Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ New Love ❯ Chapter 11

New Love

 

Chapter 11

 

“Then where is she?” Cloud asked. Elmyra Gainsborough thought for a moment. Cloud knew Aeris had been planning to see her stepmother that weekend, but Rufus had dumped an assignment for a speech on him on Friday. He had the speech typed and saved on a USB, but on Rufus' order he wanted Aeris to proofread it.

 

“She said she was going out,” Elmyra shrugged. “Probably to the church again.”

 

“Church?” Cloud asked.

 

“Yes, didn't she tell you about that?”

 

Cloud nodded. Now he remembered, Aeris had mentioned she had more or less taken over a dilapidated church in the area.

 

“Where is it?”

 

“It's just a few blocks to the south, you can't miss it.”

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

Cloud slowly pushed the large oak doors of the church open, and walked inside. He looked around, whistling low. The church, so he recalled, had been set on fire and nearly burned down about twenty years ago. Even now, it was a mess. Dust caked the pews, many of which were rotting, and the red carpet was now almost black. Wood and stone pillars held up a two story roof, with stained glass windows on the walls. It really would have been a beautiful place, if someone put in the time and effort to fix it up.

 

“Hello?” Aeris emerged from a door near the front of the church, a toolbox in her hand. “Cloud?”

 

“Hey,” the blond raised his hand in a wave. “Elmyra told me you'd be here.”

 

“Yeah, what's up?” Aeris asked, setting the tool box down on the altar. Cloud noticed the floorboards have been cleared away at the front of the church aisle. A circular garden had been planted in their place.

 

“Here, Rufus' speech,” Cloud said, walking up the aisle. He reached into his pocket and held out the USB.

 

“Oh, right,” Aeris replied, taking the device. “That all?”

 

“Yeah, just…what are you doing here?” Cloud gestured to the tool box on the altar.

 

“Oh, just doing a little work on my day off. I have a couple of two-by-fours with a ladder outside, was going to try and fix that.” Aeris looked up, and Cloud followed her gaze. The roof over the flower patch was rotting and falling apart, and a few stray beams of sunlight came through holes in the beams. “A stray piece of wood fell off last week onto the flowers, I want to fix it before it collapses.”

 

“You?” Cloud muttered. “You were going to fix it?” Aeris' face turned red.

 

“Yes, thank you. I told you, I have a ladder and the wood outside.”

 

“I could do it,” Cloud blurted. “I mean, you know, it's, dangerous or…whatever.”

 

“Really?” Aeris asked, lifting a thin eyebrow. “I can do it myself you know, I'm stronger than I look.”

 

“I know, I just…I want to,” Cloud said.

 

“Hm…alright then.” Aeris turned and swung the too box into Cloud's chest. “Get to work, `boss',” she grinned.

 

“What about you?” Cloud asked.

 

“I brought my laptop and set it up in the back room, so I'm going to go work on the speech,” Aeris said brightly. Cloud blushed. How did she manage to get away with this? Suddenly, he realized he already knew.

 

“Right,” he said, as Aeris left. “I'm going to…uh…yeah…” Cloud sighed and carried the toolbox out of the church, going around to the side of the building. Sure enough, about five or six two-by-fours were stacked next to a ladder leaning against the roof. Cloud looked up the ladder and began climbing.

 

Why was he doing this? Sure, Aeris was his friend…good friend…that he occasionally had intimate dreams about. Cloud blushed. The dreams and fantasies that refused to stay buried had become a discomfortingly normal occurrence now. He didn't like that, but was losing his resolve against fighting these strange feelings. They weren't unpleasant, not in the slightest. And it wasn't just the sexual side of their relationship anymore; Cloud just liked having her around now.

 

A word that started with “L” and wasn't like, flitted at his mind, and he batted it away. He didn't love Aeris, it was impossible. Any relationship he could possibly desire from her beyond friendship was doomed from multiple directions. And that was assuming he wanted any sort of romantic relationship with her in the first place. And he didn't. Nope, not in the slightest. Cloud set down the toolbox and climbed back down the ladder, grabbing two of the planks of wood.

 

Still, she had talked him into fixing the roof of the church for her. Well, that wasn't true, he had volunteered. And now that he was up here, Cloud realized he didn't know a thing about woodworking. He looked at the weak part of the roof and thought for a moment. Common sense, right? Just nail the boards down over top the weak spot. How hard could that be?

 

Cloud opened the tool box and pulled out a hammer. He leafed through the box a bit, and found a box of nails. He pulled out and held it against the plank of wood. It seemed long enough to go through. He judged the size of the spot where the roof was weak and set the plank down where it seemed it would go. Cloud held the nail down against the wood in the corner, and settled the hammer down over it.

 

With a bang, Cloud slammed the hammer into the nail, and winced as pain shot up his fingers. Moving his fingers farther down from the head of the nail, he banged again, and the nail sunk into the wood. Cloud smirked. Not hard at all. He banged three more times, and sat back to admire his handiwork. Piece of cake. Cloud grabbed a second nail and hammered it in on the other corner. It went in with three strokes this time instead of four. Cloud grabbed a third nail and adjusted his position, leaning forward to reach the far end of the wood piece. Cloud held the nail down, hefted the hammer, and banged. The nail went in, and he hit again.

 

There was a loud crack, and Cloud fell forward as he lost his balance. He lay against the roof, furrowing his brow as he heard a long, slow creak. Cloud thought for a moment, and his eyes went wide as he realized what the sound meant.

 

With a second loud crack, the roof fell apart around him, and Cloud cried out as he tumbled forward through the hole, falling to the church floor amid the rubble. He landed heavily on his back with a groan. His vision blurred, and Cloud blacked out.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

“That's going to bruise, bad.”

 

Cloud winced as he felt pain shoot through his body. He opened his eyes to stare up at a blinding white light, with a pair of bright green eye staring down at him. He felt soft fingers brush his hair, and heard someone sigh.

 

“M…mom?” he whispered. The voice gasped, and the hand on his hair and forehead pulled back. “Am I in heaven?”

 

“Not for another fifty, sixty years, Cloud.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Cloud blinked, and his vision cleared to see Aeris kneeling over him, looking at him concerned.

 

“Oh…it's you,” he muttered, closing his eyes.

 

“Don't sound disappointed,” Aeris scolded. “You took a really bad fall, you feel pain anywhere?”

 

“You mean besides everywhere? No.”

 

“Any body part you can't move?”

 

“They all seem okay to me.”

 

“Good, that means you probably didn't break anything, but we have to go to the hospital and make sure.”

 

“We do?” Cloud asked, sitting up and wincing. He felt incredibly sore and would likely spend the next few days discovering bruises over his body. But nothing indicated to him a serious injury.

 

“Yes, you may have internal injuries. I called a cab on my cell, we can take it there, okay?” Aeris said. “Come on, I'll help you to the door.” She slipped Cloud's arm over her shoulder and helped him climb to his feet. The two walked to the door of the church, and Cloud let out a small grunt.

 

“Sorry I broke the roof,” he muttered.

 

“Actually…” Aeris stopped and turned her head. “I think it looks better that way.” Cloud turned his head and saw what she meant. The roof of the church had fallen away, letting the beams of sunlight fall directly on the garden before the altar, illuminating them. Aeris seemed to have cleared away the rubble that had fallen with him.

 

“Yeah…it does,” he agreed.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

“You got very lucky, Mr. Strife,” Dr. Lugae lectured, holding up X-rays of his chest against the light. “You have a lot of bruises, including maybe a bruised rib, but nothing is broken and there appear to be no internal injuries. Overall, you may be a bit stiff and sore for the next few days, but you'll be fine by next week.”

 

“That's good,” Cloud mumbled, closing his eyes. “I got a hell of a migraine too.”

 

“Naturally,” Dr. Lugae nodded, reaching into his pocket. “Here, these will help the headaches and dull the pain.” He held out a blister packet with six round pills, which Cloud took. “Take one a day to stop the pain, they make some patients sleepy and maybe even a little loopy, but that's normal. If you find you're feel like you need more than one, then you can try a second, but if that doesn't help come back in, under no circumstances should you need three pills a day.”

 

“Great,” Cloud nodded. “Can I take one now?”

 

“Not one of these, I'm going to give you something a little stronger for the first time.” Dr. Lugae crossed to the sink and grabbed a paper cup, and held it under the faucet. “So how did this happen again?”

 

“He was working on the roof, fell through and hit two stories,” Aeris said from the chair against the wall. Cloud was grateful she had come, he kept feeling woozy and she had helped him keep his balance and walk into the room.

 

“Really? That's incredible,” Dr. Lugae mused, handing Cloud his water and a second pill, a larger pink-tinted one different from the ones in the packet. Cloud pressed one of the pills from its packet and popped it into his mouth. “You could have easily killed yourself with a fall like that,” he continued as Cloud raised the cup of water to his lips. “Your boyfriend is a lucky man, Miss Gainsborough.”

 

Cloud dropped his cup and pill packet and sprayed water over the floor as he coughed, the now slightly gooey pink pill falling from his lips. Aeris' face turned red as Dr. Lugae turned to Cloud. He patted him on the back as Cloud swallowed and gasped.

 

“He's…not my boyfriend,” Aeris said nervously, running a hand through her bangs.

 

“O, oh,” Dr. Lugae stuttered. “My apologies, you two just seemed close is all.”

 

“She's my secretary,” Cloud choked out.

 

“Ah.” Dr. Lugae grabbed the fallen pill packet from where Cloud had let go of it and wiped it off on the sleeve of his coat. “What to try that again?” he asked, getting a second cup beside the sink.

 

“Sure,” Cloud nodded.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

“Daisy, daisy, give me…I dunno the words after that,” Cloud admitted, rubbing his eyes. “Do you?”

 

“Not really,” Aeris lied, not wanting Cloud to continue his off-key singing. Dr. Lugae had assured her the pink pill was a much stronger medication than the pills in the blister packet, so they wouldn't do this to him. The pill had started to kick in on the cab ride to Cloud's apartment. First he had claimed it didn't hurt, then he claimed he felt light. Then he had started being amazed at the idea of street lights.

 

“Come on, a few more steps,” Aeris said, coaxing Cloud down the hall. Cloud dragged his feet a bit as Aeris helped him to the door of his apartment, and knocked on the door. A few minutes later, Tifa pulled it open.

 

“Yo,” Cloud waved.

 

“What happened?” Tifa gasped, lifting a hand to examine the large bruise on Cloud's forehead.

 

“He fell through a roof, long story,” Aeris said. “He's okay, just going to be sore for a few days.”

 

“Yeah, uh…” Cloud fumbled in his pocket and held up the blister packet. “The doctor said these pills`ll make me feel better, but I don't think they're working yet.”

 

“Oh, I'm sure they are,” Aeris replied. “They gave him a stronger dose in the hospital, he won't be like this all the time.”

 

“Okay, good,” Tifa smiled.

 

“Cloud?” Aeris said. Cloud turned to her, and Aeris snapped a few times to get him to focus. “Tifa is going to take you inside, and you're going to have a nap, okay?”

 

“I'm not tired.”

 

“Yes you are.”

 

“….m'kay.”

 

“Thanks for helping him,” Tifa said, taking Cloud's arm and helping him hobble over the doorstep.

 

“Hey!” Cloud said suddenly, looking at Tifa. “You're that chick who's the chick that's my chick-friend, right?”

 

“Something like that,” Tifa nodded. “You want to come in for a coffee or something?”

 

“No thanks, but I'd like to come tomorrow, check on him,” Aeris said.

 

“Sure.” Tifa closed the door as Aeris began to walk towards the elevators, and lead a mumbling Cloud to the bedroom.

 

“Okay Cloud, take a nap,” she said, leading him to the bed. Cloud suddenly pulled away.

 

“No!” he whined, sounding like a child. “I ain't tired!”

 

“Cloud, don't make me put you to sleep,” Tifa threatened.

 

“Oh yeah?” Cloud lifted a hand and pointed at Tifa's nose. “What`re you, a girl, gonna do to a guy?” Tifa scowled and brought a hand up to Cloud's chest. The blond cried out as Tifa pushed him back onto the bed.

 

“Now take a nap, sleep it off and we'll have dinner if you wake up in time,” Tifa said.

 

“Alright…” Cloud mumbled, turning onto his side. Tifa paused at the door of the bedroom and looked back at him.

 

“Good night, Cloud,” she called, walking down the hall.

 

“G'nite Aeris.”

 

Tifa froze in mid-step at Cloud's response, and whirled around and walked back to the bedroom.

 

“Cloud?” she asked, staring at him. Cloud snored in response.

 

What can I say, but…fun with painkillers. :D