Adult-FanFiction.org : Final Fantasy

Blonde Ambition	By : sephcounttheways Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2097 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
It never takes long to fall in love. Or, as the old farts say in Nibelheim, to become the dears of each other’s eyes.

Cloud’s love was a bodily sensation. It felt tight in the chest, giddy in the head, ached in the lips, burned in his heart. It felt fierce and desperate, wonderful. He felt he could get fat on the utterly sweet feeling of being wanted. Not to mention the practically caloric joy of being kissed and touched and pawed at by a man he had desired badly enough to weep buckets of tears for.

Sephiroth’s love was a blanket covering the coldness that previously prevailed. In past relationships, it took weeks to even build up the trust in someone to touch so intimately, to cuddle them, to play. Cloud warmed him up effortlessly, too soft to not touch, too adorable to not cuddle, and way too much fun to not play with. Not to mention how much he liked the fact that at some moments, Cloud seemed like a living, breathing stuffed animal, and at others, he oozed sexuality in a way that couldn’t be ignored.

Ding dong, the pizza arrived. Emotional upheaval, extreme foreplay, orgasms, and flirtatious rambunction in one afternoon is all very hungry business. They sat down on the couch to eat, and the interview session continued on. Sephiroth didn’t turn on the TV as a distraction, he was content with their natural script and the soundtrack of their own voices.

“What’s your favorite movie?” Sephiroth asked.

“Who Framed Roger Rabbit!” Cloud didn’t hesitate to declare, “Hands down! ..I’m guessing you like The Omen.” He pointed behind them and up to the blood red poster that just might have been as tall as he was. Sephiroth nodded, mouth full of pizza.

The way he ate was precious to Cloud. It was always three huge bites, a jaw churning open mouthed chew, then he would put down his slice and swallow tiny bits at a time.

Cloud sighed and looked around the room for inspiration for his next question. It popped into his head suddenly, and unprompted, “..Was your first kiss any good?”

“Hell, no. I got it when I was headed out to my first mission. This MSO girl just kinda grabbed me out of nowhere.” Sephiroth grimaced for comic effect, then softened, “What about yours?”

Cloud considered an immediately truthful answer, but the completely innocent, unassuming look on Sephiroth’s face made him decide that this opportunity to tease was far too golden to waste.

He manufactured a long, dreamy sigh, “Perfect..”

A white eyebrow popped up curiously, “Yeah?”

Cloud laced his fingers behind his head and laid against the couch, “Oh, yeah. He was the hottest man I have ever seen in my life.”

Sephiroth loudly sucked something out of his teeth, “Hrm.”

“He was a big.. tall.. sexy..” Cloud guffawed inwardly at the overcast look that was threatening to cross his beloved’s face, then continued gazing wistfully off into the distance, “..SWAT team member.”

Sephiroth stared in obvious surprise. Cloud grinned back at him.

He assumed Cloud was at least as new as he was in more intimate things, but he was certain that he wouldn’t have been his first kiss. He was ridiculously beautiful. And damn good.

Something like greedy pride overcame Sephiroth, and he leaned forward in a shark-like manner. Their smiling lips melted sweetly together.

Then Sephiroth suddenly pulled back and fumed, “I refuse to believe nobody else has kissed you. Not even some girl back home?”

Cloud laughed loudly, “No! Everyone hates my guts back home.”

“Why?”

Cloud groaned, “Lots of reasons.. I’ve always been a total flamer,” Sephiroth snickered at this, and Cloud bumped his knee into his before continuing “.. so I got kicked around.. you know? Oh. You probably don’t. But.. I just sort of shut down for most of my life. I’m the town weirdo.”

“Clearly.”

“You like it!.. So, what’s your family like?”

Sephiroth reached for another slice, “My father’s a Turk.”

“Really!” Cloud sat up straighter to better absorb information.

“Yeah. He’s a great guy. Really cool. I haven’t seen him in a long while, though. Since I graduated the academy, actually.”

“How come?”

“We had a disagreement that day.” Sephiroth stuffed half the pizza slice in his mouth “And my mother passed away when she had me.”

Cloud would have felt compelled to try and console Sephiroth, offer up some sort of useless words of compassion, but he did not seem bothered at all by either of his parental situations. So Cloud simply reached for another slice himself, and left the silence open for Sephiroth to say more if he wanted to.

“You didn’t mention your dad.” He said at last.

Cloud took a sip of water, “Oh. I don’t really have a dad. He and my mom separated when I was a baby. He’s a drummer?” Cloud shrugged, “.. an architect? Who knows.”

Sephiroth made a thoughtful sound, “A drummer?”

“I guess he used to be.” Cloud amended.

“Do you drum?”

Cloud looked as though it had just suggested that they go get a couple of cheap hookers, “Huh? No.”

Sephiroth said no more about it.

Cloud tossed a crust into the now empty pizza box, “Okay, you might be mad. But .. I accidentally overheard Nurse Rhonda mention that you’re 22 years old. Why do all the papers say you’re 25?”

Sephiroth blinked, “Do they?”

Cloud nodded, “You don’t read them?”

Sephiroth took Cloud’s discarded crust, “Fuck no. I hate the bullshit they write about me. They don’t check their facts about anything, they probably just assume I’m 25. I joined the army at 13, not 16. So.” Chomp, chomp, chomp.

Cloud pouted, not at all surprised that Sephiroth would have been recruited at such a young age. It took Cloud every bit of courage and will he had to be recruited at this age. He knew of some guys that were younger than 16, and usually they were big for their age, or extremely skilled, “I wish I could have joined that early. I’d be a third class SOLDIER by now!” He threw back his head and groaned loudly in longing.

That visual made Sephiroth take a long pause in his chewing.

It had been a reluctant suggestion to take Cloud back home. But, that was indeed the reality of their situation: curfews on school nights. There was also another very sad reality, and Sephiroth didn’t tell Cloud until they left the loft and were on their way to the parking garage.

“Two weeks!?”

“Give or take.” Seph rubbed his thumb over the knuckles of the soft hand that had found it’s way into his.

Cloud made a miserable face, “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

“What for? Besides, there’s good news.”

Cloud perked up at this.

“I’ve been gone a lot recently ‘cause fall is promotion season, right?”

Cloud nodded, he knew this. Every fall, the military personnel got their chance to submit requests and nominations for promotions and raises, or sadly, demotions. But most importantly, late summer was when the SOLDIER exam took place, and in the fall all third years who made it were promoted to junior SOLDIERs. That was their cue to turn into total shitheads.

“Well, this is my last trip for the fall. When I come back, I’ll be stationed for a while.” Sephiroth said this in a way that suggested he wasn’t relieved only for Cloud’s sake. Cloud then realized that they had been out all last night, Sephiroth had worked that morning, and now they had spent this entire evening together. Who knew how long it had been since Sephiroth last slept?

Did the General have room in his busy life for this? Cloud had a fretful moment.

But then he couldn’t help but notice the way Sephiroth’s hips moved as he walked.. and visions of them bare and grinding against his own were strong enough to make his throat tighten.

He could totally live with being a little selfish! “You said give or take. Maybe it won’t be the whole two weeks!”

“It’s the Junon base.”

Cloud’s face quirked, “..Maybe there won’t be that many.. promotions there?”

Sephiroth laughed and squeezed Cloud’s hand affectionately.

He had made mention of his “truck” during their conversation this evening. Cloud had seen trucks in his life, many times. He could pick a truck out of a line up of vehicles. This was a fucking tank with wheels. Not a pretentious Hummer, either. A black tank.

Sephiroth unlocked the passenger side door, opened it slightly, then walked around to the driver side.

Cloud climbed up into the vehicle. Literally. He had to grab the edge of the passenger seat and pull himself up and in. On the inside, it actually did kind of look like a truck.

“Buckle up.”

Cloud always did anyways, but the way in which it was advised was downright ominous. Sephiroth turned the tank on, immediately threw it into reverse, jerked it into drive, and they were off.

Cloud, due to his relative inexperience, coupled with the fact that he always had his mother in the car, was a defensive driver. As in, he stayed inside the lane. He honked the horn only in emergency situations. He slowed down at yellow and even stopped at red.

As for Sephiroth, quite the opposite. It wasn’t exactly that he was racing the other drivers, it was more like he was lining them all up to be slapped in the face with his dick, consecutively. He was a lawless beast.

He didn’t even use his turn signals!

Cloud would have been completely terrified, if it were not for the fact that while Sephiroth was busy being a road warrior, he was completely relaxed back into his seat, using only the heel of his hand to guide the steering wheel. Something about that made Cloud feel protected, safe, maybe not so much on death’s door.

Lo and behold they came upon a dreaded red light, the solidness of the cars waiting in every lane preventing them from running it. Sephiroth stopped, bitching lightly under his breath as if it were some sort of personal offense. Then, he stretched out his arm and laid his hand on the back of Cloud’s headrest.

They both looked at each other. Cloud smiled. Sephiroth smirked.

And something extremely suggestive happened between their eyes.

Maybe it was the way Sephiroth’s eyebrow lifted. Maybe it was the way Cloud unconsciously licked his lips. Maybe it was the way Sephiroth’s eyes were glowing in the near dark, radiating the color of lust. Maybe it was the way Cloud slowly reached up to tuck a stray lock of blonde behind his ear.

Green light.

When the unusual vehicle came to a thumping halt on the darker side of the school parking lot, the only sounds were the clicking release of seatbelts before they met in the middle of the cabin.

There was a timeless span of their mouths folding and unfolding, of licking and sucking at skin, of panting, of hair being mussed, of lips taking a break to let tongues and hands do all the work. It was all so new, so tasty, and so needed.

Cloud couldn’t help but curiously peeked down at Sephiroth’s crotch, groaning a little at both the sight of the erection tenting his zipper and the feel of grating teeth and soft lips against his throat. It wasn’t until then that he began aching in his jeans. Cloud was shocked. His release earlier had been the most fantastical of his life, he thought he’d surely be sated for at least a day or two.

That’s not how sex works, though.

He was officially dying to grip Sephiroth again. And what a fool he had been for being too severely nervous to give that big thing the attention it so deserved! But even now.. Cloud was still a bit too shy to just reach down and make a grab at it. So he instead made a move to crawl up over the stick shift to be in Sephiroth’s lap again, close to that hard, heated core of him.

“BRWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA – !!!”

But in the attempt, he sat right down on the horn.

The monstrous sound jerked them both harshly back into reality.

After laughing to burn the edge off of their jarred nerves, Sephiroth kissed Cloud solidly on the mouth, “You better go. It’s after 9.”

Cloud turned up his eyebrows, but nodded. He climbed back into his seat and touched the door handle.

Before exiting, he pressed his lips to Sephiroth’s ear, “Goodbye.”

People don’t normally say ‘goodbye’. They say ‘bye’, or ‘see ya’ or ‘later’ or if they were feeling snobbish, ‘farewell’. Sephiroth mildly wondered if anyone had ever said goodbye to him in his entire life. And even if they had, there’s no way it could have sounded as sweet. Every single letter was pronounced in that lilting little accent. Goodbye.

Cloud slid down and out, and closed the door behind him. He passed in front of the headlights, slowly walking in the direction of the Rufus building. He turned a little to give the tank one last gaze.

What he found made a curiosity explode onto his face.

Sephiroth had the window rolled down, arms crossed, and was resting his chin on them. The smile on that handsome face was …

“Forget something?” …positively demonic.

Cloud blinked in confusion, then realized that there was a familiar weight absent from around his neck. He stepped up to Sephiroth’s door, and heard the unmistakable sound of automatic locks.

“Seph?”

On tiptoes through the open window, Cloud watched Sephiroth reached down and grab up his bag from the passenger side floor.

There was the deliberate rip of Velcro.

“I never got around to that random inspection.”

Cloud’s blood pumped ice cold, OH, FUCK.

But he tried his best to sound blasé, “It’s late, give it.”

“Hmm..” Sephiroth chimed, “Mp3 player. Not needed for class.”

The blonde felt what could only have been hives break out on his chest, “Seph..”

“Holy shit..” Sephiroth said lowly, making Cloud almost faint, “..your ID is cute!”

“Seeph! Stop!”

“Are you ordering me around, Strife?” Sephiroth asked coolly, the tip of his tongue poking out while he continued to rummage.

Cloud grimaced, Sephiroth was getting warmer and warmer to the goods, “No sir. I just.. I have some.. very personal items in there!”

“Too personal to tell your dear about?” He was now flipping through one of Cloud’s school notebooks, “..Aww.. you doodle.”

He took a stab at an irresistible pout, “Seph, you’re being mean..”

“Baby, I’m a bastard.”

Cloud growled and reached through the window to make a grab for the bag, but it was too high, and his long fingers only wiggled and sprawled uselessly.

Then they went still as Sephiroth pulled a large tube from the bag.

“..Hair gel?” Then, white eyebrows popped up, “..whoah..”

Cloud could take no more. He made a dive through the window.

He half crawled, and was half pulled through the small opening. Sephiroth let him grab the lube tube and his effects, and scuttle across his lap and onto the passenger seat. He shoved the offensive item back in his bag in huffy prudishness.

Sephiroth blinked, his face surprisingly neutral before a smile slithered into the corners of his mouth, “..And to think I thought those spikes were natural.”

Cloud roared, “That wasn’t hair gel!”

Sephiroth sounded surprised, “Oh, so it is natural!” Then his arm wrapped around Cloud’s stiff shoulders and pulled him close, “..You’re cute. You know that?”

Cloud relaxed and leaned against him in defeat, scrunching his nose a little, “..I guess I don’t have a reason to hide it.”

“Don’t hide anything. Besides, I’m glad that..” Sephiroth was still extremely aroused, especially after that little discovery, and his brain went off on a tangent conjuring terrible, disgusting, perverted ways to finish off that sentence.

But his mouth went with, “…you want that. Too.”

It came out as awkward as one might imagine.

But Cloud kept leaning on him, a smile gracing his lips. He seemed to be drinking in that awkwardness, as opposed to slapping Sephiroth in the mouth, which he felt was quite deserved. How was he supposed to know there would be sex equipment in Cloud’s purse?

Cloud sighed quietly, “This is real, right? Just tell me if this is real.”

“I think it is.”

Cloud relaxed more fully into the hard, but comfortable pillow of Sephiroth’s shoulder.

“So.. is this a secret?”

“I’ve never been good at keepin’ ‘em.”

Cloud smiled at that.

And Sephiroth smiled at the pure naivety. Cloud didn’t yet understand the impossibility of anything in Sephiroth’s life remaining a secret.

He also didn’t yet understand that their little make out romp was currently being either fussed over, laughed over, or vomited over, depending on who was in that helicopter lurking in the distance.

But those realities weren’t important at this moment. They just didn’t belong in it. Cloud said he liked him, and there was truth in that. And he liked Cloud. Why muddy that with bullshit so soon?

Sephiroth felt the weight of Cloud’s head on his shoulder, his narrow shoulders pressed into his side. Cloud felt the warm, heavy sharpness of Sephiroth’s chin resting on his head.

And when he could not stay for a single minute longer, Cloud ran like the wind back to his room.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sephiroth was barely 17 years old when he graduated the academy, and immediately received his first promotion to Sergeant.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because why!?”

“Wait for it.. because I said so! That’s what dads are supposed to say, right?”

Sephiroth growled, “Please. Don’t treat me like I’m stupid.”

“I’d say you’re acting pretty stupid, kiddo.”

“It’s not stupid! You are my dad!”

They both simultaneously winced against the sun as Sephiroth followed Vincent Valentine outside. He squinted over at the white headed teenager, who in response flashed one of those huge, charming salesman smiles that only he could conjure. Despite himself, Vincent had to grin back, but then wished he hadn’t when genuine hope sparked in Sephiroth’s eyes.

“Listen to yourself. How could that be possible?”

“You had unprotected intercourse with my mother roughly around the time of my conception.” Sephiroth stated clinically.

“Oh, pleeease! What are you even talking about? We’re talking about nothing. You don’t even look like me.. We are talking about nothing!”

Vincent dropped down into the driver’s seat, and gave a long suffering groan as Sephiroth hung childishly on the open car door, “I won’t bother you, Vin, I promise. I have my own money. I’ll buy all my own food and I’ll keep everything clean. I swear! And I won’t ever have friends or girls over when you’re not home. Did you know I can cook?”

“Off.”

Sephiroth released the door and it slammed shut. Vincent rolled down the window.

“..Why not?”

“Seph, I don’t know what the hell you’ve gotten yourself convinced of, or how. But I am not your father.”

“Bullshit.” Sephiroth drawled slowly and deliberately.

“Watch your mouth.”

Both men glared at each other through the window.

“There’s a chance.”

The engine rumbled to life.

“No. There’s not.” And in the way that he taught Sephiroth last summer, he threw the car into reverse, and squealed out of sight.

Sephiroth stood in the empty parking space, wearing the SOLDIER uniform he had worked so hard to earn.

Openly denied.

In full SOLDIER garb, in broad daylight, Sephiroth cried.

He didn’t bawl or blubber or whine or whimper. Silent tears ran out of his eyes to pool and drip off his lips and jawline. He sniffed twice, wiped it all away, and was done.

He had waited for this day. He had proved himself. And to be promoted already? Sephiroth had thought that there wouldn’t be a chance that Vincent wouldn’t want him.

He was hoping that even if he didn’t completely buy the sleuthy conclusions Sephiroth had come to about him possibly being his father.. maybe he might want to let him stay at his place anyways. Maybe just out of love. And if Vincent didn’t love him, maybe he would have thought he was a swell enough young man to rescue from the mouth of hell anyways.

He obviously didn’t.

But Sephiroth still loved Vincent Valentine terribly.

He forced himself to swallow the truth : nobody ever would come for him. No father, no mother, no handsome prince. The thought about the handsome prince passed so fleetingly and so under the radar of the angry noise in his mind, that the 17 year old paid no attention to it.

He then began to do something he would later become famous for : strategize.

First, he walked to the nearest car dealership. They specialized in refurbished military vehicles. He bought a truck. Just fucking bought it.

Then, he drove to the Midgar Municipal Court, and requested an application for emancipation.

When he handed it over to his legal guardian to be signed, he was met with bitter laughter, “Where do you think you’re going to go?”

“Wherever I want.”

“You belong to me.”

Sephiroth had heard this all his life, and could never think of a snappy response. But now he knew damn fucking well what to say, and could not contain the acid pleasure of declaring :

“I belong to Vincent Valentine.”

That was all that needed to be said. That night was Sergeant Sephiroth’s last night in the lab.

General Sephiroth wasn’t a liar. But he was a big time omitter, especially where people he gave a damn about were concerned.

He had implied to Cloud that he lived in the Turk Building. His exact phrasing was that he was ‘always in’ there. And he was.. when he was allowed to hang out with his friends after school.

But he never lived on campus. He lived in the Shin-Ra Building. It was a windowless room that fit a bed, and a closet big enough for his uniforms and boots. There was nothing wrong with the room, it was just that..

“It doesn’t accommodate my wingspan.” Sephiroth declared logically to Hojo when he was 14.

Hojo had taken the boy seriously by the shoulders, “What? What did you just say? What do you mean?”

Then, Sephiroth had stretched out his arms and flapped them, bumping the tips of his fingers on the two opposite walls with a chuckle, quite proud of his newly acquired lankiness.

In truth, the size of his room was dead last on his list of reasons for leaving the lab.

But the last thing Sephiroth wanted was pity, then and now.

With the emancipation application inked by Hojo, Sergeant Sephiroth, using what little power he had with his new rank and his connection to Shin-Ra, did everything he could do to push the request through to completion, that day. He fetched coffee for one judge, threw around a football with another who was a fat ex-jock and curious about SOLDIER abilities, listened politely and faked vapid interest while one rattled on about his children for eternity, and even knocked on the bathroom stall door of the last required signature.

Then and now, Sephiroth could be very charming when he wanted to be.

The final, female judge slid the application back under the stall, signed, and it was done.

Sephiroth was his own man.

He quickly loaded up the few things he owned into his truck. The news of his abrupt departure from being the lab resident spread around quickly.

To his complete surprise, as he carried out the final box, there was a large group of people in the hallway. They were researchers, scientists, nurses, doctors, techs, and caretakers. But, just for that moment, they were aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas and grandpas. And every one of them touched him and wished him well.

Nurse Rhonda, upon her hug, gave him a handy little print out of local apartment complexes. None were owned or run by Shin-Ra, a fact that made a piece of Sephiroth fall in love with her.

So, he visited each complex on the list one by one. Some were just plain below his price range, too small. Some were okay .. but not what he was looking for. Some were extremely large and inviting .. but a little above his price range.

As the sun began to set and having not found a home, Sephiroth laid his forehead against the steering wheel. The 17 year old sniffled a bit, then smacked himself hard enough across the cheek to make his own ears buzz.

There were more important things to do than fuckin’ cry.

It had to be that day. He just knew he had to find somewhere that day. If he didn’t, he had a dreadful premonition that all this would be for nothing. He would end up back in the lab, back in that room, and back in..

No. He wiped his face as the light turned green, and drove. He started looking for a motel to sleep for awhile and think.

But instead, something caught his eye.

The complex itself was rather run-down. But up on the top floor, the architecture was different than the rest of the building. Older. There were 5 large windows, 8 panes of glass in each, all lined up closely together.

Even though it was after dark, he knocked on the managers office and asked if the apartment that featured those windows was available.

“It’s the attic.” The woman drawled, clearly annoyed.

Sephiroth asked to see it. He had enough tenacity to knock on a court judges bathroom stall, he would not be thwarted by an irritable landlord. He flirted, begged, vied for sympathy, and even got a little demanding. At last they walked up the stairs to the only door in a long hallway, and into the attic.

It was a massive, sprawling room. There was a boiler. There were cobwebs. Bricks, rotting planks, debris, boxes that looked like they had been there for hundreds of years.

A fat cockroach crept over his sneaker when he asked, “How much?”

“What are you? Nuts?”

“I’ll pay whatever you want. I need it.”

So, the woman charged Sephiroth the going rate for one of the complex’s condos. If she was dealing with a crazy boy, she might as well get some dough out of the deal.

Sephiroth made two trips to lug up his possessions. He laid his mattress on the floor in front of the windows, and watched the green glow of Midgar, the city the same color as his eyes. Every so often, the reactors’ smokestacks would speak.

And save for a few rodents, Sephiroth was completely, utterly, luxuriously alone.

He felt the obvious urge to masturbate. He had never had the luxury of doing it in bed before. Something about a camera with a blinking red light aimed at him at all hours was a turn off. And knowing that even if he always couldn’t see it, that it was always there was an even bigger turn off. So he only did that sort of thing silently in the shower stalls at school, never even feeling totally alone in the bathrooms in the Shinra building (which he had come to find as an adult, were not to be trusted at all).

But in the darkness of his new home, Sergeant Sephiroth fucked himself. Good.

The next day, he made quick work of the mess. Being the fit and endlessly energetic young man he was, he bagged up the debris, carried down the wood and stacked it neatly next to the dumpster, laid down mouse traps, ate every roach he came across to discourage more from coming, went through the boxes and threw out everything he didn’t find useful, and even went out and bought a mini-fridge. He was delighted to find, within all the dank clutter, a hideously filthy, but functional bathroom. He scrubbed it spick and span. He even managed to use the last bit of daylight to wash the windows.

At night, once again, he laid in bed in the dark and let the green light of the city fill the place.

A mattress and a minifridge. Sephiroth was quite content to live out his life just like that, until he heard the call of duty for the first time, after enjoying only 2 months in his home.

He told the landlady that he would be gone for an indefinite amount of time, and asked her to not disturb or sell his attic. She looked at him as though he were absolutely insane. But she consented to his leave, and wished for his safety.

He returned a year and a half older.

He wore a deep grimace when he opened up the door to his home, almost pained to see what he would find. But to his surprise, it was quite dusty, but still in the spotless way he left it. His mattress was still neatly made in front of the window. The minifridge was still unplugged against the far wall. There was still shampoo in the bathroom. The roaches were still too freaked out to come back.

During the listless days of war, there were delivered to his camp several MSO donated boxes of entertainment. Most of it was hardcore pornography, but in the bottom of one of the crates were several back issues of Modern Homes magazine. Sephiroth found that he had quite an interest in interior decorating and design. Although he would never fucking even utter the words ‘interior decorating’ or 'design’.

But he gathered an image in his mind of what he wanted to do with his undeveloped urban space.. Er – attic.

So he began to renovate, little by little.

He didn’t do any of the actual work himself, he didn’t have time to perform the tasks, nor the time to learn how, so he hired it all out. It was always fun to come home at night with a new room started, or the kitchen done, or the new hardwood floor laid, or another bathroom. Where he really got involved was with the colors and textures and lighting. He wanted to keep the attic feel of the place, because that’s what made it home. So the red brick walls were left unplastered, the piping of the hot water heater snaking along the walls in each room, the big windows were left uncovered in the place where he slept.

He made the place exactly what he wanted it to be. It was still sprawling and open in places, functional and practical in others. He felt extremely uncomfortable answering questions about the place, as almost every inch was terribly personal. So, “I found it at the store” became his canned response to any and all queries about his home. Where did you find a black faucet? Why is there a room dedicated to throwing paint on the walls? Why are there paper lanterns in your office? Why a lipstick red couch? Why is there a mannequin in your guest bathroom?

“I dunno. I found it at the store.”

The landlady, curious after all the work was finished, knocked on his door one evening to see what her crazy little tenant had made of the place. She looked at the now posh residence in complete awe. The attic was now worth at least five times what he paid for it. She asked if he wouldn’t mind giving her advice for the rest of the complex. He inwardly sighed, wondering where he would find the time to moonlight as an interior decorator, but he felt such a strange and powerful satisfaction from it, that he agreed.

Crosswaves was suddenly the hippest place to live on the plate. Downtown coolness with the upper plate cost, the sons and daughters of executives ate it up. Sephiroth felt the pride of creative success, but took his retirement from the design business in favor of becoming the General.

General Sephiroth eased down into bed nude, too lazy to put on sleep bottoms, and more than ready for sleep. His nose could still smell Cloud, and what they had done here, the images fresh and vivid in his mind.

He rolled over onto his back. He didn’t feel any regret about that. But he felt bitter remorse for accusing Cloud of aiming to use him. When Cloud denied it there was truth in his voice, so at least he himself believed that those weren’t his goals. And even if he did turn out to not be genuine in what he wanted, at least that fact would reveal itself quickly, before Sephiroth ..

Ping! That was the sound of Sephiroth’s heart realizing that it was too late.

He closed his eyes, but not before something caught his attention in the greenness of his room. On his bed were a few stray strands of blonde. Sephiroth picked one of the hairs up. It was golden yellow from root to tip, and stood completely vertical between his fingers.

Nope. Definitely not hair gel, Sephiroth thought to himself with a smile.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Cloud frowned, and went up and down the aisles again.

So many books. How could it be possible for all of them to suck?

He had to pick one for a report in Literature, and his hall pass was about to expire in 5 minutes. His eyes combed through the ‘A’s again, reasoning that since ‘A’ was the first letter of the alphabet, something especially good should be there.

Absence in the Palm of My Hands. Across the World. Alabaster God. All Our Yesterdays.

Fuck the letter ‘A’! Cloud through bitterly, hooking it to the next aisle, which began with the letter ‘O’.

Objects of Attraction. Obsession. Only the Lonely. Over the Rainbow.

Cloud paced bitterly. It had only been less than 24 hours, and already he was checking the clocks constantly, hoping that a day or two might have passed while he hadn’t been paying attention. An hour, a minute! Every second he was longing for Sephiroth.

Last night, upon arrival at their room, Cloud had found Cam already asleep. Finding that he was rather exhausted himself, he peeled off his second date ensemble and crawled into bed. The next morning, as per usual, he put on his fatigues and reported to the field with no shower.

He hadn’t looked in a mirror, either.

When he finally emerged from the locker shower to fix his hair, he was met with a rather humiliating surprise. Cam hadn’t mentioned it, because he figured it was something someone would know about themselves. None of the other guys mentioned it, either, for obvious enough reasons. The only thing amiss this morning was that Coach Van Sise had been calling him ‘lover boy’, and he had no clue as to why.

Cloud was covered in hickeys.

He had hickeys. On top of his hickeys. On top of his love bites. They were mostly on the left side of his neck, but also extended out to his throat and .. the back of his neck. He didn’t even remember Sephiroth kissing the back of his neck! And what an odd thing to do. It had to have been done with a purpose..

Cloud had wrapped his fingers around his neck and shivered.

Sephiroth put a collar on him.

He had heard of it before. Marking your lover. How primitive! How naughty! How tremendous! And the only person that had shown any sort of interest in Cloud had been completely and positively deflected. Skylar hadn’t talked to him all morning. He knew what the fuck was up.

But to the rest of the world, Cloud looked like a Honeybee the morning after a full moon.

So, he had his collar popped this day. It didn’t do much to conceal the bites on his throat, but at least he had made an effort to be decent. But ever since his shower, Cloud couldn’t even begin to try getting Sephiroth out of his brain, remembering the sucks and kisses and nibbles vividly.

As for their performance on getting Cloud out of the building, Cam handled the rumors with style and flair, telling everyone something different. To some, he told that Sephiroth interrogated Cloud about Cam’s fight on Halloween, perfectly believable. He then told a few people that Psycho took a shit on Sephiroth’s boot, and that Cloud valiantly took the blame, and so he had to be punished as if he himself had taken a shit on the boot, and that the incident would sully his record for the rest of his career. To one annoying fat kid, he told that Cloud was hooked on smack, and that Sephiroth found a peanut butter jar full of it under his bed. To others, he told that Sephiroth took Cloud to be disciplined for having too many pairs of shoes. To the busiest of the busy bodies, he told the bald faced truth : Sephiroth was dating Cloud. So many rumors swirled, that 99% of the populace didn’t believe that Sephiroth was even in the Rufus building yesterday.

So that situation was dealt with. But he wondered how everyone would react if they really knew the truth.

Cloud shook his head, I need to find a fucking book, not think about this crap.

And he suddenly had an idea.

He tip toed over to the biography section, a huge, shit eating grin plastered across his face. He found what he was looking for almost immediately. And bonus! There were two books to choose from.

General Sephiroth : Achievements of a Hero, and Unbreakable : The Life and Times of General Sephiroth.

Life and times? The man was only 22. Well, 25 if you believed the bullshit that the newspapers print. But.. it made it sound like Seph was already ..

The notion was too heart breaking to dwell upon.

Cloud flipped through the Unbreakable one, because it was thinner, newer and had more pictures. On the very first page was a picture of Sephiroth’s inauguration. Knowing a bit more about the man personally, it was quite obvious that he was holding back a massive smile. And then a photo he remembered seeing in the newspaper, Seph shirtless in Wutai. He’s gotten even more ripped since then.. Cloud thought dreamily.

There were other pictures, some of him sitting at fancy looking banquet tables, one of him looking downright pissed off, one of him laughing. There was an explosion of delight on Cloud’s face as he noticed a picture of Zack standing next to Sephiroth, both with their hands behind their backs, both looking very handsome and militant in identical SOLDIER uniforms.

Wicked thoughts ensued. Involving the words ‘double’ and ‘teamed’.

Cloud sighed wistfully. Can’t have everything in life.

He read, ‘It’s easy for one to view the General Sephiroth as simply a young man, as a photogenic new blood force in the Shin-Ra army. However, as he has made it clear with both his command ability and defense stratagems betraying a revolutionary genius, he is a man deserving of his title.’

Blah, blah, blah.

Cloud let the pages flip by, and stopped at a large photo of Sephiroth looking up from a map on a table. It was sort of a close up. It appeared to Cloud that he was caught off guard, and about to bitch the cameraman out. The caption read:

‘When one attempts to meet the eyes of a true warrior, a respect is born not of obligation, but of necessity.’

Cloud looked into the photo. Did he see a warrior? Yes. He certainly did. Did it scare him? Maybe. But he seemed to feel the polar opposite of what this pompous biographer seemed to have felt from those sexpot eyes. Powerful and confident.. but also very kind and open.

He turned the page, and made a noise of delight. Surprise! It was Sephiroth! But.. smaller, skinner, hair brushing his shoulders, and rocking the academy uniform. The tie looked delicious. And his face actually had some roundness to it. Cloud read the little caption; Sephiroth’s identification badge photo, third year student, fourth class SOLDIER, age 18. Cloud scoffed. He knew that he himself looked a little young for his age due to vertical issues, but in no universe did Sephiroth look 18 years old in this picture. Sephiroth was 15 in this photo. A year younger than he was.

Then Cloud’s brain exploded into a big budget day dream.

If only they were attending the academy together! If only Cloud could sneak in the Turk Building windows at night. If only they could arrange for a daily, torrid rendezvous in the locker showers. Or, behind the cafeteria, up against the wall climb, hidden in the darker corners of the library..

Oh, GOD! If only they could have been roommates!

“We’d fuck each other ragged. Habitually.” Cloud confessed to the younger, softer version of his beloved.

The 15 year old boy in the photo whimpered, Please be gentle, Cloud. I’m a late bloomer.

Cloud suddenly looked at the clock. His pass had been expired for almost twenty minutes. He replaced the biographies, as biased and uninformed as they were, and just looked for any fucking book, something to take his mind off of Sephiroth.

Something the exact opposite of Sephiroth.

Little Women. After checking it out, he flitted out of the library and back to class.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Cloud crept quietly down the hallway, and peeked around the corner.

It was 9pm Midgarian Time, which meant it was 2pm Mountain Time.

Prime time for calling home, but also, prime time for choice individuals who lived in the Rufus Building to hog the telephone.

Cloud rounded the corner just as a figure appeared at the other end of the hall.

It was Greg, sandy headed second year; loved to hog the phone to talk to his lesbian girlfriend.

Greg’s right eye twitched twice before Cloud tossed his tie over his shoulder and made a break for it.

They both arrived at the telephone at exactly the same time, and de-evolved into a mass of elbows.

“I never get to use the phone!” Cloud shrieked.

“I told my girl I’d be calling tonight!” Greg ground his feet into the carpet and put all of his weight against Cloud in attempts to shove him aside.

“She’s probably too busy eating out her mistress!” Cloud gritted, planting his feet and pushing back.

“Stop calling Donna a lesbian!”

“Face it! After she gets her dick sewn on, her name will be Don Ho!”

“Why don’t you give her your dick, Cloud? You don’t need it!!”

“No you didn’t!” Cloud laughed, and in a move that always surprised everyone, he leap frogged up into the air and over Greg entirely, and crashed down onto the phone table. He clutched the receiver against his chest in victory and began smashing the buttons.

Greg growled, “Compromise! You get half an hour, then I get half an hour!”

Cloud frowned, then nodded in agreement, “Okay. But take a hike. Don’t fucking stand around and breathe down my neck!”

“Fine with me! Who knows where your neck has been!”

Cloud smiled saucily, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Greg grimaced, then did an about face and walked out of sight. The phone call connected and began to ring.

It rang six times then went to the answering machine. Cloud’s lower lip popped out, his mom should have been home around this time. Oh well.

“Congratulations. You’ve reached the Strifes. Leave a message.” His own voice told him dryly.

Cloud snickered at the memory of leaving that recording. It had been quite the challenge, as he was 13 at the time and his vocal chords insisted on cracking and ruining the whole deal. “Thank you for calling the Strii-ife residence. Please leave your name and nuu-umber.” “Dammit, Clow! Keep it short and sweet, for fuck’s sake!” That recording dripping with sarcasm was the first one that came out uncracked, and his mother said that it captured his inner bastard so well that she’d never erase it.

The machine beeped and Cloud smiled.

“Oh, Mother. Long is the day without your melodic voice wafting into my skull. I’ve sent you this telephone call to keep you informed of the current events. As I only have a unsatisfactory amount of time, I shall leave a brief list of highlights. My excrement was a bit green in color this day. I am currently bench pressing 105 pounds. And I have traded hearts as well as saliva with the lovely, and ever so delicious General Sephiroth. Please forgive me for calling at an inopportune hour! Goodbye! Goodbye, Mother!”

Cloud snorted loudly and hung up. He’d be extremely surprised if she even listened long enough to get to the bit about Seph.

Then he sighed and pressed his lips to the back of the receiver. Seph. He still had almost half an hour.

What the hell? Give that man a call.

It rang enough times for him to become discouraged, before it picked up with a sound that made bright color shoot up into his cheeks. Sephiroth was panting heavily.

“He-llo?”

Cloud swallowed, “Hi. It’s Cloud.”

“Hey!” There’s only an exclamation point on the end of that because Sephiroth put an effort into sounding enthusiastic, but it came out in more of a short, breathy huff.

Hey to you too, big boy! Cloud’s penis replied. Cloud adjusted his pants.

“What are you doing?”

“Running.”

“..Why?”

Sephiroth made a noise that translated into, ‘I dunno.’

“Well, I’m sorry for interrupting. I just wanted to say hello.. And that I’m thinking of you.” He bravely finished.

“Thinking of me?” Sephiroth breathed sweetly.

Those breathy words and gasps were a bit too much to handle. Cloud adjusted again and smiled, “All day long.”

“Cute. Hey. Hang on.”

“Okay.”

Sephiroth then let out a long groan, punctuated by a growl. Then, a heavy ‘Oomph!’

“Back.”

Cloud unscrunched his face, and although he wasn’t sure he wanted to know, “What the hell just happened?”

“Turtle. This time of year the water starts gettin’ cold and the turtles here move inland. Fuckin’ everywhere. I just carried one off the track.” Sephiroth continued to huff and puff.

He just might be the most random man ever, Cloud thought to himself. He looked around. There was a newspaper on the table next to the phone. He picked it up and thumbed through, “..Hey! When’s your birthday?”

“Please. I hate birthday parties.”

Cloud hiked an eyebrow, “I didn’t say anything about a birthday party. I just wanna know when it is.”

“Why?”

“So I can brush up on my stripper moves.” Cloud bit down on his fist after these words came tumbling out. His very first foray into outright perversion, surely Sephiroth would balk.

“May 21st. And I don’t think you need to brush up on anything.”

Cloud squealed loudly until he found what he was looking for, “You, my dear, are a Taurus.”

“A what?”

“Your astrological sign is Taurus.”

“Fuck that. It’s bullshit, don’t read it.. I thought we were talkin’ about you strippin’…”

Cloud laughed and squealed again, “It’s not bullshit! I’m a Leo. Lets see what my horoscope says for me today, since it’s over and I’ll know if it came true. Ahem.

“Expect delays in communication. Take time for yourself at the end of the day.

“See? It’s totally true!”

“How is that true?”

“Delays in communication! I was trying to radio my partner in Basic Tactics, and the battery in my walkie talkie went dead. I had to run all the way back to class to get another one off the charger, and I barely made it back to complete the assignment in time. Ha! OH! And I tried to call my mom, and I got the answering machine! It’s double fucking true! OH!! And I’m taking time for myself to talk to you. TRIPLE TRUE! This is amazing, isn’t it?!”

“It’s totally ambiguous. Read me mine.”

Cloud smiled wickedly, “You’ll get a call from your Nordic lover, expect to get distracted and trip over a turtle.”

“Holy shit! Amaazing!” Sephiroth shouted raggedly.

Cloud snickered, “Okay okay.

“You’ve received the sign to act, and you have. But make sure to heed good advice.

“Does that make any sense to you?”

“No.”

Cloud shrugged, “Oh, well.”

“So, when is your birthday?”

“August 19th.”

Sephiroth hummed, “Zack will be happy.”

“Why?”

“No reason at all to party in August. I’ll have to tell him.”

Cloud flushed, “I thought you hated birthday parties!”

Sephiroth laughed, “My own. But Zack loves plannin’ ‘em, and I love cake.”

“Ah! Don’t tell him!”

“I’ll be damned if he doesn’t already know. He lives for that shit.”

“Geez. SOLDIERs are such party animals.”

Sephiroth made a noise of consideration, “Don’t judge ‘em too much. They’ve seen a lot, and they work hard. If they like to party, I say let ‘em.”

“You don’t like to?”

“I let off my steam in other ways.”

“..Like how?”

“Well, running is one way. And I have my bullshit fun. Movies, whatever..”

Cloud made a ‘hmm’ of understanding.

“..And of course lately, I’ve been wantin’ to fuck the brains out of a Nordic boy.”

Cloud squealed louder than possible, “CHRIST!!!”

The steady gasps of breath on the other end stopped and turned into pained guffaws, “You’re.. so.. admit you.. fuckin’ love it!”

Cloud huffed, “I never said I didn’t!”

Sephiroth sighed, then the steady gasps of running returned, “I knew you were perverted.”

“I’m not perverted! I’m in touch with my sexuality!”

“Thank God!”

Cloud chewed his spike, “We didn’t do anything that .. bad, yet.”

“Mrm! I doubt any of it will be bad at all, tripod.”

Cloud’s nose scrunched, “Tripod?”

Sephiroth laughed deeply, “That’s what you are.”

“Huh?”

He made a groan of exasperation, “Think about it.”

Cloud pictured a tripod for a camera, “I don’t get it.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“Help me!”

“I shouldn’t have to! Just think about it!”

“Tell me what it means!”

“Think, dammit!”

Cloud furrowed his brow in concentration. Tripod.

“Seeeeph.” He whined pathetically, “Please just tell me.”

“Nope. You’ll have to figure it out.”

“Is it bad?”

“Oh, ho ho, not at all!”

Suddenly Cloud saw something at the end of the hallway that made him cringe. Greg was marching impatiently up to him.

“Dear, I have to go now.”

“Aw. Well, give me a call some time if you think about lonely old me.”

Cloud smiled, “I will.”

“Donna’s gonna be worried!” Greg pointed out for no reason.

Cloud closed his eyes and inhaled heavily over the receiver, hoping somehow the scent of his beloved would travel through the phone lines, “Bye.”

“Bye, baby.” And Sephiroth was gone.

Cloud handed over the receiver sadly.

“You seeing somebody, Cloud?” Greg asked conversationally as he dialed, no longer viewing the blonde as an enemy for phone usage.

Cloud nodded happily, then asked, “..Greg? What’s a tripod?”

Greg’s hazel eyes slowly flicked up and down Cloud, “..The.. stand for a camera.”

Cloud’s eyes narrowed, “What did you think just now!?”

“Hey, Donny!” Greg shouted merrily.

Chapter Image can be found here!

owmyhearteries dot deviantart dot com / art / Blonde-Ambition-ch-10-81782473

A/N

1-     Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I had some emotional upheaval in my personal life. Heart transplant surgery by force, if you know what I mean. After drowning my sorrows at the hookah bar, and giving rendition after boisterous rendition of Love Today by Mika, I think I’ll be just fine! I’m a free woman! Just.. life was hard these past two weeks. If you have good vibes to spare, send ‘em down the line.

2-     No citrus in this chapter. Hope you’re not disappointed, but fear not! More are coming. Coooming! Uh oh, I am the witty one!

3-     Dirge of Cerberus? Bitch, please. I didn’t even get all the way through Final Fantasy SEVEN. I didn’t want Cloud to fight Sephiroth, and that is a true story about my mental capacity. But, I’ve wept, cried, and spilled actual tears for Vincent Valentine. If you thought I was going to keep him locked in a box in the Blonde Ambition fagga-verse, you’ve got another thing coming. I just.. I really want the ff7 guys to be happy, I suppose. But I know they aren’t them without their emo faults. Cloud’s depression, Seph’s genetic weirdness, Vin’s heaping serving size of loneliness and guilt. But ..no coffin, Vin. GTFO of that thing.

4-     I was thinking about Sephiroth, wondering what astrological sign best suited him. I think he’s definitely a Taurus; stubborn, sweet hearted bull. But he also has a duel side to him, one of those people with a secret self … So his birthday is May 21st, the last day of Taurus, on the cusp of Gemini, the twins.

5-     Cloud’s birthday, according to canon, is August 19th. But some peeps say it might have been on the 11th. Either way the kid’s a Leo; bratty catty lion. Suits him well.

6-     Tripod? In the words of Angelica Pickles, ‘If you have to ask, you’ll never know!’
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Blonde Ambition