In search of a flower girl

[meteor_heart]

Who: Tifa Lockheart and Anyone who wants to stumble in
When: The evening of the 11th of August
Where: Aerith's flower shop
Summary: Looking for Aerith in all the wrong places
Warnings: None yet, maybe weeping.

Comments

[gentiana_clusii]

Ken had never seen the flowershop at night--now he was glad he hadn't. It was an absolute mess, shards of glass and clay everywhere, crunching underfoot--it was a good thing he'd worn his boots, that was for sure.

He'd only been a handful of minutes in arriving, delaying only long enough to tell Aya where he was going and gather his weapon and mask, put on his vest for the protection it provided, but it seemed that he'd been beaten there anyway.

"Tifa?" She had to have heard him coming, even if he was trained to move quietly there was too much debris on the floor for Ken to avoid it all. At least his mask blocked some of the smell. Everything else he could ignore--he'd been in far worse.

[meteor_heart]

Tifa's ears had perked at the sound of crunching glass, but only when it had intruded on the room she was in. As she turned to address the voice she had to marvel at how well he must be trained...even like this he was quiet.

"Ye..." She paused, eyes drawn to the mask her new companion was wearing. One eyebrow went up and a half-smile quirked. She rested one hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side, studying him. "You're not really what I expected. Are you a Ninja?"

[gentiana_clusii]

"I guess you could say that." Ken shrugged, looking around the room. He couldn't see any signs of struggle, but with the way the shop was trashed that really wasn't saying much. No signs of struggle, but it still looked like a bomb had gone off.

"It definitely didn't look like this earlier."

[meteor_heart]

"It's the Darkness that does this. After the sun sets it's like everything just...ages dozens of years all at once." Tifa shook her head, taking in the wreckage of the shop. Her hands were still gloved from the fight outside and the leather creaked as she flexed her hands reflexively. "I hate seeing it like this, but I had to come and look. I havn't seen any back rooms she might be in..."

Tifa took several hesitant steps, casting about the room for any signs of another room or exit.

[gentiana_clusii]

"There's the storeroom. Back here," Ken said, picking his way through the wreck to a door obscured by shadows, half-blocked by a dead snake plant that he'd just watered earlier today--Ken gingerly moved it aside, making the door accessible. The hinges didn't want to cooperate, and the doorknob almost fell off in his hands, but he eventually managed to wrench it open partway.

[meteor_heart]

Tifa followed his lead, pacing a footstep or two behind Ken and keeping an eye out for anything that might come slithering out of the darkness. When he wrenched the door open she broke off her watch for a moment to peek inside, limited by the clinging dark.

"I see...fertilizer I think?" She frowned, the helplessness starting to bubble up inside her. Where could she be?

[gentiana_clusii]

"And potting soil." Not much back there. Ken reached into one of the pockets of his vest, pulling out a small, but powerful flashlight, and turning it on to shine into the room.

Nothing. He frowned, turning off the light and pocketing it again, blinking until his eyes readjusted to the darkness.

"Could she have gotten sidetracked between here and your place?"

[meteor_heart]

"It's possible, I mean..." She starts at Yazoo's interruption, turning to face the sudden arrival.