#starsinshadows: reno 1

[thememory]

↳@starsinshadows (reno) gifted: Set in a shaded spot by her door is a small white box with a simple cotton string holding it closed and tied with a bow. The little paper tag reads 'Happy Birthday' in thin, angular writing with no name attached to it. Inside, well, it's not exactly a cake, but it's a little cream puff from a nice bakery.

------SWEETS WERE THE ultimate way into her heart, in one form or another. aerith was not someone who was difficult to win over, but assuaging her with baked goods, candies, cakes ... etcetera was one surefire way to win her favor. she never expected anything for her birthday. at least, not from anyone other than elmyra - who she'd learned would absolutely do something for her birthday regardless.

perhaps she was foolish to think so fondly of the turks. after all, they were shinra affiliated ... but who was aerith to judge someone solely by their occupational allegiances? there was absolutely nothing stopping any of them from dragging her back to the company any time they stopped by - she knew they kept tabs, after all. and she did enjoy when they popped in, even if she was cheeky about it. she considered the scrawl for a moment, head canted to the side as she traced the lines of the lettering with her eyes.

tseng wouldn't leave a card. rude tended to write in all capitals, and elena had more of an outright cursive tendency. reno. powers of deduction sat aside, she pulled at the cotton string and gentle lifted the lid of the box. oh sweets. the dilemma was wanting to enjoy the gift for longer than it took to taste, chew, swallow ... but the little bit of gremlin in her had that cream puff in her mouth just moments after she had a chance to really look at it.

the delight. the flavor. the airiness. divine.

her mouth was still full when she said it aloud, " thank you, reno!~"

[thememory]

↳ @starsinshadows (reno) queried: ❝  you can get used to any pain.  but loneliness,   that’s what makes you break.  ❞

------IT WAS A feeling she knew all too-well. motions that were intrinsic by now, committed to memory, of sailing through each day under the delusion that she was not a lonely woman. beneath the spotty roof of the dilapidated church aerith knelt in her garden of silk-petaled flowers, dirt pushed beneath otherwise cared for nails and rubbed into pale flesh & the soft cornflower blue fabric of an old skirt at the knees. every so often she'd cast a glance up at the turk to keep him further engaged in conversation, to let him know she was listening. usually these little forays were light in topic, but occasionally they slipped into the territory they lingered in now ---the flower girl was not a delicate bloom in her own right. her skin bore many scars from a childhood cruel and remembered to perfect detail only in the fogginess of nightmares.

fingers patted at a disturbed patch of dirt ---weed pulled and tossed aside into a small pile around the uneven border of the garden, and when she was pleased with the progress she'd made she straightened up (her knees giving a knowing pop! for how long she'd been in that position) and moved for one of the pews. it could bear the weight of at least three average-sized individuals, should reno and all of his long limbs decide to join her. " sometimes i'm convinced that's what will be my downfall. not shinra or the death of the planet. loneliness. "

it was honest. the most honest she'd been in a long time. but like knew like, and even if reno didn't admit it aloud aerith had an inkling that he knew the feeling of loneliness, too. perhaps not as deeply, or profoundly ... she would make no loud proclamations or accusations, but it was a feeling that traveled silently from his form to her own. maybe she was wrong. it didn't matter ... he brought it up. " pain i know. it's easy enough to deal with. you can ignore it, sometimes. but loneliness is an anchor. it attaches itself to the soul and pulls deep to the center of the planet, beyond the lifestream. where things are made instead of where they travel after they pass. it makes more loneliness there, and multiplies like a disease. you have to cut the anchor, i think. "

the problem was finding shears strong enough. that was the trick, wasn't it? be it a quest or a person (and no person should have to bear such a cruel duty, to cut someone's loneliness from them like shrubs being pruned back). aerith didn't have the answer for that. she was still figuring it out.

but her palms patted at the pew beside her, and instead of allowing the weight of the conversation to bring her down she offered reno a pleasant smile ---wide, sincere, enough to crinkle at the corners of her eyes. her request was wordless, open-ended. she wouldn't mind either way if he sat or not, so long as he lingered in the church for a while longer. the company was nice.