Hey! Sorry for the long wait, I was reeeaaaaaaaally busy and I will continue to be busy with college and the job I hopefully get :( But thanks for sticking with me and I hope you will like the new chapter, well see more of the other boys this time^^ As always I want to thank my uberawesome beta AlexJ69 for her very helpful suggestions and her corrections! *huggles*

Enjoy^^

Chapter 11

Half an hour later, a steaming pot full of noodles was resting in the middle of the dark wooden table on the patio. Since the sun was shining strongly down into the garden, Sephiroth had decided that they could as well eat outside – besides, cleaning Kadaj´s mess up wouldn´t be necessary because there were enough insects and birds here to get rid of whatever food he dropped.

He was already seated in one of the padded deckchairs. Absently drumming with the tip of his knife against the edge of the table, he waited for the rest of his family to grace him with their presence before the noodles had gone completely cold. Maybe sending Loz to wake them up hadn´t been such a bright idea; despite his rather burly looks, Loz wasn´t very good with pushing through...

Just then, Loz trotted back to the table, claiming his own seat by heavily falling into it with a hungry grunt. He had found a relatively neutral, sleeveless black shirt at the bottom of Seph´s drawer, hidden underneath an impressive pile of band-shirts, as well as a pair of old jeans the other didn´t wear anymore unless he had to work in the garden with Dad.

Without waiting for his other two brothers to arrive, Loz grabbed the pot and started to fill his plate with huge chunks of slippery, wet spaghetti. It hardly mattered though because a few seconds later Kadaj and Yazoo arrived on the sun kissed patio. The former clung to the hand of the latter, greeted the garden with a big, toothy yawn and then rubbed his eyes to climb onto his chair. His stomach gave a surprisingly loud growl for such a little person, but the watery smell of the noodles that wafted from the chrome pot went right through his nostrils into his starved braincells and down to his contracting, empty belly.

Yazoo sat down beside Kadaj, opposite Sephiroth, and waited for the pot to arrive at his place. Loz noticed with a frown that he hadn´t bothered to change out of his wrinkled uniform yet, and something inside him felt compelled to say something about it. It almost had a magical pull, like the need to scratch a minor, annoying itch - but Loz resisted. For him it was a routine to get out of his school clothing first thing when he got home, because then his free time started and he didn´t want to have anything to do with it anymore; for Yazoo... Well, Loz suspected that the younger had forgotten that he was still wearing it, and even if he had noticed, Yazoo may not care.

"What´s this?" Kadaj interrupted the second oldest´s musings, critically watching a slobbery bulk of noodles slowly gliding from his raised fork to splash onto the plate.

"What do you think this is?"

Sephiroth had narrowed his eyes in irritation. His tongue was just about to transform into a very sharp, biting knife, but for now he kept his tone in check. Fine, so he wasn´t the best cook -and he had never claimed that he was!- but it was the brat´s own fault for falling asleep and he should be damn grateful that Sephiroth had bothered to fight the kitchen at all!

Kadaj´s face not-so-subtly contorted into a very expressive mask of disgust as he poked the noodles in a way as if he expected them to leap from the plate and attack him any second.

"Not sure yet..." Unaware of his brother´s quickly-deteriorating mood, Kadaj searched the table, unfazed. "Where´s the sauce?" Maybe, if he just buried these awful slime-sticks under a thick layer of creamy, warm Bolognese, spiced with fresh meat and dill and parsley...

BAM!

Without a word, Sephiroth very testily smashed a half-full bottle of ketchup right in front of the runt's plate and dared him with his glare of doom to say something about it.

Kadaj´s face visibly fell. He was just about to open his mouth and give the round a good piece of his dissatisfied mind about the quality of his lunch when a foot quickly kicked him under the table. Wincing, Kadaj gritted his teeth and shot Loz a glare of his own. He just grabbed the ketchup though, and sulkily let a little bit trickle onto his spaghetti. He so wouldn´t eat this...

Sephiroth supervised Kadaj´s actions from above, very much like a general drilling his incompetent and worthless recruits, before he went back to swirling noodles around his fork and nibbling at them with little enthusiasm. They were cold, too soft and greasy, drenched in even colder ketchup. (Next time he would take the bottle out of the fridge a few minutes before they would eat, he wisely assessed.). It cost the oldest a lot of willpower to not associate his self-made lunch with one of his favorite band´s CD covers, namely the one with the bloated, ivory vermin softly gnawing their swirling ways through a rotten, bleeding brain...

Loz politely pushed his spaghetti around, mixing it with blotches of ketchup into a white-red mess, but his thoughts were entirely elsewhere. A soft sigh escaped him, as he hung there over the table, chin propped on one hand, eyes drifting off to an imaginary mechanical problem he would bury himself in later.

The only one who didn´t seem to have any issues with Sephiroth´s 'cooking' was Yazoo. Besides the fact that he was quite hungry and couldn´t afford to be picky here, he also felt that his brother needed some support. The spaghetti was awful, but it was nothing compared to Sephiroth´s chili con carne and they had lived through that as well! And there was also some guilt driving him to put another forkful of the abysmal spaghetti into his mouth; it had been his turn to cook actually, and it was quite nice that Seph had done it for him. So the least Yazoo could do was pretend that he liked it... Those little, almost unnoticeable gestures of affection were their discreet way of communicating their feelings because they could not be open about it. It was impossible to just kiss or touch so they had become creative...

And surely, Yazoo's stoic eating earned him a pleased (and partly grateful) look… until their eyes met however, when said look was quickly abandoned.

The garden was silent for a while, save for some birds in the trees, the humming of fat bees lazily buzzing over the lawn and the clicking of cutlery scratching against plates. The soft screech of the garden door could be heard and a moment later, Zack Fair sauntered around the corner with a smile that radiated as much warmth and happiness as did the yellow spot pinned to the cloudless sky above him.

"My mom made cake, anyone want some?" He held out a large plate that was cramped with a mountain of brown, crumby chocolate cake his mom was really famous for, especially among the Valentine boys.

Four pairs of razor sharp, glowing eyes abruptly all settled on poor Zack -or rather the plate he was holding- and the boy tensed, feeling very much like an especially succulent zebra walking right into a lion´s den.

"K-knock yourselves out." Zack quickly sat the plate down on the table and then hastily retreated to get out of the line of fire. The only things he got in response were Kadaj´s strangely accusing exclamation, "I love Zack´s mom!" followed by a grunted "Shuddup" that sounded suspiciously as if it had come from Sephiroth and was accompanied by a scandalized yelp from Kadaj as he was roughly pushed away from the cake.

"Don´t worry, they´re actually nice people." Zack easily summoned another sunny smile to his lips and let it shine down on his company who had been ignored, due to the cake that had top priority right now with the Valentines.

Cloud Strife, a fourteen year old that had only come to town with his family a few hours ago, (and was instantly claimed by his new neighbor Zack as soon as he had been spotted,) blankly stared at the fierce battle that had broken out around the table, uncomfortably shifted and pressed his lips together. Maybe he should go home and see if the boxes with his stuff had arrived...

"C´mon, let´s sit down!"

Before Cloud had the chance to stutter an excuse for why he had to leave, Zack had already grabbed him by the arm and dragged him towards two empty deckchairs that stood a bit away from the table and were shadowed by a large umbrella.

It was the perfect place to watch the quite amusing show going on around the plate of cake, Zack found. Just then, Loz attempted to throw himself at the cake and gather as many pieces as he could grab but was prevented from doing so by Seph´s hand snatching out to pull him back by the shoulder in a none-too-gentle manner.

"Your mom´s cake?" a deep voice behind the other two boys suddenly announced, laced with faint amusement. As Zack turned his head, he met with two strong arms casually crossed over a blue, t-shirt-covered chest that belonged to one Angeal Hewley.

"Yeah."

"It never mixes well with Seph´s cooking," Genesis solemnly observed beside his friend, as his eyes drifted from Zack´s mirthful grin to the table. Kadaj just indignantly bobbed up from the ground where he´d been shoved and flew back to the table. Loz, Yazoo and Sephiroth were fighting over the last piece with Loz viciously tearing at Yazoo´s hair to pull his head down and keep him away from the plate. In return, Yazoo had managed to get two fingers into Loz´s nose and clawed at it with all his might. From the other side, Loz had to fend off Sephiroth with his arm, keeping him away from the cake while the oldest pretty much tried to break his elbow. The interaction between Sephiroth and Yazoo was reduced to feral, warning growls and challenging scowls.

"5 bucks on Loz." Head tilted, Genesis dryly kept on observing the war.

Cloud awkwardly looked up at the older boy, his eyes widened and unsure. "Shouldn´t we... make them stop fighting or something? This looks kinda dangerous..." For some reason the blonde instinctively turned towards Angeal, since he seemed to be the most calm and reasonable of the group. It was a gut feeling and in all his young years, Cloud´s guts had always been right.

"No way, it´s the Cake Fight, believe me, you wouldn´t get out of it alive," Angeal declared with the usual regal air around him. "5 bucks on Seph."

"B-but-"

"It´s all right, Spiky. They´re fine!" A heavy hand colliding with his shoulder knocked the air out of Cloud´s lungs and he almost fell from his chair, but Zack appeared unfazed as he squeezed the back of his new friend´s neck in a reassuring manner and graciously offered, "So, who do you wanna bet on, Kadaj or Yazoo?"

"I don-" Cloud stopped short in his protest and then admitted defeat with a sigh. Obviously these guys were completely nuts, all of them, but arguing was just as futile. He had no idea who in this mess of growling, clawing silver and cake was who, but he didn´t want to deepen the topic either by asking. "Kadaj...?"

"Great!" Zack beamed at him as if Cloud had just won the lottery, but then they were distracted by a howl as Loz came flying past them, a thin strand of silver hair still clutched in his hands. He met the pool with a high splash and the spectators made a discreet step aside to not get wet by the fountain that showered the garden.

Cloud´s eyes went even bigger but no one else seemed to mind the absurd scene, and sure enough, after a moment, Loz crawled out of the foaming water like Godzilla out of the ocean, set on a mission to destroy.

Up on the terrace Yazoo and Sephiroth were circling each other like two very skinny sumo fighters, eyes shooting sizzling bolts at each other, white teeth bared. They still communicated in a strange language that consisted mostly of guttural growls and threatening hisses. To Zack it seemed like a very complicated discussion, because neither of them went for the cake, but wouldn´t let the other dash for it either.

Since everyone was so busy with the other, neither of them noticed little Kadaj sneaking up and sticking his nose over the table. What he lacked in strength he made up in swiftness and in this case, his inferior height was quite an advantage because before the other three knew it, he had quickly snatched the last piece of cake from the plate and made a run for the garden.

To the crowd that had gathered, it looked quite comical when Yazoo and Sephiroth sported dumbfounded faces at the empty plate and then dashed after the smallest who flitted over the lawn like a rabbit being hunted by wolves. A wet Loz joined them, dripping all over the patio, but it was to no avail. While his little feet still carried him through the garden in circles, Kadaj hastily stuffed the remaining piece of cake into his smeared mouth and hectically gulped it down, so that nothing was left when he finally got caught by his brothers.

"Good choice." With a grin Zack gave Cloud´s thin shoulders another smack and fumbled for five gil in his pockets. The rest of the party joined with a sigh, while Kadaj gloated triumphantly in his brothers' disappointed faces.

Now that the feast was over, the Valentines finally became aware of their guests and made their way back to the patio. Sephiroth acknowledged his friends with a short, none-too-enthusiastic nod and quietly fell down on his chair as if all energy had left him. He pretty much looked like a big, lazy and very satiated cat now, Zack thought with a small smile. Not as if he was overly eager to practice their new songs but knowing Seph, he´d do it anyway; he was a reliable guy.

Loz greeted them with a grunt and grumpily waddled into the house to get a change of clothes before he caught a cold. Yazoo busied himself with combing through his disheveled hair with long fingers, avoiding Genesis' strict eyes.

Cloud felt slightly awkward holding money in his hand he hadn´t asked for, flanked by strange people he didn´t know. No one seemed to pay special attention to the 'new guy', like Cloud had expected, but then again he wasn´t too eager to be the center of attention. Those people seemed to be comfortable around each other, acting naturally and unperturbed and the blond actually liked the relaxed atmosphere, even though they were weird.

That was, until Kadaj discovered him. With narrowed eyes he planted himself before the startled blond and critically sized him up and down. "You bet on me?"

Cloud was so surprised (and a bit intimidated) that he just gave a nervous, hesitant nod. All of a sudden, he felt foolish for partaking in such an amoral business; the little boy must be offended. Instead of helping him and breaking up the fight, they had viciously taken entertainment out of Kadaj´s miserable situatio-

"I get half of what you earned, since I did all the work and such," the boy nonchalantly interrupted Cloud´s troubled thoughts, demandingly holding out his little hand. Cloud was so dumbfounded that he mechanically put half of his 'earnings' into the white palm. A sunny smile broke out on Kadaj´s features when he stuffed the money into his pocket and he grinned at Cloud as if he had decided that the new boy would be his bestest buddy from now on.

"Thanks! You´re new, aren´t you? I´m Kadaj, want some spaghetti?"

Right that moment, the phone shrilled somewhere inside the house, causing Sephiroth to heavily get up to answer it.

"I´ll be right back."

Yazoo´s eyes followed Sephiroth through the large living room window until he had vanished in the kitchen. Everybody was still busy avoiding Kadaj and his attempts to get rid of the Spaghetti Of Hell and finally stop interrogating poor Cloud, so Yazoo surely wouldn´t be missed too soon.

Silently, Yazoo made his way into the kitchen, where his older brother sat on a chair with his back to the door. "Yes, everything´s normal... I´m fine! We just had...cake...No, we won´t forget to wipe the stairs... Yeah, see you later, bye Dad."

Yazoo could literally see the eyeroll that accompanied hanging up the phone. It was laid aside on the table and then Sephiroth massaged his temple, unaware that he was being watched. He seemed quite contemplative since that incident, Yazoo thought… and extraordinarily beautiful, even from behind with his profile mostly hidden by the angle and his long hair- but that was nothing new. Yazoo didn´t care much about aesthetics anyway. To him, Sephiroth could have looked like the fatal result of Freddy Krueger mating with the Bride of Chucky and his feelings would still have been the same. It was unimaginable to not be together because they always had been, in many different, changing ways, but it was right and natural and unquestioned. Their lives and beings were inextricably interwoven; they needed each other like the air to breathe. Of course they fought, but this didn´t change anything about the nature of their relationship; which was why Yazoo was thrown off. They hadn´t fought at all and still Sephiroth was being distant. Maybe it had something to do with the incident a few nights ago? But they had managed that situation, hadn´t they? Seph had said that he had taken care of it and that there was nothing to worry about... Or maybe Yazoo was just imagining things and there was nothing wrong at all.

Not exactly sneaking up from behind, Yazoo reduced the distance between them, slung his arms around Sephiroth´s neck and leaned his head against the other´s in a gesture of affection. The closeness felt good and relieving, their bodies automatically smoothing and pressing against each other as if they had a will of their own or were drawn to each other like the two poles of a magnet. Pieces of a puzzle. Whatever. They were only whole when they were together and this was such a profound fact that it needed no verbalization, no petty attempt for an allegory.

Sephiroth´s cheek against Yazoo´s was cool and soft. Luckily they were saved the humiliation of wildly spreading pimples, thanks to their genes (somehow Yazoo really couldn´t visualize their father with skin blemishes and little red volcanoes ready to burst pus, so he blamed their perfect skin on genes.)

Against him, Sephiroth gave an inaudible sigh that Yazoo felt against his chest, and encouraged the younger let his rosy tongue dart out to flick over the corner of his brother´s mouth. "You´ve got cake ther-"

"SEPH, YOU WANNA START PRACTICING?"

tbc?

Natzilla: I suppose Seph´s lost for good now. Haven´t heard of him... *sigh* Wargod with no sense of direction, poor thing. My grandmother was very fond of spit-cleaning, much to my dismay -.- I´m very happy you liked the chapter, despite the death of cuteness XD It was a lot of fun to write and I think there´ll be more flashback scenes^^

oztan: Yay, I´m glad you liked the chapter! I think Kadaj gets lots of attention from his brothers and parents, he´s the baby after all XD Also, I see your point with the Sephzoo, but Yazoo is still very young and develops (in this fic at least XD). I find your idea of Yazoo becoming interested in someone else very interesting though.. hmmmm :)

Anne Voda Hijme: Haha, thanks XD I have to admit that the last chapter was awfully fluffy indeed XD Yeah, Seph always seems so serious, even in Crisis Core and it was much fun portraying him as a normal kid^^ I think Sephiroth and Yazoo know each other very well indeed, but I wonder if that might change? They are changing after all, especially during puberty...We´ll see^^

Madisuzy: Yeah, they are an old, married couple already XD *grins with you* Split his pants? That would have been too funny XDDD Imagine poor Loz´ dumb face XDDD

AlexJ69: Haha, yay for sticky, teeth-rotting fluff XD I´m glad you like it, it´d be really horrible if you had to read it when you didn´t like it _ *huggles the puddle of mush anyways*

Labe: I bet they´d love it if you hugged them! (They are rooting for brazil on the world cup btw, little traitors T_T). I think the updates will be fewer now, but hopefully a bit longer, there´s no way around it :( *hugs and luffs and vuvuzuelas*

Psycho Steph: Haha, you did? I did too, with my sister and the neighbor kids and I always had to be the guy, because we all were girls -.- We germans say 'se' instead of 'the' all the time btw, even wit all our teeth being intact XD We are too dumb for the tee-age XD

Soyna: Yah, I know, but I still don´t know what has gotten into me XD It was fun to write though XD

aubrieta: Yay, I´m glad you can see it! I thought that since I jumped right into their relationship I should give some explanations in the flashbacks, so there might be more^^ I have only one sister who is younger and we´re at an age now where it doesn´t really matter, but it might really matter. I wasn´t always a good sister _ And I´m very glad that you enjoyed it, wooot!

Thank you so much for reviewing everyone, it´s what keeps me going despite my Schedule From Hell! Please, if you took the time to read leave me a little comment, to let me know if it´s going into the right direction^^