Reunions
By Laura Hallens (yes, it's a pen name)
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 7 or the characters. They are the property of Squaresoft, god of video game RPG's. The story idea is mine; however, I am not making any kind of profit from it. It's all in good fun and sharing.
> Spoilers: Basically the whole game. If you haven't finished the game (though with FF10 already released, I'm sure everyone interested has finished FF7 by now), you need to have at least finished disk 1. If you're only on disk 2, assume that the good guys won. Minor spoilers for the end of the game.
Distribution: My site. Anyone else, please ask.

Chapter 5 - Girl Talk

"Sure, Aerith, we can talk. What's on your mind?" Tifa asked calmly.

"Cloud," I told her. Then I sighed. "Listen, Tifa, I really don't mean to be in the way. I know you said that you want me to stay with you two, but are you sure? I know you love him, and by rights you were here first..."

Tifa cut me off with a shake of her head. "No, Aerith, it's not like that. Cloud and I are friends. Very good friends, but only friends. He doesn't love me, not in that way. He might have come to eventually, but he loves you now." Tifa took a deep breath and sighed. It wasn't easy, but she had to tell her friend the truth. And if this was the way things were meant to be, then so be it. Tifa would still be friends with both of them. "He hasn't ever forgiven himself for your death, Aerith. Even when you weren't here, you were still between us. He would never have forgotten you or his feelings for you, even if he'd learned to love me later. If you're back now, before that happened, then things between he and I weren't meant to be."

"How can you be sure, though?" I asked softly. "My coming back isn't exactly natural. As far as I know, there's nothing going on that will require my death again... but things happen sometimes."

"Aerith," Tifa sat up in her seat suddenly, looking at me with narrowed eyes. "Do you know something we don't? Is there another threat out there?"

I bit my lip lightly. I hadn't wanted to say anything, but it looked like now I had to. "Yes. I think it's part of the reason I came back... the planet screamed a few days ago. The morning of the same day I first reached Midgar and set up my camp. I don't know what the problem is, only that there is one; I was hoping to stay hidden while I discovered the threat and dealt with it. I didn't want to disrupt things, because it looked like you'd all moved on."

"Some of us did... some easier than others, but most of the group didn't know you well," Tifa said slowly. "And Cloud... Cloud never forgave himself, never let go. He was able to go on with living after the battles with Sephiroth because he'd been doing it while we went after Sephiroth. I think he just buried it and tried to cope that way. But that doesn't get him over it, it just lets him pretend like he is. I can tell, though, and I think Reeve can too. The others aren't around enough to tell, though."

"I see. Tifa, I... I'm sorry. I never meant to mess anything up for you. Honestly, I didn't."

"Don't be sorry, Aerith. It wasn't your fault that he fell through the roof of your church." I smiled at that. It had been a rather odd meeting... but apparently it was meant to happen, because it had.

"No, I suppose it wasn't. But I'm lucky that he did, because he was there to keep me safe when the Turks showed up." I couldn't help but shiver; memories of being taken captive by Hojo were the stuff nightmares were made of. Fortunately, thanks to Cloud, Tifa and Barret, I hadn't been there long. "Did I ever say thank you for getting me out of Shinra? If I didn't, I meant to."

"It's okay, Aerith. We understood. We couldn't have left you there, especially if you made sure Marlene was safe for Barret."

"I couldn't let a little girl be hurt by what was going on. I really did it for her, at the time, because I barely knew Barret. How are they doing, anyway?" I was curious about that.

"They're just fine. Living in North Corel, I think we mentioned," Tifa paused, and I nodded. I thought they'd said something along those lines. "If not before, you'll see them at midsummer," she continued. "We have a get-together every midsummer, just to catch up and spend a little time together. You will come with us, won't you?"

"Sure," I agreed. "It would be nice... though you might want to tell them about me before that." I smiled. "Unless you want to shock everyone, like with Reeve."

Tifa returned my smile and shook her head wryly. "As amusing as that might be, it probably wouldn't be a good idea. You never know how they might react. With Reeve, we were very definitely in a controlled situation. At midsummer..." She trailed off and I nodded again. Uncharted territory - better not to shock everyone.

"So how should we go about letting everyone know?" I asked after a moment of thoughtful quiet. I wasn't accustomed to belonging to a large group of people, so I didn't know how they all kept in touch. Letters were slow, but we had some time before midsummer. But letters assumed that you knew exactly where a person was at the time.

"We can send letters to Barret and Marlene, Cid and Shera, Yuffie, and Red. They've all settled down. Vincent... no one knows where he lives or what he's been doing. He drops by when he chooses and we don't see him otherwise," Tifa said, partly explaining and partly thinking out loud.

"That's sad," I couldn't help but speak my thought. Vincent was scary at first, but I could tell that there was more to him than first appearances would lead you to believe. I wished I'd had a chance to get to know him better. Though honestly, I wished I'd had a chance to get to know any of them better.

Tifa blinked at me, then nodded slowly. "It is, rather. But if that's how he wants it, who are we to say otherwise?"

I had to agree with that reasoning. There really wasn't anything else to be done, if Vincent preferred to be alone. But I hoped that he would show up at Midsummer. If only so that I could see him and talk to him for a little while. It wasn't that I had romantic feelings for him or anything; it was more like feeling that he was a kindred soul. He wasn't entirely human, to all appearances, and that gave me a sense of connection with him. I'm only half-human, and that makes me unique too.

"Anyway," Tifa said, breaking into my thoughts, "we'd better get ready for our meeting. And hopefully you can keep that foot up a little better this afternoon, hmm?" she asked with an amused grin.

"Well, I can try," I answered with a touch of a shrug. "Is there any hope that this meeting will go smoother than the last one did?"

"Nope," Tifa answered with a laugh. "For me, they're all like that. And honestly, thanks to you that meeting wasn't as bad as most!"

"Oh, good. And we have this to look forward to every day?" I said, laughing to myself as well. "Just what did I get myself into?" I asked with pretended exasperation.

"Oh, trust me, you don't want to know!" Tifa answered back in a similar tone.

"Well, then," I got to my feet - er, well, foot - with a determined expression, "Let's get on with it, shall we?"

"That wasn't actually as bad as I was afraid it would be," Tifa said to me as we walked out of the admin building that evening.

"No? I thought it was frustrating. Compared to them, the merchants were easy!" Tifa just laughed and shook her head. I couldn't help but laugh with her, and we were both in good humor when we entered the house Tifa and Cloud shared.

"Damn, Cloud isn't back yet," Tifa commented as we moved through the house. "That means I'll have to make dinner." Tifa wasn't a bad cook at all, I remembered, but she tended to dislike going to all the effort after a long day. I was just the opposite; for me, it was a way to relax.

"No you don't," I couldn't help but say. "I could do it. I'm really not a bad cook, Tifa."

"But you're supposed to stay off that ankle!" my friend protested.

"I will stay off it. I can get around, really I can. And it's not as bad as it might've been; I used my cure spell on it last night. So it's better than it would've been otherwise. Please Tifa?" Even though I'd been helping her all day, I still needed to feel like I was contributing to the running of their house while I was a guest in it. I knew that I didn't need to feel that way, that my friends would take care of me and insist that I stay with them regardless. But as long as I was there, I needed to help out.

"Oh, all right," Tifa relented with a sigh. "I'll keep you company, though. And I'm not sure you know where everything is yet, either."

"That's fine by me," I agreed with a smile. "Come on, you can sit with me while I cook."

 
Dinner took perhaps 45 minutes to make. Cloud showed up, dust-covered, about fifteen minutes before it was done. Tifa and I managed to stall his arguments about why I shouldn't be cooking by making him go take a shower and clean up for dinner. Not that I thought we'd avoid hearing about it, since he'd have plenty of time over dinner to scold us.

And really, it was sweet of him to be concerned. But I wasn't an invalid. Really.

Cloud actually decided against scolding Tifa and Aerith. While he was showering, he'd thought it over and figured that there wasn't any point in treating either of them as less than adult. Sure, Aerith wasn't supposed to be up and about so much, but if that's what she wanted to be doing it would take more than him to stop her and he knew it.

Aerith was just as determined and just as stubborn as she had been when he first met her. Which made sense, really, because she hadn't lived through most of the last three years. She hadn't changed at all, because there'd been nothing to change her. Nothing to make her change.

Except for being dead.

But, well, she seemed to be dealing with that as well as everything else. Which is to say, he couldn't tell if she had a problem with it or not. Maybe Tifa knew, though. He could always ask later.

Aerith appeared to be just finishing dinner when Cloud returned to the kitchen. Tifa was setting the table and, from the sound of it, answering the occasional question about where something was kept.

Neither of them noticed him right away, so he had a minute to observe quietly. And it only took that minute to decide that he'd been right earlier; Aerith and Tifa were good for each other, and the friendship they'd once had was still as strong as ever. Despite the intervening time.

And Cloud was happy about it. He was sure that it helped Aerith to be more comfortable with them, and that was important. He wanted her to stay with them. And, from deep inside where he'd buried it, Cloud still held a few secret hopes of someday sharing a home and a life with Aerith. If only she felt the same way...

"Cloud, so nice of you to join us," Aerith said with a smile when she noticed him in the doorway. "Sit down, dinner's ready."

"Whatever it is, it certainly smells wonderful," Cloud told her as he took his seat.

"Thanks. It isn't anything much, and I'm glad to be able to do it. It's relaxing, anyway."

"Better you than me, Aerith. It's just more work, to me," Tifa said, and the two women exchanged a smile.

TBC...

******

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