I don't own FFVII or any of its characters.


"You've been watching him for hours," Zack smirks lazily from the doorway.

He is surprised when his wife turns to him with tears.

"I've missed so much," Aerith whispers, her eyes taking in all of the changes. "I feel so good to be able to just touch him."

With a sigh, she pulls her son's comforter up to his chin. Her fingers ache; he had been but a baby when she last did this.

"Zack, can we talk?"


Dread coils in the pit of Aerith's stomach. She had been so brave earlier, but now locked within the depths of her old bedroom with an expectant Zack; she finds her courage draining.

Minutes tick by, and the air becomes more oppressive with each click of clock's hand.

"Zack," Aerith exhales, slow and unprotected," I don't even know where to start."

Her husband's eyes burn with an unusual intensity. It has been too long and she is too close. The skin of his skin aches for her. His body twitches in need to relearn her.

"Tell me," Zack whispers in a voice long ago. Aerith tries not to shiver as his hand brushes her hair behind her shoulders.

"Tell me everything."

"I can't" Aerith swallows, unused to their proximity. "At least, not everything…"

"Please," the SOLDIER breathes into a quivering shoulder. "I want to know my wife."

"Even if it's an ugly part of me? A part that's hard to love?" his wife murmurs, eyes dark and shining.

"I've always loved all of you," Zack husks. "There's a chance I could love that Aerith too. Don't keep me in the dark, Aerith. I have to know if we're gonna work."

Aerith breaks down at his words, starved for the kindness they hold.

"He saved me," she cries, choking on the words. "He saved me but not really at all."

"Who?" Zack ghosts over the apple of Aerith's cheek. He has missed this, missed her.

Shaking her head, Aerith tries to separate herself from Zack's heady presence.

"No…"

The man gently pulls his wife back to him. He keeps his voice soothing and soft.

"Tell me, Aerith. Tell me who," he commands as gentle as a breeze.

The scientist's shoulders slump as she decides to give in.

"When I was small, Hojo began an experiment on me"

Zack opens his mouth to comment but finds a hand blocking him.

"It was to save me," Aerith explains. "Or at least, it was intended to. I would have died Zack. I would have died long before we ever met."

Zack nods his head in understanding. When she is satisfied his hackles have dropped, Aerith continues.

"He injected cells, J cells, into my body."

Aerith tries not to be hurt by the way Zack jerks back. Saucer wide eyes look at her in disbelief.

"Like Sephiroth!? You're like Seph?" The man exclaims while trying to study his spouse carefully.

"No," Aerith shakes head, "and yes."

A million questions swarm Zack's brain, all them wanting to slip out at once.

"You could have told me," he utters with a deep sense of betrayal. "You should have told me."

Aerith rushes to her knees, fears decades old dragging her down.

"I was afraid!" she pleas, hands gripped tight into the thighs before her. "I was afraid you would see a monster."

Zack wants to understand her. But the betrayal! Oh, for but the betrayal. Does he really know his wife? Does he really know this woman at all? How many secrets, how many lies has she hidden from him?

Another thought strikes him, one that slithers and provokes as it slides across his tongue. His son. His son. His son. What have her secrecies caused his child? Insecurity and fear wind their way up his heart as he considers the possibility that Kadaj is not his.

"Is he mine, Aerith?" he gasps, with eyes filled with hurt and desperation. "Is Kadaj mine?"

Zack feels her nails scrape into his jeans. His breath hollows out as the room bleeds into gray around the specter of his wife.

"Is he?" He once again croaks, not sure if he really wants an answer.

There is a pause, a beat of breath before there is answer. Light streaks dance upon the area where Aerith's nail once rested.

"He is yours, Zack."

And, the room comes to color again.

"Is he human?" Zack presses, the urgency surprising even him.

Aerith still does not meet his eyes, her face buried in his lap. Is she trying to keep secrets there, in the space between his thighs?

He is what you will him to be," the woman whispers over his caught knees.

"That doesn't answer my question!" Zack snaps, irritated and bothered by the promise of his son's inhumanity.

"Aerith's eyes snap up to him then, haunted and exigent. Her stare could be emerald as it cuts into Zack deep.

"He is as human as I or Sephiroth," she whispers as if distracted. "A little less human than all those babies you wanted that I couldn't keep."

Looking at his wife's stricken face, Zack quells his anger. He had wanted things to work. She has given him a second chance and he told her he would listen.

"I'm sorry, Ae-"

"If we could go back and I told you everything. Would you have wanted me knowing I wasn't human?"

"I would," Zack growls firmly, and in his heart he knows it to be true.

"Would you have counted all 10 toes and held Kadaj so gently if you knew his blood came from an unearthly place?"

"I would," the SOLDIER once again affirms.

"Then why does it matter?"

Why does it matter? Zack thinks furiously on the answer. He has loved them without knowing. Why should it be harder to love them now that he knows?

"It just does," he whispers, not knowing why."But even so, I don't think I could stop loving you."

Aerith rises to her feet and comes to cradle Zack's face in a gentle hold. Her beauty strikes him, and in this moment, he cannot breathe. She looks at him then. Just looks at him and Zack is afraid to know what she sees.

"I wish I could trust you," she sinks with a forlorn look.

Her lips quiver as they brush past Zack's own.

"I wish I could tell you everything," She breathes lightly, her air drying the skin of Zack's mouth.

There is barely notice when Zack flips her onto the mattress. His hand runs up her thigh. It is the same skin; the same thigh he has loved a thousand times over.

"In time you might," he husks, peeling back buttons of unwanted clothing.

"Give me your secrets and I'll keep them safe," he kisses at the hollow of her throat.

"I can't."

The shake of her head moves his questing mouth lower.

"I'll convince you, Aerith," he says with a halo of light. If but men could be angels!

"And when I do, I'll learn you so right that we won't know where we begin and end."

He kisses her and her body succumbs to his needing touch. Later, when her eyes turn greener and darker than he knows, Zack presses himself harder and deeper into her throes. He will lovelearn his wife again. However, this time, he will learn all of her. No secrets from now, no secrets forever.