Chapter 2

Summary: The dynamics of a relationship are always a complicated affair. Add Hojo to the mix and you've got yourself a natural disaster.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters; I only use them for personal satisfaction and fun. But it's a nice thought.

Warnings: The same as the last chapter plus a bit of Rufus and Tseng. Oh and Reno being Reno, because that merits a warning in itself.

On most days, Tseng quite enjoyed his job. The pay was decent; he got free accommodation, not to mention the health benefits. He didn't have anything against a little violence and some subterfuge either. Intimidation was a key element in his game and as it turned out, he wasn't half-bad at intimidating people. Things had really picked up when he was given the task of looking after Shinra's son. Rufus was snarky, cold and intelligent; a dangerous combination when coupled with his natural good looks. Well the President had never clearly defined Tseng's job boundaries.

He sifted his fingers through the pale locks, pressing chaste kisses to the heir's neck. He was in the process of unbuttoning his shirt, enjoying the faint mewls of appreciation when Rufus suddenly said, "Reno?" Tseng didn't think that that it was a good sign the way a single word like that could twist a knife in his side. He desperately tried to ignore the way his heart clenched; after all, they'd never said it was anything serious…but still…

His consternation must have been clearly visible, at least to Rufus, who said, "No, look." Tseng followed the line from his finger to the window, only to see his colleague outside it. Well, that was certainly an unforeseen deviation from the regular. "Get down," he instructed his charge, "and keep this, just in case." He tossed a gun at him, Rufus nodded and ducked below the heavy wooden desk. The Wutaian cautiously opened the window and prodded the Turk with the barrel of his gun. Said man promptly turned around, or in this case swung around revealing to Tseng the fact that he had been tied up to a pole from the upper story and was hanging upside down. A most unenviable position. "Oh, hey Boss!" he grinned, "Didn't really see you there. You think, you could, get me down from here maybe yo?"

Once both his feet were firmly planted on the tiled floor, Tseng asked, "Care to explain?" Reno chuckled nervously, "Um, I'd just like to say at this time, it's totally not my fault. I maybe, kind of…uh, pissed the General off?"

"What did you do this time?" "Switched his tea for coffee."

"Reno, for the last time, you can't…that's it?" Reno shrugged, "Yeah Boss. Then he got all ballistic and strung me out there like a really good looking piñata. Do you know how many birds tried to use me as a landing point? Not cool yo!"

"Where's Cadet Strife?" a new voice interjected. Reno snapped to attention or at least, some vague semblance of it. For some reason, he still had a shred of respect for the man. "Dunno, Fair said he'd check. Kid's classes are over for the day, he's not in his dorms or anything. Not answering his phone. Speaking of phones, there's something next to the phone on the desk." Tseng felt mild tendrils of panic creep up his sides as Reno's attention was drawn to Rufus' tie. "Hey that's not your tie Boss, it's way too fancy to be yours. It kinda looks like the one that…Oh."

Tseng none too lightly shoved the red-haired man out the door, giving him his most intimidating glare (which of course he was immune to) and sighed when Reno immediately began pounding at it. "No way man, you can't leave me out here! He'll make mince-meat out of me! I'm too young and hot to... Oh holy Mother of Ifrit!"

A pair of arms snaked their way around Tseng's waist, a rare sign of affection from Rufus who casually tucked his chin on the proffered shoulder. "Based on the lack of pounding on the door, I'd say Sephiroth found Reno." Tseng just sighed in agreement. "I had better phone Fair. It's in everyone's best interest if we locate Strife." Tseng unsuccessfully tried to suppress a shudder that ran through him when Rufus' silky voice purred in his ear, "And then, we can continue. I believe we were in the middle of something important before."

Cloud couldn't say he was too surprised when Zack yanked him into his apartment with a, "Thank Gaia, you're back!" Reno had managed to get in touch with him and when Cloud had finally managed to filter out all the profanity and the screaming (someday, he'd develop an actual filter, he'd be rich), he was able to discern the fact that Reno was being pursued by Sephiroth. A very angry, sword-wielding Sephiroth. So it wasn't too surprising that he had been called in for damage control. Because, seriously if they broke one more desk, Supplies' was going to be pissed.

He gingerly placed the shopping bags on the countertop and followed Zack inside, something was off about the situation, why were Angeal and Genesis here? Zack's mako bright eyes shone with worry. "Uh Spiky, we don't want to alarm you, but we've got a new problem." Cloud felt an odd sense of foreboding, kind of like when his roommate had decided to play around with a reject Materia he had salvaged from Wall Market. They still hadn't managed to explain where the snowman had come from yet. "The thing is, we can't find Sephiroth anywhere."

Mornings in Shinra were pretty schedule-oriented. At 6:15 each morning, the cadets would scramble out of their bunks, hoping to avoid the higher ups and their buckets of ice water. Then there was a mad dash to the showers, each cadet competing for the last vestiges of lukewarm water. Followed by which was breakfast which was usually an adventure on its own. On most days, you could opt for cereal that tasted like wood chips or some weird goop they swore was porridge. Then there were your classes, training, duty, homework and dinner. Now lather, rinse and repeat. Zack, Sephiroth and the others had introduced plenty of variety into his life (not too many cadets could claim to have seen a First Class SOLDIER in drag). But he had to admit, with the last mishap in the lab, his limits were being tested. It was one thing dealing with Sephiroth normally, but Sephiroth on hormones? There's a sight that the world wasn't ready for yet.

The Nibelheim native cautiously stuck his head into his lover's office. "Hey," he called out softly, "Zack told me you weren't feeling too well. Said that you walked out of a Board meeting and that you skipped lunch." Sure enough, the General's head was resting on the cool mahogany surface and the shades were pulled which was a sure sign that Sephiroth was feeling peaky. He tiredly lifted his head, brushing a few strands of silver out of his line of vision, and muttered, "I can't say I'm feeling my level best." Cloud flinched at how out of it he looked. Although logically, contemplated the cadet, they should have probably expected it. Yesterday, Sephiroth had thrown up and today morning had barely picked at his breakfast. Plus, he'd been noticing that the other seemed fatigued, drained out.

"Anything I can do?" Sephiroth smiled tiredly. "Thank you, but I'm afraid not. While I appreciate the effort, this is one of those things that's out of everyone's control." At the look of confusion on Cloud's face he added softly, "It's my monthly cycle."

Which explained why Cloud had spent his free afternoon in the departmental store down the road. True, he wasn't the most socially adept person and he had never had female friends or a girlfriend, but that didn't mean he was ignorant and insensitive. Occasionally, he had gone shopping for his mother during her time of need.

Oh how he sorely missed Nibelheim.

Sure the village hadn't brought him too many fond memories and he had left as soon as he got a chance, but there were some advantages. At least there all you needed to do was visit the old lady who lived by the edge of the forest. She'd been an inhabitant of the area for at least four generations and was more than a little eccentric. Her eyesight nearly completely gone she had the uncanny ability to know precisely where you were at any given time, not to mention what you were doing. Finding her house wasn't a challenge, with the skulls that decorated the fence the place stood out like a sore thumb. The garden was overgrown and there was a warning sign on the gate, asking people not to venture in after sunset, because really she could not be responsible for what Muffin did. Till this day, Cloud had no idea what Muffin was, somehow, he didn't fancy knowing either.

However, she was the village healer making it necessary for the occasional visit. Once you got past the garden all that was left was the general eccentricity of the woman herself (and the stuffed Behemoth head, but Cloud thought that was pretty cool). The healer often threatened to turn her patrons into snowmen, or in Cloud's case, a Snow-Chocobo but for the most part they were idle threats.

Unfortunately in Midgar, urbanization and development had among other things brought consumer confusion.

Slowly, the mortification set in. He could feel the embarrassment seeping out of every pore of his body. On the bright side, the salesgirl was nice about it. "There…there are different brands?" he squeaked. He caught sight of himself in a mirror and marveled at the fact that he bore a striking resemblance to Genesis' coat.

To make matters worse, he seemed to be the only male in this part of the store, which attracted some rather unwanted attention from the female customers. While the large majority of them were shooting him dirty looks (apparently he looked like a creepy stalker, looming in the hygiene section), the others were giving him dreamy looks. Cloud wasn't too sure how happy he was about the fact that people were hitting on him when there were tampons and diapers in his line of vision. But the biggest blow to his pride was to come in the form of a sweet, little, old lady. When the cadet handed her a packet that was too high for her to reach, she absently patted his head and said, "My what a nice young girl you are!"

After that, he'd decided to get out as fast as possible. He picked up a few brands; Sephiroth could decide making it a win-win situation. He also grabbed a bottle of painkillers and on a sudden whim; he dashed to the section where they sold candles and oils. A few moments of deliberation later he had selected a bottle of lavender scented massage oil. As he headed over to the cashier he mentally noted that Zack would never be allowed to go through these items. The cashier, to his luck, was also a young woman who gave Cloud a very curious look as she rang up the items. But when he flipped through a magazine that Seph would probably like and added it to the pile, her curiosity got the better of her.

"Shopping for your girlfriend?" she inquired a grin on her face that widened dramatically when he nodded awkwardly. "Uh, sort of", well that was the truth. "Aw…aren't you just the sweetest! Let me guess, this is the first time you're going alone?" Cloud answered without thinking, "First time this is happening." Now then, that didn't make him sound strange at all. Foot meet mouth. He waved his hands and sputtered, "N...no! This is the first time it's happened when we were dating. Not the first time, and how much did you say that comes up to?"

And so Cloud headed back to the facility after a fruitful day shopping, purchases in hand plus one bar of chocolate which was courtesy the cashier who had taken pity on him. As it turned out, the store might have been slightly more disaster free than Shinra.

"You can't find him? How is that even possible? An hour ago Reno called me while he was being chased by Sephiroth!" Zack looked uncomfortable, "I know Spiky. But that was then, now we can't figure out for the life of us where he is. We've searched everywhere! We tried the barracks, the cafeteria, the field, the training room, the restroom (We're never bringing that up again yo!), the roof top and even Hojo's lab. He's nowhere to be seen."

Cloud sighed, "Did you try his quarters?" Angeal shrugged, "We rang the bell, knocked on the door and tried phoning him. Short of knocking down the door there's nothing more we could do. But, that doesn't mean he isn't there." He added, shooting Cloud a meaningful look.

One of the benefits of being a small-sized, quiet cadet was the fact that in the army, most people tended to ignore you. This is made it relatively simpler to sneak around the facility, because when questioned you could always explain that you were merely running errands for some higher-ups. Do this while exercising your best innocent face, add an angelic smile at the end and you would have no problem sneaking around the place. Cloud was easily able to make his way up to the upper floors where Sephiroth resided; noting rather warily that many of the soldiers he met seemed to recognize him. A few actually nodded pleasantly at him, bearing witness to the number of times they had seen him up here 'delivering take-out' to the General.

Unbeknownst to all of them, Cloud had been granted a spare pass to Sephiroth's private quarters about two months ago. It was partially to do with the fact that Sephiroth wanted their relationship to progress in the right direction and partly owing to the vast collection of books that he had accumulated during his career. He had lost count of the number of times that he had found Cloud poring over a book, eyes alit with wonder. Nibelheim was a backwater town, most people put issues like food and water above education. So for Cloud, every scrap of information he gained was a blessing. Sephiroth had decided to encourage this and had given Cloud free access to his personal library. (Additionally, he benefited because Cloud tended to be extremely cuddly when he was reading.)

Quickly glancing around to make sure that the corridors were deserted, Cloud slid the pass into the scanner and quietly pushed the door open when the he got the green light. The apartment was dark, the curtains were drawn and there didn't seem to be any trace of the elusive general. Huffing, Cloud flicked on the light switch and toed off his shoes. He noted the pair of black formal shoes that lay next to the door; looks like Angeal was right.

Tiptoeing to the bedroom, he peered inside and grinned. Sephiroth was fast asleep; he hadn't even bothered to change out of his clothes. Shaking his head, Cloud headed into the kitchen. Honestly, he felt like a worried mother sometimes.

Sephiroth blinked his cat like green eyes and stared at the ceiling, willing it to clear the fog that was eclipsing his mind. He stretched languidly, working out the kinks in his muscles and noticing the light coming from the living room staggered out of bed. He willed himself to ignore the occasional stab of pain that shot through his lower back; women went through this every month?

His apartment smelled nice, he mused and wrapped his arms around Cloud's slim waist. Cloud laughed and swatted him away, "I'm making stir-fry. That's ok right?" They both knew that was a rhetorical question, Sephiroth never bothered to argue with anything that Cloud made, his abject cooking prowess ensured that. "I see you're wearing the apron that Zackary bought you." The blue frilly one with a bright yellow Chocobo on it. According to Zack, he had seen it in Wall Market, where as the story went, it had called out to him saying, "Take me home to Cloud!" According to Angeal, he had one too many beers and walked into a store which supplied clothes for young mothers.

"Pfft. There's no other apron, yours is way too big for me. But that doesn't mean Zack ever has to know. While this is cooking, why don't you go shower. It'll make you feel better. I picked up some stuff for you," he said pointing at the shopping bags he had kept on the shelf. "If you want you can take a painkiller after dinner, the lady at the shop said they're non-drowsy." Sephiroth rifled through the contents, embarrassment soon being overshadowed by affection. "Thank you" he said, smiling softly.

Cloud blushed, "It's nothing, I used to do this for my mom all the time. You just kind of reminded me off her that's all. She needed time to herself too."

Dinner was quiet, Cloud decided to spend the night. It was pretty much their regular routine, Cloud doing his homework while Sephiroth finished some paperwork. Occasionally the silence would be broken by Cloud asking a question or his furious scratching out of a wrong answer. However, Sephiroth's trained eye caught a new stiffness in Cloud's movements. It was barely noticeable but there. He wisely didn't bring it up, he knew when Cloud was good and ready he'd tell him. Unsurprisingly, Sephiroth drifted off first, leaving Cloud to awkwardly brush off silver strands from his forehead and cover them both with a thick blanket before joining him in dreamland.

"You look like a zombie," Zack cheerfully said, pushing a steaming cup of coffee towards Cloud. The blond gratefully took the caffeine, drinking deeply with a contented sigh. Zack's office was possibly his second favorite place to unwind. It had a very different atmosphere than the rest of the building. Furniture wise, it was the same with a sturdy desk that was perpetually laden with unfinished paperwork and a couch for the visitors (granted, his couch was a little bit more worn out, but Cloud tried not to think about that). Zack however had personalized the work space, painting the walls purple (Angeal had refused to set foot in the office for almost a month), a Cactuar clock that stuck its tongue out every hour and a dustbin that looked like a Chocobo. It chirped every time you threw anything in it. He also had the standard issue computer. "Does Lieutenant Hewley know that's your screensaver?" "No, and he doesn't need to either. So….are you planning to tell me what's wrong?"

Cloud sighed, propping his cheek up with one hand, coffee long forgotten as he fiddled around with a pen on the table pointedly staring in any direction but the one that Zack was in. It was a sudden thought, but Zack was reminded of just how young Cloud really was. "Spiky," he ventured cautiously. "I…it's dumb really. I mean it's not important or anything and I'm sure that I'm over reacting, I guess I just have been really stressed, but… damn Zack it's this thing with Sephiroth. It's really getting to me!" he burst out.

"Thing with Sephiroth?" "It's just…it's hard. I've never been so confused in my life Zack! I love Sephiroth, I know I do. But sometimes I feel like Seph's changing every second, I feel like I can't keep up with that. There are times when I feel like Seph's someone completely new and I don't what to do. I need to second guess my every move. Plus, I guess things are ok now, they're manageable at least, but what happens later when we decide to, you know," he flushed, leaving his sentence unfinished, "I don't know whether I'll be able to deal with that when the time comes."

Zack helplessly hugged his friend, wishing he could just magically make the problem go away, but he couldn't. This was exactly what they had feared would happen. Cloud was doing his best, coping in a situation that would make most hardened men buckle, yet inevitably they knew he'd reach his limit. It was unfair not to expect him to do so. The thing was, now that the limit had been reached, what happened next?

What was he going to tell Sephiroth?

A/N: I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I last updated and I apologize for that. *Bows down in apology* Thanks to everyone who took the time to read the last chapter and *grins* I got faves! Do take the time to review; even a smiley face is highly appreciated!