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Sorry for taking so long to post this next chapter. My dad has been hording the computer lately. See, my family is starting a new business. It was originally my mom's idea. We design bracelets and we also decorate dog collars using beads and stuff. Well, we finally have a website to try and advertise our products, and my dad in his infinite computer wisdom tried to update the website. It took him four hours to upload a whopping three photos. 4 hours! I was planning to use that time to finish these next two chapters, which I think you'll enjoy, but honestly. 4 hours for only 3 photos!

By the way, if you want to see our site-in-progress, go to:

mollycoddledesigns.com

I hope you enjoy the chapter 11!

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The first thing that I did after talking to Red XIII was go sit in the flowers. Most of them were withered and already dead. But thinking about them gave me hope. Aerieth would be coming back. She would make sure that all these flowers bloom once again, and then I…err, we, could find out if what we were feeling about each other just before she died would also bloom as well.

I felt totally at ease, but at the same time, giddy, like a kid feels when he knows that tomorrow is Christmas.

But then again, Christmas never this complicated.

"Tifa," I said to myself, no longer looking at the flowers. "I….I….I'm totally confused." I looked up towards Aerieth's house and noticed that Barrett had stopped snoring. I also noticed that Red XIII was still sitting on the porch, so Barrett probably wasn't up yet. I sat back and looked at the sun. It was then that I heard my stomach growling. I hadn't had anything to eat since the night before. I stood up and thought about going inside, but I decided against it. I didn't live there. It would be rude to try and ask for more food. It was at that point that the thought crossed my mind to go get Tifa and invite her to go get something to eat with me, but I decided against it. I wanted to think on my own. And besides, though Tifa was always a better thinker then me, I was worried that if she started asking questions about what Red XIII and I had talked about, that I would be put into a situation in which I would have to tell her the exact details of what Red XIII and I had planned for Aerieth. And if I was put into that situation, I really didn't want to see her reaction. Tifa and Aerieth had always liked each other, but that was before Tifa found out that I was falling in love with her, and that the feelings were probably mutual. I was just lucky that she found this out after she had died. But now that she was coming back…what would she do? Whatever she would do, I didn't want to present when it happened.

I walked to the porch where Red XIII lay sitting with his tail swishing back and forth. "I'm going to go get some grub. I'll be back in a little while. If Tifa asks why I left without her, tell her that I wanted to think for a little while." Red XIII nodded, and I left.

I ended up walking all the way to sector 5 where my apartment was. By the time I got there I still hadn't made any decisions and had only succeeded in determining that Tifa would probably make a better mom. My reasoning behind this was that she had beaten many an enemy to death with her fists alone, so she obviously was incredibly strong. Now turn those fists into spankings. If I were one of her kids, I would be so terrified of her spankings that I would never do anything bad. Ever.

I walked to my apartment first. I took a shower and changed into my fighting garb. Jenova was going to be one heck of a battle. I could feel it. I grabbed my Ultima Sword, my Escort Guard, my Ribbon, as well as my host of materia, and some cash too. I locked the door behind me and headed for the closest burger joint.

The lady at the counter acted kind of strangely when I went up to her to place my order. It must have been the gigantic sword on my back. Or maybe it was my teeth. I had forgotten to brush them after my shower.

I sat down at one of the seats and tried to avoid some of the eyes that were staring at me. Most of the people in this sector had found out who I was by now, and they always gawked at me. Some thought of me as a hero, others, like the "club" I had run into last night, thought me a villain worthy to be put on "Midgar's Most Wanted." Personally I didn't care what they thought, because I had some serious thinking to do.

I had known Tifa ever since I was a kid. Back then I had had a major crush on her, but mostly because she was the only person I knew that treated me normally. Actually, she was the only person that I remember that didn't seem to care that I had spiky hair, and my eyes kind of glowed a little at night because of the life stream poisoning, which I later found out was because I was a screwed up clone of Sephiroth. Speaking of which, I still haven't found out just which memories of my youth are genuine. Most of my memories are really screwed up. Some of them actually happened. Some of them happened, but I remember them wrong. Most however, never happened. Come to think of it, it was Tifa who helped me figure out my true past…and also helped me out of my insanity following the life stream poisoning.

Whenever I think of my memories with Tifa, two memories always stick out. I don't know why I keep on thinking of these particular two, I just do. The weird thing is however, one of them never happened the way I remember. It was when I returned to Nibelheim as a member of SOLDIER, and was Sephiroth's right hand man. Tifa came out looking for me and I greeted her, my old friend, with pride in my heart knowing that I had succeeded in becoming a big shot in the military.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it actually happened. What really happened was I was one of the flunkies in the military, and Sephiroth's real right hand man was a guy named Zach. I still wish that that particular memory actually had happened. I really wished that I could have fulfilled that promise I gave to her a long time ago, which by the way is the second memory that always sticks out in my mind. This one actually did happen. I was about ten, and Tifa and I were talking. That night I promised Tifa that I would some day be a big shot in the military, and when that happened, I would take her away from Nibelheim, and take her someplace where we could be happy.

I had made that promise again last night.

I took a bite out of my burger. Heh. I'm eating a burger for breakfast. Isn't that kind of bad? I wonder what Aerieth would say to me if she saw me right now. She would probably give me some weird look and then smile and tell me that she thought it was cool her body guard ate burgers for breakfast. I was her body guard. I had made Aerieth a promise too, but that promise I had utterly failed at.

I set my coffee down and stared at the ketchup that I was dipping my fries in. It reminded me of Aerieth's blood. When Sephiroth finally took his sword out of Aerieth's lifeless body I remember feeling her blood on my hand. It was cold…ice cold. And yet her body was still warm and lovely and deep.

"Damn it," I said, noticing that I had silently been crying. I had never really cried for Aerieth, and I'm not sure why I was right now either. This should be a happy occasion. Aerieth would be coming back to us—to me. And yet here I was, crying, yet not making a sound.

I finished my burger and fries. I downed the last of my coffee and then wiped away the salty tear that was running down my cheek. I nodded a thank you to the lady at the counter, who again gave me a strange look, and then I opened the door, still completely clueless on what the heck I was going to say to Tifa…and what I was going to do if I actually succeeded in resurrecting Aerieth.

If.