Who: Sephiroth, Rikku
When: Morning after Rikku and Reno sleep together and Rikku is infected with J-cells. After Reno goes to practice with Rude.
Where: The general's apartment.
Warnings: None.
What: Sephiroth discovers that Rikku is infected, and Rikku takes off, not knowing why she feels so ill.
Late morning already, thin lips curved lightly as he sheathed Masamune back into her sheath, eyes glittering lightly, yes... this morning had for once been.. peaceful. No interruptions.. for once.
He walked the path towards the new place he lived when he felt it.. something was... different. His face creased momentarily into a frown of confusion, this wasn't the strength of Kadaj, nor was it the wishfulness of Kiribani.. this was... something else. But what? A definate connection, how could he feel it? Why?
Eyes narrowed into thin slits as he changed directions, heading instead towards the place he could feel it from, back to Kiribanis house. Did he have a visitor? The only person he knew who was there still was....
"Rikku.." he spoke the name aloud as if doing so would make it unreal, because it Had to be unreal, he had sensed nothing from her before, not even once, and Mother had not been seenor heard of in ages, so how was this possible? Answer. It was not.
Still curiosity kept him moving towards the appartment that the Turk called home.
Gloved hands moving to push open the door, voice soft as ever as he called. "Announce yourself. Whoever you are."
She'd been curled up, sleeping soundly after Reno had left her tired out from the night before. Her arms were snuggled firm around the spare pillow, head nuzzled onto it, hair messy and tangled in the sheets. She was dreaming... floating on a green sea, emerald down to the depths, watching the sky up above as her arms swirled through the liquid.
A voice stirred her from her dreams and she yawned, stretching out before mumbling into the pillow;
"Sleeping, Reno, g'way." She squirmed around a bit and lifted her head when she heard the door open.
"'allo?" she yawned out, sitting up in the tangled mess of sheets and blankets, wrinkling her nose. Her head felt fuzzy, buzzing in her ears and her stomach rolled a bit. Ooooh, had she been drinking last night?
There was only Rikku in the house.. this was.. Sephiroth shook his head slowly, grasping for what was going on, coming up with only one answer, an answer that he already knew was incorrect, yet... when there were no other answers, then the only one left must be the right one. One eyebrow lifted delicately, as he finally decided upon action.
"Rikku... " The one word.. that was all he needed, a soft sound, coaxing in nature, trained to get devotion and obedience. Somehow... she had become infected, he could not be certain how, but that was unimportant right now, all that was important was that she definately held something inside of her that responded to him, that gave him the feeling of correctness despite how it should not have been.
She was sleepy, he could pick up on that now he was concentrating and had accepted what he had been unable to before, how long had she been like this? Long enough to know? Or?
He moved calmly through the rooms to the bedroom, pushing open the bedroom door, standing at the doorway, watching her intently. "Not feeling quite in sorts yet Rikku?"
She rubbed her eyes and grumbled.
"Oh, Sephiroth, s'you," she said and tried to smile at her General. She was always a little less formal with him at home, which wasn't much anyway, because she was never formal with him. She shook her head;
"Think I ate something funny," she said and then lay back down, wrapping her arms around the pillow, watching him with one eye, face half-obscured by sheets.
"I think I might've gone out with Zax last night drinking," she said vaguely. Had it been Zax? Her face flushed. Or had it been... wait. She hadn't been with Zax last night, had she? Flashes from the previous evening made her turn an even brighter shade of red, cheeks burning.
"Oh no," she moaned into the pillow and hid her face from the general.
"That would explain that then..." One side of his mouth curved upwards into a half smirk half smile, Kiribani, he might have known the boy would be foolish enough to pass That along.. the only one of Jenova's lot that Could, and he did.
"I wonder if he even knew himself.." Sephiroth mused to himself quietly, before turning his attention back to Rikku, a light shake of his head as he did so. "I doubt he has told you anything..."
Moving forwards now, closer to the girl, allowing himself to focus just a little on the connection between the pair of them, get an idea of exactly how she felt if he could. He could not help feeling curious as to how strong her will power was exactly, whether he would have the same level of command over her that he did over Reno.
"Come now.. sit up..." it was made to sound like a suggestion, but with the connection present it would certainly feel inwardly like a command, a command that should be obeyed if only to make the other feel better, for a tightness would slowly start up where they did not obey. A tightness of the breathing, of the muscles that only relaxed when they succeeded in doing what their mind wished them to do
Her face burnt hotly against the pillow and her stomach rolled angrily in shame. Fuck. Fuck fuck. And other bad words her father never liked her to say.
"No," she muttered rebelliously, back starting to tense up, shoulders squeezing in a little. Why wouldn't he just go away?! How embarassing, getting caught out at having a little fling with your roommate when you were SUPPOSED to be in a serious relationship with your SOLDIER partner. Oh god. And getting caught out by your boyfriend's boss, and your boss, and your erm... fling's... fuck.. buddy?
No way was she looking him the eye. Not now, not EVER.
"Sit up Rikku." He was no longer disguising it, he was determined to find out whether or not he was correct in thinking she had the cells just as Reno did, his eyes narrowed and hard, a cold light shimmering within them, letting the connection itself grow, enough that disobeying would cause actual pain as opposed to just physical discomfort.
He would see for himself, and if it turned out she was not the one.. welll he would find it... unless it was Reno playing a practical joke that was.
Her back seized and she immediately sat up, breath choking out of her lungs. Her hands flew to her lower back, her green eyes wide in surprise.
Had the acrobatics of last night messed her up crazy bad?! This wasn't normal at all. She twitched a little and then panted out a breath, looking up at the general.
"I'm not feeling so good," she said, "could you... leave me alone for a bit?"
He chuckled softly, a low sound, barely hearable, yet it was there... yes.. this was the one he was sensing all right, a little stronger than Kiribani it was true but that should prove no problem.. he needed a challenge on occasion.
"Very well.. get some rest hmm..." yet he had closed the connection again, it was merely a suggestion, there was no order involved as he turned on his heel.
"If you need anything.. let me know.. I will stay here until Kiribani returns... he should look after the one he is sleeping with after all.." Lips curving upwards into a hard smile as he headed towards the living room. Reno.. well.. Reno would pay for the betrayal, that was all he needed to worry about for now.
Rikku curled up again, moving slowly so as to not hurt her back, hugging the pillow to her chest as tight as she could. So Sephiroth knew now... was he going to tell Zax? She bit her lower lip hard and then shot out of bed, dressed in only the long shirt of Reno's she'd slipped on the night before to go the washroom in, the buttons done up wrong.
"You can't tell him!" she snapped from the doorway, eyes burning with tears, her stomach in knots. "You can't tell him, okay?!"
Sephiroth frowned slightly at her sudden concern, what was going on there? He couldn't.. tell him? ".... I rather think... he probably already knows.." he informed the girl calmly. It was unlikly Reno would not know he had slept with the girl last night.. unless they had Both been completely drunk... then again.. having known Reno, that would not surprise him too much.
"I told you.. get some rest.. Kiribani can look after you when he returns."
She stared at him blankly.
Zax already knew?!
"No!" she said, tears now running down her face and she turned on her heel, dashing back into the bedroom and ripping the shirt off, getting dressed as quickly as possible before she ran back out, shoving her feet into her boots, trying to tie them up through her tears before she finally dissolved into sobs on the hallway floor.
"He can't know... he can't... I... I love him..."
She sniffled quietly and then gained control of herself, mutely tying her shoes and wiping her eyes.
"I'm going out," she said, tears turned off as quickly as they'd started. She didn't even look at the general as she opened the door and then left, slamming it hard behind her. She needed to get out to think.