Blizzaga
Summary: A naturally formed materia is destroyed in a fight, between Sephiroth and the other two Generals, while it was being cast. Midgar becomes the new Nibelhiem and Cloud is not amused.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII, or anything really.
Also this is not a continuation of the Keeping Silent Fics but a completely new oneshot that will also have a sequel.
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Snow wasn't a friend to Cloud. It reminded him of all the things he wished to forget. It made him think of Nibelhiem and its all year winter cycle. It made him think of being pelted in the face with iceblocks instead of snowballs. It made him lonely just looking at it, as he remembered all the winters he spent with no friends and no father.
Snow was the force of nature that was always absent in the best times of his life. It may have been snowing outside when he was young but his mother was always next to fire inside, where the snow couldn't reach. He'd met Zack at the peak of Summer in Midgar, and Zack didn't have the pale-as-the-snow-they-lived-in complexion that Cloud had inherited, he got the sun-kissed tan of a jungle climate. He'd met Angeal in the closet where you changed the thermostat, which was always warm, in Zack's room. He met Genesis on Loveless Avenue while he was napping in the sun and Genesis stepped on him and then kept walking before realising that he had in fact stepped on someone and that said person was chocobo-human two of his boyfriends were friends with. He met Seph in a hot spring on a mission when Zack, very literally, tossed him in and he found out that one of Zack's boyfriends and his hero was in there too.
The day when Cloud was invited into the mad tea party that was a relationship with these men, was also, unsurprisingly, absent of snow. It was raining, but it wasn't snowing.
To make Cloud's utter despair at the weather worst, it was unreservedly the fault of three of his four boyfriends. He didn't begrudge the fact that the three Generals liked to fight; in fact he got a fair amount of amusement from watching. He understood that Seph liked a challenge, Genesis liked materia and Angeal liked wielding a big sword, it was fine with him.
But they had inadvertently brought to Cloud the one weather pattern he never wanted to see again.
Zack, however, was ecstatic.
"I can't believe it's snowing! In Midgar!" Zack exclaimed, peering out the balcony doors, nose smooshed against the glass.
"Argh, don't remind me," Cloud groaned, from where he lay on his side in the little ball he'd curled himself into on the bed.
Zack watched the snow falling, mesmerised by the sight- it almost seemed to be making a swirling pattern in the air, "Hey babe, let's go outside and play…I wonder what it's like to roll in the snow with you?"
"Zack, we are not having sex in the snow!" Cloud glared fiercely at the Soldier First, still curled in his protective ball.
Zack held his hands up in admission of defeat, "Okay, okay, no rolling in the snow. How about making angels in the snow?" he enquired hopefully.
Zack flinched as the glare of the devil came to rest on his face and he feared his head might spontaneously explode if the owner of that glare wished it to.
The door to the apartment opened and the glare was immediately cut off as its owner settled back down on the bed. Three weapon bearing men stepped into the room, covered in snowdrift.
"Nice work guys, who knew that exploding a Blizzaga cast would make it snow all over Midgar. I bet Seph attacking Gen caused it," Zack greeted them enthusiastically.
"Damn right it was," Sephiroth responded smirking, while brushing the snowdrift from his coat.
He strode over to the ball on the bed that was Cloud and knelt beside him. "Cloud? What are you doing?" he asked, eyeing the ball with a mix of amusement and worry. He received an irritated grunt from the ball, which seemed to the only answer Cloud was willing to give.
Sephiroth looked at Zack, who just shrugged and said, "I don't know what's wrong with him but he doesn't want to have sex in the snow with me and won't make angels either. He's being a wet blanket. I bet he'd roll in the snow with you Seph."
Cloud's head shot up from underneath his arms. "Better a wet blanket than one covered in snow," he yelled before reshuffling back into his little ball.
Genesis plopped onto the bed next to Cloud, while Angeal sat on Cloud's other side, Zack took Sephiroth's position on the floor and Sephiroth leant against one of the bedposts.
Genesis started rubbing Cloud's back and said soothingly, "Come on Cloud, why don't sit up and tell us what's bothering you? Then maybe we can go outside and experience the snow."
The ball of Cloud didn't move, it didn't speak, it just lay.
"Okay, not working," Angeal said, bring his hands closer to Cloud's body, fully intending to burrow them underneath Cloud and hoist him up so he couldn't avoid them but Genesis quickly slapped his hands away.
"Don't do that, you hulking gorilla, it might make him more upset," Genesis exclaimed as Angeal held his hands up in surrender but did not move from his place beside Cloud.
A minute of silence passed before a mumble sound came from the ball of Cloud. Their gazes snapped to the form still curled motionless on the bed.
"I've been waiting for the snow to fall, but I guess this time it won't," Cloud said softly, the words muffled by his arms.
They waited for the elaboration but got none as Cloud uncurled himself, grabbed a winter jacket and left the apartment for the snow covered wonderland that was outside, offering a departing smile that lit up the room. His lovers followed, only to get hit in the face with snowballs as they left the building.
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The Cloud from earlier had disappeared without a trace. There was no peculiar aversion to snow, there was no mournful expressions or defeated words. He happily made angels with Zack, had snowball fights teamed up with Sephiroth against Angeal and Genesis, made a snow man out of Zack, who made one out of Angeal. He even considered rolling in the snow with Genesis but that idea was scratched when Zack shoved snow down his top and it somehow ended up in his pants, making him realise it was way to cold to get naked.
He came back inside with his four lovers, his nose and cheeks shone a rosy hue and he was shivering remarkably but that was fine with him because his four older Soldier boys immediately served him hot chocolate and turned on the TV for some cuddling on the couch to dispel the last of the cold from their bodies.
Angeal left their little cocoon of warmth first in order to go cook dinner but returned to serve up dinner at the coffee table so the warmth they'd accumulated over the evening wouldn't disperse.
They sat together on the only couch in existence that could fit all five of them for most of evening, when there was a knock at the door.
Cloud was nominated to go open it because sitting on Sephiroth's lap apparently made it easier to get up and leave the nest they'd created from bodies and blankets.
A newly-promoted Third Class, for they were the only ones sent to deliver messages to Firsts- Cloud remember Genesis being an utter shit to him when he did it- stood attention at the door.
"At ease Soldier!" Was shouted with mirth from within the apartment.
"A message was taken for Soldier First Class Strife, sir."
"They meant what they said before Soldier, at ease," Cloud said, leaning against the doorframe.
"Of course, sir-" The Third Class trailed off, seeing the four cuddled on the couch behind Cloud and then Cloud's relaxed posture. He blushed fiercely as he put two and two together and came up with five.
"The message," Cloud prompted.
"It was from Nibelhiem, sir, from your mother."
The others couldn't hear what the message actually was but they saw Cloud's lazy posture snap upright and his body tense.
He thanked the Third stiffly and returned to their little nest. He settled into Sephiroth's arms and turned his face into his captor's neck. Zack looked at Cloud's still tense body with curiosity.
"Hey Cloud, what'd you mean when you said you've been waiting for the snow to fall?"
"Back in Nibelhiem whenever it snowed in a spiral, I'd be waiting for it to fall on me. Waiting for the other shoe to drop is the expression most people use but it was never a shoe or anything like that that clued me in- it was the snow. It was a superstition in Nibelhiem and at first I never believed in it but eventually I noticed the signs," he paused and stared out the window at the spiralling snow.
"When Gen and 'Geal started to degrade a few years back, I knew it was coming because when Zack shook up his snow globe from Wutai that you gave him, it fell the same way the snow in Nibelhiem did when Tifa was injured trying to find her mum or when the kids in town were feeling particularly vicious in their attacks. One year my mum got ill and I had prayed for days before that I was wrong but she still got sick, she recovered but I'd already learnt to accept that when the snow falls something wicked was coming my way."
They sat in silence, letting the tale Cloud had told them sink in. Cloud hadn't moved his forehead from where it was resting against Sephiroth's neck, obscuring his face from view.
"And?" Zack asked softly.
Cloud let out a harsh laugh. "And the snow fell."
"What was the message about?" Sephiroth enquired, pulling Cloud away from his resting place so he could look into his eyes. He saw fear there and long forgotten pain that went hand in hand with long forgotten memories.
Cloud's voice was monotonous as he answered.
"My father's come home."
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A/N- Has been vaguely edited but will require a more serious look at soon. I'd love it if you'd Alert and Favourite me, even more if you'd review and tell me what you think, rage at me, express your undying love, its all cool with me.
Do you think this is a happy ending….or not?