solace;
The church is Cloud's haven.
Amidst a world filled with heartbreak, chaos, regrets and despair... it had been the only place he could think to retreat to when the conflict started (and ceased).
The sound of rain is in his heartbeat, in his ears and he never bothered to fix the roof to keep it out. The flowers need the light, the water, the air and love that Gaia has to offer them. When death had stood at his door he passed through the church for comfort, when life offered itself to him, it began here twice. When he'd fallen through the roof on that fateful day. And when he'd been shot through the heart only to be healed by her gentle hand.
Sometimes he swears he feels her pass by with the faintest disturbance of air. Sometimes he swears he hears the faintest echo of her voice humming, singing or laughing, reverberating off the church walls -- her careful fingertips guiding the flowers to lift towards the sky. Today is oddly quiet.
His footsteps are heavy as he makes his way down between the pews... he had managed to clean it up nicely, hadn't he? Everything was in its proper place, stone had been hauled from the pool of water and he had managed to refit some of the floorboards himself... but not where the flowers grew. No. He had torn some of them away to take root more freely.
She said she would come back... so was in the way she meant? Living on through Gaia itself? He turns his face towards the dying sunlight and lifts his chin a little. Would he wait his whole life for her...? And would death be a release? Probably... because he loved her. Still loves her. And time won't lessen it.