37.
Sunday night at the Strife household
Ever since he'd come back from his 'business trip,' Leon had been bugging him about spending more time together. 'As a family.' Just what I need. Cloud stared at his steak and homemade fries. (And by 'homemade,' it meant that Sora popped it into the mini oven "all by himself!") His steak was cooked perfectly too: Medium; soft to the cut, traces of pink riddling the centre and undeniably juicy. Leon knew him too well.
The man bit the tip of his tongue. Cloud would like to think that his husband knew of his affair on some magic level; that he just knew from the look in his eyes, perhaps a shift in their relationship and sudden absence of his other half, and decided to accept it. Silently. …No, that was dumb.
Cloud was torn.
He wanted to tell him. Leon had been around for nearly half his life. He's cared about the man long before he knew how to love and he's loved him longer than he could remember. That being said, what the hell was wrong with him?
Several weeks ago, he'd accidentally been given a 'Yazoo Crescent's' bank statement and went to drop it off next door. Naturally, Sephiroth answered. Apparently there was one of Cloud's mail mixed in with his pile too. The silveret smiled, invited Cloud in, fetched the item and gave him the mis-delivered biker magazine. Cloud said his thanks, opened the door then turned around to say goodbye.
And Sephiroth kissed him.
When he pulled away, they stared at each other for a long while; their eyes flickered back and forth between their gazes and their lips. He didn't think about it. Everything sitting on his shoulders from weeks before that moment seemed to melt in the way their lips had made contact. It was a kiss unlike any other he'd felt before; Cloud felt his body wanting more of that…comfort and ease? –Whatever it had been. Sephiroth leaned down again and Cloud didn't resist.
Months later, they'd been sneaking around, lying to their families about their oddly-timed whereabouts. They'd even coordinated their schedules, allowing them time for each other Monday nights, Wednesday mornings, Friday nights, and any time (or all) Sunday long. They did this to be inconspicuous. And because Cloud couldn't take two full nights in a row, let alone the morning after. One word echoed in the cold, empty, metallic cranium:
Stupid.
Can you hear the echo? It drowned out Sora and Roxas talking about… stuff.
"So Sora, what's new with you?"
"Look how swiftly he changes the subject." Roxas jested towards Leon.
"I got my religion test back today," he offered, perking up, as it was the test Leon had helped him study for, for the previous week. "I got an 87."
"That's wonderful, Sora." Leon smiled proudly at the boy, and then turned to Roxas, who was fiddling with his fork. "And you, Roxas?"
"This is why I hate sharing classes with you!" he complained, jokingly, jabbing the utensil at his brother. "If you got your test back, then obviously I got mine." He frowned.
"You can't hide everything from us, Roxas. We'd find out through your report card anyway."
"Yeah, but at least that's later on and you find out the overall mark; you don't pinpoint these particular instances…" he muttered, playing around with his rice. He looked back up to find Leon still staring expectantly at him. "I got a 73."
To that, Leon was satisfied for the brunet nodded, contemplating that grade. "Not bad. Respectable, even."
"See, Sora? 'Respectable.'" He said the last word with an intentional lisp. "With you it's 'wonderful, Sora~!" He waved his hands up near his head and adorned a circus-freak sort of expression to mock Leon's compliment to his brother. "He only says that since you got the higher mark (doesn't matter what mark) and he's compared us."
"We're twins; it's inevitable, so get over it." Sora deadpanned, stating the obvious.
Roxas pff-d and stabbed at his meat. "If you had gotten a 70, or even a 72 – ho ho ~ dad's reaction would have been completely different!"
"Oh, definitely. Then my money-maker would be you," Leon motioned to Roxas. "and then I'd never be able to retire." Sora snickered at Roxas' not-amused face, despite the fact that Leon was smiling at him, signifying that he was indeed, only joking.
"Yeah, yeah. If anybody wins the lottery or gets famous, nobody tell Leon."
A little further through dinner, Leon asked again, "So nothing new happened this week? Roxas? Sora?"
The latter of the two put his fork down. "Well…" he smiled, looking across that table at his brother, who looked back at him excitedly and with slight bewilderment.
"Now?"
"Why not?" Sora shrugged, mirroring his twin's mischievous grin. "Dad," he looked at Leon. "Dad," he looked at Cloud. "You may be interested to know, that I," pause for effect, "have a boyfriend."
"Wow."
"That's great, Sora." Leon added. "Who is it?"
"It's Riku!"
Two sets of cutlery hit their plates in unison as well as the next uttered name. "Riku?" Sora's jaw slackened and his body stiffened under the surprised gazes from his two fathers and the room was filled with a stale silence.
"…Yeah, guys it's Riku." Roxas supplied, after a long while. "Is there a problem with that?"
Leon cleared his throat and ignored Roxas. "You slept over at that boy's house the other night. Did something happen to make you two so suddenly close?" Chills ran both twins' spines.
"We've always been close." Sora said, doing his best not to look nervous like he was hiding anything. "Nothing happened!" Well… nothing happened that he didn't want to happen. Sora never wanted to lie, but Leon's reactions were far from beckoning the full truth from him. He was in so much trouble; the only objective at this point was to get out.
Obviously, Leon didn't buy it. "You are not to see him again."
"WHAT?"
"You are not allowed to see him without another person present. Not unless you're in public. Am I clear?"
"As DIRT," Sora spat. "Dad, you can't tell me who I can or cannot date." Where was this coming from? Why was this happening? He never thought he'd have to defend his views on relationships. To Leon for that matter.
"Dating's fine! Go ahead and date. That's not the issue here. It's the sleeping over, being alone in the house doing God knows what. It might have been okay when you were kids, but it's not anymore and I need you to understand that."
Sora took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his nerves. "Look, Riku is a great guy. He's smart, he's responsible and he cares about me. I'm starting a relationship with him that I'm really, very happy about!" He etched a small smile and directed it at the older brunet in hopes to comfort his fears and to emphasize the ingredient of happiness.
But Leon squinted. "'Starting a relationship with him'? You've already spent the night with him. How do you think that looks?" He asked seriously.
"This is Riku!" he said exasperatedly. "Riku; our friend; our neighbour, who we've known forever! The fact that we are first and foremost friends hasn't changed a bit! I've slept over at his house countless of times!"
"But not since you decided to get romantic with him," Leon added. "It's very different, Sora. You have to understand that it's very different!"
"Why can't you let me figure that out myself? This is probably the biggest and best thing that's ever happened to us." His tone then suddenly changed for the serious and completely adamant. "And we get to decide at what pace we go. Not you."
With that open-ended mention of confirmation, the lack of denial to what he had been meaning, Leon abruptly stood from the table. "I've heard enough."
"Dad!"
"This discussion is over, Sora," Leon shot back with a less than composed mood, for which he had attempted. The teen scowled at the table. It wasn't long before he too, left and ran up the staircase. Roxas and Cloud heard the slam of his bedroom door.
At the table, the younger blond looked at the stairs, then at the kitchen; then back to the stairs, and then to Cloud. "Am I crazy? That's supposed to be us, right?" Cloud just looked at him.
Cloud walked into the kitchen with his and his sons' plates, as Leon was absently scrubbing away at a black pan.
"You're quiet," Leon said, at the blond's arrival.
"So is Roxas." Who had gone upstairs to talk to Sora.
"Nothing to say?"
"Nothing that you haven't already." Cloud placed the dishes next to Leon to be washed and opened up the fridge to fetch the pitcher of water.
"Well… good." Leon nodded. "I'm glad we're on the same page."
"Yeah." Liar. In reality, he didn't really mind that Sora and Riku were together. "What you said was true. With Riku. It wouldn't be right."
It was just because Riku knew about him. Cloud was cheating on his sons' father with his son's new boyfriend's father. So not only was he distancing Sora from Riku, but himself and Riku. Cloud felt sick to his stomach; these lies were eating him alive.
It was one rotten tomato turning the rest of the crate into the same, fuzzy, green, putrid state…
…Ink diffusing in water…
…Yawning in a crowd…
…Wet sock in the hamper…
…farting in an elevator!
Cloud's water flowed way past the rim of his glass and got to know the pearly white tile of the kitchen floor.
"Hey, are you alright in there?"
"Huh? Oh shoot!" Cloud stopped pouring and stepped back from the glass when his Fruit of the Looms got moist. "Well, you know… water…. Clear glass…" Where are you going with this? "Saw right through it!"
PATHETIC.
Yeah, you better laugh awkwardly. You're lucky Leon hadn't seen right through you these past couple of weeks. Leon tilted his head in confusion but went back to scrubbing the oil off the cooking ware, while Cloud went back to his aneurysm. This was ridiculous and enough was enough.
The human soul was not fabricated to endure the weight of such an exorbitant amount of lies! He had to put a stop to this. Soon.
Twenty minutes later, he found himself staring into a panda-shaped ashtray, having inhaled about five already. He had buried his tobacco-scented hands into his tight jean pockets, contemplating how to even begin to come out with the truth.
He knew he had to tell everyone, even his sons. But would it be better to tell them one by one? At different times? Who first? How should he approach? Slowly, bit by bit, allowing them to take it in in sips? Or all at once with one big gulp and proceed according to their reactions? How would they react? Angry, doomsday, violent? Sad, mournful, tears? Disappointed, detached, cold? Accusing, finger-pointing, handing out blame? Or worst of all; denial, plastic…scary.
There were just too many things that could happen. It was like a tree chart with an innumerable amount of variables, that when combined, elicited an exponential number of outcomes. It was impossible to see or predict at this point, and he would just had to dive right in and see what would be made of it.
"Ugh." He hated swimming.
"You're having the cigarette before the sex. That's new."
Cloud lifted his head from his palms. "Sephiroth."
"Family fun time is over?"
Wow, he wasted no time. "Yeah. What a blast," he replied lifelessly.
"Good." The silveret stepped forward, threaded his fingers through Cloud's hair and massaged the man's scalp. "Now let's go have some real fun."
It took a large amount of willpower for Cloud not to snort at the cheesy initiating line. Though playing coy, using innuendos and talking dirty were not uncommon forms of behaviour exchanged between them. (And the fingertips above his neck felt so good.) So Cloud played along, closed his eyes, rolled his neck into the man's fingers and sighed.
"Seph, it's late." He didn't say it to dissuade his partner, but to put it forth and make it known, so that some form of reason was acknowledged by both of them.
"It's Sunday."
"Your son is home. Did I mention that he knows about his?"
"My son respects me. And he also knows exactly when to turn on Slipknot."
Cloud sighed/laughed –at what exactly, he didn't know. Mechanically, he threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray, scratched his head a few times and got up to face the silveret. "Let's go." Sephiroth smirked and put an arm around the blond's shoulders, leading him out of the dusty garage. Cloud inputted the code on the keypad and the garage door closed, leaving the two in the cool night.
They were about halfway between the lawn that divided their houses, when a commotion was heard. They stopped and looked up at Sora's open window, Riku sitting on the edge of it. The boy had one leg in, one leg out to keep his balance, his arms tucked in a light jacket for warmth. The two men outside could see a sad, discouraged expression on his face.
The two young boys seemed to be in the middle of a disagreement; Sora distressed and Riku attempting to comfort him. Cloud stared awestruck at the words of his own son.
"Why should I calm down? Do you like hiding things from people? Do you feel good after lying to your family about who you've been seeing after the sun goes down? Because I don't. But I have to now because of what we did!"
The two men stayed undetected for nearly ten minutes, before Sephiroth pulled them out of their nosy state. "Come on, Strife."
Cloud let himself be led into the man's house, feeling nothing, thinking of nothing; letting himself go and following the silveret's lead, deeper into their affair.
I'M DONE EXAMS = I'M DONE HIGH SCHOOL. CHYEAHHH ~!
NOW I CAN CONCENTRATE ON WRITING, WATCHING, SLEEPING AND FAPP-uh, MORE YAOI!
DO YOU STILL LOVE THIS STORY?
ATTENTION: THIS FOLLOWING PART CONSISTS OF CHAPTERS I'VE WRITTEN BACK WHEN THIS STORY STARTED (Thursday February 18, 2010 if you remember chapter one). These are the chapters that started it all and that were the basis of writing a full-length story. Ahhh the nostalgia ~ And since these ARE old chapters, they've already been written.
So REVIEW! 8D
I could post the next one... t o d a y if you'd like -shrugg- ^^
YHS
xDelfin
