Silence

The hardest part was living through the silence. Ears were strained in the act of constantly listening for a familiar voice, though the heart knew that such a voice was gone forever.

Lucrecia. He longed to hear her voice again, though he knew that it was long gone. It had been gone for over thirty years.

He thought that he had heard it in Shalua Rui, but found that he had heard it more in her younger sister, Shelke. Yet, even through Shelke, Lucrecia's voice rang clearest in Vincent Valentine's memory.

He could close his eyes and hear it. Her voice. Everything that she said, he remembered with perfection. If he wanted, he could reach out and grab it.

Such a shame it was impossible.

The closest things that he had to Lucrecia were himself and the quiet Shelke, who lived with Cloud, Tifa, Denzel, and Marlene, taking her mako doses so that she didn't disappear into the Lifestream like her elder sister.

He had formed an interesting relationship with Shelke Rui. She had recently turned twenty, yet still looked ten. But they looked past her unique predicament, and became close.

Vincent knew that she liked him as more than a friend, but he wasn't sure how to respond. Were they her feelings? Or Lucrecia's?

The former Tsviet slowly began to get more talkative. She started to use the same soft tone, and make the same unconscious motions that Lucrecia made.

Shelke was still herself, but she was Lucrecia as well. And her constantly pleasant aura warmed him to the core but left him feeling empty.

Honestly, he preferred the silence of a life without Lucrecia than the soft melody that came from one with Shelke.

He felt like he didn't deserve her all over again.