Authors Note: Been awhile huh? Yeah, well I fail at life. Anyway, this is the last chapter for this story. Its been a nice if somewhat tedious adventure, and I can honestly say that I'm a little sad that it's over. But as they say, all good things must come to an end. Enjoy.

UnderdogAngel: Holy crud Kels! Long review! Haha they totally make me happy! Zack's depression is very cute, in a Finny-type way. Lol. RenoxClay is epic win! EPIC WIN. Totally made for each other! Yeah, poor Zack being dragged away by the General. Lol. Where'd Shy go? What do you mean? O.O Did she randomly disappear! ;)

Yeah leave it to Reno to fail to note something THAT important right! Sigh stupid red head lol. I love Tseng. He's my third guy that I like. Seph, then Vinny then Tseng. ^^ They make ma happah! Lol

Zack is such a smart mouth when he's upset! Love it! I'm so surprised Seph didn't backhand him…again. I love this story to! 3 Kinda sad it's ending. Haha YES! LONG REVIEW! Hahaha. Oh I love you!

THE WINTER SOLSTICE

Chapter Eight: Because we LOVE you!

Kelsey snapped her phone shut, stuffing it back in her pants pocket, leaning against the elevator wall. She sighed going over a check list in her head. Her brow crinkled slightly and she starred off into space breathing off things under her breath.

Her to fellow passengers for the short elevator ride shared a glance before eyeing her with looks of either quite amusement or curiosity.

Once Kelsey was sure everything was going according to plan she brought herself back to the real world looking over to her two companions with a smile. She clasped her hands behind her as the elevator came to a halt and the doors dinged open. She lead the way out.

"So do you two think you can hang up streamers?" She asked as they walked the empty halls of Shinra, heading to the large lounge that was no doubt currently being ransacked by Reno and the rest of the little minions.

Rachel beamed with excitement. Alisha chuckled and pointed at the shorter girl.

"Please, give her scissors and tape that she'll have that place decked out. All I'll have to do is hold the ladder."

Kelsey giggled as she opened the door to the lounge.

Alisha and Rachel immediately dashed off to grab the streamers, tape and scissors from the plain work table shoved in the corner. Kelsey lingered near the door with a faint smile on her lips as she gazed around at all of the people she considered her friends working hard together.

Reno and Rude were moving the furniture while Clay and Shyanne cut fruit into little yellow squares. Desiree was setting up the snack and drink tables. Making sure everything looked nice and that nothing was out of order. Cloud and Anneke were working on setting up a large sound system.

Kelsey smiled and shook her head with fondness before heading over to see if Clay and Shyanne needed any help with the large pile of fruit.

He trudged along in a fowl mood, muttering under his breath, huffing and puffing and kicking pebbles whenever he came across them. Zack had been walking for near to an hour and with every minute that ticked by his mood grew darker. He'd had a relatively good day until Sephiroth had cornered him. It was a complete waste of time. Sephiroth didn't need him. It was obvious. The stupid silver haired man had ruined his holiday on purpose Zack was sure.

"This sucks." The black haired SOLDIER grumbled, running gloved fingers through his black spikes. He knew he probably shouldn't have made such a big deal about the assignment. It really wasn't anything major, he'd dealt with worse. He inwardly knew it was wrong, and he would no doubt get chewed out for how disrespectful he'd been towards the General of Generals. He sighed and bowed his head as he trudged along. Maybe I'm still just a little sore. He thought to himself. He'd lost one of his friends after all.

As much as he hated to admit it, it had hurt to nullify his friendship with the silver-haired General. He really did enjoy Sephiroth's company, and he knew the seemingly uncaring man really could be tender hearted when he wanted to be. And Zack had put a lot on the line when he'd begun perusing a friendship with Sephiroth. He'd put a lot of work into their relationship and seeing it crumble before him was painful.

"Gaia I'm a real jerk." He muttered to himself, gritting his teeth with a slight growl before dashing off at a nice sprint.

Kelsey stood at the head of he queue arms crossed examining everything with a critical eye. She could practically feel everyone's eyes on her awaiting her approval. Deciding to make them sweat for a few moments she took an awfully long time examining a spot on the wall opposite her. After she deemed her examination had gone on long enough she smirked to herself and turned to face the others; they were in fact all starring at her. As she parted her lips and inhaled to form words everyone seemed to inch closer. As if they would be leaning on her very word.

"It's perfect!"

Sighs of relief, high fives and applause broke out amongst the group. Kelsey beamed as Clarisa and Anneke hugged her and all three of them bounced around in a circle chanting that they had succeeded! Alisha smiled, Rachel giggled and Shyanne rolled her eyes while using Desiree's head as an arm rest. Cloud, who was standing slightly off to the side, smiled a very small smile and swayed from side to side very slightly.

"It seems all of the preparations are ready."

Everyone in the room started and looked to the door as General Sephiroth entered. It was always slightly awkward when General Sephiroth entered a room due to the fact that everyone felt like he was judging them. Kelsey had a feeling he was. She stepped forward as the group sort of dispersed and moved off about the room.

"Yes it is General." She stated in a very 'in-attention-you-are-my-superior-officer-don't-kill-me' way. It took all of her strength of will to keep from slumping her shoulders and bowing her head. Sometimes she couldn't get over how very tall Sephiroth was compared to her. She was tiny! Absolutely tiny.

She watched quietly as Sephiroth's bright green eyes scanned the room. Those eyes; they were so strange. She often wondered if they were green due to all of the mako running through his system. She'd seen many SOLDIERs while working at Shinra and had never seen anyone with eyes exactly like his. They ranged from brown to blue and even some green. But nothing like his. It was like he was always on the verge of 'greening up'. After a few moments of scanning his eyes returned to her. She waited for his verdict.

A wave of gratitude crashed over her as the corners of his lips tilted upwards ever so slightly and he nodded; his approval meant quite a lot. She also took his approval as a sign to relax; thus she let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She returned the smile (though hers was quite a bit larger) before turning and gesturing about.

"So, you think Zack will like it?" She asked as they both walked further into the room.

"I think Zack will find that quite a lot of people care for him."

Kelsey paused and turned to face the general again.

"General Sephiroth, I want to thank you for helping with this. It really means a lot."

He shook his head.

"I have never celebrated the Solstice. I have never desired to celebrate it. But the thought of Zack Fair not celebrating this holiday was not something I wished to occur while I remained alive."

Kelsey beamed. But her smile faded and her brows furrowed when a thought struck her. She narrowed her eyes up at the General who cocked a thin silver brow.

"How did you get here so fast? You were two hours away."

"I said you would have two hours till Zack gets here. I never told you how long you would have till I got here."

Kelsey's frown deepened.

"But the walk is a two hour walk. And Zack was walking the road right? So how did-"

"I know how to get to Shinra without taking the road Ms. Johnson. And I am quite a bit faster than Zack; even when he is running."

And that was the end of that.

Kelsey walked over to where Shyanne was going through some music sheets with Reno and tapped the taller rounder girl on the shoulder.

"Hey Shy, Zack will be here soon. Time for you to play your part."

The taller girl grinned an almost evil grin-two dimples appearing on her cheeks-before nodding. She cracked her knuckles and headed out of the room without another word.

Clarisa who was sipping at some punch saddled over to Kelsey and without looking at her said,

"You really, really like Zack don't you?"

Kelsey blinked and blushed up at the other girl.

"W-w-w"

The blonde held up a hand.

"Its okay to like him you know. I mean, look who I came with." She said before smacking Reno upside the head.

"Hey!"

She ignored him and smiled down at Kelsey.

"Going through all of this for him, it's really cool Kels. I'm proud of you."

Kelsey beamed.

Zack entered the Shinra lobby dragging his feet. He was so tired. He was tired, thirsty and very, very grumpy. He just wanted to get to his apartment take a shower than pass out naked on his bed and not wake up till after the holiday had passed. He sluggishly climbed up the stairs; he was actually thinking about complaining about the big Buster sword on his back. It seemed much more heavy now that he was exhausted.

He crossed to the nearest elevator and was about to press the UP button when the other elevator dinged and opened. He blinked as Shyanne walked out. She looked around wide eyed and upon spotting him dashed over and grabbed onto his arm.

"Oh my Gaia Zack!"

The panic in her voice caused his mind to wake up and his training to snap into place. Something was obviously wrong.

"What is it? What's wrong?" He asked seriously.

"You, I…you have to come see!" She babbled as she pulled him towards the opened elevator. He stumbled in behind her.

"It would have been faster if I'd taken the stairs!" he snapped. Was she really so rattled that should forgot that he was a SOLDIER and thus could run the stairs to wherever he needed to be rather than take the elevator?

She continued babbling nonsense without looking at him. Something about someone and something and bad things. Zack was confused. Completely and utterly confused.

Once the elevator came to a halt and Zack entered the hall. Shyanne slipped her hand into her pocket and sent a message that would tell the others that her mission was nearly complete.

Kelsey looked at her phone and quickly turned to those gathered.

"Quickly everyone! Get into positions. That was Shyanne and they are almost here!" She chirped.

Shyanne dashed a head of Zack and quickly dived through the door. Zack frowned and followed. He slammed the doors opened.

"OKAY! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" He yelled. He'd had about enough of Shyanne's crap. If something was wrong he needed to know! He couldn't take any more ring around the rosy.

"HAPPY SOLSTICE!"

Zack staggered backwards as the room exploded into loud cheers and movement. He was quickly hugged, patted and shaken by several people. He was completely caught of guard; which was saying something since he was a SOLDIER first class. They didn't just give those kind of promotions to anybody.

"W-what?" He mumbled as Reno slung an arm around his shoulders and lightly rained friendly punches against his chest.

"You didn't see this coming did you yo! We totally surprised you! You should have seen the look on your face!" The red head cheered with a beaming smirk. He was obviously enjoying the SOLDIERs confusion. Zack considered himself lucky when the tall brooding Rude pulled his partner off of him. But Reno was quickly replaced by another; this time Clarisa.

"I bet you thought you'd have a terrible Solstice didn't you puppy?" She asked as high beat music started pulsing through the room. She weaved her hips in beat to the tune and spun on the spot, shooting him a friendly smirk as she danced off, dragging Reno away from Rude.

Zack blinked, nodding at the others as they greeted him. He looked around the room in complete and utter shock. It looked like Gongaga! Gongaga on Solstice! He couldn't help but gape. Had he been alone he would have cried. It was so beautiful!

Zack flinched slightly when someone poked him sharply in the side just beneath his ribcage. He glanced down to see Alisha standing beside him her hands now clasped behind her slopped back. She was smiling up at him. Not smirking or grinning or anything else just simply smiling. A small smile at that.

"What is all of this?" He finally asked.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"I played an extremely and I mean extremely small roll in this. But this is a party. You are usually the one who goes around getting everyone into the holidays Zack; I guess this year we all missed that." She smiled up at him. "You are the quite not totally sticky glue that keeps our odd group of…'friends' together Zack."

He returned her smile and hugged her.

"Thanks Alisha. That means a lot." He sniffed slightly. "Mostly coming from the woman who enjoys torturing me with needles."

Alisha snickered, smirked and waggled her eyebrows before walking off towards the punch bowl. Zack smiled fondly after her before looking around. His eyes fell on Sephiroth who was looking at Rachel as though she'd grown a second, third or even a fourth head. Whatever the young researcher had said had obviously caught the socially awkward General off guard and he wasn't exactly sure how to respond.

"He's lost without you, you know."

Zack blinked and glanced over to see Kelsey starring up at him. His throat went inexplicably dry and he swallowed slightly as she approached and stood beside him.

"I suppose you were the one behind this were you?"

She merely nodded.

"I don't deserve all of the credit though." She said as she looked up at him. "Everyone here helped out." She nodded her head over towards where Sephiroth was trying to find a way away from Rachel. "Even the General."

Zack blinked and glanced towards the silver haired demon of Wutai before looking back down at the small Turklet. His brows furrowed slightly and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Why?" He gestured around the room. "Why all of this?"

Kelsey smiled a small innocent smile.

"You're are friend Zack." She said before turning her back on him. A blush crept up her neck and filled her cheeks. She pulled her shoulders up shyly. "And we love you."

Zack watched her as she walked away to join her girlfriends. He smiled in earnest as his chest filled with warmth. A moment later he followed.

Authors Note: Well. It is finally over. After nine months; and eight months of no updates. I actually can't believe its over and that I finally finished it. My friend Kelsey's birthday is once again rolling around! Two more months! I'll have to start thinking about what to do for her. =)