The Beach Vacation Adventure

by Ruff Collie

Chapter Three: Enter the Zack

After dragging Sephiroth back to the Inn, Aeris firmly forced him into bed. Four different comforters covered the poor general, and his overly worried partner was taking his temperature. When the mercury read a perfectly stable number(right down to the decimal point), Aeris made a sort of 'hurumph!' noise, and slammed a bag of smoking ice on Sephiroth's forehead. He winced.

"I don't care what that stupid thermometer says!" Aeris grumbled, forcing aspirin down Sephiroth's throat; the general began gagging, trying to claw at his face. "You're sick! And you're not moving anywhere!"

"Ah...ack," Sephiroth wheezed, from both choking and the disgusting taste in his mouth.

Aeris looked at him sympathetically.

"I know, I know, my little schnookie muffin," she cooed, rubbing ice on his cheeks, "Mommy Aerish is here now, and she's gonna take such good care of you; yesh, she is!"

Sephiroth, mentally screaming, began to shake. Big mistake. Aeris noticed right away.

"AWW, SEPH-MUFFIN! ARE YOU STILL COLD?" she shrieked, "I'll just have to get you another comforter and some of my hot, delicious chicken noodle soup! You'll be warmed right up!"

"B-But..." the general called out weakly as Aeris hurried out of the room.

Sephiroth was smouldering hot under the comforters, and his entire body was beginning to sweat profusely. He would move, but then Aeris would most likely start that ungodly shrieking again and probably force even more blankets on him. The general sighed and shifted underneath his blankets. At least he would get food; he WAS hungry.

As expected, Aeris came twirling back into the room, humming some kind of song your mother sang to you as a child. Well, if Sephiroth had a real mother.

"Aw, Sephy!" Aeris gushed, wrapping her arms around the swordsman's neck, pulling him to her chest, "You're gaining color back! Maybe that medicine is working?"

He mumbled some kind of response, pressing his face closer to Aeris' chest. Although Sephiroth was a world reknown general who could kill in an instant, he was also a man, and the only things running through his mind were things that a child really shouldn't be hearing. Maybe being 'sick' wasn't so bad after all.

Aeris got up as a knock sounded at the door; apparently, the soup was ready.

"This is great!" Aeris chirped as she carried a tray into the room, "I just told the staff the ingrediants, and they made it! Such great service!"

After propping Sephiroth up with the help of a few pillows, Aeris placed the wooden tray on to the general's lap. She pulled up a chair, watching expectantly as he took his first bite.

Abruptly after eating some of the soup, Sephiroth began to sputter, coughing and choking. He looked around the room frantically, searching for water. His mouth and throat were on fire, burning more violently than a Fire 3 spell. What the hell was in that soup?

"W-water!" Sephiroth rasped out, nearly upsetting the tray as he grabbed Aeris' shoulders and shook her like a madman. She gasped, removing the tray from his lap and slamming it on to the table before he could throw it on to her. "What the hell did you do to this soup?"

After handing the gasping general a bottle of water, Aeris looked at him meekly.

"It's my mom's special recipe," she said, looking at her feet and shifting a bit, "She said it would warm you right up-"

"Well, it did quite a good job!" Sephiroth snapped, glaring daggers at the Cetra as he gulped down water. Aeris began to whimper softly, tugging gently at the hem of her shirt. "Oh, damnit, don't start with that..."

Sephiroth sighed in resignition, rolling his eyes and pulling Aeris on to his lap. With a poof, he turned into - oops, wrong fandom. Anyway, Sephiroth wrapped his arms around Aeris tightly. The Cetra let out a muffled 'oomph'.

"All right, I know you were trying hard to make me feel better," Sephiroth began, playing with her braid, "But I'm honestly not sick at all. I just had a bad dream, okay? I'm fine."

Aeris pulled away slightly, meeting Sephiroth's eyes with a sheepish smile.

"All right," she mumbled, yawning widely. Sephiroth helped her off his lap, his hand lingering on her waist.

"You're tired. Go ahead and get changed for bed, all right?"

"All right," Aeris yawned, trudging off to the bathroom sleepily.

Sephiroth shook his head, smiling a bit. He stretched, then proceeded to change into a comfy pair of black shorts to sleep in. A few minutes later, Aeris emerged from the bathroom, clad in a loose tanktop and cotton shorts. Climbing tiredly into the bed, she suddenly blushed profusely as she glanced at Sephiroth. A feral grin emerged on the general's face as he leaned over the Cetra, who was almost completely red at this point.

"Come now," Sephiroth murmered, leaning forward to brush his lips against her neck, "Don't be shy..."

All of a sudden, a huge crash sounded throughout the room. Aeris shrieked; Sephiroth jumped up in an instant, the Masamune in his hand as he whipped it to the neck of the person whom had just fallen through the window of their room. This particular person happened to be a man with jet black hair, which was spiked in odd directions. He coughed a bit, shaking off some of the glass he was covered in. Sephiorth lowered his sword slightly as the man looked up at him with a huge grin.

"Hey there, General! I see you're getting your thing on, eh?" The man winked at a startled Aeris. "Hey, babe. You must be Aeris! You're as hot as Seph told me you'd be."

With a groan, Sephiroth lowered the Masamune completely.

"Zack..."

oooooooooooo

A/N: Uh-oh. Zack's here :3 By the way, I made some art for this chapter. It's not much, but my friends thought it was cute. :3

http(colon)(slash slash) img 246 . imageshack . us / img 246 / 5241 / feverdt0 . png

Just take out the spaces and put in what it tells you. :3

Thanks to my reviewers! I love you guys. You make writing this worth it.

Anyway, I've been seeing Final Fantasy VII a lot recently. I was reading Fruits Basket earlier, and one of the author notes mentioned how much the author loved Sephiroth and how she cried when Aeris died. I was also just watching CinemaTech on G4, and it had the scene where Sephiroth kills Aeris in it. xD

Next Chapter: Zack, the Exhaulted Ninja