Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy. Let me know when it's for sale for ten dollar or less. Then I can afford it.

Early autumn in this chapter... Or late summer.
Frehehehwheh. (means fluff.)

An Apology, a Blackout and a Crybaby

He had seen her almost every day for weeks. Without her knowing it, he had also observed the healing process of her ankle and her visible bruises from when she fell down the stairs. Monitoring others was mostly something he was used to do as a General. Still, it had occurred to him a few times that looking after her in such a manner was something he might also have done as an eight-year old. Rimm also seemed to have slept somewhat well, taking her her insomnia into consideration. She was more awake. In contrast to her positive recovery, however, the two of them were slipping away form each other again, and noticeably so. She tended to look away and avoid speaking to him more than what was absolutely necessary. Even though she did not exactly avoid him, she deliberately created a distance between them. Also, she even appeared to hurry out of his office every time she delivered lunch. It was as if she did, under no circumstances, wish to take his time.

In the beginning he had ignored it, obviously. Then it became rather suspicious, and in the end it simply turned conspicuous and awkward. After pondering the possibilities, he found he might be the one onto whom the blame could be thrust. Thanks to his ability to remember things so clearly, he still recalled their conversation from the field day:

"So, how come none of the fiends come lurking in the middle of the night?" she asked, maybe to put an end to the quietness.
"Even the dumbest of fiends stay away from crowds as large as this one."

That was obvious. Still, perhaps he should have used other words? Milder ones?
"...Good. Then I don't have to feel insecure. I'll have guards watching me at all times until we leave," she said, somewhat insecure, yet offering a lopsided smile.

Right after that, a weak fiend had come lurching, which then attacked her off guard.

In a way, Sephiroth was to blame for not killing the monster, or at least for not ordering people over to Rimm immediately. No one had been there to guard her. If that bite would have been only a little bit to the right, left, or slightly higher up or lower down on her wrist, the injury would have been far more serious. Also, considering that even a small bite such as that was later infected(according to Rimm), how much more severe would the infection of a much larger wound be?

Either way, he had come to the conclusion that an apology might be in order. That was what she wanted, was it not? Or perhaps she had mistaken his behavior and believed Sephiroth had wanted her to get injured and thus stay away from him. Maybe she thought he had deliberately made her lower her guard with his words so that the fiend would attack her, and that his reason for such an act was to make her avoid him altogether. That could be why she so hurriedly left him with few or no words every day. To tell the truth, it vexed him. At a couple of occasions, he had found himself staring down the clock above the door while fingering his pen with one hand and supporting his head with the other - not even offering his paperwork a thought, as he was waiting for lunch to arrive. His annoyance was due to his partially unsuccessful attempts to analyze the true reason behind her keeping away from him. He was thinking about it too much. To describe it as it was, he could venture to say, he felt a sort of obligation to make sure all was well.

His jade eyes flickered to the door only a second before someone knocked. After a moment Rimm came inside, quiet, and wearing an awkwardly dull expression.

Better get it over with.

"I apologize... for not disposing of the fiend that caused your hand injury in the span of the field day," he said tediously, his words spoken in a tone almost unvarying in pitch.

That was simple enough.

...Did he hate her? Was he testing her? ...Why did he give her a monotonous phrase like that?

Rimm looked at him suspiciously. She'd been trying her best the last few weeks. Every time she met Sephiroth, she did her best not to bother him. And, even though she barely noticed it, his mood seemed to grow fouler every day. That meant she was really getting on his nerves. Then he apologized to her? Was this a test to see how annoying she was? Her true nature? Entertainment for him? Or some way to examine her honesty?

"...No problem. Really." Should she thank him for his concern? Or would that only make his eyebrow twitch so visibly that Rimm would want Reno to knock the door off it hinges again in a manner that made it kill her in one hit? She knew she was annoying at times. That was why she had been doing her best not to annoy him for a while.

"And thanks for your concern," she said mechanically, giving a worried smile while mentally cringing at how fake she sounded. Sephiroth observed her from his seat behind the desk, one hand holding a pen, the other resting next to the lunch box. Unable to hold his eyes, which by the way were so cold she felt like a naked pig lost on the snowy Northern Continent, Rimm averted her eyes to the piles on the floor.

Suddenly the amassed stacks of paperwork looked one hundred times more interesting than Rapunz- Sephiroth.

"No problem."

...What? Huh?

He sounded awfully relaxed. A trick? ...Malevolence?

Rimm turned to him and was struck entirely off guard upon seeing his face. Resting his head very lightly on both his hands, with his fingers intertwined, he watched her with something akin to expectancy. He was not smiling, nor smirking. His brows were only slightly arched, and his jade eyes were focused solely on her. There was no sign of malevolence, nor of mockery in his expression. In the very second she thought she would die of a horribly untimely heart attack caused by complete lack of knowledge as to what to do next, luck decided to put a temporary end to the torture she suffered:

The lights flickered off, leaving them in jet-black darkness.

"...Huh?" she uttered, breathless and indescribably relieved. A blackout? Now? ...Would he see her if she flashed a huge, thankful smile in the darkness?

The only faint light source was the window behind Sephiroth. The rest of Midgar was also bathed in shadows - which thanks to the clouds left everything much darker than usual. Even though it was in the middle of the day, the smoke above Midgar still veiled the city persistently, as if intently refusing to let in the light when it was needed the most. Was something wrong with the Mako Reactors? If so, the main switches should be in Shinra's Headquarters, right? Or somewhere close to it. It should be guarded, though, so why didn't anyone turn it on again? ...Did they have to wait for long?

Wait. Sephiroth... He could see everything normally, despite the fact that everything inside his office looked completely black to her. Or couldn't he? He had proved it to her when he was little at one occasion; when they escaped from the roof of Shinra HQ after watching the fireworks. That was the last time they had seen each other before she... vanished.

"Ah, Sephiroth?" Are you still in your chair? If he was close to her of some unexplainable reason, he would scare the heck out of her.
"...What?" Good. He was not close.

"Do you know if there are any... emergency switches? To turn on the lights?" She heard leather shift slowly and saw his silhouette against the window.
"I do know that the person who should currently be guarding the main switches is meeting the President today, and it is his duty to turn the power on if an event like this occurs."

While talking, he brushed past her and she heard him open the door. Gradually getting used to the darkness, she willingly followed him into the hallway. But there were no windows there. Everything was bathed in inky blackness. After hesitating a little, Rimm stopped in the door frame, thinking it would be better to stay.

Then her arm was pulled along by her wrist. Despite her utterance of surprise, the strong grip did not loosen. The hand was gloved. Sephiroth? Sephiroth was pulling her along when he knew she couldn't see anything? Her surprise left her somewhat stunned and she didn't struggle, but instead let him guide the way while she tried to create a mental image of the corridors. She was trusting him blindly. Literally. He was testing her boundaries by moving fast, too. She had to jog to keep up. What was going on? Why bring her?

After passing through a number of corridors they slowed down and came to a halt.

"Stairs," sounded his warning. Then, before she comprehended the reason behind his words, they were ascending the stairs. Side by side they arrived on the next floor, miraculously without her stumbling. Sephiroth then let go, and Rimm found herself reaching out on reflex, not wanting to be left in a place she didn't know. Her hand touched only air. She then immediately pulled her arm back, highly unhappy at the fact that she had reached for him.

Soon, though, she heard the sound of doors screeching upon being forced open. Normally it took a keycard to open it, but that wouldn't work right now. With the power gone and away, the elevators and electric doors were of no use. The keycards used to gain access to the upper floors were equally useless. The sound stopped and she heard a silent sigh, then her arm was grabbed again, this time around her elbow. She continued to willingly follow his every step. She was gradually calming down, a little happy she couldn't see his face. They walked up another set of stairs, and Sephiroth forcefully opened some other keycard doors. After having passed several similar floors, Rimm could barely divide his silhouette from the shadows in front of him. If the two of them had passed by others in the dark, she hadn't notice them.

After making their way up some other stairs, they arrived in a room with a familiar smell. A faint odor of expensive cologne, mixed with a much fainter scent of new leather furniture. The furniture was always new here. The smell seemed even stronger than usual, too, as she had lost her breath on the way up and was inhaling it.

"President," Sephiroth said, devoid of emotion. Rimm felt his hand fall off wrist and stood still.

"What? Who is there?" an impatient, yet calm and dark voice replied. Definitely the President. Despite looking a tiny bit like Heidegger, he did most certainly not have the same personality as him.

"I am Sephiroth."
"...You are late. I would have had you escort the power guard back to the basement earlier, but the locked keycard doors up here decided to make things more difficult than necessary." Was that why the blackout hadn't ended yet? Because the guard was stuck up here? It was true that the glass elevators were not the only things that required a keycard to work properly.

"With all due respect, President, I have already forced the card-requiring doors open." At least some of them. His frigid voice made it sound as if the two of them weren't getting along too well.

"All of the doors? Even those on the floors below your office?" The President made no attempt to hide his sarcasm.

"There is no need for me to open those, as the emergency exits work down there." True. But there was only one emergency exit that she knew about, and that was in the shape of stairs on the outside of the building. It was not something people in general would willingly use to get down to the first level - not when it was so this dark outside. And not when there were fifty floors down to the ground. They would hardly be able to see where to step next.

Icy silence ensued. Rimm swallowed, mentally swearing to herself that she actually felt physically cold after Sephiroth spoke.
"...Okay, if that's so, should I go on alone..?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

Was that the guard? What was he doing all the way up here, anyway? He should be guarding the switches at all times. Perhaps he was reporting something to the President. Some kind of once-in-a-year report. A blackout just had to happen at the same time.

A flashlight flickered on and was waved around, first locating Sephiroth, then the guard, and finally herself. Having just adjusted to the darkness, she was once again blinded. The light came from behind the President's desk, obviously.

"Who is that?"
"The lunch deliverer."

"Why did you bring her?"
"I reckon she will be able to help the guard," Sephiroth said.

What?

"...Is that so?"

"It is obviously inconvenient for the guard to bring his baby with him to a room wherein most surfaces are more or less completely covered with switches, buttons and levers. It will be wiser to leave the baby here until the power is turned on. If I had chosen not to bring Rimm, the baby would have been entrusted in my care, or yours, am I right?"

Huh? Where?

...What baby?!

"Mr. General, Sir! How did you know I brought my daughter?" the guard asked. Rimm's head was spinning with unspoken questions.

"I saw you this morning. Your name and your job title was, and still is, written on your front pocket. As it was unusual for you to come upstairs instead of going downstairs to where I assume you normally work, I paid extra attention. You are here for the yearly report with President Shinra in person. A friend of yours should be filling in for you today, but has obviously not arrived yet. The reason you brought your daughter with you is that her mother is working as well, and you had no one who could look after her, so you had no choice but to take her with you."

Rimm's head was no longer spinning. It was whirling at breakneck speed.

"I-I... I see..." It certainly didn't sound like that.
"This I only know because you talked with the person I assume is your wife on the phone in the lift." They had taken the glass lift together. The thing took thirty seconds - at most - to get from floor one to floor seventy. Yet Sephiroth somehow picked up that much?

"Ah... In that case... I'll leave Terran in your care... I'll be sure to hurry!" the man said, and the President dismissively lit the way for him so he could find Rimm and hand over his little child. At this point, Rimm was staring at the approaching father and only gaped when the baby was passed into her hands.

After that, she did not register that the guard was given the flashlight by the President, nor that the guard and the flashlight then left in a hurry. The only thing that existed was the terrifying, living, fragile, though still sleeping infant that she was holding at an arms length. She had never tried babysitting before. No, that wasn't right... She had looked after Zack a few times. And he had made her life difficult in so many ways, with so many pranks. Also, the few times she had actually tried holding babies, it ended up screaming as if there were no tomorrow. That happened every time. Without exceptions. Every time.

Babies just really didn't like her.

Then the room was lit. She first thought the lights were back on, but that wasn't the case. In the palm of his hand, Sephiroth held a small flame.

"President Shinra!"

The source of the high-pitched voice ran into the room, followed by three others. All of them carried flashlights and sported suits. They were the Turks; Elena first, then Reno, Rude and the boss himself; Tseng. The latter was surprisingly calm when he spoke up.

"We have secured the exits. Some of the 1st Class Soldiers volunteered to open the doors that the Shinra employees could not open on their own. None of the doors will suffer extensive damage. After the power returns, all guards, Soldier members and employees will resume their duties."

Tseng's words were not registered by Rimm, whose arms were starting to hurt from holding the baby at a distance like. Despite her current predicament, she did sense a presence consisting solely of what she assumed was suppressed mirth. Reno was the source, of course.

"...Fine. If you'll excuse me, I am a very busy man. Sephiroth, take those with you when you leave," President Shinra said, gesturing with a hand in Rimm's direction.

Busy? With what?

Rimm slowly moved the baby - Terran, as the electricity guard had called her - closer until her head rested on Rimm's shoulder. After propping her up a little, she followed Sephiroth. Or rather the flame in Sephiroth's palm. He walked slowly, leaving the President's office with no other words. He walked swiftly, but slowly, so as not to make Rimm stumble in the dark. The flame in his hand flared, and sometimes grew to twice its original size, but it never wandered out of its caster's grip. There was no sound coming from it, no calm, crackling sound of the small fire. The only thing she could hear was the sound of his shifting leather clothes and her own shuffling steps. Somehow it managed to put her at ease. Despite everything that had happened today. She wasn't exaclty content, but she was at least beginning to relax.

The only things that mattered were those within the range of the light of the flame. That was how it felt.

"Where to?" he asked, his voice quiet. To her it sounded a little tedious as well, but that didn't matter. The calm atmosphere remained with them.
"...What about the lounge? Floor 61?"

They headed down several sets of stairs towards the big room, never moving faster, nor slowing down on the way. Even before getting there, they heard voices. Employees occupied the whole parlor, and no seats were left. It was noisy - filled with people talking to pass time and find out why, exactly, the blackout hadn't ended yet. Small candles and one or two flashlights lit parts of the room. When Sephiroth walked inside with his now growing flame, however, it became much easier for the nearby people to see where they stepped and who exactly it was they were talking with. Whispers carried through the crowd when the tall, unmistakable man came to a halt, scouting the lounge for a place Rimm could watch Terran. For a second she felt touched, and overwhelmingly so, by the fact that he was helping her. Then she mentally slapped herself. He was doing this because he felt he had to.

Rimm followed in his wake, and didn't even get half as much attention as the silver-haired General.

In the end they settled next to the two parallel glass elevators. That way, once the power was on again and the guard came back up using one of the two lifts, he would spot his baby on the way. If he didn't spot his daughter, at least he would see Sephiroth.

Rimm leaned against the wall and slid to the floor tardily, still holding Terran in her arms. She didn't know what to do if the baby woke up. She didn't have diapers nearby, and not food either. She couldn't sing, and had no clue how to entertain Terran without making her cry.

For now she would just sit still and not wake her up.

"Is she awake?" she asked Sephiroth, just to be sure.
He stood still for a moment, then stepped closer until he stood close enough to see the face of the baby, holding the flame at a safe distance. Rimm stiffened when he slowly crouched.

"...She is."

Her breathing stopped. If Terran started screaming and she wasn't able to stop her, she'd be laughing stock for weeks. Her nickname would be 'the horribly inexperienced person who makes babies cry and who will never be able to live up to her mother', and from then on all mothers, pregnant women and gentlemen would take detours not to meet her.

Jade eyes locked with hers. They were like flames, only jade green instead of cadmium orange. She looked back with wide, gray eyes, temporarily stunned. He was not really close to her, but the distance between them was certainly not huge. It flustered her.

"Do you not know how to handle her?" he inquired, almost taunting her with his words. The tiniest of smirks occupied his face. That didn't make her feel any better. Most of all, she wanted to sqeak as a reply, but resisted. She had a feeling that her eyes would pop out, and pressed her head into the cement wall behind her to create some distance. Without success.

"You're right." What a pitiful voice. Then again, she was in a pitiful, rattled state, so it was only natural.

Sephiroth sighed and rose to his feet again. His breath hit her face, instantly making her wonder what the heck he ate for it have such a fresh scent. In comparison, her throat held the stench of 174629 year old onions. In her opinion. She really hoped it was only in her opinion.

The look on her face was quite amusing; Wide eyes, with the corners of her mouth turning down.

While he observed the two in silence, Terran made some alarming sounds. In turn, Rimm paled considerably and moved the infant closer and cradled it in her arms. The big, brown eyes of the infant girl were fixed on the woman who held her. It was fascinating how much emotion was visible in those young orbs. Curiosity, suspicion, admiration and even mild fear. Anything but indifference. Then the eyes widened a little more and the barely grown eyebrows sloped. Terran's mouth opened and a tiny sound emerged.

"No, no, please don't cry!" Rimm said in an equally small voice, her shoulders hunched. Sephiroth was about to squat down again, but stopped when he glanced at the others in the room. What he saw was bemusing and disturbing at the same time; everyone looked in their direction with expectant faces. No one talked. Wearing an expression of unconcern, yet twitching vigorously on the inside, he turned to watch the glass elevators with feigned interest.

"I'm not going to sing, I don't have diapers and even though I'm starting to get hungry, I don't have any food myself," Rimm explained shakily. He guessed she already knew the baby wouldn't understand, but perhaps Terran managed to pick up a few words, at least. Like not, don't and food.

"Besides, you had your chance to burp when you used my shoulder as a pillow." ...Did she know more than she let on? Perhaps. Or perhaps not.
"And I'm cradling you and all. Don't babies like the feeling of slight pressure around them? Since they've spent nine months inside a womb?" she continued, sounding like she was comforting herself rather than Terran. Perhaps... she truly did know more than she let on.

Then the lights returned.

"Ouch..." Rimm muttered, squinting. Chatter broke out among the employees. Now able to see normally, Terran waved her arms excitedly. To be quite frank, Sephiroth was pleased she hadn't started crying. Then Rimm would never forgive him for having brought her along to babysit. Now, if only Terran's father would come back soon, things would turn back to normal.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, during which the infant had pulled Rimm's hair and reached for Sephiroth's numerous times, her father arrived at the right floor. He thanked them, saying that his friend had finally arrived to fill in for him. Also, he said something about having returning to the President's office to search for them, but without results. It had taken him a while to find the right floor. Sephiroth could not care less; He already knew this. He had seen the man pass by in the lift earlier. By the time he and his daughter left Sephiroth and Rimm, most of the other employees were already gone.

Rimm was standing next to him with her arms at an odd angle, as if cradling an invisible baby.

"Do you miss her?"
"No! ...Ah, sorry... But no. My arms are just aching." Sephiroth smirked when she shook her arms vigorously, as if trying to get her circulation going again.

The two stopped and watched each other for some seconds - Rimm wearing a wary expression, whereas he displayed light wonder - both at loss about what to do next. She was the first to speak.
"I'll head home now. Good luck with your paperwork." For once, the smile she offered him was genuine, even if it was hesitant and she wavered somewhat.

R.R.
Hurr, hurr.