After what degenerated rapidly into a fist-fight, Kadaj got to be on top. It wasn't often that he won the dominance struggle with his brother, but his anger at Cloud for not communicating with him gave him an extra reserve of determination and he'd actually managed to pin the slightly larger man to get the position he liked best. Cloud, after all, was a master sadist and only rarely allowed Kadaj anything that pleased him too much.

But even sweating and rocking on Cloud's full, stiff cock couldn't entirely drive out the unsettling feeling that everything was about to change. Even as he bucked and thrust beneath Kadaj's slender body, Cloud's eyes held a dread that the boy felt intensely.

"Tell me!" Kadaj hissed, seeing it again. A sudden flare of temper made him drop his weight fully onto Cloud's straining cock with force enough to make the man wince in mingled pain and pleasure, his hands tightening on Kadaj's slim hips.

And still, no answer.

Frustrated, Kadaj slapped him hard, and Cloud's mouth parted in that frightening, utterly predatory smile, his tongue sliding out to catch the drop of blood that spilled from the corner of his lips.

"Don't!" Kadaj snapped when one strong, delicate hand curved up against his throat, benign enough but still threatening, making his pulse rush. It was cruel sex this time, an outlet for aggressive irritation on Kadaj's part.

And still Cloud said nothing, his lean body working hard beneath Kadaj's, making the smaller boy whimper and writhe atop him. It felt so good—it always felt so good, and it was hard for Kadaj to hold onto his irritation. He shuddered hard and let it go, sighing, "Ahhhh…just fuck me, Cloud…"

Magic words, every time. The man caught Kadaj's hips when he bounced up, pulling out of him, and moved gracefully off of the bed, flipping the boy over onto his belly and shoving him face-down in the sheets, standing next to the bed with his round bottom in the air and Cloud crowded close behind him.

Kadaj sighed, stretching his arms out behind his back in invitation. Cloud grasped his wrists in one strong hand, pinning them behind his back. He shoved into Kadaj, forcing him down against the bed so that his aching cock and balls were crushed against the edge of the firm but giving mattress.

The boy moaned blissfully, content to allow Cloud to be dominant, having made his point with his earlier victory. Every hard, deep thrust drove him roughly against the mattress and he writhed beneath Cloud's burning hot body, his arms pulled almost uncomfortably high, the man's free hand curled so tightly into his hip that Kadaj would show bruises, even as quickly as he healed.

Cloud groaned softly behind him, sliding his hand up from Kadaj's hip to tangle in his hair, pulling his head up to arch his back and hissing, "Scream for me…"

Those hips worked viciously into him, pounding him against the mattress so hard that Kadaj convulsed in a sudden, hard orgasm, screaming aloud as the pain and pleasure erupted from every nerve ending.

Cloud groaned a little behind him, hips jerking hard as he came, Kadaj's sweet screams enough to push him over into shuddering climax.

"Oh god," Kadaj sighed, liquid with it, every inch of him throbbing with the aftershocks of that hard eruption. His cock throbbed painfully, pounding against his belly. When Cloud released his hands, Kadaj gingerly levered himself up, only to gasp when Cloud bit him hard on the bottom, right on the softest part of his left cheek. A swift, hard slap followed, and Cloud's low, amused voice said, "Next time I'll make you work harder before I let you win."

"Let me win?" Kadaj echoed, flushing with sudden fury. "Why you arrogant son of a—"

Cloud's hand flattened at the small of his back, pinning him effectively, much to Cloud's amusement and his own chagrin.

The tension eased and the hand stroked down his back, lazily and lovingly, lifting goosebumps on Kadaj's skin.

"Hurting?" he inquired, peeling Kadaj off of the mattress and scooping him up. Cloud's strength always thrilled Kadaj, who was very nearly the same size as his brother but somehow lacked the same degree of his wiry, amazing strength.

Cloud plopped him down against the pillows, his blue eyes gentle now as he searched Kadaj's satiated and drowsy body.

Kadaj closed his eyes, merely smiling lazily at Cloud, but gasped softly in surprise when Cloud ran his warm, wet, careful tongue over his stinging cock. The friction from Cloud's thrusts had combined with the weave of the sheets to give Kadaj a slight but uncomfortable case of sheet-burn. The boy hissed at the sudden pain of Cloud's soothing tongue, but melted back against the pillows with a sigh as that gentle mouth laved him. He still healed quickly, and before he knew it he was having another muscle-grinding, screaming orgasm in Cloud's mouth.

"There," Cloud told him afterwards, sounding pleased. "That took the fight out of you."

Kadaj lifted one heavy lid and scowled at him, but couldn't quite bring the rest of himself to react.

It was the ringing telephone that eventually roused him, surprising him with the fact that he'd been sleeping.

"Cloud? Get that?" he called, but the telephone kept shrieking.

Groaning, he flung the sheets off, smiling with affection to know that Cloud had so tenderly tucked him in, and traipsed over to the house phone.

"'Lo?"

"Kadaj, hey, it's Tifa."

Fuck.

"Yes?" Kadaj said, trying to practice his manners.

"Is Cloud at home? I've been calling his cell but…well, you know how that goes," she said, clearly not happy to be talking to him.

"Not really," Kadaj said, smirking a little. "He always answers when it's me."

There was a short silence from the other end, and then Tifa said, "I guess I deserved that. I'm assuming from your tone that he's told you, then?"

"Yes," Kadaj lied, and the dread hit an all-time peak—so, Cloud's secret had something to do with Tifa?

He heard Cloud come in, closing and locking the door, and his little hand tightened on the phone, his fear almost overwhelming him.

"I'm sorry, Kadaj," Tifa said, and sounded genuinely contrite. "It was just an accident. I want you to understand that this won't interfere with your life, okay? I fully respect your relationship with Cloud, I want you to know that."

"Thank you," Kadaj weakly said, trepidation filling him with tension.

"But I've been thinking it over and discussing it with Rude," Tifa went on. "And we've decided that we'd like you both to be a part of the baby's life."

"…okay," Kadaj said, thrown, not understanding what this had to do with his relationship with Cloud.

"After all, keeping a child from his father is…well, Cloud and I have a history, I just can't be so unkind to him," Tifa quietly said. "He has every right to be with his son."

Spots swam before Kadaj's eyes and for an unsettling second he thought he might either pass out or go into an enraged fit.

Cloud came down the hallway, his tread cat-light and steady.

"…so if you could just tell him—"

"Tell him yourself," Kadaj breathed, and shoved the phone at Cloud, not even waiting for him to catch it before he stormed around the room collecting his discarded clothing.

"Yes?" Cloud said, warily watching him dress. His beautiful face filled with resigned understanding when Tifa began to speak, though surely what she told him would make him glad.

Kadaj didn't listen to his conversation. He pulled on his cargo pants, jerked on a pair of socks and his boots, wriggled into his skinny tee-shirt, and snagged his leather jacket before going for the living room.

Cloud hastily got off of the phone, following him with wary concern.

"Kadaj…"

"What?" he asked, lifting the souba off of the couch and sheathing it, strapping it to his back and adjusting it.

"We need to talk," Cloud said.

"You didn't feel like talking earlier," Kadaj pointed out, his trembling the only sign that he was not nearly as calm as he was pretending. "And I don't feel like talking now."

"It isn't like it seems," Cloud softly said.

Kadaj looked at him—really looked at him. So beautiful, so achingly haunted that he haunted others in return. And Tifa, his friend since childhood, the one who had always had Cloud. And now she had his baby to boot—one more thing she would have that Kadaj never could.

"Was it before you met me?" he asked, desperately needing Cloud to say yes, to prove that he hadn't gone from Kadaj to another lover, just as Sephiroth's cruel voice had made him believe.

Cloud's blue eyes glittered, shimmering in the drawing darkness, but Kadaj knew the answer from his solemn, beloved face.

"No," he whispered. "It was after…"

Kadaj gazed at him, torn between encompassing hurt and an outrageous anger that threatened to send him right back to being a destructive, vicious animal. Cloud had gone from him to Tifa, just as Sephiroth's voice had told him, 'He's already laughing, Kadaj, my little prince. He went straight to another lover's arms and erased the taste of you out of disgust…'

"Then I guess there's nothing to talk about," he said, and headed for the door.

"You're not leaving," Cloud firmly said, grabbing his wrist in a hand like a vise.

Kadaj's look should've killed him in place, as vicious and cruel as it had ever been when Sephiroth's spirit rode him.

"Don't flatter yourself to think you can stop me," he hissed, wrenching his hand free.

"Kadaj, don't behave like this—"

He turned and punched Cloud, punched him as hard as he could, right in his delicate face. The man didn't even stagger, but his blue eyes narrowed dangerously with the beginnings of true anger, even as a thin thread of blood trickled down to his lip. He lifted his hand to his nose and wiped the blood away, looking at Kadaj with renewed wariness.

"Don't you dare dictate to me how I will and will not behave," the boy furiously shouted. "How long have you known about this, Cloud? Were you ever going to tell me? Or did you just want to play for awhile before setting up house with Tifa?"

"Kadaj—"

"Fucking forget it!" Kadaj spat, disgusted. "It doesn't fucking matter now, does it? What am I compared to a son and the woman who can give him to you?"

"Please, Kadaj, it isn't like that—"

Kadaj wrenched open the door and slammed it behind him when he left. And even as he angrily stalked to his bike, his heart ached because Cloud didn't bother to come after him, didn't even bother to open the door. No, he probably had to get back to Tifa.

No wonder the woman had disliked him so much. With a trump card like that, she really should've won round one. Had Cloud known the whole time? Had he simply fallen into a relationship with Kadaj because he hadn't known what else to do with the boy when he'd come back?

Kadaj dashed away hurt, angry tears, ashamed and humiliated to think that Cloud had probably had every intention of being with Tifa until he had come back and ruined everything. Just like with Mother, once again there was someone that would be loved more, who deserved it more. Would no one ever love Kadaj more than anything else in the world?

Furious and broken, the boy started his bike and tore away into the darkness, never knowing that Cloud's sad, glowing blue eyes watched him from their open doorway, aching with regret and stymied, as always, by his frustrating inability to express himself to the ones he loved.