Chapter Seven: Through the Stars

ROUND the cape of a sudden came the sea,

And the sun looked over the mountain's rim:

And straight was the path of gold for him,

And the need of a world of men for me.

-Robert Browning 'Parting at Morning'

Tifa blinked slowly at the scene in front of her. It was almost too bizarre. Sephiroth had left his armor off and brought it out about the same time the room service had arrived. He asked for it to be cleaned and returned but he was wearing a black pajama suit that was likely silk or satin by the sheer look it possessed. It was almost too much for her to look at him in the outfit, she preferred the more intimidating but natural look of the armor.

It was just alien to witness him wearing pajama's. She'd just assumed, along with everyone else probably, that he always wore his armor - even to bed. She continued to gape while he accepted the food, gave a tip with her gil, then sat down to dig in while leaving her half digging for silverware to eat her own meal.

"Is there something wrong?" He finally asked after a bite or two with her still looking at him like he'd spouted a horn in the middle of his forehead.

"Um...nope." She finally said, picking up her own utensils and sliding her meal a little closer. "I just thought that you always wore your armor. I just never expected to see you in pajama's."

"Generally people don't sleep in their armor." He pointed out. "To include you if my memory isn't failing. Why would you think that?"

"Well, I don't think there's ever been a picture of you without it." She replied with a shrug. "You just come to see something a certain way and it's hard to look at it differently. I guess there aren't too many pictures of you without your sword either."

"Masamune. I'm not sure where they could have placed it. I wouldn't mind having her back." He was more thinking aloud between bites than really holding conversation. She was too busy cutting her steak to notice.

"Perhaps we can go back and look at the reactor once you seem to have recovered more." She suggested with a smile as she glanced back up from slicing. "I'm not sure where else we could really look. You are still just as amazing with the blade you stole from that psycho."

"So you consider me amazing?" He smirked a bit at the compliment, it was a relief compared to her comments before he'd taken his bath.

"Erm. In battle yes." She nodded a little. "Doesn't everyone?"

"Many wouldn't use that word to describe."

"What would they use?"

"Monstrous, Inhuman perhaps." He suggested lightly. "Of your group, you seem to be the only one that believes me about Jenova at all."

"I just...if it wasn't really you, and I think it wasn't. Then being angry at you doesn't solve anything." Tifa replied with a small shrug. "I can't hate everything forever, it took a long time for me to come to terms with things that happened. This is all a little painful, but I don't want to hate people more."

"I should thank you. For all of this...for rescuing me." He commented lightly, he didn't meet her gaze, it was difficult for him to express his appreciation at all, he couldn't bring himself to match her eyes while doing it.

"I'll let you pay me back sometime." She offered with a smile, trying again to diffuse the tenser situation. "Though you did take a bullet for me, I should be thanking you."

"I was just trying to pull you out of the way, not get myself hit." He pointed out, shaking his head a little when he did finally look up and see the cheery expression she was offering. "I should have been fast enough to get us both out of the way."

"And you don't consider yourself amazing? You are capable of so much more than most of us, it took our entire group to defeat you at the northern crater." Tifa commented before taking a bite of the pasta that was one of her side dishes.

"That would be more reason for most of them to be against this." He added. "Everything I'm capable of is part of what started the entire mess in the first place."

"Well. If you could do all those bad things, there are so many things you can do that are good for the world. The people here. You used to be hailed as a hero throughout the world, not just in the streets of Midgar. Perhaps it's time you lived up to your former title mmm?" She suggested with a small wink.

"Those days were long ago." He answered broodily, he was still eating but had slowed compared to just moments before they'd started speaking so seriously.

"Do all SOLDIERs brood so much? Or were you the first one to start the trend?" She decided a change of topic was in order. She didn't want him getting all depressed, that was part of what happened before he went mad years ago. She didn't think he would fall apart like then, but he could do something foolish.

"I am not brooding." He returned with a vague frown at her comment, though was quiet afterward and continued to eat in silence.

He wasn't even looking when the mashed potatoes hit his face, making him blink very slowly as he looked at where they fell on his chicken and then glanced over to where Tifa had tossed them from her plate. At a loss for words.

"In my house we used to start a food fight when people lied at the table." Tifa grinned a little impishly, having already reloaded her spoon/projectile tosser with more of the offending potatoes. "That was the most obvious lie I've heard in ages."

He picked up his napkin and wiped his face off, refusing to fall to the level of throwing his food like a child. "I get the point. What would you rather I do? Smile wide like a clown?"

He dodged the second incoming potato ball and his eyebrows raised at her continued assault with the vegetable.

"It might be better than moping about like that." She suggested, filling her spoon again as he watched her warily. "Now, sense you can't answer you should fight back. My thought though is that you unknowingly had them all brooding out of fandom."

"You want me to get into a food fight with you?" He was still unsure of just why she was behaving so strangely. We're all women just insane?

"I want you to be a little more fun. You -do- know what that is right?" She rolled her eyes and put the food in her mouth when he watched her the whole time so she couldn't get in a good shot without him dodging.

"I don't find tossing around such things entertaining." He sniffed just barely, distastefully, finally glancing back down to his own row of meals and continuing when she seemed to have given up on her odd game.

"Do you find anything entertaining?" She couldn't help but smile. It was funny the way he was still so serious even though she'd just shoved her food in his face. "I bet he'd of skewered me for it if he wasn't still so weak. Better enjoy the small victory while I have it."

"I like to practice, to read. I used to enjoy a play on rare occasion." He said between eating his meals. "Minus LOVELESS."

Genesis had shoved that on him so much he could easily survive without ever even hearing any lines from it ever again.

"I've never seen it, but I've heard it is pretty long." Tifa kept up conversation. "So, did you ever just go out and relax?"

"That wasn't much of an option. I was often followed whenever I left my personal home or office. That came with being so famous. I relaxed at home."

"Would you like to go to a show at the casino tomorrow? They usually have something going in the evenings. They have a pretty big variety of activities really." She commented, remembering how much time they'd spent here during their adventures.

"Come here often?" He asked, he was on his third of the meals he ordered and was showing no signs of slowing. Tifa was nearly finished with her only one but was happier that they were speaking semi-normally.

"Not really. It's been years." She shrugged a little. "They've added on for certain. If you aren't too afraid of being noticed would you like to head out and look at things when your done? It's late enough that there shouldn't be too many people to notice."

"It's better than just waiting the entire time I suppose." He answered with a vague nod. "You are sure we won't be recognized?"

"So Cait Sith says anyway." She shrugged. "There are a lot of people wearing costumes. Ours are just better."

"Going to the Masquerade as ourselves?" He seemed amused a little still. "And my eyes? They aren't exactly easy to explain."

"Expensive contacts." She shrugged. "People will buy almost anything."

"I imagine that's true enough." He nodded a little. "That sounds fine. What would you prefer to do then? You seem more familiar than I with this place."

"Well, there probably aren't any shows this late. They recently re-did the ride that circles the building I think. We could go on that. There are a bunch of games but that doesn't really seem like your thing. There is an arena but it's probably closed this late too. Chocobo racing too, if you like that stuff." She said with a finger on her chin as she considered all the options she remembered. "All the other usual gambling."

"So you prefer to do everything?" He commented, amused that she hadn't directly answered.

"Um. Just letting you know." She mumbled. "I usually just get involved in whatever everyone else is doing."

"You mentioned the small cabs that they have circle the place first. It seems as good a place as any to begin. Though I would like to wait for my armor to be returned." He was still eating and raised a brow at her when she giggled at him.

"Sorry. Just was thinking about you in that outfit again." She commented and pushed her plate away a bit to signal her finish.

He didn't answer, instead wondering if she hadn't gotten into the mini-bar while he was bathing.

Room service returned to take the dirty dishes and return clean laundry as well as deliver a pie for their dessert. He moved off to change and Tifa put the pie in their fridge, asking for several basic items to be delivered to the fridge while they were gone. If they had things to make themselves it might seem less strange when Sephiroth ate several meals at a time. It was up to her to keep things controlled and she was trying to consider all the details.

She had to admit though that it was still difficult to believe anything more than a dream when he walked back out in his full armor. He was intimidating, far taller than her and likely someone that even still so screwed up would win if it did come down to an all out battle. The thoughts weren't faith-inspiring though so she pushed them away, smiling and leading the way toward the part of the casino that held the rides.

They did get a little attention but there weren't too many people around this late as she expected, mostly they got catcalls that involved good costumes and some strange call from a guy in a dog suit mentioning furry stuff. Surviving the somewhat creepy walk and sometimes creepier compliments they reached it before too long. The guy moving them on and explaining that it was best to keep their arms and legs inside til it returned and completely stopped.

"They made the seats a little more comfortable." She commented as she sat down not far from where Sephiroth had. He had returned to brooding on the walk over and didn't seem overly impressed with anything as the cabin they were in started off.

Tifa though was looking at the images that had been changed sense her last time here,watching as they floated upward along the cords that rounded the place. Sephiroth though had paused to watch her, her nature was still so innocent it baffled him. She had lost so much, was well aware of the many horrors the world possessed, but she so easily paused to enjoy something she considered beautiful.

He was distracted as the images passed through their cabin and made him edgy, his hand reached for the sword that wasn't there and he paused before she could notice. They'd re-created the whole universe as a part of the holograms, moving through fields of stars and meteors seemed an ironic set of images when he considered their shared past.

"It's lovely." She commented absently as she watched behind her, bringing his attention back to her. She was obviously strong, a woman that he'd seen work out vigorously to retain her ability of being able to use her martial arts so well. Her muscles were defined but she still managed to keep a feminity that was rare among female warriors of her caliber. Long strands of ebony falling to just above her ass.

He ceased staring as they passed into a new series of images and she turned back around, instead considering the rainforest styled environment that had appeared. Exotic birds and waterfalls with thick foliage on any given side of them, floating in a fast moving river.

"They certainly put a lot of work into it." He observed.

"Yeah." She agreed, flashing another cheery smile. "It's much better than the last time I was here. Not that it wasn't impressive then. I'm glad you like it."

"Less interesting than some of the surroundings a little closer." He replied, he could tell she'd looked over quickly but he hadn't stopped watching one of the hologram parrots flying between treetops. He smirked to himself when she looked down as he turned his eyes back to her. It was a tad cruel to test the idea that she was attracted to him in that way, but he was capable of waxing poetic when the need arose.

"I think they'll probably replace the part where you can still see the desert soon toward the beginning." She acted like she didn't notice the last comment. "I figure with a lot of the ground still up-heaved when we were fighting Ruby Weapon it's not quite the landscape they originally had in mind."

"They might not be able to easily." He let it go for the time being. "They didn't begin having emulators until after that time. They may have to stick with the original build unless they want to replace entire parts of the wiring."

"You noticed that just with us riding along?" She eyed him skeptically. "Maybe."

"It seems the ride is about over, what would you prefer to..." He dropped off as he heard a vendor in the main room yelling about his wares.

"Come on folks, it's the only copy of the famed Masamune ever made. If you can wield it for a few strikes without hurting yourself I'll give you 20% off the price! It's a bargain!"

End Chapter

I went a little sillier at parts of this chapter but Tifa was silly at random sometimes in the game so I'm still cool with it. Maybe he'll get at least something akin to the Masumune soon!

-Nera

Reviews:

Toya Kei - Well, don't think the updates so often will keep up forever, but I like to work on stuff when I get the inkling..even if parts are difficult.

Phantom CaroOpry - It is a personal thing with the SOLDIER stuff. I'll try to remember to capitalize.

Mooncry - Yeah I know, I'll have to go back sometime

narufan1091 - Thanks! Hope you continue to enjoy!