Twilight Perfected Chapter Nine: Buddy's real talent was beating people up, his heart wasn't in it but the crowd ate it up.

Ah… pain. It'd been a long time since Sephiroth had experienced the sensation. He didn't care for it.

Things that Sephiroth didn't care for didn't last long, especially not things within his own body.

Broken bones knitted, blood that had been internally pooling went back to internally flowing, bruises faded, and scraped skin sewed itself back together.

Having resolved all the simple problems created by his fall, it was time to deal with the more complicated ones….

"Woah... never seen that before."

Sephiroth opened his eyes.

Honey-brown hair, long. Green eyes, non-luminous. A preponderance of pink. Tilting his neck downwards revealed a pair of hideous boots.

"You… again?" Sephiroth couldn't help but wonder how improbable it was that he'd wind up meeting this woman a second time.

"Well it looks like whatever else that fall did to you, you're not suffering from amnesia…. Or really any other injuries I can see..." The woman sounded… uneasy. Understandable; people who'd been forced to witness his regenerative abilities often found them alarming.

"Where am I?"

"An old church in the Sector Five slums. You came crashing through the roof without so much as a 'look out below.' Fell right into my flower bed. Lucky for you. Like, really." The florist answered.

Sephiroth looked up as he rose to his feet; he could see a noticeable gap in the ceiling above him, confirming his recollection of slamming into a roof. A glance at his feet confirmed that he had, indeed, landed in the middle of a patch of flowers.

"I've intruded in your life a second time and ruined your garden; I'm sorry." It was a wholly inadequate apology, but the best he could do.

The woman tilted her head up towards the ceiling and then back down to him.

"You don't need to apologize. I doubt you planned to crash through my roof. Besides, they're a lot tougher than they look. This place... It has a kind of power. I'm Aerith Gainsborough by the way."

If she was waiting for Sephiroth to introduce himself she'd be waiting a very long time.

Before the awkward conversation could continue any further, the church's doors slammed open.

"I'll see myself in, thanks..." A profoundly cocky voice declared.

Sephiroth turned his glare on a familiar red haired man in a rumpled blue suit. He was sure that Shinra had suffered a fair amount of turnover since he'd left their service, but somehow he'd known that Reno wouldn't be among them. Sephiroth even suspected that the Turk had even probably managed to snag a few pay raises or even promotions since they'd last met; he had a devious mind, when he actually bothered to use it.

"Uhh… Sis... who is this guy?" Reno's turquoise eyes abruptly went wide the moment he got a good look at Sephiroth.

"He's my bodyguard... and a SOLDIER. Pretty cool huh?" Aerith taunted Reno with the impish tones of a child sitting on top of an impossibly high wall with a huge pile of rocks next to them.

Sephiroth wasn't the least bit surprised that she'd been able to recognize him as a SOLDIER given the mako glow in his eyes. He was mildly surprised to learn that he was now her bodyguard… but if it meant interfering with Shinra's plans he'd play along.

"I believe you!" Reno insisted at once, his head bobbing up and down like a bouncing ball. "Gotta say, he makes a guy feel a little inadequate; big guy like that, with those bright green eyes..."

There were three troopers accompanying Reno, one of them in a red outfit indicating higher rank. All of them were carrying rifles, and one of lower ranked troopers began to slowly and uncertainly raise their weapon.

Reno heard the telltale "click" of a disengaging safety and promptly delivered a spin kick that knocked his own subordinate into one of the church's pews, sending their gun clattering to the floor.

"Whoops, sorry about that!" Reno grinned nervously. "I just get these weird twitches sometimes, probably because it's nearly noon and yet I'm still sober. You know what a harmless drunk I am!"

Sephiroth would be more inclined to believe that if he hadn't read the reports of Reno once taking on an entire bar full of arms smugglers singlehanded. He would have been even more impressed if Reno had known they were arms smugglers before he started the brawl.

Then the Turk walked slowly and deliberately over to the other Shinra trooper and slapped him on the back.

"Now then, what you gotta understand is, what's-his-face here is having lady trouble. I told him that I could hook him up with the: one, singular, only, uno, person in Midgar who sells flowers that aren't made out of plastic, guaranteed to set a gentle lady's heart aflutter.

"Then 'like-I-care' over there and 'you-with-the-head' bet me that I was full of it, so I had to bring them along to prove that wasn't the case and collect my winnings! Funny story, right?" Reno explained, the smile on his lips never reaching his eyes.

"So, with that in mind, there's: no, zero, zip, zilch, nadda, bupkis, squadoo, reason for me to be getting into any sorta fight with your new bodyguard! We're just here to buy some flowers!" Reno was clearly trying to substitute enthusiasm for credibility.

"That's good, because I'd hate to think you came intending to do something that could have ended up hurting my flowers."

There was an edge to her voice that Sephiroth hadn't expected.

"You've got me all wrong, the last thing I want is for any flowers to get hurt! I'm a huge fan of horticulture, ask anybody! Now then, why don't you make like a gentleman and ask the nice flower lady how much it will cost you to buy some of her wares?" The Turk suggested leaning more heavily on the guard.

As he did so, Reno also casually manipulated his baton in order to knock the trooper's rifle out of his hands.

"Idiot didn't even realize that you can't carry a flower while holding a gun at the same time! I tried to tell him he shouldn't even bring it, everybody knows this neighborhood is a wonderful safe place where nobody ends up getting gruesomely murdered! It sure has got a lovely reputation for that!"

The now disarmed man began to slowly approach Aerith with all the enthusiasm of a convict heading to the gallows.

"How… how...much?" He stammered out, evidently able to feel Sephiroth's eyes boring into his back.

"Well as my new bodyguard could attest, I charge people based on how much it seems like they need my flowers. For you maybe… 5,000 gil?" Aerith pondered, her tone carrying just enough innocence for plausible deniability.

"I haven't got that much on me!" The guard half protested half whimpered.

In the blink of an eye Reno was at the man's side, leaning against him menacingly.

"Which is the other reason why I made sure to come along! See, I knew that you, being an ordinary flower lady who is far nicer than this city deserves, wouldn't have a scanner to make use of a Shinra charge card.

But, as a member of the Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department, I'm authorized to sign Shinra Vouchers with our department seal on them; nobody is gonna tell you those aren't worth the amount printed on them. If somebody does, we'll make sure to pay them a visit! So, I believe you said it would cost five…."

"I'm running a special, two for fifteen thousand."

"What a bargain!" Reno agreed at once; withdrawing a collection of vouchers from his suit, and filling one out so fast it was a wonder the ink had time to dry.

He ripped it out of the book presented it to Aerith, who handed over a blossom to the guard then gently attached a white starry flower to Reno's suit.

"I think that flower does wonders for your outfit. You see, Reno, you look a lot better when you're actually making an effort."

"Make, an, effort! I will not be forgetting that wise advice any time soon!"

Then Reno turned around and dragged the flower holding guard along with his right hand.

He also gently slid his baton into its holster so that his left hand was free to drag the still unconscious guard along with him as well. No one made any effort to retrieve either of the assault rifles that Reno had knocked to the floor as the Shinra employees beat a hasty retreat.

It was only once Reno ever so gently eased the door closed behind him, that Aerith let out a giggle of delight.

"Wow, I'd forgotten how great it was to have a guy I could depend on. Do you charge by the hour?"

"...What...?" Was the most cogent reply he could muster.

Aerith chuckled to herself, seemingly just as amused by his consternation as she had been by Reno's none too well concealed horror and subsequent begging for his life.

"Look, l can tell that you used to be a SOLDIER. Since you've obviously left Shinra, that probably means you're a mercenary now, right? That or you run a weapons store, and are doing some really aggressive advertising." She explained, taking a moment to playfully display the 15,000 gil voucher she'd just obtained.

Sephiroth was tempted to tell her that he wasn't a mercenary, he was a terrorist; the acts of violence he committed were motivated solely by ideology, not something as banal as a payment. Alas, persuasive as it might be, the full, unvarnished truth would likely be more trouble than it was worth.

He decided that to try a different approach.

"You do realize that if I really only cared about money I could just yank that voucher right out of your hands?"

She did not pull the voucher back or otherwise try to prevent him from seizing it. No, instead she all but waved the thing in his face.

"You probably could do that. My last boyfriend was a SOLDIER and he could pick me up with one hand like it was nothing. If you really wanted to steal from me though, why would you warn me beforehand?"

"This isn't about me or what I'm going to do next. This is about you. Why are you so important that Shinra would send a Turk after you? From the overly casual tone he took, and you didn't rebuke, it sounded like you've even talked before." Sephiroth tried to steer the conversation onto a more productive topic.

As he did so, his mind rapidly ran through various different scenarios, looking for one that could put the events he'd just seen into some kind of reasonable context. Was she the daughter or younger sister of a Turk? The lovechild of some Shinra executive?

"Dunno. You heard Reno, I'm just an ordinary local florist." Aerith insisted, sounding scarcely more believable than the red haired Turk had.

He'd also insinuated that Aerith was the only florist in all of Midgar, if this woman was truly "ordinary" then Sephiroth would eat Masamune.

He needed to find a way to link back up with Avalanche, but at the same time… Shinra was committing a lot of resources into trying to lean on this woman. Why?

It was at moments like these when he realized just how right Barret had been. He should never have let himself get caught up in his Quest and allow the rest of the Planet go about its business without him. If he hadn't spent the last five years in the Lifestream his knowledge of Shinra's plans would be a far more up to date.

Missions had to come first, and when you were General Sephiroth, there was always another mission.

"Hey, don't Turks keep an eye out for potential SOLDIERs and stuff? Maybe he thought I could be the greatest SOLDIER yet, the one to finally surpass General Sephiroth himself!" Aerith suggested eagerly.

Oh. now she was just winding him up on purpose!

Even worse, for some absurd reason it was working!

"You realize I am General Sephiroth?"

"I felt it would be rude to assume."

"Moving on... adult SOLDIER candidates tend to be recruited from either already-serving Shinra military personnel or highly conditioned professional athletes, not florists."

"Well, there goes my hopes and dreams of one day jumping from roof top to rooftop with a handsome man cradled in my arms." Aerith pouted.

"Being a SOLDIER isn't all it's cracked up to be. It used to make me feel like I was making the Planet a better place, but now..."

"Now it doesn't, but that's why you stopped being one. Because you want to make a difference." Aerith pointed out, gently resting a hand on Sephiroth's shoulder.

Or more accurately, trying to rest a hand on Sephiroth's shoulder; he flinched away before her bare hand could touch his black coat.

Sephiroth said nothing, but shot her a sullen, disapproving look.

"If you still want to make a difference, you could walk me home. You'll probably get to scare the pants off of another Turk before we get there."

"I suppose I might as well."

"That's great! Of course I'm going to have to try and find some way to reward my silver knight for his service. Since you weren't interested in money, maybe I could take you out on a date?"

Sephiroth looked at her.

He continued to look at her.

Sephiroth had to get back in touch of Avalanche, he had to destroy six other mako reactors, he had to see to it that several Shinra executives were properly punished for their crimes and the entire organization was humbled; a date was out of the question.

"Wow, you are nothing like the last guy to fall through my church's ceiling. Got it, no dates, message received loud and clear." Aerith apologized.

Sephiroth thought she might be making some sort of a joke at his expense but with this ineffable woman who could be sure?

XXX XXX XXX

"Good afternoon Rude!" Aerith cheerfully waved up at the bald dark skinned man in the immaculate blue suit and black sunglasses.

She was fairly certain that given Rude's position, he was waiting more or less exactly where she would have emerged if she'd tried to sneak out the back of the Church. So it was a good thing that she'd decided on just leaving through the front door side by side with new bodyguard; she'd tried to suggest arm in arm, but just gotten another extended silent stare, punctuated by a raised eyebrow.

Rude took a long look at Aerith and her companion.

He adjusted his sunglasses.

Rude took another long look at Aerith and her companion.

Rude silently returned her wave.

XXX XXX XXX

Reno knew that this was not a situation that called for undue amounts of panic as he dialed a number on his cell phone.

"Tseng." Was the only response he got once the connection was established.

"Hibbity jibbity, odalalee, mugwump, ho, ha, heurrrhhhh….. GENERAL SEPHHHIRRRROTHHHHH!" Reno screamed into the phone.

This was however, a situation that called for displaying the correct amount of panic. Reno felt like he'd nailed it, personally.

"Reno, how much have you been drinking today?"

"Forget what I've been drinking, the Ancient extraction mission is scotched!"

"Because?" Tseng's tone was so leading even the most senile judge in the world would have protested it.

"I already told you Boss, because of General Sephiroth! I walked in there, and I barely walked out again with my life! Supposedly he's her new bodyguard! I think he might be mildly peeved about the entire 'left for dead' thing Shinra did to him!" Reno rolled his eyes, glad that the call was voice only.

"Reno, did you just roll your eyes at me?"

There were times when Reno regretted having a superior who was so amazing at his job.

"Yes." He admitted in the sullen pouty tones of a child who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

"So, you expect me to believe that General Sephiroth showed up out of nowhere and decided to protect that girl? Did he show any signs of realizing how important she is?"

"Some good news there, I'm pretty sure he doesn't. If he had, then I'd probably need to be reporting my status via rhythmically blinking my eyelids after he broke every bone in my body. That's assuming he didn't just flat out kill me.

The bad news is that I'm going to need you to okay an expense report of 15,000 gil for flower purchases."

"Why are you planning to charge the company fifteen thousand gil for a flower?" Reno could "hear" Tseng's brow furrowing over the phone.

"First off, it was two flowers! Secondly, think of it less as me buying blossoms, and more like I was bribing the guards at a security checkpoint not shoot me in the face repeatedly. Except it was less shoot me in the face, and more cut me up into enough pieces that each Sector could get their own chunk." Reno insisted, placing a hand over his heart and close to the flower he was still wearing.

"So you walked in, discovered you were face to face with General Sephiroth, that she'd flipped him, you used purchasing flowers as a cover story, she didn't believe it, and you got charged you through the nose." Tseng concluded.

There was a reason why Reno did not try to bullshit his boss.

"Got it in one. Listen, this means one of two things. Either, I'm the first one to spot General Sephiroth and that means I deserve a huge bonus for discovering a possible major threat to Shinra, or I'm not the first one. If I'm not the first one, why the hell weren't any of us briefed about the fact that Midgar has a… a…. a… General Sephiroth wandering around loose?!" Reno blustered; unable to find a metaphor that conveyed just how big a threat he was dealing with, so resorted to tautologies.

"Reno, was the girl still in her normal location?"

"I thought that was already implied, but yes. The Sector Five Church, same as usual." Reno answered without hesitation, wondering what Tseng was contemplating this time.

"The Sector Five Reactor was blown to pieces by Avalanche only a few hours before you spotted Sephiroth in the same Sector. Shinra even broadcast video of the terrorists doing the deed… except it looked like it had been edited by dozen different people first. It was all at odd angels, almost like it was trying to keep anyone who watched it from seeing something."

"You don't think..."

"Public Safety." Reno would never ceased to be amazed by how Tseng could make those two words sound like he surely must have added "Those Motherf**kers" under his breath.

"They don't share their intel with us, I walk into a gigantic silver ambush, look like an idiot, and we end up getting our budget cut again!" Reno spat.

"Exactly."

"What's our counter move?" Reno could feel his blood starting to boil; unlike at the church this was a fight they could win.

"I'm going to lean on a few of the people in that department who owe me favors. Find out what they know, and when they knew it."

Reno suddenly felt a brief twinge of something that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Boss… are we bad people?" He wondered, his tone far more introspective than normal.

"We're Turks."

"I understand. I mean, I know we're bad people, but are we bad people? Like, General Sephiroth is walking around with Shinra's Ancient, we've got no clear plan on how to get her back, and our first priority is dealing with internal power plays. A part of me can't help but wonder if maybe our we're doing something wrong..." Reno admitted, feeling his cheeks flush with embarrassment at breaking departmental policy by using the "W" word.

"Even secure phones are no place to discuss this matter. Circle up with Rude and get back to HQ. Also, excellent job staying alive." Tseng added before hanging up.

Reno felt an awkward swell of pride in his breast as he realized that yes, he had done an excellent job of staying alive! It might not sound like much, but Wutai had entire army full of people, or to be more exact they used to have an entire army full of people who hadn't managed to achieve the same result after getting on General Sephiroth's bad side!

XXX XXX XX

The trip back to Aerith's home from the church was one she'd made a great many times before. It wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but it was blessedly free of Turks, garbage fires, and additional stoic men dropping from the sky.

There were some monsters that needed to be frightened off by a few whacks from her retractable staff, there were a few things that needed to be climbed, and thus inevitably a few things that needed to be jumped down from.

She'd made the same jump every day she went to the church. Sephiroth had made it with an air of complete and utter tedium; now it was Aerith's turn.

As she prepared for it, her concentration was shattered by the screeching of a bird. She turned in the sound's direction, and found a pigeon flying straight at her. Flailing her arms, Aerith managed to ward off the avian missile, but lost her balance in the process.

She tripped over the side of the building and started plummeting towards the ground.

Her eyes' locked on Sephiroth's. She didn't have time to speak but her lips began to frame the word "please" as the ground rose up at her with dreadful speed.

She landed softly in his outstretched arms.

"My hero!" She declared, beaming up at him.

Sephiroth just tilted his head to the side in silent confusion at first.

"Are you hurt?" He eventually asked, his voice strangely uncertain.

"I'm fine." She reassured him.

He slowly and carefully, placed her on the ground, then abruptly broke contact to withdraw back five paces.

"Why did you call me a hero?"

"You caught me." Aerith replied, now starting to feel quite a bit confused herself.

"I don't like seeing people get hurt. It was easy to catch you. There's nothing heroic about doing the bare minimum."

Then Sephiroth stopped and began to shake his right hand, the one he'd used to brace her head while catching her. It was a small thing… but it was more of a reaction than he'd shown after falling into her church.

"Is your hand okay?"

"..."

Aerith sighed and slowly reached back into the pink bow that she used to bind her hair.

"If it helps, the only reason I can think of for it to be feeling weird is this..." She explained while pulling out the Materia that she kept hidden there.

Sephiroth's eyes widened with the first real genuine shock she'd seen him display. He looked helplessly torn, as if he was both intrigued and yet at the same time repulsed by the sight of her Materia.

"Is it unique?" Sephiroth sounded almost reverent.

"It is! It's a special Materia that was a gift from my mother. I just wish I knew what it did." reluctantly added, her exuberance wavering.

Aerith didn't know all that much about Materia, but she knew that their standard colors were: green, red, blue, purple, and yellow. Her mother's Materia though, glowed with white energy.

White energy that seemed to leave Sephiroth on pins and needles until she returned the Materia to its normal resting place.

XXX XXX XXX

""So... what's your favorite flower?" Aerith asked him out of nowhere as the two of them were making their way through the streets of Sector Five.

"Dionaea muscipula."

He'd read some botany books just to pass the time once.

As it turned out, his answer evidently effected her enough that she felt the need to turn around and face him.

"Most people go with roses, or daisies, but I probably should have seen that coming."

Sephiroth could see what she was thinking. She was probably ruminating on how he'd selected that particular "flower" because of its violent nature.

"Venus flytraps are hardy, they're survivors; they've got a different approach to life than most other flowers, but they know how to make it work. Besides, they're kinda cute in a way; they're friends with the bugs that pollinate them." Aerith noted serenely.

He could have argued that since the spreading of pollen was necessary to insure the growth of more flowers, it meant that flytraps not feasting on the insects which spread theirs' was simply a trait aimed at ensuring the propagation of the species. It had nothing to do with a concept as anthropomorphic as "friendship".

He could have, but he didn't.

He had more important things to do; Sephiroth kept trying to properly calibrate his expectations relating to this woman, and for some reason he kept failing. Why was he having so much trouble discerning her patterns?

"Sorry I didn't have any on me when we first met, they're not exactly a big seller. Even florists have to try and follow market trends." Aerith reflected turning back around.

Sephiroth didn't see why; as the sole source of flowers in Midgar she had a monopoly to rival Shinra's, even if it was on a less vital commodity.

"So I notice you don't have the flower I sold you anymore. Give it to someone?" Aerith abruptly pressed.

"Just my younger brother; he's far more of a romantic than I am." Sephiroth was glad that he could easily parry that particular verbal thrust.

"My house is just up this path. Mom should be home by now, I'll introduce you." Aerith noted, turning her eyes towards the buildings they were approaching.

Just when he thought he'd finally gotten to solid ground; he heard the distinctive "click" of a landmine beneath hits boots; this woman was truly relentless.

"Say that again?" Sephiroth meekly requested.

"My house is just up this path. Mom should be home by now, I'll introduce you." She repeated with the same blithe tone.

"…." Sephiroth was silent "loudly" enough that Aerith noticed.

"You aren't interested in money or going on a date, but you should at least let her make you some food for keeping me safe."

Sephiroth wanted to protest that he wasn't especially interested in food either, but his traitorous stomach had other ideas. He'd left for the reactor raid late at night, and it was now probably around four in the afternoon the next day. In short, it'd been over eighteen hours since he'd last eaten. Sustenance was probably the one form of payment he couldn't bring himself to refuse at the moment.

Once he got a good look at Aerith's home he wasn't sure if he should be pleased or angry with himself… because it looked exactly like he would have expected it to.

Not in the minor things like having tall slanted triangular windows, or the rooftop patio, but it was by far the cleanest, most well cared for house in the slums. Even more tellingly, there were several trays of flowers set up in front of it and the walkway leading up to it was overgrown with all manner of brightly colored flora.

In short, the sight of her house reconfirmed Sephiroth's suspicions that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the church he'd fallen into; but there was quite a lot out of the ordinary about the woman who grew flowers there.

Sephiroth ended up nearly colliding with Aerith as both of them went for the door-handle at the same time.

"I'm your bodyguard, shouldn't I go first?" He pointed out.

"Right now, you're just my guest." Aerith countered and Sephiroth stepped back, conceding the point

Sephiroth's predictions about what he'd find inside the house were more or less on the money, a well kept scene of domestic tranquility; it was like he could predict everything about Aerith, except for how she'd behave,

"I'm home..." She cheerfully called out after closing the door behind him.

"Hey baby. Been up to no good? I got a polite call from Rude earlier today. Even politer than usual in fact..." Answered a woman who was bent over a sink.

She turned to face the two and might have said more if she wasn't struck silent by the sight of her daughter's bodyguard/guest.

For his part Sephiroth did a quick and simple analysis of the woman who was clearly Aerith's mother. Hair a slightly lighter shade of brown than Aerith's, unremarkable green dress and white apron. She had the careworn features of someone who'd been born and spent their entire lives in Lower Midgar.

Sensing the building tension in the room, Aerith did her best to break it.

"So... this is Elmyra Gainsborough. Mom, this my new bodyguard, Sephiroth." Aerith awkwardly made introductions.

"I'm really just a concerned third party." Sephiroth tried to protest, every bit as awkwardly.

Was there a look of… something… that passed between mother and daughter in the wake of his introduction, or were Sephiroth's already heightened senses so on edge that he was now fooling himself into seeing things that didn't actually exist?

"Didn't you die five years ago?" Elmyra raised the obvious question.

Sephiroth shrugged.

"Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated."

"Take good care of her?" Elmyra asked brusquely while actually advancing towards him, seemingly falling back on routine in the face of an impossibility.

Just the sight of Sephiroth had sent a Turk who murdered people for a living running for his life, yet this ordinary middle aged woman was advancing on him.

It actually made him less perplexed in the grand scheme of things, since now he understood where Aerith got it from. If Shinra had given him a battalion of Gainsboroughs he could have conquered Wutai in a weekend.

"You'd have to ask her." Sephiroth suggested, his tone standoffish but not impolite.

Not only was it the best way to immediately remove himself from the conversation, but hopefully if he heard Aerith describe what he'd accomplished in her own words, it might provide him with the Rosetta Stone he needed finally to make sense of her.

"He did a great job Mom. He's also going to be heading back to Sector Seven soon. But since he was kind enough to help keep me safe I figured we could at least give him something to eat first. Then I'll show him the way back."

"I can get around Lower Midgar by myself just fine." Sephiroth couldn't help but interject, worried about placing more burdens on Aerith's shoulders.

"Even with the trains all shut down because of the reactor attack? I sell flowers across the entire city so I know all sorts of ways to get around." Aerith countered, just the tiniest touch of pride in her voice.

"You just aren't going to accept 'no' for answer are you?" Sephiroth guessed, having at least detected this particular pattern in Aerith's behavior.

"Nope!" She giggled, quite pleased with herself.

"Why not wait until tomorrow? If you head out now it'll be dark when you get back. Better to rest up here, and make the trip first thing in the morning; when you'll have daylight to spare." Elmyra cut in, even going so far as to gently place her arms on Aerith's own.

Sephiroth had never been quite so grateful for the fierceness of middle aged matrons.

Except... that sort of arm on arm restraint like… was that a thing family members normally did? Regrettably he didn't have any familial experiences of his own to compare it against.

Aerith simply waited and said nothing until her mother let go of her and then began to fish around in her dress.

"By the way Mom, I hope you can find a good use for this..." Aerith offered as she handed over the Shinra voucher that Reno had signed for her.

Elmyra spent a very long ten seconds just starring at it, especially at the "15,000" that had hastily scrawled on it.

"Aerith, how did you get this?!"

"Sephiroth helped me sell some flowers. I think he could have a bright future as a florist if he learned to stop scowling at the customers." Aerith explained with that serene smile Sephiroth was starting to suspect always indicated that she was actually hiding something.

Elmyra cast a very suspicious look in Sephiroth's direction.

"I hope selling flowers is all the two of you did together..."

Aerith just smiled and giggled in response.

"Don't worry, you'd like this one Mom. I offered him a date, and he just looked at me like I'd slapped him in the face with a fish."

That was a completely inaccurate description of Sephiroth's reaction, but he wasn't going to waste time debating it.

"Anyway, I'm gonna go get cleaned up, then I'll help cook dinner since we're gonna need enough for three people tonight." She promised before heading upstairs.

"My daughter, she's something of a handful isn't she?" Elmyra admitted once said daughter was out of earshot.

"I've been in fights to the death that were less exhausting than spending time in her company." Sephiroth admitted, glad to have a chance to finally say it out loud.

Elmyra was kind enough to turn her head to the side so that she wasn't looking directly at Sephiroth when she snickered.

Then all of a sudden her expression hardened.

"I hate to ask, but would you leave tonight? Without any fuss… no questions?"

"Done."

"Thank you. I'm sorry to ask it, but nothing is more important to me than Aerith's safety... You boys made a choice; traded a normal life for power. You can't have it both ways." Elmyra added, her tone firm, but not unkind.

A choice.

"No," Sephiroth hissed. "You can't."

The words left his mouth accompanied by a trail of white mist, and tiny tendrils of hoarfrost began to spread across the petals of a several nearby flowers.

Sephiroth was a SOLDIER; he would always be a SOLDIER, but he had never been given a choice on the exchange that so concerned Elmyra. How much of a difference that actually made, was a question he didn't enjoy meditating on.

Elmyra drew back and a hand towards her mouth in shock, either at Sephiroth's tone or the way the temperature was starting to edge downwards.

"I'm back!" Aerith called out as she descended the stairs.

Sephiroth got his magic back under control and Elmyra turned her attention on her daughter instead of her bodyguard/guest.

Even though the two were doing their best to pretend nothing had happened, Sephiroth could see in Aerith's eyes that she knew something unpleasant had taken place while she was a way… but she chose not to comment on it.

XXX XXX XXX

The meal Aerith and her mother made for him was fine.

The bed they provided was horrible.

Sephiroth tossed and turned, trying to find some way to get comfortable. It was like lying on a marshmallow, every moment he let his mind wander it told him that he was going to sink right to the floor.

Eventually he simply grabbed the pillow, stood up, then laid back down on the floor.

The floorboards felt firm, familiar, and comforting beneath his back. Now, Sephiroth might actually be able to grab a two hour catnap before he snuck out so that Aerith didn't get any more tangled up in his life.

He still wanted to know why exactly Shinra was so interested in her, but working with Avalanche to disable more mako reactors had to come first. That went double given that Aerith had insisted on being so cagey with him.

Granted, he'd also been a long way from forthcoming with her, but he was General Sephiroth; his entire life story was one massive collection of horrible secrets; what could this local florist be so worried about hiding? All Sephiroth knew for sure was that he refused to spend the entire night pondering the mysterious woman.

XXX XXX XXX

"Reno?" Rude asked his partner as he entered into the General Affairs Auditing Department's meeting room.

Reno, as per usual, was making himself at home on the couch, his attention focused on the room's television. Strangely he seemed to be watching old Shinra company files instead of a sporting event, cartoon, or pirate broadcast of a satirical news show whose host Reno had mysteriously failed to assassinate at least half a dozen times.

"So, your body's changing, believe me, I know how that feels..." Announced a recorded General Sephiroth who was standing in the middle of a blank white void… that must have been digitally created and thus required MORE work than just having him stand in front of a brick wall.

Reno peeled his eyes away from the screen and greeted Rude with his traditional slightly too wide smile.

"Rude, good to see you! Speaking of seeing people, you saw him too, right?" Reno gestured vaguely at the man on the screen.

"Yes."

"Great, well then, the good news is that I'm not crazy, the bad news is that we're all going to die." He practically giggled with manic intensity.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Reno nodded.

"Oh yeah! I started going over Shinra's archives looking to see if Sephiroth had any sort of weaknesses we could exploit, like some sort of war wound that never healed. No dice there… but I did find all the Public Service Announcements Shinra made him do after the Wutain War!" As he spoke Reno tapped a button on his remote and started the video playing again.

"Puberty can be an interesting time in a young man's life, you may discover hair in places you didn't have it before, new sensations, new desires, the ability to suddenly cast spells without the aid of Materia..." Recited Sephiroth, his voice even more dry and emotionless than normal.

"Can you believe somebody convinced him to do this? I'd say Shinra must have kidnapped his family, but he's Sephiroth, he doesn't have a family."

"Why are you still watching them?"

Reno took a swig from a glass of a clear liquid that was completely colorless and odorless, so there was a 25% chance it was water, and 75% chance it was vodka.

"They're amazing. I can't believe that Shinra let a little thing like him vanishing off the face of the Planet convince them to stop running them."

"Puberty can be an interesting time in a young girl's life... what? What? That's it. I'm done. Get Scarlet in here if this matters so much, let her do it!" A recorded Sephiroth protested.

"Who thought that one was a good idea?" Rude wondered.

"Professor Hojo, he claims that girls who watched it were four times more likely to show signs of puberty than girls who didn't within the same age bracket. I think he was just pulling numbers out of his ass, I mean… he's not THAT pretty. Asshole still makes it unfair for the rest of us though...

"Many of you may be considering a career in the wonderful world of science.

Don't.

Don't even think about it.

Not unless you desire to spend the rest of your lives slaving away under the thumb of a crazy maniac who will steal all your best ideas just like how he stole his current position away from Professor Gast; who was a far superior scientist in every way possible, BECAUSE HE ACTUALLY BOTHERED TO WRITE LAB REPORTS!"

"Crazy."

"The bloopers get crazier."

"Bloopers?"

"Yeah, this made the final cut. The Shinra marketing department showed this to children, and for some reason we're considered the real monsters? Life isn't fair."

"Okay, what's actually in the bloopers?" Rude couldn't help but ask, once again being drawn into one of his partner's latest bout of eccentricity.

"The bloopers are just him curled up in a corner crying while asking Professor Gast why he had to leave him, then when he realizes it's still recording he sets the camera on fire. I actually felt a little bad watching them." Reno sighed, momentarily despondent.

"Anyway, thanks to watching these things, I've come up with a brilliant plan. I'm going to download all of them onto my phone, and the next time I encounter Sephiroth I'll play one of them, and die of embarrassment!" He bounced right back to exuberant.

"You'll... die of embarrassment?" Rude tried to parse his partner's somewhat imprecise language.

"Well, technically, I'll die of his embarrassment, but what a parting shot! Because he will murder me within five seconds of pressing play, but the rest of Avalanche can never un-see it."

Rude had no comeback.

"Hello, I'm General Sephiroth. Here to talk to you about one of the most valuable traits a student or SOLDIER can have. Patience. Sometimes, patience is the key to victory. Sometimes, it leads to very little, and it seems like it's not worth it, and you wonder why you waited so long for something so disappointing... How many more of these?"

XXX XXX XXX

Sephiroth awoke from his slumber two hours after he drifted off, exactly as he'd intended to. He stood up, took one moment to stretch and then turned his attention to the room's window.

One twist of a latch to unlock it, a gentle push to open it, and then he just needed to make sure Masamune didn't brush up against anything as he crawled out.

Bracing his legs against the one story drop that was waiting for him on the other side was barely even worthy of note.

Sephiroth had snuck into Wutain ninja camps without alerting their sentries; he wasn't going to be caught by a florist!

"You're up bright and early." Aerith greeted him, lazily leaning against rock wall outside of her home.

The Planet's Greatest Tactical Genius: 0.

Local Florist: 1.

End Chapter.

AN: Just to be clear, yes Dionaea Muscipula is the fancy scientific classification term for Venus Flytrap.