Final Fantasy VII Standalone

◊   ◊   ◊

Branch

Standalone stories about bits and pieces of FF7 backstory, especially Zack and Sephiroth.

Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://www.branchandroot.net/archive/).

"One Simple Thing" published on 2006-01-11 20:44:38.

"Where Seduction Serves" published on 2006-01-20 20:48:13.

"Hearts and Flowers" published on 2006-02-04 20:51:41.

"Al Fresco" published on 2008-04-11 15:10:21.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on September 6, 2019 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

Cover illustration is "Fluszufer" by Jacob Isaaksz van Ruisdael, public domain (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Isaaksz._van_Ruisdael_007.jpg).

Cover design by Branch.

One Simple Thing

Young Zack has a tough day; so does Sephiroth. Sex ensues. Porn with Characterization, I-4, pre-game

Sephiroth examined the young SOLDIER across the table from him, gauging how tipsy he had gotten. The boy was still fidgeting, as he had been all evening, but it had slowed down some. It looked about right, and Sephiroth nodded to himself, getting up to draw the blinds over his windows. With luck he'd be able to get to bed, now.

"You should go find a woman, Zack," he said, over his shoulder. "That's what your body is asking for."

A soft thump sounded behind him and he turned to find Zack had put his head down on the table. "I figured that part out pretty quick, actually," Zack observed, enunciating with the care that comes just before slurring. "And I don't want just some random screw." A moment of silence. "Well, I do, but I don't, and the thought makes me shrivel. If I could right now." He shifted in his chair, and muttered, "This is really damn uncomfortable. But it just doesn't feel right."

Sephiroth shook his head. The spooked look hovering around Zack's eyes had led him to let his most newly blooded man in, when Zack had showed up at his door with an ingenuous smile and a bottle. Zack was a good soldier, and an excellent SOLDIER. Nevertheless. "I trust you don't expect me to help you out with that part," he said, a bit dryly.

Zack lifted his head, probably too quickly, and swayed a bit, blinking at Sephiroth. "Of course not, sir! I didn't," a shrug, "didn't expect you'd be that, um, charitable or anything." He looked down at his glass and tossed back the last swallow. Quietly, he finished, "I just wanted to be around someone I could talk to. Who would understand." A grin suddenly flashed over his face. "And who could sit on me if I lost the argument with my gonads."

A corner of Sephiroth's mouth quirked. That was not an inconsiderable problem for a boy he expected to be First Class in a year or two, he had to admit.

None of this solved the basic problem, though, and he considered Zack for a long moment. He'd had a long day, himself, and dealing with both Hojo and Scarlet trying to rewrite the day's assignment so they could get live monsters for their own research at the cost of more casualties to Sephiroth's men had tired him out. It would be very nice to be able to solve just one problem in the world simply and easily. Normally the thought he was currently turning over would never have entered his mind. Most of his men might too easily assume that Sephiroth would favor them, afterwards.

Zack, though... Zack was wiser than that, he thought. The boy had kept his head through his first real battle, and was even keeping it now, in the aftermath, when most men cheerfully let go.

Not that this meant Zack didn't need to let go, too. And it would be one simple thing in this wearingly complicated day.

Sephiroth nodded to himself, decision made, and strode back to the table. Zack looked up, eyes just a little out of focus and widening abruptly as Sephiroth caught his chin in one hand. They slid half shut again as Sephiroth leaned down and kissed him.

Sephiroth was amused to note that Zack looked, of all things, just a little concerned, as Sephiroth drew back.

"Sephiroth-san, you don't... I didn't..."

"Be still Zack. You have duties tomorrow, and you won't be in any shape to attend to them at this rate." A second kiss, and Zack leaned into this one.

Though that didn't stop him protesting, against Sephiroth's lips, "Just because... I mean, you shouldn't..."

Sephiroth snorted and pulled Zack up out of his chair. "I will decide what I should and shouldn't do," he said, firmly, and kissed Zack more seriously.

Zack's lips parted, and Sephiroth thought it was more than the alcohol making Zack sag against him. "Well, if you put it that way," Zack mumbled.

Sephiroth reflected that it was a good thing Zack was better than this at following orders in the field. "Come."

Zack followed him into the bedroom willingly enough, only to pause next to the bed. "I've, um... never actually, um..." He shifted, looking down.

Both corners of Sephiroth's mouth curled up this time. "Being older does have some advantages," he observed, taking Zack's hands to tug his gloves off.

Zack swallowed. "Oh. Good. That's... good."

"Yes, it is." Sephiroth set Zack's hands on his own belt buckle and stepped back to shrug out of his coat. Bandoliers, boots and pants followed, to be draped over the clothes chest, and Sephiroth turned back to see Zack, shirtless, leaning against the bed with one foot in the air, boot half off, staring. "Need any help?" he inquired.

"Ah! No, I'm just fine." Zack finished undressing hastily, and smiled a little as Sephiroth came back and pulled him close. "Yeah. Fine," he repeated, light and husky.

Judging from the soft sounds Zack made as Sephiroth pressed him back on the bed and settled over him, he was, indeed, just fine. But Sephiroth still listened carefully to the shaky edge of Zack's sighs as Sephiroth's hands stroked firmly over the solid planes of his body. Zack was uncertain but not tense. Interesting.

Zack's breathing got rougher as Sephiroth sank slicked fingers into him. "Ahh. Sephiroth-san..."

Sephiroth made an inquiring noise, a bit distracted by how Zack looked, increasingly flushed and heavy-eyed. Zack squirmed.

"It feels... good."

"That's generally the point, yes." It really was refreshingly simple, Sephiroth reflected; Zack's body was eager and responsive to every touch. It was so easy to open him, to spread his thighs apart. And even though Zack bit his lip a little when Sephiroth's cock started pushing into him, he still didn't tense. He just looked up with wide, bright eyes, panting a little.

"Is it all right?" Sephiroth asked, a bit husky. The heat and the slide of Zack's muscles tight around him brushed shivers of pleasure over his nerves.

"Very all right." Zack's voice was quite breathless, now, and Sephiroth smiled with just a touch of smugness. That, however, made Zack laugh, and the laugh rippled through his body and made Sephiroth gasp. "Glad you're enjoying it, too, sir," Zack added cheekily.

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. "Indeed I am," he murmured, and drew back only to thrust in again, smooth and firm. Zack moaned, hands flying up to lock on Sephiroth's arms. That was more like it. He thrust again, a little harder.

"Sephiroth!" Zack spoke his name like it was the answer to a question.

It was, the back of Sephiroth's mind noted absently, a strange thing in the midst of this tight, hard heat, but Zack's uncomplicated enthusiasm soothed him. Zack simply wouldn't be still for a moment, squirming and arching to meet Sephiroth's cock with every stroke, and every moan and yes in that light voice relaxed Sephiroth a little more. If it were possible to cast a healing spell over a heart, he would have been looking around for an active materia somewhere.

So very simple was his last thought before pleasure broke its bounds and flooded him, wild and bright and untamed.

When he opened his eyes again, Zack's eyes were wide and impressed, watching him, in a way that made the corner of Sephiroth's mouth twitch. He put a stop to it by closing a firm hand around Zack's cock and stroking him. Zack's gaze unfocused and he bucked up into Sephiroth's hand, openmouthed, so abandoned that Sephiroth almost purred just watching him.

Zack came quickly, which Sephiroth rather expected of someone his age, and lay there in a sweaty, breathless, messy heap grinning. Sephiroth realized that he was grinning a little himself.

Zack's eyes focused again, bright and pleased. "That was fantastic. Can we do it again?"

Sephiroth stared down at him for a moment, and burst out laughing, unable to help it. "Later," he finally said, chuckling.

"Whatever you say, sir," Zack agreed, complacently.

Sephiroth was moved to wonder whether he'd been wrong to think this was a simple thing. But then he couldn't quite bring himself to care.

End

Where Seduction Serves

What if Sephiroth had been a little quicker on the uptake during the first encounter at the Northern Crater, and kept Cloud? Drama with Mindfuck, I-4, Divergent Future, in-game

Sephiroth watched the scene below him, impatient, but with interest pricking in the back of his mind.

This copy was definitely not like all the others.

Even now, with Cloud's deeper self awake, he paused before obeying. To say his farewells. To chat. And the other facet of him, the new one Cloud had cobbled together in mere months, was still fighting. Ineffectually, of course, but it still struggled against Sephiroth's control. Sephiroth had more than half expected that bit to burst like a soap bubble, once Cloud understood it wasn't real. Nothing so evanescent and friable should still survive.

Which meant...

Sephiroth's interest sharpened. He had said it himself; the nature of Jenova was transformation. Was it possible that Cloud had controlled his in some small way? That Sephiroth's puppet had actually taken the first step down the road that Sephiroth himself walked?

He remembered, suddenly, what else he had suggested, to taunt Cloud. That he had taken his present identity wholly from Tifa's memories, courtesy of Jenova. Which was not entirely true, but was entirely possible. And what if the one whose memory and thought his puppet had touched was not only Tifa or Zack, whose sword he wore, but Sephiroth?

He laughed softly to himself. Cloud seemed to have a talent for surprising him.

He frowned down at them all. How could even a hack like Hojo still think of Cloud as a failure? Even that idiot should have seen, should have understood, as soon as he observed that Cloud had fallen under Sephiroth, but made the transformations one would expect of a SOLDIER. Of Zack, to be precise.

Well, it didn't matter now.

But Cloud couldn't be let to run loose, if he really did have even a little control over Jenova within him. It was possible he would gain more, and that could begin to be troublesome. Sephiroth would have to either kill him, or...

He watched Cloud slump, hopelessly, and smiled.

Cloud was not really surprised to find himself in the tree. Nor was he surprised that Sephiroth appeared when Cloud called him; they were coming to the point of all this, after all. What surprised him was Sephiroth's expression, the bright, sharp smile, as if all his old reserve had been scoured away.

It almost looked... welcoming.

"So, you want a number, Cloud? I can give you one. If you want it."The voice was just as he remembered, low and smooth, but the words... ! Conflicting responses tore through Cloud, desperate desire and frantic denial side by side. "Please," his mouth whispered.

The corners of Sephiroth's mouth curled a little higher. "Your number would be... zero."

Cloud blinked, entirely off balance for a moment, wondering what that meant. Zero? ... nothing?

"Zero," Sephiroth repeated, treading toward him. "The first number and the last. The one that makes all true calculations possible. The fulcrum that stands outside all other numbers."

Now Cloud was staring, all of him disbelieving. "But... I'm the failure." The failure at everything. At a career; at friendship; at either being like Sephiroth or resisting him.

"The failure?" Sephiroth raised his brows. "Don't be foolish, Cloud. Out of all those pitiful copies Hojo attempted to make, how many are here now? You are the success."

Cloud stood there, arms limp at his sides, shocked. The success? He'd never been a success at anything.

"You are the one I made my plans with, Cloud, don't you remember? The rest were merely pawns." Sephiroth looked down at Cloud with that strange smile still curving his lips. "You are my chosen."

"Your... chosen?" Cloud whispered. It couldn't be true. Could it?

Sephiroth leaned close and Cloud wondered if the breath on his ear was only his imagination. "My chosen. My eyes and hands and will, abroad in the world. It's your destiny, Cloud, why else do you think the SOLDIER treatments came to you so late, when you're so clearly suitable for them? It wasn't your fate to serve Shinra in their petty plans; it's your fate to serve me. And you have fulfilled it."

Cloud swayed. It made sense; it made sense of everything, if this was what he had been meant to be.

"My triumph," Sephiroth murmured. "My success. My zero; apart, different, chosen."

Warmth lapped through Cloud, satiation, like he'd been fed after going hungry all day. It relaxed him, loosened the knot in his throat, and in his chest. "Yours," he breathed, eyes wide and unfocused.

The light in Sephiroth's eyes was even brighter as he stepped back, beckoning. "Come, Cloud. Let us finish this."

A low rumble vibrated through the cavern, shaking Cloud on the branch. When he looked back up, Sephiroth was gone, but the blue oblong in the tree had dropped a little. Inside it was... Sephiroth. Cloud obediently approached the cocoon and pushed the Black Materia through it. He watched its influence wrap around Sephiroth, and everything paused for a moment.

Cloud started as Sephiroth's eyes snapped open and the cocoon shattered into shimmers of light. He looked up, wildly, as the entire world seemed to dissolve likewise, and then gasped as he was caught in a tight grip. He stared up at Sephiroth and then around at the sheeting brightness that surrounded them. They were standing, as far as he could tell, on absolutely nothing.

Heat in the hand caught by Sephiroth's pulled his attention back. When Sephiroth released him Cloud looked at the black 0 now traced on the back of his hand, and the warmth crept back. He did have a place. He did have an identity. And it was a successful one.

"Now." Sephiroth's voice was lower and when Cloud looked up he couldn't see anything but brilliant green eyes. Sephiroth pulled him closer and Cloud felt another touch. This one was somehow inside, and he shuddered, gasping, with the strangeness. Sephiroth's eyes still held him and Cloud tensed, breathing fast as the weird touch groped deeper.

"Relax, Cloud." Sephiroth's voice curled around him. "This is how we're meant to be, you and I. Come; give me your strength, to protect us with."

The idea of Sephiroth even noticing Cloud's strength, let alone wanting to use it, was bewildering and warming all over again. But if he wanted it... Cloud caught a shallow breath and concentrated on the thought that Sephiroth could touch and take anything he wanted.

"Better."

The not-a-touch slid deeper. Ragged shivers ran through Cloud and he couldn't help a muffled noise as Sephiroth gripped something, somehow, inside him.

And then Sephiroth pulled, and Cloud screamed.

It was so raw he couldn't tell what the sensation was. Only that it made his whole body snap taut, vibrating, responding. The feeling of something rushing out of him, being pulled out of him, by Sephiroth's grip, tightened every single muscle and Cloud could hear his own breathing, harsh and fast, catching on a whimper.

It kept going.

His pleading sounds turned desperate and he thought he saw Sephiroth's mouth curve up.

And then it stopped, so suddenly that Cloud dropped all the way past relaxed and into blackness.

Sephiroth examined his handiwork and nodded. There would be no more meddling annoyances interrupting him now.

He looked down at Cloud, slumped against him, dazed; only Sephiroth's hold was keeping the boy standing upright. Not surprising. Sephiroth had taken all the strength he'd found in Cloud, though it had been more than he expected.

In light of which, a few more words to bind his puppet to his side might not be wasted effort.

He ran a hand through Cloud's hair, encouraging him to lift his head. "My little success. Look."

Cloud clung to him as he raised his head to gaze around, still a bit out of focus. Sephiroth let him and softened his voice. "This shield combines your strength and mine. Nothing in this world will break it. Nothing can attack us now."

Cloud stared at the glow of the shield above them for a long moment and then smiled. He turned his face up to Sephiroth, eyes heavy and contented. "Yes, Sephiroth-san."

Sephiroth smiled in turn, amused. Yes, indeed.

Nothing could stop him, now.

End

Hearts and Flowers

Zack and Aerith meet. Romance with Tickling, I-3, pre-game

"Oh, hey, wow. Are those real?"

Aerith looked up into bright eyes. A little too bright, and she tensed for a moment, but the SOLDIER's face was open and smiling with none of the distance that Tseng's had, when he came. "Yes, they are." She lifted one of the bouquets from her basket and offered it.

The man leaned over it, inhaling deeply, and his eyes lidded with pleasure. Actually, he looked a lot like a cat in the middle of a catnip patch, and Aerith had to stifle a giggle.

He let out a dreamy sigh. "Those smell wonderful. How much for the bunch?"

"Five gil, for those."

He pulled out his wallet and paid immediately, and stuck the bunch of flowers under his nose. "Mmmmm."

Aerith couldn't help laughing this time. "People like my flowers, but not usually that much."

He gave her a slightly crooked smile over them. "Yeah, well. Sharp senses are no bed of roses in the middle of the city."

"I hadn't thought of that." Aerith tipped her head, considering. So, other people were also hurt by the death and rot of this place. Immediately hurt, not just in the long term.

"Hey." A light hand touched her arm. "No need to look upset. I knew what I was signing up for." He waved the flowers. "And these will help tons. Brighten up, hm? It's a real shame for a pretty girl like you to look sad."

Aerith snorted. "Oh, honestly." As if she didn't get enough propositions, down here. Well, at least this one seemed cheerful enough to take a playful rejection, and she wouldn't have to act all disgustingly demure, like she did with some. She shoved at him, meaning to connect with his arm, but he turned into it and she lost her balance and wound up grabbing his ribs, instead, to stay on her feet.

"Heek!"

Aerith blinked. The SOLDIER was suddenly standing more than arm's length from her, looking like someone trying to look casual. He cleared his throat. "Um. Sorry about that. Reflexes."

She tipped her head. That couldn't have been what it sounded like. This guy was so obviously a SOLDIER, enhanced strength and reflexes and everything. He couldn't possibly be ticklish enough to squeak. Curious, she took a step toward him and poked experimentally at his ribs. He jumped back with a more muffled squeak this time, but it was definitely a squeak.

Aerith grinned with utter delight.

"Aw shit," he muttered, and sidled around to put a light pole between them. "Look, Miss, I'm really sorry for anything I might have said that offended y—heek! Cut that out!"

"Nope." Aerith dodged around the pole, chasing him. "You're the big, bad SOLDIER. Why don't you stop me? Shouldn't you be faster than this?"

He batted at her hands. "Against a civilian? A civilian girl? Are you kidding?" He squawked at a particularly sharp jab and scrambled back around the post. "I'd never live it down!"

Her eyes narrowed. "Oh, so I'm just a girl, am I?" She dove after him, fingers crooked vengefully.

"Heek! Ack! No, really, cut it—Ah!" Finally he managed to grab one hand. "If you don't stop it, I'll, I'll..." he sucked in his stomach to evade another pass. "I'll kiss you!"

Aerith tossed her ponytail back, and gave him a challenging look. "Oh? Was that supposed to be a threat?"

He paused for a long, blank moment and then smiled, slowly. "It was supposed to be something," he murmured, and stepped toward her.

Aerith let him because that smile did odd things to her stomach.

His kiss was light and respectful, and did more odd things to her knees; she was quietly grateful for the large, warm hand at the small of her back. When he lifted his head she could feel heat in her cheeks.

"Well," she said, softly, determined not to sound breathless, "I suppose that was worth stopping."

"Good." He sounded entirely too smug, and Aerith's sense of mischief perked up again.

"For a little while." She wriggled her fingers in his, now quite close and handy, ribs, and grinned wickedly as he squeaked and grabbed for the attacking hand.

"All right, all right! Look." He raked his free hand through his wild black hair. "If I buy you a drink, will you cut it out?" His expression turned a little pleading. "And not mention this to my buddies? Please?"

She considered this, and considered the humor in his eyes and the careful grip of his hand on hers, not crushing even in this extremity, and made a counter bid. "Buy me dinner, and I won't tell a soul. And I won't tickle you for the rest of the day."

He opened his mouth, relief bright in his face, and then paused and took a longer look at her. That smile spread slowly over his lips again, ending with a charming quirk at one corner. Finally he sighed and declared, "All right, you win. Unconditional surrender, here."

Accordingly she took her hands away from his ribs and clasped them in front of her, grinning up at him. He shook his head and took one hand again, settling it in the crook of his arm.

"I said you won, didn't I?" He chuckled as she blushed again. "So? We have the flowers. Where's a good place for a candle-lit dinner around here?"

End

Al Fresco

Aerith/Tifa/Cloud smut. Written for Porn Battle, with the prompt: Aeris/Tifa/Cloud, sex outside. Porn Without Plot, I-3

She loved having their hands on her. The fact that they were outside, under the sun, with the scent of summer grass heavy in the air all around them just made it twice as good, which was amazingly good.

Aerith leaned her head back on Tifa's shoulder and laughed, soft and breathless.

"Mm, I can feel it when you do that," Tifa murmured against her neck, long fingers pushing deeper into Aerith.

"And I can feel it when you do that," Aerith purred back at her, and gasped. "Oh... that too." She smiled down at Cloud, stretched out with both the women straddling him, and smiling up at them sweet and open. She rocked a little against Cloud's fingers as they rubbed gently through her folds. "Mmmm."

Tifa gasped as Cloud rocked his hips up and her low moan sent a shiver straight down Aerith's spine. The way her hand tightened on Aerith's breast made Aerith squirm back against her with a pleased sound. The firm curves of Tifa's body against her back and the solid planes of Cloud's chest under her fingers were enough to make her drunk on pure sensation, even before the pleasure of their hands touching her, caressing her.

And then Cloud's fingers found just the right spot, stroking her softly, and Aerith arched, gasping, heat washing through her. Her body wrung down on Tifa's fingers and when Tifa twisted them firmly pleasure spilled over completely and burst through her like light.

She stared up at the blue sky, panting for breath, feeling Tifa's arms tight around her as Tifa ground down against Cloud, moaning, and Cloud's hands stroked over over both of them, as if he wanted to touch as much as possible.

"There's nothing better than this," she whispered, releasing the words to the summer air, to the sky and earth and the spirits of those who still watched over them.

Over all of them.

End