"Hey Aeris! Fancy meeting you here!" Aeris turned, looking at James and Tifa as they jogged lightly towards her. Giving both of them a broad friendly grin, she nodded, and gestured at her lab coat.
"I'm bringing this to the laundry. Need to wash 'em," she told them, and gave a helpless shrug. "What are you guys doing here?"
Tifa spoke. "We had just came down from the library; thinking of heading down to the wall. Having a meeting before that, of course. Oh yeah. Cloud's up at the library too. I think he was looking for you," she smiled awkwardly.
James looked at Tifa as if she had grown another head on her shoulder. "Huh? I thought he was looking for y-"
Before he could utter another syllable, Tifa yanked on his arm with surprising strength, and pulled him towards the exit. "We're in a hurry! See you later, Aeris!" she waved and hurried on, pulling James who was looking back at Aeris nonplussed.
Aeris laughed, and waved back. Cloud was looking for her? She had better hurry up to the library to see what he was up to. Speaking, or rather thinking of the devil, her cell phone rang. "Hello," she answered sweetly.
"Hey! I was looking for ya. Where're you?" Cloud asked from the other line, sounding like his baritone self, and Aeris' mood lightened considerably.
"Um. Just come down and you'll find me. I'm by the lockers," she walked down towards the flight of steps where Tifa and James had come down. "Yeah. Tifa told me that they saw you up in the library. Looking for me?" she added coyly.
A laugh could be heard from the other side. "I guess so," he told her, as he appeared at the top of the stairs. "Hey!" he called out. "There you are." He switched his phone off and proceeded down the remaining steps to meet Aeris.
Aeris stood by the bottom of steps, grinning widely. "So, what are you going to do now?" she asked, both of them walking down towards the entrance of the medical faculty. "Oh yeah. My lab coat. I gotta head down to the laundry before I can do anything else," she stuck out her tongue.
"Ok. I'll accompany you there then. Uh, maybe later we could head down to the wall? It's been a long time since I've conquered it." Cloud grinned.
"Conquer?" she snickered, punching Cloud lightly in the arm. "You think you're climbing Mt. Everest or something?" she shook her head, still laughing.
"With my imagination, anything is possible!" Cloud announced with a flourish, causing Aeris to giggle even harder.
"Oh, come on. Let's hurry if we want to join Tifa and James," she told him as they grabbed her bike and his T-board. "I'll race ya! Loser'll treat everyone to dinner later!" she shouted as she sped off on her bike.
"Hey!" Cloud yelled indignantly, hopping on to his board and chased after her rapidly diminishing figure.
***
"Would you mind explaining what happened just now?" James eyed her guardedly, trying to sense her mood. He wouldn't want to offend her; oh lord, no.
"Hmm?" she looked at him as if in a trance. Her face was pale and drawn. James looked at her worriedly as she stumbled into his arms. "I'm not feeling too well…" she mumbled against his chest.
"Oh my god. Are you ok?" James tried to soothe her with comforting words as he brought her towards the nearest bench, under the shade of an old pine tree. (A/N: omg. Does pine even offer the slightest shade? Lol!)
Glancing around in panic, he was about to go for help when Tifa took hold of his hand in a gentle grasp. "Wait," she gasped. "I'm fine. Just need my shot." She told him, fumbling in her sling bag for her pouch. She unzipped the pouch as James looked on in wonder. Taking out her needle, and the bottle of serum, she thrust the two objects at him, uttering, "5 ml please."
James did as he was told, and being a top notch medical student, he smoothly drew the exact amount of liquid, flicked the syringe and squeezed it lightly to get rid of air bubbles, before asking her where she usually shot herself. "Arm?"
Tifa nodded, as another wave of dizziness shook her. Her head lolled to the side, her eyelids drooped close as the serum was injected in her intravenously.
James took a step back, and threw the needle into the nearest bin. He then sat down beside her as she recovered slowly. "You feeling ok now?" he asked her softly, taking a piece of tissue and brushing it across her brow, which was dotted with crystalline beads of perspiration.
Regaining her balance and orientation, she sat up straight, back leaning against the support of the bench, and smiled sheepishly at him. "Yeah. Thanks for your help. I must have forgotten to take my dose just now," she gave him a toothy smile, showing all her pearly whites in an attempt to mask her embarrassment.
Knowing Tifa too well, he frowned at her, telling her not to worry about giving him too much trouble. She gave a tentative nod, not looking at him in the eye. Not wanting to probe into her privacy, he stood up, giving Tifa a hand. "I'll bring you back to the dorms." He sighed in finality.
"No. I'm going for the meeting today, as I said I would," she replied stubbornly, her hands placed firmly on her hips, glaring at James. "I'm even gonna climb the damn wall. See if you can stop me," she huffed, walking away from him.
James graced her with an appreciative glance, one of awe and acquiescence. "If you say so," he whispered, too soft for Tifa to hear, and fell in step with her, as they took his board to the wall together.
As they stepped down the board and headed for the wall, a group of first year students were standing there already, waiting impatiently for them. Upon nearing the grounds, Tifa saw Greg, and her jaw dropped to her chest.
"What are you doing here?" she asked him, irritation written all over the place. Greg was the most annoying guy in campus, and all the girls knew it. He played tricks on every single one of them in his classes, like throwing water bombs, or playing childish pranks like writing love letters. "So? Are you going to answer me or not? I'm the secretary here, and I take care of the attendance, as well as membership. You have to go through me before you can join this club," she ended smugly, flipping her hair with a finger.
"Huh? James…" he looked at him pleadingly, bright green eyes shining with hope.
"She is in charge here, I guess," he grinned at Greg, shaking his head in mock resignation, as if the world was about to end. "Sorry bud." He sighed, trying hard not to laugh.
"Well, I am really, really interested in rock climbing, and I've been climbing since I was 6! Serious!" Greg replied lamely, his eyes downcast.
Amongst the group of students, a girl could be heard snorting loudly. Tifa glanced in that direction to see Jean, their star climber, rolling her eyes, checking her nails in a bored manner. Greg was looking more and more defeated by the minute. Feeling sorry for that little asshole, she granted him membership to the club. "Ok Greg, you're in. I guess I was just playing around with you." She smiled as his face lit up like the full moon. "But." She warned, wagging her finger, "You are not allowed to play any, and I mean any tricks on any of the members here, or you're out; out like a snuffed out candle flame. Got it?"
"Yes ma'am!" he gave a mock salute, face still in his brilliant boyishly cute smile. Greg was already dressed up in his gear, Tifa noticed, a tank top and track shorts, which most of the other climbers donned.
Dismissing the group to James after taking attendance, she went to the changing rooms. Changing into her usual gray running top baring her midriff and black tights, she stepped out of the rooms to see Cloud and Aeris heading towards her, lost in their conversation.
"Not fair!" Cloud was saying, crossing his arms across his chest, wearing a childish frown on his face.
"Uh-uh. Don't bother arguing with me, Cloud. It was fair and square. You lost to me, so you're gonna buy everyone dinner! So there!" Aeris stuck her tongue out at him playfully.
"No I'm not. Not if I can help it." He grinned and started tickling her sides. Squealing, Aeris tried to sidestep his advances but he was faster, tickling her all the way to the changing room. Cloud stopped abruptly as he noticed Tifa standing at the door of the rooms, looking at them wistfully. "Oh. Uh. Hi, Tif," he started. "I-"
"Hey Tif!" Aeris butted in, grinning inanely, her face flushed, tendrils of wavy brown hair hanging prettily down the sides of her face. "We decided to rock climb with you guys. Can we?"
Tifa was shaken out of her trance. "Oh. Yeah. Of course. We'll be doing some warm up around the university first, though. Like some running." She grinned.
Cloud looked at her apprehensively. "You sure you're fit enough to run? I mean, you're sick and all…" he drifted off, wondering if he had somehow offended her.
Tifa tried to keep her cool, and nodded. "Of course I am fit enough. I've been training for some time now. My illness doesn't affect my fitness, just health. You know, I'll just get sick easily, that's all." She said tersely. She brushed past the two of them and headed towards the group.
"Oh man. I did it again," he lamented.
"Don't worry about it. Tifa's not the type to hold grudges, you know that," she told him comfortingly, placing a warm hand on his shoulders. He shrugged it off; shoulders slumped, and headed into the boy's changing room. "I'll see you in 5." He told her before disappearing into the room.
***
"Ok guys! Listen up!" James hollered, and clapped his hands, trying to get everyone's undivided attention. "We're gonna start off by running around the university as a little warm up. I think it's about 5 kilometers, should be easy enough. Follow me."
The rest of them filed into twos, and started jogging after James and Tifa, who were in the lead. Every now and then, James would glance at Tifa, to see if she was keeping up. Tifa would give him a peeved look, and purposely look away, jogging further ahead.
Cloud and Aeris followed behind, jogging effortlessly, enjoying the cool afternoon breeze. The pair in the middle however, was not doing as well. Greg, who partnered up with Jean, was trying to irritate the hell out of her. He constantly pulled at her hair and joked at its volume and length. Jean, for her part, tried her best to ignore him but his comments got louder and louder until she couldn't hold it in anymore. "Shut the hell up, ok?" she growled, moving towards the back of the line, but kicking him in the shins before she left.
"Hey!" Greg howled, not so much in pain, but more in disappointment.
They passed most of the faculty buildings as people who were milling about looked at them with little interest, as if running in winter was the most common thing in the world.
Having completed one entire round, they slumped down on the grass in front of the wall, wiping their perspiration with a towel, and gulping water from their bottles. Pulling on her windbreaker, Tifa walked to the water cooler, having finished the water in her bottle, and helping James fill his as well.
Cloud was there, drinking hungrily from the cooler. She smiled, thinking that he looked like he was ready to eat the whole thing up. She went up to the cooler beside him, waiting patiently as clear cool liquid flowed into her Nike bottle, humming to herself.
On hearing her rich alto voice, he looked up, and smiled. "You free later? Me and Aeris were thinking of going out for dinner tonight,"
"You and Aeris?" Tifa repeated, her spirits falling a little.
Cloud smiled encouragingly, "So you're coming right? I'll pick you up at 7 later."
"Tifa! Cloud!" Aeris called out from behind them. Tifa turned around to see an empty bottle flying into her face. Striking her hand out in reflex, she caught the bottle a hair's breath from her nose. "Thanks!" she waved, running back to the wall.
Cloud was impressed. "Nice reflex. Thought she'll get you in the nose for that one," he chuckled, taking the bottle from her and filling it. "I'll fill this one, you fill James'," he told her, voice hiding a little… jealousy?
Tifa tried analyzing his facial expression, but it was carefully blank, devoid of any emotion. She sighed, and continued filling James' bottle. She knew she shouldn't, couldn't, mustn't, but yet… she could not control her heart. Aeris had told her, in one of their girl talks, that she was secretly in love with Cloud. What was a best friend to do but to let her have him? She sighed again. She would harden her heart. She would take this as just another challenge that she'll overcome. It was no big deal, really. 'Then why am I feeling this ache?' she asked herself, and found that she couldn't give a simple answer.
"Tif? You ok?" Cloud's voice came drifting into her ears. "You're spacing out again. Been doing this a lot lately, huh."
"Of course I'm ok. I was just… thinking." Giving him a self-assuring look, they walked back to the wall together in silence.