Disclaimer: All Final Fantasy Seven characters, places and situations are the property of Square Soft/Square Enix and are used without permission and without intent of plagiarism or profit. Copyright for all original stories, characters, and situations is with the author (me), and may not be published, copied, distributed or archived without the author's prior written consent.
Oh, man. This one's been delayed a while hasn't it? I went to Cosplacon at the end of June and I meant to edit and post this the following week but I caught the cold from hell. Since then I've been sick twice more with two different bugs. -_-' That might be a record. I'm pretty happy with this chapter, even though I had to edit it to death, revive it, and continue editing to get it to a place where I liked it. If the format is off in places let me know and I'll try and get it fixed. Something went wonky when I put this chapter in the doc manager and I think I fixed it, but I may have missed something.
I received an explanation for the spelling of Shin-Ra. Namely, the hyphen is only used when referring to the company. Thank you HazzaTL3 for the explanation!
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Sephiroth tossed the contents of the pan in his hand, rummaging in a drawer for a spatula while bits of chicken and root vegetables danced. Cloud couldn't help but stare as the General tossed the ingredients without them spilling. A rice cooker steamed between them on the counter.
"Please finish the zucchini I'll need it in a moment." Sephiroth said.
"Sorry." Cloud began chopping vegetables again.
"Are you that surprised I can cook?" Sephiroth smirked.
"Well…we did eat take-out for the last three days." Cloud said.
"I had a room in the lab until I was eleven. I started working as a tech and moved into this apartment then. The SOLDIER that lived next door was horrified to learn how much take-out I was eating." He swung the pan around. "Dump those in."
Cloud did as he was told. "So you've lived here for a while? Isn't this a SOLDIER apartment, how did you afford it?" Cloud watched as Sephiroth stirred everything and returned the pan to the fire.
"I didn't actually pay rent—standard SOLDIER apartments are paid for by the company—and they had already taken an interest in me. I worked in the lab until I was sixteen when I'd finished as a cadet and became a third class." Sephiroth found something in the cupboard and added it to the pan as he talked. "I didn't have to work. The company provided for me."
"Bet the company's definition of "provide" doesn't include anything nice."
"You'd be right." Sephiroth said. "Cafeteria meals, military issue hygiene products…the first things I did when I got a paycheck was go out to eat and buy a radio."
"So you've been in this apartment…" Cloud paused to do math and realized that he didn't know how old Sephiroth was. "I don't know how old you are."
"Twenty-seven." Sephiroth said.
"So…fifteen years." He blinked. "Aren't first class apartments bigger? Is there a fee or something to move to the larger apartments?"
"No and they've offered to move me often enough." Sephiroth said.
"So why not?" Cloud asked.
"…I like it here." Sephiroth said. "My best memories are here."
Cloud nodded and watched Sephiroth searching for a spoon in the drawer. It was still strange for him to see the great General in casual wear and to hear him randomly divulge stories from his past, but in the last few days he'd realized there was a lot more to the man than the posters and the news-clippings. Sephiroth seemed to enjoy talking, but frequently refrained from it out of concern he'd say the wrong thing or, at least, that was the impression that Cloud had gotten.
Sephiroth finally found a spoon to taste what he was cooking, suddenly setting the skillet aside and getting a drink straight from the facet. Cloud started laughing.
"That good, huh?" Cloud asked.
"You stick hot metal in your mouth." Sephiroth muttered.
"No thank you." Cloud smiled
Sephiroth turned off the stove and transferred everything into serving dishes before taking it to the table. Cloud followed him with the plates and silverware then went back to get the napkins and drinks.
"Do you want Kool-Aid?" Cloud asked. Sephiroth drank a lot of Kool-Aid.
"I think I want tea." Sephiroth answered.
Cloud got down a pair of mismatched glasses and filled them with tea before he joined Sephiroth at the table. He wasn't sure what dinner was, but it tasted good. He watched Sephiroth eating with a pair of sticks, silverware untouched.
"What are those?" Cloud finally asked.
"Chopsticks, they're used in Wutai." Sephiroth said. "They're a little tricky but I've gotten used to them."
"They seem complicated." Cloud said.
Sephiroth just laughed and continued eating. Silence fell between them until they were clearing the table and Sephiroth began speaking to him while they cleaned up.
"Tomorrow is your follow up exam. It's been a week since the first shower they need to check your response rate." Sephiroth said. "They'll be doing blood work and deciding on a treatment schedule."
"Will I be getting treatment tomorrow?" Cloud asked.
"No, those have to be arranged several days in advance." Sephiroth sat the last of the dishes in the dishwasher and began drying his hands. "If you're stabilizing they'll want to do a physical test. Strength, speed, and endurance, you had those done when you entered the cadet program, correct?"
"Yeah." Cloud thought back to that day. They'd tested how much the cadets could bench, how fast they could run from one end of the gym to the other, and then they'd stuck them on treadmills and told them to run until they fell off.
"They'll want to do those again if you're stabilizing so that they can measure your progress with the additional doses." Sephiroth neatly folded the towel he was holding. "If you're not stabilizing then the activity could trigger an attack and the physical tests will be put off."
Cloud nodded. "Okay, should I wear my uniform?"
"No, they'll probably put you in a gown anyway." Sephiroth said. "You're appointment is early. The sooner they have an answer the sooner they can work on the problem."
Sephiroth started the dishwasher and went to sit in the living room. Cloud followed him and took a seat across from him in a chair while the man turned on his radio and picked up his book. Cloud frowned, when Sephiroth began reading conversation ended for the night.
"When will I begin training?" Cloud asked, hoping to keep the conversation going a little while longer and stave off boredom a few more minutes.
"As soon as you've stabilized, when you're scheduled for the physical tests expect training to begin." Sephiroth looked up at Cloud and frowned. "I've been a bad host the last few days, haven't I?" Sephiroth turned off the radio and sat his book on his lap.
"No…it's just I'm house bound and…" Cloud trailed off with a shrug.
"You're bored." Sephiroth supplied, frowning. "I typically read in my spare time, not that I have much of it."
"I don't want to be a pain but I'm just not used to being indoors all day." Cloud sighed.
Cloud had suffered two more attacks since the day he first arrived and had been mostly bedridden for the week he'd been in Sephiroths' apartment. Sephiroth had spent most of the week at his desk poring over documents, making phone calls, or typing furiously. Sephiroth was kind and Cloud's awe of being in the Silver General's presence had faded enough for them to sit and comfortably converse at meal times.
Sephiroth was drumming his fingers on the cover of his book. Cloud watched him, waiting for Sephiroth to voice whatever he was thinking about.
"I have a game we could play." Sephiroth smiled. "Genesis bought it for me when we were third classes…I haven't played it much since…"
Sephiroth trailed off and Cloud didn't press the matter. Genesis Rhapsodes had gotten very sick in the last year and recently went missing. If Cloud had to guess, judging by the photo's hanging in the apartment, he would say the two Generals were very close friends.
"I'd love to play." Cloud said.
Sephiroth smiled and in one elegant movement was striding down the hall to his room. Cloud began clearing the coffee table, moving coasters and magazines onto the floor under it. He'd just moved the statuette that sat in the center of the table when Sephiroth returned with two wooden boxes.
The boxes had been beautifully painted once but now they were dinged in places and the paint was chipped. Cloud could even see faded pen where someone had drawn on them. Sephiroth sat the smaller box aside and began unfolding the larger one until it was completely laid out as a game board that took up nearly the entire table. A long twisting path of squares was painted on the board with mystery stains and more pen marks dotting the blank space around the path. Cloud couldn't read most of the faded writing, but he could tell it was written by more than one person.
Sephiroth opened the second box and began laying out the contents. There were six fat decks of cards, two dice, a coin, and nearly twenty small wooden statues of different animals. One die was six-sided and had symbols on it that represented the seasons as well as a symbol for day and night. The other die had sixteen. Cloud picked up the die and began turning it over in his fingers, there were the numbers negative eight through positive eight, excluding zero.
"There's a deck for each season, and two more for day and night." Sephiroth said. "You roll the season die to determine which deck you draw from, the easiest is spring and it progresses in difficulty until you get to winter. Day is personal questions, Night is the action deck. The coin is used in short games to determine which deck you draw from. In a short game you only play with the one season deck and either the day or the night deck. A full game takes days so we'll play a short one with the spring deck and the day deck."
"Okay." Cloud selected a dog figure and sat it beside Sephiroths' Sparrow figure, then helped Sephiroth scoop the rest back into the box. "So how do we start?"
"You begin by rolling the die and moving the number of spaces, then you flip the coin to determine which deck you draw from. If you fail to answer the question then you forfeit the spaces you've moved. If you roll a negative then you stay on start and if you fail the question while you're on start then you forfeit a turn." Sephiroth picked up the die and held it out to Cloud. "The youngest player always rolls first."
Cloud accepted the die and rolled it. He moved his piece three spaces then picked up a card from the top of the deck. Sephiroth flipped the coin for him and it landed with the season side up. Cloud drew from the spring deck.
"What is the best temperature to bake bread in a modern oven?" Cloud paused. "What the hell kind of question is that? Bread? I've never baked bread in my life…"
"You have to answer the question or return to start. Take your time, there is no time limit." Sephiroth was wearing a particularly evil smile.
"Damn it." Cloud stared at the card. "My mom baked bread but we had a wood burning stove…how is this an easy question?"
"It's easily accessible." Sephiroth said as he examined his nails.
"I don't read cookbooks." Cloud deadpanned.
"Then maybe you should start, after all, there isn't a time limit." Sephiroth suggested.
Cloud shot into the kitchen and dug through the handful of books Sephiroth had sitting on his bread-bin until he found one with a section on bread. He carried it back to the living room with him, scanning the recipes.
"Looks like the ideal temperature is between 375 degrees and 400 degrees Fahrenheit." Cloud said as he sat the book aside.
"If I was playing anyone else I'd make them convert that to Celsius." Sephiroth grinned.
Cloud could sense a story behind that statement but didn't prod, he had a feeling it involved Genesis and didn't want to upset Sephiroth. Sephiroth rolled the die and sighed at the negative four. Cloud flipped the coin for him with a grin and Sephiroth drew from the day deck.
"Share a happy memory." Sephiroth read the card aloud then paused to think.
"When I was eight they began training me for SOLDIER and I got to leave the Shin-Ra building overnight for the first time. I camped in the fields north of Midgar with three other SOLDIER's and they taught me about the constellations. I fell asleep watching the stars and caught a cold. I didn't know that I could catch a cold. The guys were scared to take me back to the labs with a sniffle so they made up a lie about going somewhere for extra training and they snuck me into one of their rooms." Sephiroth smiled. "They made me chicken noodle soup and bought me sweets. I slept on the couch for three days, watching cartoons and getting my hair brushed. Now when I don't feel good I have to have toffees."
Cloud took the die and rolled it again, he came up with a five. He moved his piece the five places and flipped. He drew a card from the day deck but didn't read it immediately.
"So, how often do you get sick?" Cloud asked. "I thought that first classes couldn't get sick. Do you just have a better immune system?"
"I have an excellent immune system." He smiled. "When I was little I got sick more often because they went by a standard non-enhanced dietary plan and I wasn't getting all the nutrition I needed. Now that I get a better balance I only get sick now and then, although it's pretty bad when I do…"
"It seems like I'm always sick with something." Cloud chuckled and read the card. "When was the last time that you were lost?"
"Have you been lost recently?" Sephiroth asked. "When I played with Genesis the standing rule was if you couldn't remember the event being asked for then you would use one you could remember and hadn't used in previous games."
"Hm…" Cloud looked at the ceiling. "I guess I was pretty lost when I first came to Midgar. I hitch-hiked my way to Kalm and a vegetable seller brought me to Midgar from Kalm. I helped him unload his truck and by then it was nightfall. I walked around and around in circles until I ran into a third class SOLDIER that was on his way back from a mission and he led me to the headquarters."
"I've lived in Midgar my entire life and I still get lost." Sephiroth said a little sheepishly. "Anytime I'm out for public appearances Shin-Ra makes sure I've got someone with me so I don't ruin my infallible image by asking for directions to my own home."
Cloud started laughing as his mind conjured an image of Sephiroth wandering the streets like a lost kid calling for their parent. Sephiroth laughed with him as he rolled a one and moved his piece, flipped the coin, and drew a spring card.
"Calculate the volume of the nearest empty container." Sephiroth read aloud.
Cloud watched as Sephiroth disappeared into his study. He came back with a ruler and a pad of paper, and then stopped to pick up an empty glass off of the counter. Sephiroth sat down and took several quick measurements of the object then set it aside and began writing on the pad of paper. Sephiroths' PHS began ringing and be fished it out of his pocket to read the message.
"If you round it's 198 cubic inches. I'm sorry; I need to deal with this. If you'd like we can leave the game set up and finish after your appointment."
"Sure." Cloud said.
Sephiroth got to his feet and vanished into his study. Cloud turned back to the board game and began counting the squares. Even if Sephiroth hadn't been called away Cloud wasn't sure that they'd have finished the game that night. He reluctantly began ensuring everything was setting firmly in place and made a note on the pad of paper where they were in case it was days before they made it back to the game. Once he'd done that Cloud got up and headed down the hall. He paused in front of his door when he heard Sephiroth raise his voice.
Cloud peeked into Sephiroths' room to see him growling down the phone as he violently flipped through paperwork. Cloud shrugged and headed for his own bedroom. He'd been sleeping a lot lately, he'd thought it was just his body trying to get better but now was wondering if it was just because he was bored.
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I couldn't find a game that matched what I wanted so I made one up, and it doesn't have a name! Any suggestions for a name are welcome.
I'm going to try and get the next chapter up fast. There's a section in my profile with my planned update schedule and I try to keep it current so if you're wondering when the next chapter will be up (or why I'm taking so long) you can check there. Unfortunately, I wound up pushing the date back four times for this chapter...I'm going to try real hard not to do that again.