Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ New Love ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Just a note, Sephiroth will certainly appear in this fic, although his appearance won't come for some time. As this is a romance story there'll be no fight scenes or anything like that, but he'll still maintain an antagonistic relationship with Cloud, just in a difference way.

 

New Love

 

Chapter 2

 

Cloud turned off the car and pulled his keys from the slot, getting out and slamming the door. The weekend had passed all too quickly for him. It wasn't that he hated work, but the accounts were getting harder to process lately. His boss Rufus was riding him all the time to finish even when he knew Cloud worked as best he could. There were simply times when it couldn't be done faster, but the president's son didn't listen or care. One account in particular was promising to bring in a great deal of money to the company, the Hojo account. Cloud had been seated with that one.

 

Heading the elevator, he hit the button to call the car and waited, yawning. He had gotten to bed late last night, mostly thanks to Tifa initiating some non-sleep related activities and not taking no for an answer. He stretched and smiled slightly. That had been a good night's sleep…the elevator dinged, bringing him from his pleasurable memories. He stepped inside and absentmindedly hit the button for the eleventh floor where he worked. Reality of having to face Rufus on a Monday morning hit and he groaned inwardly.

 

“Wait! Hold the elevator!” someone called. Cloud shrugged and reached forward to hit the open button, the half-closed doors stopping and opening. Someone panting ran inside the elevator. “Thanks,” they said. Cloud pulled his hand back and let the doors close.

 

“No problem,” he replied, casting them a glance. His eyes widened slightly as the glance blossomed into an outright stare. The person standing beside him in the elevator was a woman, keeping her balance with a hand on the wall as she adjusted the strap of her shoe, a simple light brown in color with a short heel. Her other hand clutched a brown file folder with several packets of paperwork and small booklets, and a small black purse slung under her soldier. She wore a bright pink knee length skirt with a white blouse and a bright red jacket underneath long, incredibly long, light brown hair, tied back with a pink ribbon and wound into a thick braid.

 

“Sorry, I just want to be early, it's my first day,” the woman explained, lowering her foot and looking up at him with bright green eyes. “I'm Aeris,” she smiled, holding out her hand.

 

“Hi…” Cloud murmured, taking it and shaking. Aeris' smile didn't fade but she cocked her head.

 

“You okay?” she asked.

 

“Yeah, it's just…” Cloud trailed off, still staring. Her eyes were really bright…“Hi.”

 

“Hi,” Aeris giggled, taking her hand back. “Don't take this wrong, but do you have ADD? Or ADHD or something like that?”

 

“No,” Cloud shook his head, breaking the lock between their eyes. What the hell had been doing, she'd think he was crazy or something.

 

“No, I'm pretty sure you've got SSAMP,” Aeris insisted.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Stop Staring At Me, Psycho,” she spelt out. Cloud blushed as she laughed.

 

“Um…you said it's your first day?” he asked, trying to break the tension over his staring fit. He never did that. Sure, he was still a man and he noticed attractive women. But he'd never stared at them like that before, not since he and Tifa had become more than friends at least. And now Aeris was liable to complain now. That was all he needed, something else for Rufus to yell at him for.

 

“Yup, just got transferred from the Wutai office across town,” Aeris nodded. “Heard there was some high-profile clientele here they wanted me for since I was more experienced.”

 

“Yeah, we're handling some larger cases here lately. You can handle it?” Cloud asked. Inwardly he repeated her words. Was he missing something?

 

“Sure, I'm used to sitting in on negotiations with the big-wigs,” Aeris smiled as the doors slid open on Cloud's floor, and she moved to step off it. Cloud got off behind her. “Where's the bathroom on this floor?” she asked.

 

“Done that way and take a left,” Cloud pointed down the hall. Aeris walked off as Cloud went the other way to his office, unlocking and opening the door and looking down at the secretary's desk. Oh right, Yuffie was gone. Cloud unlocked the second door to his office and tossed his black coat on the coatstand, sitting down and stretching again. He looked up at the clock. He was early, by five minutes. He shrugged and reached over the CPU unit of his computer and turned it on, waiting while the system booted up. The log-in screen blinked up, and Cloud pulled out the tray with the keyboard from the underside of the desk.

 

There was a sound from the other room as Cloud keyed in his username, and he stood up to look over the edge of the desk at the sound. There were a few muffled words, and a few more noises. Finishing his login and hitting Enter, Cloud moved from behind his desk and opened the door to investigate. In the office that was supposed to be for his secretary, Aeris had sat down, set her open purse and file folder on the desk, and was going through said items, humming softly.

 

“Can I help you?” Cloud asked. Aeris looked up and stopped humming.

 

“Oh, it's you…um…” Aeris picked up the top piece of paper from her folder. “Mr. Cloud Strife?” she asked. Cloud nodded. “Hi…well, you already know me. I'm your new secretary,” she explained.

 

“Right,” Cloud nodded, mentally slapping himself in the head. Duh, first day, transfer for high-profile cases. He knew there had been something he was missing when she told him that in the elevator. “Well, so, obviously you know me…um, need anything?”

 

“No thanks, just getting settled in,” Aeris replied, reaching into her purse. Cloud watched quietly as she pulled out three red pens, personalized with her name in silver script, and slipped them into the small container Yuffie had left behind for her office odds and ends. She reached back into her purse and pulled out something else, leaning forward and setting it on top of her computer monitor. “And I'm done,” she smiled. Cloud bent over slightly to look at the…orange, cat-thing, on the top of the monitor. He reached out and tapped its head. It shook.

 

“You've never seen a bobble-head before?” Aeris chuckled, going through the papers in her folder now. Cloud absent-mindedly shook his head, tapping the bobble-head's head again. Aeris frowned and took a breath. “Mr. Strife, can I be frank for a moment?” Cloud looked up. “I'm a friendly person but I also like to maintain a certain level of professionalism in the workplace. I think co-workers who are comfortable around each other work best. That in mind…if you have a problem with me, I'd like to think you'd be mature enough to say so, because I'm mature enough to listen.”

 

“Problem?” Cloud muttered, confused.

 

“You were staring at me in the elevator and now you're batting at a Garfield cat bobble-head in fascination like the animal itself,” Aeris explained. “I spoke to your previous secretary and she assured me you have no strange habits or eccentricities, so I'm going to have to assume you have a problem of some sort with me as a person.”

 

“No, no no!” Cloud cried. “It's just…” he stopped himself. Okay, so he maybe he had been switching into autopilot around her so far. He had known his new secretary for less than half an hour and she thought he hated her. “It's…a Monday,” he offered lamely. To his relief, Aeris shrugged.

 

“Fair enough,” she sighed. “How about we start over then?” Aeris stood up and held out her hand. “I'm Aeris Gainsborough, your new secretary.”

 

“Cloud Strife, your boss,” Cloud replied, blushing slightly as she shook her hand. Well this day was off to a lovely second start.

 

“There. Now if you can curb your fascination with my desk decorations, maybe we can begin the work day?” Aeris asked. Cloud nodded, still put-off by a variety of things. Yuffie usually spoke to him like that, but somehow Aeris said it in a serious way. And she was still joking with him. Wait, was that even possible? “So, I have a few notes here from Ms. Kisaragi on what clients she was working with and what other forms and such she had done and to-be done. But, why don't you tell me what needs to be done?”

 

“Well I have some more invoice notices to be processed, you just need to input the client's name, business and account number into the PC then pass them to me so I can sign them and send them back out. That could take you anywhere from a couple hours to the whole day depending on how many came back. It's Monday, so you've probably got a weekend backlog to deal with,” Cloud began. “If that's too much…”

 

“I'm just a transfer, I've done this sort of thing before Mr. Strife,” Aeris replied. “I know what I'm doing.”

 

“Right right,” Cloud agreed. “Um, so…anything else?”

 

“Nope, I have all sorts of notes from your last secretary, so I'm fine. Thanks,” Aeris smiled. Cloud nodded and turned to go back to his own office.

 

“Oh, once you're done settling in, how about a cup of coffee?” he asked.

 

“Well, I'm settled in now, so sure,” Aeris said, standing up.

 

“Thanks. I take it two cream, one su-”

 

“Sh sh sh!” Aeris hushed him, holding up her hand. “Go sit down and get to work, I'll handle the coffee.” Cloud watched as she picked up her purse and headed down the hall to the break room/kitchen. Frowning, not entirely sure he trusted her, he reluctantly entered his office and sat down. For a little over five minutes he finished entering the data from the invoices he hadn't gotten to last week, making a small dent in the pile that by the end of the day would likely be twice as big.

 

“Here you are,” Aeris said, pushing open his door and setting a mug on his desk. Cloud picked it up and scrutinized the coffee she had brought him. It looked normal enough.

 

“What's in it?” he asked, looking up.

 

“My secret,” Aeris smiled, leaving. Cloud looked back down at the brown liquid, and took a cautious sip. His eyes quickly went wide, and Cloud took a second, larger sip, the coffee was still to hot to fully drink. He stood up and pulled open the door to see Aeris already at her desk typing something.

 

“Wow,” he said simply.

 

“Like it?” Aeris asked, not turning her head from her work.

 

“Yeah…a lot,” Cloud admitted. It was the best coffee he'd ever had, better than what Yuffie fed him by a mile and a half. “How'd you make it?”

 

“Family secret,” Aeris smirked, turning an emerald eye his way. “Now sit down and get to work, I'm making you look bad.” Cloud chuckled slightly and left his new co-worker to her task. Sitting back down and taking another drink, he smacked his lips and smiled.

 

“Wow,” he repeated, turning back to his computer. Forget half-decent, phenomenal coffee every morning. This was an adjustment he was not going to mind making.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

Noon came and went, and the day quickly fell into an old routine. Aeris came in on a regular basis to inform him of phone messages, to send faxes and pass along paperwork, and he accepted them all briefly and she went back to her work. The few times he had left the office for whatever reason, she was working diligently as far as Cloud would see. Of course, Rufus took pleasure in dumping as much work on Cloud as he legally could, so the avalanche of papers in Aeris' inbox would only be back to its full might the next day, but for now she was taking that mountain down fairly quickly.

 

The only thing Cloud couldn't figure out wasn't her; it was him. The few times he had walked out, he tossed her a quick update on where he would be if there were an emergency, and Aeris nodded. He came back without a word. But both on his way out and back, he kept casting discreet glances at her for some reason. Aeris seemed to have immersed herself in untangling the endless sea of business red tape and thankfully didn't notice, lest he have a repeat of the elevator from that morning. And whenever she came in to deliver the fax, his own work slowed as he struck her up in conversation.

 

So far he knew she was a year older than him, ten months older to be exact, with a bachelor's degree in business administration and had paid for her tuition as a clerk in one of Shin-Ra's lower branches on their vast tree, doing more or less what she was doing for Cloud now, filling out paperwork and making sure the business world kept turning. The only difference was that, with the degree, “her bosses were stuffier and she got better pay”, or so Aeris had joked. She lived on her own, visited her mother frequently, was unattached romantically and was hoping to eventually get an executive position by proving to those above her that she was fit and smart enough to make the big decisions, not just carry them out as told.

 

Cloud was feeling bad about their awkward confrontation that morning. By all accounts Aeris was sweet, respectful and a hard worker and if she quit because of him he knew was it was a big loss for him. Sure, Yuffie worked hard too, when she felt like it. And her jokes were always at his expense. To an extent Aeris' jokes were too, but for some reason they didn't bother him as much as Yuffie's did.

 

Leaning back and stretching, Cloud looked up at the clock. Half an hour left. He tossed a glance at the some two dozen client callback forms on his desk and decided to finish them and call it a day. Opening up the application, he started typing in the phone number and address and email.

 

“Mr. Strife,” Aeris said, knocking on his door. Cloud looked up as she pushed it open. “You got a phone call from your girlfriend,” Aeris explained, reading from a piece of paper. “She says she's staying late with Zangan tonight, so feel free to order something for dinner. She'll be home around eight.”

 

“Thanks,” Cloud nodded. Zangan must have really wanted her perfect, if he demanded she stay. “Oh, hey,” Cloud called as Aeris began to leave.

 

“Yes?” Aeris asked, coming back in.

 

“Um…thanks for giving me a second chance this morning. Really, I'm not usually like this,” Cloud explained.

 

“No problem, Mr. Strife. Like you said, its a Monday,” Aeris smiled.

 

“Cloud,” he interrupted.

 

“Pardon?”

 

“Call me Cloud. Mr. Strife makes me sound like an old man,” Cloud shrugged.

 

“Sure thing Cloud,” Aeris nodded, leaving. Cloud smiled at the quick change-up and lifted his coffee mug, his third cup of the day. She would turn him into a caffeine junkie at this rate if she kept making it so good. He finished what was left and went back to finishing his work. It may have been a Monday, but as Mondays went, today had turned out pretty good.