~ Watch Me ~

The Past Bites

"So, where is it you're taking me again?"

Rose glanced sideways at Angeal, the pair of them moving casually through the made-up streets of Sector 8. She grinned. "I told you, you'll have to wait and see. Geez, why do you always have to be so suspicious?"

"It's my job. Besides, you're acting weird." He finished flatly, giving her a distrusting look. "Why do you keep looking at your phone?"

She quickly shoved her cell away. "I'm just making sure we're going in the right direction, is all."

"The right direction for where?"

"The place I want to take you." She replied cryptically, knowing she wasn't going to be able to keep up this obtuse behaviour for much longer.

Why did Barbara have to live so far into the Sector?

Angeal scoffed. "You said we were going for a drink. This road takes us to the neighbourhoods." He noted knowingly, gesturing lightly up the lamp lit pathway. "No bars up here that I know of."

"Look, will you just stop." Rose snapped, nerves finally getting the better of her. "I have been in a coma, y'know, and you're really starting to stress me out!"

"Fine, fine." Angeal relented, raising his hands in mock surrender. "As long as you know I warned you."

Rose rolled her eyes. So that was it, he thought she was lost.

"Have a little faith, brother." She smiled, playfully knocking into his arm. "I have a feeling you're really going to love this place."

"Mmhm, we'll see." Hesitating, he regarded her slowly, curious. "So... how are you feeling?"

"Me? I'm great, thanks. Why?" Rose smiled, amused by his sudden concern. "Worried I might suddenly drop dead or something?"

"That's not funny."

"No, probably not." Rose conceded, looking as apologetic as she could. "But, if you can't laugh about these things..." She shrugged genially, but sensing that Angeal was not about to bend on this matter anytime soon, quickly changed the subject. "So, I never did ask you, how was Wutai?"

He'd been back a few weeks, but what with Rose in a coma, and his sole focus being on her finally getting better, they'd had little time to chat about his overseas deployment.

Angeal shrugged.

"Same as it always is. Lots of fighting, lots of people dying. If I'm honest, it's all seeming a little pointless now. No one is willing to move on. It's just a constant cycle of battles."

Rose frowned. She'd never heard her brother sound so defeated. "But, isn't that what war is?"

"Perhaps. But there comes a time when a man should lay down his sword. I don't know... I just think we've passed it." She saw her own frown reflected in Angeal's face, his brow furrowed deeply under the weight of his thoughts. He looked at her. "On the note of swords, Lazard should be happy for you to get your own back from Hojo."

Rose grinned wickedly. "Oh don't you worry about that. I've already got it."

He looked at her doubtfully. "Last I checked, it was still locked up in his lab?"

"Yes, and I'm sure that was the case when the good professor checked too." She chimed, her smile only widening. Angeal looked confused, and she happily explained herself. "So, you know that thing I can do, where I can materialise the sword into my hand? Turns out I can do it from a distance too. Pretty cool, huh?" She did a little skip. "Think Hojo will be pissed?"

"Probably." Angeal admitted, sounding a little impressed.

She clapped. "Excellent. Gave myself a serious headache doing it, but it was worth it. Anything to get at that psycho-creep."

They walked along, Angeal in quiet contemplation, and then, "Have you told Lazard you can do that?"

"No." Rose admitted, suddenly worrying that maybe she should have. "But he knows that I'm going to be experimenting with the energy a bit more – it's part of the deal. Hojo signed me off as safe to be in the field, and I've promised Lazard I will practice controlling it as much as I can. In a safe environment of course." She added, catching the worrying flash that crossed Angeal's features.

"Mmm." Came his unconvinced reply, and they once again fell back into silence. "Genesis is glad you're feeling better, by the way. If the company hadn't kept him in Wutai, he would have visited, but he asked me to pass on his best wishes to you."

"I'm sure he did." Rose muttered cynically, hopping over a large crack in the pavement.

Angeal sighed. "Don't you think you're both getting a little old to still be squabbling?"

"Angeal, he doesn't like me. He never has. He sees me as some irritating thing, that just gets in his way all the time."

Angeal laughed. "In his defence, you did used to do just that."

Rose glared. "Only because you wouldn't let me play with you! There were hardly any other kids in the village, I was always left behind."

"Yes, and the day we did let you come along, you got yourself lost in the mines."

"Yeah, and that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't lead me in so deep."

Angeal stopped suddenly, his face confused. "What do you mean?"

"I followed you, and then I lost sight of you both when we got inside." Rose said, leaning against a low running wall. "You kept calling me, remember? I was shouting, and you just kept running off."

"Rose..." He looked uncomfortable, troubled. "Rose we followed you. We were hiding and you just came running passed. We followed you in, but we heard you shouting at someone, we just assumed you were playing."

Rose blanched. "You. I was shouting at you."

Angeal slowly shook his head. "No Rose, you weren't. We hung around to make sure you were safe, but we never went in as deep as you. It was too dangerous. It was only when we couldn't hear you that we realised how far you'd gone, and we quickly went for help."

Rose blinked, silent objections already forming on her lips. She remembered that day. She remembered it so clearly, that she could still taste the damp clinging to the walls of the mine. She'd only been little, and she was desperate for Angeal and Genesis to let her play with them. Despite her reservations, Rose had followed them into the mine, their voices leading her in deeper, and deeper, until she could no longer see the light at the entrance. Scared, she'd shouted for them to come out, to stop hiding, but it wasn't long before she realised she'd been left. She was alone for what felt like hours. Eventually her Mother and others came from the village. They found her sleeping not too far passed the entrance. But then...

"How did I get out?" She murmured thoughtfully, desperately trying to remember. "I remember being in the dark, and then Mom picking me up... so how did I...?" She looked at Angeal, and he seemed more lost for ideas than she did. "Why have you never mentioned this before? You let me think that you and Genesis just left me in there. Genesis has always teased me about it."

"You were always so convinced, and you know what he's like – anything to wind you up. Whatever happened in there, Rose, it terrified you. We all agreed, better to let you think it was just us playing a prank. I just never realised that you thought we'd lead you in there, no wonder you were so mad."

Rose ran her hands roughly through her hair. What did it all mean? She had been drawn into those mines twice in her life now, and twice she had been left with memories missing. It was so difficult, she could almost see it, but it was like having an incomplete jigsaw laid out in front of you. The pieces were there, but the picture wasn't clear yet.

She shook her head, defeated.

"Come on, we're going to be late if we don't hurry." There was nothing they could do now. Better to distract herself with the evening at hand, than dwell.

She sped off, but Angeal was soon on her heels.

"Rose, you can't just ignore something like this." He said, easily matching her stride. She caught him frowning again. "Wait. What do you mean, we'll be late?"

She caught sight of the street they needed, and quickly picked up her pace.

"I'm not ignoring it, I'm diverting it." She said, spotting the house with the blue door Barbara had described. "And, yeah, I may not have been entirely truthful about tonight."

Angeal grabbed her arm, stopping them in the middle of the road. "What do you mean?"

Rose shifted sheepishly. "You remember that girl, the night I came to Midgar? The one that looked after my stuff?"

His face fell flat. "Yes." Angeal didn't look happy, he was probably remembering all the times Barbara had stroked his arm.

Rose forced a grin. "Well, I kinda promised we'd go round her house."

"What?!"

Rose noted that it looked like it was taking every ounce of his self control, not to break out into a lecture, and so carefully linking his arm, she steered them subtly toward their destination.

"Look, I kind of owe her. None her fan club believed her when she said she'd met you. Barb was really upset, and she kind of complicated things, by accidentally saying you'd agreed to come to their next meeting. So I thought..."

"Please tell me you aren't serious?" Angeal was looking at the house with smooth expression on his face. "There's no way I'm going in there, Rose."

"Now look." She began sternly, pulling him forward as he started to resist. "You face monsters and death on a daily basis, what's a few fan boys and girls? We'll only be there an hour, tops."

He dug his feet into the ground. They were right outside now. "Rose. I mean it. I'm not going in."

"Don't be so difficult."

"I'm being difficult? You tricked me!"

"You're a First Class SOLDIER. You shouldn't have been so easy to trick."

Angeal opened his mouth to argue, but they were both suddenly flooded in light, the front door of the small house, opening with a dramatic flurry.

"Rose!" Came a delighted squeal. Barbara flew eagerly down her steps. She turned to Angeal, her cheeks already red, her features thoroughly smitten. "Thank you so much for doing this. You have not idea how awful they've been. Calling me a liar, and all sorts..." She said, removing her glasses to give them a nervous clean. "I mean, I know I lied about you saying you'd come, but that was only because they were being so terrible. I've helped fund this club from the very beginning, you'd think they'd be kinder." She finished, pointedly replacing her spectacles.

Rose smiled warmly. "It's honestly no problem. Angeal was happy to do it. Weren't you, Angeal?" She looked up at her brother, smiling as sweetly as she could, her eyes pleading. He couldn't not do this for Barbara, it would be like kicking a puppy.

He gave a grudging nod. "I'm afraid I can't stay long. Important SOLDIER business to get to, and all that."

Barbara erupted into more happy squeals. "No, no, I completely understand. Thank you, so, so much! Come in! Everyone is waiting for you. They're in the living room, my Mom made sandwiches!"

Rose watched as her hulk of a brother was smoothly whisked away, a tiny creature in a roll neck his kidnapper. Suppressing giggles, she tried not to dwell on the horror of her incident in the mines, that can be tomorrows problem, and happily went inside.

Rose could already hear a growing number of excited squeals, coming from the room next door. Chuckling, her eyes lightly scanned the walls, intrigued by the many faces that stared back at her from frames. Barb had a big family, she realised, all with small round faces and thick blond curls.

It was when Rose's gaze roamed over to the last picture that she froze.

Shit! It's the boy from the warehouse!

"Checking out our portrait family tree, are you?" Barbara suddenly appeared at Rose's shoulder, chocolate cake precariously in arms. "It's Dad's pride and joy, we've got five generations up there."

Rose nodded slowly, pretending to be interested. "Wow, that's really... nice. Whose that?" She asked, nodding toward the boy's picture. She tried to sound only lightly curious. "Is he family too, then?"

"Unfortunately." Barbara laughed, following Rose's gaze. "That's my little Brother, Ben. He's okay, but he's going through a rebellious phase. Hates anything to do with Shinra, thinks they're destroying the planet." She rolled her eyes. "Should have seen his face when I told him you guys were coming. Couldn't get out of here quick enough."

I'll bet.

"Really?" Rose raised her eyebrows. "That's interesting. Maybe I should have a talk with him sometime, see if I can sort some things out?"

Barbara couldn't have looked more grateful if she'd tried.

R&R!

Hey guys! How you all doing? Keeping safe, I hope? Thanks for all the adds, favs and reviews! As always :) Let me know what you think of this chapter. Reviews are really appreciated. Take care!