Chapter 10

Cloud

"You up for some work out before evening? If so, meet me at the gym in 20mins."

Cloud tossed the phone on his bed and sighed. What was Squall thinking, asking him to work out right after they had almost gotten into a fight just few hours earlier? Wasn't Squall as embarrassed as he was? Though, on the other hand it was almost logical, since physical exercise made them both lose tension from their minds and bodies. Maybe it would be a good idea, since he was a bit nervous about the interview and nervous because he was so confused too. He had come back to his actual home for once just to get a moment to himself. The episode at the café had shocked him slightly.

Squall's anger had caught him by surprise and he hadn't understood it at all. So of course he had reacted badly to it and had snapped back. But the guilt he had felt right after his own bad comments had been a surprise to himself also. Had he… No. It couldn't be true. Not for him at least. Cloud walked to the window and stared out into the darkening city. Had he started to fall in love?

There was very little he could do if it was true he had fallen for Squall. He had never even considered Squall could possibly have any romantic feelings for him. After that one, admittedly fucking earth shattering, kiss all Cloud could feel from Squall were feelings of brotherly bonding and deep friendship. It was nearly like living in hell sometimes when the object of your desires seemed to be completely cool with just being best buddies. At times Cloud was on the verge of knocking his friend down and simply straddling him to get them close.

Though.. Cloud bit his lip and tapped the window glass he was leaning against and watching down to the street, without really seeing anything that went on there. Would it be too much from him to hope that all the kindness Squall was directing at him could actually have something more underneath? The mere idea made his heart throb faster and his whole body felt hot. Could it really be so? Had he been completely blind, all this time, or was the other just very bad at showing his true emotions? Well.. That was nothing new since he had heard more than once from Tifa, and various other people, that he, the almighty Cloud, was bad at expressing his emotions too. Although in Squalls case Cloud felt like he was an open book; his attraction easy to read on his face.

Cloud stared blankly out, chewing on his lips and frowned. It would be absolutely embarrassing to notice that you'd have gone thru a whole lot of mood swings and taken the bad mood on others just because you'd been so dimwitted, such a fool and an idiot to see there actually were things that could be understood as good signs! Oh.. crap.

But he didn't want to be disappointed in this matter. Their friendship meant too much to him to be lost just for some silly confession. Cloud shuddered at the thought of submitting himself into such situation where he would tell Squall what he really felt about him. There was no way he could do that without proper proofs.

He suddenly punched the wall with his fist and gritted his teeth. Damn it! He should just get a grip and open his eyes and actually try to see the situation more objectively. Yes, definitely. That would be the best thing to do. This meant he should start right now his observations. Get to the gym and blow off some of the stress.

Glancing at the clock Cloud cursed silently. He was seriously going to be late if he didn't leave right now and his all stuffs were still unpacked. He rushed to gather all the necessary clothes and threw them into the bag before running downstairs to dress up.

Two hours later

Cloud sighed and stole a glance at Squall who was driving the car towards the club they both were supposed to be in 30minutes time. So, it had not been enough for him to make an ass out of himself at the cafe in front of the twins, but he had also had to make even bigger ass out of himself by forgetting his pants at home, the ones he used when they were exercising. He had noticed this only at the lockers where they were supposed to change clothes. Squall had grinned deviously and had mocked him being an airhead, or something. Embarrassing enough, that one, but didn't even compare to the shame he felt when he had had to borrow Squalls spare pants. He could still hear the laughter of the other in his ears, since the pants were slightly too big for him and had been in danger of dropping all the time.

"I never imagined that anyone could actually look adorable in those particular pants, but you do." Squall had commented and then had patted his head, ignoring the deep red over Clouds face. In the end the workout had been brilliant and had cleaned up his mind very efficiently, so now he was calm and definitely ready for making the club owner sure that he was the one they needed to work there.

Squall had not said practically nothing about the upcoming interview, not after they had argued shortly about it at the cafe. Cloud wondered why Squall had really even been so upset in the first place about it. He did have his reasons for wanting to work his ass off, but he had no intention of telling anyone why he wanted to do so. It would just spoil his big surprise if he didn't keep his mouth shut.

Squall parked the car a block away from the club and for a moment was leaning to the steering wheel, an exhausted expression sweeping over the handsome features. But it was gone before Cloud could say anything and the other had stood up and out of the car already.

"Come on slowpoke, you won't get any closer just by staring at me." Squall smiled faintly and closed the door. Cloud sighed, trying to focus a bit more at the upcoming interview and not trying to constantly figure if there was something hidden between Squalls sentences. Just keep it cool, just keep it cool.. like, normal. Ah crap, that would never work. Since when had he even known what was normal anyway? Cloud wrinkled his nose and got out of the car, with an unpleasant look on his face. Squall caught him looking like that and raised one fine eyebrow.

"Just a bit nervous." Cloud managed to mumble, directing his eyes to stare down at the sidewalk. Squall made a small noise that meant pretty much nothing and remained quiet. Okay, fine. If the other wanted to act like that then he was going to say nothing either. Funny, that Squall was like this now that he had been completely normal at the gym. Cloud was even more confused and it certainly made him irritated.

They walked down the street in silence that was far from being comfortable, like it usually was. Though, Squall seemed more in peace than Cloud was, even if his face was unreadable. Pissed him off even more. No, I can't be angry now! I have to be calm and…

"The office is to the right from the backroom." Cloud's frantic thoughts were interrupted as Squall decided suddenly to actually say something. Cloud blinked. Oh that's right, he had never been there even though he had been in the backroom more than once.

"What's the owner like anyway?" He had never seen this person and was both curious and deeply disturbed to even think what kind of a person wanted to own a club that held even fetish-events. Squall frowned and then smiled deviously his eyes twinkling, looking straight at Cloud who in his turn started to feel even more worried.

"You'll see."

When he reached the backrooms and the dreaded door Cloud sighed deeply, wanting to end this evening early and fall asleep in hopes of awakening the next morning and everything having fallen back to their rightful places. Like Squall actually wanting to talk normally with him. And Cloud himself having his own thoughts sorted out. Well, into some kind of an order at least. Cloud closed his eyes for a moment and just stood there, before the door he should knock. The winter was going to be hell. That he knew for sure. He already regretted all the foul words he was going to say and even more he regretted the worse moodswings he was probably going to have. And if Squall was going to act like an arse towards his work-my-ass-off-phase, then all the shit would be pretty much doubled. Since, Squall was the haven Cloud needed to have his sanity secured.

Well, he just should deal with it then. Not a chance that he would give up now. Cloud knocked at the door firmly twice.

"Come in." A voice called from the other side and Cloud entered the room and blinked. He frowned and blinked again.

"..." He was pretty much speechless at the moment. There were two very similar, very devious smiles directed at him as he stood there stupefied and just glared at the two men inside the spacious office, decorated in red so generously Cloud felt like he had walked into a fireplace.

"Close the door, and your mouth, be so kind." The man behind the table grinned, folding his arms before him, the piercing green eyes following Cloud intensively as he moved to close the door and towards the table where the second man was settled lazily on a cozy looking armchair.

"Wassup Spiky?" Reno grinned even more widely, if possible. "What brings you to greet me and my dear brother this evening?"

"Brother?" He didn't even know Reno had a brother. Well, okay.. so they had not been the closest buddies ever, but still this information was something Cloud should have known. It was easy to see the relativity factor to be true. Both had flaming red hair, green eyes and.. were there tattoos on the other man's face too?

"Yeah, Axel here is my precious younger brother. But do not let his angry face startle you. This fella here is cuddly as a little kitten. Well.. bites and scratches like a little devil he is, most definitely but still, cute and cuddly." Reno said with a mockingly tender expression on his face.

"Fuck off Reno, you old fart." Two sets of brightly glimmering eyes set on Cloud who was only able to nod. "Well, good!" Axel stood up and Cloud could now see the man in all his glory. The resemblance between Reno and Axel was quite obvious, though Axel seemed to be taller and skinnier than Reno was. His face was a bit more fine tuned than his brothers and he reminded Cloud of a cat. Axel was also very, very attractive in a way Reno never could be; the sheer smooth sexiness simply oozed out of him. Cloud wanted to look away but just couldn't. "The job is yours then!" Axel stated suddenly and brought Cloud back to his senses.

"You.. You don't want to know if I actually am capable of handling the job?" Cloud couldn't really believe his ears. Axel looked a little baffled.

"Uh, no. Not really. Sora called me and told about everything there is to know, like, what your little perversions are too.. you kinky pretty boy, and Reno just confirmed it all. Also, I happen to know that you have worked with Tifa. But.. " The man sure could look menacing when he was glaring straight at him like that, the little tattoos under his eyes making it even worse. "Can you?"

"Yes."

"Good! You're hired then!" Unlike Reno, who usually just jumped around and made a fuss and mess about things, Axel seemed to have the habit of merely being rather cool. A complete opposite of his brother. "We need mostly help during the weekend's so if it's fine with you, then it's settled and I'll print out the contract form at some point, but for now.. You should go to the boys and tell them show you around, though you already know pretty much everything around here, don't you." Cloud felt a little embarrassed at this, but it was true since he had spent almost all his weekends here whenever Squall had been working. Would have been odd if the owner of the club didn't know what was going on in there. Axel had sat down again and was looking much more efficient than his big brother had ever done.

"Right.. ok. Thank you. I guess.." He was still in shock, not really yet having completely understood what just had happen, but everything was good, he got the job and now, he was going to kill Squall since the other must have known this all along! Not to mention what he would do to that small prick when he would get the brat in his hands.

"Don't get eaten!" Reno yelled after him. "And please don't make a massacre out there unless you mean to clean it up yourself!" Cloud drew the conclusion from this that there had been more than one person in this little scheme. Not looking behind him, where the two redheads were laughing in unison, hard, Cloud fumed as he stormed out of the room. The door closed behind him with an angry click, but the only thing he saw at the moment was Squall, grinning widely and staring at him straight into eyes with a victorious glimpse.

"You… You knew!" Cloud managed to snarl and was breath away from punching Squall straight in the face. "Why?" There was a slightly smug look over Squalls face as he was glaring at him. Had he done something so bad he seriously deserved all this cunning behind his back? It did feel like someone had struck a knife thru his lungs. He really hated being deceived.

"Of course I knew." The taller man slowly melt into gentle smile. "Oh come on now Cloud. Don't be so mad. I just had to participate in this since you went on your own to decide to get another job." Cloud felt his rage fading, feeling more confused, like he wasn't already enough, about his friend's behavior.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything, but really.. We're not like married or live together or anything, thus it shouldn't be a problem to you that I don't tell you everything." Cloud said shuffling on his feet, uncertain of what to say to still keep his secret and yet try to make the most important person in his life to stop being annoyed with him.

"We might as well be." Squall grinned slightly. "And you practically do live with us and usually tell me pretty much everything so maybe we are unconsciously married already. And you're supposed to be my best mate." Now that didn't really sound that much of a joke, did it? Cloud wondered if there could be a hidden meaning, trying to see thru the defenses Squall hid himself behind. Even with Cloud Squall was slightly reserved and it had been like that always around certain subjects.

"Yeah, right. Haha, very funny." Cloud snorted. Like it really could be true that Squall would want to be with a guy like he was. Skittish, rude, gloomy… Who would want a partner like that? Seriously, not possible in this lifetime. So even if there ever had been anything warm coming from Squalls direction, it surely had vanished as the other got to know him more and more. Anyone could get bored with him that was obvious. "Though, if I was to marry someone it would be my best mate. Just to let you know." The words just fell from Clouds lips without him giving them a second thought. Squall had stiffened slightly and Cloud had turned his head away from his friend in embarrassment.

The uncomfortable silence ended soon when Squall reached up to pat the Clouds head and smiled a genuine smile, wiping all the remaining anger and embarrassment completely out of Cloud's mind. But as they walked back to the club-area, there was a small unspoken nervousness lingering between them, about the relationship they shared and how they had never said anything out loud about their feelings.