This is an AU story, using the cast of Final Fantasy VII. It’s a supernatural story, inspired by too much X-files, set in New York in our days. The story deals with shounen-ai / yaoi, but isn’t likely to get too graphic, because I can’t write good lemons… …The pairings are Sephiroth x Cloud, Cid x Vincent and Sephiroth x Vincent.
The characters doesn’t belong to me, no matter how much I wish otherwise. Instead, they’re the property of Squaresoft, who probably won’t really need to sue me, seeing how I am a broke student while they are a giant company. Oh, and Vincent’s a vampire in this. I know that’s not canon, but this is an AU.
Cloud didn’t know why, but he trusted Sephiroth, even if the man was very suspicious. It went against everything he’d been taught, but he couldn’t help it. It was almost like there was something in his mind that forced him to believe the silver-haired man. He looked up, into Sephiroth’s amazing eyes. They were still glowing, and they had pupils that were slit vertically, like a cat’s. Cloud swallowed and started telling Sephiroth everything he knew about the “One Winged Angel” case. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help himself. He almost felt like he was a prisoner in his head, hearing someone else tell the stranger all their secrets with his voice, and he couldn’t stop it. But one the other side, Sephiroth didn’t seem threatening. Just very unusual.
Cloud had seen a lot of strange things during his years as an Agent, but he had never seen anything that came close to Sephiroth. The only place he’d seen eyes like the silver-haired man had was his own. His own and Jenova’s. The alien creature had glowing bluish-purple eyes that never seemed to focus. The man’s name was another unusual thing. Cloud had suffered quite a few insults for his mother’s poor choice of names during his school years, but Sephiroth’s name was more than unusual. It was very exotic. Cloud decided to look into any possible meanings when he returned to the Agency. Just for safety’s sake.
He finished telling Sephiroth what he knew about the “One Winged Angel” and took a big sip of his drink, his throat suddenly feeling very dry. There was just something about this whole situation that seemed very surreal, and the way that Sephiroth was watching him made it no better. Cloud got up and grabbed his coat. “Too crowded for you?” Sephiroth asked softly, so soft that Cloud could barely hear him over all the noise in the club. He stopped in the middle of putting on his coat. Cloud hated crowds, but he had always been good at hiding it. “I think so, too,” Sephiroth said and got up, stalking through the crowd in the direction of the door with feline grace. Halfway there, he stopped and turned his head to look at Cloud. His hair whipped around him, looking almost alive for a moment. “Are you coming?” Cloud blinked in surprise and hurried after the other man, glade to leave the noisy club behind.
*
The second they stepped out into the night, Cloud realized that he’d made a big mistake. It was full moon and nearly no clouds, and the moonlight illuminated Sephiroth’s hair in a way that made it even harder to ignore than it had been when they’d been inside. Any chance of getting the man off his mind anytime soon was ruined by now. The moonlight made Sephiroth look like an angel. It set his eyes off, too, making them glow even more. Suddenly, Cloud realized that he was staring and lowered his eyes to the ground, focusing on not blushing. Sephiroth didn’t seem to notice. He was walking slightly ahead of Cloud, eyes halfway closed. He was humming to himself, a melody Cloud had never heard before.
“Where are we going?” Cloud asked, increasing his speed to catch up with the taller man. Sephiroth turned and looked at him, for a moment looking like he’d forgotten that he existed. Then he smiled. “Anywhere in particular you want to go?” He asked. Cloud shook his head. “We can go to the park, then. Nobody will be there at this time of the night,” Sephiroth said.
They walked the rest of the way in near complete silence. Only Sephiroth’s soft humming could be heard. Cloud was glad that they remained silent. He had no idea what to say. He had no idea why he hadn’t left. The man had gotten what he wanted from him, and Cloud didn’t know what to do, so he should have gone home.
In the park, Sephiroth, who seemed to have a perfect night vision, found a bench for them to sit on. It was partly hidden between the rhododendrons. Cloud shivered a little. Not because he was cold, but because he was somewhat frightened. Nobody had ever had the effect on him that Sephiroth had. Sephiroth sat down, his long black coat spilling out like batwings. He had the oddest way of sitting, a mixture between casually lounging and military sitting. Cloud wondered if Sephiroth had ever been in the army. There was something in his posture that seemed very military disciplined, but on the other side, the man couldn’t be that much older than Cloud, and his hair was too long. If he’d been in the army, he would have had to cut it, but it was too long to have been cut short. Actually, he doubted Sephiroth had ever cut his hair more than a few centimeters at a time. He looked at Sephiroth, who had his eyes closed and was still humming that melody.
Cloud was rather confused by the fascination he’d developed with Sephiroth. While he’d never actually been in love before, he was fairly sure he wasn’t gay. Sure, he avoided the agent duo Tifa Lockhart and Aeris Gainsborough, who both had a crush on him, like the plague, but that was because they were annoying, not because they were girls. He just never had the time to actually sit down and think about his sexual preferences before. However, Sephiroth was unlike anyone he’d ever met. Idiot, he told himself sharply. You don’t know him at all. For all you know, he could be a psychopathic killer. And even if he’s not, you don’t think he’d actually feel anything for you, do you? Don’t be a fool. Cloud sighed.
“Something on your mind?” Sephiroth asked, opening one eye to look at Cloud. Cloud bit the inside of his lip and wondered how to get out of that situation without dying of embarrassment. Good luck, Strife, the inner voice in his head laughed. He ignored it. “I… …I’ve just had a really awful day, that’s all.” “I see,” Sephiroth said, opening his other eye as well. Cloud grimaced. “I’ve had to deal with a partner who can’t open his mouth without swearing, my insane family and trying to avoid situations that would require me to talk to mad scientists,” he said. Sephiroth looked at him again, a strange flame flickering in his eyes. “So, Dr. Hojo is still on the Agency’s payroll?” Cloud started to answer, but stopped, looking at the other man. “You know him?” He asked. Sephiroth grimaced. “We’ve met. I wish we hadn’t, though.” Cloud nodded. “He’s a psychotic bastard,” he muttered. “He’s never been more than an annoyance to me,” Sephiroth said, “but he’s caused a whole lot of trouble for a good friend of mine.”
*
Suddenly, an eerie screech sounded through the park and three creatures stomped out of the rhododendrons. The twisted, gnarled figures looked as though they had once been human, but no longer was. All three were naked, revealing humanoid bodies covered in scars from knives, or perhaps scalpels. Two of them, both male, had extremely long arms that ended in viciously long talons and large mouths filled with razor sharp teeth. The last, a female, had no talons or fangs, but a pair of large leathery wings and a long, curved scorpion’s tail, the tip gleaming in the moonlight. Cloud was willing to bet that it was poisonous. It was just one of those days.
Sephiroth took one look at the creatures and instantly labeled them as Hojo’s. The man was more twisted than anyone else Sephiroth knew, which included demons, faeries, vampires, and just anything else folklore threw at him, among them a incubus-naga hybrid called Zack. He only hesitated a moment before summoning forth the Masamune. Even though he usually refrained from using powers in public, he wasn’t about to let Hojo or his twisted stooges get him that easily.
Cloud wished he’d brought a more substantial weapon that his gun. It was small, and easy to conceal, but it wasn’t much use against creatures like this. He also wished that he didn’t have a history of hallucinating, so that he could have been certain that the huge sword Sephiroth was wielding was real, and not just a figment of his warped imagination. Most of all, he wished he could get his mind out of the gutter and not think about Sephiroth and huge sword in the same sentence. Cursing loudly, just to get some of his frustration out, he lifted his gun and shot the nearest creature several times in the head. It hissed and lashed out after him with its claws. Cloud dodged, slipped behind the creature and shot it in the neck. The creature roared in pain and fell over, twisting on the ground for a while before going limp. Cloud turned to take on the next creature, but there were none left.
Sephiroth was standing over the mangled and bloody corpses of the other two creatures, holding a bloody sword. His eyes were glowing brighter than before, almost bright enough to hide the pupils. He looked like an angry cat. The fact that his pupils seemed to have narrowed into slits, like a feline’s, made the resemblance even stronger. Cloud shivered involuntarily, unable to look away. After what seemed like hours, but probably were only a few minutes, he dared to speak. “Are you OK?” He asked, carefully reaching out to touch Sephiroth’s arm. The glow in the taller man’s eyes dimmed and he looked down at Cloud. “I’m fine. You?” “I’m OK,” Cloud said, and wondered why he was so worried about a man he didn’t even know.
Sephiroth walked over to one of the mangled corpses and lifted its hand. The number “132” was tattooed onto its hand. “One of Hojo’s creations,” Sephiroth said, kneeling down next to the creature. He was getting blood in his hair, Cloud noted. Blood and something else, something that was the same color as his eyes and had probably glowed once. Now it was dark, like it had been put out. Cloud kneeled down next to him. “Are you sure?” Sephiroth nodded, and dipped his hand into a small puddle of the strange liquid. “This is Mako,” he said, smearing it over his gloved fingers. “It’s like liquid energy, only poisonous.” Cloud had heard Mr. Shinra and Hojo discuss Mako at several occasions. “Hojo uses this to create creatures that are superior in strength, speed and endurance. It sounds like a great idea, but the poison warps the body and destroys the mind,” Sephiroth continued. Cloud shivered. “That’s horrible,” he said.
Sephiroth was silent for a while, before looking at Cloud, his head tilted slightly to the side. “Some people are more resilient against the poison. They can withstand much greater amounts of Mako without going mad or morphing. Last time I encountered Hojo, he was looking for such individuals.” He got up, slowly, and looked down at the corpse. “Apparently, he hasn’t been successful yet.” Cloud got up, too, looking at Sephiroth. “So,” he said, putting his gun back into its holster, “what do we do now?” Sephiroth lifted his head to the sky, focusing on the moon. “We relocate to somewhere safe and stay there until dawn. Hojo won’t send any more monsters after us in broad daylight. They would be seen too easily.” He picked his sword off the ground and sent it back, the air shimmering where the sword had been. “Follow me.”
*
Sephiroth lead Cloud to an apartment in the outskirts of town. It was large, but not overly so, and didn’t look very lived in. Cloud wondered how long Sephiroth had lived there. He followed the man to the living room and sat down on the couch. Sephiroth disappeared into the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink? I’ve got coffee and tea,” he called from the other room. “Coffee, please,” Cloud answered and looked around. The room was light, and the furniture looked like they came with the apartment. None of the things lying around seemed personal, apart from a picture hanging on one of the walls, of a brown-haired woman. That picture had an antique frame that was worn at several spots, like it was often taken down at looked at. I wonder who she is, Cloud thought.
Sephiroth came back into the room, carrying two steaming cups. He handed one to Cloud and sat down next to him. “It’s a cinnamon and vanilla blend,” he said, smiling slightly. “It was a gift from a strange friend of mine.” Cloud smiled and took an experimental sip of the coffee. It was very nice, and it made him feel less chilled. “It’s nice,” he said. “Special, but nice.” Sephiroth grimaced. “I think the word Zack used when he gave it to me was sensual. He’s odd like that.” Cloud blushed faintly. He was right, though, he thought, and looked down into his cup.
After a while, he dared to look back up at Sephiroth, who had put his mug down on a nearby coffee table and was trying to brush the Mako and blood out of his hair. The substances, both quite sticky by now, had clumped several strands of hair together. “This doesn’t work,” Sephiroth sighed. “I need to take a shower later.” He looked at Cloud. “You can, too, if you want.” Cloud smiled. “I’d like that.” He leaned across Sephiroth and sat his cup down on the table. Sephiroth smiled softly. Cloud was halfway in his lap due to the distance between his seat and the table. The couch was had three seats, and he and Cloud sat at an end seat each, so Cloud had to lean quite far to reach the table. Apparently, Cloud suddenly realized that he was nearly in Sephiroth’s lap, too, because he pulled back as though he’d been burned. The soft sound that came from Sephiroth was distinctively disappointed, which surprised Cloud. He blinked up at Sephiroth, a look of confusion on his face. Sephiroth, unable to stop himself, leaned over the free seat and cupped Cloud’s jaw with his hand. “You’re very adorable when you’re confused, did you know that?” He asked, and pressed his lips lightly against Cloud’s.
Cloud hadn’t expected that at all, but he instinctively responded to the kiss at first. Once he realized what was happening, he kissed Sephiroth back eagerly. The silver-haired man tasted like the coffee they had been drinking and of something sweetly spicy, and behind those things, he tasted of something that was purely Sephiroth. That was the only description of it Cloud could think of at the moment. He tangled his fingers into Sephiroth’s hair, pulling him closer. The other man was more than compliant, leaning slightly further into the kiss, trying to feel it as much as he could without getting too pushy. Cloud gave a slight moan and leaned back, instinctively giving all control too Sephiroth.
Blissfully indulging in each other and their kiss, neither of them heard the door to the hall open and someone come in until the living room door opened and a surprised and slightly embarrassed man stared at them from the doorway.
“Did I miss something?”
- TBC
Author’s notes: Not only is this a longer and more yaoi-ish chapter than any of the earlier, it is also completely inspired by classical music. For the first part, with Cloud’s thoughts, Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra was the main inspiration. For the battle, it was Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bare Mountain that did the trick. Beethoven’s Eroica inspired the last, sweeter part.