Chapter 1
"Name?"
The Shinra Second Class SOLDIER smiled brightly at the blond chocobo headed kid, revealing a set of bright pearly teeth. Cloud hesitated a second, knowing full well that the smile was probably fake and that the SOLDIER was probably inwardly laughing at him, saying that he had no idea what he was getting into.
"Cloud Strife, Sir." he whispered.
The SOLDIER laughed and patted him on the back. "You'll have to talk louder than that! Can't hear ya, man!"
"Cloud Strife." He said louder, ignoring the snickers of some of the other recruits behind him.
"All right, Strife. Go over there and give them the rest of your information and they'll tell you which bunker to go to."
Cloud nodded, whispered a thank you, and headed off to the other table. Two Third Class sat there joking with each other as they filed out the information to the new recruits. Obeying what the Second Class had said Cloud waited patiently in line while some boy in front of him was told which bunker they where placed in. When Cloud's turn came, he gave the tallest of the two SOLDIER's his paperwork and waited patiently as they looked up the file that the Second Class had made. They filled in the file and printed off a immaculate white paper.
"Your in Bunker E, Strife. It's right down that hall. Go to the end and take a right. Go down that hall and then your at your bunker." the SOLDIER smiled, while having a look of curiosity on his face.
"Thank you, Sir."
"No Problem, hold on a minute Strife. Your from Nibelheim?"
Why do they need to ask that…..
"Yes, Sir."
"mmm…well, if you ever get lonely in your bunker…"
The SOLDIER grinned seductively while tapping the white sheet of paper. Cocking his head to the side, Cloud walked away down the hall while reading the white sheet of paper. There was a two numbers on it, along with a floor code. He felt the blush light up his cheeks while he walked slowly down the hall, taking the right as the man had said. Finally he had the chance of his dream. The chance to be a SOLDIER. And he wasn't going to risk sleeping with some man he didn't even know, and jeopardize his chances. But the man was guy anyways….
Well I guess after years of no women on base….
Cloud pushed the thought away and glanced at the Bunker he just passed. Bunker D. Which means the next one would be….Ha! There it was Bunker E. There were already some boys in there. One Cloud recognized from the trip here. His long red hair was pulled back a little more securely and he was unloading his things on his bunk. His name was…. Ah, his name was Reno. Cloud shrugged and headed inside the room. Most of the bunks were filled up, but thankfully the bunk in the corner next to Reno was empty.
Placing his bag on the bunk he surveyed the room. Reno paused his shuffling to smile widely at Cloud. His red hair shining bright in the moon light and the bluish green of his eyes stood out.
"Hey! It's Cloudy boy!" Reno grinned and sat with a plomp down on his bed. "How ya been?"
Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Cloudy boy?"
"Wow man! You can do the one eye brow thing! Freakin' Sweet man!"
Reno burst into laughter at Cloud's look and Cloud made a mental note to somehow beat the boy up in practice for laughing at him.
"Yes." Cloud chuckled. "I can do the 'One eyebrow thing,'"
Silently, while pretending to listen to Reno's rambling, Cloud took out his few possessions. He'd brought a few books on materia and a couple others on fighting and survival. The only other thing he brought was a picture of his mother. She was standing in their little kitchen, a wooden spoon in her hand and a cooking book in the other. She was smiling at Cloud who was behind the camera. Her tongue was stuck out and her long blond hair was pulled into a messy bun with a strand of her hair threaded into a bead.
"Who's that?"
Cloud, out of reflex, slammed his elbow into the strangers face, earning a pained yelp from the red head that had snuck up on him.
"Damn, Cloud! What the hell!?" Reno moaned.
"Your own fault."
"Ugh, I think you permanently damaged my pretty little face!"
Cloud snickered and set the picture back into his bag, which he then slid under his bunk. He noticed it was about 10 at night and therefore, he should probably get enough sleep so he was ready for the recruit assembly in the morning. Reno jumped into his own bunk and under the covers while watching the others do the same.
"Hey, Cloud?"
"Yeah?"
"You never told me who that was."
"…maybe later, Reno."
"…"
Thankfully, Reno let the situation drop and Cloud fell asleep in the first five minutes of laying there.
The only thing that Cloud didn't expect about SOLDIER was their horrid way of waking people up. Instead of what you would usually hear which would be banging on trash cans, they awoke everyone with a loud screechy alarm that could only be described as blasphemous. Fortunately, all Cloud did was jerk awake. Unlike Reno, who jumped out of his bed, only to fall face flat on the floor and bitch about how much his face hurt.
Cloud's first classes went well. He started with Materia and other classes of the such, and then he was met with his favorite class of the day. Fencing. Although none of them had swords yet, they all listened interestedly and most everyone paid some amount of attention. The instructor told all of them about the kata they would be learning and then stated that by the end of the week they would all be training with wooden swords.
Several boys hollered, but all Cloud did was let a graceful little smile play across his lips as he imagined himself with an actual practice sword.
When lunch came, Shaun and Reno had dragged Cloud off to a table in corner. Shaun was a nice, hyper, type of person. While Reno was just plain old talkative. He didn't mind their company though, since he expected to not have any friends at all. That's how it was in Nibelheim.
Yeah Cloud, don't do anything to make these guys hate you.
Cloud pushed away the thought and continued to munch on there Shinra issued lunch. Reno and Shaun seemed to be engaged in some conversation, though from the looks on their faces this was not at all a pleasant conversation.
"Oh come on! You couldn't get into SOLDIER if your life depended on it!"
Shaun just stared at the red head, a look of anger passing over his face. He turned to look at Cloud as if looking for his opinion. Cloud, sighing, set his sandwich down and glared at Reno.
"You shouldn't say stuff like that Reno."
And with that, the blond left the table, while placing his uneaten food on Reno's tray as he passed, earning a grin from the redhead.
"Nngh….S-Seph…"
Zack arched up, allowing the silver haired General better access to him. Capturing the spiky haired SOLDIER into a deep kiss, Zack came with a moan of his name, followed by the General. Completely exhausted, Zack curled up against Sephiroth's chest, pulling a blanket out from under the bed, draping it over the two of them.
Although the two of them felt nothing for the other in a lover's way, they sometimes had occasions when sex was all they could do to forget about things for awhile. For Sephiroth, it was forgetting the war, for Zack, it was forgetting all the men he had killed.
"Sephiroth….you know I don't love you right?" Zack whispered. To a regular person, without mako, they wouldn't have heard that brief statement but Sephiroth did.
"Yes. I know."
Zack nodded his head solemnly and then glanced into Sephiroth's eyes so he would be able to tell if the man was lying.
"How was I?"
The spiky haired man always wanted to know how he did. He was worried he wasn't as good as Sephiroth's other lover's. If he had other lover's. Which he didn't. It's not that they didn't offer. In fact they practically threw themselves in his bed, begging him to take them. But Sephiroth only did this for Zack. Only Zack. He didn't love him, it's just that Zack was his closest friend. And friends did things to help each other. If that meant having meaningless sex with his little puppy, then he would do it.
"You were great, Zack." Sephiroth sighed.
"mmmm… thanks Seph. I mean it…"
Zack leaned up and pressed feather light kisses on Sephiroth's neck while running his hands over the General's sides. He pulled up till he was straddling Sephiroth's waist and pressed his lips roughly against the General's. God, it had only been about 20 minutes, but his mind was already going back to those nightmares. Does things he didn't want to fucking think about and kept coming the fuck back!
Knowing full well what Zack was thinking from the strained look on the spiky haired boys face, he flipped the two of them over and granted Zack's wish.
"God, Zack. Why can't you just live with it…."
