Disclaimer: For the love of God. You all know this already…I'm willing to bet none of you read this part anyway…
Note: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. When I wasn't being lazy I was busy, and when I wasn't busy I was lazy. So…go ahead and smack me for being lazy. Go on ahead and do it.
WARNING: Some parts of this chapter are a little bit perverted. Nothing extreme, but still enough to upset SOME people—like staring at girls wearing two-piece swim suits. Other than that, this chapter's pretty safe, except for this one spontaneous moment that you'll find out about once you read the chapter.
Chapter 15: Costa del Sol!
"I'm tired," Aeris whined with a sigh, dragging along her booted feet in a dramatically over-exaggerated fashion for the pure purpose of annoying her companion. She had good reason to be tired, though—they had, after all, been travelling since three in the morning and it was, after all, almost noon.
"Stop whining before I hurt something," Sephiroth growled. He wasn't tired. After all, he was a freak of science, and that's the cold, hard truth.
Aeris looked up, tugging slightly at her pink T-shirt. "I think we're getting close," she observed.
"What makes you think that?" Sephiroth challenged, giving her a slight glare.
The pink-clad Cetra pointed to a billboard that boldly read: COSTA DEL SOL, 3 MILES.
Sephiroth stared at the billboard for a minute. "…Damn. Where'd this suddenly come from? And how come it wasn't here when I went nuts and tried to destroy the world?"
"Oh, it was there. You just destroyed it."
"How come it took so long to rebuild?"
"I don't think people would appreciate a sign not being there when they arrived, then suddenly appearing when they came back."
"…Huh. That made no sense," the ex-General shrugged, and continued walking.
"That's only because you're slow in the head, Sephiroth," said the flower girl as the sky suddenly became overcast and it started raining.
"That was way too sudden," Sephiroth sighed.
"GREAT! IT'S RAINING! So can we rest now?"
"…So you're suggesting we sit out here in the freezing rain just because you're tired?"
"Pleeeeeeeease?" Aeris said, putting on a puppy-dog-face face that was probably slightly hard to see in the sudden, pouring rain.
Sephiroth groaned. "If it will make you stop with that disgustingly innocent facial expression, then fine, but you'll have to sit on the wet, muddy ground."
Aeris nodded eagerly. "That's fine with me!" she giggled, a sigh of relief escaping her lips as she plopped right down onto her behind on the cold, soggy ground.
Sephiroth sat next to the giggly flower girl, sighed, and pondered aloud: "Why does it always have to rain…?"
Only about ten minutes had passed since the (currently unwilling) couple decided to rest. Aeris hugged her knees against her chest, shivering slightly in the cold rain.
"Seph, I'm cold," she said in a voice that might be taken as a whiny tone.
"Well, you're the one who wanted to rest. If you die of hypothermia, that's your fault. I mean, honestly, you wanted to rest in freezing rain and all you're wearing is some shoes, a pair of jeans, and that short-sleeved cotton T-shirt…oh, and might I add, that red and frilly thing underneath?" Sephiroth said, finishing with a smirk.
"Actually, I bought some plain stuff at Cosmo Canyon so you can't use that against me any more," Aeris said, sticking out her tongue, shivering. "But seriously…I…am…COLD. And if I die of hypothermia, you'll die, too!"
She's right, you know, said a mysterious disembodied voice.
"See? The Planet agrees with me," Aeris said, still shivering.
Sephiroth sighed, seated Aeris on his lap, undid his overcoat, and wrapped it around her with some difficulty—he was still wearing it, and leather wasn't a very stretchy thing. But as Sephiroth was a failed God he had an incredibly high willpower (that is, when he wasn't being forced to do something) so he managed to make the leather stretch.
Aeris adjusted herself so that she could wrap her arms around Sephiroth's torso. She was only trying to get warm—and so far, she was succeeding, so who cares if they were in the middle of nowhere, in the freezing rain, in a position that could be considered intimate?
"Thank you," she said sweetly, leaning her head into Sephiroth's chest to try to get the feeling back into her numb cheek.
"Whatever…"
Aeris rolled her eyes and looked up at the man in order to give a witty response to his un-Sephiroth-ish answer, but it just so happened that what she was going to say slipped her mind when their eyes met…
And, somehow, their lips willingly made contact. A very…er…passionate contact…
And then, Aeris came back to her OH-MY-GOD-I-HATE-SEPHIROTH senses, pulled away, and SMACKED him.
Judging by the warm weather, the sound of the ocean, the brightness of the sun, and the abundance of sand and people in bathing suits…
"We're here! YAY!" Aeris said as they finally reached Costa del Sol after plenty of Sephiroth-getting-smacked and screaming-at-each-other. The rain had let up, too, a few minutes before they arrived.
"Good. I'm going to go rent a room—with TWO beds, damn you—so you go do whatever and I'll meet up with you around here somewhere," Sephiroth grumbled, wondering if the red, hand-shaped mark on his cheek had gone away yet.
"Okay," she said with a nod. "Hey, can I borrow, say, a hundred gil?"
The man forked over a handful of gil that added up to a hundred.
"Where'd you get this money, anyway?" Aeris asked suspiciously, pocketing it.
"I killed a rich person for it."
Aeris glared. "It is NOT socially acceptable to go around killing people!"
"So?"
"Moron," she hissed. "Well…you were gonna go get the room, right? I'm off, then," she said. With that, she went to go pick out a bathing suit.
"Let's see here…" Aeris muttered to herself, looking through the racks of assorted bathing suits and clothing that the new store in Costa del Sol had to offer. "Oh this one's cute!" she observed, picking out a pink one-piece with sparkly transparent beads going down the middle and around the opening for the head and legs. But she found that it had a rip in a very awkward spot for rips, so she sighed and put it back on the rack.
"Hmm…no, don't want blue…no, I don't want green…whoa, does this one even cover anything? Oh…ugh, this one looks more like skimpy bondage gear than a bathing suit…hmm…Seph would probably like it. Not my style though—and since WHEN do I buy clothing because I think Seph would like it? And when did I start calling him Seph!" With an aggravated sigh, she put the "bondage bathing suit" back on the rack and moved over to another rack.
"Ugly color…not cute…doesn't cover anything…rip in it…ah." Aeris picked one off of the rack and examined it for a moment. Then she smiled. "This one's perfect." She went over to the counter to buy it.
Sephiroth took off his leather overcoat and set in on one of the beds in the nice, large, TWO-BED inn room. He was even nice enough to set Aeris's stuff on the bed next to the window, since in her eagerness to go off on her own she'd shoved her travelling bag into his arms. Besides, he knew she'd want the window bed, and in all honesty, Sephiroth didn't really want to take the window bed. He didn't like sleeping next to windows, for reasons that probably grew out of his unfortunate childhood spent in a creepy lab with a creepy Hojo.
"When is she going to get back…" he mumbled to himself, leaning back against the headboard of his bed. For whatever strange and bizarre reason, he found himself getting anxious—almost looking forward to Aeris's return.
…And that made him upset with himself…
"GOOD GOD I AM A MORON!" Sephiroth bellowed, banging his fist against his forehead once.
"I can't agree with you more, Seph," said a certain voice from the doorway.
Cue staring.
Aeris…was wearing…a two-piece…
No, it wasn't like a bikini or anything. It covered more than most two-pieces did. But still—
Aeris in a two-piece… thought Sephiroth, determined to get that image into his brain forever. The bathing suit was white, trimmed with pink, had pink straps, and a somewhat swishy-looking pink-and-white-swirled side skirt. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail.
"…All right, Seph, you can wipe the drool off of your chin now…you're starting to scare me," said Aeris, crossing her arms. It had taken her a little while to break the silence—after all…Sephiroth was shirtless and over half of the female population of the world would gladly stare at that.
"I'm not drooling," Sephiroth quickly said, wiping that annoying little tiny drop of drool off of his chin.
"Oh, yeah, not ANYMORE you aren't," the Cetra woman snorted, rolling her eyes. "…So. Where's YOUR bathing suit?"
"I'm not wearing one," Sephiroth said, even more quickly than he'd claimed he wasn't drooling.
"Oh come on, Seph. You're at the beach, for Holy's sake."
"…When did you start calling me Seph?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know. It's easier to say than Sephiroth though. I mean—'Hey Sephiroth!' 'Sephiroth, come here!' 'Ya-da-da-da-da, Sephiroth, blah-blah-blah.' Seph takes less time to say," Aeris shrugged.
"You have a lazy mouth then," Sephiroth said, then smirked, thinking about their kissing episode. "…Or…maybe you don't. For an innocent little flower girl, you sure can—"
Aeris gave the man a Look. That Look quite clearly stated, "If you finish that sentence, I will kill you!"
"Well it's true," Sephiroth sighed, shaking his head.
"Just because I'm an innocent flower girl doesn't mean I've never had boyfriends before. Zack…Cloud…oh, and there was this one guy in the sixth grade, but it didn't work out because he was an audacious, ignorant, perverted fool. Kinda like you."
Sephiroth was just watching Aeris talk…yeah…two-piece…
Aeris sighed and smacked him across the face. "I'm going down to the beach to swim for a little bit, okay? You can come if you want to…I guess…" She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "But are you SURE you don't want a bathing suit? I mean, yeah sure Seph, you're just wearing your leather pants but you'll still look out of place."
"Of course I will. I have long silver hair and glowing green eyes. I look out of place almost everywhere," Sephiroth said with a shrug.
"…Good point. Well, I'm off to the beach."
Nothing too exciting happened at the beach—well, other than Aeris and Sephiroth screaming at each other randomly, them (mostly Sephiroth) getting stared at, Aeris smacking Sephiroth a few times, you know. The usual stuff happened.
Before long, it was almost midnight and the pair had to go to bed.
Aeris yawned and plopped down onto the bed next to the window, still in her bathing suit, still slightly wet from swimming.
Sephiroth sat down on his bed, rubbing a sore, red, hand-shaped mark on his cheek that was mysteriously just the size of Aeris's hand.
Once settled in, Aeris rolled over to face Sephiroth. "Hey Seph…?"
He glanced up, letting his hand fall off of the red spot on his cheek. It wasn't too sore any more. "Yes Aeris?"
"Thanks for taking me here, I guess…"
"No problem."
She smiled, yawned, and snuggled once again into her pillows, shutting her eyes.
Sephiroth, knowing she was too tired to care about this now or in the morning, stood up and briefly knelt by her bed, kissing her forehead gently before retreating to his own bed.
This is impossible, he thought, closing his eyes. There's no way I'm falling in love…
Yumesuta: Whew, it took me days and hours to write this chapter so I hoped you all liked it. Since it was mostly for the point of developing their relationship, I couldn't include a lot of humor in it. I hope it was funny anyway! Please review and let me know how I'm doing!
