Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Multifaceted ❯ #23: Experience - Chalk it up to Experience ( Chapter 4 )

Title: Chalk it up to Experience
Author/Authoress: <lj user=”shaded_mazoku”>
Fandom: Final Fantasy VI.
Subject: Kefka. Theme/Challenge: #23: Experience. Rating: PG. Disclaimer: Not mine at all. They’re Squeenix’. I just borrow them. Notes: Kefka’s relationship with Terra fascinates me.   “Not like that, doll,” Kefka said, getting up from his chair to untangle Terra’s fingers from the mess she’d made out of the fabrics on her lap. She was not a clumsy child, but she was still a child, and her fingers just couldn’t keep up with the movements Kefka’s fingers did when he tried to show her. Not much could; one could say a lot about the pale general (and they did say a lot about him, too, out of hearing range), but nobody could deny that he was very nimble.   Leo, who was watching the two from another chair, was pretty convinced that Kefka was put strangely together, having seen him do things that would just not work with most people. Then again, most people, the same who speculate about Kefka behind his back, are also saying that the general is non-human. Leo didn’t know, nor did he particularly want to. He strongly suspected that the best way of dealing with Kefka was by being able to not try to know everything about him. For some reason, he’d taken to spending time willingly in Kefka’s company. Maybe it was that he was worried about Terra, because the general had no idea how to care for a child. Or maybe it was the fact that Kefka’s chambers were the most comfortable area in the entire castle. Or perhaps it was just the fact that unlike pretty much everyone else, Leo was allowed to spend time with him.   On the floor, Kefka was showing Terra how to stitch together the pieces of fabric he’d given her using some form of stitches that made a sort of chain. Leo didn’t know much about sewing, but it was the same sort of stitches Kefka had used to sew together Leo’s cloak back shortly after their first meeting. Leo had been partially transfixed by the movement of his long, slender fingers at the time, and partially horrified by the very idea of making such a fool of himself in front of a noble. Of course, Kefka really didn’t care about such things at all, as should be expected of a man who ran around in jester’s outfits and wore bright face-paint.   Leo supposed the scene on the floor might have been seen as being almost fatherly from Kefka’s side, carefully teaching the child a new skill, but Leo knew Kefka better than most people. Kefka’s feelings for Terra were not very fatherly. They were certainly not the rather perverted feelings some soldiers seemed to think they were when they thought nobody heard them. As far as Leo knew, Kefka didn’t have much interest in sex as anything but a tool to gain power, and he already had power over Terra. Besides, Kefka might be more than a little sick, but Terra was only eight. He wasn’t that bad.   No, Kefka saw Terra as some sort of living doll more than anything; an exotic pet whom he delighted in teaching new tricks so he could show her off.   Terra looked up at Kefka from her seat on the floor, paying all the attention an eight-year-old could muster to watching his fingers go through the motions, before painstakingly replicating the same motions on her own pieces of fabric. Despite her shorter, stubbier fingers, she managed reasonably well, and Kefka clapped his hands together in delight.   “Well done, doll!” He stroked her hair, his fingers combing neatly through her oddly-coloured hair. “You’re such a good girl!”   Leo bit his lip not to say anything that’d cause Kefka to throw a fit. He’d talk to him when Terra wasn’t around; Kefka’s tantrums frightened her terribly. Not that he blamed her; Kefka’s tantrums frightened Leo, too. Just not quite as much as he frightened him when he was being calm and showing off the ruthless brilliance that had earned him the role as the Emperor’s right hand man.   Kefka looked up from Terra to look at Leo, tilting his head to the side. “Don’t you think she’s a good girl, Leo?” He asked, the tone in his voice saying that he knew exactly how Leo felt about the whole thing.   Leo wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Kefka was surprisingly insightful despite, or maybe because, of his distorted world-view.   He smiled, though it was probably somewhat weary. “She’s a very clever young girl, yes,” he agreed, pressing the fact that she was a girl, not a pet.   Grinning widely, Kefka turned his attention back to Terra, showing her another type of stitching.   In his chair, Leo turned his own attention back to his paperwork. He might have friends, if you could call his relationship with Kefka friendship, in high and mighty places, but he was still a captain and had a lot of reports to file. It was just more convenient doing the reports in Kefka’s rooms, because as noisy and distracting as the general could be, he was nowhere near the noise-level of Leo’s unit. Even if he did have them beat by far when it came to creepiness level.   Leo was often asked how he could put up with Kefka’s extreme personality.   He chalked it up to experience.