Hello everybody. Just a short update to remember you I'm alive. Barely. Thank you for the amazing reviews ~ I wish there were more xD But honestly, I would give you a box full of homemade heart-shaped cookies if I knew what I was doing every time I touch the stove. On with the story.
Disclaimer: I own the plot and Grandma Grace.
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I finally understood that gloom of hers, her blank expression and distant gaze, her silent spirit. I first thought it to be me, honestly, thought maybe she was tired of dealing with me around the house so much. Sephiroth was in no position to leave Joanna's any time soon, and Grace demanded that I left the house for a while, until the storm cooled off.
Joanna took the order lightly, said it was probably for the best…
She would stop by sometimes, have a cup of coffee, watch an Anthony Asquith's every now and then. It was nice the first couple of times, until the day her eyes began to change and Edea realised my presence in their house had grown meaningless to her. To my own mother. Grandma Grace said it was his entire fault. He's changing her fibre, she had said between the smoke.
Later I came to learn Edea's lover was in the hospital, in a coma for three whole months…
Her name was Scarlet and she was an actress in the Midgarian underground – or so Edea claimed. I had seen her name before it came into my actual lexicon. Edea owned thousands of independent films, from every director possibly imagined, and I remember spotting Scarlet Shinra's name a good share of times. How Edea got in contact with her in the first place, I doubt I will ever know.
"She has a son of Cloud's age, you know? I can tell right away they will get along fine!"
"Didn't you say she had a daughter?" I muttered, amid her enthusiasm.
"Yes, yes, that too." Edea bit her lip, thoughtful – "Nineteen, I think."
"Well… Divorced twice, a son of Cloud's age, plus a nineteen year-old girl, looking to settle down…" a breath "I would say this woman is losing her hair already."
"Mum!" Edea complained with a laugh. "She is a wonderful creature!"
Grace scoffed in her armchair by the window, "A creature? Like a fossil?" I laughed. "Besides, weren't they all wonderful creatures?"
Edea locked a dark tress behind her ear, a soft little smile curling in a corner of her lips.
"But Scarlet's different. I know she is…" she whispered.
This was back in 87' and now another year had passed. We've met on the beach – Scarlet, her daughter and Rufus.
I never went to the sea much when I was a kid, mostly because I never remembered to, and secondly because the ocean laid three centuries away from Little Traverse. Or nearly as much. I was six when I first tried to wet my tiptoe in the cold waters of Costa del Sol, and thirteen the day I was able to finally dive in. It was on the first of August.
The sun was piping hot outside the window and Edea organised the whole thing. She had everything prepared when we reached her house, had one of those portable refrigerators and all…
Grandma Grace looked horrifyingly funny with her violet short-shorts and a sleeveless top that held too little of what it was supposed to. She hadn't given up her feathers despite her daughter's pleas, finding a way to tie them up to her straw brimmed hat – the one she refused to remove because her grey roots were showing and she didn't find the time to dye them red.
Joanna looked happy that day, almost clueless of the emotional pressure Sephiroth still held on her, and Zack was too excited to notice anything else around him. He had made himself invited the moment he knew we were planning that trip.
It wasn't awkward…
He hadn't kissed me yet.
Miss Scarlet was waiting for us on the brick sidewalk that followed the line of the seashore. She wore the thick bright hair tied back in a long ponytail, and a light beach dress with turquoise sequins.
"This is her…" Edea whispered with a beam on her face.
The blonde, beautiful woman approached us with the elegant caution of a peacock. She kissed Joanna and Grace on the cheek, complimented my «stunning blue eyes. Your mother's eyes? Yes of course» and nodded her head towards an awkward raven-haired that stood quietly behind us.
She then pointed downwards to the sand. "I apologise for Rufus. He is a little shy…" she smiled "Over there, under the rainbow parasol."
I had no idea what a Rufus was supposed to be, but Zack called me stupid and said we should probably try to interact with the kid. These were his exact words. Rufus, however, was as much of a kid as Grace.
Edea was clearly mistaken about his age…
He was sixteen years old, extremely tall and naturally well-built, hence much closer in age and attitude to Zack than I ever thought I could be. I felt strangely uncomfortable around them, in my marine-blue swim shorts when both of them wore black ones.
By the end of the day they would be laughing at the same jokes and drinking from the same bottle of beer, and I would learn another word that deeply translated my feelings: greed.
"Cat's eaten your tongue?" he asked me later that day as we waited outside the seafood restaurant. I didn't want to talk, but for some reason couldn't make-do with the silence treatment.
"Where's Rufus?" I asked back. Never knew why I brought him up…
"Dunno. Somewhere inside." he shrugged.
"Shouldn't you be with him?"
"What for?" he said, quizzically.
"Just saying," I said matter-of-factly. "You two really hit it off, huh?"
"I guess. He's a funny guy." he smirked.
I should have said the words right then and there, but I didn't know I had those words in me already. Instead I just bit my nails towards the dark sky.
Next time I came to meet Rufus was in that hospital room, sitting by Miss Scarlet's head, a dark rosary around his fingers. When Edea and I entered the room, his deep-blue eyes lifted from his prayers but his lips remained closed. Edea cried in silence, in a way I never saw anyone cry before, and I just stood there, unable to detach myself from the feelings, the jealousy that I had felt that morning, on the beach.
I remember telling Zack about that small encounter a couple of days after it. Funnily enough, he was hardly remembered of Rufus…
Sometimes I feared that selective memory of his. I had such great memories of us already, I feared I would be the only one feeling the weight and joy of those years on my shoulders. That kiss he gave me, for instance, in the alley, he would never bring it up again, regardless of my attempts.
Aerith had her own theory about it, of course. She had a theory for anything, and strangely, they actually made sense. Sometimes. I believe that was the only reason I began to confine in her some of my harmless doubts. Friendship had nothing to do with it…
"It will be certainly awkward…" she started, her emerald eyes peeking behind the hardcover.
"Yeah…" I bit the end of my pencil, "but not talking about it is awkward too."
She skipped a few pages, gasped. "The Age of Enlightenment! I knew I was missing something…!"
"Hum…I missed out that class." I said, leaning closer to her book.
Her eyes outstretched in shock. "I don't remember such a thing! Why did you?" she asked.
"Dunno." I shrugged, back to my papers.
She sighed. "Perhaps you could pretend it didn't happen…" it was a mutter.
"What?" I squinted, looking at her.
"The kiss."
"Oh, that…" I returned to my study. Aerith put down her book.
"Yes. If he doesn't talk of it himself, it probably meant something." she stopped, as usual wanting me to ask for more. I didn't – "Men won't talk of things that meant something, it's on your genes. Put your feelings into word is a self attack to your honour."
"I don't know if I agree with that…"
"Of course you don't. You are a man. Now, the only weapon you have is silence" smiling, she poked my temple, "Don't bring the subject up and he will."
It didn't work. The kiss descended into oblivion, only to light up my confusing mind every night, when I recalled the gentleness of his lips, its warmth against my cold cheek, and the strange knot inside my stomach overpowered the tingling sensation between my legs. I would never fall asleep before three in the morning then. To pass the time, I drew.
I had begun to draw cats lately.
My portrait of Grace was still waiting for me to finish it. For some reason I couldn't get her eyes straight. Whenever I had the time to spare I would sit down on the cold floor in front of her armchair and try to draw them, but every time the task remained incomplete.
Her eyes told so many stories I couldn't focus. It was terribly unfair.
One day my endeavours stopped making sense.
Too terrible? I'll say.
It was the worst chapter I wrote for this so far. I almost gave up (please don't tell me I should have). I know Zack and Cloud interaction is closer to non-existent here, but I just felt like putting out something more related to the world around Cloud, rather than Cloud himself. Hence Edea's lover short story, a little bit of Aerith and too little of Grace. Just review so it won't seem like a pointless chapter, will you? :(
Next time I promise something better. I'm already writing it.