"Why don't you just go ahead and admit that you're having sex with General Sephiroth?" sneered Jaila, almost toe-to-toe with Cosmos, too busy getting in the other female's face to realize that the aforementioned SOLDIER, as well as Genesis and Angeal, had just entered the room behind her, and were all looking in bemusement over at her and Cosmos.
Cosmos saw Sephiroth lift an eyebrow at them, and couldn't help the tiny smirk that worked its way onto the edges of her mouth as a perfectly wicked idea popped into her mind.
"Sir," she said, addressing Sephiroth with a small frown of bewilderment, "Why didn't you tell me we were having sex? I would have worn a shorter skirt."
Genesis, who had just taken a mouthful of water, nearly spat it back out in Angeal's face as he gagged. Angeal was so stunned by Cosmos's words he didn't even thump his colleague on the back to help him, and Sephiroth's eyebrows shot up on his forehead, threatening to disappear into his hairline.
Jaila whipped around, eyes wide, to see the General looking at both of them, and Cosmos had a moment to enjoy watching all the color drain out of the other woman's face.
Cosmos waited, knowing that she was either about to be severely disciplined, along with Jaila, or Sephiroth was about to afford her a good laugh.
The General sauntered over, looking calm, but she felt a chill sneak down her spine as he drew nearer, his cat-like green-blue eyes locked on her face.
"My apologies," he said in his low, silky voice, and her heart tripped a few beats as her chest tightened, "If the thought had crossed my mind, I would have been sure to mention it. Perhaps tomorrow you should consider wearing one."
She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling as Jaila lifted her head to stare between them with a mixture of shock and disbelief.
"I'm afraid I don't own a skirt, sir," she replied to Sephiroth, working very hard to keep a straight face.
Sephiroth eyed her for a moment, then gave the tiniest of smirks. "Buy one," he murmured, and with that turned to walk back towards Angeal and Genesis, the latter of whom was still gagging and spluttering.
"Oh, and Miss Rielle," the General said, pausing halfway back to his colleagues and turning to look at her.
"Yes, sir," she said, feeling a shock of surprise that he knew her name.
"I would like to see both you and Miss Lyris in my office before you leave today."
Cosmos felt her stomach sink, but nodded in unison with Jaila. "Yes, sir."
Sephiroth turned away and strode out of the office, leaving Angeal and Genesis to follow. The moment they were out of sight, and the door had swung closed behind him, Jaila rounded on Cosmos, her expression furious.
"How DARE you embarrass him like that?!" the woman hissed, almost spitting on Cosmos in her anger.
"I wasn't the one making stupid accusations about his sex life," Cosmos retorted coolly, even as she felt a flush of embarrassment work its way through her. "If you want to be angry, Jaila, go do it privately. I've got work to do."
She turned away, so Jaila couldn't see the guilt in her expression. She wasn't feeling guilty for Jaila, or really even for herself. She did, however, feel a mixture of guilt, anxiety, and embarrassment over what she had just done to Sephiroth. She had thought maybe he'd laugh it off, or even discipline her outright, but she now had the lurking sensation that-while he hadn't said anything at the moment-he would have a thing or two to say to her at the end of the day about her behavior... She was starting to regret her little stunt, but at least she'd gotten a bit of retaliation against Jaila. She was tired of having to deal with the woman's arrogance and cruelty, and this seemed to have done the trick in getting her off her back, because Jaila refused to look at or speak to her for the rest of the day, which suited Cosmos just fine.
Right around 5 o'clock, as everyone was packing up and clocking out to leave, Cosmos closed down her station and walked over to where Jaila was angrily shoving things into her purse.
"What?" snapped the woman when she spotted Cosmos lingering off to the side.
"General Sephiroth asked for BOTH of us in his office," Cosmos reminded her quietly, hands clasped neatly in front of her to hold her bag as she waited for Jaila to finish closing up her own station.
"Fine," snapped the woman, slamming the last of her items into her massive purse and swinging the bag over her shoulder, very narrowly avoiding hitting Cosmos with it.
Together, they walked over to the elevators, but instead of hitting the descend button to go the ground floor to leave, once inside Jaila stabbed at the Level 9 button until the doors swung shut, and the lift began to rise. Neither of them spoke. Jaila stood silently fuming in her corner, and Cosmos kept a vague watch on the numbers as they ascended floors. When they reached the top, there was a soft ding, and a woman's cool voice announced, "Ninth Floor". They stepped off, and Jaila turned on her heel to stalk off down the hallway immediately to their right.
Cosmos didn't question how the woman knew exactly where Sephiroth's office was, though she did glance briefly at the panel on the wall listing office numbers just to be sure she wasn't being misled. Within a couple of minutes, they had reached the end of the hallway, and stopped outside room 906. There were no windows in the wall to give them a view into the office, and no placard to indicate the office belonged to Sephiroth-though the other offices around them boasted metal nameplates. Jaila hesitated as Cosmos came up beside her, then seemed to gather her courage and reached forward to knock firmly on the door, three times.
"Come in," called a male's voice from the other side.
Jaila grasped the handle on the door and pushed it open, striding inside with her head up. Cosmos followed quietly, making sure to close the door behind them.
Sephiroth sat behind a large oak desk, his eyes on the mass of papers in front of him. He held a pen in his left hand, and was carefully sifting through files with the other, organizing the mess on his desk. Without looking up at them, he gestured with his pen hand towards the one chair seated in front of his desk.
"Sit," he instructed.
Cosmos and Jaila exchanged a look. Jaila narrowed her eyes and purposefully strode forward to take the seat before Cosmos could, not that Cosmos would have wanted it anyway. It looked too much like an interrogation room with the setup the way it was. The one light in Sephiroth's office was placed directly over the chair in which Jaila now sat, and it was only after she'd settled herself that the red headed female seemed to realize this, and began to shift nervously in her spot. Cosmos stood just behind her to the left, head slightly bowed.
Sephiroth took a few more minutes to organize his papers, not bothering to hurry himself for their sake, and Cosmos began to wonder after a while if he was deliberately letting the tension build. She wouldn't put it past him, really. Sephiroth was legendary at his strategic capabilities, and it was because EVERYTHING was a strategy to him. Even this.
After a very tense and otherwise quiet four minutes-save the rustling of papers as the General rearranged them-he finally capped his pen and set it aside before turning his piercing blue-green gaze on both of them. His eyes slid first over Jaila, who swallowed hard but held his gaze, to Cosmos, who didn't quite manage it, and had to look down almost immediately.
"Miss Lyris," Sephiroth address Jaila first, leaning back in the large leather chair he sat in, linking his fingers neatly in front of him. "Would you care to explain to me just what it was that led you and Miss Rielle to your discussion earlier regarding my personal life?"
Jaila swallowed again, and Cosmos could see the woman's hands beginning to shake.
"I, uh..." Jaila stammered, very clearly unsettled. "It was...just..."
"Just?" prompted Sephiroth calmly, raising both eyebrows.
"A...rumor..." Jaila mumbled, dropping her gaze.
"A rumor," repeated Sephiroth slowly, as though he had never used the word before. "And what, Miss Lyris, was that rumor, exactly?"
If Jaila had been pale before, she was downright white now.
"That...um...that Cosmos and...and you, sir...were..."
Cosmos almost felt sorry for Jaila as she watched the woman stumble horribly over her words, and very nearly wanted to help, but she got the feeling Sephiroth would not allow it. And the General certainly made no effort to help Jaila form her thoughts as he waited, silent and unblinking, behind his desk, reminding Cosmos far too closely of the jungle cats she had once seen in a documentary. It was like he was stalking them, just waiting for them to mess up, so he could lunge.
"The rumor, sir," said Jaila shakily after clearing her throat, "Was that...you and...Cosmos...were, uh...s-sleeping...together..."
"I see," murmured Sephiroth thoughtfully, tilting his head slightly so his silvery hair fell over his shoulder, shimmering like mist in the dim light cast from overhead.
He now turned his too intense gaze on Cosmos, who forced herself to meet it as steadily as she could, even when her hands began to tremble.
"And where did this rumor come from, Miss Rielle?" he inquired lightly.
"I'm not sure, sir," she admitted in a quiet voice, feeling her throat close slightly.
"It must have come from somewhere," he prompted idly. "Have you ever given any indication to your coworkers that you and I shared anything other than a professional relationship?"
"No, sir," she murmured, shaking her head.
"Then where could it have come from, I wonder," he mused, his eyes sliding back to Jaila, who was staring fixedly at the ground now, her lips drawn into a thing line. "Miss Lyris?"
She jumped as he said her name.
"Perhaps you have an inkling as to where this rumor may have started?" he prompted her coolly.
She glanced in terror up at him, then over at Cosmos, and away again. "I don't know, sir," she barely managed to whisper.
"Hmm..."
Cosmos felt a chill go down her spine at the tone of Sephiroth's voice, and the way his eyes narrowed every so slightly as he watched Jaila over his linked fingers. It wasn't like he was looking at a person. More like he was contemplating some trapped thing he'd found stuck in a cage and was wondering what to do with it... It made her slightly ill seeing that look on his face, and thinking he might turn it on her next.
"I would like you to take the next couple of days off, Miss Lyris," he said at last, his voice soft, without inflection. "You need not come in tomorrow or the following day. You may return to work on the third day. Am I clear?"
Jaila was so terrified she could only nod mutely.
"You may go," he dismissed her.
She nodded again, getting shakily to her feet, and after making a hasty bow towards him, headed for the door without looking back. Cosmos hesitated, then made to follow, but...
"Miss Rielle," Sephiroth called softly before she could take two steps. She glanced back at him as the door shut firmly behind Jaila, and felt her stomach sink when he nodded towards the now vacant chair. "Take a seat, please."
Gods, she wanted to sink through the floor and disappear. But when it didn't happen, she slowly walked towards the chair, and lowered herself into it, keeping her back straight, and her eyes focused on a spot in the middle of Sephiroth's desk, so she didn't have to look directly at him.
He was quiet for a long moment, watching her thoughtfully over the top of his interlinked fingers, and in that time her mind concocted at least ten different scenarios, all ending with her packing up her desk and finding a new job.
After a few more moments of silence, Sephiroth seemed to find his train of thought. "I think you know where this rumor started, Miss Rielle," he murmured coolly, "And I would appreciate it if you would be honest with me."
"Yes, sir," she murmured, still unable to look at him.
"So," he said, "Where did it start?"
She contemplated her answer as carefully as she could before she gave it, and even as she opened her mouth she wasn't certain it would come out the way she hoped. Her mind was almost a total blank.
"Jaila and I don't get along very well," she began slowly.
"I can see that," Sephiroth said, his tone colored with amusement. "You mean to tell me she began this rumor out of spite, perhaps? Or jealousy?"
She nodded. "For the past...week, I guess, she's been making those sorts of accusations...that you and I have..." She swallowed, unable to find the words, and gave a lame shrug of her shoulder. "Well, she...has been spreading the rumor to other coworkers."
"She seems to think it is more than a rumor," Sephiroth noted softly, tilting his head to eye her critically. "She seemed very adamant about that when I walked in, to make such an accusation that you and I were having sex."
She had never thought just hearing the word sex would be enough to make her blush as deeply as she did now. Just the way he murmured it, or maybe it was the sound of his voice as he said it, made her insides twist, and her toes curled in her shoes as she sat there, feeling a sudden warmth steal up into her face before receding down into a spot just below her gut, where it tightened.
"I'm not sure why she believes it, sir," she mumbled, refusing to look at him.
"Perhaps she attributes your success in the workplace to something other than what others would see as your work ethic," he suggested. "Perhaps she would rather believe you are earning your reputation in a much more...lucrative way..."
The insinuation of his words only increased the heat in her gut, and she fought the urge to shift her legs together to suppress it.
"I'm not sure, sir," she repeated in a small voice.
"Hmm..." There again, that thoughtful little hum.
It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end. At this point, she was just praying he would give her unpaid leave and call it a day, or even fire her, if that's what he was planning, so she could leave. She didn't know if she could take any more time sitting in his office like this... There was something about it that made her uneasy, and made her mind wander to places it absolutely shouldn't, given the circumstances.
She wasn't going to deny she was attracted to Sephiroth, in spite of everything, and she had-on more than one occasion-caught herself daydreaming about the General if he happened to walk by or if she glimpsed him or heard his name at some point during the day. But she had never let it interfere with her work or anything else, and it was only when she was safely at home, away from work and her colleagues, that she dared take those daydreams to the deeper, darker places in her mind. Thinking about it now made her want to curl up in a ball and shrivel away into nothing, because-though she knew it couldn't be possible-she felt as though Sephiroth could easily see or hear every thought in her mind.
There was just something in his stare, and his quiet confidence that made it seem so plausible, even when by all rights it wasn't.
"Did you make that little joke of yours to get back at Miss Lyris, Miss Rielle?" he asked her then, his voice even lower than before.
"Yes, sir," she murmured, tightening her fingers in the straps of her bag.
"And, do you think you achieved the desired reaction?" he inquired.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yes, sir."
"Are you proud of that, Miss Rielle?"
"No, sir," she mumbled.
"No?" he asked, and she glanced up to see him raising an eyebrow at her; his expression otherwise blank. "After you went to such lengths, in front of your colleagues and mine, to make sure you had properly embarrassed her, you aren't proud you got what you wanted?"
Her lips felt dry and her tongue darted out briefly to moisten her lower lip. She thought she saw his eyes flicker down for the briefest moment, but then he was staring straight into her face and she was sure she'd imagined it.
"No, sir," she murmured.
He eyed her for a moment, then unlaced his hands to crook a finger at her.
Shakily, she rose from her seat, and began to walk towards the desk, but stopped when he shook his head and pointed instead to a spot just beside him, behind the desk.
She felt her throat close, and her stomach dissolved, but she forced her feet forward, even as her heart kickstarted in her chest until she felt like she couldn't breathe.
"Put your bag down," he instructed quietly when she'd rounded the desk to stand just out of arm's reach of him.
She did as he instructed and gingerly placed the bag to the side, leaning it against his desk.
"Stand here," he murmured, pointing to the spot almost directly beside his chair.
She hesitated, and thought about disobeying, but then his eyes locked on her face, and she felt herself taking those two steps forward to stand within inches of him, her heart racing so fast she could hear the blood pounding in her ears. She couldn't tell if she was going to faint or not, but hoped if she was that it would happen soon because the longer she stood there in front of him, the weaker she felt, and the more it seemed like she was going to drown in his eyes.
There were beautiful, turquoise, with incredibly long, thick black lashes, but eerie with their cat-like pupils and too-bright irises. They saw too much.
Sephiroth watched with those unusual eyes for a long moment, then pushed his chair back from his desk and rose to his feet, towering to his full height over her.
Her heart thudded in her chest, leaving her breathless, as he came within centimeters of touching her, their chests almost brushing he was so close. She could feel the heat radiating off of him in waves, and felt like she might just suffocate from it.
He shifted, a subtle movement that was both a step forward and to the side, so when she turned to keep him in front of her, her back hit the wall behind his desk, and he trapped her there, stepping closer to keep that almost infinitesimal space between them. He made no move to touch her, but she was already scarcely breathing just from having him so painfully close. She had dropped her gaze from his, and was now focused on the center of his chest, which was bare underneath the layers of leather and steel he wore.
Unlike other men with his build, his chest was smooth shaven, and the color of marble, almost a too-white color that didn't seem to fit with a human body. But his body didn't seem at all human as he stood over her. He was too tall, too broad, too...everything. And she couldn't breathe with him so close.
"I wonder," he murmured then, and her heart skipped a beat, "What kind of rumors do you suppose Miss Lyris will invent now, knowing I kept you later than her...?"
She didn't answer. What could she say?
"I noticed, when I saw you and Miss Lyris having your little disagreement, that you didn't make any efforts to completely deny that you and I were intimately involved," he commented lightly, as though they were discussing nothing more serious than the weather. As though he weren't crowding her against the wall. "Why is that? Perhaps the idea wasn't so abhorrent to you? Maybe, it was even appealing?"
She wanted to shake her head, but she couldn't find the right muscles, and merely continued to stand there mutely, trembling, her breathing becoming steadily more erratic.
"Perhaps the idea Miss Lyris was spreading to the rest of your coworkers somehow stuck itself in your mind," he continued softly, "Followed you home from work...accompanied you on the train...all the way back into your bed..."
She swallowed hard, her gut tightening as the heat that was already lingering their expanded. His words were putting images into her head she didn't know if she wanted there at all. Things she would never repeat to another living person. She saw him, with that smooth, fair chest, sprawled back in her bed, his long silvery hair pooling around him, with his eerily beautiful eyes glinting in the darkness as he watched her.
Her eyes lowered further, focused on his hands. Long-fingered, and clad in the same black leather he favored for the rest of his attire. Gods, what he could do with those hands... She closed her eyes, trying to block out her own fantasy, but it didn't help. Instead, behind her dark eyelids, she saw images of his lithe, muscular form tangled in the sheets, his low, soft voice murmuring through the darkness.
She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek, trying to fend off the images and the sounds his words were conjuring, and opened her eyes as she heard him shift again. She went rigid as his gloved hands came into her view, settling on either side of her head against the wall as he leaned himself closer to her, until his chest was close she could have leaned forward a few scant centimeters and kissed it. What would he taste like, she wondered before she could stop the thought. She imagined him tasting like sin-dark, and heavy-sweat, and leather.
He bent down over her, sliding his left hand over from the wall until he could hook his index finger under her chin and coax her face up to look at his as his hair slid around them in a silvery curtain, closing them off from everything else. His eyes fairly burned as he looked down at her, and yet his face was still somehow relaxed; distant.
"I wonder, what kind of fantasies did that rumor plant in your mind?" he asked softly, brushing his thumb slowly across her lower lip, sending a shiver down the entire length of her spine until her toes curled. "And I know it did... Did you perhaps not think I saw the way you would look at me when you thought I wasn't paying attention? Perhaps, you believed there was no harm in fantasizing, believing I couldn't possibly know how your eyes follow me anytime I'm nearby? But I do know..." His voice dropped an octave, "It is my job to know, as I am sure you are well aware. Everything that goes on around me, even the slightest incident, is taken note of... Even you."
His thumb brushed back and forth slowly, intimately, his eyes boring into hers.
"The way your eyes darken just a fraction when you hear my name," he murmured softly, "The way you look at me from under your eyelashes when I have my back turned. Even the way you squirm in your seat when you hear me speaking... Everything..." He enunciated the word with deliberate slowness. "Everything you do, even without thinking, I think about... Perhaps you weren't even aware today, that the entire time I was speaking to you and Miss Lyris earlier, you couldn't take your eyes off of my mouth. You probably didn't notice the lust in your eyes as you looked... I did..."
She shivered as he paused with the pad of his thumb resting against the seam of her lips, his gaze intent on hers. She hadn't noticed...she hadn't noticed any of those things...because she'd been too busy noticing him. Her mistake, however, was to think he hadn't been noticing her. He was right, it was his job to know. His job to know everything. He was a SOLDIER. The best SOLDIER. He was the best for a reason...
"Many women, and men, have looked at me the way you have," he mused, tilting his head to examine her face, "None of them have so calmly accepted a rumor that they are somehow involved with me. They all deny it, adamantly, red faced and humiliated as they do so. You did not... You even tried to pull me in to your little game... That was a surprise. I wasn't expecting such a brazen act from such a quiet little girl... It makes me wonder..."
He bent his head towards hers, until their lips were no more than a breath apart, and she could feel the warmth of his skin just a heartbeat from hers.
"What other brazen things would you do, if you were permitted?" he breathed in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
She didn't speak. She couldn't even think. Everything in her was frozen, locked up in a kind of stunned disbelief as she felt him trail his lips in the ghost of a kiss over hers. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and she could hear the blood rushing in her ears.
His lips brushed hers again, his blue-green cat's eyes searing as they stared into hers.
And then he was pulling away, leaving her slumped against the wall as he resumed his seat behind the desk.
She exhaled shakily, not entirely sure what had just happened. Her mind was in a daze. Hadn't he been about to kiss her?
"Take a couple of days off," he told her in his usual, calm voice, not looking up as he drew a couple of files towards him and opened his pen to get to work. "Paid leave. I'll expect you back to work on Thursday."
She tried to get her mind to process what was happening, but could only come up with a blank. Had she imagined the whole thing? Disoriented and shaky, she moved off of the wall to retrieve her bag from beside his desk, trying to even out her breathing and steady her heart rate.
"If there are any more instances like this with Miss Lyris, one of you will be relocated to another office," he informed her as she made her way towards the door. "Is that clear?"
She paused to glance back at him. He was still looking down at his desk.
"Yes, sir," she murmured, nodding her head, and turned for the door.
"Miss Rielle."
She stopped again, her hand on the doorhandle, and turned to look over her shoulder at him. He was still looking down at his desk, but had one hand out, extending a sheet of paper towards her.
Still wobbling a little on her rubbery legs, she walked back over to his desk, and reached out with a slightly shaky hand to take it. The moment her fingers closed over the piece of paper, his hand reached out to shackle her wrist, jerking her forward so she nearly fell across his desk. She caught herself with her free hand, gasping slightly, and when she looked up, his face was just a scant inch or two from hers, and that searing look was back in his eyes.
Her heart tripped a beat, and her breath left her in a rush as his fingers tightened a fraction on her wrist as he kept her there.
He tilted his head so his mouth pressed just barely to the corner of her lips, and murmured, "I expect you'll wear that skirt for me when you come back to work..."
His breath was hot against her skin, and even after he'd pulled back and released her wrist, she felt it like a brand against her cheek as she stumbled back from his desk, clutching the paper and her purse in her hands.
"You're dismissed," he told her, back to scanning the documents on his desk, looking as calm and unaffected as he always did.
She nodded shakily, and turned to leave. He did not stop her this time, and she managed to exit his office and make it to the elevator, practically collapsing against the inside walls as her legs threatened to give out from underneath her. She hit the ground floor button with a little difficulty, her breathing irregular, her stomach still bunched up in knots. Between her legs, there was an unmistakeable dampness, and she wrapped her arms around herself as the memories of just a few minutes ago in Sephiroth's office finally seemed to crash in on her. She hadn't imagined it, as wild and surreal as it had seemed. That had just happened...
He had been that close. Said those things... Her arms tightened, and her fingernails dug into her forearms. He wanted her to wear a skirt when she came back to work...
She breathed hard and fast, her entire body shaking as she finally reached the ground floor and hurried out through the lobby. She practically ran to the station, beating the train and having to collapse back against a column to catch her breath. Now with a little distance between her and the office, everything that had happened was taking on a dream-like quality, until she could almost convince herself she'd hallucinated the whole thing. But the heat on her lips and around her wrist where his hand had held her told a different story, and she rubbed absently over her lower lip, following the trail his thumb had made.
Her fingers tightened, and the paper in her hand crunched. She looked down at it, for the first time really realizing it was there, and flipped it over to see what was on it. Nothing. She flipped it back over to the other side, frowning. Still nothing. The paper was blank... He'd tricked her.
Her heart was still racing when the train arrived and she staggered onto the mostly empty end car, sinking gratefully into a seat and clutching her purse to her chest, burying her face in her arms.
She couldn't believe it...she knew it had happened, but she couldn't believe it. What had just happened...? Had he been trying to seduce her...? But if that was his goal, why hadn't he kissed her? He'd barely touched her, and never anywhere intimate, unless you counted lips and wrists as being intimate, but his touch had only been brief, almost nonexistent. So what had just happened? What had he been trying to do...? And why did he want her to wear a skirt when she came back?
The only reason she could think of was totally ludicrous... Sephiroth...Sephiroth wouldn't ever actually...have sex with her...? In the office? No...no, there had to be another reason... This was just too surreal...
She buried her face further in her arms, exhaling slowly, shakily, her mind racing. She would just go home, go to sleep, and spend the next two days forgetting this had ever happened...