Mother's Day Gift
Author's Note: All right, I just figured out that I couldn't do italics on fanfiction.net. So, thoughts of characters will be indicated as: /text in here/ okay? Now, a thank you goes to those that reviewed because it provides inspiration for a person to go on with the tale that they want to tell. This chapter starts going into the plot (just the skimming the surface part). One of the issues I was confused about while playing the game was how Shinra seemed to reconstruct Nibelheim down to the very exact detail, which in my point of view is downright eerie. So read on and review and tell me what you think about the whole entire Shinra set up in the game. Enjoy.
Chapter 2
A barrage of memories assaulted her senses the moment she stepped in. The sweet smell of potpourri and wood filled her nose. Burgundy eyes traveled over the familiar flowery wallpaper, the hard maple wood floor, and the faded photographs.
/Faded photographs?/
Tifa dropped her satchel and made her way over to the wall lined with picture frames.
/The pictures. . ./
Her bordeaux eyes scrutinized the photographs as if trying to piece together a complex puzzle. The only problem was that one of the pieces of the puzzle didn't seem to fit together. Her eyes scanned the photos. A tiny voice in the back of her mind was telling her that something was out of place.
/There./
The woman's long white fingers lightly touched one of the picture frames assuring her that it was real.
Curiosity taking control, she delicately grasped the frame off the wall. With trembling hands, she took the backing out of the frame to find that the photo was indeed genuine.
She took the photo out of the frame and looked closer. It was a candid snapshot of a young Tifa Lockheart at a faraway distance playing in the fields just outside of Nibelheim. It appeared to be taken while Tifa was in mid run chasing a slew of monarch butterflies - a distant happy moment in her life.
/But how can this be? Just when everything was burnt down?/
Tifa put the photo and the frame down on a table and began looking at the other photos on the first level of the house. Tifa distinctly remembered that the second floor of the Lockheart home was untouched by time even after the Sephiroth incident since it seemed that the fire all those years ago wasn't able to reach upstairs. The only thing that Tifa noticed when she came back five years ago was that the downstairs was slightly different in that all of the photos and pictures of her family have been replaced with seascapes and landscapes of the area surrounding Nibelheim. That, and the cryptic robed figures that constantly roamed about the home were the only stark differences.
Though the robed figures were gone, there was something else that was amiss.
There were pictures of her.
It was a discreet thing at first. Her pictures were blended well with various pastel seascapes and landscapes. However, Tifa's instinct of what belonged and didn't belong in her home prevailed.
After a good ten minutes of going through the entire home, Tifa had collected four pictures of her. She took her findings upstairs and settled on her bed to review them. What disturbed her the most was that there was only one real photograph of her in her childhood. The rest were all pieces of artwork - all of her. The first was an oil pastel of Tifa in her blue dress sitting on the Nibelheim well pointing at something in the sky amidst a dark blue background. The second was a black and white sketch of Tifa in her adolescent years in a larger version of her blue dress sitting in a field of wildflowers with the town of Nibelheim in the background. The last was an exquisitely done watercolor rendition of Tifa in a light blue flowing dress asleep under a tree.
/Where did these come from?/
A persistent ring answered her. She got up from her bed and took the PHS out of her satchel.
"Hello?"
"Tifa?"
"Yuffie!" the brunette exclaimed with surprise and happiness at hearing her friend.
"Hi Tifa. I just wanted to call to wish you a belated Happy Birthday. Sorry, if I called a couple of days late," Yuffie offered apologetically.
The brunette smiled and gave a slight chuckle, "No problem, but thanks."
"So where are you right now? How's everyone doing? How are you?" Yuffie asked with much enthusiasm.
"Whoa there, slow down! I just got here in Nibelheim, and I'm fine."
"Yeah, so I heard; Barret told me. How's the rest of the crew doing?"
"Oh, they're all doing fine. I heard Cid and Shera are expecting a child in a couple of months..."
The conversation carried on that way for a good half hour as the two related to each other about their other friends and themselves. Reeve has rebuilt Midgar and is now the presiding mayor of that thriving city. Barret and Marlene live in Corel, which has also become a successful town. Red XIII resides in Cosmo Canyon acting as an elder. Vincent is known to stop by Cosmo Canyon once in a while, but his usual whereabouts are unknown. Cid and Shera have settled in Rocket Town where they opened up a flight school. Yuffie being Yuffie, has decided to travel the world over before staying in Wutai to open up her own materia shop. Tifa has taken up residence in the city of Junon where she opened up a bar and jazz nightclub.
Suddenly, there was a silence between the two women when they near finished their list of common friends - with one name that went unmentioned. There was an understanding between them that the name didn't have to be said since it would cause questions to rise up only to be unanswered. His name floated in the air for a brief moment and fell to the ground dead - as if it had never existed in the first place.
"So," Yuffie cleared her throat, "last conversation I had with you, it appeared you were getting to know someone better."
"Oh, that," Tifa replied as she gave let out a sigh, half in relief at the subject that wasn't initiated and half in disdain for the memory that the current subject brought up.
"Well? How did it go? Wasn't his name Trent?" Yuffie asked egging Tifa on.
"Trey," Tifa corrected.
"Trent. Trey. What does it matter?"
"It didn't work out," Tifa finished deadpan.
"What? Why not?"
"Not my type."
"None of them are..." Yuffie said with softly.
Tifa opened her mouth to respond with a witty remark, but found the reality in what her friend had said. She had moved on, after all. Here she was, a bright, beautiful, and astute young woman who was renowned for her successful bar business and her role in the revered AVALANCHE. Yet, she couldn't -
"Tifa? Are you still there? Hello?" Yuffie asked with a bit of amusement and impatience.
Snapped out of her reverie, Tifa replied, "Yes, I'm still here."
"Listen, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later alright?"
"Sure. By the way, thanks for leaving the key to my house inside the flower pot."
"Flower pot?" Yuffie asked with a puzzled tone.
"Yeah, remember I asked you to hide it in the porch?"
"I know. I remember that, but I didn't hide it there. I hid the key under the doormat."
"You did?"
"Yes, c'mon Tifa. It's me, Yuffie - I never forget secret hiding places," Yuffie said confidently.
Tifa arched her eyebrow in thought. /Then how...?/
"Anyway, happy birthday Tifa," Yuffie continued, "Take care and try to meet another guy with a more common name." With that, the ninja hung up.
Tifa clicked off her PHS and turned to the bed with the pictures. A look of consternation and deep thought crossed her features as she tried to figure out the confusing situation she was in.
She sat back down on her bed once again and took apart the pictures from their frames. While doing so, she noticed dates on the back of each picture. One picture, the oil pastel, was dated three years ago, with the black and white sketch dating two years ago. The most recent one was the watercolor, which was dated last year.
"That's odd," Tifa mumbled softly to herself as she arranged the pictures face up on her bed.
She fished the key out of her pocket and laid it on her bed. /Yuffie had hidden the key under the doormat, but why did I find it in a flowerpot?/ Tifa knitted her eyebrows in confusion, and with a huff, she fell down on her bed. "It just doesn't make sense."
~End Ch. 2~
Author's Note: All right, I just figured out that I couldn't do italics on fanfiction.net. So, thoughts of characters will be indicated as: /text in here/ okay? Now, a thank you goes to those that reviewed because it provides inspiration for a person to go on with the tale that they want to tell. This chapter starts going into the plot (just the skimming the surface part). One of the issues I was confused about while playing the game was how Shinra seemed to reconstruct Nibelheim down to the very exact detail, which in my point of view is downright eerie. So read on and review and tell me what you think about the whole entire Shinra set up in the game. Enjoy.
Chapter 2
A barrage of memories assaulted her senses the moment she stepped in. The sweet smell of potpourri and wood filled her nose. Burgundy eyes traveled over the familiar flowery wallpaper, the hard maple wood floor, and the faded photographs.
/Faded photographs?/
Tifa dropped her satchel and made her way over to the wall lined with picture frames.
/The pictures. . ./
Her bordeaux eyes scrutinized the photographs as if trying to piece together a complex puzzle. The only problem was that one of the pieces of the puzzle didn't seem to fit together. Her eyes scanned the photos. A tiny voice in the back of her mind was telling her that something was out of place.
/There./
The woman's long white fingers lightly touched one of the picture frames assuring her that it was real.
Curiosity taking control, she delicately grasped the frame off the wall. With trembling hands, she took the backing out of the frame to find that the photo was indeed genuine.
She took the photo out of the frame and looked closer. It was a candid snapshot of a young Tifa Lockheart at a faraway distance playing in the fields just outside of Nibelheim. It appeared to be taken while Tifa was in mid run chasing a slew of monarch butterflies - a distant happy moment in her life.
/But how can this be? Just when everything was burnt down?/
Tifa put the photo and the frame down on a table and began looking at the other photos on the first level of the house. Tifa distinctly remembered that the second floor of the Lockheart home was untouched by time even after the Sephiroth incident since it seemed that the fire all those years ago wasn't able to reach upstairs. The only thing that Tifa noticed when she came back five years ago was that the downstairs was slightly different in that all of the photos and pictures of her family have been replaced with seascapes and landscapes of the area surrounding Nibelheim. That, and the cryptic robed figures that constantly roamed about the home were the only stark differences.
Though the robed figures were gone, there was something else that was amiss.
There were pictures of her.
It was a discreet thing at first. Her pictures were blended well with various pastel seascapes and landscapes. However, Tifa's instinct of what belonged and didn't belong in her home prevailed.
After a good ten minutes of going through the entire home, Tifa had collected four pictures of her. She took her findings upstairs and settled on her bed to review them. What disturbed her the most was that there was only one real photograph of her in her childhood. The rest were all pieces of artwork - all of her. The first was an oil pastel of Tifa in her blue dress sitting on the Nibelheim well pointing at something in the sky amidst a dark blue background. The second was a black and white sketch of Tifa in her adolescent years in a larger version of her blue dress sitting in a field of wildflowers with the town of Nibelheim in the background. The last was an exquisitely done watercolor rendition of Tifa in a light blue flowing dress asleep under a tree.
/Where did these come from?/
A persistent ring answered her. She got up from her bed and took the PHS out of her satchel.
"Hello?"
"Tifa?"
"Yuffie!" the brunette exclaimed with surprise and happiness at hearing her friend.
"Hi Tifa. I just wanted to call to wish you a belated Happy Birthday. Sorry, if I called a couple of days late," Yuffie offered apologetically.
The brunette smiled and gave a slight chuckle, "No problem, but thanks."
"So where are you right now? How's everyone doing? How are you?" Yuffie asked with much enthusiasm.
"Whoa there, slow down! I just got here in Nibelheim, and I'm fine."
"Yeah, so I heard; Barret told me. How's the rest of the crew doing?"
"Oh, they're all doing fine. I heard Cid and Shera are expecting a child in a couple of months..."
The conversation carried on that way for a good half hour as the two related to each other about their other friends and themselves. Reeve has rebuilt Midgar and is now the presiding mayor of that thriving city. Barret and Marlene live in Corel, which has also become a successful town. Red XIII resides in Cosmo Canyon acting as an elder. Vincent is known to stop by Cosmo Canyon once in a while, but his usual whereabouts are unknown. Cid and Shera have settled in Rocket Town where they opened up a flight school. Yuffie being Yuffie, has decided to travel the world over before staying in Wutai to open up her own materia shop. Tifa has taken up residence in the city of Junon where she opened up a bar and jazz nightclub.
Suddenly, there was a silence between the two women when they near finished their list of common friends - with one name that went unmentioned. There was an understanding between them that the name didn't have to be said since it would cause questions to rise up only to be unanswered. His name floated in the air for a brief moment and fell to the ground dead - as if it had never existed in the first place.
"So," Yuffie cleared her throat, "last conversation I had with you, it appeared you were getting to know someone better."
"Oh, that," Tifa replied as she gave let out a sigh, half in relief at the subject that wasn't initiated and half in disdain for the memory that the current subject brought up.
"Well? How did it go? Wasn't his name Trent?" Yuffie asked egging Tifa on.
"Trey," Tifa corrected.
"Trent. Trey. What does it matter?"
"It didn't work out," Tifa finished deadpan.
"What? Why not?"
"Not my type."
"None of them are..." Yuffie said with softly.
Tifa opened her mouth to respond with a witty remark, but found the reality in what her friend had said. She had moved on, after all. Here she was, a bright, beautiful, and astute young woman who was renowned for her successful bar business and her role in the revered AVALANCHE. Yet, she couldn't -
"Tifa? Are you still there? Hello?" Yuffie asked with a bit of amusement and impatience.
Snapped out of her reverie, Tifa replied, "Yes, I'm still here."
"Listen, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later alright?"
"Sure. By the way, thanks for leaving the key to my house inside the flower pot."
"Flower pot?" Yuffie asked with a puzzled tone.
"Yeah, remember I asked you to hide it in the porch?"
"I know. I remember that, but I didn't hide it there. I hid the key under the doormat."
"You did?"
"Yes, c'mon Tifa. It's me, Yuffie - I never forget secret hiding places," Yuffie said confidently.
Tifa arched her eyebrow in thought. /Then how...?/
"Anyway, happy birthday Tifa," Yuffie continued, "Take care and try to meet another guy with a more common name." With that, the ninja hung up.
Tifa clicked off her PHS and turned to the bed with the pictures. A look of consternation and deep thought crossed her features as she tried to figure out the confusing situation she was in.
She sat back down on her bed once again and took apart the pictures from their frames. While doing so, she noticed dates on the back of each picture. One picture, the oil pastel, was dated three years ago, with the black and white sketch dating two years ago. The most recent one was the watercolor, which was dated last year.
"That's odd," Tifa mumbled softly to herself as she arranged the pictures face up on her bed.
She fished the key out of her pocket and laid it on her bed. /Yuffie had hidden the key under the doormat, but why did I find it in a flowerpot?/ Tifa knitted her eyebrows in confusion, and with a huff, she fell down on her bed. "It just doesn't make sense."
~End Ch. 2~