Forced Evolution:

Deep Conversations

"What the fuck are we waitin' for? Let's check out this fuckin' hole in the wall already!"

"Shut up, Cid! Gawd." Yuffie was not having a good day. Called away from her nice, warm tent to explore some stupid tunnel before the sun was even peeking it's head over the horizon was not how she normally started the day. Recently, she had begun her day at noon, rising with the rest of the second shifters, as opposed to the customary Avalanche wake up time of seven. Seven o'clock, of course, she may have been able to deal with. But not this early, not five thirty; waking up this early was for the poor white collar slobs that used to work for Shinra, not her. But maybe she could still get some sleep; those tarps over by the wall looked like they'd be warm…..

"Knock it off, guys." Cloud ordered, intently studying the lazy movements of the smoke and dust clouds from the far end of the plate as they slowly made their way south.

Tifa watched also, but only as a distraction. It had been almost an hour since Red-- she still thought of Nanaki as Red; all of Avalanche did, they were all unable to break this habit-- had called Vincent and Karae, and she was starting to worry. "Maybe one of us should call them. They're taking so long to get here…"

"Nah," Cloud smiled, looking at Tifa out of the corner of his eye. "Don't worry, Tif. They'll be here soon."

"How do you know that?"

Cloud's smile deepened. " 'Cause I just got a shiver down my spine. Only time that happens is when Vincent's around."

Frowning, Tifa punched him lightly on the shoulder. "That's a terrible thing to say!"

Cloud nodded in acknowledgement, his smile gone, and gave his trademark shrug.

"Wake up, brat."

" Mmmm…no.. just five more minutes…daddy…"

"I ain't you're fuckin' 'daddy'. Wake up!"

"Cid!" Cloud turned sharply and almost cracked at the sight of the soundly sleeping Yuffie, bundled up in bright neon green and blue tarpaulins. "Leave her alone, okay." He admonished, chuckling slightly.

Cid snorted derogatorily and lit a cigarette from his seemingly inexhaustible supply. "Shit. Why does the brat get t' sleep? I go to bed at two in the goddamn morning' too, ya know."

Cloud shrugged again, declining a verbal answer.

"Maybe we should send all these people back. Vincent's team is going to be behind schedule as it is." Tifa commented, trying to steer the conversation back to the current situation.

"Aw, boo-fuckin'-hoo." Cid scoffed. "Vinnie's team's gonna be behind schedule." He added mockingly in a disturbingly high falsetto.

"Cid!" Both Tifa and Cloud shouted. "Shut up!"

"That might be a good idea, though," Cloud mused. "Vincent's probably already sent the workers that weren't injured back to their barracks and--"

"You mean Karae." Tifa pointed out.

"Yeah, same thing, though. Any way, their people are probably done for the day, might as well let these guys rest too."

Tifa nodded her head in agreement.

Cloud smiled evilly at her, before looking over his shoulder. "Hey, Cid. Can you go tell everyone that they can leave for the day?"

"Oh, fuck, no!"

-----

"You know, I was beginning to worry." Nanaki stated as Vincent and Karae arrived, stopping before him.

They looked terrible. Well, Vincent did, anyways. Covered from head to toe in grayish brown dust, and smelling like smoke, Vincent was somewhat comparable to a character from an old black and white film. His eyes were redder than usual, almost bloodshot from the irritation, the only color visible on him thanks to the thick layers of dust. Karae's eye were also irritated, but the effect was not as sinister on her as Vincent; though the contrast between her pale blue gay irises and the pink surrounding them was much more noticeable. She was also much cleaner, only her dark auburn hair complete with bleached blonde and dyed black highlights were coated with the ashy substance, a condition that she was now working to remedy.

"Sorry," she apologized, brushing her hand through her uneven locks, each completion creating it's own miniature dust cloud, "we had to send everyone to home base once the injured were taken to the doc's office."

"I understand." Nanaki said, watching her with a strange look in his eyes as she suddenly gave up on brushing the dust from her hair and proceeded to shake her head like a wet dog, the motion creating an even larger cloud than the one before it.

Nanaki and Vincent both sneezed violently as the dust assaulted their nostrils.

"Ooops." Karae gave a nervous chuckle, looking between the two sets of eyes on her; one amused, the other reproachful. "Well, I guess we better get going, huh?"

Nanaki grinned, and began walking toward where he had left the others. "Yes, I believe we should."

Vincent just stood there, staring down at his female counterpart accusingly.

"Don't look at me like that. At least I don't look like a giant dust bunny, unlike a certain someone I could mention." She declared sulkily, slapping his cape accusingly, only to sneeze as the resulting cloud of dust floated into her face.

Underneath the cape, Vincent smiled as he turned and followed Nanaki through the decimated streets.

-------

"See, Tifa. There they are." Cloud said, dragging Tifa away from her fretting.

Tifa looked in the direction that Cloud indicated and laughed. "What is she doing?"

Cloud shook his head, grinning. "No idea."

Three blocks down the wrecked streets of the upper plate, something of an argument seemed to be playing out. Behind a very amused Nanaki, Karae was circling a remarkably gray Vincent, swatting at his clothes.

"Either she's trying to clean him up," Cloud surmised, grin widening, "or we're being treated to some form of Kabuki theatre."

Karae halted in front of Vincent suddenly, forcing him to stop and Nanaki to turn around. After a short, dramatic conversation on Karae's part, Vincent suddenly shook his head quickly for several seconds, dust flying into the air. Seemingly satisfied with the results, Karae handed something to him, and watched as he cleaned his face off before turning around, and running towards the group, leaving Nanaki and Vincent in her wake.

"Hey," Cloud called as she approached, his best straight face glued on tightly. "What was that about?"

Karae huffed in both breathlessness and annoyance, looked back at the now presentable Vincent and laughed. "Stupid, huh."

"Naw," Cid grinned around the ever present cigarette in his mouth. " Just funny as hell. Do you have that guy pussy-whipped or what?"

"Cid!" Tifa admonished.

Yuffie, still asleep, shifted among the tarpaulins. "Pussy willows….swaying in the breeze…"

Laughter erupted among the four gathered, causing those still laboring for the dead to turn and stare.

"N…no, Cid, Vincent isn't pussy-whipped. That was just… a revenge thing, I guess." Karae finally got out through deep breaths. " Man, I… I think life and death situations make me hyper or something…. Ah, my head…. It hurts."

"It is a rather strange response," Nanaki stated as he joined the group, sitting beside Cloud. "However, people have been known to do stranger things after long periods of stress. Barret seemed to enjoy dressing up in a sailor's uniform, if I recall correctly."

"Heh. Can't wait to meet that guy. Thanks, Nanaki." Karae said, watching a her shadow change slowly, almost looking as though it was growing another head. "Oh, hey, Vincent." She turned around and looked up slightly to meet a pair of annoyed crimson eyes. "You look nice today."

Vincent sighed through his nose quietly and shifted to look at Cloud. "…. Well?"

"Huh? Well wha-" Cloud sobered suddenly, having remembered what they had gathered for. "Yeah, the tunnel, right." He thought for a moment, gathering his bearings. "Okay. Cid, wake up Yuffie--"

"Finally! Been waitin' long enough." Cid muttered, making his way towards the sleeping teenager.

"And we'll go down to check the place out. Not you, though," Cloud said motioning towards Karae. " I need you to gather up all the people still working and send them back to the base." He raised his voice, trying to be heard over Yuffie, who now awakened, was taking part in a screaming match with Cid. "You have a PHS, right?"

"Get off of me, ya old geezer!"

"Shut the fuck up, brat!"

"I will when you get off me!"

"Yeah, I got one, but Vincent doesn't!" Karae responded, almost yelling to be heard.

"That's fi--" Cloud stopped abruptly and turned to the bickering pair of Cid and Yuffie. "Will you two knock it off?"

Silence emanated from the tarp.

Cloud turned his back to the now well behaved pair and began talking again in a more reasonable tone. "That's fine, If there's anything we need to split up for I can pair him with someone who has one." He stopped and looked over at Vincent. "Wait, what happened to you're PHS?"

"I let you borrow it and you broke it." Vincent replied evenly.

"Oh, yeah," Cloud replied, a little sheepishly. "Guess I forgot. That was a month ago, right?"

Vincent nodded.

"Remind me to buy you a new one later, okay?" Cloud scratched his spiky blond hair, more than a little chagrined.

Again, a nod from Vincent.

Cloud sighed. "Alright, let's go."

A/N: WTF? The opening was intentionally light, I admit, but….It was supposed to go back to the original mood of the past chapters after that. *Shrug* Oh, well, I hope someone enjoyed reading this. *Bangs head on wall* Next chapter will be up as soon as I write it. Bye. *Faints*