Final Fantasy 7

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Chapter Twelve


Aeris led the way through Wall Market, dragging an unwilling Cloud along by his hand towards one of the late-night clothes shops where she could get him a suitable dress that could trick the guard and get him into Don Corneo's mansion. She had to drag Cloud along because he wouldn't move otherwise, for he absolutely hated the idea of having to dress up as a girl to get into the mansion. He knew there was no other way, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Luckily the Clothes Shop was still open despite the time, and Aeris dragged Cloud inside despite his desperate protests. She released Cloud's hand as she walked in boldly, and went right up to the till, wasting no time in getting to the point.

"Excuse me!" she said cheerfully to the girl behind the counter. "I'd like to get a dress."

The girl looked up at Aeris with a look of regret. "Umm, it might take a little time," she said apologetically. "Will that be all right?"

Aeris tilted her head. "What's the problem?"

The shop girl looked down. "Well, my father, the owner, has been in a slump lately," she explained. "You see, he makes all the dresses."

"And where is your father?"

"He's probably plastered at the bar," she replied. There was a sad look on her face, and Aeris figured this was something she had probably had to deal with for a while now.

"So..." Aeris said cheerfully, as usual. "You're saying we can't get a dress unless we do something about your father?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry. He's caused so much trouble." Her eyes suddenly opened wide as she realised what Aeris was saying, and she stared at her in surprise and hope. "You'd help me bring him back?"

"Well, if we don't do something, we don't get a dress, right?" Aeris said simply.

The shop girl's eyes lit up in delight, and clasped her hands together in joy. "Really!?" she asked, still unable to believe her ears. "Please help my crazy old dad. I just don't know what to do anymore..."

Aeris nodded. "All right, we'll do something." She turned towards the door. "Let's go, Cloud!"

Cloud stood there with his jaw half open, unable to get a word in edgeways while Aeris made the quick decision to help the shop assistant's father. Aeris marched off confidently out of the shop in search of the pub. He glanced at the shop girl's hopeful face and then sighed heavily. He had no choice but to follow Aeris, so he slowly shuffled out of the door and back into the streets of Wall Market.

Outside, Aeris was waving for him to follow her, for she knew roughly where the pub was. Cloud dragged his feet as he followed her, for he was really not happy with what Aeris was planning. Aeris on the other hand, was quite enthusiastic, and didn't seem to mind that Cloud's dignity was on the line for Tifa.

The Wall Market Pub was near the north part of the sector, not too far from Don Corneo's mansion. It looked like a rather rough place and not the most hygienic of places, but then again, neither were the rest of the slums beneath the upper plates of Midgar. As Aeris and Cloud walked in they were hit with the strong scent of alcohol and other strange smells, but they didn't want to know what those were.

Surprisingly there were only a few people in the pub that night, but none of them looked like they were old enough to be running a clothes store. For a few moments they looked around blankly, until Aeris pointed over to the corner of the bar near the door.

A single, middle-aged man was sat there, slumped in his chair as he held a half-finished drink in his hands. He looked depressed, which was either natural or because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed. He also looked fairly drunk. However he was the only likely candidate in the entire bar, so Aeris and Cloud walked silently over to him. They stopped behind him, and Aeris gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder.

"Excuse us," she said as politely as she could. "Are you the father of the girl at the Clothing Store?"

The man didn't look up at first, and simply took another large swig of his drink. Aeris was about to speak again when he suddenly slammed the glass furiously onto the table, and ominously swerved round in his chair to face the two. Aeris and Cloud both jumped back nervously, slightly anxious by the sudden aggressive manner of the man.

"I own the Clothes Shop..." he said. His words were slurred and slightly uncontrolled, for he was very drunk. "But I ain't your father."

Aeris blinked blankly. Clear he was very, very drunk. "I didn't say that......" she replied, but Cloud quickly butted in.

"Make me some clothes," he said.

The owner of the Clothes Shop turned and glanced at Cloud. He looked him blankly up and down, and slowly curled his lip in disgust. He looked like he was ready to pounce, but was too drunk to be bothered getting up.

"I don't make men's clothes," he replied curtly. "And I don't feel like makin' anything right now."

Aeris turned to Cloud. "Cloud, you wait over there for a second," she said, pointing behind them. "I'll try and talk to him. Why don't you got over there and have something to drink?"

Cloud stared at her for a minute, but then turned and walked away from Aeris and the Clothes Shop Owner. He walked a few feet away and sat down at a table with a half empty glass of drink on it. He tapped his foot against the floor as he waited for Aeris to finish talking to the man, and crossed his arms. Once he was completely out of earshot and looking away from them, Aeris turned back to the Clothes Shop owner, and spoke as gently and as reasonably as she could.

"You know, Mister," she said softly. "He always said that just once, he'd like to dress up like a girl. So, that's why I wanted a cute dress for him..."

This caught the Shop Owner's attention. He raised an eyebrow and took a fleeting glance at Cloud, who was busy drinking from the glass that had been left at the table. He was most surprised when he looked at Cloud's build, for he was fairly strong, and certainly not the type who looked like they wanted to dress up as a girl.

"What!?" he asked in surprise. "A tough lookin' guy like that?"

Aeris nodded. "So, how 'bout it?" she asked. "Will you make him one?"

The owner looked at Cloud once more. He leaned back in his chair as he thought for a moment, and rubbed his chin. Aeris watched him hopefully, and was relieved as a small smile spread across his face.

"...Might be interesting," he admitted, his curiosity peaked. "I was gettin' a little bored just makin' regular clothes."

"Then you'll do it for us?" asked Aeris.

The owner nodded. "Yeah, all right. What kind of dress you want?"

Aeris folded her arms and thought for a moment, trying to get the perfect picture in her head. "Something... that feels soft. And something that shimmers."

"Hmm, got it," the owner said, nodding his head again. "Y'know, I got a friend that has the same taste as him. I'll go talk to him."

He then turned back to his drink and finished it off in one large swig, and then got up and walked out of the pub towards his shop again to work on the dress. Once he was gone Aeris jumped up and clapped her hands in delight, and skipped over to Cloud with a large smile on her face.

"Will he do it?" asked Cloud.

Aeris nodded. "Yes," she said. "Let's head over there and watch it being done."

Cloud swallowed nervously, now really uncomfortable with the idea. But he nodded, and so he and Aeris left the pub and headed back towards the clothes shop.

As they entered they saw the owner standing behind the counter once more, just finishing serving another customer. The girl was now beside the clothes rack with a happy smile on her face, extremely relieved that her father was back in the shop with her with renewed motivation. As the two entered the owner looked and smiled at them.

"Oh, you're here," he said, sounding surprised. "It's ready. Go try it on."

Cloud just stared, amazed at how quickly the dress had been prepared. He swallowed nervously, feeling slightly anxious now that the moment of truth had come. The shop assistant took the dress off a nearby rack and handed it to him. It was a long purple dress with long sleeves, made of purple silk and shimmering in the light of the bulb that lit up the shop. Cloud sighed heavily and shook his head, before taking the dress and walking into the single cube changing room at the end of the shop.

Changing into the shop proved to be a harder task than Cloud had thought it would be. Being a man, he had never had to change into a dress before, and really had no idea how to put it on.

"How... do you put this on?" he asked.

Outside of the cubicle, Aeris had been leaning against the counter while she waited for Cloud to change. She then pushed herself away from the counter and went to the cubicle, peeking through the curtains to see.

"Whoa! What are you doing!?" came Cloud's voice on the other side.

Aeris looked for a few moments more before pulling back. "It's still not right," she said. She turned away and thought for a moment. Then she clicked her fingers. "A wig! That's what you need!"

The owner stepped down from the counter and walked to her. "Umm, I thought you might, so I talked to my friend about getting one. You know the gym? You'll find a lot of people there like you. Go and talk to them."

The cubicle curtain twitched and Cloud came out, with the dress back on its hanger. As he heard the owner's words, he looked at Aeris with a severe look on his face.

"...'like you'?" he repeated. "Aeris, what did you tell him?"

"Does it matter?" Aeris asked evasively, shaking her head. "Anyhow, we got a pretty dress!"

And before Cloud could question her any further, Aeris had already run off out of the door of the Clothes Shop, heading back up to where the pub was with Cloud in hot pursuit. The gym was on the opposite side of the market where the pub was, and from the moment they entered, Cloud immediately felt nervous.

The first thing that hit them as they entered the pub was the stench of sweat. The gym was filled with many men who were working out – all of whom were very strong looking, with strong muscles and broad, wide builds.

Standing in the middle of the gym was a woman, but was not actually a woman. It was in fact a man who had dressed up as a woman, by his own choice. He was small and quite slender, but also looked quite strong, with a brown wig covering his real hair. He looked surprisingly good as a woman, but it still made Cloud feel nervous. He/she looked up at Cloud and Aeris as they approached, and especially looked at Cloud.

"You the one... Who wants to be cute?" he asked.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Cute?" He looked at Aeris, who simply smiled and looked at the man/woman.

"Right," she said. "And about the wig..."

He nodded. "Yeah, I heard. But it'll cost ya."

"Urrrrgh!" came a growl behind him.

Cloud and Aeris looked up as a large, shirtless black man finished punching a bag at the back of the gym and turned to them. He stretched his large muscles and then jumped over towards the two, sweat still pouring over him from his rigid workout.

"Big Bro!!" he growled fiercely. "The only way you're gonna get cuter is if you can beat Big Bro!!"

Up in the wrestling ring, two twin blond men stopped their wrestle and also jumped over towards Cloud and Aeris. They looked just as strong as the other guy, and Cloud and Aeris figured they were both the same (in many ways).

"That's right!" one of the two men said.

The other blond man stretched his muscles. "So, you've got to compete with us!"

The cross-dressed man known as 'Big Bro' turned and nodded. "You're right," he said. "Let's do squats."

The first blond man grinned. "All right! We'll beat you out of this gym!"

Cloud blinked and stared at Big Bro. "Are you..." he began.

"THE beautiful Bro?" Aeris finished.

"What? You didn't know?" the black man asked in disbelief. "Always runnin' around sayin' 'Big Bro' this, 'Big Bro' that..."

Big Bro shook his head. "Never mind that, come over here." Cloud stepped forward, along with the black man. "Now, I'll explain the rules," said Big Bro. "You have to do full squats. From the ready position, to squat, and back to the ready position. Got it?"

Cloud nodded. "Got it."

"Whoever has the most squats after 30 seconds gets the wig," Big Bro finished.

The black guy shook his fists fiercely at Cloud. "I'm not going to lose. Big Bro's wig is MINE!!"

"Just be quiet..." Big Bro said, sighing heavily. He looked at Cloud. "It's not fair for you to start right away. So, you want some practice?"

Cloud looked at his challenger. The black guy was of a very strong build and probably of a very high endurance, and could probably squat for a long time without getting tired. However, Cloud knew that if he practiced first it would probably tire him out and he would be weaker during the real test, giving the black guy the advantage.

"Don't need to practice," he said.

Big Bro nodded. "Now. Let's begin the real thing," he said. He looked down at his wristwatch and raised his hand. "Start!"

At the same time, Cloud and the black man began to squat in the middle of the gym floor. Everyone else in the gym stopped to watch as the two bent their knees into a full squat, and then using their arms to help them go back up smoothly before beginning to squat once more. Big Bro stood beside them, counting the number of squats while at the same time keeping an eye on the time. Aeris watched with excitement as Cloud squatted up and down, urging him on as he slowly began to pull ahead of his opponent.

Eventually Big Bro glanced down at his watch one last time and lowered his hand to signal the end of the match. Cloud and the black man both stopped squatting and looked over at him, awaiting their results.

Big Bro smiled. "He had 15 squats and you had 18 squats," he replied, and Aeris jumped for joy. "You're really something. Okay, I'm a man of my word, here you are."

He walked to Cloud and handed him a blond wig. It looked quite authentic and was split into two even pigtails. The wig even seemed to be exactly the same shade as Cloud's own hair, so there was no worry about it clashing with his skin. Cloud took the wig and looked down at it blankly, while the black man stood shaking his large fists angrily.

"Big Bro, I'm so mad!" he growled. "I'm so, so, so---mad!"

Big Bro turned ominously and walked towards the black man while he stood there cursing loudly over his loss. Big Bro stopped in front of him and paused for a second, before he reached up and gave the man an almighty punch across his face. The black man went flying across the gym floor and landed with a loud thud at the other end of the gym, where he slumped instantly to the floor in a weak and helpless heap. Big Bro was stronger than he looked, despite being smaller than the others.

"Shut up!" Big Bro ordered him crossly. "Don't cry just because you lost!"

The black man tried to stand up, but he fell back onto the floor, still winded. "Uuuuhh," he groaned. "Bro's fists of steel cut to the bone!"

While Big Bro and the two blond twins went over to see if their friend was all right, Aeris and Cloud quickly headed out of the gym and back towards the clothes shop. Throughout the time they were walking Cloud just kept turning the wig round and round in his hands and slowly shaking his head. Aeris walked beside him with a large smile on her face, glad now that they had all that they needed to make Cloud into a girl. She did have the idea of getting other accessories for him – perfume, jewellery, even lingerie, but she figured Cloud would just draw the line at that. Which was a pity.

As the entered the Clothes Shop, the owner turned to them from behind the till and nodded.

"Looks like you're all set. Now try it on, and we'll see how it fits."

Cloud hesitated again for a second, still unsure about whether him dressing up as a girl was a good idea, and extremely worried about what Aeris had said to the owner to get him to agree in the first place. Aeris noticed his hesitation and turned to him.

"Aren't you going to change?" she asked.

Cloud took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay... I'm ready," he said.

He then walked into the changing room, and everyone waited to see the result.