Originally this was going to be from the perspective of Aerith of Tifa, but then I thought "you know what, I'd like to do something with Jessie and the others, so why not them?" And so here we are.

Potential spoiler alert right here- This story is something of an AU where Corneo really was playing mind games and the sector 7 plate was never going to be dropped.

Enjoy.

"Hmm…" Jessie hummed under her breath, finger tapping the rim of her glass. "Weird."

"Huh?" Biggs looked up from his own drink at the woman's side and froze mid-sip. "Oh, no."

"What?"

"Jess, you're getting that look again."

"What look?"

"That one right there."

"The one…" On the far side of the table, Wedge managed to swallow a piece of pizza he probably should have done a better job of chewing. "That foretells doom in a two-mile radius for somebody."

"Best case scenario." "Biggs made a gesture like an explosion with his hands. "Boom."

"Worst case." Wedge made an identical motion, just bigger.

"Shut up, you two." Jessie scowled. "It's just I noticed something strange about our mercenary buddy."

"Hey, Wedge, Jessie is noticing Cloud." Biggs whispered conspiratorially to Wedge, making zero attempt to be unheard by the woman. "Must be two in the afternoon, again."

Jessie just glared at the snickering pair.

"I mean it." Jessie grabbed Biggs by the back of the head, she'd have done the same to Wedge if the man was within reach, and turned him to face the bar. "Look."

"I'm looking." Biggs didn't try to attempt resisting the manhandling, and he seemed to be putting in an effort to notice whatever it was Jessie was trying to get him to see, but he still missed it anyway. "I got nothin'."

"Oh, for the love of…" Jessie facepalmed with her other hand. "Cloud. Pretty girl. Bar."

"Oh, you mean the flower girl? Aerith? Yeah, she's been coming around a bit more often but…" Biggs trailed off as the realization began to dawn on him. "She's touching him."

"Yeah." Wedge shrugged before joining his two friends' gazes. "So what? I'm sure she's just…"

From the look on Wedge's face, the observation was dawning on him now, too, just a little later.

"She's touching him." Wedge repeated. "And he's allowing it."

Cloud sat at the bar, chatting with Tifa as he often did. Well, more accurately, Tifa was chatting with him and he provided an input every once in a while, with an occasional grunt or other sound. Aerith also joined the duo at the bar, again as she often did when in the neighborhood. But none of this was out of the ordinary. The three had become surprisingly close after their misadventure in Wall Market.

Cloud sat on the stool, elbow on the bar, fist supporting his cheek. It was practically the man's trademark sitting position around here. The weirdness came into play, with how Aerith was standing at his side.

The flower girl leaned against him, folded arms resting on his unarmored shoulder. She occasionally piped up to be part of the conversation, but she was showing no signs of moving any time soon.

At first, Jessie thought that Aerith must have just decided to do this and any second Cloud was going to dislodge her, maybe add a comment about not doing it again.

Jessie had started paying closer attention ten minutes ago.

Mr. I-Don't-Like-to-be-Touched-or-Shown-Affection was sitting right over there, letting the flower peddler use him like an armrest all she wanted and didn't offer the slightest bit of struggle. It was… quite jarring to say the least.

"Are…" Biggs watched the spectacle in confusion. "You guys are seeing this, right?"

"Yup." Jessie confirmed.

Wedge was too dumbfounded to do anything but nod.

"That is Cloud, right? Not some clone or evil twin or something?" No doubt Biggs was already running a thousand different scenarios through his mind to explain this.

"Maybe it's some new Shinra experiment!" Jessie gasped and put on her best fake look of horror. "Infiltrating us using the handsome mercenary? Whatever shall we do?"

"Seriously?" Biggs arched an eyebrow at Jessie's antics when she pretended to faint. Biggs caught her on pure reflex, as he had done hundreds of times before she did something like this.

"Woe is us." Wedge reached across the table to use an empty plate as an impromptu fan for the 'overwhelmed maiden'. "It'll be the end of Avalanche."

"And some of my hopes and dreams." Jessie cracked an eye open just long enough to talk and went right back to 'unconsciousness'. "Don't forget them. And…"

"Get a grip, you two." Biggs rolled his eyes and sat Jessie back up, whom stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for what's going on. Always is with Cloud."

"Reasonable my foot." Jessie exclaimed before hushing herself. The bar was busy, but she didn't want Cloud's SOLDIER hearing to catch her from across the room. "Look! Explain that!"

Wedge and Biggs' jaws both dropped to the floor.

Aerith had shifted positions and was leaning with her back against Cloud's. The girl giggled at something being said during the conversation before doing a little twirl and encircled Cloud's neck in her arms. Her chin coming to rest on the merc's head while her chest pressed into his back. Jessie couldn't tell for certain from all the way over here, but she had to be holding onto him pretty tightly.

Yet, though all of this, Cloud never once voiced a complaint or made the slightest attempt to shake or off or pull away. The SOLDIER was acting totally against his nature, or at least the nature that Jessie and the others had seen.

"What in the holy fu…" Jessie almost yelled without thinking.

"Language!" Biggs' hand clamped over her mouth as he hissed, pointing at a nearby table with a tilt of his head.

Oh, shoot. Jessie almost forgot Marlene was in earshot. Barret would have had her head if she swore in front of the little girl that everyone, Jessie included, so adored.

"Still!" Jessie couldn't take her eyes off the bar as she spoke to her two friends. "What the hell is going on? I hugged the guy and you'd have thought it was some horrifying monster trying to crush him to death."

"Ouch." Biggs took another swig of his drink. "Bet that was a blow to the ol' ego."

Jessie glared at him again but twice as hard. Most men would have withered beneath it, but Biggs was not most men. He only smirked in return, completely unfazed.

"We could try… asking?" Wedge meekly asked.

All he got in return was an empty look from Jessie and Biggs.

"Yeah…" Wedge rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Felt stupid the moment I said it."

It was no secret Cloud wasn't the most social person in Midgar. But Jessie and the other members of Avalanche, sans maybe Barret, liked to think they were getting him to warm up to them little by little. Going on occasional missions and monster hunts for the neighborhood watch had to be helping. Nothing like fighting and occasionally bleeding together to build comradery.

They'd fought together, broken into Shinra warehouses together, even went parachuting together. Hell, they even bombed reactors together. If none of this wasn't a bonding activity Jessie didn't know what was.

This begged the question of what did this girl possibly do with Cloud to warrant him allowing this kind of behavior? Judging by the amount of time Cloud was missing between the near disastrous bombing of reactor 5 and right now, Cloud had to know this girl only for a week or two at most. What could they have gone through that Jessie didn't know about?

"And the plot gets weirder." It was Biggs turn to grab Jessie by the head and turn her to face the bar.

Aerith had released Cloud and made her way over to the basket of flowers she'd brought with her, likely to sell here in sector 7. She motioned for Tifa to lean closer and when she did, Aerith took the opportunity to slip a bright red flower into Tifa's hair behind her ear.

Aerith nodded her approval to a flushing scarlet Tifa. Looking over, she then nudged Cloud in the ribs with her elbow and said something Jessie's table couldn't hear.

Cloud looked at Tifa for a few seconds before offering a thumbs up and a nod of approval. That wasn't the only thing that Cloud gave the two women.

This time before Jessie made a noise, Biggs was ready. His hand was on her mouth before she could unleash the squeal and jump up. With no small amount of effort, he jerked her back down to her seat. An action she most definitely resisted.

Jessie was still muffled by the hand but that didn't stop the unyielding torrent of her words from being unleashed, only made them quieter and almost inaudible. Only after she seemed to calm down did Biggs dare release her.

"Did you see that?" Jessie screeched under her breath. "He smiled. The bastard actually smiled. That flower girl got Cloud to smile! And he's not trying to hide it this time!"

"To be fair, I think Tifa's playing a part, too." Wedge suggested.

"I know, but Tifa's been trying to get something out of him since he showed up here. Me, too. And this flower peddler gets him to do it just like that?" Jessie snapped her fingers almost in Wedge's face. "What the hell is going on here?"

Jessie pondered for a moment before an idea came to her.

"This calls for an experiment." Jessie rubbed her hands together menacingly.

"Oh, crap." Biggs' eyes went wide as he turned to Wedge. "Forget the bomb shelter, we need to leave Midgar, right now. Crap's about to hit the fan."

"What about the women and children?"

"No time!"

"Can it, guys." Jessie grinned standing to her feet. "This is for science."

"Yeah, science of you needing to butt into other people's business." Biggs retorted.

"Business of what the scoop is." Jessie countered before heading toward the bar and Cloud.

Biggs tried to grab her arm, but Jessie saw it coming slipped out of his reach a second too late for him to do so. Biggs and Wedge were left at the table trying their hardest to act nonchalant and pretend one of their best friends wasn't about to do something potentially crazy.

"Hey, Cloud!" Jessie announced her presence the second she was close enough.

"Oh, hi." The flower girl, Aerith, smiled, but Jessie noticed it was not as wide as a moment ago. "Jessie, right?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out." Jessie greeted the newcomer in her typical friendly manner but she wasn't her target.

"Can I get you something?" Tifa offered, but Jessie could tell by Tifa's eyes, the bartender knew her Avalanche comrade was up to something and wasn't there for a drink.

"Nope. Just needed to talk to Cloud for a second." Jessie placed her arms on Cloud's shoulder just like Aerith had done a short time ago. "You guys don't mind, right? I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"What did you need?" Cloud didn't speak until just now, and exactly as Jessie expected, he twitched his shoulder so that her arms were knocked away the second her limbs made contact with his body. That was step one, now on to the next.

"Thinking about going out on a patrol later." Jessie allowed Cloud to knock her loose before she threw her arms around Cloud's neck, also like Aerith had done. "If I bring you along, I won't have to rally up anymore of the crew, between you and me, we'd be more than enough to handle anything. What do you say?"

Again, Cloud wiggled out of Jessie's arms and pushed her away, gently, though. But it was the reactions of the other two Jessie was focused on.

Tifa was expressionless beyond a slight twinge of her eyebrow and an almost imperceptible clench of her jaw. To anyone else, they would have no idea what Tifa was thinking, but Jessie had been around the other woman long enough to learn her tells. She was annoyed at Jessie butting into their conversation. Not only that, she was irritated with Jessie being so handsy with Cloud, a feeling that seemed to be growing stronger by the day. Jessie fully expected to be getting a talking to by Tifa one of these days when Tifa couldn't stand the playful flirting, anymore. She tolerated it, but eventually, that tolerance was going to run dry.

Aerith's face on the other hand, was easy to read, even without the familiarity Jessie had with Tifa. She was livid and no small amount jealous, but kept it under wraps for reasons Jessie didn't know. She almost expected the flower seller to growl at her to leave Cloud alone. She definitely looked like she wanted to do it.

Yet, in the end, it was Cloud himself who told her off.

"Actually, I've got plans topside this afternoon." Cloud explained with an air of… was that dread?

Jessie didn't miss the fraction of a second relieved looks on the two women. Interesting…

"That's right." Aerith perked right back up to sickeningly cheerful, taking one of Cloud's arms in both of hers and holding it close to her chest. "Cloud is helping me and Tifa with something so I'm afraid you'll have to get help elsewhere."

There she went again, touching Cloud all she liked without reprisal. More than that, Aerith didn't have to say it, but her eyes spoke loud and clear for her while she clutched Cloud's arm to her body. It sounded suspiciously like Aerith was actually saying 'this is mine, back off' without actually speaking the words.

"Is that right?" Jessie pursed her lips and put on her best disappointed frown. "Too bad, maybe next time, huh?"

"Yeah. Maybe." Much like with Aerith, that sounded more like 'not anytime soon'.

"Whelp." Jessie patted Cloud on the arm, noticing how he cringed, before taking her leave. "See you guys around."

"Bye-bye." Aerith waved far too cheerfully to not be forced.

"Good luck. Might try Barret, he's beet itching to shoot something." Tifa offered.

"Cool, thanks." Jessie neglected to mention that there was no hunt going on and she was making it all up on the spot. But they didn't need to know any of that.

Making her way back to the table, Jessie was already planning the next phase of her plan.

"Figure out what you wanted to figure out?" Biggs greeted her once Jessie returned to their table.

"Nope." Jessie's lips raised in a new grin, one that had Biggs and Wedge visibly paling. "That just means we go onto the next stage."

"We?" Biggs asked.

"Next stage?" Wedge wondered aloud.

"Yup!" Jessie clapped her hands together. "We follow them!"

I don't normally do multipart works, I always feel like my quality suffers the longer a work goes for. But this is just one that came out that way. Hopefully I did a good job at getting Jessie and the others across.

Next part will feature an event that was mentioned in the game but didn't get to happen because of certain other events.