So I got this really silly and confusing idea and I decided to make a fanfic out of it. You know, as you do. Also, this fic contains OOC (Out Of Characterness) and gay.

To manifest oneself from another's memories is an imperfect and difficult art. Imperfect because quite frankly it's not a widely practised activity and difficult because it requires a lot of strength and willpower and motivation. This needs to come from both people: the manifested and the manifester. Put simply, the person has to be concentrating on a particularly strong or emotional memory in connection with the person waiting to be manifested, and that person… well, needs to wait.

Ever since being defeated by Cloud for a second time, Sephiroth has found himself in a bit of a rut. You see, while it was all very well manipulating his clones to gather together and thus creating a big enough mass of JENOVA cells to allow himself to appear from Cloud's memories, there simply aren't enough to appear again. This is problematic because Sephiroth has to make good on his promise to Cloud ("I will never be just a memory.") and because Cloud's life is very boring without Sephiroth and all Sephiroth has to do is sift through Cloud's many memories, the bright recent ones of delivering packages and ignoring when Tifa phones and being coerced into making brownies with the two small children Cloud and Tifa live with, and the dim distant ones of Cloud's childhood in Nibelheim and the pet chocobo Cloud's father left him at the age of six and how it had to be given away shortly afterwards because he and his mother were unable to care for it properly. And then there's memories that are sharp and focused and oddly painful because they're about days when Cloud was a cadet and before this whole thing happened and they're full of warm, blind admiration for Sephiroth and a strong, instant love for a dark-haired 2nd Class SOLDIER who was kind and lively and had no compunctions whatsoever about playing jokes on Sephiroth and dragging Cloud into it all. And Sephiroth finds that he can remember these memories too and tries not to because he is, deep down, afraid that if that dark-haired friend of both him and Cloud were to see him now, he'd be disappointed in Sephiroth.

Sephiroth avoids that entire section of memories altogether.

And he waits and hopes more clones with JENOVA cells are going to appear soon, because the only person with JENOVA cells around right now is Cloud, and only enough for Sephiroth to appear briefly, and without even a fraction of his true strength.

He toys with the idea of appearing when Cloud is sleeping (when he is having one of his nightmares about Sephiroth) and prodding him awake enough to notice him only to disappear and make Cloud think he's going crazy but that doesn't seem dignified enough and there's really no guarantee when Cloud will create an opening for Sephiroth to gather together enough strength and push through into reality so he opts for any chance he gets.

And so Sephiroth waits.

"Spike!"

Step out of fighting stance and let the ShinRa training sword hang down by his side. "Zack?"

"Do you see this?" A hint of barely suppressed glee. A dark-haired man is waving a bottle around. Closer inspection reveals the label to say: ShinRa Shampoo. Contains Maiden's Kiss extract. Use for luxuriously silky hair! "Do you know whose shampoo this is?"

Wariness is now developing into apprehension. An idea of whose shampoo it is is coming to light but mustn't encourage the lunatic.

"Sephiroth's!"

"…"

"He must be really tired of having silver hair by now, it'd be better for him to try out new colours don't you think? Only, he'd never let us dye his hair voluntarily so we're gonna have to be sneaky about it…"

Satisfaction fills Sephiroth. Finally.

He gathers together his strength and sense of being and enters through the window of opportunity Cloud has given him.

The fresh, chill air is like a breath of life into Sephiroth's body. He takes a moment to bask in just actually having a body to feel with before his world is filled with pain.

Sephiroth is not quite sure what happens but the sky and ground switch places and when the feeling of flying starts to fade and is replaced with the feeling of falling, he hits the ground with an impact that jars every bone in his body and lies still, being unable to move his new corporeal self at all yet feeling every excruciating detail of his injury.

Sephiroth quickly begins to regret having a body to feel with.

A roaring noise fills Sephiroth's head and grows louder, and he then realises he's actually hearing it with his ears and it stops close-by and he hears a familiar voice exclaim "What the-? Sephiroth!"

And a face peers down into his with a mop of gravity-defying blonde spikes on top and Sephiroth's strength fades and his consciousness dissipates and he's back to waiting for Cloud to provide him with another, less painful, chance to appear.

In which Fenrir succeeds where many have failed.

To be continued…