Following the directions she had been given, Marin kept an eye out for anywhere someone person-sized could hide. She ended up behind the church, looking up at a hole in the side, where a rocket poked out of the back and had come to rest in the building.
Reminding herself again that her name was 'Natalie' now. While knowing that her internal self-reference was going to take the longest to change, if ever.
Making her way around a little more, she spied a hole in the ceiling of the second or third floor. That was her goal. Not the front, with doors that had a huge clearing around them and a long path back to the sector's market. But along the side, Marin wasn't afraid to climb the piles of construction refuse.
The church was the only intact building in the area. Between everyone who was looking for her, and those kids, young adults really. She had an aversion to using the front door of any building.
She was surprised to find a whole shanty-town built near the church, though it was long abandoned to rust and ruin. The wreck of abandoned buildings gave her a path to climb into that hole in the roof. Which she made easily in the fading light of approaching night. Checking behind and above her for movement. She saw no one else, not even a monster picking through the wreckage. She had the near-darkness all to herself.
There were a few panels that creaked loudly in the darkness. At the first sound, she moved back into the shadows and watched for movement. After a couple minutes of silence, there was no one stirring at the noise, so she proceeded, slowly, to the hole in the roof, going as quietly as she could.
The shingled roof and the stone walls showed that it had been abandoned as a church for a while. But under the plate of sector five, it was protected from weather and moisture. Marin found it warm enough and dry inside. Even almost completely abandoned, the building would make good enough sanctuary for Marin for one night.
Once she was inside, she could move around quicker, across the wooden floor and across the beams to the lower floor. The building sounded empty, there was no one there.
She kept checking the rafters for signs of something with white wings, that would signal Angeal or an Angeal-copy. But she saw no such thing.
There was a song, 'Sanctuary' that came to mind. Some of the lyrics were intact in her notes. It felt appropriate to play it out in her mind as she moved through the church, ducking around heavy furniture. Pretty much all that was left inside was what was nailed down or too heavy to have been taken as salvage.
She proceeded around the attic of the church, quietly making her way down and away from the opening in the roof. She needed rest, she needed to sleep. After traveling so far to get to Midgar.
Coming down a ladder, she found herself in an atrium with some collapsed pillars, and old candelabras made of metal and heavy enough to still be here. That floor opened up to look down into the area. She heard a flutter of wings, very large wings.
Pressing her back against the wall, she looked around. On the floor was a monster with two white wings, both on one side of it's back. One wing was far larger than the other. The thing had four legs and a gray body.
She had found the Angeal-copy, as Lazard had described. She didn't know what to do, running up to it seemed like a bad idea. The creature was moving about downstairs between her and the door to the cathedral area in the front of the church.
"Angeal?" she hissed, the thing hadn't heard her. Louder, "Angeal?"
It stirred at the sound.
Marin pulled her goggles around her neck. She had no idea if the other copies had Angeal's memories as well. But she would only attack something like this if it came down to her own defense. She didn't want to fight in the church either.
"Angeal?"
A long neck and head turned up to her, with a flap of wings it rose in the air and flapped to the narrow floor between the rail and the wall. Which happened to cut off an exit back up to the attic.
"Angeal?" She kept he hand off of her sword. Lazard had said that the other copies couldn't talk.
The beast was the size of a large dog, scaled and long necked. It peered down at her.
"Angeal." She continued. Trying to see if it would recognize her, she pulled her scarf down, to show her face to the monster.
She held out a gloved hand, palm down, like she was meeting a strange dog.
The monster sniffed the air, there was some emblem on it's forehead.
'If it attacks, it's just one monster. I can take it.' "Angeal?"
It flapped down from the rail, coming a little closer.
She squatted down making herself smaller.
It stepped closer, sniffing her hand. She pulled out one of the white feathers she had gathered over the years, she kept them with the black feathers she had gathered from Genesis. She had a few from Angeal himself, which had mixed with the ones she had picked up after Lazard. They were all she had left of Angeal, they could have been friends. 'If things had turned out differently.'
"I don't have much honor, Angeal." She whispered quietly to the scaled creature. "But I still dream. The world still needs saving. Maybe if I try harder, I can work to find Zack. And my honor."
The nose probed under her hand, she could see on top of the head now, it's forehead was folded and opened, unfolded, to reveal a small version of Angeal's face.
"I have no idea what you eat, Angeal. But if you could find me a place to sleep, that would be nice." She refused to call it 'Angeal-copy'. It felt awkward, like it was acknowledging that this wasn't Angeal. But it was Angeal, at least in part. Marin felt regret for not talking to the man more, they could have gotten along if they had only talked things through.
The Angeal-copy perked up and fluttered back downstairs. She found a pillar she could slip down to the ground floor. Down there was a corner behind a door. And a place this version of Angeal used for a bed.
She was sweating and tired, despite the cold of winter. Putting her sword behind the door. She lay on her coat. "Can you watch me while I sleep again-for the first time?" The thing made no moves, only looked at her.
"Let me know of any Turks come knocking." She yawned.
Sitting against the wall, using her coat as a bed, she set herself up for a nap.
The copy sat in the middle of it's nest, tucking it's head in it's legs.
Marin tried to think of it more as 'Angeal.' Like how she tried to call Lazard by his name, even as he looked and talked like a dead man.
She nodded off as the night went by, her first night back here in years. Her first night in Midgar where she was free of ShinRa.
Marin's, 'Natalie's', eyes opened at the sound of ruffling feathers. The Angeal-copy was shaking his wings out and went to lay back down the other way, she hummed 'Sanctuary' to him. Music almost always cooled her nerves and anxieties. Music buried her worries for a time. Fighting had the same effect, but combat came with drawbacks that included getting hurt or dying. And cooling down from adrenalin afterwards took time.
She could hum quietly in the back room, to the monster with Angeal's face on it's forehead. So much of her past had slipped away, lost to amnesia. If she ever remembered her home, or who she had been before the North Pole. Marin was now a different person than the one that had left that past behind.
'And Jamie is waiting for me, in the Lifestream.' When Marin wasn't driving herself crazy, talking to a version of Jamie made up by Marin's own broken mind.
Getting up, stretching and warming up a bit, Marin grabbed her things and listened at the double doors. Angeal began to scratch at the door. She couldn't hear anything through the thick doors. So she slowly opened the big heavy doors.
The only sound was the song that was playing in her head. Which wasn't making any real noise.
High above, there was a patched hole in the roof, sunlight leaked through it. The large chamber was empty of people, pews scattered. There was no sign of an altar. There was something carved into the the stone she didn't recognize, Marin couldn't tell who had been worshiped here.
Morning sun shone through stained glassed windows. Making the inside nearly as bright as outside.
Where the altar should have been, there was a hole in the floor, exposing the dirt under the building. In the dirt was a bed of flowers, yellow flowers.
Looking around, the light in the windows was late afternoon or mid-morning, probably morning by how rested she felt.
Angeal nosed his way through the door she had left barely ajar. Taking flight, it flew up to sit on the rafter beams in the ceiling.
Marin put her sword on the ground to the side and knelt by the flowers. The place felt sacred, by it's context. The flowers were the first sign of any plants she had seen growing out of the ground in this city. And she had spent a few years in Midgar, where there were plots of dirt where plants died, if people tried growing anything. Somehow, in this place, there was plant life.
Clasping her hands, Marin prayed to the flowers.
She prayed to Roceler, as if he could ever hear Marin. She was no Cetra. The planet wouldn't hear her words and she would not hear the planet or the Lifestream. She thought of him anyway.
'I don't want to be alone anymore.' She prayed to the flowers. 'I've lost everything, twice. But it's not over. Please.' She didn't want to be hurt again. 'I'm sorry. I couldn't save him. I couldn't stop him. I couldn't save Sephiroth.' Marin felt a tear leak onto her cheek. 'I'm sorry I ran Zack, Cloud. Where ever you are. I just hope you're not in the Lifestream. I hope you can't hear me. Lazard needs you. I need you. I can't do this alone.'
She pleaded, with Roceler, with the Lifestream. It didn't matter which. She just wanted to live in peace, and that her few friends were alive. That Jazz and Lina were somewhere, alive and okay. Living their SOLDIER lives on the plate above Marin, Natalie.
Marin wasn't one for prayer, usually. But she did it here anyway.
Marin bent down low to smell the flowers, she didn't want to forget that sweet smell of the petals of the lilies. The whole room smelled of it, but it was strongest here, in kneeling close to them.
It was a different scent than the one she had associated with Sephiroth. She tried to push aside memories of him, replace them with these flowers. It wasn't working, but she tried to supplant those old memories anyway.
Marin looked to the front doors, there were any number of places someone could watch those doors if she left by the front. Places people could watch unseen. Those fans from the day before, they went out searching everyday. Natalie found them annoying and didn't want to risk see them again.
She didn't want to leave this church during during the daylight hours, it was too easy to be seen at a distance. With only Angeal's copy in the building for company, she moved back to it's nest and snacked on the last of the food in her bag. She had more than enough Gil for more. Based on the prices she had seen, she could live around here for months with what she had in her pockets. Years if she found a bad job. For once, Gil was not a problem for her. She made her way back to her coat in the back room, hearing something through the double doors.
A voice was calling from the front of the church.
"Hellooooo?"
Marin felt trapped in the back room. But if she had been found, it wasn't ShinRa's style to call out like that. Plus, the feminine voice didn't sound like anyone she had met yesterday.
'Angeal' Pushed his way back through the back doors and padded over to the nest on canine-looking feet.
"Hey," Marin whispered, her voice choked before she could say his name. Patting the creature on the neck. She heard the voice again.
"Where did you go?" that voice called again, much closer.
The Angeal-copy left for the voice.
Marin lay down on her coat again, her back to the doorway out of the nest. She heard Angeal's copy walk back over and curl up against her back.
"What-oh…"
Marin didn't face the voice. Her sword was out of reach. She pretended to sleep, while her neck prickled. As a stranger looked into the nest.
"Shhhhh," That feminine voice said, before Marin heard footsteps walk back to the large front room of the church.
'I'm stronger than this.' Marin thought. 'I've faced down my own death countless times. Why is it hard to talk to some stranger?'
Angeal nudged Marin in the back with it's nose.
She rolled over as it got up and walked back to those double doors. The creature looked back at her, before slipping back through. It's claws clicked on the stone floor.
Marin sighed and got up, dusting herself off and shaking out her coat. She followed after Angeal.
A woman in a long pink dress and a red coat knelt over the flowers. Her back was to Marin.
Marin left her sword and pack by the doorway and went to kneel from across the flowers.
"I don't often get visitors here." She said to Marin.
"I needed a place to sleep."
The woman smiled at Marin, "I see you've met my friend."
Her 'friend' chose that moment to flap it's huge wing and fly up to the rafters above the two people.
Marin shrugged, she wasn't sure what to say about Angeal.
The other woman continued. "Do you have a name?"
Marin almost stumbled again, "Natalie." She stuck to her new name at least.
"Hi Natalie, I'm Aerith." She stuck out her hand,.
"Sorry." Natalie apologized, "I'm not in a touching mood today." She looked at Aerith's hand, not that they could reach from across the flower bed.
"That's OK," Aerith said. She didn't sound offended at the refusal. "I haven't seen you around."
Natalie kept her head down, looking at the flowers.
"Are you shy?" Aerith asked, she leaned over a little to look into Marin's face.
Natalie turned away a little. "I just got into town last night. I-uh, I don't know the area very well."
"Well here." Aerith stood up, "Let me show you around." She held out a hand for Natalie to get up.
Natalie got up on her own, dusting her pants off.
Once again, Aerith didn't take offense.
This close, Marin got a good look at the other woman. The long brown hair, worked into a braid, clear green eyes that sparked with joy.
Natalie looked away, she didn't want her bad luck to rub off on Aerith. And lose her one day too.
Aerith twisted to look Natalie in the eyes, "Are you all right?"
"I will be," Natalie told her. "Uh." She was a little flustered by the other woman.
"Have you always had hair that short?" Aerith asked of Natalie's ear-length hair. Natalie had cut most of it off when she had left Icicle Inn, but it was growing out again.
"I used to have it longer."
"Well, come on." Aerith started moving towards the front doors. "Let me show you around the Sector."
Angeal fluttered above as Natalie collected her things and followed Aerith. A couple of feathers drifted down from the ceiling.
Natalie looked up at the Angeal-copy perched high above. 'Lazard had white hairs among Angeal's black ones. Every one of you shed feathers. And Genesis looked like he was dying in Nibelheim. You're all degrading, aren't you.' ShinRa didn't need to destroy every copy, they just had to wait them out, and one day they would all be gone.
Aerith turned back to look at Natalie. "How do you like my friend?"
"It reminds me of someone I used to know."
"Used to?"
"They died a couple of years ago. I don't- I don't want to talk about-"
"Then don't" Aerith comforted with a softer tone. "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to."
Natalie readjusted her goggles to sit on her forehead. Pulling her scarf around her neck and a hood over her hair. Natalie followed Aerith out of the church and on a tour of Sector five.
Aerith made it easier to relax. Natalie still watched for anyone watching them. She was silent on their way back to the Sector Five market.
Aerith had a warning for Natalie as they left the church. "Now, I don't know which route you took to get to the church. But this one has monsters in it sometimes. Do you know how to use that?" She gestured at the small sword at Natalie's waist.
"A bit." She told Aerith.
"Well, don't worry. I'll protect your from the dangers around here." Aerith told Natalie with a bright expression on her face.
Natalie found herself smiling back. "All right." Natalie wanted to laugh, at Aerith protecting Natalie.
The first monster was a surprise. Not in how easily it was taken down by a few slices of Natalie's sword. But by the bolt of energy that came from Aerith. Aerith took something out of her pocket and it expanded into a staff. From which, the woman could send a bolt of magic flying at the monsters in the area.
"What was that?" Natalie asked Aerith.
"Oh, that's just a trick I learned."
"I didn't know anyone could do that." Natalie said with disbelief. "With a staff." She tacked on at the end.
Aerith smiled a small, mysterious smile.
Natalie looked at her sword, examining it. She knew how to fight with Materia, knives, spears and swords. But that bolt of energy looked useful. Natalie didn't know how to do that herself.
"I don't think your sword can do that." Aerith said.
Natalie shrugged and put the sword away. "I was just thinking."
"Oh? What about?"
"If I could ever make a staff do that."
"I dunno if I could teach you. It's my secret technique."
"Hmm." Natalie pondered over it.
"You're pretty good with that sword though. Don't worry about it."
As they approached the station, Natalie put her goggles on. The morning sun shone through the gap in the plate over sector six. Bathing this sector in sunlight.
It made it easy for Natalie to see around with the shaded goggles, while also hiding her eyes.
Aerith continued to banter with Natalie as they crossed the sector. Prodding Natalie to talk, but not too hard. And Aerith went around, introducing Natalie to the people Aerith knew in the Sector.
Natalie just wanted to go inside and not be noticed by so many people. But she had seen no black suits the entire time, so she tried to relax around the other woman. And let Aerith take her on a tour around her home.
Natalie let herself be led around, and was polite when people talked to her. But otherwise she kept to herself.
Aerith continued to prod, asking Natalie what she wanted to do now that she was in the city.
"I dunno. Odd jobs. I was a waitress before I came here."
"I don't see many waitresses with swords."
Natalie only shrugged at the quip. "I've had a bunch of different jobs over the years." She wanted to quip back, but it was like Natalie had forgotten how.
After a few hours, they ended up at Aerith's home.
Natalie had learned quite a bit of the layout of the Sector, noticing that Aerith was in a back corner, behind a building called the 'Leaf house.' A local orphanage in the area. What was more surprising than the happy children at the orphanage, was the plants. The closer they got to Aerith's house. The more plants and vegetation grew out of the ground. Natalie had never heard of anything like that in Midgar. With the Reactors taking all the Mako. It shouldn't be possible to grow anything around here.
But what was growing in and around the Leaf House, didn't prepare Natalie for Aerith's front yard.
They turned a corner and saw it. Multiple paths in the yard, on either side of a river that was fed by a small waterfall. There were plants everywhere, in every space or section of wall they could grow out of. Lily pads in the river, along with a few fish that darted around. The water here was clear and blue. Not gray and sulphuric-smelling, like Natalie had seen in the neighboring sector.
The place smelled green, and flowery, it was also a huge vegetable garden. With flowers everywhere. Especially on the other side of the waterfall-fed-river, that side was almost all different species of flowers Natalie couldn't name.
The house looked like a house that could be found up on the plate. Well-built and straight. Not cobbled-together like everything else Natalie had seen on the ground. Someone had taken the time to build this house, right here.
"That's my house. What'd you think?"
Natalie didn't know what to say. "It's so, green."
Aerith smiled. "Come on, let's go inside."
There was someone moving about inside.
Aerith went in like she owned the place. "Hi mom!"
"Found another stray?" an older woman asked Aerith. With white streaks in her brown-ish hair.
"Is lunch ready? I was showing Natalie around. She's new in town."
"Oh?"
Aerith introduced them. "Natalie, this is my mom, Elmyra. Mom, this is Natalie."
"Hi?" Natalie gave Elmyra a polite wave.
Natalie managed to be polite to Aerith and her mother over lunch. Natalie held herself together, giving simple answers to both of their questions. Aerith made her feel welcome in the Sector. And with Elmyra, Natalie felt welcome in their home right away. She didn't know what to do with herself. Except not be rude.
When Elmyra, Aerith's mother, had found out about Natalie's sleeping arrangements the night before. She refused to let Natalie go anywhere else but the guest room upstairs.
Natalie managed to hold herself together until she was alone in the room and settled into bed.
Alone in the dark room that night, Natalie, Marin, sobbed silently.
'They're so nice.'
She cried herself into a headache. 'I'm not Marin. I'm Natalie now.'
Her sword and Materia bracer was left out of reach. Natalie lay in the bed, clutching her head.
She needed a friend. And she had come across one right away.
Natalie struggled to think of a song, when she crept downstairs for a glass of water.
The water was no help, for the piecing pain in her forehead. She managed to stop crying. Before going back to bed, squeezing her head between her hands. Wishing for the pain to go away.
Her music was no help.
Before the time the pain subsided, Jamie called her by name.
"Marin."
Natalie shook her head, whispering. "That's not my name."
"Marin."
Natalie wrapped the pillow around her head. It smelled fresh and clean.
"Marin."
"That's not my name." Not anymore.
She tried focusing on the pain, tried to ignore Jamie's voice, calling her real name over and over again.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the pain subsided. She stopped hearing Jamie's voice. And was able to fall asleep.
When Aerith was already outside after breakfast, Natalie helped clear the breakfast table. Then Elmyra ambushed Marin.
"Did you sleep okay last night?"
Natalie kept Jamie's voice to herself. "Yeah, eventually. Thanks for the accommodations. I slept better than the night before."
"I would hope so…" Elmyra stopped, she was looking at Natalie from across the table.
"Yes…?"
"Your eyes." Elmyra asked. "Are you a SOLDIER?"
Natalie paused, she felt her mask settle on her face. She put down the plate she was drying, wanting to put the goggles back on. Elmyra could tell. Discovered and defeated, Natalie didn't argue. "Yeah…"
"I've never met a woman SOLDIER before." Elmyra said.
"There have been a few, several. I wasn't the first either."
"Hmmm." Was all Elmyra said. "You SOLDIERs, you all gave up a normal life for that."
"For the record, Elmyra. My life was never normal." She glanced out the window at Aerith tending the garden. "But I think I know what you mean."
"Anyway," Elmyra continued, "I know better than to ask after whatever you're running from."
"Thanks, but…"
"But. I have to look out for my daughter. She's all I have."
Natalie paused on drying the plate. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.
Elmyra went on, "I'm not going to turn you out onto the street, though. So don't worry about that."
"Huh," Natalie responded, "you don't have to worry about me. I can afford to take care of myself out there."
"So, If I ask you to leave and not come back? Not be around Aerith?"
"I can manage."
The woman surprised Natalie. She was the image of a mom, living at home. Yet she knew SOLDIER eyes on sight.
Zack had mentioned knowing someone in the city. Natalie didn't know how well they knew each other. Kunzel seemed to have known more, but he wasn't in touch with Marin anymore. 'What are the chances that the woman who befriended an Angeal-copy is Zack's mystery lady?' But Zack wasn't there to ask. She couldn't be sure.
Natalie put down the last dish.
Elmyra was waiting for Natalie to respond.
Natalie broke her musings and spoke, "I just don't want to be any trouble, not for you or Aerith."
"Neither do I." Elmyra gave Natalie a sidelong look. "You mean that, you really care about my daughter."
"Mmm-hmm." Natalie continued to watch Aerith. Aerith kept working, she had no idea what was happening in the kitchen.
"She makes friends quickly. But don't mistake that. I don't trust easily." Elmyra warned Natalie.
"I wouldn't expect any less," Natalie tried to pick her words carefully and show some gratitude. "But I am grateful for everything you and Aerith have done for me already."
Elmyra nodded, "You're welcome."
"I don't want anything to happen to this." Natalie gestured out the window, about to say 'garden' when she saw Aerith looking to the yard's gate to Sector Five.
Natalie was in the back of the kitchen and halfway up the stairs by the time she acknowledged what she had seen. Someone in a black suit was walking down the main path to the house. 'They didn't see me, did they?'
The stairs curled around the back of the house, Natalie was out of sight of everyone inside or outside.
She stopped half-way step when there was a knock at the front door. Natalie pressed her back against the wall, listening. Her sword and pack were upstairs in the guest room. Natalie hadn't left anything of hers in the kitchen. Her Materia was strapped under her coat sleeve, just after promising Elmyra that she wouldn't be trouble.
Elmyra shuffled through the kitchen, taking her time to answer the door.
"Yes Rude?" She asked after opening the door. The way she said 'Rude' made it sound like a name.
The black suit was all she needed, though Natalie had never met this one. 'Turk.'
Natalie didn't move. She had forgotten which stairs around her creaked.
Rude answered from the doorway. "I'm just checking in..."
"We're fine Rude." Elmyra answered.
"I also wanted to ask-"
"I doubt that Aerith changed her mind. Rude."
"Uh, I-" Rude stammered. "I'd rather hear it from her."
Natalie breathed slowly, keeping herself calm even as the adrenalin pumped through her and raised her heart rate.
"Aerith is in the garden. Oh, there she is."
There was the sound of muffled talking on the front porch. Aerith was talking with Rude now.
Natalie remained in place until she heard Rude leave and Aerith come inside.
After the door shut, Natalie could hear Aerith's voice.
"Where did Natalie go?" Aerith's boots stepped around the corner until she was at the base of the stairs. Looking up at Natalie, still pressed against the wall.
Aerith looked concerned.
"Is he gone?" Natalie hissed, even as she knew that he was.
"Yeah," Aerith told her.
"I'll be back downstairs in a sec." Natalie told Aerith. She took her time grabbing her things from the guest room.
While she was upstairs. Elmyra called from below. "He's gone."
Peeking out the curtain, Natalie saw no sign of any Turk in the yard.
When Natalie came back downstairs. Elmyra was cleaning the kitchen.
Aerith sat at the table, she looked at Natalie with curiosity, nothing her bag.
"You're leaving?" Aerith looked crestfallen, "Already?"
"I don't want to take up the extra bed, in case someone else needs it. I can find my own place." The words all came out at once. She looked out the window. Just in case someone was out there.
"Are you sure?" Aerith asked.
From behind Aerith. Natalie could see Elmyra's shoulders tense up a moment.
"Yeah... But." She glanced out the window, no Turks were sprouting among the plants. "But I think it's time to leave."
Aerith looked concerned again. "Was it Rude? He doesn't mean any harm." Aerith reassured her.
Natalie shook her head. "I've never met him. But I've met people like him."
Elmyra kept her back to them, slowly putting the dishes away.
"What sorts of people do you mean?" Aerith asked.
Natalie sighed and took a chair. "Other Turks." She shook her head. 'I should have know that this was too good to be true. Not just a Turk here, but they Know Aerith and her mother.' Elmyra's familiarity meant that they had been here before, and likely would be again. Without talking to Elmyra before, Natalie couldn't stay here.
It would only be a matter of time before they found out that Aerith had a new SOLDIER friend.
This was the risk Natalie took in coming back to Midgar. There were no Genesis-copies. But ShinRa was here. This city was their headquarters after all.
"Don't worry." Aerith told Natalie. "I can protect you." She smiled.
Elmyra stiffened.
Aerith didn't see what Elmyra was doing with her back to her mother.
"I have a history with ShinRa Aerith. I want to avoid having another conversation with old…friends." 'At least not any time soon.' With her sword around here, she could pass for any merc or guard. At least to normal people. But Turks weren't normal. Her clothes, the goggles, the scarf. They might pass as a distance. But any close enough scrutiny and her disguise was a thin screen that could be seen through.
Elmyra didn't know who Natalie was. But even she could tell what Natalie was.
"Friends?" Aerith asked.
"I don't want to talk about it. I'd, rather just go."
"What were you thinking?" Aerith brightened.
"Maybe a sector over. We could be neighbors."
Aerith looked a little hurt. Natalie wanted to change her mind in that moment, at the look on Aerith's face. But she had promised Elmyra. And the Turks might come back anytime.
"Aww, but the kids at the Leaf house really like you."
Natalie put her mask on for the first time around Aerith. He face going hard and still.
Those kids had been friendly and sweet. They loved Aerith, and were nice to Natalie, by her proximity to Aerith. She had never wanted kids of her own, but a family was off the table for her now. It was never something she could have with Jamie. And it wasn't something her or her last partner had even considered. Natalie now lived too dangerously to want to bring a child into things. They didn't deserve that kind of live. If a SOLDIER could even have children. If a SOLDIER should even have children. And her life on the road so far was too rough to adopt either.
Natalie tried to find a lighter side, "they'll still have you Aerith."
Aerith didn't look at Elmyra, but the older woman looked cross.
"I'm sorry Aerith. I've eaten enough of your mom's cooking with nothing in return."
Elmyra turned around at that moment. "Think nothing of it. I'd never let a guest leave hungry, Natalie."
Aerith got up, "Do you know the way to the next district?"
"No."
"Let me show you the way then!"
Elmyra chose that moment to lean on the counter.
"Just point me the right way. I can manage."
"OK," Aerith headed to the front door. "Let me take you there." She bounded out the door and across the porch. "Come on!"
Natalie gave an apologetic shrug to Elmyra as she shouldered her bag.
Elmyra shook her head and waved Natalie on, mouthing 'thank-you' to Natalie.
Natalie gave Elmyra a nod, "you're welcome." She whispered back. And followed Aerith outside. She never wanted to forget the smell of Aerith's garden.