Chapter 20.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII –or any of them for that matter—doesn't belong to me. My o.c. is Harper.
Note: sorry it's been so long guys, if any one's still reading out there. But you know how it can be...just get caught up in soo many things... I'm not sure how long this chapter'll end up being, cuz I'm just typing while I'm on-line. R&R!
Chapter 20...
We walked into Shera's living room and I heard the guys behind me snort in disgust. The room we were in was decorated all in pink and white. Flowers and ruffles everywhere. A girly room. And apparently not something the men were used to. Heh, it wasn't something I was used to.
As I set my back-pack down on the floor and sat on the couch, I wondered how Cid was able to live in a place this...happy. Kadaj took a seat on the opposite end of the couch, and Yazoo and Loz leaned against the far wall. Loz was glancing around, Yazoo was staring at nothing.
We sat in this awkward silence for a while, but soon I couldn't take it. So I got up and found the kitchen. It didn't take me long to do so, the house was small and predictably planned. The fridge was slightly empty, but since there was only Shera, that was ok. I wasn't that hungry anyway. Instead of food, then, I just grabbed a drink and went back to the living-room and to my spot on the couch. Back and comfy, I opened the bottle in my hand and took a drink from it. At the familiar taste I looked at the label...
And almost choked at the memories it brought up. Corona.
Kadaj looked at me because of the sound I'd made. "What's so funny?"
Loz and Yazoo tuned in.
"Ohhh..." I started, wiping a laughter-tear from my cheek. "Last time I had a bottle of Corona... the actual drink'd been switched for windshield-wiper fluid. Cloud's form of a joke, I think," I explained, still trying to get myself under control.
Loz chuckled.
"It was GROSS!" I checked him.
He laughed again, but said, "I'm sorry."
"Not," I said decidedly. I was just beginning to wonder when Shera was going to get off work, when she rushed through the door. "Shera! What's wrong?"
"OH! Nothing's wrong! I just didn't want to leave you all by yourself. You've never been here, it'd be rude of me to just turn you lose in a place you don't know!" she breathed. "Oh... I forgot to thank you for helping me find that part when I went to Midgar a while back, so ...thanks." She said as she walked toward the kitchen.
I thought for a minute about what she was talking about. I hardly remembered that she'd even come to Midgar, but she did. She'd been looking for a part to fix up the old broken car in the back yard. The back yard which used to be the hanger for the Tiny Bronco. "It wasn't a big deal Shera! I was more than happy to help you out. Besides, it gave me a good excuse to get outa the house for a while," I said loudly so she could hear me. "Did you ever get the thing running?"
"No, I'm afraid not. She's still sitting out there rusting. I don't think we'll ever get running again." Shera came back and sat in a chair to my left. Then she looked at the two against the wall, and to Kadaj. "So, you said Harper was traveling with you? Where are you headed?" It was more of a protective question than one of pure curiosity.
"Nowhere in particular," Yazoo said in a cold way.
I shot him a glance and whatever he was going to say, never came. Kadaj spoke up. "We're heading up north, somewhere 'round Icicle maybe."
"Oh? Well I hope you four are planning on doing some clothes shopping before you leave the warmer parts," she cast a glance my way and went on. "Especially you, Harper. You're in no condition to be in cold weather the like of what they have up North."
"Oh, I...didn't really know where we were going. I guess I could get some more stuff. It's colder than the slums up there?" I asked.
"Well—"
"We'll make sure she's ok, Mrs. Shera," Kadaj said.
"Oh stop that! Cid and I aren't married! Just call me Shera, young man!" She meant to insult him by calling him that, and she did. She did a good job of it, too.
He didn't fight back though, only answered with a polite, "Sorry, Shera."
Shera sat back in her chair and smiled. "So, no idea when Cid's coming back?"
"Sorry, Shera," I offered.
"Oh, it's alright. Can't hope to keep track of that man if he doesn't want to be tracked anyhow," a sad look passed her eyes, but was gone as soon as I noticed it. "How long are you staying in town?" she asked all of us.
I glanced at the faces of the others. Not happy people are you? "I don't think we'll be here past tomorrow, if that." As I ended my sentence, there was a flash of light like when Holy had deflected the meteor (or something like that light) and a following crash of thunder. In the space of a blink, rain started poring down torrentially outside. Heh, just our luck. "Looks like we might be here a bit longer..." I said shakily.
Loz bolted to the door, Yazoo in his wake, followed by Kadaj only an instant later.
"What's gotten into them? Ants?" Shera asked over the noise of the rain.
I thought a moment. "They're going get our stuff offa the bikes and the said transportation out of the rain, I guess."
"Where're they going to put them?"
"Well, is the room you said the car was in for a while ok? Maybe the bikes won't be too wet?"
"That's right, I forgot about that room. Sure, you can put them in there—"her cell phone ringing cut her off. I was surprised she heard it. "Hello? Huh? Cid?"
"Cid..." I thought aloud in a whisper.
"What? The ship's fixed? That's—'but' what? Oh, what?"
"What's up?" I interrupted.
"It's Cid. He says the airship's fixed but that... that... 'Idiot Valentine stole it to go look for...' Vincent's looking for you." Her attention was taken from me as I suspect Cid started yelling again.
I caught a bit of "she's there?" from Cid.
Oh, great...
There was a knock on the front door. Yazoo was asking if I knew a place where we could put the bikes, so I led him through the rain to a side door to the little work/storage room Shera'd said we could use. Yazoo stayed in the room to clear out space for the three huge things while I went to find the other two and bring in the bike he'd abandoned. I found Loz and Kadaj. Loz' hair was flat, and Kadaj's stuck to his face in random places. They were at the city entrance. By the time we got back to Shera's house we were all wet; soaked to the bone with the cold rain. Our boots made a squishing sound. They were full of water.
Once we got everything situated in the room and tried the door to the main part of the house—it was locked—we had to go back outside and stand in the rain pounding on the door till Shera at last let us in. "Eheh..." I laughed shakily. My hair hung in dripping strands, some of it stuck to my face and a corner of my mouth.
"Ok, ok..." Shera said, finishing her conversation with Cid. "Alright," she looked us all up and down. "Let's get you cleaned up. You three...go raid Cid's closet and see what you can find—"
"We should have something else packed—"
"Cid's closet and then I'll dry these...nice outfits you have on," she insisted. The three sloshed in the direction she pointed out. "And you... well; I might have something for you."
Shera took me to her room and had me stand in the bathroom so I didn't drip on the carpet. She rummaged through her dresser drawers and threw out things out in a steady arc behind her. I imagined she thought it would all fit...
She seemed a bit different than when I'd met her a few years back... Maybe it was only because she didn't have Cid around, but then...she didn't have Cid when she was in town then... Time. I concluded. Time without someone would take a toll on a person. Even if they weren't really together in a lover's way. She seemed frantic to me. Like Cloud when Tifa'd been away for a while.
Shera shut all the drawers and dug through the pile she had created on the floor. Finding what she wanted, she came up with a "Here it is!" and came toward me. "I think these should do nicely," she said, holding up a pair of long pants in one hand, underclothes in the crook of her arm, and a green t-shirt in her other hand. Before leaving, she reached a hand inside and flipped the switch for the heater, closing the door behind her.
I peeled off my wet clothes and changed into the things Shera had given me.
Walking out of Shera's room and into the front room again, I didn't know what to expect the boys were wearing. At first I thought for sure that they'd all pick out something like what Cid usually wore: brown, green and blue. But as I entered the room I stopped dead in my tracks and felt my eyes open wide and my jaw drop—to the floor it seemed.
Pink.
They were all in pink.
I stood there gaping at them in silence when Shera came in from the kitchen, laden with drinks.
"I...oh my..." I stuttered and turned part way to Shera, who stood beside me. "What..." then I put things together. She obviously thought they were too up-tight, and needed to loosen up a bit. She knew Cid's clothes were all pink, for some reason, and that was why she'd insisted on them taking his clothes instead of unpacking. One look at their faces told me that they'd figured it out too. "What...?"
"It was an accident in the wash. Just folded those today. Some of my reds got mixed with Cid's clothes and... Well, the reds bled and turned everything such a nice pink color," she explained.
"But, when Cid gets back, he'll be livid!" I pointed out, noticing how nicely the pink contrasted with Loz' silver hair. All of them...
"Actually, I need to talk to you about Cid," Shera stated. The three men sat down as Shera set the glasses down on the coffee table in front of the couch. We all took seats somewhere. Shera in her chair, Kadaj and me on the couch, and the other two against the wall as they were earlier. "Cid called, as you know, Harper. He said the airship is fixed, but that Vincent...stole it."
"I knew there was no way other than that that Valentine would have been able to keep up with us," Yazoo hissed.
"You've seen him?"
"In Cosmo Canyon," I said quickly.
"Then you know he's looking for you?" Shera prodded.
"Yes, but...I'd asked that I—we not be followed."
"Oh," Shera cast her eyes to the floor for a moment, then looked up into mine. "I told Cid to call Vincent and tell him that you four were here..." she winced that she was sorry.
I sighed and sat back against the couch, thinking. Vincent had the Highwind, he'd be able to catch up with is in no time at all. If he was still in Cosmo Canyon... then it wouldn't even be... Still, there was the rain to take into account. If the rain was slowing us, then it would definitely slow an aircraft. "It's alright, Shera..."
She glanced around at the others in the room. Yazoo and Loz were indifferent, and Kadaj looked as if he were forming a plan of some sort. Leaning toward me, Shera lowered her voice and asked, "What are you really doing with these three?"
I stood up and cocked my head in the direction of the laundry room. The sound of the machines going about their jobs would drown out our conversation. She seemed to pick up on my thoughts and started toward the room. Once in the privacy of the little room, I found a bucket and turned it up-side down so I'd be able to sit on it; Shera did the same. When we were settled enough, I started, "I...I ran away, is what I did." She didn't seem too surprised, so I went on. "Reno—"
"Reno? The TURK?"
"Yes, the TURK. But...Reno came to the shop one day, with a package for me. It was a tape recording from when I was little," a small smile escaped my fight for control as I tried to remember my childhood then and couldn't. "It was from my father, he recorded it when I was 3. It revealed who he was."
"And... who is he?"
"Was. Who was he," I corrected. Then I softened my tone, not meaning to get mad in the first place, since I'd already accepted what I was about to tell her. "He was Sephiroth." Shera sat in silence across from me, staring blankly. I tried again, "He...was Sephiroth..."
"Oh ,dear..."
"What? He wasn't always insane, was he?"
"No, not that... I see why you ran away. You did it for your own protection, and the protection of your friends. You knew that if you stayed with them, and anyone found out about your lineage...then there was no telling what those people would do...Why...they may even have attacked AVALANCHE on thinking that they'd been protecting an enemy. You did the right thing," she tried to console me. Or herself, I wasn't sure which.
"That's...close enough," I confirmed. "I'm glad you understand, Shera."
"Ah, well. People are people, you know. Let's go back up to the front—eh—do they know?" she asked referring to Yazoo, Loz, and Kadaj.
"Yes. As a matter of fact, they are the people who convinced me to come away," I was trying to make them sound good-natured and forget the warning I'd gotten in Cosmo Canyon.
"Oh, well then they're respectable then? Haven't tried anything on you since you're only on woman and they're three men?" When I stared at her she went on, "Well, HAVE they?"
Finally I grasped what she was asking, after the initial shock that I'd just noticed for only the second time that I was alone with three men most of the time. "No! No, nothing at all!" I assured her. "They treat me like one of them."
"Ah. Well then, now that I know a bit more about them, I suppose I could let them have their regular clothes back." She turned to one of the machines and pulled out their three outfits, now dry and in good condition.
"What were you going to do when they were dry and the three wanted their clothes back, and you didn't know anything about them?" I asked, truly wondering.
"Why, the dryer would be 'broken'!"
"Oh. Well, that's just smart!"
After the three were all changed and a little bit happier, Shera announced our sleeping arrangements. The three guys slept in Cid's room, and I had the couch...because I asked for it. I didn't fall asleep until very late because of the storm. When I woke the next morning, it was still raining cats and dogs. I found a note on the front door from Shera saying that she had to go back to work that day, and wouldn't be home till late. The others woke shortly after I did and immediately went check on the bikes, drying off whatever wasn't dry and needed to be.
It was around lunch time that anything actually happened. I'd just finished serving lunch and had sat down at the coffee table in the living room again, when I remembered that I'd forgotten to get drinks.
Kadaj got up before I could. "I'll get them," he said, and walked off. He came back with some sort of sugary concoction.
Toward the end of the meal, when my glass was empty, the room started spinning. And the last thing I saw that day was the three of them looming over me, grabbing at arms to pick me up, before everything went black.
Note: I think that's it for this chapter. I hope it's a little bit closer to long enough by everyone's standards. Took me...a while to come up with all this. But then I've been spending all day reading and in school, so... you know how it is. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up in a day or two, so keep a look out! And SHADE! sniff you've...disappeared. See, I can't write without my inspiration! glomps Hehe...I don't know what that was...