Learning the Ropes Ch.1

It was morning, an hour or so after dawn, and already the little slave had his master's breakfast in hand as he entered his room. He set it down upon his table.

"Cloud."

The blonde boy snapped to attention, eyes drawn automatically to his own feet.

"Today's your lucky day, boy. You've outgrown your job, so you'll be performing for some friends of mine this afternoon. The one willing to pay the most for you shall be your new master. The maids shall handle you until the auction. Now GO!" His Brunette master commanded.
Cloud bowed and quietly left the room. He wasn't necessarily afraid of his master, but he wasn't about to disobey. His only memories were of living in this house, and serving his master as far back as he could remember; so he saw no reason to behave in any other way but being good, if not a little shy. The only thing Cloud had that might've been a clue to his past was a locket that hung around his neck. He had no clue where he got it, or what was inside, but he knew that it was important. Now, however, it was time to deal with those stupid maids who loved to dress him up in all sorts of girly clothes; their only excuse for the torture he suffered at their freezing hands being: "You're just SOOOO CUUUUTE, Cloud-kun!!!"

Today though, the maids were unusually quiet as they dressed him, undoubtedly sad to see their favorite plaything leave. He now stood behind a curtain that blocked his view of the rest of the ballroom.

"Hey man, you gettin' shipped off too? I think it's only us blondes gettin' sold, cause Seifer, Roxas here, and a couple blonde pool boys are gettin sold too," Tidus, a newer slave that was sometimes mistaken for Cloud remarked, "Hey, d'you think we'll still getta hang out?"

Cloud shrugged at this. He'd be lying if he said he wouldn't miss Tidus, but not being mistaken for someone else would be somewhat of a nice change.

"The curtains are opening..." whispered a frightened Roxas, who'd been clinging to Cloud the entire time. They then heard their master speaking to the large crowd before him.

"Now gentlemen," He said in a voice loud enough to carry to the back of the room, "Allow me to show you today's options. First up is Tidus!"

Soon enough, all of Cloud's friends had been bought off, and it was inevitably his turn. He stood near his master, staring at his feet shyly whilst his master listed off all the types of work he could do. As well as this, he added in a list of all of his good qualities, such as his skills in reading, writing and mathematics.

"But, perhaps Cloud's best quality is his singing ability. Cloud, why don't you sing that song you sang a week ago for our guests? I think they'd like to hear that little tune now."

And with that, Cloud sang.

"Stars shining bright above you,
Night breezes seem to whisper I love you
Birds singing in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me

Sweet dreams til sun beams find you,
Sweet dreams that leave our worries far behind you;
But in your dreams, whatever they be,
Dream a little dream of me."

By the time Cloud had finished, half of the room had raised their hands. After an extensive round of eager bidding, Cloud was eventually sold to a silver haired man for eight thousand gil, and now found himself seated in a limousine. The driver looked at the silver haired man questioningly and the silver haired man simply stated: "Rufus will be here in a moment."

"Yessir, general." replied the driver, who Cloud would come to call Marcus.

"So, are ya' Rufus' new errand boy, kid?" Marcus asked, winking at Cloud.

"N-no....Who's that?" Cloud stammered shyly.

The driver smiled with a full blown grin, "Oh, he's not that important..... he's just the son of President Shin-ra..."

He paused then, before Cloud offered a look of unwavering confusion.

"Wait, you don't know what SHINRA is? Boy, do they keep these kids sheltered," he chuckled, winking at the silver haired man. He turned around however, and started the car as a person Cloud presumed to be Rufus eventually got in and offered the simple command of "Drive."

Sephiroth's POV
I had come to the auction because I had to help Rufus with a business deal, not to buy a damn slave for myself. But when that boy sang, I'd suddenly felt an urge to buy him and protect him from all the shady and questionable characters vying for the boy's… Services… The boy's face, hair, eyes, and petite little body were enough to set them all drooling. But his voice… even during the nervous start of the song… that voice was mesmerizing. It had not slipped my attention either that although his eyes shone like a new quarter without a mako glow, he almost certainly started to glow greener when he sang. Well, it is Nibelheim. I wonder if he'd ever tell me how he'd come to be exposed. No matter, I'd worry about that when he began to have his withdrawal symptoms.

This POV is evil XD
Time skip of evil, evil, evilly evil; DOOOOOOOM!(bwa ha ha, XD)

Cloud had graciously been shown around Sephiroth's quarters and the entire SHINRA compound by none other than Marcus himself. Now that he was cleaning Sephiroth's office, he was singing along to the music on Marcus' mp3 player, which he'd let him borrow. He'd been saying something about Cloud needing the exposure to common culture, before he'd roughly thrust the device in the blonde's direction.
"I wake up in the morning,
Put on my face.
The one that's gonna get me,
Through another day.
Doesn't really matter,
How I feel inside.
This life is like a game sometimes...

Then you came around me,
The walls just disappeared.
Nothing to surround me,
To keep me from my fears
I'm unprotected
See how I've opened up
You've made me trust


Sephiroth entered his office, but Cloud paid no attention, too far absorbed in his new found library of popular music.

'Cuz I've never felt like this before
I'm naked... around you
Does it show?
You see right through me
And I can't hide
I'm naked... around you
And it feels so right..."

Cloud continued to sing, his voice carrying across the room to the General's ears, and right when the boy paused to breathe, Sephiroth rapped his knuckles firmly on his desk. Cloud startled, before looking up at him. The blonde simply blushed, before turning off the mp3 player.

"Sorry sir," he whispered meekly.

Sephiroth said nothing on the matter, and merely ordered the boy to go get changed to greet the new cadets. It was their Orientation ceremony, and Sephiroth expressed his expectance of Cloud to attend the event with the General himself. Whilst the boy nodded and scurried off to obediently follow his orders, Sephiroth headed to the bathroom to clear his head of the image of his little slave in his birthday suit.

That's the first chapter. Cloud's gonna sing this one in the next one:
Every drop of rain that falls in Sahara desert says it all
Its a miracle
All gods creations great and small
The golden gate and the Taj Mahal
That's a miracle
Test tube babies being born
Mothers, fathers dead and gone
Its a miracle

Can you guess the Artist? See ya around!