This story is a bit random. For some reason I was wondering what fairy stories in Gaia would be like - given that it seems to be a world like ours, but often like the darker bits of ours...

And I read an article that was talking about how dark the original versions of these stories were. Not at all Disney!

So - the first one is a version of Little Red Riding Hood. No prizes for guessing who Little Red is, yo!

Also featuring the lovely Tseng, as the Big Bad Wolf.

Disclaimer: I don't own the FFVII boys, or the original Little Red and Wolf!

R&R, please.

Midgar Fairy Tales

Little Red

Not once upon on time, but right now, right on cue…here comes Little Red, cocky as ever, and never showing fear. These deep dark alleys hold few terrors for him, slum-raised kid that he is. It's the wolves in this neck of the woods should be afraid of him, yo!

Where's he going? Not to see his granny, that's for sure, even if he knew of someone he could call by that name. No – he may be only sixteen - but Little Red has deals to do, people to meet. He already knows how to survive here – has known for years. So who's looking out for him? No-one. Parents, long gone. Ma's warnings long outgrown. Little Red trusts Little Red, and no-one else, yo!

But today, here in the daytime twilight below the plate, there's something new. A long, black car slides through these decaying streets, slick as oil and darkly gleaming. The inhabitants of the underworld eye it sideways, snarling slightly, or shaking their heads, disguising envy and fear with cool defiance. An old man, out of his mind on … something … spits into the gutter as the car slips by. Some kid, too young to have learned to pretend not to care, looks up, wide-eyed, and whistles.

Little Red smiles to himself, eyes fixed on the cracked sidewalk. No way anyone behind that smoked glass is catching him looking. Never gonna catch him!

But the car stops.

Little Red pauses, just like he was always planning to, yo, and lights a cigarette. Not like he's interested. Not like he cares. He's balanced on the balls of his feet though, just in case he needs to run - but you'd never know it looking at his sloping shoulders, his boneless stance.

He looks up as the car door opens. His blue-green eyes give away nothing, and if his heartbeat quickens who's ever gonna know but him?

The man who gets out of the car is an alien creature in these parts of Midgar: cooler, sharper, and possessed of more genuine self-confidence than any of these slum-dwellers could ever pretend to be.

Little Red's not admitting that, though – just looks him up and down: takes a drag on his cigarette, exhales a smokescreen. He doesn't even flinch when the man steps forward to hand him a card, with absolutely no flourish, and he registers the Shin-Ra logo.

Little Red says nothing, just considers the card in his hand: ponders the open door it represents. The Shin-Ra Turk waits, patient, unsmiling. He seems completely relaxed, but when Little Red eventually looks up at him the Turk's dark eyes glitter – cold and predatory.

All the better to see right through you.

Little Red is nervous now, but he will never show it. He shrugs, inhales more smoke. After he judges that his point has been made, he drawls, "So…What's the deal?"

The Shin-Ra Turk gestures to the card Little Red is holding. When he speaks his voice is low, the tone seductively respectful.

All the better to tell you lies: the best lies – those that are concealed in truths.

"It's an offer," he says. "We've been keeping an eye on you. We like the way you operate."

"So," replies Little Red, scenting a chance, mixed in with the too-familiar stench of danger, "As I said before - what's the deal?"

The Shin-Ra Turk smiles. Little Red is sharp, but the Turk's white teeth are sharper.

All the better to tear you apart.

And then who will put you back together?

"We'd like you to work for us," the Turk says. He names a salary so high it makes Little Red's mouth water. But he's still wary.

"What kind of work?"

"Your kind. Theft, kidnapping, espionage…assassinations."

"If I say no?"

It's the Turk's turn to shrug, but he does it elegantly. "No-one alive today has ever said no."

Little Red knows a threat when he hears one. He laughs, almost hiding his fear. "How long do I get to decide, yo?"

"I'd prefer it if you would come with me now, actually," the Turk replies - as if this were a perfectly reasonable request.

Little Red looks at the open door of the car. He knows there isn't a choice. The Turk stands to one side, smiling slightly. Little Red takes a last drag on his cigarette, drops it on the ground, grinds the butt into the dirty concrete with the heel of his boot.

"Welcome to Shin-Ra," says the Turk.

Little Red ducks through the door and the long, black car swallows him whole.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Here comes Little Red, cocky as Hell and afraid of nothing. These deep dark alleys hold no terrors for him – slum-raised kid that he was: trained assassin that he is.

He's changed since he was here in the slums last. Two red tattoos slash across his cheekbones like the marks of claws. Shin-Ra tore him to pieces, as he knew it would, and put him back together. Now he's a much more effective kind of monster.

Little Red grins.

The everyday wolves in this neck of the woods are terrified of him, yo.

Thanks for reading.