Har, I´m on a roll with this one XD I think it´s because of the weather; it´s all sunny and bright and blah and I suffer from a serotonin overdose and go all fluffy and whatnot! This fic is my happy place, so to speak ;) Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and many many thanks to alexJ69 for the terrific betaing!

Chapter 9

Since they were so late already Vincent agreed to drop the boys of at school. Once they all were safely stuffed in the minivan, Loz, Kadaj and Yazoo occupying the backseat and Sephiroth sitting beside his father in the passenger seat, the dark green vehicle rolled out of the garage and lined up on the street.

It was pretty quiet during the trip, because all of them were still pretty tired or lost in their own thoughts; only the radio was buzzing with the depressing news and some sticky pop songs no one paid attention too. Kadaj had snuggled into his cozy seat in between Loz and Yazoo and couldn´t decide whether he wanted to fall asleep again or be nervous and excited about another day in school. It was still all so new to him, and he felt rather mature and important now that he had joined the educational system! Besides, he couldn´t wait to meet his new friends, or friend rather. Yuffie would hopefully wait for him at the entrance, so they could go to the class room together.

Critically, the boy inspected his school uniform again to make sure that he wore it properly. His red jacket with the elaborate school crest was a bit too big for him, but the hems of the shirt he wore underneath were achingly white and as stiff as the back of his math teacher. His black tie was perfectly nestled between his collar and the triangle where his jacket was buttoned. Fairly satisfied, Kadaj adjusted his backpack (printed all over with moogles) on his knees, careful to not ruffle the perfect crease of his black pants.

Loz had his eyes closed, but wasn´t sleeping; he simply didn´t want to talk and hoped that he was left alone if he pretended to nap. In his mind he was still sorting out a math problem that had brought him close to a mental breakdown during the weekend, and he just hoped he had it done right. Well, Tifa´d know, she was the smartest girl in his class, but he didn´t want to appear stupid to her, so he had wrecked his brain to get it right!

On the other side of the backseat, Yazoo had leaned his head against the cool glass of the window and observed the sun bathed houses rush by. Yellow street signs were offering them certain roads to different destinations, like the hospital, the city hall, ShinRa company (where most of the cars went, because Shinra was the biggest employer far and wide). They took a turn to the left, following the street down to the ShinRa private school. It was a restored, beautiful building that resembled a Scottish castle more than a school, with its wide, immaculate parks and the many side buildings. They were rather privileged to go there. Not everyone made it through the entrance exam, that was reserved for the children of Shinra employees anyway. Yazoo suspected that it was a tactical move; this way ShinRa made sure that the talented, new potentials would stick with the firm. ShinRa even funded a very well-respected and renowned college. Yazoo didn´t give a damn about elites and career ladders as long as it meant that he could escape English poetry, but sadly no one listened to him and so he was doomed to walk the path down to hell all by himself.

In the passenger seat, Sephiroth was busy avoiding his father´s scorching gaze. No matter what the man had said, he had his eyes on them now, especially on his oldest. Sephiroth pretended to ignore it and unblinkingly stared out of the window. He was in an abysmal mood (too little sleep and a broken hair dryer never mixed well) and ready to snap at anyone and everything that presented him with an opportunity. Even the bright, warm sunlight, the blossoming trees flanking the streets and the generally happy and summery atmosphere did nothing to suck the dark thoughts out of his brooding brain.

Vincent took the last turn and pulled to the side walk just behind the red school bus (red was ShinRa´s color). In the rear view mirror he could see Kadaj already impatiently reach over Yazoo´s unwilling figure to tear at the handle. In between he looked up to hectically wave at a little girl with pigtails who jumped up and down, a little imperiously giving him signs to hurry up. Obviously she didn´t give a damn about the annoyed hisses from the other students that got attacked by her flailing arms.

"Very well, here we are," Vincent announced over the sound of opening doors and the infiltrating noises of laughing and screaming students, the rumbling engines of other cars around them that spit out more children and the bell giving a warning ring that classes would start soon. Vincent had to raise his voice to not get drowned out. "Behave and when you come home don´t forget to do the chores that your mother pinned to the fridge."

He received a few disinterested "Sure Dad, have a nice day," and then he was all alone in his once again silent car. Vincent stared after his boys until they weaved into the various networks of red-uniformed students walking and talking in groups. Then he turned the radio louder and set the blinker to join the streets that all inevitably led to ShinRa.

The high hallways were littered with students, and soon the group of brothers had to split. Kadaj had been totally busy with Yuffie anyway, and they had parted to go to another building quite some time ago. The elementary school was right beside the high school, which was rather practical. Or not, depending on if one enjoyed being pestered every single break by Kadaj´s endless questions about this and that...

Loz was eager to get to his class, because he had to discuss his homework with Tifa, and hopefully impress her, so he quickly waved at his remaining two brothers and rushed up the stairs to the second floor.

Sephiroth was cranky and glared his path through the crowd that quickly stepped aside to make room for his regal and obviously pissed person, and neither side questioned the automatic reaction. Sephiroth was a star student, adored and worshiped, and he enjoyed certain privileges as well as a ridiculous amount of attention. Certainly it had its good sides, but right then he could have done very well without all the curious stares and the not so subtle whispers behind his back. All their expectations and admiration was getting incredibly on his nerves right now; he didn´t want to be stared at, feeling their too curious eyes crawl over his face and into his skull like over eager insect wanting to stuff themselves with his innermost secrets. He wanted the center of attention to shift from himself to someone else (but as always Genesis was nowhere near when one needed him for once!). All Sephiroth craved was to find a secluded, dark corner where he could curl up and take a long, restful nap.

As he kept plowing through the masses of students to get to the gym he faintly wondered how they would look at him if they knew that he was fucking his little brother on a regular basis. Full, unusual hard lips twitched up into a caustic sneer and the adorning, flirtatious looks and rosy blushes that flanked Sephiroth´s way were ignored with even more vehemency and coldness than usual.

Behind him, Yazoo shuffled along until their ways parted. The younger had something to take care of and wordlessly vanished behind a green door with a rudimentary black figure that was supposed to depict a boy but really was just a circle on a quadratic rump. Inside it was pretty empty, the only other occupant just left as Yazoo entered.

The boy wrinkled his nose at the pungent stench of artificial lemon and sharp detergents seeping underneath. There was also the faint odor of relatively fresh paint that had been applied to the formerly smeared stalls the students had decorated with their own 'art' and little wisdoms that were erased during summer break. Now the walls were clean and invited to get painted and scribbled all over again.

Yazoo paid the clean sinks and the sparkling mirrors no mind as he walked over the green tiles to the last stall, which was also the only one to be closed. After another moment to make sure that he was still alone, the boy raised his hand and hit the closed door with his knuckle three times in a row, made a pause and knocked again.

Instantly the door was pulled open, a red shock of messy hair shot out to have a routinized, quick look around and then Yazoo was roughly shoved into the stall, the door closing again with a bang.

"You´re damn late, yo! I was about to just leave you here." Reno poked his pointy finger against Yazoo´s chest with an accusing look, before his expression eased into nonchalant inquiring. "Do you have it?"

Yazoo morosely straightened his ruffled uniform, but then reached for his backpack to slide it to his belly and open it. After a moment of concentrated searching he finally summoned a bland looking CD in a thin case that didn´t fail to elicit a greedy sparkling from the redhead´s ice blue eyes. Reno was about to snatch it out of Yazoo´s slender hand, when the silver haired boy quickly withdrew the item, holding it over his shoulder and away from Reno.

"Where´s my payment?"

"Yeah, yeah, don´t get your pants wet yo." Grumpily, Reno searched his own backpack, which took a lot longer and provided an unwanted insight into the chaotic inner life of his rucksack. A half eaten sandwich was openly flying around, spilling crumbs onto ruffled school books and notebooks that had clearly seen better days and were stained with indefinable spots and creative little paintings.

Finally Reno held up a ragged piece of paper, triumphantly trusting it into the blinking teenager´s free hand.

"There you go. Now I want my porn."

Yazoo suspiciously ogled the crunched, striped paper and Reno seized the opportunity to snatch the CD out of his hand. "Good luck with that, yo!" he grinned and then he was out of the stall, happily whistling a vaguely popular pop song.

Sighing in resignation, Yazoo shouldered his bag again and left the unused toilet as well, just to bump into a broad chest blocking his way.

"Sorry," the boy mumbled, preparing to press himself past the other student, when said boy grabbed him by the arm and exclaimed, scandalized, "What have you been doing here?!"

Blankly, Yazoo stared up at one indignant Genesis Rhapsodos, before he looked back at the stall. "I took a piss...?"

The young man angrily huffed, imperiously crossing his arms over his chest. As always he was immaculately dressed and carried that incredibly dramatic aura around him that left other people little air to breathe. Yazoo was used to his antics already, but he didn´t feel exactly comfortable.

"Do not dare lie to me Yazoo Valentine, I heard everything," he declared sternly, before he held his hand out in demand. "I heard that redheaded friend of yours! Now, what mischief did you cook up in here?" His eyes narrowed dangerously, as he sniffed the air. "You didn´t trade cigarettes, did you?"

Yazoo simply shook his head and then finally handed out the piece of paper he had been clinging too. There was no messing with Genesis when he was on a self-declared mission, and Yazoo didn´t need a headache on top of his already miserable day.

Genesis importantly de-crumbled the note and held it between his hands, very close to his nose. His eyes narrowed further and his brows furrowed in concentration as he tried to decipher the messy handwriting that crawled over the dirty paper. Meanwhile Yazoo leaned against the tiled wall, waiting for all of this to be over.

"Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet... and so are you...?! What the heck is this?!" Genesis´earring sparkled in agitation as he waved the paper in front of Yazoo, looking a bit lost.

"...That´s for my English class. We were forced to write poetry...."

Genesis´ features went spectacularly blank, and his movements froze. The door briefly opened, but was quickly closed again with no one entering, because Genesis´ stiff, straight back alone must have conveyed his incredulity. When it came to the art of writing, Genesis believed himself to be an authority. It was his holy grail, the air he breathed, a matter of life and death and those brats just had-

"Are you trying to tell me that you are trading poetry for porn??!!"

Yazoo shifted, but held the other teenager´s gaze. Outside the bell rang again, ordering the students to go to their class rooms. Great, if he was late he´d have to read his 'self-made' creation for sure. Before he´d recite this note Yazoo would rather pretend to have forgotten about his homework though; he should have known that he couldn´trust Reno...

"Technically, this junk doesn´t really qualify as poetry, does it?" he pointed out, with a winning, hopeful smile that would have dazzled whole busloads of wrinkled grannies, but despite his old-fashioned views sometimes, Genesis was immune.

"That´s totally beside the point!"

The echo of the bell was still ringing in his ears though, so he just darkly waved his hand, stuffing the note into his pocket. "We will talk about this later, young man. Your brother will know what to do with you." It sounded like the worst threat ever, as Genesis´voice dropped to a menacing, low whisper and his eyes started to sparkle in a strange light. Yazoo suspected that the redheaded teenager had seen a bit too much of his favorite play again, judging by his over the top display. Or maybe he was just practicing a new role or whatever (since Genesis had started talking at the age of two he´d told everyone who couldn´t run fast enough that he wanted to become a grand actor or stage director and misused his friends as involuntary audience for his sudden creative outbursts).

Either way, Yazoo was just glad that he was let off the hook for now, and he sincerely doubted that he would get an earful from Sephiroth. It seemed that his brother was avoiding him wherever he could now; the morning had gone by without the elder saying a word to Yazoo. Even when Yazoo had asked for Sephiroth´s hair brush this morning -pretending that he couldn't find his own- the elder had just wordlessly handed it over, not even looking Yazoo in the eye...

Huffing, Genesis watched Yazoo shuffle out of the bath room (without his horrible 'poem').

Then he cast his eyes up to the mute, blank ceiling, giving a deep sigh and a resigned "My friend, the fates are cruel, There are no dreams, no honor remains...", before he turned on his heels and marched back into the almost empty corridor.

After a few turns in the empty hallways he slipped into the locker room last minute, making his way through chatting young men undressing and changing into their sports gear. Genesis originally had planned on changing in the bathroom, because he felt uncomfortable with so many people around him, which was just another well-known and accepted quirk of his, but then he had gotten distracted. Besides, he had important news to tell now!

Most of the boys were already in the gymnasium to warm up anyway, and so it was easy to find Angeal and Sephiroth sitting on a used, sweat soaked wooden bench between two rows of blue metal lockers. Since the weather was good they most likely would go outside to play soccer, which Genesis did not particularly enjoy. So he took his time to importantly lean against a locker, his sports bag hanging from his shoulders as his bright eyes observed how Sephiroth dealt with the laces of his new, white sneakers. Their sport´s wear was provided by ShinRa as well, and so they all wore the same red shirts with their names stitched right above their chests and the white, short pants. They were made of some nylon fabric and they felt smooth and light, but they also got dirty pretty quickly.

Since he was so absorbed by his own agitation, Genesis failed to notice the dark atmosphere swirling around Sephiroth and unwisely opened his mouth. "Guess what just happened to me in the bath ro-"

"Don´t." Sephiroth´s hands stopped knotting and his bangs trembled ever so slightly as his blazing, green eyes slowly crawled up to his friend like a poisonous insect with too many, too thin legs. "Don´t. Talk. To. Me! It´s all your fault!"

Angeal could only answer Genesis helpless, questioning gander with a shrug of his own. They all suffered the consequences of random hormonal attacks often enough to know that sometimes it was just better to shut up and wait till the storm that raged through their confused, raw bodies was over. And who would know that better than Genesis... It was unusual for Sephiroth to be so unreasonably snappy, but he might have his reasons, Angeal thought. Besides there was always some strange tension between his two friends; a pressing rivalry and competitiveness that had always been there. Angeal was the one to calmly watch over them and get them back down to earth when it became too much, as he was the calm and reasonable one of their trio infernal.

With another tiny shrug that was only meant for himself, Angeal got up from the bench and followed their retreating guitarist and left Genesis to hectically get dressed for a hopefully exhausting game of brutal, anger relieving soccer.

tbc?

Review replies:

Natzilla: Yay, thank you! The first version only had 1000 words or so, and then I thought that it was pretty lame so I started adding details and then I couldn´t stop anymore XD Hah! I bet there are tons of cute pics hanging on those walls, and I bet the boys are embarrassed about every single one of them XD Ah, I might elaborate Vincent and Lucrecia´s relationship later, depending on how I feel XD

AlexJ69: *hands you your cookies* There you go, but don´t eat them all at once! I´m glad you liked the details! Usually I´m too impatient to be descriptive... I hope it didn´t get too much though XD Yes, Lucrecia has adopted a tactic of 'if I don´t think about it, it never happened', which might not be very wise... Hehe, he´d be dead twice or so, at least XDD And I hope you noticed how I avoided color in this chapter *a tiny bit proud*

PsychoSteph: No one can resist Seph, no one! *vehement nod* Haha, yes, I figured that Genesis would make the perfect singer, he´s so extroverted and flashy and has his poem thingy XD Yeah, the last chapters are a bit uhm... uneventful, since it more or less just depicts daily life, but it is fun to write^^ And I so wouldn´t want to be the one to wake him up either, his mom might be the only one to get away with it unscathed XD

Anne Voda Hijme: Hm, since they are brothers their relationship started with Yazoo´s birth, kind of, but the sexual note may have been added later. Though I wonder if in this case it is so easy for them to distinguish between the many different forms of love... I´m glad you liked the photos, they were fun to write^^

oztan: Haha, I really like that vacation idea! I think Vincent really needs to spend some quality time with the boys! Let´s see how that goes XD

PoppetlurvesZexion: Haha, if I was you I would have smacked that 'friend' of mine XD Throwing yoghurts at teachers *shakes head and giggles* But it seems your teacher didn´t even notice, did s/he? XDD

danslalune27: Thanks! Hm, I think their kiss was rather spontaneous and might have surprised the both of them, but then they just went along with it, since it felt right and all :) Yes, Vincent and Lucrecia were very young, but we´ll learn more about that later too (or so I have planned).

Soooooo, did you like? Or not? Either way, please please please tell me^^