Originally, This is 4211 words. I wanted it to be less than 3000 but the end part either too short or too long. So I figured you wouldn't mind too long. I apologize for the wait. But yesterday I had an urge for little Zackary. I kind of feel like an ass for not being as consistent as I used to be. But I'm determined to Re-finish this. I promise.

After talking to Aerith and dreadfully realizing that Tifa might have been right, I headed inside to go to bed. I woke up late from the combination of events weighing down on me the previous night, and due to Sephiroth's absence I wasn't woken up. When I did rise from my bed I stared silently out of the window in my room. A knock sounded timidly, and I threw my blanket off to throw on a shirt and pants. I opened the door slowly playing with my hair, my eyes looked down expecting a citizen or an infantryman. I locked eyes with a muscled chest, slowly my eyes shuffled up to come to stare at Zack's eyes. He was smiling at me.

And my stomach fluttered uselessly. "Good morning you."

"Hi." I mumbled. He smiled brighter and pushed passed me.

"Get up and get ready, we're doing stuff today." I closed my door after him and gave him a weird look.

"What about Sephiroth?"

"Tifa found him, he's in the Shinra Mansion out left. We'll go visit him and see how he's doing and what he's up to. We can't really do anything without orders and stuff." I didn't say anything and dug a hand in my messy hair before plopping down on my bed silently. My mind raced as I tried to think everything through.

Zack's presence for some reason made everything more difficult. I had never had this much of a problem before. I growled lowly angry with myself. I flipped over and kept my eyes shut before rubbing them roughly and taking a deep sigh. I opened my eyes to see Zack above me staring confused.

"Ahh!" I sat up quickly scared at how he had moved without me noticing.

"You... You alright Evie? You seem... troubled by something."

"Uh, oh um, it's nothing, just this whole thing with Genesis kind of hitting me hard. Bad timing." He didn't take the answer but he also didn't argue with me.

I stood and grabbed some clothes to get changed, when I walked out of my bathroom fully changed, Zack was gone. I was silent as I left my room and met Zack outside the hotel.

He started talking to me about the seven Wonders of Nibelheim and what he had heard from this boy in he town. He was excited for it.

"What has gotten you so excited?" I asked lightly. He turned and smiled at me brightly and my breath left me. A strangely familiar feeling I found.

" I just... I feel good. I forgot everything, but Cloud reminded me."

I nodded, "Sometimes you get so wrapped up in your present you forgot what brought you there." Zack nodded silently his leather covered hand clenching at the thought of the past. My arm lifted habitually to place it on his shoulder, but I hesitated unsure of how I'd react to the contact. I bit my lip and let it sink onto his shoulder before taking a deep breath. He glanced at me and grinned.

That feeling from before erupted and my mood perked, I was happy to see him happy.

"So what about these wonders then?" He perked up even more and turned to face me quickly.

"Well apparently the painting in the hotel we stay at changes, sometimes the girl in the picture will be there and sometimes she won't." I nodded simply.

We turned around and walked into the hotel, smiling gently at the couple before going upstairs and into Zack and Cloud's room. We walked up to the painting. The girl was sitting there smiling gently. I twitched looking at it.

"I don't like the way this picture is staring at me, like she's staring into my soul."

"I think you're just being dramatic." I stuck my tongue out at him childishly. Zack glanced over the portrait. There didn't seem to be anything in particular that was special about it. We walked downstairs confused for a time before looking around.

"It's the same picture Zack." He made a face.

"Let's go check it out again." This time when we came back the little girl was gone from the picture and now only a chair was there. My eyes widened with strange disbelief. I wasn't big on the ghost stories because of all the monsters I've fought, but that doesn't mean I'm not scared of some of them. Zack inspected the photo and when he turned he just shrugged his shoulders. We walked downstairs and this time as we walked down I kept glancing back in wonder. In my curiosity I almost bumped into the owner, Zack pulled me aside gently as he walked upstairs past us.

He didn't seem to notice us in his fit of happiness. Zack gave me a look and we waited a moment, before Zack pulled me up the stairs, following the innkeeper. I was confused but silent in my movement. As we came up to the doorway we saw the man put money behind the painting and then flip it over from the chair to the girl sitting on the chair. I let out a sigh of relief but the man heard me. He freaked out and Zack walked in to talk to him. The innkeper walked by with a small smile and Zack walked up to me 2,000 gil more richer, like we needed it.

"Gave me 2,000 gil to keep quiet about the hiding spot." I grinned with a tilt of my head.

"Can do?"

"Can do." I nodded. "Alright, let's go back to the boy." Zack lead the way out of the inn and after returning to the boy, he sighed, his shoulders sagging visibly.

The next wonder was up by the Mako reactor, and together we trudged up that miserable mountain. The same Mako fountain we had stopped at to talk to Sephiroth about Materia, we found children. We turned to each other the moment we could see them and gave each other worried glances. They were up here by themselves, and there were fiends everywhere.

After talking to them, they seemed quite fixed that being as close as they were to Fountain would prevent them from being attacked. Zack went to argue with them again but I stopped him figuring it would be no use. We walked away to find these "Wonder" bombs and on the way there my bra was irritating the shit out of me and I stopped to fix it, lowering the zipper on my shirt to make it less difficult. After a minute of fiddling, it felt better, but still irritating. I made a face wondering why it would hurt so damn much all of a sudden.

Together we easily defeating the bombs, but it was the most irritating display of floating pinatas I had ever experienced. The fact that you could die if you didn't hit them loomed over your head kind of. I spun Harbinger and threw it onto my back as Zack walked over and picked up a Gold Shard. He gave it a look, I shrugged and we walked away.

I rolled my shoulder a few times on the way back to the village and Zack noticed my discomfort.

"Are you okay?" I gave him a look.

"Does it seem like I'm okay?" he recoiled slightly, and I sighed my shoulders sagging as the village came into view. "Sorry..." I mumbled to him. I didn't quite understand my overly grumpy mood, but I assumed it had to do with my bosom bothering me. He said nothing and continued to lead the way, he stuck his hands in his pockets, almost uncomfortably. I sighed upset I snapped at him.

I didn't walk up to the boy to talk to him about the Wonder my bosom itching and being in pain. It was a dull pain when I had woke up, but now it was almost overbearing. Even getting kicked in the chest was less irritating than this. I growled frustrated. It was like a headache, it hurt, but since there was no external pain, there was mostly nothing you could really do for it, but leave it alone or go to Hojo.

"Alright the next one is about a safe in the Shinra mansion. Apparently it laughs."

"That's all he said?" I interrogated, ignoring my bosom in the mean time.

"Well no..." murmured Zack

"But?" I pushed.

Zack continued, "But I didn't really listen or pay attention to all of it."

My eyebrow rose in question, "Was it that or can you not remember it all?"

"Both?" I laughed in his face and shook my head.

"Alright fine. Let's go." He began walking towards the Mansion and I followed walking briskly to catch up. I smiled at the back of his hair as the feeling of being around him just filled me with joy.

After walking silently to the mansion and inside the place, Zack lead the way around as I kind of absorbed the look of the area. An internal map being forged in the silence.

"Evie, it's in here." My eyes snapped to him quickly to see him in the doorway of a room off to my far left. I followed and heard it occasionally as well. We walked up to the safe and stared at the numbers. It was a simple enough combination four numbers, zero through nine. Thinking about it, how were we even suppose to open it.

Zack voiced my thoughts, "How do we figure out the combination to open it?" I shrugged and moved away to hear something crunch gently beneath my boot. I shifted my glance over to Zack before lifting my foot to see a piece of paper. Zack picked it up and smiled.

"It's how to figure out the combination!" he stood and ran out of the room, leaving me silently in his excitement. My head coiled back in surprise, and a smirk crossed it momentarily.

"He's acting like the puppy Angeal used to call him..." I mumbled to myself. My shoulders sagged a little and my eyes fell as I thought about Angeal... and then Sephiroth.

I hope he's doing okay... I stared at the wall and jumped when the safe jumped a little. I grabbed my chest breathing heavily as my heart wrenched violently. I sighed still covering my heart as it calmed down some. I smiled at how easily frightened I was and shook my head.

"I'll be the reason for my own doom." The thunking of boots sounded that zack was on his way back.

"I think I figured it out!" He face filled with joy.

"Well you kind of left me here, not like I could have helped otherwise."

"You could have followed." I opened my mouth to retort, but found I had none. So I closed it and pouted as Zack kneeled down to try different combinations. A minute later I heard a click. Zack stood up and with a grin opened up the safe. A cactuar burst from the thing causing me to scream in fright before it laughed and hopped off. Even as it hopped away the laughing continued.

I looked up, Zack was laughing at me. I felt my face get hot with embarrassment. I punched him in his shoulder roughly. He just laughed harder at this. I stood there with my face on fire as he just laughed to his heart's content at me.

"Are... you... are you alright?" he choked out when he calmed some.

"Peachy, Zackary."

"Aw don't be mad. I've never heard you scream like that, you always seem like a big toughy. It was cute." he grinned with a pinch to my cheeks before grabbing whatever was inside the safe and walking off. I stood looking at his form leave the room as my face Lit up at his comment. I walked out of the room and followed him still in shock about his words.

–

When we returned to the town and Zack talked to the boy revealing the truth behind his Wonder, Zack returned with a tiny grin.

He seemed really excited about this next wonder.

"So apparently there's been bloodcurdling moans coming from the caves beneath mansion." I smirked and pulled some of my choppy black hair behind my ear. Instead of rushing around like we seemingly were before, Zack decided to take... a much slower pace. Which I found peculiar.

"So Evie," started Zack.

"Hmmm?" I replied lazily.

"What about you and Rufus?" I knew there had to be something behind the want to walk as slow as a slug. I sighed.

"What are you talking about Zack?" I asked looking over to him, usually he'd be staring right at me, but this time he was gazing at the floor which was weird.

"I'm not sure."

"Yeah well... neither am I." I joked lightly, but he didn't chuckle like I was expecting him to. He had something on his mind, and it was bothering him. I could only assume it had to do with Aerith... or maybe actually me and Rufus? " We're less than friends. He's my job. That's it. He comes into the city and Sephiroth thinks it's cute to throw me under a bus and be his bodyguard, and just because he has pretty face, doesn't make up for the fact he's a conniving little prick. He likes torturing me or something I swear." I finished my rambling with a side glance at Zack, who didn't seem to hear what I said. "Zack... are you okay?" he looked to me quickly.

"Yeah... fine." He was quiet until we reached the mansion after that. Then he led the way up to the second floor, down a ridiculously long ladder, into caves, hidden beneath the Mansion. It was silent and then we heard it, the moaning noise. My heart sped up and I instinctively reached for my sword. Zack again lead the way.

Sahagins dropped from the ceiling, and I jumped surprised. We defeated them with Ease and Zack picked up the keys they dropped. As we tried to find the source of the noise we were ambushed couple of times. Coming out from each fight overall unscathed. We entered the third room we tried to find the noise was loud when it came. We locked eyes and nodded, knowing this was the place. We open a coffin and beetles jumped out like we were expecting them too.

I wiped my shoulder off disgusted by the mess before Zack opened the middle Coffin. He jumped back and I moved closer, surprised we hadn't been attacked. Inside there was a man.

He was pale, with long dark black hair. He was wearing a red cloak, and had metal gold boots on with a gold armored hand, My sword fell to the ground as I grew curious of the man. A loud noise came from him...

"He's snoring." I blurted out loud surprised.

"Yes, and we should leave him alone." I soaked in his features. His red bandana, his pale skin, his sleeping frown, his muscled body even as he slept. I wonder what color his eyes are... or who he is... and why he's here, and how long... oh man. I had so many questions but I knew Zack was right and we should leave the man alone. We pushed the coffin back closed and we left returning to the boy who seemed equally as excited about the sleeping man as I was. But my curiosity was different from the boy's and Zack's.

After talking to the boy, it seemed he had run out of things for us to do for the day and so instead, we decided to finally check up on Sephiroth, who had been gone, pretty much the whole day so far.

We returned to the mansion to go looking for him, Tifa had told us that he was here and we hoped she was right. After searching the mansion we heading into the basement and went through the only door we hadn't touched when we were down here not even half an hour ago.

We found Sephiroth here, reading through books and looking for something like a madman possessed. He didn't even seem to acknowledge us as he mumbled to himself. When we talked to him he said a few words and continued reading. Zack gave me a look and shrugged turning to leave.

"I'll catch up." He nodded and left. I took a deep breath and walked up to Sephiroth, blocking his pacing. He grumbled angrily but said nothing. I clenched my jaw and threw my hand on the book he was reading.

"Sephiroth, answer me!" His bright green eyes lifted from his book and glared viciously at me. I held my ground.

"You can't listen to Genesis, he's wrong. You aren't a monster. You... you have feelings, and bonds, and connections. You care about people although you don't show it often, I know you do. Monsters are being that are extremely cruel, wicked and ugly. You aren't any of these things," He moved away from me and tried to ignore me. I followed him and slapped the book in his hands to the ground and his glaring gaze returned, just as viscous as before. " You're strong, polite and handsome. You can't believe what he says Seph..." his gaze remained firm on me. I walked closer to him and grabbed his gloved hands in mine and stared at them, before looking to his glowing eyes.

"You... you're like an older brother to me. I care about you like you're family. Don't overdo this... with the reading... you might ruin your eyesight," I finished joking lightly. His gaze had softened at my words but determination was still there. I sighed gently and left with a peck to his pale cheek. I closed the door with a last glance at Sephiroth who stood staring aimlessly at the book on the floor. I bit my lip and left with a deep breath.

–

After getting outside, I didn't look for where Zack could have been, I walked slowly until the sunlight hit me and I turned to glance at the sun before looking away and thinking silently to myself. I thought back to the times before I was a 1st Class SOLDIER. To the days when Zack and I had first met, became good friends and then were lost in the torrent of work. We were rather young to be getting caught up and lost in work like we were but it was for good measure I guess.

I recall how I had almost considered him my best friend and was going to tell him later that morning when I realized it, but I had just been promoted to 1st Class SOLDIER afterwards. I was instantly bombarded with a pound of responsibilities and work, and publicity all over Midgar. My time was never paused for luxuries. I was always so busy. Lost in the rush, I had forgotten about him, and in return he had forgotten about me. It was sad thinking on it now, how easily, such a friendship was forgotten replaced with new memories of new friends. This made me think of my first actual meeting with Zack.

It had been when Angeal, was forced to tutor us both, some time later Sephiroth would take me under his wing instead.

-Flashback-

I was sitting silently on a bench between the outdoor buildings waiting for Angeal eating away at an apple. Angeal was late, which was an odd change of pace for once. I sighed gently irritably tired of waiting. I stood up, finally reaching the core as I gave a glance around looking for the man. A head of spikey black hair came strutting from around the corner as I chewed slowly watching him. He looked familiar, like I had seen him before. I didn't notice Angeal following him with a smirk.

The kid looked cocky beyond belief, and I could only raise my eyebrow in question. He smiled brightly to me like we were old friends, and if possible my eyebrow rose higher. I stood and threw away the core of my apple meeting Angeal and the other guy halfway.

"Where have you been Angeal? I've been waiting... for like ever!" The 1st class SOLDIER didn't say anything.

"You! You're that chick they brought in a few months back, you survived, I heard you wer the first girl to make it in, that's really saying something. You must be like really good." The kid rambled quickly and my eye widened at the speed he could talk.

"Uh... Hello. I... uh am that chick?" I asked almost confused.

"This is my other student, just got him about ten minutes ago. That's why I'm late," I nodded slowly still confused, "Introduce yourself."

"Oh right, I'm Zack." He walked forward and stuck his hand out calmly, more so than before when he first walked up.

"Pleasure, the name's Evie," I replied.

"Pleasure's all mine, Evie." I gave him an odd look as I returned his handshake firmly.

"So what's on the Agenda for today Angeal?"

"Well now seems like a great time to work on the importance of teamwork." I nodded understandably. The older man lead the way inside the Shinra building and up to the training room. It was fairly quiet as I thought about the look of his tufts of hair. It looked familiar, like the guy I had been looking for after I first arrived.

"You... wouldn't happen to be that 3rd class SOLDIER I passed by walking in that first day?" Zack looked to me curiously, and with a smile nodded.

"Yeah, I am, actually. I remember you staring after me." he sent me a wink and I shuffled away unsure of how to respond to that.

I mumbled, "Right." Training started in a country town One with wide-open spaces and pleanty of room to run around in. the simulation enveloped the senses and I smiled at the scent. I wondered if this is what a home smelled like. I looked around and saw that Zack had the same standard sword as me, I smirked gently and looked around.

"You seem rather stern for a girl as pretty as you are," this comment caught me by surprise and heat filled my face as I glanced at him. I was doubtful, but only because I found that puberty liked to give you a good smacking around every once in a while. This was one of those less than wonderful occasions, and so my ace was everything but pretty. I assumed he was trying to be polite, but no one had ever really complimented me much. I was the only one in SOLDIER who really had this facial problem, Hojo was researching the crap out of it, absolutely intrigued by this sad turn of events in my life.

I gave a skeptical chuckle, "Right, pretty as me... I'm not … that stern." I murmured lightly.

"You look so serious, that frown on your face will become permanent and you'll never be beautiful if you have a frown glued to your face." At this I laughed at, me beauftiful? I doubted it and shook my head. "besides the frown makes you seem like you're stuck up and have a bad sense of humor. It's just a simulation."

"It's training, you have to take it seriously." he scoffed with a grin. "Well how long have you been a 2nd anyways?"

"less than a month, I need to move into the new dorms still," he added quickly, hardly paying attention to anything.

"oh yeah... me too, i've been a second for a couple of months now, I just don't want to move into a dorm with some guy that's a total jerk next to me. You know have a room connected to him."

Zack nodded with another smile,"yeah I know..." he paused thinking as I walked away slowly and cautiously. "how about us? You know I'll be your neighbor." I stopped walking and turned around to face him. With a tilt of my head I realized it wasn't that bad of an idea really.

I smiled broadly back to him, "I'd like that," He returned it with gusto and the moment seemed to stop.

Training ended fairly quickly, I picked up Zack's hack and slash tactic rather fast so I settled with running around with my materia. Angeal grinned as the simulation ended and he walked in.

"Are you ever going to tell us why we're being trained together?" The question made the 1st Class SOLDIER smirk gently.

"Don't worry about it, you two are better for each other than you think."

-End-

The Next chapter will be up soon. - HQ16