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 sensed the daylight and woke. Though my home remained utterly dark, I decided to go ahead and blindfold the flower girl again. I took a silk necktie from my wardrobe and coaxed my groggy guest into a sitting position. “I’m going to blindfold you again,” I warned her. “You should be able to go without it in a few days though, now that you are no longer receiving mako injections.”

The girl swayed a little as I tied the silk over her eyes. Before I could finish she put her hands up and covered mine gently, feeling the length and width of my fingers. “You aren’t going to tell me who you are, are you?” she asked softly. “Am I a danger to you?”

Her hands felt warm. She had slight calluses on her palms and thumbs. I felt surprised that her touch didn’t repulse me. “You’ll figure it out,” I assured her. Finishing, I moved away. “Go back to sleep if you can. Rest is what you need.” I wouldn’t tell her my identity, but I would allow her to puzzle it out.

The Cetra collapsed back into my bed. “Alright, musician,” she answered. I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Musician?” I queried.

“You must be a musician,” she said. “You have the hands and voice for it. Also, when you walk you don’t hesitate. I hear your steps like a cadence.”

Unaccountably flattered, I smiled in the darkness. “Go to sleep, flower girl,” I bade her.

I left her, going in to sit on my couch. She thought I was musical. What a laugh. I’d never so much as touched an instrument.

I didn’t have to work today or tomorrow, it being a weekend…

The phone rang. I grabbed it off the side table and looked at the display.

Sheila. I didn’t want to talk to the woman but I felt obligated to do so.

“Yes?” I answered.

“You have some nerve,” Sheila said. “I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life!”

“Then you’ve coasted along rather well in your life,” I replied. “I can think of worse things than being left at an opera house with a paid driver to escort one home.” For example, having me lose my patience and gut her like a fish.

“Everyone wanted to know what happened,” Sheila went on. “I told them you’d gotten sick. I don’t think anyone believed it.”

“Considering it’s a matter of Shin-Ra record that I’ve never been independently ill a day in my life, no, I suppose that story fell short,” I replied.

“Goddamn you!” Sheila made a noise of anger. “All because I wouldn’t accept your ratty flowers, you do this to me?”

“No, Sheila,” I said quietly. “I left because you’re a spoiled woman who insists upon using her name to get me. Your refusal of the roses merely offended me.”

“You act as if it would be a death sentence to fuck me!”

“I already told you why I wouldn’t have sex with you.”

“That scientist gave me something-.”

“I don’t care what he gave you. Your brother wouldn’t take kindly to me killing you, accidentally or not.”

“We’ll see what he says about it!”

“Then you call me when he gives his verdict,” I said lowly, starting to feel a headache behind my eyes. “If he writes a waiver I’ll consider it.”

Really?” Sheila’s voice changed in tone from anger to interest.

“I said I would consider it. Goodbye.” I hung up on her. Sighing heavily, I put the phone in the charger. By Shiva I hated her. She was second down on my list of people to kill, right underneath Hojo.

“Are you ok, musician?”

The flower girl stood in the threshold between the living room and the bedroom. I couldn’t see her but I pinpointed her direction quite easily. Irritated she’d listened in on my conversation, I began to verbally berate her. But I stopped to consider her question. She was concerned for me.

Had anyone ever shown me real concern?

I couldn’t recall, which pointed to a resounding no.

“Just a small dispute with a very small woman,” I answered, reining myself in. “Our conversation must have kept you from falling asleep?”

“Yes.” She moved closer. “You bought her the Angel’s Grace and she refused them?”

She really was quite an astute observer despite her lack of vision. I felt my respect for her go up another notch. “Sheila is a bit of a snob.” I got up and took her by the elbow, guiding her to the settee. “If you won’t sleep in there, relax out here,” I told her. The sooner I got her well the sooner I could foist her off on someone else. I felt certain Cloud Strife would welcome having her back. I could drop her on the roof of his girlfriend’s watering hole, maybe…

I heard her sigh. She made a noise of contentment as I covered her with the retrieved quilt. “You’re a soldier,” she murmured. “You work for Shinra.”

“Yes.” No reason to deny it.

“Then it was even more dangerous for you to break me out of the labs,” she replied. “And you’re being blackmailed into a sexual relationship with your employer’s…sister?”

“Not successfully, no,” I answered, smirking. I doubted Rufus would write his sister that waiver. Even if he did I’d just ‘lose’ it.

“Good.” She paused. “Why would someone want an unwilling partner?”

“Sheila doesn’t care if her partners are willing or not,” I said, wondering if she could possibly be this innocent. People took unwilling partners all the time. I’d never done so but my tastes had never run to rape. Women weren’t a challenge to subdue.

“Sheila…” The flower girl gave a gasp. “Sheila and Rufus Shinra!”

“Yes.”

“Ooohh!” I heard a very small fist hit the settee. “Those wretched people! Don’t you do it, musician! Don’t you give in to that manipulation! They buy their way through life. They think people have a price.”

“In my experience people often do have a price,’ I answered. “But don’t fret over them for my sake. I have no intention of warming Sheila’s bed. She’s quite repulsive to me.” Honestly, did the girl think I needed her warnings?

“And being a soldier, you really can’t, can you?” she asked quietly. “I’ve known a few soldiers. I even dated one, once. He wouldn’t touch me; he was afraid he’d hurt me.” She laughed a little, bitterly, to my ears. “I guess he could now, though, if he wasn’t dead.”

I recalled that the flower girl and Zack had once been an item. Zack would come to the barracks after a visit with her and work his way through three or four willing recruits to take the edge off of his sexual frustration. Often I’d wondered why he would set himself up for such torture. Why date a woman one could never enjoy carnally?

Zack had been killed by a Turk’s bullet…

“It must be a terribly lonely life to be a soldier,” the flower girl went on. “Why did you sign up?”

She was quite nosy but I found I didn’t mind answering her questions. At least she seemed to have half a brain in her head. She’d probably walked all over Strife. “I didn’t,” I answered. “I was born in the program. I had no choice.”

“Oh, musician, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t concern yourself. I’ve never known anything but the military and as a consequence I can’t miss what I’ve never had.” I was lying to her. I had eyes. I saw what other, normal people had. Intelligence had a way of granting covetous desires.

Her pity bothered me. As long as she didn’t know who I was I could accept her sympathy, but when she knew me she would have power over me.

“Why did you break me out of the labs, musician?” she asked softly.

“I had many reasons,” I answered. “Don’t ask me to explain.”

“Alright.” I heard a soft thump and knew she’d dropped her head on the arm of the settee. “I’m able to take a gift without examining it; I can do that for you.”

“You’re very trusting, aren’t you, flower girl?”

“Yes. It’s one of my biggest weaknesses.” She laughed a little. “But I’ve made a lot of friends because of it.”

“When you’re better I’ll take you to them,” I offered. She couldn’t stay here indefinitely. Someone would eventually discover her. Besides, I didn’t want saddled with her.

“Will you?” Her voice grew bright. “Oh,” she went on, her voice dropping a little. “Maybe you shouldn’t. I’d be a danger to them. They think I’m dead anyway. I’ll just complicate things for Cloud.”

“Things are always complicated for Cloud,” I said, unable to resist the little dig. The little angst-ridden puppet could complicate anything, apparently even a haircut.

She drew in a sharp breath. “You know Cloud too,” she murmured. “I guess you would, if you’re a soldier. Tell me, is he alright?”

“As far as I know he’s fine,” I assured her. “All of AVALANCHE should be. Shin-Ra doesn’t have any of your friends.”

The girl made a small noise of dismay. “I really, really get the feeling I ought to know you,” she whispered. “And no, I won’t ask. But you’re a mystery.”

“You aren’t the first to say so,” I replied mildly. “Would you like some breakfast?” I felt hungry and I knew she should be as well.

“I’d love some, musician,” she answered.