Warnings: Language and innuendo, mostly
Chapter 4. On Walks the Night
Then his hand was touching warm flesh, gripping it, and the voice faded back behind the wall, but the words, the need, echoed in his mind.
"Shit! That was fuckin' scary, Seph."
He had to, to… think, why couldn't he think? A large, strong hand gripped his bicep. A small, calloused one pressed against his chest. It took a moment for this world, this reality, to come into focus. He was here, in an underground lab not sailing the universe on the remains of a planet. He. Was. Here!
Zack was standing beside him, he had his hand on Sephiroth's arm – although Sephiroth barely noticed it compared to Strife's soothing contact. Yet, Fair had been over there, near the entrance.
"Your eyes went fuckin' incandescent and your hair started moving all on its own. I swear, if we'd left you alone for another second you'd have been levitating or some shit thing like that."
"It was like standing too close to a thrown Bolt," Cloud added. His voice calm, although he was looking at Sephiroth with huge, scared eyes.
"What happened?" He felt groggy. He didn't like it.
"Um, yeah, well it was like you get in a fight but way more menacing."
The general frowned. If he had been getting ready to go into battle, then why hadn't Zack– "I told you to protect Cloud."
"I did. I put your hand on his arm – which you're going to snap if you keep holding it that hard – and that allowed you to come back to yourself because, face it, Seph, if you decided to go ka-blooey, there ain't a place in this whole little shithole where he'd be safe."
Sephiroth let Zack's unending supply of words roll over him as he examined the young trooper. Cloud's lips were compressed and his jaw was clenched, holding back any sounds of pain he might make. He had a right to make all sorts of sounds, the silver-haired warrior realized, and he loosened his grip. "My apologies, Cloud."
"It's alright, sir. I'll live."
He had the eyes of a much older man, Sephiroth decided. One who knew what pain was and accepted it as part of life. He had a soldier's eyes, yet he was only seventeen, eighteen? He looked at where his hand had encircled the boy's arm. Bruises were already starting to form. He softly rubbed his thumb over them, as if to sooth them away.
"Found something else out too," Zack continued. "I grabbed you first and my touch did nothing." The general made a non-committal sound while he cast a Cura. "I might as well be air. Spikey here, however. All I had to do was push him into you and it had an immediate effect. I could feel it dissipating."
Sephiroth finally looked up at his 2IC. "What dissipated?"
"I dunno. Something in the air, like..." Zack shrugged. "A presence?"
"I couldn't move, sir. I tried but…"
"It's alright if you were afraid, Cloud," Sephiroth soothed, but the blond interrupted him.
"I wasn't afraid, sir. I mean, I was, but that wasn't it. I tried to move, but my body didn't respond. It's like what Zack's saying, sir. There was a presence and it didn't want me to touch you. It was like I was being held."
That information caused the general's eyes to narrow. If the presence his companions had felt was Jenova, then she was aware and sentient, able to react to unfolding events and to find new angles of attack. She had controlled Strife. She had controlled him. That was unacceptable.
"You felt nothing, Zack?" he asked.
"Not like that. I've got a hell of a headache, and I feel kinda nauseous, but nothing stopped me from moving."
"Perhaps she didn't perceive you as a threat," Sephiroth murmured. Then another aspect of Zack's statement occurred to him. "You have a headache?"
Zack rubbed his temples. "Yeah. I didn't notice it before, but I'm noticing now. Maybe I need food."
"Touch Cloud," the general ordered. "See if it eases."
Zack shrugged and reached over to ruffle Cloud's hair. The blond hated it when he did that, but since his friend couldn't move away during such an important experiment, Zack made sure to reach right down to the scalp. Sure enough, Cloud glared but he didn't shift. Zack grinned at the sheer normalcy of the action then realized– "Hey, it's better."
"Well, shit," Cloud whispered.
Sephiroth hummed, his curiosity roused. "Interesting. I wonder…." His eyes moved to the rows of books and journals but Zack cut him off.
"Eat first, read later."
"It will be hard to navigate the tunnels, fight off creatures, and maintain contact with Cloud," the general pointed out.
"I'll do the fighting," Zack suggested. "Witch-mom's not affecting me as badly as she is you."
"Which mom?" Puzzled, Sephiroth requested clarification.
"'Witch', rhymes with 'bitch'. I'm using it so I don't offend any feeling of maternal loyalty by saying 'Creepy-Ass Psycho Bitch Mom'."
"Hmmm." Sephiroth decided to ignore that. "I prefer being armed in the tunnels." The statement couldn't offend the black-haired SOLDIER. As a warrior himself, Zack often took comfort in having his weapon ready. Even if he didn't use it, it was nice to have it in hand.
"We can hold hands in the tunnels, sir. I think that gives the best range of motion, plus I'm right-handed and you're left so we can both be armed. Once we reach the surface, we can change grips. I'm sure no one will notice."
Sephiroth tried to envision any grip he could maintain on the corporal that wouldn't occasion comment, and failed. He lifted an eyebrow at Cloud in question.
"If you hold me by the scruff of the neck, here–" Cloud lifted his hand to demonstrate. "No one in the village will think anything of it. They're used to seeing me get hauled around like that."
"That'll make it look like you're in trouble," Zack protested. "Like we're dragging you to jail or something."
Cloud shrugged. "I don't have my helmet anyway, so they're going to see me. We might as well use it. They were always hauling me around by my neck. Like I said, no one will comment."
"You mean, they will not comment on my behaviour," Sephiroth clarified. "But they will speculate on what you've done wrong this time?"
"Yeah. That's what I mean."
"You're all right with that, corporal?"
A deep steadying breath. "Yes, sir."
"Then thank you, Cloud." Sephiroth's tone was soft, kind. He understood what Cloud was sacrificing in order to protect him from gossip.
Zack watched his young friend blush lightly at the general's words. He very rarely heard Seph talk like that to anyone. He became more convinced, that if he could just overcome their shynesses (if that was even a word, but he knew what he meant) then his two best buds would be great for each other. They were both at their best when they had something or someone to protect. Here, they could protect each other and get some much needed noogie time.
Both of them were long overdue for having some good hot sex, in Zack's opinion.
"We should prepare to go. Cloud, you need your weapon. I need to put on my coat."
The manoeuvre to get dressed was a little awkward, though not when compared to holding hands in a dark tunnel with Zack singing silly loves songs and making comments on how 'cute' they looked as a couple. Cloud felt embarrassed for the general, after all Sephiroth was the top SOLDIER and Cloud was just a lowly corporal the regular army.
"Zack, you're being an ass," Cloud said at one point when he thought his face couldn't get any hotter. He passed over another ether.
"Hey, I'm playing cupid here. Sacrificing any chance I might've had to fulfill a fantasy."
Cloud snorted. "I hate to tell you this, commander, but fantasy or not, you never had a chance of getting into my pants," he said, deliberately misunderstanding his friend. "Although that Sahagin sure wants into yours."
Zack moved out to deal with the creature, still talking away. "That hurts! I've done thousands of squats and for what? So that my best friend can reject my ass when it looks so good?" He took a moment to flick the blood off his blade. "First you reject the coffin exploration idea, and then my not so subtle plea for cheap sexual gratification. I never get to have any fun." As he was grinning at the time, his companions ignored the complaint.
The black-haired first wasn't the only one killing monsters. Having to hold Cloud's hand didn't actually hinder the general much. He would twirl the young soldier in circles, sometimes pulling him in close to his body, sometimes whipping him out and around. Cloud soon learned what kind of grip indicated he should drop to a knee. Looked at in one way, he could understand why Zack sang at them. It probably did seem like a type of a dance – a rather bloody and deadly dance, but definitely formal ballroom.
That Zack couldn't resist teasing them about it was okay too. The young corporal had realized on the way down that Zack's mouth ran from the surface of his brain, draining extraneous thoughts so the deeper, deadlier part could calculate angles, vectors, and trajectories unhindered. The swordsman would shut up once they were safe, or shut up as much as he was capable of. What surprised Cloud was how well the general took the unending flow of suggestions, innuendo, gossip and speculation that spewed unchecked as his 2IC slashed through the monsters.
"Zack, may I remind you that open speculation about the shape or texture of my posterior erodes discipline and invites disrespect from others who might hear you."
"Nah! It builds up your mystique," Zack argued. "'Cause if I don't know what it looks like up close, then obviously nobody else does." His mind skipped, "Speaking of asses – Oh Fearless Leader, sir – can you please talk to Heideggar about the stupid-ass decision to not teach supporting military personnel how to use basic materia? Cloud here can't cast Cure, or Esuna or even a wimpy, fucking Barrier. That's just asking the troopers to be meat shields."
"I'm carrying all the potions, Zack," the corporal protested.
"Much good that'll do if I can't stop to drink some."
Sephiroth had to admit, the commander had a point. Deciding it was unacceptable that Cloud was so vulnerable, they stopped and equipped Cloud with a bracer that held the general's mastered Cura and a Barrier of Zack's. In between slashing and dodging, they instructed him on gathering and channelling the materia's power. They didn't actually expect him to be able to do anything with it, but to the surprise of them all, he managed to cast a weak Cure while Zack Esuna'd a poison spell. He grinned as broadly as Zack ever had. Zack clapped him on the shoulder and made plans. Sephiroth just smiled smugly, and proudly, as if the blond corporal were his creation.
It was scary. It was filthy. It was weird and it was exhilarating.
It was also very short – shorter than he remembered from the trip down. It seemed like they were at the mansion's over-large and over-fancy main entrance in no time. As odd as it seemed, Cloud was sorry the trip was over.
Once they went out the door, they wouldn't be a team; they'd be two SOLDIERs and Cloud Strife, town trouble-maker. Before Zack opened the door, Cloud placed his hand on the general's chest so that he could properly clean Masamune before sheathing it.
Sephiroth took his grip on the young man's neck. The corporal slung his weapon into a less battle ready position, and assumed an air of guilty defiance. There were few monsters between the mansion and the village, and Zack could take care of any they encountered.
Zack watched the preparations and remembered a question he wanted to ask. "So, Spike. How did a book nerd like you, child of a Kalm University Librarian, end up in dinky backwoodsville?"
Sephiroth, who had been ready to go out the door, decided that he would like to hear the answer as well and settled back on his heels.
"Oh, well. My dad was a computer engineer for Shin-Ra. When they were installing the remote monitoring systems, he was assigned here to oversee the project. They bought him a cottage, and moved him and my mom here. It was supposed to be temporary, but it took longer than planned."
"It always does," the Silver General murmured, very familiar with Shin-Ra's inefficient and capricious project management style.
"I know he had troubles accessing some areas of the reactor." Cloud opened the door and the group was forced to move out of the mansion. Zack in front, as he had been in the caves.
"Was it Hojo?" Zack asked, prompting the blond to continue.
"I don't know. This is just what I overheard my parents talking about or what my mom let slip," Cloud answered. "I was seven when my dad got sick, nearly nine when he died. They figured it was working at the reactor, mako poisoning, but Shin-Ra denied it. They wouldn't pay for treatment. Then after he died, the company wouldn't move Mom back to Kalm because she wasn't an employee. They'd used all their savings to try to heal Dad so we were stuck here."
"And you didn't fit," Sephiroth stated.
Cloud snorted. "Not even slightly. My mom owns nearly 200 books. Most of them classic works of literature that have been read for hundreds of years. The town elders called them subversively modern and kept wanting to burn them. She argues with them about the need for education, the benefits of reading, and just learning new things all the time 'instead of letting brains atrophy to the size of a marlboro's' – that's a quote. It makes her unpopular," he concluded in dry understatement.
"And so they picked on you because you were her son? What dick heads!" Zack said contemptuously. Zack swung his buster sword a couple times, unable to contain his emotions.
"Well–" Cloud blushed and shrugged, careful not to dislodge the general's hand. "I may have done my share of arguing too."
"Stupid fucking town doesn't deserve you anyway. Right, Seph?" He reached over and ran his hand down his friend's arm, offering comfort and receiving some relief from Jenova's irritating buzz.
"I am glad Cloud decided to leave it and join the military," Sephiroth agreed. "Midgar is a much better place for him."
"Thank you, sir." The young man ducked his head in shy pleasure. "I think it was a good idea too."
"Yeah, now let's go eat them out of next year's food supply," Zack grinned. "Is the grip working?"
"It is adequate for fooling the villagers – since they seem to be blind to the truth of things."
Zack hoped Cloud was ready for this. Sephiroth would have to keep that humiliating grip on his neck all the way through the village, right across the town square. Unlike this morning, heading to the mansion when it was still dark and nobody'd been out of bed, it was afternoon and nowhere near dark, which meant that people would be out and about. If it was anything like Gongaga, people would stare and point, and whisssssper.
The young corporal did know what he'd volunteered for. At least with the two Firsts as an escort the villagers probably wouldn't yell or spit on him. There'd been that one time someone had thrown a rotten egg. Cloud had ducked and it had hit Constable Schtern. Schtern had docked his mother the cost of cleaning his uniform.
He really hated this town. All they would see was that Cloud was to be punished again. That he had done something wrong which was to be expected of those weird Strifes with their 'nasty furrin ways'.
They wouldn't notice how the general's fingers rubbed lightly over the skin of his nape. 'And if he doesn't stop that I'm going to get another erection, then Zack really will have something tease me about,' Cloud whined to himself without actually wanting the general to stop his caress.
However, Cloud had forgotten one important thing, or rather one person.
"There you all are!" Tifa Lockheart ran up to them. "I was beginning to wonder if I should get Dad to notify Shin-Ra or something. You've been gone for hours." Zack could tell she was setting up for a good long rant, but then she saw who the general was holding. "Cloud? Cloud Strife?"
The blond raised his hand in a weak wave, "Hey, Tifa."
"That was you? All this time? And you never said anything?"
"I can explain…"
"He was under orders, Tifa," Zack lied.
"Under orders? Why?"
Yeah, Cloud thought. Why would a trooper, a local boy, be ordered to keep his head covered? He waited to hear the answer, eyebrows raised in skeptical inquiry.
"Public relations."
In front of him, Tifa stood with her mouth open. Behind him, Sephiroth choked out one of those 'I can't afford to laugh right now' coughs. Cloud just shut his eyes and shrugged internally. Might as well tell the truth – who knows what story Zack would come up with next?
"That's not true, Tifa. Thanks, anyway, commander." The blond took a deep breath. "I didn't take my helmet off, because I didn't want you to know, any of you–" He swept his hand out to indicate the whole village.
"But why?" she asked.
"Because… because I said I wouldn't be back until I was SOLDIER and I'm not." It was the simplest explanation and should be the easiest for her to accept.
"Yet," Sephiroth added firmly, his smooth baritone purring through the gathering dark. "And if you keep acting as impulsively as you did in the tunnels, you won't be alive to take the test."
"Tunnels? What tunnels?"
"To the secret lab, of course." Zack bounced and placed an hand on Cloud's bare arm. "Cloud here told us the town's stories about the spooky place and we had to check it out."
"You mean those stories are true?" If anything, Tifa's eyes got bigger and her voice squeakier.
"Yeah, hidden passages, secret entrances, scary monsters, the lot," Zack grinned widely.
Tifa looked at him suspiciously. "I don't know if I should believe you. You lie too easily."
Zack slapped a dramatic hand over his heart. "Oh Ms. Lockhart," he declaimed. "You wound me. I wouldn't do that to you, would I?" He gave her sad, puppy eyes and that did it.
Tifa rolled her eyes and snorted. "Secret labs, yeah right."
Zack just smiled. Sometimes the truth was the best cover story.
"We need to proceed. I doubt the path gets safer at night," Sephiroth interrupted. "Ms. Lockhart, it would be best if you would join us." It wasn't a request even though the tone was polite. Cloud wished Sephiroth weren't such a gentleman. There wasn't a huge distance between the mansion and the village and he wouldn't have minded sending Tifa away, especially when she started with the questions – lots of questions.
Some were easy to answer:
"How did you get to Midgar?" "Train mostly." (Did you think I walked?)
"Were you scared?" "A little." (Of course I was, I was only fourteen.)
"Is it as big as they say?" "Unbelievably big." (Ugly and wondrous all mixed together)
Some were awkward or embarrassing:
"Why didn't you write?" (What would he have said?)
"Did you think of me?" (Not more than I thought of anyone else in Nibelheim. Certainly less than I thought of my mother.)
Then there was the big one, "Why aren't you a SOLDIER yet?" This one, however, the general rescued him from.
"SOLDIER recruits must be seventeen. Some argue that even that is too young, as they don't have the physical or emotional stability required. Commander Fair here is a case in point." He continued over Zack's indignant yelp, "However, tests have found that any older and they don't adapt as well to the treatments. Cloud has only recently reached that age. His application will be processed during the next recruitment cycle."
"Will he get in?"
Cloud's face didn't change, but he cringed inside, fearing the answer his idol would give. What he'd said this morning to Zack was true, he was little compared to the two meter average height of most SOLDIER candidates – and most SOLDIERS for that matter. Zack was nearly a full head taller then he was, and Sephiroth was taller still.
Sure, Cloud had jumped up in the last couple years but neither of his parents had been above average. Hell! He was short, but he was still taller than his mom.
"If his reaction to the mako test is within acceptable limits, I see no reason why he wouldn't be accepted."
Was it the truth or a polite lie given to protect Cloud? The young corporal couldn't decide. He didn't know the general well enough. Why would Sephiroth lie, especially for some lowly, small town grunt? He knew that he hadn't hindered the two SOLDIERs in the tunnels, but he hadn't helped much either.
While Cloud was busy dodging Tifa's questions, he'd had to watch his best friend cozying up to the girl he'd once dreamed of having as his girlfriend. Zack walked beside Tifa, talked to her constantly when she wasn't asking Cloud another question, and he touched her almost all the time. He even got her to squeeze his biceps, for Odin's sake!
Sure, they'd never been boyfriend/girlfriend, and after two days in her company, he no longer wanted to be, but still... Cloud didn't want to watch his best friend flirting so hard with his almost girlfriend! Except that he had no right to feel that way and wasn't sure why he would feel that way, and the whole thing was making his head spin so much he felt ill.
Then there was the general's behaviour.
Sephiroth had kept up with his gentle caress. His long fingers spread up into Cloud's hair to give him a discreet scalp massage. He'd move them so they covered the pulse point in Cloud's neck and he'd massage that. His latest move was to delve down under the collar of Cloud's uniform and caress the top of his spine. That made Cloud shiver, big time, and it certainly didn't make him feel ill.
It made him feel a whole bunch of other things, which were entirely inappropriate for the middle of the village's town square.
"So what did he do now? Is he in trouble again? You haven't let go of him since you came out of the mansion." Tifa asked. Cloud wished – a selfish, little wish, that the girl would just shut the fuck up and go home!
Sephiroth smiled. It was actually just a quirk of the lips, but it was the best he could do. Between awareness of Jenova's constant howling waiting just beyond Cloud's presence, and their guide's annoyingly persistent questioning, he was beginning to feel the desire to smite something. This bratty young girl didn't care if Cloud was in trouble; she just wanted to know the latest gossip. Since he couldn't smite her, he would have to settle for pricking her little balloon. "He's being a hero."
It was wonderful, because it was the absolute truth.
Tifa, of course, thought it was a joke, a sarcasm, or something. She was sure of it when she saw Zack smiling. She didn't realize that Zack was smiling at Sephiroth's expert manipulation of the nosy little mountain girl. He also knew that the general had told the complete truth. If it hadn't been for the young corporal, General Sephiroth, warrior extraordinaire, would probably be laying waste to Nibelheim right about now.
They escorted the young guide right to the door of her father's house. The mayor opened the door himself when they knocked. Zack chatted with him for a bit, shaking hands, deflecting his questions and reassuring his worries – running interference between his irascible general and the public like he always did.
Finally, they got away from the mayor, who took obsequiousness to obscene heights, and crossed over to the inn.
There were a few people in the common room enjoying a meal they hadn't cooked themselves. Most looked up to see who'd entered. They saw the SOLDIERs, and they saw Cloud Strife. Some looked indifferent, some seemed happy at having gossip fodder, but a few looked snidely condemning. This made Sephiroth frown. With a quick assessing look, he decided on a strategy.
"Commander Fair. If you would arrange for food to be sent to the room, I will take our little warrior upstairs and instruct him, once again, on the dangers of being too brave on the battlefield."
"Yes, sir!" Zack grinned. Like Sephiroth, he hadn't missed the curled lips and the disgust some of the villagers had displayed when they recognized Cloud. That the cold-eyed general had decided to protect him meant that he had, at the bare minimum, 'adopted' the blond as a kind of SOLDIER cadet.
No one – no one – outside SOLDIER, and very few within Shin-Ra, were allowed to criticize a SOLDIER directly. They could take their complaint to Sephiroth and the general would blister skin if he thought the complaint was legitimate. Prejudiced and ignorant villagers would obviously not be allowed to comment, even silently. Which meant, Zack concluded, that no matter what he might say, Sephiroth felt Cloud was his. As a cadet or maybe something a little more... personal.
'This was great!' he cheered internally. He'd plotted for ways to get his two best friends together since he'd spotted Cloud's 'problem' back in lab, and then there was Sephiroth caressing the boy's neck like it was a replacement for something else long, hard and cylindrical. So he knew Cloud was interested and, given the long-haired SOLDIER's actions, it was a good bet that Sephiroth was interested right back.