🏆 This is the Amazing Person Award 🏆 ✨💚 Once you are given this award you are supposed to paste it in the ask of eight different people, who, in your opinion, deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but it is sweet to know someone thinks you're amazing inside and out 💚✨
Heh, I could say the same of you, my friend. Though you are no longer here on tumblr as you once were—as we all once were—I feel very privileged to have known you and to have known all those whose path I have crossed while here. I am ever grateful to have preserved my time as Cloud, to be able to look back and reminisce. It has felt good to revisit this and my other blogs.
I don’t know if you will ever see this post specifically, but if you do… well, time sure flies, doesn’t it? I made this blog in July of 2011—that’ll be 15 years in a week!
15 long years. I was 23 and still had so much I had yet to figure out.
Society never really prepared us for adulthood, did it? But we’ve done the best we could with what we were given.
I digress. My point here is that, however amazing you believed me to be—I hope you know that the feeling was, and shall always remain, mutual. In fact, it goes triple for you. I hope you are doing well, my friend—or, at least, as well you can be given the many fires burning around us.
You, at least, know where to find me still. I miss you.
Dawn hasn't even come when he arrives at her location. He doesn't approach immediately, just watches, a private vulnerability softening his gaze. But then she notices, and his mouth eases into the beginnings of a smile, "Hello," and "Welcome back," and so many years between them muddling into a moment that no words could capture. He was there. She was here. It had been... a long time. [ooc: Welcome back, dear friend. I have been gone, but, well... here I am now.]
For someone so well versed in the art of stealth, his standards were clearly slipping. She knew the shadow that lingered long before he spoke; had half imagined him for years, like the fond memory of an ever distant dream, just on the periphery of her reality. It’s strange to think that it’s a creature of flesh and blood in her presence now, a tangible and awe inspiring apparition that can simultaneously steal breath from her lips and weave joy into every facet of her face. In every lifetime, you know I’ll always find a way back home.
Fate and life might’ve sent them on separate paths, but they still always returned one way or another; a distance measured not in miles, but in thoughts - somewhere he was never entirely far from. There’s no hesitation in the way Aerith springs forward, arms enveloping a long absent friend in an embrace that is as much for her benefit as it is for his. “It’s good to see you, Tsengshine. And still in one piece no less.”
[ooc/ic?] Can I just take a moment to appreciate how ominous your tags came across? "#come to the basement Reeve #we have good coffee" Excellent. Promise them coffee as incentive... *Trails off and doesn't continue, a curve edging across his lips, proud of Reno's instincts*
🏆 This is the Amazing Person Award 🏆 ✨💚 Once you are given this award you are supposed to paste it in the ask of eight different people, who, in your opinion, deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but it is sweet to know someone thinks you're amazing inside and out 💚✨ --- [ooc] Right back at you, my friend~
Small ridiculously soft thing for @turkleader, because well, tis the season and all that. 💕
It’s been a lifetime since last she saw him; the once frequent serenade of half amused banter now little more than a fond memory, faded and cherished like a scarcely remembered dream. It’s supposed to be easier this way. Distance is better for both of them; two lives that were once nigh on inseparable, now so distinctly detached, forever running parallel, never destined to ever more intersect. Or at least, that had been the theory when they’d gone their separate ways. It was more a way of explaining away the absence; of rationalising the lingering ache that sat deep within the pit of her stomach to no longer have a confidant at her beck and call. To no longer have the safety of suited arms to soothe her nightmares, nor the warmth of familiar hands to brush away her tears.
There was no denying that she missed him. She missed his laughter, missed the good natured humour he’d always greeted her whimsy with. She’d never had a deeper conversation. Never had the need to wax philosophical with anyone but him - but Tseng was a law unto himself these days - and while obligation may have demanded his presence elsewhere, Aerith would make the time to commandeer his company. To steal little more than minutes if need be, to remind him of his promise.
They’re a far cry from the beaten floorboards of the church when last they’d parted ways. She’s older now, though perhaps no wiser, still an ardent optimist tangled up in a hope that may never truly come to pass. Her smile is the same though; that cheeky upturned curve of rosy pink spreading warmth and wry amusement into the apples of her cheeks as she leant so precariously against the frame of his office door. He should know by now, that she’s only here to confirm her existence; and to check on his, if truth be told. It’s a visit that comes from a place of overriding affection; an underpinning concern that no amount of distance was ever going to shake.
She’s too content to watch him half leant over that desk, sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he perused paper after paper of some pressing concern or other. He’s in his element, and perhaps that’s the best part. There’s no blood left on those battle hardened palms, no traces of violence or cold heartless detachment. He looks human; exhausted maybe but certainly happier than she’s seen him in years. It’s a visual that warms her heart; the fluttering butterflies of recognition sparking to life within the hollows of her ribcage, reigniting an ache that would better have been laid to rest.
Still, there isn’t a word for what she feels when at last he looks up; when that split second of recognition chases away all signs of fatigue to replace it with fond nostalgia. Aerith knows that smile better than she knows her own, that unforgettable tilt of narrow lips once her constant companion, yet now confined only to memory. To see it again is a gift in itself, but she’s not nearly so bold as to say so. If anything, there’s sanctity in the silence. Messages and sentiments carved in the words left unspoken; a cypher for which lay only in the hidden consistencies of their past.
❝It’s been a while little flower. To what do I owe the pleasure?❞
❝Tis the season, so I came bearing gifts. ❞
Her hand raised the basket within her grasp enticingly, the subtle to and fro of an opportunistic wiggle betraying the mirth and mischief behind such a gesture. She could hardly argue that Tseng was the overtly romantic type, or indeed had much need for roses or sugared candies to gift to the world, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t still receive them. Plucking loose a small bag of marbled meringue kisses, with little ceremony, the cetra set them atop his desk, the leisurely tug of a smile bleeding pink into the apples of her cheeks.
❝Happy Valentine’s, Tseng. ❞ Without an ounce of hesitation she rose to her tiptoes, the half hearted graze of a kiss to his cheek, unmistakably tender and perhaps undeniably overdue. It wasn’t meant to last; just a fleeting touch of something long since dormant, an ambiguous caress to tell him she hadn’t forgotten.
Eyes meet in the glow of the aftermath, the snake of stronger digits around her own to halt her retreat. He doesn’t need to say anything, and yet he still does. ❝Aerith…❞ Her name falls from his mouth as if it belongs there, the beckoning lure of his arms drawing her into the same sanctuary of an embrace she’d always considered a home from home. ❝Thank you.❞
What comes next is years in the making, the bow of that ebony haired head bestowing the sentiment of a lifetime on pink tinged lips. It’s neither rushed nor lingering, not carnal or chaste - yet it says what needs to be said. The words left unspoken in the long lull of time that continues to keep them apart. Her hands raised of their own volition, the winding drape of slender arms around his shoulders, relaxed and content in their oddly natural exchange.
He’d asked her once if she could live with being second best. If she could stand the years of playing second fiddle as his loyalties and devotion demanded him elsewhere. She hadn’t been so sure back then; but in the here and now, with the taste of him fresh upon her tongue? No matter how fleeting - she was inclined to think she could.
"No, you are not second for nothing," he confirms, a keen relaxation resting in his gaze. "They have but one chance to make that mistake around you." -- [ooc] Gotta support all the Renos out there getting bad rep just because they're "comic relief." I got your back on this one.
continuation from here
“Ha HA! Ya got that right, man! Ain’t no second chances in the face of a Turk! Unless, y’know... we decide to have a little fun~. False hope an’ all that.”
send me a ✿ and i’ll fill out the template below. bold for things i could definitely see or want, italics for things i could see or am unsure of and striked out for things i don’t want or cannot see
FRIENDSHIP. childhood friends / work buddies or coworkers / family friends / friends with benefits / smoking buddies / adventure buddies / fake friends / recently friends / party buddies / friendship of need / dying friendship / circumstantial friendship / partners in crime / old friendship / [ your muse ] is the good influence / [ your muse ] is the bad influence / [ my muse ] is the good influence / [ my muse ] is the bad influence / opposites attract / ride or die / frenemies / roommates or flatmates / penpals / exes to friends / enemies to friends / other - Queer Platonic
ROMANCE. childhood sweethearts / [ your muse is mines ] childhood crush / [ my muse is yours ] childhood crush / exes / exes to lovers / forbidden lovers / high school sweethearts / secret relationship / opposites attract / long distance (metaphorically?) / unrequited [ from your muses side ] / unrequited [ from my muses side ] / unrequited [ from both sides ] / skinny love / friends to lovers / enemies to lovers / spurious relationship / power couple / newly entered / soulmates [ metaphorical ] / soulmates [ literal ] / awkward / turning toxic / toxic love / cheating [ on your muse ] / cheating [ with your muse ] / other - Queer Platonic
FAMILIAL. siblings [ half ] / siblings [ step ] / [ my muse ] is an older sibling figure to your younger sibling figure / [ my muse ] is a younger sibling figure to your older sibling figure muse / [ my muse ] is a parental figure to yours / [ my muse ] is a child figure to your muse / guardian figure / legal guardian / adoptive child / foster child / [ your muse ] is taken under mines wing / [ my muse ] is taken under yours wing / other - found family
ANTAGONISTIC. dangerous to each other / dangerous to others / unpredictable / rivals / petty / developing into sexual or romantic tension / based off family matters / based of off circumstance / based of professional matters / based off misunderstanding or lies / conflict of ideology / betrayal / hero - villain dynamic / enemies / fight club / friends turned enemies / lovers turned enemies / exes turned enemies / other .
