FIC Courtship Part 3
Dec. 8th, 2008 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljTitle: Courtship
Fandom: FFVII Cetra Restoration AU
Rating: PG
Warnings: implied slavery, implied het, implied slash
“We really should look at those records you wanted Aeris.” Zack knew why Aeris didn’t really want to think about getting a spouse, he wasn’t too keen on the idea either, but it had been a full week since he’d collected the records on them, and they should get moving.
“Yes, I suppose so.” Aeris still looked reluctant, but she moved towards his bedroom, since the best computer they had was there. “I’ll let you pull up the information we need.”
“Sure.” Zack settled in front of their desktop, turning it on, signing in and opening ‘candid’, the folder he’d transferred all the records to last week while Aeris got another chair so she could watch him more easily.
“Shouldn’t you tell me the password you used for that folder?” He’d let himself forget that Aeris would probably want the option of going through this without him there, although at least he’d remembered to put the folder in the shared documents folder.
“Sephiroth, upper case S, a zero to replace the O, and everything else lower case. I figured something with no obvious connection to the folder would work best.” Zack had been given some training in security, but he knew that passwords based on real words were a lot easier to remember than random collections of letters.
“Hmmm...except that he’s my beloved brother, and your friend, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re being paranoid in using any password at all to protect the records, since it is stuff we’ve got a right to know.” Zack hadn’t thought about that, but Aeris didn’t seem to really mind.
“I’ll remember that for the future. Where do you want to start?”
“With the information on their inner households.” It would be easier on Aeris when it came to negotiating a contract if her spouse didn’t have a consort of his own, and Zack had heard stories about healer caste who kept concubines.
“Right.” He opened folder 1, and then the document titled ‘Inner Household’. “So, this one’s called Daris. No consort...”
“But he has five concubines.” Aeris rested a hand on his thigh as she pointed to the sentence in question, and Zack shut down the document at once, exiting folder 1 to return to the ‘candid’ folder.
“Shall I just delete that folder, or make a new sub-folder for rejection in the first cut?”
“Delete it. He returns his concubines after six months, and uses them as part-value for their replacements, all except his first concubine, and every single concubine needs some form of therapy afterwards!”
“I hadn’t read that far.” Zack grimaced as he obeyed; he’d been focusing on the question of whether Daris had a consort first, but that had to be a secondary concern. “Ready to try the next candidate?” He opened folder 2 as he spoke, waiting until Aeris agreed before opening ‘Inner Household’ from this folder.
“Hmmm. This looks better. Lewis doesn’t seem to have any concubines at all.”
“No, but he’s got a consort, a pure human called Lazard.” Although Zack wondered if it might be better for Aeris’ spouse to have a consort of his own after all, so that he’d expect less of Aeris’ attention.
“It’s not enough to eliminate him, try the next one.” Darres, no concubines, a male consort, an uncaste called Glen who’d been his childhood sweetheart and refused the activation ritual so he could belong to Darres.
“That’s...very interesting. Still...show me the next candidate.”
“Ares.” No consort again, but... “He’s got a concubine, should I delete him?” He was already moving to do that without Aeris’ agreement when she put her hand on his wrist to stop him.
“No. He’s only got one concubine, and according to the records she didn’t train as one. He could have had sex with her before realising he loved her. Leave him as a possibility. Who else is there?”
“Number five, one Apophis. No consort, no concubines...not even a bodyguard.”
“He’s just jumped to the top of my list, make a new folder, label it ‘preferred’ and put him there.” One more candidate joined Apophis in the ‘preferred’ folder, Rameses, a name Zack thought he should know, but couldn’t quite place, and Zack deleted two more before they finished making the first cut.
“What now? Do you want to see their pictures?” Which wouldn’t be more than a month old given when the database had last been updated.
“No. I don’t want to let my decisions be affected by what they look like, not until the final cut. Let’s check their finances. There’s no real excuse for a high noble to be in debt, and I don’t want a profligate for a spouse.”
“Yeah, I get that. Do you want to start with Apophis and Rameses then?”
“Please, that would be best.” Preferred, and then folder 5...Zack scanned the files stored there, selecting the spreadsheet titled ‘Financial summaries’. The information was pretty basic, but Apophis hadn’t drawn from his stipend for the last five years - as far as it went back - and he paid quite a bit of income tax.
“Hmmm. His payroll is pretty reasonable, especially since it doesn’t look like he buys slaves.”
“And I don’t know much about credit ratings, but isn’t it better the higher the number is?” And Apophis’ was 2317.
“I think so.” Aeris sounded as unsure as Zack felt. “He’s staying in the preferred folder anyway. Let’s take a look at Rameses now.” Apparently Rameses drew his full stipend every year, paid just about no income tax, and had a credit rating of just 231.
“Delete him. He’s not suitable if he’s managed to get that badly into debt and can’t be relied on to pay his debts off.” And that reminded Zack of where he’d heard the name before.
“I think he used to gamble with one of my previous owners, and tended to lose pretty badly. Just let me check the picture of him.” He opened a picture file to find a photo of a fairly young man, dark skinned, but with even darker circles under the eyes. “Yes, that’s him, and he’d be an embarrassment to you if you took him as a spouse.”
Aeris told Zack to delete three more folders, although he wasn’t quite clear on what was wrong with Osiris’ financial records, and moved one candidate, Horus, to the preferred folder. Horus was eliminated in the next round when Aeris learned he’d been sued three times in the last five years over his healing, and he didn’t do surgery, or anything like that, just prescribed medication - and that only rarely. Two moved up into the preferred folder: Regis, who dealt with terminally ill patients who couldn’t afford the sort of nursing they needed, and sometimes even cured them, and Darres, who’d focused on trauma injuries and field medicine - although it mystified Zack why he didn’t have a bodyguard in that case.
“I think five’s a short enough list to choose from, don’t you?” Aeris leaned back in her chair and Zack pushed back away from the computer to watch her stretch before doing the same himself.
“Yes, especially since you’ve got a short list of three candidates. Do you want me to pull up their photos now?”
“No. Not today. And when I see the photos I don’t want to know who each photo is of. I...want to have the chance to choose from the photos just because of what I think of the way they look. You...don’t mind that, do you?” Aeris’ voice and eyes begged him to understand, to accept that she didn’t want to choose her spouse, the man who was supposed to be her equal and partner, rather than her helpmate as he was, just from records, that she wanted to find her spouse attractive, if she could.
“No, I don’t mind. I mean, I’m the one you love, and nothing’s going to change that, right?” Zack needed reassurance as well, he’d focused on doing this for Aeris, but...he didn’t want to share the woman he loved with another man, even though he knew he had no choice, even though he’d accepted this when he agreed to be Aeris’ consort, to have whatever part of her that he could have.
“No, nothing’s going to change that.” Aeris shook her head, resting a hand on Zack’s cheek and leaning forward to kiss him, full on the lips, taking his mouth with a sweetness mixed with sorrow. “I don’t want to think about this anymore just now. Shut the computer down and come to bed with me.”
“As you wish.” Zack shut the computer down, deciding that he’d print the photos out the next day and let Aeris see them when she was ready, before following Aeris back through to her bedroom and letting her push him down onto the bed, giving himself over to her.
Fandom: FFVII Cetra Restoration AU
Rating: PG
Warnings: implied slavery, implied het, implied slash
“We really should look at those records you wanted Aeris.” Zack knew why Aeris didn’t really want to think about getting a spouse, he wasn’t too keen on the idea either, but it had been a full week since he’d collected the records on them, and they should get moving.
“Yes, I suppose so.” Aeris still looked reluctant, but she moved towards his bedroom, since the best computer they had was there. “I’ll let you pull up the information we need.”
“Sure.” Zack settled in front of their desktop, turning it on, signing in and opening ‘candid’, the folder he’d transferred all the records to last week while Aeris got another chair so she could watch him more easily.
“Shouldn’t you tell me the password you used for that folder?” He’d let himself forget that Aeris would probably want the option of going through this without him there, although at least he’d remembered to put the folder in the shared documents folder.
“Sephiroth, upper case S, a zero to replace the O, and everything else lower case. I figured something with no obvious connection to the folder would work best.” Zack had been given some training in security, but he knew that passwords based on real words were a lot easier to remember than random collections of letters.
“Hmmm...except that he’s my beloved brother, and your friend, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re being paranoid in using any password at all to protect the records, since it is stuff we’ve got a right to know.” Zack hadn’t thought about that, but Aeris didn’t seem to really mind.
“I’ll remember that for the future. Where do you want to start?”
“With the information on their inner households.” It would be easier on Aeris when it came to negotiating a contract if her spouse didn’t have a consort of his own, and Zack had heard stories about healer caste who kept concubines.
“Right.” He opened folder 1, and then the document titled ‘Inner Household’. “So, this one’s called Daris. No consort...”
“But he has five concubines.” Aeris rested a hand on his thigh as she pointed to the sentence in question, and Zack shut down the document at once, exiting folder 1 to return to the ‘candid’ folder.
“Shall I just delete that folder, or make a new sub-folder for rejection in the first cut?”
“Delete it. He returns his concubines after six months, and uses them as part-value for their replacements, all except his first concubine, and every single concubine needs some form of therapy afterwards!”
“I hadn’t read that far.” Zack grimaced as he obeyed; he’d been focusing on the question of whether Daris had a consort first, but that had to be a secondary concern. “Ready to try the next candidate?” He opened folder 2 as he spoke, waiting until Aeris agreed before opening ‘Inner Household’ from this folder.
“Hmmm. This looks better. Lewis doesn’t seem to have any concubines at all.”
“No, but he’s got a consort, a pure human called Lazard.” Although Zack wondered if it might be better for Aeris’ spouse to have a consort of his own after all, so that he’d expect less of Aeris’ attention.
“It’s not enough to eliminate him, try the next one.” Darres, no concubines, a male consort, an uncaste called Glen who’d been his childhood sweetheart and refused the activation ritual so he could belong to Darres.
“That’s...very interesting. Still...show me the next candidate.”
“Ares.” No consort again, but... “He’s got a concubine, should I delete him?” He was already moving to do that without Aeris’ agreement when she put her hand on his wrist to stop him.
“No. He’s only got one concubine, and according to the records she didn’t train as one. He could have had sex with her before realising he loved her. Leave him as a possibility. Who else is there?”
“Number five, one Apophis. No consort, no concubines...not even a bodyguard.”
“He’s just jumped to the top of my list, make a new folder, label it ‘preferred’ and put him there.” One more candidate joined Apophis in the ‘preferred’ folder, Rameses, a name Zack thought he should know, but couldn’t quite place, and Zack deleted two more before they finished making the first cut.
“What now? Do you want to see their pictures?” Which wouldn’t be more than a month old given when the database had last been updated.
“No. I don’t want to let my decisions be affected by what they look like, not until the final cut. Let’s check their finances. There’s no real excuse for a high noble to be in debt, and I don’t want a profligate for a spouse.”
“Yeah, I get that. Do you want to start with Apophis and Rameses then?”
“Please, that would be best.” Preferred, and then folder 5...Zack scanned the files stored there, selecting the spreadsheet titled ‘Financial summaries’. The information was pretty basic, but Apophis hadn’t drawn from his stipend for the last five years - as far as it went back - and he paid quite a bit of income tax.
“Hmmm. His payroll is pretty reasonable, especially since it doesn’t look like he buys slaves.”
“And I don’t know much about credit ratings, but isn’t it better the higher the number is?” And Apophis’ was 2317.
“I think so.” Aeris sounded as unsure as Zack felt. “He’s staying in the preferred folder anyway. Let’s take a look at Rameses now.” Apparently Rameses drew his full stipend every year, paid just about no income tax, and had a credit rating of just 231.
“Delete him. He’s not suitable if he’s managed to get that badly into debt and can’t be relied on to pay his debts off.” And that reminded Zack of where he’d heard the name before.
“I think he used to gamble with one of my previous owners, and tended to lose pretty badly. Just let me check the picture of him.” He opened a picture file to find a photo of a fairly young man, dark skinned, but with even darker circles under the eyes. “Yes, that’s him, and he’d be an embarrassment to you if you took him as a spouse.”
Aeris told Zack to delete three more folders, although he wasn’t quite clear on what was wrong with Osiris’ financial records, and moved one candidate, Horus, to the preferred folder. Horus was eliminated in the next round when Aeris learned he’d been sued three times in the last five years over his healing, and he didn’t do surgery, or anything like that, just prescribed medication - and that only rarely. Two moved up into the preferred folder: Regis, who dealt with terminally ill patients who couldn’t afford the sort of nursing they needed, and sometimes even cured them, and Darres, who’d focused on trauma injuries and field medicine - although it mystified Zack why he didn’t have a bodyguard in that case.
“I think five’s a short enough list to choose from, don’t you?” Aeris leaned back in her chair and Zack pushed back away from the computer to watch her stretch before doing the same himself.
“Yes, especially since you’ve got a short list of three candidates. Do you want me to pull up their photos now?”
“No. Not today. And when I see the photos I don’t want to know who each photo is of. I...want to have the chance to choose from the photos just because of what I think of the way they look. You...don’t mind that, do you?” Aeris’ voice and eyes begged him to understand, to accept that she didn’t want to choose her spouse, the man who was supposed to be her equal and partner, rather than her helpmate as he was, just from records, that she wanted to find her spouse attractive, if she could.
“No, I don’t mind. I mean, I’m the one you love, and nothing’s going to change that, right?” Zack needed reassurance as well, he’d focused on doing this for Aeris, but...he didn’t want to share the woman he loved with another man, even though he knew he had no choice, even though he’d accepted this when he agreed to be Aeris’ consort, to have whatever part of her that he could have.
“No, nothing’s going to change that.” Aeris shook her head, resting a hand on Zack’s cheek and leaning forward to kiss him, full on the lips, taking his mouth with a sweetness mixed with sorrow. “I don’t want to think about this anymore just now. Shut the computer down and come to bed with me.”
“As you wish.” Zack shut the computer down, deciding that he’d print the photos out the next day and let Aeris see them when she was ready, before following Aeris back through to her bedroom and letting her push him down onto the bed, giving himself over to her.
