Work Text:
Tseng's looking after Aeris, as Elmyra is working late. It's an arrangement they have-- one he has neglected to tell Shinra about.
He meets Aeris at the school and they walk back to her house together. Aeris talks fast about minibeasts (now there's a word he hasn't heard in decades). He nods along as she says something unintelligible (she is currently missing some baby teeth); he wonders if her class saw any living bugs, or just pictures. When they reach the heap of pipes and planks that pass for a walkway between the Sector 6 playground and home, he's glad that Shinra have given Aeris shots for tetanus. The pavement's been torn up for years, now, and ragged lengths of iron stab through in unexpected places. He helps her climb over the rubble; they pretend she's a mountain explorer (he wonders if she knows what a mountain is), and she squeals, sliding down a pipe. Tseng always makes a game of it. But it takes an effort to smile. No sunlight... it's not a good way for a kid to grow up. None of the kids at that school get any sun in the day. Aeris doesn't seem to care. She jumps in all the puddles formed from the plate runoff; she's delighted by the oil-rainbows. He stops her, briefly, to force a carton of juice into her hand. It's fortified with extra vitamin D. Shinra are particular about these things-- for the children they value, anyway. The President's son drinks the same brand.
Tseng puts it to the back of his mind. No point getting sentimental on behalf of the slumkids. What is he going to do about it? And if he's not going to do anything, it's not worth thinking about. Tseng is an apathetic, spineless creature-- but at least he acknowledges it.
"I got my report today," says Aeris, as they enter her house. She hangs up her raincoat-- a red shiny thing with ears on the hood. It makes him smile every time he sees it. An unexpected perk of the job.
"Oh?" he says. She holds out the report card, beaming. She's too young to hate him. She hates the Shinra, but Tseng's fairly sure she doesn't understand how he fits in with it, not yet. They are some other, strange people who took her mother away, while he's the nice man whom her mom doesn't like, but who gets Aeris sweets-- and toys, on occasion. The idea was to endear Shinra to her, but since she doesn't associate Tseng with Shinra, and since Tseng is in no rush to change that, the official reasons are cover. Tseng buys Aeris toys because she is undiscerning and enthusiastic; plastic tat enthralls her and she treats each trip to Wall Market like a safari. She can spend hours staring at the lights on the vending machines. Plus he gets to rid himself of loose change and fill Elmyra's house with rubbish, so all in all, it's an excellent arrangement.
He wishes it could stay that way.
Tseng takes the report card, slightly smug that he gets to see it before Elmyra does. He flips it over. His face turns pensive. "That's... a lot of Bs." From his tone of voice, it sounds like he's noticed a swarm of stinging insects.
"I got an A in reading!" says Aeris. She climbs a little way up the stairs.
"Well, that's something." Tseng sounds unconvinced. He remembers his own steady stream of Bs, the fights over dinner, forging the report cards, the shame of getting caught. His grades never did improve, but he got a lot better at forgery. Perhaps he was born to work in General Affairs. "A+ or A-?"
"Just A." Aeris swings off the bannister. He motions for her to get down, before she hurts herself.
"Well, there's always next term." He wonders if he should say something, but she looks so happy... He decides this is a perk of not actually being a parent, and he'll leave the disciplining to Elmyra. And after all, he supposes it doesn't much matter for Aeris. It's not like she'll need good grades, or any grades, for the life Shinra has mapped out for her. Again, he's reminded of the President's son.
Maybe he should push harder, just to make her feel more normal.
Elmyra returns. She gives Aeris a hug when she sees the report card, and hands her a square of cheap chocolate, wrapped in blue foil. "Good passes in every subject! Well done! And you got an A!"
"Only one," notes Tseng.
Elmyra shoots him a filthy look. She turns back to Aeris. "Since you've been so good, let's have a treat! Would you like to pick a film to watch tonight?"
Aeris runs over to the video cabinet, to choose between 3 battered cassettes. Tseng shakes his head, remembering the spelling tests he had to take every Saturday morning.
"Oh, what now?" says Elmyra irritably.
Tseng shrugs. "Just feeling cheated. Do I get any chocolate?"
Elmyra opens her mouth to refuse, then notices Aeris watching, and hesitates. Tseng appreciates Elmyra's dilemma. He's glad, again, that he isn't a real parent. Nobody expects him to be a role-model. Right now, Elmyra's worrying-- if she refuses, is she teaching Aeris not to share? To be cruel and ungenerous? But if she agrees, is she failing to teach Aeris boundaries? Is she teaching Aeris to go along with Shinra-- to never say 'no'?
Tseng is tempted to push it, give a slow smile, ask again, note how tasty the chocolate looks, really ham it up-- but before he can do anything, Aeris hands him her square of chocolate, still wrapped in the blue tinfoil.
"Mom doesn't like you," she says, "so she won't give you any, so you can have mine. I'll get more later." She smiles proudly. His chest tightens.
"Er, it's okay, you can have it." He puts the wrapped chocolate square on her head. "I seem to have misplaced it." Aeris giggles. As she retrieves the chocolate and munches away, he tells himself that he just doesn't want to be literally accused of stealing candy from a baby; that it's a horrible brand anyway; that Shinra Foods probably bulks it out with mud. He catches Elmyra's eye.
He's not fooling anyone.
"I should head off," he mutters. Sooner or later, Hojo will demand that the last Ancient return to the lab, and that'll be that. Sooner or later, the President will remember his dreams of the Promised Land. Tseng should tell Elmyra they need to revise their arrangement; that his job requires distant professionalism and he can't keep playing babysitter without it making everything worse in the long run.
Aeris climbs up on a chair, reaches out and tucks the blue wrapper into his jacket pocket, making an unorthodox pocket square. "There! Now you don't look so boring!"
Maybe he'll get round to it tomorrow.