Mourning Again - Open mainly to Cloud [ Midgar - Morning ]

[cetrasoul]

It had been a long week for Aerith Gainsborough. She was so skilled at wearing a smile and dancing around the subject of her father's disappearance. It seemed to flawless, so easy, even when, deep inside, she was breaking. The strain of her father's death, and... and something else entirely. She would feel faint from time to time, exhausted when

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[heartofstrife]

After a mediocre breakfast in the mess hall, Cloud slipped through the ambling SOLDIERS and cadets back to his room. He'd finally finished that stupid remedial magicks class, thank god, and it had left him with his mornings free until just before lunch. At least until his CO realized that he was available. It wasn't that he was goofing off, though. Since Sora vanished, he'd been left to do all the repairs to the training grounds himself, as well as the remedial class. Funny, he thought, it was such a sudden thing. Not that he didn't sort of understand. It still had left him stuck with all the work. At least now it was all done.

When he got back to his room, Cloud slipped into his uniform jacket and picked up a book from his desk. Educational Speaking or How to Teach for Dummies it was called. He'd borrowed it out of the library to help him with talking to the class that he'd been told to teach. He'd kept it, reading a little every evening, but now that he was done with the class, he never had to look at it again, thank god

[cetrasoul]

Aerith was busy checking over the logs to see who needed a good talking to about returning their books on time when she heard the sound of the heavy doors creaking open. The sound of footsteps did not follow, however, and as the flower girl craned her neck, she could see a blond, spikey head of hair poking in through the crack in the door. It was so adorable, she couldn't help but laugh as she stepped out from behind the main counter.

She was wearing her usual, a simple, pink sundress with a pair of light brown, open-toe sandals, delicate on her small feet. When she clasped her hands behind her back, leaning forward just a bit, her long, brown braid fell over her left shoulder.

"It's okay. I don't bite. Promise!" Aerith smiled at the young man. Strange that she hadn't seen him before, but maybe he wasn't usually the bookish type.

[heartofstrife]

Movement brought Cloud's nevous searching homing in on the front desk, and his eyes widened. He was surprised to see that instead of the steel-haired, grim-faced warrior of words, a beautiful young woman with autumn hair and a sweet smile was standing there encouraging him to come in.

Cloud felt his heart give a jump, like it did whenever any pretty girl took any sort of notice of him. But this time, instead of a passing interest, her smile stayed on him, friendly and...almost teasing. The blood squeezed from his chest to tint his cheeks and ears.

Nervously, he stepped into the library, jumping when the door swung shut behind him. Say something, idiot. She's obviously the librarian, and this is way better than that old battlehen. Tell her who you are and give her the book.

"Uh..."

[cetrasoul]

Well, he'd made some progress by actually stepping inside. Oh, and he was blushing. Aerith hadn't met too many SOLDIERs who were in the practice of blushing in her company. Or maybe it was just that she'd spent too much time around Zack and Sephiroth, the first of which would never blush around her and the second of which who probably wasn't capable of it, strong and self-assured as he was. Maybe she could make it a goal.

The young man standing before her was handsome, maybe with a touch of cute thrown in there thanks to that adorable blush. She laughed and stood up straight, brown curls falling down her back again. He was a curious case, this...

"How eloquent," Aerith's voice carried a hint of laughter, and she clasped her hands behind her back. "Do you have a name? Or should I just call you Mr. Uhhh?"