Thirteen
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The ex-Watchers weren't here for one full week that some truths were acknowledged by all SOLDIERs and, by defaut, by Turks too. One, Dirk was a damn fine chef. If you were searching him, you had to go for the kitchen. Second, Elena and Flore were inseparable. So much that Turk envisaged recruiting the little ex-Watcher. But it was hush-hush. Genesis loved gossip as much as Kunsel and they found out by the First' own Fanbase. They were useful sometimes. Third, trying to stop Genesis from seeing Cloud was impossible.
Genesis didn't know if his overprotective SOLDIERs tried to keep Cloud away too. If they did, it didn't work. Cloud wasn't one to cave in face of lame threats. The ex-Watcher seemed unphased by the glaring of the SOLDIERs when they meet. Genesis loved it. He loved irritating the entirety of the Soldier Department and the Turks. He loved how Cloud just talked to him.
Cloud didn't make Genesis felt like a weak little thing near death.
The Chocobo liked Loveless and literature too.
Genesis sighed in contentment.
"This is love!" he singsonged.
The odd stares he received from the people in the hall made him think twice about what he said.
"It was just a turn of phrase," he muttered, heart beating fast. "Although I am in love. With two very absent person who don't call at all!"
Great, now he was irritated by the two Firsts that called themselves his lovers.
The gym's racket reduced to nothing as Genesis entered the training area, a wide open room with a tall ceiling and mats littering the concrete floor. He paused an instant in the entryway, hand on hips and scanned the area. He saw a lot of embarrassed face, eyes coming and going from his unused arm. They knew why he didn't come to the gym anymore. As degradation settled in, proving to be a long-lasting illness Hojo could only stop but not cure, Genesis shied away from physical efforts. Remembering it made the SOLDIERs uneasy.
Genesis loved it.
He was disabled, and he was going to rub it on their faces until all traces of pity disappeared. He wanted them to see he wasn't as strong as a SOLDIER but he wasn't on his death bed. Mako still ran in his veins, keeping him as perky as a normal human. Not a dying rat.
He should thank Cloud for forcing him to come here the first time.
Spiky blond hair pointed to the man he was searching. Genesis approached and rolled his eyes. Cloud was running again.
"Are you going to try something else than the treadmill?" Genesis asked in guise of salutation. "Or are you preparing for a Marathon? If so, I need to warn you that enhanced men are, sadly, not accepted. Something about grievous advantages."
Cloud huffed and stopped the sequence so he could walk and talk to Genesis.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe a spar?" Genesis designed the two SOLDIERs not too far with stick for swords. They started fighting again at his glance. "Maybe you'll put some sense in those dense heads."
"You want me to fight your SOLDIERs," Cloud repeated slowly. He made eye contact with Genesis, searching something on his face. "When they would jump on me at the first sign of hostility."
"A good spar get you rid of unnecessary hostility," Genesis said. He sat at the hem of the practice ring the two SOLDIERs with stick where. "I know it from experience."
"But our experiences aren't the same," Cloud answered, plopping next to Genesis. "And if I go fight Sephiroth to release 'unnecessary hostility', I'm going to be beaten up too."
"I'm pretty sure Sephiroth would do it himself, beating you up I mean. But he'll be happy to have another sparring partner. Nobody wants to anymore. Cowards."
Genesis chuckled, seeing Abe – he thought it was his name – flinch at the insult. Many SOLDIERs were eager to fight with Sephiroth. The first time. Then they refused to make eye contact with the General when he went to the gym asking for a partner. Now, few were still accepting to entertain Sephiroth.
"You can fight Abe if you're unsure about your capacities, a cactuar could kill him."
Turning his head to the blond, he saw him smirking.
"Bendt, no, Richard. Wait, it is Sasha?" the second sparring SOLDIER nodded at the last name. "Well, Sasha. I could beat his ass even as a lowly human. And with one hand. If they let me and didn't treat me like their aging grandpa."
Genesis smirked at the faces the SOLDIERs in the room made. The mirrors on one wall were useful. Cloud chuckled. He put his arms around his knee and kept observing.
"Yeah, you can beat him. You still have a mean throw, do you have a perfume bottle on you?"
Cloud's eyes glinted with playfulness. Genesis gasped loudly, like it could hide his mad heart, and put a hand on his chest.
"Please don't evoke such tragedy. I use expensive perfume as weapons only for the best. None of them is going to have even a Banora apple throw at them if they don't protect their right side!"
Both Abe and Sasha moved instinctively to protect their right side, giving an opening on their left. They noticed it and both acted in the same manner again, attacking the other. It was a mess that amused the two observers. Genesis laughed outright while Cloud hide his chuckles behind his hand.
"Abe, your right foot is not firm on its base. Damn, my grandma could beat you with her cane with those awful stances!"
"My mother could too," Cloud commented in a quiet voice.
"Oh come on!" Genesis exclaimed. "I said grandma; you can find better than a mother to joke about."
The blond raised his head from his knees. He seemed surprised at Genesis' comment.
"I wasn't joking. She could do it."
"Now, that is some interesting fact. Please, tell me more."
Cloud shrugged. Genesis leaned toward him, excited by the prospect of a new story.
"There nothing interesting. In the mountains there a lot of blizzards, like at the northern area. We are often isolated and need to eat. So we hunt whatever survive there. Winter hares, deers and else. There are always Nibel wolves trying to steal from us, and we had to defend our preys. Nothing more."
"Nothing more!" Genesis repeated. "Your mother kills Nibel wolves?"
"Not really, we chase them the most," Cloud corrected. He started playing with the hem of his shirt. "She wouldn't be so good with a sword, but a simple stick or a staff, yes. We hit wolves on the head with it, and they run off."
"And they run off, he said like Nibel wolves aren't colossal!" Genesis said sounding offended.
"Less than dragons," Cloud muttered.
"Did your mother fought dragons?" Genesis asked.
"Once," Cloud answered, blushing for a reason Genesis didn't dwell on. He blinked. "Oh."
"Oh, what?"
Cloud glanced at Genesis, shrugged but said nothing. He started running his fingers on something under his shirt. Genesis saw the contours of one notepad.
So my little one just remembered that, Genesis thought.
"What happened?" he asked.
A shrug answered him. Genesis eyes were attracted by the constant movement of Cloud's hand on his stomach. An instant he thought the boy was sick, but sounds of paper being crumpled indicated otherwise. Genesis held out a hand toward the blond who looked at him without understanding.
"You're telling me and I'm writing it down, if I let you do it we'll end up with 'Mom fought a dragon, she's cool. End.' and that would be an insult toward her."
Cloud huffed and drew his knee toward himself becoming a ball. A frown marred his face and he glared at Genesis who smirked back.
"Are you forced to talk about it here?" Cloud hissed.
"You did talk about my degradation like it was the weather."
Genesis wasn't trying to guilt trip Cloud, but commenting on this little incident did make him feel better. He decided that if Cloud refused he wouldn't insist. Yet the blond didn't make him wait long. Cloud gave him the corned notepad, a deep blush on his features. Genesis couldn't discern if it was from anger or embarrassment.
"Are you fighting or gossiping?" Genesis yelled after Abe and Sasha.
"You're the one gossiping, sir," Kunsel said.
The redhead turned toward the man who was nowhere in sight five seconds ago. At Genesis constant amazement, Kunsel had his helmet on.
"I'm not hiding it," he answered. He poked at Cloud with his useful hand. "So, tell me exactly how it happened."
The blond sighed, but he still told his story with a chilling detachment. He finished by leaned on Genesis, reading what he wrote about his mother.
"Icy blue eyes?" Cloud commented.
"Did she have another eye color?"
"No, it's just..." the blond shrugged but didn't finish his sentence.
"It's more poetic like that."
"... carrying her heavy charge down the mountain-side... I was a very scranny kid. I doubt I qualify as 'heavy charge'."
"A kid of your age is heavy," Genesis sighed, still baffled by the lack of genuine awe Cloud had for his mother. "I don't know the weight of five years olds, twenty or thirty kilogrammes? It's heavy for a woman."
Cloud looked at him, a part of his weight on his shoulder, but not enough to hurt Genesis. He blinked then squinted his eyes. He leaned back to observe Genesis.
"You're serious." it was a statement. "When I left Nilbeiheim, my friend could bench press me. My mom too."
Genesis gasped loudly, his eyes going wide. Then he asked in a hushed tone, "Where you living in a sort of barbaric village where women are stronger than men?"
He planned on his question to be humorous, at least capable of making the blond's lips quirk up. Cloud didn't. The little one seemed less than amused. He frowned and glared with all his might, body tense.
"Well, you never spend time in the slums if you think so," Kunsel said. "Brendt was actually knocked out by a teenager down there. Because he commented on her when she was choosing a weapon. She tested it on him. Pretty effective."
Some snickers echoed in the room. It was a well know story apparently. Somehow their conversation prompted the working out men to share stories about their friends, or girlfriends. They actually felt relaxed for the first time in many meeting Genesis had with Cloud, under those SOLDIERs' eyes. For the first time Cloud wasn't an ex-Watcher, just another guy with stories about the women in his life. He was awkward and hesitant at first but eased himself, enjoying himself and sharing with others the little he remembered.
Genesis assisted to it with a found smile. He gave few stories, but it was mostly about Gillian. His own mother had been soft and lenient with him.
Cloud lived in a dream. It was the only explanation.
SOLDIERs had all received definitives orders about the ex-Watchers and the hostility lowered since then. Lazard told him about the results of their medical check-ups and about the lack of gratitude for his service Heigheger had. Cloud had been a infantryman and hurt during his duty, he should have received a veteran help, but the head of the Army said to all Cloud was a traitor. The Turks kept this little tidbit from leaving the PR reunions. Both by Lazard's demand and Rufus as Cloud learned by Elena. The two were up for something. Not that Tseng planned on giving this information anyway, the demand from the two others gave him leverage for the future.
Lazard then proposed him to become a consultant. A consultant. Cloud couldn't believe it. He had to give all infos he remembered on the Watchers and help to bring down their strategies.
Next to it he could find what he wanted to do.
Flore and Dirk future was clear, they refused to become SOLDIERs. Cloud hesitated. So the consultant idea came. Cloud could ask for classes to be held so he could explain Watcher's ways of fighting. He was going to have a paycheck too. Which was as surreal as being in ShinRa in general.
He still hadn't the right to go to Zack's apartment. Reno talked about sensitives informations that could lie around. Cloud agreed it was likely; Zack was prone to bring back documents to his apartment. And since the Turks couldn't enter – only because Zack had a good relationship with them – Cloud was stuck outside.
At least Kunsel snored. Till the man made sounds, he wasn't awake, ready to strick. It let it bring down his guard and sleep a little. Though, Genesis' office was the best for a power nap.
Cloud didn't accept Lazard's proposition yet. It was too strange and he couldn't pinpoint exactly why. That's why he went directly for Genesis' office. He knew the man for one week and was already trusting him.
Cloud stopped near the office. A SOLDIER he lost the name on his heels. Maybe he should just turn on his heels and stop being so friendly with the redhead. He could be on the same board as Rufus and Lazard, manipulating him into joining SOLDIERs and being tied up by ShinRa bureaucracy. Not that it would really hold him up if he wanted to leave.
"My, are you camping before my door now?"
The blond sighed and gave a blasé look at Genesis. The man closed the door behind him, a smile on his face.
"I'm going for the helipads, walk with me."
Cloud followed without complaint. He was too tired to fight the man. Who should be tired whit his degradation, but was still in better shape than Cloud. Life was unfair.
Although this week seemed to have stressed the man as he looked less and less energetic as the days passed.
For a moment only the sound of their boots hitting softly the ground was heard.
"When is Zack coming back?"
"You asked me that yesterday and the day before. Did you already forget?"
"Yes. So?"
It wasn't exactly that he forgot Zack was coming back soon, but his sense of time was off. To the point he forgot when Genesis had said Zack was coming back. Was it only few minutes ago? Or it was the day before? So asking many times a day helped him create some chronology.
"I need an agenda," Cloud mumbled to himself.
"I'll find you one."
Cloud didn't know if it was him that influenced Genesis or the inverse, but both of them were very open about their problem with each other. And since Cloud still hadn't the right to be with Genesis alone, a lot of SOLDIERs knew about their problems too. It could be a reason for the tentative acceptance the SOLDIERs had for the ex-Watchers.
"So?" Cloud asked again.
Genesis creased his brows in reflexion, trying to find what exactly Cloud was asking. Cloud gladly supplied a clue.
"Zack."
"Oh. Tomorrow evening."
Cloud came to an abrupt halt, joy was fast drown by tension as the SOLDIER behind them stopped too near from him. Genesis' hand naturally found it's way around Cloud neck and made him resume their walk. It stayed there a bit longer than one would consider usual, but Cloud soaked the touch. Even with the reduced hostility toward them, he didn't spent too much time with Dirk and Flore. Even at the Watcher's hideouts, they never had been much for grand gesture of affection. It was slight touch of the wrists, bump in shoulders or sleeping seated on cold floor, the other's back only source of warmth.
Genesis hummed taking Cloud away from his thoughts. They were at the helipads where a chopper was landing. SOLDIERs left the vehicle with eagerness but stayed around the helipads while chatting together. One kept Cloud's attention when the SOLDIER that followed him to Genesis' office went to talk to him. The man hadn't seen Cloud as he was hidden by a pillar and Genesis, but Cloud had a great view on him. The set of the jaws, the big eyes and the crooked nose. The way he stood on his left leg, keeping his helmet under his right arm.
It was familiar.
Something else caught his attention when Genesis sighed in contentment. Leaving the chopper was Tseng in conversation with Sephiroth. Their eyes meet. All the cells in Cloud froze. He took a breath. His chest didn't move at the amount of oxygen. His body minimised all movement as the predator approached. It was foolish to think the man didn't saw him, but his body stayed put. Adrenaline coursed in his veins. In a heartbeat the fear he felt was drowned by an urge to fight. Cloud's hand hitched to find a weapon.
Cloud heart stopped a second when a hand wrapped around the back of his neck.
"Breathe you idiot."
He blinked then looked at Genesis. From the corner of his eyes he saw Sephiroth stop dead on his track as he looked at them. Genesis smiled at Cloud and tapped him on the forehead. He laughed at Cloud affronted face then waited right there for Sephiroth to come. The silver-haired man resumed his walk with slower steps. He kept his eyes on Cloud and saluted him by a tip of the head.
"Cloud."
The blond huffed, crossed his arms and opened his mouth only to stay quiet. How should he talk to the man? He shut his mouth and nodded back. A laugh attracted his attention back to the guy he recalled faintly. He squinted his eyes, irritated. The man turned to them as the other SOLDIER signaled them. The guy dropped his eyes on his shoes the second he met Cloud's. The blond finally recalled him.
"A Watcher," Cloud breathed.
"I beg your pardon?" Sephiroth asked. He followed Cloud's gaze and frowned. "Clyde his a trusted subordinate. I worked with him for almost a year."
Sephiroth's voice made Cloud's skin crawl. He shuddered, hold his arms tighter around him and gritted between his teeths, "I remember him." Cloud paused, knowing it wouldn't be enough but failing to give the information that would make them believe him. "I remember him with a Watcher's outfit. He wasn't enhanced at this time. Do what you want with this information."
"Well," Genesis interjected. "You can't deny your memories are flawed."
Cloud glared at him. Irritation and tension were growing in him. He glanced a last time at the man before turning on his heels and quitting the area. Why did Genesis brought him there anyway? To confirm he wouldn't jump on Sephiroth to kill him? Only because the redhead enjoyed dragging him around?
"Strife."
The blond inhaled deeply before turning toward Tseng. The Turk came to him then stopped to observe him.
"Would you care to accompany me and talk?"
"If it's only to say my memory is shit. I already know."
"I wish to confirm or deny your intelligence in a professional way. Until we finish the investigation I will not question the stability of your memory." Tseng paused. "The contract that is proposed to you asks that you share your intelligence; we take care of proving it."
"Jeez, thanks," Cloud mumbled. "It makes me feel way better. Aren't you going to say I gave you false informations and made you lose your time if it isn't confirmed?"
"Please, we took in consideration your mental state. Rufus and Lazard thought your input would exceed the problems you could cause. Now, are you coming? I need to talk about Reno's absence too."
Tseng didn't wait for an answer to walk away. Cloud sighed but followed.
"Reno said I was boring."
Tseng glanced at him waiting apparently for Cloud to elaborate. The blond was too tired and irritated for formulating a lie for Reno. His mouth stayed clamped shut. Reno would deal with the man himself. Even if they both agreed to their parting.