Cloud
Cloud lay amongst the flowers; careful not to crush any of them as the soft light filtering through the window of the church seemed to caress him. His expression was emotionless as ever and he wore just his pants in his need to connect to the last living vestige of the woman he had loved: her flowers. She used to lie there with him, allowing him to hold her. She had been truly innocent and he hadn't attempted to change that about her. He planned to marry her and take her virginity on their wedding night. Theirs was a spiritual love rather than a union of the flesh.
Cloud was there to console her over the loss of the man she loved and Aerith eagerly accepted Cloud's kisses and the warmth of his body as they slept together in each other's arms night after night when she snuck out of her house.
With Aerith, he felt a perfect peace in the chaos his world had become. She didn't need him to be her hero; she just needed him with her. They were both lonely and she was the perfect balm for his troubled soul.
Tifa had tried to turn a blind eye to what lay between them but Cloud knew she was hurting over it. He didn't want to hurt her, in a way Tifa had always been his but he couldn't be with her after losing so much.
It was like his heart froze the day Aerith was killed and Tifa swooped in like a mother hen to claim him, provided him with a home for them both to live in the same room like a married couple, but sleeping in twin beds. She tried to foster the illusion that they were happy together and asked him to bring home their new son after just speaking with him, Cloud had been happy she was so kind a creature to offer to take in an orphan she had never met, but this made their "home" more stifling for him. Denzel as much as he loved him was another shackle to bind him to her.
Tia had no idea how cloying her attention was for him, her acting like they were together, everyone assuming they were bound for the altar when he didn't feel that way about her. How could he lie next to Tifa in their marriage bed when he knew she was the wrong woman? How could he make false love to her when the innocent kisses from a virgin had given him the most heightened emotions he had ever experienced. Aerith had ruined him for other women. When he looked at Tifa, he could still see how attractive she was and how kind she was, but felt trapped by her. A part of him would always love her but he couldn't be with her; she reminded him too much of what he had lost.
He thought about simply moving away but it was like Tifa kept drawing him back, so he wiffled and waffled what to do and always ended up in Aerith's ruined church praying for her to return but she never did, imagining a life with her calm, gentle presence. Never nagging him and just treating him like her beloved spouse. A life lived in peace, perhaps living on a farm somewhere? No politicians bothering him about being hired muscle or having to save the world again, no constant reminders of his involvement with AVALANCHE. Why couldn't he have an anonymous life somewhere else?
A breeze came from nowhere and the stalk of a delicate pink flower seemed to bow and the petals caressed his shoulder, he sat up "Aerith?" he said. And groaned and shook his head when his PHS phone rang and the picture Tifa had insisted her choose for her calls came up. He sat on a bar stool as she did a selfie, giving the camera a wide grin while his expression as neutral and her fingers gave him rabbit ears. He let it go to voicemail and then got up and pulled on his shirt and armor and listened to her messages as he did once a week. All of them attempted to draw him back to "their life" but one was about her anger over the PHS bill and he smiled at this. However, the last one was about Denzel breaking his arm and Cloud packed up and rushed back to his "family".
Cloud remained calm while Tifa stared at him "who is she, the woman you're calling?" she demanded after playing happy family in front of Denzel, Cloud had been all smiles and signed his cast. But now they were alone together.
"She's just someone I talk to, she's a friend" he insisted.
"You confide our private business to a phone sex worker?" Tifa demanded.
"She just listens to me and gives me advice, I'm not some kind of sex addict" he hotly said and she flinched at this.
"What do you mean by that?" she suspicously asked him.
"Nothing, why?" he asked her. "I'm sorry, I'll end it with her and pay this bill" he said giving her a stiff hug that she settled into.
Scarlet sat in her apartment full of new furniture as she talked with a client "yes, you nasty little toe sucker. I bet you want to suckle on my long white, perfectly pedicured toes like they were made of candy? They are so slim and pale, almost like fingers and far too perfect for you" she intoned as the man moaned and caressed himself on the other end of the line. "I want you to get on your knees like the beast you are and beg to suck my beauties, you disgusting worm" she was with an authoritative caress in her voice and slapped the leather couch beneath her. "Take that….I gotta go, call again" she hastily said when it said the next caller was Storm.
"Huh? But it was so perfect…." The man protested in a whiny voice when she hung up on him.
"Storm how you doing?" she asked him.
"She's mad again, it's like I can never do anything right, she tried to seduce me wearing sexy lingerie. She probably poked pins into those condoms she had out. I had to get out of here. I….." he complained, able to vent his frustration only to Delovely.
Scarlet quirked a smile, although she found him annoying, she kind of liked him and he paid her bills quite nicely. "I don't understand why you stay with her. You both are clearly not happy. Why not just make a clean break?" she said for the thousandth time.
"I can't, she's my responsibility...it's complicated" Cloud insisted. "Did you read to the children in the library again?" he asked her.
Scarlet had changed a lot, humbled by her experiences and was trying to become a better person as the power that once went to her head was no longer there and she realized that she was ugly inside and tried to connect to society better. Volunteering didn't cost anything and improved her image. "Yes, I read them a book about a boy who repeats everything twice" she explained.
"I'm taking you to a bar for a drink and you can tell me all about it" Cloud decisively said as he headed away from his place, bound for a dead, dive bar he frequented and knew that Tifa was going to flip when she got the latest PHS bill. He had thought that Tifa had too much respect for herself to dress up in scandalous lingerie and too much makeup in yet another attempt to win him. Screw that, he had a full head of steam and a woman who seemed to accept him to talk with. "When can I meet you in person?" He asked her for the thousandth time.
"It's against company policy..." She said and he just rolled his eyes and continued to chat with her.
Reno
Reno came right over when he got Tifa's phone call, she was sobbing on a barstool from where she had run after Cloud, Reno quickly took in the revealing panties and bra with garter belt and stockings and forced himself to focus on her face, it was a picture of misery and her garish makeup had run. He took off his coat and draped it around her and pulled her into an embrace and she sobbed on his shoulder. She finally leaned back, "your shirt" she said where her mascara had run onto the snowy whiteness of it.
"It's okay, yo. I have a lot of shirts" he said, giving her another hug.
"I suppose you must think less of me?" she said.
"It's rather disappointing but everyone is allowed a little slipup. Now let's go upstairs and wash that crap off your face and you can fire walk with me" he said putting his arm around her.
"That sounds exactly like what I need" she said, allowing him to lead her there.
Reno and Scarlet
Scarlet cursed that Reno chose Tifa's bar and out came the brunette human hair wig and large tinted fake glasses.
"The ex-Avalanche safehouse? Brilliant place to meet" she said as she sat opposite him at the table he had arranged.
"They were enemies of Scarlet the weapons designer; not Susan the phone sex worker" he said raising his glass to her, he had already ordered her her favourite drink. He was trying not to monitor how Tifa and Cloud were interacting and failing miserably. Why should he care about their relationship? He questioned himself. Why endanger Scarlet's new identity by bringing her there? There were tons of other bars around. As if Tifa would care if Reno brought an obviously attractive, mysterious woman to her bar.
"Who's that woman with Reno?" Tifa suddenly asked Cloud.
Cloud glanced at the Turk and honestly didn't care, though she looked a little familiar. "I don't know, he has a lot of girls sit with him. He's a popular guy with the ladies and I'm sure they stand in line to hold back his hair when he barfs. Go introduce yourself if you're that curious" Cloud said dismissively from where he was changing a keg, his entire focus on that. It wasn't like he and Reno were friends and considered his sex life none of his business.
"So how goes the phone sex game?" He asked her.
"On the up and up, I'm getting paid large chunks of money for some guy to whine at me" she said. "And whine he does like a giant baby" she complained.
"I thought you got guys off with your voice?" Reno said.
"Everyone has a fetish; goodness knows I remember yours" she said quirking a smile at him. "We had some good times" she said. "I suppose that I could use your talents once in a while. After all, you were a gutter rat and Susan seems to attract that" Scarlet said as a joke.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not longer offering causal sex" he said feeling his cheeks heat up.
"Have you found the right six women to settle down with?" Scarlet said to him and noted his expression. "Have you actually met someone you want to be faithful to?" She said in shock and noticed Reno's blush deepened.
"There is someone...it's complicated" he snapped, reminding her of how Storm termed his relationship with his mystery woman.
"Well, well, well. I never thought I would see the day someone captured Reno Sinclair. She must be quite the woman. I think it's cute that falling for someone makes you blush. I'm seen you do stuff, heard you did indulge in stuff that a whore would be reluctant to do and you never blushed a second of it" Scarlet said, liking seeing the cocky redhead squirming.
"It's not like that. Look I don't feel like drinking anymore. I'll give you a call" he said and left some money on the table and left without a glance.
He got down the block when his phone rang. "Who was that woman?" Tifa demanded with so much vehemence in her voice he pulled back his PHS and looked at it questioningly.
"Just an old friend" he said.
"Are you..." She asked him.
"No, I promised you I wouldn't" Reno said to her. "She's someone I used to work with and we get together for a drink once in a while, I'm not interested in her that way" Reno assured her.
Cloud
Cloud stood before Zack's grave, that he considered to be Aerith's as well as he had bribed the undertaker to allow him a small amount of Aerith's ashes and he buried them with Zack in the box that contained her final letters to him. Cloud was ready to go, he had prepared his will and had purchased a gun. He was partially drunk on the cheap beer Zack had always brought when they hung out.
"Just think, in a few minutes you and I and Aerith will be partying together" he slurred. "I just gotta make one more phone call" he explained to the grave.
Scarlet
"You're such a disgusting pig that I'm putting you back into diapers. I'm putting a fluffy, white diaper on you while you grovel on the floor" Scarlet intoned.
"Noooooo, I don't want to wear diapers, it's too humiliating" her client wailed.
"You will take it like the whining, pouting baby you are. Shall we go for a walk and I can show everyone my new baby?" She snapped at him.
"What would the neighours think to see me in a diaper?" he panted into the phone.
"They will know you're being punished by me. Are you going to wet that diaper?" She demanded.
"No, I'm a man" he groaned as he stroked himself.
"You're a sniveling baby and you're going to wet your...sorry, got to go" she hastily said when Storm's number came up.
"What..." Her client said in a confused voice before he was cut off.
"Hi Storm what do you want to talk about? My gardening?" She said.
"I was just calling to say goodbye. My Tiffany is getting my phone cut off, so I won't be in contact. I wanted to thank you for being there to hear me out and shall miss you. I don't even really know you but I feel a deeper connection to you than anyone else in my fucked up, chaotic life" he said.
"Wait, go buy a burner PHS and call me at this number" she said and told him her personal PHS number. "We can agree on a daily rate" she said. She realized that he was the closest she had to a friend, no one seemed to care about her otherwise.
"Are you sure? I don't want to get you in trouble." He said to her.
"Want to hear about me grocery shopping today?" She asked him and he listened while he walked back safe and sound with the gun forgotten to the hotel room he had been staying in.