Gaaaah! I know I mumbled something about "weekly updates" before, but I barely have time to sleep, so that probably won't happen :( Anyway, this story will be finished, most definitely. Just be a little patient please!

Chapter 15

The silver-haired youth had snuggled up against Genesis' naked chest during their peaceful sleep, the red-head having burrowing his nose into Yazoo's silky hair. They were still sound asleep, not noticing Sephiroth or the danger he was radiating.

The man didn't give them time to wake up and adjust to the situation. In the blink of an eye he was by the bed, gripping Yazoo's arm and brutally pulling him up to roughly shake him awake. With his free hand he grabbed Genesis' by the hair and dragged him out of bed. The used condom in the trash bin told Sephiroth all he needed to know.

"Get UP!"

Being so abruptly pulled out of his sleep, Genesis needed a few moments to fully awake, yet he instinctively went with Sephiroth's shaking grasps. "Get your fucking fingers out of my hair," he growled lowly, his previous drowsiness blown away like a butterfly in a hurricane.

Yazoo was equally surprised but instantly alarmed as he saw his brother's contorted face of... Well, he couldn't label it, because he had never seen it before and he got a feeling that maybe they had gone a tiny little bit too far.

"Good morni-" he started, to pacify the situation but he was silenced by a resounding slap square across the face. His head flew to the side. Yazoo's ears started ringing and he felt warm blood flow from his split lip. At least Sephiroth had let go of Genesis. For now.

The red-head looked up in horror, not grasping the fact that Sephiroth had indeed… hit his younger brother. "Are you insane?" He asked, shocked, staring at the taller silver haired man with barely withheld consternation.

"That is my line," the other said, being strangely calm all of a sudden. Yazoo sat on the floor with furrowed brows, holding his aching face in shock. He'd never been hit before by his brother and his eyes were burning with tears but he refused to shed them. Sephiroth made a step towards Genesis.

"Any last words?"

"Whoa, calm down, would you?" Genesis said soberly, despite his erratically beating heart. Fear was bubbling up inside of him. It was that look in Sephiroth's eyes that told him that he was deadly serious… stressing 'deadly' here. Perhaps Genesis had taken this one step too far.

Sephiroth didn't reply but took another step, his fingers curled into a fist, knuckles turning white. He was in turmoil and he didn't know how to express it. He felt betrayed on multiple levels, disappointed, furious. "How dare you," he said lowly, almost choking on the words.

Genesis in return bristled at that, crossing his arms in front of his chest while shooting Yazoo a worried glance every now and then. He did not answer this… well not question, but rather statement because he knew, whatever he said now would only add to Sephiroth's rage. And he really did not want to experience any more of it. Plus he got slightly uncomfortable with standing here completely naked, except for his bandages perhaps.

"ANSWER ME!" the man suddenly hollered, his hand shooting out to grab Genesis by the throat and squeeze. There was a sense of deja vu about the situation but he didn't care.

Yazoo finally got up from the floor on shaking legs. His ears were still ringing and he was dizzy, using the desk for support. Now this wasn't going as he had planned.

"You're… strangling me…" Genesis wheezed, trying to peel Sephiroth's fingers off his throat for they were really cutting his air supplies a little shorter than comfortable. Nothing that would really kill him but it was unpleasant nonetheless. He shot Yazoo another look, willing him to stay the fuck out of this because he felt like whatever Sephiroth might do to his little brother, he would deeply regret it afterwards.

The tension was palpable and even worsened when Sephiroth tightened his grip. He wasn't in control of his anger and he was about to kill Genesis, because he was the cause for all of his misery. "That's the point," he said lowly, narrowing his eyes, pressing his lips together and squeezing harder.

The red-head tried to gulp against the hand but it wasn't possible anymore. He did the only thing he could think of right now: Placing a good kick into Sephiroth's stomach with his knee. Gasping for air, he coughed faintly when that hand loosened up and he was able to rip it away. "Calm down, would you? I didn't kill him or anything!"

"No, you did worse, you fucked him!" Sephiroth held his stomach, bent over, but he glared daggers at the redhead through the long silver strands of hair that fell over his face. Yazoo thought that he better stay out of this for now, since he didn't get half of what they were saying anyways.

"So what? You fucked Reno, too." Genesis snapped back, inching away from Sephiroth to put a safe distance between them, before the silver-haired man could pull any more of those funny stunts.

Sephiroth was torn between jealousy and overprotective raging mode, but he eventually settled for the latter. "You fucking sicko, he is thirteen and he is my goddamn brother!"

"I'm fourteen next a week," Yazoo piped up dizzily, because he had a point here, but Sephiroth just growled at him really frighteningly so he shut up.

Genesis tsked at that, inwardly not really knowing what to answer to that because seriously… Sephiroth was right. He had overstepped more than one border here, but he would not admit that now. "And?" He instead asked challengingly, even though he knew this was not the right way to approach the problem.

"... 'And'? He's a child! What he hell were you thinking? Not only that, as a friend I trusted you with family matters and this is how you exploited it! I have no words for how much you disgust me."

"Friend? Fuck toy would be more appropriate!" Genesis raged, storming over to his closet to retrieve some boxer shorts before turning around to face Sephiroth again. "And I have no words for how much you disgust me! Go and fuck some other red-head or whatever!"*

By now Sephiroth had himself under control again, enough at least to not rip Genesis' throat open. However, he felt it slipping, again. " Oh right, you are no friend, you are a pest. I'm so sick of your damn narcissism; you're not the center of attention for once and in your ridiculous jealousy you have to throw a fit like a child, taking everyone down with you until everybody is just as miserable!" Sephiroth had started to pick up Yazoo's clothes and threw them at his brother, hissing at him to get dressed.

"You were the one who started it," Genesis replied defensively, sitting down on his bed and watching the two brothers. "I am certainly not the only one being a self-centered prick, here."

Sephiroth didn't reply to that but pulled out his phone. Genesis wanted war and he could have it; Sephiroth would crush him. He wouldn't kill him though, because that was a sanction too light for the bastard. No. Sephiroth had other measures.

"Director Lazard?" he spoke into the phone. "This is Second Class Sephiroth. I request the immediate dismissal of SOLDIER Third Class Genesis Rhapsodos."

"You…", Genesis breathed out, his eyes becoming as round as saucers as he heard those words, those words he had been afraid of for the longest time he had messed with Sephiroth. "You can't!" He shrieked, immediately getting up from his bed and standing there, completely helpless, being forced to see his only dream being crushed by the person he had considered a friend before. He had just wanted Sephiroth to notice how Genesis had felt, how hurt he had been. He had wanted to make Sephiroth notice what… he had with Genesis and that nobody else could offer.

"On what grounds?" Lazard asked on the other end of the line, reaching for his glass of wine. He was in the middle of dinner and not really in the mood to deal with work stuff, but this was kind of... interesting. Only a few days prior Sephiroth had rescued that student and now he wanted him to be discharged?

"Lack of moral scruples. He is not suited to be a SOLDIER," Sephiroth replied cruelly, looking Genesis in the eye as he said so, though the redhead's crestfallen, utterly devastated look was not half as satisfactory as Sephiroth had thought it would be.

The red-head stubbornly withheld the tears that were welling up in his eyes. He wanted to make his gaze drip with hatred, but it wouldn't work. The only thing it expressed was the hopelessness that had suddenly eaten a large black hole through his thoughts and heart. He felt Yazoo shuffle beside him, felt him lightly touch his shoulder with those fingers that had pleasured him only hours before. How could he have thrown it all away for… revenge? Something so animalistic and raw… it had not been worth it, not at all.

On the other end of the line, Lazard lifted a brow. Those were serious allegations. Moral was very important; they couldn't let their killing machines run wild, they had to be bound by strict codes so they could be controlled.

"What exactly is it that he did?"

Sephiroth's jaw tightened, and again he gripped Yazoo by he shoulder to pull him away from Genesis. "He instigated sexual intercourse with my 13 year old brother."

"I liked it, and I'm almost 14 by the way!" Yazoo said loudly so Lazard would hear it and frostily looked at his brother who was close to giving him another slap.

Lazard lifted a brow, not able to hide the smile that was forming on his lips. "Well, if that is so... I am sorry but I cannot see any harm being done, Sephiroth." He admired the young man's protectiveness, but that really was no reason to fire Genesis. Besides, Lazard thought that Genesis was a great addition to their troops, if only because he managed to get Sephiroth out of his shell. Things had become more lively. "I understand your concern and agitation, but please see this as a challenge. Overcome it. Good night."

Sephiroth took the phone from his ear and stared at it speechlessly for a few seconds.

Having not caught all words of the conversation, Genesis was still anxious about the outcome of it, but judging by the expression on Sephiroth's face, Lazard hadn't really done what he had wanted him to do. He didn't dare to speak up anymore, feeling a strange mix of fear and anger inside of him.

"Aww, poor Sephi-poo didn't get his way," Yazoo mocked, clever enough to get out of range before he said so. Sephiroth threw him a look that said 'we are far from being done yet'.

"You didn't…", the auburn haired boy started, but trailed off eventually. Then he dropped onto his bed and breathed out heavily, yet moments later anger bubbled up inside of him. "You really dared to try that." He stated between gritted teeth. "You really… I can't believe it…"

"You should believe it." Sephiroth turned towards his brother. "Get dressed already. We are leaving." There was no way he would be staying here tonight. They would get home, because there was a LOT they would have to 'discuss'.

Reluctantly, Yazoo put on his clothes, throwing Genesis another quick look, but he didn't say anything anymore. He was on his own now and this was going to be a long night. Genesis let them leave. There was no use in starting another pointless argument with Sephiroth now, but he did throw Yazoo a pitiful and the taller brother a warning look, growling a low threat to not hurt Yazoo again. He hoped Sephiroth would stick to it. Despite all the trouble their… whatevership was currently going through, it did not have to necessarily influence Sephiroth's family life.

Sephiroth's plans for some much needed distance were thwarted however, because at the gates of the Shinra quarters Tseng was waiting, next to a cab. Since Sephiroth was under observation he was not allowed to leave the premises and Reno had called the head Turk to inform him about the problems that had arisen. Sephiroth would have opposed Reno's orders, but he couldn't get past Tseng.

Grudgingly he had to let go of Yazoo who was sent home in the cab. To calm himself somewhat Sephiroth went for a three hour walk, trying to think as little of the incident as possible, and then slipped back into his room after midnight. Genesis had already gone to bed, angered and hurt, rolling up into a small ball and cuddling with the blanket he had stolen from Sephiroth, since his own was still missing. The other's smell lingered around him, infiltrating his senses and obscuring his reality, but he shook his head and stubbornly fell asleep.

He did not hear Sephiroth enter their room that night anymore, his back turned to the other's bed and his sleep deep enough to not be disturbed.

The following week was quiet. Nothing happened besides regular training and classes; no missions had been scheduled and no suspicious actions took place. Sephiroth got the weekend off, which was a good thing because he needed a break. Things between him and Genesis were still bad, or rather: they kept ignoring each other. Sephiroth had not forgiven him, at all, and being forced to live together made life pretty uncomfortable.

Shaking the thought off, Sephiroth stretched in his chair on the balcony, finishing his glass of orange juice.

In the kitchen Loz hectically cooked for the guests that would be arriving soon and Kadaj enthusiastically decorated the living room. Yazoo was still in the shower. Actually Sephiroth had considered denying him his birthday party as punishment but then he didn't have the nerve to deal with three sulky brats on his weekend off. Besides, there had been a lot of other punishment. It was still a mystery to Sephiroth what had moved Yazoo to sleep with Genesis, but the boy just kept giving him cryptic looks and stubborn silence.

Sephiroth was at his wit's end.

At first Genesis had thought about denying Yazoo his wish to show up at his birthday party, because he really did not feel the need to see Sephiroth on his Sephiroth-free weekend. They had not spoken for an entire week, no words, nothing, which was quite astonishing given that they lived, trained and worked together most of the time. But they had been both too stubborn to ask or say even one word to the other, avoiding each other like a pest, and in all honesty, Genesis was fed up with it already. Yet a whole weekend without the silver-haired soldier sounded like a haven of peace and quiet.

Yazoo's big, begging eyes – not taken literally, he had just asked very innocently over the phone – had destroyed this dream like a fragile bubble. The red-head did not know why the youth wanted to have him around on his birthday, after all the trouble he had caused him, but admittedly it was easier like this for everyone. Genesis suspected some Turk to show up as well, since he and Sephiroth were still under observation. He was quite surprised to find that nobody would lurk around the other's house for the entire time of him being there. But perhaps Tseng had sent somebody anyways.

Sighing, Genesis put on a light jacket and grabbed the present he had gotten for Yazoo.

The party was going pretty well, Sephiroth thought, sipping at his apple juice as he leaned by the kitchen counter. He'd successfully glared every potential mate for his brother away, mentioning castration and torn limbs when Yazoo couldn't hear it and now they kept a very respectful distance from the youth. Kadaj was having the time of his life, eating cake and engaging the guests in pointless banter. Some light music was playing, there was cake and food and a table with presents. Loz, Yazoo and their friends were playing some kind of board game that was apparently fun because there was laughter and teasing. Sephiroth put his glass in the sink and thought that he should work on that report he had taken home with him, when the door bell rang.

Okay, so now here Genesis was, nervous like a school boy who had to go to the principal because he had done something really bad. Shaking the uneasy feeling off, Genesis told himself that it wouldn't be as horrific as he thought. He had been invited, after all!

Waiting in front of the door, he glanced around, finding that whoever had chosen this house, had good taste.

"I'm getting the door," Sephiroth lazily announced. Not that anyone was really listening; they expected him to do it anyways. Today he was their lackey... Only Yazoo looked up briefly, smirking to himself, but Sephiroth didn't see it.

The man went into the hallway, where the kids' noises were blissfully dulled, and sighed. Somehow his weekend wasn't as relaxing as he had thought, but that wasn't the boys' fault. He just felt restless.

"Welcome. The party's in the living room, you can put your present on the table, if you touch my brother inappropriately I will crush your balls. Any questions?"

"Always so eloquent." Genesis sighed, noticing that he was not really spoken to, at least Sephiroth did not seem to notice who was standing in front of him. "Are you threatening all of his guests like that?" He asked, cocking his head to the side in a questioning, yet teasing manner.

Indeed Sephiroth had just routinely recited his standard welcome, not really paying attention to who their visitor was. As soon as he recognized Genesis all expression was drained from his features and he just stood there, perplexed. His fingers around the doorknob twitched to just shut the door into the man's face. "What are you doing here?"

"Hm, a good question. Considering that I am carrying a present with me and it's your brother's birthday, I assume that I am in fact visiting his birthday party." Genesis rolled his eyes in a 'duh' manner. Really, it was just silly to ask that question even though he had it coming. "And before you ask, I was invited by Yazoo."

"I am uninviting you no-"

"GenGen!"

Before Sephiroth could finish his rude reply a swirl of silver came flying at the redhead and then Kadaj was all over him. His cheeks glowed with unbridled enthusiasm and joy to see the man. He grabbed Genesis' hand and pulled him inside. "Come on, you're the last one, I wanna see the presents already!"

Sephiroth looked after them, defeated, let go of the door and it fell closed with a dry click. Damn traitorous runts. It seemed everyone conspired against him.

In the blink of an eye, Genesis was dragged through what seemed to be the whole house, into the living room, where he was greeted by colorful decoration, cake and various kinds of teenagers scrambling around and making an enormous amount of noise. An ordinary birthday party, alright. Spotting Yazoo, who had turned away from the game he had been playing to get his present, he smiled at the bright expression he was wearing. He hadn't really seen Yazoo this relaxed before.

"Ow, Kadaj, watch out, you're dislocating my arm," Genesis laughed at the smallest's euphoria.

"I'm glad you could come." Yazoo got up from his seat to greet the new guest with a hug that was deliberately longer than necessary. He met Sephiroth's angry gaze over Genesis' should but ignored it. "Just throw your stuff somewhere. We're playing a game, you can join." Various curious eyes looked the beautiful redhead up and down and there were a few muffled whispers, as to who this could be.

Genesis nodded solemnly, before turning and shrugging his jacket off. He laid it over the nearest chair and went to put his presents onto the table where all the others lay. He couldn't believe it. He was being checked out by … what? Thirteen-year-olds? What the hell?

"This is Genesis. He is my friend. Play nice." Yazoo's introduction only sounded casual on the surface; underneath he was communicating a code only they could understand, namely to keep their hands off of Genesis. There were some muttered, "Hi Genesis" and a few grins.

Loz just came out of the kitchen, grinning at Genesis. "You hungry? There's food in the kitchen, make yourself at home!"

"Hey, everyone," Genesis waved, a little unsure of what to do, so it was nice to have Loz giving him an excuse to go to the kitchen and retrieve a piece of cake. He returned to find everybody waiting for him to join their game, and so he did, trying to ignore the fact that those children were far from normal.

Sephiroth had enough of this farce. Thus he walked up to their group of hormonal teens and one vicious backstabbers to grab the latter by the arm. "Genesis, if you may have a moment." It wasn't a question and Sephiroth hated that he had to break the silence between them, but he wouldn't have this.

"Sure…" The other answered flatly, hating how his insides started to flutter at the unexpected touch, cursing his body to still react so violently to Sephiroth. He followed the taller man to somewhere more secluded – the kitchen, that was – and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What is it?"

"I want you to leave," Sephiroth stated bluntly. He didn't like seeing Genesis here, in this group with horny teens... and not in general anyways. "I did not know you were invited, obviously, as I would never have approved. I ask you to go discreetly."

"Why, if everybody is happy to see me? And with everybody I mean your family," Genesis asked in return, his stance turning to defensive. He hadn't wanted to come here, but having Sephiroth tell him to leave made the whole idea of being here far more alluring.

"I am not happy to see you," Sephiroth retorted and the moment he said it he realized that that was not the whole truth. He was just not happy to see Genesis under these circumstances, with the issues they had. It was tiring him.

Somewhere in his chest, Genesis' heart clenched at the words. "And I don't care about it. As long as Yazoo is not telling me to leave, I will not do so."

"While I see why you would be attracted to being in a room full of gullible, horny thirteen year olds, I won't let you have your way again."

"Oh, good, remind me why life was so awesome without you." Genesis spat angrily, not only hurt by those words but deeply humiliated. "Now, can you stop being an unreasonable brat and let me get back to people who actually like me?"

"Everything all right in here?" Yazoo leaned against the door frame, arms crossed. "It's your turn Gen, the others are waiting. I'll help Seph clean up here, you go ahead."

Wordlessly Genesis turned around, but not before he had thrown a wrathful glance at Sephiroth one last time. He went back into the living room, putting on his best façade of happiness, but never forgetting what the other had thrown into his face so rudely.

"What's that all about? You are fourteen now but I see you have not become any wiser." Sephiroth's words were clipped and not amused as he watched Yazoo walk into the kitchen. "What were you thinking inviting him? You want to pick another fight with me?"

"No," Yazoo answered simply, but truthfully. "I did it because I finally want you to open your eyes." He started collecting the used dishes and put them into the dishwasher in a futile attempt to reign over the chaos that had conquered most of the kitchen.

"Open my eyes to what," Sephiroth sneered, not taking his little brother seriously. This discussion was way too much already, he just wanted Genesis to leave, but he couldn't start a fight with all the guests in the next room and Yazoo knew that. It was a brilliant move to trap him like this, but Sephiroth did not appreciate it.

"Open your eyes to see that you are not angry with him because you are overprotective of me." Yazoo turned around at that, his gaze cool and collected. "Open your eyes to the real emotions that made you react like you did."

"And what would those be," Sephiroth replied from above, crossing his arms over his chest in an unconsciously defensive manner. He didn't let it on, but he was startled.

"You are jealous. It's as simple as that. As jealous as Genesis was when you slept with that other red-head." Sighing Yazoo looked at his brother, an emotion close to pity reflecting in his eyes.

Sephiroth was profoundly taken aback by that bold accusation. So much so, that he was speechless for a moment. "I'm... I'm not jealous! Why would I be jealous?" he finally blurted, feeling way out of his comfort zone. Well, Genesis being... envious he had kind of suspected. But the whole 'jealousy' thing implied emotional attachment, and that was a concept pretty alien to Sephiroth. He didn't think he had ever been jealous before, so it was hard to compare the feelings he had now to former experiences...

Yazoo's hand almost made contact with his forehead, almost. Heaving a deep sigh and pondering on how he could possibly explain to his brother all the reasons of encountering jealousy, he settled for the most simple answer. "Because you did not want him to sleep with anyone else but yourself." He offered.

"I didn't want him to sleep with you" Sephiroth pointed out gravely. The fact that his brotherly protectiveness and that other negative feeling he had felt at seeing them and that he hadn't bothered labeling mingled wasn't making things easier.

"You never threatened to kill – and almost did if I may add – the others I slept with." Yazoo stated knowingly. "And I haven't seen you as… hurt before."

"Oh, threatening them with castration was sufficient," Sephiroth muttered, leaning against the kitchen counter. His mind was reeling, trying to make sense of this. All right, so if he didn't want Genesis to sleep with someone else...- that wasn't that much of a big deal he decided. "Fine then, I will just tell him to stop sleeping with other people."

His brother laughed softly at that before regaining his cool, aloof appearance. "And how do you want to justify your decision, when he asks why he should stop sleeping with other people?"

"I will tell him that I dislike it," Sephiroth replied blank-faced, then started to put the dishes away into the dish washer. Thank the goddes for that device...

Yazoo frowned at that. His brother was viewing this whole situation from his completely antisocial point of view. "I don't think he will take that as a sufficient reason, brother. You have known him for quite some time and I don't think he'll… do as you please just because you dislike his actions."* He said, helping Sephiroth with the dishes.

"Why not?" Sephiroth asked, clueless, because pretty much everyone else did whatever he wanted. Then again they were talking Genesis here, and the man just loved to annoy the crap out of him by refusing any request Sephiroth made... "Well, what is the proper protocol then?"

Groaning lightly, Yazoo asked himself how his brother had survived life until now. "There is no 'proper protocol' with something like this, Seph. You can't tell people to stop having sex just because you feel like it. Perhaps you should talk to Genesis about it, even though I think it would only escalate, given the fact that you two are stubborn as hell. But you can always start with yourself. If you don't want to have Genesis fucking around, then do not fuck around yourself." All right, even level-headed Yazoo could get annoyed, especially when being faced with his big brother's social shortcomings.

"There is no need to get cranky." Sephiroth closed the dish washer and set the program. Laughter was coming from the living room. He hadn't thought that he would ever hear the words 'don't fuck around' from his little brother, of all people. "I will handle this." Somehow, he added in thought.

Allowing himself a small smile, Yazoo encouragingly nudged his brother's arm before returning to the living room, and his party. How did he end up having to deal with Sephiroth's love life on his fourteenth birthday?

Sephiroth followed a few minutes later. It would be suspicious if he asked Genesis for another talk so soon and he didn't want to disrupt the party again. This was Yazoo's birthday and his own issues had to wait.

It was late in the evening when the guests started to leave and eventually Genesis got up too, announcing that it was time for him to go. Sephiroth, who'd been working in the bedroom but left the door open a bit so he could have an eye on what was going on in the living room, came out. "I will walk you downstairs," he said, calmly.

Genesis had actually forgotten that Sephiroth was even there, because he had never approached him that day again. He jumped a little at the other's voice, his head turning to face him in a motion of pure surprise before he thought better of it, turning towards the other three brothers and hugging them goodbye. Kadaj clung to him for some time, sputtering over what they would do the next time they would meet and Genesis couldn't suppress the soft smile that was forming on his lips. Upon hugging Yazoo, he whispered a "Thanks for inviting me, Yazoo. I appreciate it" into his ear. Only then he turned to leave, his jacket swung over his shoulder, almost dreading what Sephiroth wanted from him. And he was sure the other would want something.

As they walked down the stairs, Sephiroth got right to the point. Uncomfortable silence and avoiding a fight were not his things.

"I request that you stop having sex with other people."

tbc?

Dun dun! Seph dropped the bomb - what will Genesis reaction be? Find out next chapter :D And as always, reviews and feedback is most welcome!