He got up and looked around. He was in a guest apartment, where the night before he had had dinner with the young Storm Strife and Simon Reeve. They had entertained him with anecdotes of what to expect from themselves and their friends, and Sephiroth had found himself entertained, indeed. Childish despite their age, they looked so alive as they chatted, eyes dancing with youth and exuberance. Sephiroth had never seen such light in Cloud Strife's eyes, but in Storm, they fit ever so perfectly.

Looking around, he studied the walls. Unlike guest rooms of the past, this place was not a spartan accommodation. Clearly, the young women had wanted him to feel at home, and Sephiroth had to admit he did feel comfortable. The walls were a gentle blue, and on it there were sketches of people. According to Simon, Runner and Blazer had drawn those pictures. They were copied from photographs of family albums...

Pictures of the young Turks and Avalanche with their parents. A foreboding Vincent posing with Yuffie, Akiranni as a baby in her arms, Godo and Lucrecia by the sides of their parents. Reno and Rude stood behind a sofa, on which Elena sat, holding Erratic and Politesse, who had their arms about their mother, smiling happily. Rude had a proud smile on his face and Reno's smirk had softened into fond affection. Reeve and Scarlet walking and swinging a six-year-old Simon, chatting gaily. Sephiroth had to blink to make sure the picture was for real; Scarlet looked extremely different when smiling genuinely. Later pictures of Blazer and a little girl on his shoulders, and Runner sitting by Politesse, both reading the same book, graced another section of a wall. They looked so much like how Tseng and Elena would have been... had things turned out differently.

Sephiroth found himself studying the Strife family, drawn from a picture which had been taken when Storm was a little boy. He was sprawled across Cloud and Tifa's laps, and giggling as they tickled him. Storm had obviously been brought up with a lot of love. No wonder he was so compassionate, Sephiroth thought as he got off the bed. He opened the cupboard and was surprised to see the ordinary clothes in there. The girls had provided clothing for him. Civilian clothing. Other than uniforms and later his trench coat, he had never worn anything civil. It was another change for him.

Shouts from outside drew his attention. He walked to the window and looked down. It was a familiar sensation to him, since he often did that when he was in his room at Shin-ra Headquarters, looking down at the training fields where more often than not, people would stroll about and children play as if it were a park. This time, he saw the landing area of the air planes.

They were at play.

Sephiroth frowned. All his life, he had thought play was restricted to children and families. But there they were, Simon, Storm, Magdalena, Lucrecia, with the young Turks... roller-blading. Simon and Magdalena were trying to perform some manoeuvre, but fell over each other instead. They laughed as they sat up, then Magdalena look up and spotted the ex-general, to whom she smiled and waved merrily. The others, too, looked up and they either smiled or waved in greeting.

There were no frowns, no hatred in their expressions. Had Storm meant his words, that as leader, he would make sure they would show no hostility? If they had reservations, they hid it well. Storm and Lucrecia seemed sincere, though.

"Go, Storm! Go, Storm! Go, Storm!" the young men chanted.

"Lucrecia! Go on! Show him!" Magdalena and Politesse called.

Storm and Lucrecia zoomed around the perimeter of the yard, the nemesis of their parents forgotten for the moment as they seemingly slid across the courtyard effortlessly. Sephiroth watched them, fascinated as they grinned at each other. Lucrecia suddenly hopped about, facing Storm, keeping in motion as she bent over and kissed him on the cheek. Then she turned back and bladed away. Storm, however, lost his concentration and stumbled, falling on his face.

The rest of the young men groaned and Simon could be seen gripping his head. "Stooorrmm!!!" he howled. "How could you??"

Magdalena and Politesse were giggling as Lucrecia placidly reached the finish line, turning to smile at Storm, who was still on his stomach. He smiled in return and she skated over to him. He got into a sitting position and she knelt next to him, obviously asking how he was. Everyone watched with smirks on their faces when the couple exchanged a kiss, got up and skated back into the building. Then they followed.

Sephiroth found himself staring at the empty yard for a long while. Go join them, a voice prompted. Did he dare? He recalled the times when he was their age, entering the army cafeteria only to have the others staring at him, or ignoring him, leaving him to sit by himself at an empty table.

Go join them, the voice said again.

There was nothing else to do. It would be the height of bad manners to have them come upstairs just to get him down, after all. He quickly put on the clothes provided, pleased to find them a perfect fit.

As he entered the cafeteria, he saw them all at a table under a ceiling fan. Magdalena was holding out the front of her shirt, trying to cool herself. Erratic and Blazer were slapping each other as they shoved the plates around. All were still wearing their roller blades on their feet. Storm and Lucrecia were sitting across the table from each other, their hands entwined on the table. Storm looked up, since he was facing the door and saw Sephiroth there.

Sephiroth felt uncertain, but it was obvious that they simply hadn't noticed him yet, not ignoring him. Storm must have noticed the hesitation despite the stone expression Sephiroth wore, because he stood up and smiled. "Come join us," he invited.

Lucrecia and Politesse turned and smiled in welcome. Erratic noticed and bellowed, "Yo, old general, c'mon join us! We got plenty of space!" He turned to Blazer. "Man, you swiped my sausages when I wasn't looking!"

"Hey, I don't have any, okay??"

"You could have had mine," Runner grumbled. "Lita, why didn't you get me a vegetarian set?"

"Swap with you, man," Storm said, holding out his plate. "My peas for your meats."

Runner looked grateful. "Thanks, man."

Sephiroth had reached the table by then, drawn by their easygoing mannerisms. Storm and Simon moved aside to make room for him, Magdalena scooting onto Simon's lap to allow Blazer to keep his place.

"What would you like for breakfast, Sephiroth?" Politesse asked, getting up.

"Aw, man! That's not fair! She never asks us what we want!" Blazer exclaimed.

"You're not a guest. How about bacon and eggs? I'm sorry, Runner, but you didn't say you wanted the vegetarian meal and I didn't know you were vegetarian yourself."

"It's all right," Runner acceded.

"Well?" Politesse turned her attention back to Sephiroth.

"Anything... will be fine."

"Lita is an excellent cook," Simon told him. "Are you feeling better?"

Sephiroth nodded, unsure if he could deal with the light atmosphere. Magdalena was leaning across the table to whisper something to Lucrecia, who giggled and blushed. Runner and Blazer were exchanging food while Storm seemed engrossed with staring at Lucrecia.

"How is the younger one?" Sephiroth asked Storm.

"Hmm? Oh, Akiranni? Still under observation, but fine. Apparently, Uncle Vince has a genome in his DNA which Professor Hojo, may he rot in peace, activated. Akiranni got it, too, and since it was activated in Uncle Vince, it's been activated in her, too. Lu still hasn't found a way to morph back her ears, though. She's stuck looking like a kitten for a while." The young man grinned.

"What do you do after breakfast?"

"We hang around some more, then we train. You see, we roller blade in the morning while the oven heats up our food, and we heat ourselves up for the day, too. We eat, then wait till our stomachs settle down before doing training. We've got a training hall big enough for fifty people, so you can see we've got lots of space to grow."

"I don't see why we train," Blazer grumbled. "The girls always kick us about."

"You're just being a sissy," Politesse said sweetly as she came back and laid a plate in front of Sephiroth. "It's not our fault we can grasp the mathematics of Lucrecia's physics formulae more easily than you."

"And guys are supposed to be better at maths, too," Magdalena added, sipping her coffee. "A shame. Anyway, we've decided to train by ourselves today. We can't strain ourselves too much, otherwise we won't have enough energy to practise our singing. We're having another performance tonight."

Lucrecia smiled. "As a trio. Have you agreed on our program, Lita?"

"Oh, yes. Definitely more cultured than the boys."

"Now, I resent that," Storm said, holding up a finger. "Just because you can't stand our electric guitars doesn't mean-"

"Yes, it does."

"It does not!" Erratic said hotly.

"Does too," Politesse shot back.

"Does not!"

"Does too!"

The argument didn't escalate, but carried on long enough for them to take sides. Sephiroth patiently waited for them to calm down. But it took a loud curse from the cafeteria entrance to do that.

"What the (#*$ are you 'does too'ing and 'does not'ing about?? Are ya kids supposed to train now??" Cid exclaimed as he entered, Shera beside him. "We can hear you from the other building!" He noticed Sephiroth steepling his hands in front of his face. "And look! Arguing like a bunch of children in front of a guest!!"

"He started it!" Magdalena and Politesse pointed their fingers accusingly at Erratic.

"Did NOT!" Erratic yelled, slamming his palms on the table.

"Did TOO!!" they shouted right into his face.

"Oh, shit," Cid sighed disgustedly. "Sorry about that," he said apologetically to Sephiroth. "Care to join us old folks at another table?"

"It would be wiser," Vincent added, having come into the cafeteria with Yuffie. "Listening to them too much can grate the nerves. And is quite harmful to one's mental health," he continued, looking pointedly at the still-arguing Erratic and Politesse.

Sephiroth quietly rose and walked over to Cid and Vincent. "I hear you are leader of the new Turks," he said to Vincent.

"Yes."

"And that... you knew my... mother."

Vincent nodded gravely. He looked so young, Sephiroth thought. Swiftly he calculated and was shocked to find that Vincent must be in his seventies at least. Yuffie, at least, looked her age. At forty-six, she looked regal in her bearing and matronly. Cid's walking stick looked redundant, however. The pilot looked healthy and strong enough to carry himself well.

"Hojo was a sadistic man," Vincent said in explanation, motioning towards a seat. "He cared little for his... test subjects. You, of course, would know that better than we. He had experiments performed on me, and then had me locked in a coffin under the old Shin-ra mansion."

"Man, you guys got really screwed up histories," Cid commented as he eased himself into his seat with Shera's help. "Leastwise I don't have to go training with them no more."

Sephiroth raised his eyebrows at the statement. "Then who does?"

"Cloud and Tifa do, of course. They work out every day... or did." Cid cringed. "Damn, Spike threw one hell of a fit. Shera and Tifa spent hours cleaning up his mess. The two of them've gone to Sector Seven now..."

Sephiroth prevented himself from heaving a sigh. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty at causing Storm's parents to leave, but he would have felt more uncomfortable with them around. "No one else?" he asked.

"Considering Vince goes everywhere else with the Turks, and anyway with Yuffie around he's not likely to- yeeoooww!!" Cid winced and rubbed his side. "Yuf-fie!"

"Thank you, dear heart. My elbow wouldn't reach across the table," Vincent said to Yuffie.

"You're welcome. The young ones are going to train now," she told them, nodding towards the group of rowdy young men headed towards one door, and the young women exited another. "Lucrecia, Magdalena and Politesse are going to the upper... floor."

"Not quite a )$(#ing floor, now, is it?" Cid asked, grinning. "Can't believe how they can run across all those strings and call it a training ground!" He chomped on his bacon. "At least they got the boys underneath to catch them."

"I thought you didn't like the boys touching your daughter," Yuffie said.

"Well..."

Vincent's mouth curled up wryly. He turned to Sephiroth. "The training hall is down the right, right at the end of the corridor." The red eyes turned serious, yet held a faint note of amusement. "Since Cloud is not here, you might as well try training with them."

Sephiroth allowed himself a smile. "Thank you."