Author's Notes: Wow, Thanks again for the reviews! I woke up this morning and found a nice hefty chunk of praise for me to read. What a nice present on the LAST FREAKING DAY OF SCHOOL! (Everyone feel free to cheer now...)
Sadly I only have tomorrow left until I go to Cancun on the 16th. However, the resort we're staying at has net connection. The only problem is two things:
1) I'm worried about my computer. I wouldn't want it to get stolen, but I'm taking it anyway - I'm going to keep the hard drive under lock and key in me and my friends' room safe whenever we go out on a day trip. That way, they can take the computer, but they won't have jack-shit - and the key will ALWAYS be with ME. The hard drive is the most important part of your computer because it has everything that IS your computer. If you didn't know this before, know it now. So that you can be sure you still have your data if your computer is stolen.
Computers can be replaced. Data on your hard drive cannot.
2) I'm worried about this story. If my computer does get stolen, or if my hard drive happens to be stolen out of the safe (God forbid) I will have lost all information on this story and all means to post it. So at the very least, just in case all my firewalls are breached (ha ha, laugh at my nerdy joke), I'm going to put the story on one of my old USB keys and always have THAT with me, too.
By the way; killyjoy: The three "Brothers" in Advent Children are Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. You got Loz confused with Zack, who is the only ever SOLDIER to make it into First Class with the same weapon as Cloud (Buster Sword). In fact, he and Cloud are the only two SOLDIERs who can even handle the weight of the Buster Sword. He held Seph in high respects and was a friend of Cloud. You see him in Final Fantasy VII: Last Order, which takes place before the game, unlike Advent Children. (And it's anime! ANIME!)
Anyway. Rant over. Oh, wait - someone asked what music I listen to. I believe it was Hydra390...? You'll see the complete soundtrack for this story at the bottom. That should answer questions as to what music I listen to while I'm working. Enjoy!
Chapter 30
"Tension and Lies"
That Same Day
Seifer stared at Cloud's bedroom door as he passed it, Fuujin at his side.
"Quiet," she murmured to him.
"Guess they finally got spent."
Fuujin hummed. "Good lovers."
Seifer glanced sideways at her. "You could hear them halfway down the hall."
"Not them," Fuujin shook her head, "Cloud."
Seifer grunted and wrapped an arm around Fuujin's waist. "Come on, before he hears us talking. Don't wanna get snapped at."
"RAWR!"
Fuujin blinked and stared down the stairs. Seifer sighed.
"Don't tell me they're at it, too."
Fuujin just looked at Seifer—"Oh, please," her expression seemed to say—and shook her head "no".
"Sure as hell hope not. They'll do a double-suicide trying to find privacy."
Hours later, Cloud woke up to the incessant knocking on his door and numerous shouts of children. He blinked groggily from lying on top of his lover's (very solid, built, and sexy) body, and bore holes into the woodwork with his glare. Oh, great. They're home. Not that he didn't love them to death (all twenty of them), but he'd been having a very nice nap, and he didn't particularly feel like leaving this spot.
"Don't answer it," Sephiroth grumbled, wrapping his arm tighter around Cloud. The blond groaned and let his head drop, nuzzling the older man's neck.
"I don't think I have a choice..."
"Christ." Sephiroth rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine, go." He flung his arm off to the side. Cloud frowned at him, and then the knocking interrupted his attempts to soothe the rumbling storm.
"Clooouuuud! It's six forty-five. We're huuungry."
"What the hell are you bugging him for?" snapped a voice outside. "Zidane! No, come here! Come here. What have I told you about bugging Cloud while he's sleeping? Get downstairs!"
Cloud smiled. Thank God for Seifer. He purred and snuggled against Sephiroth again.
"Never mind." he murmured, listening to Zidane's moans before Seifer forced him and any others outside downstairs for leftovers. Seifer was the only one out of the twenty who even knew that Sephiroth was his boss. Primarily because he had been the first one Cloud adopted with the money he'd earned. He also (thankfully) respected Cloud's sexuality, as well as his little May-December romance.
"The little monsters, trying to steal you away from me."
"Mmmm." purred Cloud, rolling off when Sephiroth turned on his side to spoon him. He got a kiss on the neck.
"You're mine."
"Mmm-hmm," was the blond's sleepy reply as he soaked up the attention. Sephiroth peppered kisses along his neck and nipped his ear once. Cloud sighed pleasantly and arched a little under the covers, his legs shifting when Sephiroth started to tangle their lower bodies. In a good way, of course.
"Speaking of little monsters..." Sephiroth peered down at his lover. "You said you adopted two more...? Can you even hold them?"
Cloud winced. "Sadly...I don't think they'll stay for very long..."
"Aah. Finally starting to burn a hole in your pocket."
"It's not that...it's just..." Hmm. How to cover this up.
Sephiroth squeezed his waist. "Just...?"
"...Well..." Cloud sighed. "Erm...they're very young. They require a lot of attention...and it's not attention that I can really give them."
"I see." Sephiroth kissed Cloud's neck again. "Well, I've seen all the other little devils; when do I get to see these two?"
"They're in the basement sleeping," Cloud said. "Why do you want to meet them so badly? You've never been this interested in the children before."
Sephiroth shrugged. "Oh, you know, it's just that news flash..."
Cloud pretended that he didn't feel like he'd just broken out into a cold sweat. "What," he laughed, "You think I'd shelter a couple of runaways?"
"Zinny was a runaway—"
"Zidane."
"Whatever. Point is, the only difference is that nobody came looking for him."
"Well, I don't know where you got the idea that I would go looking for the two boys on the news." Cloud grumbled, keeping his eyes facing forward. And he had to say, so far, his lie sounded pretty believable. Pretty believable, mind.
Sephiroth squeezed him. "I would hope not. It would be a shame if you were to shelter two rats like them..."
Cloud had to glare at him for that. "I'll tell you one thing—they're not rats. You heard what the news said about that man, and even afterwards, while the police are still searching for him, they're saying things. That boy, Riku, his mother just got done with a court case. As soon as Riku's found and Ansem's out of the hospital, she's sueing him for sexual abuse on her son."
Sephiroth snorted. "I watched that piece of crap. That bitch isn't even his mother anymore. The boy was disowned when he was thirteen."
"After his parents got divorced!" Cloud argued. "You don't even know if it was the mother that disowned him." (Poor Riku, thought Cloud, Not only has he had a rough road thus far, but now the news channel is boosting their ratings by sharing his life story.)
"Mother, father, brother, uncle, the point is that he was disowned. When your branch is clipped off the tree, it's over and you hit the ground."
"But you still came from the same tree," Cloud groaned. Why did Sephiroth always have to argue these things? "A broken branch on the ground doesn't mean it sprouted out of the grass."
Sephiroth leered at Cloud in such a way that it even threatened to make him, Cloud, the most hard-headed person he knew, shrink under it. He darted his gaze away and squirmed.
"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I didn't mean to upset you."
Sephiroth just grunted, and mumbled something incoherent before letting his head rest against the pillow. Cloud shifted. Wow, what a mood killer.
"...Let's change the subject," he suggested.
"I'm tired."
Cloud viciously kicked himself mentally in the head for getting Sephiroth upset, and sighed, snuggling rather lifelessly against him. Note to self: Never argue with Sephiroth after mind-blowing sex. Ever.
Author's Notes: The soundtrack I listen to while working:
"Disc 1"
01. Break Me, Shake Me by Savage Garden (Main Theme)
02. Haunted by Evanescence
03. Man in the Box by Alice in Chains (Riku's Theme)
04. The Unforgiven by Metallica
05. She's A Rebel by Green Day (Sora's Theme)
06. Basket Case by Green Day
07. Fight for All the Wrong Reasons by Nickelback
08. Malchick Gay by t.A.T.u.
09. Chica Cherry Cola by Savage Garden
10. Santa Monica by Savage Garden (Cloud and Leon's Theme)
"Disc 2"
11. Heal Over by KT Tunstall (Intermission)
12. Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park
13. Whatsername by Green Day
14. Gomenasai by t.A.T.u.
15. We Die Young by Alice in Chains
16. Crash and Burn by Savage Garden (Riku and Sora's Theme)
17. Not Gonna Get Us by t.A.T.u.
18. The Unforgiven II by Metallica
19. Through the Dark by KT Tunstall (Epilogue)
20. We're All Mad by Natasha Bedingfield (Ending Theme)
That's all. There's thousands of other people I listen to, but the list goes on forever. So this "Soundtrack" is just a sampling of what I like.