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FF7 - restore chpt.3.2
Chapter Archive.
It was only five minutes before Tifa pushed the door open and walked in; the five longest minutes in recent history. She stood there, outside of the puddle of light by the bar, not moving any closer.
"Tifa..." Cloud and Aeris spoke almost in synch, by accident. Tifa glanced back and forth at them both, and her red-brown eyes skimmed over Zack; but once they met Sephiroth's green, they didn't move again.
+
It seemed surreal to her -- Sephiroth standing in her bar, propped up against one of the wooden pillars, with his imposing frame and his cold, aristocratic face, and his unnatural hair. Not unreal, though -- unreal would have been a vision complete with the black leather outfit and the sword, and his hair floating freely behind him like a banner to his arrogance. Instead there were knotted-back hair and a bare chest and Cloud's slightly-too-small pants, and bare, dusty -- and bleeding? -- feet, lit by the cheap yellow glow of the lone light bulb. Surreal, definitely -- because it was definitely way too much reality for one scene.
And he was still watching her, and his eyes still glowed Materia-green around those inhuman pupils. Off to the left, Cloud was slumped on a barstool, looking weary and watchful.
Not mindlessly adoring, though. Not vacant-eyed.
"... Does anyone mind telling me what is going on?" she asked, remarkably calmly.
It was the black-haired man who started first, circling the end of the bar to take a few steps closer. He didn't come any closer than the first table, though; good, because Tifa would have hated to break it on his head to keep him away.
"Heya, miss Lockart. It's been a while. Do you recognize me?"
Well-defined cheekbones, long locks of hair that gathered in spiky clumps, body -- hips from which her sweatpants were threatening to fall off... She did at that. She had only known him a couple of weeks, ten years ago, but the swagger was -- she'd been thinking 'inimitable', but Cloud had done such a good job mimicking it that this was how it clicked in her mind. She still remembered it as 'how Cloud used to walk, when he was still pretending to be Zack.'
Cloud didn't have black hair, and she wasn't sure where he would have found a wig in the old slums, but that would have been doable. Unlikely, but doable.
The purple glow of his eyes, not so much.
Tifa stared at them all in turn, still trying to figure out why he was there and what kind of catastrophe was falling on their heads now. The way he grinned -- it seemed real enough. But only the bad guys ever seemed to come back from the Lifestream for a visit... Case in point.
"Zack, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"You were the one who met Denzel in the church?"
"Yep. Smart kid, that one. Got character too."
Tifa desperately tried not to think that all the time Denzel had spent chatting in the church with Zack, Sephiroth had been lurking around, probably listening in. "... Thank you. Now would you please--" Her voice went a bit strangled, and she fell silent to breathe in, and out, like Zangan had taught her all those years ago. She was calm. She was very calm. She was going to stay calm until it was time to fight again -- she would just be ready. Being nervous wasn't going to help.
"Yeah... I'd tell you it's a long story, but in layman's terms it isn't. So. Condensed version, er. Aeris was done working the Lifestream -- it can run itself now -- so we decided to come back." Zack grinned, hopeful and somewhat sheepish -- a lot like Denzel when he hoped she wouldn't notice he'd only done the first page of his homework or eaten only the meat and then artistically spread the vegetables to make it look like more than that. Maybe a smidgen more nervous, but then again, not a lot.
"... Ah."
"That's the really, really condensed version, though. And, er, about Sephiroth -- well, he's still kind of an ass, but he's not insane anymore, so...?"
Tifa stopped staring at Sephiroth, whose eyebrows had vaguely twitched downward at the announcement, and stared at Zack instead. What was she supposed to answer? 'Oh, that's nice'?
This time it was Aeris who moved to meet her, and who didn't stop at the edge of the light.
Lost in Tifa's largest t-shirt, hair unbound, locks flying all over the place, shawl wound around her hips like a fancy skirt -- unmistakable. It didn't feel surreal or unreal anymore, it just felt true, and suddenly Tifa couldn't breathe, because if she did Aeris might fray and disappear.
"Tifa --"
Tenderness and compassion on her face, in her eyes -- a hint of a wince, shared pain, a rueful little smile...
They reached out at the same time, hands gripping each other.
Aeris' hand was warm, but what convinced even Tifa's rational mind was that she had dust on her cheek, tangles in her hair, and a shiny piece of chewing-gum wrapper caught in the fringe of her shawl. Tifa was startled when she heard herself laugh, choked on something; she didn't know it was a giggle or a sob. Proof by chewing-gum wrapper. How was that for a miracle?
Oh, how she wanted to cling and to ask a million things, but the cold, inhuman eyes behind them -- she couldn't help it, she shifted Aeris bodily aside, edged forward so she could shield her in case anything happened. Cloud's face tightened, as if in pain, and Zack ruffled his hair in tired embarrassment. She waited for Sephiroth to do something -- give her a disdainful look, a smirk, a sneer maybe; he didn't. He didn't taunt her, he didn't pretend to be polite, he didn't say anything. Good, because she didn't know if the sound of his voice might perhaps be the thing to snap her calm. He just watched her right back and that was it.
At her side, Aeris sighed quietly. "Sephiroth... I think it's time you slept. Cloud?"
Sephiroth looked at the blond, expressionless. Cloud frowned faintly and then nodded. "It's getting late."
Tifa frowned, confused and a little on edge. "Cloud?"
"He's going to be under a Sleep spell until the rest of the gang gets there and we all decide what to do," Cloud replied calmly, with a touch of gentleness in his voice like he knew exactly what she feared; she felt a little reassured.
"Ah. Alright."
"Mmh. Far from me to delay your bedtime," Sephiroth commented silkily.
The sound of his low voice made her shudder; she had been starting to think he would not speak at all. Cloud glared at him, hostility flashing through his weariness; Tifa was reassured. The world wasn't completely crazy yet.
"For someone asking for favors, you're bad at staying on my good side," he snapped.
Sephiroth's eyes narrowed, and Tifa tensed, but then Zack just stepped toward Cloud and tapped his shoulder. "Yeah, he kinda sucks at it. Lack of habit and all."
"For someone so smart," Cloud replied without breaking eye contact with Sephiroth, "he doesn't learn very fast."
Sephiroth's eyes went even narrower, but then he breathed out slowly and his expression smoothened, emptied out. "My apologies."
Cloud was still scowling, but in the end he just shrugged it off with a quick, irritated twitch of the shoulders. He slipped off the stool, swung his sword back in its sheath. "Staircase. Second floor. There's a mattress in the attic."
"An attic. And a lock on the door, I assume?"
Sephiroth was watching him with those narrowed, coldly predatory eyes again. Cloud frowned back sternly. "Yes." He lifted a hand, to cut off an answer Tifa hadn't been aware would ever be coming. "It's not to keep you in. It's to keep people out. There are children living here."
Tifa wondered briefly whether she was crazy or whether this explanation could have been construed as a -- weak, insincere, irritated -- form of apology. Surely she was reading too much into it.
Sephiroth relaxed slowly nonetheless. "I did offer my cooperation, Strife."
They just stared at each other in silence, and Tifa barely dared look away; she glanced at Aeris, and at Zack too, to see if they had any idea what was going on in their loud silences. Aeris looked sad; Zack looked worried. Neither of them offered any explanation.
"... Well! Let's see it," Aeris commented with false cheer as she tugged Tifa toward the staircase, urging everyone to stay moving. "Say, Cloud, do you have a Seal Materia? I'll cast."
"Yeah, several. Tifa? You know where they are; would you mind?"
Tifa hesitated -- she didn't want to leave Cloud and Aeris alone with Sephiroth, and she still didn't know if she could really rely on Zack all that much. But someone needed to get the Materia, and the other ones didn't know where Cloud kept them.
Tifa walked fast into Cloud's bedroom, going straight for the drawer. Her hand closed on several Seal orbs; she released them all until she found the strongest, and then she held it against her chest and went to join them upstairs. She paused and got fresh sheets for the mattress on her way, though. She berated herself all along, but she got fresh sheets, and even a blanket. She would have cheerfully -- well, not cheerfully, but determinedly -- broken the man's neck, but making him sleep in the dust just seemed too petty.
Chapter 3.3
It was only five minutes before Tifa pushed the door open and walked in; the five longest minutes in recent history. She stood there, outside of the puddle of light by the bar, not moving any closer.
"Tifa..." Cloud and Aeris spoke almost in synch, by accident. Tifa glanced back and forth at them both, and her red-brown eyes skimmed over Zack; but once they met Sephiroth's green, they didn't move again.
+
It seemed surreal to her -- Sephiroth standing in her bar, propped up against one of the wooden pillars, with his imposing frame and his cold, aristocratic face, and his unnatural hair. Not unreal, though -- unreal would have been a vision complete with the black leather outfit and the sword, and his hair floating freely behind him like a banner to his arrogance. Instead there were knotted-back hair and a bare chest and Cloud's slightly-too-small pants, and bare, dusty -- and bleeding? -- feet, lit by the cheap yellow glow of the lone light bulb. Surreal, definitely -- because it was definitely way too much reality for one scene.
And he was still watching her, and his eyes still glowed Materia-green around those inhuman pupils. Off to the left, Cloud was slumped on a barstool, looking weary and watchful.
Not mindlessly adoring, though. Not vacant-eyed.
"... Does anyone mind telling me what is going on?" she asked, remarkably calmly.
It was the black-haired man who started first, circling the end of the bar to take a few steps closer. He didn't come any closer than the first table, though; good, because Tifa would have hated to break it on his head to keep him away.
"Heya, miss Lockart. It's been a while. Do you recognize me?"
Well-defined cheekbones, long locks of hair that gathered in spiky clumps, body -- hips from which her sweatpants were threatening to fall off... She did at that. She had only known him a couple of weeks, ten years ago, but the swagger was -- she'd been thinking 'inimitable', but Cloud had done such a good job mimicking it that this was how it clicked in her mind. She still remembered it as 'how Cloud used to walk, when he was still pretending to be Zack.'
Cloud didn't have black hair, and she wasn't sure where he would have found a wig in the old slums, but that would have been doable. Unlikely, but doable.
The purple glow of his eyes, not so much.
Tifa stared at them all in turn, still trying to figure out why he was there and what kind of catastrophe was falling on their heads now. The way he grinned -- it seemed real enough. But only the bad guys ever seemed to come back from the Lifestream for a visit... Case in point.
"Zack, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"You were the one who met Denzel in the church?"
"Yep. Smart kid, that one. Got character too."
Tifa desperately tried not to think that all the time Denzel had spent chatting in the church with Zack, Sephiroth had been lurking around, probably listening in. "... Thank you. Now would you please--" Her voice went a bit strangled, and she fell silent to breathe in, and out, like Zangan had taught her all those years ago. She was calm. She was very calm. She was going to stay calm until it was time to fight again -- she would just be ready. Being nervous wasn't going to help.
"Yeah... I'd tell you it's a long story, but in layman's terms it isn't. So. Condensed version, er. Aeris was done working the Lifestream -- it can run itself now -- so we decided to come back." Zack grinned, hopeful and somewhat sheepish -- a lot like Denzel when he hoped she wouldn't notice he'd only done the first page of his homework or eaten only the meat and then artistically spread the vegetables to make it look like more than that. Maybe a smidgen more nervous, but then again, not a lot.
"... Ah."
"That's the really, really condensed version, though. And, er, about Sephiroth -- well, he's still kind of an ass, but he's not insane anymore, so...?"
Tifa stopped staring at Sephiroth, whose eyebrows had vaguely twitched downward at the announcement, and stared at Zack instead. What was she supposed to answer? 'Oh, that's nice'?
This time it was Aeris who moved to meet her, and who didn't stop at the edge of the light.
Lost in Tifa's largest t-shirt, hair unbound, locks flying all over the place, shawl wound around her hips like a fancy skirt -- unmistakable. It didn't feel surreal or unreal anymore, it just felt true, and suddenly Tifa couldn't breathe, because if she did Aeris might fray and disappear.
"Tifa --"
Tenderness and compassion on her face, in her eyes -- a hint of a wince, shared pain, a rueful little smile...
They reached out at the same time, hands gripping each other.
Aeris' hand was warm, but what convinced even Tifa's rational mind was that she had dust on her cheek, tangles in her hair, and a shiny piece of chewing-gum wrapper caught in the fringe of her shawl. Tifa was startled when she heard herself laugh, choked on something; she didn't know it was a giggle or a sob. Proof by chewing-gum wrapper. How was that for a miracle?
Oh, how she wanted to cling and to ask a million things, but the cold, inhuman eyes behind them -- she couldn't help it, she shifted Aeris bodily aside, edged forward so she could shield her in case anything happened. Cloud's face tightened, as if in pain, and Zack ruffled his hair in tired embarrassment. She waited for Sephiroth to do something -- give her a disdainful look, a smirk, a sneer maybe; he didn't. He didn't taunt her, he didn't pretend to be polite, he didn't say anything. Good, because she didn't know if the sound of his voice might perhaps be the thing to snap her calm. He just watched her right back and that was it.
At her side, Aeris sighed quietly. "Sephiroth... I think it's time you slept. Cloud?"
Sephiroth looked at the blond, expressionless. Cloud frowned faintly and then nodded. "It's getting late."
Tifa frowned, confused and a little on edge. "Cloud?"
"He's going to be under a Sleep spell until the rest of the gang gets there and we all decide what to do," Cloud replied calmly, with a touch of gentleness in his voice like he knew exactly what she feared; she felt a little reassured.
"Ah. Alright."
"Mmh. Far from me to delay your bedtime," Sephiroth commented silkily.
The sound of his low voice made her shudder; she had been starting to think he would not speak at all. Cloud glared at him, hostility flashing through his weariness; Tifa was reassured. The world wasn't completely crazy yet.
"For someone asking for favors, you're bad at staying on my good side," he snapped.
Sephiroth's eyes narrowed, and Tifa tensed, but then Zack just stepped toward Cloud and tapped his shoulder. "Yeah, he kinda sucks at it. Lack of habit and all."
"For someone so smart," Cloud replied without breaking eye contact with Sephiroth, "he doesn't learn very fast."
Sephiroth's eyes went even narrower, but then he breathed out slowly and his expression smoothened, emptied out. "My apologies."
Cloud was still scowling, but in the end he just shrugged it off with a quick, irritated twitch of the shoulders. He slipped off the stool, swung his sword back in its sheath. "Staircase. Second floor. There's a mattress in the attic."
"An attic. And a lock on the door, I assume?"
Sephiroth was watching him with those narrowed, coldly predatory eyes again. Cloud frowned back sternly. "Yes." He lifted a hand, to cut off an answer Tifa hadn't been aware would ever be coming. "It's not to keep you in. It's to keep people out. There are children living here."
Tifa wondered briefly whether she was crazy or whether this explanation could have been construed as a -- weak, insincere, irritated -- form of apology. Surely she was reading too much into it.
Sephiroth relaxed slowly nonetheless. "I did offer my cooperation, Strife."
They just stared at each other in silence, and Tifa barely dared look away; she glanced at Aeris, and at Zack too, to see if they had any idea what was going on in their loud silences. Aeris looked sad; Zack looked worried. Neither of them offered any explanation.
"... Well! Let's see it," Aeris commented with false cheer as she tugged Tifa toward the staircase, urging everyone to stay moving. "Say, Cloud, do you have a Seal Materia? I'll cast."
"Yeah, several. Tifa? You know where they are; would you mind?"
Tifa hesitated -- she didn't want to leave Cloud and Aeris alone with Sephiroth, and she still didn't know if she could really rely on Zack all that much. But someone needed to get the Materia, and the other ones didn't know where Cloud kept them.
Tifa walked fast into Cloud's bedroom, going straight for the drawer. Her hand closed on several Seal orbs; she released them all until she found the strongest, and then she held it against her chest and went to join them upstairs. She paused and got fresh sheets for the mattress on her way, though. She berated herself all along, but she got fresh sheets, and even a blanket. She would have cheerfully -- well, not cheerfully, but determinedly -- broken the man's neck, but making him sleep in the dust just seemed too petty.
Chapter 3.3