To the Morrow, For the Past
Chapter 28 – Their Family
"You know, I'm eventually going to need my hand back..." Cloud said with amusement. They had made their way back to the Shinra building – Sephiroth finally agreeing that if he was gone for too long, he would actually be missed – and were standing in the elevator.
Cloud didn't know which floor they were going to, and found he didn't actually care. He'd spent a few hours with Zeke and Aerith before heading up to the plate and was content to spend this time with Sephiroth.
"No." Sephiroth told him with a smile and a small squeeze of the hand. "You're right handed. I'm left handed. This works."
Cloud chuckled and shook his head, "And if you're sent on a mission?" He asked, "Are you intending on dragging me a long – literally?" He returned the squeeze on the hand.
"I wont be sent on a mission." Sephiroth assured him.
"Even you can't turn down all missions, Sephiroth." Not that it overly bothered Cloud at the moment. But he really would eventually need his hand back and he didn't feel like being (literally) dragged along when in battle. Or even worse, on a political mission.
"No-one will be giving me missions."
The elevator stopped and Cloud looked around in curiosity. They were on the apartment level. It looked like nothing had changed at all. "Why's that?"
"I own the company."
This caused Cloud to stop dead, and Sephiroth had to stop a moment later when his hand was tugged. He turned and gave Cloud a sly smile.
"Since when?" This was new. Cloud hadn't been expecting that, and was more than a little curious – and surprised. Just how long had he been gone!? He knew it was a while, but wasn't entirely sure. Things had changed a lot – he may have been gone longer than he thought.
"Since yesterday. Technically." Sephiroth shrugged and gave a short yank on Cloud's arm to get them moving again. "I overthrew Shinra and took over. I've placed Reeve Tuesti in charge of everything bar the military. Which Zack and I are running."
"Well I guess that solves a few problems..." Like the fact that Cloud was legally dead and would need to sort that out. Originally, he'd decided that rejoining SOLDIER was something he would try to avoid, but if Sephiroth was in charge, that changed things. He needed a lot more information before he could make his decision on that matter. The fact that Sephiroth had put Reeve in charge should probably have been more of a surprise, but in Cloud's opinion, the man was the best for the job. He'd done it well in the future, after all. "Why did you do it?"
It was Sephiroth's turn to hesitate, but luckily they'd reached his apartment and he had a reason to stop. He opened the door and pulled Cloud inside before closing it again. "For you." He admitted quietly after the door was closed. "Our first goal was to take over the company. Second is to take care of the people. Eventually, we intend on shutting down the mako production and moving to other sources of power..."
Cloud was going to respond, but was pulled from his thoughts when Sephiroth used the hand he was holding to draw Cloud close.
"We intended on completing your mission." Sephiroth continued, "I... wanted to protect the lifestream... so that it would still be there when I came to you."
Cloud's heart melted. He was a little overwhelmed by this man, by his mission statement, by his reasoning. He lifted his chin and looked at him, unable to think of the words to convey what he was feeling.
Instead, he changed the subject. "I told you that I had to sort out my feelings," He began, suppressing the urge to let go of Sephiroth and pace while he spoke about his feelings, "Before I could use them to come home..." Sephiroth gave him a small nod and Cloud continued, "I..." How did one even do this? Tell someone their feelings? Cloud wasn't exactly good at this side of things, even when he knew what the other person felt. "I want to try." His voice had fallen to a whisper, and he could feel his skin turning pink. "With you." Was there any easier way to say this? A way where he wouldn't feel completely embarrassed by what he was saying? Maybe a way where he could get out a full sentence at once without stuttering like a lost teenager.
He had missed out on most of his adolescence. He'd never actually learned how to do any of this. Sex... that he could do. He'd had some experience in that, but it had never had feelings involved. It had always been a physical need shared by two people. Never... romantic.
Sephiroth tilted his head to the side and gave him a curious look. "Try what?" He asked and Cloud ducked his head, hiding it against Sephiroth's chest.
"A relationship, idiot." He muttered against the leather, "I can't say I'll be any good at it, and I can't promise that it'll always be good... But I want to try."
Sephiroth's free arm circled Cloud and they stood quietly for a moment.
"I mean... it's been a while since I left and you might have found someone else and you might not be interested anymore and that's okay if you're not because I can't expect you to still want me after all this time and I can back off if you need me to and-"
"So that's where Zeke gets that from..." Sephiroth's tone was amused, and he gave a small laugh. "You both speak in extraordinary long sentences when flustered. Apparently you also forget to breathe."
A hand reached under Cloud's chin and lifted it so that Sephiroth could look down at him. "Cloud," He said his name as if it was the most precious word in the universe, and Cloud felt his heart jump. "I still want you." He told him, and again, Cloud forgot how to breathe.
Was it always this intense? Cloud wasn't sure if that would be a good thing or not. His heart was beating rapidly and his stomach was all fluttery. It wasn't an entirely comfortable feeling, but it wasn't a bad one either. He found that his mouth was dry and he swallowed.
"Then..."
Sephiroth's smile was small and sweet, "Then we try. But I believe for both of us, a slow progression would be best."
Cloud could agree to that, he nodded, "Slow works."
– – – – – – – –
Cloud had no idea what he was doing. After a long moment of silence by the door, Sephiroth had suggested that they sit down, and Cloud had readily agreed. However, Sephiroth still would not let go of Cloud's hand.
Eventually, they had found a comfortable position. Cloud was leaning against Sephiroth's chest with Sephiroth's arm over his own, still holding his left hand. It was mostly comfortable because of their proximity to each other and they could both relax. It was nice.
This position was how Zack found them, when he let himself into Sephiroth's apartment, apparently looking for Sephiroth. "Seph-" He walked in and caught sight of them, his eyes going wide and a grin on his face. "It is you!" He called at Cloud, throwing himself at them on the couch, which resulted in a seriously awkward and uncomfortable hug and a knee dangerously close to somewhere painful. "You're alive!"
"Hello Zack." Cloud laughed, wriggling slightly to relieve some of the pressure that Zack was putting on his arm. Sephiroth still hadn't let go and Zack was pinning him uncomfortably. "I need to breathe, Zack." Cloud managed to mutter after a moment, prompting the young man to back off. He sat on his heels in front of the couch, grinning like a fool as Cloud rearranged himself on the couch. Somehow he ended up in Sephiroth's lap, rubbing at his wrenched arm.
"It's you! You're alive! You're real!" Zack was prodding at Cloud's knee and Cloud chuckled.
"Yes Zack. It's me. I'm alive. And I'm real." He relaxed against Sephiroth who snaked his arm around Cloud's midsection.
"And sitting in Sephiroth's lap." Zack added, giving them a curious look.
"Being dead causes you to re-evaluate your life." Cloud shrugged, "And he wont give me my hand back." He added with a fake pout, laughing again when Sephiroth squeezed his hand.
"About time!" Zack stood and sat on a chair, still staring at Cloud who sighed.
"I'm not going to disappear!" He told them both, "I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm staying." He couldn't blame them, not really. He had been gone for a while and he could understand how difficult it might be to let someone go. He turned his face to Sephiroth, "I do need my hand back now." He told him.
Sephiroth shook his head. "We've been through this." He told Cloud, a smile playing on the edge of his mouth.
"I need the bathroom." Cloud told him, "And taking it slow means you don't get to watch that."
Cloud had his hand back, and the arm around his waist slowly let go. After a second, Cloud was free and he stood from Sephiroth's lap to make his way to the bathroom. He was gone for all of two minutes. When he came back, eyes were on him from the moment he was visible from the couch and he sighed again and shook his head, amused. He wondered how long these two would look at him like that.
He took a seat next to Sephiroth on the couch and gave a small yelp as the man pulled him back on to his lap. "Sephiroth, I'm not going to disappear."
The younger man just shrugged.
"I think he likes you," Zack said to Cloud in a mock whisper and Cloud absolutely lost it. He burst out laughing, which was quickly joined by the other two.
It was good to be home.
– – – – – – – – – – –
There really wasn't any 'normal' to return to, but Cloud gave it his best shot. It had taken two days for Sephiroth to finally allow Cloud out of his sight, which had made for a few awkward moments. He'd even insisted that Cloud sleep near him and would periodically wake in the night to check on him on his small futon. Cloud wondered how much of that was really worry about Cloud disappearing, and how much of it was simply the fact that Cloud was back, and Sephiroth liked to be reassured of that.
Things were different than before. Most notably was the fact that Shinra was under new management. They didn't have the old routine anymore, and Sephiroth suddenly had even more paperwork to take care of. He'd risen from soldier to leader and with that came a lot more desk work.
In the two days that he'd insisted Cloud accompany him, they'd spoken about logistics and had Cloud reinstated. Cloud was now back to being a SOLDIER First Class, and had agreed to help Sephiroth and Zack run the military.
He'd gone from being a leader of six people, to commanding a military. It was rather a jump, and Cloud was a little overwhelmed at times, but it was a step towards his final goal. They were bringing Shinra down from the inside.
"Why do all of these files have my name on them?" Cloud asked one day, regarding the papers with curiosity.
"Hmm?"
"Strife." Cloud dropped one of the pages onto a pile on the floor in front of him. "Strife." Another, "Strife." Another.
"Because I didn't like the name AVALANCHE and we had to call ourselves something." Sephiroth didn't even look up from his desk, left hand still moving furiously as he amended and signed things.
"You named the resistance Strife?" Cloud asked, looking at the pile of known members. It was huge. Much bigger than AVALANCHE had ever been.
Sephiroth shrugged, "It seemed fitting." He told him. "I was doing it in your memory, after all."
"I can only imagine the problems that caused my counterpart." Cloud added more papers to the pile, reading over them carefully, "Except he was apparently a member?"
"Was he?" Sephiroth moved another sheet to the side and finally looked down at Cloud. "You would probably be more comfortable at a desk..." He said for the third time that day.
"Told you, more comfortable on the floor." Cloud didn't look up as he sorted through files. "When I was in AVALANCHE, our meetings were in a basement. We didn't really have floor space. And after, when I was a delivery boy, I spent most of my time staying in the church. I spent a lot of my adult life filling in paperwork while sitting on the floor." He neatened a pile and finally looked up at Sephiroth, giving a small smile when their eyes met. "You should hire a secretary." He told him, "We all should. Someone who can take care of most of this paperwork for us."
Sephiroth tilted his head for a moment. "I hadn't considered that possibility." He admitted.
"You own the company now. You can do whatever you want. Hiring a secretary would be a fantastic start. If you don't want one, I definitely do, and I'm sure Zack does too. At this rate, it'll be hours before I can leave, and I promised Zeke and Aerith I'd take them to dinner. Assuming that my bank account isn't frozen or empty or something."
"You received back pay." Sephiroth told him. "I still haven't changed any policies for SOLDIER. The current policy states that if you were erroneously declared dead, you would be paid for the time between the announcement and your return to active duty."
"How long have I been gone?" Cloud asked, curious as to how much he would have stored in the bank by now.
"Three-hundred and sixty five days. Exactly one year between your death and your return." Sephiroth pushed his paperwork aside and leaned on his desk, ignoring it in favour of talking to Cloud. And looking at him. Cloud was sure he'd eventually get used to the staring.
Cloud did some math and his eyes widened a little. The pay with SOLDIER hadn't been that great, but it hadn't been awful either. One years wages for a SOLDIER on stand by was a substantial amount. He'd had more, when travelling to stop Meteorfall he'd amassed quite a small fortune, but not in a long while. He let out a slow whistle.
Sephiroth smirked and shrugged, "You are also now on an executive pay scale. There may be a reduction soon, but until then your pay has more than doubled."
Cloud blinked at Sephiroth, "I don't need that much..." He told him, "Send half of it to Reeve and earmark it for schools." He stretched and sighed before getting back into the paperwork. He was currently sorting through piles of personnel files, weeding out the ones that may cause trouble in the future – those that had been loyal to Shinra – and putting aside those that could be trusted.
So far, the trusted pile was a lot larger than the trouble pile. It was somewhat satisfying to see just how few people had actually liked the way the company had been run and how many of them had taken sides with Sephiroth.
After another hour, Cloud stretched again and stood. "Right." He said, "I'm calling it a night." Carefully, he picked his way through the office to Sephiroth's desk. "And you need to take a break too." He took the pen from Sephiroth and smiled down at him. "You're coming to dinner."
"Of course I'm coming." Sephiroth told him, almost pouting. "Invited or not, I was intending on being there."
Cloud shrugged, "We all just assumed you would anyway. You've been following me around like a lost chocobo chick for the last few days."
To his credit, Sephiroth didn't turn entirely pink. Just a small flush on his cheeks when Cloud called him out.
"C'mon." Cloud made his way around the desk and took Sephiroth's hand, pulling him to his feet. "Let's not keep our family waiting."
"There's something we need to do first." Sephiroth reached into his draw with his spare hand and pulled out a PHS, handing it to Cloud. He then pulled his own out of his pocket and typed on it for a moment.
The one in Cloud's hand buzzed, and he realised that it was his. From before he died. "You kept this running?" He asked, opening it out of curiosity. It was fully charged and - "I have over 2000 missed calls...?" He flicked through the list and found a vast majority of them were from Sephiroth and Zack.
The flush on Sephiroth's face now deepened and the man kept his eyes on his own phone. "Your voice mail..." he muttered.
Ah. Cloud's answering machine message. Cloud remembered calling Aerith's a few times after she'd died, just so that he could hear her voice one more time. With a flick of his fingers, Cloud deleted the call history, and his emails. If there was anything important, he could find out without having to troll through thousands of messages.
"There." Sephiroth said, flicking his phone closed.
Cloud's beeped again, and he checked it. Sephiroth had sent a company wide email announcing Cloud's return from a 'deep cover mission'. Cloud gave Sephiroth a curious look.
"You were reported dead." He told him, "This way, if you are seen in public, there will be no questions. Deep cover missions tend to be classified. Nobody will ask you about it."
It made sense, Cloud supposed, and he nodded. Using the hand that was holding Sephiroth's, he pulled the man across the room to the exit and then paused. "Speaking of being seen in public..." He looked down at their joined hands.
As they'd agreed, they were taking things slowly. They hadn't done anything beyond holding hands and holding each other close. It had only been two days, and this was new to both of them, so neither of them had felt the need to push things. But that was in private.
"I am more than happy for the world to know that you are with me." Sephiroth told him, "But if you're uncomfortable with that..."
After a moments thought, Cloud shook his head. He let go of Sephiroth's hand only so that he could reach out for the other. It was a lot more comfortable to walk side by side this way. "There are worse things in the world," he said with a smirk, "Than being seen to belong to the most powerful man in the world."
"You don't belong to me, Cloud." None the less, Sephiroth held Cloud's hand tightly as they made their way to the elevators. "But I can understand the sentiment." Once the elevator doors had closed behind them, Sephiroth turned to Cloud and looked at him in that particular way that made Cloud's stomach feel strange.
Without thinking, Cloud lifted a hand and pulled Sephiroth down so he could place a soft kiss on the man's lips. Sephiroth let out a soft, surprised noise but pulled Cloud closer, his free hand resting lightly on Cloud's hips. The kiss was short and sweet, and when they pulled apart Cloud chuckled lightly at how pink Sephiroth had become. It was a good colour on the man.
"I like doing that." Sephiroth told him, sounding a little breathless. "We should do that more."
The elevator came to the ground floor before Cloud could say anything, and he ignored the urge to jump back and save face in case anyone was watching. Instead, he just slowly stepped back and turned to exit, walking past a stunned SOLDIER. The man looked slightly familiar, but Cloud couldn't quite place him.
Not that it mattered. They walked past the man and headed out the doors. They had somewhere to be.
– – – – – – – –
"They're here!" Aerith stood at their table and waved them over, a big happy grin on her face.
Cloud felt a little guilty, he hadn't been back to see Aerith since his return, and he'd only spent a couple of hours down there when he first got back. But she seemed happy enough that he was here, and he let go of his guilt – something else he'd been working on.
They had to move chairs around a little to fit everybody in, and Sephiroth was still insisting on sitting to Cloud's left, their hands still joined. Nobody at their table said anything about it.
When their food came, Cloud leaned to the side a little to nudge Sephiroth's shoulder. "I need my hand." He told him quietly. After a second, and a tiny almost pout, Sephiroth gave it up.
"I was going to make a joke." Zeke muttered, gesturing to where their hands had been held under the table, "About you being my new step daddy."
Sephiroth looked at him in confusion. "I am your legal parent..." He reminded him.
"Exactly! Now you've taken away the joke that people with single parents love!" The boy wasn't really complaining. Cloud could tell that he was more amused than anything else. But that did bring something up that Cloud had been curious about.
"When you took over, what did you do with Hojo?" He asked Zack and Sephiroth.
"I... took care of him." Zack told him, "He can't hurt anybody anymore." Cloud could read between the lines. Hojo was dead. That was a massive relief to Cloud and he let out a small breath.
"Good." He said with a nod, before turning to Zeke and Sephiroth. "That means that I can claim Zeke again?"
"There... might be a little more paperwork involved." Sephiroth admitted. Cloud was waiting for him to explain, but Zeke got there first.
"This year, for my birthday, Sephiroth legally adopted me." Zeke told Cloud, "So that if anything happened to him, I'd be considered an heir."
"I wanted to make sure that he would always be provided for." Sephiroth added, looking down at his half eaten meal.
"They made me godmother." Aerith added from her side of the table. "And my mother, if something happened to me."
Cloud looked at his friends. They had all done their part to make sure that his son was taken care of after he'd died. They had done everything they could to ensure the safety of the most important thing in Cloud's life.
"Thank you." Those words didn't seem to be enough, didn't cover just how much their actions had meant to him. He looked around the table, at each one of them, a little overcome with emotion. He felt a hand gently squeeze his knee and realised that his face must have been expressive.
"Unfortunately that means that in order for you to adopt Zeke, I must first disown him." Sephiroth admitted, "We weren't expecting to have that... come up."
Cloud nodded, thinking on things. Did it matter if he had no legal claim over his son? The boy was probably better off financially and legally where he was rather than with Cloud. But...
"Or you two could get married." Zeke piped up and Cloud almost choked on his food. He coughed a few times and shook his head.
"That's- we just- there's a lot-" He couldn't quite finish a sentence and cut himself off when he realised that Zeke was laughing at him, almost cackling. The rest of the table were either smiling with humour or also laughing, including Sephiroth.
"That is a conversation for the future." He told Zeke, still chuckling. "Do you feel better, now that you've got your joke?"
Zeke nodded, still laughing. "Your face!" He said to Cloud. "Man I wish I had a camera."
Zeke had changed so much in just a year. Cloud watched his son for a while, marvelling in the differences. The boy was now ten years old, and a few cementers shorter than Cloud. In a few months, he would be taller than him. His personality had grown too, he was less shy and a lot more sure of himself. He also apparently liked to pick on Cloud a little.
So Cloud decided to be the mature one of them and poke his tongue out at the boy, which simply made the kid laugh even harder.
– – – – – – – – – –
