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This is an FFVII fanfic by kleptomanic0. The characters are not mine and never were. Otherwise we'd see Cloud in drag in full CG. Then that'd settle the question of whether he was wearing a Western gown or a kimono, because as my friend Nerissa pointed out, he took such tiny little steps and walked so demurely...
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After lunch, a few hours later
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"Kyaa!"
Aeris's sudden scream made Sephiroth whip around and for a moment he took in the strangeness of Aeris crumpled on the ground, red-faced with pain, as her leg blended into the stone floor. Sephiroth walked over quickly and knelt by her.
"What's wrong?" He asked as she tried vainly to pull her leg out. Exasperated at her feeble efforts, Sephiroth grasped her leg below the knee and pulled up, dragging her leg out of a small, crumbling hole in the ground. Her skin was scratched and bleeding, but nothing too severe.
Aeris drew her leg back and healed it, saying, "I think the stone's rotten. It just gave way while I was walking."
Sephiroth looked down the hole. He could faintly see the outlines of a cavern beneath them, but nothing too definitive. "Looks like a pocket in the rock," he said, looking back at Aeris. "We'll have to be careful; this whole floor could be full of them."
Aeris looked nervously around at the deceptively smooth, even stone floor. "So what should I do? Tap the floor with my staff?"
"If you like," Sephiroth said, then frowned. "Though it's strange that I didn't fall in. I certainly weigh more than you do, so if the floor should have given away under anything, it should have been m—"
The floor suddenly sagged and Aeris shrieked as the ground suddenly broke into tons of wet rock-dirt that sucked her right under. Then she was suddenly flying upwards, dragged on by a pain that was coming from her hair.
"OWWW!" Aeris screamed, clutching her scalp and kicking as the floor beneath them sank into the void. Sephiroth had leapt up and grabbed a stalactite on the ceiling, saving Aeris from the collapsing floor by snatching her braid. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"
"Oh, shut up. It's just your hair," he said, not quite able to hide his smirk, before slinging her to a series of cliffs on the far side of the room. Aeris hit the floor and rolled, stopping with a yelp when her back slammed roughly into the wall. Picking herself up, Aeris glared evilly at Sephiroth as he leapt from stalactite to stalactite and landed gracefully next to her. Forgetting her wariness and the fact that he had killed her, Aeris slapped him hard on the chest, her palm making a satisfying whack that echoed throughout the chamber.
"That hurt!" She snapped angrily.
Sephiroth was not bothered by the slap. "It was either your hair or your dress. Or would you rather I'd grabbed you here?" He asked, reaching for her bust, and Aeris slapped him on the chest again. Sephiroth withdrew his hand, smirking. "Let's go," before walking off. Aeris vowed not to heal him and then remembered he knew the way out. Fuck!
The next room also had a sinking floor, as did the one after that and the one after that. After the third room, Aeris grabbed Sephiroth's hand.
"What are you doing?" He asked suspiciously, pulling his hand away.
"If we're going to encounter another sinking floor, I'd rather you'd be holding onto my hand than my hair, my jacket, or my arm," she replied in annoyance. "You nearly dislocated my shoulder that last time."
"Gravity nearly dislocated your shoulder," Sephiroth said. "So you must be exerting considerable downward force."
It took Aeris a moment to figure out what he was saying. "Did you just call me fat!"
"Obliquely," he agreed and laughed when she slapped him on the arm. "You know that doesn't hurt me."
"But it makes me feel better," she grumbled and yelped as she sank into the floor. Sephiroth snatched her around the waist and leapt for the ceiling again.
"Oh, give me a break!" Aeris yelled in exasperation. . "How many more of these are there?"
"I don't know," Sephiroth said, looking down at the rapidly expanding black pit that had once been a floor. "The Lifestream blasting out of the Crater must have weakened the rock. We'll have to walk very carefully." Suddenly he frowned and looked at her. "Don't your people fly?"
She ignored the vaguely derogatory tone in his voice and said, "Full-blooded Cetra can fly, but all I can do are long hops and maybe a hover."
"Pity." He said. "You could fly over these if you were full-blooded."
"I know." She said, nettled. Then she looked up at him, frowning. "Wait... Aren't you able to fly too?"
A weird look came over Sephiroth's face. "One of the downsides of sanity," he said finally, "is remembering that gravity applies to you."
"So you can't fly?"
"Not anymore."
Aeris sighed and Sephiroth tossed her over to the next cliff. This time, though, she was ready and cushioned her impact with the same force she used to float, a sort of air bubble that wrapped around her and moved her around when she encountered it. Sephiroth launched himself off the stalactite and landed next to her, slowing when he hit her bubble of air. If he noticed the bubble, he didn't say anything about it. After dusting his hands off on his pants, Sephiroth walked on and Aeris followed behind.
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Author's note:
I didn't plan on this chapter happening, but it felt wrong to stop the flow. And the image of Aeris swinging by her hair makes me giggle. Wow, I'm making these characters do stupid things... And to think they haven't even met up with AVALANCHE yet! The madness continues.
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