Who: Cloud Strife, Scáthach, Geralt of Rivia, Prompto Argentum, and Tifa Lockhart. When: Throughout Feb. Where: Aefenglom, Aefenglom forest, beyond the borders. What: Closed threads. New meetings, old meetings, more. Warnings: Fightystuff.
[ Cloud is so quick to shut down that singular word that it makes her stomach twist uncomfortably. She wasn't thinking of it as anything more than the promises about which he was already speaking, but his reaction brings her mind to other places, makes her realize that he could see her as looking for more than he's offering, looking for things he would surely prefer to find elsewhere.
He's come to rescue her yet again; she shouldn't make it harder on him than it already is.
Another deep breath, trying to dispel the anxious nausea that runs through her - she's too tired to hide it as well as she normally does - and Tifa gets to her feet, accepting the jacket and shrugging it over her shoulders, fastening it to protect against the cold air outside. ]
Okay.
[ It's embarrassing as anything she's ever done, but it's also the only way right now. Her arms hook around his shoulders from behind, and Tifa hitches one leg up to his side. Once he grabs it, she'll follow with the other. ]
[She doesn't know. Of course, she doesn't know. But it wasn't her. It's something he's only ever gone into with Zack- only because he had to at that- but it was more the concept of the bond, the promise underneath it, which he had problems with.
He'd lost bonds. More than one, actually. And it's something so uniquely painful, it leaves scars. Extensive ones- more apparent than any of the scars that litter his body. And of course, in her case in particular being that he kind of had a bad track record with promises, it's something which...
...
He'd promised himself he'd never do it again. No matter what happened to him. If Sephiroth, if Zack were to disappear like the others he'd joined himself to had, he'd resigned himself to whatever would happen- just so in some respect (even if that respect was only what severed bonds caused- pain) they wouldn't be overwritten.
But this, with Tifa being here, from that first day he'd known it was actually her, he'd known he wanted to protect her. Even if it'd go the way it had on their world, her protecting him more than anything. It's different.
...But she doesn't know. Of course she doesn't know.
So, as he takes her weight, there's a little bit of wrangling around, a little bit of fumbling, and his sword is placed down on the table so she can clamber on. It's not like he can't take the combined weight. It's not that at all- Tifa weighs next to nothing to him. It's more...
...It's embarrassing, of course. The both of them, he's pretty sure, are going to go into levels of embarrassment they didn't know existed through just the journey to the coven. But he gives a shit. And if he can make one thing easier...
It's not risking her cutting herself on it.]
Alright.
[Oh, he's touching her legs to keep her up on his back. And she smells... amazing. And- -He has to push it from his mind.]
Let's go.
[The trip is... uneventful. Cloud walks down the suburban streets and they're mercifully empty.
He should talk to her, right? Might stop her from passing out...]
Uh. If anyone asks, we'll say we found a wheelbarrow.
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no subject
He's come to rescue her yet again; she shouldn't make it harder on him than it already is.
Another deep breath, trying to dispel the anxious nausea that runs through her - she's too tired to hide it as well as she normally does - and Tifa gets to her feet, accepting the jacket and shrugging it over her shoulders, fastening it to protect against the cold air outside. ]
Okay.
[ It's embarrassing as anything she's ever done, but it's also the only way right now. Her arms hook around his shoulders from behind, and Tifa hitches one leg up to his side. Once he grabs it, she'll follow with the other. ]
I trust you.
no subject
He'd lost bonds. More than one, actually. And it's something so uniquely painful, it leaves scars. Extensive ones- more apparent than any of the scars that litter his body. And of course, in her case in particular being that he kind of had a bad track record with promises, it's something which...
...
He'd promised himself he'd never do it again. No matter what happened to him. If Sephiroth, if Zack were to disappear like the others he'd joined himself to had, he'd resigned himself to whatever would happen- just so in some respect (even if that respect was only what severed bonds caused- pain) they wouldn't be overwritten.
But this, with Tifa being here, from that first day he'd known it was actually her, he'd known he wanted to protect her. Even if it'd go the way it had on their world, her protecting him more than anything. It's different.
...But she doesn't know.
Of course she doesn't know.
So, as he takes her weight, there's a little bit of wrangling around, a little bit of fumbling, and his sword is placed down on the table so she can clamber on. It's not like he can't take the combined weight. It's not that at all- Tifa weighs next to nothing to him. It's more...
...It's embarrassing, of course. The both of them, he's pretty sure, are going to go into levels of embarrassment they didn't know existed through just the journey to the coven. But he gives a shit. And if he can make one thing easier...
It's not risking her cutting herself on it.]
Alright.
[Oh, he's touching her legs to keep her up on his back. And she smells... amazing. And-
-He has to push it from his mind.]
Let's go.
[The trip is... uneventful. Cloud walks down the suburban streets and they're mercifully empty.
He should talk to her, right?
Might stop her from passing out...]
Uh. If anyone asks, we'll say we found a wheelbarrow.
[smooth, Cloud.]
...Or something.