Lost in the Shadows
Chapter 31 - All Mixed Up
Disclaimer: I do not own FF7, its characters, settings or the like. Squeenix does though.
Bright light was blinding her and she wondered, vaguely, why the curtains were open.
...Curtains?
Aerith's eyes snapped open and she let them wash over the room with a slight questioning in her expression. How was she here? On a bed, in a room, with windows... Memories rushed back into her head and she sat up abruptly to lean on her elbows, shaken. The white materia. It had been... smashed. Hiei... He was still alive. How? She shook her head, none of that was important right now. For the most part, everything around her seemed comforting, safe if not somewhat familiar.
Slight breathing from beside her alerted her to the presence of someone pushed up against her side. She looked down to find a sleeping Yuffie, mouth hung open just waiting for something to fly in with her arms and legs splayed out around her haphazardly. Aerith smiled at the sight and moved to get up.
Her muscles protested with every single move she made and she could feel the burn return to her injuries. The fire that Hiei had conjured and consumed her with had been utterly powerful. She would be lucky to walk away with only a few scars...
"Oh--!" She cried out slightly, only to cover her mouth so as not to wake Yuffie. "Red, I'm so sorry!" She whisper screamed at the feline lying at the edge of the bed, his one eye looking up at her good-naturedly and completely relaxed.
"No worries." He raised himself up and stretched with grace only he possessed before nuzzling her leg. "I am glad you are awake -- we have been waiting for a while now."
"How long...?" Aerith asked curiously, walking over to the window. The curtains were actually closed but they were light enough to have let the light through in abundance. She placed a hand in between the part and lifted it to the side to come face to face with a very calming sight.
"Four days now. Tifa woke up not long ago." He moved his gaze over to Yuffie and snorted, something she rarely if never heard from him. "She on the other hand... Woke up several times, only to fall back asleep after muttering something about..." He stopped and shook his head then. "Not of importance. I suppose you want to see the others...?"
Four days? That was an awfully long time. "Costa Del Sol? What are we doing here?"
Tifa, you could have been seriously injured!" Cloud yelled, the crease between his brows becoming more prominent with each second. He was beyond upset with her over the past events -- how could she possibly have thrown herself into danger like that? How and why? Obviously nothing had come of it, so--
"How was I supposed to know he'd just manage to come back?" Tifa responded, clearly irritated at her motives being questioned. She hadn't really thought about what she'd been doing. She just... Got up and went with it. If she could give Aerith a clear shot, bonus. If not... Well, she didn't really feel like exploring that possibility. "Besides Cloud, what happened happened. We should be focusing on what we're going to do now."
"Already being taken care of." Vincent supplied, stepping out from the shadows. "And I do believe we have a visitor..."
Cloud's tension eased away slightly at the sight of their pink clad companion. "Aerith, you're awake."
She merely nodded. "What's going on?" Her brow furrowed. "How did we get here?"
Cloud sighed. "I couldn't say. All I remember is falling through the floor into the Mako."
"Some passed out. Reno, Elena, Sephiroth and I managed to stay awake and we simply... Surfaced in the ocean just outside Costa. We pulled you all back and had some help to get you in here." Vincent said. Aerith noticed the flashes of emotion that continued to pass over his features. Worry, regret, anger and confusion...?
"Vincent, I looked at Yuffie and she'll be fine, if that's of any help to you." Aerith said soothingly, wanting to lighten his emotional burden. To her relief, his worry faded away and he seemed to relax more than usual.
"So, anyways." Tifa took control of the silence and turned her attention back to Cloud, who was still glowering at her from the corner of his eye. She was touched by his protectiveness but they needed to be doing something more than sitting around now. Something, some plan, was on the move. "Where are the others?"
"Obviously we, as with Sephiroth," Cloud noticed the way Aerith's interest piqued. "Are here. Barret, Reno and Elena went to Kalm to fix up most of the damage with a repair crew sent in by Reeve. They took Elmyra and Marlene back there as well. Cid and Cait went to Nibelheim to search for files on Kiyoku." He sighed and his shoulders sagged. Tifa's face contorted into a frown.
"Have you even gotten any sleep since we've been here?" She began to take notice of the little things, the black circles under his eyes, the way he swayed as he walked.
"He has refused." Red said. "He preferred to stay by your side the entire time you were unconscious."
Tifa stood and walked over to him. "Go and lay down." Tifa said gently, taking hold of his arm. "I'll come with you. We need to talk anyway." Cloud seemed to want to argue, but he relented and began to walk to the bedrooms.
Aerith watched them go, but quickly remembered what she had wanted to ask them while they'd been talking. "Oh, Cloud!" He turned to her and she tilted her head. "Do you know where Sephiroth is...?"
Cloud nodded. "He should be on the beach. He came to check on you a few times and was otherwise there."
Aerith nodded happily and began to walk away when the familiar ring tone of the PHS sounded. Vincent waved her off and picked it up off the table, answering it. She was only too happy to keep walking.
Barret stood from where he was bent over, picking up the last of the debris from the grounds of Kalm to throw it into Reeve's repair team's chopper. He wiped the sweat off his brow and sighed, moving to plunk himself down onto a bench that had surprisingly remained intact. His heart was hammering against his ribcage from exertion and from the thought of having to say goodbye to his little girl and Elmyra. He didn't want to leave. At all. He wanted to stay for once. The thought of fighting in this battle held no merit for him.
Of course he wanted to help his friends, his family.
Of course he wanted to save everyone's asses again.
But these people were so damn strong. He was actually beginning to doubt whether they would all come back alive.
He'd seen Tifa smash Hiei to the ground, heard the ear splitting crack of the bones in his neck as his fist connected and the blow ensued. Yet he'd been back with as much power as before.
And Aerith. Upon reaching and waking up at Costa Del Sol, he'd watched as Sephiroth summoned all his power to cure Aerith's burns. Not a single spell had worked. Sephiroth was the most powerful spell caster of them all save for Aerith, if not matching her powers. Surely that was a testament to Hiei's power.
Toyori... He seemed untouchable. And his rage... His rage was horrendous.
"Daddy, come and look at this!" Marlene's voice squealed, cutting his thoughts from his mind. He looked over and saw her smiling face.
Oh yeah. That's why I'm doing this, he thought.
"Holy." Elena sighed. She let herself fall down onto the cooling pavement to watch the sun fall. "It's done. Finally done."
"I'll say." Reno said, joining her. They both watched as Marlene showed Barret something she'd found on the ground. A crystal, Elena had asked? No. Materia. They wondered over how she found it and where it had come from, but it didn't really matter. When Marlene, the little doll she was, gave it to Elmyra and complimenting on how the crystal suited her because they were both 'really pretty', everyone sighed in contentment and went back to their work.
Leave it to the little one to bring some sort of a light hearted atmosphere to play.
"So. What now?" Elena asked, looking over at Reno.
"I don't know. Follow them, I guess."
They both fell silent. Elena sat up and hugged her knee's to her chest, burying the lower half of her faces into her knees. "Promise me..." She began quietly. "If we do this, if we follow them... You'll be careful. I can't lose you too."
Reno sat up and moved over, throwing her arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to him. She lay her head on his shoulder and tried to scoot closer, though there was no space left between them. "'Lena, we're going to come outta this alive. We have to. For Reeve, for Rude and Tseng... For us."
Elena made no move at his words but the 'us' struck her rather hard.
Us.
"You're not going to lose me and I'll be damned if I lose you. We've come too far and we've been through too much shit together to let it all fall away now. I love you."
Elena looked up at him, shocked.
Love?
Did he really...?
His grip tightened and he searched her eyes for what seemed like eternity before she crumbled. She buried her face in his chest and cried. "I love you too..."
It was strange, Reno thought, how easy that was to say. His life had been nothing but pure hell and he'd fought to keep what was his, taking no care with anything else. He lost himself in alcohol, cigarettes, women... Yet, after everything that had transpired now, he didn't feel like taking that chance.
If he went down, he wouldn't leave her without telling her what he felt but had never cared to say.
Not at all.
He hadn't been particularly hard to find and for that she was grateful.
"Enjoying the view?" She asked softly, standing just behind him. He was just... Standing and staring. The waves of emotion seemed to just roll off him. She noticed then how angelic he looked. With the sun setting, the few palm tree's around fading into nothing but dark silhouettes against the bright colours and water, reflecting many things with a keeness and serenity only water could master... It was beautiful.
He was beautiful.
Her throat contracted then. These thoughts... They were everywhere these days. Thoughts of him. He never seemed to be out of her mind and she found herself wishing things, wanting things, imagining things. Things she knew he may never be able to give her.
She shook her head and focused on him again. She was slightly unnerved by his lack of response and took a step towards him. He spoke then.
"It is something to be enjoyed." He said quietly, yet she detected the edge in his voice. "You are awake... That is good."
Her eyes dimmed a bit at his distance, his coldness. She felt though, that she deserved it.
She opened her mouth several times, opening and closing, wanting to ask and be answered but not finding the words.
God, why was everything so confusing all of a sudden? Since when did she get fidgety in his presence? When did she become something short of self-conscious in his presence?
When did her heart skip a beat and her stomach perform nervous and excited flips?
"I... What happened? I'm so confused, about everything. I..." She closed her eyes. "Why did you leave? Why did you leave and go with them?"
His voice seemed to pick up and a lightness she'd never heard in him was suddenly there. "I was going to find some answers. Unfortunately... Someone decided to end that fairly quickly."
"Yeah, well... I was worried. I wanted to know why you'd left..." Frustration ripped through her then. Didn't he realize how worried she'd been? How devastated she'd been, thinking he'd actually believed that witch Kayana and left her for good?
"You know, you could've given some sort of warning." She belted it out quickly and with a sharpness she rarely ever heard in her voice. She knew it made no sense -- how was he supposed to have known that would have happened? He simply took the opportunity that had been handed to him and tried to make something of it. Guilt replaced her fury and she turned to him, to apologize, to let him know... Everything, but she stumbled back at the raw emotion she saw in his eyes. He had turned around to face her and she'd not seen, having been momentarily blinded by her emotions. As he began to step towards her she didn't know if she was glad for it or regretted it.
"Warning?" He asked. "You could have stayed out of it."
She narrowed her eyes. "How was I supposed to stay out of it? I thought you actually believed them, I thought you'd actually left me for them!"
He scoffed. "I'm not so easily taken over."
"I didn't know that!" She said in desperation.
"What if you'd been killed? What if Toyori hadn't let me 'kill you' myself?" He asked, trying to hold his building anger back. "What if I'd lost you?"
What if I'd lost you?
Five very simple and usually insignificant words, but when she'd had them thrown at her like that, everything that had happened, him leaving, Hiei, Toyori, Kayana, watching him walk over to her and place his plade under her chin with the glint in his eyes... She broke down right there. Tears escaped her and she put one hand on the side of her face.
"I thought I'd lost you..." She choked out. "I wanted to make sure -- make sure you were..."
He was in front of her then, his hand moving under her chin and forcing her to look up at him. His eyes softened then and she watched transfixed as he wiped her tears away only to leave his thumb rubbing over her lips ever so lightly. A shiver flew down her spine as she was caught in the moment.
"You'll never lose me." He said softly.
And then he kissed her.