A/N: Gift for Skycee2 on the FF7 Central Fanworks Exchange. Beta'd by tyrannosaurus_rose
Genesis woke up to an armful of disgusting Cloud.
"You forgot to shower. Again." Genesis tended to sleep through things - it was a bad habit he'd picked up sleeping away his days in the caves. So when Cloud wormed his way into the blankets - tracking mud and desert dirt and Miverna knows what else - Genesis had just wrapped his arms around Cloud like he was a particularly warm piece of shit.
Cloud just groaned and cuddled closer. Upon closer inspection his hair was the wrong color. And something… something was moving in it! Seriously this was most disgusting man Genesis had ever met.
Genesis pushed Cloud out of bed.
"What the- Fuck!" Cloud was a vengeful shit in the morning so the blankets, pillows, and Genesis ended up following him down. "Genesis!"
Genesis was, once again, pressed up against his boyfriend, and he could see: "My sheets! Cloud Strife, you do realize these are supposed to be white? Now look at them!"
Cloud blinked at him sleepily. "I don't know. They look whiter than your pasty ass."
Genesis smothered him with a pillow. Right up until a particularly large beetle crawled onto it and he gave up. He didn't shriek. Not at all. He just took a tactical retreat. "For the love of all that is Holy and Glorious clean yourself up. And you have to do laundry and clean up whatever else you tracked in."
Cloud laughed. "I always forget you're afraid of bugs."
Genesis didn't know if Cloud was joking or not. "I will burn you and that crawling monstrosity alive if you get any closer to me."
Cloud gathered the beetle in his hands and walked out. Genesis couldn't believe that body had been pressed against him with so much dirt . Genesis violently shuddered. "I've been in caves with more class than you."
"Well you just stick your dick everywhere." Cloud called back. Genesis was about to throw a fireball at him when there was a worried, "Oh, uh, don't come out here for a while."
Genesis decided that maybe he shouldn't, picked up a book of poetry, and began reading aloud.
"Seriously! You don't have to be that melodramatic about everything. It's just a few bugs." Genesis threw the book blindly out of the bedroom. "Ow. Stop that."
Genesis started reciting Loveless.
Cloud didn't know what he'd done to invite another unstable person dressed in red into his life. Scarlet had been a necessary evil, Vincent a godsend, and Rosso a pain in the ass. But this guy? He just took the cake.
"What do you mean you don't remember me?! Everyone remembers me!"
"Well, you do leave an impression. That's for sure." Cloud wondered if WRO security would be able to deal with him, or if it would be up to Cloud to manhandle yet another crazy ex-SOLDIER out the door.
"I never!" The redhead, dressed head to toe in red (with enough belts to put Vincent to shame), poked Cloud in the sternum. That kinda hurt. "Cloud Strife you miserable piece of shit. You aren't going to say you missed me at all? It's been a decade!"
Cloud had forgotten a lot of things, yeah, but he sincerely doubted he would ever forget someone like this. Then again... "Look. I've forgotten a lot of people. Sorry. It sucks. You'll just have to move on with your life." Whether or not they actually knew each other, Cloud didn't care. So many people had come out of the woodwork after Meteor fell that it was impossible to keep up with them - one bullshit lie after another. Someone saying they were friends with Zack, someone claiming to be an ex-Turk, a former ShinRa scientist looking to repent - it was all nonsense.
The redhead gasped and put a hand to his heart. "Goddess no. Tell me that you haven't, Cloud."
"Haven't what?" Cloud was pretty sure he had some Sleeping Powder he could toss on the stranger if things got too bad.
"You forgot me."
"That's what I just said." Cloud shrugged. He didn't really want to deal with this anymore.
"Your memory has more holes than a sieve, but you actually forgot. About me. ME!"
"Look, I don't know who you are -"
"I!" The redhead drew up to his full height - taller than Cloud. Someone so obnoxious shouldn't be so much taller than him. "Am Genesis Rhapsodos!"
It reminded Cloud of something. "Sounds dumb." That was exactly the word it reminded him of. There was something attached to that 'dumb' though... "Real dumb." Nah, that wasn't it. Dumb… dumb… huh. Ah, well, he'd remember if it was important.
Genesis spluttered.
"If that's all I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"My friend, do you fly away now- ack! Unhand me, you brute! Don't you appreciate poetry?!"
"Naw," Cloud tossed Genesis into the nearest trash bin, intent on rolling him out the door. "I think it belongs there with you. In the trash."
The look on Genesis's face was absolutely disgusting and Cloud almost laughed. "Cloud Strife! I will murder you in your sleep! Just you -" Genesis tried to heavy himself out of the bin, his legs splayed and ass trapped in green plastic. "What - don't you - fucking - I'm stuck!"
Cloud laughed so hard that he thought he was going to throw up.
"There was something I forgot to do yesterday…"
"Like take a blowtorch to your hair?"
Cloud - blissfully clean and still scrubbing the floor where his boots had tracked in mud (seriously who forgot to take off their mud-encrusted boots until the kitchen?) - looked at Genesis. "That's funny coming from the guy who sticks his head in the fireplace."
Genesis scoffed. "We don't own a fireplace."
"Because you burned down the last house." Cloud said it with a look that implied: lesson learned. "But I really am forgetting something…"
"Like how to finish a conversation." Genesis kicked his boyfriend in the foot. "Did you feed your chocobo chicks?"
"They're full grown." Cloud pointed out. "And I don't need to feed them anything special unless I want to breed them."
"I can tell you at least three things you forgot to do last night," Genesis counted. "Starting with not taking off your damn boots, not hosing yourself down before you bothered to come in, not taking a shower, not taking your clothes off before getting into bed, not double checking that you hadn't let trash into the house, and -"
"That's way more than three. They're all pretty much the same thing anyway. I made a mess, but now I cleaned it up so stop bitching." Cloud shrugged and went back to mopping. Genesis sort of wished he was on his hands and knees scrubbing like a lowly servant. "You're probably right, though, it might have been just that."
"Of course. I'm always right." Genesis looked out over the yard - part desert, part grassy field, like everything else in the outer rim of Edge. At least his apple tree was growing properly. "Are you going to visit 7th Heaven?" Cloud had a habit of dropping by now and then, it was the AVALANCHE hang out, after all.
Besides, the things Cloud forgot didn't tend to be things Genesis knew they were. It was never as easy as forgetting to do one of the infinite chores that Genesis listed on the choreboard. The things Cloud forgot were always something more abstract, something he hadn't written down anywhere. Genesis swore it made him more frustrated than Cloud.
"Nah." Cloud made a face like that might have been it, but he went back to mopping. "I like your food better."
"Compliments will get you nowhere, Cloud Strife." Genesis tutted and pulled out some sandwich makings. "Do you want anything in particular?"
"Whatever you stuff me with will be fine." Cloud smirked.
"You -" Genesis almost dropped the meat and felt a telltale redness in his cheeks.
"You're always so easy to tease," Cloud laughed.
"I'm not making you lunch." Genesis made two sandwiches anyway.
Genesis showed up at the bar and Cloud regretted agreeing to spend more time with the gang. The guy had been following him around like a fucking stalker. Worse: he was a competitor, delivering packages in record time. Using not a motocycle, a boat, or any reasonable vehicle at all - just his one, dumb wing.
Nah, it wasn't dumb wing. It was dumb... something.
"Hello, Mr. Strife, fancy seeing you here." Genesis ordered a drink - which was shrugged over to him before he even finished talking. Like a fucking regular. Tifa didn't even side-eye him!
Cloud didn't bother to reply, just ignored him and watched Tifa handle the bar.
"I couldn't help but notice that your delivery service hasn't been doing well."
"It's doing just fine." Cloud grumbled, not eager to engage.
"But you don't give out receipts, and you barely look at your paperwork. There's no way you're doing well."
"It's a hassle. Besides, I remember." Cloud didn't know why he was replying, didn't know why Genesis bothered.
"Do you understand how business works? They don't pay you. Do you know how much money you're making? Nothing?!"
"Back off, Genesis. I doubt you're making more than me anyway." Cloud didn't care much about money.
"Dumbapple Shipping is doing extraordinarily well, thank you." Genesis said it like it was a crowning achievement.
Cloud was stuck on the word dumb-apple. It was like a revelation, an itch in the back of his skull that had finally been scratched - that was what Genesis had reminded him of. A dumbapple. Cloud had no idea what a dumbapple was, but he knew that was the word, the thing, that embodied Genesis.
It had been too long since he properly retorted and Cloud couldn't let Genesis get the last laugh in, so he said, "Sounds dumb."
Genesis laughed. "So you would think. But Dumbapple Shipping is a legitimate business."
Cloud cleared his throat to keep the laugh down, so he added some clarity. "Sounds like dumb shit."
"Excuse you," Genesis huffed. "It sounds like you can't handle a little competition."
"No. I mean the name." Cloud took a sip of his drink to keep from laughing - the more he thought about it the funnier it sounded. "It sounds like you're saying 'dumb shit'."
Genesis stared blankly, blinked once, and said, "You do realize that there is an 'apple' between those two words. Do you have a hearing impediment?"
"Yup. It's name is dumb shit Genesis." What were dumbapples anyway? Were they named after Genesis - Cloud had the sudden vision of Genesis with apple-red cheeks, too bright and clashing with his hair. It was followed by the sudden feeling in Cloud's gut that confirmed: yes, that was how Genesis blushed.
Genesis narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Regardless. My delivery business is doing exceedingly better than Strife Delivery Service." Genesis slurred the words like they were an insult, but they really weren't.
"Tifa handles the business anyway. I just drive."
Cloud gave Tifa a look, who rolled her eyes in turn and went back to work.
"Drive? Excuse you! Don't you realize your license expired?!"
Cloud was pretty sure something was wrong with this guy's head. And his original assessment of dumbass was still true. "There aren't any police. Why does it matter?"
"What, do you run in a motorcycle gang?"
"Yes. With my brothers who happen to be triplets, named Loz, Kadaj, and Yazoo." Cloud drank more of his beer. But, somehow he didn't feel agitated with this banter. It was almost… fun. Almost familiar. Then again, he'd had exchanges like this with all of AVALANCHE tenfold by this point.
"Yazoo Strife?" Genesis stared incomprehensibly. Then he snorted. "That's worse than Cloud! Your mother has an awful sense of nomenclature."
Cloud pointed accusingly, but didn't feel that biting. "We're brothers but from the same mother. I mean, not the same mother. She's not my mom - whatever. We don't even have the same last name so like - what?"
Genesis stared blankly. "Are you sure you're related to these people?"
"Did you even pay attention to when I told you about how Sephiroth came back three years ago? Even a little?" Cloud had told him a few towns back, realizing that asshole was going to follow hims forever.
"... yes. Of course."
"That's your I-have-no-fucking-clue-what-you're-talking-about face." Cloud had no idea how he knew that but when Genesis's face turned an ugly shade of red he knew it was right. And that was how Genesis blushed - apple-red.
"Excuse you! This is my normal face! I mean - my face isn't normal but this is -"
Cloud snorted into his drink.
Genesis made a disgusted sound and stomped off, terrifying patrons as he went. He didn't even pay for his drink. What a dumbass.
"I haven't seen you this happy in a while," Tifa commented when the hot head was finally gone.
"'M not happy." But Cloud realized he was still smiling.
Genesis was liable to go mad again. Way back when, it had bothered Cloud a lot more to forget something. That was years past. Now Cloud just shrugged like it was inevitable and Genesis refused to let it go. He wouldn't let anything go again.
"Was it something that was only going to happen today?"
"Dunno?"
"Is it recurring? Is it related to your friends?"
"Genesis stop with the 20 questions," Cloud pushed at Genesis's face until they were a comfortable distance apart. "If I forgot it, it wasn't important."
"Oh?" Genesis felt and edge in his voice and saw Cloud glare back. "So I'm not important now?"
"That's different. You know that." Cloud said it a little too defensively. "Besides it was something a lot more recent than that."
Genesis huffed, realized he made his boyfriend upset, and wrapped an arm around him. But he wasn't going to apologize when it hadn't been his fault. "I forgive you anyway."
Cloud harumphed and booped Genesis on the nose. "You're an ass."
"Takes one to know one."
Cloud laughed.
"So this mystery was what you were going to do today?"
Cloud nodded. "Aside from spending time with an arsonist."
Genesis felt the counter on the tip of his tongue (at least I didn't burn down Nibelheim like some pyros), realized it was in particularly bad taste, and shrugged instead. "Good because I have plans and I'm taking you with me."
"If these plans of yours include how many packages can dumbapple delivery carry with Cloud in one arm, then I'm going to say no."
"That was one time!" Genesis huffed. Genesis would never admit it, but it had been an incredibly useful trip - Cloud had spent the whole time bitching about leaving his motorcycle behind.
Cloud snickered and elbowed Genesis. "So?"
"Just a little shopping, eating out and drinking."
"Are you sure we need to go out to give rimjobs? That seems a little excessive. And as for -"
"Cloud Strife!" Genesis smacked him hard enough for Cloud to lose his breath. Genesis felt his face heating up and hated the Cloud could make him flustered so easily. Was sex all Cloud thought about? There were plenty of other things in a good relationship!
Cloud laughed and hopped off the couch and wandered away. "Just let me get ready." Cloud stopped abruptly.
"Now what?"
"What's today's date?"
"The calendar is right there." Genesis had even taken to crossing out the dates before he went to bed - the few times he'd been gone and Cloud left home had been confusing for a while. Cloud was thoroughly untrainable. "And your phone has the date too."
Cloud made a noise like something was familiar about it. What was familiar about it? Something about the phone? Was it about the calendar? Maybe the date? Something specific to this date?
Genesis kept a personal calendar (one Cloud was too inept to ever find in the chaos of the office) for all the important dates Cloud didn't need to know about. There was Angeal's birthday - a day before Genesis's own -, the anniversary of the day he had made Sephiroth snort milk out of his nose, and the date years and years ago when he and Cloud had started dating the first time. Cloud didn't tend to remember things that far back out of the blue. Besides they had rekindled their relationship on a different date so they had a different anniversary - that wasn't for months.
There wasn't anything else particularly special about the day. But, with Cloud's luck he had forgotten to deliver an express package. Again. (And Cloud had the nerve to call his wing dumb and then cry to him to fly the goods out.)
"Aren't you going to get ready?" Genesis couldn't stand letting his thoughts circle anymore and Cloud's stillness was making him think Cloud did remember.
"Mmm." Cloud nodded absently, stared at the calendar for a whole minute and then just walked away.
Genesis let out a whoosh of breath. So did Cloud remember or not? And what was it?
Genesis decided to dress properly for a day on the town and think about it later.
The bar was a safe place for a first date. Cloud wondered if something was wrong with him for agreeing to do this in the first place. But then he just looked at Genesis and his ridiculous blush and he wondered why he wouldn't.
It wasn't typical first date talk, but they asked each other invasive questions.
"We used to date, you know."
"I didn't know."
Genesis laughed. "I was technically your superior officer being a SOLDIER first and you in the infantry, but I never let things like that bother me."
"How did I feel about it?" the pieces that Tifa hadn't given him and the few he hadn't remembered were just gone. What had his life in ShinRa been like? Had he been a different man?
"You thought it was the biggest middle finger to your CO and you would look at him with your baby doll eyes," Genesis made an expression which Cloud assumed was mimicking it (Cloud wasn't quite sure what he was trying to mimic but didn't point that out), "And tell him that of course your aren't in a relationship with someone in command! You were just a virgin from Nibelheim backwater nowhere where no one had sex! A whole town of virgins ready for ritual sacrifice for the dragons from the mountains." Genesis laughed and Cloud smiled. "The look on his face when you said that was always priceless."
Cloud felt like that might have been what he was like. But he didn't know. Was he just enamoured by the idea of someone who knew about a blank space in his history? Or were the Jenova cells in him delving into Genesis's head to copy those memories and implant the fragments into his own? The doctor's didn't know if there was a way to keep that from happening - people tried not to talk about the past around Cloud anymore. So Cloud said, "I don't really know. If you start to get too nostalgic on me I might forget who I am."
"Really." Genesis looked like he didn't know what to make of that.
Cloud shrugged. "Most of my memories are from Tifa and Zack."
Genesis ordered another round, Cloud was grateful for the reprieve.
Genesis was silent for a moment. The gears of his mind were almost visibly turning as he processed the information. Finally, he said, "So even if I told you everything about you that's exactly like I remember and everything that's different, you wouldn't want me to?"
"Yeah." Cloud held onto his glass like it was his lifeline, he wasn't sure why he was so nervous.
"But you're curious."
"Of course I am." Cloud wheezed it out. "How much of me is who I was and how much did I take from Zack?"
Genesis touched Clouds hand and it made Cloud start. Right. This was a date. "Regardless of who you were, Zack Fair was a force who left no one unchanged. Whatever you picked up was probably listening to him talk nonstop while he dragged you around the world - honestly that boy took the most circuitous route to Midgar possible. Not from whatever happened in the labs."
Cloud felt something in clench in him at the surety of Genesis's words. "So you met him? When we were travelling together?"
"Met him?" Genesis snorted. "I tracked him down and offered him an alliance and he beat me up and I got dragged back to ShinRa. Which might I add, I had been doing a wonderful amount of damage to without capture for over three years. Ugh." Cloud smiled - that sounded like something Zack would do and that Genesis was blowing out of proportion.
"So you defected?" Cloud had heard some of the story from Cid and Reeve and some from the Turks. It had been a pretty big deal all the time. "And waged war on ShinRa?"
"... yes." Genesis had that 'it's not quite that simple' face of his. "You really don't remember then?"
"Remember what?" it was beginning to feel like his old self was a third wheel.
Genesis shrugged, relieved. "It was just one of those things that seemed important at the time and has bothered me ever since. But it's better if you don't remember."
"Did you drop Loveless onto my head while I was comatose and give me brain damage?" Cloud snorted.
Genesis stared at him and hefted his half empty glass. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't throw this drink on you."
"Tifa will kick you out."
"But you look so much better wet."
"Is that all it takes to get you hard?" Cloud leaned forward enjoying the way Genesis reddened again and spluttered.
'Hmph." Genesis looked away and took a pointed pull.
"Look, Genesis," Cloud found himself saying. "We have plenty of time to worry about the past. So why don't we stick to what's fun for now?"
"You're just trying to coerce me out of talking about my feelings."
"And your grandiose accomplishments."
Genesis huffed. "But your assessment isn't wrong. This is a new beginning for us."
"Okay. So I'm right -"
"I didn't say that."
Cloud hefted his glass. "To new beginnings."
"What are we, drinking buddies?" Genesis grumbled, but still clinked their glasses together. "Honestly, this supposed to be a date."
"So wax poetically at me."
Genesis huffed. "You say it like I'm going to poetically apply wax to you. No. Don't even ask. I understand what you tried to say, bless your soul, but It's not like I have poems prepared for every occasion."
"Uh huh."
"However you're in luck because I did happen to bring along a collection of love poetry."
Cloud laughed.
Cloud looked like he was planning something: there was some shifty side-eying at Genesis going on.
They were at a department store - or what amounted to one in post-apocalyptic Edge. "What?" Genesis finally asked.
"Nothing." Obviously it was something. Cloud just shrugged and moved on. "I was just thinking about something."
"Like the thing you forgot."
"Maybe."
There was something in his tone that made Genesis stop looking through the discount rack (they were still paying off the house they destroyed, Genesis could be thrifty if he tried) for ratty biker clothes for a certain dumb blond. Cloud's tone had a certain: I definitely know what it was that I forgot. "So what was it?"
"Hmm?" Cloud was staring off into space.
"The thing you forgot? What was it?"
Cloud shrugged but he has this particularly idiotic smile on his face. Genesis's heart did not lurch at the sight and he wasn't fighting the urge to wrap Cloud in his arms. He wasn't.
Genesis harumphed instead. "I can't deal with you right now, why don't you go shop over there."
Maybe Genesis was a sap. Today wasn't their anniversary anymore, but whenever it came up Genesis made sure to spend it with Cloud. He tried to play it cool: take the idiot shopping, get him something small but never wrapping it and shoving it into his hands like it had been a pain to buy, taking Cloud out to dinner somewhere low-key - not too romantic, but enough to pass for date night material. It wasn't their anniversary, but Genesis couldn't let the day pass by without making sure Cloud knew he was appreciated.
"Okay, I got it." Cloud sauntered off somewhere looking like he'd won. Genesis just rolled his eyes.
Honestly, Cloud was worse than a cat sometimes. And it was funny that, despite losing everything - his lover, his hometown, his idol, his dear friends, his past, the world - Cloud was still the same as he had always been. A pretentious prick with a memory so poor that the world was envious of his blissful life.
At least he fucking remembered . And now that Cloud had, Genesis didn't care about it anymore.
"Huh, this is perfect… 1500 gil! That's outrageous!" Genesis flagged down the shopkeeper for some good old fashioned bartering. At least he'd learned something good from Cloud.
"This is a lovely house and everything," Genesis was poking through boxes, "but can you tell me why you're showing it to me?"
Cloud was too happy to be upset. He wouldn't be baited. "I told you about the house."
"Yeah, but why are you showing it to me? Books? Why do you own books? I thought you were illiterate." Genesis was torn between condescending and interest.
Cloud laughed, unable to help himself. Genesis was being purposefully obtuse, was going to make him say it. But he just bit his lip and let Genesis continue to rile through the boxes.
"Wait a second. This is mine !" Genesis waved a worn book at him. "How dare you go through my bookshelves!"
Cloud wondered when the last time Genesis slept in his own apartment was. Genesis had been out flying packages for the past week and instead of sleeping he had decided to answer Cloud's call and visit. Genesis was kind of a brat, but a loving one.
"You should have some stuff here, too."
Genesis looked away with a small blush and went on a tangent. "Thank god you're not living with your ex anymore. I thought Tifa was going to lecture me about you moving out. Again. Ugh." Genesis flipped through the book - it looked like an old favorite.
"C'mon, let's set up the bed and you can take a nap."
"Are you forgetting I have a perfectly luxurious bed at my own apartment." Genesis followed Cloud down the hall without breaking. "Why should I want to sleep here when everything I ever need is back home?"
Cloud opened the door. The familiar frame.
"Cloud. Why is my bed here?"
"You remember how we talked about moving in together?"
"Yes. I remember that. I also remember that we both agreed that if we did move in together it would be into my apartment."
"I told you about this place." Cloud reminded him.
"And I said it was perfect for you . I never even saw the place."
"You signed the lease."
Genesis looked at Cloud like he was the dumbest piece of shit. "No. I didn't."
"You were there! I remember!"
"I think I would remember signing a lease with you. And I haven't signed a single piece of paper in your presence for over 10 years." Genesis was actually looking like he might set the house on fire.
"No, you were… wait." Cloud dug around in his pockets. No lease. "Uh, let me find it."
"Did you lose your lease?"
"No, I just… forgot where I put it."
"Here, what's the leasing agency. I'll call them."
"Uh…"
Genesis poked Cloud hard in the chest. "How could you forget I didn't sign the lease? And then move all of my things here without even asking me!"
Cloud suddenly remembered. "You're… you're right… that wasn't you sitting next to me… it was a mop."
Genesis blinked once. Twice. His eyes narrowed. "You have five seconds before I burn a hole in your chest." Cloud jumped out the window and into the barrens as Genesis followed him out, yelling, "Why'd you have to pick the desert! I hate the desert! Apples don't grow out here!"
"So you're staying?" Cloud felt his heart jump into his throat.
"It'd be a pain to move everything now. But you owe me for breaking my lease." Genesis rushed him. It took a second too long to realize Genesis was going to make due on his threat and not wrap in a hug.
They ordered something nice and the restaurant was pleasant.
"Oh, before I forget I bought this for you," Genesis pulled the pendant out of the bag. "Your cape flaps too much in battle."
"It's not a cape." Cloud took the chain and examined it. "I'll see if it works."
Which was good as saying I'll wear it in Cloud speak. "Good."
"Oh. I got something for you too."
This was surprising. "Really?" Cloud rarely gave gifts outside of specific holidays. It was possible he thought it was Genesis's birthday - wouldn't be the first time he got it wrong, poor boy could barely remember his own birthday.
Cloud reached over the table and put a small wrapped gift. Genesis didn't want to think it, but it was the size of a ring box.
Genesis's eyes felt wet and he blinked away the sensation and summoned his best 'oh really' no-nonsense Angeal impression. "And what is it?"
"You'll have to open it and see."
Genesis picked it up daintily with one hand and undid the bow (who put a box on a ring box? No, it might not be a ring box, stop that). Genesis opened it slowly. There wasn't a ring, or even a glint of jewelry. Instead there was a piece of paper.
Genesis gave Cloud a look. Cloud wasn't the type to write love notes, or lead treasure hunts; he was blunt and to the point and as sneaky as a behemoth.
Cloud just shrugged and made one of his patented 'not my problem now' faces.
Genesis humored him and took the note and opened it, intent on giving it his full attention. He read it once, blinked, was sure that was wrong, and then read it again.
' Come back to ShinRa? Back to you? Ha! Don't make me laugh! Our relationship was a joke, you were just a way to pass time. Anniversary? What a laugh! I have things to do, so why don't you stay out of my way, trooper."
"I remembered," Cloud said after Genesis read it two more times. "Not all of it, just snippets of moments. The date. Its significance. What you said to me after you deserted."
Genesis was cornered. "I wasn't in my right mind. I didn't mean the things I said."
Cloud lifted a brow. "Really? That's your excuse? I wasn't in my right mind either for a while, but that's not usually what you say to people." Cloud sighed and looked up at the ceiling like he was just counting the number of spots he could see on the tiles. "I remembered, I was so broken up about you being gone. I couldn't believe what they were saying about you, didn't want to believe it. You apartment was coated in dust, you didn't answer my calls, you were just gone. And then our anniversary came and I saw you and I thought: 'thank god he's alive.' And when I ran up to you, that's what you told me."
Genesis couldn't meet Cloud's eyes, so he stared at the note. It was true he'd failed a lot of people - torn apart as much of the world as he could so it would burn with him when he died. His friends, his family, his hometown, his subordinates who trusted him… in retrospect Cloud was lucky Genesis was in a good enough to spare him. Or maybe not, considering everything that happened next...
"So, you have anything to say?" Cloud was staring at him across the table, Genesis noticed his hands, clenched. If Genesis looked he would probably see narrowed eyes that were greened up.
Genesis took a breath, smoothed his face into a smile and met Cloud's eyes. "Happy anniversary."
Cloud wasn't impressed.
Genesis huffed. "Fine. What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to apologize."
"I've repented already." Genesis pointed out.
"Sure, for all the other things you did. But for that single moment, you need to apologize."
Genesis didn't like to admit that he'd done anything wrong. And sleeping for so long had made those years seem like a particularly vivid nightmare he hadn't been able to control. "It was fifteen years ago." Genesis shrugged. "I don't see why you keep holding onto the past."
"Why?" Cloud leaned forward. "It sure seemed like you wanted to apologize when we started dating."
"You sure have a good memory today." Genesis grumbled.
Cloud leaned forward. "Am I still a joke to you? Is this thing between us just for shit and giggles?"
"I - no. Of course not."
Cloud glared, but said nothing else.
Genesis wondered briefly what the use would be of avoiding it. His life with Cloud had grown comfortable - comfortable enough that Genesis wondered if they might get married. If he thought about it too hard there weren't many people left in the world he had ever loved - Cloud was the only one left. Genesis didn't know if he had the emotional bandwidth to truly start over. If he didn't say it what might happen?
"Look, Cloud... I... " Genesis cleared his throat. "I apologize for my behavior all those years ago. There's an explanation for why I acted like I did, but it sounds more like an excuse." Genesis stared at Cloud for a while longer before turning away to assess his food.
A leg thumped against his own. "Hey." Genesis looked up at Cloud, who was smiling at him. "Thanks. For saying that."
"Does that mean… you forgive me?" Genesis clamped down on the childish impulse to say he'd done nothing wrong. But he knew that wasn't the case and he wouldn't give into habit.
"Of course not." Cloud picked up his fork and started digging into his meal. "The past is the past. So why bother focusing on it?"
"Cloud Strife," Genesis felt a spike of frustration, but couldn't put any heat behind it. Instead he huffed and flipped his hair. "Then why make me apologize for it?"
"Why not?" Cloud shrugged and stuffed some food into his mouth with a shrug. "I remembered and it bothered me is all."
"Hmph." Genesis didn't have a valid complaint to lodge. Instead he said, "Oh? So that was the thing you forgot about this morning."
"Oh, no. That wasn't it. Yuffie was going to swing by."
Genesis felt a spike of horror in his gut. "You knew that and you didn't tell me!"
"I remembered when we were shopping." Cloud shrugged.
"I didn't secure my materia collection! You ass!" Genesis huffed.
"If you ask her nicely she'll give them back. Eventually."
Genesis couldn't help but feel relieved. Things felt like usual between them. Even if Cloud knew, things didn't change. "Cloud…"
"Hm?" Cloud wasn't a clean eater, he had sauce around his mouth and his napkin was a mess. Still the grossest man he'd ever met.
"I love you."
It was Cloud's turn to blush. When it came to crass remarks, Cloud was king, but only Genesis could make him melt. "Why did you… I… I love you, too." Cloud went back to his food with a red face and a pout.
Genesis just smiled.