Prompt: Sephgen; Sephiroth lets Genesis win in a spar. Then Genesis finds out.
The sound of harsh breathing warred with the noises the VR room made as it shut down, the moving floor and reinforced walls bounced the sounds around the chamber. Genesis sucked in a hurt breath, glaring at his superior officer. Fuck, he hated that term. It didn't make it any less true in any sense of the word superior.
"You let me win," Genesis hissed, tossing the clunky broadsword in the vague direction of the door. Someday he'd have a blade to rival Masamune, but Sephiroth had used one of the standard swords for this spar. His blade, apparently, would sheer straight through the inferior steel.
"I didn't," Sephiroth insisted from where he rested on one knee in the center of the room, and his voice trailed off into silence. The younger man, teenager, whatever, stared at the floor. The red flush on his cheeks was probably just exertion. Probably.
A long silence reigned as they both caught their breath. Sephiroth broke it, suddenly, "I did not want to hurt you."
Genesis ran a hand through his sweat soaked hair, grimacing. It was so easy to forget that Sephiroth was barely legal to drink, not that he'd ever do so, not that it would have affected him in the least. Three years younger than Genesis, two years younger than Angeal - he sighed.
He held out a hand, wiggling it in Sephiroth's face until he looked up at him. He looked at Genesis hand as though he'd never seen a hand before, then very slowly took it. He held it so gently, too gently to even pull him up. Genesis had to slip his hand down further to grasp Sephiroth's pale wrist to drag him up to his feet - it was entirely unfair that they were the same height. The bottom of Sephiroth's uniform pants were an inch too short - he wasn't done growing.
"Look," he said, then reached out and grabbed Sephiroth's chin to make him look into his face, "look, I don't care if you beat me okay? Just, don't hold back. If I get hurt, I get hurt. That's what Materia and potions are for."
Sephiroth's expression was hard to read at the best of times, but he looked caught somewhere between fear and relief. "I do not want to hurt you."
"I know," Genesis stalked over to pluck the clumsy weapon back up from the floor, "if you were an asshole I'd be out the door right now. So, since you're not, let's do this."
Sephiroth merely nodded and lifted his own broadsword, neither of them bothering to set up a new simulation, and struck.