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]

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."