This has been on my computer for a bit. In fact, I wrote it not long after finding out what the new guy from FF15 looks like. This one-shot takes place at a convention so there are anime cameos all over the place. But this one stars Sephiroth so, it's solely FF7 fluff. Yes, you heard right. I said fluff. Also slightly AU.

Enjoy!

Final Fantasy and all related characters belong to Square Enix. All other character belong to their respective owners.

His Smallest Fan

Anime Conventions. To many it meant an entire weekend filled with boundless fun and excitement. From meeting favorite and famous people, getting their autographs, and joining in on pod casts and interviews to dressing up as their favorite characters and entering cosplay contests to buying all sorts of countless trinkets and treasures to seeing the latest sneak peaks of their favorite series and games. Fans would come from all corners of the globe just to attend one and this year's AtomicCon was no exception.

Oh, it was one-hundred percent pure fun for the fans, but for the actors? It was all a matter of opinion. Some, like the energetic puppy, Zack Fair loved conventions. Others seemed to forget that they were the special guests and acted more like fans. It became apparent to the observer when a laughing Sora and Edward Elric ran by with squealing fan girls hot on their heels.

Personally, the observer was annoyed. It wasn't that he disliked his adoring fans. He knew he owed everything to them otherwise he'd be tossed out for a more fan-appealing villain. In fact, he was seeing all the proof he needed a few booths away. The new hero to the Final Fantasy group earned actual, honest pity from Sephiroth. Prince Noctis had been sitting at his booth, waiting for people to ask for his autograph, but very few approached.

In fact, the raven-haired hero seemed to be glaring at the booth Next to Sephiroth's. A quick glance fully explained why. It wasn't hard to tell that next to the booth assigned to the villain of Final Fantasy Seven was its hero, though it was hard to actually see him through the large crowd of his adoring fans. Sephiroth could only just make out the iconic blonde, spikey hair. Another quick glance back towards Noctis' booth made it clear that the ravenette was jealous.

Sephiroth huffed at the idea. What did the kid expect? He was new and should have learned from the first day on the job. No matter how many games are added to the Final Fantasy lore, none of them would come close to beating the Seventh title. Nor would there be any chance that it's greatest hero would be so easily replaced. Even Sephiroth had to admit that Cloud had earned his spot and in turn there were few that could challenge Seph for his place. In fact, the only other villans that came close to dethroning him were other villains from spin off games and sequels from the Seventh Fantasy. Sephiroth had yet to meet the villain of Final Fantasy Fifteen.

A few hours later, after the crowds had begun to die down Cloud failed to fight back a yawn. It had been the first time his booth had been empty the entire day. He glanced over at Sephiroth and watched the silverette sign a poster for a smiling fan.

"Thank you!" she said with a blush as she ran back towards the Inuyasha booth to meet up with her friends.

"You look kinda down, Seph. This getting old for you?"

Sephiroth huffed at the question. "Tell me Cloud, even off set, how many times have you actually seen me smile?"

The blonde smirked. "Good point, but it wouldn't hurt to smile, even a little." He suddenly broke off and failed to stifle his laughter at the sight he focused on. Sephiroth followed the blonde's gaze over to Zack, Reno and Axel who were taking photos with fans and failed to hide a smirk when Zack was nearly choked by a head lock.

"You know something Cloud?"

The blonde returned his attention back to Sephiroth. "What?"

"You're pretty cheerful outside of work."

Cloud just shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "I'm just a good actor, besides, If I was really that depressed all the time people would start thinking I was emo or something."

"Emo?" asked Sephiroth with a rasied eye brow.

"Yeah~, I don't get it either," Cloud replied.

"Cloud!"

Both men looked to the left as an excited Sora came flying around the corner and skidded to a stop right in front of the blonde's booth.

"Check it out, we got new action figures! Your's comes with the Fenrir Keyblade!"

"Oh cool, lemme see that!"

Despite what some fans had come to believe, Cloud was not obsessed with his own fame. that much was true to his character. He was a country boy, born and raised until he landed one of the greatest roles in video game history, and somewhere deep down, he was still a kid at heart. He actually owned Fenrir as it was part of his deal when Advent Children had been released and he liked the idea of making a keyblade after it. His only gripe was that he never got to actually use it.

Sephiroth rolled his eyes seeing the two 'boys' geeking out over their own merchandise and turned his attention to who was walking down the street. it was definitely an odd sight to be sure.

Vincent Valentine; the popular actor who had turned down a spot for the surprisingly popular Twilight Movies, and instead focused more on his dream role to one day play Count Dracula. His only annoyance was the next time that role became available it was for a comedy and Vincent didn't do comedy.

This made it harder to believe as the red-clad ex-Turk made his way down the isle with a bright pink bag with two ponies printed on the side. sticking out of the bag were what looked like posters, shirts and...was that a large plushie Pinkie Pie?

Also, it seemed Vincent was not alone. He was being followed by a stream of fangirls who seemed to go unnoticed by the man. "Oh look," one shouted to the others, "There's Cloud Strife!"

The girls waved to him who raised hand up and smirked, though it was directed at Vincent who looked up at his friend and paled before quickly turning and headed in another direction.

"You're never gonna let him live that down, are ya?" Sora snickered.

"Nope," replied the blonde as he unclipped the Applejack charm from his cell phone and hid it in his pocket.

"It's not that bad," Sephiroth added his own opinion. "I rather like that Nightmare Moon character."

Sora's jaw dropped. "YOU like My Little Pony?!"

The silverette glanced over at the boy. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Sora became a little nervous. He remembered all too well the scene where he and Sephiroth had to fight in the second game and while the other actors went easy on him to make it look good, Sephiroth really was fighting with full power. "N-no, not really...I just didn't take you for a brony, that's all."

Sephiroth huffed at that. "I'm not the only brony here, isn't that right, Cloud? Or were you hoping I didn't see that new charm of yours?"

Cloud's eye twitched at that. He'd make Sephiroth pay for it later. "Excuse me," he said while getting up. "I'm going to go meet up with Inuyasha so we can talk about how much we hate our older brothers."

"We're not brothers," Sephiroth corrected.

"Tell that to Kadaj," replied the blonde as he headed off.

Sephiroth looked back at Sora, but the teen had already moved on to catch up with Riku who was talking to Lelouch and Hiei. It was strange to for him to find himself alone, but after checking the time on his phone, Sephiroth had realized that most of the fans had left for the day. That explained why so many of the actors were walking freely around, though he smirked a bit seeing Vanitas trying to outrun a group of fangirls.

Sephiroth stood up to leave, leaving whatever posters and pictures where they were until tomorrow, knowing another crowd of adoring fans awaited him and his fellow anime actors. As he started walking he began to wonder why he was still doing this. He had been a valued video game villain for almost twenty years and over time the game's popularity never wavered. Sure it had its challenges and it's rivalries, like going toe to toe with other games like Pokemon, but Final Fantasy had held its own quite well and according to Zack's last online search was still in the top three ranked games for fanfiction stories with only Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts slightly more popular, but He was still featured in Kingdom Hearts, so technically the FF7 crew claimed both third and second. Why then was Sephiroth growing tired of all of this?

Was it because he was the bad guy? Was he tired of the role of bowing to his mother's will and torturing young cadets and soldiers? He used to love his job. Why was he starting to dread it now? He soon found himself standing stationary as he folded his arms to think. Was it because he forgot what it was like to enjoy the script? To show up for rehersal or during takes? Helping the game programmers copy his moves by sticking little round stickers on him while he swung his sword so they could track his movements and record them into the computer for gameplay? Was he really getting tired of it all? Should he think about quitting? Cloud had certainly beaten him enough times for the fans to be satisfied. Besides, the ending in Dirge of Cerberus was a teaser, revealing that Genesis was still alive. He'd probably be the new villain in the next game anyway. Not him.

"Maybe...I should quit while I'm ahead...," he whispered to himself.

"Um, excuse me, Mr. Silver?"

Sephiroth blinked and looked down. Standing a few inches from him and looking up, into his eyes was a small child. She couldn't have been more than five or six years old and she was hugging a pikachu plushie.

Sephiroth knelt down on one knee so he wouldn't tower over the girl. No need to frighten a child when not on the job after all.

"Yes?" he asked, trying to keep his voice as friendly as possible.

"Do you know where my mommy and brother are? I can't find d'em."

Sephiroth blinked before standing up and taking a look around. Aside from the last few actors who were leaving he didn't see anyone. "Can you tell me what they look like?"

The girl described them to the best of her young ability and Sephiroth soon ended up back at square one. No one who fit the girl's description was in the area. The general scratched his head, at a loss of what to do. He couldn't just leave the child here. He played his role as a villain with perfection and with great pleasure, but he wasn't about to leave a poor child lost and alone.

He held out his hand to her, "Come on, we'll look for your family together and I'll see if maybe some of my friends can help."

The girl nodded and shifted her pikachu plushie into an easier grip before taking his hand.

As Sephiroth walked with the girl in hand he passed by some of the lingering actors and proceeded to ask them about the girl's family. Neither Colonel Roy Mustang, Sango or Marik Ishtar knew, leaving Sephiroth to keep searching. He asked the same of Kyo Sohma, Naruto, Itchigo and C.C. and none of them had seen the girl's family either.

Sephiroth went looking for the convention center's security next, wondering if maybe they had an idea when someone called out to him.

"Hey, Did you get lost? We were suppose to meet up twenty minutes ago. Looks like we're going to be busier tomorrow with scheduled interviews and our fan clubs wanted to honor us with a special tribute."

Sephiroth huffed at the thought of another fangirl tribute as Cloud approached him. "Whose this?" he asked, bending down to the girl's eye level.

She gently pulled at his hair. "Spiky."

Sephiroth failed to hide a smirk and pretended to cough to hide a small laugh. "She's *ahem* um, I've been trying to find the girl's family. She came here with her mother and brother and got lost."

"Aw," Cloud replied, "Don't worry, we'll find them."

"T'anks, but Mr. Silver's been helping me and he asked a lotta people already," she replied, gripping Sephiroth's pant leg.

Cloud smiled as he stood up. "Look's like you have a new fan."

Sephiroth wasn't sure how to feel about that. True, this little girl may be a bit too young to recognize them. Their game was pretty violent after all, but almost everyone warmed up to Cloud. He wasn't going to deny it, for once it felt good to be the one that someone relied on.

"Looks like I do," he replied. He tried to hide it, but Cloud would recognize that small smirk anywhere.

"I'll fill you in later then." With that the blonde set off in the direction he had come from.

Sephiroth spent the next fifteen minutes looking for a security guard with no luck. He grumbled in frustration but stopped when the girl tugged a this leg. "Mr. Silver?"

"Yes?"

"I gotta go potty."

The general facepalmed, suddenly remembering why he was glad he didn't have kids. "Alright, hang on. I know there's a restroom around here somewhere."

Sure enough around the corner there was one, but he wasn't sure which one she should use for a moment. He'd let her go into the lady's room, but then she'd be all alone and he knew full well how easily a child could vanish without a trace. So, he decided to take her into the men's room. Thankfully there was no one there. He stood outside the bathroom stall and made sure the girl could see his feet from under the door, while holding onto her pikachu to 'keep it safe'.

After holding her up to the counter so she could wash her hands they left. Sephiroth was glad that was over. "Mr. Silver?" Spoke too soon.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I'm t'irsty," she replied.

And to the nearest vending machine they went. He was appalled that there was no bottled water as a choice. What kind of evil villain ran this place? Sephiroth was tempted to educate them. He was not about to give the girl soda. He had seen how Zack behaved after drinking one too many cans of Mountain Dew. He was not about to go through that again. "Is pink lemonade okay?" he asked.

The girl nodded with a smile.

Phew, disaster averted. After sliding in the dollar bill he waited for it to register when the cash was spit back out of the machine. Sephiroth grumbled. The girl only giggled. Sephiroth tried again. The machine still didn't accept it. Sephiroth's eye twitched.

"If you don't take the money I will personally drop you into the deepest firepits of hell," he threatened the machine and shoved the money in once again. A few tense seconds passed and nothing happened. Sephiroth smirked in triumph until the cash came back out again.

With glowing red eyes, Sephiroth was about to draw Masamune when the girl took the dollar bill.

"You gotta straighten it, like d'is," She rubbed the bill against the edge of the machine to straighten it and then slid it in the machine. This time it was accepted.

Sephiroth pressed the button and with a ka-plunk the little girl reached in and picked up the can, popped it open and took a few sips. "T'ank you," she said sweetly.

Sephiroth felt the smallest hint of a blush as he nodded. They decided to rest a bit as all of the walking had tired the poor girl out. Sephiroth forgot that children did run out of energy eventually. They were sitting on a bench and as she drifted off to sleep Sephiroth's mind shifted back to his current musings. Why was he still doing this?

A sudden pressure against his side made him look down. The girl had fallen asleep and was hugging his side, her arms wrapped around his middle, or as far around as they could reach. Sephiroth could actually feel his heart melt at the sight. She was so small, so young, so lost, and yet...she wasn't afraid. She didn't seem upset or wanted to cry once since she ran into him. Had that been his doing? From what he knew young children were suppose to cry when they were lost, but she didn't. Did that mean she felt safe? With him? Sephiroth wasn't really good with kids, heck he wasn't really good with people. So, then why did he feel such a strong urge to protect this girl? To help her? A part of it was that she preferred him over Cloud, but that was just an added perk.

Sephiroth felt something stir within him, a feeling he had long since forgotten. A sense that he was not great, but that he was apart of something great.

"Emma!"

Sephiroth looked up, hearing a name being called. The one calling sounded female.

"Emma! Where are you?" came the voice of a younger male. If Sephiroth had to guess, they were the girl's family. He decided to test his theory.

"Emma?" he asked, gently nudging the girl awake. "Emma? Is that your name?"

"Mmhmm," she replied rubbing her eyes.

"I think I hear your mom and brother. They called for you."

"Momma? Kevy!" She called out loudly.

Two people appeared around the corner both wearing worried looks of concern, but then smiled and ran towards the two sitting on the bench.

Emma jumped down and ran into their arms when they got close. Sephiroth just sat back and watched. He was glad she had found her family.

'Kevy' or Kevin looked over at the man his little sister had been with and felt his jaw drop. "Sephiroth?"

The mother shook her head. "No, sweetie, the actors have all left. He's just a cosplayer," she turned to him and smiled. "Thank you for looking after my daughter. We only turned away for a second and she became lost in the crowd."

Sephiroth thought about telling her that he really was the real McCoy, but it wasn't important. Emma was home and safe and that was what mattered.

"I'm just relieved she found her family," he replied. "This place can get crazy. You should be more careful in the future."

With that he started to walk away. Careless parents, the thought of letting a child out of your sight for even a moment infuriated him. In a place like this? Anything could have happened to her!

A small hand suddenly grabbed his, stopping him.

"T'anks for helping me, Mr. Silver. I was really scared until you came. You made me feel better and also, t'anks for taking care of me."

All of his anger vanished as he knelt down and rubbed the girl's head like he had seen Zack do to Cloud countless times. "You're very welcome."

He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small picture and a pen. He quickly scribbled something down and handed it to her. "Something to remember me by."

The girl took it and looked at it. It was a picture of Sephiroth and a little note that read,

Thank you for reminding me what's important,

Your friend:

Mr. Silver.

Emma's smile lit up her face as she flung herself into his arms and hugged him. Sephiroth was surprised by this, but hugged her back before shooing her kindly back to her mother. As both parties went their separate ways Sephiroth felt better than he had in a long time, everyone else noticed the change as well.

Sephiroth was smiling. And it was all thanks to the little girl with the pikachu plushie.