jessara40k (jessara40k) wrote in roads_diverged, @ 2008-02-02 10:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | final fantasy vii, jessara40k:cloud/sephiroth, theme 10: harem |
Final Fantasy VII; Sephiroth/Cloud; Theme 10 - Harem "In the Harem of the Empress Part 1"
Title: In the Harem of the Empress Part 1
Author: jessara40k
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Yuffie/Sephiroth
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Implied slavery, implied matriarchy, implied het
Theme: 10 harem
Notes: I meant this to be a one-shot, but I realised I wouldn't be able to fit it into one post anyway, so here's part 1. I will be putting the Sephiroth/Cloud bit in the second part, but I need to build up to it, for a change.
“Sephiroth, come here”
The Empress called for him as she entered the harem, but so quietly that none of the other concubines would hear her, even with the relative quiet her presence brought. He could feel the others staring at him as he walked over to attend her; it would help him keep their respect, whatever it was his mistress wanted. Not that he really cared how the other concubines felt about him, but he found it easier to keep them at an appropriate distance if they respected him, and preferably feared him at least a little too.
“My Empress?” He knelt, focusing on Yuffie, but noting the blond boy standing beside her from beneath his eyelashes as he bowed his head.
“Sephiroth. You know I don’t like you to kneel for me.” He took the hand she was offering to help him up, and she used that to pull him to her for a deep kiss. He’d never tried to resist her, and he never would; his Empress would never know how much of the power she held over him existed only because he allowed it, in case it hurt her. She’d made his sacrifice in accepting her father’s offer to protect his SOLDIERs into something that was even pleasurable at times, and he could never forget that.
“But I want to show you my respect properly.” They had this...near argument every time, but Yuffie never ordered him to stop kneeling to her, and he never used his ‘childhood’ as a weapon against her, and by now it had been pared down to a single sentence each.
“Your last servant deserted you, didn’t he? So, you don’t have a servant now, do you?”
“No, my Empress.” Sephiroth didn’t know what it was about him that drove his servants off, made them look for another concubine to claim them, or even left the harem altogether when he knew they’d fought to be appointed to it, but he was grateful for it. He hated the way the servants fussed over him, and he didn’t want anyone but his Empress to know that the wounds her mother had inflicted on him in the duel that killed her; the wounds that he was convinced came from his adolescent arrogance, that had kept him from battle for almost a year and that he believed had won the war for Wutai; had healed without leaving so much as a single scar.
“It isn’t fitting that my favourite concubine doesn’t have a servant.” Yuffie’s voice was louder now, it would carry to every concubine in earshot, and this story was certain to be retold accurately. “And it is near an insult that so many of your servants have betrayed you. So, I have decided to change that.” She pulled the boy forward from the spot he’d stepped back to while they talked, presenting him to Sephiroth. “This is Cloud. He was a gift to me, and now I’m giving him to you.”
“Thank you, my Empress.” He couldn’t refuse her gift, not in front of the rest of the harem, so he accepted as graciously as he could, taking Cloud by the hand and pulling him closer, lifting his face to inspect him, using two fingers under his chin. “He’s pretty, but he looks...fragile. Would you care to see him settled in with me?”
“Yes. Then you can entertain me for a while.” She ran a casually possessive hand over his arm as they walked to Sephiroth’s quarters. “And I need to explain a few things about Cloud when we’ve got some privacy.” She could have told him without waiting, by pitching her voice low, the way she was now, but the Empress didn’t like using that trick for more than a sentence or two.
“Cloud, your quarters are through there.” The boy just looked at him blankly, instead of taking the hint and leaving, and Sephiroth frowned in confusion - he could tell that it wasn’t deliberate disobedience, but he didn’t know what it was. And Yuffie just laughed at him, while he looked at her in faint hurt.
“He doesn’t speak Wutaian Seph, just Continental.” Sephiroth should have thought of that for himself, but it had been so long since he’d spoken Continental except to his Empress, who needed to be bilingual that he’d forgotten that Wutaian was only the first language for people born in Wutai, and he’d always assumed it was normal to speak more than one language. But from Yuffie’s attitude the opposite was true.
“I’ll teach you to speak Wutaian then. You sleep in there.” He pointed at the door to the left again, and this time Cloud nodded with a small smile.
“Yes sir. And...thank you. For promising to teach me.” Cloud left the room before Sephiroth could say anything in response, but the Empress was patting the seat beside her, so he let it go, and joined her on the couch. When she leaned against him he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, despite his surprise, and waited until she was ready to speak to him.
“The Nibel Ranges sent Cloud to me as a gift, part of the negotiations we’ve got going with them now.” In other words the...Nibel Ranges was trying to curry favour with the Empress by offering her a new concubine. It made sense, Wutai was the larger of the two countries that hadn’t been taken over by ShinRa and been wrecked by its destruction, and this Nibel Ranges was probably a new country that had only just gotten organised. “But he doesn’t have the self-confidence it would take to cope as one of my concubines.” So she thought he’d be abused if she’d accepted him as a concubine. Sephiroth could see how that could happen.
“But as my servant he’s under my protection, and if you ever do want to play with him then you have easy access. I understand.” Yuffie didn’t look happy with his conclusion, but she didn’t tell him that he was wrong either, and he could see the tension in the set of her shoulders. “Would you like to take a bath now?”
“Yes, to start with.” She took a deep breath, clearly steeling herself for something, although Sephiroth couldn’t imagine why. “Then there’s something I need to talk about before we do anything else.”
“As my Empress wishes.” There was a flicker of discomfort across her face, but surely she knew that she had only to ask and he would do whatever she wanted.
“Seph, I’ve told you that you’re allowed to use my name before, so why won’t you do it until we’re making love?” Yuffie was nearly whining as she continued speaking. “You used to use my name before the other concubines arrived.”
“That’s the point Yuffie. You don’t let them use your name, and I don’t want to seem to flaunt how much you favour me.” He shrugged, he knew that the clans didn’t like it that Yuffie preferred him to the men they’d given to her, and he wasn’t going to make it harder for her by providing those concubines with things to complain about when they wrote to their families.
“Thank you then.” From the look on her face she hadn’t considered that. “But you don’t need to be so discreet when it’s just us.”
“I understand, and if it bothers you that much then I’ll use your name when we’re alone together.” He hadn’t wanted to get into the habit, in case he forgot himself in public, but Yuffie looked happy about his promise. “Shall I have Cloud run our bath, while I wash you?”
“Yes.” So he called for Cloud, and told him how to prepare the bath when Yuffie was there while she used the toilet and got undressed.
“When you’ve finished that go and wait in the lounge and Joto will measure you for some better clothes Cloud.” Sephiroth smiled to see Yuffie walking into the bathroom naked as she spoke, and stripped himself as Cloud responded, offering a nod of approval when Cloud used Wutaian to address her as ‘Empress’, an anxious look on his face.
“You can take these into my bedroom as you go, just put them on a chair for now, I’ll show you what to do with them later.”
“Yes sir.” That response, in Continental, it brought back memories for Sephiroth, not particularly good ones, but...he’d deal with that later, for now it was enough that Cloud was showing him respect. He focused on Yuffie, washing her clean, starting at her throat and working down, keeping his touch platonic, rather than sensual, and then let her do the same for him. Cloud had finished filling the bath by then, and left, so Sephiroth helped Yuffie climb into it before joining her.
“Ahhh.” The sound Yuffie made as she sank into the hot water was half a sigh, and half a moan of pleasure. “That’s good. Hotter than you usually run for me too.”
“Not too hot then? I told Cloud to run the bath as hot as he’d be able to stand it, but I always erred on the side of caution with you.”
“Because I can’t stand as much heat as you can, I know, and I wasn’t really complaining, just...”
“At least I know one thing Cloud can do for me better than my previous servants ever did. They couldn’t believe you’d really want a bath even as hot as those I used to run for you, let alone this hot.” And he’d never once managed to convince one of his servants to run a bath as hot as he’d prefer. They relaxed together, talking about things that didn’t really matter, until the water had cooled, then Yuffie climbed out of the bath and Sephiroth followed her through to his bedroom. He stretched out on the bed beside her, and waited to hear what it was she felt he had to speak with him about as she played with his hair.
“My advisors have been dropping hints about how I need to start trying for an heir.” And what did this have to do with him? Sephiroth didn’t ask the obvious question, but Yuffie fell silent instead of continuing, so he offered her the answer that made sense to him.
“And you wanted to let me know why you’d have less time for us now that you’re taking a consort? Thank you for being so considerate of my feelings.”
“What? No!” Even Sephiroth could hear the outrage in her voice as she sat up. “I want you to be the father. I...you won’t be allowed to really act as the father, but...you’d give me the strongest daughters I could ever have.”
“Ah...I am honoured, but...it won’t cause problems? Choosing me to sire your first child over your other concubines?” One of those who came from the major clans might expect the honour, and he knew that Wutaians cared a lot about bloodlines, his ‘tainted blood’ was one of the things the native concubines held against him most.
“No.” Yuffie smiled as she shook her head. “No-one will expect me to say who the father of my daughter is, and even if it’s obvious no-one is allowed to comment on her parentage. And if it’s the whole blood purity thing you’re worried about, don’t be. That doesn’t matter for me - since I’m considered to be semi-divine in my own right it compensates for any ‘impurity’ in the father, especially if the father’s a war prize.” Which Sephiroth was, technically speaking. She was calm now, and she ran a hand gently down the side of his face. “And besides, you’ve probably got some Wutaian blood, from the shape of your eyes.” That was news to Sephiroth, but whoever his parents were they’d left him to Hojo, and so meant nothing to him. “Sephiroth, if you are unhappy about this, if you don’t want to father my daughters, just say so. I’ll understand.”
Except she clearly wouldn’t, not really, leaving Sephiroth only one way to answer her. “So long as you are confident it will not harm you, or our child, will not affect your authority, or, when the time comes, hers, I am willing. But...I might not be fertile, I’m not entirely sure of everything Hojo did to me.”
“We’ll try for a year, and if I’m not pregnant by the end of the year I’ll try someone else then.” She hadn’t really addressed Sephiroth’s concerns, but he knew he couldn’t press her any further.
“Thank you for honouring me so Yuffie.” He hesitated, then pushed up to kiss her, a kiss she only responded to briefly before pushing away, reluctantly.
“I ordered a meal for us; it should be delivered around now. And Cloud can serve us, unless you object?”
“No, why would I?” He helped Yuffie to put a robe on before they made their way to his dinning room.