Paper Tiger Burning

I respectfully credit all Original Creators, namely Squaresoft, which became SquareEnix,for these characters. In this way, I pay homage to my Fandom's Original Creator, and illustrate my Community's belief that Fan Fiction is "fair use". I do not claim to own these characters. I do not make money or gil from using these protected characters, nor do I wish to make money or gil from them. In other words, I am borrowing these characters to entertain the adult fanfiction community, but I am doing so with the highest degree of respect to the engineers, game designers, music makers, and voice actors.




My apartment was clean.

I stood there, surprised, keys dangling in hand as my eyes took in my possessions. Everything looked neat and orderly. Gone was the mess that the sweepers had made, the mess I’d already had well in place even before. My fireplace burned cheerfully and I detected the scent of jasmine tea coming from the kitchen. I tossed my keys down on the end table by the door and followed my nose.

The flower girl slept in the settee I’d moved into the kitchen, a cooling cup of tea underneath her dangling hand. Her glorious legs, bared to my eyes, sprawled haphazardly with tendrils of her hair draping them here and there.

I wanted those legs wrapped around me, urging me on. She could take my strength now. I relished the idea of having a woman I could cut loose on, especially a pure, sweet thing like her. All of her reaction, all of her gasps and sighs would be natural…

Real…

As if she sensed my licentious ideas, her eyes fluttered open. A small, soft smile stretched her lips. “Did you have a good day?” she asked.

The combination of domestic order, a woman waiting on me, and that woman’s easy smile, made for a deadly combination to my stoicism. I returned her smile without much thought. “It was a day like all the others,” I answered. “Boring, bureaucratic, banal.” I motioned toward the living room with my head. “You were busy.”

“I was bored too. I made a game of cleaning while silent.” The flower girl yawned and sat up. “I did well, obviously, or I’d have been discovered.”

“Felt like taking a risk, did you?” I checked the tea pot and found enough water to make a cup for myself. “There were smaller risks to take that didn’t involve being nabbed from this apartment you know.”

“Oh?” She stretched. “Like what?”

I poured and set my tea to steep, coming back to her. “Never mind,” I said, heeding my timing. I couldn’t just blurt it out. A woman like her needed subtlety.

I wanted to talk to her somewhere no one else could hear me. I felt weary of being banished to the kitchen anyway, but I required a private place to turn her thoughts toward the carnal.

“Would you like to leave the apartment for awhile this evening?” I asked.

“That sounds ok,” she said cautiously. “Cabin fever?”

“I’m tired of listening ears,” I explained, pointing toward the living room. As I spoke I began packing fruit and bread into a bag. I knew the perfect spot to take her. “Wouldn’t you enjoy a few hours of unrestrained talking?”

“I would,” she murmured. “But I have something you tell you. While you were between work and home today, Hojo called your landline. He left a message.” Her voice dropped. “I couldn’t help but overhear it.”

I didn’t care what she overheard. I lifted an eyebrow as I packed tofu jerky into a plastic bag. “Can you tell me or is it too explicit to comfortably relate?” I asked, thinking of her inclination to embarrassment.

She blushed. “It’s very explicit and I’m sure you’d have rather I not heard.”

I put the rest of my gleanings in the knapsack and closed the drawstring, standing smoothly. “Flower girl, you disturb me,” I said. “I don’t have a mysterious blood disease or something, do I?” It would be my fate to finally get a small grasp on things only to have some pathogen wipe me out. I could only resurrect so many times, surely.

“No, nothing like that.” She looked at me with wide eyes. “I’ll wait in here. You should listen to it.”

“Very well.” I handed her the sack. “Would you find a bottle for water?” I’d give her something to do while I listened to Hojo’s recorded, raving rhetoric.

“Ok.” The flower girl accepted her burden and went to searching cabinets. I went into the living room and turned on the television, then the answering machine.

“Number One, I feel obligated to warn you that you’re probably going to start feeling different these next few weeks.” Hojo paused to giggle. Shiva, I hated that giggle. “According to my earliest to latest chart findings, you’re heading into puberty.” Another giggle, this time slightly muffled. “I’ve already gone through puberty, you’re saying to yourself. Well, that’s true. This is a different kind. Come by the labs if you want to be prepared for it.”

Click.

How I loathed him. He would do anything to get me in his lab. I had no way of knowing if he ever spoke truth or lies about my health. He had me by the balls.

For a moment I saw nothing but red, a sure warning of impending violence. I cut my gaze to the fountain by the microphone and stared at it, listening to it run. I couldn’t go back to the flower girl in a frenzy. I couldn’t let on to my hidden listeners the state of my mind, either. The television should have muffled everything, but on the off chance they’d heard something…

I went into the bedroom to change my clothes. I wanted to be ready for anything, flexible, not tied up in this stuffy work wear. I hadn’t worn my old clothes practically since returning to the living and I relished them. On went my leather pants and high boots. Even though the old bracer wore Shin-Ra’s SOLDIER emblem, I took pleasure in that too. Not all of my early memories were bad. As I lifted up the suspenders and crossed them, I caught sight of myself in a mirror.

My eyes would surely show the flower girl my vexation.

Focusing on finishing, I threw on my coat and buckled it in the center. The warm, slick leather felt good against my skin. Pulling out any stray hair that had gotten trapped in my clothes, I opened the door and walked back through the living room. I would take the flower girl someplace utterly private, somewhere she would enjoy.

************************************************************************************

AERITH


The sight of him coming through the doorway made me weak in the knees. I hadn’t seen him dressed in his old clothes yet. The contrast! Those others looked very nice on him, but these clothes made the animal inside him shine. His silver hair flowed over the black leather like a waterfall. His eyes glowed. He stalked into the kitchen rather than walked and I knew he hadn’t been pleased by Hojo’s little message.

By the Planet, he was a beautiful man. No emotion, no matter how negative, could detract from his looks.

“Ready?’ he asked tersely. His slanted, white brows lowered but I couldn’t call the expression a frown.

“Yes.” I approached him, noticing some of the glow in his eyes seemed to dampen a little at my nearness. “I found a water bottle.”

“Good.” Sephiroth relieved me of the bag, slinging the straps over his shoulder with effortless grace.

I still couldn’t believe he was protecting me. Surely it was madness to feel so easy in his presence. But I did feel cautiously relaxed around him, except for an odd little feeling deep in my stomach when he looked at me a particular way. He looked at me like that right now.

“How are we to get out unseen?” I asked. “More phasing through walls?”

“Through the ceiling to the roof,” Sephiroth answered. “Eldon took the liberty of going up there on his lunch break today, courtesy a helicopter practice run. He’s friendly with a few Turks. He found no surveillance equipment.” As he spoke he held out his arms. “This won’t be disturbing if you keep your eyes shut while we pass through.”

I looked at that big body, amazed at how large he really was. He dwarfed me. Still, I stepped into his arms, feeling my body relax underneath his warm strength. With my face pressed to his chest and my nostrils detecting his copal musk, I closed my eyes.

I thought I felt him shiver.

The slightest sensation of moving passed over me. Before I could grasp it we were on the roof.

“We fly from here,” he said, lifting me a different way. I still had my upper body pressed against him but one of his arms held me under my knees. Until that moment I felt his hands on the bare flesh of my legs I hadn’t given my clothing a thought. Now I realized we were about to fly with me nearly naked. My protest died in my throat, though, as Sephiroth ran off the edge of the roof and we began to fly.

Cloud could do this in a more limited way; I’d seen him do it. Still, seeing hadn’t prepared me for the sheer speed we traveled. We were a blur of movement. Wind made Sephiroth’s coat hem flap heavily, made my shirt lash about my legs. I found I had to keep my head down to avoid having the breath sucked from my lungs. Clutching him, I wound my right arm under his coat and grabbed a strap at his back. I felt his rolling muscle underneath my fist.

“You’re safer with me than on any public transport,” he said down to me, his voice cutting the howl of wind effectively.

“I know,” I murmured. It wasn’t that I feared the height and speed or the idea of being dropped; only the man carrying me caused my body to shiver. But he spoke truth. I could well believe no place safer existed than in Sephiroth’s arms. Entire armies couldn’t destroy him.

Soon we began to slow. Sephiroth’s hair whipped forward, covering me in a curtain of silver silk. Those tendrils caressed my legs as if possessed of their own mind. I found it erotic in the extreme to feel so much of him on my bare skin.

“Open your eyes, flower girl,” Sephiroth said to me softly.

We touched hard earth.

I opened my eyes to paradise. Flowers, flowers everywhere. Everywhere I turned, flowers. They went on for miles and miles in every direction, all different colors and shapes. In the evening sun they glowed. The breeze carried the scents of the flowers and the aroma of moist soil.

I turned my eyes to him, amazed and so happy my vision watered. “It’s beautiful, Sephiroth,” I whispered. “Where are we?”

“Wutai.” Sephiroth let our bag drop gently onto the soil. “Are you crying?”

I shook my head at his slightly worried face. “For a good reason,” I assured him. “This is gorgeous. I’ve never seen so many flowers.”

“They’re called the pride of Wutai,” he said, his eyes gleaming in what I could only describe as satisfaction. He seemed pleased I liked our destination. “Millions of different ones grow in these verdant plains.”

“Can we come back in full daylight sometime?” I asked, walking forward to touch a particularly yellow blossom shaped like a tea cup.

“Of course.” Sephiroth sat on a large rock and began examining an apple he’d packed. “But I had to take you here for this time anyway.” He bit down, crunching through the apple skin with unbelievably sharp looking white teeth. He looked utterly relaxed.

“Oh? Why?” I bent to sniff the yellow bloom. It smelled like a mix between a ripe pear and green tea.

“Because night is as lovely as full day.” Sephiroth looked up at the reddening sky. The odd light made his teal eyes appear brighter. “That’s when the moonlight brings purest white.” He chewed on his apple, finishing it in three bites. Casually, he lobbed the core.

I wandered a bit, feeling his eyes upon me. His gaze both assured me of my safety and made me nervous. I didn’t know what to think of Hojo’s message, but something told me it was very important. Sephiroth might change on me, out here in the middle of a flower-strewn paradise.

Even in the midst of all these magnificent flowers, my eyes kept going back to him. The now almost-gone sun cast such a red glow on the world that Sephiroth’s hair looked aflame. Easy and powerful, he sat perched on that rock as a prevailing sentry. I knew no matter what might suddenly happen, it would never take him by surprise. I returned to him as the light completely died, anxious that I should be close. I wasn’t accustomed to wandering the wilds of the Planet without several other people with me.

“The moon will be out in a few minutes,” he told me, taking me by the hand to pull me up to the top of the rock with him. “Are you cold? I’m sorry I didn’t think about your clothing.”

I did feel a little chilly and I told him so. By the light of the breaking moon I watched him unstrap his pauldrons and strip off his coat. Marble white skin rolled and bunched with taut muscle as he removed his trademark garment. He draped it over my body while he turned, putting me between his bent legs. He meant me to lean back against him. Gingerly, I obliged him. I felt every ripple of his every movement now, but I also felt incredibly warm and sheltered. I was the best-protected woman on the Planet right now.

And the moon broke out over the field.

I gasped as brilliant, purest white flowers erupted everywhere, reflecting the light of the moon. Their perfume, rich and sweet, filled the night air.

“They’re called Holy Ones by the Wutainians,” Sephiroth said in my ear. “In their legends they sprang from a rain storm during the War of Time, when only the moon ruled the world. The flowers are smoked to relieve pain and the stems eaten to kill hunger. The roots provide much nourishment when the body is starved. A few very old and select tradeswomen still make perfume from them, but it is so rare and costly you might as well hope for a rainbow at night.”

His voice lulled my ears.

“I managed to find and purchase a bottle once. I had no one to give it to and sealed it in a strongbox in a bank close to Costa del Sol. It is still there. I imagine by now it has matured to perfection, because the perfume becomes more complex as it ages.”

“If it smells anything like the blooms it must be wonderful,” I sighed. My eyes drank in the beauty while my ears celebrated Sephiroth’s voice. “But why is the perfume so rare when the flowers are so plentiful?”

“These flower fields are inhabited by earth zoloms,” Sephiroth explained. “Not many are willing to risk gathering the amount of flowers needed.” His arm tightened around my waist slightly. “But don’t worry. I know how to deal with a snake.”

He most certainly did. I remembered seeing the corpse of the swamp zolom he’d dispatched on the way to the Mythril Mines.

“Besides, we’ll hear it long before it reaches us. Earth zoloms make the ground vibrate.” A breeze picked up Sephiroth’s hair, blowing it forward into my vision while he spoke. It seemed everywhere I looked I saw silver and black, white and black. Never had I imagined the world could be so beautiful in only positive and negative hues.

“You’re very quiet, flower girl,” he said.

“I’m only stunned,” I answered. “No one’s ever done something like this for me, Sephiroth, thank you.” I spoke truly. He’d made a gesture, bringing me here.

I felt his arm move. A moonlit blue-tinged apple appeared in my vision. “Eat something,” he urged. “The flowers will put you to sleep if you don’t. I lost quite a few men when we patrolled through here, and had to search for them ages. Men disappear when they lie down in these fields.”

“I can imagine,” I murmured, easing my arm out to take the apple. “But what a beautiful place to be buried.”

“You’d think that, but the zoloms would disturb your grave.”

“Let them,” I murmured. “They could eat my corpse for all I care. I’d still have spent time here.”

“I appreciate how you feel.” Sephiroth shifted a little. “Short term gratification has its place.” He brushed his hair away from my eyes with a gentle touch. “Have you decided what to do about your friends?”

“I’ve been avoiding thinking about them,” I confessed, beginning to eat my apple. I could feel the stupor of the flowers affecting me now, and a peculiar, quiet sense of ease in Sephiroth’s presence. “On one hand I’ll be really glad to see them. On the other it will be very awkward.”

“Why will it be awkward?”

I felt his fingers spread out over my midsection. A hot, balled-up place inside me turned to goo. His touch did things to me, sensuous, longing things. I felt attracted to him, my long-ago murderer and now protector. Any person might call me foolish for the trust I gave him, and demented for feeling attracted, but I didn’t care.

The Planet didn’t seem to mind it if I liked him, either.

“They are my friends and I love them dearly, but I was only close to Cloud. Everyone else treated me like a piece of china; valued but delicate.” I finished my apple and threw the core, amazed at how I could now see its entire path to the ground. My vision was remarkably acute. “I have no doubt they came to love me, don’t get me wrong, but to them I’ll probably always be the fragile little flower girl. I’m not sure if the friendship is worth the silent pain. I’ve left them once already, and I’m sure they’re getting along without me just fine, even Cloud. I finally convinced him I was at peace, sent him visions of me in the Promised Land. He mourned me too long to be healthy.”

Sephiroth drew a small breath. Had I not been pressed up against his chest I’d have not heard it.

“Were the two of you in love?”

I laughed. “I thought I loved him, but he never could make up his mind. He finally settled on Tifa once I was gone. So, you see how that might be another dilemma. I’ve long given up on Cloud in a romantic sense. If he were to offer now I wouldn’t be interested. But Tifa is a jealous woman. I’m afraid my presence will damage their relationship.”

“Ah.” Sephiroth seemed to find this a little bit funny, to my confusion. His diaphragm jerked once or twice. “The buxom pugilist is full of fire, isn’t she? Her convictions must hinder Cloud’s irritating habit of sulking quite nicely.”

I saw where his mind had gone and I smiled. “I can well imagine Tifa keeps Cloud from drowning in a morass of angst,” I admitted. I let my head rest on Sephiroth’s pectoral, feeling the solid strength of him. His heart pressed rhythmically against my shoulder. “I don’t have to decide what to do right away, do I?” I feared having to make this decision. Still, I feared wearing out my welcome with Sephiroth too.

“No, flower girl, you don’t,” came his soft reply. “I’m willing and capable to give you all the time you need. I only asked because I was curious.”

The sound of him just melted my bones.

“I’ll change the subject, shall I?” Sephiroth held out his hand, producing a glowing, white ball of magic. “Watch.” He flung it away in the same manner as someone trying to skip a rock across water. The orb did skip, in fact, seeming to skim over the flowers. It circled back in a few minutes, its core full of tiny black dots. He palmed it to show me. The orb vibrated slightly, sending the tiny dots tumbling over one another gently. “This is how I paid the perfumer, Mitsouko. Shin-Ra wouldn’t allow us conquerors of Wutai to actually pay for what we wanted or used. I gave her seeds for my bottle of perfume.”

“They’re so tiny!” And they were. I knew there had to be millions in the orb. “I suppose she was glad to get them.”

“Yes, she considered it a fair trade.” Sephiroth dropped the orb into my hand. “You should plant a few. One blossom will perfume an entire room.”

Awed at my gift, I craned my neck to look up at his jaw. “Thank you.”

“It didn’t cost me anything,” he replied, but I heard pleasure in his tone.

“Well, some gifts don’t cost very much, but sometimes those gifts are the most valuable,” I answered back, closing my hand around the orb. It gave off gentle warmth. “You make magic I’ve never seen another person do,” I said.

“The legacy of Jenova.” Sephiroth sighed once, quietly. “Her cells bestowed upon me a great many talents. Telepathy, telekinesis, psychokinesis, atomic manipulation, the list goes on. Even I don’t know the full measure of what I can do. My limits come only from a lack of imagination.”

His voice filled me with odd displacement. At once I felt the juxtaposition of Sephiroth’s abilities combining with the philosophy of warriors. His spirit balanced between capability and culpability. It was a lonely place. He was a lonely man. I could think of one man to match him, the man who loved Sephiroth’s mother.

Vincent would have been an excellent mentor to Sephiroth.

My sympathy for both men rose up.

Sephiroth stiffened. “What bothers you, flower girl?”

I clenched the orb of seeds tightly, feeling the pulsing warmth in my palm. “I’m just thinking about you and Vincent,” I admitted. “Hojo harmed you both in ways that are nearly incurable.”

“Nearly?” Sephiroth laughed harshly. “Try just incurable.”

“No, nothing is impossible,” I protested, shaking my head. “There are no limits.”

“Really? Then how would you go about fixing either one of us?” Sephiroth sounded curious now, if skeptical.

“That’s the problem. I don’t think I can fix anyone; I heal physical injuries and ease emotional pain. I’ve never tried to heal the mind or spirit.”

“You have the ability to sense the damage, which means you must have the ability to do something about it,” he argued. “Physical pain tells us to remove ourselves from a source of injury. I don’t see why any other kind of pain or damage wouldn’t apply to that.”

“Maybe a true Cetra would have been able to heal that way, Sephiroth, but I’m half human. I haven’t the full power of Cetra.” At times like this I wondered if my perception of the world would be even better had I been blessed with an all Cetra form. “I don’t even hear the Planet like a full Cetra. I hear voices but I don’t hear them distinctly, only the emotions of the Planet and the Lifestream. But now I swear I hear them louder than I used to. Perhaps the mako is responsible. Perhaps here it is easier because of the quiet.”

“Perhaps,” Sephiroth answered lowly. “Maybe you should apply that philosophy of no limits to yourself. You are very quick to bolster others yet you seem equally quick to sell yourself short.”

I realized he was right. He hadn’t finished, however.

“We really are mostly opposites,” he went on. “I had someone forcing me to explore my abilities while you had no encouragement. See what happened?”

“We relate to each other, at least,” I murmured.

“Ah, but do you know why?” Sephiroth leaned in, putting his mouth very close to my ear. “Have you ever seen how fire leans toward itself? Weaker flames seek larger flames, don’t they? A fire demands.”

I shuddered. I could believe Sephiroth was fire. “But how am I fire?”

“You are the useful fire, the fire all people try to harness for their own use. I am the fire people battle to put out. I can be doused and you can be fed.”


In the falling silence I considered him.

I wasn’t a fool. I sensed the attraction between us. He intended to fan the embers created the moment he’d sat before me on my unveiling day. His eyes appreciated me and his body always seemed slanted toward mine. I knew I was the only person he spoke to at length. He smiled at me, this man known for his stony countenance. He didn’t have to do anything for me, yet he’d rescued me, sheltered me, fed and clothed me. He didn’t treat me like a naïve child. He treated me like a woman, a lady.

“Did I disturb you, comparing you to me?” he asked quietly.

“No.” I slanted to the side, pressing up against his chest. Now I lie trapped between his body and his coat. He felt warm and solid. A feeling like belonging somewhere rose up in my chest. I heard his heart echoing against his ribs, and it sounded like eternal strength. I had no reason to trust him except my instincts, but my instincts were strong.

Oh, he smelt of copal and musk. Despite my memory of the first time I’d caught his scent, I enjoyed his male musk.

I felt his arms go around me fully.

“I must have bothered you in some way,” he protested, his voice a dark rumble in his chest. Honest confusion peppered his tone.

“Sephiroth, you’ve brought me to a wondrously beautiful place and guard me safe in your arms,” I said. “What could be wrong?”

His respiration quickened, as did his heartbeat. “Do you really feel safe with me, flower girl?” he asked softly.

My eyes felt so heavy… “I believe you are a man of your word. You wouldn’t let anything happen to me.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” Sephiroth’s voice coasted over my hair and nestled in my ear. “But, little flower girl, I’m going to teach you how not to rely upon anyone for protection. And when you don’t need me, you’ll still have me for a shield.”

“How’re you going to teach me?” I asked sleepily, yawning afterward.

“You’ll see.”