Unspoken
By mihoyonagi
Chapter 27: Taken
Sephiroth had known from the start that his conversation with Aerith wasn't going to end with either of them being happy. Had he not been such a stubborn man and she not a stubborn woman, neither would have come across such a dilemma. But because they were exactly who they were, the conversation was getting both nowhere and only serving to slightly aggravate the other. Retorting quickly with a snappy response was something Sephiroth was unable to do. However, his argument proved to be just as aggravating to the flower girl as her retorts were to him.
"It's not we like have a mission here, Sephiroth. I want to take some time to relax."
A scribbled message as a retort was presented to the flower girl who was quickly losing her patience. While the sarcasm wasn't vocalized, it was evident. 'I understand that, soldier- we, however, need to keep on the move. What if Cloud decided to come here to Junon instead of going to Fort Condor?'
Aerith huffed out an annoyed sigh. "There's a parade outside- even if he were here, do you honestly think we would run into one another?"
Sephiroth rolled his eyes. 'Do you honestly want to take such a chance, Aerith?'
Crossing her arms across her chest and straightening her shoulders, Aerith raised her chin at Sephiroth. "And what if I do?"
Raising both of his eyebrows, Sephiroth sat back against his elbows. Never had Aerith been so difficult to deal with. In Sinva's name, no woman he had ever come across had been so difficult. Were all women such a pain to contend with, or was she a special exception?
"I am sick of you thinking I can't take care of myself, Sephiroth. I am far more capable than what you give me credit for."
Sephiroth made a move to grab his notebook and write a response, but Aerith stamped her foot and promptly startled the general momentarily out of his wits. Never had Aerith been so terse with him.
"I am sick of playing the helpless damsel, Sephiroth. I grew up in the slums and managed to keep myself going just fine. I don't need a man to protect me!"
Unable to fathom a single sentence to retort back to Aerith with, Sephiroth stood and took a step toward his small companion. Though he did not like to resort to intimidation, he was not afraid to use it. However, without hesitation, Aerith puffed out her chest and took a step toward Sephiroth. Not only was he taken by surprise at Aerith's bold move, but Sephiroth also felt a bit of his pride shatter. His being nearly a foot taller than she, and nearly two and a half times her size, Sephiroth though she would have backed off had he put his foot down.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
Aerith's eyes flared up with a spark Sephiroth hadn't known possible. Immediately after he had watched her eyes blaze, Sephiroth knew he had done something he would soon come to regret.
"Don't try to intimidate me! What did you think I would do, Sephiroth? Retreat? Cower under you and plead forgiveness?"
Feeling Aerith's sharp finger jab into his rib, Sephiroth soon took his own retreat with a few small steps backward.
"If you had any sense at all you'd know that what you just did was no way to treat a woman!"
She was stepping toward him now, eyes ablaze with rage. Sephiroth felt the back of his shins hit the bed.
Why was this woman so damned difficult?
"I am going out to see the parade in town, whether you like it or not! If you're so worried about me, why don't you just wear a disguise and follow me, then?"
Not wasting a single breath after she finished speaking, Aerith turned on her heel and stormed out of the inn room. Taking a moment to gather himself, as well as pick up the small pieces of his dignity and pride that seemed to have fallen across the floor in tiny shards, Sephiroth bat backwards on his bed and let out a heavy sigh.
'Great Shiva, woman- when will you learn to just listen to me?' Burying his face in his hands, Sephiroth let out another sigh. Why was she so hard to deal with? Why was she so stubborn?
Pondering over his only possibilities, Sephiroth ran a list through his head.
He could wait the storm out and hope Aerith had forgiven him when she returned, but there was no guarantee that she would be safe in the streets of Junon all alone, especially with so many people out and about.
Thinking over what she had said, Sephiroth began to weight the option of just going with her, but that would mean she would have won the argument, and admitting such a thing wasn't something Sephiroth's pride was ready for just yet. It was still, albeit slowly, gluing itself back together, piece by piece, and would not yet give Aerith the satisfaction of letting her know she was right.
The only other option that came to mind was to follow her in disguise, and at least attempt to have a good time in her wake. If he knew she was safe, he wouldn't feel so anxious. Besides, perhaps getting a night on the town would be a little fun.
Shiva knew the man missed cake.
So, without thinking much more upon it, Sephiroth picked up one of Aerith's hair bands from the dresser corner where she had left them and upswept his hair into a low pony tail. After a quick glance in the mirror to ensure that his hair was in order, Sephiroth was out the door, down the stairs, and on his way to otherwise follow a young girl. Needless to say he felt slightly like a stalker, but he assured himself with the idea that he wasn't following her for any perverted reason and was simply making absolute certain she was going to be alright.
Now, it wasn't that Sephiroth didn't trust the girl's judgment. He knew, perhaps better than most, that Aerith was more than capable of taking care of herself, even in bad situations. It was everyone else, however, that worried the general. People were not to be trusted, especially in such a city as Junon. With sailors on shore leave and Shinra soldiers lurking in every dark bar corner, Sephiroth felt he was in the right to be so worried about the girl. Top the usual scum scrounging about the city with the kind that slithers out of their houses for partying occasions such as large parades and you had one nasty mix. Bar fights, street fights, sleazy women looking for sleazy men; it was no wonder Sephiroth hated the city with so much enthusiasm. After having lived in Mideel for so long, city life would be hard to become accustomed to once more.
Sephiroth snapped back to reality. A flash of pink alerted the general that Aerith was near by. His heartbeat increased, almost as if he were on some sort of hunt. Though his pony tail was not really a disguise, it did make Sephiroth feel slightly better about himself in the sense that it was as though no one else would recognize him. Aerith had, after all, been the one to suggest he take upon a disguise and follow her. Had she known that was what he was going to do?
Infernal girl and her mind games.
Relieved that the parade upon the streets of Junon was more of a carnival of sorts than anything, Sephiroth began to slowly let his guard down. After watching Aerith eat a strange breaded item on a stick with ketchup and mustard slathered upon the outside, he too began to hunger for some sort of sustenance. Cake, however, was something that was not sold in a stand, though he did take it upon himself to enjoy a large fluffy ball of pink, sugary feathery candy. The tender had called it cotton candy, and at first Sephiroth was rather weary over the idea of putting something in his mouth that resembled so closely the fabric upon his body. After watching several children ingest numerous bags of it, he decided to throw caution into the wind and take a bite.
It wasn't cake, but it wasn't bad.
Aerith was, as Sephiroth noted, fairly good at carnival games. In a small game where one was given a small paper net and asked by traditionally dressed booth tenders to catch small fish swimming in a shallow basin, Aerith seemed to be extremely skilled. A heard of children had gathered around her, for when she caught a fish she asked the tender to place it in a plastic bag and then would continue to hand the bag to a nearby child. The booth tenders didn't appear to be entirely pleased with the ordeal, but when Aerith kept providing them with money in exchange for fish they seemed to straighten their back and keep silent, though their smiles were tights.
Darkness had fallen upon the city some time before Sephiroth had bothered to take note. Due to the bright lights from the streets as well as those from the booths lining the sidewalk of the bay, the entire square had been illuminated to an almost irritating level. Sephiroth's eyes, though slightly used to the light, were still having trouble keeping track of Aerith though the thickening crowd. Bars were beginning to empty, considering happy hour was coming to a close, and children were becoming more rowdy and rambunctious due to vast amounts of sugar running through their systems.
Sephiroth's heart skipped a beat when he watched a young man approach the flower girl. He was handsome and strong, traits obvious merely by looking at him; but there danced around him a whirlwind of strange behavior. Though he was talking to Aerith, he refused to meet her eyes for very long. Just as well, the man was constantly looking over his shoulder. Sephiroth, trained well enough to hide himself, slouched slightly and etched nearer the flower girl and her strange companion.
"Come on- just one drink."
"Thank you, but no. I don't drink."
Immediately, Sephiroth didn't like where the conversation was going.
"But you're so beautiful. I couldn't possibly pass up an opportunity like this. Are you hungry at all? I could buy you a soda."
Sephiroth watched Aerith's shoulders slump. She was annoyed, and on the verge of giving in, which is something that Sephiroth feared. The man who wouldn't stop pestering her was no one to be trusted on any level.
"If I let you buy me a soda, will you leave me alone?"
It was terse for Aerith to say such a thing, but kindness would only win the woman so many awards. Though Sephiroth took pride in the flower girl standing up for herself and putting her foot down, he was also disappointed that she was giving in to such a creep.
And so a soda was ordered for the petite brunette, and just as Sephiroth feared he face paled slightly after she took a sip of her drink.
"You feelin' alright?"
Sephiroth cringed. Aerith had grown up on the streets, yet her willpower had giving in when she was merely being annoyed. What was she thinking?
Sephiroth began toward the booth, but the man had already swung his arm around Aerith and was beginning to tote her off.
"She alright, man?" Calls came through parts of the crowd.
The man merely laughed. "My lady here had too much to drink. Too much of a party for her to handle."
Laughing is what those around them were doing. No one bothered to look twice at Aerith's pale features and heavy eyes. Her head began to loll upon her shoulders.
Sephiroth's heart quickened as quickly as the feet beneath him. Navigating though the crowd was no easy task, even for the general, but it wasn't something that could be helped; he couldn't exactly point his finger and call out the man a liar and a kidnapper.
The man looped his arm around Aerith's stomach and hoisted her over his shoulder. Turning down a dark alley, the man was gone from public sight. Heart racing, Sephiroth was nearly at a full out run when he rounded the corner. What he saw upon taking the corner made his heart stop completely.
The alley was empty.
'Play it cool. Breathe. Look like you are meant to be here.'
Sephiroth tried to reassure himself as he began down the alley on his own, no sight of the flower girl anywhere, but his heart was pounding in his head and his chest was tight. Fear wasn't something the general enjoyed, though he doubted anyone did, and anything involving the emotion of fear along with the flower girl was anything but good news.
The walls aligning the alley were smooth and without doors, causing the general to fret even more. How had the damned man disappeared so quickly?
Nearing the end of the alley, Sephiroth observed a door. Pleased with his discovery, he slowed his step just a tiny bit, merely to be cautious. Doing so, however, paid off when the door suddenly swung open and a young boy was pitched from the frame.
"Get out of here, you little brat!"
Immediately, Sephiroth recognized the man at the door as the same who had carted Aerith off over his shoulder.
"I know you have my sister in there! Let her go!"
Sephiroth watched the exchange of words with mild interest. The boy looked to be no older than fourteen or fifteen, with a short mess of black hair on his head. He quickly got to his feet and puffed out his chest. "I said let her go!"
The man in the door spat on the doorway, smugly smiling and crossing his arms. "You!" he called, making a hand motion toward Sephiroth. "New guy! Take care of this kid!"
Sephiroth's heart quickened. He was being mistaken for a worker? The situation, though bad, was looking to get better with each passing moment. Not wanting to make the man suspect anything, Sephiroth didn't hesitate to pick the boy up by the back of his clothing and tote him back down the alleyway he had only just come up. The boy was squirming and yelling the entire way, but Sephiroth couldn't let his charade fail. When he heard the door close, Sephiroth picked up his pace and began toward the open end of the alley at a faster pace. When the street opened back up into the crowded festival area, Sephiroth put the boy down and immediately pulled out his notebook.
'If you give me any information you have, I'll help you best I can.'
The boy looked suspiciously at the notebook, then back at the general. His eyes were wide and wild, like a rabbit cornered by a dog.
Pulling back his notebook, Sephiroth made another scratched sentence. 'I am mute and can't talk. Do you want my help or not?'
The boy looked over his left shoulder, and then his right. "How do I know I can trust you? The doorman called you new guy."
'Something I can work to my advantage, boy. My comrade was kidnapped. I need to know everything you do.'
The boy, though not complexly convinced, squinted at Sephiroth through scrutinizing eyes. "I still don't know if I can trust you."
Sephiroth rolled his eyes and sighed heavily, attempting to deliver a point. 'They have your sister, right? Do you want her back or not?'
The boy's eyes relaxed slightly. He leaned closer to Sephiroth. "Young women have been disappearing from the docks all month. The trend is mostly with poor families, seeing as how it's harder to get police to the lower levels of Junon, but it's just speculation. No patterns, no targets, no nothing; girls will just randomly go out walking and then won't come home. My sister was on her way to the grocer yesterday morning when I saw the guy fro the door take her."
Sephiroth's blood ran cold. Female kidnappings could lead to only a certain amount of possibilities, none of them racing through Sephiroth's head pleasant.
'Do you know where the girls are taken?'
The boy shook his head. "Girls go in; crates go out and are loaded on separate boats heading out. I still don't know if I can trust you." The boy was glaring up at the general.
'It's a risk you are going to have to take to save your sister.'
The boy looked over his shoulders again, weary. "Look, I've been watching them all day and know what warehouse the crates head to before they are loaded up. If we hurry, we can get to the docks and hide before any of those thugs get there."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. The boy was smart, that much had to be admitted. But would he prove to be trustworthy? Chances had to be taken, and they had to be taken quickly. Time wasn't exactly on their side. Nodding, Sephiroth motioned for the boy to lead the way.