The door shut quietly behind him with a click, the warm and dull lighting of the small room made it feel more like a box than a workspace, the corners darkened where the light failed to reach. There was a sickly familiar acidic scent that lingered in the room, the mako in the batteries that the new member was using. The member herself didn't acknowledge his presence and had her head dipped low, studying a small metal scrap that was pinched between pliers. Her yellow tinted safety glasses rested low on her nose, her focus likely prevented her from pushing them back into place.
"Hey, do you have a minute?" Cloud cleared his throat. Her attention didn't waver and she continued with what she was doing, not giving a word of clearance. The blonde averted his gaze to the wall and shut his eyes as he tried to begin what he was in there for. He folded his arms over his chest and asked himself the best way to begin.
"Um, so…" Cloud began, "I heard you've been busy, maybe a little too much, and you didn't really make time to… well, not make time, but you know…" He trailed off and mentally cursed. Why was he so bad at talking to anyone about things, especially when it came to trying to help? "Point is, you should rest. We are all going to have a big meeting tomorrow about what's next. These next few days will suck so you need to be prepared." He finished and his words echoed in his head. He should have just let Barret handle this.
His words fell into the silent room, only filled with the soft noises of Stella moving things around on the work desk. Her lack of response was unusual and Cloud held his breath. Maybe Cid was right and he had pissed her off. Was she ignoring him?
"Are you mad?" Cloud asked, and still there was no response, "Did I piss you off?" Again, no response. The woman's eyes stayed on her work, stubbornly fixed away from him. His temper flared a little, his arms fell from his chest.
"Seriously? You're ignoring me?" He asked and waited for any response but wasn't surprised when there wasn't one. He exhaled and felt his voice grow cold. "Grow up. I know you're upset but this is childish." He motioned at her. This time, her movements stopped and she lowered her pliers to the table.
Glancing up, she locked eyes with him and startled in her chair, a shrill squeak escaped her along with a few cusses. Her sudden jolt had sent her safety glasses to the ground and her knees hit the bottom ledge of the work table. Dropping her pliers, her hands went to her knees and she groaned as she tried to rub the pain away.
"Dude you can't just walk up on me like that." Her pained voice confused the hell out of him. It wasn't until she tugged a wire from her ears that he understood. Immediately, he felt silly. She hadn't heard anything he said. She wasn't ignoring him.
"Oh, I thought…" He trailed off as she set her earbuds to the side and plucked up her glasses.
"You're lucky I didn't throw something at you. How long have you been standing there anyway?" she asked, brushing off the yellow lenses before placing them back on the bridge of her nose. Her now yellow tinted eyes looked up at him.
"Not long." He lied, somewhat relieved. Now he had another chance to rephrase what he wanted to talk about without it coming out all wrong. "I just wanted to talk for a minute." He admitted, noticing a fleeting spark of concern on the woman's face.
She looked down at her project and began to fiddle with the pliers again.
"Yeah, what is it?" She permitted with a low voice, not really getting back to work but turning her tool around in her hand. The blonde took a deep breath and leaned against the door, trying to make himself more comfortable.
"I was told you haven't slept much, is that right?" He kept it simple and Stella scoffed aloud, plucking up the metallic piece again.
"So Vincent ratted me out. To be fair, I don't think he slept either." She paused and a smart smile took over her lips, "And let me guess, he let you know that I'm pretty lousy with a gun too?" Her tone filled with defensive sarcasm.
"Yep, he kinda said that… but he also said that you didn't practice much either." He told, realizing that his point wasn't coming across as planned when the woman sighed and rubbed her face. "But that can change… after a little rest and some practice." The addition didn't seem to help
"Mhm." the woman agreed halfhearted, "Yeah, maybe after I get this done I'll talk to Vincent about it, if he wants to deal with this in the morning." She noted, bending the metal slice at an angle with her pliers.
"That's the thing, we'll be leaving in the morning. We're heading to Midgar." He announced and her eyes snapped up to him, her brows raised.
"Really? Back to the other side of the planet…" Her surprise diminished and she gave a thoughtful hum before adding, "I should get to work then. Get a few more things prepared for you guys and maybe get some supplies while we're there. I'll make a list." Without wasting a moment, she pulled her old laptop closer and opened a tab. Cloud shook his head.
"No, you can work on all of that tomorrow. We'll have a meeting in the morning and that might help you prepare and besides, you need to sleep too." He urged and she paused and waved her hand at him, dismissing his heavy suggestion.
"That's nice, really, but I need to get this finished." She repeated, and started typing out her list. Cloud really wished Tifa or Barret were in there to help. He didn't know how to make her listen and he was beginning to get frustrated. He was too tired for this shit. He took a deep breath and tried again.
"Stella, get some rest. You're gonna need it. These next few days, there's no telling what our plans are going to be. I can't make you, but you've done enough. We'll get everything settled tomorrow." That was the best Cloud could do. To his relief, she stopped typing and seemed to consider his words. She hesitated, but reached up to close her laptop.
"Okay, okay. Fine, I'll try my best. I'm tired myself but there's no promises." She gave in, defeated as she pushed her tools and wires and various mechanical pieces to the center of the table where they wouldn't fall off. Try her best? Cloud knew from experience that staying up for three days would have him passing out standing up, let alone laying anywhere comfortable. Hell, he was about that tired now and he had managed a little sleep the night before.
"Good, try your best. I don't want to call Barret for backup. He was originally going to come in here and probably give you a long speech about sleep. I've heard it before, not fun." The blonde half joked, but his humor fell on deaf ears as the woman rubbed her eyes and gave him a look.
"Not fun at all." Stella echoed, pushing her chair back as she stood up. Given the lack of space in the room, it was a little claustrophobic when two people were standing. The woman pulled from her pocket the muddied contraption that she had dropped earlier and pulled out some smaller, unfamiliar things.
That's right, she had wanted to show him the new stuff. Even though he would rather go back into the lounge space and strike conversation with a cranky Cid than try to process technological information, he still felt inclined to bring it up. Inclined with his own curiosity or maybe feeling guilty for not giving Stella a few minutes of attention after she had spent hours and hours building something for the team. He paused and lingered, his tiredness slowed him down but ultimately he sighed out his question.
"Did you wanna give a tech demo or do you wanna wait for tomorrow?" With his question, the woman brightened up but her excitement faded after a moment. She pulled the safety glasses from her face and gave him a calculating look as she set the glasses on the table with the smaller contraptions.
"No… it's okay. You wanna wait until tomorrow and I'm not gonna bother you with it right now." She decided in a low voice.
Cloud almost went with her suggestion, opting to cover it all in the morning but a thought stopped him. It wasn't a bother, was it? He was paying her to do this and she had way ahead of schedule. He owed it to her for her hard work and yet, in his exhaustion it felt burdensome. He didn't want to give that impression. He knew what it was like to feel like a bother, especially when he was in a new place with new people. A flash of recollection touched him, one of the first nights he was in the new barracks in Junon for cadet training. He knew that feeling.
"It's not a bother. Let's see what you've got." Cloud settled. Sure, he was tired, but this was part of it, being a member of a team. Stella perked up and scooped up the grape size metal discs, holding them up like gil coins.
"Really?" She half asks through a small smile. He answered with a nod and she cleared her throat, presenting the coin like contraptions before him. "Okay, let's start with the new things. These small little dots are miniature versions of the pancake model I showed you before. They are also essentially tiny, compressed tesla coils, but not strong enough to do any significant damage. I had to make a new kind of battery for this that was small enough but strong enough to matter." her explanation began, and so far it wasn't as mentally taxing to process as he thought.
"Mako batteries? I can smell it." Cloud affirmed in Stella's small pause. She gave a halfhearted laugh.
"One exploded yesterday… but I've figured out the build so that won't happen again." She admitted and then turned the disk over. "On the side with the coil, it has a magnetized surface so that it will stick to metal and armor. See?" With that, she held it up at his shoulder level, a little too close for comfort.
Letting it slip from her grip, it leaped over his shoulder and met the metal of his sheathed sword with a clank. He warily reached back to try to pluck it from his sword, in case it had a malfunction. It came off in his palm and he pulled it around to inspect it. Rolling it about in his hand, he made an observation that he unfortunately said out loud.
"This coil looks like a robot's butthole." As soon as he said it, a silence lingered and Stella stared at him.
"A what? Did you seriously call my hard work...?" Her tone was astonished as her statement trailed off and Cloud cringed. Oops. To his surprise she covered her face and snorted into her hands, setting off a quick fit of hysteric giggles. "That's so dumb but so perfect!" She exclaimed after her laugh, pulling her hands from her face to rub at her eyes.
"What? What's perfect?" He didn't understand what she meant but she took a breath and plucked the tech up from his palm where it still lay.
"I'm sorry, maybe I'm beyond tired but "butthole" is the perfect name for this. I try to come up with names that don't sound ridiculous or that contain half the alphabet." She explained and then her eyes lit up, "Aha! Butthole because it's a pain in the ass to be shocked with. Trust me, I know." She admitted, studying it in her hand. Cloud wasn't thrilled about the name.
"You're naming it butthole?" He asked and she shook her head and pointed at him.
"No, you named it butthole. Congrats, now you have to deal with that." She laughed and let her voice drift into a sigh. "It really is a pain in the ass. Not fatal but I don't wanna be shocked with this again." Stella muzed.
"Oh yeah? Bugs in development?" Cloud asked and she shook her head.
"No, testing. Human tested, human approved." She confirmed. What did she mean, that she tested it on herself? Cloud winced inwardly. Surely not, she wouldn't be that reckless, right?
"Huh, what do you-" he began to ask and she pulled the sleeve of her sweater up. On her arm, faint red circular marks scattered across and tinted her dark skin. Some were more faint than others and one was particularly red and agitated, perhaps newer than the rest.
"Testing was a bitch but I had to make sure it wasn't too much or too little. That one there was a tad too much." She pointed out the reddest mark, "The burns look bad but the shock is supposed to be in the right voltage to make it tough to move your muscles, like a tazer or defibrillator. I just have to choose what kind of controller to use for this. Maybe a switch on before use?" She had trailed off at the last part, logging her thoughts aloud.
Cloud watched as she yanked the sleeve back down and placed the butthole on the table with the rest of them, three in total. The blonde was at a small loss for words, his focus on the now hidden away dots of burns on the woman's arms. She was so nonchalant about it. It was concerning. The woman stared over the collection of work and bit the inside of her cheek.
"That's all, besides me fixing the contraption that you saw in action at the inn, which I do have a new name for. What do you think, is this useful or not so much?" Her question didn't stray his focus and normally he would make a statement that she did a good job or that everything is useful in AVALANCHE but such a statement couldn't find it's way to his tongue.
"I think you shouldn't test weapons on yourself." He gave his opinion and she gazed up at him, her brown eyes displayed her averse opinion for a moment until they softened.
"Probably not, it's not fun." She began, "What else am I supposed to do then? I have to test things." She asked more to herself than to him. He shrugged and thought about it for himself. She was right but it wasn't the best way, Cloud was sure. He didn't know the right way, but seeing someone treat themselves as a lab rat was grossly troubling to him. If anyone knew the technicalities of their own creation, it was her but it didn't feel right.
"I don't know." He finally stated and a muteness dampened the room. After a moment, Cloud stifled a yawn and the woman shook her head.
"A problem for later. If I'm going to sleep, I might as well try now or else it may not happen. Can't keep you up too." Her last comment was made light when she gave an unexpected pat on his arm on her way past him. He nearly tripped over the work chair trying to move away from the door for Stella, but she hadn't noticed.
The light in from the kitchen was stark after standing in that room for so long. Barret glanced up from the bar where he was chatting with a now clean Tifa, her hair pulled into that intricate towel wrap that Cloud could never comprehend.
"Turning in for the night?" Barret piped up, his inquiry directed at Stella. She nodded and shut the work room door behind Cloud as he walked out.
"Yep! I've already called my bunk. Spoiler, it's a bottom bunk." Stella answered back, pausing in her step to do so.
"That's my kind of bunk! You rest up!" Barret encouraged.
"Goodnight! Sweet dreams!" Tifa chimed in, leaning on the bar from where she stood. Stella gave a wave and began down the hallway.
"You too, both of you!" she called and made her way off. In her absence, the blonde noticed that Cid, Vincent, and Red were all three gone.
Cloud recalled Cid saying something about wanting to catch up with old pals, so he could only imagine where he drug Vincent and Red. Cloud stood near the door and was brought back to reality when Barret held up an "okay" hand gesture.
"Good job man." The large man complimented, his cheery mood a sharp contrast to how grumpy he was on their hike back. Bowls of chili can really work wonders on a guy, Cloud thought. It reminded him that he hadn't finished his own bowl yet and the blonde made his way up to the bar. Maybe he would chat with Tifa and Barret for a little while until he crashed. Besides, he needed to talk about upcoming plans.
"So, what'd Stella have this time? Something cool?" Tifa asked, messing over her chili. A pack of crackers were laid next to her, nearing empty. Cloud knew that with the way Tifa ate crackers, this was probably her second bowl.
"Yeah, it's neato." Cloud gave, not sure how else to put it. If he tried to explain it, he might fumble the explanation and confuse everyone. He was sure he had a good enough grasp of what Stella had shown him, but he didn't want his recollection to consist of the word combo shocky butthole.
"Aw come on, neato? Seriously you can't think of a cooler word?" Barret mocked and he had a right to. Cloud will never live down being asked about how he felt about Marlene's cute birthday dress and saying it was "cool beans". Cloud opened his mouth to argue but Tifa interjected.
"Give us more than that. Is it something we can use?" Tifa asked, leaning on the counter and setting her spoon to the side.
"Definitely. It's basically a taser the size of a gil coin that can stick to metal. She even stuck it to my sword." He relented and gave his own translation of what it is.
"Oh, so you need to be careful." Tifa gave vaguely. Cloud nodded.
"I'll say. Stella says its a pain in the ass to get zapped with." He added and Barret leaned on the barstool.
"Does it have a cool name? If not, I can name it something like… Thunder-Bit or…" Barret trailed off and looked up at the ceiling before finishing defeatedly, "Well I don't know but I could think of some things." With that Tifa hid a giggle.
"No, it's already got a name." Cloud stopped Barret. He was sure naming submissions weren't something their new member needed right now. Tifa perked up.
"Oh, what's it called?" Tifa asked and Cloud paused.
Embarrassed, his ears tinged red and he cleared his throat. He wasn't in the mood to explain what on earth he said to earn the mini taser its name. No, that could be addressed later. For now, Cloud just wanted to tune out and go to sleep. He didn't want to think too much about tomorrow yet and instead wanted to enjoy the company of his two friends while he could and they had teased him enough for the evening.
"I don't remember." Cloud lied.