XI
Cloud stood motionless, face passive, but mind whirling. Another?! Another what?!Cid, a little more revealing with himself, echoed his exact thoughts.
"Another? Another /what/?!" Cloud mentally smiled at this, but the situation was too serious for smiling at the moment. The stranger chuckled.
"Another from your past, Strife." He said mysteriously. It suddenly clicked with Cloud.
"The planet's sending someone else back?" He asked, heart thudding in his throat. The hooded man nodded slowly. Cloud was growing excited.
"When, where?"
"Eminently, though I do not know where, this time. My apologies." Cloud opened his mouth, along with several others in the room, to ask one more question, but the stranger disappeared into thin air, leaving them all standing in silence.
"SHIT!" Cid successfully broke the silence. "That fucker just fuck'in disappeared!" Tifa had gone deathly pale. No one else said anything. "Well, what the fuck are we gunna do?" Cid went on, no so much because he wanted to know, but because he didn't want to sit in that horrible silence that seemed to breed and multiply like rabbits among the present company. Cloud looked up, eyes heavy with swirling thoughts and emotions.
"I don't know, Cid. Where would we start looking for someone with so little information? We don't even know who we're looking for…" He said, despair and frustration sinking into his voice.
"I think I can safely guess who it is…" Everyone jumped. Sephiroth, still crouching on the floor weakly, had been the one to speak, though his voice was so hoarse that it was barely recognizable. Cloud's head snapped around to stare down at his friend. "I can't be sure, of course…" Sephiroth said, then trailed off, not finishing, but merely making eye contact with Cloud, some horribly deep communication passing between their eyes. Cloud stepped back, breath catching.
"You--" He choked. Sephiroth nodded.
"It would make perfect sense, wouldn't it?" Sephiroth said. Tifa who'd been watching, wary of Cloud's reaction to whatever he'd gotten from Sephiroth's seemingly unreadable eyes, saw the silver-haired man's eyes suddenly fill with grief. Cloud nodded .
"Yes, I suppose it would." Tifa, totally lost, and not liking it shot a glance at Cid, who looked like he felt just the same. She caught his eye.
"Um, excuse me." He burst out, taking the cue. "But what the fuck is going on here?" Cloud turned around to face the rest of his friends.
"I don't know Cid. But we need to follow this lead, pathetic as it is." Cloud sighed. "I just don't know where to start…" He felt suddenly tired.
"Then lets go to Cosmo Canyon." Vincent said suddenly. He smiled at everyone's surprised expressions. "I'm sure Nanaki could help us. This event is sure to cause some change in the flow of the Lifestream. Nanaki will be sure to notice it." Tifa smiled suddenly.
"You're always so composed, Vincent." She said, still smiling warmly. Vincent cast his eyes to the floor, embarrassed.
"No, she's right, Vin." Cid said, wrapping an arm around Vincent's shoulders. "We might have thought of that eventually…but it would have takin' us fuckin' forever!" He gave Vincent a light squeeze, then blushed suddenly, pulling back. Tifa was giving him a weird stare. "Uh…" Vincent chuckled lightly.
"Busted, Cid." He said softly. Tifa had folded her arms and was staring at them both, one eyebrow raised, foot tapping. Cid's face went from red, to somewhere in the purple range.
"Okay, what's up with you two?" She said, a smirk crawling across her face. Behind her, Sephiroth and Cloud exchanged amused looks.
"Nothing!" Cid said, too fast.
"Yea. Uh huh. Sure, Cid. Which is why you were all curled up snug in bed together this morning, right?" Cid's ears turned about the same color as Vincent's eyes.
"Well, um… there was only one bed and um… I… uh…" Vincent burst into laughter suddenly, startling everyone.
"Cid, shut up." He said, grinning. He proceeded to knock Cid backwards onto the bed, pouncing on him, and kissing him reverently. Tifa blushed hotly at the sight, but regained her composure just in time for Cid to sit up again, released, grinning stupidly, face flushed. Vincent was looking smug. Tifa grinned.
"Ah. I see." Cid went pale.
"Hey… Uh, don't tell the others, will ya, Teef?" He said sheepishly. Tifa gaped.
"You mean they don't know either."
"No, they've been keeping it secret all this time!" Cloud burst out suddenly. He was grinning as well. Cid went a little paler.
"Now, C'mon, Kid…" Cid began. "I kept my mouth shut 'bout you'n the General there…"
"I'm impressed Highwind. You're so flustered, you haven't cussed at all for five whole sentences." Sephiroth pointed out. Cid made a face.
"Oh, Fuck you." He said, sticking his tongue out childishly.
"He's recovered." Vincent said casually to no one in particular.
"I'd rather not, thanks." Sephiroth said calmly, a wry smile tugging at his lips. "Cloud might get jealous." He added, smile stretching. Cloud let out a surprised gasp and turned neon-red.
"No, but seriously…" Cid began again. "I don't…" He trailed off, looking embarrassed. "Its just… no one ever knew…." He tried again. Beside him, Vincent lifted his face carefully, and looked right into Cid's eyes.
"Cid, has it changed the way they look at you?" He asked, pointing to Tifa and Cloud. "No." He answered firmly. "They're still your friends. They're our friends. Nothings going to change." He finished. Behind him, Tifa and Cloud nodded encouragingly. Cid looked up, smiled weakly and nodded.
"Shit, okay. I trust you guys." Vincent hugged him lightly and stood.
"Well, that's settled, isn't it?" He said, smiling lightheartedly. "Cid will officially be dragging his sorry ass out of the closet once and for all." Cid blushed, and Tifa giggled. "But first, we have another issue on our hands."
"We should get to Cosmo Canyon as soon as possible." Cloud agreed. The others nodded.
"Yes, but first I have an errand to run." Vincent said. Cloud shrugged.
"Sure. Lets be done by noon, will that work?" Vincent nodded.
"More than enough." He started towards the door, pausing next to Cloud and Sephiroth. "Will you join me, please, Sephiroth?" He said politely. Sephiroth glanced at Cloud, caught his eyes, then nodded, following Vincent out. Both men disappeared out the door.
"What the hell was that about?!" Tifa asked, watching them go. Cid shot Cloud a grin.
"Vin's got sumthin' he's gotta work out with 'em." He said. Tifa fixed him a glare.
"And what would that be. Come on, Cid, I know you know." Cid laughed, and went to his things to dig up a cigarette. Lighting it, he shot her a smirk.
"I do know, but that's for Vincent to decide on whether or not to talk about." Tifa pouted.
"Oh, come /on/! Tell me something!" She pleaded.
"Alright." Cloud said. "Vincent and Cid are getting married and Vincent wants Sephiroth to be his best man. They went to pick out a dress."
"Really?!" Tifa looked horrified. Cloud laughed.
"No." Tifa threw a pillow at him.
"Jerk!" Cid nearly fell to the floor in laughter.
Vincent and Sephiroth walked in silence across town, ignoring the weird stares both men were collecting from passerby. Sephiroth, wary, kept his head down.
"They won't recognize you." Vincent assured him. "As far as the public knows, Meteor was a natural disaster that we somehow managed to stop. You supposedly died eleven years ago." Sephiroth heaved a sigh.
"So nobody really knows what happened?"
"No." Vincent said. "ShinRa claimed that Meteor fell on its own, and that the person we fought was some crazed anarchist plotting the demise of ShinRa, trying to stop our efforts, is all. They knew better than to bring you into it." Sephiroth sighed. He wasn't sure how to take that.
"So I'm still just a deceased SOLDIER General?" He said flatly. Vincent chuckled.
"It was that or a megalomaniac homicidal maniac bent on destroying the world." Vincent said, shooting a sideways glance at the slightly taller man. Sephiroth nodded in agreement with Vincent's perspective. Vincent stopped. "Well, here we are." He said softly. They were on the other side of town, a small medical office on the ground level of one of the homely looking buildings. "This isn't so bad…" He added, stepping inside. Vincent's skin crawled with anything to do with medicine or science, and rightfully so. He had a pretty good hunch that Sephiroth was no better.
"Barely looks like a hospital," Sephiroth agreed.
"What a relief." They said in unison. They were greeted by a young woman at a reception desk in a cozy waiting room.
"Good morning, gentlemen." She said, eyeing both men with an appreciative gleam in her eyes. Sephiroth felt himself squirming a little under her stare. He got this a lot, and it always made him uncomfortable. Vincent stepped in front of him, blocking her gaze, and Sephiroth couldn't object.
"Good morning." The dark haired man greeted. "I made an appointment for this morning." Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, surprised at the appointment. He must have done it on his way back from taking Tifa home.
"Okay. And your name?"
"Valentine." She smiled.
"Ooh, wonderful name, Mr. Valentine. Very romantic." Sephiroth rolled his eyes at the horrible flirtation. Vincent, however, took it quite in stride.
"Yes, my boyfriend thought so too." Sephiroth nearly burst into laughter. The girl's smile /vanished/ and she paled several shades in her surprise. Vincent went right on like he hadn't said anything.
"We are in a bit of hurry, though." He added.
"Alright. What was your concern? I'll call the doctor in right away." She said, still looking stunned. Her eyes flicked to Sephiroth, and he grimaced, realizing she probably thought he was Vincent's 'boyfriend'. Oh well. Saves me the trouble as well.Vincent shot her a smile.
"I'd like a blood test, to check my relation with Sephiroth here." She paled another shade.
"He's not your boyfriend, is he?" She asked, looking worried. Vincent laughed.
"Heavens, no. He's my son. I think. That's why we're checking." She blinked again and Sephiroth couldn't help but chuckle. He could see the thoughts running through her little head: /But you're nearly the same age!/ She didn't say it, though, and he and Vincent sat down in a pair of cozy seats, and waited. It wasn't five minutes when a kindly looking man in his late fifties came out, and beckoned them back into his office. Sephiroth and Vincent grimaced at the sight of the white lab coat, but held it together.
They arrived in the little office, neat and clean, but not so horribly white and empty as Hojo's labs had always been. There were a few colorful posters and diagrams covering the walls, lightening the mood. The doctor gestured for them to sit on an examining table, but neither would do it. They chose to stand in front of it instead.
"Hello, Gentlemen." The doctor introduced himself. "I'm Doctor Roberts. Jeniece tells me that you want a fraternity test, but I'm a little confused. You look like you're only a few years apart in age." Vincent winced.
"Yes, we would appear that way, but I was born sixty three years ago." Vincent said, looking worried. Dr. Roberts blinked, still confused. "Can we just have the test?" Vincent pleaded. The doctor shrugged, smiling warmly.
"Sure sure. Have a seat, boys." In unison, Sephiroth and Vincent turned to look at the padded table behind them with a glint of fear, then turned quickly back to look at the doctor and say,
"I can stand." Bewildered, Dr. Roberts shook his surprise off and simply got to work. He pushed up both men's' sleeves, wiping down their arms with a sterile alcohol wipe. Sephiroth felt himself sweating. The last injection of any kind he'd had, was a mako injection, and a particularly painful one, though all his mako treatments had left him in agony for days. Dr. Robert's brilliant blue eyes shot up to look Sephiroth in the eyes.
"Phobic?" He asked gently. Sephiroth swallowed.
"Something like that. Lets just say I've had some very bad experiences with needles and the sort." He explained weakly. "So had Vincent." He added. Dr. Roberts smiled comfortingly.
"Well, I assure you this one won't be a bad experience." He promised. He went and found a fresh syringe and brought it back to Sephiroth. "You first so you don't have to wait and worry." Sephiroth watched him raise the syringe, slitted pupils widening. Dr. Roberts paused. "You have very interesting eyes, young man. Very expressive, though I don't think I've ever seen a human with slit-pupils before." Sephiroth's face darkened.
"I'm special." he said coolly. Dr. Roberts nodded.
"Indeed you are. Here, don't watch what I'm doing." He lifted his hand to gently turn Sephiroth's head to face away from him. Sephiroth started to look back as he lifted the needle, but Roberts caught him, and held his chin gently this time, forcing him to look away. He made quick work of drawing blood, and slapped some gauze over the tiny wound in Sephiroth's pale arm, turning away with the needle before Sephiroth could turn to see it. He looked up to see Vincent watching him intently. Dr. Roberts took the first blood sample and put it into proper storage, then turned to Vincent. "Your turn…Vincent was it?" Vincent nodded. Vincent had had time to prepare himself, and was more cooperative with the Doctor, and his blood was drawn in seconds. As soon as Dr. Roberts turn his back, Vincent let out a silent, shaky breath, and looked down at his hand, watching it shake violently. He and Sephiroth exchanged sympathetic looks. They remained where they stood, watching the older man bustle around the room, setting up equipment. They waited as he began to run the blood samples through machines for comparison. He let out a startled cry. "My word! Have you both survived mako poisoning!?" He sounded horrified at the thought.
"Twice every month since I was four." Sephiroth said bitterly. Dr. Roberts turned around quickly, looking up at Sephiroth in questioning alarm. "Mako injections. Ever heard of a man named Professor Hojo?" Sephiroth spat the name as if it were a piece of rotten fruit. Roberts' eyes widened.
"He experimented on humans…?!"
"We're living proof." Vincent said softly.
"I was his favorite toy." Sephiroth said bitterly. Roberts frowned darkly.
"I met him once. Didn't like him."
"No one does." Sephiroth said dryly. Roberts nodded and went back to work in silence for a while. Finally, he looked back up.
"Well," He began, smiling over at Vincent. "It looks like you are indeed the paternal father of Sephiroth, here." Sephiroth started violently. Roberts smiled knowingly. "Yes, I know you never told me your name, but there's not many like you out there. In fact, I'd heard you were dead." Sephiroth bristled, feeling threatened. He didn't like being second guessed.
"He was. The Lifestream brought him back not too long ago." Vincent said softly.
"Yes… The Planet is strange in its ways, but it never does a thing without reason." Dr. Roberts said strangely. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes.
"Who are you?"
"Just an old man trying to make a living. Oh, don't worry, I won't tell anyone who you are, or what happened, though I am honored to meet you both." Sephiroth remained tense. "No go on, and don't let me bother you." He finished, ushering both of them out the door. "Are you proud of your son, Mr. Valentine?" Vincent turned back at the last comment to shoot a grateful smile at Roberts.
"Yes, very much so."
Yaaaaah! Warm N Fuzzies! lol. :) Kinda corny, I know, but hey... the last few chappies were so heavy I needed an interlude. :) Besides, False Advertising is so heavy, I wanted to write something a little lighter.
Cloud stood motionless, face passive, but mind whirling. Another?! Another what?!Cid, a little more revealing with himself, echoed his exact thoughts.
"Another? Another /what/?!" Cloud mentally smiled at this, but the situation was too serious for smiling at the moment. The stranger chuckled.
"Another from your past, Strife." He said mysteriously. It suddenly clicked with Cloud.
"The planet's sending someone else back?" He asked, heart thudding in his throat. The hooded man nodded slowly. Cloud was growing excited.
"When, where?"
"Eminently, though I do not know where, this time. My apologies." Cloud opened his mouth, along with several others in the room, to ask one more question, but the stranger disappeared into thin air, leaving them all standing in silence.
"SHIT!" Cid successfully broke the silence. "That fucker just fuck'in disappeared!" Tifa had gone deathly pale. No one else said anything. "Well, what the fuck are we gunna do?" Cid went on, no so much because he wanted to know, but because he didn't want to sit in that horrible silence that seemed to breed and multiply like rabbits among the present company. Cloud looked up, eyes heavy with swirling thoughts and emotions.
"I don't know, Cid. Where would we start looking for someone with so little information? We don't even know who we're looking for…" He said, despair and frustration sinking into his voice.
"I think I can safely guess who it is…" Everyone jumped. Sephiroth, still crouching on the floor weakly, had been the one to speak, though his voice was so hoarse that it was barely recognizable. Cloud's head snapped around to stare down at his friend. "I can't be sure, of course…" Sephiroth said, then trailed off, not finishing, but merely making eye contact with Cloud, some horribly deep communication passing between their eyes. Cloud stepped back, breath catching.
"You--" He choked. Sephiroth nodded.
"It would make perfect sense, wouldn't it?" Sephiroth said. Tifa who'd been watching, wary of Cloud's reaction to whatever he'd gotten from Sephiroth's seemingly unreadable eyes, saw the silver-haired man's eyes suddenly fill with grief. Cloud nodded .
"Yes, I suppose it would." Tifa, totally lost, and not liking it shot a glance at Cid, who looked like he felt just the same. She caught his eye.
"Um, excuse me." He burst out, taking the cue. "But what the fuck is going on here?" Cloud turned around to face the rest of his friends.
"I don't know Cid. But we need to follow this lead, pathetic as it is." Cloud sighed. "I just don't know where to start…" He felt suddenly tired.
"Then lets go to Cosmo Canyon." Vincent said suddenly. He smiled at everyone's surprised expressions. "I'm sure Nanaki could help us. This event is sure to cause some change in the flow of the Lifestream. Nanaki will be sure to notice it." Tifa smiled suddenly.
"You're always so composed, Vincent." She said, still smiling warmly. Vincent cast his eyes to the floor, embarrassed.
"No, she's right, Vin." Cid said, wrapping an arm around Vincent's shoulders. "We might have thought of that eventually…but it would have takin' us fuckin' forever!" He gave Vincent a light squeeze, then blushed suddenly, pulling back. Tifa was giving him a weird stare. "Uh…" Vincent chuckled lightly.
"Busted, Cid." He said softly. Tifa had folded her arms and was staring at them both, one eyebrow raised, foot tapping. Cid's face went from red, to somewhere in the purple range.
"Okay, what's up with you two?" She said, a smirk crawling across her face. Behind her, Sephiroth and Cloud exchanged amused looks.
"Nothing!" Cid said, too fast.
"Yea. Uh huh. Sure, Cid. Which is why you were all curled up snug in bed together this morning, right?" Cid's ears turned about the same color as Vincent's eyes.
"Well, um… there was only one bed and um… I… uh…" Vincent burst into laughter suddenly, startling everyone.
"Cid, shut up." He said, grinning. He proceeded to knock Cid backwards onto the bed, pouncing on him, and kissing him reverently. Tifa blushed hotly at the sight, but regained her composure just in time for Cid to sit up again, released, grinning stupidly, face flushed. Vincent was looking smug. Tifa grinned.
"Ah. I see." Cid went pale.
"Hey… Uh, don't tell the others, will ya, Teef?" He said sheepishly. Tifa gaped.
"You mean they don't know either."
"No, they've been keeping it secret all this time!" Cloud burst out suddenly. He was grinning as well. Cid went a little paler.
"Now, C'mon, Kid…" Cid began. "I kept my mouth shut 'bout you'n the General there…"
"I'm impressed Highwind. You're so flustered, you haven't cussed at all for five whole sentences." Sephiroth pointed out. Cid made a face.
"Oh, Fuck you." He said, sticking his tongue out childishly.
"He's recovered." Vincent said casually to no one in particular.
"I'd rather not, thanks." Sephiroth said calmly, a wry smile tugging at his lips. "Cloud might get jealous." He added, smile stretching. Cloud let out a surprised gasp and turned neon-red.
"No, but seriously…" Cid began again. "I don't…" He trailed off, looking embarrassed. "Its just… no one ever knew…." He tried again. Beside him, Vincent lifted his face carefully, and looked right into Cid's eyes.
"Cid, has it changed the way they look at you?" He asked, pointing to Tifa and Cloud. "No." He answered firmly. "They're still your friends. They're our friends. Nothings going to change." He finished. Behind him, Tifa and Cloud nodded encouragingly. Cid looked up, smiled weakly and nodded.
"Shit, okay. I trust you guys." Vincent hugged him lightly and stood.
"Well, that's settled, isn't it?" He said, smiling lightheartedly. "Cid will officially be dragging his sorry ass out of the closet once and for all." Cid blushed, and Tifa giggled. "But first, we have another issue on our hands."
"We should get to Cosmo Canyon as soon as possible." Cloud agreed. The others nodded.
"Yes, but first I have an errand to run." Vincent said. Cloud shrugged.
"Sure. Lets be done by noon, will that work?" Vincent nodded.
"More than enough." He started towards the door, pausing next to Cloud and Sephiroth. "Will you join me, please, Sephiroth?" He said politely. Sephiroth glanced at Cloud, caught his eyes, then nodded, following Vincent out. Both men disappeared out the door.
"What the hell was that about?!" Tifa asked, watching them go. Cid shot Cloud a grin.
"Vin's got sumthin' he's gotta work out with 'em." He said. Tifa fixed him a glare.
"And what would that be. Come on, Cid, I know you know." Cid laughed, and went to his things to dig up a cigarette. Lighting it, he shot her a smirk.
"I do know, but that's for Vincent to decide on whether or not to talk about." Tifa pouted.
"Oh, come /on/! Tell me something!" She pleaded.
"Alright." Cloud said. "Vincent and Cid are getting married and Vincent wants Sephiroth to be his best man. They went to pick out a dress."
"Really?!" Tifa looked horrified. Cloud laughed.
"No." Tifa threw a pillow at him.
"Jerk!" Cid nearly fell to the floor in laughter.
Vincent and Sephiroth walked in silence across town, ignoring the weird stares both men were collecting from passerby. Sephiroth, wary, kept his head down.
"They won't recognize you." Vincent assured him. "As far as the public knows, Meteor was a natural disaster that we somehow managed to stop. You supposedly died eleven years ago." Sephiroth heaved a sigh.
"So nobody really knows what happened?"
"No." Vincent said. "ShinRa claimed that Meteor fell on its own, and that the person we fought was some crazed anarchist plotting the demise of ShinRa, trying to stop our efforts, is all. They knew better than to bring you into it." Sephiroth sighed. He wasn't sure how to take that.
"So I'm still just a deceased SOLDIER General?" He said flatly. Vincent chuckled.
"It was that or a megalomaniac homicidal maniac bent on destroying the world." Vincent said, shooting a sideways glance at the slightly taller man. Sephiroth nodded in agreement with Vincent's perspective. Vincent stopped. "Well, here we are." He said softly. They were on the other side of town, a small medical office on the ground level of one of the homely looking buildings. "This isn't so bad…" He added, stepping inside. Vincent's skin crawled with anything to do with medicine or science, and rightfully so. He had a pretty good hunch that Sephiroth was no better.
"Barely looks like a hospital," Sephiroth agreed.
"What a relief." They said in unison. They were greeted by a young woman at a reception desk in a cozy waiting room.
"Good morning, gentlemen." She said, eyeing both men with an appreciative gleam in her eyes. Sephiroth felt himself squirming a little under her stare. He got this a lot, and it always made him uncomfortable. Vincent stepped in front of him, blocking her gaze, and Sephiroth couldn't object.
"Good morning." The dark haired man greeted. "I made an appointment for this morning." Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, surprised at the appointment. He must have done it on his way back from taking Tifa home.
"Okay. And your name?"
"Valentine." She smiled.
"Ooh, wonderful name, Mr. Valentine. Very romantic." Sephiroth rolled his eyes at the horrible flirtation. Vincent, however, took it quite in stride.
"Yes, my boyfriend thought so too." Sephiroth nearly burst into laughter. The girl's smile /vanished/ and she paled several shades in her surprise. Vincent went right on like he hadn't said anything.
"We are in a bit of hurry, though." He added.
"Alright. What was your concern? I'll call the doctor in right away." She said, still looking stunned. Her eyes flicked to Sephiroth, and he grimaced, realizing she probably thought he was Vincent's 'boyfriend'. Oh well. Saves me the trouble as well.Vincent shot her a smile.
"I'd like a blood test, to check my relation with Sephiroth here." She paled another shade.
"He's not your boyfriend, is he?" She asked, looking worried. Vincent laughed.
"Heavens, no. He's my son. I think. That's why we're checking." She blinked again and Sephiroth couldn't help but chuckle. He could see the thoughts running through her little head: /But you're nearly the same age!/ She didn't say it, though, and he and Vincent sat down in a pair of cozy seats, and waited. It wasn't five minutes when a kindly looking man in his late fifties came out, and beckoned them back into his office. Sephiroth and Vincent grimaced at the sight of the white lab coat, but held it together.
They arrived in the little office, neat and clean, but not so horribly white and empty as Hojo's labs had always been. There were a few colorful posters and diagrams covering the walls, lightening the mood. The doctor gestured for them to sit on an examining table, but neither would do it. They chose to stand in front of it instead.
"Hello, Gentlemen." The doctor introduced himself. "I'm Doctor Roberts. Jeniece tells me that you want a fraternity test, but I'm a little confused. You look like you're only a few years apart in age." Vincent winced.
"Yes, we would appear that way, but I was born sixty three years ago." Vincent said, looking worried. Dr. Roberts blinked, still confused. "Can we just have the test?" Vincent pleaded. The doctor shrugged, smiling warmly.
"Sure sure. Have a seat, boys." In unison, Sephiroth and Vincent turned to look at the padded table behind them with a glint of fear, then turned quickly back to look at the doctor and say,
"I can stand." Bewildered, Dr. Roberts shook his surprise off and simply got to work. He pushed up both men's' sleeves, wiping down their arms with a sterile alcohol wipe. Sephiroth felt himself sweating. The last injection of any kind he'd had, was a mako injection, and a particularly painful one, though all his mako treatments had left him in agony for days. Dr. Robert's brilliant blue eyes shot up to look Sephiroth in the eyes.
"Phobic?" He asked gently. Sephiroth swallowed.
"Something like that. Lets just say I've had some very bad experiences with needles and the sort." He explained weakly. "So had Vincent." He added. Dr. Roberts smiled comfortingly.
"Well, I assure you this one won't be a bad experience." He promised. He went and found a fresh syringe and brought it back to Sephiroth. "You first so you don't have to wait and worry." Sephiroth watched him raise the syringe, slitted pupils widening. Dr. Roberts paused. "You have very interesting eyes, young man. Very expressive, though I don't think I've ever seen a human with slit-pupils before." Sephiroth's face darkened.
"I'm special." he said coolly. Dr. Roberts nodded.
"Indeed you are. Here, don't watch what I'm doing." He lifted his hand to gently turn Sephiroth's head to face away from him. Sephiroth started to look back as he lifted the needle, but Roberts caught him, and held his chin gently this time, forcing him to look away. He made quick work of drawing blood, and slapped some gauze over the tiny wound in Sephiroth's pale arm, turning away with the needle before Sephiroth could turn to see it. He looked up to see Vincent watching him intently. Dr. Roberts took the first blood sample and put it into proper storage, then turned to Vincent. "Your turn…Vincent was it?" Vincent nodded. Vincent had had time to prepare himself, and was more cooperative with the Doctor, and his blood was drawn in seconds. As soon as Dr. Roberts turn his back, Vincent let out a silent, shaky breath, and looked down at his hand, watching it shake violently. He and Sephiroth exchanged sympathetic looks. They remained where they stood, watching the older man bustle around the room, setting up equipment. They waited as he began to run the blood samples through machines for comparison. He let out a startled cry. "My word! Have you both survived mako poisoning!?" He sounded horrified at the thought.
"Twice every month since I was four." Sephiroth said bitterly. Dr. Roberts turned around quickly, looking up at Sephiroth in questioning alarm. "Mako injections. Ever heard of a man named Professor Hojo?" Sephiroth spat the name as if it were a piece of rotten fruit. Roberts' eyes widened.
"He experimented on humans…?!"
"We're living proof." Vincent said softly.
"I was his favorite toy." Sephiroth said bitterly. Roberts frowned darkly.
"I met him once. Didn't like him."
"No one does." Sephiroth said dryly. Roberts nodded and went back to work in silence for a while. Finally, he looked back up.
"Well," He began, smiling over at Vincent. "It looks like you are indeed the paternal father of Sephiroth, here." Sephiroth started violently. Roberts smiled knowingly. "Yes, I know you never told me your name, but there's not many like you out there. In fact, I'd heard you were dead." Sephiroth bristled, feeling threatened. He didn't like being second guessed.
"He was. The Lifestream brought him back not too long ago." Vincent said softly.
"Yes… The Planet is strange in its ways, but it never does a thing without reason." Dr. Roberts said strangely. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes.
"Who are you?"
"Just an old man trying to make a living. Oh, don't worry, I won't tell anyone who you are, or what happened, though I am honored to meet you both." Sephiroth remained tense. "No go on, and don't let me bother you." He finished, ushering both of them out the door. "Are you proud of your son, Mr. Valentine?" Vincent turned back at the last comment to shoot a grateful smile at Roberts.
"Yes, very much so."
Yaaaaah! Warm N Fuzzies! lol. :) Kinda corny, I know, but hey... the last few chappies were so heavy I needed an interlude. :) Besides, False Advertising is so heavy, I wanted to write something a little lighter.