Aeris was still at the wheel when Cloud returned to talk. The sky had faded into night; dark as pitch and the stars shining like diamonds—as it always was late on clear nights.
Cloud hardly noticed Aeris had dropped her skirt over her legs for warmth and obscuring them from his view.
"No sleep over your wound?" Aeris asked.
"Too dull," Cloud said.
"Too dull to sleep?" Aeris asked. "You planned to return here, Cloud."
"How so?"
"You’re wearing your shoes," Aeris said. "A sailor prepared for duty bares his feet."
Cloud stared down at his feet, about to make the excuse that his feet got cold, but he knew it was useless. A sailor’s feet were always cold and there was a hole in one of the toes anyway.
"You be out on deck," Cloud said.
"I be the navigator, Cloud," Aeris said. "The seas never rest, so I have no excuse to do so. Besides, ‘tis a beautiful night, is it not?"
"I must admit I have never looked upon the sky for more than light or in fear of storms," Cloud said, looking up at the sky. "Though I also admit the stars do hold their charms."
"You admit that now, Cloud," Aeris scolded. "Are you truly saying the stars hold beauteous light or are you asking to see the charms under my skirt?"
"I was not hit that hard," Cloud said. "You’ll fold up your skirt in the morrow, why ask to see ice coat those tempting legs?"
"I have never known a sailor so tempted and yet so honest," Aeris said, checking her pendant again.
"How can they not?" Cloud asked. "To belie to another is dishonesty, and yet, to acknowledge such loneliness of the body, that be the ultimate truth in ones self, to be true to your own.
"Aeris, I do not lie about my wants from you, but the be more than the sight of tail. I do not—I cannot know why. I have sailed with many a woman and nearly slept with another… but from you I want more. I wish to see your eyes more than your bare chest. Perhaps… Perhaps…" His fingers rose on their own behalf to stroke her hair out of her eyes, then drifted to her cheek. His face drifted ever closer to hers, telling her more about his wants than his words.
"Perhaps you seek something only I hold?"
"Most likely, Aeris," he said, his free arm wrapping around her corseted waist.
Aeris’s hand went to her pendant. She popped it open and chanced at quick glance at it, then closed it. "No." She was about to push Cloud away, but he pulled her closer.
"Damned be your treasure!" he said. "I care not for all the baubles in the world, Aeris, why for you cannot understand that? Keep your finery, keep your pendant. Keep your skirt, even. I do not ask for your body. I do not ask for your treasures. I ask for you. I do not intend to leave you. I ask for you to give yourself to me, but in heart and soul, damned be the body if it must."
"Cloud," she whispered, before daintily pressing her lips to his. "You speak too much. Cease talking and let us do as we will."
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Cloud awoke as something under him moved. He opened his eyes to see Aeris close her pendant and adjust the wheel they were both leaning against.
"You sleep like a lamb," she commented. "I have never known a man who’d rather kiss my lips… at least not those on my face." She watched as Cloud’s bafflement melted away and his face turned red.
"I have secrets," he said. "And fears of taking you whole. Do not mistake me, Aeris. I would love to hold your body with nothing between us, I would love to share passion."
"Fears?" she asked, standing up. "I told you, my pot has been deflowered many atime. Once more, and from someone so sweet, would not poison the garden."
"No," Cloud said, standing up himself. "Fears of my own, for my own person. I mistake you for nothing, Aeris. I wish to stay on this ship with you. I wish to still watch you. You give me treatment of a person, rather than just a mere sailor or a cripple forever to be locked away from others unhurt. I have known only one other like that, and he be too much of a father too me for me to bed."
Aeris chuckled at his comment. "We shall see, Cloud. Hold true to your word as I would this wheel in a storm. We shall see."
…………………………………………………………………………………………
"Tifa?" Shera asked, waking up.
Tifa’s bed was empty and unmade, and gave no answer.
"Tifa?" Shera asked, wandering on deck.
Shera found Tifa pulling on the ropes of the sails, muscles flexing and breaking the image of the tiny waif most held for harlots.
Shera stared in awe at Tifa. She had never before seen a woman who could match a man at work, save for scrawny Yuffie picking locks.
"Help me with this," Tifa said.
"But I—"
"Take the rope," Tifa said.
Shera obediently grabbed the rope over her head and in rhythm with Tifa, steadily hauled it down, then reached up again and continued until the sail was taught in the wind.
"We seem to have gained our wind again," Tifa said, trying the rope tightly. "You do nothing on the ship but cook?"
"Aye," Shera said.
"Tifa… I saw… I saw Cloud and... He spent the night on deck… with Aeris"
"I know my place, Shera. I be a harlot. I always did wondered about Cloud… sewing wild oats. Well, I tell you, I be the one to get the gold for it and when he leaves I’ll be the one who can buy her way through life."
"Tifa, you don’t miss Cloud at your bed? I mistook you for lovers, I apologize—"
"A woman either keeps her legs crossed or opens them for money, Shera. It matters not what her breeding be as long as she breeds in wedlock. Men are tomcats, Shera. I love Cloud, but even for him I don’t give my heart for free, or my skirts, not even to him."
"Aye, Tifa," Shera said. "I’ll keep that in mind."
"You’ll be keeping more than that," Tifa said, grabbing Shera’s wrist as the cook turned to leave. "Shoes off, lass, you’ll learn to climb by your toes. A woman has to match a man in work and learning while suffering whelps and girdles in this world or you breed a dying litter. Sailors ain’t got learning to match and that makes it all easier. Up the rope girl, Cid’ll see more in you than floured hands that sink his beloved ships."
…………………………………………………………………………………
"Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief," Yuffie sang, and rather badly. She had learned to sing from Cid, though he took every opportunity to box her ears when she sang the lewder ones. "A laird, a lord, a richman, a thief, a tailor, a drummer, a stealer o' beef." Yuffie leaned back in the crow’s nest and stretched. She poked her head up above the rim and looked around. There was nothing but sea and sky. She sighed. "One week on board this ship and skirts refuse a flyin.’ Two weeks on board this ship and sailors boys be a all cryin.’ Three weeks stuck in a ship and bloody bored is I, Four weeks stuck aboard this ship and curs’d be the Lord says I." Yuffie hoped she wouldn’t be singing the next few verses of the song.
The ship had only a few actually catches of wind and those few had been slight. Even Cid, the man who Yuffie swore would marry the sea before any woman was starting to get restless.
"Eh?" she said to herself, seeing a speck on the horizon. She grabbed the telescope and after turning it around the right away looked through it and found her ‘speck.’
"We ain’t even at the keys and we got company! Sweet martyred saints!"
……………………………………………………………………………………
"You get away from there!" Cid yelled at Cloud, who was again watching Aeris’s uncovered legs. "You got your own! Leave ma cousin alone! I be damned if I have her taken by the likes of ya! Git! Have someone else give ya a blasted show!"
"Captain Cid!" Yuffie yelled at him.
"From here on, all yous woman git pants like her!" Cid yelled. "That’ll keep hands outta their pantalets."
"Cid!" Yuffie yelled, going so fast down the rigging she was sliding on her rump.
"I ain’t be deaf, Sharkbait!" Cid yelled at her.
"We is followed!" Yuffie said. "A ship o’er there! Follow us zactly. Git this, though: aint’ Shinra."
"Ain’t?" Cid asked. "Who in damnation’s fires would follow us?"
"Worse than ‘em," Yuffie said, handing the telescope to Cid and pointing to the speck, with was much larger now.
"Mary’s bloody thighs!" Cid screamed, checking for himself. "I thought that sank along with us the last time! This be wore than even them Turks! Aeris, get us somewhere fast! You," Cid yelled at Cloud. "Get your friends up here and get us speed. I don’t care how!"
Cid tossed the telescope at Yuffie, who caught it deftly, despite his aim.
"Keep an eye on that!" Cid yelled.
"What’s worse than the Turks?" Cloud yelled after Yuffie, who crawled her way back up the rigging.
"You heard Shinra fleet burned to the water?" Yuffie asked.
"I was there."
"This is the one ship to survive and the one man to do it!" Yuffie yelled and climbed the rest of the way up.
Aeris was frantically consulting her pendant, and turning the wheel while preying for more wind and waves. She did not notice Cloud until she heard him fall to the deck. She spared a look over the wheel to see him clutching his head.