Summary: Aerith is back, and she has plans. Of course, so do other people, but theirs are probably not as much fun.

Chapter 13: I Am a Lion

Cloud was out of town on a delivery run when Zack's drake skin harness was ready for pick up, so he stayed the night in Sector 5. Well, the afternoon and then the night.

Aerith laid in her bed, knowing that Zack was right there – just on the other side of the thin wall.

After dinner, he'd developed a headache he couldn't shake, so all they'd managed was a little hand-holding, a little flirting, the occasional peck on the lips. It had been worrying, but mostly frustrating – wonderfully, deliciously frustrating – and it had made Elmyra happy, but still….

However, that was last night. This was today, and today Aerith had plans.

Wymer had a job that needed a SOLDIER, so they'd go to Sector 7 on the first run of Chocobo Sam's through the wall. They would go monster hunting, but later. First, Aerith fully intended on talking Zack into going to his place for an hour or two beforehand. And maybe in the middle.

Definitely again before the end of the day.

Cloud was scheduled to be back tomorrow, so they needed to take advantage of the empty apartment while they had it.

With a wide, wide smile of anticipation, Aerith jumped out of bed. She dressed in the new equipment she'd bought and put in the earrings Zack had given her that boosted her magic and just plain looked good. She grabbed her new PHS and her new staff with its extra materia slots, and she felt like a warrior woman.

Aerith smiled brightly at her foster mother during breakfast, while under the table her foot climbed Zack's leg. He squirmed and blushed and gave Elmyra so many helplessly guilty looks that she eventually gave Aerith a light whack on the back of the head and told her to behave.

Aerith giggled instead.

They walked to the village and Zack held out his hand for her to take. When she took it, he lifted her hand to his lips. "Shall we, m'lady?"

"We shall, noble sir." She gave a little dip of a curtsey.

She wore a light brown dress Elmyra had decorated with pink ribbons, and her little red jacket with oodles of buckles, and she thought she looked fabulous.

Zack, on the other hand, wore brownish pants, and a purple and pink striped button-up shirt with little green frogs dancing all over it. He also wore his blue drake skin sword harness, and everything clashed horribly with everything else, but he looked so happy in his bright colours that all Aerith could do was smile.

"So, we'll go to Sector 7, we'll meet up with Tifa and take care of that thing Wymer was talking about. And then we'll head on over to Little Da-chao. We'll have sushi and you can look at the shops. Maybe you find a new market for your flowers. Wutaian's like flowers."

"I'm looking forward to it," she said. "But after we go to your place."

"Why do we–"

She gave Zack a pointed look. He stopped, blushed. "Ahh, yeah," he said, rubbing his head. "Yeah. Before or after–"

"Both," she said firmly.

He laughed softly, still blushing. "Gonna have to buy more condoms soon. I'm down to about three."

It didn't feel like they'd gone through that many… "We should stop at the pharmacists today then," she said lightly.

This time his laugh was loud and full and lovely. "You are going to be the death of me, aren't you."

She smiled back. "Only little deaths."

They spent the next bit of time kissing, which was very enjoyable, but didn't get them any closer to Zack's bedroom, so Aerith reluctantly broke it off and led him towards Chocobo Sam's stand.

They got stopped on the way, of course. People saying hi and wishing them a good morning. Doctor Kellin gave them a list of ingredients he needed for his medicines. He couldn't pay much, but since he often treated people in Sector 5 for free, Zack wouldn't charge him anything anyway.

One thing Aerith had learned was that her initial idea that SOLDIERs loved fighting was entirely correct in Zack's case. He preferred if he was fighting to protect people, keeping them safe, but he was definitely happiest when he was in battle.

Aerith tipped her head, rethought: Zack was second happiest when he was fighting.

It had better be second happiest when he was fighting…

They finally made it to the chocobo stand. There were two other people there already, probably heading to Wall Market for work. A quick check of the schedule showed they hadn't (quite) missed the early run to Sector 7.

Zack flashed her a relieved look out of his bright, bright eyes, and Aerith wondered when she'd stopped thinking of them as unnatural. They weren't 'SOLDIER eyes'. They weren't 'mako eyes'. They were just Zack's eyes, and they were beautiful.

She would've said something, but he reached into the sky and caught a long, dark feather.

"Huh." He looked up to the plate, searching.

"What?"

"Nothing." He shuffled a little, embarrassed. "Well…." He gusted out a sigh. "It's silly."

Aerith gave him a poke in the ribs. "It might not be."

It took a few more minutes during which Aerith discreetly shifted them away from the other people waiting.

"You know Angeal had wings," Zack said softly. "I told you about that." Aerith nodded. Zack held up the feather. "I used to see them around sometimes, usually when he was in the area, after he, y'know, deserted." He twirled the feather. "I've been seeing black feathers around, and I was just…" Another sigh. "Wondering."

Aerith looked at the feather. It kinda looked like the Angeal griffon feathers before it got so sick. But not much. For one thing, "I thought Angeal's feathers were white?"

"Yeah, but…" Zack drooped. "Like I said, silly."

She stepped closer, wrapping one of his arms around her shoulder, letting her body offer silent comfort. "It's not silly to miss someone you cared for."

"Yeah, I mean. I miss him, yeah. But…" He looked around the narrow road. There were still only the two other people in the area. "Genesis and Sephiroth had wings, too. So that's all the Firsts except, y'know, me. What if…."

He fell silent, staring down at the feather. Then he pulled her in against his chest, she could feel his chin against her hair. "They all deteriorated or went crazy. Or both. What if…."

"Are you afraid that you're going to do the same?" She asked, already knowing his answer.

"Always," he whispered. "All the time now, since Hojo. Fuck, Aerith. He injected so much shit into me, I don't know if I even qualify as human."

She punched him.

Lightly, but enough to get his attention.

"Human is a state of mind," she said, staring up into his vivid eyes that reflected so much. "It means you feel, you think, you worry. It means you care. Do you think I'm not human because I'm partly Cetra?"

Zack's eyes widened in horror, and he hastily assured her that of course she was human!

She nodded, accepting his reassurances. "Then it's the same for you."

The wagon finally arrived, and they stopped talking about it, but Aerith thought that the conversation wasn't finished. Sure enough, once they were by themselves in the back – the only ones going to Sector 7 – Zack once again buried his face in her hair. "What if I grow wings?" he whispered.

"Then they'll be marvelous, and I'll love them as much as I love the rest of you."

The guards on the Sector 7 gate didn't look at them suspiciously anymore. They'd been through enough times that even the burly corporal deigned to nod in recognition.

They were close to her goal – Zack's empty apartment – and the anticipation was building. It was a physical thing – which made sense because sex was physical.

It was also more. Like bubbles in her heart, and flutters in her veins… When he picked her up and swung her for no reason in the middle of a space that was hardly big enough for it, Aerith knew Zack was feeling the same thing.

In the end, she convinced Zack to spend a full hour with her in his room. (Mostly by practicing oral techniques, which also kept their condom use to one. Bonus!)

It was a lovely way to spend an hour. He tasted so good, and he seemed to like how she tasted just as much.

She'd nearly never had this.

Zack had nearly died on a lonely clifftop not that far from here. It had been luck that Cloud had been close. Luck, not the Planet, that had given Zack back to her.

She refused to forget that – forget that Zack could be lost to her, so she tried to imprint everything into her memories: the sounds he made, the way his fingers felt on her skin, the look of his clenching muscles when she touched him just so. His mouth, his eyes, his hands, his scent… All of it was precious to her.

Afterwards, he held her close in his small room with its tiny window opening onto nothing. It smelled like them – their sweat, their sex. Aerith inhaled it and smiled.

"I wish I could go meet your interesting bookstore owner," he mumbled.

"And thank them?" she teased.

"Oh yeah." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"I'll give them an extra flower next time I go up," Aerith promised.

Cloud had been up with her once, but not Zack. He thought, and Cloud agreed, that it was too risky for him to take the train to the upper plate with all their ID checks. It was one thing, they'd said, for the Turks to know he hadn't been eliminated as planned. Quite another for a faceless security grunt to write the name down in a report and pass it up the line.

"Maybe nobody reads it," Zack had said. "But maybe somebody does – somebody who recognizes my name. Then a whole buncha layers of cover-your-ass military bureaucracy are going to try to reverse my survival before whichever executive gave the order finds out."

It made her sad, but she understood.

They took separate showers ("Or else we'll never get out here, babe.") and got kitted up in their battle gear. (It made her giggle to call it that). Then out the door.

"We'll meet Tifa at the gate to Scrap Boulevard," Zack reminded her.

Aerith didn't need reminding. The only time she'd seen Cloud's childhood friend had been when she burst into the apartment that one time. Right after she'd found out he was alive.

That hadn't been a great first meeting. However, if she was going to be friend with Cloud – and she fully intended to be – then she would learn to be friends with Cloud's friends. And that meant meeting them when they weren't shouting horrible things at her boyfriend.

And honestly, Aerith was looking forward to meeting Tifa Lockhart properly. When he talked of his life, Cloud rarely mentioned anybody by name, but he'd mentioned her.

And Zack had praised her fighting skills, so of course Aerith was curious.

"Were there any female SOLDIERs?" she asked as they swung hands.

Zack frowned. "Actually no. Although, I think there were some female candidates. I wonder what happened to them."

"Maybe they were recruited into something else," she suggested. Although it was more likely Professor Hojo had taken them away to be test subjects. He'd always been fascinated by a woman's ability to give birth. She shivered reflexively. Thankful once again, for her mother who'd sacrificed herself so that they could both escape from Shinra.

"Maybe," he agreed doubtfully. "Doubt I'll find out now, though. Why you asking?"

She shrugged. "Would Tifa had made it into SOLDIER?"

Zack frowned, thinking about it. "She's probably pretty close to a SOLDIER Second in terms of her physical power, but then so are you with your materia."

"Really?" Aerith brightened. "A SOLDIER Second?"

Zack nodded. "I mean, yeah. The thing that made SOLDIERs special – aside from our endless hours of training – was that we were good with both physical and magical attacks. We could do a lot of either and they were powerful."

"And your healing," she reminded him softly. The healing that had kept him from dying anytime in the last five years.

"And the healing," he agreed equally quiet.

They passed by a pharmacist's shop on their way to the Neighbourhood Watch office, so Aerith pushed Zack inside to get more condoms. People nearby gave her disgusted looks when she yelled at him to get flavoured ones, but Aerith just smiled at them sweetly. She wasn't going to apologize for wanting to have sex with her boyfriend.

When he came out, he was only slightly red in the face. "I got some healing potions, too," he said, running a hand through his hair.

She looked up at him very seriously. "I'm not ready for blood play, Zack."

She laughed at his look of absolute horror, and she kept laughing as she led him away by the hand.

Already the most populous sector under the plate (according to Cloud) Sector 7 was still growing. Specifically, it was growing out into what they called Scrap Boulevard. Slowly, steadily, the scrap was being moved or taken away. That meant open, mostly flat land, where houses and shops could be built.

It was desperately needed, Wymer told them, because the sector was always short of housing, especially since the partial collapse of the Sector 6 plate a few months ago. Lots of families had been pushed to the ground floor. Upper plate families expected space, he'd said, but they could only put in three small bedrooms.

He said this to explain that they were trying to cut down on the amount of space needed for the new buildings. Aerith wondered what Wymer would think if he ever visited her home sector. Families felt blessed if they had a bedroom that didn't also serve as the living room or the kitchen.

However, she wasn't here to compare living standards. The construction company had offered a nice reward if they could get rid of the newest monster that was endangering the work site.

"What is it again?" Zack asked.

"They called it a gargoyle," Wymer answered. "I took a look at it, and I've never seen anything like it."

Zack let out a breath. "Guess we'll use a materia slot for Sense then."

"Assess," Aerith said.

"Assess," he corrected. "That ought to make Chadley happy. Right Chadley?"

"I would be most grateful for any new data you can provide to me," the boy responded. He had the oddly stilted manners of someone who'd learned Common as a second language, or from old books or something.

"Cool," Zack bounced. Stopped. "Uhh, do we have that one, or is it on Cloud?" A quick search of their equipment showed that neither of them had the Assess materia, but Chadley had an extra one he sold them at cost.

Zack wouldn't let Aerith swap out any of her materia – "You got all the important stuff" – and Aerith agreed with a hint of guilt.

She enjoyed monster hunting. She specifically enjoyed monster hunting with Zack, but she sometimes felt guilting killing something that was just another creature of the planet, doing its best to survive. She didn't feel that way over one of Shinra's escaped experiments, but they wouldn't know for sure that's what they were facing until they were actually facing it.

She didn't want guilt to make her hesitate, not when other people were risking their lives – not when Zack's life was at stake. That meant not knowing for sure. Zack would assess, and he'd tell her the weaknesses and resistances and she would do what she needed to and feel a little less like a monster herself.

They walked up the short path to the gate – maybe a little longer than it had been a month ago. There were people on it – workers carrying bags of cement or shifting pallets of pipes. The construction crew preparing for when they could go back in.

At the far end, backed against the fence, was the dark-haired woman Aerith had seen so briefly a month ago. A heavy-set man stood in front of her, leaning in.

"Aw, c'mon, Teef! I know you like a good time." The tone made Aerith's nose wrinkle.

"Art, told you I'm not interested." Tifa Lockhart had her arms crossed in front of her. It may have been defensive, but it also emphasized her large bust. It was at Tifa's bust that Art was staring, and not the woman's very unhappy face.

"Well then, tell me, what's a girl like you do for fun?" he leaned closer.

"Kill monsters!" Aerith said brightly and loudly. Both Art and Tifa turned to stare at her.

"What the…?" Art muttered.

Aerith tipped her head and stared at the man. "Which means she's being very kind to you when you're not being very nice to her."

"Who the hells are you?" Art demanded.

"I'm a monster fighter, too. Not quite as impressive as Tifa or Zack." Aerith gestured to Zack, who'd moved to stand on her right. "This is Zack Fair. My lover." She grinned. "Former SOLDIER First Class. You may have heard of him."

"Hiya," Zack waved. The handle of his big sword stood up higher than his hair. "Tifa can almost kick my ass. It's awesome."

Tifa blushed.

They had an audience now. More of the crew and some people who'd followed Zack in the hopes of watching him fight.

Since they had an audience, Aerith spoke even louder. "And even if she couldn't squish your head flat as a board – which she apparently can - it's really not nice to harass someone who's turned you down. Why are you harassing her, Art?" she asked with maximum innocence and confusion.

Art looked around. "I'm not harassing anyone."

Aerith's eyebrows went up. "Really?" She turned to look at Tifa. "Tifa. Did you turn him down?"

Tifa nodded, dark hair swaying. "Yah, did. Sorry, Art, but I don't date customers. Full stop."

Aerith put her finger to her lips in a pose she called Pondering. "I guess you could stop drinking – she might reconsider then. But you've been rather rude, so maybe not."

Art scowled. "Bitch."

"Woah, woah." Zack stepped forward. "You're embarrassed and angry, I get that. But don't swear at my girlfriend."

Aerith smiled up at him "Thank you, Zack."

He smiled back, glowing eyes warm and sincere. "Anything for you." There was a soft 'awww' from the crowd.

Art killed the moment by pushing between them hard enough to knock Zack back a little and Aerith a lot. The ground wasn't completely even, and she got her feet tangled in her staff. Before she could fall over and ruin her image as a bad-ass monster hunter, Tifa caught her and held her upright.

"That was… wonderful!" Tifa said. Her arms around Aerith felt almost like a hug.

Aerith gave her a grin before pulling away. "Next time, customer or not, you should probably punch him in the nose." She brushed some microscopic dirt from her skirt. When she looked up, Tifa was staring at her like she was a hero.

"Tifa," Zack said. Then repeated, a little louder.

Tifa jumped a little, blushed a little, and turned to Zack. "Yes?" Her voice was a little shaky.

Maybe the encounter with Awful Art had upset her up worse that Aerith had thought?

But surely, Aerith thought, she had to be used to men like that propositioning her. She worked in a bar, wore short skorts over incredible legs, and had a bosom that Aerith could only dream of. So why was she so shaken?

So far, Tifa Lockhart reminded Aerith more of an awkward kid than a kick-ass fighter (but she could also be a little biased. After all, the woman did attack Zack for being Shinra.)

Aerith gave the fighter another bright smile, shifting closer to Zack in case Tifa attacked him again. She told herself to reserve judgment until after this fight was done. "Shall we go kill monsters now?"

Tifa gave another jump. "Umm."

Aerith turned to Zack, a question in her eyes. Zack, the fink, gave her a lazy smile that said he was enjoying something at her expense.

She smiled back the same way. She'd get it from him eventually.

The layout of Scrap Boulevard was different from the last time Aerith had fought here with Zack and Cloud, but it was easy to find the new monster. They just followed the trail of dead wererats and gorgers. They hadn't been eaten, just ripped apart and scattered.

They'd been killed and just left to dissolve.

"Why isn't the creature eating the wererats?" Aerith asked as they watched one sparkle into nothing. Nobody had an answer.

The path went up. High enough for a breeze to give them respite from the smell of garbage and rats that was thick in the scrapyard. There was a curve ahead, and from the other side she could hear screeching, hissing, and clicking, and finally the dull thump of a body hitting the ground.

"Think that's it?" Tifa asked.

"I'd say so," Zack answered, taking the sword from his back. "Doesn't sound like what we usually fight back here."

Aerith hummed in agreement. She held her staff in front of her and cast Barrier on each of them. "Ready?"

Zack grinned. "Let me check it out, draw its attention. You two follow when its back is turned," he said. "Tifa, me and you will flank it for physical attacks. Aerith's got Ice for the magic."

"That's the plan?" Tifa asked.

"Well, gonna see if I can sneak in an Assess first, but they're usually weak to cold." He crouched as they drew nearer to where the sound was coming from. Aerith and Tifa followed suit.

The problem with Assess, as Aerith had pointed out more than once, was that it took a few seconds to work. Which was okay when the thing they were facing was slow and half-blind, but not so good against practically everything else they encountered. It also needed a completely unobscured view of the monster, so when crouching and hiding didn't get Zack the information he needed, he stood up and walked into the unknown creature's territory.

Aerith's heart sped up. She knew Zack was tough, and Zack was quick, but knowing that didn't stop the bubble of worry filling her gut.

Whatever it was screeched. Its footsteps sounded heavy against the gravel and dirt, but they didn't come closer.

It seemed like forever before he made a sound.

"Ice! It's weak against ice!"

Both she and Tifa took that to mean it was okay for them to enter the fighting area. They rounded the corner together. "What the hells is that?" Tifa said, and Aerith had to agree.

The thing was big, as tall as Zack at the shoulder. It would've reminded Aerith of a turtle except it had six legs and a long, long neck. It also had a strong looking horn on the front of its beaky face, and there was something weird with its eyes.

It finally saw Zack and charged, making a screechy roar. It should have been slow and clumsy, but of course, it wasn't. Zack rolled out of the way.

Tifa rushed forward, moving even faster. She jumped, feet out in a diving kick that practically took out one of its legs. Aerith built her arcane ward around herself. It would let her do the most damage possible.

As it started to turn, Zack swept in, sword swirling around him like a deadly ballerina, and brought its attention back to him.

Aerith had to warm up her staff and her materia first, but as soon as she could, she cast Blizzara. The noise it made as the ice shards dug into it was deafening.

The second cast made it even angrier. Even Zack's thrust couldn't stop it from turning on her.

Aerith let the staff's in-built magic fly at the monster even as she prepared to hop out the way of its charge.

It didn't charge.

Instead it opened its mouth, and with a high-pitched wheeze, blew out a breath of acrid black smoke.

Tifa dived one way, and Aerith ran the other, but there really wasn't anyplace to go to get away from the noxious stuff. They were in a gully, the sides of it were tall, keeping out any kind of cleansing wind.

Tifa coughed and coughed again.

Aerith saw Zack fly up in the air before coming down like a missile, sword pointed straight down. It tore into the creature. He didn't stop there but ran up its back to swing at its neck.

Its head swiveled to attack him, so Aerith ignored the black fumes to cast more Ice on the thing, right where Zack's buster sword should land.

It was perfect. The Blizzara had enough time to make the flesh a little brittle, and that's all the big buster sword needed to shatter a whole section of it. The head toppled to the side.

Cut off from its brain, the body just dropped to the ground. It was already over.

Tifa coughed. The breath she tried to draw sounded harsh, like it had nowhere to go.

Aerith shifted her focus to the Cleanse materia she had equipped. She didn't have much practice with it because neither Zack nor Cloud let themselves get hit with poison very often. However, she used it often enough to know what Esuna should feel like. She cast it on Cloud's friend and immediately heard Tifa draw a true breath.

Aerith rushed over to the fighter. "Come on." She helped Tifa to her feet so they could move someplace out of the poisoned air. It was dissipating, but it wasn't gone and Aerith had no desire to experience it for herself.

The path that had brought them here sloped upward, so that's the direction Aerith chose. she helped Tifa to one of the larger rocks that lined the path. It was a little taller than a chair, but it would have to do. "You okay?"

Tifa nodded. She closed her eyes and the sparkle of a healing spell surrounded her, except it was gold, not green.

"What was that?" Aerith asked.

"Chakra," Tifa said. A healthier colour was returning to her skin. "It's a healing materia, but it also cures poison."

"It's a cool one," Zack said from behind her. Aerith jumped a little. For such a big man, he could move awfully quiet. "Here, found this." He handed over a pin in the shape of a feather. There were four slots for materia! Aerith tried to figure out how to attach it since there wasn't actually a pointy bit for sticking through cloth.

"What was that thing?" Tifa said.

"According to the reading, it was a Bag-na-drana," He tapped on the gold Assess materia to pull up the information. "Native to the Corel Mountains."

"Corel?" Tifa repeated. "What was it doing here?"

"From the surgery scars, I'd say it was getting experimented on," he answered grimly. "The question is, how did it get down here? Hojo's labs are on the 67th floor."

"They say there's a secret underground lab." Tifa said. "They said that about Nibelheim, too."

"There was a secret lab at Nibelheim," Zack pointed out. His voice and eyes filled with bleak memories. Aerith stepped closer, while Tifa looked at him in apology.

"Do you think there's actually a lab under the sector?" Aerith asked.

She saw Zack shake off the past, putting it aside for some other time. "It's possible. I mean, Hojo talked about manipulating summons, and those things take some room to cast."

"A lab large enough for a summon would be massive," Tifa said. "It would undermine Midgar's stability."

Zack shrugged. "Hojo wouldn't care. And from what I remember of the board, neither would any of them as long as they survived the collapse."

"You can think that, and not want to destroy them?" Tifa said accusingly.

He laughed, small and bitter. "Oh, I want them dead. I just don't want to die to accomplish it."

"Some things are worth dying for." She glared at him.

"And some things are worth living for." He reached for Aerith's hand and she grabbed it, holding on tight. She rested her head against his arm, whole and warm. She felt his chin rest in her hair as he breathed her in deep.

They were both alive.

"A little selfish, don't you think?" Tifa said.

Aerith swung to face her. "You have a right to your feelings," she said firmly. "But you do not have the right to force them onto someone else. You have no right to demand more of someone who survived what Zack… What Zack endured. Four years…. Under Professor Hojo… They left him there."

She was gulping for breath when strong arms surrounded her, holding her close. There was a soft breath in her ears, calming her anger, soothing her fears. Reminding her that he was here. He was alive.

She grabbed his arms, pulling him into her. Feeling the rhythm of his chest moving in and out.

Alive. Alive. Alive, she reminded herself. They were both alive.

She didn't pay attention to how long they stood there. It could've been minutes. It could've been hours.

"I'm sorry."

The voice was subdued.

"Shinra cost me everything," Tifa went on. "A whole village, burned to the ground, and they didn't care."

Behind her, Zack sighed. "We should mosey," he said. "There's the reward to collect, and showers to take." It didn't lighten the mood much, but it did get them moving.

It wasn't enough to hold Zack's hand this time. Aerith pulled his arm over her shoulders and wrapped her arm around his waist, lifting his shirt up until she could feel skin, feel its reassuring warmth.

He didn't call her on it or make fun. Instead he kissed her hair and rubbed her shoulder.

It was a silent trio that walked out of Scrap Boulevard, with none of the joy or satisfaction Aerith usually felt when fighting with Cloud. Aerith thought it would be another long while before they did a job with Tifa Lockhart. She'd been helpful today, but not so much as to make it worth the painful aftermath.

"I am sorry," Tifa repeated when the gate came into view. "Cloud says I have tunnel vision, where Shinra's concerned. Don't see anyone's pain but my own." She took a short, sharp breath. "He's probably right."

It was a decent apology. Aerith would maybe reconsider the hunting ban, but not this week.

They walked out the gate to a curious crowd asking, "Did you find it?" "Are you hurt" and "Is it dead?" They ignored the questions, because standing still and dark in the undulating crowd, was a Turk – no, two Turks. Not trying to blend in, not trying to sneak.

"Cissnei." Zack said to the smaller, red-haired one.

"Hello Zack. Aerith," the small Turk said to each of them. "And you're Tifa Lockhart."

Zack crossed his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"Who is that?" Tifa whispered to Aerith.

"I'm afraid I need you to come with me," the Turk said.

"Bad news," Aerith whispered back.

AN: Aerith's reference to giving Zack "little deaths" is deliberate. La petite mort is a phrase indicating post-orgasmic lassitude or even loss of consciousness.

Aerith might be aiming for the latter as an experiment. (I'm not exactly sure what all was covered in her 'very interesting' book.) Whatever they're trying, they're both enjoying it.