Hi guys. Yes, this is an update. Sorry it took so long!! I'm being pulled in several different directions. My cousin and her friends want me to update my Inuyasha ficcy, my friend (anthroprincess) wants me to write my half of our KH spin-off (hearts-oblivion at deviantart), I feel compelled to update my other KH CloudSeph ficlet, and then there is THIS one. I have to say, this is the most fun to write, but it takes me forever just to sit down and do it. Besides all this, me mum is making me work outside, in the blistering heat, for several hours a day...it sucks. But I try to update, but then again, its hard. I procrastinate, and I am good at it.

Disclaimer: ...no, really?

....................................

Chapter 6: Face it and Deal

Sora blinked slowly. All of a sudden it occurred to him the mere stupidity of the fact that his own summon weapon was nothing but a giant key. He felt like his crumbling to a point of no return. From this he concluded that he had been doped. "What kind of sick joke is this?!" He felt infuriated, that he, whose life couldn't have possibly been any more screwed up, had just hit rock bottom. "What kind of weapon is THIS? It's a freakin key!"

Sephiroth scowled, wringing out the damp towel in his hands with force. "The least you can do is not insult it," he hissed. "The mere fact that someone like you could receive such a weapon, makes me think that the worlds gone to the dogs". His eyes spat venom, and spoke volumes. Obviously he thought Sora was unworthy to lick his shoes.

"He's just jealous Sora," Cloud said, wincing slightly as his wound cleaning became a little more forceful. "You don't have to take that! Kick 'is butt!"

Sora coughed, bringing up small teardrops. "Beat...Sephiroth? Nah, thatsokay! I'm good".

"Yeah kid, so him whose boss," said a perky girl with short black hair. "The keyblade chose you!"

Sephiroth simply rolled his eyes, finishing off his chore by casting Curaga on Cloud's shoulder. "Yes. Sure. 'Beat me' if you think you can". His gaze shifted over to the newly appointed keyblade master. Taking long strides across the room, his lips curled themselves into a taunting smirk, and deep inside those emerald eyes was a challenge, just for the boy with the key.

"I'm...I'm not afraid of you," Sora managed to force out, gripping the kilt of the keyblade tightly.

Sephiroth's smile grew wider, slipping his fingers under the boy's chin tilting it upwards, so that he couldn't look away. "You could have fooled me", he said before the bell that releases students to their next hell session rang. "Try again," he said walking out the door calmly. Sora released the breathe he hadn't realized he was holding.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid," Sora repeated as he banged his head against the wall over and over again. "I need to learn how to shut up!" he moaned, as the keyblade, disappeared slowly, only waiting for the next time it would serve a purpose.

-----------------

"And that children is why the x variable is undefined"

Riku felt himself nodding off again. If he thought sparring class was bad, Algebra was the seventh hell. Even Sora, who's math skills rivaled many, could feel his conciousness slipping away. Some, had already fallen into the deep slumber, such as the boy Tidus and the black haired girl from sparring class, Yuffie.

"Your assignment for today is pg. 731 1-63 odds," Mrs. Jenova finished. "Questions?"

Sora raised his hand. "Yes?"

"Could you possibly just, I don't know, teach that whole thing over again?" Sora said stifling the yawn he felt coming.

"Were you not paying any attention?" Mrs. Jenova sighed impatiently, tapping her fingers hysterically.

"Yeah, but it was all a blur," he said, telling the truth. He hadn't understood a word that had come out of his teacher's mouth.

"Mr. Black, would you mind showing your new classmate how to do this lesson," Mrs. Jenova said in an exasperated voice. She obviously had very little patience for slacker, unless of course it was one of her class pets. "Sephiroth," she said a little more sternly.

Sephiroth's head snapped up from the surface of his desk. "...Wha...huh...? What did I miss?" he mumbled, his eyes still half-lidded.

"Oh, Sephiroth, didn't you get enough sleep last night?" she asked frowning so deeply, it made you wonder how she managed to keep the wrinkles away.

He shook his head. "My roommates kept me up all night," he said in a tone that just screamed teacher's pet. He threw in an extra yawn for emphasis.

Riku's jaw practically dropped open. "That is a BIG FAT LIE and you know it!" he shrieked jumping from his desk. "If anything YOU kept yourself up with all your 'Oh, goodness, but I have to beat the Phantom Cloud!' stuff"

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, keeping a strait face. "I have no idea what you're talking about".

Riku mentally cursed the Centra. Besides being a great math and sparring student, he probably excelled in drama.

"You are already DUMB, you don't need to play it!" Riku yelled, kicking the floor.

"Don't yell, pretty boy" Sephiroth commanded smirking. "Didn't anyone ever tell you to use your inside voice, I believe the rest of us learned that in grade school".

Riku huffed, sitting down I his seat before Ms. Jenova could tell him to do so. "Well, at least I wasn't the one sleeping in class..." he mumbled.

Sora raised his hand timidly. "What!" Mrs. Jenova snapped, making him cringe.

"All I needed in the first place was a little help with the lesson!" Sora squeaked.

Behind him, Kairi smiled apologetically, feeling quite sorry for the boy getting verbally abused by their obviously coffee deprived teacher. Once she seemed to have run out of steam, she could hear the snickering of the rest of the class. The truth is, it was funny! Everyone else had gotten a tongue-lashing on their first day of Algebra, except for Sephiroth who had the incredible insight not to irritate her. Some people had a theory the Jenova was actually Sephiroth's mother; both with silver hair, held stiff upper lips, and had tempers like active volcanoes. But both the teacher and student had denied relation in any way.

A few minutes after the barrage of horrible screaming had ended, the teacher had lost her forced engery and told her class that she would be going to the "copy room" and to do their lesson's while they she was gone. The silence of the students lasted for a grand total of two seconds.

The whole class burst into converstation about one thing or another. Schools are the same everywhere. Sora pouted slightly. After all that work, he never got his questions answered. Reaching into his desk, he found what had to be his Math book, shiny from lack of use. Scowling slightly, he flipped through the book to the assigned pages. To his eyes it was just a scrabbled bit of numbers and letters. Tapping his pencil, he sighed exasperatingly .

"Hey Kairi?" he asked leaning his head back.

"Yes?"

Sora asked, "Do you have any idea how to do any of this?"

Kairi smiled a bit, taking Sora's text book in her hands, flipping a few pages back. "Tools for life," she answered expertly. "Usually in these books, it will tell you how to work a problem, before they give you the problem set. To me, it always makes more sense than what the teacher tries to tell us," she said winking. "They feed us something that doesn't make any sense until you learn it a different way. And for reference, the answers to the odd numbered problems are the back of the book usually"

"That makes sense," Sora replied, taking his book back. Then he crinkled his nose. "But what if you still don't understand after that?"

Kairi shrugged. "You could always ask Sephiroth"

Even at the slightest mentioning of his name Sephiroth's head craned around and gave the meanest looking sneer that Sora had ever seen. It was like a smirk, glare, and eye twitch all rolled into one look. After the expression that clearly read 'Hell no!', Sephiroth promptly turned his attention back to something that looked suspiciously like balancing his pencil on his nose.

Sora shook his head. "I don't think that's an option," he muttered, hearing a certain silver haired menace snort a conformation. "Guess, I'll just survive some other way"

"I'll help any way I can," Kairi said smiling.

Sora smiled too. "Thanks Kairi"

Further away, Sephiroth began to twitch. The person behind him was constantly snapping his pencils. This was getting way annoying. "Hey pretty- boy"

"I have a name, Shaft," Riku growled, not in a mood to be reckoned with. Slowly but surely the pencil in his hands snapped in two.

Sephiroth raised a delicate eyebrow. "So, I assume this is some sort of anger management?"

"Anger management. No. No. No," he hissed through his teeth, his lips curled into an obviously fake smile. "No, I'm not angry at all..."

"Yeah, sure, and I'm known for my random acts of kindness"

Riku flexed his fingers in and out, controlling the anger that he 'didn't have'. He didn't know why it made him so mad, to watch them. 'Its not like Sora doesn't deserve to make new friends,' Riku thought. 'He deserves the best, but...Kairi. She's not a bad person, I just don't...like her' He sighed, glancing over at Sora who was intently bent over his work, face contorted in concentration. 'No, can't stay mad at that,' he thought chuckling slightly. 'Only that meddling fool, Kiari!' "Mwahahaha" Riku mentally coughed, embarrassed at his sudden evil cackling.

"Pretty boy, one word. Jealousy?"

"No, I'm not jealous" Riku said.

"Uhhuh, sure, keep telling yourself that," Sephiroth chuckled, having nothing better to do than torment the poor kid.

Riku sighed, running his hands through his hair. "But my life would be so much easier if you would stop laying the guilt trip on me. Its not like your not tripping over your own feet every time Cloud speaks to you, like some kind of sick shounen ai manga" he commented smirking.

Sephiroth's snapped out, snatching the collar of Riku's uniform roughly, Riku's feet dangling a good few inches of the ground. There was no joke upon his face, only a glare that almost seeped poison. "Are you suggesting that I, would fall for a guy?" he seethed. "Let alone some ignorant, blond fool?!" Riku stared blankly, his lips curling into a tiny, almost taunting, smile.

Kairi spared a moment of her conversation with Sora to notice what was going on. She took a stance that might interpret authority in the eyes of some, furrowing her eyebrows together angrily. "Sephiroth! PUT HIM DOWN"

He paid no heed to the SeED's warning, only staring coldly at the boy he only so easily overpowered. "...answer me, now!"

"SEPHIROTH!"

"You stay out of this!" Riku spat, feeling more than a little frustrated at the girl he had met only a day before. "It isn't your problem"

Kairi huffed. No one treated her like that, and got away with it. "Well?" Sephiroth asked, with no room for conversation.

"Well...I wouldn't have said it, if I didn't mean it would I?" Riku sighed exasperatingly, rolling his eyes.

Sephiroth turned an indescribably red color, that went well with the angry and embarrassed expression written on his face. Without a word, he dropped Riku unceremoniously on his butt, and paced out the door, throwing his hands up in the hair like he thought everyone of them were raving lunatics.

"What's his problem?" Riku moaned, rubbing his sore backside.

"Heh," the Tidus kid responded. "I think its cause your challenging him. His authority as cocky idiot is slipping away..."

Riku picked himself up, scowling slightly. "Nah, I think its cause he knows I'm right"

----------

Sephiroth marched down the hall, not caring that he should be in class, and really didn't have anywhere else to go. He was fuming, feeling so angry that steam could have spouted from his ears. He couldn't think strait. All he knew was he wanted to punch something, and punch it hard. This was why didn't notice the person coming until it was too late.

He crashed into the figure, gravity unmercifully pushing him into the gargoyle fountain behind him. Slowly he felt his anger cool into annoyance, the water killing the heated feeling. It would have been okay, the mouth of the gargoyle wasn't continuously spewing water onto his silver tresses. Picking now limp hair out of his eyes, he mumbled,"...just great"

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry, I swear I didn't mean to," a small cowering voice shrieked. She looked up through her auburn bangs nervously, collecting the numerous flyers that then had spilled on the ground. "I really wasn't looking where I was going, oh goodness I'm sorry..."

Sephiroth blinked slowly. "Its okay...Aerith is it?". The girl smiled slightly, nodding her head.

"Yeah..." she laughed nervously. "And your Sephiroth, I know. I've heard many...stories about you"

"Assuming that you heard them from Cloud Strife, they're probably true," Sephiroth snickered, wringing out his shirt. Aerith, was one of those people that you meet a couple of times, but remember cause of something that happened. Aerith was Cloud's girlfriend {1}. She had this cute, pure demeanor that calmed people, but got on people's nerves. Simply put, she was preppy to the extreme. You couldn't yell at her without feeling guilty later.

Aerith's smile faded a little. "I see...". Sephiroth twitched slightly. 'WHAT kind of things does he tell this girl?!' "I'm sorry for knocking you over..."

He rolled his eyes, and mumbled a "Whatever". He began walking toward his dorm, since obviously he couldn't go back to class in wet cloths. A smirk crossed his lips. Since his uniform was unbearable, he'd just have to...improvise. 'Free dress day'

"Wait! Sephiroth!" he turned around, as Aerith came running up behind him. "Here," she thrust a small piece of pink folded paper at him. "You should come, it'll be fun" Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, not quite knowing what she was talking about.

"Maybe..." he said.

With that, he spun on his heal and waked off.

------------

"A dance?" Sora asked. The auburn-haired girl nodded.

"Yes, there's a school dance in a week," Aerith said. "So, hurry up and find someone to go with".

Sora nodded. "Hey Riku, you wanna go?"

"W-what?" Riku asked, blushing madly.

Sora rolled his eyes. "Go, not go with me"

"Sora..."

"Yes?"

"Shutup, everyone's staring"

---------

Sephiroth unfolded the piece of paper as curiosity got the best of him. 'Dance hnn?' Sephiroth burned with a strange type of annoyance. "Yeah, whatever," he growled, tossing the now crumbled piece of paper in the corner to lay forgotten.

..........................
{1} (I hate the Aeris/Cloud pairing...XP)

Ria-aeon-hunter: thanx very much! Cool pename.

SuGar aNiMe FrEaK: wow. You must be my most enthusiastic reviewer! Oo Woo!

DragonRose13: yay!! Glad to have yur support! And what do you mean 'jealous', I luv your ficcies. U.U I wish I could write like you.

Riva van Dyk: domo arigato!

AkaiUsagi: yes, I like to think that Sephiroth would like to play PS2. Why, don't ask. For me it makes a pleasant mental image!

Stealth Wolf: oh, no! Don't go mute! 13/10? Wow. That defies math. YAY!!

Riyoji Jeremishou: O- GO SEPHY!! Wow, I'm not the only one who is attracted to anyone with silver hair!!

Allanby Biazury: thanks! Strangled cats sound quite funny!

Merielle: I will, thanks.

Wolfboy245: you have a lot of varying opinions about this fic. Lets see if I can respond to all of them. Thanx for thinking its funny. That matters to me! Squall is awesome. Say something degrading about Riku again, and I'll pop your arms off. Sora a sissy? Basically cause I see him as a little wimpish. Do you watch when you play KH? Sora has this thing where he pouts whenever he feels insulted. Tell me that's not funny. The cold shower thing...well, I have to say, that comes from personal experience ; Dude, there is no such thing as too much Shounen Ai. THEY ARE GAY DAMMIT!!! Leave Tifa and Yuffie alone, their too cool to be harassed in the abyssal gutter that is your mind.

AquaHawk-04: yeah, don't kill yourself there! Strange, I'm getting a lot of Sephiroth fangirls. We gotta stick together ya know? Here's that update!

Silverstrifey819: thanx! And don't worry, Cloud and Sephiroth will have a lot more lines.

TwilightAmathyst: oh, I'm flattered. I guess you really need to read more KH fics then.

Unknown mystery: O- well, its partially strait and partially yoai, depending on which couple you are talking about. But if for the most part, this is a Shounen Ai ficcy.