I don't own FF7 or its characters and make no money from writing these stories.
Roll 'em...
The six year old child was almost ethereally beautiful, his hair an exotic colour of silver that already reached his shoulders and his eyes glowing green with the slit pupils of a cat. He wore a smaller version of hospital style scrubs as he had all his life and was thin, but tall for his age. He was sweet natured and known to be a bit mischievous by his babysitters, who were more like his handlers.
Sephiroth was in his room when he looked up and saw a little girl around his own age, she smiled at him and he smiled back. She was accompanied by a man in white who, he recognized as being one of his doctors and a mean one. Her father seemed to be occupied by someone else, so she walked into the open door of his room.
"Hi I'm Ann. Who are you?" she asked him.
"I'm Sephiroth" he said.
"That's a funny name" she said.
"It's my name" he said defensively, feeling hurt by what she said.
"I'm sorry, I have a funny last name. Want to hear it?" she asked him. He nodded, "Badly" she said.
"That is funny" he said with a chuckle.
"What's your last name?" she asked him.
"I don't have one; they just call me Sephiroth" he said in confusion.
"You have to have one, my last name is Badly because my Daddy's last name is Badly. What's your Daddy's last name?" Ann asked him.
"I don't know" he said his eyes welling with tears and stood still in shock when the little girl hugged him.
"Please don't cry Sephiroth, I'm sorry. My Daddy is a very super important doctor. I'm sure he'll know who your Daddy is, we can go ask him" she suggested.
"No, he hurts me" he said as his small mouth quivered.
"I'm sure he's just trying to make you all better. That's why you're in the hospital, right?" Because you're sick?" she asked him.
"I don't feel sick. I only feel sick when they give me the injections" he said.
"Then what are you doing here?" she asked him.
"I live here" he said. "Don't you?"
"No I live at home with my Mommy and Daddy and go to kindergarten. My best friend's name is Sarah" she explained.
"What's kindergarten?" he asked her.
"It's super fun. Wanna play?" she asked him and he eagerly nodded and she tapped his arm and said "tag, you're it."
Sephiroth, had never played the game before, but soon caught on as both children chased each other around and giggled.
"Ann what do you think you're doing?!" her father cried out when he found her.
"I'm playing with Sephiroth" she said while he stared up at the doctor with wide green eyes and wondered what he had done to anger him. He had only been playing with his new friend.
"Come here at once; you could have gotten hurt playing with that freak" he said and picked her up. "Stay away from her" he said and then snapped at his babysitter. "Keep that creature away from my daughter."
"Ann where are you going?" Sephiroth called after her, already missing his first and only friend.
"Time to have your mako injections" his babysitter, starting to restrain him.
"No please don't. They hurt me" he begged.
"You have to be brave, you're a big boy now" she said as she set up the series of shots and approached the shrinking boy in restrains.
"No, please stop" he begged.
"No" Sephiroth screamed as he sat up in bed and his wing snapped open. He was trembling and his heart was racing. A small hand ran gently along the length of his wing where it could reach in a practiced motion, smoothing the ruffled feathers until they lay flat and the wing itself ceased to beat in agitation.
"It was just a dream, honey" she said as she wound her arms around him as he whimpered and he turned his face towards hers, seeking comfort and she reached up and cupped his chin, pressing her lips gently against his in a soft kiss. He leaned into her soft embrace, her familiar scent calming his night terrors.
"Tifa?" he said in confusion, still in the grip of the dream as she held him like he was the most precious object in the world. Her hands on him were like a healing balm as she stroked the remnants of his terror away and surrounded him with her love like a warm blanket, wrapping him and healing him.
"I'm here. You're safe" she soothed as his wing dematerialized and she eased him onto his side so his body was flush with hers and her small hands combed through his hair to stroke the bunched muscles of his back until he relaxed in her arms. He could feel his heartbeat slowing as his wife's soothing touches seem to remove any lingering pain of the memories that never would seem to go away, as they always did. Just her proximity to him and hearing her breath in her sleep was normally enough to keep the nightmares at bay, but not always. Gentle kisses tenderly removed any traces of tears from his cheeks and his terror dissipated completely as her body heat lulled him back into the land of nod and he fell asleep feeling safe in the cocoon of her arms.
She had first taken him into her body and then her heart. She had taken from him his loneliness and his pain and given him her own heart. She had claimed and captured him when he was almost indestructible to others, by whispering three little words to him...I love you. These three little words had fulfilled a hunger in him that he never knew had existed and now he was hers for life. She was his reason for living. She was his soul mate. She was his wife. She was his angel.
THE END