Absolute
Error
Chapter
Two
As the kiss ended, Aeris
looked up at Sephiroth, wide-eyed "I-I-you... I-I never thought..."
she
stammered. He smiled "I love you."
With those three simple words, he was conveying days of
unexpressed feeling for her. With a sob, she threw her arms around his neck,
murmuring in his
ear "I love you too."
"That's a good thing..." smiled Sephiroth, Aeris pulled back and started
stammering again "E-ever
since the first day we met, I-I never dreamed... you - I - we - it's...!"
Sephiroth grinned "If you're
always going to start talking like that when I kiss you, maybe I should just
leave you alone now!"
"Oooh! That's MEAN!" Aeris complained, then yawned. Sephiroth got
up "I'd better go, you need
your sleep."
"No, stay!" She reached out an arm to him "I'm not tired! Stay!
Please!" he kissed her again, then went
to the door "You ARE tired, don't deny it! Seeo you in the morning..."
he closed the door behind him
and Aeris was left, alone, in her room. She got up and closed the curtains,
then crawled into bed, her mind
whirling, overflowing with thoughts and emotions. She couldn't believe that
Sephiroth could feel anything
for her, let alone love her! Especially when she loved him in return! Ever since
she had first met him, she
had been trying to hide her feelings for him, but now there was no need for
that, now she knew that he
loved her back, she was overjoyed! Eventually she managed to clear her mind,
and fell asleep.
Sephiroth
got into bed, relieved that he had finally said what needed to be said. He had
been so worried that The next
morning, Aeris's alarm went off at 7:00 as usual. She got up, got dressed and
went to see if Sephiroth was
she would reject him that he had almost kept his feelings to himself and not
kissed her at all. He was glad
now that he had made that split-second decision. He lay back and drifted into
a contented sleep...
awake yet. He wasn't, so she dared herself to do something she had been wanting
to do for days. She tiptoed over
to his bed and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, before stepping away again
as he woke up with a start.
"Good morning!" she said, standing with her head on one side and her
hands clasped behind her back. Sephiroth
sat up sleepily and ran a hand through his tangled hair "It is now."
he replied
"Is what?" she asked, confused "A good morning!" he grinned.
Aeris smiled and sat down on the bed, leaning against
him and resting her head on his chest. She reached up a hand and began playing
with his long, silver hair. Suddenly,
she sat up. "Can I brush your hair?" she asked "Well, yes, I
suppose, but why?" he questioned her
"Because it's all tangled up and I want to brush it." She reached
for a brush and sat behind him.
"Sit forward." she instructed him "Ooh, bossy today, aren't we?!"
Sephiroth commented slyly. As Aeris thwacked
him playfully around the head with her hand, he caught her arm "There are
penalties for striking a senior officer,
you know!" he grinned.
"Yeah? Like what?!" she asked him, grinning wickedly. He turned around
and pulled her into his arms "Like this..."
he said, kissing her. "That is SO NOT a penalty!" she exclaimed as
they pulled apart. "Who cares?" murmured Sephiroth.
They were about to kiss again when the door slammed open and Barret stormed
in. He looked
disdainfully at Sephiroth who was sitting on the bed, bare-chested, with his
arms around Aeris.
"If you two LOVEBIRDS would care to leave each other alone for two minutes,
I suggest we get out of here,
only we're all in grave danger!"
"What's going on?!" cried Aeris, "Why are we all in danger?"
"They're dropping the upper plate onto the Sector Seven slums. If we don't
stop them, sector seven will be crushed,
us with it."
"Who's dropping the plate?" asked Sephiroth. "Your friends, Shin-Ra's
Turks." Barret snapped back at him as they
all raced outside. Jessie approached them with a little girl. "She's the
only person we could find who isn't stoned or
drunk. Her name's Marlene." Barret looked at Aeris. "Aeris, there's
a church in the Sector Five slums where I know
she'll be safe; there's other rebels there. Will you take her there for me?"
Aeris nodded, and gave Sephiroth a quick,
nervous smile and ran off, hand in hand with the little child.
"If we get to the top of the pillar in time, we might be able to stop them
blowing it up!" cried Barret, and the five
remaining people rushed to the pillar.
As they
reached the platform half way up, the group gave up all hope. Reno of the Turks
lifted his head and saw
them, grinned, then jabbed his finger on the 'destruct' button of the bomb he
had set up around the pillar. The
counter was set at 60 seconds, and began to count down. "Heh, heh, heh.
You're too late!" as Barret levelled his
gunarm at the scruffy Turk, a helicopter whirred into view and Reno jumped aboard.
In fury, Barret shot several
rounds at the helicopter, and as he was reloading for the fourth time, Tseng
looked out at him and gave them a
sinister warning.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you; you might make me hurt her." Sephiroth
stepped forward, Masamune drawn.
"Hurt who?" Tseng chuckled and held out his arm "I think you
know perfectly well who I mean" he said as he
opened his hand and let a strip of pink material flutter to the ground. Sephiroth's
eyes widened as he realised what
it was; Aeris's hair ribbon. He dropped to his knees and picked it up, clasping
it in his hand and staring straight
ahead blankly. Tsengs words were barely decipherable as he shouted them over
the noise of the helicopter taking
off and the first bits of rubble tumbling from the disintegrating pillar "Do
you think you can make it out on time?"
Then, Sephiroth heard a sound that chilled him to the very core. As the helicopter
flew from the explosion, Aeris
broke free from her captors long enough to run to the window and scream his
name. Everything happened at once.
He screamed out her name as she was dragged away from the window and Baret yelled
at him to grab onto the end
of the rope that would carry them safely away from the doomed Sector Seven and
into Sector Six. He held onto it
and they swung away from the collapsing pillar, barely making it out in time
before the upper plate crashed down ,
destroying the Sector Seven plate, the Seventh Heaven and all the people in
the Sector Seven slums.