Paper Tiger Burning

I respectfully credit all Original Creators, namely Squaresoft, which became SquareEnix,for these characters. In this way, I pay homage to my Fandom's Original Creator, and illustrate my Community's belief that Fan Fiction is "fair use". I do not claim to own these characters. I do not make money or gil from using these protected characters, nor do I wish to make money or gil from them. In other words, I am borrowing these characters to entertain the adult fanfiction community, but I am doing so with the highest degree of respect to the engineers, game designers, music makers, and voice actors.




I knew the moment I touched my door that I’d suffered an invasion. Taking a quiet breath, I slid my key in and turned the knob. My living room looked exactly the same as I’d left it. The bedroom proved untouched too. I stared at the rumpled sheets, remembering Aerith inside them. I walked into the kitchen, hoping to find the flower girl waiting on the settee.

Empty.

Heart falling, I put my keys on the table and thought. No signs of struggle. Perhaps her friends had tracked her down? I felt disappointed. But, the flower girl wouldn’t have left without a note if she could help it.

She would have said good-bye, wouldn’t she?

A slight noise put me on guard. I moved toward it, pinpointing the stove. I opened the door to find the flower girl blinking up at me with huge green eyes. Soot and oven grease stood out in great, black smears all over her porcelain face. She was the loveliest thing I’d ever seen. I sighed in relief.

“Hi,” she said, stiffly putting a leg out.

I swiftly bent and pulled her out of the incredibly small space, holding her in my arms. How she had hidden in there escaped me. “Are you alright?” I asked. “What happened?”

“You had company,” she said, hiccupping. “I’m terribly thirsty.” Her hand gripped my bicep convulsively, bruising me.

I sat her on the countertop. Taking an empty glass from the cabinet, I filled it from the sink and handed it to her. She drank greedily for a long minute, her eyes closed. Gasping, she put the empty glass down. “Rufus and Sheila were here a few hours after you left for work. They were looking for me. Sheila is determined you have me here.”

“You’ve been in that stove since nine o’clock this morning?” Taken aback, I silently searched her for signs of distress. Perhaps I’d have to learn to care what Sheila thought if it put Aerith in danger like this. Once recaptured, Hojo would keep her so far under lock and key I’d have to destroy the compound to retrieve her. I didn’t want that.

“Yeah.” She sighed, putting a blackened hand to her head. “I stayed in there after they left because I just didn’t trust the situation. I’m glad I did. I found out who bugged you, at least here. Cloud and Tifa came another few hours later. I heard them talking about leaving the bugs.” She gave a shaky laugh. “Cloud was with the sweeper team. He set the bugs himself.”

Angry I hadn’t recognized the puppet, I gritted my teeth. But then I realized she’d hidden from her friends too.

She had hidden herself from Cloud.

“I just didn’t feel right about letting them see me,” she answered, seeing my expression and divining its meaning. Her head drooped. “I’m not feeling very well.”

“I imagine you aren’t.” I picked her up again. “I’ll take you to the bathroom and you can clean up.” Her reason for putting herself in this state escaped me. I understood intuition, but surely her intuition wouldn’t have told her to hide from people she loved.

She let me run the bath. Sitting complacently on the closed toilet, she stared at her grimy feet. “You need to use some oven cleaner in there,” she said.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Flower girl, you amaze me,” I confessed. “Anyone else who’d spent seven hours in a stove would be quite irritable.”

“I’m not thrilled,” she sighed. “I feel…shaky.”

Now serious, I examined her more carefully. Her eyes looked a little wild and her respiration seemed shallow. Her hands trembled a little.

I felt responsible for this. If I hadn’t left her unprepared, alone, she might have avoided this sort of trauma.

She wouldn’t respond to conventional medicine anymore for nerves or pain. I had to use natural remedies. Conveniently, I had a natural remedy waiting on the kitchen table for her right now.

“I’ll get another shirt for you,” I said. “Take a long bath. When you come out I’ll have something for your nerves.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

I went to my dresser and searched it for something soft and warm. A sweater that came to my hips would fall to her thighs… I found a suede button-up that would hang lower than a sweater, provide comfort and not bind her sleep. I wished I had something else for her, but being watched everywhere prevented me giving her the dignity of real clothing.

Not that I didn’t enjoy a constant view of her sublime legs…

I gave her the shirt with a slight prod to get moving. She couldn’t just sit and stare and let the events of the day replay over and over. When I left her she was mechanically working the buttons on the cuffs of her old cover-up.

Once in the kitchen again I burst the stasis orb over a bowl and let all the flower seeds fall onto it. I took two tablespoons out and put them in a mortar with three tablespoons of lemon juice. Citric acid and the seeds together made a powerful narcotic that focused more on pain relief than on simply getting high. Letting the two sit together a few minutes, I found my honey and ginger and put them on the countertop. I poured fresh, cold water into the kettle and turned the burner on before going back to the mortar to thoroughly crush the contents.

And as I crushed, I thought.

I couldn’t keep her here any longer. She’d suffered, hiding in that stove all day long. What if she hadn’t been quick enough or clever enough to hide? I shuddered at the idea of her returning to Hojo. I’d sworn to protect her and I meant to do it. Where could I put her that Shin-Ra and Hojo would never find her? It had to be somewhere safe. She had to have some freedom. I needed to be able to reach her quickly.

I snapped out of my reverie at the sound of the kettle. Looking down I noticed I’d gone well above the standard in making pom-ne-kah; the seeds were utterly crushed and macerated. Taking up a small cup, I poured the liquid ginger and honey together in the bottom of it. I added the contents of the mortar, another layer of honey, then a slice of lemon.

It came to me as I readied to pour the hot water.

The apartment below me had been empty for two weeks. The tenant had prepaid three months in advance but had died. His name would still be on as a renter because I’d forgotten to inform the landlord.

It was perfect. No one would closely monitor that apartment right below me. I would hear everything she did. I could splice the power from my place to hers. We could stay there mostly, unheard by microphone taps. She would have much needed privacy and time to get herself on an even keel. I didn’t even have to worry about her neighbors underneath hearing us; the lady who lived under that apartment was almost completely deaf.

I picked up the cup and saucer, preparing to take it in to her, but she came through the kitchen door. I couldn’t shake the idea that her apparent nervousness came more from Cloud’s visit than the Shinra’s, especially as she kept giving me these furtive, guilty looks. She believed it had been wrong to hide from her friends, yet she had done it. Why?

“Here, flower girl,” I said softly, pulling out a chair with my free hand. “Sit down. Are you warm enough?” I handed her the steaming cup, watching her eyes tiredly track movement.

She let me push her closer to the table, then darted her eyes up to mine. “I’m a danger to you,” she said, ignoring my solicitousness. “I’m drawing people here.”

“You’d be doing that if you weren’t here,” I pointed out, sitting beside her. “But I have a solution.”

“Do you?” Her face relaxed as gratitude flooded her forest eyes.

“Yes. We’re moving you to the apartment right below this one, which is empty. The one below it is rented by a deaf old woman, so noise will not be much of an issue. That apartment isn’t bugged. I’m sure there are cameras in the hallway, however.” I picked up a spoon and stirred her medicine. “Drink that while it’s hot,” I bade her.

“I’ll run power to it in just a few minutes; it shouldn’t take long,” I went on as my guest obediently drank. As I suspected she didn’t complain about the taste at all. A stoic, the flower girl. “I’ll make every appearance of living here and be able to give you some privacy,” I added.

She drained her cup, nodding. “It’s a wonderful idea,” she said. “But I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight without you in the vicinity.” She shivered a little. “I feel safer when you’re around.”

Gratified by her need of me, I nodded assent. She wanted me around her. I barely grasped that. “I will stay with you all you wish, of course. And we don’t have to live there. It is merely convenient and a unique insurance.”

“Oh!” The flower girl blinked. “What was that stuff? I feel so…tranquil.”

I smiled. She was so easily distracted… “Pom-ne-kah,” I answered. “Made from some seeds we brought back. It’ll make a sensualist out of you, fair warning.”

“I can see why.” She waved her hand in front of her eyes. “I see the prettiest colors.”

Chuckling, I stood up. “You sit here until I come back. I’m going to investigate below.”