Chapter 7: The Need
"It's this way, Cloud!" Aeris grunted, grabbing him by the arm. "Stop slowing me down, or else." She threatened, as his eyes met hers. Cloud rolled his eyes and followed on after her in the coldness of the evening; they had been walking hours by now, and he had wanted nothing more but a break. He had tried reasoning with her and begged for the food that she kept in her basket, but she would laugh and simply ignore him. Eventually, they reached a playground that had long been abandoned after the discovery of a radioactive leak.
"Can't we please take a rest, Aeris? I'm bloody tired!" Cloud moaned, for what must have been the thousandth time.
"Fine!" Aeris yelled, throwing him to the floor. With a snort and a huff, she lit up a cigarette and scurried over to a huge slide, shaped like a moogle. It was hideous. Cloud watched in pain as Aeris nimbly climbed up the steep slide, only to sit at the top. "Wow, what a nice view!" she exclaimed, beckoning him to go up there with her. Cloud shook his head. Just then, her sweet face had that evil aspect again, and Cloud could do nothing to resist going up there. With all his remaining strength, he pulled himself to the top of the slide, where Aeris grabbed him and set him in place.
"So." Aeris coughed, on her cigarette.
"You call this a view?" Cloud laughed. The slide overlooked an abandoned mineshaft, which was covered in old cars long forgotten in history. Worryingly, one could see children's clothing on the radioactive barrels, and hands poking out in between the cars. Aeris smiled lazily at the view, dragging again on her cigarette in peace.
"It's lovely, isn't it?" she laughed, quietly. She remembered when she used to live there with her mother before the fallout.
"Uh, yeah, whatever."
"So I'm guessing by that huge ass sword you carry around, and the standard military materia, that you're a SOLDIER boy, huh?"
Cloud was impressed by her perception.
"That's right, babe!" he exclaimed, pointing a thumb to his face. Aeris was not impressed. "First class SOLDIER, that's me. Well, ex-SOLDIER now…"
"Look, I don't care about your life story, Kraut." She grunted, puffing away.
"It's Cloud!" he cried, correcting her for the umpteenth time.
"I remember a bloke I used to shag in SOLDIER." She suddenly laughed, holding her hand against her mouth. "He was first class, too. Boy, and did he have some tricks. There was this one time I was leaning with my ass against a mirror, and—"
"Ahem." Cloud suddenly coughed, not wishing to know further details. "Perhaps I knew him; I went to a lot of strip clubs."
"Nah, it's not important. Heard he died or somethin'." She smiled, turning away from him.
Just as he was about to ask her further questions, the doors to another sector burst open, and out came a chocobo and a carriage; it all looked very expensive. As Aeris sneered at the grandeur of such a thing, Cloud suddenly recognised a woman that was standing on the balcony attached to the end of the carriage.
"Tifa?" Cloud exclaimed, standing up. Aeris grabbed his arm and pulled herself up, also looking at the woman on the carriage.
"Wait, you know that hooker?" Aeris questioned him, looking at her and then his pale face. She knew that woman on the carriage too, she was the owner of a famous strip club in the area. That bitch had to be loaded, Aeris knew. If only she could find a way into Seventh Heaven, the strip club, she had certain plans to be carried out. "How do you know her?" she questioned further.
"Well, it's kind of hard to explain, but she was my old –"
"Forget it, Kraut, I'm not interested, but let's go after her and see if you too can't meet again!" she cried, blowing him a kiss and jumping down from the slide. She ran towards the direction of the chocobo and carriage without waiting for him. Cloud jumped down from the slide in pursuit, only to land on a rock. In severe agony and with his last remaining adrenaline, he somehow managed to pull himself up and slowly follow on after the girl in pink.
In Wall Market…
After locating Aeris at the foot of the long stretch of road that they called 'Wall Market', Cloud slumped down by her side.
"Oh, grow up!" Aeris smirked, kicking him in his already broken ribs. "I saw the carriage with that hooker on go towards Don Corneo's mansion. That means that whatever she's planning, it's big. Everyone knows that Don Corneo is the puppet of the famous ShinRa Electric Company Inc., and he's got a whole lot of money, hookers and drugs at his disposal." Aeris seemed to be carrying on talking to herself now, not even acknowledging Cloud's existence. "Oh, boy—yeah," she moaned, "he's got all the guns, baby. If only it were me on that carriage instead of mega-bitch, then oh, God!" she suddenly squealed, rubbing her inner thigh slowly. "I would be so it." She smirked, coming back to reality. "So let's go Kraut!" she exclaimed, pulling him from the floor violently. "Onto Don Corneo's mansion!" she laughed loudly. She tied her arm in his and then suddenly skipped vehemently. In an instant, she had started singing wildly; Cloud bowed his head in shame as people started to stare and laugh. "We're off to see Corneo, the wonderful daddy of Oz!" she cried, manically, pulling him quickly towards the threatening mansion.
The mansion was Asian in its design, and had Japanese lanterns that led towards the main entrance; a giant red door that lead onto the grounds was guarded by a single person, Cloud noted. Approaching the old pervert situated at the door, Aeris lifted her skirt above her knee in a seductive manner.
"Excuse me?" she started, sweetly, drawing closer to the geriatric.
"Yes, dear?" he replied, adjusting his glasses to see her young legs.
"Did a miss Tifa just come through here?" she asked, placing her hands on her flat chest.
"Why, yes, that's right. You know, you're a sexy little bitch; I bet Don Corneo would love a bit of your cunt." The old man suddenly proclaimed. Aeris turned a bright shade of red and laughed eagerly. Drawing herself so close that she was nearly perched on his knee, she whispered smoothly into his ear. "Can I go inside, then?"
He nodded his head as his eyes were fixed on her boobs; just then he saw Cloud, looming in the background and watching with stupid look of shock on his face.
"Uh—are you with him?" the old man said, pulling his head from her hairy chest. Aeris sharply turned her gaze to Cloud, a look of all hell's anger on her face.
"Yes, unfortunately." She grunted. The old man shoved Aeris hard from his knee, causing her to land in dog shit. She screamed in frustration as she picked herself up and brushed her dress down; she grabbed Cloud's arm to wipe the shit off and pulled him closer to her. "Why not?" she cried, punching Cloud in the stomach.
"No men!" the old man spat, lighting up a Havana cigar and chomping the end off.
Aeris put on her most disgusted face and pulled herself and Cloud away from the door. Quickly pushing him into an alleyway that was situated nearby, Aeris drew her face threateningly closer to his. "Listen, pal," she spat; her eyes were red and tired from fatigue. "I need to get in there. Now, the only way that's gonna happen if it's when I'm on me own." She pulled him tighter, hurting his neck a little. "But, as I can't leave you behind until you've repaid me, we're gonna have to think of a way to get you in there now, aren't we?"
"But—I—"
"No interruptions. I have an idea and you're going to do it, you hear?" she called loudly; she started breathing heavily, her throat raspy with the damage of tobacco. All he could see was death and anger in her eyes as she motioned towards a knife that she kept in her shoe. Cloud smile weakly and nodded his head.
"Okay, okay—um, so tell me, please, um, if you wouldn't mind; how am I to get in there?" Cloud spluttered as she nearly wet himself out of fear.
"You're gonna dress like a female hooker and join me in there. You understand, pal?" she smirked; she looked at Cloud like something she had stepped in. "I doubt it will work, since you look like roadkill that has been pissed on, but I have to get in there." She trailed off at the end, unwittingly strangling Cloud as she went into her 'grey zone' again. She usually did this, when she started thinking too hard; she would just faze out, and stop whatever she was doing.
Almost passing out from strangulation, Cloud grabbed Aeris' little finger and violently pulled it downwards, easily breaking the bone. Screaming in agony, Aeris' rapidly let go, shrieking and crying angrily as she showered Cloud with death threats and a violent end. After a few minutes, she gained her cool again and with sweat pouring down her face, grabbed her little finger, shrieked in agony and cracked the finger back into place. Cloud squirmed as she approached him, her eyes nearly bleeding from rage.
"Go get a fucking dress, now." She commanded, her voice breaking up. Cloud nodded his head and literally flew from her vehement presence; he would have to do what she had ordered.
Ignoring the stares from the people in the clothes shop, Cloud rummaged through the Women's Dress' Section, trying to the find the most virgin-looking dress that covered the most skin. Just as he found one, that was made in the 1910's to cover women's ankles, Aeris grabbed him by the shoulder and span him around. She held to her breast the sluttiest dress Cloud had ever seen. It was literally two pieces of string around the nipples and the pelvis attached together by a drawing pin.
"You're wearing this, Cloud." Aeris said, bluntly. She gestured to her little finger, which now had its own bandages. He didn't really want to wear the dress, but how could he refuse after the threats she had made? Sighing deeply, he took the dress from Aeris and headed towards the dressing room.
"Fag!" shouted one of the customers, who picked up an empty wine bottle and smashed it over Cloud's head. He simply sighed and shrugged it off, as he picked himself off from the floor and wiped the blood from his eyes.
"Yeah, you drag queen!" a little eight year old girl suddenly screamed, running up to him and stubbing a cigarette out on his face. Cloud shrieked loudly as he continued passed her, hurrying quickly to the dressing room.
"No—don't come near me!" shouted a middle-aged housewife, who held a mangy cat in her hands. She threw the cat at Cloud, with the cat digging its claws into his face as he held desperately onto him. He shouted and cursed as he danced a violent fandango with the cat in the vain attempt to get it off. Falling into the dressing room, the cat realised it was now on even floor, and it was getting bored of the man's screams of agony, so released his paws from the face and jumped off.
Cloud breathed deeply in shock as he drew the curtain to hide himself.
"Just hurry the fuck up!" he heard a familiar grunt scream. Starting to cry out of frustration, Cloud began to slowly take off his normal clothing. When he was down to his SOLDIER underwear, which he felt he should have changed by now, he draped the dress over his body and attached it precisely.
Without waiting any further, Aeris drew the curtain violently and pulled Cloud out of the booth just as he had finished putting make up on his face. He looked like a pale drag queen hooker that you found in Sector 3. Sector 3 was now the cosmopolitan 'gay' area of Midgar, dominated by drag queens and rich bears. The place was kept clean and fashionable, due to the nature of homosexuality, but you did find the occasional dead drag queen hookers in the good-looking gutter.
"Wow!" exclaimed the middle-aged woman, who was stroking her cat to calm it down. It still held Cloud's blood on its face, wearing it with a certain pride that you get from wearing a War Medal. Cloud ignored her and pushed himself through the crowd, who were now less violent and demanding in their requests for a Drag Show.
Eventually, Aeris and Cloud made it back onto the street. He didn't think this dress was worth the blowjob Aeris had given to the owner, but if it would get him in to see Tifa and tell her that everything was all right, then he would have to do it. Literally everyone stared at Cloud as he walked up to the main street toward the mansion; no one recognised this hooker before, which wasn't strange as most of the men in the sector had a penchant for them. Many of them attempted to 'buy services' from Cloud as he hurriedly moved towards the mansion. One guy, who came on stronger than the others, grabbed him by the shoulders and attached a flower to his bra strap. Cloud suddenly stopped; he was touched. No one had looked at him like that before, or given him such a meaningful gift as a flower.
"My—my name—name is Johnny." The sweet man stuttered, the look of kindness and innocence within his eyes. Cloud went bright red as he looked towards the ground.
"Mine's—" Cloud began, only to be rudely interrupted by Aeris. She grabbed his hand and pulled him away, grunting in the face of Johnny. Secretly she was jealous to be upstaged by a man and receive no attention, so wasted no strength in hurrying to the mansion. Cloud waved weakly to Johnny as he was dragged away; he didn't know then that they would meet again someday…
Outside the mansion, Cloud shivered violently as a cold wind swept its way through Midgar. As his teeth chattered, he stood in front of the old man and prayed the dress would work. Luckily for him, the old guy wasn't wearing his glasses, so simply made a beautiful image in his head from Cloud's blur.
"Sure, you can both go in! Don Corneo would love to meet you healthy young ladies." He smirked, slapping Cloud's arse as they were swept into the mansion. Cloud really regretted this plan now.