Chapter 8: Stand in the line like the rest of us
AN: This chapter resolves some storylines, opens up new ones... Oh, I'm afraid that I'm spoiling it for you, but the next on is where it finally starts to happen ;) Also! Sorry for the long wait. Still without a beta :(
The downside of not having mom there to watch over them was easily visible. It was nowhere close to the chaos that it had been after the first month of just the two of them, but both of them – though Sora more guilty of it – left something they should've done to a later date.
Evening meals didn't miraculously wander to the table, the fridge miraculously emptied, the laundry pile doubled in size in the dark - a month in this magic world and they'd come to a mutual agreement of writing down a list that they'd stick to. The agreement they had come up with was simple: dinner every other day was Roxas' responsibility and Sora should do the dishes.
Today was Sora's turn to take care of the food. Unlike a normal every other day, Sora had actually decided to make the food himself instead of ordering takeout or outsourcing it to Kairi. So it was no wonder that Roxas was a little reluctant about sitting down at the table and trying out the something Sora insisted on calling curry rice.
Roxas stared at his plate, glared at the suspicious-looking dish and poked it once in a while with his fork. Sora was eating it with good apatite already, but Roxas wasn't feeling that hungry. He harboured hopes that Sora would finish quickly, leave to his room and allow Roxas to throw the mess away. He could make something else for himself once Sora wasn't looking.
It was in the middle of one of the awkward silences that the doorbell rang and Roxas jumped up hastily, thanking some higher being from saving him from Sora's cooking. "I'll go," Roxas said. He hurried through the apartment and jumped over the shoes not-exactly-neatly-in-the-shoe-rack. He expected to see some of Sora's friends – prone to visit without warning – but was wrong this time. It was Cloud waiting behind the doors, hands stuffed into the pockets of his grey hoodie.
"Hiya," Cloud said and walked in without giving Roxas the change to answer the greeting. "Hey Sora, are you home?" Cloud asked rising his voice when he had gotten to the living room. In a nanosecond Sora was next to him, smiling brightly.
"Cloud! What are you doing here? Do you want some vegetable curry?" Sora asked everything in one breath without leaving time for Cloud to answer. "I made it all by myself. It's still warm and waiting at the table."
Roxas made a throat cutting gesture behind Sora to signal Cloud that the food was not safe, and Cloud reacted accordingly. "Curry sounds good, but I'm not hungry right now. Maybe some other time?" he said and looked at Roxas to verify if the answer had been appropriate. Roxas shook his head. "Alright, maybe I should try. But only a little. I'm really not hungry," Cloud said.
Sora didn't notice his reluctance or, if he did, chose to ignore it. "I'll get you a plate," he said smiling brightly and walked to the kitchen. Roxas mouthed "Sorry" to Cloud and followed Sora. Sora had already set the table for a third diner, complete with the napkin and glass of orange juice and Roxas didn't have any idea how he had managed to do all that in the little while he and Cloud spent in the hallway, but let it slide. At least he wasn't suffering alone anymore.
Sora returned to his half eaten plate and started shovelling the food into his mouth while Roxas and Cloud just poked at their food. After a while Cloud decided that the sooner he ate it the sooner it would be over and took a bite.
Roxas saw the surprise on Cloud's face and decided to try his own serving. He was just as stunned by the quality of the food as Cloud. Sora was known for making inedible food and this time he had done something that was not just edible but almost delicious. It was enough to stun both of the brothers for a while.
"Do you like it?" Sora asked and woke both of the blonds from their awe. "It's one of Kairi's recipes. She taught me how to cook it properly," he said and suddenly everything made so much more sense. Kairi must have showed how the magic of cooking worked in simple and easy to grasp steps and somehow it had worked. Sora's food was more foodlike than it had ever been.
After the mysteries of Sora's cooking skills had been revealed, Roxas was free to ask the one question they hadn't yet gotten an answer to. "So, why are you here?" he asked Cloud, mouth still full of food.
"Didn't I already tell you that?" Cloud wondered and when both of the younger boys just shook their heads, Cloud put his fork and knife down. "You remember how someone destroyed my bike?" he asked and Roxas could do nothing but laugh. Of course he remembered, what when Cloud had complied about it for several weeks without an end.
Cloud just ignored Roxas' laughter. "Well, I instantly sent the bike to my trusted mechanic. And clearly I'm not the only one who likes him. Cid has been busy up until now," Cloud explained.
"What does that have to do with you appearing here?" Sora asked, halfway into his second serving of the food. "Not that have anything against a surprise visit and I'm sure that Roxas feels the same," he hurried to add.
Fortunately Cloud was used to all of that. "Oh, I know what you mean by that. You are not able to live without me by your side. Every night you wake up and think of how you manage to survive without me. I know, don't worry," Cloud said keeping a straight face.
Sora tried to give his two cents about the matter. "I, on the other hand am not capable of... um-" that was as far as he got before he started laughing. Both Roxas and Cloud joined him and they shared a good laughter there, sitting by the kitchen table.
"So you took your bike to Cid's?" Roxas said once they had all quieted again, still a little out of breath after all the laughing. "Isn't that just around the corner?"
"Yep, that's exactly why I'm here," Cloud answered.
Sora reached over the pick up the plates. "I thought you might finally tell us more about, you know. What happened," Sora said, still all innocent smiles.
Cloud just rolled his eyes. "Can't we let it pass already? There's nothing you haven't already heard of. Unless you want some dirty details," he answered upping the teasing sound in his voice by a few steps.
Roxas was fast to catch the bait. "Why of course, if you have enough time, that is," he said and wiggled his eyebrows at his brother.
Cloud was fast to sober out. "Oh shit, the time!" he yelled and jumped up from his chair. "It has been really fun with you two, but I need to fetch my dearest from the salon."
And with those words he jumped to his shoes and hurried out of the door, without forgetting to say his goodbyes, of course. Roxas and Sora were left to clean the table and do the dishes. "Sometimes I think he does it on purpose," Roxas sighed while he helped Sora to clean the table.
"What now?" Sora said and Roxas rolled his eyes at the question.
"Comes here, eats and leaves before everything needs to be cleaned out."
xXx
Axel hated the swarm of people on the street. Usually, the streets were nice and quiet at this hour, normal hardworking people occupied with work. Axel enjoyed the quiet times; it was the time he usually tried to do all the grocery shopping. Today, though, Axel had made the mistake forgetting the effects of a nice hot breeze and the beginning of the holidays. Everywhere he looked there was either a group of kids laughing and giggling and being annoyingly loud or people carrying overflowing shopping bags.
The store that Axel was heading to stood nice and quiet on the other side of the plaza. This wasn't the store closest to home, but he preferred this little journey to doubling the price – high prices where an unfortunate detail of small corner stores like the one he lived next to.
There were people sitting at the fountain in the middle and every bench beneath the trees planted around the plaza was occupied. That wasn't the problem. People sitting down were easy to avoid; people wandering through the place in large herds were the problem. Axel couldn't stop bumping into someone with almost every step. As he slowly made his way over the stone paving, he heard music he'd never heard before.
It was actually quite enchanting in its awfulness. Few of the notes hit the pitch and it was clear that this guy just couldn't be serious. People had gathered around the musician blocking Axels view and he found himself curious enough to wander a bit closer. He admired the bravery of performing this badly and wanted to see if this was a show that paid off. The amount of the crowd looked actually quite promising. People gave him way easily, and Axel made into the front row in matter of seconds. Axel didn't need more than a quick look at the musician to know he'd have to get away quickly. Sadly, the musician noticed Axel before he had the time to flee from sight.
The music stopped. "Axel!" the musician acknowledged him delighted and made Axel grin to hide how annoyed he was. The crowd around the two scattered quickly as the entertainment got interrupted.
"Hi, Demyx," Axel greeted. "Why are you sitting here playing your...guitar? And what have you done to the poor thing?" Axel asked even though the fate of the dying guitar was none of his worries.
"Oh, you mean the colour? I thought it would be more unique painted in blue. Don't you think so?" Demyx asked smiling. He moved the loose strays of hair, ones that had wandered stray, out of the way.
Axel couldn't disagree. "It's one of its kind, that's for sure," he said. "Why are you playing here, on the street? I didn't think you were the type of person who wanted to attract attention. Got kicked out again?"
"Nah, day off. I'm surprised, Axel. Why do you think I don't like being in the spotlight? My character in The Game is not a dancer without a reason. I like to entertain. And that's what I'm doing here right now. I'm also earning money, of course. People seem to like to listen me sing," Demyx explained and patted his blue guitar. "What did you think?"
"What do I think about what?" Axel wanted to avoid answering to the question he knew was coming, but was there a way not to?
Demyx sighed. "My singing? What else could I be speaking about?"
Axel was silent for as long as he could without seeming suspicious. He ended up making the most nonchalant voice he could muster and shrugged. "So singing is your thing, eh?" he asked simply to move on.
There was some bewilderment in Demyx's expression. "What does you shrugging mean?"
Axel knew he wasn't going to get a chance to run away without answering the question. He also knew that Demyx would turn this into an argument that would go on for forever if he gave the wrong answer – which he would. Axel didn't like lying, and he definitely disliked false compliments. This wasn't really a question of life and death. Demyx was easy to forgive. Axel quickly looked around and then tried to be as gentle as possible. "I don't know. I thought it was some sort of comedy."
"And why would I do that?" Demyx asked, no surprise there, offended by the words.
"Hey, it's not me who throws you the money. You had a crowd here just now; theirs is the opinion that matters," Axel explained and looked carefully into the guitar case Demyx was collecting the money in. It looked empty, but with second look he could pick up a few cents lying almost invisible in the shadows.
"Okay, that's something you're right about. I need to ask somebody who doesn't know me," Demyx said and looked around in search for the victim. "You are biased. Or you are trying to be funny."
Axel searched his cell phone and looked at the clock. He had still time, lots of it, before his shift at the bar began. But Demyx didn't know that and Axel just might feel like a small lie wouldn't hurt right now. However, that was before Demyx found his victim.
"Hey! You there. Spare a coin for the talented musician. I'll cheer up your day with any piece of music you'd like to request," Demyx waved his hands inviting somebody from the passing crowd nearer. Axel turned around to see how his friend would get rejected. It took him a short moment to locate the boy whose attention Demyx had managed to catch. The boy recognized Axel immediately.
"Axel?"
Demyx turned to look at Axel. "You know this boy?"
Axel nodded and greeted Roxas. This was unexpected. "This is Roxas, an acquaintance of mine. Demyx, one of my friends," Axel introduced the two to each other.
"Nice to meet you," Demyx greeted and smiled broadly. "You haven't heard me sign, have you? Axel just proclaimed he isn't a judge objective enough to give me criticism. So you'll help us out, right? Roxas?" he hurried to ask before Roxas had had the time to even greet properly.
"You want to hear what I think of your singing?" Roxas asked a bit on the alert.
"Yes, that's it. Nothing more complicated," Demyx reassured.
"Okay... I guess there is a reason not to," Roxas agreed. "I mean, I'm not really a good critic so it's only my opinion, but..."
"Don't worry about offending me. Just say what comes to your mind," Demyx laughed at Roxas' discomfort. Axel watched him wait for Roxas to relax a little before he placed his fingers on the strings and began to sing.
Roxas looked at Axel to see if this guy was for real and he nodded and smiled apologising. Demyx played the short piece of music to the end, not seeing the small exchange of expression because he kept his eyes closed while playing. When there was nothing to sing anymore, he leaned over his guitar and looked at Roxas eagerly waiting for the praises.
Roxas looked more than a bit bewildered. "It was awful," he stated.
Demyx tried to smile away his surprise, but couldn't actually dismiss the words completely. Roxas waited for any reaction, but after none came, he looked once more at Axel for some advice. Axel shrugged; he really didn't feel like getting involved in this. Demyx recovered from his shock just in time to stop Roxas from escaping. "Wait, please explain. Awful?"
There was a sigh. "Horrible, terrible, dreadful and bad," Roxas made his point clearer.
"Pain to the ears?" Axel suggested and to his luck, Demyx dismissed him completely. Axel looked at the time quickly, waiting Demyx to get over the shock again. He should get going, there was only trouble waiting for him right here and at the same time he didn't want to miss this.
Demyx glanced at Axel to get some sort of encouraging, but Axel tried to stay as expressionless as he could. "Are you sure?" Demyx asked from the boy who really didn't care to try and smooth the words he had already chosen.
"I am sure. You can neither sing nor play. Now, if that was the only question you wanted me to answer, I'm going." Roxas waived his goodbyes to Axel and started walking to the direction Axel had planned to wander off before he encountered Demyx.
"Axel, do you agree with him?" Demyx asked once Roxas had turned his back.
Praising Demyx was counterproductive, really. Demyx wasn't stupid. He'd already been forced out of his cloud castle; Axel trying to soothe the wounds would most likely just be more salt to them. "I'm afraid he's right, Demyx. And I have to go now, so…" Axel said and was polite enough to wait for Demyx to grasp the meaning of the words.
"You didn't mention you were in a hurry," Demyx smiled now and acted all cheerful. If it was a forced smile, and most likely was, he really knew how to make his defeat disappear from his gestures. "I'll see you in the Game tomorrow, right?" Demyx asked.
Axel smiled. Argument averted. "Is there a shadow of a doubt that I'll show up?" Demyx laughed and Axel turned to leave.
"Hey, Axel. Wait! I almost forgot," Demyx confessed ashamed. "Will you be joining us when we go out drinking this Friday? You haven't answered the mail I sent and I was wondering if there were some problems with it. You do know we're having a meeting?" he continued.
Axel nodded. "Yeah, I guess I've been too busy to answer. I'll… I'll try and to make it then? Really, I don't know right now." Demyx was satisfied with the response and Axel managed to escape. Demyx turned to collect the few coins he had received and Axel hurried out of his sight.
Maybe he really didn't have a problem with lying, but getting it was the getting caught part that he hated.
He arrived to the crossing that separated him from the street where the grocery store waited him. The lights shone red and to Axel's surprise, Roxas stood there too, waiting for them to change.
"Uhm…Thanks," Axel muttered as Roxas turned to look at the sudden familiar face. "I really appreciated that you spared me the trouble of telling the truth. Demyx… Well, I think you got a pretty good picture of him yourself."
The lights turned green. "I'm glad I could be of help?" Roxas suggested as they walked over the street. They said their goodbyes and continued to their own directions.
xXx
The atmosphere in the Seventh Heaven had gotten worse day by day ever since Cloud had walked out of the bar. He and Tifa had not exchanged a word after that and that could be seen from Tifa's growing discomfort towards everything. It could also be heard from her every time there were no customers in the bar.
Or at least Axel could hear it. He happened to be there when Tifa rambled the most. She didn't want to scare any of the paying customers away, but she didn't care if she happened to scare Axel away. Maybe she thought that he needed the money that bad. Either way she did nothing but talk about Cloud every time the bar was empty save from Axel. Axel hoped she hadn't become desperate enough to ramble to an empty bar.
After listening to her talk about Cloud for the past two months, Axel was gradually getting more and more feed up by it. Tifa started talking about Cloud when Axel came to work, stopped the second the bell above the door chimed and started again when the last customer of the day left, as if it hadn't been hours since she spoke of it last time.
The first few days had been fun for Axel, he had been able to hear Tifa bash Cloud and tell little embarrassing snippets about his childhood. It had stopped being interesting after She had started talking about a girl Axel didn't know and gone downhill from then. After that she had just repeated the same things over and over like a broken record. Taking that into consideration Axel had been more patient with her than he had been with anything before.
But the fiftieth time hearing about "How could she do this to me?" and "I used to like her, she was my friend." made Axel finally snap.
"Why won't you just talk to her and get this whole thing off your chest? I'm getting dead tired of hearing about your relationships – no, relationships gone wrong," he said one morning that had begun like every other for too long. "You could just tell her off or something," he said and trailed off when he saw Tifa. She was angrier than Axel had ever seen her. And that was pretty much, considering she had already fired him once.
Her eyes were almost blazing when she started to speak. "Do you really think I haven't thought about that, at least ten million times over? Do you really think that I'm stupid enough not to realise myself how unhealthy this is to me, talking and thinking of those two all the fucking time?" She stopped to take deep breath. Axel thought that she had stopped and was about to tell her that firing him was not the wisest decision, but she hadn't stopped yet. "Yeah I have thought about it, I have walked to the bus, but I still don't know what to say."
She took another deep breath and sat down. "Let's not just talk about this, okay? I know you think this is annoying and that I'm just a pathetic girl with problems, but talking to you has been the only thing that has kept me sane for the last weeks," she said. Axel would never admit it to anyone, but for a moment he felt bad for her. She was killing herself over him and worst of all, she was well aware of what she was doing.
"Okay, I don't mention it again," he said and got ready for another set of complains or profound self-awareness. But neither of them ever came.
Instead, she just said, "Yeah, let's leave it to this." The rest of the day and the whole evening went in silence. Tifa seemed more melancholic than she had been in as long as Axel could remember.
xXx
The only thing Axel found in the bar next morning was a note telling him where Tifa had gone to. Not to mention the blessed silence. It was the best day at work in a really long time.
xXx
Tifa sat in the bus and thought for the umpteenth time if going to see her was actually such a good idea. Still, it was the only thing that could be done. Basically, she didn't have any other options.
Even though the trip to the other side of the town took well over an hour, for her it felt like so much less. She had been thinking about what to say, what to do and most importantly, how Aerith would react to everything that Tifa did.
As tempting as it was, Tifa could not just pour every bit of frustration she had felt for god knows how long to one freeing punch. Violence was never the answer to anything, especially not to relationship-problems that could be solved with talking. Hitting the person you're supposed to have a serious, life-changing conversation with would take away every bit of credibility that you ever had.
Even when Tifa jumped off the bus, even when she was walking the last hundred of meters to Aerith's house she still didn't have any idea of what to say. There was no way of making her see except telling her how she felt.
At Aerith's house she took a deep breath. It was her last change to walk away. After she'd ring the doorbell it would start, without a ghost of a change of stopping it.
She still rang it.
In a few seconds nothing happened and Tifa almost started to think walking away and coming back another day, but then the door suddenly slammed open. The sight of a smiling Aerith greeted Tifa. "Why hello, haven't seen you in a while," Aerith said and took a step backwards. "Please, do come in."
Tifa followed Aerith to the living room decorated with pastel colours. Aerith signed Tifa to sit down to a pink sofa. "Would you like to have some tea or coffee?" Aerith asked and Tifa just nodded.
"Tea sounds fine," she said.
Aerith disappeared to the kitchen and soon homely sounds could be heard. Tifa resisted the urge to bite her fingernails and looked around the living room. The walls were papered with wallpaper full of flowers and the walls were decorated with pictures of family members. Everything was shining clean and all the vases were full of freshly picked flowers. In other words, it was nothing like the Seventh Heaven where Tifa was supposed to be at the moment.
She was just about to start thinking of Axel and how he was doing, but Aerith came to the living room carrying a tray that was holding two cups, teapot and a holder for lump sugar. "Oh, let me help you with those," Tifa said and jumped from her seat.
"There's no need to," Aerith answered. "Just sit down, you are my quest. Now, if I recall correctly you drink your tea with sugar but no milk." She smiled and gave one of the tea mugs to Tifa, who in return thanked.
For the next few minutes both of the girls drank their tea in silence, Tifa a little warily. She still, at this point, had no idea what she was going to say. The silence was driving her crazy. She had do something before she'd just blurt everything she had in her mind out. "So..." she said, "You probably wonder why I'm here."
Aerith nodded.
Tifa put her half-drunk tea to the counter before she continued. "It's about Cloud," she started.
"I actually thought so," Aerith said and Tifa raised her eyebrows. How could she have known? But she said nothing out loud and after a moment Aerith explained her notion. "I mean, it has been about two years since we last saw each other. You wouldn't just appear at my doorstep without informing me beforehand if there wasn't something else in all this."
Tifa smiled apolitically. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. The bar has taken almost all my time and when I'm not there I'm just too tired to take care of my social life. I do feel bad that our first meeting after all this time has to be like this."
"Oh, don't worry. I've had my hands full with my flower shop, otherwise I would've paid you a visit," Aerith assured her. Another silence fell between the two, but this time it wasn't as unbearable as the first time. Tifa took a hold of her already cooled of tea mug and poured some more tea. Still, nothing had actually been said so Tifa had to take the lead once more.
"I still didn't say what I'm here for," she said and Aerith made a humming sound to signal that she had heard. "Like you guessed, it'd about Cloud." This was the hard part. She needed to break it down to Aerith so that she would get the importance of the matter across without hurting her feelings. She took a deep breath and smirked who knew just talking to her would be so hard?
Aerith just took a sip from her tea. "Take all the time you need, hun," she said.
"Okay, here we go. I heard from Cloud that... you know," Tifa needed to say it, needed to get it out of her system. "Are having sex." There. She said it. Now it was out and suddenly everything seemed so much brighter. She had taken the first step and from that point on everything would just roll with its own weight.
"Yes, you've heard correctly," Aerith said. "May I ask who did you hear it?" She appeared to be as calm as when Tifa had first stepped in from the front door.
Tifa was more than happy that Aerith hadn't lashed out on her. Everything was going more than well, not any of the scenarios she had been so afraid of had happened. "Cloud, actually," she answered. "But it was more like an accident, something he wasn't supposed to tell me," he hurried to add.
Aerith smiled and calmly mixed her tea. "I figured that much. So, the next question would be: What is it for you?" She made a face of discomfort. "That sounded so unfriendly. What I mean is that... Well just... why?" She looked down to her tea and Tifa felt sorry for her. It was so hard to ask something like that without sounding rude.
But now it was time for the one thing left she had difficulty of saying, especially to Aerith. It was also the only thing she had no idea how Aerith would react. "Well the thing is... It's that I'm kinda interested in him myself," she stated plainly and made face and looked everywhere but to Aerith's face. "I mean, he's the most important person in my life and... I think I might even love him." She finally turned he eyes towards Aerith's face. "But I wouldn't feel comfortable with stealing your boyfriend." Now everything that could be said had been said and the weight of the matter came back down to Tifa's shoulder's ten times worse than it had been a day before.
It was actually the first time Tifa properly understood why she had been so angry at Aerith, why the matter hadn't left him alone in so long time. It was the conflict of friendship versus love. She felt so much at ease with Aerith around and there was nothing they couldn't share. Aerith was her friend and now that they were together she remembered why. But now work and a man had come between them and they were no longer the friends they once were. Still, it was not too late to go back to where they once were. They'd just need to sort everything out and see each other more often. It was all up to how Aerith would react to the revelation.
Aerith seemed nervous, more so than Tifa had ever seen her. "Wow, I don't know what to say," she mumbled and looked down to her mug. "What I mean is that..." Her voice trailed away. "Is that... It's great." She visibly seemed to struggle with her words. "You have someone in your life, someone to make you happy." She made a little sound, almost like a laughter. "But I'm in the way, aren't I?"
Tifa was starting to relax more and more after every one of Aerith's words. She was not going to get mad at her and jump to her throat. But neither one of them knew what to say. One at the time they had both thought everything that could be said over and over without finding anything that didn't sound rude or held meanings that weren't supposed to be there.
And now it was Aerith's turn and there was nothing Tifa could do to help her find the right words. A silence was stretching between them as Aerith thought and Tifa just waited. Finally it seemed that Aerith had found the right way of saying what was needed.
"Okay, here we go," Aerith said as if to gather more courage. "What me and Cloud had was just... Well, you remember when Zack died?" she asked and Tifa nodded. It was hard not to remember. Even though she had not known Zack more than as a friend of Cloud's, she had seen what his death had done to Cloud. It was not something she liked to think about.
Aerith sighed and continued. "Well... At the time I was actually dating Zack. So it was a huge shock when he..." her voice trailed off, but both of the women knew what she meant. "And when I heard that his little friend, the one I had seen with you, the one who was there when the car hit them, was in the hospital... I went to see him. I don't know why, but somehow I needed to see the one who was there when it happened." Aerith looked nervously at Tifa. "It was hard for the both of us, but when we were with each other we could vent and... Well, what we had was just something to get our heads out of what happened."
Tifa didn't know what to think. On one hand it was good to hear that there were no feelings between Cloud and Aerith, but on the other hand... Cloud had resolved on someone else than her when he needed someone to talk to. Cloud didn't trust her enough to come to her when he needed something or someone. She felt as if she had failed as a friend, failed to be there when she was needed the most. But she had been so afraid of how to talk to Cloud about the accident that she hadn't gotten around the fear of hurting him. She hadn't known how to talk to someone who had lost someone as close as Zack was to Cloud.
She could still repair it, if she just tried hard enough. She could make herself to be the person Cloud could go to when he needed a shoulder to cry on, someone to talk to and everything else Aerith had.
Aerith's voice startled Tifa out of her musings. "I know this sounds like a bad explanation, but that's really what happened. We stopped to do... you know... after some time, but recently Cloud had had some hard time and it's so easy to fall back to old habits," she explained, almost fearfully. "If I had known how much he means to you I would have kept my hands off him."
Tifa was quick to reassure her. "I know that. It's just that I feel like a lesser woman when Cloud doesn't trust me enough to come to me," she said.
"Cloud does care about you a great deal. He's just the kind of person not to bother anyone too close to him with his problems," Aerith stated in return. "I should know. I've never been anything but Cloud's second therapist."
Tifa could do nothing else than laugh, what Aerith had just said was just so absurd. "If you're his second therapist I don't want to know what he does with his first one," she giggled. The atmosphere of the room was instantly lighter after the first burst of laughter.
"You know what I mean," Aerith said indignantly. "It's hard to explain what's between the two of us, but it's not quite friendship nor is it strictly professional. It's just something that happened."
"Something that happened repeatedly," Tifa reminded in between giggling some more.
Aerith was taken aback by Tifa's continuing laughter. "It's really not that funny," she said accusingly. "I'm trying to tell you how Cloud is free to be taken, but you just... You just laugh?
The comment did just the opposite it was supposed to do. Tifa started laughing even harder than before and it took a whole minute for her to collect herself enough to talk again. "I'm sorry, I've been stressing about this for so long and when it's finally over I can't do anything else but just laugh. Besides, you talk about Cloud as if he was something like an unwanted piece of clothing in a flea market. 'I don't need it, so you can have it for free', or something along those lines."
Now it was Aerith's turn to start giggling. "Oh god, you're right," she laughed too. "I'm still going to tell him it's over though. It means so much more to you than it does to me," Aerith said and smirked. "So I think this does mean you're getting him for free." For a moment the women just smiled at each other and drank the last bits of their already chilled tea.
"It's so nice to talk and laugh like this. I don't know why," Tifa said. She honestly didn't remember why they hadn't met in so long time.
Aerith nodded in agreement. "Well, it's so nice to see an old friend and fall back to the old patterns. It's... comforting in a way. Or at least that's how I feel."
"Maybe. Or maybe we just understand each other more than average people do," Tifa said and was just going to philosophise some more, but the growling in her stomach cut her off. She took out her phone and checked the time.
Aerith craned her neck. "What time is it?" she asked.
"It's already five PM and I've eaten nothing more than the breakfast and this lovely tea you offered. So I think it's time for me to go home and eat something. You know, so I won't starve to death," Tifa said apolitically and stood up. But before she was able to take one step Aerith jumped up after her.
"Don't even think of doing that. You can as well eat here, why go somewhere else?" she announced.
Tifa was still reluctant to accept the invitation. "Oh, I don't think I could. You've been so hospitable already."
Aerith just snorted. "Come on, it's not going to be any trouble," she stated.
"But there's so much work in the food..." Tifa felt like she had already overstayed her welcome and adding more trouble to Aerith was not something she wanted to do.
But Aerith wouldn't budge. "And that's why you as the extra pair of hands helping me with it. There is no way for you to win this argument, so it'd be easier for the both of us if you just stayed without any extra conflict," she said and with that she grabbed Tifa's elbow. "I know a good recipe that I've never had the energy to try out. But now I have a perfect reason to do something extra fancy."
Tifa was vaguely aware that it was nothing more than a lie, but still let herself to be led to the kitchen. She had cooked with Aerith before and they both knew what fun would ensure. She just hoped the recipe Aerith was talking about was not too complicated, they had a bad habit to start chatting in the middle of the cocking and forget whatever they were doing.
But burnt food was a small price to pay for the kind of friendship they had had and were most likely going to have after remembering exactly what they lost. And in the middle of all the fuzz, next to smiling Aerith Cloud seemed less and less important by the moment. What meant more was making good food, just the two of them.
