"I won't tell anyone."
By: Clan Dragoodle
"Com' on, Aeris – there's going to be pudding!" The teen put emphasis on the word as if it sized up as a valid point.
Her posture was slumped in the door frame, arms crossed in annoyance. The woman she'd addressed continued to busy herself about the velvet room (not helping the annoyance), and was currently bent in the corner and shuffling through the two packs, clearly not as interested in the dessert as the youth had predicted.
Still not helping the annoyance.
"Cloud will be there," Yuffie tried again, lifting a dark brow at no reaction.
"Yuffie, I don't care if Sephiroth is at dinner. I'm not about to leave Tifa up here alone."
On cue the figure in the far twin bed shifted before falling back into a dead stillness. The room's light not throwing far enough to give distinction to the body's characteristics, it was assumed she was still unconscious.
"Like she's gonna go anywhere."
The ninja gathered her arms behind her head, rolling amber eyes and turning her frame off the door into the hallway, "Suit yourself" were parting words.
Her departure left the room with a heavy click and a drawn silence, only the strained breathing of the distant bed audible as Aeris continued to dig among the team's medical supplies. Leave it to Reckless and Stupid to cause a scuff in the 'Happiest Place on the Planet', Gold Saucer. Honestly, what was she going to do with those two?
Finally retrieving a roll of wrap - which of course was located at the bottom of the bag - she crossed the tacky décor to said Reckless labored on the bed. Reaching out to illuminate the side table, the light tossed a red tinted bulb on Tifa's face, the older girl flinching at the surprise of finding the crimson eyes open and staring up into her. She brought a hand to her breast in the shock.
"Did I scare you?" Her voice was weak, raspy and low.
The tint in the light caught the sweat along her brow and hairline, making her appear fragile and sick. Tifa's eyes closed heavily for a moment before opening again to smile at the above girl, her irises focusing slowly into emerald.
"Sorry."
"No, no." Aeris hushed her, letting her hand fall lightly on the girl's forehead to push onyx bangs away from ivory. "It's not your fault."
Aeris made a small note of a running fever, a peculiar aliment to the wounds Tifa had suffered.
"The team's down for dinner, how are you feeling?"
The ruby irises had shut again under the Flower's touch, leaving her eyes sheathed in butterfly lashes and at the question, they opened to pair along a forming smile.
"I've been better."
Feeling the body flex under the blankets, Aeris positioned herself to help the other girl sit up, letting the violet sheets pool around a slim waist that left her torso open to eyes and air. Her breasts were bound in a sloppy covering that angled down the left side in gauze, a dull red inking through the wrappings. An open window let her skin prickle into bumps under the light fingers.
"You should be laying down, ya'know?" The older girl teased lightly, raising a fine brow.
"That didn't stop you from helping me up."
Tifa flashed a grin for a moment before suddenly contorting into a pained expression. Her breathing hitched as she began to wither and clutch her wound, ebony hair tangling around her face to hide the tension in her expression. Aeris reacted in silence; wrapping the fighter in a warm embrace and laying her head in the crown of onyx strands. Tife seizing under her arms, body flexing in waves and taking a cold sweat; which left her forearms exposed to inspection as she worked to hold herself together.
Emerald eyes traced the scarred and crumpled skin along the blade of her limb. Destroyed tissue of a fiery past that dyed darker in blotches, harsh in contrast against the pale coloring of the rest of her arms. Locked away in leather and buckles had been the technique to avoid questions - but now - now the weapons lay flat in a chair across the room. Aeris let one arm drape down to the Fighter's closest limb, gingerly following along the curve of a burn with her nail.
"We need to open your wrappings to replace them." She used a whisper, afraid to break the still moment of the hazy distortion cast about the room by the authentic Ghost Hotel lighting.
She could feel Tifa nod in agreement before going lax in the Flower's arms to let her body fall backwards. Softly lowering the martial artist, her eyes remained screwed closed in pain, hair snaking along the blanket to fan out beautifully. She moved her hands to her face, hiding the expression and tangling in her bangs.
"Why does it hurt so much?" Her voice muffled by the palm, cracked, slightly.
"I'm guessing one of those creatures specializes in poison."
Aeris couldn't see the point in such a thing as a Battle Arena. Was there really a necessity to pay in order to try and get yourself killed? Perhaps the water in Nibelheim had crippled their common sense. Or perhaps it appealed to the same type of people who would pay to stay in a Haunted Hotel. But she had to admit, there was a certain ambiance to it.
"Leave it to you two to enter in such a tournament," she spoke matter of fact, tearing the dressings apart which let the woman's breasts fall slightly, the skin prickling in the cold.
There were three main gashes; two running the length of her side that cut to the ribs, and a third shallowly following under the curve of her breast. It'd (obviously) been Cloud that had assembled the bandages, taking his amateur healing abilities over the wounds to keep them from bleeding out; which left a thin sticky residue flattened over the split pieces of flesh to tape them together. His Cure failing in places as the dark liquid oozed out near the ribs.
But what mainly concerned Aeris was the miss-coloring around the shallow wound. The skin rubber in texture and flaking away at the ends, a white build up of puss pressuring against the thin film of Cloud's sealant. The fighter grimacing and taking sharp inhales as the Flower delicately pushed.
Aeris tisked her tongue before coming to the conclusion: "It's infected."
Finding the end of the film, it was removed quickly; the white liquid not breaking form but bubbling up slightly in one mass before finally it popped and begun to leak down the slope of Tifa's navel.
Disgusting to say the least.
Aeris wasted no time, leaving Tifa on the bed for a moment and walking the ten steps into the full bath. Ducking into the built-in charcoal cabinets for a wash cloth; which she found of course at the very back. Backing out to dampen it under warm water, emerald turned to look out the doorway to the visible bed. Tifa's head now turned to watch in a stoic expression, her hands above her, accenting her ribs.
And a few other things.
Aeris turned away sharply, flushing in the cheeks as she redirected the thoughts to her task at hand. Luckily, Yuffie had left their Materia disorganized about the tiled counter, the small orbs letting off a ghostly glow in the dark bathroom, letting her easily select the calm olive wash of Cure. Taking it into the damp cloth she returned to the bedside, taking in the small hints of pain at the corners of Tifa's eyes.
"What's the verdict, Doctor? Am I done for?"
Tifa gave another faint smile. Keeping the situation light had always been her talent.
She wondered if the woman ever got tired of the masquerade.
"The verdict is that I'm not allowing Cloud to rope anyone into another stupid tournament again."
Lightly dabbing the cloth on the infected wound, the puss was soaked up to clean the gash away in tiny olive sparks licking along her skin. The activated Materia numbing the pain as it ate away at the infection, hopefully lowering chance of scarring.
"I hope you learned your lesson to not listen to him anymore," Aeris kept her eyes focused on the job, unaware of the crimson in her face before continuing, "I mean – I know we're low on Gil, and you two were just trying to help, but it's not worth losing one of you over-"
"It wasn't his idea."
Aeris paused in mid word, her mouth slightly open as she flicked her gaze to Tifa's face.
"It was your idea?" She turned back to her work, "I guess that makes sense, Cloud wouldn't put women in danger – he is very sexist after-all. He probably went along to try and protect you. Great help that was."
Satisfied with the job, she reached for the roll of wrap left on the side table. Instead, her hand found a small cool object, drawing her attention to examination. Tifa, who had been chuckling along as the Cure took the edge off her pain, calmed at Aeris' discovery of the platinum band. The flower girl twisting it under the tinted bulb to examine the strange dark stone crafted in the center, letting her face cloud in an alien expression between curiosity and sadness.
Quite a combination for Aeris.
"It's called a Moon Stone, it's supposedly very rare."
Tifa brought her hand to Aeris', letting her palm rest on the top of the others', her fingers helping hold the band.
"It's pretty; it must have cost him a fortune," her tone was bitter in the end, dropping her hand from the fighter's touch to let her hold the ring solely, herself picking up the roll and beginning to wrap the girl.
Explained why everyone was sharing rooms.
"Cloud didn't give it to me."
Tifa rolled to her side, putting her back to Aeris as she examined the ring under her own speculation. The action conveniently left her injuries open to easy access, but didn't help to hide the sting they struck. Aeris paused in her wrappings to mentally slap herself, taking a lighter touch as she set the gauze for the girl beneath her.
"Oh, I'm sorry – I just, I just thought-"
"It's okay," the Flower could hear a smile break the girl's words, "most people would think."
It was silent a moment as Aeris continued to work her hands over the fighter's body. Her fingers trailing along the soft skin in a new dressing to leave the most difficult wrap of binding her breasts again for last. An intimacy building between the older girl and her work of medicine, taking only the greatest care over the injuries, her fingers kissing and massaging the pain away. The moment leaving Tifa deathly still, her eyes fixated in the strange stone, twisting the tinted light in it, a flush brushing her features as she created a kaleidoscope of dark reflections on the wall.
"Aeris…" It was whispered, audible only because the Flower had stopped in her work to roll the girl onto her back for the chest binding.
"Yes?"
"Do you love Cloud?"
The question caught her off-guard, the ruby eyes flickering to gauge her answer. Rolling onto her shoulder blades for a clearer view, unashamed to leave her chest bare to the Healer- there was an obvious more important matter.
"I think l-love is bit strong a word," Aeris stumbled over the word awkwardly, as if it was swollen on her tongue.
Recovering composure she bent down to the other girl, bringing both arms around her back with the wrap. Their bodies close enough in the moment that a ringlet of gold fell across Tifa's collarbone.
"But you like him?"
Tifa pressed on, lifting her shoulder blades off the bed to better help the other in her task. The contact not going unnoticed by either party as their hearts came to touch in the new position. And neither made any attempt to readjust.
"He's a close friend," Aeris brought one wrap around the girl, separating their bodies only to let the roll pass between them, "I trust him with my life, but I wouldn't say there's any affection other then teasing in it."
She worked the wrap around for another pass, moving quickly.
"He's kind of dense to tendencies of the opposite sex though, don't you think?" Tifa's tone was still light as she drew her lips up in slight smile.
At that, Aeris (who had been engulfed in her work) turned her irises upon the intense crimson of the woman below her. The color burning into emerald as if searching for a specific reaction; which only reminded Aeris why she'd been avoiding eye contact.
Leave it to the most gorgeous man to be brain dead to woman fanning over him, something the Flower and him seemed to share.
"I suppose he is," Aeris nodded, agreeing. "Makes room arrangements when we deal with women really cheap though."
"Like at Condor," Tifa added.
"Everyone has to have their pluses."
Aeris tied off the wrap on the girl's side, taking her time to adjust how the strips would sit for comfort. Lingering in the contact, and drifting from the conversation as she focused back into her task.
"I won the ring in the tournament."
"You put yourself in danger for a ring?" Aeris drew back into a straight sitting position, concern written in her brow and lips down turned in a frown. "A stupid ring?"
"A stupid ring for you."
Tifa presented the ring from her lying position, holding it up to the other girl. Her face shying away under the dim lighting, eyes downcast from Aeris' plausible reaction to such a gift.
"What?"
Aeris could feel a strange emotion building in her throat, her hands knotting the extra fabric of her dress as an instant rose pinched in her cheeks. She opened and closed her mouth several times before finding the only words she could pronounce:
"T-thank you!"
She took it. Uncertain with what to do with it, but she took it nonetheless.
Turning her body away to examine the ring under the side table light her expression cycled through several feasible reactions. The alien emotion taking hold in her chest causrd the heart to beat loudly – a sudden fear arising that Tifa would hear it and think it strange.
"Do you like it?"
Tifa had shifted her position to sitting upright. Now leaning against the Flower's back in her weakened sate. Her head was left to rest along Aeris' shoulder, letting her breath work along the exposed neck. A sensation stirring up the spine as Tifa lowered her vocals to a whisper, tossing her tone into Aeris' ear.
"Do you?"
What would define the contact became suddenly distorted between friendship and more. Aeris unable to distinguish as her brain reeled for oxygen, simply turning the gift in her fingers again as she composed a generic response.
"Yes."
Perhaps she was reading too much into the present, over thinking the situation into more then it actually was. But if that was true, wouldn't that suggest that she'd been looking for that particular outcome all along? Would that have justified the new rhythm of her heart?
"I love it, but why?"
"I thought you would like it."
Taking her hands around the older girl, Tifa's left wrapped lightly around the small wrist as the other found the ring and slipped it onto Aeris' finger, the band sitting brilliantly.
"Perfect fit."
Aeris admired the elegance of the cut, straightening her left hand out under the lamp as Tifa's arms fell to rest in the folds of pink fabric of the girl's lap. Her breathing finally evening out in the honey-haired woman's ear.
"Do you love Cloud?" Aeris tossed the question over her shoulder to Tifa, still flicking the band under her inspection.
"Even if I say yes, that doesn't answer your question."
Falling back off the Flower, Aeris felt the bed shift under the relaxing weight of the fighter. The blankets shuffling as the girl tucked away in the warmth.
A forearm stretched across Aerith's lap, the scars raised up from ivory, her fingers catching the light switch to flick the edge of the room in darkness. Now, only the soft glow of the opposite black light allowed vision in the room between and an occasional flash of simulated lightening from the window.
All became silent.
With their eyes adjusting they became blind a moment, letting the shadowed corners twist into horrors of a themed hotel. Aeris remaining in her spot, a question forming on her lips, the emotion in her throat keeping it locked away in her thoughts. But this didn't quell the need to express it. She could feel the heat rise in her cheeks, her heart beating loudly again as she bent towards the dark figure on the bed, her breast beginning to ache in the anticipation.
Unsure of the fighter's actual position on the bed, and what she was actually doing, Aeris hovered a moment in an unnatural limbo period. A flash from the window illuminating the bed, letting the Flower take note that the fighter lay facing her, crimson staring into her, their lips mere inches apart.
As the light dipped away into oblivion, their mouths met, unsure who moved but understanding the need behind the kiss, the touch soft and nudging, kneeding into the other. A ringed hand curled gently in onyx locks to tilt the fighter's jaw upwards into the Flower's lips, deepening the contact. It became a smooth dance of teeth and tongue, the kiss dragging out into an expression.
Senses became clouded, touch magnified as hands tossed and tangled. The distance burning as their bodies pressed to wash away the ache. The unexplained throbbing through the frame that feasted through the flesh. Their lips, an extension of the need and movement, bruising the bite.
It was a chaos of limbs and emotion, beating the Flower about until the claustrophobia of it all lent her to tear away. Her lungs taking in the sting of the cold air as her chest heaved in deep breaths, fingers still tangled in the ebony strands.
Below her, the dark figure's strained breaths masking all other sound. Tifa's hand raising to glance the other's cheek, twirling a framing ringlet before letting the back of the hand rest gently. A gesture shattered as Aeris shoved away.
Hitching on the carpet in her escape she came crashing down, using her hands behind her as support. The sudden reaction of wrists and weight caused her to yell out before crumpling to the soft carpet in an ostrich effect, hiding her face by curling around the injured body parts.
Tifa remained still on the bed, either out of pure shock, flaring injuries, or hard rejection - it was unknown. There compelled a need to say something, anything really, as the seconds ticked past. Aeris struggling with the concept of what had happened and what could happen, occupying her mouth with the pain for the moment.
"I am so sorry," It was the fighter, first to recover from the tumble, tone quite and emotionless.
But the words stinging nonetheless.
"I'm so, so sorry."
She made an effort to remove herself from the bed, ruffling the sheets in haste and becoming tangled in her frustration.
"No! You'll hurt yourself more!"
The Flower pushed from the floor, reaching out to the figure in the darkness to stop her but refrained from making physical contact. At the urgency and worry in her voice all fell still. Another light flickering in the room from the window, Tifa's face turned away in shame, a tear treading ivory.
"It's nothing to get so upset over, I mean – it's not nothing- but that doesn't mean it's bad!" That didn't suggest it was good. "I'm not mad or anything – or scared," she added, speaking to the darkness now as her eyes adjusted. "I'm just confused- like you probably are-" She mentally slapped herself again.
"Not confused like that- well, maybe like that- but I wouldn't know, only you can really know that- ya' know?"
Aeris held her hands out blindly to the darkness, speaking with gestures unseen, groping for the correct words.
"I mean – I kissed you just as much as you kissed me – it takes two to kiss," she spoke very matter of fact, pacing the side of the bed now and busing her hands at her sides, the dark figure following her with a tilt of the head and shift of the sheets.
"Aeris…"
"Yes?"
The petal lips sealed closed, holding her breath at the fighter's husky tone. Irritation was evident.
"Just forget it, okay?"
The figure swept away, laying down again in an unnatural silence, leaving the Flower to stand alone in the dark.
Wilting.
The room began to tilt with the options and thoughts pooling. To move on from the kiss would leave bruised lips a simple reminder to an unspoken awkwardness, a dance Aeris wasn't about to play. But there appeared no spoken word that could mold the friendship back. She acted on impulse, following the same muse that brushed their lips to reach out and embraced the dark figure in the sheets.
She fell with a grace to the blankets, arms draping the thin frame in understanding. An awareness flowing where their skin touched as the Flower bent to the flame to whisper in her ear. The sweet scent of something misplaced and misnamed coming to the senses as she gathered her words on the tongue.
"I won't tell anyone."
Which certainly didn't qualify a sudden laps of memory.
They lay like that in silence, draped in a sensation neither cared to define or question. Perfectly still in the dim glow of the room, counting the other's breaths and reverting back to thoughts, working the moment in over in their heads, but never putting courage and tongue to use. So many questions whispered to themselves as the Flower's last words echoed on:
"I won't tell anyone."
And she didn't tell anyone.
Especially not herself.
A/N: My only fluff. It needs work, but it's the only one I have. So I treasure it in re-writes daily.