Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as are the OCs. This chapter got eventful, I must admit, as far as related to later chapters/stories goes. Enjoy!
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104 – At First Sight
3:44 am
Mikayla was crying. Right on schedule. Tifa had developed a routine check system every time the infant cried, and almost every time, she never located the reason for the tears. Mikayla wasn't hungry, she didn't need changing, she didn't need burping, she wasn't hurt or sick or in any kind of discomfort that Tifa could figure out. For some reason, the baby just wanted to cry.
No, this wasn't crying. This was screaming. This was shrieking and wailing, and the first few nights it happened, either Tifa or Leon would spring out of bed like a rocket and rush to the baby's aid. After three weeks, however, their reaction times had gone from spring to trudge.
"Shh. Shh. Shh." Tifa repeated methodically, holding the baby at her chest as she slowly rocked on her heels, meandering around the nursery room.
Mikayla refused to be comforted and hiccupped as she continued to cry. Tifa winced, rubbing her back in gentle circles. Every cry was a stab to her heart, and it was made worse by the fact that she had no idea what was upsetting her daughter so much.
"Momma's here." She cooed. "Shh. Momma's here, baby. It's okay."
At a loss, Tifa started humming lightly as she meandered around the nursery, eventually finding herself near the door. Out of ideas, she carried Mikayla out of the nursery and into the hallway. The door to Tifa and Leon's bedroom was ajar from when she had come to Mikayla, and through the sliver, she could see that Leon hadn't moved from where she'd left him. He'd recently returned to his duties for the Alliance. From what she'd heard, Private McCallister had run a tight ship while he was out, but the same couldn't be said for Tifa's department.
Apparently anarchy had set in after the person that Tifa appointed to run things while she was maternity leave was injured. Her second string had had a death in the family. Her third string had been abruptly sent to Deep Jungle to oversee a summer campaign. Her fourth and fifth strings had forgotten which of them was fourth and fifth, and it had culminated in a mess. For the time being, Cloud had stepped up to co-run the department with McCallister, who for some reason had thrown herself into her work for the past week.
Leon had come home that night after 18 straight hours of getting caught up and dealing with the avalanche that had become Tifa's department. He would probably still be there if Cloud hadn't physically removed him from the building. As it was, though Leon was normally an irrationally light sleeper, he slept like the dead on this particular night.
Tifa snorted and made her way downstairs, Mikayla in tow. It was a clear night, so the moonlight spilling through the windows was enough for Tifa to see her way around. She continued to hum as Mikayla continued to cry, and she tried to incorporate a few timed bounces on her feet with the notes of the song.
She wandered aimlessly around the first floor of the house, around the living room, through the kitchen, around the dining room, around the study, and then absently through the den before winding up by the enclosed back porch.
"Whatcha cryin' for, hm?" She cooed. "Whatever it is can't be that bad."
She slowed, glancing out onto the back porch, which was cut accessible from the house from a screen door, with glass windows lining the connected wall. Duke had been more or less stationed there since Mikayla had been born. The dog had, after keening and clawing in frustration at her exile from the house, eventually succumbed to her restricted sleeping space and was curled up on her dog pillow under the patio table.
Mikayla's crying had roused Duke, and she lifted her head from her paws curiously. Tifa smiled with a wink at her as she continued to hum to the baby, rocking from side to side by the door. Duke's tail swished once and her ears quirked up.
"That's right," Tifa mused softly. "You two haven't been properly introduced yet."
Duke licked her nose and yawned, climbing laboriously out of her curled up position.
"I'm sure you've been hearing her every night." Tifa chirped to the dog. "Sorry you've been cooped up out here, girl, but she's not ready to play with you yet."
Duke stood on her feet, stretching and shaking herself before wagging her tail, eyes glued to Tifa and that strange, noise-making bundle that she was holding. Tifa snickered and turned her eyes to Mikayla, who had lapsed into whimpering and gurgling unhappily.
"This is Mikayla." Tifa stated. "You're going to be seeing a lot of her from now on."
Mikayla's face was red from crying, and Tifa's shoulder was wet from the tears, but Mikayla's blue eyes were open wide as the fit tapered off, and she looked off to the side with a whimper. Tifa pressed her lips to the top of the baby's head.
"There we go." She whispered. "See? Nothing to cry about. I was just telling Duke how much you two are going to see each other." She chuckled, turning her body sideways so that the dog was in Mikayla's line of sight. "That's Duke. She's going to be one of your best friends. Isn't that right, Duke?"
The dog's tail wagged at her name, and she inched toward the screen door, touching her nose to it and backing a few steps away with a canine grin. Tifa smiled tiredly and slowly knelt down so that they were almost at eye level. Mikayla squirmed and made a vague noise. Tifa rubbed her back again, and Duke sniffed, approaching the screen again and snorting before wagging her tail and lowering to her belly on the floor, looking up at them.
"That's what I thought." Tifa said lightly. "You're just going to have be patient a little longer, until we all get a little more used to having a baby around, okay?"
Duke's tail stilled and her ears drooped, as if to say: fine, I don't like waiting, but okay.
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105 – Control Issues
"I'm not going to leave you alone until you show me." Yuffie pestered, following Aerith around the Marketplace. "You've shown Cloud and Cid and Jake—"
"I never showed Jake my research." Aerith corrected.
"Well…then he watched while you weren't looking. You haven't exactly been hiding when you're conducting these experiments." Yuffie countered. "C'mon, I wanna see you summon the Heart of Radiant Garden and bend it to your will!" She made a righteous fist.
Aerith regarded her with a flat look. "No."
"Whhhhy?" Yuffie whined, trailing after her.
"This is serious, Yuffie. I'm not playing around. I'm trying to develop new ways to fight the darkness and protect Radiant Garden." Aerith pointed out. "It's not 'fun' or 'hip' or 'awesome.' It's very dangerous and not to made light of."
Yuffie snorted. "You grew a tree with your mind. That's pretty awesome."
When she noted Aerith's unamused expression, Yuffie sobered but continued to follow her. She had seen some of her friend's research when she helped Aerith move into Rinoa's apartment. It had been mostly notebooks full of scribbles and math equations…a big fat slice of BO-RING…but recently she had been hearing and seeing the results of these experiments and they sounded far from boring. Growing trees and flowers out of nothing, breaking apart rocks and digging aqueducts with your mind? That was straight up Jedi.
Besides, it wasn't like she was asking Aerith to teach her or anything. Aerith had a pretty sharp learning curve when it came to magic and stuff like that, and if it had taken Aerith this long just to get the general hang of this 'heart' stuff, then it would probably take Yuffie nearly a year. That was a lot of time and not a lot of satisfying results. Yuffie was a pretty quick learner in basic magic, but Merlin had attempted to teach her some more advanced spells once. Once.
It wasn't her fault that the incantation had a weird pronounciation, and therefore not her fault that his favorite drapes had caught fire. Magic was stupid anyway.
That didn't mean she couldn't think it looked wicked awesome when someone else did it. Her strengths were just better applied elsewhere.
"Please?" Yuffie pleaded, as the two women left the Marketplace and began walking toward the residential district.
"First of all." Aerith lifted a hand as they walked. "I don't 'summon' anything. I request cooperation. Sort of like…I knock on the door and the light answers. Secondly, I do not 'bend' it to my will. That is insulting to the Heart of Radiant Garden. To think that one person could simply dredge up and control something as massive and powerful as an entire world's heart is just arrogant." She huffed. "And thirdly…I'm tired, Yuffie."
The ninja could hear it in her voice, but she pressed on. "Then just a small demonstration."
"Even the smallest…demonstration…takes a lot of energy, Yuffie. I can't just up and do it whenever I feel like it. I time out my experiment sessions very carefully so that I don't overexert myself."
"Lame." Yuffie stuck her tongue out and promptly darted in front of Aerith, cutting her off. "C'mon. There's no one around. No one'll see. You obviously have some crazy good self control. Cloud probably told you it was dangerous, and Cid probably thought it was just another fancy magic trick. I," She dramatically gestured to herself. "can appreciate this. I can give you some real positive feedback."
"Yuffie—" Aerith tried to move around her. Yuffie hopped sideways, blocking her.
"Yuffie, please move—" Aerith tried to move to the other side, but Yuffie blocked her again. "This is really childish…Would you just…Yuffie—"
Yuffie continued to bounce side to side, preventing her from walking away. "Show me!"
Aerith let out an exasperated noise, stomped one foot, snapped her right hand up from her side, and exhaled sharply. With that abrupt motion set, the air around them both electrified and Yuffie felt every hair on her body stand up. Something—she couldn't initially describe it—crawled up around her ankles and similarly wrapped around her elbows. It felt warm but cool at the same time, like smoke was enveloping her. A smoky rope.
The wind left her lungs as she suddenly left her feet. Then she was being jolted sideways, not violently, but surprisingly all the same. In the span of a split second, her back touched the wall of the building a few feet away, and she gasped, looking wildly to Aerith.
The woman looked completely calm, her expression waxen and her eyes almost blank. Something uncomfortable twisted through Yuffie's insides, but it just as abruptly ended as the smoky ropes around her ankles and elbows vanished. Yuffie yelped as she dropped from the three inch height that she'd been hovering. She staggered, regained her balance, and looked to Aerith with wide eyes.
"Holy crap!" She squealed in delight. "That was amazing!"
Aerith blinked, expression returning to her face. "That wasn't—"
"That was a SMALL demonstration?!" Yuffie whooped. "Then remind me not to piss you off, because I don't even know what would be considered big!"
Aerith awkwardly laughed her off, but as Yuffie turned and bounced away cackling, she looked down at her palm, disconcerted.
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106 – Breaking Point
"Tabaeus." Mindy Tallman's voice reached across the Borough.
Tabaeus pointedly avoided looking at the woman. For the past week, she had managed to avoid this situation. She didn't trust her words, she didn't trust her actions: she knew she needed to confront this, but not now. Not at the moment. And certainly not in the middle of town. Was this what her social life amounted to: public arguments about relationship crap?
"Tabaeus, I didn't know that Jake was your boyfriend." Mindy was closing the distance between them. "Please, Tabaeus, I just want to have a conversation with you like adults."
"Adults." Tabaeus snapped her heels together and spun to face Mindy Tallman, her ex-friend, ex-confidante, and soon to be ex-living if Tabaeus couldn't control herself. "Fine. Why are you in Radiant Garden?"
"I joined the Alliance—"
"Then join it back home." Tabaeus made a vague gesture.
Mindy tensed, "I…I'm sorry. I wanted to apologize. Not just for this, but for what happened six years ago. I've wanted to apologize for years, but you never let me."
"And why do you think that is?" Passersby were slowing at her raised voice, but Tabaeus couldn't register that at the moment. "I don't want you in my life; I made that mistake once."
Mindy looked hurt. Good.
"What's going on?" Aerith chimed in, stepping out of Merlin's house with Commander Leonhart right behind her, both looking perplexed at Tabaeus's behavior.
"Please, I know I made a mistake. I broke your trust—" Mindy started.
"Broke…You still have no idea what you did, do you?" Tabaeus snarled, heat rolling under her skin in waves of rage. "Years ago, I asked ONE THING of you. I didn't ask for munny, I didn't ask for help, I didn't ask for your loyalty or your friendship or your sympathy. I asked for your discretion, and you fucked it in the eye."
"Whoa." Jake appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, raising his hands.
Because that was the luck of Tabaeus McCallister.
"Not now, Jake." She hissed.
"Tabs, I NEVER meant to—" He started.
"I hit on him." Mindy tried to defend him. "Hell, I threw myself at him," She looked embarrassed. "I didn't know he had a girlfriend, much less that it was you. This isn't his fault."
Tabaeus lifted a hand to either side of her face, overwhelmed, before lowering them again. "You—Leave, Jake." She barked. "I can't—I can't do this right now."
"No." Jake stepped forward, "I'm not giving up on us."
"I was fine." Tabaeus looked at him, face stoic, but her eyes were wide and accusatory. "I was perfectly content to be alone. I was comfortable and I was happy. You took that from me. You took away my numbness, and you made me feel—" She cut herself off, feeling emotion creeping up into her throat. She shoved it down. "And then this."
"You want numbness?" Mindy interjected. "I guess that's just you all over the place, isn't it? You're a ROBOT, Tabaeus. You couldn't handle emotions back then, and I see that it hasn't changed now. I'm starting to think James got the better end of that deal."
Tabaeus saw red.
The next thing she knew, she had tackled Mindy Tallman to the cobblestone floor of the Borough, slammed the woman onto her back, and was punching every inch of her that she could reach. Mindy cried out and tried to defend herself, but her basic training had no standing against Tabaeus's four years under Commander Leonhart.
Almost immediately, Leonhart was there. Tabaeus's red painted mind registered his arms around her stomach, hauling her off Mindy's bleeding face and dragging her away.
"Easy, soldier." He was saying, putting her on her feet and holding her there.
Tabaeus locked her knees and held onto the arms around her waist, both trying to hold herself back and throw herself forward at the same time. "I hope you ROT IN HELL!" She screamed at Mindy, and her voice echoed across the small zone.
More people were staring, and hot tears bubbled up and broke free from her eyes. She deflated, realizing just how many people were staring. She paused in her superior officer's arms, glancing around in horror before her eyes landed on Jake. He looked pained.
Tabaeus drew a breath and straightened, bloodshot eyes narrowed. "And you can join her." With that, she brushed Commander Leonhart's arms away from her and stiffly but quickly left the Borough. Humiliation and horror swam through her stomach, making her nauseated.
As she made her exit, Leon watched her go, and then looked pointedly at the onlookers.
"All right, move along, people." He saw Aerith kneeling over Mindy, whose nose was clearly broken and her mouth was bleeding. "Will she be okay?"
Aerith nodded, and Jake started to run toward Leon, to go after McCallister.
Leon deftly sidestepped, physically blocking him. "Leave her alone right now."
"I have to explain," Jake choked, "I have to apologize. She has to hear me out—"
"She 'has to' do nothing." Leon narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Stay away from her."
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Preview for next week: "I accidentally put energy drink in the coffee this morning…I can see sounds."