After you agreed to accompany Aerith, she jumped in happiness and lifted her free hand for a hand check. Which you did not respond to and continued to walk, oblivious to what Aerith just did. Feeling uncomfortable, you pried your hand out of her grasp. You wanted to be able to react quickly if any enemies were to appear. You were walking behind her since she was leading you to her house. You quickly looked behind, verifying that Reno wasn't following you. Not seeing any traces of enemies, you relieved tension that you didn't know you had and turned back to watch where you were going. You walked across almost all the Sector 5 slum, turning here and there, escalating things, etc...
You quickly got lost in your thoughts, reminiscing the encounter with Aerith and the fight with Reno. Your thoughts stopped longer on Aerith, the first impression that you got of her was... ambiguous. You didn't really know what to think.
'Is she someone trustworthy? She does look like a kind person, I mean, even when they attacked her, she felt sorry for them. I am sure that she did, it was written on her face. But why would Shinra send their special forces, the Turks, after her? What is her connection with them? But more importantly, why do I feel a special link to her; am I supposed to know who she is?! No, that is impossible. Then what are those feelings?! It's like someone else told me to save this person, and now I feel reassured that she is out of danger. But she is an absolute stranger to me! Hmh... there is something strange about all this. In what did I just put myself into...?'
You were so lost in thoughts that you didn't even realize that you arrived at Aerith's house.
"Hey! Look out! Don't walk on the flowers." Said Aerith, looking at you.
You stopped dead in your track, pulling yourself out of your mind and looking at your environment. For the first time since you lived in Midgar's slum, you saw real flowers everywhere along with a waterfall of clear water. You also saw the sky, although it was less rare than the other things. The scent of the flowers was floating in the air, it made you feel... at home, like you always lived amongst nature, far away from Midgar and all of that. But the peaceful feeling soon left the place to an unknown nostalgia. It felt strange, like a reminder of another life that you could not remember. It was frustrating, you cursed at yourself for not understanding the cause of all those emotions.
"(Y/N)... Are you... crying?" said Aerith, with a worried tone. She is looking at you, wondering if you had any other injuries that she did not see.
"What? Uhm, no don't worry." You turned around and touched your cheek. It was indeed moist as if you had cried. 'And now I cry for no reason, what's wrong with me today?' you thought as you sighted.
Following Aerith, you entered what you assumed was her house, it was very cozy and inviting. A warm ambiance enveloped you, if you did not know that it was a house in the slums, you would have thought that you were in one of those modest houses up-plate. You stopped at the entrance of the house, not wanting to cross boundaries. After all, you did not know who the owner of the house is, and it was obvious that it was not Aerith. As if on cue, you heard her calling for her mum, taking you out of your thoughts once again. Just on the right of what would be called the "living room" was the kitchen, there was no wall separating the two, apart from the little wooden estrade in front of it. And there she was, the woman that was, with no doubt, the person that Aerith just called mother, since she was hugging her, and that there was no one here in the room apart from Aerith, her, and you. The old woman seemed surprised to say the least, even more when she saw you over Aerith's shoulder. Aerith broke the embrace and then turned to you, a big smile on her face.
"(Y/N), this is my mum, Elmira. Mum, this is (Y/N), she saved me from the Turks and got injured while fighting, so I brought her here to help her take care of the wounds!" Said Aerith, her smile faltering a bit at that last sentence.
At the mention of the Turks, Elmira's smile faded away, a look of concern and maybe even suspicion in her eyes. From the face that she made at the mere mention of the Turks, Aerith must have been in a situation like this before...
"Well Aerith, why don't you go take the first aid kit in the bathroom? After all, you shouldn't make your guest wait too long now, should you?" Spoke Elmira with the ghost of a tired smile on her lips.
After Aerith left to go upstairs, she turned to you, her face getting a bit more somber than it was when she talked to her daughter. She walked past you and motioned you to follow her outside.
"First, thank you for saving my daughter from the Turks, I am infinitely grateful for that. I have no idea what I would have done if they had taken her. Those bastards already tried to take her sometimes before, but just like you, another stranger, now her friend, saved her. I guess she is at least lucky for that." Elmira then looked at you from foot to head, and her look stopped at your eyes. When she saw them, her own eyes widened in realization. "And just like him, those eyes... I didn't know that Shinra made female SOLDIERs. Why does it always have to be SOLDIER strangers that help Aerith?!" she said with an exasperated voice.
Usually, you did not have a lot of problems with your eyes, for most of the time, you were alone, and it is not every day that someone would stare at you in the eyes. But it wasn't uncommon for you to get reflections about them. Last time was at a bar, you didn't take many precautions to stay in the shadowed corner, and the first thing you knew, the bartender was asking you thousands of questions about SOLDIER and Shinra. You had to spend the rest of the night trying to explain to him that you weren't a part of SOLDIER and that you had nothing to do with Shinra. So, when Elmira stared into your eyes, you knew that you were in for another hazardous attempt for explanation.
"I am not a part of SOLDIER, nor am I in any way linked to Shinra. On the contrary, I would even say that I try my best to stay out of whatever it is that they are doing. Though I understand your fear and reservation toward me. Before you ask, I have no idea why my eyes are like the eyes of the people of SOLDIER. You are, of course, free to believe me or not." You said, hoping that she would at least believe you a bit.
"Hmh... well, I cannot say that I entirely believe you, but I will give you the privilege of the doubt. Again, thank you for saving Aerith, but as her mother, I will have to ask you not to bring Aerith into whatever stories you are implied in. Of course, I cannot control you or what she does. But I hope you will avoid bringing her into more trouble than she is already in." The smile came back on Elmira's face again, although still with this tired look. She then turned and went back inside.
Since you were alone, you took the time to watch the garden filled with flowers. It is a beautiful garden, a piece of heaven hidden in the bustling slum of Midgar. Unconsciously, your body had moved closer to the flower. You were about to touch one, but you stopped abruptly once you realized what you were doing. You stood up quickly and backed up a bit. As if on cue, Aerith came back with the healing supplies in her arms.
"I finally found the aid kit that I was looking for haha! Sorry for making you wait. Here, let me help you bandage your wound." She took out the bandages and you began to treat your wound in a pleasant silence. You couldn't help but think back about what Elmira said about a certain Soldier that is now one of Aerith's friends, and the person that Reno talked about, Cloud. You could easily deduce that the person Elmira was talking about was Cloud. You wanted to learn more about this Cloud, and you were also quite worrying about the connections between Aerith and Shinra.
"So.., I hope it is not too personal, but would you mind telling me who this Cloud guy is? You mentioned him before when you were talking with the... Turk.
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Oh, so you heard that? Don't worry, I'll gladly talk about him; at least it will give me an excuse to talk, nay?" laughed Aerith.
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⊰⊹Crimson ⍭ redemption⊹⊱ Vincent valentine x reader
Fanfiction«I am... a monster.» This is what (Y/N) is persuaded to be. She closed herself to the world, sure that she would never have redemption. But who is she really? Without any memories of her life before THAT incident, she assumed that it wasn't importa...
