New chapter! Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Chapter 16

The red-head turned at that, blinking up to Sephiroth in confusion. "I beg your pardon?"

"I ask you to not sleep with other people anymore. Especially my brother. It makes me uncomfortable. I have been told that I cannot simply request such a thing, so I am offering something in return. Then it will be a win-win situation for the both of us. A truce if you will."

Genesis cocked his head to the side, eyeing the silverette warily. "I don't see the win for me so far." He pointed out calmly, crossing his arms in front of his chest in a somewhat defensive manner. Sephiroth made it sound like he was doing nothing else but fucking around.

"That is why I am offering something in return," Sephiroth replied carefully. If Genesis' body language was any indication this wasn't going very well and diametral to how Sephiroth had planned this conversation to go... "Tell me what you want, and if it is reasonable we have a deal."

"First, let me get this straight. You want me to stop sleeping with other people… Doesn't it sound slightly ridiculous to you that I should live a life of abstinence just because you feel strange about it?" Genesis questioned, his eyebrow rising further the more he spoke.

"No one said anything about you being abstinent. You can sleep with me," Sephiroth specified in that calm, unfazed manner of his.

There was a moment of utter silence in which Genesis simply stared at the man in front of him before chuckling softly. "So, to be clear… you want me to be exclusive to you? No way if you can still screw whoever you want. Exclusiveness is a two way street."

Exclusive... "If you want to phrase it that way." Sephiroth started to walk the stairs again, pleased that Genesis hadn't outright rejected his offer. "I don't see why this would be a problem."

"You do notice that this means you will never ever do that potty-mouthed red-headed Turk again, do you?" Genesis asked suspiciously, staying put where he was but looking after Sephiroth.

"Of course. It also means that you keep your hands off my brother." Sephiroth lifted a brow as he turned his head, pausing for Genesis to catch up.

Genesis shrugged at that. "Just saying," was the only thing he answered to that before he followed Sephiroth out. A strange mix of comfortable and uncomfortable silence settled over them while they walked.

"I am glad we solved that issue," Sephiroth finally said as they stood in front of the apartment complex. He meant it. "I will see you on Monday then."

The auburn haired man inclined his head in a hint of a nod, but the smile on his lips told another story. This was exactly what he had wanted to achieve, or at least what Angeal had advised him to do. He did not know who he had to thank for it, but he intended to call a certain silver haired birthday boy once he got home. Or at least send him a text message. "Yeah, see you."

With that he turned, putting on his jacket while he walked, contented with himself and the world for once.

The next Monday they were on a mission, together with another team Angeal was also part of. They headed the truck early and drove about two hours out of the city to a small town Sephiroth didn't bother to learn the name of. In the mission report it had been stated that the townsfolk was pestered by monsters. As soon as they arrived they were greeted by upset towns people gathering around them, almost dragging them to the scene. A few houses had been destroyed and there also had been casualties. They told the people to stay in their houses and headed to the fields, where the monster attack was taking place. Upon their arrival however they were a bit stymied.

"... Seriously?" Sephiroth stated with a blank expression, his sword dropping as they watched their enemies raging through the corn fields, destroying the harvest with loud, excited screams.

The ShinRa Soldiers were looking at a vast field full of evil, hungry… yellow Chocobos.

"Don't tell me we have to slay them." Genesis said in a whiny voise, watching a mother Chocobo nudging her chicken almost lovingly. "They are so cute!" He suddenly announced with big dreamy eyes, his soft side for any kind of animal showing, even though he had suppressed it ever since he had left Banora.

Angeal next to him merely sighed. "How can a horde of Chocobos do so much damage? And how did they get here? This area is not exactly known for this kind of animal." He also opposed the thought of calling them enemies, because seriously. They were only fluffy, yellow Chocobos.

"Well... I suggest we speak with the major. If they have a stable nearby we can drive the chocobos in there. It would also compensate the villagers for the economical damage done," Sephiroth suggested, rolling his eyes at Genesis' lovey dovey look, but also smiling at it a bit. Chocobos were valuable goods, breeding them would give the villagers some money for their destroyed houses. He wondered how the birds could possibly have killed anyone...

"Uh, I wanna take one home…" Genesis snickered, while surveying the area the Chocobos were currently feasting on. "How about you go and inform the major, while I have a look at the cutie pies here?" He sheathed his sword meanwhile, mentally indulging in the thought of this being a too-easy mission again. How he loved it, but sometimes a little combat action would be nice, too.

"There has to be something else here, apart from Chocobos. They would never be able to kill human beings, even when vexed." Angeal suddenly objected, closely looking around for any indication of some other beast being around.

"You keep an eye on things, I will be right back." Sephiroth left, while Angeal still cluelessly stared at the Chocobos before he and his partner warily secured the surroundings. There really was nothing but Chocobos. A short time after Sephiroth was back, instructing them on where to bring the birds. "Let's get this over with. The towns people seemed pretty enthused, they are preparing a feast for us," Sephiroth sighed and then marched up to the birds, who eyed him coolly and started screaming as they felt threatened by his presence.

"I hope they are not planning on grilling Chocobos for us." Genesis instantly retorted, walking some steps beside Sephiroth to keep the birds from bolting. They actually did not seem to be irritated by his presence in the least, most of them eyed him curiously, one of them even sniffing him and then cuddling its feathery head against him. "They like me!" He exclaimed delightedly, looking over to Sephiroth only to have a small chuckle building up in his throat. "And they certainly do not like you."

It was obvious that Sephiroth did have an intimidating aura around him for the Chocobos were trying to escape him as best as they could, some of them even snatching into his direction.

"Can you stop playing around and actually help me get those beasts into the stable?!" Sephiroth breathed, his arms wide spread as he ushered the upset animals towards the direction he wanted them to go to. He wouldn't have minded Chocobo steak at all... A

ngeal and his partner were only semi successful too, because apparently the Chocobos were quite happy where they were and had no intention on cooperating with the despairing SOLDIERs.

A tsking sound left the red-head's mouth before he whistled softly to the birds having gathered around him, directing them the way they had to go and voila, there they went. Right into the stable. "And now tell me again that I'm just playing around." He grinned widely, doing the same thing with the next ones.

Sephiroth watched, a bit dumbfounded, and then sighed. His own chocobos were much more difficult, but he got them in the stable eventually. It was a horde of 7 birds, including two little ones that would be even easier to train for races.

Angeal leaned at the stable watching the two of them interact, a faint smile on his lips. It was good to see them getting along; the tension around them had eased remarkably. He also was proud of Genesis for having solved the issue his way. "Now, let's go to the festival, shall we? I am starving."

Petting one of the smaller birds almost lovingly, Genesis also left the stable, quite sad to leave the birds behind for whatever the townspeople had planned for them but then he reminded himself that he also liked a steak or other kind of meat every now and then. No time to be a hypocrite here. "I could use some food as well. The drive here was far more exhausting than this 'mission'." His fingers were doing quotes in the air. Genesis couldn't help grinning as they walked back into town. The guy that had come along with them, Angeal's partner, had been oddly quiet until now, probably because the Great Sephiroth was around.

They were welcomed by a cheerful crowd that had quickly set up tables in the middle of the market place. They had brought their fruits, vegetables, succulent roasted meat and warm, fresh bread. It was a feast indeed and they were cheerful and praised the SOLDIERs, talking about how wonderful they had handled the 'monsters'. They were arguing a bit what they were supposed to do with them and looked oddly at Sephiroth as he told them to breed and sell them.

The major laughed. "Haha, you young folks sure have strange ideas. What would we want with more monsters? But are you sure the stable will hold them?" he still looked a bit worried.

"Yes, the problem has being taken care off. And it is not that unusal to breed chocobos and sell them..." There was an awkward silence, as the major asked, carefully, "Chocobos?"

It was then that the party was interrupted by screams, as a young man stumbled towards them from the field, covered in blood. "They came back!"

Angeal almost chocked on his water upon hearing it, while Genesis struggled to gulp down the bread he had just eaten.

"All there was on the field was a pack of Chocobos…" He said, getting up from his seat and unsheathing his weapon. The young man was immediately surrounded by his fellow people, but the four soldiers pushed past them. There were long, bloody slashes on his chest, arms and legs. Definitely claws, and not the ones of a Chocobo.

"What exactly has attacked you?" Angeal asked in that knowing tone of his, while Genesis just looked at him in confusion.

"D-Dragon!" the man replied weakly, looking as if he was about to pass out from blood loss and fear. There was a panicked screaming among the crowd, but Sephiroth stood up.

"People! Calm down! You will be going into your houses now and stay there. We will take care of this."

Luckily, they listened, because Sephiroth's name had spread outside Midgar too. There were a few growls that doubted their competence, since they had 'failed' the first time, but nonetheless everyone followed the order. "Let's go," Sephiroth said sharply to the others. A loud growl could be heard from outside the town and something came crushing, leaving a large cloud of dust.

"I really don't like the sound of this." Genesis said warily, his sword ready to strike when they approached the source of the noises. The man's bloody traces ended here, too. "It's most likely not only one dragon." Angeal said, slowly reaching for his sword as well, as the dust finally settled. What they faced was nothing they had expected in the least.

There was a crowd of three huge behemoths attacking the village. They must have come from the nearby forests, but Sephiroth didn't get why they were attacking humans. There was plenty of easier food. Though they looked frightening they were animals still and they would not attack humans unless they were provoked or desperate with hunger... The chocobos indicated that there was more than enough food.

Sephiroth gripped his sword tightly. "We have to go all out on them this time. Don't try to catch them, kill them."

The other three nodded dutifully, while gripping their weapons tightly. They gave each other another look and Genesis was the first to dash forward, functioning as a distraction for he was rather small, agile and fast and could escape their attacks easier than the rest of them.

The behemoths roared loudly as they came closer, noticing his aggressive stance and instantly lashing out with their huge pranks and sharp claws. He dodged the first few easily, only one catching him off guard. He had to roll to the side to avoid it but got up quickly again. They were definitely distracted now.

Sephiroth, Angeal and the other guy followed suit, using the opening to get close and land a few hits. Sephiroth cast a fire materia that had one of the monsters crash into the ground, dizzy and injured. Angeal went after it, but the wounded beast was ferocious and wouldn't go down without a fight. He dodged a few frantic hits as the beast tried to desperately kill him before it would die from the severe wound Sephiroth had inflicted on him. Mercilessly Angeal ran his sword through its already burned and bloodied body with practised ease, even though its armor was quite heavy. The behemoth roared one last time, a gurgling sound leaving its sliced throat before it crashed to the ground and remained there motionlessly.

"Angeal, dodge!" He heard Genesis call over to him, instinctively doing so and barely missing the claw, which had been aiming at his head.

With one beast down and two to go it was easier to keep an eye on them. Still they were tough opponents. On the other hand, Angeal and Genesis were both on top of their classes and they proved it now by acting level-headed and quickly so that Sephiroth didn't need to be worried about them. Their third companion was a different story...

Masamune cut through the air and the hard flesh of a beast's claw and a loud, pained roar followed. Angeal and Genesis were taking on the other dragon that was retreating, being pushed into a defensive stance. The fight was thrilling and Sephiroth could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins as he danced around the monster, cutting it, using more and more openings to finally stab it in the heart and make it fall heavily onto the ground where it twitched one last time before being still.

Genesis meanwhile distracted the monster with swift moves and flips, landing one or two hits. But he wasn't here to kill the behemoth, he still was helping to offer Angeal a good opening that would bring the behemoth crashing down. And they succeeded.

While furiously slashing at the agile red-head and barely missing him from time to time, the beast grew more and more angry and therefor reckless. In the blink of an eye, Angeal leaped into the air, his sword raised above him and only seconds later, it came crashing onto the behemoths head, destroying what armour he might have had there before and successfully splitting its skull in half. One last twitch and it became still on the ground, the blood gushing from the fatal wound onto the soil.

With the three beasts dead they met in front of the giant corpses, panting and bloody, but alive and mostly unharmed. They reeked of foul blood, sweat and guts, but neither of them cared.

The villagers came out of their houses, keeping their distance but staring at them in awe as they went back to the market place. "I propose we leave now," Sephiroth said. The fight had tired them out and they had to check with the doctors to be sure that there was no poisoning or injuries they didn't notice because of the post-battle euphoria.

The others merely nodded, securing their weapons back to where they belonged and trying to get rid of the blood splatters in their faces. At least that was what Genesis tried to do, even though his scrubbing made it look a lot worse than before.

"I really want to get out of these clothes." He sighed only moments later as they subtly tried to escape the overly thankful townspeople that wanted to keep them there for a while longer.*

"Hm, a hot shower sounds very tempting," Angeal added, as they pushed past the people to get to their truck. Eventually they were able to leave but not before they had loaded half the vehicle with presents and food. The clean-up commando would take care of the corpses they had left behind.

"Let's have a party!" the guy who had come with them piped up from somewhere in the background. Sephiroth had almost forgotten about him and didn't honestly think that the guy had contributed significantly to their win, but he nodded anyway, a light, satisfied smile playing around his lips.

Genesis chuckled at that, leaning back and sighing deeply. All he wanted was to rinse off the dirt he was covered in and then… well a party did sound good. "Count me in." He finally said with a grin spreading over his lips.

Angeal shrugged, but nodded anyways. The fight had been quick, but tiring nevertheless and he had never fought a behemoth before. So… a party to celebrate that they had indeed beat them - why not?

The ride home seemed to take even longer than the previous ride and by the time they arrived back at the barracks, Genesis had fallen asleep, even though the truck was shaking like hell.

When they stopped at the parking lot Angeal was busy carrying his own sleepy colleague. Thus it was up to Sephiroth to deal with Genesis. Despite all the blood covering him Genesis did look peaceful what with his being snuggled up against a sac of potatoes the villagers had forced them to take.

"We're back," Sephiroth muttered, shaking the redhead by the shoulder lightly. The sun was slowly going down, illuminating everything in a softly glowing orange and it just looked so...

Mumbling softly the red-head sleepily opened one eye after the other, blinking while he tried to take his surroundings in. Yawning widely, he stretched his body before gracing Sephiroth with his attention.

"Finally!" He beamed happily, getting up from his seat, just a little too fast as black dots danced across his vision. Shaking his head, he looked outside. The sun was setting and it was past 1900 already. "Thanks for waking me."

"Hm, let's go. You're in desperate need for a shower." Sephiroth got up and jumped off the truck to walk into the building. Their uniforms had become stiff with dried blood and they must reek indescribably, judging from the people fleeing out of their way.*

"Charming as ever." Genesis complained but otherwise followed Sephiroth like a good boy for once because he was just right. Even though he couldn't smell it anymore since he had been wearing these clothes too long already, his cultured self was absolutely not amused about his appearance. "Why can't ShinRa have baths? I really want to take a bath now." He continued as they entered their room to gather the stuff they would need for a shower.*

"I would prefer a bath myself... Give me a moment." Sephiroth winked at the redhead and pulled out his sticky phone. "This is Sephiroth. I was wondering if A-137 is in use right now. ... I understand... Excellent." He snapped the phone shut and turned to leave after he had grabbed a robe and a fresh uniform. "Today's your lucky day. Follow me."

Genesis mirrored Sephiroth's actions by grabbing something clean to wear and his baby-blue, super plushy bathrobe before following him. "And what exactly is 'A-137'?" He asked curiously after having caught up with the silver-haired warrior.

"You'll see. It's a surprise," Sephiroth replied mysteriously, as they mounted the elevator. He typed in a code and down they went, underground.

tbc?

Reviews, comments and criticism is always appreciated :)