Sanctuary - Jessie/Aeris (FFVII)
Title: Sanctuary
Fandom: FFVII
Pairing: Jessie/Aeris
Prompt: Holy
Rating: Sadly PG-rated
Words: 500
Spoilers: None that I am aware of.
Jessie finds the church by accident, looking for a place to lay low until the latest search dies down.
It's abandoned, and it looks like there's a back way out, over the rooftops, if you're prepared to climb. That, and maybe she's still operating on the old conditioning that says you don't arrest people in churches, even though she knows that's bullshit. She doesn't even know what god the place is - or was - dedicated to, but she doubts the Shinra will care. Still, she pushes through the creaky door, into another world.
The sanctuary is silent, filled with the kind of calm that settles over things, collects in corners and won't be dispelled. There are flowers, growing up through holes in the floor, and dusty light slanting down from stained-glass windows, and Jessie is suddenly very aware of the ragged fringe of her hair brushing her neck, the engine grease on her coat and beneath her nails. This isn't a human place, not really. Not someplace she belongs at all, and she's just backing out when someone steps through a door in the far wall, and she realizes that she's not alone.
It's a girl, thank the gods, and not someone Jessie's likely to have to kill. She's maybe Jessie's age and obviously civilian, in a pink dress with a threadbare ribbon pulling back her hair, and she fits this place like she was born here. Jessie feels obscurely guilty for dragging her into someone else's war.
“Don't mean to trespass,” she says. “I was just - ”
“It isn't my church,” the stranger says. “I don't think it belongs to anyone, but you can stay if you want. They won't look for you here.”
Everything belongs to someone, Jessie thinks. That's one of the rules you learn in Midgar, the ones it's dangerous not to know, and if this innocent has lived this long without realizing it, well, it ain't Jessie's place to enlighten her. She'll figure it out eventually. Or not, as the case may be - Jessie can't guess which is kinder.
Then the rest of the words register, and she curses beneath her breath.
“That obvious, is it?”
“You're not the only one running,” the girl says. “I'm Aeris, by the way. And you're Avalanche, and yes, it is that obvious. I won't ask your name, if you don't want to give it, but I guarantee I'm not your enemy.” Her voice is amused, her eyes guarded enough to make Jessie wonder just how much she's misjudged. Then Aeris laughs like sunlight on water, and Jessie forgets everything she had been about to say.
You can stay if you want, she hears again, and maybe she'll take this stranger up on her offer. For a while, anyway. Until she's outstayed her welcome.
Then Aeris tugs her down to sit by the flowerbed, grinning impishly, and Jessie wonders if maybe she doesn't have a place here after all.
Fandom: FFVII
Pairing: Jessie/Aeris
Prompt: Holy
Rating: Sadly PG-rated
Words: 500
Spoilers: None that I am aware of.
Jessie finds the church by accident, looking for a place to lay low until the latest search dies down.
It's abandoned, and it looks like there's a back way out, over the rooftops, if you're prepared to climb. That, and maybe she's still operating on the old conditioning that says you don't arrest people in churches, even though she knows that's bullshit. She doesn't even know what god the place is - or was - dedicated to, but she doubts the Shinra will care. Still, she pushes through the creaky door, into another world.
The sanctuary is silent, filled with the kind of calm that settles over things, collects in corners and won't be dispelled. There are flowers, growing up through holes in the floor, and dusty light slanting down from stained-glass windows, and Jessie is suddenly very aware of the ragged fringe of her hair brushing her neck, the engine grease on her coat and beneath her nails. This isn't a human place, not really. Not someplace she belongs at all, and she's just backing out when someone steps through a door in the far wall, and she realizes that she's not alone.
It's a girl, thank the gods, and not someone Jessie's likely to have to kill. She's maybe Jessie's age and obviously civilian, in a pink dress with a threadbare ribbon pulling back her hair, and she fits this place like she was born here. Jessie feels obscurely guilty for dragging her into someone else's war.
“Don't mean to trespass,” she says. “I was just - ”
“It isn't my church,” the stranger says. “I don't think it belongs to anyone, but you can stay if you want. They won't look for you here.”
Everything belongs to someone, Jessie thinks. That's one of the rules you learn in Midgar, the ones it's dangerous not to know, and if this innocent has lived this long without realizing it, well, it ain't Jessie's place to enlighten her. She'll figure it out eventually. Or not, as the case may be - Jessie can't guess which is kinder.
Then the rest of the words register, and she curses beneath her breath.
“That obvious, is it?”
“You're not the only one running,” the girl says. “I'm Aeris, by the way. And you're Avalanche, and yes, it is that obvious. I won't ask your name, if you don't want to give it, but I guarantee I'm not your enemy.” Her voice is amused, her eyes guarded enough to make Jessie wonder just how much she's misjudged. Then Aeris laughs like sunlight on water, and Jessie forgets everything she had been about to say.
You can stay if you want, she hears again, and maybe she'll take this stranger up on her offer. For a while, anyway. Until she's outstayed her welcome.
Then Aeris tugs her down to sit by the flowerbed, grinning impishly, and Jessie wonders if maybe she doesn't have a place here after all.