A message to all of my lovely readers: if you're writing something you'd like to share, let me know. After all the reviews I've gotten, I'd be glad to reciprocate. Also, I'm open to any suggestions if there's something you would like to come up in my story.

Cloud: "You're a terrible person."

Leah: "I'm sorry!"

Cloud: "Haven't you hurt me enough already, woman?!"

Leah: "It was for the plot!"

Zack: *runs in and stabs Leah repeatedly*

Leah: "If you weren't a figment of my imagination, this would be seriously problematic. I'll throw in some fluff to make you feel better."

Zack: *glops Cloud protectively* "You'd better"

Cloud: "GERRROFFME!"

FLUFFINESS SHALL ENSUE! (okay, and some angstiness, but no more disasters)

Reno was going to explode. One more dewy-eyed exchange or proclamation of eternal caring, and he would throw both of the love birds out the side of the helicopter the moment they were in the air again.

"Let's move it, Romeo," Reno shouted at Zack who was still locked in conversation with his long-lost-love, "Break time's over. We need to put at least another fifty miles between us and Shinra before we stop for the night."

"You can't give us another ten minutes? How much of an advantage do you think we're going to gain in that time?" Zack retorted.

"Not us, me. Once we're in the air, I won't be able to hear you," Reno shot back, "And aren't you normally Mr. Survivalist?"

"Come on, Reno, just ten minutes to look around," he begged.

"Fine!" he leaned back in the seat, "As long as you're gone, at least it will be quiet."

He sighed with relief when Zack and Aerith disappeared into the trees. The last thing he wanted to think about was romance. Now there was nothing but the immutable silence of Vincent sitting beside him, stoically looking out the window, and the awkward silence between Cloud and Tifa emanating from the back seat. They had been this way since the manor. Reno couldn't imagine why, seeing as Tifa had kicked serious ass to save Cloud's, but now they refused to look at each other.

"You two didn't die back there, did you?" Reno asked. No response. Maybe getting rid of Zack and Aerith wasn't such a good idea after all.

"So what's the weirdest dream you've ever had?" Zack asked Aerith curiously.

"Well…" her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, "I had one about trees trying to overthrow the human race."

"Seriously? How?"

"For some reason, I was with a bunch of other people in the woods and the trees just started impaling people. I was the only one who escaped," she said, "and then my mom was there telling me that the trees would mark the end of mankind."

"How did it end?"

"I was about to be killed when I realized that it was a dream and I could just blow them all up with my mind."

"Awesome."

"You?" she reciprocated.

"I don't know…" Zack said, suddenly nervous.

"Oh, come on," she complained, "I told you mine."

"Yes, but in comparison, yours wasn't that weird."

"Just tell me."

"Okay, fine. There were these strippers-"

"Are you serious?"

"Hey, you asked! Anyway, I was with some of my buddies from SOLDIER, but we weren't in a club, we were in an anthropology museum and they were dancing on top of a van. I don't know why a van, but a van. The ceiling was glass and half the museum was day and the other was night, but the day side kept growing. When the day side got to the van, the dancers turned into cats and people started giving them tuna instead of money. Then, you know how tile floors are two colors a lot of the time? I would only step on the green ones because… well, that's what I did in real life too, but here, everywhere I stepped, these purple and orange plants would start growing."

"Plants," Aerith repeated blankly.

"At first it didn't seem like a big deal, but then they grew teeth and started eating people and cat-lady dancers. For some reason I had a gun instead of a sword. We kept shooting them, but they just wouldn't die. Then Cloud got mad at me because I kept stepping and making more plants grow. I told him that if I stayed still they would eat me, but he said it was a price they were willing to pay. He was a total ass in this dream, by the way. I think I was mad at him for forcing me to actually do my paperwork that day."

"How terrible"

"Suddenly, you appeared as a hologram with pig-tails and started to sing to calm them down and they stopped eating people for a while, but then the power went out. When there were only a few people left, Angeal grappled down from the ceiling and started yelling at us that we were all idiots for not knowing that you have to feed them their weakness, peanut butter sandwiches, to slow them down then shoot the stem in half or else they would just regenerate. Then Tseng called down an aerial strike to kill the evil plants, but a tornado hit and he crashed ended up blowing up the whole museum instead. I think I died, and then I woke up."

When he had finished he watched Aerith for a response. At first she said nothing, but her shoulders began to shake. She shook more and more until it erupted into hysterical laughter, "But you" she broke off to laugh again, "But you defeated the cannibal flowers, right? So it was all worthwhile."

"It was a noble death," Zack said, laughing a little himself.

"I still marvel at how your mind works."

"It's a mystery to us all."

"So," Aerith said, "Is there anything else on your mind you would like to talk about?"

"Like what?" Zack feigned ignorance.

"Like the years you disappeared from the face of the earth."

Zack was silent.

"Zack?"

"We should probably head back before Reno takes off without us."

When they returned, Zack jumped into the helicopter and opened the bag of m&m's he had picked up during their last stop.

"One left," he turned to Cloud, "Fight to the fake-death for it?"

"You're on," it was the first time Cloud had spoken since they left. It seemed Zack's elation was beginning to rub off on his companions. Before Reno could protest, they both jumped back on the ground, weapons drawn.

"Bring it, Chocobo," Zack dared. They both sprung forward, metal connecting again and again with each lightning blow that would be far beyond the reaction time of a normal human.

"Zack, be careful!" Aerith called.

"What?"

Cloud took full advantage of the distraction. He swept Zack's right left out from under him with his own and hooked the edge of his blade under the back edge of the buster sword, tearing it from Zack's grip.

"I'm sorry," Aerith said, her hand over her mouth in embarrassment.

"Game over," Cloud said, pointing the tip of the blade at his fallen friend's chest.

"Not bad, Spiky," Zack kicked Cloud's armed hand, raising it up to shoulder height. With no weapon, he utilized his last strategy: tackle.

They tumbled over a log and into a bush.

"Dammit, Zack!"

"OWNED!"

They rolled out of the bush back into grass with Cloud ending up on top. He stood up and announced, "Truce. I have to find my gun."

"Then I get the m&m"

"Fine, take it."

"Which means I win."

"Zack-"

"VICTORY IS MINE!"

"Did you have pure caffeine for breakfast?"

"And it's a blue one. Don't think I haven't noticed that you pick around them and save them for last."

"Seriously, what did you-?"

"We should do something fun," Zack brushed himself off.

"Like what?" Cloud asked skeptically, "Fugitives don't generally get to have 'fun'."

"I don't know… something."

"Something," Reno repeated in exasperation, "That's fantastic. Now can we please leave?"

"Just one more thing," Cloud said, "I need to talk to you all about something."

Reno slapped the dashboard in frustration, "I hate all of you. I'm going to crash this thing into the side of a mountain, killing myself just so I can have the great satisfaction of taking the rest of you with me."

"This is actually relevant," Cloud said, producing a stack of letters, "I took these from Hojo's office."

"Nice," Zack complimented.

"I've read through all of them, and they're basically just asking for the same thing, but in increasingly urgent ways. They start off like this, 'Dr. Hojo, we would be honored if you could spare some time to visit our humble laboratory in the Wutai outposts.' And eventually turn into this, 'You have to help us. You said the greatest feature of any weapon was its ability to be controlled. We were only following what you said! It was your leadership that brought us to this disaster! You have to help us!'"

"They must have really screwed up to beg Hojo of all people for help," Zack commented.

"We don't know much about Wutai, but it seems worth checking out," Cloud said.

"Wutai it is," Zack announced cheerfully, then turned to Reno, "Take us away, oh, captain, my captain."

"Burn everything to the ground," Reno mutter, "I'll just set everything ablaze and watch them all die."

Zack laughed, "I have mastered the art of pissing you off, haven't I?"

"There is none better," he muttered as he prepared for lift off.

"Be honest with me, sir," Elena asked, "What chance do we have?"

"A slim one," Tseng admitted, "Hojo has connection in every crevasse of Shinra, and Sephiroth… I don't believe words are required."

"I there anything I can do, sir?"

"Hojo returned a few hours ago. Apparently our runaways managed to rescue Aerith from Nibelhiem," Tseng informed her with as close to a grin as ever crossed his face, "Keep an eye on him for me."

"Yes, sir"

"And, Elena," he added, "Have you heard the news? About Cissnei?"

"No, sir," Elena said tensely, "Is she…?"

"Her body was found outside the President's office. It wasn't released to the press since it would point to a third party as the culprit rather than AVALANCHE, seeing as she was killed with the same weapon as Rufus. Once the records of her autopsy are destroyed, I suspect they will list her as Rufus's killer and credit Sephiroth with stopping the President's murderer. "

"And who do you think killed him, sir?"

Tseng paused a moment, "I have my suspicions. But that is not something I will voice here."

Elena nodded, "And Cissnei, sir? She doesn't have any family, so…"

"I requested to have her buried here. We will be holding a funeral this Friday."

"I see," Elena said, "Thank you, sir."

She stepped outside before letting silent tears slide down her face. Time to find Hojo.

"I know where we're going to have fun!" Zack shouted over the rotor blades, "I was in this area while in SOLDIER. There's a theme park we'll pass right over."

"Aren't we a little old for that?" Cloud shouted back.

"Come on, just a little fun!"

"No"

Everyone had said no, but Zack had heard yes, and Tifa now found herself standing before the entrance to a rust-infested, regulation inspector's nightmare of a theme park.

"Damn the puppy eyes," Cloud muttered.

"What do you want to go on first?" Tifa asked the group. Reno had taken off to a nearby bar, so it was only Zack, Aerith, Cloud and herself.

"That!" Zack pointed to the ride.

"Of course" Tifa muttered. Leave it to Zack to immediately pick out the biggest, most terrifying, gravity defying, mortal-peril-inducing deathtrap in the entire park.

"No," Aerith replied immediately.

"Why not?" Zack said disappointed.

"Because I shaved three years off my life expectancy just looking at it"

"It's safe" Zack stood on his toes to get a better look at the early-grave-digging coaster. "Those people made it off."

Tifa was going to side with Aerith when another thought interrupted her attempt to conjure a witty way to call Zack crazy. There had been so many times she had wanted to scream lately. She wanted to let out all of the fear, grief and frustration she had felt these past few weeks. What better place to get the release of screaming her lungs out than a death-defying roller coaster?

"I'm in," Tifa stepped forward, "Cloud, are you coming?"

Cloud looked pale, but nodded. Tifa and Zack waited for Aerith to cave.

"Alright, alright" she crossed her arms. "But if I die, I'm haunting you"

Then they reached the line.

"I'm going back" Aerith was white.

"You'll be fine," Zack told her as they were strapped into the rickety coaster. He flinched slightly when she dug her nails even farther into his arm.

"We're going to die."

"We'll be fine"

Tifa breathed in deeply as the ride began to move, clicking up the slope.

"I changed my mind" Aerith said in terror.

"Too late" Zack grinned.

"How did you get me on this thing?"

"The power of persuasion. And good looks"

"I'm going to kill you," Aerith said matter-of-factly.

Tifa took a deep breath as the car paused at the crest, just before the 90 degree drop. Then, the coaster plummeted toward the earth. Tifa couldn't breathe, yet somehow she was screaming. In her ears, there was only the rush of wind. The ride twisted, turned and looped, then flew back into the air. They fell again, then back up. Tifa lost track of how many times they had fallen. By the time the ride was over, Zack had seemingly permanent indentations in his arm from Aerith's nails. He was laughing hysterically and Tifa soon realized she was too. They had both needed this.

"That was fun," Zack was still laughing.

"I'm going to kill you," Aerith muttered, still not releasing her death grip on his arm.

"You still love me," Zack chided as they stepped out. Aerith ignored him.

"Then I'll kill myself so I can follow you to the life stream and kill you again," Zack laughed harder and was about to reply when he was interrupted by Tifa's alert to their current situation. He turned around to see Cloud doubled over the nearest trashcan.

"You okay?" Zack had barely asked the question when Cloud threw up. A few days ago, Tifa would have attempted some form of comfort, but now she found herself at a loss of what to do.

"I'm fine," Cloud stood up slowly.

"Sorry, buddy," Zack's face was ridden with guilt, "I don't know why I asked you to go on that. I should have known it would make you sick. I wasn't thinking."

"It's just motion sickness, Zack," Cloud reassured him, "I'll be fine"

"If it makes you feel better," Tifa chimed in, "I had fun"

"Thanks, Teef," he thought for a moment, "Cloud, why don't we go get a coke or something?" Cloud nodded gratefully.

"You two can go on something less… rigorous," He continued. Tifa wasn't even going to try to convince Zack to let her go with Cloud instead. Zack's overprotectiveness would never allow it.

"We'll meet you back here in about ten minute, okay?" Aerith called after them. Zack gave a thumbs up before disappearing into the crowd.

"Where are they?" Tifa was asking herself more than Aerith.

"You could call one of them," Aerith replied, "Or text him since it would be hard to hear in the park." Tifa nodded. She had forgotten that they had phones now. With their frequent separations, they finally decided that it was worth the risk of being tracked and purchased a set in the previous town. She texted the question to Cloud, then returned her attention to her newest acquaintance.

"So how did you and Zack meet?"

"He fell through my roof"

"That sounds like him"

"He was always accident prone," she said with a nostalgic smile, "Hey, Tifa, can I ask you something?"

"Sure"

"Is he usually this upbeat? Or is it a recent development?"

"He was always a comedian," Tifa answered, "but he'd been kind of down lately until you showed up. Thing haven't exactly been going our way lately."

"I hear you," Aerith concurred, "Do you know much about what happened to them? I know I should ask him, but…"

"But it's almost impossible to pry about something so awful," Tifa finished.

"Exactly. I know that they were prisoners and used in those horrible experiments, but not much else."

"When I first met him, he stumbled in the door of the bar I was working in at four in the morning, full of bullet wounds and carrying Cloud. They were both a mess."

Aerith listened solemnly, "I see."

"Apparently, Zack had escaped a few months earlier and carried Cloud with him running from Shinra. Cloud had mako poisoning, so he was completely comatose. Zack had to pull them through it alone."

Aerith nodded, "Have things been any better for him since then?"

"It depends how you define better," Tifa replied, "Sine he's been with us, he's been shot, cut, and crushed by a falling city. Not exactly vacation."

"He doesn't seem to want to talk about any of it. He's acting like nothing happened since the last time we saw each other," she sighed, "So what about you and Cloud?"

"Oh, well," Tifa was flustered, "We're not a couple, but we grew up together." Her phone vibrated, "Speaking of whom."

"Chocobos are sexy," Aerith read over her shoulder. Before Tifa had any idea what to make of the statement, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"That was Zack"

"Shocking. Can I ask why?"

Cloud's voice came rapidly through the phone, "He had my phone and said you sent me a message. I told him he could answer as long as he didn't say something stupid. So, of course, he did."

"Of course," Tifa agreed, "So where are you?"

"We're headed back now. Sorry it took so long. Zack wouldn't shut up about Aerith and the greatness of carbonated drinks."

"Carbonated drinks?"

"Apparently they're 'the pop-rocks of the liquid world, bringing love and hope to the downtrodden with fizzy amiability.'"

"Oh…"

"And now you see how my last 20 minutes have gone."

She faintly heard "Do not insult the Carbon Lords!" in the background, then Cloud's voice returned.

"We'll be right there."

When the male half of their crew arrived, Zack promptly swept Aerith off to the games, leaving Cloud and Tifa alone to find something to do with themselves.

"I guess now is as good a time as any," Tifa said, "We're going to have to talk about it eventually."

Cloud said nothing.

"I don't know what happened in Nibelheim, but I don't blame you for it. I'm not angry, and I'm not afraid of you. So can you stop cold-shouldering me?"

Cloud finally answered, "I'm not safe, Tifa. I did that to Zack once, too. I shouldn't be around you."

"Dilly-dally, shilly-shally!"

"Alright… what does that mean?"

"It means bull, and I don't care!"

"Tifa, please, you could get-"

"Don't you dare say 'I could get hurt'!" she cut in, "You're afraid. So what? Which of us isn't afraid? You have a problem. We'll just have to work through it."

"You can't fix this, Teef."

"Dilly-dally, shilly-shally!"

"You are the only human being on earth I have ever heard use that phrase."

"Please, Cloud," she said more seriously, "You finally seemed to be getting better. Don't pull away again just because of one mistake."

"I'll try," he half-heartedly agreed, "But only if you understand that for me, there is no 'getting better'. I'm like this for life."

"We'll see."

Cloud said nothing. Tifa's determined glare softened, "I know Zack has been jumping around like an ADHD chihuahua on Redbull since we found Aerith, but he did have a point. We should have some every once in a while."

"Okay," Cloud said, but did nothing.

"I know you're not much for rides, so… do you just want to walk around and see what we find?"

"Sure"

It wasn't much of an endorsement, but he didn't object either. It was progress.

"Cheating bastard!"

"Zack, it's only a game."

"I knocked down all the glasses. That's what you're supposed to do to get the biggest prize, right? But nooooooo. He thinks I must have cheated just because I'm better at it than him."

"Alright, so he was just indulging his inferiority complex," Aerith said, "Pat yourself on the back for being too awesome and let it go."

"So you think I'm awesome, do you?"

Aerith rolled her eyes, "You are such a flirt! But yes, I do."

"Highlight of my day! So where do you want to go next?"

"Zack, I was thinking-"

"That will work," he said, eyeing a game of shooting targets with an airsoft gun. After paying the man, he took aim and bulls-eyed every single one in rapid succession. The man handed over the huge plush wolf, eyes wide in astonishment.

"Military?" he inquired when he had regained his speech.

"SOLDIER," Zack said.

"You guys are as good as they say."

"Thanks," Zack turned to Aerith with the wolf, "For you, my lady."

Aerith grinned, "Thank you."

"Sorry about rushing over here, I just really like these kinds of games."

"You mean you like showing off in them," Aerith corrected, "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Hit me," Zack said.

"Let's go sit down first," they found a bench that was away from the noise and potential listeners. She took a deep breath and began.

"If we expect this to be like our idealized versions of the years we spent together, this isn't going to work."

Zack was taken aback by her abrupt statement, "Did I do something wrong?"

"No! No, I just… we can't pretend nothing happened."

"I'm not pretending, I just don't want to dwell on it when we can finally enjoy being together again."

"But our lives now aren't fun. For the most part, this isn't what being together is going to be like anymore. It's not going to be building flower carts and going shopping. It's going to be running from Shinra and facing death. I can't take you back to the life we had before. But I will try my best to help you through the one you have now. I want to be a part of your real life, no matter how hard it may be. Let me get to know who you are now, not just pretend to be who you were."

Zack sighed, "You're right. I've changed Aerith. At lot more than I like to admit. When I'm with you, I can feel like myself again. And… I'm not sure you'll like who I've become."

"Zack, I'm in a Shinra uniform. I'm not opposed to change."

"But I," Zack breathed in to steady himself before he confessed, "I'm damaged, Aerith. I'm sick, I'm bitter, I'm jaded, and I'm damaged."

"You went through a lot, Zack," Aerith said gently, "Anyone would be hurt."

"But it's more than that. I have panic attacks sometimes when I think about the labs. When something really bad happens, I sometimes get dizzy and I can't use my hands," he hung his head lower, "When I was in the lab, I gave up on escaping. Everyday, I would think of ways to get to Cloud and kill him, then myself because I thought it was the only way we could get away. Even after we were out, there were moment when I thought of how much easier it would be to just kill us both so they could never get to us than keep running the rest of our live. I'm not the Zack you knew. And I don't know if you can still love the Zack you found."

"Zack…" Aerith got off the bench and knelt in front of him, "I love you. Not some picture of who you think you should be. You. You don't always have to be strong, you know? Whatever you're going through, I'll face it with you. I won't run away just because you've had a hard few years."

"So… you still love fucked up Zack?"

"Yes, I love fucked up Zack."

He jumped off the bench to hug her, holding her tight against his chest. He breathed into her hair, "Thank you."

When after nearly a minute, he finally released her. She traced the X shaped scar on his cheek with her finger, then brushed a piece of his hair back from his face, "Have you seen those eyes? How could anyone not love those eye? The whole world is a sucker for them."

Zack grinned, "At least there's one thing I did right. I picked you."

"Actually, I think gravity picked me," she laughed.

"Nonsense," Zack teased, "After much deliberation, I carefully selected your roof to fall through."

"However you got there, I'm glad you did," she leaned forward and kissed him, not her usual peck on the cheek, but full on the lips. When she realized what she was doing she pulled back blushing, "Um… sorry, I-"

Zack returned a kiss, then stood, lending her a hand as well, "We should probably find Reno before he drinks himself under the table."

Aerith nodded in agreement, "And maybe grab a drink ourselves. Gaia knows we've earned them."

There! I wrote something not totally depressing! Yay for no Hojo! Trying to think like that man makes me physically ill.

So next chapter do you guys want some more fluffiness or to get back to the plot?

Btw, my profile picture is actually me now, so if anyone's curious who they've been following all this time, I have proof that there really are girls on the internet.

I know I just used the F-bomb in a rated T fic, but "messed up" just didn't have the same punch. I personally believe curse words are to be used sparingly, but there are times when they are necessary. If anyone is uncomfortable with it, just let me know in a review or PM.

Other BTW, the dreams were based off of actual dreams my friends have told me they had. Zack's was even toned down a bit. I completely left out the Japanese-techno-space-man and the penis flowers. No, I'm not making that up. I just know weird people.