Chapter 5

Part 1

Unusual meetings

Author's note: This chapter's going to be in two parts, obviously parts 1 and 2. – The zombies are springing up everywhere. I have much work to do…--

Finally getting enough sleep, I woke up on my own the next morning. It was 7:30, Tifa was making breakfast, and everyone was awake. "Thanks for letting me sleep this morning," I told Yuffie as I plopped down on the couch between her and Red.

"Vincent told me about yesterday—with Cid and everything," Red said, trying to scratch an itch at the base of his neck.

He couldn't reach sitting as he was, so I got it for him. "You got Vincent to tell you that? Now I feel like a sorry, whiny, weak person."

He uttered a growl that I think was his version of a purr as I scratched his neck. "I sleep in his room, and we're a little bit alike: misunderstood by most people. Anyway, I told Yuffie you were sick so she wouldn't wake you."

"Thanks Red!"

"So are you feeling better?" Yuffie asked as she turned down the volume of the cartoons she was watching.

Are you oblivious to the fact that you were lied to? I thought. "Yep. All better. Where's Marlene?" I asked Cloud as he was passing by.

"She's taking a bath."

"You're letting a 5-year-old take a bath without supervision?"

"Barret's on it. Tifa'd watch her, but do you really want someone else to cook? And do you really think Yuffie's able to watch her?"

"Ok."

He started to walk off, but stopped himself. "Hey, did you drink some Corona last night?"

"…Yeah," I replied nervously.

At that he burst into laughter. When I looked at him, he tried to control himself, but failed and ended up in a laughing fit.

Vincent came out of the kitchen and stood behind Cloud, who'd now doubled over. "Cloud?"

"She---s---sh---shehahahahahaha…!" He dropped to his knees, one hand on his bell, the other on the arm of the couch.

"I think he's broken," Yuffie said, standing up and poking his head with an index finger. "What did you do?"

I made an I-know-face and shrugged.

"I heard him say 'Corona'," Vincent said.

That only got us more laughter from the blob named Cloud on the floor.

"Cloud! It would be funnier if we were in on the joke!" I said, off the couch and trying to pull him off the floor.

"You, you drank 'Corona' from the bottle of 'Corona Extra' last night!" Cloud's voice was squeaky.

"Yeah…and? You told me I could."

He ignored me, "That wasn't 'Corona'! It was windshield-wiper-fluid!" Even before he finished his sentence he was laughing again.

MY jaw dropped instantly and my eyes shot open.

Cloud got enough control over himself to walk down to where ever he was going.

Yuffie just looked at me in wonder. "No wonder you were sick…"

Vincent put a hand on my shoulder. "At least you know now." He squeezed my shoulder once and withdrew. "It would be good if you started breathing again, Harper."

I realized I'd been holding my breath, "No wonder it tasted weird."

"Dang!" Cid exclaimed as he came out of the kitchen. "This's ------------- near the best 'Extra' I ever had!" He took a long swig after he sat down.

Yuffie giggled, I gave him a death-glare, and Vincent said, "Cid?"

"Yeah?" Cid took another swig.

"Never mind." Vincent walked back to the kitchen.

Yuffie sat back down and began watching cartoons again. She and Cid began bickering about whether or not you can be too old for cartoons.

Red XIII just looked at me.

"I didn't know," I said. I walked into the kitchen, finding Tifa on the counter digging through the cabinets, and…not finding Vincent at all. "Tifa?" I questioned, dodging a book aimlessly being thrown. "What are you doing? And where's Vincent? I saw him come in here."

"He's…behind the books," came the muffled replied when she stuck her head in the cabinet to look for more books.

I took one of the books off of a stack of them on the table, finding the top of Vincent's head. "What's she doing?" I asked him.

"Looking for a recipe."

Flipping through a few pages in the book in my hand, I saw that it was a cookbook. "Oh. Be glad you didn't drink that stuff last night. It was bad."

"If it would've saved you from the bad experience, I would have…if I had known."

An "Eeep!" came from Tifa's direction, then the bump of head colliding with wood. A moment later Tifa backed her head out of the cabinet, rubbing the back of it. "You'd do the same for me, right?"

Vincent just looked at her.

Tifa stared back, first at Vincent, then at me. Then she rolled her eyes.

"What are you looking for? And you can enlist other people services: everyone here can read," I suggested.

"HAVE AT IT," she practically pleaded and gave us the name of the dish she wanted to make.

Vincent nodded, almost completely covering his face with the neck of his cape, and shoved a pile of books away from him to give him some reading space. I pulled a few more books from a pile and sat down across from Vincent.

After a few minutes of silence, Tifa grabbed the book I was flipping through and yelled, "YES! This is it!"

"Uhm…"

Vincent just started closing books and pushing them aside.

"Oh don't look so glum Vinnie! I know you'll like this one!"

Are you cooking for HIM? What about the rest of us? I thought. Out loud I said, "Are the rest of us going to get to eat too?"

Tifa looked at me with a very serious face. "No," she said evenly, "The rest of you have leftovers."

When she turned around I looked at Vincent – he met my gaze – and raised an eyebrow.

"Tifa…" he started.

"OH COME ON! You thought I was serious! CLOUD!" She called. "You're more gullible than Cid."

I'm pretty sure my face went blank, but I recovered as Cloud walked in. "Did anyone tell Cid that's the buggy's wiper fluid?"

"Vincent tried to," I said.

"He seemed to be enjoying it; I didn't want to ruin his fun. If it doesn't kill him…well, I wasn't trying to kill him, but really, life would be so much easier," Vincent said.

"Whoa! Vincent told a joke!" Cloud said.

The corners of Vincent's eyes went up, showing that, beneath his cape, he was smiling.

"Hey, Cloud…" Tifa started.

"What's up Tif.?"

"…I need you to go to the store to get some ingredients we don't have for this soup."

He nodded, "If you give me some money."

Li'l weasel…he's trying to get out of it.

To Cloud's surprise, Tifa shoved an enormous amount of gil at him. "GO TO THE STORE. Le'me give you a list."

Ah, so you caught on…and prepared ahead of time. Nice work. I complemented silently.

Cloud glared at her. "I hate shopping." His eyes lit up suddenly. "Hey Harper?"

"Hmm?"

"How bad did that stuff make you feel?"

"I'm fine. What do you want?"

"Come shopping?"

"Clou—"

"Before you say 'no' at least consider it! If I went by myself it would take hours. But if I had a girl come, one who knows the shops…it would be so much faster and we'd all get to eat on time!"

I closed my mouth. Then opened it a sliver to get the word fine out.

"Yes!"

"Thank you Harper," Tifa said. "Cloud…Behave."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked?

"Just don't let him spend much on any beer," she warned.

"Oh, ok," I smiled and Cloud and I walked out.

"Like something with this name actually exists," Cloud whined as we searched the shelves for rue. Eyeing the list Tifa had given us one more time he asked, "And what is 'thyme'?"

"Oi, it's…a plant I think. Here we go," I grabbed a jar full of the nasty smelling thing called rue. "What's next?"

"…" nothing came from Cloud,

And in a moment, when I saw what he was staring at, I knew why.

"This…is awesome," Cloud stated as he gaped at the many kinds of 'Corona' that lined the shelf we now stood in front of.

"How did I miss this?" I asked the air. "I've never even heard of this'n." I put a finger on a brand.

Cloud walked over. "Me neither…"

Another man, younger than Cloud and me, walked up. "I'm sorry, but I over heard that. You've never tried this?"

I shook my head and looked at the newcomer.

It was like looking in a mirror only a few years ago. The boy looked like he was eight-teen or twenty, with short silver hair and bluish green eyes. His mouth was cruel-looking.

"I think that's my favorite kind," he said. "I'd recommend it."

"Oh…ok," I stammered. "Have I ever met you before?"

"No, I don't believe we've met. But I agree, it feels like I should know you—you might want to check on Cloud," he advised.

"Huh?—Cloud!" I almost yelled when I saw him. I rushed over and yanked the almost open bottle from his hands. "NO! YOU HAVE TO BUY IT FIRST!"

That seemed to wake him from some trance. "Huh? Oh, man, I've never done that before," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"It happens to the best of us," the stranger said.

"Yeah, I guess it was payback, right Harper?"

I covered a laugh with a cough. "Yeah. Payback…" I'd never thought of payback before.

"Payback? What for?" the stranger asked.

He's awfully friendly now, isn't he? "Oh, uhm…He switched some windshield wiper fluid with real 'Corona' and stuck it in the fridge. I drank it, but I don't think that's why he did it," I answered.

"Nope, I just needed a place to put it. Hey, name's Cloud," Cloud said.

"I know, you're quite famous with my friends and me," the stranger replied. "I was just recommending that," he gestured to the bottle in my hand, "to Mrs. Harper."

"Oh, uhm, I'm not married," I told him. "So it's just Harper."

"My apologies."

"Man, you remind me of a guy that lives with me…" Cloud said.

"Oh? Well, let's hope he and I aren't too much alike. Now, I've got some things to do." He selected a certain brand of something that wasn't Corona. "Celebration party," he explained over his shoulder as he walked away.

"So…that was weird."

"Yeah…what are you famous for?"

"Well, I did defeat Sephiroth last year and…" he started bragging as we started stocking up on Corona and continuing our shopping for Tifa.

Author's end note: Sweet! I thought this would be tha shortest chapter ever! And in Word it was actually 10 pages! WhooHoo! Now, you've read….PLEASE review! And…person-in-need-of-a-zombie-machine…sorry I didn't actually get this up last night. There was a lot more I had to do than I thought…

Did anyone figure out who they met down the Corona isle?