Thank you Sakurablossomhime for help with this chapter, I sure love to write with this lady.
TIFA
Tifa blinked against the rising sun as she watched Sephiroth pace through his katas as he did every morning, wearing just a pair of combat boots and a pair of old combat pants. He held a wooden practice sword in place of his Masamune and moved with perfect grace and coordination, his hair swirling around him, exposing the flawless skin of his well chiseled torso. The sight was enough to bring a lesser woman down on her knees in worship of the deity he so resembled, so you can only imagine the effect he was having on his still untouched, virginal wife who had lived with him for one month, wore his ring and shared his last name.
"With his personality, he should look like a middle aged accountant" she said sourly. She hadn't planned on becoming attracted to him but as they say; one covets what they see all the time and she freaking lived with him! That he was visually stunning was an understatement and of course she knew that, they didn't put him on recruitment posters in the past because he was your average guy. Just looking at the posters was enough to make an average woman sigh, to see him up close was enough to make her blood boil and give her a full body orgasm. Still here she was, in a sexless marriage with a sex god who seemed to have no interest in it. Oh the irony she thought as she continued to watch the show she had accidently caught one time and found herself setting her alarm so as to never miss it again. He finally straightened up and placed the wooden sword over his shoulder, to put it away for tomorrow's hot display, unaware of his daily voyeur watching him.
Tifa flopped back in bed, feeling as frustrated as ever and wondered what was wrong with him. At first she thought, he might be gay but didn't see him acting any different around attractive males. She leaned up to watch his pale shoulders disappearing around the side of their opulent house and knew the next hour would be spent with him pruning and tending his orchids in the greenhouse and then a quick shower and he would be at the breakfast table looking immaculately groomed to go into the office, the prefect morning person. She so loathed those people!
He rose with the sun and did his katas, his morning routine never varied. He wasn't hard to live with, he was clean and polite and... annoyingly sexy, but without a trace of vanity. He seemed to regard the body that so many wished to worship as just a way of moving around, seemingly unaware of the effect he had on almost any person with a pulse.
Tifa didn't know that Sephiroth desired her too but didn't know how to approach her with his own inexperience that he was too embarrassed to tell her about, he just assumed that she would approach him as women always did. However, Tifa had no experience in approaching men sexually and was waiting for him to approach her, assuming him to be much more experienced than he really was. So theirs was a situation of the blind leading the blind.
She had hoped that he would become attracted to her as there seemed to be something there at first. Rufus has found them the gray stone mini mansion, or more like gifted it to them. It was ten bedrooms in total and set on twenty acres of land that seemed endless. It featured a pool, a tennis court, theater in the basement and a ballroom. When Tifa had faintly protested that it was too much just for two people, Rufus had insisted it was little more than a pokey cottage no one in his family wanted to live in and insisted they take it. Most of the furniture was included, it was antique and probably worth a fortune but Tifa still had added her own touches. She loved to nap, so she had added several comfortable couches, patio furniture and her double hammock. Sephiroth allowed her free reign of anything to do with the house, expect for his study and his bedroom. But she had gotten in there anyway, she had dumped his cheap desk and relocated a dark cherry wood one in there from elsewhere in the house and had created a library right next door for his beloved books, complete with comfortable chairs for him to sit in as he read. Finally, for his bedroom, finding out the sexiest man alive laughingly slept in an extra long single bed, she insisted that he replace it with a queen size, if only to give his large frame more room to move around in, but also for appearances. He could hardly claim that they were sexually active if he was sleeping in a bed made for a university student. He had gotten into a snit about the fact that his duvet no longer fit his new bed. Asking why he was so attached to it, he had explained it was the first blanket that he had been given when he joined SOLDIER. Although he wasn't one to display emotions, he had looked offended when she had laughingly described it as being his blankie. She had solved the problem by finding a larger version of it online.
She had assumed that they would have sex soon after they moved into together but it hadn't worked out so far. She had even thought she has sensed a mutual attraction on the first night. She had been unpacking boxes when he had come into the room wearing just a pair of camouflage pants.
FLASHBACK
Tifa had nervously stood there holding a hand blender in her lackadaisical grip, wondering if Sephiroth was trying to seduce her, though he looked ill at ease himself.
"Miss Lockhart...Mrs. Crescent. Tifa, we need to talk" he said.
"About?" she asked him, licking her suddenly dry lips.
"I need to explain about myself to you. I don't want there to be any surprises when it comes to either of us. As you know, I am not purely human and don't want you to wonder about that part of me. If we are to live together, we shall have to trust each other and for some reason, I already feel I can trust you. There's nothing unusual about my skin, except I heal almost instantaneously without scarring, but that is mainly due to the mako in my system. Also I don't suntan nor burn; I could be in the sun for hours and my skin tone won't change in the slightest" he explained. "As for my hair, go ahead and get your fill of it" he said, holding a handful out to her.
"You want me to touch your hair?" she asked him in surprise.
"Miss..Tifa, my whole life, people have wanted to touch my hair to see what it feels like. Why should you be any exception? Please feel free, consider this a question and answer session; I won't hold anything back if you won't" he said and she experimentally took it into her small hand.
"It's like regular hair but really soft and thick at the same time" she said and then look more time to examine the entirety of his length as she rubbed it, noticing how it didn't seem to tangle.
"If you're done, my eyes are simply as they are and really no different than other people's, just with different pupils and a mako glow. They are nothing special. However, this is what you are probably the most curious about" he said as his wing materialized and he snapped it open. "I can materialize them at will, though they appear on their own sometimes if I feel threatened or during times when my emotions run high" he explained.
"May I touch it?" Tifa asked, curious.
"Them, there are two but only one is visible to the human eye. The other is made of pure ether. Sure go ahead" he said turning his back to her and she ran her hand reverently down the curve of the exposed one. "It's so soft" she said in admiration and then noticed he seemed to be shivering and snatched her hands away. "Am I hurting you?" she asked him.
"No, I've just never let anyone touch them before, they are… sensitive" he explained over his shoulder. "Feel free to continue" he encouraged her.
She continued examining the visual one and he obliged her by moving them to her shorter level, so she could explore the entire length of it and his shoulder where it was connected. She took her other hand, and without her knowing, he'd cast scan on her, and she was able to 'feel' the outline of the other as well. "They're so beautiful. Do you think you could take me for a ride someday?" she asked him.
"Short ones at first, I would have to get use to the extra weight" he replied and then he turned and she gasped as she could feel both wings enfolding her and she was drawn tightly against him. "Relax, it's little more than a party trick, you're perfectly safe" he said and then wrapped a length of her own hair around a long, large pale hand. "Your hair is so much thicker than mine but still soft" he observed as he looked down at her. Tifa felt like she was unable to speak being so close to him as the blender fell from her hand and both hands moved around his waist to rest on the warm skin there as she looked up him questioningly. He looked back at her with a strange expression on his face and with a snap, released her and shook himself. "I did want to mention that I do have a doctor I trust because, although I do heal very fast, I do feel pain. Bullets are the worst because they are forced out of me slowly as the wounds heal or worse, I may heal over them, causing them to have to be cut away. I would prefer if you cut them out of me if you have to, if you cannot reach my doctor. Are you willing to do that for me?" he asked her hurriedly.
"Yes"
END FLASHBACK
SEPHIROTH
Sephiroth got dressed and went into the kitchen to have his breakfast before heading for WRO headquarters. He'd expected Tifa to join him in her usual groggy way, looking like a sleepy two-year-old and almost literally dragging a teddy bear behind her. Well if the two-year-old in question was very shapely and wore little around the place. Part of the agreement was she was to dress conservatively in public as befitting the wife of a highly placed army official and she did that to the letter as she did everything else with brisk efficiency and had even hired a manager for her bar so she would have more leeway in the evenings. However, that didn't mean that she didn't ghost around their home in next to nothing and that was...exciting and frustrating at the same time. Had he lost his sex appeal? He could sense she was attracted to him and smell it in her pheromones but...nothing.
In every way she was perfect: an excellent roommate and personal assistant, she ran his life like she was his General, he didn't ever have to worry about anything running out, he went to jot something down for him to replace it, only to find it already replaced. She had already figured out his favorite foods and although, the rules were for her to stay out of his room, somehow the laundry got out of his basket when he was away from the house and returned clean and pressed. She was exceptional as a date to events where they had to play the part of a happily married couple, she never seemed to forget a name or what a person enjoyed and that made the evenings go much smoother as everyone basked in the beauty and intelligence of his kind, young wife.
Oddly enough he found himself enjoying time spent with her, be it dancing at some stuffy ball or just watching in amusement as she stumbled her way into the kitchen in the mornings and complained about him being much too cheerful in the mornings. He would always pour her a cup of coffee without being asked to. He remembered how things had gone when he had tried to seize control of his life back at first, resenting her constant intrusions.
FLASHBACK
Sephiroth was asleep when the door to his room as wrenched open and Tifa stood there looking irritated beyond belief. "Tifa, how many times do I have to ask you to knock?" he asked her.
"What the hell is this?" she demanded and threw the list of rules that he had posted on the fridge at him, he sat up, cursing for the first time that he slept naked.
"I have to live here too for the time being, so I feel we should establish some ground rules. Some of us have to go to work in the mornings" he replied.
"Some of these don't even make sense. I come and go undisturbed, it is not necessary to report if I will be home for dinner or not, if you make dinner go ahead and eat, I'll eat it or not eat it when I get home. That's horseshit! If you are going to be late for dinner, you call" she demanded.
"So just make dinner for yourself" he suggested.
"Oh no, as long as we live under the same roof, we eat at the same time unless we have a reasonable excuse for not being there" she concluded. "And this one: you do not stop by WRO headquarters unless invited. What are you trying to hide?" she demanded.
"Nothing, I don't need the distraction. How do you think it looks to my fellow officers that you're dropping by asking if I want to go to lunch?" he asked her.
"Like I care about your sorry ass" she countered.
"Like I'm pussy whipped" he answered.
"How are could you be pussy whipped because you have a young wife wanting to go to lunch with you?" she demanded with her hands on her hips.
"I'm an important man, yet I have nothing better to do than go off with you? You have to consider my position."
"I am considering your position. Heck your fucking position got us here in the first place! I've given up a year of my life for your fancy dancy position and what do I get? A list of rules like I'm some unruly teenager! I only go to your office because I don't know what to do with myself. I hardly see my friends, I only stop by the bar for a couple of hours each day; all so that I can be here with you to get to know you as a married couple should know each other...and this is what I get?" she yelled at him. Before he knew he had even moved, he was holding her and she wrapped her arms around him.
"I don't expect you to wait around for me. Go to the bar more often, invite people over. I don't expect you to live as I do because I'm not the sociable sort, but you are" he said to her.
"You don't mind me inviting people over?" she asked him.
"This is your home too, invite who you want" he assured her.
"You're not wearing anything are you?" she asked him with a blush.
"No" he said with squinted eyes and with an answering blush, realizing, she was wearing little more than a thin sleep shirt, with perhaps a pair of panties underneath.
"I'll turn my back and you get back into bed" she said with a giggle and peeked a bit as he leaped into there. "Here are my rules: we have dinner together at least once a week and every Friday is date night."
"What's that?" he asked her.
"We do something that we both enjoy together if we stay home or else we have a night out where you are sweet, flirtatious and romantic...or at least try to be" she demanded.
"I'm not any of those things" he said with one arched white eyebrow and a smirk on his lips.
"So figure it out, you're the one so good at research" she said and with a mysterious smile to answer that smirk, she swept from the room.
He could only stare after her, half in irritation and admiration that she would dare stand up to him. No one stood up to General Sephiroth! Yet she did all the time. Telling him what to do was beyond unreasonable. Yet he found himself uncomfortably aroused at her display and the body memory at how she had felt in his arms.
END FLASHBACK
So he had researched what a proper date consisted of and felt that he had a proper medium that balanced her expectations with his and their first date night was scheduled for that night. He was almost humming as he strode into the kitchen to make his usual porridge and stopped dead in his tracks and looked up to where Tifa was balanced on the countertop fishing into the highest cupboard. He found himself staring upwards, noting she wore little more than a pair of sleeping booty shorts and a small tank top, all of which were riding up ridiculously high. The whole undersides of her bare breasts were exposed to him. A thin strip of fabric of her shorts kept her womanhood from full exposure, but her most of her pert behind showed. However, she seemed to be wearing black panties, those were just exposed around the edges. He realized how hard he was staring and averted his eyes, his pale cheeks sporting an almost imperceptible blush.
"Sephiroth, have you seen our punchbowl?" she asked him, looking down and couldn't help noticing how he was looking at her.
"No, but I'll find it later. You should get down, you might fall" he insisted and helped her down. He turned to the stove to start making to make his porridge, glad he was wearing his full uniform so that his jacket hid the "effects" her little display had had on him. Tifa just tugged her clothes back into place and smiled that her hunch seemed to have paid off and wondered how else she could provoke him. She had been complaining to Yuffie about his lack of sexual interest in her and Yuffie's response was; he needed to see more goodies on display.
"I'm ready," she said, stepping out of her bedroom.
"You're wearing that?" he asked her. She had on a sleeveless black silk dress that flowed to her knees that was sexy, yet demure at the same time. It seemed to flow across her body like a promise, showcasing each slim and toned inch of the martial artist, her hair head been artfully tousled and red lipstick is all that she wore in terms of makeup. She looked like a wet dream that should have never left the bed.
"What's wrong with this?" she demanded of him.
"It might be a little much for where we are going" he said doubtfully. He now had a dress uniform that he was wearing, which was a much simpler and infinitely more flattering then the travesty from before.
"Where are we going?" she asked him with a frown.
"A recruitment picnic? You think this is a proper date night?" she asked him incredulously as fourteen-year-old boys leered at her.
"You said it had to be something we both enjoy, that included dinner" he said indicating towards the barbeque where hot dogs and hamburgers were being flipped.
She looked around to where people were milling about wearing their beige WRO uniforms with red caps. "You consider this a date?" she asked him.
"My version doesn't include a wedding" he replied with a dry chuckle.
"So what is all this about?" she asked him.
"Public relations. WRO throws a barbeque to promote themselves and all the local teenagers are invited. If any of them put in applications for future recruitment, they are contacted when they are of age. Beyond that, it's just a way to showcase all of us" he explained.
"And again, you think this is proper for our date night?" she asked him and sat back getting more bored by the second as people gave those 'be the best you can be and we want you' speeches and had to admit, her own husband's speech was the most boring of the lot. She found herself studying the uniformed people and realized that all of them were quite attractive.
"How was my speech?" he whispered to her upon his return.
"Awe inspiring" she replied.
"Good, another ten applications and we can call it a night" he explained.
"Really?" she said and then went up to a group of uniformed women and seemed to be whispering to them and they all nodded, Sephiroth watched in suspicion as they all disappeared into a nearby building. His eyes got wide as they all got onto the stage and Tifa was suddenly wearing a really tiny WRO uniform that included booty shorts. She picked up the microphone and purred "Boys, you have listened to a whole bunch of boring speeches so far from men. However, gentlemen, we want you too" she intoned and all the men in the audience froze in shock as each woman pulled off her hat as she was introduced and her hair drifted free and looked at the audience with smoldering eyes. "Now all of these fine ladies are happy to answer any questions you may have. You can choose anyone you like" Tifa intoned. "Now get yourself a hot dog and fill out those applications" she said as she held one out suggestively and took a bite...and received a standing ovulation from the bored teens.
Sephiroth found her surrounded by teenaged admirers and she shooed them away. "What the heck was that?" he demanded.
"Recruiting, I understand that they had to print off more applications, they ran out of them after my speech" she said. "Hotdog?" she asked him, handing him a plate, smiling like the cat that got the cream.
"You really are something" he said in admiration as he took a bite.
"You're always eating your hair" she teased him as she brushed back his bangs.
"Yes I know; tinsel hair with weird cat eyes" he said sourly.
"I quite like your hair, it's really a nice colour and your eyes are gorgeous" she said feeling oddly flirty and he surprised her by putting his hotdog down and his arms went around her, drawing her assertively against him.
"I like what you're wearing, I guess I must like; how do does it go? "a gal in a uniform" he said in an oddly husky sounding voice and a blush tinged the tops of her cheeks as his lips leaned forward to capture hers. Then a voice said-
"Can I have your autograph?" and they jumped apart.
"Sure, do you have a pen?" Sephiroth said to the boy in slightly off sounding voice.
"I meant her" he replied and Tifa turned her attention to him.
"Excuse me Miss... Mrs. Crescent, I must go see about how many applications have been submitted," Sephiroth said as he turned from her with a neutral expression on his proud, arrogant face and she felt weirded out at what had almost happened, but disappointed at that same time that it hadn't.
As for Sephiroth, he was breathing hard, but masking it well and was confused that he had acted that way towards Tifa and flustered as he got away from that situation as fast as possible.
That was it! She was going to have her say on this whole "blushing wet dream groom" business. Tifa decided as she quickly signed a few more straggler's hats, bags, even some had produced their cute bicep for her to sign. Sephiroth, despite his not wanting to, watched Tifa in every move she made. They were going to have to come to some sort of consensus on these…emotions and feelings and soon, he concluded.
After all the applications were tallied, Sephiroth and Tifa were on their way back to their home. Every since that moment they'd shared, each were tense and both had an agenda they wanted to get out of their systems, and tonight was going to be the night. Sephiroth had driven them and actually had driven them home as well this time, surprisingly. Tifa's mind was abuzz with what she was going to say. To the side of her, Sephiroth was trying to create more sanctions in his mind but was quickly approving and dismissing them as they came. It wouldn't do to upset her, but this had to be resolved as it was getting out of hand. Didn't she know he was trying to protect her maidenhood? Sephiroth was uncertain as how he had been feeling. She was the one being convoluted with her tiny clothes and abundance of wonderfully pale flesh always on display. Didn't she realize he was a man and not some strange combination of brother/eunuch as she seemed to regard him to be?
Once they were back that the house, Sephiroth, ever the gentleman, came to Tifa's side and opened the door for her. She was up and out the car like lighting, to get to her room and change into something…appropriate for the damage she was trying to cause, courtesy of one girl shopping trip with Yuffie.
Sephiroth came into the house and was ready for his conversation he had to have with Tifa. There was no other way they would be able to continue their co-habitation this way.
Sephiroth stood in the main living room with his arms crossed. He couldn't tell why he was nervous, though it would never show on his face. She hadn't said one word to him and had bounded out of the vehicle like an escaped prisoner.
He turned around when he sensed movement behind him, sensibly knowing it was her with one hand and finger raised as to state something. That quickly died in his throat as he took in her visage. Her kimono had a pattern of red and gold cranes on it against a black background and fastened with red obi with black braided cord in the center at her tiny waist. However it seemed to be too small on her at how it exposed an almost indecent amount of cleavage and how it barely reached mid thigh on the long legged girl. She looked back at him to gauge his reaction as she walked towards him.
And thats when bullets ripped through all angles of him, through a couple windows, shredding him like paper and he collapsed on top of her and with a gasp that told her to call his doctor. He was down.
Tifa called his doctor, was informed by the polite receptionist that he was on a golfing tour. So she sharpened every knife in the place and called her friends, anticipating a long night ahead of her. She ripped her new sexy kimono like it was cheap cotton, wanting to at least clean him up before she started digging for bullets.
