Stained Halo
Chapter 9: Good Morning Sunshine

After a full two hours of tossing about in bed in a weak attempt to go back to sleep, Aeris finally gave in to the fact that the noise downstairs was not going to go away. It was the morning after her date with Zack, and she was feeling thoroughly sour. The scene of the near-kiss must have replayed at least twenty times in her head that night, leaving her restless and irritated.

Her clock told her it was already past noon, but she was still in no mood to be up. The cheerful demeanor she usually carried was all but completely gone—replaced by pent-up anger at herself, so that she was afraid she'd snap at the next person she came across. Nevertheless, the rumbling in her stomach forced her to roll out of bed miserably and make way for the kitchen.

She plodded down the hall not caring that her bangs were sticking up in all directions and her expression resembled that of a zombie. Rubbing her eyes lazily, she turned the corner towards the stairs, but was shocked awake by the sight that met her.

The end of the upstairs hall was open, so that one could clearly see the grand entrance on the first floor. And there, in plain view, stood Gloria with the redhead from the party. The very one who Aeris had found slipping into her bedroom. Aeris' jaw dropped. She could see they were speaking in hushed tones, with Gloria breaking out in laughter every so often. After leaning in dangerously close to him, Gloria turned and walked out of the house. The redhead was left standing in the entrance hall, and didn't look one bit bothered by it.

Snapping out of her stunned daze, Aeris found herself rushing downstairs within seconds. In Luke's house? Has Gloria absolutely lost her mind?

She must have been an odd sight at that moment; her hair wild and unkempt, emerald eyes narrowed, and hands balled into fists as she stomped towards him in moogle pajamas. He wasn't given a so much as a second to react before she grabbed his arm angrily.

"What are you doing here?"she hissed.

He turned to her with an expression that suggested she'd just grown an extra head.

"What?"

Aeris looked around suspiciously, afraid that someone would turn up and discover them. Then, strengthening her grip on his arm, she attempted to pull him out the front door. However, his confusion only left him dumbstruck for so long, and he easily pulled his arm out of her grasp.

"Whoa, cool it, what are you doing?"

"I don't know what Gloria was thinking bringing you here of all places, but unless you have a death wish for the both of you, you better go."

"Look babe, I don't know what mental ward you just escaped from, but I have no idea what you're talking about," he retorted, and to her alarm, instead of heeding her advice and running for his life, he stood his ground, smirking arrogantly. Her exasperation grew until she was almost yelling.

"Did Gloria tell you that it's empty here today? Because it's not. We've got a housekeeper here constantly, and if she sees you, which she probably already has, she's going to tell Luke you were here, and then both you and Gloria are done for!"

"Now, what would give you that idea?" He watched her with an amused expression, as if her antics were those of a confused child. Then to prove his point, he continued, "Luke knows I'm here, he's in that room right there." He pointed his chin at the door leading to the conference room.

"What? Luke is here? Right now?" Puzzlement spread over her. Gloria had brought the man she was cheating on Luke with to Luke's house…with Luke at home. And yet, there he stood in front of her, alive, unharmed.

"And he knows about you and Gloria?"

He continued to lean against the wall with his arms crossed, looking absolutely relaxed.

"What's there to know?"

Whether his eyes glinted challengingly or playfully, she couldn't tell. The only thing that was apparent was that he wasn't moving. But judging by his answer, Luke didn't know about him and Gloria.

"So why are you here then?"

"Business."

He shifted his now-uninterested gaze away from her, and towards the conference-room door. As if on cue, it opened, allowing the sound of a flurry of voices to escape. Aeris realized that the room had been the source of all the noise keeping her awake. Luke stepped out first, with President Shinra and Byrne by his side. Following them, were people Aeris thought she recognized from the party, but didn't know the names of. A man just as fat as the President with a thick black beard was laughing loudly, and sounded much like a barking dog to Aeris. He received a stony glare from an extremely young man next to him, clad totally in white. She thought it was odd to see him among the group, as he didn't look a day older than her. A tall blonde wearing a skirt that Aeris thought was far too short was talking to what looked to be a reporter. Behind her was Mayor Domino conversing with a small man with a goatee. And at the very back of the group trailed a photographer snapping his camera nonstop.

They turned to walk towards the breakfast area, but not before Luke spotted her at the other end of the hall.

"Aeris," he called out, excusing himself from the president to walk over to her.

"I see you've met Reno," he smiled at the two of them.

"We met at the party," she responded dryly. So Reno was his name…

"Oh?" He looked to Reno for confirmation.

"Oh yeah, had a real blast." A mocking smile painted his lips as his green eyes flickered on Aeris for just a second.

"That's great." The quick shift of Luke's tone from friendly to uninterested was not lost on either Reno or Aeris. He now turned to Aeris with instructions. "Well, we're finishing up the meeting with the Midgar Times over brunch, and I need to introduce you before everyone leaves. So come with me to…what are you wearing?"

Luke looked pointedly down at her outfit.

She suddenly became very aware of the fact that everyone who'd passed into the breakfast room had seen her in her moogle pajamas. Turning red, she stammered, "I just woke up a second ago. I didn't realize we had company." Since warnings are impossible for you.

"Right, well hurry up and make yourself look acceptable." He turned to Reno, "You know, you really don't need to stand guard in my house. Join us for brunch? We've got the most excellent mimosas."

Reno shrugged, "Turks don't really sit in on meetings."

"But this is just brunch." Aeris knew Luke hated it when his offers weren't accepted. He had a tendency of seeing it as a way of undermining his authority. In his mind, people didn't have the right to say no to him, especially when he was being gracious.

But Reno just remained there with his arms crossed lazily, "Boss' orders."

Luke smiled, but Aeris thought it carried a slightly dangerous hint to it. She was sure he was marking Reno down in his mind; noting him as one of the people he'd have to put in his place as he began to work more closely with Shinra. "Suit yourself. Aeris, I'll see you in a minute."

He turned away from them and walked towards the breakfast room. Left alone, Aeris looked at Reno once more.

She whispered, "So Gloria was just here to…"

"Spend a lovely morning with her fiancée." He didn't bother to hide the sarcasm in his voice, and Aeris couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't scared of her. In all regards, he should be. All she had to do was talk to Luke, and Gloria and Reno would be exposed. Any other man in his position would treat Luke and Aeris with fearful respect. Reno, on the other hand, had completely blown Luke off, and was treating Aeris as if she were a mere annoyance.

Then again, maybe it didn't matter to him. The Turks weren't exactly known for having the highest morals. There was a chance he'd suffer no consequences. Or maybe…

"You don't think I'd do it, do you? That I won't tell?"

He shrugged one shoulder, "You'd have done it a week ago. I heard you run out instead." It was said in such a matter-of-fact way, that Aeris felt like the natural response would be an "Oh, okay." He seemed so utterly careless, that even if she threw a fit, he'd probably shrug it off. It seemed to be an automatic response of his. Instead, she settled for asking him a question.

"You heard me that night?"

In response, his complete apathy was replaced by a devilish smile. "Yeah, for looking like you weigh ten pounds, you sure do stomp around loudly."

Aeris couldn't believe him. She felt her eyebrows knit together and her jaw drop the slightest bit. The audacity…

Her reaction only fueled him further. "Better get ready before daddy gets mad."

"Go to hell," she snapped, and scampered up the stairs.

She was surprised at herself—she never reacted that way towards anyone. But in all five minutes of speaking to her, he had managed to draw the aggression out of her. The truth was, she would never tell on Gloria. Despite the growing resentment she felt towards her, she could never bring herself to do her harm. But she hadn't expected on being called out on this. In fact, she had assumed that Reno would be just as terrified of her as Gloria was, and was not happy about him catching on to her charade.

She threw her pajamas on her bed, making a mental note to wear plain ones from that point on. After grabbing white capris and a pale green blouse to complete an outfit Luke would approve of, she roughly ran a comb through her hair. That's what she had to worry about now; playing the part of the sophisticated young lady. Whenever he had any sort of interview with business journals or newspapers, he always preferred to hold it at his own house, and made sure to have her there. She was never actually mentioned in any of the articles, but it displayed him as a "family man" to the reporters, who were always more likely to portray him in a positive light after meeting his charming little daughter.

With a toothbrush in one hand, she slipped on her shoes and sprayed a tiny amount of expensive perfume on with the other. Once she finished rinsing out, she made her way back downstairs. She really wasn't looking forward to being in the same room as all the Shinra executives. Even though Hojo was not present, it was still unnerving to know that the company he worked for was.

Reno was still where she'd left him, looking only slightly more bored. She thought he was the strangest looking Shinra employee she'd ever seen. Everyone else had been dressed in expensive, pressed suits, and he looked like he'd just rolled out of bed. It made her think that it wasn't just Luke's and her opinion he didn't care about, but everyone else's as well. Silently wondering how it was that he was accepted into the Turks with that kind of an attitude, she passed him trying to avoid eye contact.

"I actually recognize you now."

She stopped mid-step, and turned halfway around to glare at him over her shoulder. "What?"

"At first I didn't recognize you as the girl from the party. The morning look ain't a good one for you."

She bit back the retort that he looked just as bad as he did that night, and marched on with her head held high. The last thing she wanted was giving him the satisfaction of getting a rise out of her again.

There were nine introductions she had to go through before she could sit down and smile quietly, laughing politely at everything Luke would want her to laugh at.

President Shinra. He'd shaken her hand roughly; his grip felt like iron, and if she would have dared glanced down at her palm afterwards, she would have seen it was red. It was the handshake of a businessman fifty years in the making. How many men and women had he used it on to prove his power over them? To verify he could crush them if he so chose. He was smiling, but he may as well have been baring his teeth, with how severe the smile was. Aeris could not imagine him producing a single gentle gesture in his life.

Vice President Shinra. For a second, both her brows rose in surprise. Now that she was closer to the lean, blonde man, his youthful features confirmed that he had to be around her age. He was the President's son, so it made sense that he had the position so early. But she still could not help and wonder if a kinder father would not have made his son wait and enjoy his adolescence while he had it. He didn't have many similarities to the president; except for the pale blue eyes, there were no physical traits he seemed to have inherited from the shorter, stocky man. And although he already carried the air of an important businessman at such a tender age, he did so much differently from his father. Whereas his father had crushed Aeris' hand and radiated unrepressed force, his son's actions pointed to him being more of a conniving, subtle man.

The heads of the Public Order and Weapons Development Divisions. The two really had the worst laughs Aeris had ever heard. While she was being introduced to them, the President made a remark that was hardly humorous, and the two erupted in hearty guffaws. She supposed they had perfected the art of making their forced laughter sound believable through the sheer volume of it. Heidegger was a very sweaty man, and when she removed her hand from his she had to resist the urge to wipe it on her pants. Scarlet lowered and raised her heavily painted lids as she gave Aeris a full once-over, before smiling at her bitter-sweetly. Something told Aeris that every woman received such treatment from her.

The Mayor and the head of the City Development Division. They were both a breath of fresh air after the previous four introductions. Their names were Domino and Reeve, respectively, and they gave her the only genuine smiles she'd received thus far.

Last, came the two people Luke deemed most important in the room--the reporter and her photographer. This is what Aeris was here for. She gave the most brilliant smile she could muster, and complimented the reporter's necklace. The woman was charmed, and told Luke he'd raised the most exquisite young girl in Midgar.

She spent the next hour sipping on her orange juice quietly as everyone conversed between the interviewer's questions. It only took ten minutes for her to notice an obvious pattern to how the answering went. The reporter would ask a question, and the first people to speak up tended to be Heidegger or Scarlet. They had no tact, and would usually say something crude, so that Luke or Byrne would step in and rework their replies into more diplomatic lies. Reeve mainly focused on the questions about how the progress of the city's development would affect its people. His answers were honest and hopeful, and Aeris noticed he'd brave a glance at President Shinra every once in a while, as if what he was answering was something he'd tried to talk to the man about before. The president himself tended to speak only of financials, reinforcing the notion that the people's well-being was dependent on Shinra's monetary health, and that as long as they supported Shinra, they would be taken care of. Only Aeris was observant enough to notice the sneer his son carried each time the president spoke. But Rufus remained silent throughout the ordeal, seeming much like he thought himself too important to waste his breath on a stupid interview.

There was one particular instance in which the group had gotten quite sidetracked from the interview, and everyone was discussing the new vacation resort at Costa del Sol. She noticed that Rufus, who was sitting next to her, looked just as bored as she felt.

She leaned slightly in with a small smile, so that only he could hear her. "Wildly interesting, huh?"

She could make out the slightest trace of a grin on his face, and for the first time that day she thought he actually looked like a teenager. Despite how different he probably was from her, Aeris decided not to pass up the chance of speaking to someone at the table closer to her own age.

"So, are you dragged along to a lot of these things?"

"I try not to make a habit of it. But as the vice president of the company, yes, I do have to put up with them sometimes."

Aeris had to hold in a giggle at his serious tone. He sounded so adult.

"How old are you anyway?" Then realizing her question might be taken as rude, shyly added in, "If you don't mind my asking, that is." He, however, looked as if he were used to hearing that question.

"Sixteen."

Her eyes widened. He was younger than her!

"Oh wow! That's crazy…"

Rufus did not look bothered by her small outburst. He merely shrugged.

"Is it? I know the company better than people in their fifties."

Aeris quietly chastised herself for her blunt, tactless way. "Oh yes, of course, I didn't mean that you don't know what you're doing. It's just that it's not everyday you meet someone in their teens who's got your kind of position. I've never even worked a day in my life."

"Sure you have."

She gave him a questioning look.

"What, that little act you gave the journalist there was genuine? You'd be surprised how much you really work for your father."

Her eyes lingered on his for a while, hardly believing that such a young boy managed to figure her out in a matter of minutes. But then again, experience really was the best teacher, and it seemed like he had gone through much of the same issues with his father as she had with Luke. And although by the looks of it, he had adapted much better than her, she thought she could still catch glimpses of the boy in him who had never had a chance to be a carefree kid. She found that the more she observed him, the more relieved she was that Midgar and Luke had not managed to break all of her spirit in the past seventeen years.

Once she was lost deep in her thoughts, the rest of the meeting went by fairly quickly. Soon enough, it was broken up, and everyone was rising out of their seats and making their way to the front entrance. The interviewer thanked everyone for their participation, and confirmed that the article would be out in a matter of days. Once the goodbyes were said, and people began to leave Luke's house, the photographer resumed his non-stop picture taking and Aeris found herself blinded by some of the flashes. She blinked, trying to regain her normal vision, and was not happy to find Reno standing in front of her once the colorful dots faded from her view.

Trailing behind the photographer, he was the last to walk out. But before he stepped outside, he turned back to Aeris half-smiling.

"Till next time."

Aeris rolled her eyes in response, "I can't wait."

She'd earned a chuckle out of him before he closed the door behind him and Aeris was left standing alone in the house.

A/N: Sorry about the lack of stuff actually happening, I know this was kind of a boring chapter. But I wanted to set up some stuff still to come. (I seem to do a lot of this.)

I decided to leave Palmer out of the little meet and greet, because he's the Head of the Space Division, and I couldn't figure out how to tie that to Luke. Also, I hope Rufus wasn't too OOC. In the game he's 21, and this takes place 5-6 years beforehand, so I figured he wasn't as cold yet. We'll see some more of Zack in the next chapter. Thanks for reading, and thanks again for your reviews. You guys are the best. :)

Also, is everyone else freaking out about Advent Children yet? Because I know I am.