Anne lay on top of Sephiroth, watching his face curiously. Her eyes sparkled in the dawn's light and she smiled, sitting up. But as soon as she did, Sephiroth's hand pushed her body back down into his scarred chest. Anne giggled and looked up, reaching out and poking his cheek.

"Seph," she spoke as she poked harder "Wake up, it's morning."

Sephiroth didn't respond to her insistent poking but when she tried to sit up again, his hand pushed her back down into a lying position. Anne huffed, this wasn't funny anymore.

"Seph!" she whined, beating her tiny fists against his chest "Wake up!"

She strained against the strength of his hand and huffed. She sniffed and began crying which made Sephiroth sit up in alarm and stare down at her. The four-year-old looked up at him with a sly grin before wriggling out of his grip and jumping out of the bed.

"It's morning," she began singing and ran out of his room "it's morning! Time to get up and play all day!"

Sephiroth felt himself smile softly and lay back down to go back to sleep. Anne hummed as she ran down the corridors of the Palace of Eden.

"Morning, morning, morning!" she cheered happily "I love mornings! I love to play in the morning!"

She stopped when she reached the Feast Hall and grinned.

"Gen-Gen!" she cheered as she ran up to Genesis, god of the arts.

Genesis looked down to see the little goddess run up to him and hug his leg.

"Up early again today I see," he said as Anne beamed up at him.

"Gen-Gen, will you teach me how to paint today?" she asked with wide pleading eyes.

"I don't know," Genesis flicked his hair out of his face "I am very busy…"

"Oh, Genesis," Lucrecia sighed as she wandered into the hall to get some fruit "Let her paint, I want my little baby to express her creative side once in a while."

"I'm not a baby," Anne mumbled sulkily as she clutched onto Genesis's toga.

Genesis caught Lucrecia's glare and sighed in defeat. He picked up a dumbapple then picked up Anne by the scruff, much to Lucrecia's horror, and walked to his room.


"Get out!"

A paint covered Anne giggled as she shot out of Genesis's room. Purple paint stained her toga, red paint stuck to her hair, blue paint smeared on her cheeks, green paint covering her hands and yellow paint covering her feet, leaving footprints on the marble floor. She hummed and ran out into the Garden of Eden, accidentally bumping into Aerith.

"Oh dear me," Aerith giggled as she saw Anne "Has someone been a naughty girl?"

"No!" Anne chirruped innocently and hid her hands behind her back.

Aerith crouched down and smiled warmly at her.

"I think someone needs a bath," she said.

"Could you bath with me, Rith?" Anne asked cutely.

Aerith smiled.

"Of course, I know the perfect place."

She took Anne's hand and let her to the Gates of Eden. Lucrecia, however, intercepted them quickly.

"Don't take her down to Gaia," she hissed to Aerith.

"But why?" Aerith protested "She will be visiting it when she's older."

"I don't want her father to find out about her," Lucrecia glanced down at Gaia uncertainly.

"What's a father?" Anne asked as she jumped up and down.

"Just take her to the usual springs in the Garden," Lucrecia ignored her daughter "Please, she isn't old enough to go down yet anyway."

Aerith stared at Lucrecia uncertainly before picking Anne up.

"We're going to the hot springs!" she said and Anne cheered as they headed off back to the garden.


Anne shook her head after Aerith poured a bucket of water over her, getting rid of the red paint. She splashed around in the warm water with her feet happily as Aerith turned to wash her body. Her eyes wandered up to one of the trees that hung over the hot springs. They locked onto an unusual red thing that was hanging out. With a frown, Anne slid out of the hot springs without Aerith noticing and crept over. Meanwhile, Aerith greeted Tifa who decided to join them in the springs.

"Ah, it is so relaxing to just sit and let the warm waters ease the tension out of your body," the voluptuous goddess sighed as she lowered her body into the warm water.

"Especially after a morning of hard work," Aerith agreed and sighed.

She turned her head and sat up in alarm.

"Where's Anne?" she asked and Tifa looked around.

"OW! That hurts, yo!"

The goddesses turned to see Anne swinging on a red ponytail, giggling loudly. Eventually Reno, messenger of the gods, fell out of the tree that he was spying in, making the girls shriek.

"You pervert!" Tifa snapped as Anne rolled onto the grass after having let go.

Reno balked and scrambled up onto his feet, fleeing before Tifa could throw one of her curses at him. Anne giggled loudly, clapping her hands in amusement. Aerith sighed, shaking her head and picked her up. Anne looked up at Aerith happily then nuzzled her face into her neck.

"Love you, Rith," she murmured and Tifa cooed.

"She's so cute," she simpered and Anne glared at her.

"I'm not cute!"

The goddesses giggled as Anne pouted cutely.


Anne hummed as she wandered through the kitchens of the palace in a clean toga, running a finger across the cupboards she passed. Her eyes lit up when she saw a knife had been dropped on the floor so sat down with it. She hummed as she began playing with it, pretending to be Sephiroth by swinging it the way he swung his sword. She brought it to her fingertips…


Angeal halted when he heard a loud scream and continuous crying followed after it. He turned the corner to see Anne running down the corridor with a bleeding thumb. With a soft sigh, he bent down to the young goddess when she reached him.

"Now, what happened?" he asked as he took her hand to examine the cut.

"I…I just wanted to be like Seph…" Anne sniffed as she rubbed her eye "I wanted to…fight the bad men like he did…"

As Anne rambled on about Sephiroth, Angeal picked her up and took her to his room where he disinfected the cut, drawing more screams from the little goddess, wrapped a bandage around it and gave her a honey lollipop to make her feel better.

"Anne, listen to me," he said in a stern but gentle voice "Never play with anything sharp again, OK?"

"But, Seph does," Anne pouted as she pulled the lollipop out of her mouth.

"Yes and he gets hurt all the time like you've just hurt yourself," Angeal said as he placed a hand on her shoulder "What if you cut your thumb off completely, Anne? You'd only ever have one thumb for the rest of your life because you were too careless with a knife."

Anne's eyes widened and she began crying again. Angeal sighed and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"Just promise me that you won't play with anything dangerous again," he said.

Anne sniffed her tears up and nodded, sticking the lollipop back into her mouth. Angeal smiled and bent down.

"If you're a good girl, I'll bring you a Hippocamp foal for your fifth birthday," he said and Anne's eyes widened.

"Really?!"

She'd like looking at the Hippocampi that Angeal had, she'd always wanted to go down and pet them. With an eager nod, Anne brightened up almost immediately and Angeal let her go to run around in the palace happily.


Hippocampi are horses with fish-like hindquarters, so basically they're merhorses or awesome versions of seahorses.