"Aunt Gillian. What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked with dread in his voice as Gillian walked over to him with what looked like a video camera in her hands.
It was the first week of holiday in Banora. Gillian was trying to make Sephiroth act more 'fatherly' as she had said. Miley was enjoying it. In addition, Sephiroth partly was, if it was not for a little girl running him in circles asking questions and begging for the answers.
Right now, they were walking down a path full of trees and flowers and so on. Gillian used to bring the three boys down the road all the time and they loved it. She said she wanted to do the same for Miley.
Angeal said that he still wanted to walk down there, since it was full of so many memories. Moreover, the fact that he liked plants.
"A video camera, Angeal sent it down not long ago." She explained, handing it to Angeal who was beside her. She had no idea how to work it, so told him to film Miley instead.
Angeal sighed and put his picture camera in the case attached to his hip so he could take the camera, which his mother had handed him.
"Smile…!" Angeal laughed, as he purposely pointed the camera in Sephiroth's direction. Genesis had walked on earlier saying that he'd meet up with them later.
"Uncwle Angel! Uncwle Angel, wha' tha'...?" Miley asked loudly, as she tugged on Angeal's trouser leg.
Angeal smiled. "I'll show you later." He told her, pointing the camera down at her as he did.
"Bu' I wan' know now." She wined, but not in a selfish manner.
Angeal just poked his tongue out and told her to play with Sephiroth. "Turn that thing off!" Sephiroth growled loudly, walking ahead of them so they could not film his face.
"Daddy…! Cawwy me…!" Miley shouted happily, running over to him and lifting her arms up.
"No." Sephiroth grunted.
"Pwease…!" Miley wined, and then yelped, as Zack put her on his shoulders after scooping her up.
"Your dad's a big stick in the mud!" Zack exclaimed loudly. "Can you say that?" Zack asked Miley kindly.
"Daddy a big fing in mud…!"
"Nooooo… Zack said. "Say: My daddy's,"
"My daddy…"
"A big,"
"A big"
"Stick in the mud."
"Dig in the mud!" Miley repeated. The way Miley had said 'dig' made it sound like a completely different word. Ending in ck. (I DO NOT SWEAR AND I AM NOT GOING TO WRITE SWEARWORDS DOWN SO DO NOT FLAME ME, JUST USE YOUR IMAGINEATION.)
Zack along with everyone else was shocked. Angeal was too, but was happy that he did not turn the camera off, since the look on Sephiroth's face was priceless. His eyes were wide and his mouth was hanging open.
"I-I didn't know she couldn't say stick!" Zack shouted in his defence. Holding his hands up as Miley grabbed onto his neck tighter. She was laughing, Sephiroth looked angry, and she always laughed when Sephiroth and Zack argued… well… when it was not loud or violent like it had been in the flat that time.
Zack dropped Miley on the floor as he started running from Sephiroth, who was calmly walking after him with a hint of anger in one eye and amusement in the other. Miley laughed and ran back to Angeal who was laughing and filming. "Uncwle Zack running…!" Miley stated loudly as she pulled on Gillian's long, grass-coloured skirt and Angeal's black trousers.
There was a loud scream from Zack, which sent Angeal running around the corner curiously. Zack had fallen in the riverbank, which was extremely muddy. He was sitting in it with his hands supporting him.
Angeal laughed and continued filming as Zack grumbled and tried to stand up in it. He managed to, and then slid and fell again. Miley and Gillian were there by then, and were laughing too, while Sephiroth stood and watched with a proud look in his eyes but nothing bubbled out of him.
"Daddy…! Uncwle Zack felled down…!" Miley shouted as she tugged on Sephiroth's trousers. It would have been his jacket, but he had left that in the house, and was wearing a black T-shirt instead. When Miley had seen it lying on the bed she had said that it looked like the tent on dumbo because it was so big. Sephiroth had smiled slightly.
"I can see that…" Sephiroth replied. 'I was the one that pushed him.' He thought proudly as he watched Zack climb out of the mud.
"Thanks for helping!" Zack shouted with a playful frown on his face. "I thought that you would have helped!" He jokingly said to Miley who was still laughing and saying that Zack looked brown.
"Uncwle Zack funny…!" Miley laughed, as Zack stood up from his kneeled form.
Gillian laughed. "There's a clean river not far from here. You can wash yourself off in there. There's also a sandy bank where Miley can play for the time being." She told him happily.
"And what am I supposed to wear on my butt while my trousers are drying…?" Zack loudly asked.
"You have pants on, don't you?" Sephiroth questioned in a knowing manner.
"I don't wear what I don't need…" Zack stated proudly. Making Sephiroth's know it all manner change into a roll of his eyes...
Miley began laughing again. "Uncwle Zack gots no knickers on…!" She laughed, jumping up and down.
"Men don't wear 'knickers'… well, not the normal men anyway…" Zack said.
"Uncwle Zack ain' normal…!" Miley stated, as she tried to hold Sephiroth's hand. "Can go now…?"
Gillian smiled at her. "Yes. We're going now." Therefore, they set off again. Angeal was filming the entire time.
Miley squealed, and ran down onto the sandy, rocky bank. Sephiroth sighed, and sat on one of the damp, mossy rocks while Miley picked up different rocks to show everyone.
There was a river, it was rather shallow and then went suddenly deeper as it went along. There were tree's shading the area, but because it was still morning, it was very sunny.
Genesis grinned from a shady corner. Miley had not noticed he was there. Neither had Sephiroth, which was strange.
Sephiroth spun around in surprise, as Genesis tipped a can of water over him from behind. Genesis laughed and stood up. "You are slipping, Sephiroth." He mocked as he sat next to him.
"Uncwle Gen'sis!" Miley shouted, running to him. "Look…! I gots lots o' wocks!" She looked up at Sephiroth, whose hair was partly wet. "Why daddy hair wet?" She asked.
"I got him a little wet." Genesis told her, soon moving to let Gillian sit down.
Tha' like big baf'!" Miley loudly said, pointing to the river that Zack was currently standing in, looking cold since he had sat himself down in his trousers to clean them a little.
"Would you like to go in?" Gillian asked. Miley nodded. "Come here then."
"She hasn't got a swim-suit…" Sephiroth mumbled as he crossed his arms.
"She won't need one. She's only a child." Sephiroth frowned. "Don't give me that look. I know you're not that modest or you wouldn't even have a child." Sephiroth mumbled something under his breath. "What was that?" Gillian questioned.
"He said what if someone sees her? We were told not to do that when we were small." Genesis told her just before Sephiroth could speak.
"Sephiroth, she's only a little girl and we're the only one's here. Moreover, you did go in naked until you were about six. Then I had to say no."
Sephiroth said nothing, but looked like he was sulking.
"And there's no exception for Zack." Angeal grinned, as he filmed Zack sulking in the cold water and Miley toddling down to the river.
"I take it you haven't told Miley what the camera does?" Genesis spoke as he read from his book.
"I wanted her to act natural, so I told her I'd tell her later."
"How much more natural can you get than that?" Sephiroth mumbled, as he looked away from Angeal, his arms still crossed.
"You seem embarrassed." Angeal grinned. "You've seen her naked before haven't you? With all the girlfriends and one-night-stands that you have had, it is not as if there's anything new for you to see."
"I'm not so sure." Genesis spoke as he put his book in his brown jacket. Like Sephiroth, he had left his long red one at Gillian's home. "I heard from Cissnei that he tried to get her to bath Miley. Apparently she had to escape before he could grab her again."
Gillian smiled slightly. "You've no need to be embarrassed, Sephiroth."
"I am NOT embarrassed!" He growled. "No one's taking in the fact that my face is always in magazines and news-papers advertising rumours. The last thing I need is a heading that says 'Paedophile General.'"
Gillian shook her head. "Nothing like that is going to happen. They might have father's award. But nothing like that."
"No one would ever believe she's yours. There's no resemblance…" Angeal said as he continued to film.
"And she's too nice." Genesis added plainly. "She's Cute and sweet too. She's the complete opposite of you Sephiroth."
Sephiroth said nothing but looked at Miley who was having a splash fight with Zack.
Zack came out a while later to dry off. Gillian told Sephiroth to call Miley out too so she could dry before they continued.
"That's not going to come off Miley." Sephiroth told Miley, who was trying to pull a limpet off a rock.
"Did you really have to push me?" Zack mumbled as he shivered.
"Yes. As your commanding officer it was my job." Sephiroth answered in a plain tone.
"Daddy…!" Miley shouted as she pulled on his trouser leg. "I cold… I get dwessed now."
"Let Aunt Gillian dress you." He said, pushing her towards the older woman.
"Now Sephiroth, you need to learn to do these things yourself." She smiled.
"I wasn't the one who wanted her to go in the water in the first place." He told her in a low voice with a dangerous look in his eyes.
Miley turned around and looked up at him. "I wan' you dwess me!" She chirped, Gillian gave a satisfied look and smiled.
"Turn that thing off!" Sephiroth shouted when he realised that the camera was pointing in his face and had been the entire time.
"Look daddy! Look!" Miley shouted when she was dressed and had insisted on sitting on Sephiroth's lap. "I-it a penguin…!"
Sephiroth and everyone else looked at her in amusement and then at the area where she was pointing.
"A penguin…?" Genesis asked in a voice that adults tended to use when talking to a child. All he could see was a crow.
"Oh… I' no' a penguin…" Miley told them sounding a little disappointed. "I' a stork…!" Angeal laughed and turned the camera off to save the battery.
Miley gasped. "I' flied 'way…!"
"We ought to be going now…" Gillian moaned with the strain as she stood up.
Miley shook her head as Sephiroth lifted her off him. "I not wan' go yet…" She wined.
"Come on. We need to get our dinner." Gillian said and then continued walking. There was a restaurant at the end of the walk. It was about a mile away from where they were at that moment.
Miley started to walk and eventually they got there.
"I wan' sit next to daddy…!" Miley shouted happily, as Sephiroth sat himself down at a table along with everyone else. He sighed when Zack helped Miley helped onto a chair between him and Sephiroth.
They were sitting on white plastic chairs outside the restaurant. Trees and greenery once again surrounded the area. A long river flowed under a bridge that they had crossed to get to the restaurant. The river was in a ditch and fenced off so no one would fall in.
"What does Miley want…?" Angeal asked since he was writing the orders down to give to the waiter that had said he would be back in a short while.
"Pancakes…!" She chirped loudly.
Sephiroth shook his head. "You can have a lasagne, pasta, child's meal, pizza and chips or sausage." He read from the menu.
"Wha' a pizzaza…?"
"We'll get you pizza so you can try it." Sephiroth groaned as he chose for himself.
After a short while, everyone had chosen and eaten. Miley was tired when it was time to walk back. Therefore, Gillian persuaded Sephiroth to carry her back. She was asleep when they got back to the house.