This is a Mercverse AU fic, and the third one in the Armed Escort series. I'd recommend checking Armed Escort and Behind the Blue first before reading this one, but to each their own. :)
xxxx
"...And that's why you need me to come all the way down to the Sector 3 station to bail you and your new girlfriend out."
Zack's voice was tinny over the line, but at least he had the decency to sound incredibly sheepish. "Listen, I know it sounds awful and that I should very ashamed of myself and need to see a doctor and a sterilization chamber before getting within ten feet of anybody once I get home but, Cloud, you gotta understand-"
"How is there a 'but' in this?"
"-the charges are completely unreasonable, I wasn't trying tohurt her or anything, and we resolved it. Peacefully! We just scared some people outside, they thought I was trying to kill her and wear her as a hat or something. I've tried talking to them, and so has she - which, by the way, is by far the more amazing part, that they could say no to that-"
"Don't be disgusting, Zack."
"Not even remotely the direction I was going for. I promise you, you'll see. And-" there was a short pause over the line, and then his words came hushed and a little hurried, "-hey, Cloud, I don't know what is up with these guys today… they are antsier than I've ever seen 'em, and you know how much experience I got in that department. Has Seph done anything particularly explosive lately?"
"No. Whatever this is, it's about you. Or her. Who is she?"
"She's... her name's Aeris."
That brought Cloud to a full stop - not just because he knew that name (who in their circles didn't?) but because he heard the sudden tenderness in Zack's voice, a deep-seated content that went beyond good sex.
"Why in your right mind would you ever tangle with the Turks' girl?"
"She's not theirs, Cloud. She doesn't wanna be."
-She's mine-
Yep, there it is, Cloud thought with a resigned, internal sigh. He knew that demonic note of single-minded Zack protectiveness… perhaps better than anyone. Wasn't that how Zack had brought him back from the edge?
There was no creature alive that could match Zack for sheer, loving, dogged persistence.
"You'll understand when you get here - she's the Promised Land, man." There was another abrupt pause, and then in a voice that sounded young, even for Zack: "-You'll come for us, wont you, Cloud?"
Cloud was almost offended he even had to ask. "Zack…"
"Listen, I'm running out of time and I - h-hey! Aeris, babe, yes I'd love to have you talk to him too, I don't think my winning personality is enough to - what? What do you mean my time's up? Aww, c'mon man, just hold - Cloud? Hey, Cloud? Oh, Odin-rutting Sleipnir, Cloud just come-"
The blond closed his eyes with a sigh as the phone disconnected, and let it drop to the plush pile of the rug. For just a moment longer, he let his muscles relax and he melted back against the comfortable warmth of their resident mage's bare chest.
He was going. He was going. Just... It had been such a long mission...
The faint clink of rings accompanied the cool touch of long, aristocratic fingers as Sephiroth reached around to massage his temples.
"I take it Zack has gotten himself in trouble again?" Sephiroth's voice was deceptively mild, as feigned as Cloud's indifference. "What has he done this time?"
"He's gone and gotten himself arrested for having sex in a public bathroom."
"...Even for Zack, that is unusual."
"And with that Gainsborough girl…" Cloud sighed again. "Godsall take him, what was he thinking?"
"Is she dangerous?"
"Nobody knows. The Turks want her bad… but they're not willing to set a bounty or delegate the hunt to get her. It's a strange one."
There was a thoughtful silence as Sephiroth digested this. "Perhaps not so strange. She might have a friend."
"In the Turks?"
"Indeed."
"-That's a dangerous game."
"You have played worse odds before, Cloud."
Cloud laughed, although it wasn't exactly a happy one. "You were worth them, Sephiroth. You're worth… everything."
Sephiroth leaned forward and wordlessly kissed him for that. Fine gold chains hung in draping strands from the pins in his hair and they skimmed Cloud's skin, so light they felt more like lace than metal.
Cloud submitted with a soft sound, lifting a hand cup the sharp lines of that jaw and feel the heavy silk of Sephiroth's hair sliding through his fingers.
His eyes were heavy-lidded and lambent when Sephiroth pulled away, a sight which provoked a quiet chuckle. "Now isn't the time for distractions, Cloud."
"Do you expect trouble?"
"It sounds like a petty violation… but the police were nervous, weren't they?"
Cloud frowned, eyes sharpening. The faint crow's feet at the corners of his eyes deepened as his voice turned coldly thoughtful. "They were. And she was there with him, at the end."
"Don't the police usually separate the parties in these situations?"
Cloud was already on his feet and strapping on his holsters, striding to the desk safe before he was even finished. "In Midgar they do."
"He's kept her with him. The Turks?"
"He didn't say," Cloud replied, sweeping a wealth of gold 1000-gil coins into a satchel as casually as if they were singles while he continued hunting for their papers. "He would have mentioned them. I'd better get there first."
"We," Sephiroth corrected, rising to his feet and reaching for the long leather coat he usually wore belted into the city's underbelly.
No one yet had been desperate enough to try and pickpocket a mage, even one decked in as much materia as Sephiroth, but it was not meet to flaunt what he didn't have to, particularly in the slums.
A faint glow bathed Sephiroth's hands as he ran through the greens in his bracers, cautious as ever. "And you're certain he said nothing else?"
"I don't... he asked about you, whether you'd done anything... explosive..." Cloud's eyes went wide and he grabbed his keys, "The Promised Land. He said 'she's the Promised Land.'"
Sephiroth froze. Cloud saw the fine tremor in the mage's hands and stole a second to grasp one of them in his. "Keep it together, Seph."
"The Promised Land," Sephiroth repeated, and his voice was flat with the echo of old failures.
"Seph."
Sephiroth dragged his eyes away from his hands, flicking them up to Cloud's… and for the first time in a long time, Cloud shivered at the dangerous flicker of madness that still swirled in their very depths.
Jenova's legacy. One day, her hunger for power might well consume him.
That day is not today, he thought firmly, holding on hard to this man who could have been a god. One crisis at a time. There was a still, breathless silence where Cloud's hand bore down on Sephiroth's, and Sephiroth stood as still as stone.
Then, with a calm Cloud knew was mostly a lie, Sephiroth pulled his hand away. "One thing at a time," he said, his wry smile a shadow of its usual self, "first we save our own. Then we see if we've called a war upon ourselves."
"She liked Zack well enough," Cloud pointed out, hiding his relief by tossing Sephiroth his own set of motorcycle keys, and starting for the door, "if she's got any strain strong enough to fight you, she'd have sensed his demon."
"May she find me even half so lovable."
"Godsall willing. I would hate to question her taste now."
xx
A shadow was already waiting for them when the two bikes roared to a stop next to the shabby police station in Sector 3. Constantly under construction, haphazard residential areas cropped up willy-nilly wherever there was enough space, crowding several important-looking Shinra-owned industrial factories like a squabble of baby chicks around a set of squat, square hens - the only reason why this sector had its own police force to begin with.
As Cloud yanked the helmet off the wild mess of his hair, he caught the bright flashing reflection of an electro-mag rod loose and swinging idly in someone's hand - and he recognized the lanky redhead leaning in the shade of the building, even under the ratty trucker hat and grease-stained overalls.
Reno's eyes were lazy, but they saw everything and he never let up making you guess what he was really thinking.
"Yo," he said by way of greeting when Cloud veered away from the straight path to speak to him first. "Knew you'd show up for your boy sooner or later."
"You here on official business?" Cloud asked warily. It was never easy to know where they stood with the Turks. Some days were better than others.
"Not yet. Boss wanted me to talk to you specifically before anything too big went boom."
"Do you think it will come to that?" Sephiroth generally had very little patience when it came to talking with Reno, but he was a professional first, and any threat was still a threat.
Reno held up both hands, "Not if I can help it, man. We got more'n our fair share of trouble up top right now - royals sticking their heads in all sorts of business we'd really rather they didn't."
"You're helping us." Cloud's voice was flat and utterly disbelieving. It was the only way to play the game sometimes.
"I'm telling you you're playing on easy, yo. We're taking it slow for you - letting you get first dibs."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "The girl… you want her to get away."
Reno's grin widened. "Off the record? She's damn cute but she ain't a Turk. And if you ask me, I don't think the boss likes the idea of Shinra getting his hands on her."
Cloud was still doubtful. "He'd rather she fall in with a bunch of low-life mercs? The competition, even?"
The redhead shrugged, "Wasn't the plan. She was supposed to get outta the city, nobody the wiser. We never figured on her getting arrested, she's way too good at that, y'know? Guess she stayed to stick it out with your boy in there."
His eyes glittered with good humor, and an interest that went beyond professional curiosity. "He must be one hell of a lay."
Neither Cloud nor Sephiroth rose to respond that, though Cloud for one almost felt like he ought to. "What is she?" he asked instead.
"Powerful," Reno replied frankly, his voice lower and more serious than was his usual wont. "More than Shinra knows what to do with at any rate. You ask me, I think he's got half a mind to make her an empress."
"Same old Shinra," Cloud muttered, "still trying to rule the world."
Reno shrugged. "Them's the breaks, yo."
"So where do we come in?"
"Simple. You want her, you take her. She's a city girl, got folk around here. If it's you, we figure ol' Shinra will let it lie. You don't, and I've got one hell of a bounty locked in and ready to hand over to you if you help me play this one for the crowd. We bloody a few noses, don't lose any major body parts- our girl gets away. No harm, no foul."
"All this for a half-breed?" Sephiroth's voice was always emptiest when he was probing. "This can't be the Professor's sentimentality I see trickling down the ranks."
Reno's expression never changed, but the light in his eyes grew just a touch unfriendlier. "Hey, I know this is how the game's played, and I don't hold it against you for playing it, seidhrmadhr. But Fair's in there running out of thrilling war tales to stall the uniforms with, and there's only so much help I got for him."
In another age, Sephiroth might well have blasted Reno into a pillar of ash for using such an old word for a mage - one that intimated the rankest sort of effeminacy. Even now, the dangling chains in his hair shivered in the air as Sephiroth's eyes burned with words unsaid.
But that Sephiroth was not this one, not any longer, and the fires that lit the recesses of his gems soon died. His face took on the deep, long-suffering look - a mix of grudging acknowledgment and the driest sort of humor - it had once worn in long ago days when Zack had been a SOLDIER and Sephiroth had been his General. "You enjoy being trying, don't you?"
Reno's face gave nothing away, "Always seemed to work for Fair. A guy can dream."
Cloud thought it best to step in at this point - it was one thing for his pack to start picking up strays, quite another for his second to keep up a flirtation with a Turk.
-Not that he was jealous, exactly, but Reno was so… loud.
"I want to speak to Zack first. All bets are off until then."
The redhead spread his hands carelessly, "Take him. But let him know the fancy footwork I been doing for him on the outside, won't you Cloud? I bet you two rounds of drinks he's not letting her go."
He cocked his head, and Cloud never knew whether or not that disingenuous face meant what it said when Reno mused thoughtfully, "Hey, think she could convince him he'd make a great Turk?"
Cloud's hair nearly stood up on end as he bristled at the thought - and even as he did it, he recognized just howeasy it was for Reno to get a rise out of them.
Sephiroth caught his eye - a long, wordless look that had a rueful smile down near its depths. A mage with the power to level cities, an immortal older than dirt - and it was still the humans that would forever catch them wrong-footed.
There were reasons their pack still ran so well with the Turks after so many years, even under the shadow of Shinra. Reno was just the biggest one, and the bastard knew it.
"Keep yourself out of trouble for a bit," Cloud warned Reno as Sephiroth peeled away from them to head inside first. "And hold off on collecting that bet. If this goes like you think it will, it won't do your cause much good to be caught out with us any time soon. You're a pain in my ass, Reno, but I'd hate to see your whole squad disappeared."
The redhead handed him a leather folder and obligingly melted further back into the lengthening shadows. Even then, he couldn't resist the last word - eyes glittering green as a snake's, he burlesqued a pouty kiss at Cloud and made a cheeky smacking sound, "Love you too, yo."
That seemed as good a confirmation as Cloud was going to get.
He wasn't worried - there was a hard-edged competence in Reno that was impossible to completely dissemble... and besides, before anything else, the Turks took care of their own.
Time for his pack to do the same.
xx
The station chief was a tall, stout man with the largest set of salt-and-pepper muttonchops Cloud had ever seen. He had a stolid, settled look around him that gave you the sense that he had the situation well in hand, thank you very much, even if he wasn't likely to win a 100-meter dash.
Sephiroth still towered over him, his profile a sketch in clean lines. Cloud never could look at the man without a sharp twinge in his chest - the closest feeling he had ever had in an age or more to a schoolboy's fascination.
Behind the massive fans of his bangs, two wings of hair were pulled back and doubled over into a tight bun at the crown, anchored by two short yet exquisitely jeweled Wutain-style pins slotted with materia. The rest of his hair was a loose silver coil down his back, undisturbed by the dank heat, the helmet, or the pell-mell ride through streets of lower Midgar.
Cloud didn't think it was Sephiroth's hair necessarily that seemed to unsettle the officer so, lovely and strange though it was… but in spite of the mage's calm, reasonable cadences, Cloud could see the unease growing behind the stranger's eyes.
"Is there a problem?"
Sephiroth's face evidenced not a whit of frustration, but the one look was enough.
Cloud held out a leather folio with a number of papers, "Zack Fair is one of mine, licenced and legal for hire in Midgar. I understand there was a misunderstanding with a girl. Has she pressed charges?"
The man, Officer L. M. Allens according to his nameplate, took a long look at the both of them, and shook his head with a sigh, motioning them into his office.
"Listen," he said when he'd ushered them in and shut the door firmly behind, *it's not an issue with your papers. Your guy had a set on him too-" he held up a large clear baggie with a set of horribly creased and crumpled pieces of paper, one of which had a dark splotch in the corner that looked suspiciously like coffee, "-and she's registered as a freelancer herself, licenced to carry. They've been very polite - more than the usual run of you folk that come in here regular. I'd normally have no problem posting bail, but..."
The next thing he pulled out was a heavy vellum, and there was a seal at the bottom Cloud's eyes marked as real gold just from a glance. His lips thinned - anybody on the Planet knew Shinra's distinctive diamond.
"We got this sent out to us this morning, hand-delivered by Shinra blues to all the different stations. The checkpoints go up tonight."
When Sephiroth took it, he handled it like a viper. "This is a problem for Zack as well?"
"No. You need your guy, you take him. I made a point to tell him that myself, but he just shook his fool head and said you guys were coming and wouldn't leave them in the lurch."
"How thoughtful of him. So the only real legal problem is the girl."
"Afraid so. And I'm sorry it's got to go this way, I really am. She seems like a real nice girl."
Cloud was silent through their exchange, his brow furrowed and his attention on the contents of the folder Reno had handed him. There were a number of papers inside, some ident cards, various paid fares, all obviously intended for Aeris and her getaway if that was what it'd come to.
There was a set of forms dated four days prior and signed by the several members of Auxiliary Enforcement - one of the Shinra-led organizations in charge of tracking the dozens of mercenary companies - registering Aeris Gainsborough as a full member of Strife Delivery Service, and a temporary licence for the same. The spaces for Cloud's own signature and Aeris's were still noticeably blank.
...There was also a ribbon. A thick, shiny piece of pearly light pink silk that spooled out from between his fingers before he knew it. There were wrinkles of habitual knotting evident in several sections of it, and a faint perfume that smelt briefly of flowers and clean sheets.
Was this… hers?
Cloud didn't exactly have a great deal of experience when it came to women, but a large majority of the ones who made it in the merc profession had a certain hardness of character to them, a chip in their shoulder he understood all too well... really, it only made sense in the occasionally cutthroat business they engaged in.
This seemed so… delicate. He could imagine the kind of girl who wore ribbons in her hair and still tried so hard to fight free for her independence. That kind of girl didn't belong in Shinra's sloppy, power-hungry hands.
...Could she belong in theirs?
"Cloud?"
There was a question in Sephiroth's voice, and Cloud realized the conversation had fallen silent - but there was already a look of resigned knowing as well. There were few people on the Planet who could know the vagaries of Cloud's mind as well as Cloud himself - and Sephiroth would always sit right there at the top of the list.
"May we talk to them?" he asked at last. "I think there's been a problem with Shinra's paperwork."
The station chief's eyebrows rose, and while he said nothing for a long moment, there was a wary satisfaction in his eyes that said maybe he was more than a little fed up with royal busybodying himself.
"Well now. I think I might be able to swing that… for a few minutes, you understand."
"That'll be satisfactory. I also imagine the posted bail to be extensive. I'm prepared to pay it for both of them."
It was a calculated risk, but the city was a merc center for good reason… and this Officer Allens seemed like he knew the schtick.
The eyebrows went up again, but Allens shook his head firmly. "Standard. This'll be by the book… I don't want any problems with the Turks. But sometime this year if you feel the need to increase your crew's public volunteer patrol hours around this sector, well, I wouldn't say no."
"...Deal."
Cloud knew how to hide the surprise in his voice as well as anyone, but he hadn't really expected there to be any good people left in the city's justice system to make this easy. Saying that aloud would probably have been an insult though, so he kept his peace and saved the admiration for later.
More's the pity. Everyone likes to be appreciated.
"-You sure you want to do this, kid? I don't need to tell you that this'll put you on the top of Shinra's shit list. Not a lot of companies can take that kind of heat."
Sephiroth chuckled at that, and it was a low, melodious sound that didn't happen all that often in public - possibly because it held such an edge of his old cruelty. In it, Cloud could hear every thread of their long, tangled history with Shinra as though they were words in a song. "That is something I think I would enjoy seeing."
Allens bristled a little at that, but only as any sane man might do in the face of a sociopath - his hand stayed firmly away from his holster, and he never fidgeted even once. Self-control at its best. Cloud was liking this man more and more.
"Well," he said at last, "I guess you're going to need this."
He handed Cloud a pen.
xx
"Took your time, didn't you?" Zack sang out, his grin lighting up the room. He'd been regaling the officer sitting across from him with a story that appeared to involve a broomstick, a shuttlecock, and a Summon in the middle of a Wutain war zone that had the poor man in stitches.
If Cloud didn't know better, Zack might have looked completely and utterly at his ease. He was still handcuffed, but he sat with his forearms braced on the desk, hands clasped as if it were the norm.
But Cloud did know better and he saw at a glance the foot jiggling like a habit Zack didn't have, the unfeigned relief in his eyes when he looked around at them and smiled as brilliantly as a sunbeam.
"Dumbass," Cloud replied, and while his voice came out disgruntled, he couldn't hide the affectionate note in it either.
Zack had that effect on people.
"Waiting to see what kind of bad habits I'd pick up from the inmates?" Zack continued easily, never missing a beat. "You're S-O-L my friend. I couldn't let them take my girl out of my sight... I'd probably never see her again, and I just can't afford that, you know?
"I mean, look at this sly fox," he gestured at the cop sitting right across from him, whose eyes looked bigger than his uniform, "This Officer R. J. Hainesman, here. Next thing I know, he'll be laying on the moves so thick and fast, I'll come back from processing to see he's already got a rock on her finger."
Cloud didn't think he'd ever seen ears turn so red.
"You just enjoy making things difficult," he groused instead as Allens came in behind them and gestured meaningfully to the four officers in the room. After a short, whispered exchange, two of them exited through a door off to the side, the other two brushed past him through the door they'd just entered.
Very quietly, Allens spoke up next to Cloud's ear, "Ten minutes, no audio. If you need some privacy from the camera, your best bet is right up against the north wall. That'll give you ten seconds before I have to send a uniform in."
"I'll take care of it," Cloud assured him. Allens only gave a curt nod and shut the door firmly behind him.
The moment the door shut, Cloud could have sworn even Zack's spiky hair relaxed a little. "Gods Cloud, I have never had to talk so much in mylife."
"Hardly your worst punishment," Sephiroth noted dryly.
Zack opened his mouth to speak, but another voice piped up instead. "I'm very sorry."
Cloud hadn't even seen the girl - though of course he knew she had to have been there. Hadn't Zack said he wasn't letting her out of his sight?
And when he saw her… he didn't know how he could have missed her. Even half-hidden by Zack's larger frame, Aeris Gainsborough had eyes that could look right through you - and probably did.
Power came and went in a city like Midgar - he could pass six mercs on the street capable of wrestling Behemoths before breakfast without counting to 200. He'd never seen anyone who looked like she could convince one to eat out of her hand and then take her for a piggyback ride after.
Right now, those eyes were a little ashamed and downcast. Cloud's fingers actually twitched from the sudden impulse to brush her hair away from her face.
"I didn't know," she told him, standing up and stepping around Zack. Her hands were cuffed and she'd clasped them tightly together, otherwise he had the sense that she would have reached out to him. "I've always run. Whenever there was trouble, I've always managed to get away. This time I didn't… I couldn't leave him behind. I didn't know it would make things worse."
She was dressed in scuffed, skintight leather and her hair was wild - her bangs stuck up almost vertically in areas, and tufts of it kept escaping the curling twist of her braid.
Cloud wasn't sure when was the last time he'd found a woman so entrancing he was physically incapable of tearing his eyes away. He knew that glow, of Cetra, but even he had never seen it this pure, never this… powerful.
She flicked her eyes up from the general vicinity of his toes to peek at his expression… and then she blinked, her eyes widening with fascination. "You're… you're Cloud?"
"I… yes."
She stepped closer, and her very presence was like a set of blinkers - his entire field of vision narrowed down to her, just her.
"They told me... I'd heard stories," she said, her voice hushed, her eyes drawing him down as though she could see right through to the very beginnings of his long, uncertain history. "I never thought you'd actually..." she trailed off, and her face grew a little sad.
"You never thought what?"
She shook her head. "Your eyes are like eternity," she said with a little hitch in her laugh, "they go on forever.
"They call me the Ancient, you know," she added, taking his hand gently in hers, "but you give that name the lie, don't you? Next to you, we're fireflies."
She knew.
On her tiptoes, she kissed him. It was sweet, achingly sweet, a soft brush of her lips that he didn't pull away from until she did. When she opened her eyes, they were unfocused and soft... and he wasn't so sure his were much better. In that briefest of moments she shared a piece of that old sadness, and it tasted like rain.
"Cloud."
Sephiroth's voice wasn't jealous or angry, but there was a certain nuance in it that made Cloud stand up straighter and take notice.
Nothing about Sephiroth had changed either - not his face, not his pose, but there was still a strange quality of uncertainty that hovered over his features.
It seemed so oddly displaced on that angular, heart-shaped face he knew so well… not least because Sephiroth walked the earth with an arrogance born of near-godlike invulnerability. In the years since Jenova's power had touched their lives, nothing had shaken that but once.
Aeris swiveled to look at him too, sensing the source of unease as unerringly as a shark - if the simile could be so stretched as to encompass such a friendly, well-meaning face as hers.
Cloud could see Zack too, the last dregs of startled surprise fading into rueful fondness. "Aww shit... see this is just what I was afraid of, guys."
Cloud envied that sort of straightforward instinct in Zack - of whom to trust and where and when - and he could see that Sephiroth, who didn't have the same instinct, but had learned in years long past to trust Zack, noted this as well.
"I've heard stories of you too," Aeris said to Sephiroth, with a brilliant smile and an excitement that seemed almost to bewilder him, "you changed the world when you challenged Shinra… you humbled him in his own city, and he still lets it lie. I used to wish…"
She shook her head, and her face was shy. "Well, we can't all be you."
Sephiroth looked slightly mollified, and Cloud breathed a little easier.
She held out her hands to Sephiroth, and he took them in one of his with only a moment of hesitation, politely pressing his lips to the back of one. He even smiled - a faint, formal smile, but no less real - when she beamed so happily up at him as he did.
"Please tell me you've got a plan," Zack said after a moment, "because I don't know if my heart can take it if we can't keep her now."
Sephiroth hadn't quite let go of her hand yet, so Aeris turned her head just enough to playfully stick her tongue out at his grinning, light-hearted face - so open and confident that all would be at rights. But his words had a sobering effect on her and when she turned back, she looked nervous. "I wanted to ask… I'd like to…"
She stopped. Breathed. Started again.
"I need bodyguards," she said, with a cheerfulness that rang like a lie. "Can I hire you?"
That, Sephiroth confessed many years later to Cloud, was when he'd felt the first flicker of admiration for this woman - her hands had gone as cold as ice in his, but she had still stood so resolutely, armed only with a brave face and a smile while her freedom hung in the balance.
There was a pause as Cloud and Sephiroth exchanged looks - the way only the two of them could, like they didn't need words.
"Well, that's unfortunate," Sephiroth began, a tiny glimmer of amusement in the green of his eyes.
"Is it?"
Cloud didn't know her very well, but he was proud of this girl who never let her voice quaver, even though the shadow of disappointment darkened her face. He also couldn't help the tiny sliver of amusement at Zack's expense, when Zack's boots dropped to the ground with a thump of protest.
"It is," he said, angling himself so that his hands were not visible from the cameras, "you see, we-" he glanced again at Sephiroth once just to be sure, and was met with a very slight nod, "-have already hired you."
"I… what?"
She wasn't stupid, there was a sudden lightness in her that glowed like a jewel. Cloud palmed the papers with the flourish of a card sharp, and was startled by the warmth that kindled in his chest at her happiness.
"They're both assholes," Zack said with a relieved shake of his head, "complete and utter assholes. You'll get used to it. That's why I want you, doll. I need someone else in my corner when it comes to water-gunning them back."
Aeris's laugh was a little slow as if she were still absorbing the entire thing, but her mouth could certainly still keep apace with Zack's: "Don't say that until we get our materia, silly, you're giving away the home advantage."
Cloud thought she'd probably do just fine.
"We don't have long," he cautioned her, as he made a scribbling motion with his hand and stepped back to tap gently against the wall, "so I'm going to show those nice officers the mix-up in the paperwork. You're one of mine, and Shinra can't use your freelance status to rope you under his umbrella until your contract is up - high-priority case or not."
Aeris started pacing, her eyes straying to Zack as she inched closer and closer to Cloud and the wall in question with every balletic swivel. He didn't say a word, just winked lazily, and she seemed to take heart from it.
"I know you didn't have much time to go over the terms at our last meeting, so I'm willing to review after this is finished."
"Is that all it'll take? Officer Zeikens said the military was mobilizing around the city."
She palmed the pen from Cloud's hand fairly well - no fumbling, no awkward movements - as he took up the chatter with a laugh, "The blues know us, and we've got docs. It'll be fine when we leave. I know you were keen on visiting your folks, but I think we'll house you while we make sure the royals get the news. I'd hate for there to be any... misunderstandings... while we weren't around."
"Smart," she said, grabbing the folio on her next pass, the dark leather nearly invisible against her suit, "I just need to get word out."
Signing wasn't a problem, but her hand shook a little when she passed it back and she fumbled the pen. It was Cloud's own quick flourish that saved it - though he barely caught it out of the air between his fingers.
He found himself checklisting things he wanted her to learn, to practice… as if she really were going to be a part of his team, and not just someone he was trying to save.
Allens's response was as quick as he'd expected - the officer barged back in within seconds, banging the door against the wall with a crack like a rifle shot. His voice was a loud bark of sound: "Back in front and center where the cameras can see you, missy. I'm doing you a courtesy, not giving you favors. You behave now."
Aeris retreated with a sheepishly woebegone look, her hands up and placating.
"In fact, I think that's enough for visiting hours - this isn't the Honeybee I'm running, and I saw those kissy faces you three were making. You two, you say you got your papers, you show 'em to me or you get out. My boys have work to do."
Cloud bowed his head in acknowledgment. "Of course, Officer. Zack, Aeris, this is coming out of your pay - I hope you know that."
He swept out with Sephiroth like a paler shadow at his back, balefully ignoring Zack's curses. If the situation hadn't still been so tense, he might even have been tempted to smile.
Time enough later for that.
xx
"Looks like you signed on for one hell of a handful," Allens muttered as he settled heavily into the squashy seat behind his desk, "those clowns are gonna get you in something hot one of these days, you just count on it."
"Maybe," Cloud replied, settling easily into his own chair as if his ass weren't perched on a cushion probably fashioned out of a rock, "but there's something to be said about clowns that'll do their damndest to get you right back out again too, don't you think?"
There was a pause.
"Mercs," Allens said explosively, as if it were a curse, but his eyes were twinkling, "you think you're such hardasses but you're all so damned sentimental."
Cloud shrugged," A man can be both."
"Right. Well, let's see about you getting your people out of here. You can pay, I take it?"
Cloud smiled.
Allens sighed, "'Least that's one thing that'll go smoothly."
-Cloud wasn't smiling by the time they'd ironed out the transaction, but that was fine… he'd all but decided that this one reallywas coming out of Zack's payout. Couldn't they have just gotten a fucking room?
"There'll be legal problems," the cop warned him when they'd finished. "You're still legally bound to make it to court for this, and the crown won't be kind on you in there."
Sephiroth shrugged - an elegant, old-world gesture that could mean everything and nothing. "I suspect it won't make it that far," he said with a pause, acknowledging a lawman's natural feeling against this breach in the order of justice, "but if it does, they will not be happy to see me."
Cloud made a sound of amusement. "And if that doesn't strike fear into their hearts," he added, "I'd wager a golden chocobo against anyone who thinks they've got a better head for case law than you."
There was a long silence from Allens who just looked at them as if he weren't entirely sure he hadn't bitten off more than he could possibly chew. Then he let out a laugh like a shout, cackling uproariously and slapping his desk with a large, meaty hand. "You're really them, I guess. The big guys that have Shinra running scared. I wasn't sure when you first came in but I'm pretty damn sure now.
"I like you. You've got guts... and a few grains of sense holding 'em together which is more important in my mind. You think you got this- well, I'm willing to give you the go-ahead. Don't make this a routine event, understand... I've got enough paperwork to do around here."
Cloud sketched a half-salute. "No arguments here, Officer. I've even got a merc in your holding that's perfect for the job if you want him - he just loves paperwork."
Godsall knew it'd do the bastard good to sit still for once.
xxxx
Coming up next, Cloud and Sephiroth sexin's. I've all but decided that after finishing this (writing sex always takes longer than the rest, so heaven knows why I keep writing more), that there's going to be one more tying up (perhaps literally) some of the more complicated ins and outs of the Sephiroth/Aeris dynamic. I don't know what else is likely to happen because my imagination has surprised me several times over the course of writing this (just read the original version of this story from nearly 10 years ago: Magnet) and I'm just happy to go along for the ride.
Also, Reno's reference to Sephiroth as a seidhrmadhr is a reference to the Norse use of it, as a male mage or sorceror. It was a branch of the arts that was attributed more to women though and something of a social taboo for the men, who were looked down upon as being effeminate or unmanly. Odin was once mocked for practising it by Loki. FFVII uses so many Norse references, I always like to go "well, what's one more?" :)