I Sleep In the Streets
Chapter Six: Curiosity Killed the- Rufus?
Rufus sat pensively at his enormous desk, his hands steepled in his lap and his legs resting on the work surface; the left folded over the right. His office was like most of the rooms in the palace, plain and white. He did have the oversize furniture- but it didn't really boast of the difference between prince and peasant. He would have to speak to father about remedying that. The king hated blurred class lines, like Cloud Strife not being put firmly back into his place- father wouldn't have allowed a grubby commoner such insolence.
"Y2332, I want you to find out everything you can about the history of a man called Cloud Strife. Use our files, the spies, my personal informants; anything. I place all my means of discovery completely at your disposal. Do not come back empty handed." Rufus sat back as the servant scampered off, relaxing in his chair, 'My curiosity must be stated...'
* * *
"All right, all right, I've got one- "
"Well good, because it's your turn." Cloud grinned as he took another sip of the heady Wutain wine. He usually considered it bad form- not to mention ridiculous- to get drunk, especially when one was working; but the fine velvety taste had been better than expected... and the company couldn't fail. The growing buzz of warmth he felt gave him a sense of well-being he'd lacked for years; it was too sweet not to take advantage of. Besides which, they were in the relative safety of the palace.
He had been with the lady Aeris constantly- all day, every day- for a month now; seeing her intoxicated was quite an event. A hilarious one at that.
"I!" She faltered, glancing at Cloud questioningly, then regaining herself, "Oh yeah- I think yer hot."
"Ah yes, when you're drunk and your vision is good and fuzzy. I'll drink to that." Cloud laughed to himself as he did just that, more than amused by her antics.
Aeris frowned very suddenly, "No... you're always hot... Really hot"
"Uh huh," he sipped from his heavy cup. "My turn... I retain alcohol better than you."
She glared at him, as far as she was still able to, at any rate, "That's not a real one- that doesn't count!"
Cloud sighed and blew his bangs out of his eyes. His hair had started to escape in wisps from the ponytail he'd put it in that morning. He had a fair amount of hair covering his face by this time, for which he was thankful- just in case. "Okay..."
"Tell me something I don't know," Aeris smiled, her face still flushed rosy peach with drunken buzz.
Cloud mouth twitched open and then closed again before he finally spoke, "I used to be someone important." He said.
She got that missionary look in her dazzling emerald eyes- which, for some reason, didn't seem to be shining as much as they ought to have been for the amount of wine she'd consumed- "You are important, you- "
Cloud held up a hand to silence the sermon before it could really begin, waving his fingers dissmissively, "Yes, yes, we're all very special and unique. I didn't mean it in a broken self-esteem kinda way, Aeris."
She tried to raise an eyebrow at him as he so often did to her, but found the small gesture was harder than it looked and only ended up making a long string of ridiculous faces. "Well what do you mean?"
"Ah, I don't mean anything, forget it." He smiled disarmingly, "Your turn."
Aeris pouted, "I feel gypped."
"Too bad, your turn."
* * *
Tifa was running through an older kata when the grunt that had observed- and overheard- the drunken display of Rufus' fiancée and her personal bodyguard pushed into her room. He clapped her on the back as they hailed each other, the newcomer pushing back his guard hood, revealing a very young brown-haired man.
"Hey Biggs," Tifa said, leaving her own mask in place, "What's up?"
"We may hafta go through her bodyguard after all..." Biggs sounded out of breath; he'd run the whole way to Tifa's quarters from the other side of the palace.
Tifa's eyes narrowed. This was not good news for them, "That's not what I want to hear, Biggs, I've seen that man fight.... Well, what makes you think he'll stand against us?"
"He said some stuff... I think he used to be of high rank. If he were to be a 'hero' the smarmy prince might reinstate him. Or he could be loyal to the crown- " Biggs snorted indignantly at the very idea of anyone being that blind.
"That's not too much to go on, besides even if he were once noble- he could be bitter and want revenge. Then it'd be easy to convert him to the cause, revengers are an easy, easy target. It would explain why he took the job when he obviously has no respect for the prince... but..."
Biggs watched the dark black of the hood with his own dark, liquid brown eyes. "You don't think he was a noble though, do you?"
"No...." Tifa walked away a few steps and stared into the ceiling. "I saw Reco of the Turks haul him in from the slums- one of the worst sectors, too, probably the roughest. He was covered in filth, his clothes were falling off of him in tatters, he's real thin and he looked doubly battle-hardened. And I'm using the soldiers from the King's Own Guard as a basis for comparison. No noble would have gotten like that, they wouldn't let themselves, a noble would have found a way, it wouldn't matter how."
"Nah, Tifa," Biggs interjected, "the nobles are all soft. They'd be dead within one hour in the slums."
"Well there you go, our boy's a seasoned warrior with the biggest-ass sword ever made. A noble wouldn't know how to fight like he does."
Biggs considered that, "Yeah... maybe you got a point. Hey Tifa, why're you so dead set against him being a noble? What makes you so sure? You aren't one to get really hard set on something unless there's a reason."
"I just remember... He has to be lying to the lady Aeris, I don't know why he would do that, but that's gotta be it."
He was doubtful, "Why lie for no reason? He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who makes any apologies for himself."
"...Watch them," Tifa said sharply, not wanting to admit she didn't have a clue, "Cloud Strife has a secret and I'm going to find out what it is before we strike."
* * *
Cloud sat at a desk enormous in comparison to himself, his tiny hands folded on the polished surface, ruffles rendering the little digits almost completely invisible. He sat ramrod straight and at attention, the elaborate, well-starched suit he wore making it difficult to do anything else. It was made of thick, coarse navy blue material and the double-breasted jacket had sixteen gold buttons running down it. Beneath the jacket he wore a silky vest, also double-breasted, and finally a flowing white dress shirt with a big collar and puffed sleeves. Cloud hated wearing all of it, he'd only stopped fidgeting at the fourth warning glare from his nanny.
Nanny was sitting in the far corner of the unnecessarily big room in her grubby kitchen dress, twice-turned and many times mended. In her lap Tifa was squirming to get free from her mother's death grip on her arms, pulling terrible grimaces at her failure.
And up at the front, the person the children- mainly Cloud- were meant to be listening to; the white-haired, blue robbed teacher. This man was mysterious. When he'd been presented to his young pupil he'd looked utterly disinterested through his polite exterior, until Cloud looked up at him and he got a load of those huge, softly glowing eyes.
'You're...' the teacher started.
'Different,' Cloud's small, soft voice finished for him, 'I'm not like anyone else, anyplace.'
The teacher looked up at his employer for an explanation, but the plump, gruff-looking man only smiled tightly, it was obviously fake.
"Come Bugenhagen, you must meet my wife."
Since then Bugenhagen had taken his job as Cloud's educator very seriously, and though he had asked him almost every day, he refused to explain to the boy what was so interesting about his eyes. Cloud knew why his eyes glowed.... but he didn't know why Bugenhagen would care.
In the classroom, as the teacher droned on endlessly, Cloud tried to turn his head to glance back at Tifa. Every time he saw her and met her eyes she would pull a face at him. Tifa had never really liked him... but he still hadn't learned not to even try to make friends. She had her own group... but he had no one except her- and she hadn't cared, in fact, she didn't even seem to notice.
Cloud was lying on his small bed, his fingers twined together on his chest as he stared up at the ceiling. He wished he could tell someone everything... just once in his life it would be nice to have someone who knew all of what he had been through. He'd never have that... there was no one he could trust that much. In the month that had passed he had come to trust Aeris more than he'd trusted anyone since his mother's death... but not enough.
He'd also come to a sort of business-like friendship with Tifa that had a strange over-tone of searching from her side as well as something else that Cloud couldn't place... or even understand; a lingering fascination. He wondered again if she remembered him at all.
* * *
Aeris looked both ways in the hall before stepping out, then listening at Cloud's door for a moment to make certain he was asleep. Sighing with relief, she started to walk-
"Hey Aeris."
The lady jumped, clutching a hand to her chest and letting out a whooshing breath as she whirled on her surprise visitor, "Tifa, I...."
The pair had slowly become shaky friends, Tifa spending a lot of time with Aeris and Cloud until they learned their way around the palace and the upper city. They still required her services from time to time.
"Shhh..." Tifa stepped closer, grabbing Aeris' arm and leading her down the hall, away from Cloud's door. "Aeris... What has your bodyguard told you about himself?" she whispered, coming straight to the point.
Aeris blinked in surprise, "Cloud? Why do you want to know, Tifa? He's just..."
The fighter gritted her teeth, her mind was drawing blank for excuses, "I can't explain right now- but I will, until then you'll have to trust me."
The lady's mind flashed.
Cloud leaned forward over the restaurant table as they waited for their food to arrive, they were putting on a show for the reporter they'd spotted sitting across the room.
"My life used to be different..." he whispered in response to her confession that the Shinra family had bother her all her life.
"How?" she pushed. He owed her something less vague for what she had told him.
Cloud leaned even closer, his navel pressing against the edge of the table as he grabbed Aeris' hand, "I used to live it up."
"You did? How'd you get here?" Aeris turned her head to the side and batted her eyelashes, hoping the reporter was jotting all this down. She knew he was watching already.
"I was betrayed by someone I used to trust..." Cloud's warm breath whispered across her temple, "That's why I don't trust anyone."
She looked up at him suddenly as if he'd said something quiet different, their faces were centimeters apart. Cloud grinned at her lopsidedly before sitting down, looking triumphant as their food was placed in front of them.
They had both become fine actors- although Aeris had a sneaking suspicion cloud might have had some experience. He fell into his role too easily.... The picture of them poised so close together- taken from a distance with no zoom- made the front page of all the tabloids in Midgar.
'That's why I don't trust anyone...'
"Aeris? Hello?" Tifa waved her hand in front of the older woman's face, grumbling internally.
"Sorry," Aeris snapped out of it. "I don't really know that much." She caught herself off-guard with the lie; she never lied. Why was she protecting him anyway? What harm could possibly come from Tifa knowing a few things?
"If I may ask you... If he ever does tell you something- could you tell me?"
"Tifa, Cloud's not just my bodyguard, he's my friend. I really need to know why you're asking."
'Damn.' "Uh... Aeris, that's a long story I don't know if I'm prepared to tell right now."
"Well I don't know if I'm prepared to accept that."
Tifa gritted her teeth again.
* * *
::You should set things right.::
:Easy for you to say... what if I'm afraid, huh?:
::Then I'd say there's no room for fear.::
:Yeah, I figured you would.:
::Well then, what are we still yakking for?::
:I'm not 'setting things right' at two in the morning, Skiff.:
::...Why not?::
:Why do I talk to you?:
::'Cause you love me.::
:'Cause there's no one else to talk to. Now shut-up and let me sleep.:
::Humph, yes your highness.::
:...Don't... call me that...:
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((PPLLLLEASSSEEEEE REVIEW!!! PLEASE! Begging
One other thing; if I could ask a favour from anyone read this: could someone write me a good summary? I cannot write a summary to save my life and I'd love some help.))
