Life long forgotten – Turks
"By the Goddess how hard is it to find a damn chocobo looking cadet in Shinra!" Genesis stormed out of the last cadet classroom, pale blue eyes burning with a bright fire. For the past hour and a half Genesis and Sephiroth had been scouting all the cadet classes looking for a certain reclusive blond wanna be chocobo.
Sephiroth actually found it amusing to see Genesis doing exactly what Angeal was forced to do every day with the puppy he insisted on carting around. Though he was greatly amused he made sure to keep it from his face knowing Genesis had a flash point temper and he had been on the wrong end of that temper before; granted it was nowhere close to Tseng's legendary temper, but it was still fearsome.
Carding a hand through his hair Genesis suddenly stood up a little straighter, the preverbal mako light bulb clicking on above his head. "No.. he wouldn't be.. would he." Without elaborating Genesis took off for the Shinra building once more from the sector two plate where the SOLDIER and Cadet training base was. Sighing almost silently Sephiroth trudge after his lover, he still had way too many questions that he wanted answer for, but Genesis tended to clam up if pushed for answer he didn't want to give.
Knowing it was simply better to follow the eccentric redhead Sephiroth padded after the older male and back up into the Shinra building. Honestly Cloud wasn't looking to be that good of a SOLDIER perspective, he should have been at his classes along with the other cadets yet no one had seen him since that morning when they woke up.
Moving up into the glass elevator Sephiroth raised a brow as he saw exactly what floor Genesis punched. "Department of Administrative research?" what in Gaia's name would a cadet be doing up at the Turks public office; how the hell had he gotten up there to begin with? The Turk public office was highly guarded and required a certain security clearance that no cadet would have.
"It's a hunch.. actually it's my last resort." Genesis was tapping his foot it was how he used to handle being in enclosed spaces like this; he missed the simple house he could leap up into if he had to.
Shaking his head Sephiroth leaned up against the glass panes folding his arms across his chest and closing his eyes. One thing he would find out is exactly why Genesis seemed to have matured, but not matured over night, and why the hell his hair was so much longer.
The ride up was short even though Genesis was acting like it was the world's longest elevator ride. Moving into the large sitting area which was unsurprisingly empty aside from Shotgun who had been stuck on secretary duty again the two made their way to her desk.
Hearing the soft footfalls that could only belong to SOLDIER Shotgun smiled seeing Sephiroth and Commander Rhapsodos. "Well what brings two SOLDIER officers to the lowly Turk office?"
Moving up to the desk Genesis leaned up against the desk looking down at the ash blond sitting behind it. "Is there by chance a blond cadet running around up here with hair like a chocobo's behind?" Shotgun actually giggled and nodded, "sweet little kid, yeah he's with Tseng in his office. He came up with Tseng and a new Turk."
"Reno.." Genesis muttered and nodded he should have known Cloud would go and try and find Tseng to make sure the man was there and alright. "Can we go back then? I've been looking for Cloud for the past hour and half."
"Yeah just make sure to knock so Tseng knows there is someone coming in." hitting the button to unlock the door that lead back to the Turks office area Shotgun turned back to her social network she had been playing on. It must have been a really slow day for the Turks if she was out here playing around.
Pushing himself into the office space Genesis and Sephiroth moved back to the door that read "Commander" and gently knocked.
The voices inside halted and the door opened a second later, aquamarine eyes peeking out through the door crack. "Yo lightning rod! What's up?" huffing at Reno Genesis shoved on the door knocking the Turk back; he wouldn't be hurt since this was a game they played all the time.
Laughing Reno stepped back away from the door before he was brutally shoved away by the damn 1st class. Tseng had reinstated him as a Turk and he was already in his lazy version of the Turk uniform. Moving into the room behind Genesis Sephiroth resisted the urge to sneer seeing the smart mouthed red head from before now in a Turk uniform, a very poorly worn uniform.
Hearing a triumphant "HA!" he turned his attention to the large mahogany desk he had sat in front of who knows how many times through his young life; only now in his normal seat there was a little blond cadet currently pulling a bunch of paper gil to him from across the table.
Tseng was sitting in his chair behind the desk scowling as his lover cleaned him out once more. They had all been talking about what they were going to do and what was known so far and had decided to play some poker to kill time before dinner. They knew Cloud was damn good at the game but he was cleaning Reno and Tseng out of house and home.
"Let me guess Vincent taught you didn't he." Vincent was a master at poker, no one played him anymore they swore his coat cheated for him. "Nope, I learned on my own." feeling the two Jenova projects behind him Cloud turned and smiled pocketing his winnings. "Hey Gen, feel like losing some money?"
Rolling his eyes Genesis moved up and took Reno's vacated seat throwing his feet up on the mahogany desk. His black boots had just barely touched the wood when Cloud leaned back and shoved his feet off the table. "Rules are the same here lightning rod, feet stay on the floor." Tseng chuckled from where he had sat back in his office chair, amusement shinning in his eyes as he watched the two Jenova projects. He was very aware of the very confused Sephiroth standing slightly back from the group and stood up moving up to the man. "You look lost, it's not often you have that look on your face."
Sephiroth blinked his eyes shifting over to the man that had practically raised him, hell raised most of them. Acid green eyes quickly looked over the Turk looking for any signs of the pain the man had been exhibiting only a few hours ago in the meeting. Other than his face looking a few years older and his hair being considerably longer he looked simply tired and a little flustered at having lost a decent sum or Gil.
"Are you alright?" Sephiroth asked, he didn't scare easily but watching his dear friend collapse like he had had scared him. Tseng smiled slightly bowing his head just a little in his normal nod, he was trying to revert back to how he used to act but considering how long it had been even he had forgotten how he used to act as a Turk. Veld had contributed it to Tseng passing out, not the fact the man was really hundreds of years old and had simply changed that much in personality. "I'm fine, I had a fever that I didn't know about until it took full hold, simply over heated me." Unlike SOLDIER who couldn't get sick a day in their life Turks were not enhanced enough to avoid the more serious bugs. Tseng having been born premature and being a sickly child seemed to be a little more susceptible to them than his other Turks but they were never overly horrible.
Sephiroth frowned some seeing that Tseng was also hiding something from him; recognizing that look Tseng gave him the 'It's classified, don't push it.' Look that he had been forced to use when Sephiroth was a young teenager and stuck his nose into everything.
Frowning even more Sephiroth reached out grabbing the Turk and threw him over his shoulder, he would put up with the hiding information by his lover, he wouldn't put up with it from his friend.
Squeaking Tseng found himself resting painfully over a metal covered shoulder staring down at a length of silver hair and a leather covered ass. "Sephiroth what are you doing?" Genesis was looking at his lover with wide eyes. Cloud had instinctively stood up seeing Sephiroth manhandling his lover, while he knew the man wasn't insane didn't mean he was going to trust him around the man he loved.
"Tseng and I need to have a little talk… without the peanut gallery." Not giving Genesis or the others a chance to respond Sephiroth swept out of the Turks office said Turk threw over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Oh this damn shoulder guard was digging into his abs, and it hurt like hell! Trying to find something to grab onto to Tseng glared at the figure carting him into Rude's empty office. "Sephiroth, what in Gaia's name are you doing?" He managed to grab hold of Sephiroth's belt and was keeping himself up enough to keep some of the pressure off his stomach.
Being placed down on the ground finally in Rude's office Tseng unconsciously dusted himself off before looking over to the man he practically raised. "Sephiroth.."
"Niisan what are you hiding." Blinking in shock Tseng looked up into those acid green eyes; eyes that were normally well guarded were showing all their emotion now. Confusion was the largest with that lost little child coming in a close second. Sighing softly Tseng moved over and gently set a hand on either side of Sephiroth's head, his own steel colored eyes meeting those acid green, he knew he couldn't tell him and it was killing him, he hated lying.
"I wish I could tell you ototo, but I can't not right now."
Growling Sephiroth pulled away his eyes narrowed into a dark glare, "don't give me the same BS response Genesis did, something happened. Your hair is longer, you look like you have aged three years over night, you are even acting differently." Unconsciously Tseng reached back grabbing his hair, he was so used to it being this length he hadn't spared it a second glance when he awoke. His hair back in the days of Shinra had been much shorter; at its longest when he was a director had been to his shoulder blades.
"Don't lie to me Niisan."
Lowering his eyes Tseng rested back against the desk; he couldn't tell Sephiroth that he was from over 100 years in the future, the SOLDIER General would be shipping him off to the psych ward any moment now if he did. Slowly he looked back up seeing the General was still standing there expecting answers, and one thing about Sephiroth he had unlimitless patience when he needed it.
Sighing softly he pushed himself up a lie already forming in his hand. "It's a new mako treatment, experimental that was done to a select few Turks and SOLDIER without any notification to those around. Only the labs and President Shinra knew aside from those selected; they were hoping to give milder side effects so SOLDIER and Turks were not out for days after injections. As you can see…" he held out his hair showing the length. "It had some side effects, hair growth.. ageing it would seem, in Commander Rhapsodos case hallucinations."
Sephiroth frowned, that was a very believable story, but with just one flaw. "Why wasn't I informed of it, or Veld? So that we could monitor our men for adverse affects?" Tseng actually shrugged a small smile playing on his lips. "You know the science department, paranoid as hell and would rather not have a failure come back to them..might as well lie and make it look like a bug."
And the hole was perfectly covered, if this truly was the science department's doing he could see why Genesis was disinclined to say anything, the red head hated anything to do with the Science department and to admit to being an experiment didn't sit well with anyone.
Walking over Sephiroth set his arms around the Wutai man hugging him gently. "You feel off come to me alright, and fix that new Turk he's a disgrace to the uniform already." Chuckling softly Tseng nodded returning the hug tightly, he would never admit it around the others but he did miss this man terribly.
"Yo boss man you still alive or did General hotness kill you?" pulling away Tseng chuckled at the dark growl reverberating through Sephiroth's chest. "I'm fine Reno..It will be a cold day in hell before Sephiroth can take me down." He smirked up at the silver General and headed out of Rude's office, a now pouting Sephiroth following behind him, it was their little joke that neither one could take down the other their mock fights always ended up in a draw.
Pulling open the door Tseng smiled seeing Genesis and Cloud both standing there, Genesis holding the blond chocobo back as no doubt he wanted to bust down the door to get to his new lover. "Lazard informs me that you stole a possible Turk away from me."
Smirking Genesis nodded a hand coming to rest on Cloud's shoulder. "Yes Commander, you might have gotten your slum rat.." "Fuck you Rhapsodos.." "But I got the chocobo.."
Sighing playfully Tseng mock glared at Genesis, "you better treat him well, otherwise nothing Lazard says will keep him in SOLDIER." Chuckling Cloud looked between the two and pretended to swoon, "oh two beautiful men fighting over me.. whoever shall I choose!"
Genesis, Tseng and Reno all started to laugh leaving Sephiroth to be even more confused then he already was. Cloud laughing shook his head flashing Tseng a brilliant smile, "we just wanted to make sure you were alive still Tseng we're gonna head up get me into my new room. I'll see you around won't I?"
Tseng nodded, god he wanted to pull the man into his arms and ravish him right now but until his birthday in a few months they had to keep their new relationship under wraps as Cloud was technically under age at this point; and the whole Commander / Cadet thing also didn't' look good to Shinra.
"Alright cya around, good luck Reno.. you'll need it." Cloud turned heading out of the Turk office, his strides long and confident as he moved, they were not the strides of a cadet. "This coming from Tseng's newest Turk..I don't think I will need the luck as much as you."
"Shut up chocobo" Reno growled but headed back into Tseng's office. Chuckling softly Cloud once more headed towards the front office.
Tilting his head to the side slightly Sephiroth looked to his lover before looking to Cloud once more. "Cadet.."
"Sephiroth, what are you doing?" Genesis moved to stand next to his lover eyeing him warily. "My duty as General." Sephiroth said lowly before turning back to look at Cloud, he noticed the boy was watching him with careful eyes. "I want to make sure this cadet is worthy of your sticking your neck out.. I will test his skills."
AN: sorry for the short chapter, I'm still trying to get used to my new place and I have hit one of the worst writers blocks ever..which is why Donum Deae is taking so long to update.
So here is the next chapter of life long, make sure to be kind and review! Might help me kick this writers block!