Chapter Thirty-Seven - Discomfort

"I! Hate! These! Monsters!"

Kunsel hoisted Yuffie up by her armpits as she continued stomping. "We get it! I'm pretty sure it's dead now."

Laughter echoed through the double level foyer. Looking down from the second floor landing stood Zack.

"Looks like you didn't need my help."

Aerith looked up from healing a bullet wound in Barret's foot. Self-inflicted. "Zack, how's Cloud?"

Zack vaulted over the banister before answering. "He's fine. Just needs some rest."

He was close enough so Aerith could look in his eyes and see what he wasn't saying. Something's wrong, but I don't want to worry anyone.

"Well, we have to find clues now, right? I wouldn't know what to look for, so I'll go check on Cloud."

Kunsel frowned. That didn't sound right. Wouldn't Aerith be one of the people best able to... Then he saw the grateful look on Zack's face. Oh.

"So, where should we look first?" Kunsel said.

Zack studied the ceiling for a bit before answering. "Sephiroth spent the most time in the library, but that was five years ago and some of the stuff might've been moved. There were a lot of papers and books scattered around when we escaped. We should probably search the whole mansion, just to be sure."

Nanaki looked up at Zack. "That's a lot of ground to cover."

"Yeah, that's true. Right. So we'll split into two teams. One will take the first floor and the other will take the second. Whoever finishes first will help the other team on their floor and then we'll move on to the basement."

*7*7*

"Cloud?" The scene in front of Aerith reminded her of when she found him in her garden. Of course, the surroundings were different, but Cloud looked just as he did then. Like a lost little boy.

He looked up just enough to see her, then let his head sink down onto his knees again. "Are you worried about me, too?"

"Should I be?"

"No."

"Then I won't." Still, she didn't leave, either. She sat lightly on the edge of the bed as if waiting for something.

It took surprisingly little time for the silence to wear down Cloud.

"Why do you care?"

Aerith looked at him as if she had no idea what he was talking about. "Care about what?"

"About me." Cloud didn't dare look directly at her. "I'm... broken."

"Isn't everyone?" She actually laughed a little. "No one's perfect, Cloud."

Cloud's eyes unfocused. "Zack is."

"Hmm. I wouldn't know about that." Aerith lightly touched her fingers to her chin and tilted her head to one side. "You know, you're making me wonder if maybe I should worry that you'll try to take my boyfriend away from me."

"What?" It took Cloud a moment to process what she was implying. As he did, his face drained of color and his eyes widened. "What? No! That's not what I meant! I lo..." Color returned to his face in full force.

Aerith laughed as he tried to hide his increasingly red cheeks. "I know, but don't you think it's rather silly to see someone as perfect? It's not possible." She looked down at her feet swinging just above the floor. "You know, it was Zack's idea that I sell flowers, but when we tried it out, he ended up chasing our first customer away! He's good with people, but he's a horrible salesman." She giggle at the memory. "And he's a terrible flirt, too. Oh, I don't mean that he's bad at it, he's very good, a real lady's man. That's kind of the problem. I really thought it was possible that he left and found another girlfriend somewhere." She looked back at Cloud, who had peeked over his knees as she talked. "So you see? Everyone has faults and things they wish they had done differently."

He felt stupid. Of course Aerith was right. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was especially wrong with him. No. He knew there was something especially wrong with him. Unless these things in his head were normal. He was afraid to ask.

*7*7*

Yuffie groaned. "This is soooo boooooring. I'd rather fight one of those creepy pendulum guys again."

"Well, you can always go outside. I'm sure something would attack you." It's not like this was Kunsel's idea of a good time, either. And why did he keep ending up with Yuffie, anyway?

Gunfire echoed down the back hall from the kitchen, followed by a couple explosions.

"Sounds like Barret and Cait are having fun."

Yuffie dropped her head onto the piano, resulting in a horribly out of tune clang. "There's nothing here! Can't we just go?"

Kunsel started to agree. He thought for sure that one clue had something to do tea cups, or something similar. Though he had no idea what the 'ray' would be. He turned to say as much, but ended up just staring.

Yuffie noticed this. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Ivories. Tea and ray. I am such an idiot!" Kunsel slapped his forehead.

He'd lost it, Yuffie thought for sure she was stuck in a room with a crazy SOLDIER. "Uh, hey, I wouldn't say you were an idiot..." She slid off the bench, keeping her hands up and the piano between her and Kunsel.

Not that he seemed to notice. Even as Yuffie backed away, he dove for the floor. "Piano keys used to be made out of ivory. I don't remember most of the musical scale, but 'tea' and 'ray' were in there somewhere. AH HA!" In what seemed to be a single motion, he took out the letter's second page and a pen and wrote something next to the second hint.

"Wait. You mean I was sitting on top of the clue this whole time?"

"Pretty much." Kunsel jumped up, the paper and pen back in his pocket. "We better go see what Barret and Cait found."

*7*7*

"Excuse me." Tifa opened the door to the bedroom slowly. "Zack said I should start searching in here. Just in case."

Aerith smiled and stood up. "Of course. Cloud's feeling a lot better, so I'm sure he'd be happy to help. Right, Cloud?"

"Uh, yeah." Cloud stood up, though he had this horrible feeling that he was being set up.

"Great." Aerith almost skipped on her way to the door. "I'll just go see if there's anything I can help with. Have fun!"

With that parting word, both Cloud and Tifa were silently and profoundly aware that they were in a bedroom. Alone. Neither looked at the other, so they couldn't see that both their faces were starting to turn red.

"I'm... glad you're feeling better."

"Yeah. Just needed to sit down, I guess."

"So, we should start searching the room now, right?"

"Yeah."

Looking more for something to make the situation less awkward than for anything related to their mission, Tifa glanced around the room until her eyes settled on a bookcase. "There. We can start there."

Cloud still didn't look at Tifa. He grabbed a pile of books and set himself up near the wardrobe on the other side of the room. Tifa stayed near the bookcase. Neither spoke for several minutes, the silence broken only by the rustle of paper.

*7*7*

Zack dropped the book he'd been flipping through and rubbed his eyes. "Ugh. I don't suppose you understand any of this, Red? Ah! Calling you Nanaki is going to take some getting used to."

"It's all right. At least you're making the effort. As for your question, I am not familiar with many of the terms used in these books."

"Figures." Zack grimaced at the next tome in the stack. Survey of Mako Concentrations In Auxiliary Reactor Personnel Compared To Local Population. Fun. "I'm starting to think this wasn't such a great idea."

"I suppose we could go straight to the basement, but I got the impression that you wanted to put that off for as long as possible."

Zack gave Nanaki a guilty smile. "That obvious, huh?"

"That's where you were held, isn't it? It's understandable that you would not want to go back there. I know I have no desire to revisit the lab where I was kept."

"Yeah." Zack still didn't pick up the next book, preferring to glare at it. "Still, I can't put it off forever."

"Put what off?"

Zack nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the new voice, even if it was familiar. "Aerith! It's, uh..." He scratched the back of his head and fidgeted. "I kinda don't want to go back into the basement."

Whatever reaction he was expecting, it wasn't giggles.

"Aerith? Am I missing something?"

"Hmm. Not really." She leaned forward slightly with her hands behind her back. "You're just a little more flawed than some give you credit for."

"Uh, good?"

Aerith managed to look serious even while still smiling. "Yes and no. If something is bothering you, you should say so."

For a moment, Zack didn't say anything. He scratched the back of his head again and breathed out a half-hearted laugh. "I should follow my own advice. Okay. Let's get everyone together and make a new plan."

"We should pick up Tifa and Cloud last. I left them alone in the other wing."

Zack's grin returned. "Mind reading wouldn't happen to be a Cetra ability, would it?"

"Hmm. Maybe. Not that I'd need it to know what you're thinking."

"Are you calling me simple?"

She shrugged. "You said it, not me."

*7*7*

"I never thanked you," Tifa finally said.

Cloud blinked. "For what?"

"For protecting me at the reactor. Remember? You stayed with me while Zack and... Sephiroth went inside. You protected me from that monster."

He remembered that. One of the few almost pleasant things about that time was standing with her outside the reactor. Even though he didn't dare talk to her and she soon grew tired of talking at him, just being with her sent his insides churning in not entirely unpleasant ways. "I didn't do a very good job."

Tifa turned to look at him, even though his back remained facing her. "What do you mean?"

Cloud's shoulders slumped as he gave up pretending to read the book in front of him. "I was knocked out. If Zack hadn't come..."

"If you hadn't taken that blast for me, it wouldn't matter if Zack came or not." She slid a bit closer to him. "I... I just wanted to thank you, for keeping our promise."

Cloud squeezed his eyes shut. A moment passed when Tifa thought he wasn't going to respond.

"You're welcome."

This time neither of them could find the words to break the awkward silence. This time, the silence, if not the awkwardness, was broken by Zack bursting into the room. His face fell almost instantly from mischievous anticipation to disappointment.

"You two have been reading this whole time? Never mind. Kunsel's found something, we just have to figure out what 'the box with the most oxygen' is."

They heard Barret's voice out in the hall. "An' I say we jes' bust the safe open! It don't look so tough."

"Is that your solution to everythin'?" Cait said. "Bustin' somethin'?"

"Hey, guys! Plants make oxygen, right?"

Everyone turned or poked their heads out to see what Yuffie meant. She stood in the doorway to a large circular room full of potted plants.

Zack tipped his head to one side, thinking. "That was a bedroom five years ago. Hey, Kunsel, how old did you say that letter was?"

"Old. Definitely more than five years. The page with the hints is a lot newer, though."

"Makes sense. I had gotten that safe open once before, so someone could have reset the combination."

"How did you guys win the war if all you do is talk?" Yuffie slammed down the lid of a box in the center of the room. The first number of the combination is 'right 36.'"

Barret crossed his arms. "I'm still not sure 'bout this. We don't know if this guy'll be an enemy or what."

"He's been asleep for years, Barret." Aerith looked up at the big man with her best pleading expression. "We can't just leave him like that."

As Barret melted under Aerith's gaze, Cloud and Tifa looked on in confusion.

Tifa spoke first. "Are we missing something?"

Red padded over to her and motioned with his ears toward the room opposite them. Through the door, Kunsel could be seen examining a large, old-fashioned safe. "Kunsel found a letter indicating that someone, possibly Hojo, experimented on a man and trapped him somewhere in the mansion. The key to his location is in that safe."

Tifa started to respond when a shout almost drowned out by the rending of metal rang out of the room. The noise was quickly followed by Kunsel flying backwards through the open doorway and into Zack.

Barret had his gun arm up while Kunsel was still in flight. He hesitated when he saw what had thrown the SOLDIER. "How the hell'd that thing fit in the safe?"

'Thing' was a good way to describe it, as it looked like no animal or monster any of them had seen before. Half of it was red and orange and a mass of tentacles, two of which were longer and seemed to fuction as the primary limbs for that side. The other side was purple and green with an arm coming out of where the ear would be and a leg instead of a neck. It was huge, easily three or more times the size of the safe, or what was left of it.

"Would explain why it's so angry." Kunsel shook his head as he tried to regain his footing. "Whoa! Look out!"

The warning barely left his mouth as the monster released a thunder spell through the doorway.

*7*7*

Between blasts of magic, Barret's cursing, and half a dozen people trying to hit a monster through a two and a half square yard hole, it was a wonder no one was killed. As it was, the only one unscathed was Tifa. This mainly because Cloud shoved her into the bedroom and blocked the door the instant the monster started attacking.

For which she glared at him once the fight was over. That is, until she saw the state of the hallway and everyone in it. Even Zack looked the worse for wear.

Cloud only saw the glare. After that, nothing could take his eyes away from the floor.

Which gave him the perfect vantage point to see a certain ninja make a dive for a small red ball.

He dove after her, but was a second too late. She rolled out of range and waved her prize in the air.

"My materia! I saw it first!" She ignored the collective groan as she rolled the materia in her palms. "So, what is it?"

"A summon." Kunsel's helpful comment was answered by a scowl.

"I know that. You don't get to be the world's greatest materia hunter if you can't tell a materia's basic type. I mean what summon is it?"

Zack leaned against what was left of the door frame. "Wouldn't the world's greatest materia hunter be able to tell?"

Yuffie looked like she wanted to throw something. "If you don't know, just say so!"

"It's Odin."

Everyone's attention turned to Cloud, who had somehow managed to stand up without anyone noticing.

Cait spoke first. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you haveta touch a materia before you can tell what it is?"

"Yeah," Kunsel said. "Usually."

"That 'portant or som'in'?"

Yes and no. Zack pinched the bridge of his nose. "Let's just see if there's anything left of the key and get this over with."

Sorry folks, no Vincent yet. Actually, I thought I could put off the basement scenes a bit longer. Not so. I don't know if I can do scary. I've tried in the past, and it mostly just got snickers. Granted, my test audience consisted of my little sisters...

Maybe the question should be if I can do scary with Yuffie in the party.