a&n: Hey! Thanks so much, Lifeispietzche, aerithsrain and Chibitaryndemon for the gorgeous reviews. I'm sorry for the wait, and I couldn't get this chapter quite right, either... but well, these things have their ups and downs, right? And, Christ, we're getting to the sex, so why don't you just hang around a bit longer, eh? :) Thanks for reading!

•2•

The rain was pouring down in glittering sheets, just as translucent and indifferent as the expression on her face as she tugged her fur-lined coat further around her shoulders. Her eyes were dark with make-up; they glinted bone white as she shot a look up at the sky, robbed of all its nightly splendor by gluttonous rain clouds.

It was as though a thousand diamond chandeliers were being dropped down from above, shattering noisily over the pavements, windshields, cutting up the lamppost light into eerie shapes and faces in the dark. A few of them were flickering, actually. Maybe she should've waited at her studio a little longer. Well. Too late to turn back now.

A man was sheltering himself under the bus stop, too, staring at her intently, and she was either pointedly ignoring him, or hadn't noticed his presence yet. His eyes were overshadowed by a cap, pulled down low over his forehead, so that his lips were the only part of his face that really caught your attention; protruding like twin spines, seemingly wine-coloured in the dark and casting sensual shadows over the dips in his lower face.

He was staring at her, his delicious mouth curled in a smug kind of way, and when she extended her forearm to unhook the umbrella from its black satin length, he took a step forward. She couldn't help but notice him, then. She couldn't pretend much longer, if that's what she'd been playing at. Readying her umbrella before her with both hands, her lips parted as she took in a breath without quite knowing why- she had been expecting him, after all. Her head, crowned as it was with a twist of long black hair that was set into place by a few beaded pins, turned a fraction.

A look passed between them.

A smile of those spine-like lips later, his hand had slipped onto the silk that covered the small of her back, and she had erected the umbrella over both their heads. The rain was too loud for him to hear the pounding of her heart beneath its wad of jade green silk and pearls, but she could almost feel her wrists pulsating as she clutched onto the umbrella handle as though onto dear life.

Her heel snapped almost as loudly as one of the angry droplets of rain as she ventured out from beneath the bus stop, crossing the road beneath the umbrella, with his breath on her neck and his hand on her back, making her instinctively square her shoulders and look straight ahead.

He was smiling.

• •

"You're just passing, right?"

Aeris and her rather forced 'guest' had just managed to prop Zack into one of the kitchen chairs, his arms hanging and looking too long compared to the rest of his body as he lounged there, head back and mouth open; he would've looked comical if the sight hadn't been so familiar. Well, actually, the kook in the top hat had done most of the work, because she'd shot upstairs to pull on one of the many scattered garments that littered her room; a short dress that accentuated her waistline, red with white spots, and straps digging into the tender flesh of her shoulders. The kook watched her as she bent over Zack, downy chestnut hairs curling around her nape before being rudely scraped up in a messy bun; from where he stood, at several steps behind her, he could only see the healthy curve of her cheek, with a snatch of dark lashes in perspective. She passed a finger over the upper lip of the drunken man, before slowly bringing it up to her nose.

"Ugh- I don't believe it…" she groaned as she recognized that poignant smell; it had the same tangy acidity that she'd taste on his tongue, on most nights when he 'dropped by'.

"I am," the man spoke into his muffler in response to her question, that deep voice evoking black cotton as it spurned into her ears.

She turned to study his face, crossing her arms around her skinny waist, purple half-moons etched beneath her disturbingly green eyes.

"Actually, I don't know where the man lives. I thought you might tell me how to get there, perhaps, seeing as you're bound to have been up there several times to meet him."

So sure of himself, this man. Aeris couldn't help but feel intrigued, and at the same time, an intuitive feeling of defiance seemed to be brewing in the face of such self-confidence. She wondered who he was…

"What makes you so sure that I don't want him sleeping in my home?"

A flash of amusement seemed to animate the man's pale features as her words tumbled delicately from her mouth.

"A man like him doesn't pick a night at the bar with people like me, over a comfortable night with people like you, unless something's amiss," he spoke almost slyly, and he observed her lips tightening with that trade-mark arrogance that he so adored to abuse of.

She wasn't sure what he implied by that remark, and she lifted a hand to stow away imaginary strands of hair, hiding her reddening cheeks from those hidden eyes of his.

"I… I wouldn't be able to tell you how to get there." She didn't want to think up of a clever comeback for that strange remark, and she found that she was trying to smooth out the stammer in her voice; she was just tired, half-annoyed at being kept up this late, and half-excited at the prospect of going to the upper world. "It's too long to explain. I could show you the way, though."

A silver eyebrow twitched, though his marble face remained unchanging. "It must be graver than I thought. So you'd be willing to go out into the cold, the snow, the night, with a complete stranger, just to get your boyfriend away from your house…"

Aeris couldn't help but laugh at that. She was too tired to be annoyed, and besides, it could only be playful; it seemed like this man needed to decompress, and seeing as she'd come across a lot of Zack's SOLDIER friends, she'd gotten used to the jesting and random conversations at any given hour of the day or night that never really seemed to be very constructive, but that somehow consolidated the relationships she had with them.

"It's not that," she smiled, bowing her head to run her inked nails over her hairline distractedly, hiding from his gaze. "I've always loved the world above… when he takes me up, though it's often, it's always a treat."

She was easy to talk with, the kook noted as he pulled out a packet of cigarettes from his inner pocket, his eyes still trailed on her as he advanced toward Zack's limp form- or perhaps it was because of the late hour that she wasn't taking much offence or randomly leaping to her own defense. She hadn't gotten too pissed off at being disturbed in the middle of the night, either- though, she had to be used to that by now, what with Zack's messy agenda. He didn't know his comrade's entire life off by heart, but he knew how volatile the man's mind could be, so he supposed there was something admirable about her patience. He didn't have time to admire every woman's facets, however, even if there was something strangely off in her little mannerisms, as though every time she moved her hand, he knew its itinerary as precisely as if he'd seen it plenty of times before. Deciding not to dwell on it, he strode right up to her, cigarette hanging loosely from his lips so that as she stepped back to let him pass, she caught a pleasant whiff of tobacco-stained apple.

She watched him as he loaded Zack onto his shoulder in an effortless chain of contortions, somewhat awed by the way his limbs moved freely and smoothly, as though each movement had been meticulously calculated beforehand- something struck her about his unnatural grace, the pallor of his skin… that little shimmer of silver on his nape, as he ducked to sling Zack's torso over his shoulder… would she ask him? Then again, was it really important to her, who he really was? Not to mention, he clearly didn't want people recognizing him…

"So you'll lead me up?"

He had moved to the front door, turning the indifference of those two button-like lenses towards her. Everything, from his polished black boots to his concealing muffler and bizarre hat, screamed the stranger that overly anxious parents are constantly warning their kids about; she found it rather amusing that she'd be wandering the moonlit streets of the magnificent city above with the impersonation of the boogie man. And, even though he was slightly unconscious and his brain was currently being cleaned out of its neurons, Zack was still there; it wasn't like she couldn't wake him up with a good kick in the eye if the kook ever tried anything on her. It took an almost frightening amount of alcohol to actually lead the good First Ranker into a proper ethylic coma, anyway.

"Trusting you won't take advantage of my good will," Aeris smiled a little too coquettishly for the current situation, and where it could be taking her. It wasn't like she was bored, or unaware of what kinds of danger were implied when trekking through Midgar in the dead of night- but, she knew they were going to be led to war in a bit less than two days' time, so she didn't want to waste a single opportunity to see the sky. It was just like that… she may be able to make flowers grow without a drop of true sunlight, but she knew she couldn't survive for very long if Midgar completely deprived her of all contact with the real outside. And with Zack gone, along with any of his friends who might've been courteous enough to take her up… away went those opportunities.

She didn't think this kook might understand; he certainly didn't look like he enjoyed soaking up sunlight, what with that corpse skin and hands as though sculpted in foggy ice.

"I certainly could."

"You could even test your materia on me and set my house alight right now if you really wanted."

"What tells you that abuse is solely a matter of materia…?"

Her stance shifted ever so slightly. "I thought you actually wanted me to show you the way." His words were only serving as proof of her hypothesis that he might be some deranging remix of Jack the Ripper… long black coat and lean hat included, sweet-talking his victims into obeisance.

"You should be much more on your guard, miss," the man explained his manners, "I would've thought living down here would've taught you at least that." He was about to add, you haven't even asked me who I am yet, but for some reason, he thought it might be amusing to see how far they'd get before she asked him. How far… road-wise, of course.

"I've seen enough kinds of people to know whom to trust, sir, and I know that most SOLDIERs are decent people."

He could've laughed out loud at the naïveté of that statement, wondering if that seemingly firm belief would last the night.

"Well, you've certainly encountered the right ones to justify yourself," he said, and she couldn't quite distinguish the tone he used; he had such a strange, cavernous voice that sometimes his implications got lost in its depths. "However, I don't know what makes you think I'm one of them."

"If you think those sunglasses are thick enough to completely cover the glow, you should probably start saving up for new ones," she threw at him mockingly, and she almost saw his fingers twitch as he rested them against the security chain, readying himself to open the door. "Wait!" Hurrying, she went to the lacquered red coat rack, taking from its pegs a coat of the same fiery colour and shrugging it on, the fur bristling around her neck.

The kook couldn't refrain from smiling at this. She wouldn't make a good SOLDIER… going against the simplest laws, even those of common sense, and not blending in with anything; the crowd, the nightscape- with the exception of her house, filled with extravagant flowers as it was. He knew that if he'd been a cold-blooded murderer, this was the kind of person who would be an absolute joy to deceive and desecrate; not that he had those ideas in mind, of course…

"Let's get going, before that flickering neon outside gives out and I change my mind."

Red fur zipped under his nose, and he caught a distinct, earthy scent as she opened the door for him, stepping out into the darkness and looking back over her shoulder with a slightly questioning gaze, inviting him after her, a hesitant smile touching her lips.

What a peculiar creature… Not quite knowing what more to expect, the general in disguise hitched Zack's body into a more comfortable position, ducking out of the door and closing it behind him with a quiet click.

• •

Ah… what a fine taste. Cherry cigarettes imported straight from Wutai… the things were slender, shining gold and black, and they brought a tender fog of the sweetest perfume as they broke from his lips, one by one sucked of their life in a brazier of red glows, before dripping their ashes into the bath water.

Damien reclined in his bathtub, the light bulb above buzzing softly as it hung off its wire. For some reason it was swaying slightly, so the shadows went to and fro in a hypnotizing dance.

Wutai… the war would lead them there, under the President's orders, the following night. It would be a nocturnal journey in those infamous airships that he'd always dreamed of seeing, when he was a kid. Ah, but there were so many things he'd wished for, when he was small… wearing that SOLDIER uniform that lay in a disgraceful heap on the bathroom floor; wielding that sword that rested against the sink, waiting for him to clean it of its blood (a result of feisty training); going to Wutai, that faraway, exotic world that he was on the verge of shattering… it was poetic, really.

That dreamy little boy he'd been had only been part of the millions others who'd been violently swept aside to make place for the men (what did they call it again? Tin soldiers?) that were to grow in their stead. He'd met so many, it was almost distressing… men who would sigh, lean back on their dirty stool and slick back their hair, remembering the old days and telling him exactly the same stories that he'd believed in when he'd been that age.

The cigarette flecked away, and milky smoke escaped from his nose, rendering the air even more translucent. He didn't know if it was because of the SOLDIER training, or the Mako… but he had been past caring for a long, long time.

He crushed the cigarette's remains on the already filthy edge of the bathtub. It was almost amusing how, the last thing they all had to do before going to war was… kill time. He had done all the things the others had hurried to do; eat caviar, drink the most expensive wine imported from Costa del Sol, make love to women with diamonds in their ears… and now, what was there that would complete his existence, so that he wouldn't have any regrets once some Wutain shuriken opened its jaws and invited him into oblivion?

…Have one more cigarette.