Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 7 > Tragedy Belies the Sacrifice
Tragedy Belies the Sacrifice
Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no profit from this fanfiction.
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Chapter Five: Meeting Aerith's Friends
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Cloud worked the next day all of it actually, they had a lot to catch up on after all, but Squall was out with his father that day to make sure they had some time to catch up with things.
Squall sighed as he met with Seifer and his father, he of course wasn't expecting them to both be smiling when he got there.
"What are you two up to?" asked Squall.
"So a little birdy told us that you were thinking of proposing to Rinoa." said Seifer.
Squall rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "Who?" he asked.
"Aerith." said Seifer with a grin.
"When did she tell you that, and moreover how did she know? Hmm Cloud must have told her." he spoke in annoyance.
"No actually, she said it was written all over your face when you were around her, and well I got her number the other day real quick before she left." said Seifer.
Squall looked away. 'Am I really that obvious?' he asked himself in his head.
Squall looked to Laguna. "Well yeah I kinda am thinking about it." he said.
"Well how about today we make this happen?" asked Seifer.
Squall sighed and got in the car, once they arrived at the ring shop, he momentarily lost his breath, they walked inside. Squall looked around and sighed, the prices made him gasp mentally and he began to panic in his mind a little. But he tried to remain strong as he looked around slowly.
"Go ahead pick one out." said Seifer.
Squall sighed and looked at each of them, a couple of them seemed really gorgeous but he...he was starting to sweat at the prices. Finally he actually panicked and ran out of the store. Seifer turned to stop him, but Laguna stopped him and ran after Squall.
Squall sighed as he sat down next to an abandoned building, he remembered as a kid he was so lost, Ellone had lived with Laguna, she hadn't been forced to stay back, well it was more like they were worried for her safety and she'd been put into a high security private school. While Squall, no one knew he was Laguna's son and he'd had abandonment issues ever since, that was until Rinoa came along. She'd never left him or hurt him, but he felt like he honestly might not be able to give her a huge wedding, or that perfect ring, or maybe...maybe he just wasn't good enough for her.
"Squall?" asked Laguna as he walked up looking at him.
"I can't..." he said.
Laguna sat down next to him. "Can't what?" he asked.
"I can't pay for those rings, or the dress, or the wedding, even with as much as Rinoa and I make, I can't give her a huge amazing wedding like she deserves." said Squall.
"Did she say she wants a big wedding?" asked Laguna.
Squall shook his head. "No she's always...she's always so nice about things, even when I forget dates that are important and stuff, she doesn't mind, she doesn't care that I can't shop for her, or find something amazing for her." he said with a sigh.
"That's because she loves you." said Laguna.
Squall looked at Laguna and he smiled bitterly. "Your mother Raine, she was like that. No matter how many times I'd screw up, or how plain our rings were, she was just happy to be with me. Even though the people of that small town thought I was such a screw up." he said with a smirk.
Laguna looked over at Squall. "I'm going to pay for the ring, and I'm going to pay for the wedding, we're gonna make it amazing Squall, ok?" he said.
Squall looked down. "I can't ask you to do that." he said.
Laguna smiled a little. "You're not asking me, I have plenty of money available from when I ran several companies, Squall I'm your father, and maybe I couldn't do anything for you before, but now I can." he said.
Squall nodded and smirked a little, Laguna and him stood up, they made their way back to the shop. Squall looked around until he found one, it was perfect, a diamond ring with the diamonds shaped in angel wings and a white gold lion symbol in the middle. He picked it out and looked at the shop keeper.
"Please put on the back engraved: I may not be worthy but I hope you wrap your wings around me forever my angel." he said.
The man nodded and began to engrave it, Laguna paid for the ring in full and they left. Squall sighed shakily and Seifer put a hand on his shoulder. "She'll love it." he said.
Squall smiled a little and Seifer got a call. "Right he's up? Tell him I'll be right there." said Seifer.
"Off to watch Caius?" asked Squall.
"Yep and bringing in his psychologist for his first appointment today, wish me luck." said Seifer.
"I'm surprised they let you take him." said Squall.
"I have more power then a lot of people think." said Laguna.
Squall shrugged. "Whatever, so long as he's off the street." he said.
Seifer nodded and the two of them left while Squall returned to the shop, Cloud then got a call from Aerith after he'd finished working.
"Hey Cloud my friends wanna take us out, you willing to come?" she asked.
Cloud looked a little nervous but he answered. "Yeah sure thing." he said.
Cloud went and got ready, soon a car pulled up which was when Zidane popped out.
"Hey there!" he said excitedly.
Aerith slowly got out of the car and stood there wearing a pink and white blouse with a layered red and white skirt.(AN: KH2 outfit) Her hair was done like it usually was with curls and those gorgeous green eyes were looking at Cloud.
"Hey there Cloud, this is Zidane." said Aerith.
Zidane hopped over and shook Cloud's hand, he was much shorter then Cloud but he had a grin on his face, that was when Cloud noticed he had a tail and was absolutely in shock.
"Uhhh..." said Cloud.
Zidane laughed. "He's good at staring." he said.
Cloud blushed embarrassed. "Hi I'm Cloud sorry." he said rubbing the back of his head.
Zidane shrugged it off. "No worries man, we're gonna go meet Garnet my wife, Mikoto my kid, and Yuna and Tidus our friends at a restaurant in our part of town, hope that's ok." he said.
Cloud nodded and put his bike in the trunk, they drove to down town where they saw Tidus who was standing there with Yuna, her eyes actually made Cloud question reality, then again Serah and Lightning had naturally pink hair. There was little Mikoto in Garnet's arms as she looked over at Cloud and Aerith, she was just as short as Zidane was.
"This is my friend Garnet who runs the baby shop." said Aerith.
"Oh did Snow come by yet?" asked Cloud.
Garnet giggled. "Yes earlier today, that man was so frantic and lost luckily I helped him out." she said.
"He's just worried about having the best for his kids." said Cloud.
Garnet nodded. "I'm Garnet." she said holding Mikoto in her arms, the young girl also had a tail and Cloud was then convinced it wasn't a costume on Zidane who sighed.
"Well I better explain the tail to the poor guy." he said.
Aerith laughed. "Sorry sometimes he's a little awkward." she said.
Zidane shook his head. "It's alright, first time Tidus saw me he yanked on it to see if it was real." he said with an exasperated sigh.
Cloud blushed as the picture of himself doing that had crossed his mind a couple of times, not that he'd have done that.
"Anyway so the tail is because of some experiments that were performed on my brother, sister, and I by a man named Garland. He was the only father we ever really knew but he kinda went crazy though he was way smart and was a geneticist. Anyway, my daughter has it because now it's in my DNA." said Zidane.
"Yikes, sorry." said Cloud.
"Don't worry about it man." said Zidane putting his hands behind his head.
"Zidane's brother is the famous male model Kuja." said Aerith.
Cloud did a double take. "Wait, I've never seen a tail on him!" said Cloud.
Zidane laughed. "Well they hide it cleverly of course, they have to since he's on every single underwear ad in New York." said Zidane.
Yuna of course walked over and looked over at Cloud. "So you're Aerith's new guy?" she asked.
Cloud nodded. "Hi nice to meet ya." he said.
"I'm Yuna, and this is my guy Tidus." she said hanging on his arm a little.
Tidus grinned and held out a hand to Cloud. "Nice to meet ya." he said with a grin.
"Same, so what do all of you do anyway? I work in a motorcycle shop." said Cloud.
"I run a baby store of course but I think you already heard about that." said Garnet.
"I run a theatre group down town." said Zidane.
"I'm a priest's daughter so after my father died he left me some money, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a priestess but they don't allow us to marry so I decided against it." said Yuna.
"I'm a professional soccer player myself, I'm usually on the road a lot but this was one of my days off." said Tidus.
"Wait...Tidus? As in THAT Tidus? I thought it was just a common name." said Cloud a little shocked.
"Ah no worries, I get that all the time." he said.
Cloud sighed. "Maybe if I followed Soccer more, I just listen to the radio and they mention you sometimes." he said.
"They try to at least since I'm living in town, I'm originally from Spain actually but my pops moved us here when I was younger." he said.
"Isn't your father Jecht?" said Cloud.
"Yeah well he was, no one's seen him for years." said Tidus.
"The famous foot ball player, right?" asked Cloud.
"Yeah but even as good as he was on the field, he wasn't so hot off the field." said Tidus with an annoyed look on his face.
"Oh sorry." said Cloud.
"Don't worry 'bout it." said Tidus with a grin.
They made their way to a restaurant to sit down, Mikoto was in Garnet's arms, the little girl was rather shy, of course Zidane smirked.
"Well you seem like an ok guy Cloud." he said.
"Thanks." Cloud said.
"So what is it you like about Aerith the most?" he asked.
Cloud blushed. "I don't know...her personality, her eyes, her beauty, everything about her is effervescent." he said.
Aerith blushed and wrapped her hand around his, Cloud smiled shyly at her and Zidane grinned.
"Yeah she's a beauty, of course my Garnet's the prettiest of all, but there's definitely some hotties in town." he said with a grin.
Garnet of course elbowed him and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Cloud looked to Yuna.
"So you were supposed to be a priestess?" he asked.
"Or a nun, in modern day terms." she said.
"Ah so you're Catholic?" he asked.
Yuna shook her head. "I used to be and I was raised that way but I...I don't know anymore after what happened to my father because of the church." she said.
Cloud looked questioningly but the waitress arrived and they ordered their food, of course Cloud had another question.
"Are your eyes naturally that color?" he asked Yuna.
She smiled a little. "Yes I know it's rare, it's called Heterochromia Iridum. It's just because half of my family had green eyes, and the other had blue. I haven't seen either sides of my family in a while." she said.
"Yeah Rikku's off on some adventure, right?" said Tidus.
"Her and her friend Paine are traveling overseas." said Yuna.
"Rikku?" asked Cloud.
"My cousin, she's rather rambunctious and she's younger then me." said Yuna.
"She's a handful actually." said Garnet.
Cloud smiled, he seemed to be getting along with everyone alright. Aerith was glad he could fit in with her friends, however odd they were.
"So Cloud you got any siblings?" asked Zidane.
Cloud shook his head. "Actually I'm the only one left of my family that I know of." said Cloud.
"Aw that must be lonely." said Garnet.
"Maybe, but I have Aerith and really she's enough company." he said.
Aerith smiled and blushed, Yuna and Garnet both made 'awwww' noises while Tidus just smirked and Zidane smiled while hugging Mikoto. "You know, maybe our friends should all meet." said Aerith.
Cloud looked to her. "Yes that's a fine idea, when everyone has time." he said.
"Well I already met Snow." said Garnet giggling.
"Yeah he can be a handful." said Cloud.
Garnet giggled. "It's alright." she said.
"Hey Garnet, another weird letter arrived for you today." said Zidane.
"Really? Ugh I wish they'd stop." she said.
"Letters?" asked Cloud.
"Yeah it's something about royalty but I can never decipher what they're trying to say." said Garnet.
"You recycled it again?" asked Aerith.
"It's on our kitchen counter still." said Zidane.
"Hm maybe Lightning knows something about it, I'll have her come around later sometime?" said Cloud.
"Sure no prob, lemme give your our address, we live in the same area as Aerith." he said.
Cloud nodded and Zidane gave him the address, soon they ate and got ready to leave, Tidus went back with Yuna while Garnet and Zidane went back to their place. Aerith hung onto Cloud's arm and he smirked. "Wanna go back with me to see my friends for the day?" he asked.
She nodded and they drove back. Of course unbeknownst to them Tifa was doing a little digging.
"Is she really good for Cloud...?" asked Tifa, she liked Aerith well enough but something, something was off.
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Author: Reviews Please
Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no profit from this fanfiction.
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Chapter Five: Meeting Aerith's Friends
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Cloud worked the next day all of it actually, they had a lot to catch up on after all, but Squall was out with his father that day to make sure they had some time to catch up with things.
Squall sighed as he met with Seifer and his father, he of course wasn't expecting them to both be smiling when he got there.
"What are you two up to?" asked Squall.
"So a little birdy told us that you were thinking of proposing to Rinoa." said Seifer.
Squall rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "Who?" he asked.
"Aerith." said Seifer with a grin.
"When did she tell you that, and moreover how did she know? Hmm Cloud must have told her." he spoke in annoyance.
"No actually, she said it was written all over your face when you were around her, and well I got her number the other day real quick before she left." said Seifer.
Squall looked away. 'Am I really that obvious?' he asked himself in his head.
Squall looked to Laguna. "Well yeah I kinda am thinking about it." he said.
"Well how about today we make this happen?" asked Seifer.
Squall sighed and got in the car, once they arrived at the ring shop, he momentarily lost his breath, they walked inside. Squall looked around and sighed, the prices made him gasp mentally and he began to panic in his mind a little. But he tried to remain strong as he looked around slowly.
"Go ahead pick one out." said Seifer.
Squall sighed and looked at each of them, a couple of them seemed really gorgeous but he...he was starting to sweat at the prices. Finally he actually panicked and ran out of the store. Seifer turned to stop him, but Laguna stopped him and ran after Squall.
Squall sighed as he sat down next to an abandoned building, he remembered as a kid he was so lost, Ellone had lived with Laguna, she hadn't been forced to stay back, well it was more like they were worried for her safety and she'd been put into a high security private school. While Squall, no one knew he was Laguna's son and he'd had abandonment issues ever since, that was until Rinoa came along. She'd never left him or hurt him, but he felt like he honestly might not be able to give her a huge wedding, or that perfect ring, or maybe...maybe he just wasn't good enough for her.
"Squall?" asked Laguna as he walked up looking at him.
"I can't..." he said.
Laguna sat down next to him. "Can't what?" he asked.
"I can't pay for those rings, or the dress, or the wedding, even with as much as Rinoa and I make, I can't give her a huge amazing wedding like she deserves." said Squall.
"Did she say she wants a big wedding?" asked Laguna.
Squall shook his head. "No she's always...she's always so nice about things, even when I forget dates that are important and stuff, she doesn't mind, she doesn't care that I can't shop for her, or find something amazing for her." he said with a sigh.
"That's because she loves you." said Laguna.
Squall looked at Laguna and he smiled bitterly. "Your mother Raine, she was like that. No matter how many times I'd screw up, or how plain our rings were, she was just happy to be with me. Even though the people of that small town thought I was such a screw up." he said with a smirk.
Laguna looked over at Squall. "I'm going to pay for the ring, and I'm going to pay for the wedding, we're gonna make it amazing Squall, ok?" he said.
Squall looked down. "I can't ask you to do that." he said.
Laguna smiled a little. "You're not asking me, I have plenty of money available from when I ran several companies, Squall I'm your father, and maybe I couldn't do anything for you before, but now I can." he said.
Squall nodded and smirked a little, Laguna and him stood up, they made their way back to the shop. Squall looked around until he found one, it was perfect, a diamond ring with the diamonds shaped in angel wings and a white gold lion symbol in the middle. He picked it out and looked at the shop keeper.
"Please put on the back engraved: I may not be worthy but I hope you wrap your wings around me forever my angel." he said.
The man nodded and began to engrave it, Laguna paid for the ring in full and they left. Squall sighed shakily and Seifer put a hand on his shoulder. "She'll love it." he said.
Squall smiled a little and Seifer got a call. "Right he's up? Tell him I'll be right there." said Seifer.
"Off to watch Caius?" asked Squall.
"Yep and bringing in his psychologist for his first appointment today, wish me luck." said Seifer.
"I'm surprised they let you take him." said Squall.
"I have more power then a lot of people think." said Laguna.
Squall shrugged. "Whatever, so long as he's off the street." he said.
Seifer nodded and the two of them left while Squall returned to the shop, Cloud then got a call from Aerith after he'd finished working.
"Hey Cloud my friends wanna take us out, you willing to come?" she asked.
Cloud looked a little nervous but he answered. "Yeah sure thing." he said.
Cloud went and got ready, soon a car pulled up which was when Zidane popped out.
"Hey there!" he said excitedly.
Aerith slowly got out of the car and stood there wearing a pink and white blouse with a layered red and white skirt.(AN: KH2 outfit) Her hair was done like it usually was with curls and those gorgeous green eyes were looking at Cloud.
"Hey there Cloud, this is Zidane." said Aerith.
Zidane hopped over and shook Cloud's hand, he was much shorter then Cloud but he had a grin on his face, that was when Cloud noticed he had a tail and was absolutely in shock.
"Uhhh..." said Cloud.
Zidane laughed. "He's good at staring." he said.
Cloud blushed embarrassed. "Hi I'm Cloud sorry." he said rubbing the back of his head.
Zidane shrugged it off. "No worries man, we're gonna go meet Garnet my wife, Mikoto my kid, and Yuna and Tidus our friends at a restaurant in our part of town, hope that's ok." he said.
Cloud nodded and put his bike in the trunk, they drove to down town where they saw Tidus who was standing there with Yuna, her eyes actually made Cloud question reality, then again Serah and Lightning had naturally pink hair. There was little Mikoto in Garnet's arms as she looked over at Cloud and Aerith, she was just as short as Zidane was.
"This is my friend Garnet who runs the baby shop." said Aerith.
"Oh did Snow come by yet?" asked Cloud.
Garnet giggled. "Yes earlier today, that man was so frantic and lost luckily I helped him out." she said.
"He's just worried about having the best for his kids." said Cloud.
Garnet nodded. "I'm Garnet." she said holding Mikoto in her arms, the young girl also had a tail and Cloud was then convinced it wasn't a costume on Zidane who sighed.
"Well I better explain the tail to the poor guy." he said.
Aerith laughed. "Sorry sometimes he's a little awkward." she said.
Zidane shook his head. "It's alright, first time Tidus saw me he yanked on it to see if it was real." he said with an exasperated sigh.
Cloud blushed as the picture of himself doing that had crossed his mind a couple of times, not that he'd have done that.
"Anyway so the tail is because of some experiments that were performed on my brother, sister, and I by a man named Garland. He was the only father we ever really knew but he kinda went crazy though he was way smart and was a geneticist. Anyway, my daughter has it because now it's in my DNA." said Zidane.
"Yikes, sorry." said Cloud.
"Don't worry about it man." said Zidane putting his hands behind his head.
"Zidane's brother is the famous male model Kuja." said Aerith.
Cloud did a double take. "Wait, I've never seen a tail on him!" said Cloud.
Zidane laughed. "Well they hide it cleverly of course, they have to since he's on every single underwear ad in New York." said Zidane.
Yuna of course walked over and looked over at Cloud. "So you're Aerith's new guy?" she asked.
Cloud nodded. "Hi nice to meet ya." he said.
"I'm Yuna, and this is my guy Tidus." she said hanging on his arm a little.
Tidus grinned and held out a hand to Cloud. "Nice to meet ya." he said with a grin.
"Same, so what do all of you do anyway? I work in a motorcycle shop." said Cloud.
"I run a baby store of course but I think you already heard about that." said Garnet.
"I run a theatre group down town." said Zidane.
"I'm a priest's daughter so after my father died he left me some money, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a priestess but they don't allow us to marry so I decided against it." said Yuna.
"I'm a professional soccer player myself, I'm usually on the road a lot but this was one of my days off." said Tidus.
"Wait...Tidus? As in THAT Tidus? I thought it was just a common name." said Cloud a little shocked.
"Ah no worries, I get that all the time." he said.
Cloud sighed. "Maybe if I followed Soccer more, I just listen to the radio and they mention you sometimes." he said.
"They try to at least since I'm living in town, I'm originally from Spain actually but my pops moved us here when I was younger." he said.
"Isn't your father Jecht?" said Cloud.
"Yeah well he was, no one's seen him for years." said Tidus.
"The famous foot ball player, right?" asked Cloud.
"Yeah but even as good as he was on the field, he wasn't so hot off the field." said Tidus with an annoyed look on his face.
"Oh sorry." said Cloud.
"Don't worry 'bout it." said Tidus with a grin.
They made their way to a restaurant to sit down, Mikoto was in Garnet's arms, the little girl was rather shy, of course Zidane smirked.
"Well you seem like an ok guy Cloud." he said.
"Thanks." Cloud said.
"So what is it you like about Aerith the most?" he asked.
Cloud blushed. "I don't know...her personality, her eyes, her beauty, everything about her is effervescent." he said.
Aerith blushed and wrapped her hand around his, Cloud smiled shyly at her and Zidane grinned.
"Yeah she's a beauty, of course my Garnet's the prettiest of all, but there's definitely some hotties in town." he said with a grin.
Garnet of course elbowed him and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Cloud looked to Yuna.
"So you were supposed to be a priestess?" he asked.
"Or a nun, in modern day terms." she said.
"Ah so you're Catholic?" he asked.
Yuna shook her head. "I used to be and I was raised that way but I...I don't know anymore after what happened to my father because of the church." she said.
Cloud looked questioningly but the waitress arrived and they ordered their food, of course Cloud had another question.
"Are your eyes naturally that color?" he asked Yuna.
She smiled a little. "Yes I know it's rare, it's called Heterochromia Iridum. It's just because half of my family had green eyes, and the other had blue. I haven't seen either sides of my family in a while." she said.
"Yeah Rikku's off on some adventure, right?" said Tidus.
"Her and her friend Paine are traveling overseas." said Yuna.
"Rikku?" asked Cloud.
"My cousin, she's rather rambunctious and she's younger then me." said Yuna.
"She's a handful actually." said Garnet.
Cloud smiled, he seemed to be getting along with everyone alright. Aerith was glad he could fit in with her friends, however odd they were.
"So Cloud you got any siblings?" asked Zidane.
Cloud shook his head. "Actually I'm the only one left of my family that I know of." said Cloud.
"Aw that must be lonely." said Garnet.
"Maybe, but I have Aerith and really she's enough company." he said.
Aerith smiled and blushed, Yuna and Garnet both made 'awwww' noises while Tidus just smirked and Zidane smiled while hugging Mikoto. "You know, maybe our friends should all meet." said Aerith.
Cloud looked to her. "Yes that's a fine idea, when everyone has time." he said.
"Well I already met Snow." said Garnet giggling.
"Yeah he can be a handful." said Cloud.
Garnet giggled. "It's alright." she said.
"Hey Garnet, another weird letter arrived for you today." said Zidane.
"Really? Ugh I wish they'd stop." she said.
"Letters?" asked Cloud.
"Yeah it's something about royalty but I can never decipher what they're trying to say." said Garnet.
"You recycled it again?" asked Aerith.
"It's on our kitchen counter still." said Zidane.
"Hm maybe Lightning knows something about it, I'll have her come around later sometime?" said Cloud.
"Sure no prob, lemme give your our address, we live in the same area as Aerith." he said.
Cloud nodded and Zidane gave him the address, soon they ate and got ready to leave, Tidus went back with Yuna while Garnet and Zidane went back to their place. Aerith hung onto Cloud's arm and he smirked. "Wanna go back with me to see my friends for the day?" he asked.
She nodded and they drove back. Of course unbeknownst to them Tifa was doing a little digging.
"Is she really good for Cloud...?" asked Tifa, she liked Aerith well enough but something, something was off.
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Author: Reviews Please
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