FIC Responsive Part 8
May. 26th, 2006 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljFinal Fantasy VII fic, pre-game, mostly, with a post-AC epilogue.
CloudxSephiroth - and yes that does mean Cloud is topping.
Rating R.
I've been told this might be going too slowly and getting repetitive, is that a problem for anyone here?
Cloud knew that he had to sleep in his barracks that night, but he wasn’t sure how to tell Sephiroth that. On the other hand it had been Sephiroth who suggested he spend a couple of nights there, so he should be understanding. Cloud still had something to keep him occupied, he needed to either have a materia slotted or in contact with his skin to use it at the moment, and the Speed Plus couldn’t really be used slotted until he got it to first level, or while simply held in his hand. So he’d gotten some cloth, thread and needles, and now he was trying to make a sort of bag that would fit against his wrist, with an opening there large enough to allow the materia to rest against his skin and small enough that it wouldn’t fall out. Cloud wanted the cloth to be almost stretched over the materia, so that the buttons wouldn’t slip open, and he planned to back that up by adding ties that would fit across the opening he’d be putting the materia into the bag through. He didn’t expect to get it right the first time, but he was going to make it as secure as possible, and start creating a second bag immediately afterwards. His Speed Plus had improved anyway during the monster hunting, the unstable power levels seeming to come closer to being stable, and a few more forming, like wisps of mist coming together to form those clouds you found in layers. It shouldn’t take more than the morning to do his errands in Midgar, then he could find somewhere deserted and spend the afternoon working with the Speed Plus materia, until he could actually use the undefined energy levels.
“Should I ask, Cloud?” Cloud had been so focused on what he was doing that he hadn’t even noticed Sephiroth arrive.
“I can only use a materia that isn’t in contact with my skin if it’s slotted, and that doesn’t help me learn to use the unstable energy levels. Can you use an unslotted materia from a distance? If you can I’d love to learn how.”
“I...no, I can’t.” Sephiroth shook his head and came to sit beside Cloud, hesitating, then leaning against him. “I never told you about exactly why I had to use an Earth materia unslotted, but...we ran up against a sort of guardian creature, the Wutaians killed all of my command while I was focused on facing it, but it still almost killed me, and for some reason they decided to take me prisoner when I was wounded badly enough to lose consciousness. I’m not sure, but I think I killed that thing as well. They had taken all my weapons away from me, and when I was next aware I was trapped, bound down so that they could interrogate me. I broke the bonds when he started, and managed to grab the Earth materia from one of the interrogator’s bracers as he fled, but I was still injured, so I hid under the table and brought the building down around me.” Cloud didn’t need to hear anything more he reached up and pulled his lover into a kiss, slowly tasting Sephiroth’s mouth. That meant he didn’t know how to use an unslotted materia without skin contact, probably not even how to use an unslotted materia without holding it, but that didn’t matter, not beside the pain Cloud had to have stirred up with his question.
“I didn’t mean to stir up any bad memories.”
“You didn’t. The interrogator didn’t even have a chance to hurt me, just asked a question, I panicked because he triggered a flashback.” Sephiroth shrugged gracefully. “I didn’t even have any trouble when I got back to my camp, apparently my superiors had been told that my loyalty was not to be questioned, although there were some questions from my peers.” He bit his lip, looking cute and uncertain, Cloud wondered absently if he knew what effects his mannerisms had, or if it was something he did unconsciously when he was relaxed. “So, you’re working on a way to hold your materia in contact with your skin without actually holding it in your hand?”
“Yeah, pretty much. If you’d known a way to use an unslotted materia without holding it I’d have asked you to teach me when you had the chance, but...”
“I’ll teach you whatever I can but, truthfully, I think your instincts are good enough that you won’t need much in the way of teaching. Oh, and I got the books you were asking about, yesterday. I’ll show you where I put them now if you want.”
“Just tell me which shelf to look on. I can probably find it myself, while you’re working tomorrow.” Since if he managed to pull anything useful from the Speed Plus materia he planned to try and apply that to the Ice materia, and he was pretty certain that would exhaust him pretty quickly.
“At the right end of the shelf above the desk in my bedroom. They’re sorted in order from the least technical to the most.” Sephiroth tilted his head, hair falling over his shoulder and against Cloud’s face. “Do you mind the deal I made with Zack, about teaching whoever he sponsors this time to use materia better in exchange for him taking you out monster hunting? For that matter how did your hunt today go?”
“Of course I don’t mind the deal. I know you don’t get a chance to go out hunting by yourself often enough to waste it taking care of me. And the hunt with Zack was lots of fun, even if I think I scared my friends a bit. By the way, he took us out to eat afterwards and I found that my class mates think I’ve got a girl, so you can expect him to tease you about that.”
“When he drags me out drinking tomorrow, I know. Will you be in any condition to come with us? I’d like company that isn’t intent on getting me drunk, or drawn to my reputation.”
“Sure, and since I’m just a normal human can I count on you to get me home safely?” Cloud smiled up at his lover, batting his eyes in an exaggeratedly feminine gesture, stopping as soon as he realised he was making his lover uncomfortable. “I won’t be able to sleep here tonight, so let’s enjoy the time we have now.” And he kissed Sephiroth deeply, asserting his control with that simple action. He knew he’d succeeded in calming Sephiroth when he felt his lover’s body relax against him. “Go get undressed and clean yourself up.” He pushed Sephiroth away from him, slapping his ass just hard enough to make a sound. Cloud wasn’t sure what he wanted to do that night, but for once he didn’t really care about what Sephiroth wanted, or would enjoy, and he was feeling a bit lazy as well.
Sephiroth didn’t say anything when he got back from the bathroom, he just stood waiting, eyes cast down, and something in his expression made Cloud realise that in some ways he was caught in an eternal adolescence, at least physically. Or he looked oddly adolescent at least, with the only hair on his body at his groin and under his arms, and that uncertainty on his face despite his height and muscle.
“Come and undress me, slowly.” Cloud leaned back on the couch, giving Sephiroth the minimum of co-operation he needed to do as Cloud had commanded, then snatching at his neck to kiss him. “Go get the oil I use on you.”
Sephiroth obeyed silently, holding it out for Cloud almost expectantly. Cloud took it, and grabbed hold of his wrist, yanking him down to sit beside Cloud on the couch, then tangled a hand in his hair, pulling Sephiroth’s mouth to his nipple. And Sephiroth only needed one hand to support himself, if that, so Cloud reached for the other hand, placing it on his cock.
“Suck my nipples, and stroke me, just don’t make me come yet.” While Sephiroth obeyed his casual order Cloud opened the jar of oil, coating two fingers in it, and shoving them both inside his lover. Later he might feel guilty for doing this to Sephiroth, but...he knew his lover was strong enough to stop him if he wanted, and he didn’t even make a sound in protest. He increased the number of fingers quicker than he usually would, then paused, three fingers still hooked in Sephiroth’s ass, he wasn’t planning to slick himself properly, so perhaps he should...no, this would do. He yanked Sephiroth’s head back away from his body by the hair.
“Enough! Get down on your knees and suck me. Do it well, because I won’t be using any more oil.” Unless Sephiroth actually asked for some more oil, but Cloud didn’t think he would, especially not with the little shiver of excitement he made at that declaration. He knew better than to let Sephiroth suck him for too long, just long enough for him to cover Cloud’s cock in a glistening mix of saliva and precum.
“Good, now get up here and ride me.” Cloud slid a bit further forward on the couch to make that easier for his lover, and Sephiroth obeyed, silently coming to straddle his hips, and reaching behind himself as he settled down, guiding Cloud into himself, making a quiet sound almost of pain, almost, but not quite, and looking like he didn’t know what to do with his hands. Cloud didn’t need to give him any further instructions on how to please Cloud though, because he began moving on top of Cloud, slowly at first, but picking up pace quickly.
“Use one hand to play with your nipples, and jerk off with the other.” Cloud didn’t expect Sephiroth to be the one who came first, but he supposed it was a good thing he did, even if it did mean he had to keep riding Cloud without his own pleasure to distract him, because in his mood he wouldn’t have bothered doing anything else for him.
“Are you okay?” Cloud stroked Sephiroth’s face as he asked the question.
“Oh, yes. Th-thank you Cloud. That was...incredible.” And Sephiroth wasn’t bleeding, so Cloud had to accept that his lover had adored the way he’d been treated.
o0()0o
When he’d mentioned that he needed to get some new clothes Alex and Marius had both insisted on coming with him after they’d all opened their new accounts, with the Midgar-Kennedy Bank. Marius had kept him from getting any extra money from the quartermaster’s by explaining that he already had more cash than the banks would accept at one time, so he wouldn’t have been able to deposit it all today anyway. He’d ended up getting three different outfits, all good enough to wear to a restaurant like the one they’d been to last night, and all things he could mix and match. When he’d tired himself out by pulling a spell that shouldn’t be possible from the Ice materia - not creating ice like the standard spells did, but projecting a field of absolute cold - he’d picked up one of his new outfits and made his way to Sephiroth’s quarters.
The basic text on creating materia slots didn’t have the sort of detail he’d need to create his own, let alone modify the normal slots to let other people see the unstable energy levels, but it was a good overview, and a good way of getting the theory behind the technology in general. A simple guide to creating the slots wouldn’t have given him that after all. He took the book with him to the canteen, but put it aside when Kyu and Lavan came to join him.
“You’re not still studying are you?” Lavan sounded horrified at the very thought. “Alex and Marius already told us how you’ve been getting on at them to train with you.”
“Did they tell you it was for their sake? We might be in the same company, but I doubt we’ll be in the same squad, perhaps not even in the same platoon. And they’ll need to be able to manage against much more experienced soldiers.” Cloud shook his head. “I can, I think I’ve proven that, but they can’t, not yet and they aren’t willing to work to make up for that. Neither of them are as aggressive about training as I am. And one of them’s going to be sponsored by Brigadier Knight, the first regular he has sponsored, just like I’m the first regular Sephiroth’s sponsored, so they have to be able to live up to that.” It worried Cloud. At least it could be argued that Sephiroth was obliged to sponsor him, and even if it did give him something to live up to, that wasn’t the same as a SOLDIER 1st seeking him out to sponsor, which is what Zack’s involvement with Alex or Marius would look like.
“They did say that the brigadier was considering sponsoring one of them. And how unfair it was that only one of them could have the prize.” Kyu’s voice sounded meditative, and he frowned as he considered the matter. “But they also made it sound as if the General was leaning on him to do that, so he could take you out monster hunting with whoever he was sponsoring. Perhaps if that leaked it would make things easier for them?” But probably harder for Cloud, people would be asking what was so special about him that the General was willing to make his second sponsor a newly graduated regular. Still, odds were he could handle it better than Marius or Alex could, he’d see what Sephiroth and Zack said.
“Maybe, but it’s not my decision, I’ll mention it to Zack and Sephiroth this evening.” And since all his class considered him as much Zack’s pet project as the General’s they wouldn’t say anything about that, even though he might have been a bit indiscrete. “Enough about me, have you two decided where you’re going yet?”
“Yeah, I’m going for sniper school. I don’t think I could deal with being an officer.” Kyu hadn’t decided yet, so Cloud managed to divert the conversation into his options until he could leave.
Sephiroth wasn’t back yet, so Cloud took the opportunity to shower alone - even if it would have been more fun with his lover they’d have got distracted, they always did - and dressed in his new clothes; heavy black pants and a dark purple sweater. Then he returned to focusing on the book he’d been reading, since he’d managed to make the bag to hold his Speed Plus yesterday, and it had worked, keeping the materia against his skin even when he did the most vigorous sword kata he knew. And he’d been able to use the materia to increase his speed enough to pull off a couple of moves he couldn’t normally towards the end of his practice, so he knew he could use it even while he was doing something else.
“Hello Sephiroth.” Cloud stood up and greeted his lover with a kiss before pulling back, letting Sephiroth look his fill at him.
“I haven’t seen you wearing anything but a uniform before.” He tilted his head to one side before continuing. “It looks good though.”
“Thanks. I figured you and Zack weren’t going to be in uniform,” SOLDIERs didn’t need that to advertise their connection to ShinRa, it was obvious even if they didn’t want it to be, and certainly Sephiroth didn’t, “was I wrong?”
“It isn’t something I’d thought about.” Sephiroth frowned as he answered the question. “But Zack doesn’t wear his uniform. Do you think it would reduce how many people noticed me if I wore something different?”
“I don’t know, it would depend on how different. Do you have anything different?” Now that he thought of it Cloud hadn’t seen his lover in anything but his uniform or a robe.
“You can take a look in my wardrobe if you want. Pick out whatever you think I should wear while I take a shower?” Sephiroth made it into a question, not a request, with his faint blush and lowered eyes.
“If you trust my taste, sure.” He’d made a point of not looking in his lover’s things too much, since he didn’t want to presume on their intimacy.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Sephiroth looked surprised as he turned and made his way to the bathroom. Cloud went to look for something Sephiroth could wear. Sephiroth had almost as little in the way of civilian clothes as Cloud did, but it was all very high quality mostly leather, with silk as the only other material. He found a pair of dark green leather pants with a matching leather vest. It shouldn’t bother Sephiroth, since he knew his lover was used to wearing far less than that, with the harness he usually wore, and it would be easy enough to separate his shoulder plates from his usual black coat. Sephiroth didn’t say anything about Cloud’s decision, just dressing in his choice of clothes without comment. Then they began working on their current jigsaw while they waited for Zack.
“You two play with jigsaws like children?” Sephiroth flinched ever so slightly at Zack’s mocking tone, and Cloud knew he wouldn’t be able to banter back at the SOLDIER, he’d just been hit in a sensitive spot.
“Just because you’re too hyper to pay the sort of attention needed to enjoy this sort of thing’s no reason to try and spoil it for us Zack.” Sephiroth smiled to hear Cloud say that and stood, reaching down to help Cloud up.
“Never seen you out of uniform before Sephiroth. Looks good on you.” Zack gave Sephiroth an appreciative once over, even though they all knew he was straight. “The kid tell you his classmates think he’s got a girl?”
“Good cover for us don’t you think? Unless you’re saying I look like a girl?” Cloud loved the hint of danger in the General’s voice as he asked that question.
“No, of course not Sephiroth. I just hadn’t thought of it that way.” Zack was stammering as he hastily backtracked, and Cloud resisted the urge to laugh at that. Instead he came up with a practical question, since he’d be the one who had to pull the deception off. Not that he disapproved of the idea, Sephiroth hadn’t realised how dangerous letting their relationship be known could be and Cloud had been the one to insist on taking precautions from the moment he realised they’d probably end up in bed together.
“So, you want me to play along with the idea that I’ve got a girl. And what should I tell them when they ask about her? What she looks like, how she acts, that sort of thing?”
“Partial truths of course. For instance you could mention that my mother was involved in testing for the early stages of the SOLDIER project, and that to some extent Mako eyes are hereditary.”
“They are?” Zack looked and sounded as surprised as Cloud felt to hear that.
“Yes, and the daughters of SOLDIERs have brighter Mako eyes than the sons, don’t ask me why. I think it’s got something to do with the reason women are allowed into any part of the military except SOLDIER.” But he wouldn’t have wanted to go into the details, Cloud could understand that, it would have reminded him too much of his own origins. “Where did you think that new Turk trainee, Reno, got his Mako eyes from? They aren’t bright enough to have come from anything deliberate. But a daughter usually gets Mako eyes almost as bright as her father’s.”
“There aren’t many children of SOLDIERs are there?” If there had been Cloud was sure this would be more widely known.
“Not really. SOLDIERs tend to sire sons more than daughters, and the sons usually try out for SOLDIER themselves when they get old enough, and make it in most of the time, if they don’t get diverted to another group. But we don’t get more than about one every three or four cadet groups, although I think there’s a couple still in the filter units. I looked it up after Dr. Hojo complained about how all the women he tried to have bear my children by artificial insemination kept miscarrying - I thought perhaps it had something to do with the level of enhancement I’ve got.”
“So I mightn’t be able to give my girl kids?” Zack’s question could have sounded insensitive, but Cloud knew that the distraction was what his lover needed, to keep from dwelling on how he was ‘a freak’.
“SOLDIER 1sts have sired children before, but all SOLDIERs are less fertile than normal men. So you have to spend a lot of time trying, that’s all.” Sephiroth smiled at Zack and pulled on his coat. “Shall we go then?”
o0()0o
“You see why I don’t like doing this now don’t you Cloud?” Sephiroth spoke quietly, leaning down to almost whisper in his ear as they settled into the private room Zack had persuaded the bartender to open for them after the tenth time they’d had to fend off one of Sephiroth’s rabid fans in this bar alone. In the last three bars they’d left when the fans got too annoying, but after they were driven from the first bar Cloud had told Zack they weren’t going to more than four bars, and Sephiroth had agreed with him.
“Yes. How often does Zack bully you into doing this?”
“Hey! I don’t bully him. How could I?” Zack sounded outraged at the idea, but Sephiroth had a very faint flush on his cheeks as he replied to Cloud’s words.
“I wouldn’t call it bullying, but this is the fourth time we’ve tried to go out drinking together.”
“And this has happened every time? Zack, perhaps you should take a hint. Doing this doesn’t help him relax at all, it’s just another source of stress, one he puts up with for the sake of your friendship.” Cloud knew he was being cruel, from the distress he could see on Zack’s face, and the shame in Sephiroth’s eyes, but...Zack needed to understand what he was doing to his friend, and Sephiroth was too good at hiding his pain. Besides, Cloud knew that bullying didn’t have to be physical to hurt, even if that was the only thing his lover might recognise as bullying, emotional manipulation worked too, and could hurt more. Like the way Tifa’d bullied him into promising to save her if she ever needed it, or the way she kept him hanging onto her every word, simply because she was the only person who paid any positive attention to him other than his mother, so he’d still done what she wanted even after her father beat him into a coma for trying to protect her.
“Sephiroth, is that true? Am I making you do something you don’t like when we go out like this?” Zack was standing in front of Sephiroth looking distressed and almost penitent while Sephiroth had one hand pressed to his temple, pain in his eyes.
“I like spending time with you, and it is nice to see what you’re like in a more social setting than usual. You...come alive when you’re around a lot of people in a way you don’t when it’s just us. But...I really don’t like the way people come after me if they’ve got an excuse. It isn’t so bad when they’re your friends, and they greet me without fawning on me, but...most people don’t act like that.”
“So...if we disguised you somehow you’d enjoy this more?” Cloud wasn’t sure he liked the way this was going, but he didn’t interfere, he’d already done enough to make Zack wonder about his relationship with Sephiroth and he knew his lover still felt a bit ashamed of his needs.
“I hoped that just not wearing my uniform might help,” Sephiroth lowered his hand, a vaguely helpless look on his face, “but...”
“It’s not different enough. And you’d have to hide your hair for it to work.” Zack had a devious grin on his face as he paused. “Hey, we could dye your hair, and go all the way and dress you up as a girl next time we all go out together. That way Spike can treat you like his girl too, and it’ll help that cover story you came up with.”
“Dye my hair, yes. But are you really crazy enough to think I could pass for a woman?” Sephiroth sounded scornful as he raised a hand to gesture at his eyes. “Even discounting how much brighter my eyes glow than even those of the daughter of a SOLDIER 1st would, I’m too tall and my shoulders are too broad to be mistaken for a woman.” Cloud really didn’t like the grin on Zack’s face as he agreed to let the matter drop, but he’d also seen a hint of longing in Sephiroth’s face when Zack had mentioned dressing up as a woman would let Cloud treat him like his date in public, so he didn’t bother to try and warn Zack off.
They didn’t have time for more than a couple more drinks before Zack got impatient and uncomfortable, soft drinks for Cloud rather than the alcoholic - and sometimes obscenely named - cocktails Zack insisted Sephiroth drink with him.
“We’re not getting anything out of being here we wouldn’t get back in my quarters, are we Sephiroth?”
“Not really, unless you count these overpriced concoctions.” Sephiroth glanced at Cloud before he continued, asking and receiving permission to continue in that exchange of glances. “And there’s things I want to do with Cloud that we can’t do here.”
“Not unless you’ve got an exhibitionist streak. But I don’t.” Of course there were things they could do without Cloud revealing himself, but Sephiroth would have a problem with them because he preferred to focus on pleasing Cloud.
“I...” Sephiroth blushed as he replied, Zack watching in fascination. “if I do it is just a small one. Nothing like the other things I enjoy.”
“I don’t want to know. Shall we agree to set off back then?”
“You could stay back and join up with some of your friends if you wanted to Zack.” Sephiroth made the suggestion casually as he stood up, offering a hand to Cloud as an unthinking courtesy.
“No, think I’ll go visit my girl. She should know...”
“If you’re going to be serious about her, yes, she probably should.” Sephiroth smiled at Zack as they split up, then focused his attention on Cloud. “So, back to my quarters, or were you planning to put in an appearance at your barracks?”
“Of course I’m coming back with you. Don’t be stupid. But first...” They were passing a dark alley and Cloud pulled his lover into it, looking around quickly before pressing his lover up against the wall, kissing him and biting his neck lightly while he opened Sephiroth’s pants and reached down to jerk him off.
“Cl-Cloud. Wait, what about you?” Cloud knew that Sephiroth’s struggles weren’t serious, if they were he’d have thrown Cloud off easily, but they did stop him kissing his lover’s throat.
“You like this, don’t you? Having me push you up against the wall and have my way with you?”
“Y-yes, but-”
“But nothing. I want to do this now, then when we get to your quarters you can focus on me the way I know you like to.” Sephiroth stopped protesting at that, just relaxing and letting Cloud do what he wanted. When he’d climaxed Cloud lifted his hand to Sephiroth’s mouth, letting him lick the seed from it, and then collecting more from Sephiroth’s groin, repeating until he was more or less clean before tucking his lover back into his pants and fastening them up. He didn’t expect Sephiroth to fall to his knees when he stepped back to give him room to move.
“Cloud, please, let me...” He was reaching for Cloud’s groin, carefully, without actually touching him, waiting for permission. Cloud glanced around to check for anyone who could see them, and it was pretty dark here, and besides getting the hair would be the easy part, it was the eyes that were unique and they’d be hidden while Sephiroth did this.
“Go ahead.” And Sephiroth’s mouth was warm and wet, and so very desperate to please him. Cloud grabbed onto his hair and began taking control of what was happening, thrusting hard into his lover’s mouth instead of letting him take his time, since he was in a hurry, they didn’t have the sort of privacy he’d like. From the moans he was making Sephiroth was enjoying this a lot more than Cloud would have expected, the exposure, perhaps humiliation, and the pure dominance Cloud was showing.
“Thank you.” Sephiroth sat back on his heels after tucking Cloud away, looking up at him with a sleepy, satisfied expression in those green, feline eyes of his.
“I think I should be thanking you.” Cloud stroked his lover’s hair once, then reached a hand down to help him to his feet. Needed or not he knew how much his lover appreciated those little courtesies, supporting the illusion that Cloud was the stronger, as well as the more dominant. “We should start on our way back. So, any preferences about the name I give ‘my girl’ when I tell my bunkmates about ‘her’?” He remembered the hints Sephiroth had given him that he might like to pretend to be Cloud’s girl in public, the way he’d suggested that Cloud use facts about Sephiroth to help the deception.
“I...not really.” Sephiroth accepted Cloud’s hand and rose to his feet gracefully, keeping his head bowed while they were still in the alley - although Cloud knew he’d have to play the cold General once people could see them. “But...perhaps we should plan out what you ‘know’ about her when we get back to my quarters, and store it in a password-locked file on my computer?”
“It would probably be safest there. How many people would be willing to go into your rooms, then search your computer? And if I pick the password...”
“Indeed. Despite our association I doubt anyone will have done the necessary research into your background to work out the password very easily.” Since they’d started walking Sephiroth had switched back to acting like the General everyone was so in awe of. “And I believe I know sufficient about programming to set the password to change after three failed attempts, shutting the computer down as well.”
“So I’d need to set a secondary, possibly a tertiary password you mean? This isn’t that important...but can you imagine how frustrating it would be for them to get through all that and just find a mass of notes on an imaginary girl?”
“And I could always say that was why it was on my computer, as a diversionary target of little to no real importance, if the raid on my computer comes from ShinRa sources.” Sephiroth had that faint smile on his face that meant he’d be laughing out loud if he wasn’t so aware of his position.
o0()0o
Cloud figured he’d probably be better off reporting almost first thing the day he was due, even if he didn’t strictly have to report before 1700 and his friends had decided not to report until after lunch. That way if there were any problems he’d have a lot more time to get them sorted out. He’d packed all his gear the previous night, managing to get everything but one training uniform and his dress uniform (which he kept in the supplied garment bag, fastened to the backpack) into one backpack, albeit one almost as big as he was, and delivering his other training uniforms back to supply. That was the other reason he needed to report early, to make sure he’d have time to pick up his new duty uniforms from supply. Duty uniforms were a different colour to the training uniforms of cadets, even though they were the same pattern.
According to his orders he could report to either the admin sergeant or the quartermaster, since both of those functions were very much desk jobs with standard times when they’d be available, and shared an office he could report in to. So, shortly after one of those two sergeants would be starting duty he found himself outside their office, pulling out his orders before knocking on the door.
“Enter.” Cloud walked in and saluted the NCO sitting at the desk. The double stripes of a sergeant told him it was the quartermaster - unless he’d got someone else to fill in for him for some reason. He just ignored the private sitting to one side, presumably to run messages.
“Private Strife reporting for duty sergeant.” Even before he’d started his cadet class they’d all spent a month in the same basic training that standard recruits got, and the sergeants in charge had all made it clear that he wasn’t supposed to call them ‘sir’, they ‘work for a living’.
“At ease Strife.” Cloud slipped to his best approximation of parade rest, SOLDIERs were almost ‘pretty boys’, expected to look good for the public as well as fight, so he’d get a lot better at drill in future, but cadets didn’t get any of that beyond what they had in the first month of basic. “We don’t normally get new privates reporting this early.”
“Getting here early means I can get all the admin done by lunchtime and spend the afternoon training with my squad - or at least that’s what I hoped sergeant.”
“Well, let’s get you sorted out then.” He gave a slow smile of approval as he reached for one of the files out on his desk. “Show me your orders.” He scanned them quickly as Cloud handed them over. “Good. We can put you wherever we need you. Sometimes we get a new guy with orders to go to a specific squad. Third squad of B platoon doesn’t have a medic at the moment. You’re with them.” He signed one of the forms from the file, handing it over to Cloud. “Foster, show him to his squad’s barracks. You can get your new uniforms from Supply, and report to Sergeant Redson at 1300, in the barracks. Read these forms and have them back to me by 1200. Got it?”
“Yes Sergeant Grant.”
“Yes Sergeant Grant.” Cloud saluted at the same time as Foster did, putting his forms and requisition away carefully in one of his backpack’s side pockets, then he turned and waited for Foster to show him the way.
“You’re the one who cast four Ice spells in the display course aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but...it isn’t that special, is it?” Cloud was sure that previous cadets had been able to do the same thing, just because he was the only one in his class to find using materia the easiest part of the course...
“Most of our materia users won’t pull out that many spells in a day, let alone less than five minutes.” There had to be some sort of mistake here; Cloud hadn’t had any problems using his Restore materia to cast a Cure on Lavan and Kyu when they finished the course shortly after noon...that had to be it.
“They probably use higher level spells, and I’m sure you just don’t always see the effects during a battle; how they act outside a battle can’t really be indicative.” Cloud wanted to wince at the scorn he’d unconsciously put into his voice, but he wasn’t going to show weakness, the way Foster did by not trying to refute his scorn, instead he found something else to talk about. “Why did Sergeant Grant think I needed to know that the my squad doesn’t have a medic?”
“I don’t know. I’m in A platoon, first squad. This is where your squad bunks down. Think you can find it alright in future?”
“Yes.” He had been paying attention to where they were going after all. “Thank you.” There were three unoccupied beds, but one of those had an envelope addressed to him lying on top of it and another had a small safe set beside it. He set his gear down by the bed with the envelope on and opened it, reading the message inside. Apparently he was to study under the four other platoon medics for two hours four days a week; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. That would make it harder to see Sephiroth, but the message assured him that his sponsor had been informed of this arrangement, and since they had a weekly leave day on Wednesday as long as they were in Midgar it shouldn’t be a problem to set up some sort of schedule for meetings, barring any unforeseen circumstances. He put the thought aside, and began packing his gear away. Supply wouldn’t be open for another...hour, so he had time to get organised and fill out the forms Sergeant Grant had given him. Hopefully the training with his squad would be hard and long enough that he wouldn’t need to train as much by himself as he normally did since he wouldn’t have the time to do all his normal extracurricular training.
He dropped the forms into Sergeant Grant on his way to supply, carrying his backpack to transport his new uniforms, then once he’d put those away and returned his last training uniform he went for a run until lunch.
When the rest of his squad got back Cloud was sitting on his bed, and he quickly stood, finding the sergeant and saluting him while everyone was picking things up from their lockers.
“Private Strife reporting for duty Sergeant Redson.”
“How’d a runt like you manage to get the General’s sponsorship?”
“By being the first cadet not to drop out after two weeks of sparring with either him or an instructor, sergeant.” Cloud knew that it was possible for a SOLDIER 1st to refuse to sponsor the cadet he’d been focusing on, but Sephiroth’s sense of duty was too strong to do that unless he had very good cause, surely everyone knew that?
“You’re supposed to be good with materia. You’ll have a chance to prove it this afternoon. You’re in team beta, under Corporal Sands. Team obstacle course 2, now!” He raised his voice on the last sentence, and Cloud followed the dark corporal indicated as the leader of his team to a training ground outdoors, moving at a run to keep up with the rest of the squad. He hated it that his team were the last ones through the obstacle course, even though it had been inevitable that he’d hold them back since he wasn’t used to working in a team like this and he didn’t have any practice with this sort of obstacle course, but Corporal Sands didn’t seem too disappointed when he checked their time.
“Just under an hour. Better than I expected. We took just three minutes longer than team gamma,” which was one man down, “and nine minutes longer than team alpha.” Not good enough, not at all, his team had taken 20% longer than the best team to complete the obstacle course. “We never manage to do better than taking 2 minutes longer than team alpha, unless they’re slowed down by a new guy, and you didn’t slow us down anywhere like as much as most former cadets would.” It was nice of him to say that and Cloud smiled at the corporal as they ran to wherever they were supposed to be next.
“You don’t need to try to make me feel better sir. I’ll do my best to improve until I’m not holding you all back.” Corporal Sands didn’t have the chance to say anything in response to that since they reached the gym that apparently was their destination.
“Pair up and start sparring. First one to win a spar can start to spar against me, loser replacing the partner of the next one to win a spar.” Apparently this was standard practice, since everyone else seemed to know what that meant, Corporal Sands took pity on Cloud’s obvious confusion.
“Dylan, spar with Strife.” The other blond had longer hair than usual and Cloud had wondered why almost a quarter of the squad had hair longer than regs allowed. Apparently his curiosity was obvious.
“We’re allowed to grow our hair if we do well enough in the SOLDIER Entrance Exams.” Well enough without actually being accepted for SOLDIER, still, it meant he’d have more of a challenge...
Except that Cloud didn’t really get a challenge, even during his week of leave he’d been sparring almost exclusively with SOLDIER 3rds at least and he was the first to win his spar - nowhere near as fast as he’d won the spar in the display course, but then he wasn’t ready to injure himself to win this time. Sergeant Redstone was more of a challenge, but Cloud still found himself switching off more than anyone else facing five opponents over the two hour session.
“After this week you’ll be facing a SOLDIER 3rd in sparring, the General set it up, and I see why now.”
Then they spent the last hour taking turns to cast as many Ice, Fire or Bolt spells as they could using materia Sergeant Redstone gave out, with the warning that Cloud would be expected to start assigning materia for practice within the month.
Then when they got back to the barracks he tossed a key at Cloud.
“Key to the squad materia safe. I expect you to equip one of the materia whenever you go out hunting with your sponsor.” Should he?
“With Brigadier Knight sir, the General traded teaching his sponsee to use materia better for taking me out hunting with him.”
“Sponsees, he’s taken on both our other newbies.”
o0()0o
CloudxSephiroth - and yes that does mean Cloud is topping.
Rating R.
I've been told this might be going too slowly and getting repetitive, is that a problem for anyone here?
Cloud knew that he had to sleep in his barracks that night, but he wasn’t sure how to tell Sephiroth that. On the other hand it had been Sephiroth who suggested he spend a couple of nights there, so he should be understanding. Cloud still had something to keep him occupied, he needed to either have a materia slotted or in contact with his skin to use it at the moment, and the Speed Plus couldn’t really be used slotted until he got it to first level, or while simply held in his hand. So he’d gotten some cloth, thread and needles, and now he was trying to make a sort of bag that would fit against his wrist, with an opening there large enough to allow the materia to rest against his skin and small enough that it wouldn’t fall out. Cloud wanted the cloth to be almost stretched over the materia, so that the buttons wouldn’t slip open, and he planned to back that up by adding ties that would fit across the opening he’d be putting the materia into the bag through. He didn’t expect to get it right the first time, but he was going to make it as secure as possible, and start creating a second bag immediately afterwards. His Speed Plus had improved anyway during the monster hunting, the unstable power levels seeming to come closer to being stable, and a few more forming, like wisps of mist coming together to form those clouds you found in layers. It shouldn’t take more than the morning to do his errands in Midgar, then he could find somewhere deserted and spend the afternoon working with the Speed Plus materia, until he could actually use the undefined energy levels.
“Should I ask, Cloud?” Cloud had been so focused on what he was doing that he hadn’t even noticed Sephiroth arrive.
“I can only use a materia that isn’t in contact with my skin if it’s slotted, and that doesn’t help me learn to use the unstable energy levels. Can you use an unslotted materia from a distance? If you can I’d love to learn how.”
“I...no, I can’t.” Sephiroth shook his head and came to sit beside Cloud, hesitating, then leaning against him. “I never told you about exactly why I had to use an Earth materia unslotted, but...we ran up against a sort of guardian creature, the Wutaians killed all of my command while I was focused on facing it, but it still almost killed me, and for some reason they decided to take me prisoner when I was wounded badly enough to lose consciousness. I’m not sure, but I think I killed that thing as well. They had taken all my weapons away from me, and when I was next aware I was trapped, bound down so that they could interrogate me. I broke the bonds when he started, and managed to grab the Earth materia from one of the interrogator’s bracers as he fled, but I was still injured, so I hid under the table and brought the building down around me.” Cloud didn’t need to hear anything more he reached up and pulled his lover into a kiss, slowly tasting Sephiroth’s mouth. That meant he didn’t know how to use an unslotted materia without skin contact, probably not even how to use an unslotted materia without holding it, but that didn’t matter, not beside the pain Cloud had to have stirred up with his question.
“I didn’t mean to stir up any bad memories.”
“You didn’t. The interrogator didn’t even have a chance to hurt me, just asked a question, I panicked because he triggered a flashback.” Sephiroth shrugged gracefully. “I didn’t even have any trouble when I got back to my camp, apparently my superiors had been told that my loyalty was not to be questioned, although there were some questions from my peers.” He bit his lip, looking cute and uncertain, Cloud wondered absently if he knew what effects his mannerisms had, or if it was something he did unconsciously when he was relaxed. “So, you’re working on a way to hold your materia in contact with your skin without actually holding it in your hand?”
“Yeah, pretty much. If you’d known a way to use an unslotted materia without holding it I’d have asked you to teach me when you had the chance, but...”
“I’ll teach you whatever I can but, truthfully, I think your instincts are good enough that you won’t need much in the way of teaching. Oh, and I got the books you were asking about, yesterday. I’ll show you where I put them now if you want.”
“Just tell me which shelf to look on. I can probably find it myself, while you’re working tomorrow.” Since if he managed to pull anything useful from the Speed Plus materia he planned to try and apply that to the Ice materia, and he was pretty certain that would exhaust him pretty quickly.
“At the right end of the shelf above the desk in my bedroom. They’re sorted in order from the least technical to the most.” Sephiroth tilted his head, hair falling over his shoulder and against Cloud’s face. “Do you mind the deal I made with Zack, about teaching whoever he sponsors this time to use materia better in exchange for him taking you out monster hunting? For that matter how did your hunt today go?”
“Of course I don’t mind the deal. I know you don’t get a chance to go out hunting by yourself often enough to waste it taking care of me. And the hunt with Zack was lots of fun, even if I think I scared my friends a bit. By the way, he took us out to eat afterwards and I found that my class mates think I’ve got a girl, so you can expect him to tease you about that.”
“When he drags me out drinking tomorrow, I know. Will you be in any condition to come with us? I’d like company that isn’t intent on getting me drunk, or drawn to my reputation.”
“Sure, and since I’m just a normal human can I count on you to get me home safely?” Cloud smiled up at his lover, batting his eyes in an exaggeratedly feminine gesture, stopping as soon as he realised he was making his lover uncomfortable. “I won’t be able to sleep here tonight, so let’s enjoy the time we have now.” And he kissed Sephiroth deeply, asserting his control with that simple action. He knew he’d succeeded in calming Sephiroth when he felt his lover’s body relax against him. “Go get undressed and clean yourself up.” He pushed Sephiroth away from him, slapping his ass just hard enough to make a sound. Cloud wasn’t sure what he wanted to do that night, but for once he didn’t really care about what Sephiroth wanted, or would enjoy, and he was feeling a bit lazy as well.
Sephiroth didn’t say anything when he got back from the bathroom, he just stood waiting, eyes cast down, and something in his expression made Cloud realise that in some ways he was caught in an eternal adolescence, at least physically. Or he looked oddly adolescent at least, with the only hair on his body at his groin and under his arms, and that uncertainty on his face despite his height and muscle.
“Come and undress me, slowly.” Cloud leaned back on the couch, giving Sephiroth the minimum of co-operation he needed to do as Cloud had commanded, then snatching at his neck to kiss him. “Go get the oil I use on you.”
Sephiroth obeyed silently, holding it out for Cloud almost expectantly. Cloud took it, and grabbed hold of his wrist, yanking him down to sit beside Cloud on the couch, then tangled a hand in his hair, pulling Sephiroth’s mouth to his nipple. And Sephiroth only needed one hand to support himself, if that, so Cloud reached for the other hand, placing it on his cock.
“Suck my nipples, and stroke me, just don’t make me come yet.” While Sephiroth obeyed his casual order Cloud opened the jar of oil, coating two fingers in it, and shoving them both inside his lover. Later he might feel guilty for doing this to Sephiroth, but...he knew his lover was strong enough to stop him if he wanted, and he didn’t even make a sound in protest. He increased the number of fingers quicker than he usually would, then paused, three fingers still hooked in Sephiroth’s ass, he wasn’t planning to slick himself properly, so perhaps he should...no, this would do. He yanked Sephiroth’s head back away from his body by the hair.
“Enough! Get down on your knees and suck me. Do it well, because I won’t be using any more oil.” Unless Sephiroth actually asked for some more oil, but Cloud didn’t think he would, especially not with the little shiver of excitement he made at that declaration. He knew better than to let Sephiroth suck him for too long, just long enough for him to cover Cloud’s cock in a glistening mix of saliva and precum.
“Good, now get up here and ride me.” Cloud slid a bit further forward on the couch to make that easier for his lover, and Sephiroth obeyed, silently coming to straddle his hips, and reaching behind himself as he settled down, guiding Cloud into himself, making a quiet sound almost of pain, almost, but not quite, and looking like he didn’t know what to do with his hands. Cloud didn’t need to give him any further instructions on how to please Cloud though, because he began moving on top of Cloud, slowly at first, but picking up pace quickly.
“Use one hand to play with your nipples, and jerk off with the other.” Cloud didn’t expect Sephiroth to be the one who came first, but he supposed it was a good thing he did, even if it did mean he had to keep riding Cloud without his own pleasure to distract him, because in his mood he wouldn’t have bothered doing anything else for him.
“Are you okay?” Cloud stroked Sephiroth’s face as he asked the question.
“Oh, yes. Th-thank you Cloud. That was...incredible.” And Sephiroth wasn’t bleeding, so Cloud had to accept that his lover had adored the way he’d been treated.
When he’d mentioned that he needed to get some new clothes Alex and Marius had both insisted on coming with him after they’d all opened their new accounts, with the Midgar-Kennedy Bank. Marius had kept him from getting any extra money from the quartermaster’s by explaining that he already had more cash than the banks would accept at one time, so he wouldn’t have been able to deposit it all today anyway. He’d ended up getting three different outfits, all good enough to wear to a restaurant like the one they’d been to last night, and all things he could mix and match. When he’d tired himself out by pulling a spell that shouldn’t be possible from the Ice materia - not creating ice like the standard spells did, but projecting a field of absolute cold - he’d picked up one of his new outfits and made his way to Sephiroth’s quarters.
The basic text on creating materia slots didn’t have the sort of detail he’d need to create his own, let alone modify the normal slots to let other people see the unstable energy levels, but it was a good overview, and a good way of getting the theory behind the technology in general. A simple guide to creating the slots wouldn’t have given him that after all. He took the book with him to the canteen, but put it aside when Kyu and Lavan came to join him.
“You’re not still studying are you?” Lavan sounded horrified at the very thought. “Alex and Marius already told us how you’ve been getting on at them to train with you.”
“Did they tell you it was for their sake? We might be in the same company, but I doubt we’ll be in the same squad, perhaps not even in the same platoon. And they’ll need to be able to manage against much more experienced soldiers.” Cloud shook his head. “I can, I think I’ve proven that, but they can’t, not yet and they aren’t willing to work to make up for that. Neither of them are as aggressive about training as I am. And one of them’s going to be sponsored by Brigadier Knight, the first regular he has sponsored, just like I’m the first regular Sephiroth’s sponsored, so they have to be able to live up to that.” It worried Cloud. At least it could be argued that Sephiroth was obliged to sponsor him, and even if it did give him something to live up to, that wasn’t the same as a SOLDIER 1st seeking him out to sponsor, which is what Zack’s involvement with Alex or Marius would look like.
“They did say that the brigadier was considering sponsoring one of them. And how unfair it was that only one of them could have the prize.” Kyu’s voice sounded meditative, and he frowned as he considered the matter. “But they also made it sound as if the General was leaning on him to do that, so he could take you out monster hunting with whoever he was sponsoring. Perhaps if that leaked it would make things easier for them?” But probably harder for Cloud, people would be asking what was so special about him that the General was willing to make his second sponsor a newly graduated regular. Still, odds were he could handle it better than Marius or Alex could, he’d see what Sephiroth and Zack said.
“Maybe, but it’s not my decision, I’ll mention it to Zack and Sephiroth this evening.” And since all his class considered him as much Zack’s pet project as the General’s they wouldn’t say anything about that, even though he might have been a bit indiscrete. “Enough about me, have you two decided where you’re going yet?”
“Yeah, I’m going for sniper school. I don’t think I could deal with being an officer.” Kyu hadn’t decided yet, so Cloud managed to divert the conversation into his options until he could leave.
Sephiroth wasn’t back yet, so Cloud took the opportunity to shower alone - even if it would have been more fun with his lover they’d have got distracted, they always did - and dressed in his new clothes; heavy black pants and a dark purple sweater. Then he returned to focusing on the book he’d been reading, since he’d managed to make the bag to hold his Speed Plus yesterday, and it had worked, keeping the materia against his skin even when he did the most vigorous sword kata he knew. And he’d been able to use the materia to increase his speed enough to pull off a couple of moves he couldn’t normally towards the end of his practice, so he knew he could use it even while he was doing something else.
“Hello Sephiroth.” Cloud stood up and greeted his lover with a kiss before pulling back, letting Sephiroth look his fill at him.
“I haven’t seen you wearing anything but a uniform before.” He tilted his head to one side before continuing. “It looks good though.”
“Thanks. I figured you and Zack weren’t going to be in uniform,” SOLDIERs didn’t need that to advertise their connection to ShinRa, it was obvious even if they didn’t want it to be, and certainly Sephiroth didn’t, “was I wrong?”
“It isn’t something I’d thought about.” Sephiroth frowned as he answered the question. “But Zack doesn’t wear his uniform. Do you think it would reduce how many people noticed me if I wore something different?”
“I don’t know, it would depend on how different. Do you have anything different?” Now that he thought of it Cloud hadn’t seen his lover in anything but his uniform or a robe.
“You can take a look in my wardrobe if you want. Pick out whatever you think I should wear while I take a shower?” Sephiroth made it into a question, not a request, with his faint blush and lowered eyes.
“If you trust my taste, sure.” He’d made a point of not looking in his lover’s things too much, since he didn’t want to presume on their intimacy.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Sephiroth looked surprised as he turned and made his way to the bathroom. Cloud went to look for something Sephiroth could wear. Sephiroth had almost as little in the way of civilian clothes as Cloud did, but it was all very high quality mostly leather, with silk as the only other material. He found a pair of dark green leather pants with a matching leather vest. It shouldn’t bother Sephiroth, since he knew his lover was used to wearing far less than that, with the harness he usually wore, and it would be easy enough to separate his shoulder plates from his usual black coat. Sephiroth didn’t say anything about Cloud’s decision, just dressing in his choice of clothes without comment. Then they began working on their current jigsaw while they waited for Zack.
“You two play with jigsaws like children?” Sephiroth flinched ever so slightly at Zack’s mocking tone, and Cloud knew he wouldn’t be able to banter back at the SOLDIER, he’d just been hit in a sensitive spot.
“Just because you’re too hyper to pay the sort of attention needed to enjoy this sort of thing’s no reason to try and spoil it for us Zack.” Sephiroth smiled to hear Cloud say that and stood, reaching down to help Cloud up.
“Never seen you out of uniform before Sephiroth. Looks good on you.” Zack gave Sephiroth an appreciative once over, even though they all knew he was straight. “The kid tell you his classmates think he’s got a girl?”
“Good cover for us don’t you think? Unless you’re saying I look like a girl?” Cloud loved the hint of danger in the General’s voice as he asked that question.
“No, of course not Sephiroth. I just hadn’t thought of it that way.” Zack was stammering as he hastily backtracked, and Cloud resisted the urge to laugh at that. Instead he came up with a practical question, since he’d be the one who had to pull the deception off. Not that he disapproved of the idea, Sephiroth hadn’t realised how dangerous letting their relationship be known could be and Cloud had been the one to insist on taking precautions from the moment he realised they’d probably end up in bed together.
“So, you want me to play along with the idea that I’ve got a girl. And what should I tell them when they ask about her? What she looks like, how she acts, that sort of thing?”
“Partial truths of course. For instance you could mention that my mother was involved in testing for the early stages of the SOLDIER project, and that to some extent Mako eyes are hereditary.”
“They are?” Zack looked and sounded as surprised as Cloud felt to hear that.
“Yes, and the daughters of SOLDIERs have brighter Mako eyes than the sons, don’t ask me why. I think it’s got something to do with the reason women are allowed into any part of the military except SOLDIER.” But he wouldn’t have wanted to go into the details, Cloud could understand that, it would have reminded him too much of his own origins. “Where did you think that new Turk trainee, Reno, got his Mako eyes from? They aren’t bright enough to have come from anything deliberate. But a daughter usually gets Mako eyes almost as bright as her father’s.”
“There aren’t many children of SOLDIERs are there?” If there had been Cloud was sure this would be more widely known.
“Not really. SOLDIERs tend to sire sons more than daughters, and the sons usually try out for SOLDIER themselves when they get old enough, and make it in most of the time, if they don’t get diverted to another group. But we don’t get more than about one every three or four cadet groups, although I think there’s a couple still in the filter units. I looked it up after Dr. Hojo complained about how all the women he tried to have bear my children by artificial insemination kept miscarrying - I thought perhaps it had something to do with the level of enhancement I’ve got.”
“So I mightn’t be able to give my girl kids?” Zack’s question could have sounded insensitive, but Cloud knew that the distraction was what his lover needed, to keep from dwelling on how he was ‘a freak’.
“SOLDIER 1sts have sired children before, but all SOLDIERs are less fertile than normal men. So you have to spend a lot of time trying, that’s all.” Sephiroth smiled at Zack and pulled on his coat. “Shall we go then?”
“You see why I don’t like doing this now don’t you Cloud?” Sephiroth spoke quietly, leaning down to almost whisper in his ear as they settled into the private room Zack had persuaded the bartender to open for them after the tenth time they’d had to fend off one of Sephiroth’s rabid fans in this bar alone. In the last three bars they’d left when the fans got too annoying, but after they were driven from the first bar Cloud had told Zack they weren’t going to more than four bars, and Sephiroth had agreed with him.
“Yes. How often does Zack bully you into doing this?”
“Hey! I don’t bully him. How could I?” Zack sounded outraged at the idea, but Sephiroth had a very faint flush on his cheeks as he replied to Cloud’s words.
“I wouldn’t call it bullying, but this is the fourth time we’ve tried to go out drinking together.”
“And this has happened every time? Zack, perhaps you should take a hint. Doing this doesn’t help him relax at all, it’s just another source of stress, one he puts up with for the sake of your friendship.” Cloud knew he was being cruel, from the distress he could see on Zack’s face, and the shame in Sephiroth’s eyes, but...Zack needed to understand what he was doing to his friend, and Sephiroth was too good at hiding his pain. Besides, Cloud knew that bullying didn’t have to be physical to hurt, even if that was the only thing his lover might recognise as bullying, emotional manipulation worked too, and could hurt more. Like the way Tifa’d bullied him into promising to save her if she ever needed it, or the way she kept him hanging onto her every word, simply because she was the only person who paid any positive attention to him other than his mother, so he’d still done what she wanted even after her father beat him into a coma for trying to protect her.
“Sephiroth, is that true? Am I making you do something you don’t like when we go out like this?” Zack was standing in front of Sephiroth looking distressed and almost penitent while Sephiroth had one hand pressed to his temple, pain in his eyes.
“I like spending time with you, and it is nice to see what you’re like in a more social setting than usual. You...come alive when you’re around a lot of people in a way you don’t when it’s just us. But...I really don’t like the way people come after me if they’ve got an excuse. It isn’t so bad when they’re your friends, and they greet me without fawning on me, but...most people don’t act like that.”
“So...if we disguised you somehow you’d enjoy this more?” Cloud wasn’t sure he liked the way this was going, but he didn’t interfere, he’d already done enough to make Zack wonder about his relationship with Sephiroth and he knew his lover still felt a bit ashamed of his needs.
“I hoped that just not wearing my uniform might help,” Sephiroth lowered his hand, a vaguely helpless look on his face, “but...”
“It’s not different enough. And you’d have to hide your hair for it to work.” Zack had a devious grin on his face as he paused. “Hey, we could dye your hair, and go all the way and dress you up as a girl next time we all go out together. That way Spike can treat you like his girl too, and it’ll help that cover story you came up with.”
“Dye my hair, yes. But are you really crazy enough to think I could pass for a woman?” Sephiroth sounded scornful as he raised a hand to gesture at his eyes. “Even discounting how much brighter my eyes glow than even those of the daughter of a SOLDIER 1st would, I’m too tall and my shoulders are too broad to be mistaken for a woman.” Cloud really didn’t like the grin on Zack’s face as he agreed to let the matter drop, but he’d also seen a hint of longing in Sephiroth’s face when Zack had mentioned dressing up as a woman would let Cloud treat him like his date in public, so he didn’t bother to try and warn Zack off.
They didn’t have time for more than a couple more drinks before Zack got impatient and uncomfortable, soft drinks for Cloud rather than the alcoholic - and sometimes obscenely named - cocktails Zack insisted Sephiroth drink with him.
“We’re not getting anything out of being here we wouldn’t get back in my quarters, are we Sephiroth?”
“Not really, unless you count these overpriced concoctions.” Sephiroth glanced at Cloud before he continued, asking and receiving permission to continue in that exchange of glances. “And there’s things I want to do with Cloud that we can’t do here.”
“Not unless you’ve got an exhibitionist streak. But I don’t.” Of course there were things they could do without Cloud revealing himself, but Sephiroth would have a problem with them because he preferred to focus on pleasing Cloud.
“I...” Sephiroth blushed as he replied, Zack watching in fascination. “if I do it is just a small one. Nothing like the other things I enjoy.”
“I don’t want to know. Shall we agree to set off back then?”
“You could stay back and join up with some of your friends if you wanted to Zack.” Sephiroth made the suggestion casually as he stood up, offering a hand to Cloud as an unthinking courtesy.
“No, think I’ll go visit my girl. She should know...”
“If you’re going to be serious about her, yes, she probably should.” Sephiroth smiled at Zack as they split up, then focused his attention on Cloud. “So, back to my quarters, or were you planning to put in an appearance at your barracks?”
“Of course I’m coming back with you. Don’t be stupid. But first...” They were passing a dark alley and Cloud pulled his lover into it, looking around quickly before pressing his lover up against the wall, kissing him and biting his neck lightly while he opened Sephiroth’s pants and reached down to jerk him off.
“Cl-Cloud. Wait, what about you?” Cloud knew that Sephiroth’s struggles weren’t serious, if they were he’d have thrown Cloud off easily, but they did stop him kissing his lover’s throat.
“You like this, don’t you? Having me push you up against the wall and have my way with you?”
“Y-yes, but-”
“But nothing. I want to do this now, then when we get to your quarters you can focus on me the way I know you like to.” Sephiroth stopped protesting at that, just relaxing and letting Cloud do what he wanted. When he’d climaxed Cloud lifted his hand to Sephiroth’s mouth, letting him lick the seed from it, and then collecting more from Sephiroth’s groin, repeating until he was more or less clean before tucking his lover back into his pants and fastening them up. He didn’t expect Sephiroth to fall to his knees when he stepped back to give him room to move.
“Cloud, please, let me...” He was reaching for Cloud’s groin, carefully, without actually touching him, waiting for permission. Cloud glanced around to check for anyone who could see them, and it was pretty dark here, and besides getting the hair would be the easy part, it was the eyes that were unique and they’d be hidden while Sephiroth did this.
“Go ahead.” And Sephiroth’s mouth was warm and wet, and so very desperate to please him. Cloud grabbed onto his hair and began taking control of what was happening, thrusting hard into his lover’s mouth instead of letting him take his time, since he was in a hurry, they didn’t have the sort of privacy he’d like. From the moans he was making Sephiroth was enjoying this a lot more than Cloud would have expected, the exposure, perhaps humiliation, and the pure dominance Cloud was showing.
“Thank you.” Sephiroth sat back on his heels after tucking Cloud away, looking up at him with a sleepy, satisfied expression in those green, feline eyes of his.
“I think I should be thanking you.” Cloud stroked his lover’s hair once, then reached a hand down to help him to his feet. Needed or not he knew how much his lover appreciated those little courtesies, supporting the illusion that Cloud was the stronger, as well as the more dominant. “We should start on our way back. So, any preferences about the name I give ‘my girl’ when I tell my bunkmates about ‘her’?” He remembered the hints Sephiroth had given him that he might like to pretend to be Cloud’s girl in public, the way he’d suggested that Cloud use facts about Sephiroth to help the deception.
“I...not really.” Sephiroth accepted Cloud’s hand and rose to his feet gracefully, keeping his head bowed while they were still in the alley - although Cloud knew he’d have to play the cold General once people could see them. “But...perhaps we should plan out what you ‘know’ about her when we get back to my quarters, and store it in a password-locked file on my computer?”
“It would probably be safest there. How many people would be willing to go into your rooms, then search your computer? And if I pick the password...”
“Indeed. Despite our association I doubt anyone will have done the necessary research into your background to work out the password very easily.” Since they’d started walking Sephiroth had switched back to acting like the General everyone was so in awe of. “And I believe I know sufficient about programming to set the password to change after three failed attempts, shutting the computer down as well.”
“So I’d need to set a secondary, possibly a tertiary password you mean? This isn’t that important...but can you imagine how frustrating it would be for them to get through all that and just find a mass of notes on an imaginary girl?”
“And I could always say that was why it was on my computer, as a diversionary target of little to no real importance, if the raid on my computer comes from ShinRa sources.” Sephiroth had that faint smile on his face that meant he’d be laughing out loud if he wasn’t so aware of his position.
Cloud figured he’d probably be better off reporting almost first thing the day he was due, even if he didn’t strictly have to report before 1700 and his friends had decided not to report until after lunch. That way if there were any problems he’d have a lot more time to get them sorted out. He’d packed all his gear the previous night, managing to get everything but one training uniform and his dress uniform (which he kept in the supplied garment bag, fastened to the backpack) into one backpack, albeit one almost as big as he was, and delivering his other training uniforms back to supply. That was the other reason he needed to report early, to make sure he’d have time to pick up his new duty uniforms from supply. Duty uniforms were a different colour to the training uniforms of cadets, even though they were the same pattern.
According to his orders he could report to either the admin sergeant or the quartermaster, since both of those functions were very much desk jobs with standard times when they’d be available, and shared an office he could report in to. So, shortly after one of those two sergeants would be starting duty he found himself outside their office, pulling out his orders before knocking on the door.
“Enter.” Cloud walked in and saluted the NCO sitting at the desk. The double stripes of a sergeant told him it was the quartermaster - unless he’d got someone else to fill in for him for some reason. He just ignored the private sitting to one side, presumably to run messages.
“Private Strife reporting for duty sergeant.” Even before he’d started his cadet class they’d all spent a month in the same basic training that standard recruits got, and the sergeants in charge had all made it clear that he wasn’t supposed to call them ‘sir’, they ‘work for a living’.
“At ease Strife.” Cloud slipped to his best approximation of parade rest, SOLDIERs were almost ‘pretty boys’, expected to look good for the public as well as fight, so he’d get a lot better at drill in future, but cadets didn’t get any of that beyond what they had in the first month of basic. “We don’t normally get new privates reporting this early.”
“Getting here early means I can get all the admin done by lunchtime and spend the afternoon training with my squad - or at least that’s what I hoped sergeant.”
“Well, let’s get you sorted out then.” He gave a slow smile of approval as he reached for one of the files out on his desk. “Show me your orders.” He scanned them quickly as Cloud handed them over. “Good. We can put you wherever we need you. Sometimes we get a new guy with orders to go to a specific squad. Third squad of B platoon doesn’t have a medic at the moment. You’re with them.” He signed one of the forms from the file, handing it over to Cloud. “Foster, show him to his squad’s barracks. You can get your new uniforms from Supply, and report to Sergeant Redson at 1300, in the barracks. Read these forms and have them back to me by 1200. Got it?”
“Yes Sergeant Grant.”
“Yes Sergeant Grant.” Cloud saluted at the same time as Foster did, putting his forms and requisition away carefully in one of his backpack’s side pockets, then he turned and waited for Foster to show him the way.
“You’re the one who cast four Ice spells in the display course aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but...it isn’t that special, is it?” Cloud was sure that previous cadets had been able to do the same thing, just because he was the only one in his class to find using materia the easiest part of the course...
“Most of our materia users won’t pull out that many spells in a day, let alone less than five minutes.” There had to be some sort of mistake here; Cloud hadn’t had any problems using his Restore materia to cast a Cure on Lavan and Kyu when they finished the course shortly after noon...that had to be it.
“They probably use higher level spells, and I’m sure you just don’t always see the effects during a battle; how they act outside a battle can’t really be indicative.” Cloud wanted to wince at the scorn he’d unconsciously put into his voice, but he wasn’t going to show weakness, the way Foster did by not trying to refute his scorn, instead he found something else to talk about. “Why did Sergeant Grant think I needed to know that the my squad doesn’t have a medic?”
“I don’t know. I’m in A platoon, first squad. This is where your squad bunks down. Think you can find it alright in future?”
“Yes.” He had been paying attention to where they were going after all. “Thank you.” There were three unoccupied beds, but one of those had an envelope addressed to him lying on top of it and another had a small safe set beside it. He set his gear down by the bed with the envelope on and opened it, reading the message inside. Apparently he was to study under the four other platoon medics for two hours four days a week; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. That would make it harder to see Sephiroth, but the message assured him that his sponsor had been informed of this arrangement, and since they had a weekly leave day on Wednesday as long as they were in Midgar it shouldn’t be a problem to set up some sort of schedule for meetings, barring any unforeseen circumstances. He put the thought aside, and began packing his gear away. Supply wouldn’t be open for another...hour, so he had time to get organised and fill out the forms Sergeant Grant had given him. Hopefully the training with his squad would be hard and long enough that he wouldn’t need to train as much by himself as he normally did since he wouldn’t have the time to do all his normal extracurricular training.
He dropped the forms into Sergeant Grant on his way to supply, carrying his backpack to transport his new uniforms, then once he’d put those away and returned his last training uniform he went for a run until lunch.
When the rest of his squad got back Cloud was sitting on his bed, and he quickly stood, finding the sergeant and saluting him while everyone was picking things up from their lockers.
“Private Strife reporting for duty Sergeant Redson.”
“How’d a runt like you manage to get the General’s sponsorship?”
“By being the first cadet not to drop out after two weeks of sparring with either him or an instructor, sergeant.” Cloud knew that it was possible for a SOLDIER 1st to refuse to sponsor the cadet he’d been focusing on, but Sephiroth’s sense of duty was too strong to do that unless he had very good cause, surely everyone knew that?
“You’re supposed to be good with materia. You’ll have a chance to prove it this afternoon. You’re in team beta, under Corporal Sands. Team obstacle course 2, now!” He raised his voice on the last sentence, and Cloud followed the dark corporal indicated as the leader of his team to a training ground outdoors, moving at a run to keep up with the rest of the squad. He hated it that his team were the last ones through the obstacle course, even though it had been inevitable that he’d hold them back since he wasn’t used to working in a team like this and he didn’t have any practice with this sort of obstacle course, but Corporal Sands didn’t seem too disappointed when he checked their time.
“Just under an hour. Better than I expected. We took just three minutes longer than team gamma,” which was one man down, “and nine minutes longer than team alpha.” Not good enough, not at all, his team had taken 20% longer than the best team to complete the obstacle course. “We never manage to do better than taking 2 minutes longer than team alpha, unless they’re slowed down by a new guy, and you didn’t slow us down anywhere like as much as most former cadets would.” It was nice of him to say that and Cloud smiled at the corporal as they ran to wherever they were supposed to be next.
“You don’t need to try to make me feel better sir. I’ll do my best to improve until I’m not holding you all back.” Corporal Sands didn’t have the chance to say anything in response to that since they reached the gym that apparently was their destination.
“Pair up and start sparring. First one to win a spar can start to spar against me, loser replacing the partner of the next one to win a spar.” Apparently this was standard practice, since everyone else seemed to know what that meant, Corporal Sands took pity on Cloud’s obvious confusion.
“Dylan, spar with Strife.” The other blond had longer hair than usual and Cloud had wondered why almost a quarter of the squad had hair longer than regs allowed. Apparently his curiosity was obvious.
“We’re allowed to grow our hair if we do well enough in the SOLDIER Entrance Exams.” Well enough without actually being accepted for SOLDIER, still, it meant he’d have more of a challenge...
Except that Cloud didn’t really get a challenge, even during his week of leave he’d been sparring almost exclusively with SOLDIER 3rds at least and he was the first to win his spar - nowhere near as fast as he’d won the spar in the display course, but then he wasn’t ready to injure himself to win this time. Sergeant Redstone was more of a challenge, but Cloud still found himself switching off more than anyone else facing five opponents over the two hour session.
“After this week you’ll be facing a SOLDIER 3rd in sparring, the General set it up, and I see why now.”
Then they spent the last hour taking turns to cast as many Ice, Fire or Bolt spells as they could using materia Sergeant Redstone gave out, with the warning that Cloud would be expected to start assigning materia for practice within the month.
Then when they got back to the barracks he tossed a key at Cloud.
“Key to the squad materia safe. I expect you to equip one of the materia whenever you go out hunting with your sponsor.” Should he?
“With Brigadier Knight sir, the General traded teaching his sponsee to use materia better for taking me out hunting with him.”
“Sponsees, he’s taken on both our other newbies.”
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 05:48 am (UTC)That's definately interesting that Cloud is using the intermediate levels of the materia.
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Date: 2006-05-26 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 05:01 pm (UTC)I doubt that this is going slow at all. Details are very important, and the sad lack of FF7 fics, especially for this pairing, makes detailed, meticulously planned fics like this a jewel to find.
:D Please do continue the way you are now, I really like it.
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Date: 2006-05-26 07:52 pm (UTC)I really like how in this chapter we see some conflict happening between Zack and Sephiroth, in most everything I've read they always get along perfectly and everything is all kittens and roses and blarg.
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Date: 2006-05-27 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-27 10:53 am (UTC)are you kidding??
I'm in HEAVEN. I'm enjoying every sweet sentence of this magnificent ukeroth work.
keep it coming....slowly is fine............
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Date: 2006-05-29 11:58 am (UTC)i think the pace is just fine. the way the story unfolds feels natural to me, and the story itself is really enjoyable. so far it seems pretty simple, but solid. enough that i'm really reading this as much for the plot as for the smut. i'm honestly curious where this story is going.
as for being repetitive... that's a tad harder to say. if i have to give a critic, i'd say that perhaps the way you describe events in this story can use a bit of a polishing. i think the general what, who, where, when, why and how in the story can be made clearer. as it is, i sometimes feel that scenes in this fic rather lack developed personalities, so to say, to distinguish them from one another, that if i don't exert some extra attention they sort of blur together. i suspect that can also give an impression of repetitiveness, even if the fic itself isn't repetitive per se.
well, just my two cents. thanks for writing this story! there's so few serious uke!Seph works out there, and i've really enjoyed reading this. :)
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Date: 2006-05-30 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-31 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-31 04:57 pm (UTC)So, well, all good. And 'sides, it's gotta be difficult pretending all the time, yeah? Zack's their friend, he shouldn't be too obnoxious about it. ...Right?
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Date: 2006-06-01 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-01 10:55 am (UTC)