Sephiroth was leaning against the wall in the training room, arms folded, brooding over something, facial expression set and unchanging like a stone gargoyle. He only reacted when Zack approached.

"Well?" he asked expectantly.

"It was... I dunno, weird." Zack began, moving to lean against the wall next to Sephiroth. "When I first rang the doorbell and her mother answered, she acted like Aeris didn't even exist. It wasn't until I insisted that I had the right house that she called her down." Sephiroth nodded, silently affirming something in his mind. "Then when I was talking about the dance thing, I mentionned it was on the sixty-first floor and she was shocked that they were letting civilians into the building past the sixtieth floor."

"So she's been in the Shinra building before..." Sephiroth voiced.

"What do you think that means?" Zack inquired.

"She's clearly hiding from Shinra, but I still don't know why. She sells flowers she grows herself and has her 'mother' buy food and the fabric for her clothes with the money, so few civilians even know she exists. Taking that and the fact that she's never been on a train in her life keeps her completely off the radar. I'm willing to bet she only attended that private school under a false name, aswell."

"That's pretty intense. You think you know someone..."

"Do you think she'll come tomorrow night?"

"She said she would consider it."

"I'm almost certain she'll say no, but if she does come, you and I have to keep a constant eye on her. I'll see about hiring the Turks to do the same."

Tseng came early the next morning and informed us that apparently this was the president fulfilling one of Reeve's requests from months ago. He warned me against going still, even though he himself was apparently ordered to attend, including the rest of the Turks. Nevertheless, I decided to go to the dance anyway, and spent the rest of the morning working on my new dress. After all, I was only ever going to be a teenager once.

But it didn't stop me from being very nervous. After all, this had 'bad idea' written all over it, though at the time I was too naive to care.

Why did I let him talk me into this? I had to ask myself. I am not a social creature. I don't have time to build relationships. Yet here I am about to knock on the door of a young woman I barely know and ask her to a dance. I added "Find and Maim Zack" to my mental list of things to do. He had it coming; he still owed me fifty gil for his recent binge, after all.

I gave three solid knocks on the door. There was a slight shuffling, then I noticed Aeris looking through the left one of the narrow windows to the sides of the door from a ways inside. She was a lot taller than before, I noted.

"Come in!" she beckoned.

I carefully opened the door and the first thing I noticed was Aeris standing on the table in the center of the room. She was wearing a green dress I surmised was just being completed. Elmyra was busy putting pins into the veil layers of the skirt.

"Hi Sephiroth," Aeris cooed, as cheerful as ever. "Sorry, we just need to hem the skirt and then I'm ready to go."

"So I take it it's a yes, then?" I inquired.

"Of course! How often are the good people of Shinra going to throw a party, anyway?" she put her hands to her hips and leaned forwards slightly. 'Good people'?

I just nodded my response, then took a seat on the wooden dining chair against the wall to wait. Aeris' eyes had followed me, and she tilted her head to one side and sulked.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You're not going to dress up?"

"No."

"Zack was right; You are no fun," she pouted. I shrugged my response.

Elmyra seemed to be finished putting pins into the rim of the skirt. I stood up and held my hand out to help her off the table, and she took it. She had an unusually firm grip, I noted. Maybe she's part of that resistance group? What were they called... Tsunami? As soon as she got off the table, Elmyra helped her unzip her dress at the back.

Wait, what?

I panicked. "Uhm, shouldn't you do that in another room?" I suggested while visually scouring the room looking for something of interest to focus on as calmly as possible.

Aeris laughed. "Don't be silly. I'm wearing a slip. What kind of girl do you take me for?" Oh I don't know, a terrorist maybe? But even I knew that was too convenient an answer. Elmyra finished tearing the dress off her 'daughter' and took it into the other room just around the corner. I could hear her start the sewing machine.

"Uh..." She was indeed wearing a slip. A strapless thing that ended mid-thigh, no less. Lace trim. I focused on a vase of flowers across the room I assume she had picked that morning. "S-say, what kind of flower is this?" In the back of my mind, I could see Hojo enjoying my sudden love for botany. Too bad it doesn't scream when you cut it open...

Aeris was laughing at me. "Aww, the Great Sephiroth is turning red! I'll go put my housecoat on, then. I can see I'm making you uncomfortable." I could hear her footsteps leave the room and go up the stairs. Very light on her feet, too.

I turned to see her return wearing a gaudy pink housecoat with moogles printed all over it in a cartoonish style. "Would you like some tea while we wait?" she offered, pulling the chair against the wall up to sit at the table.

"No thank you," I replied, taking the chair across from her.

A silence followed. Or at least, as silent as you can get with a manual sewing machine going just around the corner. She seemed uneasy, and I found myself drumming my fingers against the surface of the table. Soon after I caught myself and stopped, she got up to wash some errant dishes left in the sink.

Think, fool, think! There's got to be something you can talk about that doesn't involve Shinra or terrorism. I tried desperately to think of something I could ask her that wouldn't sound like the start of an interrogation. Thankfully, before I could make the attempt she broke the silence for me.

"So... Mister Sephiroth," she spoke over her shoulder. "How long have you been working for Shinra?" A polite inquiry into my working life. Oh, she's good.

"For as long as I can remember," I coldly replied.

"You sound as if you don't like what you do."

"Not particularly. I've seen more than I'd like to of this world. Like the war..."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories..."

"Don't worry about it."

She solemnly put the washed and dried dishes away in the cupboards above the sink, then came to sit once more, shoulders slumped with the index finger of one hand tracing a knot in the woodgrain surface.

I leaned forwards slightly in my seat, the movement gaining her attention as her green eyes met with mine. "I said don't worry about it," I reminded her, a small smile forcing it's way onto my face.

She smiled slightly, then returned to her task. Soon after though, she shifted to sit upright and looked right at me, her chin now perched on the back of one hand. "I can't help it, I'm a very sentimental person. That war cost a lot to everyone." She spoke the last part quietly, then it hit me; Elmyra was a widow. Aeris was trying to be respectful because Elmyra's husband died in the war. Bad memories indeed.

I'm sure my face conveyed a look of slight surprise as my eyes darted to the doorway Elmyra had dissapeared through. I gave Aeris an understanding nod, and she smiled slightly.

As if on cue, Elmyra came through the doorway with the finished dress over one arm. "All right sweetie, now put this on and let me see how I did."

"Oh, thanks so much! You know how I always mess up on the machine with this material," Aeris gave her adoptive mother a hug before accepting the dress. I took that as my cue to stand and go back to the vase that captivated my attention earlier.

"My dear, you really need to pick easier fabrics to put together," she chastized. "Hurry up and get this on, you're going to be late."

There was a small clock on the shelf with the vase. Well, we wouldn't be late at all if we were taking the train, I thought. Aeris cleared her throat, and I took that as a sign to turn around. She was back in the green dress and Elmyra held the moogle housecoat. They hugged and kissed each other on the cheek, then Aeris moved to the door to get her brown boots on. Which made me realize I hadn't taken mine off at all.

"Oh, Mrs. Gainsborough, how inconsiderate-" I started.

She laughed and waved it off. "Oh it's alright my dear, this floor needs to be swept anyways. Now take care you two. Come back for midnight, okay sweetie?"

"I make no such guarantees," Aeris grinned mischeviously, pulling on a dark green sweater. I crossed the room and she held my arm, then we were out the door.