I need u to help me. Stuck in deathly boring meeting& txting under table. i don't car ewhat excuse u come up with but come to meetingand free me. floor 41 room b. PLS COME, GET ME OUT OF HERE

…Shit, did ShinRa even have Shiva? The class Cloud took where they learned about summons was so many months ago at this point—fuckfuckfuck. He wasn't sure. Genesis mentioned Bahamut that one time, but what kind of magic did he use, anyway?

Ifrit. For sure.

Cloud hightailed it out of the cafeteria, popped into his bunk to grab his materia and bracer, and jogged to the elevator. It was a stupid plan, but it would probably work. He'd done this once or twice before with success.

It's because you've got this innocent kind of face, Zack explained to him once, it's hard to believe you're actually an evil little shit under all that cute.

Cloud could beg to differ about the 'evil' part (and the 'cute,' frankly) but could agree that, yes, ShinRa execs tended to underestimate him. Then he'd waltz away with a hot SOLDIER on his arm—done and done. Ha.

The 41st floor was one of the blander ones he'd been to. Conference room after conference room greeted him. He peeked into the window of room A as he passed by. It looked dull and boring, but there was probably a high-stakes debate playing out past that glass. Nothing in ShinRa was ever as harmless as it seemed.

Outside room B Cloud spent some time mussing up his hair. He yanked on his uniform and pulled it out of place. He unhooked one side of his brown chest straps and let it hang down. Then, for the final touch, he equipped his Fire materia and focused very hard.

It had only been a few weeks since he started learning how to cast magic, but thanks to some extracurricular help from Angeal, who was always a gifted teacher even if magic use was not his specialty, he was starting to get the hang of it.

It took a few tries but eventually Cloud succeeded in lighting his green infantry scarf on fire. He let it burn for a few long seconds before waving it around to put it out. Hopefully the smoke wouldn't set off a fire alarm (although that would succeed in clearing out the meeting. Hmm…). When it was out but still very smoky he readjusted it around his neck, eyes watering. He got into position, and then threw himself at the door.

It opened after some panicked jiggling of the doorknob and Cloud practically fell into the room. There were about ten people seated around a large conference table and a woman speaking up front by a display screen. All eyes turned to him.

"I'm so sorry," Cloud choked, coughing and wiping at his smarting eyes, "It's—Ifrit got loose in the Infantry wing!"

Genesis, who had been leaning back in his chair looking utterly bored, lifted his feet so he swung up and forward. His eyes widened dramatically.

"My god!" gasped a man at the end of the table.

"Two people are in the infirmary already, and Ifrit's just—putting everything on fire and—I'm really sorry for interrupting but I was told to come get Commander Rhapsodos. He's the best with summons currently in the building."

"Who decided to summon Ifrit inside the Tower?" Genesis boomed, standing. He grabbed his rapier, previously resting against the wall behind him.

"I don't remember," Cloud answered, his expression absolutely miserable. He staggered and leant against the wall, coughing again. "I breathed in a lot of smoke before I was able to get up here. Ugh…"

"My apologies, everyone," Genesis said gracefully to the room. He strode out powerfully, his face so dark everyone knew he was about to fuck Ifrit's shit up. Cloud scrambled out too, making sure to shut the door behind him.

They kept up the charade for a good thirty feet or so, until they were out of range of both sight and hearing, and then Genesis tugged off Cloud's still-ashy scarf and threw it to the floor. In the middle of the empty hallway he picked Cloud up and spun him in a joyous circle.

"Ah! The world has a new hero," he cried, and smothered Cloud's face in kisses. "Mwah mwah mwah mwah."

"Stooop." Cloud was laughing though, and put up with it until Genesis set him on his feet. He grabbed his CO's hand and pulled him to the elevator, in case someone poked their heads out of the room to investigate. When they were riding back down they both laughed, Cloud with a hand over his belly because it hurt so much.

"Thank you so much. That meeting was horrendous."

"I can't believe I did that. Do you think they bought it?"

"Who cares? I'm out, aren't I?" Genesis grinned at him and nudged Cloud with his elbow. "It's not common knowledge we're dating you yet. After it is it'll be harder to get away with this sort of thing. Though… I guess we should really let Ifrit out for a minute or two to be safe, no?"

That was a hell of a lot more interesting than the bland cafeteria food he'd been eating before Genesis' text. Cloud followed his boyfriend to one of the SOLDIER floors where he grabbed a red summon materia. (Cloud asked to hold it and Genesis responded not on your life, sweetheart.) Then they went to one of the infantry gyms and snuck into the supplies room in the back, pressing close to the floor to avoid detection. The ceiling was tall enough in the gym for Ifrit to stand, but just barely.

Genesis, on his hands and knees beside a large bin of foam practice swords, gestured at Cloud to stay down. A wicked smile spread over his face.

Cloud would not forget the expressions of absolute horror on his fellow troopers' faces as a giant, pissed-off, mostly-naked, fiery beast suddenly materialized in the middle of their gym. Genesis' warning to Cloud to stay put and out of sight was unnecessary; the blond collapsed on his stomach, laughing too hard to do much of anything at all.

The hallway echoed with screams as troopers fled and curious people from outside peeked in the large double doors and through the glass. Ifrit roared, making the whole floor tremble with it. He picked up a large metal contraption that four people could lift weights on at once and threw it against the wall with a deafening sound.

"Enter stage right," Genesis said grandly, for Cloud's continued amusement. He ran a hand down his blade, magic making it elongate and glow, and ran into the room.

The SOLDIER First made quick work of the summon, and this time no coats were shredded in the process. Ifrit launched a fireball at the man and Genesis brushed it off like it was nothing; it was nearly impossible to use his favorite element against him. After just a few minutes Genesis whittled Ifrit's HP down to nothing, and clutched the tiny red sphere in his fist once again.

Cloud scuttled out of the practice room with his head covered, like he'd taken refuge in there after the original attack.

"Oh, no autographs," Genesis told one trooper, evidently one in his fanclub, "I must be going. I have to return Ifrit to where he belongs. Don't think I won't try my hardest to figure out what fool let him run rampant, though."

Cloud waited impatiently by the door and when Genesis slipped out he asked, shrugging, "Too much?"

"You're always too much."

Rather than go back to return the materia right away they went to Cloud's bunk, because after lunch was his hand-to-hand class. He had to change. Luckily it was empty; Genesis was free to stretch out on Cloud's bed and openly watch as the blond crawled out of his uniform.

"I'll buy you dinner," he declared. "No, I'll make you dinner. …No, I'll buy you dinner." Cloud snorted. "What," Genesis scoffed, "I'm assuming you want to eat this food."

"I do. Especially since I only got to eat a third of my lunch."

"Aw." Genesis managed to look sorry. "Thank you for coming to rescue me."

"You're welcome."

"My brave, smart, handsome infantryman," Genesis flirted, rolling onto his side and holding out a hand. "Don't put that t-shirt on yet. Come over here."

"I only have five minutes before I have to go."

"Even five minutes is glorious time spent with my precious little—"

"Stop." Cloud was laughing again, though, and crawled onto the tiny bed with his boyfriend. He was lucky that he had a bottom bunk and not one that required climbing to get to; that would be a lot less sexy. Genesis cupped both sides of his face and gently pulled him down.

Genesis always kissed long and thorough, taking his time to sample everything his partner had to offer like they were a delicacy, a fancy chocolate with many complex flavors. Cloud's socked toes curled and he gave up propping himself above the other man, easing himself down. Genesis could take his weight.

In the weeks after Cloud got the formal 'invite' to Genesis, Angeal, Zack and Sephiroth's relationship, Zack took it upon himself (because it would be fun, he said) to coach Cloud through boyfriendhood, which really was a chance to gossip about the other three. "You can never just kiss Gen goodbye in the morning or whatever," he'd griped, although Cloud could tell he wasn't really annoyed. "He's always very 'my sweetest dear, I am going to kiss you for five minutes because I fell on my head in the VR room too many times and I constantly forget what you taste like.'"

"I kinda like it though," Cloud quipped. "He's fun to make out with."

"Well, duh."

When Genesis had satisfied himself, and ensured Cloud was satisfied too, he looped his arms around Cloud's back and nuzzled into his hair. "You smell like smoke," he noted.

"I used the materia you guys got me on my birthday to light up the scarf. Went pretty well."

"Mm, good to hear. Is Cure still giving you trouble?"

"Yeah."

"We'll find an evening next week to work on it."

"Okay. Thanks."

They cuddled together on the bed but could only afford about a minute before Genesis gave him a gentle squeeze and prompted, "Get your ass to class."

"Was that you trying to write your own poetry again?"

"Shut up. It was an unintentional rhyme."

Cloud snickered as he pulled on his shirt and his sneakers. They left together, and departed outside the practice room Cloud's class was held in (notably a fair distance from the one Ifrit had been in, and a floor above it).

"Alright. I'm going to go bother Sephiroth with my new free time. I'll see you for dinner? I'll take you out somewhere you like. Want to meet in the lobby at eight?"

"Yeah, okay. I'll see you later."

Cloud smiled stupidly at Genesis until the distant red blob of his coat disappeared around a far corner.

"So I heard you and Genesis had a hot date."

Cloud barely looked up as Zack plopped down beside him on the couch. The food in the carton in his hands was much more interesting. "Uh-huh," he grunted around a mouthful of chicken.

"Hey, don't eat all of that!"

Zack reached in with his chopsticks and Cloud smacked at them with his own. "Get out." They struggled for a bit until Cloud gave in, if only to stop anything from spilling.

"Mm, this is good. How was the food at your date?"

"You get way too big a kick out of saying I went on dates with them."

"You can't blame me. My best friend is dating my boyfriends now. I'm, like, your biggest fan."

"Whatever." Cloud couldn't help but flash a quick smile at Zack; he still felt a bit disbelieving every time he said it too, honestly. "And the food was good. I got a Nibel dish."

Zack's grin wavered. "And did Gen enjoy what he got?"

"Yeah, actually. I think he's developing a taste for it."

"That's…pretty awesome, Spike."

"Yeah. They're changing. Making changes. You know, as they… let me in. It means a lot." Cloud wasn't quite blushing as he admitted that, but he suddenly became very interested in his food.

"And what about us, huh?" Zack's voice was teasing, and he leant sideways until he could lean against Cloud's side.

Cloud snorted. "Nothing's changed between us at all. You ready to start?"

"Hey. That's not true." Zack wrapped both his arms around Cloud and put more weight on the blond, gently squishing him into the cushions. He rubbed his cheek against Cloud's shoulder, all touchy puppylike affection, making the infantryman laugh softly.

"I guess. I couldn't really blow you whenever I felt like it before," Cloud responded simply. He scritched Zack's scalp for a moment before reaching for his game controller again, navigating the menu as his boyfriend lifted his head to look at him properly.

"Was that an offer?"

Cloud snorted. "No. Come on, or I'll start without you."

Predictably, Zack chose the Warrior of Light. Predictably, Cloud harassed him about the decision. Predictably, Cloud won the first fight. Predictably, Zack harshly noogied him afterward before crowing, his mouth full of greasy noodles, "I'll destroy you in the next one!"

Cloud had been wrong, but not by much. Almost nothing had changed at all (at least between he and Zack) after Cloud joined the four SOLDIERs in their rather unconventional relationship. Here they were sprawled out on Zack's couch doing what they'd done together for months before they were boyfriends, after all—that certainly spoke for something. But it was true that some small changes had occurred, too.

At some point Zack shifted so he could lean against Cloud again, not very hard but just a little bit, so they could touch. When Zack pulled a cheap move too many times Cloud nudged the side of Zack's skull with his forehead; Zack grinned and caught him in a quick kiss.

The best part about their relationship, both were sure, was that it was so very similar to what they'd had before. Only good and better things had been added, mostly—like sex (or more sex, rather, because they were intimate twice while only friends, to be fair). Cuddling too, and miserably pressing close underneath Cloud's umbrella out in the greenish rain but being unable to stop giggling, and pulling each other by the hand over giant puddles. Cloud especially liked how Zack was so good at resisting the urge to kiss or touch him in public, because he was good at his job and respectful of public and workplace boundaries, but as soon as they got past a closed door he transformed into the goofy, affectionate man he was coming to—gulp—love. Zack especially liked how Cloud continued to make so much progress with coming out of his shell; seeing him smile so easily with his infantry friends or with their other boyfriends made his heart so warm (and he found the side of Cloud that only he got to see to be entirely charming).

There were some unsavory things too, of course. It had been no secret that they were close before this happened, so some people unfortunately speculated that Zack had cheated on the other three or left them for Cloud. Seeing Cloud, then, with one of the SOLDIER Trio led to confusion. It would be clear enough eventually what the real situation was, Zack knew. Scheduling time for everyone to spend meaningful hours with Cloud one-on-one to really make this fivesome strong was tough too. Zack knew very well that he was much closer to Cloud than the others (not that their bonds weren't strong too—he'd just had months more time to know him better) so he was a gentleman about it, and let Cloud spend most of his evenings with the others.

Transitioning from friends to 'friends with benefits' to boyfriends had been weird and difficult and goddamn hard. Cloud and Zack fought now too, more than they had before, and about bigger things—but even that wasn't the end of the world. Reunion sex is second only to make-up sex Zack had said once; Cloud agreed, though truthfully he had yet to really try the whole 'reunion sex' thing but doubted it surpass the other.

Being friends first gave Zack an interesting perspective that the other three couldn't have. Cloud adored Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal, and that adoration was the same across the board for all four—he didn't like Zack more but liked him different. The friendship between Cloud and the others was strong too, yeah, but Cloud's connection with the three SOLDIERs was mostly romantic while Zack had inverted percentages of both. It was bizarre, and sometimes they both forgot that they even could kiss each other like it didn't even matter, but they remembered often enough.

"I think I'm pretty lucky to be your best-friend-boyfriend," Zack had told Cloud once, as Cloud toweled off his wet hair for him as they stepped out of the shower.

Cloud seemed curious despite his unenthusiastic tone. "Yeah? Why's that?"

Zack had actually put some thought into it. "I think there's a lot less pressure with us, you know? Like, I know you still get a little anxious every time the other three take you out."

"It's—" Cloud protested, stuttering over his words in his haste, "I'm working on it. It's almost gone."

"Spike," Zack said kindly, bending to kiss his frowning mouth. He was so soft and warm from the shower, and smelled so nice... he got momentarily distracted as he kissed him again, one hand coming to rest on his bare hip. One of Cloud's damp spikes, drooping considerably from the weight of the water, nearly poked him in the eye and he remembered what he was going to say. "I'm not teasing you about it, or judging you. It's fine that it is. I know you and the others have been working hard. I just meant that when you're with me, I'm glad that you don't have to worry about any of that. I mean, when I met ya you were this…cute little dork."

"Whatever," Cloud griped, moving away to step into his underwear.

"An angry cute little dork. You took ages to let me in. You've come really far though. But what I meant was, like, I've seen you at, like, your worst, you know? Even though you weren't bad back then. You've puked on me like three times. And I was there when you got in those couple fights in the beginning. I peeked on you dancing to your music in my kitchen too. What's to worry about anymore?"

"Zack," Cloud gasped, frozen on one foot with one leg in his jeans. Zack had promised to stop teasing him about that particular incident after Cloud had enough and beat his ass with the butt of his infantry rifle.

"Aw, I'm serious." Zack pattered across the bathroom and drew Cloud into a damp hug. He was still naked and Cloud let out a puff of amusement against his neck. After a moment his arms slid over the top of Zack's shoulders.

Cloud finally addressed Zack's point directly. "I know. I'm glad too. Sometimes I think that…if I didn't have you—or someone that I was just… absolutely cool with going into it, I wouldn't be able to handle it. Being in a group, and all."

Zack nodded. "It's a lot. And definitely not for everyone. But you're doing okay, though?"

Cloud's arms retracted, wiggling fingers reached for Zack's sides, and the SOLDIER skittered back. "Yeah," Cloud said, putting his head through his t-shirt, "Duh. Of course I am. We're probably late to dinner with them now, by the way."

Right now, on Zack's couch and surrounded by takeout containers and their discarded controllers, Cloud was very much okay. Zack never stopped asking that question all the time, starting when Cloud lost his virginity. It wasn't really necessary, but Cloud desperately appreciated it all the same.

"Weren't we supposed to be at Gen's place fifteen minutes ago?"

Zack nuzzled deeper into Cloud's shirt with a grunt. He claimed he was 'tired' and plopped sideways a short while ago. Cloud resisted at first, taking advantage of Zack's distraction to get his character's HP down but Zack persisted, squashing Cloud with more force until the blond gave in with a laugh and paused the game. One of them or maybe both lightly dozed for a while, curled around the other.

"We're always late. It's not a big deal."

"He and Angeal will be pissed at us. Or, you, since you're always the one that makes us late."

Zack laughed, and his arm around Cloud tightened briefly. "I'm fine. They always forgive me anything, don't they?"

"True." And it was. Zack, like Cloud, had been guilty of a lot of avoidance a couple of months back, though his situation had been a little different, and spanned twice the time. As Zack began to understand that his feelings for Cloud were more than friendly he started pulling away from Cloud, and eventually his lovers too.

Admitting he wanted Cloud meant admitting that he'd compromised the agreement he made with his boyfriends that started this whole mess.

Zack originally explained in very plain terms that his relationship with Cloud was just platonic, and that he wanted to assist Cloud in losing his virginity for Cloud's own sake. The trooper felt intimidated by the thought of sleeping with someone he didn't know (at least for the first time, because then he'd gotten a little…intense afterward) and frustrated with himself because he didn't see his own reasons for wanting a safe and caring partner as important.

So Zack helped. If there had been any doubt in his mind, or the hint of feelings for his grumpy blond friend he wouldn't have done it. There hadn't, and he had. Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth trusted him to tell the truth about his situation with Cloud, and gave Zack's plans their blessing.

But afterward everything had gone to shit, and Zack's efforts to set Cloud up with dates did extremely little to quell the growing affection he felt whenever he saw the teen. He'd gotten scared, and pretended nothing was wrong, even though it was plain to his boyfriends.

"We should go," Cloud said after another few minutes. It was tempting to just go to sleep, but knowing food was sitting out always made him anxious; he had to put it away in the fridge. "Come on. Angeal told me he has a surprise for you."

"Is it dick?"

Snickering, Cloud responded, "I don't think so. I think it's food."

"Well, shit! Why didn't you say so?" Zack was being silly again, but got up nevertheless. The two of them cleaned up and left Zack's place together. Genesis was in the same wing but a few floors up, Elite SOLDIER and all, so it wasn't a long trip. They managed to run into someone Cloud knew on the way though.

The blond almost missed Klarke. He passed in front of the elevator as someone got off on the floor above Zack's. With her departure it was only Zack and Cloud left inside, so he didn't hesitate to thrust his arm out to stop the doors' closing.

"Damon!"

The Second doubled back, confused. His handsome features morphed into surprise when he spotted Cloud there, leaning half out of the elevator. "Hey," Cloud said. It had been an impulsive thing, and now awkwardness threatened to make him let the doors close, but he made himself say, "Sorry, the doors are going to close on me, but—I saw you and wanted to say hi. You've been well?"

"Yeah." Damon tilted his head, frowning. He moved a foot or two to the side and spotted Zack leaning casually against the back of the elevator. The First raised a friendly hand in greeting, and Damon nodded back. "I'm good, Cloud. You?"

"Good, yeah." Cloud nodded earnestly. The elevator doors let out a loud, constant beep, and the doors started to close despite Cloud holding them open. There were rumors that once they closed on an infantryman's ankle like this and severed his foot. It was probably baseless, and functioned to scare the infantry away from exploring too many of the SOLDIER and Exec floors, but Cloud wasn't too enthused about finding out.

"It's great to see you," Cloud said, still nodding. Damon smiled briefly. He had to know that Cloud was now dating the other four—gossip traveled fast among SOLDIERs, though they were pretty fierce about keeping that information within the program. Cloud retracted his hand as the doors continued to close and spoke through the crack, "I'll see you around?"

"Sure!" Damon called back as the doors shut completely.

Cloud's shoulders tensed, and he glanced back at his boyfriend. "Sorry."

Zack shrugged. "Nothin' to be sorry about, man."

The thought of seeing the other three put Damon momentarily out of his mind. When the door to Genesis' apartment opened Zack slouched and grunted, "Yeah, you guys ordered a large pepperoni pizza?"

"Get in here," Genesis replied, and pulled Zack in by the collar of his shirt.

Grinning, Cloud squeezed in past the duo. Zack was getting his thorough hello-kiss and would be preoccupied for a while, probably. It was a relief Genesis did not seem to mind that they were a bit late. Zack was right—while his boyfriends were very much able to get angry at him, he was always forgiven.

The truth was, Cloud had been surprised to discover, even though he'd kind of expected it, was that the other three were indeed mad at Zack.

Or, they had been.

As it became clearer and clearer that Zack was falling for Cloud, Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal all individually felt something like betrayed, as Zack had feared. There were a lot of things they thought—that Zack had lied in the beginning, when he explained that his feelings for Cloud were platonic. That he was leading Cloud on, even, and was planning to cut things off once it became too obvious Cloud returned his affection (luckily they had not thought this was a viable course of action for long). That Zack was thinking of leaving them for Cloud (this train of thought persisted for far too long, and Zack still felt horribly guilty for making them think that he would do that). They also considered what turned out to be the truth; Zack and Cloud indeed had no ulterior motives when they lost Cloud's virginity, and that it was only afterward that things got complicated.

Regardless of what the story was behind how Cloud and Zack grew affectionate it remained that it had happened, and was an issue. They got over it. Once they knew Zack was not about to leave them they reasoned that Zack would want to add to the relationship the kid he was starting to love a little bit, so they invested considerable energy into getting to know Cloud on their own, to see if they could learn to love him a little bit too.

The connection and attraction between them was undeniable and so much greater than anyone had expected, and they forgave Zack all on their own for being dishonest with them about Cloud in the beginning—a crime Zack had never committed.

Zack did not want to talk to the others but knew, after Cloud visited him in his office that one day, that it had to finally happen. Zack sat them down and explained the situation, set it straight. He apologized.

At this point the SOLDIERs were angrier about Zack avoiding them and being so distant. Zack learned undoubtedly that it was not okay to ignore his partners like that. He was always saying that a foursome needed communication—and now that it was due to be a fivesome, even more.

Cloud hadn't escaped cleanly either. Genesis and Angeal were disappointed in him for avoiding them too. He spent every day since trying to prove to them that he was better than that, and that he could handle such a complicated relationship, and that he was worthy of their time.

Sometimes that meant doing things that made him uncomfortable, because he was a quiet person, and he didn't love confrontation. He pushed himself anyway.

"Seph," Cloud breathed as he made it into Genesis' living room, still hopping on one foot as he tugged off his boot. Sephiroth shot him his small, private smile from the couch and Cloud yanked off the boot and quickly made his way over to the General.

Despite the difficulties and rocky start this new era of Cloud's life was stupidly, deliriously, undeniably wonderful. Sephiroth opened his arms for him and Cloud squeezed the man as hard as he could, knowing he couldn't harm him.

Nosing at Cloud's ear, Sephiroth murmured, "I haven't seen you in a long time."

"Two whole weeks," Cloud confirmed, dismayed. He left for a mission a fortnight previous, and on the day he returned Sephiroth left for one of his own. "You just got back?"

"Mm, two hours ago."

"No one told me."

"Genesis thought my presence would be a nice surprise for you."

Cloud twisted around to peer at Genesis, who was laughing at something Zack said. "It is. I'm glad you're here. I missed you."

"And I missed you, my Cloud."

Luckily no one else realized what Sephiroth said to him (or they had enough sense not to adopt it, at least—it embarrassed him sometimes but coming from Sephiroth he didn't mind. If Zack started calling him my Spike Cloud would punch him in the gut). In fact, the others were good about calling him just 'Cloud,' though occasionally they thought it was cute to—

"Come here, pumpkin," Genesis ordered from across the room. "Did you seriously try to sneak past me without a hello?"

Zack was in the kitchen, so Genesis stood alone in the entrance to the room, his arms outstretched. He made several grabby motions with his hands and Cloud just grinned at him.

"You're going to have to come over here. I'm not moving."

Genesis acquiesced, and slid onto the couch beside them. "You were surprised to see this one?" He jerked his head at Sephiroth without looking at him but Cloud didn't worry; they pretended they disliked each other often, for whatever reason. Cloud didn't quite get it, but let them proceed.

"Yeah." Cloud leant against Sephiroth's side with more force for a moment. He raised his voice, "Did you know about this, Zack?" He added after a pause, "And hi, Angeal!"

"Hey!" Angeal called back.

Zack sounded like he had his head in the freezer or a cabinet, coming out muffled. "Maaaaybe!"

"Thanks, Gen."

Cloud stayed still as Genesis leant in to kiss him, making the elder man lean all the way across Sephiroth to get to him, because it was funny. He did it with such flair too, making a big show of sprawling across Sephiroth's lap. One of his hands squeezed the General's thighs.

Genesis did not seem to appreciate Cloud giggling throughout their kiss, and he gave up with a sigh. "You're hopeless. I'm never kissing you again."

Sephiroth looked at Genesis sharply and Cloud nudged him. "He's kidding," he explained. "Don't you know he's kidding?"

Unfortunately Cloud was slated to head out for another mission the next day at lunchtime. "Our luck sucks," he told Sephiroth, not quite scowling but close. Pouting, Angeal would have called it.

"Would you want to spend the night at my place?" Sephiroth asked as he gently took Cloud's hand.

Technically Cloud wasn't supposed to sleep over anywhere except on Saturday nights. He was required to be in his bunk for lights-out, but… "Yeah." Cloud nodded. "I mean, of course."

"I look forward to some time with you," was all Sephiroth said about it until it was time for them to leave, and Cloud tried not to blush.

He left the two of them to cuddle on the couch and wandered into the kitchen. The sink was full of the dishes from whatever the three SOLDIERs had for dinner. Zack and Angeal were seated at the table around some sort of dessert.

"Spike," Zack greeted as Cloud hugged Angeal from behind, leaning over his back. "Ang made some, uh…?"

"It's a cobbler." Angeal held his spoon up over his shoulder for Cloud to try some. Cherry was not Cloud's favorite flavor of anything but it was pretty good; he hummed around his mouthful and dropped a rather sticky kiss to Angeal's cheek. The whole point of coming in here was to verify with Zack whether later tonight would count as 'reunion sex' with Sephiroth or not, because Zack was so particular about his little games (but Cloud ended up playing every time). He decided to just text him about it later.

"Genesis told me how you saved him. Lit that scarf up all on your own?"

"Uh-huh." Cloud glowed under Angeal's proud smile. "I mean, I couldn't do it on the first try or anything, but…"

"Don't do that," he chastised gently. "I think that's a great accomplishment. We'll keep working on your materia together."

Zack winked at him. "Soon you'll be able to summon Ifrit all on your own."

"Yeah right. Have you ever tried a summon?"

His friend's smile grew strained. Angeal grunted, "He did, once, on the field. I had cleanup."

"Yeeeah, well, I'm better with physical materia anyway. Gimme a good leveled Assault Twister over Shiva any day."

When the two men finished their dessert and put away the dishes Cloud graciously washed the three went back to join the other two. They were still where Cloud left them, scooped up together on the couch. Sephiroth's head rested on Genesis' shoulder. He must have been truly tired to show his exhaustion like that. It took some time for them to lower their guards that much around him, but—here he was.

They only had a couple hours late in this evening to spend together as a group. It was rare that they could all hang out like this, and everyone seemed just as happy as Cloud. The infantryman looked around at all of them, and knew that despite the difficulties it took to get to where he was now, it was worth all the effort. How could it not be?

"Hey, Cloud?" Zack asked a short while later. "I was thinkin' about something. Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Shoot."

"It's just—when you saw Klarke again, it popped into my head. I know you're happy with us now and stuff, don't get me wrong. I just remember all the fun you had before when you were, uh, not dating us. With your infantry friends and stuff. Do you ever feel like you miss all that?"

Cloud frowned, and Zack said hastily, "You don't have to answer that—that was kind of nosy. Sorry."

"No, it's fine." He just needed to think. Zack wanted to know if he missed the casual sex. "Honestly?"

"Yeah." Zack nodded encouragingly. To Cloud's surprise the other three were watching too. Genesis even peeked over the top of his book to study him.

"Sometimes, yeah," he admitted.

Nobody looked disapproving, just innocently curious. Zack met his gaze evenly.

"You're right—it was a lot of fun," Cloud continued. "And really easy, no stress. A lot of people in the infantry sleep around, and I was just… one of them, you know? It felt great to be part of the group. I liked doing that stuff with my friends, getting close to them that way. But I still have a lot of friends in the infantry now, even if I don't have sex with any of them. And…" He offered a slightly awkward smile. Every one of his boyfriends reflected one back at him.

"Now I have the opportunity to get close to you four instead, and that's even better."

This fic originally was just an excuse for me to finally and seriously try my hand at writing some smut, but it grew into something that I really loved writing every week. Seriously, thank you, everyone, for all the encouragement. It was tough at times and for a while I could hardly bring myself to type the word 'cock,' etc but I think I learned a lot from everyone's feedback and grew as a writer from the experience. Thanks again. Stay tuned for an epilogue.