Disclaimer: Square Enix still owns all this and not me.
Further Disclaimer: The following contains innuendo that some readers may find disturbing. If you think you might be one of them, please don't read this.
For Xan
"Great Planet! I'm right here,you know!" He turned to find the girl on her feet, hands balled at her sides. She was trembling now, but with anger. Her veil, intricately worked with little jewels and beads, caught the light so it looked like she was raining sparks.
She had heard that little exchange.
And she had the audacity to be angry.
"You could have at least heard him out!" she cried. "How many things has he asked you for? And he's known you your whole life!"
He inclined his head at her. Her anger seemed less due to the fact that he had chatted about her execution in front of her, and more due to the snub her father had received.
Puzzling.
In fact, all of her reactions seemed a little-- more-- than human.
"Who is your mother?" he asked.
The veiled girl fell silent, apparently recollecting herself, and, seeing that her outburst was to be ignored-- sat back down.
He could almost hear her seethe.
He was younger than she had expected. The way her father described him made him seem timeless, like some mythical demon that knew no age.
She had felt sorry for him, as a girl, when her father brought home stories of the boy in the laboratory: a child bred for war, a son with no mother.
Then he butchered Wutai, and took the empire for himself, and began his systematic destruction of everything female.
She had stopped feeling sorry for him a long while ago.
He circled her now, taking in the sight of her from all angles. The sound of his heavy footsteps were lost in the thick carpet, but his leather boots creaked softly as he walked around her.
The veil gave the room-- and his pale body-- a hazy appearance, softening the angles of a harsh, white face. His firefly-green eyes burned though, seeming to bore straight through the filmy fabric.
She watched him as he made his slow circuit around her, turning her head as he circled behind her back.
He's handsome, she had to admit. In a cruel, sharp sort of way.
"I asked you a question," he said.
"She's dead," Aeris replied.
"Ah."
He might have said, "Sorry to hear it," or "Mine too," or even, "That doesn't answer the question." But all he said was, "Ah."
As if he was less interested in her answer than in making sure that she answered.
Yuck.
It's not fair, Planet. Why do hideous men come in such gorgeous packages?
"Was it my doing?" he asked. He had stopped now, standing close beside her, one hand resting on the hilt of his ever-present sword.
"No," she said, "Turks."
"Ah," he said again. His body warm and too, too close. "She should have avoided them."
"She was trying," Aeris replied levelly. So Gast had not told him that his wife was a Cetra. Sephiroth clearly thought her mother's death was one of the many crossfire-casualties, not a hideous botching of the Turks' entire mission.
He arched an eyebrow in reply.
Apparently, all this conversation wore him out.
Two white hands reached forward slowly and lifted the veil off her face in a gesture that was almost graceful.
She looked up at him, face-to-face now with the man who would kill her by morning-- if she particularly impressed him. If not, her execution would come from a subordinate.
For a moment, when their eyes first met, he looked almost startled. But that might have been an illusion, because the look disappeared into an even sharper scowl than the one he'd worn before.
He's angry, Aeris realized. I haven't been here ten minutes, haven't said or done anything to set him off, and he's angry.
Her heart sank. All her desperate plans seemed suddenly foolish-- a conceited hope-- because the face before her was as cold and implacable as death itself.
Her eyes were a startling shade of green, so clear and bright they dimmed the rope of emeralds at her neck. He froze, midmotion, staring into that brilliant, expressive gaze.
And was immediately, irrationally angry-- with Gast.
He let her come here?
Then he buried the feeling, as he had buried so many others, and finished sliding the veil off her hair.
He inclined his head at her, blinking lizardine eyes. Then he leaned closer, and for the first time, she was keenly aware of how alone she was.
Alone with him.
Her heart beat a little rapid tattoo inside her ribcage, and she missed her veil and the gauzy, glittering protection it offered.
One of his hands touched her, cupping her chin, and she felt the contact like a little static shock. For a second, she thought he was going to kiss her, but he didn't-- only tilted her face first one way, then the other.
Inspecting her.
For flaws, probably.
Aeris recovered herself in a flash and glared at him, batting his hand away. If it was her last night to live, then this night was hers.
He chuckled softly at her outburst, but it was a bemused chuckle. Everything about her: the set of her jaw, the angle of her shoulders, radiated defiance-- not fear. He straightened and considered her from a farther vantage point.
It was as if her very blood lacked the tendency toward terror.
"You're very-- different," he said at length.
"I suppose you think that's a compliment."
He half-shrugged, and poured himself a glass of wine from a ewer sweating in a bowl of ice, but he turned her words over in his mind. "And," he said, peering at her even more intently, "you're used to people thinking that you're different."
That struck a nerve.
He saw the flinch, saw her try to hide the flinch.
"Why are you here, Ariss?" he asked, setting down the wine.
She glared up at him, sparkling eyes flashing. "It's Aeris. And I am here by my own choice."
"Forgive my incredulity. It's been-- quite some time, since anyone has volunteered to be my bride. And while I find your bravado a refreshing change of pace, I find it difficult to believe that my charm won you over. What's your real reason?"
She broke the gaze, then, and was silent so long that he prodded her with a: "Hmm? . . . I can tell your father didn't sell you to me to curry favor, and you don't entertain some absurd death wish. So why are you here?"
"Does it even matter? Let's just--"
"Of course it matters. You are not the woman I sent for."
She looked up at him, startled.
"Ah, you thought I wouldn't notice, did you? You think I've seen too many women to keep them straight in my mind? Well, that's very nearly true. But I would have remembered adding you to my harem. Since I never did, I could let you go. Say there's been a mistake." He waved a hand vaguely to indicate the incompetence of his palace staff.
"There has been no mistake," her answer was quiet, but firm. "I appreciate the offer, though."
He frowned at her perceptivity. He had not meant to show weakness, and here he had all but offered leniency.
"You don't seem to understand," he said instead. "There's a queue. I see a woman I want, I add her to the harem, she lives there until I call for her. You weren't in that queue, so you must wait your turn to die . . . But now that I know you're willing, I won't keep you waiting long."
Her eyes met his steadily. "You don't seem to understand, my lord. I am here-- as a replacement."
He frowned, perplexed, mentally running through the list of upcoming women. Who was she replacing? The Nubian? No. She had been last night.
"The survivor from the village I burned?"
"Tifa Lockheart. Yes."
"Hm. The busty one. I'm rather looking forward to her. What's wrong with her?"
"Nothing is wrong with her." Her tone implied that there was plenty wrong with him. "She is my friend."
"And you wish for her to live one more night in abject terror?"
"I wish for her to escape."
Her bluntness was so unexpected that it took a moment for her response to register.
"That's absurd. She would need help from one of the--"
Wait.
Hadn't he seen them together, this Tifa and a blonde boy. And when he had ordered her into the harem, there had been a sharp intake of breath from the grunt with the stupid name…
"Cloud Strife."
Aeris did not even nod. She did not need to.
Sephiroth sneered. "By morning, I can have SOLDIERs from here to the sea combing every corner and every backalley for them." Or can I? Cloud was a favorite among the servants, and Tifa was well-liked, too. He did not let his doubt show on his face, though. "There is nowhere in the world where they can run from me. You have sold your life and given them nothing."
"I have given them tonight."
"That is a pity. I prefer virgins."
"Well, you won't have one tomorrow!" she cried, leaping to her feet.
He leaned back, and reached for another sip of wine. "Unless . . . I kill you now and go searching for them myself."
"You won't do that," she said, but she paled a little and didn't sound certain. "That would be a waste, and you hate waste. You know as well as I do that I can give you something that you might never have again: a willing bedmate."
He set the wine down and stepped towards her again, bending his tall frame so that his face hovered above hers. "And what makes you think I want you willing?"
He thought she was going to try to strike him, which was amusing, but instead her hands went to either side of his face, and she kissed him full on the mouth.
It was like having his mouth pressed to sunlight, like drinking from a mountain stream. The only thing he'd experienced that was even close, was his release from the laboratory, when the sky had stretched above him for the first time.
He seized her by the shoulders and forced her away from him.
Gods, what is she?
He stood staring into her wide eyes, and felt a deep, indistinct twinge. If he had paused to give the thought words, they would probably have been: what beautiful, heavenly danger.
But he did not pause.
Instead, he crushed his mouth down on hers until he tasted a salty tang like tears. He felt her lips tremble under his, felt the rapid rise and fall of her chest as he pressed her, pressed her tight against him.
She tasted like spring.
Aeris pulled away first, breaking from him suddenly and making his eyes snap open. Only then did he realize how tightly he had shut them, closing out all sensation but what she was doing to him.
She was waiting, anxiously, for an answer.
"Alright," he half-snarled, half-whispered, "Let them have tonight."
He took her hand, and led her into his private chamber, holding the canopy aside for her when they reached the bed.
He could not help but notice the way she did not flinch, nor even tense, at his touch.
When he was finished, Aeris lay staring up at the drapery, waiting for him to say something. But he only sat silently on the edge of the bed, looking a little stunned.
"What happens now?" she asked, then wondered belatedly if that was a line of questioning that could get her killed.
He turned to look down at her, and something flickered across his face, something that might have been sadness. The shadow passed, though.
"Typically," he said, "My bride entertains me, if she's pleased me." He did not say what happened to the ones who did not please him. "And you have-- pleased me," he added, the last words sounding a little subdued, and far, far more sincere than anything she had heard him say before.
Aeris felt a glimmer of hope.
He recovered himself, though, and said, "What do you like to do? Do you sing? Dance?"
So the spell their lovemaking had cast was broken. Now she needed another one, stronger than the first.
"Both, a little," she replied. "But there was something else I wanted to do."
He raised his brows at her.
"I'll tell you a story."
When he had settled back against the pillows, and she knew she had his full attention, Aeris took a breath, and began . . .
Hours: 6
A/N: Ok, folks, nothing but madness from here on out. This fic is where my drabbles go if they're good. Or if they're not and I just feel like sticking them somewhere. Don't expect any ICness or cohesive chronology. I might write the ending next. I don't expect anyone to read the whole piece all the way through-- just find what interests you . . . and if you don't like crossovers, I assure you, you're very much in the wrong place.
Note to Xan: Glad I stumbled on something you like (other than FFVII)! I really appreciate your reviews. And I haven't quit DoM. It's coming, I've just had some hangups.