Three Leaves Left
Volume III of the Sun series.
Reno pushed the glaze of sweat off of his filthy face.
He looked about.
The walls were white.
The kitchen floor no longer grabbed his bare feet from layers of spilt beer, crusty cheese, and fallen sugar.
The trash was taken out.
His clothes were cleaned, mended, and hung in the closet.
His bed was made.
The dust was vanished.
The bugs were fumigated, and swept up.
The bathroom smelt like soap and lemon Pine-Sol.
Even the fridge was scrubbed free of mold and scum.
Light streamed in through the clear windows...
A weeks worth of labor and nearly a hundred and fifty gil went into it.
And he wasn't even paid to do this-he thought.
No bets have been made. He was just tiered of living like a slob.
Well, that wasn't the only reason.
Sephris.
Even after all this back-breaking work and many hours of occupying himself, he couldn't get her out of his mind.
There wasn't much left to DO to keep his mind busy.
Every time he turned on the television, she was there. He saw her on all the pretty-make-up women's faces.
Uhg.
He didn't know what to DO about it.
He didn't have a lot of money anymore. It would be too expensive and too hard to go out and search for her. He didn't know where to begin.
Looking for a girl you saw once, a while ago, and only know her first name, and you were halfway across the world at the time, was like looking for a needle in a bloody haystack!!
It was stupid. He would get over it. Just an infatuation- he told himself over and over again.
He met lots of girls he had a one-night-stand with when he was a Turk.
He was in love with all of them.
Sephris seemed a little different, though...
She probably didn't even remember him, let alone care.
She was like a brief, beautiful, fleeting face in a crowd you never forget, but never see again.
"Only in my dreams. Fuck. Fuck. See, this is why I always hated love. When you want them, you can't have 'em. When you have 'em, they ain't worth gil you spend on 'em to get 'em to sleep with you. Eh? Ain't it the truth. Fuck. Sephris! What are you doing to me! Your KILLING me!" Reno lifted his arms, yelled theatrically in his small living room.
His armpits smelt like something rotten.
Then, there was heavy thumps above him. The small, dangling light fixture on the ceiling waved back and forth under the thudding force.
Then, a dulled but shrill, woman's voice came in through the ceiling's plaster.
"Stop! That! Yellin'! Down there!"
"Yes, Mrs. Fertino!" Reno lifted his face and called back.
Then, Reno sat down on his old green Lay-Z-Boy recliner, and turned on a porno at max volume.
Mrs. Fertino thumped her foot for nearly a half hour before she gave up.
~
"Dally, I'm so SICK of that dark BALD guy comin' in, requesting me for a server, never sayin' hello, goodbye, or even leaving a TIP! The fuc-"
"Hey, hey! Pumpkin, yeah, now, calm down, do you want me to talk to him?" Dally, Yuffie's manager, was a woman whose girth and height met together to create a round ball of a woman in a tight pink waitress dress.
Yuffie scowled, and glanced behind her shoulder.
There, across the room, was the silent bald man sipping his coffee and reading the paper with a pair of dark sunglasses on.
"Why does he keep requesting me, anyway?" She mumbled to her manager. "Is he some kind of sicko?"
"Does he ever make passes at you? Like- sexual harassment?"
"No. I mean. I never really see his EYES, I mean. I just feel dirty around him, like he's checking me out or something. I think I've seen him before, too. He seems like, REALLY, really familiar, Dally. I think I know him from somewhere. He really freaks me out. I wish he'd stop requesting me."
Dally placed her think, white, dishwater greased hands upon her hips.
"Listen, sweetheart, do you want me to talk to him or not?" She looked evenly into Yuffie's eyes.
Yuffie paused, then shook her head.
"No. No. Uhm-"
"Well, then, doll face, suck it up, and serve him. You'll meet creeps everyday. Live with it." Dally smirked bluntly, and snapped her stained white towel. "Get goin' onto the floor. I don't pay ya to stand, muffin."
Sighing heavily, she went back out onto the floor to re-fill Rude's coffee.
~
Tifa smirked when she read the headline of Costa Del Sol's newspaper.
It read:
"Grand Opening of Airport:
Shin-Ra Applauds Highwind for Opening Commercial Flights"
She read the large article beneath the bold and black headline. Beside the column was a rectangular photo of Cid standing beside Shin-Ra president, Dante Julius. Together, with a large pair of scissors, they were smiling and cutting a red ribbon over the new airport runway.
Apparently, they made room for the airport by completely demolishing the Space exploration program, and taking down the remains of the old rocket in rocket town.
The airport would bring tourism, commercial businesses, jobs, and competition in the region. Tifa was very proud of Cid.
She wondered if he would ever remember his friends, after all of this.
She wondered if he ever got the invitation to the wedding.
"Things certainly are changing. Did you see the paper?" Tifa turned the front page towards Cloud.
Cloud lowered his fork.
"Wow." He said. A long, sappy drip fell from his waffle.
Tifa and Cloud sat at their kitchen table eating breakfast. Tifa only had a bowl of fruit and a glass of water.
Cloud had waffles smothered in maple syrup and a cup of coffee.
"Yeah, wow, you big dufus. Read the headline."
"Oh! Wow! That's really cool. Maybe we can go see him sometime by flying over there." Cloud took his forkful of golden waffle goodness, and crammed it into the side of his mouth.
"Or- even better- he can fly out here using his airline and come visit US, sweetie." Tifa picked at a fresh strawberry that laid there, staring up at her from her plastic pink bowl.
Cloud didn't reply. He only replaced the mouthful of waffles he swallowed with another bite.
"It really would make seeing all of our friends so much easier." Tifa egged the already dead conversation on.
Again, Cloud didn't respond. He continued eating his breakfast.
"I wonder how Red and Reeve are doing." She knew that she was beating a dead horse by continuing to talk. Cloud wasn't at all interested.
After Cloud finished his waffles, he pushed a napkin across his lips and added, "Barret said that he hasn't heard from Reeve in a while, now. They used to keep in close contact. Last I heard, Reeve was working for the Toy department in Shin-Ra."
"I can't believe he has the gull to keep working for Shin-Ra after all of this."
"That's Reeve Sith for ya." Cloud sipped his coffee while leaning in with his elbows on the table.
"Does he know-about-the baby?" Tifa placed her hand on her round abdomen, and looked into Cloud's wide, cornflower eyes.
Cloud shrugged. "No clue. Hopefully we will see everyone again at the wedding."
"I want part of our wedding to be a memorial." Tifa blurted out.
"Memorial? To-"
"Vincent. I want... everyone to honor him. Like, I donno, mention him in a speech or something. He's a friend and FAMILY, Cloud." Tifa retorted hastily.
"Tifa, our wedding is supposed to be a happy time. It's supposed to be about US, and no one else. You never used to be this hung up on Vincent before you found out that he was your half brother. He's still the same Vincent that you never knew. He's just dead now, is all. It's not fair to us."
As Cloud reached across the table to take her soft hands, Tifa awkwardly pushed back her kitchen chair, and stormed out of the room.
~
Volume III of the Sun series.
Reno pushed the glaze of sweat off of his filthy face.
He looked about.
The walls were white.
The kitchen floor no longer grabbed his bare feet from layers of spilt beer, crusty cheese, and fallen sugar.
The trash was taken out.
His clothes were cleaned, mended, and hung in the closet.
His bed was made.
The dust was vanished.
The bugs were fumigated, and swept up.
The bathroom smelt like soap and lemon Pine-Sol.
Even the fridge was scrubbed free of mold and scum.
Light streamed in through the clear windows...
A weeks worth of labor and nearly a hundred and fifty gil went into it.
And he wasn't even paid to do this-he thought.
No bets have been made. He was just tiered of living like a slob.
Well, that wasn't the only reason.
Sephris.
Even after all this back-breaking work and many hours of occupying himself, he couldn't get her out of his mind.
There wasn't much left to DO to keep his mind busy.
Every time he turned on the television, she was there. He saw her on all the pretty-make-up women's faces.
Uhg.
He didn't know what to DO about it.
He didn't have a lot of money anymore. It would be too expensive and too hard to go out and search for her. He didn't know where to begin.
Looking for a girl you saw once, a while ago, and only know her first name, and you were halfway across the world at the time, was like looking for a needle in a bloody haystack!!
It was stupid. He would get over it. Just an infatuation- he told himself over and over again.
He met lots of girls he had a one-night-stand with when he was a Turk.
He was in love with all of them.
Sephris seemed a little different, though...
She probably didn't even remember him, let alone care.
She was like a brief, beautiful, fleeting face in a crowd you never forget, but never see again.
"Only in my dreams. Fuck. Fuck. See, this is why I always hated love. When you want them, you can't have 'em. When you have 'em, they ain't worth gil you spend on 'em to get 'em to sleep with you. Eh? Ain't it the truth. Fuck. Sephris! What are you doing to me! Your KILLING me!" Reno lifted his arms, yelled theatrically in his small living room.
His armpits smelt like something rotten.
Then, there was heavy thumps above him. The small, dangling light fixture on the ceiling waved back and forth under the thudding force.
Then, a dulled but shrill, woman's voice came in through the ceiling's plaster.
"Stop! That! Yellin'! Down there!"
"Yes, Mrs. Fertino!" Reno lifted his face and called back.
Then, Reno sat down on his old green Lay-Z-Boy recliner, and turned on a porno at max volume.
Mrs. Fertino thumped her foot for nearly a half hour before she gave up.
~
"Dally, I'm so SICK of that dark BALD guy comin' in, requesting me for a server, never sayin' hello, goodbye, or even leaving a TIP! The fuc-"
"Hey, hey! Pumpkin, yeah, now, calm down, do you want me to talk to him?" Dally, Yuffie's manager, was a woman whose girth and height met together to create a round ball of a woman in a tight pink waitress dress.
Yuffie scowled, and glanced behind her shoulder.
There, across the room, was the silent bald man sipping his coffee and reading the paper with a pair of dark sunglasses on.
"Why does he keep requesting me, anyway?" She mumbled to her manager. "Is he some kind of sicko?"
"Does he ever make passes at you? Like- sexual harassment?"
"No. I mean. I never really see his EYES, I mean. I just feel dirty around him, like he's checking me out or something. I think I've seen him before, too. He seems like, REALLY, really familiar, Dally. I think I know him from somewhere. He really freaks me out. I wish he'd stop requesting me."
Dally placed her think, white, dishwater greased hands upon her hips.
"Listen, sweetheart, do you want me to talk to him or not?" She looked evenly into Yuffie's eyes.
Yuffie paused, then shook her head.
"No. No. Uhm-"
"Well, then, doll face, suck it up, and serve him. You'll meet creeps everyday. Live with it." Dally smirked bluntly, and snapped her stained white towel. "Get goin' onto the floor. I don't pay ya to stand, muffin."
Sighing heavily, she went back out onto the floor to re-fill Rude's coffee.
~
Tifa smirked when she read the headline of Costa Del Sol's newspaper.
It read:
"Grand Opening of Airport:
Shin-Ra Applauds Highwind for Opening Commercial Flights"
She read the large article beneath the bold and black headline. Beside the column was a rectangular photo of Cid standing beside Shin-Ra president, Dante Julius. Together, with a large pair of scissors, they were smiling and cutting a red ribbon over the new airport runway.
Apparently, they made room for the airport by completely demolishing the Space exploration program, and taking down the remains of the old rocket in rocket town.
The airport would bring tourism, commercial businesses, jobs, and competition in the region. Tifa was very proud of Cid.
She wondered if he would ever remember his friends, after all of this.
She wondered if he ever got the invitation to the wedding.
"Things certainly are changing. Did you see the paper?" Tifa turned the front page towards Cloud.
Cloud lowered his fork.
"Wow." He said. A long, sappy drip fell from his waffle.
Tifa and Cloud sat at their kitchen table eating breakfast. Tifa only had a bowl of fruit and a glass of water.
Cloud had waffles smothered in maple syrup and a cup of coffee.
"Yeah, wow, you big dufus. Read the headline."
"Oh! Wow! That's really cool. Maybe we can go see him sometime by flying over there." Cloud took his forkful of golden waffle goodness, and crammed it into the side of his mouth.
"Or- even better- he can fly out here using his airline and come visit US, sweetie." Tifa picked at a fresh strawberry that laid there, staring up at her from her plastic pink bowl.
Cloud didn't reply. He only replaced the mouthful of waffles he swallowed with another bite.
"It really would make seeing all of our friends so much easier." Tifa egged the already dead conversation on.
Again, Cloud didn't respond. He continued eating his breakfast.
"I wonder how Red and Reeve are doing." She knew that she was beating a dead horse by continuing to talk. Cloud wasn't at all interested.
After Cloud finished his waffles, he pushed a napkin across his lips and added, "Barret said that he hasn't heard from Reeve in a while, now. They used to keep in close contact. Last I heard, Reeve was working for the Toy department in Shin-Ra."
"I can't believe he has the gull to keep working for Shin-Ra after all of this."
"That's Reeve Sith for ya." Cloud sipped his coffee while leaning in with his elbows on the table.
"Does he know-about-the baby?" Tifa placed her hand on her round abdomen, and looked into Cloud's wide, cornflower eyes.
Cloud shrugged. "No clue. Hopefully we will see everyone again at the wedding."
"I want part of our wedding to be a memorial." Tifa blurted out.
"Memorial? To-"
"Vincent. I want... everyone to honor him. Like, I donno, mention him in a speech or something. He's a friend and FAMILY, Cloud." Tifa retorted hastily.
"Tifa, our wedding is supposed to be a happy time. It's supposed to be about US, and no one else. You never used to be this hung up on Vincent before you found out that he was your half brother. He's still the same Vincent that you never knew. He's just dead now, is all. It's not fair to us."
As Cloud reached across the table to take her soft hands, Tifa awkwardly pushed back her kitchen chair, and stormed out of the room.
~
