Well...it's been a while, hasn't it?

I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.

Yeah, there's no beating around the bush here. This chapter is late. Like, basically a whole year late. I'd throw around excuses, but you're probably not even reading this note, just carefully skimming through the first few lines of the chapter to figure out if it sounds familiar or if the lazy 'writer' has finally gotten off her lazy Pikachu backside to get something done.

My deepest apologies for the lateness, but I can confirm an entirely new chapter for any of my invaluable, faithful, ever-patient readers who still check up every now and then. I'll keep this short. Sorry again, and enjoy!

(I had this chapter actually written long ago... it's actually incredibly spooky how accurately titled it was. Well, not entirely accurate, to the chapter or to my lack of dedication to updates, but hey. Still spooky, yo.)

Chapter 36 - Commitment Issues

It had been five days since I had gotten out of the infirmary, and my injuries were little more than a vague memory now. Truthfully, I didn't understand why everyone made such a fuss in the first place - I mean, I wasn't actually injured, it was just a figment of my imagination, my brain telling me I should be injured even though I wasn't. It was obvious to me.

Shush.

But in those five days, something had begun, something that left an ominous and anxious feeling fluttering in my stomach. Mentions of psyche evaluations had made an appearance from the grapevine, meaning that the SOLDIER treatment could not be far away. Lessons, though having practically broken down from any basic structure or timetable, had grown more intense and less forgiving.

Cliff, taking over from Sephiroth in Survival Training classes yet again was brutal in his lessons, and I had the scrapes and bruises to prove it. Poor old Zack had his pretty little face bashed in and was currently failing to pull off a black eye. The Turks and Merowian were equally cruel; I felt I had suffered many twisted and hyper-extended limbs thanks to Reno, and my hair was heartbreakingly slightly singed just yesterday. Everyone was feeling the strain, apparently.

Well, except for Genesis. I hadn't seen him since he told me to have a few days off and that he was 'going nowhere'. He was one to stick very closely to his words, so I took them as they were and suspected my next training lesson would've been three days later, aka two days ago, but alas, no sign of him. My suspicion was that he was on holiday, kicking back in Costa del Sol with pretty girls bringing him drinks. I mean, I know dealing with me would probably get annoying, but he couldn't really have picked a worse time for it, could he?

I wasn't worried. And I really didn't feel let down. Really.

Roll your eyes if you believe me.

I hadn't approached Angeal about it just yet, though the idea had crossed my mind yesterday when he came to take Zack for a lesson. The Commander didn't even glance in my direction, which didn't give me much to go on, but it certainly made me suspicious. I was tempted to seek him out and question him, but my prideful and stubborn nature refused to let me. Let Genesis come to me; I had plenty to be getting on with on my own, let him seek me out if he so wished.

"What are you doing?" Ash wondered aloud, arms folded and standing in front of me.

I growled out a response, one that she asked me to repeat. I huffed in exaggerated annoyance, and glared with doubled fury at the item I had thrown across the room just seconds before. "Hoping that thing bursts into flames," I grunted my explanation a second time.

Ash comically looked from me, to it, and back to me again with raised eyebrows. "You mean Will's Rubik's cube?" the brunette asked another stupid question, and I scowled at her before lying down across the seat and sighing dramatically.

Okay, perhaps the 'plenty' I had to be getting on with was different to every other living person's definition of 'plenty'.

"Perhaps children's toys just aren't your thing, Coby," Ash giggled at me, patting my helmeted head in mock-sympathy. "Don't worry. I'm sure Commander Rhapsodos will take you for a lesson soon."

I jolted upright. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The only other female Cadet let out a single syllable of a laugh, grabbing an apple from her newly installed fruit bowl (suffice it to say, Ash need not fear her favourite snacks becoming the newest Cadet currency - Kawi mitched off with all our chocolate just yesterday and left all the tasty, delicious fruit) and jumping up to sit on the counter, facing me with a knowing expression that I didn't particularly like. "It's so obvious, Cobe. You're completely stymied without something productive to do; you need Genesis to keep you from going out of your mind completely."

Every word of it was true, and she therefore deserved a slap to the head. She protested, arms flailing in my direction as I slumped back in my seat. "That's not true," I sulked.

She rolled her eyes. According to my previously-established rule, that meant she believed me.

I wasn't completely sure what caused it, but Ash had returned to being her usual, slightly less insane self by the time I returned from the infirmary. Why, I didn't know, but I wasn't about to question it, as our track record of confrontations certainly was indication that I should avoid all sensitive topics like they were Materia. The best explanation I could come up with was that Will was now aware of my situation. Ash, like Ciara, seemed to be all for me telling all my trustworthy friends, acquaintances and mortal enemies.

I didn't approve. The more people know, the more people are in danger, and the more I'm in danger. Plus, Turkeys are tricky. I doubted I could trust Tseng even the slightest, despite his awesomeness, and I was just as sketchy about Will; I doubted he would be too concerned about my well-being if things went sour.

Still, if his awareness made Ash easier to live with, I almost wish he'd found out sooner.

I must have zoned out pretty badly, because when I returned to Midgar, I had face-planted on the floor next to Will's child's…extremely difficult puzzle…toy. Thank Gaia I didn't land on it.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position, and swivelled to look over my shoulder at whatever had caused me to launch forward; behind my chair, sure enough, stood Ash with a smug grin, and a long, nondescript pole. I performed a little contortionism to rub at a sore patch between my shoulder blades I was suddenly aware of, and exclaimed, "What did you do that for?!"

"You're bored, I have nothing to do, and we both need training to improve ourselves. Isn't it obvious what I did that for?" The cruel brunette smiled smugly, tapping her staff against the floor unconsciously. My blank expression must've been more obvious than I realised, because she sighed and went on to explain only moments later, "Let's spar!"

My eyes narrowed at the other girl, as I protested, "Who says I need training? I'm exactly as good a fighter as I both need and want to be right now!" My claim was beyond egotistical, evidenced by the puffing out of my chest and my smug grin, but those didn't last long; with a broad sweep of Ash's weapon, my face was reintroduced to the cold, hard ground, my left cheek throbbing and stinging from the unforgiving thwack.

"Doesn't look it," Ash's rebuke was simple, but it had me glaring and scrambling off to retrieve my sword, propped up against the wall.

I removed it from its sheath, admiring the gorgeous sound of metal scraping against metal, and settled into my most comfortable stance, until I looked around the room. "Is this the best place to be sparring?" I questioned, earning a roll of dark brown eyes. She gestured to the door with one hand, so I began to leave.

And was hit in the back. Again. I staggered, but didn't fall.

"What's your problem?!" I demanded in a shriek, spinning to glare at the brunette with gritted teeth. She giggled, took in my thunderous expression a second later and then stopped giggling, backing off just slightly. I advanced on her, and let out a yell as she darted past me and out the door.

I gave chase, and had my sword at the ready before her staff made contact with me a fourth time. The two weapons met, scraped off one another, and I followed with another swing of my sword.

The routine continued for an unexpectedly long amount of time. Perhaps due to the nature of her fighting style, or just because of her preferred weapon, but she just wasn't attacking. I got a little confused, but I felt she was in no actual danger - I hadn't seen an opening that wasn't immediately cut off with her pole yet - despite the awkwardly timid, defensive state she was in.

Our weapons connected again, and I made to ask her what was wrong - but I cut myself off. Literally. She faltered as soon as they came in contact, leaping backwards; my weapon was left to slice through the air and part of my arm before I discovered the problem. I gritted my teeth, instinctively gripping my sword even tighter in a rage, my eyes like slits as I glared at the brunette.

When I registered that she looked five times more horrified than I felt myself, my animal instincts were forcefully shoved aside and I dropped the sword, bordering on disgusted with my own reactions.

Something clicked in my brain, and I pivoted one-hundred-eighty degrees. In that spin, I took notice of the several Cadets grouped around us, but most importantly, directly behind me stood a smugly-grinning Kawi, holding the video camera in his hand at an odd angle in front of him.

He looked up at me, eyes wide as I approached. Almost absently, his hands sunk to his side, still clutching the camera. "That went perfectly," he announced, giving a breath of a laugh before taking off in the opposite direction; me immediately on his tail.

If I wasn't so disoriented, I might've noticed the two distinct, satisfied chuckles from either side of me, mixed into the crowd.

About three turns down the corridor, I caught up to the little idiot, and tackled him to the floor. He was giggling, never one to take anything seriously, as I rolled him over and held him still by the shoulders. "What was that?" I interrogated, irate.

"Payback," Kawi decided not to explain (he just got our chocolate again!), suddenly glaring seriously. For about a second, then he offhandedly shrugged, appearing not to care. Or, he tried to shrug, though I made it difficult, I guessed. "Or so I hear. Don't really care, to be honest."

I didn't answer for a few seconds, giving my mind a little time and peace to work. Eventually, I questioned, "From who?" in a soft voice.

"Those creepy twins," he answered with a shudder. "We had common interests. Actually, no, interests with a common goal. Or, that's not strictly true. Interests with different goals but a similar plan. In theory. Well, not really, they came up with the plan…"

I could keep up with the backtracking - just about - but it was irritating in that he was just avoiding my obvious next line of inquiry. "The plan, being?" I prompted, relaxing my grip and settling back into a comfortable sitting position on his abdomen.

He gestured with his hands, positioning them in front of him in the same way they held the camera earlier. "Reflection on the camera. I dazzled your girlfriend enough to be slightly blinded in a serious fight. The twins wanted revenge for something that happened a week ago, that they got in trouble for? They said she tried to make it worse, or something…"

"She tried to make it better," I corrected, confused. He must've been speaking about my most recent 'incident', and the telling off the Reagans got from Director Lazard. Ash burst herself and me into that room just to protest that I was fine and he was being too critical of the pair who put me in the infirmary for the umpteenth time.

Kawi shook his head, his wild spiky hair flopping around his head. "Don't know what to tell you. Don't care," he offhandedly commented, around a bar of chocolate he conjured up from nowhere and started eating. My eyes narrowed into a glare, but I said nothing about his improvable table manners.

"What was your goal?" I quizzed with a roll of my eyes, having decided that Kawi was beneath me. Meant figuratively, of course.

His grin was infuriatingly childish, as he replied, "I just wanted to screw with you a little."

I grunted, grimacing, and got up and off the littler boy, who soon followed and made a show of brushing off his Cadet uniform. He scowled at a few speckles of blood on his right shoulder.

"Should probably get that checked out," he nodded to my left arm, before wandering off. Absentmindedly, my right hand raised to cradle the wound, only just noticing it begin to sting.

Was I going to have to go to the infirmary…again?

I looked down at the wound with a sceptical frown, examining it. There was a fair amount of blood - the sensation of it running down my arm and dripping off my hand was unpleasant to say the very least - but it was very shallow, like barely even bandage-worthy. I think, for the first time, I had just managed to evade an overnight stay in the place, by the skin of my teeth.

That was a relief. As much as I disliked the place normally, my last visit felt weirder than normal. I couldn't put my finger on it, but instead of just being filled with vast, intense hatred at the thought of returning, I also got the faintest sensation of unease. I wasn't sure where it came from, nor did I feel too motivated to find out.

The sound of approaching, running footsteps jolted me back onto Gaia, gradually fading to a stop a few feet behind me. "Coby?" Ash questioned, sounding concerned and panicked, and my skin prickled where I could feel her looking at my arm.

"It's fine," I answered, "nothing to worry about." I faded back into my own head, looking down at the floor and trying to sort through all my speculations and wild theories. Once again though, I was jostled back into awareness by a particular sound she had made, and I asked her to repeat herself.

"Angeal," she said again, picking up on my meaning. "He heard about what happened, Zack got back in just enough time to see a commotion and let him know. He'll be down here in about five minutes, and you know he'll want to talk to you," she explained.

"So?"

Like a light switch, her voice flicked from soft and understanding to harsh and hard-hitting, as she began to lecture, "So I need you out of this mopey depressed attitude two minutes ago and ready to take my blame for me! People aren't particularly fond of me since the whole stunt with the twins, so the last thing I need is more bad attention, and if anyone's good at getting that out it's Kawi. Did you catch up to him?"

With a confused and mildly sickened look, I replied, "Yeah, I did."

Her wide, smug grin looked about as authentically cheerful as Kawi's, a thought that made me feel just the slightest bit ill. "Did he tell you why he did that? What an ass! I was just getting into my stride as well, I was enjoying our fight, and then he has to ruin it. I hope you broke his camera."

Once she had finished spewing words (words that, at that point, I had no desire to listen to - I would feel bad later) I voiced my sudden concerns in a short statement: "I don't trust him."

"Who, Kawi?" Ash hadn't caught on to my somewhat-depressed thinking. "Well, no duh, I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him, and he's small," she joked, poking me with a laugh.

"He fights dirty. He turned on the flash to startle you and knock me off. He couldn't have been happier with how it turned out, apparently…" I started to explain, trailing off as I thought about my brainwave some more.

"Yeah, so?" Ash prompted.

I turned on my friend, "So, this is a guy we'll be fighting alongside. Kawi's going to be a SOLDIER, just like the rest of us. And I know I'm not the most respectable fighter, or the best, and I haven't been the most obedient, well behaved gi-" I saw Angeal approaching over Ash's shoulder and just about died, but swiftly corrected myself, "-Cadet these last few months, but I'd look out for you guys. I couldn't trust him to do the same."

Ash looked downhearted, and looked at the floor, deeply sighing. Angeal must've caught my meaning, despite showing up at such a late stage in the conversation, because his expression was grave. Zack, bouncing along behind him, was blatantly unaware of the gravity of the topic.

Angeal approached me, and put a firm, reassuring hand on my shoulder. "You should have a little more faith in people, I think. Quite often it's the idiots of the groups that make the most dependable SOLDIERs. You know the kid doesn't mean harm, he's just not settled yet…give him time, he'll mature. Becoming SOLDIER might help him." When I looked up at him, doubtful but seeing his point, he smiled at me with a glint in his eyes. "Trust me kid, I know. A few years ago, no one escaped Genesis' pranks, not even Shinra himself."

Zack immediately pounced on his tutor, begging like the little puppy he was, pleading to know the story. Angeal simply rolled his eyes, ruffling Zack's hair, and it was amazing; Zack actually backed off. I'd never seen anything quite like it.

I had smirked at the mention of the anecdote, knowing I'd hear about it from the 'prankster' himself at some point - assuming he emerged from whatever hole he'd buried himself in five days ago. That thought put me back into the throes of depression, so ignoring my previous decision to let him come to me, I meekly looked up at Angeal and asked, "Where is Genesis, do you know?"

Angeal smiled at me, without cares. "He was called out for a mission, four days ago. I'm surprised he didn't let you know, but it was quite sudden, and I suspect he's being kept very busy," the Commander reassured me. Ignoring Ash's triumphant look sent in my direction, I thanked Angeal for the information.

"I don't…have to go to the infirmary again, do I?" I sheepishly enquired next, causing the three present to look down at my injury, still awkwardly held by my right hand. The First Class' expression turned serious, crouching in front of me.

He took a hold of the injured arm, carefully and slowly twisting it to see the wound around the blood. I noticed Zack becoming a little squeamish, but he seemed okay, though he did seem like he started staring into space. From somewhere I didn't spot, Angeal produced a white handkerchief, taking ultimate care to clean up around the wound without once causing me any more pain than the wound was already in.

Feeling considerably more lighthearted, I raised my other arm to press the back of my right hand against my forehead. "Pray tell, will I keep the arm?" I dramatised, earning chuckles from each of my cohorts.

"You shouldn't have done that," Angeal deadpanned, without even glancing up from his work. Ash snickered as I grimaced, realising that the hand I'd used had previously been stemming the stream of blood from my cut, and wiped my face along the clean arm to remove whatever blood was now on my face due to my idiocy. "This time, you'll keep the arm, just about," Angeal laughed, rising to full height after firmly knotting his handkerchief over the wound. "It's only small, it should be done bleeding by the time you get to your room. Wash it off, wrap some bandages around it and it should be fine," he assured me with a nod.

"So, no infirmary?" I carefully analysed from his answer, and when he repeated his previous action, I basically leapt for joy. "Thanks Angeal, best news I've heard all day," I enthused, ignoring the laughter of my friends, and waved as I walked off, Ash and Zack following after bidding their own farewells to the First Class.

"So who's up for a chocolate raid?" Zack immediately proposed once we were out of earshot of the responsible adult.

My enthusiastic agreement was cut off by Ash, saying, "Let's go for it." We both stared at her, appalled. "What?" she barked, before folding her arms and pouting. "He spoiled our spar, and tried to blind me. The very least I can do is take everything he loves and feed it to you guys 'til you're fat."

After a brief moment of silence following Ash's somewhat sadistic admission, I added on, "I'm also in! Though I really feel like I should clean up first…"

"Well, duh," they both replied snarkily, and I fell about laughing as they both cringed and glared at each other.

Angeal felt the slightest spark of guilt flare in his abdomen, watching the trio of Cadets depart; thick as thieves in their plotting. They might have thought they were beyond hearing distance, but SOLDIERs tended to have marginally better hearing than before their treatment. Also, this was Zack - his enthusiasm carried his voice quite some distance, and he was always enthusiastic.

Most people nowadays wouldn't be too affected by telling a lie. A little white lie every now and then would simply be forgotten, especially if it was for good cause. But poor Angeal had a heart of gold, and even the most well-meaning lie was still a lie, and that was dishonourable. It went completely against Angeal's strong ethics.

But what could he do? His closest friend had asked it of him, in that flippant, 'I-don't-really-care-if-you-do' blasé manner of his that meant he desperately wanted you to do what he requested without question. Genesis didn't often take that tone with Angeal, because both SOLDIERs knew that Angeal could see right through it. So of course Angeal would do as Genesis requested.

How could he not? His friend, the one he knew as well as himself, the boy he'd grown up with, was suffering. Angeal couldn't decide which bothered him more; that he was suffering, or that it was so blatantly obvious he was. Genesis had far too much pride to show his suffering ordinarily. And if he did, it wasn't for too long.

So for the restless Commander to be stuck in the First Class Common Area every hour of the last four days naturally sent alarm bells ringing. Sulking like a child, his arms folded across his chest, slouching on the comfy sofa, apparently leaving only to sleep - at least, Angeal had believed as much, until he'd arrived in the morning and saw his friend snoring, in the same sulking, slouching position. His arms were even folded, his chin resting on his fully clothed chest.

So Angeal was mystified when the room was unoccupied upon his arrival only a few minutes later. The SOLDIER was furious.

He knew Genesis would be in one of two other places. And Genesis would not be in his room, as that morning had proved. Fuming, Angeal stormed into the lift from which he had just emerged, pressing the '49' button.

The First Class was not too pleased to be proven right only a minute later. "Again, again!" Angeal heard his closest friend holler from across the room.

Almost immediately after, Angeal's face was lit up by blasts of powerful lightning streaking through the air from their source to Genesis. Angeal did not break his swift stride towards his friend, and equally Genesis declined to react, taking the bolt of electricity without a sound.

His feet were spread widely apart in a wide, battle-ready stance. His arms were tensed, hands clenched tightly into fists. His teeth were similarly gritted, his eyes screwed shut and his entire face scrunched into a pained grimace. Even taking into consideration the blue-white light from the materialised lightning, Genesis looked frighteningly pale.

Mere feet away, Angeal yelled, "Knock it off!" to the source of the lightning. As immediately as it had come, the lightning disappeared from existence, leaving a sheepish-looking Second Class in its wake, carefully lowering his right hand from its raised position, still clutching the green crystal sphere with a white-knuckled grip.

"Sir," he stood to attention, feet spread apart and hands behind his back, head raised high.

The Commander ignored him for the moment, his concern for his friend taking precedence. "Genesis, why are you doing this?" he enquired, his tone soft but his eyes sharp. Since the lightning had stopped, the adrenaline was receding in the redhead, and it showed; the once-proud and stubborn SOLDIER doubled over on himself, gasping like he'd not breathed for ten minutes before.

For a few moments, Genesis declined to answer, catching his breath. Eventually he looked up at his friend from his position, his eyes red and his face ghostly white. "I have been lax," he confided, whispery as he still panted. He straightened himself to his full imposing height, but the effort, the pain and the stiffness led to the SOLDIER grunting and falling back to a slouch, one arm carefully cradling his abdomen. "I haven't had a serious mission in months, nor a proper training session in weeks. The outcome of our recent spar has taught me that much."

Genesis never took defeat well. He may not state it outright, but he always had someone or something else to blame for his loss. That said, Angeal knew his friend also wasn't the most gracious winner; either he became irritatingly smug until his next defeat, or he became infuriated at the notion that his opponent had not tried their best, and demanded a rematch.

But to Angeal, nothing could be worse than this. After a defeat, to watch his friend fall into a spiral of rage and disappointment at himself, and only re-emerge when he felt he had adequately tortured himself enough not to lose again. Genesis' pride and confidence was based on his ability to succeed, and he had a lot of pride to maintain. And because of this, Angeal could do nothing, only watch his friend put himself through this nightmarish routine, over and over. And he hated it.

"So you're going to abandon Blue now? At the very last hurdle, after all this time you spent training and teaching the kid…that's it?" was all Angeal could think to ask. Due to his friend's response he could deduce that his innocent student was apparently to blame for his most recent defeat. Angeal wasn't about to avoid the sore subject; Genesis needed help, and dodging the elephant in the room would be of no benefit.

Genesis glared sourly at him, confirming Angeal's deduction. "So what? I have done plenty for that infant, he is leaps and bounds ahead of his comrades, will receive the treatment without hitch and turn into another mindless SOLDIER for Shinra to make use of," he grumbled quietly, aware of the Second Class still stood to attention.

Angeal turned to the out-of-place SOLDIER, and requested, "Your name, SOLDIER."

Mako-infused eyes flickered to the First Class addressing him, and he reached up to remove his helmet, revealing a head of ruffled, almost-white blonde hair and an awed, if not slightly concerned expression. "Killian Zerman, sir," he introduced himself formally, head high, back straight, feet together and hands at his sides. Behaving every inch the perfect SOLDIER. It was like the man was completely oblivious to what Genesis had just said, and the irony of how he was exactly the kind of person Genesis was showing more than contempt for with his last remark.

"I hope you understand that nothing of what's said here is to be repeated," Angeal commanded sternly, hoping to scare him straight. The threat of even one First Class' rage should be enough, let alone two, to keep Genesis' actions and words under wraps. Not that it truly mattered - First Classes had an awful lot of wiggle room with the rules. Genesis tended to test those boundaries more often than not, though…

The boy blinked, suddenly looking a lot less like the perfect SOLDIER and more like an actual person. "Of course, Commander," he answered, looking at the floor. After a moment, he looked back up, grinning sheepishly. "To be honest, I was a million miles away there, I didn't hear anything either of you were saying."

Following a pause, and with a furrowed brow, all Angeal could think to say was "…Good."

"Angeal…" A grunt grabbed the Commander's attention from the spaced-out SOLDIER. Genesis had fallen to his knees as the pair had conversed, and Angeal put his hand supportively on Genesis' shoulder. "I think…I would like a dumbapple."

"Of course," Angeal agreed, smiling.

Prepared to carry out his childhood friend's wish, Angeal turned to the other SOLDIER, and gazed in amazement as he seemed to be completely zoned out, apparently staring straight through the wall on Angeal's left. Mildly concerned, the First Class approached him and waved his hand in front of his face.

Mako eyes sluggishly started to follow the movements of his gloved hand, and after some rapid blinking, Killian had joined the living once again. Before he could flounder out an apology, Angeal silently gestured to the exit, and after looking a final time at Genesis - who was slowly easing himself into a lying down position on the floor - Killian followed Angeal out of the room.

As soon as the door slid shut behind the pair, Killian asked, "Does he do this a lot?"

"More often than I'd like him to," Angeal admitted after a grunt. The Second Class looked downcast.

"I tried to go easy, but he called me out. He'd looked me up beforehand, he knew I'm the best Materia user in my faction. He seemed to be taking it pretty well until you showed up, and I swear I would have refused if I knew any way to," he pleaded truthfully, and Angeal waved him off.

"You were following orders, it's fine. Genesis isn't in the best place at the moment, and this may have actually helped him, believe it or not. You tell no one about this, and I'll make sure no one finds out about it. Are we clear?" Angeal proposed, Killian nodding before Angeal had even finished.

"I'm not a gossip, and even if I was, it's not a particularly interesting story to tell," he shrugged. "It's not like I bested the great Genesis Rhapsodos in a Materia battle, now there's a story I'd like to tell! I need to train until I can claim that as true…I'm not as good as I thought I was earlier today."

Concerned, Angeal advised, "I wouldn't use today as a basis for your training. Please don't go seeking out bystanders to shoot lightning at you." Killian was laughing before Angeal had finished his plea, but said nothing to put Angeal's mind at ease, simply waving at him before turning to walk down a different corridor.

Angeal sighed, shaking his head with a faint smile, before refocusing his mind back on his current task. He made his way to the First Class Common Area, grabbed a bag, literally filled the thing with dumbapples - always imported and available for the Banorans, as requested - and returned to the Virtual Training room with no interruptions.

Upon arrival, Angeal headed straight for the controller and started to input information, ignoring Genesis' gruff grunts in the background. Only when the room itself started its gradual change to Angeal's selected environment did the Commander turn and approach his friend, who was more-or-less on his feet, none too solidly however.

"I'm fine, Angeal," Genesis grunted, even as Angeal wrapped his friend's leather-coated arm about his shoulders and carefully pulled so Genesis would have no choice but to lean on him. Angeal didn't respond, though he was filled with satisfaction when his friend breathed a sigh of relief.

When the magic and technology of the program had successfully created the environment, the pair carefully made their way over to the base of a huge Banora White tree, Angeal still with bag in hand. With no shortage of pained moans and grunts, Genesis was slowly eased down to a seated position with the tree at his back, Angeal fussing about him to make sure he was comfortable before sitting down himself.

And on the peaceful land the Rhapsodos' owned, the friends shared dumbapples and reminisced fondly on simpler times.

Behold, my majestic return to FanFiction!

Uhh...yeah. Don't say anything. In fact, do say everything. I want my inbox inundated with reviews and things! Lots of cyber hugs and 'We missed you!'s and things like that.

I'm gonna take this opportunity again to sincerely apologise for making you all wait so long. Truly, it was downright awful of me to leave it this long, with no significant reason. Just procrastination, constantly putting it off. I'm far from perfect, but at the very least, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Huge thanks to my reviewers from the last chapter (all those months ago...), grandshadowseal, LunaEtSidera, XXTakaraXX and 2ndUzukage, it's the folks like you that kept this from being any later, as well as peinisimo (and grandshadowseal again XD) for poking and prodding me once or twice with reminders that people were waiting.

I'll leave it there, with a promise: I'll try not to let updates get that far apart again.

Toodles, noodles!