I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Beach Day
Cody yawned and held a hand up to block the sun as he looked out at the water. As soon as they had escaped from the ship, and had taken a moment to ensure they were safe from Shinra pursuit, Tifa, Aerith, and Jessie had all decided they should take a break and all went swimming. Cody hadn't felt like swimming, but he had joined them at the beach while a nearby laundry place was washing his suits for him. He'd had to buy swimming trunks, but it was more than worth it to get to see Jessie in her new bikini. Actually, if he was honest, it was worth it to see all three of them in their new bikinis, but he'd never admit to having enjoyed seeing anyone but Jessie. Tifa had bought a black bikini with a strip of white along the bottom of bikini top, Aerith had chosen a red bikini with pink frills along the edges of the top and the along the top of the bikini bottoms, and Jessie had chosen a purple bikini with a small bit of material wrapping between her legs to cover her, if only barely, then with four thin strips of cloth per side to hold it on, two crossed into an "X" on the sides with another strip above and below it, then for the top she had little more than a strip of cloth around the bottom quarter of her breasts, a pair of small points in the front of it reaching up to cover her areolas, then a latticework of black strips decorating the upper three quarters of her chest with a thin strip around each shoulder and around her neck.
He took a long few minutes to admire her choice of swimwear. To say he loved her choice of bikinis would be the biggest understatement of the last century. And she knew it. Even as she swam around in the water and talked to the other girls, he could see her intentionally giving him a show by positioning her self to make it nearly impossible not to stare at her body. And, of course, every so often she would throw him a knowing smirk coupled with that teasing, playful light in her eyes that had captured his heart so effectively. She knew exactly what she was doing, and he had every intention of letting her.
Beside him, Boco nudged him with his head and Cody chuckled, stroking his feathers.
"Not yet, Boco," Cody said. "She's not quite done playing yet."
Boco warbled and nudged him again and Cody smiled, stroking his feathers again before returning his attention to Jessie, who was grinning wickedly, and who crooked a finger at him instantly.
"I guess time's up, then," Cody smiled, standing and walking out into the water, tugging his mask down in time to greet Jessie with a kiss, keeping it slow and innocent, but pulling her hips against his underwater so that she could tell how much he enjoyed her bikini without making it awkward for Tifa and Aerith.
Jessie hummed in satisfaction as she pulled away and tugged his mask up, then cocked her head to the side, her hum turning thoughtful. "Your eyes look really bright today."
"Well, we don't usually hang out anywhere as bright as the beach," Cody said.
"True," Jessie smiled. "Anyway, we need your opinion as a guy."
"Oh boy," Cody sighed.
"How do our choice of bathing suits look?" Aerith asked sweetly, but a playful light almost as bright as Jessie's could be showing in her eyes.
"Oh, you all look absolutely hideous," Cody said. "Please, for the love of God, put some clothes on."
"How rude!" Aerith laughed as Jessie smacked him.
"Anyway," Jessie said. "The reason we were asking was because we were considering having Cloud come to the beach, but Tifa's being shy."
"Yeah, about that," Cody said. "Tifa, why in God's name is he not here right now?"
"What do you mean?" Tifa asked, blushing.
"You are trying to win him over, right?" Cody asked, Aerith's face lighting up instantly.
"Oh my God!" Aerith said. "You two would be great together!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Tifa said, face darkening.
"Come on Tifa," Jessie smirked. "The whole world knows you like him. This is the perfect opportunity for you to get inside his head."
"How?" Tifa asked.
"Tifa, I don't mean to call you an idiot, but Cloud's a male, and you're wearing a bikini," Cody said. "You literally cannot fuck it up."
"And what exactly are you trying to say?" Jessie aske, narrowed her eyes at him with her hands on her hips.
"Oh don't act jealous," Cody said. "You know full well where my attention is right now."
Jessie smiled. "Fair enough."
He gave her a quick kiss again before glancing at Tifa, who was still blushing. "What are you still doing here? Go fetch your future boyfriend."
"He's not my future boyfriend!" Tifa argued, even as she headed for land.
"Much better," Cody said. "And now that that's taken care of, we can deal with that." He looked over to where there were four extremely attractive bikini-clad women around a beach chair.
Aerith and Jessie both opened their mouths to call him out on looking at other girls, only to stop as they saw who was in the chair. Hojo, who, according to what Barret overheard from Rufus and Heidegger, resigned from Shinra recently.
"Do we have to?" Aerith asked. "He tried to force me to mate with a dog."
"As excellent a point as that is, I actually do have to talk to him," Cody said. "I want to know what he's planning, and I want to talk to him about something."
Jessie glanced at Cody as Aerith sighed and nodded. They walked over to him, the girls all scattering as Cody summoned his gunblade. Hojo cracked an eye open, studying the three of them for a moment before sighing heavily.
"Couldn't you at least wait until after I finish tanning to threaten me like brutes?" Hojo asked.
"You can't tan in a lab coat, Hojo," Cody said, holding his gunblade to Hojo's throat. "What are you doing here?"
"I told you, I'm getting a tan," Hojo said.
"And I told you, I'm not buying it," Cody said. "I know full well you're trying to find Sephiroth. Why? What do you want with him?"
Hojo watched him for a moment before smirking. "Alright, I'll tell you a bit. I've developed a theory about Jenova's Cells. I believe that they will one day call to one another, trying to recombine. I call it the Reunion Theory. However, I'm interested in seeing who it is that puts out the call."
"I see," Cody said. "Then I have another question. I know you know what specifically my father was looking at when he was stealing information. What was he trying to accomplish?"
"As I told you before, I have no idea what it was he wanted to achieve," Hojo said. "However, I can tell you what he was looking for."
"And that is?" Cody asked.
"Your father was searching Shinra's databanks for every scrap of information on summoning materia, along with every legend about them, or about powerful beings that may, or may not, have been Summoned Monsters," Hojo said. "I had the computer in Junon linked to the one your father was stealing from so that anything he looked at would be added to a list, which I assume you found, considering your access codes logged onto the computer, right after someone else's, though I'm not sure who. Anyway, your father, as I'm sure you figured out, was searching for a specific summoning materia. One of unimaginable power."
"The Harbinger?" Cody asked, seeing Aerith look at him in surprise out of the corner of his eye.
"That's right," Hojo said. "The Harbinger. We believe it is a deity of some kind, and that a summoning materia exists to bring it forth, or perhaps, a specific set that can summon him when combined. Your father was trying to summon the Harbinger, for a purpose that we could only assume was the destruction of Shinra. That was why he was executed. He became a threat."
"Do you know how to summon the Harbinger?" Cody asked.
"No idea," Hojo said. "I decided that learning to summon that being was less interesting than studying the Ancient, and studying Jenova, so I left it to my underlings, who all failed miserably. But perhaps the other person who's looking for the Harbinger will succeed. He's been extremely picky in choosing the Materia that he's been stealing from Shinra facilities. It's possible he's learned the secret. Or, perhaps he has other plans. I assure you I have no idea."
"Alright," Cody said.
"Hojo, I want you to tell me something," Aerith said. "Is Jenova and Ancient? Is Sephiroth?"
Hojo regarded her for a moment before beginning to mutter to himself, Cody catching the word "West" among the rest of his mumbling.
"Let's go," Cody said. "We should enjoy the beach while we're here."
Jessie and Aerith looked unsure, but Hojo turned and began to walk away, ignoring them, so they all walked over to where Cody had a towel set out for himself and sat down. Jessie looked at Cody worriedly, but he didn't notice. He was staring at the ground in thought.
"Are you-" Jessie began.
"You know what the Harbinger is, don't you, Aerith?" Cody asked. "I saw the way you reacted when I said its name."
Aerith nodded silently, then opened her mouth to speak, only to hesitate. "It's incredibly dangerous."
"I gathered that much, thanks," Cody said. "What is it?"
Aerith again hesitated before shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I can't say. It's better left forgotten. At least for now."
"It's not forgotten, Aerith," Cody said. "Someone's trying to find a way to summon it right now! I need to know what it is!"
"I'm sorry," Aerith said. "I really am. But I can't tell you what it is. Not yet."
"Then when?" Cody asked.
"If whoever it is finds a way to summon it, I'll tell you what it is," Aerith said. "But...just know that whatever else happens, it cannot be allowed to be summoned. If it was...there's no telling how many people would die. Maybe everyone."
"It's that dangerous?" Jessie asked.
"It's almost literally a deity," Aerith said. "If it's summoned, I don't know if it could be stopped."
Cody nodded. "Well, I'm glad we now have two world-ending threats to take care of."
"What will you do?" Aerith asked.
"I downloaded the files my father was looking through," Cody sighed. "I'll have to look through them and see if there's a hint. Maybe another Shinra Facility, or maybe Shinra knows something."
"I'll be right there with you," Jessie said, taking his hand. "But, for the time being, I think we were supposed to be enjoying the beach."
"Yeah, really not in the mood for that anymore," Cody said.
Jessie smirked and shifted to straddle his legs, pulling his mask down and kissing him. He sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes, but kissed her back instantly. Aerith laughed into her hand at his reaction, and after a minute, Jessie pulled back, pulling his mask back up for him.
"Better?" Jessie asked.
"Marginally," Cody said.
"Good," Jessie beamed. "Now let go!"
She grabbed his and Aerith's hand, pulling Aerith up, and Aerith grabbed Cody's free one, the two together dragging him to the water. He laughed, and pulled his hands back, splashing both and both gasped, Aerith stomping her foot and swinging her fists down to her side like a short temper tantrum before both began to splash him back. After a minute, however, Jessie stopped to cheer and Cody looked, laughing as he saw Tifa almost literally dragging Cloud by the hand, Cloud now wearing blue swimming trunks.
"It won't kill you to relax for a little while!" Tifa said, stubbornly. "Let's go!"
"I told you, I don't want to relax, I want to find Sephiroth!" Cloud said just as stubbornly.
"And we will, right after we spend today having fun!" Tifa said.
"Aerith, I'm really sorry for saying this, since I know you like him too," Cody said. "But they were made for each other."
"I agree," Aerith smiled. "And it's okay. I'm happy just being friends. I love spending time with all of you."
"Oh good," Cody said. "Then you'll forgive me."
And then he sent an Aero into the water below her, knocking her over backward in a wall of water. And just like that, the water war was back on, with Cloud getting forced to take part on Cody's side while Tifa joined Jessie and Aerith.
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