I'd write more, but 1 review isn't very encouraging. :/ It took me forever to write this measly 2,000-something chapter because of lack of inspiration. Enjoy, and remember: more reviews means more chapters!

Chapter3: Conversations

Fog floated from my mouth as I took a breath, quickly disappearing into nothing in the air, as if it had never existed.

It had been three days since my encounter with the WRO. Since then, I had phoned in for a barmaid job at 7th Heaven, went in for an interview, and got the job without a hitch. Now, I was on my way for my first day on the clock.

Ever since my embarrassing rejection at the WRO, all I could think of was finding answers. After my third life, I just gave up on finding solutions, but something about that morning when I saw the number on T.V. sparked the hopeful flame of determination. I made a few calls, searching around in the phone book, but unfortunately didn't find anyone alive in Edge who had worked for ShinRa at the same time I had. A few had relatives that worked in different branches of the company, but they were either deceased or had moved far away to escape ShinRa's wrath. In other words, I was stuck. It was not like I had access to confidential files, so the only thing I could do to get the search off the ground would be to find someone who just happened to be there while I was unconscious, or someone who had permission to those files and was willing to share them with me.

A car honked loudly somewhere, snapping me from my thoughts. I shivered and tried to make use of the time I was wasting waiting for the light to turn red.

The street was crowded with people going to work, each one as cold and uncomfortable as the next in the seemingly subzero temperature. I shifted, completely unused to being surrounded by people on all sides like this. After ten minutes of waiting for the crossing light to come on, I was getting irritated with the cars that kept passing by.

It was thirty-five degrees outside and snow had begun to fall, sprinkling anyone without a hood or cap with a thin layer of frozen water. Since it was so cold, I had traded my eider jacket for a black trench coat that was long enough to reach my bottom thighs, the double breasted material enough to keep the low temperature from reaching my upper body. However, my legs were just about frozen solid, being covered by nothing but dark skinny jeans, and I bet my feet were blue even inside my brown boots.

The street light finally turned red, the walk light went from red to green and everyone started to cross. I followed the crowd, glancing around at the other men and women who were heading to the same district I was. It seemed like the Planet was totally different than it was when I was twenty-five.

Meteor had literally knocked the world off its feet. There were more people than there were jobs to fill, so many of the population were in poverty, barely able to scrape by. Gil was hard to come by, so jobs didn't pay much and many people were forced to work hard labor for less than minimum wage or do volunteer work for nothing at all. Not only that, but the Planet had already been through several circles of hell and back: The Wutai War, Sephiroth going bat-shit crazy and trying (and nearly succeeding) in destroying everything, Geostigma whipping out nearly half the children population, and then the Deepground attack. Even though we were starting to recover from the Geostigma Epidemic, there were still some cases scattered throughout the city, and children who'd lost their parents to Meteor, Geostigma, and Deepground still lived on the streets, roaming about in gangs or groups. After all that, the WRO was the only organization willing to fix up the world that many figured would be shattered again anyway.

There was no upper-class, and the line that separated the middle and lower classes was thin and easily broken.

"Hey, lady! Move it!"

I jumped and started walking faster; I was so trapped in my thoughts I hadn't noticed that I had slowed down in the middle of the street.

It took me thirty minutes, but I finally made it to 7th Heaven. The bar wasn't open yet, so I knocked on the door, hoping to get out of the snow. It wasn't even three minutes after that the door opened and I was ushered in by the bar owner, a woman named Tifa Lockhart.

"Welcome to your first day!" The dark haired woman said smiling, "You can park your car around the back if you want."

I shook my head, returning the smile, "I don't have a car; can't afford one."

Tifa tilted her head, patting me on the shoulders. "You walked all the way here? I can give you a ride sometime."

"I might take you up on that." I was already starting to like Tifa.

She smiled again and walked over to the bar. It was cozy and warm in the room, so I took off my coat and hung it up, shivering when my cold hair brushed against my neck, the cool feeling doubling when the metal of my necklace hit my skin. Pulling my sleeves down, I made sure there wasn't any fuzz on the black long sleeve shirt l wore. Over the phone Tifa had told me there wasn't really a uniform, but dark colors were recommended. "It's ridiculous how dirty your clothes can get in one shift," she had said, "especially when the drinking hour comes around."

"So," I started, heading over to her, "What do you want me to do?"

Tifa handed me an apron, "Can you wipe down the tables for me? We're opening in just a few seconds."

I nodded and took the apron, tying it around my waist and taking the wet rag she gave to me. Rolling up my sleeves, I started on the first table, cleaning it as thoroughly as I could before moving on to the next one. Tifa walked went to the doors and flipped over the 'open' sign. In this weather, it wouldn't be long before the place was pack.

An hour passed, and I turned out to be right.

"Lila, tables five and eight!" Tifa shouted, giving me two steaming plates of breakfast on each arm.

"I'm on it!" I struggled to balance all four, wincing a little from the heat of the glass as it burned my forearms.

Twisting past the full tables, I managed to make it to table five without spilling anything. "Alright, who ordered the bacon and eggs?"

The man sitting to the left briefly raised his hand and I set the plate down in front of him, turning to his friend on the right, "And you ordered…?"

"The scrambled egg sandwich," He said. I nodded and placed his food in front of him.

I heard a shout across the room. "Hey, we haven't got our food yet!"

"I'm coming!" I shouted back, hurrying over to the hungry group. "Okay, cherry pie goes to…?"

"Me," The woman smiled. I smiled back and set her plate down.

"And you ordered the over-easy eggs, pancakes and sausage, right?" I asked the man across from her. He nodded and I gave him his plate, taking a long breath before adding, "Have a great day!"

"Tables four and two!" Tifa shouted and I was off, scurrying here and there in an attempt to please everyone.

An hour later, I walked over to the bar, where Tifa was watching over the costumers with a watchful eye. I sat down in one of the chairs and crossed my arms on the smooth wood, laying my head on my arms as feeling fatigue set in already. I heard the younger woman laugh.

"Tired already, Lila?"

I yawned. "Yeah. Is it always this busy?"

"Busy? There are only five tables taken up," Tifa snorted, "Lunch time is when it gets crazy around here."

That information made me groan once more. "At least I won't get bored."

The bartender just smiled and pulled out a wash rag, grabbing a cup to shine it. "So where are you from, Lila?"

I turned my head and looked up at her. "Mideel," I shrugged.

"Do you have any family? A husband, maybe?"

"Nope. No kids, either."

"What about a boyfriend?"

I grinned, "Single forever."

Tifa laughed, "I'm sure you'll find someone."

"Sure. So what about you?" I asked, now interested in the topic. "Where are you from?"

A sad smile played on her lips as she answered. "Me? Nibelheim."

"Pretty backwater town," I said, picking my words carefully. I remembered the Nibelheim Incident. Was she really born there, or did she live as a replacement like the others after the fire? I knew it wasn't my place to ask; if she had been born there, bringing up the fire might trigger bad memories.

I looked over the numerous pictures a lined thoughtfully across the back wall, seeing many pictures of certain people, namely a young woman in a pink dress and a man with blonde hair. There was one picture in particular that caught my eye. It was of a teenager who I assumed was Tifa standing next to a boy with black hair. It looked as if there had been another standing with them, but the picture was torn in half. I didn't bother asking about it.

"Who's the girl?" I pointed to another small picture of a young girl with red hair. "Is she yours?"

Tifa smiled and shook her head. "That's Shelke. She lives here, too."

So I nodded towards a photo on the wall instead and commented, "I see you have kids."

"That's Marlene; we watch after her while her dad works," Tifa said as she smiled, pointing to the youngest in the photo, a small girl with black hair. Her finger moved to the older boy, who had a bright smile. "And that's Denzel. We adopted him a few years ago."

I sat up and peered at the picture, glancing between Tifa and the kids. Tifa was staring at the picture with a soft kindness, and I smiled. My smile widened into a grin as I noticed another person in the picture; I couldn't make out his face, but I know an attractive man when I see one.

"Is that your boyfriend?" I asked slyly, "He's a hottie."

Tifa's face turned seven shades of red and she waved the statement away. "It's not like that-"

"Oh, come now, Tifa! You said 'we' earlier, so something's got to give."

"I did not- Cloud, welcome back!" She suddenly cut off and waved to someone walking in.

Turning, I saw none other than Mr. Silent Hero saunter up to the bar. I waved to him, sending a flirty wink his way, "Hey, handsome. Fancy seeing you here."

"Hey, Tifa." Cloud, who was still dressed like he was three days ago with the addition of a light jacket, raised an eyebrow. He didn't seem to be impressed by my charm. "What're you doing here?"

"I work here now."

He sat next to me. "Hm. I see your face has healed up."

That was true; the long scratch near my eye had healed up to a thin scab and the small cuts on my cheeks were nearly invisible. It looked like I had fallen rather than narrowly escaped a car accident.

Tifa frowned as she set a glass of water in front of the blonde man, "Did something happen?"

"Idiot almost got hit by a car."

"Almost. And I'm not an idiot."

"Why on earth were you in the road?" Tifa asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged, not bothering to explain myself. Cloud didn't say anything either, and I was grateful; how embarrassing would it be to tell your new boss that everyone at the WRO thought you were crazy?

Tifa seemed to get the message and turned to Cloud. "So you're on break?"

"Yeah," He nodded.

The pieces clicked into place and I looked between Cloud and Tifa. My grin from before returned, and I waited until a comfortable silence settled in to strike.

"So," I said slowly, "How long have you two been together?"

"Lila! We're not-" Tifa stared at me, her face going red again. However, Cloud simply glanced at me with indifference.

"Is it that obvious?" He asked, taking a sip of his water.

Seeing Tifa's jaw drop was enough to make me cackle.

"So, Cloud!" She said suddenly, "How were the morning deliveries?"

Cloud shrugged, seemingly oblivious to her embarrassment. "They were okay. Are the kids up?"

"Yeah," She nodded, grabbing a glass to clean, "They have school, remember?"

"Right. It's weird not having them around."

"Actually, I need to wake Shelke up. She said she wanted to start helping with the bar."

As Tifa disappeared upstairs, I turned in my chair to view the costumers behind me. Cloud took another sip of his water.

"So do you work here?" I asked him.

He shook his head. Without looking at me, he replied, "I run a delivery service."

"Ah, okay." I puffed out my cheeks, becoming bored with the lack of activity. The costumers had all gotten their food and were enjoying the moment of relaxation before work.

A question burned in my head, but I kept it to myself. I looked over at Cloud, and saw him staring intensely into his glass, seemingly lost in his thoughts. As I turned my head to watch the bar once more, he spoke.

"How can you prove it?"

"Hmm?" I raised an eyebrow.

"How can you prove you were killed in 1848?"

From the sound of his voice and the way he wouldn't look at me, I knew this had been on his mind ever since we met.

I lowered my voice and leaned towards him. Without thinking, I said, "I knew about Sephiroth before ShinRa did."

Cloud turned his head and looked me in the eye, his look turning colder than any I had ever seen. Before anything was said, Tifa came down the stairs with a girl, who looked no older than nine, trotting behind her.

The red haired girl, Shelke, stopped once she saw me and stared.

"You…" She said, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, "You're…"

I tilted my head, confused. "Do I know you…?"

Suddenly, Shelke darted over and hugged me tightly. "You're alive!"