Disclaimer:I do not own FFVII or anything in it.
A/N: I was thinking I was going pretty slow here, but this is a pretty big chapter, since I didn't want to break until I got to the next lemon. Because this lemon requires some true coming together (finally) it took a lot longer to setup.
"Damn."
Cloud stood in a shallow ravine, feet shifting on the sharp rocks and boulders that were last tumbled around in the heavy spring rains.
"FUCK!" he yelled to no one, because there was no one to hear him. He was lost. Again. Thick trees rose up on either side of him, the view the same in every direction. He looked down at his map and cursed his compass. Stupid ass thing. How was it possible he could be so terrible at this? He grew up in the mountains, he never used a compass, and he never got lost. He supposed he should backtrack, follow the coordinate points backwards. But since he wasn't standing at the pickup point he had obviously made a mistake. Was he going to make the same mistake in reverse? Because that's what he would have to do to get back to the starting point by backtracking.
His radio crackled. "Strife, are you still out there?"
"Yes sir,"
"Are you lost?"
Cloud could hear laughter in the background. Why the hell did he have to be in B company? His few friends were in A. B was full of assholes.
"Maybe," Cloud replied.
There was a crackle and he could hear more laughter. Danzen, the Second Class in charge of his navigation class, was deliberately holding the 'talk' button down just so Cloud could hear that. Another asshole.
"That's three strikes for you, Strife. I guess you won't be passing Nav this year. I'll just get a bead on your transmitter and guide you home. Again."
Cloud's world darkened, even though it was broad daylight. Danzen was going to fail him? He couldn't advance to Soldier trainee if he didn't pass all his classes. He'd have to repeat the whole second year just because of this one class! And he'd have to ride back on the transport with all those jeering bastards for whom passing was no problem. The thought was unbearable.
Cloud quickly dug into the breast pocket of his vest, removed the small transmitter, and with a flip of the blade from his pocket knife popped the battery out.
crackle "Strife, your signal just dropped off my monitor."
"Yes sir."
"Did you disable you're transmitter, cadet?"
"Yes sir. I believe there's no time limit stated for this test. I want to finish."
"We are not waiting for you, Strife!" Now the hooting and hollering was getting so loud he could hardly hear Danzen. He could see him though, in his mind's eye. Red as a beet he'd be by now.
"So leave," Cloud said.
"Suit yourself, cadet," Danzen snarled. "Have a nice Monday."
Cloud threw his radio as hard as he could into the trees and sat down on a log, working to get his own anger under control. He wasn't terribly concerned about dying out here. The weather was good, he knew he could find water, and it was a (relatively) monster free zone, that's why it was used for cadet exercises. And he knew he was somewhere north of Midgar; even he could navigate a straight line and hit that enormous city. Once there he could ride a train back to ShinRa. Although Route 12 would be closer, if he could find it he could hitch a ride and be back in hours instead of a day and a half.
"Have a nice Monday," he muttered darkly. Not only was Danzen an ass, he thought himself funny.
Monday.
Cloud jerked up with a start. Monday! He had donation today! In three hours!
"Shit, shit, shit," he repeated as he ran after the radio. It took him almost five minutes of hunting to locate it in the thick underbrush. But after several tries he couldn't raise the transport. They had in fact left him. He wondered what the General would think when he didn't show for donation. None of the scenarios that ran through his mind were good, but the sooner he could get to him and explain the better. He pulled out his map and studied it. He thought he was south and west of the road, and he couldn't be a more than a few miles from where it dipped closest to the training area. That's where the pickup point was. But if he missed the bend he'd be going miles extra, he could even miss it entirely if he missed to the north. He got out his compass and started to take a bearing based on his best guess. Then he put it away. He never got anything but lost with that thing. He made a mental image of the map in his head, and tried to feel where he had gone and where he was, feel the world around him, and the bend in the road.
"I need the bend in the road," he said softly, looking into the clear sky, "I need it to get to Sephiroth."
He shut his eyes and felt the breeze on his face and heard it blow through the trees, then he began to walk.
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Sephiroth made it a point to arrive early for the third day of donations. He hadn't seen Cloud over the weekend and had been thinking about him quite a bit. Not just his erotic musings, but he wanted to know how the boy was doing. Several times he had resisted the temptation to stroll over and look at the cadets, but he knew his appearance would cause a terrific disturbance. So he had sent Zack, and was now subjected to needling from the Soldier about how he was using him as his "love spy." Aggravating as that was at least Zack had been able to report that Cloud's condition was good, he continued to excel in swordwork, his hand-to-hand still suffered from his small stature but he was learning to compensate, and that he was apparently some sort of navigational idiot. His group had a field orienteering test this morning and Sephiroth wondered how he had fared.
He had also checked the mako level of Cloud's batch of cadets with the heated interest of a gambler checking race results. He was both proud and dismayed to see Cloud had bumped up to a 30, top of his class including the injection group. Proud because he figured he should be depositing more mako than any other Soldier, dismayed because once an organic hit about 100, the point when their eyes started the first glimmer of shine, they could usually tolerate the processed mako from the labs. At this rate he would maybe have only two or three more weeks with the boy.
The donor group was one short today, even including himself. It couldn't be helped; he had to send a bunch of guys down to the lower plate at noon to handle a disturbance. One of the cadets was going to miss out. Not Cloud though, Sephiroth smiled to himself, even if Cloud could afford to skip the most.
"We've only got ten today," he told Sgt. Bushere.
"That's OK, we're short one too."
Sephiroth scanned the cadets, no bright blond heads.
"Who?" Sephiroth asked, although he knew damn well who.
"Strife. I don't know where he is, he was at roll call this morning. His group had a field practice today, but they're all back now. Looks like he just didn't show up for donations."
Sephiroth scowled at him, and the sergeant thought he'd hide out too if he thought the General might select him for a third time in a row. Poor kid was probably traumatized as hell.
"Who's the leftover?" Sephiroth asked, looking at the lone cadet on the bench after the others had all gone off. He was a tall, lanky kid with a robust, dark complexion.
"Anthony Largas," Basher said, handing over the clipboard. Sephiroth looked over the kid's stats; his level was 14, one of the lower marks. He couldn't afford to skip if he wanted to keep up with his classmates.
"Come with me, son." Sephiroth said. He headed down those same corridors with the boy in tow, his mind preoccupied with Cloud, and why he hadn't come.
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Once the boy Anthony was taken care of Sephiroth went immediately back to his office and pulled up the cadet training schedule. Field orienteering test, Company B, 10am this morning. That must have been Cloud's company, Zack had said Cloud was navigating in the field today. He looked up the current Nav instructor then headed over to Lt. Danzen's cubical.
There was quite a ruckus in the Second Class area, apparently coming from right where he was headed. Zack Fair was giving Danzen an earful, a high decibel one at that. One thing you could always say about Zack- he was loud. The rest of the area was empty, the other Second Classes no doubt making themselves scarce.
Then, unbelievably, he heard Danzen yelling back. He didn't have the same earsplitting volume, but he was clearly arguing with his superior officer.
"The only reason you're giving me shit over this, Zack, is that he is your favorite!"
Sephiroth would have liked to see how this played out, but when he caught sight of Zack it was clear from his body language that he was about to attack the other man.
"What's going on here?" Sephiroth demanded.
Danzen shrunk back and lowered eyes that Sephiroth could see glowed mako green. Zack, also greened up, crossed his arms over his chest and continued to glower at Danzen.
"Disagreement, sir," Danzen answered, seeing as how both sets of eyes were now on him.
"You are out of line, Soldier, your little disagreement has earned you a week's probation for insubordination."
Danzen looked off to the side, clearly exasperated.
"Roll your eyes at me one more time like that and you'll get guard duty at the Northern Crater as well. Do you understand me?"
"Yes sir," Danzen said, clearly working hard to keep both eyes and face neutral.
"Zachary?" Sephiroth turned to face the still angry First Class.
"He left Cloud out in the field," Zack said tersely.
Sephiroth's eyes flicked over to Danzen a little too quickly to match the rest of his controlled demeanor.
"You left a cadet out in the field? I suggest you explain yourself."
Danzen took a deep breath; the General was clearly angry. He needed to be clear, concise, and look respectful, but he was having a bit of trouble while the man who controlled his professional prospects, not to mention his immediate health, glared at him like that.
"Cadet Strife failed for the third time to arrive at the pickup point. I radioed to him that we would direct him home using his locator transmitter, at which point he disabled it."
"And why would he do that?" Sephiroth's look darkened.
"He was on the verge of failing the class and wanted to finish. I told him we wouldn't wait for him and the little imp said 'fine, leave' so I left him. You'd have done the same Zack!"
"Never!" Zack made half a lunge forward but found a strong hand laid on his chest, stopping his progress. He looked up to see Sephiroth, eyes glinting in amusement and a small curl at each corner of his mouth.
"I would have been sorely tempted myself," Sephiroth said, greatly easing Danzen's distress. "But the fact remains that you have lost a cadet that was under your command, and you have no idea where he is."
The gravity of this seemed to sink in to Danzen for the first time.
"If he's smart he'll head south, it's a longer haul but he's guaranteed to hit Midgar," Danzen said.
"And if he heads north he walks right out of the monster free zone and probably never finds the road!" Zack said
"Why would he head north?" Danzen said.
"I dunno, because he can't navigate?"
"Enough," Sephiroth interrupted his bickering officers. "If he's gone south there's nothing we can do tonight. If he's stayed put or gone north he should be in the vicinity of Route 12. You said his radio was still functional?"
"Yes sir, his transmitter may be operational as well, if he just popped the battery." Danzen answered.
"You're going back out to the pickup point and see if you can raise him on radio or pick up his transmitter. You will continue up and down Route 12 until I have you relieved in the morning by the search crews."
"Yes sir," Danzen managed to say once he had closed his gaping mouth.
"That cadet better be found by tomorrow and if anything has happened to him you are going to want to get as far away from me as you possibly can." The cold ferocity in Sephiroth's voice caused Danzen to take a step backwards.
He turned and leaned his head towards Zack on his way out.
"Go with him, Zachary," Sephiroth said, and was gone.
Danzen let out the breath he'd been holding. "Since when does he give a damn about cadets?" he asked.
"It's something new," Zack answered, his tone still hostile.
"Look, sir, I'm sorry. For mouthing off to you like I did."
Zack continued to glare at Danzen.
"I've just had a really trying day. That kid Strife is so much trouble, he makes me crazy."
Zack sighed and figured he'd better forgive and forget. Danzen wasn't the only one Cloud was making crazy.
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"Where've you been, Cloud? You missed dinner. You missed donations." Anthony was already in his bunk, studying for his battle tactics class.
"I know," Cloud said, dropping his gear onto the floor next to his own bunk. He was muddy and sweaty and he wanted shower. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to see General Sephiroth. More than that, he wanted to fall into the man's arms, borrow a tiny bit of Sephiroth's strength because he had none left himself. Never mind the General had not so much as given him a hug, let alone held him.
"Hey, guess what, I got the General."
"What?" Cloud stopped in middle of removing his field vest.
"For donation, I thought I was going to miss this one because they were short donors and I was kind of left over, but then I got to go with him. You were right man, smooth as silk, easiest one I've had so far."
Cloud stared at a spot over Anthony's head, unable to look at him.
"Did you... get the backrub?"
"Oh yeah, that was pretty good, all the while the General telling me to relax, and stroking himself up so when the time came just one or two jabs and it was nap time." Anthony snapped his fingers and grinned.
"Did he touch your head and tell you sweet dreams when he left?"
"Uh, no, he didn't say anything like that. What's up Cloud, you're not... jealous, are you?"
Cloud looked at his friend, trying not to show hurt in his face but unable to keep the redness out of it. Then he sat on his bunk and his eyes sank to the floor.
"I asked him and he agreed to be my sponsor," Cloud said.
"Cloud, that's great, you couldn't get a better sponsor, but dude, don't get this all mixed up in your head." Anthony leaned close to Cloud. "I know how you are; I mean I've known a long time."
Cloud shot him an angry look.
"But we just do this for awhile and we're done. Gets us where we need to go. It's not like... love or anything. And besides, he's theGeneral."
"I know. I'm just so... tired."
"Strife! I need to see you!" Basher hollered from across the barracks.
Cloud sighed. He'd been AWOL for almost five hours, he should have expected this.
Basher shut his office door behind them and gave Cloud a most peculiar look.
"Cloud, the General has ordered me to let him know when you returned. He would like to see you."
Clouds heart almost jumped before being jolted back by the unbidden mental image of Sephiroth with Anthony, his friend. A place that should have been Cloud's if only he had shown up for donation.
Basher studied the boy's unhappy face. It was well known General Sephiroth had broad tastes, but he'd never known him to show interest in a cadet before. And the poor kid, what could he do? He was a helpless cog in the power structure, and Basher wasn't much more, not when it came to dealing with the General. But if he could do something he would.
"Look son, I haven't told him you're here yet. I can not call him tonight, and keep you assigned away from him as much as possible the next few days, but I don't know what I can do about your donation schedule. Maybe we can get you a sponsor and he'll forget about you."
Cloud stared at his sergeant, confused. Then it slowly dawned on him. Basher thought the General's attentions were abusive, and was actually trying to help him. This put a whole new light on the gruff, sadistic man. He almost laughed.
"Sergeant, I appreciate what you're trying to do. But General Sephiroth is my sponsor. Or at least he was before I missed today. I asked for him. I want to see him. I need to see him."
"Then why did you not show up for donation today?"
"It was an accident!" Cloud looked at the floor, unhappy. "I got left out in the field this morning."
"Oh," Basher said, a new idea occurring to him. Maybe General Sephiroth was just worried about the boy. He picked up the phone, dialed the General's extension, and let him know Cloud was there. His eyebrows shot up as he concluded the call.
"He's coming here, maybe ten minutes." Basher regarded Cloud. He was an odd kid, and he was reminded that the General himself was plenty odd. Maybe they suited each other.
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Cloud went back to his bunk to finish stowing his gear, and to wait. Anthony insisted on hearing everything that happened during the field exercise, not a story Cloud was happy about telling but it at least took his mind of other things.
"Cadet Strife." A loud and distinctive voice rang out from the doorway. Anthony recognized it immediately and shot up, raising his eyebrows at Cloud. Most of the other cadets had to look before understanding who the voice belonged to at which point they also came to attention, several falling out of their bunks in their haste. Cloud rose slowly and went to him, where he was motioned back inside Basher's office. Basher was nowhere in sight; the General presumably had dismissed him.
"Are you alright, Cloud?" Sephiroth took in Cloud's disheveled appearance, face and clothes spotted with mud, sweat plastered hair, and forearms covered in small scratches from bushwhacking. He reached over and plucked a dry leaf from the blond hair and flicked it aside.
"Fine, sir," Cloud answered, not meeting Sephiroth's eyes.
"You made good time getting home; you must have hit the road."
"I hit the pickup point, sir. I'd have been back sooner but it took awhile to thumb a ride. I didn't mean to miss our appointment." There was a pause while Cloud worked his jaw with no sound coming out. "Are you angry? Are you... going to stop being my sponsor?" he asked finally.
"No, of course not." Sephiroth was unhappy that the boy wouldn't meet his eyes, and he realized one of the reasons he liked Cloud was that he usually did so. Something else was wrong and it was possible that the cause was obvious, at least to someone else. Given Sephiroth's deficiencies in his social training he never really knew when one of these things was obvious or not. He usually just went with keeping his face neutral and guessing. So he guessed.
"If you hit the pickup point, that's technically a pass for the field exercise, although maybe some kind of record for slowness. I'll make sure Danzen knows."
"Thank-you, sir," Cloud said, still not looking up.
Sephiroth studied the boy, puzzled. He said thank-you, but his tone did not indicate gratitude, he was still upset. That guess hadn't hit it. Normally in those cases he just doled out punishment to whatever Soldier was vexing him. But in Cloud's case he actually wanted to know what was going on.
"Is something wrong, Cloud?"
Cloud finally looked up at him, and Sephiroth found himself mesmerized by that intense, blue stare. And the mix of emotions in those eyes was so muddled he had no chance of sorting it out. He picked out a hint of one that he was good at identifying: defiance. He was good at reading that one because Soldiers were by nature aggressive creatures and he felt the need to catch it early and beat it out of them when he saw it. But again, Cloud made him feel differently. He had to work not to smile. The kid was adorable angry.
"Cloud?" he prompted.
"As my sponsor I take donation only from you?" Cloud asked.
"That's the way it works." Sephiroth acknowledged and dismissed an adrenaline spike that accompanied the memory of seeing Cloud almost selected by Niven.
"I guess it doesn't work both ways, then." Cloud dropped his eyes back to the floor, his voice defeated and bitter.
Sephiroth puzzled again. He followed the leap that this attitude was due to the cadet he donated for earlier. That boy and Cloud had been talking together when he came in. But as for the reason behind it, he was back to guessing. Logically it might be a breach of the informal agreement if the sponsor were to spread himself elsewhere and be unable to donate. Perhaps Cloud was concerned he wouldn't get the mako he was promised. But 'concerned' didn't seem to fit the boy's posture. 'Pissy' was more accurate. Maybe he was...
jealous?
Sephiroth was unsure. He suspected a guy like Zack would have figured this out by now. All he had was another guess. Time to test.
"Cloud, are you concerned that I've spent myself?" he watched the boy's for reaction; none.
"Or is it that you want me all to yourself?" Sephiroth was unaware that his question came out accusatory, even sarcastic, but he got the result he needed. Cloud visibly flinched and moved his face away from Sephiroth.
Now the older man smiled. Jealous. He had no idea whether it was reasonable or not for Cloud to be jealous; he would ask Zack later. But at the moment he didn't much care. He was enticed by the whole idea, because as far as he knew he'd never had anyone be jealous over him before. And hadn't he himself been jealous just a few moments ago, thinking of Cloud with another?
He laid his hand under Cloud's chin and lifted his face gently but firmly up until the boy looked at him.
"I'll make you a deal, Cloud. I'll donate to you, and you alone, if you come with me now."
Cloud didn't answer. They stared, each unable to read the other. Then Cloud slowly nodded his head.
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He followed Sephiroth, once again watching that wall of hair in front of him, expecting he was going to get his donation for the day. And he was grateful, he really was. And hadn't the man just promised he would be the only one? But somehow he didn't want to go. He didn't want to go back to that room that Sephiroth had just shared with Anthony only a few hours before. He didn't want to be 'donated' to at the moment.
Cloud looked up and realized during his mullings that he hadn't paid attention to where they were going. Shit, Strife, no wonder you're always getting lost he chided himself. He looked around and tried to get a feel for where he was. They definitely weren't headed towards the same area. They were in... the main building? The big tower? They were passing through a fancy lobby, marble floors and polished dark wood, an enormous reception desk now shut down for the night. Shiny elevator doors loomed in front of them. He looked around with mouth agape. He'd never been in here before.
"Sir, where are we going?"
Sephiroth looked back with a sly smile. "That wasn't part of the deal, now was it?"
Cloud stopped, looking a little alarmed. Sephiroth ran one hand over the back of Cloud's head and let it rest on the nape of his neck, squeezing a little to encourage the boy forward into the elevators. Cloud gulped, thinking he sometimes forgot who he was dealing with. Sephiroth inserted a key card into the control pad and pressed the button for number 34, one of the grayed out floors not normally accessible. Cloud wondered what was up so high in the tower, executive stuff he presumed, and it occurred to him for the first time that Sephiroth wasn't just their General, he was also a high ranking ShinRa official.
On the ride up Sephiroth smiled to himself. The range of facial expressions on this kid was delightful. He let himself wallow in the thought of Cloud's desire to have him to himself, feeling a peculiar scintillating lightness in his chest. That thought alone was going to keep him entertained for days.
He let his hand slide to Cloud's opposite shoulder and looked down at those blue eyes, again unable to sort out all the feelings shown there. He wanted to learn to read every one. And he wanted Cloud, sexually. But he wouldn't pounce on the kid tonight; he'd had a rough day. What he wanted most was to see him, hear his voice, to feed him maybe.
The elevator door opened with a ding and it was a moment before Sephiroth realized he had forgotten to step out. He was still caught up in Cloud's eyes. He jerked his mind back into the organized state where it belonged, shaking his head slightly.
Cloud followed Sephiroth to down a hallway where the General opened a door with what looked like the same key card. And again he was ushered in first. Cloud suspected he was just going to have to get used to that.
The lights came on as soon as Cloud entered, and he stood frozen on a tiled landing about eight feet on a side. The rest of room might as well have been a sea of piranha infested waters. The carpet was almost white, the walls pristine and expensively decorated, the scene immaculate. Black leather furniture. The place looked so much like the General himself that it had to be his quarters. Cloud leaned over to see a part of the kitchen. Black marble counters. Stainless steel appliances.
He looked up to find Sephiroth studying him, his boots already off and tucked neatly by the door. Cloud wondered how he did that so quickly and quietly, and bent to untie his own. He stumbled slightly pulling them off, a fine time for his body to decide to be clumsy. He heard the General give one of those soft chuckles. At least he was still entertaining the man.
"Are you hungry?" Sephiroth asked, "I think you missed dinner."
Cloud wanted to say no; it was awkward enough just being here, but his stomach betrayed him with a loud growl.
"I'll fix you something." Sephiroth was heading into the very clean room, a very muddy Cloud tiptoeing after him, afraid if he moved too much dirt would fly off of him.
"Why don't you get cleaned up?" Sephiroth led him down a hallway, past a perfectly good guest bathroom, into the master suite bath. Cloud barely had a chance to gawk into the bedroom before his attention was grabbed by the bath. It was at least as big as his bedroom back home, full of marble and tile and big mirrors. There was a jetted tub in the corner. Cloud's mind raced off thinking of all the delicious things they could do in there, and then Sephiroth was dropping a set of towels on the counter for him. He left and shut the door, but not all the way.
"What is it with him and the bathroom door?" Cloud muttered to himself. He went to push the door all the way home, but worried it might offend the General in some way, like he didn't trust him, although what there was left not to trust him against he wasn't sure. In the end he left it where it was. Maybe it was only a ventilation issue.
He stripped off his clothes and went over to glass enclosed shower. He studied the knobs for awhile but eventually had to resort to trial and error. It was the most complicated shower he had seen in his life. It had a regular shower head above, but also jets coming out of the wall that were, well, everywhere. He figured out the controls and found the jets weren't forceful, just peasant. Cloud wondered if this was why he had been brought to this shower rather than the other. If the General meant to donate tonight he really should prep, and some of these jets would be helpful. As he rinsed shampoo from his hair he wondered how he felt about that. Earlier he hadn't wanted it. But the last time had been nice, amazing really. The edge of his left ear prickled, remembering how the General's lips had brushed it before he had recovered himself. If only he could get more of that, more of the man than just what was helpful for the act. Cloud looked down. Clearly his body wanted it. He stared at his burgeoning erection, completely recovered from the day's earlier disappointments, like it was an alien part of his body. Sixteen was a ridiculous thing to be.
When Cloud got out of the shower his clothes were gone. They were replaced with something else, but he was disturbed that he neither saw nor heard Sephiroth come in. He knew he should have latched the door, but on second though it might not have mattered. He slipped into a pair of sweats and T-shirt that must have belonged to Sephiroth given how many times he had to roll up the waistband and how much of it hung past his feet. But the fabric was soft cotton, and clean, and as he walked back to the living area he did feel much more comfortable. Even if the soft fabric moving against his commando state did threaten him with arousal. He ignored it. There was no way he was hiding anything so attired.
The kitchen was empty and Cloud took a seat on a stool at the peninsula where the overhand could cover him from the waist down. Something smelled marvelous; he had almost forgotten what non-cafeteria food smelled like. He reached forward and picked the lid off a pan that was simmering on the peninsula cook top. It looked like proscuitto and fresh asparagus and mushroom. In another pot pasta was boiling.
"To you liking?" Sephiroth had emerged from an area to the side of the kitchen.
"Yes sir, I uh..." Cloud replaced the lid, "It smells great."
"Are you surprised I cook?"
"Yes sir," Cloud answered, feeling a little foolish for having any opinion on the matter at all.
"I only sort of cook. I have a trustworthy caterer that I get take out from several times a week." Sephiroth set a glass of water in front of Cloud. "Most of the time I just heat up." He drained the pasta and began to toss the ingredients together in simmering pan.
Cloud watched with fascination at the muscles jumping in the older man's forearms. He was dressed similarly to Cloud, in sweats and a T-shirt. He had never imagined the General so casually dressed.
"Sir? What did you do with my clothes?" Cloud ventured.
"This is one of the few units in the tower with a laundry attached. I threw them in the wash. They won't take long."
Cloud stared with mouth agape, the General doing laundry. He was hitting his limit of seeing the man do such shocking everyday things.
"Also surprised to find I do laundry?" Seprhiroth asked, noticing Cloud's expression. But he was smiling gently at the boy.
"I guess I am," Cloud said smiling back.
"I used to have it done by a service, but someone kept stealing my underwear."
Cloud exploded into a laugh, and unfortunately as he had just taken a mouthful of water he spit it out all over the counter.
"I'm sorry sir!" Cloud said, half choking, half laughing. Sephiroth grabbed a towel and wiped up the counter, a bemused expression on his face. The boy was lovely when he laughed. And his face was turning all red.
"Eat," he said as gruffly as he could, but the effect was ruined by his own undertones.
Cloud dived into plate set in front of him, reminding himself to chew. It might be a long time before he got real food again.
"What happened during your field test today, Cloud?"
Cloud swallowed. He was going to have to relate this story again.
"I don't know what I did wrong. I thought I followed every coordinate, calculated correctly, but I didn't wind up in the right place. It was my third time failing this exercise, and Danzen said I was going to fail the class. So I... refused to come in. I didn't want to give up. I'm sorry, sir, I know it was disrespectful."
"It was downright insubordinate. But there are some types of insubordination I'm more forgiving of than others. Refusal to give up is one of them." He looked Cloud, who had become somewhat sullen. He didn't like the sullen look. They would have to find some solution here.
"Zack tells me you are a navigational idiot."
Cloud winced. "I guess I am." Thanks, Zack, he thought.
"If so how did you hit the pickup point?"
"I didn't navigate. I mean I didn't use the compass, I just sort of felt where I needed to go and went there."
"Directly, without circling or switchbacking?"
"Yeah. I never, ever, had trouble finding my way anywhere before. I mean before I moved here."
"Maybe you're an intuitive navigator."
"What?"
"I can't use a compass. I never learned how; waste of my time."
Cloud stopped, a forkfull of food still suspended on the way to his mouth. "But you led troupes through the Yohmian gap in Wutai, in the dark! You destroyed the battlement on the other side before they could move arms and materia out to the northern front! It was one of the turning points of the war, you're famous for it!"
"Am I?" Sephiroth frowned. That had been a nice bit of work, but he didn't know the general public was aware of it. He should really pay more attention to what was written about him.
"Well I didn't use conventional means to find our way. They would not have been adequate anyway. I navigate intuitively. I feel the land around me, overlay it with map information if I have it, ask the planet for a little help and then just move in the right direction. I've never met any one else who did that, except one old guy in Wuitai, and I had to kill him..." Sephiroth frowned at the memory. "But it sounds very much like what you do."
"It does."
"The trick is to interpret the military coordinates and map reading into that feeling. I can try and teach you if you like."
"Yessir! I'd like that very much!"
Cloud ate the rest of his dinner, happy, excited, and optimistic. The General seemed oddly content to watch him eat, and waited for him to finish before speaking again.
"Are you tired, Cloud?"
Cloud understood what Sephiroth was going to ask and flushed violently, a flush he knew was visible and gave him away just as much as his straining erection that was hidden by the counter. He never considered that Sephiroth might also be staying on his side of the counter for a reason.
"I was sir, but not any more."
"Cloud, I want you to be honest in telling me what you want, otherwise given my nature and my position my own desires will assert themselves over everything. You missed your donation today, would you like that now?"
"Yes sir," Cloud said now unable to look at him.
Sephiroth came over to Cloud's side of the counter and stroked his cheek until the boy looked at him. "And how much of this interaction do you want?"
"All of it, sir," Cloud said, now becoming a bit breathless.
Sephiroth smiled, leaned his head in and kissed Clouds parted lips, his tongue lightly moving into Cloud's mouth, teasing, encouraging Cloud to do the same. Cloud felt both of Sephiroth's hands snake up under his shirt and caress his sides, his back, and over his chest. Thumbs paused to flick over nipples that had become erect. Cloud gasped into the kiss.
But still he could not bring himself to put his hands on the General. Something about that felt... presumptuous.
Sephiroth broke the kiss and smiled. He took both of Cloud's hands and encouraged them to slide under his own shirt. He kissed Cloud more deeply as Cloud let his hands roam up and down Sephiroth's torso, running over smooth skin and ripples of muscle. Cloud was astonished at how hard the man's stomach was, and wondered if he'd ever get that built.
"Come on," Sephiroth said, nudging Cloud down the hallway, "the kitchen is hardly the place for our first time."
Cloud's mind swam. Their first time? Was he kidding? But then he realized they'd never even kissed one another, in fact nobody had ever caressed him so, or pressed their hips into his erection the way Sephiroth was doing. He wondered if in some weird way he wasn't still a virgin.
Cloud felt the backs of his legs hit the bed, and Sephiroth relieved him of his shirt. He was pushed backwards onto the bed and the General removed his own shirt, and when they kissed again Cloud was granted his earlier wish to feel his skin against Sephiroth's skin. It was every bit as heavenly as he imagined, but he hadn't imagined all this heat. Both their bodies were hot to the touch, and his erection was screaming for attention. He wiggled to the middle of the bed, wondering vaguely how this worked, if he could stay on his back facing Sephiroth. His hips were lifted and the sweats tugged off, and becoming bolder by the moment Cloud reached for Sephiroth's waistband and tugged his down as well. Both men kicked the last of their garments free and Sephiroth let his weight sink onto Cloud, their members straining against one another as hands caressed and lips found and lost each other in favor or necks or earlobes. Then Sephiroth lifted himself free and grabbed a pillow and slipped it under Cloud's lower back. Then he gently touched Cloud under both knees, and brought them upward until they almost touched his chest. Now Cloud understood how this was going to work.
Sephiroth seemed temporarily mesmerized by the sight. He trailed his fingers down the inside of Cloud's thighs, lingering in the hollow made where the tendons met his groin. He cupped his sack, high and tight to his body, with both hands, then ran his palms onto the shaft. Cloud was moaning now, the sound eliciting an echo of the same from Sephiroth. He let his fingers slide down to that small, soft, knitting of flesh. Pink. Sephiroth smiled. Cloud's anus was pink, delicate, perfect. He opened the drawer on the nightstand and pulled out a small bottle and flipped the poptop. Cloud knew what it was, and almost laughed at his relief that it was not a pump top like in the donation room. At least the General did not have such high volume traffic in here. But the fact that he had it at all... well he knew Sephiroth was no child.
His jealous musings were forgotten however as Sephiroth slid one lubricated finger inside of him and immediately pressed on that hardened knot that made Cloud loose his mind.
"Wha... what is that?" he asked.
Sephiroth looked at him, amused. "It's the back side of your prostate. Do you like it?"
"Yeah... You?"
Sephiroth looked at him for a moment, trying to be sure what Cloud was asking. Then laughed and kissed him.
"I do. But one thing at a time."
He took Cloud's right hand and laid it onto his own erection, spilling some of the lubricant there for him. Cloud's eyes widened, a little terrified to be handling his own pleasure in front of the General but on the whole too far gone to properly care. He stroked himself, remembered to try and wait, and then stroked himself again. He was running out of time, but luckily Sephiroth was already sliding inside of him, stretching him into a little discomfort, providing that delicious pressure, and running his free hand on Cloud's face and into his hair.
"Go ahead, Cloud, I'm ready," Sephiroth whispered, the sound so maddeningly enticing that Cloud exploded, the first shot hitting his chest and shoulder and the remainder pooling out onto his stomach. Sephiroth gripped both of Clouds thighs and with a few sharp thrusts released as well.
For a long moment neither moved while their bodies let go of their tension and their breath caught up with them. Then Sephiroth withdrew, rolled over to grab a Kleenex and cleaned off Cloud's chest and stomach while the boy watched through half lidded eyes, a dreamy smile on his face. Then he lay down and rolled Cloud over, pulling him into his arms.
"On your stomach, cadet," he said, kissing Cloud on the temple close to his eye.
"Yes sir," Cloud mumbled, already on his way to sleep.
ccccccccccccccccccccc
Cloud drifted back up into consciousness feeling oddly cold. No, he thought, that wasn't it. He had warm covers wrapped around him and was lying on the bed that was both firm and soft at the same time. Sephiroth's bed. He wasn't cold; he was alone.
Cloud wrapped his own arms around himself to replace those he was missing. It was a little after nine pm, so he'd only been asleep forty minutes. He looked around the room, no Sephiroth. The bathroom door was open, but of course that didn't mean the man wasn't in there given his open door habit. But the light was out. He could hear a soft sound from the living area – keyboard clicking. Cloud sat up and noticed the neatly folded pile at the foot of the bed. His clothes, washed and dried. He sighed. He supposed he was expected to dress. He was being booted out.
"Everything all right, Cloud?"
Cloud jumped, Sephiroth had appeared in the doorway, wearing some sort of wine colored silken robe. Somebody really needed to put a bell on that guy. Cloud tried to will himself to simply say 'yes sir' but it wouldn't come out. What was he expecting, anyway? Of course he would have to go, did he think he would be allowed to spend all night in the General's apartment?
"I thought I would get to stay," his mouth spoke despite himself, and he sat there astounded, wondering why he kept doing that. It was like he had no control over what he said around Sephiroth. He braced himself to hear the obvious statement – that he thought wrong.
But Sephiroth got back into the bed, pulled Cloud into his arms, and kissed one delicately pink ear.
"There's nothing I would like more than to keep you all night. But you've been enough of a spectacle for one day; I really think it better if you were in your rack tonight."
Cloud thought about it and nodded. He was right, of course. Cloud had been missing most of the day, then pulled out of the barracks by the General himself in the evening, his sergeant was still struggling with the question of whether Sephiroth was abusing him or not, and he was neglecting his friends of whom he had precious few. Anthony would be worried for him. Thom would want details (he wasn't going to get any), and his enemies would love nothing more than some extra material to harass him with.
"In the meantime," Sephiroth said, lying down so Cloud could roll onto his shoulder. "We can stay here for another fifteen minutes or so without you missing curfew. I'll take what I can; I only got up to get your clothes dried and to pull up our schedules on the network so we can get some training time scheduled together."
Cloud's stomach gave a small, happy lilt. The General was going to train with him. He was going to help him with that navigation problem. Maybe he would even do some sword practice with him, imagine that, Cloud Strife, nobody kid from nowhere, getting trained by the best swordsman in all the world. Part of his brain tried to tell him not to be ridiculous, but he sent it packing. Sephiroth was his lover; he was clear on that point now. They were each other's. And even if it was only temporary, he too was going to take what he could. And right now that was fifteen minutes.