Chapter Six

'A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.'

Sephiroth had not been lying when he said he thought Zack was 'attached' to Cloud. If Cloud had been looking out for an opportunity to speak to Zack before, he found it impossible to avoid him now. Zack started turning up at the gym earlier every day so that they could talk while they worked – although Zack did most of the talking. Cloud was improving, but he got out of breath long before Zack.

Through Zack, he occasionally got the chance to speak to Sephiroth again. It didn't happen often, but he gradually found over the next few weeks that whenever messages had to be sent up to the SOLDIER Head Office, he was always the one asked to take them. Either Sephiroth had decided he liked Cloud and was requesting him, or the rest of the infantrymen didn't like going up there. Cloud could hardly blame them; it was easy to feel threatened when you knew that everyone on the same floor as you could pummel you into said floor with only a small measure of effort.

However, despite his bettering situation, he hadn't had any inspiration since the day Sephiroth had signed him the form for a mako shower – which, mild dose or not, certainly had increased his physical strength and speed to a level that would have taken months of work to achieve otherwise. There were no physical signs of this new strength on his body, though. He remained small and thin, and he'd had to take two days off after the shower to recover from the headaches and sickness it had given him.

He had wondered briefly, while curled up in bed trying not to vomit, how sickly with mako poisoning Sephiroth must have been as a child. There was enough mako in that man to power a town the size of Kalm.

There were also other things in him, though: things that Cloud needed to find some way to overcome. He couldn't prove that Jenova was not Sephiroth's real mother, so he needed to find a way to prevent him from ever finding out about Jenova at all.

It was when he was posted up by the Shinra Building's front doors that he noticed the leaflet.

Guard duty was tedious, and he needed regular intervals of leg-stretching around the room to keep from beating his helmeted head against the wall in boredom. He wandered around the area, scaring the innocent civilians who were allowed on this floor and looking for someone he might be allowed to shoot. There were no such people; everyone was polite and respectful, lounging by the front desk or relaxing in the various seating areas with the magazines and leaflets left on the tables to entertain them.

He wouldn't have noticed it if the woman hadn't jumped so dramatically when she noticed him creeping up on her. He held a hand up in apology and she gave a terrified little wave, flapping the bright yellow leaflet she had been reading at him.

Retire to Sunny Costa del Sol!

Retirement… now Cloud hadn't considered that. It wasn't as though Sephiroth was old, but he sure as hell had earned an early retirement. Besides, who could stop him if he decided to leave? They wouldn't be able to drag the indestructible Sephiroth back to Shinra, and even if they could, how long would they last with him rampaging through their halls?

At the end of his shift, Cloud took the leaflet and tucked it away. The next time he was asked to run messages up to the SOLDIER Head Office, he slipped the leaflet onto Sephiroth's desk under a few piles of paperwork. There'd be nothing like tedious form-filling to make running away to Costa del Sol that much more inviting.

He saw Sephiroth three times in passing in the next week, and had one short conversation with him about the awful coffee they served in the Shinra cafeteria. Costa del Sol was never brought up, and Cloud began to suspect that Sephiroth had thrown the leaflet away without looking at it.

'Have you ever been to Costa del Sol?' Cloud asked Zack a few days later, when they were on the running machines.

'Yeah,' Zack said. 'Got sent there on leave once.'

'Looks like it'd be a nice place to go, if you wanted to leave Shinra,' Cloud said, trying very hard to hint and feeling like he was doing the verbal equivalent of slapping him in the face.

'Nah,' Zack said. 'I'd go back home to Gongaga.'

'Oh.' Cloud slowed his machine down a little. Talking was making him out of breath even faster than usual. 'I just thought it looked nice. Maybe Sephiroth would like it…'

Zack snorted.

'If Sephiroth ever leaves Shinra for anything, I will eat my sword.'

Cloud frowned. That was not very promising.

He kept the relentless hinting up regardless, sliding the words 'early retirement' and 'Costa del Sol' into conversation anywhere he could around Sephiroth, who seemed not to notice at all.

After six months, Cloud was giving up. He had to think of another plan, but he couldn't – he just couldn't come up with anything, short of and blowing up all of the transport vehicles in Midgar the day before Sephiroth was sent off to Nibelheim.

He was starting to seriously consider that option when he called up to Sephiroth's office on his day off because there was 'news to discuss'.

'Resigning, resigning, resigning,' muttered Cloud, who had the previous week left a magazine open on Sephiroth's desk detailing how high-stress of a job working for Shinra was, particularly in the Turk and SOLDIER sections. Maybe Sephiroth had finally gotten the idea into his mako-enhanced thick head that sticking around in Shinra wasn't good for his health.

'Hey, Cloud,' Zack said cheerfully as Cloud opened the door. Zack was grinning, which was usually his default expression, but Cloud found it a little odd given the circumstances. He thought that Zack would be a little more upset that Sephiroth intended to leave the company and start life as a peaceful sunbather on another continent.

'Hi,' Cloud said, to both Zack and Sephiroth (who inclined his head in greeting but said nothing). 'What's going on?'

He'd dropped the 'sirs' and general military dictation around Sephiroth after a couple of months working around him. Zack never used them and Sephiroth didn't seem irritated by it; he certainly never corrected him. Provided there was no one to witness pathetic mortals being unafraid of the mighty SOLDIER First Class, it seemed that they were allowed to act like friends in one another's company.

'Zack, this was your idea,' Sephiroth said. 'You can take full the full blame.'

Zack shot him a dirty look and Sephiroth corrected himself quickly.

'Sorry, credit. The full credit. I must have been thinking of something else.'

Zack rummaged in his pockets for a moment, and then pulled out three brightly coloured slips of paper. He held one out for Cloud to inspect. It read:

ADMISSABLE: 1 adult for COSTA DEL SOL

1 DAY RETURN TRIP

Cloud stared at it blankly. He turned it over, but it still only said 'one day'. One day wasn't a very long retirement.

'W-what?'

'We're going on holiday!' Zack said happily. 'I called up one of those radio stations to answer a question and I won three tickets. I always thought they were scams, but it turned out that the squishing sound they were playing that really sounded like that thing we found in Hojo's lab actually was that thing we found in Hojo's lab, so I went back to the lab and read its name off the jar he keeps it in and I won. You've been hinting about Costa del Sol for ages now, so I thought we could all go together.'

Cloud looked to Sephiroth for help, but none was forthcoming.

'I've booked us all the time off work,' Zack added, his speech gradually increasing in speed as he tried to say everything he wanted to before someone cut him off. It was a pointless endeavour; no one was going to interrupt. They were too confused and despairing, respectively. 'Turns out you two have barely used up any holiday time, like, at all. Sephiroth's still got holidays left from last year. When I asked the secretary about booking a day off for him she nearly cried, she was so happy.'

Zack paused, and seemed to realise that they weren't speaking.

'You're not speaking,' he said. 'Is this speechless with gratitude, or speechless with "Zack's done something wrong that he doesn't understand and he's going to pay"?'

There was a long silence, and finally Sephiroth – more likely out of unwillingness to explain what Zack 'didn't understand' than genuine appreciation – said,

'Gratitude.'

'Yeah!' Zack punched the air. 'I knew I'd get this right at some point.'

He slung his arm around Sephiroth's shoulder and chose not to notice the way his superior's eyes narrowed at the contact.

'C'mere, Cloud,' he said. 'Group hug!'

Considering the look on Sephiroth's face, Cloud didn't think that a group hug boded well for the physical health of anyone involved, but Zack grabbed him before he got to voice his opinions.

He was going to Costa del Sol.

Oh, hell.

The sunlight hit him like a brick wall of heat the moment he stepped off of the boat. Cloud squinted and lifted a hand to protect his eyes as Zack came bounding on shore next to him. He was already wearing his swimming trunks, and had been since he'd snuck into the militia barracks to wake Cloud up that morning.

Zack drew in a deep breath, bobbing on his heels with his hands on his hips.

'Got to love the seaside air!' he said.

Cloud smiled, but Sephiroth, who was now skulking up behind them in the shadows of the ferry, did not. He scowled up at the bright blue sky and hovered in the shade as though it would set him on fire to stand in direct sunlight.

'It's too hot,' he said simply.

Zack had no sympathy.

'It wouldn't be so bad if you'd take that damn coat off,' he said. Sephiroth fingered the silver cuffs at the ends of his sleeves.

'I like my coat.'

With a shrug, Zack set off towards the beach. Cloud gave Sephiroth what he hoped was an apologetic look before following.

Maybe, he thought, if Sephiroth liked Costa del Sol enough, he would decide to leave Shinra and stay here forever. That would at least make Cloud feel that his efforts for last several weeks hadn't been wasted. Glancing back over his shoulder at Sephiroth (who was descending upon the seaside town like a black cloud of doom), he doubted it.

Zack ran across the beach and straight into the sea without stopping, ditching his bags in the sand as he charged. Cloud saw him splash in right up to his waist and disappear under the water. Cloud flopped down by Zack's abandoned bags and watched Sephiroth stalk across the sand – or, rather, watched the reactions of everyone else on the beach as Sephiroth stalked across the sand.

As if he were not recognisable enough by his coat and long hair, Sephiroth had also opted to bring Masamune on holiday with him. Why he expected to be attacked on the beach Cloud could not fathom; perhaps he had twice as much paranoia as the average person to fill the hole left behind by his other emotions.

People were fleeing the beach in his wake. When the famous Hero of Wutai comes marching forwards dressed for a warzone, Cloud felt it was a fairly natural response to dash for shelter. Sephiroth, however, looked rather confused.

'Is the beach closing?' he asked.

'Yeah,' said Zack, who had come out of the water and snuck up behind them. 'It'll open again when the terrifying bastard with the katana goes away.'

Sephiroth rolled his eyes.

'One should always be prepared for an attack,' he said.

'Sure,' Zack waved his hand dismissively. 'Just put it down and come swimming.'

'I can't,' Sephiroth said, clearly baffled, and before Zack could even ask why, added, 'the salt water would ruin my coa—'

'You take. The coat. Off,' Zack said with profound exasperation, but Sephiroth was not convinced. Zack settled instead for badgering Cloud, who was easier to win over. The air was too hot and stuffy to sit out in; it would be cooler to swim.

'Is he going to be all right?' Cloud asked once he was at a comfortable temperature in the ocean with Zack, who was chasing tiny yellow fish around with a bucket in the hopes of bringing them home as pets. Zack looked at Sephiroth on the shore. The SOLDIER's face was pink, and even from a distance it was clear that he was sweating.

'He's a stubborn bastard but he'll give in,' Zack shrugged. 'You can't win a fight with the weather.'

He was right, but Sephiroth 'gave in' very slowly. He eventually sat down, and then removed the spaulders and pauldrons that armoured his shoulders and unbuckled his coat so it sat open. After twenty minutes of sitting like that, he took his boots off.

By the time Cloud and Zack come in from the ocean to have a drink, he'd surrendered and removed his coat entirely. It sat crumpled beside him where he laid sprawled out, face-down on the sand. Cloud noticed that the hems of his leather trousers were crumpled where he'd unsuccessfully attempted to roll them up his shins.

'How're you doing?' Zack teased. 'Getting the ankles out, I see. How improper; you'll cause a scandal.'

Sephiroth responded with a muffled groan.

'This place is evil and so are you.'

'Costa del Sol's not evil. Put your trunks on and get in the ocean, you'll be fine.'

Sephiroth lifted his head enough for one green eye to glare out from behind all of his hair.

'Trunks?' he said, as though it were a filthy word.

Zack stared at the one eye and it stared back with fathomless loathing. Finally, Zack said,

'You didn't bring trunks to Costa del Sol. You brought your sword, but not a pair of swimming trunks.'

'Why would I own a pair of—'

'Ah!' Zack held a hand up to say 'Stop!', and started rummaging through his bags. 'Luckily for you, I have brought a spare pair. Aerith bought them for me but I… err…'

Cloud's start at the familiar name went unnoticed. Zack searched for a diplomatic phrase as he pulled the trunks out.

'Well, I like my old ones,' he said at last.

Sephiroth sat up, eyes fixed on the trunks Zack was offering him, and revealed a big red V of sunburn on his chest where his coat had not been covering him.

'I'm not wearing those,' he said.

The swimming trunks, decorated with little pink chocobos, were what finally drove Sephiroth into the ocean. He didn't swim, but stood up to his waist in the water to hide the shorts, arms folded and scowling at the beach (and anyone foolish enough to think that it was safe to come out sunbathing yet).

Cloud, meanwhile, had abandoned any notion that Sephiroth might ever want to retire to Costa del Sol, and was consoling himself by helping Zack build a sandcastle big enough to sit in. There was a pit next to the castle where Zack had insisted upon being buried up to his neck. From the ocean, Sephiroth had shouted at Cloud to please, please leave him buried.

'Okay,' Zack stood back to admire their castle. It wasn't particularly admirable. There was a small trench on the outer wall where Zack had accidentally sat on it. 'I'm going to go get some beers from the bar. You can go and tell Grumpy, maybe cheer him up.'

'Grumpy' was not paying attention. He was looking out at the horizon, where the sun was setting in a fantastic golden display that painted the ocean – and its occupant – scarlet.

'All right.'

As Zack trotted off, Cloud sloshed his way into the ocean after Sephiroth.

'There are no sunsets in Midgar,' Sephiroth commented as he heard Cloud come close enough.

'Impressive, isn't it?' Cloud said. Sephiroth glanced down at him. The first thing Cloud noticed was that he was smiling, which would have made him happy were it not for the fact that the second thing he noticed was the fact that Sephiroth's face – and the rest of his body – was burned lobster-red.

'Oh Planet,' Cloud took a step back in surprise, and immediately felt a sharp pain in the sole of his foot. 'OH PLANET!'

He almost fell underwater trying to dislodge whatever had stabbed into his foot. He had to hop back to shore with Sephiroth's help, where he could sit down to look at his injury. There were several black dots on the bottom of his foot.

'You must have stepped on a sea urchin,' Sephiroth mused. 'The spines are embedded in your skin.'

He grabbed hold of Cloud's ankle and peered at the dots more closely.

'I can probably pick those out with a pin…'

Zack arrived to the scene of a scarlet-skinned Sephiroth grasping Cloud's foot in one hand and trying to dig the sea urchin spines out using the tip of Masamune with the other, all the while trying not to wince whenever his sunburned arms rubbed against his sunburned ribs.

Zack shrugged, opened a beer and started gulping.

'Feels a pity to be leaving so early, doesn't it?' Zack said on the boat back home. 'Next time I'd like to stay a week.'

The other two glared at him. There hadn't been any potions or cure materia for sale in Costa del Sol. Cloud was still trying to balance on one foot and hobbled with every other step. Sephiroth had, at least, found some relief for his malady; he was spraying after-sun cream in a repetitive loop all over his body.

'You are never taking me on a free holiday ever again,' Sephiroth said. He then rounded on Cloud. 'And you are forbidden from choosing a destination ever again.'

Cloud held his hands up in surrender. Zack gave a little shrug.

'Well, I had a wonderful time,' he said.