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FF7 - Restore - chapter 6 scene 1
As always, unbetaed so if you find anything wrong and you feel like it, please do point it out.
POV's Denzel and i'm ambivalent about it. On one hand, it shows interesting things about other avalanche members, and some things that Tifa or Cloud wouldn't see the same way. On the other hand, I feel like it's so slow-moving and booooooooooring argh I want sephiroooooth *wails* ... but that's mostly just me whining about it. don't mind me. If I have nothing to complain about then i'm not happy. XD;;;
Table of Contents
First - Previous
It was the first time Denzel had been to Wutai, though he'd seen tons of pictures. They'd been planning to go visit Yuffie instead of the other way around for years, but Tifa just couldn't afford a lot of vacation time.
He watched the town from the ship's bridge, high above, as the crew gathered packages to send down. The view should have been pretty, but the gray light of early morning didn't look right on all those red walls and gold accents, and all those white-dressed people drifting through the paved streets made it sinister, like a ghost town. All pennants and flags were tied down.
"Gloomy, huh," Barret said, his flesh hand falling heavy on Denzel's shoulder and giving a couple of manly pats before retreating.
"Yeah," Denzel agreed quietly. "Time to go?"
"Yep." Barret threw the ladder overboard, watching it unroll, and gave a couple of testing tugs. "I'm goin' first. There's no wind, so it shouldn't swing around much," he added.
"I'm not gonna fall," Denzel replied with a little huffy sigh. He picked up his backpack and put it on, tightening the straps, before Barret could offer to carry it down. Sometimes he forgot Denzel wasn't a kid anymore. Then again, in Barret's head Denzel was only just above Marlene's age, and Marlene would be a little kid forever if he had anything to say about it.
"You better not fall, Tifa'll have my hide," Barret replied with a little smirk, and swung over the guardrail. "Sure you don't want me to carry you down, shrimp?"
Denzel glared at him, half-serious only. "Sure you don't want me to undo that big knot and see what happens?"
Barret chuckled his deep, quiet laugh, the indulgent kind he didn't use much around adults, except maybe Tifa. "Brat. I should throw ya over my shoulder, that'd teach ya."
"Hey!" Denzel protested. Barret snorted, still smirking faintly, and started climbing down. Grumbling uncomplimentary things under his breath, Denzel straddled the guardrail and -- uh. Well. They were kind of high. But he didn't want anyone to laugh at him, so he grabbed a good hold and started down, pretending he hadn't seen Barret watching him, ready to snatch him out of the air if Denzel fumbled it.
The town must be really pretty in summer, he thought, watching the mountains half-ringing the city, the slanted roofs. They were building something on one of the town squares, but even when he squinted he couldn't make it out.
The novelty of climbing down a rope ladder wore down a long time before he landed on the paved stones; by the end it was just tedious. He jumped over the last rungs and waved at Cid, who stood beside Barret.
"Hey, kid."
"I'm fourteen, not a kid," he grumbled. Well, almost fourteen. It counted. "I'm gonna call you old man if you continue."
"Who ya calling old, punk?" Cid replied, mock-cuffing him when he went to join them.
Denzel shoved back halfheartedly. Playing around was alright, but it didn't make the town any less depressing. When Barret draped an arm across his shoulders and dragged him between the two men, he didn't protest.
They walked away from the ship, crossing paths with strangely dressed people who didn't even look at them as they shuffled along the walls. It was like Denzel and Cid and Barret were the ones who were ghosts, for all the 'can't see you!' the locals were doing. Brr.
The guards at Yuffie's house... palace thing... saw them, though, but they seemed to know Cid and waved them through without even changing their expression.
"Is everyone here doing a Vincent or what?" Denzel couldn't help but ask in a whisper.
Cid snorted. "If Vince was from here, that would explain things 'bout him..." he muttered under his breath. "I don't have a clue, kid. They're probably just depressed. It's noisier usually."
Denzel gave him an unconvinced look. "If you say so."
They were met by an old, stooped servant and guided through long, boring corridors, and gardens, and -- "Nanaki!"
Grinning, Denzel waved, and then fell silent, a little embarrassed by his outburst. The servant had given him a look.
Nanaki ambled to them through the garden, crossing a curved little bridge and leaping easily up on the gallery, big paws touching down in almost perfect silence. The servant paled a little. Denzel went from embarrassment at his own reaction to annoyance. Nanaki was the coolest person ever, even if he was beast-shaped. Especially because he was beast-shaped, said the corner of his brain that was still nine-year-old and amazed by his new guardians' strange friends. Denzel was a bit too old to be so shallow, though, so instead of giving the red-furred beast a full-body hug and trying to ride him, he just waved. "Er. Hey."
"Hello, my friends," Nanaki said, smiling. The expression was mostly in his eyes -- he did lift his lips at the corners in an imitation of a human smile, but really it just showed a lot of teeth. Denzel smiled back anyway.
"Long time no see, Red," Cid greeted.
Nanaki nodded, flame-tipped tail swishing. "Much too long indeed. I regret that it took such a sad event to make it happen."
Barret grunted an agreement.
The servant couldn't leave fast enough once she had led them to Cloud's room, but Denzel didn't care much. He just stared at Cloud, standing in the doorway wrapped in thick white cloth.
"Man, you look awful."
Cloud blinked at him. "Gee, thanks. Glad to see you too."
"Kid's right," Cid agreed, watching Cloud doubtfully. "You got piss-holes for eyes. When's the last time you slept?"
Groaning quietly, Cloud stepped aside to let them come in. "I don't even know anymore... Just sit down wherever. Reeve left kimonos for you guys to put on, let me get them."
"I'm not wearing a friggin' bathrobe in public," Barret rumbled, crossing his arms.
Cloud nodded slowly like he couldn't care less. "Alright, I'll just tell Reeve he spent five hours shaking down every shop on the continent to find one your size for nothing, then?"
Barret's eyelid twitched. Denzel swallowed a snicker.
"Real kimono too. All silk. I don't even want to know how much it--"
"All right, fine, shut up, I'll wear the friggin' bathrobe!"
"Aw, I'm sure you'll look pretty," Cid commented with a chuckle. Barret shook a clenched fist at him.
Cloud's lips quirked up in a little smile, but it didn't look very convincing to Denzel. He drifted closer, peering up at his guardian. "Uh, Cloud -- you're gonna be okay?" he asked quietly. "You look kinda... um. Yeah."
"Tired. I'll crash afterwards." He smiled at Denzel but it wasn't any more convincing than the first.
"Listen, Cloud, back home--"
Cloud shoved a package in his arms before he could finish the sentence. "Here's yours. We'll go to Tifa's room, you can change there. Guys..." He gestured vaguely at the other two packages on his bed. "I'm sure you can figure it out."
He herded Denzel toward a door in the wall, knocking briefly before he slid it open. Behind them Denzel heard Cid ask Nanaki if he wanted them to find him a pretty white ribbon for his neck or something. Cloud slid the door closed, muffling Nanaki's answer -- but even through the panel he didn't sound very impressed by Cid's thoughtfulness.
"Err -- Cloud?" Denzel questioned.
Tifa emerged from behind a folding screen, hair wet. She looked tired too, though not as much as Cloud did. But she looked sadder, and that was worse.
"Denzel!"
He let himself be hugged, closing his eyes when he was sure neither of them would see. Of course he had known they were fine for a while now -- sort of, Cid's men telling Cid telling Elmyra -- but... He just hadn't been sure.
He leaned back to look up at her face, threw Cloud a frown. "So what the hell was that? Back home," he clarified, though from the way their expressions shifted he didn't need to. Tifa had gone tense; Cloud's eyes were almost closed, exhausted.
"It's a long story and we can't talk about it here and now," he said quietly. "After the last ceremony, I'll tell everyone. Can you wait that long?"
Tifa gave Cloud a worried frown. Denzel puffed up in offense. It was the 'are you sure he's old enough to hear that' look. He hated that look!
Cloud could read it as well, apparently. "Tifa, when I was about eight months older than he is, I left Nibelheim to go enroll in the army. He's not too young to hear it. He'll have to live with it too."
Tifa gave Cloud a strange look. "That ... depends on what we decide," she said cautiously, like she was reminding him.
Cloud's shoulders tensed up. He turned away to look through the window. "... Of course."
Denzel's eyes flitted from one to the other. He didn't like the silence between them. It seemed he hadn't been completely stupid to worry.
He busied himself with unfolding his kimono. It really did look like a bathrobe to him, and he couldn't help but smile a little at the thought of Barret wearing one. The smile didn't last, though. Cloud and Tifa were still carefully not looking at each other, and that made him feel weird. Uneasy.
"So, er. Who's that Zack guy anyway?"
From the corner of his eye he could see Tifa freeze, the comb in her hair stopped mid-stroke. Uh oh. He quickly looked up at Cloud, who was ... also staring at him. Denzel tried to hide a wince, feeling the tension in the room rocket back up. Maybe that hadn't been the best way to change the topic, damn his too-quick tongue.
"I mean. Ex-colleague? Enemy? Random bar buddy? 'Cause he's good at playing nice, but I didn't know if he meant it, you know?"
"He's an old army friend," Cloud eventually said, after a long pause that made Denzel wish for some way to go back in time and kick himself before he let anything slip out. "A good guy. He wouldn't have hurt you."
"Alright then," Denzel said, and pretended it was. He smoothed the folds of his kimono and picked it up by the shoulders. Now to the folding screen to change...
"Denzel?"
Tifa's voice brought him to a stop, one step away from the very relative safety of the screen. He made a noise of acknowledgement.
"How did you meet Zack?"
His stomach dropped down to his shoes. Oh, this was bad. This was so bad. Tifa was doing her 'I am Very Calm, listen to how Calm I am' voice, and she never used it when it was true.
"He was at the bar," Denzel said, trying for nonchalance. Aw, shit, the guy had warned him Tifa would flip, but--
"You went to the bar," she repeated, voice gone strangely restrained.
Denzel scowled, knowing he looked like a sulky kid and not able to stop himself. "...Yeah. So what?"
He resisted the urge to steal a glance at Cloud. Cloud might play referee if it went bad, but his primary caregiver, the one with her name on his adoption paperwork, the disciplinarian -- that was Tifa. Denzel had learned early on that it was really hard to play them against each other.
"The last you knew, you were told to stay hidden because the situation was unstable. And then you went to the bar."
"I didn't go to the bar," he replied, scowling, feeling cornered and hating it. "-- Well okay I kind of did, but not right away. I just wanted to get a look from a block away, it was safe!"
"Safe?! How did you know that?" The sudden outburst startled him, but she wasn't done. "And then you just, what -- walked up to him?"
Denzel couldn't find an answer for that, because -- yes. That was exactly what he'd done. He'd seen a stranger behind the bar where Tifa or Cloud should have been and the next thing he knew he was stalking across the street for an explanation, because -- because...
Tifa threw her brush on the bed and raked both hands in her hair, starting to pace, agitated. She stared at him in accusation and Denzel clenched his fists, trying to brace for her anger.
Instead she went all restrained again, tense almost to the point of snapping, and she turned away.
It hurt, but not as much as the words that came next, quiet, clipped.
"I assumed you were mature enough for me to trust you. Trust you'd do the smart thing. Follow instructions. Keep yourself safe. All right -- I was wrong."
And she sounded so disappointed, because what she really meant was 'you let me down'. So then it just burst out and he couldn't stop it, couldn't stop himself yelling;
"I thought you were dead!"
His hands were trembling. He clenched them into fists, tried to stuff away that second of terror when he saw a stranger where Cloud or Tifa should have stood, that fear he'd buried in outrage as swiftly as possible because the thought of them actually being dead -- his ... tutors, his adoptive --
His parents. His parents, dead again.
"I had no news! None at all. You could have gotten killed for all I knew! And I just -- I --"
"What do you think you could have done except get killed as well!?" Tifa threw her hands up in the air. "Do you think that would have helped? Do you think we would have wanted this? We're the adults here -- it's not your job to protect us, Denzel, it's ours to protect you! Do you think it would feel good to have failed?"
"Tifa," Cloud intervened, glancing meaningfully toward the communicating door. But the words were already out of Denzel's mouth.
"If it was so important to protect me, why did you leave without me?!"
A callused hand caught his arm. Denzel looked up, purely by reflex; the look on Cloud's face killed his anger on the spot, deflating him and leaving him empty and hurt, guilty. He bit the inside of his cheek; he didn't want to let the tears rise to his eyes.
Tifa was staring at him and she didn't look angry anymore -- she looked stricken, like he'd managed to aim just right where it hurt. He felt the farthest thing from proud. He opened his mouth, not sure what to say.
"Okay, what's going on?" demanded Cid as he pushed the sliding door open. He glared at them all in turn, suspicious and displeased. Tifa twitched and turned away, busying herself with clothes left on the bed. Denzel bowed his head.
"Nothing," Cloud retorted. "We'll sort it out."
Cid didn't look anywhere close to convinced, and his loud snort made that clear.
"Later, Cid. We're going to be late at this rate."
Denzel wasn't sure what face Cloud was making, or how Cid took it, but after a meaningful pause the door snapped closed again. Cloud sighed and let go of Denzel's arm with a little pat that didn't reassure him at all.
"... I didn't mean that," he said, voice quiet.
Tifa didn't turn to look at him. "We'll talk about it later," she said with a quiet, careful voice.
Denzel cringed and went behind the screen to change, not saying another word.
Next
POV's Denzel and i'm ambivalent about it. On one hand, it shows interesting things about other avalanche members, and some things that Tifa or Cloud wouldn't see the same way. On the other hand, I feel like it's so slow-moving and booooooooooring argh I want sephiroooooth *wails* ... but that's mostly just me whining about it. don't mind me. If I have nothing to complain about then i'm not happy. XD;;;
Table of Contents
First - Previous
It was the first time Denzel had been to Wutai, though he'd seen tons of pictures. They'd been planning to go visit Yuffie instead of the other way around for years, but Tifa just couldn't afford a lot of vacation time.
He watched the town from the ship's bridge, high above, as the crew gathered packages to send down. The view should have been pretty, but the gray light of early morning didn't look right on all those red walls and gold accents, and all those white-dressed people drifting through the paved streets made it sinister, like a ghost town. All pennants and flags were tied down.
"Gloomy, huh," Barret said, his flesh hand falling heavy on Denzel's shoulder and giving a couple of manly pats before retreating.
"Yeah," Denzel agreed quietly. "Time to go?"
"Yep." Barret threw the ladder overboard, watching it unroll, and gave a couple of testing tugs. "I'm goin' first. There's no wind, so it shouldn't swing around much," he added.
"I'm not gonna fall," Denzel replied with a little huffy sigh. He picked up his backpack and put it on, tightening the straps, before Barret could offer to carry it down. Sometimes he forgot Denzel wasn't a kid anymore. Then again, in Barret's head Denzel was only just above Marlene's age, and Marlene would be a little kid forever if he had anything to say about it.
"You better not fall, Tifa'll have my hide," Barret replied with a little smirk, and swung over the guardrail. "Sure you don't want me to carry you down, shrimp?"
Denzel glared at him, half-serious only. "Sure you don't want me to undo that big knot and see what happens?"
Barret chuckled his deep, quiet laugh, the indulgent kind he didn't use much around adults, except maybe Tifa. "Brat. I should throw ya over my shoulder, that'd teach ya."
"Hey!" Denzel protested. Barret snorted, still smirking faintly, and started climbing down. Grumbling uncomplimentary things under his breath, Denzel straddled the guardrail and -- uh. Well. They were kind of high. But he didn't want anyone to laugh at him, so he grabbed a good hold and started down, pretending he hadn't seen Barret watching him, ready to snatch him out of the air if Denzel fumbled it.
The town must be really pretty in summer, he thought, watching the mountains half-ringing the city, the slanted roofs. They were building something on one of the town squares, but even when he squinted he couldn't make it out.
The novelty of climbing down a rope ladder wore down a long time before he landed on the paved stones; by the end it was just tedious. He jumped over the last rungs and waved at Cid, who stood beside Barret.
"Hey, kid."
"I'm fourteen, not a kid," he grumbled. Well, almost fourteen. It counted. "I'm gonna call you old man if you continue."
"Who ya calling old, punk?" Cid replied, mock-cuffing him when he went to join them.
Denzel shoved back halfheartedly. Playing around was alright, but it didn't make the town any less depressing. When Barret draped an arm across his shoulders and dragged him between the two men, he didn't protest.
They walked away from the ship, crossing paths with strangely dressed people who didn't even look at them as they shuffled along the walls. It was like Denzel and Cid and Barret were the ones who were ghosts, for all the 'can't see you!' the locals were doing. Brr.
The guards at Yuffie's house... palace thing... saw them, though, but they seemed to know Cid and waved them through without even changing their expression.
"Is everyone here doing a Vincent or what?" Denzel couldn't help but ask in a whisper.
Cid snorted. "If Vince was from here, that would explain things 'bout him..." he muttered under his breath. "I don't have a clue, kid. They're probably just depressed. It's noisier usually."
Denzel gave him an unconvinced look. "If you say so."
They were met by an old, stooped servant and guided through long, boring corridors, and gardens, and -- "Nanaki!"
Grinning, Denzel waved, and then fell silent, a little embarrassed by his outburst. The servant had given him a look.
Nanaki ambled to them through the garden, crossing a curved little bridge and leaping easily up on the gallery, big paws touching down in almost perfect silence. The servant paled a little. Denzel went from embarrassment at his own reaction to annoyance. Nanaki was the coolest person ever, even if he was beast-shaped. Especially because he was beast-shaped, said the corner of his brain that was still nine-year-old and amazed by his new guardians' strange friends. Denzel was a bit too old to be so shallow, though, so instead of giving the red-furred beast a full-body hug and trying to ride him, he just waved. "Er. Hey."
"Hello, my friends," Nanaki said, smiling. The expression was mostly in his eyes -- he did lift his lips at the corners in an imitation of a human smile, but really it just showed a lot of teeth. Denzel smiled back anyway.
"Long time no see, Red," Cid greeted.
Nanaki nodded, flame-tipped tail swishing. "Much too long indeed. I regret that it took such a sad event to make it happen."
Barret grunted an agreement.
The servant couldn't leave fast enough once she had led them to Cloud's room, but Denzel didn't care much. He just stared at Cloud, standing in the doorway wrapped in thick white cloth.
"Man, you look awful."
Cloud blinked at him. "Gee, thanks. Glad to see you too."
"Kid's right," Cid agreed, watching Cloud doubtfully. "You got piss-holes for eyes. When's the last time you slept?"
Groaning quietly, Cloud stepped aside to let them come in. "I don't even know anymore... Just sit down wherever. Reeve left kimonos for you guys to put on, let me get them."
"I'm not wearing a friggin' bathrobe in public," Barret rumbled, crossing his arms.
Cloud nodded slowly like he couldn't care less. "Alright, I'll just tell Reeve he spent five hours shaking down every shop on the continent to find one your size for nothing, then?"
Barret's eyelid twitched. Denzel swallowed a snicker.
"Real kimono too. All silk. I don't even want to know how much it--"
"All right, fine, shut up, I'll wear the friggin' bathrobe!"
"Aw, I'm sure you'll look pretty," Cid commented with a chuckle. Barret shook a clenched fist at him.
Cloud's lips quirked up in a little smile, but it didn't look very convincing to Denzel. He drifted closer, peering up at his guardian. "Uh, Cloud -- you're gonna be okay?" he asked quietly. "You look kinda... um. Yeah."
"Tired. I'll crash afterwards." He smiled at Denzel but it wasn't any more convincing than the first.
"Listen, Cloud, back home--"
Cloud shoved a package in his arms before he could finish the sentence. "Here's yours. We'll go to Tifa's room, you can change there. Guys..." He gestured vaguely at the other two packages on his bed. "I'm sure you can figure it out."
He herded Denzel toward a door in the wall, knocking briefly before he slid it open. Behind them Denzel heard Cid ask Nanaki if he wanted them to find him a pretty white ribbon for his neck or something. Cloud slid the door closed, muffling Nanaki's answer -- but even through the panel he didn't sound very impressed by Cid's thoughtfulness.
"Err -- Cloud?" Denzel questioned.
Tifa emerged from behind a folding screen, hair wet. She looked tired too, though not as much as Cloud did. But she looked sadder, and that was worse.
"Denzel!"
He let himself be hugged, closing his eyes when he was sure neither of them would see. Of course he had known they were fine for a while now -- sort of, Cid's men telling Cid telling Elmyra -- but... He just hadn't been sure.
He leaned back to look up at her face, threw Cloud a frown. "So what the hell was that? Back home," he clarified, though from the way their expressions shifted he didn't need to. Tifa had gone tense; Cloud's eyes were almost closed, exhausted.
"It's a long story and we can't talk about it here and now," he said quietly. "After the last ceremony, I'll tell everyone. Can you wait that long?"
Tifa gave Cloud a worried frown. Denzel puffed up in offense. It was the 'are you sure he's old enough to hear that' look. He hated that look!
Cloud could read it as well, apparently. "Tifa, when I was about eight months older than he is, I left Nibelheim to go enroll in the army. He's not too young to hear it. He'll have to live with it too."
Tifa gave Cloud a strange look. "That ... depends on what we decide," she said cautiously, like she was reminding him.
Cloud's shoulders tensed up. He turned away to look through the window. "... Of course."
Denzel's eyes flitted from one to the other. He didn't like the silence between them. It seemed he hadn't been completely stupid to worry.
He busied himself with unfolding his kimono. It really did look like a bathrobe to him, and he couldn't help but smile a little at the thought of Barret wearing one. The smile didn't last, though. Cloud and Tifa were still carefully not looking at each other, and that made him feel weird. Uneasy.
"So, er. Who's that Zack guy anyway?"
From the corner of his eye he could see Tifa freeze, the comb in her hair stopped mid-stroke. Uh oh. He quickly looked up at Cloud, who was ... also staring at him. Denzel tried to hide a wince, feeling the tension in the room rocket back up. Maybe that hadn't been the best way to change the topic, damn his too-quick tongue.
"I mean. Ex-colleague? Enemy? Random bar buddy? 'Cause he's good at playing nice, but I didn't know if he meant it, you know?"
"He's an old army friend," Cloud eventually said, after a long pause that made Denzel wish for some way to go back in time and kick himself before he let anything slip out. "A good guy. He wouldn't have hurt you."
"Alright then," Denzel said, and pretended it was. He smoothed the folds of his kimono and picked it up by the shoulders. Now to the folding screen to change...
"Denzel?"
Tifa's voice brought him to a stop, one step away from the very relative safety of the screen. He made a noise of acknowledgement.
"How did you meet Zack?"
His stomach dropped down to his shoes. Oh, this was bad. This was so bad. Tifa was doing her 'I am Very Calm, listen to how Calm I am' voice, and she never used it when it was true.
"He was at the bar," Denzel said, trying for nonchalance. Aw, shit, the guy had warned him Tifa would flip, but--
"You went to the bar," she repeated, voice gone strangely restrained.
Denzel scowled, knowing he looked like a sulky kid and not able to stop himself. "...Yeah. So what?"
He resisted the urge to steal a glance at Cloud. Cloud might play referee if it went bad, but his primary caregiver, the one with her name on his adoption paperwork, the disciplinarian -- that was Tifa. Denzel had learned early on that it was really hard to play them against each other.
"The last you knew, you were told to stay hidden because the situation was unstable. And then you went to the bar."
"I didn't go to the bar," he replied, scowling, feeling cornered and hating it. "-- Well okay I kind of did, but not right away. I just wanted to get a look from a block away, it was safe!"
"Safe?! How did you know that?" The sudden outburst startled him, but she wasn't done. "And then you just, what -- walked up to him?"
Denzel couldn't find an answer for that, because -- yes. That was exactly what he'd done. He'd seen a stranger behind the bar where Tifa or Cloud should have been and the next thing he knew he was stalking across the street for an explanation, because -- because...
Tifa threw her brush on the bed and raked both hands in her hair, starting to pace, agitated. She stared at him in accusation and Denzel clenched his fists, trying to brace for her anger.
Instead she went all restrained again, tense almost to the point of snapping, and she turned away.
It hurt, but not as much as the words that came next, quiet, clipped.
"I assumed you were mature enough for me to trust you. Trust you'd do the smart thing. Follow instructions. Keep yourself safe. All right -- I was wrong."
And she sounded so disappointed, because what she really meant was 'you let me down'. So then it just burst out and he couldn't stop it, couldn't stop himself yelling;
"I thought you were dead!"
His hands were trembling. He clenched them into fists, tried to stuff away that second of terror when he saw a stranger where Cloud or Tifa should have stood, that fear he'd buried in outrage as swiftly as possible because the thought of them actually being dead -- his ... tutors, his adoptive --
His parents. His parents, dead again.
"I had no news! None at all. You could have gotten killed for all I knew! And I just -- I --"
"What do you think you could have done except get killed as well!?" Tifa threw her hands up in the air. "Do you think that would have helped? Do you think we would have wanted this? We're the adults here -- it's not your job to protect us, Denzel, it's ours to protect you! Do you think it would feel good to have failed?"
"Tifa," Cloud intervened, glancing meaningfully toward the communicating door. But the words were already out of Denzel's mouth.
"If it was so important to protect me, why did you leave without me?!"
A callused hand caught his arm. Denzel looked up, purely by reflex; the look on Cloud's face killed his anger on the spot, deflating him and leaving him empty and hurt, guilty. He bit the inside of his cheek; he didn't want to let the tears rise to his eyes.
Tifa was staring at him and she didn't look angry anymore -- she looked stricken, like he'd managed to aim just right where it hurt. He felt the farthest thing from proud. He opened his mouth, not sure what to say.
"Okay, what's going on?" demanded Cid as he pushed the sliding door open. He glared at them all in turn, suspicious and displeased. Tifa twitched and turned away, busying herself with clothes left on the bed. Denzel bowed his head.
"Nothing," Cloud retorted. "We'll sort it out."
Cid didn't look anywhere close to convinced, and his loud snort made that clear.
"Later, Cid. We're going to be late at this rate."
Denzel wasn't sure what face Cloud was making, or how Cid took it, but after a meaningful pause the door snapped closed again. Cloud sighed and let go of Denzel's arm with a little pat that didn't reassure him at all.
"... I didn't mean that," he said, voice quiet.
Tifa didn't turn to look at him. "We'll talk about it later," she said with a quiet, careful voice.
Denzel cringed and went behind the screen to change, not saying another word.
Next