Cloud sighed in relief as he left Corporal Miller - not Robert - alone after his lesson with him. The man hadn't believed what he'd heard about Cloud's abilities, so he'd sent a message that Cloud should bring the squad Restore with him for this lesson, and dragged him to the infirmary, ordering him to cast Cures on troopers who'd ordinarily have been left to heal on their own, who were just being kept in the infirmary overnight for observation due to the risk of a concussion. It had pushed the Restore materia a bit closer to being mastered when it reached the fourth and final level, but Cloud resented being tested like that, and being pushed to attempt to cast a seventh Cure when he knew he couldn't, not from that materia. Then the medic had had the sheer gall to blame him for collapsing after being directly ordered to cast a spell when he knew he didn't have the energy to do so. And worst of all, he didn't manage to do any good for the trooper he'd been ordered to heal, when he might have been able to help if Corporal Miller had given him an hour and a half or so to recover.
"Hey Cloud. Want to spar for a bit and tell me about how my sponsees did in the hunt yesterday?"
"Why not?" Cloud took the opportunity to ask Zack a question as they began walking to a gym. "By the way, what would you say's the best way to increase your magical reserves so you can cast more spells? The idiot who was supposed to be teaching me just now gave me some 'exercises', but he didn't seem to understand the difference the level of a materia makes in casting a spell so I'm not sure how much to rely on them."
"You'd do better to ask Sephiroth, I'm not really that good with materia, but the best way's to actually cast spells. That's why training with materia for troopers is just casting as many spells as you can in succession, and you're already better than most."
"Thanks." So he could probably ignore the exercises then, although he would try a couple of them, since most of the exercises seemed to be more meditation than anything else. "What did you want to know about the hunt? I achieved the objective from my viewpoint, the squad Revive materia's second level now and I won't be working on improving it for a while." It only occurred to him then that... "I lent Alex my Restore materia, and I shouldn't have, I should have let him borrow the squad Restore and matured that a bit more as well, shouldn't I?"
"Probably. What level is it?"
"Only just third level. The Heal's second level, but I think it's about halfway to being third level. The Full Cure's matured enough to be useful, and I don't think the potential benefits of maturing it more are worth dealing with the problems I'd have in making it stronger, not until I've done all I can with the other materia." There was a pause in the conversation as they entered the gym, but not for long.
"You'd do better to talk to Sephiroth about that. Now, I'll take it easy on you so you can tell me how Alex and Marius did, and if either of them got hurt."
"Sure." This time Cloud wasn't going to attack first, he simply held his sword in a ready position. "What do you want to know?"
"Where did you go first?"
"A graveyard, the bounty office said there'd been reports of some fairly weak monsters there. We ended up fighting five different kinds of monsters, in the graveyard itself there were ghosts, cripshays, deenglows and eligors, and on our way back we ran into a swarm of whole eaters." Zack attacked halfway through the sentence, but with something Cloud could counter easily. Cloud responded with an equally simple swing, this was more about building muscle memory and staying in shape than learning anything new.
"Do you remember how many of each type of monster each of you killed?"
"Of course. We kept track for the bounty. We each got around ten ghosts and fifteen cripshays, Alex managed two deenglows and one eligor and Marius got three deenglows and an eligor, and they each managed about fifteen of the whole eaters." He was rounding up a bit for his friends, Alex managed nine ghosts, thirteen cripshays; Marius managed ten ghosts, fourteen cripshays; and Cloud had got eleven ghosts and seventeen cripshays.
"And how many of the deenglows, eligors and whole eaters did you manage?"
"Three deenglows, three eligors and the remaining twenty-five whole eaters." He'd hoped to run into a hell house, he'd even told Marius to be ready to trade off materia if there was another attack after they dealt with the whole eaters, but it hadn't happened. It didn't matter, either next time he'd be by himself and could look for something harder, or they'd be with Zack, and the SOLDIER 1st would find something harder for him to deal with.
"Well done. And you had the Revive materia dampening your strength too."
"Well, Alex and Marius were dealing with the same effect, just to a lesser degree. Do you think I should work on getting the Heal to third level first, or on mastering the Restore?"
"I don't know. You'd probably do better to ask Sephiroth, or one of the other medics. Did your friends give you any trouble about coming with you on a training hunt?"
"Not too much. They asked if I was sure it was a good idea, and weren't too eager to come hunting with me, but they generally treated me like their teacher." Cloud scowled as he said that, he really didn't think his friends should be looking to him for instruction instead of, or even as well as, their sergeants and Zack.
"I think I might have set you up for that. I didn't plan it, but..."
"If you trust my judgement enough to let me organise a hunt for them, yes, I get it. They think you were sending them a subtle message that they should be deferring to and learning from me. That would be believable if it was Sephiroth, but you don't do subtle in the same way." Except that Alex and Marius had been treating Cloud like a superior almost since Sephiroth first started training with him directly. "You didn't ask about how they did with the materia I lent them."
"I thought you'd have said if they had any problems."
"And you don't think they could have done well enough to need mentioning then?" He'd expected Zack to ask him about how well Alex and Marius had used his materia earlier, or even if they'd needed to use them.
"Well, how did they do then?" Apparently Cloud had managed to spark Zack's curiosity now.
"Marius only used the Ice materia once, to destroy his third deenglow, but he got hurt badly enough to need the Cure spell Alex cast on him in dealing with the eligor. Alex didn't need any combative materia, and he didn't get hurt badly enough to need healing. But he didn't manage to kill as many ghosts and cripshays as Marius did."
"Do you think Alex could have managed another spell if he had to?"
"Not immediately. And we didn't spend long enough hunting after he'd cast that spell to give him time to recover enough to cast a second spell. But I think he'd have been able to cast another Cure if he'd had to an hour after he cast the Cure." There was something else he needed to make clear. "I'm not going to carry a second combative materia next time you take us on a hunt. I have to take one healing materia, and I can't afford the strength dampening effect of more than two materia at once. Not yet."
"But if I gave you a different materia you'd use that instead of the Ice?"
"As long as it won't cost me more of my strength than the Ice materia does I'm willing. An unmastered, or even first level materia would probably help me improve my energy reserves, and with a first level I think I could cast up to five first level spells." Zack used Cloud's distraction as he was calculating his ability to use a first level materia, rather than a mastered one to disarm him, and Cloud quickly raised his hands in surrender.
"Good. Sephiroth said you should get practice in with different types of materia. You know I've got a Lightning, Fire and Poison materia I can lend to you, and if you want to try an Earth, Gravity or Mystify you can ask Sephiroth." Cloud wasn't too sure he liked the implication that Zack had given almost all the combative materia he had to cadets on their first hunt, but he was pretty certain he'd misinterpreted that somehow, he knew Sephiroth had given Zack a mastered Ultima as an effort to help keep him safe, even if it took too much out of you to equip except when it was needed.
"I'll stick with the Poison for now. But none of that combining it with a support materia." Besides, Cloud had the Speed Plus materia working properly now, he thought that would give him an advantage against the monsters.
"Okay then." That had been easy. "But why don't you tell me about your girl, what you've told your friends. Sephiroth said the two of you had made up a file on her."
"Well, officially I believe that Sera's the daughter of a SOLDIER, but I didn't say that she'd said that, instead I described how the effects of having a SOLDIER for a father are different in women and men. We wove a few real things about Sephiroth in with the stories. For instance how long Sephiroth's hair is, and how much he enjoys it when I brush it out."
"Does he really?" Cloud had a feeling he'd just given Zack ammunition to use against Sephiroth. He quickly made his excuses and fled to his barracks.
o0()0o
Apparently on Saturday the whole platoon did exercises together, first exercises on a team level, then on a squad level, setting up a round robin tournament where each squad fought every one of the other four separately, and in a two against one situation for a total of ten exercises. Finally there'd been practise manoeuvring as a whole platoon. Cloud knew he was in for some teasing because of his performance, he hadn't had time to get used to working with his team or his squad, and he was sure he was holding them back even if the squad hadn't come in quite last - they'd been fourth.
"We'll be finishing the day with some nice and easy parade ground drill. Ten-hut!" And that meant half an hour of misery for Cloud as he tried to show the sort of perfection of drill the rest of his squad pulled off so effortlessly. And since Cloud was pretty lousy at drill the sergeants kept on screaming at him, to make it better.
"You've got two hours drill practice after we eat Strife." His sergeant was pissed, and Cloud knew that what he had to say would just make it worse.
"Sergeant, I can't. I've got an appointment with Sephiroth to work on my skills with materia for three hours. He's ordered me to bring the Heal materia." He didn't like using his connection to Sephiroth to get out of drill like that, but he wasn't going to miss an appointment with him either.
"Then you've got three hours of drill practice at 1800 tomorrow."
"Yes Sergeant Redstone." It meant he wouldn't have much time to spend with Sephiroth on Sunday, but his lover would understand, and he did need to improve his drill. The sergeant turned away from him in apparent disgust, but the rest of his team surrounded him, telling him it wasn't that bad, everyone who'd got into the unit through the cadet system had been just as bad at drill when they joined, he'd see that in a couple of months when they got some more new blood.
"Probably in our squad too, unless we manage to recruit some experienced troopers before then. Think you can get up to speed enough to be our medic by then?"
"I don't know Corporal Sands, but I'll try. I think the General's willing to help me with that since he told me to bring the Heal materia tonight."
"Good." There was an air of satisfaction in the man's voice, but Cloud caught sight of Alex and Marius sitting together and dismissed it.
"I think I should eat with the other two the General agreed to work with today."
"Go ahead." Cloud smiled at Corporal Sands in thanks and left his squad to go sit with his fellow newbies.
"You aren't nervous about working with Sephiroth are you?" Because they were just picking at their meals, and even though the food was pretty unappealing Cloud knew they'd have worked up enough of an appetite to eat just about anything; he had after all.
"You might have managed to become friends with the General, but we aren't." Alex sounded just a little panicked, and Cloud searched his mind desperately for some way to calm them down. Not that he could think of anything, reminding them that this had been Sephiroth's idea would just remind them why he'd suggested this deal to Zack. A distraction though, that might work.
"Well, I've managed to end up with three hours extra drill practice tomorrow, since I disgraced myself in that part of today's platoon exercises. How's your drill? As bad as mine is?"
"Probably worse." Alex's admission was pretty rueful, but they weren't focusing on their imminent meeting with Sephiroth. "I got stuck with two hours after our platoon exercises yesterday, and I've got two hours tomorrow too, I'd have had more drill today as well, except the General had already told my sergeant he wanted me to meet with him today."
"I'll probably get in trouble too then, but my platoon exercises aren't until tomorrow."
"My squad mates made a point of telling me that everyone who had come from the cadet program screws up on drill at first." Cloud smiled to hear that Alex was going through exactly the same thing as him.
"Yeah, mine too, and I think my sergeant harbours hopes of getting me promoted to medic in the next two months, not likely, but..."
"If anyone can do it you can Cloud." Cloud wanted to blush at Marius' confidence in him, but he'd learned a bit about how not to be embarrassed by other people's too generous assessments of his skills.
"Thanks, but I don't even know what the tests are. Though I'd like to get through my training as quickly as I can, just to keep from having to deal with Corporal Miller."
"What's so bad about him?"
"He's an idiot, he's supposed to specialise more in materia healing like Corporal Pryce does, but he didn't believe me when I said I'd cast as many Cures as I could, and then he gave me exercises to increase my magic energy reserves that Sephiroth said are a load of bullshit. Well...they might improve my control, but nothing else." Zack had said they were nonsense too, and so had the platoon materia user when Cloud had approached him.
"You need to improve your control?"
"Perhaps. It might let me get another spell out of my materia, and being better aware of my energy reserves will help me know when I've done too much." His words seemed to be enough to get his friends talking about their training anyway, and he listened for the most part, adding his own comments when he had something to contribute.
Then it was time for them to go and meet the General, in the materia training room apparently. Cloud got his friends to come with him while he collected his unlinked slot bracer and the materia he'd been asked to bring; the squad Heal, and his own Restore.
There was a man waiting there, dressed in the white coat of a lab tech, looking very nervous, but Sephiroth wasn't there yet, so Cloud began focusing on the Heal materia, working out just how far it was from maturing to the next level. He'd told Zack it was about halfway between being second level and third, but he might have been inaccurate, too generous, or not generous enough. No, he'd been accurate enough, and even if the Heal materia was just over halfway to third level it would still be harder to get it there than to get the Restore all the way to mastered status. On the other hand...he already had access to a mastered Restore...he was interrupted from his musings when Sephiroth arrived, another lab tech behind him, carrying a box that seemed more bulky than heavy.
"Cloud, here. Read this, and in two weeks time deliver a report summarising the information within and your own thoughts on the subject." So that was why Sephiroth had asked which of the books on making materia slots Cloud was reading at the moment. "Now, I want you to work with a slotted materia today, to conserve your energy. Mr. Levins here has four poisons. One of which is lethal within ten minutes, one of which is not lethal at all, and the other two which will take a day to kill a man. He'll inject each of them in turn into Mr. Uchiha, and record his reactions. I want you to use the Heal materia to remove all traces of the poisons from your 'patient's' blood when instructed to, and write down which of the poisons were which. If you need an extra test feel free to ask for one. Then if you have any energy left I want you to try casting the second level spell from this materia." A simple Fire materia, albeit mastered, Cloud took it from Sephiroth's hand with a word of thanks. "Before you start, please lend Private Cochrane your Restore." And Sephiroth handed what had to be his own mastered Restore materia over to Marius. Cloud fussed with how his materia were slotted as a cover for listening to Sephiroth briefing his friends, not that it was really necessary, since Mr. Levins was busy fussing with his equipment.
"I do not expect either of you to be able to draw a Cure from an unslotted materia today. In fact I have been informed that the energy requirements are so much higher neither of you has a hope to cast a Cure without slotting the Restore. Instead the aim of today's lesson is for you to learn how to directly sense the level of a materia and what spells it has." Then he began leading them through what was essentially guided meditation and Cloud tuned him out, turning his attention to his own studies.
"Well, which is the first poison?" Cloud wasn't entirely happy about the way Sephiroth had chosen for him to learn how to use this materia and to judge how pressing someone's need for it was, but he wasn't going to question him about it either. Not yet anyway, but afterwards he might ask him about it, when they got together before his curfew.
"Here. You can record anything you feel worthy of note in this." It was nothing more than a folded over sheet of paper, with numbers one to four written at the top of each 'page', but Cloud took it and the pencil Mr. Levins handed over with it. "This is poison number one." He injected the poison into Mr. Uchiha' vein, and began timing something, giving a running commentary into a hand held tape recorder and taking blood samples every so often.
"You can heal him now." At last! Cloud moved quickly to clear the poison from the blood, noting how much it seemed to have affected the victim, and how widely spread it was among other things. He thought this would be one of the deadly poisons, but not until after a day, and he wrote that down, along with the supporting evidence. Then he moved on to the other poisons, grateful that he didn't have to repeat any of the tests.
"You can hand that to the General, he'll see that Dr. Hojo gets a copy." Mr. Levins packed everything away and led Mr. Uchiha out then, and Cloud sat to do a bit more reading in the book Sephiroth had brought him before trying a Fire2. But even with the rest he didn't have the energy to cast more than one Fire2, since he'd needed an Esuna for the strongest poison.
o0()0o
"Return the materia. I expect you to practice the meditation exercises I have taught you for at least ten minutes daily, and speak to Cloud about borrowing his Restore for an hour or so. I want a report of no longer than a page on what you can sense within a mastered Restore materia without slotting it in two weeks. Dismissed." Cloud knew that didn't apply to him, but he accepted his Restore materia back from Alex, glad that Sephiroth had briefed him on his plans for the lesson yesterday.
"Here's your Fire materia and the report on those poisons Sephiroth. I wanted to ask your advice on which of the squad materia I should focus on maturing first." That would cover his visit to Sephiroth's quarters in case Alex and Marius wanted to talk with him now.
"Accompany me then. And we can discuss your report as well." And whether or not they'd need to sanitise it for Hojo's consumption. Cloud wasn't sure if he'd seen things a normal human wouldn't have or not, and Sephiroth was...probably not the best judge of that himself, but the only option they really had available.
"Yes sir." He trotted along obediently at Sephiroth's side, playing the good little subordinate, even when he really wanted to question his lover about why he'd chosen that particular method to teach Cloud about using the Heal materia.
"Which materia were you considering, and why?"
"The Restore and the Heal materia. The Revive and the Full Cure are both mature enough to use all the spells in them, and I'm not strong enough to safely equip more than a Restore or Heal and a combative materia, or a single Revive materia without putting myself at a stupid disadvantage in a fight."
"Hmm. Sensible. You don't need to master those two, not yet anyway, not as long as they'll do what you need them to. Exactly what is the situation with the Restore and the Heal?"
"Both of them are one spell short of the full complement. The Restore has only just reached third level, while the Heal is halfway between second level and third level. The Heal requires somewhere between a fifth and a third again more...energy for lack of a better term to mature enough to use the final spell as the Restore does. I'm personally inclined to work on the Heal first, since I can always use the Restore you gave me if I need that spell, but I wanted your advice as well. Besides, I'm not sure which of the Restore materia I'd be expected to hand in to stores after I master the squad materia, the mastered one or the newly spawned unlevelled one."
"Probably the unlevelled one, although I'm not entirely certain. I'll check for you."
"Thank you." They reached Sephiroth's quarters then, and Cloud waited until the door was closed behind him before continuing. "Now explain precisely why you felt it necessary for me to learn how to use the Heal materia by poisoning a man multiple times for me to practise on."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have used you like that. But it is the best way for you to learn how to use the Heal materia, and to learn how to assess the urgency of a poison victim's needs. Uchiha...was one of the lab techs when I was a child, the flashback I had the first time I used a materia unslotted...it was to something he'd done, more than once. Dr. Hojo knew about it, I found that out yesterday when I specifically requested that he lend me Uchiha as the test subject for his new poisons, but he said that as long as it wouldn't inhibit my ability to serve as a weapon it didn't matter."
Sephiroth was shaking ever so slightly, Cloud hated that, and he pulled his lover into a swift embrace.
"He was lying. You're worth more than just to be used that way, I swear it."
"I...you and Zack both say that, you almost make me believe it. We should go through your report, then if we've got time..." Cloud smiled as his lover trailed off suggestively, but he definitely wanted to know exactly what had happened to Sephiroth at Uchiha's hands.
"Go ahead and tell me what I need to write instead." Sephiroth handed Cloud a blank copy of the report sheet immediately, even before he'd read the actual report.
"Well, you can put which of the poisons was which safely enough."
"Right, and it shouldn't be a problem saying I knew the swift acting poison was number three because I had to use Esuna to deal with it." He'd rested the paper on the book Sephiroth gave him in the training hall to write his reports, so it would be best to do the same here, even if he would prefer to sit down.
"Yes, although it might be a bit hard to explain how you knew you had to use Esuna..."
"I'll lie then, and say I cast Poisona followed by Esuna. Levins wasn't paying enough attention to say that I wasn't."
"If you're certain about that. I don't have any personal experience with Levins, so I wouldn't know." Apparently Sephiroth wasn't going to sit down until Cloud did, and that was a bit annoying, but there was nothing he could do about it, or at least nothing he was willing to do about it.
"He wasn't looking at me or Uchiha at the time, he was focusing on transferring the blood samples he'd taken into these vials."
"I see. Well, you've got details I might not have noticed, not unless I was really focusing. Hmmm...we just need an explanation of how you knew which was the non-lethal poison, other than that I think you'd best restrict your report to the basics of which poison was which."
"Can most people sense how much...for lack of a better term 'resistance' there is against a spell?"
"I don't know. But I can, and I've been praising your abilities with materia, so it won't seem too strange that you can too."
"Right, then I'll say that I just didn't feel the Poisona working as much as it had for poison one with poison two, while with poison three I could feel it working, but not doing well enough."
"I don't even know which poison was which." Sephiroth laughed as Cloud finished scribbling down his new report. "Dr. Hojo said he'd tell me after I delivered his copy of your report and let him do the check-up he wanted on Wednesday." Cloud spun to face Sephiroth at that comment, he really didn't like the resignation in his lover's voice, or the hint of weariness in his body language as he finally sat down. He quickly put his new report aside and moved to sit beside his lover, taking him in his arms.
"You traded this check-up for the help you got with teaching me to use a Heal materia today, didn't you?" He didn't wait for Sephiroth to reply before continuing. "You shouldn't do something like that, agree to do things you don't want to do to get help for me."
"It wasn't exactly like that, every SOLDIER must have a check-up every six months, I'm about due to have mine anyway, I just agreed to come in without Dr. Hojo having to send out an order. He thinks it was more about revenge on Uchiha than about helping you since I specifically asked for him as the victim. It isn't as if it's painful, just invasive, and far longer and more intensive than anyone else has to deal with. I...Zack will be taking you and your friends hunting, since my check-up will take at least six hours, but..."
"You want me to make sure I'm here for you afterwards. What time are you going in for your check-up?"
"Eleven. I know you went out for dinner with Zack and your friends last time, but..."
"Sephiroth, you're more important than that. Zack would agree and understand. I want to be with you, and help you, to make you feel better. That's what lovers do, they help each other through the bad times, and they're there for each other. Come on, I think you could use a massage more than sex right now." Cloud stood, pulling his lover up with him and began undressing him as he led Sephiroth to the bedroom, leaving a trail of black leather and steel behind them.
"Please Cloud, I'd rather..."
"I know, you think you'd rather give me a massage, but I don't think that's what you need right now."
"Then...will you at least undress too?" Sephiroth lay down on the bed obediently, but Cloud could see that he wasn't quite comfortable and that would be counterproductive.
"As you wish." He stripped slowly, watching Sephiroth's reaction, and hoping he looked good enough doing it to arouse his lover. It seemed to be working, his lover apparently couldn't keep his eyes off him and there were these little hitches in his breathing that always began when he'd managed to arouse him. "On your stomach love."
He loved seeing that magnificent body stretched out for him to play with and he laid a light kiss on Sephiroth's shoulder before starting on the massage. He hated the way he had to rush it, but Sephiroth would be upset if he was late for his curfew because he was doing this, he knew that much for certain. And even the massage he was giving Sephiroth was enough to relax him, releasing the tension from his body, and when he had Sephiroth roll over he could tell it had aroused him as well. He hesitated, glancing over at the clock to check how much time he had left, then he lay down on top of Sephiroth's body and began kissing and biting at his throat as he thrust against him, wrapping an oiled hand around both their dicks for more friction, difficult as it was.
Soon enough Sephiroth's back arched up and he climaxed against Cloud with a cry of pleasure, Cloud coming too after just a few more thrusts. He sighed, and kissed Sephiroth before standing and dressing quickly.
"I have to go now. I'll see you later."
"Alright." Sephiroth sounded sleepy, and Cloud wished he could just stay and hold him, but that wasn't an option.
o0()0o
Cloud checked the time as he came back from the hunting trip with Zack, it was just half past two, plenty of time for him to set his plans in motion. A visit to the quartermaster's office first, since the company quartermaster wasn't in his office.
"Excuse me, I think I need to speak to someone who can help me set up two standing orders from my account."
"You'll need an appointment for that." The private behind the desk seemed to take pity on him though. "I'll set you one up for your next leave day, that'll be in a week's time right?"
"Yes, make it in the afternoon though, because I've got things I have to do in the morning"
"You'll get a notice saying what time you need to be here by Saturday. Is there anything else you wanted?"
"Yes, I need to withdraw 200 gil." It had been easier to just have all his bounty paid into his account rather than get any in cash and he'd put all the cash he had left from buying his new clothes into his account last week.
"Just sign here." This was familiar and he took his money before setting off back into Midgar. Sephiroth didn't have any favourite food, or anything that could be classed as comfort food, more's the pity, but Zack had said he'd taken him out for ice-cream once, and he'd seemed to like the lemon sorbet better than the sweeter things. Just as he liked the bitter dark chocolate more than the sweeter milk chocolate, because he'd never had a chance to develop a sweet tooth as a child. From what Zack had said Sephiroth usually wasn't up to ordering a meal after his check-ups, so Cloud was planning on buying some light snacks and perhaps some fruit to feed him. If he could find any decent fruit at a price he could afford. But that had been why he'd withdrawn so much money, to cover the cost of any fruit he could find.
He knew where to go to get the chocolate and lemon sorbet anyway, and there was a small kitchen in Sephiroth's quarters, he just didn't use it much, since he said no-one had ever taught him how to cook indoors. But Cloud did know a little bit about how to cook, so he could do something simple, and easy, something he could do a lot of the preparation for beforehand, and then just heat up when Sephiroth came in. He found some chocolate and nut pastries he could heat up easily enough, and some frozen sausage rolls, a bit like the ones that had been sent up when Sephiroth had asked for finger foods last week, as well as some sliced cooked meat and part-baked buns. He'd found some fresh fruit, but it was expensive, and he really didn't think the quality was high enough to be worth buying it, although the butter and jam were both a reasonable price. On the other hand there was some reasonably priced tinned cherries, and a pre-cooked tart casing, he'd be able to put those together well enough, especially if he creamed some sugar and butter together to add to the filling.
Cloud had already cooked the tart and the sausage rolls as well as finishing off the buns by the time Sephiroth arrived around quarter past five, looking better than he'd expected.
"How'd it go Sephiroth?" He still reached up and gave his lover a steadying hug as he spoke.
"Better than I expected. I think Dr. Hojo's trying to make some sort of point about my check-ups being easier if I don't make him arrange for someone to hunt me down for them. Except I know better than to believe that." He paused, sniffing the air curiously. "Did you...cook for me Cloud?"
"Yes, I didn't expect you to be in good enough condition to order anything."
"Thank you, but...I don't really feel like eating anything at the moment."
"You don't have to. We haven't had a chance to work on our jigsaw for a while. Would you like to do that?" Cloud let go of Sephiroth and stepped back slowly.
"If you're not interested in going straight to bed." He was blushing faintly as he spoke.
"Why don't we shower together first? Then there's a game I'd like to play and I need to be clean for it, I'll tell you about it afterwards." And Cloud suspected his lover wanted to feel as if he'd cleaned the lab from his skin, and was planning to use sex for that; he'd much rather they showered to do that.
"Wash my hair please then?"
"If you want." Cloud undressed Sephiroth as they moved to the shower, kissing him when he got the chance. He kept showering with his lover mostly chaste, except for one or two kisses that Sephiroth initiated and made a point of drying his lover's body himself.
"I need to prepare something for the game I'm planning, why don't you go and start drying your hair while I do that?"
"Should I do something to keep it out of the way as well?"
"Good idea." Sephiroth's kitchen was well equipped even if he didn't use it, and as Cloud melted some dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water he gently heated half again as much double cream by weight in another pan. Once the chocolate was melted he whisked the cream into it, taking the bowl off the heat and put it on a tray, adding the stiff clean brush he'd bought and washed that afternoon. He dipped a finger into the mixture, checking the temperature, and decided it would be cool enough to use soon enough. He carried the tray through to the bedroom and set it down on the floor by the bed when he saw Sephiroth still working on his hair.
"Want some help?"
"Could you braid my hair for me, please?"
"Of course." It was only just damp and Cloud braided it carefully, tying it off with a piece of leather Sephiroth handed back to him.
"What did you want to do Cloud?" He'd had a different plan before Sephiroth returned, but he'd changed his mind when he saw his lover was in better condition than he'd expected. Cloud lay down on his back, looking up at Sephiroth.
"I've mixed up some chocolate body paint, and I want you to paint it onto my body, then lick it off. I'll return the favour afterwards if you want." It would put Cloud in an unusually passive role at first, but then he thought Sephiroth would enjoy having this control after a day when he probably had none. His lover looked surprised at Cloud's suggestion, but he picked up the bowl and opened Cloud's robe to get at his skin, pushing it down off his shoulders carefully. Cloud shut his eyes to enjoy the surprise of wherever Sephiroth chose to start painting the chocolate and cream mixture on him, wondering absently if Sephiroth had realised that his robe was tangled up around his arms now, almost like bonds. He gasped as he felt the warm chocolate being painted onto his nipples and then across his chest, and down over his stomach until it reached his groin. Cloud just hoped Sephiroth didn't paint too much of the mixture where it would get caught up in his pubic hair, but then his lover skipped most of his groin and Cloud moaned as he painted the mixture directly onto his straining cock.
It took an effort of will to keep his eyes closed, but he managed it, whispering encouraging words to his lover as Sephiroth licked the chocolate and cream away from his body. But his eyes flew open when Sephiroth took Cloud into his mouth, sucking the chocolate off, and then just sucking and teasing his balls until Cloud climaxed down his throat.
"My turn now." He sat up, shrugging his robe back on as he spoke, and pulled Sephiroth up to lie in his place, reaching for the bowl of chocolate and cream. There was enough left for him to use on his lover, and even though it had cooled it was still liquid enough to paint on Sephiroth's body. He pushed Sephiroth's robe down and off his shoulders without opening it, watching for Sephiroth's gasp when he realised how it encumbered his arms and only then did he open his lover's robe. Nipples first, and Cloud coated them thickly, painting spirals around them, and another centred on his lover's navel, adding little streaks and dabs here and there as the fancy took him. He didn't coat his lover's cock properly, instead he painted the shaft, but left the head free of the chocolate, and then he began licking it off, starting with the random streaks and dabs, moving to work inward around the spiral painted around Sephiroth's navel. The nipples were next, and he enjoyed Sephiroth's moans when he bit at them, then he moved down to the groin.
He licked at the shaft of his lover's cock, and then wrapped his mouth around it as well as he could without actually starting a blow job, wrapping a hand around it too and stimulating the head with his thumb. When Sephiroth climaxed he pulled back feeling his seed splatter into his hair.
"We're going to need another shower."
"I know, but your hair's still clean isn't it?"
"Yes...you know I think I could manage to eat something after all. Should I order something for the two of us? Or will whatever you cooked still be alright to eat?"
"I picked things I could cook and then leave, perhaps reheat if necessary, since I didn't know when you'd be back. Come on, we can add the finishing touches together." Like cutting the buns open and buttering them then laying the sliced meat on top, simple enough even for someone who barely knew what an oven was for. Cloud stood up, offering a hand to Sephiroth as he did and led him through to the kitchen where he looked uncomfortably around at the mess he'd made of it.
"Sorry about the mess, I'll clean up before we go to sleep."
"Don't bother, I'll do that when I wake up, it will give me something to do, and you did cook." Cloud hesitated, then guilty accepted his offer.
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