Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy.

Sooo sorry for being late, I had to help very many old ladies over the road!

Revelations

Um...

"Something amusing?" Was that what the voice had just said?

Paige sat utterly still on her pile of flat tatami pillows in the dark room. Suddenly she felt extremely self-conscious – she was only wearing pajamas. That voice; dark, smooth, low, velvety, and not quite as amused as she had felt moments ago. Sephiroth. No doubt about it. Paige's mouth was a narrow line now, and the rest of her face was probably twitching. And she was blushing. Dang it, why was she blushing now? She had to get herself together. This room was very dark and very small, and very full of very many pillows, and somewhere near her there was a very handsome, very dangerous ex-general. Or teacher. By the way he was not an elf, she uselessly added to herself. Paige gritted her teeth in frustration. Why was he here? Was he playing hide-and-seek, or was he avoiding the people who played it? The latter, probably. But why did he hide here, when she was here? ...Wait a minute. Maybe he was here first. That meant he had heard her mutter things to herself. She'd said the word "death" aloud and snorted at it. What had Sephiroth made of that?

"Uh, no, nothing amusing," she replied, muttering without looking his way.

"About death?"

Well, yes. That's right.

Speaking of which... Because of her leukemia, she'd said some things to Sephiroth that were a bit embarrassing, such as... Well, she'd told him that her dream was to become a bodyguard, for one. That was an embarrassing thing to admit. And her family were against it. Thinking back, she didn't have to become a bodyguard. She could become a stuntwoman, for instance. Those two jobs were somewhat alike. Paige almost snorted at herself one more time. She could have become a stuntwoman. No time for that now, though, not with her death approaching. And then Sephiroth could have been the main actor, a voice in her mind added. At that, she frowned deeply, suspicious of herself. Come to think of it, could Sephiroth see her face, even though it was as dark as night?

Most likely.

"Yeah," she mumbled, blushing – and getting angry because of it. What was the question again?

Hearing Sephiroth shift nearby, she warily shuffled away while squinting into the darkness. The only source of light came from the way she'd come in: a removable paper door, or shoji screen. The light barely filtered through it.

Sephiroth searched the outline that was her silhouette. He could make out her face, suspicious and wary. And, from the looks of it, dismayed that he was there as well. The shade on her cheeks was darker than usual. Narrowing his eyes, he glanced at the paper screen as he heard somebody run past it, followed by a few others. He had come here first – to avoid being pestered by students who wanted him to join their games. Returning to the situation at hand, he searched Paige's profile.

"Then, I take it you are worried about death?"

She turned sharply to him. He couldn't see her face properly; with the light at her back, her face was black as ink. She probably couldn't see him at all.

"No. Of course not," she claimed boastfully, surprising him for a moment.

An act?

She was acting to make her death seem less imposing? Sephiroth frowned darkly at the idea. She considered her time so worthless she would spend it mocking death?

… Foolish.

"Instead of mocking death, wouldn't it be better for you to do something more worthwhile?" said Sephiroth in an even voice. But inside him, an uncomfortable warmth spread like slow poison. Anger, perhaps at her carelessness, or maybe because he even bothered talking about this to her.

"Worthwhile?" she asked, suspicious.

Like what? Running across particularly flowery meadowa, or along sandy, sunny beaches in slow motion, while thinking happy thoughts and listening to pan-flute music? The thought made her chuckle. A really unhappy, scoffing chuckle.

… Apparently Sephiroth didn't like her mocking tone.

At all, by the looks of it.

She heard Sephiroth shift, and before she could blink, strong hands gripped her upper arms and pressed her down into the pillows. Hovering over her, Sephiroth stared down at her no doubt mortified face. Instinctively she pulled her hands up and tried pushing him off. A familiar feeling –

Personal space invasion.

"What're you doing-" she managed, her heart in her throat. Sephiroth released one of her arms and moved his hand to her face and pressed it down on her mouth. Wide-eyed, confused and frightened, she looked up, but his features were drowned in shadows. She couldn't see his face, much less read it. Even with one arm free, she couldn't push him away – not an inch. Frowning, she thought of things to do – should she kick him? Pull his hair? Bite his hand? ...All of those would make things much worse, no doubt. Why did he do this? Paige stared at the place where she thought his eyes were, her body tense, her free arm still pushing feebly at the hand he had over her mouth.

Sephiroth watched as Paige struggled, felt the pulse in her wrist, her breath on his hand and her warm mouth under it, her red cheeks... And her eyes, changing every second, from shocked to frightened, to furious, to confused, to frightened again. Somehow – against all his reason – it made his chest cringe.

No.

What was he doing?

Frowning, he thought of what had gone through his mind moments before. Watching her blush like that, not only today, but more and more frequently recently, he knew there were reasons. To him, the reason behind the change of her behavior had seemed obvious. For one thing, since she disliked Solomon so, and Sephiroth himself was practically his complete opposite when it came to the matter of personality, himself having an effect on Paige was inevitable. That still didn't explain what he felt. And what was he doing right now? Could he venture as far as to call it a helpful action? If she did indeed have a sort of interest in him, did she truly want to die quietly without...

Sephiroth gave a black scowl.

… He could by no means claim that what he was about to do would help her, in any way.

He was born and raised with himself, and only himself, as the center of his life. Because it had been taught to him from the moment he was able to learn at all, it was simply in his nature to think of what was to his own advantage first. As a consequence, the current situation... Sephiroth felt his eyes darken. No matter how one chose to perceive the situation, he was being selfish. Slowly, over the course of more than half a year, she had lured her way closer to him, closer by far than he liked – the mere thought of it made him sneer. He should have pushed her away and left long ago. Yet, knowing she didn't have much time, he had chosen to stay. She would disappear in the end in any case, and when that happened, he was free to go. Once that time came, he would never again allow himself to feel, nor even consider thinking about matters such as these. Before that, though, he...

He could allow himself this deviation. He could allow himself this selfishness.

Before she died.

If…

… If that was what she wanted.

Paige stared, breathless, as Sephiroth removed both his hands from her. She held her hands up in front of her as some sort of makeshift shield, unsure what to do. With one hand on each side of her, and his silver locks close to her face, Sephiroth did nothing but wait. He didn't move an inch.

If she wanted, could... could she... pull away?

She cleared her voice feebly and immediately frowned at the weak sound.

Then she slowly pulled herself up, and just as slowly, he withdrew a little. Their faces were close. She still couldn't guess what he was thinking. For a second she thought she caught a glimpse of his eyes in the dark shadows on his face, but that could be a trick of the light, or simply her deluding herself. Soon she was sitting in front of him, watching his broad-shouldered silhouette – the paper screen behind him barely let through any light. Now she was at loss of what to do. He had let her go. The reason behind that was just as unknown to her as the reason he'd held her down in the first place. Had he done it just because he was angry at what she'd said? What was she supposed to do now? Swallowing, she glanced around.

To tell the truth, she was eternally grateful he'd pulled away.

Even though she liked him. A little. Him pulling away made him different from Solomon.

Then he moved closer, and she stiffened and held her breath. He stopped, his face hidden in darkness like before. It took her a moment to realize what he might be requesting of her, and once she realized, her mind erupted with a million bazillion "Don't Panic!" signs, which naturally made her panic even more. Her face was definitely flushed, like a tomato field where all the tomatoes spontaneously combusted at the mention of something even remotely related to romance. And even so... Even so... Paige moved sideways, and a little forward. Sephiroth turned a little – just enough for her to see one of his eyes. Even like this his face was unreadable. She kept moving sideways until she saw half his face in the light.

Was he playing with her?

Just fooling around?

Paige frowned, turning sad, then angry. And what then? She was going to die soon. Even if he was fooling around, she would probably die before he got a chance to tell her so. And even if he did have enough time to tell her he was fooling around, that didn't matter either, since she was going to be dead within a few months anyway. Because of Solomon, her school life hadn't included any boyfriends – Solomon had been too possessive in his own overly friendly kind of way. The last time she'd had a boyfriend was in kindergarten, and it had lasted for five minutes. But this was not kindergarten.

Their eyes were locked – his jade, hers ice.

The second she blinked, she was pinned to the wall, with Sephiroth's weight and strength against her, and his mouth pressing down on hers. His hands were on the wall beside her, his wrists touching her shoulders, some of his silver forelocks touching her cheeks. Then he pulled away. Watching her intently, he put his forehead on hers. For just a moment there was something unfamiliar about his single visible eye. Then it was gone, and all he seemed to do was measure her reaction, her face. However strange it seemed, she felt her mouth pull up in a tiny smile. A barely noticeable one, but nonetheless one she couldn't wipe off her face. Embarrassed, she glanced away, frowning. Her smile was so tiny only a person like Sephiroth would see it. Inside her head, though, her common sense was busy hounding a ridiculously huge horde of mental smiles and grins. Good thing those didn't make their way to the surface.

… If Sephiroth were simply playing with her, he wouldn't have stopped with just a kiss, right? ...Or did he stop now because he'd anticipated that she would think like that? Seeing her faint smile give way to a look of suspicion, Sephiroth gave the faintest of chuckles.

Then he pulled back. Only a second later, a few people ran past the paper screen she and Sephiroth hid behind.

"Hey...! Wait, I think I saw something!" Paige's blood went cold. Solomon's voice.

When she turned to Sephiroth, he was already cloaked in the darkness, and before she could even think of following, hands were probing at the 'door' to their hiding place. "I knew there was something off about that screen," said Solomon (and she could tell from the way he talked he was smiling, as usual). She heard the others jog over to him as he pushed open the paper screen. Inside, Paige sat staring like a mortified sheep.

"Pa-... Paige?" exclaimed Solomon.

Paige felt her mouth twitch. Her eyes glanced in the direction of Sephiroth, a wordless plea, or maybe a warning of payback. But to no avail. Solomon and his friends took her with them to the others, away from Sephiroth.

After spending the night at the old Kisaragi compound, they returned to the school. The trip had been a success, apparently. The others were already briefing their friends from other grades about it. As for the situation between Sephiroth and Paige once they returned to her house, things weren't really awkward or anything of the sort. Sephiroth was simply quiet, and the only thing that had changed about Paige was that she glanced at him more often. She felt more safe back home than in the Kisaragi place, too. And having John Smoth nearby was all right. What she hadn't expected, though, was that somebody else was waiting for them.

Her mother, Angela, with her shoulder-length hair and comely clothes, stood in the door when they arrived. Paige dropped her bag to the ground, trying to think if she'd seen a car around the house. She hadn't.

"Hello, Paige," said her mother while embracing her. "Your dad drove me here this morning. How are you?" she asked, pulling away – and looking into Paige's icy eyes with all her full-power-ultimate-deluxe motherly affection. It gave her a feeling similar to the feeling she got every time she hurt herself and was asked 'Are you all right?'. That kind of question always made her tears roll, regardless of her condition. And now she wanted to tell her mum she was all right (which was true, actually), but her throat was so tight she couldn't make a sound. So she just flashed a smile and nodded.

After brief, practically wordless introductions, the three of them went inside.

"I just thought I'd drop by with some food. Your dad will be here soon to pick me up," said Angela. Sephiroth looked like he was just about to leave the room. Before he got that far, though, John Smoth gave a squawk and spoke up:

"Hojo. Hojo."

Paige looked at him with faint confusion. Hojo? What was Hojo? But Sephiroth – and even Paige's mum – turned sharply to the macaw and stared. John Smoth turned his head and looked at them with one eye while stepping sideways on his stand.

"Hojo...?" muttered Sephiroth, and Angela turned to him in wonder.
"What is Hojo?" asked Paige. Something to do with hip-hop? She was feeling left out.

"Hojo," said John Smoth again, rustling his feathers vigorously. "Professor."

Sephiroth scowled darkly at the bird. Had he ever, even once, uttered the words professor Hojo aloud in front of John Smoth? What was more, Paige's mother reacted strangely. He would say she too knew of the professor – if only to a small degree.

"Hojo is... John Smoth's first owner, I think. Though, I don't know if he's a professor or not," said Angela thoughtfully. She seemed honest enough. Then again, she could be a good actress.

"Professor!" said John Smoth, flapping his wings a little. "Hojo."

"First owner?" asked Paige, narrowing her eyes. "Are you his second owner, then, mum?" She appeared to know nothing of this. Sephiroth frowned, trying to make sense of it.
"No, hardly!" said Angela cheerfully. "He was given to me by some people who travelled here from Russia. They wouldn't keep him."

Russia...?

"Do you know where in Russia?" asked Sephiroth, and Angela seemed startled for a moment.
"Well, in the north, maybe, or north-east, possibly...? I think Paige already met one member of the gang that brought John Smoth here. Cloud Strife, the one doing delivery service? Remember?"

Paige's face was a stone mask. "...Who?"

Cloud Strife...? The name was certainly familiar, although Sephiroth could not quite recall where he had heard it. Maybe one of the Soldiers, or of Shinra's employees. In any case, Russia, Hojo and professor were words that – when put together like this – could not be a coincidence.

"He... He drove Bell here for me, once," tried Angela, looking at he daughter. Slowly, realization dawned on Paige.

"Ah! Motorcycle! That was him? Then... The motorcycle guy and his friends brought John Smoth with them from Russia? What were they doing there, then? The motorcycle guys." What was with the word motorcycle that made her say it so many times?

"Mo-tor-cy-cle, yeah," rapped John Smoth silently.

Angela frowned in concentration.

"I don't know what they were doing there, exactly, but... I think... I think they saved a friend of theirs from something, or someone," said Angela uncertainly. Sephiroth found her words easy to believe – if the people she spoke of had saved a person who had been experimented on, just one person, who may or may not become an important part of Hojo's experimentations later or, then they were right to have run this far. If they hadn't, Shinra would already have found them. Though, to simply get away from Shinra required skills. To remain hidden took even more effort. Sephiroth had come here by using a half-broken materia. It had brought him here, and until now he had thought it was a coincidence. Yet, now that he thought of it, perhaps the broken materia had simply teleported him to the largest concentration of magical power it could find (leaving out Shinra's store rooms filled to the core with materia, of course). Then, could he assume these persons could use magic, like himself? It was a possibility.

"Hojo!" screamed John Smoth, with rustled feathers and spread wings, and Angela jumped. Paige, on the other hand, was so surprised she initiated a counterattack – a pointing, jabbing finger and a murderous stare. The parrot shifted on his T-stand and kept talking. "Takin' chances. You' my lady, I'm ya' man."

"Who's your what?" retorted Paige.

"Got my eye on ya," said the bird. "Ass so fat you can see it from the front, yo."

"...What's that? Where did you learn that?" Paige was slowly building an illusion before them, of herself beginning to boil with rage and smoke, with a rather unnerving reality to it. Her ice-blue eyes were as close as possible to start sending rays at the rapping bird. Finally noticing, the bird rustled its feathers again and stepped further away on its T-stand. "Was it my brother? Eh? Was it?" It was rather amusing.

"Um, Paige, I can hear Aaron coming now," interrupted Angela. And surely enough, the sound – or rather loud noise – of a car engine approached. Judging by the ruckus, Sephiroth guessed it was the old family van. Paige's father Aaron should consider doing something about it.

"My name's shutup, what's yours?" said John Smoth.

In any case, it would appear Hojo was already forgotten.

Paige thought all she had to do now was to see her mum off, but apparently not. Her dad came stomping up the road to greet them with all his might (which was only a tiny little, if one did not count his vigorously bobbing moustache, which sort of made up for it). Sephiroth remained inside. Perhaps to listen to John Smoth say 'Hojo' again. Whoever Hojo was. In any case, after the brief reunion, her dad walked on past them, past the house, and up towards Paige's new sauna. How could she have forgotten? She had told her dad about it over the phone not long ago – or more specifically, she had asked if he was the one who'd built it. She and her mother followed and joined him as he inspected the building. After a while he deigned the building 'worthy of resting upon the ground of the garden of her house'.

Then he went inside to talk to Sephiroth (another fatherly instinct – perhaps he wanted to make sure Paige was doing all right, or some such). But Sephiroth was gone. After dragging the visit out a little while longer, they left. Paige waited until they were out of sight before heading back inside.

"Yo," saluted John Smoth.

"Yo," replied Paige without looking at the bird – their argument not so long ago was already forgotten. Had Sephiroth gone somewhere? "Sephiroth?"

"...Yo," repeated the parrot, and Paige spun around to see who he was talking to. And, sure enough, Sephiroth was the man whose chest her eyes were greeted with. His red t-shirt and black zip-up jacket were close enough for her to smell them.

Unexpectedly, a heavy hand was put on her head. As Sephiroth turned away, his hand slid down on her shoulder and left her. He'd taken her by surprise, so she hadn't seen his face. For a second she almost asked 'What is it?' But then she thought better of it. He wasn't very likely to talk about it. Looking down, Paige frowned grumpily. What if she wanted to talk? Could she ask him to listen to her, or answer questions? Even if she could, he might not answer. And besides, what was there for her to ask for? 'Yo. I don't wanna die. Comfort me, yo.' Paige's face turned stiff, and she gave a breath-like laugh. A familiar pattern of action was triggered in her mind, and she automatically walked to the refrigerator and found herself a glass of milk. For as long as there was cold milk in the glass, she clung to it like a ship-wrecked sailor might cling to a life buoy.

Obviously, the only reason Sephiroth offered even a shred of sympathy or compassion was because she would die soon. It was some sort of last favor. Once she was gone from this world, he would forget her.

Once she is dead, I will forget her.

Sephiroth repeated the sentence in his mind as he watched Paige, his eyes lingering. She was a part of a phase of his life. One that he would be able to forget. Her existence and the thoughts she made him think were things he was given to taste, very briefly, just so that he would not need something like it again in the future. Paige was a distraction, a deviation from his usual interests; a way to pass time. Soon, as soon as she died, he would handle Shinra, and everyone who had to do with Shinra, and everything that was even remotely related to Shinra. That way nobody would step in his way again. Therefore, once Paige died, he would make himself forget her.

But until that time...

Even it it was only like this, watching from the corner of an eye, he would let himself treasure her.

"...Is everything in place?"

Hojo's voice carried through the large room and created an echo of voices just as impatient as their source. Faces glanced up, then their attention went back to the machine they had finished assembling only minutes ago. Professor Hojo took their silence as a yes and slowly walked closer. His lab coat offered no warmth whatsoever in the cold room, but this place was the only one large enough for the odd invention before him – and now that it was ready, he would by no means let low temperature keep him from putting it to use. Oh, how he would enjoy it! This was his way to find Sephiroth, no matter where he was, and even if he were to slip out of their grasp again, the machine would find him.

"Then start the search," he demanded, watching as lights flashed and the engines started running. Soon enough, the nifty little gadget would locate all areas on the surface of the planet with an excess of magic or magic energy close to it. Such as materia, or people capable of using it.

Paige trod heavily into the living room, her hair wet from taking a shower after the extraordinarily hard karate training.

She hadn't been alone with her teacher (Solomon's father) this time. This time Solomon had deigned it crucial for himself to come train, too. Paige had given it her very best from the beginning 'till the end. Solomon would definitely have bruises tomorrow. But having worked that hard without stopping, Paige was dead tired. Too tired. Maybe her anemia was kicking in. Or her leukemia? Could leukemia make her feel like this? In any case, although it wasn't that late, she was going to call it a day and go to bed. Then maybe she would wake up tomorrow morning in time for school.

"Sephi-"

Ring-

"Gah...!"

Ring-

Paige frowned darkly at the ringing phone, then picked it up. "Hello?" she half growled, turning around. Sephiroth was sitting in the sofa, watching the news. He looked up briefly, and their eyes met.

"Eh? Who's this?" asked the voice. A bit rough, very impatient-sounding... Sephiroth returned his attention to the news. "...Hey!" the man in the phone continued. She blinked. "Answer, dammit!"
"Paige. It's Paige." She had a vague idea who it might be.

"Then answer! Wasting my time, dangit..." Wasting his time? "Get down to my office, will ya?" At that, Paige's heart sunk like a rock. Then she turned annoyed. He wasn't going to insult her.
"I'm not going anywhere. If I'm gonna die one month ahead of time or something like that, tell me on the phone." Becoming self-conscious, she turned away from Sephiroth.

He wasn't watching the news anymore.

"%$#&$*&^%^! I'm &#%&T$*^%$ gonna give you &$#&%*%&%# news, so you had better ^%*&$x#*% listen the heck up!" Paige held the phone away from her ear, mildly shocked. Had Sephiroth heard that? But wait a minute, how could doctor Cid even talk to her like this? It hurt!

"What..." she started, not knowing what to say.

"Sit your ass down somewhere!"

Paige glanced over her shoulder at the two-seat and three-seat sofa (Sephiroth sat in the latter). Then she turned to the kitchen area of the room and sat down on a stool by the kitchen isle, with her back to Sephiroth and John Smoth, and finally cleared her voice.

"I'm seated." What was he going to say? 'You should have died one month ago', or something along those lines? She grimaced, feeling sick.

"Hojo," said John Smoth. Paige sent him a particularly dark scowl over her shoulder.

"All right. Here's the deal. I mixed up some papers this autumn, yours among 'em." Slowly, something started churning in her stomach, and she clenched her teeth. Way to go, giving her a tiny little ray of hope. She frowned weakly. More hope meant more despair once it was time to go, most likely. Or so she guessed.

"Thing is, you ain't got leukemia."

R.R.

(So late... Sorry... Next chapter's coming sooner, and then you'll find out how Paige reacts.)