(For Disclaimer, refer to chapter 1)

Chapter 16: Hello, It's me

He looked down at the pHs. Either Strife, or the girl he was with had dropped it when they broke camp and left. He had been carrying it for the last few days, up until now; he had been hesitant to use it. Frankly, boredom was the only reason he toyed with the idea now.

His finger hovered over the redial button. Maybe he was getting his hopes up for nothing. Whoever called last might not have any idea how to get a hold of Strife. He hadn't had much use for hope in the last few years. No use getting lost in it now.

He hit the button and listened to the device ring.

"Hello," a female voice greeted him.

"Hello," he said back.

"Who is this?" she asked him. He wasn't quite sure who this person was or what relation they might have to Strife, if any. He tried his luck.

"An old friend of Strife's," he told her. It wasn't a complete lie. "Can I ask who I'm talking to?"

"Tifa Lockheart. You're a friend of Cloud's?"

"If we're talking about a spiked blonde, then yeah." He couldn't remember Strife's first name. He probably wouldn't have remembered Strife's last either if it hadn't been sewed on his uniform.

"Yup, that's Cloud. So why are you calling, Mr…" she paused stretching out the fact that he had never said his name. If Cloud remembered him, it would be best not to introduce himself.

"Riste," He said. It was the brand name of his left boot. "You see, Strife accidentally left his pHs with me," he told Tifa.

"I guess that would explain why…hold on a minute, Yuffie get back in here right now and put that back! … Sorry, as I was saying, that would explain why he hasn't called in lately. So how are they doing, if you don't mind me asking."

"They seemed okay. Actually I was wondering how I could get the pHs back to him. He didn't exactly say where he was going,"

"He didn't? Well, I guess it's not that hard to imagine. It's kind of strange that Aeris didn't though,"

Aeris must be the girl in the pink dress, he thought. Another name he couldn't quite place.

"She was asleep. So where were they headed, do you know?"

"The Golden Saucer," Tifa told him. "But they shouldn't be there that long. They might even be on their way back by now."

"Well that does create a bit of a problem, Is there anyway I could go and drop it off or somewhere I could meet him?"

There was a pause. Whoever Tifa was she seemed quite hesitant to say. Finally she agreed and told him her location. He hung up without so much as a goodbye.

"Yeah yeah. A girl can't have any fun around here, can she?" Yuffie asked as she walked back into the room. She tossed Tifa's fighting gloves over into the corner. "I just wanted to try them out. Bite my head off, why don't you?"

"Yuffie, those are …," Tifa stopped. Yuffie expression matched exactly what Tifa was feeling. They were worried about their friends and starting to feel stir crazy. "Never mind. Are you feeling alright?"

"What exactly is that supposed to be?" Yuffie said shaking her fist.

"You're bored out of your mind aren't you?"

"Oh yeah. You couldn't be more right if you tried." Yuffie sighed

"Well, um… you want to talk?"

"It's bad enough that you've just laid there feeling sorry for yourself since you got hurt, but I'm not going to just sit here and listen to some lecture." before Tifa could respond, Yuffie stormed out of the room.

Tifa laid still on her bed. She had just wanted to talk. She didn't mean anything by it. Worse, Yuffie had been right. She had just been feeling sorry for herself lately. Tifa grabbed the crutches Red XIII had gotten for her. As she grasped them she stopped. Knowing Yuffie, the girl was going to be gone for quite a while. Even then, there wasn't going to be much use apologizing. She'd already done too much talking and not action enough.

Coming next Chapter: The Lady in Red