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Red padded out of the ghost hotel initially with the intent of getting some fresh air while everyone else was sleeping. For a kid from a village in the middle of the desert, the Gold Saucer is a very..... stimulating environment. And it's fun, don't get him wrong; especially seeing everyone else have a little fun in between their arduous journey; but sometimes, he finds himself needing a little break. And it's with that thought in mind that he heads towards the cable cars that run all night long between here and Corel, just to get away from the bright lights, loud music and mascots for a little while. He'll be back before the sun's up, and no one will even notice he was ever gone.
What he wasn't expecting was for someone else to have had the very same idea he'd had.
"Aerith, what are you doing down here this late? Everyone else is fast asleep by now." She doesn't look up right away from where she's perched at the edge of the cliff where the cable cars pull in at the top of Corel. She swings her legs off the edge and sighs.
"Oh, y'know, I just couldn't sleep, that's all." She tries to brush him off, but Red would like to think he knows his friends better than that by now. "What are you doing down here this late, Red? everyone else is fast asleep by now." This time, she does turn around, and she puts on a playful expression to match her tone, mimicking Red's own words. He laughs, and approaches her where she sits.
"I needed a break from all the bright lights and noisy atmosphere, that's all. I thought coming down for some air would do me some good." He sits himself down beside Aerith, tail swaying gently.
"Well, maybe I needed a break from all the bright lights and noisy atmosphere and thought coming down for some air would do me some good," Aerith responds, and it makes Red shake his head.
"Are you just gonna repeat everything I say back to me?" Red asks, and Aerith doesn't answer him this time. Instead, she hugs her knees to her chest and tips her head back to look up at the sky. The look on her face makes Red decide not to press the matter. They fall into a comfortable silence. Red tips his head back to look up alongside her. He can tell there's something on Aerith's mind that she's not sharing, but he also knows better than to try to force it out. She'll share if she wants to, and if she doesn't, well, Red won't be the one to make her.
"The sky is beautiful, even out here," she eventually says. "Couldn't get this kind of view back in Midgar." There's a soft laugh intermingled with her words, but it's fairly humourless.
"Yeah, well, it's nothing compared to the views from Cosmo Canyon," Red responds, half jokingly, "but it is pretty nice. I'm surprised the Saucer doesn't obscure it more."
"Goes to show just how bad things are in Midgar, huh? I'd never seen views like this before…" Aerith trails off, the end of her sentence lost somewhere, and her face is hard to read, something between reminiscent and sad in the way her expression tugs at the corners of her mouth and scrunches into her brows. Red doesn't fill the gap. Instead, he goes back to staring at the sky alongside her, and thinking about just how far they have come. The things they've seen and the bonds they've forged, Red thinks he'd find it hard to describe if he had to. They're such an unlikely bunch, but he can hardly imagine anything else. Certainly, he has no desire to think about the alternative, what would've been had he not been swept up in this journey they're on. He hopes Seto knows, somehow, about the family he's found for himself, and he hopes it brings his father some ease to know that Red isn't alone.
"Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing here, Red." Aerith breaks the silence again after a while, and Red looks at her in confusion.
"Saving the planet? But I thought you were as driven as anyone else about that, maybe even more so."
"Silly, that's not what I mean." She laughs again, and there's a little more humour in it this time, a hint of teasing in her voice. "I have no regrets about embarking on this journey, wherever it takes us…I just…" she sighs, and shakes her head, "sometimes I can't tell if I'm really following my heart, or if I'm just…chasing a ghost…"
Suddenly, Red understands what all of this is about.
"You heard them leaving their rooms too, huh?"
"What?"
"I've seen the way you look at them, humans aren't very good at hiding their feelings."
"Are you saying I'm obvious ?" Aerith pulls her legs off the ledge to turn away, Red suspects so that she can hide her face from him.
"Worry not, it's a trait shared by all humans," Red responds, putting on his deeper voice in an attempt to hide his own laughter.
"Don't you use your old man voice on me now, Red!" This time, Aerith stands up and turns on her heel to wag her finger at him as if she were scolding a misbehaving pet, a firm pout on her face, though her tone is still playful underneath. She might be complaining, but at least she's livelier. He prefers this.
"I'm just sayinggggggg," he teases, in his usual voice. "I've got an idea that you might like though." He stands up too, walking back towards the cable cars. "How about you and me play some games, just the two of us?" The suggestion makes Aerith drop her unserious sulking in favour of tilting her head curiously.
"Can you play the games in the saucer?" she asks, and it's Red's turn to huff indignantly as he keeps heading towards the cable cars.
" 'Can I play the games in the saucer' , what kind of question is that? I can do anything you two-leggers can do!" he grumbles. Once Aerith catches up, they both board a car back up to the Gold Saucer, and this time in substantially higher spirits.
"Oh I'm sorry for underestimating your abilities, but can you win the games going up against me?" Aerith hops into the cable car and leans closer to Red tauntingly, but he shakes his head.
"Who said anything about playing against each other? I have a way better idea," he replies, climbing onto the bench opposite her as they head back up towards the Gold Saucer together. Aerith looks at him confused, but her face quickly transitions into consideration, and then excitement as he explains just what he has in mind.
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeease won't you just let us take part in one race? We don't mind if we don't win anything! We just want to take part!" Aerith begs the woman at the counter, hands clasped together and held up by her face with her best pleading look on. They'd figured it was probably better that Aerith make the request than Red, lest a few too many eyebrows be raised, and, as red had put it, Aerith has a "way with words" (read: a relentlessness when she sets her mind on something that Red, among others, has long since given up on fighting) that he suspected would be much more persuasive than he likely would have been.
"Ma'am you cannot take part in a chocobo race with your dog -"
"But we've come all the way from Midgar, he never gets to run around freely, I think it'd be really good for him! We won't ask for any rewards if we win! Just one race, please?" There's something about being labelled as Aerith's pet that still bristles Red's fur and makes him want to interject to correct her, but he's aware that she's doing her best to sell the idea to this poor woman, and the way for him to support her attempts is to sit there behind her, make puppy eyes and sway his tail pleadingly. It seems to work, because the poor woman sighs and shakes her head.
"Fine, one race to stretch his legs, but you won't win anything for it, even if he does somehow outrun a chocobo," she concedes, and Aerith turns immediately to pump her fists with a grin.
"Yessssss, let's go show them how fast you are!" Almost before Red can even respond, she's off towards the jockey area to prepare for the next race, and Red is left to follow along behind her, shaking his head, but glad that she's perked up so completely already before they've even had a chance to actually race yet.
Once they're past the doors into the jockey area, they get a few looks, but surprisingly, no one really questions them. Aerith stops in front of the stacks of spare gear and starts rummaging around, taking a look at everything in turn. "Do you think one of these harnesses would fit on your back, Red?" she asks, holding one up towards him, but he shakes his head.
"Probably not, I'm smaller than a chocobo, in case you hadn't noticed. Besides, it looks heavy. You'll be fine without one." With his response, Aerith promptly puts the harness down, and makes for the helmets instead, looking through the colour options.
"What do you think? Should I wear a red helmet or a blue helmet? It's a nice shade of blue but....the red matches my jacket...." She holds them both up expectantly, and Red tips his head and hums before he comes out with a response.
"I'm wounded that you think I'd be such a poor steed that you might fall off.....but if I had to choose, I think you should wear the red helmet." Red rolls his eyes and pads his way over to the screen in the jockey room that allows them to watch the current ongoing race while they wait.
"You might bump into something, or a chocobo might bump into you, you never know! It's best to be careful," Aerith quickly realises he isn't entirely listening, and with a huff she puts the helmet on, fiddling with the adjustable straps and clasps to make sure it's sufficiently snug as she follows Red over to where he's standing. From there, they watch the rest of the ongoing race. Red is quiet, but Aerith ooh s and aah s at the appropriate moments and even picks a chocobo to root for, getting very excited when it overtakes someone else, and surprisingly heated in her encouragement through the screen when her chosen bird and jockey pair fall behind. It's kind of endearing, watching Aerith get this invested in the race before them, and it's one of the things Red perhaps enjoys the most about her presence. Her ability to get so invested in everything and everyone, and her willingness to fight for them no matter the circumstances or her own position. It's admirable, and it's infectious, he thinks.
When the race comes to a close, the chocobo whose success Aerith had become remarkably attached to comes second, but she seemed happy with the way it had managed to gain the upper hand right towards the end of the race and jump up several positions from it's earlier steady fourth place ranking throughout the first two laps. Shortly after the podium announcements, came the voice over the speakers telling all jockeys for the next race to proceed to the course and prepare to start. Aerith gives Red a quick nod, and then they make their way out to get into their assigned positions. A few of the other jockeys give them strange looks, but seemingly shrug off their confusion, and no one says anything to either of them.
"Hey, careful where you're sitting," Red mutters under his breath as Aerith shuffles around to find a comfortable position on his back. Eventually she settles, and pets his head in silent apology, which typically is something that gets on his nerves, being treated like a regular house pet, but from Aerith, and given the purpose of this idea of his, he opts to let it slide on this particular occasion. Red can feel his heart beating in his ears waiting for the gun to signal the start of the race. He's truthfully not even entirely sure he can outrun a chocobo, but they'll soon find out.
"We totally got this," Aerith whispers, and it calms him a little. And then the gunshot resounds through the course and they're off. Surprisingly, they start off in a good position. If Red is good at anything, it's getting a good spring into his sprint that starts him off at a high speed. Less surprisingly, though, it doesn't take all that long for the other jockeys to catch up, and they quickly start falling behind. "C'mon Red! You can go faster than this!" Aerith's competitive side kicks in once again, and this time she's shouting to spur him on. He does his best, growling as he tries to pick up whatever extra speed he can muster in his legs. Surely having four should mean that he goes faster than these two-legged birds? Right? He knows full well that that's not how it works, but the thought process pushes him harder nonetheless.
They actually manage to remain in an okay position throughout the first lap, all things considered. It's easy enough to tell that they're nowhere near the front, but they're also not running any risk of coming in last as things stand. Through the loud music of the race course, the sound of the commentator and the other jockeys and their chocobos, it's hard to hear much of anything at all. Still, Red can just about hear Aerith's continued shouts of encouragement and excitement, whooping and cheering every time they over-take someone. It's incredibly endearing, and it makes Red glad he proposed the idea, even if he does feel extremely silly as he rounds a corner blockaded by prop-trees and luckily just about manages to dodge them all, earning himself another speed increase.
By the time the second lap rolls around, they start to really get into the motions of the race, and Red is genuinely surprised by how well they're doing. As is Aerith, if the sounds coming from above him are anything to go by. A couple of jockeys manage to surpass them with a few well placed drifts, but it's nothing they can't recover from, and they manage to hold their position for the remainder of the lap. Which only leaves them with the final lap to push as hard as they can with the hope of climbing the ladder a little further before the end. Red does his very best to dodge obstacles and other jockeys alike, but it's to no avail, and another chocobo overtakes them at the very last second. Still, by the time Red is able to slow to a stop and check the rankings, they find they placed a very respectable 5th. Of course, per their agreement to the terms of their very unconventional race, they receive no actual rewards for their placement, but Red can't say he's too torn up about that part.
"That was so much fun! I can't believe we did so well in the end." Aerith is still marvelling at the results all the way back to the ghost hotel.
"I think you mean that you can't believe I did so well," Red corrects teasingly and puffs his chest out proudly, and it makes Aerith pout.
"Hey! we're a team you know, we worked together to get that fifth place," she complains, but it's clear there's a hint of playfulness in her pouting, so Red isn't too worried about prodding at her a little more.
"Maybe you're right, I would've never been able to run so fast if I didn't have such a competitive jockey shouting encouragement at me the whole time." The jab at her competitive streak makes Aerith huff, but he follows it up with some more genuine words as they approach the hotel entrance. "I'm glad you had such a good time, Aerith."
"Oh I think we both needed that," she responds knowingly, heading straight for the stairs. "You seem like you've perked up a little too, Red. Maybe you really did need the exercise after all...." she trails off, and this time it's her turn to tease Red a little.
"Despite your pleading to the lady at the counter, I am not a common house pet who needs to be walked! I get enough exercise on our travels," Red huffs this time, and hops past her up to the hallways leading to each of their respective rooms. He chooses not to explain that the reason for his perking up is directly tied to how much better spirits she seems to be in. "But…I am really happy you enjoyed it so much. We’re right back to business tomorrow, but…when this is all over, we should come back and play more games together. You, me, and everyone else. All of us. Together."
"I like the sound of that a lot. No worries about what tomorrow's going to look like...I can't wait." Aerith smiles, her warm, genuine smile that it's impossible not to return. At least, insofar as Red is capable of. "Good night Red," she says, and when she closes the door to her room behind her, Red feels like the evening was a job well done.
"Good night Aerith."