Unspoken
By mihoyonagi
Chapter 5: Hope
A gentle touch slowly coaxed the general from his sleep. Tender fingers caressed his cheek and placed stray strands of silver hair where they belonged. Aquamarine eyes opened, only to be met with a kind gaze of piercing emerald.
Sephiroth's heart skipped a beat as memories from before his world went black forced themselves into his mind.
He couldn't talk.
Aerith's kind gaze didn't falter as she looked down at him. He realized, after shifting only slightly, that his head was in her lap, and that he was once again in a hospital bed. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable position he had ever been in, but her soft fingers continued to stoke his face, and he let his eyes fall closed once again, not knowing what else to do.
Footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. The white haired man knew it to be the doctor, but he kept his eyes closed all the same.
"Post traumatic stress disorder," the doctor announced, walking into the room.
Sephiroth felt the pair of legs his head rested in shift and he knew Aerith had turned her eyes to the doctor. The man continued on. "It's quite common, you see; someone who has been in a bad situation can't let go of what happened, and so it makes them sick, at least in his case. I've heard of people's hair turning completely white, other cases where people go blind. This is the first mute case I have actually seen, though. It usually happens with cases of war. Soldiers kill, and watch people be killed; that's very traumatic."
Would she tell the doctor that he had slain her without so much as a second thought? Her death had been traumatic in the eyes of her friends, but it was almost as if she hadn't noticed.
"How long will it last?" Was she always so concerned for others? "His voice will eventually come back, won't it?"
Sephiroth didn't need to see the doctor shake his head to know he did so. "This is all psychological, so I can't say; it could be a week, it could be a decade. It all comes down to whether or not he is willing to just move on. I told you I wouldn't ask what happened to you two, but it seems to me that it must have been something beyond terrible if it affected him this much."
Aerith continued to stroke Sephiroth's hair. She, however, said nothing.
The doctor continued. "As I told you, the cabin up in the woods is all ready for you, so you don't have to worry about a place to stay while you are here."
Sephiroth could hear Aerith shake her head. "I would feel terrible just staying there, burdening you like this. Is there some way I can pay you back for all of your kindness?"
Sighing, the doctor paused. "I told you; I insist you use it until you feel the need to leave this place. I haven't stayed up there in years, so don't worry."
"But-"
"I insist."
"Sir, please-"
"I'll tell you what. Once your friend is feeling better, the both of you can come down here to the hospital every now and then and we'll send you on some errands around the town."
"Are you sure? That doesn't seem like much."
Still, the doctor persisted. "It would be a big help if you came on the weekends. That way, I can have errands run, and all of the nurses here can stay at their posts so I am not short handed. I can even pay you for it."
"Sir!"
The doctor merely laughed. "Consider the cabin as a bit of a 'get well' present. My wife and I never use it since we bought our house down on the beach, and I would never be able to sleep at night knowing that I patched you two up just so you could go sleep on the streets."
Aerith was silent for a long moment, and Sephiroth knew she was debating over whether or not to take the doctor up on his more than generous offer. "I think, sir, that we might just have a deal." She laughed a little, and the man in her lap shifted slightly to become more comfortable.
Once more, the doctor let out a soft laugh. "Please, call me Rej."
"Thank you, Mr. Rej." Sephiroth knew that Aerith smiled. She would; so constantly innocent and kind. Had he bothered to keep his eyes open, he would have rolled them.
"Just Rej. We'll, if there's nothing else I can do for the both of you, you are free to leave when you please. Be sure to stop by the main office and check out."
Sephiroth waited for the doctor's footsteps to fade down the hall. Only then did he open his eyes. Once again, he was met with Aerith's shining emerald orbs.
She merely smiled down at him, kindly.
Slowly, he sat up. There was an awkward silence in the air he wished he could have broken, but without a voice, what good was he? Sephiroth watched as Aerith slowly turned her head down, her gaze falling into her lap. "I take it you heard the doctor."
Sephiroth nodded his head, knowing his voice had long since betrayed him.
"You don't have to stay with me, if you don't want," she hesitated. Drawing in a large breath, she let it out in a heavy sigh. "But I'd like the company."
What else was there for him to do? He had no family, no loved ones wishing he hadn't died. Home was something he wasn't familiar with, and the concept of it confused him. Was home simply a house to be lived in? What about that old saying he had seen countless times stitched into scraps of fabric, framed, and mounted upon a wall? 'Home is where the heart is.'
He didn't have a heart, did he?
Sephiroth continued to stare at the small woman before him, unsure of how to react. Did she really mean what she said? Sephiroth assumed, because of what looked to be innocence written upon her face, that she indeed meant she would enjoy his company.
But that didn't make any sense. He had killed her, and yet still she looked upon him with such kind eyes?
Had he a voice, the general would have grumbled something about the 'damn human emotions' that seemed to be running rampant in his mind.
It was true; he didn't have any other place to go. Nobody was waiting for his return, or at least hoping his death had simply been rumors. There was no place for him to call home because he had never known such a place. His heart had been made completely of stone before, and yet he sat before the flower girl, the girl he had killed, pondering if he should stay with her or not, if he could ever share his heart with her.
There really was no down side to it. He would get to live in a secluded forest cabin, and all the while making sure Aerith stayed safe, so he could remain safe as well. He had never stayed in one place more than a few weeks, so perhaps living in a house, and all the while maintaining it, could prove to be a challenge all in itself.
Well, it was worth a try, wasn't it? What was he going to lose? His honor was gone, destroyed with the last swing of an oversized sword, and what little pride he had left had long since flown out the window when he realized his voice was nowhere to be found. What, really, was there left to do?
Sephiroth wanted to open his mouth to answer, to tell her that living with her would be, at the very least, bearable. But reality slapped him across the face, and not even the slightest of sounds came out of his mouth when he tried to reply. He closed his mouth and merely nodded.
Perhaps the most difficult thing would not be living with her. Perhaps it would be trying to communicate with her when he felt he couldn't communicate, connect, with anyone. He felt so alienated.
He watched her as she moved her gaze from her lap and looked into his eyes. Her deep emerald irises shone with a radiant brilliance, slightly wet around the edges.
Had she been crying? Or was she about to? Why? Was she scared that he would just up and leave her? As much as he didn't enjoy admitting it, he owed her his life, as she was the one who had given back it to him. She was the sole reason he was still alive.
"You mean you'll stay with me?"
Sephiroth nodded once more.
A true smile befell her lips and her eyes twinkled with a light that Sephiroth could not identify. A strange feeling began to flutter inside of his stomach as Sephiroth watched the way Aerith smiled at him. She wiped the tears away from her face with the back of her wrists, and sniffled quietly.
"If you feel better, we can leave." For some reason, he knew she didn't want to stay in the hospital any more than he did. Though the staff was nice, and the place was just as sterile as the next hospital, there was a certain uneasiness about it all that made his skin want to crawl. Bad memories haunted him, and Sephiroth wanted nothing more to do with men in white coats and needles. He stood and took a few steps back, allowing Aerith to stand as well. She stood, then passed him, still smiling, and led the way to the front office.
"We're checking out," she informed the receptionist, placing both hands palm down on the countertop.
The receptionist smiled when she looked up at the strange pair. "Feeling better, I take it?"
Aerith nodded eagerly as she took the clipboard that was handed to her.
"Just sign on the bottom line."
Aerith did so, scribbling her name. She then turned to the man behind her, still smiling, and handed him the clipboard and the pen.
Sephiroth stared down at what he held in his hand, startled. He looked to where Aerith had signed her name. Her handwriting was exactly as he remembered it, written in blood upon the strange piece of parchment that had appeared out of nowhere in the no space they had floated in. A simple yet completely unique signature, all her own, there on the parchment, just as he recalled, sat once more in front of him.
Only this was a release paper, not a promise.
Nothing could be taken for granted; he knew that now. Something as simple as signing one's name was serious business to someone who had been given a second chance at living. It was like that old saying he had heard countless times- 'stop and smell the roses.'
Sephiroth realized something that went hand in hand with what ideas had only just crashed down upon him. Yes, it was important to stop and smell the roses. But there were too many roses for one person to take note of them all. Another saying popped into the mind of the silver-haired man- 'don't sweat the small stuff.'
He signed his name below Aerith's.