Title: Storms and Memories
Author: Traxits
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Rating: General audiences
Content Notes: None.
Word Count: 643 words.
Summary: When it's storming at night, the bar fills to bursting. When it storms during the day, Marlene has to find Barret to hide with.
Author's Note(s): Original prompt from Fic_Promptly on Dreamwidth: Final Fantasy VII, Barret + Marlene, fear of lightning storms
[[ … One-Shot … ]]
Since Meteor, no one sleeps when it is lightning and thundering out. It's a simple fact, and the bar is full to bursting, to the point that even Marlene is helping serve drinks and food, and Tifa works until she's exhausted, and the lines between ally and enemy have become so blurry that everyone is grateful when black suits walk in. Even Barret, who still views them as the enemy on some level, is grateful, because Rude just peels off his jacket and helps cook while Elena slides behind the bar to help Tifa, and Reno...
Well. Reno is the one who kicks people out.
And the fact is, Marlene is glad it's him and not anyone else, because he manages to do it with smiles so sharp she's sure she could cut herself on it, and suddenly, whoever he smiles at thinks it might not be so bad in the storm.
Marlene's thankful for that, because she's not sure she or Tifa or even her daddy have the stomach to kick someone out when they're causing trouble, not when it's thundering and lightning and everyone is reliving that one night where the Planet itself rose up and the Lifestream gushed by and people started falling sick—
Her stomach twists at the memory, but she doesn't let herself stop, doesn't let herself think about it. There's too much to do, too many glasses that need washing and too many appetizers to go out.
And then, all of a sudden, the storm is gone and everyone's gone and they all collapse the minute the bar is closed behind the last person.
Clean up is the next morning, because it can wait.
But worst of all is when the storm breaks during the day, before they've opened, and if her daddy is home, Marlene just goes and finds Barret. He's always somewhere that he can see the storm, even if he's as far away from the window as he can get, and more often than not, he's sitting there, cleaning a gun or putting something on his arm. She can't remember him not having that arm, but she knows from the way he acts about it that it is more recent than she thinks. He still lingers over it, still slides his fingers along the seam of metal and skin when he thinks no one can see him.
Marlene tucks in beside him, leaning against him so that she can hear his heartbeat as she helps him with all the pieces. The new arm, where it can change between hand and gun, has more moving parts than either of them are used to, and they had to learn it together. The first crack of thunder makes her eyes close, but she drags in a breath and keeps herself as steady as she can.
Her daddy's problem with the lightning and thunder goes far before hers does, after all, and while he's never told her about Corel, Mister Tuesti has.
She knows about the explosion and the attack, and she knows, intellectually at least, that it's where her daddy took her from. Their hometown, burned to the ground, and every time it storms, her daddy relives that. His heart skips a beat at the first flash, and Marlene takes the rag out of his hand to work on the piece he's forgotten.
He never says anything when they're like this, when they're both trying to be strong for each other, and she ignores the way her hands want to tremble as they work to reassemble his arm. They can put it back together faster than this, but they never do when it storms. It's ritual, something to keep them focused, and she knows, from the smile he gives her when they're finally through and she leans in against him, that it's the same thing for him.