enamoured with the scene unfolding before them.
Tears run hot over Tifa's cheeks.
"Then, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you..."]
I...
["Husband and wife. You may now—oh!"
The audience cheers and applauds as Eustace takes his bride and shares a tender kiss, and as he dips her, it deepens with passion... Their passion. His passion for her. For Tifa. But here he is, pouring it all into this other woman...
The bells chime again and all rise to praise the couple as they make their way down the aisle, showering them with flower petals that flutter around Tifa, too. She can't even be happy about this, no matter how happy Eustace appears to be. They're laughing merrily—uncharacteristically so (what is up with these absurd laughs?), and it leaves a weird feeling in Tifa's stomach—and he's smiling, his eyes tearing up with joy, but as they get closer and closer to her...]
Eustace, wait!
[It's like he doesn't see or hear her. The bride, or Flamek, however, does. She presses a finger to her lips again as her gaze connects with Tifa's before she and Eustace pass right through her as if she isn't even standing there. As if the fire that's billowing at her feet is just a pool of rose petals.
Tifa is swept outside, or maybe the scene itself flickers to change around her again because she doesn't remember ever moving, but she's now standing on the steps of the church with the rest of the guests to see the new couple off into their lives together, as they continue to laugh in that nonsensical, ridiculous way. There's a sled waiting for them, with all twelve of the flower dogs and corgis reined to it, but there's a thirteenth dog there, too. Eria, his brilliant white wolf, leads the pack at the front, standing tall and proud as her tail wags happily back and forth for Eustace.
It's then that Eustace finally turns his head, as his arm finds his bride's waist. His eyes meet Tifa's, but he only offers her the blankest of stares. No warmth, no light, no love. It's like he doesn't even know who she is, or that he sees right through her. It's fleeting, brief, but it's enough to tear her heart into a thousand little pieces as she watches the two of them be pulled off by the dogs into the sunset.
Into the fields where the star flowers rustle in the wind, their petals glowing shades of bright blues and yellows.]
[It's then that Eustace's crystal lantern will glow, and at the very same moment, Tifa snaps awake from her afternoon nap and shoots up in their bed with a shout, the sheets tossed and turned, her skin cold and sheened with sweat, and her heart beating a thousand times a minute as she tries to catch her breath.]
Flamek's a gun! Not a person!!!
[...
.....
???
Wait. What? What in the actual fuck just happened—]
[Eustace had been sitting in bed reading a book. He had awoken a little before her and had decided to just let her continue sleeping, a light smile on his face as he first gently stroked her hair before cleaning up a bit and settling back in. Granted he...hadn't meant to make her so tired, but that's just what happens whenever the two of them decide to spend a lazy day together at home. Getting out of bed is usually hard to do.
But he actually drops his book in surprise when she suddenly shoots up and he just stares at her wide-eyed in bewilderment, the light of his crystal lantern resting at his bedside momentarily missed as his attention is more on her.]
[It's then that Tifa registers where she is, and she slowly blinks the sleepiness away, or tries to. It takes another moment for her eyes to adjust to the light and refocus on the real world around her, only to realize...]
Eustace...?
[Oh god. He's here? When did that happen!? No, he was probably always here. Did he hear her!? She didn't talk in her sleep, did she? Not that it matters. She had practically screamed when she woke up, but maybe by some miracle, he didn't understand her.]
What are you...? I mean... [She sighs, and then murmurs under her breath, a hand coming up to rub over her eyes, but she makes a face when she feels how sweaty she is.] ... It was just a dream...
[She doesn't answer him right away, his hand resting on her head startling her a little more before her eyes flick to the gun hanging on the wall, and then to his crystal that shimmers and glows on the table on his side of the bed...
.....
And Tifa doesn't say a word as she stretches over him and snatches it up before he can see it and slides it under the covers in a single swift motion.]
It was nothing important. Kinda boring, actually. [Haha ha hahaha ha!] You were just...
[Dear lord, her face is turning so red now, isn't it?]
Did she really think he wouldn't notice her weird movements!?!??
And a quick glance back is enough to tell him what she took. In truth he thought about using the crystal but no, he respects her privacy. But with how she's acting?
....Did she have some weird dream with her and Flamek (narrator: his guess was way off).
Eyes darkening, he stares at her for a long moment.]
Tifa.
[That is very much a tone that is telling her if she doesn't tell the truth he will make the truth happen.]
[She knows that tone. It's the kind that leaves a shiver up her spine, and beneath the sheets, she clutches his crystal lantern a little tighter, using every ounce of willpower she has not to let her eyes move back to the gun. She doesn't want to look at it right now, too disgusted by it—no, by her own weird subconscious feelings—but it's so hard not to.]
It's fine... It was just a stupid dream.
[She insists on it, her voice urging him to let it go, but when she catches a glimpse of him and the way he's looking at her, she knows that it'll only be a matter of time before he gets the truth out of her one way or another. Ugh, why must he be this way!!!
...
.....
So there's a stretch of silence that falls between them during which Tifa opens her mouth, closes it, and opens it again to speak, but only an uncomfortable sound comes out at first before it turns into a sigh, and she clears her throat.]
[While he does enjoy making her squirm, in this case he is focused in trying to figure what the hell she dreamed that's gotten her so riled up that wasn't him. He even considers snatching the crystal while she's distracted by him, but he instead continues to wait and see if she'll tell him himself.
His expression does soften a little at her finally coming around, but he doesn't let up.]
It's so hard to lie to him but in this case, it might be necessary, if only to save her dignity. What dignity, she asks herself? The small crumb that she still has left that wasn't shredded by her own hands when she dreamt that his gun was a woman, and she was seducing him.
How is she even supposed to explain that!?
She squirms a little more, lifting the covers up closer to herself as she slides an inch away from him.]
I was— [She feels a lump in her throat that eats her words, and she swallows. Hard.] It was just really vivid is all. It surprised me.
He thinks about how she was yelling about Flamel not being a person and there's a hot flash of...some dark feeling as he takes away that inch by leaning closer to her, the room somehow darkening and almost feeling stifling.]
Tifa. Did you dream about having relations with Flamek?
[WHICH SOUNDS SO BIZARRE BECAUSE HIS WEAPON IS A GUN but dreams are weird and what she's said so far is not helping.]
What!? [She practically chokes the word out in complete disbelief because for a second, she thinks he's figured her out... Until it dawns on her that no, he has completely misunderstood and has it all backwards, which isn't any better! And then if her voice could go any higher, it does.] No!
[WHERE IN THE WORLD DID HE EVEN—oh. Right. Still, the thought of her having relations with the gun!? That woman? Granted, she was beautiful and...
Wait, no. Why is she getting so worked up about something that never happened!?
Still, she screws her eyes shut and gives a fervent shake of her head, leaning away from him as he draws closer.
....
To his credit, he wasn't entirely off the money.]
Not quite...
[She shrinks back a little more and slips her hand out from under the covers to offer him his crystal back without looking him in the eye once.
The only way she is going to clear the air on that is by telling him the truth.]
It was you, and... Maybe it's better if you just see for yourself...
[Please don't make her try to explain it with words.]
She might have even preferred it if it were her. Maybe it would have made this less awkward to say "yes, I did have relations with your gun except it was a person and not actually a gun" and be done with it... although now that the train of thought crosses her mind, she thinks maybe not.
Tifa is almost relieved when he considers dropping the subject but just as she's about to open her mouth to agree, the dream begins to play back just as she remembers it. All of it from her point of view.
And while he watches it, Tifa slowly sinks back beneath the covers and brings them and a pillow over her head to hide from him. She's going to burn a hole right through the sheets and the mattress at this rate with how hot it's becoming under here... Especially when she remembers that he'll hear all of the things she imagined him saying to Flamek in the dream...]
[It's like watching a giant wreck and while he could look away, he also finds himself so stunned that he can't. It starts off...weird but okay, but then it just gets stranger...
And stranger....
Once it gets to the wedding he's now just very slowly turning his head towards Tifa, his eyes wide with so much bewilderment and disbelief. Really? SHE REALLY WORRIED ABOUT AND DREAMED ALL THIS UP—
He cuts it off before it ends—not that there was much more to it—and then just. Quietly sets the crystal down before there's a rather long stretch of silence.
Is he still there or was he so stunned or so offended or so afraid that he just got up and left?
WHY IS IT SO QUIET????
Tifa is too afraid to lift the blankets and the pillow to check, but after what feels like an eternity of silence, she finally finds the courage to say a single word.]
[At this point, Eustace has been spending several minutes...processing this. To think Tifa would...imagine him being in love with his gun. And even give it a form?? And—it's really hard to continue through all this because it was just so.....absurd.
Even after she speaks out he continues to just be. Rather quiet. Until at last he finally and very slowly speaks.]
...So. You were jealous about Flamek?
[He could at least make that conclusion fairly quickly.]
When he finally does, it startles Tifa—not just his voice, but his incredibly blunt choice of words, even if that was definitely the case. Even she knows it now, looking back, now that she's had a little bit of time to try processing what she saw in the dream while she lay beneath the covers.
There's a shift, and slowly, the pillow falls off from over her face, and her eyes peek out to look at him. Or look near him. She's too scared to know what his reaction is.]
[IT MAKES IT SOUND SO MUCH WORSE WHEN HE SAYS IT LIKE THAT—]
I know! [She protests, sitting up finally, her frustration ringing clear in her voice.] I don't get it either.
[Does she wish she did? Maybe not? She wishes that she could just throw this all away and pretend that it never happened, but as she looks from Eustace to Flamek on the wall, she swears she hears it humming back at her...]
When you said that Flamek was... [When he said that it was his partner, she wants to say, but Tifa can't bring herself to finish the sentence. She already knows how stupid it all sounds. She shakes her head with a groan.] Never mind.
[If it were anyone else, he really would have said, "It is stupid," because honestly that's his main thought about all this. But he can see how much it frustrates and upsets her, so he is going to take more care with this.]
It's not if it makes you feel like this.
[He moves a little closer to her.]
What do you mean? What did I say about Flamek that upset you?
[He has—in this case unfortunate—great memory, but he doesn't really want to think about the dream again. He has one possible suspicion, but he'll try to see if Tifa will tell him.]
It didn't! [... Ah, she's getting riled up again. She takes a small breath and she deflates with her exhale.] It didn't upset me, it just...
[Tifa slides her legs from the bed and sits with her back to him, but she watches him through the corners of her eyes over her shoulder.]
After what you showed me, and all we talked about, when you said that Flamek was your partner...
[Ugh, this feels so dumb just saying it out loud!!! She isn't even mad about it, just so mortified and embarrassed and, quite frankly, still a little jealous of the woman in the dream. It's an ugly blend of emotions that has every inch of her skin turning red.]
Maybe it... I guess it just got to me a little.
[But then he had said something else to her. For Tifa. Those words were meant for her and yet... in her subconscious mind, he had said them to that woman instead.]
Rationally, Eustace thinks this is a needless worry that she really doesn't need to have. Hasn't her proven to her by now how much he loves her and is devoted to her? Really, if things were a bit different... ...
However, since she seems to be stuck on how he calls Flamek "partner" and thinking back on how that all even came about, he begins to see how deeply she feels about him and how much she wants to be a part of his life. And if he had to be honest, if the roles were reversed and she called her gloves or something else her partner as well, he might feel a bit jealous... A bit. A lot.
So with a slight smile forming, he closes the distance between them, his arm wrapping around her waist, hands slipping under tank top to slide over those well toned abdominal muscles as he pulls her half onto his lap to hold her against him.]
I see. You want to monopolize me, is that it?
[His chin rests on her shoulder, lips brushing against her ear as he speaks in a low voice.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flamekthunder) wrote2025-04-07 09:12 pm
passive dream recording... 1/4.... i'm so sorry......
How long she searches, Tifa doesn't quite know. She's lost all sense of time and direction, but somewhere not so distant, she hears a voice. A low, familiar one. One that makes her heart skip a beat every time she hears it. She follows the sound, not able to make out the words that he's saying, and they draw her through the trees, off the beaten path to a small clearing with a watery alcove, and within that clearing is a cottage. A simple, elegant cottage with what appears to be fruit trees scattered about the yard. It's not big, but how did she not see this before? She's sure that she's come through here a number of times in her wanderings, and she would have—should have—spotted something as obvious as this.
Strange, but she tries not to think too much of it. Maybe she's mistaking this beaten path for a different one. She's much more interested in that voice, who she's certain is Eustace's, and what he's saying.]
... Eustace?
[Tifa calls out to him. She can hear him, though not clear enough just yet, but when he doesn't answer her, she gives a confused tip of her head and wanders up to the cottage's door. She reaches for its handle, and it clicks open easily, unlocked as if he had been expecting her to come.
The place itself isn't much bigger on the inside. It's quite small, actually, compared to their treehouse back in the city, but the many windows are large and brighten the whole place. The kitchen is a fair size larger though, and along the windowsills are small planters of herbs. The living room looks comfortable, with plenty of books stacked next to the couch, and in the next room, she can see the four-poster bed with hundreds of pillows and blankets that look like she could sink into them...
This is...]
warning for some weird spice??? idk save me... 2/4
There sits Eustace, shirtless, his skin glistening with sweat. She can see the beads of them falling over the muscles in his neck, how his lean shoulders shine whenever he moves... Tifa immediately feels her throat dry up, and a sharp twinge of heat pool in her stomach. She lets out a sigh as she watches him, but he doesn’t seem to notice her standing there...
Because in his hands, he holds his gun. Flamek. He seems to be too preoccupied with cleaning it—a task she's seen him do plenty of times before, but this time... this time feels different. Her gaze roves over him, drinking him in. From his neck to his shoulders, his lean arms, all the way down to his hands as they deftly glide over the gun's metal barrel. She watches as his fingers, so strong and so firm, wipe away every last piece of dust before he brings it close to his mouth and... breathes on it. When she hears that puff of air pass over his parted lips, as if he were breathing into her ear instead, she feels her own catch in her throat, and she gasps with him.
Shivers shoot up her spine when he picks up the cloth and polishes it, the steel shining brilliantly in the sun. The way his hands curl over the weapon, so delicately, so lovingly, makes her knees tremble. It's so much like how he moves them when he's touching her...
And that's when she feels it.
Something dark, something twisted that's rooted deep within her resurfacing again. It makes her blood run hot and her mind white out with an uncharacteristic fury. Her chest suddenly feels heavy, her face warm and red, and her lungs like they've run out of air. Her heart beats so furiously that she fears it might burst right out of her. But why...? She's seen him with Flamek, cleaning it, so many times before. She's seen him use it, and never has it ever provoked such a visceral reaction out of her. Such an ugly feeling that boils in her core and wipes her mind clean of everything but what she sees before her—
Him holding the gun close to his lips. A shudder passes over her as his long fingers dip a thin cloth into the gun's barrel to clean its insides. It's the way they slide so easily out only to drive back in again and again, each time a little deeper that has her still frozen... But she's so mesmerized that she can't take her eyes away, no matter what kind of terrible things it stirs in her. She watches, with dreadful anticipation, as his lips part to murmur something to it...
"I'll never let you go..." She feels her heart leap up into her throat and choke her. She's heard those words before... uttered to her. They were meant for her. "You're the one thing I truly call my partner," he goes on, as if she isn't there. "The one thing I wholly trust..."
Tifa tries to shake her head at that. At the words that she refuses to give any more meaning to, or the emotions that she felt when she heard them. She didn't like them. She still doesn't like them. No, she's just imagining this. It's all just a dream, right? A stupid dream and nothing more.
Her eyes screw shut in an attempt to wake herself up from this miserable place. She blinks hard, again, and then again, but when she opens them and checks, she's still standing in the doorway of the cottage, unable to move her feet. Unable to move her body to lunge forward and slap the gun right out of his hands. Unable to take its place.
But when her vision adjusts...
...????????
Eustace is no longer holding a gun, but... a woman? An Erune, no doubt, with ears just like his that prick in Tifa's direction. She's curvy with the longest legs she's ever seen, hair so long that it cascades down her arched back like water. She's confident, graceful, beautiful—the kind of beautiful that Tifa always wished she could be, and this beautiful woman is on Eustace's lap, straddling him with her legs wrapped around his body. His hands slide from the nape of her neck all the way down her bared back, over the curves of her hips where he stops to squeeze.
She leans in over him, bringing her mouth close to his to breathe him in, but her eyes, bright and playful and reflecting the same deep lust in Eustace's—that same one that he only ever holds for Tifa—fix on her at the door. They never once break from Tifa's gaze as Eustace's lips and teeth graze over her jaw and he growls into the crook of her neck.
"I've chosen you..." Tifa's breathing stops when he says the words—to her... to her!—and when the woman winks and presses a coy finger to her lips. "As my partner for life. ... You're mine."
And that's when Tifa finally finds her voice.]
STOP!
[She refuses to suffer through any more of this!
The entire room comes to a grinding halt, the image of them so, so close to sharing a heated kiss frozen in time before it all starts to spin and vanish around her, swirling with fire as it burns away into something else. And in the background, she can hear... are those church bells...?]
3/4 💒
At the front of the church stands the same woman. Her white gown is the most beautiful dress she's ever seen. Simple but elegant, its train flowing down the red velvet steps while her long veil flutters in the breeze. Across from her is Eustace in an equally brilliant white suit, looking down at her with the awe and love that Tifa recognizes in him and knows so well. The kind that was for her. Only her...
So why...?
"And do you, Eustace, take Flamek to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
What!? Tifa wants to scream as she leaps to her feet, causing a commotion of offended murmurs in the pews, but when she opens her mouth, nothing comes but a gasp, as if her voice had been stolen from her again. She sees Eustace smile.
"I do."
Her heart sinks. No, no, no... what's happening? He had said all of those things to her, and now here he was, promising himself to someone else? This woman, of all people? Tifa wastes no time in shuffling her way out of her seat, her shoving past the people without an apology so uncharacteristic of her that she's alarmed by her rudeness, but she needs to get to him before this goes any further. Before this all comes to an end, and she has to watch everything she ever wished for in her future crumble at the hands of another. She could never live with herself if she didn't stop it.
"Should anyone present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony—"
She will burn this entire place down if it means that it will stop this. This is wrong. If he chose someone else, if there were anyone besides her that made him happy, she would let him go, but... not like this. Not before she heard his reasons why. Not before she could do something to fight for them...
Embers rise begin to rise around her. I object! She tries to shout it, but nothing comes out. Flames cross over her knuckles. I object! She tries again, but still, nothing.
"—speak now, or forever hold your peace."]
I said I OBJECT!
[Her voice bellows out loud through the chambers, echoing off of the high cathedral walls, and flames erupt around her hands as she reels a fist back and charges forward, fire shooting from her hand as she punches, but before it can reach the couple at the altar, it dissipates, and it's as if she isn't even there. Not a single soul turns to look at her, all of them too enamoured with the scene unfolding before them.
Tears run hot over Tifa's cheeks.
"Then, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you..."]
I...
["Husband and wife. You may now—oh!"
The audience cheers and applauds as Eustace takes his bride and shares a tender kiss, and as he dips her, it deepens with passion... Their passion. His passion for her. For Tifa. But here he is, pouring it all into this other woman...
The bells chime again and all rise to praise the couple as they make their way down the aisle, showering them with flower petals that flutter around Tifa, too. She can't even be happy about this, no matter how happy Eustace appears to be. They're laughing merrily—uncharacteristically so (what is up with these absurd laughs?), and it leaves a weird feeling in Tifa's stomach—and he's smiling, his eyes tearing up with joy, but as they get closer and closer to her...]
Eustace, wait!
[It's like he doesn't see or hear her. The bride, or Flamek, however, does. She presses a finger to her lips again as her gaze connects with Tifa's before she and Eustace pass right through her as if she isn't even standing there. As if the fire that's billowing at her feet is just a pool of rose petals.
Tifa is swept outside, or maybe the scene itself flickers to change around her again because she doesn't remember ever moving, but she's now standing on the steps of the church with the rest of the guests to see the new couple off into their lives together, as they continue to laugh in that nonsensical, ridiculous way. There's a sled waiting for them, with all twelve of the flower dogs and corgis reined to it, but there's a thirteenth dog there, too. Eria, his brilliant white wolf, leads the pack at the front, standing tall and proud as her tail wags happily back and forth for Eustace.
It's then that Eustace finally turns his head, as his arm finds his bride's waist. His eyes meet Tifa's, but he only offers her the blankest of stares. No warmth, no light, no love. It's like he doesn't even know who she is, or that he sees right through her. It's fleeting, brief, but it's enough to tear her heart into a thousand little pieces as she watches the two of them be pulled off by the dogs into the sunset.
Into the fields where the star flowers rustle in the wind, their petals glowing shades of bright blues and yellows.]
4/4 ok i'm done
Flamek's a gun! Not a person!!!
[...
.....
???
Wait. What? What in the actual fuck just happened—]
LMFAO STILL WHEEZING
But he actually drops his book in surprise when she suddenly shoots up and he just stares at her wide-eyed in bewilderment, the light of his crystal lantern resting at his bedside momentarily missed as his attention is more on her.]
Tifa!?
[What's this about Flamek???]
STILL CRYING
[It's then that Tifa registers where she is, and she slowly blinks the sleepiness away, or tries to. It takes another moment for her eyes to adjust to the light and refocus on the real world around her, only to realize...]
Eustace...?
[Oh god. He's here? When did that happen!? No, he was probably always here. Did he hear her!? She didn't talk in her sleep, did she? Not that it matters. She had practically screamed when she woke up, but maybe by some miracle, he didn't understand her.]
What are you...? I mean... [She sighs, and then murmurs under her breath, a hand coming up to rub over her eyes, but she makes a face when she feels how sweaty she is.] ... It was just a dream...
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What was it about? What's this about Flamek?
[Yeah him not hearing anything with those ears not happening.]
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.....
And Tifa doesn't say a word as she stretches over him and snatches it up before he can see it and slides it under the covers in a single swift motion.]
It was nothing important. Kinda boring, actually. [Haha ha hahaha ha!] You were just...
[Dear lord, her face is turning so red now, isn't it?]
Just cleaning it, and... that was that.
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.....
Did she just.
She did.
Did she really think he wouldn't notice her weird movements!?!??
And a quick glance back is enough to tell him what she took. In truth he thought about using the crystal but no, he respects her privacy. But with how she's acting?
....Did she have some weird dream with her and Flamek (narrator: his guess was way off).
Eyes darkening, he stares at her for a long moment.]
Tifa.
[That is very much a tone that is telling her if she doesn't tell the truth he will make the truth happen.]
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It's fine... It was just a stupid dream.
[She insists on it, her voice urging him to let it go, but when she catches a glimpse of him and the way he's looking at her, she knows that it'll only be a matter of time before he gets the truth out of her one way or another. Ugh, why must he be this way!!!
...
.....
So there's a stretch of silence that falls between them during which Tifa opens her mouth, closes it, and opens it again to speak, but only an uncomfortable sound comes out at first before it turns into a sigh, and she clears her throat.]
It's embarrassing...
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that wasn't him. He even considers snatching the crystal while she's distracted by him, but he instead continues to wait and see if she'll tell him himself.His expression does soften a little at her finally coming around, but he doesn't let up.]
In what way?
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It's so hard to lie to him but in this case, it might be necessary, if only to save her dignity. What dignity, she asks herself? The small crumb that she still has left that wasn't shredded by her own hands when she dreamt that his gun was a woman, and she was seducing him.
How is she even supposed to explain that!?
She squirms a little more, lifting the covers up closer to herself as she slides an inch away from him.]
I was— [She feels a lump in her throat that eats her words, and she swallows. Hard.] It was just really vivid is all. It surprised me.
[She's a terrible liar. Terrible.]
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He thinks about how she was yelling about Flamel not being a person and there's a hot flash of...some dark feeling as he takes away that inch by leaning closer to her, the room somehow darkening and almost feeling stifling.]
Tifa. Did you dream about having relations with Flamek?
[WHICH SOUNDS SO BIZARRE BECAUSE HIS WEAPON IS A GUN but dreams are weird and what she's said so far is not helping.]
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What!? [She practically chokes the word out in complete disbelief because for a second, she thinks he's figured her out... Until it dawns on her that no, he has completely misunderstood and has it all backwards, which isn't any better! And then if her voice could go any higher, it does.] No!
[WHERE IN THE WORLD DID HE EVEN—oh. Right. Still, the thought of her having relations with the gun!? That woman? Granted, she was beautiful and...
Wait, no. Why is she getting so worked up about something that never happened!?
Still, she screws her eyes shut and gives a fervent shake of her head, leaning away from him as he draws closer.
....
To his credit, he wasn't entirely off the money.]
Not quite...
[She shrinks back a little more and slips her hand out from under the covers to offer him his crystal back without looking him in the eye once.
The only way she is going to clear the air on that is by telling him the truth.]
It was you, and... Maybe it's better if you just see for yourself...
[Please don't make her try to explain it with words.]
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WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "NOT QUITE" WAS IT SOME KIND OF DATE THEN??? WERE YOU TAKING CARE OF HIS GUN—
It actually takes him a second for him to register she said it was him and he just stares at her incredulously before slowly taking the crystal.]
...If you really don't want to talk about it...
[...
...
WELL now he kind of...feels bad.]
...Nevermind, it's just a dream so it doesn't matter—
[He's about to retract everything and apologize, but the moment his hand moves over the crystal, her dream immediately starts playing.
Well. There goes that.]
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She might have even preferred it if it were her. Maybe it would have made this less awkward to say "yes, I did have relations with your gun except it was a person and not actually a gun" and be done with it... although now that the train of thought crosses her mind, she thinks maybe not.
Tifa is almost relieved when he considers dropping the subject but just as she's about to open her mouth to agree, the dream begins to play back just as she remembers it. All of it from her point of view.
And while he watches it, Tifa slowly sinks back beneath the covers and brings them and a pillow over her head to hide from him. She's going to burn a hole right through the sheets and the mattress at this rate with how hot it's becoming under here... Especially when she remembers that he'll hear all of the things she imagined him saying to Flamek in the dream...]
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And stranger....
Once it gets to the wedding he's now just very slowly turning his head towards Tifa, his eyes wide with so much bewilderment and disbelief. Really? SHE REALLY WORRIED ABOUT AND DREAMED ALL THIS UP—
He cuts it off before it ends—not that there was much more to it—and then just. Quietly sets the crystal down before there's a rather long stretch of silence.
He has no words.]
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........
Is it over?
Why is it so quiet?
Did he watch it?
Why is it so quiet?
Is he still there or was he so stunned or so offended or so afraid that he just got up and left?
WHY IS IT SO QUIET????
Tifa is too afraid to lift the blankets and the pillow to check, but after what feels like an eternity of silence, she finally finds the courage to say a single word.]
... hello?
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Even after she speaks out he continues to just be. Rather quiet. Until at last he finally and very slowly speaks.]
...So. You were jealous about Flamek?
[He could at least make that conclusion fairly quickly.]
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When he finally does, it startles Tifa—not just his voice, but his incredibly blunt choice of words, even if that was definitely the case. Even she knows it now, looking back, now that she's had a little bit of time to try processing what she saw in the dream while she lay beneath the covers.
There's a shift, and slowly, the pillow falls off from over her face, and her eyes peek out to look at him. Or look near him. She's too scared to know what his reaction is.]
... Jealous feels like such a strong word.
[Except it's not. That's exactly what it is.]
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...But it's a gun. And as far as we're aware, they don't have humanoid forms like the one in your dream.
[...There's Grynoth and the automagods but that's totally different.]
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I know! [She protests, sitting up finally, her frustration ringing clear in her voice.] I don't get it either.
[Does she wish she did? Maybe not? She wishes that she could just throw this all away and pretend that it never happened, but as she looks from Eustace to Flamek on the wall, she swears she hears it humming back at her...]
When you said that Flamek was... [When he said that it was his partner, she wants to say, but Tifa can't bring herself to finish the sentence. She already knows how stupid it all sounds. She shakes her head with a groan.] Never mind.
It's stupid.
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It's not if it makes you feel like this.
[He moves a little closer to her.]
What do you mean? What did I say about Flamek that upset you?
[He has—in this case unfortunate—great memory, but he doesn't really want to think about the dream again. He has one possible suspicion, but he'll try to see if Tifa will tell him.]
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[Tifa slides her legs from the bed and sits with her back to him, but she watches him through the corners of her eyes over her shoulder.]
After what you showed me, and all we talked about, when you said that Flamek was your partner...
[Ugh, this feels so dumb just saying it out loud!!! She isn't even mad about it, just so mortified and embarrassed and, quite frankly, still a little jealous of the woman in the dream. It's an ugly blend of emotions that has every inch of her skin turning red.]
Maybe it... I guess it just got to me a little.
[But then he had said something else to her. For Tifa. Those words were meant for her and yet... in her subconscious mind, he had said them to that woman instead.]
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Rationally, Eustace thinks this is a needless worry that she really doesn't need to have. Hasn't her proven to her by now how much he loves her and is devoted to her? Really, if things were a bit different... ...
However, since she seems to be stuck on how he calls Flamek "partner" and thinking back on how that all even came about, he begins to see how deeply she feels about him and how much she wants to be a part of his life. And if he had to be honest, if the roles were reversed and she called her gloves or something else her partner as well, he might feel a bit jealous... A bit.
A lot.So with a slight smile forming, he closes the distance between them, his arm wrapping around her waist, hands slipping under tank top to slide over those well toned abdominal muscles as he pulls her half onto his lap to hold her against him.]
I see. You want to monopolize me, is that it?
[His chin rests on her shoulder, lips brushing against her ear as he speaks in a low voice.]
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someone please contain these two we give up