Disclaimer - Characters belong to Square-Enix I'm just borrowing them for my own amusement.
P.S.- I proofread twice so if you find any typos my bad I tried to catch them all
"How could he do that Yazoo? Sephiroth is dangerous" Kadaj cried as he clung to Yazoo for comfort & warmth.
Cloud looked up at the remains of the Shinra building and sighed.
"Sephiroth hates us! He wants us dead"
"He does? I don't think so." came from behind where the two young were sitting.
"Brother!" they both yelled and rushed over to where cloud was leaning near what use to be a stairwell.
Kadaj paused and turned around and huffed "humph I thought you were talking with Sephiroth."
"Shouldn't you be resting? It's too cold what if you catch a cold, the babies could catch it." Yazoo said not liking that Cloud had come to the ruins and was looking a little pale as well as sporting a cut on his left cheek.
"I'll be fine I was worried you two rushed out without your coats." Cloud said holding out two thick winter coats.
"Like you care!" Kadaj yelled taking the coat.
"I do care we're family right? Will you at least tell me what you're feeling?" Cloud said as Yazoo eased him to the ground.
"Why brother why did you bring him here what if...what if he hurts you again?" Yazoo asked
"He won't he saved us." Cloud paused for a second. "He's the Sephiroth I knew as a cadet the hero I grew up wanting to be like. I want you to get to know that part of him I don't want you to know him as the person who manipulated you, because that wasn't him. I also want the twins to know him." he said looking around the area and realizing Sephiroth's office use to be on that floor. Kadaj wanted to be angry but couldn't be he sat near Coud and wrapped his arms around cloud's waist he. He couldn't help but notice as Cloud spoke he was noticeably happy he could feel the happiness and some weird emotion emanating from Clouds S cells.
"Will you tell us more?" Yazoo asked feeling what Kadaj was feeling he silently thought to himself, "is cloud in love?"
Cloud smiled and began telling them about the man at the bar.
"Marlene stop! Get away from him right now he's dangerous" Tifa and Barret screamed at the same time.
Marlene turned around and frowned at them "Why? He helped Cloud so he's not bad. Hey aren't you and Cloud telling me and Denzel to be nice to people even if they've done bad things and if they're nice to us? Cloud loves us and wouldn't being someone dangerous here. Here you go Mr. Sephiroth, Cloud said you were probably hungry if you need anything else let me know ok?" She said smiling at him as she placed a plate on the table.
Sephiroth smiled back at her "Thank you and just Sephiroth will do. Could you check on the twins and may I please have a cup of carrots and some honey" Marlene gave him a smile and ran upstairs.
"Why don't you just take your psycho ass somewhere else? We're more than capable of taking care of Cloud and the kids" Barret said aiming his gun arm at Sephiroth.
Sephiroth looked up from book he reading was reading for a second and Barret moved back a little.
"We stopped your crazy twice and we'll do it against to keep the kid and rugrats safe." Cid said poking sephiroth with his spear.
Sephiroth gently placed his book on the table & stood and calmly said "Come and try. Cloud told me all about that you could barely wound a Sephiroth copies it was him who had to finish them off. How do you expect to defeat me without his help? Let me make one thing clear" he said smirking very proud of the fact they with the exception of Vincent & Loz were scared senseless. "It was you who put cloud in danger I won't blame you for the first attack but I am blaming you for letting him go on a delivery in his condition. What if it wasn't Zack who found him? What if something else happened? He could have died all three of them could have had Zack not come searching for me. Am I to assume the clone who raped him is still out there? What are you doing to find him? Is it more than one out there roaming around? What if he killed Cloud and took the twins there would be no way of finding them and if you would have you wouldn't even have the power to rescue them. So listen carefully I will not repeat myself, with the exception of Vincent, Loz & his brothers you don't have what it takes to keep Cloud and our twins safe I am disappointed so I will takeover from here do I make myself clear?" he said returning back to the parenting book for the first time he let his true feelings about the situation show. Clouds friends stood around shocked at what Sephiroth said as much they wanted to argue Sephiroth was right it was irresponsible of them to have let cloud just take off.
"TIFA!" Kadaj yelled as soon as he entered the bar startling everyone.
"Cloud's hurt where is the heal materia!"
Sephiroth jumped up soon as he heard the words but before he could rush off to find cloud he came walking through the door. "I'm fine it's a tiny scrape it will heal on its own" he said as Yazoo lowered him to a seat.
"Do you have first aid kit?" Sephiroth asked as Tifa went to the kitchen.
How did this happen?" Sephiroth said giving Yazoo & Kadaj stern looks.
"Stop it's a scrape see we were ambushed by a pack of blood taste on the way home nothing to worry about. How were things here? Everything seems ok" Cloud said looking at his stunned friends.
"I was as close to you best behavior as I could be however I did lecture you friends about the danger they put not only you but the babies in when they let you go off on your own" Sephiroth said as he moved so Tifa could cleanse the cuts on his arms & cheek.
"Why am I not surprised you know Sephiroth I'm not a cadet anymore I'm a lot stronger. And everyone I'm sorry you got lectured it wasn't your fault Sephiroth is just being over protective." he said yawning. What happened next was a shock to everyone , Sephiroth's smug smile softened as did his voice "You need rest and it's time for your meds" just as he was going to say more Kadaj walked over to the table "here you go brother Wutai stir fried beef and honey carrots. Sephiroth have you eaten?"
"I hate carrots" Cloud muttered Tifa couldn't help but giggle as she watched Cloud frown as she stepped away and Sephiroth handed him 3 pills.
"Yes I've eaten thank you Kadaj. Cloud I know foods that grow in dirt offend you greatly but if you don't take your meds with food you'll get sick and until you're 100% I'm not sorry but you're going to be eating healthy. After you eat you should lie down you don't have to sleep although I do think you could use a nap." Sephiroth said ignoring the gawking stares, Kadaj's smile and Cloud's pout. Once he was sure Cloud had the pills down Sephiroth turned back to his book but after a few minutes he noticed Cloud hadn't touched the carrots "Cloud I expect to see 10 less carrots in that bowl when you're finished and don't you dare use materia to burn or freeze them or I will tell Marlene about the guard duty incident outside of Kalm." Cloud smirked and sifted up through his pocket and pulled out mastered destruct material.
"Marlene has Cloud ever told you his second guard duty assignment…" Sephiroth was interrupted.
"Fine! You win I'll eat the carrots" Cloud said not wanting anyone to know about the embarrassing incident.
Forty-five minutes later Sephiroth was in the kitchen helping scrub pots and pans with Denzel, Marlene & Yazoo.
"Sephiroth can I ask you a question?" Denzel said reaching for a dry towel.
Sephiroth handed the boy the towel that seemed out of his reach "yes?" he said calmly.
"Why are you helping us with the dishes. From what Cloud told us you were some really famous military general isn't doing dishes above you?" Denzel asked.
Sephiroth thought carefully about the question the boy seemed bright so he decided to tell him the truth rather than dismiss him. "You were in the room earlier when I told the others I wasn't happy about them letting Cloud go off on his own and I'm fairly sure they hate me so I didn't exactly want to intentionally put myself in volatile situation. The other reason is I'm being a good guest" he said putting a pan in clean water to rinse.
"But you're a guest you're supposed to be enjoying yourself" Marlene said the look on her face clearly said she didn't understand Sephiroth smiled at her happily.
"The first time I invited cloud over for dinner after we had eaten he dragged Zack into the kitchen to help with dishes, Zack hated doing his own dishes so it was shock to him loading the pre-rinsed dishes into the dishwasher. When I asked Cloud why was he doing that he just smiled at me and said "I'm being a good guest sir you were nice enough to invite us and prepare us a yummy meal, thank you by the way, especially after a long mission it would be rude of me to leave things a mess and I'm making Zack help because it wouldn't kill him to learn how to do dishes." you were nice enough to feed me and look after the babies it would be rude of me to things a mess." Sephiroth answered all three of them smiled as the watched how Sephiroth seemed so happy talking about Cloud.
"What was Cloud like as a cadet?" Denzel asked.
"When I first met him I thought he was strangely out of place he too quiet & kind I just couldn't see him in battle but he was a hard worker he would work for hours with Zack and me on his technique. Zack and I are far better at physical attacks and Cloud has always been better at materia so anytime we went on basic missions Cloud was handle the material unless it was something big of course I'd used my materia. Now that I think about he would have made an excellent first." Sephiroth said putting the last pan in the water to rinse and turned to the refrigerator to remove two bottles of baby formula.
"We can finish up here Sephiroth if you want to go check on Cloud and feed the babies and check on Cloud." Yazoo said finally speaking up. Sephiroth nodded and headed upstairs.
Sephiroth sat on the bed patting Lucrecia's back Cloud was sound asleep to his left because of how he was positioned he knew if he moved cloud would wake up but he tried anyway Lucrecia was starting to fall asleep he carefully moved watching Cloud carefully it seemed the blonde was out like a light once Lucrecia was back with her brother Sephiroth sat back on he bed & made himself comfortable. Just as he made himself comfortable and began to read the parenting book from the hospital nook store Cloud scooted closer and placed his hand over his leg "mmph Seph" he whisper.
Sephiroth put his book on his chest so he could see if Cloud was awake or in pain he smiled once he saw Cloud was still asleep. "mmh must be dreaming about me." he said aloud quietly and put his book down and began rubbing Clouds back he softly spoke, "you know even when you were a cadet I couldn't bring myself to wake you even if I knew you were going to be late for duty or to classes you looked way too peaceful. You've grown so much but when you're asleep you're still cute. I'll keep my promise I'll keep you and safe." he then slipped off of bed Cloud would be asleep for a few more hours he would spend the night at the church and be back here before Cloud woke up he thought as he made his way downstairs one he reached the bottom step Tifa reached out and touched his shoulder apparently she had been eavesdropping on him.
"Sephiroth" she began trying to summon all of her strength. "Why don't you stay?"