Life Finds a Way

Chapter 47

The next several weeks were both more awkward and better than she had come to expect. She tried and failed to not be embarrassed with Genesis after the night he apologized. If he was bothered as well, she couldn't tell. He treated her the same as he always had. The better part was Sephiroth and Angeal. Although Angeal had never been cold to her, his friendly attitude took on a more personal tone. He really started to feel like a friend. Sephiroth had warmed up as well. During their training sessions, he actually started asking her questions about herself. She had never considered him as cold as he was sometimes made out to be, but she had also not considered him as a close friend. Maybe close acquaintances, but after the incident in the VR room, he finally started treating her as more than a subordinate. She couldn't say that he opened up, but he was not all business either. In the back of her mind she knew that her job was far from over and the fact that the three men were no longer keeping her at arm's length made her feel a little closer to accomplishing her end goal.

It was a little over two weeks after they had finally put the Soldier floor to rights and gotten back into their normal schedule that things changed again. It started small. It was a Tuesday when Genesis cancelled her regular training. When she tried to find him to see what was going on, he was nowhere to be found. She even went to his apartment, but if he was in he ignored all the people that knocked. Not even Angeal knew what was going on.

Over the rest of that week he cancelled all of her training and refused to talk to anyone beyond what was necessary for work. She found out from Zack that he had cancelled all of Zack's training as well. That really had alarms ringing. Genesis had never stopped complaining about having to teach the puppy, but he had never reneged on his deal with Sephiroth. At one point, she had started to wonder if the enthusiastic Zack was finally starting to grow on Genesis, but now she wondered what was really going on.

The following week did not get better. Genesis was known for getting into moods that lasted days, but it was getting worse with each passing day. He refused to talk to her, even going so far as to have most of the communications relayed through one of the other Soldiers. He wasn't treating his other friends any better. When he snapped at Sephiroth in front of several people, she felt a vice clench around her heart. Luckily the General did not retaliate. Even Sephiroth could see there was something wrong with the red-headed Commander.

It was another week before Clarissa had the chance to finally confront him about his behavior. It was accidental, but she took advantage of it. She was heading back from one of her training sessions with Sephiroth and barely caught the flash of red as Genesis disappeared into the VR room. She didn't hesitate to follow him. To her surprise, he hadn't yet started a program. Instead he was standing in the middle of the large room. When the door opened for Clarissa, he looked up at her with a glare. When she didn't move he snapped at her. "I would like to practice. Alone please."

She shook her head and walked to a few feet away. "No. I am not going to leave you alone."

At her adamant refusal he turned to her and clenched his fist. "I don't know what you have in mind but let me assure you I do not need any help from you." The derision in his voice was almost palpable.

As much as his words hurt, she refused to leave him to this. "You know, that's the funny thing about friends, even if you don't need or want their help, they're there anyway. You may not want my help but I'm not going to give up just because you are trying to push everyone away. What is going on?"

"Even if I told you I no longer desire your friendship? I am finding that emotions like those are quite useless."

She had to close her eyes against the wrenching pain his words caused. She had to remind herself he would not normally have said such a thing. As temperamental as he could be, he had never tried to inflict permanent damage on anyone. When she opened them again she looked into his eyes for several moments. The pain she found there convinced her that she couldn't walk away. "Even if you said you wanted me to never talk to you again. You can't keep pushing away the people that love you!"