Blonde Ambition

by sephcounttheways

Cloud bursts out of his shell when he enrolls into the military academy. Can the power of punk rock help him get the man of his dreams?

36. Virtual Reality

"What tha hell are you doin'?"

"What the hell does it look like?" Cloud murmured, trying not to move his mouth too much as he gently swiped liquid eyeliner over his right eye.

"We gotta go," Cameron urged him from the doorway of their bathroom.

"Just go without me," Cloud tsked in frustration as he continued fucking up his eyes. His hands were shaking because classes were over for the day but he hadn't eaten yet, plus he was just generally feeling anxious. While it was a very happy variety of anxiety, he was trying to gulp down a Monster, pack for the seminar, and also look like future husband material all while being hungry and exhausted.

He took another sip before shaking out his hands, then continued to attempt to get his eyeliner even. Cameron hadn't moved from his peripheral vision so he repeated, "Seriously, just go. I still need to fix my hair."

From the moment they'd met, Cameron thought that Cloud Strife bore an uncomfortable resemblance to Taylor Swift. And sometimes, especially when he played around with makeup, it was clear that Cloud was actually much prettier. That wasn't even the weird part – even though he was one of the most stupidly naturally attractive people that Cameron had ever known, Cloud had the biggest issues and insecurity surrounding his own appearance.

Cameron sat on their broken toilet seat like he was some kind of concerned dad on a sitcom, and he heard himself ask, "Why're ya doin' this?"

"Because," Cloud sighed a little impatiently, but careful about separating his eyelashes where they'd become clumped.

"Is Sephiroth into you wearin' makeup or somethin'?"

"I dunno. No? I don't think he really notices. He doesn't ever say anything."

"Then why do it? Ya looked like shit last night an' he still banged ya."

"I banged him," Cloud was thrilled to say out loud, and to very little surprise Cameron just snorted dismissively. He hadn't expected to be believed anyway, "It doesn't matter what I look like when we're up close together, it's distance that's the problem. I look ugly from far away."

"... Ya make my head hurt."

"It's true! I've seen it in pictures. I look like... some skinny, stupid little rat-face fuck," Cloud explained as he began to work on his eyebrows. "I need to make an effort to look good from any distance greater than twenty feet, that's my ugliness radius."

"Ya got mental problems and they're gonna make us late."

"Just go without me!" Cloud whined again. He'd gotten it through his head that Sephiroth loved him as he was, and it was kind of the natural order for a super hot, important person to get with a non-important person of much lesser hotness. But now it was Sephiroth's literal job to look at the entire Second Year Cadet group in a lineup, and he intended to be the prettiest guy at the seminar, up close or from afar.

Cloud just wanted Sephiroth to see him in a crowd of his peers and feel proud that he got snatched up by a cute one, not just the craziest one who was the most desperate and vocal about wanting to get into his leather pants. Even with training, even with weight and muscle gain, even with his limit break growth spurt... he was still only mid-grade among the rest of the Second Year group. Even revolting Cameron Wedge who never brushed his hair, barely brushed his teeth and only showered twice a week was way hotter than he was, the girls back in Nibelheim were happy to confirm it by freaking out anytime he happened to be in a picture Cloud posted.

Some people just took effort, and Cloud was one of them. He gave his hair a few frustrated passes of his hot iron and was only making it stand up more, only now the spikes were smoking. So yanked it out of the plug and threw it into the sink before turning to Cameron, "Well? How do I look?"

"Can I be real? Like... don't take dis tha wrong way, don't get mad... I just wanna be real. And serious. And honest. Because you're my friend, and ya deserve tha fuckin' truth."

A real opinion? Cloud braced himself on the counter and his voice came out in a whisper, "... Yes. Please."

Cameron took a deep breath, "While I'm merely a cisgender heterosexual male, I am well aware that there's a myriad of reasons people of various identities and sexual preferences choose to put on cosmetics – "

"WHAT IS THAT!? What are you doing!?" Cloud shrieked. "Stop talking like that!"

"What'samatter!? I been workin' on my voice in public relations class!" Cameron then switched back to it, "I called my own gosh darn mother on the telephone and convinced her my name was Dick E. Normous and that I was running for election in our sector next fall – "

Cloud smacked his arm, "Stop it, it's scary! It's like a ghost is jumping into your body and taking you over!"

Cameron laughed as he dropped his attempt at politically correct bullshittery, "What I'm tryna say is that you're not ugly and you're not a chick! Ya don't got any reason to put on a buncha clown makeup, so wash dat stupid shit off your face an' let's go!"

Cloud took the advice. He still had some mascara left sticking on his lashes, but from afar he'd just look like plain-faced, short shit Cloud. That was who Sephiroth was signing up to spend the rest of his life with. Maybe... but maybe not after seeing all the hunky options that had been developing at the Academy lately.

There wasn't time to complete that internal crisis, because they were now officially late for Sephiroth's seminar. Two of Cameron's little sisters had come by during lunchtime to pick up Psycho to babysit and spoil him all weekend, so they were free to just scoop up their bags and run all the way to Headquarters.

Cloud was relieved when they entered the building to find that a lot of guys were still waiting to squeeze onto the elevators. The workers in the Shin-Ra building looked absolutely disgusted at this unwelcome invasion of loud Cadets who didn't know where they were going or how to get there.

"Let's take the stairs," Cloud suggested.

"Forty-nine fuckin' floors up?"

"I've done it before, it's not so bad," Cloud lied. He didn't like the elevators to begin with, but really was not liking the look of them stuffed with his unwashed classmates.

Cloud dragged him into the stairwell and began to gallop up the stairs three at a time, so Cameron accepted that this was happening. They started out strong, laughing like children in the cavernous, echoing stairwell. Many employees were now forced to take the stairs themselves, and glowered at them as they frolicked by.

They made it thirty floors before it began to really hurt, and by the fortieth floor they were crawling up on their hands and knees. The last two flights were the worst, and Cloud was barely able to make it to the landing, and Cameron was scooting up the final stairs backwards on his ass. There wasn't any time to waste for recovery so they quickly split a nasty tasting potion in gulping, puffed mouthfuls.

Once they were able to stand up, they staggered out of the stairwell and onto the 49th floor. It only actually opened with their Cadet keycard because of the seminar, and Cloud looked around expectantly, wondering if disapproving SOLDIERs might also be disgusted to have their lair intruded upon. But there were no SOLDIERs on the floor at all, and most of the rooms had their doors closed and lights off, and so the central hallway was the only route available which led to the huge main training room.

Cloud made himself as small as possible and winced as he entered, hoping Sephiroth wasn't in the middle of speaking or anything important yet, but it seemed he had yet to arrive. There was only a long row of Cadets who'd taken it upon themselves to line up. So Cloud and Cameron left their bags along the wall where everyone else had dropped their shit, and joined the line up. More guys were filing in periodically as the elevator doors opened to release them.

They all waited in silent anticipation.

For a really long time.

Seriously, a really long time went by and it was just eighty guys breathing, shifting, and clearing their throats periodically for what felt like forever. The more time went by the more it felt like this was some kind of sadomasochistic mind fuck.

Cloud's hand crept into his pocket and he peeked at his phone. They'd been told by their instructors to be here by 4pm on the dot by threat of death, and it was now 5:37pm. Cloud slid his phone back into his pocket just in time for Sephiroth to breeze in, and he let out a small sigh involuntarily.

Sephiroth was wearing a First Class SOLDIER uniform.

There wasn't anybody on earth who looked sexier in that little ribbed high neck tank top. And it was little – Cloud had seen him in this uniform many times and this one must have been a size smaller than he normally wore. Not only did it outline the curve of his pecs perfectly underneath those thick suspenders, it offered an extra deep, generous flash of porcelain skin where they met his shoulders.

Some people might have called it Sephiroth's armpit. But that word just wasn't appropriate to describe how hot it was. It was like his... arm crotch?

Whatever it was, Cloud wanted to kiss him right there... and then dip his tongue into that tank top and just crawl inside of it. Sephiroth's black fatigues looked like they might have been a size too small as well, they were still loose fitting, but they bunched slightly around his groin as he shifted his weight to one side while he spoke to his seminar assistants. It was the perfect meaty handful to just grab hold of and –

"- oud. Cloud. Hey," Cameron was whispering to him.

"Hm?"

Cameron was trying to hand him a stapled stack of papers and a cup full of Shin-Ra logo pens.

Cloud took one of each and passed them along, but he didn't even look to see what the paper was. It was just too fascinating to watch Sephiroth from afar, there was something a little naughty and voyeuristic about it from the anonymous safety of a row of Cadets. If he himself got ugly and unimpressive from a distance, Sephiroth's beauty multiplied. The lights weren't too harsh or bright in this room, and there was something even a little romantic about how it bounced off of Sephiroth's skin and created soft, bruise colored shadows on his creamy skin, like a beautifully lit marble statue that had come to life.

Sephiroth was talking to his Junior SOLDIER assistants and writing, and it was doing amazing things to that little black tank top. His long, chiseled arms were naked and exposed, hinting at how hard the rest of his body was underneath his clothes. Ever since Sephiroth mentioned liking arm veins, Cloud found himself noticing them more. The veins in Sephiroth's hands and forearms were twitching while he wrote fast on a clipboard and then gave it to his assistant, kind of like how the veins in his cock throbbed when he –

"- oud! Jesus, Cloud!"

"What?" he whispered back furiously. Could he not eat his boyfriend with his eyes in fucking peace!?

Cameron smashed a clipboard into his chest. It was just a sign in sheet, and he resented having to prove that he showed up to bask in Sephiroth's presence. Cloud quickly added his name and passed it along so he could go back to feasting his eyes on his beloved.

Cloud finally looked at the five assistants with Sephiroth, stupid asshole Junior SOLDIERs. Cloud hated them on sight, but Sephiroth was showing them something on a different clipboard and he looked like he was silently counting, the way his soft, plush lips moved rhythmically nonstop... heaven. Sephiroth could and often would keep talking through a kiss, and Cloud curled his toes in his boots with imagining what those numbers would feel like murmured against his lips.

Cloud was staring at Sephiroth so intently it took a moment to realize he was being stared back at. Sephiroth held Cloud's eyes across the room while speaking to the Juniors until he was forced to look down at something.

I think I've just been eye-fucked! Cloud tried not to grin but he couldn't stop himself. He bit it away and tried to just stand there and pretend he wasn't desperate to run over to Sephiroth and be swept up into those strong arms and carried away like that lady at the end of An Officer and a Gentleman to a sparkling future as Sephiroth's military wife! Love lifts us up where we belooong –

No! No pointed toe, cheesy rom-com shit! He wasn't meant to become a military wife, Cloud Strife was becoming a military husband. And this was serious business, Cloud needed to prove that he was capable of not sexually objectifying General Sephiroth... well, babysteps. Even if he was in love with him and wanted nothing more than to drain his balls, Cloud could still give him total respect. At any moment, Sephiroth would begin walking up and down the line of Cadets and making fun of absolutely everybody, probably giving Cloud a raging erection in the process. But it was going to be a respectful erection.

Sephiroth didn't do that, though. He eventually switched on a microphone attached to his SOLDIER suspenders and said without a hint of a Midgar accent, "At ease."

Nobody moved.

"Sit down," Sephiroth clarified before turning his mic back off.

The group of Cadets obeyed, but hesitantly... as if the first ass to touch the ground was going to be humiliated or murdered. But eventually everyone was sitting, and quiet conversations sparked across the group.

Skylar crab-walked from where he'd been standing in line over to where they were and dropped down next to Cameron, "Hi!"

"Hey!" Cloud said, bouncing on his butt where he sat.

"Are we excited?" Skylar asked him.

"Yes!" Cloud wrapped his arms around his knees and tapped his boots on the ground. "But also really nervous about going in the simulator!"

"How come?" Cameron asked.

"It's insane," Cloud thought back to seeing Zack's head get sliced off. "... I can't even describe it."

Cameron had heard the story many times, but like an excited little kid he wanted to hear it again, "What's it like fer real? Like real good video game graphics or somethin'?"

"No," Cloud said definitively. "It's way realer than that. Like... I don't know how they make it look so real."

"Like CGI blood splatter and stuff like that?" Skylar asked.

"Kind of. But also like... inside stuff. I remember I saw some of Zack's ribs... and the blood didn't shoot out or anything silly, it looked pretty fucking realistic."

Cameron was frowning, "If I pass out, pretend ya K-O'd me an' look like a real badass about it, I don't want Sephiroth thinkin' I can't take it."

"Can't take what? The pain?"

"... Blood," Cameron admitted.

"You love blood! You love scary movies and GWAR and Cannibal Corpse and all those metal bands that look like they have the same logo made out of barbed wire..." Cloud then gasped and pointed in disbelief. "You're a poseur!"

"Am not! That's like... fake an' funny an' stupid shit. Real guts an'... gooey shit... it's not okay."

"Remember who this is coming from," Skylar whispered from the corner of his mouth to Cameron. "It's probably nothing."

"Yes it is! You're just jealous!"

"Jealous of what?"

Cloud wasn't sure at first, but then realized something very critical, "Jealous that my boyfriend's seminar is going to be so much more fun than yooours!"

"Angeal's not my boyfriend."

"You don't make love to people who aren't your boyfriend!"

"You do if you're a whore."

"... Am I da only one not bangin' a General?" Cameron had to ask the Universe.

Before Cloud could offer him Genesis, the conversations all hushed as Sephiroth and his assistants stood before the group in a much more formal way. A sixth assistant came running into the room with more handouts and pens and gave them to the group to be passed around, and then went to stand with the others.

Sephiroth wasn't really looking at them, he was writing on yet a different clipboard and eventually switched his mic on, "... In September we started the school year with eighty Second Year Cadets, and as of now we've got seventy-seven still enlisted... and you all decided to show up tonight."

There was a little bit of laughter at that from the Junior SOLDIERs. It kind of struck Cloud as odd, but he didn't think too much about it because a little piece of Sephiroth's pretty silver tinsel hair flirtatiously slid in front of his shoulder, inviting fingers to twirl themselves into it.

"Seventy-seven sleeping bags from the depot, then!?" one of his assistants projected loudly, having the fucking gall to speak to him without addressing him as 'Sir'!

Sephiroth didn't destroy him immediately for his offense, and in fact didn't appear offended at all. He handed him the clipboard, and was immediately offered a different clipboard from another assistant, "Double it so they can have two each."

"Yes Sir!" the Junior SOLDIER barked and left to passionately attack his task.

Sephiroth began writing again, then said, "Divide yourselves into six groups. About twelve or thirteen in each group."

Their usual friends from classes or the gym joined Cloud, Skylar, and Cameron, plus some quieter, loner type guys, including William who had begrudgingly become Cloud's acquaintance since limit breaking together at Angeal's seminar. Their group made thirteen by scooting a little bit closer together on the floor.

Sephiroth then gave yet a different clipboard to another assistant and the movement of his arm made that little rogue piece of hair slide behind his back to flawlessly rejoin the rest. What the fuck was it like living with hair that disciplined? Cloud would never know.

Hair in place and hands finally empty, Sephiroth looked out across the group, "This is the first time I've brought Cadets to this floor, and my intention is to let you experience what normal training is like for Junior SOLDIERs. I think you should be able to handle it. If you can't, then let this weekend teach you what to adjust for the next eight months. I'm going to treat you like Junior SOLDIERs - you're going to run Junior SOLDIER training simulations and outdoor field exercises, you're getting a private one-on-one evaluation from me tomorrow, and you're gonna get to kill each other in the simulator."

Sephiroth knew exactly what Second Year Cadets were like so he turned off his mic and let them react to that with boyish excitement. He used those loud few moments to continue speaking to his assistants.

The group had expressed their excitement and were quiet when Sephiroth's attention returned to them, "First, you're all getting a full body scan that's going to add you to the VR system. It gives you a numerical estimate of your current level, and it allows the VR system to create a model of you that reflects damage that your body isn't actually taking. The Juniors are going to demonstrate how this works."

Junior SOLDIERS were the most loathsome assholes that ever existed, and they both tried to look all big and bad as they materialized swords out of fucking nowhere. And Cloud really, really looked at them – they had scratches, and they really seemed to carry weight as they sat in the Junior SOLDIERs' hands. There was absolutely nothing to indicate that they weren't actually there.

Cloud glanced at Skylar, who didn't give him the satisfaction of victory that shit in the simulator did look real as hell, he was too busy watching.

Sephiroth had a video game controller-type device in his hands, and he started pressing buttons, "This is Noah and Trey. When you go to their progress menus, you can see how their stats right now compare to when their body was first scanned a couple months ago when they were accepted into the SOLDIER program. This is a rare bonus for you guys - you get to scan in as Second Years and track your progress from an earlier starting point than anyone else."

Cloud looked on in amazement as Sephiroth showed the group the Junior SOLDIERs' progress. Noah started as a brand new Junior SOLDIER at level 8, and now he was at 13. Trey began at a paltry 6, and now he was at level 10.

Sephiroth continued, "You can track where you're at in your training, and actually be able to see what's working for you and what isn't. You could stay in the gym all day long, then practice sword drills all night long, but then someone else who isn't doing those things can suddenly hand your ass to you because they've been training in a way that makes sense for moving this number. The number isn't everything, but a lot of research is behind this method of training, and it works pretty well for most people. But I can't stress this enough – do not just stand around hacking each other up all weekend. Trey is about to show you why you should not do this."

Trey sliced Noah's head off.

And just like when Sephiroth had done it to Zack, it was real looking as fucking hell – the squirt of blood, the sound of flesh being cut and blood droplets hitting the floor, the smell of it, the tendons and vessels and gunk inside the head and the smear it left behind as it bounced a couple of times...

The room of Cadets were divided between shocked gasps and outcries of delight.

The only thing that spoiled a full illusion was that Noah's headless body was still standing there holding his sword as blood poured down the front of him, visibly shaking and breathing hard instead of falling to the ground.

"Decapitation, Noah," the computer's even, female voice announced with indifference. "One point, Treyvon."

Sephiroth then pressed a couple buttons and both Junior SOLDIERs were once again bloodless and whole, "You can see that Trey's number rose one point to 11, but that doesn't mean he's stronger or more skilled now than he was five seconds ago. These numbers don't mean anything unless you're doing the honest work to move them. Even First Class SOLDIERs have the urge to mess around with this program when they first use it, so I'm gonna let you play a little bit... but if you all end up with SOLDIER numbers because you did nothing but nuke each other all weekend and we have to re-calibrate you all, I won't bring Cadets up here again. So don't fuck up the algorithm."

Sephiroth then had to pause again to let the room react to the fact he'd just said 'fuck'. And even if he'd heard that word a billion times from Sephiroth's lips, Cloud was also infected with giggles, mostly because he sounded like RuPaul before a lip sync battle, "Don't fuck it up!"

Sephiroth used this time to turn off his microphone and go speak to Noah. The trembling Junior SOLDIER didn't say anything, but was nodding a lot and then finally broke out into a big smile at something Sephiroth said.

As soon as Noah looked less shaken up, Sephiroth turned his mic back on, "And if I find you fucking up the algorithm, or if you're just generally bein' an asshole and buggin' me, you can spend the rest of the weekend running laps outside. Understood?"

Nobody laughed at the word 'fuck' that time. They were all stony faced and serious.

His accent disappeared, "On the handouts you'll see where you can take notes this weekend on your level and how it changes, if it changes with each round in the simulator or drill exercise you do. You're going to find that it's pretty damn hard to raise your level with something like running or push-ups – "

Cloud really thought he was going to shimmy through this weekend on the VR floor without having to do ugly, horrible drill exercises. What a fool he was to think that when Sephiroth ran almost everyday for fun and relaxation.

" - but you might find sparring with a certain person raises your level – or doesn't. If it's too easy it's not doing you any good, the people you've been practicing with the most might be making you plateau and you don't realize it. So you're not actually going up against anyone in the group you just formed because you probably hang out with them the most, so you'll be going up as teams against other groups. Does anyone have any questions so far?"

One very eager ass kisser did. Cloud didn't know him, but he appeared to also be in mad love with Sephiroth, "Sir, thank you so much for giving us a way to take our own notes this weekend! I saw in the packet that there's a page for you to take notes about us... can you talk a little bit about that?"

Cloud wanted to gag. He didn't sound like that when he spoke to Sephiroth, did he?

"Yeah just leave that page empty, you'll get notes from me when I evaluate you all tomorrow. You might not be able to read them, though."

With a little joke, more people wanted to ask questions. Mostly about Sephiroth's level of actual, physical participation against the Cadets in the simulator – of which there would be none. As much as they all longed to be punched in the face by their silver General, they'd have to wait until they were actual SOLDIERs... not even Junior SOLDIERs were able to face Sephiroth in mock battle, yet. It took everything in Cloud's being not to stand up and proudly announce that he got his ass slapped by Sephiroth on a regular basis. But as far as sword fighting went, Cloud had seen with his own eyes that Sephiroth could take a handicap before a VR battle, but for it to be a fair fight against a Second Year Cadet he'd probably have to be handicapped literally to death's door.

People asked what kind of weapons were in the simulator ("Anything. You can fight with a live cat if you want to. If you think up something and it isn't an option, there's a form you can submit to the programmers and they'll design it for you."), if they could even try to use Sephiroth's trademark sword ("Yes."), if they could fight against a mirror image of themselves ("You can, but don't make it weird."), if anyone had ever died for real in the simulator ("No. It monitors your vitals and if they're anywhere close to critical the program ends. And for insurance purposes, if you actually died, Phoenix Down gets released from the ceiling automatically. It's never had to, but it'd be funny if it did."), and more questions about pain tolerance, more specific weapon shit, and basic questions that seemed like the guy asking it just wanted to talk to Sephiroth.

Then one guy asked, "So if we're not using real, physical weapons and not actually taking any damage... isn't this kind of cheating?"

"Yes," Sephiroth answered, point blank. There was a little bit of laughter, and Sephiroth was clearly trying to bite away a smile as he continued, "This floor's mostly about gaining experience, not taking unnecessary damage to your body. When you become a Second Class SOLDIER and above, there are rooms where you do use real weapons and take real damage. But at this stage in your training if you don't have to take injuries, don't."

Cloud's hand shot up. He very nearly yanked it back down after considering what happened the last time he asked Sephiroth a question in public, but he was quick to make eye contact with him and invite it. So Cloud just went with it, "If the battles here aren't real and there's no actual physical damage to your body, does anybody ever limit break during it?"

"Yes, all the time," and it was so weird for Sephiroth to speak to him in this impersonal, un-accented General voice... the way he spoke to him as the General was much different and very personal. And while it wasn't nearly as ridiculous as Cameron's fake public speaking voice, it had a similar uncanny effect. Then it got weirder when Sephiroth asked, "So knowing that, do you think limit breaking is mental or physical?"

Cloud emitted a confused chirp of a noise that sounded something like a smoke detector with a low battery.

Sephiroth knew very well what this sound in Cloud's aural language meant and gently rephrased the question, "Do you think breaking a limit is something that happens in your mind, or something that's happening in your body?"

Cloud hadn't been prepared to be asked a question right back at all, and every single person in the room was looking at him, waiting for a stupid answer. He swallowed, "I'm not too sure! I suppose it must be... something instinctual that triggers a reflex, something... neurological? So I'd imagine it'd be a bit of both, something that starts in your mind and ends in your body? It'd be something like, uh..." phone sex... of which Sephiroth was a master. Cloud couldn't say that though, and floundered until he finally concluded, "Like uh, when you think about a lemon and your tongue does that tingly thing."

That was not any better than just saying phone sex!

"You're right," Sephiroth agreed, finally taking the pressure off him. "Even if the damage your body experiences in VR isn't real, it's real enough to your mind that it can kickstart a limit break. So we'll probably get to see a few this weekend," Sephiroth then went right on answering more questions. Eventually they all dried up, so he asked the group, "Where are the guys who build computers and play video games and shit like that? As many as possible – you'll help do body scans of everyone."

Several hands shot up, Cloud's included. He wiggled his fingers in desperation to be given a job so he could take his rightful place by Sephiroth's side. But Sephiroth looked right at him and gave him a blatant shake of his head – the only "video game" Cloud played with any passion or regularity was Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and Sephiroth's phone bill could prove it.

And so Cloud's hand withered back down in to his lap. There were many hands still in the air, and Sephiroth waved all of them over to the huge scanning console. One of them was Taylor, Cloud's husky friend in Intermediate Sword training who Angeal had dismissed early last seminar. He got there first and Sephiroth didn't give him a chance to be shy, he made him sit down and handed him the controller he'd been holding.

Taylor looked very nervous for many reasons – he vented to Cloud a lot about getting sent home like that and he really wasn't over it. He was halfway expecting something like that to happen again at Sephiroth's seminar, which Cloud promised it wouldn't. As much as Sephiroth liked indulging in elimination reality TV once in a while, he wasn't nearly as big of a queen as Angeal for actually doing it.

Cloud had been trying to ease Taylor's nerves about meeting Sephiroth, promising that he was a truly good guy and would be helpful instead of dismissive. And he was exactly right - Sephiroth looked like he was being very kind to Taylor, leaning on the back of his chair and wearing a non-threatening expression as he showed him and the others what to do.

Cloud loved Sephiroth so goddamn much in that moment. Every single time he told someone how wonderful Sephiroth was, he alwaysproved Cloud right. And he loved when other people were willing to see that, too.

Cloud let out a little breath of air and finally looked at the stapled stack of papers in his lap. The first page gave an outline of the weekend, and Cloud checked his phone and was amused to see they were way ahead of schedule. Sephiroth hadn't been late at all – this seminar apparently wasn't supposed to begin until 6pm. Had they all been tricked into getting there early? Maybe because Sephiroth knew it was many of the Cadets' first time trying to get around the HQ building and that the elevators would be a nightmare? Oh well.

First they would do the body scans, then the six groups were all going to be assigned a Junior SOLDIER leader who would guide them through taking turns going into the simulator for the first time and running drills until ten o'clock, when they'd break for a late dinner in the cafeteria. It was made clear they shouldn't try to use the elevators and instead would be expected to use the stairs... once was more than enough. At least Cloud knew where he could find a vending machine with cold potions in it, the room temperature, shaken up ones from Cameron's backpack weren't going to be enough to get them all through this weekend.

Saturday morning they needed to be ready by 6am to take turns in the different simulators, get their one-on-one evaluation from General Sephiroth, and get tortured with outside drills from the Junior SOLDIERs. They had hour-long meal breaks at noon and 6pm, and would be finished by 10pm again.

And then starting 6am Sunday the entire Second Year class would be going through Junior SOLDIER endurance training, concluding with a very serious game of dodge ball before a 12pm break for lunch. And then from 1pm-4pm it would be inside again, where all the groups would be fighting against each other in a final melee style mock battle. The team with the greatest overall point increase would win a two hour group training session with General Sephiroth, tailored to whatever they collectively needed help with most before the final exams before winter break.

They were encouraged with a little note to bring plenty of drinks and snacks from the cafeteria to refuel and hydrate while spectating the battles in the simulator as they waited their turns, because this was also a crucial part of being a SOLDIER. Cloud remembered seeing a whole lot of that when he'd visited, and if one squinted it kind of looked like a bunch of dudes eating junk food and laughing at their friends getting hurt, but if this was about a real SOLDIER experience then that's definitely accurate.

There was another highlighted note, DO NOT EVER ASK GENERAL SEPHIROTH OR THE SEMINAR ASSISTANTS IF YOU CAN GO TO THE BATHROOM. JUST GO WHEN YOU NEED TO, WE DON'T CARE.

And then there would be a group dismissal at 4pm Sunday, and everyone who made it through this grueling weekend of playing dodge ball and real life video games with the most beautiful man in the world could enjoy their free day off school on Monday.

Cloud had a number of ways he planned to spend his day off, and all of them involved collecting more bruises from his beloved. He smiled to himself and flipped through the rest of the papers, it was just the same form copied a bunch of times - time, date, level, who they were battling against, their level, what happened during the battle, and a place for notes. Then at the back was the Cadet Evaluation page for Sephiroth to write notes about them.

There was a space at the top for them to write any questions or concerns they might have for Sephiroth to take into consideration. Cloud clicked open his pen and drew a cluster of hearts there and wrote, 'If you love me, don't go easy on me!'

"On your feet," a Junior SOLDIER ordered as he approached their group, and waited for them all to clamor to get up. He had curly brown hair and freckles covering every part of his body, and might have even been cute if he wasn't an asshole, "I'm Graham, I'm your group leader this weekend. In order to keep things orderly this weekend you will follow my instructions very carefully. You're going to get into a line to be scanned, and then I want you to proceed directly to the simulator and begin trying things out, don't wait for me or anybody else, just go once your VR model is ready. Our group will reassemble once everyone's finished."

Cloud got into Taylor's scanning line, and the rest of the team followed.

Getting scanned involved just standing there for a minute or two while something mysterious happened in the magical workings of the computer. He spied from the line at what Taylor was doing, and it was like he could make little tweaks, or fix certain areas that needed to be rescanned because the person moved and made it blurry. He was trying to make the render as realistic and clear as possible, and then displayed the model to make sure it worked. It was interesting to see everyone being replicated like this, the VR model really did look so real!

When it was Cloud's turn, he discovered that it was actually quite nerve wracking, because while he didn't have to do anything but stand still, there were about a hundred eyes from the rest of the room staring back at him the entire time.

The most important and beautiful eyes in the room belonged to Sephiroth, and they weren't on him at all. He seemed to be quite busy with the Junior SOLDIERs having a little pep rally or meeting or whatever it was in a circle. Cloud blew out some air in boredom.

"Stop moving," Taylor complained.

"I'm not."

"Your eyes are moving all over the place, it's making them look blurry on the VR model. Your hair's all fucked up looking too, I think the air conditioning is blowing it around or something."

"Not like I can help it," Cloud grumbled, and looked up at the ceiling for any sign of a vent he could move away from. "I would have fixed it better if I knew something like this was – "

"Stop moving! At least your eyes so I can fix them."

"Where am I supposed to look?"

"Just straight ahead."

"I can't look straight anywhere!" Cloud said with a deep laugh at his own multi-layered wit.

"Stop moving!"

Eventually Taylor was able to render a clear model of Cloud, and displayed it for his approval. Cloud was able to see what he looked like in three dimensions, and walked all around himself as he shook his head, "Come on, Taylor."

"What?"

"This twink looks nothing like me. Maybe day one of training, but not now!"

"It looks exactly like you!"

"My butt's bigger, my arms are bigger, my neck's thicker, and I'm taller. I'm literally standing here taller than this guy, scan me again," Cloud demanded. He had to be convinced by Skylar taking a picture of him standing beside his model that this was what he actually looked like in reality. Once he swallowed that bitter, bitter pill he trudged off the scanning pad to join the group in the simulator.

He quickly got over his disappointment when he began looking through the virtual weapon inventory, it was so fun to tap the air and have a little menu pop up that allowed him to scroll through an endless list of options. To take the Academy training sword, Cloud had to kind of just reach in and grab it... and it really felt like something with the right weight and presence was in his hand.

He explored this with fascination, if he looked super super closely he could see some pixelation over his hand at certain angles – so it was the VR model that was holding the sword, not his actual hand.

Once the entire Second Year class was finished being scanned, Cloud's group obediently returned to their leader for further instruction.

The further instruction was, "Why'd you stop? Keep going. We have until ten tonight before dinner, and you're going to work until then."

So it was back to one-on-one face off's with members of other groups. The little cuts and scrapes he received certainly felt real, and it was cool how they disappeared at the end of each round. He wasn't about to let anyone cut his head off to see what that felt like, though. Everyone he faced off with surely tried, but nobody could critically hit him all night.

He felt a thrill of goosebumps when he made a classmate bleed to death, and then heard the computer's voice announce, "Critical blood loss, Stuart. One point, Cloud."

"Good job," he heard and felt a big, warm hand brush across his back for just a moment. Sephiroth then went to Stuart to talk and offer advice... and then fucking walked away without so much as another glance at Cloud.

So that's how it was.

Cloud got over the cold shoulder quickly, and excitedly checked his stats to see that he rose one whole point! To level... four.

Well... everyone started somewhere.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The cafeteria floor had divided itself into two sides – one side where all Academy Cadets who had invaded HQ for the weekend had congregated, and the other side where the people who hated them were trying to eat in peace.

Cloud was well used to being hated in the HQ building, so he had no problem walking right up to the vending machine he liked most. He wanted something starchy and fortifying, but he didn't feel like having haggis because he didn't want to answer questions about it. So he got three chicken sandwiches, a huge salad, a triple order of french fries, three cups of red Jello, and a huge purple Gatorade.

It felt very natural, like any night in the cafeteria at the Academy, only this was the HQ building and the entire affair just felt a lot more... real. It didn't feel like being at school because it wasn't school, this was the real Shin-Ra world.

Cloud lingered around the condiment station, helping himself to an uncomfortable amount of mayonnaise packets while watching the entrance, wondering if and when Sephiroth was going to arrive. SOLDIERs, Turks, executives and other personnel came and went until Cloud was too hungry and exhausted to wait any longer, and took his tray to go sit down. He squeezed his butt on the edge of a table with old friends and some new ones, and tucked into his meal.

"So do you get to come here all the time?" asked a guy whose name Cloud forgot, but he was super cute. He kind of looked like Dave Franco, and Cloud only knew who that was because when he officially became 5'7", he looked for an actor who was also 5'7" so he could look at him standing next to other actors and actresses to gauge how big people really are. All told, Cloud wasn't that short anymore! Just sort of short. But Dave Franco looked terribly cute next to his slightly taller wife, and Cloud was confident he also looked cute next to his giant boyfriend.

Before he could answer the question, one of not-Dave Franco's friends asked, "Have you trained here a lot with Sephiroth?"

"No," Cloud answered through a full mouth. "I've been to the big VR room once, and I watched himand Zack Fair have a couple rounds. It was pretty crazy!"

"You do get special training though," he half-asked, half-stated.

"Once in a while he'll have a little pointer or maybe he'll show me a move or something... but we really don't talk about it. Anything I pick up from him is just something basic."

"Like what?" Someone asked.

"Weird shit. I dunno..." Cloud began squeezing out several additional packets of mayonnaise to dip his french fries and sandwiches in when he looked up and realized the entire table, plus the table next to them were waiting for an answer. "... Like keeping materia in the freezer?"

"You are so full of shit," someone from the next table said.

"I am not! He even said I need to learn how to be left-handed if I want to train with him, and I don't think I can. The only school thing he's actually helped me with is baseball."

"So you're just not letting him help you?"

"It's not that I'm not letting him, it just doesn't really happen like that..." he was too hungry to have manners at this point, so he took a bite of his sandwich and spoke through it. "The last thing I want to talk about when I get to spend time with him is training."

"But he's General Sephiroth," one of them said as though Cloud were stupid and might not have known.

How could Cloud make a bunch of guys, most of whom were straight, understand that being close to someone who had more experience didn't mean you somehow sponged it off of them through osmosis?

"He's right," Skylar suddenly piped up from the other end of the table. "Just because you spend time with a SOLDIER, they don't just talk about work or training all the time. Or ever, really."

"My brother's a Third Class and he can't help me for shit," another guy agreed from the next table.

"It's almost like they're just people," Cloud said in a spooky voice before taking another bite.

Everyone then lost interest in that topic and conversations drifted to sports, which teachers they hated the most, or the unauthorized fight that got two guys in trouble because they used magic on each other and it sounded too much like something out of Harry Potter for Cloud to take seriously.

Suddenly the Cadet half of the cafeteria fell silent. Sephiroth and the Junior SOLDIER assistants had finally arrived.

Sephiroth went to his usual vending machine and fed it some money before pushing some buttons. It was much farther into the side of the cafeteria that Cadets weren't, and he looked at his phone while he waited for his food, avoiding looking in their direction at all.

Cloud quickly texted him, 'Hey! Come sit by me'

'no fucking way' Sephiroth texted back without looking up.

'Come on, come mingle with the common people!' Cloud looked around for a landmark, 'I'm by the windows, next to some posters about who to call if you get hurt in the cafeteria lol.'

'i've never NOT been hurt in this cafeteria', was Sephiroth's reply. Then he sent a second one, 'think i'm just gonna get my shit and go'

It must have felt uncomfortable with so many eyes on him, and Cloud texted, 'I understand. Just text me when you can.'

'i miss you', Sephiroth texted back.

Those three little words ignited absolute insanity in Cloud Strife. Sephiroth missed him? Unacceptable! He noticed Cameron was already done eating, and that there was nothing on his tray that was glass and would break...

Cloud quickly texted, 'What if I can break the tension!?'

Sephiroth's back straightened a little bit when he read that, 'what?'

Before Cloud could think too much about it he snatched Cameron's tray and swiped it off the table, sending it crashing into the wall behind them. While nothing broke, it created a huge commotion coupled with Cameron's outcry of surprise, and shocked laughter from those who had seen Cloud do it. And nothing made a group of guys get loud and distracted like a dropped tray - it was like a silence spell was broken in the cafeteria and all the conversations and noise returned.

'Will you stay?' Cloud texted quickly when he saw that Sephiroth's food was ready.

Sephiroth was very reluctant as he slid his phone in his back pocket and picked up his tray. He didn't normally feel so exposed and vulnerable with groups of Cadets like this, but something about walking with a tray of food and looking for Cloud while trying to play it cool was so... first day at the Academy. He'd been thirteen and didn't know what the fuck to do with himself socially, let alone how to navigate the dynamic of a lunch room full of much older teenagers. It was like every table was completely full, and Sephiroth was all alone yet surrounded by people.

He inwardly winced with sympathetic adult perspective, but it was no less awkward reliving it. At least now he had someone fucking adorable who he loved and who loved him, smiling at him and waving him over to sit. That had definitely never happened in his Academy days.

"Hey..." he offered as he approached Cloud's table, feeling so fucking stupid.

Everyone hurriedly scooted over to make plenty of room for him at the table, but he sat on the very edge beside Cloud. His body heat was absolutely searing through the thick fabric of his First Class SOLDIER fatigues, and his beautiful, bare arm was just right there... and that slutty SOLDIER tank top offered Cloud an even nicer view of the edge of his pec and arm-crotch close up.

His desire for Sephiroth wasn't coming from a selfish lustful place, Cloud just felt like Sephiroth really, really needed some sexual healing at that very moment. There was some kind of soul mate, telepathic thing going on and Cloud could just feel need radiating off of him. After all they'd just overcome quite a difficult little bump in their relationship, and while last night they'd had a good conversation that included a lot of release of emotions and sperm, there was way more that needed to be done. Not talked about, done. For hours...

" - rooms had VR for training but nothing like it is now. When this thing first got installed everyone lost their minds around here for months," Sephiroth was saying to the rest of the table, who all laughed in response. "It's pretty self directed but you'll have your Junior SOLDIER leader tomorrow while I do the individual meetings with everybody. It's just two days so I don't have as much time as I'd like to spend with you, so if you need anything or have any questions, make sure to be loud about it."

Sephiroth was trying to make eye contact with the nervous guys at the table, and he turned his head to look down at Cloud last. After gazing into his eyes for a moment he seemed to decide something, and lifted his arm off the table to reach down around Cloud's waist and tug him a little closer, "Doin' okay?"

What to do!? Cloud wanted to play it cool and not do too much but also not react enough and make Sephiroth feel like he shouldn't touch him at all, this was like chess!

After inwardly panicking for a moment, Cloud relaxed against him – not full on 'head on shoulder', but enough to show that this was welcome and comfortable. The trick was probably to actually be comfortable, so he stole a cheese stick from Sephiroth's tray as he answered, "Yeah! I love it here!"

"Good," Sephiroth said, almost like his was the only opinion that mattered.

Cloud discreetly slid his hand down to cup the inside of Sephiroth's knee underneath the table. Meanwhile the hand resting on Cloud's waist tightened and made a fist in the cotton material of his tank top... and an even bigger wave of that intoxicating need came off of him.

"I hated seminars so much when I was in school," Sephiroth was casually saying as he began to eat. They all laughed, and he knew they would. It seemed to Cloud like he had some 'lines' he fed to Cadets, but they didn't feel disingenuous or anything, just someone who was used to teaching and trying to put others at ease. "I also hate camping. So I'm glad to have finally gotten permission to bring Cadets up here, gives me a good excuse not to sleep outside."

One of the guys at the next table felt brave enough to say, "It's so much fun! It's nothing like Angeal's seminar!"

Sephiroth had to smile, "You didn't have fun at his seminar?"

There was dramatic groaning agreement from the table from those that had been there that weekend. Cloud was also making a face up at him.

"I don't wanna misrepresent anything about what this life is like - it's hard. Sometimes it fucking sucks, but that doesn't mean you won't ever have fun. Training should be fun, and the more you progress the more fun it becomes. You'll want to come here, if not to burn off some energy from mako, then to see your teammates and support them."

"Do you train here a lot?" another guy asked.

Sephiroth nodded, chewing, "It's a huge part of my job."

Everyone seemed to marvel a little bit at that. This wasn't some sort of exercise or game, this was literally the way Sephiroth and the other SOLDIERs actually trained. It was a little hard to believe they were so close to belonging here.

Sephiroth continued, "And if you don't have any missions lined up and you can check the boards and see if something opened up, they like to do that in person instead of online so they can just send out who's there. Sometimes the Academy needs substitutes, so you might get drafted for that. There's usually something to get into around here."

"What if we's don't get into SOLDIER?" Cameron asked. Everyone quieted to hear the answer.

Sephiroth chewed for a second and swallowed, "Same exact deal. You'd just be training on the Infantry floor, it has all the same equipment. You'll get to try a bunch of different types of missions to see where you excel and then get put on that career path. I'm jealous of pilots, they got some cool shit to play with. Bomb squad, too. Everybody's got something really cool they specialize in... SOLDIER is just one option."

But the only one in all caps.

Everyone soon backed off and let Sephiroth eat, and Cloud shared his mayonnaise mountain and one of his Jell-o cups with him, along with his Gatorade since Sephiroth forgot to get a drink. It was hard to actually talk, so they were mostly just glancing at each other as they ate and exchanging some energy without words.

It was kind of the opposite of anything they'd experienced together as a couple. Either they were separated on the phone with nothing but words, or finally together and fully indulging in the physical. But this was something new, and it was perfectly okay to just be in public sharing a meal together without any emotion, drama, or sexual tension.

Well, maybe a little sexual tension... Cloud stared up at Sephiroth's strong jaw and neck while he chewed, remembering what he'd dared to say about their relationship so drunkenly and publicly on their first anniversary before singing one of the worst songs of all time. Sephiroth didn't just think of Cloud as his boyfriend, but his best friend. In truth, Cloud had hard time thinking of Sephiroth as a "friend" because he'd always been way too romantically motivated, but there was nobody he'd rather talk to, hang out with, or just eat next to. It was actually nice... would be even nicer if he and his bestie could get naked together after dinner, but still.

When Sephiroth was done eating he was left resting on his elbow and gazing at Cloud while he finished his Jello. They looked at each other for a moment until Sephiroth's eyes drifted down to Cloud's lips.

"What are you looking at?" Cloud whispered to him.

"The hole in your chin," Sephiroth murmured back.

Cloud's labret spike was out and it left him with a little hole right below his bottom lip. He just smiled and pulled in his bottom lip with his teeth.

That was about all Sephiroth could handle, so he straightened his back, "You finished with your mayonnaise?"

Cloud had nothing left to dip in it, so he nodded somberly, "Are you leaving?"

"I'm gonna go make the rounds. There's clear favoritism happening here."

Cloud huffed, "But I am your favorite."

A wide, sexy smile was all the confirmation Sephiroth gave to this fact, and after another drink of Cloud's Gatorade, he got up. Cloud's stomach lurched in disappointment – didn't Sephiroth want to stay and eye fuck each other some more? Regale them with Cadet tales? Finish what he'd started in Cloud's pants?

Everyone chimed in with respectful farewells to the General, and Sephiroth took his and Cloud's tray to drop by a waste station on his way to the other side of the cafeteria.

Cloud picked up his Gatorade and took a sip. As stupid as it was, he couldn't help but feel like it was an indirect kiss, and pursed his lips tight to preserve that feeling as he screwed the cap back on.

He watched Sephiroth walk to a table on the other side of the room, and take a seat with a great distance between himself and the Cadets sitting there. Every surrounding table was giving him their attention and laughing a little bit at whatever he was saying.

But despite an angel being in their midst, a steady flood of guys began streaming out of the cafeteria.

Cloud got up and followed to see where everyone was going. They led him back downstairs, where people were grabbing their shit from the main room and forming a long, long line at the bathrooms. Apparently there were three showers, three toilets, three urinals, three sinks, and that was the extent of the 49th floor's bathroom situation. He knew from talking to Sephiroth and Zack that there was half an entire floor in this building dedicated to serving as a locker room, but apparently they weren't allowed access as lowly Cadets.

Cloud considered sneaking back to school to shower... and wank in peace... and just fucking sleep in his own bed. He could be back first thing the next morning...

As though he could read minds, a monitoring Junior SOLDIER barked at him, "Get in line for the bathroom or get in a bag, pretty boy. Lights are out at midnight."

Cloud scowled just to pretend he took offense to being called a pretty boy, and skipped to his bag to get his toothbrush, toothpaste, and some face wash. His phone was nearly dead so he claimed an outlet to plug it in before everyone came back and hogged them all. He'd be in and out very quickly, how long could a bunch of straights possibly spend in the bathroom?

Half an hour later, the line had barely moved.

William was behind him in line though, so at least he had someone to stand next to in almost amicable silence. William made it look super manly, and Cloud tried to look careless and cool too, but in reality he looked like a little kid waiting for the school bus next to his older brother.

Cloud's thoughts drifted to the clone downstairs in the lab. He certainly didn't have time to offer, but he considered sneaking down to bring him some snacks... but what if he ran into somebody down there? He'd been kind of hoping to run into Sephiroth when he'd visited the clone before, but now it felt like he should back off a little... right?

He didn't fucking know. There wasn't really an advice resource for dealing with your boyfriend's clone, and the two people he had to talk to were Cameron and his mom. His mom's advice was to dump Sephiroth and never think about this ever again, which was advice that required a lobotomy.

"Stop telling me to stop thinking!" Cloud had yelled at her on the phone earlier that week. "If I get hurt and become a vegetable, you can dump Sephiroth on my behalf and change my diapers the rest of my life yourself!"

"I hadn't considered your shitty diapers coming back into the picture. I changed my mind, marry Sephiroth as soon as possible."

Cameron's advice on the other hand was a little more relevant – be cool and say and do as little as possible. Very outside of the realm of Cloud's instincts, but he decided to try that out and just stick to the seminar this weekend.

A while later, Cameron passed by with an armload of sleeping bags, "Hey, I grabbed ya some."

"Wifey! Thank you! You can cut me if you want, Will doesn't mind!"

"Yes he does," William corrected.

"If anyone's wifey, it's you," Cameron was walking backwards, "Besides, I don't gotta go. I'm a mornin' shitter."

"You're an any time of the day shitter!" Cloud corrected, practically rolling out the red carpet to not stand in this line in silence with his thoughts anymore.

Cameron was headed for the main room, "I'll make you a spot."

"At least bring me my phone!" Cloud begged, but he was gone. The smile fell off his face as he leaned against the wall and looked up at William, "... Sorry. If he had cut, I'd make it up to you by letting you cut me next time. I think this weekend is gonna be all about bathroom lines."

He shrugged off the concern. And he didn't usually talk to Cloud at all, but he felt the urge to ask, "Why are you here?"

William was a serious person, so Cloud digested that question for a while to give a serious answer. Finally he said, "I feel like people don't figure out their life's purpose until they get older, definitely after forty. I'm a Leo, but if you look at the chart for the time and place I was born, my 10th house is ruled by Saturn and – "

"Stop, no. I just meant like, if you're dating Sephiroth why are you here? He must have some kind of penthouse or something in this building you could stay at."

"A penthouse!? God, I wish!" Cloud cried, loving the deliciously 80's style mental images that flooded his mind of Sephiroth wearing a silk robe and sock garters at a power desk and talking on a big bulky cell phone with an antennae. But alas, "There's nothing like that, he just has a little office upstairs with a couch. He's sleeping up there, and I'm down here because we're professionals."

William didn't say anything more.

But the line was finally moving now that Cloud wasn't so focused on it not moving, so he decided to keep the conversation going, "Wanna know a secret about the Shin-Ra building?... It was one of the first things Sephiroth ever told me about this place, for obvious reasons. You have to be really careful what you do around here – "

"Because of the insane level of security cameras that literally everybody knows about?"

Well, there went his gossip. He tried to recover, "... Not only that. It's... haunted."

William looked absolutely done, but also like he didn't have enough energy to express it.

Cloud nodded somberly, "It's true. There's a summon haunting this place called... Holy Ghost. They have a SOLDIER on duty activating it 24/7, they do it in shifts so somebody is always feeding it energy and keeping it alive. It monitors all the halls, the stairs, the bathrooms – the whole building. And it attacks anyone who's screwing around or jerking off."

William didn't say anything.

Inspired by his own bullshit, Cloud continued, "A lot of SOLDIERs were beating off during work hours, so Holy Ghost helps out time theft... not to mention people work around the clock in this building, and all the tension makes people want to hook up like crazy, they had to do something about it. So you have to be careful even when you take a leak... if you touch your dick for too long, Holy Ghost will get you."

William stared at Cloud.

Cloud stared back as long as he could before a smile cracked his mouth open, "It's true! Ask Sephiroth!"

"I'm gonna kill you in the simulator tomorrow," he finally said with the most reluctant smile.

It was after midnight by the time either of them saw a toilet. Cloud did his business, brushed his teeth, washed his face, and then took a peek into one of the briefly vacant shower stalls. He was pleased to note that he could lock a door and have a little privacy to take an actual decent shower and do his uh, "wifely duties" before leaving with Sephiroth on Sunday. But in that moment it was hard to do much of anything with a bunch of guys breathing down his neck, so he collected his things and got out of the way.

The main room was a darkened maze of sleeping bags, and while there were some whispered conversations here and there, it was mostly quiet. Cloud looked around until he found his messenger bag on top of two sleeping bags, and the snoring lump in the bag beside it was undoubtedly Cameron.

Cloud pulled his clothes off and some sweatpants on, and went to go find his phone. He was very surprised to find it unbothered and still plugged in – the battery had even reached 47%! He took it to go worm into his sleeping bag.

The floor was even harder than outside on the ground, and Sephiroth had been kind to give them all two sleeping bags to help absorb some of the impact. It still sucked, though.

Cloud unlocked his phone, playing that psychological game with himself that he wasn't checking for anything in particular when he knew damn well he always, always hoping for messages from his beloved. And he was not disappointed, Sephiroth had texted him after dinner, can you stop being hot? if you have any control over it can you just stop!? hard to pay attention to other people when there's YOU. shit.

Finally interacting with Sephiroth in this kind of environment was very different than he expected. Cloud had sometimes wondered if screwing around as "the General" was boring for Sephiroth, or if he was exaggerating how much it seemed to turn him on to be strict in bed when he called Cloud by his last name and roughly pushed him into positions and held him there.

Cloud was quickly realizing that Sephiroth wasn't actually like that at work at all... which made it so much hotter! He never dreamed that he was getting a side of Sephiroth that was pure role play fantasy, no more based in reality than the Military Men porn was. Maybe if he really was some kind of dominant, alpha-male asshole, he wouldn't be considered the great General Sephiroth. He was great because he was Sephiroth... he was kind, and patient, and firm, and listened to people when they talked, and was a very good teacher... who just also happened to be supernaturally hot... and had the most beautiful eyes. And smile. And hair. And orgasm face.

Cloud was nearly overwhelmed with love as he texted back, How do you think I feel having to share you with everybody else!? I just got into my sleeping bag, the bathrooms are a fucking nightmare. Are you still up? If not, I'll see you in the morning, I love you 3 3

Sephiroth responded by immediately calling him.

Cloud picked up with a soft, but happy whisper, "Hello!"

For some reason Sephiroth whispered too, "Hey. You comfortable down there?"

"No, it's hell down here. Let me come up and sleep with you."

"Mm-mm," Sephiroth denied with a smile in his tone.

"I'm fine actually," Cloud admitted. "This is just as uncomfortable and stinky as the dorm, so it's just like any other night. What about you, are you comfortable up there in your penthouse?"

Sephiroth snorted, "No, this couch is shit."

"Don't you sleep in your office all the time? Why don't you get something comfier?"

"I don't wanna be comfortable here. Home sleep should be way better than work sleep."

"Home sleep is the best," Cloud agreed.

"It's pretty good. It's not the best unless we're there together."

Cloud felt his entire body get warmer, and he wriggled in his sleeping bag, "I really need that. I can't wait to go home with you... we'll have the best sleep ever."

"I brought out the blankets."

There had been a bittersweet spring morning when they realized they were kicking all the blankets off the bed every night, Sephiroth's body temperature ran so hot that it just made it impossible to get cozy and not suffocate. So the heavy comforters had been put up for the season and a thinner one brought out for warmer weather, but it was still hard to snuggle in the spring and summer.

There was really nothing more comfortable in the world than cuddling with Sephiroth underneath those big blankets on a winter night, and Cloud keened a little in excitement, "Sunday night let's leave the heat off and cuddle up and sleep for like ten fucking hours!"

"Naked. But you'll wear the socks."

"Absolutely," Cloud promised.

Sephiroth made a dreamy sound, but it was cut short, "Are we havin' phone sex about literally goin' to sleep?"

"We might be!" Cloud covered his mouth against laughing too loudly, "Do you think this is how old people talk dirty? Just talk about being cozy and sleeping all day?"

"Do we gotta be old? I'm into it right now."

Cloud was laughing into his hand, but managed to whisper, "Will you at least smack me like a snooze button once in a while?"

"I always gotta do that once or twice before I let you get outta bed..."

Cloud just laid in his sleeping bag grinning like a fucking idiot as he soaked in his beloved's energy. He couldn't contain a little creaking groan, and repeated a little more slowly and deliberately, "I can't wait to go home with you Sunday..."

Sephiroth exhaled a long, unspoken agreement. Then he said, "You should be asleep."

"You too," Cloud accused. "What are you still doing up?"

"Guess I was waitin' for you to say g'night."

"Goodnight dear. I love you."

"Love you too, baby. See ya tomorrow."

"Sweet dreams," Cloud whispered and made some soft kissy noises and ended the call. A little cell phone light and flirtation had his mind happy and active, but he popped his head out of his sleeping bag and rolled over onto his side to try to sleep.

Cameron was there next to him on the side he slept on in the dorms, fast asleep against the floor with his hair in his face and his mouth open a little. Cloud never really took the time to look at him while he slept, and had to smile a little at how lucky he was in friendship, not just in love.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Saturday had a distinct lack of Sephiroth and way more standing in line – for bathrooms, for breakfast, for the simulators, to go downstairs to the SOLDIER training field for drills, then to run back upstairs for more simulator face-offs. While it was a lot of hustling around in a single file line and getting yelled at by people who weren't Sephiroth, Cloud found that he was rather enjoying himself.

Being at HQ just felt more official than being over at the Academy, like he'd actually finished Cadet training and made it somewhere. A few Third Class SOLDIERs were even running on the track outside, it just felt so good to occupy their space and annoy them.

Finally after lunchtime, it was their group's turn to have their one-on-one evaluations with Sephiroth. A couple guys from another group were still finishing up, and since everyone got at least ten minutes alone with the General, it was a pretty slow line but it felt fabulous to sit around and munch on snacks for a while, every so often smirking at the traumatized-looking guys exiting the room. They were all sweaty, red and shaky, rattling their papers as they eagerly read the notes Sephiroth had given them.

Cloud imagined an alternate universe where he was a stranger to Sephiroth – how nervous would he be right now to finally have a chance to be in a room alone with him? Cloud suspected that he would have made him another CD... or just absolutely gone for it and asked Sephiroth out on a date. But where even to? Out for coffee or something stupid like that?

Then it dawned on him that he was a fucking fool… Sephiroth would actually love to be taken out for a coffee date! There was even a little coffee shop just a few minutes from the Academy that was always full of homemade pastries and people with their dogs, Sephiroth would love that! Why wait!?

He waved at their Junior SOLDIER group leader, "Graham! Can I go run and get some coffee for Sephiroth before I go in?"

"No."

"But – !"

"I said no. If the General needs something, he can call one of us to bring it to him."

Well shit. Coffee or no coffee, Cloud was Sephiroth's future husband and so he elected himself to go in first, and the rest of the group were more than happy to oblige. When it was finally his turn to go in, he smiled back at the others, "I'll let you know how it goes!"

Nobody looked very enthusiastic. That was okay, Cloud had enough enthusiasm for everybody on planet Earth.

The private VR room was the size of a convenience store, and the walls were scuffed up and scorched metal, while the floor looked like some kind of conveyor belt material. Cloud realized in wonder that it must have been able to move with him to provide an environment for running and shit.

Cloud found Sephiroth sitting in a small control room with his glasses on, still wearing that skimpy, tight little First Class uniform, but without suspenders or a SOLDIER belt. He had a headset on with a microphone attached to it, and kind of looked like a super sexy, nerdy telemarketer.

He was holding a bowl and shoveling food in his mouth, and before Cloud could even say a word, Sephiroth spoke to him without an accent, "I'm warning you now, don't ask me to use the bathroom. If you need to shit, just go do it and get back in line."

Cloud was a little taken aback, "I'm good."

Sephiroth's eyes shot up and a little smile curled his mouth, "Hey."

Cloud couldn't contain a big grin, "Hey!"

Sephiroth put his bowl down and sat back to take a long look at Cloud up and down as he chewed, "... I get asked to use the bathroom a million times a day, drives me crazy."

"Well now that you mention it, I do kinda have to – "

"Hold it," Sephiroth interrupted with half a smirk and held his hand out.

Cloud almost wanted to reach out and take it, but realized what he actually wanted and handed his weekend sheet packet over. He then peeked around the monitor to see what Sephiroth had going on back there. He had what looked like a video game controller, and the view on his monitor looked like downtown and a VR version of him was standing there. On the table was a coffee maker with a full pot, so Cloud's effort to run and bring some would have been a waste. There was also a printer, a cup of pens, a half-eaten bowl of rice and peppers and a burrito from Chipotle and some –

"Cloud."

The blunt tone made him jump, but then he realized he'd encroached on the General's personal space. So Cloud respectfully backed off and left the control room, and stood at attention at the other side of the window. Without a drop of humor or mischief or lovesickness on his face, he awaited instructions.

Sephiroth wrote on Cloud's paper as he rattled off a well rehearsed schpeal, and his soft, professional monotone came from the speakers in the room, "This is an informal evaluation of where you are right now in your training, and I'm going to write comments and advice based on what I see. I want you to show me what you do consistently well. Even if all you can do is defend yourself, just do that well. You're going to choose a weapon and a preferred location in VR. I'm not able to physically spar with you in any way that would be meaningful for evaluating you, so I'm controlling a VR model of myself that's been altered to match your current level, which is level four. I'm starting a five minute timer as soon as you're done making your selections in the program and the evaluation will begin. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Any questions?"

"No, Sir."

Sephiroth stopped writing and took a quick drink, "... This is one of the old school rooms so you have to wear a helmet and use one of the controllers, but you can change its weight and style in VR. And right now the pain program is running, do you want me to turn it off or leave it on?"

Cloud weighed the option, unsure of how to proceed. He wondered if the other guys had left it on. Or maybe there was some sort of secret SOLDIER reason why it would be better if it was off and he needed to intuit it somehow...

They didn't have time for Cloud to stand there debating with himself, so Sephiroth added, "It won't effect how I evaluate you, it's an option everyone's been given."

"Leave it on."

"Pick up the controller and put the helmet on."

Cloud immediately complied. The controller just looked like a plain nightstick and the helmet covered his head and eyes. It tightened a little bit to fit and the viewfinder came on.

Inside the helmet world, he was standing with Sephiroth downtown. Only it was way too clean to really be downtown, there wasn't nearly enough garbage or graffiti or strange smells, not to mention there were no people besides someone that looked a lot like Sephiroth, but definitely wasn't him.

Cloud peered curiously up at him. He certainly looked real, and his chest was rising and falling a little bit like he was breathing, but the closer Cloud looked he could easily find a thousand flaws. Everything soft and plump and sweet about Sephiroth's face had been streamlined, it seemed the designers wanted to make him look angry and intimidating. Maybe they'd never actually seen Sephiroth angry, because it made him more beautiful, not less.

VR Sephiroth's glowing green eyes and thick, dark lashes were gorgeous though, they'd taken care to get them just right. Cloud shifted his weight from side to side, marveling as they furiously tracked his movements.

Cloud jumped a little when VR Sephiroth moved, but he was just slowly extending his leather gloved hand out... and Cloud wondered how intelligent the AI actually was. What if he was lonely? What if he was aware that he was less hot than the real thing? What if he was just reaching out for someone who loved him to touch him gently... maybe for the first time?

Cloud reached out to accept VR Sephiroth's hand in wonder, and was immediately electrocuted with a deafening crack of electricity.

"WaAAah!" he dropped his controller and took several steps back, shaking his tingly hand. Maybe he hadn't been electrocuted electrocuted, it had been loud and startling more than anything. But still, "Sephiroth!"

His laughter was braying loudly through the speaker in Cloud's helmet and echoing all throughout the fake downtown slums, but the VR version of him didn't participate in that and just kept glaring at him.

Sephiroth sighed on more tinkling laughter and said, "You're not supposed to touch other people's VR models, they bite."

"You could have just told me! You didn't have to let it taze me!"

"It looked real romantic, I didn't wanna ruin the moment – " he barely managed to say before falling victim to more laughter.

Cloud was cupping his own chest with both hands, "My nipples feel weird! I'm developing strange fetishes as we speak!"

Sephiroth sniffed, "Awright, quit screwin' around and pick your thing back up."

"You're the one screwing around..." Cloud grumbled as he followed orders.

Sephiroth cleared his throat and his accent went with it, "You can look through the menus by just reaching out and touching them. Select your weapon and preferred location in twenty seconds."

In the corner of Cloud's vision was a weapons menu and he hesitantly reached out to poke it, and bit down on a smile when it opened for more options – this shit was so cool! He scrolled through them, and looking at the sword shapes was not unlike comparing shapes and sizes on the dildo wall at Dirty Rubbers – which one looked like it would feel best?

He saw the training sword they used at the Academy and almost selected it, but at the very last second he chose a cool looking Claymore instead. There was a sliding scale option for how heavy it could be, and Cloud almost laughed in wonder that the remote control stick actually became heavier in his hand.

"Ever use this type of sword?" Sephiroth asked.

Cloud felt like a kid who'd been caught sneaking around in the kitchen for snacks, "Oh, uh, no. Why? Is this wrong? Should I just stick to the Academy sword?"

"Do whatever you want."

Cloud wondered if that included looking down the pants of Sephiroth's VR model to check how anatomically accurate it was, but decided that was probably not worth another tazing. He looked at the menu for a second at the options for the location, but didn't really care about changing the scenery.

"Okay, all set!" Cloud hunkered down in excitement.

"Five minutes," Sephiroth announced inside his helmet, and then his VR model produced that beautiful six-foot-long sword. It was like it almost sparkled, it was –

Cloud didn't understand, he was suddenly flying through the air, then he hit the ground and spun to a stop. The shock of it wore off in time for him to realize he was looking at his own body standing in front of Sephiroth without a head.

"Decapitation, Cloud," the computer announced. "No points, Sephiroth."

The pain was next to arrive, and it started out feeling like any other deep cut Cloud had ever experienced in his life. But usually cuts had like, a sharp impact that lessened into a duller kind of pain, but this feeling seemed to be stuck on the shriek of that first impact and actually got worse with time.

It took another second or two before Cloud's brain finally understood what the fuck just happened. He dropped his sword and both hands flew to the top of his head, feeling it was still there attached to his shoulders inside the helmet.

"Reset," Sephiroth said.

In a dizzying instant Cloud was standing in front of VR Sephiroth again. He slowly bent down and put his hands on his knees, "Ouuhhh... shit."

"Pick up your weapon."

Hot saliva was pouring up into Cloud's mouth as he spat repeatedly at the ground, "I can't – "

"Yes you can."

"Hang on, I'm gonna – "

"Decapitation, Cloud. No points, Sephiroth," the computer lady announced again before Cloud even knew that it happened. Then it was all the confusing view of his head falling to the ground between his feet into a pool of his own spit. Followed by a hot avalanche of blood. Followed by searing pain.

Sephiroth didn't let the effects linger so long this time, "Reset. Pick up your weapon."

Cloud gasped for air, "Jesus Christ, Seph – !"

"Decapitation, Cloud. No points, S –"

"Reset," Sephiroth said. "Pick up your weapon."

"Can I just – !?"

"Decapitation, Cloud. N – "

"Reset," Sephiroth said.

"Decapitation, Cloud – "

"Reset."

"Decapitation, Cl – "

"Reset."

"Decap – "

"Reset. Pick up your weapon."

On second thought, it was actually very easy to decide not to throw up. Cloud went scrambling across the ground for his sword, and then he wasn't so much sparring with Sephiroth as much as he was actively trying to not get his head cut off again. He wasn't even sure what the fuck he was doing, he just wanted to avoid that experience forever.

And he succeeded for a little bit, until Sephiroth cut his left arm off of his body from his shoulder. It dropped to the ground with a big, bloody thwap of a sound.

"Critical hit, Cloud. No points, Sephiroth."

"Fuck!" Cloud gagged a little despite himself, wriggling that arm in real life and touching his own shoulder, feeling that it was still attached.

"Why do you make it so easy to cut off parts of you?" Sephiroth calmly replied inside his helmet while letting Cloud bleed for a moment. Then he finally said, "Reset."

It inflamed Cloud's ego enough to go after him a little more aggressively, if only just to try and get him back. Sephiroth's sword bit into his side, into his arms, into his shoulders, and it was really annoying because Cloud wasn't used to being hit so much! He was almost never hit in school, and hadn't received any critical hits in the simulator last night.

Sephiroth was offering a little merciless perspective... Cloud was okay against other Cadets, but not anybody with real experience... and that was the point of this entire exercise.

Cloud began to feel artificial exhaustion from digital blood loss, almost like gravity was becoming heavier just on him, and he crumpled to the ground right in front of Sephiroth. He really tried getting back up but his body was absolutely not allowing it, and he held his breath because he knew a fatal blow would be coming.

But then Cloud realized when he was on the ground this close to Sephiroth, Masamune was too long to actually touch him. It seemed that they both came to that realization at the exact same instant, but Sephiroth didn't have time to move before Cloud swung his sword to whack him against the side of his calf.

The hit was odd, from the side and not very hard, but Cloud felt a little surge of victory that he actually managed a body hit. It wouldn't have been enough to cut through leather, but he was betting that if it was real life the General would have formed a nasty bruise there.

Before they had a chance to do anything more, the computer lady interjected, "Critical blood loss, Cloud. No points, Sephiroth."

"Reset."

Cloud felt much better when all his digital blood was back in his body, and Sephiroth's VR model just stood there looking at him.

Cloud's fingers wriggled on the handle of his sword, and he watched and waited for a moment before he realized he needed to make the first move this time. Cloud laughed to himself a little, and decided to show Sephiroth one thing he did well. It was the only reason he made the Nibelheim Mountain Lions soccer team as a little kid, but as an adult it had not been useful in any situation except beating people to the phone when he still had to use the one in the dorm hallway.

So Cloud turned and ran away from Sephiroth for a few seconds before making a little U-turn and running straight at him. Then he bent his knees just a little and pogo jumped right over Sephiroth's head. He didn't have a plan for what to do once he was actually in the air, but tried to do some kind of damage, fully expecting to be sliced mid-air like a fancy chef cuts a tomato.

But he wasn't, he landed on the other side of Sephiroth having ripped a deep cut in Sephiroth's bicep. He then crouched down and brought his sword around again with both arms, almost getting Sephiroth's shins again... just almost. But the General had already surprised him right back by slicing the entire top half of his body off at the shoulders.

"Critical hit, Cloud. No points, Sephiroth."

"End program," Sephiroth announced. "Time's up."

"It can't be!" Cloud protested, back together again and feeling no pain and full of new ideas to try. "That wasn't five whole minutes!"

"You want me to kill you again?"

"Yes!"

"C'mon out, you're done. Wipe down the equipment and drink some water."

Cloud didn't even realize he was painfully out of breath until he pulled the helmet off. He pushed his damp hair out of his face and saw there was a little recovery table set up for the Cadets with disinfectant, towels and water bottles. He gave the inside of the helmet and the controller a spritz and a wipe down, and went to lean on the control room's doorway as he took a long drink.

Sephiroth was writing fast, leaning back with a clipboard on his knee, "... I can talk and write at the same time. Any questions?"

Cloud drained most of the water bottle then panted, "A hundred! How the hell did they make that stick heavier, and why did it feel like I was hitting something in VR? There's nothing here but me! Is it magic!? I don't get how – "

"Big ass magnets."

"Oh..." Cloud took a 360 look of the room and it did seem like there was definitely a lot of poles and electric-looking Tesla coil stuff in the corners and on the ceiling. Cloud wiped his face off on the inside of his tank top and was confronted by his own stench. But Sephiroth was being so professional that he wouldn't get close enough to experience it, so he kept on asking questions, "So how does the pain program even work, I'm not hooked up to anything that – "

"An intense as fuck frequency inside the helmet suggests pain and gets stronger based on what's goin' on, your mind does the rest based on what you're seein'. Out in the newer rooms they have a thing that aims it at you instead of you havin' to wear a helmet," Sephiroth answered again. And as though he could read Cloud's mind he answered his next question, "If you aren't training when it's on, you get a really bad headache. Some people see ghosts and hallucinate shit. I always see rabbits."

"Oh... wait, what?" Cloud's questions multiplied in his mind, but instead asked something more relevant to the situation at hand, "Did I do okay?"

"Mm," was all the indication Sephiroth gave, but the way it lilted up at the end sounded more positive than negative.

"How'd I do compared to other guys?"

"Second Year Cadets are all similar."

Cloud huffed and let his arms hang loose for a moment from his shoulder sockets, "... Well if all Cadets are similar, how'd they do?"

"Similar to you."

"Are you gonna be more specific?"

"Mm," there was a lilting down that definitely meant 'no'.

Cloud crossed his arms, suddenly getting a little chilly in the heavily air conditioned room now that his body was cooling down, "Is this any fun for you?"

"Little bit."

"Do you cut off everyone's head?"

"That's the fun."

Cloud laughed softly through his nose, "Did anyone manage to hit you back at all?"

"Of course, the VR thing's the same level you are, all I'm doin' is controlling it. Nobody else got me from the knees down, though."

That took a little wind out of Cloud's sails. And he'd never really felt the urge to ask Sephiroth things like this, but took the chance now that the subject was open, "What level are you in real life?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Say the number, Seph," Cloud pleaded.

He wrote for a few moments, then looked up, "The thing caps out at 99 for everybody. Most make that before First Class."

Cloud gawked a little bit, "So all of First Class is above 99?"

"And a lot of Second Class. The computer used to say we got a point even though the level counter didn't go anywhere, now it just says 'no points' 'cause it doesn't matter anymore. They're working to make it 199 but I still think it's stupid to care."

"Why? What level were you when you were first scanned in?"

"99."

"Wh - so you've just always been capped out!?"

"Mm."

Cloud was awestruck. And something about getting this curt, professional brush off treatment was sort of turning him on in a weird way, "... I know you're a busy man, but do you have time for a personal question?"

Sephiroth smirked a little but kept writing, "Depends on who's askin'."

"Just a random Cadet."

Sephiroth stopped writing and looked at him with half a smile, "Then I'll make time."

"I know this little coffee place near here... I think you might like it. Would you let me take you on a date there sometime?"

Sephiroth's glowing eyes rolled up into his head for a split second, but he couldn't contain a wide smile, "Thanks, but I have a hot boyfriend and it's a pretty big deal. He never shuts the fuck up, though."

Cloud had a big grin but took the hint, for a while anyway. Eventually he asked, "... So what's with that uniform? That's not yours."

Sephiroth stopped writing and his warm expression fell, "My life fell apart yesterday."

Cloud laughed, "What?"

"You... messed up my pants, and I realized I don't have any more of my uniforms here, all I have in my office are workout clothes. I meant to run home but I procrastinated the shit out of... I just ran out of time yesterday, so I took some clothes from Zack and called it good. I know I look fat."

"You look hot," Cloud corrected.

Sephiroth didn't reply, and wrote for a few more moments before standing up and taking off his glasses. He stamped the page and then stuck it onto the scanner.

"What's that for?" Cloud asked.

"Any hand written notes get stamped, scanned, and shredded if it's not gettin' kept," Sephiroth answered wearily. "You should remember the drill, you did it about a million times."

"What happens once it's scanned?"

"This whole batch'll be tagged 'Second Year Cadet notes' or whatever and people will be able to look 'em up on the server under your name."

"Who would ever care about notes about me?"

"Me. The people decidin' if you become a SOLDIER or not. And maybe you someday down the road when this paper's long gone, you might wanna look back and see what I thought about you," Sephiroth handed the papers out to him.

"Aye..." Cloud very humbly reached out to take them. Instead, Sephiroth put them down and took Cloud's wrist to pull him closer until there was no such thing as personal or professional space between them.

Cloud pointed to the ceiling and mouthed the word 'cameras' with a questioning shrug.

Sephiroth slid his hands up into Cloud's damp hair and risked it.

Cloud gasped in surprise as color exploded behind his eyelids and happy hormones coursed through his body. Receiving a kiss was so different from giving or stealing one, it was like Sephiroth could make flowers bloom in his mind.

Once most of his soul returned to his body, he took the chance to feel up Sephiroth's arms, gripping the hard muscle before sliding his hands down over his chest. They greedily drank in the delicious texture shift of rough, ribbed SOLDIER uniform meeting soft, warm skin. The very edge of his pecs and collar bone peeking out from the too-small uniform top felt just as good as it looked, and Cloud squeezed appreciatively.

"... I need you," Sephiroth said against his mouth, barely loud enough to qualify as speaking.

Cloud's hands stop wandering and both of his arms tightened around Sephiroth's neck, "You have me."

"Not enough," he replied a little childishly, and indulgently accepted gentle kisses on his chin and cheek. Then he spoke against Cloud's ear in another soft, nearly silent whisper, "I like the sounds you make when you're fightin'... you make the same ones when I'm fuckin' the shit out of you."

Lust flared up inside Cloud despite the fact that he didn't care for sexual talk that contained the word 'shit'. He lifted one hand to whack the top of Sephiroth's head, "I knew you were being too sweet for a second there, this was a trap."

With a wicked chuckle deep in his throat he kissed Cloud once more before letting him go – or he tried to, Cloud's arms slid down to lock around his waist. He couldn't muster the will to even pretend he wanted to be free, and he folded his arms around Cloud's shoulders and inevitably his nose was filled with yellow spikes. Something about the air in Cloud's hair seemed to be super oxygenated, and he breathed deep for a few long moments.

Cloud pressed his nose to Sephiroth's chest and recoiled a little. Then he hesitantly sniffed again, "You smell like Zack!"

"... Of the selection of clothes on his office floor, this one smelled the least. Good to know I look fat and I smell like a douchebag."

"Just when I shove my nose into you, it's not so bad!" Cloud laughed. Zack wore some spray that was really straight-smelling and sporty, probably some flavor of Axe that worked well for him but was all wrong for Sephiroth. "I shouldn't be complaining, I smell like a sewer right now."

"Not at all..." Sephiroth closed his eyes, breathing his scent in and searching his mind. It was a nostalgic smell, and it suddenly occurred to him what it was: "You smell like the rubber on the training room floor."

Cloud made a grim face and almost didn't want to know, "Is that like... hot to you?"

"I guess it is now," Sephiroth had to laugh a little into Cloud's hair. He'd had his face smashed against rubber that smelled like this for most of his life, either in training or in the lab, but it mixed with Cloud's workout musk in a really unexpected way. He could have stood there breathing it in all day, but he eventually had to pull away, "... I gotta keep it movin', baby. I'm sorry."

"I know, I'm being selfish," Cloud was very unsatisfied, but he let Sephiroth go. "I wish you were out there with us today."

"Wish I was, too," Sephiroth deflated a little as he looked at the control station desk. "Givin' everyone at least ten minutes is like fourteen hours for me. My hand's about to fall off."

"Why'd you put yourself in General jail?" Cloud picked up Sephiroth's left hand and started digging his thumbs into his palm.

Sephiroth could never resist a hand massage, and sighed a little as Cloud's thumbs hit a particularly tender spot and greeted it with little caressing circles that knew just how he liked to be touched. He cut the sigh short with words, "I deserve it. I fucked up bad."

"What? How?"

"... Your entire class wasn't supposed to show up to this seminar."

Cloud's thumbs paused, "What do you mean?"

"I failed to tell the Academy to put up a sign up sheet last week. I failed to even tell 'em what time the thing started yesterday. I thought forty Cadets were comin' at six, when I walked in and saw all of you standin' there I had a fuckin' heart attack."

"Aww! I'm so sorry!" Cloud cooed up at him as he continued massaging his hand. "They told us all to be here at four!"

"I know that now," Sephiroth griped before he could stop himself. He then added, "Don't be sorry, it's my fault."

"Why didn't you just send half of us back to school?"

"I'm the one that fucked up, not you guys. You didn't notice we didn't have enough of anything? And I was standin' there forever like a complete jackass tryin' to figure out how to make this weekend even work with that many of you? I have six Juniors to look after too, and they're out there doin' my job for me right now and they must think I'm an idiot. And I don't have anything to wear and now I know I smell like a douchebag – I'm in a fuckin' nightmare, stop laughin'!"

Cloud couldn't help it, any sort of insecure inner dialogue from this perfect man was like absurdist comedy. He really tried to remember those first moments of the seminar for any trace detection of anxiety in Sephiroth. This was his future husband, surely if he'd walked into a waking nightmare Cloud would have noticed, right? But his eyes drifted down to that distracting little extra bit of skin Zack's uniform offered...

Sephiroth followed Cloud's gaze and looked down at himself innocently, brushing his chest off as if he expected food to have fallen there, "What now?"

Cloud really didn't want to tell Sephiroth that he had the world's sexiest armpits and Zack's shirt framed them just right, so he looked up into his eyes instead, "Sephiroth, I swear I didn't notice anything was wrong and I never would have guessed. You were so cool, you didn't seem surprised or unprepared at all, and I really don't think anybody else picked up on it either. Everyone's just psyched to be here! We're all focused and into the training, and even though it's taking your entire day up, everyone appreciates what you're doing for us by doing these one-on-one's. It's all anyone's really been talking about all day, it means a lot to us."

Sephiroth seemed a little relieved, "Okay."

"It's just our stupid Cadet seminar anyway, isn't this so beneath you?"

"Beneath me? This is what I do, and I'm bustin' outta Zack's uniform and I half-assed everything last minute 'cause I've been too busy feelin' sorry for myself, I should have been plannin' this better, this is the first time I get to actually teach you and I feel like I'm a fuckin' idiot and I don't know what the fuck I'm doin' – "

Cloud pulled him down into a kiss. Sephiroth seemed determined to complete his monologue and his mouth kept trying to form words of self doubt, but Cloud was more determined to kiss them away. When he stopped trying to talk, Cloud finally released his lips and was happy to find a little smile there, "... Everyone is working hard, everyone loves you and wants to impress you, and everyone can't wait to go home with you tomorrow and sit on your face."

Sephiroth kissed him again just for that. Whenever he felt shitty about something he'd done or a decision he'd made, he'd talk to Genesis or Angeal or Lazard or maybe Zack. They usually just told him to get over himself, stop sucking so hard, and just fucking deal with it. He mostly just wanted to vent sometimes, and some rattling of his ego was always enough to get back to business. He wasn't expecting a fucking pep talk from any of those people... let alone hugs and kisses and to feel loved and appreciated or anything.

It finally, really dawned on Sephiroth that when Cloud graduated he would have this brand of indulgent support all the time. He could have Cloud's perspective and opinions and shit talk on everything, on everyone, on every inch of this stupid bureaucratic company... work could be fun.

Sephiroth's eyes came open in sheer excitement of that and he pulled away to look down at his absolutely gorgeous future coworker, "You know I love you?"

"Yes."

"Then beat it. You've been here like half an hour, this is more favoritism."

"So what!? I am your favorite!" Cloud declared again.

"That's for damn sure, but you still gotta get out," Sephiroth finally gave him back his papers. "Read this and go do everything I say. I'm sick of droppin' hints."

"Aww! When do you try to drop hints? What were they?"

"Out," Sephiroth pulled the microphone back over his head as he sat down. "Send in the next one. And hey! Don't walk outta here lookin' like that."

Cloud turned back, "Like what?"

To Sephiroth, Cloud looked like a beautiful ray of summer sunshine that had come to illuminate this dark, cold, boring room for a moment, and now he was leaving and taking all the fun and color and light with him. But they both had things to do, so he straightened his back and started resetting the program for the next Cadet, "You look like I just made out with you. Look worse."

"On it," he confirmed and splashed the remainder of his water on his face before emerging from the room hunched over and artificially out of breath. He held onto the wall for a moment and gave a weary, defeated look at whoever was next in line.

It was Cameron, "What happened?… What!? Was it that hard!?"

Cloud inwardly laughed at how visibly nervous the rest of them became. He then whispered to him, "Not fully hard, but definitely a semi."

"... What!?" Cameron bellowed again before he reluctantly entered the room alone to face a blue-balled General. If Cloud really wanted to freak him out, he could just tell him how cute Sephiroth thought he was, but spared him the knowledge.

Cloud leaned against the wall to read his report, but his Junior SOLSIDER leader had other plans, "You had enough down time waiting to go in, so go back to the VR room and join Trey's team, we'll regroup later."

Cloud gave him a petulant look, "Can I go to the bathroom first?"

"Don't ask us that," he gritted through his teeth in his best impression of Sephiroth.

Cloud pushed off the wall and kept up the fresh-out-of-battle act for a bit, but it faded the further he went down the hallway. He finally looked at his sheet, and then turned it right-side up to read what Sephiroth had written about him – or rather what Sephiroth had scrawled hastily about him while being harassed.

Cadet: Cloud Duffy Strife – level 4

For some reason it gave Cloud a sweet, fuzzy feeling to see his full name in Sephiroth's handwriting. His meager level, not so much...

Observations: Cloud and I are in a romantic relationship and my observations will be influenced by personal knowledge and anecdotal experience that I do not have with other cadets in this grouping – I will attempt to base my observations solely on his performance today but it should be noted very clearly that my opinions are deeply biased, but as always I will be brutally honest – if I had no knowledge, first impression assumption of Cloud Strife would be untrained civilian – friendly + persistent + outgoing + talkative – leaves an overall positive impression but RELENTLESS when in pursuit of socialization – disarming, puts others at ease – would excel in working directly with public +/- interrogation specialist – known to get along very well with others – known to be good w/ children + animals – currently lives with + has strong bond w/ army service animal + would work well w/ them – empathetic nature – known to be useful in emergency situations + rescue in several instances but most notably at recent Northern Crater Battle as drum cadet – delivered intel from VP Shin-Ra to Gen. R at Northern Crater Battle as well – would be useful in relations w/ Mt. Nibel region as native – known to be good driver in stressful conditions + rough terrain – known to be brave + hard worker – has exp. w/ limit breaks – handles injury recovery well – gave creative input for Academy recruitment campaign photos – known to have a strong desire + commitment to be in SOLDIER – could easily continue, so if for any reason further personal opinion about Cloud Strife's character is desired please contact Gen. S directly.

Cloud had long since stopped walking and was just standing in the middle of the hallway.

He knew Sephiroth liked him, loved him even, but it was different seeing him come up with solid, practical applications to his nerdy foreign qualities.

Did Sephiroth really think he'd be good at interrogating people? Did he really just mean bothering people? Is that what interrogators did? Cloud reread it all over again, and it sounded so legit that he had to just shut his eyes for a moment to allow this unexpected wave of officially documented praise wash over him.

But if he was being brutally honest, that also meant Sephiroth must have had equally devastating things to say, too. Cloud prepared for a total implosion of his ego and kept reading...

– Combat Evaluation –

Excellent (if anything): Speed is your biggest natural advantage by far – you're MUCH faster than VR model of equal level. So why do you always run so slow?

There it was. Cloud rolled his eyes and kept reading.

Good: Reaction time – jump clearance – outstanding pain tolerance, I went hard on body damage on purpose, very impressed that you didn't pass out or throw up – taking dir. from Sgt. Dunn and Gen. H very well + i can see influences from them in your techn. – fought while down, good instinct – surprised me several times – fought til death each round very good – persistence put to constant use in real time battle.

Needs Work: Your hit force is so pathetic – and you're shy w/ weapons – need to get used to them – get more exp. w/ diff. types of weapons – school has weapon locker that is avail. for you to rent shit for your own practice time – try everything at least 5 times – another weapon room is also at my apt. that you never ask to use – you're allowed to ask to use things + to ask for help – known to have weird ego/pride issues w/ wanting to suffer + do everything on your own – SOLDIER is team effort + you should ask for help when needed + be kinder to your body – many known instances where you've picked a harder road on purpose to demonstrate commitment – bullshit, stop this.

Poor: Did you even consider using magic or asking if you could? – this room is a burnt out shithole for a reason – would've liked to see some of those skills you're learning – i know you don't like magic but Gen. G is having a seminar soon + he'll help you get more used to it.

Hopeless: N/A – you're right where you should be in your training.

Gear Suggestions: Shoulder/upper arm/neck area is very exposed – you tend to lean way too far forward – pauldrons + bigger pants needed – ass crack also exposed + visible throughout evaluation – not complaining just saying.

Training Suggestions: JESUS CHRIST STOP lifting weights + doing STUPID SHIT like leg week gym challenges w/ friends – HUGE waste of time – known to be able to pick up + carry 247 lbs short distances – known to carry 100 pounds for days at a time at Northern Crater + this was 8 months ago – enough is enough w/ weights – ive been trying to hint for weeks that BOXING is better suited for you than another h2h class or weights – there's boxing equip. at school you can use to measure hit force – this type of training will carry over into sword work – goal before exam should be 400 – 600 psi – sign up for boxing classes this spring + summer – if you have to give up drumming to make room just do it, you can drum later – watch Rocky 4 – gain 9 lbs by new year so we can finally stop talking about your weight – go directly to the cafeteria from here + eat before returning to VR room – that's an order for real GO EAT RIGHT NOW.

Final Thoughts: I just saw you fight like you belong here, so it's time to act like you belong here – when someone asks you a question, you have a bad habit of answering with another question, saying you don't know (when you do), or asking if you're wrong (when you know you're not) – nobody has time for this shit + you need to learn how to give a direct + confident answer – it's a chance for you to share your thought process which is known to be insightful – think of yourself as a part of this team instead of someone on the outside of it or someone who has to prove themselves or do it all by yourself – learn to lean on other people + ask for help or else you can get accepted into SOLDIER and then I'll just park your ass in a non-combat position – I'm not letting your ego murder you to prove a point to itself – now go eat –––––––––

Cloud read the entire paper again before he noticed that Sephiroth had also written one more thing. It was a response to the cheeky little note he'd left in the questions section at the top of the form, If you love me, don't go easy on me! Sephiroth drew a few hearts of his own and replied, However many times I lop your head off, that's how much I love you.

That was a lot of love! Cloud was so smitten he felt like he floated up the stairwell to the cafeteria. Even if he'd just eaten lunch before going to the evaluation, he got one of the sampler platters that Sephiroth always got with deep fried everything. Plus some haggis since he was alone and nobody would ask him annoying questions about it. Plus a salad. And a protein shake to wash it all down.

He sat down and started to eat fast so he could spend time with Trey's team in VR, when he felt the weight of eyes on him. He glanced around and spotted Vincent Valentine sitting on the other side of the cafeteria with some coffee and a laptop.

Vincent acknowledged Cloud with a little lift of his chin.

It was time to act like he belonged here. Cloud felt some heat rise in his face but he didn't get flustered, he just waved back with a chicken tender at his handsome future father-in-law and continued eating.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The schedule said that they were going to do Junior SOLDIER drills and play dodgeball on Sunday morning, so Cloud stuffed his trusty dinosaur Tupperware container with food to scarf down once the more traumatic physical stuff was over with. Caloric intake was now his highest priority, so he took two breakfast burritos and as many french toast sticks as he could shove into the box, and headed downstairs.

It was a super cute surprise to find Sephiroth waiting for them on the track in black joggers and a loose Shin-Ra Army logo sweatshirt that was not one bit less sexy than a tight SOLDIER uniform. On the contrary, there was plenty of room in that sweatshirt for Cloud to crawl up inside with him, and he would have given anything to be just carried through this training day like a baby kangaroo.

Sephiroth's hair was tied up in a loose knot at the base of his skull and he was wearing his cadet cap, and he gave such a strong, serious, ready-to-get-dirty silhouette on the training field alongside his despicable crew of Junior SOLDIERs.

"This morning we're doing a typical Junior SOLDIER endurance drill," Sephiroth said through a bullhorn, and it was kind of funny because he was speaking in a perfectly normal voice through the horn when all the instructors yelled or at least projected loudly through them. Sephiroth's voice was always on the more soft and monotonous side, but that tone coming out of a bullhorn really accentuated how far he went out of his way to not yell.

It dawned on Cloud that Sephiroth was setting his baseline for communication very calm on purpose, so that if and when he did need to yell at them... boner city. Well, maybe 30% of the group would be going to boner city, the other 70% would probably just shit their pants. Either way, what an effect.

Sephiroth continued, "If they're not away on missions, this is something they do at night after the Academy day is over..." his eyes flicked up into a little roll when the Second Years started to balk. "It sounds like a lot now, but once you begin mako treatments you need to keep moving for the first year. You'll find excuses to do hardcore drills like these just to burn off energy, kinda like I am right now after having to sit and give you guys evaluations most of the day yesterday. When you're a SOLDIER it's not that you're expected to do a lot of physical training, you have to."

Cloud had seen what Sephiroth was like when he was cooped up for too long without being able to go train or at least get outside and run for a while. He could help siphon out some of Sephiroth's energy through incubus-like sexual marathons, but that wasn't near the level or kind of physical exertion Sephiroth needed on a regular basis.

Cloud wondered what it would feel like to want to run... but highly doubted that he would ever feel that urge.

"So I asked the Juniors to come up with this drill and customize their obstacle course just for you guys, and to do their worst. I ran it once already and it really does suck, so they did a great job. The drill begins with four laps around this track – it adds up to about the length of a 5k. Once that's complete, head over there," Sephiroth pointed to a huge setup in the distance that looked like something from a gladiator combat TV show. "Run the course, stop for a drink of water and get a notch from the Junior SOLDIER waiting there, and then turn around and repeat the entire circuit four times."

There was outcry from the group. Someone asked, "All of it!?"

"Yeah," Sephiroth answered.

"How long do we get!?" someone else called out.

"Long as you need, but the sooner everyone gets done the more time we get to play dodgeball before lunch."

There were more gasps, less shocked and more delighted. Someone yelled out, "You're playing with us!?"

"Yeah. Any other questions?"

Cloud wanted to know if Sephiroth had doubled, or even tripled up on his boxer-briefs. There was a nice bulge of course, but it was way too smooth and undefined for it to be just one pair of undies. Or maybe he was wearing a jockstrap...

So while Cloud had quite a few questions, he wasn't going to ask any of them. Nobody else asked anything, either.

"Awright, let's go," Sephiroth said as he handed his assistant the bullhorn back before he began to run like a fucking gazelle.

The Second Year class did their best to keep up with him, but Cloud was forced to realize just how much Sephiroth slowed himself down when they went on runs in Midgar Park together. He kind of doubted Sephiroth was running at full speed even then, and the entire group was running for their lives trying to keep up with him.

Sephiroth then led them through the Junior SOLDIER obstacle course field, which was actually a lot of fun! The elements looked customization and interchangeable, and the setup that morning seemed to deal in a lot of abrupt changes of pace, drops, stops and starts. The never ending stream of guys pouring through it made everything about it feel extremely urgent, there was no time to really process what was even going on. They were still pre-Mako, so there were some parts that involved pretty high jumps or big falls that a lot of guys were getting psyched out over and creating little bottlenecks of hesitation. But Cloud was lucky enough to be able to jump like a flea and was also pretty used to falling on his face, so he actually managed to get through the obstacle course with relative ease.

Relative ease obviously meant he had to stop to gasp for air like a dying fish after making it through the first round. A Junior SOLDIER was running the water station, smugly waiting with a thick sharpee to make an unimpressed mark on the Cadets' arms when they completed each round.

Cloud received his first sharpee mark and took a moment to sip and spit out some water. He glared at Sephiroth's athletic, perfect ass as it ran fast and far into the distance on the track. A bunch of Cadets were right on Sephiroth's heels, and more were leaving Cloud behind while he stood there trying to swallow his lungs back down.

There was no hope of ever catching up, but that wasn't the point. The point was to just fucking finish four rounds, so Cloud threw his water cup away, sucked in as much air as his lungs could hold and started to run.

Two hours later, Cloud received his fourth and final sharpee swipe on his arm. He staggered to where he'd left his breakfast box before falling down onto the artificial SOLDIER field grass. His group was recovering nearby, but he just... couldn't. He laid out on his back like a starfish, staring up at the sky as the winter sun slowly rose, and he astral projected out of his body.

Eventually he started chewing on a cold breakfast burrito, and a sweaty, silver haired angel's silhouette blocked out the sky above him, "Thirsty?"

Cloud's mouth was full, but he was able to grin up at him against the wet grass, "Yes Sir."

Sephiroth handed down a couple of water bottles from a pack he was carrying under his arm, "So... every time we run you act like it's killin' you, but I saw how fast you are yesterday. You might even be faster than me if you tried, so why're you always trailin' behind?"

"The view," Cloud answered before he could stop himself. He sheepishly added, "I don't do it on purpose, running just sucks. I promise I'll work on it though, Sir."

Sephiroth just shook his head with a smirk, and the Junior SOLDIER he was with dropped some protein bars onto Cloud's face. He was too exhausted to even try to roll out of the way, but picked up one of the bars to see what flavor they were. Apparently caffeinated, coffee-flavored protein bars existed, and Cloud gobbled up both of them.

When he felt revived enough to lift up onto his elbows and crawl over to join his friends on the grass. The slowest ones of the Second Year class were still making their way out of the obstacle course, and Sephiroth and the assistants were passing out water and snacks to them as they bravely tried to act like their lungs weren't disintegrating.

Once the class was complete on the grass and everyone had a chance to tether themselves to this life from the edge of death, one of the Junior SOLDIERs whose name was Lance took it upon himself to address the group, "I'm sure everyone here knows how to play dodgeball?"

Cloud raised his hand in the air.

Lance acknowledged him, "What?"

"How do you play?"

"You seriously don't know how to play dodgeball?"

There was a sarcastic smattering of agreement that this was a stupid question, but Cloud knew he couldn't have been the only person who only had a vague idea of what the game was about. Soccer was the only real team sports game he'd ever played before coming to Midgar, kids in Nibelheim didn't have much attention span for anything else.

Dodgeball was no laughing matter. The object of the game was to hit the opposing team's players with a big, red rubber ball and get them "out". Catch the ball instead, and the person who threw it was "out". "Out" just meant the person waited in a resurrection line until they were let back into the game, so it was just this revolving door of guys either getting smacked with the ball or doing the smacking.

Sounded awfully gay to Cloud.

"So it's already been decided that I'm the captain for Team A," Lance said as though anybody there fucking cared.

"And I'm captain for Team B!" Graham was happy to announce. "And it's been decided that I get first pick, and I pick Sephiroth!"

"I'll take Trey," Lance sniffed, trying to act like he wasn't annoyed. Once the Junior SOLDIERs were all chosen, the team captains began quickly snapping up the prime Second Year Cadets for this very serious, no nonsense game. Since Graham was the leader for Cloud's group he picked most of them, but to very little surprise he didn't immediately choose Cloud.

The selection process slowed down as the average Cadets were sized up one-by-one with much less fanfare. When it got down to the last fifteen or so guys, Cloud counted to see where he'd end up, and was pleasantly surprised! When he was inevitably picked last he would end up on Graham's team by default and be by his beloved's side, as well as Cameron and Skylar and most of their friends. So at least there was a silver lining to the humiliating ritual of being chosen last for team sports.

Then Lance ruined everything when there were still a few guys left, "I guess I'll take the little spiky headed one."

What a fucking dick! Cloud wanted to protest or see if Sephiroth might override this decision, but he was talking to some of the team members and wasn't even paying attention to this injustice! So Cloud got up and went to his team with just a little dignity... at least he wasn't chosen dead last, and having his life partner and best friends on the opposite team was kind of a Romeo and Juliet moment.

Nobody would be mean or try to hit him, right?

Wrong! There were five bouncy red rubber balls in play but they were constantly whizzing past Cloud's head. The high pitched, reverberating smacking sound they made when they hit flesh was terrifying. Cloud wasn't actively trying to be a little bitch, but quickly developed a desperate strategy of lurking behind his taller teammates for protection – he didn't have any loyalty to these pricks!

The other team caught on and now everyone was targeting him as he scuttled behind his human shields, each one being hit out as a result. He ran behind William who had been one of the first chosen and wasn't having it, "Get away from me!"

"Just be cool, act like I'm not here!"

"Play the game!"

"I am! I'm dodging!" Cloud insisted as someone sent a ball bouncing off of William's beefy shoulder. He went to shove Cloud in frustration, but he was already off like a parasite searching for its next host.

That was when he heard Sephiroth call to him, "Cloud."

A lot can happen in a single second – Cloud paused and looked at him, realized how huge of a mistake it was to pause and look at him, and Sephiroth beamed him right in the forehead with a ball. It took the remainder of the second for him to land once again flat on his back in wet SOLDIER field grass.

Applause erupted on the field.

Betrayed... stricken down... by the one he loved most. Cloud's heart broke into little pieces. But what hurt even more was the chorus of his classmates on both teams who were thrilled to see him eat shit at the hands of his alleged boyfriend. Sephiroth didn't love him and he didn't have a single friend in this world, and for one suicidal second Cloud wished a big meteor would come and engulf humanity.

Dodgeball was bringing out everyone's inner children, and this was Cloud's inner child whining up to the surface. When he was a kid he'd just rebelliously stand around and refuse to participate in shit like this, or fake sick to get sent home and then mope around because everyone hated him... and apparently not a damn thing had changed.

That made him crack a smile through his grief-stricken reverie. It was almost like when he was a kid, Cloud didn't know how to be a kid.

The Academy had taught him so much about his ability as a man and what he could actually do, but they kept trying to make him play stupid games. Soccer, swimming, basketball, baseball – Cloud mostly hated the daily cool down team sports classes, they always took him back to those uncomfortable childhood places, and he tried to just joke about it or be stupid on purpose to at least cover up how bad of an athlete he was.

The Academy kept trying to teach him how to just let go and play, but he didn't know how. It wasn't like being told the rules of dodgeball, he didn't know how to just play.

He suddenly thought back to the Northern Crater, and how the SOLDIERs there played dodgeball and other games in the snow together during their downtime. It always came after daily training... and Cloud finally realized that they'd learned to play games after real work to just have some fun and not take anything too seriously. They'd learned how to play at the Academy as Cadets.

Cloud pick himself up off the grass. The game hadn't slowed down for a moment, and Sephiroth's very different type of inner child was on full display and having the time of his life by hurling balls into the faces of Cloud's teammates. He was that kid that desperately wanted to play but didn't have anyone to play with, and now rejoiced in the fact that he could play with everyone.

Nobody was even trying to get Sephiroth out because it was more fun to have him there, and it nearly brought tears to Cloud's eyes to see his beloved so free and happy.

Cameron beamed him with another ball that smacked against the center of his chest, "Dead man walkin'! Get tha fuck outta tha game!"

Cloud wheezed, "I'm TRYING!"

In an attempt to be a good sport for the first time in his life, Cloud chased down the ball that had hit him and brought it back to the game before getting into the resurrection line. He watched the pattern of the game intently as he waited for his chance for revenge.

Once he was allowed back in play, Cloud immediately elbowed someone aside to snatch the nearest ball and hurled it directly at Sephiroth with all his might.

Sephiroth caught it easily and smiled at him. As if that wasn't bad enough, he then mouthed the words, 'You suck.'

Cloud had a lot to say about that, but this was still a seminar and even in the heat of dodgeball battle, he didn't dare get personal or shit talk at General Sephiroth. So he accepted defeat, and managed to wriggle out of the path of another ball as he kicked fake upper plate grass all the way back to the resurrection line.

The next time Cloud was allowed into the game, his eyes searched everywhere for something to throw at Sephiroth. Then he tracked down a bright red ball – in Sephiroth's hands.

Their eyes met before Sephiroth hurled it directly at him, and instead of running, Cloud ran to greet it with defiant, open arms. The force of the ball knocked the wind out of Cloud as it collided with his chest and threw him backwards onto his ass, but he wrapped his arms tight around it and held on for dear life.

Once he came to rest on the grass, Cloud held the ball up bellowed, "HA!"

Sephiroth tsked dismissively at him and meandered to the resurrection line to wait for his turn to rejoin the game. Cloud rode the wave of his triumph by beaming one of the Junior SOLDIERs in the back of his head.

Unfortunately the Junior SOLDIER in question was on his team, so Cloud was out again, too.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After lunch, the group was exhausted. Everyone was chewing quietly with dead eyes, the adrenaline of playtime had worn off, and now they were ready to drop.

Sephiroth reappeared in the main VR room after lunch in Zack's uniform once again. Cloud did the math in his mind – there was no way he actually went to his therapy appointment and made it back by now, redressed and looking beautiful once again. He wasn't going to make a big deal about it, Sephiroth was having a tough weekend and leaving for a couple hours might have sounded plausible in theory, but wasn't possible in reality.

Sephiroth made an announcement, "I think you guys are probably in enough pain by now, so I'm turning off the pain program and freezing the point counter. We'll calculate which group will get the training session based on the improvements you've already made. So don't worry about your level or doing anything right or wrong, just try out different things during the rest of your time here."

A little breath of freedom was what the group needed to get back into the excitement of VR training, and the melee tournament began. It was now everybody versus everybody, and wounds healed just as quickly as they appeared, and they were blissfully painless.

As if everyone had been experiencing performance anxiety up until this point, limit breaks spread through the group like chicken pox, every few minutes another one was happening. Even Cloud got to experience a second one, and this time he knew what was happening and it was like riding a wave instead of just getting crushed on the shore underneath it. And the nice part was that he hadn't actually been injured at all to achieve it! But the sad part was that he didn't grow any taller this time.

Sephiroth was being very hands on with the group, and strolling through the carnage to stop the Cadets by name and offer corrections and advice. Sometimes it was as simple as a sword's setting being too light and throwing the guy off balance, and sometimes it was something more and he would have a quiet conversation with them. It was very distracting for Cloud, who obviously wanted every bit of Sephiroth's attention, and wanted to hear everything he said.

He was eavesdropping as best he could while Sephiroth was talking to Skylar, all while fighting some guy from his Wutainese class. But then his opponent suddenly backed off, and Sephiroth put a hand on his shoulder, "Your name's Cloud Strife, right?"

"Yes Sir," Cloud smirked, wiping off his face on the inside of his shirt.

Sephiroth held out a practice style sword at a horizontal angle, "Hit this."

Cloud obeyed and struck it with his sword, and Sephiroth's arm didn't even budge or so much as slightly flex with any sort of effort. He felt a blush of true shame rise in his face, "I know I'm pathetic, and I'm going to do all the boxing stuff you suggested. I already looked online, I just can't pick my classes until next –"

"Again," Sephiroth was still holding the sword out. "This practice sword's a piece of shit even in VR, don't worry about form, just try to break it."

Cloud obeyed. He hit it over and over, and eventually he held his sword between his shoulder blades like an axe and brought it down as hard as he could. He counted twelve more strikes before the digital sword finally broke, and he looked up with a little unsure shrug.

There was a serious expression on Sephiroth's face, "Something genetic is at play here. Sadly we don't offer any wood chopping classes to cultivate your unique lumberjack skills."

Cloud was in no position to give him any attitude, but his practiced resting bitch face said it all.

Sephiroth was trying not to laugh, "It's a good way to get your head cut off. You're bringing it really far forward and exposing your entire upper body just like you kept doing yesterday, and it takes too long for you to reset for the next strike. So your homework is to modify it – at the next seminar show me how you can chop wood without bringing your head forward at all and get the sword behind your back faster."

"Yes sir," Cloud agreed, and rejoined his group.

Things became more ruthless as the minutes ticked towards the end of the seminar, they used increasingly outrageous weapon selections to keep things interesting. Cloud found ways to die that he'd never even dreamt of – someone broke his neck with a flat screen TV, whirling it around by the cord like a mace. A guy from his morning RUN class cut his jugular with a broken light bulb. Another guy tried to get him with scissors, but Cloud was able to wrestle them away from him and stabbed him right in the eye with them. And despite how much he hated baseball, beating in his classmates' skulls with a nailbat was awfully fun.

It was when someone started revving a chainsaw that Sephiroth finally had to turn on his microphone and intervene, "Stop, stop, stop. You're all gettin' too crazy, swords only for the rest of the seminar."

While everyone was safely distracted making new selections, Cloud finally had a chance to pull out the live cat option just to see what it would be like. His arms were instantly full of a gorgeous, purring, fluffy white cat with a little pink nose and big blue eyes, and a bell on her collar jingled as she turned over in his arms to be held like a baby. Cloud was absolutely enchanted, and couldn't help but squeeze her into a hug that no real cat would ever tolerate.

"Put the cat away," Sephiroth's voice said through the speakers. Cloud glanced around until he saw him glaring at him from across the room.

Cloud gently placed the cat back into virtual inventory where she would be safe, and took out his Academy sword to get back to business.

Just before four o'clock, the winning team for the two hour group training session with Sephiroth was announced – a Junior SOLDIER named Scott had been leading a group where there had been a level increase by an average of three points. It was hotly debated in angry whispers that the level increase had been brought about because they had been weaker and their opponents had made them work harder... but that was the nature of raising levels through combat training. The real benefit was going to the weaker person... so finding a high level opponent was the key.

So while Cloud's team ultimately didn't win, Taylor was on the winning team. Cloud couldn't help but grin at how thrilled he was, he looked like a completely different person from the first moments of this seminar, his confidence had gone through the roof.

Once the winning team had expressed their excitement and everyone else quit grumbling about losing, Sephiroth addressed the group one last time, "I'm not gonna say a big long goodbye here, I know you're all sick of me and I'm pretty sick of all of you. So I'm gonna tell you what I honestly think - you all busted your asses this weekend. I've never done this kind of seminar before so I really wasn't too sure how this was gonna go, or even if a group at this point in training could handle it. You did, though. You all have a better understanding of levels, how they function in training and everyone here has a clear path towards improving whatever you need to before your SOLDIER exam. The only way you can possibly fuck up is if you get too comfortable and slow down, or if you think you already know what you need to know and don't take our advice. You have a lot of time before August, so don't blow it."

And with that, Sephiroth turned his microphone off and was immediately stormed by sixty percent of the group. The other forty percent all quietly weaseled their way towards freedom, Cloud included.

He sprinted to his stuff and then locked himself inside one of the shower stalls. For the next fifteen minutes he did his very best at washing the grime of the weekend off, and to get prepared for beautiful, picturesque lovemaking. Or really whatever he could get, he wasn't feeling especially high maintenance. He'd take a wad of Sephiroth's chewed gum shot up his ass with a t-shirt launcher at this point.

This wasn't planned very well because he was still putting dirty, stinky Future SOLDIER hoodie back on, but oh well. Cloud redressed and went to collect his man and get the fuck out of there.

Sephiroth had made it closer to the elevator, but there was still a big group asking questions. Cloud lost his gusto and found himself approaching shyly, not sure if he should just wait at a distance. But when Sephiroth saw him approach, something in his posture seemed to open up so Cloud went to him.

"Hey," Sephiroth said, coming even closer to meet him halfway. "You set?"

"I'm not in any hurry if you're – "

"We should go," Sephiroth said to the Junior SOLDIERs and the winning team who were already trying to soak up as much of his time and attention as possible.

"Thank you so much for everything!" some asskisser gushed.

Sephiroth didn't say he was welcome, but gave him something like a smile while taking a handful of the back of Cloud's hoodie and steering him towards the elevator. Luckily the next one arrived almost immediately, and there was a flurry of farewells from everyone as they got on.

Sephiroth leaned on the button until the doors shut. When they finally began to ascend, he let out a long breath and tilted his head back against the wall as his eyes fell closed.

If there was a way for there to give Cloud something to focus on other than the sickening movement of the elevator, Sephiroth had effortlessly found it. Cloud admired the length of his throat and how beautiful he was in the orangey winter afternoon light of the elevator.

At Cloud's core he was just like everyone else, and he just had to disrupt this handsome man's peace. He brushed his fingers around the bones of Sephiroth's wrists, "Tired?"

"... I just got gang banged by eighty Cadets for three days."

Cloud smiled as he laced his fingers with Sephiroth's, "What do they call the one being gangbanged?"

He had to think about that for a moment, "No idea."

"Well, you were great at it! Seriously... everyone's in love with you now."

"Are you?"

"That's a given!"

"Good, 'cause I don't give a fuckin' shit about anyone but you."

Cloud's forehead butted against Sephiroth's chest, and he cupped the back of his yellow spikes into a hug just as they reached the executive office floor. Sephiroth held Cloud's hand as they stepped off the elevator, "You're not mad at me?"

"Mad? For what?"

"I feel like I ignored you all weekend."

Cloud felt his face get a little hot, because he'd been so obsessed with Sephiroth's every move that he didn't even consider it being one-sided, "It's okay! I loved getting to see you like that, you really are an amazing teacher, Seph. And I didn't feel like, jealous or anything... I know that sounds fake coming from me!" he laughed a little, but Sephiroth looked rather unconvinced. So he added, "If anything, I might have slightly felt like you were going out of you way not to help me as much as other people."

"Other people need more help than you."

It took a second for the weight of that statement to fully settle on Cloud. When it did he waved it off as they stopped in front of Sephiroth's office, "How did it feel teaching with me there? Was it weird?"

"Weird's not the word I'd use," he opened his office door and pulled Cloud inside by the strap of his bag. He had time to inhale before the door closed, and there was no hesitation to open their mouths against each others in the kind of kiss they'd both been wanting since Thursday night. The few moments they got to spend together yesterday was just a teasing taste, but now they could savor each other as long as they wanted.

The kiss became softer, and eventually closed off into a series of short little pops against each other's lips. Sephiroth pushed Cloud's hair back to look at him, "... I really hate havin' to wait to kiss you."

"Torture," Cloud agreed.

"It won't always be, we'll get used to it. Least it won't feel like torture for this reason."

Cloud wasn't buying this drill Sergeant talk anymore. Sephiroth wasn't nearly as mean as he made himself out to be. Compared to Angeal, Sephiroth had been downright cuddly to the entire group, but Cloud allowed him to be his scary self, "As long as you kiss me when you're done, I don't care what you do to me."

Sephiroth eagerly pulled Cloud up off of his feet, and he anticipated something rough, but was met with soft lips and a gentle tongue greeting his. The way Sephiroth's tongue moved it was literally like he was brushing it against the tip of Cloud's dick, his body was electrified down to his toes and he couldn't stop a little groan from rising in his throat.

Sephiroth separated from Cloud's lips, "This is why you couldn't sleep up here."

"You're doing it! Again you're blaming me for your own – !" Cloud couldn't complete his sentence because Sephiroth decided to occupy his mouth, and that was just fine.

His feet eventually found the floor again and Cloud couldn't help running his hands down his bare arms and copping another feel of them, "I don't mean to be nosy, but... did you end up going to your appointment, or...?"

Sephiroth's brain had to fully reboot itself for him to get that Cloud was referring to therapy, "Oh, yeah. I called to say I was gonna be late, so she just let me do it over the phone so I didn't have to go all the way over there and back."

Cloud's eyebrows lifted in understanding – and he felt super shitty for assuming he'd just skipped out on it, "Oh, that's nice! Did you like it better over the phone?"

"Not really. It was faster, but I was sittin' in the truck and it felt like I was just... still in this building. It's better to be out of here for that, if that makes sense."

"It makes total sense. Was she mad that we saw each other before the meeting thing got announced?"

"She was surprised we actually waited as long as we did. She thought you said some great shit, and that I gotta write in my journal more. That's kinda it."

Cloud's heart was gushing with admiration and relief and pride and he just fucking adored Sephiroth so much he couldn't take it! He reached up with both hands and pulled him down into another long kiss.

He tried to be content to stand there and let Cloud kiss him as much as he wanted, but there was only so much he could handle without also needing to be naked, "... Lemme straighten up real quick and we'll get outta here. I've been a slob, I already got yelled at not to leave it like this."

"I'll help," Cloud began picking up trash from the floor. He found evidence of the snacks he'd given him Thursday night strewn by the floor next to his couch, complete with dried up banana and orange peels shoved into the now empty icing container. There were also more wrappers from Chipotle, a pizza box, and several candy bar wrappers. "... When's the last time you ate something remotely healthy?"

"Healthy..." Sephiroth was trying to shove a folded blanket and pillow onto the top shelf of the office's small closet, but it kept wanting to slide off for seemingly no reason. He finally just shut the door on it to keep it there, "Like what? Sunchips?"

"They don't count," Cloud laughed. "When's the last time you ate like, an actual raw vegetable?"

"I dunno. I ate some salad at your old house."

Cloud stopped picking up trash and stood up straight to gawk at him, "... The last time you ate a vegetable was in Nibelheim?"

Sephiroth didn't look in Cloud's direction as he busied himself by collecting some things off his desk.

Cloud huffed in disbelief and continued snatching trash from the floor, "There's probably no food at your place, so let's run down to the store before we go home and get stuff for a salad. We can still get pizza, but you're literally going to shrivel up and die if you don't eat something besides – "

Sephiroth smacked him hard on the ass where he was bent over, "Do Funyuns count?"

Cloud had to catch himself with his hands, and when he stood up his eyes were full of blue outrage, "Sunchips and Funyuns are not vegetables!"

The office was soon acceptable enough that his secretary wouldn't give him a hard time, so they made their way down to the parking garage. The elevator stopped several times to allow people to step on, and they seemed to be carefully gauging who was in there before entering. There were a few murmured acidic comments about loud, disrespectful teenagers taking over the building for the weekend.

Instead of shrinking or apologizing, Cloud agreed heartily, "Ugh I know, thank those annoying Cadets are all finally fucking gone!"

Sephiroth laughed involuntarily, but it was only one single, loud "Ha!" before he swallowed it back down and went silent. He didn't say anything or look at anyone, he just pursed his lips and kept staring at the lighted numbers as they counted down the floors until they finally got to the garage.

Once they were alone, Sephiroth finally let out a stream of laughter, "You're so stupid!"

"I know! Everyone at Shin-Ra hates me so much! I can't wait to work here!"

"I can't wait, either," Sephiroth agreed, fully meaning it.

Cloud was high on happiness, and when he saw the tank he began to skip sideways beside Sephiroth like an excited puppy, "Can I drive!?"

"Please do," Sephiroth gratefully handed him the keys.

As they pulled out of the garage and onto the street, Sephiroth stretched out in the passenger seat and laid his hand on Cloud's thigh and squeezed a little.

There had been moments in the last two weeks when Cloud very seriously wondered if Sephiroth might not welcome him back into his life. Every possible variation of how this seminar weekend would go had run through Cloud's mind, but driving Sephiroth home with his hand comfortably resting on his thigh definitely wasn't one of them.

Cloud had taken an enormous risk, and it didn't feel like he'd won or gotten away with something, but rather... he was now taking the responsibility to take care of Sephiroth much more seriously. And "taking care of" didn't mean sex or cooking for him or any nice indulgence like that, but Sephiroth needed to know that someone was truly, always on his side.

Sephiroth had been carrying a huge burden all by himself his entire life, among the least sensitive people that had ever been assembled on this or any other planet. Now Sephiroth needed and deserved someone to take care of him, and to work really hard to dispel any possible interpretation or appearance that he wasn't being taken care of. That was what boyfriends and husbands and soul mates were supposed to do.

Cloud knew his own nature, and knew he'd probably fuck this task up many more times in the future. But this was laid out for him as the kind of partner he needed to become. If he could have done that night over, Cloud would have called Sephiroth and told him what was happening before his mom got there. Just to make sure he wasn't allowing Sephiroth to walk into some surreal nightmare.

Cloud wanted to say all this and more, but he knew not saying it would be even better. He'd just have to embody it and show it, which that would take a long time... but they had the rest of their lives.

He covered Sephiroth's hand with his and looked over at him, and Sephiroth was not sharing this moment at all. His nose was scrunched and his phone was an inch from his face.

"What are you doing?" Cloud snickered. "Where are your glasses?"

"Left 'em up in the office."

"Wanna go back and grab them real quick?"

"Hell no. Zack just wants me to cover for him next week, I'm tryin' to tell him I'll do it to shut him up," Sephiroth let out a sigh, "Will you do it for me?"

They came to a red light and Cloud took Sephiroth's phone. Zack had been texting Sephiroth at least once every few minutes for the past several hours with just the word 'please', over and over.

Cloud quickly composed this little number: 'Hey this is Cloud! Seph's blind, he can't see to text you himself but he says he'll do it. Now leave him alone, he's got a date with my upper intestines!'

"You're writin' way too much," Sephiroth observed, not knowing the half of it but enjoying the naughty grin on Cloud's face.

Zack didn't skip a beat in his immediate response, 'Tell him thanks, and give him my condolences on his future UTI'

'I'm not dirty like that!' Cloud texted back heatedly.

'You ever hear of the Trojan horse? That's your colon, only with bacteria'

Cloud cackled as he texted back, 'It is not! You don't know the future anyway, only the past!'

'Right, and I know you ate haggis from a vending machine again so your intestines are a who's who of parasites and tapeworms. Seph should be lucky to escape with just a UTI'

Cloud was now laughing wildly, and Sephiroth finally had to ask, "What the hell are you talkin' to him about?"

"Zack says thanks for covering for him, and my butt's full of parasites and tapeworms because I eat haggis and he gives his condolences on your future UTI," Cloud reported.

Sephiroth weighed these statements, "Never had anything like that... but it'd be worth it."

'Worth it!' Cloud quickly replied to Zack, and then gave Sephiroth back his phone. "Alright, he's happy!"

The click of Sephiroth releasing his seat belt made Cloud jump a little, and he expected some kind of revenge for the unauthorized butt germ texts. But instead he felt warm lips against the side of his face and he instinctively turned his head while keeping his eyes on the road, expecting a kiss. Instead Sephiroth loosened the neck of Cloud's hoodie and pulled it away to expose as much soft, lightly tanned skin as he could. His mouth moved down to where Cloud's neck met his shoulder, and with a long, warm exhale, the skin of Cloud's chest and right arm broke out in a rush of goosebumps.

He kept his eyes on the road but touched his nose to the top of Sephiroth's head. He became a little self conscious about how sweet Sephiroth smelled naturally, Cloud for damn sure didn't have the sugar gene and felt the need to apologize, "... Sorry. I took a quick shower, but I probably still smell like sweaty rubber."

Sephiroth snuck his tongue beneath the collar of Cloud's hoodie and made it flat and wide as he ran it up the side of his neck. His skin was salty and warm, and tongue gave way to teeth to bite into him like a candy bar.

"Stooop..." Cloud pretended to object, and slowed down to get caught at the next light on purpose. He put the tank in park, then cupped the back of Sephiroth's head to reel him into a kiss.

He felt a wave of heat coming off of Sephiroth that just felt like need, and without even really thinking about it his hips lifted a little off the seat and turned towards him. Sephiroth's hand slid between Cloud's legs and underneath, his fingers knew exactly where his opening was and circled it roughly through the seat of his fatigues.

"What are you doing?" Cloud whispered up at him like a perfect victim, even though his hand slid down to grab the handful of cock starting to tent against Sephiroth's thigh.

"Takin' what's mine," was the answer before their lips reconnected.

The light turned green without their notice, but it didn't take long until someone behind them honked. Cloud had to quickly settle back down into his seat; the turn signal had somehow been shoved on, and he pulled it back down with a heavy sigh as he was forced to remember how to drive.

"Sorry," Sephiroth said, but didn't sound like it as he watched Cloud try to compose himself. "We'll be home in a couple minutes."

Cloud pressed the button to roll his window down a little bit to let some cold air hit his face, "We're going to the store first."

"What store?"

"The store. For stuff to make a salad, remember?"

Sephiroth had forgotten about that the second Cloud stopped talking about it, "We're not actually doin' that."

"Yes we are. If you've gotten yourself all horned up now that's your problem!" Cloud declared triumphantly.

Sephiroth was truly offended until he realized he said something very similar to Cloud the other night... and many other nights. Teasing Cloud was kind of a hobby, but it wasn't as fun on the other end of it, "Remember back when you used to be so nice and sweet to me? What ever happened to that?"

"Think maybe you've been a terrible influence on me?" Cloud pondered.

Sephiroth knew he was in every way, but it didn't stop him from leaning over to kiss along Cloud's jaw. Cloud wrapped his arm up around Sephiroth's head and kept him there, and kissed whatever his lips could reach while he kept his eyes on the road.

They parked at the apartment building's garage, and despite more mild protests from Sephiroth they walked together to the supermarket. Sephiroth stood out even more than usual in Zack's SOLDIER uniform, it just looked so goddamn sexy on him and Cloud wasn't the only one who thought so. Sephiroth was very good at not noticing people blatantly checking him out or trying to gain eye contact with him as he walked by, and Cloud felt a little burn of both pride and jealousy at how easily his beloved could cut through a crowd as he followed closely behind him.

Those emotions melted into something much softer when Sephiroth reached back for his hand. Their fingers laced together and he pulled Cloud forward, forcing people to move around them as they walked to the store side by side.

When they arrived at the store, Cloud took a shopping basket in one hand and marched Sephiroth directly to the produce section, "Tell me what you'll actually eat, and don't say none of them."

In the feeblest little attempt at gaslighting of all time Sephiroth declared, "I do eat vegetables."

"You're such a liar!"

"I only eat them out of a can... or I guess in soup, not raw like this."

"Why? Is it like a texture thing?" Cloud lowered his voice to a whisper, "Or do they give you an upset tummy?"

"Are you askin' if fiber makes me shit blood?"

Cloud recoiled in horror, "I said upset tummy!"

Sephiroth breathed out a little amused sound, "No, they don't upset my tummy."

"Well what's the problem, then?"

This was the sort of information Sephiroth had been spent the better part of their relationship steering Cloud away from. Kissing and sex and cuddling and sleeping and watching movies and making each other laugh and talking for hours about stupid bullshit... falling in love was by far the best thing that Sephiroth had ever experienced in his life. But being in love, the kind of love that people get married about, meant getting real about the reality of his life and his body.

It didn't mean they couldn't still have all that fun stuff too, which Sephiroth was kind of starting to figure out. But the topic of his teeth was a very, very sensitive one.

He finally just admitted, "This stuff's hard to chew."

Cloud was beautifully oblivious, "What do you mean?"

Sephiroth glanced around. It was late Sunday afternoon and not many people were in the store, so he took Cloud's hand, straightened out his pointer finger and put it into his mouth. More specifically, across his back teeth.

Cloud ran his fingertip curiously over short, jagged teeth, a biological throwback to an alien race from a hellhole water planet. Everything eaten there was soft algae, each other's vomit, or still alive. It was obvious these teeth weren't designed for quinoa and baby carrots.

"I've seen them. Well, a little bit..." Cloud told him, and gently took his finger back. He kind of wanted to wipe it on his pants or something, but it felt rude to do so he just lived with a wet finger.

"I figured," Sephiroth pulled in his bottom lip self-consciously.

Cloud took in a breath like he had something to say, but he hesitated. His eyes dropped to the floor.

Sephiroth hated that, "What?"

"Promise it won't get in the way of you giving me head?"

Sephiroth's eyes widened, "... What?"

"Once in a while if I'm at a certain angle and I can see, it just... looks very dangerous in there for me!"

"I don't hurt you, do I?"

"Of course not!" Cloud leaned up to give him a little kiss. Sephiroth's lips were soft and warm, and it turned into four or five more short kisses before Cloud dared to ask, "Can I look?"

"... Lemme look at yours."

"You see into my mouth all the time!" Cloud laughed.

"I'm never lookin' at your teeth," Sephiroth smirked. "Lemme see."

Cloud held his tongue back out of the way and opened his mouth wide. Sephiroth never just fucking looked into anyone's open mouth before, and only vaguely knew what normal human teeth were supposed to look like from occasional toothpaste commercials.

Seeing that Cloud's back teeth were one single row that was flat, even, and perfectly orderly, Sephiroth was utterly dismayed, "Jesus Christ."

"What? Let me see yours!"

He was surprised when Sephiroth actually bent his knees and let him have a real look. He couldn't help but grin at the underside of Sephiroth's tongue, which was a weird enough looking thing in and of itself but in a perfectly human way. And his front teeth were pretty human, too. But with his long tongue held back and in the bright fluorescent lights of the grocery store, Cloud could see rows of super small, white, sharply pointed teeth that began after way too many canines. And the longer he looked, the more teeth he found, some rows were three teeth deep.

Sephiroth had shark teeth and they were fucking adorable! And so much less scary than just a stolen glimpse here and there! Cloud was so delighted he took Sephiroth's face and began to baby talk to them, "Oy! Hallo wittle shark teeth! You aren't so dangerwous afterwall!"

Sephiroth's mouth closed, and his eyes were bright with confusion and disbelief.

"I love them!" Cloud kissed him again while he was still close. "Do you go through a lot of toothbrushes? I've ever seen you struggling to floss, is it hard to floss back there? Doesn't food get stuck?"

"Why would it?"

"Why wouldn't it?"

"Your back teeth don't move?"

"WHAT!?"

"Nevermind."

"Show me!" Cloud grabbed onto Sephiroth's face again and forced him into a reluctant demonstration. When the muscles in his throat swallowed, the rows of little teeth flared up like tiny gills, "Oh my god, that's so cute! Do it again!"

"Ya ever gonna move or ya gonna give each other a root canal next?" demanded a very old man waiting for them to get out of the way so he could get to the apples.

Sephiroth's back straightened and his mouth snapped shut, and they quickly moved further into the produce section. Cloud rubbed a hand up underneath his hair and between his shoulder blades, "I'm sorry for giving you a hard time, I didn't realize they made chewing some stuff hard for you."

"I can chew," he insisted, dignity restored. "But if it's raw vegetables, I have to grind on it for like five minutes before I can swallow it. I like vegetables out of a can or when they're in soup because they're all cut into the same sized squares and kinda soft. You get a bite and nothing's overpowering because it's bigger or cut differently, they're all the same size and shape... don't look at me like that, I'm barin' my soul."

Cloud couldn't help it, he was now bright red with adoration and grinning widely, "If you and your baby shark teeth would like a salad made of soft little squares, I'll cut up all the little squares you want! And I can definitely make you softer stuff – I can make badass mashed potatoes, you don't even know! I can steam stuff, we c –"

"Just give me a can of mixed vegetables. You don't even gotta heat it up, I'll eat it cold. I lived off that shit for years."

"You want me to go outside and kill a pigeon, too? We're not at war! Let me make something nice for you," he insisted, and began choosing softer vegetables that would go well with pizza. They both searched for a cucumber roughly the size and shape of each other's dicks, a nice red tomato, black olives, sweet peppers, and some mushroom caps that could be cut down into squares.

"Is the lettuce okay not being a square? What kind do you like?"

"The kind from Subway."

Cloud was incredulous, "Wilted and slimy?"

"No, it's just..." Sephiroth made a motion like he was picking up a handful of something and sprinkling it.

It was by far the most effeminate thing Cloud had ever seen Sephiroth do and he was dying. He grabbed his hand mid-sprinkle and showed him that shredded lettuce was a thing that was available to the public for purchase and not just exclusively available at Subway.

"Nobody really knows this kind of stuff," Sephiroth decided, but was pleased at this revelation as he threw a bag of it into Cloud's basket.

"Everybody knows this!"

"So what? Stop treatin' me like I'm dumb 'cause I don't know about styles of lettuce."

"You're the opposite of dumb! You're the smartest person I've ever met! You can literally speak like four languages, including an outer space language! And there's no word for shredded lettuce in any of them – !?" Cloud choked a little when Sephiroth wrapped a rough elbow around his neck and kissed the top of his head.

Sephiroth liked vinegar dressing from Subway, so they got something like it. He also really liked croutons, the size of which would be a good template for the rest of the square salad, so they took a bag of those. This store sold muffins that were almost always present in Sephiroth's kitchen, so they got those along with some orange juice for breakfast.

"Want some beer?" Cloud asked as the passed through the alcohol aisle, already picking up a six-pack of bottles.

Sephiroth made an agreeable sound, but then lingered over the selection of what looked like adult sippy juice boxes that contained wine, and picked up a red one.

Cloud stared in pure disbelief as Sephiroth added it to the basket, "... Did you become classy in the nine days we weren't talking?"

Sephiroth snorted, "I tried it at a meeting at work and I kinda like it. Want one?"

"It'll be like sleeping over at my grandma's house," Cloud held the basket out and Sephiroth tossed another sippy box in there for him. He assessed what they'd picked up so far, "All that's left is lunch tomorrow."

"This is too much healthy shit. You have weight to gain, what kind of food can you be a fatass about?"

"I am gaining weight, I'm eating constantly! It's just taking time."

Sephiroth thought for a second, "Let's get a bucket of marshmallow fluff. Put that shit in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and it's awesome."

"I can't eat anymore sweet stuff than I already do! You saw the kind of stuff I'm eating, I go through a bag of garbage like that twice a week. Plus I'm still eating bonbons before bed most nights."

"Vegetables aren't gonna do it, Cloud. There's gotta be somethin' to shove down your throat that'll make you gain weight."

"How many calories does cum have?" Cloud answered cheekily, but it led them to the logical conclusion of hot dogs, which did actually sound yummy. They'd had them downtown from street vendors a few times but never made them at home before, and would be free from social constraint and scrutiny and could eat half a dozen each.

"What should we get to put on them?" Cloud asked, glancing up.

"I'm pretty sure there's ketchup and mustard at home."

"Okay, sounds good."

Sephiroth sensed there was something there, "What? Do people in Nibelheim put somethin' weird on 'em?"

"Not really... but I might."

"Tell me," Sephiroth prodded, tickling his side a little bit.

It was hard to shy away from a touch and simultaneously lean in to beg for more, but Cloud was a master at it, "Fine! It requires a bit of an explanation though, long version or short version?"

"Long version, always."

"Okay..." Cloud put the basket on the floor between his feet and lowered his voice. "So! I'm always hungry everyday after school, but when I was growing up and stuff I was like... really hungry, I'd need a full on meal before mom came home. Her rule was I could only eat leftovers, not anything that she was planning on cooking with. She always had hot dogs for me so I would microwave two, and then I would take a little bit of everything in the fridge or from the garden and pile it on until I had this huge thing – whatever was leftover went on it. And sometimes it was disgusting, but one day we really didn't have any leftovers or anything but onions in the garden, and I accidentally discovered the perfect hot dog..." Cloud stopped talking and smiled expectantly up at him, clearly waiting for him to be an active listener.

And Sephiroth was listening, but he was also reeling just a little from some kind of strange shock that he finally was able to really feel. It was like the entire world was full of zombies with dead, distracted eyes; Cloud's were the only ones with this bright spark of intelligent, lovable life, and so fucking generous with his energy and his time and his heart. Maybe it was especially obvious in this store full of random people shuffling around, or maybe having to spend all weekend having to deal with people who weren't him when he was so close by, but Cloud had to know that he was the only really alive person in the entire world.

Sephiroth didn't begin to know how to say any of this, so he said the only thing he could think to say, "... What?"

Cloud happily continued with his story, "It's better to start with an onion roll, but a piece of bread or a normal bun will do. You want the hot dog to be super hot and shriveled up, cooked in the microwave for at least five minutes on high. It should look more like a sweaty slim jim than a hot dog. Then you take that fake liquid butter that comes in a squeezy tube... a lot of it. And then you chop up an entire onion and put that on. And then you pour the bottom of a bag of pretzels on top – the pretzels need to be crushed up if they're going on there, but what you really want is the salt from the bottom of the bag. And then at this point, for the fully authentic, immersive experience you need to jerk off – "

Sephiroth forgot all about his hopelessly romantic reverie, "Jesus Chr –!"

"Shhh!" Cloud hissed, pulling on one of Sephiroth's suspenders to pull him closer as he whispered, "Not onto the hot dog or anything! But the hot dog is super hot – has to be for the butter and the onions and the pretzel dust to do their thing, so you need to wait for it to cool off and jerking off takes the perfect amount of time. Plus this was my after school snack and... you know what after school vibes are like. And then when you're done and feeling all nice and relaxed, you have a snack right there waiting for you and when you bite into it... it's warm, and gooey, and crunchy. It's perfect."

"Your head is like this adorable cage for this unbelievably sick brain."

Cloud was laughing, "Just try it next time you're feeling hungry and horny, I'm telling you it's good!"

"Wanna make some onion rolls? If I'm gonna do this it's gonna be authentic."

And so they located that god awful liquid squeeze butter, a bag of pretzels that looked to have a lot of salty dust on the bottom, and then the few ingredients that went into making Nibelheim onion rolls. They had plenty of mustard at home, so Sephiroth was in no danger of only having Cloud's abomination to eat, but he was pretty excited about getting some onion rolls even though it wasn't Christmas just yet.

They got all the sustenance they required to go into hiding for the next thirty-two hours and headed for home. They both were carrying a few bags but each had one hand free, and so Cloud reached out to hold Sephiroth's hand again. But just then, Cloud's boot skidded a little on some invisible ice on the sidewalk and Sephiroth quickly wrapped an arm around him before he could eat shit. Cloud grabbed onto Sephiroth's waist over the little slippery patch, and found it was actually much better than just holding his hand. He liked PDA more than most, but even he didn't usually walk underneath Sephiroth's arm... but it felt so nice and Sephiroth didn't let go either, so they walked the rest of the way home like that.

"So what's this new door stuff?" Cloud asked as he plodded up the stairs on wobbly legs – his muscles were very much beginning to feel the effects of the seminar and the long school week before it.

Sephiroth was right behind him, his free hand hovering an inch from Cloud's back and ready to catch him in case he fell, "I don't fuckin' know. I just made a code that'll always work for you – it's your birthday but all in numbers."

"What's the point of security if you keep making such easy passwords?"

"The most badass password on earth couldn't stop you from snoopin' through my shit."

"It's not my fault you failed Password 101! I wasn't even trying, it was my third guess and your laptop just – !"

"Change it to somethin' harder if you want to."

"How?"

They were looking at the screen next to the door and starting to press buttons when a women's voice interrupted them, "Sephiroth? Sorry to sneak up on you, can I have a minute?"

They both turned and looked, and found a very short little woman standing at the head of the stairs that led up to Sephiroth's loft.

"Sure," Sephiroth said to her, surprised but pleasantly so as he put down the bags he was carrying and approached her. "How you doin'?"

"Good, sorry to sneak up on you! You're hard to catch so when I spot you I have to be fast," she approached with a pen and some papers, and then glanced at Cloud and lowered her voice a little, "They just need the - "

At that point she mouthed a word to Sephiroth, but Cloud wasn't prepared to read lips and wasn't sure what she was trying to imply.

"You can go in, we'll just be a sec," Sephiroth said to him.

He did no such thing, "Hello, I'm Cloud!"

"I figured you were! I'm Diya, I'm Sephiroth's..." she looked up at him then, unsure of what to call herself.

Sephiroth was standing like a flamingo and writing on his thigh, "Slumlord."

That made her laugh, "I own the building. Well, the rest of the building. This is Sephiroth's own little Fortress of Solitude up here."

Cloud giggled, he'd heard all about how skeptical she'd been about selling a run down, roach infested attic space to a homeless teenager years ago, "It's nice to meet you!"

"You too! Sephiroth tells me you're movin' in next year, you're invitin' me to the wedding, right?"

He swallowed down an inappropriate swell of emotion and instead just grinned like an idiot, "Of course!"

"I'm dealin' with this property that hosts a lot of art events, and it has a really nice atrium. Might be cute if you ever want to take a look, once you start thinkin' about venues."

…Venues!? Cloud's entire face and chest bloomed with heated excitement, and he wasn't even sure what an atrium was but it sounded elegant and beautiful, "Thank you! I'll remember that!"

"Maybe you can even convince him to come to a community event once in a while."

"... There are community events?" Cloud asked, sending a shocked look up at Sephiroth.

She nodded, "Every week, you can find them on the community bulletin board."

"There's a community bulletin board?"

"Yeah, it's in the game room."

"There's a game room?"

She gave him a meaningful lift of her chin, "When you move in, you and I will talk."

Sephiroth was grimacing and scribbling like a madman on the papers he was trying to balance and write on at the same time. There were about a billion clipboards everywhere all weekend but now that he needed one most... these were just annoying permits Midgar required when water work was being done, and would need to be submitted before they could begin work putting in the new bathroom before Christmas. Sephiroth still wasn't sure how he was going to get Cloud out of the way when all that was going on, but he'd figure it out later.

Her eyes fell on the new barrier wall and she squinted at it, "Was that always here?"

"That's new..." Sephiroth gave a side eye to Cloud, who was very shamelessly trying to peek at the paperwork. He touched Cloud's shoulder to guide him to turn around, and he was confused but obedient as he faced away from Sephiroth. He then pressed the papers into Cloud's back and continued to fill them out, thus solving his needs for secrecy and a writing surface. "... Sometimes Cloud's here alone, so I thought it was time to put in some security."

Cloud was halfway offended about the implication that he couldn't take care of himself, and at being used as a table. But the other half was way too busy being giddy over Sephiroth voicing the desire to protect him from hypothetical kidnappers.

"It looks great! I didn't even notice the install. You hire ninjas this time or somethin'?"

"Some of 'em."

That comment flew under her radar, "This reminds me, I really want to finally put in the pool so I can open it up this summer. When can we take a walk up there and talk?"

"This week if you have time. Just let me know when."

"Seph's going to help you design a pool?" Cloud smiled, trying to look over his own shoulder to get a look at the papers. Sephiroth's hand came up to gently turn his chin to force him to make eye contact with the landlady.

She was saying, "I want to redo the roof on the west side of the building, there's a perfect spot where you get a really nice, clear view of the sunset. I've been dreamin' about puttin' in a pool area up there, and a bar if I can get a liquor license. If not, just a little lounge where people can bring their own. Are you also interested in design and stuff?"

"Not really," Cloud admitted but glanced over his shoulder again. "But who knows? Maybe if he talked to me more about it, I might be..."

Sephiroth had no comment as he continued to write.

"He's quiet about it, isn't he?" she patted his arm kindly, then clicked her tongue and began to rub his arm to generate heat instead, "Why aren't you wearin' a coat? Anyway, he really helped me make this place what it is today. I'd never do anything around here or at any of my properties without getting his opinion. Once when he was gone a long while, I tried out a couple different interior design firms but there's no comparison."

"Because I work for free."

"No, because you're the best!"

Sephiroth had so many mother figures in his life it wasn't even funny, it appeared he even kept secret landlady moms. And while most of the moms and other people in Sephiroth's life seemed to try to keep him in his place and downplay his talents, Cloud found that he absolutely loved hearing people gas Sephiroth up instead of humble him.

He glanced over his shoulder again at his hard working future husband, "He is the best! I'd probably get in his way if I tried to help him, but if you ever need a part time bartender for the pool I'd be happy to apply!"

"If we can get the liquor license you're hired!" she laughed, completely unaware of how serious Cloud was about this.

Sephiroth clicked the pen closed and gave her the papers back, "Now that you're both best friends ever, I have some boring stuff to talk to her about. You can go in, I'll just be a few minutes."

"I'm not bored – "

"Go away," Sephiroth drawled through his teeth. Then he quickly added, "Baby."

If dropping his pet name was meant to soothe the backstabbery of being so curtly dismissed, it almost didn't work. Cloud squinted at him in warning, but lit up a sunny smile for her, "It was lovely meeting you!"

"You as well!" she said to him.

Cloud then obstinately took his time shifting his messenger bag on his hip, all the grocery bags to one hand and picking up the ones Sephiroth had put down. He entered his birthday on the keypad, fucked it up and then had to enter it again.

He glanced once more at them, and they were both watching him with silent smiles on their faces. Once inside, he immediately dropped everything and went to Central Command and scrambled to turn on the outer monitoring system. By the time he remembered how, all he caught was a glimpse of the back of their heads as they went downstairs.

Sephiroth always seemed weirdly embarrassed about his secret side hustle as an interior designer. Everyone knew the interior designer on Queer Eye was the hardest working of the bunch – the butchest too. What was there to be so touchy and secretive about?

He was annoyed as he put the groceries away alone, but his mood started to lift again as he sat on Sephiroth's bed and kicked off his boots. He couldn't help but drop face first into the closest pillow, which still had an indentation of Sephiroth's head where it had last laid. He inhaled there for a moment before pushing himself off the bed.

Cloud went to the laundry room with an armful of his disgusting clothes from the weekend, and then stripped down to throw everything he'd been wearing in the washing machine, too. It wasn't a full load so he didn't turn it on, since Sephiroth probably had some more to add to it.

The floor in here used to be only tile, but Sephiroth had put a soft little rug down where Cloud got into the habit of taking all his clothes off when he did laundry. And he'd mentioned once half-joking that he hated the horror movie posters all over the walls in there, and Sephiroth had gotten rid of them and seemed to be between paint options, because the same swatches he'd picked up from Home Depot were still taped to the wall. It was either going to be the exact same blue as the detergent bottle he used, or a slightly more grayish color that was more suitable for serious adults doing serious laundry. Cloud was betting the bright blue detergent room was going to happen, but he had a renewed appreciation for the artistic process.

He came out of the laundry room wearing nothing but a big smile, and jumped when Sephiroth turned the corner and appeared suddenly at the end of the hallway. It seemed they'd startled each other, and they both paused and shared a little laugh from across the way.

It trailed off as Sephiroth's eyes ran Cloud down and then back up. A dark expression crossed his face as he started walking toward him.

Cloud let out a screech as fight or flight instincts activated every nerve in his body. He must have still been in dodge ball mode because instead of turning around and running away, he started running toward Sephiroth. When they collided there was immediate surrender, Cloud didn't have much choice but be scooped up off the floor and was very willing to be taken absolutely anywhere.

Sephiroth dropped roughly onto the bed on top of him and forced his way between his legs before pausing, "You feel okay, right?"

"Yeah!" Cloud assured him, and wrapped his arms around his neck to pull him closer. And then noticed the beloved winter blankets that were puffed up and billowing all around them like dark clouds, "Can you move the blankets? I don't wanna get them all..."

Sephiroth easily batted them onto the floor, leaving them with the expanse of the bed obstacle-free, "You wanna be messy, huh?"

"Fuck yeah."

Sephiroth settled on his elbows above him, and Cloud loved getting lost in these messy, tongue driven kind of kisses. It was the kind of kiss that meant they had the means and the space and the time and no more bullshit – it was finally fucking on.

The rough fabric between his legs and the leather belt against his stomach felt so good that it made him suggest something bold, "Will you leave this on?"

"What?"

"The uniform, don't take it off..." Cloud's fingers slid beneath Sephiroth's suspenders to grip onto them as he lifted his hips up a little against him. "... Fuck me with it on."

"I can do that," Sephiroth smiled and reached between them to unzip his pants and free himself. Cloud's back arched up when he saw how hard Sephiroth's cock already was, it was rosy and almost throbbing as it touched the hot skin of Cloud's inner thigh.

Cloud wrapped his fist around both of them together, wanting to feel the ridges and veins and taut skin against him. Sephiroth reacted a little harsher than he normally might have, and breathed a little chuckle, "M'kinda sensitive. I've been fightin' wood all weekend."

"You should have said so... I would have taken care of you."

Sephiroth should have done a lot of things differently. But nothing in the current moment was regrettable, especially when Cloud pushed Sephiroth's cock down lower, dragging it against his balls and into the crevice of his ass, to nudge against his opening. He'd discovered in Cloud's dorm bathroom that quiet, risky bottoming sex was different and fun, but ultimately it left them both unfulfilled and frustrated. He just wanted to put that right.

Sephiroth greedily felt for the back of Cloud's thighs to push them all the way back to fold him in half. It exposed everything Cloud had, and the way their bodies lined up and reacted to each other was so goddamn perfect. Cloud's pretty hole was involuntarily twitching, and Sephiroth was drooling all over it.

"We should make porn at some point," Sephiroth blurted.

Cloud's ass tightening up impossibly tiny as he giggled, "Nooo!"

"Open back up..." Sephiroth urged, brushing the tip against him. He relaxed just enough to let Sephiroth sink in until it tensed again against the flare of his head, involuntarily stopping him from just pushing his way inside. Cloud's balls tightened in anticipation, and Sephiroth's precum pooled around his hole as he gently hinted by pressing in as far as he dared. He only meant to tease a little bit, but actually separating from that pink, tight, welcoming heat was difficult.

Coming out of a trance, he leaned down and kissed Cloud three times before pulling away, "Hang on. Don't move, you're too hot."

Cloud disobeyed immediately, and sat up to grab a pillow while Sephiroth went to the bathroom to retrieve a bottle of lube, but had his knees up ready to be ravished by the time he reappeared.

Sephiroth reverently dropped down onto his elbows between Cloud's legs. He licked a line up from Cloud's ass to the tip of his cock before dropping down onto it.

"Seph!" Cloud gasped in shock, trying not to pop his hips up but failing and jabbing Sephiroth in the back of his throat. Sephiroth backpedaled with a sharp intake of air, and Cloud cried out, "Sorry! Don't do this right now, I'm not up to normal standards here!"

Sephiroth's voice was raspy as he coughed a little, "D – didn't you mean what you said yesterday?"

"What?"

He looked almost innocent, "That we were gonna go home and you were gonna sit on my face?"

Cloud let out a boom of disbelief, "I'm gross! I mean I took a shower, but..."

Cloud still had no idea how he looked through Sephiroth's eyes. The purple, late winter afternoon light coming in through the windows highlighted and shaded every tight muscle on his body against the soft, mussed sheets. Cloud's inner thigh muscles spread wide and everything in between them was perfection – his ass, his balls, the line of his cock, the ripple of his abs, his beautiful fucking face, the soft fall of his yellow hair in his gorgeous eyes...

Sephiroth held onto those eyes and maintained contact while very deliberately pushing his tongue into Cloud's asshole.

He reached down to run his fingers through Sephiroth's hair and pulled a little, "You're mean."

Sephiroth made a noise of non-verbal agreement, and ran the tip of his tongue around the fun, slightly ridged texture of Cloud's hole before running his tongue up the line of his cock, "C'mon."

Cloud followed Sephiroth's lead until he realized he was being urged to straddle his face, "Are you sure?"

"Cloud, I'm filthy. I didn't even get to take a shower since yesterday and you don't even care."

Cloud lifted his head with the realization that while Sephiroth could indeed be considered 'filthy', it wasn't hindering enjoyment of his body in the slightest. He smelled and tasted and was beautiful, so Cloud shrugged a shoulder, "Okay... but if it's awful just tell me to – "

"Not possible," Sephiroth smiled, pulling on Cloud's waist and thighs until he was straddling his face. Even though it was inverted, full body contact was enough to make them both pause and relax, finding all the familiar, comfortable heat and angles of each other.

Cloud peered over his shoulder, "Seriously, if it's – "

"Leave me and your ass alone," Sephiroth finally demanded before spreading kisses and laps of his tongue up the back of Cloud's balls.

Cloud rolled his eyes and turned forward, and found himself alone with Sephiroth's cock. He had to admit they too had their own personal connection that was nice to indulge in with a little privacy, especially with it straining deliciously against his leather SOLDIER belt.

The constant protesting before letting Sephiroth eat his ass was performance art at this point, but Cloud still felt like he always needed to give a big, neon sign disclaimer. It was the most vulnerable thing he could imagine with the person he cared about the most. Cloud was just afraid that one horrible time Sephiroth truly wouldn't enjoy the taste, or the way his ass looked, or judge him as being dirty, or lose the mood for sex and fall out of love with him... or something... it was hard to internally monologue about irrational fears with Sephiroth's tongue running around the edge and then pushing inside.

Cloud let out a little gasp, then heard Sephiroth sigh happily behind him before giving his ass a hard smack. There was nothing to fear, so he just enjoyed how good it felt.

Cloud kissed the tip of Sephiroth's cock and felt his thighs tense a little through his fatigues. Cloud traded light kisses for his tongue, and ran it down to his zipper and back up. The inverted angle of 69 made it way easier to take him deep down his throat, and despite his own personal worries everything was beautiful about how Sephiroth smelled and tasted.

Cloud worked his way down until his nose was pushed against Sephiroth's pants. His hips popped up off the bed a little, bumping the back of Cloud's throat as he gave another sharp smack to his ass.

Sephiroth pulled his tongue away and looked up between Cloud's thighs and the tight ravine of his torso, loving the view of him inverted and sucking cock upside down. He popped the lube cap and squeezed a little directly onto Cloud and used two fingers to push it in deep.

Cloud let out a louder than expected sound, and came up off of Sephiroth's cock to look at him from between his legs. It was a little surprising, but also a huge relief to finally have something inside him that wasn't his own sad, slightly heart broken fingers. Sephiroth's were so much better than his own, and they pushed confidently against the best angle inside him without mercy. Cloud emitted a moan he couldn't swallow down, so he tried his best to stifle it by urgently sucking on Sephiroth's cock.

Sephiroth was enjoying an up close sight of his fingers pushing into Cloud, and the feeling of his soft tongue and lips working over his cock, but he was also slightly nervous about how long he was realistically going to last once he was finally inside. He figured he might as well take foreplay as far as it could go so maybe Cloud wouldn't notice, but it had kind of been foreplay all weekend long. Cloud had been begging for it without words, every movement he made, every time their eyes met it was an open invitation.

Sephiroth smirked knowingly as he twisted his fingers inside Cloud and asked brightly, "Hey, wanna top again?"

"Fuck no," Cloud answered, his voice dark and deep before he dropped his mouth and throat down onto Sephiroth's cock again.

Despite how good it felt, Sephiroth smacked Cloud's ass again harder and bit his lip at the rosy hand print that bloomed on his skin, "Then you better stop before I come down your throat..."

Cloud didn't move off of him, but made a point to put a little weight backwards against Sephiroth's face. He then slowly dragged his ass against his face, arching up deep with a little wiggle. It left Sephiroth in a love struck daze... how could Cloud keep on tricking him into thinking he was so shy, then pull some world class stripper shit out of nowhere? It was a puzzle he was never going to solve, but if it was designed to ignite lustful rage within him, it fucking worked.

Sephiroth abruptly sat up and made quick order of flipping Cloud over onto his back. He shoved his thighs back until he was folded in half and his ass was in the air, and Cloud was nodding up at him, eager and chewing on his lips as he watched Sephiroth spread the remainder of lube still clinging to his fingers across the tip of his cock.

"Fuck me..." Cloud whispered.

"I was gonna make love to you."

Cloud smiled, "Do both."

This time that little opening didn't tense and stop the flare of Sephiroth's cock, it greedily swallowed it and hugged tight as it slid inside. The sound Cloud made when Sephiroth pulled his hips back and felt the tight gripping drag of his body not wanting to let him go was almost enough to make him bust immediately.

Instead of panicking or employing Slow, Sephiroth decided to just be honest, "Three minutes. If I'm lucky."

"More than enough..." Cloud laughed a little, and reached out and touched the front of his SOLDIER belt, then dipped his fingertips between the leather and Sephiroth's abdomen and pulled a little.

Sephiroth took the hint and pushed further inside, before Cloud gripped the belt and cried out beneath him. He let Cloud guide the pace while his body relaxed and eventually let Sephiroth sink all the way in.

Sephiroth stopped reveling in his own enjoyment and kissed the side of Cloud's knee where it was resting near his shoulder, "How you doin'?"

Cloud nodded, he might have had something to say but only a little undefined sound came out when he opened his mouth. He let go of the SOLDIER belt and pushed the bottom of the tank top up as far as he could reach.

Sephiroth took another hint and pulled the shirt up to his collar bone as he started to move freely between Cloud's legs, "That what you wanna see?"

"Fuck yes," Cloud reached for his cock but stopped short of it.

"C'mon," Sephiroth urged, taking Cloud's hand and guiding it back. His fingers slid through Cloud's as he helped him to work himself. He was kind of trying to distract himself but it wasn't working, especially when Cloud's breath began to catch and elongate into soft moans.

They needed a fast release more than they needed to draw it out, and both arrived to that conclusion without having to say anything more. Sephiroth's shoulders were already tense and his movements erratic, and Cloud's entire face and chest were already blushed hot. Quick didn't necessarily mean bad, they were both just ready for each other.

Cloud gazed up at a sight more perfect than anything that could have even been manufactured by his best sex dreams, and couldn't contain a harsh intake of breath every time Sephiroth's cock hit him deep. He loved the sound of Cloud really getting into it, but his clothes robbed him of the smack of flesh upon flesh that normally went along with it. He tried to make up for it by grabbing onto the most squeezable part of Cloud's thighs, and instead activated a huge tickle spot.

"Seph!" Cloud cried out in a shrill giggle, and tightened so suddenly that Sephiroth slipped free for a moment.

Sephiroth's ribs were rising and falling against his SOLDIER belt, and he had to breathe out a laugh with Cloud. He tapped himself against the back of Cloud's balls, creating a wet little smacking sound. He liked the way it looked, plus he was also trying to calm down and buy some more time.

"Put it back in..." Cloud's lips thinned against a moan as he began to earnestly stroke his cock. "I'm so... fucking close, Seph..."

Sephiroth surprised Cloud by shoving back inside him and immediately matching his quick fist movements with his hips.

"Mm! Seph, fuck!" Cloud cried out, his entire body going tense.

Sephiroth bore down on Cloud harder as his hair spilled over one shoulder, "You sure you're ready?"

"Yeah! Are you – ?"

"I'm gonna fuckin' come so fuckin' hard," he mumbled between tight lips almost angrily.

"Seph!" Cloud gasped hard, tensing his legs to keep Sephiroth right at that perfect angle, wanting to feel his cock erupt that hot load right against his prostate. "Seph! Mmm, I'm gonna – "

Cloud let out the first thick shot, and Sephiroth sounded almost shocked as he went still against the back of his thighs. His ejaculation was practically ripped out of him, and watching Cloud's cock shoot semen up his torso at the same time created an interesting illusion. It was like Cloud's orgasm was his own as shot after shot streaked up against his chest and stomach, like they were trading sensation and feeling the exact same thing at the same moment.

Sephiroth came as deep as possible, thrusting just a couple more times as he emptied everything inside Cloud. He pulled out only when he absolutely had to, but still felt his balls and thighs tensing, and was amused to see Cloud's cock still throbbing against his stomach, too. He shivered as he took himself in hand to see if he might add a little of his own to the mess Cloud created, but only managed a sticky, watery teardrop against Cloud's pubic hair before giving up and falling on his side next to him.

His forehead fell against Cloud's shoulder, and he felt Cloud's chin bump against the top of his head. They just breathed together for a moment.

He hadn't quite caught his breath, but had to lift his head to marvel at just how fucking much Cloud had just ejaculated, "... You good? You need an IV or somethin?"

"Is all this mine?" Cloud giggled breathlessly in disbelief and ran his fingers up his torso. Knowing there was probably just as much deep inside him made his head fell backwards in delirious bliss, "... Told you we didn't need three minutes."

Sephiroth's ego wasn't going to take that, "Oh, I got way more where that came from. Whenever you're ready for it."

Cloud's smile lit up, but he couldn't manage yet to open his eyes, "Always ready."

Sephiroth gave him some time anyway, and just admired the long, delicate line of Cloud's throat and jaw. He ran his fingertips up and down it, being gentle as he could possibly be. Cloud swallowed in response, and the knot of his throat moved beneath his fingers.

A memory he never asked for invaded Sephiroth's thoughts just for a moment, like clouds passing over the sun. That clone that everyone was so in love with had very seriously considered snapping this fragile neck. And yesterday he himself had cut it open over and over, and he didn't feel one bit bad about it.

But now he felt the need to whisper, "Cloud... I don't ever want to hurt you. Trainin' you or whatever, if I hurt you... you understand I don't mean anything by it or get off on it or anything, and I'd never do anything like that if I didn't have to, right?"

Cloud didn't open his eyes or respond for so long that Sephiroth thought he might have fallen asleep.

When he finally did open his eyes there was pure confusion in them, "What?"

"I don't even know what I'm talkin' about, I'm dumb. Nevermind."

"No, no, you've been preaching nonstop about how I need to toughen up and accept my fate and not take anything personally at work... and now you're having post-nut sentiment about cutting my head off yesterday!?"

Sephiroth felt the unwanted balloon of emotion get popped so hard he had to laugh, "I guess so."

"You should at least try to get off on it!" Cloud stretched his arms up over his head with a grin, making his neck even longer. "If a day ever comes when I'm good enough to cut your head off, I'll jizz in my pants!"

He slid an arm beneath Cloud's waist to roll him closer to kiss him, "Don't make fun of me for feelin' feelings."

"Seph..." Cloud softened and wrapped both arms around his neck. "I meant what I wrote, if you love me so much, don't go easy on me and don't ever feel guilty about it. It's good for me."

"'Kay," Sephiroth agreed with a kiss.

Cloud kissed him back happily before looking down between them. His semen had partially dried to the perfect thick consistency to utterly slime the front of Zack's belt and uniform, "... Sorry."

"I'm not."

He plucked at the SOLDIER suspenders, "Why do you still have clothes on, anyway?"

"I just do whatever you tell me to."

Cloud giggled and came up with a new command, "Then be naked already!"

Sephiroth enjoyed a few more long, unhurried moments kissing him, then released him so he could sit up and finally start shedding his clothes. He pulled the tank top over his head and free of his hair, then offered it to Cloud, "I can't ever give this uniform back."

"I'm doing laundry. It'll probably be cleaner than when he gave it to you," Cloud snorted as he gave himself a quick, careless wipe down and tossed it onto the floor.

"He's psychic," Sephiroth noted as he quickly unlaced his boots with expert muscle memory to kick them off the side of the bed. "If you actually believe that shit."

Cloud did believe that shit, and watched him undress with a smile, "It looks way better on you, anyway."

Sephiroth stood up to push his pants off, and exhaled a soft grunt when Cloud's arms wrapped around his waist from behind and yanked him back onto the bed.

"I'll help," he purred as energy renewed in him, and he buried his face in the side of Sephiroth's neck and greedily running his hands down his torso. Sephiroth stretched out long on the bed and relaxed under Cloud's care, until teeth found his collar bone and forced a hiss out of him.

"Sorry," Cloud whispered.

"S'okay. I think I kinda like it."

"Since when?"

"Now? I dunno. I just didn't like it when you bit my ass out of nowhere."

"Had to!" Cloud giggled, and then felt free to nibble from one pale nipple across the strong expanse of his chest to the other one. Sephiroth didn't normally react too much when Cloud paid attention to his nipples, but maybe he'd just been too gentle up until now. He paused to appreciate the curve of his pecs where they met his abs and growled from the sheer hotness of the man, "I wanna just eat you."

Sephiroth couldn't think of a way he'd rather go than consumed by the one he loved, "Go ahead."

Cloud wasted no time in kissing another greeting to his cock where it was still jutting out of his open pants. It was still thick and filled out and Cloud licked it just to taste test, then took it immediately halfway down his throat. He pulled the pants down Sephiroth's hips a bit more to cup his balls, and sighed at how heavy and full they still were.

"Baby," Sephiroth hissed from above, and it sounded kind of like a warning.

He was probably still sensitive, so Cloud handled him much more gently. He sucked softly with messy tongue, and he tilted his head to make sure Sephiroth could see everything.

He trailed off with kisses to the tops of Sephiroth's thighs as he finished kicking the pants off. Sephiroth's poor knees, shins, and feet never got any action but Cloud didn't want to go all the way down there. It was hot stuff just like the rest of him, but his legs were so long and it was all too far away.

"C'mere," Sephiroth murmured, wanting Cloud closer too.

He let himself be folded into Sephiroth's arms from behind, and realized he was being guided to an effortless position that they'd accidentally discovered rolling around in bed one lazy morning. There was something magic about their heights and the way their bodies fit together when Sephiroth spooned Cloud, all he had to do was slide his arm underneath Cloud's knee to lift it and it was almost too easy to slip inside.

Cloud was slick with semen and lube and Sephiroth was able to move enough for what they needed right then, which was just to be close to each other and connected. It was only the tip and maybe an inch more, just a gentle, tickle of a sensation that made the nicest, wettest sound that complimented the sound their lips made over Cloud's shoulder.

Sephiroth liked how easy it was to appreciate Cloud's body like this, and ran his hand all over the lean, chiseled expanse of his torso before running it up his chest to cup his throat. He was still thinking about how delicate it was, and tightened his fingers in protection.

Cloud let out a little sigh, creating a little narrative in his mind where he was utterly conquered and possessed by this man. In reality Sephiroth had been dragged into this love affair with absolutely no choice in the matter, but it was just too hot not to get caught up in a little fantasy when he displayed any measure of dominance.

Cloud opened his eyes in the middle of a kiss and looked at him up close. The shape of Sephiroth's lips as he kissed and the thick brush of his lashes against Cloud's cheeks was so beautiful.

After a moment Sephiroth opened his eyes and realized he was being watched. He pushed his forehead against Cloud's, looking deep into his eyes. It was fully dark and there was barely any light left in the room, and the glow from Sephiroth's eyes were reflecting off of Cloud's and making them appear green.

He was kind of annoyed by that, "It's too dark in here, lemme – "

"No..." Cloud whined, he didn't know why Sephiroth was moving but didn't care.

"One sec baby," he whispered and kissed him again. He didn't disconnect from Cloud's body but reached past him to turn the lamp on beside his bed. Once the light was on there were bright, sky blue eyes gazing back at him over Cloud's shoulder, and that's the way he liked it.

Reaching past Cloud had forced him to nudge a little deeper in his body, and despite his protesting Cloud turned a little over onto his stomach to invite Sephiroth to stay there. So Sephiroth didn't quite return to the true lazy morning sex position, but used a little more leverage to move slowly behind him, just enjoying the pleasure of pushing into Cloud and how his body hugged tight as he pulled back.

Cloud was kissing all over his face as he spun his fingers into Sephiroth's hair. He wasn't able to move much, but wriggled just enough to take in a little more.

His hand wandered up Cloud's thigh and over the curve of his ass to cup a handful of it, trying to be sweet and make love and not be greedy or demanding. He really resisted as long as he could, until that perfectly grabbable bubble of warm flesh just had to be smacked.

So he smacked it, and Cloud reacted with a moan that was clearly full of approval.

Once he stopped thinking about trying to be gentle and romantic on purpose, he delivered the kind of love making Cloud craved from him. There were still long strokes and punctuated thrusts, just a little gentler, a little more drawn out, and his lips were never far away.

He eventually disconnected from Cloud, then pulled him to the center of the bed by his hips. Cloud arched up into Sephiroth's hands as they slid down his sides and pushed his thighs up in order to reconnect deeper in the position they'd fucked all too briefly in.

Now he could fully enjoy the sight of Cloud underneath him, and shuddered as he felt his warm load leaking out of Cloud and coating his cock, "... You feel so good."

Cloud just smiled, thoroughly enjoying the experience of Sephiroth inside him with no grasping need for release of his own. He felt surrounded and utterly taken care of, and it was fun to watch that determined glare rise up again in Sephiroth's eyes, "Love you."

"Love you, too," he said, and lowered down onto his forearms. It caused Cloud to fold in half, and he was more than happy as he locked his feet behind Sephiroth's back to hold him close. Their tongues met first, and Sephiroth pushed both hands into Cloud's spikes as he kissed him.

Cloud felt a stab of something in his mind, some kind of fear or dread or anxiety. Maybe it was just the feeling of getting exactly what he wanted triggering some sort of panic, like the grasping need to hold on to this feeling and preserve it somehow in his mind in case there ever came a day when it was gone. It took him out of the moment a little, and he just held onto Sephiroth.

And like the soul mate he was, Sephiroth picked up on a shift in Cloud's energy immediately, "What baby?"

"I just love you," Cloud repeated.

Sephiroth slid his arms underneath Cloud and squeezed him as close as possible into a tight embrace. He couldn't physically get any closer, couldn't cut himself open and let Cloud crawl inside him, couldn't say it in any other way than he already had. He just needed to be there, and even if something stupid and pretentious inside him didn't think cliches were good enough, he needed to say it as much as possible : "I love you, too."

A long time passed where they just reveled in that closeness, and Sephiroth moved just enough to keep himself focused, to kiss him and be close to him but also not forget that sex was happening and go soft or fall asleep in him or something lame like that. He sensed when Cloud was again ready for a little more intensity, and was rewarded as his breath started coming out in sharp gasps. That little bit of noise encouraged Sephiroth, and Cloud couldn't stop a little burst of a moan that escaped him every time his hips hit the back of his thighs.

Sephiroth reached between them and wrapped his rough, calloused hand around Cloud's cock and found it hard and weeping. He began to twist it, mimicking the way Cloud jerked himself, "... Like that?"

Cloud nodded up at him against the bed, his eyes fluttering and glassy.

"You're so fuckin' beautiful."

Cloud found that ironic, considering he was being made love to by a very literal, very attentive angel. He had barely moved this entire time and grinned up at him almost guiltily, "I'm not doing very much."

"You don't gotta do anything," he murmured as his hips picked up speed. "You're perfect right there."

Cloud's breath started coming out in sharp gasps, and his hand joined Sephiroth's on his cock to adjust the pressure and speed and his back arched up off the bed, "Seph..."

"You just came like a gallon, you got any more for me?"

"Mhm!" Cloud nodded with a wide grin, and allowed Sephiroth to draw it out of him.

Sephiroth was determined to fuck Cloud through his entire orgasm, despite how tempting it was to just come with him when he saw the familiar blush rise on Cloud's cheeks and chest. When his internal pull of muscle started fluttering and tightening around his cock, he pushed through it and kept kissing his prostate from the inside. He didn't stop until Cloud was gasping and a fresh load was spilled over his stomach and hands.

He finally released Cloud's cock and pushed his knees back a little further as he bore down harder on him. It wasn't quite what he'd shot out the first time, but he loved the look of semen streaked up the center of Cloud's stomach.

Sephiroth groaned out, "I wanna come all over you."

"Yeah? Do it..." Cloud invited, and tightened even more in offering.

That bit of extra pressure surprised a little gasp out of Sephiroth, "Fuck, baby."

"Fuck me..." Cloud whispered up at him with pure love in his eyes.

Sephiroth meant to pull out, but didn't quite make it in time and didn't exactly care once that first wave of another hard orgasm hit. Only the very tip was still in, and Cloud watched in fascination as his thick shaft throbbed with every short exhale Sephiroth gave, and he could feel his hot semen jet inside.

Cloud was moving just a little, coaxing more out, "Feels so good..."

Sephiroth eased up on Cloud's thighs, and seemed to be almost in pain as he disconnected from him. He took a very long, thorough look at his load pooled all around Cloud's opening... then up the line of his lean, cum-splattered torso where his chest was rising and falling a little... the term 'spank bank' wasn't one Sephiroth used often but this sight was definitely going in it.

Finally satisfied, Sephiroth fell on his side next to Cloud.

Cloud kept his legs in the air though, and even put his hands up under his lower back to not drop down onto the bed – Sephiroth came so shallow that it was just right there, like he had a super full cup of water balanced on his butt and one wrong move and it'd be everywhere.

Sephiroth was utterly boneless beside him, not paying any attention.

Cloud finally chirped, "Help."

Sephiroth opened his eyes and got one look at Cloud still fully inverted with his legs in the air, and immediately fell on his arm in laughter.

"Seph! It's starting to drip down my back!" Cloud cried as he tried not to laugh too and spill everything, and kicked his feet a little. "Give me something!"

He quickly reached off the bed for Zack's uniform pants, and put them underneath Cloud so he could relax down onto the mattress. Cloud didn't know what else to do, so he pulled the fatigues through his legs and held them like a diaper as he waddled to the bathroom.

"It's not funny!" Cloud screeched.

Sephiroth couldn't stop laughing, and he didn't want to. Not just because Cloud dealing with the aftermath of sex was often hilarious, but there was an absolute rush of endorphins throughout his entire body, and he was just fucking deliriously happy.

Cloud came back to bed and found Sephiroth on his side. He gathered up the end of his silver hair and twisted it into a loose rope and lovingly tossed it out of the way, then cuddled close behind him. Despite his best efforts there were wet spots everywhere, maybe one day they'd actually think to put a towel down before sex but it hadn't happened yet, and probably never would.

Sephiroth lifted his arm to let Cloud's loop through and pushed backward into him, "... I could die right now."

Cloud didn't even have to ask if that was a good thing. He tightened his arms around Sephiroth, and he kissed his shoulder and up the side of his neck, "I love you."

"Love you, too," Sephiroth said as he turned his head to meet Cloud's lips.

Cloud kissed him softly a couple times before resting his head behind him. He could have easily fallen asleep, but he'd missed Sephiroth too much to just sleep the day away. So he propped up on his elbow and gazed at Sephiroth from behind for a while, admiring the strong slope of his shoulder, his thick, dark eyelashes, his cheekbones, and the push of his lips as he laid on his cheek.

Cloud's blinking slowed as his eyes grew heavy, but he cleared his throat to find his voice, "You hungry?"

Sephiroth didn't and couldn't respond. He had been reduced to a beautiful puddle.

Cloud had no mercy though, and lifted his leg and put a foot on Sephiroth's butt and pushed him a couple times, "I know you're hungry."

"Y'just stole my soul..." he mumbled without moving or opening his eyes. "... Gimme a minute."

"Of course, love," Cloud couldn't not revel in smugness, and was having a pretty good time pushing Sephiroth's hips back and forth against the mattress.

"Cold foot," he eventually complained.

Cloud put it back down and draped himself over his back, "When your soul comes back, will you order pizza? I'll make salad too, but I need a shower real quick."

"Mmm," he acknowledged.

"Wanna come with me?"

"Mmm," he declined.

"Okay," Cloud kissed his soft cheek, and pushed up off of the bed. "Go wash the vegetables."

"Go wash the vegetables," Sephiroth echoed in a petulant, but perfect Nibelheim accent.

Cloud replied by putting his cold foot back on Sephiroth's butt to give it one more big push. He blindly swiped in his direction like a grumpy bear, but Cloud was already halfway to the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later he emerged with wet hair, fully expecting to find Sephiroth in the same spot and dead asleep. He wasn't, the lights were all on and the jizz-drenched sheets had all been stripped off the bed and the crusty uniform picked up. Cloud could hear the washing machine going down the hall, and he had to pause and fully appreciate how much like home this felt.

He went to Sephiroth's closet and pulled on a pair of red joggers that Cameron's ass grew out of just in time for Cloud's ass to grow into. It was nice getting hand-me-downs that fit him a little better than Sephiroth's giant clothes, afterall he had gotten an official written suggestion to get pants that actually covered his crack. He decided not to bother with a shirt and went to find his husband.

Cloud found him in the kitchen not giving a fuck in black sweatpants pants and his hair knotted up. He didn't understand how Sephiroth made plain white cotton shirts look so good – something about the way it stretched across his biceps and shoulders, but was loose around his waist and hips was very inviting.

Cloud hugged him from behind and pressed his face between Sephiroth's shoulder blades for a moment, and slipped his hands up the sides of his shirt. He brushed them around to the front and felt Sephiroth's abs jerk and tighten under his fingers.

Sephiroth yawned, "Tickles."

"Sorry," Cloud yawned back on reflex and made his hands flat and rubbed away any ticklishness he might have caused.

"Pizza's comin'," he said distantly as he attempted to scratch the stickers off all the vegetables with his blunt, bitten nails. The man had no coordination left.

"You need nourishment, leave it to me," Cloud announced and took over. He pulled out a crouton to cut all the vegetables to match its size while Sephiroth sat on the counter supervising. Soon there was a mixing bowl full of little squares, dressing, and just a bit of shredded lettuce to tie it all together.

He presented Sephiroth with a neat spoonful that contained some of everything, and he obediently accepted the bite. He nodded as he chewed, "S'good."

"Hell just froze over," Cloud laughed, helping himself to a bite as his eyebrows rose. "It actually is good! Or maybe we're just really hungry."

"Both," Sephiroth took another big bite and spoke from the corner of his mouth, "Beer?"

"Yes," Cloud nodded rapidly and pulled a bottle out of the refrigerator for each of them, and they took everything to the couch to share and look for something to watch until the pizza arrived. Sunday evening was kind of weird for TV and they didn't want to commit to a movie or make a decision on Netflix, so Cloud left it on Catfish.

Sephiroth didn't understand the concept of this show, and ate salad while Cloud tried to sum it up succinctly, "Two people meet online and fall in love and then text for years but never meet in person. Sometimes they don't even talk on the phone because the catfish won't pick up, or sometimes they keep planning to meet up but the catfish dips out because they're shy, or they're lying about how hot they are and giving pictures of models or something and never intended to meet at all, they just wanted to keep talking for the emotional connection. That's called "catfishing" - pretending to be someone else so people will talk to you. So the person who wants to meet contacts these two guys who seem gay but aren't, and they do detective work and convince the catfish to finally reveal who they really are and meet the person they've been talking to and is in love with them. Sometimes it's the actual hot person, but usually it's a random weirdo and it's super awkward and embarrassing for everybody involved."

Sephiroth stared at Cloud and chewed for several moments. He eventually swallowed and said, "Bullshit."

"Is not! There's been like a thousand episodes over a hundred years."

"Bullshit," Sephiroth exclaimed with more passion. "This is fake as fuck. Where would they keep findin' these people?"

Cloud was about to further defend it, but realized the lesbians featured in this episode did seem like... corny actresses, "Okay, maybe they're not always real... but people definitely catfish other people all the time."

"You ever do it?"

"Nobody ever talked to me long enough to let me," Cloud sighed in bitter disappointment. "Anyone I ever talked to online was done with me after like a day, I send too many messages. What about you? Break any hearts catfishing people?"

"Not on purpose."

Cloud had asked that question as a formality before shoving a spoonful of salad into his mouth and nearly choked at that answer, "Hhmff!?"

"... A couple years ago a random guy texted me outta nowhere," Sephiroth picked a crouton out of the bowl and crunched on it. "He seemed real old, he thought I was a lady he met on a datin' thing. She musta gave him a fake or wrong number and it ended up bein' mine. I was bored, so I played along."

Cloud was chewing fast, "What happened?"

"It was kinda funny at first. Then I ended up talkin' to him for a few weeks."

"Weeks?" Cloud gasped, "You kept it going for weeks?"

"It's not like he texted me every second of the day like you do."

"Hey!"

"He just texted like once or twice a day. It was mostly just 'hello', and I'd say 'hey' back to him. It was kinda... cute, I guess. But then he asked me to meet him at Whole Foods for a smoothie."

"Whole Foods as a date? He must have been like a hundred years old! What did you say?"

"I never responded."

"Sephiroth!" Cloud admonished.

"I know. He kept askin' where I was. Then I blocked his number 'cause he called me a cunt."

"You are a cunt!"

Sephiroth was laughing silently, mostly at being called a cunt by Cloud, and had several false starts to retort but eventually just gave up and enjoyed a little helpless laughter. If he'd racked up any bad karma by ghosting some old man, it had clearly been worked out because he couldn't imagine being any luckier in love.

When the pizza arrived Sephiroth went to get it, and Cloud put the salad in the refrigerator for later and got them both a fresh beer. They settled in close beside each other in the other kind of satisfied silence – funny how hungrily consuming food together and sex had a vaguely similar vibe. They didn't really watch anything, but rather Cloud flipped through the channels as they gave their thoughts on whoever or whatever caught their interest.

At one point in the feast Sephiroth let out a five-second-long, deep, reverberating belch. He took a sip of beer and glanced at Cloud, "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything," Cloud grinned and took another slice of pizza for himself, and continued flipping through the TV's menu guide until he was in the upper thousands, way past channels in other languages and to the really random shit. He laughed, "Ooohhh, you have porn channels!"

"I do?"

Cloud let out a boom of disappointment when a movie called 'MILF School of Witchcraft and Thottery' was only a blue screen asking for a credit card payment, "You ever watch any porn on here?"

Sephiroth drank a little beer to swallow another huge mouthful before he said, "This might shock you, but MILFs aren't really my thing."

"What is your thing?"

"You."

"Whatever," Cloud dismissed as he kept pressing through the guide until he reached the way high up stations that played music. There was one for punk and they were playing Pennywise for some fucking reason, but he left it on anyway in case something actually good came on next.

"Wanna know somethin' kinda funny?"

"Yes," Cloud grinned as he put he remote down and turned to face Sephiroth on the couch while he ate.

"When I first moved here and actually could look at porn, I didn't really like it. I thought it was lame 'cause girls seemed like they were bored or actin' super over the top and fake about it. And I remember thinkin' that boobs look way better in scary movies than they do in porn."

"They do look better in movies!"

"It kinda feels better doin' it without watchin' porn, anyway. But if I did, it was just videos of guys jerkin' off... but they were usually watchin' porn of girls, so it didn't seem gay to me."

Cloud laughed in adoration at the concept of being straight by proxy, "Aww! You were so cute and clueless!"

"I went through phases, I guess... but porn is kinda boring now. I mean, compared to what we just did... it'd take hours to even find a video half as good. Not many people look or sound like you... doesn't make much sense to spend forever lookin' for a video of someone less hot than my boyfriend."

Cloud rolled his eyes a little but felt his face get warm, "I guess."

"If I can't see you or talk to you, and I'm just in a hurry and trying to nut super quick so I can sleep, I still don't like anything fake. Just regular, normal guys that like each other, not actors. If the lighting or camera is too good, or if it looks like they're on a set, I'll pass. I'd rather see real guys, with fucked up cameras in their dirty apartments."

Production quality wasn't quite the information Cloud was trying to get at, "What... um... aspect do you like the most?"

"Aspect?"

"Like... is there some little detail you especially like?"

"What aspect do you like?"

Cloud figured he was going to have to share information to get information, and it was too late to back out now so he just said it, "I like it... when I can see the actual hole in someone's cock when they're coming."

Sephiroth huffed through another bite of pizza, "How come?"

"Biological curiosity and research."

Sephiroth snorted, "Well, I can help more with that if you want."

Cloud shrugged with a wide smile, "The other night when you came on my face it was like I had front row seats!... I was kind of excited when you said you wanted to come on me again..."

"It felt a little rude to do that to you," Sephiroth admitted.

"I know you love me, you're allowed to be rude."

Sephiroth didn't want to let on that he knew exactly what kind of porn Cloud watched when he thought nobody was around. He'd absorbed a bunch of experiences he'd rather forget when he touched the clone, but some parts about spying on Cloud were kind of cute. The clone had overheard some kind of Mount Nibel lumberjack, hyper-masculine, rough sounding porn, which was a far cry from the affectionate twink porn he assumed Cloud might like to watch.

Sephiroth watched Cloud eat for a moment, wondering if he should tell him about it. Or maybe suggest Cloud talk dirty to him in Nibelwyn and spit in his mouth or something.

He had a better idea. He threw his pizza crust into the box and slid down low on the couch to meet Cloud's eye level, "... So tell me about that little vibrator thing you were usin' in that video you made me."

Cloud stopped chewing and his eyes slammed shut as he felt his face go numb before flooding with heat, "I forgot all about that. Again. And now allow me to put it out of my mind a third time, thank you very much!"

"I've jerked off to it every single day."

He opened his eyes in wonder, "Really? Why? Nothing even happened!"

"Somethin' happened," it actually happened fourteen times in the nine days they weren't talking. "... I don't care about porn, but an aspect about you that I like is that you're honest with me. You always talk about and show me what feels good, or what doesn't so I can do better. In your video you were sayin' you didn't really like it, until you did. And it was really hot when you did. You don't ever fake anything just for me... least I hope you don't."

Cloud rolled his eyes, "I couldn't fake anything even if I wanted to."

"What do you mean?"

Cloud kept his eyes on Sephiroth's as he took a long drink, and just shook his head as he swallowed with a smile, "... You know what I mean."

"Tell me anyway," he waited for Cloud to put the bottle down and pulled on the waistband of his joggers.

"You always read me so well... why don't you guess?" Cloud stuck his tongue out a tiny bit.

Sephiroth leaned in and licked it, and reached down to cup Cloud's ass and pull him closer, "I think... you and I were made for each other."

"That's so much sweeter than what I was thinking!" Cloud cooed and hugged him around his neck as he slid a leg over his lap and straddled him. "It was something similar, though..."

"Tell me."

Cloud preferred to show rather than tell.

It would have made for pretty boring porn probably, just kissing and pausing every so often to pull hair out of their mouths or for Sephiroth to take his shirt off. Then eventually, their sweatpants back off. They'd barely been wearing clothes for an hour, but that was too much for a man who looked like him.

Cloud didn't want anything more in the world than to be close to him and take everything he had left to give. Cloud wanted to steal all of Sephiroth's affection, attention, energy, and time. He sometimes felt a little guilty about being needy and never seeming to get enough of him, but not at this moment. Not with Sephiroth laying back underneath him and fully welcoming a gentle but relentless barrage of love-making happening in his lap.

Sephiroth's hands knew how to work him just right, and Cloud knew how to ride his cock to return that same helpless feeling of being milked and wrung out. He could feel Sephiroth's heart pounding through the wall of his chest, and smiled at his hard intakes of air as he felt his thick cock throb out another load inside him.

Making Sephiroth come was what Cloud needed to get there, and he spent just a little more time dropping his ass on top of Sephiroth's thighs, forcing his slick cock to give him that perfect, teeth-grinding feeling from the inside while his rough hands did the rest.

Cloud cried out as a creamy load spurted just a little up the center of his stomach, and the rest seeped over Sephiroth's fingers and knuckles. It might not have been a big show, but the throbbing sensation of aftershocks lingered as he nuzzled his hips against Sephiroth's until they softened and relaxed against each other.

It was always over too soon. Despite his brain demanding more immediately, Cloud shifted up on trembling thighs to let Sephiroth's cock slip free and crashed against his shoulder, utterly trained and then fucked to death.

Sephiroth felt a mess on his thighs and stomach that threatened to glue them together, but so fucking what? This was officially a messy, make-up sex marathon and it was too good to care. Cloud's breathing was already slow and heavy as his entire body weigh settled on top of him, so he reached out for a napkin from the pizza place to wipe his hand mostly off, then shifted a little to lay down on the couch.

Cloud's mouth was the only thing he could move, "We can't go to sleep already... it's too early."

Their love was like a combination aphrodisiac and sleeping pill, and time would only ever allow so much of one symptom before the other one needed to be answered. Right now it was sleep, so Sephiroth pulled the throw blanket on the back of the couch down and covered Cloud up as best he could, "How 'bout a nap? I'll leave the lights on, we can get up in a couple hours."

"Okay. But set an alarm... I wanna kiss you more. And watch a movie and eat the rest of my pizza... and drink your grandma wine... we have to put the sheets in the dryer, too... and get under the big blankets..." Cloud's voice was growing more distant and softer with every word.

Sephiroth lazily reached out and was barely was able to reach his phone with the very tip of his middle finger. He dragged it closer and realized it was Cloud's phone.

Sephiroth had to squint to see what was going on; Cloud's phone was a little farm where apps roamed free, there was no logic or organization to anything. He managed to find an alarm app and set one for two hours later... and since he could tell by the way Cloud was breathing that he was already asleep, Sephiroth took a little liberty to snoop around.

He went to Cloud's pictures, and even though this was a fairly new phone there were hundreds. He braced himself for anything scandalous, but actually only found very sweet things. There were covert pictures of himself instructing during the seminar, gym mirror selfies of Cloud clearly trying to look much more tough and rugged than he actually was, snapshots of pages of textbooks or classroom boards where homework was listed, pictures of Psycho sleeping and looking adorable, and random shit that didn't make much sense out of context.

Sephiroth switched to his front camera just to see what they looked like laying there at that moment. As suspected, pretty fucking cute. On a whim, he started recording a video and kissed the top of Cloud's head, "Love you, baby."

To his complete shock, Cloud mumbled back, "Love you, too."

Sephiroth froze with a big smile, and waited with wide eyes to be caught in the act, but then Cloud started breathing heavily again. He stopped recording and left the video for Cloud to discover someday.

He then held the phone close to his face and squinted at Cloud's texts. Annoyingly, April was right on top with the most recent message, hey sweetie, call me when you can I have stories about Tim

Sephiroth didn't give a shit who Tim was and really came close to just deleting it, but he wasn't quite evil enough to do it. Besides, when they got new phones Cloud had gone through all the trouble to make sure their text data remained intact. He liked having every text they sent each other preserved from the very start, and the same went for everyone else.

Sephiroth's own text presence was next after April, and he smiled when he saw that Cloud had saved his name surrounded by sparkles and stars and green heart emojis.

The texts from Cloud's Academy friends were boring, literally just places and times to meet for food or training or whatever they did. Cameron sometimes sent pictures of stupid shit, to which Cloud responded like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen in his life. Sephiroth very much doubted that Cloud had scream-laughed at any of it.

The girls from Nibelheim in Cloud's inbox were much funnier and livelier conversations, especially with his cousin Stella, who was actually very talkative and hilarious in text form. She and Cloud had a game of sending daily selfies to rate each others outfits and Stella's creative makeup looks; the rating was always a negative number and they liked to call each other ugly and unfuckable in poetic ways. Sephiroth had to wonder if they even realized that they were identical, gorgeous, and so fucking weird.

As Sephiroth scrolled down the text list, he felt a cold shock race down to the soles of his feet. There was a text conversation bubble with someone with no emojis surrounding their name, titled simply 'Dad'.

He spent several moments debating whether to look or not, but eventually his thumb tapped it.

Sephiroth never honestly expected to stumble across a secret on Cloud's phone. He didn't even think Cloud was capable of keeping one... maybe this wasn't a secret secret, but Cloud never mentioned that his father texted him almost every day.

He'd say 'hello son' or 'how's life today?' or something stupid like that, and Cloud's responses were sometimes a little bit aloof, but he seemed to like sharing what was going on at school and asking his dad questions about his life. They talked a lot about the bands his dad had gotten to see or even meet when he was Cloud's age and about new music and drumming. And since his dad was an architect Cloud often sent pictures of interesting or strange things that he came across in Midgar to ask about it.

To his dad's credit, he jumped to answer Cloud's questions with walls of text every time. Sephiroth sure as fuck wasn't going to read it all, but he appreciated how much his dad wanted to talk to Cloud. And he didn't just ramble on, he asked Cloud tons of questions, too. He seemed to really be putting in an effort.

The further Sephiroth scrolled back, he saw evidence that they'd even had some lengthy phone calls, and found a bunch of photos they'd exchanged, which was nice because looking at pictures was much easier than trying to read without his glasses.

Sephiroth was a little surprised that Cloud had sent his dad a picture of the two of them together, just a tasteful selfie, fully clothed and smiling nicely and not looking like sexual deviants. Most of the pictures Cloud sent were of himself, some of him and April, his friends, and kind of adorably, his report cards.

Sephiroth then saw pictures of Cloud's dad, and was kind of disappointed at how little he recognized him. Strife genetics apparently left no room for negotiation, the entire clan all had the exact same cute little face, blonde hair and blue eyes. Cloud's dad had the vibe that siblings of famous actors had – they were kind of good looking, kind of recognizable, but mostly forgettable. But there was a certain something in the way Cloud's dad held his jaw, neck, and shoulders that seemed familiar. Like someone very lean and narrow trying their best to be taller, confident, and take up as much space as possible.

Sephiroth supposed he had to give Cloud's dad full credit for giving him that beautifully soft, spiky feather hair. His dad wore it so short and up off of his forehead that it almost passed for normal, and it was dark blonde, almost brown. His other sons each had their own thing going on with the spikes, it seemed like this curse/blessing of a hair texture did whatever it wanted to do on each individual's head.

He scrolled through more pictures of Cloud's dad, his basic-looking wife, and his other sons. There was a bunch of old boring pictures of old boring people, probably extended family just in case Cloud wanted to get a visual of all the people who'd turned their back on him.

In one picture, Cloud's dad was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, wearing green scrubs and beaming a huge smile while holding a newborn baby. Sephiroth almost scrolled right past it until he realized that April was the woman on the hospital bed next to him.

April had barely been sixteen, but it was difficult to see her as a teenager in this picture because she honestly didn't look that much different. In fact, she looked far better now considering the fact that she'd just given birth in this photo. And seventeen years ago, they both looked very happy to be new parents to something that didn't even look human.

Cloud Strife had been born a wrinkly, furious little purple gremlin. Sephiroth had never seen anything so fucking precious in his life.

That is until the next picture where Cloud was a couple months older. Sephiroth had to just lay there and silently die for several moments – he didn't give a single shit about babies, Cloud was just that phenomenally cute. It had to have been Cloud's first Christmas, he was sitting on the floor in his dad's lap next to a tree, and he had on this knitted baby beanie on that looked like it had little reindeer antlers or something sticking up out of it. They had him in these little red and white striped footie pajamas and he seriously should have been in commercials, people would have bought anything from this baby.

April showed him tons of pictures from Cloud's childhood, but not very many of this infant age... maybe because his dad was in those pictures and she burned them all because she was a dramatic cunt.

Anyway, his dad was sitting with Cloud in his lap, his spiky hair was long and messy and looked a lot like Cloud's did, but dyed black. He tucked longer pieces behind his ears instead of letting it frame his face, and there was something bright green sticking out of his eyebrow, some kind of piercing but it was like a piece of plastic? Sephiroth didn't understand it but whatever. Cloud probably didn't have much hair to speak of yet, but a little bit of white blonde fuzz was sticking out of his reindeer hat.

In the picture, Cloud's chunky little baby hands had some kind of soft toy in them, and he was looking up with enormous blue eyes at his dad who was in the middle of saying something to him that nobody present for this photo would remember. The way Cloud was leaning against him for support to sit up, and the way his dad's hands were cupping his pudgy baby belly to keep him steady and close... there was trust and comfort and familiarity between the two of them at one point in time.

Sephiroth then noticed what Cloud had said about this picture, 'Aww look how cute we were! You kept these pictures? Do you have more?'

And his dad had answered, 'No, my parents came to see me in Nibelheim a few times and took these. I hadn't seen these pictures since those days, but we found them a couple years ago helping them clear some old stuff out of their house'.

To which Cloud had replied, 'Oh okay'.

Sephiroth was glad that his eyes were too fucked up to really read any more, he felt that 'Oh okay' like a punch in the throat. His fucking asshole father couldn't have just lied and pretended he'd kept the fucking pictures because he secretly gave a shit? Did he have to equate baby pictures of Cloud with old stuff to clear out of his parents' house? Did he have to admit to finding old photos of his fucking adorable son – who was way cuter than any of his other kids! – and then still neglecting to contact him until years later?

Even if the Strifes were out of their goddamn minds, even if he had some stupid fucking band he was trying to make happen, and even if Nibelheim is a boring time warp village with nothing to do... how did he not figure out some way to work around all that?

How could anybody not love Cloud enough to at least try?

Sephiroth realized he was holding Cloud so hard he practically had him in a headlock, and eased up as he gazed down at him. He was all innocence in his sleep, completely at peace and unbothered about anything.

Sephiroth wasn't going to ruin that by saying anything about this, it was absolutely none of his business. This was really good for Cloud, he needed it as much as his dad needed to make up for what they'd lost. But that didn't mean Sephiroth couldn't silently hate his guts for never actually reaching out or at least attempting to be part of his son's life until he was an adult and it was convenient.

And while it didn't have a single thing to do with his dad... he couldn't help but imagine Vincent sitting there with a baby in his lap that he had no intention of being an actual father to. Only when it was convenient.

A new text notification flashed across the top of Cloud's screen. The first few words caught Sephiroth's attention, and he held his arm out and squinted to make out what he could.

As an involved party you are being notified ... preliminary meeting to discuss the official military court proceedings ... minor involved in the Northern Crater Base break-in ...

The next text confirmed the details of where and when.

He closed out of everything and put Cloud's phone down, and reached for his own phone. When he couldn't quite reach it, he was frustrated enough to make the thing move closer with his mind.

He'd gotten the exact same texts. That meant it was some kind of mailing list that had been created and many other people were getting these texts right now, too. Involved parties, Jesus fucking Christ.

Sephiroth put his phone down. He didn't want to think about anything that wasn't apart of his awareness eight minutes prior. He was with Cloud, he had all night and the next day to spend with him. They were going to take a nap, and they had more pizza to eat when they woke up.

Maybe it was denial or something, but he closed his eyes and just went to sleep.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

AN

1 – I finally did it, I read and edited this entire story from the beginning and I am delighted to report that I haven't matured at all. I actually wrote the first iterations of this when I was literally 15 years old, it was horrible and from Sephiroth's perspective and he literally became a school shooter and killed a bunch of random people and ended up in jail in the lab... much like the little clone now that I think of it LOL how the sands of time make fools of us all.

2 – I know some people like to revisit old chapters from time to time because your grandparents used to read this to you as a bedtime story, so just so you know you're not insane if you notice differences. Nothing major of course, just added details about things, especially Cloud's house and his room in Nibelheim when Sephiroth goes to visit, like I had this very clear image in my mind but I realized I didn't actually say anything about it, things like that. And I deleted lots of commas, got rid of redundant things, and got rid of that writer thing where we use this really specific and weird word more than once too close together, like for some reason in one chapter I kept saying 'congruent', like I really don't remember using that word ever in my life but in the span of like 5 paragraphs I used it twice? Who the hell do I think I am? I must have heard someone smart or cool use it and it got stuck in my mind. Anyway, if you ever reread you might notice things changed, it's not the Mandela Effect, just me polishing this word turd at several 4 am's when I should have been sleeping.

3 – I'm actually the one who catfished an old man who mistakenly texted me, texted to him pretty regularly for like 3 weeks as some old lady he thought I was from some dating app, then ghosted him when he wanted to finally meet up with his lady friend at Whole Foods. :( I never claimed to be a good person.

4 – You guys leave such funny reviews, every one of you sound like that old lady on Titanic LOL "IT'S BEEN 84 YEARS!" LOL STOP telling me you were a small child when this story began, we were all small children when this story began and now we're all old as shit! But I gave you a true gift growing up – gay porn and good music. Go listen to the Spotify I made and have a drink ya geezers!