Sire
Summary: Sequel to Blizzaga. Rated for language.
Cloud returns home to his father. It was everything he expected, except for the four lovers tagging along and whole frying pan thing.
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The three generals of ShinRa and Zack were sitting and drinking hot chocolate in their kitchen. They were carefully aware of the dark hallway and the almost silence that emitted from it. Only the quiet breathing of a person in deep slumber could be heard.
The men, however, did not relax. How could they when they had so recently found out that their youngest lover harboured perhaps a more tragic past than they had imagined?
The quiet breathing shuttered and became slightly irregular. Cloud was waking up.
Zack looked around the group awkwardly. They'd been awake since the previous day and yet not once had anyone broached the subject of what they were going to do. Zack ran a hand through his slightly lank hair, staying up all night tended to make it loose it's vibrancy, and sighed loudly attracting the attention of the other four men in the kitchen with him.
Finally Zack tried to break the tension by asking, "So, should ask him or should you?"
It wasn't the right question to ask he realised as three identical glares found their mark on him.
"What? You can't say that you're going to let this go?" Zack exclaimed.
"Let what go?" A sleepy voice called.
A shadow stood at the end of the hall, facing the kitchen, rubbing their head tiredly. Cloud stepped into the kitchen and then everyone suddenly became very interested in the insides of their mugs. Angeal automatically pushed a mug of hot chocolate into his hands before going back to staring intently at his empty mug.
"Guys?" Cloud questioned, looking suspiciously from one man to another. The four elder men tried to find something other than Cloud interesting enough to look at. It was proving a little difficult as the lithe blonde was only wearing sleep pants.
Cloud looked at the ground as irritation flashed in his eyes. He smiled thinly and turned, retreating to his room. He reappeared dressed and alert.
"Well whatever's bothering you, just know that I'm gonna head. I'll see you in a few days," Cloud said tiredly and walked back down the hall.
The four men quickly dumped their mugs and hurried after him.
"Wha- wait, Cloud!" Zack called, as Cloud met them in the middle of the hall with a duffle bag already packed. He pushed passed them and continued to the door, hoping to get through it without one of them holding him back.
"Cloud, wait will you?" Zack asked, his hand catching Cloud's arm, "Can't you tell us anything anymore? Just talk to us and then maybe you can go."
Cloud stared at Zack, indecision warring across his face. He stepped back, away from Zack, and shook his head.
"You don't need to know about this," Cloud insisted. Zack's face darkened and he grabbed Cloud mid-step and hauled back into the room. Cloud was thrown to the floor from the force of Zack's action.
Zack pulled Cloud up from the floor and held to his eye level.
"You're not the one who decides what we need to know and if you ask me, considering that we're together, I think we deserve to know everything."
Cloud looked defeated and Zack let him go as soon as saw the blonde's blue eyes lower to the floor.
"My childhood wasn't exactly the cakewalk it should've been. I can't leave my mum alone with the man who did that to us."
Zack pulled the blonde toward him slowly and embraced him, why did Cloud have those delightfully sad eyes? It wasn't fair if on them he used them as a weapon.
Without any consultation Zack then decided, Cloud wasn't leaving without him.
"Then I guess we should take a trip to Nibelhiem, hmm?"
The three generals appeared like the psychic's they were, four other duffle bags packed. Cloud nodded stiffly and walked out the door. They loaded themselves into a helicopter, Cloud watching the landscape until all of Midgar faded away.
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Cloud's house hadn't changed in the time he'd been in Midgar. It was simple and cosy, although a little run-down in places, he had no reason to fear the warm looking home yet he felt it running wild through his veins. It wasn't the home he feared, it was what was inside it that Cloud feared.
He halted his tense march just outside of the front door and turned to face his partners. They looked expectant and a little anxious, probably wondering what his parents would think of them. Well, his mum would love them.
After looking around to make sure no one was near, Cloud started whispering.
"If you listen to anything I say to you, make it this. Once we step though that door we are not together. We're friends, I met you through Zack and we've hung out a couple of times since then. Nothing more, got it? And don't talk unless he speaks first."
The elder four were confused but agreed all the same. Cloud made to knock on the door but it opened before he reached it. A man who looked like Cloud stood in the threshold. He glared at everyone lined up outside his door until his eyes zeroed in on Cloud and then he smiled. It wasn't a nice smile or a welcoming smile and it sure as hell wasn't normal.
"Cloud," the man said, his smile widening.
"Cloud?" A woman's voice echoed from within the house.
Cloud had frozen as soon as he saw the man but he snapped out of it quickly when the man's glare was levelled on him.
"Where are your manners, boy? Is that how you greet me after all this time?" the man snarled.
"No sir, it's good to see you again, sir."
The man smiled his unnatural smile again. The woman who one could only assume was Cloud's mother appeared behind him.
"Oh Cloud, honey," she gasped and pulled her son into an embrace.
"You were safe in Midgar Cloud, I thought you had some sense," she whispered into his ear.
"Stop with your coddling, Elani. You're making him weak and he's weak enough already," the man sneered and then turned his attention back to the four Soldiers standing at his door. Zack's eyebrow was twitching in restrained anger at this man's comments.
"Cloud," the man called, "Are these your friends?"
"Hunter, please?" Elani pleaded. He ignored her and fixed a piercing gaze on his son.
Cloud stepped away from his mother. "Yes, sir. General Sephiroth, General Hewley, General Rhapsodos and Lieutenant Fair from ShinRa."
"ShinRa?" Hunter questioned, his face darkening, "You left and joined ShinRa?" He asked, eyes blazing with fury.
Cloud shrunk under his gaze. "Yes, sir."
Hunter turned his fiery gaze away from his pathetic son's figure. "No matter, stay for dinner, would you Cloud?" He waited for an answer, though the boy wouldn't dare defy him.
"Respectfully, sir, I think-"
"Stay for dinner. Would you Cloud?" Hunter asked again, only declining wasn't an option, and walked back into the house. His son was always an impudent little monster.
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The four men outside were still in shock. There was something really wrong with the way Hunter treated his family and wrong about the man himself.
Sephiroth found himself watching the man, Hunter, more closely. He looked very familiar but the memory was just out of reach.
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The five men sat at the Strife family's rather cramped dining table and ate quietly, the awkward tension in the air rising at a steady rate with each second. Cloud's eyes never wavered from their gaze upon his fork, the acidity of his stare practically eating a hole in it. Hunter all the while glared at his son and looked suspiciously upon his companions.
Zack felt like he was simultaneously drowning and being crushed by the formality and sterility of this family meal. He was positive that it was slowly shattering his spirit with each moment. Family meals should not be like this, they should be full of laughter, conversation, acceptance and welcoming. This was like a cadet being forced to eat with a drill sergeant.
Zack's eyes flicked to the side as an odd hand gesture from Cloud caught his eye. While Hunter was staring intensely at Genesis, who was politely trying to ignore it and not rip the man apart for his blatant rudeness, while repeating an inner mantra of 'any other man but the father of his love', Cloud and Elani seemed to be communicating across the table using sign language.
Zack elbowed Sephiroth, who in turn subtly attracted Angeal attention. Angeal translated for them by slowly drawing letters on the table.
C U T A N D R U N
N O
C L O U D S T R I F E A R E Y O U A R G U I N G W I T H M E ?
Angeal abruptly stopped translating to join in the silent conversation, leaving the others unable to follow the plans or arguments being made.
The argument suddenly stopped when Hunter turned his gaze back to Cloud who, in an attempt to seem less suspicious about the sign he was in the middle of, automatically shoved his hand into Zack's and squeezed.
Elani cooed at the sweet sight but Hunter's gaze zeroed in on the display of affection and saw red, which always looked so very good against his son's pale skin. His eyes roamed his son's form, from the downcast eyes to the hand that was still clasped in his friends.
"Cloud?" Hunter began, his hand twitching occasionally like it was being restrained from reaching over the table and slamming his son's head into the nearest available service. Cloud knew from past experience that it was.
"Yes, sir?" Cloud looked up, to find his father getting up from table and walking round to him.
"Cloud, my son, is there something-" Hunter paused to wrench his son's wrist and by extension hand, out of Zack's, "-You forgot to mention about you and your friends?"
Cloud's eyes couldn't hold Hunter's. The intense blue, so much like his own but colder, bored into him. Begging him to lie. Cloud knew his gaze had fallen to the side of Hunter's face and felt despair at what he knew was coming. He'd only hoped that his loves wouldn't have ever had to see what his father was like.
"I knew it, you little faggot! You actually had the balls to come back here with your boyfriends. You're really asking me to kill you!" Hunter said slowly, steadily, as if he was merely discussing the weather and not his son's sexuality while threatening to kill him.
Sephiroth unexpectedly remembered how he knew Cloud's father. The man, himself, seemed on the threshold of violence. His eyes glared coldly into Cloud's and Cloud had plucked up his shredded dignity and courage and was glaring back. Neither was yet inclined to make the first move. Sephiroth made sure neither would, yet.
"Hunter… As in Snow Hunter, the best mercenary for hire if you're pocket is a foot deep and filled with gil?"
Hunter turned his attention from Cloud to Sephiroth. "Yes, milady. What may I do for the Queen of ShinRa?" Hunter sneered mockingly.
Sephiroth set his glowing green eyes on the man who just called him a woman and bared his teeth. "Genesis, this is a one time request but, please set this man on fire. I want to see his pretty eyes burn."
Genesis smiled evilly at the horrible who dared call himself Cloud's father, as he withdrew his mastered fire materia from his coat and Angeal smirked as he pulled Hunter away from Cloud and Zack and slammed him into a wall and held him there while Genesis began casting. Zack was trying to get Elani to leave the room.
"Guys, stop." Cloud said wearily but was ignored by all of the rooms' occupants. Genesis and Seph continued to converse in colourful language with his father, about how he deserved to die and that the devil wouldn't even greet him in hell.
Cloud stare at them in disbelief, his father wasn't a good man by any count but seriously if his boyfriends were going to kill everyone who ever treated him badly, then they'd be executing half the regulation army.
With an irritated sigh, Cloud pushed Genesis away from his father and hauled Angeal's grip off him.
"I said stop it and don't kill him, his blood isn't worth spilling and it takes so long to clean up. Let him die on his own…outside."
Hunter roughly pulled away from his son and his lovers and made to leave the house before glancing around the room once more and looking at Elani.
"I'll be back again, honey. Just wait," he called and made to leave.
Elani took a few steps after him, muttering, "No, you won't."
She reached him just as he reached the back door. Swinging her arms she brought the frying pan down on his head with a sound that reverberated through the house.
With a satisfied smile, she turned.
"Cloud, honey, could you put your father outside? I think it's going to snow soon."
Cloud nodded, a little happiness returning to his features, while his boyfriends watched on speechless.
Zack sidled up to the others and whispered, "Cloud's mum is awesome."
The other's nodded in agreement. Having heard, Elani smiled and bustled over to the oven.
"Anyone for apple-pie?" She offered and laughed amusedly when five hands shot into the air.
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I hope you enjoy this second instalment to Blizzaga.
I'm not really sure yet if I'm happy with this. Hopefully, a very specific good friend of mine will read this and offer any ideas for change or improvement if they have them.
Reviews would be appreciated.