Good morning all!
Big thanks for the chapter 1 reviews snickermoon814, TemariFire and Ocena Strex. It was very encouraging to see some interest early on and I would love to see how you guys/gals continue to like the story :D.
I've always been such a prude with my ships in the past. A.K.A Tifa MUST be with Cloud and Zack MUST be with Aerith and Yuffie MUST be with Vincent and everything else in unacceptable and unnatural in my mind lolz! So this fic is definitely new grounds for me and me spreading my wings and I must say with the ideas I have in my head for 'Children of Shinra' I am enjoying it greatly so far.
Anyway chapter 2 here, enjoy!
Sephiroth took a long drink of his water, wiped the sweat of his brow with the back of his sleeve then set the bottle down next to his practice sword that sat beside him on the changing room bench. He had fifteen minutes to rest before they moved onto the third part of his training, speed and footwork, always the most commonly neglected and underestimated aspects of swordsplay.
Despite being in the room alone, Sephorith took one last look around regardless to make sure he wasn't being watched and seeing no one was lurking about he reached into his right pocket to fish the small white orb from the small hole he had ripped into the lining of the pocket. Of course he wasn't stupid enough to simply keep the orb in the actual pocket itself, he would have been caught with it in the first few weeks if he had done that.
Five months he had kept it safe and five months had passed since Sephiroth had seen that child who's name he had found out to be Aerith had given the jewel that despite his best efforts he still hadn't managed to figure out what it was or what it did. The boy had studied the orb endlessly and by this point he was almost completely convinced that it was indeed as he first suspected, worthless. Yet despite his confident belief and the strong temptation he had to just throw it away, something in the back of his mind didn't allow him to stop thinking about either it or the girl that had given it to him. Twenty-two weeks of feeling an unexplainable instinct to keep the damn thing and the burning desire to know what it did was now driving him insane, he had to know, he needed to know and that meant he had to speak to this Aerith child.
It was a task that would have been impossible only a couple of months ago but now, much to Hojo's fury, the girl wasn't proving to be quite the golden egg they had originally thought she was and was now getting more freedom from the labs. From what he had managed to discerns from Hojo's fits of rage and gradualling declining mood, Aerith was the last survivor of some ancient extinct race that had the power to talk to the planet and lead Shinra to some special place would provide the company with a whole bunch of fresh Mako.
The downside to this however and what was to blame for Hojo's venomous mood swings, was that the scientist's had discovered the girls so called 'Cetra powers', wouldn't come into full maturity until she hit womanhood. So much to Hojo's displeasure it meant that the seven year old girl had roughly nine years until Hojo could make full use of her and in turn that meant she wouldn't be disappearing anytime soon. While in some ways it was a blessing for the girl, it certainly didn't mean that her lab days were over, she would still be forced to attend regular visits and undergo frequent tests down at the science department much like he did, just not on a 24/7 basis… and that's what was going to give him the opportunity to interrogate the girl.
"Hey Seph! You ready to go again!?"
The deep in thought boy jumped slightly and quickly pocketed the orb as his training parent shouting into the room from the doorway signalled the end of his beak. Surprising him with how quickly it had ended.
Grabbing his sword Sephiroth got up and rushed over to get back to training. The sooner he was done here the sooner he could leave, find the girl and demand she tell him what this stupid orb thing was so he could be free of the irritating curiosity he was unable to shake off. Once training was over he would only have about an hour before he had to be at his 'beasts and monsters of Gaia' class, that should be enough time to find the girl… or alien… or whatever she was.
"Hey day dreamer! Are you coming or not!?"
Sephiroth had paused and relapsed into thinking about the girl again, an insufferably frequent occurrence which was all the more reason he had to be rid of these nuisance thoughts. What was it about this girl that was making it so hard to…
"Seriously! Do I have to come in there and drag you out!?"
Sephiroth growled at himself then shook his head to clear his mind and left the changing room, walking alongside his sparring partner as they made their way back into the training hall.
"Oh so you are alive in there, I was beginning to wonder. So Seph, you ready to go again? Speed and footwork this round, reckon your quick enough?"
Sephiroth smirked up at the sixteen year old cadet challenging him and gave him a 'bitch, please' type of expression that made the cadet laugh and throw a friendly arm around his shoulder.
"I like you kid. You don't say much, but I like you"
Sephiroth grinned up at the black haired adolescent. He always did have to partner up with guys who were bigger and older than him and although he had only known this new guy for a few months, Sephiroth always found that practice was just that extra bit more fun whenever he got paired up with Angeal.
Aerith was a strange child, when Sephiroth eventually found her after training, she was sat cross-legged in the middle of the east corridor that connected the canteen to the nurses ward on floor twenty three and was doing the most bizzare thing he had ever seen. He had been watching her for the last ten minutes in total confusion as she sat in the middle of the empty hallway facing squarely in front of one of the many office style plants that could be found dotted all over the place in Shinra's attempt at making the place seem less 'urban'. She was leaning forward with her short arms buried up to the elbows in the plants pot, her hands pressing flat against the soil while she hummed away a light tuneful melody that most people would probably find relaxing but after ten minutes of it Sephiroth was beginning to find it made him feel anxious and unsettled which in turn made him feel aggravated.
But it wasn't just the humming that was getting on his nerves, the way she sat seeming like she hadn't a care in the world while a thick book titled 'Elemental Materia Volume 9: Cure 1, 2 & 3' that was discarded down by her side was also to blame. It was clear that the girl should be studying, not sitting around singing to foliage and that annoyed him. Slackers annoyed him.
He zoned in on the book again in thought, based on its title and the location he had found the child, Sephiroth came to the conclusion that as the girl could no longer remain a 24/7 lab rat for Hojo, they had decided to put this so called 'Aerith' into nurses school.
It was a logical deduction to make considering all of the evidence before him, they had to keep her occupied somehow all the while she remained within the confines of the Shinra building. Though she was however a bit young for nursing school, perhaps they had found that she had an above average proficiency in casting restoration magic?
That thought annoyed him too. Sephiroth detested the subject above them all and found it to be a tedious waste of his time. It was a totally illogical subject, where was the sense in deducting time that he could spend becoming a better fighter, to learn a subject that was only needed in the event that his combat skills were not efficient enough to avoid injury? Surely if he just spent that time training harder he would have no need for said 'healing' in the first place.
No… he and Aerith were most certainly not going to get along.
Deciding he had been aggravated from afar for long enough, Sephiroth started walking briskly down the empty corridor towards the girl. He would demand to know what this white orb thingy was, satisfy his curiosity then give it back to her and go.
"Hey you!" he shouted roughly when he had travelled half the distance that lie between them but he received no reaction from Aerith and he frowned. Was she deaf? It was impossible for her not to have heard him.
Getting closer he repeated himself sharply, "HEY YOU!"
Sephiroth's brain twitched in annoyance when he still got no response so he stepped right on over to tower above the girl, rolling his eyes when he saw that the little weirdo had been humming away with her eyes closed the entire time. That was still no excuse for not hearing him.
"What are you doing!?" Sephiroth demanded loudly, clenching his fists at his side and certain by now that she was ignoring him on purpose.
"Singing and touching a plant" came the simple softly pitched response to which Sephiroth didn't know how to respond at first.
"Uh. Well… yes... yes I can see that!... but why are you doing it!?" he snapped, wondering if goading him was her intention.
"Because I like it"
Yes, she was most definitely trying to provoke him on purpose and Sephiroth grit his teeth. He was this close to completely losing his temper now but before he did he exercised the greatly practised skill of surpressing his emotions and dismissed trying question the girl any further on her strange antics.
"Well it's weird. Anyway I have the white bead thing you gave me. You can have it back now. It's useless"
The girl with long chestnut curls opened her enormous green eyes that seemed almost too big for her face at times and looked at him calmly. She stared up at him and then held his gaze for a length of time that many would consider rude, Sephiroth being one of them. At first he tried not to fidget as she placed him under the big emerald green spotlight, but then when her constant unending gawking didn't stop his temper began to rise again. Was she doing it intentionally to wind him up? Or was it something else? Did she not believe him that he had kept the stupid white orb? Was she calling him a lier to his face?
"What are you staring at!?" he barked heatedly, digging his nails into the palms of his clenched hands.
Aerith responded by taking her hands out of the plant pot, standing up confidently and brushing her dirty hands down the front of her pink dress. Her movement closed what little distance they had between them even further and while the silver-haired boy who had been looming over her didn't quite take a retreating step away in an attempt to stand his ground, he rocked backwards on his heels.
Taking another step forward to be a mere few inches directly in front of him, Aerith got uncomfortably closer, looking up at him with a neutral expression. Sephiroth took this approach as a threatening challenge and narrowed his eyes back at her, squinting in hateful hostility but to his shock it only made the neutral expression transform into a brightly lit smile. He openly gaped down at the girl in puzzlement and suddenly Aerith did the same totally inappropriate thing she had done five months ago and invaded his personal space to put her arms around his waist and hug him.
"Thankyou Sepharoth, thankyou for keeping it safe"
The boy stood there like a bean pole, holding his breath as being embraced again made a foreign cramp-like feeling manifest itself in the pit of his stomach that he didn't much like but then it went away and his jaw clenched that the girl had pronounced his name wrong.
"It's SephYroth, SephY-roth... not SephAroth"
The girl giggled and the boy growled, he did not like being laughed at.
"What are you laughing at!?"
"Nothing... SephY"
His eyes widened.
"NO! Do not call me that!"
She giggled again then unwrapped herself from him and went to bend down and pick up her heavy school book off the floor and with great effort wrestled it into one arm only which made him frown. Aerith successfully managed to get the weighty document half tucked half slung over her left shoulder and then with the right she was intentionally keeping free, grabbed his hand without invitation and started walking down the corridor with him being pulled along in tow in total confusion.
"What are you doing!?"
"Being friends"
His brow furrowed and nose wrinkled up at this.
"What!? We are not friends!"
The crazy plant whisperer stopped and turned to look at him with wide upset eyes that to his alarm started welling up with glistening tears.
"Hey! Why are you doing that!? Stop that!?" he barked which only served to water-log the child's eyes further. "What...what are you doing!?
"You don't want to be my friend?" she whimpered tearfully.
"Huh?... wait... wh-what?... No I... stop crying!... I didn't… no I didn't say that... What!? Look I didn't say that ok just stop crying!"
His bewildered stammering made a watery smile spread across Aerith's face and she sniffed back her tears while arching her head awkwardly to wipe her damp eyes against her shoulders, adamantly refusing to let go off either his hand or the book.
"Could you always come here at this time every day?" she asked bluntly and just as Sephiroth had starting getting his head around what had just happened with the tears he was backed into another mind jumbling corner.
"Well… yes… yes I could... but I can't see..."
"Good so can I!" she chirped joyfully and started pulling him along to Minerva only knew where she was taking him.
"Look Aerith or whatever your name is" he started, trying to bring some sense back into the world again. "I only came here to give your bead thingy back, ask what it did and go"
"It's magical" she called back as she pulled them around a corner to traverse down yet another unoccupied corridor.
"And who told you that?" he scoffed back, "because I am pretty sure it isn't. I know about this kinda stuff and I can tell you now that it shows none of the signs or colorations of being any form of crystalized mako that I've ever heard about"
Aerith looked back at him blankly and he sighed realizing he needed to talk in a much simpler language for the child.
"Who told you it was magical?"
The girl answered back confidently as she squirmed to shuffle the book that was slipping from her grasp back into the awkward one handed grapple.
"Mama said it was, she said it was very very special and I had to keep it super safe because it once belong to all of my family. She said I would find out what it did when I was bigger and that it would keep everyone who was nice safe"
Sephiroth huffed in disappointment at the spew of vague nonsense, but what else he really expected? It was silly of him to have anticipated that the girl would come out with anything other than some ridiculous story told by some sappy parent filling their child's head fairy tales.
"Well you can have it back" he droned in distaste and reached into his pocket to retrieve it from the inner lining.
"No"
"No?" Sephiroth parroted back quizzically.
"No let's both keep it, we can take turns in keeping it safe together"
"And why would I do that?" he raised his brow at the back of her head.
"Because then it will keep you safe too"
Fed up of being dragged along Sephiroth picked up his pace to walk alongside the midget who was still not relinquishing the hold of his hand.
"Well I thought you said it only keeps 'nice' people safe" he replied with the intention to sound mocking but then he started feeling strangely apprehensive and looked to her for a response.
"You are nice Sephy...", he glared at her mid-sentence for the horrific nick-name but Aerith didn't notice. "… you just like to pretend you're not"
Though she quite clearly had no base or knowledge of him to make such a statement, Sephiroth still couldn't deny that it made him feel oddly good inside hearing that. No one had ever called him 'nice' before and a small inkling of a smile crept itself across his lips but he quickly suppressed it when the girl looked up at him sidelong, an action that made her stumble over her own feet and nearly lose hold of that infernal book again.
"Gaia will you just give that here already!"
He reached across and snatched the leather bound item off of her, thrusting it under his own arm to hold it with ease as they walked along.
He kept his stare fixed straight, realizing what he had just done and internally cursed himself for doing it when from the corner of his eye he could see that Aerith was beaming up at him clownishly. He didn't want her to get the wrong idea and think he had tried to help her so he decided to try acting unfriendly towards her, even though all of his attempts thus far had failed miserable.
"Look girl. If you're going to survive around here you had better start toughening up pronto and stop acting so childish" he ordered down at her sourly.
Aerith nodded her small head assertively, "ok"
"You have to be stronger, you need to know how to take care of yourself and never, I mean never cry. That's golden rule number 1 got it?"
"Got it"
"And you should probably learn how to fight and defend yourself because only a certified moron doesn't learn how to defend themselves"
"... oh... will you teach me?"
It was a strange question but Sephiroth considered it for a moment, Hojo and his tutors had often told him that one day he would be expected to train SOLDIER's himself and take on a leadership role in the army. Strengthening up a scrawny little female might just well prove to be decent practice, after all if he could help such a little weakling as this girl survive the rigours of Shinra life, SOLDIER's and cadets would surely be a piece of cake?
"Ok yes, we meet here at 1500 hours on the dot every day without delay to commence your training. Starting immediately. Now do you have any questions before we begin?"
Giving orders felt good.
"Ummmmmm" Aerith tuned, thinking long and hard about it while swinging their hands which Sephiroth had just remembered were still linked tightly together. "Is your hair really real?"
"… my… hair?" he mumbled unsure if he had heard correctly. "What kind of question is that!?... What has that got to with anything!?"
"I like it, it's really pretty"
He squinted at her suspiciously to check to see if she mocking him. "... you… like my hair?"
She nodded sincerely and Sephiroth uncharacteristically felt himself blush as he realized the compliment towards his biggest insecurity was genuine.
"Uhh… thanks. Your hair is errr… pretty to"
Aerith battered her eyelashes up at him, giggled bashfully and blushed five times as heavily as he had which Sephiroth couldn't help but find amusing and chuckled lightly.
They continued absently strolling along together hand in hand and despite his better judgement, Sephiroth found himself pulled into talking, acting and feeling like a typical kid his own age as he spent the next few hours in Aerith's company. He even managed to forget and fail to attend his 'beasts and monsters of Gaia' class, a first which he was sure to be punished for at a later date but by this point he didn't really care. Something about Aerith mesmerized him and though he didn't fully understand or know what powers these so called 'Cetra' were supposed to possess, the only one he could identify in her was the uncanny power she had at worming her way under his skin.