Part II
Reno met her at the outskirts of the city, looking genuinely happy to see her in spite of the sorry mood he'd been in when he'd called just a few days earlier. Yuffie gave him a hug, but made absolutely certain not to let it go on too long. A couple months wasn't long enough to make her forget his lecherous tendencies. But, she was happy to see the jerk.
"Glad you could make it, Yuff," he said as she pulled back from the hug.
"Likewise, so long as you never call me that again."
He grinned and gave a helpless shrug. "If you insist."
"So," she said, "just how dire is the situation?"
Reno's grin soured, and he shoved his hands in his pockets. "She's out with him now."
"Out where?"
He looked at her askance. "You want to go find them right now?"
"Am I misunderstanding what 'dire' means? Why not now? We can catch 'em in the act and I'll beat the crap out of him for you."
Some of the tension left him again. "That's not exactly what I had in mind, but I'm not gonna turn down the added entertainment."
Yuffie grinned in satisfaction. "Good choice. It'll cost you extra though."
"You're charging me?" he asked incredulously, and then shook his head in realization. He had clearly forgotten who he was dealing with here.
"I'm running an organization now. Gotta raise funds any way I can, you know."
"Well, come on then. I know where they're likely to be." He started to lead the way to the elevator and then glanced back at her. "You might wanna lose the headband for a while. It's pretty disorganized but there're still a lot of Shinra kooks around."
"You're not about to suggest I wear a disguise, too, are you?" she asked with a grimace as she raised her hands to untie her headband.
"If you're offering, I'm sure we can find something... tasteful." His eyes wandered casually down from her face and she was sure he was imagining her in that stupid dress he'd gotten her to wear when they'd rescued Aeris from the Shinra building.
"Tasteful, my ass," she snorted. She stuffed the headband in her pack and gave her shirt an uncomfortable tug.
"Oh, come on," he said. "Vincent might appreciate it."
"Vincent? What's he got to do with anything?"
Reno gave her a sly look and climbed aboard the elevator. Feeling her cheeks heating, Yuffie stomped over to join him.
"It's not like that!" she protested.
"Not like what?"
"Vinny's old."
"I'm sure old men like to look at pretty young girls in lingerie, too."
She kicked him in the shin for that. "You're disgusting. I can't believe I actually hugged you."
Reno winced at the kick, but his grin went swiftly back in place. "You're secretly attracted to me," he said. "I'm even single right now, if you want someone to show you how it's done. Who knows when Valentine last got any action?"
Yuffie stared hard at the door to the elevator, willing the thing to open back up again, but the machine continued its slow upwards crawl. "I'm just going to pretend I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Then you won't mind if I go into detail."
"Damn it, Reno, you just get your mind out of the gutter!" she yelled, whirling on him with her fist in the air. Behind her, the elevator door creaked open.
Reno held up his hands placatingly. "Okay, okay, I'll lay off. You're just so easy, I couldn't resist."
"I am not easy!"
"Well, not that kind of easy, or this would've been a much more exciting elevator ride."
Yuffie stalked from the elevator. "Where's Aeris? I'll find her myself."
"Yuffie, you don't know your way around Junon."
"Sure, I do. How hard can it be?"
"Come on, I said I'd stop."
"Well, you haven't."
Reno earnestly pressed a hand to his chest. "From now on, I promise I'll endeavor to be a decent person."
"Shouldn't you say you'll be a gentleman?"
"You'd never buy that."
Yuffie regarded him suspiciously for another moment before giving in. "Well, decent guys are still gentlemanly sometimes, so you better try hard. One slip-up and I might decide you'd be perfect for target practice."
Reno looked her over again, but far from leering he actually looked a little wary. She wasn't convinced he might not be faking that, though. "How many knives are you carrying?"
"Try not to find out."
"Right. Of course." He moved away from the elevator, in the opposite direction from where Vincent had led her when they had snuck in months ago. "This way, my lady Yuffie."
"'My lady Yuffie'? What the heck is that?"
"You said I had to be a gentleman sometimes."
"Do you even know what that means? That wasn't gentlemanly, that was just weird."
"There's just no pleasing you."
"Aeris has the patience of a saint, that's all."
"...you may have a point."
Reno led her on through the city. As he had warned, they passed a few disorganized-looking knots of Shinra soldiers. There weren't any big-wigs here in Junon, and with headquarters in Midgar busy dealing with the aftermath of Meteorfall and with Yuffie's group, it was unlikely many orders had come down from the higher-ups there. Most of the men here didn't seem to know what they should be doing.
On top of that, a lot of men had quit or deserted in the past few months. Shinra had been in complete disarray after Meteorfall. Word was that Rufus was hospitalized, and a number of the remaining upper management, Scarlet and Heidegger included, had tried to take credit for Meteor's destruction, with conflicting stories that almost no one had believed.
The real story had spread from the North, not really about Avalanche, though it was said a group other than Shinra had handled things, but about how Shinra's once lauded General Sephiroth had been the one to nearly end the world. The story was corroborated by now former soldiers both from Shinra headquarters and from Junon who had witnessed Sephiroth's killing sprees. Even if it was obvious he no longer had any love of Shinra, after the mess the company had made of Meteorfall, everyone was content to blame Shinra for Sephiroth's existence.
For once, public opinion had gotten something right.
The scattered soldiers glanced their way as they passed, but left the pair alone. Yuffie resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at them.
Reno led her down to the waterfront, which was in sorry shape ever since the Weapon attacks more than two months earlier. She could tell the worst of the wreckage had been cleared, but no efforts had yet been made to rebuild ruined docks or even the gaping holes in the wall which led into the military base itself.
There weren't many people down this way, and they located Aeris almost immediately, seated on what was left of a loading platform and looking out at the water. It took Yuffie a solid minute to recognize the man sitting next to her.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a long, pitch-black braid running down his back and pooling on the ground beneath him. As he started to turn his head to look in their direction, she couldn't help thinking he bore a striking resemblance to Vincent--and then she saw the emerald eyes and muttered a curse under her breath, wishing she could somehow erase that thought from existence.
"You didn't tell me he dyed his hair," she hissed at Reno.
"I didn't think Sephiroth's latest fashion trends were so important to you," he replied, and she nearly kicked him again.
By now Sephiroth had alerted Aeris to their presence and she was standing and coming over to greet them with a smile more genuine than anything Yuffie had heard in her voice in months. She threw her arms around the ninja.
"Yuffie! You didn't say you were coming to visit."
Her reaction threw Yuffie off completely. She almost didn't return the hug. "Uh... It was sort of spur-of-the-moment," she lied, casting Reno a sidelong glance. He shrugged, as if he had no explanation.
"You look good," she said as Aeris withdrew.
"I feel good," Aeris replied.
Yuffie thrust her chin out towards where Sephiroth remained seated a ways away. "Don't tell me tall, dark, and murderous has something to do with that."
Aeris's smile turned a little crooked. "He has, but it's not what you think. He's not the same anymore."
"Because he got a makeover?"
"Don't be silly."
The ninja considered this for a moment. "Well, whatever the reason, you can tell him he's taking somebody else out tonight."
"Yuffie?" Aeris gave her a quizzical look, and out of the corner of her eye, Yuffie saw Sephiroth's expression change somehow. He could probably hear every word they were saying, she reflected.
And so she pointed straight at him and announced, "You heard me. Someone's gotta check you out, Mr. I'm-a-changed-man."
"Reno, did you put her up to this?"
"Sort of. Not really. I should've guessed she'd just get here and do her own thing entirely."
"I'm standing right here, you guys," Yuffie said, throwing each of them a look.
Sephiroth stood and walked the few paces to join them, his eyes on Yuffie. His expression struck her as amused, like a cat might look amused by the futile actions of its prey. It held all the same arrogance that she remembered from when they had fought him, but at the same time, there was something missing, something she couldn't put her finger on.
"You'd like for me to take you out," he said, raising one eyebrow. Even his eyebrows he'd dyed black. Very thorough.
Yuffie folded her arms across her chest and forced herself to meet his gaze instead of inspecting his eyebrows. She wasn't going to back down even though the whole idea of it made her immensely uneasy, now that she thought about it. She'd be sentencing herself to at least an hour of putting up with those eyes looking at her.
"Yeah," she said. "Or whatever it is you and Aeris are doing. I mean, it's not like you're actually dating or anything gross like that. So, I just need to check you out for myself."
"And if I fail to meet your standards?"
"I'll kick your ass and throw you in the ocean. Don't think I can't." Somewhere in the back of her mind, she questioned the wisdom of threatening Sephiroth. All of them together hadn't been able to defeat him, and he was no less powerful now.
"Yuffie, you can't really throw him in the ocean," Aeris said.
"I'd like to see her try," Reno commented, earning him a sharp look from the Cetra.
"It's perfectly all right, Aeris," Sephiroth said smoothly. "I know how to swim."
Yuffie wondered if that was his idea of a joke, and frowned. He wouldn't win her over with lines like that.
"So you accept," she concluded.
"Why not?"
"Then I'll see you later," Yuffie declared and, grabbing Aeris's hand, turned her back on him, as much as it made her shoulders tense. "C'mon, Aeris, we've got catching up to do."
"Am I invited?" Reno asked.
"No," the two women--Yuffie was 17 now and had declared herself a woman--replied in unison. They left the men behind and, arm in arm, walked back through the streets towards Reno's apartment.
"You know, I never thought I'd be saying this about a Shinra city, but after Midgar, Junon is pretty awesome," Yuffie remarked, looking around them as they walked. The tall, brick-faced apartment buildings were unlike anything she had grown up with, and the color granted them by the late afternoon sun was unlike anything in Midgar. Admittedly they passed a number of places boarded up and seemingly abandoned, and there weren't many people around for such a big city, but somehow for all that it didn't feel exactly lonely.
"It isn't bad," Aeris agreed. "When we first came here, I thought it was a lot like Midgar, but... Where you can't see the ocean, you can still smell it on the breeze. It's a much more open feeling than Midgar. I don't mind living here."
Yuffie looked back at her curiously. "Can you hear the Planet here?" she asked.
"Yes. It's a little faint, but it's there."
"That's good."
"How are things in Midgar these days?"
"Still a mess," Yuffie sighed. "They haven't been able to get any more of the reactors back online, which is good for the Planet and all, but things in the slums just keep getting worse. I swear when we're not watching out for Shinra we're just trying to keep people from mugging us 'cause they think in the dark they can get away with it. Now obviously nobody can pull something like that on me or Vinny, but the others could stand to work on noticing things they can't see. I mean..." She stopped a moment, noticing that Aeris was smiling at her with some amusement, and she realized if she went on much longer like that she'd start babbling.
"Well," she went on with more intention of keeping things short, "things are going okay against Shinra, I think, they won't last much longer. But I guess I'm starting to realize that taking them out of the picture is just the beginning. It's gonna take a lot of work, getting something to go right with that city."
"You sound like you plan on taking that on, too."
Yuffie shook her head emphatically. "No way. Well, I mean, I might help out, but that part's not my job. Once Shinra's gone, my job's to go back to Wutai."
"I guess Reeve and the others can handle it."
"Yeah, him and Vinny. They'll have things under control."
Aeris gave her a knowing look that had more in common with Reno's silent insinuation than Yuffie would have liked. "You don't think Vincent will miss you, if he stays behind, too?"
Yuffie decided to pretend she didn't understand the look. "How should I know? He's Vinny, all his emotions were taken away by an eternity of nightmares," she said dramatically.
The Cetra stifled a laugh. "He's not still saying things like that, is he?"
"No," she admitted. "Not really. But there're these moments where he totally looks like he's thinking them. You ask him how he feels about something and he just gives you one of those looks."
"No smiles yet then?"
"Not yet." Yuffie paused and then added meaningfully, "That I've seen. I'm not convinced he wouldn't do it for the first time when my back's turned."
"I'm sure you'll get to see it one of these days."
"Yeah," she agreed, and then looked her friend over cautiously. She really was looking in better spirits, more like when they'd first met. "Speaking of... Your plan's really working, huh?"
"My plan?"
"Treating Sephiroth like a normal person and all."
"It does seem to be," Aeris said. "But you've got it a little backwards. I'm treating him the same as I always tried to. It's him, and how he treats me. I... Well, I always believed he was capable of respecting people. Respecting me. And he didn't show me he could, before."
From her brief encounter with him not too much earlier, Yuffie had a hard time believing he was capable of it, much less that he was actually doing it now. But she kept that to herself, for now. She'd find out for herself soon enough. "So, what? He's grown as a person and you're happy for him?"
"...I guess there is some of that," Aeris said. "The life that made him that way wasn't so different from mine. Maybe it is nice to see him overcoming it."
"But?"
"Honestly it's just nice to know I wasn't wrong."
"I'm not sure I get it."
Aeris shook her head a little. "It's just... if you really believed in someone, wouldn't it hurt for them to keep letting you down?"
"I thought he proved you right when he fought Jenova."
"He did and he didn't. He proved he could change his mind, like I thought he could, but I didn't see much of who he was after that. I didn't let myself."
Yuffie was quiet as she tried to let that sink in. She still wasn't sure she understood, but maybe it was because she hadn't quite understood what Aeris believed about Sephiroth to begin with. Yuffie had always figured it was that he could give up his mission and do the right thing--which he had, eventually--but Aeris was talking about respect, too. Maybe it had to do with what he believed.
They reached the apartment building, and she kept her mouth shut as Aeris led the way up to Reno's place, not really wanting her voice to carry through the stairwell or down the hall. Aeris turned the key in the lock and let Yuffie step inside first.
It wasn't a very impressive place to live, and it definitely had more of Reno about it than Aeris. The main room was split unevenly between a living area and a kitchen. Both had seen better days, the cushions on the sofa sunken and bits of the cabinet paneling peeling from water damage. There was a coffee table littered with old magazines and one empty beer can which earned a disproving head-shake from Aeris as soon as she saw it. A shirt lay tossed over the back of the couch, and a pair of boots had been taken off for some reason in the middle of the short hall leading to what must have been the bedrooms. At least, Yuffie assumed there were two, until she plopped down on the couch and could see from there that one of the rooms was a bathroom. She cast Aeris a skeptical look.
Aeris was in the midst of throwing away the beer can and missed Yuffie's glance towards the bedroom, if not the look in her direction. "What?" she asked.
"You guys have been sleeping together all this time?"
The Cetra didn't blush, but she did look a little bashful. "At first," she said. "But it's just sharing a bed, now."
Reno had said he was 'single' now. Yuffie looked back towards the bedroom. She hadn't even realized he and Aeris had been, well, together, not like that. If he'd implied it once or twice in their conversations, she'd mistaken it for his usual game of turning perfectly innocent things into innuendo.
"We were dating," Aeris said as she came to join her, apparently seeing Yuffie's surprise in her expression.
"Well, yeah, but..." She fidgeted a little and just barely managed not to glance at Aeris's stomach. "I figured you'd be taking it a little slower than that."
Something about Aeris's expression told her she guessed what Yuffie meant by that anyway. "I thought we would, too," she admitted. "But it felt... safe, somehow."
"Then how come you're not together anymore?"
"It wasn't Reno's fault. I just haven't really felt like myself, in a long time. I didn't think it was fair to him."
Watching Aeris now, Yuffie was sure for the first time that however changed Aeris seemed, she still wasn't completely recovered. Just enough, maybe, to be able to cover things up again so no one noticed. "So it's back to Sephiroth again," she said.
"Yes."
"You really think he's changed?"
"I know he doesn't seem like it at first," Aeris said. "But he's a quiet person. And, I think he's always acted proud even when he's ashamed of himself."
"So he's like that when it's just the two of you?"
"Not as much." She gave a rueful smile, as if it was something she wished he'd stop doing, too. "I'm sure it'll be good for him, dealing with someone besides me."
Yuffie made a face. "Great, so I'm helping to rehabilitate the guy now?"
"You don't have to think of it that way. Think of it like... you'll be doing all of us a favor, if you can knock him down a few pegs." She said it playfully, like she was looking forward to seeing how that would work out almost as much as Reno, though definitely for different reasons.
"I guess that's a little better. But I'd rather nobody had to do anything like that."
"You'd rather he was just a whole new person, just like that?"
Yuffie shook her head, and even though she wasn't sure if Aeris would take it in stride, she had to be honest. "I'd rather he were just dead," she said. "I know what you think, but I don't really trust him to change. None of us do."
Aeris's expression sobered and she glanced down. "I know. Except for Vincent, you're all just going along with it for my sake."
"Vinny?"
"Sephiroth is the son of the woman he loved. I don't think Vincent wanted to have to kill him."
"...I guess that's right," Yuffie sighed, rifling a hand through her hair. "So you think Vinny would want him to get another shot at being a normal person?"
"Probably," Aeris confirmed. "Of course, I don't think he really had that chance from the start."
"Because of Hojo?"
The Cetra nodded.
"...that's not really an excuse, though." Yuffie could remember Vincent's face when they'd confronted Hojo. It was still the only time she'd heard him raise his voice in anger, and now that she thought about it, she was sure he laid all the blame for what Sephiroth had done at Hojo's feet. But Yuffie didn't think that way. Even if he had been raised by the kind of sicko who'd seen other people's lives as playthings, Sephiroth had never taken orders from the man. He'd decided what to do on his own.
Aeris gave her that sad smile again, like she agreed completely. "No, I guess it only gets him so far," she said.
There was a knock at the door. The two women exchanged glances, and Aeris started to get up to answer, but Yuffie was faster. Outside in the hall stood Sephiroth.
"What're you doing here?" Yuffie demanded.
"It's evening. You did not specify a time."
"Well, you're early," Yuffie pronounced. "I'm not even dressed yet."
She saw him raise an eyebrow at that, but turned on her heel before he could remark on it, snagged up her pack from the couch, and vanished into the bedroom. Like hell if she was going to spend time with Sephiroth without her full arsenal of knives on her person. From the living area, the sound of Aeris's voice drifted after her.
"Try to behave and not make her stab you."
"I will do my best," she heard Sephiroth reply dryly.
"And keep in mind she's just a teenage girl."
"Does that entitle her to special treatment?"
Aeris sighed, and though Yuffie didn't remotely agree with her point--just a teenage girl?--she could tell Sephiroth had missed it entirely. "I guess you'll find out," Aeris said.
Once her knives were all safely tucked away, Yuffie reemerged, dropped her pack and the remainder of its contents back on the sofa, and approached Sephiroth. "Well, let's get going," she said brusquely, as if he had been holding them up. Now that he was here, she might as well get the awful hour or two over with.
He gave her another amused look, but turned back to the door and led the way into the hall. They made the short trip down the stairwell and out of the building in silence, Sephiroth with an air of amused indifference to the whole affair and Yuffie trying not to let on how tense she felt. It was the swordsman who spoke first, though.
"I can't imagine what we might have to talk about," he remarked at last, glancing down at her.
It was true, Yuffie hadn't much thought about that part. Even five years ago, he would have been the last person she'd want to speak to (civilly at least). He was the man who had taken over as Shinra's general in the war against her homeland, and led his army to victory. And then of course he'd turned into a mass-murderer and almost single-handedly destroyed the Planet. What did you say to that kind of man?
"Do you like fish?" she blurted. Where that had come from, she had no idea, but more followed. "A lot of people on this continent don't, even people from Junon which is just completely stupid, I mean, the ocean's right there."
Sephiroth regarded her blankly for a long moment. His expression might even have been described as dumbfounded. Then he said, "The people here used to be fishermen, before Shinra built the city and polluted the waters."
"Oh," she said. "I guess you don't know any good seafood restaurants here then."
"Not anymore, no."
"You'll have to pick someplace else."
"That was my intention."
"Well, onward. The sooner we get somewhere, the sooner we can get this over with."
"I don't understand why you're so intent on this when you obviously take no pleasure in my company."
Yuffie grimaced. "That's the understatement of the millennium," she said. "But I'm not about to take Aeris's word on this one. I want to see for myself that you can go an hour or two without killing anybody or making any awful and confusing speeches about becoming 'one with the Planet'--you know you can do that if you just die, right? It's probably a lot easier and you can leave the rest of us out of it."
"The Planet..." he began, but then paused as though reconsidering his words. "The Planet may accept me, but I doubt the Lifestream's more recent additions will be so agreeable."
"Maybe you should've thought of that before the murdering spree."
"It seemed irrelevant, when I had no intention of dying."
"Well, you're a real idiot. Everyone dies sooner or later."
To her astonishment, he actually chuckled at that. "I suppose I am an idiot."
Yuffie hadn't let him out of her field of vision since leaving the apartment, but now she looked directly at him, suspiciously. Unfortunately she had no idea how to determine if any of his reactions were genuine. Deception was supposed to be one of his best skills. "You're not going to get any points just by agreeing with me," she said at last.
He returned her look calmly. "I suspect I may lose some by disagreeing."
"You haven't got any to lose."
"That can't be true," he stated. "I must have at least some by recommendation, or you wouldn't be willing to hear even one sentence from me."
"That doesn't count," she insisted, refusing to concede anything to him. "It just means Aeris is a really good friend of mine."
"Hm." He seemed to consider that for a moment. "Then we're both very lucky for that."
Yuffie frowned at him as she tried to figure out what he meant by her being lucky, too, thinking reflexively that it was some sort of insult. Then she realized with some surprise that he meant it as a compliment to Aeris. Anyone would be lucky to have her friendship, that was what he meant.
Well, it didn't exactly prove what she'd said about him being more respectful, but at least it showed he hadn't reverted to insulting her behind her back. He could get maybe a tenth of a point for that, Yuffie decided.
The place Sephiroth led her to was no sit-down restaurant, but a stand selling kabobs. She had to wonder at the wisdom of his choice, furnishing her with more sharp, pointy objects, but for once she didn't voice the thought.
"Is this all you can afford?" she asked instead as they moved away from the window.
"Yes," he answered in what sounded like perfect sincerity. "I hope it isn't too far below your standards."
"It's okay," Yuffie decided with some skepticism. "How come you're not having any?"
"My body needs less to sustain it."
"So you're just gonna stand there and watch me eat?"
"We can walk if you prefer."
"That's really creepy, you know that?"
Sephiroth gave a slight shrug, like he didn't mind being creepy. It was probably one of the weaker insults he'd experienced, she reflected. "It's also economical," he pointed out. "Besides, you already hate me."
Yuffie pulled a chunk of meat off the stick with her teeth, chewed, and swallowed, watching him carefully all the while. "You're not putting any effort into this, are you?" she concluded finally.
"I see no reason to."
"Why not? You'll only shell that out for Aeris? That's no good."
"No good?"
"Yeah. If she's your only motivation for anything, then you're better off dead." She said it and she meant it. Would Aeris forgive her if she really did wind up killing the man? she wondered. Probably. But she'd probably be disappointed first, and there was still the matter of actually being able to do it. Best to hold off for now.
"I would have thought someone so young could put more faith in the bonds between people."
It was only a small relief that he didn't go so far as to say love, which was what she knew he actually meant. Just knowing he meant it that way made her grimace. It didn't feel like something Sephiroth of all people had the right to talk about, much less act like he believed in. "Don't go thinking I'm going to be the most forgiving just 'cause I'm the youngest," she said. "And I'm not that naïve either. If Aeris is the only thing keeping you in check, then whenever you get over her, that's it."
"You expect me to get over her?"
"Yeah." Yuffie was sure of it, because no way did she believe he actually cared the way he suggested he did. "Tomorrow or twenty years from now, it's gonna happen. So, is she it or not?"
"...I couldn't tell you."
She gave him a hard look. "Well. Do you regret the stuff you did? And not just because you're having a hard time getting in Aeris's pants now"--Had she really just said that? Twenty minutes with Reno and he'd polluted her brain--"but because you were an awful person."
"I regret my stupidity," he said. "But that isn't what you're asking. You want to know if it pains me to recall the faces of those I murdered. For the most part, no. It doesn't."
"For the most part," she repeated. It seemed like a small thing to grasp at, but with someone like him, she didn't expect to find anything else. He hadn't gone through any stunning metamorphosis, that was obvious.
Sephiroth wasn't looking at her, though. For the first time he wasn't returning her gaze.
"I've killed many of my own men," he said. "I suppose I do regret that. They placed their trust in me."
"So out of all the people you could regret killing, it's only your fellow scumbags that get to you," Yuffie said flatly.
Here he did glance at her. "You may have no love for Shinra, but most of the men that form it are good men. They fought a war they believed they were on the right side of, just as your people did. And it did give me some pride to command them."
"But you weren't on the right side."
"There was no right side. It was a power struggle, and in the short term, you lost."
Yuffie's teeth clenched around the kabob stick, and she slipped one hand up her sleeve, fingers seeking out one of her knives. If it was hard hearing that stated so bluntly, it was a hundred times worse for having it come from his mouth. It wasn't lost on her either, that killing him would be like avenging all her people who'd died in that war. And he was wrong; there had been a right side.
But she forced herself not to grab the knife. He had said 'in the short term.' "That's all you think it was? Even then?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"Especially then." Sephiroth was definitely returning her gaze now, but his expression was unreadable. She was sure he knew what had just gone through her mind, but he gave no indication of what he thought about it. "I didn't care for the reasons," he went on. "I was presented with an opportunity to use my skills, and I took it."
"I guess that's really all you know how to do."
"No, but it is what I excel in, and what I was made for."
"I thought Gast made you to be an Ancient, like Aeris."
"Gast had his intentions, and Shinra had its own in funding his research." Sephiroth paused, and his eyes left hers again. "If he had not died... ours might have become a very different world."
Yuffie studied his face critically. No, it wasn't exactly unreadable now, but she wasn't sure what to make of it. "You almost sound like you regret that."
"...Gast was a good man. I had no hand in his death, but I was not indifferent to his loss."
What a way of putting it. Couldn't he just say he'd been kind of sad about it? "Did you know Aeris was his daughter?"
"Yes. Unfortunately that gave me no pause."
"You really are a total asshole."
He looked back at her, and she could swear he sounded amused again. "Are you sentencing me to death then?"
"I should," Yuffie said. "If you'd stay dead, I think it'd be better for everyone. But... The reason we lock up or kill murderers is 'cause they can't be trusted not to do it again. And, at least for now, I think you'll behave." She said this last part with distaste, and she immediately lifted a finger to preempt whatever reply she imagined he was going to make about her benevolence. "But don't think you're getting off scot-free. It's like probation. You pass for now, that's all."
"...you really are forgiving," was what he said.
"I am not!" she exclaimed, hurling her kabob stick at his head and regretting it immediately since it probably looked childish. That, and he turned his head enough that she missed his eye. "You've just got friends in high places! If they wanna give you a chance, and there's even the tiniest sign you might not screw it up, then I'm holding off on killing you. You're just lucky."
"'They'?" He sounded surprised.
"Well, Vincent."
Any amusement left his face at that, and he frowned slightly like he was thinking of something complicated. "Because of my mother," he said.
"Yeah, I guess." Yuffie folded her arms uncomfortably. She couldn't admit to being a big fan of Lucrecia, between the disgusting fact that she'd married Hojo and the part where she'd given birth to Sephiroth, plus what all of that had done to Vincent. But because of Vincent, she wasn't about to badmouth the woman either. "He probably thinks, you know, she would've wanted you to have a normal life and everything. So it's what he wants, too."
Sephiroth did not reply for a moment. "He did say something to that effect. That regretting what I had done would be all the punishment I needed. From your questions, you think something like it."
Yuffie didn't want to admit he was right. Well, mostly right. She still thought stabbing would be a good addition. "It only works if you do regret it all, though," she said.
"I will never regret the war, I can tell you that much."
His statement set her to glaring at him again, even if there had been no venom in it. He was only stating a fact, something for her to set her expectations by.
"However," he went on with less conviction, "the things I've done outside of battle... I understand that I should regret them. I do regret some. But I still feel no sense of loss for people who meant nothing to me."
"They meant something to someone."
"I know that. I just don't feel it." He almost sounded frustrated, like it was something he wanted to feel.
"That was one of the things you were after, right? Not feeling anything?"
Sephiroth blinked, and she was sure he hadn't expected her to know that. "Yes."
"Work real hard on the complete opposite, and maybe you'll get to live."
He gave a wry smile. "Maybe."
Yuffie didn't like the smiling part, but it wasn't enough to get her to retract her decision about letting him live temporarily. He survived the evening, and returned with Yuffie to the apartment, much to Reno's disappointment. 'Not even a black eye' was how he put it, and refused to pay her.
But she thought it had been worth the trip anyhow, to make sure for herself. And she could let Vincent know, too. Not that it would be anywhere near enough to get a visible smile out of him, but it might earn her an expression other than standard stoic Vincent, and that was enough to make her a little less annoyed with her own decision.
Reno could hear them in the hallway, the murmur of their voices as usual not even remotely argumentative. He couldn't make out more than a word here and there, but it irked him to hear them talking to each other so amiably. If he'd had less restraint, he might have gone out there to--what? Fight the bastard? It wouldn't have given him any satisfaction; the only way he could come out ahead was if Sephiroth let him. So he sat still and listened, clenching his teeth.
Finally he heard the conversation coming to an end, the tones of pleasant goodbyes, and there was a pause during which Reno imagined her watching the bastard leave, before a key turned in the door. It swung in, and he could see the smile on her face before she met his gaze and her expression turned wry.
"Do you always have to make that face when I get back?"
"I can't believe you're actually dating that bastard now."
"You don't have to call him that either," she said quietly, taking off her jacket and hanging it by the door. She didn't walk over to join him on the couch, but stayed where she was near the door.
"It's what he is, Aeris."
"Not anymore."
Reno snorted. "I'm supposed to be impressed he's behaved for three whole months? That guy could snap any day." He looked at her seriously. "You should be a lot more careful."
"He's not going to do anything, Reno."
"You think he isn't going to," he corrected. "You don't know he's not, any more than you knew before. And you were wrong then, remember?"
She turned a sharp look on him for that. "Of course I remember," she said, her voice controlled. "And that's why I need to do this now."
"But you can't trust the guy. Don't you get that? Some people you just can't trust."
Aeris folded her arms beneath her breasts. "You know, a lot of people would tell me you're one of them. I've had plenty of warnings about you, even from Elena of all people. 'Reno's a jerk, he'll let you down sooner or later. You should dump him for someone else.' You think I should've listened to them?"
"Aren't you?" he asked sullenly.
Her expression softened a bit at that, but it didn't do anything for his mood; he knew what she was about to say. "Reno, we haven't been together since before he came. And--"
"'It's not you, it's me'?"
"I really do mean that. I just couldn't... put enough of myself into the relationship."
It was the same bullshit answer she'd given him every time he'd tried to ask before. She wasn't ready, she didn't feel like she was back to her old self yet, she didn't feel like she could trust anyone that way yet. And she'd thought at first that time was all she'd need to change that, but somewhere along the line she'd realized it wasn't, and she'd broken it off without explaining. She didn't need to. She refused to admit it to him in so many words, but Reno understood that the part of her she felt was missing was what she'd lost to that bastard when she'd let her guard down.
"But you can do it for him," Reno pointed out.
"Because I did it before. And I got hurt then, but... This time is different."
"You don't know that."
"It's already different," Aeris said. She was stiffening up again, readying herself for another argument. "He's not trying to deny his feelings now, he just doesn't know how to show them."
Reno took in the set of her jaw and firmness of her stance, all of it telling him she wasn't going to back down this time, just the same as she'd refused to all during the past month. He was getting nowhere here. "Well, that's great, I'm happy for you," he announced acidly, getting to his feet. "And when he figures that part out, I really hope he asks your permission this time, but either way, you know what? I'm not going to stick around for it."
His reaction threw her, and it showed. "What?"
"I don't wanna be here watching you fall back in love with that bastard, and I just had the startling realization that I don't have to be here. You go on and keep the key, but I'm out of here."
He turned his back on her, about to gather up his stuff, and had the small satisfaction of hearing her move from her spot by the door.
"Reno, wait--"
He glanced back at her and she stopped again when he met her gaze. "You want me to think about it, right? I've been thinking about it. About how I'm just pissed off all the time, and even if I don't have to see him, I have to see you. And right now, you're half of the problem."
"You don't have to leave," she insisted. "Why don't we just stop talking about it? And I won't bring him anywhere near the apartment." She was wringing her hands together, and with the way she was looking at him, he knew she had a chance of convincing him if he didn't stop her from trying.
"I don't care," he said. "You'll still have that look on your face when you come in, and I'll know it's because of him. So I'll leave you two to it. Just do me one favor and keep it to the couch if you fuck. I don't want that bastard in my bed."
"Reno!" Aeris exclaimed in affront, and he had to steel himself against wishing he hadn't said it.
"Don't pretend you're that much of a prude. You've been living with me for three months."
She folded her arms again and her voice grew cold. "I think you're right. Maybe you should move out."
"Well, now that I have your permission, I'll just do that."
"Well, good."
Reno strode to the bedroom and, not bothering to locate anything more appropriate, he stripped a pillowcase, grabbed whatever clothes he had lying on the floor, and shoved them in. He forced his feet into his shoes, snatched up his nightstick, and headed for the door, intending to walk straight out without another word to her, before her anger died down and she realized she'd wanted to make him change his mind. He didn't want to walk out on her, but he couldn't stand to stay any longer.
"Where will you go?" she asked, and already he could see something fighting with the anger on her face.
He kept his own expression hard and schooled his voice. "I'll let you know."