His broad shoulders shook with laughter – he really couldn't contain himself any longer, and guffawed heartily while Aeris stewed in her own indignation.

"Really, now, what did you expect?" he prompted. She ignored him, crossing her arms a little tighter, lifting her nose a little higher into the air, and finishing with a quiet "hmph." Sephiroth felt the warm, familiar feeling of accomplishment wash over him.

"You know," he started, making no effort to hide his bemusement. Aeris cut him off.

"Oh, now you want to talk?" Her tone was as reproachful as his expression was smug.

"You never told me what it means that you're stuck," he continued, waving a hand dismissively in response to her protest.

"Oh, no. Like I'm going to volunteer any information to you now."

"Why? You've gotten the sensitive information out of the way, what's the harm in telling me the facts?"

"I'm not telling you anything."

"Because it's important, or because you're petty?"

"Petty?!"

"Spiteful."

"Spiteful?!"

"Does everything I say sound better in that shrill voice?"

"Maybe it does!"

"If it makes you feel better…"

She narrowed her eyes. His were practically twinkling with delight. She observed that his mood seemed to have an inverse relationship with her own, and sure enough, as her mouth twisted into a smile, the mischievous fire dancing in his eyes was snuffed out.

"What?" he asked, already sounding decidedly more dour.

"I'm not telling you why you're stuck, either," she announced, voice rich with the vindictive joy so commonly found among kindergarteners.

"What? I'm actually stuck?"

"Well, that much should be obvious, shouldn't it? Why else would you be here with me?"

"I figured it was divine punishment. You know why I'm here?"

"The planet wouldn't punish me like this. Yes, I know why you're here."

Faced with Aeris' triumphant smirk, Sephiroth's mood soured. He sat down and pressed his fingers to his temple, mulling this revelation over. There was some faint twinge of guiltless regret tugging at the back of his mind, but he pushed it aside in favour of formulating a plan to get Aeris to divulge the information he wanted.

"… And I'm not telling you!" she added gleefully.

Sephiroth looked up.

"Yes, thank you, Aeris, I had figured that out about five minutes ago, but I suppose confirmation is better late than never."

She giggled to herself, but the longer she watched him frowning and worried, the less amused she found herself.

"Is this about… Jenova?" He felt like the last word was something to choke on. Aeris watched him closely for a moment, then leaned back on her palms, her shoulders moving back and forth as she considered her answer.

"Mmmm… that would be telling." She looked back at him, tilting her head to one side. "You say that name like it's a dirty word."

Sephiroth grunted in acknowledgement, but volunteered nothing else. Her expression softened, so she tipped her head back before he could notice.

"So, is the Lifestream what you thought it would be?"

"I thought you were mad at me?"

"I try not to waste too much of my time on anger."

"Why? It frees up more time to enact revenge?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm not you."

"It just didn't seem to be your philosophy a minute ago."

"Well, of course I can't help but indulge my anger sometimes. I'm only human, after all."

He frowned deeply.

"No, you're not."

The silence had grown to be uncomfortable. Sephiroth didn't seem to mind, but Aeris couldn't keep from fidgeting under his firm and unrelenting stare.

"Well, anyway, I—"

"If you're not angry, then tell me why I'm here."

Aeris turned her head to look him in the eye, quirking one of her brows.

"Now, now. I said I wasn't going to be angry. I didn't say I wasn't going to be difficult."

This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but there were a few things I wanted to establish and I just felt it was better to end it after doing so. Hopefully the next update will come sooner than this one. Thank you to all the people who have reviewed so far - I'm glad you're enjoying it. For those of you wondering: Yes, I am planning to go somewhere with this story. The dialogue isn't going to be entirely meandering and pointless, and I hope I showed a bit of that with this chapter.