Christmas Flower

Chapter 3: Yuffie

"I'll be back this afternoon," Cloud said, tying up his shoes. "Yuffie is going to be here in about five minutes, she's going to take you out for clothes shopping and other stuff, I guess. She's a little odd, who knows what she has planned?"

"Right," Aerith nodded. The previous day had gone by in a blur. The revelation of having a home, a warm bed, a good meal for dinner and a man who actually cared enough to do these things for her, had left her in a daze. At some point during the day, Cloud had called his housekeeper and arranged for her to spend what she had dubbed 'girl time' with the flower girl.

"Alright, so," Cloud buttoned up his coat and grabbed his briefcase. "Anything else we need to cover before I go?"

"Thank you?" Aerith suggested. Cloud smiled and headed out the door. Aerith watched it click closed and sat down with a sigh on the sofa. She picked up the TV remote – Cloud had shown her how to use it – and turned on the TV. She hadn't watched TV in years, were any of her shows even on the air anymore?

Aerith licked her lips absent-mindedly as she flipped the channels for the next several minutes, trying to find anything to hold her interest. She sighed and turned off the TV, standing up. There was a clicking, and Aerith turned to the door to the apartment. The door opened and a young girl came in. She had short black hair with a hair band and a bright yellow jacket with black jeans.

"Yo!" she called. "Hey, you must be Aerith! I'm Yuffie."

"Uh…hi," Aerith said slowly. Yuffie came over to her and looked her over.

"Hm….oh yeah, she can work with this, definitely," she nodded. "You got a jacket? Ah who cares, we're taking a cab anyway."

"Yeah, clothes, right?" Aerith nodded. Yuffie lifted an eyebrow.

"Clothing, ha! You're funny."

"Huh?"

"Aerith honey, you think Da Vinci slapped a single coat of paint on the Sistine Chapel and called it a job? No!"

"Da Vinci didn't paint the Sistine Chapel," Aerith said.

"Whatever, come on, I'm calling a cab, grab the coat and the boots and let's go."

"Where are we going if not shopping?" Aerith asked, walking to the hall and grabbing her boots. Behind her, Yuffie pulled out her cell phone and dialed.

"The edge of paradise, Aerith. The edge of paradise."

"The Edge of Paradise?" Aerith asked, craning her head up to look at the sign over the double doors of the store before them. "What is this place?"

"It's a day spa. We're gonna turn you into a princess," Yuffie explained.

"Yuffie, I may not be used to this sort of life, but I do know Cloud just wanted you to help me get some clothes, he said nothing about a day spa."

"Oh, god," Yuffie groaned, slapping her forehead. "Aerith, let me explain something to you." Yuffie held out her arms to either side. "This is the size of Cloud's heart," she said. She brought her hands closer together. "This is the size of Cloud's brain, and this," Yuffie brought up a hand and held two fingers apart, squinting through them, "is how much common sense he has when it comes to us ladies. Are we communicating?"

"No."

"Cloud hasn't had a girlfriend since the Clinton administration, and he got less action then they did too. He has no idea how to treat a girl, fortunately I do. Now come on in, I'm freezing here."

Aerith nodded and followed Yuffie through the doors. The lobby of the spa was whites and pinks with red, with a small fountain with rocks and a lily pond in the corner. Soft violin music played over speakers. At the rear of the lobby, a woman in a red dress stood at a counter with a computer. She looked up as Yuffie approached and gasped.

"Yuffie, darling!" she gushed, coming around the desk.

"Scarlet, always a pleasure," Yuffie grinned, hugging the woman.

"Shall we be having the usual today, hm?" Scarlet asked.

"Nope, this is for my new buddy," Yuffie said, jerking a thumb at Aerith. Scarlet finally noticed the flower girl and her eyes widened.

"Oh my god," she whispered, approaching Aerith. Aerith looked at her nervously as Scarlet circled her, looking at her wide-eyed. "That hair, the eyes, those hips…" Scarlet stopped in front of her and put her hands on Aerith's shoulders. "Honey, what's your name?"

"Aerith."

"Aerith, I don't say this to everyone; you're gorgeous."

"Uh-huh?" Aerith muttered, lifting an eyebrow.

"You're what we call "The Last Supper". You're beautiful, you've just got a bit of dirt on you thanks to years of neglect. What we are going to do is scrub that dirt off and spruce you up."

"What is with you people and the art metaphors?" Aerith asked, looking back at Yuffie quizzically. Yuffie and Scarlet shared a smile.

"She's cute, tell Cloud he found a keeper," Scarlet said, turning back to Aerith. "Alright, Yuffie take her in, Elena is the one working with her."

"Right," Yuffie said, taking Aerith's hand and leading her through a door beside the counter. "First things first, you get out of those old rags and into a nice bath. Then we gotta talk hair, because the long look works for you but there's still a lot to do with that…"

"And they are not telling the truth?" Sephiroth asked, putting a hand to his chin. Cloud shook his head.

"Those photographs were clearly doctored, but that's not a surprise Sephiroth, you know the entire city is aware of the damage Shinra is doing to the outlying areas and forests."

"True, but intuition is not to be confused with fact, Cloud," Sephiroth replied. Cloud nodded. The firm of Faremis, Strife and Lockhart were known for its triple threat team. Sephiroth Faremis, the eldest of the group, was also the coldest and most professional. He wasn't at all antisocial, but he focused on his work and getting the job done. Tifa Lockhart was more concerned with the emotional aspects of the clients, and worked closely with them to try and make the case easy for them to handle. Cloud, according to others occupied a comfortable middle ground between professionalism and sentimentality.

Cloud and Tifa had met each other as kids and gone through high school together. When they went to the same university, they had met Sephiroth, a year ahead of them. The man took a disliking to Cloud when the blond had outscored him on an exam and attained the highest mark in the class, and they developed into rivals soon after. Eventually, Sephiroth seemed to find promise in the idea of being Cloud's associate rather than opponent, and upon graduation he had invited Cloud to take up his father's law firm that the elder was vacating. Cloud agreed on the condition Tifa come as well, and the firm commonly abbreviated F.S.L. was born.

"Sephiroth, we can't turn a blind eye here. I'm meeting with Rufus again soon and he's going to want an answer."

"I would care to know more about Shinra's business practices in detail before we make a final decision. Can we acquire records of the people they have done business with in the public? We need a closer look at how Shinra has gone about expanding their empire."

"Shinra has bought a great deal of land to build Mako reactors on," Cloud agreed. "I'll ask Rufus for some sort of documentation so we can speak to the people."

"Excellent," Sephiroth mused. "So otherwise, how was your weekend?"

"Um…"Cloud hesitated for a moment. "I met someone."

"Oh? A woman, I presume," Sephiroth replied, standing and crossing over to the filing cabinet in the corner of the room. Cloud grunted. Rumors had circulated in the university that Sephiroth was a homosexual. As he had explained it to Cloud, Sephiroth was straight, but he was simply uninterested in women. He saw them as a bother, of course he noticed when a woman was attractive, but he paid her no mind otherwise.

"Yeah, her name is Aerith," Cloud said. "She's…a street person." Sephiroth turned from the filing cabinet.

"Hmph. I must admit I was not expecting that," the silver-haired lawyer said. "I imagine she is attractive?"

"Yeah…how did you know that?" Cloud asked.

"I know you, that's how," Sephiroth smirked, turning back to the filing cabinet.

"Hey, I'm just doing her a favor," Cloud defended. "It's not like that. Yuffie is out with her shopping right now."

"Ow, OW!" Aerith shrieked, wincing. Behind her, Elena rolled her eyes and stopped running the comb through Aerith's hair.

"Suck it up, you wanna look good you gotta suffer some," she replied. Aerith turned around slightly from the bath Yuffie and Elena had dumped her in. Her hair lay on the edge of the tub in a bucket of hot water. Jets in the tub massaged her as Elena worked water, shampoo and the comb through her matted and filthy hair.

"Aerith, don't you want to see how pretty you are?" Yuffie teased, flipping through a magazine nearby. Aerith turned her head to her.

"Can't we just give me a bath and get out of here?" she asked. Elena let out a small cry of indignation.

"A bath? Oh my god," she said, going back to combing. "Alright, now that we can actually see what we have here, I don't think you'll need a haircut. The long look can work for you, but we gotta talk style."

"I wore it in a braid when I was a kid…" Aerith said. Elena looked her over and nodded.

"Yup, I can do that," she replied. "Now once I finish here we're gonna get you out of that bath and dry you off. We've got a pedicure and manicure waiting for you in five minutes, then we have to talk face and make up."

"Are you serious?" Aerith gasped. "I don't need all this luxury, Yuffie!"

"I have to disagree," Yuffie replied. "One other thing, Aerith, you aren't wearing those rags home. We aren't going to clean you up and dirty you down again, they're gone."

"Not the jacket!" Aerith cried. "It's all I have left from my mother, she bought it for me." Yuffie picked up the small red jacket from the small bin with Aerith's clothes nearby, and looked it over.

"Hm, a few stitches, a dry cleaning…no problem," she nodded.

"So if I can't wear my clothes home, what am I gonna wear?"

"Waaaay ahead of ya," Yuffie grinned, walking out of the bathing area. "I asked Scarlet to help with that," she called. She reappeared a moment later and held up a clear plastic bag. "Ta-da!"

"That was Scarlet's?" Elena asked, looking up at it as she worked her fingers through Aerith's hair.

"It's Aerith's now, Scarlet outgrew it," Yuffie shrugged, looking at the dress.. "Looks like it'll fit. Might be a little tight on the hips though."

"Well fitting will have to wait until later, I'm done with the washing," Elena said. "Hold still," she ordered. Aerith closed her eyes as Elena retrieved a hairdryer and switched it on, blasting Aerith's hair. "We nice and clean in there?" she asked over the roar.

"I guess," Aerith said.

"Alright, we can dry as we paint, let's go," Elena said. Aerith climbed out of the tub and started shivering. Elena handed her a fluffy white towel and got a large white bathrobe from the wall as Aerith dried off. Elena looked between Aerith and the dress in Yuffie's hands. "Gotta admit, that'll flatter your figure well," she mused. "And the color blends with the hair nicely, good contrast."

"Thanks," Aerith blushed. Elena handed her the robe and Aerith slipped it on, pulling her hair out from under the cotton. "Alright, Yuffie you know where we're going, you lead I'll dry." Aerith blushed as Yuffie led Aerith out of the room as Elena followed her, blasting her hair with the hair dryer, a comb in her other hand.

"Are we almost done?" Aerith asked, not feeling comfortable with Elena doing this. Yuffie turned to her and grinned.

"Naaaaah," she cried. "We're just getting started."