Author's Note: What do I have? A SlipKnot CD, a fresh carton of Mountain Dew, and the motivation to write. What will I have? The ENTIRE house to myself for over twenty-six hours as of. . .two hours from now. What do call this? Writing time! Damn right, and if I have my way, this chapter will be headed at you as of tonight. But first, credit where it's do. Thank you to my long list of reviewers ( Hold on tight. ): Chocobo Goddess, drakonlily, Athena, The Saturn Angels, Mellinia, mistressofterror, Mortitia, Ardwynna Morrigu, noodlepower, blah bleh, Lady Spoon/Cutiemew, gadi, BTange, Mikayla, Cheez3bree, Yoda, aer-seph4eva, Sharpened Petals, Kirillian, RaistlinofMetallica, krow ( Hi, Lance. ), emma, Mega-Obskira, :), Senya Starseeker, Aurea, Shimmer, Jordan. All of you, thanks for proving my mother wrong and showing her I /can/ write a decent story. Thanks to all who've added me to their favorites list, and those who just read as I go along. Thanks for some kickass fanart so far, CG, and some help with the stuck points. Y'all have been real nice to me, and because of it, I don't plan on stopping this thing anytime soon. We've still got a concert and funeral to head to, y'know. Just felt like credit should go where credit's do. Thanks for the help. By the way, this might help some AeriSeph age-watchers: Aeris is twenty-one, Sephiroth is twenty. Get that in your head. Sephiroth is NOT thirty-some.
Silver Rose
by Reno Spiegel
Dante@towernetwork.net
December 4, 3076
Afternoon. Cemetary. Kalm Outskirts. 3:47 P.M.
"She. . .she was a good woman, Kid. . ." - Nameless Mourner, Kline's funeral
Jinaisim? Fuck him right now. Aeris? She's here, decked in black, but she doesn't know the half of it. Nine-tenths of these twenty-some people didn't know Kline, never will know Kline. They're just here for an excuse to miss work. And my father has his eyes trained on me from across the crowd, I can feel them even when I step forward in the drizzle and set a boquet on the coffin my darling sister lies dead and cold in.
He didn't know his own daughter, never will now. He's just here to boost up his image with the fat ShinRa fucks by going to her funeral. And miss work. He knows what I did, he knows I put a bullet to the back of Tseng and cut off his face. But he won't tell. Turn your own son in for murder, you're considered a low-life traitor. And, if possible, this insults Professor Hojo, and man so low and cold that he makes this place here and now seem like a utopia.
That rotten bastard. That cold, low, filthy bastard. He ignores her existence past the age of ten and then comes to give token sympathy and maybe a few forced sobs. You know why he's here, standing in a black suit, in the cold rain that makes me wish I could like the crowd on fire even more? To get his share. To get what he can out of the will, nothing less, barely more. To miss work, to collect his part, to boost his façade.
I want to pull out my handgun and spill a clip into his chest, not stop there, break his skinny fucking skull over a rock. See how he likes the mental pain. See if he agrees with his old methods of boxing my ears until I shut up now. He stands at the head of the crowd, giving a false sad speech. I stand in a tower with a sniper rife, the lock on his goddamn forehead. I taste his blood on my tongue, want to be there with the gun in the tower.
My eyes flare from beneath my hat, an old Mafia-style thing that came with the charcoal pin-striped suit, and meet his for a moment. He dares stand here. He dares come to my beautiful sister's funeral, shed false tears and pretend to give a damn. The nerve. He should be buried with her, alive or dead it matters not.
Aeris' tears are real, but only because I'm down and I might not get up this time. My eyes are dull whenever I see anyone, I've gone silent for the past few days. Once in awhile Hojo glances at her. He knows who she is.
You want her, you. . .you damn fucking asshole?! Come get her! Come through me to get her, but don't expect to make it past my damn armspan. I'll snap your scrawny neck before you can ever lay a finger on someone I love again, like you did when you beat Kline with the belt, you sick fuck.
Love. Hah. I'm delirious or something. . . I loved Kline, but I can't love Aeris. No, not me. Watch your tongue, Boy. Didn't you always tell me that, Professor? Oh, I'll let you collect your share, but what I feel should be mine I'll take back in time. When you happen to drink the poisoned wine, when you trip down the stairs because your leg somehow managed to give out at the top, when you drown because someone accidentally filled your lifejacket with water. I'll be the one on the other side of your death, I promise here and now.
People give me their false sympathies, their plastered on faces and their rain-made tears they consider real. The burial's over, the men are shovelling on the mud right now. I swear, I see my sister wink at me through the window on her coffin she'd insisted on having years ago before they cover that, too.
G'bye, Kline. No, don't worry, I'll get him for you. I'll take the sick bastard down for the both of us one of these days. You just stay there, he'll come up to the Lifestream, then me. Then, Sis', you'll get the revenge you deserve. I know for a fact the Cetra are a caring race betrayed by him, so they'll let us beat the shit out of him when we're there together.
The man who handled her will steps up to me and tips his ballcap. Wearing one to a funeral. Bad form. Aeris huddles closer to me for the warmth and to hold the umbrella the best she can over us. Lucky her, she watches the movies and knows it always manages to rain the hardest on a funeral day.
"Your sister was a great woman," he sighs, breath coming out in clouds. A middle-aged man with faint sideburns and a goatee. Heh. Hey, related to Daniel Reeve at all? Token care. Sympathy for the devil, I like to say. Because someday I'll go to Hell and take over, you know. The Professor's at his shoulder, staring steadily at me. He's not scared. He can't be scared. You need a heart to be scared. Even a cold heart will do. "She had a lot to offer you. I talked to her about her will a few months before this." Really? I would've never guessed, seeing as how you just told me that. I'm still distracted and irrational, staring at Hojo. "She split it up between you and your father." Nope. Don't see him. "If you'll just come with me to my office. . ."
There's more he wants to say, like "I'll give the dead bird's stuff to you and collect my pay for doing so." All of these people are liars. All of them except Aeris and I don't know a damn thing about caring today. I care about Kline, Aeris cares about me. The sideburned man turns and starts toward town. Hojo pauses a moment, almost dares to smirk at me, then follows him.
Aeris scoots closer as soon as we start walking. I don't know if she's cold, afraid, or concerned, but whatever the case, I gently slip an arm around her waist and continue on. Almost immediately she seems to calm down a bit.
"Professor Hojo's. . .your father?"She's not short on breath, just testing the waters. And she hasn't nailed me in the teeth yet, so I guess this is helping.
I snort and shake my head, tossing a few flecks of water off my hat in the process. It's like one of those old mobster movies. Now we're going to go smoke weed and shoot up a strip club, Maria. Make sure the spaghetti's on when I get back. "He was never a father to me. Not worthy of fathering a goddamn rat. His own damn fault we're here." I don't dare say anymore, because he's still in earshot, and could have Reno come out and put a bullet between my eyes in half a day. He would do that. He had no problem sending Kline to the grave.
She gets the basic idea, shivers, and lays her free hand on my elbow. We've gotten a lot closer in the last few days. My luck's been down and she's keeping me steady right now. Doesn't help that I've still got the urge to. . .well, nevermind.
My hand subconsciously drifts to my pocket. The Mako Dreams tickets. Two backstage passes. Directions from Kala herself inside Junon. Can I go and truly enjoy it? No, probably not. . .but I have to go. I know Aeris must've paid a bit more than just a smile and the comment that I like Mako Dreams to get them. Extra gil or extra services, she got 'em, and I'll not go back on the offer now. Tomorrow night, Mako Dreams, Junon Event Center. We'll most likely drive -- we hopped a boat in the Cougar -- there tonight, stay with Kala and the others, then shop around until the concert tomorrow night.
We get into the man's office. It's like the movies. A desk to the side, four chairs evenly spaced, and quite comfortable, in the middle of the room, and a flatscreen television on the wall. He instructs us to the seats and skips to the chase with a glare from me. Hojo's ponytail wags in my face and I struggle to not move my hand from Aeris' to grab it and pull as hard as I can. Sure, I want him dead, but she needs to be calm around here. Although out of his labcoat, the old man still looks dangerous and menacing.
"Kline chose not to document what she was giving to you visually, but I've got a few notes here," the said notes come out of his desk, "that should include it all. Let's begin, shall we?"
So, we get to the chase. She left most of it to her husband in town, who was in much too bad shape to even move from bed today, and a few things to the Professor. Who I will never refer to as Father vocally from here on in. An old beater car, the papers to a Chocobo -- probably for his testing, the animal -- and everything he once gave to her. To me she left almost nothing, but we'd spoken on it once before. She was going to leave everything to the old man, just so he'd have to be reminded of all the sick shit he'd chosen to put her through. I got her old records and a few necklaces she used to wear. Not the best, but they had notes to me on the inside. From her in the Lifestream, they were signed. She had it all planned out.
Good God. She was so young when she had it all planned out. From the first attack, she was waiting for the final, just to show him. I choke down a sob as the sideburned man rambles on and on about what she's giving us. Clocks, coins, watches, all to Hojo. Records, poems, old books, some to me. I understand you, Kline. I hold nothing against you, wherever you are.
Once he finishes, I have about half-a-box full of things, and Hojo has three in a large stack. I want to laugh, want to cry, want to scream. Want to kill. I've killed three people. One, I was drunk. Two, self-defense. Three, minor self-defense with a touch of giving a favor to Tseng. Call me a murderer and I'll tell you it's true. But this time, if there could be a four, the reason would be desire. I crave to kill him. I want his blood soaking into my shirt, my gun at the scene of the crime when he falls. I want my eyes to glint madly in the moonlight, fangs sprout through my mouth, and claws to pierce through the walls of this damned office.
I'm a maniacal little shit today.
The Professor insists on following us out to the car with his boxes, all stacked on a cart he's pushing infront of him with some hidden strength. I load my box in the back of the Cougar and turn around. Aeris is already in the car, thank the gods, but Hojo's eyes bore through me. "Lot of nerve you got, coming to this."
"That's not the way you talk to your own father, is it?" His first words to me in years critisize me. Déjà vue. He was like this after Mother died, the pale bitch. Did I ever tell you I don't get alone with my parents?
I grunt, a sign that I don't want to talk to him at all, but offer him some words of wisdom. "Fuck you, Old Man Hamster."
"Hamster?" I know more than him? Funny, I thought he was the scientis -- oh, wait, hamsters are normal. He doesn't care about them.
"Hamsters eat their children, you kill yours. Funny, huh?" I mock. I slam the hood shut, turn around, and face him with my arms over my chest. We're silently viing for the spot of the alpha male. I'm steadily losing. Bastard. "I suppose you're not just following me for the hell of it?" He never is. He always wants something.
He grins almost softly. Trying to win me over. I throw out another wall and pinch my eyebrows together. He jerks his finger at the Cougar. "Still runs as well as ever, I suppose?" he queries. I nod, keep my silence. I know I'll crack before he gives up, but not without a shit of a fight. "You're seeing the Cetra now, are you?"
Never one to forget a face, were you? Never one to leave the said face the way it is, either. Not without beating it a few times, no, you don't swing that way. "No business of yours who I'm seeing anymore, Hojo. Take note of this: She has a name, and you're not touching her. Not ever again. You're not laying a finger on me or anyone I love. Ever. Again."
The poor man thinks I'm bluffing. He smirks and reaches out a single finger toward my shoulder.
I knock it away and slug him in the face. I don't hold back because he's an old man. It's the kind of knock-down punch that boxers throw, which he just did. He's on his back, suit and all, in the just-outside-Kalm mud, staring at me as if I were a Cetra myself. And let him think whatever he wants, I decide as I walk toward the car, opening the door and getting in. For a solid five seconds, I debate on putting it into reverse and breaking the rest of him into pieces.
But Aeris' eyes are glistening in the rear-view mirror out of the corner of my eye, so I just ease the gas down to the floor and head toward Junon. Not today, old man. You won't get the pleasure of dying under the wheels of a car.
If I have to, I'll come kill you with a toothpick.
* * * * *
Change of plans.
Instead of staying at the huge Mako Dreams mansion, which is unfortunately being sprayed for mites, we'll just spend the night at Kala's apartment in Upper Junon. She'd given a message to one of the workers, he relayed it to us, and we were on our way. Around all the rusted cars and ones with all the windows knocked out, the Cougar parts the crowds. Some point, some gape, and some just walk past like normal people.
Okay, okay. Two point, one gapes, and the rest of them just walk by. I'm so proud of the car I'll lie to myself, I guess. I get out the driver's side and look up at the building. Kala lives at the top. A gothic-style place, complete with stone balconies and gargoyles on the top. I whistle and look over at Aeris. We had a talk on the way, and I've settled down a bit. Leaving the car doors open emits waves and waves of sound from the stereo, so I reach in and turn the entire vehicle off.
We also reasoned that I should be allowed to have the music as high as I want it, her demands. The band-member already hangs over her balcony waving at us. With a 'MKO DRMS' license plate and "Me Pissed,You Shit" blasting from the speakers, I guess she made a correct judgement. Kala disappears and reemerges at the main door a few seconds later. For once, I see her smiling.
Kala's a dark person, mesh socks on her arms and necklaces galore on. Decked out in a black dress, hair's done up nicely, and she's wearing almost the entire line of Cipot Toh clothing, a brand that ships straight out of Wutai. Almost-perfect face, not a visible flaw on it, blue-green eyes staring from under thin, finely-worked-on eyebrows. Married or not, if you're dark, depressed, and/or a Mako Dreams fan, you want this woman at least once. There's no question to it. I'm dead meat if she tries to hug me and tell me how sorry she is.
Apparently, as Aeris has said, those two have already talked a bit from her visits to her husband and Aeris' working in the bookstore, this proved when they smirk and each other and exchange what looks like a bearhug. Bad sign. I'm next, I figure, and try to shift away slightly. Like I said, I'm down hook-line-sinker, head-over-heels for her if she even gives me an inviting look.
She turns to look at me now. The deciding moment. We size each other up with our eyes, stare a moment more, then she leans forward and wraps her arms around me. Three, two, one, "I'm sorry about your loss, Sephiroth." I'm dead. My head feels light and, to make it look authentic enough, I rest my chin on her shoulder. Yep. Dead as a doornail. Demon in disguise this one. Aeris looks at me with sympathetic eyes. I search for envy. Envy might save me.
No liferaft comes for me.
Doomed.
Kala pats me on the back twice and lets go, inviting us in and shutting the door behind us. No clothes on the floor, spotless kitchen, and three cats, lined up on the back of a two-person couch as if told to stay there. As soon as I look at one, the whole bunch takes off for another room. The vacuum stands lifeless by the table. She was preparing for guests before we came. Well, here we are.
"Jinaisim's probably off somewhere else, one of the smaller towns," she informs me, or us. I don't know how much Aeris knows her. But Kala's worried about her husband, from her tone. At least I know she's not available. "We're in a rough patch right now, anyway." Shit. There goes that beacon of hope. "Coffee, tea, beer, water? Vodka?"
And and Aeris break into stifled laughs at that one, and I whirl around to see them both grinning at me and trying to hide it. So, they share stories, huh? Wait until we sit down, I've got plenty. I shake my head to all offers and they go chuckling to the two-person couch. I'm left with a leather recliner.
"I heard you're quite the fan, Seph." She isn't one for shooting the breeze, I guess. "How many concerts you been to?"
They don't tour often. "Four."
"We've only given three."
"Private sounder in Midgar," A sounder is where they go in and play for about three people to see if they're ready for a CD. "I knew the bald guy in security."
"I'll fire 'im. So you were the one messing with the lights."
"Rude has ShinRa to fall back on. We worked on the same floor." I smile thinly. "You have nice concentration, anyway." I glance at Aeris. "Where'd you two meet?"
The Cetra of the group smiles a bit. "No matter where we met. The tickets got you out of the house, right?"
Damn. Strike one. She's winning. "Sure they did, but it's no everyday my idol steps into my roommate's store and picks up a paperback novel. There's some underground business you two're running, right?" I don't expect to hit anything the way I'm firing, but it's worth a try.
Kala points over her shoulder and I follow with my eyes. Two bookcases, brimming with hardback and paperback. Strike two. Fuck. "Point taken. How'd you get the tickets, though?" I'm still eyeing Aeris uneasily. There's something I'm not putting together.
"Jinaisim. Crossword puzzle."
It clicks. In the back of the metal magazine, there was a crossword puzzle that had everything to do with the hot metal bands. If you completed it and sent it in, all correctly, and they drew your name, you would get two tickets and backstage passes to the Mako Dreams concert tomorrow. I'd missed the deadline, but I remember, the night I'd been watching Aeris watch me, she'd had the magazine in her hand. She probably just handed it to Jinaisim and begged him for tickets, seeing as how I was in such a slump. "You're a sneaky one, huh?"
She, I swear, starts giggling. I quirk the side of my lip up and shake my head, glancing at a smirking Kala in the process. She looks like a cat watching a mouse. "Sooooooo," she drawls, "you must have a lot of stories, working at ShinRa and all."
And so, the stories begin.
A little past an hour and a half later, all three of us have glints in our eyes and are exchanging comments like machine gun fire. She would ask us a question, and Aeris and I would add her in in cycles between us. It went something like this for awhile:
"So, how'd YOU two meet?"
"Found him in a dumpster."
"ShinRa fired me, so I needed a place to stay. I bought a flower from her --"
"With way too much of a tip, by the way."
"-- and she started stalking me around the whole goddamn city!"
"I wasn't stalking you! I was concerned! You were homeless --"
"And you threatened me if I didn't come home with you."
"Well, probably good you're as obedient as a little puppy, then."
"Excuse me?! If you remember right, your mother and I had plenty of fights, and I won!"
"My ass! How many times did I jump in and rescue you from death?"
". . .Okay, a few, but the rest of the time --"
"There was no 'rest of the time'!"
"I coulda held my own."
"You didn't."
"Could've, though, if you weren't so concerned, as you call it."
"She's my mother! we're due to have some fights along the way!"
"That doesn't mean steal mine! She was inches from a heart-attack when you jumped in!"
"You were a ShinRa! Of course she was!"
"And I saved your ass from Tseng, if you remember correctly."
"Killing counts as saving?"
"Self-defense."
"My ass."
"He was gonna kill me. What'm I supposed to do, sit there, nod, and let him go about it? Besides, he didn't wanna do it."
"Oh? What'd he do, tell you?"
"Of course."
"I don't believe that."
"I was his friend for a long time, remember. As you yourself said, I was a ShinRa."
"And I know you're not trustworthy."
"Then why the blazing hell are you sitting here with me after almost two months of living with me?"
"I. . . Damn. Got me."
And then, in the middle of a serious discussion like that, we'd just burst out laughing for no apparent reason, Kala, who I've lost most attraction to, as well. There truly was no reason, as far as I can tell. Now we've calmed down a bit, broken out the drinks, and gotten half-way to drunk. As far as I can tell, my decisions still have a bit of logic to them, though. Kline, I know, would like to see me like this.
The vocalist among us even has some good hard liquor down her. Now we're on to the humorous stories. The times any of us had gotten three-times as tipsy as this and tripped over our own feet, when we went to wherever wearing which embarrassing suit. You can imagine the look on my face when I reveal I spent three solid Halloweens in a dress. Then Aeris, ever the life-saver, tosses on the table that she spent one with too loose of a costume. Claims the pants would always fall down whenever she went to ring the bell, and Elmyra couldn't sew it to make it any smaller.
I don't comment while she speaks with this one, just finish off the dinner of fried chicken we were prepared.
Eventually, after watching a movie or two and talking some more, the clock rings out eleven. Kala clicks her tongue. I know what's coming. Either her saying it's time to head off or discussing places we're sleeping. "Well, I've got the concert tomorrow, and there's no way I'm leaving you two here alone, so. . ."
The universal signal for "Get your asses to bed."Aeris is nodding, I want to ask a question, but the oldest of us tosses the other woman a set of keys and points at the room next to the one the cats disappeared into earlier. Aeris stands up, lets her left knee wobble slightly, and walks back there. Kala starts turning the lights off.
"Where do I sleep?"
She jerks her head over and stares at me for a long while. "I figured you'd either take her room or the couch. All depends on how it is between you two."
Pretty good, unfortunately. I nod my thanks, she gives me one last sympathy hug, and I trudge to what will now be known as our room for the night. The door almost refuses to creak when I open it, but Aeris is smiling from next to the door at me, letting me know, "I figured you'd come in."
Her red jacket is already in the chair in the corner she's next to, which sits next to a small oak table, housing a lamp, the only source of light in the room. From this angle, the tiniest of shadows, caused by her nose, makes a dark spot beneath her eye, and her arms are folded over her chest. God, the moon can't compare to this.
Driven by alcohol or desire, I almost pounce, sweeping around on my leg, stopping infront of her, and staring for a moment. Large green eyes dare me. Ruby red lips beckon me. Flinching fingers at her sides worship and crave me. Which to give into first? My sober side screaming to back off, or the shuddering digits on her hips urging me on?
Fuck it. I will not go down as a coward tonight again. She's already against the wall. Our lips clash and a shock runs over the both of us. Her resistance barely matters and completely disappears when my hands cover her own. She's been drinking the same thing I have. I can taste it now. Stopping? No. She's drunk, so am I, but I have feeling we both know the consequences when she pulls back for breath and slides her hand along the wall.
Toward the lamp cord, grasping it.
"I knew you'd come, Sephiroth."
Darkness.
Author's Note: I've never been good at this, and I don't think I am now, but there's your AeriSeph. We're nowhere near done, but I wanted to sneak the kiss in at the last minute. Tell me how I did. o_O -Fears- Yes, Cipot Toh is just a cheap rip-off name for Hot Topic. Sue me. ( There's your scene, CG. )
Silver Rose
by Reno Spiegel
Dante@towernetwork.net
December 4, 3076
Afternoon. Cemetary. Kalm Outskirts. 3:47 P.M.
"She. . .she was a good woman, Kid. . ." - Nameless Mourner, Kline's funeral
Jinaisim? Fuck him right now. Aeris? She's here, decked in black, but she doesn't know the half of it. Nine-tenths of these twenty-some people didn't know Kline, never will know Kline. They're just here for an excuse to miss work. And my father has his eyes trained on me from across the crowd, I can feel them even when I step forward in the drizzle and set a boquet on the coffin my darling sister lies dead and cold in.
He didn't know his own daughter, never will now. He's just here to boost up his image with the fat ShinRa fucks by going to her funeral. And miss work. He knows what I did, he knows I put a bullet to the back of Tseng and cut off his face. But he won't tell. Turn your own son in for murder, you're considered a low-life traitor. And, if possible, this insults Professor Hojo, and man so low and cold that he makes this place here and now seem like a utopia.
That rotten bastard. That cold, low, filthy bastard. He ignores her existence past the age of ten and then comes to give token sympathy and maybe a few forced sobs. You know why he's here, standing in a black suit, in the cold rain that makes me wish I could like the crowd on fire even more? To get his share. To get what he can out of the will, nothing less, barely more. To miss work, to collect his part, to boost his façade.
I want to pull out my handgun and spill a clip into his chest, not stop there, break his skinny fucking skull over a rock. See how he likes the mental pain. See if he agrees with his old methods of boxing my ears until I shut up now. He stands at the head of the crowd, giving a false sad speech. I stand in a tower with a sniper rife, the lock on his goddamn forehead. I taste his blood on my tongue, want to be there with the gun in the tower.
My eyes flare from beneath my hat, an old Mafia-style thing that came with the charcoal pin-striped suit, and meet his for a moment. He dares stand here. He dares come to my beautiful sister's funeral, shed false tears and pretend to give a damn. The nerve. He should be buried with her, alive or dead it matters not.
Aeris' tears are real, but only because I'm down and I might not get up this time. My eyes are dull whenever I see anyone, I've gone silent for the past few days. Once in awhile Hojo glances at her. He knows who she is.
You want her, you. . .you damn fucking asshole?! Come get her! Come through me to get her, but don't expect to make it past my damn armspan. I'll snap your scrawny neck before you can ever lay a finger on someone I love again, like you did when you beat Kline with the belt, you sick fuck.
Love. Hah. I'm delirious or something. . . I loved Kline, but I can't love Aeris. No, not me. Watch your tongue, Boy. Didn't you always tell me that, Professor? Oh, I'll let you collect your share, but what I feel should be mine I'll take back in time. When you happen to drink the poisoned wine, when you trip down the stairs because your leg somehow managed to give out at the top, when you drown because someone accidentally filled your lifejacket with water. I'll be the one on the other side of your death, I promise here and now.
People give me their false sympathies, their plastered on faces and their rain-made tears they consider real. The burial's over, the men are shovelling on the mud right now. I swear, I see my sister wink at me through the window on her coffin she'd insisted on having years ago before they cover that, too.
G'bye, Kline. No, don't worry, I'll get him for you. I'll take the sick bastard down for the both of us one of these days. You just stay there, he'll come up to the Lifestream, then me. Then, Sis', you'll get the revenge you deserve. I know for a fact the Cetra are a caring race betrayed by him, so they'll let us beat the shit out of him when we're there together.
The man who handled her will steps up to me and tips his ballcap. Wearing one to a funeral. Bad form. Aeris huddles closer to me for the warmth and to hold the umbrella the best she can over us. Lucky her, she watches the movies and knows it always manages to rain the hardest on a funeral day.
"Your sister was a great woman," he sighs, breath coming out in clouds. A middle-aged man with faint sideburns and a goatee. Heh. Hey, related to Daniel Reeve at all? Token care. Sympathy for the devil, I like to say. Because someday I'll go to Hell and take over, you know. The Professor's at his shoulder, staring steadily at me. He's not scared. He can't be scared. You need a heart to be scared. Even a cold heart will do. "She had a lot to offer you. I talked to her about her will a few months before this." Really? I would've never guessed, seeing as how you just told me that. I'm still distracted and irrational, staring at Hojo. "She split it up between you and your father." Nope. Don't see him. "If you'll just come with me to my office. . ."
There's more he wants to say, like "I'll give the dead bird's stuff to you and collect my pay for doing so." All of these people are liars. All of them except Aeris and I don't know a damn thing about caring today. I care about Kline, Aeris cares about me. The sideburned man turns and starts toward town. Hojo pauses a moment, almost dares to smirk at me, then follows him.
Aeris scoots closer as soon as we start walking. I don't know if she's cold, afraid, or concerned, but whatever the case, I gently slip an arm around her waist and continue on. Almost immediately she seems to calm down a bit.
"Professor Hojo's. . .your father?"She's not short on breath, just testing the waters. And she hasn't nailed me in the teeth yet, so I guess this is helping.
I snort and shake my head, tossing a few flecks of water off my hat in the process. It's like one of those old mobster movies. Now we're going to go smoke weed and shoot up a strip club, Maria. Make sure the spaghetti's on when I get back. "He was never a father to me. Not worthy of fathering a goddamn rat. His own damn fault we're here." I don't dare say anymore, because he's still in earshot, and could have Reno come out and put a bullet between my eyes in half a day. He would do that. He had no problem sending Kline to the grave.
She gets the basic idea, shivers, and lays her free hand on my elbow. We've gotten a lot closer in the last few days. My luck's been down and she's keeping me steady right now. Doesn't help that I've still got the urge to. . .well, nevermind.
My hand subconsciously drifts to my pocket. The Mako Dreams tickets. Two backstage passes. Directions from Kala herself inside Junon. Can I go and truly enjoy it? No, probably not. . .but I have to go. I know Aeris must've paid a bit more than just a smile and the comment that I like Mako Dreams to get them. Extra gil or extra services, she got 'em, and I'll not go back on the offer now. Tomorrow night, Mako Dreams, Junon Event Center. We'll most likely drive -- we hopped a boat in the Cougar -- there tonight, stay with Kala and the others, then shop around until the concert tomorrow night.
We get into the man's office. It's like the movies. A desk to the side, four chairs evenly spaced, and quite comfortable, in the middle of the room, and a flatscreen television on the wall. He instructs us to the seats and skips to the chase with a glare from me. Hojo's ponytail wags in my face and I struggle to not move my hand from Aeris' to grab it and pull as hard as I can. Sure, I want him dead, but she needs to be calm around here. Although out of his labcoat, the old man still looks dangerous and menacing.
"Kline chose not to document what she was giving to you visually, but I've got a few notes here," the said notes come out of his desk, "that should include it all. Let's begin, shall we?"
So, we get to the chase. She left most of it to her husband in town, who was in much too bad shape to even move from bed today, and a few things to the Professor. Who I will never refer to as Father vocally from here on in. An old beater car, the papers to a Chocobo -- probably for his testing, the animal -- and everything he once gave to her. To me she left almost nothing, but we'd spoken on it once before. She was going to leave everything to the old man, just so he'd have to be reminded of all the sick shit he'd chosen to put her through. I got her old records and a few necklaces she used to wear. Not the best, but they had notes to me on the inside. From her in the Lifestream, they were signed. She had it all planned out.
Good God. She was so young when she had it all planned out. From the first attack, she was waiting for the final, just to show him. I choke down a sob as the sideburned man rambles on and on about what she's giving us. Clocks, coins, watches, all to Hojo. Records, poems, old books, some to me. I understand you, Kline. I hold nothing against you, wherever you are.
Once he finishes, I have about half-a-box full of things, and Hojo has three in a large stack. I want to laugh, want to cry, want to scream. Want to kill. I've killed three people. One, I was drunk. Two, self-defense. Three, minor self-defense with a touch of giving a favor to Tseng. Call me a murderer and I'll tell you it's true. But this time, if there could be a four, the reason would be desire. I crave to kill him. I want his blood soaking into my shirt, my gun at the scene of the crime when he falls. I want my eyes to glint madly in the moonlight, fangs sprout through my mouth, and claws to pierce through the walls of this damned office.
I'm a maniacal little shit today.
The Professor insists on following us out to the car with his boxes, all stacked on a cart he's pushing infront of him with some hidden strength. I load my box in the back of the Cougar and turn around. Aeris is already in the car, thank the gods, but Hojo's eyes bore through me. "Lot of nerve you got, coming to this."
"That's not the way you talk to your own father, is it?" His first words to me in years critisize me. Déjà vue. He was like this after Mother died, the pale bitch. Did I ever tell you I don't get alone with my parents?
I grunt, a sign that I don't want to talk to him at all, but offer him some words of wisdom. "Fuck you, Old Man Hamster."
"Hamster?" I know more than him? Funny, I thought he was the scientis -- oh, wait, hamsters are normal. He doesn't care about them.
"Hamsters eat their children, you kill yours. Funny, huh?" I mock. I slam the hood shut, turn around, and face him with my arms over my chest. We're silently viing for the spot of the alpha male. I'm steadily losing. Bastard. "I suppose you're not just following me for the hell of it?" He never is. He always wants something.
He grins almost softly. Trying to win me over. I throw out another wall and pinch my eyebrows together. He jerks his finger at the Cougar. "Still runs as well as ever, I suppose?" he queries. I nod, keep my silence. I know I'll crack before he gives up, but not without a shit of a fight. "You're seeing the Cetra now, are you?"
Never one to forget a face, were you? Never one to leave the said face the way it is, either. Not without beating it a few times, no, you don't swing that way. "No business of yours who I'm seeing anymore, Hojo. Take note of this: She has a name, and you're not touching her. Not ever again. You're not laying a finger on me or anyone I love. Ever. Again."
The poor man thinks I'm bluffing. He smirks and reaches out a single finger toward my shoulder.
I knock it away and slug him in the face. I don't hold back because he's an old man. It's the kind of knock-down punch that boxers throw, which he just did. He's on his back, suit and all, in the just-outside-Kalm mud, staring at me as if I were a Cetra myself. And let him think whatever he wants, I decide as I walk toward the car, opening the door and getting in. For a solid five seconds, I debate on putting it into reverse and breaking the rest of him into pieces.
But Aeris' eyes are glistening in the rear-view mirror out of the corner of my eye, so I just ease the gas down to the floor and head toward Junon. Not today, old man. You won't get the pleasure of dying under the wheels of a car.
If I have to, I'll come kill you with a toothpick.
* * * * *
Change of plans.
Instead of staying at the huge Mako Dreams mansion, which is unfortunately being sprayed for mites, we'll just spend the night at Kala's apartment in Upper Junon. She'd given a message to one of the workers, he relayed it to us, and we were on our way. Around all the rusted cars and ones with all the windows knocked out, the Cougar parts the crowds. Some point, some gape, and some just walk past like normal people.
Okay, okay. Two point, one gapes, and the rest of them just walk by. I'm so proud of the car I'll lie to myself, I guess. I get out the driver's side and look up at the building. Kala lives at the top. A gothic-style place, complete with stone balconies and gargoyles on the top. I whistle and look over at Aeris. We had a talk on the way, and I've settled down a bit. Leaving the car doors open emits waves and waves of sound from the stereo, so I reach in and turn the entire vehicle off.
We also reasoned that I should be allowed to have the music as high as I want it, her demands. The band-member already hangs over her balcony waving at us. With a 'MKO DRMS' license plate and "Me Pissed,You Shit" blasting from the speakers, I guess she made a correct judgement. Kala disappears and reemerges at the main door a few seconds later. For once, I see her smiling.
Kala's a dark person, mesh socks on her arms and necklaces galore on. Decked out in a black dress, hair's done up nicely, and she's wearing almost the entire line of Cipot Toh clothing, a brand that ships straight out of Wutai. Almost-perfect face, not a visible flaw on it, blue-green eyes staring from under thin, finely-worked-on eyebrows. Married or not, if you're dark, depressed, and/or a Mako Dreams fan, you want this woman at least once. There's no question to it. I'm dead meat if she tries to hug me and tell me how sorry she is.
Apparently, as Aeris has said, those two have already talked a bit from her visits to her husband and Aeris' working in the bookstore, this proved when they smirk and each other and exchange what looks like a bearhug. Bad sign. I'm next, I figure, and try to shift away slightly. Like I said, I'm down hook-line-sinker, head-over-heels for her if she even gives me an inviting look.
She turns to look at me now. The deciding moment. We size each other up with our eyes, stare a moment more, then she leans forward and wraps her arms around me. Three, two, one, "I'm sorry about your loss, Sephiroth." I'm dead. My head feels light and, to make it look authentic enough, I rest my chin on her shoulder. Yep. Dead as a doornail. Demon in disguise this one. Aeris looks at me with sympathetic eyes. I search for envy. Envy might save me.
No liferaft comes for me.
Doomed.
Kala pats me on the back twice and lets go, inviting us in and shutting the door behind us. No clothes on the floor, spotless kitchen, and three cats, lined up on the back of a two-person couch as if told to stay there. As soon as I look at one, the whole bunch takes off for another room. The vacuum stands lifeless by the table. She was preparing for guests before we came. Well, here we are.
"Jinaisim's probably off somewhere else, one of the smaller towns," she informs me, or us. I don't know how much Aeris knows her. But Kala's worried about her husband, from her tone. At least I know she's not available. "We're in a rough patch right now, anyway." Shit. There goes that beacon of hope. "Coffee, tea, beer, water? Vodka?"
And and Aeris break into stifled laughs at that one, and I whirl around to see them both grinning at me and trying to hide it. So, they share stories, huh? Wait until we sit down, I've got plenty. I shake my head to all offers and they go chuckling to the two-person couch. I'm left with a leather recliner.
"I heard you're quite the fan, Seph." She isn't one for shooting the breeze, I guess. "How many concerts you been to?"
They don't tour often. "Four."
"We've only given three."
"Private sounder in Midgar," A sounder is where they go in and play for about three people to see if they're ready for a CD. "I knew the bald guy in security."
"I'll fire 'im. So you were the one messing with the lights."
"Rude has ShinRa to fall back on. We worked on the same floor." I smile thinly. "You have nice concentration, anyway." I glance at Aeris. "Where'd you two meet?"
The Cetra of the group smiles a bit. "No matter where we met. The tickets got you out of the house, right?"
Damn. Strike one. She's winning. "Sure they did, but it's no everyday my idol steps into my roommate's store and picks up a paperback novel. There's some underground business you two're running, right?" I don't expect to hit anything the way I'm firing, but it's worth a try.
Kala points over her shoulder and I follow with my eyes. Two bookcases, brimming with hardback and paperback. Strike two. Fuck. "Point taken. How'd you get the tickets, though?" I'm still eyeing Aeris uneasily. There's something I'm not putting together.
"Jinaisim. Crossword puzzle."
It clicks. In the back of the metal magazine, there was a crossword puzzle that had everything to do with the hot metal bands. If you completed it and sent it in, all correctly, and they drew your name, you would get two tickets and backstage passes to the Mako Dreams concert tomorrow. I'd missed the deadline, but I remember, the night I'd been watching Aeris watch me, she'd had the magazine in her hand. She probably just handed it to Jinaisim and begged him for tickets, seeing as how I was in such a slump. "You're a sneaky one, huh?"
She, I swear, starts giggling. I quirk the side of my lip up and shake my head, glancing at a smirking Kala in the process. She looks like a cat watching a mouse. "Sooooooo," she drawls, "you must have a lot of stories, working at ShinRa and all."
And so, the stories begin.
A little past an hour and a half later, all three of us have glints in our eyes and are exchanging comments like machine gun fire. She would ask us a question, and Aeris and I would add her in in cycles between us. It went something like this for awhile:
"So, how'd YOU two meet?"
"Found him in a dumpster."
"ShinRa fired me, so I needed a place to stay. I bought a flower from her --"
"With way too much of a tip, by the way."
"-- and she started stalking me around the whole goddamn city!"
"I wasn't stalking you! I was concerned! You were homeless --"
"And you threatened me if I didn't come home with you."
"Well, probably good you're as obedient as a little puppy, then."
"Excuse me?! If you remember right, your mother and I had plenty of fights, and I won!"
"My ass! How many times did I jump in and rescue you from death?"
". . .Okay, a few, but the rest of the time --"
"There was no 'rest of the time'!"
"I coulda held my own."
"You didn't."
"Could've, though, if you weren't so concerned, as you call it."
"She's my mother! we're due to have some fights along the way!"
"That doesn't mean steal mine! She was inches from a heart-attack when you jumped in!"
"You were a ShinRa! Of course she was!"
"And I saved your ass from Tseng, if you remember correctly."
"Killing counts as saving?"
"Self-defense."
"My ass."
"He was gonna kill me. What'm I supposed to do, sit there, nod, and let him go about it? Besides, he didn't wanna do it."
"Oh? What'd he do, tell you?"
"Of course."
"I don't believe that."
"I was his friend for a long time, remember. As you yourself said, I was a ShinRa."
"And I know you're not trustworthy."
"Then why the blazing hell are you sitting here with me after almost two months of living with me?"
"I. . . Damn. Got me."
And then, in the middle of a serious discussion like that, we'd just burst out laughing for no apparent reason, Kala, who I've lost most attraction to, as well. There truly was no reason, as far as I can tell. Now we've calmed down a bit, broken out the drinks, and gotten half-way to drunk. As far as I can tell, my decisions still have a bit of logic to them, though. Kline, I know, would like to see me like this.
The vocalist among us even has some good hard liquor down her. Now we're on to the humorous stories. The times any of us had gotten three-times as tipsy as this and tripped over our own feet, when we went to wherever wearing which embarrassing suit. You can imagine the look on my face when I reveal I spent three solid Halloweens in a dress. Then Aeris, ever the life-saver, tosses on the table that she spent one with too loose of a costume. Claims the pants would always fall down whenever she went to ring the bell, and Elmyra couldn't sew it to make it any smaller.
I don't comment while she speaks with this one, just finish off the dinner of fried chicken we were prepared.
Eventually, after watching a movie or two and talking some more, the clock rings out eleven. Kala clicks her tongue. I know what's coming. Either her saying it's time to head off or discussing places we're sleeping. "Well, I've got the concert tomorrow, and there's no way I'm leaving you two here alone, so. . ."
The universal signal for "Get your asses to bed."Aeris is nodding, I want to ask a question, but the oldest of us tosses the other woman a set of keys and points at the room next to the one the cats disappeared into earlier. Aeris stands up, lets her left knee wobble slightly, and walks back there. Kala starts turning the lights off.
"Where do I sleep?"
She jerks her head over and stares at me for a long while. "I figured you'd either take her room or the couch. All depends on how it is between you two."
Pretty good, unfortunately. I nod my thanks, she gives me one last sympathy hug, and I trudge to what will now be known as our room for the night. The door almost refuses to creak when I open it, but Aeris is smiling from next to the door at me, letting me know, "I figured you'd come in."
Her red jacket is already in the chair in the corner she's next to, which sits next to a small oak table, housing a lamp, the only source of light in the room. From this angle, the tiniest of shadows, caused by her nose, makes a dark spot beneath her eye, and her arms are folded over her chest. God, the moon can't compare to this.
Driven by alcohol or desire, I almost pounce, sweeping around on my leg, stopping infront of her, and staring for a moment. Large green eyes dare me. Ruby red lips beckon me. Flinching fingers at her sides worship and crave me. Which to give into first? My sober side screaming to back off, or the shuddering digits on her hips urging me on?
Fuck it. I will not go down as a coward tonight again. She's already against the wall. Our lips clash and a shock runs over the both of us. Her resistance barely matters and completely disappears when my hands cover her own. She's been drinking the same thing I have. I can taste it now. Stopping? No. She's drunk, so am I, but I have feeling we both know the consequences when she pulls back for breath and slides her hand along the wall.
Toward the lamp cord, grasping it.
"I knew you'd come, Sephiroth."
Darkness.
Author's Note: I've never been good at this, and I don't think I am now, but there's your AeriSeph. We're nowhere near done, but I wanted to sneak the kiss in at the last minute. Tell me how I did. o_O -Fears- Yes, Cipot Toh is just a cheap rip-off name for Hot Topic. Sue me. ( There's your scene, CG. )