Disclaimer - I don't own Final Fantasy VII or its characters.

Three Steps forward and One step Back

What the heck am I suppose to do right now? Cloud thought as he and Genesis walked aimlessly around the grand mall. He never dated anyone or gone out with a friend before, so he was pretty much clueless on what he should be doing, especially since he was a "girl" right now. Though from the way Genesis was walking, stiffed and almost military-like, he was probably as clueless as he was.

Maybe Seph was right about this date. The young blond mused, but he refused to admit that his brother was right, because if he admitted defeat, then Sephiroth would make sure that he remembered this lesson for the rest of his life. The thought of the damned smugness his dear brother held when he was right about something angered him.

Without realizing it, he walked straight towards a nearby ice cream shop, followed by a surprised Genesis. If there was one thing that could cool his temper immediately, it would be ice cream. Since he was a kid, whenever he was sad or angry, an ice cream always helped him to become more stable with his emotions. He looked at the wide varieties of flavours, searching for his favourite ones.

'Heh. There are a lot more favours in ice cream than I thought.' His date's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. 'So you like sweet things?'

Remembering that he had company, Cloud flushed ten different shades of red as he muttered embarrassingly, 'Not really, but I could never resist the call of ice cream.'

Genesis smiled at him amusingly as he ordered a cup Banora White Ice Cream, while Cloud took a Green Tea one. The two of them took a table outside the shop and placed their coat over their own chair. Cloud tried vainly once more to untie the scarf around his neck, not wanting to stain the white material.

'Need a little help?' the redhead asked with a sensual smile as he gave a tiny tug on the scarf and the tight knot was released. Cloud blushed deeply as he suddenly realized that Genesis was close, and the hand that had somehow untied the tight knot rested of his neck, caressing his skin.

WHAT IN GAIA'S NAME! Sephiroth thought furiously as his grip on the rolled-up newspaper in his hand tighten as he watched auburn hair stranger touched his little brother rather sexually in his opinion and Cloud didn't even realized he was being hit on added oil in his burning anger. AND HOW THE HELL DID HE GETS THAT KNOT UNDONE!

Behind Sephiroth, one burly teen thought the same thing.

Genesis! You are causing a scene here! Angeal wanted to shout to his friend as he watched the intimate exchange between the two and the jealous looks and murmurs from the crowd around the oblivious couple.

Don't you know the meaning of the word "DISCREET"! Sephiroth and Angeal thought at the same time as they glared at Genesis whose lips were too close to the innocent victim in his arms.

Genesis smirked at blushing girl in front of him. It was fun to see how she reacted to his touches and words, Skye seemed to blush at the smallest things, and she was quite adorable when she did that. As much as he wanted to know how she would react if he kissed her at this instance, he didn't want to scare her away. So he removed his hand from her neck and pulled her chair for her like a good charming gentleman he was.

Skye muttered a small thanks to him as she sat down and he took his seat. Genesis watched the blonde timidly took a small bite on her dessert and a look pure bliss appeared on her face that reminded him a lot of a new-born kitten who had its first taste of milk. He didn't need to ask to know that Skye loved her ice cream.

The thought left him wondering if the Banora White ice cream he ordered tasted like. He took a bite of his own dessert, letting the cold creamy dessert melted in his tongue, tasting the definite sweetness of his favourite apple. He originally thought that it would be too sweet for him to handle, but he was proven wrong, it was delicious.

'I take it that it's to your liking?' Skye asked with a serene smile.

Genesis chuckled lightly as he replied, 'I don't like sweet very much, but I think I'll make this an exception for my dislike for sweet.'

'That makes two of us.' Her comment elicited a small laughter from both of them.

For once in his whole life, Genesis didn't felt like he had to pretend to be a rich kid with an attitude in front of someone other than his friend. Talking with Skye made him felt relaxed and he enjoyed her company almost as much as Angeal's. She acted very differently from the girls at school who as per usual kept bugging with pointless conversations and wanted to date him just for show-off.

In fact, Skye had been the most interesting person he had come across so far in his life and she kept surprising him every single second. He wondered what kind of surprise she would give him next.

'Do you have a dream Skye?' Genesis asked out of the blue after they had eaten half of their ice cream.

'Dream?' the blonde repeated cocking her head at one side like a kitten.

'Yes, a dream. I always want to be an actor or a scriptwriter in my entire life, it's a dream that I take pride in,' the redhead continued passionately. 'I find that pretending to be someone else, to be a hero of different stories, was the only thing that gives me some excitements in my boring life, like it was a drug that I am extremely addicted to. Do you understand?'

Skye looked him dumbfounded for a moment before a serene smile was formed on her lips as she said, 'I do.'

Cloud found himself lost in his childhood memories when he had heard the passion in Genesis' words as he spoke about his dreams. It reminded of himself in a way. It happened right after when Zack left, he got bullied everyday and the only way for him to survive all the unpleasant things that had happened to him was writing.

He found comfort in the words, he found strength in the sentences and he found his passion in the stories he had written. Creating different heroes, who would defend the weak, much like how Zack did. This made him smile as he remembered what the black spiky-hair boy had said in the Halloween party that he would be one day be the hero who would come to his rescue, but he pointed out that Alice of Wonderland didn't have a hero or a prince to come to save her.

Writing became an exit for him to escape the reality of his miserable life and at the same, it became his dream. He wanted to write down what he felt, what he thought about and what he wished, simply everything he had experienced in the form of book characters.

'Becoming a writer is my biggest dream,' Cloud told Genesis as he drew patterns on his melting ice cream. 'At first, I only write to let out my frustration and sadness, but it slowly becomes my dream and my pride. Because I want to create, to give life to my characters, it makes me feel like I am important and that I am not a burden.'

He let out a small laugh as his smile grew sadder as he thought of what happened to him every time he went to school and how the bullies would keep calling him a useless weakling. He had gotten used to it, but it still bothered him at a certain level.

Before Cloud spiralled any further into his dark thoughts, he felt someone's warm hand held his and looked right into the blue eyes of Genesis who regarded him protectively.

Genesis had no idea what took over him to grab Skye's hand. It was like a beastly instinct of his had suddenly awaken or something similar. Seeing the girl with that hurtful expression like she wanted to cry, but she didn't cry. To put it simply, he didn't want to see that expression filled sadness ever again. He wanted to see that smile that was bright as the sun again and wiped away all trace of any painful she still held in her heart.

'I don't know what it feels like to be a burden in people's eyes,' Genesis started, not really sure of himself of what he should be saying to comfort the girl. 'Though I do know that living for what people think instead of you of following your heart is going to be a painful regret. So…' He held her hand more tightly. 'Don't you ever think less of yourself and live for yourself.'

Skye's cheeks were slowly tainted red as she looked away from his eyes to stare at the table. Genesis was kind of glad that she looked away, because he wasn't sure if he had kept a straight face when he said it, since he could feel his own face warming up considerably and he never ever blushed before!

He had spent years in front of the stage, playing different role, support or main characters, for plays or for speech, he didn't get nervous or even blush under the gaze of hundred of audiences. Right now, he was blushing in front of a 16 to 18 year-old girl just for a simple sentence! If Angeal saw him he would bet to his last penny that his friend was going to say that it was very unbecoming of him.

That's very unbecoming of you Genesis. Angeal thought as he watched his friend and his date finished their dessert awkwardly. It was the most unexpected thing that had happened, because the word "blush" and Genesis had never been in the same sentence, but now it did.

Maybe he was more serious about wanting to know her than I thought. The burly teen thought as he quietly followed the two couple at a certain distance. He wasn't sure if he should feel happy or not for the outcome of this date. His uneasiness was shared with one silver-haired man.

WHAT IN HELL'S NAME WAS THAT? A DAMNED CLICHÉ OF ROMANCE IN THE 60'S? Sephiroth thought furiously as he continued stalking his brother and the pedophile, he couldn't find any better word to call that man who was seducing his brother in girl's clothing.

He took a look at his watch and saw that in thirty minutes Cloud must called back, so judging from the way his little brother was reacting to the sexual advancement of the pedophile, he would probably forget to call him. That would be his chance to drag him back home and kept him away from that bastard, after a heavy beating on said bastard of course.

The two stalkers followed the two love-birds to a bookshop. Both of them thought at the same time. Oh shit.

Cloud was inwardly hopping around like a child would do in a candy shop. Books! Mountains of books! For him, a bookstore was the best place in the world. He could let himself drown in stories and knowledge that each book contained. Genesis pretty much shared his enthusiasm over the books as they started searching on their own.

His blue eyes scanned each shelve, looking for a book's title that would catch his eyes and one did. The book was on the top shelve, which was a little too high for him to reach. Sometimes he wondered why his body refused to grow a few more inches, Sephiroth was like what, around 6'1", and he was 5'7". All because of those four stupid inches, he always needed a chair or a small ladder to get something off the top shelves.

Suddenly a hand bit larger than his own plucked the book he tried to reach for and he turned around to see Genesis smiling down at him, at very intimate distance he might add. The redhead handed him the book and he shakily took it as they both put back some spaces between them.

'You're interested in detective stories?' Genesis asked with a sly smirk.

'A little bit. Though I more prefer fantasy and adventurous stories,' Cloud answered as he read the small summary on the back of the book titled "The Dante Club".

'What, no romance?' Genesis teased him.

Cloud blushed slightly. Not that he was not interested in romance novels, he read quite a few in his spare time (more often when he was in his girl form), but it was more of which sort romance he liked that made him uncomfortable. His favourite type of romance novels were the Beauty-and-the-Beast type ones, he found that they had a special charm of their own. Though he stayed away from the Twilight series, the first book gave him a headache to comprehend how the main protagonist's brain work and the whole plot left a rather nasty taste on his tongue. To put it simply, he loved the classical Beauty and the Beast, the oldest and the newest version, and any stories that had a plot similar to it.

He could remember the look Sephiroth gave him when he found those copies of Beauty and the Beast on his shelves, a look that told him that his brother was trying very hard not to laugh and that said that's-cliché-you-hopeless-romantic. Well, cliché or not, he loved them and he swore to Gaia that the next person who dared point it out would find his head on a platter with an apple in his mouth and a candle stuck in each of their ears.

'What about you then?' Cloud asked, deciding that the best way to avoid the question given to him would be to pin it back to the person who started it.

'Alas, I am loveless, my dear friend,' Genesis replied dramatically, taking a theatrical bow. The blond smiled slightly at the redhead, he found it oddly amusing to watch Genesis doing theatrical acts and saying his words lyrically.

'I don't think you are loveless. You are more... lovable, I guess?' Cloud responded hesitantly, not sure if he had chosen the right word to describe the handsome senior in front of him. He had thought of the word "sexy", but he was too embarrassed to say it out loud and he told himself to not lead Genesis to believe that he wanted something more than friendship with him. He really couldn't imagine what might happen if Genesis ever found out that he was a guy, but it would definitely be his worse nightmare. So it was better if he kept playing safe now.

His words only made Genesis laughed, but they were quite a shock for the two stalkers.

'Lovable?' Angeal repeated the word incredulously, nearly dropping the thick book about gardening in his hands. He had heard girls praised Genesis hot, sexy, handsome, prince-charming, anything that could describe his friend as a god-like being, but none of them had ever uttered this one word. 'That's not a word that fit him at all.'

Behind the shelves that Angeal was facing, Sephiroth was gripping a thick dictionary in his hands, trembling in anger at his brother's innocence and obliviousness. Even a blind idiot would notice that the guy he was with was anything, but a lovable innocent man. That guy was going to die at the very minute when this date of theirs was over.

The silver hair man looked down at his watch, to find it working very slowly and he really wanted time to go faster so that he had a reason to go and grab his brother and shook some senses into him. Why can't it be an hour already!

Cloud was glad that what he said wasn't very offensive for Genesis as they paid for their books. He noticed that most of the books that the senior student had brought were mostly different versions of a poem called "Loveless" and some books about a mythical goddess.

'Are you a fan of "Loveless"?' Cloud asked as they continued their seemingly endless stroll in the mall.

'I am devoted to this poem. For I find that it holds a great deal of philosophic knowledge in our life. Whether in the past or the present, scholars still studied "Loveless" to understand its many meanings,' Genesis started dramatically, acting like an actor quoting Shakespeare. Cloud simply smiled as he watched his friend kept going on and on about "Loveless".

'I would like to read this poem one of these days,' Cloud mused when the senior needed to take a breath from his long and rather fast speech. 'It sounds very interesting.'

'How about I lent you one mine?' the older teen suggested. 'I am sure that if you read from the oldest to the newest version of the poem, you'll understand its meaning better.'

'Thanks, how about-' The rest of Cloud's sentence trailed off as he saw who was standing a few feet away from them. Genesis, confused by his reaction, turned around to see what stole his attention from him and when he found the source, his face that was filled with curiosity turned into a deep frown.

WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING HERE? The two of them thought at the same time.

Phew. I finally finish this chapter. I got a lot of writer's blocks these days and college was practically killing me inside out. So please leave me a review as encouragement to continue my stories, they make me happy and they give me a boost on my writings. ;)

Hope you have enjoy this chapter and story so far.