Chapter 4: Bodyguard

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"So, where do you get wagon supplies in a place like this?" Zack asked Aerith, stretching casually, though he couldn't help the smirk on his face as he noticed Aerith eye balling him as he did so. He made a show of flexing his muscles for her, then laughed as her face turned a shade of red.

"There are lots of things in the slums...I bet all we'd have to do is ask around." she replied softly.

"Sounds like a plan." he replied, walking alongside her slowly, his sword strapped onto his back once again. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her curiously. She was about as unique as the flowers in her church, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why he thought so. Yes, she was quite easy on the eyes, with sparkling green eyes and soft, brown hair pulled back into a braid, save for her bangs and a few, curly locks falling around her face. She had a soft-looking quality to her that contrasted sharply with the harsh edges of Midgar, and she smelled faintly of flowers and earth. Still there was something else that he couldn't figure out. It was just a feeling he got.

With a start, he realized that he had been staring into her eyes while he had thought this, no longer trying to watch her casually out of the corner of his eyes. Aerith was staring at him staring at her with a bemused expression on her face.

"What?" they both said at the same time, and he laughed. "Sorry, just thinking," he shrugged, trying to stay casual.

"Do you always stare at people when you think?"

"Only if they're interesting to look at." he teased, his grin widening. She seemed pleased by his comment, because she quickly turned away to hide her blushing face.

"I'll take you to the slum market. I'm sure people there can help us."

"Lead the way, m'lady." She gave him a friendly push and then hurried forward before he could retaliate.

"You're not supposed to run away from your bodyguard!" he called after her, stupid grin still on his face. He rolled his eyes good-naturedly and raced after her.

--

Crash. Cloud cursed as he stumbled into a bar stool, holding his head and squinting his eyes against the painful light. Being pump full of mako didn't prevent him from getting hangovers, unfortunately. Sometimes he wondered if it made it worse.

"Morning, Cloud." Tifa said coolly, and he peered out at her from between his fingers.

"Uggh." he groaned, finally managing to sit himself down on a chair. "Hangover..." he mumbled.

"Yeah, don't you remember drinking yourself silly last night?" she asked him accusingly, a strange look on her face.

"I don't remember anything."

"Oh..." she mumbled, and for a second he thought that she looked both relieved and disappointed. Then she smiled at him, as if to say, 'That's what you get for drinking, Cloud'. He scowled back at her.

Suddenly the bar door slammed open and Barret came swaggering in, followed by group of three people. Cloud winced as the loud noise reached his ears; it felt like someone were beating a drum in his head.

"Fuck, do you think you could keep it down?" Cloud cursed, glaring angrily at Barret.

"Shit, I'll make as much fucking noise as I want!" As if to prove his point, he turned and fired a few rounds out the door. The group behind him had to throw themselves to the ground to avoid being shot. Cloud winced again, holding his hands against his ears. Then Barret strolled over cockily, eyeing Cloud with great dislike.

"So, big shot, did you find the Ancient?" Damn. The question Cloud had been dreading.

"Yes..." he mumbled, reluctantly pulling his hands away from his ears and opening his eyes.

"Oh really?" Barret looked shocked, then glanced around the bar expectantly. "Where is she?

"...There were some complications."

"What the hell do ya mean, complications?"

"There was a guy. He kind of...interrupted."

"I thought you were the tough guy SOLDIER. Why couldn't you finish him off?" Barret demanded. Cloud sighed nasally, frustration building.

"He was stronger than me." Cloud mumbled, nearly incoherently.

"What?" Barret asked, holding a huge hand to his ear. "Couldn't hear ya."

"I SAID...I said that he was too strong. He was SOLDIER too..." he muttered, remembering those mako blue eyes. Like his own, only a darker – where Cloud's own were like ice, Zack's were so dark they were almost violet.

Barret gave Cloud an almost satisfied look. What the fuck was he so happy about?

"So, you couldn't get her all on your own. A lot of help you were." Barret snorted derisively. Cloud stood up angrily, trying to keep himself from swaying as his head spun wildly.

"Look, here's your damn money," he hissed, shoving back the 5,000 gil. "I don't need any of this shit. Find the girl on your own."

"You tell anyone about where we are and I'll kill you, kid." Barret shouted back threateningly, holding up his gun arm.

"Barret!" Tifa admonished, leaping up over the bar to stand between the two fuming men.

"Yeah right, like I'd bother to tell anyone about you guys." Cloud sneered, shaking his head. "The Turks come here anyway, they'll probably find out any day now. Not that you're a threat to Shinra anyway." he added venomously. Cloud was pissed, and he had a hangover. Not a good combination.

"God damn you, fucking kid." Barret swore, lunging toward him, while Tifa tried unsuccessfully to keep the two guys apart.

"Forget this shit, I don't need this." Cloud snorted, pulling away and storming toward the door, shoving past the three people who had come in with Barret; they were watching him with anxious looks in their eyes.

Cloud didn't know where he would go, but he knew he had to get out of this place. It was driving him crazy. He was walking blindly, his head pounding, both from his anger and from his hangover. It wasn't a pleasant combination. It didn't matter to him, as long as he got out of here though; so he walked blindly, bumping into anyone who got in his way, glaring at them like it was their fault. People started to get the hint and got out of the way.

"Cloud!" he heard Tifa behind him, running to catch up with him. "Cloud!" she gasped as she reached his side, grabbing his arm. He stopped abruptly, turning to glare at her.

"What?" he demanded coldly, and saw the flash of hurt in her eyes. He tried to ignore the slightly sick feeling in his stomach.

"You're just going to leave?" she asked, quickly covering her hurt look with an angry glare.

"Yes." He could see her fighting back her frustration as her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed.

"...God! You are so frustrating!" she cried, throwing her hands up in the air.

"..."

"Fine! GO! You're not even the Cloud I remember, so why should I care?" she demanded, punching him resolutely on the arm and then storming away.

He blinked, a bit shocked at her outburst, one hand lifting to cover his now throbbing arm. "Ow." he mumbled lamely, suddenly feeling terrible that he'd been so cold to her. What bothered him more, though, was the fact that she had said he wasn't anything like before. Why would he be? He had left Nibelheim to change, to become stronger, better; why would she want him to be the same guy he was before?

Women.

--

God, he was such an asshole! Tifa was fuming as she hurried back to the bar, her whole body tense with frustration. When did he become such a cold hearted jerk? He certainly hadn't been that way when they were kids. Not that she had been really good friends with him – still, she could tell that he had been a kind boy.

Now he was like a completely different person. He only worked for the money, and he didn't give a damn about anything. He didn't remember his promise to her either, or if he did, he didn't show it. Before he had left Nibelheim all those years ago, he had asked her to meet him at the well; she had, more out of curiosity than anything else. He had told her he was leaving to join SOLDIER, and she had come up with a crazy promise.

"Promise me that you'll come save me if I ever get in a jam." And he had agreed. Now she wondered if he remembered or cared at all.

And then he didn't even remember last night. She frowned, the memory of his kiss still lingering on her lips. When he had kissed her, her first impulse had been to kiss him back; honestly, she had wanted him just as badly as he wanted her at that moment, but she stopped herself. She didn't want him like that, when he was drunk, and didn't know what he was doing.

It was for the better anyway. I don't even know him anymore. I hardly knew him then. Tifa couldn't explain her attraction to him. She had thought of him briefly over the years, wondering where he might have gotten to, but that was it as far as thoughts of him went. Then, suddenly, he had reappeared in her life, and just the sight of him had sent her heart thundering and her body tingling. His glowing blue eyes made her strangely light headed when they met her own, for reasons unfathomable to her.

It's probably just lust. Stupid lust. That's it. There was no denying that Cloud was attractive, but nothing could have prepared her for how much of a jerk he was. She wondered what had changed him.

Shinra, no doubt. They're poison in all of our lives.

It went without saying that Tifa was in a very bad mood the rest of the day, and most of the customers made their visits brief.

--

"These people haven't been very helpful," Zack told Aerith accusingly. In fact, most of them seemed wary of Zack.

"You're dressed kind of like a SOLDIER," she pointed out, her eyes filled with mirth. She seemed to think it was funny. "People don't trust SOLDIER down here...they're scary."

"Yeah, but I'm not SOLDIER." he sighed. "I'm a mercenary. I'm here to help these people, not...ruin their lives like Shinra."

"...I'm sorry." Aerith frowned, gazing at him quizzically. "Why did you leave SOLDIER?" she asked boldly.

"...I don't really want to talk about it." Zack shrugged, then changed the subject. "I guess we'll have to look somewhere else for wagon supplies."

"Yeah, I guess." Aerith said a little sadly, gazing at a small shop. "Can we just look here for a second?" she asked, looking hopefully at Zack. He sighed, defeated by her look.

"Alright, you can look around." Not that he really had a choice – he was her bodyguard, so where she went, he went.

"I've always liked looking at these ribbons," she told him, a longing look on her face.

"So buy one!" he grinned at her, shaking his head.

"I don't really have a lot of money," she mumbled, seeming embarrassed.

"Hmm...I'll buy you one then!"

"What? Oh, no, I couldn't accept..." she started, but he held up his hand to stop her.

"Don't worry about it! Just consider it a...thank you."

"For what?" she asked, a confused expression crossing her features.

"Well, for brightening up Midgar."

"But we haven't sold any flowers yet," she argued.

"Then this is your incentive to do a good job." he shot back, giving the man some gil for a pink ribbon.

"I see..." Aerith said, in a voice that said she didn't really see at all.

"You aren't used to getting gifts, are you?" he asked in a somewhat amused, somewhat exasperated voice. She shook her head, still looking faintly embarrassed. "Well, here," he said, handing her the ribbon, a goofy grin on his face.

"Why are you buying me gifts?" she asked, looking at him quizzically. He opened his mouth to respond, then faltered. The truth was, he wasn't really sure. When he had seen her looking so longingly at the ribbons, something inside him had immediately wanted to please her; it was startling to think that he'd want to give her anything she wanted, just so he could see that smile of hers again, that twinkle in her sparkling green eyes.

Weird. Perhaps it was because it had been so long since he'd been around any girl – in fact, he never really had much interaction with them when he was a teen, and maybe this was all his pent up hormones finally rushing free. He wasn't sure, to be honest.

"Well..." he stuttered, then shrugged. "Do you want it or not?" he asked, hand still held out with the ribbon lying in his open palm.

"Of course!" she said quickly, then turned around. "Put it in for me." she demanded, and he obliged, stepping closer. Strange, how his body reacted when he got close to her. Suddenly he felt awkward and clumsy, not at all like how he felt in battle, where he was always confident and agile. His hands shook very slightly out of nervousness as he tied the ribbon in her hair, unsure of what he was even doing.

"Does it look alright?" she asked, unable to see what he was doing. He took a few more moments straightening it out, then stepped back, relieved that it looked okay.

"Yeah, looks great!" he said, his confidence back now that he wasn't standing so closely to her. Hormones are even stranger than mako. She turned to meet his eyes, beaming at him excitedly.

"Thanks!" she said, one hand touching the bow gingerly.

"Yeah, anytime. That's a bodyguard's job!"

"Really?" she asked, eyes lighting up with laughter again as she covered her mouth with a delicate hand to smother a giggle.

"Absolutely. I'm the kind of bodyguard that goes above and beyond, you know?" he told her, swaggering confidently beside her. "I mean, normally it's just the usual: protect your principle at all costs. But you know, I think part of protecting a person is keeping them happy too."

"So now you're job is to keep me happy too?" she said, failing to cover another giggle.

"Yup! At all costs." he said seriously, leaning toward her, trying to keep himself from smiling. "Anything you need to be happy, just let me know."

She blushed as he drew closer, but she didn't pull away, just stared into his eyes. After a long moment, she nodded in reply, then pushed him away lightly.

"You're kind of a strange bodyguard." she teased, and he shrugged.

"What can I say?" She didn't have an answer, though, it seemed, because she kept quiet as they walked.

"I should probably go home. My mother is waiting." she said suddenly, looking at him. The night before they had stayed in the church, so Zack was kind of surprised that she had an actual place. It wouldn't have surprised him, sadly, if she had lived in a church – most people in the slums didn't have a real home.

"Oh. Well, we wouldn't want your mom to worry, right?" he nodded, hands on his hips. "Lead the way!"

"I think she'll like you," she told him, hands clasped behind her back. Before he could respond though, she turned away and began walking away. Zack followed, the dutiful bodyguard that he was. He found himself hoping that Aerith's mom did like him.

Who is this girl? Zack wondered, watching her thoughtfully. She was different than anyone he had ever met...and there was something that he was just drawn to. He intended to find out what it was.

--

Another short chapter. -sigh- My ideas are suddenly dying out on me. D; I'm trying to think of where to go from here. ;;

If anyone has any ideas they'd like to share, go ahead, please! Anyway...Hopefully I get a brainstorm before too long. PLEASE REVIEW, as always. :3

- Danielle