Under Birth

by dentedsky

#50 – Wood
He thought about many things and Brother was the foremost as he pushed up from the gravel, glass and broken wood; because it was all Brother's fault, and nothing was going to change his lust for revenge.

#49 – Winter
Cloud knew it was going to be one of those crappy nights because of the fact that it never fucking snowed in Midgar and yet it did now, big droopy bits of it, and a person down the street who looked exactly like... but it couldn't have been, because they were dead.

#48 – Welcome
"CLONEs are sterile and therefore we breed a different way, by being reborn and – honestly, I'm surprised you don't know – so I'm sort of his son and yet I know you, so Brother, are you going to stand there in your doorway gawking at me or are you going to let me in?"

#47 - Water
He had to hold tight to his seat lest he fall off and hit his head and it would explode and he would die... because Yazoo, the thin, trigger-happy, good-looking one was using his shower and he could hear the woosh of the water... he swallowed hard.

#46 - War
To justify their... tentative relationship, it was easy to blame Shin-Ra and their despicable lust for creating super-human soldiers; and so there they were, blaming it all on trench fever.

#45 - Ugly
The next time Cloud saw Yazoo was at 3 o'clock in the morning at a gay strip club called 'Sphere' (he didn't go there often, really, but he'd been confused for the last few days and needed alcohol) and Yazoo was there, half naked with ugly faces leering at him and all Cloud wanted to do was wrap a blanket around Yazoo's thin shoulders and take him home.

#44 - Taboo
Yazoo said he was sorry, though Cloud was still giving him the silent treatment, until Yazoo dropped a tabby kitten on Cloud's lap and said "his name is Taboo; like Yazoo only not as cool."

#43 - Summer
Yazoo hates Cloud; hates Cloud for killing his brothers and hates his silence and hates his guilt and his eyes like crystal water and hair like the spun thread of summer... but most of all he hates him because he loves him, which is the bare root of Yazoo's despair.

#42 - Strange
There was an error made when they were mixing Yazoo's genetic cocktail; it made him strange and moody but the worst of it was the seizures he had a couple of times a year, and Cloud had to ride to what was left of the Sector 6 Markets to get the antidote.

#41 - Stable
"I have... chocobo stables east from here, and if you want to, we can go for a couple of days and... you can ride the gold one, if you want."

#40 - Spring
Yazoo's jealousy of Denzel springs from seemingly nowhere; it's irrational and unnamed fear, all because Cloud looks at Denzel and smiles.

#39 - Solid
Yazoo accidentally walked in on Cloud when he was getting changed and Yazoo had to clench his jaw to stifle his moan - because Cloud's chest was hairless, solid and creamy-white.

#38 - Snow
"It always snows when you're around," murmured Cloud, glancing away from the snow flakes like glitter in Yazoo's hair and lashes.

#37 - Snakes
He dreams of Yazoo naked and walking towards him in a garden full of life, and there are snakes wrapped around his thin shoulders but he's smiling, smiling, smiling and there's something red in his hand, lifting it forward...

#36 - Secret
Tifa looked at Cloud in sad desperation that night, wondering why he was keeping secrets again when they could be so close, best friends even; but Cloud spent all his time in his small, dark apartment these days.

#35 - Roses
Cloud wasn't particularly good with words, especially saying sorry or I love you, and so he did the next best thing: he bought Yazoo roses (and Yazoo just stared at them in mild disgust but that's another story altogether.)

#34 - Regret
...And Cloud regretted killing Kadaj but not Sephiroth, and he regretted staring at Yazoo's lips but not his pale wrists, and he regretted telling his friends about Yazoo but he certainly didn't regret letting him back into his life.

#33 - Rain
"I'm sure you know by now Brother, that when they made me they made me mixed up – I think I was supposed to be female because I'm addicted to... haha, I'm addicted to sex in a way that is just twisted, and only standing in freezing cold rain stops it for a while."

#32 - Pretty
The stage production of Loveless had re-opened and afterwards, when they were standing under the bright lights of the city did Cloud look at Yazoo, then kissed him softly, because Yazoo was pretty, so pretty; then Yazoo slapped him across the face and told him he wasn't a girl so don't call him pretty, thank you very much.

#31 - Poison
Yazoo thought about hitting Brother over his head with a mallet, or running him over with a car... then he decided poison in his dinner wine was a lot more elegant, only when Cloud went to sip it Yazoo knocked it out of his hand.

#30 - Peace
The two of them could never lead a peaceful life, but they could try, and perhaps it could always be peaceful behind the bedroom door where Cloud kissed Yazoo a second time and this time, Yazoo did not protest.

#29 - Old
When Cloud came home Yazoo was laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach, which was strange in itself, but then he saw his own old things strewn around the lounge room – including the his silk purple dress and blonde wig.

#28 - New
They stared at the motorbike now in two parts, and Yazoo told Cloud he either had to somehow glue the two pieces back together or buy him a new one.

#27 - Metal
Cloud felt the cool, sharp blade against his bare back, but by then it was too late – Yazoo already had tears in his eyes and was whispering, "It's your fault, all your fault..."

#26 - Lost
He felt lost in the sheets of his own bed, because Yazoo had left in the early hours of morning.

#25 - Light
Cloud's light had dimmed and they did not understand why, until Cloud couldn't even drink Yuffie's sake and Vincent said, "He's in love."

#24 - Hope
Cloud believed Yazoo would come back someday, but waiting was never Cloud's strong suit – he left as soon as he could to go look for him.

#23 - Honour
"I honour you family and I respect your feelings, but even if I kiss you here," –kiss- "or here" –kiss- "or even here" –lick- "nothing much is going to change because the past is behind us."

#22 - Hollow
It was the hollow of Brother's throat that Yazoo liked best, because Yazoo could sit over him and pour hot honey into the dip and then lap it away.

#21 - Head
It was The Plan of the Century to get Cloud to talk of his strange private life; so Yuffie was only a little guilty for making Cloud drink so much he had a headache in the morning.

#20 - Green
They were Cloud's favourite – milk chocolate with bright green, peppermint filling, and Cait Sith danced around him chanting if you don't tell me who it is you won't get any! then shrieked in agony when Cloud stole the chocolates and kicked him over the wall.

#19 - Grave
Vincent took him to Lucrecia's waterfall of all places, and said "Remember when I told you my deepest darkest secret?" but Cloud only looked at him in confusion.

#18 - Foot
Tifa had put her foot down: no more lies, she had said, no more secrets, it's time you told me why you're keeping a Sephiroth clone in your apartment.

#17 - Food
When Cloud thought of food with sex he could only imagine two obese people going at it with cream and doughnuts, but the new experiences with Yazoo taught him that peppermint, ginger and cinnamon were more than just herbs.

#16 - Flying
Neither of them could actually fly; but they could hover and tread air then watch each other fall.

#15 - Flexible
Cloud knew how flexible Yazoo was when they had been fighting, so he anticipated that the sex would be good; but he was wrong: it was absolutely fucking fantastic.

#13 - Fall
He and Kadaj and Loz had watched Meteor fall from the Midgar mountains, and when the planet saved the humans he knew it was a human whom he had to blame.

#12 - End
Brother's friends all knew now, and it was an end to their blissful relationship; because within the next week the Deep Soldiers came and ruined peace.

#11 - Earth
The Deep Soldiers came from deep within the planet and Cloud and Yazoo looked at one another and knew it was their time to fight yet again.

#10 - Duty
It was now Cloud's duty to keep Yazoo's mental state stable now that he was going a little insane with pure blood lust.

#09 - Drink
Cloud pressed his lips to Yazoo's shoulder where Yazoo had been hit by a poison dark and sucked the poison out; it was a lethal move on Cloud's part but Yazoo's eyes were fluttering, and Cloud's eyes were watering, and something exploded in the distance yet still Vincent's gunshots could be heard... there was still hope, as there had to be.

#08 - Doors
Yazoo opened one of the doors to the reactor they were investigating, then looked over his shoulder where Cloud was on the phone to Vincent again... he scowled.

#07 - Despair
Weiss took one look at Yazoo and Yazoo knew it was his maker he was seeing, knew he knew, and Yazoo blushed in shame.

#06 - Dark
As Yazoo pulled Brother's shoulder guard away, he saw that his blood was black in the darkening light, but worst of all was the fact that Brother wouldn't look him in the eye.

#05 - Coffee
To be on the Shera away from harm, to have clean clothes not soaked with blood and Mako, to drink a real cup of coffee... oh, but it was nothing compared to finding Yazoo alive after two days of having lost each other in the ruins of Kalm.

#04 - Bugs
...and the bugs in Mideel, he could not stand the bugs, they got into his food, tangled in his silver hair; and he knew Brother meant well when he sent him to the Mideel Hospital but seriously, the bugs!

#03 - Beginning
"This is the beginning of the end," repeated Rosso, staring at them and smirking, and then she frowned at their clasped hands.

#02 - Apples
Cloud dreams again of Yazoo naked and walking in a calm, fragrant garden; and there's snakes slithering in his arms and around his shoulders, and he holds out a ripe red fruit, urging Cloud to take it...

#01 - Air
They could only hover before, but now they can fly, and although Cloud is dying so is Yazoo, with their bodies light as air.

End