Well this is the end, thanks for reading :)
It was a much more subdued Genesis that people saw around Shinra.
He still wore his uniform with it's screaming red trench and had his hair immaculately coifed into its usual jagged points when he went into Shinra headquarters but always kept the door to his PA's office shut as if locking in painful memories in it.
For street clothing, he chose plain black as if there had been a death his the family without adding his usual red touches that were his signature. It was like he was already a ghost haunting his own life. It got to the point that even people who disliked him were starting to miss his fiery temper and dramatic ways when he drifted down the hallways as if lost in his own thoughts.
Angeal remained closed mouth about what had occurred between Aerith and Genesis, he felt it their business and no one else's. Her request for a one month's leave had been granted through the proper channels, although there was some idle gossip that eight months more were required, something Angeal quickly ordered quashed, knowing that Genesis was already worried about this. He supported his friend and kept him company in his isolation, to the point Genesis told him to stop badgering him, he was not a child but Angeal knew he appreciated his help. Genesis had never been good with emotions, he was quick to temper and had a dramatic streak a mile long. He didn't seem to want to do anything but read Loveless and quote acts of it as the book was rarely ever far from his person. Angeal had the patience of a saint and endured it all, even when he longed to bludgeon the redhead to death with his own precious book.
Genesis knocked on her door, holding the flowers at the ready, looking forward to spending a quiet night with her.
Elmyra opened the door "Gen, if you keep visiting me like this, people going to start to talk" she joked to him and let him into her home.
"I came to make sure you have everything you need" he said taking a seat at the table while she filled up the kettle.
"It's Saturday night, a young buck like you should be painting the town red with a woman on each arm, not hanging out with an old lady like me" she said as she put the tea tray together.
"I've done plenty of painting in the past, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf. Some friends are helping me put aside some aspects of myself that I'm not proud of" he said.
"That you're the village bicycle and most local women have had a ride on you?" Elmyra guessed. Genesis could feel himself blushing at the shrewd older woman's scrutiny and saw where Aerith got her bluntness from. "Are you in a program?"
"I'm not sure I'm comfortable discussing this with you, but no I was never an addict" he said.
Elmyra rolled her eyes at this "why is it that young think they invented sex? I was married to my husband for years and we had plenty of it, or does monogamous sex not count? I'm sure you're up to three figure digits when it comes to your conquests but what is crappy sex with strangers compared to making love to someone who will do anything for you" she chided him.
"You sound like Aerith" he said.
"You never ask about her, yet you come over all the time" Elmyra observed, not liking how depressed he seemed.
"It's not my place to ask, I'm nothing to her but a rather obtrusive boss and poor excuse for a human being" he said.
"The two of you made love" she guessed.
"I can't answer that question" he said.
"You did and now you have learned the difference between anonymous sex and loving sex" she said.
"It was only the once, she felt she needed to get over Zack..." He said and had to stop when his throat felt tight.
"At least her first time was with someone who loved her" Elmyra.
"You're not mad at me?" He said in surprise.
"I'm mad at Zack and myself for allowing her to take that stupid vow in the first place" she explained.
"But why be mad at Zack?" He said in surprise.
"Zack was a man engaged to be married, but he took a lot of stupid risks and made my daughter wait. Aerith had been engaged for three years without a date being set. Doesn't that seem like a bizarre amount of time?"
"It does seem to be" Genesis agreed in confusion.
"What do you feel when you kiss a screen or a picture?" She asked him.
"Glass" he said.
"He was always on assignment, he would come back and spend a couple of days with Aerith and would be off again. We all encouraged him take a job locally, set a date and marry Aerith but he wouldn't. He would always promise he would take just one more assignment and then off he went. He would call her, they would skype and that had to be enough for Aerith. A relationship cannot survive like that. In fairytales the princess waits for her prince but in real life you need someone flesh and blood to speak with, touch and hold in order to feed that love. A cold long distant relationship is not what a young woman wants or needs. Without someone tangible in her life, her affections can be transferred to another man who is much kinder than he seems and treats her well" Elmyra said.
"I certain don't think that's me" he said with a frown.
"You're one of my daughter's lame ducks" she said.
"Pardon me? He asked her.
"Aerith is perhaps the kindest and most compassionate woman who has ever lived and can't stand to see anyone in pain, she's a true empath. When she met Tifa, she was a runaway foster child who was living in the streets. Most people would have seen gutter trash, she saw the vulnerable young girl who tried to act so tough and needed help. We took her in and Tifa helped us in the flower shop we used to run when she wasn't going to school. You've seen Vincent's robotic arm?" Elmyra asked him.
"That clawed gold metal thing? That's kind of hard to miss" Genesis said.
"That was created for him by a friend of ours named Cid, he's an inventor. Vincent used to be a government assassin until he was captured, they held him for months while he was tortured and even went so far as to saw off one of his arms, but still he didn't give up any information. The government did nothing to try and rescue him. It was one of his own men that came for him. The damage was done, he has permanent scarring all over his body and had to be sent to the mental institution for a while after what they did to him. Tifa met him there while training as an nurse on a scholarship. What people saw as a hopeless case, she saw as a man struggling to rebuild himself after the horrors he had endured. Aerith got involved and the next thing I knew, we had a full house. So we all helped Vincent however we could and his pension helped supplement my income. Once he got more emotionally stable, Aerith suggested he join the police academy and he not only excelled on his graduation but rose swiftly through the ranks. So those are Aerith's other lame ducks. Now we come to you. I was less than impressed to learn who Aerith was working for but she insisted that she take the job. I felt like I was sending my virgin daughter into a brothel as the special of the day. I was anxious you would do something to her. Imagine my surprise when she came home fuming mad and said you were an arrogant, pompous brat of a man and then added you were the loneliest person she had ever met. I just sighed and waited for her latest lame duck to show up. I know Aerith when she takes someone under her wing" Elmrya explained.
"Was I what you expected?" Genesis asked her.
"Let's see, you're as she described you but not. The cure for loneliness is just to let people in. Aerith saw qualities in your worth knowing right away because she's special, she may not be my true born daughter but I'm proud of her" Elmrya.
"As you should be" he said.
"She's doing fine, she's in counselling, grief counselling for one and is seeing a psychologist. Grief can make people act out of character. She wants to see you when she's ready to. I have no other information at the moment. Don't give up hope though, the Goddess works in mysterious ways" she said.
"I never had any hope to begin with" he assured her.
"If it is about being adopted, you don't seem like a lousy son to me. You were adopted by a cruel man, had you been adopted like someone like me, you would have been raised in a loving environment. We never had much, but we had love on our side" Elmyra said.
"I would have been lucky to have had someone like you" he said. "So dominos or Chinese checkers?" He asked.
"Dominos. But aren't you certain you wouldn't like to go have some fun? I mean you work hard all week long" she insisted.
"I'm where I want to be, with a beautiful woman" he said.
"You flirting with me again? Set the dominos up before I spank you. I swear you are the incorrigible brat Aerith claims you to be" she said.
"What is it with Gainsborough women wishing to spank me? Do you all have a preoccupation with my rear?" He demanded but with no heat behind the words.
"You have nice one" she complimented him.
"Shut up and play" he said quirking a smile at her.
Genesis knew he would see Aerith eventually and braced himself to see her, he thought she would call him or text him or something but didn't expect to come home one day to find her in his kitchen.
"Hey Gen, I'm making spaghetti with garlic bread" she said getting out her apron and standing before him. He couldn't help studying her, her black skirt ended around her knees and was conservative but fitted to her hips and leg. Her sleeveless pink blouse was figure hugging and unbuttoned enough to allow for a hint of cleavage to show. He hair was worn loose in a light brown curly fall. She looked sexy in an unstated way, such as a young wife would dress to impress her husband when he came home.
"What are you doing here?" He asked her.
"Why not get changed and more comfortable?" She said to him while undoing his trench.
"What are you doing?" He said when she went behind him to remove it from him, he'd already removed his gloves in his car.
"I'm taking this hot thing off of you" she said draping it over a chair. "I would love to meet your uniform designer who decided that leather was a proper fabric to use in the construction of a uniform for busy SOLDIERS. I would give him a piece of my mind. "That's better," she moving so she stood in from of him, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a hug and leaned her head against his chest, enjoying his familiar scent of leather, male musk and almond body scrub.
His bare arms trembled as he hugged her back. "Why are you here?" He asked her.
"I came back to claim something I left behind that is mine" she said.
"Your red dress and heels? I gave those to Tifa" he explained to her.
"You" she said.
"You ran from me and now you think you can come back whenever you want and claim me? No, you left me. Or is it that you have an itch to scratch and need my help to reach it? I loved you and you used me" he said pulling back and walking away from her.
"I was confused, about you, about Zack. I didn't know you loved me. Gen, I had to go get my head on straight before we could have been together" she pleaded with him and let her arms drop to her sides.
"Yet you come back and act like nothing happened? It doesn't work that way. Why me? Why pick me? Was it because you regard me as being a whore?" He snapped at her.
"It's because I love you" she said.
"What?" He said in a startled voice.
"I suggest we have dinner and talk" she said, "go get changed while I set the table and wash your hands" she all but ordered him.
"I could just order you from my place" he called after her.
His answer was silence, so he just did as she suggested. Pulling on a t-shirt and a pair of comfortable loose fit jeans.
"Would you like some wine?" She asked. "I hope you don't mind if I helped myself to a glass" she said.
"You don't drink" he said.
"I didn't" she corrected him, "I also didn't drive but have my learners permit now. I wasn't allowed to wear anything provocative either, not that this is all that provocative but I'm trying. I even bought a bikini. I wasn't allowed to watch movies or TV in case I might view sexually suggestive scenes. I'm going to see a movie soon" she explained.
"You've left the church or they ex-communicated you?" he asked her as she served them dinner. He had a bite, it was good but tasted like ashes in his mouth.
"Neither, when I called the hotline, they accidently sent me to a retreat for the reformed church of the goddess. I spent days doing the harshest chores and praying until my knees formed blisters on them and then finally the pastor came to ask me what the hell I was doing? I explained I slept with a man who wasn't my husband and he asked me if I loved you and I said yes without thinking and then started sobbing hysterically. He got me into counselling for my grief and guilt. Outside of the church that is and he and his wife took me into their home. They explained the reformed church was created because they didn't like how the Church of the Goddess represses its members, especially their female members. That the Goddess religion was based on love so they took that as their main objective, to love. Between the counselling and the teachings of the pastor, I came to realize that my feelings for Zack had been waning for a while though I clung to the idea of him. I was becoming disillusioned and that caused me to start to fall for someone else. You were annoying, an utter brat, had a vile temper and are a pain in my ass, yet you were one of the few people who would talk to me about sex. You cared for my well being and were charming and witty when you chose to be. That you're hot certainly helped. You treated me like you were some kind of overprotective pervy brother. You could have tried to seduce me but you never did. Heck, you used to walk around naked first thing in the morning. That was quite the sex education lesson" she said.
"I didn't know you were a virgin at the time; I just though you were uptight" he objected.
"Zack was and will always be my first love and I probably would have married him eventually and bore his children, who wouldn't have seen him or known him any better then me and would mourned him with he died. He would have died eventually, it was explained to me he was addicted to danger. I would never have been enough for him. When I touched myself, I always would dream about my wedding night but more often my groom had red hair. I prayed to the goddess for guidance and suddenly Zack was dead. I was out of control that she would take the one I loved, I decided to commit the ultimate sin" she explained.
"To sleep with a man outside of wedlock" he said.
"I didn't know how to seduce you, I didn't know how to flirt, I don't really know anything about how to be with a man but know how overprotective you get. I dressed myself like that, forced myself to pretend to be interested in those men. I only had a little bit to drink. I convinced myself that it was lust I was experiencing for you, nothing more and then we made love and I never have felt such feelings of love. It terrified me and confused me and that caused me to flee. It wasn't about you, I wouldn't have cared if you were a virgin or slept with thousands of women. I still don't care" she told him.
"That night, birth control wasn't used. Are you?" He asked her.
"What would you do if I was?" She asked.
"I would offer to marry you" he said.
"I'm not, the pastor's wife took to her doctor for a pregnancy test and put me on birth control pills" she explained.
"Why would you need birth control?" He asked her.
"For when we make love again. I never want you to feel obligated to marry me. You're clearly not ready for it yet" she explained.
"What if I never am?" He asked her.
"We'll get you there. For now, I want to be in a healthy sexual relationship that's monogamous. I don't want to be engaged, that would be like being tagged and set on the shelf again. When you ask me, we shall set a date that works for the both of us. Okay?" She asked him.
"I'm no good for you" he said as tears pricked his eyes and he glanced away.
He looked up when she sat on his lap and she cupped his cheeks to make her look at him. "I meant what I said. I didn't expect you to be a virgin and knew you weren't, not that I wouldn't have cherished the gift you gave me if you had been. You're not soil or tainted, you're just a man who has been hurting too long. You need to be in a committed relationship with someone who loves you, adores you and someone you know your heart will be safe with. I want that with you if you will let me. I won't ever leave you again. I've joined the reformed church, I can have you and the Goddess. Please say yes" she said.
"I-I've never been in a relationship and can be difficult" he said.
"News flash, I know that and don't care. I've got a lot of growing up to do and shall need further guidance from my sensei" she teased him and kissed him, Genesis heart seemed to soar with joy as feelings of tenderness raced through his system.
"I suppose we should wait to sleep together?" he said in a dazed voice, lord but her kisses floored him.
"Are you kidding? Genesis Eugene Rhapsodos you had better take me to your bed right now and ravish me within and inch of my life. I have been struggling to keep my hands off of you since the second you came home" she said and kissed with no holds barred this time as her tongue demanded entrance to his mouth and soon wrestled with his own. His breathing hitched and he bodily picked her up and set her on his new regular rectangular bed.
"Where's your round bed?" She asked him as they clawed clothes from each other.
"I didn't need it anyone. You're the first woman I've had in this one" he said as they kissed.
"That's so romantic" she declared in shaky voice.
"Please Aerith, let me have you, we can talk later. But I can't be gentle like the last time. It's been too long. I promise the next time..." He said as he joined her on the bed.
"Take me, I want you to..."
SING IT SEPHIROTH
Sephiroth was dressed as Rocky from the Rocky Horror Picture Show in gold low rise underwear and gold wrestler's boots. He was dancing all of the place when he sang "Oh, toucha, toucha, toucha, TOUCH ME"
He swirled his hair around as he did a spin that allowed a delicious glimpse at his high but curvy rear end.
I wanna be dirty"
He allowed his body to flow and did some pelvic thrusts.
Thrill me, chill me, fulfill me" he sang. "Creature of the night" he sang and threw his head back and then brought his flushed visage forward to grin provocatively at his invisible audience.
"Wow, does sex always feel like this?" asked out of breath Aerith as collapsed beside her equally as winded bed partner.
"It's never felt like this before, this is the second time I've head sex that feels this good. The first time was with you" he explained, pushing back his sweaty, sex rumpled hair.
"See? I told you that sex is nothing without an emotional connection" she chided him. "I wonder how it shall be when I have more experience?"
"I'll teach you all I know" he promised her.
"So many things we can do together" she grinned at him.
"Like me teaching you how to drive? Taking you to a movie for the first time? Going somewhere we can try that bikini on you?" He teased her.
"After I go back to work" she said.
"You wish to return as my PA?" He asked her.
"Not everyone is rich and someone has to keep an eye on your temper and I'm pretty good at that, brat" she teased him.
A FEW MONTHS LATER
"So what you are you two doing tonight?" Angeal asked Genesis.
"Disney Princesses on ice" he explained.
"That sounds dangerously wholesome" Sephiroth drolly said.
"Aerith wanted to go and I want to make her happy" Genesis said, too happy to care what his friend thought of that.
"I'm happy for you. Whoever thought Genesis Rhapsodos would be in a committed relationship?" Angeal said.
"Yeah a couple of months ago you would have been balls deep in a different girl every night" Sephiroth said.
"Sorry fellas, the only girl he's balls deep these days is me" Aerith said switching off the lights in her office and taking off her cardigan sweater to reveal a black dress was unstated yet sexy, as was the style she had invented for herself. "And it had better remain that way if he wishes to keep them" she said going up on tip top to press a light kiss to her boyfriends lips.
"Just you baby" he promised her.
"I get to drive" she said.
"Come on, this isn't a lesson in your mother's old VW rabbit, you can't handle my Vette. She feels the need for speed and you drive like a turtle" he complained. "Besides, you only have a learner's permit, it's too much car for you to handle."
"I'll be with a licensed driver" she said with a pout, reaching into his trench to get his car keys.
"Nope," he insisted, snatching them from her. She pulled him into one of her soul searing kisses that destroyed him, she snatched the keys from his nerveless hand and ran off in triumph.
"Where the hell did you learn to kiss like that?" He called as he ran after her.
"I'm goddess blessed" she teased him giving him a cheeky grin. She knew full well he would catch her but loved bugging him as much as she loved him.
"Kill me if I get like that" Angeal sighed to Sephiroth, though felt happy for his commitment phobic friend.
"I shall I slay you now? Everyone knows Yuffie has been at your place almost every night" Sephiroth said.
"I find her company pleasant and she's teaching me how to make Wutaian food" Angeal said with a blush.
"I live in the same building as you, if she's going to try sneaking out the next morning, tell her not to wave at my balcony when she walks by" Sephiroth said to Angeal deepening blush. "If that's how PA's force you two men to act. Keep them far away from me."
Aerith ran into a person during their chase "oh, I'm so sorry" she said going to help the woman pick up the files she dropped.
"What happened?" Genesis asked finding the two crumpled women on the ground and helping Aerith up. "Ellen?" Genesis said as he recognized her as he helped her up.
"Elena" she corrected him. "Kindly keep your hands off of me Commander" snapped the feisty young women.
"I ran into her. What are you doing here?" Aerith asked her.
"I've been hired as General Sephiroth's personal assistant. Wait are you two together?" She asked him when she noticed he had put his arm around the young woman.
"Yes we're in a monogamous relationship" Aerith said with a grin.
"Keep your eye on him" Elena said in a much friendlier tone.
" He's going no where. Nice to see you again. When you get settled in, seek me out and we'll have lunch together" Aerith called over her shoulder from where she clung onto his arm.
"Sephiroth's in my office, third left down the hall" Genesis called after her.
"I'm not sleeping with Yuffie" Angeal insisted.
"Ask her to bring me a coffee sometime" Sephiroth said and then there was a polite knock at the door. A petite blonde with an asymmetrical bob stood there wearing office attire that showed a rather voluptuous body for her petite stature.
"General Sephiroth, I'm Elena, I was hired to be your Personal Assistant" she introduced herself.
"I have no need of your services" he said.
"I'll leave you two to get acquainted" Angeal said and did so.
"You should go to human resources and get yourself reassigned" he suggested.
"I was hired to work with you, I shall do tasks only as you assign me" she said.
"What am I to do with you?" He said. "Do you like musicals movie?" He asked her.
"I'm not too much into the Sound of Music but I like most others and had voice training lessons" she said. "I was considering becoming an actress at one point" she explained.
"What are you doing next Saturday?" Sephiroth asked her, eyeing her with interest.
GREASE AT SEPHIROTH'S PLACE
Sephiroth flung a leather jacket from him to reveal the tight black jeans and black sleeveless t-shirt he wore beneath.
He started to sing "I've got chills/They're multiplying/And I'm losing self-control/'Cause the power your supplying/Its electrifying."
He was joined by Elena with her hair curled about her face and she wore Sandy's off the shoulder black top, shiny black jeans and red high heeled shoes.
She sang back to him while they gyrated together back and forth "You better shape up/'Cause you're the only one/And my heart is set on you/You better shape up/You better understand/To my heart I must be true."
They both managed to vastly entertain Yuffie and Angeal who watch them through Sephiroth's patio doors while a happy Genesis cuddled his girlfriend as she clung to him as the horror movie she had insisted "she could handle" proved that she couldn't and spent most of the movie with her head buried in his shoulder. Not that he minded as he held her and knew she was going to insist on sleeping at his place because she would be too freaked out to sleep alone.