Words of the Angel

Banora. She always dreamt of visiting this place, but in another context. Mera’s heart was shattered in millions of pieces, and she didn’t know how much time she had left before the TURKS to come and complete the job she hadn’t been capable of. 

She barely slept at night, shed a couple pounds, and her collarbones showed off a bit more under her jacket. When he observed her, his grip went on the dark circles that surrounded her eye bags and how the slight tan she had a couple of months prior. After their trip to Costa del Sol with Genesis and Sephiroth,  it had smudged away. 

“I’m sure we can fix this. Come back, ‘Geal. Zack needs you. Sephiroth needs you. I need you.” 

The insistence on the last bit formed a knot inside the thorax cavity of Angeal’s body. The black-haired man headed towards the frame of the knackered brunette, who was wiping tears under her eyes. Desperate. 

Once he was close enough, Angeal stretched his arm to show off his two wings on his right side. Glossy, feathered of hundreds and hundreds of white strands. Magnificent. 

“They’r-...”

“Monstrous.” 

She shook her head negatively. “I was going to say it was wonderful. I always wanted to fly, when I was a kid.” 

Angeal chuckled. No, it wasn’t. No human was supposed to have wings. Even less the experiments of some mad scientists. Mera shortened the distance between the two, leading her hand on the feathers. The thin fingers caressed each, sliding the tips on the ends. As much as she could reach them. 

This sole gesture sent shivers down Angeal’s spine, the touch of Mera fulfilled of grace and kindness, nothing judgmental that he was supposed to initially hate. However, Angeal grabbed her hand, forcing the TURK to fight his angered Mako glance. 

No, not angered. 

Not enraged. 

Frustrated. 

Crestfallen. 

“My father, the man who raised me… Taught me all about honour and dreams, was an impostor. My mom’s been a liar my whole life and grew so ashamed, she preferred ending herself. How’s that supposed to save me from the definition of a monster, Mera ?” 

She swallowed her saliva, incapable of finding something to answer on the spot. His tone was bittersweet, a mix of softness when he spoke her name and a profound disgust for himself when it was all about what he was going through. Nonetheless, Mera didn’t cut the contact between her wrist and his gigantic gloved hand, swallowed between his fingers. A vision that could’ve made anyone think she was eventually gonna break in half. Like a statue of glass or ice, she didn’t exactly know. 

“You’re not in charge of what your parents did. It’s not about who gives birth to us, Angeal. It’s who gives the love. Your dad wasn’t your genitor, and so what ? Does that make Hollander more of a father? I won’t allow you to dishonour the labour of both your parents because of an existential crisis caused by two minions of the Shinra. Not on my watch, got it?”

As she spoke those words, she stepped ahead until her head was almost struck onto his torso, her pink orbs stuck in his. Nobody, besides Zack, confronted him like this. Sephiroth barely had anything to say, not wanting an additional emotional wound inflicted on his friend farther than what Hojo and Hollander already had caused. 

But, Mera… 

Mera wasn’t the kind who’d sugar coat a single soul. 

“You can hate yourself all you want. Calumnies even. But think about the people for whom you’re a pillar. You are for me. Angeal. When I was at my lowest, on the verge of getting fired and eventually wiped off the map, you’ve been there. You, Sephiroth,”

She stopped, her vocal cords breaking through her speech as she inhaled and exhaled to catch a breath. “Are you seriously gonna erase everything we’ve built together? Us four? We could all find Genesis and bring him home, fixing what he thinks is unfixable. Don’t do this, ‘Geal. I-…  Oh, just please.” 

The way she begged for what looked like a demand conjuring his mercy, her frown intensifying as she hardly battled the H2O that ran down her cheeks. Angeal doubted about a minute, wondering if his goals were a justification for his behaviour, of what he was abandoning. 

Was it really worth it? Wasn’t all he was against ? Treason, losing the mere home he has ever got after he left his parents? 

Sweat made its way through her forehead until the chin, falling on her neck. And at this sole moment, Angeal discovered a lioness hiding under the impassible facade of a cold-blooded agent. 

This unique realization drove his heart to be pounding in his chest. 

“Are you disappointed?” he asked, lowering his tone. 

“No, I’m heartbroken. If I were you, of course, I would’ve gone Berserk. But I’m not, and that’s why I can’t fully understand. However, I’m giving you solutions here. Outlets for your problems. Ours.”

Loosening his grip on her wrist, Mera took a step backwards, waiting for an answer, eventually slipping from Angeal’s lips. Nothing. Not a single sound.
Then it happened,

What he thought would never do.

Standing on her tiptoes, propelled by her boots with a few precious centimetres of heel, Mera grabbed him by his collar, laying his lips with a violence he never acknowledged from the brunette.

Shocked, Angeal realized what was happening only about a minute after, wrapping his arms around her thin waist, fighting the urge to not lay it on her hips. Timidly, the TURK tickled Angeal’s lips with her tongue, throwing away all sense of responsibility, leaving only the fear of losing a life they once had devoured with the entirety of their strength.
Torturing the flesh of her waist, twirling the skin between his fingers in circular movements, Angeal pleasured the moment at its peak, not even bothering catching a breath. What was he doing?

Mera was the one who cut short the contact, not letting him pursuing his way. However, Angeal was the one who looked the most sorry of them both, almost ashamed he succumbed and hadn’t pushed her back in the slightest.

“It’s not everyday we get to kiss an angel.”

A helicopter went heard from afar by the two adults, sparks of voices coming from Tseng of the TURKS and a call passed through her talkie-walkie.  Staring at her with insistence,  Mera had then chosen to lie to her colleague. Hanging up, she gave a rapid glance to the SOLDIER, demanding his return. To see him again.

But they never did.