Hey Y'all, Soaring here! Sorry about the late in the day upload, kinda forgot it was Thursday… I never really know what day it is during the summer, sorry! Please write a review, they always encourage me to write even more! On with the story!
As Cloud neared the tall building, the lunch sack in his hand grew heavier psychologically; his heart raced and his stomach flipped. They had all eaten lunch before Tifa put together lunch for Benje, the kids, and Sephiroth, sending it with Cloud who left shortly thereafter. Tifa had made him take off his metal shoulder armor, thick leather gloves, and sword holsters, saying that he didn't need to look like he was ready for an attack, that would 'convey the wrong message'.
The mid-afternoon sun beat down strongly on Cloud's blonde head as he had been walking; it was a relief when he entered the building which meant shade. In the sudden darkness, he stumbled on some debris, but didn't actually fall; he moved more cautiously from then on, allowing his eyes to fully adjust.
He managed to navigate his way back to the staircase without anymore incidents and descended into the basement. He walked down the hallway, and then turned right into the room to find that they were all in roughly the same places as before. The children played in the middle of the room, while Benje silently observed from his seat next to Sephiroth, who was now sitting up. He was looking a lot better, even from just a few hours before.
Sephiroth was the first one to notice him walk in; he looked up and said with a kind smile, causing Cloud's heart to pound and the butterflies to return again,
"Hello, Cloud." Benje looked up with darker green eyes than Sephiroth and beckoned Cloud over. He took a seat on the floor a few feet in front of Benje and Sephiroth before he handed the sack over, saying,
"Tifa made lunch for you guys as her way of saying thanks for caring for our friend." Benje accepted the lunches with a surprised look on his face, saying,
"Thank you." He set the sack on the floor in front of him before untied the top to have a look at what was inside. Five, child sized, and two, adult sized bento boxes and chopsticks for each. "Children, come over here and have a look at what Cloud has brought us." They dropped their toys and ran over, and then squealed in delight when they saw the bento boxes. Benje handed out the bento boxes and chopsticks to each child, who thanked him, and then turned to Cloud and said,
"Thank you, Mister!" Cloud smiled and said, You're welcome to each one. Benje handed Sephiroth one as well before he took the other for himself. The children sat around the adults and all opened their boxes at the same time.
They all ate their lunches of rice and curry before they stacked their boxes up neatly in front of Benje. All the children said thank you once again before they went back to playing in the middle of the room. Sephiroth and Benje put their boxes on the bottom of the pile before Benje retied the sack for Cloud.
"Thank you so much for the food, Cloud." Benje said before Sephiroth said,
"Yes, thank you." Cloud nodded in acceptance instead of saying anything, blue eyes only glancing at Benje for short moments before dropping back to the ground, but never looked at Sephiroth. Sephiroth broke the silence a few moments later, saying,
"Benje and I were just discussing my injuries; do you know how I got them?" Clouds heart started hammering again as he replied,
"Well, we were chasing two guys who had just robbed a shop. They tried going on the roof to lose us, but we were able to follow. They pulled out swords to fight us, so we did the same; you went after one and I went after the other.
"I had just defeated the man when I heard you shout behind me. When I spun around, you were falling from the buildings edge, your opponent had pushed you over, but he pulled a gun out and shot me in the chest. I collapsed without being able to do anything; the shot would've killed me if our other friends hadn't come and taken me to the Healing Waters, they didn't know you were there at that time.
"After I regained consciousness, we've been trying to find you, not knowing if you were dead or alive." Cloud's heart pounded while his stomach felt like it was having a full on gymnastic rehearsal. Sephiroth was thoughtfully looking at his hands, which were in his lap, with his bright green eyes. Benje and Cloud gave him several moments to mull that over before Benje asked,
"Does that sound familiar at all?"
"I remember… falling, and incredible, intense pain. But…" he slowly shook his head, "nothing else." Benje nodded.
"Okay, it's alright, if your mind heals anything like your body does, your memory will be back shortly." Sephiroth remembered something, saying,
"Speaking of that, are these bandages still necessary?" Benje shrugged, saying,
"I don't know, how about I have a look?" He pushed himself up onto his knees and shuffled the couple feet to Sephiroth's side. After Sephiroth moved his arm out of the way, Benje carefully unwound a large strip of bandage that wrapped around his chest. Underneath, the wound was closed up already, though it wasn't completely done healing, it was closed enough so that the bandage was no longer necessary.
"Well, that looks good! That was one of the worst ones; if this one is so closed already I'm sure the other ones will be as well." Slowly but easily, he checked all of the other wounds to find that they were indeed all closed up, most were completely gone, not even a scar or trace left of where they had been.
Now that all of the bandages where removed, it completely exposed his well muscled chest. Cloud didn't really know why, but he felt that he needed to look elsewhere than at Sephiroth.
They continued to talk for almost an hour about Cloud, Sephiroth, and their group of friends; Cloud was still unable to look Sephiroth in the eyes, before Benje said,
"Sorry, but I've got to get the kids down for a nap and they really hate naps, so it may take me awhile; are you okay by yourselves for a bit?" Cloud nodded, while Sephiroth said,
"That's fine; please don't let me be a burden." With that, Benje stood up and walked over to the children who were still playing in the middle of the room. Cloud turned his head and watched Benje, with bright, but nervous blue eyes, get the protesting herd of children up and moving, Cloud watched them more so just because that gave him a good excuse not to make eye contact with Sephiroth.
Cloud still had his head turned from watching Benje leading the children from the room, when he suddenly felt hands on his chest, pushing him onto his back. He was so surprised that he wasn't able to resist the movement. He opened his eyes to find that Sephiroth had pinned him down; not physically, per se, but more symbolically. His right elbow was on the floor to the left of Cloud's head, whereas, his other hand was on the ground at Cloud's right side. Sephiroth's knees were on either side of Cloud's thighs.
Cloud's heart raced, thumping wildly in his chest, stomach writhed away. Sephiroth had a curious look on his face, like he was trying to figure something out, making his beautiful green eyes to look just a shade darker than normal.
"Who are you to me? Don't lie." Sephiroth moved his free hand and placed it on Cloud's chest, just over his heart; he watched his hand move before he looked back at Cloud's face, green eye's searching blue ones. "Every time I've seen you your heart's been pounding, hasn't it?" He paused, searching Cloud's bright blue eyes. He was so close that Cloud could see his own reflection in Sephiroth's eyes; he couldn't hold his gaze for more than a few seconds before he had to look away.
"And that, you can't look me in the eye." Sephiroth moved his head into Cloud's new line of sight, forcing eye contact. He was much closer now, Cloud was beginning to panic, if his heart went any faster, it threatened to fail, his stomach was turning so badly it threatened to force out his small lunch. "Either you're guilty about something, or …" He moved his head forward but stopped an half an inch away to judge Cloud's reaction. Cloud could hardly even breathe, his breaths came in short, sharp gasp's.
Sephiroth eased in the rest of the way and kissed him. As soon as their lips touched, a sharp shiver shot down Cloud's spine, causing his back to arch, which closed the narrow gap between their chests. Cloud's breath was caught in his throat, only allowing tiny amounts of air past, not fulfilling the needs of his racing heart, causing it to pound even harder, begging for oxygen.
Through the thin knit of Cloud's shirt, he could feel that Sephiroth's heartbeat was steady, unlike his own. Sephiroth pulled back just an inch, breaking their contact to say,
"So I was right, now you're all flustered." It was true, Cloud's face was extremely red and he was still panting for breath. Sephiroth kissed him again. He moved a hand to the base of Cloud's neck, kissing him harder. Cloud had moved before he even knew what was happening; he pushed himself up into a more upright position, pushing Sephiroth back onto just his knees, and placed a hand on his cheek, kissing him back.
Cloud didn't really know what he was doing, this man had just been his enemy a few days before, and now, here he was kissing him. He wasn't just keeping his cover either; just when had he begun developing feelings for this man? At this moment in time, he didn't really know or quite frankly care.
