Entry tags:

*final fantasy vii, author: icedark_elf

Fic: Retirement(Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth/Zack/Cloud/Aeris)
Title: Retirement
Author: GW Katrina
Rating: PG
Warnings: Canon AU
Word count: 1,318
Prompt: - Final Fantasy VII , Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud, Aeris: everyone-lives AU - The Shinra military severance package didn't really come with a happily ever after retirement plan, so perhaps it was a good thing that they'd all officially gone missing after Nibelheim. He hadn't been willing to believe that Zack's mother's stew was as good as he claimed until faced with the proof, but at the moment he was more than happy to eat his words.
Summary: Waking up is confusing. Especially when you didn't know you were asleep.
A/N: Yes, I know this is late. But I've got one other, and I'll be done. *sucks so much* Still, hope you like. And this was totally fluffy in my head, but the second I started to write, my angst muffin brain took over.



Everything had been...odd for a long time. Bursts of sensation, smells, sounds, and feelings, it washed over him, drowning down the voices. Occasionally, he even saw colors, something besides the ever present green.

The voices and green, though, it was constant. An endless babbling of sound, overriding everything else. Even the voice he was looking for.

Mother’s voice had been quiet since the green had taken him.

Slowly, as the green began to fade, and the voices began to quiet, he realized that not hearing Mother was almost a relief. She wasn’t going on about how he needed to destroy everything, about how the humans needed to be removed from the planet so that she and he could do what they needed to do.

She didn’t go on about how he needed to kill Zack. Or Cloud. Or Aeris. She had really hated Aeris.

When she had first said that, he had almost pulled away from her, but then gone along.

Now he couldn’t understand why.

But as things slowly faded, he noticed they were being replaced. Green, yes, more green than he had ever known. But a different kind of green than before. Dark green, not glowing, but there. Almost healthy.

Plants?

Making a curious sound, he reached out and touch a leaf.

The quiet he was comfortable in was shattered by the sound of something hitting the ground and breaking into pieces. Before he could turn, trying hard to figure out how to make his body function properly, he was wrapped in a hug.

“Seph! You’re awake!” The excited female voice made him shut his eyes and lean into the hug, hand shifting to rest on her. Aeris. Had to be Aeris. Smelled like her. Sounded like her.

“Oooh, don’t you ever, -ever- scare us like that again!”

Definitely sounded like Aeris. Turning to face her, he found his face buried in brown hair, and he just took a deep breath. Yes. Aeris. Something in him relaxed. Last time he had seen her, she had been standing still, doing something that made Mother scream, and he had been....

Mind shying away from whatever he had been doing, he gave her a shaky pat. What was wrong with him?

“Hey, babe, we’re home~”

Zack. That was Zack’s voice. And the sound of two people moving out of his sight.

Aeris’s face took on a wicked expression, and she put a finger on Sephiroth’s lips as he went to say something, anything. “I’m in the garden, Zack.”

“Getting Seph his daily dose of attempted sunburn?” came the laughing tone back as footsteps came closer. “You know, when he wakes up, he’s going to frown at you if you turned him all....” The voice died, and Sephiroth did his best to turn to face the source of it. Everything hurt, but he finally got it down.

And there was Zack. His eyes were different, just a little, more violet than that electric blue he had remembered, but he recognized those eyes. And...why did Zack’s face crumple like that.

Still distracted, thoughts slow, he found himself in another hug, this time the contact almost crushing. And Zack’s face was pressed against his neck, something wet against Sephiroth’s skin. Why was Zack’s face wet?

“Idiot. Idiot, idiot, idiot. You woke up. Idiot.” A steady repeat of words in a shaky voice. Why was Zack so upset? “Don’t you -ever- do that again.” The hug changed, and Zack’s hands were tight on Sephiroth’s arms. “You ever think you aren’t human again, come to me. Idiot. I’ll kick your ass and prove it.” He scowled at Sephiroth, and Sephiroth just blinked at him dazedly. Was Zack mad at him or worried? It was hard to tell.

“Zack, he’s still pretty confused looking.” A quiet voice off to the side, and Sephiroth’s gaze shifted again.

Cloud looked wrong. It took a moment to realize that he had a scar on his face, running from one corner of his eyebrow back, the ear looking like it was damaged. What had happened? Sephiroth was so confused, though he’d never admit it.

It was Aeris who made things a little clearer. “Sephiroth is still suffering from the mako poisoning. Come on, boys, lets get him to bed.” A teasing smile, and Sephiroth felt his own small smile answering. They couldn’t be too mad at him over Mother. Or else he wouldn’t be here with them.

Zack helped him up, and Cloud came over, and looked up at Sephiroth once the man was standing. Something in his eyes said that he was angry, though Sephiroth couldn’t remember what he had done to make Cloud angry at him. But there was the same sort of look there as the others, so Cloud was worried too?

It was confusing enough dealing with them on a regular basis, and all these conflicting emotions and such, on top of what was apparently mako poisoning, did not make things easier. So he just let them tug him into the house, Cloud included, and decided he would figure things out later.

///

The Shin-Ra military severance package didn't really come with a happily ever after retirement plan, so perhaps it was a good thing that they'd all officially gone missing after Nibelheim. He hadn't been willing to believe that Zack's mother's stew was as good as he claimed until faced with the proof, but at the moment he was more than happy to eat his words.

Months had passed since Nibelheim had happened. He still did not have the full picture, and most of his memory was shot, but he remembered some important things.

Like the fact he had killed Cloud’s mother. And that Cloud had gotten the scar when he had tackled Aeris out of the way of Sephiroth trying to kill her.

He was still trying to make it up to their youngest memeber, and for the most part, he though Cloud had forgiven him. Not fully. Sephiroth accepted that, and honestly would have been surprised if Cloud ever did fully forgive him. But he loved the other two enough to stay, maybe ever cared for Sephiroth still as well. Aeris had told them that it was Mother’s fault, and they all ignored him when he tried to tell them he had been acting on his own thoughts. He didn’t want them to forgive him on a lie.

But Aeris said if he had been fully in control, he’d remember better. Not the spottiness of what he did have, flashes here and there.

Sephiroth didn’t believe her.

Still, he was content where he was. He was here, with them, away from Midgar. There was no Hojo, no Shinra, no duties. Only the jungle they lived in, with Zack’s parents visiting on a regular basis. Doing what they needed for food, growing most of it, hunting other parts, and trading with others for the rest. It was...peaceful.

Sephiroth wasn’t used to peace. But now he wasn’t sure if he could go back to being a warrior if it meant giving this up.

Content. He was more than content. For the first time in his life, Sephiroth was really happy.

Even if he was sure Aeris was trying to kill them all.

Another reason for his being happy. She had waited until they were eating one night, and at the moment the three males had been taking drinks, she had said, as calmly as she could. “I’m pregnant.”

If it wasn’t for the fact he was sure she loved them, he really would have thought she was trying to kill them by making them choke. But she just smiled, eyes bright, the center of their attention.

Sephiroth had never thought about children. But the idea was not unappealing.

This was his life, and he decided he much preferred this to any severance package Shin-Ra could have given him.