you should understand by yourself, but saying it doesn't hurt: AU where Gen and Angel stayed, Tifa still went to Midgar. It's an OS so let's not linger on unnecessary plot holes.

OS

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Sephiroth was half-listening to Lazard, half-thinking about the diner he was going to make. It was his turn this night. Zack had returned from a mission earlier in the day and had dropped at Sephiroth's office to whine about how he was dead asleep and letting him cook diner would be a fire hazard.

Listening with only one ear, Sephiroth opened the message he just received from Zack.

"Gd3 u ."

Sephiroth lifted an eyebrow then put back his PHS in his pocket. Clearly, it was an error. Zack had a tendency to sit on his PHS and send this sort of cryptid messages. At first Sephiroth tried to decipher them, after all Zack used a lot of contractions and his messages looked like Turk encrypted code. He had learned during the years Zack had a tendency to sit on his PHS and send these messages.

"You're not listening," Lazard sighed.

"I did," Sephiroth answered. "It will be done by the end of the week."

The General rose under Lazard suspicious eyes. He was trying to know if Sephiroth was lying or not. Which only made the SOLDIER smirk.

He saluted the Head of Department and exited just as he received another text from Zack. An excuse for the error surely.

"Miss u prety in th e bath with choboco"

Stopping in the corridor, Sephiroth took a second to decipher the message. This one was intentional, but still poorly written. The worry went up in him, twisting his gut. He took a deep breath and walked toward the lift. His day would end in twenty minutes, but he called it a day and headed for the quarters' floor.

The way Zack messaged him resembled too much his behaviour and misspelling when under a Mako shot side effects.

"Are you in my apartment?" he sent Zack.

"Yp"

"Is that a yes?"

"Yeeeeeees"

Sephiroth put away his PHS and stared straight ahead. He didn't need to be worried; Cloud was with him. "choboco" couldn't be another thing than Zack misspelling the nickname of the blond. And, even if the young man never assisted any SOLDIER passing through a Mako booster, Zack was habituated and loud about his needs. Cloud had to be nervous, but he was competent. There wasn't a reason to worry.

Except Zack hadn't been programmed for a shot. The logical conclusion was that he encountered Hojo after checking up his health with a doc. The simple idea of Zack facing Hojo made Sephiroth's skin crawl. There was little chance the scientist gave a normal booster to the First, and not a cocktail of his own.

The lift arrived to his floor and Sephiroth counted to ten to calm down when the doors took too long to open for his liking. He was out the instant the space was large enough to let him slide between the doors. He headed for his apartment, swallowing the distance with long strides. The floor was silent, except for his own apartment, but he didn't investigate it. He opened the door and took a second to listen to the sounds in his place.

"Fuck, Zack! You're dumb," Cloud said, followed by his own laugh and Zack's.

There was water movements and the "bath" mention in Zack's message made more sense. The exchange eased his worry. It was with a more sedated pace that he went for the bathroom.

"Look I'm a chocobo!" Zack said, his words slurred.

"You look like an elephant, not a chocobo," Cloud answered flatly.

Sephiroth opened the door and scanned the piece. Cloud and Zack were in the bath filled to the brim with bubbles that fell on the ground in little clouds. Zack's uniform was on the rim of the sink, dry, but Cloud's one was soaked and at the bottom of the bath. The bottle for foam bath was on the ground too, empty.

Both of the younger men turned their head to him as he entered.

"Sir!" Cloud squeaked. The blond would deny it, but bot Zack and Sephiroth knew the truth.

"Seph!" Zack said, a big smile on his face. He leaned over the bath and made grabby motions at him, "C'mere."

"It's not what you think!" Cloud practically yelled, face heating up.

"It isn't?" Sephiroth asked, lifting an eyebrow before adding. "And you can call me Sephirtoh when off duty."

"We-we're not having sex!" Cloud said, more red than a tomato. "Don't be mad."

"Seph!" Zack called. Or whined.

The General approached the dark-haired man and gave him his hands to grab. Zack tugged on them to made Sephiroth lean down and kissed him. His foul breath displeased Sephiroth. What did Hojo give him?

"I'm not mad, Cloud," Sephiroth said, straightening up. He smiled when the blond sighed in relief. "I can see you are not having sex. And even if you did I wouldn't be mad. We were pursuing you for months now. I would be happy for you and Zack if you entered into a relationship."

The blond covered in foam all but slipped and disappeared in the bubbles a second in a welp. He came up looking dumbstruck and fixing Sephiroth like he waited for him to go back on his words. Cloud straightened himself up under Zack's snickers and kicked the puppy, who didn't stop.

"What? You're pursuing me? Both of you?"

"What?" Zack echoed. "You thought I was the only one?"

Cloud's eyes were huge with shock, "I thought none of you were trying anything! I thought you were only friendly!"

"I kissed you!" Zack said before starting giggling in his shoulder.

At least he was not in pain, Sephiroth mussed before giving back his attention to Cloud.

"I thought it was the way Genesis and Angeal said 'hello' and 'bye' back at Banora and you imitated it," he explained, flushing hard. "You spend a lot of time with them."

"You're quite dense," Sephiroth commented as Zack muffled his roaring laughter in his elbow.

Cloud flushed in embarrassment and kicked Zack again. He pouted and looked at Sephiroth.

"It is more a... slapping motion between cheeks," the general explained. "Not a kiss on lips. Zack was kissing you because he is interested in you."

Beat red, Cloud groaned like a dying animal. He put his hands on his face in hope to hide his embarrassment. He let himself slide lower in the bathtub, the foam helping in his attempt to hide himself from shame.

A tug on his wrists brought back Sephiroth's attention to Zack who calmed from his laughter and pouted for no reason.

"What happened to him?" Sephiroth asked Cloud.

"Uh, my friend Tifa had been trying to find an alcohol strong enough to inebriate SOLDIERs and Zack had been a very willing participant for her experiences," Cloud muttered. He didn't cross his eyes, because of his earlier embarassment or by guilt for having let Zack do that. "She found it. And Zack took like, three drinks? I was gone five minutes to the toilettes and next thing I knew, Zack was grabbing me and whining he wanted a bubble bath and goes chocobo riding. I couldn't give him the later, but I took him home."

Sephiroth resisted the urge to laugh at Cloud. For the last month the "chocobo riding" Zack talked about wasn't about the avian creature, more about a little cadet.

"And took a bubble bath with him," Sephiroth continued about Cloud previous sentence.

"He grabbed me and I fell in," Cloud huffed.

"I wanted a bath with him," Zack explained. He lifted his head to look at Sephiroth in the eyes, . "And I want you too. C'mon! Stop being not in the tub and start being more... in."

Relieved from his earlier anxiety, Sephiroth chuckled at Zack's antics. Obviously the hyperactive First would have been willing to experience alcoholic drinks until the one working on SOLDIERs was found. Knowing Zack the information had to be already out and circulating between the men. That explained why the floor had been so calm in passing.

Zack pulled on his wrists, but Sephiroth freed himself.

"A second, Zack." He turned his attention to Cloud and asked. "Would you let me go in?"

"Uh? It's your tub, why are you asking me?"

"C'mon," Zack whined.

He grabbed Sephiroth by the middle and kept him in a bear crushing hug. He tried to make Sephiroth fell in the bath, but the silver-haired man stood his ground.

"I was pursuing you too, but you never showed any signs of returning my interest," Sephiroth explained. He swallowed, hiding his wounded feelings behind the curtain of silver hairs. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable. Your attraction for Zack does not force you to return my own feelings."

"Seph! Later!" Zack whined.

The General put a hand on Zack's mouth and furrowed his brows at the puppy, "A second, I said."

Cloud looked at him with shock, his mouth forming a big 'o'.

"You're my commanding officer!" Cloud yelled. "And I never thought you were interested in me! You're always so detached and silent and... You're always complaining about the people invading your personal space too. I-... it's a mess. Okay. Get in the tub. Zack is doing the puppy eyes and he's going to cry if it continues."

Sephiroth looked at Zack effectively doing his puppy eyes. He looked at Cloud again, seeing him crossing his arms and muttering in his mother tongue. He didn't know if it was an insult from Cloud, but Zack was starting to tear up and he found himself stripping and putting his hair in a bun before he finished to be worried about Cloud's comfort.

Grinning maniacally, Zack moved so Sephiroth could enter, then he used him as a pillow. With a foot Zack poked at Cloud on the other end of the tub. Cloud retailed by tickling his foot.

"Are you with us, Cloudy?"

"Not if you're using this nickname again," he answered Zack.

Sephiroth felt his heart swell, he lifted his eyes from Zack's shoulder he had been fixing oddly. He met blue eyes, not yet glowing with mako.

"But you want to!" Zack exclaimed happily.

Cloud blushed again. He wrapped his arms around his knees and let his eyes fall on the bubbles.

"Well, obviously, you're both gorgeous and have great personality. I like spending time with both of you. But why are you interested in me? I'm not even a SOLDIER."

"Yet."

Zack lifted his eyes to Sephiroth, grinning at their excellent combined answer. Sephiroth saw a small smile on Cloud's face, even if he tried to hide it behind a hand.

"First!" Zack yelled. "Why I like you? Because you're fun, you're badass, you're cute, you have great hair-"

"I have great hair, seriously?" Cloud interrupted with a blank tone.

"-they're soft and make you look like a chocobo," Cloud huffed so Zack kicked him lightly. "You're making Seph blush, which I always like-"

"I never made him blush!" Cloud interrupted again.

Zack kicked him. Well, tried. Cloud moved and Zack's foot slipped on the plastic of the tub, he would have lost his balance if Sephiroth wasn't holding him.

"Yes, you made me blush," Sephiroth said in a murmur.

"A lot!" Zack added. "You just didn't see. Next time I'll point it."

Sephiroth groaned and hide his head in Zack's shoulder.

"Your turn, Seph. Go on, gush over our chocobo."

Zack turned around, just enough for him to see Sephiroth's face and nudged him. The silver general started blushing, he lowered his head and looked away from the two men. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Zack's devilish grin.

"Look," Zack teased. "He's blushing!"

"I- don't see anything," Cloud murmured. He looked devastated from not seeing it.

"SOLDIERs have better vision than non-enhanced."

Sephiroth's comment seemed to ease Cloud's worry. The blond smiled, the lopsided smile that made Sephiroth's heart flutter.

"Ask Genesis or Angeal if Seph blushed around you," Zack proposed. "They thought you were doing it on purpose."

Cloud emitted a disbelieving sound, but Zack kept smiling. Silence fell between them, except for Zack's contented hum. Cloud even started being comfortable and extended his legs in the tub. Sephiroth met his eyes and read only curiosity in them.

"So, what's your reasons?"

"I share Zack's reasons," Sephiroth whispered. He felt his cheeks getting hotter and couldn't phantom Cloud not seeing it. He was 'pale like an ass' as Zack said. "And you're always giving me one snacks."

Zack stopped humming, starting to drift to sleep, his face pressed against Sephiroth's arm.

"You mean-" Cloud started, sounding surprised. "-the path to your heart start by your stomach?"

A laugh bubbled from the blond before he started laughing out loud. Zack accompanied him even if he had been half asleep a second before. As always Cloud's laugh made Sephiroth's stomach tighten and a smile of his own grew without thinking.

"I like your laugh too," Sephiroth added in a whisper.

A pretty pink colored Cloud's cheeks as his laugh died in a sputter.

"Can we ride the chocobo now?" Zack whispered too loudly for Cloud not to hear.

"No, we can't," Cloud groaned. Though he met Sephiroth and then Zack's eyes. "Maybe later."

Sephiroth felt Zack smile against his skin, he hummed happily just as Zack poked Cloud's leg with his foot. Cloud was theirs now.

.

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NDA: do I like Seph being an awkward softie? Yes! But I love all kind of Seph.