Under the Guiltless Sun
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."
PART TWO: Under the Guiltless Sun- a follow-up to, "The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun"
Volume II of the 'Sun' series
"What do you THINK it means, then, Nanaki?" Nanko cracked open the small shell, and crammed the nut into her mouth.
Chief Nanaki, (whose name meant, One-Who-Speaks-With-Many-Tongues) glanced up at her with his fire filled eyes.
Then, he lowered his face, and rested his snout upon his red paw.
"I do not know what these visions mean. But I do know that the woman in them is not a ancestor paying me well-wishes. I have a bad feeling that these visions are ill omens."
Nanko glanced to Dayte. Dayte lowered his head.
"Dayte," Nanko said sternly. "Go find your husband."
Dayte lifted his face defiantly, then understood.
Nanko wanted to be alone with her new chief husband.
Dayte stood, tossed his long black hair over his shoulders, and walked away like a well pampered woman. It was well known among the tribe that Dayte saw himself as female; he wanted to live as a woman, for he believed that the gods and goddess had made him that way.
Thus, the tribe respected him and the wishes of the gods and goddess, and they found Dayte a man who wanted a man for a wife.
Nanko was Dayte's best friend, and Red 13's wife.
Nanko was a very young woman, not much older than fifteen, but wise beyond even her own understanding. To a point, it was an arranged marriage between her and Nanaki- for the Gi tribe believed that it was the gods that choose who were to be wed together.
But it was also true that Nanaki and Nanko loved and respected each other deeply.
As chief, Nanaki was to be wise, calm, and always show good judgment.
For the last three weeks, he has been plagued with dreams of a woman who was too perfect to be human, but too evil to be a god or goddess.
Nanaki saw it as a bad omen, and does not know weather or not to tell the tribe about it.
Nanaki glanced over the horizon of his furry paw, watching Dayte saunter off.
"I think... I think it means that our crops could be bad this year. I think it means we may be hit by a dust storm. I think it may mean no water in the rivers this summer. I don't know! I know it is bad, wife."
"Maybe if we re-enact the dream, it won't come true." Nanaki suggested as she cracked open another nut. She glanced at Red 13 with dark, chestnut eyes.
"If we do, it may also guarantee it happening. I can't take that chance." Nanaki lifted his head, and shook the dust from his huge, grown out mane.
"Pray, Nanaki, pray to your grandfather, and to Seto, pray and ask them what to do. Pray to your mother. I don't have all the answers. But, we can't keep ignoring your dreams. It will only anger the gods further. We don't understand what they want, and what they are asking! Who is this woman that haunts my husband, so?!"
Nanko placed her bronze colored hand upon Nanaki's thick mane. She brushed her fingers through his sun bleached, red fur, stroking his head gently.
Nanaki closed his saffron eyes, trying his best to pray.
Off in the distance, a low rumbling and a flash of angry, hot white lighting flickered it's forked tongue.
Nanko lifted her head.
Dead, boiling air brushed the braids off of her shoulders.
"Nanko, get inside." Nanaki rose to his feet, and stood on the cliff of the canyon, watching the lighting snap in the distance.
Nanko rushed to find Dayte and his husband and get indoors.
"Something... something.. evil, this way comes." Red 13 whispered.
A raindrop splashed upon his nose.
~
Vincent and Yuffie huddled together inside a cramped, muddy, foxhole.
Yuffie shuddered and bit her lip while cursing quietly.
Vincent simply kept his head down and sulked while the rain beat the Earth to a liquid pulp.
"S...S...so COLD! GOD! I hate the rain!"
"Shh. It will be over soon."
"Sss..so, are you- g-goin' back to the... Niblehiem?"
"Yes. I have every intention of doing-" A gale gust of wind cut off his words in a shirking hiss.
"WHY?!" Yuffie screamed above the wind and rain as she huddled closer to him.
"Because I have no where else to GO!" He yelled back.
Vincent's hair and cape whipped about the wind. Upturned handfuls of dirt smattered against his face. Branches of trees crashed down near the frozen, frightened two.
"What a storm! HA!" Yuffie leered out of the foxhole and spat into the wind.
"You can't kill us! Stupid STORM!"
As if in response, the metal, sheering wind dragged a small stick across her cheek, splitting her skin in two.
The sound a puppy makes when someone steps upon it's tale jumped out of her throat.
Vincent grabbed her wrist, and forced her down the empty foxhole even further.
"Don't be stupid and tempt fate, Yuffie. I would have thought that you KNEW that by now!" He scolded her cooly. He glanced up.
Rain continued to fall in armies, beating down the grass, and firing their cannons into the wind.
"So... your going back to the mansion once we get back to Niblehiem?" Yuffie asked weakly while rubbing her bleeding cheek.
"Yes." He replied with a sigh. The, with his good hand, he tore a segment of cloth from his cape, and pressed it against her cheek.
As he did so, he didn't look at her in the eyes.
"I thought you hated me, Vincent."
Her voice deepened as she spoke; it was not the voice of a little girl, but of a young twenty something woman.
His eyes, the color of the dried blood upon the cape cloth, shot to her. Their faces were barely a thumbs space apart; their breath coiled around each other in misty fog.
"I don't hate you, Yuffie." He replied softly into her ear as he continued cleaning her wound.
"Then, what DO you feel...?" She asked in a sensual whisper.
Her eyes began to close into long slits upon her pale, cold face.
He was well aware of the close proximity their bodies were in.
He was well aware of the offering tilt she gave to her neck.
He was well aware that her full set of breasts were there hear his hands.
He was well aware of her pheromones weakening him. Her feminine smells gently pulling as his every fiber. Her full lips begging, pleading... wanting.
He was well aware that it had been so many years since he really touched a woman, let alone kiss one. He wasn't sure that he could do it right anymore.
He was also aware that deep down, past his human desires, that he wasn't going to do a thing to Yuffie.
"I don't feel anything, Yuffie. Not anymore." He replied quietly.
He stopped dabbing the blood from her cheek.
She opened her eyes, and looked at him in shock.
No man/boy has turned down the offer to kiss her before. She not only offered, she BLATENTLY SHOVED the opportunity to him. All that was missing was the neon green sign that said, "PLEASE kiss ME!" plastered to her forehead.
She wondered if he REALLY WASN'T human under all that cold exterior.
But he was sooo sexy. Why didn't she see it when she was 16?
She thought he was an evil, cold, prick then.
Not anymore. Now he is tall, dark, and handsome.
And so sweet. He was whipping away the blood from her cheek. He really does care. When, why doesn't he kiss her?
"Vincent?" She asked in the voice that was more of an adult woman's.
"What?" He asked as he glanced out of the cold, muddy foxhole. He was beginning to worry that the thin layer of dirt that separated them from the outside was beginning to ware away.
"Why don't you kiss me?" She asked as she began to tangle her fingers into his thick, black, matted, hair.
"Yuffie. Look. We got to get out of this hole, the storm is warping it away. We got to find a stone cave or something. Or a town with a vacancy."
"Aw. Why?" Yuffie took her fingers from her hair, and found herself coming back to the dampness of reality. Her cheek hurt. She was cold and dirty. The storm outside was violent. Vincent seemed unusually uptight and anxiety filled.
With a strong, one armed shove, Vincent pulled himself out of the foxhole. He held onto a tree root and tugged his thin frame out.
As the rain began to dump itself onto him, Yuffie looked up from the hole, and saw just how frail his body was.
His clothes hugged every inch of his skin. The hair that was normally thick and long, looked like long black ropes dangling on his back. Everything about him melted under the pelting, vicious rain.
The claw seemed to be the widest thing on him.
He held out his good hand to her. As she took it, she saw him in a new light; she saw him with the eyes of a adult.
He was neither sexy, strong, mysterious, nor handsome. He was afraid, frail, troubled, and lost. The rain ripped it all from him, even his demure.
He was pale. His face was narrow and sunken in. His eyes were long- like a creature's. A cat, maybe- but ruddy brown. Almost red.
...There was something in-human and ugly about him.
Downright hideous, but not exactly in his face...
Perhaps it wasn't just the rain, Yuffie thought. Perhaps she was beginning to grow up. She was seeing him for who and what he really is.
Instead of running through the rain, scattered and afraid of it, Yuffie and Vincent walked hand in hand.
As Vincent held her hand, and felt not the slightest tremble from her, he realized that she was not afraid of getting muddy, or of thunder.
He realized that she was no longer a child.
Perhaps he should have kissed her- he thought- not because he was attracted to her- but to show her that he acknowledged her adulthood.
Maybe she would have interpreted that wrong...
Vincent sighed. This was odd. He thought that since "The Incident" Cid was the closest to him. It was not so anymore. He could not write off this brother/sister bond he was accidentally growing with Yuffie.
"So, we are going back to Niblehiem!?" Yuffie stopped and yelled, trying to get her voice above the bulbous, round, sounds of thunder.
"Uh," Vincent hesitated. "Maybe. Yeah, let's head that way, ok?!"
He took her hand once more.
Together they tromped through the mud and heavy, silver rain.
Yuffie whistled 'Someday My Prince Will Come,' the whole way.
Vincent didn't stop her. Even when she was completely out of key.
~
Tifa's Diary
September 9, 2005
Dear Dairy
Horrible, horrible rain outside. Sorry I haven't been writing to you every day like I promised. Just like me, huh, breaking promises. Oh well, can't be TOO hard on yourself, you know? Gets you... nowhere. Cloud taught me that.
Cloud when grocery shopping today.
When he left, I called Johnny.
Hey, don't blame me, I was lonely, and no, it wasn't a DATE.
We just went out for lunch.
You know, when you move out into a new city, they don't tell you this, but, it's really, really, hard making new friends. I mean, Cloud has friends here, and I LIKE his friends, I just want some of my own, you know? And, I don't know where to begin. I don't know where all the coffee houses and the clubs and the discos are. But I know Johnny. I think he is Cid's son. Weird, huh?
It was a short, uh, get-together.
I ate a turkey sandwich, and an iced tea, he had a salad and soda.
He asked me if I was seeing anyone.
I told him, well, it popped out of my mouth.
It was the first thing I could think of.
I said, 'no,' ok!
We just talked a little bit after that. I told him I moved out here with a friend. I told him that I wanted to meet people. It was all true. I didn't really lie. Cloud IS a friend.
Then, it began to rain, really, really, hard. POURING downfall rain!
He took me home. (We got there before Cloud did.)
I let him dry off.
I didn't know where Cloud was, because after Johnny left, the phone rang. It was Barret. We did some small talk. It was raining over there, too. He said that the newscaster said, (Me and Cloud don't have TV) that it was raining really bad in almost every major city. Weird. He was hoping that me and Cloud were ok. I said we were, we still had power and everything. Barret and Marlene were doing ok, too.
After we talked for a little while, I hung up the phone, and Cloud came home. That's it. That was my day. Cloud is in the shower right now. We are getting ready for bed. Do I have a crush on Johnny, now? I don't know. I'm supposed to call him tomorrow. I'm so confused.
Gotta go, Cloud is out of the bath.
Love,
Tifa Lockheart
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."
PART TWO: Under the Guiltless Sun- a follow-up to, "The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun"
Volume II of the 'Sun' series
"What do you THINK it means, then, Nanaki?" Nanko cracked open the small shell, and crammed the nut into her mouth.
Chief Nanaki, (whose name meant, One-Who-Speaks-With-Many-Tongues) glanced up at her with his fire filled eyes.
Then, he lowered his face, and rested his snout upon his red paw.
"I do not know what these visions mean. But I do know that the woman in them is not a ancestor paying me well-wishes. I have a bad feeling that these visions are ill omens."
Nanko glanced to Dayte. Dayte lowered his head.
"Dayte," Nanko said sternly. "Go find your husband."
Dayte lifted his face defiantly, then understood.
Nanko wanted to be alone with her new chief husband.
Dayte stood, tossed his long black hair over his shoulders, and walked away like a well pampered woman. It was well known among the tribe that Dayte saw himself as female; he wanted to live as a woman, for he believed that the gods and goddess had made him that way.
Thus, the tribe respected him and the wishes of the gods and goddess, and they found Dayte a man who wanted a man for a wife.
Nanko was Dayte's best friend, and Red 13's wife.
Nanko was a very young woman, not much older than fifteen, but wise beyond even her own understanding. To a point, it was an arranged marriage between her and Nanaki- for the Gi tribe believed that it was the gods that choose who were to be wed together.
But it was also true that Nanaki and Nanko loved and respected each other deeply.
As chief, Nanaki was to be wise, calm, and always show good judgment.
For the last three weeks, he has been plagued with dreams of a woman who was too perfect to be human, but too evil to be a god or goddess.
Nanaki saw it as a bad omen, and does not know weather or not to tell the tribe about it.
Nanaki glanced over the horizon of his furry paw, watching Dayte saunter off.
"I think... I think it means that our crops could be bad this year. I think it means we may be hit by a dust storm. I think it may mean no water in the rivers this summer. I don't know! I know it is bad, wife."
"Maybe if we re-enact the dream, it won't come true." Nanaki suggested as she cracked open another nut. She glanced at Red 13 with dark, chestnut eyes.
"If we do, it may also guarantee it happening. I can't take that chance." Nanaki lifted his head, and shook the dust from his huge, grown out mane.
"Pray, Nanaki, pray to your grandfather, and to Seto, pray and ask them what to do. Pray to your mother. I don't have all the answers. But, we can't keep ignoring your dreams. It will only anger the gods further. We don't understand what they want, and what they are asking! Who is this woman that haunts my husband, so?!"
Nanko placed her bronze colored hand upon Nanaki's thick mane. She brushed her fingers through his sun bleached, red fur, stroking his head gently.
Nanaki closed his saffron eyes, trying his best to pray.
Off in the distance, a low rumbling and a flash of angry, hot white lighting flickered it's forked tongue.
Nanko lifted her head.
Dead, boiling air brushed the braids off of her shoulders.
"Nanko, get inside." Nanaki rose to his feet, and stood on the cliff of the canyon, watching the lighting snap in the distance.
Nanko rushed to find Dayte and his husband and get indoors.
"Something... something.. evil, this way comes." Red 13 whispered.
A raindrop splashed upon his nose.
~
Vincent and Yuffie huddled together inside a cramped, muddy, foxhole.
Yuffie shuddered and bit her lip while cursing quietly.
Vincent simply kept his head down and sulked while the rain beat the Earth to a liquid pulp.
"S...S...so COLD! GOD! I hate the rain!"
"Shh. It will be over soon."
"Sss..so, are you- g-goin' back to the... Niblehiem?"
"Yes. I have every intention of doing-" A gale gust of wind cut off his words in a shirking hiss.
"WHY?!" Yuffie screamed above the wind and rain as she huddled closer to him.
"Because I have no where else to GO!" He yelled back.
Vincent's hair and cape whipped about the wind. Upturned handfuls of dirt smattered against his face. Branches of trees crashed down near the frozen, frightened two.
"What a storm! HA!" Yuffie leered out of the foxhole and spat into the wind.
"You can't kill us! Stupid STORM!"
As if in response, the metal, sheering wind dragged a small stick across her cheek, splitting her skin in two.
The sound a puppy makes when someone steps upon it's tale jumped out of her throat.
Vincent grabbed her wrist, and forced her down the empty foxhole even further.
"Don't be stupid and tempt fate, Yuffie. I would have thought that you KNEW that by now!" He scolded her cooly. He glanced up.
Rain continued to fall in armies, beating down the grass, and firing their cannons into the wind.
"So... your going back to the mansion once we get back to Niblehiem?" Yuffie asked weakly while rubbing her bleeding cheek.
"Yes." He replied with a sigh. The, with his good hand, he tore a segment of cloth from his cape, and pressed it against her cheek.
As he did so, he didn't look at her in the eyes.
"I thought you hated me, Vincent."
Her voice deepened as she spoke; it was not the voice of a little girl, but of a young twenty something woman.
His eyes, the color of the dried blood upon the cape cloth, shot to her. Their faces were barely a thumbs space apart; their breath coiled around each other in misty fog.
"I don't hate you, Yuffie." He replied softly into her ear as he continued cleaning her wound.
"Then, what DO you feel...?" She asked in a sensual whisper.
Her eyes began to close into long slits upon her pale, cold face.
He was well aware of the close proximity their bodies were in.
He was well aware of the offering tilt she gave to her neck.
He was well aware that her full set of breasts were there hear his hands.
He was well aware of her pheromones weakening him. Her feminine smells gently pulling as his every fiber. Her full lips begging, pleading... wanting.
He was well aware that it had been so many years since he really touched a woman, let alone kiss one. He wasn't sure that he could do it right anymore.
He was also aware that deep down, past his human desires, that he wasn't going to do a thing to Yuffie.
"I don't feel anything, Yuffie. Not anymore." He replied quietly.
He stopped dabbing the blood from her cheek.
She opened her eyes, and looked at him in shock.
No man/boy has turned down the offer to kiss her before. She not only offered, she BLATENTLY SHOVED the opportunity to him. All that was missing was the neon green sign that said, "PLEASE kiss ME!" plastered to her forehead.
She wondered if he REALLY WASN'T human under all that cold exterior.
But he was sooo sexy. Why didn't she see it when she was 16?
She thought he was an evil, cold, prick then.
Not anymore. Now he is tall, dark, and handsome.
And so sweet. He was whipping away the blood from her cheek. He really does care. When, why doesn't he kiss her?
"Vincent?" She asked in the voice that was more of an adult woman's.
"What?" He asked as he glanced out of the cold, muddy foxhole. He was beginning to worry that the thin layer of dirt that separated them from the outside was beginning to ware away.
"Why don't you kiss me?" She asked as she began to tangle her fingers into his thick, black, matted, hair.
"Yuffie. Look. We got to get out of this hole, the storm is warping it away. We got to find a stone cave or something. Or a town with a vacancy."
"Aw. Why?" Yuffie took her fingers from her hair, and found herself coming back to the dampness of reality. Her cheek hurt. She was cold and dirty. The storm outside was violent. Vincent seemed unusually uptight and anxiety filled.
With a strong, one armed shove, Vincent pulled himself out of the foxhole. He held onto a tree root and tugged his thin frame out.
As the rain began to dump itself onto him, Yuffie looked up from the hole, and saw just how frail his body was.
His clothes hugged every inch of his skin. The hair that was normally thick and long, looked like long black ropes dangling on his back. Everything about him melted under the pelting, vicious rain.
The claw seemed to be the widest thing on him.
He held out his good hand to her. As she took it, she saw him in a new light; she saw him with the eyes of a adult.
He was neither sexy, strong, mysterious, nor handsome. He was afraid, frail, troubled, and lost. The rain ripped it all from him, even his demure.
He was pale. His face was narrow and sunken in. His eyes were long- like a creature's. A cat, maybe- but ruddy brown. Almost red.
...There was something in-human and ugly about him.
Downright hideous, but not exactly in his face...
Perhaps it wasn't just the rain, Yuffie thought. Perhaps she was beginning to grow up. She was seeing him for who and what he really is.
Instead of running through the rain, scattered and afraid of it, Yuffie and Vincent walked hand in hand.
As Vincent held her hand, and felt not the slightest tremble from her, he realized that she was not afraid of getting muddy, or of thunder.
He realized that she was no longer a child.
Perhaps he should have kissed her- he thought- not because he was attracted to her- but to show her that he acknowledged her adulthood.
Maybe she would have interpreted that wrong...
Vincent sighed. This was odd. He thought that since "The Incident" Cid was the closest to him. It was not so anymore. He could not write off this brother/sister bond he was accidentally growing with Yuffie.
"So, we are going back to Niblehiem!?" Yuffie stopped and yelled, trying to get her voice above the bulbous, round, sounds of thunder.
"Uh," Vincent hesitated. "Maybe. Yeah, let's head that way, ok?!"
He took her hand once more.
Together they tromped through the mud and heavy, silver rain.
Yuffie whistled 'Someday My Prince Will Come,' the whole way.
Vincent didn't stop her. Even when she was completely out of key.
~
Tifa's Diary
September 9, 2005
Dear Dairy
Horrible, horrible rain outside. Sorry I haven't been writing to you every day like I promised. Just like me, huh, breaking promises. Oh well, can't be TOO hard on yourself, you know? Gets you... nowhere. Cloud taught me that.
Cloud when grocery shopping today.
When he left, I called Johnny.
Hey, don't blame me, I was lonely, and no, it wasn't a DATE.
We just went out for lunch.
You know, when you move out into a new city, they don't tell you this, but, it's really, really, hard making new friends. I mean, Cloud has friends here, and I LIKE his friends, I just want some of my own, you know? And, I don't know where to begin. I don't know where all the coffee houses and the clubs and the discos are. But I know Johnny. I think he is Cid's son. Weird, huh?
It was a short, uh, get-together.
I ate a turkey sandwich, and an iced tea, he had a salad and soda.
He asked me if I was seeing anyone.
I told him, well, it popped out of my mouth.
It was the first thing I could think of.
I said, 'no,' ok!
We just talked a little bit after that. I told him I moved out here with a friend. I told him that I wanted to meet people. It was all true. I didn't really lie. Cloud IS a friend.
Then, it began to rain, really, really, hard. POURING downfall rain!
He took me home. (We got there before Cloud did.)
I let him dry off.
I didn't know where Cloud was, because after Johnny left, the phone rang. It was Barret. We did some small talk. It was raining over there, too. He said that the newscaster said, (Me and Cloud don't have TV) that it was raining really bad in almost every major city. Weird. He was hoping that me and Cloud were ok. I said we were, we still had power and everything. Barret and Marlene were doing ok, too.
After we talked for a little while, I hung up the phone, and Cloud came home. That's it. That was my day. Cloud is in the shower right now. We are getting ready for bed. Do I have a crush on Johnny, now? I don't know. I'm supposed to call him tomorrow. I'm so confused.
Gotta go, Cloud is out of the bath.
Love,
Tifa Lockheart