18 August 1978
Sephiroth slipped his arm under his bed and pulled out a long, thin object wrapped in leather. He slid the window open and wormed his way out, hanging onto the sill by one hand, the other holding the wrapped possession. He let go of the windowsill, landing on his feet with no problem.
He used to leave the town to go out in the field a few feet away much more often before Cloud and his mother came along, but he found less time after changing his sleeping pattern to be around Cloud. He stayed up all day and slept at night instead of the other way around for Cloud, actually. If he didn't admit that he wasn't getting attached to the kid, he'd be lying to himself. It had to be something about Cloud, but Sephiroth had no idea what.
The town was within sight of the area Sephiroth now stood in. He unwrapped the leather item, revealing the sword Masamune.
Originally, Masamune didn't have a name. Sephiroth was gifted with Masamune in the 88th year of the Common Era. It wasn't until around the 1500s after Extinction that he gave his sword the name of a swordsmith that was widely recognized as a legend. He was equivalent to the age of 15 when Jenova gave him Masamune and taught him how to use it. Sephiroth couldn't imagine himself using any other weapon.
Sephiroth stepped into position, holding Masamune so it arched downwards. He then slowly moved his arms to the left, then the right. Up. Down. Quick slash. A small jump here, then a stab once his feet touched the ground again. He repeated the motions, then switched to using only his left hand and started over, even mixing things up and making new techniques. He stopped a few hours later and rewrapped the leather around Masamune.
He had no worries about staying up all night when Cloud's birthday was tomorrow; he'd gone nearly a week without sleep once without feeling anything.
Sephiroth saw the window next to his was open. A pair of legs dangled above it. He scaled the wall and slid Masamune back under his bed before climbing up to the roof.
Jenova was there. Sephiroth sat next to her.
"Nice seeing you out of your cave," he said after a long silence.
"Hn."
"Surprised you're in once piece, too."
"Maybe I'll start a scavenger hunt tomorrow."
"You're terrible, you know that?"
"Well aware of it."
A wolf howl sounded in the distance. A chorus of howls joined in.
"I wonder how Kajar's doing..."
"He was fine the last time I saw him," Jenova notified.
More silence.
"I'm going to sleep. Celebration tomorrow."
"And here I was, waiting for you. Ah, well, maybe another time."
"What is it?"
"Nothing too important."
"Tell me anyways."
"I have a gift for you."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at that. It was probably something morbidly gruesome. It wouldn't surprise him.
"It won't be ready for a while, but you might have appreciated knowing in advance." Jenova stood and walked to the edge of the roof. She jumped off.
Sephiroth sighed. He wasn't going to get any answers besides cryptic ones.
Cloud was surprisingly still asleep when Mrs. Strife rose. She smiled. At least he didn't have to sit around until she herself woke up.
"Wake up, Cloud." She shook him gently. Cloud scrunched his face up and rolled onto his back.
"Don't you know what today is, my little baby?"
"Not a bay-bah." Mrs. Strife couldn't help but giggle at that. Cloud could never understand that he was her baby no matter how old he was.
Cloud sat up sleepily.
"Can you guess what today is, Cloud?"
"Wha today?"
"It's your birthday, Cloud. You're two years old today!"
"Rea'y?"
"Yes, really. How does it feel to be two today?"
"One two free..." Cloud held up five fingers. He suddenly seemed to remember something.
"Mama, where Se'iroh?"
"I don't know, Cloud. Want to see if he's downstairs?" Cloud nodded. Mrs. Strife picked him up. She let him go at the foot of the stairs. Cloud ran through the first floor only to find nobody awake yet. He looked really disappointed.
"Not here," he said, pouting. He squirmed when Mrs. Strife picked him up again. The squirming became a little more frantic as Mrs. Strife went back upstairs. Cloud leaned over Mrs. Strife's shoulder and tried to reach for Sephiroth's door when they passed by.
"Brush your little teeth first. I'll let you wake him up after," Mrs. Strife promised.
"Don' wanna bash!" Cloud whined.
"You have to, Cloud." Mrs. Strife put him down in the bathroom and put a dollop of toothpaste on Cloud's toothbrush.
Cloud refused to open his mouth.
"It'll be over quick, okay?"
"Go see Se'iroh."
"After you brush."
Cloud gave in. Mrs. Strife allowed him to go knock on Sephiroth's door after she rinsed his mouth like she promised. Now brushing her own teeth, Mrs. Strife glanced at the mirror above the sink.
Jenova was in the doorway. Mrs. Strife turned around to face her.
"Why don't we play a game?"
"Hm?" Mrs. Strife attempted to ask.
"I have placed poison in the toothpaste you are using."
Mrs. Strife's eyes widened and she hastily rinsed. Thank goodness Cloud used a different kind.
"...the antidote is in the orange juice in the refrigerator. You have to drink every single drop for the antidote to work," Jenova continued.
Mrs. Strife was a blur when her life was on the line. She opened the fridge and dug through it, finding anything but orange juice.
"Ah, I forgot. It was in the cupboard."
Mrs. Strife wrenched the cupboard doors open and found it. She twisted the cap off then guzzled.
It tasted absolutely horrible. Mrs. Strife resisted the urge to spit. She panted after the quart was empty.
Jenova clapped sarcastically. "Congratulations. Your prize is the knowledge that you were never poisoned in the first place."
Mrs. Strife stared back at Jenova in disbelief. "What was all that for?!"
"To test how gullible you were. I would never have told you if you were poisoned, much less where and what the antidote was."
Mrs. Strife suddenly found the floor very interesting. She felt stupid. Jenova had a point. When Mrs. Strife looked up, Jenova was gone. Mrs. Strife couldn't comprehend how Jenova did those disappearing acts.
Cloud entered Mrs. Strife's thoughts. I should go check on him.
Cloud ran to Sephiroth's door once his mother finally let him go. He knocked and waited for a long time (30 seconds), hearing nothing. He reached and twisted the doorknob, glad he was finally tall enough to do so.
The top half of Sephiroth's body was on the floor, covered by a blanket. Cloud uncovered Sephiroth's face and started patting him awake.
"Wake up, Se'iroh!"
Sephiroth let out an obviously fake snore.
"Wake up!"
Sephiroth snored louder. Cloud climbed up onto Sephiroth's chest and bounced twice before falling on his own butt.
"Go away..." Sephiroth's eyes were open.
"No, you wake up," Cloud bugged.
"Don't want to."
"But Mama says today's muh bir'day! Mama says that fammy and fends eat cake an do suff on bir'days." Cloud bounced on his butt.
"It's barely morning. Birthdays are celebrated in the afternoon."
"But Mama's bo'ing! I wanna do suff wi' you! Pease?"
"Get off of me and maybe I'll get up."
Maybe equals yes. Cloud considered himself victorious already. He got off of Sephiroth.
Cloud heard loud footsteps and saw a blur through Sephiroth's open door.
"Wha dat?"
"I don't know." Sephiroth had some clothes in his arms. Cloud followed him until a door was shut in his face. Cloud stood on tiptoe to twist the knob, but it wouldn't budge. He heard water running.
"You take baff? Lemme take baff wi' you!"
"Noooo, no, no," Cloud heard through the door.
"Why nah?"
"Because I said so."
Cloud frowned and pulled himself onto Sephiroth's bed to wait. When he heard someone coming up the stairs, he dived under Sephiroth's blanket on the floor and hid.
"Cloud?" It was his mother. He heard her step through the open door. "Are you in here?"
"No," Cloud replied.
"Come over here, Cloud," Mrs. Strife said firmly. He'd been discovered.
Cloud reluctantly came out of hiding and walked into his mother's open arms.
"Why do you look so grumpy? Are you okay?" They were going back downstairs. Cloud was tired of going back and forth.
"Se'iroh no take baff wi' me."
Mrs. Strife laughed. Cloud's mood soured.
"You can't do that, Cloud."
"Why not?"
"You just can't." That didn't help at all. Cloud was still confused.
He was placed into a chair at the table. "Be good so I can make us something to eat."
"Otay."
The rest of the morning dragged on slowly. Sephiroth had come downstairs shortly after Cloud finished eating his breakfast, his brothers coming down around lunchtime. It wasn't until near the evening that Jenova appeared.
"Hi, Ba," Cloud greeted. To Cloud, Jenova knew everything. If nobody could give him an answer to something, Cloud would try to ask her. So, after Jenova acknowledged him, Cloud asked one of the questions burning in his mind.
"How come Mama bashes my teef ei day?"
"She's just trying to protect you from the tooth goblins."
"Wha doze?"
"They're little goblins that don't have any teeth of their own. Because of that, they steal dirty teeth from people, clean them up, and stick them in their own mouths."
Now Cloud saw the importance of the three-times-a-day ritual. No stinky tooth goblin was going to get his teeth.
"Wha affabet for?" he asked next.
"Every letter means something different."
Mrs. Strife sat down at the table with everyone else. She had volunteered to wash the dishes after dinner.
"Wha A, B, C, and D for?"
"Those are easy. A is for Arson. B is for Bombs. C is for Cranioectomy gone wrong. D is for Decapitation."
Mrs. Strife looked absolutely shocked and horrified. Cloud was confused again.
"Wha all dat mea?"
"Nothing important." Cloud pouted at this. That was going to be added to his list of phrases he didn't like.
Kadaj and Loz were snickering. Sephiroth and Yazoo couldn't keep a straight face.
"How old are you again?" Sephiroth changed the subject.
"Two!" Cloud held up his right hand.
"That's five fingers, Cloud."
Cloud lowered two fingers.
"That's three."
Cloud lowered another finger.
"You got it."
Cloud beamed with pride. He felt like a genius.
Not too long later, the cake was done. It was just like last year's. Kadaj and Loz had a look of glee painted on their faces.
"Happy birthday, Cloud," Mrs. Strife said first.
"Happy birthday," Sephiroth said next.
"Happy Cake Day," Kadaj mumbled lowly. "I mean, happy birthday," he grumbled more audibly.
"Happy second year, Cloud," Jenova said.
"Happy birthday," Yazoo and Loz said. Loz didn't bother trying to say something else.
Mrs. Strife allowed Cloud to blow out the candles on his own. Mrs. Strife cut the cake and reached to her left to put it on Cloud's plate. Cloud smashed his whole hand into it, grabbed a handful, and brought it to his mouth to eat it. All the cake was consumed after a short while. The couch and TV were completely crowded after some more dish washing.
Cloud couldn't get enough of chocolate. "Chochwit mil!" he said to Sephiroth. "Pease?"
Sephiroth gave Cloud his sippy cup. Cloud drank, his eyes glued to the TV. A jazzy, familiar theme song played. Cloud abandoned his drink on the couch and stood on all fours on the floor. He put his head on the floor and lifted his butt in the air before spinning around.
"What are you doing?" Kadaj asked moodily. He was trying to watch TV, dammit!
"'m dancin'," Cloud said, still spinning. His butt hit the side of Kadaj's head.
"Quit it. You're taking up all the space, hogger."
"You hogger! 'm not a hogger." Cloud stopped anyways. The classic Pink Panther song was over and the episode already started.
Mrs. Strife failed in stifling her giggles. Cloud was just too funny.
Cloud reclaimed his spot on the couch and drank from the sippy cup again. He passed out on Sephiroth's lap an hour later. Mrs. Strife took Cloud upstairs and placed him on the bed before sitting on her rocking chair. Cloud was growing up so fast, and she had even less time with him now.
Started: 2013年2月15日 （金）
Finished: 2013年2月16日 （土）
Bit of a fake history lesson here, since I doubt I'll be able to explain it in future chapters. When the Planet and the Cetra were born, it was a land before time (more specifically, before anybody bothered to decide how to keep track of time. Nothing to do with the movie. :P). When the humans first came around, they decided it would be a great idea to make a way to tell time. When months, days, years, hours, etc. were first adopted, that became the first year of the Common Era. The years after Extinction were the years after the Cetra died out. Of course, the Planet is way older than all of the years in the Common Era.
Jenova's pranks are worse than this. Normally. I couldn't resist sticking the alphabet joke in.
Kajar will be introduced in the future, but go ahead and guess who he is.
A little brother of mine used to say "chochwit" instead of chocolate. I haven't forgotten about it ever since.
So, it's Chapter 6 already and I still don't have any ideas on an ending. This'll be a long story. (Yay?) I'm kinda focusing more on getting to 1980 anyways. I've been itching to write out what happens, but Cloud's gotta have his birthdays first. On a side note: it sometimes stinks that this takes place so far back. Cloud might've had his very own He-Man Woman Haters Club.