Fluent
Uncreativity

Fujin possessed a certain specialty when it came to choosing a single word perfect for any situation. She would pause for a small moment to weed through a short, simple list of long, elaborate words designed to convey intelligence, ruthlessness, and above all efficiency, and when she found her mot juste, she let it out in a compact scream. She could pack as much power and violence into her carefully controlled outbursts as her dark partner could punches, and when she threw in a good old-fashioned shin-kicking, she had a bite to go along with her bark. (Communication, after all, is vital between friends.)

Digression aside, Fujin was articulate (in her own weird little way). She skipped straight past the speechlessness and GF-caused aphasia other students suffered. Worst came to worst, she could spout out an all-purpose "RAGE" and be content with it.

Or she could, once upon a time, back when the world made sense.

What are you supposed to do when you're caught up in events so far beyond your control you have to learn to ignore them? When you realize everything that ever meant anything is made up of dogmatic lies and unfounded hopes? How much can one scrawny albino take before all of her precious words start ending in "-cide?" How do you express a combination of bloodthirst, frustration, and a total and utter gut-wrenching contempt for everything and nothing all at once?

"Rage," Fujin murmured to herself. (It was a fairly easy one anyway.)

Still, she felt she had no power to express anything anymore, particularly when it came to Seifer. No matter how desperately she sought him, he always hid in the center of her blind spot. He was an enigma, and starting to frighten her. He had a new power now, the power to render her dumb, and she swore he used it with a mad will.

She dared herself to roll over and just look at him, and it grew to the point where she did it on principle. It didn't help her any -- if anything, it sent her emotions into a more extreme flux.

Beautiful.

He slept with a kind of peace he'd never had while conscious. Everything about him seemed golden and shining, like sunlight.

Sunlight. A welcome notion.

Fujin crawled out of bed and opened a window. She leaned outside, not a solitary thought wasted on her complexion. Fujin refused to live like some pathetic, nocturnal rodent -- she was a Wind Goddess, not a vampire, and if she burned she burned. For all the sun hurt her, she wouldn't want to live without it.

On that note, she returned to bed, light as a landing bird. She reached out and brushed pale fingers against a tanned chest, shy and tentative, and couldn't help but be disappointed to find Seifer's skin cool, clammy; not at all like sunlight. She retracted her hand and scooted to the far edge of the bed. It didn't feel right, touching him, and neither did she like it when he touched her. He made her feel dirty and worthless, and what's worse, he embarrassed her in front of Raijin.

Fujin lay back down and contemplated whether or not she was mistaken in thinking she loved him. He dominated her thoughts like he dominated her life, and she was helpless in her indecision as to the best method of dealing with him. She long ago admitted him to be a shell of his former self, but she still nursed hope of his recovery. She had to believe that her friendship could save him.

Friendship. Just friendship. Close friendship. Intimate friendship. Naked friendship. But nothing more. Fujin was too bent on sanity and stability to hope for more. She would not delude herself.

In the end, she told herself that she really didn't know how to love, anyway, and that Seifer must be the same. In fact, she wasn't really even sure she didn't completely deny the very existence of love. The closest she'd experienced in her 17 years was respect, which far outweighed some stupid emotion just there for passing on her inferior, selfish genes anyway. If she and Seifer were in love, it was at the price of respect on both sides.

Again, she felt a compulsion to look at him. He twitched and wriggled now, and she wondered what he dreamed of. She doubted it was her. Sometimes she wondered whether he even noticed her at all. She kept him busy, kept him eating, and listened to him whenever he needed to speak. She received little in return, and though she didn't expect much, he seemed all the more oblivious of her as she grew more meticulous in his care...

...and yet, she could not deny that things were getting better. All three of them had jobs now, and though Seifer still moped around he no longer wallowed in self-pity. He'd been less snappy lately, and more affectionate. They traveled a hard road, but in the right direction, and if hard work or support sufficed to heal a person Seifer was as good as saved.

Though an eternity spanned between the two points in Fujin's mind.

She stretched and yawned -- she would muse on this no more. Her day had no reason to start before Seifer woke up, so she rolled back over and dozed off into a blissfully dreamless nap.

And awoke to screams. Beside her, a still unconscious Seifer howled and sweat bullets. Fujin shook him, calling his name, and his eyes opened, as much the color of blood as her own. She leaned over him, doing her very unskilled best with soothing noises and reassurances. Without hesitation, he grabbed her, arms wrapping around the slender girl and pulling her down to his level, where he squeezed her and wept into her hair.

He was too large, she too small, and she could not breathe in his adamant grip. She struggled, a good, solid push breaking her free. She tumbled back to her half of the bed wheezing.

After a few moments of trembling, Seifer came back to himself. He asked her whether he hurt her, and she replied that no, he didn't. (Her ribs were already starting to bruise.)

"What did you dream?" she asked.

"I don't wanna talk about it," he replied softly.

"Frightened."

He mistook her ambiguity for an accident. "You or me?"

"Both." She hugged him. "Tell me."

"Just... a nightmare."

She would push him no further. "Okay." She snuggled up to his chest, letting out a yawn as she started to drift back to sleep. "Any more come... I'll disembowel 'em."

He chuckled. "Yeah, that's why I love ya -- you're my guardian angel."

Her gift returned to her, Fujin once more found the perfect words. There was no doubt, no nagging voice to deny her when she said, "I love you, too."