#bulletproof heart
I’m who I’ve got to be, these pigs are after me, after you.
- My Chemical Romance // Bulletproof Heart
The Future They Dreamed Of
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Word Count:1500
Rating:G
Summary: Set before Corel burned down, Barret and Dyne talk about the future and how Mako would affect their lives.
Note: A piece I wrote for @barretzine! I explored how Barret’s life had been before his town burned to ash.
Read on AO3.
~*~*~*~*~
That afternoon, the sky bled red. Barret hoisted his bag over his shoulder while he waited for Dyne outside the miners’ break room. Faint construction sounds reached his ear. On the other side of the mountain, the Shinra Company was building a Mako Reactor. Gone was the age of coal; Mako would lead them to the new world.
“Heard it’ll be finished soon.”
Dyne stepped out with his bag slung over one shoulder. His narrowed eyes gazed past the cliffs standing between their coal mine and the construction site. Ever since Shinra came and proposed the idea, he’d never been too keen on it, saying that coal had sustained their livelihood since their fathers’ days, it was unnatural to have it any other way.
With the townspeople on board with this new energy source, Dyne hadn’t voiced his objections since. However, Barret would catch glimpses of it underneath the cracks of his otherwise calm demeanor. Like how it showed again now in the hard lines of his gaze and his furrowing brows. But Dyne only shrugged, then wordlessly treaded down the mountainside path back toward the town. Barret quickly joined his side.
“Time’s changed, Dyne. No one uses coal anymore. Say we mine them, what then? You know as well as everybody else the town’s been struggling because of that.”
Dyne offered nothing but quiet nods. It was like a broken record—this discussion. Barret had lost count how many times they’d had it in the past year and a half. He’d offer all kinds of arguments, but nothing he said could deter Dyne from his belief.
Above the western peaks, the last of the sun’s golden streaks drew his attention. They fought against the approaching dusk, shining over his little town cradled in the valley below. He spotted his humble home, off to the side near the edge of the town, with smoke rising from the chimney as his wife cooked dinner for the night.
Barret swallowed his sigh. “With Mako, everything would be better. We’d have profitable jobs. The town’s gonna prosper. Our livelihood’d be secured.” And Myrna, he thought. Maybe he could finally earn enough to get the medicine his wife needed.
Beside him, Dyne broke into a rueful smile.
“Well, if that’s not convincing enough for you, just imagine what the future would look like. Our little town, all sparkly and bright like they say Midgar is. Don’t you want little Marlene to see that?”
“You sound like those Shinra people.”
The soft, amused scoff took him by surprise, though in hindsight, Barret probably should have expected it. He stared at his friend, who looked straight ahead with an unflinching gaze. The chuckle came unbidden.
“And is that wrong? Everyone’s using it nowadays.”
Dyne’s eye gave a little twitch, his jaws clenching ever so slightly. “Even if they do, doesn’t mean we gotta go with the flow.”
“What do you mean?”
“I hate that we’re just going to abandon the coal our fathers’ve protected for so long, yes, but… They say sucking out Mako would wreck the ecosystem. That it’d turn the Planet barren and lifeless.” Again, that pursing of his lips. Dyne paused on his steps and stared at the town below. Brown rooftops jutted out of what greeneries the quicksand desert offered. A hard glint flashed across his eyes. “I’d rather people say I’m stuck in the old days than turn my mountain and home into a wasteland.”
It was a quiet admission—the first Dyne had ever voiced that argument. It left Barret at a loss for words. Of course. He’d never thought about that. Or maybe he had, somewhere at the back of his mind. He’d known. All the townspeople had known. But still, they’d chosen to have the reactor if it meant having an easier life. Dyne dropped his gaze, then, slipping one hand inside his trouser pocket, moved away.
Barret watched as Dyne’s back grew ever smaller, wondering if there really was nothing he could do to ease his friend’s worries, to make him see that having the reactor would benefit them more than it’d cost them. Just as the thought entered his mind, an unfamiliar aroma tickled his nose. Purple flowers bloomed on the bushes lining their path, the petals long and thin, spreading out like stars. Barret didn’t realize he’d been staring until he felt a tap on his shoulder. Dyne had returned to his side. His eyes went wide at the sight of the flowers.
“You don’t see these here very often.” Melancholy etched his voice. He reached for a flower, plucking it by its stem. “Wonder how many would be left once the reactor starts pumping up Mako.” Another sorrow-leaden murmur. But before Barret could say anything, Dyne had already shaken himself, adjusting his bag over his shoulder as he carefully tied one end of the flower’s long stem to just beneath the petal.
“What are you doing?”
“Thought I’d make a ring for Marlene.”
A ring? The flower had indeed transformed into a crooked ring that would still be too big for Eleanor. Barret snorted.
“Too big, huh?” One corner of Dyne’s lips curled into a smirk. “What about a crown?”
“Too small.”
Dyne held the flower ring in front of him, head tilted to the side in contemplation. The melancholic tinge remained in the curve of his growing smile as he came to a decision.
“A bracelet then!” He threw a sideways glance at Barret’s towering form. “Marlene would love it, wouldn’t she?”
It had been a while since Barret saw the baby girl. With his job and helping at the construction, he hadn’t had much free time to visit Dyne’s home. But Barret tried to imagine the flower bracelet around little Marlene’s wrist, the way it would settle over her baby-soft skin. He could just see the laughter on her face as her father bent down and slipped the bracelet around her hand. He told Dyne just that, and Dyne beamed.
“Speaking of Marlene,” Dyne went on, slipping the flower ring inside his pocket and continuing on their way. “Eleanor’s inviting you all to dinner this weekend.”
Barret blinked. “What’s the occasion?”
“It’s been a while since the four of us got together, and…” A little blush colored his cheeks. “We thought you could help us think of how to celebrate Marlene’s birthday.”
Another blink. “But that’s not until next year.”
“No harm in being prepared.”
Dyne finally broke into an ear-to-ear grin. Barret stared, awed at how a single thought of his daughter easily dispelled his friend’s worries. His laughter came then—a soft, breathy chuckle that slowly escalated into a hearty guffaw. A part of him wondered if he could ever be half the doting father Dyne was. He threw his arm over Dyne’s shoulders, the gesture shaking his friend to his core.
“We’re gonna throw the best party Corel had ever seen!”
He had no doubt about that—no doubt that the prosperity the reactor would give would allow them to hold the best party anyone had ever seen. His only hope was that, in time, Dyne could see that too.
***
Asters. That was what they were called. The purple flowers with petals spreading out like stars. The florist said so.
“Some people say they symbolize gentleness,” she’d said. “Others say elegance. But there’s also another meaning: afterthought.”
Who would’ve thought the flowers they’d found that day would be so fitting? Barret stood in front of a mound, a bouquet of the same purple flowers now held in his grasp. Green dotted the brown and black earth. The people of Corel had given his friend the proper burial he’d deserved.
“It’s your father, Marlene,” he said.
Marlene stood beside him, the brown in her eyes solemn as she gazed at her biological father’s grave. Ten years had passed since the town burned down.
Can you see her? Barret wanted to ask. Your baby girl’s here. Sorry it took so long to bring her.
Marlene squeezed his fingers, then stepped forward, bending down at the knees before placing her own bouquet atop the mound. He’d always wondered how she would take knowing that she had another father, and a mother, whom she’d never met. Marlene had taken it well. Though, knowing all the things she’d gone through, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. The girl had only smiled and said she’d known.
“We don’t exactly look alike,” she’d said. “But that’s alright. You’ll always be my daddy.”
Now she looked over her shoulder, a single tear rolling down her face. Marlene held out a hand in silent invitation. Around her wrist lay the bracelet of purple flowers Barret never got to see before. The weekend they’d promised to have dinner on never came.
Barret embraced the lump forming at the back of his throat, his lips parting into the gentlest smile. He joined his daughter at the mound and set the bouquet down.
What do you think, Dyne? You think I did a good job?
~ END ~
