ATTENTION!: It has come to my attention that is scouring out smut sotries and deleting them. So far, BttB has not been affected, but I wanted to let you all know that BttB is in the process of moving to y!Gallery. The story will remain on this site until it is taken down by staff, but hopefully this will not happen. Also, as of this month, BttB WILL BE UPDATED EVERY WEDSNDAY. The reason it has not been updated for a while, is because I was writing chapters in advance, so whenever I hit a 'dry spell', I can relax and upload a pre-written chapter. Enjoy~
Boats and Campers
Part I
The Epic-Sounding State
Sephiroth turned his Hummer into Sora and Roxas' driveway at six o'clock sharp, Cloud sitting in his front passenger seat. He honked the horn and looked at the blond beside him. The twenty-four year old's hair was dull and the spikes were hanging lifelessly in his eyes. The silverette sighed and watched the two teens running out of the house with their bags.
Sora and Roxas tossed their duffles into the back of the SUV before sliding into the backseat. They both gave small smiles to Sephiroth and concerned stares at their older brother.
Sephiroth turned into the lawn and pulled out onto the road. "So how was your first week of school?" He asked awkwardly.
Sora grinned, glad for the distraction from staring at his emo brother. "Well, the first day sucked 'cause all we did was sit there listening to boring rules, and then we met most of our teachers, but apparently we're missing an English teacher and a Physics teacher..."
Roxas took over. "Yeah, Xemnas said that the classes are canceled until the positions can be filled. What are you gonna do for a job now that you're back, anyway?"
The silverette caught Cloud staring at him from the corner of his eye. "I made enough money so that I never have to work again."
Sora whistled. "Wow, is that why we're going with you up to your place in Pennsylvania?"
"Yes, I figured you two deserve to come along after all the trouble my father caused at DisneyWorld."
"Woo-hoo!" Sora stuck his head out the window like a dog.
Roxas rolled his eyes and got comfy in his seat. He, unlike his twin, knew it was an average of nine hours on the road to get to Pennsylvania from Virginia. Then again, with Sephiroth at the wheel, they'll probably make it in half the time.
Not including bathroom breaks, of course.
"I'm bored!" Sora moaned from the backseat three hours into the drive, Roxas flipping through the driving directions he got off Yahoo. "Seriously, can't we play some music or something?"
Sephiroth smirked. "What? You don't enjoy listening to World War Z?"
Roxas looked up from the directions. "I like it, the cast is pretty good at doing all the accents, and I can guarantee this will begin to happen in ten-to-twelve years." He caught his twin rolling his eyes.
"Please Roxas, it's obvious that we have even less time than that with the way we're fucking the world up. And it's highly inaccurate – Africa can't possibly be the first country to be hit with reanimating bodies, the first places for it to possibly start and spread from are remote locations along the equator."
Everyone went quiet, even Sephiroth was staring at him through the rear-view mirror with a look of slightest shock.
Cloud finally spoke. "Why don't we listen to Lady GaGa or something?" His voice was cracked, he looked like Hell, but his humor hadn't died.
Well...what little humor he had in the first place, anyway.
Sora and Roxas chuckled and instead chose to play DISTURBED.
Sephiroth spotted the large billboard for PHANTOM'S FIREWORKS and looked through the rearview-mirror at the sleeping twins.
Cloud sighed. "Take the exit, they're both eighteen now." The blond continued staring out the window.
"Wake up you two!" Sephiroth shouted.
Sora and Roxas yelped and looked around frantically. The blond twin rubbed his eyes and looked out the window to see a warehouse coming up. Roxas recognized it immediately.
"No fucking way..."
They parked the Hummer in front of the building and everyone made sure they weren't carrying any flammable materials and had their I.D.s on them.
Roxas was the first one into the building, quickly coming to a halt at the front desk to fill-out the forms needed to purchase fireworks. Sora, Cloud, and Sephiroth followed in behind him, giving the two elderly women at the computers polite nods as they also signed the agreement forms and handed them in. All males were required to show proof of being eighteen or older, as well as out-of-state I.D.s. Luckily, Sora and Roxas had been taken to the DMV by their father to get licenses just after the first day of school.
Once everyone was cleared to go in, Roxas beamed. "I can't believe I finally got to come here – Axel's family owns this place ya know."
"Big shock..." Sora muttered before a shiny hot-pink rocket caught his eye.
It took a full hour before everyone had picked out a firework. They lined up at the register and picked out T-shirts as well, each nodding as the woman behind the register told them that they had to 'dispose' of the fireworks forty-eight hours after purchase.
Not a problem.
When there was only three more hours of driving left, they reached Breezewood. Sephiroth pulled into the parking lot for GateWay, a place his mother had always taken he and his brothers to whenever they took a trip. Sora and Roxas hurled themselves into the building, quickly searching out the restrooms.
Sephiroth stepped gracefully out of the vehicle, walking briskly around the front to open the door for Cloud. The blond sighed and stepped out, looking up at the familiar building.
"It's been a while since I was here..." Cloud muttered.
"It sure has." Sephiroth sighed and stared at the younger male. "You're really beginning to annoy me, Cloud. I'm not a very patient man."
The blond glared as they started towards the entrance. "I know, but this isn't something like a broken vase – you can't just put the pieces back together."
The silverette chuckled. "Cute, you read that from a romance novel or something?"
"As a matter of fact-" But the blond was cut off as the twins came rushing out of the building.
Sora grinned, showing a giant Panda plushie to his older brother. "We got our souvenirs already! Let's go!"
Roxas tucked his own Pennsylvania lighter into his pocket. "I got a gift for Axel."
Cloud sighed. "Sephiroth and I still need to go in, why don't you two go play the claw machine?"
The twins beamed. "Okay!" They ran to the Hummer, tossed in their things, and flew back into the building, their hands already fighting for possession of the control buttons on the aggravating game
Cloud looked back up at Sephiroth. "I...just because I fell in love with you long before Zack, doesn't mean I can just get over him. I need time."
The silverette sighed and looked away. "Fine, but let me ask you this:" He looked back down at the blond steadily. "How long did it take Zack to get back together with Aerith when she returned?"
Once they reached the top of a hill in West Homestead, a cute little two-story house right beside the woods came into view. Sephiroth parked the Hummer next to the brick house and got out, sighing and waving at a neighbor.
The little old lady waved back and returned to tending to her garden. Sora and Roxas hopped out of the vehicle and ran immediately to the backyard pool, both already changed into their trunks and throwing their shirts onto the grass. Cloud slid out and breathed in the clean air, hearing a train pass by not far off, and spotting a deer chewing the grass a few feet from the above-ground pool.
Sephiroth unloaded his and Cloud's bags, heading into the house after years of un-use. The door jammed a bit, but he shoved it open and dropped the bags onto the floor. The place was exactly the same; knob-operated television set, horrid sixties brown carpeting, Grandfather clock to the right, and beaten-up staircase across from him.
"Hasn't changed a bit, has it?" Cloud said, walking past Sephiroth into the dining room. "I'm amazed there isn't a layer of dust over everything..."
"I left the place open." The silverette said. "One of those sub-conscious wants, you know? Come back here and find everything from the supposed 'best' parts of my childhood missing. Guess no one was interested." He followed the blond through the dining room into the kitchen, an old calendar from back in the eighties covered in red marker showing doctor appointments. The General shuddered. "At least I never got the flu once in my life..."
It was around midnight the next evening when Sephiroth led Cloud and the twins through the woods. "Just a little farther." He called behind him.
Cloud grunted as he stumbled over a fallen log. "Damn woods..."
Sora and Roxas were carrying the fireworks behind the older blond, both glad he was back to swearing. As soon as they reached a clearing, the twins set to work. The small sparklers were used up within seconds, both boys chasing each other trying to burn the others' clothing. The rockets took a while to set up, but they were worth the time and effort when they launched into the sky, showering them in bright pink sparks.
Cloud and Sephiroth began pitching a tent once all the flaming pieces of fireworks had been cleared from the field an hour later, one piece having ignited Roxas' shirt. The twins were setting up their own tent across from the General's, both drowning themselves in mosquito spray afterwards. An Aero-bed was blown up and pushed into Sephiroth's tent by Cloud, the blond collapsing on it moments later.
"Goodnight you two." Sephiroth said before crawling into the tent beside the sleeping blond and zipping it shut. Sora and Roxas grinned at each other and waited patiently for the silverette to fall asleep.
Half an hour later, the twins slithered out of their tent and poked their noses into the one occupied by their older brother and the General. Sephiroth was sleeping on atop his old sleeping bag, a book on cooking techniques laying open beside him. Sora crawled into the tent and began to push Cloud's Aero-bed out while Roxas pulled. Once the makeshift bed-and-blond were out in the clearing, the twins set to work on dragging him to the nearby stream.
"This oughta speed things up between the two, huh?" Sora whispered to his twin. Roxas nodded and with a grunt shoved the air-filled mattress into the water, watching Cloud turn over in his sleep, completely oblivious.
"Sweet dreams Chocobo-head." Roxas whispered.
"Kweh?"
Cloud stirred in his sleep, grunting as something sharp nudged his nose. After several moments of being poked, the blond opened his eyes to see a Chocobo chick sitting atop his chest.
"Kweh!" It called happily.
Cloud blinked several times, then sat up, noticing the bed was moving. "Oh fuck me..."
Sephiroth woke up to the sound of swears coming from nearby. He sat up and looked around to see Cloud, and for some reason his bed, missing. With a frown he crawled out of the tent and saw the blond walking with the now deflated bed over his shoulder. The twenty year-old stopped when he reached his brothers' tent.
"..." Cloud sighed and looked over at Sephiroth. "What are you looking at?"
The General tried his best not to smirk. "Your nose is bleeding, and your pants are wet. What happened to you?"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
Sora and Roxas were crouching low under the covers in their tent, listening to their brother's conversation. Both exchanged a look of, 'did it work?' to each other.
Sephiroth crawled back into his tent and withdrew a first-aid kit, motioning for the blond to join him. Cloud did and sat down with a scowl as the silverette began cleaning his Chocobo-pecked nose.
"So I'm guessing your brothers dragged you out to the stream in the middle of the night. Am I right?"
Cloud winced as alcohol was applied to his 'wound'. "Yeah, they did the same thing to Zack years ago after they saw The Parent Trap on TV."
Sephiroth smirked and nudged the kit away, now pulling out a pair of knit pants. "Put these on so you don't catch a cold."
"Thanks..." The blond shifted awkwardly as he peeled off his soaked jeans and yanked on the clean pants. "And thanks for teaching me tracking."
Sephiroth quirked a brow. "When did I teach you tracking? And how did your nose wind up bleeding?"
"Years ago, the first time you brought me up here. It's how I found my way back...that and the large trail of bent branches from the mattress." He looked awkwardly up at the General. "...and a baby Chocobo pecked me awake."
Sephiroth, the General Sephiroth, had to actually hold back a snort.
Sora and Roxas looked at each other with relief.
Yeah, their plan was working.
Yes, I went up to PA and went to PHANTOM'S. Also, this chapter is in dedication to my cat, Patches, who died the day my mom and I were to go on our trip. This chapter was written while on the road, I didn't even want to go after losing one of my cats, but my mom made me and that is why this chapter turned out so...emo.
Rest In Peace Patches.