Author's note: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters. This is for the 30 Kisses challenge using list kappa. This is set after the game and is AU. Theme 14: Middle of Nowhere.


A Quiet Life

When Sephiroth had died, at least he was pretty sure he was dead, this wasn't what he was expecting. To be fair, he hadn't expected much of anything. He had never given much credence to the idea of an afterlife. However, that didn't stop him from being someplace now. It wasn't like any other place he'd ever been. As far as he could tell, he was standing beside a river. The ground beneath his feet was covered with moss and few stones. There was a soft kiss of a breeze in the air, and it felt like spring. There was something off about the entire place, but Sephiroth couldn't quite put his finger on what.

What he did notice was he felt more like himself than he had in a long time. His memories were hazy at best, but he knew that whatever he'd been doing lately, he hadn't been totally present. It was a little like sleepwalking. Only he remembered bits and pieces of thing but not the whole. It bothered him. There had not been much that Sephiroth had control when he had been younger, but at least he had always known that his mind and his thoughts were his own. Now he wasn't so sure about that. Something had happened, even if he couldn't quite remember it.

That was when he realized that he wasn't alone. There was a girl, a young woman really, standing beside the river. She was dressed in pink and had long chestnut hair, and Sephiroth knew that he should know who she was. Her eyes were green, and when she smiled suddenly it all hit him at once. His memory snapped back into place with crystal clarity, and he reeled in reaction. He had killed her.

He had killed before. He had killed innocents before, though it was something that he tended to avoid if possible. But that had typically been in the heat of battle. He had killed this young woman in cold blood because a voice in his head claiming to be his mother had told him too. What in the world could he have been thinking? It was like all of his logic and reason had just disappeared.

The young woman took a step towards him. Sephiroth met her eyes. She didn't seem to be afraid or him or even angry.

"I remember you. I'm sorry." It was hardly adequate, but he did owe her an apology. Her life had simply been collateral damage to him.

She moved closer. "Sephiroth, I knew what my fate was from the moment I joined Avalanche. I knew what the planet was expecting of me and what it would lead to. And I knew that you didn't have any more choice than I did. I wouldn't exactly say you were in your right mind either."

"That's not an excuse."

"Maybe not. But it is understanding. Though you're right. Maybe we should start over." She offered him her hand. "I'm Aeris Gainsbourgh. It's nice to meet you."

He didn't take her hand. "I don't deserve your forgiveness or your friendship."

Aeris just smiled. "That doesn't matter to me. Besides, we might as well get along. It's not like there's much company here."

He doesn't understand how she can offer him her forgiveness, and he's not sure that he'll ever be able to accept it. But gradually, he gets used to her presence, and Sephiroth couldn't help but be glad that he was not completely alone here. Not that it's easy though. He's not used to constant interaction with others outside of a structured environment. Sephiroth really wasn't used to this sort of companionship. He hadn't really had friends before. Subordinates and allies, yes. Friends, not exactly. Zack was the closest he came to having friend. But Aeris was surprisingly a pleasant companion. He found he enjoyed her company, and to his surprise, they had far more in common than he would have expected. In many ways, this was a rather odd existence for him. Sephiroth was not used to having nothing to do like this. It wasn't like the hurry up and wait of the military. At least he wasn't the only one who struggled with it.

Aeris too was not used to having so much free time on her hands. She freely admitted that she missed gardening and that the free time weighed heavy on her at times. She didn't know why the two of them were separate from everyone else in the Lifestream. They could just as well be in the middle of nowhere. It was a quiet life, and there wasn't much to do except for talk to one another. Sephiroth had the feelings that not many people had seen past the perpetually cheerful façade Aeris often wore besides him, and oddly enough, he found himself telling her things that he never had disclosed before. In some ways that wasn't hard. Sephiroth didn't tend to talk about himself. At least not before now. But Aeris made it easy somehow.

Even if she did make him uneasy with her forgiveness of him. But he was slowly learning to accept it. He wasn't sure that he deserved this afterlife with her, but he had to admit that he was glad to be here with her. It kept things from being boring at the very least.