Warning: Warnings: Extremely cute Cloud, slightly less mild Zack x Seph relationship.
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Wish I did.
Chapter 9: Bargaining for Blades
Cloud wandered around Midgar glancing at the various shops. He had some money to spend after his combined 'birthday' and welcome back party. The child grinned when he remembered the giant cake Zack had backed. Apparently the First-Class SOLDIER had gotten the recipe from a good friend of his – who owned a restaurant. The cake had been originally meant of banquets- and then Zack had tripled it. Every dish in the apartment had been full of cake batter. They had frozen a lot, given away more and they still had enough for some each day for the next two weeks!
Cloud finally spotted what he wanted. The blond slipped into the weapon shop. It was an expensive place. Each weapon was made to order. Most upper level SOLDIERS personal weapons came from here including the Masamune and the Buster Sword. Cloud wanted a sword of his own despite Zack and Sephiroth's refusal to train him.
"Little young to be in here, aren't you?" Ironheart, the shop's owner asked. His own blade, Hellsbane, hung above his head on the wall.
Cloud turned to face the smith. Ironheart flinched in surprise when he saw Cloud's glowing mako eyes. "I came to see about the forging of a sword."
"Interesting. I didn't know they were letting children enter the SOLDIER program," Ironheart murmured. He looked thoughtful. "You wouldn't be Cloud, would you?" Cloud nodded in surprise. "Couple of my regulars mentioned you. You're under the General's supervision?" Cloud nodded again. "Well since I know the Masamune is still in perfect condition I suspect you're looking for something for yourself and not your guardian."
Cloud smiled slightly embarrassed this stranger had figured it out so quickly. "Here's a picture of what I wanted." He passed the smith a photograph.
"Well I'd make a few adjustments…you'll be needing materia slots of course…"
Cloud shook his head. "No materia slots please. I've got that covered."
Ironheart's eyebrows rose in surprise. "No materia slots? Are you mad boy?"
Cloud looked around the shop uneasily. "Let's just say they'd be superfluous."
"Well it's your money," Ironheart shrugged. "Speaking of which, I doubt you can afford this." Cloud's shoulder's drooped. "I'll make you a deal. You said you can handle materia, yes?" Cloud nodded. "Well I'm not too good at it myself. How about you help me with my fire materia? I use it in the forge all of the time. You work for me and I'll make you your blade."
"Really?!" Cloud yelled excitedly. He held out his hand. "You've got a deal!"
*~*
Zack frowned as Cloud went skipping out the door. The youth was up to something. Not evil or even mischievous per say. Zack had seen both enough times to recognize them. But he was up to something. Following the blond child from a discreet distance, Zack found himself outside of the infamous smith shop titled, 'Firesong.' What in the world was Cloud doing here? Zack carefully stuck his head in the shop. Ironheart greeted him warmly. "Ahh Zack. How is the Buster Sword holding up?"
Zack placed a finger to his lips. "What's Cloud doing here?" he asked quietly.
Understanding flashed in the smith's eyes. "So, the little rascal didn't tell you what he's been up to. I wondered." Ironheart explained the deal. "I'm surprised you haven't started training him yet. He has talent and the drive to learn. An unusual combination."
"We were trying to keep his life as normal as possible," Zack replied with a sigh. "How is he doing?"
"Quite well. If you like you can watch today. Cloud won't notice. He's completely absorbed when he practices. I estimate a few months until I've taught him everything I can. They you'll have to take over." The smith looked thoughtful. "It might not be an all bad thing that you aren't teaching him. Everyone makes mistakes, especially in the beginning. Cloud doesn't wan to disappoint either of you. He'll have the basics down and the right mental attitude by the time you start teaching him."
"No small blessing," Zack admitted. "What are you getting out of this?"
"Cloud's working with the fire material to keep the forge fire stable. He's far better than anyone I've ever hired for the job. I've never seen that much power and precision from a level 1 materia."
Zack bit his lip to keep from laughing. Level 1 materia indeed. Cloud was probably using his own mastered fire materia. As for precision Cloud could create the spells to do exactly what he wanted. "So what are you teaching him today?"
*~*
Cloud carefully carried his precious burden from the Firesong. Today was his last official day of working with Ironheart. He might go back to work there occasionally through he expected he's be too busy to stay there much. It was good practice at holding spells but Seph and Zack had promised to start teaching him sword work themselves so he'd be hard pressed to work there full time like he had before. Slipping back into the suite the three shared Cloud felt disappointment come crashing down when he realized neither of his friends were home.
With a sigh Cloud carefully placed his package on the table and pulled out his schoolwork. Zack had insisted he started studying during the time he'd been confined to bed following the incident with the black materia. It had kept him from driving his watchers crazy. It was hard stuff (at least he didn't think so. Andy's jaw had hit the ground when he saw some of his math homework. Cloud didn't understand why algebra was supposable so hard.) but it kept him out of mischief. At least most of the time.
Three hours and a sandwich later Cloud shifted restlessly. No one had been by and he had already finished his work, read one of Sephiroth's books and practiced his kata. It was getting close to 1600 hours and there had been no sign of anyone coming home. Usually someone came by around 1500 to start dinner. The blond wandered into the small kitchenette and pulled down a cook book. After carefully examining the food in the refrigerator and cupboards, Cloud selected a recipe and reading it three times, taking notes. The last thing he wanted to do was pull a Zack like with the cake. And cooking supper would give him something to do.
*~*
Zack warily trudged his way into Sephiroth's office. Today had apparently been attempting to prove Murphy 's Law to the utter maximum. It had been SOLDIER candidate testing day, a usually hectic experience. Then paperwork had gone missing, two of the testers had gotten violently sick, a group of rebels had attacked Kalm, Corel and the edged of Midgar. Next Scarlet's latest mechanical experiment had gone haywire. By the end they had lost power for an hour and the sprinkler system had gone off. Only apparently someone had put pink dye in the water dying the corridors pink. And it smelled like artificial roses. Zack couldn't wait to go to sleep. "Seph?"
The general wearily lifted his head from his paperwork. "Hello Zack."
"You want to get something to eat?" Zackary asked hi s friend. "It's almost 1900 and I know you didn't eat lunch."
"Considering it was pink, I think not," Sephiroth replied. He blinked. "Do you get the feeling we're forgetting something?"
Zack shook his head. "I can't think of…Cloud! Oh crap, we forgot all about Cloud!"
Sephiroth stood, carefully arranged the remained papers he'd been working on and followed Zack out of his office. Fifteen minutes later the two found themselves outside their door. Pulling out his key Sephiroth unlocked the door and stepped inside.
Lively music was playing. Dinner sat on the table. Clod's voice came for the kitchen singing along to the up beat song.
"Cloud?" Zack called.
"In the kitchen!" Came the rely (stating the obvious).
The two weary SOLDIERS walked into the small kitchenette to find Cloud drying dishes. The blond carefully placed the last dish in the cupboard and hug up the towel. Then he launched himself at his friends. "You're home!"
"You make dinner?!" Zack exclaimed in shock.
Cloud shrugged. "I was bored."
Sephiroth's lips twitched. "You were bored."
"Yes."
"And you made dinner."
"Yes."
"Only you Cloud-kun, only you."
They walked back out to the table. "Oh wait a second!" loud exclaimed. He held his hand out over the table and concentrated. Several spells faded. "There we go!"
"Fire and ice spells?" Sephiroth asked as he inspected the food . Spaghetti sat next to a loaf of bread and a salad sat at each place. Cold drinks sparkled in the classes.
Cloud shrugged. "I've been practicing sustaining spells. Those are low compared to the stuff I was working with in the forge."
"How is Ironheart?" Zack asked. Cloud explained how hi day had gone while leaving out a few crucial details. That lead to Zack and Sephiroth explaining all of the accidents that had befallen them. Cloud found this extremely funny. "Pink dye?" He gasped then promptly fell back into hysterics.
In an attempt to change the subject over desert (more cake) Sephiroth asked Cloud how much longer he was working at the smithary. Cloud couldn't ask for a better opening line. He ran form the table (leaving his cake half finished) and returned with a thin box. "Ironheart said I couldn't open it until you came home," Cloud carefully unwrapped the package and lifted the lid of the box.
Zack whistled softly. "That's something else." He lifted the sword from the box." Very light. Seems a bit big for you."
Cloud shrugged. "I'll grow into it."
Sephiroth took the blade from Zack and carefully examined it. "I think this is even better than his usual work." Sephiroth gave Cloud a long look after he replaced the blade. "This is not a toy. I want you to understand that."
Cloud nodded just as serious as the General. "This is a weapon. It's meant for defend an hurting enemies, even killing them." Wisdom beyond his age shown for a moment in his glowing blue yes.
"For now we won't train you with this. Tomorrow I want to test you and see how much you know. We'll go from there. When you're ready I'll let you have this."
Cloud looked slightly disappointed but nodded again. "Wait a minute," Zack said glancing at the sword again, "That looks just like the swords in Pirates of the Caribbean." Cloud looked sheepish. "Well, are you going to go sailing on the high seas, little pirate of mine?" Zack teased ruffling Cloud's blond spikes.
"I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request," Cloud responded and ducked as Zack through the bundled up wrapping paper at him.
End Chapter 8
I told you they'd be more references to PotC. Actually I loved Will's blade in there and wanted a character to have it. And since I wanted Cloud to have a different weapon from his guardians it was perfect. That's actually the reason PotC showed up a couple chapters ago.
More Lackey references in here. Ironheart and Hellsbane are horses (yes horses) from the Tarma and Kethry books. Firesong is the name of a really cool mage in the Winds, Storms, and Darien trilogies.
And now I have THREE people to thank! *dances*
fantasy_child: Glad to hear you enjoyed it! I'm personally a preferred C/S or C/S/Z. I don't like stories without major Cloud time but I have read several really good S/Z stories. And S/C doesn't work at all in this arc! As for Jenova…I always thought she had too easy of a time taking over Sephiroth in the game. I mean he's supposed to be smart, right? It was actually shorter before. Thanks for your input though. I'll probably talk about that more in the third arc to make it more believable.
Blue Eyed Angel 2: Hey, I update pretty regularly! On this at least. It's all typed, all I have to do is add notes like this. After it's done though all bets are off.
Katie14: Thank you! I like portraying the planet in different ways, taking spins on common ideas. I wanted to flesh Airi out a little more too. She shows up in my other fic, (S/C) Healing Hands which is what I'm posting next cause it's fully written. As for Aeris its that whole 'I'm a Cetra and I can talk to the planet' thing.
Author of the Update: Shadow-Storm for Second Chances yet another wonderful FFVII fic featuring Cloud, Zack and Sephiroth!