Adult-FanFiction.org : Final Fantasy

The Little Guy	By : TokiMirage Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male > Cloud/Sephiroth Views: 2409 -:- 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
- 5
- 6
- 7
The Little Guy
. , . , .
Chapter Six:
Cloud closed the door quietly and slipped out of his shoes, shuffling farther into the living room. Thankfully, it appeared his flatmates were either out having fun or being quiet in their rooms. Making his way into the kitchen, he opened a cupboard and pulled out the hard liquor Len stored in there for when he had parties on Friday nights. Shuffling over to fridge, he grabbed a bottle of juice and some leftover dinner before snagging a glass and a fork and going to his room to lock himself in.
The room was bare. Safe. Familiar and yet not. Walking to the bed, he put the items in his hands down and served himself a drink. He’d replace it for Len later, if the man even noticed the tiny dent in his stash.
Tossing it back like a shot, he poured himself another and stared contemplatively at the red liquid. He’d never been able to actually get drunk as a SOLDIER. Or rather, since he hadn’t been a SOLDIER, as one of Hojo’s enhanced playthings. Taking a gulp and ignoring the cloying taste of the alcohol, he reached under his bed and pulled out the sword he had spent so much time restoring.
It truly was a remarkable blade. Light weight and strong from what he could see, since he hadn’t tested it in battle yet. A good sword for any swordsman.
And it didn’t make him feel any safer anymore. The weight of the Fusion swords on his back had always made him feel comfortable and confident even in the face of hopeless adversity, and now that feeling was nothing more than a useless delusion of a memory that might as well have never happened.
Throwing back the rest of the drink, he poured himself another, noting absently that his stomach and throat were beginning to get that burning sensation from the alcohol. It was different enough from the burn of mako that it didn’t alarm him, but it still brought back flashes of memories that he’d rather stay buried.
Sitting on the bed leaning against the headboard, he pulled the container of spaghetti that no one had wanted to finish towards him. If he was going to puke at the end of this, it might as well be something that wouldn’t be a waste. Chewing a couple bites of the cardboard meal, he sipped at his drink and had a sudden, visceral urge to see Vincent again. His body tightened at the memories of the few times he and tall, dark man had used each other to just forget for a few moments. Each of them escaping the haunting memory of a woman they had failed to protect.
And he didn’t even have that anymore.
He heard a knock at the front door and ignored it. If one of the guys were here, they’d get it. Cloud didn’t want to talk to anybody. Taking another gulp of his drink, he put the bad spaghetti on the floor before he knocked it off the bed and swung the sword around in a lazy arc. Seeing his lack of hand coordination, he put it back in its hiding place before something stupid happened.
Still had enough sense left for that, at least. He drained the drink and slammed the glass down onto the table. The annoying knocking had stopped.
He missed Seventh Heaven.
Changing out of his uniform, he slipped into a pair of worn jeans that were getting a little too tight to keep wearing. He needed to go shopping again. Pulling on a sleeveless shirt, he frowned at the suddenly alien clothes. Right. He couldn’t wear the sleeveless turtleneck sweater of SOLDIER. He wasn’t… him anymore. Grunting in frustration, he pulled out his jacket and slipped it on.
Time to do a little forgetting.
. , . , .
The bar Cloud ended up wandering into was similar to Seventh Heaven from an aesthetic stand point, but completely different in every other way. Instead of being relatively quiet and low-key, music pounded through speakers all around the room and bodies young and older grinded in an ocean of sweat and sex. The blond pushed his way along the side of the crowd in order to get to the bar.
“What can I get you?” the young bartender asked with a friendly smile.
Cloud, who knew he looked younger than the drinking age, frowned slightly. He’d winded up going into this bar because they didn’t ask for ID, but he was still slightly surprised to be served. “I don’t particularly care,” he said, putting five gil on the counter and taking a seat.
The bartender nodded. “Did you want hard alcohol straight or some trimmings with it?”
“As long as it doesn’t taste like total ass, I don’t care.”
Bobby-bartender wandered a little farther down the bar and started mixing something. Cloud used this time to examine the counter top. While drink-stained and a little wet, it thankfully wasn’t sticky.
“Fancy seeing you here,” a voice purred into his ear.
Cloud swivelled his head and came face to face with a certain redhead that had no business being there. “You followin’ me or somethin’?” he drawled sarcastically.
Reno gave him his most innocent look. “What? Why would I do that?”
Snorting, the blond took the drink the bartender placed in front of him and swigged it. Hm. Tasted better than what he’d been having earlier that night. “Because you’re a Turk, or whatever,” he said, hamming up his slur to appear more drunk than he was.
The redhead laughed and took the seat next to him, flagging down the bartender. “Can I get a scotch, please?”
Bobby-bartender nodded and took the five gil Reno put on the counter.
“Reno.”
Cloud frowned and looked away from his drink. “Huh?”
“My name. It’s Reno. What about you, blondie?”
Why was Reno telling him his name? Oh right. Because they technically didn’t know each other. How annoying. “Well, my name certainly isn’t Reno,” he answered with a mocking smile. “And shouldn’t you already know, being the… uh… super mega spy or whatever that y’are? I mean, douche gets in elevator with bags on ‘is back and keys fer a motorbike. Ver’ suspicious material, that.” He nodded sagely to himself and took another sip from his drink.
The Turk laughed next to him. “You know…” He leaned in closer, putting his mouth next to Cloud’s ear. “Your cute accent gets pretty thick when you’re drunk.”
The blond scowled. “Wazat supposed t’ be a come on? Cuz that’d be weird, comin’ fr’m you.”
Reno chuckled in his ear. “Why’s that?”
“Cuz yer… you.”
“But you don’t even know me, blondie.”
Cloud snorted. Right. He didn’t know the redhead at aaall. “Yer a Turk. That’s all there’s t’ know.” And it was true. When it came down to it at the end of the day, Turk wasn’t something that you just turned off. It was a philosophy. A state of being for the crazy, elite group. It allowed them to do things like drop a sector plate and kill countless people. Or hunt a man in the dark and put a bullet in his forehead.
“You seem to know a lot about Turks to be so judgemental.”
The blond took another sip, waving a hand dismissively. “People hear things. I’m just not so stupid I can’ recognize there be a grain a’ truth in every ‘just sayin’s.”
“Ah, a smart blondie. That’s hot.”
Cloud rolled his eyes and took another drink. “Yer not gonna give up, are ye?”
Reno just grinned.
“Fine.” At least he knew this one enough to know there was probably more to this than just attraction. Better than falling into bed with someone who wanted to tie him up and cut on him. With his luck, that’d be what he’d find. Cloud put his half-finished drink on the counter and raised an eyebrow at Reno’s startled look. “Wha’, all talk no action?” he asked belligerently.
The Turk tossed back the rest of his scotch with a grin and grabbed Cloud’s arm, pulling him out of there. They took the train to a relatively nice neighbourhood in sector 2, to Cloud’s surprise. During the ride, Reno kept him distracted with his hands and mouth, much to the embarrassed anger of a mother who moved to another car with her little girl.
When they finally reached Reno’s apartment, Cloud shoved the grinning man into the room and pinned him against the wall, just barely avoiding the coat rack. As he started biting at the Turk’s neck, he frowned, his instincts telling him that someone was watching them. Pulling away, he looked farther into the room and frown at the sight of a shadowy figure sitting in one of Reno’s armchairs. “Were you expectin’ comp’ny?” he asked warily, taking a step back to give them both more room.
The redhead tensed before drawing his gun in record time and aiming it at the intruder Cloud was looking at. “Blondie. Get the lights.”
Cloud found the light switch easily enough and flicked them on with a frown. Who would be paying a Turk a late night visit?
“Hello Reno.”
The tension in the room skyrocketed, and Cloud frowned as he examined their intruder. That wasn’t Tseng.
“Pickard. What the fuck are you doing here?”
A big man with brass knuckles came out of the kitchen, while another guy with a gun came out from farther into the living room. The man who sat at the chair well within sight of the front door smiled. “Did you think I wouldn’t find you, Reno? Once a street rat, always a street rat, no matter the Turk suits and new money.” His beady eyes turned to Cloud. “Who’s your blond friend?”
Cloud wished he hadn’t drank so much. He was still steady on his feet due to his training in combat, but things were computing a little slow for him at the moment. Why was this guy in Reno’s apartment, exactly?
“He ain’t got nothin’ to do with it. Hooker. Don’t know shit, won’t say shit, so let ‘im leave.” Reno’s gutter tongue was getting thicker with his agitation.
Pickard smiled. “Anyone who leaves this apartment before I do will be shot in the street, Reno. It’s too late for that. Should have thought more carefully about who you drag into things. Your choices have… consequences.”
Cloud resisted the urge to cuss out loud a slew of language that would make Cid proud. All he’d wanted was a good fuck, and instead he’d apparently found himself between Reno and a hard place – the latter of which was probably a Midgar crime lord. Just his luck. And as a ‘witness’ of this whole shit storm…
“You, the blond. Come here,” Pickard ordered, flicking his fingers in a ‘come hither’ gesture. When Cloud hesitated, his eyes narrowed. “Or would you rather a bullet between your eyes?”
Thug on the left cocked his gun. Cloud frowned at the over dramatic effect even as he started slowly walking closer. The idiot hadn’t had his gun loaded already? Damnit. They totally could have taken him. And if Cloud had been enhanced, this entire chocobo show would have been over in minutes.
He’d certainly landed himself in a precarious position, with a gun on his left and a dangerous man who probably had more weapons concealed on his own person. After all, no one relied solely on a bodyguard. And in addition to that, there was apparently a sniper hidden somewhere outside, probably on a nearby rooftop.
“Give me your PHS, hooker.”
Cloud scowled and pulled it out of his pocket, slowly, gaze flickering between Gun and Pickard. Brass knuckles just stood silently to his right. Reno, behind him, shifted a bit. As he handed over his PHS, he wondered if the redhead felt guilty at all, or would he care if a blond janitor was the unfortunate victim of a crime boss.
Pickard flipped it open and looked through it, his eyebrows rising in surprise at something he found. “You have General Sephiroth’s phone number?” he asked dubiously, looking back and forth between the blond and the PHS in his hand.
Cloud shrugged. “Man has taste.”
The man smirked. “Would he care if you died? I’ve always wanted to find a way to get the General in my pocket.”
He snorted, genuinely amused that the man believed he could ever put Sephiroth under pressure. “General Sephiroth? Care about a hooker? Somehow I doubt that.”
“This is a pretty nice PHS for a lowly hooker.”
“What can I say, I’m high class.”
“If you were, I would know you.”
Oh, well there was a nice hole in his ‘hooker’ identity. Cloud listened as Grunt Gun took a step closer and put a barrel to his head. Watching Pickard instead of his grunt, he waited for the cue to shoot before he moved, stepping to his left and under the shot, for once glad that his height allowed him to so easily slip inside the enemy’s guard. Dark eyes widened as they met his own. Taking a hold of the man’s gun arm, he twisted his body and pulled, the centrifugal force yanking the arm out of its socket with a loud pop and a sharp yell.
“You little fucker!”
Cloud caught the echo of two gun shots even as he stepped into the man’s guard with a solid elbow to the liver. Instead of going down like Cloud expected, the grunt wrapped his left arm around the blond’s neck and choked him. Grabbing onto the arm for leverage, he lowered his centre of gravity to do a hip throw. Unfortunately the much bigger man just lifted him higher off the ground and tightened his hold.
Cloud reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his knife. Stabbing again and again, ignoring the way he couldn’t breathe, he continued his assault until the arm released him enough so he could spin around and plant the blade into his heart.
The grunt went down with a gurgle of blood dripping from his lips.
Spinning around, Cloud caught sight of Brass Knuckles beating into Reno in spite of bleeding from multiple gun shot wounds. Checking first to see that Pickard was dead – which he was, with a bullet in his forehead – Cloud picked up the gun that had fallen onto the floor and walked over to Brass Knuckles.
Aiming it at the back of his head, he blew a hole big enough to put a broom handle through.
Pulling Reno out from under the man’s dead weight, he frowned at the way the Turk’s head lolled to one side. “Reno! Do you have a Restore materia in here anywhere?” he demanded, gently tapping the cheek that was less swollen.
Reno groaned, almost unconscious. “Arm’ry. Hit… panel… TV...”
Cloud ran over the huge screen of the TV in the entertainment unit against the wall. Hitting the TV and the wall around it with his clean hand, he finally found the catch that made the whole thing swing open and reveal a long bunker in the wall. His eyebrows rose, impressed. The entire wall must have been fake, added on to hide this arsenal.
Running to the materia lined up against one wall, he ran his hands over them one by one until he found a Restore. Going back out into the living room, he briefly wondered whether his ability with materia had been affected by his travel through time.
Pushing it stubbornly out of his mind, he grasped the Restore tight in hand and sank his awareness into it. Casting materia without equipping them properly was difficult as well as dangerous, and he needed his full concentration for it.
To his relief, the materia responded, allowing him to cast a low level Cure spell over and over again until most of the damage was gone. It wasn’t anywhere near mastered, but thankfully he had enough power to pull it off.
Unfortunately, Reno had fallen unconscious before he began.
Glancing at the bodies around them, Cloud frowned and pushed away any fear. There was a sniper outside they had to worry about, not to mention Pickard’s gang would probably be there at any minute because of the noise.
Picking up Reno’s arms, he dragged the redhead away from the front door. Seeing that he was leaving a trail of blood, Cloud swore. Suppressing the pain in his body, he slipped his arms under Reno’s limp form and avoided the pool of blood that had become of Grunt Gun. Putting the redhead down on the floor inside, he checked the area for blood or any obvious signs that they had gone behind the TV.
Seeing that they were in the clear, he moved back over to the bunker and pulled the ‘door’ shut with his entire body weight. As soon as it closed, the light turned off.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the Restore materia and channelled some power into it for a bit of light. It was a gross misuse of a materia, but sometimes you just had to do what you could with what you had. Rifling through Reno’s pockets, he suppressed a cheer when he found the Turk’s PHS. His own was still in the hands of Pickard, he realized absently even as he pulled up Reno’s contacts list and clicked Tseng.
The phone rang three times before it picked up.
“Reno. This had better be good.”
Just at that moment, a loud shout echoed outside the apartment and the door was knocked in. Crouching down behind the large steel door, he checked on Reno. Still unconscious. More shouts from the room. Cloud remained silent, as the bunker obviously wasn’t well soundproofed.
Biting his lip to hold back a curse, he hit buttons randomly.
“Reno. This isn’t funny. I-“
A machine gun started going off as one guy let out a furious yell. Cloud looked up with wide eyes, checking the walls of the bunker for holes.
“Shit,” the Turk muttered before barking, “Reno! Where are you?”
This seriously wasn’t working. Taking a deep, calming breath, Cloud hung up the call and started texting furiously.
Home guns sniper – SEND
Thinking quickly, he tried to figure out how many people were in the other room. He could hear voices shouting. He had no idea how much time they had left before they were discovered. With a sniper on the roofs, they probably knew their prey hadn’t escaped the building at the very least.
Come quick. In bunker. Reno unconscious. Status not critical – SEND
Perhaps it was time Cloud started-
More gun shots at the wall. Abruptly, Cloud stopped channelling all power and the room turned dark except for the little rays of light that shone through the holes.
Shit.
Crawling over to where he knew the materia were, he quickly took stock of what they had while the machine gun had paused.
Fire, Fire, Lightning, Ice, Restore, Lightning, Shield- Yes! Cloud grabbed the Shield and snagged the higher levelled Lightning materia. Crawling back over to Reno, he put the Restore in his pocket and held Shield in his left and Lightning in his right as he crouched over the prone body.
The PHS rang. In the silence, it sounded like a death toll.
“They’re in the walls!”
Pouring his power into Shield, he grabbed the PHS that had landed on the ground and hit buttons until it stopped making noise. Not that he could hear it over the noise. Flipping it open, he scowled at the sight of Tseng on the ID.
“Reno, I seriously hope you don’t have any explosives in this bunker that are going to blow up with all the stray bullets bouncing around,” he muttered, pressing the ‘talk’ button.
“No, the explosives are in my bed.”
Cloud stared at him. “Are you-“ he silenced himself when the barrage of bullets cut off. He mouthed to Reno ‘play dead’, and the Turk nodded.
“Did we get them?” one guy asked stupidly. Cloud kept his Shield up in spite of the light it gave off. It was easier to maintain it than cast again. Throwing the PHS at Reno, Cloud tightened his grip on the Lightning materia.
“Are you using those unequipped?” Reno whispered under the voices of the gunmen, staring at him as he put the PHS to his ear.
Cloud didn’t know what Reno heard, but the relieved expression was fairly obvious to interpret. Holding up a hand with two fingers raised, Cloud nodded his head. Two minutes until the cavalry arrived. “Sniper?” he breathed quietly.
Reno grinned and made a ‘slit throat’ gesture. “Cissnei’s already here. They’re just waiting on Tseng to move in.”
Cloud nodded and pressed his lips firmly together.
“How the hell did they get back there?” one of the guys was asking. Reno sat up, gingerly touching his chest and looking surprised as he ran a hand over his face. Cloud had healed most of the damage, but a few superficial wounds and soreness probably remained. That was what happened with such a low level materia. The Turk should have been spending more time mastering them if he expected them to be useful.
“I dunno. Look for a button or a lever or something. Maybe there’s one in the wall.”
Reno smirked and very, very quietly turned something on the door. He mouthed ‘locked’ to Cloud, and the blond nodded, closing his eyes and focusing on keeping the Power flow into the Shield materia nice and strong. It wasn’t as bad now that the globe wasn’t repelling dozens of bullets, but considering he hadn’t been using materia regularly in this body, it was simply amazing he’d lasted that long. Though, he supposed Power came with the soul, not with a physical body like strength did.
That probably had something to do with it.
Reno tapped him. Cloud opened one eye and saw a held up a finger. One more minute to go, and with the grunts outside pressing on wall panels that wouldn’t move because the door was locked, they should be fine.
Should. Cloud had never been one with much life luck, though he’d won plenty of races at the Gold Saucer because of his chocobos. But that was skill, really, not luck.
Clickclickclickclick-
Cloud opened his eyes and frowned, wondering what Reno was typing into his phone.
And then at that moment, a chainsaw motor started. The blond stared at the wall in disbelief before looking at Reno, who had frozen with a panicked look. “Do you own a fucking chainsaw?” Cloud asked so quickly he barely heard himself speak.
The redhead shook his head.
“Well you might want to grab a weapon and get ready to face the music,” he muttered, tightening his grip on the lightning materia and making it crackle in his hand. The redhead put his PHS away and reached for what looked to be a machine gun. Really, what was the Turk doing with a machine gun in his apartment.
Sliding the huge cartridge into place, he kneeled next to Cloud and aimed the machine gun at the chain saw that was currently cutting through the wall.
And then there were a couple shouts of ‘what the fuck?’ before bodies dropped like flies and the chainsaw fell out of the wall and started chewing into something that sounded a little too close to meat.
Reno’s eyes widened as a yellow gas began to seep through the holes in the walls. Cussing under his breath, he grabbed a mask off the wall and fitted it over his face before doing the same for a confused Cloud.
The blond frowned and looked at Reno questioningly.
“Nerve gas! Unless you wanna be paralysed too, keep that thing on.”
The blond nodded and listened to the quiet of the apartment. Hearing quiet footsteps, and a few soft ‘clears’ as the Turks moved in and checked the apartment, he let out a relieved breath. The Shield flickered and died, leaving Cloud to collapse to the side in exhaustion. Reno caught him with a surprised sound and wrapped his left arm around the blond’s shoulders to keep him steady.
“Reno? We’re clear. You can unlock the door now.”
The redhead grinned. “You got it, boss!” Dropping the machine gun to the side, he opened the complex dead-bolt lock and pushed.
The TV-door swung away and revealed a group of five Turks, all wearing face masks, some of whom Cloud recognized and a few he didn’t.
Reno grinned at Tseng and pulled Cloud to his feet, wrapping an arm around his waist to support him. “This is Cloud, everyone. Don’t pick a fight with him unless you want your ass handed to you.”
Tseng looked down at the blood stains on his hands and clothes before raising an eyebrow. “I can see that. What happened?”
Reno coughed. “Well, it’s a little- whoa!”
Cloud blinked before realizing that he was the reason Reno had interrupted himself, having listed sideways as his vision darkened. “Uh… Reno? I don’ feel so good.” Nausea was curling in his stomach and upsetting his balance now that the threat was finally over and he came down from his adrenaline high.
The redhead quickly moved them through the crowd and put Cloud on the couch, dodging the congealing puddle of blood. The blond collapsed back into the cushions and took slow, steady breaths to stave off passing out. A hand touched his forehead and moved the hair out of his face.
“You alright there, Cloud?”
The blond blinked blearily. “Y’called me a hooker. Asshole.”
Reno, who had taken off his own mask and pulled Cloud’s off gingerly, grinned sheepishly. “Where’s that Restore materia, blondie? I think you mighta been strangled too long.”
“Materia? It’s mine. You can’t have it.”
The redhead laughed. “I think the adrenaline and alcohol have gone to your head, blondie. Those are my materia.”
Cloud tightened his grip on the materia. He didn’t want to give them up. “No they aren’t. I stole ‘em fair an’ square.”
A couple Turks in the room snickered.
“Cloud, give me the Restore.”
“No. D’you have any idea how much I wan’ yer stash? An’ you aren’t even levelin’ them up proper.” He pulled the Restore out of his pocket. “This piece a’ shit saved yer life and it’s barely been used at all. D’you know how many times I had to cas’ Cure on yer broken ass b’fore you’d survive? Fifteen fuckin’ times. Asshole. If the Shield had been in any worse shape than it is, we’d be full a’ bullets righ’ now. What the fuck kinda Turk are you, abusin’ yer resources like this? So I’m keepin’ these materia and ye can suck me dick if ye don’ like it.”
Now the Turks were outright laughing at the look on Reno’s face as the blond spirited the materia away into his clothes with a scowl. The only one not laughing was Tseng, but that man wouldn’t recognize a sense of humour if it punched him in the face.
Reno frowned before a slow, easy smirk spread across his face. “Alright. But for each materia you stole, I get a date. ‘Cause this one ended before it could start.”
Cloud snorted. “Ye better be smoother than a Saucer whore if ye expect me to still ‘ave sex with y’after a near-death ‘sperience like this ‘un here.”
The redhead just grinned wider. “I never disappoint.”
Tseng cleared his throat. “While this conversation has been truly enlightening, there is still business to be done. Reno, report.”
The redhead sat on the arm of the couch next to Cloud. “I went to a bar, brought blondie home, and Pickard was sittin’ in my livin’ room. Piece o’ shit thought he could blackmail me into doin’ somethin’ for him, probably. He threatened blondie’s life, and just as Asshole A was gonna shoot him in the head, he pulled some crazy fast moves and dislocated his arm. I shot Pickard in the forehead, and managed to get a shot into Asshole B, but he was already rushin’ at me and I missed a killin’ shot. He jumped on me and started beatin’ the shit outa me. Next thing I know, blondie puts a bullet in his brain and asks if I got a Restore materia. I was pretty hazy at that point. When I woke up next, we’re in the bunker and I’m feelin’ a hell of a lot better! It was pretty hectic after that, ‘cause the phone rang and the backup figured out we were in the walls. Blondie protected us with a Shield spell. Someone found a chainsaw and started sawin’ through the wall, and then you guys dropped the nerve gas and here we are.”
Tseng nodded and turned his attention to Cloud. “How does he have experience with materia?”
Reno grinned. “Blondie’s a lil’ cadet drop-out. Workin’ Janitor at Shinra now. Can we keep ‘im?”
Cloud frowned. What? “I knew ye were stalkin’ me, asshole. I ne’er told ye my name.”
But Tseng didn’t pay him any mind. “You think he’d make the cut?”
Cloud scowled. “Hey! I ne’er said I wanted t’ be a Turk! Fuck you, Reno. You may plan on screwin’ me, but ye ain’t screwin’ my life, too! I got plans that don’ involve this shit.” Pushing himself to his feet, he almost tripped over the dead body of the grunt he’d killed. Catching sight of his knife, still buried in the man’s heart, he bent down and pulled it out with a grimace before moving nauseously away from the body.
The blond girl held out to him a towel and a bucket. “You gonna throw up, blondie? Not every day you see a dead body.”
Cloud frowned. “I’m just used to ‘em meltin’ inta green sparkles faster ‘n this,” he grumbled, taking the towel and wiping the blood off his hands and knife. Vowing to clean the poor thing properly later, he slipped it into his pocket beside the lightning materia. He was really going to walk out of here with three materia. He suppressed a fit of giggles. No way was he drunk enough to giggle.
“I think you’re too drunk to be headin’ home by yourself, blondie. I’ll take you in my car,” Reno said, catching him by the arm and pulling him towards the exit. “You got all you need, Tseng?”
The leader of the Turks nodded. “Yes. We’ll begin the investigation tomorrow morning. Do try to avoid being knifed in your sleep, Reno.”
Cloud turned to the redhead, alarmed. “How many ex-lovers’ve ye pissed off? I’m never crawlin’ in ta bed with ye now!”
Reno pushed him towards the door. “Ignore him. It’s an inside joke.”
“Wha’? So d’ye mean knifed as in someone stuck their dick in yer ass, or knifed as in someone stuck ye like a pig?”
The blond, who had been giggling slightly as they walked by, burst into laughter.
Reno grumbled. “It was a combination of the two.”
Cloud howled in laughter, falling over and making a general drunken nuisance of himself. Hey, he was seriously drunk and high off adrenaline after surviving a life or death situation unenhanced. He had every right to be a little… well.
. , . , .
“Holy shit, what happened?”
Cloud scrubbed his bleary eyes and saw Jeff sitting on the living room couch with a wide eyed expression as he froze with his drink halfway to his mouth. Since the guy was basically nocturnal, the blond shouldn’t have been surprised to see him awake on a Saturday night. Or was it Sunday morning already?
Without a word, he stumbled to the bathroom to strip off his clothes and have a shower. Or, he would have if Zack hadn’t come out of his room then and frozen, staring at him.
“Spike?” the dark-haired SOLDIER whispered, hands raised as though to touch, but didn’t actually make contact. “What happened to you?”
“Why are you here?” Reno asked irritably, having followed along behind Cloud for some reason his tired mind couldn’t seem to produce. He’d started crashing on the ride over and now he just wanted to sleep and forget the world existed for a little while. But first things first… he hated being covered in bodily fluids.
Angry violet eyes turned to Reno. “I could ask you the same thing! Why the hell is Cloud in this condition? What did you do to him, Turk?”
The redhead scowled, and Cloud walked away from both of them through the open bathroom door. Emptying his pockets, he squirreled away the materia in Len’s bathroom magazines to recover after his shower. No way was he letting Reno steal them back.
“I didn’t do anything to him! I found him at the bar and he looked like he wanted a bit of fun, so-“
“A bit of fun?!”
Cloud stripped off his blood-soaked jacket and dropped it on the floor of the shower. The easier to clean it all up later. His T-shirt was quick to follow, along with his pants and underwear. All of them he dropped near the drain before turning on the shower and climbing in. Lukewarm water cascaded onto his hair and body as he stood there, watching pink rivulets create a pattern of blood around his feet.
“He was almost killed?! How did that even happen?!”
“Look, it’s complicated and it’s now official Turk business, so I can’t tell you much.”
“Well at least explain to me why he’s covered in blood!”
“He… defended his own life against a larger adversary, and saved my life. That’s all I can tell you. If he wants to tell you more, that’s up to him. Anyway, I gotta get goin’. Investigation in the mornin’ and stuff. Tell blondie I’ll see him around, eh?”
Cloud finished shampooing his hair and rinsed. Looking down at his hands, he frowned at the sight of blood crusted around his nails. There wasn’t much he’d be able to do about that.
“Cloud?” Zack’s head appeared, as he had apparently pulled back the curtain to let his head peak through. “You okay in there?”
The blond nodded and turned off the water. Pushing back the curtain, he accepted the towel from Zack and dried his hair quickly before tying it around his waist. Grabbing a garbage bag from under the sink, he took his bloody clothes and shoved them inside before tying a knot on the top. He’d have to do laundry, or toss them altogether depending on how bad the stains were.
Grabbing his new materia from the magazine basket, he clutched them to his chest and moved past Zack, out of the room. The uncharacteristically quiet man followed him into his bedroom, where he finished drying off and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a clean, cotton T-shirt that was so worn it was almost see-through.
The saviour of the Planet came to a stop in front of his bed and stared at it blankly. His cabin had never been this empty and white. The walls and table tops were covered with things he’d collected during his travels and books he’d brought back from Wutai.
“Cloud?” Zack asked softly.
Snapping out of his daze, the man frowned. “Zack?”
The SOLDIER First Class walked closer and tentatively put a hand on Cloud’s shoulder. “You gonna be okay, Spike?”
The former saviour of the Planet blinked and took in his surroundings again. “Oh. Um…” That’s right. His cabin was gone, along with everything else that he remembered.
But he didn’t remember killing two men being so difficult the last time he’d done it. It had been a long time since he’d had another person’s blood on his hands… In Wutai he had been able to rest, and learn. In Edge he’d run his inconsequential little delivery business. On the road he’d enjoyed the smell of a crisp breeze and the menial labour of hunting his own dinner.
Cloud turned his head away from a room overlaid with an image – an existence – that could no longer shelter him and met glowing eyes of amethyst. The man of his memories smiled at him, and at that moment it felt as though a rope had been thrown into the churning waters of Cloud’s existence. Zack was here, he was safe, he didn’t have mako anymore, and Sephiroth wasn’t crazy.
“Will you… stay, Zack?” the blond asked, holding back all the other things he’d never been able to say.
The dark-haired man’s smile dimmed, but caring warmed his eyes and acted like a balm on Cloud’s soul. “Of course.”
. , . , .
A ray of warmth licked the side of Cloud’s face, slowly drawing him from the comfortable warmth of sleep. Squeezing his eyes more tightly shut, he buried his face deeper into the blankets and his pillow to block the sun.
His pillow shifted and let out a sigh. Cloud froze and snapped awake in an instant. Who…?
The memories of last night returned to him. Running into Reno at the bar, returning to his apartment, nearly dying at the hands of thugs that would have never been an issue in his past life. Opening his eyes, he turned his head and looked up into the relaxed, sleeping face of one Zack Fair, who had stayed with him and kept the monsters away. For the first time since he had awoken in a time he barely remembered, his sleep had been deep and dreamless.
Smiling, he stared up in wonder at his best friend, his comrade. No matter what happened, one thing was always a constant: Zack had a bigger heart than anyone he had ever known. With Tifa it had always been about knowing what was going on in his head so she could help him, which after all that he’d been through, battling Sephiroth, had been the last thing he wanted to deal with. It had just been so much easier to leave and return for short periods of time to visit.
But with Zack, that underlying expectation had always been absent. Zack would take what Cloud gave, and give what he’d take. And it wasn’t any more complicated than that.
The SOLDIER hummed quietly to himself as he shifted, climbing out of the waters of slumber. Bleary eyes opened and graced Cloud with their unique, glowing depths. Smiling slightly, the blond hummed thoughtfully. “You know… any more of this and you might even be turning gay for me, Zack.”
When the other man spluttered, Cloud laughed. “Just kidding. I know you’re all for Aerith. Still… thanks.”
Zack scratched his cheek with a grin, tightening his arm around Cloud’s back. “I don’t mind sleeping with you at all, Cloud,” he said sleepily. When the blond’s grin widened, he groaned. “Oh, you know what I mean. What can I help it if a handsome guy like me is just too irresistible for even his gay best friend?”
The janitor laughed again, enjoying how warm Zack’s skin felt on his face. Vincent had never been one to cuddle, but his lover in Wutai had spoiled him. The fellow warrior hadn’t wanted a relationship that went deeper than occasional shared pleasure and company, but he’d let the blond stay the night to wake up next to another warm body, and once in a while allowed a repeat of the previous night’s events.
It was in part thanks to Shuo and the people he’d met Wutai that he’d found his balance and achieved a level of peace and harmony in his life that had previously eluded him. While most Wutaians had little money and were forced to be self sufficient, they carried a discipline and acceptance with their given path that permeated the entire culture he had grown to love.
Of course, it hadn’t been as simple living in Wutai when he’d first moved there. At the palace, Yuffie’s word as Empress had been law. So when Cloud had expressed an interest in the martial arts of Wutai to her, she’d ordered masters living in the palace to teach him whatever he wanted to learn. Aikido had been the eventual choice, but only weeks after Cloud began training in the style so completely different than any form of combat he was accustomed to, the master had left for his home village to see to the health of one of his sons.
Cloud had chosen to follow him, wanting a chance to experience Wutai outside of Yuffie’s influence.
It had been quite a shock to be treated with such downright hostility among people who didn’t know who he was. No one would let him rent a room, or sell him food, and he’d been forced to live in the wild outside his master’s village for three months before the villagers were accepting enough of his invasion to sell him supplies.
During that time, he set up camp near a small stream at the bottom of the mountain, over the months building himself a shelter and setting up a system of living. The first time he approached his master for training, he’d been sent to do chores. After that, he’d spend his mornings completing chores around the dojo while the regular class was instructed. After assisting the master’s wife with making lunch for everyone, he would help clean up the kitchen before, finally, the master would use him as a punching bag in front of the advanced class. Since he was enhanced and didn’t injure easily, he was the perfect mannequin for teaching the more dangerous sides of the art.
For the rest of the afternoon, he would sit on the side of the dojo and observe, occasionally being passed around to the other students to practice on. When the day was over and the students left, Cloud would bow from his knees and thank the master for his tutelage along with everyone else before leaving.
This went on for an entire year before Cloud finally challenged the master for the right to join the dojo as a proper student, as he’d seen other Wutaians do. He hadn’t come close to winning, but the techniques he’d used and his respect for the master’s art had persuaded Feng to finally allow it.
And after that, he had begun to settle into the culture. His skill with Wutaian, which had been elementary during his time with Yuffie, slowly developed into fluency. And with this came a deeper understanding of the unique people and society he had become privy to.
A year into his proper studies under his master, he had met Shuo. Having heard of a blond-haired swordsman who had saved the Planet from General Sephiroth of the War of Wutai, he had challenged Cloud to a duel. When the blond refused, Shuo had settled in town and started harassing the saviour of the Planet for a month straight before Cloud finally conceded and defeated him with his lightest, longest sword.
After that, their relationship slowly evolved into a grudging respect and, eventually, friendship. And then, Shuo had propositioned a sexual relation of convenience, a tradition among some Wutaian warriors.
“What’s with that look, Cloud?” Zack asked, nudging him playfully. “You’ve been staring into space with this dopy expression on your face for the past five minutes.”
The blond snapped out of his more pleasant stroll down memory lane with a wry smile. “Just thinking of what-ifs and would-have-beens.”
Mako eyes glimmered with interest. “Oh really? What kind?”
Cloud shrugged. “Oh, just a dream and a memory,” he said dismissively.
“Dream?” Zack pondered that for a moment. “Hey, since you’re not shooting for SOLDIER anymore, what’s your dream of the future?”
Cloud thought about it. The delivery business was just a back up plan, really, not so much a dream for him anymore. Did he have a dream?
“Balance.” When Zack gave him a weird look, the blond just smiled. “I wouldn’t mind a bit of balance.” He could use some stability in his life these days.
“Balance? Uh, okay.” Sharp eyes watched him carefully. “I hate to be a downer, but how’re you holdin’ up? You were pretty out of it last night.”
Cloud hummed and closed his eyes. “Well, if everyone had a teddy bear like you, the world would be a happier place.”
There was a moment of silence. “Are you mocking me?”
The blond sighed. “I’ll be fine, Zack. Yesterday was just a… really bad day.”
Zack’s arm tightened around him. “What happened?”
Cloud sighed, keeping his eyes closed and enjoying the warmth of the body next to him and the morning sun. “Well, it started out just fine. I was working, and then Sephiroth comes into the office where I’m-“ His eyes widened. “Shit! What time is it? I have to go to work!”
Zack grinned. “Gotcha covered. I phoned you in sick after you zonked out last night.”
The sudden burst of adrenaline ceased. “Oh. Thanks.”
“So what was Seph doing in the office?”
“Oh, he was raiding their coffee supplies. Only, most of the sane population of Shinra doesn’t use the rat poison coffee, apparently, and he’d already used up what was in stock.”
Zack’s eyes widened and he laughed. “What, really? But he was in such a good mood last night! He’s been an absolute bitch all week, so I decided it was time for an intervention when I found him working yesterday. So, I went to drag him out for a movie night. When I was going up in the elevator, for a second there I thought I should take defensive measures, but when I got there he was chipper, Spike. Chipper.”
Cloud raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “What? He can’t he even do ‘happy’.”
“I know! But he was drinking coffee and actually smiled at me. And I only had to spend ten minutes harassing him before he gave in and came with me. Usually it takes at least thirty minutes! So yeah, I’d call that chipper.”
Cloud frowned. “Oh. So he must have liked the coffee then.”
“Huh?”
The blond sighed. “Well… I ended up going and hunting down some special import coffee for him that’s got a lot of caffeine, since apparently his metabolism is too high for the regular stuff. When I made it for him, though, all he said was that it was ‘different’.” Cloud avoided Zack’s eyes. “So I might have been a bit angry, and then freaked out and left.” No reason to explain that the ‘freak out’ was anything more complicated than simply leaving in a fit of anger…
“Oh, it’s you!!” Zack exclaimed, almost sitting up in bed before he flopped back down under Cloud’s weight, remembering himself. The blond tensed in alarm. “You were the guy he was asking about the best way to apologize to?”
Cloud blinked. “Huh?” Apologize?
Zack grinned. “Yeah. He said that he may have offended someone but he didn’t know what kind of gift would be satisfactory. His words, not mine. So I told him most of the time, it’s the thought that counts, not the gift itself, and sometimes just saying ‘sorry’ works the best, so…” He trailed off in thought. “I wonder what he ended up doing.”
Huh. Sephiroth was going to apologize to him? That would be interesting… “Hey wait, if you were out watching a movie with Sephiroth, then why were you here last night?”
The SOLDIER scratched his head sheepishly, messing up his already bad bedhead. “Well, I decided to pop by for a visit to see if you wanted to do something today ‘cause you weren’t answering your PHS, and one of your roommates let me in but didn’t know if you were here, so when I went into your room and found the spaghetti on the floor and booze on your bedside table…” He laughed nervously. “But I know you don’t drink, so I got worried and decided to just stay until I knew you got home safe.” His expression darkened. “What exactly happened last night? When I said you were out of it, I mean, you were out of it, and your hands were covered in blood and so were your clothes.”
Cloud grimaced. Yeah, by the time he’d gotten home, with the adrenaline, booze, and caffeine, he’d crashed pretty hard. Considering his system wasn’t used to alcohol or drinking his favourite blend of hama and Grenada anymore, on top of the events that had ended his evening… well. “I just wanted to get laid,” he muttered into Zack’s chest, annoyed at the injustice of it all.
“What was that? You’re mumbling.”
“I just wanted to get laid! And then Reno had to have some Planet-damned criminal in his room for some reason and the whole situation just went south faster than a Nibel wolf in heat!”
Zack stared. “What?”
The blond grumbled. “What part do you want clarified?”
“You went out to a bar, already drunk, to get laid? Cloud, you’re sixteen. That’s not safe!”
The former SOLDIER scowled. “I can look after myself.”
“That’s not the point! What if you go home with someone who takes advantage of you? Or makes you do things that you’re not comfortable with? Or ties you to their bedposts and has their wicked, evil way with you? For all you know they could be a serial killer, or worse, a Turk!”
Cloud stared at Zack for a long, disbelieving moment, before he just couldn’t take it any longer and burst into laughter. When the puppy’s expression became confused and almost wounded, Cloud curled into a foetal position, gripping his aching diaphragm as mirth shook his entire body. It was just too funny. Here he was, an adult trapped in an adolescent body, and someone with less sexual experience than him was telling him about the dangers of getting picked up at a bar.
Zack poked him. “Cloud, this is serious.” When the blond quieted his laughter to give Zack his attention, he burst into another fit of laughter at the deadly serious expression on the SOLDIER’s face. “You could get- diseases, or hurt, or- do you even know how to use a condom?!”
Cloud just about died, wheezing hysterically he was laughing so hard.
-Toki Mirage-
To linggan, who after hearing my original ideas for this fic declared it ‘light-hearted and sweet’… (points at above chapter) See what I mean? I’m incapable.
To K (), who has left me no way to respond to his/her messages... ;P I spell ‘manoeuvre’ this way because I’m using British spelling, which has a lot of French influences. Same with ‘foetal’. (fetal)
This chapter totally surprised me in its direction, to be honest. I love not planning farther than two steps ahead. It always makes things so interesting to write, since your characters are able to surprise you. Cloud really pulled a fast one on me these past few days. I was going to update this last night, but I was too tired to assess whether the chapter was in a good place. Thanks to Wolfie for telling me it needed a bit more love. :) Because of that, it’s a bit longer than usual.
Happy reads, yo
- 5
- 6
- 7
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Little Guy