"S-2… all this time… my own name… Estu…" he whispered, sitting on the cold stone floor of the library. "I can't believe… I never even realized… but…" He shook his head, staring at the empty folder. "This whole time, I didn't realize…"
"Estu… are you going to be okay?" Ami asked. He didn't even seem to hear her. Just kept speaking under his breath, whispering his own name. Ami bit her lip, looking down at him. "Come on, we should get out of here," she said. Nothing seemed to register, he couldn't take his eyes off the file, but they seemed unfocused… his pupils constricted into narrow slits despite the dim light, giving him the bizarre otherworldly look that frightened Ami a little when she'd first seen him. "Estu?"
"…S… Sephiroth… no, maybe something else… no, nothing…I can't think of anything else… And Vincent even said I look just like him. … S-2… I'm… No, I don't want…"
"Snap out of it!" Ami yelled, her voice echoing through the otherwise silent manor.
"And the whole time… I didn't realize… I made up excuses… but the truth… S-2…"
"Estu, please!" He stayed silent, then kept whispering his name. Frustrated, she grabbed him by the shoulders. "Estu, snap out of it!" He blinked, then looked at her hands on his shoulders, then up to her grey eyes, wide with panic and concern. "Estu… please?" she said, voice shaking. He looked back down, eyes dim and glazed over.
"Don't touch me," he said, voice completely monotone. Ami shook her head and kept a firm grip on his shoulders. "Let go."
"No, please snap out of this. You're… you're scaring me."
"I'm scaring you? …Well that makes sense, now, doesn't it? …A lot makes sense…" He stared at the folder again. "A lot makes sense… Now please let go of me."' She shook her head again.
"Come on… sitting here in the dark isn't helping anything. We can talk about this back at the inn and-"
"But what's there to talk about?" he asked. "The fact that this thing I've been looking for all my life, my identity, was staring me in the face this whole time? The fact that I am exactly what I've been most afraid of? The fact that, once again, I have no clue what I'm supposed to do?" Estu laughed humorously. "I don't even know why I bother, really. What's the point?" He closed his eyes and turned his head away. Ami's grip on his shoulders tightened. " …You aren't letting go until I go with you, are you? …Fine then." Estu stood, still gripping the empty folder.
"…You left these," Ami said, picking up the coded files. He ignored her, tuning away. "Estu… it'll be okay, I promise." He said nothing, already starting towards the stairs. He could only think of the two characters as he climbed the spiral staircase… S-2… just a letter and number… I'm just a letter and number…
"I hate cleaning," Denzel complained, dusting off the piano that Cid, Barret, Cloud, and Vincent had moved to the living room years before. "And can you stop that humming, Marlene?" Vincent glanced back at the two children as he set old dusted knickknacks back onto the living room shelves. Over the years, Tifa had brought most of the things in her house back to the Seventh Heaven, but some things, as she put it, just belonged back here. "Why do we even have to do this? Can't we just live in the airship while we're here?" Denzel asked.
"We're staying a few days," Vincent said. "Anyway, this place is overdue for spring cleaning."
"It's October!"
"…Yes. I just said it was overdue."
Denzel groaned in annoyance as Marlene continued to hum a cheerful tune. The hours since they'd arrived that morning had gone by quickly as they all tried to get the house back into an inhabitable state. It had been a fairly standard cleaning, aside from the Cerberus incident. Though the fact that Yuffie was simultaneously making a point to not speak to or look at Vincent and making sure she was seen was starting to bug him. She stood next to him, averting her eyes before moving on to another task, purposefully brushing against him as she walked off. What she was hoping to accomplish by this, Vincent wasn't sure.
"I'm hungry… when's dinner?" Marlene asked, putting a rag back into the bucket she carried.
"Still a few hours from now. It's only 3:30, Marlene," Vincent pointed out.
"…But I'm hungry now."
"You can wait-"
"Vincent just doesn't understand because he's not a human being," Yuffie said, glaring at him.
"I'm… a human," Vincent said. "Could you please stop that, Yuffie? I did apologize."
"Funny, I thought I heard the call of the Vampiric Jerk-ass… It's a rare species you know, Marlene. Thankfully."
"…Really, Yuffie? You already acknowledged my presence. It's a bit late to pretend you can't hear me… or I can't hear you, for that matter." Yuffie continued to ignore him, washing off one of the back windows. "Would you feel better if I apologized again?" Vincent asked.
"…Ah, the Vampiric Jerk-ass calls once more. It should probably shut the hell up before its one predator, the Wutaian Awesome Hawk kills it." She'll get over it. …I really hope so, anyway.
"I'm still hungry though," Marlene said.
"I'll take you to the market then," Vincent said, eager to get out of the house.
"What? How come Marlene gets a break? Do I get one?"
"Denzel, I don't care."
"That's because he doesn't care about anyone!" Vincent heard Yuffie say as he shut the front door.
He sighed, then turned back to Marlene. "Please don't get kidnapped this time."
"Um… okay. Why's Yuffie so mad at you?" Marlene asked, walking with Vincent to the town's center.
"She's just is," he replied. "…There probably aren't many fruit vendors this time of year, are there?"
"No… But I though she likes you? Why's she so mad? Isn't she glad you're okay now?"
"…It's complicated."
"You say that about everything," she complained looking around at the few vegetable stands. "I think we need to go to the grocery store. I don't wanna eat a squash. They're icky, don't you think?"
"Hm… I don't really remember what they taste like."
"Weird… So, now what's going to happen now that we're here?" she asked.
"Cid and Tifa are still working that out. They'll probably fill us in later."
"How come you don't do any of the leadery stuff, Vincent? You're important, aren't you?"
"I'm not much of a leader… Being in charge is only being important in one way. All of us are important… and if we had six different leaders, nothing would get done. Especially when Yuffie decides she's going to butt heads with me."
"Hmm… So how come Yuffie's mad again?"
"It's complicated… I already said that." But Marlene still looked at him curiously. "Basically…She wants one thing, I want another… does that make sense? It's been like that for a while now, though I wasn't aware of it, because she can't seem to communicate what she wants well and I'm … not good at listening either, I suppose. I'm a bit oblivious. And I accidentally implied I want the same thing as her, so she was upset when she learned otherwise. And now neither of us are happy, because neither of us have what we want."
"…What?"
"I did warn you," he said, turning away from the vegetable stand. "Just don't worry about it for now, okay? It's just grownup stuff."
"Okay… Grownups are silly, though," Marlene said. They stepped into the grocery store, looking at the shelves of snacks. "Can we still invite Estu to dinner?"
"I don't see why not. You and I could go over to the inn after this… though he may not want to spend any more time with us."
"…Why?"
"Because we were just a means to an end. He told you that."
"…You mean when he said that he was just there for the ride?" she asked.
"Yes. But we'll still see, regardless. Just don't get too disappointed."
"Okay… but we are friends… sort of. Can we invite his sister too? She seemed nice… except when she was yelling at him. I'd wondered what he wanted me to apologize for… But they seem okay now." Vincent nodded, picking up a pack of crackers for her. He paid for them and exited the store as Marlene trailed behind. "…I think we're friends anyway. How come he doesn't have any?"
"I'm not sure."
"How come?"
"I don't have all the answers, Marlene." Vincent opened the door of the house, to hear the end of what was probably a long stream of complaints about him from Yuffie. "…I really don't have all the answers…"
Estu wordlessly slumped down on the floor of the inn, again staring at the empty folder. Ami hung her hoodie up, then, looking over at him, gave a slight smile. No response. "Estu… do you want to talk about this?"
"No," he replied flatly, still holding the folder.
Ami frowned. "…Here, I think you should give that folder to me for now." She walked over to take it, and Estu made no move to stop her. He looked away at the wall, same uninterested dull look as before. His behavior was really starting to worry Ami. She didn't know what to say to him, what she could say to him. "I… If you need anything …" she stammered. "Is there anything you want?"
"No."
"Do you need a hug?"
"No." Maybe she shouldn't have asked that… He tended to panic when someone touched him, anyway. But even that would be preferable to him doing nothing. She wished she could help him somehow.
"…Do you want me to do anything for you?" she asked.
"I want you to leave me alone."
Ami looked down, but nodded her head, grabbing her hoodie and walking towards the front door. "…I'll be back in about an hour, okay? …Estu?" He said nothing. "…Bye… Estu." Ami quietly opened the door and stepped out. He didn't even look at her. He didn't look at anything. He couldn't feel anything. Still leaning against the wall, Estu closed his eyes.
Marlene and Vincent walked up to the Nibelheim inn. It was late in the afternoon, and Tifa needed to know whether or not Estu would accept Marlene's invitation to dinner. As they approached the inn, Vincent saw Estu's sister sitting on the front steps of the building, distractedly twirling her hair. "Hello," Marlene said. The young woman looked up at her.
"Oh… hi," she replied quietly.
"Is Estu still in your room? I wanted to ask if he was still coming to dinner."
"He's … he's up there, but…" she trailed off, looking down.
"...Is something wrong?" Marlene asked.
"He…" Ami started, but she started crying. Marlene immediately pat her on the shoulder, trying to console her. Vincent hung back, looking at the two curiously.
"What's wrong? …Is he okay?" Marlene asked gently.
"I don't know. I don't know what to do…" Ami said, rubbing her eyes.
"What happened?" Vincent asked. Ami looked up at him, a bit surprised at him speaking.
"You're… you're Vincent, right? He mentioned he… he talked to you sometimes." Vincent nodded. "He told you that… there was something here he was looking for?"
"Yes… did he find it?"
Ami nodded and held out an empty folder. "Read the front out loud…" she said, "it'll make more sense…"
"Project S-2?" Vincent asked. "…Oh, I see… I imagine he's not taking this well?"
"It's like he's gone into shock," Ami said.
"He probably has… Tell me, did he really never realize that he looks the same as… well you know."
"…Right, you two know about all that," Ami said, taking the folder back. "He… I mentioned it to him a few times, but he'd just find weird reasons for why he looks the way he does. I think he spent a while looking through an old medical dictionary once, found a case study on people whose hair turned grey when they were young. He kinda ignored the fact that with all of them, it was still in their late teens. And… I don't know, he always sort of avoided his looks. When he was a kid he'd do this sort of double take every time he walked past a mirror… it was weird."
"Hm…If I may ask, do you know anything that you aren't telling him?"
She shook her head. "I wouldn't keep this sort of crap from him. I think my dad knew, but… I guess he was trying to protect Estu from this. He'd never tell me or him anything," she said bitterly. Vincent nodded thoughtfully. Doesn't look like protecting him did much good. "What do you think I should do?" Ami asked. "I know I barely know you but… I don't know how to help him. And I just found him again, but he… It's like he's gone again and I don't know what to do."
"I think for now… I'm not sure. He may just need a bit of time. Then again, he was fairly… averse to any implication that he had anything to do with Sephiroth at all."
"But… why's he like this? He's not upset, he's just… not doing anything. Like I said, it's like he's in shock."
"Any illusions Estu had about himself have been shattered… And I think he managed to build up quite a few illusions that he honestly believed. It might take a while before he's ready to accept any of this, so instead he's pretending it's not happening, closing himself off from the world…" Vincent said. It's not so different from what I did… well except the guilt. Maybe he feels guilty, too, though, who knows… "It's not all that surprising, really… he might just need time, but… if not…"
"…Then what?" Ami asked.
"…Come talk to me tomorrow if he hasn't improved any. I'll think it over…"
"Thank you… but why are you helping? Estu said he didn't really know why, because… he didn't really trust you, but didn't feel like he had much of a choice in asking you about himself. But why did you even bother?"
Vincent put his hands in his coat pockets. "In truth, I feel a bit… responsible for him."
"Why?"
"It's a very long story," Vincent said. "And not really one I'm comfortable sharing, if that's all right." Ami nodded as Marlene pat her shoulder again. "Come on, Marlene. We should go tell Tifa they aren't coming."
"But… I want to see him if he's sad," Marlene said, looking at the door of the inn. Vincent shook his head. Her seeing him would only worry the girl, it wouldn't help anyone. "But-"
"No buts," Vincent said. Marlene sighed and walked away from the inn with him.
The airplane landed in Gongaga. The boy with black hair looked around at the surrounding jungle, squinting at the sunlight flickering through the trees. It was so… green. But so different from Midgar. Everything there was tinted a bit green, too, but it was such an artificial green. Mako green. They say that Mako was pure life energy made into fuel, but this… this seemed so much more lifelike than anything the boy had seen before.
"So, where you stayin' kid?" Ace asked, holding a suitcase for him.
"…There's this empty house on the edge of the village. You were supposed to stay there too, so you could take me back, right?"
"Yeah. So what are you doing here?"
"I'm supposed to check up on the reactor near here. There's supposed to be some sort of monster infestation." He smiled at the thought. He loved a challenge. "This… this is going to be my chance to prove myself. Show I'm better than that other stupid kid they have…"
"D'you mean that Sephiroth guy? He's already a legend and he's only been doing Shinra's work for a few months."
"I know that! That's why I have to show that self-important jerk that I'm just as good."
"But why?" Ace asked.
"…Because I do. Anyway, go put my stuff away. I need to go take care of this."
"Never thought I'd have some pipsqueak bossing me around," Ace muttered, picking up the boy's luggage.
"I'm not a pipsqueak… I mean I'm thirteen years old."
"Gotta go apply for those senior discounts then, huh, gramps?"
"…That doesn't make sense. I'm far too young to be a grandfather."
"I was joking," the pilot said, completely exasperated. The boy blinked, a bit surprised.
"Oh… I see. Sarcasm, right?" the boy asked. The pilot just stared at him.
"…Are you even real?" Ace asked.
"Yes… oh…. That was rhetorical, wasn't it? I'm sorry, I don't spend much time perfecting wordplay."
"Alright, I get it. You're weird as hell…"
"…You're weird as hell… that was a comeback, right?"
"Something like that. Weren't you going to get on this mission thing?"
The boy nodded, taking his short sword and walking down the path to the reactor. The jungle was thick and very warm. He didn't like warm weather much, he decided. Cutting down the monsters on the way there was a simple matter. They were all fairly weak, no match for him. As he neared the reactor, he heard a cry for help. He ran towards the voice as quickly as he could, and saw a small boy with spiky black hair and blue eyes cowering from a large mako mutated creature approaching him. The beast was enormous, with shaggy bright orange fur and large horns on its head. Just perfect, the boy thought excitedly. "Help!" the smaller boy shouted. He ran towards him, sword drawn ready to defend him from the beast. Then…
A flash of silver cut through the air. A katana wielding teen made short work of the monster, not even breaking a sweat or messing up his long silver hair. Sephiroth! Damn it, this was my fight! The boy clenched his fists, staring at his rival furiously. Sephiroth didn't seem to realize he was there. He turned to the small, spiky haired boy. "Are you okay?" he asked. The boy looked up, nodding happily.
"You saved me! You're a hero! Thank you so much Mr. Sephiroth."
Sephiroth's lips quirked, "You don't have to call me 'Mr.' …erm…"
"Zack, Zack Fair," the boy said.
"I see… Well be more careful, Zack Fair."
"I will, and thank you!" Zack said.
"It was nothing," Sephiroth said modestly. It made the black haired boy feel sick.
"No, it was great. I'll be a hero just like you someday!" Zack promised, heading back towards town.
"You stole my kill," the black haired boy said angrily. Sephiroth looked up, inquisitively staring at him. "Don't look at me like that, you ass! This mission was mine!"
"…I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Who am I? We're rivals for crying out loud!"
"Oh, I didn't realize… Sorry about this then," Sephiroth said, walking away.
"What? No! Come back here, I'm not done with you! …Damn it, don't ignore me!" Damn him! Arrogant self serving jerk! I hate him!
I hate him… Estu looked around the dark room, Ami's quiet breathing reminding him of what was going on. I hate him… But… Estu stood, walking towards the room's mirror. He took a deep breath, then stared at his reflection. The image of Sephiroth was still burned into his mind… and the new image of himself now stared back at him. Same lips, same nose, same chin, same god damn eyes! The exact same person… just a few years younger. Estu turned away, staring at the wall again. He couldn't keep thinking about it. It just hurt… the very idea that he was… No. No. Estu closed his eyes again, letting his mind go blank.
Vincent woke in the morning to a series of gunshots. He looked around at everyone else, they all slept soundly, apparently unable to hear them. Vincent rolled his eyes, annoyed at his own acute senses. He closed his eyes, but another six shots sounded through the air. Great… Vincent stood, walking towards the door. Whoever this was, they would pay. It had only been the second good sleep Vincent had gotten in weeks.
He followed the noise out of Nibelheim, down the dirt road leading out of town, walking for a good thirty minutes before he saw Ami, taking shots at a few tin cans she'd set up on a fence. Five hits, then one on the end that she shot at, missed, shot at again, missed… Vincent drew his own gun and shot at the last can as Ami reloaded the gun's magazine. She looked up in surprise. "What… what are you doing here?"
"You woke me up. Enough with the target practice."
"How the hell did I wake you up? I'm far enough out of town that no one can hear me."
"Well I heard you." Vincent said as Ami set up another six cans. She picked up her second gun, this one a revolver, and took aim, hitting all six in quick secession. "So stop… it's very early in the morning."
"…I'm sorry… just trying to let off some steam."
"It's a bit early for that," Vincent said, still annoyed with her.
"I know, but… I just couldn't sleep anymore. Estu was still staring off into space when I woke up," she said, reloading the revolver and setting it down. "I tried talking to him, but he just ignored me…"
"Hm."
"Did you have any ideas?"
"Well… I'm still thinking, can you tell me a bit more about him?"
"Like what?" she asked, setting up more cans.
"I don't know… has he ever done anything like this before?"
She shook her head and picked up the first gun, taking aim. "It's not like him at all. He's always been really easily bored. He can't stand not doing anything. That's what's got me so worried." She shot at the cans, hitting each one. "He's always been really… I don't know, goal-oriented, I guess? He needs something to focus on and work towards or he'll go crazy. And once he decides he's going to do something, he gets so obsessive about it." Vincent nodded, setting up another six cans for her. "He really can't let things go. It's ridiculous."
"We might be able to use that to get him moving again…" Vincent said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Ami asked.
"Right now, he wants to figure out who he is, correct? What he found yesterday was… well it was jarring enough to put a bump in front of him. But he still doesn't know the whole story, does he?"
"No… So you think if we tried to get him to keep looking, it'll help?"
"It might help, it might not. It might be beneficial, or it could just hurt him more in the long run. A lot of that depends on him. Which is why you need to make this choice."
"Me?" she asked.
"You are his sister?"
"…Sort of, yes." Ami took aim at the cans, but sighed , setting her revolver down. "I just never thought I'd be the one responsible for him, though…"
"Do you care about him?" Vincent asked.
"Of course! I mean, I've always loved that little weirdo, even though I don't really always understand him. And… even though he really pisses me off sometimes," she said, taking a shot at one of the cans. Vincent cringed at the noise. "But… I am worried about him…"
"Well, then this is something you have to decide."
Ami twirled her hair, thinking it over. "…I can't stand seeing him this way… but you said it could be worse for him in the long run? How could it be any worse than now?" Vincent said nothing, he wasn't quite sure either, but it probably wouldn't be pretty. "…I think… I think I need to do something. Otherwise… do you think it would be right? Knowing that this could hurt him more, but making him do it anyway?"
"Sometimes there isn't a right answer," Vincent said. "So is that what you want to do?" Ami slowly nodded, though she looked guilty. "Sometimes… Making someone do something they don't want to do… they may not like it. It may hurt them, but, well he can't just sit like this forever. Hiding, secluding himself from the world..."
"Well yeah, no one could hide forever."
"Of course not," Vincent said quickly, helping her pick up the old tin cans. "Where did you even get all these?"
"Went to the recycling center and asked nicely," she replied. "So… How do I even talk to him about this? 'Hey Estu, I know you're bummed about finding out you were probably a lab experiment, but you need to keep looking for answers?' I mean… this is really hard… You know a week ago, the only thing I was worried about was whether or not I could save up enough to get my boyfriend this new surfboard for our quarterversary?"
"…Quart-what?" Vincent asked, confused.
"Quarter anniversary. You look young enough to know what that is… Don't get out much?"
"You could say that," Vincent said, picking up the last can. "It must be nice, not having to worry about anything but the little stuff…"
"Well, I guess so, yeah… " Ami replied. "Except now I don't know what to do. I mean, even if this stupid quest thing gets him back to normal for now, what happens when he finds everything out, or he remembers? …What if he does remember now? I didn't even ask him…"
"I think he would mention if he did… Why can't he anyway? Do you know?"
Ami shook her head. "He just… can't. It's weird. And the first few weeks he was with us, he still kept forgetting things. I had to follow him around so much, just so he wouldn't worry if he forgot where he was, and I think I had to tell him my name, like, fifty times. No joke. And it was even worse with his own name. …It's funny, but even he thought it sounded made up. Guess I know why now."
"May I go with you when you speak to him?"
"Oh, sure… I mean, you've helped him a lot already. …Do you know something about him you aren't telling me? You said you felt responsible for him."
"…It's not to do with him so much as Sephiroth… But, if anything about that comes up, I'll be sure to tell him."
"Okay… if you say so. Does that little girl want to talk to him? …He's never really had a friend before."
"I think for now we should leave Marlene out of this… I'm a bit surprised he thinks of her as a friend though… I guess he got over the blackmail aspect…"
"Blackmail?" she laughed. "That little girl? Blackmailed Estu?"
Vincent nodded, heading back towards town. "You'd be surprised… she's a clever kid, and not quite as sweet and defenseless as she looks."
"I'll keep that in mind," Ami said.
Ami entered the inn room again. "Estu?" she asked, looking over at him. "Hey listen, we need to talk about something."
"I don't want to," he said.
"Yes you do," Vincent said, stepping into the room. Estu looked up at him.
"What do you want?"
Vincent paused, as though thinking of an answer. "…For you to stop worrying Marlene. I told you if you ever hurt her, I would shoot you. I suggest you stop this."
"I don't care. Shoot me then."
"You're worrying your sister, too." Ami looked embarrassed, but nodded. Estu looked back away, ignoring both of them.
"So, is this it? You're giving up? You've never done that before," Ami said.
"I'm not giving up…"
"You look like it, curled up in a ball, pretending you don't exist…"
"…"
"Don't you care anymore? You got an answer, but it's not the full story," she said. Estu still said nothing, looking away with a thousand yard stare. "So, that sounds a lot like giving up to me."
"I wanted to find out who I am. I did," Estu said.
"Really?" Vincent asked, stepping in. "So the reason why Weiss knows you? The dreams? The memories you lost? The number four? All that makes sense?"
"…No, but-"
"Then you hardly know. If I told you I was named for one of my father's old teachers and was born in Kalm, would that let you know my life story?"
"…Is any of that true?"
"That's not the point," Vincent said.
"Then why did you bring it up?" Estu asked.
"It was just an analogy, Estu," Ami said. "So now what? Aren't you going to keep going?"
"…I guess," he replied, standing up. Even though I have no clue where to go now… But… there has to be something more… there just has to be. Ami smiled at him, looking relieved. I… worried her? I did, didn't I? "…Ami? I'm… I'm sorry…" She hugged him again. "…Stop."
"Sorry," she said. "It'll be okay. It really will."
"If you say so," he said, still a bit flatly. "But… I'm…" he looked down, still unsure what to feel. "You know this means I'm…" He couldn't even say it… he wished he could go back to the previous morning, blissful ignorance… No, then he'd still be unhappy, just in another way. Maybe the universe hates me because I'm a monster… "I'm…" he tried again.
"You're you… that's all that matters," Ami said. Estu looked up at her, and nodded, picking up the files and flipping through them.
"Somewhere in there… There's a whole section about me. I need to figure out how to decode it. That's what I need to do," he decided. "I wish I knew how to do that… I've got no clue what the password could be. So, I'm stuck…"
"…Cid's been recruiting people to fight Deepground… Would you and your sister be interested in that?" Vincent asked.
"Like I told Marlene, I don-"
"Heck yeah! Did you see what those jerks did to my home town? I'd give anything to fight them!" Ami said. Estu looked over at her, annoyed.
"Ami, we don't have time for that…"
"Well that's what I wanted to do," she said. "So what was your plan?"
"…Well… um…" he said awkwardly.
"You never think more than one step ahead, do you?" Vincent asked. "Well, I'm going to go tell Marlene you're not a zombie anymore…"
"You're a zombie," Estu said angrily.
"…Hm. Perhaps that insult isn't as ineffective as I thought."
"…Wait, what?" Estu asked, confused. Vincent said nothing, starting towards the door. "Hey, don't ignore me! …Stupid jerk…"
"Glad you're feeling better, Estu," Ami laughed. He smiled weakly. In truth he didn't feel better… he couldn't let himself feel anything. He just had to work through this, same as everything else in his life. Just don't think about it too much… you'll be fine. You'll be fine…
"I'm just going to go with him then, talk to Marlene a bit, okay?" Ami nodded. "Do you want to come? You could talk to Cid about joining the fight."
"Yeah, that sounds good. I'll teach those Deepground jerks a thing or two, they'll be terrified of me!"
"Right," …I wish I could just be that confident in everything… everything's so uncertain now. All I know is… crap, I didn't want this… I never… The question he'd searched for, the question he'd so carefully avoided… Who am I? Is this really it? Is this all there is to my life?
"Thank you… I won't forget this," Ami said quietly, walking with Vincent and Estu back to Tifa's house. He nodded, though he wondered what lasting implications this ordeal would have on the two. They seemed mostly okay, and she was surprisingly supportive of Estu. I wonder… does he know how lucky he is? He seems to feel alone, but she really cares about him, and has come so far, just to help him. But then, Vincent had his little family as well. Maybe I am lucky… Or at least, not as unlucky as I thought. He opened the door and they reentered the house. Yuffie watched a bit warily as they all walked in.
"Who's this chick?"
"Estu's sister Ami," Vincent answered for her.
"…Beanie-Boy has a sister?"
"Don't call me that!" Estu protested.
Ami laughed. "Beanie-Boy?"
"Ami, it's not funny," Estu sulked.
"I don't know, it's pretty funny if you ask me."
Yuffie grinned, "See, Beanie-Boy, she actually has a sense of humor. Too bad it doesn't run in the family." Estu mumbled something about being adopted, then walked off to find Marlene and Denzel. "Such a sour grape, just like some other jerk!" Yuffie said, glaring at Vincent again.
"…Yuffie, you're one of the most important people in my life. You know that, right?" he asked.
She looked shocked. "Did you just… ? Aw, Vinnie! You are a human being after all!"
"…Thank you?" he said uncertainly, still uncomfortable with her feelings for him. …She's going to get over it. She's going to get over it…
"You're welcome," she said, smiling. Quickly, ninja-like, Vincent supposed, she stood hugged him before he could do anything. "Don't worry, I won't leave you," she teased. She's not going to get over it.
Oh well… Maybe I just need to get over it… He walked over to the living room to see Estu and Marlene playing the old piano. He seemed fairly happy, working on recreating a tune Marlene had been humming all day. Getting his mind off the present was probably good for him… Just as Vincent needed to get his mind off of, well everything, really. He still felt guilty about the incident with Chaos… forgiving himself had always been an issue. I'm helping him… but its for such a selfish reason… she shouldn't have thanked me.
"No, I'm not playing the darn 'Chocobo Song'… quit bugging me about it," Estu complained. Marlene poked at his arm, knowing it annoyed him.
Well… at least he'll be okay for now.
A/N: A really character centric chapter... Really mostly about Estu, too... oh well. I really try to balance focus among all the characters, but after what happened in the last chapter, it was difficult.