InsaneJournal

Current mood:	sleepy
Entry tags:	*final fantasy vii, author: raisedbymoogles

(FFVII, Sephiroth/Aeris) Stars in the Night Sky
Title: Stars in the Night Sky
Author/Artist: raisedbymoogles
Rating: PG
Warnings: Kissing
Word count: 979
Summary: Sephiroth seeks out his kin.
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth and Aeris: wings - Neither of them had ever been human; it was just that he wore his inhumanity more visibly, and he thought the comparisons with angels, or even with Angeal, were horribly ironic

He could hardly help but be drawn to her. On days when he hated his life and everything in it, so filled with greed and cruelty and pollution, she rose above it all, pure as a lily, the only one worthy of the ground she trod.

Her name is Aeris, and according to the file Shinra has on her she is an Ancient.

Sephiroth watches her under cover of darkness, fascinated. By appearance she is no more than human, mingling easily with the others who walk the eternal twilight of the slums. Only the contents of her basket mark her out as something different: flowers, bright spots of color in the dimness. Sephiroth, whose first glimpse of flowers was in Wutai, is almost as fascinated by them almost as by her.

Aeris gives her last flower and one of her brilliant smiles to a man in a suit who barely sees it, snatching the flower from her hand and hurrying on his way; Sephiroth feels his pinions mantle in irritation, but Aeris is already moving, and there is nothing for him but to follow. Letting go of the connectors underneath the Sector 4 plate, he spreads his wings and follows.

No place under the Plate is truly safe, but Aeris seems to have a knack for choosing the most dangerous routes home. She winds her way through acres of discarded scrap, perfect ambush points for monsters and muggers; she threads through dark alleys and flirts at the edges of breeding grounds. Most humans know better to accost her - that Fire materia of hers, young as it is, will still give them a nasty scorching, and enough people down here like the flower-seller to make it prudent to leave her alone lest they incur an angry mob - but monsters don't care about such things. They attack on sight, and though Aeris is fierce as the fabled mother chocobo in the old stories, she is outnumbered and overwhelmed.

Sephiroth drops from above, sword pointed downward to kill.

The first monster, a bilious purple tube with teeth, dies easily on his sword; he whips it free and kills another two in the same motion. The third stroke reduces their numbers to one; Sephiroth halts, glances back at the Cetra maiden, then steps back with a courtly bow.

Nodding, Aeris steps forward and stretches her hands out. The last monster dies in the grip of flame.

"You knew I was following you," Sephiroth says as Aeris dusts herself off.

"Of course I did. Why do you think I chose this way?" Aeris turns to him with a smile, clasps his hand fearlessly. "You shouldn't come down here, you know. Look, you've got your wings dusty."

"I'll take my chances," Sephiroth answers dryly, but he's already sitting down on a handy pile of scrap metal, tugging Aeris down with him. She perches on his lap with a kind smile, slinging her arm over his shoulder as he folds his wings around her. Aeris reaches out to stroke the feathers nearest her until they lay smooth and shiny.

"So pretty," she murmurs. "They're just how I always imagined the night sky to look."

"The night sky has stars," Sephiroth finds himself demurring.

"Does it?"

"Well... not here. The lights from Midgar drown them out."

Aeris hums thoughtfully, settling back in the cradle of Sephiroth's wing with feathers still threading through her fingers, setting Sephiroth's nerves to purring. He closes his eyes and tucks his head down, trusting his hearing to keep them safe, and trusting Aeris with everything else.

For never having had wings herself, Aeris had a strange instinct when it came to Sephiroth's. Her fingers sought out the broken feathers and sore muscles in them, stroking them smooth and warm and relaxed until Sephiroth himself goes boneless in her arms. He loses himself in sensation - just for a little while - breathing in the mingled scent of flowers and fresh earth and clean rain on her skin. His feathers are like harp strings against her fingers, each gentle stroke sending shivering music deep into his bones.

"Why don't you have wings?" he says, half unaware of what he's saying. "You deserve them."

"I'm just a normal girl," Aeris says, smiling and just a little too determined, and though Sephiroth knows better he doesn't contradict her. Instead he bows his head, inviting her to stroke his hair, and Aeris obliges with undisguised delight.

The first kiss always comes as a surprise, at Aeris's willingness if nothing else, but Sephiroth shakes it off and snaps his wings close around her. In that strange embrace Aeris turns, laughing softly and rubbing her cheek over the feathers, and allows Sephiroth to draw her into another kiss, and another, and another. Time is growing short - Sephiroth must return to his cage again soon, but he cannot make himself let go of her. Not yet. Possibly not ever, if her fingers keep twisting at his nape like that. "Let me take you with me," he murmurs into her hair, not for the first time.

"Soon," Aeris promises once more. "Not yet. There are still things I need to do here." She kisses his mouth again, eyes closed against the loneliness in the General's face, then wriggles free of his wings and Sephiroth lets her. "Trust me just a little longer?" she asks, sadness behind her smile.

"I could never do anything else," Sephiroth promises. "I'll come back when I can." Quickly, before he can change his mind and bring Midgar crashing to the ground for her sake, he spreads his wings and takes off, quickly lost to the darkness that blankets the slums.

He leaves behind a single black feather, downy and crooked. Aeris picks it up and holds it in her hands, smiling sadly as her white wings glow into being about her shoulders.