Work Text:
Aerith could not believe her eyes as she looked upon the person she hated the most, Sephiroth, who was currently chewing enthusiastically on something he had proclaimed many times that he hated: chocolate.
"Oh no… the love potion is definitely working," she thought, nervously chewing on her nail. One of the signs of being succumbed to her love potion is that the person will have a strong craving for chocolate.
"If Sephiroth knows that the tea he drank was laced with love potion, he is gonna kill me," she thought as she looked at the silver-haired menace going about his work.
She wondered for the millionth time how she ever ended up in this situation.
A few hours ago
Aerith walked into the shop, hot chocolate in hand, greeting every witch and warlock with a very good morning in the lobby.
Shinra was a famous potion manufacturer specialising in manufacturing all kinds of potent potions that could be seen in the market. She was over the moon when she managed to get employed and assigned to the R&D team, just like her father once was.
For the past few weeks, she had been tasked to make a modified version of her signature love potion and had been making great progress. All she needed to do now was to put it in a cup of tea and see how it would affect the efficacy of the potion.
She put a few drops of the potion into a fresh cup of tea that she conjured up with her wand. The potion changed the colour of the tea to pink before returning to its original hue.
Just as she was about to observe the tea, the door behind her swung open with a bang, and in came Sephiroth, the current head of the department after the previous head of department, Hojo, accidentally turned into a slime due to a mishap in the lab.
Rumours had it that Hojo was messing around with some forbidden dark art, and some said that it was Sephiroth who did it.
But whatever it was, Aerith was kinda glad that Hojo was no longer the head of the department… somewhat as Sephiroth was no better. That man hated her from the day she first arrived. She remembered it like it was yesterday when she first came to the department and cheerfully greeted him like she did everyone else. Sephiroth was famous among everyone as the most promising warlock to ever create unique potions and spells. Not only that, he was also infamous for being the most handsome man with his uniquely long silver hair and tall, broad frame. He was even more beautiful in person, and Aerith had to compose herself before him. When she stood next to him, she had to look up.
"Hi. My name is Aerith. I’m the new witch that will be working here," she said.
He turned around just to glare at her as if she had stolen the last of his sunshine.
From then on, he had been nothing but mean to her. Asking her to do all the work that could be easily done by him and glaring at her whenever she submitted a report for his scrutiny. Not to mention, giving her the silent treatment and treating her as if she was not even in the room.
It hurt to be treated that way by someone she was supposed to work with, and she had no qualms about complaining to Tifa about it whenever she was in Seventh Heaven.
Shaking her head, she realised that there was no reason for her to dwell on it any more than she needed to and focused on the task in front of her.
She observed the tea and jotted down its hue and duration, sniffing for any unsavoury smell. A good love potion would not have any distinctive scent.
Just as she was about to do a mini detection spell on the tea, she was called by Sephiroth.
"I need you to take this to the account department now," he said, placing the file in front of her.
"Account department? It is at the far end of the building. Besides, I'm quite busy here," she replied.
He narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer to her. "You must not have heard me. I said, 'I need you to take this to the account department, now!'"
She gave him a glare before snatching the file and stomping off. She cursed him under her breath as she headed to the account department, which took her a total of 30 minutes to go to and fro.
When she finally made it back to her department and her work desk, she did a double-take when she saw that Sephiroth was sipping on her cup of tea. She gasped and then shut her mouth real quick before Sephiroth heard her. She did not need to be the first person he sees while under the spell of a love potion. Alas, it was too late as he glanced over to her. His eyes widened, and then he cleared his throat.
"That was quick," he said.
"Yeah…I…um…" She glanced over to her cup that had been dwarfed by his hand. She didn't realise how big his hand was until now.
He glanced at the cup as well and then shrugged. "I see that your tea was going to get cold, so I thought why waste it," and then took another sip from it. "Now get back to work," he dismissed her.
Aerith was gaping at him. "Did my love potion fail?" She tried to rack her brain, going through the recipe of the potion again to see what was wrong. She did everything to the dot. It should be working, but how come he is still acting the same way to her.
Just as she thought that she must have done something wrong, Sephiroth walked over to the pantry and took the jar of chocolate from the counter and began stuffing himself with it.
Someone gasped beside her, and she turned around to see Zack, who was also observing Sephiroth as if he grew an extra head.
"Aerith, are you seeing what I'm seeing? Sephiroth and chocolate?"
Aerith nodded and dragged Zack away from there.
"Shit shit shit, Zack! Sephiroth…he … the tea and the potion!"
"Wait… slow down, Aerith. What are you trying to say?"
"I was testing out my new recipe on the love potion and put a few drops into the tea to see the efficacy of it, and then Sephiroth asked me to bring something to the accounts department, and I left the tea on my table, and when I came back, he was drinking it."
Zack's eyes widened at the implication. "And who did he first see?"
Aerith gulped as she pointed to herself.
Zack gasped and then looked over to where Sephiroth is and then to her. "Are you saying that he is smitten with you now?"
"Uhm… Here's the thing. He acts like he normally is around me."
"What! That's impossible. Did you see the amount of chocolate he is eating? That man hated chocolate with a passion. The only explanation is that he is experiencing the side effects of your love potion."
"I know. That's what I don't understand."
Zack scratched his head. "You sure?"
"Positive."
Zack then dragged her back to her desk to observe Sephiroth further.
Sensing that he is being observed, he turned his head over to them and frowned. "What?"
"Uhm… Seph, are you alright?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course, I'm alright." He promptly put another chocolate into his mouth. He then proceeded to zero in on their proximity to each other and glared. She swears she saw his eyes glinting dangerously before quelling the fire. "Don't you two have better things to do? Get on with it."
Zack and Aerith then proceeded to high tail out of there before it got worse.
"Do you see what I mean, Zack?"
Zack was rubbing his chin and then looked at Aerith and then shook his head. He chuckled and began to laugh heartily.
"Zack, this is no time to be laughing."
"It definitely is. And Aerith, if you have not noticed it, maybe I need to tell you what exactly happened."
"What?"
"Sephiroth is definitely under the love potion spell."
"Zack, if you notice anything, he is just the same as he always is."
"Yes, and that is what I find hilarious. What this shows is that Sephiroth is already smitten with you."
Aerith let the words sink in and then gasped. "What? Are you serious?"
"100%. He is definitely under a spell. And if he is behaving the same way under the love potion spell, the only explanation is that he has always loved you, and the potion has no effect on him besides the side effect."
Aerith gaped. "Then why was he treating me like I'm his sworn enemy?"
Zack shrugged. "Beats me. Who knows how Seph thinks. Maybe this is his way of showing people he loves them." He joked.
Aerith pushed him. "Stop it. I bet there's some other explanation here."
"Look Aerith, you might not know this, but Seph has been talking about you since the day you came here. Of course, he did not say it directly, but me, Angeal, and Genesis can definitely see that you affected him somewhat."
The little witch blushed. "That's impossible. He is always being mean to me."
"Yeah, only to you and not to everyone else."
"Urgh, that's such a dumb way to show someone you like them."
"If there's one thing the love potion has proven, it is that he really does like you."
Aerith groaned as she put her head into her hands. "I can't believe this."
"Well, there's only one way to find out, right?"
Her eyes widened. "You don't mean for me to ask him about it."
"I mean, why not? If he is really under a love potion spell, he wouldn't lie to you. Besides, we have to rescue him before he makes himself sick with all the chocolate he is consuming."
She gulped, and seeing the hesitation in Aerith, Zack began to drag her over to where Sephiroth is still consuming an insane amount of chocolate.
"I think it's better that I confront him on my own."
"Noted, and tell me how it goes." He winks at her. "Good luck though. Can't wait for the good news."
She makes sure that Zack was not around before moving closer to Sephiroth and stood right before him. He glanced up from his chocolate to her. His cat-like eyes were unnerving her, but she held on.
"Uhm, Sephiroth. I need to talk to you about something."
"What is it?" He asked before popping another chocolate into his mouth.
"Well, first, don't hate me, but you drank the tea which was laden with love potion."
His eyes widened and glanced over to the almost empty tea cup and then back to her. "What?!"
"And second, do you realise that you are eating a ton of chocolate when you know you hate it? That's one of my signature side effects that I put into the potion."
He looked over to all the chocolate wrappers on his desk and then back to her with widened eyes.
Aerith steeled her resolve before speaking what she needed to say. "Do you like me?"
The silver-haired man stood up and then proceeded to walk away, but then Aerith followed him.
"Stop following me."
"No! I need to know. I asked you a question."
He walked even faster. "Why do you need to know?! If I love you or not."
"Because I want to know why you treated me like shit from the first day I arrived!" She throws it at him. Before she could say anything more, he veered around so fast and caught her in his arms.
"What…" and then her lips were being captured by his.
He kissed her like a man starved. She had never been kissed like this before, and it made her legs weak. Luckily, he was holding her still, or else she would have melted right there and then.
Finally, he broke the kiss and looked at her. "Aerith, you insufferable witch. I have loved you from the day I first saw you. At first, I thought it was something else, but the longer that I've been with you, working with you in such close proximity, I can't help but feel this attraction towards you. Like I'm an electron orbiting around the nucleus. It does not make any sense at all. I thought I was under a spell, but Genesis and Angeal checked that there was nothing wrong. I've never felt so frustrated all my life, and I have never thought anyone can do this to me, but each time I want to talk to you, my bloody mouth will ruin it by saying the opposite of what my heart wants. And all I want is for you to love me as well, but that could never happen."
“Why can’t it happen?” Aerith asked, clearly in awe of his confession.
“Well…You seem to hate me?” He told her.
Aerith looked at him and then started to laugh while he looked on, confused at her outburst. She waved her hand, trying to get some sense of control over herself as she wiped her tears.
“Hate you? I thought you hated me with how you behave towards me. Like that first time when I greeted you.”
Sephiroth blinked at her several times and smacked his forehead, clearly remembering that incident. “Of course… If it’s any consolation, I just can’t behave correctly when you are near. You just make me feel so different.”
Aerith smiled and then feeling brave, kissed his cheek. “Well, why don’t we start over then?”
He was taken aback but recovered enough to smile at her. “Gladly.”