Chapter Text
The heavy doors of the Shinra manor groaned shut behind Tifa as she stepped in. She took in a steadying breath full of dust and the hauntings of decades old wood. Her boots creaked the loose floorboards as she stepped into the side parlor. Tifa took in the quietness of the empty building with a small huff.
It was nice not having to listen to the pity in her father’s voice when he asked her to run errands around the town. It was so obvious it was busy work to keep her from having to think now that her friends left. Practically everyone had been moving out of Nibelheim, lately. All the boys wanted to achieve big dreams in Midgar and her friends all promised her they would come back to visit her as soon as they made it big. It’s been a month since she saw the last of them off and the only thing she got back was a well wishing postcard from Emilio that came in a week late.
She trusted them and knew they would accomplish their goals, but that didn't change the fact that she was alone now. Being the last of her age in Nibelheim with no big Midgar aspirations gave her a lot of time she hardly knew what to do with.
Her father tried to remedy her mood by walking on eggshells around her, only for it all to backfire at him. She wasn't made of glass. She could handle a couple years without her friends in Nibelheim!
At least…that's what she wanted to believe.
Tifa kicked her foot, rocketing a folder of papers into the air. The papers spilled out like fireworks.
Shoot.
That might've been important. The Shinra mansion was technically prohibited private property but since the Shinra employees haven't been around in the town for decades, Tifa figured no one would really care if she hid out here for a little break. As long as she didn't make a mess.
She bent down and collected the scattered papers, until she saw one with an odd note faded slightly at the bottom. When she picked it up, the words seemed to vanish but when she held the paper back out in the sunlight the writing was perfectly readable.
Dial 4 is right 97.
Tifa furrowed her brows. What kind of research paper needed invisible ink?
She scanned the paper from the beginning and lightly skimmed the text. It seemed to be a note for a code to a safe, except instead of just outright telling you the code, it was a series of riddles to find it.
Tifa looked around the dusty room and back at the paper. It wouldn't hurt her to solve this puzzle, wouldn't it? Afterall, there hadn't been any Shinra personnel stationed in Nibelheim since way before Tifa was born. If anything, someone else probably got to the safe and took whatever was inside. Solving this, would just be a little activity to take her mind off of things and cool her head. After that, she'll head home, shower off the dust from her arms and get started on dinner.
Tifa stood up and headed toward the stairs to solve the first riddle.
It took a little longer than Tifa hoped, but she finally managed to find all the codes to the safe. The worst of it was the steps riddle. Honestly, she didn't even want to know how many times she lost count and had to restart her steps.
Tifa knelt in front of the safe and quickly turned each code.
36…10…59…97!
The lock clicked and the safe door slammed open.
Tifa leapt out of the way as a strange monster hybrid flew out from the safe, nearly crushing her then and there. It was made up of two distinctly different halves. A red right side covered in wriggling tendrils and a purple left side with an oversized humanoid arm and leg. The thing eyed her with its golden right eye like a nibel wolf ready to catch its next dinner.
The monster swung a red tendril down, breaking the table behind her as she slammed her back into a bookcase. There’s no way she could outrun this giant thing and there’s definitely no chance of beating it herself. She had no training in combat and the only time she ever got in a fist fight was with the blacksmith’s son over a broken moogle doll. Even though she won that fight, she doubted whatever this thing was would have the same durability as a seven year old.
She scanned the room as she continued to evade it, eyes catching onto some items reflecting the sunlight inside the safe. Bingo!
Tifa dove toward the safe. She quickly stuffed the key in her pocket and clutched the red materia in a death grip. She wasn't exactly sure how to use a summon materia but she channeled as much energy as she could into it.
Please! Anything..!
The materia flickered a red glow as she felt eyes on her like the materia itself was looking out at her, curiously. A name popped into her head and she screamed it out as loud as she could, “ODIN!”
A white horse charged into the room like lightning. The armored figure mounted on top raised his sword and swung out at the monster in front of Tifa. She didn't have time to watch in awe as the monster stumbled and swung out a fist at Odin.
She knew summons had time limits and she could feel her's approach rapidly with her waning mana. Maybe they could try to lock it back up?
Tifa ran to the other side of the safe and whistled. “Over here!”
Odin seemed to wordlessly understand as he retreated closer to the safe, successfully luring the creature toward the open door. As it made for another attempt to use magic, Odin rammed his sword through it, compacting it into the tight confines of the safe. Tifa slammed the door shut just as Odin dispersed along with the rest of her mana.
She bolted out of the room, hoping to gain distance from the safe. Her steps slowed into an open bedroom across the manor. Tifa panted as she scooped her long dark hair out of her face. She leaned back against a brick wall next to some bookshelves in the corner. As her weight sagged onto the stone, she felt the wall shift, quickly depositing her onto uneven wooden stairs. “Shit!”
She picked herself up and steadied herself enough to look down. The staircase spiraled further than any normal basement should. She wondered if the room reached the town's sewage system.
“Well…I'm already here, aren't I?” Might as well explore all this creepy mansion had to offer. Maybe it'll have more than just summon materia and a key. A not-so-expired elixir would be a blessing after that hell.
Tifa headed down and came across a door. She tried the handle. Locked.
Plucking the key out of her pocket she tried the lock again. Thankfully, it wasn't useless as the door opened with ease.
The room looked like something out of a morgue. Several coffins lay strewn across the room in no particular order, like it was haphazardly thrown in this room. Most of the coffins were opened to show empty velvet casings or the occasional misshapen skeleton. However, at the center was an unopened coffin.
Tifa carefully stepped into the room as she looked around. There couldn't be anything alive in there, could there? Afterall, the rest of the room was just empty skeletons. But, if it was anything like the safe…
Tifa hesitantly stepped toward the coffin.
Maybe she could check. If there was no sign of life, then it's safe to open. Her knuckles tapped against the wooden surface of the coffin lid.
…
No response.
Tifa let out a breath. She wasn't sure if her heart could take another monster incident twice in a row. Just as she finally relaxed, she pushed the lid off the coffin.
Rather than an empty coffin or a skeleton there to greet her, she was met with the form of a tall man draped in red. A rather living man.
Red eyes glared under a pool of inky black hair as the man, possibly in his 20s, sat up to meet her gaze. “Why did you wake me?”
Tifa hadn’t really considered this outcome. Honestly, the most alive thing she was hoping for was a spider. She idly twisted a finger in her loose hair. “Well…I didn’t exactly think anyone would be in there?”
“...So you opened the coffin.”
“So I opened the coffin,” Tifa echoed.
The man pulled the coffin lid off the floor and began to settle back down.
“Wait!” She wasn’t sure why she was stopping him from going back to whatever it was he was even doing down here in a creepy coffin. She came in here for some alone time and instead found a violent monster and a weirdo who was much more preferable than the first guy. Nonetheless, the man still paused his movements at her shout. Tifa scrambled for words. “What are you doing down here? I thought this mansion was abandoned.”
“None of your business.” He slid the lid back over the coffin.
Rude.
Tifa slid the lid back off. “Isn’t it cramped in there?”
“I’m used to it. Now, leave.” He shut the coffin back with a little more force.
“Hey!”
Tifa tried again to pry the damn thing off, but the man held the lid in place with a grip strength of two behemoths. She struggled a couple more times trying to wiggle even a centimeter off to no avail. Tifa let out a strangled groan and kicked the wooden coffin before crumpling down next to it. She brought her knees up to her chest and sighed into them.
Why was she even trying to force this guy into a conversation, anyway? She didn’t know him and by the looks of things in this place, it was probably for the best. But even so, something in her felt so cut by this interaction. It wasn’t like her to get all moody over some stranger giving her the cold shoulder. Tifa had a lot of friends growing up but she knew she couldn’t be friends with everyone. This wasn’t even the first time someone gave Tifa a stiff answer and a piercing glare. Of course, the last time someone did that to her, Cloud punched them right in the jaw.
Cloud.
He moved to Midgar too, didn’t he? It’s been two months since they made that promise to each other. She hasn’t heard a word from him since. It wasn’t like they had agreed to keep in touch and they hardly talked to one another before the promise. But, it still felt like another stab into her heart.
Were they even friends? Tifa would’ve liked to think they were even if they weren’t that close, but Cloud never actually got along with any of her other friends when he would hang around. He always glared and antagonized them into leaving or fighting him. Now that she thought about it, this stranger’s stilted conversation reminded her a lot of him.
If she reached out to Cloud then, would they have been able to be friends? Would he have still left her in Nibelheim to join SOLDIER?
…Did she already miss her chance?
Hot tears spilled down her face as she thought harder about her situation.
She was alone now.
All of her friends left Nibelheim for bigger and better things. When would she ever get to see them again? Will she ever get to see them again?
Will it be the last time, just like mom?
Tifa couldn’t stop the thoughts invading her mind. It was like a dam had broken. She tried so hard to keep it all in but the weight of being alone finally smashed through her psyche like a hammer. It felt like she was crying for hours until she felt the weight of still warm fabric draping over her head.
She peered out from under the red cloak meeting a pair of mismatched red eyes watching her from the coffin. The lid was pushed off to the otherside, letting the man sit up as he draped the back of his cloak over her head and shoulders. The two stared at each other until the older of the pair finally broke away with an awkward cough.
The man didn’t have anything to say. Or, did he just not know what to say in this situation?
The longer Tifa watched the man, the more tense he grew as she saw his eyebrows furrow slightly under his red bandana. She chuckled, wrapping the cloak further around herself. The ends were horribly tattered and frayed but she didn’t mind. She wondered if he would let her hem the edge of his cloak as thanks.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you out of the coffin. I just,” Tifa wiped her face on the back of her hand. “I’m not really taking being alone as well as I thought I would.”
“Alone?”
“It’s stupid. My friends all moved to Midgar to chase their dreams and I’m here not doing a great job of pretending to be fine in front of my dad. I know I should just believe in them and be patient but I just can’t.” She felt silly talking about her feelings to a complete stranger. It was one thing to talk to someone who’s definitely suspicious in every way and another thing to dump on him all her teenaged girl emotional troubles. She could feel her cheeks color in embarrassment the longer he stayed silent.
“It’s normal, I think.” The man spoke slowly as if he was unused to having a conversation. “To mourn the loss of their presence near you. You can’t expect to know what will happen in the future, so it’s only natural to worry about the uncertainty.”
“Is that why you’re here?”
He leaned back against the wall of the coffin. “Something like that.”
“What do you do here? Is there anything you do to stop it?”
His mouth opened only to fall shut once more. “I don’t. I came here to reflect on it by myself. Where I couldn’t endanger their future with more uncertainties and failure.”
Questions laid at the tip of Tifa’s tongue but she bit them back. It wouldn’t do her any good to ask him to clarify. He didn’t seem like the type to want to offer her any answers. Still, sitting in a coffin in this desolate mansion…it sounded more like a punishment than a source of comfort. “Sounds lonely.”
“...I’m used to it.” The admission was almost lost in his whisper.
Tifa stood up and pulled the cloak back into the coffin. With a stretch, she counted her breaths and when she faced the man again she greeted him with a soft smile. “Is it okay if I come back here?”
The expected refusal didn’t come. Only a noncommittal shrug as his face dipped into the collar of his cloak. “Do whatever you want. It’s not my house.”
A startled laugh left Tifa’s lips as she melted into an easy smile.
“Then,” She lifted a hand out to the stranger. “My name is Tifa Lockhart. Just a local Nibel girl, with a tendency to go where she probably shouldn’t.”
A light breath– A laugh, maybe? Left him as he took her hand with his right. “Vincent Valentine.”