Five Words, Five Ways x 10: Angeal and Genesis

by Idle Stripe

These two I had to combine; they refused to work seperately. Fifty prompts surrounding Angeal Hewley, Genesis Rhapsodos and Tora. No pairings.

-Five Words, Five Ways x 10-

-A series of 'Final Fantasy VII' drabbles centred on Tora, Angeal and Genesis-

=^w^=

Part One: Angeal Hewley

Touch:

Fingertips – 'I'm here.' Fingers – 'Don't hurt them/me.' Palms – 'Massage.' Whole hand – 'I trust you.'

Vain:

He didn't have time to beat himself up when he returned after destroying his home town; Tora did it for him.

"You selfish, cruel, stupid man!" Each word was punctuated by a punch that left an impression in his mako-hardened skin, "All your memories! All your life! Gone! How dare you! You should die!" Her anger drained, she stood and wiped at her mouth before turning and running away. Angeal watched her go and hung his head, the bruises she left on his body testament to his worthless mindset.

Parenthesis:

"Whatcha doing, sir?"

"I'm attempting to devise something that is considered edible."

"What?"

"I'm trying to cook."

"Oh. Well, why don't you add a little of that white stuff to the sauce?"

"You mean salt?"

"Yeah. It might make it taste a little better because it sure as hell doesn't smell good."

"The salt did make it taste a little better...do you want to help me?"

"What's in it for me?"

"You can have some."

"Sure! By the way, Zack doesn't care what you make him; he'll eat it anyway."

"How did you know?"

Cider:

Stumbling into work the next morning, Angeal was the picture of a hungover moron who had spent the night at a bachelor party. Which wasn't far off from the truth; Genesis had invited him around for drinks and they'd ended up getting sloshed. As he slumped into a comfortable seat and threw his arm over his eyes to block the light, a pair of hands ran up and down his back and the smell of cider filled his nose.

"It's non-alcoholic," Tora whispered in his ear, the smell of cinnamon overriding the cider, "Mum used to give it to Dad when he came home drunk. That only happened once or twice, though." Angeal grunted and sipped at the bubbly liquid, instant relief washing over him.

Or maybe it was nausea; in his state, it was hard to tell.

Channel:

Surfing the Lifestream, Angeal decides, has to be the worst thing he's ever done.

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"

"You're not old enough!"

"Please, Angeal? I even left my staff pieces with Sephiroth so I wouldn't be tempted to hit you!"

"No! We're watching this show and that's it until I decide you can have the remote!"

Scratch that. Fighting with Tora for remote control is the worst thing he's ever done; she always somehow won.

Freeing:

"What have you got there?" Cloud eyes the cage in Tora's hands with concern, small noises escaping it every so often. Tora opens up a peephole and holds it up. In the cage he can see four white birds, each with a different colour stripe down its back.

"I think it's time for me to let go." she replies softly, standing in front of the rusted Buster Sword. As her hand closes over the latch to the front of the cage his gloved hand covers hers. She looks at him with a smile – which he reciprocates – and together they open the cage.

"May the Lifestream protect you all..." Tora whispers as the birds fly for freedom.

"And may you all protect us." Cloud adds.

Lighter:

When Midgar storms rock the headquarters, it becomes commonplace to find Tora curled up in a small space shaking like a leaf each time a loud crash echoes overhead. It also becomes commonplace for Angeal to find her holding a small cigarette lighter, and then he takes her to Zack's house where the two of them can be scared together.

He'd be lying if he said he hated it when she jumped into his arms at every rumble of thunder.

Indicative:

"These numbers don't make any sense, Sephiroth." The General took the papers from the burly man and held them out to Tora, who took them silently. Gold eyes roamed over the writing for a few seconds before she held out her hand. Angeal placed a pen in there and she began to scribble. Five minutes later she handed the papers back to Sephiroth with a flourish and a grin.

"I think Tora's made some sense of them." he chuckled, showing the Commander what she'd deduced. Angeal groaned.

She'd connected the numbers and created a Chocobo.

Tap:

Drip. Drip.

"Fix it, sir."

"I have no idea how to do that, Tora."

Drip. Drip.

"You call yourself a First Class SOLDIER and you have no idea how to fix a tap?"

"It wasn't covered in my classes."

Drip. Dr – Squeak.

"Fixed, sir."

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Relative:

He knew who her father was. He knew about her family. He used to spend hours with him training or talking.

So why did Sephiroth step up to what was supposed to be his role?

Alien:

It was dim, the only light being provided by the telltale glow of a materia orb. Angeal tried to push himself up so he could see where he was but a pair of hands pushed him back down and a voice babbled to him.

'Great,' he thought, 'trust me to get caught with the alien.'

More babbling alerted him to something outside, and the rock was lifted from the cave entrance revealing Zack's worried face and Genesis's impassive one.

"You saved him!" The younger black-haired man raced past his mentor and picked up the 'alien', the materia ball revealing it to be a girl barely into her teens. She pointed to Angeal, then to the materia then to the various places on his body where he was injured.

"She's saying she fixed you up," Zack explained, "This is Tora. She's from Wutai." The girl grinned at him and muttered something in her language.

Well, it wasn't an alien, but Angeal was pretty sure she came close to one.

Childhood:

"Have a heart, Commander Hewley! I'm only fifteen; I should be outside enjoying that sun, but instead I find myself in here with you sorting out one of Zack's many messes! Don't you ever remember running through sun-soaked fields or lying in the shade of a big tree and sleeping? Or did the mako mess with your head so much you forgot what it was like to be young?"

Physics:

She was always there, she was always full of life, she had a left hook that could knock out a Second Class, and she never seemed to stop moving. If Tora didn't embody the science itself, Angeal didn't know who did.

Terror:

Sweat-soaked and panting, Tora sat up in bed as images from her nightmare flashed through her mind once more. The morning sun assaulted her retinas harshly as she flung open her curtains, her day having started then and there.

"Morning Tora!" Ethan called as she entered the kitchen.

"Morning mate," she replied, "Everyone up yet?"

"Nope, but Vincent's coming around later to help me with my marksmanship."

"Alright then." Fixing herself a cup of black coffee Tora closed her eyes and rubbed at her temples, trying to remember what it was she was screaming about. Flashes of the Buster Sword, shining and new, and her own staff threw themselves at her mind's eye and she opened her eyes sharply.

"Now I remember," she murmured softly, "It was the fight Angeal and I had up on the plate."

Painting:

After running away from Midgar with Ethan, Tora found herself back at Shinra Mansion searching through the basement laboratory for anything that would help her understand why Hojo experimented on so many innocent warriors. What she did find was a set of oils, each with a different First Class SOLDIER on it.

"Tora, there's someone in the Mansion! We need to go!" Ethan cried, running into the room, "Whoa, who are they?" The gunslinger put down the oil of the black-haired Commander and turned to face the blond boy, her eyes shining with tears of rememberance.

"They're friends." she replied simply, "We'll come back for them once we're out of the red. Let's get out of here." The two fled the room, the paintings hidden behind a bookcase filled with reports on the subjects of the oils.

Status:

"And you're sure she can't see us, Puppy?"

"Trust me Angeal, I've been down heaps of times and I've been lucky."

"If this doesn't work I am maiming you when we go back."

"Meh."

Tora was pretty sure her mindset was screwed up; how else could she explain the voices in her head?

Mention:

"So she dances in and out of the crowd like a glance..." His voice was so deep...so baritone...it made Tora shiver every time she caught Angeal singing. No-one would believe the bulky First Class SOLDIER could actually carry a tune – Genesis and Sephiroth were testament to the statement 'First Class SOLDIER cannot sing'.

"This romance is from afar; calling me silently..." Her gold eyes watched him move carefully around the room, his front hidden by his back.

"Why do you have this effect on me?" he whispered suddenly, "I've never wanted to protect anyone as much as I have you." He placed something on the table and moved away, making Tora gasp.

When did he want to father her, of all people?

Directive:

Who in the name of Gaia did she think she was?

"Take me to General Sephiroth, please."

"I don't take orders from a prisoner." THWACK.

"Take me to General Sephiroth, please. He's expecting me but he forgot I don't know my way around."

"Just don't hit me again."

And she'd only had one dose so far?

Head:

Her work done for the day, the orphanage owner trekked out of her study toward her bedroom, falling forward onto her bed with a loud groan of pain due to the thumping headache she'd acquired. If she'd been a bit more perceptive, she would've seen the spectral man in the corner walk forward and press his cold hands to her temples to alleviate the pain...like he used to all those years ago.

Opus:

Angeal turned his head toward the slightly open door, the soft melodies of a piano wafting through the crack. Pushing it open he spied Tora sitting at said piano, her fingers moving over the keys with such grace that he didn't know what he should do.

Silently moving across the floor, the First Class SOLDIER sat beside the Wutaiian on the piano stool, his eyes still trained on her fingers. They moved of their own accord across the ivory, squeezing out a tune that sounded different to what he'd grown up with.

"It's a piece I wrote back home," Tora whispered, "My grandfather loves piano music and this was how I tried to win his favour." Angeal reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, the music suddenly taking a sharp turn into forte. As the loud sounds faded back into mezzo forte and then finished, Tora reached behind her and stroked the white feathers of his wing.

"Angels make melodies out of things no-one suspects can be used," she whispered, leaning her head on his arm so he could feel the bandages around her eyes, "It's up to the listener to hear the music."

"Why do you continue to give out hope in a place like this?" he asked finally. There was a small stifled sob.

"My father taught me to smile in a thunderstorm like you can still see the sun. He said as long as there is a reason for hope you need to keep fighting for it." Angeal moved his arm around Tora's shoulders and pulled her into his embrace, the music still echoing through the room and in his head.

Pressure:

"I can't undo it, sir. I only know how to do it."

As soon as he taught her how to undo paralysis, he was going to kill whoever it was that taught her all the pressure points on the body.

Just as soon as he regained feeling in his limbs.

Win:

The air was thick with tension. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his brow creased with concentration. In front of him she shifted in her seat, the soda she drank earlier catching up to her.

"So...what happens now?" she asked.

"We show each other our hands," Angeal replied, "I have a full house." Laying down the cards, he showed her the three tens and two jacks he'd acquired. Looking at her own cards Tora sighed and laid them down as well.

THUD!

"Does that mean I won, Angeal?"

Her royal straight would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Sufferer:

As he lay there dying, Zack's shocked and sorrow-filled face blurring slowly, he suddenly felt a pang of regret all because of one statement that played in his head:

"Death's wings bring no suffering. Life is the one who holds all the knives."

"Tora...Zack..." Angeal rasped, "I'm sorry...for your suffering..."

Agent:

Mission Objective: Retrieve Wutaiian prisoner from Modeoheim.

Officer-in-charge: Angeal Hewley

Mission Report: Wutaiian prisoner escaped captivity and walked halfway back to Midgar before retrieval. Officer-in-charge not impressed.

Copper:

"Why is blood red?"

"Because there's iron in it."

"Iron? You mean the metal iron?"

"Yes. If we had copper in our blood then we'd have blue blood."

Tora blinked; really?

"I've seen spiders with blue blood."

"How?"

"Whenever Mum got out her wooden bat you knew she was after a spider. I'd never seen so many legs go in so many directions before."

"...it could be worse, it could be worse..."

Angeal sighed; no it couldn't.

=^w^=

Part Two: Genesis Rhapsodos

Optimum:

"You are seriously going to go out looking like that? Your date is going to turn tail and run before she even sees you! Honestly Commander Rhapsodos, you're lucky I'm around to help keep you in good social working order or else you'd be out on your butt or out with something up your butt!"

Positioning:

Guards out front. Guards to the rear. There was no way out!

BOOM!

"There's been an explosion!" Genesis looked over at the smoke billowing out of the door in front of him, several of the guards situated around him knocked off their feet either by the force of the blast or the Wutaiian currently beating them off with her metal stick. Smears of gunpowder stuck stubbornly to her cheeks and arms, her hair slightly mussed from the explosion.

"Sorry I'm so late, sir," she panted, "It took longer than I thought to get the explosives in position."

"What did you use as a set-off?" the redhead asked.

"Gunpowder, sir. I ignited it with a materia orb." Quickly gathering Tora into his arms (he was faster than her) he took off through the smoke, his steel blue eyes examining the areas where she'd set hte explosives.

Well, she'd be lying if she said she didn't know where to put them.

Park:

"Puppy!" The little mutt looked up when Tora yelled out, weakly wagging its tail as she approached. Crouching down, she examined the poor thing for injuries as Genesis caught up to her and yanked her sharply from the dog.

"This is no time for loitering," he said, then catching the confused look on her face, elaborated, "We can't stop."

"But it's hurt!" Genesis immediately regretted saying no, "Please, sir? I'll take really good care of it." Her eyes watering, Tora looked up at him with pleading eyes. The redhead mulled his options over in his head. Option One: agree to take the dog and shut her up for the rest of the trip. Option Two: don't agree to take the dog and face Sephiroth in a fight.

He really didn't want to have his ass handed to him again.

"Alright..." he sighed. Tora hollered loudly and picked up the puppy, tucking it into her shirt to hold it until they got back to Shinra HQ. The puppy lifted his head and licked the underside of her chin.

"I bet Cloud will love to come visit you when he's not on missions," she said, giggling as she felt its tail wag, "He loves dogs." So did Lieutenant Fair, but you didn't see Genesis running around in the park with him because he needed exercise.

Dance:

There had to be a reason she didn't want to learn swordplay.

"Swordplay is just a dance for people who have steel for brains. I don't like how a sword feels in my hand anyway."

He knew there was a reason.

Daytime:

"What do you think of Commander Rhapsodos?"

"Which one is that?"

"Red hair, red coat, thinks he's better than everyone else."

"Oh, him. Well, er..." Cloud fidgeted with the hem of his shirt as he thought of something to say about the redhead. Tora stared up at the sky, the Midgar sun shining weakly over them as they sat under a large tree to shade themselves.

"You can be honest, you know. Or would you like me to go first?" she asked. The blond nodded.

"Alright. I think Commander Rhapsodos has Chocobo feathers for a brain. Why else would he read such bad books?" Cloud snapped up sharply to look at the Wutaiian.

"Tora!" he gasped.

"What? I was just being honest." she shrugged, "Your turn."

"Never mind. I think he's a good leader." From the entrance to the courtyard, a pair of steel blue eyes watched the two continue their talk, a curious glint in them. Chocobo feathers for a brain, eh?

Bigotry:

"Am I biased?"

"Dumb question, Genesis."

Angeal and Sephiroth: 1, Genesis: 0.

"Am I biased?"

"Do you want the honest answer?"

Zack: 1, Genesis: 0.

"Am I biased?"

"I have no idea what that means."

Genesis: 1, Tora: 0. According to Genesis, anyway; she always lost around him.

Biologist:

If he didn't join SOLDIER, he could've passed as a biologist. Something about the human body made him wonder.

"Did you know that your arm span is approximately your height?"

Something about the facts she spouted out also made him wonder; where'd she learn them?

Minister:

Tora reckons if there were ministers in the Shinra army, Genesis would have the title of 'Minister of Pointless Information and Bad Reading'.

Wartime:

Before the battle – arguing with Sephiroth, Angeal and Zack about the moral values of the situation; it's the right thing, damn it! During the battle – arguing with himself about the real reason he was out there with his sword; you shall fly on pain's wings! After the battle – arguing with Tora about the state of his wounds; put the Full Cure materia away!

Chocolate:

"Um...Commander Rhapsodos?"

Genesis looked up from LOVELESS into a pair of brilliant gold eyes that shifted from left to right every so often. Tora shuffled about on the balls of her feet for a few seconds before placing a wrapped box on his stomach. Curious, the redhead lifted the box and unwrapped it.

An assortment of white chocolate sat temptingly in front of him.

"Um...the General and Lieutenant Fair told me your favourite chocolate type was white," she explained, "Commander Hewley allowed me to get them for you. Happy birthday." Her delivery made, the Wutaiian left the First Class to his piece. Genesis eyed the retreating girl before picking up one of the chocolates and placing it in his mouth.

How did she know he liked praline as well?

Sixth:

After the sixth test subject died, Tora demanded a furious sparring session. Genesis complied, only because he could see something in her eyes: revenge.

It made her look a little attractive, actually.

Commercial:

She looks like she could be a model from a Costa Del Sol poster, with her pale olive skin, shining orange and black hair and sunshine gold eyes. She is beautiful on the days when she smiles...which is most of them.

Overtone:

Genesis swept up to the front of the room, the cadets in front of him watching him with starry eyes. Why was he volunteered to do this again?

"Today we will be discussing how to care for your sword and – something wrong, Altona?" Tora took a breath to calm herself and sat up straighter.

"No sir, keep going." she said. The redhead returned to his presentation, keeping an eye on the Wutaiian. When the presentation concluded she shot her hand up immediately.

"Yes?" he asked.

"My mother and father always told my twin brother not to get his sword out in public. Is it as embarrassing here as it is where I come from?" The cadets broke out into snickers and giggles. Genesis introduced his palm to his face; Zack was dead when he got a few minutes.

Statistic:

He never liked her.

Something about her always made him dislike her. Was it her heritage? Her eyes? Her smile? Her ability to know just what to say and do to make his day seem all that more tolerable?

Whatever it was, Genesis always reminded himself (and failed to have it stick) that she was only a test subject for Hojo and as such didn't deserve his affection...no matter how hard she worked for it.

Church:

"Are you religious, Commander Rhapsodos?"

Genesis choked on the coffee he'd just sipped and stared at Tora, who had a frown on her normally smiling face. She folded her arms and waited until he'd made sure he'd cleared all the liquid from his lungs before asking her question again.

"The Goddess moves us all." he replied shortly.

"Do you have a church for her or a shrine or something?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I caught you murmuring a prayer to yourself. In Wutaiian."

"Ah." Sprung. Tora stood up from examining the redhead's face and walked away, murmuring the same prayer to herself in Wutaiian, her eyes deliberately flashing back to him as she disappeared.

Genesis began to murmur the same thing so she wouldn't murder him in his sleep tonight.

Weird:

"Sephiroth has the Silver Elite, Genesis has his Red Leather magazine from the group with the same name, and Angeal has 'Fields of Honour', whatever that is."

"It's a group dedicated to following his teachings of honour." Tora looked at Zack over the list of English words Sephiroth had given her to research and blinked, trying to understand why people would want to form groups based on the three most uptight people she'd met in her life.

"People from Midgar are weird." she declared, returning to her work.

"So people from Gongaga and Wutai aren't?" Zack asked.

"Depends, do you have a stalker-group?"

"No..."

"Then you're not weird."

"Okay then."

Indent:

While he was drilling a Third Class group one day, Tora snuck into Genesis's apartment (with Angeal's help). She crept through the lush space and reached his bedroom, the door emblazoned with passages from the books he adored so much. Pushing it open, the first thing gold eyes fell on was the bed and its markings.

There were notches in each wooden bedpost, with initials carved beside them. Tora whistled.

"What was that saying Sephiroth taught me...'notches in a bedpost'...wow, Commander Rhapsodos must have some serious issues with relationships." Raising the camera Angeal had insisted she take with her, she snapped a picture then dashed out of the apartment, leaving it untouched.

Well, except for the missing copy of Red Leather magazine, anyway.

Debt:

Five hundred Gil sat in front of him innocently.

"What's this, Altona?"

"We're even." Turning on her heel Tora walked back to the blond cadet who'd made friends with her, flicking her hair over her shoulder. Genesis picked up the money and retrieved the note folded neatly within it, opening it:

Don't ask where she got the money; it wasn't from any of us, that's for certain.

-Sephiroth.

There was a postscript from Angeal:

Just take it.

A second postscript, this one from Fair:

Tora's really sorry about burning your book, sir. She researched how much a new one would cost and then did little gigs in the barracks to earn the money. Did you know she could sing under wet cement and it'd still sound beautiful?

Pronoun:

"Tora doesn't like it when Genesis talks to Genesis when Tora's around. Tora thinks Genesis is mad with all the talking Genesis does."

"Would it kill you to stop referring to everyone in the third person?"

"Genesis would die first because Genesis would commit suicide. Tora is safe."

"Just why aren't you spending the day with your silver-haired daddy again?"

"Sephiroth is on a mission and won't return until the end of the week. Sephiroth said Tora needed to stay with someone else because Hojo wants to do more tests on Tora. Genesis was the best choice because Genesis has the authority to stop Tora from being taken in the night."

"I am going to kill that man one of these days..."

Green:

Tora made no bones about her favourite colour – she wore it around her neck and wrists, and splashed it all over the headquarters at every opportunity she got.

"Trust me Commander Rhapsodos, you look so much more appealing now!"

His hair was now just a shade lighter than mako.

Geology:

Sedimentary – Genesis's humour; it sank to the bottom of everyone's minds. Igneous – Genesis's temper; it was so easy to fire up. Metamorphic – Genesis's personality; it changed several times throughout the day.

Jump:

He hated her right now.

"Altona, come down from there right now!"

"I can't sir; I have no idea how!"

"Altona..."

"I'm serious! If I'd have known I could jump this high I wouldn't have been jumping near the plate in the first place!"

He really hated her right now.

Collect:

The tin rattled in front of his face, startling him out of the latest copy of LOVELESS he was reading. The redhead frowned at the Wutaiian smiling merrily down on him holding said tin.

"Five Gil." she said cheerfully.

"For what?"

"A birthday present for Angeal."

"No." Keeping the smile on her face Tora cursed him in Wutaiian and skipped away, the tin jangling with each step she took. Genesis resumed his reading and absentmindedly slipped his hand into his pocket, freezing.

"ALTONA!"

Sentiment:

His first reaction to his jet black wing was to flinch as he felt it move against his skin.

Her first reaction to his jet black wing was to touch it as it curled around her protectively.

"This isn't natural, Altona. This is...something else."

"No, 'something else' is currently trying to kill us. This is a natural instinct to protect the weaker members of the group."

Inquiry:

There was a flurry of paper leading from his office into the hallway. If he followed that, he would've gone into the officer's mess hall where more paper decorated each table intricately. Another trail would've led him into the training room where Angeal stood covered in little white squares. Further on he would've met Sephiroth and Zack, both of whom were decorated with the same squares Angeal was decorated with.

Genesis had to get to the bottom of this.

"Altona, did you take my Post-It notes?"

"No, sir."

=^w^=

DISCLAIMER: The disclaimer applies to all characters and all settings used from 'Final Fantasy VII' and its associates – SquareEnix – and Tora – me.