PSL; [FLOWER, STARDUST, STEEL EXPLOSION]

[supersoldier]

Comments

[supersoldier]

Is that so?

You’re being very ill-behaved Aerith. I’m disappointed. Explain why you’re hiding, and return that phone.

Is that better?

[cetral]

Your scolding voice just sounds like your normal voice...

[ if only disappointment could translate through text. ]

[supersoldier]

[How does she drag him into these conversations?]

Would you prefer if I used exclamation points?

[cetral]

[ ~*~it's a mystery~*~ ]

Maybe? I don't think you've ever used those even in face-to-face conversation...

Which one should I experience first to get the most enjoyment out of it?

[supersoldier]

Why would you want me to yell at you in person? There's no need.

[Since when have the claws of anger ever really hooked into Sephiroth? Even he can't quite remember; a machine, indeed, in those days.]

You're being especially baffling today. Tell me what you're up to.

[cetral]

Hmm... well, it's a side of you that I've never seen before.

And if it exists, I want to see it. I guess?

[ honestly. because to be honest, she's the one who's usually angry, and the fact that sephiroth is not... baffles her. ]

Anyway, I'm behaving myself! Kind of. I contemplated making a run for it today while they're deep cleaning the labs, but I decided not to do it.

[ ... which probably opens up a whole book of new questions, but if there's one thing that hasn't changed, it's her odd way of secrecy sometimes. at least, for anything that sephiroth doesn't already know. ]

[supersoldier]

[Perhaps the issue is that he’s not given to strong emotion, at least not on a surface level. Furor is not something he shows; joy is not displayed on his face for any to see. Sephiroth is a bit like still water — perhaps something deep exists beneath the surface, lurking nebulously, but who would be so reckless as to dive in, unknowing?

Still, Aerith always sends ripples across the surface, and maybe it’s odder still that he allows it.]

I don’t think I’ve ever been that angry with you. Whether or not it exists is debatable.

Are you sure that’s something you should be admitting to on an infantryman’s phone?

[Was that a joke, or...? Aerith...]

[cetral]

"That" angry?? Doesn't that mean you've ever been? Where was I??

[ hold on, fascination momentarily derailed by the fact that she's... relocating.

just in case she's really done something super dumb.

not that she'll ever admit to it. ]

If this thing's bugged, I feel like you smoked me out the moment you used my name.

You could've played along, you know.

[supersoldier]

[First question: ignored.

Last statement veiled as a request: tended to, now that it’s clearer.]

Why didn’t you run, then?

[cetral]

?

Why would I? I trust you.

[supersoldier]

I’m asking because I thought I was supposed to be playing along.

Or indulge you in old childhood fantasies, which might be one and the same.

[cetral]

Really.

[ tfw sephiroth is the better actor... too much trust, not enough fear, but more importantly - ]

Too old for hide and seek, but not old enough to outgrow the name-calling.

If you're going to call me a child, you could at least say it to my face.

[supersoldier]

That's a childish thing to say.

[ :) ]

[cetral]

[ :/ ]

Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. Presenting mouth for soap, sir.

[supersoldier]

I'm joking.

[Even miracles can happen.]

If you want, I'll make sure to call you childish the moment I see you again. Just remember that you requested it yourself.

[cetral]

Hmm...

What if I'm starting to think you deserve a scolding instead?

[supersoldier]

For being too acquiescing? You're hard to please.

[cetral]

I haven't seen you in a whole month! Please, you owe me. I was starting to feel like you're avoiding me on purpose.

[ ... which is... an exaggeration to an exorbitant degree when she's rather respectful of his schedule otherwise. when she isn't stealing phones and hiding in corners and giving him a headache, anyway.

but -

a whole month later, and it still buzzes a little bit strangely in her system, coiling in the back of her brain and snapping at her when she least expects it. how she'd clung to his arm before he left, and felt the punctuation of corded muscle underneath his sleeve; how his hand had nearly dwarfed her back, oversized to an embarrassing degree. something about the unfamiliarity of what should be a familiar situation, the way she'd said i'll miss you, and felt heat prickling at the back of her neck from some sudden self-consciousness she'd never had to deal with before.

and how his gaze, usually settling too long, and too neutral, and never affecting, when coupled with a slight smile, had almost scraped at her like a match.

a phs isn't that hard to come by. if she really meant to contact him, she could've stolen a phone two days ago, when he'd reported back to this sector. ]

So?

Are you?

[supersoldier]

[How suddenly the mood changes from something playful, straight into the realm of uncertainty, of a somber realization that has the “…”s halting altogether completely.]

Is that what you think?

[Free time is a thing non-existent in these days. Shinra is not lax in sharpening their most promising weapon to the finest point, an edge that guarantees the highest body count, and Sephiroth has found himself with little time to breathe in-between the exercises, the drills, the training. It is better than the laboratory — so much is, that being a very low bar to clear — but they share the same color of routine: cyclical, constant, expectations of success or improvement always the same.

He is used to it, he supposes, so much that he can accept the new path his life’s taken without complaint; it’s no Hojo and his sneering needles, at least. No beeping machines and the smell of antiseptic always clinging to the inside of his nostrils. Better, in that way.

But the guilt is unavoidable, the knowledge that she is left alone in the science department, the sole specimen to be poked and prodded at, while he’s away. To leave her thinking that he would forget about her completely, or purposefully avoid her like she was an unwanted memory so easily shucked away. How could he? The last they saw each other, before Sephiroth was swallowed up by the elevator that would take him to the lower floors, packed into an armored vehicle and ushered away to a military facility, he felt it impossible to turn away from her. Something knotted itself in his throat, kept him from saying the words — but he was afraid that this distance put between them would be permanent, indelible, in ways it’s never been before.

Was he right?]

I’m not avoiding you. There are days where I’d prefer to see you more than anyone else here.

[cetral]

[ oh.

it's only his usual honesty, but it catches strangely in her throat, and she feels it going all the way down when she swallows. that same prickling heat, the way she's hyperaware of her pulse beneath her skin, and how there's gooseflesh on her arms now despite the warmer summer temperatures and the facility kept comfortable with air conditioning.

she knows what this is, raw nerves and fear, because before appointments became routine, she was no stranger to both.

so the fact that she's reacting in such a way to sephiroth, and finding she doesn't really mind it is, in essence, really weird. ]

Well, I've been missing you every single day.

And now you're so close, and I still can't see you. I hate it.

[ and then, because maybe it did bother her more than she'd let on - ]

It is childish.

I'm sorry.

[supersoldier]

It isn’t childish.

[It’s as though the conversation has inverted itself, and suddenly Sephiroth doesn’t care that this exchange might be logged on an infantryman’s PHS, or eventually bounced around Shinra’s servers to be scrutinized a hundred times over. That, at least, would certainly be nothing new.]

I should have checked in with you more.

[Instead of being swept away, time lost to the company’s demands for his readiness in the war-to-come. He can always carve out space in the hours to attend her if he truly tries; at times, even Shinra and its grand, carefully-laid plans bow a bit beneath Sephiroth’s will. (His stubbornness.)]

I’ll make it up to you when I see you next. You can choose what we do together.

[cetral]

Really?

[ except... maybe the readiness with which that text comes offsets how quickly aerith had gone from hey-i-might-have-committed-theft to sorry-for-bumming-you-out.

but honestly, that's a lot of leeway to give her. ]

When do I get to see you?

[supersoldier]

Really.

[He won’t break his word to her. Not about this, something he would want just as much if pressed to truly admit it.]

Two weeks’ time. Can you be that patient?

tags from beyond the grave

[cetral]

I guess I have to be, won't I?

[ but!! because she's getting tired of giving up - ]

What if I sneak out now?

Do I at least get to see your face? For two minutes tops!

same tbh <3

[supersoldier]

Could you manage it without getting caught? I wonder.

I wouldn’t tell if you did.