Chapter 8: Heading to Aeris house

After a while of all three of them jumping/sprinting from one rooftop to another, Cloud finally spotted a space below them down to the street of the slums which they could descended safely but he also saw a lone man walked slowly on the street and across the space where they could jumped down and he quickly raised his left arm and halted both Angelina and Aeris in their tracks until the man is gone. Once they saw the lone man walked out of sight, they jumped down one by one from the rooftop and landed safely on the space/ground of the street.

"Whew! We finally made it off!" Aeris exclaimed quite happily (and relieved) to Cloud and Angelina. "Now what…"

Cloud and Angelina watch as Aeris turned left then right suddenly before she run to her right a few feet away from them, stopped and turned around to glance back at them. "My house is this way, you two." Aeris told them both. "Let's hurry on before they come and spotted us."

Cloud and Angelina nodded before they ran after Aeris who turned around and ran down the path toward the Sector 5 slums. Along the way, Cloud and Angelina had to fight and protect Aeris from several monsters (Hedgehog Pie, Fly Eye and Worm/Caterpillar monsters) which lived within parts of the slum where no one lives and defeated/killed them before they quickly moved on and finally reached Sector 5 slums. When they arrived in Sector 5 slums, Cloud and Angelina looked around and see that Sector 5 is almost exactly the same as the other Sectors under the large plate. Several old, metallic looking homes spread out among the various corners of Sector 5 with several old marketplace/shops selling minor items like potions, ribbons and other materials. Kids in ragged, torn-looking clothes run here and there about Sector 5 with wooden sticks and other playthings in their hands as they played with other kids and some stray yet friendly dogs while their parents (also wearing torn-looking clothes) watched them in case of danger.

Aeris led them both away from the Sector 5 slums and its people, down a dirt path to the north until they reached her house and both Cloud and Angelina were quite amazed at what they saw before them. Aeris house is quite a simple yet beautiful two-storey house with dark brown walls, brown pinewood door, clean and clear windows and a high red-coloured brick rooftop (and some flower pots with flowers in it lying on a small balcony on the red rooftop). And next to the house, Cloud and Angelina could see two gardens filled with many white and yellow flowers just like the ones they saw back at her church, with a wooden staircase against the side of it for Aeris to walked up and watered them everyday.

Aeris went toward the door, opened it and beckoned both Cloud and Angelina to come in with her. They went in, looked around the interior of her house and see that it was just as simple and comfortable-looking as the outside of her house. The interior of her house was neatly decorated with a semi-large, round table standing on the light brown-coloured floor in the center of the room with a white tablecloth and a vase with flowers on it, two cabinets on its left with many thick leather books in it, a rectangular table lying against the white-coloured wall on its right with some photographs on it and some paintings hanging on the wall. A small kitchen was to their right with a large, single brown-coloured cabinet with plates and cups in it.

"I'm home, mom." Aeris called out to her mother as she (along with Cloud and Angelina behind her) stood inside the house.

"Aeris?" said a woman voice from within the kitchen and soon Cloud and Angelina saw a quite elderly-looking, short dark-brown-haired woman wearing a long green dress with a white apron on it came out of the kitchen, into the center of the room. When she saw Aeris, she quickly went over to her and embraced her warmly with a relieved look in her brown eyes.

"Aeris. Who are these two people?" the woman asked her with a cautious tone in her voice as she glance at both Cloud and Angelina over Aeris's shoulder.

"Oh? This is Cloud, my bodyguard and his close friend, Angelina." Aeris introduced them both to her mother before looking over her shoulder at them. "Cloud, Angelina, this is my mother, Elmyra Gainsborough."

"Bodyguard…? You mean that you were being followed by them again?!" said Elmyra worriedly to Aeris and she began checking her all over. "Are you all right?! You're not hurt, are you?!"

"I'm all right, mom." said Aeris in a reassuring tone to Elmyra. "I had Cloud and Angelina with me."

Elmyra looked over at both Cloud and Angelina again, this time closely and gravely before her grave expression turned to a grateful smile and she gently bowed to the both of them.

"Thank you, both of you." said Elmyra.

"Uh, it was no problem, Mrs Gainsborough." replied Angelina with an embarrassed smile. Elmyra nodded to them both before turning away from them and went up the stairs to the second floor above. When she's gone from their sight, Aeris turned to look at both Cloud and Angelina.

"So what are you two going to do now?" Aeris asked them.

"Is Sector 7 far from here?" said Cloud. "Angie and I want to get back to Tifa's bar quickly."

"Yeah, he's right." said Angelina with a nod of her head.

"Is Tifa… a girl?" Aeris asked him, her eyebrow raised up.

"Yeah." replied Cloud with a nod of his head.

"A… girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend?" said Cloud confusedly before he shook his head. "No way!"

"Tifa's just a childhood friend of ours, Aeris. That's all." said Angelina before chuckling at Cloud (while inside her heart she's feeling a little mad/jealous at Aeris for saying that to Cloud then a little relieved when she heard Cloud denied it), who's now a little embarrassed and look away from them both.

Aeris smiled then chuckled along with Angelina before they stopped chuckling at poor, embarrassed Cloud and Aeris continue talking to him.

"You don't have to get THAT upset, Cloud." said Aeris. "Well, that's…nice. Let's see, Sector 7? I'll show you two the way there."

"No, that's okay, Aeris." said Angelina with a wave of her hand. "We can find the way there ourselves."

"Angie's right. And besides…" Cloud said to Aeris. "You'll put yourself in danger if you followed us both."

"That's okay. I'm used to it." said Aeris, shrugging her shoulders.

"Used to it!?" said Cloud, shocked at her. (Even Angelina, who's standing next to him, also looked quite surprised at Aeris). He lapsed into silence and folded his arms for a few seconds. "…Well, I don't know, Aeris… It's still dangerous…"

"Well, I'm going to take you both there whether you like it or not!" said Aeris sternly to Cloud before she turned to the stairs and called out to Elmyra. "Mom! I'm going to take both Cloud and Angelina to Sector 7 now! I'll be back in a while!"

"But dear…" Elmyra began to protest to Aeris when she heard her words and quickly came down the stairs but soon realised that her words were futile when she saw the determined look on her face. "I give up. You never listen once you've made up your mind." said Elmyra with a sigh. "But if you must go, why don't you go tomorrow? It's getting quite late now."

"Yeah, you're right, mom." Aeris agreed with a nod of her head.

"Then it's settled." said Elmyra, looking relieved. "Aeris, please go and make the beds in the guestrooms upstairs so that Cloud and Angelina can sleep in there tonight."

Aeris nodded to her mother before she walked away from them and went up the stairs to make the beds for Cloud and Angelina. Cloud and Angelina watched her go up the stairs until she's out of their sights, looked back down and they saw Elmyra looking directly at them with the same grave and serious expression like before which instantly made them uncomfortable.

"That glow in your eyes…" Elmyra whispered, staring at Cloud. "You're from SOLDIER, right?"

"Yeah." replied Cloud. "Or rather, we used to be…"

"This young girl next to you is also from SOLDIER?" said Elmyra as she glances over at Angelina, surprised. "But her eyes…"

"Yeah, I know, Mrs Gainsborough." said Angelina with a small sigh. "My eyes is violet in colour instead of glowing blue like Cloud. They used to be crimson in colour until I joined up as a SOLDIER member with Cloud years ago and when I got infused with mako energy, the blue mako mixed with my crimson eye colour and now it's violet in colour."

"Oh." said Elmyra as she take a deep breath, close her eyes and when she opened them to looked at Cloud and Angelina again, her grave/serious expression change into a firm yet regretful look.

"… I don't know how to say this, but… would you two please leave here tonight? Without telling Aeris."

"Huh?" said Cloud as he stared at Elmyra, slightly confused.

"Why, Mrs Gainsborough?" said Angelina.

"It's nothing personal, just that…" continue Elmyra. "I don't want to see her getting all upset again over a broken promise from two persons who promised her before…"

"Who are those two persons?" Angelina asked Elmyra.

"I heard that they're…" Elmyra began to tell them but she got cut off mid-sentence by Aeris's voice calling for them from upstairs.

"Mom, I'm done!" Aeris called down to Elmyra from above.

"All right, dear!" Elmyra answer back to Aeris, staring at both Cloud and Angelina for a few seconds more before she shook her head to tell them she's not going to say anything anymore before she turned and went into the kitchen. Cloud and Angelina stared at her, both of them wanted her to resumed what she just said to them but their fatigue choose that moment to set in to their bodies so they had no choice but to turned and went up the stairs to their guest rooms.

Aeris was waiting for them outside of the guestrooms when they came up and she walked over to them. "You two need to go through Sector 6 to get to Sector 7." Aeris told them both. "Sector 6 is a little dangerous so you two better get some rest tonight."

Slowly, both Cloud and Angelina nodded to her before they went past her toward their rooms (the second and third rooms next to Elmyra's room).

"Cloud… Angelina…" said Aeris quietly to them and they both stopped and turned their heads to look at her.

"Yes, what is it, Aeris?" Angelina asked her.

"Goodnight, you two." replied Aeris before she turned and went down the stairs to the room below.

"Oh, man…" Cloud groaned lightly as he thought back to what Elmyra just told him and Angelina. He turned around and glance at Angelina who gave him an "We'll-sneak-out-quietly-later" look before they wished each other good nights, went into their rooms, dropped onto the beds and fell asleep.