Put Your Lights On

9.28.05

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This is a FFVII fic by kleptomaniac0. I own no characters except those you haven't heard of, meaning the ones I've made. Normally I'm adverse to posting something new while I have multiple works in progress, but this OC, the first OC I ever created, has been banging against the walls of my head ever since Advent Children came in out Japan. So I'm letting her out before she drives me crazy.

This will be a lot more unguarded than my other works, meaning it'll be sloppier. I'm writing this to get it out of my head and though I always appreciate reviews and constructive criticism, I probably won't be looking at them until the story's done.

Who am I kidding? I couldn't resist any more… 716 hits, damn! Almost as many as my FFX epic, Deliver Me, and I've no doubt Put Your Lights On will outstrip it. Not review-wise, though—PYLO has 20 as opposed to DE's 142.

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Chapter Eleven

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The phone rang during dinner and Reeve, consummate businessman he was, rose to answer it. His wife and daughters groaned, but it was good-natured; Reeve hadn't gotten to where he was by just ignoring calls. Call Reeve if you needed something done; he'd always be there. Picking up the phone, he put it against his ear and said, "Hello?"

"Reeve, this is Sephiroth," murmured a low, deep voice that would have been suited to both a bedroom and a torture chamber. In any case, the sound of it sent chills down Reeve's spine. "I need your help."

Reeve blinked. "I'm sorry...what?"

"Honey, just hang up," his wife, Naomi, called, leaning over to look into the kitchen. "They're telemarketers."

No, no they were not. He flapped a hand at her and pressed the phone tighter to his ear as Sephiroth said, "You know what about."

How could he not? The idea of Sephiroth, the model citizen and soldier, with an illegitimate child made Reeve snicker. Not that he'd ever do so in front of Sephiroth while his sword was in range.

"I'll come to your house after work tomorrow," Sephiroth said and instantly the snickers, purely in Reeve's mind, stopped. "I imagine there are some papers—"

"What, my house?" Reeve exclaimed, cupping his hand over the mouthpiece to hide his hiss from his family.

"Yes, your house."

Reeve glanced into the dining room, where he could see his wife and two daughters. His older girl, Rose, was fifteen and had been noticing boys ever since she'd been twelve. Sephiroth, actually, had been the one who'd started her on that bend. Reeve's stomach did flip-flops as he remembered that she had a door-sized poster of him in a less than decent pose. Reeve wasn't gay, but even that picture made him flustered, and not just because it was of a coworker.

"Don't come to my house!" He almost moaned.

Sephiroth actually sounded surprised. "Why not?"

"Because!" Reeve hastily turned away as his wife looked at him oddly. "Because," he said more quietly, his face turning red, "my older daughter is a fan of yours. A really big one."

There was a long pause. Reeve prayed he was making the smart choice. "I'll live," he said shortly, and Reeve shook from the effort of not banging his head on the wall.

"It really would be better to do this at your house," He hissed.

"No."

"I'll bring everything over."

"No."

"I'll bring beer!" Reeve said desperately.

There was another long pause. "Reeve," Sephiroth said, and Reeve couldn't decide whether he sounded amused or annoyed. "SOLDIERS don't drink alcohol. We can't break it down. Even one shot will give us a hangover from hell."

"Then I'll bring something else!" Reeve said. "Please don't come to my house!"

"...Your daughter has a poster of me, doesn't she?"

Reeve almost died. In the background, he thought he could hear someone laughing.

"It's alright, Reeve." Sephiroth said, his tone perfectly even. "Half the female population of Midgar does. I've long resigned myself to the fact that strange women will have suggestive pictures of me in their bedrooms."

"I'm sorry," Reeve said miserably.

"I'm still alive," Sephiroth said philosophically. "I'm just glad they didn't press too hard for nude photos."

Reeve pulled the phone away from his ear and stared as though a snake were going to emerge from it and bite him in the face. This time the laughing on the other end was audible, and it sounded strongly like there was more than one person doing it.

"Who is that?" Naomi asked, frowning at him.

"Um... Harry," Reeve said, naming his assistant. "He's a little drunk."

Naomi frowned. "Well, tell him not to call during dinner. It's very rude."

"I will," he said, and put the phone back to his ear. The laughing seemed to be done now, or maybe the mouthpiece was just being covered. "Don't come to my house." He said to Sephiroth.

"No." There was a pause. Then Sephiroth said, "Alright. You can come here. I've been convinced that it's a bad idea to make you squirm."

"Thank you," Reeve said, absurdly grateful.

"Follow me after work," he said, and hung up. Reeve heaved a sigh of relief and put the phone back on the hook. "Harry," he said with a shrug, heading back to the dinner table. "That man does some...crazy things."

"Like what?" His younger daughter, Meryl, asked curiously. Like her sister and mother, her hair was very dark, but she had it cut short in a modern fashion that Reeve didn't much care for; fluffed out and highlighted with red. He had to concede that it looked cute, though.

"He asked me not to tell," Reeve said, neatly sidestepping the responsibility of keeping his lies straight. For a moment, he thought he saw an odd look in Naomi's eyes, but the look was there and gone; after a moment, he wasn't sure he'd even seen anything. "So," he said to Rose, picking up his fork again. "You were telling us about something at school?"

"Her boyfriend's stupid," Meryl said with a grin. Rose squawked and glared at her, her dark brown eyes narrowing. Reeve watched Meryl stick her tongue out at her older sister, wondering if Toriko was more like her or Rose.

"Boyfriend?" Naomi exclaimed, frowning. "We haven't heard of this boyfriend, have we, Reeve?"

"Hmm?" Reeve blinked. "Oh...no, we haven't." Naomi sighed and Reeve looked at her, concerned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, but Reeve glanced at his daughters. Meryl was poking at her food but Rose was looking at him with the same annoyed/sad look that was on her mother's face. Reeve looked back at Naomi.

"Really, Naomi, what's wrong?" He asked, his frown deepening. "It's about me working when I'm at home, isn't it?"

"When you are home," Meryl muttered under her breath.

Reeve felt a twinge of guilt, as well as a flare of resentment. "Well, I—" He began to say, but Naomi cut him off with an annoyed shake of her head.

"It's alright, honey," she said, not looking at him. "We understand that you have to work. That your job is important. That sometimes things have to get put on the back burner."

"Not my family!" Reeve protested, but he felt an ugly little thread of agreement slide through him. He had been doing just that, especially recently; people were flocking to Midgar ever since the end of the war, and it was up to him to create places for them to live, to work... To raise their families.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely, looking around the table. It hurt him to see flat, almost distrustful eyes. "I really am. I'll stop taking calls during dinner, I promise."

"Okay, Daddy," Meryl said, smiling. Rose and Naomi smiled too, but he thought he could feel the distance from all of them, as though they were stepping away from him.

"Let's do something," he said. "I'll take the day—the week—off. We can go to Costa del Sol—"

"Really?" Rose exclaimed, her eyes brightened. Meryl gaped. Glancing at Naomi, though, he was surprised to see that her expression hadn't really changed. She shelved it quickly, though, and put a smile on her face.

"That sounds wonderful," she said. "When do you want to go?"

He really needed to check his schedule, but... "Next week," he said firmly. "We'll leave next week. I'll have my secretary—"

"No, I'll do it," Naomi said, her smile deepening. "Just like old times."

Reeve put his hand over his wife's affectionately. She was so beautiful. Her figure had thickened a little over fifteen years of marriage, but her smile still made his heart glow and Reeve thanked God every day he had married her. She was so wonderful, so supportive.

"I love you," he said, and Naomi squeezed his hand.

"I love you too," she said, and her smile made him feel warm all over.

Problem solved—well, patched, at least—dinner resumed and it was as though nothing had ever happened. Reeve sat in a bubble of warmth and happiness, basking in the glow of his family's love.

But...

Somehow, he could not get Sephiroth and the yet-unseen Toriko out of his mind. What were they doing? Were they like this, like a family? Did they even like each other? Reeve couldn't stop wondering, though he tried his very best not to be distracted. His family was much more interesting than work, and definitely more interesting than Sephiroth's...

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Author's note:

In his head, at least. We all know better.

Ugh, considering skipping class today. I'm on whee and I'm afraid to lose this steam.

Just a brief technical note: Tuesti is Reeve's official last name. Check out the awesome Dirge of Cerberus site for confirmation! And his weird-ass costume. Why oh why did they put him in a dress? Kind of? Men are not meant to wear fitted ankle-length coats!

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