[Fic] In This Together 3/?
Note: Eheh...none of these chapters are beta read so all mistakes are my own. ^^;
__
He returned to his home shortly after sunrise the next morning. He wore the other set of clothes he'd taken with him from the night before and he hoped he'd managed to not get his face too dirty.
He hadn't had any way to check his reflection and make himself presentable.
It wasn't uncommon for Tifa and the kids to sleep well into the morning on the weekends. Denzel and Marlene usually even woke up before Tifa herself...even if that was just to catch the early morning cartoons. He relocked the door to the bar as he closed it behind him.
The kids wouldn't be up for another hour or so, Leon noted as he caught the time on the wall clock hanging just above the stairway leading up from the bar to the little apartment above.
He entered his room, set his backpack down and headed for the bathroom.
He'd finished his shower quickly and headed down the stairs to the bar.
He was hungry.
He was surprised to see Tifa and the kids already awake and downstairs. They looked up at him as he entered, all in a similar state of early morning undress with bed hair and wrinkled clothes. Tifa was still in a set of dark blue pyjamas. Leon smiled as he slid onto the stool next to Marlene where both she and Denzel sat at the bar. Tifa was cooking breakfast. Leon's eyes were drawn to the tv hanging to the right of the bar where cartoons were playing in a low volume.
Thinking on it, Leon realized he hadn't felt quite so...at ease...in a long time.
Bacon sizzling and popping on the stove, the presence of others around, the warmth of the bar, the smell of toast.
It reminded him of the orphanage.
Of days long ago, back when he'd been a little kid.
Back before sis was taken and everything went to hell.
There was a knock on the bar and the four of them turned collectively.
Leon stood from his seat and went to answer it.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't our new friend."
It was the red-head vampire and his looming companion again.
They hadn't been in the group that Leon had 'dealt with' not so long ago.
"Reno, you better not be here to cause me problems. It's too early."
The red-head peeked around Leon to look inside the bar, "Well hey there pretty lady. You dressed like that for me?"
Tifa snorted. "You wish."
Reno, the red-head, turned to his companion and said lowly, "Oh, do I ever."
"I heard that. Now either come in or stay out. You're letting the cold in."
Leon frowned but moved aside, letting the two vampires in. Reno walked past with a smirk and his companion follwed after with a face that Leon couldn't read and a set of sunglasses perched on his nose that hid his eyes.
Leon shut the door after them.
Leon sat, frowning but slightly bemused, as Reno and Tifa bantered. Even Marlene and Denzel took cheap shots at the vampire. Reno's companion, who's name Leon had picked up to be Rude, simply sat quietly, watching them all.
It seemed the little group all knew each other.
Then the conversation took the turn Leon hadn't really been wanting it to take.
"So, you've already met Leon I take it?"
Reno smiled slyly. "You could say that."
Tifa looked at Leon, who simply stared back in response.
"We just happened to stop in to see how things were going with good ol' Cid when we saw him," Reno's looked purposely at Leon, "working the garage. Figured we'd go ahead and introduce ourselves."
"They didn't try to intimidate you or anything did they Leon?" Tifa asked, smiling as well, "Cause if they did, you just tell me. I've been looking for excuses to beat the snot outta this one here every day since we met," she pointed her thumb over her shoulder towards Reno. "Shinra jerks. Think they own the whole city."
"Well, aside from your bar and I think the library, Shinra does own it all."
"Ha ha. Very funny." Tifa set plates in front of Denzel and Marlene and loaded them with food, bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage...the classic breakfast works. She made plates for Leon and herself and pulled her own bar stool out from under the other side of the bar, where she always kept it tucked away.
"Hey, none for us?"
"I can't afford to feed you Reno. You're a hog."
"Hey!"
"But maybe you'd want a plate, Rude? I don't mind fixing a little more."
"Hey-!"
"That's okay." Leon was surprised at how...normal Rude sounded. Voice calm and collected. Nothing like the red head. Tifa gave him a smile and went at her own plate.
Reno leaned over as Leon continued eating, "I gotta admit, I'm impressed Wolfman. Taking out six of Reuben's goons all at once ain't something you see everyday. But now you've gone and made the Big Guy mad, see? It's just a matter of time before he sends Sephiroth after you now. So take my advice, and Cloud's, leave Garden." Reno's bright eyes, something that bordered the line and flashed just between green and blue, were staring at him intently. Leon was watching him from the corner of his eye.
"No."
Reno's face lifted into a smirk that finished as a smile. "I'd hoped you would stick around." He turned to Rude, "Told ya, Buddy. Now where's my five gil?" Rude began fishing around in his jacket pocket for what Leon assumed was his wallet.
~
It was the following day that Leon found himself bored.
Cid had no work for him, there were no dishes to clean, no necessary grocery shopping, the bar was running slow and Denzel and Marlene had gone over to friends' houses to play.
Leon was very bored.
Tifa told him to go explore.
So he did.
He'd rambled his way right into one of the almost abandoned districts of the city. Abandoned simply because it was entirely too old and as the city had expanded, it's population had not followed quite proportionately. So the residents had simply followed one another and moved onto the newer areas of the city.
Half the buildings in the area had either crumbled or were well on their way. Vegetation had even begun reclaiming much of the older side of the city.
As he wandered down into a slightly opened up area that formed what might have been an avenue at one time, his eyes fell onto a church.
His hands met the heavy, dark-stained wood of one of the double doors and pushed it open. The door caught slightly, it's hinge rusting, but Leon pushed a little more and it continued creaking open.
The church was worse off than he'd thought it would be.
Their was a gaping hole in the cieling of the church, as if something might have falled through it once upon a time and from there the weather and time had simply worn at the edges of it until there was almost less cieling than open space.
Leon's eyes had wandered to the ground, to the sunlit expanse made by the hole. It was a field of flowers.
White and yellow flowers.
It almost looked like a garden.
As Leon made his way to it, he could smell the mold and decay wafting up from the church pews now that the open door had allowed a new breeze in. He continued on past the pews, hearing the wooden floorboards groaning under his boots, and knelt down once he'd reached the edge of the flower field.
The flowers smelled like freshness and life itself.
He sat down, content to listen to the quite of the area and the surrounding scent of the flowers.
Leon had closed his eyes for only a minute when he was jolted by the feel of something nearby.
His eyes opened and he was face to face with a young woman kneeling right in front of him.
He first noted that she wore quite a bit of pink. Second was her eyes, they were almost emerald, the color of the leaves from the flowers beside them. Her brown hair was pulled mostly back and away from her face, her bangs were left to frame it though. She was...pretty. And oddly...
She was translucent.
Leon blinked.
The young woman spoke first. "Who are you?" Her voice is light, almost sweet and questioning.
Leon only blinked again.
The young woman smiled, "I'm a ghost. My name's Aerith. What's yours?"
"...Leon."
"You're not normal, are you?"
Leon frowned.
"I mean," the young woman, Aerith, the ghost, smiled a little apologetically, "you're not human. I can feel it." Her eyes searched Leon's face. "I don't know what you are, but you don't feel like a vampire. And you don't look much like one either," she laughed.
Leon was quiet for a moment before shaking his head, "No, I'm not."
Aerith continued looking at him for a few more moments before she turned toward the flowers. Her hand reached out and touched the petals of one.
Actually *touched* it. The white petal bent under the weight of her hand.
"How-"
Aerith looked at him again, "I've had a lot of practice."
After a few seconds of silence, Aerith spoke again. "So...what were you doing here, Leon?"
"...Exploring."
~
Leon wasn't entirely sure when he began to routinely visit the church, but he realized he had.
Whenever he had a free day off again, he'd wander out to the old building, where Aerith was always waiting for him.
She told him a lot about Radiant Garden.
She'd lived here for almost 200 years.
Leon asked how long the Shinra clan had been in Radiant Garden.
Aerith told him they had been here for longer than even she had.
They'd been the stuff of legends even when she'd been mortal.
The Shinra were a noble family, one of the founding families of Radiant Garden. She frowned as she told him that almost 80 years ago, the Shinra family had simply disappeared.
Then Reuben had shown up, claiming to be a heir to the Shinra, and the Shinra "clan" became what it was today.
Leon found himself spending a lot of time with Aerith.
Her presence was...calming.
She told him about her time as a mortal, even about her time after she'd died.
But she never said anything about how she had died. And Leon had never asked.
She'd never asked him about how he'd come to be what he was either.
She had asked once if he had family.
He told her about Tifa, Marlene and Denzel.
Aerith had smiled. She hadn't asked again after that.
It was one afternoon, after a visit, when Leon was preparing to leave, that Aerith stood as well. She held three flowers out to him.
"Here, these are for Tifa and the kids."
Aerith's smile was infectious and Leon found himself smiling a little as well.
He reached out and blinked as Aerith's hand brushed his, vanishing through it where it should have made contact and leaving an odd feeling of cold in it's wake. Leon's fingers closed around the flowers.
Aerith waved to him as he headed for the door. "Come back soon."
Back to Part Two Onward to Part Four
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He returned to his home shortly after sunrise the next morning. He wore the other set of clothes he'd taken with him from the night before and he hoped he'd managed to not get his face too dirty.
He hadn't had any way to check his reflection and make himself presentable.
It wasn't uncommon for Tifa and the kids to sleep well into the morning on the weekends. Denzel and Marlene usually even woke up before Tifa herself...even if that was just to catch the early morning cartoons. He relocked the door to the bar as he closed it behind him.
The kids wouldn't be up for another hour or so, Leon noted as he caught the time on the wall clock hanging just above the stairway leading up from the bar to the little apartment above.
He entered his room, set his backpack down and headed for the bathroom.
He'd finished his shower quickly and headed down the stairs to the bar.
He was hungry.
He was surprised to see Tifa and the kids already awake and downstairs. They looked up at him as he entered, all in a similar state of early morning undress with bed hair and wrinkled clothes. Tifa was still in a set of dark blue pyjamas. Leon smiled as he slid onto the stool next to Marlene where both she and Denzel sat at the bar. Tifa was cooking breakfast. Leon's eyes were drawn to the tv hanging to the right of the bar where cartoons were playing in a low volume.
Thinking on it, Leon realized he hadn't felt quite so...at ease...in a long time.
Bacon sizzling and popping on the stove, the presence of others around, the warmth of the bar, the smell of toast.
It reminded him of the orphanage.
Of days long ago, back when he'd been a little kid.
Back before sis was taken and everything went to hell.
There was a knock on the bar and the four of them turned collectively.
Leon stood from his seat and went to answer it.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't our new friend."
It was the red-head vampire and his looming companion again.
They hadn't been in the group that Leon had 'dealt with' not so long ago.
"Reno, you better not be here to cause me problems. It's too early."
The red-head peeked around Leon to look inside the bar, "Well hey there pretty lady. You dressed like that for me?"
Tifa snorted. "You wish."
Reno, the red-head, turned to his companion and said lowly, "Oh, do I ever."
"I heard that. Now either come in or stay out. You're letting the cold in."
Leon frowned but moved aside, letting the two vampires in. Reno walked past with a smirk and his companion follwed after with a face that Leon couldn't read and a set of sunglasses perched on his nose that hid his eyes.
Leon shut the door after them.
Leon sat, frowning but slightly bemused, as Reno and Tifa bantered. Even Marlene and Denzel took cheap shots at the vampire. Reno's companion, who's name Leon had picked up to be Rude, simply sat quietly, watching them all.
It seemed the little group all knew each other.
Then the conversation took the turn Leon hadn't really been wanting it to take.
"So, you've already met Leon I take it?"
Reno smiled slyly. "You could say that."
Tifa looked at Leon, who simply stared back in response.
"We just happened to stop in to see how things were going with good ol' Cid when we saw him," Reno's looked purposely at Leon, "working the garage. Figured we'd go ahead and introduce ourselves."
"They didn't try to intimidate you or anything did they Leon?" Tifa asked, smiling as well, "Cause if they did, you just tell me. I've been looking for excuses to beat the snot outta this one here every day since we met," she pointed her thumb over her shoulder towards Reno. "Shinra jerks. Think they own the whole city."
"Well, aside from your bar and I think the library, Shinra does own it all."
"Ha ha. Very funny." Tifa set plates in front of Denzel and Marlene and loaded them with food, bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage...the classic breakfast works. She made plates for Leon and herself and pulled her own bar stool out from under the other side of the bar, where she always kept it tucked away.
"Hey, none for us?"
"I can't afford to feed you Reno. You're a hog."
"Hey!"
"But maybe you'd want a plate, Rude? I don't mind fixing a little more."
"Hey-!"
"That's okay." Leon was surprised at how...normal Rude sounded. Voice calm and collected. Nothing like the red head. Tifa gave him a smile and went at her own plate.
Reno leaned over as Leon continued eating, "I gotta admit, I'm impressed Wolfman. Taking out six of Reuben's goons all at once ain't something you see everyday. But now you've gone and made the Big Guy mad, see? It's just a matter of time before he sends Sephiroth after you now. So take my advice, and Cloud's, leave Garden." Reno's bright eyes, something that bordered the line and flashed just between green and blue, were staring at him intently. Leon was watching him from the corner of his eye.
"No."
Reno's face lifted into a smirk that finished as a smile. "I'd hoped you would stick around." He turned to Rude, "Told ya, Buddy. Now where's my five gil?" Rude began fishing around in his jacket pocket for what Leon assumed was his wallet.
~
It was the following day that Leon found himself bored.
Cid had no work for him, there were no dishes to clean, no necessary grocery shopping, the bar was running slow and Denzel and Marlene had gone over to friends' houses to play.
Leon was very bored.
Tifa told him to go explore.
So he did.
He'd rambled his way right into one of the almost abandoned districts of the city. Abandoned simply because it was entirely too old and as the city had expanded, it's population had not followed quite proportionately. So the residents had simply followed one another and moved onto the newer areas of the city.
Half the buildings in the area had either crumbled or were well on their way. Vegetation had even begun reclaiming much of the older side of the city.
As he wandered down into a slightly opened up area that formed what might have been an avenue at one time, his eyes fell onto a church.
His hands met the heavy, dark-stained wood of one of the double doors and pushed it open. The door caught slightly, it's hinge rusting, but Leon pushed a little more and it continued creaking open.
The church was worse off than he'd thought it would be.
Their was a gaping hole in the cieling of the church, as if something might have falled through it once upon a time and from there the weather and time had simply worn at the edges of it until there was almost less cieling than open space.
Leon's eyes had wandered to the ground, to the sunlit expanse made by the hole. It was a field of flowers.
White and yellow flowers.
It almost looked like a garden.
As Leon made his way to it, he could smell the mold and decay wafting up from the church pews now that the open door had allowed a new breeze in. He continued on past the pews, hearing the wooden floorboards groaning under his boots, and knelt down once he'd reached the edge of the flower field.
The flowers smelled like freshness and life itself.
He sat down, content to listen to the quite of the area and the surrounding scent of the flowers.
Leon had closed his eyes for only a minute when he was jolted by the feel of something nearby.
His eyes opened and he was face to face with a young woman kneeling right in front of him.
He first noted that she wore quite a bit of pink. Second was her eyes, they were almost emerald, the color of the leaves from the flowers beside them. Her brown hair was pulled mostly back and away from her face, her bangs were left to frame it though. She was...pretty. And oddly...
She was translucent.
Leon blinked.
The young woman spoke first. "Who are you?" Her voice is light, almost sweet and questioning.
Leon only blinked again.
The young woman smiled, "I'm a ghost. My name's Aerith. What's yours?"
"...Leon."
"You're not normal, are you?"
Leon frowned.
"I mean," the young woman, Aerith, the ghost, smiled a little apologetically, "you're not human. I can feel it." Her eyes searched Leon's face. "I don't know what you are, but you don't feel like a vampire. And you don't look much like one either," she laughed.
Leon was quiet for a moment before shaking his head, "No, I'm not."
Aerith continued looking at him for a few more moments before she turned toward the flowers. Her hand reached out and touched the petals of one.
Actually *touched* it. The white petal bent under the weight of her hand.
"How-"
Aerith looked at him again, "I've had a lot of practice."
After a few seconds of silence, Aerith spoke again. "So...what were you doing here, Leon?"
"...Exploring."
~
Leon wasn't entirely sure when he began to routinely visit the church, but he realized he had.
Whenever he had a free day off again, he'd wander out to the old building, where Aerith was always waiting for him.
She told him a lot about Radiant Garden.
She'd lived here for almost 200 years.
Leon asked how long the Shinra clan had been in Radiant Garden.
Aerith told him they had been here for longer than even she had.
They'd been the stuff of legends even when she'd been mortal.
The Shinra were a noble family, one of the founding families of Radiant Garden. She frowned as she told him that almost 80 years ago, the Shinra family had simply disappeared.
Then Reuben had shown up, claiming to be a heir to the Shinra, and the Shinra "clan" became what it was today.
Leon found himself spending a lot of time with Aerith.
Her presence was...calming.
She told him about her time as a mortal, even about her time after she'd died.
But she never said anything about how she had died. And Leon had never asked.
She'd never asked him about how he'd come to be what he was either.
She had asked once if he had family.
He told her about Tifa, Marlene and Denzel.
Aerith had smiled. She hadn't asked again after that.
It was one afternoon, after a visit, when Leon was preparing to leave, that Aerith stood as well. She held three flowers out to him.
"Here, these are for Tifa and the kids."
Aerith's smile was infectious and Leon found himself smiling a little as well.
He reached out and blinked as Aerith's hand brushed his, vanishing through it where it should have made contact and leaving an odd feeling of cold in it's wake. Leon's fingers closed around the flowers.
Aerith waved to him as he headed for the door. "Come back soon."
Back to Part Two Onward to Part Four