Disclaimer: Not mine.

Note: Another long wait…sorry about that.

Chapter 16: Costa del Sol: Part 2


Sephiroth woke up the following morning to the smell of…something cooking. He sat up in his bed and glanced over at Aeris's, only to find that it was empty and neatly made.

He glanced over and saw that she was in the room's small kitchen. Huh. Didn't know there was a kitchen. Then again, I guess I was too busy staring at her bathing suit, he thought, shrugging.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sephiroth asked as he crawled lazily out of his bed.

"Cooking," Aeris answered simply, glancing over at him.

"Okay…cooking what?"

"Breakfast."

"For both of us?"

"Yep," Aeris said, smiling slightly.

"Really? What are we having?"

"Food."

"What kind of food?" the man asked through gritted teeth.

"The edible kind!" she said cheerfully, flashing him a friendly smile before turning her attention back to cooking, trying (and failing) to suppress the aforementioned smile.

"…Well, you're in a…frighteningly joyful mood," Sephiroth observed, raising one eyebrow. "Are you alright? You're not drunk, are you?"

Aeris stared at him in a way that plainly said she was sober. "I'm just in a good mood…" she mumbled, nudging the contents of the pan with a thin metal spatula. "Is that a bad thing?"

"It's not a bad thing, it's just…scary."

Aeris rolled her eyes and hit him in on the side of the head gently with the flat side of the spatula, and then decided that Sephiroth's skin particles may not be a very good thing to add to the breakfast. So, she pulled a clean one out of a jar after setting the dirty one by the sink.

"So, why are YOU making breakfast, anyway?" he asked, peering over her shoulder at the contents of the pan, which happened to be pancake batter. "You could have just gone to breakfast at one of the bars."

"Maybe so, but I really don't find drunk people to be good companions."

"Aww, so you prefer me over drunk people? Aeris, I'm touched!" There was a hint of sarcasm in Sephiroth's voice.

She rolled her eyes again. "Go take a shower or something, and I'll tell you when the food's ready."

"Fine by me." With that, he left the small kitchen.

Aeris watched him leave, grinning slightly before giving a little joy-jump, almost knocking the pan off of the stove in the process. (Luckily, she caught it before it hit the ground.) Why was she so happy? Well…

Last night, when he'd kissed her on the forehead before going to bed…

Seems like a simple reason to be happy, but when you were in love (not like she'd ever admit that, of course!), anything cute and soppy like that would make you ecstatic later on.

…At least, until you looked down and found that breakfast was burning.

"…Oops," she muttered, turning off the stove as she eyed her pancakes skeptically. Well…they didn't seem TOO burnt, as in most of the cakes weren't black in many places. Humming, she gently dumped them onto a plate, scraping off the burnt parts with a butter knife.

As Aeris walked up to the bathroom door, she thought about just bursting in…but decided not to. Instead, she knocked and yelled, "Breakfast is ready."

"…Fine. Be out in a minute," Sephiroth yelled back.

As the brunette woman set the table, she counted the seconds: "One…two…three…four…five…" A few moments passed before she said, "fifty-eight…fifty-nine…sixty. So it's been a minute."

"So it has," Sephiroth said from right behind her, startling her. "So…pancakes?"

"Yeah, it's the only breakfast thing I know how to make…uh…they got a little bit burnt, though."

"That's alright, so long as they're still edible," he said, taking a seat at the hotel room's kitchen table. Well, I guess if Costa del Sol's a resort town, the hotels have to be a little fancy, he thought before stuffing a large bite, drowning in syrup, into his mouth. In all honesty, he'd expected Aeris's cooking to be crappy—but it was actually not that bad.

Aeris ate a little bit, but mostly, she was watching (read: staring at) Sephiroth while he ate. He ate as though he hadn't eaten in years…and somehow, Aeris found that incredibly attractive—not like she wanted to let that on, of course.

Sephiroth must've noticed that he was being stared at, because when he finished eating, he asked, "Something wrong?"

Aeris jumped slightly, blushing. "Oh! Um…no, nothing's wrong. You just…have some syrup on your chin," she lied lamely.

Sephiroth pulled off his gloves and reached up to touch his chin, then wiped some of the syrup off—because there actually was some on him. He looked at it for a moment and said, "So there is…" Then he smirked, and wiped the syrup off onto Aeris's cheek.

Aeris squeaked in surprise, then smirked back at him and squirted some syrup (it was a squeezy-bottle after all) onto Sephiroth's face. The silver-haired man yanked the bottle from his companion and "accidentally" poured a large amount of the sticky substance onto her head.

"SEPHIROOTH!" she screamed, standing up, glaring at him. Luckily, it was only on her head and not her clothing.

"Oops," he said sarcastically, then stood up as well. "By the way, I used up the last of the hot water."

"You pinhead!"

"Oh but you can always wash your hair in the sink. Here, I'll help you. The pink bottle's your shampoo, right?"

Aeris eyed him suspiciously. "I think I can wash my own hair, mister…"

"Hmm, yes, but I got it on you so I might as well help you get it off."

"You want something, don't you? YOU'RE PLANNING SOMETHING, AREN'T YOU? You'd better not be planning anything creepy!"

"Don't worry about it," Sephiroth said, dragging her to the kitchen sink.

"GAH!" Aeris screeched, wrenching her arm away from Sephiroth. "I can wash my own hair, thanks. If you wanna watch, then watch, but I really don't need any help, okay?"

"Humph," Sephiroth muttered, pretending to be hurt. "All right fine…"

Aeris adjusted the water until it was at the temperature she wanted it to be, then bent over the sink and began scrubbing the stickiness out of her hair.

Sephiroth, of course, was staring at her rear end…

Once Aeris finished washing her hair, she rinsed off and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around her hair. Then, as she turned around, she caught Sephiroth red-handed.

"Enjoying the view, huh?" she teased, yanking the hose off of the sink, pointing it at him like a gun.

"Oh no. Don't shoot me," Sephiroth said sarcastically, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

Aeris smirked and squirted a blast of water at him anyway, laughing. Sephiroth laughed, too, then gently attempted to wrestle the hose away from her.

This is so weird, Aeris thought. It's like we're suddenly getting close…

Not that she minded, of course.

Once they were both significantly wet, Aeris put the hose back in its place and sighed. "How many days of the month have we been stuck with each other, now? Sixteen?"

"Fifteen," Sephiroth corrected her.

"…You know," Aeris started, rubbing her hair dry with a towel, "at first, I really, really hated this situation…and you. But…now, I think it might not be so bad…"

"Really?"

"Really," she said with a small smile.

"I see…" the man said, then smirked. "I knew you were falling for me!"

"What? HEY! I never said I was falling for you!"

"Not out loud, no…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing…"

"…Sure. Hey, I'm gonna go out into town and stuff," Aeris said with a shrug, combing her damp hair with her fingers. "So…I'm gonna go change into my bathing suit. You'd better not peek. I mean it!"

"I believe you," Sephiroth said, raising his hands again in mock surrender.

Once Aeris was changed into her bathing suit, the two exited the Inn together. Before they reached the beach, Sephiroth gently turned Aeris so that she was facing him and kissed her.

Aeris shook her head and blushedafter pushing him away. "I told you, I'm NOT falling for you…"

Her voice trailed off when she looked up and saw a very shocked-looking Cloud Strife.


Yumesuta: Muahaha! Cliffie! Anyway, I know the chapter sucked, so, sorry…I don't think it was as funny as it was last time, so, I apologize for that. My Funny Muse ran away with the plot for this chapter to get married so I have no idea where either of them happen to be. Anyway, review please!