Past the Forgotten Present

I don't own any of the characters besides Raven. And the entirety of other people you don't know. Muaha.

Chapter 1.

A blade leveled itself right between my eyes. A sword. An honest-to-god, slice-you-in-half SWORD.

Once my mind returned from someone-just-fell-into-my-kitchen-and-theres-no-hole-in-the-ceiling mode, I noticed exactly WHO was holding the sword.

Someone I had loved since I was 15.

Someone who was my model of being since then.

Someone..who wasn't supposed to exist.

His eyes held mine. Green cat-like and PISSED. But, even to my surprise ,I acted like men always fell from my ceiling at 10 o clock at night. Especially if they were the subject of many a good adolescent dream.

I moved my gaze from his eyes, enjoyable as it was to nearly drown in them, to the rest of my surprise guest, even as the humongous sword was a hair's width from slicing me in two.

He didn't speak .Hell, he didn't have to. His eyes said everything he could have.

So I did.

"That was a nasty fall. Anything broken?" His ankle was twisted in a weird direction, so a 'yes' was in order. But there was a slight detail. I had the longest blade I ever saw point-blank at my forehead.

His silver head faced down as he tried ,horribly, to show that he wasn't hurt. Even if that ankle was broken, he was either brave enough, or stupid enough to soldier through it. Hehe, soldier ,I just made a mental joke. I MUST be going senile.

One arm taken up holding the sword to my head, he seemed to refuse to listen to whatever reason called that wonderfully silver-tressed head home, even if I severely doubted there was any to begin with.

I tipped the sword away from my forehead, ignoring the death glare he gave me. Moving over to his side as he kept trying to put weight on the twisted ankle. When I touched it, He nearly threw the sword at me.

Dodging it, I snorted. "Oh shut up, you giant doof. Its sprained pretty badly but I doubt my table gave a big enough fight to break it."

"How dare"

"I said shut up. Now just lean on my shoulder a bit, and I'll you onto my couch." I didn't HAVE a couch, but I was betting he wouldn't know the difference right now.

". . ."

"It's either that ,or I personally hurl your sorry hide out of my window to finish your trip down."

He didn't bother arguing with that. Setting his shoulder-shattering weight onto my chair, I lifted his foot onto my bended knee, lightly moving my fingers along his booted ankle, earning a very painful death wish from him.

So, to keep that blade from searing my head in two, I filled the room with mindless ramblings. Aside from at work, I was damn good at rambling.

"I'm guessing you aren't going to stoop to asking where the hell you are, so I'll just tell you. Well, you're pretty damn far from, well, where you're from," I didn't mention that I knew the relative vicinity of where that was, seeing as that would probably creep him out. "Los Angeles, California to be exact. God knows how you fell into my kitchen when there's no hole in the ceiling." I wrapped his ankle in some gauze I had retrieved in the middle, babbling like an idiot the entire time. Trust me to have medical gauze and icepacks in my apartment 24/7.

One eyebrow rose. I looked up from my work for a second, realizing that he'd been watching me the whole time.

"How old are you, girl?" Ah that voice. Strong, yet light enough to be called careful, if a voice can be called 'careful'.

"25 since January. Why do you ask?" And the fact I hated being called 'girl' when, well.. I'll get to why not even mentally I am girly.

He paused. "Your hair's nearly longer than mine." Well THAT was a weird observation. But it was true. Even braided, I could sit on my hair.

I couldn't help myself. I laughed outright. It had been a while since something so simple made me laugh.

"That's because I haven't cut it since I was 15." One hell of a busy year, landmark-wise.

He stared. Not an amazed or disturbed stare. Just, stared.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" That shut me up pretty damn quick.

I was very skilled at lying. Hell, I could say the sky was green, and with enough logical reasoning that was total bullshit, and people will believe me. But this time, I stuck with the truth. Knowing him, he'd probably make me scared if I said otherwise.

"Yes. Absolutely shitless. But I'll break your ankle in five different places right now if you try to exploit that." I knew my face was twisted into a glare. But another thing many have told me, is that when I glare, my eyes empty of all feeling and emotion. A co-worker once said behind my back that she wasn't going to be surprised if a victim of mine ended up in the ITR (Impossible To Read, a nickname for our section of the forensics department).

For all that, all I got was, "Hn."

Finishing the wrap, I smoothed over the gauze.

"There we go. Just a few hours and you'll be good as new." I switched my glare/blank face and turned on what was supposed to be a slight smile, looking up at him.

But the look on his face made me snort indignantly.

"For normal people, it would be a few DAYS." I crossed my arms and stood, my mouth twisted in a smirk.

He shot me a death glare that was laced with something I thought I'd never see from HIM.

Surprise.

I moved to where I was behind the chair back and leaned slightly over him. Holy mother of pancakes, I could FEEL his confusion.

"You know then, who, or rather What, I am?"

I snorted again. My usual replacement for a laugh.

"How can I not? I have known you for a little over ten years, Sephiroth."

Review responses! YAY!

TenmaAkari- Well, only about two days after posting the prologue here's your wish fulfilled! Isn't he just sqee-worthy? XD