Dead Men
Summary: The plan was to take a prodigy and make him best. The bet was between Turks and Soldiers. The price: which side gets the best of best when exams come around. The glitch: Soldiers like to win and Turks like to keep their property.
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When at war you can't afford to have your warriors losing hope. Because no hope meant your warriors lost their will and drive to fight and very soon you'd be losing the war. So they'd say those words, the ones meant to inspire and lift the spirits of even the most negative men at war.
Those same words nearly ended the best relationship that Sephiroth, Genesis, Zack and Angeal had ever shared with each other and him. It started with those words and the more they said them to convince themselves that it would be okay, the worse their situation got.
There's always a plan.
The plan may start with an idea, or in this case a bet, and then the plan may be discussed at length between the four main persons involved and then the plan may be put into action. The plan may stay on course for a little while– the observation period is sometimes the only part of the plan that actually goes as planned– and then it might take a giant leap forward only to then do a u-turn and head back the way it came, and then it might veer left and try and run over a few pedestrians. Finally after a lot of gentle– yet very aggressive– nudging back on course and five minutes before reaching the final destination, your plan decides that its had enough and drives itself off a bridge, into a passing boat and explodes into a flaming death-trap that will kill you in a second if you go near it.
That is what happened to their relationship with Cloud and they brought it on themselves.
Sephiroth couldn't deny it anymore than the other three could.
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It started with a bet.
There was a rivalry between Soldier and the Turks, had been for a long time before Zack had been part of Soldier, and this time they were both aiming to poach the same recruit.
He wasn't a cadet, definitely wasn't a kid either. So he was part of the faction called recruits as opposed to cadets, young men as opposed to boys.
It was the Turks who proposed the bet– surprise, surprise– and it was Genesis and Zack who accepted without thought.
The bet was… to take the blonde recruit and mould him into the best soldier ShinRa had yet to encounter. Take his strengths and add to them and take his weaknesses and erase them. If they could make Cloud Strife the best soldier, then the Turks would give Soldier the first choice of crop in the harvest soon to come.
That's what Tseng offered them, word for word.
And they stupidly said yes.
So at first they talked about what they could do. It was just Genesis and Zack because Angeal was morally against it and Sephiroth had already called 'shotgun' on Cloud Strife for soldier, he was going to be promoted straight to second class if he did as expected in his exams.
Then they put it into action.
One day Zack just happened to be walking by Cloud's sword training class and just on a whim popped in to say 'hi' and pulled the blonde aside and offered some private training.
Genesis then did the same thing and between the two of them, they pressured him into saying yes. He was far better than they had imagined. He knew the basics and could fight with the rules and structures of the art form and play dirty when his opponent did and so their plan took that large leap forward.
And so Sephiroth joined the party.
This attention proved too much for Cloud and while he was on okay terms with Genesis and Zack, – although both were secretly bringing him into the fold of their currently four man relationship that they hoped would turn from four into five– Sephiroth asking watch their fights and giving him pointers on form and technique was going too far. Cloud started to show up for the private sessions less and less, until it had been three weeks of waiting for a blonde who never showed. They should've heeded the 'U-turn ahead' warning.
Then Angeal took their plan left, when he mentioned that the prodigy soldier, who was also blonde and cute, had been rostered on as his office aid for the next month. The first few weeks Angeal had the time of his life teasing the others and enjoying Cloud's company and also discreetly admiring him.
Then Zack, Genesis and Sephiroth got tired of just hearing Angeal's stories about how much fun it was to have an office aid like Cloud. They started visiting their lover during work hours and subsequently annoying Cloud at the same time.
This is where the pedestrians were unfairly chased and run-down, but its also where the plan got back on track. Angeal had joined the 'four-to–five' bandwagon also and they were all very subtly putting the moves on the unsuspecting blonde– except for Zack because subtle for Zack is a freight train hitting you at 100 miles an hour– only the blonde wasn't so unsuspecting and he was getting more and more pissed with the special attention that he was being paid. Finally, he snapped.
"I don't care if I get promoted! I don't care if you think you like me because of that bet that everybody knows about! I don't care about this place at all!" Cloud screamed at them.
He calmed and continued. "You want to win that stupid bet using me then meet my conditions, give me a reason to fight and if you can do that then I'll win your bet for you, but it ends there."
And then everything was perfect.
Cloud became their very difficult student and they worked their way into his heart and he took up a more permanent position in theirs. After training he'd go back to their apartment and at first he'd just stay for dinner and then he'd stay for dinner and desert. After awhile of this routine, Genesis took the plunge and gave him a goodnight kiss and Cloud let him. So then he'd stay for dinner, desert and get a goodnight kiss from all of them. Soon he was spending every second night at their place and then was spending most of the week at their place and two days at his.
And then they almost made it to the exams when the plan they had decided that its had enough and drives itself off a bridge, into a passing boat and explodes into a flaming death-trap that will kill you in a second if you go near it, as it had been put earlier by Sephiroth.
Cloud didn't stay overnight, – saying he needed his sleep for exams– he stopped the privilege of the goodnight kiss, –saying he didn't want people to see in case it affected his ability to be promoted– he stopped staying for desert and then he stopped coming at all.
But the four men were determined. Cloud had brought spice and complication to a relationship that had been easy sailing for so long. He didn't smile often, which gave them something to work for and he unknowingly gave everything, especially their relationship, his all. Five was better than four, way better.
They went after Cloud and found him, talking to a Turk trainee. The redheaded young man in the suit had taken one look at the four of them, smirked and walked off.
Cloud tried to leave but he failed. They asked why he was avoiding them and he said he wanted out. And by out, he meant out of the relationship and everything else. They pressured and he gave the reasoning– well, coldly bit out the reasoning.
"I knew there was a chance you would succeed on the condition I gave you and then I would have to won the bet for you. So you managed it. Watching you fight with the skill and grace that you have, well I really wanted to be able to fight you on equal ground. I let you tutor me, I let you show how a five man relationship can work and how nice it can be, but you've lost this bet because I never let you sleep with me and the one thing I can't believe is that I might have actually let you if Reno hadn't filled me in on that condition of the bet. So please for the sake of our professional relationship, stay the fuck away from me."
Cloud left.
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Present time.
"There was always a plan."
"No there's not, not this time! That's what got us here," Genesis snapped at Sephiroth.
"I'm going to talk to Cloud," Zack announced, tired of all the waiting and the fighting.
Angeal barred the door.
"He might just kill you if you do that and a dead boyfriend is not a problem we want to deal with," Sephiroth said and picked up the newspaper.
"How can you be reading the newspaper? Cloud is in the evil clutches of the Turks!" Genesis wailed.
"Genesis, shut up!" Angeal snapped, and his eyes widened as he realised that he'd just yelled at Genesis.
"What does it matter if he kills me? At least I can try and explain that his Turk friend was lying," Zack yelled at Sephiroth.
"If he's stupid enough to not know that Turks lie, then obviously he wasn't a prodigy in the first place!"
"You've believed the Turks stories at times too!"
"I have never!"
The situation continued to degrade until they weren't really sure who was yelling at who or why and it was all the fault of those damned Turks.
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Hours later there was a knock on the door and Sephiroth found the last person he'd ever want to see at that moment waiting for him.
"Well, don't you look like hell warmed over," Tseng commented blandly and Sephiroth glared at Wutainese man in a blue suit.
"You are the devil. You ruin everything."
"Whoa, cool your jets, tiger. I came to tell you that you won the bet. Cloud passed his exams higher than you did, Sephiroth. That fusion sword of his, First Tsurugi he calls it, was a popular point of discussion. Did you know he made it himself?" Tseng said, carrying the conversation with a light, polite tone, despite Sephiroth's persistent glare.
"No, I didn't even know he had his own sword and now you've said your piece and you've mocked us enough, can you please leave?"
"Of course, but first I just like to offer a word of advice."
"What. Is. It?"
"Go talk to Cloud. He didn't just pass the physical exams but every other one too, he's not stupid enough to be blinded by Reno's fun-time lies and from what I understand he's not into possessive men or guns."
Sephiroth's eyebrow twitched. "Fun-time lies? You didn't do this?"
Tseng smirked. "Oh my dear Sephiroth, I'm not so petty. Reno just doesn't like others touching his property and he knew Cloud before you did, so you were the enemy. Are you really going to let a Turk win?
Tseng left Sephiroth standing at the door. Sephiroth walked back into the apartment, absolutely stunned.
"We're losing to a Turk! Zack go talk to Cloud now!" Sephiroth said as he shook himself out of the stunned haze he was previously in.
Zack jumped up. "On it!"
Zack raced to the door and opened it, ready to race out and find Cloud. He halted and tried to keep his balance when he saw Cloud already standing there, looking adorable and very guilty.
"Hey Cloud."
"Hey Zack."
Cloud wasn't looking at him; instead he seemed to find the floor terribly interesting.
"Hey buddy, look at me. It's not your fault; it's your rat bastard friend Reno's fault. So since you here and we want you to come home, why don't you step inside and then I'll lock the door and then Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal can torture you for leaving? Sound good."
"Yeah, I probably deserve that torture."
Cloud smiled sadly and followed Zack into the apartment. The other men tensed a little, not sure if they could trust Tseng enough to believe that Cloud wasn't going to kill them.
"Nah, I was just kidding, but now that you know Reno's a lying scumbag, is sleeping with you still off the table?"
Every other man in the apartment listened in with interest.
Cloud smiled and everything seemed a little better.
"I haven't gotten a kiss from any of you in three weeks, don't you think we should start there first?"
Sephiroth shot over to Cloud's side.
"And dibs."
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Hope you enjoyed this next instalment. It's very different from the original idea but I'm still quite happy with it.
I'd love it if you'd review.
Tawneyes