"Hey." Aeris said simply and helped him sit upright.

"It's really you!" Cloud pulled Aeris into a tight hug.

"Yes, yes it's me!" Aeris chuckled returning the hug. "Oh I missed you Cloud."

"I missed you to." He replied, and for a moment, nothing was said until Aeris looked away uncomfortably.

"Well," she said getting to her feet, " I assume you came here to do more than just say hello."

"Oh yeah. We came to meet you and to see if you'd like to join us on our trip to see the whole group. I know they'd be just as glad to see you again, and since you sort of...appeared I guess, I assume you have no place to stay." Cloud stated as he picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"Yeah." Aeris said slowly.

"Well I'm sure one of them would be glad to have you stay with them for awhile."

"Well, I do need a place to stay."

"And who better to stay with than one of your best friends." Tifa said smiling.

Aeris chuckled and returned Tifa's smile. " I suppose you're right. Shall we be off then?"

So it was decided, Aeris was joining them on their journey. Before leaving Midgar they stopped off at the new and improved Wall Market and bought Aeris some new clothes, a new staff, and other necessities.

"I'll pay you back as soon as I can." Aeris promised as they left Midgar.

"Nonsense Aeris!" Cloud said as they approached the boulder Sephiroth was waiting near. "Call it a gift from all of your friends. It's the least we can all do, especially after all you've done for us."

Aeris blushed and said nothing.

"Sephiroth!" Tifa called, announcing their presence to the dozing man.

He jumped slightly as he woke up. "Oh hey." He said as they came into the shade of the boulder. " I see we've added one more to our little group. How are you doing Aeris?"

"Very well Sephiroth." Aeris replied, their eyes locking briefly.

"That's good to hear." Sephiroth replied after a moment's pause.

"Well, let's get going shall we?" Tifa said.

They all nodded and began to load their packs onto the two chocobos.

"Want me to get your pack Aeris?" Cloud offered

"No thanks Cloud. I can do it." Aeris gave him a quick smile and secured her gear.

Once everything had been prepared they all mounted the two chocobos, who were looking rather disgruntled at the fact that they had to bear two riders and all their stuff each.

"It's off to the Mythril Caves." Cloud said with a flourish. The others just stared at him "Or not." He grinned sheepishly. Aeris chuckled and Sephiroth just gave him an amused grin.

"Mythril Caves it is...ya weirdo." Tifa joked giving the back of his head a tap.

The group had just begun crossing the Midgar Marshes when thunder began to roll over head.

"Cloud, let's hurry and get to the Caves. I think it intends on pouring in a few minutes, and I don't want to get caught in it."

"You're right. Come on Kera!" he urged the chocobo into a faster pace.

The wind began to pick up and they were buffeted on both sides as they made their way across the flat marshland. Thunder rolled again, and lightening arced paths across the sky.

"Come on spike boy!" Sephiroth called as his chocobo caught up with Kera "Get a move on it before that lightening makes your hair style get any worse!"

"Oh like you're one to talk." Cloud called back. "At least I don't count exactly one hundred strokes when I style mine! Ya long haired freak!"

"That's a just good styling habit and you know it!"

The two grinned to each other as they raced through the blossoming storm. The entrance to the cave was only a few moments away and everyone was glad they had gotten to shelter, as the heavens seemed to open their watery gates.

***

" Whew," Tifa sighed as they huddled just inside the entrance of the Mythril Caves. " well that was invigorating."

"So it was." Cloud agreed shaking water from his hair. " Well, if we're staying here over night we should stay close to the entrance.don't want any monsters sneaking up on us overnight." He unrolled his and Tifa's packs searching for flint and tinder.

" Yeah." Sephiroth nodded. He gently stroked his chocobos' silky feathers in effort to calm the skittish creature. " Lightening bothering you boy?" The chocobo danced about as thunder struck again, Kera also began to look about nervously.

"Better tie 'em up now Sephiroth." Cloud said sparking a bit of dried wood. " We gotta go rustle up some grub."

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming spike-boy." Sephiroth grinned and knotted the two chocobo's reigns to a nearby stalagmite.

Aeris grinned at the two and pulled a large blanket from her pack. "This should keep out most of the wind and rain." She commented and set to figuring out how to hang the blanket across the entrance.

"We're going to find something edible in the caves." Sephiroth said retrieving Masamune.

"Yep, be back in awhile." Cloud shouldered Ultima and he and Sephiroth disappeared into the gloom.

"Well it's good to see them getting along." Tifa said seating her self beside the fire and shaking out her damp hair. "You'd never guess they were mortal enemies at one point."

"Yeah." Aeris sat down next to Tifa having finished hanging the blanket " The world had planned on those to being close. The whole Jenova thing screwed up a lot."

"That's interesting." Tifa absently pulled knots from her hair.

"Don't do that you'll get split ends and ruin your hair. Let me brush it out for you." Aeris crawled over to her pack and fished out a brush.

"Whaaa?" Tifa protested as Aeris came at her with brush in hand.

"Oh calm down and let me do this." Aeris knelt behind Tifa and carefully began to comb out her long hair. "You've let it grow out since I last saw you."

"Yeah." Tifa replied simply, not wanting to recall that horrific moment.

"Ever since I first saw you I've wanted to comb your hair for you."

"Really? Why?" Tifa asked curiously.

"Because it's so soft and beautiful..." "...but that's not all that's beautiful about you." Aeris thought to herelf.

"Aeris..." Tifa began confusedly.

"How is Barret?" Aeris interrupted.

"Um... he...he's fine, he and Marlene live up in Corel now. That's where we're going to meet up with the rest of the group." Tifa stammered, trying to figure out what just happened.

" Tell me about what you and Cloud have been up to. I imagine you've seen a lot."

"Yeah well..." Tifa recanted the story of the defeat of Sephiroth and then went on to a few of the happenings after the planet settled down. The gentle motions of the brush slowly made her relax, and Tifa found herself confiding her doubts about her and Cloud's relationship.

Aeris set the brush down and pushed a few errant locks from Tifa's face. "Things change dear. I know it hurts to hear but it's true." Aeris smiled and shifted so she could look Tifa in the face. "The Planet brought Sephiroth and I back because things were meant to be different. Perhaps we aren't the only two the Planet had different plans for."

Tifa was silent for a moment as she thought about what Aeris had said. The idea that the Planet had plans for all of them was a new one to her, so she hadn't thought that maybe she would be affected by this new view of life. When she thought about it the idea made sense. In effort to maintain balance, the Planet set paths for all the beings it supported, a nice little cycle.

" Sorry if I rambled too much Tifa." Aeris apologized " Sometimes I just..."

"No, it's okay Aeris." Tifa interrupted " I understand what you're talking about. It makes a lot of sense. The Planet probably did have something else for me to do, someone else I was meant to be with." She sighed and looked into the fire. " I wish I didn't have to say that, but I realize it's true...it's something that's been nagging at me for quite sometime. I don't want to hurt him, I mean, I still love him...but not like I did." She looked at Aeris. " You think I'm shallow don't you?"

"Of course not." Aeris gave her a reassuring smile "Feelings can be just as unpredictable as the wind Tifa. Someone you thought you could spend a life with may not be the one you should be with, just as someone you never saw in that light could be your true love."

Tifa arched an eyebrow. Aeris seemed to be hinting at something, and choosing her words very carefully. As to what the woman was trying to tell her, Tifa had no clue. "I'll think about it later." She thought.

Just then, the winds from the storm began to pick up and a huge gust of air pushed past the blanket. The two women threw up their hands to block the sudden onslaught of rain and wind and the chocobos squawked (or Warked if you prefer) and strained at their tethers. Tifa got up, still holding up an arm against the wind, and began to struggle with the whipping blanket. Suddenly, lightening struck very close to the entrance and scorched a nearby tree. This was just too much for the already terrified chocobos, they screeched in protest and the tether securing the two of them to the stalagmite. Finally free, Kera, the gold, took off into the swamp, dragging the other chocobo along with her.

"Kera!" Tifa called into the raging storm. "Kera come back!" She was about to run after them when Aeris grabbed her arm.

"No it's too dangerous to go out in a storm like that, especially in a swamp."

"But they were our only means of transportation. Now we're stuck..."

"Better than being fried to a crisp from a lightening strike." Aeris replied firmly. "Now help me secure the blanket. We can try to find them tomorrow."

Grudgingly, Tifa knelt to help Aeris secure the blanket shut over the entrance.

"Cloud's gonna kill me..." she said when the task was complete.

"No he won't, he'll understand. It's not like we could have avoided it." Aeris plopped down in front of the fire and leaned on a stalagmite.

Tifa sat down next to her and put her head on Aeris' shoulder as if she'd been doing it her whole life. "Do you know how hard it is to breed a Gold chocobo? Cloud spent weeks babying our chocobos to get them to give birth to Kera! Not to mention most of the money we had at the time."

Aeris chuckled deep in her throat. "If he really loved you he wouldn't get upset at so small a thing as losing that which can be found again."

" Still...he's gonna kill me." Tifa sighed.