A/N: I know this is embarrassingly late. I got sick and everything I tried to write was just awful. This must be the fifth version of this chapter and it's still pretty questionable. Regardless, here it is, finally. Thanks everyone who has given feedback.

Disclaimer: still not mine.

Chapter 25

Hawke was sitting comfortably in Genesis arms, entirely relaxed despite being miles above the ground.

Their spontaneous make out session in the middle of the sky had been abruptly interrupted when Genesis got a little too lost in the moment and forgot to keep flapping his wing.

A sudden drop and a lot of swearing later, the moment had been thoroughly ruined.

Hawke had been flustered and secretly a little flattered. She decided, most begrudgingly, that she had to stop distracting him lest they both become a permanent part of the desert floor.

Instead she told him to keep flying as their destination wouldn't be coming to them.

Grumbling something about not being a taxi, Genesis continued flying them to the little town where the helicopter awaited. While infinitely faster than walking it was still quite a distance and they wouldn't be arriving for a few hours yet. Hawke just enjoyed the ride, feeling perfectly safe with a pair of strong arms wrapped around her and an amazing view surrounding them.

She left Genesis to the whole flying business.

That left her still completely entangled in him with no way to move that didn't involve an awful lot of wriggling against him. She was clinging to him with her legs wrapped tightly around his hips. How terribly improper.

A small smile lit her face and she rested her forehead on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and just enjoyed the oddly peaceful moment. Even with the wind whistling past it felt still and silent around them, as if they were in their own little bubble of quiet over a hectic world. It was a novel feeling. She sighed contentedly.

Had she ever been held like this before? She didn't know. It was… nice. Just calmly being held and letting someone else sort out the problem at hand.

She had held her loved ones safely in her arms many a time. Comfort was hardly her trade but for those close to her she had all the comfort in the world to give. She had held a young Carver missing Father, Aveline mourning her husband, Varric grieving his brother, Merrill after the loss of her tribe, Genesis discovering his wing, the list was endless. Between dodging demons and slaying slavers, she held her people up however she could.

The opposite, however, just didn't happen.

Why would it? She was the eldest sibling, the head of the family, the leader of the party.

The Champion of Kirkwall.

Why should she need to be held?

Funny, she'd never really thought about it before.

Sitting in Genesis arms now, completely relaxed and letting him do all the holding for a while, she realised she had absolutely been missing out.

This was something she could get used to. When they were on the ground again she would undoubtedly stand up and hold her own, as she always had. But for now, in the quiet night sky where there was no harsh sun to burn through flights of fancy, she was content to be held.

With nowhere to go and really nothing to think about except the man she was clinging to, Hawke decided she was done fretting over her situation on Gaia. It was time to cut that nonsense out.

Plans and doubts and hesitation weren't really her style anyway. For the moment she was on Gaia, as was Genesis, and she could be quite happy with that. Anything else she would deal with as it cropped up. Rolling with the punches was her greatest strength; right now the punches came in the form of an incredibly attractive man who was obviously interested in her. For Andraste's sake, how was that something to complain about?

She couldn't deny that she was, in fact, rather fond of him as well.

And that was such an absurd understatement she rolled her eyes at her own denial. For all his infuriating, self-important, poetry-obsessed tendencies, Genesis was steadily working his way into a very dear part of her heart and probably very pleased with himself about it. He had made his own feelings for her perfectly clear and they were returned far more then she was ready to admit just yet.

That and she was a sucker for red heads.

It had been quite some time since she'd really felt this way about anyone. There had been Fenris, once, but that ended almost as soon as it had started. One ill-advised night and the months of awkwardness that followed had locked the door on that possibility. Both of them had decided against searching out the key.

This was very different. Genesis was very different. She had absolutely no idea where they were going and that thrilled her.

And even if everything went tragically wrong further down the road, well, didn't it always? She may as well make the most of the situation while it lasted.

Having dismissed her fears, she slowly drifted off.

Above her Genesis flew on, seeing she had fallen asleep and not wanting to disturb her. Draped over him as she was, he could smell the scent of blackberries and ozone that always followed her around. She gave a barely audible sigh in her sleep and nuzzled into the crook of his neck.

He didn't want this quiet moment to end. And not just because Hawke's body was completely pressed up against him, though that certainly didn't detract from the point. This moment of peace was tender and intimate in its simplicity.

How very typical. They always were closest when asleep.

No quiet lasts forever though and soon their destination came into view. Cosmo Canyon had long since disappeared beyond the horizon and the sun was just beginning its long trek across the sky.

They landed.

The two mages separated and stood on their own two feet again, resigned to facing the waking world.

One helicopter ride later the holiday was officially over.

Hawke walked to the church. The decaying gothic building stood unchanged from when she'd last been here, over a month ago now.

She could already hear the sounds of Zack and Aerith's laughter filtering out through the slightly ajar doors. She had seen Aerith only once since being kicked out of the house, she hoped the girl was doing well. After over six months of tutoring her, she had grown quite attached to the young Cetra.

"Morning Reno." She said to the Turk lounging outside the church with a cigarette dangling from fingers.

"Heya Hawke!" he said, a crooked grin splitting his face. "Haven't seen you 'round here lately."

"Yeah well, I had stuff to do. How are things?" she asked, nodding at the church door.

"Eh, same old. Boring as hell. How's Rhapsodos?" he asked with a leering grin.

"Spiffing, why do ask?" she said dryly.

"Should have known you're into red heads. Let me know if it doesn't work out, I'll be here for the rebound." he said with a wink.

She snorted. "Not on your life. See you Thursday?"

He agreed and she walked past, pushing the door open.

The sight she was met with had her pausing just inside the door.

Aerith was twirling her staff, glowing strands of green energy sung around her in swirling arcs while Zack watched with a look of awe on his face.

Aerith caught sight of her and faltered, the magical strands dissipating.

"Hawke!" she called out, an overjoyed look overtaking her face. "Welcome back!"

Zack still looked stunned. "Did you know Aerith's a Cetra?" he called out. "Well, she totally is! Isn't that cool?"

Hawke snickered lightly. The love-struck look on Aerith's face at her boyfriend's easy acceptance of her heritage had her fondly rolling her eyes. There would always be people frightened by mages, but Zack was too nice a guy to be anything other then fascinated.

"Yes, Zack, it's very cool." she said, approaching them where they stood next to the flower lined pond of magical potion that was apparently a permanent fixture now. "I'm not interrupting anything am I? I can come back later if you'd like?"

"No, no! Stay, please!" Aerith said, before dropping her staff and giving her a tight hug. "I missed you." she mumbled into Hawke's shoulder.

"I missed you too." she said, returning the embrace. Aerith didn't have a lot of friends and looked up to her like a big sister. Hawke knew how important bonds like that were and had tried to keep in touch with the little Cetran mage but it had been a few weeks since they'd talked.

"I've got to get going now anyway." Zack said, standing a couple of meters away. "I'll see you two around. Take care, Aerith." he gave a jaunty salute and strode off.

Hawke watched him walk off and decided she approved of Aerith's taste in men.

"So," she said, looking back at Aerith who was picking up the fallen staff and placing it on her back with a pride that Hawke smiled at. "What have I missed? And what was that spell you were doing when I came in?"

They sat beside the flower patch and spent the rest of the day catching up.

Midgar above the plate was just as unchanged as Midgar below. Genesis returned to find Shinra still going about its shady business, the slums still rotting beneath the plate where nobody important had to acknowledge it, and a wealth of paperwork still forever accumulating on his desk. For the moment, none of that mattered because Angeal was awake.

He quickly changed out of his dust covered clothes and went directly to the infirmary. There he found a clearly healthy Angeal telling a concerned nurse that he absolutely did not want to stay in bed any longer.

"I'm fine- really, I feel in top shape. There's no reason for me to be taking up a bed someone else might need." Angeal said, as always feeling uncomfortable under too much fussing.

"Are you sure, Commander Hewley? We don't want you to over-exert yourself." said the elderly nurse as she pushed her glasses back up her nose.

"I've been under for almost a month; the only thing I'm tired of is sleeping."

"We're tired of you sleeping as well." Genesis said lightly, stepping further into the room where Angeal could see him. "Do you know I've had to do all of your paperwork on top of my own?"

"You never do any paper work, Genesis; you get your secretary to do it all." Angeal said with a smile.

"And I've had to hire a second one to keep up with the workload. Recover already, would you? I'm thoroughly sick of my office having so many people wandering through it." he casually leaned back against the wall facing his friend.

Angeal snorted.

He had spent far too many hours in this room, watching Angeal edge ever closer to death. Seeing him moving about, vibrant and alive; it was almost surreal. The nurse gave him permission to leave and then left them to their conversation.

"It's good to have you back." Genesis said quietly.

"It's good to be back." he sighed "You know that they don't even know why I recovered? I just suddenly stopped dying and everything fixed itself." he looked at Genesis with narrowed eyes that had always seen more than he wanted them to.

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess." Genesis said with a theatrical gesture. He received an oh-so-familiar roll of the eyes that he had missed terribly.

He would have to remember to pay Aerith back. Not that anything could equal his gratitude for this. But in the meantime, he wouldn't mention her name since she was technically in hiding. Sephiroth already thought it was all Hawke's doing and he wouldn't disillusion him. It was largely her doing anyway, from a certain point of view.

He spoke easily with his recovered friend, just enjoying his company and catching him up on all that he had missed during his month of being comatose.

"You know, while I was... you know, in a coma, I kept thinking I could hear someone." said Angeal, looking uncharacteristically hesitant. "It must have been one of the nurses. I thought they were telling me to… I don't quite know, I guess it doesn't matter."

"Telling you to what?" Genesis asked, wondering what he was talking about. He'd heard that coma patients were sometimes aware of what was happening around them, but why was Angeal so nervous about it?

"I don't know." Angeal paused, looking uncomfortable and doing a poor job of hiding it. "It was strange. I could hear you and Sephiroth when you came to visit, but this, it felt like it was only in my head." he shook his head, trying to shake off his discomfort.

Genesis studied his old friend, and tried not to show how alarmed he was.

"What was only in your head?" Sephiroth asked, stepping into the room.

"Oh, hello Sephiroth," Angeal said "It's nothing much. I was probably just hallucinating. There's nothing important about my fever addled mind." He was beginning to look a bit like cornered prey.

Sephiroth's expression was as inscrutable as always.

"It's probably the medication." the general said after a pause, "I've occasionally had the same, when called into the labs. Some of their drugs have… unusual side effects."

Angeal's relief at the explanation made Genesis all the more concerned.

"You're right, that's all it was." Angeal said, standing up. "Well, I'm getting out of here while before the nurses change their minds. I'll see the two of you later."

Genesis and Sephiroth watched in silence as he left.

"He wasn't on any medication." Genesis said, feeling cold.

Sephiroth didn't say anything.

A/N: Thanks for reading! As always, reviews are not required but are greatly appreciated :)

Next Time: Breaking and Entering and then more Breaking