Ao Guang

[off_the_edge]

Who: Cloud Strife and Yuffie Kisaragi
What: Cloud and Yuffie go to the opera.
When: A day after Ghost Quest, evening
Where: The Grand Opera House
Warnings: Nothing yet.



Cloud tended to be indulgent when it came to fashionable lateness, because that was the sort of thing a pop star ought to do; but he arrives early this evening, and stands waiting where the building lights illuminate him vividly. He'd been preparing for the date as soon as he'd asked her, simply because fussing about his outfit was better than lying about on top of his bed holding his head in his hands and feeling physically sick with rage.

He gets recognised by a teenage girl entering the lobby after her parents - something that would have delighted him a couple of days ago, before he'd risked his life to save a kidnapped ghost, before he saw a man transform into a fox before his eyes, before he'd been told that the memories were real. Now he just plays along. For once, he really doesn't care, and it's an awful feeling.

"It's sooo funny when you send all those Tweets where you're really pissed off!"

He poses for a selfie with her. And for another selfie, with her imitating his pose. She tells him she's excited to see the new Nuclear Parliament lineup in action. She compliments him on his outfit (head-to-toe dark purple, even the Docs and jewellery), but tells him it looks silly for him to be wearing sunglasses when it's dark. He pushes them further up his nose and tells her that a truly stylish person is able to get away with anything. She tells him he's her spirit animal in salt and he assures her that he has no idea what that means. None of this is fun any more.

He scans the road ahead - Yuffie, where are you?

Comments

[off_the_edge]

His stomach's already skipping around in his insides, uselessly - and then when her hands grab onto his shirt and her nails graze his chest, the dragon on stage rears up on its hind legs to a glorious swell of brass and he knows the feeling. He squirms in his chair. She's beautiful and she's into him and she's beautiful. Is it his turn? Okay. Okay, he can remember how to do this. Okay.

He swallows, licks his lips.

"Let's go!" he announces, face gravely serious. Then he gives a little half-shrug and moves in towards her mouth with a kind of frank carelessness - he wants to show her he can't be bothered with all the messing around but he is, actually, in charge and a master of what he's doing.

Still, for all the flash, the performance can't change the telling gentleness of his hands on her face. Like he's holding something in them that was so precious, and could end the world.

[cleartranquil]

She's still grinning, when he actually goes to kiss her, looking up at him like she's still just so happy to see him at all that she can't stop smiling, her eyes darting from his eyes to his mouth.

This version of Yuffie, the one she knows best right now, is used to going after what she wants and she wonders if that other her, the one who knows Cloud better, if she's used to that sort of thing too. She has no idea. Sometimes she gets little glimpses of that Yuffie, and all she knows is, she likes what she sees. That has to mean something, right? There's something infectious and giddy in her chest, like she's going to throw back her head and laugh. It's kind of great with everything being as horrible as it's been lately, it's nice to just feel something else, something better.

So when he takes more time than she really wants him to, Yuffie uses the front of his shirt to pull him in closer, directing the kiss from something careless to something more intentional. She definitely kisses harder than she means to at first, forceful and a little like she's just attempting to drag him along after her, but after a moment pulls back enough to take a different angle, and go for something sweeter.

[off_the_edge]

Cloud does a little bit of playfighting when she yanks him, grunting in alarm and pretending to try to shove her away, before letting her pull him in. His whole body flushes with the thrill of her looking at him like he was gorgeous, and he moans, more comfortable with her taking the lead. Like any other person who wanted to be famous, he fed off being adored.

Being intellectually honest with himself, he usually likes the long-haired, otherworldly, ravishing type - Yuffie wasn't the sort of girl he'd usually go for. He'd mistaken the other Cloud's feelings for a kind of love-at-first-sight, but as his memory became clearer he realised the other him had loved her differently. He could recall the incredible love he'd felt for her in that one moment upside down under the petrified thorns, but it had been along with everything else on the planet; he'd cherished every last thing and person on it as part of himself and the universe and life itself. It had been a real shame that he was going to have to -

No, he tells himself, pushing back the memory. Ultimately, he's not really interested in what the other Cloud thinks. He likes her as she is now, as this - she had his sense of humour and she was smart and ridiculous and unashamed of how awesome she was. She was wonderful whether or not he remembered her.

He pulls back and looks at her through his blond eyelashes.

"Did the real Cloud ever kiss you like this?" he asks, trying to do it in a sexy voice.

[cleartranquil]

When he's pulled away Yuffie pauses, seeming to think about it. Most of it's just for fun, teasing because there's something about this that makes her feel like she's won something she didn't even know she was attempting to win. She likes that feeling. She has no idea what it's connected to, but it's there. She doesn't let him get very far, still holding him in place, because that's what she does and she likes her control.

"You know, I have no idea." Her smile is broad and a little bit ridiculous, like she's a breath from breaking into a giddy sort of giggling. She's fantastic, right now. Being as close as she is, it's easy to take another quick kiss before she thinks about it too much.

"If other Yuffie never took advantage of this then she really needs to think about her choices."

Then there's a beat as she suddenly seems to hear what he said for real and process it and it's like the green behind her eyes flashes forward again. To Cloud, it will just look like her eyes slide of focus, seeming to disconnect from her body for all of a moment.

Maybe one day you'll meet the real 'Cloud'.

When Yuffie snaps back into herself it's like she's coming up for air, startled and eyes wide, breathing hard and half panicked.

[off_the_edge]

He hadn't expected her to think about it - he knew that the real Cloud probably hadn't. It hadn't been a question for her to answer - it had been a dig at him. Now he'd decided he liked her for what she was now, the thought that she might like the other version of himself better than him made him tingle with jealousy. He's aware that that's an insane thing to think and doesn't care.

He kisses back, enthusiastic, tender. With his eyes closed, he feels her body stiffen in alarm in his arms.

"What is it?" he asks, holding her shoulders. "Sorry, did I do something wrong?"

[cleartranquil]

"No. No. It's-" Her voice is pitched slightly higher than it was and she still looks half distracted, like she's possibly seeing something else or seeing double. It's all confusing to her and her brow is furrowed as she thinks. It's like the green is still sparking behind her eyes, and she can't quite shake it off. The other Yuffie, the one Baryl said she really was, that girl was angrier even than she was about everything, and she didn't even know why.

Not again. This isn't fair.

When she looks back up at Cloud again she almost seems to notice again the fact that he'd been hurt, her focus drawn to that first and foremost. When people she'd cared about had been hurt before, she'd known, somehow that she could fix it. And now with that other her so close to the surface she knows it again.

"I-" She starts, and then can't seem to find the words, she holds out her hand between them, looking at it like she doesn't recognize it somehow. Then she closes her fist and her eyes and it's a little like she lights up from the inside, like they both do, glowing around the both of them for a few moments, barely even lighting up the walls of the box. Anyone who saw would probably think it was a camera flash or the light of a phone. It's gone as quickly as it appeared, the light shifting away from them and blinking out.

When she opens her eyes she's focused and suddenly it's like so much of her doesn't hurt that did.

"Oh holy-"

[off_the_edge]

" - shit!" Cloud finishes for her, though he wasn't actually trying to. He lets go of her, pops his sunglasses back on and leans out of the box to check there wasn't some bored teenager staring up at the two of them, but all he can see is his own eyes reflecting back at him off the lenses - the glow brighter than it had been before. When he ducks back inside to take his glasses off, his hand brushes against the place where he'd been cut, but there's nothing there.

"What just happened?" he asks her, having to consciously restrain the volume of his voice. Staring into her dark eyes, he touches his ear, not knowing what he'll find - it's in one piece, like usual.

"What was that?"

[cleartranquil]

Yuffie's pauses, and she reaches up, touching where his ear is back in one piece. Her eyes are wide and stunned. Her eyes flick up to his and the bruise that had spread across half her face seems to have retreated to just the split on her cheek, half healed. More importantly it's so much easier for her to breathe than it was. She'd gotten so used to her ribs hurting it had just been part of her.

"Me. That was...That was me. I did that? ...I did that." A smile breaks across Yuffie's face suddenly. "Holy shit."

"I don't know how I-" She stops and starts again. "....That....weirdly explains a lot."

Maybe this is why she knows bits and pieces of medical information, why she was so sure she and Jamie would be fine. This is a part of her. It's something she can do.

[off_the_edge]

"You did that?" Cloud repeats, eyes wide and bright as moons. He has no idea if it's because of something they did to his brain, in that murky sequence of images and feelings and invasions which he can't quite get his head around, but - he sits back down - this is just too much. For a second, it shows on his face - he looks like he's annoyed with her for bringing up this kind of madness just when he's beginning to enjoy himself, when he's too tired to carry on. Then it falls away, replaced with a curious sort of concern.

It's like his ear. Even though it hurt he just hadn't been able to stop touching it.

"What did it feel like?" he asks her. "Did it hurt? Did it make you feel powerful? Whatever you did to me, it felt... good. As if, for just a second, I was able to stop."