042. Last Wish
A bone chilling gust of wind ripped through the trees of the cemetery, but the brunette barely noticed. The bottle of scotch in her hand was helping with that. The stone of the grave marker was cold, but she was comfortably leaning her back against it, the fabric of the black coat she wore making for a little extra padding.
She'd been sitting there for maybe twenty minutes, mindlessly mumbling through chattering teeth to the ears of the dead, filling them in on all the details of her life that she'd never tell any living person. She had too many secrets, too many skeletons. Those belonged in cemeteries, right?
Her eyes were cast to the sky, seeing nothing but a sheet of dull white. Most would call this weather dreary, but she found it rather pleasant. Definitely drinking-at-the-cemetery weather, she'd surmised when she got up this morning.
Rufus wasn't pleased about it, but he'd given in when she called in to take the morning off, after several attempts at bribery and blackmail that she still had pictures of him at the last Christmas party. It had almost worked, but just about everyone knew at this point that he'd 'accidentally' offered a ride in his limo to the girl he'd been drunkenly dancing with all night, the girl having ended up not being such a 'girl' after all. He was apparently the only one who couldn't tell that night, Reno and Rude nearly hurting themselves with trying not to laugh in their boss' face that his dancing partner had an Adam's apple even bigger than Rudo's. Even Elena had been a furious shade of red with trying not to burst into snickers.
The pictures had been Reno's idea. She was pretty sure that had she been anyone else, Rufus would have had her killed on the spot. Probably by Reno just to be a jerk about it. The president needed her, though, for reasons still unknown to anyone but her and the silent residents of the cemetery. That was how she'd managed to get out of work this morning. It was a serious card to play, but she'd had her reasons for coming, and she wasn't really in the mood to bargain.
Her eyes lowered from their high gaze, intending to take another swig from the bottle when a dark figure in the corner of her vision caught her attention. Her head rolled to the side from where it rested against the headstone and she blinked. This was the last person she'd expected to see. She lifted her head and gaped at the tall, straight stature of the man.
Long, slicked back ebony hair swayed gently in the wind, and sharp dark eyes focused on her as he made his silent approach. "Aerith," a smooth voice greeted, a puff of steam escaping with the words.
"Tseng," she returned, her voice edged with confusion. Her eyebows furrowed even more in surprise as the man in the tailored suit took a seat before her upon the grave, gracefully crossing his legs in a lotus position.
"It's been a long time."
She tilted her head, moss green eyes settled on him skeptically. She wasn't positive what he meant. He couldn't have been referring to the last time they'd seen each other. It had only been about three days since they'd passed in one of ShinRa's corridors. She opened her mouth. "I... um..."
Then she noticed what his own onyx gaze was fixed upon. She turned and looked down at the grave she was leaning against, and then understood.
"Yeah... it's been a while," she said softly, pushing herself to the side with one hand to get out of the Turk's view. She now sat with Tseng on one side of her, and Gray on the other, the bottle sitting in front of her crossed legs. She swallowed as she looked at the stone. Sometimes she forgot about that part of his life. She turned back to Tseng. "Did you know I was here?"
He nodded. "I overheard the president this morning."
Her body went rigid.
The well-trained Turk noticed immediately, his eyes finding hers for only a moment. "I already knew."
She blew out a breath that formed into steam upon contact with the air, her eyes lowering. "Could never really put anything past ya, could I?"
Tseng merely let his lips tug into a hint of a smirk as he returned his vision to the headstone, Aerith catching the motion with the corner of her eye. Her head lifted again and she followed his gaze.
"You came to see him? Or you came to see me?"
There was a pregnant pause before Tseng finally broke the silence. "Both."
"Why him?" She nodded once towards the grave.
"You forget he was once very important to us."
Unexpected anger flared in her jade eyes, but she swallowed down the venom that threatened to escape her tongue as she stared at the engravements on the stone. Gray might have been more important to her once than he'd ever been to anyone else. "I didn't forget."
"He nearly ended my life once. Yours, as well."
"Yes..." She had no idea where he was going with that, but her anger subsided. That was exactly why she wanted to know why he'd come.
"I never got the chance..."
Aerith waited with baited breath for him to finish, and when he didn't, she didn't pry. Tseng was not a man to let anger influence him, she knew that well enough. He was a Turk to the core when it came to his job, especially when it ended in death. He could turn his emotions off with the blink of an eye, and she'd witnessed it first hand several times. The malice she'd heard in his tone just now betrayed that, however, and though she had a good idea why, it frightened her none the less. He didn't like things unfinished. He was always meticulous and efficient that way, but something had spoiled his chances this time, and they both knew of the guilty party.
She bit her lip, falling back to her earlier curiosity of his visit. "Why me?"
"You forget we were friends."
"No," she said, shaking her head and facing the Turk again. The was no anger in her when she uttered the words this time. "I didn't forget."
A thoughtful look crossed his angular features. "Then I did."
Aerith let out an amused huff of air through her nose, a smirk on her lips. "If you can call executing orders for my abduction 'forgetting', then sure."
An uncharacteristic grin split over Tseng's face as he turned his gaze on her. Well, it was only uncharacteristic for those that knew him through ShinRa. "You always liked to hold grudges. You had everyone else fooled. Not me."
A chuckle escaped from within her chest and she lifted the bottle to her lips, eyes straying back to the grave as she took a swallow of the amber liquid. "Nn... you were always good at reading too far into people."
She didn't see the somber expression that melted away his smile. "And you were never great at reading far enough."
Her eyes dropped to the ground, the bottle lowering to the cold, dead grass with her gaze. "I was better than you gave me credit for, but perhaps you're right."
There was silence before he spoke in a low tone. "Why didn't you listen to me?"
The question wasn't completely unexpected, but she wasn't sure she'd hear it so soon. The muscles in her jaw tightened and a tiny vein appeared in her temple as she thought back on the last words he'd said to her, just days before Reno had found her in that church years ago. "Because I was a stupid kid, Tseng. Because I thought running was weak. I thought I could... fix everything." God, it sounded so stupid when she said it.
"You did, Aerith," he said carefully. "Just at the expense of yourself."
Green orbs peered into his endless black eyes. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"
He sighed and tilted his head in a reprimanding fashion. "You're still doing it, just for the other side this time."
She had to turn away before his eyes burned a hole through her. "Well, don't kid yourself into thinking that I'm doing it for anyone else's sake this time."
He dropped the subject and eyed the bottle in her hands with disapproval, pointing with a finger. "I'm sure that helps the process."
She deliberately took a swig, her eyes focused back on the grave. "Yep."
He shook his head. "I was being sarcastic."
"I know."
He barked a laugh then. "I think I'm the only person on the planet that thinks you really haven't changed much."
A grin crossed her lips and she turned to face him again. "Well, keep it to yourself, buddy."
His expression sobered and went blank. "Keep a lid on that laugh and we'll call it even."
Her eyes sparkled. "Oh no, I've got dirt on you now."
"You have no way to prove it," he stated calmly. "And I have so called 'dirt' on you."
"Yes, but people tend to believe me," she gloated with a grin. "I'm very persuasive."
Tseng sighed. "Don't remind me." He stood then, dusting off his suit with care.
She watched him with haunted eyes, the smile gone from her face. He'd said several things that had shaken her in the past few minutes, but shared a few moments of the friendship that had once existed between them as though nothing had ever changed. This man was an enigma. He always had been, and she had to admit she missed it. This was the first time they'd spoken outside of business in years.
"Maybe..." she began, but hesitated. She had her answer before she'd even gotten the question out by the regret written on his face. She expelled a long sigh. "I know."
"You surprise me, Aerith," he stated plainly, standing straight with his fingers laced together in front of him. He was a Turk again. "Some things have changed about you. Your tastes, for example." He lifted a finger from where his hands were folded and gestured to her coat.
She looked down at the black coat quizzically.
"Then again," he continued, "you seem to have a personal theme with men in uniform."
Her head jerked back up and her eyes bore into him, her brow furrowed.
"I suspect Reno knows you have that?" he inquired casually.
Her lips twisted into a frown. He'd recognized the coat. Oops. It was a little big on her, if only in length. She just let out a nervous laugh, knowing it was futile to defend herself. Tseng was paid to be observant, but was also not one to rat her out without damn good reason.
Tseng let the silence hang for a moment, his eyes looking back to the grave.
There it was again. Something that was far from emotionless, and she gave a shudder when he turned that dark gaze on her before he glanced back to the grave.
"You should go," he said. "It's going to snow momentarily, and that alcohol will only cause you to freeze to death."
His tone was authoritative and she instinctively nodded, pushing to her feet. Her own eyes sent another lingering look to the headstone, tracing over every letter.
Sephiroth.
She hadn't been the one to choose which name would be engraved, but it would have ended up the same. It was his name, his legacy, and she wouldn't deny him that. Gray was nothing to anyone but her, and he'd died long before Sephiroth did. She'd been witness to the demise of both. Her eyes drifted lower, to where she'd had 'Gray' etched in small letters toward the bottom. A favor from Rufus.
A throat cleared and she turned back towards Tseng, noticing that there was snow falling around them, brightly contrasted in the Wutai native's glossy black hair. He nodded once to her, then turned militantly on his heel and walked to the sleek black car he'd parked a fair distance away.
Aerith turned back to the grave, which was slowly collecting snow. She let a smile curl her lips, and she tipped the bottle, letting its contents sink into the ground, steam rising from the liquid when it made contact. "Drink up, boss."