I don't own FF7 or its characters and make no profit writing this story.

Aerith stood off to the side of the stage in her prim little dark suit, her long hair was woven into its normally tight braid, allowing none of the tendrils she normally wore outside of work to escape. Her only make up a ting of pink lip gloss just a couple shades darker then her own generous pink lips. She had an aura of innocence about her that made her appear years younger than her actual age of twenty two. She was one of those frail seeming women who brought out the protective side of all who encountered her, who could defend herself just fine, the way she moved bespoke of years of martial arts training under her black belt.

Right now she clutched her tablet to her in a way that would have shattered it if she had been stronger, her full lips were drawn into a line of disapproval as her "charge or boss (depending on who you asked)" strutted around the stage, okay more like showboated, easily disarming the half trained grunts with his oversized red mako glowing sword. "I'm am here to defend you, my sword is yours" he said to his audience and thrust it phallically into the air with a roar of approval from them. Aerith sourly mouthed along with his final statement, he always said this to appear humble (because Aerith had written the statement for him, when he was anything but). She looked into the audience and saw how his eyes seemed to alight on an attractive brunette and she seemed to preen at the Commander's attention. Aerith rolled her eyes, anticipating kicking her out of Genesis's bedroom the next morning.

Aerith sighed as she listed in her head the various professions she could have pursued if circumstances were different. She had been told with her quiet beauty that she could easily become a model but lacked the height, she had even obtained some minor modeling jobs, but that was mainly for catalogues. She could have become a nurse and had been complimented that she had a wonderful bedside manner when it came to dealing with people who were ill. Her quiet demeanor seemed to sooth them. She could have become a florist with her natural green thumb. But no, her mother's illness had dictated that she find employment immediately after leaving high school, so she took a fast secretarial course and found employment in a small mortgage firm.

One day she had happened upon an ad looking for a personal assistant at twice her current salary and full medical benefits and applied for it immediately. She had been shown into an office where two men in suits interviewed her while a man wearing a dramatic black and red leather uniform stared at her and she had wondered as to his purpose being there. He looked like a rock star or something. He had blue mako glowing eyes, indicating he was from the SOLDIER program and an arrogant smirk graced his handsome, almost pretty face. He had the porcelain complexion of a true red head and his flame red hair was razor cuts in various length to just about his shoulders. Aerith was made even more nervous as he seemed to undress her with his eyes and wondered if the mako glow did allow his vision to penetrate her clothes and felt like covering herself with her hands as his eyes roved all over her.

Aerith knew little about the SOLDIER program outside of what the general public knew, they were all enhanced, some more so than others and at the centre was the General Sephiroth, who acted as some kind of figurehead and recruitment poster boy. She thought his weird looks a tad creepy and decided she wanted little to do with them. Until she received news that she was hired and she would be the personal assistant to Commander Genesis Rhapsodos. She was elated at first, the hours would allow her stay home in the evenings and weekends to look after her mother. Then she realized who the red clad man had been and wasn't so impressed when she went to thank him for giving her a chance and he gave her a smug smile and said she got the job because she was the prettiest one who applied.

Genesis, there was so many words to describe him: smug, arrogant, spoiled, a braggart, pompous and Aerith's favourite; a pain in her ass.

She shuddered to remember her first morning working with him.

Flashback

She had shown up wearing the prim suit she and her mother had pieced together so Aerith would look more grown up and every inch the professional. Was at his place exactly on time and politely knocked on the door and waited for his response, expecting him to be up and ready to go to his important meeting. However, he didn't respond. So she knocked again and again, yet he appeared not to be home. So she knocked more firmly this time. Finally worried something might have happened to her new employer, she started hammering on his door and it flew open to reveal a highly irritated and hung over looking Commander Rhapsodos sporting a severe case of bedhead and naked as the day he was born.

"What the fuck do you want?" he snarled, looking nonplussed at his own nudity as Aerith stood there with her hand raised in mid-knock and her eyes drifted down the length of his lean, but impressively built, tall body to rest on the first set of male genitals she had ever seen up close. She could feel herself blushing as she averted her eyes. "I am here to pick you up and go over your schedule for the day" she explained.

"Ah that's right, you're the new girl, Alice" he said, holding the door open to her.

"Aerith" she corrected him."Don't you want to put some clothes on?" she asked him in a strangled voice, her face tomato red.

"Fine. Whatever. Come in, I don't bite...hard" he said going into what she supposed was his bedroom and emerging wearing a pair of red pajama pants.

"Where's my coffee?" he demanded of her.

"What coffee?" she asked him.

"I have Starbucks dark roast, triple, triple, size extra large every morning. Didn't those numskulls tell you anything?" he groused, giving her a look that reminded her of her young cousin about to have a temper tantrum.

"I'll go get you one and shall remember that in the future" she said.

"And I like to have cut up fruit and toast in the mornings, prior to having breakfast" he added.

"I'll go fix that for you and then go get your coffee" she said and walked in the direction of what she assumed was the kitchen, noting the red and black motif of his place and decided it had been decorated with more money than taste; the place looked like a brothel. She frowned when a search of the kitchen yielded nothing more than a carton of milk well past the expiry date and a sad and shriveled looking piece of cheese. No fruit, no bread or butter of margarine of any description, but there was plenty of alcohol chilling.

She turned when he joined her. "You don't have any of that" she said.

"Then I suggest you step up your game and stock all that if you are going be preparing them for me every morning, you can pick that up while you are getting my coffee" he ordered her.

"I'm not a maid" she said.

"No you are a personal assistant: describing a person who assists a specific person with their daily business or personal tasks. As you work for me, I get to decide what those personal tasks shall be and that includes making my pre-breakfast snack and getting my coffee each morning. Or do you want me have the office call the second most attractive girl there that was interviewed and I offer her the job in your stead?" he coyly asked her.

"But I don't have any money with me, I only had enough for bus fare" she explained as her shoulders sagged.

"You took the bus over here, why did you do that?" he asked her aghast at the idea.

"I don't have a car and the limo can only be ordered for your use" she explained.

He sighed low and deep. "I'm told there is a Starbucks on the corner and a food market a few doors down from here, go pick up what you need while I shower and get dressed" he said impatiently handing her a twenty gils bill and a copy of his keys. "But before you leave, you need to get that female out of my bed, that is also part of your job" he ordered her. "Give her this, her name is Ellen" he ordered her and went to take his shower.

Aerith wrinkled her nose at the smell of stale sex in the air, at least what she assumed it to be, it didn't smell pleasant whatever it was. The blonde woman was still asleep in the round bed, the pedestal and large curved headboard were upholstered in red velvet and the comforter black satin and sheets were red satin. "Excuse me" Aerith said awkwardly clearing her throat and blushed when she accidentally looking into the wastebasket beside the bed to see several used condoms knotted up.

"Huh?" the woman said sitting up and clutching the sheets to her naked bosom. "Who are you?" she demanded of the demure young woman she saw before her.

"I'm Commander Rhapsodos' personal assistant. He asked me to give this to you, Ellen" she said.

"That's Elena" she said and opened the note and her face contorted with anger. She got up and started putting a cocktail dress on and shoving her feet into a pair of discarded shoes. She ran her finger through her short hair to straighten her asymmetrical bob into shape. Taking the twenty gils bill from inside the note, she crumpled it up and threw it on top of the used condoms. "You can tell Commander Rhapsodos to go fuck himself because he's not fucking me ever again. You're a bastard, you should be glad I don't go home and get my gun and come back and shoot you!" she yelled in the direction of the washroom and Aerith found herself stepping before the petite young women involuntarily in case she tried to attack him.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt your precious boss" she said finding her purse and jacket on a chair and putting them on.

"Can I call you a cab?" she asked the enraged young woman.

"I want nothing to do this place, him or you. How can you work for such an asshole?" she asked her. "I'm a woman just like you and you gave me this on his behalf? Don't you have any self respect? Unbelievable" she said as she threw the note at Aerith with a snort and walked out.

Aerith read the note, it seemed to be preprinted and could feel her mouth drop open in shock.

It read:

"Welcome aboard the S. S. Rhapsodos.

I'm glad you "came", but the ride is over.

Enclosed you will find twenty gils, you can either use it for breakfast or else cab fare, either way, please depart. Don't bother leaving your contact information, I will get in touch with you if I want to and rather doubt I will.

Thank you for understanding and hope you had a great night; which I know you did.

Yours,

Genesis"

Aerith was stunned at how she had unwittingly insulted the young woman. How could anyone be so cold to give someone a preprinted note after having sex with them and all but ordering them from their lives?

"She gone?" Genesis said coming back with a towel wrapped around his waist and rubbing his hair with another one.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded of him.

He barely glanced at the note "I'm a busy man, I can't have amorous chicks hanging out all day. It's like removing a band aid; it's better to just rip it off" he explained.

"How can you be so cold? I mean sex is supposed to be a strong emotional connection between a man and a woman, a communion of the souls" Aerith said.

"What are you some kind of hippie? Keep that new age shit away from me. Sex is just sex, it's a simple release and it's like pizza; even it's bad, it's still pretty good" he said dismissively.

"I pity you" Aerith thinking about her own situation where she was engaged to a wonderful man who was perfectly fine with waiting until their wedding night to have intercourse. Zack was religious too and they had only ever shared deep soul kisses. She knew that when they first made love, it would be a beautiful experience that would make their hearts and souls connect in a permanent way that no earthly forces could break. So what this stranger was saying sounded sad to her.

"If you you're finished playing the tambourine and singing Kumbaya; go get me my coffee and food, you're making us late" he said dismissively, wondering why the strange girl would pity him.

When she returned she cut up his fruit and made his toast while he got his uniform on and they went over his agenda for the day.

"Come on, I'll take you to Shinra" he said and got his car keys. She white knuckled with each hairpin turn he made in his souped up candy apple red metallic and black corvette convertible. Apparently Genesis was a bit of a speed demon as he drove them there at top speed like he owned the road with a cocky smile on his face and sunglasses on. His red hair streamed after him in the wind and his personalized license plate read 'Loveless'. Aerith cringed as he recited poetry as he drove them at breakneck speeds that caused her to want to puke. She was shaky and pale when he finally roared into his personal parking spot. "What wrong with you?" he said helping the trembling girl out of his passenger seat.

"You are a vehicular accident waiting to happen. Where did you learn to drive, on a racing track?" she demanded.

"I'm a perfectly safe driver" he snapped.

"For a reckless person. Don't you value people's safety at all?" she raged at him, uncharacteristically loud for her.

"You're here in one piece aren't you?" he asked her. "Now about your clothes" he said suddenly changing the topic.

"What about them? This outfit is completely respectable" she said.

"That's the problem, I like to see skin on women when I work with them. It gives me something to focus on during boring times at the office. You have a nice figure, why not flaunt it a little? Let me see some cleavage and shorten that skirt" he suggested, eyeing her blouse that was buttoned all the way up her neck and her shin length skirt.

His eyes went wide when she grabbed the collar of his trench and pulled him forward, thrusting her face inches from his own while she looked up at him. Her face was like a thundercloud. "How dare you. I'm a devout worshiper of the Goddess and I'm engaged to a wonderful man whose shoes you aren't even fit to shine. I will not give you a peepshow and ask that you not parade your sins before me. If you choose to lead a hedonist lifestyle, leave me out of it. I will work as your personal assistant but everything between us shall be strictly professional and I shall obey no commands that have anything to do with nudity or sexual favours on my part. I have ears, I know that you have a reputation of going through personal assistants like water, you have slept with all of them and it is speculated one was paid off to have a redheaded baby in privacy. I don't desire you, heck I'm not sure if I even like you" she said and then thrust him from her and gave him a look of contempt as she stalked ahead of him.

"So kitten has claws? I like feisty women. I think you and I are going to get along just fine" he said approvingly.

She just shut her eyes and counted to ten as her mother had taught her to, Aerith was known for being sweet and kind by nature but she had a temper when provoked.

"Seph, Geal, this is my new personal assistant Amelia, isn't she gorgeous?" he said running into the pair of them and putting his arm around her.

"Aerith" she said through gritted teeth, shaking his arm off of her like it was repulsive to her.

"Charmed, you should meet my PA, her name is Yuffie" Angeal said.

"I'm sure I would enjoy that, sir" she said, charmed by the gracious man's smile and quiet confidence.

"Please call me Angeal, you really are going to have your work cut out working for my childhood friend" he said.

"Thank you, Angeal" she said.

"Don't you wish you had a PA as pretty as mine, Seph?" Genesis persisted.

"I don't need one, all the facts I need are in my head because of my Eidetic memory, rendering someone keeping my schedule to be useless" he said.

"But she is pretty" Genesis said.

"How long before you sleep with her or impregnate her?" Sephiroth asked in a quiet voice.

"That is not going to happen, I'm engaged. I am never going to sleep with you, get that out of your head" she said with a finger jab to punctuate each word to Genesis's firm chest.

"I didn't say that, Sephiroth did" he raged back at her.

"Just get to your meeting" she snapped and stalked off in the direction of the office.

"What a shrew" he complained.

End Flashback

Aerith handed him a towel, knowing how hot he got under the lights, she had been working for him for a couple of weeks now and was learning to tolerate him at least.

"How was I?" he asked her.

"As awe inspiring as ever" she said dismissively.

"I think it is great that I was assigned to a recruitment drive while Sephiroth has to do that boring ribbon cutting ceremony" he said with pride in his voice.

"Someone else had to cover that. Sephiroth was sent on assignment this morning to hunt a monster plaguing bone city" she explained.

"I'm sorry, why didn't they send me?" he said with a slight whine creeping into his voice that he was never aware of.

Aerith smirked, knowing that anything relating to Sephiroth doing literally anything better than Genesis was a sore point with him. "They probably just picked him at random" she said.

"Yes I suppose you're right" he said.

"Commander, will you sign my bra?" the brunette asked him.

"I shall if you come to my place tonight" he suggested.

"I would be delighted. My name is Melanie" she simpered.

"Aerith you'll be okay getting home?" Genesis asked her in a distracted way.

"I'll take the bus" she said, rolling her eyes. Genesis looked sharply up at this. He wasn't the misogynist people took him to be. He did have moral values and principals like everyone else, although his were perhaps a little more relaxed and skewed then others. But that being said, he had never been on a bus in his life and what he imagined were that rapists were lurking at every stop to pray on young girls like Aerith. He barely knew her at all but she was proving to be a good assistant, albeit a dull one and as a man who employed her, he was responsible for her safety while on the job. He imagined an unknowing assailant ripping her clothes from her and taking her on the floor of this "bus" while the great unwashed masses cheered on her downfall.

"You'll take the limousine home. I shall call for a cab" he insisted.

"But a limo in my area would look so wrong" she said with a frown.

"Just do it, tell the driver I authorized it, Come Mindy" he said, taking the brunette's arm.

"That's Melanie" she corrected him.

"Whatever" he dismissively said.