kh_drabble | (no subject)

Challenge: [226] Survivor
Title: Survivor's Guilt
Word Count: 266
Notes: Squall-centric.

It's the way her hair fell across her face, the quirk of her mouth when she smiled; how, when she laughed, her eyes seemed to laugh right along with her.

It's when she coaxed and cooed at that flea-infested stray, when she kept him awake until midnight on New Years' Eve, or woke him up at three in the morning to watch the first snowfall of winter.

It's "Good dog, Angelo!" and "Hellogoodmorning!" and "You're going to like me," and anything he'd ever heard her say.

It's when he was eight and pointlessly overdressed, sulking by the sidelines at a fancy grown-up party, and a girl with mischief in her smile seized his hand and dragged him out onto the ballroom floor.

But what weighs most heavily upon his mind is this:

Squall Leonheart survived the destruction of Radiant Garden.

Rinoa Heartily, however, did not.

Squall assigns himself the hardest missions and completes them alone, fighting through streets where the Heartless flow like a river of darkness. Every day could be his last, and Squall is disappointed that it never is. Because if Rinoa didn't deserve to live, he tells himself, then neither do I.