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This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomanic0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise on the Shinra building, you'd actually get to kill Rufus. God, it pissed me off when he got away on that helicopter!
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Aeris's eyelashes fluttered, first in dreams, and then slowly as she awoke, wincing a little as she moved her cramped body. Never had she slept so uncomfortably, and that was saying something. She'd camped out on railroad tracks, mountain trails, uneven turf, and in all sorts of weather—but all those times she had been lying down, covered with a blanket, and sometimes snuggled up with a certain someone... Not now, though. Her neck, back, and hips were aching from her horribly curled sleeping position.
Sighing, she untwisted herself and rubbed her neck, wincing as muscle pain zinged throughout her shoulder. Glancing over at Sephiroth, she sourly wondered if he felt as wretched as she did.
Aeris blinked. And then she gasped.
Somehow during the night, a monster had sneaked up on the two of them and ripped Sephiroth to shreds! Blood was dripping sluggishly from huge wounds all over his body, and Aeris nearly threw up when she saw the crimson glistening of his intestines and the white gleam of his arm bones. A wave of nausea swept over her so powerfully that she teetered, nearly falling off the ledge. But Aeris soon collected herself, and quickly checked her body. Had she been hurt too? No, she instantly realized. There wasn't a mark on her. But Sephiroth...
She felt an odd stirring of emotion, one that accompanied an equally odd thought. Maybe he had gotten those wounds...protecting her?
Oh, Planet no! The thought of Sephiroth throwing himself on top of her to spare her from an Evil Eye or something similarly disgusting filled her with horror. He had killed her! Why would he save her?
"Maybe he's got something evil in mind for me," Aeris thought darkly, clutching herself, "like rape. After all, there's no one around to hear me scream..."
She seriously debated the idea of letting him bleed to death. She had made the mistake of healing him yesterday. Shame on him that he'd fooled her once, but if he got her to heal him twice...
"Shit," Aeris grumbled, suddenly remembering that she didn't know the way out. She'd have to heal him after all.
Reaching deep inside herself, she called her powers and sent them flowing into Sephiroth's body, determinedly knitting skin and muscle and bone until there wasn't a mark on Sephiroth's body. Somewhere in the middle of the healing he regained consciousness and glanced at her, his eyes barely open.
"Thank you," he murmured when she was done.
Aeris glared at him and scooted away; for some of his larger injuries, she'd had to get in close to heal them properly. "Don't think this'll get you in my pants!" She snapped and immediately felt stupid for saying it. Aeris glared at him defiantly when he stared and then burst out laughing.
"What gave you the idea I wanted to be in them?" He nearly cackled, looking at her with an expression of amusement in his eyes. They flared brilliantly in the dark caverns, sending motes of light flickering over the rocks. "Sorry, but I don't really like women."
Aeris stared. "You..." She stuttered. "You're gay?"
"I was in the army," Sephiroth said, grinning—yes, actually grinning—at her. "What do you think?" He gazed at her a few seconds more and snickered, shaking his head. "Don't think this'll get you in my pants...hehehe..."
Aeris couldn't decide whether to be relieved or offended. On the one hand she was glad nothing was going to happen to her. On the other...well, wasn't she pretty? And wouldn't Sephiroth notice that, even if he were gay? Jeez! And he didn't have to make so much fun of her...
To his credit, though, Sephiroth didn't laugh at her too long. Looking at her after a few more seconds of smothered chuckling, he asked with a smile, "Are you ready to go?" and Aeris fixed him with a glare.
"I have been." She said coldly and Sephiroth rose to his feet.
"This way then," he said, and hopped up the cliff. Aeris cursed under her breath and scrambled after him.
A few hours later their pace wasn't nearly as energetic.
"We need food," Sephiroth said firmly when they sat down for a breather. Aeris collapsed to her knees, gasping like a beached fish. Sephiroth was breathing a little hard, but nothing more.
"Yeah," Aeris gasped, sitting up. Anything to make Sephiroth stop running around like a manic rabbit. And now that he'd mentioned it, Aeris became aware of a stabbing pain in her abdomen that had nothing to do with muscle cramps.
"Wait here," he said, getting to his feet. "The next cavern over, if I remember correctly, should have a few lakes. You eat fish, don't you?"
No, she didn't, but she wasn't in a place to be picky. Aeris nodded at him and took the opportunity to catch her breath as he got up and walked off. Flopping onto the ground she closed her eyes and just let herself breathe.
It was very silent in the great crater. All Aeris could hear was her own breathing, and sometimes the faint drumming of blood in her ears. When she opened her eyes, she gazed up at the dark rock ceiling above her and idly wondered how long it was to the surface. How wonderful it would be, to hear the birds sing again! To feel the wind on her face. To be welcomed and loved and held in his arms again...
"Cloud." She mouthed his name, smiling as she said it. The last time she had seen him, his beautiful blue eyes had been filled with a grief so raw that she had ached to clean it away. She tried to imagine the happiness his eyes would hold, soon, when they met again, and then frowned. How could she find him again? The Planet was large, and she was only one person...
"Maybe I can ask Sephiroth to find him," she thought briefly, and immediately shook her head. Bad idea. Sephiroth had done enough mucking in Cloud's poor brain. Even for something as innocent as locating him, she wasn't going to ask for his help. Not on her life, and certainly not on Cloud's sanity.
The tap-tap-tap of feet on stone made her look up and she stared as Sephiroth walked toward her, two large and pale cave fish in one hand. Soaking wet from his sojourn into the lake, his clothes were plastered to his powerful frame, exposing every line of muscle and highlighting them in stark detail. His powerful chest gleamed, and Aeris gulped when he tossed his wet hair over his shoulder, shaking it out of his eyes. She had noticed how good-looking he was, but only in a vague, absentminded sort of manner. This way, dripping with water and all but naked, his downright sexiness was impossible to ignore. But he was still evil! Very evil.
Mmm, evil...
"I don't suppose you can set a fire, can you?" He asked when he reached her. Aeris shook herself out of her reverie almost physically.
"No, most of my powers run to healing." She said, and jumped when he tossed the cave fish into her lap. Thankfully it was dead, but Aeris could still feel the faint glimmer of life running through it and she felt nauseous. She couldn't eat something that had been so recently alive...
Biting her lip, she looked at Sephiroth and gasped aloud when she saw him rip the fish's head off and gut it with his bare hands. Had she anything to throw up, she would have, but all she could do was stare and heave in horror. Sephiroth didn't seem to notice. When he bit into the fish, however, Aeris shrieked and covered her eyes. Sephiroth blinked at her and lifted his head from the fish.
"I take it," he said, "you've never eaten sushi."
"That's disgusting!" Aeris screamed, violently shaking her head. "That fish—it was just alive! And now you're...you're..."
"I'm eating it," Sephiroth said, his voice just a touch defiant, "though I tell you now I'm not going to enjoy it. Raw fish without seasoning tastes nasty, but it's all we have. What are you, a vegetarian?"
"I'm a vegan!" Aeris yelled, and dropped her hands from her face in fury when Sephiroth laughed.
"A vegan?" He exclaimed, his voice incredulous. "Why would you do that to yourself?"
"Because you can have a perfectly fine meal without eating animal products or by-products!" Aeris shot back. "Humans have risen far enough on the food chain that we don't need to take lives to feed ourselves!"
"In dire situations we do." Sephiroth said, and looked at his fish. "Ugh, it's still got scales on it."
"Monster!" Aeris cried and Sephiroth looked at her, annoyed.
"Wail at me all you like," he said caustically, "but you're not going to stop me from keeping myself alive." He took the second fish from her lap and put it in his, adding, "If you choose to starve to death, that's your problem."
"Not just mine!" Aeris snapped, jabbing one finger into his arm. "What happens if you get injured again, huh? Who's gonna heal you?"
Sephiroth glared at her, his green eyes narrowed to slits. Aeris glared right back. For a long time they glowered at each other, their faces mere inches apart.
"I will not hunt all over the caverns to find moss for you to snack on." He said softly, his voice low and dangerous. "And I will not starve for your tree-hugging sensibilities. I'm eating the fish."
And defiantly he took a bite out of it, ripping off a wet chunk of the pale white flesh. Aeris's stomach roiled, but she turned firmly away and averted her gaze.
What was wrong with her? She'd never gone on a tirade like that before. Aeris had learned long ago that most people hated being preached to when it came to food, and that it was her unique relationship with the Planet that had turned her into a vegan. It had taken her a while to understand that most people just didn't see things her way, but she had been fine with it. Really, she had. But now...
The sounds of Sephiroth eating raw fish made Aeris's stomach turn. She could just tell that he was glaring at her while he was doing it, too. For a moment she felt a surge of irritation. What was he, a teenager, trying to deliberately spite her? Aeris vowed not to lose her temper and looked away, valiantly ignoring him as much as she could.
Sephiroth tore into the fish, watching as Aeris twitched with every meaty rip. He felt a vicious sort of satisfaction in making her uncomfortable, even though he knew he was being stupid. What good would it do to piss her off? She was the only one who could heal the Curse of the Planet, and without her help he was as good as dead.
But the nerve of her! Calling him 'monster' and all sorts of other things when he was just trying to survive! It wasn't like he was forcibly shoving the fish down her throat or anything like that...
Sephiroth paused. What the hell was she going to eat? And drink? If she didn't take sustenance she was going to die. And that would be...
"Shit." He muttered, putting the fish down. Aeris glanced over her shoulder, looking at him coldly.
"What?" She asked sullenly.
Sephiroth set his half-eaten fish down and got up, brushing scales off his pants. Stalking back to the water caverns, he called irritably, "You've got to eat something!" and disappeared.
Aeris stared at him. He was going to get food for her. He was actually going to look for food for her. Amazing. But at the same time...
Aeris didn't want to admit it, but she felt bad. She'd shrieked her beliefs at him, called him a monster, and here he was going off to provide for her. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. And it wasn't like her. She should be going off to find something edible, not him...
A cry of pain from the next cavern over made her gasp and Aeris shot to her feet, her eyes wide. What had attacked Sephiroth now?
Sprinting into the next cavern, she found him on the floor, clutching his stomach and writhing in agony. Dropping to her knees by his side, Aeris cried, "What happened? What did you do?" as she used her powers to heal him. There was an unnatural taint to his energy that she immediately recognized as poison. "Did you eat something poisonous?" She demanded as he sat up, gasping and clutching his chest.
"Better me than you," he replied. "I can recover from it. You can't."
Again, Aeris felt guilty. Sephiroth opened one hand, revealing a dark spray of leaves in his palm. "Well, these are no good." He muttered, and got to his feet.
"Wait," Aeris mumbled, also rising. "I should be doing this, not you. Let me look."
Sephiroth glanced at her. "Oh?" He asked archly. "No longer 'Miss High-and-Mighty, are we?"
Aeris glared at him, but fell short. "You hunt for your food," she said, "and I'll hunt for mine. Okay? Then we won't bother each other."
Sephiroth gazed at her, his green eyes narrowed slightly and his lips parted in an unreadable expression. Aeris fidgeted under his eyes, uncomfortable. A long moment passed. Then he shrugged and rolled his eyes.
"Fine," he said, "look for your food. But give it to me first. If you eat something and die..."
"I know," she said quickly, bobbing her head, and Sephiroth walked off to finish his fish. Aeris began to look around.
It was clear where the poisonous plant had come from, Aeris saw as she peered into the water. With no sunlight to make plants photosynthesize on the surface, all that there were by way of vegetables were clumps of strange weeds down on the cavern lake's sides and bottom. Aeris gazed at the weeds until she saw something devoid of warning colors or unusual shapes, two things that usually signified poison. Keeping her eyes on the weeds, Aeris quickly undressed (no sense in getting her only set of clothes soaking wet) and plunged into the water.
Sephiroth had gone back to the first cavern, picked up his fish, and then walked back, munching on the first carcass and carrying the second in one hand. He came back into the cavern lake area just as Aeris stepped out of her clothes. The legendary SOLDIER paused and looked on in appreciation. He'd been telling the truth when he'd told Aeris he was gay, but that didn't stop him from admiring a fine piece of womanhood. Damn! Aeris was petite, but also perfectly proportioned. Perky breasts, a slim waist, and lovely round hips with a pair of the finest legs he had ever seen. If he hadn't known what a princess she could be, he might have swung the other way. Aeris did not see him admiring her figure as she dove elegantly into the water, so Sephiroth sat down by her clothes and admired her some more as she plucked a few plants from the lake bottom.
Tearing a handful of greens from the soil, Aeris kicked off the sandy floor and swam up toward the top, her lungs tight with air. She was surprised she had been able to make it so far down; when she'd been alive, she'd been a decent swimmer, but only a beginning one. In fact, Cloud had taught her how when they'd been crossing the river in his buggy and made camp for the night, and she hadn't really been swimming after then. Maybe she was just naturally good, Aeris mused as she swam up to the surface and took a deep gulp of air. Tossing her greens onto the stone edge of the lake, she took a few minutes to collect her breath and pull her long wet hair out of her face.
"Now to give these to Sephiroth," she thought and reached for her clothes. She froze as she saw the gleam of a patent-leather boot, and slowly she looked up to see Sephiroth looking at her, picking his teeth with a long fishbone. There was a look of definite amusement in his eyes, as well as something she wouldn't have expected from a supposedly gay man.
"You!" She screeched, flushing with indignation. Grabbing her long hair to cover herself, she yelled, "I thought you didn't swing this way!"
"I'm just looking out for you." Sephiroth said innocently. Pointing at her with the fishbone, he added, "What if a monster came at you while you were swimming? Who'd protect you, hmm?"
Aeris glared, but grudgingly acknowledged he made sense. "Just turn around so I can get dressed!"
He pointed at the weeds. "Wait. If these turn out to be poisonous, won't you have to go down again anyway? Getting undressed twice is a waste of energy."
Aeris threw the plants at him, making him laugh. Sephiroth pulled a leaf off the supple stalk and popped it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
"Tangy," he commented, "succulent. Reminds me of cactus."
"Is it safe?" Aeris asked.
Sephiroth chewed a few moments more, and then nodded.
"Good," she said, nodding firmly. "Now, turn around! I want to get out of the water." Sephiroth did so obediently, and Aeris hauled herself out of the lake, water pouring off her body in sheets. Wringing the water out of her hair, she brushed off as much of the excess liquid as she could before putting on her clothes and shoes. Meanwhile, Sephiroth dug into the second fish, and Aeris did not wince as much when he pulled its head off and gutted it. She had already picked up her greens and dug into them with alacrity. For a long time, the only sounds in the cavern were those of eating.
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Author's note:
This chapter came together fairly fast. I like writing the verbal battles between Aeris and Sephiroth, and the mistaken impressions she gets of him too are really funny. Don't worry, some of you readers, Sephiroth is not one-hundred-percent gay. And I'm pretty sure that at some point Aeris's vegan-ness will break down too. They're in a life-or-death situation, after all, even though it may not come across as such...
As always, read and review! Especially review. I like to keep track of who peruses my stories so I can thank them specially at the end of the production.
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