Title: Fix Me
Summary: Seeing Cloud's hurt for so long made him hurt, too.
Pairing: Cloud/Sephiroth
Warning: boy/boy, depression, everything...just, everything
Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just write about them getting screwed over for personal satisfaction.

Cloud was not, to anyone's knowledge including his own, interested in men. He'd appreciated beauty and saw it in every gender, binary or not, but he'd never actually thought about kissing another boy. He'd tried on a dress once, but not because he wanted to be a woman, or even because he wanted to dress like one. Not all gay men cross-dress and not all cross-dressers are gay men, and Cloud didn't consider himself either. To be fair, he'd only ever had a crush on one girl in his life and she threw his heart away like daisies on a grave. After that, he'd never really thought of any one in that way.

The older boy pulled away apologetically and slow, maybe a bit embarrassed as well, but it gave Cloud a moment to think.

He wasn't sure what Sephiroth kissing him meant. He wasn't sure what his reciprocation meant. He had absolutely no idea where it would lead him.

But he didn't care.

Instead of following any sort of logic, the blond pulled his upperclassman back down, the abruptness taking the silveret by surprise but he still couldn't find the will to care even as the oxygen in his lungs grew stale and he felt hands on his waist and the wall at his back and Sephiroth's tongue at his lips.

Denying logic further, he allowed entrance.

Sephiroth had absolutely no idea what he was doing even as he was doing it. There were no reasonable arguments for kissing Cloud, even if the blond seemed to have no problems with it. Quite the contrary, he seemed to almost be begging his upperclassman to continue, hands clutching and pulling at his previously unwrinkled black t-shirt. He couldn't find the will to care about said piece of attire. He was far more concerned with the spike-haired sophomore pressed between the wall and himself.

But for just a moment, in Sephiroth's mind, Cloud was not Cloud. Suddenly, Genesis was standing before him, and he pulled away as the memories rushed his mind.

"What's the matter? I thought I was helping you."

"How do you help someone doomed to rest in eternal flames by starting the fire?"

"Sephiroth, that is a very old belief system you're referring to. You don't honestly believe you're going to Hell, do you?"

"It's not even a matter of Heaven or Hell; I was raised by a scientist, you are the religious one. To me, this is about social standards. To me, the only Hell to be experienced is in life, and this lifestyle will bring that Hell upon us."

"So, what, you're just going to give up? On me? On us? You're not a fool, love. I've known you long enough to say that for certain. You know this is not a 'lifestyle;' you admitted, yourself, to not being able to find sexual desire in women."

"I can be saved! We can both be saved, Genesis."

"That is not true! You can bury it as far down as you like, Sephiroth, but it will always be there! You cannot hide from who you are, don't even say that. Don't even say that! This is not some disease or disorder your father can just treat and medicate you for; the fact that he has been is archaic, bygone, antediluvian, and, quite frankly, barbaric. Don't you dare say that we need to be saved from love, because that is truer heresy than the love we make. I'm shocked to hear that from an apostian such as yourself."

Sephiroth wanted so many things in that moment. He wanted to be straight, he wanted to be gay, he wanted Genesis to leave, he wanted him to stay. He wanted Genesis to stop being with other people, if it all panned out. Everything was like a contest for the redhead's affection, and even though he knew he was paid more attention than most of the others, he still felt insecure.

The silveret never quite got over it. He avoided his older lover until he was no longer there to be avoided. Genesis had broken something in his mind.

He, not unlike Genesis, had a certain way of doing things. He didn't want to be saved anymore, but he wasn't sure it could be undone at this point.

He wanted love. He wanted Genesis' love.

He wanted Cloud's love.

This was a moment where verbal communication would have been effective, if not for the fact that Sephiroth didn't know what to say and Cloud wouldn't be able to hear him.

Cloud stared at him for a long while, even after Sephiroth had turned away. Sephiroth knew he was trying to ask what was wrong, but the ROTC didn't know and couldn't answer.

The room was absolutely still as Cloud wrapped his arms around the older boy from behind, trying to comfort him in an odd turn of events. Sephiroth's heart was pounding beneath his skin, and he was certain the blond could feel it as well.

"A bit cold for a walk in the park, don't you think?"

Genesis looked up, turning away from the railing as the ravenet approached. "Everything is relative," he replied, leaning against the wood that he knew could easily falter and send him spiraling into the pond.

"Certainly is," the stranger agreed. "But I can't imagine this is a comfortable temperature no mater what it's relative to." The elder gestured to the falling snow, as if to emphasize his point. "Besides that, you are quite obviously shivering."

Genesis cursed his lack of resistance to the cold. He'd never liked it, having grown up in warmer weather while he was younger. It almost never snowed in Banora, and even after five years of horrendous winter weather, he still was not used to it. "Genesis Rhapsodos," he stated clearly, holding out his freezing hand.

"Angeal Hewley," the stranger responded, firmly taking the offered hand.

For some reason or another, Angeal struck him as a noble type. He couldn't have been much older, but he had graduated already. When prompted on family, he spoke of a single mother who taught him honor and kindness. Genesis struggled to recall his own parents, but it had been nearly eight years since his biological parents had died. The system had tossed him around for a while, but he'd been in this home for four years now, and he was nearly ready to move out on his own. Angeal seemed to sympathize, but Genesis merely brushed it off; it'd been too long not to be over it.

Over the day, he found himself thinking less about Sephiroth. For the first time in a long time, he smiled genuinely.

If it were an option, he thought he'd like to get used to this.

A/N: Heya there. Been a while, huh?

Thank you, Yaoi Wolf, for the feedback; it helped to get this chapter up! (Though it still seems kind of late...)

I hope to hear more of you guys' thoughts, now that there're so many follows/faves ^_^