The counseling office is a cluttered room, a black carpet against wood flooring, and a crummy antique lamp without a light bulb sitting on the desk, since the room is already lit from the sunlight pouring through the unnessecarily large window to my left. "Well, Vincent, how're you doing today?" I jump slightly at the break of silence but do not answer. There is no answer I can think of. I stare at her, feeling annoyed, and do not move. I figure, she will think I have died, and hopefully move me out the room.
However, my plan does not work, and she only keeps talking. "C'mon, dear, I don't bite." This statement I hate hearing, for many reasons. First of all, just because she's older than me doesn't mean she can talk to me like I'm her son. Second of all, what the hell? If I really thought somebody'd bite me, I'd be in the attack position, where my fist is connecting with their face. And lastly, if you do not reply to this, they do this phony smile and laugh, as if its comforting, and say something alnog the lines of them being serious.
"Vincent, c'mon!" She laughs lightly. I roll my eyes at this, knowing exactly what she is going to say next. "Loosen up, will ya?" I blink stupidly, and rolled my eyes. She laughs again. I sigh silently, the action hidden by my cape. This would be a very cheesy half hour. Instead, I take the opportunity to shoot her the most frightful look I could, narrowing my eyes to slits and balling my fists. She fidgets at this, and I feel this proud satisfaction. "A fiesty one, are you?" My face practically fell off. This was ridiculous.
"Okay, woman, can I just leave now?" She beams peachily. "Well! I got you talking!" There is a dead silence, of her grinning at me like a fool, and me staring at her as I feel almost dangerous. Wordlessly, I rise from my chair, push open the door, and walk out, past everybody else, down the halls, out the counseling building. I sit on the curb numbly. Can somebody be such an idiot? I hear her heels clicking after me, and roll my eyes, because I am not moving, at all.
Still, she must think I will, and offers a hand, like I'd fallen all the way down the hall and landed in a sitting position. "We can try again, Vincent." I stare up at her dully, deciding that behind her frizzy red hair she is actually a blonde, and I do not mean this as in hair color, of course, but sterotypical personality, becasue she is, to be blunt, an idiot. I think over biting her hand to give her the idea I will not take it, but she retracts it and shrugs. "Well, whenever you're ready, you can come back."
((Tifa's POV))
It got so quiet when Vincent was called in to the office. Everybody probably thought they could hear through the door. But that was either impossible, or Vincent did the usual, and didn't talk. I figure its the second possibility. Cloud doesn't seem to like Vincent. He's always sneering at the him, but how can you dislike him? Vincent was gorgeous. I mean, drop-dead GORGEOUS. The way he blushes, and how he can have long hair and look good, and how he's muscular but not beefy. Cloud, in comparison to Vincent, is nothing. Maybe he knows, maybe thats why he hates him so much.
Of course, I shouldn't think that. Its kind of wrong. I act like Cloud's girlfriend... He probably thinks I am, too. But c'mon. Ever since Cloud's relationship with Reno? Can I really take him seriously? Of course, Reno is a great guy. He looks good, he's funny... Not bad. But if Cloud liked a guy, something tells me he still likes guys. What was that saying? Your first gay experience won't be your last? Yeah. For all I know, Cloud is checking Vincent out...No, probably just glaring.
Cloud probably knows I'm attracted to Vincent. I mean, I can't hide it very well. Every time the guy even looks at me I freak out, turn red, and get quiet, which is SO not me. He'd have to be kind of slow not to realize... I think I even dissed him once. I feel a little guilty about that. Yuffie has long since left, so I only have Cloud to talk to... well, and that guy in the corner. He has long hair, too, probably longer than Vincent's. He looks a lot different from Vincent--- He's not as pale, and his eyes are green, not red, and his hair is silver, not black. I'm trying to figure out how he has silver hair, and looks so young. Maybe its a bleach blonde.
I'm starting to wonder why nobody talks to that guy. Maybe Cloud thinks he's homeless. And maybe Vincent--- well, Vincent is just a guy of few words. I've known him for years and he's only said, like, a sentence? Its a little wierd. The counselor lady'd chased after Vincent in that slow, middle-aged way, where they just walk fast and make it look like they're trying, but now she's back, and Vincent is not with her. Score one for Vinnie! I giggle, because Vinnie would be a cute nickname for him.
Now the counselor looks our way, and gestures for Cloud, who stands up (but not after smiling at me) and follows her into the room. Now its only me and the silver-haired man. I stare at him curiously, wondering if I should say something. I mean, he looks pretty worn out. I'd probably just be bugging him.
((Sephiroth's POV))
Vincent had left the building, literally. So now that Cloud was called in, I'm stuck with the black-haired girll and this sack of fat known as the secretary's sister. The girl smiles cheerily at me. "How're you?" It takes me several minutes to understand, words almost seeming foreign to me now. "Tired..."She nods slowly, her smile fading. "Oh, me too. A little. Vinnie kind of stormed out of here, huh? I'm worried." I quirk a brow at this, for it disturbs me. "Vinnie?" She laughs, and I figure they must be good friends if she called him by this name. "Talking isn't his thing." She nods, her face lighting up."But he's a great guy." I don't know when I had said that he wasn't, but simply nod.
By the expression on her face, yes, they must be good friends. "And I mean, he's really attractive!" It seemed as though she was dying to talk about him with somebody. "Er... Sure." I am starting to think, that she does not look at Cloud affectionately because she wants Cloud to be Vincent. And its making a good amount of sense to me, too. "I wish he'd talk to me." When she says this, her smile fades, and she looks ready to cry, which suprises me. "Same here." And there is one of those silences, that tells you you understand one another.
((Cloud's POV))
So the woman calls me into the room. She's a pretty vulgar sight- wrinkles on her forehead and on the sides of her mouth, probably from smiling so much. And she's saggy, in all the wrong areas. Her hair is a dull red, and I can see its greying at the roots, and iss done in a lesbian-ish style, where it curls in at the end way too much. She opens her mouth and out comes that sugary, cheap voice. "So Cloud, how're you?" I mutter out the word 'fine' and sigh, because I don't want to talk to this creepy lady.
"You seem like something's bugging you." I set my elbow on the desk, and prop my chin on my open palm. "Thats 'cause I don't want to talk to you. And I don't want to be here." So she does what all counselors do at this, she frowns just ever-so-slightly, and spreads false concern over her face. "You don't feel comfortable expressing yourself?" This is all so overdone that I nearly laugh. "Oh, I'm fine expressing myself, to my friends."
"Am I not your friend?"
"Hell to the no." I bit back a smile at this, because its extremely fun to say. She squirms for second, and I realize she smells like soap and laundry detergent. "Er... So how is the incident with Reno going?" I stare at her, unbelieving. Where did that come from?
"Thats none of your concern."
"Actually, it is."
"How so." She shrugs as thought its obvious. "I'm your counselor. I'm concerned about you." I smile. She wasn't the smartest person. "If you haven't noticed, I could give a rats ass on whether or not you're concerned about me. Really, lady, you think you can make me change, make me improve, because you read some retarded psychology book? That you can just, fix the world?" I laugh, making sure to sound taunting. "You need to reconsider your career. Be a librarian. Or a secretary like old bones out there." She crosses her arms. "You think that because I'm female, I deserve those jobs?" I roll my eyes. This would be fun.
"No. I never said anything along those lines. I think you should be a librarian because you're dull. I think you should be a secretary so nobody has to see your uglyass face. I know a ton of girls that would be awesome counselors, who aren't old fleshbags that people don't feel comfortable talking to. " She seems stunned, and I take the opportunity to leave the room, and sit next to Tifa. She was in the middle of saying something about Vincent, to the guy with silver hair, and I raise an eyebrow in question. "Oh, hey, Cloud. Have you met Sephiroth? He's pretty cool." The pale man smiles this smile I can barely see and looks away.
"This sucks. Wanna leave?" She smiles dryly. "If Sephiroth can come. And Vincent." I sigh. "Must we take them?" She gives me that warning glance that tells me to revise those words. "Just kidding, girl! Geez. Yeah, they can come if they want." The pale man uneasily stands up, and Tifa smiles and hugs him, though his face consequentally turns a deep red. Thats so wierd--- I mean, what, has he never been hugged before? She grabs his wrist lightly and leads us out the door, where Vincent's sitting. "Vinnie! C'mon!" He seems confused, and disturbed, just like me. I never realized she was so flirtatious. She helps him up, whether he needed it or not, and we start heading off in no particular direction, we're just walking for the hell of it.