FIC Responsive Part 20
Jan. 19th, 2007 09:37 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.
“We’ve got something different today.” Sergeant Redson’s quiet words drew everyone’s attention, stopping the grumbling at how much earlier than usual they’d been woken up. “Apparently the ShinRa execs have been having monster trouble when they’ve been visiting their holiday homes near the Gold Saucer, and we’re the lucky sods who get to sort it out. The owner of the Gold Saucer, one Dio, agreed to put us up overnight and we’re supposed to clear up the problems today and tomorrow. Strife, we’re authorised to draw a Fire, Lightning or Ice materia for each of the NCOs, including you. Pick out the best you can find from the stock and get bracers to go with them. Any one who’s got a materia of their own remember to bring it with them. We’ll be leaving in half an hour, go.”
Right; Cloud collected the highest level materia they’d let him have, two second level Lightning materia for Sergeant Redson and Corporal Hende, and a second level Fire for Corporal Sands. He already had an Ice and a Lightning materia, so he picked up another Fire, second level again, even if he’d have preferred a support materia - but he’d probably end up letting someone else use it. He took four bracers as well, each set with just one slot, slightly better quality than the practice bracers.
“Here, I packed your other uniform for you.”
“Thanks Dylan.” He’d hand the materia and bracers out on the way there, now he had to hurry to get everything ready for when they left. At least Dylan had started packing for him, and Cloud grabbed underwear and socks to stuff into the bag, along with toiletries, his circuits and files for them, and one of his puzzles; he’d put a set of civvies in if he had time after he sorted out the materia from the safe. Glancing at everyone else he could see that they were packing their better civilian clothes, so since he had just enough time he packed one of the outfits Alex and Marius had helped him buy.
“Time’s up! Move your asses!” Cloud swung his pack onto his back, grabbing his sewing kit and new insignia and stuffing them into a pocket as they moved out.
They were on an airship this time, not a helicopter, probably because there were other squads who needed transportation as well. Cloud...refused to get angry over the implication that nearly a quarter of the SOLDIER filter units were being sent out to make it easier for the ShinRa execs to visit their holiday homes when he knew there were isolated farms and villages that were destroyed by monsters sometimes. He focused on giving the materia and the bracers to the NCOs and then deciding who’d get the Fire materia he was probably expected to use.
“Caine, you’re the best in the squad after me, the sergeant, and the corporals with a Fire materia, so you can use this.” He was tempted to toss the materia to Caine, but he knew that would be a bad idea so he walked over and handed it to the sometimes arrogant trooper.
“Thank you sir.” At least his occasional arrogance was well-founded, and he could be polite as well. Cloud took his own seat and decided it was smooth enough to work some more on his circuits.
“What’s that Cloud?” Dylan’s question would work at distract him from his motion sickness almost as well as focusing on filing the circuits to their final form.
“One of the things I need to do for my current class on working with materia slots. I’ll come out of this with six slots, and it means I can share one with the squad if something like this happens again and leave it for the next medic assigned to the squad.” He frowned and set his Ice materia into the dagger Sephiroth had given him, resigning himself to lending it to one of his squad mates so there’d be at least two materia in each team. He could put the Speed Plus into that wristband he’d made instead; he could still make it work like that, and he matched his actions to his thoughts.
“Dawson! You can use this, but if I don’t get them back at the end of the mission I’m taking it out of your hide.”
“Yes sir.” Cloud scowled and glanced at Sergeant Redson, but he just seemed amused by that, even though none of his squad mates were supposed to call him ‘sir’ yet. He returned to work on his circuits then, almost getting two of them ready to use by the time the airship landed.
“Right, we’ve been assigned an area to work on, and we’ll run a basic search pattern. Odds are the monsters’ll come to us as much as the other way around, but we’ll cover our assigned area twice if we can, once today and once tomorrow. Caine, Dawson, when you’ve cast as many spells as you can pass the materia on to someone else, we’ll be doing the same - unless you have a problem with that for Dawson, Strife?”
“As long as I get my dagger and all the materia back at the end of the mission it’s fine sergeant.” Since he was the one responsible for the materia ShinRa had issued.
“Fair enough. And for those of you who’ve never done this before; we don’t get combat bonuses for this, but we get a tenth of the value of any bounties and parts the company can sell or use of the monsters we kill.” That sounded good. Odds were the money would be split up equally among the squad, perhaps with a bit more going to the sergeant and corporals, but that was fine with Cloud, if he was really lucky it might be enough for him to get a support materia to use in the bracer with the paired materia slots.
Even if he didn’t get enough money to do that from this hunt he should probably start saving towards some sort of support materia anyway. But what sort? Not an Elemental materia, even though both of his current magic materia did elemental damage he didn’t want to limit himself that way. All materia were really expensive, even unlevelled, so he’d rather not get one of those, but a Magic Counter would work well enough; he’d liked how it worked with Zack.
He was pulled from his musings when Corporal Sands called for the team to move out, and he just focused on following orders, letting the corporal decide where the team moved, what formation they should use and how fast they needed to travel. First the squad encountered a group of three Jokers, and each team dealt with one of them without needing to discuss it. Then, when they encountered a swarm of Beachplugs they worked as teams again, but this time more on the defensive, setting up to support each other rather than splitting to attack from all sides as they had with the Jokers. Cloud hated dealing with the Harpies and Flapbeats, because those monsters could fly, giving them an advantage, especially since none of the troopers could jump particularly high.
By the time they stopped for lunch, ration bars washed down with as much water as they could drink, Cloud had to admit, if only to himself, that this mission was justified. Even if they’d been sent here to make it easier for the execs to visit their holiday homes they were also clearing out the monsters that would endanger the common people who lived in the area, and there were far more monsters than he’d expected. Put together, by the end of the day the squad had killed 16 Jokers, 53 Beachplugs, 34 Flapbeats and 47 Harpies. He wasn’t certain how much that would translate to in terms of money, but his Lightning materia had gained a level over the day and the squad Restore had spawned an unlevelled materia.
“Cloud, you don’t want to go drinking like that, do you?” Cloud put his uniform jacket aside, looking up at Dylan and mentally giving up on the idea of sewing on his new insignia tonight. He could easily do it tomorrow on the way back, since Dio had set up a bar with free drinks just for the ShinRa troopers so the squad would probably stay there until it closed.
“Just give me a few minutes.” Cloud used the shower quickly then dressed in his dark grey trousers and jumper - a couple of the other men were still wearing their uniforms, but most had gone for some sort of civilian clothes. He was the last one dressed, but no one seemed to mind waiting for him. Well, except for Finn, and even he didn’t look too impatient.
“One thing before we set off. You did well today, and deserve to celebrate, but we’ve still got the rest of the mission tomorrow, and we can’t afford to have Strife waste energy curing your hangovers, so don’t get too drunk.” Cloud was relieved that Sergeant Redson made that announcement before leading them off to the free bar; he hadn’t wanted to be the one to point that out.
“I’ll get a round of Bolts in for the squad while the rest of you grab a few tables for us.” No one objected to Dylan’s offer, and Cloud went along with the rest of the squad, finding a set of three open tables in the corner; probably not quite the best places to observe the doors, but there were enough people to watch each other’s backs.
“Finn, Caine you go and help Dylan get the drinks in, he won’t be able to manage them all himself, or be certain where to look.” When they came back each man was carrying a tray with 12 drinks on, 6 made up of layers of electric and dark blues and silvers and greys and the other six pure green, looking almost like Potions.
“Bolts to start with, and Poisonas for the end of the night to keep the hangovers away.” Dylan had a huge grin on his face as he put the first Bolt in front of Cloud, and shook it slightly, setting the layers to mixing together, looking almost like the sky during a lightning storm - if you used a lot of imagination in looking at it. Cloud took his drink and swallowed it down as fast as he could, the drink hitting him like a bolt of lightning.
“Good. But make the next round water.”
“Spoilsport.” Dylan was pouting, and Cloud laughed up at him.
“No, just if we alternate with water we can keep on drinking for longer, and have less of a hangover. It’s what Zack does.” And that was enough to settle the question.
o0()0o
Cloud was grateful they’d be going back to Midgar on the airship they’d come in, because there was no way he’d be able to meet Sephiroth if they’d returned by ship the way he’d half expected they would. He didn’t want to still be recovering from motion sickness when he saw his lover again, because if he was then Sephiroth would feel obliged to spoil him, and he wanted to have fun with him. So he focused on sewing his new insignia on, collecting the materia and bracers back in once that was done and focusing on his little puzzle afterwards. They hadn’t made as many kills this second day, but he was still about a sixth of the way towards reaching third level on his Lightning materia, so that was good. He could probably get away with just shoving the issued materia and the bracers into the squad materia safe and returning them early tomorrow, but he had to hand his clothes in to laundry before he went to visit Sephiroth.
It was still later than he liked when he got to see Sephiroth, just after 1930, but he did have time to have some fun with his lover, and Sephiroth looked eager to see him, standing with a faint smile on his face. His lover seemed to appreciate what he was wearing, even if it was just the same thing he’d worn the night before, and Cloud let Sephiroth pull him into a hug, and lick lightly at his lower lip before Cloud kissed him.
“I half thought you wouldn’t be able to come tonight. It would have been suspicious if I checked what time you were due back.”
“But you waited for me anyway.” Cloud did his best to let his pleasure show in his voice as he pulled Sephiroth to the couch and sat on his lap, stroking his hair.
“I still hoped you’d be able to come. You normally wear your uniform for almost everything.”
“Well I had two uniforms to go into laundry tonight, so I put them in straight away; hopefully they’ll be delivered back by tomorrow evening.” Although at least Wednesday was his day off, so if they weren’t he didn’t need to wear a uniform then.
“They probably will be, and by Wednesday morning at the latest. They manage my leathers well enough.” It shouldn’t be a surprise that Sephiroth used the ShinRa laundry like everyone else, but it was, and Cloud wasn’t sure why. Sephiroth looked uncertain for a moment before he continued speaking. “How did your mission go?”
“We killed quite a lot of monsters over the two days, so hopefully we’ve made the area a little safer for the people who live there, although I’ll admit most towns and villages are safe anyway. And I’ve got my Lightning materia to second level now. I managed to get two of the circuits I made on Friday finished off properly on the journey there and back too. How are you doing at finishing off your circuits?”
“Zack didn’t give me a chance to work on them yesterday, so I’ve only finished one of them. I’ll get them done by Friday, I promise.” Sephiroth smiled at Cloud as he spoke, and Cloud couldn’t resist the urge to kiss his bare throat. “Oh! D-did you get the chance to celebrate your promotion with your squad?”
“Yes, there was an open bar for all of us, and we had a lot of those weird cocktails Zack likes to drink. But you’d like the round we finished off with; it’s called a Poisona, and I could taste the Potion base. Don’t know whether to attribute the lack of hangovers to the Poisonas, or to the water I got us to drink between rounds.”
“How did you manage to persuade your squad mates to do that?” Sephiroth’s voice was quiet, and his curiosity was clear. “I know a lot of troopers act as if there’s some sort of honour in how much they can drink.” Sephiroth’s disapproval of that was very clear.
“I told them that it was what Zack did.” Cloud laughed as he explained; he didn’t feel at all guilty for lying to his friends about this. “It’s not like we could match a SOLDIER when we’re drinking, and I know he heals too quickly to have hangovers anyway.”
“I think I’ve seen him with one or two, on his days off, but enough about that. I...had an idea about what we could do to celebrate your promotion.” There was just a hint of a question in Sephiroth’s voice, and he continued speaking once Cloud made an encouraging sound. “We haven’t tried any of the dildos we got to use on you yet...I thought I could give you a massage, then try using one of them on you while I sucked you?”
“It’s a nice idea, a really nice idea, but I want to adjust it a bit.” Cloud could see how hard it had been for Sephiroth to make that suggestion, and he stroked him gently, reassuringly.
“Whatever you want Cloud.” Sephiroth shut his eyes, clearly focusing on Cloud’s touch, as he replied in a soft voice.
“That might not always be the safest thing to promise love.” Cloud let his amusement show as he kissed his lover. “What if I asked you to follow the dildo up with really fucking me? I won’t.” Cloud hurried to reassure Sephiroth when he realised he’d actually frightened the man. “I know you don’t think that’s safe, and I won’t argue with you on that. This is what we’re going to do. We’ll start with that massage you offered - which sounds wonderful considering how talented your hands are - then I’ll roll onto my side and you can spoon up behind me, or lie facing me, whichever you prefer. And you can use that dildo on me in that position.” Cloud stood and held out his hand to Sephiroth.
“As you wish.” Sephiroth smiled as he took Cloud’s hand and let him ‘help’ him to his feet, following a step behind Cloud as they made their way to the bedroom. Cloud stripped off quickly and lay down on his stomach, waiting to see how his lover would react. He was pleased to see that Sephiroth didn’t hesitate, straddling his body and beginning the massage at once, and Cloud let himself relax under the ministration of those strong skilled hands.
“If you would be willing to roll onto your side?” Cloud made sure that there was space in front of him and behind him, letting Sephiroth decide where to lie for himself instead of making the choice for him without saying a thing - he knew that if he’d positioned himself so Sephiroth couldn’t fit on the bed in one position his lover wouldn’t ask him to move. He wasn’t too surprised when Sephiroth chose to lie down facing him, and he rewarded his lover with a kiss, since he hadn’t tried to hide the fact that he would prefer the other option when he described them both. Not that it had been obvious, but Sephiroth watched him closely enough to have noticed.
For the moment Sephiroth seemed content to just kiss him, and eventually Cloud got impatient enough to wrap one leg around his lover’s waist and put Sephiroth’s hand on his back in a silent hint. Sephiroth trembled and tilted his head back as he began circling Cloud’s entrance with an oiled finger, and Cloud nibbled lightly on his throat to reassure him. It seemed to be enough to calm him, and Cloud relaxed easily as Sephiroth pushed that first tentative finger into him. He could tell that Sephiroth was nervous about this, so he kept his touches light, without trying to arouse his lover too much, letting him concentrate on what he was doing, but he was glad that Sephiroth was aroused as well, that this wouldn’t just be about Cloud’s pleasure.
Sephiroth took a bit longer about preparing him than Cloud might have liked, but he was still bucking against his lover by the time Sephiroth slid the dildo into him. Despite the preparation Sephiroth had done it wasn’t particularly pleasant at first, and Cloud knew better than to try to hide that - he didn’t think he could have succeeded in doing so anyway.
“Don’t stop; you just have to change the angle a bit. I know this is awkward for you, but try, please?”
“If that’s what you want Cloud.” He kissed Sephiroth, enjoying the generosity his lover was showing.
“It is. You’re doing wonderfully, I promise. It isn’t as if this particularly hurts, it just isn’t giving me pleasure yet, and I know you can find that spot if you try. It’s just harder to do that with this than with your fingers.” Or than it was with his cock, and Cloud knew that from experience, even if Sephiroth hadn’t seemed to mind Cloud fumbling around when he’d been trying to use a dildo on him. He gasped when Sephiroth pushed the dildo into him next. “That’s it, you’ve got it right now.”
“Good. You’re going to need something more than this though, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.” Sephiroth didn’t come just from Cloud inside him very often, he almost always needed some other stimulation, as often to one of his sensitive areas as to his cock. “but don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it. You just focus on keeping that motion steady.”
“Y-yes Cloud.” Cloud was not going to feel bad about the way he distracted Sephiroth with a hand wrapped around their cocks; he needed more than just the dildo, and he wasn’t going to ignore Sephiroth’s pleasure. After a while the motion of the dildo became a bit erratic, but it didn’t matter by then, and Cloud climaxed first, then stroked his lover to his own completion.
“That was wonderful love. Thank you for doing this for me.” He could see that Sephiroth was going to need reassurance, and he was perfectly content to provide however much of it his lover wanted. “Did you have any other delicious ideas you wanted to share with me?” Since he knew that Sephiroth tended to be a bit hesitant sometimes when it came to suggesting things to do in bed.
“One. You said that with the way I used to transfer energy to someone else for spellcasting if the energy isn’t immediately used for a spell it’s lost. Do you think you could try taking energy from my core, then just returning it to my body, not my power reserve, until it reaches the point of affecting me physically?”
“I...hadn’t thought about that. It’s something you’d like me to do?” Sephiroth blushed faintly as he nodded and Cloud smiled at him. “Then we can have fun experimenting with it. Do you want us to try that tomorrow evening?”
“I...if you’d be so kind.”
“I will then.” He kissed Sephiroth gently, inviting him to start again, once they’d put the dildo aside.
o0()0o
Cloud didn’t bother to hide his relief on learning that the rest of the squad would be patrolling Hojo’s labs while he was working in the infirmary. Even Finn didn’t see his reaction as more than a reason for amusement, and some rough teasing, teasing he returned as best he could.
“Anyone would think you don’t like drinking with us Cloud.” Dylan’s comment was cheerful enough, but it fell into one of those conversational pauses that happen, and Cloud could feel an almost palpable resentment of his self-imposed partial isolation among the squad, focused on team gamma.
“Try scheduling these squad bonding nights better for me then. I’ve told you about my girl, and how I can only be certain of seeing her on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I’ve got officially scheduled training on Fridays, and every other Saturday I’ve got extra work with the General. It’s not my fault we’ve been assigned to the labs on Tuesdays recently.”
“We’ve got the labs again on Sunday - you won’t bail on us then, will you Cloud?” Corporal Hende’s voice was light, teasing, and Cloud grinned at him, knowing he had to play along with the other man, or that momentary resentment would crystallise around him.
“Of course not. I didn’t bail on you two days ago did I?” Perhaps not the best example, but...
“And he even made sure none of us had much in the way of hangovers. Remember to tell your girl that she won’t get you next Tuesday; we’re on night shift then.”
“Yes sergeant, I’ll do that.” Sephiroth would probably already know, but he’d tell him anyway, just to make sure. “But this is where I have to leave you.” He turned off for the infirmary, relieved to hear cheerful goodbyes behind him. At least he’d defused any resentment among his squad, for now.
“Corporal Strife reporting for duty sir.” He’d have preferred to report to Dr. Alexander, but his orders specified that he should report to Dr. Talbot on arrival at the infirmary. Which made a sort of sense considering that Dr. Talbot was the senior doctor there - as much a medical administrator as a doctor and isolated in an office to boot, but he was the most experienced doctor there.
“Another half-trained field medic.” There was a sort of quiet contempt in his voice, and in his eyes when he looked at Cloud. “And you can’t even be that much past cadet training. Just what are you good for anyway?” Cloud wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer that question, or to remain silent and accept the implication that he wasn’t good for much.
“Miss Rembrandt, take this medic and figure out how we can use him.”
“Yes sir.” The pretty young lady who shared Dr. Talbot’s office was obviously civilian, and that bothered Cloud on a subliminal level, but she smiled at him and he forced himself to respond to that smile. It wasn’t her fault that her boss was an ass after all. “If you’ll come this way?”
“Yes ma’am.” Cloud followed her through to a cloakroom, lockers along one wall, and a coat rack along the other with benches lining the other two walls, except for the two doors.
“Do you carry anything valuable in your uniform jacket?”
“No ma’am.”
“Good, take it off and put this on then.” She handed him a zip lock bag with a white coat inside, and when Cloud pulled it out he could see that ‘Medic Strife’ was embroidered on the left breast. “You only wear that in here; you deliver it to the laundry in that bag, it will be returned in a fresh bag, and you don’t open the bag until you get here. Clear?”
“Yes ma’am. Are these precautions to ensure sterility?” Cloud spoke as he pulled the lab coat on, glancing back at her for confirmation.
“Yes. I’m impressed that you realised that. Most field medics don’t.”
“Well, generally we have to work in non-sterile conditions, and for soft-tissue injuries our Restore materia will usually eliminate infections so we don’t have to guard against that. But I recently had to deal with someone who had a gut-wound, and that required the use of a Heal materia to deal with the infection, so I’m a bit more aware of those issues.”
“I see. On a similar note you’re to enter the infirmary through this cloakroom. Here’s your keycard, and that’s the exit door. The other door leads to a toilet and washroom, and you’re expected to clean your hands before entering the rest of the infirmary.” Cloud nodded, and taking that as a veiled instruction he went through to the washroom, cleaning his hands with the antiseptic soap supplied before returning.
“Good. You’ll be assigned to assist one of the doctors, just do whatever he tells you to do, and remember to wash your hands before you leave. Today you’re to work with...” She ran her finger down a chart pinned to the wall as she spoke until she found the date. “Dr. Arramar. I’ll take you to him this time, but in future you’ll have to find your assigned supervisor yourself.”
“Yes ma’am.” Cloud followed the woman into the main area of the infirmary, meeting up with Dr Arramar, a dark-skinned man with his hair cut very short.
“Strife. What’s the correct procedure for a broken bone?”
“In the field make a manual assessment of how badly it’s broken, sir. If possible manipulate it so it will set correctly and cast a Cure or, if you have the reserves and think it’s advisable, a Cure2. If you can’t manipulate the broken bone to set correctly settle for binding it, unless it includes an open wound, in which case cast a Cure to close the wound and accept that it will have to be re-broken when full medical treatment is available. At a base send to X-ray, and set the bone correctly, either manually or through surgery depending on the type of broken bone, and if the patient has time to recover naturally put it in a cast.”
“Good enough. But you forgot to consider which bone might be broken. Your assessment was perfect for a broken limb, but what about broken ribs, or a broken back?” By the end of the shift Cloud felt totally wrung out. Dr. Arramar had only stopped asking him questions when they had a patient to treat, and then whenever possible he let Cloud take the lead, only stepping in when Cloud was obviously out of his depth. And he’d cast so many spells that he’d drained his energy reserve to the point where it would almost affect him physically.
He dropped his lab coat off at the laundry on his way to eat, but he couldn’t manage to eat much - although at least it was a stew today, easier to eat than roast meat and vegetables would have been. Then he made his way to Sephiroth’s quarters, glad that he had an excuse to go there when he was stopped by a patrol, for the first time since he’d joined the 3rd Sword.
“Cloud?” For a change and to Cloud’s relief Sephiroth was waiting for him when he got to his lover’s quarters, and he hurried over to wrap his arms around Cloud. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, just...drained.” Cloud relaxed, letting Sephiroth take his weight as they moved to the couch. “You want to get a bit more practice in at transferring energy to my reserve? I’m not up to carrying out that experiment you suggested last night.”
“You smell of antiseptic.” It was a non sequitur, but Cloud could feel Sephiroth pouring power into his core as he spoke. “What do you want to do tonight then?”
“We can do one of your jigsaws together for a while, then you can give me a massage, and perhaps ride me after that.” He began petting his lover’s hair as he regained his energy, and nuzzled into Sephiroth’s neck for a moment, before reluctantly pushing away.
“If that would please you.” Sephiroth began obediently, if slowly, pulling away from Cloud, but then he paused with a frown. “Have I given you enough energy for you to stay awake that long though?”
“Yes; you’ve given me just a bit more than my natural maximum. That’s enough for today.”
“I’ll get the jigsaw out then.” Cloud just relaxed on the couch, watching Sephiroth move and joining him on the floor once he had the jigsaw out.
“Oh, by the way, Sergeant Redson ordered me to tell my girl that I’ve got night shift next Tuesday.”
“I’ll make a note of that.” Sephiroth sounded as amused as Cloud felt by that; but it would probably raise suspicions if Sephiroth made a habit of checking on what duty Cloud’s squad was assigned to, so the sergeant had done them a favour. It was...nice doing the jigsaw together with Sephiroth, something quiet, companionable, and a change from their more adventurous recent experiments.
“Change of plan, we shower together, I wash your hair, and then you give me a massage. If we have sex afterwards you can do all the work.” Sephiroth seemed to like the idea, up until the last sentence, but he smiled at Cloud anyway.
“I’ll put the jigsaw away then while you get the shower running.” Cloud followed Sephiroth’s suggestion, washing himself quickly, including his hair before Sephiroth arrived. Sephiroth knelt in front of him, easily letting Cloud move him about to wash him and then dry him off afterwards.
Cloud lay back and watched Sephiroth dry his hair with a smile, then rolled onto his stomach once Sephiroth was finished. It felt oddly decadent to have his lover tending to him this way, strong hands easing all of the aches and pains from his body, and Cloud couldn’t stop himself falling to sleep as Sephiroth worked.
o0()0o
“You want to play energy battery again so I can restore Marius and Alex’s energy reserves?” Cloud grinned at Zack as they returned from selling the monster parts; it had gone well today, if not quite as profitable for him as the last time they’d gone out hunting with Zack.
“Might as well. I’m not going to need the energy today. Take whatever you need.” Zack held out his hand with a grin, and Cloud filled his own reserves to just under their natural maximum - considering what he had planned for tonight with Sephiroth he’d only really need enough to transfer to his friends now, but he’d keep some in case he had trouble during the day.
“How come you have to let Cloud do this instead of doing it yourself the way the General can?” Marius kept his question polite as Cloud gave some of Zack’s energy to him
“Sephiroth has to work with people weaker than him pretty often;” all the time more like it, unless Zack meant much weaker than him, as opposed to just weaker than him the way SOLDIER 1sts were, “that’s why he came up with the original method of transferring magical energy and why he’s learning Cloud’s variation, I don’t usually work with anyone less than a SOLDIER 2nd, so I don’t need to learn Cloud’s version of the technique.”
“Cloud’s version?” Alex sounded surprised by that, but from the slight look of vindication on his face Cloud knew that Marius had already suspected that.
“More precision, less sheer power, right?”
“Yes. The original was only useful if Sephiroth wanted to cast multiple spells at the same time, he’d feed the energy into someone else and have them cast the spells he couldn’t. The energy has to be used right then, or it’s lost. Cloud saw the concept from a different perspective; he said it was a bit like using an unslotted materia, and he saw details we missed.”
“Cloud explained that to me once, how the General’s power level makes it hard for him to notice the fine details of how the power of people as weak as us changes. It was when you were on your first assignment away from Midgar Alex.”
“Can we change the subject?” Cloud wasn’t entirely happy that his friends were talking about his skill with magic; it could raise suspicions, even if he wasn’t entirely being rational about the issue. “Zack, I was thinking about getting myself a support materia. I’d just about decided on Magic Counter, do you have any advice about how to choose one?”
“We can go and look at them together, after we’ve had that spar you promised me.”
“Think we can fit it in before lunch then?”
“And go looking afterwards? Sure. You two want to watch?” Cloud couldn’t be irritated at Zack for offering that to his sponsees, he just hoped he didn’t disappoint Zack because he wouldn’t be fighting with anger powering him today. They turned towards the gyms when Alex and Marius agreed to watch, and a wicked idea occurred to Cloud.
“So, are you going to be commenting on our spar for your sponsees’ education while we spar, or will you keep that for afterwards?” He put a hint of challenge in his smile as he looked at Zack, waiting to be told they’d have to settle for an analysis of the action afterwards. But Zack surprised him by agreeing to give a running commentary while they were fighting, at least as much of one as he could, pointing out that it would give Cloud a better chance against him.
“Why do you think I suggested it?” That earned a grin from Zack and Cloud focused on his fighting, actually managing to score on Zack once or twice. Then Zack dragged all of them to eat in the SOLDIER mess hall while he went into more detail on his analysis of Cloud’s performance, as well as talking about how the three of them had done in their hunt. By the end of lunch Alex and Marius had agreed to come looking for magic materia of their own, a Lightning for Marius and a Fire for Alex.
When they were in the materia shop Cloud managed to draw Zack into talking about how he preferred to use his materia, what he liked equipping them in, as well as getting him to discuss Sephiroth’s tastes in that area. Cloud was glad to learn that both men were very practical about those things, but he was sure his lover would be thrilled by the offer of a collar, especially one that could be disguised as something more socially acceptable. He did note that Zack preferred black leather rather than brown or any other colour.
“Do you have the full day off Zack?” He probably did if he had time to help Cloud with this, but he should ask instead of just assuming the way he had been - this was the first time he’d thought to ask though. He’d just taken it for granted that Zack would have time to help them with this extra training and with choosing materia for themselves, and he shouldn’t have.
“Err...officially I’m on duty at the moment. This is going down as training and equipping my sponsees, and since I don’t have any specifically assigned duties today I’d normally be expected to just be ready in case I was needed or train myself.”
“And since Sephiroth has a lot of administrative work and such to deal with he can’t work with us during normal hours, I get it.” It made sense, and Cloud supposed it was as good a way as any for ShinRa to make use of the SOLDIERs not on combat duty at any particular time. “Thanks for the help anyway, I know I’m not your responsibility strictly speaking.” His new support materia would take more work to mature than his Lightning, taking as much energy to reach second level as it took to master a Lightning, Fire or Ice.
“You’re welcome.” Cloud managed to leave Zack there with Alex and Marius while he went to find out how much it would cost him to get Sephiroth a collar to match his restraints. He could afford it easily enough, but he still left the shop without actually ordering the collar, not yet - he only needed to order it two weeks before he wanted to collect the collar and that would give him time to actually make the slot he wanted set in it.
He’d worked up enough of a sweat sparring during the afternoon, as well as agreeing to one spar after eating at 1700 that Cloud was in the shower when Sephiroth returned to his quarters, and he just barely heard his lover coming in over the sound of the water.
“Cloud? Might I join you?” Sephiroth sounded delightfully uncertain and Cloud smiled at him in response.
“Oh yes. Come on in.” Cloud smiled as Sephiroth stripped slowly, enjoying the way his lover slowly revealed his body. Once Sephiroth was in reach he grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him into the shower, pressing up against him. “I think I’ll start taking your energy now.”
“Please.” Sephiroth barely had time to whisper his response before Cloud kissed him, drawing energy from him at the same time. He could see/hear/feel/scent/taste some type of ‘channels’ running through Sephiroth, and experimentally he fed some of the energy he was taking from his lover back into them, carefully, watching where the energy ended up. It wasn’t in his lover’s own energy reserve, which was all Cloud really needed to worry about, and from the way Sephiroth was grinding himself against Cloud it felt good for him.
“Oh, please, don’t stop.” Sephiroth protested quietly when Cloud pulled away after he’d taken perhaps a quarter of Sephiroth’s energy and fed it into those channels.
“You want more?” Cloud smiled teasingly as he spoke, assessing his lover in case he did something to upset him. “Earn it.” Cloud could see Sephiroth’s breath catch and he dropped to his knees, resting his hands against Cloud’s hips.
“Might I?” Cloud was tempted to ask Sephiroth to be a bit more explicit, but he thought that might be pushing it, so he just pulled his lover’s head to his groin and caressed him as Sephiroth took him into his mouth. In reward he connected to Sephiroth’s power core again and began feeding the energy he took back into the channels he’d found, enjoying the way Sephiroth moaned around him. But then Sephiroth kept on sucking after he’d climaxed, and it hurt a little; Cloud tried pushing the energy into Sephiroth in what seemed to be the wrong way, forcing the energy to flow ‘backwards’ through one channel, and putting all the energy he was feeding into his lover’s body into that one channel. Sephiroth gave a choked off cry around Cloud’s cock, and he stopped transferring energy as he pulled his lover’s head back.
“Don’t do that, please, not when I have you in my mouth. I...I almost bit down on you.” Sephiroth was shaking in clear shock and Cloud pulled him to his feet, stroking and petting him as he promised not to hurt him like that again. “I...I’m sorry to make such a fuss. Can we try again?”
“Don’t be sorry. You did the right thing in telling me there was a problem. Just stay there for the moment.” Sephiroth had barely a fifth of his power core left now and Cloud wasn’t sure how that would affect his near-immunity to heat and cold. He dried himself off quickly and did the same to Sephiroth before pulling him through to his bedroom, and pushing him onto the bed, draining power from him and feeding it into Sephiroth’s body all the time.
Sephiroth was aroused and relaxed enough that Cloud didn’t think he’d really need that much in the way of preparation, so he slid two fingers into him at once, stretching his lover as quickly as he could before he drained Sephiroth’s reserves dry. He just barely made it, and when he stopped, pulling away to break the connection, Sephiroth struggled briefly to try and pull him back, then gave up with a quiet whimper.
“Please Cloud.”
“Hush, I’m not going to hurt you.” He leaned down and kissed Sephiroth again as he thrust into him, moving perhaps a bit too quickly - and was surprised when Sephiroth climaxed around him. But it didn’t take him much longer to climax himself, then he helped Sephiroth under the sheets, letting his lover cling to him as they fell asleep.
o0()0o
Also, if you're interested and haven't already seen it I posted how Zack found out about the shop he takes Cloud and Sephiroth to here
CloudxSephiroth - and yes that does mean Cloud is topping.
Rating R.
“We’ve got something different today.” Sergeant Redson’s quiet words drew everyone’s attention, stopping the grumbling at how much earlier than usual they’d been woken up. “Apparently the ShinRa execs have been having monster trouble when they’ve been visiting their holiday homes near the Gold Saucer, and we’re the lucky sods who get to sort it out. The owner of the Gold Saucer, one Dio, agreed to put us up overnight and we’re supposed to clear up the problems today and tomorrow. Strife, we’re authorised to draw a Fire, Lightning or Ice materia for each of the NCOs, including you. Pick out the best you can find from the stock and get bracers to go with them. Any one who’s got a materia of their own remember to bring it with them. We’ll be leaving in half an hour, go.”
Right; Cloud collected the highest level materia they’d let him have, two second level Lightning materia for Sergeant Redson and Corporal Hende, and a second level Fire for Corporal Sands. He already had an Ice and a Lightning materia, so he picked up another Fire, second level again, even if he’d have preferred a support materia - but he’d probably end up letting someone else use it. He took four bracers as well, each set with just one slot, slightly better quality than the practice bracers.
“Here, I packed your other uniform for you.”
“Thanks Dylan.” He’d hand the materia and bracers out on the way there, now he had to hurry to get everything ready for when they left. At least Dylan had started packing for him, and Cloud grabbed underwear and socks to stuff into the bag, along with toiletries, his circuits and files for them, and one of his puzzles; he’d put a set of civvies in if he had time after he sorted out the materia from the safe. Glancing at everyone else he could see that they were packing their better civilian clothes, so since he had just enough time he packed one of the outfits Alex and Marius had helped him buy.
“Time’s up! Move your asses!” Cloud swung his pack onto his back, grabbing his sewing kit and new insignia and stuffing them into a pocket as they moved out.
They were on an airship this time, not a helicopter, probably because there were other squads who needed transportation as well. Cloud...refused to get angry over the implication that nearly a quarter of the SOLDIER filter units were being sent out to make it easier for the ShinRa execs to visit their holiday homes when he knew there were isolated farms and villages that were destroyed by monsters sometimes. He focused on giving the materia and the bracers to the NCOs and then deciding who’d get the Fire materia he was probably expected to use.
“Caine, you’re the best in the squad after me, the sergeant, and the corporals with a Fire materia, so you can use this.” He was tempted to toss the materia to Caine, but he knew that would be a bad idea so he walked over and handed it to the sometimes arrogant trooper.
“Thank you sir.” At least his occasional arrogance was well-founded, and he could be polite as well. Cloud took his own seat and decided it was smooth enough to work some more on his circuits.
“What’s that Cloud?” Dylan’s question would work at distract him from his motion sickness almost as well as focusing on filing the circuits to their final form.
“One of the things I need to do for my current class on working with materia slots. I’ll come out of this with six slots, and it means I can share one with the squad if something like this happens again and leave it for the next medic assigned to the squad.” He frowned and set his Ice materia into the dagger Sephiroth had given him, resigning himself to lending it to one of his squad mates so there’d be at least two materia in each team. He could put the Speed Plus into that wristband he’d made instead; he could still make it work like that, and he matched his actions to his thoughts.
“Dawson! You can use this, but if I don’t get them back at the end of the mission I’m taking it out of your hide.”
“Yes sir.” Cloud scowled and glanced at Sergeant Redson, but he just seemed amused by that, even though none of his squad mates were supposed to call him ‘sir’ yet. He returned to work on his circuits then, almost getting two of them ready to use by the time the airship landed.
“Right, we’ve been assigned an area to work on, and we’ll run a basic search pattern. Odds are the monsters’ll come to us as much as the other way around, but we’ll cover our assigned area twice if we can, once today and once tomorrow. Caine, Dawson, when you’ve cast as many spells as you can pass the materia on to someone else, we’ll be doing the same - unless you have a problem with that for Dawson, Strife?”
“As long as I get my dagger and all the materia back at the end of the mission it’s fine sergeant.” Since he was the one responsible for the materia ShinRa had issued.
“Fair enough. And for those of you who’ve never done this before; we don’t get combat bonuses for this, but we get a tenth of the value of any bounties and parts the company can sell or use of the monsters we kill.” That sounded good. Odds were the money would be split up equally among the squad, perhaps with a bit more going to the sergeant and corporals, but that was fine with Cloud, if he was really lucky it might be enough for him to get a support materia to use in the bracer with the paired materia slots.
Even if he didn’t get enough money to do that from this hunt he should probably start saving towards some sort of support materia anyway. But what sort? Not an Elemental materia, even though both of his current magic materia did elemental damage he didn’t want to limit himself that way. All materia were really expensive, even unlevelled, so he’d rather not get one of those, but a Magic Counter would work well enough; he’d liked how it worked with Zack.
He was pulled from his musings when Corporal Sands called for the team to move out, and he just focused on following orders, letting the corporal decide where the team moved, what formation they should use and how fast they needed to travel. First the squad encountered a group of three Jokers, and each team dealt with one of them without needing to discuss it. Then, when they encountered a swarm of Beachplugs they worked as teams again, but this time more on the defensive, setting up to support each other rather than splitting to attack from all sides as they had with the Jokers. Cloud hated dealing with the Harpies and Flapbeats, because those monsters could fly, giving them an advantage, especially since none of the troopers could jump particularly high.
By the time they stopped for lunch, ration bars washed down with as much water as they could drink, Cloud had to admit, if only to himself, that this mission was justified. Even if they’d been sent here to make it easier for the execs to visit their holiday homes they were also clearing out the monsters that would endanger the common people who lived in the area, and there were far more monsters than he’d expected. Put together, by the end of the day the squad had killed 16 Jokers, 53 Beachplugs, 34 Flapbeats and 47 Harpies. He wasn’t certain how much that would translate to in terms of money, but his Lightning materia had gained a level over the day and the squad Restore had spawned an unlevelled materia.
“Cloud, you don’t want to go drinking like that, do you?” Cloud put his uniform jacket aside, looking up at Dylan and mentally giving up on the idea of sewing on his new insignia tonight. He could easily do it tomorrow on the way back, since Dio had set up a bar with free drinks just for the ShinRa troopers so the squad would probably stay there until it closed.
“Just give me a few minutes.” Cloud used the shower quickly then dressed in his dark grey trousers and jumper - a couple of the other men were still wearing their uniforms, but most had gone for some sort of civilian clothes. He was the last one dressed, but no one seemed to mind waiting for him. Well, except for Finn, and even he didn’t look too impatient.
“One thing before we set off. You did well today, and deserve to celebrate, but we’ve still got the rest of the mission tomorrow, and we can’t afford to have Strife waste energy curing your hangovers, so don’t get too drunk.” Cloud was relieved that Sergeant Redson made that announcement before leading them off to the free bar; he hadn’t wanted to be the one to point that out.
“I’ll get a round of Bolts in for the squad while the rest of you grab a few tables for us.” No one objected to Dylan’s offer, and Cloud went along with the rest of the squad, finding a set of three open tables in the corner; probably not quite the best places to observe the doors, but there were enough people to watch each other’s backs.
“Finn, Caine you go and help Dylan get the drinks in, he won’t be able to manage them all himself, or be certain where to look.” When they came back each man was carrying a tray with 12 drinks on, 6 made up of layers of electric and dark blues and silvers and greys and the other six pure green, looking almost like Potions.
“Bolts to start with, and Poisonas for the end of the night to keep the hangovers away.” Dylan had a huge grin on his face as he put the first Bolt in front of Cloud, and shook it slightly, setting the layers to mixing together, looking almost like the sky during a lightning storm - if you used a lot of imagination in looking at it. Cloud took his drink and swallowed it down as fast as he could, the drink hitting him like a bolt of lightning.
“Good. But make the next round water.”
“Spoilsport.” Dylan was pouting, and Cloud laughed up at him.
“No, just if we alternate with water we can keep on drinking for longer, and have less of a hangover. It’s what Zack does.” And that was enough to settle the question.
Cloud was grateful they’d be going back to Midgar on the airship they’d come in, because there was no way he’d be able to meet Sephiroth if they’d returned by ship the way he’d half expected they would. He didn’t want to still be recovering from motion sickness when he saw his lover again, because if he was then Sephiroth would feel obliged to spoil him, and he wanted to have fun with him. So he focused on sewing his new insignia on, collecting the materia and bracers back in once that was done and focusing on his little puzzle afterwards. They hadn’t made as many kills this second day, but he was still about a sixth of the way towards reaching third level on his Lightning materia, so that was good. He could probably get away with just shoving the issued materia and the bracers into the squad materia safe and returning them early tomorrow, but he had to hand his clothes in to laundry before he went to visit Sephiroth.
It was still later than he liked when he got to see Sephiroth, just after 1930, but he did have time to have some fun with his lover, and Sephiroth looked eager to see him, standing with a faint smile on his face. His lover seemed to appreciate what he was wearing, even if it was just the same thing he’d worn the night before, and Cloud let Sephiroth pull him into a hug, and lick lightly at his lower lip before Cloud kissed him.
“I half thought you wouldn’t be able to come tonight. It would have been suspicious if I checked what time you were due back.”
“But you waited for me anyway.” Cloud did his best to let his pleasure show in his voice as he pulled Sephiroth to the couch and sat on his lap, stroking his hair.
“I still hoped you’d be able to come. You normally wear your uniform for almost everything.”
“Well I had two uniforms to go into laundry tonight, so I put them in straight away; hopefully they’ll be delivered back by tomorrow evening.” Although at least Wednesday was his day off, so if they weren’t he didn’t need to wear a uniform then.
“They probably will be, and by Wednesday morning at the latest. They manage my leathers well enough.” It shouldn’t be a surprise that Sephiroth used the ShinRa laundry like everyone else, but it was, and Cloud wasn’t sure why. Sephiroth looked uncertain for a moment before he continued speaking. “How did your mission go?”
“We killed quite a lot of monsters over the two days, so hopefully we’ve made the area a little safer for the people who live there, although I’ll admit most towns and villages are safe anyway. And I’ve got my Lightning materia to second level now. I managed to get two of the circuits I made on Friday finished off properly on the journey there and back too. How are you doing at finishing off your circuits?”
“Zack didn’t give me a chance to work on them yesterday, so I’ve only finished one of them. I’ll get them done by Friday, I promise.” Sephiroth smiled at Cloud as he spoke, and Cloud couldn’t resist the urge to kiss his bare throat. “Oh! D-did you get the chance to celebrate your promotion with your squad?”
“Yes, there was an open bar for all of us, and we had a lot of those weird cocktails Zack likes to drink. But you’d like the round we finished off with; it’s called a Poisona, and I could taste the Potion base. Don’t know whether to attribute the lack of hangovers to the Poisonas, or to the water I got us to drink between rounds.”
“How did you manage to persuade your squad mates to do that?” Sephiroth’s voice was quiet, and his curiosity was clear. “I know a lot of troopers act as if there’s some sort of honour in how much they can drink.” Sephiroth’s disapproval of that was very clear.
“I told them that it was what Zack did.” Cloud laughed as he explained; he didn’t feel at all guilty for lying to his friends about this. “It’s not like we could match a SOLDIER when we’re drinking, and I know he heals too quickly to have hangovers anyway.”
“I think I’ve seen him with one or two, on his days off, but enough about that. I...had an idea about what we could do to celebrate your promotion.” There was just a hint of a question in Sephiroth’s voice, and he continued speaking once Cloud made an encouraging sound. “We haven’t tried any of the dildos we got to use on you yet...I thought I could give you a massage, then try using one of them on you while I sucked you?”
“It’s a nice idea, a really nice idea, but I want to adjust it a bit.” Cloud could see how hard it had been for Sephiroth to make that suggestion, and he stroked him gently, reassuringly.
“Whatever you want Cloud.” Sephiroth shut his eyes, clearly focusing on Cloud’s touch, as he replied in a soft voice.
“That might not always be the safest thing to promise love.” Cloud let his amusement show as he kissed his lover. “What if I asked you to follow the dildo up with really fucking me? I won’t.” Cloud hurried to reassure Sephiroth when he realised he’d actually frightened the man. “I know you don’t think that’s safe, and I won’t argue with you on that. This is what we’re going to do. We’ll start with that massage you offered - which sounds wonderful considering how talented your hands are - then I’ll roll onto my side and you can spoon up behind me, or lie facing me, whichever you prefer. And you can use that dildo on me in that position.” Cloud stood and held out his hand to Sephiroth.
“As you wish.” Sephiroth smiled as he took Cloud’s hand and let him ‘help’ him to his feet, following a step behind Cloud as they made their way to the bedroom. Cloud stripped off quickly and lay down on his stomach, waiting to see how his lover would react. He was pleased to see that Sephiroth didn’t hesitate, straddling his body and beginning the massage at once, and Cloud let himself relax under the ministration of those strong skilled hands.
“If you would be willing to roll onto your side?” Cloud made sure that there was space in front of him and behind him, letting Sephiroth decide where to lie for himself instead of making the choice for him without saying a thing - he knew that if he’d positioned himself so Sephiroth couldn’t fit on the bed in one position his lover wouldn’t ask him to move. He wasn’t too surprised when Sephiroth chose to lie down facing him, and he rewarded his lover with a kiss, since he hadn’t tried to hide the fact that he would prefer the other option when he described them both. Not that it had been obvious, but Sephiroth watched him closely enough to have noticed.
For the moment Sephiroth seemed content to just kiss him, and eventually Cloud got impatient enough to wrap one leg around his lover’s waist and put Sephiroth’s hand on his back in a silent hint. Sephiroth trembled and tilted his head back as he began circling Cloud’s entrance with an oiled finger, and Cloud nibbled lightly on his throat to reassure him. It seemed to be enough to calm him, and Cloud relaxed easily as Sephiroth pushed that first tentative finger into him. He could tell that Sephiroth was nervous about this, so he kept his touches light, without trying to arouse his lover too much, letting him concentrate on what he was doing, but he was glad that Sephiroth was aroused as well, that this wouldn’t just be about Cloud’s pleasure.
Sephiroth took a bit longer about preparing him than Cloud might have liked, but he was still bucking against his lover by the time Sephiroth slid the dildo into him. Despite the preparation Sephiroth had done it wasn’t particularly pleasant at first, and Cloud knew better than to try to hide that - he didn’t think he could have succeeded in doing so anyway.
“Don’t stop; you just have to change the angle a bit. I know this is awkward for you, but try, please?”
“If that’s what you want Cloud.” He kissed Sephiroth, enjoying the generosity his lover was showing.
“It is. You’re doing wonderfully, I promise. It isn’t as if this particularly hurts, it just isn’t giving me pleasure yet, and I know you can find that spot if you try. It’s just harder to do that with this than with your fingers.” Or than it was with his cock, and Cloud knew that from experience, even if Sephiroth hadn’t seemed to mind Cloud fumbling around when he’d been trying to use a dildo on him. He gasped when Sephiroth pushed the dildo into him next. “That’s it, you’ve got it right now.”
“Good. You’re going to need something more than this though, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.” Sephiroth didn’t come just from Cloud inside him very often, he almost always needed some other stimulation, as often to one of his sensitive areas as to his cock. “but don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it. You just focus on keeping that motion steady.”
“Y-yes Cloud.” Cloud was not going to feel bad about the way he distracted Sephiroth with a hand wrapped around their cocks; he needed more than just the dildo, and he wasn’t going to ignore Sephiroth’s pleasure. After a while the motion of the dildo became a bit erratic, but it didn’t matter by then, and Cloud climaxed first, then stroked his lover to his own completion.
“That was wonderful love. Thank you for doing this for me.” He could see that Sephiroth was going to need reassurance, and he was perfectly content to provide however much of it his lover wanted. “Did you have any other delicious ideas you wanted to share with me?” Since he knew that Sephiroth tended to be a bit hesitant sometimes when it came to suggesting things to do in bed.
“One. You said that with the way I used to transfer energy to someone else for spellcasting if the energy isn’t immediately used for a spell it’s lost. Do you think you could try taking energy from my core, then just returning it to my body, not my power reserve, until it reaches the point of affecting me physically?”
“I...hadn’t thought about that. It’s something you’d like me to do?” Sephiroth blushed faintly as he nodded and Cloud smiled at him. “Then we can have fun experimenting with it. Do you want us to try that tomorrow evening?”
“I...if you’d be so kind.”
“I will then.” He kissed Sephiroth gently, inviting him to start again, once they’d put the dildo aside.
Cloud didn’t bother to hide his relief on learning that the rest of the squad would be patrolling Hojo’s labs while he was working in the infirmary. Even Finn didn’t see his reaction as more than a reason for amusement, and some rough teasing, teasing he returned as best he could.
“Anyone would think you don’t like drinking with us Cloud.” Dylan’s comment was cheerful enough, but it fell into one of those conversational pauses that happen, and Cloud could feel an almost palpable resentment of his self-imposed partial isolation among the squad, focused on team gamma.
“Try scheduling these squad bonding nights better for me then. I’ve told you about my girl, and how I can only be certain of seeing her on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I’ve got officially scheduled training on Fridays, and every other Saturday I’ve got extra work with the General. It’s not my fault we’ve been assigned to the labs on Tuesdays recently.”
“We’ve got the labs again on Sunday - you won’t bail on us then, will you Cloud?” Corporal Hende’s voice was light, teasing, and Cloud grinned at him, knowing he had to play along with the other man, or that momentary resentment would crystallise around him.
“Of course not. I didn’t bail on you two days ago did I?” Perhaps not the best example, but...
“And he even made sure none of us had much in the way of hangovers. Remember to tell your girl that she won’t get you next Tuesday; we’re on night shift then.”
“Yes sergeant, I’ll do that.” Sephiroth would probably already know, but he’d tell him anyway, just to make sure. “But this is where I have to leave you.” He turned off for the infirmary, relieved to hear cheerful goodbyes behind him. At least he’d defused any resentment among his squad, for now.
“Corporal Strife reporting for duty sir.” He’d have preferred to report to Dr. Alexander, but his orders specified that he should report to Dr. Talbot on arrival at the infirmary. Which made a sort of sense considering that Dr. Talbot was the senior doctor there - as much a medical administrator as a doctor and isolated in an office to boot, but he was the most experienced doctor there.
“Another half-trained field medic.” There was a sort of quiet contempt in his voice, and in his eyes when he looked at Cloud. “And you can’t even be that much past cadet training. Just what are you good for anyway?” Cloud wasn’t sure if he was supposed to answer that question, or to remain silent and accept the implication that he wasn’t good for much.
“Miss Rembrandt, take this medic and figure out how we can use him.”
“Yes sir.” The pretty young lady who shared Dr. Talbot’s office was obviously civilian, and that bothered Cloud on a subliminal level, but she smiled at him and he forced himself to respond to that smile. It wasn’t her fault that her boss was an ass after all. “If you’ll come this way?”
“Yes ma’am.” Cloud followed her through to a cloakroom, lockers along one wall, and a coat rack along the other with benches lining the other two walls, except for the two doors.
“Do you carry anything valuable in your uniform jacket?”
“No ma’am.”
“Good, take it off and put this on then.” She handed him a zip lock bag with a white coat inside, and when Cloud pulled it out he could see that ‘Medic Strife’ was embroidered on the left breast. “You only wear that in here; you deliver it to the laundry in that bag, it will be returned in a fresh bag, and you don’t open the bag until you get here. Clear?”
“Yes ma’am. Are these precautions to ensure sterility?” Cloud spoke as he pulled the lab coat on, glancing back at her for confirmation.
“Yes. I’m impressed that you realised that. Most field medics don’t.”
“Well, generally we have to work in non-sterile conditions, and for soft-tissue injuries our Restore materia will usually eliminate infections so we don’t have to guard against that. But I recently had to deal with someone who had a gut-wound, and that required the use of a Heal materia to deal with the infection, so I’m a bit more aware of those issues.”
“I see. On a similar note you’re to enter the infirmary through this cloakroom. Here’s your keycard, and that’s the exit door. The other door leads to a toilet and washroom, and you’re expected to clean your hands before entering the rest of the infirmary.” Cloud nodded, and taking that as a veiled instruction he went through to the washroom, cleaning his hands with the antiseptic soap supplied before returning.
“Good. You’ll be assigned to assist one of the doctors, just do whatever he tells you to do, and remember to wash your hands before you leave. Today you’re to work with...” She ran her finger down a chart pinned to the wall as she spoke until she found the date. “Dr. Arramar. I’ll take you to him this time, but in future you’ll have to find your assigned supervisor yourself.”
“Yes ma’am.” Cloud followed the woman into the main area of the infirmary, meeting up with Dr Arramar, a dark-skinned man with his hair cut very short.
“Strife. What’s the correct procedure for a broken bone?”
“In the field make a manual assessment of how badly it’s broken, sir. If possible manipulate it so it will set correctly and cast a Cure or, if you have the reserves and think it’s advisable, a Cure2. If you can’t manipulate the broken bone to set correctly settle for binding it, unless it includes an open wound, in which case cast a Cure to close the wound and accept that it will have to be re-broken when full medical treatment is available. At a base send to X-ray, and set the bone correctly, either manually or through surgery depending on the type of broken bone, and if the patient has time to recover naturally put it in a cast.”
“Good enough. But you forgot to consider which bone might be broken. Your assessment was perfect for a broken limb, but what about broken ribs, or a broken back?” By the end of the shift Cloud felt totally wrung out. Dr. Arramar had only stopped asking him questions when they had a patient to treat, and then whenever possible he let Cloud take the lead, only stepping in when Cloud was obviously out of his depth. And he’d cast so many spells that he’d drained his energy reserve to the point where it would almost affect him physically.
He dropped his lab coat off at the laundry on his way to eat, but he couldn’t manage to eat much - although at least it was a stew today, easier to eat than roast meat and vegetables would have been. Then he made his way to Sephiroth’s quarters, glad that he had an excuse to go there when he was stopped by a patrol, for the first time since he’d joined the 3rd Sword.
“Cloud?” For a change and to Cloud’s relief Sephiroth was waiting for him when he got to his lover’s quarters, and he hurried over to wrap his arms around Cloud. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, just...drained.” Cloud relaxed, letting Sephiroth take his weight as they moved to the couch. “You want to get a bit more practice in at transferring energy to my reserve? I’m not up to carrying out that experiment you suggested last night.”
“You smell of antiseptic.” It was a non sequitur, but Cloud could feel Sephiroth pouring power into his core as he spoke. “What do you want to do tonight then?”
“We can do one of your jigsaws together for a while, then you can give me a massage, and perhaps ride me after that.” He began petting his lover’s hair as he regained his energy, and nuzzled into Sephiroth’s neck for a moment, before reluctantly pushing away.
“If that would please you.” Sephiroth began obediently, if slowly, pulling away from Cloud, but then he paused with a frown. “Have I given you enough energy for you to stay awake that long though?”
“Yes; you’ve given me just a bit more than my natural maximum. That’s enough for today.”
“I’ll get the jigsaw out then.” Cloud just relaxed on the couch, watching Sephiroth move and joining him on the floor once he had the jigsaw out.
“Oh, by the way, Sergeant Redson ordered me to tell my girl that I’ve got night shift next Tuesday.”
“I’ll make a note of that.” Sephiroth sounded as amused as Cloud felt by that; but it would probably raise suspicions if Sephiroth made a habit of checking on what duty Cloud’s squad was assigned to, so the sergeant had done them a favour. It was...nice doing the jigsaw together with Sephiroth, something quiet, companionable, and a change from their more adventurous recent experiments.
“Change of plan, we shower together, I wash your hair, and then you give me a massage. If we have sex afterwards you can do all the work.” Sephiroth seemed to like the idea, up until the last sentence, but he smiled at Cloud anyway.
“I’ll put the jigsaw away then while you get the shower running.” Cloud followed Sephiroth’s suggestion, washing himself quickly, including his hair before Sephiroth arrived. Sephiroth knelt in front of him, easily letting Cloud move him about to wash him and then dry him off afterwards.
Cloud lay back and watched Sephiroth dry his hair with a smile, then rolled onto his stomach once Sephiroth was finished. It felt oddly decadent to have his lover tending to him this way, strong hands easing all of the aches and pains from his body, and Cloud couldn’t stop himself falling to sleep as Sephiroth worked.
“You want to play energy battery again so I can restore Marius and Alex’s energy reserves?” Cloud grinned at Zack as they returned from selling the monster parts; it had gone well today, if not quite as profitable for him as the last time they’d gone out hunting with Zack.
“Might as well. I’m not going to need the energy today. Take whatever you need.” Zack held out his hand with a grin, and Cloud filled his own reserves to just under their natural maximum - considering what he had planned for tonight with Sephiroth he’d only really need enough to transfer to his friends now, but he’d keep some in case he had trouble during the day.
“How come you have to let Cloud do this instead of doing it yourself the way the General can?” Marius kept his question polite as Cloud gave some of Zack’s energy to him
“Sephiroth has to work with people weaker than him pretty often;” all the time more like it, unless Zack meant much weaker than him, as opposed to just weaker than him the way SOLDIER 1sts were, “that’s why he came up with the original method of transferring magical energy and why he’s learning Cloud’s variation, I don’t usually work with anyone less than a SOLDIER 2nd, so I don’t need to learn Cloud’s version of the technique.”
“Cloud’s version?” Alex sounded surprised by that, but from the slight look of vindication on his face Cloud knew that Marius had already suspected that.
“More precision, less sheer power, right?”
“Yes. The original was only useful if Sephiroth wanted to cast multiple spells at the same time, he’d feed the energy into someone else and have them cast the spells he couldn’t. The energy has to be used right then, or it’s lost. Cloud saw the concept from a different perspective; he said it was a bit like using an unslotted materia, and he saw details we missed.”
“Cloud explained that to me once, how the General’s power level makes it hard for him to notice the fine details of how the power of people as weak as us changes. It was when you were on your first assignment away from Midgar Alex.”
“Can we change the subject?” Cloud wasn’t entirely happy that his friends were talking about his skill with magic; it could raise suspicions, even if he wasn’t entirely being rational about the issue. “Zack, I was thinking about getting myself a support materia. I’d just about decided on Magic Counter, do you have any advice about how to choose one?”
“We can go and look at them together, after we’ve had that spar you promised me.”
“Think we can fit it in before lunch then?”
“And go looking afterwards? Sure. You two want to watch?” Cloud couldn’t be irritated at Zack for offering that to his sponsees, he just hoped he didn’t disappoint Zack because he wouldn’t be fighting with anger powering him today. They turned towards the gyms when Alex and Marius agreed to watch, and a wicked idea occurred to Cloud.
“So, are you going to be commenting on our spar for your sponsees’ education while we spar, or will you keep that for afterwards?” He put a hint of challenge in his smile as he looked at Zack, waiting to be told they’d have to settle for an analysis of the action afterwards. But Zack surprised him by agreeing to give a running commentary while they were fighting, at least as much of one as he could, pointing out that it would give Cloud a better chance against him.
“Why do you think I suggested it?” That earned a grin from Zack and Cloud focused on his fighting, actually managing to score on Zack once or twice. Then Zack dragged all of them to eat in the SOLDIER mess hall while he went into more detail on his analysis of Cloud’s performance, as well as talking about how the three of them had done in their hunt. By the end of lunch Alex and Marius had agreed to come looking for magic materia of their own, a Lightning for Marius and a Fire for Alex.
When they were in the materia shop Cloud managed to draw Zack into talking about how he preferred to use his materia, what he liked equipping them in, as well as getting him to discuss Sephiroth’s tastes in that area. Cloud was glad to learn that both men were very practical about those things, but he was sure his lover would be thrilled by the offer of a collar, especially one that could be disguised as something more socially acceptable. He did note that Zack preferred black leather rather than brown or any other colour.
“Do you have the full day off Zack?” He probably did if he had time to help Cloud with this, but he should ask instead of just assuming the way he had been - this was the first time he’d thought to ask though. He’d just taken it for granted that Zack would have time to help them with this extra training and with choosing materia for themselves, and he shouldn’t have.
“Err...officially I’m on duty at the moment. This is going down as training and equipping my sponsees, and since I don’t have any specifically assigned duties today I’d normally be expected to just be ready in case I was needed or train myself.”
“And since Sephiroth has a lot of administrative work and such to deal with he can’t work with us during normal hours, I get it.” It made sense, and Cloud supposed it was as good a way as any for ShinRa to make use of the SOLDIERs not on combat duty at any particular time. “Thanks for the help anyway, I know I’m not your responsibility strictly speaking.” His new support materia would take more work to mature than his Lightning, taking as much energy to reach second level as it took to master a Lightning, Fire or Ice.
“You’re welcome.” Cloud managed to leave Zack there with Alex and Marius while he went to find out how much it would cost him to get Sephiroth a collar to match his restraints. He could afford it easily enough, but he still left the shop without actually ordering the collar, not yet - he only needed to order it two weeks before he wanted to collect the collar and that would give him time to actually make the slot he wanted set in it.
He’d worked up enough of a sweat sparring during the afternoon, as well as agreeing to one spar after eating at 1700 that Cloud was in the shower when Sephiroth returned to his quarters, and he just barely heard his lover coming in over the sound of the water.
“Cloud? Might I join you?” Sephiroth sounded delightfully uncertain and Cloud smiled at him in response.
“Oh yes. Come on in.” Cloud smiled as Sephiroth stripped slowly, enjoying the way his lover slowly revealed his body. Once Sephiroth was in reach he grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him into the shower, pressing up against him. “I think I’ll start taking your energy now.”
“Please.” Sephiroth barely had time to whisper his response before Cloud kissed him, drawing energy from him at the same time. He could see/hear/feel/scent/taste some type of ‘channels’ running through Sephiroth, and experimentally he fed some of the energy he was taking from his lover back into them, carefully, watching where the energy ended up. It wasn’t in his lover’s own energy reserve, which was all Cloud really needed to worry about, and from the way Sephiroth was grinding himself against Cloud it felt good for him.
“Oh, please, don’t stop.” Sephiroth protested quietly when Cloud pulled away after he’d taken perhaps a quarter of Sephiroth’s energy and fed it into those channels.
“You want more?” Cloud smiled teasingly as he spoke, assessing his lover in case he did something to upset him. “Earn it.” Cloud could see Sephiroth’s breath catch and he dropped to his knees, resting his hands against Cloud’s hips.
“Might I?” Cloud was tempted to ask Sephiroth to be a bit more explicit, but he thought that might be pushing it, so he just pulled his lover’s head to his groin and caressed him as Sephiroth took him into his mouth. In reward he connected to Sephiroth’s power core again and began feeding the energy he took back into the channels he’d found, enjoying the way Sephiroth moaned around him. But then Sephiroth kept on sucking after he’d climaxed, and it hurt a little; Cloud tried pushing the energy into Sephiroth in what seemed to be the wrong way, forcing the energy to flow ‘backwards’ through one channel, and putting all the energy he was feeding into his lover’s body into that one channel. Sephiroth gave a choked off cry around Cloud’s cock, and he stopped transferring energy as he pulled his lover’s head back.
“Don’t do that, please, not when I have you in my mouth. I...I almost bit down on you.” Sephiroth was shaking in clear shock and Cloud pulled him to his feet, stroking and petting him as he promised not to hurt him like that again. “I...I’m sorry to make such a fuss. Can we try again?”
“Don’t be sorry. You did the right thing in telling me there was a problem. Just stay there for the moment.” Sephiroth had barely a fifth of his power core left now and Cloud wasn’t sure how that would affect his near-immunity to heat and cold. He dried himself off quickly and did the same to Sephiroth before pulling him through to his bedroom, and pushing him onto the bed, draining power from him and feeding it into Sephiroth’s body all the time.
Sephiroth was aroused and relaxed enough that Cloud didn’t think he’d really need that much in the way of preparation, so he slid two fingers into him at once, stretching his lover as quickly as he could before he drained Sephiroth’s reserves dry. He just barely made it, and when he stopped, pulling away to break the connection, Sephiroth struggled briefly to try and pull him back, then gave up with a quiet whimper.
“Please Cloud.”
“Hush, I’m not going to hurt you.” He leaned down and kissed Sephiroth again as he thrust into him, moving perhaps a bit too quickly - and was surprised when Sephiroth climaxed around him. But it didn’t take him much longer to climax himself, then he helped Sephiroth under the sheets, letting his lover cling to him as they fell asleep.
Also, if you're interested and haven't already seen it I posted how Zack found out about the shop he takes Cloud and Sephiroth to here
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-19 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-19 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-19 09:31 pm (UTC)I'm wondering also if you're going to (or already have and I've just missed it) make a post with your reasoning for Sephiroth's extreme submissiveness? I actually find it enjoyable and refreshing to read, and I've learnt more about the scene from reading your fic than I have from having friends involved in it. (Not being directly involved myself I wouldn't even think of some of the aspects involved, and it's not something that actually comes up all that often in conversation).
I think also it seems rather a pity that not many people seem to be willing to drop comments on your chapters (after all, it's one of the few ways to guage if a story is going down well for an author), unless of course you're posting elsewhere and getting a far more lively response there or via other methods.
Anyhow, I do look forward to your next chapter with great anticipation.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 06:40 pm (UTC)I'm very much looking forward to those essays as I'd like to see to what extent our reasoning coincides. I don't believe I personally have the skill, or a solid enough grasp on the emotions involved, to actually write Sephiroth as quite such a sub and manage to keep it believeable (or readable). Nonetheless I'd be interested to see whether or not we give it the same justification.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 06:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-20 10:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 01:27 pm (UTC)I really enjoy stories with Dominance-Submission themes -- I've written a few myself (not in FF7, but in the Gundam Wing fandom) so I've enjoyed reading your various stories on submissive Sephiroth.
However, I do have a comment/suggestion about this story (Responsive), however. It's just my personal opinion but I feel that the story tends to get bogged down in technical details -- not with respect to Cloud and Sephiroth's DS relationship which I think you've depicted in a very plausible way, but in regard to the magic and military aspects of the story. In contrast, your other stories like your Cetra Restoration AU is much more focused on the relationships between various characters.
I hope you won't take offense, but I think that spending so much time on the mechanics of combat and materia distracts from the most interesting aspect of the story (i.e., Cloud and Sephiroth's unusual relationship). I admit that I've ended up skipping big chunks of this story because... well, I'm just not that interested in the intricacies of various combinations of materia slots, etc. ^_^;;
I'm not saying that developing and exploring aspects of your fanfic's world is bad in any way. I simply think that those sections of the story that are focused on the military tech aspect are a bit too separate from the Cloud-Sephiroth side of the story -- many times, they feel oddly... disassociated. And when they do convey useful or essential information on characterization or plot, that information often gets buried in the minutia of the tech side of the story.
So perhaps you might want to think a little more about what the main focus of the story is and concentrate on that. Are you interested in exploring and developing Cloud and Sephiroth's DS relationship and how that relationship affects other aspects of their lives? Or are you more interested in exploring the technology and culture of the Shinra military?
This is just my personal opinion and reading preference, of course. You do an excellent job of portraying Sephiroth as submissive, and I really compliment you on that. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 03:42 pm (UTC)