Put Your Lights On
10.08.05
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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 averse 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 need feedback like sunlight. Drop me a line, you know you want to.
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Chapter Twenty-Four
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Reeve knocked on Sephiroth's door, anxiety and embarrassment twisting in his stomach as he waited to be let in. As he'd expected, Rose hadn't taken the news of Sephiroth's daughter well at all; she'd locked herself in her room and refused to speak to anyone, and she probably would have stayed in there all week if Meryl hadn't stuck a radio right by her door and forced to listen to the second broadcast. Then BAM! She'd flung the door open so hard that she'd hit Meryl in the face and nearly destroyed the radio, and it was all, "Oh, poor Sephy!" and "I wish I could do something," and "Dad, you work with him, right? Can you give him something from me?"
"Reeve, you're a coward!" He cursed himself. "A coward!"
The door opened and Reeve found himself looking down at Toriko, who'd forsaken her black wig and nice dress, and had gone back to wearing her thrift clothes and floral-printed scarves. She looked like a little old Wutaiese lady, and Reeve felt some of his discomfort ease away.
"Hello," he said, smiling.
"Hello," she said gravely. Apparently she'd learned that much Continental.
"Is your father home?" He asked.
Toriko turned over her shoulder. "Chichiue, Lii-bu ga imasu!"
"Reeve, this is a surprise," Sephiroth said, coming out of the hallway. Reeve only had time to notice that Sephiroth was in a tee-shirt and dark slacks before Sephiroth's eyes dropped, and Reeve felt his face burn as the General's brows rose in surprise.
"Is that a..." Sephiroth pointed, and Reeve sheepishly brought out the basket Rose had packed. "What is that?"
"It's a, uh... Care package," Reeve coughed, embarrassed. "From my older daughter, Rose."
"Kanojo mo henna posutaa wo motte masune?" Toriko said, looking from the cookies to Sephiroth.
"Nn," Sephiroth grunted. To Reeve, he said, "Please tell your daughter thank you from us."
"I will," Reeve said, holding the basket out. Sephiroth took it and picked at the cloth wrapping, lowering it so Toriko could look into it too. "Umm... She made sugar cookies. It's the only thing she can bake, so..."
Toriko and Sephiroth blinked at exactly the same time. It was more than a little creepy. Creepy, too, was the way they both said, "Oh."
"Oh?" Reeve said, offended. Then something occurred to him. "You said she didn't understand Continental!"
"She doesn't," Sephiroth said, looking at him and frowning.
"But she went 'oh' at the sugar cookies," Reeve said, pointing.
"She's never seen a sugar cookie before, let alone had one," Sephiroth said as Toriko curiously picked one up and looked at him. "Tabete misanai," he said, and Toriko put the cookie into her mouth. Reeve watched, amused and perturbed as Toriko's eyes lit up.
"She's never had a sugar cookie before," Reeve repeated, staring as Toriko happily chewed, her gray-green eyes shining.
"Sugar's expensive in Wutai," Sephiroth said, giving the basket to Toriko. Reeve watched her go to the kitchen and take out a plate from the cabinet before carefully arranging all of the cookies on it.
"Oh, she doesn't have to do that," Reeve said, walking over to stop her. "Really, they're just cookies..."
"Satou-Kukki ga oishii desu," Toriko said, arranging the lumpy cookies in a flower shape.
"Would you like something to drink, Reeve?" Sephiroth asked, watching his daughter bemusedly.
"Ahh, well, um..." Reeve glanced at his watch. It was five-thirty. He had about an hour before dinner at home. "Sure, why not?"
Toriko hopped onto the counter, still arranging the cookies as Sephiroth went into the small kitchen and began making the fixings for coffee or tea or what-have-you. Reeve walked over to the counter and sat down on one of the tall stools, watching Sephiroth.
"Something interesting?" Sephiroth asked, glancing at him.
"I just never thought I'd see you in street clothes," Reeve said, gesturing at him with one hand. "When you weren't in disguise, that is." Sephiroth chuckled, a purely amused sound, and Reeve relaxed a little more. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Depends," Sephiroth said, glancing at him. "There are some things I don't talk about."
"I understand," Reeve said. "I just wanted to know why you're not wearing jeans."
"You mean denim?" Sephiroth looked down at his pants. "These are easier to move in." He looked at Reeve and said, "The one time I did wear them was for those poster shoots."
Reeve blushed. "Oh... Okay."
Sephiroth looked at him, bemused. "So your daughter still has the poster, hmm?"
"Yes..." Reeve said, his blush deepening—not because the poster was particularly suggestive, but because Rose had covered the margins of it in pink hearts and girlish declarations of marriage and undying love.
"Pfahahaha!" Toriko unexpectedly burst out laughing and clapped her hands over her mouth as Reeve and Sephiroth swung around to look at her. "Hehehe... Gomen nasai..."
"What was that about?" Reeve asked, looking back at Sephiroth.
Sephiroth shrugged. "Don't look at me."
Reeve looked suspiciously at Toriko, whose face was still flickering with the traces of suppressed laughter, and had the nasty suspicion that she'd known what he'd been thinking...
"But that's ridiculous. No one can read minds."
"Coffee or tea?"
Reeve blinked. "Huh? Oh... Coffee, please."
"Hai douzo," Toriko said proudly. Reeve turned and saw that she had arranged Rose's cookies surprisingly well.
"Very nice," he said, and noticed that her eyes were still very bright. "Sephiroth, I don't think your daughter should have sugar."
"Duly noted," Sephiroth said, glancing over his shoulder and lifting a brow as Toriko began to giggle senselessly, her hands still over her mouth. "Do your girls react this strongly?"
"Meryl did when she was younger," Reeve said, watching as Toriko doubled over, shuddering with suppressed laughter. "It's not so bad now, but she still gets giggly—wait, how did you know I had more than one daughter?"
"Company party," Sephiroth replied, and Reeve remembered the event. It had been two years ago, and he had taken his family to the Building for an upper-executive soiree on the 69th floor. Rose and Meryl had gone off to mingle with other children their ages while he and Naomi had circulated among the adults. Dimly Reeve recalled seeing Sephiroth sitting in the corner of the room, surrounded by glowing-eyed men.
"How's your wife?" Sephiroth asked, and for a moment Reeve felt a pang of jealousy before he realized that Sephiroth was only asking a question.
"Oh, she's...fine." Reeve said, aware of how stiff he sounded. Sephiroth inclined his head, and Reeve wondered if the silver-haired man knew the reason for his reluctance. The idea that he might have made Reeve uncomfortable, and he found himself babbling. "Now that the girls are getting older, she's thinking about working again. Naomi used to be an architect, but then we got married and someone needed to stay home to take care of the kids..."
"Of course," Sephiroth said, nodding. "You wouldn't trust your children to anyone else."
Reeve looked at him in surprise. "...No," he said finally. "You wouldn't. Tell me, what's Toriko going to do while you're at work?"
"Sleep, mostly." Sephiroth replied. "She's not well, if you recall."
"She seems sprightly enough to me," Reeve thought as Toriko straightened, the laughter suppressed but her face still twitching. He watched in alarm as she popped another cookie into her mouth.
"She's also be working on her Continental," Sephiroth said, turning Reeve's attention. "Toriko is very determined to speak fluently as soon as possible. Here."
"Oh, thanks," Reeve said, half-standing to take the mug of coffee from Sephiroth. He sniffed the brew and blinked in surprise. "This smells great!"
"Imported from Gongaga," Sephiroth said, a slight smile curling his lips.
"And worth every gil," Reeve said, lifting the dark brew to his lips. His eyebrows shot up in appreciation. "Damn! How much do you pay for this?"
"Too much," Sephiroth said, shrugging. "But it's the only thing that doesn't offend my senses."
Reeve blinked. "So you have a heightened sense of taste too?"
"Taste, touch, hearing, sight, smell..." Sephiroth flexed the fingers of one gloved hand. "It's a good thing my pain threshold is proportionately higher."
Reeve frowned. "So...tasting bad coffee hurts?"
"Doesn't it?" Sephiroth asked with such a serious face that Reeve found himself laughing. Sephiroth rubbed his mouth, but Reeve could see him smiling.
"Chichiue!" Toriko exclaimed. Reeve felt proud; he knew what the word was. His feeling disappeared at the next string of liquid syllables that tumbled from Toriko's mouth. "Dansei no kata ga konomi desuka?"
"Baka na koto wo iuna," Sephiroth said with a light frown.
"What is she saying?" Reeve asked, looking from Toriko to her father and back again.
"She wants to know when I'm going to work tomorrow," Sephiroth replied.
Reeve frowned. "I thought I caught the word for 'stupid' in there."
Sephiroth shook his head. "No."
Reeve looked at Toriko, who was playing with the cookies again. She certainly didn't look like a child who'd just been called stupid by her father. Reeve brushed the matter aside and asked, "Have you given a thought to what school she's going to attend?"
Sephiroth looked annoyed and blew on his own cup of coffee. "No," he said. "Do you know any good ones?"
"You could send her to Waverly," Reeve suggested. "It's the one my girls go to."
"But is it good?" Sephiroth asked.
"I'd hope so!" Reeve exclaimed. "We're paying nearly fifty thousand gil a year for them to go there."
Sephiroth blinked. "What on earth could they be doing there that would cost fifty thousand gil?"
"I think most of that goes to pay the teachers," Reeve said.
Sephiroth looked at Toriko, who had made herself a cup of tea and was sucking on it noisily. Reeve surmised that she still had way too much sugar in her system. "It'll do," he said, looking back at Reeve. "Until we find out what she's good at."
"You're going to send her to a vocational school?" Reeve asked, blinking.
"Is there any reason not to?"
Reeve had to think about that one. "Well... No, not really, but—"
"It's just not done," Sephiroth said with a sardonic twist of the lips.
Reeve flushed. "Well...yeah."
Sephiroth smiled. "I have the feeling we're going to be doing many things that 'just aren't done'." Turning, his expression sobered and he reached past Reeve, pulling the plate of cookies toward him. "Mou Kukki ha tabesuki da."
"Hai, chichiue," Toriko said, and Reeve resisted the urge to edge away as he saw Toriko's eyes almost shining with the unholy amount of energy that was behind them. She was also grinning again.
"Yasuminasai," Sephiroth said, frowning.
"Hai, chichiue," she said, and walked very quickly around the kitchen counter, down the hall, and into one of the side rooms. Sephiroth looked at the cookies and then at Reeve.
"It's really the thought that counts," Reeve said, taking the cookies and putting them back in the basket.
"Thank you," Sephiroth said, and Reeve thought he sounded sincere.
Reeve glanced at his watch. "I should be getting back if I'm to...take care of these," he said, hefting the basket of cookies. "Thanks for the coffee."
"You're welcome." Sephiroth rose to his feet. "Thank you for coming," he said as the two of them walked to the door.
"It was fun," Reeve said, and was surprised to realize that he meant it. "Listen... Do you want to come over sometime and have dinner with us?"
"With your family?" Sephiroth asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Reeve said. Then he grinned and added, "I'm sure Rose would love to see you." As Sephiroth's eyes widened just enough to make him look alarmed, Reeve said, "And Toriko could meet Meryl."
"Meryl," Sephiroth said with a slow nod. "Yes... Well, that sounds good. When would you like us to come over?"
"Uh... I'll get back to you on that," Reeve said, suddenly remembering something. "We're going out of town next week. Costa del Sol."
"Have fun," Sephiroth said.
"We will," Reeve said with a smile. Stepping out into the hallway, he said, "Bye, and thank you again for the coffee."
"No problem," Sephiroth said, and quietly shut the door.
"What, no bye?" Reeve thought with a frown, but shrugged it off. "He's probably not used to having visitors... We can fix that."
Reeve was halfway down the hall before he suddenly realized something important. He stopped dead, his insides chilling, as he remembered what he'd done.
"Damn it! I invited him to dinner!"
Reeve invited everyone to dinner, but he could count the number of times his invitation had been accepted; to most people, eating dinner with a family was not the best career-boosting activity. One-on-one time with the boss was better. Besides, Reeve was a strict promoter, and no amount of being nice to him would get anyone a pay raise or a better job. The only people immune to such motivations—namely, the other Executives—were exactly the kind Reeve didn't want to have around his wife and kids; particularly Scarlet, because just her appearance in their home would give the wrong impression. A few times Reeve had considered bending his policy just enough to have people come over; he was proud of his family and though he'd never say it aloud, having coworkers over for dinner a subtle sort of way to show them off...
But really, had he grown so desperate for recognition that he'd just invited Sephiroth over? Reeve knocked his head with his knuckles, sighing.
"It's for Toriko," he told himself. "And Meryl. Toriko and Meryl. God knows they could both use some friends..."
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Author's note:
Just so you know, there will be no Sephiroth/Reeve action. Yes, at times it may seem that Reeve is attracted to him, but honestly, who wouldn't be? That's the appeal of androgyny... You're everyone's meat.
:grin:
And Toriko does get hopped up on sugar really fast. She has no gradual, built-up resistance to it, like the rest of the candy-eating world does. Plus, since her system breaks it down so fast, it doesn't take much for her to go nuts almost immediately. Lord, imagine the child on caffeine...
Some notes/translations on the Japanese. For years I had translations by my roommates up, but I've been recently contacted by a native Japanese speaker and told (politely) that it was all wrong. So the language has been updated, and once again I learn that CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING! Especially in a language like Japanese, in which politeness and one's status are so damn important. When the reviewer kindly explained all the inconsistencies, I was wincing and all but hiding under a blanket. Ack! Oh well, but like I said, it's fixed now. And here are translations.
"Chichiue, Lii-bu ga imasu" - Father, Reeve is here! (There is V noise in Japanese like J pointed out, but I think the Wutaiese may be slightly more xenophobic in their sounds and won't have it. Yes, I'm lazy.)
"Kanojo "mo" henna posutaa wo motte masune." - She "has" a strange poster. The previous version was too informal and in the wrong tense.
"Tabete misanai" - "You should eat it". Again, the previous version was too informal and also, completely wrong considering the parent-child relationship between the two.
"Satou-Kukki ga oishii desu" - Sugar cookie is delicious. The previous wording made Toriko, a native speaker, sound like a tourist. Also, as the reviewer said, "She was trained by her mother to be polite and graceful, I'm sure her words will be too."
"Hai douzo" - I think this means 'done'. The other option was "Mite kudaisai", which I think means "look, please", and in any case, this replaces "ta-da". I opted for the former instead of the latter because Toriko is still at the stage where she doesn't want to draw TOO much attention to herself, and "hai douzo" seemed more retiring. AGAIN I COULD BE WRONG.
"Dansei no kata ga konomi desuka?" - When I originally gave this sentence for translation in English, I said "Does this mean you prefer men?" So I'm guessing that is also the rough approximation of what this means. The original translation also apparently translated to ""Do you very much prefer male people?", which is so hilariously awkward that I was almost tempted to keep it in there. But no.
"Baka na koto wo iuna" - I think this basically means "don't be stupid", with an edge of annoyance. Apparently the other way I had it written was "don't be stupid", but in an informal way that also had an improper ending that translated really weirdly.
"Mou Kukki ha tabesuki da" - "You've had too much cookies already". The prior phrasing had it "I'm sick of cookies", which was not what I wanted at all.
"Yasuminasai" - "Go to bed".
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On another note: DING DING DING! Ardwynna Morrigu got the "What is Seishi's disease?" question, which was posted in the prologue and has been in the running up until now! Yes, Seishi has Geostigma. Why? It's based on this line from E3 AC trailer.
"Geostigma is what happens when the body overcompensates for its unwelcome guest."
Ah, Vincent. He got some serious ups.
Okay, that's it, I think. Review me if you spot any problems.
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