Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII characters or any of the affiliated games. Square Enix owns them, I'm merely borrowing them for my own Otaku pleasure. X3
Chapter 4
Fun In Banora.
Vincent considered his new 'center of operations.' It was a small house, barely two floors, but it was in decent condition, with two bedrooms. The main windows had a dark green color against a beige color, not an eyesore at least.
Vincent grabbed the first of their few boxes, marked "clothes" in Sephiroth's handwriting, when his sharp ears heard a rather squeaky door opening, causing the ex-Turk to whip his head around to see a boy with scarlet hair come out from next door, eager expression on his face, and take a step in towards him. Vincent narrowed his eyes, fully preparing to ward this kid off with his patented "fuck off and DIE!" glare, before a hand reached out from the still opened door, grabbed the shirt collar and authoritatively yanked the boy back inside with a sharp "GENESIS!"
The door shut again, and Vincent was left to stand there for a moment with a raised eyebrow, before his own little boy leaped down with a flourish of a silver ponytail. Vincent checked himself and handed the box in his arms to the boy.
"Take this inside, pick a room."
"Yeah Father." As Sephiroth moved his first box inside, choosing of course the room that had a view of next door, while Vincent grabbed a box labeled "Kitchen." On it went for several minutes before Sephiroth paused in boredom long enough to see two figures in the front window of next door with their noses plastered to the glass, staring eagerly at him and his father
"Father, there are some people staring at us."
Vincent, having spotted the voyeurs already, spoke in a soft tone without even looking at what Sephiroth was referring to, "Ignore them. New faces are a rarity here, and I gather the adult over there won't allow them to come over and pester us, considerate really. We can introduce ourselves once we're done here and I've returned the truck.
"Why not now? Maybe they can help."
"Us doing it is plenty Sephiroth." Vincent, his arms full of boxes, nudged Sephiroth wth his though towards the house, "Now hurry. You'll need to get your room set up and organized if you want to sleep tonight."
"Yes Father." And Sephiroth obediently did as he'd been told, but chanced one more glance before going into the house."
----
In a snug but sparsely decorated living room, Gillian Hewley watched her son Angeal and his best friend, Genesis, attempt to meld their noses to the glass as they watched the new neighbors, feeling half exasperated, half amused.
"You two are shameless!"
"I wanna see who he is. He looks strange." Genesis said, turning to look at Gilliian, while Angeal nodded, waiting for the silver-haired boy who, to their ever lasting excitement, looked close to their age.
"Well you'll find out soon enough! Now qu-Oh for Gaia's sake." He face met her palm as Genesis and Angeal stood on their tiptoes as the new boy came out, "Genesis Rhapados, Angeal Gustav Hewley! Away from that window!"
"But mooooomm...." Angeal whined turning to look at her.
Gillian's tone was firm, "Now. Or Gen has to go home." they looked at her dejeectedly as they came away neither one wanting to have Genesis leave.
After a few minutes of sad eyes and dejected sighs while they fought to amuse themselves, Gillian let out an exasperated sigh, "Oh good Gaia.... you two!" She pinched the bridge of her nose with closed eyes and BREATHED for a second before opening them, "Ten minutes. You have ten minutes to go say hi, introduce yourselves and if they want, help them bring in the boxes." The two boys lit up, scrambling over themselves and each other, beaming. But before they could go tearing out, Gillian snagged their shirts, "BUT. there will be no probing questions with answers charmed out of this boy or his father" Her accusing look fell to Gen, who put on his best innocent look, "Nor will I have any of you challenging either of them to a test of honor," now her eyes fell to her own son, who nodded eagerly, "and NO double teaming them. Best behavior, best effort to make them feel welcomed but not bum-rushed. Got it?"
"Got it!!" Both chirped, straining to go out now.
"Alright." And she let them go, almost pitying the newcomers...
----
Sephiroth had just pulled out another box of books when the loud BANG of a door flying open made him jolt, almost drop his box, then whirl on his heels towards the sound, just in time to see two boys come piling out of next door, beaming at him.
"Hi!" Came the enthused greeting from the scarlet haired one.
Though eager to be close to kids his own age for once, and not EXACTLY shy in most respects, Sephiroth still tensed for a second, clutching his box a little closer. "Hello..."
"My name's Genesis!" The boy offered, smiling
"And I'm Angeal." The black-haired boy, almost a head taller then his companion, chimed in, smile calm and welcoming. Slowly Sephiroth relaxed, liking the atmosphere around these two, feeling a pull towards them.
"My name's Sephiroth." They lapsed into quiet for a second, before Sephiroth asked, "So you live next door?
"Yup!" Genesis said, grin never failing, before correcting himself, "Well he does," he motioned to Angeal who nodded, "But I'm over there all the time anyway."
Sephiroth, a little disappointed that both didn't live there, "Then where d'you live then?
"Down the way a bit, you can see it from here." The Jade eyes did a quick search, Sephiroth could only really see the Mayor's house- oh.
"You're the Mayor's son?" Gen nodded, but didn't puff or up or look excited, the way a lot of other people might have.
"Must be nice... to have such a big home." Genesis let out a sigh.
"Yeah... But kind of empty you know."
Sephiroth shrugged, "Not really. My father and I have only ever lived in apartments.
"ooooh...." Gen replied, as Angeal look startled,
"Apartments? You didn't have a yard or anything?" He asked, that striking him as a sad thing... Sephiroth just shook his head, and shifted his box a bit.
"In North Corel I can sort of remember a courtyard with a tree, and in Wutai. But not in Golden Saucer, or Rocket town.. or Mideel."
"Well there's a lot of green grass and trees here." Angeal offered with a proud smile. Which onyl earned him another shrug from the silver-haired boy.
"Never really bothered me. I kinda think flowers make my Father a bit sad, especially-" But Sephiroth never got to finish, because out of nowhere said father's soft, deadly voice was right above him.
"Sephiroth." Slowly Sephiroth raised his head, looking unashamed as he met his Father's eyes.
"Yes Father."
"What did I tell you about your boxes?" Vincent asked, having been listening to them from basically the start, before lifting his gaze. Genesis and Angeal found themselves leveled with an appraising look from the ruby eyes. Vincent gazed especially hard at Angeal, the dark haired boy struck him as very very familiar looking somehow... and Vincent didn't like that one bit...
"They came by to welcome us. I did not want to be rude" Vincent stared at his boy for a second, but in the end decided to let Sephiroth win... this time.
"Very well. And I want an adult for one of them to come tell me it's alright for these two to loiter here. Clear?"
"Yes father."
"I can go get my mom" Angeal suggested looking a tad nervous.
"Go. You" he pointed to Genesis, "take that box. Sephiroth, you grab a new one." Now Genesis had to blink a few times at being ordered to do something, but with a shrug went to grab the box from Sephiroth as Vincent supervised. Then Angeal returned...
"Alright, alright I get your excited," came a voice that literally sent chills up Vincent's spine because he knew that voice, "but please-" and the voice stopped dead as Vincent whirled around. The women stopped dead, as blown away as he was. Slowly a wry smile crosses her face, "Well well.... Vincent Valentine, darkening my doorstep?"
Vincent felt every ounce of what little color was in his face drain out as he stared in horrified recognition of one of ShinRa's top scientists and fellow Jenova project participant. The ex-turk immediately blocked Sephiroth from her line of sight. But Gillian Hewley's confused expression gave him a second's pause...
"Sephiroth, go take your friends inside and get started packing."
"But Father-"
Vincent, not taking his eyes off of Gillian, snapped, "Later! Right now, I want you and these two inside getting your room in order. NOW."
"But how do you know-" Vincent grabbed some of that silver hair, gently though, and tugged Sephiroth towards the house, "Your hair is going this way. You may want to come with it." The boy's response was to roll his eyes but does as he is told. As the other two reluctantly follow behind him. There was a heavy silence for a few minutes.
"Vincent Valentine, this a surprise." Gillian murmured, smiling at him. Vincent resisted the urge to swallow hard, mouth suddenly dry, but he spoke anyway.
"Gillian Hewley... I wouldn't think you'd be here. You seemed perfectly happy in Midgar last we saw of each other."
Gillian sighed wearily her friendly smile disappearing a little, "Feelings change."
"Indeed they do... " For a minute, the thoughts went running through Vincent's head as he tried to come up a subtle way of doing this, "The dark-haired boy, I thought he looked familiar. He was the final result... wasn't he? Of your project."
"He's my son." She looked away, but the words were firm.
"... But he was used in your project wasn't he?" Here Vincent held up his hands to stop her protests, "I'm not arguing the morality of it. But.... I need to know." Gillian looked away and nodded. Vincent took a second to ponder this over. There was a slim... slim chance this would be okay.
"I will only ask you one more question about the project, and I want the full, honest truth of it. Why are you and he here, not Midgar?"
"I wanted my son to have a normal childhood, is that so wrong. It was the least I could do for him."
Vincent adopted a neutral look as he studied her... till finally he huffed and turned his eyes skyward... Options? Limited. He'd have to tell her. Either she had cut ties with ShinRa and wouldn't tell them anyway, or at the very least, she'd know her head as well as her son's would be on the chopping block with his and Sephiroth's. And he'd watched that boy... he was well-loved.
Vincent took a deep breathe, before plunging in, "You aren't the only one who's wished to protect someone from those scientist." His look became a deadly serious one, eyes smoldering, "I'm going to tell you something, something that you must swear not to repeat to anyone. And be warned... if you break it, mark my words, your son will end up right back in Dr. Hollander's clutches."
Gillian eyes widened a little, but nodded, "It's not Hollander I'm worried about, but I understand..."
Upstairs the boys, having been watching the whole time from Sephiroth's window as the adults talk, frustrated they couldn't hear anything. But they COULD see... Vincent's serious expression, Gillian's eyes getting bigger and bigger... till finally when Vincent seemed to finish, she staggered forward as if to collapse...
Vincent caught the stunned women easily and walked her back to her own front stoop to sit down, knowing he had about five seconds before the boys come tearing out to see what was wrong, "So you understand, now. Not a soul Gillian," a flat smile "All our lives depend on it."
Gillian, still trying to catch her breath, spoke in a gasp, "Not a soul. But how could you-" At that exact moment Angeal came tearing out, crying, "Mom! Mom! are you okay?!"
Vincent straightened up and faced the boy, "She's fine young one. Just a bit of a shock." Angeal just gave Vincent a wary look, clinging to his mom as if trying to protect her from the big mean man.
Vincent knew better then to get between a son protecting his beloved mother, so instead opted to distract him, "I thought you wanted to help my son...?" Gillian, recognizing what the man was trying to do, patted Angeal's hair putting on a smile, "I'm fine sweetheart go help your friends."
Vincent kept his voice low as Angeal, actually attempting to give him a death glare, made his way back inside, "... Why do I have the sudden urge to sleep with my eyes open tonight?"
"I wouldn't worry even if he wanted fight, he would do it to you face to face not in your sleep."
Vincent felt his lips twitch, "Quite the sense of honor." Slowly he sat down next to her.
"In answer to your question, it was ludicrously easy. The planning and preparations took months... but the act itself? All of about five minutes."
"Actually what I was about to ask was how could you bring him here." A muscle in Vincent's jaw twitched, as he attempted to not get defensive.
"Obviously I was... unaware of your change of circumstances. I was living in Golden Saucer, doing the books for a casino, and wanted to get out. Your Mayor was evidently impressed, offered me a job as master of the books for your precious dumb apple crop. I had hoped to spend some time here... small enough to, mostly escape ShinRa's notice... and Sephiroth's not very good when his life's organizational scheme is uprooted," this actually got a tiny smile from him, "If he ever throws a blatant hissey fit or challenges me it's usually when we're about to move."
"I can imagine that would be hard for him..." She allowed herself a deep breathe, not about to leave Vincent and Sephiroth on their own, "But you must be careful Hollander comes every few months to check on the boys."
"I'll find a convenient excuse to get out- wait. Did you say... boys? As in more then one?"
Gillian mentally kicked herself for revealing that, "The mayor's son Genesis."
Vincent now had to swallow an oath, "Of course... the one before Angeal." Then a disturbing fact connected. All three.... "specimens" of the Jenova project had manged to end up here?
Vincent was too old to believe in coincidences.
"Gillian... doesn't it strike you as odd? All of three of them despite everything coming... here?"
"It's no coincidence Both Genesis and Angeal are here. We discovered Genesis was normal, and thus a failure." Vincent frowned slightly at the word 'failure'... but accepted in terms of the project that was true, "So we sent him to a nice quiet village far away from everything. It was a good deal for the mayor, his wife was unable to bear children so he would have an heir and the support of ShinRa behind him. When Angeal was born I talked to Hollander and we both agreed it might be better for the boys if they grew up in a normal environment. So I came to live here under the pretense that I would monitor Genesis' progress to see if Jenova project effect would manifest themselves later. It was the only excuse I could think of to get my son out of there."
"My congratulations on successfully getting him out. Would that Hojo could've been convinced of the same."
"Genesis was actually the central project, Angeal was sort of... unanticipated."
Vincent politely bit his tongue about Lucrecia not exactly planning on Sephiroth, "I suppose it makes no difference... and you don't seem to mind he was unexpected."
Gillian, after a pause, finally admitted in a soft voice, "I didn't know I was pregnant at the time I was injected with the cells." Vincent paused himself, part of him wanting to point out that maybe.. maybe she should've checked, or perhaps not have gotten injected with cells from an unknown being in the first place... but he stayed silent. After all, he hadn't told her how he'd managed to stay close to Sephiroth after being removed from the project.
".... I should go in. See that those three are actually doing as told." He held a debate for a minute before, "I left water boiling and the supplies for tea out... Wutaian blend. It's good for a palpitating heart.
"I could certainly use some. Thank you." Gillian accepted, smiling. Vincent just shrugged and led her inside.
Chica's Chatterings: Hehehehehe!!! Our trio has been formed? Oh the Havoc they will wreak... X333
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