AN: Suzuno Oosugi two cookies for you and kudos. Top notch answer if I do say so myself. Thank ye for the reviews ...here I am ..updating after a long day of work -- ...I'ma fall alseep while editing this ....crapola
Disclaimer: me no own, you no sue, I hate chocolate sacre bleu! hahahah I just made that up....hahahaha (well I thought it was funny. Gods I'm tired...)
My Hands chapter 3
Aeris turned in her sleep, covers sticking to her no matter what she did. In her dreams she heard voices. Voices, that had no faces to match up with them, and she couldn't familarize those voices. She thought they sounded like something she should know, but the pieces refused to fit in the puzzle. It was a conversation, though where she could have heard this conversation she did not know.
" 'This can't be real!' 'Do not worry. Soon the girl will become part of the Planet's energy ...' '...shut up. The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing!' 'What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me that you have feelings now?'
Aeris woke with a start. She looked at her surroundings, and had to stop to remind herself where she was. She was in Konan, sleeping in one of the rooms of the Palace. She had just been named a Priestess of Suzaku, whatever that meant. It was dark outside, most likely everyone was alseep. She got up and walked over to her window and pulled it open. It was almost a full moon, give it 2 days, Aeris guessed and then it would be full.
One thing that she had to admit, the sky here was beautiful, the land was lush and green. So much that her home wasn't. There were no Mako reactors here, there never were. This was uncorrupted land, and it made Aeris so happy to know that here there were no threats to the Earth and the Life Stream. She sighed and sat down at the small table she had, pouring herself a glass of water.
Now that she was awake, she couldn't go back to sleep. And when she wasn't asleep, she was fidget-y. She wanted to explore, and what better time than when everyone else is asleep. Even better now that she had some sort of high status around here. She could say she was praying or something, yea....
That reminded Aeris of her other dream. She absently began to brush her hair with her fingers. She let it loose when she slept, mainly because it made her head itchy to sleep with it up. Her hair had gotten ridiculously long. Even when it was up it was to her thigh. She contemplated cutting it several times, but a part of her felt it right to have it that length. It felt comfortable, and whatever is comfortable stays. It wasn't too much of a hassle, as she always had it up in her ponytail braid.
After a while, Aeris stood and decided that exploring is exactly what she needed to get her mind off things. She creaked the door open and peaked through to see if any guards were about. None, she moved out. Bearfoot, was always the best option in situations like these, she didn't trust her shoes to keep quiet. She was wearing a white sleeping dress that she had brought with her. Sleeping in her traveling clothes was very uncomfortable and she avoided it whenever she could. It was a simple dress, no patterns, no designs. Tank top, V-cut with strigs to tie it at the waist, the dress itself only went down to her knees. Tifa had made her the dress 2 summers ago, so it wasn't fancy, but she could spin around it in. Aeris liked doing that, which proved just how much of a kid she still was.
She sneaked around expertly, seeing as she did this sort of thing all the time. Nothing gave her more of a thrill than sneaking out of home to go to the abandoned church in the sector 7 slums. Cloud almost never caught her, though the times that he did Aeris thought to be extremely entertaining. She had to stop all that once Zelis was born though, they figured she'd be a bad influence on the boy, and she agreed. Though all it meant is that she really couldn't get caught now.
The Palace was beautiful and had gardens the likes of Aeris had never seen before. She was facinated by it all, and couldn't resist the urge to walk on the grass. You almost never saw grass in Midgar. It felt wonderful under her bear feet, and almost made her feel giddy. She skipped along care free turning this way and that. Somehow, breaking the rules and sneaking around when everyone else was asleep gave her a warm fuzzy feeling.
She swung her hands out and spun around, touching almost every plant around, splashing in the water and giggling like she was a 5 year old. Well she certainly acted like it. She heard foot steps down the hallway and immidietely ducked into a bush. She peered through the leaves to see who was walking around this late. Why, it was Hotohori, escorted by his two councilors. Was he still running country business at this late hour? Poor guy, he oughta take a break or something. Yawning as she thought this, Aeris turned to new thoughts..
Where was my room again?
The next day hailed a new beginning. As of today they were to start looking for the new Suzaku Seishi.Hotohori explained in depth the whole concept of the Universe of the Four Gods and the contelations and such early in the day. He showed Aeris Suzaku's scroll of the story which had clues as to the other 5 warriors. Since everything in this country seemed to be in that mish mash language that Aeris didn't understand, let alone recognize, Hotohori translated the first character as 'strength.'
"So...we look for people who are exceptionally strong?" Aeris looked up from the scroll that she was currently holding upside down. Hotohori righted her holding then answered, "Yes, I shall send for the strongest men in the country." Aeris quirked an eyebrow, "You can do that? Like, "she snapped, "and they all come." "I am the Emperor." he said cooly in form of answer. Aeris whistled, "Not bad. So Tama is a Seishi, you're a Seishi.....are they all guys?"
Tamahome smiled, "It varies, it might and it might not be. Hopefully the next five seishi will be beautiful women." Aeris snorted, "We'll see Tama. Don't get your hopes up though, just because they're women doesn't mean they'll like you." she admonished playfully.
Tamahome looked hurt, but Hotohori laughed. "We will see when we find the next seishi, for now, let us go and see the turn out of our warriors." They turned to walk outside to wait for people to show up. Aeris was back in her travel clothes today with her trademark pony tail braid. "hey Hotohori, if there is a possibility of women being seishi,do you think maybe the women in your harem might be a Suzaku seishi?"
Hotohori thought, and then frowned, "Well, if you wish you seek seishi there, you may. I'm afriad I will not accompany you however." Aeris laughed, "Afriad of being groped are you?" the thought proved to be even more amusing that she first thought it to be. She had to stop walking and grab the stitch in her stomache.
Hotohori looked startled, and Tamahome made a panic-y face and wild gesticulations for her to stop laughing at the Emperor. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she tried to stop and failed miserably upon looking at their faces, and opted to fall on the ground. "Tama, ...stop!" she gasp as a new wave of laughter hit her.
Slowly, Hotohori smiled, and bent down on one knee, "Are you done now lady Preistess?" "Only if Tama is done with the stupid faces." she took his hand, and stood herself, and wiped a tear from her eye.
Outside, at least 30 men were lined up. Each, in Aeris's opinion, looking scarier than the next. She said this to Tamahome who laughed.
"They won't hurt you." "They had better not. Or I might be forced to retaliate." she said matter-of-factly.
"Shall we begin?" Hotohori leaned down from his temporary dias outside to speak to Aeirs, who nodded. Silence insued.
"Ah geeze, what should we do? I don't suppose they'd know if they had the mark of Suzaku on them do they?" she asked skeptically. "Do either of you two want to test them whilst I think of a better idea?" she offered to her two seishi. Tamahome rolled up his sleves, "How about I test their strength. If they're really Suzaku seishi, then they should at least be able to stop or block my attacks." He cracked his knuckles.
"Sure, have fun. Hotohori feel free to join in." Aeris waved as she pulled out her pack and began to rummage through her materia, she had a large variety so finding the right one for this kind of situation might take a while.
With Tamahome fighting, Hotohori looking on mildly interested, and Aeris rummaging through her materia, no one noticed the three women sneak into the opening to watch the fighting.
"What's so sepcial about her?" One sneered. "Well, she's very lovely." one said cautiously, throwing a nervous glance at the first woman. "Look at her clothes though, she looks like a man." the first said with a distasteful look on her face. "Now Lady Kourin, she is the preistess of Suzaku..." the second began but quailed under the look Kourin gave her. "She's also stolen the Emperor's attention away from me." she said this as if it were the most important thing in the world - as it was to her. "Come, let's get a closer look."
"AHA!" Aeris pulled out a yellow materia and placed it on her belt, removing her restore materia. "Ok Tamahome you can stop showing off now!" she said cheerfully.
He stopped in mid kick, "Showing off? I thought I was testing them." "Well until I could anyway." Aeris disreguarded his hurt face. "Now...no wait, Hotohori, Stand next to Tamahome for a minute could you?"
Hotohori stood gracefully and walked over to Tamahome. "Great, thanks now stand still, I'm just casting a sense spell so don't move too much."
Aeris closed her eyes and stuck her hands out infront of her before pulling them back to initiate the spell. A glowing circle moved from under her feet to the the feet of her two seishi. The warriors and councilors that surrounded backed away, and even Hotohori looked very surprised. Tamahome, who had seen much worse than this wasn't phased. Satisfied, Aeris now turned to the soldiers who had gathered.
"Alright, who's first?" They backed away a good few steps. "...You're kidding right? You're afaid of a bit of flashing light?" "What is it that you did Aeris?" Hotohori looked at his hands and turned to his miko.
"I analyzed your stats...I mean," she looked for a better way to put it by their blank faces. "I guess you could say I read your life force, the life force of a seishi, and now I'm going to see if theirs matches up." There were nods of understanding. (AN: hahaha 'aaa naru hodo!)
"Right then, I could do all of you at once, but I'm afraid that might overwhelm me...so perhaps two or three at a time?" she seemed to be saying this more to herself than anyone else. The soldiers, still, would not approach her.
"COME ON! You call yourselves the warriors of Konan? I know 7 year olds with more guts than you!" Aeris was very upset that these men were not cooperating. "You dare believe yourselves to be Suzaku warriors?"
The men were clearly very insulted, but seemed to be restraining themselves.
"I don't have to use magic to kick your ass! I could probably knock you out with my shoe!" "Aeris, I don't think that's a good Idea..." Tamahome warned. "No, who do they think they are?"
But Tamahome was right, several of the men had become very angry, and looked ready to attack. Fortunely, Aeris wasn't all talk, she dodged masterfully and ran quite a ways ahead of them. Only problem was, she was heading towards a dead end.
"Aeris! Watch where you're going!" Tamahome chased after her and caught her just in time to sheild her from the brunt of the blow. The gazebo had crumbled under the pressure and entrapped the preistess with her seishi guarding her.
"Tamahome! Oh my goodness, hang on!" Then she realized her mistake, she had removed her restore materia, and thus had no way of curing either. Yet at the rate things were going, Tamahome would not last long under the pressure of that pillar. Thinking as quickly as she could, she put her palms on Tamahome's chest and concentrated, she was praying.
Tamahome opened his eyes, to see beads of sweat coming from Aeris's forehead, but her hands, her hands were burning into his chest, and slightly, ever so slightly, his strength was returning. The pillar became an easier burden.
"What...what are you doing?" he was still quite winded. "shh.." was all she responded, and forced herself to concentrate more. "Thank you for saving me Tamahome." she whispered.
Tamahome cracked a smile, after all, she had asked him not to talk.
"Quick! Remove this rubble! (Q! AN: Frodo did that, my cat) " Hotohori commanded as he himself knelt to help.
"Your majesty please!" "Excuse me your majesty but may I be of some service to you?" without waiting for a response, the Lady Kourin took to throwing back large peices of rock and cement as if she were throwing flowers.
"what in the world?" Hotohori looked on amazed.
"well don't you just have the devil's luck?" Kourin peered under a large peice of rock to see Tamahome and Aeris alive and partly healthy. Aeris couldn't help but notice that the woman almost looked disappointed that they were ok. Ah well, she was much too tired to care.
Aeris stood and helped Tamahome over to where he could sit, doctors rushing to his aid, but Aeris waved them off.
"I'll take care of this," she sighed, and pulled her restore materia out of her pack. The spell with materia was much easier, and required less concentration for which she was grateful.
Tamahome flexed his fingers and moved his arm. "That's amazing Aeris!"
Aeris did not respond but remained seated and turned to look at the mysterious woman who saved them. Aeris didn't speak, but sat there analyzing her, to the point that even Hotohori began to fidget. The silence continued until, satisfied, Aeris turned away and began to bandage up her own wounds. "You'll be the next seishi then." Aeris said and she wrapped a cloth around her leg.
Hotohori and Tamhome turned agape to the young woman who smiled and pulled down the collar of her dress, "My name is Kourin, but you may call me Nuriko." just below her collar bone shone the character for 'willow.' Tamahome grinned, "So the next seishi is a woman." he threw Aeris a pointed look, she laughed. "Yes Tamahome, it would certainly appear so." Aeris stood and walked over to Nuriko holding out her hand. "I'm Aeris, thank you for saving us."
Nuriko did not take her hand, but threw a glance at Tamahome. "I didn't do it for you," she said stiffly, and walked over to Tamahome. "I did it to save him." and not even waiting for Tamahome to acknowledge her presense she kissed him full on the lips!
Aeris couldn't believe it, Hotohori couldn't believe it. It was unbelievable, that's why.
Allowing a few minutes for this to sink in, Aeris shrugged and turned to Hotohori. "Are all the women in your harem this forward?" Hotohori hadn't thought of that, but now that he did, he paled.
"Poor dear."Aeris shook her head, but smiled nonetheless. "Well, we've found the next seishi, meaning today was a productive day. If you'll excuse me I'd like to rest up a bit. Afriad I strained my self a bit. " she turned and began to walk away but stopped to throw a mischevious wink at Tamahome, "Looks like I was wrong Tama, they do like you. Have fun!" she laughed and walked away.
Nuriko, was very put out by this response. Tamahome looked concerned, "Aeris, are you alright?" "hm? oh ..yeah don't worry about me." she waved herself off.
Aeris sat on her bed, she hadn't realized how many hit points were taken out of her, but if she used more magic, she might have to rely on ether and she didn't have that much.
She had been careless with her magic. She had forgotten that she wasn't as stocked up on ether as she would like to have been. And healing someone without the help of materia, she wasn't even sure she could have done it, but she did. And she almost regretted it. She felt very weak and even her vision was coming and going. She shouldn't have done that.
She thought it best to not cast cure on herself but to take a nap and allow her body to heal on its own. She especially didn't want to use her potions, in case her magic completely ran out. This was not a good situation. She didn't even have any hope of getting more supplies. She was stranded here, no materia, no items.
And if she was going to have to venture forth to find the other seishi... Aeris shuddered, she didn't even want to think about what things she might encounter in the wild. She sat herself up, one thing she hated dearly, was the thought of being useless. She couldn't stand it. She had to do something with herself. And did not wanted to think about such things so she opted to go for a walk.
She had not fully healed yet, but it was better than sitting around to brood on useless things. On her walk, Aeris stumbled upon Nuriko and Tamahome. Well, Nuriko dragging Tamahome seeing as he was currently tied up at the moment.
These harem women, they had such strange fettishes...
"Oh hello Aeris!" Nuriko called in an overly sweet voice. Aeris had to force a smile, she hated it when people were false. (AN: ..but she's doing that right now!!! hypocrite!)
"Heya... err nuriko...um what are you doing with Tamahome?" "oh Tama-kins and I are just playing a game!" Nuriko had a very high laugh. "No kidding...so um Nuriko have you decided if you'll join us or not?" that thought just popped up in Aeris's mind. Nuriko stopped laughing and thought for a moment. "Oh i don't know..." Aeris shurgged, "You have time to think. I don't want to force you to do something you don't want to do. No one likes that." she threw a pointed glance down to Tamahome and then walked past the two. Nuriko fumed.
She's not responding to a damn thing!!!
Aeris kept walking around, but soon found that she was tiring out. She stopped under a gazebo to catch her breath, and then found herself without it again. The sky was beautiful! Orange hues with red, as stars began to appear.
The colors themselves reminded her of Cosmo Canyon. She had only been there once on a trip with Cloud, he had tried to see if she retained any memories of the former Aeris (she hadn't). Aeris had meant to stop by to visit Red and Vincent during her travels but she never got around to it. She sat herself on the railing and inhaled deeply. Was Red XIII looking at this exact sunset? Or was even that too far away?
Haruka tooku yoru wo koete
Sabaku no umi wo samayou
Kami no koe ha shinkirou
Wasurerareta hitobito
Aeris never really gave much thought to her cetra ancestry, but in this world, it somehow gave life to her. Everything was so green, so pure here, that she wondered. Was this how the land was when the cetra cared for it? Was this what my people loved and cherished?
"Aeris....little help..."
Aeris started and almost fell off the railing. Tamahome had crawled out of Nuriko's clutches and into the gazebo that Aeris sat at. Aeris laughed, "I didn't think you were enjoying yourself." she pulled out a dagger and slashed open the bonds.
"Can you stand?" "Yea, I'm fine." he grunted and swayed to his feet.
Aeris snorted, "You had better hide, Nuriko might get jealous if she catches you with me, and sorry for saying so but I don't want to brave her wrath. She looks like she's capable of anything." "You have no idea." Tamahome said solemly. 'What were you doing here anyway?" "Huh? me? Oh I just went out for a walk. You know me, can't sit still inside for too long." she didn't look as cheerful as she sounded though, and that tipped Tama off. And she looked dead tired.
"What's really going through your mind?"
Aeris stopped smiling and sighed. "I guess you could say I'm homesick..." for a home I never really had, she added to herself. Tamahome "oh-ed" in realization. "Your home huh? What's that like?" Aeris gave him a sad smile, "It used to be like this world, except now there's not much that's green and pure anymore."
"How come?"
Aeris kicked her feet, "A long time ago, things called Mako reactors were built, they're machines, things that can run by themselves." she added for explanation. "They sucked the life out of the earth, and almost destroyed it completely. "
Tamahome looked amazed.
"About 10 years ago, some ..crazy guy tried to destroy the world by using some terrible magic. A group of people though, fought him and saved the earth." she turned to Tamahome and smiled. "One of them was Cloud." He smiled and ruffled his hair. "Sounds like an amazing guy."
"Course he is!" Aeris huffed, and cracked a smile. "I wonder what everyone is doing now..." "Won't they be missing you?" Tamahome said in sudden realization, looking a bit concerned. "Nah, I left home just before I came here. They'll just probably think I'm traveling somewhere, they won't know I'm gone." "Why'd you leave home?"
"That," Aeris said as she stood, "Is personal business." she smiled at Tamahome. "Maybe I'll tell you some other day. But for now GO! I don't want to be caught by Nuriko with you! I'm supposed to be convincing her to be a seishi! Not become a rival!"
"Ah so I'm rival material eh?" "You're going to be very dead material if you don't get!"
They both laughed, neither really caring if Nuriko did catch them or not. Which was good because she had.
AN: ...--;;; ....snore ...wheeze .....ugh ...I'm falling asleep....review to let me know that you're keeping up with the story, and I'll update. I like people who let me know what they think as the story progresses if you don't mind.
Thanks.
Oh and do me a favor: pick a number 1-5 ....I need to get at least 10 different answers to that question okie? I won't use it against you to update tho so don't worry. I don't expect that many people to review ;;