Manly Request Week: Unlike (FFVI, for night_chaos)

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Title: Unlike
Fandom: FFVI
Characters/Pairings included: Shadow, Relm
Rating: PG-13?
Warnings: Possible incest ick factor, if you squint. Ambiguous, assume what you will.

Summary: Relm looks nothing like her mother.

For night_chaos. Written for Manly Request Week.

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She looked so much unlike her mother that it hurt.

He'd expected it to be the other way: his daughter, finally, a mirror image of her lovely mother, Ania returned to him from the dead. But it wasn't. Relm carried the pale hair of his own father, and his eyes - Clyde's eyes - and only a hint of dear Ania around her face.

He couldn't help himself around her. He was always looking, always touching, trying to find Ania inside of her. He couldn't stop his hand from combing through her curls at night, looking for the deep copper spark of Ania's silken locks. He couldn't help brushing her soft skin as she slept, fists curled around the pillow, hoping to reveal Ania's cheekbones in the young face.

She made him laugh, like Ania had, only different; because this was Relm, and she was part of him as well.

He'd removed the mask. He was waiting for the questions to arrive. Relm wasn't stupid - in fact, she was devastatingly bright, with a sharp tongue to match - and some day she'd eventually look into the mirror and see his face. All hell would break loose then: if not from her than from Strago, who'd found it completely inappropriate that Shadow had, in fact, come to Thamasa, to his daughter.

Oh, if the old man only knew.

It was so easy for a ninja to slip in and out around a feeble old mage, especially after the loss of the world's magic, and Relm was at least half-ninja with her soft steps and sleek, silky movements. They'd spent a lot of time together. Relm was probably half in love with him anyway, his stories about adventure and an old life and the fact that he'd never, ever tell her his real name. She'd showed him her art; he'd showed her the proper way to throw a ninja star.

Maybe she did know, and was just ignoring it. She'd only asked him once why he'd come back, and he'd only been able to say that he'd once lived near the small town. He found it peaceful, and slightly boring, and knew that he'd leave eventually; but for now, he was still looking. He'd wandered just long enough to wonder about her, and then he'd come to Thamasa, looking.

But she looked nothing like her mother.

She rolled over in her sleep, mumbling something, accidentally disturbing Interceptor (who now slept curled at her feet). Relm probably didn't even know Shadow was still here, in her room, watching her sleep. He didn't even know if she'd be creeped out by it anymore. It was some game they were playing, always dancing around the truth, nimble ninjas and slender artist's fingers.

He still didn't regret it. He still couldn't tell her.

Shadow reached down now, softly, rustling through the mane of her hair. Maybe one day it would darken, burnish into the deep bronze he remembered. He should leave the town - this was no life for a wanderer. He'd never be happy here. He should tell her, and then go. Would she follow? The girl was as stubborn as he'd once been.

He'd tell her once he found his Ania, he promised.