Cloud wasn't used to waking up first when he slept with Sephiroth, and he panicked a bit, almost falling out of bed in his haste to get ready - until he noticed the clock, and realised he'd actually woken up earlier than his lover usually woke him. But not by much, and that worried him since Sephiroth was usually almost ready to go by the time he woke Cloud up.
"Sephiroth, love, wake up." He shook Sephiroth lightly, half expecting the General to be woken just by touching him, then when that failed to have any affect he linked to his lover to scan his energy system - the power core and the channels he'd spotted last night. The channels were fine; if anything they were carrying energy more smoothly than before, but Sephiroth's power reserve was still depleted. It was still more than half his normal reserve, perhaps three fifths, but Cloud hadn't been here to observe this the morning after last time he'd drained Sephiroth so totally. He shook harder but it still didn't work, and neither did hitting his shoulder so Cloud hesitated, then 'blocked off' sections of two of the channels that were fairly close together and forced energy into them from his own reserves, trying to sort of 'cross-connect' them.
He'd channelled so much of Sephiroth's power so easily last night, even if he hadn't realised it at the time, that it was just a bit frustrating to try and work within his own limits. Cloud simply didn't have enough energy to overwhelm one channel with a backwards flow the way he had last night, so instead he did what he could to 'carve' a false channel between two existing ones.
Sephiroth gave a small strangled scream, and rolled to pin Cloud beneath him as he woke up. Cloud froze, relaxing underneath his lover, not even trying to fight the hand at his throat. The Sephiroth blinked, and he pulled back, a mixture of shock and pain on his face.
"Cloud? I...did I hurt you? I'm sorry..." He fell silent when Cloud grabbed him, keeping him from pulling away any more.
"Don't! Sephiroth, I'm the one who needs to apologise to you. I hurt you to wake you up, because I couldn't do it any other way and that scared me."
"I...will you be late?" Cloud snatched another quick look at the clock, and shook his head.
"No, not if I start getting ready in five minutes. What about you?"
"As long as I get everything done no one cares when or where I do it." Sephiroth smiled at Cloud, and he could see that it wasn't forced. "I'll just bring some paperwork back with me and do it after you leave tonight. That or I'll skip some of my normal training. I normally go in early, but I have been in late before, usually after Zack talks me into going out drinking."
"Right." Cloud did wonder what Zack was slipping in Sephiroth's drinks to have such an effect on him, but he wasn't going to ask. "Sephiroth, how badly did I hurt you?"
"I...I'd rather not say." That meant pretty badly and Sephiroth was trying to keep Cloud from feeling guilty about it. "You need to get ready now, don't you?"
"Yes. But we're going to talk this out, everything that happened last night, tonight. Understood." Cloud took hold of Sephiroth by the chin without really thinking about it; he was seeing Sephiroth as his lover at the moment, not as the General. Sephiroth must have seen things the same way, because he looked at Cloud with wide eyes for a moment, before lowering them submissively.
"Yes Cloud, I understand."
"Good. I'll see you tonight then." Cloud leaned forward and kissed Sephiroth on the lips almost chastely, then hurried to get dressed and report for duty.
He was distracted throughout training, worrying about Sephiroth, about just how badly last night had affected him, and about what Cloud had done to wake him up. He managed to keep it from affecting how he worked with his team during the group obstacle course, but he knew it was affecting his times on the individual courses. He let himself worry when they were running, and even though his performance was below his normal standard during the sword training his opponent didn't seem to have a problem with that - it gave him an excuse to criticise Cloud, and he seemed to like that.
No one seemed to mind when he headed off alone after eating with the squad though, and Cloud had worried a little bit about that after Tuesday - but even if it meant trouble he had to check that Sephiroth was okay, that he hadn't done any real damage with his little stunt to wake him up. Sephiroth wasn't there when Cloud got to his quarters, but he was too tense to read while he waited, pacing back and forth instead.
"Cloud?" Sephiroth sounded uncertain, as if he thought he was at fault in some way; if Sephiroth wasn't going to come to Cloud then Cloud would have to go to him. He crossed the room to where Sephiroth was hovering by the door and pulled him into an embrace, reaching up to kiss him but keeping his kiss gentle, avoiding any hint of aggression. He used the contact to link to Sephiroth, and checked those channels he'd found before, comparing their condition where Cloud had put energy in wrong to how they were in other places.
He drew back with an unhappy hiss at what he found, but he forced himself to smile at Sephiroth as he pulled him to sit with him on the couch. Sephiroth didn't object as Cloud pulled him into his arms, but that was normal behaviour for him. Cloud refused to read that as a sign that Sephiroth could feel the slight 'roughness' in the sides of the channel Cloud had forced an overflow of energy backwards through, or the damage to the 'banks' of the two channels he'd caused in waking Sephiroth.
"How do you feel love? Are you hurting at all?" He stroked and petted Sephiroth's hair almost without thinking.
"No, I'm not hurting. But...nothing rough tonight, please?"
"No, nothing rough, I promise." He sighed unhappily; last night had been really good, but he didn't like the obvious after-effects. "I said we were going to talk about last night first though. So...did you have as much trouble getting up the next day after the first time I drained you like that?"
"Yes, I did. I should have warned you about that, shouldn't I?" Sephiroth sounded a little guilty about that, and he buried his head against Cloud's chest when he'd finished speaking.
"That would have been good yes." Cloud did his best not to let it show how frustrating he found it that Sephiroth was only thinking of this now, to keep his voice calm and patient, but it was hard. "I could have done without that scare."
"I was scared that I'd hurt you this morning too." Cloud found Sephiroth's words a bit hard to make out as he spoke quietly into his chest, but he was furious at what his lover seemed to believe and he pulled Sephiroth's head back by the hair.
"I don't give a damn about that. I was scared that I might have done serious damage when I couldn't wake you up." Cloud hesitated, but Sephiroth needed to know. "And...I'm still worried that I might have damaged the channels I poured the energy into last night with those two stunts that hurt you. I loved the way you reacted when I returned your energy to you right, but I hate the idea that I might have made it harder for you to cast spells, or done some other sort of permanent damage."
"I don't think anyone can do permanent damage to me. Give it time, maybe these 'channels' heal slower than I heal physically, but...I'm sure they'll be fine in a day or two." There was something Sephiroth wasn't saying, but Cloud could see how uncomfortable he felt about whatever he was hiding, and decided not to press any further. "I...you wouldn't be expecting such fast healing from anyone else, would you?"
"I'd feel better if I knew you were healing, if I'd thought to check your channels this morning. I'll check again on Friday, but..."
"Perhaps you should wait until Saturday? You seem to...I don't know...link deeper when you're doing this." And it would give Sephiroth's channels more time to heal. Cloud understood his lover's reasoning, and simply nodded. "I...I loved the way you made me feel when you poured energy into my body so..."
"You want me to do that again? I don't think I should drain you that completely again though."
"Not unless you'll have time to wait for me to wake up naturally the next day?" Cloud couldn't resist the appeal in Sephiroth's voice, and he had to agree - it was nice to be stronger than Sephiroth even just for a little while, nice to feel less as if his lover wasn't just submitting from fear of himself.
"But I'll stick to doing it right, except if I can figure out a way to use this as a weapon."
"It might be useful, yes. I...doing it wrong was agonising. It would be an effective weapon, very effective, but at the moment you can't use it very easily or without making yourself dangerously vulnerable." Sephiroth was correct, as he usually was when it came to anything military, and Cloud saw his discomfort with the way the conversation was turning.
"You're right. But I think we've talked last night through well enough, so..." From the eager way Sephiroth kissed him Cloud could tell that he agreed, and Cloud found himself laughing as he managed to get himself untangled from his lover.
"You asked for something gentle, did you have any ideas beyond that?"
"No, should I have?" Sephiroth looked at Cloud with a hint of worry in his eyes.
"Of course not. I just wanted to make sure my plans wouldn't interfere with what you wanted. This will be more comfortable on the floor, but first I want to see you naked." Sephiroth immediately stood and stripped quickly and efficiently, giving Cloud a chance to move to sit on the floor as he opened his pants.
"Lie down, with your head in my lap. I want your mouth tonight." Blunt commands, but they brought Sephiroth eagerly to obey, and his enthusiasm increased just a little bit when Cloud reached to wrap a hand around his dick.
o0()0o
Cloud hoped he'd managed to conceal his worry better today, while they were patrolling SOLDIER territory, than he had yesterday. He was a bit less worried than he had been before, since Sephiroth was so certain that he'd heal, but that hadn't entirely alleviated his worry. But whether his worry had shown or not Cloud was certain that he'd kept from letting it interfere with his vigilance as he patrolled beside Dylan and he tried to focus on his partner's words as they made their way to the canteen.
"What is it that's been distracting you the last two days Strife?" Dylan sounded almost teasing as he spoke. "Your girl break up with you or something?"
"Or something." Cloud wasn't sure what he should say, but he was pretty certain he had to say something, and since he knew he was blushing he should probably work with that. "I...my girl...she's kinky. And...things went wrong...on Wednesday." That should be enough to get Dylan to drop the subject, or at least Cloud hoped it would be.
"Ouch! Is she okay?" It wasn't, but he'd probably be able to change the subject if he answered the question.
"We think so, but we're not certain. She's seeing a doctor tomorrow, and I'll contact her as soon as I can to find out that evening. Look, I don't want everyone to know about this."
"Right. And you want me to stop bugging you about it, right? I won't ask anything else. Are you going to have to dash away again today?"
"Yeah. Sorry." Cloud knew it was bad that his squad were noticing how little time he spent with them outside of work, so since he refused to sacrifice his time with Sephiroth he'd have to cut down on the time he spent training alone. At least he'd always have Wednesday afternoons, or usually have them anyway.
"Not your fault that your sponsor pushes you so hard. It's a compliment in a weird way, isn't it?"
"I guess so." Dylan ran interference for Cloud during the meal, letting him get away a bit earlier than he might have otherwise.
"So kid, do you want to pour some more slot bases now, or..." Cloud shouldn't be surprised by the greeting; Colonel Grafton had already shown some signs of partiality to him.
"I was hoping you'd supervise while I did my 'practice' slot before Sephiroth gets here sir." He smiled at the man, putting his bag of completed lunarium circuits down on his workbench.
"You're not going to need that much supervision, but sure. Get the circuits out while I get the moulds and other things you'll need for that." Moulds plural? Of course, if Cloud was going to be completing two slots today then Sephiroth would have to do the same with one according to the agreement the General had made with the colonel. He shook his head and pulled out the set of circuits built to his adapted design, as well as one slot base to lay them on before returning to his workbench, glancing at Colonel Grafton for some sign of approval or otherwise.
"Go ahead, I'll tell you if you get anything wrong." Cloud nodded and laid the base of the slot into the bottom of one of the new moulds, then put the simulated materia in place. "Why are you only setting out two circuits? You'll need enough energy to work on your other slot as well." Colonel Grafton grabbed hold of Cloud's wrist as he reached for the bracer with the materia.
"I don't trust myself to get all four done from one heating sir. I don't think I've got the skill to risk that yet, and I can handle a total of eight or nine spells over two hours sir. It's not like I've cast any spells so far today, and I've got the night to recover."
"See how you can do then." The colonel let go of him, letting him put the bracer on to cast the spell. Cloud used the Fire spell to soften the two circuits, then lifted the first one with the tongs, and hammered it into shape on the base, pressed up against the simulated materia. He could feel how much harder it was to finish shaping the second circuit at the end, because it had took him longer to position them right than the colonel had. He repeated the process with the other two circuits and cast the Ice spell to cool them, then he turned his attention to fitting the sprung claws...and realised he had no idea how to get those in place, and keep them there while pouring the rest of the slot. Cloud was glad the colonel seemed to understand the problem, even though he'd seen the final steps being performed he wasn't entirely certain how to perform them himself - although the colonel had just put a top plate over the slot he'd completed rather than showing them how he fitted the sprung claws.
"Starting early?" Sephiroth's voice held absolutely no emotion, but it was enough to make colonel Grafton jerk away from Cloud in surprise.
"Strife was here. And he's just pointed out a problem in my demonstration. Do you have the circuits for one slot ready now?"
"Of course I do." Sephiroth pulled a bag with the slots in from his pocket, putting it on his workbench. "I agreed not to hold Cloud back after all."
"Good. Strife, why don't you prepare the bases for some more slots while I guide the General through the steps you've already undertaken."
"Yes sir." But first he quickly dried off what he'd done so far, since there were a few droplets of water left from the Ice visible. He didn't try to hurry pouring the base, and so he only managed to get one done by the time Sephiroth had got to the same point he'd reached before the General arrived.
"Come here Strife." Cloud put the crucible down before pouring any more of the alloy granules into it and turned his attention to the colonel. "There's an integrated press with these moulds, and the sprung claws you need to use for these are a bit different from the ones used in repair and so is the top plate you're going to use." He could see what the Colonel meant as he handed the sprung claws to them both, along with the top plates, with a lock and key sort of system to fit the sprung claws into the plates. "You should be able to fit them together, like this." He demonstrated with a spare, and Cloud immediately began fitting the four sprung claws into the plate as demonstrated.
Cloud hadn't really paid attention to the way the top plate was cut away at four points to allow him to push the sprung claws back around the simulated materia until he positioned them carefully to rest between the circuits, tightening the press at four points to keep it in place. Then he filled his crucible and melted the alloy with a Fire spell, pouring the molten metal in through the hole slowly and carefully.
"We'll have to saw off the protruding bits and file it smooth afterwards, won't we sir?"
"Yes. What, did you expect this would be the very last step?" Colonel Grafton sounded amused, and Cloud hid his own sense of resentment at that.
"Well, you didn't mention any further work when you showed us the process from start to finish, did you?" Sephiroth didn't sound angry, but his calm words were enough to make the colonel's smile fall from his face.
"I'm sorry. I haven't taught anyone how to do this for a long time, and even back then it was more taking apprentices sort of thing. I won't be the one teaching the other classes either though." Cloud resisted the temptation to say that was a good thing, moving the slot he'd just finished out of the way instead.
"Do you think there's any chance this will be ready to take out and take with me away to finish by the time I have to go?" He hoped it would be, although he still had all of the moulded circuits to file for next week, but the slot would be easier to sort out and he wanted to get Zack's opinion on this as soon as possible. Because if it wasn't working the way he wanted it to then he'd need to come up with something else to give Sephiroth publicly on his birthday.
"Possibly. I can give you an extra hour to give it time to cool, so that should help."
"Thanks." Cloud grinned at Colonel Grafton as they moved on to their normal work.
"You can use the time to get started on those melted over slots." He could see that the colonel was as curious about what Cloud intended to do as Sephiroth had been - no surprise, since Cloud hadn't answered him the time he asked about it.
"I was hoping I'd get a chance to do another slot today as well. Did I do everything right with the first one sir?" He glanced up the head armourer, then returned his attention to his work.
"Yes, you had the right technique, but I thought you'd want me to see if there were any air bubbles in it before trying another."
"No point really, is there? I don't really have the trick of it well enough to do anything to affect that yet." Cloud shrugged, he did want to get a good mark in this, but more because it would probably help his understanding of how materia worked a bit better than from any particular interest in the subject.
"No, you don't. And honestly, there's a bit more leeway in this step than there is in the other step."
"Right." Cloud focused on his work, and switched to pouring another three slot bases when Sephiroth finished, handing his locker key over to Cloud as he left.
"You should be able to get this out of the mould now. First you need to free it from the top plate, like this." Cloud watched as Colonel Grafton used a chisel to break off the 'key' sections holding the sprung claws in place on Sephiroth's slot and did the same for his own, then prepared a second slot with the lunarium circuits he'd brought in. Colonel Grafton handed him a larger file to smooth the slot's surface as he left.
o0()0o
Cloud didn't let his expression show how frustrating it was when Finn screwed up again in the platoon exercises, after he'd been assigned to lead the second group in team gamma. He reminded himself that this was the first time Finn had been given that assignment, he wasn't being pushed the way Cloud was and he didn't have a permanent assignment as the second group leader of his team.
"Don't." Cloud hadn't expected that the others would stop bitching at Finn when he spoke, and he was lost for words momentarily. "This is his first time in any sort of leadership position, and this is why we train, so we get experience somewhere it's safe to make mistakes."
"I don't need you to defend me Strife."
"Why are you bothering to defend the newbie?"
"You didn't screw up this badly the first time you were put in charge."
"Shut up, all of you." Cloud was grateful that Sergeant Redson had taken over, even if he resented the man a bit for not dealing with the bitching to start with. "Finn, stop trying to improvise, just follow the plan we give you. The rest of you, stop riding him about this and give him a bit of co-operation."
After that they did a bit better in the exercises, but they still only came fourth overall. The rest of the training went as usual and no one said anything when Cloud hurried away to meet up with Colonel Grafton before his lesson with Sephiroth.
"You got much time today?" The colonel sounded pleased to see him, and just a little eager as well, but Cloud had to disappoint him.
"No sir, I'm afraid I've got to get to a lesson on using materia with Sephiroth. He's willing to make allowances if I arrive a little late because of this, but I don't have that much leeway."
"Clear. You managed to get three out of four of your slot bases good enough for me to sign off on. I wanted to show you how to assess whether or not a slot or slot base is acceptable, but that can wait for next week. I've left your work on your bench, and done the same for Sephiroth."
"Thanks sir." Cloud put everything away swiftly with a smile for the head armourer, who was watching him with approval.
"You're certain I can't convince you to transfer to my department? Perhaps if you fail the SOLDIER Entrance Exams?" There was a wistful tone to his voice, and Cloud just couldn't refuse him completely.
"I'll think about it." He'd prefer some sort of combat posting, but he wasn't going to insult the colonel by telling him that.
"Good, that's all I wanted to hear. I suppose you should be going now."
"Yes sir." He saluted, recognising the dismissal, then left for his lesson with Sephiroth, arriving just on time.
"Here, I want you to try and use this while I test your friends on what they've already learned."
"Yes sir." He accepted the bracer with a red materia set into it with a frown as he ran his fingers over the materia to sense something combining the speed and restrained violence of a chocobo with a odd sense of mischievousness. "Choco/Mog?"
"You don't have the energy reserves to use anything else unslotted by yourself." And Sephiroth obviously didn't want the size of his energy reserve to be too well known...Cloud could see why not, and he'd do his best to keep people from realising just how fast his power core was growing, even though he'd been showing off quite a lot so far.
"And it will do a lot less damage than the other summons since I'm just practicing." He left the fact that the principle would be the same for any summon, since it was clear Sephiroth had intentionally selected the one summon materia that was seen as least threatening. People saw summons as this huge magic, a sign of incredible power, so he wasn't surprised that Sephiroth rested his hand against Cloud's shoulder as if he was feeding energy to him.
"Yes, you have the three targets to the left." Sephiroth turned away from him then, and Cloud recognised the implied dismissal as he began feeding energy to Alex. He put the bracer on and focused on the far target, reaching into the materia to draw out the two animal spirits he could sense within it and directing them to his chosen target. The resulting chocobo slammed into the target, destroying it before the chocobo and the moogle riding it dissipated leaving a pile of splintered pieces of wood behind.
"Wow! That's impressive." Cloud made himself smile at Marius' compliment instead of glaring when he realised how much he'd just betrayed of his power level; his energy reserve had fallen by somewhere between a quarter and a third.
"Alex, you have the two targets on the far right. I'll restore the energy you use when you've destroyed the first target - no, make that when you've damaged it, there's no point in trying for more yet. Marius, stop staring at Cloud and come here so I can give you the energy you need." Sephiroth didn't need to say anything else; it was clear from his tone of voice that he was repressing just a hint of anger at Marius' lack of focus.
"Yes sir. Sorry sir." Cloud waited until Alex was focused on his own materia before he called up the summon again, aiming it at the next target. The moogle on the back of the chocobo destroyed his next target equally easily and glancing over he saw that Alex had managed to burn half his assigned target away - so at least he wasn't drawing more attention. He waited until Sephiroth had instructed Marius on which targets to use before he focused on the red materia again.
It felt different as he drew the summon out this time, but Cloud was still shocked when a huge chocobo crashed down onto his final target from above, smashing it into smaller splinters than the other two targets.
"I wondered if that would happen. One time in sixteen Choco/Mog produces this effect rather than the more usual Deathblow. Here, assess these materia, then I'll give you enough energy to try using that without slotting it."
"Yes sir." Cloud took the box and opened it to find sixteen purple materia before sitting down to work out exactly what each of them would do and how mature they were. There wasn't a Speed Plus, but Cloud could make guesses at all the rest, based on what they looked/sounded/felt/smelt/tasted like and there was about forty minutes left of the lesson when he finished with them. He waited for Sephiroth to finish with Alex before calling for his attention, and the General ordered his friends to try to cast one more spell each while he work with Cloud. Then Sephiroth transferred energy into Cloud's power core, and made a show of talking him through using the red materia without slotting it.
"Enough, you've all done well. Dismissed." Alex and Marius had managed to destroy eight targets between them, and Cloud had destroyed four, but he smiled and refused when they invited him to come and celebrate with them.
"Sorry, I've got other plans."
"Perhaps you should have gone with them Cloud." Sephiroth's voice was soft, and the hint of a smile on his face was almost wistful as he glanced after Cloud's friends, but the suggestion raised his suspicions and he crossed over to Sephiroth in four swift steps, grabbing his wrist.
"When I hurt you on Wednesday and Thursday, and I still don't know if you're recovering? Are you finding some residual effects that you don't want me to know about, having difficulties casting spells or something?" He went for the worst thing he thought could happen from what he'd done, even if Sephiroth had shown no signs of losing his ability to use materia.
"No. We shouldn't talk about this here." Sephiroth sounded confident and authoritative now, and Cloud released him at once.
"I'm sorry sir. Zack's expecting us now, isn't he?"
"Yes. We'll tell him we were experimenting with your ability to manipulate my energy, and something went wrong."
"Fair enough." They walked together in companionable silence to Zack's quarters and as soon as Sephiroth sat down Cloud took the seat beside him, and began examining Sephiroth's channels, shutting his eyes so he could focus on what he could perceive through the link. The roughness to the channel he'd reversed the energy flow in was gone now, and it seemed to have returned to the original 'size', but there was still a bit of the damage he'd done in trying to wake Sephiroth left. Still, both areas were healing, or had healed, so he didn't have to worry that he might have done some irreparable damage to his lover.
"Well?" Sephiroth sounded just a little impatient, and Cloud had to smile at that.
"It wasn't permanent. Did you have any problems using those materia yesterday?"
"No." Sephiroth didn't expand on that, and Cloud blushed as he realised how stupid he probably sounded.
"What are you two on about?" Zack sounded confused, and just a little bit accusatory, so Cloud focused on his experimental slot, filing away the rough edges where he'd clipped off the bits holding the sprung claws in place and let Sephiroth explain.
"An experiment with Cloud's control of magical energy that went wrong. Cloud was checking to make sure I'd healed from it since the damage wasn't physical and I couldn't sense it myself." Sephiroth's voice was dismissive and Zack seemed to accept that, turning his attention to Cloud.
"Fine. So Cloud how are we going to split this week up?"
"I've promised to go drinking with my squad on Sunday, and we've got night shift on Tuesday."
"Right, so you want Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Fine by me but I've got a date with Aeris on Friday."
"Have fun with her then." Sephiroth made a point of pulling Cloud to lean against him after he stretched, then he looked at Zack. "Aren't you going to offer us something to drink?"
o0()0o
"So Strife, tell me how your training with materia is progressing." Cloud froze, not sure what sort of answer he should give Professor Hojo when the man cornered him during their patrol of the labs.
"Sir?"
"You're supposed to be something special with them, but Sephiroth isn't telling me why. So I want to hear about it from you." Cloud glanced over at Dylan, hoping that he's step in to end this interrogation, but resigned himself to dealing with it alone when he saw how the other man had frozen.
"I'm not sure how much I should tell you sir. The General has never told me that you have the right to ask about what he's teaching me."
"An oversight on his part, I'm sure. I'm the final authority on who's inducted into SOLDIER. But as you must understand Sephiroth doesn't always have time to fill out the required paperwork." Cloud didn't quite buy that, but he recognised the implied threat, and he didn't see how general information could do any harm.
"Sir, we are supposed to be patrolling. I don't have time to give you more than a general overview." Cloud paused, and waited for Hojo to agree before continuing, grateful that the man seemed to understand that pressing for more detail would get him nothing. "Sephiroth had us all write down our observations of how we perceived each materia first. I've had the chance to do that with all the yellow, red and purple materia and I've managed to use a Speed Plus without slotting it, and also, to summon Choco/Mog without equipping the materia - after the General gave me the energy I needed for that. With the greens I can use Restore, Fire, Lightning, Ice, Heal and Barrier without slotting them."
"And how does this compare to the progress his other students are making?"
"I'm doing better, because I started earlier. Sir, we need to get back to patrolling." He grabbed Dylan's arm and began pulling him away, turning his back on Hojo reluctantly...since he really didn't trust the man and he knew how rude he was being, but Hojo only laughed at his obvious retreat.
"Shit! Strife, how could you mouth off to him like that?" Dylan turned to clutch at Cloud's arm, whispering anxiously once they were out of the scientist's hearing. "And then you just walked away from him, without waiting for him to dismiss you!"
"He wasn't going to dismiss me, he was going to keep us just standing there answering his question and I'm not going to risk neglecting my duty and pissing Sephiroth off in the bargain just to appease Hojo's prurient curiosity. He had no reason to ask those questions about Marius and Alex; he was stretching his authority to ask about my progress, and that was only because the General asked him to supply the poisons for my work with the Heal materia."
"Yes, but...he could stop you getting into SOLDIER. And me too if he remembers my name." The last sentence was just a little bitter and Cloud realised what Dylan's concern was really about.
"He won't. He didn't ask it, and from what I've heard common troopers are beneath his notice. And for me...there's records of all the tests, and if Hojo tries to block my appointment without a quantifiable reason Sephiroth can and will make enquiries about it - it would be very bad for the General's reputation if his first sponsee was refused entrance into SOLDIER for any reason except the psych or Mako tests after all."
"Lucky you." Dylan laughed at that, but he turned his attention back to what they were supposed to be doing, and that was all that Cloud had wanted so he didn't say anything about the problem with having to live up to such high expectations - even if he liked how hard Sephiroth was pushing him.
The rest of the shift was pretty uneventful, almost boring, but that was better than having to deal with any sort of intrusion, or even worse escape of the lab 'specimens' - Cloud hated the idea of forcing anyone or anything to stay with Hojo after seeing how he treated Sephiroth. And the General was valuable to ShinRa, there'd be a public outcry if he just disappeared, and that was beside the risk of the SOLDIERs rebelling against the corporation. Cloud and Dylan met up with the rest of the squad at the entrance to the labs and they made their way to the canteen as a group, collecting their meal together and then grabbing a large table.
"You going to be drinking with us tonight or are you running off to spend time with your girlfriend again?" Cloud refused to flinch at the venom in Finn's voice, forcing a smile instead.
"Squad tradition is when we patrol the labs everyone who's been patrolling goes out for a drink together afterwards. You did have squad traditions in your old unit, didn't you Finn?" Caine made his near contempt for Finn very clear in his voice but at least Cloud didn't have to defend himself.
"Who's going to make sure we all get back in one piece tonight?" From the sergeant's tone he was asking for volunteers - for the moment - and taking everyone's mind off the near quarrel.
"We had to deal with the Professor questioning Strife, so if anyone needs to get drunk it's him, and me."
"And you'll take any excuse to get drunk that you can, won't you Dylan?" Newton had a grin on his face as he spoke. "Still, for Strife's sake I'll play designated driver."
"Thanks. And I can manage nine or ten hangover cures tomorrow; first come, first served basis. Then I'll lend out the Heal to anyone else who's willing to try it." Cloud focused on his meal, letting the chatter of his squad mates wash over him until they were all finished.
"So, where're we going? Under the Plate?" Finn sounded eager as they all went to get changed and Cloud didn't like that any more than he liked the idea of going under the Plate with the rest of his squad, especially since they'd be drunk coming back and he was sure at least one of them would mention who they worked for. "The drinks are a lot cheaper there."
"No, we stay above the Plate. No need to make it harder for Newton to get us back for curfew. You can go slumming when it's just you." Sergeant Redson sounded stern as he explained just what would happen. "We always go to that nice pub near the third station after patrolling the lab."
"Nice." Finn made it sound like an insult or a slur and Cloud resisted the urge to snap at him.
"Get into a fight on your own time Finn." He might take it better coming from his own corporal, and Finn did shut up while they finished changing into civilian clothes. Cloud tucked his wallet away and glanced around to make sure everyone else was ready as well before they set off as a group, arriving at the station just in time to catch the train.
"I'll pay for the first round." He was tempted to look meaningfully at Dylan, after his explanation of why the two of them deserved to get drunk more than anyone else in the squad did but he remembered how the other man had paid for the first and last drinks for his promotion celebration - and he'd bought cocktails, not just beers. "Newton, you going to drink the first beer or two with us, then switch to soft drinks, or would you rather not bother with the first two drinks?"
"Get me that first beer and I'll just nurse it along."
'Their' pub was just five minutes walk away from the station they got off at and Cloud went over to the bar, ordering and paying for eighteen pints of beer, arranged on a tray for carrying while the rest of the squad grabbed a couple of tables. He had to be careful not to let the beer spill, but that was one of the reasons they used this pub; most people here would let him get to the table without causing any problems, in fact a path was opening up for him, and he smiled at the people who moved out of his way, thanking them quickly.
"Newton, Dylan, sergeant, you should get yours first before the rush." He made sure to put the tray closest to those three, grateful that they'd all sat together, but if Newton was only getting one beer he deserved to get his first.
"Thanks Strife."
"Yeah, thanks." Cloud just took his own beer as the rest of the squad muttered their own thanks and took the only free seat at the table, beside Dylan. He shut his eyes to focus properly on his first taste of the beer - nowhere near as good as the stuff Zack bought, but good enough, and he couldn't afford the sort of beer Zack could, even if it was available at a pub like this.
"So, what was Hojo after you about?" Finn was slurring his words just a bit, after only four beers - for most of the squad anyway - and Cloud scowled at him as he answered.
"That's none of your business Finn." But Dylan had heard the question too, and Cloud knew he wanted to vent.
"Asking about what the General's teaching him." Dylan was even drunker, but Cloud knew he'd given his friend two of his drinks so he didn't really blame him for his indiscretion.
"Dylan, shut up. Whose turn is it to get the next round?"