What could possibly go wrong here?

[cetrary]

Who; Aerith + Yusuke
What; Time for a painting session!
Where;Aerith's room at the gray building
When; July 23rd
Warnings;None

Truthfully Aerith's room in B-01 of the gray building could only be described as homey. Every shelf and table was filled to the brim with plants, some were clippings in glasses that she was clearly using as makeshift vases while many were actually growing in both potted and hanging planters. The hanging planters were placed mostly around the windows with their vines wrapping around the forest green curtains she'd put up. The only thing that seemed slightly out of place was the odd mural that had been painted on the wall behind her sofa in the living room. It had been painted onto a black background that only went halfway to the door with bright and vivid colors. Whatever it was trying to depict was probably a bit hard to place, but it seemed to be an abstract image of a small island coming into existence surrounded by flowers, stars, and various rather childlike depictions of creatures found here. A good chunk of it was hidden by the sofa and some hanging plants with bright white flowers.

It was definitely made abundantly clear that the white flowers were certainly her favorites. All in all it was a comfortable looking place. Call it homey at one's own risk, but that was really precisely what it was. Yusuke also happened to be the first person to see it. That definitely wasn't due to an active choice on her part, but rather that she just hadn't had an opportunity. After all she did spend what some might consider a considerable amount of time at her shop or in her garden. It was a lot easier to find her there than it would be to find her in the room she'd been given here. But, with Yusuke living in the Orphanage her little room here seemed like the best place to offer up.

Though really she was kinda starting to regret having agreed to this. As embarrassing as it was to admit (not that she had admitted it) she hadn't quite understood what he was talking about when he'd first mentioned he could prove it to her. Somehow she'd just thought maybe he'd offer her more compliments or something like that. Looking back on it that was kinda dumb of her, the young man mentioned art pretty consistently. But would she have ever thought he'd want to paint her? Especially after the comments some certain members of a certain trio had to say about her. Rude. That's what they all were: rude.

Regret or not it was way too late to back out. Let's be real here though, it'd been too late the moment she'd said she'd let him prove it to her. There was no saying no to him once he seemed excited, she just wouldn't have the heart at all. So, now she was stuck here kinda awkwardly waiting for him to arrive. She'd told him to just come in when he got there, that she'd leave the door unlocked, so there'd be no need to knock. She'd gotten a few snacks for them from the market (some blueberry muffins, a few pretzels, and some pieces of fruit) and had some water out for him. It'd taken her way too long to eventually just settle on wearing her usual light pink dress without the jacket. It'd been an entire debate in her head on if she should try to buy something special or not, which ultimately ended up with 'or not' winning out.

She liked her dress.

But now that everything was set up all she had to do was wait and hope that she wouldn't somehow disappoint.

Comments

[cetrary]

"Mmhmm, we did! Always surrounded by fresh flowers as well," which certainly added to things nicely. "Though...I was late getting back a lot and she got kiiiiinda frustrated with that." Mostly with never knowing where Aerith had run off to. Which was, quite frankly, a fair concern. Aerith was wildly independent and stubborn, if she decided to do something she just did it. Combine that with the knowledge that Shinra was always looking to get their hands on her, well, you could see why her mom probably worried.

"I wasn't too much older than you when my mom died." Though, she supposed it was quite different for her. She had known her mother had gone somewhere better, somewhere she'd see her again. And she still had a few memories of her. At three she imagined he had no memories of her at all. Or at least only the vaguest of memories. It was very strange that he seemed so succinct about this topic. "What was the artist that took you in like?" She'd told him about her adopted mom, surely he had more to say about his adopted family!

Well, he didn't have to tell her twice. She jumped up and stretched her arms up high. "Oh! I bought some snacks, want some?"

[bufubulous]

Yusuke smiled to hear about where Aerith had grown up. Complicated situation or not, it sounded like she had some good memories with her adoptive mother. “That sounds beautiful. There is something rather nice about being surrounded by fresh flowers and plants. No wonder your space is so full of them evening now.” He added wit ha small gesture around the room, waving lightly as he finally pushed to his feet from the spot. Rolling his neck and rubbing his shoulder lightly to work a kink out of it form having been so still.

“Is that so…? I’m sorry for that, Aerith.” He responded in a sympathetic tone. He really didn’t have many memories of her at all, and it was something that bothered him considering something that represented her and her love for her son had been before him for so many years and he was none the wiser. Sometimes he even wondered if she might have been around longer had it not been for Madarame. Which made his feelings around the question all the more complicated as Aerith continued. Part of him wanted to do what he had used to do concerning such questions. But that would be pretending again, and he’d decided not to do that anymore. “I wish I had some stories like you did… But I honestly cannot think of how without offering half truths. He was not the man people thought he was, despite his giving me a roof over my head and teaching me more about art. I often find myself more confused and uncertain when I try to think about him, so I apologize for not really being sure of what to say.” That was all to say that it was complicated and he wasn’t sure he wanted to dump that on his new friend after she’d offered nicer stories.

But snacks sounded good if the grumble his stomach gave was anything to go by! “Snacks would be lovely, thank you.” He added as he made sure nothing would tip over among his supplies before following her.

[cetrary]

"I bet you'd love to see our place then," she said with a smile. "I guess I subconsciously recreated it here." It hadn't really been intentional, weirdly. It just seemed to have happened over time. She'd brought things home bit by bit until she'd ended up with what it was now. Maybe it had been an attempt to create a reflection of what she missed back home. Deep down she knew it'd be a long time before she saw it again. If she ever did.

"No need to apologize. She went back to the planet." So there was no need to be sad, right? Everyone had always seen that as a strange reaction on her part, but that was only because they didn't quite understand. It wasn't their fault they didn't understand, though, and she never held it against people. Her expression softened at his words and she put a hand on his shoulder briefly, accompanied by a gentle squeeze before she moved over to grab the snacks she'd gotten to offer up. "I'm sorry. If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. But if you ever do..." well, she wasn't going to push. The option to talk was there though, if he ever wanted to take it. She knew how it was to have things caught up deep inside that you didn't want to drag out.

"They're not much, but I have it on good authority that soft pretzels are basically the best things for snacks!"

[bufubulous]

“Reminders of home in a strange world would be a comfort. It makes sense that you’ve recreated the atmosphere here.” He responded with a small smile, he certainly could understand the desire. She was right, too. He would love to see this beautiful and cozy sounding home that Aerith had described, and to meet the woman who raised her who sounded so very kind.

He was a little surprised, perhaps, by Aerith’s response concerning her birth mother’s death… But didn’t most people find comfort in such things? In a knowledge or belief concerning where one’s loved ones went after death? They were from such different worlds. After all, it was hard to say how similar or dissimilar the matter of death was. He knew he liked to think his mother could at least rest more easily now that he was away from Madarame… That he had found people and friends who cared about him.

At the small, gentle squeeze to his shoulder and Aerith’s kind words, he glanced at her with a slightly sad but appreciative smile. “Thank you, Aerith… That is kind of you to offer.” She was right, though. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk about it right now or not. It had been a bit sudden for him to try to explain it, and they had been having a lovely afternoon before now. He didn’t want to dampen the atmosphere further. “Perhaps another time.” He finally decided, following her to the table for their snacks. Once he had some time to think of how to put it, to be ready to talk about it to people beyond his group and to not worry about bringing the mood down.

His eyes darted to the pretzels with curiosity. “I recall you had some of these set up at the potluck too, did you not? They were rather good.”

[cetrary]

"I hope you've been able to find some of your own!" If not, she'd be happy to help him try to figure something out to bring him some sort of comfort. It seemed important to have comfort here of all places. Or at least it felt important to her, as was probably obvious by the way she'd fixed this place.

There was a sadness in his smile that felt oddly familiar to her. So many of her own smiles held that same sadness, the kind of sadness that one kept deep inside and close to their hearts. Sometimes it was more bittersweet than just purely sad and she wondered if that was the case for him too. Either way, she could at least recognize the heaviness that came from not wanting to stain the mood with sadness. It was respectable, if not a bit...worrisome. Sometimes it built up to keep things so close. But, they'd been having a nice time and it was meant to be a nice afternoon and her thought process on that was no different than his. "Anytime you want. I'm pretty easy to find, you know?" She was either in her shop or...well, now he knew where she lived. Something in the back of her mind told her he wouldn't seek her out to talk. But perhaps...another time she'd seek him out.

She pushed the pretzels over to him, a gentle nudging for him to take one. "I did! A good friend of mine loves them and I guess it's rubbed off on me."

[bufubulous]

“Thank you Aerith. Should I need assistance with locating something, I will keep you in mind. Though I do have my art at least, so I can at least paint.” He responded, though admittedly there were one or two things he missed from home. Though the teen wasn’t sure they were things that could be achieved here, after all. He couldn’t simply walk to Leblanc and have a cup of coffee (on the house, of course) and admire his mother’s painting here. But he could paint, and he had a few friends from home… So that counted, he believed.

The woman was rather smart like that, to have already guessed he probably wouldn’t seek someone out to talk about such things… So his answer was also probably to be expected. Polite and not a lie, so much as a half truth. “I will remember that, thank you, Aerith. And I suppose you are, knowing where you live and where you work.” He added with a smile, voicing her own thoughts as he reached out to select one of the pretzels to try. It was kind of her to consider such plans to give him the opportunity to open up, though. Some people just needed the right nudge, after all.

“Friends do have a way of doing that, don’t they?” He responded with a grin, finally nibbling on the pretzel thoughtfully. It was certainly as good as expected, humming lightly as he took another few bites. “And I dare say your friend does have good taste. These are rather delicious. There is something particularly comforting and satisfying about baked bread, isn’t there?”

[cetrary]

"I'm glad you have that. I dunno what I'd do here if I hadn't been able to find a place for a garden." Sometimes hobbies became a huge pat of who you were and that seemed to be the case for both him and Aerith. This place was so different from home that it'd felt overwhelming at first. But finding something familiar, like the garden or his painting, it seemed like it made all the difference in the world.

"You're welcome. Who knows, maybe I'll find you then," she gave him a wink to indicate that she was just teasing. She'd never fully force someone to talk if they weren't quite ready for it. But he could guarantee that she'd be watching him closely to make sure he didn't start to seem like he needed a little talking to.

"They do," she said with a laugh. "I can't wait for some of my friends back home to start rubbing off on each other." Barret rubbing off on Cloud? That'd be hilarious to see. It might be silly of her but she kinda hoped that'd end up happening. "He does, doesn't he? He's got the best taste in food. And he's a great help at the shop. I don't know what I'd do without him." She was really lucky to have made such great friends here. "Mmmhm, it reminds you of a nice relaxing day."

[bufubulous]

“Yes, I don’t know that I’d like to think of us having to do without such comforts as your creative endeavors, on top of being in a place other than our own.” And if they had? A world without gardens and greenery? Without colour and art? How horrible a world would that be to end up in? Yusuke could hardly allow himself to imagine that for too long. It seemed far too depressing!

Yusuke glanced at her at the comment, offering a slight smile once he finally realized she was teasing. The suggestion that she needn’t worry about him like that was just on the tip of his tongue until it struck him that she was joking. It hardly seemed important enough to go looking for him, after all… She clearly had enough to worry about on her own.

“is that so?” He tilted his head curiously, wondering what Aerith’s friend group was like. “I like to think that could happen among our group, though some of us would like to see some things rub off more than others, perhaps.” He added with a small chuckle, knowing Makoto would probably like to see some of their studious members rub off on poor Ryuji and Ann… Though perhaps it would be just as good for some of them to learn that grades weren’t everything.

Listening as Aerith described this other friend, he offered her a small grin. The teen didn’t doubt her employee and friend felt as lucky to work with her if he was bringing by such delicious things. She seemed like the sort to draw in people, after all. It was nice to hear that she had those here as well that she could turn to, being separate from her friend’s back home. It seemed this place was like that, full of interesting people to at least connect with until they went back. On the subject of bread, he nodded quickly. “I agree! The smell alone of something freshly baked can be quite soothing.” It was why walking into the bakery was so relaxing, he figured.

[cetrary]

"I think I would have been really lost. I've never been outside of Midgar so a new place like this was really something." Truthfully, she'd been nervous about leaving Midgar even though she was with everyone. It seemed seemed so silly looking back at it now that she'd been in this place so long. Still, this place was definitely strange compared to home. There were still times where she missed that great big steel sky, but she'd been able to build memories here. If she hadn't had the garden though, that'd probably have been a different story.

"What are they like? Your friends?" She asked leaning in curiously towards him. Clearly they were super important to him and she was curious what kind of group he had back home. "I didn't have many friends growing up, so it's always nice to hear about people."

[bufubulous]

Yusuke nodded. He could understand what she meant… Being thrown into an entirely new situation or place after being in one place, living in a specific way for most of your life and ended up in new and unfamiliar territory could be terribly jarring. The unknown could be as scary as it was exciting at times. He offered a small smile. “I’m sure that it was. Even without factoring in being in a world that isn’t your own without your friends, it’s a strange place on top of that. I am glad that you at least have been able to find your gardening to help.” And he was sure other people appreciated Aerith’s plants and flowers as well. The sight of life and greenery was a particularly important kind of beauty in the world.

The question gets a curious tilt of his head as picks at the pretzel he’d been eating. A warmer smile crossing his face as he tried to think of how to best describe them. “They’re amazing…! So very different, brought together by chance and circumstances. They’re all brilliant in their individual ways.” He almost wondered if they had the time for him to go on the long tangent, describing each individually or not.

“I owe them all a lot, really, for having known them for such a short time. Of the two that are here that you may meet, there are Ren and Haru. Ren tends to lead our group forward when we get together. He is terribly clever and very resourceful. He often helps me when I’m stuck with my art.” And recently reminded him that bringing trash home was not going to help his art… But that wasn’t relevant. “Haru, I’m still learning about… I apparently have arrived from a time before I met her, so I am getting to know her anew. She’s very talented, and has a very soft and welcoming nature from my experience with her thus far… It’s been weird, but we get along so well that it’s not hard to think we were already friends. I’ve learned that she knits and crochets. I hope to one day spend some time creating, even if our art styles are focused on different mediums.”