Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Final Fantasy. This includes its characters. Please don't sue.

Note: Thanks for all of my great reviews and sorry for the long wait for an update. I've been really busy lately with stuff.


Chapter 12: Soaked

When Sephiroth woke up the following morning, he realized that there were two things unusual about this particular daily awakening.

First of all, he was outside, in the cold, sleeping on the ground like some sort of common mortal. Not that sleeping outside bothered him—he'd had to do it many times when he was a General. He'd just wished, every time he did it, that he never had to sleep outside without even a mere shred of a blanket ever again.

The second thing that was wrong was very, very wrong indeed, at least, in his mind…

Aeris was lying right in front of him, and not only that, she was lying against him. He had one arm, his right arm, wrapped around her stomach and his left one…oh, Holy…His left arm was wrapped around her breast.

Stop gawking, both were fully clothed. Sheesh.

Hmm, she won't be too happy when she wakes up, Sephiroth thought. He for one was frankly too tired to be bothered with what was using him as a semi-blanket…yes, he was quite tired.

Then, something horrible happened.

The heavily cloudy, gray sky began to gush large, rather cold drops of rain.

"Ugh?" Aeris muttered, opening her eyes slightly as a particularly large, cold drop of rain fell onto her head. She looked down (or, what would be down to her, at least) and saw Sephiroth's arms. Then she screamed.

"ALL RIGHT, WOMAN, SHEESH," the One-Winged Angel grumble-shouted, releasing his unwanted companion almost immediately. "I can't help what my arms wrap around when I'm asleep!"

"Oh sure," Aeris spat sarcastically, standing up. As Sephiroth stood up as well, she began to shiver.

"I don't really care but I'll ask anyway. What's wrong?" the ex-General asked uncaringly.

"I'm cold, I'm dirty, and all I had to eat yesterday was a roll so I'm starving," the Cetra woman said through clenched teeth, rubbing her arms together.

"…I'm not cold in the slightest. It is not cold out here," said Sephiroth.

"Well you're wearing long sleeves! And your body's probably immune to the cold! As for me, I'm FREEZING! Can we please go somewhere to get out of this stupid rain?" she pleaded, her voice almost in a whisper.

"Fine," the man sighed and began to undo his overcoat slightly.

"What are you doing…"

Sephiroth grabbed Aeris, not gentle at all, and pulled her to him so that her back was pressed against his now bare abdomen. He picked her up slightly so that her feet weren't touching the ground, then tightly held his coat around them both.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Aeris demanded.

"Keeping you warm. Damn. In case you've forgotten, your death means my death and I don't particularly want to freeze to death," Sephiroth snapped.

"So then where are we going?"

"Well, we're close enough to Nibelheim so I guess we'll go there," the man said flatly, purposely walking with a rough stride to make Aeris's free limbs jerk unsteadily.

"Ow…" she complained after receiving a headache.

"I can't afford to kill you but I still don't like you."

"You're really, really mean."

Despite Sephiroth's uncaring attempts to keep Aeris warm, her head and ankles still got soaked.

After several long, tedious hours of agonizingly slow walking, Aeris started to get annoyed.

"Shouldn't we b-be there by now?" she demanded quietly.

"We've been going in circles," the man said with a smirk.

Aeris's eyes practically popped out of her head. "On purpose?"

"Of course."

"I HATE YOU!"

"No need to scream, we're almost there…"

A few minutes later, they were, indeed, in Nibelheim. Once outside the inn, Sephiroth uncaringly let go of his coat, letting Aeris fall out. That done, he re-did his coat so that it was on the right way…and not untied…and stuff…

"So do we have to share a bed again?" Aeris asked through chattering teeth, her soaking wet hair plastered to her face.

"Unfortunately from what I can afford, yes."

"WHY! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME LIKE THIS!" the Cetra woman screamed dramatically at the sky, dropping to her knees.

"Oh shut up," Sephiroth grumbled, yanking his companion up by a fistful of hair.

After purchasing the room, the man practically had to drag the brown-haired girl to the room.

"Warm yourself up," he grumbled, hastily tossing a bath towel from the bathroom to her. Almost thankful, she wrapped the towel around herself, drying off her soaked skin.

"I wish I had some spare clothes," she sighed.

"You could always take off your outer layer of clothing, hang that up to dry, and tend to yourself with whatever towels and blankets we have here," Sephiroth suggested.

Aeris glared. "…Why do you want me to take off my clothes?" she challenged.

"To make sure your warm. Duh. And in the morning you can go buy a new outfit if you so desire."

"I thought we were broke…"

"Well, from the cheap clothes you wear—"

This caused the ex-General to get smacked in the face.

"The bathroom doesn't even have a real door to it…" the brown-haired woman observed disdainfully. "If you could just turn around for a second…"

"Oh so NOW you take my advice?"

"I just don't want to freeze!"

Sephiroth turned around, prompting Aeris to hastily remove her outer layer of clothing, shoes, and socks.

Before she was all the way done, Sephiroth counted to one in his head (she DID only say turn around for a second…) and turned back around, watching her…just to annoy her, of course…

Once out of her outfit, Aeris turned around, facing Sephiroth, to grab where she left her towel. If a world record for how fast a woman's cheeks turned bright red existed, she would have won it.

"What are you doing…" she said, her voice deadly calm as she stood up straight, the towel forgotten.

"You said to only turn around for a second, and I obeyed," the silver-haired God said with a smirk, crossing his arms.

"YOU—!"

And then, she lunged.


Yumesuta: Well, sorry for the long wait. Review please!