Summary: Azrael needs a few things beaten into his head. Cloud is more than willing to do it.
Disclaimer: Az and Ak are mine. Most of these OCs are mine. Rev is kingmunkey's. Cloud is SE's.
Queen's Quornor: While waiting for inspiration in my various chaptered fics, and trying to get past a bad case of writer's block in "Seed", I've been writing oneshots. Since I've accumulated four of these things, and possibly another chaptered fic, I guess I might as well post them. This one has been sitting in a notebook for about a month now. Small note: Azrael has two swordplay teachers. Revan teaches him actual blade-work, since they both use katanas, but Cloud teaches him how to use the environment to his advantage in a fight, as well as using kicks and punches and the like in a swordfight.
The Lesson
The blades crashed together, their gleaming edges striving to cut through the fragile skin behind them and deep into vulnerable flesh. Sapphire eyes glowed at the crimson-eyed youth opposite their owner, noting that he was striving hard to win but also keeping his massive strength in check. The strain of holding back shone in his face, the sweat running from his brow, the grim set of his jaw.
"Warriors aren't supposed to hold back in a fight, Azrael," Cloud chided.
"This is just a sparring match!" Azrael grunted. He shoved harder, pushing Masamune tighter against First Tsurugi. Cloud merely shifted enough for the clench to hold.
"Sparring is practice for real fights," the swordsman stated. "You should hold back your full power, but not your full strength. How can you be certain you have improved if you're holding back?"
A flicker of fear flared in Azrael's eyes. "I don't want to kill you," he whispered.
Cloud frowned, then shoved the teen back enough to unbalance him. A step to the side, then he swept the teen's ankles out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor, Masamune bouncing on the tile and sliding far out of reach. Azrael started to get up, but froze when First Tsurugi kissed his throat, the merest trickle of blood oozing from his neck.
"But your opponent might want to kill you," Cloud growled.
Azrael stared up at him, cranberry eyes wide. Cloud smirked, then removed his sword and offered the youth his hand. "I'm tougher than the average person, Az. If I could take your father and Jenova, not to mention both of them at once, then I can take you. And don't look at me like that. I won't kill you." Azrael took his hand and let the blond pull him to his feet. "Besides, your mother would kill me if I even scratched you."
The silver-haired teen snorted, going to retrieve Masamune. "I don't need Mom's protection anymore."
Cloud looked at him, surprised. "Where did you get that idea, Azrael?"
Glowing cranberry eyes narrowed into a harsh glare as the teen whipped around to face him. "I've never needed her 'protection'. Mom always runs away when she thinks I need protecting. Abandoning me is her only solution. If that's the only kind of protection she can give me, then I'd rather protect myself!"
Cloud crossed the room in three steps, his gloved fist already in motion. Azrael hit the floor, one hand rising to cover his sore jaw. The blond swordsman merely seethed, staring down at him with enraged sapphire eyes. "Azrael Forrest, you are the dumbest, most arrogant, short-sighted, selfish idiot I have ever met!" he snarled, teeth bared. "Do you have any idea what your mother put herself through on your behalf?"
The silver-haired teen glared right back, the look still threatening despite his position on the floor. "I know! Father was Mom's soul-mate and he died, leaving her knocked up with me. She went into hiding to have me, completely cut herself off from all her friends so Hojo would never find out, and in order to prevent anyone from even suspecting that I existed she gave me to Monica to raise. She would only visit me when she felt it was absolutely safe to do so. I already know that!" He rose to his feet, his eyes never leaving Cloud's. "But that doesn't change the fact that she fucking abandoned me, and tried to kill herself when she decided she couldn't deal with her shitty life anymore!"
"Did you ever stop to think about what that must have cost your mother? She missed all your firsts, moments she'll never be able to get back. She had to pretend you didn't exist, when all she probably wanted was to be your mother, and raise you herself! Do you know how much it must have hurt her to see other people, including her fellow Turks, with their children? And what about when she was off in Junon with Rufus before Meteorfall? Don't you think it must have killed her to go across the damn continent to be his bodyguard, and leave you behind in Midgar?" Cloud spat. "I've seen how Tifa suffered when our kids started going to school. I can't imagine how badly your mother was hurting back then!"
"She tried to kill herself, over Reno and Rev!" Azrael screamed. "If she loved me so much, why would she want to die so much? Huh, Cloud? Tell me!"
Mako flared in the sapphire irises, glowing brighter as Cloud stalked closer to the silver-haired teen. "Remember what happens to Turks who kill their collegues? Did you really want to sit there and watch your mother executed by the same people you know as family? What mother would want to put her son through that, especially when she thought he'd already been through enough?!"
Azrael didn't realize that he'd been backing away from his teacher until his back hit the wall. Cloud's hand was around his neck a second later, loose but threatening, the fingers right over his jugular and carotid arteries. The blond leaned in until his azure, mako-lit eyes were all that the teen could see.
"Your mother could have left you with Monica and never come back, Azrael," he hissed, emphasizing each and every word. "She could have thrown herself off the Shinra Building while pregnant with you. But she didn't. She's done her best to make up for all the things she had to do, to give you the best life possible. She loves you so damn much, but you're too wrapped up in your own fucking self-pity to see it! Now you get your fucking head out of your fucking ass and start appreciating your mother, or I'll beat them both into the ground. Understand?"
Azrael said nothing, but his eyes reflected the conflict within. He was caught between a boy's love for his mother, a man's desire for independence, and the rebellious, hateful need to lash out at authority figures common to all teenagers. Cloud hoped that trait would vanish when he finished adolescence, for Akalara and Revan's sakes. They'd told him and Tifa about some of the fights Azrael had had with them lately, battles that had shaken the foundations of their home and made his little brother cry.
He'd be a fine man someday. But he needed to understand and forgive first.
Cloud's musings were interrupted by the feel of something cold and hard pressing against the back of his head, and the unmistakable sound of a gun's hammer being drawn back. "I'd suggest you let go of my son and put your hands where I can see them," a melodic female voice ordered, the edge of absolute fury adding weight to the unspoken threat.
Cloud smirked at his pupil, then let go of Azrael's neck and raised his hands above his head. Azrael peered around his teacher's body in time to see his mother reaching for her handcuffs, still pressing her gun to the back of Cloud's head. Her face was colder, angrier, then he'd ever seen it before.
"Mom, it's okay!" he exclaimed, thinking fast. "Cloud was just showing me how to choke somebody. I'm all right!"
Akalara glanced at him doubtfully. "Couldn't he have used one of the dummies for that?"
"He did use a dummy, Mom. I just needed something a little more up close and personal than that."
"Really." She forced Cloud to spin around, her .44 still ready to blow his brains out at a moment's notice. "Is that true?"
Cloud nodded. "He just wasn't getting it, Ak."
Azrael watched his mother's eyes narrow in suspicion, but she begrudgingly holstered her gun beneath her jacket and put the cuffs away. Cloud opened his mouth to apologize, but Akalara waved him off.
"Come on, Az. Rev's waiting in the car," she muttered, rubbing one hand over her swollen abdomen.
"I take it you've got an appointment with the OB?" Cloud inquired, glancing over at Azrael as he went to grab Masamune again.
"Yeah." A small, tired smile appeared on the green-haired Turk's face as she watched her firstborn. "The twins are supposed to have their first pictures taken today. I've going to hang them up beside Steel's first picture."
Cloud saw Azrael flinch, another reminder of what Akalara had sacrificed for him. There were no ultrasound pictures of her eldest son for her to frame and preserve.
The silver-haired teen straightened, then went to his mother and put his arms around her in a careful hug. Akalara, surprised and delighted by this uncharacteristic display of affection, stretched up to return the embrace. "I'm sorry, Mom."
"For what?" she asked, trying to draw back to look into his face. Azrael didn't loosen his grip. "Az?"
The cranberry eyes stared over his mother's head, looking directly at Cloud. "I've said a lot of mean things to and about you lately. I'm really sorry. I just had a lot going through my mind, and I wasn't thinking."
"Az, it's okay. All teenagers say things like that." Akalara squeezed her firstborn again, then moved back. He let her go this time. "No matter how much you hurt me with your words, I will always be your mother, and love you as my son. I'll always forgive you, so long as you are honest with me."
Azrael smiled down at her, unaware that Cloud was smiling too. "I love you, Mom."
"I love you too, Az. Now, let's go. We need to see if you and Steel are getting baby brothers or sisters in a couple months."
"See you on Friday, Cloud," Azrael called, before mouthing 'thank you' at him and following his mother out the door.
Cloud merely sighed and shook his head. Azrael was going to be a fine man, indeed.