Graveyard Shift
By Rhino7
Disclaimer: Hark! I come bearing another one-shot. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This little bit of nonsense is mine. So I tried to write a Cloud-focused thing, and it's fair to say I failed abysmally. Still, it was amusing to write in the attempt. I own Duke. That's about it.
..:--X--:..
"Checkmate." Aerith chirped.
Tifa paused, blinked, and looked down at the chess board again. "What?"
"Checkmate." Aerith repeated, pointing to her rook, which had a straight shot for Tifa's king.
Seeing no obvious way to defend herself, Tifa rubbed her eyes. "You win."
"Oh, come on, it's no fun when you're not even trying." Aerith chortled, sliding her rook to take the king and end the game.
"Whose brilliant idea was it to play chess at three in the morning?" Tifa yawned, sitting back in her chair.
"That would be the genius who just swept you five to nothing. I'm on a roll." Aerith grinned.
Tifa grunted at that and looked across the back room of Merlin's house to spy Leon's dog, Duke, curled up on the couch asleep. Frowning with envy, she stood up and stretched.
"I'm going in search of coffee. Interested?" She asked.
"Sure." Aerith said, cleaning up the board game on the table.
Tifa made her way into the kitchen and started rustling through the cabinets for packets of coffee. She heard movement upstairs and stilled her movements, opening the drawers more quietly.
"Dammit, Leon sleeps like a friggin' cat." She mumbled. "But when Yuffie's shooting bottle rockets off the roof, he doesn't even stir."
Aerith chuckled, "This is your first night shift, isn't it?"
Tifa sighed, "Fortunately or unfortunately."
"The quiet is kinda creepy at first, isn't it?" Aerith tilted her head.
"Yes it is." Tifa pondered. "Usually people are running in and out, talking and arguing and whatnot. It's bizarre to have it so…boring."
"Boring? Hardly!" Aerith waved her off with a hand. "I've done loads of night shifts. It's the most entertaining six hours of the day!"
Tifa looked at her like she was crazy. "I don't follow."
Aerith started the electric coffee maker. "This time of night, anybody here is either slap-happy, hyped up on caffeine, overloaded, or sleepwalking."
"Sleepwalking?" Tifa snagged on that one.
"Oh yeah." Aerith bobbed her head, "Just last week, I caught Cid, dead asleep, staring at the open refrigerator and asking for more jars of peanut butter."
"Seriously?" Tifa looked at her.
"Yuffie talks in her sleep like a radio. Leon's always awake at the most ungodly hours, and when he does sleep, it's either a short coma or on a bed of nails. Merlin snores. Cloud is a lot like Leon, coma or nails, but I've walked in on him just sitting there staring at the wall, totally asleep but forgot to lie down." Aerith listed them off on her fingers.
"That's…weird." Tifa concluded. "Do I do anything like that?"
Aerith pondered that for a moment. "You punched a lamp in your sleep once, but it was an ugly thing that Merlin never missed, so no harm, no foul."
"Huh." Tifa acknowledged. "Sleep deprivation messes people up, I guess."
"Ha! Understatement of the week." Aerith said, pulling out two mugs. "Yuffie and I worked this shift last month, right after that three-day long campaign in Olympus. The night Cloud got back, he was too tired to sleep, if that makes any sense, but giggling like the dickens."
"Giggling?" Tifa couldn't even imagine such a sight.
"I wasn't sure whether to laugh or panic." Aerith laughed at the memory. "No idea what was so funny, and it took two hours for him to finally pass out. Oh, I wish I'd had a video recorder." She lamented.
Tifa snorted and shook her head. After a moment, though, she sobered. "Is he okay?"
Aerith quieted.
Tifa averted her eyes as the coffee maker beeped. "He doesn't talk to me anymore."
Aerith poured two mugs of coffee, handing one to Tifa. "And you think he talks to me?"
Tifa took the offered mug of steaming coffee. "You two have always been close."
Aerith chuckled at that. "I doubt Cloud has ever truly been 'close' to anyone. He keeps everything pretty close to the chest."
Tifa rubbed her forehead and sipped at the coffee. "It's more than just not talking to me. I think he's just avoiding me now." She frowned, hurt by this revelation. "I'm trying to help him, but he keeps pushing me away."
Aerith tilted her head thoughtfully. "His heart is heavy. He's confused. I'm sure he's not avoiding you. Maybe he just wants to sort things out for himself until he's ready."
"I'm at a loss, Aerith." Tifa replied. "He and I used to be close…We were practically best friends growing up in Radiant Garden before the war and before the Heartless. We told each other everything. He's never been shy about easing his mind around me before."
"That was before." Aerith said gently.
Tifa sighed, "Right. But I'm still willing to open up to him. Why won't he let me in? What changed?"
"You both changed." Aerith said gently. "You went through a war. War changes people. The difference is that Cloud had to go through it alone."
She spoke softly, but Tifa still flinched as if she'd yelled.
"I was alone too." She commented.
Aerith tilted her head, nodding every so slightly. "Yeah, but consider. Cloud wound up in Olympus, with Hades and the Titans. You woke up in Atlantica. I'm not saying he had it harder than you did—Ursula was a real number, I heard—but let's compare."
Tifa sighed. "What about you guys?"
"Us? Sure, I escaped Radiant Garden with Yuffie, Cid, and Leon, but let's look at that too. Yuffie was a child. Cid was far from a father figure. And…have you MET Leon?" Aerith countered.
Tifa didn't say anything and Aerith went on.
"I'm just saying…he's jaded." She shrugged. "Going for ten years alone and under contract with Hades left scars. "After so long on his own, he's…skittish."
"You make him sound like Bambi." Tifa said. "Cloud isn't stupid. He knows he can trust me, you, the Restoration Committee. I don't know, it's like he's got some sort of guilty desire to be alone."
"Trust me, nobody wants to be that alone." Aerith sighed.
"Then I'm back to square one." Tifa lifted her shoulders.
The front door opened and Yuffie stumbled in, the tired circles und her eyes almost as dark as the Heartless guts splattered over her arms.
"Huh. Patrol looks like it was interesting tonight." Aerith quipped.
Yuffie pulled off her boots, "Remind me to tell Cid his Security System sucks. Heartless were all over the Bailey."
Tifa sipped at her coffee. "Looks like you took care of it."
"Was it really that bad?" Aerith looked concerned.
Yuffie stretched, her back popping. "The night makes it look worse than it is. Why does it have to be so dark?"
"That is why they call it night time." Aerith put in.
"Well, I don't like it. Who signed me up for night patrol anyway?"
"That would be Leon." Aerith explained, adding quietly to Tifa. "Would YOU want to sleep when she was here?"
"Good point." Tifa nodded.
"What?" Yuffie asked, seeing them whispering.
"Nothing." Aerith waved her off. "Go to bed."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Yuffie clomped over to the bathroom to wash up.
Aerith and Tifa walked back into the living room.
Tifa's mind continued in circles around the Cloud Conundrum. Why was he avoiding her? Didn't he trust her anymore? Was he doing it out of some twisted sense of guilt? What in the world did he feel guilty about? He hadn't created the Heartless and destroyed the worlds. It didn't make any sense. She had seen him aloof before, but this was just ridiculous.
After a moment, Aerith leaned back and saw Yuffie standing in front of the mirror, toothbrush hanging out of her mouth and looking half asleep already.
"Yuffie." Aerith snapped her fingers.
The girl started slightly, coming back to herself and looking over to Aerith with heavy eyes. "Wha?"
"Go to bed." Aerith instructed, like a reprimanding mother.
Yuffie finished brushing her teeth and marched up the stairs, weaving slightly. Aerith kept an eye on her until she heard the bedroom door close upstairs. Then she looked back to Tifa.
"See? Entertaining." She grinned.
"You have a sick sense of amusement." Tifa remarked, drinking her coffee.
On the couch, Duke keened and lifted her head.
A beat of silence passed before foot falls moved back down the hall toward the stairs. Both women looked over, just in case Yuffie had forgotten she was asleep and started walking around or something. Instead, it was Leon, in full sleepy-and-annoyed mode.
"Oh, sorry, did we wake you up?" Aerith asked innocently.
Duke yipped and Leon glared. The dog perked her ears at his sour look. Tifa snickered.
"What are you yammering about down here?" Leon grumbled.
"Conquering the world." Aerith lifted a rebellious fist.
"Well keep quiet about it." He snarked.
Tifa walked over to sit on the couch. Duke licked her knee and she patted the dog's head.
"Don't be such a whiner." Tifa looked up at Leon on the stairs. "Cloud is still out on patrol and will be for another three hours. At least you get to sleep with the moon."
Leon looked at her like he had a sharp retort aimed and ready, but just as he opened his mouth to articulate it, his face crumpled and he sneezed instead.
It was a very unmanly sneeze too, the kind accompanied by a high pitched 'akiew!' noise. Tifa snorted and Aerith laughed at him. Duke looked alarmed and Tifa rubbed the dog's shoulders.
"We'll try to keep it down." Aerith giggled.
Leon recovered himself and tried again with the retort.
"Shoo." Tifa cut him off, waving him up the stairs.
Leon glared, saluted her with one raised finger, and went back upstairs.
Tifa and Aerith exchanged looks and laughed.
"You're right." Tifa admitted, chuckling. "Night shift is amusing."
Aerith finished off her coffee and set the empty mug aside. "Well, I vote for another game. How about checkers?" She offered.
Tifa gave her a flat look. "I can't beat you at chess; how am I supposed to beat you at checkers?"
Aerith nodded, "True. I am pretty awesome when it comes to board games."
Tifa snorted and shook her head, reclining on the couch with Duke, who set her head on Tifa's thigh and yawned.
One beat later, Aerith looked at her. "Wanna TP Yuffie while she sleeps instead?"
Tifa tilted her head in mock-thought. "Sure."
As the women raided the stock room for toilet paper, Tifa made a mental note to sign up for more night shifts from then on.