003: Glow.

Lack of sleep and exhaustion wore out her magical abilities, but Tifa, the owner and bartender of this bar, had dabbed disinfectant on her scrapes leaving her wounds hissing; Yuna made a face at the pain but it quickly soothed away as Tifa bandaged the wounds up. "Are you from around here, Yuna?" The other woman asked, as she gathered the rest of the medical supplies, turning back to walk back up the stairs behind the bar. To the question, Yuna hesitated for a little while, wondering if the truth would be too much or be too threatening. "Far away," she answered, "really, really far away."

Tifa took note of her hesitance, took note of her mild nature, she certainly stood out from the other citizens of this city. The more she thought about it, the more she came to realize it was hard to find someone like Yuna among these parts, and she's been throughout the entire world – well, almost—and she has never met someone that resembled the young woman who sat by her table, sipping away at some juice. She had offered some alcohol in place but Yuna had turned it down either way.
"Are you from anywhere specifically, I mean." And again, Yuna responded with a moment of silence.
"Spira…"
"Spira?" Now Tifa was most certain she has never been to any Spira before, in fact, this was the first she has ever heard of it. Another question came to mind but the sound of a ringing jingle had interrupted her before she could, a curious jingle that had peeked Yuna's curiosity. "Oh, there goes Cloud's phone again…" Tifa sighed heavily before departing up the stairs, and Yuna was left to wonder what a 'phone' exactly was.

To her side had been Marlene, who sipped on her own cup of juice as well and carefully watched Yuna with wonder. She smiled at her, overhearing the conversation going on in the other room –"Strife Delivery Service, you name it, we deliver it."—Marlene smiled back at her, though her gesture had been gentler. "It doesn't hurt anymore." Yuna assured the child but she wasn't so sure that's the thought that occupied her mind. Many question had ran through her own like – "who's Cloud…and w-what was that thing that made that noise?"
"The phone?"
"Phone…" Yuna repeated this, sounding out the word real carefully, it felt weird on her tongue, and sounded weird through the ears of the small girl. Marlene couldn't quite understand why the older lady had been as confused by something as simple as a phone, and why she called them these strange names such as 'spheres'. That's what Yuna called the television on the wall – "it reminds me of the spheres back at home. They're the same, aren't they? They look different—so flat and on a screen…" Marlene figured 'sphere' was just another word for 'television' from where Yuna came from. On Yuna's side, she was intrigued, the rumors of 'highly advanced machina and machinery' had been true, and she had now witnessed it with her very own eyes. But this land had been so different from Spira; it was hard to believe they were of the same world. Now that the fascination of technology had passed, Marlene was ready to answer her other question about Cloud, but before she could speak, Tifa had already descended down the stairs. "We get a lot of calls when Cloud's out making deliveries, this customer didn't even have his cell phone number…it should be on his card…" The words left off at a mutter directed to herself rather than anyone else, she returned to table where Yuna and Marlene sat. "Everything okay here?"

"Yes, er," Yuna lifted her head up to view the stairs, then Tifa again, "is everything alright?"

"Oh it's nothing, just another customer."
"You make deliveries as well?" Yuna felt quite impressed with the business establishment here.
"Sort of, Cloud does all the deliveries, and I just manage the bar, though I do help him out sometimes – customers need booze delivered too. Do you have a job, Yuna?"
"Uh…well…not right now," the twenty one year old admitted truthfully. "But I do have enough gil to pay for the juice!" Hopefully for a room for the night as well.
"The juice doesn't cost much but just in case we also accept and trade with other items. Are you hungry by any chance?"
There hadn't been much food on Yuna's travels, she took what she could and salvaged it to her best, the trip took days and she found herself running low on her food till she had nothing left but small snacks and a piece of fruit and that had been her breakfast in the morning before she was picked up by the man in the pick-up truck. "Oh, I couldn't," she didn't carry much useful items with her other than her personal belongings, still her stomach had growled from its hunger. "I guess one meal couldn't hurt."

A gentle breeze blew right through him, spikes of blond hair fluttered back as he leaned back against Fenrir, inspecting the missing calls to his cellular phone. Most of them had been from Tifa but an unknown number was displayed at the top to be his newest missed call. He immediately began inspecting his voice mail to find what he had expected to find: the voice mail of his newest costumer.

This was Cloud's delivery job, to travel, to answer phone calls, and to call back to numbers of those he accidentally missed. It was ordinary, it was a repeat, but it was right; there hadn't been a worry, Geostigma was gone, no big threat had shown itself for a while now…it was fine. But despite the peace he felt now, he knew it was only temporary. After he finished his call with his newest costumer Cloud had snapped his phone shut and stashed it to his pocket, his delivery to Chocobo Farm was done and he was ready to head back to 7th Heaven; to his home. The costumer lived somewhere around Edge, and had asked for bottles of Corel Wine for a party – should be easy enough. Though as he reviewed the delivery in his mind another screaming thought kept distracting him from his work, it was the thought that constantly sneaked its way past his barriers and into his mind. Peace was temporary, Sephiroth may have disappeared once again, but he was still out there, Jenova was still out there and as long as 'she' was around, so would Sephiroth. He knew well enough that this would never go away unless he found a way to ultimately finish things once and for all, only then would the world and his life be granted its eternal peace.

The wind slapped against him as he rode back to Edge, thinking heavily on that one specific thought and problem. Sometimes he could still hear him, hear those final words before he departed into nothing leaving behind black feathers.
"I will never be a memory."
He was bound to Sephiroth, bound by Jenova cells along with every remaining 'failed' experimental puppet out there; Cloud was bound to this 'curse' for life.

Arriving back had taken roughly around thirty minutes, the clean smelling wind had faded away, the blue sky had lost its color, and the green scenery disappeared as he came upon grayed up plain. Cloud had arrived to his city, waving through other automobiles; slowing down for crossing civilian and making his way back to 7th Heaven. As the bar came to view, he parked Fenrir and silently slipped inside, there were no customers today except for a young looking brunette who spooned in mouthfuls of what looked like Tifa's popular stew into her mouth; she did this rather eagerly as if she hadn't eaten in weeks. She had been the only person in the room at the moment, distracted with her meal to really notice Cloud silently close the door behind him. It wasn't till then that she finally noticed his presence and she turned around to look at him, her mouth full of food, and her face reddening.

Oh how embarrassing, this man had walked in on her scarfing down food like there was no tomorrow, she couldn't help it though, she had been pretty hungry due to her lack of proper meals that day. The spoon dropped from her hand and landed in the bowl with a clink! She swallowed the food in her mouth and smiled turning to the man with spiked up blond hair and glowing blue eyes. Yes, his eyes were certainly something that caught her attention, and it was certainly the first she's seen since her arrival here. Despite her greeting smile toward him, he hadn't returned it; he blinked watching her with interest before finally breaking eye contact as he headed right for the bar. Yuna immediately thought he was here for a drink but was surprised when he stepped behind it and approached the stairs instead.
"You're back so early." She heard Tifa call from the top, the dark haired woman descended, her arms folding across her chest. "Did you check back with that costumer? It seems more of them keep calling while you're away; they do have your cell phone number, right?" The reminder of their conversation had been hard to make out, the blond man spoke quite softly and hardly said much; once they were finished he walked right past Tifa and up the stairs, leaving Yuna to finish the rest of her meal behind. "Friendly," she said amusingly to herself but the other woman still overheard.
"He is, he's just has a lot on his mind lately." With everything that went on a little over a year ago, and with the way things were in general, it wouldn't be very surprising that Cloud still brooded over his past mistakes and old enemies that had still existed somewhere within their planet, hiding and waiting. But Tifa knew despite all of this Cloud did his best to move on with his life and make something out of his business. "Oh that's right! You don't even know who he is. That was Cloud, he helps with the bar sometimes."

So that was the Cloud she heard of earlier, the one with the phone, the one with the extra room upstairs, the one with a delivery business. Yuna had to admit to herself, she hadn't expected someone who stood out so much. From his hair, those eyes, and the dark clothing along with a black sash that covered up his left side, his left shoulder covered by a pauldron with a wolf badge on its front. His sense of style had reminded her a lot of Paine and Lulu, though not quite as dark.
"Cloud." Yuna repeated once, to herself, and eventually went back to the stew in her bowl. After a few minutes, by the time she finished her meal, Cloud had approached the first floor again; Tifa, who had been behind the counter, had reached down and placed four bottles of wine out for him.
"Four Coral Wines just as you asked for." She stuffed the bottles into a large, brown paper bag and handed it to the blond man. Yuna had looked up from her empty dish in gentle confusion.
"Who would want so much alcohol?"
"Partygoers and sad lonely men," there was a slight smirk to Cloud's face, "take your pick." With the bag at hand, he turned back to head out – so he wasn't completely cold.

As Cloud had been on his delivery run, Yuna had helped herself to another bowl of stew, carelessly setting the thought of price for her meal aside in her mind at the moment. She was just happy to be getting something in her stomach to make up all those days she had to carefully ration her food and gil during her travels, she hadn't realized she would be running so low already. "I have enough…for maybe a week." A week was good but she hadn't known just how long she would stay here and she needed more gil for the ride home eventually, meaning she was stuck.
"Er, Tifa?" The woman behind the counter immediately turned her attention to Yuna. "I don't suppose you need any help around here by any chance?" Since she was here she might as well take up some odd jobs to help her in the gil department.
"Help? Take a look around you," Tifa gestured to the entire empty bar excluding the two of them, "business hasn't been doing so good…but maybe there is something you can do."

If a job was what she needed then a job Tifa would give her, but for now she hadn't need much help especially with the lack of customers. She had Yuna help clean up the dishes as well as the entire bar for now, the two of them spent the rest of the day sweeping at the floor and cleaning up countertops and tables. It hadn't been much but it certainly earned her a couple more gil to help her stay for an extra few days at a local inn that Tifa recommended – and the food was on the house.

"I can't thank you enough." Yuna was able to stay just a little longer with the small amount of gratitude she received, all in one place in this grayed up environment. But it was then, like a light switch flicking on, she remembered just why she exactly came here. "Oh…right." She was so caught up and worried with gil that she completely forgot the original reason that inspired her journey here in the first place. "Tifa, I need to ask you something."
"What is it?" Tifa had just finished stacking the dried and clean dishes away when she turned to Yuna.
"It's important; I've traveled all the way here because I'm looking for someone." She didn't know how she would go on about it, she didn't know if she would ask of the Cetra or of Shinra first. "I'm looking for a woman…" But what were the odds that this person in an entire sea of different people would know of this one woman and her daughter? "Aerith." The name left her on its own accord and before she can even pull back Tifa had turned to her, brown-red eyes heavily focused on her; the name obviously held some meaning to her. "I'm looking for Aerith." There was a long pause between the two women, Tifa remained silent and once she broke contact with Yuna she blinked and sighed, turning away. However, before she could answer, her attention was immediately drawn to the doorway where a peculiar blond had stood by, watching the two.
Cloud remained at the doorway, not budging an inch, not speaking; his expression remained frozen and emotionless.