Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as is McCallister. Some more fun in this chapter, as well as some more development into a part of the story I've kind of accidentally been ignoring. Enjoy!
..:-X-:..
049 – Kindred Souls
Cid was halfway through his pack of cigarettes for the day and was not in the mood for this. He crossed the floor of the Gummi garage to the pair of legs that was sticking out from under one of the ships. The soldier was on a rolling backboard under the ship, tinkering. Holding the unlit cigarette between his teeth, he stomped one foot between the soldier's knees and slid the board out, soldier and all.
With a grunt, he looked down and glared at Private Tabaeus McCallister, who was still holding the wrench above her head in mid-twist, and the protective goggles on her face making her eyes disturbingly magnified. He started slightly at her appearance but just as quickly frowned and folded his arms.
"The Hell are you doing here?"
"I'm working." She grunted, not moving from her position.
"This ain't your department no more." Cid gestured to the garage around him. "You're back in Leon's bullpen, remember? Go tinker there."
McCallister sighed and sat up. "He and Commander Lockhart are having a…verbal disagreement…in the Weapons Department."
Cid quirked an eyebrow. "So they're arguing."
"Loudly." The soldier grunted, "And I accidentally took sides so I got kicked out."
Cid snorted, but wasn't surprised. Leon and Tifa had been in their little to-be-parents bubble for so long, everybody around them had to be getting cavities. Sure, Cid wasn't happy to hear that they were arguing, but at least that meant they were talking seriously about this kid now…instead of just an explosion of parental joy and fluffy words. Honestly, the other day Cid could have sworn Leon was about to hug him…and Cid would hate to bitch slap a man who was going to be a father in a few months.
"What were they fighting about?"
McCallister just shook her head. "I'll get out of your hair."
Cid noted the bags under the woman's eyes as she stood and straightened her fatigues. He tapped a cigarette out of his pack, offering it to her. She paused, looking at the offered cigarette and then looking at him. One of her eyebrows shot sky high.
"One of your precious cancer sticks?" She questioned.
"You've been in direct contact with Leon in Papa Bear mode, and you've had Jake breathing down your neck in Casanova mode. Just take the damn thing." Cid said hotly.
McCallister blinked and then softened, taking it. "Thanks."
Cid plucked the cigarette from his own lips and patted his pockets. "Ah, damn. Out of matches." He reached back and snatched up the wand from the welding equipment, flicking it on and holding it away from his person, lighting his cigarette off of it. McCallister chuckled and lit her cigarette off the blow torch as well. He killed the gas and set the wand back, taking a long drag from the cigarette.
"Didn't know you smoked." He said, leaning against the Gummi that she had been working on.
"Why'd you offer then?" She said, exhaling smoke and coughing at the end of it.
He shrugged. "Figured I had a 50-50 shot that you did…and you look like Hell."
"Hn. Thanks." She said flatly at the remark.
"So what's your damage?" He asked, folding his arms and looking up at the ceiling. "Jake busted his ass to ask you out and you kept turning him down."
"I eventually agreed. Even kissed him." She admitted, as though to appease him.
Cid looked at her. "On purpose?"
She laughed at that and Cid realized that he'd never heard her laugh before. Chuckle or snort, sure, but never a real laugh. It was a very feminine sounding laugh, and it was equally strange to associate the woman with…feminine qualities. He blinked at her.
"Yes, sir." She flicked ash off the end of the cigarette and took another inhale from it. "What's your damage with Beverly?"
Cid tensed and looked at the ceiling again. "No damage."
"You prodded at me. I get to prod at you."
"Says who?" He snapped at her.
She looked impassive at his irritated tone. "Me. If I can get my head out of my ass, then you can do the same."
"It's not the same. You're young. You're supposed to do stupid shit."
"Bull." She put the cigarette out on the ground with her boot.
Cid glared at her. "You're kind of a bitch, you know that?"
She smirked. "Why do you think Commander Leonhart keeps me around?"
"You been his subordinate for over five years now, and I never heard you use his first name. Ain't it time you dropped the 'Commander' thing?" He said curtly.
McCallister straightened, "Call Beverly." She walked away.
"Bitch." He called after her, but there was no heat in it. "Stay out of my garage!"
She simply waved without looking back, leaving the garage.
..:-X-:..
050 – Shopping Day
"Whoa." Yuffie stood in front of the mirror in the fitting room, holding the stretchy top of the maternity jeans as far from her actual waist line as it was built to do. "Dude, I'm never having kids. Look at this. I can't even see my feet!"
In her own changing stall, Tifa exhaled. "Then stop trying on maternity clothes, Yuffie. You're a twig anyway. Those clothes aren't supposed to fit you."
"And they're supposed to fit YOU?" Yuffie gawked, standing so that she could see her own profile in the mirror now. "Being this fat is gonna suck!"
"It's not 'fat'." Tifa opened the stall door and stepped out, checking herself out in the mirror and turning. "Well…these fit."
"Just be grateful you aren't huge." Yuffie said, hopping into her changing room and hopping out of large pants and back into her own shorts.
"Yuffie, I'm just 5 months in. Give me another four months. I could be enormous." Tifa said, frowning at the pants that she was trying on and going back into the stall to try another pair. "My ankles will probably swell up. I'll have heart burn all the time. Back aches. The baby'll probably be kicking me all hours of the day and night. I'll get trapped sitting in couches and need help getting out…"
Yuffie leaned against the wall of the fitting room while Tifa looked at herself in another pair of pants. She grimaced. "Don't take offense here…but being pregnant sounds like it sucks. I'll admit, it was funny when you were eating pickle-peanut butter-and scrambled egg sandwiches…but is it really gonna be worth it?"
Tifa chuckled. "You're just jealous because I am a vessel of life, and my belly is cute."
"Hey, populate the planet as much as you like. It ain't MY hips taking the beating." Yuffie held up her hands. Then she added. "I know I promised not to ask but…why is the name topic off limits?"
Tifa huffed, going into her stall to change to another outfit. "Because Leon is being ridiculous about the whole thing. We have four months to come up with a name, but he's acting like we need to make a decision immediately."
Yuffie canted her head, "And that's…enough to argue over?"
Tifa poked her head out, "The names he's mentioned are horrific." She finished buttoning up the blouse she was trying on and stepped out to the mirror. "I've never heard so many bizarre syllable combinations in my life. I think he read a baby name book while high or something."
Yuffie squinted one eye. "And what do you consider a good name?"
"Something simple." Tifa said, rubbing a hand across the bump over her stomach as she looked at how the shirt fit in the mirror. "A person does not live and die by their name. It doesn't need to be this overly artistic, unique, weird title with unnecessary y's in it. Our daughter will be perfectly capable of being unique and awesome all on her own, not because of what her name is."
"This is Leon we're talking about." Yuffie remarked. "The guy who changed his name out of shame when we lost Radiant Garden the first time." She lifted her shoulders. "He puts a lot of stock in names."
Tifa sighed and looked at her. "I hadn't thought about that." She swallowed compulsively and looked at the ceiling. "God, I didn't think about that."
Yuffie just fiddled with the strings on her boots as Tifa battled the tears again. This had become an almost humorous—no, definitely already humorous—event that had been spontaneously happening all day. The smallest things were making the woman overly emotional. Yuffie knew it was the pregnancy hormones—not that she'd dare say anything about it—so she just let Tifa have her moment and then move on.
"Do you have any names that you agree on?" She offered when Tifa had composed herself once more.
"Not a one." Tifa shook her head, changing back into her original clothes and picking up the stack that she'd decided to purchase. "But we agreed that no name we pick will have an X in it."
Yuffie nodded sagely. "Wise decision."
Tifa purchased her items and Yuffie bought a hat ("It has moose antlers on it! How can you think that's not cool?!") and then hit a few more stores before taking a triumphant stop at an outdoor café to revel in their spoils.
"That hat looks ridiculous." Tifa said over a glass of lemonade.
Yuffie beamed carelessly. "I like it. I think it looks awesome."
"And you wonder why you're single?"
"Hey, I bet I could pick up a guy wearing this hat."
Tifa looked over the rim of her glass at her.
Yuffie straightened, "Challenge accepted."
"You just challenged yourself." Tifa said flatly.
"You cried over a pair of green shoes earlier." Yuffie shot back.
Tifa lowered her face, "They were just so uuuuuuuuuugly." She whimpered.
Yuffie spotted a handsome passerby and whistled. "Hey, stud. Wanna be the Rocky to my Bullwinkle?"
He looked bewildered and hastily walked away. Yuffie shot finger pistols in the air, and Tifa laughed. Yuffie abruptly looked at her.
"Bullwinkle wasn't on Leon's last of possibilities, was it?"
..:-X-:..
051 – A Fork in the Road
Aerith felt sweat rolling down her forehead and fought to maintain her concentration. She had chosen the Dark Depths as her place to experiment with the undercurrent this time. There were an abundance of rocks and inorganic matter, allowing her to focus only on the small potted sapling that she'd brought with her to practice on.
When she had penetrated the light current in the old trees weeks earlier, the history and the life of the tree had been so ingrained and time-worn, that were was no surprise really that she had been overwhelmed. Well, she was still skeptical about Cloud's claim that she had been screaming. Why would she scream at something as beautiful as this?
Feeling the light flooding her being, Aerith endured past it to push her mind into the fabric of the tree in the pot in front of her. She could see the light with her mind, as well as with her eyes this time. A ten foot pillar of curling, green-white smoke extending skyward, it had begun to splinter deviant forks of energy outward, parallel to the ground, like branches on a tree. It was like a tree of light in front of her. She had done this. She had willed this to happen. And…to a degree…she was CONTROLLING it.
Something shifted in her perception and she physically staggered, keeping her arms forward and her hands outstretched to try and stabilize it. Something had changed. A power spike. Gritting her teeth, she tried to keep her focus and control the flux. The problem with controlling this energy was that it wasn't submissive. Darkness was submissive. It wanted to be controlled, to be used, to be the catalyst for power and evil and selfish ends. Light was more reluctant to lend itself to being a tool or a weapon.
Not that Aerith had any intention of using it in such a way, but that reluctance did make channeling it difficult.
Unable to handle it anymore, she cried out as she felt it burn her palms. She brought her hands together and drifted her fingertips off center from aiming at the plant, instead aiming to a harmless wall of the rock that was part of the Dark Depths. The light jettisoned out as the pillar of energy around the sapling imploded and burst outward in a small lightning flash of a mushroom cloud.
Aerith shielded her eyes from the discharge and waited for the mild smoke to clear, waving her hand through the air before inspecting her palms. They were red, but not burned. She had gotten too close to it this time. The undercurrent's consciousness hadn't appreciated that…Because it was a consciousness, wasn't it? She had seen that with her own eyes, felt that with her own soul when her mind made contact with the essence in the trees. The whole thing was alive, and she was essentially poking it with a stick and trying to put a collar on it.
Getting her bearings back, she looked at the potted plant in front of her. Only it wasn't a potted plant anymore.
The sapling had burst out of the meager little orange pot. Roots had overpowered it, bubbling over the top and shattering the ceramic, driving deep into the rocky floor of the Dark Depths, as though it had been working at it for decades. The trunk of the sapling had widened from the width of a billiard stick to nearly the width of a grown, mature tree, complete with hardened bark.
Branches extended outward, forming a rich green canopy that cast a shade over the rocks. The rocks, that is, that weren't covered by the field of white flowers that seemed to appear every time Aerith failed to harness the power of the light. The undercurrent seemed to be taunting her with those flowers.
You failed…again. Here are some pretty flowers to make you feel better. Mwahaha.
Okay, maybe without that little laugh at the end, Aerith frowned and walked around the tree.
The roots extended far back to the wall where Aerith had discharged the sudden power fluctuation. They had split the stone wall and were burgeoning with vines and green tufts of new life as they had climbed the wall.
One tall, brilliant, green tree surrounded by the barren, purple and red rocks of the Dark Depths. Some life standing defiant in this little haven of wasteland. No trees grew beyond the town perimeter. There was simply no soil nor any consistent water to nourish life. It had all been ripped away during the invasion and the subsequent war. Aerith looked from the proud canopy to the roots, digging like drills through the stone.
There was no water here. No soil. No decent living conditions for a plant. This tree, this beautiful thing that she had created…was going to die here. A sense of sadness stabbed at her heart and she reached out, touching the bark. Darkness had scorched the land of her world, rendering it almost a wasteland. The Restoration Committee and now the Alliance was working on bringing it back to its former, nature-filled glory, but these things took time. So much time.
Aerith kept a stiff upper lip, stepping toward the edge of the Dark Depths and looking down. Geysers had proven to be the only substantial form of water beyond the town limits, and she could see them bubbling and frothing far below. She looked back to her tree and then returned her gaze to the geysers below. If she could find a way to channel that water…use the light undercurrent to create some kind of irrigation or aquaduct system…she could potentially speed up the regeneration process of her home world!
Intoxicated by the possibility, she quickly darted back to where she had left her research notebook, the third that she had gone through so far, and immediately began jotting down ideas.
..:-X-:..
Preview for next week: The little boy looked up at Rinoa with a contemplative expression. "Are you gonna be my new mom?"