Unspoken

By mihoyonagi

Chapter 4: Speech

Soft voices tore the general from his peaceful slumber. Though he was awake, Sephiroth didn't open his eyes, or even stir in the slightest. He wanted to listen. What answers he hoped would remedy whatever unspoken question he wasn't sure, but the silver-haired man waited silently, patiently, for anything.

"He's been like this for three days?" It was the voice of the flower girl who had saved him.

"Indeed. He stumbled in hardly a few hours after we patched him up. Didn't say a word, just staggered on in here and sat down. He was pretty worried about you, you know. It was written everywhere on his face." The doctor's voice was as kind as it had been when Sephiroth last heard it.

"He was worried? Really?" She sounded completely astonished. Surely she didn't think him completely void of the capability to feel emotion.

The doctor's warm laughter filled the room. "He was worried, the nurses were worried, the townsfolk were worried; you all gave us quite a scare. What, pray tell, happened? Why were you two beaten up so badly?"

Silence.

However much he didn't want to, Sephiroth sat up, slowly. He opened his eyes to the germ-free shine of the familiar bright, white hospital room, and was met with the curious gaze of the only other two people in it.

Smiling, the doctor gave a nod of greeting. "How are you feeling?"

Sephiroth squinted his eyes and brought his right hand up to his head, attempting to stop the room from going into a nose-diving spin as it had when he last sat up. The place spun slowly, but he righted himself before a true dizzy spell could overcome his vision. His eyes made contact with the curious gaze that belonged to the flower girl whom he had killed, only to be saved, in turn, by her.

As their eyes met, the emotions in hers changed. First, they were filled with definite curiosity, looking him over in wonder and amazement. Then, they flashed to fear; she grabbed a handful of the white sheet that covered her, her tiny actions matching the fright in her eyes.

Even the doctor couldn't mistake the tight tension in the room for anything but what it was. He cleared his throat, uneasy, and nodded toward the two eye-locked patients. "I see you two have some things to sort out. I'll be out in the hallway if you need me." With that, he was gone.

Sephiroth watched as Aerith slowly swallowed the lump of fear in her throat. "How are you feeling?" Her voice cracked when she spoke, but her words had been clear.

Inhaling a large breath, Sephiroth thought about what she had asked him. In all of his life, not a single person had ever bothered to ask him that so sincerely. Despite what he had done in his previous life she still spoke to him, still looked him in the eyes, without hate- fear and curiosity, maybe, but not hate. There was simply no room in her great emerald eyes for hatred, only kindness and compassion, so it seemed. At a loss of words, Sephiroth merely nodded. How was one being capable of such selflessness? Despite the vast knowledge he harbored, such a person did not exist in the world he knew.

"The doctor says that you've been here by my side for three days now…" Was she trying to make small talk?

Sephiroth nodded again, this time more slowly than the last. He hadn't been awake for the duration of his time there, only to get close enough to see that she was okay.

He still remembered what she had said. "Certain strings are attached- if I die, so do you. If you die, so do I." Was it his want to save her that drove him to such lengths, or was it his own selfishness that did it? Sephiroth couldn't say. His eyelids were heavy, half shielding the world away from the crystalline orbs that hid beneath dark lashes.

A million questions flooded his mind. Why was she doing this? Was she really so trusting of others? Why was she so selfless? Why? Why? WHY? Balling his fist as tight as he could, Sephiroth pounded the wooden arm of the chair in frustration. He glared at her, at her innocence.

Aerith sat, completely still, before him, surprised by his actions. He watched her as she held her breath, eyes large and full of fright. She trusted him enough to bring him back to the plane of the living, yet she practically cowered in fear when he let his emotions get the better of him. How pathetic.

Standing, Sephiroth let the blanket fall from his shoulder and onto the floor. Without so much as word, he disappeared out the door. He searched the halls for the bathroom, ignoring the nurse who asked if he needed assistance. He didn't need help any human could give him…

Locking the door behind him, the general shed his clothing, not caring where it littered the floor. He stepped into the shower and pulled out the water nozzle, forcing the metal handle all the way to cold. Reveling in the feeling of pure feeling itself as the icy water chilled his skin, he tried to sort out the million thoughts that plagued his mind.

If he were to die, so would she. And the same went on the opposing side- if she were to die so would he.

His first priority- make sure she stayed safe. Having been given a second chance at life, Sephiroth was in no hurry to let it end. One life had been cut down by the business end of a large sword. His new life wouldn't soon be cut short because of the physical weaknesses of the burden that had been placed at the top of his mind.

To call her a burden would be a little too cruel, perhaps. She had done what no other mortal could have, even after he stole her life away with his gleaming katana. He had once thought that moment had been his greatest victory. Now he knew it to be his greatest regret. However, had he not slain her, he wouldn't have been standing in a cold shower, in a sterilized building, in only planet-knows where, and when for that matter.

Such thoughts brought his mind to another matter at hand- what year was it? How many days had passed since meteor's demise? Months? Years? Decades?

What if her friends were still alive? Oh, the mere thought of that blonde bastard sent chills down the general's spine. He truly hated him like he hated no other being, and that included the monstrous villain that had made the inside of his mind her home for countless years…

Everything was very confusing. While he knew there to be no trace of Jenova left in him, as the girl had explained before they had returned, he still felt bitter toward her, and more so to her comrades. On the other hand, the need to protect her had shaken him from restless sleep three days before, and it was that same need, desire, to stay by her side that caused him to do so, not only for the sake of his own life.

None of it made sense, but to the general, it didn't have to. He hated her and cherished her at the same time, and had never been in her presence long enough to develop such opinions.

He hated her innocence. Her purity shone through those shining emerald eyes of hers like the moon shines upon the water. She was selfless, so much so that she cared about the man who had stuck his sword through her so much, she brought him back, relinquishing her own given bright right to be happy after death so long as he could see the light of day again. He loathed her for taking away what he had devoted his life to, his sanity to.

But at the same time, he loved those innocent eyes and how they fearfully stared back at him as she gripped the sheet in fright when he let his frustration surface. She had feared him, but hatred was the last thing her eyes would ever glisten with. Her purity and selflessness- never in his entire life had he come across someone such as she. She was, quite honestly, perfection in a little pink, tattered dress.

What if things had been different? What if they had met before his sanity had left him? Before she befriended Cloud? Could they have had something, or would the world never forgive such a bond between a monster and flower? Would he have turned her heart as black as his had been, or would her light be enough to drive away the darkness?

Sephiroth watched as rust-colored watered flowed down the drain at the center of the shower. Slowly, the colored lightened until the water held no pigment but the normal color that was water, telling the frozen occupant of the cramped space that his body was free of the crust of blood, as was his silver mane.

Pushing in the nozzle, Sephiroth turned the water off and let the tiny droplets of clear liquid fall from his body. Resting his head against the side of the shower, he sighed, not knowing what to do. He pushed back the curtains and reached out for a clean towel, hung neatly on the rack by the nurses, he assumed. He pressed the towel to his face and let the soft linen soak up the water as well as his worries. Perhaps if he just spoke to her things would become a little less foggy.

He picked up the clothes that he had let fall to the floor earlier, only to find a new set of clothing folded upon the counter. It wasn't the classical open-back hospital gown he was so accustomed to seeing, but rather, a simple pair of black pants. Had Aerith requested fresh clothing be brought to him?

Toweling his hair dry, Sephiroth exited the small bathroom and made his way to the room he knew the flower girl to occupy. When he entered, he stopped dead at what he saw. She sat amidst the tangled white sheets, hair completely unbraided, spread across the colorless linen that lined the bed. Brush in hand, she ran it gently through her honey locks, smoothing them out, only for them to spring back into gentle curls caused by her braid in the first place. Her emerald eyes fell on the window and the view on the other side; the ocean filled out the entire horizon beyond the glass, just past a small forest. A soft, indistinct melody fell from her lips, an angelic creation all her own. The sunlight from outside illuminated her face, making her look more like a holy being than she already did.

Sephiroth let his breath out, his lungs pushing out air that he hadn't known he was holding. The sharp noise caused the melody to come to an end as the woman in the bed turned to look at the man in the doorway. Innocently, she tilted her head, her facial expression remaining impassive. "Feeling any better?" she kept her voice cool, he noticed, not wanting to give her emotions away. Her eyes, however, betrayed her; he would see the wonder and worry in them.

He merely nodded, curtly.

"I talked to the doctor while you were away. It's only been a few years since Meteor was destroyed."

Sephiroth's heart sunk to his feet. The way she had said it caused his level of frustration to rise up again. Her passive tone made it seem like she hadn't the slightest idea she had done it all on her own. Yes, Cloud had managed to kill him, but it was Aerith alone that had stopped Meteor from crashing down upon the earth. And having only been dead for a few years meant that Cloud was most likely still alive.

"We talked a bit more, and he offered us a cabin he has in the woods, up north. He didn't ask about what happened to us, either. He seems to understand enough."

A cabin? Sephiroth tilted his head, trying to piece together what she was saying.

"You don't have to stay with me if you don't want," she smiled up at him. He could tell it was fake. Her eyes glazed over with sorrow and hurt at her own words.

Did she really believe it to be so simple? Come back, get patched up, the just, well, live? It made no sense. What about her friends? Wasn't she going to try and track them down? And what of this 'cabin' business? Did she really mean just to continue living as if nothing else had happened? Her voice had informed him that he didn't even have to stay in her company, if that was indeed what he wanted- to finally be rid of her. But her eyes had given her away; she wanted company.

Sephiroth opened his mouth to demand answers from her, but nothing came out. Not a single sound came from his gaping mouth. He shut his mouth and swallowed, thinking perhaps it was just a dry throat, but when he opened his mouth again to question her, still not a sound was heard.

Aerith's eyes widened as she gazed upon him.

Throwing his hands around his throat, Sephiroth clutched his neck in desperation; he had no voice!

Panicking, he threw himself against the wall, disrupting a tray of medical supplies that had stood behind him. Metal objects and tin trays littered the floor, and a few glass bottles shattered open. He groped the wall behind him for something, anything, to hold on to, but the partition was completely smooth, offering no help to the distraught man.

Several nurses came running into the room, eyes wide and full of worry. "What's going on here?" one of them demanded.

Sephiroth looked to them and opened his mouth, wanting to scream at them to let him be. But the room was met with silence.

"Get the doctor!" one of the nurses screamed as Sephiroth fell to his knees in a panicked stupor.

Sephiroth knew himself to look like a wild man- a shirtless, pale-skinned beast, mouth agape, teeth barred, with a look of confusion and hate strewn across his face.

Aerith had torn the covers off her bed and ran to his side, throwing the blanket over his shoulders. "Calm down, Sephiroth, please!" she begged, falling onto her knees beside him.

He couldn't hear her, and instead tore at the blanket, wanting to rid himself of it. Aerith, however, held it in place with an iron grip he never knew such a small creature to have. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her, unable to ask her why he couldn't speak. He saw, however, the tears that brimmed her eyes, and stopped immediately. What was this feeling in his chest that caused him to cease his thrashing?

Sadness?

Fear?

Guilt?

"Everything will be okay, I promise," she assured him, letting the tears fall freely down her face and onto the tile floor.

Was she truly feeling his pain?

Sephiroth searched her eyes for something, anything, that would keep him from thrashing out again. And he found it.

She cared for him, despite everything. She was truly selfless.

His limbs fell beneath his weight and he collapsed against her, tightening his grip on her shoulders for support, resting his head against her.

"It will be okay." How low she whispered into his ear. Though his heart was pumping like mad, he felt calm. It was like before, when they were dead and she had wound her arms around her neck; the same calmness washed over him.

His eyes became heavy as the strong fragrance of flowers engulfed him.