Aeris followed Zack into the cave he'd managed to find, too grateful to find shelter just as the storm hit to care what it was like. If she'd sensed the storm coming a bit earlier or if they'd stayed a bit closer to the inn they might have been able to get back there before it hit, but she'd been enjoying the chance to do something as normal as skiing with Zack. And he'd been treating it as a sort of date or something too, paying far more attention to her than he usually did when they were out in public - that was a good sign that he was considering her as a lover and she'd let that distract her as well.
"Come on, we should get as deep as we can." It wasn't a very deep cave, and it was widest at the entrance, but there was nothing they could do about that. Or was there?
"Zack, do you have an Ice materia on you?" She'd just given Zack a selection of materia to use, and let him choose which ones he should wear on each day, after Sephiroth had told her he'd learned as much as he needed to know. He still kept to the pattern she'd chosen almost three years ago, but he adjusted the choice of materia according to what he was expecting to face.
"No, I don't my lady. But I do have a Fire, and it's paired with an All, so I can heat the walls of the cave?" He made it a question, and Aeris smiled at him gratefully.
"Yes, that would be a good idea, but for later. We need to build as much of a wall across the entrance as we can first. Hopefully there won't be much snow blowing in here, but we can pack any snow that blows in around the stones of whatever sort of wall we can build."
"Good idea." Zack looked around the cave unhappily and Aeris could see why; it was far from perfect, but they simply didn't have time to look for anything better. She'd been blown off her feet twice already and she was not going to go out there again, or ask Zack to leave her. She let Zack work on muscling the bigger rocks towards the entrance, stopping about six feet from the back of the cave and looking at her for approval, which she gave with a nod.
"I'll get as many of the smaller rocks as I can from nearer the front then." It took them almost half an hour to muscle as many rocks and stones as they could into an approximation of a wall, but at least they stayed warm while they were working and they ended up with a sort of windbreak about four feet high.
"Take some of your clothes off while I heat the walls; you'll be sweating by now, and you need to get dried off."
"We can sit together as well, to share body heat, right?" But Aeris obediently removed her clothes, leaving her just wearing her bra and knickers as she spoke, noting that Zack was stripping down as well, to his boxers.
"If you want. But we can't lean against the walls." Instead Zack sat down in the middle of the floor, his clothes spread out closer to the walls in imitation of Aeris' own actions as she undressed. She hesitated, then decided to make actions to words, moving over to sit on his lap, and wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he hugged her to his chest.
She found herself shivering in his arms, despite the surprising warmth he was supplying, but she knew well enough that the shivering was a good sign, that it meant she was getting warmer and she snuggled into Zack a bit more. She couldn't risk closing her eyes, even if they hadn't been out long enough for her to be in any real danger so she began making a mental inventory of the weapons Zack had laid out ready to hand. It seemed a bit excessive to her, for what they were doing, taking some time for leisure during her ceremonial visit to Icicle Inn, but she wasn't trained to understand what sort of weaponry was needed and Zack was.
"Are you alright? You've stopped shivering." The concern in Zack's voice reminded Aeris where she was, and she made a quick check of how she felt before she answered.
"I'm fine; I've just managed to get warm." She hesitated, then pressed herself against him, resting her face in the crook of his neck, wriggling a bit in his hold and feeling him harden against her. She shouldn't have, but...it had been months since she spoke of the possibility of him becoming her consort, and it was good to know he wanted her at least.
Then Zack moved one hand to her face, moving her into position for him to kiss, just a hint of uncertainty in his eyes as his tongue darted over his lips before he pressed them to her own. It was nice, but he kept his mouth closed, kissing her far too chastely for her taste, so Aeris opened her own mouth, and licked along Zack's lips until he opened to her. That felt much better, especially when he started taking the initiative a bit more, pushing his tongue into her mouth, and she let her hands slide down Zack's back without thinking about it.
Zack's hands started to wander as well, stroking her body and making this feel even better. She hadn't known she could feel so good, outside of climax her own hands never felt this good, even though Zack wasn't touching any of the areas she used when she was masturbating. Then he lifted a hand to her breast, starting to work under her bra and she pushed away from him in panic.
"Zack, we can't! Not unless you've decided you don't want to be my consort after all."
"I...I thought you'd decided you were tired of waiting around for me to make up my mind, and you wanted to just take me as a lover." He sounded so unhappy about that, and Aeris couldn't do anything about it. And the worst part was the bubbling pleasure she felt at his pain, because if he was so hurt by the idea she wouldn't want him as a consort anymore he had to want to be her consort.
"No, I don't just want you as a lover. I'll settle for that if I have to, but I want a consort and there's no one I'd want in that position but you."
"Then I'll be yours. I...I don't think I could stand to be your lover, knowing I'd given up the chance to be more than that to you."
"I'm glad. But...our clothes are dry now." Or mostly dry. "We should get dressed, remove the temptation."
"Yeah, you're right." He let go of her reluctantly and she climbed off his lap.
