"So, what did you want to talk about?" he inquired. Straight to the point.
"Well... We're sort of similar, you know? Well, maybe not similar... Different, but for the same reason."
"What's the reason?"
"Secrets."
He gave me a confused look.
"Your problem is that everything about your past is a secret, right? You have no history, no origins."
"And how would you know that?"
"... My problem is keeping secrets. Secrets that can't ever be told."
"... Do you have any about me? Do you know something about my past?"
I breathed nervously. I could hear his gloves shift as he clenched his fists. He was getting dangerously insistent, so I decided it was best to just tell him. Still to dance around it a little bit, but to tell him in the end. "... Your mother is 'stuck'."
"'Stuck'? Stuck how?"
"... She hasn't returned to the Planet yet, she's just 'stuck'. She's probably waiting for-"
"Aeris!?" a familiar voice called. It was Tseng. And Sephiroth was here. This was bad, weird, and inconvenient to boot.
He started running towards me. I'm still not sure if he meant to pretend to catch me or if he meant to rescue me from Sephiroth. Either way, I bolted as fast as I could, leaving behind a very confused Sephiroth.
".... After her!" I heard Tseng shout, clearly out of breath.
* * *
Sephiroth caught up with me at 'my' church, not the slightest bit winded. The first thing I noticed about him was that he had crushed the poor flower he had picked from my garden at home. I pouted a little, not really concerned with the flower but more sad because of what he was going through, how he didn't know even the first thing about himself. He looked down at his hand and saw what he had done.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said awkwardly.
I walked over to him and plucked the remnants of the flower from his glove, then turned away to get him another one. "It's fine. You can have another, if you like."
"... I picked that one because it looks just like the ones Dr. Hojo has in his lab every now and again. He said they were his wife's favourite. I've grown to like them, too."
Yeah, you're probably thinking that a psychotic maniac like him would
never say anything as sweet and sensitive as
that. You have to remember though, that at this time he was much tamer, back when, y'know, he wasn't putting his sword through me like a kabob.
"In that case you can have a bunch. It's always nice to hear a man say he likes flowers," I said with a huge smile, holding out about a dozen blue irises to him.
"So, what where you trying to tell me?" he asked, taking the flowers from my outstretched hand ever so carefully.
"... I'm sorry, I
really shouldn't tell you anything else..." I evaded. I could almost hear Mother screaming at me for doing this to the poor man. "... There are some secrets that are far too dangerous to tell."
Sensing I was done with him, he turned and left. I could almost feel the cloud of his newfound resentment for me building above my head. "Ever try asking your father?" I mumbled under my breath as he was leaving. I don't think he heard me though, so I went back to my flowers a bit sadly. After that I think he went on some 'mission' for a bit, as I didn't see him again for about two years.
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