FIC Responsive Part 16
Sep. 6th, 2006 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljResponsive Part 16
Final Fantasy VII fic, pre-game, mostly, with a post-AC epilogue.
CloudxSephiroth - and yes that does mean Cloud is topping.
Rating R.
Captain Morgan put a hand on Cloud’s arm to hold him back for a moment as the rest of his squad left the helicopter, apparently so he could speak to him with a degree of privacy. “Strife, I’ll be recommending that you be officially promoted to medic. You should know if you will be promoted by the end of the month.”
“Thank you sir.” Cloud knew that his surprise was showing, he’d messed up with the one time the captain might have seen his skills as a medic in action. He hoped this wasn’t some sort of ploy to curry favour with Sephiroth, but there was no way he could know.
“You made a good call in giving most of the Potions to your squad, and you did good on just getting Newton moving while we were fighting. You screwed up at a point where it wasn’t dangerous for you to do that, and besides, you need to be a medic to get the training you need in how to fight properly with materia. Now go catch up with your squad.”
“Yes sir.” Cloud saluted quickly and ran to catch the others. Sergeant Redson had them waiting for him, an odd look on his face.
“Everyone back to barracks, and wait there until I report in for us.” Cloud walked beside Dylan, finding out what he wanted to look for in a materia slot, and explaining why the cheap ones weren’t that much good.
“Why did you suggest a Fire materia for me?”
“A couple of reasons, first the same reason ShinRa has us train on it, it’s one of the three cheapest magic materia, along with Ice and Lightning. And you’re better with the Fire materia than with Ice or Lightning. You’ve got that in common with the General you know, Fire’s his best materia too, except it goes a lot further than just getting better results from the Fire materia with him.”
“Really?” Dylan sounded excited and astounded. “How much further? And...do you think it’s a good sign?”
“Yes really, I can’t tell you how much further and yes and no. It’s a good sign that you have a materia you work best with, and it doesn’t make a difference that it’s the same as Sephiroth’s. All SOLDIERs have a materia they work best with, Zack’s for example is Mystify. Mine’s Ice.” At least Ice was the best of the materia he’d tried so far, that didn’t necessarily mean it was the best materia of all for him any more than Dylan’s best materia was necessarily the best of all for him. But he was certain that none of the healing materia were his best option, one more piece of evidence for him that he shouldn’t be a medic, even if no one else would see it that way.
When they got to the barracks Cloud began to unpack his things, putting his dirty uniforms into a pile on his bed, and repacking his bag with some of his civilian clothes in the hope of getting that leave Dylan had mentioned. If he did get leave he planned to spend as much of it as he could with Sephiroth, and that meant taking clothes with him so he wasn’t constantly visiting his barracks if possible.
“Right, you’ve all got four days leave, report back on Thursday. Strife, stay behind.”
“Dylan, I’ll meet you outside the quartermaster’s office in an hour, okay?”
“Sure.” Cloud waited for everyone to leave as he moved a bit closer to Sergeant Redson.
“Traditionally the medic serves the whole squad, but he’s attached to one team. Do you want to stay with team beta if you get your promotion, or would you rather work with another team?” He wasn’t being given much time to think about it was he? But Cloud’s decision was still pretty easy, he knew his team best, and the rest of the squad weren’t as familiar to him.
“Team beta please, if I get promoted.” Cloud was pretty sure he didn’t actually deserve to be promoted, but he wouldn’t fight it if he was.
“I see.” Cloud thought he detected a hint of approval in Sergeant Redson’s voice, but he might have been mistaken. “There was an urgent note for you, from the General.”
“Thank you sir.” Cloud took the note from him, but he didn’t open it, implying that he couldn’t in front of him and the sergeant took the hint.
“Oh, and good job with Newton. Dismissed.” Cloud saluted and began making his way to Sephiroth’s quarters, accepting his sergeant’s praise, but mentally dismissing it, because he thought he could have, should have done better, and vowing to do better next time. He opened the note as he walked, holding it carefully so no one else would be able to see it easily.
‘Cloud,
‘I want a full report on every use you made of materia during your mission. If you need the privacy and quiet for concentration feel free to write your report in my quarters, but deliver it to me by the 19th.
‘Sephiroth.’
Cloud laughed a little at that, his lover had come up with the perfect cover for his visits to his quarters, and he could make sure Sephiroth knew about his new application of the standard Ice spell and its official origin. And he’d told Cloud what the date was without making him feel stupid by explicitly stating it; since they had four days leave and they were expected to report on Thursday it had to be either Saturday or Sunday today, and if Thursday was the 19th of November it had to be either the 14th or the 15th today.
He went to Sephiroth’s quarters, as suggested, and got a start on writing up how he’d used materia during the mission, explaining how he’d managed to catch three deer within one Ice spell, and then how he’d frozen the meat to store it without it going off. He made sure to mention how the ambient temperature helped with that, since it had been fairly cold in the mountains, if not cold enough for ice or snow to occur naturally, and then he didn’t have time to write anything else.
He wasn’t late for his meeting with Dylan, but the other man was just coming out of the quartermaster’s office, stuffing a wad of gil in his pocket as he walked.
“I got two thousand gil out, that should be enough, shouldn’t it?”
“Probably. Did you have any problems getting the money out? Zack said ShinRa can be a bit iffy about giving more than a certain amount in cash out at any one time, but he didn’t specify the limits.”
“No, no problems, not after a month when I couldn’t spend any money at all.”
“Right.” That could cause problems for him then, since he’d had three thousand gil transferred out of his account, but on the other hand he hadn’t really been spending more than he had as a cadet since joining the 3rd Sword. He shrugged mentally and walked into the office, getting the thousand gil he needed without too much trouble.
“Where do we go then?”
“It’s a place I saw in Sector 6 when I was hunting once. Under the Plate.” He didn’t really have a problem with going under the Plate, as long as he was armed, but he wasn’t as comfortable there as the rest of the squad were, he didn’t like all the resentful looks he got for being a ShinRa employee. He knew he should just ignore them the way everyone else did, but they made him feel guilty and he didn’t like that, he could cope with being attacked better, if anyone had ever dared attack him under the Plate.
“That’s why you’re carrying your sword then. Should I get mine too?”
“Depends how good you are without one. I’m too small to be much good without a weapon.” He sparred against SOLDIER 3rds when it came to swordwork, but he knew that he didn’t have the strength to excel in unarmed combat, and he was just too young to have the muscle he needed for that yet.
“I think I can do without one, besides I don’t need to provoke them.” Cloud shrugged and they made their way to the train together.
“You got any more plans for leave, besides getting your hands on a materia of your own and something to use it in?”
“Not really. I’ll probably just get drunk and laid like everyone else does on leave. I know you’re getting laid.” Cloud wasn’t sure what to say to that, but he could bitch about the extra assignment Sephiroth had given him.
“If I have time. The General’s decided he wants a full report on how I used materia during our mission, by Thursday.”
“It can’t take that long can it? You didn’t have to heal anyone until the final raid, and you didn’t cast that many spells then, did you?”
“More than you seem to think, but you’re right, it won’t take too long. I just didn’t expect to have to do a report during my leave. Sephiroth’s got enough reports to read normally anyway, why’d he want another one?”
“Because he’s your sponsor.” As if it was the most natural thing in the world. Cloud didn’t say anything else until they had to get off and he led Dylan through Sector 6 until he found the shop he remembered.
“Here it is. If you want I’ll look through the materia while you pick up whatever you think will work best when you want to use it.”
“Thanks. You said you’d get me a Fire materia, do you think I’d be allowed to use it in materia training?”
“I can’t imagine why not.” He hadn’t used his Ice materia because it was already mastered, so he didn’t need to mature it, but he’d like to be able to use the time to improve his new Lightning materia if he could. He walked over to the counter and demanded to inspect the first level Fire and Lightning materia, running his fingers over the arrayed orbs and selecting the most mature of each type.
“That’ll be seven hundred and fifty gil each.”
“Dylan, have you decided what you want yet?”
“What do you think of this?” Dylan held out an armband of black leather with a single materia slot. Cloud took hold of it, checking the leather’s quality - nice and sturdy, then put it on, fitting his Speed Plus materia into it.
“About the same quality as ShinRa issue.” The price tag was five hundred gil and he put it on the counter with the materia. “How about you give us a little discount since we’re buying these together, say one thousand six hundred total?”
“No. I’ll give you a discount to one thousand eight hundred total, but no more.”
“Agreed.” Cloud handed over six hundred and fifty gil and Dylan paid the other one thousand one hundred and fifty, then they went to eat in the canteen together.
o0()0o
Cloud left the finished report lying on the desk he’d written it on and stretched, moving through to Sephiroth’s kitchen to see if there was anything he could use there.
‘I had the fridge and cupboards stocked recently, feel free to use whatever you can find here.’ Before he’d left on his mission Sephiroth’s kitchen had been almost empty of food, looking around there was enough for him to prepare a simple meal and he made himself some sandwiches. Sephiroth wouldn’t be back before six at the earliest, Cloud had time to shower after he’d eaten. and even though he was tempted to prepare something for his lover he decided against it, because he couldn’t be certain Sephiroth wouldn’t have eaten already.
He’d finished showering, washing his hair properly for the first time in weeks, and he was busy drying it when Sephiroth arrived, putting the towel to one side as he stood to greet his lover.
“How did your mission go Cloud?” Sephiroth didn’t ask until after Cloud had finished kissing him, but it still seemed a slightly odd thing to ask when Cloud knew there’d been a report written. “I mean for you personally.”
“Pretty boring mostly. I didn’t realise training as a medic would mean I’d end up being kept from anything too dangerous.”
“It doesn’t, not always, it depends on the situation, in this case there must have been more benefit to having the only medic kept out of combat, ready to heal than having another body in the fighting.”
“Yeah, I understand that, it just bugs me a bit. By the way, it was a very good idea of yours to ask for a report on how I used materia during the mission, because I used the Ice spell in some pretty weird ways; my report explains what I came up with to cover for it, and it gave me a great excuse to be here.”
“Zack suggested it actually.” Sephiroth was blushing faintly, and he kept his eyes cast down as Cloud pulled him to sit down. “We’re lucky, I get one of my rare days off on Monday, so I can spend it with you.” On Monday, not tomorrow, implying that today was Saturday, and Cloud normally had lessons in using materia on the Saturday before he went hunting with Zack.
“Are we supposed to be working with Alex and Marius on using materia unslotted this evening?”
“No. I managed one session with the two of them, and I think I scared them off, besides which I just couldn’t deal with how hard they seem to find it to learn the things you master so quickly.” That emphasis was a bit odd to Cloud, and he had to ask.
“So you’re judging us all against how quickly you learned this?” He hoped Sephiroth would recognise the absurdity of what he was implying.
“No. I told you that no one taught me this, I learned by myself, slowly. I suppose if anything I’m judging you against the SOLDIERs I’ve taught - you come out better than my previous pupils, and your friends come out decidedly worse.”
“Thanks. Do you think Captain Morgan is recommending my promotion as an attempt to curry favour with you?”
“Possibly. That isn’t directly my decision, but it isn’t a mostly objective test the way Zack’s testing for higher rank was. If I am asked about your skills I will report the facts, without drawing any conclusions.” And since it was a matter of record that the General had been tutoring Cloud, Alex and Marius in using materia unslotted he could be asked, although...
“They’d have to place more weight on what the other squad’s medics and Dr. Alexander said about my skills, wouldn’t they?” Cloud found himself running his hands through Sephiroth’s hair without really thinking about it, and finding it calming enough for him to let go of something he couldn’t affect.
“Hopefully. But one of the reasons I wanted you to get promoted quickly doesn’t apply any more. Remember that program the head armourer was pushing through for SOLDIERs and medics?”
“About how to maintain materia slots? Did you come to an agreement with him about your own lessons?”
“I arranged for him to see that exam I had you do, and he offered a compromise...he’ll teach me in private as long as you’re there as well, and as long as he’s allowed to push you as fast as you can go.” Cloud had to laugh at that.
“As if you’d need to hold me back.” It was sweet of Sephiroth to pretend to doubt his own ability like that, but unless the practical side of dealing with materia slots required using small, highly controlled flows of energy there was no way that Cloud would learn faster than Sephiroth would. “All I’ve got over you’s theory, if that.”
“You might have a point, but I’m not sure that the practical won’t be dependent on knowing the theory, and I haven’t studied that as much as you have. Either way our usual lessons will be on Fridays, 1800 until 2100, starting this Friday, but we have an hour long introductory lesson on Tuesday at 1800.” Cloud was surprised how quickly the lessons seemed to have been set up, but he didn’t say anything about it, wrapping his arms around his lover’s neck instead.
“Did you finish that book I said you could read?”
“Yes, it was very informative. But I’m not sure how much of it we should apply to our relationship.”
“However much we feel comfortable with.” Cloud kissed Sephiroth again, sliding his hands underneath Sephiroth’s long coat to run them across his muscles.
“Mmm. It’s been too long Cloud, what would you have of me?” That was a bit odd, but Cloud didn’t care, and he wasn’t really up to any of the games Sephiroth usually wanted to play anyway.
“I want something slow, and relaxed. You can start by giving me a massage.” He stood up, pulling Sephiroth to his feet as well. “Go and get cleaned up, I’ll be waiting on the bed.” Cloud picked the towel he’d been using earlier up and carried it through to the bedroom where he hung his robe up and sat on the bed to dry his hair some more while he was waiting for Sephiroth, after checking that the massage oil was in a convenient place, both jars placed together.
When Sephiroth arrived Cloud put the towel down and lay on his stomach, enjoying the way his lover was pampering him to the fullest, making little sounds of pleasure as strong, skilled hands found tensions he didn’t normally notice and eased them out. Then the massage turned sensual, the nature of the pressures changing, arousing him even more than just feeling his lover’s touch did and the first time Sephiroth paused for long enough Cloud rolled over and pulled him down to lie beside him. Sephiroth had put his hair up in a sort of knot, held together by four metal rods to keep it out of the way while he showered, and it was just starting to come loose, letting wisps of hair fall into his face. Cloud smiled at the sight and reached to pull the rods out, running his fingers through his lover’s hair until it fell freely.
“Your hair is incredible, I can’t imagine doing all the work it would take to keep hair like this in such great condition. Especially during a war.”
“I sometimes wished I was allowed to cut it, but at the same time...” It was one of Sephiroth’s few good childhood memories, Cloud knew that, although the idea that his lover simply wasn’t permitted to make such a personal decision for himself bothered him. He pushed the thought from his mind and pulled Sephiroth’s face to his for a kiss.
Sephiroth made a small sound into Cloud’s mouth and wrapped his arms around him, shutting his eyes and relaxing in obvious pleasure. Cloud loved the way Sephiroth always yielded to him, every time they kissed, even if it did sometimes bother him that someone so much better than him wanted to submit so badly. He ran his fingers down Sephiroth’s back, enjoying the quiet moan he made into Cloud’s mouth and rolled them until he was lying on top of his lover before pulling back, slowly, grabbing the oil he used to ease his way inside Sephiroth and nudging his legs open.
“Cloud...” It was half a plea and half a protest as Cloud settled between Sephiroth’s legs and bent to take him into his mouth while he stretched him. Cloud sighed and stopped, moving so that his own groin was convenient for Sephiroth to pleasure him while he worked, and then began to slowly prepare his lover.
“On your side love.” Cloud curled up behind Sephiroth, kissing his shoulder blade almost absently as he slid inside him, wrapping an arm around his waist to play with him gently. This was the best position for when he wanted it slow, he couldn’t get enough leverage to thrust hard and Sephiroth couldn’t get the leverage to move swiftly either. He just enjoyed the scent of Sephiroth’s hair as he moved, building slowly to near-simultaneous climaxes. Then, when he pulled out he turned Sephiroth in his arms, so he could kiss him again.
“Would you like to shower with me and do some more of whatever jigsaw you’ve got going together?”
“No. I could do jigsaws by myself, I couldn’t have anyone but you hold me like this, please, can we stay here?”
“If that’s what you want love.” Cloud kissed Sephiroth again, and nudged him to move a bit so they weren’t lying in the wet spot. He spent the rest of the time until he fell asleep just running his hands over his lover’s body and relaxing with him.
o0()0o
Cloud wanted to glare at Zack for interrupting his time with Sephiroth, the one day his lover had managed to get off while he was on leave and Zack had to come and take over Sephiroth’s quarters. But...Sephiroth had smiled faintly when Zack arrived, and even though Zack had had Sephiroth to himself while Cloud had been away he knew that if Sephiroth spent his entire day of leave holed up with Cloud Zack would feel jealous, and people might wonder. And even though they’d planned for a spar later on, so that Sephiroth could assess his progress, that might not be enough to keep people from asking questions.
“Do you two normally go out somewhere when you’ve both got leave?” He addressed the question to both men equally, and it was Zack who answered.
“Yeah. We either go hunting, or I drag Sephiroth out for a meal, or to go shopping. And speaking of shopping...I found this shop you two just have to come and see, since I know you’re both kinky.”
“He saw one of the books I told you to get.” Sephiroth responded to Cloud’s questioning glance calmly. “It’s been impossible to convince him that I could be reading it purely for the information, without intending to put it to use.”
“Should I ask which book it was?” Cloud made a point of glancing down submissively, since he was pretty sure Zack was still assuming Sephiroth was in charge.
“The one I was reading at the time.” A double message there, Sephiroth’s curt words made it seem as if he just didn’t want his submissive prying into the matter, telling Cloud that Zack had assumed his lover was dominant, and there was only one book Cloud had cleared for Sephiroth to read so far.
“Of course. So, are we going to go visit that shop?” He kept his voice neutral, so he wouldn’t influence his lover one way or the other, but he looked at Sephiroth, not Zack.
“Come on Sephiroth, it’ll be fun. You might get some ideas or pick up some new toys.”
“Very well Zack, if you can work out how to avoid my fans.”
“You could dress differently, and use that hair dye I got, perhaps braid your hair back too.” Cloud spoke absently, watching how Zack reacted more than his lover’s response.
“And I’ve got a pair of tinted glasses, they’ll hide your eyes.”
“Then you choose something sufficiently different that I am unlikely to be recognised Cloud. And...do you think I really need all four of those packets of dye?” Sephiroth glanced back as he reached the door to the bathroom, waiting for an answer.
“Yes, what with how long and thick your hair is.” Sephiroth just nodded at that, and Cloud moved to his bedroom where he could begin looking through his clothes.
“What are you planning to put him in?” Cloud hadn’t noticed Zack following him into the bedroom until he spoke from over Cloud’s shoulder.
“He’s got silk shirts in his wardrobe that he never wears, and I think this one will work.” It was probably a little oversized, and the colour almost matched the veins on the inside of Sephiroth’s wrist. “And then a pair of leather pants and boots, but the main thing is that he doesn’t wear that coat of his.” He was sure he’d seen... “There, I thought he had a different coat hidden somewhere.” Cloud pulled out a simple black leather jacket, since it was halfway through November and it would look odd for Sephiroth to be walking about without at least a jacket on.
“I didn’t know he had all these clothes, he never wears them.” Zack sounded surprised, not that Cloud could blame him for that.
“I don’t think it occurs to him that he should. I gather they’re delivered for him every so often and he just leaves them here and forgets about them.” Cloud shrugged as he spoke. “He’s usually on duty anyway isn’t he? And I don’t think he really understands why people wear clothes other than for protection from the elements, or as armour.”
“So, if we can make it convincing he probably won’t complain about dressing up as a woman. You want to talk him into it?”
“I’ll warn him that you haven’t given up on the idea and that I’ll dye my hair to add to the deception, but you get to do most of the work of talking him into it. We’ll need to arrange most things ourselves though, he won’t get involved. I can get hair dye and contact lenses easily enough if it’s a go, you two decide what else this game needs.”
“Yes sir.” Zack even threw a mocking salute to Cloud and he blushed, wondering just what Zack was thinking now.
“Not funny. Sir.” If Zack was going to tease him like that Cloud was going to remind him of their respective ranks. “I’d kind of like to get changed into something decent. Without an audience.”
“Should I ask Sephiroth to wait outside for you to get dressed then?” Zack grinned at him. “I can’t believe you’re still shy, you’ve just been on a month long mission where I know you had to camp out with your squad.”
“And I’m going to enjoy the luxury of privacy when I can, thank you very much. Sephiroth’s my lover, and he keeps his hairdryer in here.”
“Don’t dress up too much, it’s under the Plate.” And he couldn’t have said that while Cloud was picking out clothes for Sephiroth? Not that it would have done any good, and considering what Sephiroth would be wearing there was only one option.
“I’ll carry a sword then, and I’m sure Sephiroth can pick up a less noticeable weapon too.” Zack smiled at that and walked out, leaving Cloud to dress, in the best of the clothes he’d brought to Midgar so he wouldn’t look too much of a poor relation beside Sephiroth, or attract too much attention.
Sephiroth had a frown on his face when he walked into the bedroom, wearing his robe and towelling his hair.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t think I managed the dye very well.” Sephiroth pulled the towel from his hair so Cloud could see, and he gasped at the sight of the mixed fall of gold, silver and an almost rosy shade. “And I didn’t quite believe you about how many packets of dye I’d need, so I just used them one at a time.” That would explain the mixing of colours, which made it very obvious that Sephiroth’s hair was dyed, no matter how glorious it looked.
“It’s beautiful, like dawn over the Nibel mountains.”
“You...like it then?”
“Very much, pity we can’t be certain to repeat it. I’ll help you next time we need to dye your hair. But for now sit down and let me dry it for you.” Cloud picked up a comb and the hairdryer as Sephiroth obediently sat down and began to work on his hair.
“Can we try for a different shade of red next time, something darker?”
“If you want. And I can dye my hair too. By the way, Zack’s going to try and persuade you to dress up as woman next time we all go somewhere together, let him. I know you find the idea appealing.”
“Yes...I do...if it would please you.” Sephiroth’s voice was hesitant though, and he lifted his hand to rest it on top of the hand Cloud held the comb in, making him pause for a moment. “But...I’ll tell him that I’ll only do it if we can make it look convincing.”
“That’s fair enough.” And it was something they needed to know. If Sephiroth could pull off a convincing disguise as a woman Cloud could introduce ‘Sera’ to his friends, if not they had to come up with a reason that would never happen. “You can make him work for your agreement as much as you like.”
“I think I will.” Cloud could hear the amusement in Sephiroth’s voice as he began braiding his lover’s hair and he wondered what sort of promises Sephiroth intended to coax out of Zack before he agreed to play this game.
“I think I saw some contact lenses that’re supposed to mute a SOLDIER’s Mako eyes a bit, they’ll only fully mute the Mako glow in a SOLDIER 3rd’s eyes, but with any luck that’ll reduce the glow in your eyes to the level of a SOLDIER 1st, and they’ll certainly change the colour.”
“Thank you, but they won’t do anything about the shape of my pupils, will they?” Sephiroth stood and began dressing in the clothes Cloud had laid out once his hair was finished with.
“No, but I don’t think people will notice your eyes at first glance, and I can get some more contact lenses to make my eyes look like they’ve got the same cat-slit pupils.” As well as change their colour. Cloud thought the red-blond shade he’d picked out for this mix would work well enough for him, and be close enough to his natural colouring to work well on him, and he’d make his eyes a little green, so that Sephiroth’s didn’t stand out so much. Green eyes were pretty unusual, although not as unusual as the shape of his pupils, but if a couple both had the cat-slit pupils, and both had eyes that looked a bit green then it had to be a fashion statement.
“You can? Please do. I’m almost tempted to ask Zack to do the same, but...” Sephiroth didn’t need to say anything else, Cloud knew how reluctant he was to impose his own desires on his friends outside of their professional life. He’d finished dressing by then, without commenting on Cloud’s selection, and he turned to Cloud with a faint frown. “Do you think this will be enough to keep me from being too recognisable?”
“The tinted glasses will mark you as a SOLDIER, but other than that, no.” It was remarkable how much difference such simple changes made, but the memory of how surprised Zack had been at the clothes Sephiroth had and never wore kept Cloud from resenting him for not doing something like this earlier. “But you’ll need to find a different sword, Masamune’d be a dead giveaway.”
“I did keep the swords I trained on, I can wear one of those.” Sephiroth strode through to the outer room where Zack was waiting, and Cloud followed him.
“Fuck, why didn’t we think of doing this earlier?”
“You didn’t know I owned any clothes but my uniform, and I wouldn’t have trusted you enough to use a dye you supplied on my hair.” Sephiroth gave a rueful shrug as he replied, pulling a sword a lot like Cloud’s from a cupboard. “Shall we go?”
o0()0o
Cloud followed Zack and Sephiroth into what looked like a semi-derelict building from outside, presumably to avoid attracting the interest of thieves, because inside it turned out to be a large, well-stocked store, with a wide range of products he was only familiar with from books. They were arranged in sections, and Cloud gave a slight nod when Sephiroth glanced back at him, before he went to look at the section with the cock-rings, leaving Zack to drag Sephiroth over to the nipple clamps once he’d picked up a basket - obviously that was what he’d seen in the book Sephiroth had been reading.
Cloud probably wouldn’t have wanted Sephiroth to fuck him so badly if his lover hadn’t made such a point of that not being allowed, although he suspected that if things had gone the way he’d expected that first time it never would have occurred to him to take Sephiroth. He understood Sephiroth’s worries as well, there were two issues with the idea of fucking Cloud, his strength, and the risk that his sperm could give Cloud Mako poisoning, and using a cock-ring would just solve one problem. The other problem would help motivate Cloud to tie Sephiroth down during sex the way he’d asked, which would keep Sephiroth from using his strength to accidentally hurt Cloud.
He began examining the cock-rings, wishing he had the experience to know what the labelling translated to, but not quite daring to ask in case it made him seem weak or told him things he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know. They were low enough in price that he could get a selection to experiment with anyway and he picked out five of varying styles.
“You...seem to have picked a wide range there sir.” Cloud turned to look at the man who’d spoken, he was about as tall as Zack, but not quite as broad across the shoulders, and there was an element of...deference in his body language.
“I know they’re supposed to keep a man from coming, but I want a wide enough variety to experiment with.”
“If you want advice, or if you need someone to experiment with I’d be glad enough to volunteer sir.” Cloud hadn’t realised the other man was flirting until then, and he glanced over to Sephiroth, relieved to see that his lover had nearly reached him. He didn’t try to resist at all as Sephiroth pulled him into a loose embrace with one arm.
“He’s spoken for.” Cloud could feel how Sephiroth’s free hand was resting against his sword hilt, and turning his head he could see that his lover was glaring at the man who’d been flirting with him; it made him feel warm inside to see Sephiroth act on his possessive feelings about Cloud.
“Yes, I am.” Cloud twisted in Sephiroth’s hold, reaching up to wrap his arms around his shoulders and drawing his head down for a kiss, a kiss that he made sure to stay passive in beyond actually initiating it - and fortunately Sephiroth seemed to realise what they needed to support their illusion, taking charge of the kiss and dominating it.
“I-I’m sorry sir.” This time he was directing his words to Sephiroth, not Cloud. “I didn’t know. I thought...” The man trailed off, obviously not sure what to say.
“I don’t care what you thought.” Sephiroth was being uncharacteristically rude, probably to drive the man off and as another layer of disguise. “Do not wander off like that again Strife.” He must be pretending this was some sort of weird assignment in the line of duty then.
“Yes sir.” Cloud followed Sephiroth as he walked back to where he’d left Zack with the basket. He glanced at the basket as he put the cock-rings he’d chosen into it, and picked up the pair of nipple clamps already there. They were a funny shape, with curves of metal a bit like a four-leaf clover joining the clamps to the chain connecting them, and according to the label exerted moderate to high pressure, with no mention of a way to adjust it. He put them down, and frowned as he turned to check the shelves. “We should start off with something lighter, and adjustable.”
“I like the look of those, but if you want to get something else as well feel free.” There was a hint of a question in Sephiroth’s eyes, and Cloud nodded ‘obediently’, picking out a set of nipple clamps that would catch the nipples between two bars that could be screwed as tightly or loosely as desired.
“What else do we want?” He could see the hint of surprise in Sephiroth’s eyes at the question, and hoped Zack didn’t realise what it meant.
“I’m not sure, a proper gag for certain.” Cloud’s efforts at making a gag worked, but a real gag would be much easier. “Why don’t we just look around and see?”
“Good idea.” Cloud smiled up at Sephiroth, resisting the urge to reach up and kiss him again, he was already pushing the limits of his lover’s ability to play at being the dominant in their relationship, and he was probably being a bit aggressive for a ‘submissive’. “It isn’t as if we had much warning about visiting here, is it sir?” He glanced sideways at Zack, hinting, and hoping that hint would be picked up, as it was when Sephiroth frowned at him.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Come on, you two would have found an excuse not to come if I’d given you any warning.” Zack’s voice was almost a whine as he followed Sephiroth and Cloud to the section with the dildos. Cloud had to admit mentally that he might have been right, or at least that they wouldn’t have wanted to come here with Zack tagging along, but he wasn’t going to admit it.
“If we hadn’t been able to improvise such an effective disguise for me we would have refused to come anyway. Some warning might have allowed us to plan this better.” Sephiroth’s voice was low, and Cloud was almost certain it didn’t carry past him and Zack, but it probably didn’t matter, all his words would tell anyone was that Sephiroth was someone important. “What do you think of this?” A slim, smooth dildo, coloured bright blue and no thicker than two of Sephiroth’s fingers together, something in the way Sephiroth was looking at Cloud told him that his lover intended it for use on him, and his breath caught in his throat at the thought.
“Yes, get that.” It was only then that something occurred to him. “Wait, how easy is it to clean?” That wasn’t something covered in the book he’d let Sephiroth read, but from his smile he’d thought of that anyway.
“Steam sterilisable. There’s some more like it in green.” To ‘match’ Sephiroth’s eyes the way that one matched Cloud’s? Cloud stepped closer to the display, picking out another dildo in blue, as slim as the first, but with shallow ribbing running up and down it, before turning his attention to the green ones in the same range. Sephiroth seemed to have been drawn to the larger dildos for himself; he’d already picked out two that were about the same size as Cloud, one smooth, and one with odd bumps on it. Cloud put a cautionary hand on his lover’s arm, waiting to get his attention.
“None larger than you are, not for now.” Perhaps later, but he was sure that Sephiroth intended to use the dildos to play when Cloud couldn’t be with him, and he knew how minimal his lover tended to be when it came to preparing himself. He wasn’t going to give Sephiroth too much chance to hurt himself - even if he could use a Restore materia to fix the damage easily enough.
“Very well.” Cloud didn’t say anything more as Sephiroth picked out another four dildos, just chose a third one for himself, smooth, and about midway between the ones he already had and the smallest of Sephiroth’s in size. There were two locked cabinets next to the plastic and metal dildos, one containing glass dildos that looked almost like jewels with their swirls of inner colour, and the other containing knives of different types and sizes. Zack had wandered over to look at them while Sephiroth and Cloud were choosing their dildos and when they moved to join him Cloud’s attention was caught by an open box with thin slivers of metal, simply because they were so unusual.
“We don’t do blood play. It’s a hard limit.” His voice was flat, even as he kept his attention on the box of gleaming little ‘knives’; if Sephiroth was paranoid about Cloud tasting his seed he couldn’t imagine how badly he’d react to Cloud tasting his blood, so better not to shed it.
“Ah.” Zack’s voice was totally understanding, although Cloud wasn’t sure why. “Let’s move on then. The gags are this way.” And he led the way, seeming not to notice what he’d revealed as Cloud and Sephiroth exchanged smiles and followed.
Cloud didn’t try to interfere as Sephiroth chose the gags, not once he’d checked that they had holes to breathe through, and he selected two ball gags, an O gag and a bit gag. Then Sephiroth moved over to check the paddles, picking up a couple with holes drilled in them, and that was the last thing Cloud was willing to get.
“I think we’ve got enough to start with, sir.”
“I suppose we do.” Cloud thought about offering to pay for some of the things they’d bought, but Sephiroth shook his head when he reached towards his wallet and he gave that idea up. Zack insisted that they go for dinner with him afterwards, offering to pay, and since the bags were discreetly unlabelled they agreed.
o0()0o
Note: the reason Sephiroth never showed this possessiveness before is that he didn’t need to; no one was flirting with Cloud where he could see them, no one else has been flirting with Cloud at all. Also in part 3 when Captain Davis tried to recruit Cloud for O-school, Sephiroth wouldn't have explained the benefits of SOLDIER to Cloud if it was anyone else, it was mild, but he was being a little possessive then.
Final Fantasy VII fic, pre-game, mostly, with a post-AC epilogue.
CloudxSephiroth - and yes that does mean Cloud is topping.
Rating R.
Captain Morgan put a hand on Cloud’s arm to hold him back for a moment as the rest of his squad left the helicopter, apparently so he could speak to him with a degree of privacy. “Strife, I’ll be recommending that you be officially promoted to medic. You should know if you will be promoted by the end of the month.”
“Thank you sir.” Cloud knew that his surprise was showing, he’d messed up with the one time the captain might have seen his skills as a medic in action. He hoped this wasn’t some sort of ploy to curry favour with Sephiroth, but there was no way he could know.
“You made a good call in giving most of the Potions to your squad, and you did good on just getting Newton moving while we were fighting. You screwed up at a point where it wasn’t dangerous for you to do that, and besides, you need to be a medic to get the training you need in how to fight properly with materia. Now go catch up with your squad.”
“Yes sir.” Cloud saluted quickly and ran to catch the others. Sergeant Redson had them waiting for him, an odd look on his face.
“Everyone back to barracks, and wait there until I report in for us.” Cloud walked beside Dylan, finding out what he wanted to look for in a materia slot, and explaining why the cheap ones weren’t that much good.
“Why did you suggest a Fire materia for me?”
“A couple of reasons, first the same reason ShinRa has us train on it, it’s one of the three cheapest magic materia, along with Ice and Lightning. And you’re better with the Fire materia than with Ice or Lightning. You’ve got that in common with the General you know, Fire’s his best materia too, except it goes a lot further than just getting better results from the Fire materia with him.”
“Really?” Dylan sounded excited and astounded. “How much further? And...do you think it’s a good sign?”
“Yes really, I can’t tell you how much further and yes and no. It’s a good sign that you have a materia you work best with, and it doesn’t make a difference that it’s the same as Sephiroth’s. All SOLDIERs have a materia they work best with, Zack’s for example is Mystify. Mine’s Ice.” At least Ice was the best of the materia he’d tried so far, that didn’t necessarily mean it was the best materia of all for him any more than Dylan’s best materia was necessarily the best of all for him. But he was certain that none of the healing materia were his best option, one more piece of evidence for him that he shouldn’t be a medic, even if no one else would see it that way.
When they got to the barracks Cloud began to unpack his things, putting his dirty uniforms into a pile on his bed, and repacking his bag with some of his civilian clothes in the hope of getting that leave Dylan had mentioned. If he did get leave he planned to spend as much of it as he could with Sephiroth, and that meant taking clothes with him so he wasn’t constantly visiting his barracks if possible.
“Right, you’ve all got four days leave, report back on Thursday. Strife, stay behind.”
“Dylan, I’ll meet you outside the quartermaster’s office in an hour, okay?”
“Sure.” Cloud waited for everyone to leave as he moved a bit closer to Sergeant Redson.
“Traditionally the medic serves the whole squad, but he’s attached to one team. Do you want to stay with team beta if you get your promotion, or would you rather work with another team?” He wasn’t being given much time to think about it was he? But Cloud’s decision was still pretty easy, he knew his team best, and the rest of the squad weren’t as familiar to him.
“Team beta please, if I get promoted.” Cloud was pretty sure he didn’t actually deserve to be promoted, but he wouldn’t fight it if he was.
“I see.” Cloud thought he detected a hint of approval in Sergeant Redson’s voice, but he might have been mistaken. “There was an urgent note for you, from the General.”
“Thank you sir.” Cloud took the note from him, but he didn’t open it, implying that he couldn’t in front of him and the sergeant took the hint.
“Oh, and good job with Newton. Dismissed.” Cloud saluted and began making his way to Sephiroth’s quarters, accepting his sergeant’s praise, but mentally dismissing it, because he thought he could have, should have done better, and vowing to do better next time. He opened the note as he walked, holding it carefully so no one else would be able to see it easily.
‘Cloud,
‘I want a full report on every use you made of materia during your mission. If you need the privacy and quiet for concentration feel free to write your report in my quarters, but deliver it to me by the 19th.
‘Sephiroth.’
Cloud laughed a little at that, his lover had come up with the perfect cover for his visits to his quarters, and he could make sure Sephiroth knew about his new application of the standard Ice spell and its official origin. And he’d told Cloud what the date was without making him feel stupid by explicitly stating it; since they had four days leave and they were expected to report on Thursday it had to be either Saturday or Sunday today, and if Thursday was the 19th of November it had to be either the 14th or the 15th today.
He went to Sephiroth’s quarters, as suggested, and got a start on writing up how he’d used materia during the mission, explaining how he’d managed to catch three deer within one Ice spell, and then how he’d frozen the meat to store it without it going off. He made sure to mention how the ambient temperature helped with that, since it had been fairly cold in the mountains, if not cold enough for ice or snow to occur naturally, and then he didn’t have time to write anything else.
He wasn’t late for his meeting with Dylan, but the other man was just coming out of the quartermaster’s office, stuffing a wad of gil in his pocket as he walked.
“I got two thousand gil out, that should be enough, shouldn’t it?”
“Probably. Did you have any problems getting the money out? Zack said ShinRa can be a bit iffy about giving more than a certain amount in cash out at any one time, but he didn’t specify the limits.”
“No, no problems, not after a month when I couldn’t spend any money at all.”
“Right.” That could cause problems for him then, since he’d had three thousand gil transferred out of his account, but on the other hand he hadn’t really been spending more than he had as a cadet since joining the 3rd Sword. He shrugged mentally and walked into the office, getting the thousand gil he needed without too much trouble.
“Where do we go then?”
“It’s a place I saw in Sector 6 when I was hunting once. Under the Plate.” He didn’t really have a problem with going under the Plate, as long as he was armed, but he wasn’t as comfortable there as the rest of the squad were, he didn’t like all the resentful looks he got for being a ShinRa employee. He knew he should just ignore them the way everyone else did, but they made him feel guilty and he didn’t like that, he could cope with being attacked better, if anyone had ever dared attack him under the Plate.
“That’s why you’re carrying your sword then. Should I get mine too?”
“Depends how good you are without one. I’m too small to be much good without a weapon.” He sparred against SOLDIER 3rds when it came to swordwork, but he knew that he didn’t have the strength to excel in unarmed combat, and he was just too young to have the muscle he needed for that yet.
“I think I can do without one, besides I don’t need to provoke them.” Cloud shrugged and they made their way to the train together.
“You got any more plans for leave, besides getting your hands on a materia of your own and something to use it in?”
“Not really. I’ll probably just get drunk and laid like everyone else does on leave. I know you’re getting laid.” Cloud wasn’t sure what to say to that, but he could bitch about the extra assignment Sephiroth had given him.
“If I have time. The General’s decided he wants a full report on how I used materia during our mission, by Thursday.”
“It can’t take that long can it? You didn’t have to heal anyone until the final raid, and you didn’t cast that many spells then, did you?”
“More than you seem to think, but you’re right, it won’t take too long. I just didn’t expect to have to do a report during my leave. Sephiroth’s got enough reports to read normally anyway, why’d he want another one?”
“Because he’s your sponsor.” As if it was the most natural thing in the world. Cloud didn’t say anything else until they had to get off and he led Dylan through Sector 6 until he found the shop he remembered.
“Here it is. If you want I’ll look through the materia while you pick up whatever you think will work best when you want to use it.”
“Thanks. You said you’d get me a Fire materia, do you think I’d be allowed to use it in materia training?”
“I can’t imagine why not.” He hadn’t used his Ice materia because it was already mastered, so he didn’t need to mature it, but he’d like to be able to use the time to improve his new Lightning materia if he could. He walked over to the counter and demanded to inspect the first level Fire and Lightning materia, running his fingers over the arrayed orbs and selecting the most mature of each type.
“That’ll be seven hundred and fifty gil each.”
“Dylan, have you decided what you want yet?”
“What do you think of this?” Dylan held out an armband of black leather with a single materia slot. Cloud took hold of it, checking the leather’s quality - nice and sturdy, then put it on, fitting his Speed Plus materia into it.
“About the same quality as ShinRa issue.” The price tag was five hundred gil and he put it on the counter with the materia. “How about you give us a little discount since we’re buying these together, say one thousand six hundred total?”
“No. I’ll give you a discount to one thousand eight hundred total, but no more.”
“Agreed.” Cloud handed over six hundred and fifty gil and Dylan paid the other one thousand one hundred and fifty, then they went to eat in the canteen together.
Cloud left the finished report lying on the desk he’d written it on and stretched, moving through to Sephiroth’s kitchen to see if there was anything he could use there.
‘I had the fridge and cupboards stocked recently, feel free to use whatever you can find here.’ Before he’d left on his mission Sephiroth’s kitchen had been almost empty of food, looking around there was enough for him to prepare a simple meal and he made himself some sandwiches. Sephiroth wouldn’t be back before six at the earliest, Cloud had time to shower after he’d eaten. and even though he was tempted to prepare something for his lover he decided against it, because he couldn’t be certain Sephiroth wouldn’t have eaten already.
He’d finished showering, washing his hair properly for the first time in weeks, and he was busy drying it when Sephiroth arrived, putting the towel to one side as he stood to greet his lover.
“How did your mission go Cloud?” Sephiroth didn’t ask until after Cloud had finished kissing him, but it still seemed a slightly odd thing to ask when Cloud knew there’d been a report written. “I mean for you personally.”
“Pretty boring mostly. I didn’t realise training as a medic would mean I’d end up being kept from anything too dangerous.”
“It doesn’t, not always, it depends on the situation, in this case there must have been more benefit to having the only medic kept out of combat, ready to heal than having another body in the fighting.”
“Yeah, I understand that, it just bugs me a bit. By the way, it was a very good idea of yours to ask for a report on how I used materia during the mission, because I used the Ice spell in some pretty weird ways; my report explains what I came up with to cover for it, and it gave me a great excuse to be here.”
“Zack suggested it actually.” Sephiroth was blushing faintly, and he kept his eyes cast down as Cloud pulled him to sit down. “We’re lucky, I get one of my rare days off on Monday, so I can spend it with you.” On Monday, not tomorrow, implying that today was Saturday, and Cloud normally had lessons in using materia on the Saturday before he went hunting with Zack.
“Are we supposed to be working with Alex and Marius on using materia unslotted this evening?”
“No. I managed one session with the two of them, and I think I scared them off, besides which I just couldn’t deal with how hard they seem to find it to learn the things you master so quickly.” That emphasis was a bit odd to Cloud, and he had to ask.
“So you’re judging us all against how quickly you learned this?” He hoped Sephiroth would recognise the absurdity of what he was implying.
“No. I told you that no one taught me this, I learned by myself, slowly. I suppose if anything I’m judging you against the SOLDIERs I’ve taught - you come out better than my previous pupils, and your friends come out decidedly worse.”
“Thanks. Do you think Captain Morgan is recommending my promotion as an attempt to curry favour with you?”
“Possibly. That isn’t directly my decision, but it isn’t a mostly objective test the way Zack’s testing for higher rank was. If I am asked about your skills I will report the facts, without drawing any conclusions.” And since it was a matter of record that the General had been tutoring Cloud, Alex and Marius in using materia unslotted he could be asked, although...
“They’d have to place more weight on what the other squad’s medics and Dr. Alexander said about my skills, wouldn’t they?” Cloud found himself running his hands through Sephiroth’s hair without really thinking about it, and finding it calming enough for him to let go of something he couldn’t affect.
“Hopefully. But one of the reasons I wanted you to get promoted quickly doesn’t apply any more. Remember that program the head armourer was pushing through for SOLDIERs and medics?”
“About how to maintain materia slots? Did you come to an agreement with him about your own lessons?”
“I arranged for him to see that exam I had you do, and he offered a compromise...he’ll teach me in private as long as you’re there as well, and as long as he’s allowed to push you as fast as you can go.” Cloud had to laugh at that.
“As if you’d need to hold me back.” It was sweet of Sephiroth to pretend to doubt his own ability like that, but unless the practical side of dealing with materia slots required using small, highly controlled flows of energy there was no way that Cloud would learn faster than Sephiroth would. “All I’ve got over you’s theory, if that.”
“You might have a point, but I’m not sure that the practical won’t be dependent on knowing the theory, and I haven’t studied that as much as you have. Either way our usual lessons will be on Fridays, 1800 until 2100, starting this Friday, but we have an hour long introductory lesson on Tuesday at 1800.” Cloud was surprised how quickly the lessons seemed to have been set up, but he didn’t say anything about it, wrapping his arms around his lover’s neck instead.
“Did you finish that book I said you could read?”
“Yes, it was very informative. But I’m not sure how much of it we should apply to our relationship.”
“However much we feel comfortable with.” Cloud kissed Sephiroth again, sliding his hands underneath Sephiroth’s long coat to run them across his muscles.
“Mmm. It’s been too long Cloud, what would you have of me?” That was a bit odd, but Cloud didn’t care, and he wasn’t really up to any of the games Sephiroth usually wanted to play anyway.
“I want something slow, and relaxed. You can start by giving me a massage.” He stood up, pulling Sephiroth to his feet as well. “Go and get cleaned up, I’ll be waiting on the bed.” Cloud picked the towel he’d been using earlier up and carried it through to the bedroom where he hung his robe up and sat on the bed to dry his hair some more while he was waiting for Sephiroth, after checking that the massage oil was in a convenient place, both jars placed together.
When Sephiroth arrived Cloud put the towel down and lay on his stomach, enjoying the way his lover was pampering him to the fullest, making little sounds of pleasure as strong, skilled hands found tensions he didn’t normally notice and eased them out. Then the massage turned sensual, the nature of the pressures changing, arousing him even more than just feeling his lover’s touch did and the first time Sephiroth paused for long enough Cloud rolled over and pulled him down to lie beside him. Sephiroth had put his hair up in a sort of knot, held together by four metal rods to keep it out of the way while he showered, and it was just starting to come loose, letting wisps of hair fall into his face. Cloud smiled at the sight and reached to pull the rods out, running his fingers through his lover’s hair until it fell freely.
“Your hair is incredible, I can’t imagine doing all the work it would take to keep hair like this in such great condition. Especially during a war.”
“I sometimes wished I was allowed to cut it, but at the same time...” It was one of Sephiroth’s few good childhood memories, Cloud knew that, although the idea that his lover simply wasn’t permitted to make such a personal decision for himself bothered him. He pushed the thought from his mind and pulled Sephiroth’s face to his for a kiss.
Sephiroth made a small sound into Cloud’s mouth and wrapped his arms around him, shutting his eyes and relaxing in obvious pleasure. Cloud loved the way Sephiroth always yielded to him, every time they kissed, even if it did sometimes bother him that someone so much better than him wanted to submit so badly. He ran his fingers down Sephiroth’s back, enjoying the quiet moan he made into Cloud’s mouth and rolled them until he was lying on top of his lover before pulling back, slowly, grabbing the oil he used to ease his way inside Sephiroth and nudging his legs open.
“Cloud...” It was half a plea and half a protest as Cloud settled between Sephiroth’s legs and bent to take him into his mouth while he stretched him. Cloud sighed and stopped, moving so that his own groin was convenient for Sephiroth to pleasure him while he worked, and then began to slowly prepare his lover.
“On your side love.” Cloud curled up behind Sephiroth, kissing his shoulder blade almost absently as he slid inside him, wrapping an arm around his waist to play with him gently. This was the best position for when he wanted it slow, he couldn’t get enough leverage to thrust hard and Sephiroth couldn’t get the leverage to move swiftly either. He just enjoyed the scent of Sephiroth’s hair as he moved, building slowly to near-simultaneous climaxes. Then, when he pulled out he turned Sephiroth in his arms, so he could kiss him again.
“Would you like to shower with me and do some more of whatever jigsaw you’ve got going together?”
“No. I could do jigsaws by myself, I couldn’t have anyone but you hold me like this, please, can we stay here?”
“If that’s what you want love.” Cloud kissed Sephiroth again, and nudged him to move a bit so they weren’t lying in the wet spot. He spent the rest of the time until he fell asleep just running his hands over his lover’s body and relaxing with him.
Cloud wanted to glare at Zack for interrupting his time with Sephiroth, the one day his lover had managed to get off while he was on leave and Zack had to come and take over Sephiroth’s quarters. But...Sephiroth had smiled faintly when Zack arrived, and even though Zack had had Sephiroth to himself while Cloud had been away he knew that if Sephiroth spent his entire day of leave holed up with Cloud Zack would feel jealous, and people might wonder. And even though they’d planned for a spar later on, so that Sephiroth could assess his progress, that might not be enough to keep people from asking questions.
“Do you two normally go out somewhere when you’ve both got leave?” He addressed the question to both men equally, and it was Zack who answered.
“Yeah. We either go hunting, or I drag Sephiroth out for a meal, or to go shopping. And speaking of shopping...I found this shop you two just have to come and see, since I know you’re both kinky.”
“He saw one of the books I told you to get.” Sephiroth responded to Cloud’s questioning glance calmly. “It’s been impossible to convince him that I could be reading it purely for the information, without intending to put it to use.”
“Should I ask which book it was?” Cloud made a point of glancing down submissively, since he was pretty sure Zack was still assuming Sephiroth was in charge.
“The one I was reading at the time.” A double message there, Sephiroth’s curt words made it seem as if he just didn’t want his submissive prying into the matter, telling Cloud that Zack had assumed his lover was dominant, and there was only one book Cloud had cleared for Sephiroth to read so far.
“Of course. So, are we going to go visit that shop?” He kept his voice neutral, so he wouldn’t influence his lover one way or the other, but he looked at Sephiroth, not Zack.
“Come on Sephiroth, it’ll be fun. You might get some ideas or pick up some new toys.”
“Very well Zack, if you can work out how to avoid my fans.”
“You could dress differently, and use that hair dye I got, perhaps braid your hair back too.” Cloud spoke absently, watching how Zack reacted more than his lover’s response.
“And I’ve got a pair of tinted glasses, they’ll hide your eyes.”
“Then you choose something sufficiently different that I am unlikely to be recognised Cloud. And...do you think I really need all four of those packets of dye?” Sephiroth glanced back as he reached the door to the bathroom, waiting for an answer.
“Yes, what with how long and thick your hair is.” Sephiroth just nodded at that, and Cloud moved to his bedroom where he could begin looking through his clothes.
“What are you planning to put him in?” Cloud hadn’t noticed Zack following him into the bedroom until he spoke from over Cloud’s shoulder.
“He’s got silk shirts in his wardrobe that he never wears, and I think this one will work.” It was probably a little oversized, and the colour almost matched the veins on the inside of Sephiroth’s wrist. “And then a pair of leather pants and boots, but the main thing is that he doesn’t wear that coat of his.” He was sure he’d seen... “There, I thought he had a different coat hidden somewhere.” Cloud pulled out a simple black leather jacket, since it was halfway through November and it would look odd for Sephiroth to be walking about without at least a jacket on.
“I didn’t know he had all these clothes, he never wears them.” Zack sounded surprised, not that Cloud could blame him for that.
“I don’t think it occurs to him that he should. I gather they’re delivered for him every so often and he just leaves them here and forgets about them.” Cloud shrugged as he spoke. “He’s usually on duty anyway isn’t he? And I don’t think he really understands why people wear clothes other than for protection from the elements, or as armour.”
“So, if we can make it convincing he probably won’t complain about dressing up as a woman. You want to talk him into it?”
“I’ll warn him that you haven’t given up on the idea and that I’ll dye my hair to add to the deception, but you get to do most of the work of talking him into it. We’ll need to arrange most things ourselves though, he won’t get involved. I can get hair dye and contact lenses easily enough if it’s a go, you two decide what else this game needs.”
“Yes sir.” Zack even threw a mocking salute to Cloud and he blushed, wondering just what Zack was thinking now.
“Not funny. Sir.” If Zack was going to tease him like that Cloud was going to remind him of their respective ranks. “I’d kind of like to get changed into something decent. Without an audience.”
“Should I ask Sephiroth to wait outside for you to get dressed then?” Zack grinned at him. “I can’t believe you’re still shy, you’ve just been on a month long mission where I know you had to camp out with your squad.”
“And I’m going to enjoy the luxury of privacy when I can, thank you very much. Sephiroth’s my lover, and he keeps his hairdryer in here.”
“Don’t dress up too much, it’s under the Plate.” And he couldn’t have said that while Cloud was picking out clothes for Sephiroth? Not that it would have done any good, and considering what Sephiroth would be wearing there was only one option.
“I’ll carry a sword then, and I’m sure Sephiroth can pick up a less noticeable weapon too.” Zack smiled at that and walked out, leaving Cloud to dress, in the best of the clothes he’d brought to Midgar so he wouldn’t look too much of a poor relation beside Sephiroth, or attract too much attention.
Sephiroth had a frown on his face when he walked into the bedroom, wearing his robe and towelling his hair.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t think I managed the dye very well.” Sephiroth pulled the towel from his hair so Cloud could see, and he gasped at the sight of the mixed fall of gold, silver and an almost rosy shade. “And I didn’t quite believe you about how many packets of dye I’d need, so I just used them one at a time.” That would explain the mixing of colours, which made it very obvious that Sephiroth’s hair was dyed, no matter how glorious it looked.
“It’s beautiful, like dawn over the Nibel mountains.”
“You...like it then?”
“Very much, pity we can’t be certain to repeat it. I’ll help you next time we need to dye your hair. But for now sit down and let me dry it for you.” Cloud picked up a comb and the hairdryer as Sephiroth obediently sat down and began to work on his hair.
“Can we try for a different shade of red next time, something darker?”
“If you want. And I can dye my hair too. By the way, Zack’s going to try and persuade you to dress up as woman next time we all go somewhere together, let him. I know you find the idea appealing.”
“Yes...I do...if it would please you.” Sephiroth’s voice was hesitant though, and he lifted his hand to rest it on top of the hand Cloud held the comb in, making him pause for a moment. “But...I’ll tell him that I’ll only do it if we can make it look convincing.”
“That’s fair enough.” And it was something they needed to know. If Sephiroth could pull off a convincing disguise as a woman Cloud could introduce ‘Sera’ to his friends, if not they had to come up with a reason that would never happen. “You can make him work for your agreement as much as you like.”
“I think I will.” Cloud could hear the amusement in Sephiroth’s voice as he began braiding his lover’s hair and he wondered what sort of promises Sephiroth intended to coax out of Zack before he agreed to play this game.
“I think I saw some contact lenses that’re supposed to mute a SOLDIER’s Mako eyes a bit, they’ll only fully mute the Mako glow in a SOLDIER 3rd’s eyes, but with any luck that’ll reduce the glow in your eyes to the level of a SOLDIER 1st, and they’ll certainly change the colour.”
“Thank you, but they won’t do anything about the shape of my pupils, will they?” Sephiroth stood and began dressing in the clothes Cloud had laid out once his hair was finished with.
“No, but I don’t think people will notice your eyes at first glance, and I can get some more contact lenses to make my eyes look like they’ve got the same cat-slit pupils.” As well as change their colour. Cloud thought the red-blond shade he’d picked out for this mix would work well enough for him, and be close enough to his natural colouring to work well on him, and he’d make his eyes a little green, so that Sephiroth’s didn’t stand out so much. Green eyes were pretty unusual, although not as unusual as the shape of his pupils, but if a couple both had the cat-slit pupils, and both had eyes that looked a bit green then it had to be a fashion statement.
“You can? Please do. I’m almost tempted to ask Zack to do the same, but...” Sephiroth didn’t need to say anything else, Cloud knew how reluctant he was to impose his own desires on his friends outside of their professional life. He’d finished dressing by then, without commenting on Cloud’s selection, and he turned to Cloud with a faint frown. “Do you think this will be enough to keep me from being too recognisable?”
“The tinted glasses will mark you as a SOLDIER, but other than that, no.” It was remarkable how much difference such simple changes made, but the memory of how surprised Zack had been at the clothes Sephiroth had and never wore kept Cloud from resenting him for not doing something like this earlier. “But you’ll need to find a different sword, Masamune’d be a dead giveaway.”
“I did keep the swords I trained on, I can wear one of those.” Sephiroth strode through to the outer room where Zack was waiting, and Cloud followed him.
“Fuck, why didn’t we think of doing this earlier?”
“You didn’t know I owned any clothes but my uniform, and I wouldn’t have trusted you enough to use a dye you supplied on my hair.” Sephiroth gave a rueful shrug as he replied, pulling a sword a lot like Cloud’s from a cupboard. “Shall we go?”
Cloud followed Zack and Sephiroth into what looked like a semi-derelict building from outside, presumably to avoid attracting the interest of thieves, because inside it turned out to be a large, well-stocked store, with a wide range of products he was only familiar with from books. They were arranged in sections, and Cloud gave a slight nod when Sephiroth glanced back at him, before he went to look at the section with the cock-rings, leaving Zack to drag Sephiroth over to the nipple clamps once he’d picked up a basket - obviously that was what he’d seen in the book Sephiroth had been reading.
Cloud probably wouldn’t have wanted Sephiroth to fuck him so badly if his lover hadn’t made such a point of that not being allowed, although he suspected that if things had gone the way he’d expected that first time it never would have occurred to him to take Sephiroth. He understood Sephiroth’s worries as well, there were two issues with the idea of fucking Cloud, his strength, and the risk that his sperm could give Cloud Mako poisoning, and using a cock-ring would just solve one problem. The other problem would help motivate Cloud to tie Sephiroth down during sex the way he’d asked, which would keep Sephiroth from using his strength to accidentally hurt Cloud.
He began examining the cock-rings, wishing he had the experience to know what the labelling translated to, but not quite daring to ask in case it made him seem weak or told him things he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know. They were low enough in price that he could get a selection to experiment with anyway and he picked out five of varying styles.
“You...seem to have picked a wide range there sir.” Cloud turned to look at the man who’d spoken, he was about as tall as Zack, but not quite as broad across the shoulders, and there was an element of...deference in his body language.
“I know they’re supposed to keep a man from coming, but I want a wide enough variety to experiment with.”
“If you want advice, or if you need someone to experiment with I’d be glad enough to volunteer sir.” Cloud hadn’t realised the other man was flirting until then, and he glanced over to Sephiroth, relieved to see that his lover had nearly reached him. He didn’t try to resist at all as Sephiroth pulled him into a loose embrace with one arm.
“He’s spoken for.” Cloud could feel how Sephiroth’s free hand was resting against his sword hilt, and turning his head he could see that his lover was glaring at the man who’d been flirting with him; it made him feel warm inside to see Sephiroth act on his possessive feelings about Cloud.
“Yes, I am.” Cloud twisted in Sephiroth’s hold, reaching up to wrap his arms around his shoulders and drawing his head down for a kiss, a kiss that he made sure to stay passive in beyond actually initiating it - and fortunately Sephiroth seemed to realise what they needed to support their illusion, taking charge of the kiss and dominating it.
“I-I’m sorry sir.” This time he was directing his words to Sephiroth, not Cloud. “I didn’t know. I thought...” The man trailed off, obviously not sure what to say.
“I don’t care what you thought.” Sephiroth was being uncharacteristically rude, probably to drive the man off and as another layer of disguise. “Do not wander off like that again Strife.” He must be pretending this was some sort of weird assignment in the line of duty then.
“Yes sir.” Cloud followed Sephiroth as he walked back to where he’d left Zack with the basket. He glanced at the basket as he put the cock-rings he’d chosen into it, and picked up the pair of nipple clamps already there. They were a funny shape, with curves of metal a bit like a four-leaf clover joining the clamps to the chain connecting them, and according to the label exerted moderate to high pressure, with no mention of a way to adjust it. He put them down, and frowned as he turned to check the shelves. “We should start off with something lighter, and adjustable.”
“I like the look of those, but if you want to get something else as well feel free.” There was a hint of a question in Sephiroth’s eyes, and Cloud nodded ‘obediently’, picking out a set of nipple clamps that would catch the nipples between two bars that could be screwed as tightly or loosely as desired.
“What else do we want?” He could see the hint of surprise in Sephiroth’s eyes at the question, and hoped Zack didn’t realise what it meant.
“I’m not sure, a proper gag for certain.” Cloud’s efforts at making a gag worked, but a real gag would be much easier. “Why don’t we just look around and see?”
“Good idea.” Cloud smiled up at Sephiroth, resisting the urge to reach up and kiss him again, he was already pushing the limits of his lover’s ability to play at being the dominant in their relationship, and he was probably being a bit aggressive for a ‘submissive’. “It isn’t as if we had much warning about visiting here, is it sir?” He glanced sideways at Zack, hinting, and hoping that hint would be picked up, as it was when Sephiroth frowned at him.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Come on, you two would have found an excuse not to come if I’d given you any warning.” Zack’s voice was almost a whine as he followed Sephiroth and Cloud to the section with the dildos. Cloud had to admit mentally that he might have been right, or at least that they wouldn’t have wanted to come here with Zack tagging along, but he wasn’t going to admit it.
“If we hadn’t been able to improvise such an effective disguise for me we would have refused to come anyway. Some warning might have allowed us to plan this better.” Sephiroth’s voice was low, and Cloud was almost certain it didn’t carry past him and Zack, but it probably didn’t matter, all his words would tell anyone was that Sephiroth was someone important. “What do you think of this?” A slim, smooth dildo, coloured bright blue and no thicker than two of Sephiroth’s fingers together, something in the way Sephiroth was looking at Cloud told him that his lover intended it for use on him, and his breath caught in his throat at the thought.
“Yes, get that.” It was only then that something occurred to him. “Wait, how easy is it to clean?” That wasn’t something covered in the book he’d let Sephiroth read, but from his smile he’d thought of that anyway.
“Steam sterilisable. There’s some more like it in green.” To ‘match’ Sephiroth’s eyes the way that one matched Cloud’s? Cloud stepped closer to the display, picking out another dildo in blue, as slim as the first, but with shallow ribbing running up and down it, before turning his attention to the green ones in the same range. Sephiroth seemed to have been drawn to the larger dildos for himself; he’d already picked out two that were about the same size as Cloud, one smooth, and one with odd bumps on it. Cloud put a cautionary hand on his lover’s arm, waiting to get his attention.
“None larger than you are, not for now.” Perhaps later, but he was sure that Sephiroth intended to use the dildos to play when Cloud couldn’t be with him, and he knew how minimal his lover tended to be when it came to preparing himself. He wasn’t going to give Sephiroth too much chance to hurt himself - even if he could use a Restore materia to fix the damage easily enough.
“Very well.” Cloud didn’t say anything more as Sephiroth picked out another four dildos, just chose a third one for himself, smooth, and about midway between the ones he already had and the smallest of Sephiroth’s in size. There were two locked cabinets next to the plastic and metal dildos, one containing glass dildos that looked almost like jewels with their swirls of inner colour, and the other containing knives of different types and sizes. Zack had wandered over to look at them while Sephiroth and Cloud were choosing their dildos and when they moved to join him Cloud’s attention was caught by an open box with thin slivers of metal, simply because they were so unusual.
“We don’t do blood play. It’s a hard limit.” His voice was flat, even as he kept his attention on the box of gleaming little ‘knives’; if Sephiroth was paranoid about Cloud tasting his seed he couldn’t imagine how badly he’d react to Cloud tasting his blood, so better not to shed it.
“Ah.” Zack’s voice was totally understanding, although Cloud wasn’t sure why. “Let’s move on then. The gags are this way.” And he led the way, seeming not to notice what he’d revealed as Cloud and Sephiroth exchanged smiles and followed.
Cloud didn’t try to interfere as Sephiroth chose the gags, not once he’d checked that they had holes to breathe through, and he selected two ball gags, an O gag and a bit gag. Then Sephiroth moved over to check the paddles, picking up a couple with holes drilled in them, and that was the last thing Cloud was willing to get.
“I think we’ve got enough to start with, sir.”
“I suppose we do.” Cloud thought about offering to pay for some of the things they’d bought, but Sephiroth shook his head when he reached towards his wallet and he gave that idea up. Zack insisted that they go for dinner with him afterwards, offering to pay, and since the bags were discreetly unlabelled they agreed.
Note: the reason Sephiroth never showed this possessiveness before is that he didn’t need to; no one was flirting with Cloud where he could see them, no one else has been flirting with Cloud at all. Also in part 3 when Captain Davis tried to recruit Cloud for O-school, Sephiroth wouldn't have explained the benefits of SOLDIER to Cloud if it was anyone else, it was mild, but he was being a little possessive then.
