Ooooooohhhh (kisses you all on both cheeks and runs away squealing.) Such nice comments! Reviews are greatly appreciated kicks in the bum :D Umm gentleness is very welcome as well (god i am such a weakling!). Oh and AND i updated quickly, well a week, but it's better than 3 weeks. Boo ya!


Costa Del Sol couldn't be that far anymore, there was just no way. She had been walking since dawn and made good time. Aeris had spent the previous night soundly sleeping in her new tent and by early morning eaten a light breakfast while braiding her hair carefully.

The heat had been steadily increasing as the sun got closer to its zenith. By now the Cetra was dragging her feet and leaning heavily on a big stick she had picked up earlier. She did not remember a time when she was this out of shape. Was this what happened when you didn't move for over a hundred years?

Aeris saw a huge tree with plenty of shade not far from her and so made her way towards it. Once there she leaned her back on it's wide trunk and let herself slide down as painlessly as she could. She was just going to rest for a while, just a few minutes to shield herself from the merciless sun. Putting the walking stick beside her, she glanced up to look at the tree's branches but her eyes focused on a pair of glowing eyes instead.

"AHHH! Bolt, bolt!" she yelled as she caught her stick and struggled to get up. Humans she could deal with, monsters in tall trees was another thing.

Jumping to her feet, she quickly turned to see if her spell had done anything. As she had thought, no magic had been emitted because she had not focused. Maybe relying this much on materia was not such a good idea.

Aeris kept circling the tree carefully staring at the top branches, but whatever she had seen was no longer there. Maybe she had scared it away with her scream.

"Ahem," suddenly said a male voice from behind her.

Immediately Aeris swung her stick sideways at the voice's directions but a gloved hand shot out and seized it.

Aeris was left staring at a man's chest as she tightly held on to the wood. She slowly glanced up to see a familiar pair of mako eyes with long platinum bangs staring down at her.

"Are you trying to scare me to death?" she screeched at him.

Sephiroth's lips simply curved upwards at her outburst. Without breaking the eye contact he held with Aeris, he wrenched the stick out of her hands causing a small yelp out of the woman.

The General twirled the walking stick in his hand and gave Aeris a weird look.

"Another twig?" he asked.

Aeris rolled her green eyes.

"This is a stick, the other one I had before was a staff. A staff! There is a difference." Get it through your thick skull, she added silently as she pushed one of her long brown bangs out of her eyes.

Sephiroth merely raised a silver eyebrow. He then crushed the stick in two with his hand as if he was crushing butter. Aeris's eyes widened as she watched the two halves fall to the ground. Was he just showing what he could do or what he wanted to do to her? She didn't really want to know.

All emotion left his face as his stoic façade returned, "Why weren't you at the scheduled place at the given time? I specifically told you where to be and how to get there. We don't have any time to waste."

"Excuse me but I am not one of your soldiers that you can just blindly command!"

"Of course you aren't." he stated rationally. "You couldn't be a soldier even if you tried."

Aeris was actually insulted by that statement. Without thinking she advanced towards him and began poking his chest with her index finger.

"I could be a soldier if I wanted to. The only reason I am not a good fighter is because I do not want to kill people and I'm not violent. Besides those are your hobbies and look where they got you."

Sephiroth dangerously narrowed his glowing eyes and with that Aeris was roughly brought back to earth. She looked at her finger as it touched his chest and oddly enough the first thought she had was how firm he was. Then it occurred to her that she was poking the most powerful and deadly being on the planet.

Aeris tried to snatch her hand away but Sephiroth's reflexes were much quicker. His gloved hand tightly grasped her much smaller one but he didn't make a move to squeeze it as he had done with the wooden stick. Aeris gasped as she felt his fingers wrap around hers.

"Are you done talking yet," he said tersely, his eyes still narrowed in slits of green light.

The small woman just nodded numbly once again mesmerized by his eyes.

"Good," he continued letting go of her hand as if it was a revolting object. "We wont be going to Costa Del Sol since I caught up with you. We can go directly to Cosmo Canyon from here."

And with that he began walking in front of her, once again making sure he was in command. But Aeris made no move to follow, instead she huffed and then stubbornly walked in the opposite direction. Sephiroth's hearing noticed her steps getting fainter instead of louder so he turned around to see her small form walking away from him.

"Where are you going?" Sephiroth yelled to her, mentally adding you annoying little girl.

Without turning around, Aeris yelled back, "I am going to Costa Del Sol. I am sore, I am hot and I need a relaxing bath. You are free to follow me if you want but I am not going to Cosmo Canyon right away."

"Oh yes you are," the silver haired man growled back, beginning to follow her.

Aeris finally stopped walking and turned to face him, hands on her hips with a sweet smile plastered on her lips. Sephiroth had a strange feeling that it wasn't a good sign.

"Let me remind you that I am the only one who can grant you what you want, your departure from the world of the living. So you can either make the situation easier for us both by just coming to Costa Del Sol or you can go to Cosmo Canyon and wait for me there."

Without waiting for a reply, Aeris turned and stomped away. After a few minutes she could hear a distinctive mumbling noise coming from behind her. Sephiroth was swearing. Aeris smiled slyly knowing she might have won a battle but she had yet to win the war.

Costa Del Sol, as she had assumed, was not far. Indeed it only took 20 minutes for the duo to get there. The walk had been spent in relative silence, which didn't bother either one of the unique individuals. Aeris kept her distance from him the whole time because she didn't really want to talk to him. But her curiosity had compelled her to take quick glimpses at him just to see what he was up to. He hadn't done anything suspicious but he had given her a few pointed glares.

The resort capital of the world had barely changed. The light colored cobblestones still held their sunny hue even as several hundreds of feet walked over them. The broad streets were filled with chatty and cheery tourists, each a different tan giving a clue as to how long they've been here.

Aeris pushed her way through the throng of beach ready people and headed towards where she remembered the inn to be. She had completely forgotten about Sephiroth.

The streets she roamed were filled with tiny shops selling souvenirs. She fluttered like a hummingbird amongst the various stalls eventually stopping in front of one selling vibrant colored swimsuits. Aeris's jaw dropped at the beauty of some of the bathing suits. They ranged from velvety purple to exotic greens and yellows. A warm bath didn't seem so urgent anymore. Maybe she could just go to the beach for a quick dip.

As she scanned through the many items an unexpected cold sensation spread through her veins making her heart beat faster as if spurned by some unseen force.

Any interest in swimsuits was completely lost as the familiar feeling of the Planet overtook all of Aeris's senses. The out of body experience she was so used to and had missed ever since her revival was very welcome. The Planet invaded her body and then left, leaving Aeris with the imprint of what She was trying to tell her.

The relief Aeris felt to know that the Planet was alive was almost tangible. It felt like a huge stone had been lifted off of her shoulders. But she could feel the Planet's weakness. The feeling Aeris had gotten wasn't as strong as she was used to, but it was strong enough for Aeris to understand the message.

She had been made to feel fear.

The Cetra understood all too well what the Planet was trying to tell her: she was in danger. Aeris was automatically on her guard. She examined her surroundings but didn't see anything that would seem menacing. There was nothing out of the ordinary, only the same colorful tourists all around.

Maybe she wasn't in danger right now, but would be in the future Aeris thought. The Planet's messages weren't always punctual.

But just as she was about to turn around to continue her search for the Inn, she instinctively stopped as the hairs on her neck stood up. Slowly she turned to look at whatever had given her the chills but all her eyes managed to focus on was a hunched over man sitting on one of the benches.

He looked common enough. The man was sitting simply with his arms hanging idly at his sides. There didn't seem to be anything that would be dangerous about him yet Aeris couldn't stop shivering even though the heat was making her sweat.

As if sensing her staring the man lifted his head, short black bangs hanging limply over his forehead and stared straight at Aeris's pale face. The sun's setting rays illuminated his eyes and Aeris saw why she was so uneasy around this stranger.

He had no pupils.

Immediately she turned around to hide her face but the sitting man didn't even attempt to get up. He continued to sit there, as inertly as before, staring at some spot on the ground.

Aeris took this opportunity to examine the threat. The eyes were the only way she could recognize a Seraph but there was also something else, an invisible force around them that made her cold. She recognized it then; it was the lack of a soul that made the Seraphim seem so odd.

It eventually dawned on her that there could be more of the Seraphim close by. The brunette took a steadying breath and walked away as calmly as she could manage. She forced her limbs to move slowly and not bolt like her instincts were screaming at her to do. All she had to do was find Sephiroth and he'd protect her.

Aeris almost stumbled on one of the large cobblestones when she realized she was actually counting on Sephiroth to keep her safe. She wasn't going to admit it to him but he might have been right in his haste to go to Cosmo Canyon. A part of her had wanted to rest in Costa Del Sol but another, the more vindictive part had wanted to annoy the General and his arrogant personality. Couldn't he have at least told her why they needed to get there so urgently?

"Always so high and mighty on his black chocobo. Thinks he is so right all the time," Aeris muttered darkly under her ragged breath. Well what had she expected? That he would have changed? Acted more like a human than a super soldier? Aeris scoffed at her naivety. It would take more than a century to make Sephiroth care. But she had been surprised that he hadn't been as cold and menacing as she has always pictured him to be.

But now that she needed him, she couldn't find him.

She tried to act normal and composed while she searched for a silver haired man through the many people although she was terrified on the inside. Aeris was actually considering climbing on a table and just screaming his name at the top of her lungs.

But the Seraphim could be anywhere. What troubled Aeris the most was that the Seraph she had seen hadn't even attempted to get to her.

Finding Sephiroth was done rather uneventfully nevertheless it had taken a long time. By the time she saw Sephiroth, night had fully descended on the resort. Many people were now leaving the beaches and others clothed in eveningwear made their way towards the restaurants.

Aeris was surprised to find that the lights shining on the streets were in fact candles hanging from several high poles.

Aeris found Sephiroth thanks to his silver mane shining vividly in the light like a beacon. He stood in front of the weapons shop examining some of the blades. The Cetra almost smacked her forehead. She should have started by searching here but she hadn't thought he would be so predictable.

Aeris approached him as quickly as she could but he didn't appear or wanted to notice her presence as he kept his back to her, fully engrossed in his examination of several weapons. After a while Aeris started tapping her foot in impatience. Eventually she just got tired of being ignored.

"Ahem," she said, trying her best to mimic his authoritative voice.

Sephiroth merely gave her a sideways glance before turning his attention back to the thin blade he held.

The small brunette gritted her teeth. It seemed like she was going to have to say it.

"WecangotoCosmoCanyonnow!" she quickly blurted out in one breath.

Sephiroth smiled. The vendor who had been staring at them both slowly backed away from the silver haired man when he sawhim smirk.

The General put the blade at eye level to examine its smoothness and said, "I was under the impression that you needed to take a bath."

Grunting his satisfaction, Sephiroth cut the air with the sword. The swooshing sound made Aeris wince. Couldn't they have this conversation when he wasn't handling a deadly weapon?

"Well yes, but I saw something that changed my mind. We need to leave right now Sephiroth!"

Maybe if she told him of the danger he'd stop ignoring her and treat her seriously.

Finally Sephiroth put the thin sword back into its scabbard and threw a small pouch at the vendor who caught it in midair rather nervously.

"I'm taking this one," was all the General needed to say. The weapons seller nodded vigorously and disappeared into his store without bothering to count the amount of gil.

Finally the powerful man faced the small woman.

"I know."

Aeris's eyebrows shot up.

"You know what?" she responded cautiously.

"The Seraphim are inside the city. They are probably going to try to trap us later tonight since we can't go out now," Sephiroth replied too calmly.

"How do you know that? Did you see them? Why didn't you tell me?" Aeris hurled her questions hastily one after another.

Sephiroth bent down a little to make sure he had Aeris's attention. Could this Cetra really be that inexperienced?

"Unlike you, I am aware of my surroundings. They have been following you. That is why I tracked you down otherwise I would have let you get here by your own means."

Aeris crossed her arms over her chest as she responded, "How come they didn't attack me when they had their chance then?"

Suddenly Sephiroth's eyes shifted down like he was trying to hide something but he quickly recovered.

"It doesn't matter now!" he answered. "You should learn to think before you act. You didn't actually think that an ocean would stop them from getting to you?"

Aeris looked away sheepishly because the fact was that it was exactly what she had thought. And Sephiroth noticed. He sighed heavily and hung his head causing his silver bangs to hide his face.

He was stuck with the most defenseless being on the planet, of that he was sure. She didn't know how to fight nor did she know how to avoid being detected. No wonder he had been kept alive to protect this… this…butterfly! Maybe butterfly wasn't an insult but it was a very proper description of the woman who stood before him, shuffling her feet in embarrassment.

She was pretty and attractive to watch but if the wind blew too hard she would get tossed around with no way to stop it. Wait, had he just said pretty and attractive? Well she wasn't bad to look at, but that was it Sephiroth debated.

Aeris peeked from under her lashes to look at him. She felt so childish when she was with him.

"Why don't we just go to Cosmo Canyon before they find us," she suggested optimistically. "It isn't that late in the night so we can walk for a few hours before resting."

Twin mako eyes looked at her from behind silver bangs.

"How do you plan on doing that when your fake identity papers are waiting for you in Cosmo Canyon?" he said in between clenched teeth.

Aeris's mouth formed a perfect O. So that is why he wanted to go to Cosmo Canyon. At night no one left or entered a city without proper identification papers until daylight came and as much as she wanted to be out of danger, she didn't feel like flying with Sephiroth.

"Well then why didn't you just tell me? We could have been on our way there instead of being trapped here!" Aeris asked him.

"I don't need to explain myself to you," he replied scathingly. "If you were smart you'd do as I say and begrateful you are still alive!"

People were starting to stare at the loud duo. However they just shook their heads and assumed it was a lover's spat. After all this was the place where newly married couples chose to have their honeymoon.

Throwing her hands in the air, Aeris exclaimed, "I am not just going to blindly follow you around! You're not really a trustworthy person I'll have you know."

The tall man growled out loud. Since when had this become about trust? He didn't want her trust, he wanted her to listen to him.

Sephiroth abruptly pushed the thin sword he had been holding into Aeris's hands. Aeris frowned and cocked her head sideways giving him aconfused look.

"We are doing things my way from now on," he stated giving Aeris a meaningful glare. With that he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in the direction of the beach.


Ok this is just Part 1 of Costa Del Sol. This is the longest chapter yet. The second part is going to have a swordfight but not like you assume, well i hope not.Stop being so smart! Now if only I could figure out a way to put in Pina coladas lol.