Here we are again, gentle readers. I just want to state up front that I take no responsibility for Cloud's actions at all - ever - from this point on at least. Now that that's out of the way - zi-ling, best beloved - its true, there is a certain feeling to island culture, isn't there? I wish I'd had more opportunity to write it, it just doesn't run by the same rules as any other lifestyle in the world. And yeah - Cloud was actually not only talkative BUT informative as well. Don't worry, he's back to monosyllables now ;). Kainos Ktisis - oh you, best beloved, do my little writer soul good and fuzzy with the plethoria of reviews. I seriously cheered each time I saw a new one pop up. You're so detailed and specific and you catch the little in=game jokes I make. How happy you make me! And I reveiwed your last one shot before I even realized it was you. MAS :D Clutter my inbox anytime. Elle - I hope the rest of the story makes you as happy and enthused as the first part. Welcome to the party! Happy readers make me happy. Best beloved demonegg - I'm so glad you're back! I really did miss hearing from you but didn't want to whine and seem needy (okay, I'm needy - whiiiiine). Spot on the nose with Cloud getting as much from sleeping near Tifa as he's giving and not even realizing it. You know him well. And hey, your stories are awesome! I'm waiting cheerfully for the next chapter. I think Chapter 49 should be for you since you asked. And of course my best beloved Peek-chan who again edited me, cheered me on, and threatened me with frying pan injury. What would I ever do without you?
Chapter 48: Corel
Walking in the cold while damp wasn't exactly enjoyable but Tifa thought it probably beat sitting around in the cold while damp. The rain had washed everything clean and the sky was sharp and clear, the stars distant and vast. It was beautiful and empty. And Tifa was still glad when she saw the warm glow from windows in the darkness beyond.
The team drew closer together as they got nearer civilization and when they were close enough that even the soft nighttime couldn't hide it anymore, Tifa made a startled noise. The – she hesitated to call it a town – it was the saddest collection of huts and lean-tos she thought she'd ever seen and long before they approached the town, the area around it lost its life and went dirty and barren. After being surrounded by life and growing things for such an extended amount of time, somehow the barrenness seemed even worse to Tifa and she reached down automatically to rest a hand on top of Red's head where he strolled along next to her.
"What happened here?" she murmured as they started down one of the dirt tracks that passed as the main street. Zack shook his head but Cloud quietly answered:
"Mako reactor. I heard it exploded."
Tifa drew closer to her companions. This place – it reeked of hopelessness. She'd never seen such sad buildings, not even in the worse parts of Midgar. She'd thought – when Cloud had said North Corel she'd remembered – she remembered that Barrett had once mentioned he was from Corel and she'd thought they might be the same. But seeing this place? Yes, Barrett had been on one of his rare drunks but it wasn't anything like what he'd described. Zack looked around and made a noise.
"Think anyone's going to open their door for us this late at night?"
Cloud came to a stop in what was probably the center of the camp and looked around. Tifa supposed an inn – and hot running water – was out of the question but Cloud jerked his head and they followed him as he led them to what looked like a small shop. His banging on the door with his fist finally brought a yell from inside but Tifa noticed, as she stood behind him next to Zack and Red, that the lights in the buildings nearby all went out and no one came to investigate. She could feel eyes peering out of the darkened windows though.
"Open up or I kick the door down," Cloud's calm voice was mild and Tifa turned her face to give the back of his head a look. She was going to have to remember that stoic didn't necessarily mean subtle.
It was effective however because the door to the shop, little more than a slab of tin that might have been part of a roof once, opened a little and a voice from inside demanded to know what they wanted.
"Some place dry to sleep. Hot water if you've got it. Something to cook our food on." Cloud didn't even wait for the door to attempt to shut in his face. Instead he calmly flashed a decent amount of gil, which seemed to do the trick because the door opened and a suspicious little old man snatched it out of his hand before retreating into the darkness of the building. The door was left open. Cloud sighed and stepped in. Zack looked over at Tifa and grinned.
"He's so charming, we should let him do all the negotiating."
Tifa snorted her laugh and followed Zack into the tiny building, pulling the door shut behind Red and dropping the bar across it.
Tifa understood that they'd just walked into a shop but to her it looked like a mix between some of the more desperate pawn shops in the slums of Midgar and the junk piles they used to play in as kids and – crap, that made her sound so snotty. But – really – she'd honestly never seen anything this disorganized and… and apathetic before. She actually had to narrow her eyes as she fought the urge to start straightening the place up, her inbuilt OCD kicking into high gear as she looked around the room and thought –
'if I just move that there, and clear some space here, I could put those there and arrange that shelf to hold those and – '
Cloud reached out and gently wrapped his hand around the front strap of her backpack and Tifa realized her hands had been clenching. His eyes met hers and she swore she saw just the tiniest hint of laughter in that blue. She gave him a warning look – and the light in that endless blue just increased. Against her will, it made the edges of her lips start to curl upward.
"Don't you dare say anything, Cloud Strife," she warned and Zack gave them a long suffering look that clearly stated – whatever they were doing – it was way over his head.
"Come on," Cloud's voice was low but the very edges of his lips shifted upward a little. "We're not sleeping in the middle of his shop."
Tifa followed him through the door set crookedly in the wall. Thinking how easy it would be to fix the door so it sat straight. How easy it would be to straighten the junk pile in the other room...
The only other room in the place was the living area/kitchen/bedroom all rolled into one and to Tifa's horror it was just as cluttered, disorganized and dirty as the show room. The old man sat definitely on his bed and scowled at Tifa.
"Ya ain't gettin' my bed," he told her and Tifa could only look with horror at the sagging, dangerous looking, disheveled thing he was sitting on and wonder when the last time he'd washed any of it was.
"I'm fine with my mat," she answered positively and Zack laughed. Cloud shook his head but Tifa thought she saw a smile at the edges of his lips before he knelt down in front of the ancient looking wood stove and opened the underneath. Red walked over to join him.
"Coal?" Cloud asked.
"Sure. Not good enuff fer ya fancy types?" the old man snarled and, as bedraggled and trail worn as they were, Tifa wondered if he had actually bothered look at them. "Corel used to be all coal minin' efore that damned reactor. Fer all tha good it did us."
"What's the difference between Corel and North Corel?" Tifa asked curiously as Cloud got the oven heating and Zack tried to find enough space to lay out their mats. Tifa took the wet blankets and clothes out of the packs and started finding space to hang them. The old man glared at them all but he'd taken their gil and Tifa had seen how much it had been. They'd basically rented his house for that price.
"Difference? Only that Corel was a nice place to live full of good, honest, hard workin' people an' North Corel's full of their ghosts and the broken people still livin'." Tifa noticed his accent dropped a bit when he wasn't paying attention. "North Corel's a cesspool we're all just waitin' to die in and Corel, what's left of it, is already dead and under that damned theme park they got set up."
"Because of the reactor?" Tifa asked, giving up on finding places for the blankets and taking out some of their string to thread from one side of the room to the other. From long practice, she and the guys moved around each other and the work without having to think about it. The old man stopped himself from spitting and Tifa was suddenly glad she'd kept her shoes on.
"Damned reactor. Shinra said it'd make our lives better – easier. What a load of shit. It blew sky high and what it didn't kill they moved in an' gunned down with their fancy troops. All on account a' those two young men – must have told Shinra we'd blowed the reactor on purpose. Bastards."
Tifa, who had blown up Shinra reactors on purpose, pressed her lips together and settled the blanket she was carrying over the string.
Cloud had found a water pump and was busy priming it to see how clean the water looked. He already had a kettle on the stove top filled with water from his canteen. Tifa filled up a bowl with water from her own and laid it down for Red. Zack went over to join Cloud at the blond's gesture. Tifa, while they weren't looking, starting picking up things around the room and setting them straight. The old man watched her suspiciously but didn't stop her.
"I guess Shinra's not very popular around here then," she commented mildly, finding a rag to wipe off a shelf before starting to set things on it. "I'm surprised no one's decided to do anything rash about that."
The old man wheezed a cackle on his bed.
"Not that we'd tell anyway," he agreed with glee.
So, she wasn't alone. She'd known it… the world was a big place and she couldn't be the only one with a grudge against Shinra. It was still good to hear. There were other groups, like Leon's, out there. If she could find a way to connect with them… she could start taking the fight back to Shinra and making them pay for what they'd done to her family.
Not tonight though. But soon. She had somewhere she could start at least.
"Tifa," Cloud spoke her name from by the stove and she set down the rag with a last swipe at the bureau top and walked over to join him and Zack. The dark haired ex-SOLDIER was beaming proudly. Cloud gestured to the kettle on the stove.
"Hot water and a basin. It's clean. You can wash up." She looked at him in surprise and he added gently: "It would get you warm."
Tifa wrinkled her nose.
"Are my lips blue again?"
Cloud made his coughing, laughing sound and Tifa was surprised and delighted because she hadn't heard that sound since Costa del Sol.
"No."
Yet he'd known she was cold. Possibly because he was cold too, having stood in the rain with her and then traveled through the damp and cold. But, mostly she thought, simply because he paid attention to what affected her. She looked at the kettle on the stove.
She'd wished for hot running water. Even manual hot running water sounded pretty good right now.
"We'll wait outside in the shop," Zack volunteered. "You can just come get us when you're done."
They were spoiling her and Tifa knew she should refuse their offer. Except…
It was hot water.
"All right," she nodded. "We'll take turns. I'll go first and then I'll put some more water on to heat while I'm drying and getting dressed. Okay?"
The smiles she got were answer enough and then the boys were rousing the verbally protesting old man and herding him out of the room along with Red, leaving Tifa alone in the suddenly quiet section of the house. The first thing she did was make sure the curtains were well drawn and then she moved the 'tub' in between the wall and one of her hanging blankets. It felt strange undressing in a stranger's house. Piling her hair up on top of her head, she mixed the water from the pump with water from the kettle until she had it the right temperature – just short of scalding – and proceeded to stand in the 'tub' and pour it carefully over herself.
She enjoyed it but she washed up quickly and rinsed off carefully, not wanting to take her time. The guys had to be just as miserably damp as she was and the hot water had made her feel a thousand times better. Careful to refill the kettle she put it back on the stove and dried and dressed, dumping the used water outside near the outhouse. Coming back in, she went into the show room to trade places with Zack while Cloud haggled with the old man over something from one of the junk piles. Tifa gingerly sat on a rickety stool and brushed out her hair, listening to the old man squawking about 'robbery' and Cloud's calm low voice being implacable. Cloud got his items about the same time Zack came out to trade off with him and the dark haired man hopped up onto the counter near Tifa's stool with a grin. Red had given Tifa a look that was dry refusal when she'd asked if he wanted a bath too and sat down near her feet.
"I feel human again," Zack commented and Tifa gave him a brilliant smile.
"Me too," she agreed. "Its crazy what a little hot water can do. You two are wonderful to have figured something out."
"It was Cloud." Zack grinned. "But, hey, you're welcome."
The old man puttered around his 'shop' and finally asked:
"So where are you three headed anyway? We don't get many travelers through these parts."
"Junon," Zack's answer was easy and he shrugged. "I heard there was work across the water and my sister and her boyfriend decided to come too." He tipped his head toward the old man. "You heard anything?"
The old man shrugged and Tifa was careful to keep her face the same way it had been before Zack had started talking. Junon? And Zack was suddenly her brother?
Cloud was her boyfriend?!
"Lots of military work down there. Shinra's the big woohoo," the old man sounded disinterested. "I suppose young people can find work just about anywhere."
Zack nodded enthusiastically.
"That's what we're counting on."
The old man looked disgusted and shook his head and Zack gave Tifa a look. She blinked but nodded silently in response. Cloud opened the door between the rooms.
"All clear."
As they passed back into the other room Zack took the opportunity to murmur to Tifa.
"Get the feeling he'd sell his own mother for the right price. Figured I'd play it."
"Sure," Tifa nodded. Gave him a teasing smile and reached up to ruffle his unruly hair. "Little brother."
Cloud caught the interplay and looked over mildly as he moved their packs to the bed mats. Zack jerked a thumb at the old man that had puttered over to his stove to make sure they hadn't broken anything on it.
"Just asking the old man here about what he'd heard about jobs in Junon. Figured since he's closer than we were when we started he might have some inside information about what we could expect when we got there."
Cloud's calm face didn't change as he absorbed the news and instead he nodded.
"Any leads?" he asked, playing along, and Zack shook his head.
"Nah." The dark haired man dropped down on his mat and stretched his arms over his head with a yawn. "But he says we shouldn't have a problem. Which means you'll finally be able to afford to marry my sister and make an honest woman of her."
