Alternate Universe
Cloud/Aerith/Zack Love Triangle Fanfiction; By Ayanami Kaze (shuriken_ninja86)
Chapter 3/???; Story Status: Not Complete
Chapter Three: Shopping
"I"m sorry...about your ex-girlfriend." Aerith said, staring at the phone.
Cloud looked at her, he blinked. "Oh...it's okay." he said, and watched her sit back down beside him.
"We should go out today." Aerith said, fiddling with her fingers.
He blinked once more, "What?"
"You know, like I said. Shopping and stuff...do guys like to do that?"
"I guess it depends..." Cloud said, scratching the back of his head.
"Then it's decided, we'll go shopping." she stood up, straightening her clothes. "...Then we go dancing."
"Shopping I understand...but do we really have to go dancing...?" Cloud whined, looking up at her.
"Yes, yes we do!" she flicked his forehead, "Like I said, more excitement."
He sighed, slowly rubbing his forehead.
"...you don't want to go...?" Aerith said softly, her smile slowly disapearing.
"N-no! I-it's not that! I-it's just..."
She tilted her head to the side a bit, "Just what?"
"It's not easy...for me going shopping with a woman."
"Is this about your ex-girlfriend?"
Cloud shook his head, "I never went shopping with her...it's more like my mother."
Aerith wanted to laugh, but she held it in as best as she could. So she remained silent in an attempt to stop the laughter.
"You could laugh...if you want." he rubbed his arm, his eyes downcast.
"N-no...I-I won't..." you could hear muttered laughs between her words. She turned away, her hand over her mouth.
Then, she burst out laughing.
Cloud sighed, listening to her laughs, "What's...so funny about it?"
She breathed, trying to catch her breath. She turned around back to him, "It's just that you reminded me of something...or rather, someone."
"Who?"
Aerith giggled, "I'm not telling~!"
Cloud shook his head, a slight smile curved his lips.
"I'll go change my clothes, you wait here, then we'll be gone!" she said, then rushed up the stairs into her room.
Cloud decided to look through more pictures. See what else was there...and if there was any pictures besides Zack, Aerith's Mother, and Aerith herself in it.
He walked around the house some more, examining the pictures on the wall. Zack. Zack. Zack. Her Mother. Zack...Cloud?
Cloud quickly picked the picture off the wall, examining it closer. It was at Aerith's birthday party when she turned 22, a long time ago. Zack and Aerith had already began dating, and Zack decided to drag Cloud along with him to the party.
Aerith looked stunning in the pictures. An elegant snow white dress covered her slender body. Her hair was loose, no ribbons, barrets, hair clips, nothing. She gave a toothy smile, that was captivated in the picture. A still image. A frozen smile.
He sighed, staring at her. And solely her. No one else in the picture.
He reluctantly put the picture back on the wall, yet never taking his eyes off of the picture. Not taking his eyes off of Aerith.
"I'm ready!"
Cloud turned around, ripping his gaze away from the picture. "Oh...let's go then." Cloud said, as he reached for his jacket.
Aerith was wearing her usual long, pink dress, with a dark red denim jacket, that extended three inches under her chest. She smiled, rushing down the stairs and to the door. Cloud followed her, closing the door behind him.
He took out his keys, about to unlock the doors of his car.
She grabbed his hand, "Not today. We're walking." she said, then released his hand.
Cloud looked at his keys, then at his car. He put his keys back into his pocket and followed her once more.
"There's a store that has lots of things. Anything you can think of, that is." Aerith walked slightly in front of Cloud, her arms extended out. "We'll start there."
"Sure." he said.
They continued on, and stopped in front of a small store, that was called, 'Reality'.
"Here we are." she smiled, pushing the door open.
"Oh, hello Aerith!" the shopkeeper said.
"Hello Angela. How's business going?" Aerith asked, walking up to the counter.
Angela looked over to Cloud, then back at Aerith. "Everything's going great. Though today, we haven't had any customers. By the way, who's your friend...and...where's Zack?" Angela frowned, "Wait, did you two break up?!"
Aerith laughed, shaking her head. "No, of course not. Cloud is Zack's friend."
"Oh, Zack left already to New York, huh?" Angela said, knowing about Zack's plans to leave for a bit.
Aerith nodded, sadly. "He'll come back soon. So I shouldn’t worry too much."
"Good, because I need you to smile all the time." Angela smiled as well, "So, what brings you here?"
"Cloud needs to get out more. So here we are." Aerith said, though she wasn't sure of what to do exactly.
Angela laughed, "Then what are you doing here? Go to the park or something. Here, how 'bout this, you should go to 'Thriller Fayte'."
"Thriller Fayte?! That sounds wonderful."
Cloud listened to the two girls talk, wondering what was Thriller Fayte. He looked at some items on the rack, then continued listening.
"But the tickets cost so much." Aerith complained, shaking her head in disapointment.
Angela rummaged through her drawer, "I have three tickets, but I won't be goin' with you guys so you two have fun." she said, while pulling two out of the three tickets she had out of the drawer. "Go ahead, take them."
"Oh, I couldn't!" Aerith said, "You should save them for yourself."
"I never liked amusement parks. You know that Aerith."
"Then what are you doing with them?"
"Dunno. A customer left them here a little while ago."
Aerith slightly gasped, "Oh, you're horrible!"
Angela smirked, "What they dun know dun hurt dem." she grinned foolishly.
"I'm not sure if I want to take them now." Aerith said, looking at the tickets.
Angela and Aerith continued talking amongst each other, disputing over who should keep the tickets.
Cloud sighed, out of pure boredom. What was he doing here? Listening to a quarrel between two women, over tickets to an amusement park. What was a man of his stature doing here? He wanted to call Aerith's name, try to convince her to leave.
"Fine!"
Cloud heard Aerith shout out. Then he felt his arm being tugged away, he was being pulled by Aerith towards the door. He took one last glance at Angela, who was smirking, she probably won the fight while Cloud wasn't listening.
"Looks like we're going to an amusement park with stolen tickets." Aerith sighed, leading Cloud out the door. "Is that okay with you?"
Cloud nodded, but not before sighing of relief to get out of that wretched store.
"To Thriller Fayte!" Aerith shouted heroicly.
Cloud and Aerith walked off, towards the amusement park. As they walked, Aerith felt some water fall on her. Just a few droplets.
"Water?" she looked at her arm, a drop of water rolling down her fingers. Then more and more quickly fell down. It began to drizzle, though only a little.
"I should've checked the weather today." Aerith frowned.
The rain fell harder.
"Goodness, we'll have to go back home." she said, rushing back. Cloud followed her.
They reached Aerith's home, running into the safety of the home before they got anymore drenched.
“It always seems to rain, doesn’t it?” Aerith said looking out the window, with the tickets in her hand.
Cloud really did want to go to Thriller Fayte, although he wasn’t the type to enjoy such a sense of passing time. But nonetheless, something was trying to bring him there, but not alone.
“You’re so quiet,” Aerith said, turning away from the window, “did Angela and I take too long conversating?”
He shook his head, “No, it’s not that.”
She tilted her head to the left a little, a concerned look on her face. “Did I…do something wrong?”
Her face seemed to have brought all of the world’s guilt onto Cloud, “N-no, of course not!”
But to Cloud’s relief, it was then replaced by her usual warm smile soon afterwards, “That’s good. Maybe we can try tomorrow, these tickets are valid till the end of the week.” She gently shook the tickets in her hand. “It’s boring in my house, so I don’t blame you if you start complaining.”
“There’s…nothing to do in your house?” Cloud said, watching her wave the bright red tickets.
Aerith shook her head, sighing, “Nope. Not a thing. Except, for my flowers.”
Flowers…? Cloud thought.
“But we can’t do anything with them right now, since it’s raining.” Aerith continued, looking out the window again. “And I never got to water them today, I guess the rain will take care of that for me.”
As Cloud was about to speak, he heard a grumble from his stomach, causing Aerith to turn his way and see what was wrong.
“Hungry?” she giggled.
Cloud blushed,, touching his stomach. He hadn’t eaten in a while. “I’ll cook for you, if you’d like.” Aerith offered.
Cloud was reminded constant times over how wonderful Aerith’s cooking was by Zack. All the time. Probably to rub in his face the fact that Cloud was single. But he felt bad making this woman cook all on her own for him.
“I’ll…help you…cook, that is.” He said, standing up from the couch and about to make his way towards the kitchen.
“Oh, it’d be nice to have a waiter help me cook.” Aerith joked, stepping away from the window and following Cloud to the kitchen. “Soup should be nice.”
Cloud nodded, “Y-yeah…”
Aerith bent down towards the cabinet, pulling out a pot, and began to fill it with water in the sink. She hummed, watching the water rise up to the top of the pot. When the pot was full, Aerith turned off the faucet, and struggled through trying to raise the pot up from the sink.
Her frail arms tried carrying towards the stove. Cloud offered help, but Aerith denied it, saying she could handle it all on her own. But it was clear that she couldn’t, and she slipped on the towel that somehow found its way to the floor.
“Ah.” The pot slipped away from her hands and rolled onto the floor, water everywhere. Cloud cought Aerith in his arms, and pulled her away before the pot could fall on Aerith’s foot. She gasped, relieved that he was around to catch her. Or she would’ve had a broken head and foot.
“Are you…okay?” he asked her, kneeling down.
She nodded, rubbing her forehead and combing her hair backwards with her hand. “Goodness, I’m such a klutz. I’m sorry.”
He smiled down at her, “…I don’t mind.”
The two found their eyes stuck on each other’s. Forgetting the watery mess on the floor and the pot leaning on its side against the wooden cabinet. A striking blue into a pool of emerald.
Cloud’s hand slowly moved away from his side, gently touching the woman’s face. But she winced at his touch, and Cloud felt a small bit of blood on his hand. “You’re cut…” he said softly, as he quickly removed his hand from her face and back to his side.
She smiled, and put her hands on the floor, sitting up. “I’ll be fine,” she said as she began to stand, “thanks for catching me.”
She walked over to the shelf and pulled out a box of bandages. Cloud watched her, and looked at his hand, her blood on his hand, slowly beginning to dry. But he didn’t mind. He watched her put the band-aid on her cheek, hiding the cut.
“I should…clean this.” She said robotically and grabbed the same towel she slipped upon and cleaned the water from the floor. But a sudden touch on her hand halted her from cleaning further.
Cloud held her hand in his, looking at her, about to say something. He tried to fish for the sentence he was about to say in his head, but nothing bit.
“Is something wrong?” Aerith asked.
Cloud slowly removed his hand from her’s, “N-nevermind…do…do you want…my…my help?” he mumbled to her, looking at his faint reflection that cast upon the puddle on the floor.
“It’s fine.” She smiled, and continued cleaning the floor.
He sighed, and looked away from her, he stood up, grabbing a towel as well and helping her clean whether she liked it or not. But she didn’t say anything and he cleaned the floor on the opposite side of the kitchen from where Aerith was cleaning.
“Be careful…next time.” He said to her, from the other side.
He heard her chuckle, “If you’re around, I don’t need to be.”
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