Disclaimer: I do not own these characters; they are the ownership of Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura.

AN: Italicized talking that reads almost as if I'm trying to make someone sound Gay, just for reference, it is meant to be Sephiroth and at times when its Cloud talking at times, Cloud's Alter Ego; I'm using that element due to someone reviewed and suggested that I use the technique to distinguish between the actual person and Alter Ego. Hopefully it works for you guys. ^^

This has been reposted with edited text. I decided to edit this because it was WAY wordy and just kinda...need to change some things up so that it'll make a little more sense and...^^; To also give my brain a kick in the seat of its pants to finish this fanfic since its been a freaking long time since I've worked on this ^^; Windows Movie Maker takes my attention now and again, and surfing on FurAffinity and playing on Facebook take my attention away. Anyways! For new readers, enjoy. To old readers, hope this makes more sense.

Chapter 7

Cloud's head was still in a tailspin, had this man just asked if Cloud was hitting on him? Where did he get that idea? When he had been in High School, he had no idea how to talk to girls; the only way and time he managed to go out on a date was a girl asking him out. Maybe that was why he found it hard to taken on dominance in that relationship and why he had...

"Mr. Strife? Did I say something wrong?" Sephiroth seemed worried by the look that was painted on Cloud's face, "Mr. Strife?"

"Sweetie, I think tall, tan, and handsome is speaking to you, answer the man," within Cloud's subconsicous, the inner self that had come forth recently spoke up.

Cloud seemed dazed as he realized that he was still standing in front of the acclaimed author, "Huh?"
"I said, are you alright? Did I say something wrong?" the man had asked again as he backed up and gave Cloud his space; he could see that the boy was flustered.

"…I-I'm...I'm fine...but, is there something wrong? You seem awfully close still..." Cloud felt like his personal space was being invaded by the man as he found himself nose to nose with the man,"…W-Wh…Wha…What's wrong?"

Sephiroth had thought he had backed away, at least, far enough way to give the young man some breathing room. But, it was obvious on the boy's face that he hadn't given enough moving room or personal space. Something was hanging in the air about the boy's head. What was it? It was a strange perfume of scents that was drawing him in, drawing him in to hold this boy against chest. And not let go.

Why was that?

For as long as he had known while going through school; he was always one to chase after the girls, more like it was the girls chasing after him. But one relationship after another ended up in disaster. Even the live in room mate he had for a semester in College. She wanted to have something with him, not because the fact he was making small amounts of cash off his short stories. She wanted him, for him. Unfortunately, Sephiroth hadn't seen it that way. He had seen it as a way to tie him down for the rest of life. Keeping him from having a life. A life that he had now, but...there was something he had been missing. But he had managed to bury that sensation and want, desire, need.

Unfortunately, the mind always betrays us in the end.

And right now, it was.

It was betraying him as imagined his fingers working their way along the curves of Cloud's soft face and up through his soft blond tresses. It seemed to be an odd sensation at the moment; all his senses seemed shut off. That feeling of want, more or less, desire to meld together with this young man in front of him. For one reason or another, it just felt...right.

But did the young man feel the same?

"…You had something in your hair…"the man pulled out what were remnants of trash from the alley, "There, it's out of your hair. Now, what was it you were about to say, Mr. Strife?"

Cloud felt like an utter fool as he pulled away from the man, turning on his heel and began to slowly walk away, soon turning into a full run, "N-Nothing! G-Goodbye, Mr. Sephiroth!"

"IN A FEW DAYS I'M A HAVING A BOOK SIGNING, COME BY AND CHECK IT OUT! I'D LOVE TO SEE YOU AGAIN, MR. STRIFE!" the man was trying to call out to Cloud, but he could see that the man was out of range of the man's declaration, "…Love…I could probably be onto something with that man, but…no, no, no…I'm not that kind of man…"

XXX

"You say that now big boy, but get over yourself, darling; you fell for that man like a ton of bricks that were made of marshmallows," if Cloud thought he was the only one to be visited by an overly dressed, gay hippie; he was wrong, "Hello Sephiroth, darling, have you forgotten about me or have you about drowned me out with your sappy, heterosexual romance fantasy novels that you write for that horribly dressed woman?"

Sephiroth eyed the figure oddly, "Who the hell are you and why are you dressed so…so…so…so…"

"Flamboyantly gay?" the figure's voice sounded stereotypical gay, "Darling, I'm basically your inner you ,that you haven't yet come to terms with; you almost grasped onto it if you hadn't gone and crushed that poor man's spirits. He was literally within your grasp and what do you do…?"

"I reached out and grabbed a piece of garbage out of his hair, what's wrong with that?" Sephiroth didn't see the harm in it, but his flamboyantly gay alter ego thought otherwise, "…Bad move?"

The figure snorted, "More like, as you guys put it, out of the ball park and into the windshield of the Manager of the enemy team's twenty thousand dollar monster SUV, darling."

"He was just a guy off the street. Probably harmless, but in my profession, probably not harmless. I wasn't aware I had a male fan. Do you honestly think among all of my fans that ONE male fan is going to turn out to be a stalker? Compared to the others I've encountered?"

"Oh my goodness…dearie, you've been watching way too many horror flicks involving a good looking lead male or female getting hacked up into a million pieces because of one psycho fan. Believe me, I've talked with his inner person, and believe you and me, the man is not one of those crazed, psycho, fans that's gonna come after you for pieces of you," the man gingerly smiled at Sephiroth as he pushed a pair of thick plastic rimmed black glasses up his face, "He's an honest, good man, Sephy…sweet and good hearted…give him a chance."

XXX

In every city in the known world, there is that one babbling fool that wanders up and down the streets talking to themselves while their eyes shift here and there. Hair a scraggly mess. And they always have that slept in look appearance. That was Cloud. Aside from the odd attire, the demeanor of his speech pattern seemed to match a babbling fool. Among everything that had happened today, what had made Cloud turn from sane, to babbling, wandering fool? Every street sign and street was beginning to look familiar; even calling Zack to find him and pick him up was beginning to look like a good idea. But he couldn't do that. Not after he had left him and Angeal in a lurch, only to leave him again when he pulled up. All to get his book back from the hands of a complete stranger. Who was also the book's author.
He was lucky if Zack would even pick up his phone and answer his call if he called.

"…Heh…I really don't want to call him, but…"it wouldn't be a problem to call Zack for a ride, but then again, he wasn't looking forward to the interrogation, "But if I don't, I'm going to miss the first day of school in a few days."

"Just do it, dearie…I'm sure no matter how you explain it, that little fairy in your apartment is going to figure it out sooner or later and…Oh, the things you two could talk about!" as much as Cloud didn't want the inner Him around, there wasn't anyway to avoid him, he was apart of him.

XXX

Even if Zack had been grumbling and complaining about the lack of help from Cloud when bring things into the apartment. He had gotten worse, and even louder, and annoying regarding Cloud and why he had bolted on them the first time, and then the second time. Angeal was doing all he could to ignore Zack, but even if he avoided Zack, there was no place in the apartment to avoid him. The only sound that was going to break the monomity of Zack's grumbling and complaining was a sound coming from the Living Room. Zack's cell phone ringing the annoying tune he had for when Cloud rang him.
Against Zack's will, Angeal dragged the young man into the living room, "Either you answer that thing, or I'm chucking it into the garbage disposal," Angeal dropped Zack to his knees as Angeal went back to unpacking things.

"Hello?" Zack rubbed at the back of his neck.

Cloud sighed, "Hey Zack, it's me…"

"Me who?"

"You know who full well who! It's me, you big dummy!" Cloud was starting to attracting attention, "Did you get dropped on your head recently or are you just that stupid?"

Zack pulled the phone away as he looked towards Angeal; he had been standing in the bedroom doorway, "I'm just playing around with you…What's got your shorts in a knot?"

"…I'd rather not talk about it right now," Cloud watched the flocks of people begin to disperse, "…Can you come pick me up from the Café…I've gotten myself lost."

"I'm on my way," Zack closed the cell phone as he sighed, "I'm going out to get Cloud, he got himself lost on the way home from that Café."

Angeal was confused, "How did he get himself lost? Why didn't he get a ride back with that guy he was meeting up with to get his book back?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Angeal…"

XXX

"You have one new message," the machine beeped as the message began to play, "Hello Sephiroth, it's Raechel, just calling to check in on you and to remind you that next weekend is the book signing; looking forward to it. Bye!"

"End of message," and with that, the machine clicked off and with that, Sephiroth unplugged the machine and the phone, "That's the end of messages for a while."

Sephiroth was always a mess after finishing the writing process for a new novel; especially knowing that the moment it hit the shelves, the fans would be dying to find out what was happening now. Not that it mattered. Each story was the same plot but he changed things around so that no one recognized that it was the same story plot over and over. Which was always tried and true. And once he finished one story, he was sometimes look for inspiration for something new to write. After what had happened today, he felt that he needed a change, even a break from writing. That spark of inspiration would creep up on him eventually. Much like his inner self was slowly creeping up behind him as he saw that Sephiroth was blankly staring at the monitor.

"Well, this is rather depressing…"the alter ego leaned against Sephiroth's desk, sipping on a glass of tea, "You've got inspiration, you're just too blind to see that that cute little blond creature you ran into this afternoon is your inspiration; you've just go to reach out and use that cute little things looks to write up a stirring new novel."

Sephiroth eyed the figure from the side of his monitor, "No one will go for a male/male love novel, especially since most of my readers are females and have an image in their heads of some strapping, strong man that sweeps young women off their feet. I would be better off lynching myself off at the nearest tree before I even dip my toes into that a literary pool…"

The figure moved from its perch as it draped itself down around Sephiroth's shoulders, "Darling…even the greatest novelist write under a different literary name when they decide to write a different style of novel; just think of a different name to write under and try at least one literary work of male/male…" he undraped himself from Sephiroth as his eyes stared at Sephiroth with a look of, 'Come on, you know want to try it', "You never know, you might be as big a hit as you are now and that prudish and brashly dressed woman who is your Publisher; she won't even know it's you."

"…Well…"Sephiroth stared back at the blinking cursor on the computer monitor; still taunting and teasing him, "…If you say its better then writing those sappy romance novels…"

"Darling, I know when something is a good idea, just go with it…just start imagining that cute little blond and it should start coming to you…" the figure seemed to disappear, but the fruity scent seemed to hang on the wind around Sephiroth, "Just take a chance…Mr. Taukera Shiwaza…"

XXX

"Good afternoon, class," a gentle teacher's voice called out over the din of the classroom as the bright young faces glanced towards the front of the room. Others were starting to calm down while others continued to horse around, "Well, either you're going to teach the class or I am, what is it going to be?"

The students immediately piped down and began to find their seats. The paper airplanes took kamikaze nose dives into bookshelves, flooring, desks, and books and one had found its way into the fish tank. Chairs scraped against the floor as feet scuffled as the students began to find their seats, folding their hands togethers on top of their desks. They watched as the Teacher glanced at the sea of young and eager faces; the youth of the future leaders of the World. Even as the teacher's eyes glanced over the sea of young faces and bright eyes, there was at least one seat that was open. Where was the promising student that had been placed into his class? It was the first day of school and one of the school's most promising young students was missing, where could he be? Even as the teacher began to start his lesson, soundsof crashing, feet scraping across the floor and finished off with the sounds of someone swearing. They could be heard into the classroom as as the door was yanked open. It had seemed that the promising young student had arrived, even if he was late.

"…S-Sorry about the rude interruption and entrance," the young man's face was flushed and red from having to run almost three blocks, "Forgive me…"

Even if the teacher wanted to forgive the young man, there was something about the young man that instantaneously caught the Teacher's attention; it was something the Teacher had only dreamt of. But it had been with someone else, but just seeing the young man's red face as he stood hunched over, trying to catch his breath; it was almost too much for the Teacher. One of the students spoke up; all but destroying the intimate daydream the Teacher was having.
"…Sir, were you going to say something to us?" one of the students had his hand up awaiting an answer from the Teacher as the young man began to regain his composure, "Sir?"
"Y-Yes...Yes! Please open your books to page 101 and begin reading the lesson..."
A quizzical look crossed the student's faces, "Um, sir, this is Math."
"Right..." the Teacher was finding it hard to think; his mind had been put into a tailspin when he saw the young man.
It wasn't easy to concentrate. How could the young man walk in, just like that…and act like he isn't the hottest little thing on two legs to walk in dressed like that…?

XXX

Sephiroth leaned back in his chair as he saw how far he had gotten with just a simple few strokes of the keystrokes, "…Did…Did…Did…"

"Darling…you did…you did do that, you did write all of that and might I add…" the figure chuckled to himself as he admired the simple opening of a starter's first young male love novel, "…It is not too bad for a first timer at this style of writing…and…Might I add, you seem a little more then "happy" about your first time."

"What do you mean?" Sephiroth looked over his shoulder at the fruity dressed man, "What are you impl-"

It didn't take much for Sephiroth to catch on to what the man meant as he looked down at his shorts, "Oh my…well…Welcome to the world of the weird and utterly Gay…Mr. Sephiroth…"