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The Little Guy	By : TokiMirage Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male > Cloud/Sephiroth Views: 2376 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I own no FFVII, I do own my own creative mind, and If I actually made money off this I would be rich. But I don't. So I starve.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
The Little Guy
. , . , .
Chapter Two:
“He what?”
Cloud grinned and flopped back against the comfortable leather couch of Zack’s apartment. “Yep.” Picking up the remote, he pressed play and fast-forwarded through the credits.
“But how did he even find you of all people?” Zack looked as though he couldn’t decide whether to laugh or frown in confusion.
Cloud shrugged. “Maybe the other custodians sensed him coming and escaped into their closets. I dunno. He went looking for somebody to fix his coffee machine and found me on the 29^th floor.”
Zack snorted out a laugh, finally deciding to be amused rather than shocked Cloud had survived the whole ordeal. “Did you manage to fix that thing? I swear it has a life of its own. Whenever I try to get it to make coffee, it attacks me.”
The blond chuckled and stopped fast-forwarding the movie. The screams of the main character abruptly cut into the quiet ambiance of the living room. Zack really loved his horror movies. “The fuse has probably been going for the past little while before it completely blew. I told him it’d probably work for a bit before dying again. Really, he needs a better coffee machine. Not to mention better coffee. What’s that swill you guys drink, dried animal bits? It was disgusting!” Was that a bit of bone peaking out from that sawed off limb? It didn’t quite… look right.
Zack grunted next to him. “I keep telling him it’s poisonous and not to drink it, but he’s stubborn. Me, I just go and get my own coffee for the machine I have in my office. I tried to convert him once, but he said my coffee tastes like water.”
Cloud raised an eyebrow. “So it’s not strong enough for him then, considering what he’s used to drinking.”
The SOLDIER First Class shrugged and absently chucked some popcorn into his mouth as he tuned into the movie with more interest as the main character barely escaped the killer by knocking over a bookcase. Cloud leaned against the arm rest and contemplated his own dissatisfaction with the coffee the boys back at his apartment bought.
. , . , .
“What can I get you, sir?”
Cloud put down the knife he’d been eyeing and shrugged. “Just browsing at the moment.”
The man behind the counter grunted something that sounded like ‘window shoppers’, but Cloud ignored it with ease. The last thing he wanted to do was waste his money on low quality wares, especially when he only had so much money. He was trying to save up for materia and the parts to make Fenrir again, after all.
Deciding the quality wasn’t worth wasting his money on, he walked up to the shop owner. “Do you have anything more practical than the trinkets up front here?”
The shop owner had the gall to appear insulted. “Trinkets? I’ll have you know these are quality-“
“-breaks waiting to happen,” Cloud interrupted. “I’m looking for higher quality steel than this. Can you help me with that or shall I take my business elsewhere?” When it came to weapons, Cloud wouldn’t settle for anything less than quality. Perhaps he was spoiled after wielding First Tsurugi for over a decade, but when you were trusting your life to a piece of equipment, the last thing you wanted was for it to break in the jaws of a Grand Horn.
The weapons dealer scowled. “I doubt you can afford any of my top items,” he said, eyes roving up and down Cloud’s casual T-shirt and jeans.
“I’m not looking for a six foot Damascus steel buster blade, but a dependable dagger or short sword that won’t break the first time I have to defend myself against a monster. Now, can you help me or are you going to continue to waste my time?” Losing patience, Cloud gave the man his coldest glare.
The weapons dealer eyed him up and down again before shrugging and motioning to follow him into the back. As Cloud looked around, the shop owner just silently watched from the doorway. Not needing the man’s ‘expertise’ anyway, Cloud wandered over to the shorter blades and started testing their weight and examining the makes. The quality was certainly higher, but not anywhere near his standards. Picking up a pair of twin short swords, he fell into one of the forms he’d been drilling into his body and scowled at the weight differential. As had become obvious to him over the past few months, his old style of sword play was geared almost entirely towards blades that he’d never have the physical capacity to wield anymore. It drove him mad every time he practiced and modified his forms, but the alternatives were even more undesirable. While on the plus side he was used to making subtle modifications for the different heft and handling of his multiple blades, he’d never actually wielded something so…

Puny. Short. Unimpressive.
Sighing, he put the short swords back in their places and started picking through the collection again. At the end of his search, he caught sight of a rather rusted and beat-up looking blade hidden away behind a rack carrying daggers. Reaching around to pull it out, he frowned and examined the steel.
No, it wasn’t steel at all, he realized upon closer inspection. Scraping some of the ‘rust’ off with a fingernail, he frowned at the consistency. It wasn’t rust at all. Well, at least not entirely. There was probably a mixture of dirt and blood in there too. Examining the edge of the blade, he raised an eyebrow at the lack of chips.
Turning around with a mocking look, he raised the sword with a snort. “Where did you find this little gem?” he asked sarcastically, testing the weight by rather carelessly waving it around. It was lighter than regular steel, which was rather surprising considering its size. While nowhere near the sheer length, width and height of First Tsurugi or even his old Buster Sword, it handled pretty well and followed the subtle twitches of his hand and wrist more easily than some of the other weapons he’d tried thus far.
The weapons dealer grimaced. “Guy traded it in a while back. I tried cleaning it up a bit, used to look worse. Unfortunately I’m not in the restoring business, so nobody else wants to pick up a sub-standard blade. Too light to be real steel, too.” A glint flashed in the guy’s eyes. “You interested?”
Cloud shrugged and made a face at the hilt of the blade. The grip needed to be completely replaced, too. Putting it back where he found it, he turned his attention back to the only pair of short swords that were of half-decent quality, all the while the mysterious blade turning over in the back of his mind. It was worth restoring, of that he had no doubt. Whether it would be worth the money the man would probably try to swindle out of him was another thing entirely. While Cloud was willing to spend the time to see if the blade was useful or not, in its present state he should be able to barter it down to a ridiculously low sum.
If he went about it the right way.
“I think I’ll take these,” he said, showing the man the two short swords. “They’re not exactly what I’m looking for, but they’ll have to do.” Especially since he’d already been to two other stores above plate and their wares hadn’t been any better. With more hunting he might have been able to find something below plate, but he wasn’t going down there without a weapon to start with.
“2000 gil.”
Cloud raised an eyebrow. While not only ridiculously over priced, that was probably the realistic worth of one of the Buster blades he’d been eyeing. Not to mention close to the full amount that he’d saved over the last couple months. “2000 for a pair of blades I’ll have to baby to keep from breaking under any serious amount of use? Not a gil over 1000.”
The weapons dealer looked shocked and insulted. “1000 for quality steel in Midgar? 1800 is as low as I’ll go, and you’re lucky getting that.”
Cloud snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, not looking impressed in the least. “Maybe if I were having the blades custom made by a Wutaian sword-smith. Now that is quality steel. 1050.”
“1050? Now you’re insulting my intelligence along with my wares, kid. 1800 is as low as I’ll go.”
“Kid? I daresay I know more about quality wielding material than you do, standing behind this desk all day. Have you ever taken one of those standard carbon steel short swords against the claws of a Grand Horn?” he asked, jerking his thumb at one of the popular blades in the army. “No, I bet you haven’t even been as far as Gongaga. It’d shatter after three strikes if you’re lucky. Hardly a piece of metal that’ll defend anyone’s life. I’ll give you 1200 for the twin swords and that lump of rust you’ve hidden behind everything else. If I’m lucky my friend will actually be able to restore it to some use. If not, I could use a training sword or a blunt object to bash over the heads of thieves in the slums when I go looking for some real steel.”
The weapons salesman looked furious. Cloud just remained calm and unimpressed. It wasn’t like really needed these weapons yet anyway. He could afford to wait and find something of better quality. He just didn’t want to anymore. Practicing forms with the broken end of a broom was one thing, but he hadn’t been without a reliable set of blades since he could remember. The past couple months had been painful for more reasons than one.
“1500 for the twins and 200 for the short sword.”
Cloud rolled his eyes and made to leave the store. There was no way he was paying over 1500 for all three of them. They weren’t even worth that much, in his eyes. “I’ll be sure to tell my SOLDIER First Class friend Lieutenant Zack Fair that you enjoy overcharging your customers for mediocre weaponry. Thanks for nothing.”
“Fine! 1500 for all three!”
Cloud turned on his heel and narrowed his eyes. “1400 for all three and a retractable pocket knife of my own choosing.”
“Fine! You got yourself a deal, you little…” he trailed off, grumbling what Cloud was sure to be a slew of unfavourable words. Going over to the rusted sword in the corner, he pulled it out and placed it on the counter. “Pick out your pocket knife while I package these.”
Ignoring the bad attitude of the salesman, he wandered back into the other room, all the while keeping an eye on the owner in case he tried to pull a fast one and swap out his new purchases for something else. Picking out a halfway decent knife of medium size that would easily fit into a boot or the pocket of his coat, he made his way back to the front of the store and placed it on the counter. Seeing that the swords were indeed still the same blades he had picked out, he waited patiently as the weapons dealer wrapped them in cloth separately before wrapping twine around them to hold them together. After that, he wrapped them all in a long sheet of coarse paper and finished the package with twine.
Cloud, who had been counting out 1400 gil, handed it over to the weapons dealer. The man took it with a begrudging grunt and jerked his head at the pocket knife. “You want that wrapped too?” he asked snidely.
Cloud just raised an eyebrow and shook his head, slipping it into his pocket. “No.” Picking up his package, he walked out of the store without a backwards glance.
Once he was out sight of the windows of the shop, he couldn’t keep the small, pleased grin off his face. Yeah, a lot had changed over the past few months, but some things never did.
. , . , .
Closing the door behind him with a grunt, Cloud kicked off his shoes and trudged to his room, laden with packages and bags. He’d ended up spending almost all of his savings, though thankfully he didn’t have to worry about contributing to the food jar again for another couple weeks.
“Hey Cloud! Where you been all day? Don’t forget it’s your turn to cook tonight.”
Jeff again. Since he worked really late night shifts as a security guard wherever they needed him, he usually woke up in the afternoon to eat ‘dinner’ for breakfast and then go to work.
“I know. I was just picking up a few things.”
Jeff, who had apparently followed him down the hall to his room, raised an eyebrow at the large pile of stuff Cloud had dumped on his bed. After leaving the weapons dealer, he’d gone to a few other places to pick up some materials for making his own leather harness for all three blades as well as the necessary supplies for the restoration. None of it had come cheap, and he’d had to do quite a bit of haggling with the lady selling leather to afford it.
“That’s a lot of stuff. What did you buy, a small armoury?”
Cloud snorted. Not quite. “It’s just for my hobby. I’ve been thinking of a couple different career choices, so I decided to pick up a few things.” He’d humoured the idea of starting his own weapons shop a few times, but in the end decided against it. Making weapons took a lot of training, and while Cloud was experienced wielding them, it would be easier in the long run to just pick up his delivery business again. He already knew how to go about it, after all. Well, in a world with Neo-Shinra. It couldn’t be that different from a business perspective.
“Can I see?”
Cloud raised an eyebrow. Did he really want Jeff in the know? Not really. It wasn’t any of his business. “Do I ask to see your secret collection of porn? No.”
Jeff frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Aw, come on, don’t be like that.”
The blond suppressed a small twitch of annoyance. “If things work out, maybe I’ll show you one day. In the meantime, go watch TV or something.”
The security guard scowled and wandered out of the room. Cloud followed him a few seconds later to get a large bowl from the kitchen, but ended up having to settle for a large stew pot. After filling it with water and grabbing some metal bowls for the cleaning solutions, he trudged back to his room and locked the door behind him. While he didn’t think Jeff would just come barging in from curiosity, he didn’t want to chance it. After all, what cadet dropout bought, maintained, and restored swords?
He really needed to find a safer, larger space to practice in now that he had real weapons. One more incentive to get himself a vehicle, he supposed. Then he could drive out into the land around Midgar and train away from watching eyes. The last thing he needed was someone seeing him practice things he never learned and recognizing it for what it was.
Really suspicious.
Eyeing the stack of parcels on his bed, he started preparing a work space for the restoration. If he was lucky, he’d have it done tonight and still have time tomorrow to put a harness together. Well, unless Zack paid him a surprise visit and dragged him away on his last day off for the week.
. , . , .
Come Thursday, Cloud still hadn’t finished restoring the blade to its proper glory. Not only was he missing a few tools that would have made the process go quicker, Zack ended up kidnapping him for most of Wednesday afternoon and evening after skiving off work. So, when his first work day of the week crept up on him, he was understandably annoyed to be working.
Scrubbing away at The Grease Stain with a bit of steel wool, he was completely unaware that he had company until a throat cleared irritably.
Glancing up from his pet peeve, he froze at the sight of a pair of well-worn but polished leather boots connected to leather pants connected to a loose white dress shirt that didn’t do much to hide the leather straps and protection beneath. If he ripped off the shirt and threw on his jacket, he’d look exactly the same as he had ten or so years ago.
Well, by Cloud’s timeline.
“What can I do you for, General?”
Ah crap. There went his Nibelheim roots getting in the way of perfectly normal conversation.
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow the slightest fraction of a hair, but Cloud caught it. “A light in my office has been flickering since yesterday.”
The blond held back his usual brand of wit. “Is it a bulb or one of those long, double light fixtures?”
“The latter.”
Cloud got off his knees and shimmied his shindig over to the wall again, dropping the steel wool in the soapy bucket. Throwing his gloves onto the cleaning supplies, he wandered over to his closet, which thankfully wasn’t that far away. Opening it with his keycard, he grabbed a box containing two of the standard Shinra light bulbs he needed and a ladder. Slipping the necessary screw driver into his pocket on his way out, he gently nudged the door shut behind him.
Without a word, Sephiroth led the way to what Cloud had learned was the executive’s elevator, the blond following closely behind. It took a bit of creative angling to get the ladder in, but he managed just fine before the doors tried to close on him. Sephiroth didn’t offer any assistance, not that Cloud was surprised.
When they reached the 61^st floor, Cloud kept the ladder out of the way so Sephiroth could get off the lift without any impediment. The secretary sneered at him as he walked by, but Cloud ignored her this time, knowing it would piss her off all the more.
Thankfully, Sephiroth had the courtesy to leave the office door open for him as he manoeuvred the ladder through the frame.
Already seeing the problem, he made his way behind the General’s meticulously organized desk and pushed the leather chair that Zack had groused about for hours out of the way. He imagined it would be quite irritating trying to fill out paperwork and having the white reports strobe at your eyeballs for hours on end. Opening the ladder, he checked that the supports were firm before climbing up to the problem fixture and pulling out his handy screwdriver. Taking out all the screws, he caught the plastic before it could fall and disrupt the desk beneath him. Putting it down on the floor so he didn’t accidentally knock it over, he climbed back up and twisted the long cylindrical light bulb until it popped out of place. Poking at the other one, he frowned when it flickered pitifully. No doubt, in a few weeks it’d probably start bothering Sephiroth too and the silver-haired man would come get Cloud again.
Deciding he’d rather just replace both of them while he was there, he popped out the second light bulb and climbed down the ladder to put them on the floor. Taking the new light bulbs up one at a time to prevent accidents, he twisted them in until they were nice and firm and screwed the plastic casing back in place. Putting the dead bulbs in the used box, he slipped the screw driver back into the voluminous pockets of his Shinra custodian uniform and folded the ladder back up again.
“How’s the coffee machine?” he asked, putting Sephiroth’s chair back in place before making his way to the door.
The General watched him with his usual non-expression. “Fine.”
“Anything else, while I’m here?”
When Sephiroth shook his head, Cloud nodded and made his way out the still-open door.
Well, hopefully Sephiroth wouldn’t have any other office-related emergencies before the month was out.
. , . , .
Cloud grinned as he finished polishing the restored blade he’d been working away at for a whole week now. He’d scrubbed off the grime, replaced the old grip with new leather, sanded off the rust, cleaned the whole thing tip to butt again for good measure, polished it until he could see his face on the side of the blade, and lastly oiled it. Now that it looked like a real blade, it reminded him of the smallest of his fusion swords. Giving it a swing, he admired the way it shone in the light. He still had no idea what metal it was made out of, though oddly enough it held an orange hue that, depending on the light, almost made it look as though it were on fire.
Wrapping the blade in the cloth he’d kept from the weapon’s store, he put it back in its hiding place underneath the frame of his bed where prying eyes wouldn’t find it. His two smaller and thinner swords were there as well. The harness materials now lived in his closet, and he was hoping in the next week or so to have finished designing the holster so he could start cutting the leather.
“She’s your sweet little chocobo, yeah yeah, your sweet little chocobo, mm mmm-”
Cloud snapped his PHS open with a grimace. “Zack, what in the name of all that is green did you do to my ringtone?”
“But Spike, it suits you so well!”
“The next time you pull off a stunt like this I’m going to break into your apartment and replace all your soap with lard.”
“Ha! As if you could break into my apartment. We have security.”
Challenge accepted. “What did you phone for, Zack?” He was totally going to dye all the SOLDIER’s whites pink.
“Well…” Cloud frowned as he noticed for the first time the sound of steel hitting steel and voices in the background. “You see, I was just wondering…”
“Spit it out, Zack.”
“I made a bet with another First Class that I could beat him at sword play. Thing is, he’s really good. Like, no where near Seph because no one’s anywhere near The General, but good enough that I’m actually worried. And I was hoping that you could… you know… help out.”
Cloud frowned. “Help out? How? I failed the SOLDIER exam Zack, what do you expect me to do?”
“I just need another set of eyes, and a friendly face in the crowd. Seph can’t provide either since he’s apparently so busy this week he’s working until eight or nine at night every day.”
The blond hummed thoughtfully. “Why do you think my eyes will be of any use to you?”
“Because you’ve always been obsessed with swords. I know you had a lot of trouble picking up sword fighting, but you’ve noticed things that I forget because…” He trailed off, sounding a little down. “Because Angeal’s not here to remind me.”
He grimaced. Right. He’d forgotten about that. From what he remembered, digging into Shinra’s history years ago and his own mismatched memories as Zack, Angeal had been a Buster sword wielding General of Shinra before defecting along with Genesis. In fact, the Buster that he had inherited from Zack apparently used to be Angeal’s. “I’ll see what I can do,” he found himself agreeing.
“Great! Uh… can you come by right now? The duel’s in a couple days and I’m practicing at the gym.”
Cloud rolled his eyes. “I can’t get into the SOLDIER training facility without you there to let me in, Zack.”
“I’ll meet you at the main door! When can you get here?”
The blond looked forlornly down at the sketches he’d just finished organizing. “Ten minutes.”
“Great! See you soon!”
Click.
Cloud closed his PHS and started packing his stuff away again.
. , . , .
Zack, reeking of body odour and covered in sweat, had no qualms with hugging the life out of him when he finally showed up almost fifteen minutes later. “Thanks for coming, Spike!” the First Class greeted cheerfully after Cloud’s nose had been thoroughly desensitized. “While you’re here, you should let me introduce you to some of my friends!”
Letting himself be dragged inside, he quickly found a number of SOLDIERs to be Zack’s friends, as all of them introduced themselves with friendly smiles and plenty of shoulder punching.
For the unenhanced Cloud, this was the more torturous part of the greeting ritual.
“So, you tried out for SOLDIER, huh?” one of the guys who had introduced himself as McAphry asked him as he was separated from Zack.
The blond blinked and focused his attention on the SOLDIER wearing a rather superior smirk. “Yeah.”
“So are you that janitor friend that Zack’s mentioned a couple times? Quite the jump to make, SOLDIER cadet to janitor.”
Cloud raised a cool eyebrow. “Sometimes a future chosen isn’t the future that chooses you,” he countered, quoting an old Wutaian proverb. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said, pushing through the crowd towards Zack.
“I dunno why you’re wasting your time bringing this kid to your sword practice, Zack, but I doubt it’ll make a difference come our duel in three days,” McAphry called across the crowd, getting the attention of most of the other SOLDIERs there.
Zack just grinned good naturedly. “Sometimes you just need that little boost, McAph!” he parried, drawing Cloud off to one of the far mats for a bit of privacy. Once they were out of earshot, he murmured under his breath, “McAphry can be a bit of a jerk, but don’t let him get to you, ‘kay Spike?”
Cloud raised both eyebrows. “ ‘Don’t let him get to me?’ What’s there to get? He obviously has low confidence in himself if he needs to harass a little cadet drop-out to feel like he has balls.”
Zack laughed and unhooked the buster sword sitting on his back. “Alright, Spike. Next time I’ll know you can take care of him yourself.”
Cloud smirked. “Damn straight. Now stop slacking, slacker!”
Zack grinned. “How much do you remember from watching Angeal train me?”
The blond had to force his smirk to stay in place, lest he drop all expression entirely. He’d watched Angeal train Zack before? Well, he had no recollection of that. “Let’s hope it’s enough!” he said, scratching the back of his head as though he weren’t sure of his own knowledge and technique as a swordsman.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
Watching Zack go through the motions, he realized it was more agonizing than hard. Each free movement reminded him that he could never even lift the Buster sword again, and every time Zack’s form could use a small adjustment, he itched to fix it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be too knowledgeable or it would be suspicious.
Why had he agreed to this again? Oh yeah, puppy power.
“Watch your feet, Zack. Sometimes they’re too close and your balance isn’t low enough. Other times you’re so wide you can’t get enough momentum when you move.”
He couldn’t take it anymore, the most glaring mistake was killing him.
Zack stopped the form he was running through and frowned down at his feet. “Like this?”
Cloud twitched as he over corrected. Knowing he was going to regret this, he got off the bench and grabbed a wooden practice sword off the wall that was close enough to the buster. Even it was almost too heavy for his slight frame, making him grimace internally. Even with all the working out and running he’d been doing for the past two months, he was still horrendously out of shape.
And he’d never reach his idea of peak fitness.
Without a word, Cloud mimicked Zack’s previous stance. They were close enough in build that the First Class should be able to see it. “Look at my feet.”
Zack looked, expression blank.
“What do you see?”
“Uh, the proper stance?”
Cloud shifted the position of the sword so it was pointing horizontal instead of vertical. “Do you see how well balanced I am here?”
“Yeah.”
Cloud shifted the sword vertical and adjusted his feet an inch and a half.
“Oh. Oooh!” Zack stared at Cloud like he’d grown a second head. “Holy Planet, Cloud, how’d you catch that?”
The blond shrugged and dropped the heavy wooden sword onto his shoulder. “I dunno. It just seemed… obvious.”
Zack’s frown deepened. “You sure you don’t want to be in SOLDIER anymore, Cloud?”
The blond scowled. “We already talked about this, Zack.”
“Well yeah, so you failed your first try, but you obviously know a thing or two about swords and-“
“Zack. That’s hardly the end all and be all of the SOLDIER exam. Maybe my academics weren’t up to par. Maybe I failed the mako test. The fact is, I’m not physically built like you. As much as I want to be able to wield a Buster Sword half as well as you do, I’ll never be able to. And I’ve got other plans for my future, now.” He didn’t know how or why he’d ended up back in time, but after making the decision to quit the army, he’d changed things. Maybe Sephiroth would go crazy again, but why did Cloud have to be the one to go through that hell all over again?
Couldn’t he be selfish for once?
“Aw, Spike, I didn’t mean it that way…” Zack trailed off, looking like he felt like a total heel. “I just… you’ve always had talent, Cloud. Sure, it was unpolished, and your instructors gave you a hard time, but I knew you could make it. I was pulling for you to join me in SOLDIER. I just…” He looked away. “I’m sorry. I was just… looking forward to hanging out with you in the field, working with you, and stuff. I mean, sure I have friends in SOLDIER, but none of them are you, Cloud.”
Well, Zack certainly knew exactly what to say to make him feel like a total ass. How could he tell Zack he was terrified of Hojo? That he’d already been through all this once before and didn’t want to do it all over again?
Fact was, he couldn’t. He’d been trying to avoid thinking about it all together the past couple months, and now Zack was shoving it in his face all over again. His failures. His short comings.
Turning away, he walked back over to the sword rack. “This was a mistake,” he muttered under his breath, turning to walk away from the whole thing.

“Wha- Cloud! You don’t have to- I didn’t mean to-“
Cloud tuned him out and kept walking, knowing his face was as glacially blank as Sephiroth on a good day.
“What’s up, little blond? Zack tell you you’re not good enough for-“
McAphry’s hand landed on his shoulder. Reacting on instinct, he grabbed the wrist with his left hand, stepped back into the body behind him, jammed his right elbow into his armpit, grabbed his shoulder, and shifted his center of gravity down, bringing McAphry’s weight over his shoulder using his hips as a pivot point.
The SOLDIER hit the ground with a thud and a grunt. It echoed in the sudden silence of the gym.
Cloud released his wrist and stepped away. “Don’t touch me,” he growled before walking away, giving himself lots of room so McAphry couldn’t grapple him to the ground and break something.
The door snapped shut behind him, and nobody followed.
. , . , .
The next couple of days were unpleasant, to say the least. Zack had phoned him multiple times, leaving messages of apologies when he didn’t pick up. He’d even come by the apartment a few times when Cloud wasn’t there. The blond had taken to jogging around the track after work for a few hours, then doing some basic workouts that let him take advantage of more space in order to avoid the man, since he knew Zack avoided running like the plague. He much preferred working on his swordsmanship at the SOLDIER facilities. SOLDIER had an indoor track, anyway.
Ignoring the first drops of what promised to be a long rain storm, he closed his eyes and found his centre. There were no lights around the track, so no one could see him as he held an imaginary First Tsurugi in his hand and started going through the motions. His body’s muscle memory flowed into movements designed for a more powerful form, but at that point Cloud didn’t really care. He just wanted to forget everything.
Finishing the form with a jump and downward slash, he was unprepared for two hands to grasp his wrists just as he was about to finish the strike. Forward momentum arrested, his body went through with the movement and sent him crashing into a solid body, his wrists trapped between them. Snapping his eyes open, he stared in surprise at the faint outline of a white shirt. Craning his head upwards, cerulean eyes met glowing emerald and his heart froze in his chest for moment of shocked suspension before beating twice as fast as before.
Adrenaline flushed through his body as he heaved a shocked breath and tried to calm down his heart beat. “Se- G-General!”
Cloud could see the outline of slit pupils easily due to their absence of light.
“What were you doing?”
“Uh…” The blond’s brain refused to cooperate. “Exercising?”
“You were practicing kata without a sword. Why?”
Okay, he seriously needed to knock the useless gray mass between his ears back into gear. “Uh… it’s calming.” Stick close enough to the truth and maybe Sephiroth would leave it alone.
Instead, green eyes narrowed. “You are agitated?”
Cloud floundered. “W-well, some things have happened and- and- I just wanted to, you know, cool off.” Come on, Cloud, keep it together. He needed to stop thinking about how nice it felt to be standing flush against the man and start thinking about why the hell aforementioned man was standing here in the first place. “Why are you here?” he demanded, forcing himself to take a step back and put some space between them.
Sephiroth released his hands and shifted his weight. That alone set alarm bells off in Cloud’s mind. “My printers broke.”
The blond stared.
Green eyes shifted slightly. Cloud probably wouldn’t have noticed at all in better lighting. Fortunately, in the near total darkness, it was easy to see the way green globes strobed for a fraction of a second before solidifying again.
“I understand that you are off duty. However, there is work that I cannot finish tonight with two broken printers.”
Cloud ran a hand through his hair in bewilderment, coming out of his stunned amazement. “How did both of them manage to break?”
“Cynthia damaged the first one this afternoon. The second failed tonight.”
“Mhmm. And how did you know that I was even here?”
The green lights strobed again. “I noticed you running through my office window an hour and twenty five minutes ago.”
It started to rain full out.
Cloud resisted the urge so smack a hand to his face and close his eyes. His imagination was far too gleefully supplying him with an image of what Sephiroth would look like with a soaking wet white shirt and damp hair clinging to every curve of his back.
Damnit. Stupid arch nemesis looking like a drowned cat coming to him for help with a bloody printer.
“Fine. But since this is off the clock and I’m hungry, you’re buying me dinner!”
Sephiroth stared at him for a long, awkward moment before inclining his head and beginning to walk away.
Cloud surrendered to the urge and smacked his hand to his forehead, wondering how he got himself into these situations.
-Toki Mirage-
So yeah… update. Thanks to all who left such lovely reviews! Some of them were quite entertaining and heart warming. A few were confused as I dropped them in an alternate reality, but most of you have been following along! If there are ways I can clarify things, please point them out to me. Telling me ‘I was confused’ isn’t actually all that useful as I edit and continue to write chapters.
Thanks go again to linggan for inspiration.
And muchos thanks go to Momonster who’s been my sounding board so far during this venture into unknown territory. Love you doll!
Happy reading!
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The Little Guy