4 November 1979
Sephiroth sat right outside the door to the room Mrs. Strife resided in, staring at his mother who was right across. Now was the fourth night that they were doing this, although nothing ever happened. Sephiroth wouldn't move, and neither would his mother; they simply eyed each other, daring the other to do so much as blink.
Sephiroth wondered what he was going to do as the time went by. Jenova had extended her terrorist attempts to the whole day, sitting in the corners of the house and making sure she wasn't in plain sight. In turn, Sephiroth went every single second without sleep, going about the day like he normally would to keep Cloud and Mrs. Strife oblivious. So far, the effects of not sleeping weren't affecting Sephiroth one bit. He didn't even feel drowsy. However, he knew that he wouldn't last anywhere as long as Jenova. It must have been out of pure luck, but she had once gone nearly a whole year with only a few hours of sleep here and there. Sephiroth estimated that he only had, at most, two months before passing out.
Sephiroth jumped and Jenova visibly tensed as the doorknob turned.
Sephiroth tried to scoot backwards as silently as possible when Mrs. Strife reached for the wall on her right. She moved forward, sticking close to the wall and walked in the direction of the bathroom. Sephiroth puzzled over her actions before remembering that humans couldn't see in the dark as well as he and his family could.
Once Mrs. Strife had her back turned to the left part of the hallway, Jenova struck. Mrs. Strife nearly smacked her face to muffled her scream. Jenova's shoulders shook as she held in her snickering. Mrs. Strife trembled as she tried to find what it was that had touched her leg so suddenly. Sephiroth guiltily admitted to himself that it was kind of funny. Who didn't enjoy pulling a scare prank every once in a while?
Sephiroth slowly stood up and tapped Mrs. Strife on the shoulder, grabbing her arm to lead her to the bathroom.
"It was me. Sorry," he whispered, taking the blame. It probably would've been a lot better if she didn't know what was going on.
Mrs. Strife only nodded before turning the bathroom light on and closing the door to do her business. Sephiroth was surprised that his mother hadn't scared the piss out of her already.
Jenova was still shaking with laughter when Sephiroth sat back down.
"You look like a retarded dog," he muttered loud enough for her to hear. Jenova gave him the finger. She didn't do anything else when Mrs. Strife blindly made her way back to bed.
"Why do you keep doing that?" Sephiroth quietly said with some frustration. Jenova had been searching for many opportunities to scare the skin off of Mrs. Strife, though Sephiroth had managed to either stop or mess up most of them.
"Why do you keep cock-blocking?" Jenova shot back.
"Cock-blocking? Seriously?" Sephiroth rubbed his head at the term his mother used. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Let's see... I consider self-mutilation a hobby; I thought and still think that living on a mountain was a great idea..." Jenova was actually counting. She moved on her third finger. "I thought the coldest place on the Planet was a great place to raise four children; I am a pyromaniac; I take great pleasure in making others suffer or feel pain; if I see anything new that runs on electricity I just have to take it apart; I sometimes have sudden urges to kill something; for quite some time, I've been wanting to run around without any clothes on; on most occasions, my insults to others aren't meant to be taken seriously; if I stare into space long enough, food starts to float and fly everywhere before exploding..." Jenova looked down at her hands. "I ran out of fingers."
Sephiroth sighed and shook his head. "You're terrible, you know that?"
"Well aware of it."
5 November 1979
Cloud grabbed onto Sephiroth's shirt to climb up onto him. Sephiroth continued to lay there on the couch as Cloud sat on his back.
"Sephirooooth!" Cloud tugged repeatedly on the man's shirt. "Go color with me!" Cloud had gotten Sephiroth to draw him a prickly little cactus man called a cactuar, another chocobo, a picture of Elmo, and a picture of chocolate heaven. Cloud had colored the cactuar purple, 'cause purple was better than the dark green cactuars normally were; the chocobo was colored white with rainbow spots, 'cause it was the bird's birthday; Elmo stayed red; and Cloud saved the chocolate heaven picture for Sephiroth. It looked yummy when Sephiroth drew it, so it had to look even better if Sephiroth colored it, right?
Sephiroth let out a fake snore. Cloud picked up his butt and slammed it down on Sephiroth's back. Noticing Sephiroth's lack of reaction, Cloud grabbed two handfuls of his hair and pulled.
Sephiroth hissed but still lay there like a lazy bum. Cloud pulled harder.
"Being mean like that won't make me get up." Cloud frowned and let go of Sephiroth's super long hair. After looking at it for a while, he grabbed it again and rubbed his face against the soft silver, unintentionally tugging at it again. Sephiroth turned his head to look at Cloud.
"What are you doing, you little weirdo?"
"You're weird! Not me!" Cloud nearly yelled. Sephiroth's hair looked so soft and Cloud wanted to see if it felt that way, too. It did. Cloud thought of telling Sephiroth to make his hair grow even longer so it could be used as a blanket.
"Be nice, Cloud," Mrs. Strife scolded. She moved from the kitchen to the living room and pulled Cloud off of Sephiroth. Cloud hung onto Sephiroth's shirt, trying to resist his mother's pulling. He only wanted Sephiroth to get up and color with him!
Cloud frowned when he found himself on the floor. Sephiroth turned and sat up, looking down at Cloud.
"I'm going already. I was just thinking about something," Sephiroth said. He stood up and walked past Mrs. Strife with Cloud tagging along behind him. Cloud climbed into his chair and slid the chocolate heaven drawing and his crayons to Sephiroth.
"Make the chocolate brown!" Cloud demanded.
"There's nothing but chocolate in here..."
"But chocolate's good when it's brown!" Every single chocolate that Sephiroth had ever given Cloud was brown, so maybe brown chocolate was the best kind of chocolate. Wait... Could chocolate come in different colors?
"I've seen white chocolate and dark chocolate before," Sephiroth answered when Cloud asked. Sephiroth filled in the chocolate chocobo that was standing on chocolate grass by the chocolate river with a light brown.
"What do they taste like?"
"I wouldn't know. I've never tried them."
"Do you know, mama?"
"White chocolate is really, really sweet," his mother said, watching Sephiroth color.
"Make the chocolate turtle white and brown!" Cloud said quickly. As he watched the picture gain color, he really wished that he were in that chocolate heaven. He imagined himself in that little world with the bright blue sky and fluffy-looking clouds. If it were real, he would be riding the chocolate chocobo, sitting in the chocolate grass and pulling up the tufts to eat, or swimming in the gooey chocolate river with the white and brown chocolate turtle. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! Cloud could never get enough of it. Once all of his candy was gone, he begged Sephiroth to go get him some more. The gummy bears, peppermints, snack cakes, and lollipops that Sephiroth had given him tasted good, too, but none of them could ever be as good as chocolate. Never ever.
An important thought struck Cloud. What if the chocolate land was real? "Can you teach me how to swim?" Cloud ignored his mother's surprised look.
"There aren't any spots of water around here big enough for swimming," Sephiroth replied.
"Why would you want to learn how to swim?" Mrs. Strife asked worriedly. Cloud wanted to frown again. His mother probably wouldn't let him near any water, just like she didn't let him go past a certain distance away from the house when he was outside.
"So I can swim in the chocolate river." Duh! Didn't they know that if the chocolate land was real, the chocolate river would be, too? How was he supposed to swim in the river if he didn't know how?
Instead of getting a yes or a disappointing no for an answer, Sephiroth laughed. Mrs. Strife looked like she wanted to laugh, too. Cloud started to get mad. They weren't supposed to think he was being funny!
Sephiroth slid the finished picture to Cloud. The colored drawing was making Cloud hunger for even more chocolate. He momentarily forgot about his anger to fantasize about the chocolate world again instead. The things he could do in that place! Well, more like eat.
"I can hang it up on the wall for you, if you want," Mrs. Strife offered. She looked impressed by Sephiroth's drawing.
"Okay." Cloud yanked the paper to his chest when his mother tried to take it from him. "No! I'll hold it." He wanted to see it up close for a little while longer.
"There's some tape in the drawers over there," Sephiroth said, referring to the drawers under the TV. Mrs. Strife nodded and went to open them one by one to look. Cloud followed, his eyes still glued on the paper colored many different shades of brown, before something else got his attention.
Jenova sat behind the couch, playing with some string wrapped around her fingers. Cloud wondered how and when she got there when she wasn't there before. He ran up to her to show off his new picture.
"Look at what I got, Ba!" Cloud said proudly.
"Very nice," she said.
"You're not looking!" Cloud whined. Jenova kept her eyes on the string, moving her hands and fingers around to fiddle with it.
"If I were to look, I would want to go there."
"I wanna go, too! Can you help me find Chocolate Land?"
"Maybe someday."
Maybe equals yes. Cloud was overjoyed. He bounced lightly on his feet, passing his mother who had been looking at the scene nervously while standing very closely to Cloud.
"Go put it up, mama!" Cloud ran climbed up the stairs as fast as his little legs let him. Once he got to their room, he impatiently waited for his mother to get there. He almost told her to hurry up, but she got there before he did so. Cloud excitedly handed the picture to her and watched her put the chocolate land on the wall.
Cloud liked how the picture looked on the wall. He then asked his mother to stick the other drawings up on there, too. Cloud thought of all the things he could make Sephiroth draw and sat at the top of the stairs, sliding his butt down every step.
Jenova pulled her hands apart, spreading the string and forming a web. The game was getting more interesting with each passing day and night. She kept her promise; there were no other copies of her roaming around anywhere. Yet the action of chopping off a limb or ripping out an organ was very tempting at times, especially when the human went up the stairs with Cloud, leaving itself vulnerable. After some thought, going after the human without Cloud knowing would have been very difficult if not impossible.
Contrary to what the human may think, Jenova had absolutely nothing against Cloud. No matter who or what age it was, Jenova could never bring herself to hurt a child. Cloud was much too young to have done anything; too young to want to intentionally lie, cheat, or steal. Although she would be contradicting herself when the time came for The Deal to be carried out, Jenova didn't want to hurt Cloud in any way. Besides, after all the time and effort it had taken to bring him into being, he had to be in perfect condition – undamaged.
Jenova manipulated the string and created another web, this time with a different pattern. Her son had better come up with something if he wanted to win this competition.
Notes:
Started: 2013年4月15日（月）
Finished: 2013年4月16日（火）
sphinx-69 got the three words right. "Boot" was actually the Iron Boot, though there are so many variations of it that the general term is just boot. Each variation of the boot was to break or do massive damage to either the feet or the legs. The one I had in mind was the Iron Boot, which was an over-sized boot that anybody could easily have their whole leg slipped into. Wooden wedges would then be placed at the top of the boot and hammered until the victim spilled the beans or the leg was broken. "Maiden" was easily guessable - it was the Iron Maiden, a coffin/sarcophagus/etc. with spikes inside. The spikes were either placed everywhere, or in certain spots that would cause severe bleeding. "Head rest" was the guillotine - that wooden thing with the huge blade used for decapitation. I had seen a special on the history channel and I can't believe that I can still remember what was said about the boot and the iron maiden after seeing it years ago. O_o
I have a few favors to ask of everyone. I had originally intended to first write them here, but Assistant was updated first and I was able to give it two updates in a row. I'm still going to type it all out here. There are two amazing stories on this site, and I feel that they are very underrated. The first is Invictus by Cpl. Hicks. Gah, that one is so awesome! Cloud isn't a wimp, Cloud's mom kicks ass for reasons I won't mention (go read to find out!), there are two people that are the absolute rulers of Candy Land, there is a kick-ass old lady, and so much more! Tiny spoiler: Cloud kicks Sephiroth in the balls!
The second fic is A Coming Out Story by Yooney. That one is most definitely horribly underrated, and it's very unique and well written, like Invictus. I know the authors of their respective stories would really appreciate it if you checked out their stories and followed and/or favorited/reviewed. I'm pretty sure it would also make them happy, and if you make them happy, I'll be happy. Make me happy, and there's a high chance of updates coming out sooner. I'll even leave the links to the two stories in my profile so you don't have to go and search for them. But please, do check out these two fics!