Another short one. ^_^o Sorry I haven't updated lately, I've been writin a buncha stuff lately in different fandoms and stuff. ^_^o I swear I'll write more soon. Remember ta read Juudai Arano by Soshika, which is da companion fic ta this. ^_^ Here - http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=492072 . Thanks again fer readin.
A silence greeted her statement, only broken by the slight sounds of clothing rustling and some scraping of chairs. She stared up at the group, looking at them with moderate disapproval at their lack of participation.
A clicking noise broke the silence, the sound of Kefka resuming his play with the lighter.
Cid thought that her disapproval was completely unwarranted and decided to make it known. "What th' #$^# do you want us t'do?"
Aeris stared at him, shaking her head in what looked to be pity for a few moments, although for what was not clear, before speaking herself. Cid rolled his eyes in response to the expression. She didn't seem to notice this at all.
"Well, now that we've introduced ourselves, I'd like you all to go around again and saw why you're here." She glanced at Cid again for a moment. "As in, what drugs you're on or were on."
Vincent rubbed his upper arm uncomfortably, his voice soft. "Isn't that a bit personal...?"
"Come on now!" Rinoa held her arms out for a moment, interrupting whatever Aeris was about to say. She had remained fairly silent in these kind of matters so far, so her intrusion was somewhat startling. "Everyone knows why everyone is here, don't we? It's not a drug support group because no one's on drugs!" She put her hands on her hips, pursing her lips. "Now, let's stop hiding it and acting mature."
Vincent leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, but remained silent in defeat, not wanting to bring any more attention to himself then had already been gained. There were numerous glares in Rinoa's direction, which she ignored, although whether or not it was purposely was hard to tell.
"Hmm, why don't you start-" Aeris began to say something, but Rinoa cut her off sharply. Strangely enough, Aeris didn't seem to mind as much as one would think.
"Squall! Why are you here?" Rinoa smiled at him sweetly, which the stoic youth seemed to ignore completely. He continued to keep his arms crossed, his eyes fixed steadily on the ground, his voice monotone.
"I'm not on drugs."
It came to no one's surprise when Zell lept out of his chair, pointing at Squall dramatically. "Yes you are!"
It did surprise others when something finally came after the often-repeated statement, the last word extended far longer then necessary. "You're on PAINKILLERS!"
He held his fist in the air, as if in victory, while Squall narrowed his eyes at him, still no expression crossing his face. Zell held the pose for several moments before Aeris finally coughed, breaking the awkward silence that had followed the abrupt statement.
"Zell, if you could sit down..."
Zell was back in his seat in a blur of motion. In complete contrast to Zell's hyperactivity, Irvine had his hat over his eyes and was apparently napping. Or at least, that was what it looked like. It was hard to tell.
"Alright, Zell..."
Reno cut her off abruptly. "What drugs are YOU two on?"
Aeris looked aghast as she put a hand on her chest delicately. "Me? Drugs? No, of course not, I'm the group's supervisor. Rinoa here is my assistant."
Rinoa waved, and Reno rolled his eyes in annoyance, muttering under his breath. Zell, at the sound of his name, had jerked his head in the two girls direction, who continued to stare at him.
"Zell, what have you been on?"
Zell blinked for several moments, then smiled brightly, his voice energetic and proud. "I'm high on life!"
Before anyone could even react to such a statement, Zell held up one finger in a motion to wait. "Hold on for a second, I've got to take a hit!"
He then proceeded to rub his hands all over his face, while snorting loudly, in the most spasmodic and random fashion. He finished by throwing his hands off to the side, sniffing and twitching exaggeratedly. "Aaaah, that's the stuff."
The entire group, save Squall, Cloud, and Three, burst into laughter, much to the annoyance of Aeris and Rinoa, who sat and waited for it to die down before speaking again.
"Zell, this is serious business! We're trying to be supportive and you're joking around! You're toying with people's lives here!" Aeris gestured broadly. In the middle of her short speech Kefka resumed laughing, far after the others had stopped, his high-pitched giggle making those in the group shudder. She glared at him for a moment, which didn't cause the disturbing sound to stop. "Kefka, I'm serious! Stop laughing! This is a matter of life and death!"
Cid, after Zell's display, had loosened up considerably, and no longer viewed the two girls as a threat or anything that he should respect in any way. He put a hand to his chest melodramatically. "Oh! A matter of life and death! Jesus #$^#, I'm dyin' here! #$@#, I forgot t'take my hit of life!"
He flailed in his chair for several moments, gagging and choking exaggeratedly, again to the amusement of the rest of the group, while Aeris stared at him, looking extremely offended. Cid smirked after his display was over and leaned back in his chair, noting Vincent's tight posture near him loosening somewhat. He was glad that he was unwinding a bit, he could sense how tense he was.
"Don't you take the Lord's name in vain!" Her voice had changed tone severely. "Not only is he important for your afterlife, he will be key in helping you get over your addictions!"
Much to her outrage, there was a great deal of snickering from the rest of the group, who apparently didn't feel the same way she did about religion. She scribbled something on the notepad in front of her for several moments, slowly calming down, until she put it down quietly, clearing her throat. Her voice was tighter and more frustrated then it had been before. "Never mind. Let's just continue. Irvine, what are you taking?"
Irvine smiled at her in a lazy, but suggestive way. "Just looking at someone sexy gets me higher then any drug."
He pointed his fingers at her, smiling winningly, before he replaced his arms behind his head, smiling at the ceiling. Aeris let her mouth hang open for a few seconds before closing her eyes, apparently counting to ten. After she had gotten herself under control, she marked something down on the pad of paper in front of her, movements quick and sharp.
"Alright, alright, whatever. Rude, would you please share with us?"
Rude sat in complete silence for several minutes, which was only broken by Kefka muffling giggles behind his hands. They waited patiently, but apparently Rude didn't seem ready to say anything.
"Rude, would you-"
Reno crossed his arms and sunk down into his chair, the look on his face rebellious and angry. "#$^#, he's just with me 'cause he wanted t'come along, he ain't on no #$^#."
Aeris blinked for a few moments, then finally seemed to accept this as an answer, writing in her notepad once again. "Well, what about you, Reno?"
Cid smirked to himself as he watched Reno fidget for a few moments. He wondered how he was going to respond.
Reno muttered under his breath for a few moments before finally speaking. "#$^@, I'm on #$^#in' everything, happy now?"
Cid smiled at him evilly from across the room, causing Reno to glare at him even more venemously, dragging a line across his throat with one of his fingers. Cid responded by pretending to choke for a few moments before a glance from Aeris stopped him. Kefka continued to giggle softly to himself in the background, although it wasn't exactly known why, as he wasn't staring at Cid or Reno or at anything that was physically present in the room at the moment.
"Thank you, Reno." Aeris wrote down some more on her notepad and continued around the ring of people. "Corneo...?"
"DON Corneo." He automatically corrected without looking up from the pornographic magazine.
"Corneo." Aeris emphasized her tone. "What are you on?"
Corneo looked at from over his magazine, wiggling his eyebrows at her for a few moments before smirking. "Baby, you'd love it, believe me."
Aeris raised an eyebrow while Rinoa sighed, holding her head. "I think we can guess."
The brown-haired girl wrote down some more on the notepad before turning to the winged black mage, who had crossed his arms and was staring fixedly at the floor. When he spoke, it slightly startled all those in the room, mainly because there was no warning, considering that his mouth was all but invisible, but also because neither Aeris or Rinoa had asked him the question yet.
"I'm on numerous medicational drugs, but I don't feel comfortable disclosing it with...others." The wings on his back fluttered in agitation for a few moments. The tone in his voice brokered no argument, and Aeris didn't pursue the issue. She wrote something down and then continued. Cid was beginning to wonder just what it was she was writing, but decided it probably wasn't important anyway.
"Cloud?"
The blond boy was silent for a few moments before his voice came, level and in control. "Several. I had several."
This made Vincent think for a moment. Such a statement still said nothing of whether or not Cloud was taking the drugs or selling them. Figures there'd be such a duplicious answer from the mysterious youth.
Aeris made a mark on her pad for a moment. "Alright, we can work with that for now. What about you, Cid?"
"I'm not #$^#in' on anythin'." Cid angrily slid back into his seat, crossing his arms. "I'm here 'cause Reno got #$^#in' busted, and now they think I'm a #$^#in' stoner too." This earned him a glare of hatred from the red-haired young man, which he returned readily.
Aeris looked at Vincent for a moment. "So...?"
Vincent rubbed his arm awkwardly, again feeling the gaze of eyes upon him and hating it. "...The drugs that were found weren't mine...I'm not on anything..."
"Then why are you here?" Rinoa asked suspiciously, crossing her arms. She apparently hadn't forgotten the earlier episode in Art and was apparently holding it against him. "You HAVE to be on something..."
Vincent put a hand to his head, conspiciously avoiding the arm that had caused him so much trouble before. "...It's the same thing that happened with Highwind...they think I'm on drugs as well...due to the substances found in Strife's room..."
Rinoa stared at the two of them distrustingly before leaning over to Aeris, having a whispered conversation for a few seconds. It was suddenly interrupted by Kefka's strange, lilting voice, which immediately demanded attention.
"I think I'm next."
The two girls stared at him cautiously for a few moments. There was something about Kefka that was frightening, despite his clownish appearance. Although normally it would have been somewhat disarming, on Kefka it only seemed to heighten the feeling that he could and would do anything at a moments notice. He seemed to exude danger, a sense of terror. He was frightening, just because it seemed that he simply didn't care about anything, most of all someone else's feelings, or their life. That and he didn't seem to be "all there", in a literal sense. And even more frightening, the idea that he was faking not "being there" was a definite possibility. How much of it was an act and how much of it wasn't? He waited for a moment before curling painted lips into a strange smile.
"There are too many to name. Some are legal, some are not, some are known, some are not." His tone rose and fell with each of his statements, again becoming almost like a song. "Stimulants and depressants, uppers and downers, whatever you would like to call them. There are so many." He smiled again in a more twisted manner, gesturing with one hand in a graceful, slow motion. He was speaking with such a calm, musical tone, it was as if he was talking about anything other then drugs. "Just so many. I do believe I couldn't even list them all."
Aeris was about to say something before Kefka cut her off once again. "Every form of them as well. Needles, smoke, pills, tablets...any other suggestions? Anyone?" He turned, completely aware and apparently knowing the kind of reaction he would get, which was, without exception, a blank, almost frightened, stare. Everyone was staring at Kefka, somewhat warily, without saying a word. He seemed to already know this, smiling again in his strange way as he gestured towards the rest of the group. "Never mind, I'm sure you two get the point."
Kefka settled back into his seat, pulling the lighter from his pocket with a quick, almost invisible motion, flicking it again and staring at the small flame with an almost maniacal look in his eyes. Everyone subconsciously leaned away from him.
Aeris cleared her throat again, writing quickly on the notepad in front of her, looking quite nervous. "Well, alright. That's good, thank you..."
Zell, without any warning whatsoever, lept from his chair with such speed as to knock it skittering back, gesturing broadly towards the window. "THE DINCHT SIGNAL! I MUST GO!"
With that apparently being reason enough, Zell ran out of the room at top speed, the door slamming behind him loudly. Unlike before, this time Irvine did not pursue the blond youth, simply remaining in his chair.
Before any kind of reaction could be formulated to Zell's extremely random outburst, Amarant walked back into the room, annoyance plainly visible on his features. He was holding the much shorter Zell at arms length above the ground by his jacket. He slightly threw Zell back inside the room, where he fell to the ground with an exaggerated scream of terror, proceeding to pretend he was drowning in some kind of liquid.
Amarant crossed his arms before speaking, his voice dangerous and annoyed. "Don't try that again."
He walked back outside the room with long, angry steps, and Zell finished his imitation of a drowning man, with no explanation, and scurried back to his seat, which Irvine had put back up, with the same speed he had originally gotten out of it. He held a fist into the air for a moment, his voice exaggeratedly loud and dramatic.
"DINCHTMAN SHALL TRIUMPH!"
Everyone continued to stare at him in utter confusion before he began rocking back and forth at an extremely high rate of speed while he apparently hummed his own theme music, occasionally striking more glamorous poses.
"Zell, that was very uncalled for!" Aeris's tone had the disapproval of an frusturated parent, something that was bothering Cid the more she talked. This didn't seem to bother the hyperactive youth in the least.
"Dinchtman is ALWAYS on call!" Zell lept onto the seat of his chair, striking another dramatic pose before settling back down. Irvine apparently seemed to come out of his calm and collected exterior, thumbing his hat away from his face as he smiled knowingly at the two confused girls.
"It's true, he is."
"That's not the point!" Aeris pointed at him with her pen, still very disapproving. "There will be no..." She paused for a moment, trying to find the appropriate word. She ended up gesturing with her hands in a strange fashion while she tried to say the word she had just created with some sense of dignity. "No 'dinchtman'ing in this group."
"Dinchtman CANNOT be contained!" Zell jumped out of his seat once again, this time his chair remaining upright. He didn't, however, make for the door, apparently learning his lesson with Amarant, and simply stood, posing, his voice still overly dramatic. "He always triumphs!"
Irvine smiled again in the same fashion as before, his voice still not changing tone. "It's true, he does."
The two girls stared at them with stern disapproval, which didn't seem to discourage the pair in the least, while Zell continued to pose and Irvine let his hat slide back over his face.
"Mother %$^#, when does this group end..." Cid leaned back in his seat, sighing slightly. This was all very amusing, but he was beginning to get bored, despite Zell's antics, and the other people in the ground were beginning to make him somewhat uncomfortable. Particularly Three and Kefka.
Vincent was leaning on his knees, slouched over, apparently daydreaming or something of the sort. He didn't look at him as he responded, keeping his eyes focused somewhere that Cid was not aware of. "We've still got a long way to go..."
Sadly, the rest of the group went by without much incident. Zell seemed to calm down, or at least keep his outbursts in his head without much comment, and Kefka remained mostly silent, excepting a few instances where he began laughing at what seemed to be the most inappropriate time. Considering it was Kefka that they were talking about, it was very likely he was doing that on purpose. It was very disruptive and very unnerving.
But, as the group wore on, everyone simply seemed to calm down in a desire to get the ordeal over with as quickly as possible. Even sabotaging the group was no longer as tempting as just leaving. So they settled into bored poses, most of them allowing their minds to wander to more interesting things while the two girls rambled about drugs and the affects they had on the body and why no one should ever use them and so on and so forth, things they had learned years ago in grade school, junior high, high school. It was exceedingly boring, not to mention to some extent patronizing, and everyone was grateful when the meeting finally ended.
Cid and Vincent were walking out when something caught their attention out in the hall, causing them to pause.
It was Three and the small black mage boy Vivi. The two of them were just staring at eachother, identical golden eyes shining in the darkness of black faces. Vivi was shivering visibly with fright, but Three remained as still as statue, almost frozen in place. Cid and Vincent paused, not sure of what to make of the ordeal, but feeling somewhat involved as they had been there when Vivi had come to the hallway in the first place. Even that short moment, even without really speaking to Vivi very much, they already felt somewhat responsible, and felt too involved to simply walk away now.
They were, however, not sure as to how they could intercede on the smaller Black Mage's behalf. Again, they didn't know Vivi enough to simply state they were his friends, or concerned, and they especially didn't know Three enough to know that whether standing up for the smaller mage would be a good idea. The same feeling that had refused to let them leave in the hallway had also, unintentionally, left them unable to act, and it just left them standing awkwardly in the hallway, watching silently, not sure of that they could or should do.
At the moment Three continued to stare at Vivi, eyes turning a dark orange. He flared out his wings, shining deep blue beginning to obscure the light, standing at his full height, well over twice Vivi's, while the boy shrunk back against the wall, still shivering, trying to hide deeper into his already large clothes. He was obviously terrified, his eyes turning more pale with every moment, although it wasn't clear why they were doing this to the two youths standing some distance away. Did Vivi know Three, or did Three know him? Or did Three just not like other mages? Did they have an argument? Was Three just picking a fight out of spite for the group, or was there something deeper going on?
Cid, sick of standing and doing nothing while Vivi continued to cower against the wall, was about to move to help the smaller mage when someone did it for him.
Amarant came back from the room where the group had been, where he had been making sure it was empty, to see the following display between the two black mages, however distantly related, and he did not look pleased with it.
He moved towards Vivi, taking a stand directly in front of him, causing Three to back away, wings folding back, letting the light back. Both Cid and Vincent were relieved that someone had finally come to speak up for Vivi, now feeling somewhat guilty for having done nothing, and again just have been watching on the outside.
The young man and the winged black mage stared at one another for a few moments before Amarant spoke, his voice dangerous and low.
"Go and leave the kid alone."
Three narrowed his eyes angrily, their color slowly moving back to the familiar glowing yellow, as Vivi quickly moved behind Amarant, hiding behind the man's formidable presence. Apparently Vivi had lost some of the fear he had had before around Amarant, or at least trusted him enough to let him protect him. Three did not look happy about this in the least, and his wings twitched, blue feathers ruffling in the wind.
"He's not your concern." Three's raspy voice came from the blackness that was his face, but Amarant did not change his expression or stance. He continued to stand, arms crossed, his face quiet and controlled.
"He's my concern now, so get away from him."
Three stood for a few moments, apparently trying to decide whether or not to attack the large man, before moving off, the loose clothing he was wearing giving the impression of gliding across the floor rather then walking. "You can't protect him forever..."
"No I can't." Amarant shook his head, his expression still unchanging. "And I'm not supposed to either. You can deal with him later for whatever #$^@ reason you have, but not while I'm watchin' him."
Three kept his back to Amarant, wings folding and unfolding on his back several times before the winged mage managed to get them under control. His voice was impossible to read. "I can live with that."
He brushed by Cid and Vincent, who moved out of his way quickly, not wanting to be in the way of such an obviously upset and dangerous person. They watched the winged black mage leave the building, the door slamming loudly behind him, a single cobalt blue feather a lasting reminder of his passing.
The two of them exchanged glances, not exactly sure what had just happened. They turned to Amarant, who had, while they were distracted, sat down in the hallway, his eyes closed. His face was passive and calm, and his posture controlled and straight. It wasn't clear exactly what he was doing, but he appeared to be meditating. Vivi, who had been standing behind him before for protection, now sat on the floor beside the scarlet-haired man, his face becoming a perfect mask of black as he closed his glowing eyes. The two of them sat there quietly, not saying a word, and Cid and Vincent, although they had planned to say something about what had happened originally, now felt far too awkward to say anything. It had never really been their business in the first place, and they were feeling out of place as it was. They quietly followed Three's trail out of the building, still feeling a general sense of unease.
"Think he'll really let Three get him?" Cid's voice was softer then usual when he finally spoke, even though they had long left the hallway behind. Vincent shivered as he remembered the coldness in Three's eyes, but moreso at the cold behind Amarant's. He held his shoulders for a moment before speaking.
"I don't know..." Vincent finally shook his head in defeat, trying to forget what he had seen. The more he thought about it, the more it truly wasn't any of his business, and the worse he felt about having looked in on something that he had no right to see in the first place. "Besides, it's not really our business anyway..."
Cid stared at him for a moment before turning his eyes to the sky, sighing slightly to himself. "Yeah...I guess you're right..."