Shinra Inc. had glass elevators that carried its passengers through the many floors of the headquarters. They were small—even three people made a tight squeeze—and the walls were all transparent, overlooking the city of Midgar from miles and miles above. They jerked and pulled, flying sideways and up or down. If you were stuck in the elevator with a SOLDIER, chances were they'd show you their battle scars. All of them. Stuck with a member of the medical ward, and they'd try to give you an examination right there in the elevator. Nobody even spoke of the encounters with that creeper, Hojo, from the science department. Essentially, Shinra's elevators were hell in the shape of a mechanical glass box for anyone with motion sickness, claustrophobia, or acrophobia. Or an acute fear of Hojo, for that matter.

Cadet Cloud Strife unfortunately suffered from all of those problems, and plenty more.

For example, he had a crush on the Great General Sephiroth, and had never met him. Nope, not once. He'd never even seen the man in person.

The poor blonde stood before one of the many glass elevators he was so terrified of, blue eyes wide and hair a wild array of spikes from him running his hand through them countless times on the way down the hall. It had been like a death march; his combats teacher had requested he deliver some files to the 44th floor—44th floor, from the 1st—and he had managed to turn the five minute walk to the elevator into a fifteen minute ordeal.

And now he was frozen to that spot, staring at that mechanical glass deathtrap, wondering if he'd be able to get somebody else to deliver the reports.

Twice he had gotten onto the elevator—after taking a few deep breaths, of course—and both times, he had panicked and stumbled back out as soon as the little tone announcing that the elevator would be moving rang out. Four times, Shinra employees had walked around him, casting curious glances at the scrawny cadet blocking their way, and once a SOLDIER had asked if he needed to see a doctor or something. He had violently shook his head, stuttered a "no, sir", and the burly man had shrugged and headed into the elevator.

If anything, Cloud probably needed a psychologist to deal with his ridiculous fear of the monster in his closet. Zack claimed it didn't exist, but he was positive it did. Why else would his clothes suspiciously look like they were hanging differently in the morning? He didn't do it. The monster did.

Minutes continued to tick by, and he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, and then back again, over and over. To any passerby, he probably looked like he had to go to the bathroom—badly. But no, this was Cloud's way of relieving the immense anxiety and fear he was feeling everytime he heard that elevator moving behind those huge metal doors. His phone vibrated and it scared the hell out of the poor cadet; he promptly dropped the pile of paperwork he was holding, and let out a startled yelp that attracted the attention of the secretary down the hall. She cocked a ginger eyebrow at him, and he waved at her with a sheepish smile, digging around his pocket for his phone. He flipped it open to see he had a new text message from Zack.

'Saw you by the elevator with paperwork. Better get going, Spiky!'

Cloud blinked down at the text message and reread it, a cute pout forming on his face. He cast a quick glance down each hallway, and scratched the top of his blonde spikes. Then his eyes widened, and he stiffly sank down to his knees and scooped up the paperwork he had dropped.

Was Zack watching him?

Oh gods.

Cloud did not like to be watched. Ever. At all.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and he looked around with wide eyes once again, nearly jumping out of his skin when he saw his own shadow. No, he was not afraid of his shadow—don't be silly. He was afraid of what was probably hiding in his shadow. The elevator dinged softly, and he gave it a determined glare, quickly weighing his options.

Elevator, or be stalked relentlessly by Zack until he used said elevator?

The elevator seemed like it'd be faster, and—after taking a deep breath and closing his eyes—he took the five steps towards the elevator, and set foot inside. He turned around to face the keypad labeled with each individual floor, and reached out a shaking hand very slowly to press the key labeled 44. Almost, almost… he took a deep steadying breath, and pressed the button. Another ding, and the elevator doors started to close. He heaved a sigh, took another deep breath—

And was almost positive he had a heart attack when an arm reached into the elevator through the closing doors.

What if—what if their arm fell off?

Oh gods, he could not handle a bloody, disembodied arm flailing around inside the elevator with him.

He started to panic, his breath quickening, but then the doors slid back open, and he gave a small sigh of relief.

And then he promptly panicked once again as none other than General Sephiroth stepped through the doors, hair trailing behind him in a cascade of silver, and cat-like green eyes buried in a book of some sort. He pressed the same button Cloud had, and stood less than two feet away from the cadet. Whether he was excellent at ignoring the hyperventilating blonde or just didn't notice was anyone's guess. Cloud gaped at him with wide blue eyes, and was completely unprepared for the screaming metal death trap of glass and… well, death, to start moving.

He inched closer to the furthest wall, then stopped, looked down, and almost fainted. Eyes wide and never leaving the General's face, he moved a lot closer, stopping within a foot of the tall man and clamping his eyes shut, his fingers in an iron grip on the paperwork clutched to his chest. He took deep steadying breaths, and made an honest-to-goodness attempt to calm his stomach as the elevator lurched and lunged, bringing them agonizingly slowly towards their destination. He cracked one eye open to look at the screen above the keypad, and inwardly cheered—they were already at floor twenty! He closed his eye again, only slightly more relaxed than he had been before. This was easy! What a silly fear, being afraid of an el—

The elevator came to an abrupt stop with a nasty grinding noise, and blue eyes flew open wide.

They were stopped on floor twenty-two.

Why weren't they moving?

He threw his head around to stare at Sephiroth, who had lowered the book and was giving the keypad a curious gaze. He pressed the button for the forty-fourth floor once again, his arm brushing against Cloud's—who jumped a good two inches in surprise—shoulder as he did so.

They waited.

Nothing.

The elevator was stuck. And Cloud was now staring outside with his jaw slack, eyes wide in fear. He was stuck in an elevator with a man he admired more than anything or anyone else on the entire planet, probably a billion miles off of the ground. Did he mention the elevator being stuck? Because it was most definitely stuck.

He sank to the floor and dropped the paperwork next to him; he pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them, burying his face into them. He was not going to cry. He was not going to cry in front of the General. Absolutely not. But already he felt the sting of tears in his eyes, and he bit his lip as they cascaded down his face. Could today honestly get any worse?

Sephiroth raised a perfect silver eyebrow at the blonde cadet. Did this boy not take the elevators often? They were prone to breaking down, and did so at least twice a day. Wasn't that common knowledge? He shrugged and sank to the floor, stretching his legs out—his feet touched the wall next to the cowering form of Cloud, much to his dismay—and reopening his book. He never did like waiting for them to fix the damned elevator. And why was it so small that he couldn't even sit down? He sighed and buried his nose back into the book, ignoring Cloud.

And then snapped his head up ten seconds later because that spiky-haired blonde kid was making some relatively odd and unusual wheezing noise. He snapped the book closed and cocked his head to the side, furrowing his eyebrows. "Cadet?"

The blonde froze; his shoulders stopped shaking, and he dug his fingers into his arm so hard he was sure he'd cut off his own circulation and they'd have to amputate his arm. He slowly lifted his head, sniffling loudly, and staring at the General with wide, tear-filled eyes. What if the man wanted to make Cloud climb out of the elevator and fix it? Was he supposed to know how to do that? Did anyone know how to fix elevators? Oh gods, he was crying in front of the Great Sephiroth. He was such a loser. "Y-Yes, sir?"

"Are you alright?" Sephiroth asked gently, pulling his legs up and resting his arms on his knees.

Cloud wiped the back of his arm across his eyes—thankful that he had not cut the circulation off, and was capable of feeling the wetness of his tears—and blinked at the General. Was he… alright? No, no he was not. Why did he look so calm? They were miles above Midgar—what if the elevator suddenly hurled them a million miles to the ground to make scrambled cadet and General? He sniffled again, then bawled out loudly, "No, I'm not! I hate elevators, I hate heights, I hate small spaces, I hate paperwork, and… and…" he picked up the paperwork and read the name on it. "I hate Seph—"

He paused mid-rant, gaping down at the paperwork that had a note taped to the front with Sephiroth's name neatly scrawled across it. He sobbed like a little kid, dropped the paperwork, and buried his face into his arms again.

Clearly, he was making an excellent first impression.

The General regarded him with a bewildered look. He actually felt bad for the cadet. Obviously, the teen had been in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and it had landed him in a rather upsetting position. He tilted his head to the side again and wished the cadet would look up again—the teen had the most amazing blue eyes he'd ever seen; they reminded him of the sky on a sunny day during the summer. Outside of Midgar, of course. Like… Costa del Sol. Yes, that was it. His eyes looked like the skies in Costa del Sol.

"Cadet," he tried again, resting his chin on his knee. Cloud lifted his head slightly to stare at the General, a completely pathetic look on his face. "What is your name?"

"C-Cloud Strife, sir." He squeaked, blinking those wide blue eyes of his.

Sephiroth frowned slightly; didn't Zack's student's name start with a 'C'? He gave the blonde a once over, and it was decided that this was most definitely not the SOLDIER's student—Cloud was much too small and pathetic looking to be that kid Zack always talked about. Maybe Zack's friend's name was Clarence, or Cornelius… or something. He lazily beckoned Cloud closer, and the cadet gave him a look so incredibly weird that Sephiroth had to bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing at it.

A loud, sudden rumble of thunder scared the poor little cadet into half of a heart attack, and he practically tackled Sephiroth in his attempt to get away from the offending noise. Cloud groaned in embarrassment; he was really going for the gold with the whole first impressions thing.

If he was being scored on it, he'd probably be in the negatives by now.

"The elevators always break down." Sephiroth spoke up, awkwardly patting the boy on the back. "Didn't you know that?"

Cloud leaned back, settling between the General's bent legs, his own two legs on either side of the older man. He blushed at the position and looked down at his lap. "I've only been in them twice, sir. While unconscious." He mumbled, jumping when another rumble of thunder shook the elevator, and the loud pitter-patter of a sudden downpour hammered the glass box.

"Unconscious?" the General repeated, cocking an eyebrow.

The cadet sighed, pulled on his shirt sleeve, then waved his arm around. Sephiroth wasn't sure why he was doing it, but it looked like he was swatting flies. "I fainted every other time, and I wouldn't even go on the stupid things if Zack's apartment wasn't on floor thirty-seven, so I don't have a choi—"

"Zack?" Sephiroth cut him off quickly, the second eyebrow shooting up; only SOLDIERs lived on floor thirty-seven, and only one Zack. "As in… Zack Fair?" Cloud nodded, and the silver-haired man's brow furrowed in confusion. "How do you know Zack?"

"H-He's my mentor, sir." Cloud squeaked, leaning away from Sephiroth as the General leaned closer and studied his face curiously.

"Huh. I thought his student's name was Clarice." The General mused, leaning back against the glass. He shrugged, waved his hand dismissively, and picked his book back up.

Clarice? Cloud sputtered wordlessly; the General thought his name was Clarice?

And then the panic set in. What if he died or something, and nobody could identify his body? Would Sephiroth say his name was Clarice? Wasn't Clarice a girl's name? Did the General think he was a girl?

He frowned; he most certainly was not a girl. He had the body parts to prove it, too!

And why was Sephiroth just reading again? Cloud cast a wary glance back to the abandoned pile of paperwork on the opposite side of the elevator. Was he supposed to go back? He turned his head back to Sephiroth, who was staring intently at the book he held open in his hand. Was he even allowed to move without permission?

He decided not to risk it. "U-Um, sir?"

Cat-like green eyes glanced at him over the top of the book, one eyebrow raised. "Yes?"

"D-Do you want me to go back over there now?" Cloud asked meekly, already inching away from the man.

"Are you scared?"

Blue eyes blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

Sephiroth sighed and closed the book again; he was positive he'd been pretty clear. "Are you afraid?"

"Of what, sir?"

"Me." Sephiroth deadpanned, his expression blank.

For a long moment, Cloud worked his mouth wordlessly. What kind of question was that? Did the General intimidate him? Yes. Scare him?

…Alright, maybe a little. But in defense, Cloud was afraid of marshmallows.

"Yes, sir." He replied honestly; it was the best policy, right?

The silver-haired man's face dropped into a frown, and he nodded stiffly before returning to his book. "Then you're dismissed to your side of the elevator."

So maybe honesty wasn't the best policy. Cloud frowned at the General, who was visibly upset about that minor tidbit of information; did Sephiroth actually care what people thought of him? Oh gods, had Cloud offended him? He cast a panicky glance back towards 'his' side of the elevator, bit his lip, and turned back to Sephiroth. He didn't want to go back to the other side. The other side was empty, his best friend would be a stack of papers waiting to slice into his skin, and it was a trillion mile drop to solid ground. Lightning flashed, and a roar of thunder made Cloud wince; right, there was that thunderstorm, too.

And this side had Sephiroth. And… well, that was the only excuse Cloud could think of to stay. So, with a confident intake of breath, he pulled on the man's sleeve and waited until he glanced over his book once more. "What're you reading?" he blurted dumbly. The title of the book was staring him right in the face.

The General blinked, then turned the book around to read the title. He blinked again, squinted his eyes, then raised his eyebrows and returned to reading it. "Loveless."

Cloud frowned as the man resumed ignoring him. Slowly, he tilted his head; had Sephiroth been… squinting? He cast a quick glance around the elevator and scooted closer—dangerously close, considering his brain was telling him to abort the mission when his groin came a bit too close to Sephiroth's. "What's it about?"

Sephiroth was silent for a long moment, and Cloud peeked over the top of the book to see him staring blankly at the pages. Cat-like green eyes rose to meet his, and Sephiroth gave a long sigh, settling a narrowed, warning glare on the teen. "What you are about to see does not leave this elevator." He hissed, reaching into his pocket. "Is that understood?"

Cloud nodded mutely, eyes wide and fearful. What was he pulling out of his pock—oh gods, it was a case. He stared at the case, wondering if the man was about to pull a Men In black, and whip out a memory eraser. He did not want that—Cloud very much enjoyed his memories! The case opened, and Cloud gasped, openly gaping.

Sephiroth had reading glasses.

And he looked good in them. Really good.

…Oh gods, not now. Cloud slammed his hands into the man's chest and pushed himself a good foot away, hastily drawing his knees up. Nothing to see here, nope—absolutely not. Sephiroth looked completely baffled and hurt, and Cloud cursed puberty with every fiber of his being. And hormones. And his body, and those toothpicks people put in those little finger sandwiches—were they trying to make him choke? Sephiroth's face turned into the most adorable pout Cloud had ever seen (and he had seen a lot, thanks to Zack), and the cadet once again cursed himself. "You look good, sir." He stated, offering what he hoped was an encouraging smile.

Of course, it came across more like a maniacal creeper-grin, but it was the thought that counted, right? Was Sephiroth… blushing? Cloud blinked, the corners of his mouth dropping; he stared for a long, quiet moment until Sephiroth cleared his throat uncomfortably and brought the book back up to read. He squealed to himself mentally; he had made the General blush. He sat in the middle of the small elevator, listening to the dying downpour and just staring at Sephiroth as he read.

Honestly, he really did match his creeper-grin with his creeper-staring.

Sephiroth raised his gaze from the book once more, locking his eyes onto Cloud's face. "Cadet, would you like to read this with me?"

"W-What?"

A bored, over-exaggerated sigh left the General, and he gestured to the book. "Would you like to read Loveless with me?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "We may be here for awhile."

Cloud swallowed hard; he'd have to sit close to his hero. Close like, close-close. The kind of close that was even closer than Zack-invading-everyone's-personal-space close. He looked down. Hormonal surprise gone? Check. Determined, he nodded his head and crawled towards Sephiroth. He could do this!

And he was, except he was going about as fast as a snail. A dead snail, to be exact. He was shaking so much, he could barely balance himself when he lifted a limb. Sephiroth cocked his head slightly, patting the space between his legs. After taking a really deep breath, Cloud crawled the rest of the way towards the man, and sat down a good half of a foot away from him, between his legs. Sephiroth rolled his eyes and snaked an arm around the teen, pulling him closer—and earning a rather loud and girlish squeak of surprised protest.

Sephiroth slipped one hand under the page, and it didn't take Cloud long to catch on that he was meant to turn the page when he finished. They read a good five pages before the teen tilted his head back, brushing his blonde spikes against the General's chest and pouted. "Sir, not to offend, but…" he gnawed his lip for a second, then shrugged helplessly. "This book sucks."

Green eyes blinked down at him, silver brows arched high above them. And then Sephiroth laughed; not a small chuckle, but a full out laugh, during which he bumped his jaw on Cloud's poor head and then promptly slammed it back into the elevator.

If Cloud was a normal person, he'd be laughing. But no, Cloud was not normal. In fact, he was panicking because Sephiroth had just slammed his head into the glass wall of an elevator. What if he got a concussion and passed out in the elevator? They'd think that he killed the Great General Sephiroth! What would they do to him? Kill him? Send him to do guard duty for the rest of forever at the Northern Crater?

"S-Sir? Are you okay?" he gasped, twisting his body around and staring wide-eyed.

The General choked out another small laugh, then proceeded to rub the back of his head and smile down at the blonde. The book had ended up between them, and he picked it up, closed it, and set it aside. Cloud was gaping in awe by now; with glasses, Sephiroth was gorgeous—smiling with glasses made him the biggest hunksicle ever.

He laughed again, then shook his head slowly. "I actually borrowed it from Genesis. He insists I read it." He explained, pointing one slender finger at the book. "Honestly, I think it's the worst piece of literature I've ever read—and I've read more than half of the books on Zack's bookshelf."

Cloud giggle-snorted, then clapped his hands over his mouth and snorted again, leading to another loud fit of laughter from Sephiroth. In seconds, they were both almost literally laughing their asses off; Cloud tumbled over and was draped across on of the General's knees, clutching his stomach while adorable little giggles sneaked out of his mouth.

And then it kind of hit Cloud like a baseball to the forehead.

Here he was, a lowly cadet that was completely terrified of needles, Hojo, birds, marshmallows, peanut butter sandwiches, Zack's friend Angeal, the Turks, lightning—well, you get the point—sitting on the floor of a glass elevator (which he was also afraid of) with General Sephiroth. And they were laughing like they were the best of friends. His laughter calmed and he sat back up, smiling happily; he liked the idea of being friends with the man. Cloud had always seen the General as a man to admire and fear—never one to laugh over how stupid a book was. It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least, and he could see why Zack was friends with the man.

A tune Cloud immediately recognized as one of his favorite songs rang out through the elevator, and Sephiroth's hand dove into his pocket. It withdrew seconds later, clutching a phone, and he held one finger up, gave Cloud a smile, and flipped it open. "Hello?"

The cadet drowned out the conversation—it was rude to eavesdrop, after all—and slid his own phone out of his pocket, staring down at it. He glanced back up at Sephiroth, then back at his phone again. In a rather huge fit of courage (or quite possibly plain stupidity brought on by a fear of nearly everything in the world), he made a decision. He was going to ask for the General's number.

"Cloud? Yeah, he's here." Cloud perked up at the mention of his name and cocked his head. Sephiroth mouthed 'Zack' at him. "He doesn't seem all that scared to me. I don't know, Zack. Twenty minutes maybe? Alright. Yeah, whatever. Tell Angeal I said hello."

He closed the phone, shaking his head; Zack was nosy as all hell, and he apparently was incapable of texting Cloud and asking where he was. Typical Zack. Cloud inched forward, offering up his phone, and Sephiroth gave it a curious glance. "What?"

"Can I, um…" he stared down at his phone, blushing. "C-Can I have your number, sir?"

When he didn't get a reply, he nervously started to lower his arm, readying every apology he could muster up to save himself from an extremely bloody death. It would really be just his luck; one of the few times he'd ever been courageous would lead to his death. Somehow, it made a lot of sense to poor little Cloud, and since he really enjoyed life, (despite all of his fears) he wasn't quite ready to die. Much to his surprise, a hand wrapped around his and pried his phone from between his fingers. He jerked his head up just in time to see Sephiroth flip the phone open and start putting something into it. After a moment, he held it out to Cloud, and pointed to the screen displaying his contacts.

"The first number is my phone, and the second is my office." He explained, pointing to them; Cloud's eyes widened considerably. "I ask that you give neither away."

Cloud opened his mouth to reply, but a startled squawk escaped him instead when the elevator jerked back to life, and resumed its procession to the 44th floor. He retrieved his phone and slid it back into his pocket, snatched up the paper work, and stumbled to his feet. A quick glance was cast at his elevator companion, and he was startled to find cat-like eyes gazing back at him; the glasses were gone, and the copy of Loveless was clenched in his hand at his side. Apparently, Cloud's day hadn't been shocking enough already, because Sephiroth leaned down and kissed him on the lips, pulling away just as the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open.

When Zack went to meet his two friends, he had expected poor Cloud to come running out, screaming bloody murder because he'd been stuck in an elevator for a good thirty minutes. He was shocked to find Sephiroth calmly walking out, and Cloud seemingly frozen in place, eyes wide and mouth open.

"Spike?" Zack yelped, making his way around Sephiroth; the General half-turned, cocking an eyebrow at the cadet. "You okay, kid?"

Cloud nodded dumbly, eyes glued to Sephiroth. "Y-Yeah. I'm fine." He spluttered, letting Zack drag him out of the glass box. "Hey, Zack?"

"Hm?"

"I don't think I'm afraid of elevators anymore." The cadet claimed. He gave a quick, shy smile to Sephiroth, who promptly returned it.

The General reached forward and gently pulled the paperwork out of Cloud's grip. He offered Zack a casual two-fingered salute, then turned and headed down the hall, tossing a wave over his shoulder. A quarter of the way down the hallway, he stopped and glanced over his shoulder at Cloud, a stern look on his face. "And remember Cloud," he started. "What happened in the elevator is between you and me."

"Yes, sir." Cloud replied, grinning. Zack, eyebrows high, glanced between the two curiously.

As soon as Sephiroth turned the corner, Zack was quite literally all over the cadet—clinging to him, shaking his shoulders, and jumping everywhere. "What happened, Spike? Did he try to kill you? Want me to tell Ange—"

"Zack! Zack, it's fine!" Cloud yelped, swatting the hands away—after all, who knows where Zack's hands had been recently. He stuck his tongue out at his best friend, a silly smile on his face. "What happens in the elevator, stays in the elevator."

Zack gave Cloud a doubtful look before playfully punching him on the shoulder and teasing him about his similarity to a chocobo's ass. Laughing, they both stepped back into the elevator and hit the key for the 37th floor. The doors slid closed, and this time, Cloud didn't even flinch.

So maybe Cloud was still afraid of fishbowls, puddles, paint, mud, and hand sanitizer. Maybe he was still positive that a monster was dwelling in his closet, his toilet would someday explode with him on it, and just a little bit paranoid that he'd get a tapeworm from Shinra's cooking. He was still terrified of Angeal and Genesis, though he'd only ever met Angeal—but he had heard that Genesis had quite the temper. But Cloud wasn't afraid of Sephiroth anymore.

And maybe those glass elevators weren't that scary.

…Unless his elevator companion happened to be Hojo or something. But that wasn't very likely, right?

Oh, Cloud. Why so scared of the possibility of flying towards the ground at a million miles per hour in an elevator? You wuss.

...That said, I'm also terrified of heights and elevators, and the one time I ever rode in a glass elevator, I think I almost killed somebody. Had to take a glass elevator up the CN Tower in Toronto, and I was strangling my friend in an attempt to get as far from the glass part as possible. 8D

Thanks for reading. Hope you liked it~ Review?