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Rogue and Zack 3
“Of course. And since I'm guessing that was an invite to dinner, not to actually drag me to a donut shop, sure. But I'm paying. I heard your comment about rent. What kinda gentleman would I be if I made you pay anyway?” he replied with a smile that was... So genuine and warm it was surreal.
Rogue bit her lip and looked away, feeling something hollow in her heart freeze over and ache. She'd... Never really had a friend before, now this guy was trying so damn hard... Why was she wanting to fight it? She wanted his friendship. If they were going to be together a lot, she needed it. So why did she want so frantically to sabotage it and run? No, she decided, enough running. Things were changing... So was her solitary existence.
She mustered up the energy to turn her head back toward him and smile, and she nodded.
“Yeah, I guess you're right. Thank you.”
The doors slid open and he went out first, glancing around the room of dull gray steel and tile as though looking for danger, then turning back to her with yet another gentle grin.
“Thank you? You know those words, huh?”
“Of course I do, my mama taught me proper manners.” She kept the country twang out of her voice, but it was a near thing. Playing with him was amazingly fun. She followed him into the locker room. There were a couple of rows of simple steel lockers with brass numbers screwed to the door, and off to the left were a couple of changing rooms. Locker thirteen was already open, with a uniform of the nasty purple variety tightly folded inside.
Rogue picked it up and made a face, looking over at Zack.
“Mandatory, isn't it?”
“You think I'd've been wearing it when I joined if it wasn't? Only the Firsts have... Optional uniforms, they just have to be wearing the SOLDIER belt.” His index finger tapped against the huge insignia at his waist. “Which is annoying enough as it is...”
Her eyes rolled to the ceiling as she ducked into the little changing stall and slipped into the uniform. The over starched cotton wasn’t exactly comfortable, and, Zack had been right. The belt sucked a**. She came out, changed, and fixed him with a pouty expression.
“Seriously? This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever had the... Horrible misfortune to have to wear... This belt is crazy. How do they think you’re going to fight in it when it cuts into your stomach every time you move?” Her hands softly messaged across her sore belly.
“It still does? Tiny like you are? Alright well that makes me feel better.” Zack patted his own stomach, dead obviously hard and flat under the blue vest. “It might sound a little vain but I was worried...”
Rogue rolled her eyes, rolling with his joke as she walked past him, clapping her hand to his shoulder.
“Oh please. I'm sure you’re a veritable train of muscle and bone. Relax.”
He easily fell into step beside her, his hands in his pockets again, a small smile, which had to be permanently affixed, on his face. He glanced sideways at her.
“So... After I get you down to the materia office... I think we're done. After that you wanted... To go out to a late dinner?”
“Sure. You're driving. You're picking the place. I haven't been around here long... And I don't have a license and I sure as hell don't have a car.”
“I can do that, I think. Is there anything you like...?”
“I like... Well I'm not picky. Just no squid and no olives...”
“Nice, yeah, I guess you could say I'm the same way,” he laughed.
“All men are! It's a fact of life. If it's edible, it's game.”
“That's sexist right there.”
“It's truth.”
By the time the banter died, they'd already gotten Rogue assigned a Fire and Cure materia, and were halfway up the parking garage. The reason it died? Rogue saw Zack's Jeep.
“Holy ******** hell... Is that a Jeep or a Hummer?”
The Jeep was built like a tank. It would be a glossy dark green if it didn't have a fine layer of road dust scattered on it, and it had tinted windows and was sporting a few dents. It was a vehicle made to get anywhere, and the tires had the heavy treads to assist it.
And it's going to be a real b***h to get up in.
Zack shot her a grin that was dripping mischief as he hit the unlock button and popped open the driver's door, hesitating to look over his shoulder at her.
“You want a boost up there?”
Rogue stuck her tongue out at him, moving around to the passenger side and opening the door.
“Nah, I've got it.”
With that, she braced her left hand against the scratchy cloth back of the bench seat, her right against the metal frame, braced her right leg on the floor, and quickly hauled herself in, dropping lightly onto the seat, smoothly crossing her right leg over her left knee as she swung the door shut.
“See?”
Zack chuckled as he easily climbed in and slammed his own door, flicking through a small ring of keys to start the ignition. The Jeep was enormous in the interior too. At least two people, three if they were skinny, could fit in the space between Rogue and Zack, but... With the doors shut it didn't feel that distant. It felt much more closed in, intimate. Somehow she could feel the warmth of his body crossing the space.
Feeling an uncomfortable chill slide down her spine, she turned to look over the Jeep.
The whole interior was black. There was an old style stereo, nothing on the dash but some hastily collected and brought along mail, and his dog tags hanging from the rear view mirror. The backseat was folded down flush into the floor to make more trunk space. She couldn't imagine what he stored back there, considering even with the seats up the back would still be large enough for two people to sit comfortably. Thrown to the side was a jungle camo duffel bag, two to three times the size of Rogue's. From its crumpled appearance, she judged it to be empty.
“You alright?”
His question jarred her out of her intense study of the car.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I was just looking around. You're... Pretty much the job, aren't you. I don't see... Anything that actually tells me anything about you.”
“Yeah... I guess I kinda am the job. All I've really done since I've joined is work... No dates, no nothing, really. I haven't even gone back home to see my parents.” He navigated the Jeep down out of the garage, the strong hum of the engine making the whole monster of the vehicle vibrate. “The mail? One letter from my mom, the rest bills and spam.”
Rogue... Couldn't help it. Her interest piqued on the topic of his parents.
“You're close with them, huh? Where's your hometown? I hail from Banora. Yupp, land of the apple trees in the foothills.”
Zack laughed softly.
“A country girl? Well I'm from Gongaga.”
“And you're calling me country? Sure, maybe we apple farm, but damn, at least we're not surrounded by woodsy swamp. That town's practically isolated from the world.”
“Are you telling me?” He glanced away from the road for a second, looking up at her. “That’s half of why I left, remember? Being shut away and sheltered doesn't suit me at all. I wanted adventure, and I wanted to help people. It’s true what they say. If you live in a town with a Mako reactor, you really are in the middle of nowhere.”
“I heard the reactor blew up a few years back...” Real concern leeched into her tone, and she didn't bother hiding it. “No one in your family was hurt, were they? I heard like half the town died...”
“Only the people that worked there... It's just me, my mom, and my dad. My dad's a landscaper, or he was till he retired the year I left home, and my mom was, is, and always will be the doting, happy housewife.” That happy smile, talking about his parents, glowed with the warmth of a familial love that Rogue knew she'd never get to feel, but it was... So strong, so genuine that it warmed her heart anyway to see him smile like that.
“Really... I'm glad to hear that you were all alright. I bet your family's really awesome...” She bit her lip softly, buckling her seat belt as she looked over at him.
“They love me and I love them... I always will. My mother cried when I told her where I was going. We write all the time and I call her whenever I can but... She worries anyway. Hates that she can't see me. My dad says he's proud of me, but he's worried too... How... About your parents? I know you said your dad wasn't around but... I guess I shouldn't've asked huh? I'm sorry.”
“Nah, its fine. I'm not really touchy. My mom, she's dead. She... Well she killed herself when I was eight. My dad's been in... Been away at work for as long as I can remember. Yeah, I know him, but I don't think he'd recognize me if he saw me today. When he was around... He made sure I knew he never wanted a daughter. He wanted a son, so he raised me like a boy, teaching me to fight, keeping me outside and doing work... He didn't want me to be reliant on other people. Didn't want me to be afraid of working hard and doing whatever it takes to get by. My mom... What I can remember of her, she read to me. My dad encouraged my interest in reading too... Around the work. And when I wrote something he'd pick over it like a college professor, and I'd have to rewrite and fix whatever he found wrong.”
She laughed softly.
“I used to always wish I had a big brother. But I guess it's a good thing I didn't have one cause he probably would've been my dad's little protégé and I wouldn't be half of who I am now. Sorry, that ended up a lot more depressing than that little bit you told me... If you don't mind talking I'd like to hear more about your family... They sound really amazing.”
Zack smiled again, his bright blue eyes finally showing some sadness for a moment. Sadness for her, and it was something she felt God-awful to've made him feel.
“They really are. My mother's... Eccentric. If I scraped my knee when I was a kid she'd be talking to my dad about getting me to a hospital as she was looking at it. In every conversation we have she asks me if I've finally found a girl. Keeps telling me she doesn't have forever for me to make her a grandmother...” He looked to the roof of the car, as though beseeching God as they pulled into a small parking lot adjacent to a little Chinese place.
“I see where you got a healthy dose of your personality then, huh?” Rogue laughed softly, jumping out and skirting the vehicle, pausing to wait for Zack in the pool of light that spilled from the propped-open door.
“Haha, thanks.” He stepped out of his Jeep and slipped the keys back in his pocket. “My dad? He's more serious. Quiet. He's a pretty brilliant man, no matter how modest he is about it... I really... Hope I'm half the man he is.”
Rogue felt... Something when he said that. Some pull at her heart.
Trust me... I'm already sure you are.
She wished she could say it out loud, but all she could do was smile as she walked into the little place with him and sat across from him at a booth on red vinyl seats. Her slender fingers drummed a tattoo on the fiberglass table between them.
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