Yazoo retuned to their room far later than he'd actually planned. To his dismay Kadaj was already back, pacing furiously while Loz watched him with barely concealed concern.
"Where've you been?" Kadaj hissed, stopping in mid-pace, turning to face his brother with his tense little fists clenched.
"Likewise," Yazoo replied, remaining calm, keeping himself safe behind the shell of cold indifference that so upset and perplexed the baby. "That certainly wasn't Mother's face I got a glimpse of when I touched you this morning."
Kadaj seethed, looking fairly caught out, but calmed a little when Loz cupped his shoulders from behind, murmuring to him.
"You've been with someone, haven't you?" Kadaj asked, swinging from fury to hurt, though it still escaped Yazoo why. Kadaj took lovers when the mood hit him, cruelly flaunting them to his brothers, but went into a perfectly psychopathic fit when Yazoo or Loz returned the favor. But he never ever said those words that he demanded to hear from his brothers. "At least Loz doesn't like his lovers!"
Yazoo laughed a little, knowing that was a lie. His large, rather sensitive brother wouldn't dream of engaging in an act of love with someone he didn't like. Loz was definitely the most romantic of the three, and often cried a little when they moved on to another town, sad to leave behind the people he had touched.
"So what if I was with someone?" Yazoo coolly asked, tilting his head to the side and smirking at his seething younger brother. "What business is if of yours when you spent the night chasing down and seducing Cloud Strife? It isn't as if you love me, after all."
Kadaj hissed at him, nearly shouting, "You are my business! How dare you leave me here and go searching for someone to fuck?! Do you think I would've found him if you had been here instead?"
Yazoo weighed his answer carefully, knowing he was pushing Kadaj dangerously close to an explosive temper tantrum, and then casually replied, "I don't think even Mother herself could keep you out of his pants, little brother."
Kadaj snarled and shook Loz off, rearing back and slapping Yazoo hard in the face.
Yazoo laughed, straightening, his hand cupping his burning cheek. Loz shot him a look that clearly begged, 'Why are you teasing him?' and hastened to intervene but Kadaj shoved him out of the way with a fretful, "Tsk!"
"Such a temper, koishii, oy," he sighed, amused, lowering his lids. "If you loved me half so well as you loved our big brother, perhaps I would not be tempted to seek comfort elsewhere…"
Kadaj panted, staring at him, trembling on the verge of a full-out fit.
"But I love you, Kadaj," Yazoo sighed, shaking his head a little because it was true. He loved the baby with everything in him, even his madness and cruelty. "And because I love you I'll tell you a secret my lover told me."
"I don't give a fuck!" Kadaj snapped, shifting rapidly to sulky in the wake of Yazoo's admission of love. Whatever Cloud had done to the baby certainly had him excitable, bouncing from one emotion to the next with insane speed. He crossed his arms over his slender, well-formed chest and turned his back on Yazoo.
"Now, now, don't fight," Loz crooned, giving Yazoo a dirty, exasperated look. He maneuvered his trim, muscular body closer to Kadaj and pulled the sullen baby into his arms, stroking his stiff back and cajoling him as he would any girl who was upset.
Miffed, the baby turned his face away but allowed Loz to hold him.
"It just so happens, Kadaj," Yazoo said, drifting up to his back and sliding his arms around the baby's slender waist, embracing Loz's arms as well, locked as they were to each other. He nuzzled Kadaj's delicate ear and breathed into it, "My lover works for ShinRa."
Kadaj went absolutely still with shock. Forgetting his anger, he turned his head to look at Yazoo, who draped over his shoulder, and asked with dangerously unstable excitement, "Did he mention Mother?"
"It would seem that they are planning an expedition, but you're probably not interested in that," Yazoo lazily said, letting go of Kadaj to swing around Loz's back, leaning back against that broad expanse of heat and muscle that had always been his steadying force in this insane world.
With the same determined, brutal curiosity of a child, Kadaj reached around Loz and gripped Yazoo's arm, wrenching him sharply closer, his green eyes sparkling with the flame of destiny.
"Where are they going?"
Yazoo smiled at him and asked, "Would you believe me if I told you? You never believe me when I say that I love you…"
Uncertainty fell over the baby like a blanket, and his soft little face slowly lifted in a sensual smile.
"Yazoo," he purred, turning in Loz's embrace to lean around his bicep, his hard hand shifting from Yazoo's arm to his cheek. Those green eyes blinked lazily, suffused with an utter sensuousness. For a gut-wrenching second Yazoo saw huge blue eyes instead—huge blue eyes and a lean fox-face with a wide, easy grin.
He twitched and hoped Kadaj had not noticed.
"Yazoo," the baby purred again, pulling him close for a scorching kiss. "Of course you love me. There's nothing you wouldn't do for me…Now, where are they going?"
"They're going to the Northern Crater next week," Yazoo murmured, turning against Loz's back to kiss the baby again, just because his gorgeous little face was so close and kissable.
The baby was absorbed in his words, drawing back mid-kiss to whisper to himself, "The Northern Crater! Of course!"
"That's far," Loz said, letting Kadaj cling to him in excitement. He steadied the boy easily with one arm, glancing back at Yazoo to ask, "Will we make it?"
"They're taking a helicopter," Yazoo said, resting his cheek on Loz's arm. It was good to be near his brothers, good to feel safe again. Reno had made him feel so strange, like he never wanted to come back—like he wanted to be a person like any other and be with that infuriatingly ridiculous man who moved and looked like a light, sly little fox. "If we leave now, we may beat them."
Kadaj grinned with madness and pulled away, dragging Yazoo in between him and Loz before pressing him into a deep, breathless kiss. He flung his slender, strong arms around Yazoo's neck and held fast, Loz reaching around to hug them both, the baby's driving need to find Mother infecting them yet again.