Just the Three of Us
Aerith's words hung heavily over my head. I was at a loss for words, frozen in the middle of the guest room. Aerith couldn't contain herself and had to sit down, her body to the edge of the twin bed.
"Well, I'm half ancient, but still. You and I are-"
"How am I an ancient?!" I interrupted, and she bit her lower lip, eyes away. There was that dreadful silence again. I noticed her hands gripping the skirt of her dress tightly, as though overwhelmed with guilt.
"You hear the voices, don't you? At night or when it's quiet and lonely?" she treaded carefully, eyes up at mine when I didn't say anything. My face told it all, and she continued, "I hear them too. The whispering, the voices of cries and sometimes happiness. It's the planet."
I couldn't stand another moment, my legs were turning into jello. I stumbled onto the edge of the bed, next to her, and she took my hand into hers.
"We are connected, by our Ancient blood. We can speak to the planet and will its powers for us. The planet told me you were coming. That's why I was so happy to have finally met you. And also…." Aerith paused, her eyes analyzing her hands, perhaps to witness the green power emitting from her palms and fingers. She shifted her words inside herself, about to reveal something else, but she held back and changed everything last second.
"You have tremendous magic, Aqua. You hardly have to think about it before casting a powerful spell from low-level magic materia. And with my help, I can teach you to use magic without it."
I listened to her every word carefully, and then mumbled, "But my parents…"
"They found you, didn't they?" she claimed, her hold warm and delicate. I wanted to let go and run, go someplace far, far away. And another part of me wanted to stay, to get through it all.
"The planet, for some reason, saved you, maybe when your real parents were in danger, You traveled through the life stream, and it has taken you to a safe place," Aerith whispered. "I wish that happened for me and my mother."
I had to let go of her hands, and sink my face into mine, my cold fingers refreshing to my hot cheeks. I knew it made sense, it made total sense, but it was so much to process. I mean, I was taken somewhere safe all right. But it was, like, a whole other universe. Were our worlds connected somehow? Was my home alive just as much the planet was alive here in this world?
"And then…." I stuttered, "I was called back? That's why I am here? This is…..This is where I belong?" My hands began to tingle with that same numbness feeling, my heart ready to leap out of my chest.
Aerith's eyes watered, and she just shook her head, not catching on.
"Aerith! You believe me, don't you? I was brought here, by the planet, from my home, a different world. Which apparently sounds like it wasn't where I came from, and from which I came from, I didn't come from there and came from here, and-" I got myself scattered of confusion, my head ready to explode.
She just shook her head and muttered to herself, eyes closed, overwhelmed and about ready to shut down.
"If I am an Ancient, which I still don't think that I am, there's no way I came from here in the first place, my birthplace. Are you telling me the planet somehow sent me away, someplace safe, where we don't even know Ancients and magic? And now I'm back? But why?! Why now?!" my voice grew but then I reeled back, afraid to scare off Aerith, for she suddenly appeared fragile and tiny.
But I had to know. Why was I brought here? What purpose was it to stumble into a place that I didn't belong, with powers I didn't know I had.
"I…" Aerith shook her head and carried that guilty look again.
"I don't understand. Why now? What do you mean? You were taken from Shinra weren't you? That's why you are here," she told me in a quiet voice, not looking at me.
I took Aerith's hands in mine, and tried to reel her eyes to look up.
"I'm not from here. I'm from a different world. That's why I know nothing of Ancients. That's why I don't know if I am one. And even so,…." what's the fucking point, I wanted to blurt, but instead I let it drag into silence.
Aerith kept shaking her head, getting far away.
"I'm sorry. I…. I just don't believe that. I do believe that you were raised without knowing what you really were, why you are taking it so hard," she admitted, her voice distant.
"How did you know you are an Ancient?" I pried, unintentionally harsh, but Aerith straightened up and let her eyes lift back up to the ceiling, to help her remember.
"I was still a baby, when Shinra took me and my mother. They killed my real father, a kind scientist."
She slipped her hands away, stood up and hugged herself, her back to me as she gazed out the window. I could hear her shiver in her red denim coat, and she continued, "They brought me and mum here, to Shinra headquarters. And….did experiments on us", and her arms flapped at her sides heavily.
I took my hand to my mouth, to keep me from interrupting with questions. I was afraid Aerith would shrink away if I was louder than a whisper, interrupting her tragic childhood. She told me about how alone she felt, being in a laboratory for a couple of years. There was a playmate, but it didn't last, a child of an employee, and her mother being taken away, tortured.
"Hojo…." she uttered under her breath, the first time I felt her angry. "Every day, he took my mother and ran his experiments. He poked and prodded her, sometimes till she was too sick to play with me or even get out of bed. That man is pure evil…"
She then explained how she and her mother escaped, thanks to a friend, and got as far as the train station between sector 6 and sector 7. Elmyra found them, but then it was just Aerith who went home with her.
"Ilfana… my real mother. She didn't make it," she ended, and her face went into her hands, shoulders trembling.
Right away, I got up and slowly came in behind her, my arms encircling her small frame, and rested my chin over her shoulder, her hair in my nose as I smelled the flowers she tended.
"Oh Aerith…" I tightened my hold. She gripped my arms with her trembling hands, and buried her tears in my arms.
"You're so lucky…" she gasped, my arms getting wet. "The planet saved you from knowing, from being caught. You lived a normal life… I wish…." she couldn't finish, too broken, but I knew what she wished for. She wished to live like I did, oblivious to our upbringing, our blood. She turned around and sank her head into my chest, a few inches shorter than I was, and I cradled her in my arms.
We remained that way for a while, the door of the room only open a hair, but I could tell, a shadow loomed under its crack, two legs near it as though someone had listened. I wondered if it was Cloud, but then the floorboards creaked and the shadow was gone. Either way, I was glad no one came in. I held Aerith for as long as she needed me to. I closed my eyes, my cheek resting on her head and let her fall into me, our energies intertwined, like embracing both spiritually and physically. As much as I didn't want to, I knew she was right about me. I had a deep feeling ever since I first met her. I could feel her magic pulsing out of her and colliding with mine gently, saying hello.
And then there were the whispers. Quietly, I could hear them as the night grew heavier, and the house turned quiet.
"I hear them," I smiled, asking if she could too, and she nodded in my chest, face wedged between my breasts until wet spots soaked through my shirt.
"Me too…" she joined, and almost forced a laugh while sniffling.
For the first time, I didn't feel afraid of them. Instead, I craned my ears to listen, to see if I could make out what the voices were saying, but it all sounded like many voices saying gibberish to me.
"What are they saying? I don't understand," I admitted sadly. The whispers grew, until the whole room became filled with them. Aerith sniffed and rubbed her eyes in my shirt.
"The planet is happy to have us finally meet," she said. Aerith took her time to collect herself, picking her head up and showing me a red nose, red-eyed woman who didn't spend much of her time crying.
"How do you know that?" I asked, slowly accepting the truth, for now.
Aerith dabbed at her eyes with her skirt and heaved a chuckle.
"You just have to listen. Don't fight them, the voices. The planet is just trying to communicate with you," she explained half-heartedly, and leaned against my shoulder when we sat back down on the bed.
I shook my head, a dumbfounded smile on my face.
"All this time….." I chuckled too, and stared off at a wall, "I thought I was crazy…." The doctor visits, the medications, the difficulty falling asleep, the anxiety that followed. It was all because I was afraid. Not once, had I tried to listen, to open up to the voices and hear what they had to say. I imagined millions of spirits, roaming inside the planet in a stream like the River of Styx, reaching for me to tell me things. I blocked them out for years, with the meds, and had forgotten them for a long time, living the life of an anxious person, normal.
I sucked in a deep breath, rethinking everything. My life, my fiancée, and all that was left behind in New York. It made a horrible ache in the pit of my stomach, and I blew out a long sigh. What was I to do now? What am I supposed to do? I wished the planet could give me the answer, with its whispers and magic. I closed my eyes to listen, but they were just distant voices, too mixed like everyone talking all at once; I thought I was surrounded by hundreds of spirits. For whatever reason, I was brought here, brought to Aerith. It finally gave me some relief, but in exchange, guilt. Was I to stay here, leave all that life I had, behind?
There was no place for Aerith or Cloud in a place like New York. No actual monsters to keep Cloud busy nor many flowers for Aerith to grow. It was almost no different from Midgar, and yet too different, too difficult. The stressors of that life appeared different from this one, a simpler one here in a way. But how did I know? It was just a sense, an observation.
I must've thought quietly for a long time, the voices a gentle background, when I heard Aerith breathe heavily against me, her sticky eyes closed. I craned my head down, only to find her asleep against my shoulder, her small lips partly open and perfectly small nose making a pitch sound from old snot she hadn't cleared yet. I puffed a smile down at her; even after crying she looked beautiful.
Footsteps creak into the bedroom, quietly, and I knew it was Cloud because I heard him sigh his "I'm too tired" sigh. The sound of his sword clanked gently against a wall where it was to rest.
When he didn't say anything, I whispered to him without looking away, "she's asleep."
His form grew nearer, quieter than I would expect from someone with armor and thick boots. He appeared in front of me, quiet as he looked down at a sleeping Aerith.
"Here," he whispered, and knelt down. Very gently, he slipped his warm arms in, one looped under her legs and his other around her shoulders. I shifted mine away, and he straightened, holding her into him like she was a small child. She was still asleep, her arms dangling and chest rising and falling slowly. I watched him take her away, to her room where she would rest. I couldn't stop smiling as I watched him carry her, protective of her staying asleep.
The lights were out. I laid in bed, jeans off and hid under the covers, while Cloud laid on the floor in a sleeping bag. I was almost nervous to be sharing a room with him, even if it meant we were only a few feet apart, a whispers shot. His breathing was slow, quiet, and yet I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not. I, on the other hand, was wide awake, the planet's voices just a background I didn't want to focus on just yet. Instead, I laid on my back, the quilt to my lap, and stared up at the ceiling, hands behind my head. My heart was calm as I felt it thump slowly in my chest, and then I tried to forget about it instead of being hyper-focus on it and getting anxious. I sighed, and watched the shadows tremble across the ceiling from the waves of bushes and trees outside the window.
"Hey Cloud?" I whispered in the dark.
Nothing but silence, and I closed my eyes, a bit disappointed to be alone. We hardly muttered any good nights when he came back in, quickly peeling away his armor and sinking into his sleeping bag in less than one minute. Now that the night snuck in, and it was all quiet, everyone in their beds, I wondered how he was feeling in all of this.
"Yeah?" his voice broke the silence, a soft ring that sounded more alert than I was. So, he was awake, probably staring off in the dark or had his eyes closed. I pictured him lying on his back, his head too, on his hands, elbows out and legs sprawled, the covers off of him as he laid there in his bare uniform, the armor pieces piled on the floor.
"I think I'm going to stay here a while, with Aerith," I began, thinking aloud to him. I imagined her there, on that ceiling, her face looking down at me like an Angel wishing me good night.
"I know," he sounded distant, a bit down, and he repositioned in his sleeping bag.
"You feeling okay?" he asked me, voice low and comforting.
"Yeah, I do, strangely," I admitted.
"You seem like it," he agreed, and then he sighed. I heard his bare hands rub across his face like a gentle skin against skin sound.
I rolled on my side and looked down at the shadow mound of him, a lump in the dark on the floor.
"Tell me something," I pried, and already, he turned his back to me, grumbling, "oh no."
"You don't even know what I'm going to ask," I whined.
"I know it's personal. You're always asking personal questions," he muttered, his face away.
"I'm just curious…" I dragged, my arm hanging over the bed and propped my head up with my other hand. "When we were falling, down to the church, I used magic didn't I? To keep us alive?"
He was quiet for a long time, his thoughts mulling over my question, until he replied, "I thought I was dreaming, at first. I saw green magic, wrapped around us, and a light. It came from you. You surrounded us with….. It was like wings, and we floated down, the magic pushing away the roof and gently lying us in that flower bed. I never felt so safe before…"
I processed this word for word, and then flopped back to my back with a sigh, not sure how to respond. I believed him. I, too, thought it was just a dream, or that maybe he saved us. In reality, It was me and my magic, a magic I didn't even know how to use.
"You had asked me what it looked like when I saw you float down from the dark sky….When I first saw you…." his voice was even quieter, and I heard him swallow. I craned my head to his direction, eyes searching for his shadow in the dark.
"Yeah?"
"I said 'nothing' but…. To tell you the truth, I thought you were a goddess, or a demi god that was summoned, just floating down, green light all around you, and at," he chuckled to himself, "the worst possible time. The look on those security officers' faces", and I could practically hear him smile in the dark. I chuckled too, remembering their startled mouths hanging open under those ridiculous helmets.
"They looked so confused," I cackled, smiling.
"They didn't know what the hell to do," he joined, and together we both chuckled quietly, like two kids sharing secrets in the dark.
When it was quiet again, the mood light and easy, I was almost too afraid to ask him something else, something deep and painful, but I wanted to know, and I couldn't think of a better time to ask.
"Cloud?" I piped again.
"Yeah?"
Can I ask you something else?"
"Go for it," he said into his pillow, his voice muffled and sleepy.
"What did you mean when you couldn't save Tifa? Did you two have an accident a while back? What happened that is still giving you such guilt?"
"No…" his voice said through his pillow.
"No?"
"Not now…" he groaned.
"Someday then?" I asked, lips quivering, until I realized he probably couldn't tell, so I stopped.
"Fine, someday…" he grumbled, growing farther away. I remained quiet, listening to his breathing go softer and quieter till I felt the urge to speak again. I squirmed in my bed and blurted, "hey, Cloud?"
There was something between a growl and a groan in a pillow. And then he lifted his head up, voice clear and grumbled, "go to sleep, Aqua."
I ignored him and blurted, "what do you think of Aerith?" I'd half expected him to groan some more and ignore me, but when I craned my head to his direction, I saw him propped up, his eyes out at the window. He was quiet for a long time, actually thinking about it, and then he answered, "She's something." His tone made it sound negative at first and before I could make him elaborate, he smirked and told me, "I like her." He couldn't make it simpler than that. I felt the pit of my stomach churning, which made my hands reach down and hold it for a few minutes, like I just swallowed a hot piece of coal. I hardly knew Cloud, but any compliment from the enigma was to be taken seriously. I didn't really know how to reply, and having it left at that made the air feel too heavy for me, too heavy to almost breathe.
"I like her, too," I finally replied, more out of having the last word or just simply pushing away at his that seemed to hang in the air too much for me to bare. I thought for a long time in the dark, pondering what I was feeling, and why. I didn't like the feelings, and the whispers didn't help; they were distracting, pulling me away from my own thoughts till I could't tell what was mine and what was theirs.
Cloud's breathing slowed into a long peaceful rhythm, until I knew he had fallen asleep. I too, closed my eyes, and for the first time, I comfortably let the voices slowly spill into the room. Cloud's breathing was like a fan, soothing, and it helped me relax as I tried to breathe slow and steady. What will the voices tell me? Are they just there? Is there something I actually needed to know? There were so many, behind both ears, everyone shoving each other to get a word in as I pictured angels in white robes or green wisps of energy crowding around the bed.
There were too many, children, men and woman all bundled into noise. I let it all fade into the background, until I began to dream.
It was an odd dream at first, because the first thing I remembered were Cloud's eyes, his face floating above me like he was on the ceiling, or maybe he was looking down at me. I thought they were glowing, like those caves made from glowworms that could only be appreciated at night. It was almost a haunting feeling, someone in your dream, just watching you. I wanted to ask him how he was feeling, but then he disappeared, washed away by a distant light. I was still lying in bed, when a glowing hand reach down to touch my arm. It was a long, thin arm, skin pale, fingers long and feminine, with thin seashell bracelets wrapped around the wrist, and they clanked together gently like ornaments in a musical way.
The whole arm glowed in a golden light as it slowly dropped a hand down to me .
"Aqua," an older woman's voice demanded, a loud whisper. This woman sounded urgent, a message that needed to be told to me, and quickly.
I jolted awake and sat up instantly, startled to see Aerith right at my bedside with her hand to my arm.
"Aqua," she whispered, her eyes apologetic to wake me up so suddenly. I was breathing hard, my hands up to my hot face while I blinked the dream away.
"It's okay, just..." I sucked in a breath and tried to relax, my head slumped into my lap as I collected myself quickly. I then looked up and asked, calmer, "what is it?"
"Cloud's gone," she whispered, and she turned her eyes down to the floor where he was supposed to be. It was still dark, but I could see the sleeping bag all rolled up, sitting in the middle of the floor. Cloud's pile of armor and Buster sword were gone.
I rubbed at my eyes and sighed tiredly, the sleep felt short-lived. How long was I asleep?
"So? He probably went back to Sector 7," I groaned, and dropped my head back down on the pillow.
Aerith scoffed at me; I could practically picture her with her hands on her hips.
"So?! He doesn't know the shortcut. He won't know how to get in through the closed gate. What's he gonna do, sit at the playground and wait till morning? I think not," she justified politely. I smiled in my pillow, detecting a likeness to Cloud in her voice. Personally, I think she was just coming up with a simple excuse, afraid that once she loses him, she will lose him for good. I could understand that, with the way Cloud was living his life, he could be from one place to the next, and difficult to reach. I could tell, the three of us should probably stick together, or else it would be a brutal awakening for one of us to be alone and disconnected once more. Cloud was just someone you wanted to stick with, a true protector with mental health issues, but he was also loyal, and kind when he wanted to be. I thought of him quickly turning into a sort of big brother figure, someone I could easily confine in and just be myself. And if I was being honest, I'd make any excuse to not lose him either.
I lifted my head off the pillow and tried looking for Aerith's eyes in the dark.
"Okay, we should probably hurry then," I chimed, ready to accept her challenge. I could hear Aerith grin widely, and then she gasped, "first let's get you new clothes. You need a better disguise."
I rolled out of bed, still fatigued, but followed Aerith, tiptoeing to her room next door. She turned the lamp on, and I noticed she was fully clothed in her same pink dress and red coat; she may not have changed at all as she slept.
"We need to hurry," she whispered, leaving me dazed and sleepy in the middle of her room while she ruffled through her clothes rack, eying each dress. I watched her, and noticed that each garment was a dress on a hanger.
"Aerith..." I swallowed, afraid to sound rude. "No offense but...are all you have is dresses?" I hated wearing dresses, not unless I was on a date.
She sighed, looking at each one hurriedly.
"What's wrong with dresses? It's easy to move about, and it helps with the humidity," she justified, and pulled one out. Aerith carried many mid-dresses, enough room for your feet to get dirty, and open skirts to help her run if she needed to, but still, I eyed at them with annoyance. The one she pulled out was some little enchantment white lace dress, with spaghetti straps and buttons across the middle from top to bottom like her pink dress. I shook my head at it, already picturing the exposure of most of my body in it.
"No way..." I grumbled, arms crossed.
Aerith's eyes turned into puppy-dog eyes up at me.
"But this will look so cute on you. It almost matches your hair color! And you won't feel stiff and hot like in those jeans," she edged, and she even quivered her lip. I boiled under my skin, a deep hate for dresses ever since I made friends with boys and turned into a tomboy myself. I looked at dresses like a weakness, an expected thing that showed the world how girly and weak you were. But when I saw Aerith, I didn't get that impression. She wore them as a practicality, not to symbolize her fragility at all.
But still, I hated the idea of feeling almost naked, my legs and arms bare, the "channel eleven" nickname coming back to me because of my skinny legs.
"No," I grumbled again.
Aerith narrowed her eyes at me.
I let myself sizzle in the stupid white dress, feeling like I was a grown ass woman trying too hard to look like a little girl while I followed Aerith through the night.
"You owe me," I growled, but I she only giggled back. Gentle lanterns were scattered among Aerith's home, a lovely glow to guide us away easily. I looked up at the broken part of the plate, and saw nothing but black sky.
"Isn't the night so much prettier?" Aerith rang, her arms out wide while we traveled through the giant pipe tunnel. A couple of fireflies floated around, small yellow lights in the dark. When the tunnel ended, we were welcomed with a few tall lamps lighting up a school yard. No one was around the yard, and we passed a tiny one building clinic with the windows dark inside.
All of a sudden, a familiar voice stopped us.
"Aerith. Aqua," a man whispered from a corner of a bar. Aerith and I froze and huddled close together, when we saw Dr. Makoto emerge from the shadows, his white coat replaced with an old looking backpack. Under the orange glow of lamps glaring off his glasses, I saw a frightening look in his eyes, his skin pale.
"Dr. Makoto, good evening," Aerith welcomed, her smile present, but the doctor put his fingers to his lips.
"Listen, I came to warn you," he whispered, and his eyes darted left and right as though afraid to be watched.
"Two men in suits were asking about you two. They came around here asking if anyone has seen 'the girl with white hair' and thought you two were together. Of course, I told them 'no' and sent them away."
I let out a sigh of relief while Aerith gave a real smile that time and replied, "Thank you. That was really risky of you to do."
Dr. Makoto smiled at the both of us and shook his head like he didn't mind the trouble at all. I beamed at him and knew I could trust him all along, which made all the more reason why I hugged him just as he was saying, "Good luck to you, girls."
He appeared startled, like he's never hugged a woman before, his body shaking nervously.
"Thank you," I whispered, and gave him one last look before waving our farewells.
Aerith and I disappeared from the school yard, leaving Dr. Makoto smiling to himself under a city lamp.
"You have pretty good people here," I amused to Aerith as we rushed down a small slope of some tiny alleyway.
"Yes, there certainly are. It really is a good place to live in," she told me quietly. I could tell, when she did say that, she slowed her pace some, and looked around, as though to remind herself to take a good look at her home in case it was going to be a while.
There was something I liked about the night, the quietness and calm air it carried around in the area. There was hardly anyone to be seen, and the shops were closed up with gates and garage doors. A couple of corner bars were still open, small enough with only a few stools and barely enough lamps to keep the kitchens and bar lit. I almost wanted to sit at one of those bars, slowly sip on a glass of red wine in a far corner and watch the night go by without anyone bothering me, jazz music taking me to another time.
"It is rather peaceful at night," I marveled aloud, two steps behind a quick paced Aerith. I then began to sing quietly to myself, the first time since being in Midgar; perhaps being with Aerith gave that sort of comfortable feeling in me, enough so that I could finally feel like singing for the first time in a long time, even before Midgar.
It was something I used to do at work from time to time, to help pass the time or when I was in a good mood. I would sing short verses, or whatever words I did remember from a song. Sometimes I would sing a whole song; not a care if anyone was listening. No one minded, in fact, some found it uplifting, especially when they recognized what song I was singing. It all depended on how cheery I've felt, and at that moment, walking with Aerith in the night, feeling lively and upbeat, I picked the Beach Boys and sang what few words I knew, and then hummed the rest. "Wouldn't it be Nice" just had a nice ring to it, and it made me feel younger, like Aerith, bubbly, green and unaware of the world. Aerith appeared pleased with the words I sang because she giggled and eyed me with a wide grin.
"What on earth are you singing? I've never heard it before," she nagged.
I looked up at the plate, a little embarrassed.
"Just the Beach Boys, a band back at home," I quipped. I found the sunlamps off, tiny lights gave off different colors to almost replicate hundreds of stars, but you could always tell it wasn't a real sky because of all the grid work in between, the wires dangling about and all the pipes.
It was pretty handy to be from another place, because if I'd mention any context that wasn't familiar to anybody else, I could always just give the excuse it was from home, and there would be no need for more explanation or extended bizarre looks. I continued to sing the same first few lines of the song, when Aerith stopped short beside a tiny alleyway, and looked over her shoulder to wink at me.
"This is one of the shortcuts. We can beat Cloud with his," she perked, and then led the way, barely fitting into the tight space. I had to follow by side-stepping through the tiny alleyway, more like a gap between clusters of food carts and shops, my back brushing one side and my breast almost rubbing against the other. I exhaled as much air as I could to make myself seem smaller, and quickened my pace to catch up with Aerith. We must be cutting through the TV station square, because I could see its outline in the distance, but we went around it instead of through it.
Aerith jumped out like a spring, and then gave me her hand to help pull me out. I stumbled into her and we giggled a bit, feeling silly, like little girls getting into trouble after dark.
"Hurry!" she whispered loudly, and we held hands, half walking and half jogging through another tunnel made by some recycled large pipe. We were quiet, enjoying the fireflies and bits of vines that were able to grow and hang off the walls, through the cracks and open screws.
I had a random question, well, many, but with Aerith, I knew I had to trickle in only one at a time, about the Ancients, and decided to ask.
"Aerith," I started, which made her listen intently, her pace slowed.
"What happened to the other Ancients? Why aren't there anymore?"
It bothered me deeply when she had told me just hours ago that we, us two, could be the only ones left. And I wondered if there were any consequences to that in this world, or if we would just die off, extinct and soon to be forgotten.
"If I remember, I was told a meteor had fallen, thousands of years ago, and wiped out much of life on the planet. The Ancients were badly hit, hardly any survived, and they didn't get along well with the humans. So they just started dying off, I think anyway. That's all I know," she answered lamely. Aerith appeared disappointed in her own answer, like she wanted to know more but she was stuck, unsure who to ask or where to turn to find more answers. But before I could ask her more about it, I heard her gasp and she grabbed my arm to pull me aside, away from the tunnel entrance when we exited. Her hand was to my mouth and she whispered to me, "Cloud's coming, let's scare him."
I tried not to think of the sanitation of one's hand on my mouth and simply nodded to her. Her hand was gone and we were both quiet. I could hear the stomping of foot steps over the dirt, the tunnel exaggerating its volume with echoes till I thought he was so close, my heart was thumping.
"I'm going to jump out," Aerith whispered to me, her breath tickled my ear.
Before I gave her a look, she was a flash of pink and red, and then she held her hands behind her back and gave out a cheery, "Hi!"
I heard Cloud gasp, when I too emerged from outside the large pipe tunnel, standing behind Aerith, half hiding.
It was almost a reliving feeling, to see Cloud again, standing there looking bewildered at us, hands out as though unsure what gesture to give, with his eyes bouncing between us.
"Aerith?! Aqua? What is this?" he challenged.
"Just taking a midnight stroll," Aerith answered for us, and even though I couldn't see her expression, I pictured her making her special genuine smile like she could hide her innocent and yet mischievous thoughts behind it.
Cloud was at a lost for words, his expression both mixed surprised and annoyed, and then he eyed me over Aerith's shoulder.
"Aqua, what are you wearing?" He looked at me like I was an odd creature, out of character of all sorts, and I ducked my face in my hands.
"I know! It's embarrassing!" I groaned, half hugging and half hiding my face under a pink cap Aerith lent me. My arms and legs were as bare as they could be, with the dress to my knees, my feet in glitter gel strappy sandals like the kind you would get in a drug store in the 1990s. My hair was bundled up in a long ponytail under a pink cap. I thought I looked like a twenty year old, and with the feeling of being almost naked, I turned away to hide my red face.
"It's called a dress, Cloud. We couldn't go anywhere without a proper disguise for Aqua. What do you think?" Aerith had an edge of irritation in her voice before Cloud struggled himself.
"Erk, it's fine, it's fine," he replied quickly, detecting the irritation. I turned around, still my arms wrapped around myself and saw Cloud rub the back of his head, looking away. I noticed he did that when he was either embarrassed or unsure of himself.
"Anyway, you two don't have to come," he began, serious again, his hands in his pockets.
"But I know the short cut!" Aerith sang, and with that, she twirled around sharply, a smile to her face, and took my hand with hers to walk together ahead.
"Follow us!" she pressed easily. I looked over my shoulder at Cloud, he was shaking his head to himself, but a small smile fell to his lips and he shrugged with defeat.
"Fine," he smirked, and followed along beside me. It was him on one side, and Aerith on the other, and once more, I felt completely whole again. I knew from then on, I didn't want to be apart from either of them, and I selfishly wanted it to always be the three of us, like we had our own special club. I couldn't figure out why, but something about us.
It just felt completely right.
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