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Sink to the Bottom With You
Chapter Seven
Awkward Moments
"Don't worry everyone! The two dripping wet freaks have left the
building!" Yuffie Kisaragi
I want to hold you
and love you
In my arms and then
I want to need you
'cause
I need to be with
you till the end
Then I hear myself
reply
She'll never let
you in
This time, tonight
If only I had the
guts
To feel this way
And want to stay
If only I'd take
you in my arms
And say I won't go 'cause I need you
"If Only"
Hanson
As Yuffie and Vincent strode defiantly into
the lobby of the hotel, onlookers turned and gasped at the sight of the
waterlogged and ravaged travelers the tempest had blown in, eyes taking in
their battle-worn bodies and dripping clothes.
Yuffie had suspected that she and Vincent looked bad, but judging from
the looks on everyone's faces, she upgraded their appearance from just "bad"
something closer to ghastly and hideous.
She nervously tugged at her tank top and hitched up her soaked shorts
from where they had been sliding down her narrow hips. Shivering in the air conditioner and trying
to avoid everyone's horrified glances, she followed Vincent up to the counter
where the manager was looking at them with a mixture of distaste, fear, and annoyance.
"We need two rooms for the night, please,"
Vincent said with cold politeness as his waterlogged cloak and dripping hair
made a puddle of water beneath his feet.
Although he didn't appear at all bothered by the stares of the other
customers, Yuffie was uncomfortable enough for the both of them, fidgeting
nervously and chancing glances around them, for some reason expecting to see
the fleshly, black-clad figures of the Faceless Men staring at her with their
eyeless heads glistening in the fluorescent lights. Instead, all she saw was a group of very cute guys in the corner
staring at her in obvious disgust.
Great, she thought, blushing fiercely and lowering her gaze. I must look positively horrid. They probably think me and Vincent
are?grossness!
She shivered at the thought, but it had
nothing at all to do with disgust.
"Um, sir?" the manager said cautiously,
obviously afraid of Vincent. Even
soaking wet and missing his headband, the dark gunslinger was still one of the
scariest things on the Planet. "We, um,
only have one room left tonight. There
was a major influx of tourists this evening on their way back from Costa del
Sol. You know how those things go?"
"Oh gawd!" Yuffie exclaimed incredulously,
temporarily forgetting her dripping state.
"One room? Are you sure,
mister? That would be so
uncomfortable!"
"Could you check again, please?" Vincent
asked flatly, ignoring Yuffie's outburst.
"C-Certainly, sir," the manager stuttered,
turning to his computer and tapping a few keys as both Yuffie and Vincent
watched intently, willing the machine to be wrong. The man squirmed underneath Vincent's ruby red and Yuffie's
stormy gray stares; nervous sweat glistened on his brow, and his hands shook a
bit. He, too, hoped desperately that
his computer would be wrong, but his search came up with the same results.
"I'm terribly sorry, sir," he said weakly,
directing his answer at Vincent. "One
room is all we have left."
"That sucks!" Yuffie spat
angrily. "Does this crappy little room
of yours at least have two beds?
Because I'm certainly not sleeping in the gutter outside, thank you very
much!"
The man nodded quickly, blue eyes wide. "Y-Yes," he stuttered. "Two warm, dry comfortable?"
"We'll take it," Vincent interrupted.
"Of course, sir!" the man exclaimed in
relief, fumbling underneath the counter and producing a key, which he handed
over to Vincent with shaking hands.
Vincent took the key. "How much gil will it be?"
"Oh!" the manager said, apparently having
forgotten that even freakish, dripping wet, fishy smelling members of AVALANCHE
had to pay to stay in hotels. "That
will be 500 gil, sir."
Yuffie's mouth dropped open. "500 gil?!
Since when did the price go up?
Sheesh! Your service here had
better be good, buddy! I mean, you'd
think that you would be more flexible, being that we're members of AVALANCHE
and could seriously kick your?"
"Here you go, sir," Vincent said politely,
handing over slippery coins that he had pulled out of his waterlogged pocket,
trying very hard to pretend that Yuffie wasn't fuming beside him for the time
being.
"T-Thank you," the manager said. "Have a nice stay, you two!"
Yuffie rolled her eyes as she and Vincent
walked towards the elevators. "Oh
pu-lease!" she snarled under her breath, in a huffy mood and making no effort
to conceal it. For some reason, she was
extremely uncomfortable with the fact that she would be sharing a room alone
with Vincent for the night. And like
her irrational and unjustified fear in the complex they had recently escaped
from, she had no idea why she felt that way.
It wasn't like Vincent was in the picture as far as prospective single
men went. He was too weird, for one
thing, and he scared the living crap out of her sometimes with his dark, gothic
attitude, and unfeeling countenance. And he was old, too. Sure,
he may only look 27, but in reality, he was way older than that. Definitely not able to meet Yuffie Kisaragi
standards, whatever those were. She
would rather go out with that drunkard womanizer Reno than Vincent
Valentine. But if that was the case,
then why was she so nervous...
The elevators chimed as they slid open with
a gentle whoosh of air. Vincent strode
in calmly, the room key clutched in one hand, but Yuffie suddenly turned around
and glared at all the people in the lobby, who were still staring at the two
travelers like they were the amazing Mud Monsters from Mars.
"Don't worry, everyone!" she cried, sarcasm
dripping from her voice. "The two
dripping wet freaks have left the building!
No need to gawp and panic like a bunch of retarded cows who have nothing
better to do than?"
Vincent hooked his claw onto the waistband
of her tan shorts and yanked her inside the elevator just as the doors whooshed
shut.
Yuffie relaxed nonchalantly against the
metal wall and smiled sweetly at her dark companion as he glared at her,
dripping strands of ebony hair practically hiding his red eyes from view. She was fully expecting him to start
bitching at her about proper etiquette, but he did no such thing, only kept
glaring at her in a reprimanding fashion.
Vincent was actually kinda cute when he was angry...
With a shudder that Yuffie thought didn't
belong there for a hotel that cost so much, the elevator begin its ascent up to
the fifth floor, where Vincent and Yuffie's room was located.
"Hey Vinnie?" she suddenly asked as they
watched the numbers above the doors light up as they passed each floor.
"Yes Yuffie?" he replied calmly, studying
the closed doors, apparently having gotten tired of scolding her with his eyes.
She fidgeted nervously. "What if, you know, the room had only one
bed? What would you have done then,
huh?"
No! Whatever
had possessed her to ask such a question?!
The elevator doors opened with a chime, and
Vincent strode out without a glance at her.
Yuffie ran out after him, her yellow
sneakers sinking into the plush carpet and making squishing noises when her
feet meshed with the water in them.
"Hey!" she called, ignoring the fact that there could be people sleeping
in the rooms they passed. "I asked you
a question, Vinnie!"
"I know," he said calmly, ruby red eyes
searching the numbers on the doors.
"But I see no reason to answer it due to the fact that the scenario
didn't present itself."
"Huh?" Yuffie asked dumbly as they stopped
in front of the room marked 532 and Vincent inserted the key into the
keyhole. "You know, Vinnie, since I'm
really stupid, I would really like it if you would speak in English to me."
"I don't worry about situations that didn't
happen," he translated.
"It's all gone and past, you mean," she said
softly.
Vincent paused, and Yuffie received the
distinct impression that she had surprised him. "Yes," he said finally, "something like that."
He opened the room and stepped back,
motioning for her to precede him through the door. Yuffie quickly scampered through the doorway, flushing slightly
at the chivalry he was showing a little brat like her. She had always thought Vincent was too damn
polite for his own good.
Yuffie strode into the hotel room, relishing
the sight of the obligatory bland color schemes of the beige walls and tan
bedcovers. It was freezing, and room
had that special "hotel" smell lingering in it like a phantom, but she didn't
care.
"I've got dibs on the window bed!" she
cried, racing across the room and dropping the Conformer onto the spotless
bedspread to reserve her space, having enough sense not to throw her dirty body
on the clean bed along with her weapon.
Vincent didn't reply, only shut the door
behind him and walked calmly into the room, examining his surroundings with
that same cool, detached way that he examined everything.
Yuffie turned and watched him a few moments
before asking, "So Vinnie, what are we gonna do?"
He turned his fiery gaze to her, eyes
unreadable. "What are you talking
about?"
"You know!" Yuffie said, trying to make him
sound like the idiot instead of her.
"About our situation?"
"What situation?"
She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her
hips. "Gawd, you are so thick
sometimes! Are you sure you cleaned out
all the cobwebs from your thirty-year long nap in that stinky coffin? I mean, I case you haven't noticed, we're in
a predicament here!"
Vincent just stared some more.
Yuffie resisted the urge to scream. "What are we gonna do about Cloud and the
others?" she said with exaggerated patience.
"We were supposed to meet them back at Tifa's bar like five hours
ago! They're probably worried sick
about us right now! What if they go
looking for the both of us in that cave?
They'll see that the ship isn't there, and they'll think we died or something!"
The man shrugged. "There is nothing we can do about it right now. Our PHS is broken; Cid will probably have to
repair it again. I overheard two
mechanics down in the lobby saying that the hotel's lines are down due to the
storm. We'll stay the night here and
leave in the morning."
"Even if it's raining?" Yuffie whined.
"You want to dish out five hundred gil to
stay here another night?"
Yuffie pouted. "Well...no, but?"
Vincent waved his hand. "No buts.
It's already been decided."
"Well, excuse me for breathing! Who died and made you leader?"
Vincent ignored her. "I'm going to take a shower..."
"No way!" Yuffie immediately exclaimed. "I'm taking a shower first, Vinnie! You're not the one who almost had your
shoulder blown off by some freak with no face!
Now move it or lose it!"
Without giving him a chance to protest, she
made a beeline for the bathroom, brushing rudely past Vincent and shutting the
door behind her. After a moment, she
locked it, too, not because she felt that Vincent was going to come sneaking in
on her, but because, for some odd reason, she had become particularly big on
having her privacy lately. Maybe she
was starting to finally grow up, but she didn't think so. After all, Yuffie still believed profoundly
in the philosophy that if you whined and bellyached enough, you could get
anything you wanted.
After figuring out how to work the water
faucet in the bathtub (every hotel seemed to have a different mechanism just to
annoy unaware people who stepped into the shower, turned a knob, and found
themselves under a waterfall of either burning hot or freezing cold water. Not that such a thing had ever happened to
Yuffie!), she glanced in the mirror to see an incredibly horrid sight.
"Grossness!" she exclaimed, her voice
echoing in the bathroom as she made an ugly face at her reflection. There was a huge whopper of a bruise on her
left cheekbone, the ugly circle of flesh a myriad of purples and yellow and
blacks. Already she could hear that
pain-in-the-ass Reno laughing and making fun of her. Her dark brown hair was tangled almost beyond help and smelled of
seawater and the remnants of terror.
But even worse, she saw that her tank top was ripped in...very
inappropriate places.
"Great!" she growled at her reflection. "I've been walking around with my boob
practically hanging out of my shirt!"
Goddamn that Vincent! Why didn't he say something?!
Rearranging her tattered shirt so that she
wasn't showing so much skin, Yuffie gingerly untied Vincent's red bandana from
her wounded shoulder. She had gotten
off lucky, at least in her opinion. The
bullet had taken off a chunk of her shoulder, but after a couple of Hi-Potions
all that was left of the gaping wound was a section of tender, shiny-looking
scar tissue. The arm still ached when
she moved it; she suspected that the dull pain was something that time and time
alone could heal. She knew from
experience that she would have to take it easy, or she would risk busting the
wound open again, something that had happened to her in the past. Oh well, at least it wasn't spewing out
blood anymore.
Making one last ugly face at herself, Yuffie
turned away and proceeded to take a shower, eager to wash away all the aches
and pains that plagued her, the physical ones, at least.
Vincent waited until he heard the water
going and was content that Yuffie wasn't so weary that she would fall asleep
and drown in the shower before he sighed internally and removed the Death
Penalty from his holster, setting on the floor beside the bed would be sleeping
in tonight, seeing that he other was reserved.
He could hear Yuffie talking to herself in the bathroom, and the sound
of her whining, high-pitched voice was a world of comfort. He had been worried in his heart of hearts
that the girl might experience a sort of emotional aftershock that would
reawaken the great earthquake of irrational terror that had gripped her in the
deep sea complex they had fled from.
Apparently, she was, for the most part, unharmed and was only suffering
from severe crankiness, a "Yuffie" trait that he had learned to put up with
from his adventures with AVALANCHE.
Walking up to the room's dresser, metal
boots not making a sound on the plush carpet, Vincent stood in front of the
mirror and stared at himself coldly.
His blue-black hair hung around his face like a shroud, sharply
contrasting with his deathly pale skin.
Shorter strands of tangled ebony locks hung over his forehead and into
his face, but even the ominous darkness of those tresses couldn't obscure the
faintly luminescent red eyes whose coldly bestial nature shone defiantly from
behind the veil of black hair...laughing, taunting.
Without any outer change in expression,
Vincent stood unnaturally still and listened closer to the frozen wasteland
that was his soul, searching the icy plains for the consciousness of the demon
whose name no human tongue could pronounce, whose language no human, even a
freakish hybrid like Vincent, could understand. Yes, this demon was almost another entity entirely, with thoughts
and ideas of its own, a creature that was possibly as old as the Ancients, but
to Vincent's callous mind it was simply...Chaos.
The dark man listened even more carefully,
hearing the biting wind whistling through the valves of his frozen heart, until
he could just barely sense Chaos. The
demon glared out at him from between two glaciers with absolute apathy, its
soundless voice stubbornly silent now.
Vincent coolly turned away from the demon's resting place and emerged
from his trance-like state, red eyes coming back into focus. Chaos may be subdued and recessive now, but
it hadn't been so when he and Yuffie had been sneaking around the deep-sea
complex. Though he had given no outward
signs of discomfort, Vincent had been fighting the transformation the entire
time he had been there. Chaos was being
unusually assertive and clamorous, trying to forcefully take over Vincent's
form by using its sheer and incredible will.
So adamant and dominating it had been that he had almost lost control on
the demon several times while descending the stairs into the Green Room.
Vincent thought that Chaos' aggressive
behavior might be connected to the irrational fear Yuffie had felt. Maybe there had been something down there
that was producing some sort of...vibes that were meant to incite fear in the
hearts of mortals. In his wanderings,
Vincent had encountered several creatures with such an ability, but their
fear-inducing attacks had always proved ineffective on him. He supposed that he had no emotions ? fear
included ? for them to manipulate. Or
maybe he was already too much of a monster already, and his inhuman nature
immediately nullified their attacks.
Whatever the case, such "fear vibes" had never worked on him before.
Until tonight.
But it hadn't even been him who was
perturbed, really; it had been Chaos who brutally shattered and shoved its way
out of its abode in darkness of Vincent's soul or wherever it resided. It had hovered there close to the surface of
Vincent's consciousness, watching and waiting like it had never done before. The demon had gotten rowdier and more
assertive as he and Yuffie had descended deeper into the earth, attempting to
instigate the transformation without the consent of its host. It took all of Vincent's icy will power and
grim resolve to contain Chaos.
Everything from the eerie green light to the exotic stench hanging in
the air to the rhythmic pounding from down below had ? dare he say ? disturbed
the heartless demon.
Vincent was at a total loss to explain why,
though. There were many things that he
didn't know about Chaos...many things he had no desire to know. He loathed the demon as much as he loathed
himself, but if Chaos acted like this every time it came in contact with
circumstances like the ones of the past few hours, then new problems could arise. Vincent couldn't afford to be fighting the
demon with every mental tooth, nail and claw he possessed whenever it became
agitated. And no matter how much
distaste he felt when discussing his "other halves," he knew that he would have
to tell Cloud about this.
Or maybe he wouldn't tell him anything and
simply disappear into the night. It
would probably be safer that way...for them and for him. Why subject their sublime innocence to his
dark presence and risk tainting them with his poison?
A loud thud from the bathroom jolted him out
of his customarily morbid thoughts.
Vincent stiffened but did not turn his head. Instead he listened carefully, suddenly gripped by incredible
worry. He heard Yuffie swearing vividly
with words she must have learned from Cid.
Fortunately, the situation was completely benign. She had dropped a shampoo bottle on her toe
and apparently was not very happy about it.
No faceless monster had emerged from the toilet to attack her.
Vincent relaxed and, making sure that the door
to the room and bathroom were both locked, removed his cloak, hanging it up to
dry on a rack that was supposed to be used to hang clothes. Ignoring all the aches and pain generated
just by moving, he slowly lifted the hem of his black shirt and pulled it over
his head, hanging it up next to his cloak.
Even though he wasn't standing in front of the mirror, Vincent could see
that his chest and ribcage were covered in nasty purple bruises that splattered
his pale skin like leeches. The tender,
naked human flesh of his right arm also sported similar marks, silent
testimonies to how narrow their escape had been indeed. He considered himself lucky that he had
gotten by with only bruises; the strength of the Faceless Men had rivaled his
own. In the worst case scenario, he
could have ended up with a score of broken ribs or a crushed skull, but instead
the blows of the monstrosities had only left these nasty reminders that would
be gone come morning. They always were. Even bruises found Vincent's presence so
distasteful that they didn't hang around for long.
Sitting down on his bed, he pulled off his
boots, making sure to hide the Outsider underneath the bed where it could be
easily reached, Vincent realized for the first time that he and Yuffie didn't
have an extra change of clothes. They
had left their packs on their chocobos just on the outskirts of the mountain
range near Midgar. A bad thing,
considering the condition of their current garments. The lack of suitable clothes, however, didn't really bother
Vincent. He would just sleep in his
pants, knowing that his clothes would be dry in the morning. Unlike his human friends, embarrassment and
discomfort weren't really two emotions that he experienced often. He didn't care what others thought of him...
Completely oblivious to the fact that the
air conditioner was turned on high and he was half-naked, Vincent climbed
underneath the sheets, the human part of him feeling a strange comfort as the
scratchy linen settled over his naked chest and damp pants.
As he lay there alone in the airy dark,
listening to Yuffie sing softly to herself in her native Wutainese tongue,
Vincent unwittingly let his thoughts drift to the thieving ninja who would be
sleeping in the bed five feet away from him not long from now.
Even he had been surprised at how much she
had changed when he had arrived in Kalm yesterday evening. Her short cap of dark hair with misplaced
blond highlights had been swapped with an ever-lengthening waterfall of deep
chocolate locks that brushed against her smooth, slender shoulders as she
walked. A year of growing up had added
womanly curves to her formerly stick-like figure. A year hadn't been long enough to add much to her height, but the
girl who had once stolen their materia and chased Barret around Choco Billy's
ranch with a pooper scooper had taken on quite a mature air. Though the look in her deep gray eyes was
still flat out mischievous, buried underneath that was a keen intelligence and
burgeoning woman's mind. The way those
youthful eyes lit up with happiness the evening Vincent had ridden up on his
midnight black chocobo Lamia had made his frozen heart jump for some unknown
reason. She had rushed up and hugged
him around his chest the way she had done when AVALANCHE had parted ways a year
before. He still recalled with
surprising detail the way he had placed a tentative hand on her narrow back,
thinking that she was still such a small slip of a girl despite her obvious
strength. She had stepped away quickly,
an attractive maidenly flush coming to her face as she sheepishly tried to
explain how happy she was to see him.
Of course, her happiness had been a Yuffie
sort of happiness...
"Geez, Vinnie! You're the last one here!
Even I was getting old waiting around for you! Look at me, I'm withering away!
Hurry up!"
Rolling onto his side and ignoring the cries
of protest that his many aches and pains gave, Vincent thought wistfully that
Yuffie was going to grow up to be a beautiful woman someday. He only hoped that he might be around to see
it...
He suddenly remembered with startling
clarity the way she had fallen asleep in his arms earlier, her slender, warm
body pressed against his as they skimmed across the ocean on the Black
Stinger. Her head had slipped from
under his chin to rest on his shoulder, her face serene as she slept. He recalled how he had gazed down at her for
what seemed like forever, unable to tear his eyes away from the girl ? young
woman, really ? with the willowy limbs of a nymph who was nestled with complete
trust in the arms of a monster. So many
things he had wished then...
Not wise to think of such things, Valentine, he told himself harshly. She's so young...
As he felt his eyelids drifting shut, the
sound of Yuffie's continuing song suddenly struck his mind with startling
clarity. He could still hear her
singing softly even as the rushing water of the shower tried in vain to drown
her out. Her voice was a beautiful,
high soprano; he would have never guessed that Yuffie would have been able to
sing. And that song, what was it? He couldn't understand the words, but the
way the ethereal notes lingered in his ears made the little obstacle of
language seem insignificant. He
wondered vaguely what the enchanting song was about, but then sleep claimed
him, and he was left with the mysterious aria to haunt his dreams.
In the shower, completely oblivious to the
audience she had had, Yuffie abruptly stopped her song and cried out in pain as
she dropped the conditioner bottle on her other toe.
Rotten end to a rotten day, she thought angrily.
Tifa sat on the bottom step of the stairs
leading to the upper level of the bar where the guest rooms were kept. From her vantage point, she could see the
front room in its entirety. Lightening
flashed outside, reflecting off of the shot glasses behind the bar. Thunder quickly followed its eternal
companion, rattling the very same shot glasses so violently that Tifa briefly
worried if they were going to fall over.
The room was emptied and darkened except for the snoring form of Reno on
one of the tables. Everyone else had
gone up to their rooms a long time ago with heavy hearts that resulted from
waiting around into the dead of the night for Vincent and Yuffie to return. Except for Reno, who had curled up on one of
the tables and promptly fell asleep after amusing himself for hours by
torturing Elena with all the stories about vomit and puke that he had locked up
in his pea-sized brain. When Elena had
turned a sickly shade of green and ran up to barricade herself in her room,
Reno had switched subjects abruptly and started singing every version of the
"diarrhea" song that he knew.
The woman curled up on the bottom of the
stairs sighed, a lonely sound in the stillness of the room, and rested her chin
on her knees, remembering what a pain in the ass Reno had been. He had been especially hard to deal with
since Yuffie wasn't around to beat him up and distract him until he passed
out. Rude had had to subdue Reno, a
feat that had been quite amazing to watch.
Big, scary Rude with his dark sunglasses and bald head coaxing his
lanky, flame-haired companion to "take a nap."
Reno had obliged almost immediately, curling up on one of the tables
like a little kid with his knees drawn almost up to his chin. Tifa had almost expected him to starting sucking
his thumb.
Getting up from her seat on the wooden
steps, she walked gracefully over to a closet and pulled out a blanket. Maneuvering her way easily around tables and
chairs whose positions she had long ago committed to memory, Tifa strode up to
the warm, snoring shadow that was Reno's sleeping form and draped the blanket
gently over him in a motherly fashion, the ends of the soft fabric trailing off
the edges of his makeshift bed. Reno
mumbled something under his breath, but didn't awaken.
Sighing again, Tifa turned away from Reno
and looked glumly towards the closed door, her heart plummeting to the bottoms
of her feet. Being with Cloud and her
friends had given her strength and had relit the flicker of hope that Vincent
and Yuffie would return during the night and laugh at how worried Tifa had been
for them. She had even stayed up later
than the others to wait for her two friends, but her efforts had been
fruitless. Vincent and Yuffie hadn't
come back, and as the storm worsened, Tifa felt that fragile hope begin to
wither. Even now, the merciless rain
continued to beat relentlessly on the windows, mocking her incessantly as
thunder rumbled with laughter directly overhead, shaking the shot glasses again
with its mighty sounds of mirth.
Reno suddenly snorted loudly and flipped
onto his back, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like "Mika." Tifa, startled out of her morbid thoughts,
turned to see that her ex-enemy was tossing and turning, apparently in the
grips of some nightmare. Though she
couldn't see his expression in the dark, she thought for a moment that she
heard him whimpering deep in his throat, a sound that was very disarming coming
from a tough guy like Reno. A motherly
tenderness suddenly rose in her, and she reached over and gently readjusted the
blanket around Reno's lean form, tucking it around his shoulders and brushing a
lock of flame-red hair away from where it was making mischief by tickling his
nose. She made a mental note to ask him
about his strange mutterings in the morning.
Lightening suddenly flashed outside the
window, illuminating the entire room as bright as day.
She saw a figure standing in the corner of
the room, staring impassively at her with glowing Mako eyes.
Tifa's heart leapt into her throat, and she
almost fell into a fighting stance, building a scream in her throat that would
wake everyone up...but then she recognized the mysterious watcher.
"Cloud!" she gasped, clasping her hand to
her chest. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry, Tifa," he said apologetically,
walking towards her across the wooden floor, trying to be extra quiet so as not
to awaken Reno.
As he got closer, she finally realized why
she hadn't recognized him at first. Her
childhood friend was wearing a dark rain slicker that covered his entire body
down to his ankles. He was also
dripping wet.
"Cloud," she whispered, gesturing to his
rain-sodden garments. "What
happened? What were you doing out in
the rain?"
She could just make out the curve of his
shoulders as he shrugged. "I just had this
hunch..."
Tifa squinted her eyes to see better in the
darkness. "A hunch?"
Cloud shifted uncomfortably, and she
received the impression that he was embarrassed about something. "Yeah," he muttered. "Just a hunch. I went to check on the chocobos' pen; I thought that maybe
Vincent or Yuffie might have sent their chocobos back with a note or something
in case they had been trapped or attacked."
He shook his spiky head slightly.
"I found nothing. Lamia and
Butterfly are still missing from the pen."
"Wishful thinking," Tifa commented
weakly. "It was worth a try, though."
Cloud nodded. "That's exactly what I was thinking. I wish we had some sign that they were at least okay."
She reached out and gently touched his
cheek, which was wet from the rain. "They'll
be okay, Cloud. I know they will be."
The leader of AVALANCHE nodded quietly, but
in his heart, he was thinking differently.
He had this strange sense of foreboding that he hadn't felt since he had
heard Aeris' voice calling to him in the City of the Ancients. The feeling that something bad was brewing
wouldn't go away. It tickled at the
back of his mind and ate a hole in his heart.
And it didn't help one bit that two of his friends were missing, maybe
trapped in a cave that was being rapidly flooded by rain, a cave to which they
had gone to on his orders. If
Vincent or Yuffie died, it would be all his fault.
"Cloud?" Tifa asked. "Are you okay?"
He stared at her beautiful face for a few
seconds, and felt his heart breaking.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Let's go
up. I don't think they'll be coming
back tonight."
Tifa hesitated. "I want to stay up a bit longer.
What if we just miss them and there's no one to let them in?"
"Tifa," Cloud said warningly.
"Or what if Reno gets cold? We don't have a heater down here."
"Tifa," Cloud said again, putting his hands
on his hips.
"What if Reno falls off the table and hits
his head? Someone will need to?"
"Tifa!" Cloud exclaimed, as loudly as he
dared.
The young woman jerked in surprise. "Yes, Cloud?" she said innocently.
He resisted the urge to laugh. "You're being a worrywart again. Everything's going to be fine. If Vincent and Yuffie come by, they can
always get in through the back door.
And Reno will be fine; he's a tough bastard...or maybe just a bastard."
"Cloud!" Tifa said in surprise, wondering
what had had made him say that. He
usually made an effort be kind to their old enemies.
"What?" he asked grumpily. "Sorry if I don't think too highly of the
guy. He's the one passed out on our
table like any common drunkard tottering around in the slums."
"Cloud!
What's gotten into you?" Tifa hissed, shocked by his sudden show of
anger. She knew he wasn't overly fond
of any of the Turks, especially Reno.
Tifa herself only put up with the redheaded spitfire because he was
Reeve's friend, but she got along okay with Elena, and Rude had always been
nothing but polite to her. Reno,
however, was always putting the moves on her, flirting with her and grabbing
her butt and such, and that tended to make Cloud angry, but she never thought
that he would be so vicious even when speaking about someone like Reno.
He was silent for a while, and though Tifa
could only see a faint glow coming from his eyes in the darkness, she knew he
was staring at her blankly.
Finally, he shook his head. "Sorry.
I'm just worried. I'm going to
sleep."
He brushed past her without another word,
heading for the stairs, but Tifa hurried to catch up with him. "Cloud?" she asked softly. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," he answered, slipping off
his rain-sodden slicker and draping it on the coat rack to dry.
Tifa moved quickly and blocked him as he
tried to proceed up the stairs. She put
her hands on her hips and said sternly, "I'm not moving until you tell me
what's bothering you, Cloud Jeremy Strife!"
He sighed, shaking his head; he knew that
when Tifa decided she was going to be stubborn about something, there was no
stopping her. But he couldn't tell her
what was really bothering him. There
were too many things on his mind. The
Running Man. Reeve. Vincent and Yuffie. Her.
Cloud had to suddenly fight down a raging jealousy and ache in his heart
as he recalled watching how tenderly she covered Reno with the blanket,
brushing a lock of hair away from his face with gentle fingers while he
watched, unseen in the dark corner with crumbling emotions. He kept telling himself that Tifa was just
experiencing maternal instincts; she was one of those kinds of pure, wonderful
people who took care of everyone else before even considering their own
comfort. She was just worried about
Reno because he was having a nightmare.
That was all. Maybe he was
overreacting.
"Cloud?"
Tifa's voice suddenly cut through his thoughts, bringing him back to
reality.
"I'm fine, Tifa," he said softly. "Just tired."
"Okay," she said uncertainly, not knowing
whether to believe him or not. "Let's
go to bed."
"Yeah."
She led the way up the stairs, and Cloud
followed, suddenly aware of the deep, aching void in him. He watched wistfully the way the strong
muscles of her smooth legs flexed as they climbed the stairs one by one, her
long brown hair brushing the backs of her legs. Though he wanted this beautiful woman to be his wife more than
anything in the world, he was afraid that if he asked, it would destroy what
they already had, which was a companionable neighbor-like existence with rooms
next to each other. Besides, she seemed
happy with things just the way they were.
Why should he go and bungle it with his selfish desires? Why ruin her happiness so that he could have
his?
Cloud shook these thoughts away, trying his
best to clear his mind of all his worries as he and Tifa emerged into the
hallway where the guest room, including hers and his, were kept. He could hear Cid snoring from a room
further down the hall, and that sound of unconscious contentment somehow lent a
spark of life to the deserted hallway.
When they reached the door to Tifa's room,
she turned around and gazed up at him, relieved that she was able to see his
face clearly in the lights from the lamps she had set up in either corner of
the hallway. "So, oh fearless leader,
what's the battle plan for tomorrow?" she asked.
"Well," Cloud replied cautiously. "As soon as dawn breaks, Barret, Cid, Red,
Rude, Elena, and I are going to check on that cave I sent Vincent and Yuffie to
investigate."
"You're leaving me here?" she asked, looking
hurt. It broke his heart.
He fumbled for the words to explain this to
her. "Well, you see, we need someone to
keep watch here in case Vincent and Yuffie do come back when we're away. I would call Marie back to work, but I gave
her the week off, and besides, I don't think she can quite handle the things
we've seen."
Tifa put her hands on her hips again, still
looking hurt. "You've got to be more
convincing than that, Cloud," she said sternly. "Why can't I come?"
Words rose in his mind from a treasure chest
of such forbidden phrases whose lid he had sealed and thrown away the key. I don't want you to come because it might
be dangerous. I can't let you get involved. If the Running Man is waiting for us, and I
meet my death either by his hands or by the forces of Nature, I want to die
knowing that you are safe. I want to
know that when I'm dead and gone, you'll still be here, continuing, helping
people, your heart made of gold, you beauty eternal and timeless, like that
light in your eyes. I don't want you to
come because I can't bear the thought of losing you...to anyone or anything. Without you, I would just curl up and die.
Instead he said, "Someone has to take care
of Reno."
No!
Whatever had possessed him to say something like that?
Tifa looked puzzled. "Reno?"
Okay, Strife, you dug your own grave, and
now you have to dig your way out of it.
"Yeah," he stammered. "Um, Rude said that when Reno drinks like
that, he wakes up with a major hangover, and to get him up bright and early is
to listen to him bitch about every little thing. Rude and I both thought it would be best if we would leave him
behind."
"He's going to be mad," Tifa said in a flat
tone with some indiscernible emotion in her wine-colored eyes.
"Yeah, I know," Cloud replied hastily. "That's why you have to stay here and watch
him. If we leave him alone and he wakes
up to find that we're gone, he might try and follow us, leaving the bar
unattended. And you know about Reno's
temper; he might decide to trash a few things before he leaves. I wouldn't put it past him."
"So I'm staying behind so I can babysit a 25
year old kid?" Tifa said slowly. "And
make sure that he doesn't trash the bar in his anger before he leaves?"
Oh crap.
She's mad; she's really mad.
"Just don't let him leave at all," Cloud
urged warily, looking for any signs that she was going to blow up in his
face. "He'll just get in the way."
"Like me?" she asked coldly, her eyes
emotionless.
"No!" he exclaimed loudly, his voice echoing
in the empty hallway. "No," he said
softly, lowering his voice as Tifa continued to stare at him with an apathy that
she must have learned from Vincent.
"It's nothing like that, Tifa.
Nothing like that at all. I just
that I don't...I mean...you know."
"No, Cloud, apparently I don't know," she
said waspishly, and now he could see that she was hurt as well as angry. "And I would think that after all we've been
through together, you could trust me.
Goodnight."
With that, she whirled and disappeared into
her room, shutting the door behind her and locking it, leaving a stunned and
baffled Cloud in her wake. However, it
only took a second or two of staring at the wooden door to realize that he had
made a huge mistake.
"Tifa!" he whisper-screamed, knocking on the
door with his gloved hand. "Open up!"
"Go to bed, Cloud," she said flatly from the
other side of the door. "You said you
were tired."
"Tifa, open the door."
"No."
"I want to talk to you. Please?"
"I've talked to you enough tonight. I already know my place is to stay here and
babysit Reno. I have nothing more to
say to you."
"Tifa!"
"Go away, Cloud. Good night."
"Tifa!
C'mon, don't be like this!"
No answer.
"Tifa, I know you're there. Open up."
No answer.
Well, I really fucked that one up, he thought miserably as he banged his head
against the door and sighed in defeat.
As far as he could remember, he had never made her this mad before. But Tifa was never one to hold a grudge, and
he hoped she would get over it come morning.
If not, he would apologize.
However, a problem would arise if she asked him to justify his
actions. If he started telling her how
he felt, everything would come bubbling out.
He couldn't let that happen, not when she was so happy.
I have to make a decision. I can't go on like this forever. It just hurts too much. No, I can wait longer; I have to.
"Goodnight, my love," he whispered to the
closed door.
Author's Note: Just from the record, the whole Tifa/Cloud fight at the end wasn't
intended. It just sort of developed at the
spur of the moment, and I lost control of my fingers. Crazy, huh? And what's
this? Cloud jealous of Reno? Hmmm...this might go somewhere... email catalina2717@go.com
