A/N: Only about five chapters left after this. Hope you like it! I've enjoyed experimenting with it, especially the format. After this story is finished, expect another chapter of Reflect the Sky. ;)
VII. Kiss me, my beloved, for Winter has stolen / All but our moving lips—
Above the Plate, the night was cold and crisp, and stars grinned from a distance like old friends. They fled the Shinra Building as though they were teenagers hiding from their parents, Aeris laughing excitedly as she dragged him along behind her.
"Did you say what you wanted to say?" Zack asked, concern marring his handsome features even as he trotted to keep up.
"Yes," said Aeris. She watched the cloud of her breath rise and dissipate in long streams.
She hadn't planned on telling Sephiroth her specimen number; it had come to her suddenly, almost as though it were no thought of her own. It was the first time she'd ever spoken that series of letters and numbers aloud, and she thanked the Planet that Hojo had never tattooed it on her wrist like he had her mother's. She needed no more reminders of her difference.
"And did he respond how you hoped?"
She closed her eyes, still smiling, and prayed that the brief, shattered images she had shared with him had done their job. From what she'd glimpsed of him, before fear had bade her take flight, he'd seem shocked, and angry. She wondered again what the Planet had shown him, and why it refused to show her. She'd already seen herself die in a multitude of ways…
"I think so." She said resolutely.
Zack didn't need to know how shaken she was, nor how her kiss had sent a fiery desire coursing through her blood.
Don't be absurd, Aeris! She scolded herself. It was an adrenaline rush like people who cheated death got, pure and simple. It had to be; she would not entertain any other option.
Nonetheless, she felt invigorated. For the first time, she'd been able to actually do something, to take a step in possibly preventing her death at the hands of that man. Her brush with him ignited within her an even deeper appreciation of the delicate gift she held right now: life.
"Aeris—" Zack still sounded worried. Spinning around him playfully, she caught him with a passionate kiss. Startled at first, he eventually leaned back into her.
"What's gotten into you tonight?" He murmured, clearly overwhelmed by her rapid changes in emotion. It took a lot to confuse Zack, and Aeris privately thought he looked adorable when he cocked his head to the side like a puppy.
So Aeris giggled, winking at him. "Nothing! That was just so much fun! Let's not let the night end, Zack! To the church!"
The return of her cheerful good mood finally swept Zack up in its momentum. He lifted her up easily, hands behind the back of her knees to put her on him, piggyback. She shrieked in laughter and ruffled his hair.
"Zack! Put me down! Zack!"
When that didn't work, she took to running her hands down the back of his neck, his shoulders, kissing his ear and cheek, all movements designed to drive him insane.
They unsteadily made their way back to her church, Zack tugging off her dress before they'd even made it through the door. She never saw what they did there as sacrilegious, a fact that Zack loved to tease her about, though he didn't complain.
They would wake the next morning with their clothes for blankets and her lilies as pillows, leaving thin white petals and the scent of a graveyard lost in their hair for the rest of the day.
