Author's Notes: First of all, I am broke, Square-Enix! I lay no claim to Sephiroth, Vincent or Shinra. I do claim Kyoko and her siblings and mother, along with assorted Scouts and friends throughout. You will get no moneys out of me!
Also… Just to give you an idea of this particular AU: This story starts about a year before the Nibelheim incident is due to happen, and, in case you're looking for it, it's not going to happen, at least not in that way. Anywho, this is indeed an "alternate reality" sort of story. It mostly came about because I've had Vincent's and my OC's children running around in my head, and that story is nowhere near where it needs to be for them. So, I found another place for them. Vincent was saved before Hojo's final "experiment," and therefore does not have Chaos. He's still virtually indestructible and ridiculously strong, but not immortal, and he didn't sleep for all that time, so Kyoko (his oldest) is around 23-ish when this starts. Enjoy, and please comment? Pretty please? Thank you.
Oh, and I did a HUGE edit to make everything more... consistent. If you spot anything that argues with itself, LET ME KNOW. Thanks.
Kyoko Valentine sighed. She understood, in theory, why her father wanted her to train with the Turks, but theory got rather unconvincing on her days with Reno. The man hit on everyone, but especially someone new and "exotic" like Kyo. "Bugger," she muttered, checking her watch.
"What's the matter, sweetheart? Need help changing?" Never mind the fact that Vincent Valentine would disembowel the idiot for some of his comments; Reno didn't care.
"No, thanks, Reno. What I do need is a quick shower. I have to meet with some people on the other side of town in a half an hour, so I don't have time to get home." When he leered at her, mako-bright eyes gleaming, she sighed. "Shower, Reno. Just point me in the direction of hot water."
"Suit yourself." Kyo was surprised and a bit suspicious of the easy answer, but she didn't have time to speculate; if she wanted to make it even close to on time, she had to get done fast. The horny redhead gave her directions to a single bathroom, and she wondered if it was just that he planned to spy on her somehow.
It was weird, though: She knew it was a busy time of day for Shinra employees, but there was nobody in the halls near this bathroom. Shrugging off her sudden unease, she closed the door and started to take off her clothes
***
Sephiroth was exhausted. Between Hojo's "tests" and the rigorous recruit training, he was not surprised that his feet were on autopilot to "his" shower. But, as he got close to it, he heard the water running and faint singing. The General's cat-green eyes narrowed. He'd emphasized way too many times the fate that awaited anyone caught here on his Hojo days. This left a few possibilities: First, and most likely, it was one of the insane number of women who would try any stunt to get into his bed. This particular situation hadn't come up before, but other, equally embarrassing ones, had. Second, and almost as likely, a new employee or recruit had forgotten that this was a Hojo day. If they hadn't encountered him before on these days, they wouldn't have a reason to memorize them… yet. The last possibility was highly unlikely, given the well-documented ferocity of his temper, but still could happen: Someone was pulling a "prank" against a poor novice, who honestly didn't know this rule yet. He muttered to himself about seriously asking the President and trainers to include it in Orientation.
As he drew closer, he saw Reno. Great, he thought. It is a prank. Upon seeing him, Reno's face instantly changed from his usual indolence to (definitely fake) alarm and concern. "Sir! I heard the water running and was just about to see who's in there, and warn them before you arrived." The singing stopped at the sound of his voice.
Sephiroth snorted. "Cut the bull, Reno. You wouldn't be near here unless you were personally involved. Who is it? Some poor girl with enough sense not to believe your smooth talk, but not enough that you couldn't give her directions?" At the redheaded Turk's wince, he knew he'd hit it dead-on. "Reno, I am not an instrument of petty revenge, and I am tired. You'll be lucky if I don't take it out on you."
"Excuse me," a somewhat familiar girl's voice cut in over the water. "Is there a problem?"
"Who are you?" Seph replied. "Are you new here?"
"No, I don't technically work here," she laughed. "My name is Kyo. I work out with the Turks a couple of days a week."
That description, combined with the voice and the name… "Kyo? As in Kyoko Valentine?" The green eyes hardened. It was probably because it was a Hojo day, but he was suddenly feeling…belligerent. To Reno's shock, the General opened the bathroom door, stepped in, and slammed it shut behind him.
"Oh, shit," Reno said, and immediately left the area.
***
Kyo started to answer the stranger. "Yes— Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't you have any manners?" Kyo was alarmed until she saw the face of her intruder when he pulled the curtain back. At the sight of the silver-haired SOLDIER, her alarm turned to anger. "You. I might have known you would lack common courtesy."
For his part, Sephiroth was startled out of the worst of his own anger at the venom in the girl's voice. "You're in my shower," he replied, just as acidly. "Just because Reno is trying to get you in trouble, it doesn't follow that you have the right to be rude to me."
"You started it. Get the hell out so I can change, and you can have it back."
He blinked. It wasn't that he hadn't expected to chase her off this fast, it was that she definitely had something against him personally. He had a grudge against the Valentine children, and a bigger one against Vincent himself, but he had no idea why the ill-feeling seemed to be returned. "What did I ever do to you? I know who you are, but we've never met, that I'm aware."
She snorted and turned to face him for a moment. He saw that she had her father's golden-brown eyes and her mother's dark red hair, and was altogether very pretty. "As if you didn't know," she scoffed.
"As a matter of fact," he replied, starting to get irritable again, "I have no idea."
"I'm sure you've done so many awful things by now that you have to block them out to sleep at night, and one incident wouldn't ring a bell." She turned her back to him again, as he stared in befuddlement. She wasn't making any sense.
Kyo turned away so she wouldn't give in to the temptation to slap the confusion off that (damnably) handsome face. She could not believe he didn't know what she was referring to. Saru still couldn't sleep without medication. He had to be faking it. She turned around again and yelped. The infuriating man was now in the shower with her. Naked. "What in Odin's name do you think you're doing?"
"You're using up all the hot water. You can get around me to get to your clothes." He winced as he flexed the shoulder with the missing wing. The amputation hadn't been clean, and it always bothered him when he over-exerted himself. "I'm sore. I have bruises on top of bruises on top of scars."
"Odd, then, that you would subject anyone else to that." To her own irritation, Kyo found her voice to be a bit less confrontational. The General was scarred all over his muscular, well-formed body. Luckily, his back was turned for the moment. She dragged her eyes away. "What did you think happened to those boys you caught at Red Butte two months ago?"
Seph turned to look at her, stricken. "It was a standard pick-up. We usually turn 'em over to the grunts, who fine them and let them go. Nothing unusual."
"That's because you never picked up a Valentine before. Hojo knew there was something unusual about the one boy who wasn't let go, my youngest brother Masaru. It took my parents a week to find out what had happened, and two more to get him back. We were lucky he was busy, or we wouldn't have been able to save Saru." Kyoko stepped around the SOLDIER, who touched her arm.
"I would never turn anyone over to that man voluntarily. There have been times where I have envied you and your siblings, but I would not knowingly inflict this," he gestured to his scars, "on anyone. I may be jealous, but I wouldn't put you in my place."
"Envied us? Why?"
"Partly for the same reason I was resentful of all 'normal' children: you have families who care about you, parents to protect you. But I begrudged Vincent's children the most, because you had the childhood I should have, or close to it." He stared at the porcelain of the bath, green eyes clouded. "If your father hadn't fought with my mother that one day, he would have been my father, not yours."
"Oh." Kyoko tried to picture this, and failed. "But… Dad said Lucrecia helped Professor Gast free him; he said it was her idea."
"She was too far along with me to go with him. Deep down, I guess she hoped Hojo would pity her for that, if nothing else." Seph shook his head, silver hair plastered to his face. "Vincent should have made her go."
"He tried to…" Kyo started, but the man cut her off.
"Yeah, he tried really hard. He met your mother, what, two, three weeks later? And it was suddenly like mine had never existed."
That's not true!" Kyo protested. "My parents still fight about her, more than twenty years later, because Dad has nightmares about not saving her! Professor Gast had to tie him up to keep him from going back for both of you. He didn't even notice my mother until Lucrecia had been dead for a year." She glared at him, and something in his eyes made hers kindle. "You selfish bastard; you'd rather he had died trying than find any kind of happiness with us."
Sephiroth was left to stare after her as she dressed hurriedly and left, slamming the door so hard the showerhead rattled. Am I really that bad? He thought. Would I prefer it if Vincent had died?
