Forty Days of One-Night Stands

by Thyme In Her Eyes

Author's Note: I'm in a mood for drabbles these days, so I challenged myself to (eventually) write 50 LucreciaxHojo pieces, because my favourite twisted pairing needed some love. These are all non-sequential, the perspective will change, but mostly they'll focus on the Jenova Project, the characters involved (and are in complete ignorance of events which take place in Dirge of Cerberus). Also, I don't own FFVII so no suing, blahdy-blah…

Big thanks to TheMadPuppy for all the great prompts!

-- FORTY DAYS OF ONE-NIGHT STANDS --

#1 – Deception

He managed to save a few bits and pieces from Shinra, from their attempt to erase his wife out of existence. Not so he could commemorate or mourn her, but to destroy them personally.

The smell of gas catches in the air, the Bunsen burner makes a small popping sound as the flame lights. It never crosses his mind to question why he went through such painstaking troubles to have these files all to himself. All he knows is he wants to see them burn, see her burn. He crumples the papers, more valuable than diamonds to competing researchers, crushing and tearing them in his bony hands before discarding them into a wastepaper basket.

His hand grips a photograph, dips it into the fire and then drops the smouldering mess into the basket and grimly assesses the small-scale destruction. He hisses in pleasure seeing the entire metal basket come to life with fire. A grin starts to form as he sees her name blacken and fall apart.

As he burns the last batch of her files and photos, watching the flames quietly eat her research and the image of her face, he knows that this business is finished forever. Jenova and her legacy will endure, but the disgusting need that defined his relationship with his wife is over. His weaknesses were all deceptions. He need never think of her again.

This was an act of purging, not of mourning.

There are no demons. Just rogue DNA chains.