43.

"Not… impressive, dad."

"Not you too, Roxas."

"What do you mean 'not you too'?" his head shot up to look at his father in the eyes. "Are you telling me what you think was right? That the damage that you've wreaked on our family was all fine and dandy?"

Cloud didn't return his gaze, and replied carefully. "Roxas, what I did, I did for my own reasons."

"Bullshit." That's when Cloud looked at his son. "I want a real reason. Why did you do this?" He walked closer to Cloud. "What happened inside that head of yours to make you realize that this family wasn't good enough? What changed? Why are you breaking our family apart?"

He wanted to be sincere. He wanted say the truth. But how could he tell his sixteen-year-old that he was weak and had given in to temptation? That he fell as a father the minute things got tough? Cloud looked Roxas over, for a moment remembering perhaps an identical expression on his own face when his own parents got divorced. He'd begged his mother for an explanation, but if it had been anything like the truth he was facing now…

He couldn't. He would never say that to either of his sons. Ever. "Roxas, I am a grown man. I do not have to justify my actions to you. I demand a little more respect, son."

"No. No, you don't get to say that." Roxas backed away from him, slowly shaking his head and raising his hands like he was saying 'I want nothing to do with that'. He reached the foot of the stairs, instead saying curtly, and very tersely, "You don't get to pretend that I have an ounce of respect left for you." The teen turned away from his father and walked calmly up the stairs. "Not after this."


Neither Sora nor Roxas left their rooms for the rest of the day. Leon didn't come home that night, which was possibly a good thing, but a nonetheless worrisome thing as well.

Several hours later had Cloud sitting on the living room couch with Sephiroth, facing each other on the middle cushion, just talking.

"My son is crying," Sephiroth said. "He hasn't cried since he had an ear infection when he was nine and he couldn't get a decent sleep for a week."

The silver-haired man recalled the image of his youngest sitting at his desk, in his room, attempting to get through some math homework: quietly panting, sniffling and wiping his face every five seconds. The seventeen-year-old had been punching a few incorrect numbers on his calculator, erasing his notebook madly, and throwing everything off his desk with blazing fury when Sephiroth discreetly closed the bedroom door.

Under normal circumstances, he would have scolded Riku for displaying such recklessness and animosity towards things he's possessions, but then again… his son has never had his heart broken. Perhaps he'd overlook this instance.

"It seems he cares quite a bit about your son."

"Sora said a few harsh things in his direction." Cloud said mechanically. It was his fault, everything that had happened was entirely his fault, but for some reason, he couldn't wrap his mind around that just yet. Everything just happened so fast, he just relayed facts; no feelings of his. "He was betrayed that Riku didn't say anything about us." They'd put Riku in such a horrible position. He couldn't imagine how the boy must have felt. Now and ever since he'd found out. "Seph, I'm sorry your son got dragged into this. It was unfair to him."

"Riku will be fine," he reassured, simply. "I raised a strong child." Cloud looked at him, surprisingly felling like he could believe those words." I have no doubts; he'll be all right."

Cloud grinned for the first time that day. "Because God forbid you should ever screw up. Especially with something like the bringing up of your offspring," he scoffed. Sephiroth gently cupped the side of Cloud's face.

"Everything will be fine. Soon."

Sora saw the tall, man sitting on the couch next to his father, and his face immediately turned into scowl. "What are you doing here?" was his announcement of his presence to the two men. His eyes, usually filled with blue cheer and happiness were icy, glistening and pointed like knives. "This isn't your house. Why are you here?"

Cloud was amazed. "Sora-!"

"No! I don't want him here! He has to leave!" Sora shrieked. "This is my house! This is mine, Roxas', yours and Leon's house!" The mention of Leon did something to Cloud's chest. He couldn't think of exactly what at that shining moment, but it pained him deeply for sure. "He can't be here! Get out!" Roxas, alerted by the sudden screaming, appeared at his brother's side, surprised, just as much as everyone else at the complete abandonment of Sora's decorum, though for a while made no real attempt at stopping it. "No, this is still my home! You can't take that too! Get out of here!"

"Sora…" Cloud tried.

"NO!"

"Cloud. It's okay." Sephiroth said lowly, standing and patting the blond's shoulder. He dwarfed everyone with his height, but Sora did not back down at all, nor did he move a centimetre. He stayed exactly where he had meant to be while holding his strong contempt for the man until finally the door had firmly closed.

Sora's anger appeared to have not been nullified a bit, nor the fact that he'd spoken in such a manner to 'The Great Sephiroth'. But right now, he wasn't the large, respectable man or Riku's father, for that matter. He was something else right now. Sora turned to Cloud coldly. "It hasn't even been a day, and you're already back to backstabbing my father." Cloud's eyes snapped back to his son in utter shock. "Follow him if you want," he said, pointing to the door. "Follow him-Go to him right now; I don't care. But don't ever bring him back into this house again."

End of Monday