It's My Coffin Chapter 2
"Uggh… My head…" Cloud mumbled, rubbing his head. He was slumped between a wall and a sofa, and it was not very comfortable at all. He attempted to sit up straight, but a sharp jolt of pain changed his mind. Looking around as far as he could without injuring further his already aching neck, he noticed a couple of other people on the floor, which he identified as his fellow teammates. He slumped back down further, wanting to rest to get rid of his headache, but was disturbed again when a soft patter of footsteps approached him.
"Hangover, Cloud?" The familiar voice of Nanaki asked, chuckling slightly. Nanaki looked around. Everyone seemed pretty wasted. After the fiasco with Vincent the night before, they had decided to go partying, well, actually Yuffie and Cid had decided to go partying, and everyone else just followed. Everyone, minus Tifa Lockhart, who had followed Vincent to try and talk some sense into him, and of course, Vincent Valentine. They had all gone to one of those hip new bars downtown, and since they were recognised as the "heroes who had saved the world", all the drinks they had were on the house. Which was the reason why the majority of the team was scattered around an unfamiliar room in various uncomfortable positions.
There was Yuffie, half draped across the sofa, the other half on the floor and one leg on the table. And Cid was lying head first on the coffee table, in a half-sitting, half-lying down position, with Cait Sith resting on his back. Barret was all passed out in the middle of the room, taking up quite a lot of space, and then there was Cloud. As for Nanaki, he was the only one with enough self-control and sense not to drink that much, and the only one in the team that did not become drunk the other night. Thank goodness for that, or they would be waking up in the bar the next day, and trust me, that would be way more uncomfortable for them. It had taken Nanaki practically forever to drag them all, one by one, into an empty guest room, which the bar owners so kindly provided, on the house of course. He had a little help for those like Barret, which was too much for him to carry alone. He wasn't exactly the lightest one there.
"…Nanaki…Ow, my head…God. Do you think you could get me an ice pack of something, or a some of those hangover pill things? Ugh, I feel awful…" Cloud muttered, positioning himself into a more comfortable position.
Looking down at his paws, and at Cloud again, Nanaki asked, "Well, if you don't mind me bringing it to you in my mouth…" Imagining the saliva covered objects, Cloud groaned, and shook his head.
"Never mind, I'll get them myself…" Once I manage to get up, if that's possible. He placed one arm on the sofa and the other on the wall to steady himself and dragged himself to his feet. He shuffled towards the tiny bathroom on the other side of the room. God, why must they place the bathrooms so freaking far? He stumbled in front of the mirror and used his two hands to grip the opposite ends of the sink. He looked into the mirror. He looked terrible. Eye bags, ruffled hair and, oh my God, was that a wrinkle? He frowned. He was getting old. Turning on the sink, he placed his head under the running water. Thank God for big sinks which could fit heads (and hair) of those like Clouds. He struggled to open the medicine cabinet. Hey, when you have two aching arms, an aching neck and a throbbing head, that is in no way an easy task.
Finally, he managed to open it. He peered inside. Now, let's see… Laxatives, vitamins, diet pills, cough stuff, sleeping pills… Maybe I should take some of those, hmm… What else is here? Diet supplements… Ah! Panadol. He took out the Panadol and nearly cheered, stopping when he saw the big pink words of… "PANADOL MENSTRUAL? ARGGGGHHHHH!" He screamed and threw the pack of pills into the opposite wall. He breathed in deeply, then exhaled. Alright, count to ten, count to ten.. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Okay, I'm calm. I'm good.
"Like heck I'm good! Which stupid place doesn't have a normal Panadol anywhere? I mean, Panadol MENSTRUAL, like, what the hell. Who USES that anyway?" Cloud muttered, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists as he walked around the bathroom. After a few rounds of walking and muttering, he realised that his hangover was… Gone. Yes, add that to the list of cures for hangovers – Get angry, start ranting and pacing around like a deranged maniac. No wonder Sephiroth never had hangovers. Forgetting all his (so-called) troubles, Cloud exited the bathroom, a radiant smile on his face. Nanaki had succeeded in awakening the rest of the team, with help from Cloud's piercing scream just moments ago, although he was a little shaken. Waking them up was a scary experience, particularly a certain ninja and a pilot. If possible, he never wanted to wake them up again – he treasured his life too much to do that. He really wondered how Tifa managed to do it while on the Highwind, but then again, it was Tifa.
Speaking of which, shouldn't they go check up on her? I wonder whether she succeeded with Vincent… He's a tough one to crack. Nanaki mused. Besides Cid and Barret, both of which looked increasingly grouchy as the minutes passed by, the rest of the team seemed to be pretty much back to normal. From hung over Yuffie to normal Yuffie – the change was rather drastic. Cait Sith, not really being human, recovered fast as well. As for Cloud, there he was all smiles and sunshine, and pissing the hell out of Cid and Barret.
"Well, good morning everyone!" Cloud grinned, and all but bounced up and down. "Should we all go have some breakfast?" Barret grunted in annoyance of the perkiness of his voice, while Cid just covered his ears and grumbled something along the lines of "let's tie that idiot up and stuff his mouth with tissue". (But of course, he can't possibly have used such a gentle word as "idiot", it has to be something more colourful than that.) Yuffie readily agreed as her stomach was grumbling loudly, and she was currently complaining to a very bored Cait Sith about how hard sofas can be.
"Don't you think we should check up on Tifa to see how yesterday went? We could invite her along as well," Nanaki suggested. Everyone agreed, even Barret, despite his horrible hangover. His concern for Tifa's welfare overruled his pounding head and aching back. Even Cid, muttering curses underneath his breath, was worried for the young martial artist. After all, Vincent was pretty unpredictable, and who knew what could have happened to the poor girl.
After cleaning up a little, they left the bar, thanking the owners for the wonderful drinks and not-so wonderful guest room, and headed towards Seventh Heaven, Tifa's own bar and residence. (Which was located in Nibelheim as well, of course. Perfect place to open a bar after Midgar's destruction.) It wasn't a very long walk from the bar they were at, which was a semi-rip off of Seventh Heaven – they called it the Eighth Wonder. How original. All you need is other bars with names like "Fourth Bridge" or "Ninth Life" or something popping up, and it'll be perfect. And poor Tifa spent more than a week mulling over what she should call her bar.
Cloud whistled cheerfully as Yuffie was going on and on about yet another mundane topic, something about how chocobo feathers could be used to build houses, or something along that lines. Cid was resisting the urge to choke her with his goggles, while Barret, Nanaki and Cait Sith were just pretending to be paying attention to whatever Yuffie was talking about. For a young girl, she certainly could talk a lot, and at such a speed as well. It was simply amazing.
"We're here!" Cloud chirped. He was still in that joyful mood after his hangover miraculously disappeared. They stood there like idiots for a couple of minutes before Cid got annoyed and stalked to the door and pressed the doorbell.
They waited. There was no response. Maybe she didn't hear it the first time? They tried again and again, yet no one came to the door.
"Strange," Nanaki commented. "Maybe she's not at home?" They peered in through the windows and all they saw was darkness. The curtains were drawn, which was very unlike Tifa, as she loved sunshine. If it wasn't obvious enough that she wasn't home, there wasn't a single sound coming from inside. No buzzing of the fans as they turned around, no water running as she did her daily dishes, and no clanking of cups as she cleared them from the tables. Conclusion: Tifa was not at home.
"Where would she be?" Cloud thought aloud.
Yuffie's face turned pale. "Oh no! What if… What if when we left yesterday, Vincent got mad at her and killed her or something! She could be ripped into shreds and thrown down Mt. Nibel, and we'll never see her again… Poor Tifa! And, she was so young, too… And all her materia…" Everyone tuned out as Yuffie went on and on about Tifa's poor lost materia, and how she was never going to have a funeral and how they should go over to the mansion and teach Vinnie a good lesson, among other things.
"Damn, that girl sure can talk a lot of crap. Let's go check on Vampy, maybe they're just talking or something," Cid said, as Yuffie continued her rambling.
"If he ever dared t' lay a hand on her…" Barret clenched his fists, thinking of all the possible bad things Vincent could have done to her.
"Vincent is a decent man. They probably stayed up all night talking, or maybe she just decided to keep him company for a while. Don't worry," Nanaki said, trying to calm the big man down.
"That's true," Cloud said thoughtfully, "Vincent wouldn't do anything. Let's go then!" They all walked off, leaving Yuffie alone, still talking to herself and getting more animated and anxious by the second. It wasn't long before she noticed that she was alone in front of a house, talking to herself and getting very weird glances from passerbys. Those idiots! They left without me! Without even telling me. Hmph. Maybe I should steal their materia again, that'd show them! She started devising a very devious plan to get her revenge on her so-called teammates that left her all by herself.
She finally caught up to them after a while. "You guys are…huff…so dead…" She said between breaths, staring daggers at her teammates. "How…huff…could you leave me…huff…there all by myself? A girl…huff…like me could be in danger! You all…huff…know how many perverts there are… huff…here!" She finished, all red faced and panting. Seeing her in that state was highly amusing, and they all burst out laughing.
"Not so fit anymore, huh, Princess?" Cait Sith poked her between the ribs, earning a very harsh glare from the breathless ninja, which just made him laugh even harder.
"Hey, cut it out you two! We have to go see if Tifa's alright, remember?" Cloud sighed and pushed his hand through his hair as best as he could. His hair was practically hardened due to the massive amount of hair products he rubbed onto it. They continued on, with Yuffie giving each member an occasional glare if they even so much as looked at her. She wasn't going to forgive them THAT easily.
The mansion didn't look so creepy in the daytime. In fact, without the overgrown garden and weeds, it looked almost… Livable. Maybe get rid of the rusty gates and give the mansion a paint-over, it would look as good as new, or even better. No one had ever bothered to try and fix it up, though. Probably because of the rumours that it was haunted, which was a whole load of rubbish, of course. Vincent preferred it this way. Less annoying people coming in, more alone time for himself.
The group found themselves standing in front of said rusty gate. No sounds were coming from the mansion, but Vincent was a very silent creature. Carefully, they opened the gate, trying to make as little noise as possible. If Vincent really was the crazed murderer Yuffie had ranted about earlier on, they didn't want to take any chances. Slowly, they sneaked up to the door as quietly as they could. So they had to gag Yuffie and tie Cait Sith onto Nanaki, but that was only so that they'll stay quiet, really.
Cloud tried the door. It was unlocked, just as they left it yesterday. Yuffie's eyes widened as she started to say something, but only succeeding in making "mmfgh!" noises, courtesy of the gag they placed around her mouth. Barret quickly clamped his hand over her mouth, earning a very hard glare from the young girl. Thank God her hands were still free and she used one of them to pinch Barret's arm. It didn't really hurt much, but it still hurt nonetheless, and Barret had to clench his other fist to keep himself from yelping. (He clenched it so tight that after this whole ordeal was over, he still had very deep fingernail markings in his skin. Poor guy. He should cut his nails more often.)
Cloud gave each of them a warning glare, something he was very good at, being the guy that he is. He stepped into the house carefully, expecting a crazy Vincent to jump out of the shadows and start attacking them or something. Vincent, normally, was scary. Crazy Vincent? Oh boy. No one wanted to know, really. He waited. There was only silence and nothing else. Good, they were safe for now. He motioned for the others to come in, silently. Yuffie was still giving Barret a hard time, so he just flung her over his shoulders carelessly, which earned him two moderately hard punches on his back. He was losing his patience now, and when Barret gets mad, he REALLY gets mad.
And there was poor Cid who was denied of any cigarettes so as not to attract attention to themselves. He was annoyed – no, more than just "annoyed" - and his hands were twitching for a cigarette. Goddamn it, first that idiot Nanaki wakes me up when I'm having that orgy dream and then Mr. Smiles and Sunshine here gets us all to come all the way here, I still have that freaking headache and God, now I can't even have a single fucking cigarette. They owe me one. A big one. He fumed as they walked around, searching all the rooms in the mansion.
Nothing. There was nothing. No traces of human life anywhere. Everything was pretty much untouched and left as they were the first time they entered this place. You would have expected Vincent to at least do some cleaning or something. Well, that left only one place – the basement. Which was, in Yuffie's mind, the best place for anyone to hide a dead body – namely Tifas. She had so far thought of one hundred and twenty three million, seven hundred and eight ways for Vincent to kill Tifa. She really had a far too vivid imagination.
They all trooped towards the secret door (which wasn't much of a secret now. They knew of it, Vincent and Tifa knew of it, Sephiroth knew of it, and so did Hojo and the Turks, plus a couple of other kids from the neighbourhood.) and made their way down the stairs, still trying to make as little noise as possible. It wasn't long before they reached the coffin room.
"On three?" Cloud mouthed. The others nodded. He held up his fingers, one… two… three! They ran forward and…
"Shit, Cloud, the bloody door was already open!" Cid hissed, rubbing his aching shoulder, which had gotten worse no thanks to that whole "banging down the (already open) door" escapade.
"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" Cloud muttered, turning his head. An excited muffle could be heard coming out of Yuffie's mouth as she stood near the coffin where they had found Vincent. She turned to the rest of the group, eyes widened, and pointed inside. They all stepped forward and was pleasantly (well, not for some) surprised.
There was a peaceful Vincent and Tifa in the coffin, sleeping comfortably (or so they thought). Tifa had one arm draped over the gunman and was using his head as a pillow. Vincent was slightly turned to the left, but his right arm had snaked a little under Tifa's waist, and he was smiling. Slightly, but it was still a smile. They looked utterly contented. No one in the group had ever seen Vincent sleep that peacefully. The others had seen him sleep before, and it was nothing near this. He always had a guarded expression on his face, and his hand was always at his waist, ready to take out his gun and shoot if anything were to come near. If it wasn't guarded, it would be full of pain and anguish, as he was forever plagued by his nightmares. But here he was, all peaceful and smiling, like he had no care in the world.
By this time, Yuffie had managed to untie the gag around her mouth (and was silently scolding herself for being so dumb, as she had not realised until now that she could actually untie it as her hands were free) and, thoughts about Vincent murdering Tifa forgotten, started bouncing about happily and chattered about how she could get Tifa and Vinnie together as they looked, aww, oh-so-cute together!
Cid, not able to resist the urge any longer, took out a cigarette and started puffing. Cloud and Barret was still in shock, because that was Tifa in bed (well, in coffin) with, of all the people in the world, Vincent! Nanaki was just looking at them, slight amusement in his eyes. He always knew that Vincent had a soft spot for Tifa. Maybe he would help Yuffie in her matchmaking plans, after all, they DID look adorable together. The whole similar features thing, you know. Both had red eyes (except Tifa's was leaning towards brown), that long silky hair (though Vincent's was blacker), the pale skin (Vincent was slightly paler) and they were both tall for their respective genders. As for Cait Sith, he wasn't really doing anything, but he certainly was surprised at the sight.
And it was just at this moment that the two in the coffin decided to awaken.
Authors note: So how was this chapter? Actually, I was just going to leave it as a one shot, but I just decided to continue it out of sheer boredom. I hope it was alright.. . Thank you to those who reviewed the last time, and I hope my story-telling isn't too bland this time. I always have a problem with that, I feel. I'll try and update soon! (I just don't know how I'm ever going to get them together. For Vincent and Tifa to get together just like that would be way too unrealistic.) Well, please review! I like comments and would appreciate it greatly. :)