Love of My Life

Chapter 5

I avoided Cid the majority of the trip, slipping off when we arrived outside of Kalm. "Hey, Vincent!" I sighed. "Quit tryin' to take off without me!"

"Why?"

"What? Why? You know why you smartass!" I glared at him, "Sorry, kid."

"Huh? What for?" Her brow knit in confusion.

He snorted, "You never told me how you two met, Vincent."

"You're right."

"So aren't you gonna tell me?" I shook my head, "Hey come on! I've been waitin' a whole week for this!"

"Why won't you tell him anything daddy?"

I scanned our surroundings, we were alone in the green fields outside of Kalm. "You have to promise me something," It told him.

"Promise?" he crossed his arms. "Promise what?"

"You can't tell anyone about her," I pet her hair absently.

"Why not?" I gave him a look and he waved his hand, "Alright! Alright! I promise!"

"Thirty years ago..." I lowered my voice, "Before Sephiroth. Lucrecia was pregnant with Ellie... Lucrecia sent her to me from the Lifestream..." His eyes widened as far as they would go, "You mean---!" He glanced at Ellie, before hissing at me, "She's Sephiroth's sister?" He wiped a hand across his face as he looked off into the distance, "Another Sephiroth..." he muttered.

I grabbed his collar shoving him away from her before bringing my face inches from his, "If you ever say something like that again, I will make you regret it! She is nothing like him! She has me for a father, not Hojo!" I pushed him away from me before storming off, hoisting up Ellie in my arms I carried her to the gates of Kalm. I knew I never should have told him. Ellie would never commit the atrocities Hojo forced onto his son. I'm going to make sure of it. I'm going to raise her right. I thought back to Sephiroth, he could've been like Ellie had they not injected Jenova into the poor child... My anger waned, I held her close before looking into her face.

The first thing she said to me was, "Why are you angry? Who's Sephierith?"

I chuckled at her mispronounciation. "He..." I paused looking around me once more, "I'll tell you once we get to our room."

"Okay," she snuggled her face into my neck. The further in we went the more the music grew, a banner above showed that a festival had started. I smirked as she grew excited from the balloons and other decorations around her. Her face was alight with excitement, "What's that!? What's that!? What's that!?" She pointed to a slew of objects.

"Balloons. Games. A face painting booth."

"Ohhh! What is that!!?"

"A stuffed animal."

"I want one! Please! Please! Please!" I chuckled as I walked us towards the game booth and set her down, "Can I have one please?" she peeked over the counter with a toothy grin. She reminded me of Carolynne...

The man smirked, "Play a game, win a prize!"

"Can we? Can we?" She hopped. I nodded before we asked the man how to play. A ring toss game. I hadn't played one of these since the festivals back home with Carolynne. My heart dropped, she's in the lifestream now... She'd be 56 in a few months... "Daddy?" She tugged on my cloak.

I smiled back, "Let's play." I gave the man a few gil and hoisted her up so she could play the game easier. Turn one; she missed the table of bottles altogether. She stuck her tongue out from between her teeth and narrowed her eyes in concentration. Turn two; she hit a bottle, making it wobble before it settled down once again. She sighed in frustration. Turn three; she threw and it wobbled on a bottle before falling between them. She deflated.