[Fic] "Two Guys and a Girl" part 10 -- Final Fantasy 7 (Mercverse AU)

[edenfalling]

This story is set about ten years before main mercverse canon, insofar as this AU can be said to have any canon. :-) So. "Two Guys and a Girl," in which I bend, staple, and otherwise mutilate normal game canon involving trips to Nibelheim, because seriously, what's the point of crack AUs if you can't play around like this?

Edited 2/4/08, because the version first posted was the rough draft, which I put up mostly so I wouldn't have to eat my scarf for delaying yet another day. *grin* The new version still isn't great literature, but it's a bit less embarrassingly awkward.

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Two Guys and a Girl: Part 10
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"Where will your father be at this hour?" Cloud asked as they walked down the mountain toward Nibelheim. "It would be simplest to talk to him before we eat lunch."

Tifa paused midway through tossing a pinecone at Zack and tried to remember what appointments her father had scribbled on his wall calendar for this week. "Probably at the post office -- the truck comes this afternoon, and there's always stuff that needs to be sorted out beforehand."

"Convenient. I need to get the postmaster's high security stamp on the death notifications in any case -- that and my seal should keep them safe from random inspections -- so you can talk to your father while I deal with the letters."

"You're not going to sweet-talk Mr. Lockheart for her? That's really harsh -- and after Tifa said she trusted you, too." Zack flicked a pinecone at Cloud's ear. "So much for chivalry!"

Cloud caught the pinecone as it fell, and raised one eyebrow. "Courtesy is one thing. Saving people from the consequences of their own actions is a different thing altogether. If Tifa wants her father to treat her as a responsible adult, she'll have to act like a responsible adult instead of an uncontrolled child."

Then he grinned and flicked the pinecone back, catching Zack in the middle of his forehead. "Of course, nobody needs to be responsible all the time..."

The three-way pinecone fight lasted all the way into town.

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The Nibelheim post office was a storage shed with a counter, an antiquated cash register, and a small safe to hold stamps and money. It stood next to the mine office, since most correspondence was official business reports heading down to the lowlands; local mail was slow enough that it was almost easier to send word by foot from village to village.

Tifa's father and Ilsa Scour, the rail-thin postmistress, were arguing over a stack of boxes when Tifa pushed open the door. "I don't care if this Steerpike twit is the new mine supervisor -- he could be the king himself and I still wouldn't change my mind," Ilsa snapped, waving a sheet of stamps. "You can't ship boxes without paying! It undermines the integrity of the system."

"Mr. Steerpike is an ambitious and touchy man," Tifa's father said, in the loud, slow tone he used when he thought somebody was being stupid on purpose. "If we don't make everything smooth for him, he could easily raise quotas and taxes, delay requests for new equipment, or ignore safety regulations. We can write the expense off as a minor repair to the roof or something similar -- the government will pay for it either way, so what does it matter whether Mr. Steerpike pays it himself, here and now?"

"It's a question of principle," Ilsa said, but she began peeling stamps and plastering them to the boxes. "Good afternoon, Tifa. Introduce your guests; it's only polite."

Tifa's father turned, startled, and then ventured a smile when he saw Cloud and Zack standing at Tifa's shoulders. "Mr. Strife, I hope you're settling in comfortably. Please excuse me for not noticing you sooner. Can I help you with anything this afternoon?" Ilsa Scour coughed, pointedly. "I'm sorry, Ilsa, these are Cloud and Zachary Strife; they're renting the old Shinra mansion. Mr. Strife, this is Ilsa Scour, our postmistress."

"Pleased to meet you," Ilsa said, adjusting her glasses. "Are you here for business, or just bringing Tifa to find her father?"

"Both, actually," Cloud said, smiling. "If you'll excuse me, Mayor Lockheart, I need to discuss some secured letters with Ms. Scour. Zack, come with me; you'll need to know how to deal with postal clearances sooner or later." He motioned Tifa subtly toward the door as he walked to the counter.

Tifa stepped outside and pointedly held the door open until her father joined her in the midday sunshine. The door swung shut with a squeal of rusted hinges, leaving the Lockhearts alone with each other. Tifa glanced away, scuffing her toe over the packed dirt of the office yard.

"So... secured letters," her father ventured after a moment. "Cloud Strife is here as a private citizen, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Tifa said, wondering what to do with her hands. "He just, you know, has connections. So he has a seal and everything, and I guess he doesn't like people reading his mail. If I had the money, I'd buy a seal too." She settled for crossing her arms.

"If you play your cards right, you might well have that kind of money one day... and possibly an armful of other privileges into the bargain," her father said, casting a meaningful glance toward the closed door.

Oh, that was the last stone on the slope. "I am not going to-- to hunt Zack like he's a giant sack of diamonds or something! He's my friend. And I can get money or power all on my own if I want to. I don't need anyone to give me stuff I can earn for myself, not even you! I'm never going to be ladylike, not like Mom, so stop looking for her all the time and see me!"

Her shout echoed from the walls of the shed and the mine office, slowly fading into silence.

Her father drew a deep breath, and then another. "This is not the time or place for this conversation," he said, low and rough. "We'll discuss this tonight, at home. Until then, you might want to consider what you'd do for food and shelter if I didn't give them to you. And leave your mother out of our arguments."

Leave her mother out? When she haunted their house more thoroughly than any ghost, because even five years later, her father couldn't let her rest? Yeah, she would if he would... but Tifa knew better than to say that out loud.

"If you kick me out, I can stay with Cloud and Zack," she said instead. "I know they wouldn't mind."

"I said we'll discuss this later," her father snapped. "In the meantime, I have a meeting with Mr. Steerpike. Tell Ilsa I'll pay for the packages tomorrow." He strode off across the yard, his shrunken midday shadow dogging his heels.

He looked oddly worn and powerless, Tifa thought, not like the strong, decisive man who dominated her early memories. He'd lost something when her mother died. And now he'd lost her, too.

She really could leave. She didn't have to wait until he let her go. She could leave Nibelheim anytime she wanted -- just pack a bag and start walking -- and he couldn't stop her. Nothing tied her down unless she agreed to be tied.

It felt like jumping off a cliff and realizing she could fly instead of falling.

But the open sky was lonely.

Tifa ducked back into the post office in search of her friends.

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Ilsa Scour was stalking back and forth behind the counter, waving her hands wildly through the air. "--our seal -- Nibelheim's seal -- I could recognize it in my sleep. We haven't had a lord for hundreds of years -- thousands of years -- and now the Shinra sell the damned tax and justice rights to a complete stranger and expect us to roll over and--"

Tifa shut the door quietly and sidled over to the far corner where Zack was watching the show. She knew better than to get in Ilsa's way when the postmistress was in a mood.

Cloud apparently lacked any sense of self-preservation. "Do us both a favor and keep this to yourself," he said, reaching across the counter to snag one of Ilsa's flailing hands. "I'm here as a private citizen, not an arm of the government -- I don't expect anyone's obedience."

Ilsa yanked her hand from his grasp. "As if the nobility ever bother to govern anything. This affects all of Nibelheim, and Eigerspitze, Jotunberg, and Eifelheim as well. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't warn everybody about you!"

"How about this -- Cloud's been your lord for ages already, and he's never bothered with taxes or telling you how to run your stupid town," Zack said, twirling the sack of letters in his right hand. "We only came here because he was worried about how many duels I've been getting into back home -- which is totally pointless, because I always win -- and we'll probably never come back here once the idiots at court find a new scandal to distract them from me. So stop worrying and start stamping the stupid letters."

"You've fought duels?" Tifa asked, rounding on him -- Cloud and Ilsa completely forgotten. "What rules? What weapons? Why didn't you tell me? I have to take you to Master Zangan -- he's always complaining that he has no idea what new tricks people have come up with since he left Midgar. You have to show me everything."

Behind her, Cloud coughed. "Tifa, please let go of Zack's shirt; you're strangling him. You can badger him for details after we finish preparing the letters. And speaking of the letters..."

Tifa dropped her hands from Zack's collar and backed off, sure her face was as bright red as dragon hide. Zack drew an exaggerated breath, straightened his shirt, and tossed the bag to Cloud.

"Thank you," Cloud said. "Ms. Scour? Will you at least provisionally accept that I'm not here to interfere with your town?"

Ilsa folded her arms. "Why should I believe you? So you bought the title a few years ago instead of just last week -- that only makes me more suspicious. You should have sent notice to us! We have the right to know when our status changes!"

Cloud dragged his free hand through his hair, looking incredibly frustrated. "Fine. You want a reason to believe me? Your status never changed. I've been the lord of Nibelheim since I was ten months old -- it was my mother's price for leaving Midgar. She left local justice in the hands of the village councils, and we never collected any more money than we needed to maintain the house and stable three horses. I revoked even that tithe when I left, and it's my authority that kept you free from land and hunting taxes ever since.

"Come to think of it," he continued, "your mines shouldn't be taxed either. I never consented to that, and I think it's still illegal for the king to levy taxes without the local lord's permission. I'll have to bring that up with the Minister of the Treasury. Will that serve as a sign of my good faith?"

"It would if I saw you make the call or write the letter," Ilsa said, "but you won't do that. You can't. Your story's impossible -- you must have stolen the seal. We haven't had a lord since the Angels' War, when Lady Shinra's son died."

Cloud glanced at Tifa as if expecting another outburst. She couldn't manage to look surprised, though -- not after she'd heard the truth from Lady Shinra's ghost -- and Cloud turned back to Ilsa with a shrug. "That's mostly true... except I didn't die. I've never quite picked up the knack." His smile twisted ruefully. "You seem to be an amateur historian, Ms. Scour. I haven't always been able to stay anonymous -- if you think about it, I'm sure you know my name."

Slowly, Ilsa's eyes widened. "That's impossible. You can't be that Lord Strife. Not the one who saved the empire after Julian Silverberg's treachery and led the conquest of Wutai."

Tifa shut her mouth with an audible click. She'd known Cloud was old, and a Shinra, but somehow she'd never connected his name to the High Regent who held the empire together after the Second Succession War, or the general who won the battle of Tienzhan. That was Cloud?

Cloud ran a hand through his hair again, embarrassment joining frustration on his face. "I'm afraid that was me. But I swear by my sword that I have no interest in local politics, so will you please do me the favor of not spreading my secrets around?"

Ilsa nodded, speechless for the first time in Tifa's memory.

"Great!" Zack said, clapping his hands. "So, how about stamping the letters? It's already past noon, and some of us want lunch." He grabbed Tifa's hand and tugged her toward the door.

"Fine," Ilsa said, holding out her hand for the sack. "Lord-- no, Mr. Strife, you can leave those with me. We have a bargain."

Cloud bowed, and ushered the others out into the midday sun.

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"You weren't surprised," Cloud said as soon as the post office door swung shut. "Zack already knew, but when did you figure out who I am?"

Tifa flushed, Lady Shinra's ghostly face swimming in her mind's eye. She should admit the truth... but really, she couldn't tell him about that. It was too sad. How could she explain that she'd told his mother not to wake him, and that Lady Shinra hadn't even argued and tried to say goodbye?

"I don't know," Tifa lied. "I wasn't sure, but you're so familiar with Nibelheim, and you're related to the Shinra. It would be weird for a noble to grow up here if you weren't our lord, but we've never had a lord, not for ages and ages. And you knew the story about Lady Shinra and her son, and you're older than you look, and, well, I just started wondering." She walked a touch faster, watching her feet instead of daring to look at Cloud.

Zack laughed. "Busted! She totally caught you."

"I suppose I was dropping a lot of hints, now that I think about it," Cloud said. "Maybe I wanted to be caught."

"I really don't care," Tifa hurried to assure him, "just like I don't care about Zack having demon blood. You're a good person -- I just know it. It doesn't matter how old you are, or who your family is, or whether you help us with our taxes."

"If you say so," Cloud murmured. "Changing subjects, how did your talk with your father go?"

Somehow Tifa couldn't work up the energy to evade or complain like she normally would. Her father had no power over her; what was the point of lying or getting mad? "We yelled," she said, "but he'll get over it. I'll apologize; I don't care anymore. I'm going to leave Nibelheim once I'm fifteen anyway -- there's nothing he can do to stop me -- so it doesn't really matter what he does until then. I can get through it."

Zack punched her lightly in the shoulder. "That's my Mini Zangan! You show him how tough you are."

"Jerk," Tifa muttered, but she let him off without a kick. This time.

"Zack and I will probably leave before winter," Cloud said after a moment, "but until then, you can help us renovate the mansion when you need a place to retreat. I'll pay you a fair laborer's wage, and I can set up a bank account that your father can't touch. Just... don't aggravate him too much. It's wasteful to burn all your bridges."

Tifa grimaced. "I'm still going to leave. I can't change anything here. If you want to fix a house, there's no point redoing all the shingles when the foundation is rotten. Midgar's the foundation. That's where I have to go."

"True," said Cloud, as they rounded the corner of the inn. "But that's in the future. Don't get so caught up in your plans that you ignore the present."

"Which is lunch!" Zack said, opening the door to the scent of stew and fresh bread. "And new friends. You know, when Cloud said we were going to Nibelheim, I thought this would be the worst summer ever. I was so totally wrong. You're going to introduce me to Zangan, and show me how to hunt in the woods, and help us fix up the mansion, and all kinds of cool stuff. I can tell you all about Midgar, and once we get the computers hooked up I'll show you how to net-dive, and--" His cheerful list continued as he bounded toward the counter.

Tifa hesitated on the threshold, glancing sideways at Cloud. "Do you really think I can make a difference? I'm just one person, and it's not like I have any idea what to do. Who's going to listen to a girl from a little mountain town?"

"Everybody in the world is just one person, but somehow we manage to get things done," Cloud said, one hand holding the door open. "As for the rest... I was a boy from a little mountain town. I built a reputation despite that, and I doubt I was any more stubborn than you are. If you hold your course, I think you can win in the end."

He offered his hand to Tifa, as if she were his equal.

Tifa stepped through the door.

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End of Story

Back to Part 9

crosspost at mercverse community

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I may write a brief epilogue set a few years later, but then again, I have a lot of other things to work on, so don't hold your breath. Julian Silverberg is a reference to chofi's fic here; I know nothing of Suikoden or how she intended to use him, but this seemed reasonable to me. Zack's issues with duels (and the trouble they caused at court) are mentioned in several other fics.

Comments

[bewize.livejournal.com]

Hey! I've not been reading this story, as it's not a fandom I'm familiar with, but congratulations on finishing it! That has to feel pretty good. :D

[edenfalling]

The Mercverse collaborative AU is so removed from Final Fantasy 7 canon that it's practically original fiction -- but I suppose we do assume readers have a basic knowledge of what, exactly, we're ignoring or flipping on its head. And it's developed some in-jokes and shared tropes of its own, which are probably quite baffling if you haven't read most of the posts on the community lj. *sigh*

Anyway, yes, it's good to be done. Now on to "An Ounce of Prevention"!

[silverblade219.livejournal.com]

I not really familiar with the fandom at all, but this story is great.

The fact that the ghost was Cloud's mother was so sad and that she left without saying a final goodbye... I read in one of the comments that he doesn't remember his mother's face and that she basically took away the one chance that he could see her again? Poor Cloud...

(goes to look up these characters to figure out more of their backgrounds)

[edenfalling]

I should warn you that the Mercverse is VERY, VERY AU for Final Fantasy 7. We kept some pieces of the characters' original personalities, a few relationships, and some scattered aspects of the world... but everything else is wildly different. If you want to know more about FF7 in general, that's one thing, but if you want to know about this collaborative AU, you're better off going to the mercverse journal, starting at the beginning, and seeing how we built a sort of shared background for these versions of the characters.

[dareetel.livejournal.com]

This was wonderfully done. I so love Mercverse. I enjoyed how you wove into it certain aspects from other stories, little bits here and there. I really enjoyed Zack and Tifa's interactions and love how you portrayed Cloud in this. Just a great job all around.

[edenfalling]

Thank you! The fun of a shared AU is that you do get to pick up little bits and pieces of other people's stories -- like the tea thing, Zack's duels, Cloud's stint as regent, and Julian Silverberg. :-)

[alznthlay.livejournal.com]

*glees happily at you*

[edenfalling]

Thank you!