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
- 13
- 14
- 15
“What did you do this weekend?” His mother asked.

“Not much.” Was Cloud’s automatic teenage answer, although it couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

“Did you get to see Sephiroth?”

“Yeah!”

“That’s nice. What did you two do?”

Cloud squinted, sifting through his short term memories. He immediately found kissable, parted lips, wet with shower water. Not what he was looking for. He then stumbled across the all too recent feeling of those lips and that tongue mixing with his, filling his mouth with sweet promises. A promise to see him next weekend, a promise of unquestionable devotion until that time, and if he got good grades on his exams - a promise to make him come so hard he’d scream like a banshee.

“Don’t fuck yourself so much anymore,” Sephiroth had teased, pulling back on Cloud’s hair, exposing his throat and kissing playfully, “..That’s my job now..”

Cloud had pawed at him, “But a week is sooo looong! I’ll miss you too much!”

“If you really miss me that much.. just tell me. I’ll drop the whole world on its ass for you.”

His blue eyes fluttered for a moment at that, then Cloud rested his head against the wall and frowned, missing Sephiroth after only half a fucking hour of being apart. After spending only one night with him, Cloud was afraid he had become terribly spoiled on his affections. He felt chilly being out of the radius of Sephiroth’s natural heat, lonely without his rumbling, even voice, and his lips felt severely neglected kiss-wise.

But, what had they done besides gnaw on each other?

Oh, yeah, “We watched movies, and went to the Midgar zoo.”

“The zoo? That’s a cute little date!”

Cloud nodded with a smile, “I was telling him how I read that the tigers there had new babies, and that people think its a lucky omen, because it was the wrong time of the year for them to mate and all. And it was really close to his place, so we took a walk there to see them.”

Cloud recalled the strangeness of standing in line to buy tickets to the fucking zoo, surrounded by families and children, the pair of them looking incredibly off beat and out of place. As they neared the ticket window, Cloud was losing his nerve and starting to feel a little ridiculous for suggesting this when Sephiroth took his hand, smiling down at him as though he actually wanted to spend an afternoon at the zoo together. He kept holding Cloud’s hand, letting him navigate with the simple, brightly colored map, guiding them around the huge park to the places of interest. The day was bright and sunny with a chilly breeze, cool enough to get goosebumps in the shade, and pleasant enough that you didn’t see your breath.

The animals were eating the weather up, all awake and active, doing whatever animals do in their ideal little worlds. Cloud seemed to appreciate delicate creatures; seahorses, elephant shrews, and the abnormal hybrid species that were supposed to be large but were actually quite small. When they came across a family of fully grown bears the size of a gopher, Sephiroth had to quite literally cover Cloud’s shrieking mouth and pull him away from the rail, lest they be thrown out of the establishment. Sephiroth was more interested in the peaceful, yet still potentially wild monsters, staring in wonder of them in their manmade habitats.

“I never knew zoos were like this.” Sephiroth mused, one hand laced with Cloud’s, the other half in his pocket.

“You’ve never been?”

“No.” He answered, his green eyes never settling on one thing for long, “.. I always thought it was just animals in cages. Like in cartoons. I didn’t know it was so fuckin’.. cute.”

They walked through building designed to look like a wet, dingy cave. They passed fatass insects, the scarier species of monsters, coiled snakes, fish that made Cloud never want to set foot in the ocean, and then what appeared to be a huge, empty cavern.

Cloud had touched the glass and looked around, “What’s in here?”

“Bats.”

“Where?”

“Up there.” Sephiroth pointed to nothing in particular.

Cloud squinted and searched the entire perimeter of the habitat, “.. I can’t find them, Seph.”

Sephiroth looked around, then put a finger to his smiling lips. Cloud watched him as he then slowly put the finger to the glass.

There was what looked like a very tiny firework on the other side of the glass, and what Cloud thought was just a dark shadow turned out to be a huge cluster of sleeping bats, now all screaming and fluttering in hysterics at the tiny terrorist attack in their midst. Cloud jumped about a mile in the air, and Sephiroth roared with laughter at both him and the winged creatures, pleased as punch to startle and annoy.

When they had finally gotten to the tiger cub exhibit, it was later in the afternoon, getting a bit colder and clear of most people. There were three fuzzy cubs, each looking like they could kick the ass of a large dog. One was snoozing in the corner on a baby blanket, while the other two were nibbling and pawing at a huge hunk of raw, red meat.

“Oy! Hallo!” Cloud had cried to them, devolving into 100% pure imported Nibelheim nerdiness, “Wouldn’tcha know it? Fwee liddle baybies!”

“Four.” Sephiroth corrected with a smile.

“Four? Where’s the fourth one?”

Sephiroth tapped the glass and pointed straight down. Cloud peered over an informational sign that was blocking his view before shrugging his shoulders up at Sephiroth, who then wrapped his arms around Cloud’s hips from behind and hoisted him up. Both of them pressed their foreheads to the glass and peered down. The fourth tiger cub was sprawled on her back, looking up at their smooshed, ridiculous faces with bored indifference.

A large family came tumbling by and Sephiroth set Cloud quickly on his feet, probably more for Cloud’s dignity than anything else. But before they moved on, Sephiroth’s fingers had stroked at his hips for just a moment, staring down at him with those lovely cat-slit irises, a question hidden there. Cloud stared back up over his shoulder, unsure of what the question was or how to answer it. And just like that the moment was over and they were moving on the to the penguin igloo.

“His eyes are actually like that?” His mother interjected.

“Yeah, they are..” Cloud said dreamily, privately recalling how they slit down to almost nothing and shined with pure electric green when Sephiroth was trying to hold himself off, narrowing those eyes and panting at Cloud with a determined longing.

“..Why?”

Cloud cocked his head, shooing the image of a pre-orgasmic Sephiroth from his mind, and certain he’d be able to pull an explanation from somewhere in his memory banks concerning the actual reason behind his sexpot eyes.

But he hadn’t yet asked, and all he could come up with was, “.. I dunno.”

She gave a thoughtful ‘hmmf’, “What movie did you see?”

“Oh, we watched one of his. The Exorcist.”

“That’s not a very romantic date movie! It’s fucking disgusting.” His mother commented.

Let Jesus fuck you! Sephiroth crowed in Cloud’s memory, bringing with him the feeling of both of his long arms holding him tight, and smiling lips pressing to his ear.

Cloud’s ached for him, “It was gross.. but that can be sort of romantic, don’t you think?”

He heard her smile, “I guess it can be.”

Cloud nodded to himself, and in Nibelheim, April began fishing around for her smokes.

It was quiet for a moment, and Cloud broke the peace irreversibly.

“Mom .. I slept with him.”

There was another long stretch of silence before a cigarette was lit in his ear, “Do you mean sleeping, or do you mean not sleeping?”

“Both.”

Then, an odd question, “Before or after the zoo?”

Cloud cocked his head, “..Before.”

She made a sound of consideration, although not a negative one, “Well. You did it, then.”

Cloud nodded slowly, “Yeah.. I did.”

Then, she broke down, “I’m sorry, what? Aren’t you supposed to be four years old? How old are you, anyways?”

Cloud smiled sadly, “Sixteen.”

She wasn’t crying, but she was making enough anguished noise to force an empathetic tear out of Cloud’s right eye. He couldn’t think of a word to say, because he couldn’t understand what she was feeling. She had forced condom ownership onto him, seemed okay with talking until the cows came home about his feelings for Sephiroth, even made extremely light sexual references about the two of them in jest.

He had been excited to tell her about the consummation of their relationship.

But, maybe she wasn’t so okay with it, afterall. Maybe she was like Cam.. supportive, but not needing or wanting to know any sort of real, in depth detail. She didn’t need to be told about his big gay sex life.. she didn’t want to know. He meant to tell her about how Sephiroth had held him, how he had kissed and warmed him, kissing his skin. But how could he explain that with such simple things as words? He squeezed his eyes shut against the mental images she must have been experiencing. She was obviously picturing her sensitive, small son bent over and violated with the massive, unforgiving cock of the great General Sephiroth.

Cloud was humiliated. And she had every right to be revolted.

“I’m-m sorry mom,” He stuttered quietly, “I just wanted to tell you.. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Oh, stop it. I’m not upset.. I understand. I was sixteen, too.” Although Cloud already knew how old she had been when he was conceived, it startled him a little bit at the actual juncture in his own life. To have a child? Now? His jaw hung loose, and before he could compose anything remotely appropriate to say, his mother asked, “..Were you ready, Clow?”

Cloud closed his mouth. He couldn’t have been more ready if he had been an ant and Sephiroth were made entirely of sugar. But to not to fill her head further with disturbing images, and also not let on that her innocent son had grown up to be a surprisingly lascivious young adult, he assured her simply, “I was definitely ready.”

“That’s a good thing. But..” She sighed, “You’re still just a baby, you know.”

Cloud’s voice creaked slightly, “..I know.”

“..I cannot believe I’m about to ask this of my goddamn son..” She sighed with a slight lilt of humor, “But Sephiroth was a good boy to you, right?”

Cloud paused, “.. A good boy?”

“Caring? He made you feel good, right?”

Cloud slapped at his hair in humiliation, “Yeees! Jeeesus!”

“And none of that ‘If you love me you’ll do it’, bullshit, right?”

He laughed a little, thinking those tables were rather turned, “Nooo.”

“Condoms?”

Cloud wasn’t lying when he said, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Every time?”

Cloud narrowed his eyes, “How did you know?”

April sighed, “Nobody does it just once. Did you use one every time?”

Cloud hesitated for a moment, and April cawed, “Skag!”

“Am not!” Cloud bellowed, “And he told me how you called him and harassed him with that Strife family bullshit!”

“Don’t change the subject, you little bastard!”

Cloud grimaced, lowering his voice as heads began to pop out of doorways, “Momma, it’s okay. I told you that we were both.. ya know? Virgins.”

“You men are such fucking idiots. But it’s your choice to make, I suppose.”

Cloud smirked, “It’s not like you have to worry about surprise grandbabies.”

“I don’t worry about them. I just wanna ensure that you’ll be able to make them for me later on.”

“I’ll make you some, I promise. I’m just.. not worried. Sephiroth is very trustworthy. And if he does give me crabs or something.. we can always eat him.”

April laughed, then hacked on inhaled smoke. After she recovered, she made a soft little noise of thought, “Was it everything you hoped it would be?”

Cloud thought about what exactly it was he had hoped it to be. Fireworks had been seen, bed sheets had been rumpled, he’d gotten off like a rocketship and he got to sleep in Sephiroth’s arms, albeit a bit upset over verbage particulars.

“I wouldn’t have changed a thing,” Cloud confessed happily, “..I love him.”

“Right, then.” She said with a smile, and then smoked for a moment before asking, “Does he love you back?”

Cloud chewed on his lips, as this was the subject he had been most eager to speak to her about, “He didn’t say so. I mean, I told him that I did, but .. he didn’t say so back. He said something different.”

“What did he say?”

Cloud prepared his mouth for the dreaded phrase, “That he values me.”

“Oh, he loves you.” She said flippantly.

“How do you know?”

April hummed in thought, “Sometimes.. people have a hard time saying how they feel. Especially you men. Not so long ago, you wouldn’t even tell me out loud whether you liked boxers or briefs better, you know? Apparently it was neither, I could have saved some fucking energy. Give him time; it’s impossible not to love you.”

Cloud sighed half in relief, and half in rejection of her words entirely. He then decided to be nosy, “Mom, did Sephiroth say anything to you? About me?”

“He said that you’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.”

Cloud blinked, wondering where he’d heard that before, then remembered.

Sephiroth apparently had a habit of doting about him.

As before, Cloud didn’t know how to handle or address the relayed compliment, so he opted to chuckle casually despite the topsy turvy state of his intestines, “I used to think I was ugly.”

“And why would you think that? You look like me for fucking Christ’s sake!”

Cloud laughed, “You’re definitely not ugly, momma. I think.. I just felt ugly.”

“Does Sephiroth make you feel.. pretty?” She asked dryly for lack of a better word.

“No. Well, he does.. but, I think I changed before I found him.”

“You did.” April agreed, “You grew up.”

He could only smile, humming in wonder at the notion.

“But don’t think you’re not still my little bastard.” She roughly amended.

“Always.”

And with that, Cloud’s mother cried.

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

Sephiroth nodded warmly to researchers who waved, working his way through the lab. He passed right by his old room, his name painted over now. Out of plain curiosity, he opened the door and looked inside. It was a broom closet.

When he arrived at Rhonda’s office he knocked twice, then poked his head in, “Ron?”

She glanced up, “Yeah?”

He let himself in and closed the door, “Hey.”

She crossed her legs and looked at him with a smile, “What brings you here to the mouth of hell?”

“Nothin’. You busy?”

She groaned, “No, but I will be. You know Jones called in all fucking next week, I have to grade his materia classes. Those little assholes are probably already crying bloody murder about how I won’t be fair to them.”

Sephiroth smiled, “Call me in to grade ‘em if they get too whiney.”

Rhonda laughed wickedly, “Not a bad idea, not a bad idea at all! You’re not the iron fisted tyrant yet, but you will be.”

Sephiroth crossed the room with a smile and paused in front of her desk. He suddenly looked and felt about 12 years old.

She looked up, “..What is it? You never visit me here unless something’s up.”

He straightened up to his full height, “I’m.. a little concerned about something.”

“How prim and proper of you, General.” She mocked.

His shoulders slumped, and he took a seat across from her, “You.. know more about me than I do. Is there any reason I shouldn’t..”

“Shouldn’t what?”

He made a game of working his gloves over the heel of his hand then spreading his fingers to slide it back on, “I’ve never been told that I oughtta be.. overly careful about.. sex.”

Rhonda threw back her head and screamed at the top of her lungs.

“Shhh! What da fuck!?” Sephiroth hissed.

She pointed as though he were a poisonous bug in her office, “Oh my GOD! You finally did it! Oh MY GOD!”

Sephiroth snapped out of the chair and covered her squealing mouth, “Rhondaaaa!”

Her eyes were squinting beacons of hysterical humor and she began to babble into his glove. Slowly, he moved his hand and she was saying, “ – he is so cute! When did you do it? Tell me everything!”

“I ain’t tellin’ you shit!” He snarled, “.. Answer my question.”

She paused, “Oh. What was it again?”

Sephiroth sighed loudly at having to repeat such a thing, “Fuck, Rhonda!.. Is there anything wrong with my..” He looked around the room, “..jizz?”

She gave him a vacant stare before it dawned on her what was being asked. She narrowed her eyes, “Shouldn’t you have asked me this before loading my student up with your radioactive semen?”

Sephiroth’s eyes widened into circles, “Oh god.. it’s not radioactive, is it?”

“No, stupid. But it could have been.”

He let our a whoosh of air, but his relief was short-lived, “But, what about.. mako. And fuckin’.. Jenova?”

She gave a long sigh, “Every part of you is tainted with that, Seph. Your saliva, your sweat, feces, tears, urine.. It’s just a part of you. Just like if Cloud were to ejaculate inside of you, you’d be full of his little weird, squirmy DNA carriers.”

Sephiroth blinked, trying to clear his mind of mental images, “But.. it won’t hurt him, will it?”

She leaned back, “Not anymore than kissing you, or even putting on a dirty shirt of yours’..” She pointed an accusatory finger, “You still should have asked before damage could have been done.”

Sephiroth was hard pressed to wipe the relieved smile off of his face, “I know. But.. if there is no damage to be done.. then that’s good, right?”

“Have him come in if he feels anything out of the ordinary..” She suggested mildly, “He’ll be fine, though. I’m surprised he didn’t want a condom, with your shady genetics.”

Sephiroth huffed at the stab at his molecular structure, and muttered, “He doesn’t know anything about my genetics.”

“Funny. Neither do you.”

Sephiroth shook his head, “I don’t wanna know.”

“You should read your files, Seph. You wouldn’t have to crawl into my office everytime you shit a funny color. And it never hurts to be informed, you of all people should understand that.”

“..I don’t wanna know.”

Rhonda smiled, “Then I won’t tell you that you’re not even beginning to tap into your physical abilities.”

He gave her a desperate gaze, “..What else can I possibly prove physically?”

“Nothing at all.” She said seriously, then cracked into a smile, “Especially since you lost the big V!”

The change in subject made him squirm in his chair, “Yeah, whatever..”

“How was it?!”

Sephiroth relaxed back into the chair and laced his hands on top of his head, “.. It was good. Really good.”

“Yeah?” She asked cattily, lowering her eyelids, “And?”

“And..?” Sephiroth covered half his face and looked to the side, a small tint rosing his cheeks.

Rhonda cooed, “Such a gentleman to not share any perverted details with your very best dyke..”

Sephiroth only grinned and crossed his arms, “Dyke or not, I think it would be a conflict of interest for an instructor to know such intimate details about her student’s sex life. Criminal, even.”

“Touché, Mr. Sephiroth! Very nicely done. But, I’m sure I’ll get all facts straight from the source, it’ll only take a couple more years.”

Sephiroth gave her a raspberry then stood, striding to the door with renewed confidence.

“Hey..” Rhonda called, and Sephiroth turned to smile at her. She thought carefully, before asking, “.. Do you wonder if you’re in love?”

He tapped on the doorframe for a moment, “.. I do wonder that.”

“Then you are.” She smiled.

“I prolly am.” He agreed.

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

It was the fourteenth autumn of Cloud’s life.

“ ‘scuse me.”

Another person walked through the door he held open. Well, he had been holding it open for himself to walk through exclusively, but as the bell rang, student after student began to move through it as he stood to the side, small and powerless against the tide of bodies. And everytime he began to step through, someone would exit or enter quickly around him, knocking him back to the side with their presence.

The coast looked clear, and Cloud made another attempt to enter the door he held open, only to brush quickly back behind it for three girls.

“ ‘scuse me.” He again muttered.

As expected, they turned their noses up at him. One of them was Tifa, and her glancing brown eyes neither lingered nor sparked with any sort of recognition.

Cloud finally heaved himself quickly through the doorway.

Since he was now of high school age, he could no longer count on his mother for a ride to school, as schedules conflicted with her instructing the younger classes later in the morning. This was a good thing, because she was a bitch in the morning, and rides to school often became a recital of all the things Cloud did wrong in life. He cost too much money, he slept too late, he wasn’t making the most of his youth. But he’d much rather sit and listen to what a failure he was with a smile rather than walk, because walking to school meant inevitable run-ins with human beings who were also walking to school.

Sometimes Cloud would time them, remembering when each of the teenagers of Nibelheim left their houses, so he could avoid all of them. But on mornings like this, where he had been running late as he often was, he had no time to wait for the perfect window of solitude.

He crept down the one hallway of the small local school with his head down. It was empty, all the students sitting in class, attractively waiting with their hands folded on the desk for attendance to be called. Cloud Strife? Oh, he’s late again.

When he finally stowed his backpack in his locker and retrieved his books for the school day ahead, he was filled with an overpowering hunger for freedom, life, and liberty.

It was as though a beacon was calling for him. He had to go home.

So he slowly put his books away, and trudged back down the hall as though he were walking through a foot of thick mud, giving a miserable moan every so often.

When nobody noticed, he did it again, adding a cough of death to the routine.

When still nobody noticed, Cloud crumpled to the floor.

After about five minutes of staring at the ceiling with his mouth hanging open, Mrs. Davieschka finally screamed, “Cloud? Cloud, honey! Are you alright?!”

Cloud sputtered, clinging to her as though he were a fatally wounded SOLDIER, “Mrs..Davieschka?… I… don’t feel so good.”

“What’s wrong, Cloud?” She asked, nearly frantic.

“I dunno..” He confessed bitterly, rubbing his temples, “Maybe I should… go back home…?”

“No way am I letting you walk back home!”

Fuck! Backfired! Cloud’s lit up suddenly, “This happens to me sometimes! I’ll be fine, I just need a cup of tea and .. ya know, some bedrest.”

“Are you sure? Here! Let me get someone to walk with you!”

Cloud turned beet red and whispered fiercely, “Nooooo!”

But she had already poked her head into the senior classroom, asking for the one name Cloud had begun to pray she wouldn’t.

“Jack, will you be a dear and walk Cloud Strife home? He’s not feeling well. If he passes out, I know you’ll be able to carry him.”

Cloud could have died. But of course he heard the politely beefy reply, “Yes ma’am!”

Jack wasn’t anyone important, but the entire town was certain that he was going to be. A superstar lumberjack, perhaps? Cloud had no idea. But the height of idealism rested with Jack. If only all the boys could be as good, as big, as strong, as wonderful.

Jack didn’t say a word during the 15 minute walk. Not a word. Of course, neither did Cloud, who only hung his head low and followed beside him.

When they stopped in front of Cloud’s home, Jack paused before turning back to school. He delivered Cloud a look that said so much, and so little.

The general impression was that Cloud was nothing more than a jizz splotch on a dirty sweat sock.

Cloud sighed, crossing the threshold from the cruel world into his bedroom. He immediately flipped on his stereo and fell into bed, taking clothes off like a snake shedding skin. He lay naked, simply staring at the ceiling, not a single thought in his head.

Empty. Aimless.

He had no passions. He had no talents. He had no personality. He had no friends, no father, and a mother who hated him and would be better off if he was dead. He was small and ugly, the laughing stock of his family. He was nothing to no one.

Jack may have been nothing more than a brainless douchebag, but at least people for some reason thought he might have had some sort of potential.

Even suicide offered no relief, because Cloud knew he was surely condemned to burn in hell. But.. he couldn’t help himself. He was flawed by design, a failure right down to the cellular level.

He was a masturbator, an outcast, and guilty of… faggotry.

Not even Jesus Christ loved Cloud Strife.

He reached over and abruptly turned the music off and turned his TV on.

It was something CNN-ish. He turned the channel to something hopefully funny, as he desperately needed to laugh, but the TV only paused, then blinked back with the same military infested image. He furrowed his brows and tried for cartoons, only to be greeted with the same program.

His arm dropped down in utter defeat. He rolled over onto his side and reached under his bed, retrieving the book he was currently reading.

He was not an avid reader, but his mother thought that he was, bringing him home books constantly. Perhaps hoping he was hiding some sort of secret genius intellect behind his fumbling clumsiness and average grades. Who says all losers are brainy? But there was nothing else to do, so he crossed a leg over his knee and cracked the damn book open to the first page, waiting for the program to end so he could watch TV like a civilized person.

“Being the General of the Shin-Ra army for the past 27 years of my humble life has filled me with nothing but pride and respect for the vast and talented personnel, from the loyal and fierce Turk division, to the brave Navy, to the ..”

Cloud sighed loudly, trying to ignore the old man’s prattle. He wagged his foot and tried the cooking channel. No such fucking luck.

“..right down to the mechanic crew. We need every single member of this army, for a vehicle can not function without the screws holding the casings in place..”

Cloud gave a guttural cry of boredom. He might as well just go back to school!

“..know that. The only man who I’ve witnessed during my career to truly appreciate the value and importance of every single member of this army is standing right here beside me. He has proven himself in every way I can imagine a leader should. He is able to command, yet able to understand..”

Cloud threw the book into the TV, knocking the antennas out of whack and making the image buzz and rattle noisily.

With a heavy sigh at his own stupidity, Cloud rolled off of bed and stomped over to the small TV set. He began to mess around with the bunny ears, hearing a different voice speak intermittently through the scrambling, then the older voice. He couldn’t make out anything that was being said, nor was he trying to.

The image stabilized, and Cloud paused.

It wasn’t the older man on the screen, anymore.

“Take care of my army.. General Sephiroth.” The old man said warm heartedly, and the young man beside him lowered his unearthly, neon green eyes and tilted his head forward only very slightly, almost too graceful to be truly considered a bow. The flowing, liquid metal tresses of his hair spilled down his shoulders and sparkled in the sunlight, contrasting sharply with the black of his leather uniform.

The young man then opened his eyes and straightened up.

He pursed his lips slightly.

Cloud’s hand flopped to the side of its own accord, and the bunny ears fell over, ruining the image. With a lot more insistence, Cloud cursed and messed around with the antennas, finally holding them in just the right combination of pressure and touch.

The screen was filled with old man wrinkles, a close up on the retiring General.

Then, oh then, the screen was only the new General.

“General Sephiroth..” Cloud said for the first time, “..Sephiroth.”

He touched the screen, and felt the small layer of static electricity snap at his fingertips. He moved them to the image of soft, full lips.

“Somebody kiss him..” Cloud murmured to the entire world.

Sephiroth needed to be kissed. For real. Like he deserved to be kissed. Cloud was certain of it, and certain that he was the one to give it to him.

Then he shook his head at his own foolishness, thinking that a man like that probably had people lined for a chance to be with him. He was perfection, after all. If someone as ignorant as Cloud could see that, then Sephiroth probably was with someone deserving of him. Someone who would kiss those lips and make them smile.

But still.. unworthy as he was, Cloud watched the beautiful man’s mouth, entranced. Sephiroth looked into the screen, seemed to look right at him. He felt his hapless sexual organs react and let out a shuddering sigh.

Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed, just a little, then blinked.

Although he had never been compelled to do such a thing before, Cloud pressed his lips to the television screen, touching his tongue tenderly to the glass, offering up to Sephiroth the very best kiss he could possibly give.

The static licked back at him, and if he just closed his eyes.. it almost felt like breath.

Do you believe in love at first sight, Cloud Strife? Sephiroth asked him.

“Yeah..” Cloud breathed against the glass, his fourteen year old voice dipping down into a sultry purr as he flicked his tongue across Sephiroth’s lips, begging for him to open up.

I’m glad because.. although we’ve only just met.. I think I love you.

“I love you, too..”

Do you want me, Cloud?

“Oh, yeah..”

Then come and get me.

Right then, his mother barged in, “Why the fuck are you still home f…”

Cloud, buck naked and sporting a furious erection, jerked away from the screen, his hands shifting the antennas in surprise and ruining the image of Sephiroth into snow once again.

After a split second survey of the situation, she quickly closed the door and said no more to him about it, or skipping school. She had always just assumed he was trying to work in some pornography channels. It was impossible this far up on the mountain, but she gave him an ‘A’ for effort, anyways.

Once Cloud had worked up the nerve to actually bring his face out of his pillows, he turned his TV back on. The cooking network. The cartoon station. The stand up comedy show.

No more Sephiroth. And Cloud had no idea how to find him again. He tried the internet, finding only a few small photos and two or three sentence articles. He scoured newspapers for information on a daily basis. He even took to paying attention to the news when his mother watched it in evenings. The Timeweek magazine cover was the juiciest catch he had ever reeled in of Sephiroth fandom.

Cloud remembered all of this with a muted sort of detachment. Perhaps if he remembered it all too clearly.. the longing, the fanaticizing, the terrible lonely ache that drove him to tears at night.. he’d go stark raving mad at his own outrageous fortune.

But nevertheless he was in awe of the turn of events leading up to himself walking towards Sephiroth, who was waiting for him. For Cloud. The idea exhilarated him so, that he began to trot faster until he couldn’t help but run.

Sephiroth was leaned up against his truck in the early afternoon snow, a gray jacket, a pair of black pants and a smile. The jacket was partially unzipped, and Cloud could see the creamy glimpse of his shirtlessness underneath. Sephiroth pushed off of the vehicle and moved towards Cloud, meandering, casual, his arms wide at his sides and ready to accept him.

Cloud was fully intent on giving him that kiss again; the best one he could possibly give. It was the one he gave to Sephiroth everytime their lips met. But as long as that man smiled at him that way, held his arms open.. he would give it again. And again. And again.

The kiss General Sephiroth had actually felt that day two years prior was nowhere near as wet or sweet as the one the teenager in Nibelheim had planted on the TV set for him.

No, it was tight lipped, false, and tasting of lipstick.

She had been introduced by Angeal, a cousin of a friend of a girlfriend of a something-or-fucking-other. It was their only date together, and he had given her no indication that he wanted to be kissed, nor did she have any indication that it was at all appropriate.

But when he left the stage, now officially the General, she was overcome by something. Maybe it was the smile he gave her, as she was the first person he saw, and was about to burst with happiness. Maybe it was the uniform, or maybe it was just the moment. Sephiroth never knew because they never really spoke about it, or anything else for that matter. Either way, she took his face and kissed him.

He was barely 20, and only kissed briefly once before as a joke by a hyperactive volunteer MSO girl in a cute uniform. When her tongue nudged into his mouth, he thought it was one of the most disturbing things he had ever felt.

And after all he had felt in his lifetime, that was really saying something.

Sephiroth figured that perhaps that churning in his stomach was the “sparks” that people often spoke of. He was quiet and shy towards her after the sudden meeting of their lips. He was overcome by all of the attention he was receiving, too sick with anxiety and nerves to eat or drink, and on the whole not really thinking about her at all. Thus, the impression he gave as a person was a considerably negative one. One of a bad kisser, a robotic non-personality, and an anorexic.

When he dropped her off that evening, they sat for a moment in silence.

He was wondering if he should say something.. kiss her? Get out and open her door? Crack a rude joke?

Before he could decide, the liquor in her said this: “You’re really boring.”

He never had much luck with straight women.

Lesbians however, were crazy about him.

“I would have punched her cunt!” Julie panted on the track beside him.

“I would have ripped out her weave!” Elena panted on his other side.

“I would have run her ass over with the tank before she could get inside!” Rhonda panted behind him.

“I shoulda!” Sephiroth agreed.

“Oh, General Seeephiroth? I can’t run anymore!” Rhonda wheezed.

“No man gets left behind.” Sephiroth declared and held out his arms, wrapping them under Rhonda’s legs as she leapt onto his back.

“What you need is someone genuine!” Elena suggested, wiping her sweaty brow, “Lipstick is always a bad sign!”

“I wear lipstick!” Julie crowed.

“And you’re a bitch!” Rhonda called, happily hanging onto Sephiroth and not weighing him down a bit.

“I don’t need anyone genuine or not genuine.” Sephiroth decided firmly, “No fuckin’ relationships. I’m no good at it.”

“You will be..” Rhonda said very close to his ear, “.. once you find the right person. You’re the biggest sweetheart I’ve ever met.”

“I’m not sweet.” He argued with a snarl.

She smacked the side of his head, “Yes you are! And it was just a crappy blind date, no big deal. There are plenty of girls out there for you.”

“Hotter girls!” Elena agreed.

“With bigger tits!” Julie declared.

He had nodded, not yet understanding why the sound of that wasn’t exactly mouth watering.

Sephiroth didn’t remember a word of this conversation. He didn’t remember enjoying kissing the next girl who on their third date gave him an ultimatum about his hair, forcing him to choose between her affections and a box of black hair dye or his natural silver coloring. Or getting stood up by the next girl, or stalked then subsequently repulsed by the next one, or the one that lasted the longest and made the least sense of all.

He’d forgotten all about his failed attempts at flaky relationships, because they just didn’t fucking matter anymore in the face of.. love.

Nobody had ever told Sephiroth that they loved him before.

And although he wasn’t able to say the words back, Sephiroth was happy, and it touched every aspect of his life.

He found himself sleeping better, he found himself feeling better. He found himself smiling for no reason at all. He found himself drumming his fingers. He found himself watching the clock for 4pm to hear Cloud’s voice, to hear about his day and share stupid details of his own. He found himself utterly disenchanted by his own touch alone in his bed, mentally recreating the way Cloud looked and felt, his orgasms seeming more like a bored yawn from his cock rather than the quaking explosion Cloud’s tight body and hot lips ripped from him. He even found himself longing for weekends, which had been meaningless and even dreaded up until this point in his life.

Even with a black school hoodie hiding his face and hair, the swaying left hipped gait of the tiny approaching person made Sephiroth’s heart pound in his chest. He walked towards him to meet him halfway, snatching him up in his arms when Cloud hit his chest at a dead run.

Sephiroth chuckled into the kiss Cloud immediately granted him, nipping softly at his lips, his sweet little tongue reaching out to greet his own. It was a warm exchange, a sudden contrast to the cold surrounding them. Sephiroth reached into the hood to feel Cloud’s hair, and found that every part of Cloud was freezing, especially his little button nose, which felt more like a little ice cube.

Sephiroth hugged him tightly, “Why you so cold, baby?”

Cloud peered up at him from underneath his hood, “I just ran over to the administration building to get my report card..”

“Uh oh..” Sephiroth smiled, consciously generating more warmth for little Cloud, trekking like a good little trooper all over campus in the snow, “.. What’s the verdict?”

Cloud bit his lip, taking a piece of paper from his back pocket and unfolding it. He slowly handed it over to Sephiroth, watching his green eyes flit across the print out.

“A, A, A, fuckin’ A.” Sephiroth’s face split into a wide grin, “You got straight A’s?”

“I’ve never gotten good grades before! But I tried really hard and Cam helped me study.. and I.. I actually did good!” Cloud babbled happily, and bounced up and down while Sephiroth let out a joyful noise that Cloud hadn’t heard before; a handsome, wordless shout of victory.

He picked Cloud up and squeezed him again, growling happily, “What the fuck!? I thought you were just a dumb blonde! We gotta do somethin’!”

“You know what I wanna do?..” Cloud said in low tones, his tone full of tentative seduction.

The green eyes flickered brightly, and Sephiroth cocked his head in question.

Cloud melted against him, shivering for reasons other than the cold, “.. I wanna go home.”

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

In his echoed and meaningless dreams, Sephiroth felt tiny puffs of heat on his skin, and warm weight pressed onto him. For a split second, he saw a large, loud machine that he didn’t consciously remember, for he hadn’t seen it since he was three years old.

It makes hot, Sephiroth recalled childishly, forgetting this as soon as it flitted from the eye of his thoughts.

After a few moments of wonder, he smiled knowingly within the dream, remembering what was lying on top of his waking self and wrapped up in his arms. In response to this lucid knowledge, his brain created a vision of Cloud for him, one that Sephiroth thought was slightly off. His subconscious had toyed it, playing up his favorite features and removing all imperfections until Cloud was a supernatural bombshell.

His gently tanned skin radiated a soft golden dewy glow, contrasting with the pale yellow spikes of hair that framed his face perfectly, keeping clear of his sea blue eyes. The creature of perfection cocked his blonde eyebrow slowly, his slightly too long fingers flirtatiously weaving the patterns of hot breath that he felt on his skin.

Sephiroth didn’t see the point in having a wet dream with an incubus when the real thing was so near. He cracked his eyes, then squinted in momentary confusion.

They were on the couch. He looked to the cable box. 3:42 am. He looked to his groin. Painfully hard.

Memories fell into place; the previous evening had been a sacrifice to the gods of laziness.

Both men had draped over each other on the couch in this exact position, prepared to act upon all the delicious things they’d been promising to each other on the phone all week, and then perhaps venture out for some dinner.

But instead, they fell victim to a Project Runway marathon.

It had been informational at least, as things the people said would trigger a story from either Sephiroth or Cloud, a short moment from their lives to share. Like when Cloud’s soccer shorts split during a game when he was 5, or the fact that Sephiroth seemed to fight better when he got a leather wedgie. Every commercial that played, they learned useless but important opinions on either fast food or laundry detergent. Sephiroth found out about the time Cloud ate not one, but two rock solid frozen Toaster Strudels because he couldn’t figure out how to make an unplugged toaster work, and Cloud burned the information in his brain that Sephiroth adored truffles, and chomped them down whenever he needed to put on a little weight.

And when the contestants were drenched in drama and neither Cloud nor Sephiroth cared that much about yards of wasted fabric or an illegal method of layering ruffles, their lips were never far from each other’s. Often they would just be starting to get a little hot and heavy when the episode’s runway show would begin, and Cloud would go, “Oooh! Oooh!” while popping up off of Sephiroth to turn up the volume. But their constantly interrupted mini-romps had eventually rendered them both nude, their clothes tossed about the living room.

But the week had been a busy and tiring one for both of them, and when Cloud had begun to doze off in the nook between Sephiroth and the couch backing, Sephiroth had turned off the TV and pulled the sofa blanket down on top of them, content to only be near Cloud’s soft and bare skin for the night.

But now it was morning, and Sephiroth had only half an hour before he needed to leave for work. This reality brought him to wakefulness, and he gave a lazy sigh.

Cloud felt the change in Sephiroth’s breathing and heart beat. He shifted moodily, pressing his cheek harder against Sephiroth’s chest, almost as if he was trying to keep him down and near.

Sephiroth decided to comply for two reasons.

The first was that he had fallen asleep in the most uncomfortable position in the known universe : his head was up on the armrest of the goddamn couch. He knew that when he moved, his neck was going to have the crick of a lifetime. And with Cloud’s meager, but substantial weight sprawled across him, he probably had a limb or two fallen asleep as well. So, he decided it was best to lay still and put off agony for a few more minutes.

The other reason he stayed still, was that Cloud looked like a little angel when he slept.

Sephiroth looked down to find the greenish streetlights slitted across his face from the blinds, blonde shaggy hair completely hiding the eyes that were large and sparkling and gorgeous just a moment ago in his mind. A bar of light instead fell over Cloud’s mouth, enhancing the texture of his lips, parted slightly with sleep. Sephiroth noticed tiny bite marks on the bottom one, red speckles where it must have bled from a nervous habit. The knuckles of his hands folded under his chin were scratched, scabbed over. There was a very characteristic mole on his arm.

Sephiroth preferred this reality that his mind wasn’t clever enough to create; this was a beauty that made his breath pause.

He could hardly stand it. His lips, almost without permission, puckered and reached out to caress Cloud’s cheekbone. Cloud half-woke and clumsily shifted on top of him, his arms burrowed and cradled under Sephiroth’s head, his long legs straddled tighter about his waist, and the hard line of his cock rested against his stomach.

Sephiroth groaned lightly, “..It’s time for me to get up, baby.”

“But I’m comfy here..” Cloud said softly against Sephiroth’s jaw.

Sephiroth made a soft sound of agreement. As his fingers and palms coasted up and down his narrow back, feeling the silkiness of his skin and the promise of muscle beneath it, his self control started to quickly unravel.

“I gotta go to work.” He whispered.

“.. Noo..” Cloud moaned unhappily, and his body got a little heavier, his breathing a little deeper, a little slower and Sephiroth looked at his face to see his eyelids locked closed.

Goddamn, Cloud was cute when he slept.

Alert! The time is now 3:51am!... Sephiroth’s internal clock was going haywire, but he couldn’t help but whisper softly between kisses, “Don’t fall back asleep on me, baby. The bed’s better.”

“Mm-mm..” Cloud wordlessly disagreed, and Sephiroth felt him go completely boneless.

Well, except for one bone.

“Up now.” Sephiroth said, a small amount of forcefulness entering his sleep raspy voice.

It was enough forcefulness that Cloud lurched, willing his tired limbs to shift heavily. He sat up on Sephiroth’s lap and bellowed a wide mouthed yawn, the innocence of his demeanor completely mismatched with the furious erection jutting from between his legs.

Sephiroth’s eyes zeroed in, but then averted, knowing that if he started fooling around with Cloud he’d really, truly never make it to work. Tired, cute Cloud he could stand to deal with.. but horny, playful Cloud was almost irresistible, and he wasn’t up to that particular challenge. And although Sephiroth would have committed murder to have the leisure to fuck Cloud to both of their heart’s desires...

“Up. Now.”

“Seeeph, I’m tryinng..” Cloud slurred grumpily, throwing the black and yellow blanket off of his shoulders and stretching upwards with a long arch. Sephiroth closed his eyes as his own body snapped straight up at the sight, rising to nudge into the round softness of Cloud’s ass.

Cloud paused when he felt it, suddenly well aware of the compromising position they had found themselves in this morning.

Oh shit, Sephiroth thought as Cloud put his hands on his chest and letting them stroke and tease, giggling slowly.

“.. Hee hee.. You’re pretty!”

Sephiroth groaned, “Cloud...”

“Seph...” Cloud whispered back, his blue eyes now wide awake and radiating boyish excitement in the dark.

Fuck it.

Even though it was 4am and not getting any earlier.. Sephiroth had to indulge, just a little bit. He laced his fingers with Cloud’s and then tugged him back down until he lay flat on top of him, his lips near enough to taste his playfully anxious giggles.

Sephiroth memorized the way it felt with Cloud’s arms and legs enveloped around him, and his frantic little heartbeat buzzing away against his chest. Letting himself pretend for a moment that they had all the time in the world, Sephiroth lifted his hips off the couch, nuzzling his cock into the warm, spread crevice of Cloud’s ass, taking in the soft scent and taste of Cloud, both stronger from sleep.

“I should have turned off that stupid show and fucked you last night.” Sephiroth whispered against Cloud’s lips, then groaned lengthily with regret, “..I should have fucked you all night..”

“Oh, well..” Cloud sighed, a hint of hope in his voice as Sephiroth nibbled on the tiny hollow in his chin where his spike normally was, “.. let’s do it now..”

Sephiroth’s cock ached at Cloud’s opening, and he looked pained as he hissed, “I can’t, baby..”

Cloud began to carefully feel out Sephiroth much like one cracks open a safe. A kiss to the lips, a swirl of his tongue, another kiss to the fingers, suck on them lightly.. He then took the liberty of moving a little more towards the south, kissing Sephiroth’s neck, his collarbone, his beautifully sculpted chest, his tiny, hard nipples.

Sephiroth’s hips involuntarily sprang up into Cloud’s when he nibbled on one. He looked up and gently raked his teeth across it. When Sephiroth’s chest began to move up and down quicker, and Cloud figured this was the code breaker.

He sat up on Sephiroth’s hips with a slow roll, reaching behind him to press his big erection pointedly against himself, “I wanna.. ride you..”

Sephiroth’s eyes glowed up at him, lidded and smoldering.

He then sat up, gently brushed Cloud off his lap, and left the couch.

Cloud blinked in the dark, then sat up and sputtered, “S- Seeeph! Where are you goiiing?!”

“Shower.” Sephiroth said, disappearing into the shadows.

Wrong code! Trying to salvage the situation, Cloud quickly scrambled to his feet and rushed towards the bedroom just in time to see the bathroom door close.

He balked at the barrier, “I can’t take a shower with you!?”

“Nope.” Came the echoed reply from beyond the door.

“Why!?”

“Because.”

Cloud pushed his face into the door jam, “What did I do wrong..?”

Sephiroth sighed and Cloud heard the smile in his voice, “Absolutely nothin’.”

“Then why ...?”

“I told you. No time.”

Cloud opened his mouth to plead more, but then he looked over his shoulder at the large, slightly unmade, entirely vacant bed. Standing on his slim legs, throbbing and tired from a week of hard exam drills and exercises, he became very aware his muscles had had very little time to recover. He raced over and dove in, every pillow and sheet seeming to caress him with utmost comfort. He closed his eyes and listened as the water rushed overhead, and let the sound lull him to a light, relaxed place where he was just almost dreaming, and hovered there as long as he could hold on. Then he was falling, falling.

When he opened his eyes, Sephiroth standing over him at the bedside, fully dressed and watching him doze. Cloud reached out and touched his hand, feeling the ghost of warmth from the shower, the ultra smoothness of recently washed skin. Sephiroth put a knee on the bed and swung his other leg over Cloud. His hair was soft and still dry; he hadn’t washed it. Cloud mentally snapped his fingers at having missed seeing Sephiroth with his hair tied up.

Cloud gazed at him for a moment, not completely aware that his face was alight with a careless, sleepy smile.

The vision of General Sephiroth smiled back and kissed him, letting his tongue flit into his mouth. Cloud kicked off the blanket to feel all of him. He felt his nudity should have been somehow embarrassing next to all that hot, official Shin-Ra uniform leather.. but it wasn’t. Cloud didn’t know how to rationalize the way it felt; the leather seemed like Sephiroth’s second skin, his real skin sliding beneath the surface, pulling at Cloud.

Sephiroth closed the kiss off with a hearty pop, “Gonna get some sleep?”

Cloud pouted and shrugged a shoulder.

Sephiroth pressed his lips to his ear, “You better.”

“..Then I will.” Cloud promised on a sultry note, wrapping a bare leg around Sephiroth’s hips, holding him down and pulling him closer.

Sephiroth sighed hesitantly, “Maybe we shouldn’t do these sleepovers on days before I work, baby.”

Cloud suddenly felt as though he had crossed a line, and loosened his leg, slipping it off of him, “I’m sorry..”

“It isn’t your fault, it’s mine.” Sephiroth said, his lips brushing Cloud’s cheek as he spoke, “I tried.. but I can’t keep my hands offa you..”

Cloud bit his lip as Sephiroth’s big, gloved hand brushed over his knee and pushed it gently into Cloud’s chest, spreading him wide open. Cloud panted a little, gripping the hard muscles of Sephiroth’s thighs as his palm spread wide and fingers dug in.

“Don’t go..” Cloud moaned softly.

“I have to.” Sephiroth rumbled, and it sounded somewhat sad and innocent.

“Can I come with you?”

“After work.”

Cloud chuckled a little, “Nooo.. I mean come with you to work today?”

Sephiroth laughed gruffly, “No way.”

“Why not?.. Ah!” Cloud moaned as his cock was encased in an abrasively seamed leather fist, not being able to decide if it hurt or felt good.

Sephiroth’s grip suddenly became feather gentle, and moved up and down Cloud’s long shaft slowly, “I got ten minutes before I need to leave. So stop bein’ so goddamn hot.”

“.. W-why can’t I come with you?”

Sephiroth sucked his little pout into a kiss, “Because I can’t function around you.”

“I can help, though.. remember?”

“Go to sleep. I’ll be back around noon, ’kay? Try to still be naked and in bed, it’ll save time.”

And with that, Sephiroth rolled off of him, palming and adjusting his large and obvious arousal. Cloud bit his lip and watched him go, before growling in determination and snatching a pair of Sephiroth’s jeans from the floor.

He stumbled into the kitchen, pulling them up, “Give me a chance! If I distract you too much, I can always walk back to school!” Cloud reached down to shove his rock hard cock into the jeans, an easy task due to the loose fit, “I got straight A’s afterall..”

Sephiroth pursed his lips, “..Can you behave?”

Cloud nodded seriously, going up on tiptoes to lace his fingers behind Sephiroth’s neck, “I promise I won’t embarrass or disrespect you or distract you. I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”

Sephiroth searched Cloud’s face for a moment before turning away from him, shaking his head with a disbelieving smile.

Cloud frowning as he watched him drink orange juice from the jug, “Well? Can I? Can I? Pleeease?”

Sephiroth smirked with full cheeks, then swallowed.

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

“No sexy shit.” Sephiroth warned as Cloud skipped happily in rolled up jeans behind him through the parking garage underneath the Shin-Ra building.

“Please specify the sexy shit, Sir?”

“No touching. No grabbing. No giggling. No dirty talk. No teasing. And no answering my phone. No making noise while I’m on the phone. No whining and no begging. And you have to do every fuckin’ thing I say. Got it?”

Cloud mentally rolled his eyes, as he wasn’t a fucking toddler, but puffed out and barked, “Sir, yes, Sir!”

Sephiroth’s eyes flashed at that, “Did you ever call me ‘Sir’ before we got together?”

“Always, Sir!”

“Goddamn..” Sephiroth said with a smile, “Why didn’t I notice?”

“Because I was only a nameless amoeba to you, Sir!” Cloud happily suggested, his heavy bag full of entertainment bouncing against his ass, mostly magazines pilfered at the last minute from underneath Sephiroth’s coffee table.

“Don’t gimme that noise, you know I thought you were gorgeous.”

Cloud puffed out again, “Yup!”

Sephiroth stopped in the nearly empty garage, almost causing Cloud to bump into him. He turned and took Cloud’s face, kissing him with soft, tender lips. Cloud hugged Sephiroth’s waist, trying not to settle too much into the kiss, but wanting it to last.

“Just..” Sephiroth searched for words when he straightened up and pulled away, brushing Cloud’s hair to the side and out of his eyes, “.. don’t call me on my bullshit today, eh?”

Cloud wasn’t exactly sure what that was supposed to mean, but nodded, adjusting the strap of his heavy bag. Sephiroth tucked his fingers under the strap and took it from him, throwing it around his own neck with ease. Cloud smiled and followed alongside Sephiroth closely as he began to strut again, wanting nothing more than to hold his hand, but leaving a respectable sort of distance.

“Good morning, Sir.”

“Good morning.”

This was said approximately one million times as they walked through the lobby of the Shin-Ra office building. Some people would say it in unison, some groups would each say it one by one as they passed, and Sephiroth returned the greeting every single time.

“Good morning, Sir.”

“Good morning.”

They got on an elevator with a group of suited business persons. Noone spoke, but whenever one would exit, they would greet Sephiroth as they left.

Elevator etiquette was lost on a smalltown boy who had only ever been on one in a department store. So Cloud made himself small and backed into a corner behind Sephiroth as more people entered.

He looked over his shoulder to try and appreciate the view that people talked about even in Nibelheim. The Shin-Ra building elevators; it was almost a fucking tourist attraction. They moved up and the city moved down, becoming smaller, when Cloud began to feel like he was leaning sideways. He leaned the other way to compensate, and bumped into a business lady.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, excuse me.” He said politely, and the small room of professionals bristled. Even Sephiroth gave him a quirky little glimpse over his shoulder.

You were not supposed to speak on elevators!

Okay okay.. Cloud thought, getting the message loud and clear from the lengthy, annoyed glares he received from behind horn rimmed glasses and from underneath shitty toupees. He made himself even smaller as people got out and more people got on.

They began to ascend again, the city became smaller again.. then the world tipped sideways again. Cloud batted his eyes, stricken with a terrible wooziness. Stop.. up.. down.. sideways.. stop.. up.. up.. siiideways.

Oh God.. Cloud thought, closing his eyes and turning around. But he still saw the effect of rising in his mind, and then began to feel it in his stomach. The elevator came to another stop, and as it again began to ascend, it lurched several times. Cloud felt a sourness bloom in his stomach, and felt incredibly dizzy behind his eyelids. He put his hand on Sephiroth’s waist to steady himself, careful to hide it from public view.

He looked over his shoulder to find Cloud weaving like a drunk where he stood.

“Are you alright?” Sephiroth murmured quietly.

All eyes in the elevator were now on them.

Cloud swallowed, “M-may I take the stairs, Sir? I don’t feel well. At all.”

If you weren’t supposed to talk on elevators, you definitely weren’t supposed to say that you weren’t feeling well on elevators. The group of people all made quiet, miserable noises, trying their best to squeeze against the walls opposite of the tiny foreign boy and potential vomit stain instigator.

Cloud began to take his heaping helping of humiliation to throw on top of his physical discomfort, when Sephiroth announced, “I want everyone off at the next floor.”

Sure as shit, within seconds they stopped, and without a word of complaint, everyone vacated the elevator. Sephiroth swiped a card at the button panel, and all the lighted buttons disappeared, and he again tapped the button for only their destination. After the door had closed, Sephiroth turned to him and framed in his vision with his hands.

Seeing only Sephiroth, only his handsome face and feeling his warm hands, Cloud could have sworn his sickness dissolved completely. But then there was a small lurch and he winced as if in pain.

Sephiroth spoke softly, “What is it? Heights?”

“Not really. It’s more the up and down and up and down..” Cloud confessed, blinking and exhaling slowly.

“It’s a mental thing, you know.” Sephiroth said, holding Cloud’s head completely steady, “You gotta remember that you’re still. Just keep sayin’ that to yourself. I’m still. I’m still.”

“I’m still.” Cloud said.

“The room’s movin’, but we’re still,” Sephiroth repeated soothingly, “I’ve got you.”

Cloud repeated it with him. After a few moments, Sephiroth’s fingers massaged into his temples, “We’re going to the 60th floor. You’d make it up the stairs around lunchtime.”

“I’d truck up 60 floors to be with you. No problem.”

“I’d truck it with you.”

“You could carry me.”

“And that wouldn’t make you motion sick?”

Cloud bit his lip, “Riding you would never make me sick..”

Sephiroth smiled and leaned forward until their foreheads touched and his hands boxed in both of their visions, “I thought I said no dirty talk..”

Cloud smiled, “Sorry, Sir.”

Sephiroth slowly moved his hands away, his green eyes dilating slightly from the introduced brightness, and radiated amusement at the sky blues ones, “Wanna look again? Might be better.”

Cloud exhaled, then turned to look out the famous Shin-Ra elevator windows.

“We’re still.” Cloud said.

“Yup.” Sephiroth agreed.

Cloud felt his stomach quiver just a little, but they soon arrived on their floor.

“Good morning, Sir,” everyone said.

“Good morning.” Sephiroth said to everyone.

Cloud followed Sephiroth’s strut through a maze of cubicles until they were in a wide hallway. And finally, to an opening of larger, nicer cubicles.

“Good morning, Sephiroth,” people began to say.

“Morning.” Sephiroth began to reply.

Until finally, there was a girl who said, “Uh oh! You’re almost late, Gen-Gen!”

And Sephiroth said, “Whatever.”

“Who’s your little buddy?” She asked, looking up from the desk calendar she was color coding.

“This is Cloud Strife.”

She put her marker down with a loud bang, “So you’re Genny’s little boyfriend!”

Cloud blushed deeply upon being totally outed by a perfect stranger, but said, “Hello, ma’am.” And he held out his hand. She took it and gave it an awkward sort of squeeze, as if she didn’t know what to do with it. People from Midgar had serious hang-ups about shaking hands. Maybe it wa like talking in elevators.

After their awkward contact, she smiled at Sephiroth with an edge of wickedness, “Good news, General!”

Sephiroth frowned, saying nothing.

She popped, “A conference call at 11!”

Sephiroth’s face twitched with displeasure, and he opened the door to his office, leaving it ajar for Cloud. He wasn’t sure if it was proper to close it, since people in this area obviously were onto them, but he shut it quietly anyways, sure that Sephiroth would appreciate the privacy for himself at least.

Sephiroth’s office wasn’t that fancy. It was much like his apartment, a sort of mismatched, odd collection of furniture that seemed to be somewhat retro. Sephiroth’s office chair was gray instead of a typical black one. The wood of his desk was treated with a black finish, the seat opposite it was a darker gray and rather huge. There was one picture on his wall, and it was a movie poster for Firestarter. Cloud smiled and moved towards a bookshelf, wondering what sort of books a General has in his office. How to be Sexy and Intimidate People? 10 Ways to Take Over the World? Leather for Beginners? But it was filled with only files and unmarked three ring binders. Cloud didn’t dare try to examine their contents.

Not seeing another seat in the room besides the one opposite Sephiroth’s desk, and finding it somehow inappropriate to take that one, he searched for another option. It was then that he noticed that the window next to Sephiroth’s desk was a bay window, just wide enough to fit Cloud’s skinny ass. On it was a globe, and several rolled up maps.

“Can I throw this on the floor?” Cloud asked of the items in his way.

“Sure.” Sephiroth answered, booting up the computer on his desk.

Cloud carefully removed the items and prepared his roost for the day, making a neat pile of magazines sorted by importance. He had just made an organized little station of time killing when the door burst open.

“Oh I cannot fucking believe her, Seph. I could tear my fucking heart out and hand it to her on a plate and that cold bitch wouldn’t even fucking blink.”

Zack immediately swaggered to the gray chair opposite Sephiroth, then paused and looked at Cloud.

Without so much as a greeting, he asked, “Would you let me fuck you, Cloud?”

Cloud’s face went wild with different reactions, then settled into good old fashioned shock, “..What?”

“I’m hot. I’m a SOLDIER. I’m not exactly rich, but I get by. I have a body like those fuckin’ whaadaya call ‘em? Greek statues ‘n shit. I have a pretty big dick, all my teeth and hair, and I don’t stink usually. Would you let me fuck you?”

Cloud sputtered and looked to Sephiroth, whose eyes shined in amusement, but said nothing. He swallowed, thinking back to when he had asked the same question of Cam before a date. Perhaps Zack was simply wondering if he looked good.

“I really like your SOLDIER uniform, Zack.” Cloud offered with a friendly shrug.

After a few heartbeats of visibly confused silence, Zack repeated, “Would you let me fuck you?”

Cloud flicked his eyes to the side, “Uh. In what.. context?”

Zack hummed thoughtfully, “You could fuck me, I guess. The point is, would you have sex with me? Am I fit to fuck?”

Blue eyes shot to Sephiroth again desperately, who folded his hands on his desk, his face a calm, still lake of amusement.

Cloud nervously licked his lips, “Yeeeah? But um.. I’m sorry.. I’m with.. Seph..”

“He could fuck me, too, he’s gorgeous. Hell, let’s make it a regular Zack Fair jamboree. The closest I’ve come to sex in two years is hearing about my gay best friend’s first blowjob. I hear you do fantastic work, Cloud. So!” Zack pounded Sephiroth’s desk, “I wanna be gay, too! How do I join the club? Lube me up and throw me down the poop chute, I don’t give a fuck anymore! I fold! You two can have me! Aerith won’t!”

Sephiroth calmly asked over his still folded hands, “What happened?”

Zack crossed his arms and looked like a portrait of a grumpy, pouting child, “We had a fight.”

“About?”

Zack crossed his feet in front of him, “I have a desire to become… intimate. She clearly lacks that drive without a formal commitment. We’ve been together so long. I’m just ready to.. I dunno. Have all of her. So I.. I asked her to marry me.”

Sephiroth’s eyes popped wide open, “For fuckin’ real?”

Zack rubbed his face with both hands, “It was over the phone, and no I didn’t plan it and no I don’t even have like.. a ring or anything. I meant it, though! But she freaked out..”

“Why?” Sephiroth sputtered with disgust.

“You tell me!” Zack cried.

Cloud looked at both of them in disbelief, two grown men, two of the most powerful figures in the Shin-Ra army, shrugging at each other and wondering aloud if perhaps it was her time of the month.

“You seriously don’t get it?” Cloud asked from the window.

Both men looked at him.

“What do you know?” Zack demanded.

Cloud bellowed a sigh, “If you’re going to ask a woman to marry you, you have to make a big deal about it, orchestrate something special. You can’t just ask that question without a solid game plan, you have to have fucking charts and graphs about your future, your finances, possible children, where you’re going to live, when the wedding will take place, and who you’re gonna get to design her dress! And never ever ask over the fucking phone, you have to at least be down on one knee! And with a girl like Aerith, you definitely have to have a ring. Geez, you guys!”

Sephiroth hiked an eyebrow, “How do you know all this? You don’t even know her that well.”

“And you’re gay!” Zack pointed out in intoxicated wonder.

Cloud smiled, “I know she sells flowers for a living.. she probably sees romance all day long. She’s probably even seen other ladies be proposed to. I’m willing to bet she has a total fantasy about it.”

“Ooooh, the little one’s right!” Zack looked miserably between the two of them, “So now what do I do?”

“Go to her..” Cloud said dreamily.

“She won’t see me!”

“You’re drunk, besides.” Sephiroth muttered.

“I’m so sorry, Seph. I just can’t fucking deal with this shit sober. I get so parched.”

“Do like Cloud says. Go home and sort it out.” Sephiroth suggested seriously.

“No. I have shit to do.”

Sephiroth eyebrow hiked, “Like what?”

“I’m booked all day for training. It’s important to me. I have to do it.”

“Then go down to the lab and have ‘em.. I dunno, wring you out or somethin’. You can’t train while you’re piss-ass drunk.”

Zack sighed and nodded, “..You think she’s the one for me?”

Sephiroth leaned on his hand and thought, “She’s.. special, I guess.”

Zack sucked the side of his cheek, and left without another word, slamming the door behind him.

Cloud cracked open his first magazine and buried his nose in it, but that didn’t stop Sephiroth, “Well, well, well.. you would fuck Zacko.”

Cloud scowled, “You could have helped me out there!”

Sephiroth smiled widely, “Don’t worry. I don’t think he’ll even remember saying that to you, but if he does, I’m sure he’ll apologize.”

Cloud nodded, looking to his magazine, tearing at the corner of the page. Then he looked over at Sephiroth, who began to type something with vigor, or perhaps he just typed speedily. Cloud watched the words appear on the screen rapidly.

Sephiroth looked busy, but fuck it, Cloud had a question.

“Did you ever.. have the desire to propose to any of the girls you’ve been with?”

“No.” Sephiroth said, not missing a beat in his work.

“You’re not the type?” Cloud asked, leaning against the window and watching Sephiroth’s eyes as the flicked back and forth across the screen.

“I don’t know if I even am a type,” He paused and looked at Cloud, “Why?”

“Just.. I was wondering.”

Sephiroth continued working, “I know in your head you think I’ve had serious relationships but.. those girls were never really real relationships as much as.. burdens. They were to me and I was to them.”

Cloud smiled and hummed in disbelief, “You could never burden anyone, pretty.”

Sephiroth’s eyes shot up at the nickname, then went back to work, “I was just never skilled at being what women wanted, because they all seemed to want someone fulla shit. I like being forward, and I especially like other people that are forward. I like.. someone who lets me know what they want, doesn’t make me wonder. I guess that’s what type I am.”

Cloud kicked his feet a little, “Ohh, I get it! You like to be pursued! You like to know that you’re a sexy, desirable man!”

Sephiroth didn’t say anything, only smiled.

Cloud scooted to the edge of the windowsill, and leaned forward on his hands, “Sephiroth, you’re soo sexy! And soo desirable! But you’re my man so remind me to knock out anyone else who tries to tell you so.”

“I’d pay a lot of money to see baby knock someone out.” Sephiroth chuckled.

“Don’t think I can’t! My final grade in Hand to Hand, you ask? ‘A’ plus, Sir!”

“How many knockouts you got?”

Cloud puffed out his chest, “Ten!”

“Good stuff.” Sephiroth said sincerely, although it wasn’t lost on either of them that it was very much like a parent congratulating an infant on taking a shit, “How many knockouts have you taken?”

Cloud shrugged a shoulder flippantly, “I didn’t keep count.”

“It didn’t say on your report?”

“Maybe.. I didn’t read it very hard, I was just glad to have an ‘A’.”

“Then guess.”

Cloud buried his nose in his magazine, creating a perfect picture of academia.

“..Cloud?”

He raised his blue eyes slowly and seriously, as though he were a monk roused from his scholarly studies, “Yes, sir?”

“How many times you been KO’d?” Sephiroth repeated.

After a long sigh of tallying, Cloud said, “Ah, around ..thirty..ish.” The exact number on his report was 43.

Sephiroth’s eyebrows knitted, “Who the fuck was your coach?”

“..Heller.”

Sephiroth frowned, “Was he pinning you with people your size?”

Cloud glanced to the side. There wasn’t anyone else his size. The people he usually paired with to spar were either Ben the fat kid, or Johnny the ex-stoner from Bone City. But during the actual graded rounds, the partners were chosen at random. Cloud did his best.. and his grade in the class was excellent, since it was obvious that he was trying hard. But his speed was useless against the bigger boys strength. He could spend the entire round running, but he had to come to blows at some point.

The odd thing was, nobody teased him about his size in class. But, to the unfortunate souls who were beaten by him.. they were teased to no end with taunts of ‘shrimp food!!’ Cloud wasn’t sure how he felt about that. To be well liked, but to be the kiss of death to the self respect of anyone he might be better than?

The fact of the matter was simple. He was an agreeable little sideshow. Maybe too pitiful to tease. Small. Weak.

No! Cloud thought defiantly, Travel-sized and nimble!

After Cloud explained this lengthily and with a thick coating of sugar to his overly concerned beloved, Sephiroth huffed and went angrily back to his work, muttering something about weight classes and height distribution among the courses.

Cloud shoved his face back into his magazine grimly.

And with that, they separated from each other mentally. Sephiroth was busy responding to messages, Cloud was busy reading about concerts he wasn’t attending. Every so often the light in the window would shift and catch Sephiroth’s eye, and he would glance over to see Cloud shifting to sit differently, or carefully tearing a picture from a magazine. Sometimes Cloud would see a blur of black, and it was Sephiroth moving to scratch the back of his head, or swiveling his chair to reach into drawers.

They were both dispassionate, unanimated, and slightly bored.

But it was real life; the everyday them. The them that they were more often than not.

Sephiroth hadn’t before seen Cloud’s eyes relaxed and downcast, no sparkle of mischief. And Cloud had never seen Sephiroth lean on his elbows, his chin red from pressing into his palm. He hadn’t heard the General’s sigh of longing to be outside.

But together they killed the time like two bland, pale versions of themselves. Only once did blue catch green, and send a tiny shockwave of colorful energy. Sephiroth flicked his tongue out in response. They both smiled, then faded apart once again.

It was later in the morning when a knock came to the door.

“Yeah.” Sephiroth called, and the sound of his confident voice murdered the heavy silence, causing Cloud to come up out of an open-eyed sleep.

Zack came lumbering in, and collapsed into the gray chair, “Hey, Seph. Ohhh, good morning, Cloud!”

Sephiroth and Cloud caught each other’s eyes in humor.

“I’m hung. Over. I have a hangover, I mean.” Zack mumbled, wiping at his eyes, “Come train with me.”

“Go home.” Sephiroth said dismissively.

“Nooo. I wanna train, I got the good room. The one with the new pain program,” Zack yawned noisily, “Let’s tear it up.”

“..You know who passed out on that new program?..” Sephiroth asked quietly, but with an edge of gossip that Cloud had never heard in his voice before.

“Who?!” Zack asked, nipping at the scrap of information.

Sephiroth said a name that Cloud didn’t quite understand, and Zack guffawed, “What a pussy! Oh c’mon, Seph! I wanna know what it feels like to get my arm hacked off! Let’s do this!”

“You’ll let me hack your arm off?”

“If you’ll let me hack off yours..” Zack said in a low voice, his voice resonating with echoes of what he must have sounded like as a child, daring the other kids to do perform risky stunts with him.

Sephiroth turned to Cloud, “You okay to hang out for a little while?”

Cloud deflated, as he obviously wasn’t invited to the mutilation festivities. He then realized that a first year twat-smear with ten knockouts having the opportunity to watch two first class SOLDIERs spar was too high of a privilege to ever hope for. So, he nodded in understanding, “Sure, I’ll be fine.”

“Of course he’ll be fine! It’s like having an attack Chihuahua to guard your office!”

Sephiroth laughed a little too loudly for Cloud’s liking, and made a condescending sound of regret at the pouty blue glare he received, “Watch your tone, Zack. Cloud’s gonna be a big, bad SOLDIER soon.”

Zack nodded, “Fuck yeah, he is. And then we’ll all have to watch out for our ankles!”

Sephiroth and Zack laughed merrily together as Cloud tossed magazine husks at them, “Go away! Go hack each other up! Get out!”

When they left in jovial spirits, Cloud sighed, fishing around in his bag for some company. He put his headphones in and let the Mp3 player shuffle, as often times it knew what he wanted to listen to better than he did.

Cloud’s mental voice faded as his brain seeped in music. He began to not so much read the magazines, as simply stare at the text and think. He wanted more than anything to make it into SOLDIER, not only for himself now, not only for his family now, but he felt an overpowering need to make Sephiroth proud of him. So Cloud began to go over what he remembered about his courses. Blondie was the soundtrack for recalling important Junish authors of the last century. Freddy Mercury reminded him about the Pythagorean theorem. The Killers droned away in the background of the mnemonic memorization of the steps for disorienting a group of guerillas while on foreign terrain.

Anal Orgasm popped up and stole his attention by presenting to him a feeling, a memory. It was the song he listened to with Cam while he waited for Sephiroth to speak, and Cloud remembered the stomach cramp of that entire seminar with whimsy, watching the angel fight boredom and bicker with Zack on stage.

The music faded, becoming more and more distant. Cloud leaned against the window, the warmth from sitting in a spotlight of sunshine was making his eyelids heavy.

A punk rock siren suddenly shrieked in Cloud’s ear and he shot awake, cursing loudly and yanking the bud out. He wiped a layer of sleep-sweat from his forehead, and shifted, realizing the sun was in a much higher position in the sky than it had been moments ago.

He sat up and caught a sweeping movement in his peripheral.

His eyes looked for Sephiroth, but instead found a tall, lanky strawberry blonde in white, standing in front of Sephiroth’s desk, hanging on it and chatting on a cell phone.

CHAPTER IMAGES!

Fluffy… owmyhearteries dot deviantart dot com / art / Blonde-Ambition-ch14-90902614

This isn’t exactly a scene, but its cute (NSFW, duh) ---- owmyhearteries dot deviantart dot com / art / Just-Us-89499628

A/N

1-       I’ve made procrastination history! I spent too much time on ch14, and wrote way too much, so cut off a lot of what’s left of this scene to put it in Chapter 15. So, the next chapter is already almost done. The next update will come very soon.

2-     Thanks for the reviews, all! It warms my wicked, dark, stone cold heart to know that you’re enjoying this story. And don’t be shy – if you don’t want to leave a review, I’ll accept perverse phone calls, nasty emails, and of course – noodz.

3-     Recalesce – I thought long and hard about the Hojo giving Seph AIDS scenario. At one point, it was actually going to happen.. but.. that’s a level of heavy scariness that I’m not willing to go to, even though its a part of the “reality” I suppose. But, very astute observation. No STDizzles, on the menu though. Fear not.
- 13
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- 15
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Blonde Ambition