Title: Happily Ever After
Chapter: Sleeping Beauty
Author: Raserei Hojo
Summary: FF Crossover. When you die, you're not really gone. In two separate worlds, two young men with different goals died. In the darkness, they meet. But, within a short amount of time, will their souls be erased from time as the law states?
Rating: T
Feedback: Very much so desired!
Story Warnings: Male/Male, shounen-ai
Pairings: Kuja/Sephiroth
Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters of Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy IX belong to Squaresoft. Any that are NOT recognizable belong to me. However, feel free to use them in any story you wish.

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Angels are androgyny creatures. There have been many classifications of these angels, but the most popular is the Seraphim. They are described as very tall, with six wings and four heads.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty."

One pair of wings are for flying, one for covering their eyes—for even they may not look directly at God—and one for covering their feet—which is almost certainly a euphemism for genitalia. They are in the direct presence of God.

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty."

It has also been said that one who lays their eyes upon a Seraphim will instantly be incinerated because they are so bright. Yes, they are truly miraculous. Perhaps one day a Seraphim will come to the planet.

"Kuja!"

"What?" Kuja bolted upright, blinking several times. "What…?" He looked around for the speaker who held an airy, royal sort of voice. The kind of voice that had that certain kind of accent that certain ears simply cannot stand.

"Ah, so Sleeping Beauty has finally returned to reality." The blur of the doctor in his white lab coat focused, and Kuja saw the slim, beaming man before him.

Is he happy I was hurt? And…where is Sephiroth? Kuja was beginning to realize how often he was thinking of Sephiroth before himself. That didn't exactly make him happy, but he did want to know where he was and if he had gotten hurt.

"You silly child, going off into the forest..." The doctor shook his head and smirked. He slithered out of his lab coat and tossed it to the nearby chair. His skin was tanned and his hair, black as night, came right down to his waist. His sapphire eyes were mischievous and held a certain unknown knowledge. He barely looked eighteen years old. "How are you feeling?"

Kuja simply glared. "Why were you calling me Sleeping Beauty? For your information, I am not a woman."

"I know. I never said you were. But, it's quite hard to not notice that you're a man with all of your clothes off and what not." The doctor pointed at the thin cotton sheet that covered Kuja's waist and downward. "So, be careful on how much you move. I don't have your old clothes, I believe those were burned. I do have a pair of black slacks and a black dress shirt you can wear. You'll have to put a hole in the pants though."

Kuja carefully tightened the sheet around himself. "Why would I need a hole in the pants?" His face burned crimson, both of embarrassment and anger. His clothes had been burned, at this doctor had been looking at him naked. He shuddered uncomfortably.

"Your tail."

Kuja's heart came to a sudden halt. My…tail? Now that his brain was focusing, he could feel the furry thing wrapping around his thigh. It squeezed the thigh tightly as if to reassure Kuja that it wasn't the end of the world. Air filled his lungs finally. "My tail?" He queried out loud. Of course... He would have seen my tail without anything to hide it with.

"You're a very strange human… But from the looks of it, you aren't human, are you?" The doctor waved his hand, dismissing his own question. "I've lost my manners entirely. I'm Doctor Tenrai, but you can call me Shenter. Not that you care. I suppose you want to know what happened after the spiders attacked?"

Kuja nodded slowly. "And where's Sephiroth?"

"Well, you were hurt pretty bad. I've kept you under anesthesia for five days to give your wounds time to heal properly. I've also taken off the bandages, so you don't need them anymore. All you have now is a few scratches." Shenter bit his lip and sat in a dark wooden chair beside Kuja's bed. He pulled a clipboard into his lap and began to write with extremely neat handwriting--for a doctor anyway. "After the spiders had finished their killing spree, the forest would have petrified."

"Do wounds heal quickly here?"

Shenter nodded, pondering. "I'd say about ten times the normal time. When you got here, you were drenched in blood, and I think it was your own, not the spider's. You don't look strong enough to draw blood."

Kuja glared and then scoffed, glancing around the room. "Where is he?"

"Sephiroth? He still hasn't awakened."

So much for Kuja not causing anyone else's death.

"Is…he going to be okay?"

Shenter looked aside, which in turn alarmed Kuja.

"You said he hasn't awakened! That means he's still alive, right? Right?"

"Yeah, he's alive. But his wounds were a lot worse than yours. Those mutant spiders completely tore him to shreds. You wouldn't think something like that would happen to a General of the Shinra Army."

"You know about that?"

"He has a patch on the chest of his uniform. There have been quite a few top officials from Shinra. The president is here, but I don't like him. Oh!" Shenter ran across the room and began digging through a drawer, his clipboard clattering to the marble floor. "You still have no idea where you'll be living, do you?" He pulled out a scrunched up map and handed it to Kuja.

"The other Sages didn't want to deal with you, so they left you in my care. Until you're well, you'll be living with me." Shenter laughed, and to Kuja it sounded like a typically evil laugh, as if he was concocting some kind of torture for him. "It'll be fun! I live in the mansion, so you won't have to worry about anything." He tossed Kuja the pair of slacks and a few other clothes. "Hurry up and get dressed while I check up on Sephiroth." He then picked up a pair of scissors and hurled them at Kuja as well. "And cut that hole into your pants!" He gave a short wave and hurried off.

"…Can we say eccentric?" Kuja sighed and shook his head, carefully cutting the hold into the pants. He didn't particularly want to have a hole in his pants for his tail, but he didn't want to know what that Shenter person would do if he didn't listen to him.

After half an hour, Shenter finally returned. Kuja was standing near the window, staring out blankly. When the footsteps of the younger man reached his ears, Kuja sighed and opened the window. "So, you're a Sage?"

"Last time I checked I was." Shenter walked over to Kuja and shut the window. "The fumes outside this hospital are quite toxic. You shouldn't breathe in so deeply. Not unless you want to stay in the hospital."

Kuja growled and stalked to the other side of the room. "So, how's Sephiroth?"

"He's doing better...Probably, in a few hours, he'll be awake." Shenter laughed and titled his head, giving another carefree grin.

Kuja's fingers wrapped themselves into fists. He was beginning to loath the young Sage even more. So happy and so damn carefree. "Why are you so happy? You're dead. Start acting like it."

"I might be dead, but I can still be helpful."

Kuja hid his mouth behind his hand and snickered. "Oh, really? What do you intend to do that will be helpful to everyone else? We're all dead. There's nothing anyone can do about it."

"Well, as a Sage I have a certain authority over everyone. I can banish anyone from this world whenever I want to. The other Sages are old and frail, and in a few years, they'll all fade away and pass into the World of Reincarnation." Shenter was glaring now. "And I'm not just a Sage. I am your ruler. I can control every aspect of your life. Just because I died when I was eighteen does not mean that I'm just a stupid teenage punk that sits on the street corner and smokes a couple of joints every hour. Do you understand me?"

Arms shaking in simmering rage, Kuja slowly nodded. What is he? Schizophrenic? Damn, he's crazy!

"Good." Shenter smiled again and grabbed the keys from the hook of battered door. "So komm mit then. You need to know your way around the Mansion within a few days."

"Come... mit?"

"It means 'come along'. So, come along. Whatever, just follow me, alright?"

"Alright, alright." Kuja crossed his arms over his chest and followed the now Little-Lord-Brat. "Where will Sephiroth live?"

"In the mansion with us. Only until you're well again. We need to keep an eye on you."

Kuja sighed in relief. Well, at least I'll have some company at the mansion.