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"Aerith, get in the back!"

Cloud's voice was rough, cutting straight through the sound of thorns ripping across the brush below their feet. All five of them had been carefully picking their way through the marsh, making their way to Junon, when a crowd of plant-monsters had swung to the ground from the treetops above. They surrounded them, their long arms twisting and contorting in the grass.

Aerith's eyebrows wrought together, lips pressing into a thin line as she followed orders. Planting her feet firmly behind the party, she winced at Barret's gunfire. She tapped Tifa's shoulder gently with her staff, healing a smattering of wounds she'd received from a thorny smack to the arm when she'd grappled one. She watched as Cloud sliced two of them in half with one swing of his sword.

Red XIII's tail brushed against her calf consolingly, before he lunged at another of the monsters, tearing one off one of its arms with his teeth. It cried out as it died, falling lifelessly to the forest floor.

Aerith understood why she needed to remain shielded in a fight. She really, truly did. Her reflexes were slow when it came to attacking, and her natural skill with healing materia made her an invaluable asset in group combat. Plus, she knew her mother would serve Cloud's head on a platter if he returned Aerith with any important bits missing.

She watched as Cloud froze a monster in a crystal of ice, and Barret shot the whole thing to shards, shimmering in the light leaking through from the canopy. Aerith tugged her bottom lip between her teeth.

The fight ended as quickly as it started. Tifa used her rag to scrub the grime from her shoulders and stomach, and Barret wiped the sweat from his brow with his good wrist. Aerith did her rounds, curing little aches and scrapes on each of them, breath quickened by the end from the exertion.

She steadied herself, concealing the way the effort had tired her.

She'd avoided Cloud's eyes with a cheery smile as she'd mended a cut on his forearm, and she could tell that he was looking at her now, too.

Only moments later, all five of them continued their trek through the forest marsh, birdsong and bugs' chirping filling the silence between their footsteps. Aerith sung softly to soothe herself, hands sure around her staff, as she walked - drag-a-rag, rag-a-drag - the grass brushing across the soles of her shoes to the rhythm.

After a short time, Cloud fell into step beside her, which she hadn't anticipated - but nonetheless, it didn't surprise her. His hands, fitted in the metal and leather of his gauntlet, fiddled with the strap of his pack as he clearly waited for her to say something.

Usually, Aerith might appreciate the attention from Cloud, but for the moment she sort of wanted to be left alone. She was starting to notice - he had a habit of paying her the most mind when she wanted him the least.

"Does Cloud need something?" She finally gave in, fitting an easygoing smile onto her face.

He glanced her way, searching. His eyes glimmered in the light, the sun beating down on his fair skin through the treetops.

When she didn't budge, his tension sunk lower, shoulders rolling back and relaxing, as he set his gaze ahead once more.

"We'll make camp soon," he told her evenly, and lengthened his strides until he headed the group at the front.

Crisis averted.

Red XIII took his place shortly after, but he didn't speak. He only listened to her song as he padded along next to her, until they reached the clearing that would serve as their home for the night. Light still streamed down from the sky, but it was waning, and soon it would be time to tuck in for much-needed sleep.

Aerith stared listlessly into the trees, watching them shiver and shake in the wind.

Suddenly, there was pressure against her side, and she jumped - but it was only her bodyguard, nudging her shoulder with his own.

"Come on," he said gently. "Firewood."

How sneaky of him.

Aerith nodded softly, and adjusted her staff where she'd tied it to her back, before following him into the trees.

They picked their way through the roots and the leaf litter, and the sunset painted them in shades of gold. She was quick to find good contenders for kindling, piling it into her arms as she walked. It took a while for Cloud to inevitably break the silence.

"Are you-" he started, before stopping entirely, holding in place to look at her fully. Aerith tensed, minutely squeezing the wood against her stomach where she held it. "You're mad?"

She stared at him for a long moment, his blond hair fluttering in the breeze and thin eyebrows wrinkling in surly concern, before a soft bubble of laughter burst out from her chest.

"What? Not at all. You're a silly-billy for thinking that."

She shook her head, and looked down at her collection as she spoke. A soft, sad smile played at her lips, and the tears she'd been holding back for over an hour threatened to spill over.

Be a big girl, Aerith, she told herself, swallowing hoarsely.

"A silly-billy," Cloud repeated thoughtfully, before setting down his own pile of kindling to step toward her. Aerith's shoulders drew inward, like a shield, and she winced with how obvious a tell it was.

"That's right," she agreed, doing her best to sound sure, as she stepped away.

"But you're-" He began - then halted, whipping toward the sound of rustling just through the trees in front of them. Aerith went rigid, dropping her pile of sticks to the forest floor in preparation for whatever was to come.

Before he could finish speaking, an awful, ugly flying cactus dropped to the ground about four meters away, heaving its arm-wings up in preparation to swat them like flies.

And although it was certainly terrifying, spines undulating as it geared up to fight, batlike face pressed into a sneer... Aerith felt welcome to the distraction, if just for a moment.

Then, Cloud opened his mouth to speak.

"Aerith, get-"

Maybe the day had been too long, or perhaps she hadn't had enough to eat. Or her feet hurt from walking, or something.

But she couldn't stop her face from falling; couldn't plaster a smile onto her lips, or steady herself enough to nod with enthusiasm. She could only look at Cloud with big, sad eyes that she absolutely did not want to be showing him, lip curling into a pout.

It was embarrassing. To show this kind of weakness, when she was supposed to remember her place, like she almost always could -

She watched something shift in Cloud's expression. He tilted his head, softening in understanding, before waving her closer to him.

"Get over here."

Aerith bit her lip, and hustled toward him, pulling her staff from its ties and feeling its weight between her fingers. How she hated being obvious... But secretly, she was glad, too.

He swung at the monster with his sword, batting it away to buy them a few more moments of time, before rustling in his pocket for a light green materia.

"Swap healing with that!" He commanded as he dropped it into her hand, voice as strong and sure as it always was in battle. He then charged at the monster, grunting as he parried a hit with his sword. Aerith's fingers shook as she followed orders, pushing an identical marble out of its snug home in her staff, and pressing the new materia in its place.

Cloud was the image of power as he forced the creature backward, the firm muscles of his back and shoulders flexing as he wielded his blade well over his head, light skin and hair in striking contrast to the intimidating black of his uniform.

"You ready, Aerith?" He called, strained.

"Y-" She choked out, palms tugging against the smooth metal of her stave as she watched him. "Yeah!"

He kept fighting as he instructed her, the shing of his sword ringing through the air, echoing his words as he spoke.

"Knees apart!"

Aerith planted both boots firmly on the ground, spread, but not so far that she felt unsteady.

"Bend 'em - but not too much!"

She sat back on her haunches, eyes wide with nervousness as she watched Cloud wrangle the monster into position.

"Aim your staff!"

She lifted it into the air in front of her, trembling a little as she focused its flat bottom at the clearing Cloud was edging toward.

"Alright, Aerith - cast it! Now!"

Her staff slammed against the ground with a loud smack, and energy shot through the soil, bursts of orange sparks sputtering into existence from nothing. The fire spread forward, charging toward the monster.

It captured it in a prison of flame, singing its cellulose skin black. It stood there - convulsing, howling in pain - before Cloud put it out of its misery with a smooth cleave of his sword.

Aerith's shoulders heaved as she panted. She did it. She needed help, she supposed, but she still -

Weren't... spells from fire materia supposed to go out after a moment?

Cloud's eyes were wide and wild when she met them. Flames coursed through the forest floor, catching on dead leaves and wood as they went.

Aerith froze in place, still clutching at her staff, fingernails digging crescents into its body.

"I-" She started, as she gaped at what she'd done.

Cloud turned away, frantically digging into his pockets.

She didn't finish. He worked quickly, leaping around and tapping the point of his sword against the worst of the flames. Soon, both the ground and the monster's corpse were covered in a thin sheet of ice, and the fire was snuffed out.

He turned to look at her, and her eyes shot to the ground before she could read his expression. There she found the kindling she'd collected - covered in ice crystals. Frozen. Useless.

"I guess I'm not so good at this, huh, Cloud?" she said, forcing the feeling out of her tone and attempting to replace it with something good-humored. Her voice wobbled. It didn't work.

"Hey..." Cloud replied, and she heard his bootsteps approaching her.

Aerith spun on her heels.

"I'm going to go find more firewood!" She told him in singsong, skipping away.

A few traitorous tears slipped from the corner of her eye as she sped through the forest, vision blurring as she scanned for anything that might burn well. She'd need to return the fire materia to Cloud, at some point, but for now...

She sniffled, and scrubbed roughly at her face to remove any evidence of her crying. Then she inhaled deeply, and exhaled in a huff. She could go to Tifa back at camp, hide her face in her curves, and they could go to sleep. Then Aerith could wake up to a new day - one that wasn't hellbent on being so terrible that it made her seriously consider bending her stave in half.

She returned to camp with an armful of kindling, and deposited it next to Cloud's pile by the fire. Cloud sat, dutifully cleaning his sword, as Barret spoke animatedly. Red XIII lay across Cloud's feet, ears perked in Barret's direction.

"I wouldn't trust that guy's mangy mutts with shit. He's got 'em trained to steal your wallets while you sleep, you know. You won't catch me caught up with all that!"

"How would you know they're trained to steal without experience?" Cloud asked coolly, not even looking up.

Barret spluttered, and banged his fist against the ground, leaning in to shout in Cloud's face. A vein on his forehead bulged out, while Red XIII huffed, and rested his chin against his paws.

She carefully balanced the fire materia on Cloud's shining white blade. He caught her eyes, blue, mournful and kind - but his gaze was torn away by more of Barret's chastising. Aerith was grateful for the banter, since it distracted Cloud from any more attempts to talk to her. She stepped away, and marched to the edge of camp.

It didn't take long to find who she was looking for.

Tifa sat quietly, staring at the sky, and her hair was tousled with the breeze. It looked soft, and so did her pale features, lit up in the moonlight's glow.

"Hey," Aerith greeted quietly, crouching next to her. Her hands splayed across her knees. "Bedtime, okay?"

Tifa jumped a little, before turning towards her, wine-dark eyes wide with surprise. Her expression evened after a moment, though, and her lips parted. "It's not very late."

Aerith pouted. She really, really wanted to hide away in the tent, and she really, really wanted to have Tifa to hold as she did so. She stood up a little, and tugged at Tifa's arm softly until the other girl relented, sighing as she got to her feet.

"Alright, alright," the girl said, brushing the debris from her clothing. "I'm coming."

"Yay," Aerith whispered softly, feeling awkward yet satisfied, as she led her by the hand into the tent.

She left her hair as it was, and stripped out of her jewelry, boots, and jacket to lay on her sleeping tarp. Tifa pulled off her gloves and shoes, before finding her place next to Aerith.

Aerith's arms outstretched, and she grazed the pale expanse of Tifa's shoulder. Too far, she thought. How was a girl supposed to drown her sorrows if Tifa was so far away?

Tifa had tensed when she touched her, but hadn't pushed her off. Aerith took it as as good a sign as she'd get, and scooted in, tarp and all - until her face pressed into Tifa's collar, and her arms wrapped around her back, smoothing the fabric of her top down beneath the pads of her fingers.

"You're... Pushy, today," Tifa noted, flustered. "Wouldn't you rather be out there with the boys?"

Aerith shook her head forcefully, and pressed further into the warm expanse of Tifa's skin, embracing her softly.

Tifa's breathing was quick, and so was her heartbeat. Aerith made her nervous, she knew, but it never seemed like a bad sort of nervousness. More like she flustered her. Aerith was more than sure that Cloud had Tifa's heart, but it still made weak, subdued sparks of pleasure burst in her head that she could pull these reactions from Tifa, too.

She was being selfish, she knew - Tifa loved Cloud, Cloud loved Tifa but was too dumb to realize it yet, yadda yadda yadda. Cloud's flirting with Aerith got in the way, and so did these attempts to get on Tifa's good side.

But Aerith's stomach churned with insecurity, and Tifa was comforting to hold. She refused to let herself think for more than a second or two about her battle with the monster, but the memories still couldn't help but flash through her mind on repeat - Cloud's panicked expression, her own paralysis, made to match the ice stretching across the ground.

Earlier, she was right. She wasn't so good at that - at fighting. And just as she'd always known, Cloud was right to place her at the back. It was the only place she could be of any help, anyway.

"Aerith," Tifa whispered, voice wavering with nerves. "You're squeezing me."

"Ah-!" Aerith gasped, releasing the hold she had on Tifa's waist. "I couldn't help it... Tifa is just too easy to hug." The explanation was light, but an obvious lie, with the way Aerith's hands shook as she compressed them to her chest.

She curled up and in on herself, eyes pinched shut.

"It's okay," Tifa said, pulling Aerith closer. Then her fingers tensed against Aerith's back as she forced out, "Aerith is easy to hug, too."

Aerith glanced up from her swaddle of self-pity to take in Tifa's red face. A small, genuine smile played at her lips, and she hummed, pressing forward to hold her as close as she wanted.

She wondered if Cloud had told Tifa what happened earlier. That must have been why she was being so doting now. The thought embarrassed her, but... She wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Aerith breathed in Tifa's warm scent, steadying her fluttering heartbeat, and held her close as she eventually drifted off to sleep.

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