A/n: What's this, I'm alive?

Yes. Yes I am. I'm finished with College (for the next couple years at least, may go back for my RN some day). And I'm waiting to take my Boards. Which should be sometime this month.

And with classes behind me, I should have more time for writing, which means not having to wait months for a chapter. Yay! But I'll warn you know, I'm focusing not only on Otherworld, but my FFX The Man in the Red Coat, and the FFVII drabble-story Subtle, which will be posted later on.

Anyways, you don't care about that. You're here for the story. Unfortunately, this chapter turned out to be complete filler. A glimpse into Kagome's (and Sephy's) mind following the kiss. And of course, Gen insisted having a part. Maybe I need to switch the summary to Sephiroth/Kagome/Genesis. Yes/No?

~(Chapter Thirteen)~

Kagome thankfully sat down under the shade of a tree, slipping off her socks and shoes before soaking her aching feet in the cool mountain stream. It was late afternoon, with the sun starting to set behind the mountains, and this was the first break they had taken since they left Midgar around dawn. She understood why Sephiroth was determined to reach the Junon-Midgar mountain range before the rest. The area around Midgar had nowhere to hide; it had been a barren wasteland. It had been a while since she had seen something so unsettling.

The strange thing was she couldn't place why it unsettled her so much. Sure, there hadn't been a single blade of grass, and no sign of life except for bandits and strange monsters. But why had it made her feel ill?

She shook her head, clearing her own thoughts. It was probably just the combination of not enough sleep, the heat, and periodically using Materia during battles messing with her mind. Plus the fact her emotions were running high after last night. She had tried to forget about the kiss, she wasn't even sure it hadn't been a dream. She had been so tired, and Sephiroth…

Well, Sephiroth was still Sephiroth. Surely, he would have said something by now had something happen, right?

Maybe she was just over thinking it. Maybe it had been just a goodnight kiss her mind blown completely out of context. However, she wasn't sure how she could even dream of a kiss like that. But then, maybe that's how they did things on Gaia.

Ugh, this was so confusing!

Kagome suddenly froze when she felt a sharp metal point rest dangerous at the nape of her neck. Relaying partly on training and partly on instinct she let her Miko energy loose without any attempt to focus it. The resulting blast was enough to faze her attacker long enough to jump to her feet, retreating half way into the stream before turning, ready to fight.

Only to find Sephiroth standing on the shore, an amused expression on his face. Her fight-or-flight response dwindled as her anger rose. "What was that for?" she demanded as she crossed her arms.

"Making sure you were paying attention." There was a smirk on his face as he lowered the Masamune. "There are many monsters, human and non-human. You need to be on alert at all times."

"I know," she defended, relaxing slightly. "I just needed to think some things over." The amused expression on his face diminished into a cold, stoic look.

"Being distracted on a mission can have serious consequences." With that, he turned and started to trek deeper into the woods surrounding the stream. With his long strides, Kagome had to jog to grab her socks, shoes, and the overstuffed backpack filled with 'everything you should need' according to Elmyra. (Apparently, her late husband had been a part of the military, and she never forgot how to pack a mission bag. Still, she missed her large yellow bag, and wondered where it had disappeared to, along with her old bow she had been given by Kaede.)

The bottom of her feet complained as she treaded across sharp sticks and rocks, but Sephiroth showed no signs of slowing down. What was with him? One minute he's being… well, playful was too strong of a word but it was really the only one that seemed to fit, the next minute it's like he's purposefully trying to lose her. "Sephiroth!" she finally complained after stepping on a particularly jagged rock. "Would you at least slow down!"

To her surprise, he stopped completely and paused for a long moment before turning towards her. His face was still cold and unexpressive, which worried her. She took a quick second to slip back on her socks and shoes before confronting him, just in case he felt like storming off again. "Now," she started off as calmly as she could, "will you tell me what's bothering you?"

He was silent as he glanced up at the sky for just a second. "We should reach the caves before sunset. Most of the monsters here are nocturnal by nature, and Shinra will attempt to use heat-sensing equipment to find us." Kagome was tempted to toss something at him when he turned and continued with his insanely wide strides. Instead, she adjusted her backpack and started after him in a light jog. She really didn't want to be caught by either Shinra or monsters. She was already tired, and knew she needed a nice long break from using the Materia to let that uncomfortable feeling in her chest fade a little. She had been trying to use manly her arrows and her Miko powers, but there were some advantages of using thunder spells against the rouge machines known as Custom Sweepers, and the Cure Materia had proved indispensible.

That, and she was finding it hard not to use the Summon Materia Genesis had slipped her when he had kissed her goodbye. On the cheek, thankfully. She didn't want to imagine what kind of fight would have ensued if the ginger haired man hand kissed her frankly on the lips. She still had that feeling most of Genesis' actions were solely to antagonize Sephiroth. Once again, she wondered why it was her luck to be caught in that sort of situation.

Sephiroth watched Kagome out of the corner of his eye, and slowed down when she started to fall behind too much for his liking. To be fair, she was able to keep pace with him through the day far better than he expected, and proved yet again to be helpful rather than a hindrance. Not many others, especially those who weren't SOLDIER operatives, could do that.

Even with that, he knew it had been the wrong thing to allow her to accompany them on this mission. Yes, she was strong. Yes, he had little doubt that she could do this. Nevertheless, she was distracted. She was a distraction. And distractions were the worst things when it came to missions. How many missions had failed because the operatives were distracted? How many mission had he almost failed because he had been distracted.

And out of all his missions in his life, this was the most important. If this failed, not only was Ifalna's life at stake, but so was Aerith's, Elmyra's, Zack's, Angeal's, Genesis', and Kagome's.

Sephiroth paused at the mouth of the small cave. He already made a mistake by letting her come because of these emotions were indeed clouding his mind, how many more would he make? How many more could they afford?

"What happened here?" Kagome asked as she climbed over the last ridge, and saw the mess spilling out from the cave. Supplies, weapons, clothes, armor, Materia, all of it burnt or at least singe.

"Until three months ago, this was a stronghold for Wutai spies." He bent over, picked something up, and tossed it to Kagome. "The Mythril in these mountains will scramble any type of radar. We'll be safe for the night."

She watched as he disappeared into the cave before glancing down at the small glass bottle, filled with a light blue liquid. An Ether, if she remembered right. Genesis had dragged her away while Sephiroth was talking with Aerith and Zack, and had given her a brief lesson about Potions, Ethers, and Phoenix Downs.

"Ethers restore your magical energy," the red haired man said while holding up one of the small bulbous bottles. "Just to warn you, they are sickeningly sweet and sticky. If you have a few to spare, they're quite fun to pour into shampoo bottles." There was an impish smile on his face, leading Kagome to believe he had done so at least a couple times.

Before she could say something, he placed the bottle into her jacket's pocket (the jacket had been provided by Aerith, it was white with red triangles bordering the hood, arms, bottom, and the zipper) before he took another bottle out of his own pocket. "This is a Potion. If you can't use Cure, this is your best option. Unlike Ether, this doesn't taste too bad, but it does stain clothes yellow if you spill it."

"I don't think I want to know how you know that," she said lightly as she intercepted his hand and put the elongated bottle into her pocket herself.

"It's a shame SOLDIER uniforms comprise mostly of black." He grinned at her slyly. "But there is always Sephiroth's and Angeal's casual shirts." Despite herself, Kagome found herself smiling at the thought. Her smile faded as Genesis reached into his coat and pulled out a small glass box, no bigger than a credit card. Inside the box was a red and golden feather.

And it was glowing.

"This is a Phoenix Down," the humor had led Genesis as he placed the box in Kagome's hand. "Keep this in a safe place, but always have it on hand."

The box felt warm in Kagome's hand, like a stone that had been under the summer's sun all day. "What does it do?"

"Don't tell me you never heard of a Phoenix?" There was a disbelieving look on his face, causing Kagome to blush.

"Of course I have, but they don't actually exist!" she defended, "Are you telling me this feather…?"

"Is a feather of the Phoenix." Genesis nodded, "They're extremely rare, no one knew I had one. If you ever are knocked out, or worse, it'll revive you. But it only works once."

Kagome clutched it tightly before putting it into the secret inner pocket in her jacket. "Thank you, Genesis." She offered him a smile, which he returned. He glanced over to where Sephiroth had been talking to Aerith and Zack. Out of reflex, she looked over to see Sephiroth looking towards them. His expression changed from calm to annoyed when Genesis leaned over and placed a lingering kiss on Kagome's exposed cheek, one hand placed on her hip.

"Have fun," Genesis whispered in her ear as he placed another object into her pocket before retreating when Sephiroth stormed towards them.

( )

The good thing about fire Materia was it needed nothing but a small, steady amount of power to light the cave and provide warmth as the cold mountain night settled in, and there was no smoke to let give away their position. The mess that was spread outside continued inside, and it had taken some work to clear an area large enough for a small campsite. To Kagome's relief, there were only supplies and no remains left over from whatever skirmish happened here. She couldn't count how many times in the Feudal Era they had come across old battlefields filled with dead bodies, and she had never gotten used to the sight or smell.

Across from her sat Sephiroth, his sword in his lap as he cleaned the blade. While Kagome's eyes were focused on the blade, her mind had retreated to her earlier thoughts.

She had to know what happened that night, and how Sephiroth felt about it. How he felt about her.

Deciding that was easy, actually asking the SOLDIER was another. She wasn't shy per se; it was just a rather… awkward question to ask. "You know that kiss last night? What exactly did it mean to you? Because honestly, I find you really attractive and I would love to kiss you again and maybe go a step farther…."

… Okay, she was officially way too tired to think rationally. As if to prove her point, a yawn suddenly escaped her mouth, and she felt a blush cross her cheeks when Sephiroth looked at her, one eyebrow raised.

"I think I should go to bed," she said with a guilty smile. Sephiroth merely nodded his head before returning to his sword. Even though Kagome didn't really expect anything, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She sighed as she grabbed the rolled up blanket to use as a pillow; she didn't need a blanket thanks to the warmth of the fire Materia.

She would deal with everything in the morning. She would confront Sephiroth and figure out what exactly was going on between them, and not let it go unresolved. Sephiroth had been right, being distracted would only cause problems.