A/N: Alright, super duper sorry I haven't updated this in MONTHS! I got caught up in things and then I just lost my motivation, but after going through my email and seeing a review asking if I was going to continue the story, I knew I had to start it up again. This chapter gets a little cheesy, but it's very fun also. Thank you for your time and patience and once again, SUPER SORRY!
She hopped up, "I'm not even hungry." She mumbled to herself. Sephiroth stood up and grabbed Reeve's bag and followed her as she walked into the bedroom. She stood by the large bed and sat on the edge. She watched as Sephiroth walked towards the sofa on the far wall of the room and sat in it stretching out as far as he could. The couch, being much shorter than he was, caused him to sit with his knees bent over the arm rest, letting his calves hang off and his head reaching the very top of arm rest on the other side.
Happy to know she wouldn't have to sleep with the barely dressed man she climbed into the bed grabbing the remote that was placed neatly in the center, Remote controlled dimmer lights, this room was definitely designed for honeymooners…She shut them off half way noticing Sephiroth was fumbling through the bag looking for something to keep his interests awake probably.
She cuddled into the large bed. She could feel herself relaxing in the bed that made her feel like she was atop a billowy cloud. She watched as Sephiroth pulled out Reeve's laptop and had turned it on. She then simply watched Sephiroth himself. How can he not understand how attractive he is? He has that timeless face that's been attractive since men and women first walked the planet. He's so well built and tone and he even has that huge, thing! Any woman I know would gladly crawl into bed with that thing. Wait, would I? No! Of course not, I'm not that kind of girl, before today I hadn't even seen a naked man before…I am a 24 year old woman though, that is somewhat pathetic especially from all the stories Tifa told me about her experiences with the few men she'd been with…I bet Tifa's thought about how attractive Sephiroth is, though she seems to still be a little scared of him. Why aren't I? I suppose it's because of the Planet's encouragement. He's just so different then I imagined back then that I don't even think about what he- what happened. I can't believe how much I've thought about him today. It's almost like I'm crushing on him. Wow that has to be really uncomfortable on his neck. I suppose this bed's large enough we could share and not ever even touch each other…I hope he's not a blanket fiend like Zack.
"Hey Seph?" She hope he wouldn't mind the nicknamed she said her face peaking out just from under the covers.
He looked towards her. "Hm?"
She got nervous, how was she going to say this. "There's enough room on this bed, and that doesn't look very comfortable. You can sleep on that side." She nodded her chin to the other half of the bed that looked like a mile away from where she was.
"Lonely without me?" He teased giving her that grin as he sat up in the sofa with the laptop getting ready to walk over.
She sat up a little giving a fake angry face. "I'm being generous, everybody knows the lady gets the bed to herself. Don't push your luck or get any funny ideas mister."
"I'll try not to with this seductive decorating." He said sarcastically obviously had noticed the same things about the décor as she had earlier. She slightly laughed as he climbed in on the other side of the bed setting the laptop in his lap.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"This laptop has access to all the data stored from ShinRa. Even from the surveillance cameras and footage they collected from all of that time." Sephiroth said.
Aeris had a devilish idea pop into her head. "So I could look at what people were doing?"
Sephiroth turned to her and nodded.
"Ooh let me see! I want to spy on what Zack did!" She giggled sitting up excitedly.
Sephiroth rolled his eyes and sat the laptop atop of her legs. He explained to her where to type in search words and how to use the data accessing program.
"So much for you being tired." Sephiroth said sighing as he leaned against the barricade of pillows behind his back.
"How can I be tired when I get an opportunity like this!" Aeris exclaimed, Sephiroth not bothering to try and reason with her. He was well aware that lovers often ended up displeased when spying on the other, nothing good could come from this.
Aeris searched for Zack and watched several minutes of footage of mainly him walking and talking to other Soldier members on a few floors in the ShinRa building. She found one that had him tagged along with Elena as a Turk in training. The blonde one she remembered from when she was with Avalanche.
She began playing it, and as she watched she saw Zack and Elena speaking against and empty hallway. She began to get a little anxious as she saw them walking closer and closer to the wall on the side of the hallway. Her mouth dropped as she saw Zack pull himself closer to Elena their torso's meeting and the young Turk pecked Zack on the mouth. Aeris stopped the video and looked at the date it was filmed on. She felt her eyes start to water, the date was on Aeris's birthday, the last one she shared with him before he left on his mission for Nibelheim later that year. He had told her he had to leave early to go on his mission that day.
She violently shut the laptop down. Sephiroth turned and looked at the ruckus from where he was resting his head. He saw Aeris move her knees up to her torso and she wrapped her arms around them as she tucked her chin in hiding her face. He stared as begin to hear her sob quietly.
"What's wrong?" He asked at her unexpected outbreak of emotion.
"He, he cheated on me…" She stuttered out of her mouth.
"Zack?"
She only slightly repeated herself. He felt that was enough to prove he was correct. He was at a slight loss of how to handle the situation, but he couldn't lie and say that he wasn't surprised knowing Zack's reputation during Soldier. Though he couldn't handle her crying next to him, curled up to her knees.
"Aeris, what's crying going to change about it?" Sephiroth asked concern in his voice though he had a feeling those weren't the right words.
Her tear stained face slowly turned to him, "You don't understand." She sobbed. "He's the only boyfriend I've ever had, I ever wanted…"
He slightly grinned at the predicament. He wasn't entirely inexperienced when it came to emotional women, he often had to deal with the spouses or lovers of his soldiers when he was in the military, and they found many things they thought were worth crying over. It was only a matter of saying right words and seeming as though one cares. He wrapped his arm around her and dragged her cradled form closer to him. "Aeris, what's the point of getting emotional over a man who wasn't the man you loved?"
She looked at him unbothered to his closeness. "What are you, what are you talking about?" She said confusedly with watery eyes.
He gave her a straight face. "Well, the Zack you loved that was the only thing you ever wanted, wasn't a man that would cheat on you right?" He paused and she nodded. "But he did, showing that he's not what you thought he was."
Aeris stared as she deciphered his idea inside her head. Her sobbing quiet, "You're right…I think." She looked up at him with a meek smile trying to peak it's way through to her.
She let go of her knees and turned to sit sideways on his lap and turned sideways and wrapped her arms around him. "T-thanks. He's the one that didn't live up to my standards…" She said still quietly as her throat had been robbed from all the damp fluids from her sobbing.
Wow, well that was easier than I thought it'd be, but this position is a whole other trouble. Sephiroth lightly returned the hug placing the ends of his fingers against her waist. He decided to speak his mind as she begin to calm still holding onto his neck. "I apologize for bringing the subject up, but you're going to have to move before I start getting funny ideas."
She immediately let go of his neck forcing more of her pressure into his lap as she looked at his face figuring out what he was talking about. She stiffened and then turned her gaze downward to where her bottom rested squarely in lap of his crossed legs. She put her hand over her mouth as she swiftly understood what he was talking about and moved back sitting against the pillows next to him. "I'm so sorry!"
Sephiroth couldn't help but cross his arms and hold his forehead in his hands as he laughed at the girl's actions. She also began giggling fiercely.
He turned towards her still holding a smile from where he also still letting small quiet fits of laughter out. "What are you laughing about?" He asked accusingly.
She covered her mouth her tear stained face now letting out almost hysterical fits of giggles. "The idea that the Great General Sephiroth is so sensitive to 'funny ideas'!"
He shrugged, "I don't think you understand that it's been over seven years."
Aeris giggled and then let out a playfull 'huff' sound. "I've never had it and I'm not bothered!" Sephiroth threw his shaking head back into the grasp of his hand at her confession. "What is it?" Aeris asked not understanding his action.
"Weren't you ever taught not to invite a man into your bed, then hop in his lap, and then tell him you're a virgin?" Sephiroth asked.
"Hey!" Aeris hit him playfully in the shoulder. "Your twisting that to make it sound worse than it really is!"
He shook his head slightly laughing again. "No, it's pretty bad Aeris. You're naivety is without a doubt your worst weakness." He continued. "Maybe you should roll over and go to sleep before you dig yourself a deeper hole."
"You're the one here who can't control yourself with an innocent little girl with pure intentions." Aeris pouted playfully at him.
"Now you're role playing, you innocent little girl." Sephiroth said back still not looking at her, this time with a stronger intent to anger her so she would indeed go to sleep.
"You're a bully! Turning everything I say around and using it against me." Aeris said with her perfect pout face at him.
Sephiroth lifted his head up this time with a devious smirk on his face. "And your playing as if you don't like me doing it to you."
Aeris grew slightly disappointed at having her actions exposed and gave him a gentle playful push. "You're so dirty-minded!" She then threw her body underneath the blankets and turned on her side as to not face him. "You better not be a blanket thief like Zack is." She said over her shoulder a hint of anger in her voice.
"I try not to take things from poor helpless innocent girls." He said as he slid down under the cover like she had. She smiled facing the wall. Who knew Sephiroth was actually playful?
"Oh you shush up and go to sleep and have your dirty dreams about girls like me." Aeris said back.
"Gladly, at least they don't tease me."
Aeris rolled over to face the teasing man. He almost flinched not-expecting a fluffy cloud to be heading for his face as she had tossed one. He was surprised to find himself looking at a girl smiling at him sincerely.
"Sephiroth, thank you, for being here," She said seriously but as she began her next part she let out a giggle. "and making me laugh so much."
"My job is to protect you, physically, mentally, and emotionally." He replied with a straight face.
Her smile faded. "I hope you're at least enjoying your job and I'm not a pain."
"You can be entertaining." He replied honestly.
She smiled at the handsome man, the shadow the dimmed lights caused put a heart-throbbing shadow on his face, outlining the beautiful hollows of his face and neck. Oh, I better turn around before I get lost in those eyes. She rolled back over and snuggled up with her share of the blanket. I don't know if I'm just silly from being tired, or am I really enjoying that man? Her recent emotional roller coaster had drained her energy, drifting into slumber came easily.
The next morning came gracefully to Aeris, she managed to sleep like a baby throughout the whole night and now she woke up and could see the sunshine trying to peek through from under the window shades. She rolled over and looked at her partner still sleeping peacefully on his back. She frowned as she noticed he barely touched the blanket letting her gather a large amount around her making her look like a blanket fiend. Aeris frowned, that reminded her of her discovery last night, she felt herself fall back down into bed, sadness creeping into her eyes again as she tried to tell herself over and over again it wasn't her fault.
I don't believe it, he's never even kissed me like that before. He may not be exactly what I thought, but he's still the only thing I'm ever going to get. Oh Dammit Zack! Why'd you have to do that…
The tears began to fall from Aeris's eyes again as the night before, her sobbing was quiet as she didn't want to wake Sephiroth up from sleeping.
Before she had time to completely drain herself from crying she heard a PHS ringing from inside the bag on the sofa. She let it ring a few times before she decided she better answer, she rolled into a stand off the bed and wiped her wet cheek and tried to prepare herself to faking it to the others.
"Hello?" She said quietly as to not wake Sephiroth and because she thought if she tried to talk louder the sadness would show through.
"Good morning Aeris how are you?" Reeve asked. Aeris sighed glad it wasn't Zack.
"A little groggy but I'm good." She said to him hoping that would cover any emotion that might be coming off of her.
"How has it been with Sephiroth?" Reeve asked somewhat careful. It made Aeris grin a little bit at his worry.
"Oh Reeve, it's been fine, I've heard at least ten war stories." She slightly lied and exaggerated.
"Hmph well that's good." Reeve said slightly unconvinced. He continued onto his next line of business. "Zack said he'd like to speak with you this morning."
Aeris paled, full of dread. "Reeve no!" She begged.
He seemed taken aback. "Why not Aeris?" Reeve asked, glad Zack was in the other room not hearing this.
Aeris began to feel her tears resurface. She spilled out what she found out last night on the phone to him, she knew she could trust Reeve to handle the situation well, that's what his job was.
"I'm truly sorry Aeris…" Reeve trailed feeling horribly sorry for her and wondering how Sephiroth probably wasn't the best at comforting a heart broken lady. "Do you want me to tell Zack about it?"
"No," Aeris paused sadly. "I want to confront him Reeve."
Reeve nodded understanding on the other end. "I'll tell him you were still asleep." Reeve wasn't finished. "Aeris, I know that Sephiroth and I aren't the most comforting characters, so if there's anyone else you want to talk to…"
"I'll feel free to." She appreciated Reeve's understanding it cheered her up a little bit.
"Oh and Aeris, don't take it out on yourself, Zack's…a little unaware of how special you are." Reeve said.
"Thanks Reeve." She said with generous gratuity.
"I'll call later today to check in on you Aeris." Reeve said.
"Okay," Aeris gave out a little sad giggle, "talk to you later Reeve."
"Later then." He agreed and hung up.
Aeris put the phone down, maybe I should call Tifa, she knows about anything romantically related. She looked Sephiroth still hadn't woke up or maybe he had he was just laying there tired.
She dialed the PHS it couldn't have been too early if Reeve would have known, she was up so she felt it was safe to call Tifa.
"Hello?" Tifa's voice rang.
"Good morning Tifa!" Aeris tried her best to say cheerfully.
"Oh Aeris! How are you! Cloud called me last night and told me you'd be traveling with umm, him." Tifa said, "Are you alright?"
"Well, I'm fine but I found out some bad news last night." Aeris said meekly as she began explaining to Tifa what she meant.
"Oh Aeris! What an asshole! I can't believe he could ever do that to you! I can't imagine anybody doing that to you!" Tifa exclaimed her blood boiling while at the same time she wanted to just be there and hug her friend.
"Do you think he had a reason…I mean I guess I was still a teenager…maybe he wanted a real woman?" Aeris said.
"Oh Aeris! When guys do that the only reason they have is because they think with their crotch and not with their brain that knows what a gem you are!" Tifa exclaimed.
Aeris smiled at Tifa's comments. I'm not sure if Tifa understands, because she sure is a lot of woman. "What I'm saying is, I'm not very experienced at a lot of those kind of things, maybe I just seem like a little girl to him."
"Oh no Aeris, guys like that sort of thing! If anything you were probably intimidating because he knew you can do better than an immature Soldier boy with an ego the size of the planet."
"You really think I can do better?" Aeris said slightly in disbelief but a lot of hope hanging on the answer.
Tifa on the other end in Kalm shook her head in surprise, the anger in her voice toned down. "Aeris, you're soo beautiful, and you're personality is just one of those genuinely pure ones that you can't find now adays. You have no downfalls about you."
Aeris smiled she heard no indication that she was lying. "Thank you Tifa. By the way how are you with my step mom?"
"Oh I love Elmyra, I'm starting to feel a little old though. Sitting around watching kids and sharing recipes with another mom…" Tifa laughed a little. "But it's not bad, televisions gotten annoying with all the Sephiroth programming so we've been spending a lot of our time playing with the kids."
Aeris almost jumped on the comment about her companion and defend him but she knew what Tifa had been through, and she had the right to say even worse things. "That's good, I'm happy. But I think I'm going to get something to eat after hearing all that talk about recipes." She put a hand on her stomach feeling it's emptiness.
"Okay Aeris, if you ever need to talk I'll be right here by the phone, I carry it everywhere with me in case something happens to you guys."
"Okay thank you Tifa!"
"B'bye" Tifa said before hanging up.
Aeris set the phone down and looked back towards Sephiroth, her worries pushed aside due to Tifa's compliment. She slightly jumped as she saw Sephiroth sitting wide awake looking at the laptop screen.
"G-goodmorning." She said walking over towards the bed curiously. "What are you looking at?"
"The Nibelheim incident."
Aeris's mood fell again. "Why?"
Sephiroth looked at her skeptically. "13 people died that day, 20 injured, and a whole town was destroyed."
Aeris looked confused. "I thought everybody was killed?"
Sephiroth frowned at her statement but realized she didn't mean for it to come out badly. "The survivors were taken by ShinRa, brainwashed and relocated to cover up the incident."
"It was horrible but you can't dwell on it forever. You'll end up like Vincent." Aeris said sincerely.
Sephiroth looked at her slightly frowning but a sort of glow in his eyes she hadn't seen before. "There never was a wrong that couldn't be righted, just wrongdoers who don't know how to do right."
Aeris was caught off guard not expecting to hear such a statement from a man like Sephiroth. Somebody's full of surprises. She stared at that glow in his past it seemed so familiar but she couldn't understand where she had seen it before. She nodded to him and remained silent.
"Sephiroth." She finally interrupted.
He looked up acknowledging.
"I'm hungry."
"Did you call her?" Zack asked lying on a bed in the hospital, so far all the tests coming back normal.
"Yes, but she was still asleep." Reeve continued, "She told me yesterday she was a little exhausted from her walk to Fort Condor."
Zack's face fell. Why do I have such a bad feeling about this... "Oh, okay then we'll just have to try later then." Reeve nodded though he wasn't sure about that.
After Aeris ate a good breakfast in the hotel's restaurant she talked Sephiroth into going exploring around the town, he obliged, curious himself. The morning had involved in Sephiroth catching the stares of almost anybody in the town and a few excited greetings by a few of the more brave souls. They ran across a clothing store where Aeris told Sephiroth about his statement of shopping the day before giving her leverage to buy a few more outfits and she forced himself to buy some different clothing to not enjoying the idea of him wearing the same thing day in and day out. After a noon meal they then proceeded to continue exploring the town and towards the outskirts they ran across a city park with a garden adjacent to it, that Aeris couldn't resist but go look at.
They sat in the middle where there was a center of plain green grass followed by sidewalks intertwining in a beautifully designed garden of all sorts of flowers and plants.
"It's so nice out here." She said sitting back putting her hands behind her and leaning on them. Sephiroth lay on his back next to her, like he did back at the camp with his hands behind his head. He remained silent. She turned towards him slightly concerned. "You seem a little stressed. What are you thinking about?"
He didn't respond.
"It's about what you did before isn't it?"
How can she know these things? He turned his head deciding not to ignore her anymore in an attempt to keep her from reading his mind. "A self proclaimed 'Chosen One' going on a quest to rule the world. A clichéd fairytale story, making the whole idea a bit unbelievable, but yet the fact it was unbelievable makes it something I'd be likely to do."
Aeris cocked her head confusedly at him. He sighed, "It feels like a dream, the memories fuzzy and missing pieces of the puzzle." He paused for a moment. "It's difficult being a machine with a broken purpose."
His face showed no sadness or pain, just content as he spoke such harsh and painful words. Aeris was at a loss of what to do. "You're not a machine, you're alive just like all the rest of us. And if you want to play that, 'I'm not human' card, look at me, I'm half Cetra and I'm happy."
Sephiroth smirked at her in a mocking way. "Aeris the only difference between you and a human is that you maintain a special relationship with the planet that the others lost in order to survive. You're the same inside as all of them."
Aeris knew he was right, but she didn't know how to respond. "So what makes you feel any different? Wasn't it all the same before you even knew what Jenova was."
Sephiroth laughed coldly and shook his head. "I knew something wasn't right." He summoned his sword. "Especially when I saw one of my Wutai captors do this," He took the blade, Aeris felt a fit of fear strike her deep inside, and he swiped it against his pointer finger as it fell to the ground. Aeris gagged at the bloody sight, "and then this happened." Aeris looked back towards his hand watching as tissues were quickly building against each other upwards back into the shape of his finger right before her eye. She gasped and she looked back down to find the old finger missing. Sephiroth dismissed the blade. Ignoring her dislike of the situation he continued, "Then I didn't believe my eyes, though the soldier sure believed his. I just thought maybe it was an illusion brought on upon stress. But I knew I was just lying to myself to hide from the unanswered questions."
He looked into her eyes mixed with fear and surprise. "I'm just an alien without a home to go to."
Aeris whispered softly, "If you don't consider here to be your home where are you going to go?"
Sephiroth shrugged against the ground stained with his blood. "They say the journey of life begins at ones birth. But it only qualifies as a journey if you have a home, a starting point to go back to. I wasn't spawned from the lifestream of this planet, mako to my living physical body is the same as water, I was spawned from genetic information and the memory and conscious of Jenova. So what began when my birth came was a life full of wandering, with no home to go to."
Aeris only stared at him at a loss of what to do. He spoke again, "I was just a walking limb created out of her cells regenerating and combining with human DNA. But now having been exiled from her being I don't know what I can call myself."
Aeris looked at him for a little while longer waiting for another musing. Seeing that he had finished as he moved his own gaze from her back to the sky she threw herself on her back looking at the sky with him.
"If only ShinRa had any idea what they were doing." She mumbled loud enough for him to hear. She turned to look at him then, "That's the last time I ever ask you what you're thinking about." She pouted. Sephiroth couldn't help but chuckle.
"Don't you like it a little bit though?" Aeris asked surprising him.
"What?"
"I mean don't you like being different, being special?" Aeris continued somewhat shyly. "I know I always have just a little bit. Sometimes I hated it, it was difficult to relate with others and they always called me weird when I'd stop and listen to the planet."
Sephiroth shrugged again against the ground. "I suppose, the extra strength and stamina comes in handy. As you saw the regeneration can be useful. Keen eyesight and hearing has always been useful too. The magic is less clumsy. Shapeshifting, flight, and teleportation have been only a little useful at this point."
Aeris's eyes widened as she listened to him list to all of his abilities. "Wow you really do have it all. I didn't know you could fly! How do you do that?"
"I'm not sure if it's appropriate to do in a public place." Sephiroth said imagining the field day the press would have if they saw his wing.
Aeris sat back up and looked all around, "I don't see anybody, and most likely if anybody walks around here they won't have a camera anyways so it's not like they can do anything."
Sephiroth shrugged, "I suppose it'd just be avoiding the inevitable." He stood up carefully and Aeris sat up straight again anticipation showing in her body language. As he finished standing up to his full height she saw a large black wing appear from his back. It held polished looking black feathers looking softer than the most well bred chocobo's.
"Oh. My." Aeris mumbled agape as she saw the wing began to move ever so gently against the wing and Sephiroth's feet leave the ground. He stopped at about half a foot above the ground.
He grinned at her surprise, he came closer to her shock paralyzed body and wrapped a strong arm around her waist. She squeeled as she felt her feet leave the ground every so gently. He stopped as she was a half foot in the air.
"It feel's nice to stand without your feet on the ground doesn't it?" He said in his baritone to the frightened girl who clung tightly against him. She didn't respond just stared at the ground she wasn't touching.
He descended back down and set her on her feet gently, he let his wing disappear. "Not what you expected?"
She shook her head violently at him. She then found the words she wanted to say several seconds ago, "You have a wing! It's beautiful Sephiroth! Is that what you really look like?"
He shrugged, "Perhaps."
"That's incredible, you're like an angel!" Aeris said excitedly.
Sephiroth didn't reply.
"Uh-oh looks like somebody saw…" Aeris said looking past Sephiroth to a gawking citizen. Sephiroth turned towards where her vision met it's object. It was a young woman perhaps around the same age as Aeris. Sephiroth couldn't help but smirk and wave at the frozen woman. Seeing that she had been discovered she gave a slight wave back and began walking quickly back towards the direction of the town.
"Guess who's going to be in the newspaper tomorrow." Aeris joked.
The phone began ringing in Sephiroth's pocket. He pulled it out and lifted it up.
Aeris looked and became alarmed, "If it's Zack I'm not ready to talk to him yet."
"Yes?" Sephiroth asked while nodding at Aeris.
"Where's Aeris?" Cloud's voice demanded. Sephiroth tossed the phone to Aeris she gave him a curious look.
"Hello?" She sang into the phone.
Cloud sighed peacefully on the other end. "I tried calling your phone but there was no answer and I got worried."
"Oh, I didn't bring it with me, I guess I should have."
"Yeah you probably should. Aeris, I just talked to Tifa and she just told me that you called her this morning." Cloud paused. "Are you okay? He's been wanting to get a hold of him but Reeve's been keeping him from it."
"I'm fine Cloud, it still hurts, but I've had a lot of help." Aeris replied.
"Good, Aeris you need to remember before you make any rash decisions that you should hear him out. I'm not trying to defend him, but give him a chance at least okay?" Cloud said.
"I know." She mumbled.
"Good. I'm sorry Reeve let you go with Sephiroth, has everything been okay? Have you been safe?" Cloud inquired worriedly.
She giggled. "Yeah I think I'm pretty safe, since he's practically an angel with his wing."
Cloud paused surprised. "Oh, yeah he has a wing now…" He said remembering the battle with the wolves outside of Midgar. "If you ever feel the least bit in danger with him Aeris, call us immediately."
"Okay, okay Cloud!" Aeris said getting a little frustrated with her innocent little girl image.
"Alright." He chuckled at his friend. "I'm going to have to go take another test Aeris."
They exchanged 'byes' and hung up.
"I get so angry when they treat me like a 2 year old." She said annoyed out loud.
"Maybe if you didn't always play the innocent little pink-clad virgin girl with a giggling addiction they wouldn't have to." Sephiroth said smirking at her ability to not realize it on her own.
She stuck her tongue out. "So what should I start dressing like you and being grumpy and having dirty thoughts all the time?"
"I guarantee it'd do the trick." Sephiroth said amusedly.
Aeris didn't respond. "Hey Sephiroth, since your such a sex symbol, I'm going to ask you something. Do you think maybe the reason Zack would do that was because I'm too innocent?"
Sephiroth looked at her with displeased features. "I'll tell you something that should answer that and all your future questions regarding this. Everything your mother told you about men, is absolutely true."
She thought back to what Elmyra had told her about boys and men when she was young. How they were selfish and only thought with their…downstairs brain. She smiled, "So you're even condemning yourself?"
Sephiroth nodded.
"Well then how am I ever suppose to find a decent man?"
"You don't. You find a normal one and learn to train it, live with it, or wait till it gets to old to do anything it'd want to." He'd seen all these solutions happen at one point or another to his soldiers after they had gotten married.
"So a woman would have to train you or learn to live with you?" Aeris asked a grin on her face imagining a woman trying to train Sephiroth.
"I'm not too off from feeling too old." He shrugged.
"Oh no you're not old! You just act like an old man because you were in the military. And it's not like you don't have any women that would mind having to get used to you. You're the most wanted bachelor on the planet remember?" She said teasingly.
"Don't remind me." Aeris chuckled at his response.
"Okay, well why do you think he'd choose Elena then?"
He shrugged.
Aeris stomped her foot frustrated she couldn't get any answers. At least she was able to joke about it now. "Have you ever cheated on a woman?"
He shook his head.
Aeris actually looked rather surprised much to Sephiroth's dismay. "I'd figure you've been with all sorts of women."
He shook his head again. Aeris decided to stay away from asking about his love life.
Aeris continued to try to start a conversation. "What do you think I should do to Zack?"
"Call him some bad names and make some threats."
Aeris laughed. "Do you mean it?"
Sephiroth shrugged. "It might make you seem little less innocent if you say bad enough things."
Aeris laughed louder imagining herself doing something like that.
"I doubt 'pooface' is going to cut it though."
Aeris laughed more at the comment. "I don't know what I'm going to do, I think what happens will just happen when it happens."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at the interesting statement.
"Ugh, what are we suppose to do for the next day and a half?" Aeris said becoming bored.
"Hmph, and I was starting to think you were the type of girl that didn't mind laying around all day."
"What? Are you saying I'm lazy?"
"No, I like laying around all day, am I lazy?"
Aeris crossed her arms and smirked. "Yes."
Sephiroth widened his eyes in slight surprise. "You sure are insultive for an innocent girl."
"You bet'cha!" She said smugly with a smile on her face.
"I think you were mistaken earlier as to which of us is the bully."
"Nuh-uh I'm not a bully, just giving you a taste of your own medicine." Aeris said not so smugly anymore.
Sephiroth was quiet not interested in the conversation anymore. "Aeris, has the planet spoken with you recently?"
She put her arms down sensing the urgency in his voice. "No, it hasn't. It said it was losing the energy quickly."
Sephiroth grabbed his chin with his hand in thought. He looked at Aeris deciding to share his opinions with her. "Aeris, I think those things we encountered yesterday, were attempts at a direct Jenova clone. Jenova's kind feeds off the lifestreams of planets in order to survive. So all those clones are most likely the same way, that's why the planet's losing energy so fast."
Aeris frowned. "How are we ever going to face multiple Jenovas?"
Sephiroth ignored her comment. "But the question is who are they using to make the clones."
Aeris shrugged, "How do we tell?"
"I don't know, I'm sure its only a select group of people or else we'd have seen a lot more show up. Kidnapping people isn't hard, but when you only have a select population it can be more difficult." Sephiroth sighed. "Tonight we're going to Nibelheim. We should find clues there."
A/N: Yeah I know, you are all probably thinking, 'was it necessary to make Zack cheat on Aeris?' and yes it was, something needed to come between them. Plus it seems to fit well with Zack's early Soldier character. Of course he wouldn't do such a thing now, but I think in the past it was entirely plausible.
