Liz's Book of Shit✐ Announcements, Miscellaneous, and Randomness! ✐

Teaser 3: (Sky Writers) "Stop being perfect."

"You don't have time to hide in here!" You slammed your fist on the crystal encased woman in front of you. A dull ache spread all through your fist and you ignored it. "Sephiroth needs you!" Another slam, more pain, yet you still couldn't care. "Vincent needs you!" A shard of the transparent crystal scratched your hand and your blood spilled freely from the wound. The sharp pain in your hand blended with the dispersed ache and they both amplified as you continued to beat on the crystal. Dark red stains covered the luminescent blue crystals.

"You can't tell me they don't mean anything to you. You can't just leave them like this." Tears dotted your cheeks as you slid to the ground, not caring about the fact that your legs were soaked by cold water below.

"Please. At least give me a sign to how I can help them. Something. Anything."

The woman stayed in the exact same position, her poise never wavering. Though the blurred tears you could see the palpable distress in her aura send ripples throughout the cave, and yet that still wasn't enough. She still stayed in her crystal prison and looked completely unaffected, even if you could see and feel her distress.

Sealing herself away like this wouldn't help anyone, crying wouldn't either, but it had to take some of the pain away. They were the tears that Sephiroth and Vincent would never cry for themselves. You didn't even try to cover your eyes and hide the tears. Both your fists were still on the crystal, with blood staining your dominant hand and painting the crystal crimson.

You weren't sure how much time you stayed there, bowed before the crystallized woman, but a warm hand pulled your bloody fist away from the statue.

"(Name)..." Kind eyes stared down at you without a trace of judgment in them.

"Rai?" You pushed the lingering tears away. "How did you...?"

"I had a feeling something like this would happen," he said simply as he bent down on his knees so that he was at your eye level. He produced a Potion from his bag and placed a few drops onto the wounded area. The aching didn't disappear completely, but you could feel the skin heal itself together. Rai lowered your hand into the cool pond of water below to wash off the blood, treating it gently as porcelain. "There." He smiled at you as if you were a kid in a doctor's office. You tried to smile back but the corners of your mouth merely lifted for a second and fell right back. "What would I have to do to put a smile back on your face?"

You barely smiled at his statement before your dismay overcame you. "I can't do anything for them. I'm so damn useless and so damn pathetic."

Rai looked down at you, gently shaking his head as he rose a finger to your face to gently brush away a tear. The gesture went beyond his usual polite comfort zone, and you could tell he was trying his hardest to be here for you right now. "Vincent and Sephiroth have never thought that about you and I am fairly certain they would never think that about you. Even if you were not able to fight, your smile is more than enough for them. Kind souls with a cold exterior rarely receive such genuine emotional displays, and you are full of them. So smile (Name), because a lot of people would be sad without your smile."

"I c-can't. They've helped me so damn much, just like you have, and I can't do anything for any of you. I can't help either of them even when they need someone else on their side the most!"

Rai instantly wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into his chest and giving you a place to cry where no one could see. He gently ran his hand through your hair, speaking in a voice that somehow managed to be ten times gentler than his usual voice. "Neither of them asked you to take on their burdens. You volunteered, and I know you're going to succeed. I will do anything in my power to help. All you have to ever do is ask."

"Rai..."

"You were never alone, (Name). I promise you, I will always protect you. No matter what."

They were words he repeated numerous times. To this day, he had never broken that promise. Before losing his memories or after, he would still protect you until his last breath.

That scared you as much as it comforted you. A fresh set of tears flowed from your eyes as you realized that you couldn't live without the white haired boy.

"Just don't do anything that'll get yourself hurt," you said as you pulled away from his chest slightly, looking up with him with a teary eyed smile.

He brushed another tear from your eyes. "I can't help it, when it comes to you I can be surprisingly irrational." He leaned down and gently kissed your forehead. "But I'll try my best, you would be sad if I got hurt and I would hate to make you stop smiling."

You buried your face into his chest again, wrapping your arms tightly around him and letting out a muffled, "Stop being perfect."

ღ✎Authoress's Noteღ✎: That's right! I MAKE ONE NEW STORY AND NOW I'M ON AN UPDATE SPREE. If only this wouldn't just last a night or something like that because am I right? This one goes out to the lovely sweetheart fairyrose95 who came out of ghost reading a few months back and then became a giant comment poster. Like bless. My bad on taking so long love, but hope the wait was worth it! These are getting me more pumped to write the story itself even if there are slight spoilers every now and then. Whoopies~ I don't know why this became so Rai-centric and feels heavy, BUT HE IS MY BABE AND IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG. Fun fact, teasers are still interested if you guys want to see more like this hehe~ I'll be wrapping up the other teasers if I can tonight, we'll see!~