CHAPTER 9.

Aeris opened her eyes to a grey, rainy morning. She could hear the water drumming against the roof above. The view outside looked bleak.

She'd slept restlessly, her dream now fading from her memory. She remembered floating on misty waters, enveloped in a deep white fog. The sorrowful sound of a boat's horn echoed from somewhere far away, a buoy bobbing in the water next to her. The warning light atop it curiously reminded her of her useless, heirloom materia – only now it was glowing. She'd had a vague sense of something enourmous lurking beneath the surface, though she couldn't see what it was.

Then she'd woken up, disoriented and drowzy still.

Aeris scrambled to her feet, grabbed her toothbrush and made her way to the bathroom. She was yawning as she grabbed the handle and opened the door but the sight that greeted her expelled all traces of sleep from her eyes. Sephiroth was standing under the showerhead, buck naked, wringing excess water from his newly washed hair.

Mortified, Aeris turned her back to him, shielding her eyes, but not before the image had been burned into her retinas. "Gods! I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were in here, I just wanted to brush my teeth and freshen up a bit.."

She heard Sephiroth scoff, then reach for a towel, drying himself off. "I don't understand what you're apologizing for. Being ogled at by strangers stopped bothering me a decades ago.."

"..But you're not that old.." Aeris frowned. "For it to be decades, you'd had to have been a very young child."

Sephiroth made another dismissive sound. "Quite a conundrum, isn't it?"

Asshole. "Couldn't you just answer my question?" She asked, finally turning back around and peeking through her fingers to see if he was decent. Thankfully Sephiroth had wrapped a towel around his hips, and was busy drying his hair with another. She couldn't help noticing the black number one tattoo on the back of his hand. It was so rare to see his hands without his gloves on.

"I didn't realize you asked one." Sephiroth quipped back, and though he didn't look at her, Aeris could hear the self-satisfied little smirk in his voice.

"Why did you get that tattoo? Are you that full of yourself?" Aeris meant it as an innocent enough question, even if his superior attitude did annoy her. She realized her mistake the second the words left her mouth. Sephiroth froze stiff, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop as he turned and met her eyes. The look on his face was positively demonic. Naked though he was, Aeris took a step back in alarm.

"I.. did not get it." He ground out through clenched teeth. She could hear the fury in his voice.

"I-I'm sorry." Aeris stammered, taken aback by his reaction. Clearly, all tattoo related talk was off limits.

Sephiroth scowled at her, took a deep breath and then just like that, the storm was over. "I was almost done here anyway.. The bathroom is yours."

Aeris stepped aside as he marched past her, smelling of lavender scented shampoo, which would have amused her under normal circumstances but right now her heart was beating too fast. "O-Ok", she managed to tell his back before he disappeared in his room. Gods, I know what he looks like naked now, Aeris thought and rubbed her temples. I'll never be able to look at him without picturing that, without knowing that the carpet did indeed match the curtains. The horror. Although she had to admit he was a very pretty man all over. Groaning, she dragged her feet over to the sink and mirror and began her morning routine.

Later, at breakfast, Aeris kept sneaking glances at Sephiroth to gauge his mood. He looked as non-plussed as ever, but from travelling with him these past days she'd learned his expressionless facade could hide explosive amounts of bottled up emotion. "Sephiroth.. I really am sorry.. about earlier."

He gave her a look, half-way between annoyance and a frown. "It's already forgotten. Let's move on shall we?" He said, sipping his coffee, then briefly glancing towards the harbour. "I've been thinking.. We might cut some time if we could catch a ride aboard one of the fishing boats from the harbour to Junon. I know the local fishermen trade there regularly.. We might as well go ask while we're here."

Aeris nodded, chewing on her pancake. She swallowed. "Sounds like a plan. I've never been on a boat before.. I hope I don't get sea-sick.."

"The waves shouldn't get too rough this close to shore – Junon is not that far off." Sephiroth assured her, buttering up a piece of freshly baked bread.

"Junon's a military base right?"

Sephiroth nodded, taking a bite of his sandwich, chasing it down with some juice.

"Were you ever stationed there?" Aeris asked, watched him freeze for a moment then continue chewing as he carefully observed her, considering how much to reveal.

"Yes, for a few years. ShinRa does a lot of training new recruits there.. It's also where you get signed up for SOLDIER.. If you're good enough that is."

"Is that where you got signed up then?"

Sephiroth sat back and folded his arms across his chest. He looked defensive and cagey. "No."

Aeris didn't say anything, but the question must've been in her eyes because Sephiroth ran an agitated hand through his hair and continued. "I was recruited from ShinRa headquarters when I was around twelve, or eleven. I can't quite remember. The years spent there tend to blend together in my mind."

"..Years?"

"Yes." Sephiroth scoffed bitterly, taking a sip of coffee. "You asked earlier if I had a home.. If I must name one, it would be the science department at ShinRa headquarters. That's where I grew up."

"With your parents? Were they ShinRa employees then?"

Sephiroth laughed that awful laugh of his, ugly and bitter. "My quarters there might have been fancier than a lab rats, but we were both stuck running in similar wheels.. For science. Parental issues didn't really play a role, they would have been a distraction. Although that never seemed to be the case when it came to doling out punishment, or taking out frustrations.." Sephiroth fell silent then, that sad, pained look in his eyes.

So she had been right then, Aeris thought. He had been abused, and knowing Sephiroth, even as little as she did, he was probably downplaying it a lot.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I.. wish things could have been better for you."

The look Sephiroth shot her way was hostile. "Don't pity me. Your condescension is a comfort to no-one but yourself." He then went back to his breakfast, forking a piece of his omelette with a little more force than was necessary.

Aeris watched him in silence. It was clear Sephiroth wasn't humanity's greatest fan and treated acts of kindness with extreme suspicion. Just how bad had his childhood been to develop this mindset? Aeris couldn't fathom it. Even through the hardships she'd endured, she'd maintained a faith in the fundamental goodness of others, misguided though they might be. Sephiroth seemed to be her polar opposite – insisting that all perceived goodness was just a mask for some evil or another.

"Aeris?"

She snapped her head up and realized Sephiroth had been trying to get her attention for a while now. "I thought we might head to the harbour next, leave our gear and Freya here for the time being. Even if nothing comes of getting us passage aboard one of the boats, we can still stock up on supplies, see what the local craftsmen have to offer."

"OK, sounds good." She then hurried up and finished her breakfast, following Sephiroth out into the drizzling rain.

"Does it always rain around here?" Aeris asked him, the ground soggy under her feet. She'd opted to wear her pink dress and red jacket, now regretting that choice as her hem was already caked in mud.

A small smile played on Sephiroth's lips, then vanished. "Not always.. Though we are in the rainy season."

"Sephiroth?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think you could.." Aeris tried to sound as casual as she could. "teach me to fight, a bit. Just because I've noticed I haven't been much use in battles other than for healing and I'd like to get better.."

Sephiroth arched a silver eyebrow, searching her eyes for an alterior motive.

Aeris squirmed under the scrutiny. "It's just I feel so useless! I'm not half bad with materia you know, I just haven't had any practice. And I mean, you used to train recruits for ShinRa, right? I don't see how I'm any different."

Sephiroth shook his head, his bangs hiding his face from her. "..You'd never have made it through training. You're too kind-hearted."

Aeris was speechless, and felt an odd lump in her throat. She was discovering Sephiroth could be devestatingly sweet sometimes – if only because when he was, it was such a stark contrast to his usual callousness.

"But you'll teach me, right?"

Sephiroth spared her a glance from the corner of his eye. "I'll think about it."

The harbour looked as down on its luck as the rest of Surma, but there were three larger fishing boats docked along with one smaller one. Sephiroth made his way to the harbour masters office, motioning for Aeris to stay put. She walked along one pier, towards the ocean as she waited for him to make inquiries for their passage to Junon. The pier felt slick like ice under her feet and she found herself watching her step as she reached the end of the pier and a rickety bench stationed there.

The ocean didn't look stormy, the waves lapping against the pier lazily. A mist hung over the water, just like in her dream, ominous somehow – hiding things. Aeris couldn't shake the strangely foreboding feeling she had about going out there. I'm being silly. I have Sephiroth with me, after all, and he's not afraid. The mist twisted in the wind, her mind creating shapes within.

Sephiroth's heavy footfalls approached. "We're in luck - there's a ship, the Leviathan, departing for Junon after midnight. We can take our gear and Freya aboard already. I was hoping you might spend the rest of the day with me, as we wait departure."

Aeris looked at him, baffled. "Like.. a date?"

Sephiroth huffed, arms crossed, looking at anything but her face. "I thought we might get around to that training you spoke of. We can go into the nearby plains, find some weak monsters. To teach you, I need to properly observe your technique."

Aeris blushed. Why had a date been the first thing to enter her mind? "Sure, that sounds great."

The pair then started walking back to the inn, Aeris trailing behind Sephiroth's determined stride. She'd gotten what she wanted, she thought, slightly worried for what the day would have in store.