Sephiroth knew trying to brush Zack's hair out properly was an exercise in futility, especially under current circumstances; even if he succeeded in getting it all untangled it would get tangled up again immediately afterwards, when they had sex. But...Zack liked playing with Sephiroth's hair, and when he'd asked to be allowed to 'return the favour' jokingly he'd found that this seemed to work almost as a meditative exercise for him, calming his thoughts in a way running a brush though his own hair didn't. And besides Cloud was due to contact him around now, so it was better that he be doing something that didn't need too much in the way of concentration.

'Sephiroth?' The brush stilled in Zack's hair as his keeper's voice entered his mind, conveying a sense of sleepiness and Zack reached up to touch his hand.

"You stopped; did Spike just speak to you?" He began to brush Zack's hair again almost on autopilot as he responded to Cloud.

'Yes Cloud? What did you wish? And...how do you think you did today?' He wasn't sure it was appropriate for him to question Cloud's performance, but he couldn't seem not to care either, because he did care, a lot. "Yes, Cloud contacted me, but I'll try not to be too distracted." Even though he wanted to let Cloud's voice fill his mind totally, to the exclusion of everything else.

'I was just checking in like I promised. I won all my spars except for the last, so I must have scored pretty highly, right?' Sephiroth wasn't surprised, Cloud should have got into SOLDIER the normal way, and until Cloud informed him that his interview seemed to fit a pattern for Gregori he'd wondered if Cloud's 'failure' had been due to orders from above.

'Almost certainly. Do you want me to try and find out what sort of marks you got?' It would be easy enough for him to do that, the marks were reported to him at the end of the tests anyway, he'd just be asking for them a little early.

'Don't bother.' But he'd make a point of telling Cloud how he'd done once the final results got back to Sephiroth, otherwise all he'd know was which group he'd been sorted into and he was sure Cloud would like to know how well he'd done - Sephiroth couldn't believe his keeper would do badly on anything but the first day of testing. 'Have fun with Zack, and I'll contact you again this time tomorrow.' And then he felt Cloud withdrawing from him, leaving him feeling almost abandoned.

"Cloud stopped talking to you?" Zack twisted around in his seat to look up at Sephiroth, showing that startling intuition of his again.

"He told me to have fun with you." Sephiroth had finished brushing Zack's hair while he'd been in contact with Cloud and he'd just been running the brush through untangled hair, so he put it aside. "So...what do you want to do with me?" He was grateful Angeal had decided that he wasn't going to take advantage of Cloud's absence if his keeper didn't want to bed him tonight after Sephiroth had used lunch together to tell his dark haired lovers that they had to stop with the public displays of affection.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Sephiroth loved the teasing note in Zack's voice, this sort of simple fun was something he didn't get with Angeal, or even when he was present, and wouldn't get with Cloud - and it was something he didn't think he'd lose even if Cloud decided to change his mind about letting Zack and Angeal sleep with him. He laughed and put the brush aside to sit on Zack's lap, putting his hands on Zack's shoulders.

"But you know I like to please you." And he pouted slightly, in play, Zack reacted well when he teased his lover that way and it gave him the chance to play in ways he'd never been allowed to before. It was a lot easier to please Zack alone than to please Zack and Angeal together, and easier to please Zack and Angeal together than to please Angeal alone, even if he'd never say that out loud.

"Okay then." Sephiroth knew to go limp when Zack stood, lifting him in his arms - he was too tall for this to be anything but awkward and there wasn't really any way he could help Zack. Zack carried him over to the bed and then laid him down on it carefully, climbing on top of him, and undressing him slowly, stroking his body as he did, so gently that he could tell himself that Zack loved him, at least a little. "Did you really expect Cloud to top that first time with you?" Sephiroth was probably overdue for teasing about that, he couldn't quite believe Zack hadn't said something about it straight after Angeal interrogated him about what he'd done with Cloud.

"Yes...you didn't have any problems taking me our first time together." And Angeal had seemed surprised that Cloud had wanted Sephiroth to take him. Zack laughed at that and rolled off to lie beside Sephiroth, wriggling as he pulled his own clothes off.

"Our first time together Angeal was there, and he made it pretty clear what he expected. Took me a month to get my head around how submissive you act in bed and figure out that you weren't ever going to ask for a chance to top."

"Why would I want to?" Sephiroth shrugged, because the appeal of topping really was lost on him and he didn't think he'd ever understand it. "I like not having to worry about anything while I'm with one of you."

"Just lie back and let me take care of you then." He didn't protest when Zack jokingly pinned him, one leg between Sephiroth's thighs, cock rubbing up against his hip, simply moaned in pleasure, enjoying the way Zack kissed him so eagerly. "I had something a bit different in mind for tonight, so shut your eyes for me, and leave them shut."

"No blindfold?" Angeal would have insisted on one, not entirely trusting Sephiroth to obey and taking the responsibility for obeying away from him, but he liked Zack's trust in his will, and he obeyed even as he tested that trust.

"I don't need one." Sephiroth could hear Zack moving, and he regretted the loss of touch for a moment, but he got it back soon enough, with Zack kissing and petting him with oiled hands almost at random, whispering words of affection and caring to him. Then Zack straddled his hips and reached for Sephiroth's cock, and his eyes flew open when he felt Zack begin to push down around him.

"Zack?" He wasn't as tight as Cloud had been, but tight enough, and so hot, and he looked incredible, if he was hurting it didn't show on his face.

"Hush. You don't have to do anything. I just wanted to know if I could do this without it hurting. Angeal's so large there's always a bit of pain, no matter how careful he is, you know?"

"Yes." Sephiroth didn't mind the pain, he'd spent too much time at Hojo's dubious mercy to complain about something so minor, but he did prefer it when Angeal was satisfied with his mouth rather than his ass. "Does this please you?"

"Oh yes. Now just relax." Zack bent down for long enough to kiss Sephiroth, then he began moving as Sephiroth watched him. It felt really good, and Zack only expected him to lie there and let him use his body for their mutual pleasure. Zack came first, arching his back and tossing his head back, eyes still wide open, and then Sephiroth felt his eyes close as he came.

"Stay with me?" Sephiroth didn't want to assume that Zack would, but his lover just laughed as he lay down beside him, wrapping his arms around him.

"I wouldn't do that to you. Leave you alone. You should know that by now." And at that Sephiroth could relax, and fall asleep in Zack's arms.

xoXox

Cloud glanced over the men he'd spent the past two days leading against the monsters they'd been assigned to hunt down, wondering which one was going to be reporting back on his performance. He'd been a bit shocked at the way they'd reacted to him; he'd expected them to be a bit contemptuous of him because he was so young, everyone else in the cadet class had been at least two years older than him, but instead it had seemed to make them respect him more, one of them had been almost in awe of him. It had been sort of funny to see a man older than the General stammer and blush whenever Cloud talked to him, but it had disturbed him, as well as giving him a hint of what Sephiroth had to deal with and he just hoped that it had been some sort of act. If it was an act it had been a good one, since he kept it up throughout the hunt, even if he did manage to pull himself together when it was important.

'How do you cope with the people who just blush and stutter when they're dealing with you Sephiroth?' Sephiroth was alone, so it was safe enough to contact him, and Cloud could clearly remember how he'd reacted to Sephiroth at first, although he didn't think he'd been anywhere near as bad as Weatherby was - well except for just before their first time together.

'I don't. Not very well. SOLDIERs don't stammer as much, and I keep my interactions to people who do not annoy me that way as much as I can. If they do stammer and blush I make sure not to have personal contact with them, and simply give them orders and make sure my orders are understood. Why?' Cloud felt almost embarrassed to tell Sephiroth about how Weatherby had reacted to him, but he'd made this contact to ask about that, so he should follow through on it.

'One of the regulars assigned to me's been stammering every time he talks to me. I don't get it, why would anyone react like that to me?'

'I did once or twice, because you were turning me on so much. But...you are the youngest SOLDIER since, well, me. I was only a year younger than you when I was sent to Wutai and people learned about me. Even Zack was sixteen when he passed the SOLDIER Entrance Exam - although some regulars are listed as unsuitable to work with SOLDIERs because they react like that to all SOLDIERs. And since you'll eventually be my equal you should get used to people acting like that around you.' Cloud didn't have Sephiroth's presence, he was pretty sure he never would, and the idea that people would react to him the way they did to the General seemed bizarre.

'Do you think I was deliberately assigned a regular who reacts that way to all SOLDIERs? Or could he have been ordered to pretend to that sort of reaction?' Which Cloud found a lot more plausible than that Weatherby really was so impressed by him, especially considering how bad his reactions were.

'I can't be certain, although I could check easily enough when I get the reports on this test. I ask for more detailed information when I feel I have time to inspect it, and sometimes when I don't, so it wouldn't be suspicious after all.' Sephiroth paused then, but Cloud could tell he had something else to add and simply waited, conveying a sense of expectancy. 'Do you want me tonight?' The hope and hunger was clearly conveyed, even if Sephiroth didn't explicitly state them, and Cloud couldn't bring himself to refuse Sephiroth; he didn't think he'd have been able to even if he didn't want to be able to touch his lover so desperately.

'Yes. Did you have anything else planned?' He hoped he wouldn't be disrupting Zack's plans, although he didn't care as much about Angeal's...he wasn't entirely happy with Angeal's attitude towards him, while Zack had seemed far more content to accept Cloud's primacy in Sephiroth's life.

'No. I told Angeal and Zack that you'd probably want me tonight. I...hoped you'd want me, you will have time, but...I understand that usually after tests a group that's tested together tends to go out to celebrate as a group.' And Sephiroth was feeling insecure, even if Cloud would never leave him or abandon him.

'I don't care. I'll tell them I've already made other plans if I'm invited out. Expect me around seven, you should eat first.'

'Yes Cloud. Thank you.' The words had been unnecessary; Cloud could feel Sephiroth's gratitude as he broke contact with him, turning his attention back to his men. Either they hadn't noticed his distraction, or they hadn't thought it was important, because they were still busy marking out the landing zone for the helicopter that would be picking them up shortly. He would have helped do that himself, except Zack had taken him aside before they set out yesterday, and told him not to do any of the more menial tasks himself, because it was bad for discipline. So when it came to things like setting camp up he'd just given orders and let his men do the work - although he'd had to quell a minor mutiny when they realised he hadn't requisitioned tents.

"Are you really trying to tell me that an unenhanced seven year old kid is that much tougher than you trained experienced soldiers are? I'm disappointed." Explaining that he'd camped out with less gear than he'd requisitioned, in the Nibel mountains when he was seven had been enough to shame them into doing as they were told and not complaining. Once they'd finished laying out the LZ his men came to stand beside him, with their gear, what they hadn't needed to mark out the landing zone and all they could do was wait. Cloud ignored what they were saying, since it wasn't really relevant, he'd intervene if they said something stupid, not before.

His group had been the last dropped off for their hunt, and it was the first one picked up as well; Cloud made a point of being the last one on the helicopter, and checking to make sure nothing had been left himself then he sat alone, waiting for the other SOLDIERs 3rd class to be picked up. They'd been segregated like that on the way out as well, with the SOLDIERs sitting apart from the regulars, and he spent the time trying to figure out which of his men had been assessing him. If it was Weatherby he'd made a good choice of how to keep Cloud from suspecting him, and an effective way to assess Cloud further, but Cloud had tried to avoid working too much with him because of that. It didn't really matter he supposed, he'd have treated his men the same even if he wasn't being assessed after all, and he was sure the others being assessed hadn't known how they were assessed on this.

"So, anyone spot the guy assessing them among the men?" Perhaps he'd been wrong. Warren had waited until everyone was on the helicopter before bringing it up, but the others looked surprised.

"How did you know about that? And did anyone else have to deal with someone who kept on blushing and stammering around them?"

"If you can find a contact willing to tell you these things they figure you've got a right to know." That explained why Warren had been the only other SOLDIER who hadn't had a problem requisitioning gear, he must have already had it planned; Cloud had used some of the theoretical training he'd got in the lab to order 'standard' equipment for something like this, except without the usual tent. "One of your men reacted to you like you were the General?" The rest seemed just as surprised as Cloud had been.

"Yeah. Except I wonder if he was the guy assessing me, adding an extra little test of his own because I'm so young. It doesn't matter; if I want to know my contact can probably tell me who was assessing me later."

"Someone involved in the testing then. Mine's one of my room mates; we get told what methods are used to assess us afterwards." Cloud and Warren spent the rest of the trip answering questions about how they were assessed.

xoXox

Sephiroth glanced over his bedroom one last time, checking that he had everything he needed; oil to make it easier for Cloud to take him, scarves in case Cloud wanted to tie him up, more oil so that he could give Cloud a massage if he was permitted to, and the chest of toys in case Cloud had any interest in those. He didn't think Cloud would want to try anything too exotic yet, but he wasn't going to be caught unprepared to serve his keeper's pleasure in whatever way he wished. He just hoped he didn't say something stupid again and have to argue with his keeper; it was harder to force himself to protest than he'd expected, he'd only managed last time because not protesting would have hurt Cloud more in the long run.

He could hear Cloud entering his quarters - was he early, or had Sephiroth lost track of the time? Not that it mattered and Sephiroth walked through to greet his keeper.

"That was a good idea; keeping me away from temptation like that." Sephiroth didn't have a chance to reply, because then Cloud pulled him into an embrace, tangling a hand in his hair and pulling his head down to kiss him deeply. "Did you have any ideas for tonight?"

"If it pleases you I could give you a massage." Sephiroth couldn't quite believe that Cloud was allowing him to suggest what they did together, even Zack didn't allow him that much freedom of choice - the most he'd get with Zack was choosing between two or three of his ideas. But it was nice that his keeper considered his desires important enough to ask about, even if there was a chance they might be denied.

"That sounds really nice. Through here?" Cloud had either forgotten to take his hand from Sephiroth's hair, or...decided to use his hold to emphasise his control over Sephiroth, and he didn't know which explanation he'd have preferred for the way Cloud led him to the bedroom door by the grip on his hair. Both options told him that Cloud was comfortable in his control over him, at least to some extent and he hoped that comfort would grow and deepen without the hint of guilt that marred their last time together.

"Yes Cloud." Angeal and Zack both liked to use his hair as a leash, so Sephiroth had plenty of experience in how to keep Cloud from pulling on his hair too much as he followed him.

"What did you have the scarves out for?"

"In case you wanted to tie me up tonight. If you'll let go, get undressed and lie on the bed face down I can start giving you your massage." That was a bit too much like an order for Sephiroth's tastes, but he comforted himself with the thought that it was more like the 'orders' the tailors who made his uniforms gave him at the fittings than anything else.

"Let go?" Cloud looked at Sephiroth before he removed his hand from his hair, blushing faintly, and Sephiroth lowered his eyes to avoid seeing Cloud's embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"Please, don't be. I...liked it."

"I'll remember that then." Cloud sounded amused, giving Sephiroth the confidence to glance up and watch as he casually stripped and lay down so Sephiroth could tend to him. He'd left the bottle of oil for this in a bowl of warm water to make sure it wouldn't be cold when he poured it onto Cloud's skin, and he did wish that he'd had any practice at all in doing this. He didn't want to hurt or disappoint Cloud, but he knew how much better he felt after Zack gave him a massage and he should manage well enough as long as he paid full attention to him.

Sephiroth knelt beside Cloud and poured some oil onto his back, stroking it over the skin with firm motions to start with. He knew how relaxing that could be, even if he was a bit more cautious than Zack, since Cloud was only 3rd class at the moment and he was a lot stronger than Zack was anyway. Focusing on the smooth pale skin underneath his hands Sephiroth was startled to realise he could actually see where the muscles were knotted up in ways that had to be hurting; he'd never realised just how good his sight was, but Zack always talked about feeling for tense areas, never seeing them. He hesitated, then decided to start with the knot at the small of Cloud's back, working on it until Cloud gave a moan of pleasure and he could see the muscle relaxing; then he moved on to the other muscles.

Once he was sure he'd worked all the stress and tension out of Cloud's body Sephiroth sat back on his heels, watching Cloud and waiting for him to tell him what they'd be doing now. Cloud didn't move at first, then he rolled over slowly, a sleepy smile on his face.

"That was wonderful. Thank you. Now come and lie down beside me." This wasn't going anything like Sephiroth had expected, or like last time for that matter, but he should get past assuming Cloud would be anything like Angeal and Zack were with him. He obeyed and relaxed as Cloud began running his hands over his body, undressing him and kissing him, and Sephiroth returned the kisses and caresses, remembering that his keeper didn't like it when Sephiroth was passive with him. Still, he couldn't bring himself to touch Cloud below the waist without an explicit instruction to do so, and he knew he was being more hesitant than Cloud would probably prefer.

"Lie back now." There was laughter in Cloud's voice as he pulled away, but Sephiroth could feel the pleasure and approval his lover was sending through their link and he obeyed without hesitation, watching as Cloud came to kneel between his spread legs.

xoXox

Cloud couldn't quite believe how much better Sephiroth had made him feel, he hadn't realised how much tension had built up during the last five days, or how much he'd been aching until he wasn't anymore. And his...mate, he could admit to thinking of Sephiroth as that despite the animalistic implications, had responded to his touches, even if he was still more hesitant than Cloud would prefer. But then...there was something almost intoxicating in Sephiroth's ready submission to him, and Cloud knew that he didn't want to lose that as he knelt between Sephiroth's legs.

He wasn't sure about how to do what he'd planned, but he knew he could go through with it as he looked at Sephiroth's prick; he'd been thinking about it since he'd questioned Sephiroth through their link while Sephiroth had done that for him and he wanted to make his lover feel as good as he had then. He braced one hand on Sephiroth's hip, and leaned forward to lick at the head lightly, working himself up to actually wrapping his mouth around it. Cloud didn't take more than the head into his mouth; he wasn't going to risk screwing up if he tried to take it too deep and he played with Sephiroth's balls with his free hand as well as stroking him where he could. He shut his eyes to focus better on what he was doing, on the taste of Sephiroth in his mouth, and the feel of him under his hands and when Sephiroth climaxed it came as a surprise. He managed to swallow a bit, but he didn't really like the taste and he felt a bit guilty as he pulled back to let the rest splash onto his face.

"Y-you...swallowed?" There was soft astonishment on Sephiroth's face as Cloud looked up at him, and something disturbingly like awe, even though the seed spattered over his face should have told him that he hadn't managed to swallow much of it.

"I tried." Cloud gave a little grimace, remembering the way Sephiroth swallowed everything when he did this. "It didn't taste very good: I couldn't stand to swallow too much. I'm sorry."

"I...don't be, please." There was a hint of fear in Sephiroth's eyes as well and Cloud projected a sense of inquiry across the link. "It's enough that you were willing to try, more than enough." But Sephiroth was, consciously or otherwise, bringing a memory to Cloud's attention as he spoke.

"I'm sorry to have been so rough with you, it wasn't intentional, but I felt almost as if I was adjusting to another Mako dose." And in Sephiroth's memory he'd wondered if that was because Angeal had swallowed when he pleasured him before their first time.

"So...are you saying you've only had this once before?" Cloud moved to lie beside Sephiroth as he spoke, petting his hair gently.

"Only once to climax. Zack was only 2nd class when he joined us; Angeal didn't want to risk him reacting badly." Cloud refused to let Sephiroth know how much that angered him, the way Sephiroth had been denied on such a flimsy pretext; his lover would probably assume Cloud was angry at him after all.

"I won't swallow again, but there's no reason I can't just spit it out or pull back just before you climax."

"You don't...find it...degrading then? To have your face covered with my seed?" Cloud probed through their link, there was something odd about the way Sephiroth had asked that question...he didn't think it was degrading to have his lover's seed on his face, or anywhere else, but Angeal did feel that way, and Zack indulged Angeal's tastes.

"No. I don't." Cloud laughed and rolled them over so that Sephiroth was on top, ignoring the look of shock on his face at that. "Now, why don't you lick my face clean?" He smiled up at his mate, waiting to see how he reacted to that, ready to pass it off as a joke if he had to.

But Sephiroth smiled at the idea and immediately leaned down to obey, using small darting movements of his tongue to start before moving on to broader, laving strokes. Then when he'd finished he rolled the two of them over, putting Cloud back on top and opening his legs, closing his eyes and offering his throat in unspoken submission and invitation. An invitation Cloud was only too pleased to accept, kissing Sephiroth's neck and sliding his hands down between their bodies to grip Sephiroth's cock, stroking him back to full hardness.

"Please, let me do something to please you. Whatever you want, you know I'm yours." Sephiroth's voice was hoarse with the arousal Cloud could feel through their link, and he only realised then that he'd kept it open to an extent, but he wasn't sure how open he'd left it; not enough to 'hear' words, enough for him to feel emotions, but perhaps not enough for Sephiroth to feel what he felt.

"In every way. Yes, I know, and I love it, almost as much as I love you." He leaned down, kissing Sephiroth, wrapping his long silver hair in the hand he'd been using to support himself, and switching his weight to his other hand, keeping up the stimulation at Sephiroth's groin by pressing his thigh against it. Meanwhile he began fiddling with their link, trying to adjust it so that he could still feel Sephiroth's emotions and a degree of the physical sensations without searching for them, and Sephiroth could feel the same from him without Cloud having to consciously 'send' them to him.

xoXox

Sephiroth was moaning into Cloud's mouth, hands resting on his back as the blond pinned him to the mattress with his body weight, controlling his head with a hand in his hair when he felt it. His eyes flew open as the physical sensations he was feeling seemed to double, feeling his hair in one hand as well as Cloud's smooth skin beneath both hands, his dick pressed up against Cloud's thigh, and against his own hip, from both sides, and the feeling of dominating a kiss that was so foreign to him as well as the more familiar feeling of submitting, letting Cloud take his mouth along with everything else.

"Cloud?" He pushed his keeper away, feeling a bit of panic, only for Cloud's sense of satisfaction and possessive desire to sooth his uncertain emotions.

"I wanted you to feel what I was feeling, the way I can feel what you're feeling. Just relax and enjoy it."

"I..." Sephiroth wanted to lie back and obey, but he tried to fight the urge to submit so he could explain what he was feeling to Cloud, since surely his keeper wasn't feeling the same things he was, and what he was feeling scared him a bit.

"What is it?" Cloud's concern warmed him, and Sephiroth could feel the faint ache in Cloud's arms as he kept on holding himself over Sephiroth instead of moving down to continue what he'd been doing. And that was the problem.

"Can you adjust the link so I'm just getting emotions, not the total physical sensations? It...bothers me." It did more than bother him, but Sephiroth couldn't phrase it any more strongly, he already felt as if he was pushing things by objecting to what Cloud was doing and asking him to change it.

"I'm sorry." He really was, the emotions Sephiroth could feel through their link made that clear; a hint of guilt, disappointment, directed at himself and other things as well, all supporting his words. "That was what I meant to do, or at least keep it down to only the strongest physical sensations. Can you tell the difference between what I'm feeling and what you're feeling?"

"No. I can't." And Sephiroth couldn't quite believe that Cloud had apologised to him; no one with power over him had ever done that before.

"Then tell me when you can. I want you to still feel my emotions at the very least." And he felt the connection to Cloud changing and modulating, the sensations that came through the link shifting from the physical overpowering everything else, to the physical as just a minor component in the strong emotional currents.

"I...that's it. Thank you Cloud." For listening to him, for caring about his concerns and being worried about him, for not just telling him to accept whatever Cloud decided to give him and for adjusting what he was doing to take Sephiroth's concerns into account.

"No, thank you. For helping me get this right, and for having the courage to tell me that it wasn't right before. Now, where were we?" It was clearly a rhetorical question, because Cloud returned to kissing him and dominating the kiss easily. Sephiroth could feel Cloud's love and desire for him, even when he broke the kiss, leaving Sephiroth panting with arousal as he grabbed the oil to prepare him.

"On your hands and knees." Sephiroth obeyed, sharing Cloud's amusement when he slapped his ass lightly before he began stretching Sephiroth, reaching underneath his body to play with his nipples and stroke him, keeping him hard. They hadn't actually done it this way before, it was more something he did with Angeal, because he needed every little bit of help he could get to take that cock, but that didn't make it any less of a turn on. And with Cloud in his mind he never had any reason to feel uncomfortable about not being able to see the man he was giving himself to, the man he loved more than anyone or anything else.

Cloud brushed Sephiroth's hair away from his body and kissed a line up his spine, eventually settling for kissing his shoulder blades as he took him, and reached around to stroke him as well, bringing him to climax shortly before Cloud did.

"Do you mind if I stay here for the night? I've got tomorrow off, probably while they work out how well we did on that last test and decide how they're going to split us up and I know you like sleeping in the same bed as me." Sephiroth wondered why Cloud had asked aloud when he could still feel how much Cloud wanted him to agree through their link, and then when Cloud answered him he realised how strongly he must have been projecting that. "I want your answer to be what you want, and I have a feeling that if I asked you through our link you'd hear it more as an order than a question."

"Yes, you're right, I would. But I do want you to stay here with me, please." Sephiroth clutched at Cloud as he felt their link closing down, returning to what seemed to be its default state, scared that it meant Cloud was rejecting what he was saying.

"Then I will." Cloud smiled at him, reaching up to stroke his face gently. "Do you have some fresh sheets here so we can change these? I don't mind sleeping on them if you don't, but if you do have fresh sheets we might as well use them."

"I'm sorry, but I don't have any fresh sheets. But we could shower together so I can wake you with something nice tomorrow?" Sephiroth would like waking Cloud that way, but not unless he was clean...it would be different if it was in the middle of one of the dominance games Angeal liked so much.

"Sounds good." And once they were in the shower Cloud pressed Sephiroth up against the wall, jerking them both off while he kissed and bit at Sephiroth's throat, reminding him just who was in charge, even though he didn't need to. Then Cloud lay half on top of him when they went to bed, something Sephiroth was familiar with from the week they'd spent getting to know each other better before Cloud fully claimed him, and something he enjoyed.

xoXox