Trapdoor (Part 7)
by anza (22.11.05)
"Nii-san." The voice was quiet in the night.
Cloud sat up straight - straight into Kadaj's arms, that is. His youngest brother was half-kneeling on the bed, hands holding his shoulders, eyes wide with fear. For a moment Cloud stared at him as if he could see through him. And then he blinked, blinked twice, and the tenseness in his shoulders relaxed under Kadaj's touch.
"Kadaj."
"Nii-san, what's wrong?" Kadaj let go long enough to grab Cloud's sleep robe and forcefully wrap it around him as they trooped downstairs. Cloud's worst enemy, sitting innocently on the kitchen counter, cheerfully proclaimed it was three in the morning. He would have to go to work in four hours. He would have groaned, except then Kadaj would be frantic with worry that his brother was suffering through fits or something. Once in a while, his youngest brother's "mother hen" senses were cute - but not at three in the morning.
Especially when he was the object of Cloud's dreams.
Goddammit, he wanted to swear, I'm fucking twenty-seven! Not some blushing virgin teenager entering puberty! Wordlessly Kadaj handed him a cup of pure black bitterness, and he downed it like a shotglass. He was angry - no, furious! - but there was nothing he could do about it. There was no way to stave off pervy dreams, last time he checked. He didn't believe in nighttime knockout medicine (probably because he'd taken too many when he was younger and was now immune to every over-the-counter brand), he didn't believe in wonky Eastern sleep techniques, and he sure didn't think anything Kadaj was doing right now would make him sleep any better. He might as well go and watch TV in the living room until it was time to go work, and just snap at everybody tomorrow. Or rather, today.
Kadaj sat opposite him as he always did, eyes concerned. After a moment his head bent, cushioned on his arms, and they simply stared at each other. Cloud held that gaze as long as he could, mind still remembering the frenzy and the twist of their dream-bodies on the sheets - no, no, NO, this could not go on. With a grunt of supplication, he slid the cup over to Kadaj with a drop-dead fatigued look. The youngest gave a small, sympathetic smile, refilled the cup, and slung it back over with Tifa's expert bartending skills. Those green eyes, looking at him so tenderly, so caringly...and suddenly Cloud was coughing on his coffee, spitting it back into the cup.
"What the hell," he spluttered, gagging at the salty liquid.
There came a snicker from the other side of the table, and in a burst of inspiration from within Cloud's sleep-fuzzy mind pinpointed the culprit. The dining table gave a shudder as Cloud physically climbed over it, the coffee cup toppling to the ground and splashing the carpet (cleaned last week - not that the stains ever got washed out now, the whole rug was permanently dyed brown on one side and green on the other from the boys' Halloween experiment of dying and drying their individual Robin Hood/Merry Men costumes) dark black in the dim light. Kadaj gave a squeak and dove into the hallway, Cloud at his heels. The older brother gave a growl and almost reached his own home office before his face abruptly met the door. A jolt of annoyance lanced through him, and he tried the doorknob - locked. He could hear a smattering of giggling from inside.
"What did you put into the coffee?" He pounded three times on the door for effect.
"Not telling you," Kadaj singsonged.
He paused. "It'll give Tifa some ideas to get rid of customers." He hoped that would be enough incentive - Kadaj took to the woman quickly at their first meeting, probably seeing a fellow conspirator and prank puller, which could only mean more headaches for Cloud in the future.
Instantly the lock clicked, and the door started to open. Cloud didn't wait until it was fully open until he shot inside, seizing his brother and wrestling him to the ground. He wasn't weak, the youngest - but he was no match for Cloud, who pinned him until he couldn't hold his grip anymore, he was laughing so hard. It must be three thirty now, he thought, three thirty in the morning with a cup of black coffee and my attractive younger brother in my arms, and I'm laughing. That is, after I just had a wet dream about him half an hour ago. Even now, the pit of his desire, pooling in the bottom of his stomach, fanned out like liquid flame.
The world was messed up, he realized belatedly. But with Kadaj resting so gingerly in his arms, he didn't care.
----------
"Hey," Tifa greeted from the doorway.
Cloud looked up from his work and just looked at her for a minute. She really was pretty, her hair down to the middle of her back, dressed in a black tank and capris. The earrings he'd given her to wear for the dance were dangling from her ears now, sparkling silver drops with three diamonds embedded in each. He hadn't felt any shock at all when he saw them at the store, knew they were made for her, and bought them on the spot. Now, he looked at them and racked his brains for any time he bought something expensive for Kadaj. The bike was the closest, probably - which was probably still hidden in that back alley, as he hadn't told Kadaj where he'd hid it after he threw up, and he himself had yet failed to retrieve it.
"Hey," he greeted back, and stifled a yawn. It'd been a long day. The new model of CD players was selling well, as were the mp3 players, but as for the dishwashers and dryers, they would need more people to try them out before they could conclusively launch a larger-scale advertising campaign for them. As the largest producer of electronic goods, Shin-Ra Company had a reputation to keep, one that Cloud didn't particularly care for except for it paid for Loz's lodgings, Yazoo's tuition and he and Kadaj's daily livelihoods. And hence, the daily drag of work, like he probably would work until he was sixty and then abruptly fell down dead from overwork.
Somewhere during his ruminations, Tifa had snuck up behind him. As soon as her fingers began to massage the tension out of his shoulders, he gasped in relief, and then gave an "Uhhnn..." of relief. He had been stuck behind his desk all day, looking over papers, comparing charts, writing out new orders, telling people to stop reading porn online and get to work, now please?Sometimes he told them they were worse than all three of his brothers put together. His coworkers just gave each other a look, a smile, and then dutifully went back to work. Once he'd asked why they smiled, and they replied, "Well, they're your brothers after all - blame your own influence on them!"
He had stared in disbelief that his own fellow coworkers would blame him for his brother's bad behavior, until he thought about it and figured it was probably true. It was certainly true they hung out with him a lot, Kadaj leading the lot with almost a fanatical adoration of him. He didn't know why, really - once, Loz had explained it as having "saved them from being in the care of someone else", but then just shook his head and went away. Cloud had thought about that for a while, wondering if he really was THAT good of a big brother, if he was really worth their time. But these were all questions that he couldn't possibly answer...
"Wanna go out for a snack?" Tifa's voice flowed into his ears.
"Mmhmm...," came Cloud's intelligent answer. He was already imagining the taste of a chocolate eclair from the pastry shop down the street.
After gathering his things ("Why do you need so many papers? I thought you actually spent time with Kadaj when you get home," Tifa rebuked him), they set off not for the cafe, but for Tifa's bar. Surprisingly enough, Sephiroth was there, absently washing dishes and glasses. Cloud could tell his brain was somewhere in Neverland because half the glasses came out still dirty. Quietly Cloud took up another rag and began rewashing them.
Tifa hummed as she prepared panini for the three of them. The roar of the fire was loud enough so that Cloud winced when a particularly angry sizzle of oil hit the pan, he couldn't hear Sephiroth talking until after it had died down. "Huh," he said, turning to the silver-haired man confusedly. Really, he was full of witty remarks today.
"I said, have you resolved your trouble with Kadaj?"
Cloud glanced at Tifa, but she was singing a pop song at the top of her lungs - and off-key. With a bit of desperation to escape the noise (like a warbling chocobo, he thought - and then realized he had no idea what a chocobo was), he answered, "Er...yeah."
"You don't sound convinced."
He looked down at the glass in his hands. He had polished it enough so he could at least see the shine of his blue eyes in it. He gave a sigh, "No, I guess not."
Like a laser field, Cloud could distinctly feel Sephiroth looking him over. "Well," the older man offered at last, "just get it over with soon."
He would have replied, if Tifa hadn't shoved a still-piping hot panini sandwich into his mouth, still chirping like a chocobo. Sephiroth looked politely increduous for a moment before he took broke into a smile as Cloud coughed out the food. Licking his lips curiously, he realized he recognized the taste -
"Wha...?" And then he remembered. "Kadaj called you, didn't he," he asked murderously. "This tastes like his goddamn coffee this morning!"
"Pure vinegar," Tifa chirruped.
With one last gag, Cloud downed a water and staggered out of the bar. His little brother was going to pay for this humiliation.