Whew! So chapter 8 is up pretty fast, huh? I hope you enjoy this chapter...I KNOW you will :-D hehe...enjoy :)

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The sound of birds chirping woke me as I sat up in my bed. I groggily looked over at my alarm clock. 8:45 a.m. As I stretched my arms above my head, I thought about last night. My hand unconsciously swept over my cheek where Sephiroth had touched. I blushed and smiled at the thought of his hands on my face. Oh Tifa, how do you get yourself into these messes!

I got up and headed towards my bathroom. I looked in the mirror and laughed; my hair was pushed up to one side. I took my comb and brushed it back into place, then washed my face and brushed my teeth. I took one more glance in the mirror and saw my pendant that Aeris had given me. I did a small double-take as I peered into the mirror a little more closely to look at it. The moonstone in the middle seemed to be giving off a faint glow. "How strange, it's never done that before," I said to myself. I looked again, and the pendant appeared normal. Did I just imagine it glowing? Weird, I thought. Before I could give another moments notice about the pendant, my stomach began to growl. "I'll shower after I eat; I'm starving!" I said under my breath. I straightened my pajama pants and left my bedroom.

I headed towards the kitchen and took a quick glance towards the direction of the guestroom. Just thinking about him made my heart flutter.

Geez, I'm turning into one of those love-struck girls who can't control themselves.

I put the coffee on and slipped some bread in the toaster, and started back towards the living room. When I entered, I saw Sephiroth sitting on the couch; he was already dressed, and his black cloak was draped along the lounger beside him. He heard me enter and turned to me, "Good morning."

I looked down at my white PJ pants covered in stars and moons and blushed. The last time someone saw me in my pajamas was when I slept over Brooke's house when we were ten years old. "Good morning; would you like anything for breakfast? I'm making toast, if you'd like."

He nodded, his eyes sparkling. "Thank you." I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed two plates of toast, and two cups of coffee.

"So…who should go to Hojo's lab, and who should search for Hojo?" I sat down and handed him his toast and some coffee.

"I want to go searching for him; I would love to be the one to end his miserable life for good." His eyes flashed.

I sipped my coffee. "I want to go with you."

He looked at me from the corner of his eye as he took a bite of toast. After he swallowed, he shook his head. "It's too dangerous."

"I don't think so; as I've said before, I can handle anything. And besides, it's not like you can stop me."

He picked up his cup, took a sip of coffee, and placed the cup back on its saucer. "Fine, but don't complain if you can't keep up with me. We'll be going at a very fast pace."

I snorted. "Ha, you'll be the one who complains that you can't keep up with me." I crossed my arms and nodded quickly.

For the first time, I saw a genuine smile. "If you say so," he replied.

A knock on the door made us both turn our heads. I got up and opened the door, revealing a skinny teenage girl with a huge smile on her face. "Tifa!" Yuffie ran at me and hugged me until I could hardly breathe. I didn't care though, I missed her.

"Yuffie, how are you!" She let me go and held my arms with her hands.

She smiled. "It's so good to see you, Tif." She looked behind me and saw Sephiroth sitting on the couch. She sniggered. "I suppose we'll be taking this one along on our journey to find Hojo, huh?"

I laughed a bit. "So I suppose Cloud told you?" She walked past me and walked over to Sephiroth. She put her face really close to his and examined him as if he were her patient. "Gee, you look a lot better than you did the last time I saw you. Yep, definitely a lot saner." Sephiroth gave her the evil eye.

She didn't take notice of Sephiroth's glare and sat down on the chair. Good old Yuffie, it was definitely nice to see her and her upbeat attitude again. I looked outside and saw no one else, so I shut the door and sat down on the couch between Yuffie and Sephiroth. "Where is everyone else?" I asked her.

She grabbed a piece of toast off my plate and took a bite. "Well, I didn't feel like waiting for everyone. Poor Cid was still a little shocked by the news, and was very busy cursing at everyone. All we heard from him all morning was, 'how the $$$$ is he still alive? Where the $$$$ is he now?' You know Cid." She laughed.

"Oh dear. I hope he's alright."

"Oh don't worry, eventually he calmed down. He said that so long as Sephiroth wasn't planning on taking over the world again, he wouldn't kill him when he saw him. You're not by any chance planning anything like that, right?" She looked at Sephiroth, who seemed already irritated by Yuffie's chipper persona.

"My plan involves destroying Hojo and the cells, nothing more." He replied, looking into his coffee.

"Great!" She winked at him and then turned to me. "The others should be by shortly; in the meantime, I have to tell you what happened on the Highwind..." Yuffie began to tell me the story of her trip back from Wutai. I sat back and listened to her, smiling the whole story. She looked a little different than the last time I saw her; her hair had grown quite a bit; it fell over her shoulders, but she still wore her bandana tied across her forehead. Plus, her face seemed to fill out a bit, and she looked almost mature for her age. Of course, anyone who knew Yuffie knew that she definitely wasn't going to mature anytime soon.

I glanced at my watch. "Sorry to cut your story short, Yuff, but I need to shower. But I'm sure Sephiroth would love to hear a story about that time you stole that materia…" I looked at Sephiroth and gave him a small smile, then went to the bathroom to shower.

By the time I came back from the bathroom, Sephiroth was rolling his eyes while the hyper-active girl continued talking about what a great materia thief she is. "…but anyway, I stole the mime materia right outta his hands, and ran for my life. And lemme tell ya, he chased me for hours! But he couldn't catch me!" I sat down next to Sephiroth on the couch and laughed to myself as I watched his facial expressions while he listened to Yuffie ramble on.

About a quarter to ten, I heard another knock on my door. I opened it, and saw the rest of the AVALANCHE team, including Cid. "Tifa, how the hell are ya!" He gave me a brief hug. He marched into the house as if he owned the place, and saw Sephiroth sitting on the couch.

"Well, if it isn't Sephiroth. I can't believe you're ass is still here! Everyone tells me that you ain't the bad guy anymore, huh?" He walked over and sat on the lounger next to Sephiroth.

I gave Cid a look. "Cid, please try and be civil, alright? Sephiroth's here to help."

He rolled his eyes. "Aright, aright, don't worry about me. So when are we getting moving? I'm ready to kick some Hojo ass!"

I gathered everyone inside, and once everyone was sitting down, I stood up. "Well, I'm glad everyone was able to make it. The plan is to divide into groups; one group is going to go back to Hojo's old lab and try and find some clues, while the other group is going to look for Hojo where Vincent said he last saw him. How does that sound?"

Yuffie stood up. "I want to go looking in Hojo's lab. I've got a good eye! Let me go there!"

"Ok Yuffie. Who else is going with her?" I looked at Cid. "You know a lot of stuff about mechanics; maybe you'll be able to spot some sort of mechanism or something that could help us find Hojo."

"Sounds good." He said.

Barret stood up. "I'll also go to Hojo's lab." I nodded towards him.

"Ok, one more person should go, to make the teams even." I scanned the room and landed on Cloud. "Cloud, how about you?" He looked up at me and gave me a weird look. "Me?"

"Yea, is that ok with you?"

Everyone had their eyes on Cloud. "Sure, whatever you say," he said softly.

I looked towards him and tried making eye contact, but his eyes were down.

"Alright…so Nanaki, Vincent, Sephiroth, and I will go search for Hojo." I threw my extra PHS to Barret. "You take this and if you need me, give me a call. Will you be taking the Highwind?"

"We can drop you off at Cosmo Canyon and then head over to Junon, does that sound ok?" said Cid.

I nodded. "Ok everyone, let's go!"

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Cid had parked the Highwind right outside of Nibelheim. Once we were all on board, we each found our old rooms from last year. Since Sephiroth didn't have a room, I offered to share mine with him. This room was the biggest, and I only got it due to the fact that no one else wanted it because it was right by the engine. With Sephiroth's help, I dragged an extra cot from the closet into the room and set it up along the opposite wall.

As we were unpacking our things, Cloud walked in. "Tifa, come here, I need to show you something," he said, and took my arm and pulled me out of the room.

As we entered his room, Cloud closed the door and sat on his bed. "What is it, Cloud?" I asked.

He pulled me down to sit next to him, his hand still on my arm. "Look, I understand that you're trying to be kind by letting him share a room with you because no one else will. I also understand why you don't want him and me in the same group so we don't get into a fight or anything, but I don't want you getting too close to him. He's dangerous."

I pulled my arm away from him. "I feel perfectly safe with Sephiroth, Cloud. He's not the maniac he was last year. Everyone else seems to be able to deal with him, even Cid doesn't have too much of a problem dealing with him; why can't you?"

He looked away. "No matter how many years pass, he'll always be a monster. I can't trust him, and I won't allow you to either."

I laughed disdainfully. "Gimme a break! Now that I finally found someone who feels the need to protect me and look out for me, you won't allow it!"

He jerked his head towards mine and looked at me. "What did you just say?"

I turned my head away from his menacing glare. "Nothing. Forget it. Listen, he's not a monster and he's here to help."

He took my face in both his hands and turned me towards him. "Are you saying that I don't look out for you? Because you know that I do, Tifa. I care about you, and there's no way I would let anything happen to you."

I held his wrists with both my hands. "Cloud, I know that. You're my best friend, and you will always be. Please try and get along with him, ok? I promise you that he won't cause any trouble."

He took his hands off my face. "Alright. I'll try to behave, but I can't make any promises." I hugged him. "Thanks Cloud." As I left his room, I turned back and looked at Cloud. His expression was very sad, and very angry at the same time. I turned away and walked out.

I went back to my room to unpack the rest of my things. Sephiroth was sitting on his bed, wiping his Masamune with a cloth. The sight of the Masamune brought back a terrible memory…

I ran up to the reactor, and pulled the heavy door. I walked in, flew up the ladder, and walked across the room to the inner chamber of the reactor. I pulled the door open. I saw several different tanks, each containing a hideous monster. I was afraid. I looked up at the top of the stairs, and I saw a tall man with silver hair in a long, black cloak. I knew no one would stop him once he opened that door, so I ran up the stairs…I reached for his cloak…he whipped around, his Masamune in hand. I felt a terrible pain across my abdomen, and I cried out. Suddenly, I was falling…………then darkness.

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"Are you ok?" Sephiroth was by my side, his arm around my waist. "You look faint."

I looked around and saw that I was in my room on the Highwind, leaning against Sephiroth and feeling very shaky. "Yes…yes I'm fine." He led me over to my bed where I sat down. "That sword looks so heavy. How do you handle it so well?"

He went over to his bed, picked up the sword, and sat back down next to me. "This sword is the only thing I can ever remember having. It is my other half. I cherish it dearly. I never let anyone touch it, because it is priceless, and means so much to me. I can see that you fear it by the look in your eyes. I don't ever want you to fear it again." He took my hand and put it on the handle of the Masamune. I felt a blast of energy and power surge through my body. So this is what it was like to hold the infamous Masamune. When it was in my hand, it didn't seem quite as scary. It almost felt comforting. I looked over at Sephiroth and smiled. "Maybe one day I'll teach you how to fight with a sword, if you'd like," he said, our eyes held together.

"I'd like that," I said quietly.

Sephiroth kept his eyes locked on mine, and took the sword out of my hand and put it aside. He reached his hand over to my face and swept his fingers down my cheek and along my neck, pushing my hair back. All I could see at this point was his eyes as green as the sea, gazing deeply into mine. I took a silent breath as he leaned in closer. "So would I," he whispered into my ear. His soft lips grazed my cheek as he moved his mouth inward. My eyes closed as his lips tenderly pressed against mine. I gave in to the kiss, and my mouth parted, taking in his top lip as he closed his mouth over my bottom lip. The kiss was very soft, but so passionate that I felt my heart rapidly pounding against my chest. It was that moment I knew I had fallen for him.

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Haha so they finally kiss! I'm sure a lot of you readers are THRILLED! I knew I couldn't keep them apart for too long :X Anyhow, I really, REALLY hope you liked this chapter...I definitely enjoyed writing it and for the most-part I think it came out ok, what do you think? R&R please and let me know :) the next chapter will be up ASAP. thanks guys!