They were terrified when Cloud's phone alarm started screaming at 8pm.

They looked at each other with heavy, swollen eyes for a moment before deflating again. They were both freezing, sore, and now completely stiff from falling asleep on the couch. Thankfully they weren't glued together with dried up cum, but only because most of Sephiroth was hanging over the edge while Cloud had wedged himself between the back of the couch and the cushions.

"Help..." Cloud whined miserably and reached out fruitlessly for his phone. Sephiroth handed it to him and the screen's light made them both squint as he shut the alarm off. Once it was quiet he dropped his head against Sephiroth's chest, "I'm dying..."

He lifted his hand to brush down the back of Cloud's hair, "Wouldja be disappointed if I wanna just shower and go back to sleep?"

Cloud made a meandering noise of contemplation, "Am I invited?"

"Yeah, you're carryin' me there."

Cloud pushed a kiss onto Sephiroth's cheek as one of his feet found the floor. He tried to get up while keeping his weight off of anything sensitive, but ended up pushing on Sephiroth's stomach and earning a little grunt from him, anyway.

Rediscovering that the bed had been stripped was a rude reminder that they needed to finish the laundry, and to Sephiroth that he needed more than one bedsheet in life. So they took a very quick shower just to clean off, switched the laundry to the dryer, then went to the kitchen to reheat their pizza.

Cloud was amusing himself by tugging up on the band of Sephiroth's sweatpants and enjoying the very slight bounce of his muscular little ass inside them, "Wanna watch that movie?"

"What movie?" Sephiroth yawned.

"The one you said to watch on my evaluation," he left Sephiroth's sweatpants alone and started making up little boxing moves on his arm.

"Do my back," he requested as he he took his plate out and slid Cloud's plate in. It was like a summertime insect was bouncing against his skin and giving him a weird massage, "... I said you should watch Rocky IV, I was kinda jokin' about it though. You like Rocky movies?"

"Never saw one, maybe it'll awaken something in me," Cloud stopped pretend punching and switched to his thumbs when he discovered a hard knot between Sephiroth's shoulder blades. He quickly grew tired of massaging and switched to karate chops, "Let's do battle!"

Sephiroth snorted and said nothing.

"C'mon, I can take it!" Cloud started hopping and jabbing the air until Sephiroth's back straightened to his full height and he squared up. When Sephiroth was relaxed, it was way too easy to forget how fucking stacked he was, it was like he gained twenty pounds of solid muscle and grew at three inches in one microsecond.

Cloud had very much changed his mind about challenging him to any sort of battle, and let out a scream when Sephiroth faked him out and threw his arm around his neck instead, "Don't write checks with your mouth – "

" – that my ass can't cash, I know," Cloud pretended to complain from Sephiroth's armpit. "My ass is usually pretty good for it, though!"

"You're right about that," he gave him a rough kiss on top of his head before releasing him.

He hadn't watched this movie since he was about eight-years-old, but Rocky IV was the best one in Sephiroth's opinion. It had originally been Vincent's opinion, it was the kind of old harmless movie he'd put on before bedtime if Sephiroth was staying the night on his couch as a kid, a palate cleanser from whatever inappropriate horror movies they'd watched beforehand. And maybe a palate cleanser from day to day life at the lab... it was a nice escape to drink chocolate milk and eat cookies and watch oiled up 80's dudes lifting weights with heroic musical montages.

His little kid brain couldn't really comprehend the plot, but fundamentally it was a story about good and evil and muscles. Watching it as an adult, it all felt very homoerotic and formative.

Sephiroth watched in bemusement with the tip of one of Cloud's spikes between his lips, "I didn't understand any of this shit when I was little."

Cloud was tucked underneath Sephiroth's arm, slowly tracing the sinew and contours of his ribs with his fingertips, "Did you think they were hot?"

Sephiroth blew Cloud's hair out of his mouth, "No, still don't."

"You gotta admit the blonde guy's kinda hot."

Dolph Lundgren in the 80's looked like the Hulk that Cloud would mutate into if he was ever exposed to gamma radiation. Sephiroth had been dying for an opening to say so since he first came on screen, but the possibility of it somehow hurting Cloud's feelings made him swallow the observation, "... He's not my type. Too scary to fuck."

"It's all a tough guy act, he gets pegged by his wife for sure," Cloud speculated, probably correctly. He was interested in the movie but also interested in hearing Sephiroth talk, "... What else did you and Vincent do besides watch movies?"

He was quiet for a while. Eventually he said, "I remember he couldn't take me anywhere if I was too sick or beat up... I know why now, but back then they made me think it was a punishment for not doin' better. Sometimes he'd just take me anyway, and the only thing we really could do was sit in his apartment and watch movies. If I didn't have a lot of marks on my face, we'd go to the playground, or go eat somethin', or he'd take me to the toy store and let me pick out somethin'. At one point I had a lot of toys at his place, the lab always threw everything I brought back away."

"Where are they now?" Cloud cooed. "I want your baby toys! And your baby clothes, and – "

"It's all gone."

Cloud almost regretted pressing this topic, but didn't want him to stop talking if he wanted to continue, "... I'm glad you got to have that time with him, even if it wasn't much."

"... It's weird that he was the same age I am now. He seemed like a dad age."

"He was."

Sephiroth considered that for a long time, but didn't respond as they became absorbed in the movie.

By the time it was over Cloud was inspired to new levels of ass-kicking masculinity! Until he was wrapped in freshly baked sheets from the dryer, then he was just a pile of goo in the middle of the bed while Sephiroth tried to make it around him. They left the heat off for maximum effect, and cuddled underneath the heavy winter blankets just like they'd planned.

The next day when Sephiroth came awake the sky was dark and swirling over Midgar. Wet snow pelted against the windows in a rhythmic beat, the kind of weather that was designed specifically for staying in bed late. He let a wave of genuine gratitude wash over him for this moment in his life; dark, cold, nasty weather outside, no reason whatsoever to get up, and body heat from his favorite person in the entire world behind him.

He moved his hair out of the way as he turned over, searching for a way to hook into Cloud before falling back asleep. He was sitting up with his back against the wall, his face lit by his phone's screen and deep into a text conversation with lightning quick thumbs.

"Hey," Sephiroth rumbled. "Wha' time is it?"

"Almost nine... something's happening Thursday," Cloud responded distantly. "Did you get all these texts from the lab last night?"

"Mm-hm."

"What do y – "

"Mmmmm," he interrupted with a long groan. "Sleep's too good right now."

Cloud looked down and had to just adore him for a second. His eyes were closed tight and his arm was suspended, waiting for him.

Cloud decided to be finished with his phone and set it aside to slide back down beneath the blankets. He could tell what Sephiroth wanted by how he was gently pushing and pulling on him, so Cloud obediently turned over onto his side to be spooned.

"I'll text 'em later," was all Sephiroth had to say for himself. After a few moments he then grumpily inhaled, "I don't want to."

Cloud looked over his shoulder and kissed whatever was closest, which turned out to be the underside of Sephiroth's nose. It was a really odd little place for his lips to land, and Cloud realized he never had kissed him there before, so he did it again, "You don't have to do anything."

Sephiroth was scowling with his eyes closed and rubbed the weird feeling of Cloud's nose kisses away with a little sniff, "Just talk to 'em for me. I don't care what they do, just tell 'em I said whatever."

"They don't care what I say."

"They can eat shit," Sephiroth replied with much more acidity than he meant to. He cracked open his eyes, and Cloud was still gazing over his shoulder at him with a patient smile. He had to smile back, "Sorry."

"Don't ever be," Cloud craned his neck to kiss up the underside of Sephiroth's nose in that peculiar way.

"Weirdo," he wrinkled his nose tightly, "Stop it."

"Can't, I love you too much," Cloud nestled backwards against him as he laid his head down, cuddly and sweet but moving his hips and arching his back just a little too much beneath the blankets to be completely innocent.

"Hey..." he warned, and was almost of the mind to wake all the way up. Cloud's back was silky soft and burning with body heat pressed up against the front of him, and his arms and legs tangled with Sephiroth's until they were locked tightly together. Any sexual energy was soon diffused as the still quiet of the bedroom allowed the storm outside to express itself louder. Soon Cloud was sleeping in his arms, and that gentle sound pulled Sephiroth back down, too.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Cloud wasn't sure what to expect of a preliminary hearing in Shin-Ra military court, but much more importantly he wasn't sure what to wear. He stood in front of his closet considering his options, and wondered if he should just wear his Cadet uniform... but this was kind of a rare chance to live out an episode of Law and Order.

What would Cloud be wearing... if his husband Sephiroth was a powerful senator and their willful, wild adopted son was going to a trial for murder? Money and power couldn't help their silver spoon child out of this one, and Cloud was going to show unwavering support as a dutiful wife and mother... while harboring a quiet pill addiction. It wasn't easy being the matriarch of this family; his husband needed a strong wife to support him in his political career and host tea parties full of judgmental tension for the other government wives, and their adopted son needed the unconditional love of his mother, now more than ever. The pills helped Cloud be the woman he needed to be for his family and also for the world! But he wasn't prepared for evidence to come forward that their adopted son was actually Cloud's drug dealer! The murder was self defense in an Adderall score gone wrong, and while their son was found not guilty, Cloud was exposed as a pill queen! "I've shamed our family! I put our son in danger! I've destroyed your image!" Cloud would sob on the courthouse steps while spilling pills everywhere out of his purse, and Sephiroth would take him by the shoulders in righteous husbandly anger, "Don't you understand that my high octane political career comes second to YOU!? Why must you be such a devoted wife and mother that it should come to this!? Put yourself first for once in your life Cloud, stop trying to be everything to everyone, just be the wonderful woman I married!"

What an episode! It might even have been a two-parter with a redemption arc in rehab. Cloud didn't have any skirt suits or pearls to fit the fantasy, but he did have his Hugo Boss ensemble. It was just generic and snooty enough to easily be an outfit for a guest star appearance on Law and Order, so he decided to wear it.

He met his mom in the parking garage, she'd driven straight up from Junon after work. When she stepped out of her car it was one of those rare moments where Cloud really saw her with adult eyes for the woman she was, not just as his mother. He never paid much attention to what she was wearing but clothes were on his mind, and she looked fucking adorable. She had on this short little navy blue dress and a cozy cream cardigan that was almost just as long, and a pair of little red heels.

She flicked a spent cigarette butt into the distance and smiled at him, "Someone's looking awfully grown up and handsome!"

"And you look beautiful!" he cried and dove in for a hug.

She snorted off the compliment, oblivious to her own cuteness, "Where's the big idiot?"

"Don't be mean to him today," he said, looking at his phone. He still didn't have a clear answer on if Sephiroth was coming or not, and Cloud was trying to just leave him alone about it. There were no texts since he said he was going for a run on the track earlier that afternoon, it seemed like he'd spent the better part of that week running, to the extent Cloud was beginning to wonder if 'run' was a euphemism of some sort, "I don't know if he'll show up. This is hard for him."

"I don't blame him."

Cloud looked at her, "You don't?"

There was a clear absence of vitriol in her eyes, "I've seen the texts all week. I don't blame him at all."

Being included in the text chat group was by far the most interesting part of this entire thing. There was conversation between the prosecution, defense, the lab, and every once in a while Sephiroth. They were all being absolute snarky bitches to each other all week long as they decided how to use their time in this first short preliminary hearing – the whole thing might not even last twenty minutes. Sephiroth was adamant that he didn't care about this and it had absolutely nothing to do with him, and kept leaving the chat only to be added back into it because someone had some dumb question for him.

When Cloud had suggested a military trial as an option for dealing with the clone, he assumed this matter could be resolved in like, an hour. But apparently there were a lot of threads that needed to be unraveled first before they could even approach that stage, and some of those threads included Sephiroth. He was going to have to participate in some capacity whether he liked it or not, if only to answer questions about himself so they could legally determine what he clone even was.

The indicated room was in Shin-Ra HQ, and was just a standard looking conference room, except the table was easily fifty feet long. Some were ushered to seats with microphones, some were allowed to sit anywhere, but Cloud and April were guided to sit far, far, far, far down the table toward the end of the room.

The clone wasn't there, which wasn't surprising. Sephiroth wasn't, either.

"Who are all these shitheads?" April murmured to him.

Cloud whispered, "I think the shithead at the head of the table is the courts martial, he's like the judge. And the lawyers have microphones, I guess it's the defense and the accusers? Prosecution? It might be called something different but I'm not sure. Some people might be connected to the victims. And most of the rest of these people are probably the lawyer helpers."

"A "lawyer helper" is a paralegal, didn't I teach you anything?"

"Why would you have ever taught me what a paralegal is!?" he hissed. "And why are you asking me who everyone is if you know?"

"Paralegal is a great job, Clow. You could even become a lawyer one day - look at all these guys, you could work for the army in their legal department! Why don't you look into that?"

"I'm in the SOLDIER program," he told her for the millionth time.

"That doesn't mean you can't look into it."

It felt like every single time they talked lately she was trying to inform him of other options while staying in the army and it was getting annoying. He didn't reply and pretended to be very interested in his phone.

She could see that he was literally just scrolling bullshit and elbowed him, "I'm telling you, you're such a cute little manipulative shite, why don't you try actually getting paid for it – "

"Please be quiet, ma'am," Cloud shushed her loudly but politely, and she pushed his forehead in retaliation.

Eventually Sephiroth showed up, and it was obvious that 'running' was not a euphemism at all. He had sweat slick, rosy cheeks with his hair tied up tight, and was wearing a black ARMY sweatshirt and sweatpants. He leaned up against the wall beside the door like he might decide to leave at any moment, until he was ushered in to sit near the front of the table.

Cloud texted him, 'Hey pretty boy, me and mom are here'

Sephiroth looked at his phone, then scanned the table. When he spotted Cloud his features softened and he texted, 'WHY ARE YOU SO FAR AWAY FROM MY DICK'

Cloud giggled out loud before he could cover his mouth. He looked up at Sephiroth, who was now openly smiling back at him.

Cloud texted, 'Well I love you too! I just wanted you to know you're not alone here in this sea of assholes.'

The dots that indicated Sephiroth was typing back appeared, disappeared, and reappeared several times. Eventually he texted, 'u gtta study or do stuff after this?'

'No', Cloud answered and looked up the table at him.

He was looking at his phone with no expression, 'wanna get rid of ur b itch mom n GET SOME FOOD!?'

Cloud stifled another giggle and wrote back with a grin, 'YES I'd love to!'

'what sounds good? im kindna in the mood for a burger, i want a milkshake'

'Sounds good to me'

'but i want it soft served out of ur ass like 2 grls 1 cup'

Cloud visibly recoiled and shot a disgusted look up the table at him.

Sephiroth replied with a broad grin and another text, 'dont act like u wldnt do it!'

"Good evening," the courts martial called out. "We're going to get started, but please bear in mind this is only the first preliminary proceeding of many, there's a lot of ground here to cover but we wish to lay some foundation for case number – "

'love you, see u soon' Sephiroth texted once more and put his phone down in front of him. He crossed his arms over his chest like a gorgeous, stone cold statue.

Cloud put his phone down and gave his attention to the proceedings too, even though as far as he was concerned his job there was finished. He just wanted Sephiroth to at least feel some measure of support and lighten his mood.

Cloud tried his best to comprehend what was happening and why. He'd learned a little about how this worked in his Intro to Infantry class, but just enough to know that he could steal pretty much anything worth less than ten thousand gil and also murder civilians and probably get away with it. The Shin-Ra military court was kind of about protecting their people from the actual law, while still doling out proper punishments when they fucked up within the company.

The little clone's murders outside the company would be answered for, but the ones within the company were the ones that he might die for. The prosecution was looking for a death penalty by lethal injection, while the defense was looking for incarceration, mental health treatment, and involuntary military enrollment should he live to become sixteen-years-old.

But the first matter of the case was determining his actual age. But before even that, it had to be determined if he was even a person or not.

The courts martial said, "In reference to the minor at the center of this case, the medical lab's initial submission is that he was not created there and is not an exact DNA clone of Sephiroth Shin-Ra. While they do share similar genetic makeup and there seems to be some connection to the S project from presence of J-cells in his body, he is not a clone of Sephiroth. For ease of communication and clarity the court recommends referring to this minor as "Crater" due to its first known appearance at the Northern Crater, and no longer refer to it as a "Sephiroth clone", as the individual Sephiroth Shin-Ra has no connection to this case whatsoever and should be relieved of any legal involvement."

Cloud reached for his phone to text something celebratory to Sephiroth, but noticed that he didn't move or look relieved in the slightest.

"Personhood as it is defined in legal terms in this instance requires someone to be a naturally born human being in order to be granted the rights and privileges of a person," one of the legal team said. "Therefore we submit that there is no grounds for proceeding with any legal case, as there is no person to prosecute."

A different legal team member took the microphone, "Under that very definition General Sephiroth himself is not considered a person, either."

One of the men closest to where the courts martial was sitting spoke, "Also if it pleases this court, Sephiroth's legal name is no longer Shin-Ra. That was a trademark given to him at birth to indicate his juridical personhood, and when he graduated from the military academy he was granted legal personhood in order to obtain documents needed for international travel and entry into SOLDIER."

"Was he genetically engineered or born?"

A different man on the opposite side of the table spoke, "Born naturally, your honor, but given gene therapy in the womb to the extent of requiring the Shin-Ra trademark."

The courts martial considered that for a while, looking through documents in front of him, "... I believe legally he should always have been considered to have personhood, he is a living individual with a natural birth and juridical personhood would never be legally appropriate. Though his DNA is the work of the medical lab, it required a person to be carried out. Sephiroth was yet unborn, but was volunteered legally by his mother, Lucretia Crescent. Company property was placed inside him in the form of genetic therapy under the protection of the S experiment as I understand it, but as the experiment required a person as a vehicle, that person is still a living individual. I'd like to put that into motion immediately and update all documents to reflect this natural fact. General Sephiroth, do you have any information for the court to consider regarding this?"

"No."

"I believe establishing personhood for you will lay some helpful groundwork as to determining the legal personhood of Crater, once all evidence is fully processed by legal counsel. And so I declare on this day, the 11th of December that the individual born into the S project twenty-three years ago on the 21st of May, known by name as Sephiroth, was always a person," he gave the table a little tap with his gavel.

Sephiroth glared down the table at Cloud.

Cloud couldn't even pretend to guess what he was thinking or feeling.

The courts martial then said while looking at Sephiroth, "While this investigation is still underway, as of now there is no evidence of Crater's engineering from the lab whose documentation is meticulous."

Sephiroth stared back at him for several moments, then realized with a little jolt that he was waiting for some kind of response from him, "I don't know what you expect me to say about that."

"The evidence so far does suggest Crater, like you, was also naturally born."

"Is the court suggesting I gave birth?" Sephiroth asked, and most of the room erupted in laughter.

The courts martial didn't laugh, but he looked amused while gently tapping the table with his gavel until the noise quickly died down, "The court suggests natural phenomenon, as the medical lab can produce no documentation, Crater himself cannot provide any information, and the initial research suggests that he lacks typical lab engineering trademarks."

There were more things for them to go back and forth about concerning timing, appropriate sentencing and case law supporting the idea that a child could never be put to death in a civilized society, no matter what kind of crimes they'd committed. They would have a much harder time determining the clone's age, but they were guessing anywhere from twenty-one days to six years.

"I find it necessary to remove the possibility of the death penalty from this case altogether," the courts martial decided. "And before we adjourn, I also find it appropriate to see to it that this child is having some sense of normalcy in his life during this preliminary phase leading up to trial. Ms. Strife, are you considering the position here as his tutor?"

"No," April answered very loudly from the other end of the long, long table. She didn't need a microphone.

"Then I'm charging the lab to find a suitable tutor to begin testing and determining his mental faculties to provide whatever education he needs, at whatever level he's currently at. Taking all these facts into consideration, we will have the second preliminary hearing after the first of the year... I'm just taking a look at my calendar... does February 28th, 9am work for counsel?"

Both sides were checking their phones, and agreed to the date. The meeting was adjourned and everyone began feverishly collecting their things and filing out of the room, likely to continue somewhere else with their own teams.

Cloud and April waited for the room to empty, and he leaned close to murmur, "You don't want to be his teacher?"

"No."

"Why not?"

She looked at him for a moment, collecting what it was she wanted to say. Something about it was slightly terrifying to Cloud, this woman had no problem sharing her thoughts and opinions with anyone on the face of the planet. To see her actually really consider what she was going to say, especially to him made Cloud almost sick with dread.

Sephiroth was lingering within the liminal space of doorway, looking at his phone and waiting for Cloud.

April shouted to him, "Get in here."

His back bounced against the door frame a few times, and he clearly was considering not submitting to this demand. Eventually he shoved his phone into his pocket and came closer. He sat down across from them, and managed to give her his attention without looking at her.

"I'm not taking the job, or any job from these people. You need somewhere to go if you ever want to leave this place."

Cloud deflated against the table, "Mom, I – "

"I'm not just talking to you," she said. "Sephiroth."

He looked at her.

She blew out some air exactly the way Cloud did whenever he was about to start crying. The energy in the room shifted, and Cloud picked himself up off the table and looked at her in concern.

She looked down into her lap and began to fidget with a lighter, "I get it if you don't ever want to talk to me again after the other night. I was scared, I am scared. I just wanted more than anything to get Cloud as far away from this place as I could. I'm not stupid, I know it's too late."

Sephiroth and Cloud said nothing.

She blew some more air out and continued, "I didn't know anything about the Shin-Ra Electric Company or their stupid army before bringing Cloud here. I knew he wasn't interested in going to college, and I knew there was absolutely nothing for him in Nibelheim, so when he started talking about the army... that's a pretty fucking nice sounding alternative to him getting a job at the mall, or getting into lumber or... sitting around and waiting for something to come to him like most of us in Nibelheim did. The army sounded really nice – structure, decent guys he could meet, discipline and getting to be a part of something... it sounded really, really nice. Cloud was finally excited about something – he started jogging for fuck's sake! I just wish I'd known more about this before letting him come here. I just left him here without knowing anything."

"You wouldn't have stopped me," Cloud told her.

"Oh I know," she crossed her legs and regained a little posture. "You were obsessed, this was going to happen. But I still should have been way more proactive in maybe like, doing basic research of what a SOLDIER actually is!? I had no idea they'd be fucking with your DNA! Are these people all fucking crazy!?"

"Yes," Sephiroth flatly agreed. "I wasn't considered a person to certain people until twenty minutes ago. They're all fuckin' insane."

She leaned against the table, "Have you seen the site for the medical research labs? There's a fucking application you can submit if you're interested in becoming a research volunteer!"

They all shared a short, humorless laugh at that. It wasn't lost on them the kind of people who would be interested in becoming a volunteer for the Shin-Ra medical lab. They were people who were probably only a half-step less fortunate than Cloud, who only had the privilege of being the right age and type to enlist in the Military Academy instead. Someone like Sephiroth had no choice, they were either born there or given up by their parents, in his case both.

April wiped her eyes carefully to avoid smearing her makeup, but the tears in her eyes didn't seem entirely from dark mirth, "I get that you're here now and that's not going to change. But I would never, ever work here, even if it meant being able to see you everyday. I think it's more important to be your escape option. Even if you never want to or never get to, I want to be that for you."

"Mom, I'm okay. It's like anything else in the world, there's bad shit, but there's mostly good shit. I'm okay, I'll be okay..." he fumbled for a moment because usually he made himself small when he hugged her, but this time he didn't. He remained as tall and broad as he could in his seat and hugged her like a grown man.

"... I still want you to know you have options, that you don't have to be here if you ever don't want to be," April said into her son's shockingly strong shoulder, actually finding quite a bit of comfort there as she hugged him tightly, held him, smelled him. It didn't matter how old he became or what kind of cologne he wore, there was a smell of Cloud that ignited everything in her about being a mother. From the moment he was born and she held him and smelled him for the first time, it was an animal kind of love.

She then quickly lifted her head and glared across the table at Sephiroth, "You understand I'm talking to you too, don't you? If you want to leave this job, leave it. If you want to retire, retire. A year from now or twenty years from now, these doctors all love you and will still take care of you, and you're too depressed or brainwashed or stupid or stubborn to see that. Stop with all the death march shit, stop telling my son that you don't have a future when you clearly do. Let him make you happy, and be willing to be happy for fuck's sake."

He was staring at her in pure, unguarded shock, "... Okay."

She looked at Cloud, "You hear me, too?"

"Aye."

"You know I'm so proud of you, I know you're working hard here but I... I was so cool when you said you wanted to move across the world to Midgar and join a fucking army! You talked about it for two whole years and I was supportive and interested and I was fucking cool! I bought you condoms – " and with that, April began to cry.

"You're the coolest mom in the world!" Cloud was immediately crying too and yanked her into another hug. "You're a great mom."

"You don't have anything to prove to anybody by becoming a SOLDIER, you wouldn't be letting anyone down if you wanna quit right now. If you ever get a bad feeling... just fucking quit."

"I can't."

"Yes you can," Sephiroth interjected. "You got until August."

"I like it here!" Cloud admitted with a frustrated growl as more tears fell down his cheeks, "I've never liked being anywhere before I came here! Even though it's fucked up, I like it! I like who I am here!"

Sephiroth hung his head off the back of his chair and he growled in frustration at the ceiling, "You can be who you are anywhere and do anything you want! You don't have to be here and do this just because I'm here."

"Is there anyone in the Universe who can believe that the reason I want to be a SOLDIER isn't entirely about you!?"

"It's at least half about me."

They continued bickering over which one of them was more self-centered, and ever so unwillingly, April actually found herself seeing Sephiroth differently. This was clearly a well worn argument, but she'd always pictured these conversations between the two of them as Sephiroth being very pushy and hard on Cloud about his military career. That's certainly how Cloud made it sound... but maybe he wasn't the most reliable source of information.

She loudly clapped her hands the way only an elementary school teacher knows how, "E-fucking-nough! This is repulsive, you two cannot carry on like this! You haven't figured it out yet, but couples shouldn't fight in front of other people! Grow the fuck up and stop letting everyone know all your business! When you're in front of people, do what everyone else does and screw on a fake fucking happy face until you can be alone! Nobody wants to hear this shit!"

They were silent. Cloud wasn't sure when he'd stood up, but he sat back down.

April looked across the table, "Sephiroth, do you get where I was coming from the other night?"

He was still low in his chair and looking mostly at the ceiling, "... Sort of."

"Can we be friends again?"

"We never were."

"We were!" she insisted.

"Friends like, you hatin' my guts, you and your family makin' me uncomfortable as shit, you thinkin' I'm wrong for Cloud and too old for him and using him, and forcin' me to eat shit anytime I interact with you?"

"All that and more."

He snorted, "... Whatever. I don't have a choice."

"Come here," she demanded.

Again, Sephiroth looked like he really didn't want to, but his desire to make little blonde people from Nibelheim happy was second nature at this point. He pushed up out of his seat and considered walking all the way around the table, but it would have taken far too much awkward time. Instead he just did a little slide across the surface on his ass, which despite his reluctance was a fairly graceful maneuver.

He knew what she wanted and it took great effort, but he took the seat on the other side of her and leaned way, way, way down into a very small hug.

"I don't hate your guts at all... and I don't actually think you're wrong for Cloud, I was freaking the fuck out..." she told him quietly, and for the first time she touched his hair, a little brush down the back of his skull. "... I know you love him and you make each other happy. You're both really fucking young, but I think you're both lucky to have found each other... he loves you so much, and you bring out something really good in him. I've never seen him be the way he is with you, you're just... you're great for him."

After a long moment, Sephiroth finally relaxed a little.

She exhaled, "... But I mean... did you have to be an alien?"

All danger of possibly getting emotional was now aborted, he huffed and tried to pull away.

She grabbed onto him tighter, "Hey! If you're my son, then you're my son and this is what I do with my sons when we're mad. We hug until we spill our guts and we're not mad anymore."

Cloud couldn't help but smile as this activated all sorts of memories that had been out of his mind for many years. When he was little and throwing a tantrum, April would grab him and hold him until he ran out of energy, calmed down and spoke to her. And once in a while he'd be a brat on purpose because he really wanted a long hug and for her sit with him and listen to his little kid problems.

Now it was Sephiroth's turn, and he looked over at Cloud to save him. All he found was a warm smile there, so he shifted in his chair and settled in and just let April hug him.

Thinking about motherhood and the smell of her own son, she hesitantly let herself smell Sephiroth and imagined what it must have been like to give birth to this creature and have that love at first sight and smell motherhood experience with him. It was late for that and he was always going to be a grown man in her eyes, but she felt herself smile, "You smell really nice. What is that?"

"An alien who hasn't showered since yesterday."

"You smell like cookies."

He grunted a small acknowledgment, then noticed April smelled like coconut scented hair products and cigarettes and a little bit like Cloud. Sephiroth thought it was also nice, but he wasn't going to compliment her.

Once he had fully submitted, she asked, "You could have told me some of this. You came over to my apartment and we talked about kitchen back splashes for four hours, you couldn't have mentioned any of this? You could have said something, anything, even back in Nibelheim."

He took a long breath, "I knew it was gonna come out one day, but I couldn't tell you ten minutes after meetin' you all about my fucked up life. I just wanted you and your gross family to like me."

"I like you so much more now that I know you're just an alien! Not a crackhead or some kind of plastic surgery addict – " April coughed out a laugh and spoke a little louder over Sephiroth and Cloud's giggling. He gave off way too much body heat for her taste to keep hugging him, so she finally released him and was actually happy to see a smile on his face, "What was I supposed to think about this giant, tall, beautiful being telling me his vampire fangs are corrective dentures, and his crazy looking eyes are some kind of birth defect? I had no idea what the fuck to think about you at first, except that you lie about random shit and have something to hide! But you're a sweet guy, you're way more normal than you look, and you're good for Cloud. You even put up with me and the whole family and helped me move halfway across the world, you didn't have to do any of that. Though you lost a few points with me when I had to dig out some headphones so I wouldn't have to listen to you screwing my son – "

"Mother!" Cloud squawked.

"He made me," was Sephiroth's defense.

Cloud squawked again, "Sephiroth!"

"I believe you. But other than that and you wildly lying to me like I'm some kind of idiot, it's hard not to like you."

"Would you have even believed me if I told you everything right up front?"

"I suppose not..." she had to admit. She weighed her next statement and tried to articulate it without getting angry, but didn't quite succeed, "But just because it's hard to take, that doesn't mean you can let Cloud find out the hard way. I don't care if you lie to me, I'm not the one who has to live with it everyday. But if there's anything else you need to show him or make him understand, do it before he wanders into some situation where he could get killed!"

"I wasn't tryin' to lie to either of you on purpose. It was impossible to tell the truth at first, it's really fuckin' hard to talk about this, I don't know many people who aren't from this company, I never have. I wasn't thinkin' about the future or his safety or what might happen down the road because – I just... I've never been in love before and I didn't know what to do, so I just I tried to never think about it. I know I'm wrong for that, and he saw some stuff pretty quick with me not takin' care of myself and endin' up sick in the lab. He sat in a hospital room for days and still didn't leave, so I just didn't wanna put more shit on him," Sephiroth was aware that he was fully rambling, but the look on both April and Cloud's faces made him frantic to want to be fully understood. They both looked like they wanted to interrupt but he just kept talking, "Not to trick him or like I was tryin' to hide shit from him, but it just felt so good to live like it all never happened, Cloud makes it so easy to be happy and I just didn't wanna fuck that up, I didn't know how to talk about anything and I was fuckin' afraid that if I brought him here he would see this shit and realize how much easier his life could be without me – "

"I fucking love you!" Cloud absolutely erupted, and fell over April's lap to reach him.

"Shut your little face for one minute and let him talk!" April elbowed Cloud back into his seat, but her voice mellowed into softness as she spoke to Sephiroth, "I get all that now, completely."

"You both know what's up now, there's nothing else beyond this. But this shit's been going on my entire life, there's stuff I won't ever remember, and there's stuff I won't think of until the time comes to think of it. If you wanna know more or ask me stuff I'll answer anything. But when it comes to clones... you just needed to eventually see it all for yourselves."

"Seph, it's okay!" Cloud said and reached over April again for him.

"I get all that," she repeated, pushing Cloud by his forehead back into his seat again. "Clearly my son is out of control and loves you more than anything, so take care of yourself for him, alright?"

"I know my DNA's fucked but I'm not actually dyin' or anything."

"I mean more mentally, Seph... one night in this place and I felt like I was going out of my fucking mind, and today just makes me think it's always like this here. Even if there are good people and good aspects... there's a lot of evil here. So take care of yourself mentally."

"I'm tryin' to."

"Will you please make sure Cloud's okay, too? Make these crazy people leave him alone."

"They will."

"How do you know?"

"Look at everything he was able to do just by talkin' to them. They like him way more than they ever liked me," Sephiroth told her.

April's eyes rolled over to meet Cloud's, "This is what you're always complaining about?"

"Yep," he confirmed.

Sephiroth peered between them, "What?"

Cloud sighed, "You say you're willing to talk or answer questions, but mostly you deflect them by acting like a nihilist."

Sephiroth was visibly puzzled as he let that sink in, "... What?"

April was also confused, "I was referring to him being a sad sack of shit."

"That's what nihilists are!"

"Nobody knows what you're talking about," she dismissed.

"Sephiroth's smart, he knows!"

Sephiroth didn't know, "I literally only ever heard that word in The Big Lebowski, and I never figured out what it was s'posed to mean."

"Whatever, he's a sad sack of shit, then!" Cloud whined. His music magazine vocabulary words apparently only impressed Rufus, "The point is he's in therapy now, and I'll go too so mentally we're gonna be like a fortress! And this thing with the clone is getting handled, and... everything's going to be okay!"

"Until the next thing," Sephiroth couldn't stop himself from grumbling.

Cloud cried out in victory, "Nihilist!"

April sat back and let her eyes pass over the meeting room where evil seemed to lurk in every corner, "... Maybe you two should think about your spiritual lives. Try going to one of those gay witchy unity churches or something."

"No," they both answered, and then smiled at each other.

"I think that's the first time I've ever heard you two agree on anything."

Sephiroth was looking at Cloud, "We agree on important stuff... and we love each other, that's pretty much all that matters."

"Just go!" April finally conceded as Cloud became determined to crawl over her lap to smother Sephiroth in kisses.

They walked April back to her car and both submitted to further hugs and cheek kisses goodbye and plans for them to come to her apartment on Christmas Eve for dinner. But before they left to get Sephiroth a decent burger and a milkshake that would not be served out of Cloud's ass, they made a quick detour.

They stopped at a vending machine for some chips, candy and a Yoohoo and went to take it to the clone - well, the not clone. They weren't sure if there might be some action around his room after the hearing, but the lab was quiet and the hallway was empty. Sephiroth reluctantly pushed in the code and it still worked, but when the door slid open the room was dark and the little body on the bed was asleep and snoring.

"I'm just gonna leave it," Cloud whispered. He tried to tiptoe into the room as quietly as possible, but immediately kicked some kind of action figure that lit up and declared war.

He bolted upright in bed and squinted at the spiky-headed silhouette in the doorway, "... Cloud?"

"Sorry!" Cloud said helplessly and turned the light on to find the floor of the room absolutely littered with toys. "I was trying not to wake you up!"

He kicked his blanket off and leapt at Cloud, who barely had time to crouch down and open up his arms for a hug, "How is everything? Are you doing okay?"

He didn't answer with words but an elongated, high-pitched whine. His little arms locked around Cloud's neck and he fell apart, and allowed Cloud to pick him up off the floor. He wrapped his legs around Cloud's waist and sobbed for a full minute while Cloud rubbed his back and spoke gentle nonsense to him.

Sephiroth was leaning on the doorway and watching this act in secondhand embarrassment until he couldn't take it anymore, "Stop fake cryin', he already feels sorry enough for you."

He lifted his watering eyes to glare up at Sephiroth as he released Cloud and slid to the floor, "... Are ya here to kill me?"

"What the fuck do you think? He brought you candy."

Cloud threw a look over his shoulder at Sephiroth. It was very hard to fake these kind of tears and snot, and Cloud turned back to give him a smile and smooth down the back of his head, "Your hair's really growing fast."

"Rhonda said I could have a mohawk when it gets longer," he sniffed.

"You'll blend right in with the dykes," Sephiroth said.

"Can you be nice?" Cloud had to laugh despite himself. He continued smoothing down his fine, silver hair, "Has anyone come to talk to you about tonight, yet?"

The little boy shook his head as he wiped his eyes and nose, "Wha' happened?"

"Not a lot. They talked a little about you, about Sephiroth, it was really just a bunch of back and forth, trying to figure out how to word things and define things for a trial down the road. It's gonna take a long time, I think."

"When are they gonna kill me?"

"They aren't. No death penalty."

"... And you aren't?" he asked, looking between him and Sephiroth.

"Of course not," Cloud told him.

"Nobody has any balls around here."

"Do it yourself," Sephiroth suggested and kicked his noisy action figure again, which lit up and barked some kind of made up military jargon. "Ya got plenty of shit in here to do it with. Swallow some batteries."

"Sephiroth!"

The little kid dropped his skinny arms in defeat, "I don't have the balls, either."

"They wanna keep you alive and torture you and send you to the Military Academy again," Sephiroth said. "They even gave you a name."

Cloud tsked, "Don't tell him."

"Why not? It's a bad ass name."

"It's demeaning and dehumanizing!"

He wiped his nose again and looked halfway amused, "What?"

Cloud exhaled, "They're going to start calling you... Crater."

The little boy's huge green cat's eyes went impossibly wide in his little skull, "That is a bad ass name!"

Sephiroth huffed, "Right? Why didn't I get a cool name?"

"Go fuck yourself forever with your stupid name, Sephiroth!" he shouted. "I'm Crater!"

"You two actually like that name?" Cloud asked in disbelief.

"Crater," the little boy growled gutturally and kicked over a pile of coloring books and sent a Crayola box flying in a spray of colorful crayons.

"Where'd all this stuff come from?" Cloud laughed.

"Rhonda brought me these," he pointed to a new stack of kid's books, then pointed to the scattered coloring books and then exploded box of crayons, "Vincent brought me those – "

"Vincent came here?" Sephiroth asked.

Crater hadn't even paused in chattering as he showed Cloud his action figures, " – over in research brought me these, some lady who cleans brought me all those Legos, and look what else Rhonda brought me!" Crater pushed the toys into Cloud's hands and then dropped the tiny distance down to his knees and looked underneath his bed. He dragged out a massive red and blue gun, and shot Spiderman silly spray webs dangerously close to where Sephiroth was leaning against the doorframe.

Sephiroth watched as he continued giving Cloud a tour of his donated toys, wondering if Crater had literally lost his mind. He almost wanted to touch him and see if it would work again and if they might trade experiences of the last few weeks, just to find out if he was full of shit and playing a part for Cloud. It seemed pretty goddamn genuine, though.

Sephiroth tried not to dwell on his strange experience of the clone's memories, it was existentially disturbing to say the least... and probably how it felt to have a memory implanted. But he remembered how it felt to be in that body and to get lost in play and imagination... maybe the clone was just surrendering to it. He was not a real child and would never be, but Crater's physical brain must have been in development and offered a portal to child-like thinking and perspective.

Maybe he needed that to not lose his mind in this place.

Cloud convinced him to settle back down and save his snacks for tomorrow, and tucked him into bed. Despite his enthusiasm about visitors, his toys, and even getting a little piece of an identity to cling to in the form of a new name, it was past 8 o'clock at night. He was a little creature who needed sleep, and they were hungry adults who needed to eat.

"Hey Cloud?" he called after he turned off the light.

"Hm?" Cloud responded from the doorway.

He rolled up onto his elbow in a very Sephiroth kind of way, "As much of a giant cunt as he is, Sephiroth's right... I don't wanna make you feel bad for me. I've done this life before, and I can do it again if I have to. I'll be fine whether they keep me around or not. Don't feel like you're obligated to come here... if you never come back, I'll know it's 'cause you're happy with Sephiroth and livin' your life in SOLDIER. That's how it should be."

Cloud felt the heat of Sephiroth standing close behind him, and decided to tell this child the same thing he told him earlier, "... You are not alone here in this sea of assholes. You were the first time, but you won't be this time. You have a whole crew of friends who care about you, including me and Sephiroth and we're not going anywhere. Okay?"

"... Okay."

"Goodnight. We'll see you soon."

"Night Cloud... night Sephiroth."

Sephiroth didn't respond, and just pushed the button to shut the door.

Cloud murmured to him, "You could be a little bit nicer."

"I wouldn't want me to be nice. He gets it."

"Is this how it's gonna be if we ever have kids?" Cloud had to smirk. "Good cop, bad cop?"

"If you actually make me have kids, you're gonna be the bad cop."

Cloud reflected on that possibility and held Sephiroth's hand as they left the building, and realized how much he would love living a life where their children went to Sephiroth for fun and playtime and movies and the best parts of childhood that Vincent had tried to show him. Then the children would come to Cloud for support, more emotional matters and maybe would receive discipline from him. He'd already heard his mother's voice come out of his own mouth when scolding Psycho occasionally, so maybe that really would be the natural roles they'd both settle into as parents.

"You're quiet, you mad at me?" Sephiroth asked as they walked back out into the sudden cold of the parking garage.

"No," Cloud said and squeezed his hand. "I'm just hungry."

Sephiroth heard a bit of a lie there, but let it go because he was fucking starving, too.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Sephiroth was done with work and training others for the day and was running laps at Shin-Ra HQ to cool down, not a thought in his head as was the primary benefit of running. Hearing footfalls come up behind him wasn't anything unusual, but after a moment it was clear someone was on his ass and not trying to pass by.

He glanced over his shoulder and it was Rhonda. Julie and Elena were a little farther behind.

This was an ambush. He decided to lean into his fate, "... Hey."

Rhonda sped up enough to stride alongside him, "Hey."

"You here to kill me?"

"Worse, emotional manipulation. We feel bad and we're here to make you feel bad, so then we can all feel better together."

"'Kay," Sephiroth submitted.

"I thought we were gonna jog, not run! Slow down if you're gonna talk!" Julie cried, falling farther behind.

Sephiroth slowed down to a stop and bent his knees to allow Julie to hop onto his back. Her weight was nearly nothing, but the added little bit of awkward wind resistance was enough to slow him down to a conversational pace.

They all jogged in silence until Elena blurted out, "I've been soul searching and I don't think I want to be the kind of person who expects you to kill people for me as favor. But my thing is, I feel like lately you've just been flaky and you're hardly ever around, and when you are it feels like we're just background characters in your life and you don't even care about us anymore."

"I never cared about you to begin with," Sephiroth said, but when nobody laughed at his attempt at a joke, the grin he'd been wearing slid off his face. "... I do miss you, though. But I'd rather hang out more than kill people for you."

"It's not about killing the kid!" Elena roared.

"I wasn't doin' it for you or Cissnea, y'know. I was gonna do it because I wanted to. And I went there to do it... but shit happened."

"Your annoying boyfriend happened!"

"You weren't there, everyone was annoying," Sephiroth defended.

Rhonda let out a whoop of agreement, "Let's not relive it!"

Elena's tiny little cute face was scowling up at him, "It just feels like the most recent time you've blown me off or fucked me over recently, and it's usually because of him!"

"I'd fuck anyone over for Cloud, he's the number one person in my life and he always will be. Don't pretend you can't understand that, 'cause you'd fuck me over for Cissnea, and you're supposed to because she's your girl and she's your number one person. Don't act like I'm some kinda bad friend to you because I didn't wanna kill a clone in front of him and his mom, that's such a psycho thing to be mad at me about!"

Elena tried to interject, "I'm not mad – "

"Cissnea didn't get hurt because of me," but in that moment, the child's experiences invaded his thoughts and he could feel the pop and tear of tendons and bone. It made him that much angrier, "He's not even actually a clone of me, y'know that? They figured that out, he's somethin' else entirely so this shit wasn't even my fault, and it certainly wasn't Cloud's fault, and it wasn't some big 'fuck you' to you or Cissnea. Cloud saw a kid and he tried to help that kid. You three haven't even bothered to talk to me since all this happened, and he's the only fuckin' person in my life who ever actually had the guts to do anything – " Sephiroth stopped jogging suddenly and his breath caught a little – he was dangerously close to crying.

The girls all saw tears stinging his eyes and surrounded him, drawing him down into a little circle.

"I'm really sorry, Seph," Elena told him sincerely. "I'm not mad at you or Cloud about the clone – or whatever it is. There just feels like there's weirdness there... I don't know how else to talk, I'm not good at making up, I'm only good at fighting. I never thought it was your fault."

"I'm sorry too, I'm sorry I waited until now to talk, I just wanted to give you space," Rhonda said to him gently. "Seph, I wanted to help, that's why I was there. I just... I have babies now, I have to – "

"I know," he agreed, and he was pushing his fingers into the corners of his eyes. "No seriously, I know. I'm just... lettin' off steam, I'm just ramblin' – "

Julie was still hanging on his back and not going anywhere, "It's okay to let it out! Say how you feel, Seph. We can take it, we shouldn't have let it go on this long."

He gulped down his emotions through several deep breaths and started walking again until he picked back up to a jog, "... I do care about all you, I don't ever wanna fuck you over. This all... it just brought up a lot of shit for me."

"How have you been?" Rhonda asked.

Sephiroth spoke for several laps around the track about everything. Starting therapy, taking a break from everybody and being mostly alone and unbothered with work for nearly two weeks and how it almost killed him, spending his time redesigning his bathroom and setting that into motion while sorting through his feelings, and trying to gain some footing in the emotional reckoning that was coming the day when he finally, truly felt what had happened to him growing up.

But through all that, there was always a bright little annoying ball of sunshine in his life, and it's name was Cloud.

"Cloud's not annoying," Elena decided close by his side, although it was pained and not entirely convincing. "He's just... different. He's nice. I have no idea how to relate to him."

"You gotta figure it out 'cause he's not goin' anywhere. It's not like you gotta walk on eggshells around him, but he likes you guys and he's sweet as fuck and he just wants you to like him, too."

"We do like him!" they all cried out at varying octaves.

"... I might have gotten carried away giving him shit a few times," Elena admitted.

"There's a power imbalance," Julie said sagely from his back. "I don't think we realized how it came off to someone still in school."

"You cuffed him to a toilet and gave him a polygraph!"

Julie tightened her hold around his neck, "It wasn't just for fun, we were assigned! He was a huge security risk when he showed up out of nowhere with a weird foreign accent and started immediately making out with one of the highest level – !"

Sephiroth cut her off, "Awright, I get it!"

"I'm doing my job, too!" Rhonda proclaimed. "I have to help make sure his balls drop before he graduates or else he's gonna get eaten alive out there. And even then I'll probably still give him shit, he's just so... bullyable!"

"I know," Sephiroth had to agree, for a variety of reasons. "Do you get what I'm sayin', though?"

"Yeah," they all agreed.

"You seem so much happier since you met him," Julie commented quietly against his ear. "Are you happy?"

Sephiroth glanced over his shoulder at her, "I really, really am. But also... miserable and sensitive and weak and horny all the time."

They all agreed that this was the ideal state for him to exist in: misery, sensitivity, weakness and being always ready to bone were symptoms of peak romantic love. Rhonda and Julie promised it'd fade and become more bearable with time and maturity, but he'd always feel these things where Cloud was concerned.

"He might be nice and cute, but he still stole our token boy," Elena pouted.

"He didn't steal shit, he's always wantin' to go out and do stuff and I'm the lazy ass who just wants to sit on my couch. If you wanna hang out more, we can, we will... how do you guys feel about joinin' a flashlight freeze tag league?"

There were a few beats of silence where the only sound was their footfalls hitting the track.

Sephiroth changed the subject, "How are the boys?"

Rhonda sputtered, "I know you just said some words but I'm having trouble – "

"I feel old – repeat what you just said," Julie insisted from his back.

"I'm young and I only understood 'league'," Elena agreed.

Sephiroth wasn't going to say it again, "Cloud wants to start havin' people over more, he wants to do game nights with you guys."

"Ohhh!" they all cried in understanding. They were all excited about the vague notion of games, but had no idea the type of childish, schoolyard games they would be. It would be a surprise Cloud could unveil.

Since her favorite topic had been opened, Rhonda slowed down a little and began producing new pictures of the twins, "Look, they went to see Santa!"

Sephiroth didn't even have to pretend the babies were cute anymore, they'd crossed that ugly, potato-like infant threshold to where they actually were cute. And he swiped through her holiday, Instagram mom pictures while he listened to them share little bits of their recent lives.

Elena was spending most of her free time with Cissnea in the lab keeping her company. A little time had numbed them to this whole clone drama and they were only focused on her healing now, and she was set to be released from the arm prison just in time for Christmas. Julie was busy being a Turk and a mom to two little twin boys on their first Christmas, and the photo ops were never ending! She confessed that the sterile, neutral beige stuff was only for pictures, and that the babies were normally living in an explosion of color and mess that their home had become and she had the B-roll pictures to prove it. And Rhonda was asked to start teaching a Hand-to-Hand class for young ladies, since the following year they planned to do a big push for Turk recruitment, just like they'd done for SOLDIER.

"I've heard too many rumors, it's gonna be a fake reality show," Elena predicted. "They're gonna do a show about the Turks, make it like The Office and make it out like all we do is fuck around. They'll make fools of us, just like they made himbo beefcake soft core porn models of the SOLDIER Generals."

"... It was tasteful," Sephiroth defended mildly.

"If they want more girls it'll be a more insidious social media thing," was Rhonda's conspiratory guess. "They'll give a few pretty Turks a fluffed up social media following and let them influence more girls to join that way. Or suddenly Taylor Swift's new best friend is gonna be a Turk – it'll be something like that."

Sephiroth hummed in thought, "Why don't they do the same thing SOLDIER did and just interview some hot Turk guys? It'd make both guys and girls come join."

"Name one hot Turk guy," Julie challenged.

Sephiroth bypassed Vincent to the next name that came to mind, "Tseng's hot... 'specially when his hair's a mess."

Julie laughed, "Oh right! Let's send Mr. Personality to do an interview."

"He doesn't need to talk, he can just do what I did and take his shirt off."

Elena cackled, "It worked for SOLDIER maybe, but nobody joins the Turks for the dick."

SOLDIERs were just fundamentally different in that way. Speaking of, Sephiroth's phone started to chime in his back pocket and he couldn't contain a wide grin.

"Look at that smile!" Elena teased and reached up to poke his dimple where his showed on his cheek.

"Aww, he's cheesing so big because his boyfriend's calling?" Julie crowed from his back, where she was still riding comfortably despite the fact they'd only been walking for the past twenty minutes.

"I need to go take Cissnea some dinner," Elena realized when she saw the time on her phone.

"We should go too, we have to go pick up the boys from my mom soon," Rhonda slowed down to a stop and stretched her arms up tall.

"Are you gonna be around for Christmas?" Julie asked as Sephiroth stopped to let her off his back.

"Christmas Eve we're goin' to Junon to see his mom, but we'll be around. Wanna come over sometime that weekend and check out the new bathroom?"

Julie shared a long, tired look with Rhonda, "... It's probably better for you to come over to ours, we have to pack way too much shit just to walk ten minutes over to your place. Plus you don't want baby vomit and poop in your apartment."

"You're right," Sephiroth agreed, giving her a hug. He then turned a little to give Elena one as well, "I'm sorry I let you down as your hitman."

"I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have ever trusted a SOLDIER to get anything done."

He kissed her on top of her head for that, "I'll make it up to you. Gimme a name anytime and they're dead meat."

"I'm gonna call in that favor one day," she warned, touched his cheek affectionately before giving him space for the next one in line for a hug.

"Can we have breakfast tomorrow?" Rhonda asked, giving him the tightest and longest hug of all.

"Yeah," he readily agreed, in no hurry to release her. The ringing of his phone had already stopped, but he'd call Cloud back. It was too much of a relief for things to just be okay with his girls again.

"Meet me in the cafeteria, I'll text you when I'm done with classes," she told him as she let him go, and followed where Julie and Elena were already walking, probably off to go stand around a cauldron together. They all waved, and he waved back.

Cloud was now calling a second time. Sephiroth answered, full of positive news to share, "Hey baby!"

"Sephiroth! Thank GOD!" Cloud warbled. "What the hell is happening!?"

"What?! What is it, you alright?"

"Are you!? The app for your apartment is showing heat signatures for like ten people over there and the front door's open and all the security's off! Are you okay? What's going on!?"

Son of a bitch.

In the pre-Cloud days, having a construction crew in the loft was a constant thing. It was odd having a bunch of civilian strangers in his place at first, but ultimately Sephiroth felt understood by those guys. They'd stand around unhurried, drinking coffee and talking about drywall all day long if Sephiroth wanted to, and he really did. Everything about the process of making something real and sturdy and usable from imagination was fascinating to him, and then making design choices to beautify it was his favorite thing in the world to do.

But then Sephiroth kissed Cloud for the first time, and his list of favorite things in the world to do was immediately updated. Interior design was now like twenty spots down on that list, but the chance to redesign the bathroom with Cloud in mind ignited a storm of inspiration.

When he'd first put in this bathroom, it was just default matter of mostly black tile since it was easy to clean. It was like any other bathroom he'd seen on base or in a hotel – there was a sink, a tub, a toilet. It was just fine for a single guy who wasn't home that often.

But thinking of Cloud and his habits and how to better use the space, Sephiroth filled several of his journal pages with little sketches and ideas and the construction crew seemed genuinely delighted in getting to do something creative, especially when they found out it was a surprise for Sephiroth's fiancé for Christmas.

No inspired idea was too crazy to be indulged, even ripping out a perfectly good, barely three-year-old bathroom in order to put in Cloud's dream tub. And like most of his projects, the more they stood around and talked, the more ideas they got. A bigger bathtub meant a bigger bathroom, so they'd have to lose the closet to expand. So why not go even bigger, why not knock down another wall and also create a new, bigger closet? Why not take it one step further and create a whole dressing room, it'd be good to have someplace where they could just take off their uniforms and all their gear could just be dropped and kicked into a storage locker. Plus Cloud wouldn't ever have to worry about space, he could get all the little thrift store clothes his heart desired.

One thing Sephiroth kind of regretted about cleaning out Cloud's room in Nibelheim was how much shit they got rid of. He'd been going with the flow in the moment, but wished he would have been more insistent that Cloud could have brought more with him if he wanted to. Sephiroth liked seeing Cloud's things in his kitchen and bathroom and closet. He wanted him to leave more things at the loft, including himself.

The plans were set and the hard deadline was the Friday before Cloud's winter break, which gave them roughly twelve days to make this all happen. When he was just starting out and needed things like hot water, a kitchen, insulation, heat, just basic shit – their crew and others had done a lot of it while he was on missions, in Wutai, or stationed temporarily outside of Midgar. Sephiroth absolutely trusted this construction crew in his apartment alone to work, so much to the Turks' surprise, Sephiroth turned off all the new security and welcomed them in like old friends.

They wasted no time covering the loft in plastic and all but ordered Sephiroth to pack a bag and stay the fuck out of the way until the final phase which was the colors and lighting and textures and fixtures part – the fun, creative part.

He just had to keep Cloud's sexy little ass out of the apartment until that Friday before Christmas, and apparently turning off the security didn't also disconnect it from Cloud's phone... so he could now be nosy in brand new, unforeseen ways...

Sephiroth had a backup plan in the event of a worst case scenario where Cloud insisted on coming over, but he definitely wasn't prepared yet to –

"Are you still there!?" Cloud demanded. "The next train leaves in ten minutes, I can be there in – "

"First of all, don't worry about anything. I'm totally okay, I'm at HQ runnin' on the track, I was just hangin' out with the dykes. Everything's fine."

Cloud let out several relieved breaths, "Who the hell's at your place if you're at HQ?"

"It's just the Turks again, they stopped by to do some maintenance on some stuff. I know you have exams comin' up, do you have to study this weekend?"

Cloud paused at the sudden topic shift, "... I don't have to..."

"Should you?"

"I'm solid on everything but Wutainese," Cloud admitted. "My teacher said to try to watch some Wutainese movies this weekend without the subtitles on and see how I do just listening."

"There's some Wutainese horror movies on that DVD you got me I haven't watched yet," Sephiroth remembered before he could stop himself.

"That sounds fun! I can terribly translate them, and then you can tell me what they're actually saying! It's supposed to snow really hard this weekend too, maybe we'll get a bonus snow day!"

Sephiroth made a fist and tapped it against his forehead, because that sounded a million times better than what he was about to suggest. But he tried to sell it anyway, "I kinda wanted to take you away this weekend."

"Why?"

"I just thought it might be fun. It's s'posed to snow all weekend anyway, I thought – "

"That's so sweet, but I literally haven't recovered from your seminar yet. I'm so fucking tired and my brain is so fucking full from study groups, I just wanna get out of here and go home before the snowstorm starts. I hope you don't think I'm lame – this is the second time you're offering to go away somewhere, but the only place I ever want to go is home with you."

It was easy to lie to assholes, but lying to someone so fucking sweet was an emotional minefield because all Sephiroth really wanted to do was go home, too. But even if he spoiled the surprise early, it still wouldn't be the romantic weekend Cloud would be hoping for with a construction crew stomping around the plastic-covered apartment with power tools. Maybe if the crew was at least eye candy, but they really weren't.

If this was whole bathroom thing going to be worth it at all, Sephiroth needed to lie and it needed to be good, "Look, I didn't wanna tell you the truth 'cause I didn't wanna freak you out, but... remember how I told you there was a roach problem at my place when I first moved in? They're back, the whole goddamn building is infested right now."

"I thought you put in that special anti-bug lacquer stuff? Isn't it something they paint on underneath the wooden parts of the floors and in between the tiles and it's supposed to last for like ten years? Does it not work afterall?"

So Cloud actually listened when he talked about renovation shit!? Sephiroth was thunderstruck, "... This is a... sleeper infestation. They laid eggs years ago and now they're hatchin' all over the building, so the landlady's gotta tent the whole building this weekend. I can't come back 'til Sunday night, so I thought we could – "

"What's a sleeper infestation?"

That was a good fucking question. Sephiroth tried to sound like he knew the answer, "Know what cicadas are?"

"Kind of, not really."

Sephiroth also kind of knew what they were, but not really. Mostly he knew about them from watching Jeepers Creepers, so he made some shit up, "They go into some kinda chryosleep and their eggs take years to hatch, then they're all over the place long enough to fuck each other and lay a bunch more eggs and they disappear again – these cockroaches are the same way. I killed a ton of 'em this morning, and then I saw they were comin' up from... somewhere, so they're bombin' the whole building this weekend. So we're gonna have to leave – "

"I'm so sorry! Poor dear, you must feel so tired too, it's one thing after another! And right before the holidays! And those poor other people in your building!" Cloud was now spiraling into lamentation. "What if the exterminators don't fix it? Everyone will have a cockroachy Christmas! What would we do then? What will everyone else in your building do? I hope Christmas isn't ruined!"

"Cloud, the people in this building are all upper plate Midgar twats, nobody's Christmas is gettin' ruined, I promise. And these bug people know what they're doin'. By the time you come over you won't even be able to tell it happened, so don't worry about anything. I just gotta stay out this weekend, so I thought we could – "

"Do you want me at least come over Sunday night and help you clean up?"

"Clean what up?"

"Won't the place be full of dead bugs?"

Cloud Duffy Strife was apparently the hardest person on planet Earth to lie to, "They won't be done 'til Monday morning, 'cause they'll do the cleanin' up part, too. It's the last step of the removal, they'll have to take every single bug out or else one of the dead bodies would just start another sleeper infestation a couple years from now. There's nothin' for you to do or worry about."

"Will they be able to get into your apartment? You literally just put in security, do you trust random bug people?"

"Baby!" Sephiroth had to let out a little roar of frustration, "They're bug people, I trust 'em with my fuckin' life!"

"Seph... tell me the truth."

His face went numb, "... 'Bout what?"

"Did you eat any of the roaches you found?"

Of course Cloud would remember that feral, stupid detail from Sephiroth's young life. He didn't know which answer was more believable... he considered what he'd do if he actually had found roaches in his kitchen that morning, "... Mm-hm."

Cloud let out a guttural breath, "... How many did you eat?"

He tried to stick to a middle of the road response, "Ten?"

"Jesus Christ, Sephiroth!" Cloud made a long retching sound. "Don't do that! Who does that!?"

"Let's talk about somethin' else!"

"Gladly! Where did you wanna go this weekend?" Cloud laughed. "And please brush your teeth a hundred times from now until then!"

Sephiroth let out a gust of relief. At least he was somewhat prepared for this part, "Okay, I was tryin' to think of somethin' fun to do, so you got three options to choose from. We can go to – "

"Don't just tell me what they are! Do it dating game style!"

"Huh?"

"Just give me a few hints about each option, but make it sound like they're all guys who wanna have a threesome with us," Cloud then immediately added, "We wouldn't ever, of course... but we'd consider their application for fun!"

"You miss gettin' perverted fan mail, don't you?"

Cloud's fifteen minutes of fame for being Sephiroth's boyfriend had been more like five minutes. All the sexual offers he used to find in his mailbox at school or by random weirdos who found him online had dried up very quickly, "It was mostly people just wanting to be whipped and tortured by you, anyway. But I guess sometimes I kinda miss the attention! It's fun to ignore desperate, horny losers!... I probably shouldn't have told you that, don't start ignoring me!"

"Baby, you're not a loser. Desperate and horny all the time, but not a loser."

Cloud opened his mouth to argue, but realized he was rocking a semi. He rolled over onto his stomach in case Cameron came in, "Right... so who's guy number one?"

Sephiroth laughed through his nose as the early winter chill finally caught up with him. He stuffed his free hand in his pocket and began to meander along the edge of the track to keep out of the way of those actually running, "... Guy number one... I fucked him once with Rhonda and Julie and Elena, but I think he'd be more fun to fuck with you. A lot of people really like him, but I know he's probably not your type. He might be kinda corny but you like lame things sometimes."

Cloud was giggling, "What's his name?"

"... Schmolden Glaucer."

"Ohhh, the Golden Saucer? I dunno, I don't think I'd like rides. Isn't it a place for kids, anyway?"

"There weren't that many kids there when we went, it was mostly lesbians and old gay people."

"Was it Gay Day or something?"

"Huh?"

"It's like a special day where gay couples can hold hands in public and aren't shot on sight by snipers or whatever usually happens."

Sephiroth drew in and then let out a long breath as realization dawned on him, "... They musta dragged me there on Gay Day."

"Aww, you didn't even know? How old were you?"

"Twenty-two."

"What!?"

"This was just a couple months before we met, they made me go with them on their girl's trip 'cause Cissnea had to work and I hadn't used any vacation days like, ever... it was right after me and Kristen broke up and I was thinkin' I was gay maybe."

It might have been the word 'maybe' tacked on the end of that sentence that did it, but Cloud couldn't even laugh right away, all he could manage was baffled, wordless outcry. When he was actually able to begin laughing, he lost his ever fucking mind. It might have been the hardest Cloud ever laughed in his entire life.

Sephiroth had to laugh with him, even though he didn't find it as funny as Cloud did and certainly for not as long. Though he loved the music of Cloud's unhinged laughter, eventually people needed to be cut off, "Awright! I get it, I'm stupid, shut up already."

"No! No!" was all Cloud could manage to say at first, but then he really tried to speak, "Sorry dear – you're not stupid, I just I don't think I'm… nnnn – !"

Sephiroth had to laugh against his will as Cloud lost it all over again, "Just fuckin' spit out what you wanna say so we can move on!"

"I'm not nearly gay enough to go to the Golden Saucer on Gay Day! Or any other day!" Cloud struggled to conclude, wiping laughter out of his eyes as mirth gave way to pain. "You're killing me, Seph... you know when the stars align and in every single class they make you do burpees? That was my day today and now this!"

"Good. Suffer."

"Mean!" Cloud keened a little in lieu of laughing any more. "I love you so, so much!"

"I love you, too..." then his dignity forced him to add, "There were no Gay Day signs or anything."

Cloud whimpered a little when his stomach muscles threatened to tighten with another round of laughter, but he suppressed it, "Who's option two?"

Sephiroth forgot what they'd been talking about and had to reboot his brain, "Okay... uh, option two seems like he might be more your type. He wears a lot of flannel and looks kinda homeless, in a hot way. His parents definitely have a lot of money but he lives in a van in the middle of nowhere because he thinks it's cool. I honestly don't even think he's into guys, but if we go to where he lives we're gonna fuck in his van with or without him."

"I'm intrigued! What's his name?"

"... Ray Canyon."

"Okay, I definitely have a little crush on him!" Cloud gushed. "But who's option three, before I agree to fucking in a homeless guy's van?"

"Option three's got this crazy, sexy blonde hair and prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen in my life. He stays on the beach but he never wants to go in the water, he just wants to sit in the sand and talk and drink all day long. He's funny and cute, but the best thing about this guy is that he's got this amazing little ass and he refuses to wear anything it fits into, so you can just check it out all day long. It's weird 'cause his name's also Cloud Strife."

Cloud was listening to all this while trying not to let any noise out. He finally uncovered his mouth with a giggle, "You wish you could have two of me!"

"I'd be dead within twenty-four hours, but I'd die so happy."

Cloud wanted to laugh, but it turned into a pained wheeze when his over-trained stomach tightened up again, "I'd love to go back to the beach one day but that's a summertime place, it's too different of a vibe to go there for a couple days then come back to a snowstorm. So I choose... option two!"

"Cool, we're goin' to Cosmo Canyon this weekend."

Cloud gasped, "Really!? Sephiroth, that's across the fucking world! Are you serious!? Would we really be staying in a van?"

"Not exactly, it's this town called Raycraft – they have all these old school RV's you stay in like a cabin. Raycraft's right next to the Canyon, and the RV's are parked along the drop."

"We're glamping?!"

"Pretty much. It'll be cold out there but it doesn't snow, and there's hiking trails and we'll have our own fire pit outside, so we can do marshmallows and hot dogs and shit. The stars are gonna be fuckin' insane, we might see some cool monsters, too. The town looks kinda boring, but it has art galleries and weird shit if you wanna go look around – there's a hot chocolate bar."

"That sounds like heaven!"

"We can still watch the Wutainese horror movies for your homework."

Cloud was already rifling through Cameron's messy closet to find flannel shirts to borrow, "We're talking about a weekend in flannel under the stars in front of a fire pit with alcoholic hot chocolate? Fuck homework!"

"We'll do it on the airship."

Cloud tried to hold in a groan but it escaped, "So that's the catch? We have to fly there..."

"You're not gonna be scared or sick."

"I'm not?"

"You're gonna take your medicine, we're gonna watch a couple movies, then we'll be there. If the snowstorm cancels class on Monday we'll stay an extra day."

Cloud forgot all about hating to fly, but that only made room for different anxiety to show up, "What parts can I pay for? I can pay for the – "

"You're not payin' for anything. I'll come get you after school Thursday, we'll go to the air base and catch a ride with someone headed out that way."

"What if no airships are going there? Would we have to go to the airport instead?"

Sephiroth had a smile, Cloud had no idea how anything worked, "If no airships are goin' out, then I'll write up a short notice operation and find someone who wants some easy overtime. I'd rather make the President pay one of our pilots than go to the airport."

"Okay!... but please Seph, if you're doing all this don't get me anything for Christmas."

"I wasn't gonna get you anything anyway."

"I'm serious! This is such a fun surprise and too much!"

It's not enough, is what Sephiroth thought. What he said was, "Get over it."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

On Friday evening there was an airship headed for the Cosmo Canyon base, and they only had to wait an hour for it to be ready for the voyage. If General Sephiroth hadn't shown up to catch a ride they probably would have taken a lot more sweet time, but the crew was pleased to have unexpected passenger bonus pay and had a little more fire under their ass to get there and back. They said Sephiroth and Cloud could hang out on board until it was time to leave, and Sephiroth was quick to demonstrate why he preferred airships to commercial flights.

"Check this out," he smirked and reclined his seat way back as he slid down low, stretching his legs way, way, way out until his knees finally bumped the seat in front of them.

Cloud had never been on a commercial airplane and wasn't sure what kind of point was being made, other than Sephiroth was now down low and grinning up at him expectantly. His eyes drifted down to Sephiroth's open and inviting lap, and he really liked the way his black sweatshirt had ridden up just a little to flash a sliver of porcelain skin around his waist, "... Wanna join the mile high club?"

"What? No - well, yeah but no," Sephiroth quickly sat back up in his seat, though his imagination was now clearly activated. "My knees get murdered on planes, the seats are so fuckin' close together and they don't recline at all. Some seats are a little better but it's a pain in the ass tryin' to get one. Airships are way more comfortable."

Cloud looked down at their legs. His own knees were exposed in his torn jeans and they didn't even come close to touching the back of the seat in front of them, stretched out or otherwise. He pushed his thigh against Sephiroth's and frowned as he continued making comparisons, "How can I relate to these problems, Seph? Look at where my knees are compared to yours!"

Sephiroth wagged his thigh to hit it against Cloud's, "So what?"

"I'm short."

"Wish I was short, too. Then we could fly on a normal plane and they'd give us snacks."

"Don't agree that I'm short! You're supposed to tell me I'm a stud!"

Sephiroth leaned down close to him, "You are a short little stud and you're so fuckin' hot."

Cloud took the bait and closed the distance to kiss him roughly. They looked at each other up close for a moment and kissed again, softer this time.

Sephiroth's stomach growled loudly and he pulled away, "We'll get some food when we land. They probably have somethin' on this ship somewhere we can steal in the meantime."

"I brought loads of stuff," Cloud reached into his bag for the snacks he'd brought for the journey. Eating was now his full time job, and his bag was full of bags and Tupperware, "Want some Combos? I have Oreos, muddy buddy mix – oh, they had cheesy breadsticks in the cafeteria today and the lunch ladies let me have all the leftovers, they're really good when they're cold. I found your Gatorade color, too!"

"Hey, who needs a flight attendant?" Sephiroth acknowledged in gratitude as he took Combos from him and a bottle of coveted blue Gatorade. "You take your medicine, yet?"

He quickly took a couple of motion sickness pills with a small sip of his own purple Gatorade before tucking it back away, "... I'll probably need more during the flight - how long do you think it'll take to get there?"

Sephiroth looked at his phone for the time, "This kinda airship's pretty fast and they'll probably floor it, so I'm guessin' it'll only take about six hours to the Canyon base. With the time zone change it'll still only be like nine or ten over there when we land."

Cloud suddenly considered the possibility that airship travel wasn't so bad. Maybe they could just keep outrunning time forever by traveling West indefinitely, and never have to do anything or answer to anyone. In time out of time, they could just exist together.

Taken by that thought, Cloud leaned up and kissed Sephiroth's cheek just as he palmed a handful of Combos into his mouth.

He gave him a smile as he noisily chewed, "Wha's that for?"

Cloud was beaming up at him, "Nothing, just happy!"

Like most times that Cloud decimated him with sweetness, Sephiroth shoveled more snacks into his mouth and changed the subject, "Feel like walkin' around the ship?"

Cloud spoke through muddy buddy mix, "Are we allowed to?"

When Cloud flew to the Northern Crater, it hadn't even occurred to him that he could explore the ship, there was so much more to see than just the passenger hold. Sephiroth showed Cloud some of the stations, mostly they were empty and powered down because it was just an evening cargo flight with a limited crew. But if the airship was ever called on to use in battle or in any higher pressure capacity, there were all sorts of interesting features, weapons, and a beautiful array of colorful buttons of varying styles and textures.

Cloud very much wanted to press them all, but refrained and instead stared at them while eating snacks and listening to Sephiroth explain what they all did.

Sephiroth noticed Cloud's fixed gaze, "You like this kind of stuff?"

Cloud's eyes snapped up from the button playground, "I would hate my life if this became my job."

"When you're a Junior SOLDIER you'll learn how to fly and land airships and helicopters. There are a few different jets too, but you won't learn those unless you wanna specialize in them. They're fun to ride in, they go so fast your nose bleeds."

"You're describing hell."

"You might actually like to fly when you're the one in charge."

"Do you like it?"

He shrugged a little, "It's easy, but boring. All you do is sit there and try to stay awake."

"Try!?"

"I sleep really well in the air."

"Remind me to never be on an airship you're flying!" Cloud bellowed through more trail mix. "... Did you mean what you said at the seminar? You actually think other divisions get cool stuff to play with?"

"I always mean what I say."

"Liftin' off in fifteen," the pilot announced over the speaker.

Cloud's instinct was to hurry back to their seats to buckle up and pray, but Sephiroth lingered on the lower decks, completely unafraid as the engines rumbled to life and everything began to tremble and vibrate around them. The ship took off while they stood in the cargo bay, looking out from a huge floor to ceiling window that opened up for jumps or unloading. Cloud's knees were shaky, but Sephiroth was relaxed and confident, so Cloud tried not to actively shit his pants as Midgar quickly became a grid of bright lights beneath them.

"This is the altitude where I'll get to push you out of a helicopter next year."

"You really seem to get off on that!"

Sephiroth just grinned. Back when he was a Junior, the now infamous first free jump came as a complete surprise – an unceremonious shove from a commanding officer. Now everybody knew about it, but to discover that he was able to safely land from a drop that should have killed him, or at least shattered his legs like he'd done as a little boy had been one of the most empowering experiences of becoming a Junior SOLDIER.

Eventually Midgar was a distant beacon of pulsing lights in the vast, dark rural landscape of the Eastern Continent, and there wasn't much more to see. Sephiroth pulled Cloud's hand and they made their way back to their seats.

Sephiroth opened up his laptop, they had three Wutainese horror movies to choose from and sight unseen they began watching the first one he could tap on. They each took an earbud, and Sephiroth wrapped an arm around Cloud as they settled in with their cold cheesy breadsticks to watch.

"These are kinda good," Sephiroth remarked and took another one.

Cloud reached out to pause the movie every few seconds to read the credits, which were kind of cheating because they were all spelled out in letters and not in brush script, "Hantaheewanatta Studios?..."

"Presents," Sephiroth supplied, since this wasn't really vocabulary Cloud would be familiar with. "... a horror production by..."

"A long stupid name."

"Sarut Sakdashinawatra. Just try sayin' it."

Cloud rolled his eyes, "I'm not being tested on names."

"Names are the only thing you actually have to say in real life, though. If you can't talk they understand, but as long as you can greet them by name they're cool."

Cloud knew how annoyed Skylar always was when people tripped over his real name, so he grumbled the name as best he could and pressed play again. But the following text required him to pause it immediately, and he squinted at the screen for several moments, "... What the fuck is this movie called?"

To be fair the script was weirdly written, but just from what he knew about horror movie logos it looked like it was a pun based on The Ring. Sephiroth had some difficulty with it before he came up with, "... Ghost Hole?"

Cloud reached for the DVD case to scan the movie names for the one directed by Sarut Sakdashinawatra, "It should say 'Lover from Beyond the Grave'."

"That's definitely not what that says."

Whatever it was called, it was very boring and lacked any holes with ghosts in them. A milf widow moved into a big, fabulous, vintage apartment after her husband died and the hot lady ghost dwelling there slowly drove her to sexual insanity. IMDB might have described it as a dark tale of desire, grief, and longing, but mostly it was this chick walking around her spooky apartment at night in lingerie, being horny and sad. She kept being startled by glimpses of the hot lady ghost in mirrors or as a curvy shadow, but they were fleeting. Every so often the ghost would make a move on her, and they did a pretty convincing job at making it seem like someone invisible was feeling her up or undoing her bra, but there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue for Cloud to translate. He compensated by pausing and trying to read things in the background or labels on product placements when they were displayed clearly enough.

"Are you invested in this?" Sephiroth finally asked with a long yawn. "I don't get why this is unrated, it's not scary and nobody would even get off on this."

"We're more than halfway through it, we might as well finish. I think the ghost is actually alive and she's trapped in a hole somewhere, and the lady's gonna save her and they're gonna end up together!"

Sephiroth thought Cloud had better ideas than the makers of most movies.

So one night the widow was feeding the subplot of the hot neighbor dude who was always spying on her by fixing herself some tea in just panties and stockings, and the sexual tension between her and the hot lady ghost finally boiled over. The tea kettle screamed as the widow's panties were torn off, and then she received excruciatingly close up, graphic oral sex from absolutely nobody. Then she spent several long moments scissoring with thin air, then she proceeded to eat out nothing. This poor actress' tongue was just flapping out in the wind, and Sephiroth and Cloud were absolutely losing their minds.

"This is a fetish! This has to be someone's fetish!" Cloud screamed. Then he screamed louder when the camera cut to the neighbor guy furiously masturbating at the window while watching this unfold.

Sephiroth was wiping tears of mirth and fatigue out of his eyes, "They made this whole boring ass movie just so this stupid shit could happen."

Surely that would have bordered on the profanely ridiculous and earned this movie an unrated release, but then the ghost started squirting. Glowing, green spectral lady juice was doused all over the widow's face and boobs, and both Sephiroth and Cloud let out twin cries of disbelief.

That was an absolutely show stopping money shot, it should have been all over. But no, these chicks were just getting started – the widow was dragged up the wall onto the ceiling where she appeared to be getting violently finger banged. The camera panned to a mirror in the room, and in the reflection there was the hot lady ghost, finger banging away.

Cloud found himself quite adept at understanding porn talk in Wutainese, which made sense since it was fairly simple. Between suppressed cackling laughter he translated, "Right there... oh yes lady?... I'm gonna... yes, yes... um, I dunno what she said – "

"Keep going, baby."

"I'm trying."

"No, she just said, 'keep going, baby'."

"Oh!" Cloud giggled. "Um... something, in there – "

"Deep in there," Sephiroth corrected.

"Deep in there... what did she just say!?"

Sephiroth let out a bark of laughter, "Eat my ghost hole!"

"Sir, General Sephiroth! Sir!" a voice shouted suddenly from a few seats ahead of them.

"... Uh, yeah?" he responded, looking at Cloud with wide eyes and quickly pausing the movie.

"I'm so sorry, Sir! I don't know if you're aware there's crew in here with you, I just wanted to – ! "

Cloud popped up onto one knee and lifted both hands up as though he was being arrested, "We're sorry! Nothing wierd's going on, we're just watching a Wutainese horror movie because it's my homework for Wutainese class, but the movie turned into ghost lesbian porn!"

That was definitely something weird going on, and Cloud's accent ate up most of that explanation. But the crew member could see they were both fully clothed and clearly not fucking, so he let out a gust of relieved breath, "I'm so sorry! Please forgive the interruption!"

"No, we're sorry," Sephiroth said in his General voice, leaning out to look at him through the aisle. "We're being loud and stupid, we'll be quiet."

"You don't have to – I'm putting headphones on, I just didn't want, um – yeah," and with that, the crew member sat back down and a few other heads lowered back into their seats.

Cloud needed a moment to recover, and just silently cried and laughed against Sephiroth's chest. Sephiroth kissed the top of his head repeatedly and wheezed silently with him until they could settle down enough to even attempt to keep watching.

After that one very entertaining sequence, this fucking movie had the nerve to try to go back to being artsy and emotional and sad. After their encounter in the kitchen, the hot lady ghost was never seen again. The widow couldn't face life alone and ended up jumping from the window, but instead of her hot new girlfriend, her old dead husband greeted her in the afterlife. He was overjoyed to see her, but she was still horny and sad and looked off into the distance, as if in resignation that she was damned to be eternally unhappy and boring. The last shot was of the outside of the apartment building and a Wutainese 'For Sale, Single Women Only Housing' sign was placed in the window... and the smiling photo of the realtor on the sign was... the hot lady ghost! The End.

"I hate it," Cloud decided, pulling out his ear bud.

"That was rough," Sephiroth agreed with a long, sleepy cat-like stretch. "... I don't think I can do another one right now."

"Thank God," Cloud stretched too and reached down to dig in his bag and take another dose of medicine.

"You feelin' okay?"

"Yeah, just taking some before I need it," Cloud assured him and took a little sip of Gatorade.

"C'mere," Sephiroth reclined his seat and opened his arms.

Cloud gave him a cheeky smile and shifted to sit across Sephiroth's lap and lay against him, "You're right, the seats on an airship are pretty comfortable!"

"See?" he locked both arms around Cloud.

Cloud only meant to sit on him as a joke, but after few lingering kisses and then just enjoying Sephiroth's warmth and listening to his steady heartbeat over the drone of the engines, it was harder and harder to think about moving back into his own seat. Eventually someone turned off the main lights in the passenger hold and Cloud hovered near sleep, but then every so often they would rumble over a field of clouds, or a coasting change in altitude would remind him that he was about thirty-thousand feet in the air. But even so, he was never safer than he was right then with Sephiroth sleeping underneath him.

A couple hours later when they began to descend and felt those drops in pressure, Sephiroth's breathing changed and Cloud knew he was awake. A crew member walked down the aisle past them and a distant light came on, and then the pilot announced, "Landin' in fifteen."

Sephiroth shifted a little underneath him and kissed the side of his face, "Lemme up, baby."

"Aye," Cloud whispered, and gently scooted off of him and back into his own seat.

Sephiroth stood up with a long yawn and stretched up so tall his hands were flat on the ceiling, "... M'gonna go to the bathroom and see if I can find coffee. You want some?"

"Yes please," Cloud said, then restarted his phone to sync up to local time. While it refreshed itself, he peered out the window in apprehension. With most of the lights in the airship off, it was easy to see the clear, starry night. A big, bright moon illuminated details of a rocky, mountainous landscape, and Cloud could see small houses and cars driving along lonely winding roads, and then the slow sprawl of more populated areas with busier activity. They passed over a lake that was crowded with sailboats, and Cloud realized they were all sailing in a single file line and decked out in colorful lights – it was a Christmas boat parade!

That was the exact moment that Cloud lost his fear of flying. There wasn't anything to be afraid of, especially not when he would soon be able to jump and land safely should the unthinkable happen... and there were so many adorable things to see from that vantage point, the world looked like a toy playset.

Sephiroth returned with two paper cups and offered one with a string hanging out of it to Cloud, "They had tea. I didn't put sugar in it, just some creamer, that's right?"

"Yes! Thank you, dear," Cloud accepted the warm cup and it felt nice in his cold hands. His phone was back on and he was further delighted, "It's only nine o'clock!"

The main lights came back on and they squinted smiles at each other. Sephiroth pushed on Cloud's chaotic hair, "You got bedhead from just laying on me for a couple hours?"

"It's a lifestyle," Cloud shrugged as he took a sip. He wanted to look outside again but the interior lights had turned the window into a mirror, so he just settled in his seat and finished his tea while the airship made a gentle landing at the Cosmo Canyon base.

The base was located in Cosmo Canyon city, which was a two hour drive away from the actual Cosmo Canyon. After a few minutes chatting with and thanking the airship crew (and dropping the name of the movie they were watching since inquiring minds wanted to know), they went to request a car from the base's motor pool. It was really cool to get to walk around the vehicle hanger and see all kinds of stuff that had been brought out to Cosmo Canyon at one time or another and sort of forgotten about. There weren't many practical options to choose from since most of them were for scaling mountains or were huge tanks or armored buses and shit.

Then they came across an old school Jeep with a camouflage paint job, and the interior was enclosed in thick plastic that could be removed in warmer weather. It would fit in perfectly with their little retro weekend!

Sephiroth poked his head into the motor pool manager's office and gave a little customary knock on the door, "Hey, is that old camo Jeep bein' used for anything this weekend?"

The manager was a gray, round, OG member of the army and he was clearly not intimidated by an unexpected Sephiroth sighting in the slightest. He leaned back and gave him a long, assessing look, "... That Jeep is not old, it's a mint classic. Who needs it?"

Sephiroth crossed the threshold into his office with Cloud, "Could we take it until Sunday, maybe Monday?"

"Who's driving?"

"Me," Sephiroth answered.

"And how old are you? No disrespect, but you look like one of my kids right now."

Sometimes Sephiroth really hated being fucked with by older army people, because there was a certain line he felt like he had to tread, even as a General. He could have just ranked his way past any conversation and been a dick about it, but it never came naturally to him with older people who'd been in the army longer than he'd been alive.

He tried to show respect and just answer the question, "Twenty-three."

The guy must really not have known how old Sephiroth was because he was visibly taken aback, "... My youngest is older than you! You can't even legally rent a car until you're twenty-six!"

"I've done it since I was 17. I've done it here at least twenty times to get around on assignment."

"You on assignment right now?"

"No," he admitted. "Look, I can replace anything here if I wreck it, which I won't."

"You can't replace anything here if you wreck it. Our base doesn't get shit for dick, you know that... we have to take care of what we have, all of these vehicles are twice your age or specialty jobs we can't even get parts for anymore."

"There's always a stack of paperwork to fill out, sue the ass off me if I wreck your shit. Gimme somethin' you're tryin' to get rid of and I'll wreck it on purpose if you want, I just need something to drive for a couple days."

"We're on holiday!" Cloud piped up with a beaming smile. "His apartment's getting fumigated. Cockroaches."

The motor pool manager had to smile back at Cloud a little despite himself, "Where are you two headed?"

"Out near the Canyon. We're stayin' at that – "

"Raycraft?"

"Yeah."

"That's where all the young tourists go..." he let out a long, weary breath as he looked between the both of them before he got up to open the key locker. "Take the Jeep, but no off-roading. No taking it down into the Canyon, it's too old to make it back up and you can't tow anything up those trails, there's a whole vehicle graveyard down there. Watch out for animals, they love to run into the highway. And no being a dick and trying to park it on top of other cars."

"Sephiroth's a very careful driver," Cloud lied. But then he told the truth, "He's very responsible for his age."

"That's what I've heard," he said, but still didn't look like he trusted him. "Tinkerbell doesn't get to drive, just you. That Jeep's been around since I was twenty-three and we all love it... run it through a carwash and fill it up before you bring it back here. If you can do all that I won't make you fill out all the damn paperwork... even though I should..."

"... Am I Tinkerbell?" Cloud realized out loud, and when both Sephiroth and the motor manager laughed at his expense the vibe check was complete: they were young, but they were harmless dorks. There was a paternal passing over of the keys, the manager showed them the trick to turning on the heater, and they were on their way to Raycraft.

Cosmo Canyon city wasn't like Midgar, while there might have been a busier city center it was mostly a huge, sprawling suburb. Any restaurants or diners were already dark and closed for the night, and since they had to drive to Raycraft, they just settled for some McDonald's.

They had zero expectations, but it was one of those times when the planets aligned and the food at McDonald's was incredible. Or maybe they were just that hungry, but the salt and soda revived them and they both gained a much needed second wind. Cloud spent a little time trying to connect his music, but the old Jeep wasn't capable. There was the radio though, and Cosmo Canyon's vast, open skies offered plenty of strange stations to explore.

Cloud rested on a station playing interesting electronic music he'd never heard before. He turned it down a little to let it pulse in the background underneath the low roar of the Jeep cutting through the wind. He bounced in his seat a little, "This is so much fun!"

"Are you sure? I dragged you halfway across the world tonight and offered nothin' so far but a shitty movie I barely stayed awake for, then a cup of probably nasty tea, and fuckin' McDonald's. The bar for fun will get higher, I promise."

"There is no bar, I love doing anything with you!"

That made Sephiroth want to give Cloud everything he had – the shirt off his back, the flesh off his bones, everything, anything. He didn't say anything, just sighed as he stared at the road.

Cloud leaned forward a little and tried to catch his eyes, "Seriously, I've loved every minute of this night! I loved flying with you, I loved the horrible movie, I loved our nap, I loved the tea you brought me, and that was good ass McDonald's, you have to admit!"

He did have to admit, "It was above average."

"You're so used to traveling all the time, I probably sound lame."

He reached out and squeezed Cloud's thigh, "That's not what I mean, you're a fuckin' blast to do anything with. And I'm definitely not traveling when I'm getting sent out. I never go off base just to fuck around like this, never even have the urge to. I guess I just have shit on my mind and it feels like..."

"What?"

"Nevermind."

"Tell me."

Sephiroth let out a huff. He paused, then he huffed again, "I was sick when you met me, then I let myself get even sicker and you had to see all that shit. Then I was gone half of last year. Then the past few weeks have been so fuckin' stupid, and I shoulda made things easier on you but I didn't. I made it way harder for you than it had to be."

Cloud knew spiraling internal dialogue when he heard it, "Seph... all of that was hard on you. You've been through so much and have worked so hard, and you still show up for me – for us. I love you, you don't have to do anything more."

"I just wanna give you more, show you that your life with me isn't just about our work, or Shin-Ra, or fuckin' aliens tryin' to kill me. I was thinkin' about what all this past year would have been like if you weren't here and I really wonder if I would just be dead. And I think back to ways I dealt with you or how I've talked to you this year and I wish I could go back in time and punch myself, like Cloud's the love of your life, Cloud's everything that matters to you, can't you just make him happy? And if not, shut the fuck up and at least don't make him cry?" Sephiroth kept talking although Cloud kept trying to interrupt him, "When I went to your room, I asked you why you don't find someone easier to be with than me, 'cause the idea of you finally gettin' sick of my shit and findin' a normal guy scares me to death. And it's like I need to get in front of it, to confront it so it won't actually happen. Mostly I just wanted you to tell me I was stupid and you wouldn't do that, and you did. But I never said that I don't want you to find someone normal or convenient!"

"I know you don't, Seph."

"I know you know, but if even a little part of you thinks I'm tellin' you to actually go find someone else, or I'm puttin' some doubt in your mind that I love you, or if I'm makin' you sad at all... please don't listen to me when I'm like that. Until I figure out how to stop bein' stupid, just don't..."

"I won't."

"I know," Sephiroth said irritably. "But Jesus Christ I saw what's goin' on at the seminar, there's a lot of hot guys around you all the time, and you wait around on me? Weeks? Months, sometimes – "

Cloud couldn't help but shout, "Same to you! Same fucking thing to you and I've been saying it since we met! You're surrounded by tall, hot guys who adore you and who actually make money and matter in the world, and you choose to wait on me, right? It doesn't fucking matter when you love somebody, it's just what you do! There could be a school-wide circle jerk orgy, I don't give a fuck! Though I might have a peek from my window and maybe send you some pictures!"

Sephiroth growled through frustrated laughter, "What if I get deployed again? What if you get deployed? You really want just some asshole voice on the phone who's mean to you half the time?"

"Come here," Cloud demanded and cupped Sephiroth's cheek with one hand, and tsked in complete adoration as he leaned some weight onto it. "Are you just saying all this because it's scary and you need me to tell you how wrong and stupid you are?"

"... I can't believe I just did it again."

"Mid-apology about doing it!" Cloud laughed, and loved the way it felt as the muscles in Sephiroth's face shifted up into a smile against his hand. "... If I had to choose only ten more minutes on the phone with you while you're in your worst mood, or a whole, happy lifetime long with some basic idiot from school who's always around, I'd be spending ten more minutes on the phone with my soul mate. Right now I'm more excited than I've ever been about the life we're gonna have together because it's gonna be real, it's gonna be you and me, and it's gonna be awesome! We'll be apart sometimes, but it's okay because we have phones, we can talk, and we know what it's like when we finally get to see each other again... don't you think?"

"... I think if I only had ten more minutes on the phone with you, I could make you nut at least three times."

"What's the opposite of a soul mate?" Cloud wondered aloud.

"Nemesis," Sephiroth answered with a wide smile. "I'm gonna bother you 'til one of us dies. And then figure out a way to keep doin' it."

Cloud leaned over to press a series of quick kisses all across the side of his face, "... Know what I kinda want to hear you say for once?"

"What?"

"I know you're not an asshole and you have no reason to be jealous or at all worried about this... but if I really did go find a nice, normal, boring, no baggage boyfriend to replace you... what would you do about it?"

Violent impulses flooded his mind, but Sephiroth tried to form a mature answer, "... First I'd try to talk to you, because if you didn't want me it wouldn't matter if I killed every dude you date, you'd just find another one. So if it was final and there was nothin' I could do to change your mind, I'd just... ruin his life from afar. And get hotter. And send you lots of presents."

"Presents!? You think I'm so shallow that you could win me back with presents!?"

"They'd help. Especially since I murdered a bunch of your boyfriends, and your latest one's gettin' stationed in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean."

"I don't need any presents, and you can't physically get any hotter," Cloud giggled, blissfully ignorant that a very large present was the entire reason they were currently in the middle of the desert.

Sephiroth looked over at him, "What about you? What would you do if I ever got a new – "

"Don't ask me a question like this if you don't want me to say something insane."

"I encourage insanity."

"If some other guy actually..." Cloud shuddered and couldn't say anything physically romantic out loud, though his mind always created the same generic, basic, smug, hot gay porn looking mother fucker who was always threatening Cloud's slippery hold on Sephiroth's heart, "I'll actually, literally, physically kill him, and I'll enjoy killing him. I even know what I'll do with his body."

"What?"

Cloud's voice was deep and ominous, "I'll beat him halfway to death with my bare hands... then cast Mini on him, chop him up and flush him down the toil – "

Sephiroth shattered into laughter.

"I'm serious!" Cloud whined, but fully enjoyed the unhinged sound of him laughing uncontrollably, always ecstatic to be able to draw it out of him. "Take heed of my evil plans, Sephiroth!"

"I am! I'm scared – " he wiped his eyes with the palms of his hands with another rolling, high pitched little chuckle. "That was dark as shit and I totally believe you!"

"Lucky for our dead future boyfriends, they don't exist," Cloud grinned.

"I'm still a bad boyfriend though, I shoulda stood up for you back there."

"What? When?" Cloud asked, his mirth dropping into concern.

"I shoulda beat that guy's ass for callin' you Tinkerbell."

Cloud sighed in hearty relief, "I should have beaten his ass too, for giving my General so much shit! There was no respect."

"None," Sephiroth agreed. "Old guys, though. It's okay."

"Well if I'm Tinkerbell, you're Elsa."

This wasn't Sephiroth's first time hearing this comparison, "I can accept certain realities."

"See? Disney insults don't count, and now Halloween costumes next year are sorted!"

Sephiroth reached out to take Cloud's hand and kissed it while he drove, "If it'll make you happy, I'm in."

All Cloud needed to be happy was Sephiroth's heart and his time, and he was receiving an unexpected abundance of both that weekend. He'd read about the love languages and guessed that maybe one of Sephiroth's emerging ones was gift giving, like he had to provide or compensate for something. A lot of people in the world were looking for those kinds of things from their partner, but it baffled Cloud that Sephiroth thought for a moment he had to give or do something to make Cloud happy. While material things were pleasant and he would always accept a new phone or more clothes in life, above all else Cloud just wanted to make him happy.

Cloud gazed up at the handsome outline of Sephiroth's eyes, nose and lips in the blue glow of the dashboard while he drove, "... You think anyone followed us out here?"

"What, like surveillance? I highly doubt it, they only really watch all of us when we're in Midgar."

"What about this Jeep? I know this is a Shin-Ra vehicle and everything, you think it's bugged?"

"Nah."

"How can you be sure?"

"It's old, and nobody really cares what goes on at the Canyon base. And when you start mako you'll probably hear it too, survey tech gives off this little tapping sound. You get used to it, but if you focus on it you can always tell when one's around – !" Sephiroth inhaled sharply and his back snapped straight when Cloud's hand slid between his thighs to grab a handful of him. He looked at Cloud, "... Hey."

"Hello..." Cloud answered while he gently stroked his palm down to Sephiroth's knee and then back up to his groin to trace the outline of him through his pants. "... Do you mind if I play with you a little bit?"

"You don't gotta do that."

"I want to, though... can I?"

"You think I'm gonna say no?"

Cloud just smiled and lifted up the hem of Sephiroth's sweatshirt up to his collarbone, and his seatbelt was kind enough to hold it there. Cloud greedily kissed his way from Sephiroth's lips, over his tiny, tight nipples and down his stomach. Even sitting down his chest looked like a superhero's, and while he always had insane abs of steel, late night McDonald's had caused them to blur just a little beneath his soft skin. Cloud kissed over his belly button and down to his groin, Sephiroth's cock was getting thick and hard and jumped a little against Cloud's teeth as he dragged them against his pants.

Cloud quickly sat up a little to unbutton his own jeans, and Sephiroth got a glimpse of his long, hard cock bouncing out before his eyes darted back to the road, "You're startin' some real shit right now."

"I know," Cloud said as he returned his attention to Sephiroth and kissed him. He let out a gasp into Sephiroth's mouth when he reached to touch Cloud in return, "You shouldn't, I'll get it all over, I'll wait. I'll keep you clean, though..."

Sephiroth slipped his fist around Cloud's cock one more time before letting go, "We're not gonna be there for almost an hour... want me to pull over?"

"No, drive faster."

Sephiroth obeyed, "Don't make me burn a hole in the seat."

"I won't edge or tease you," he promised as he unbuttoned Sephiroth's pants to carefully pull him out, and moved his fist appreciatively up and down the entire length. "... I just wanna make you come."

"Jesus Christ."

Cloud let out a giggle, "Put your seat back a little?"

Sephiroth obeyed again, reclining as much as he could and still see the road over the tall dashboard of the Jeep. He made himself as available as possible and rested one hand on the back of Cloud's neck, not to guide or force, but touching him eased the urge to watch.

Cloud truly wasn't interested in teasing, he immediately opened his lips to suck the tip into his mouth, and his warm tongue slid all around it. It earned a sharp little intake of air from Sephiroth, so Cloud softened his attack and made the entire length wet, getting right down to the base while it was still just pliant enough to be easy. But the angle between him and the steering wheel was a little unforgiving and Sephiroth couldn't see it anyway, so Cloud didn't try to deep throat as it strained to full tension in his mouth. He slid his fingers into Sephiroth's pants to carefully invite his balls out and cupped them gently, and soon the Jeep's roar and the strange music were accompanied by the wet sounds of Cloud giving his most tender attention.

It was unhurried and leisurely, which was something sucking Sephiroth off rarely was. Usually it was reserved for when either of them were feeling unwell or too tired for anything more uh, in depth. But it was never just about drawing it out, enjoying the way he tasted and felt in Cloud's mouth, and just giving Sephiroth time to enjoy sensation with no urgency.

He'd desperately wanted to do this when Sephiroth was driving to and from Nibelheim, he was just so sexy while he was driving, but the time was never right. There in the dark, in the middle of nowhere, it was the perfect time and place.

Sephiroth was mostly quiet, but that wasn't an indication for lack of enjoyment, he was just overly aware of every sound he made. As time went on and his heart rate began increasing, it was hard to contain a few deeper pulls of air. Cloud's cheeks and throat were soft and hot, and his tongue was like an endless spiral of loving, affectionate sensation that blanketed his cock. Sephiroth watched the road but he didn't see it, he didn't really see anything as he zoned out with his fingers brushing through the short hair on the back of Cloud's neck.

Only once a semi-truck overtook them and roared angrily past, but otherwise they were on that stretch of road all alone. Sephiroth could easily have driven on this road with Cloud's mouth working his cock forever.

Cloud suddenly gagged a little, and Sephiroth blinked to awareness. He realized he hadn't even thought in several minutes and must have been pushing on him, "Sorry baby."

"Not you," he giggled raspily. "I started thinking about that movie."

"Never think about that stupid fuckin' movie, especially when you're blowin' me."

"Mmmgg!" he made an amused little noise as he came back up and gave into a laugh. He circled his tongue around the ridge of Sephiroth's head and admired it up close for a moment and let out a little groan of longing as he fell against Sephiroth's thigh, "I want it so bad right now!"

Sephiroth's eyes drifted over the curve of Cloud's ass raised up on the seat behind him, "I can pull over real quick if you want me to..."

"No seriously, drive faster so we can get there," Cloud suggested again as he pulled his pants down a little more until his ass popped out of them before going back to work in Sephiroth's lap. He purposely curved a deep arch into his spine, and Sephiroth could now see the dimples of his lower back and just enough of his round little ass to get angry at it.

He stretched his arm out, but all he could manage was the tip of his middle finger pressed against Cloud's hole. He couldn't get it in so he gave up and just squeezed what he could before he brushed his hand up the deep line of his spine, "... You look so hot right now."

The leisurely pace became a little more intense and focused. Sephiroth liked how his words had an effect on Cloud and heard himself ask, "... You love suckin' that cock, don't you?"

"Mm-hm..." Cloud affirmed, breathing hard against Sephiroth's upper thigh as he took it deep down his throat.

"You're so good... feels so fuckin' good, baby..." he told him, fully knowing he sounded like an idiot but it was hard to shut up once he started. Cloud was so sweet, so eager and responsive that he just kept babbling, "I love how you suck cock, baby... you look so good like that... I wanna fuck that little ass so bad..."

Cloud was drooling in every sense, he loved drawing such tension and reaction out of Sephiroth. But as his own arousal heightened and his heartbeat quickened, it became harder and harder to breathe. To his ears it was a little unbecoming, but he knew the kind of nasty stuff Sephiroth liked so he just allowed a desperate, glugging suction sound to come out as he struggled to keep pace, breathe, and not pass out.

Cloud finally popped off of it with a hard intake of air, "Fuck, Seph."

He moaned openly, "Do that again..."

Cloud forced that little pop a couple more times, taking the opportunity to breathe deeply before dropping back down onto it again. It was even thicker and saltier now, and Cloud could feel it coil and tighten between his lips, and Sephiroth was letting out soft growls that were like music. He searched blindly for Sephiroth's free hand and put it back in his hair, asking him silently for guidance, for what he needed.

The truth was the battle to breathe created pockets of hesitancy and pauses in his passionate performance, and those moments were what made getting head from Cloud so damn good. A perfect oscillating machine with no teeth and no need to breathe wouldn't compare to Cloud, every time he groaned around Sephiroth's cock or took in some quick air or just ran his tongue along the length for a moment to give his jaw a break, he keyed the tension up higher and higher.

Sephiroth didn't want to disrupt it and just followed Cloud's head with his hand, wishing his little Cadet hoodie was off. His jeans, too. He also wished he wasn't driving, and that Cloud's tight little vice grip ass was currently impaled on his cock and he was kissing him with that wet, restless tongue. He felt the muscles in Cloud's back begin to move, and he looked down to catch him jerking off while he sucked... and that little ass was turned up high, absolutely begging for cock.

Sephiroth was livid that he wasn't currently behind Cloud to line up and roughly answer that invitation. But as it was, he threaded his fingers into Cloud's spikes instead, "You're makin' me so fuckin' close... you really want it?"

"Mmm!" Cloud affirmed, and his hand came back to rest against Sephiroth's thigh for balance, and his spiky hair began to sway a little faster.

Sephiroth began to urge him shallow and quick. It made Cloud soak his cock in saliva as he tried to keep up and breathe at the same time, absolutely loving to be used by the one who loved him. Sephiroth was rumbling in his chest in time with Cloud's mouth, and he released a real moan when Cloud went down deeper to offer that same quick rhythm to more of his length. It made the sensitive, weeping tip of Sephiroth's cock rub against the ridged roof of his mouth, and Sephiroth's thighs tensed so hard he came up off his seat a little.

"You're gonna make me come..." he gritted out between his teeth, and just tried to hold his eyes open, look at the road, and surrender. Cloud was so perfect in that moment, every breath he took, every slide of his tongue, every ounce of pressure he was using was exactly right, and he ripped an orgasm out of Sephiroth like a bolt of lightning.

He dug his fingers into Cloud's scalp, and a series of words were forced out of him that grew more and more soft and helpless, "Fuckin'... fuck... shit... Cloud... baby..."

The space between the steering wheel and Sephiroth's body was forcing Cloud's throat to remain at a 50 degree angle, and due to something with physics or gravity he was drowning in the cutest load Sephiroth had ever shot into his mouth. But he wished like hell it was going down his throat instead of trying to go up his sinuses. One badly timed gasp for air ruined what would have otherwise been a perfect blowjob... when a shot hit his chin and smeared across his cheek, Cloud felt what gymnasts felt when they didn't stick the landing at the Olympics.

But he knew what Sephiroth liked, so he went down as deep as possible and held still, letting it slowly pulse and offer a soft, warm hug with his throat. Sephiroth's hips moved just a little, nuzzling his cock against the back of Cloud's throat as he enjoyed some unhurried aftershocks.

Sephiroth eventually sighed and pet the back of his spikes with finality, "... Come back."

Cloud's survival instinct kicked in and he quickly came up with a gasp, searching, searching, searching for anything. He seized the McDonald's bag and grabbed some napkins to blow his nose and wipe his face. He looked at Sephiroth's gooey lower stomach and soaked pubic hair with annoyance and quickly wiped him off as well, "Sorry I made a mess on you, I tried not to."

Sephiroth literally could not give less of a shit about that, or anything. He blinked at Cloud, "You good?"

He was draining what was left of his soda and came up with another gasp, "... That's a crazy angle, I didn't have enough respect! Road head's not for amateurs."

"You're a pro," Sephiroth reached out to lure Cloud in for a kiss. It was safe to not look at the road for just a moment, and ran his tongue against Cloud's in both apology, gratitude, and promise. Sephiroth could taste himself and shamelessly licked Cloud's mouth, "... I'm gonna do horrible things to you in about twenty minutes."

"Bring it," Cloud kissed him again before pulling away to let him see the road. Somehow fighting for his life on Sephiroth's cock had made him intolerably hard, but it would get some attention soon enough. He tucked himself back into his pants and zipped up as best he could.

A full minute passed in glowing, smiling silence from both of them.

Cloud helped himself to what was left of Sephiroth's drink, and looked over at him, "... What we were talking about before?"

Sephiroth burst into a short, silly laugh, "I barely know who I am right now."

"You were saying something cute!" Cloud's brain was oxygen starved, he really had to think about it. "Oh yeah – Seph, I love you and I love our life, I don't need you to do anything, you don't have to worry about some high maintenance boyfriend bullshit from me. You're wonderful and you make me happy, all you have to do is exist. Also, let me suck your cock whenever I want."

"You got it."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

By the time they were able to actually lift themselves up out of bed the next day, it was almost noon. The bed was very small and perfect for cuddling, as was everything else in the adorable little retro RV. There was a little kitchenette, a booth to sit and eat, a micro-couch with a record player that served as a living room, a super tiny bathroom with a shower, and a bedroom with a sort-of closet that was more like this dark, deep tunnel to nowhere that they decided to just shut and forget about.

This RV for hobbits was perfectly suited to someone Cloud's size but definitely not Sephiroth's. He'd bumped his head, elbows, and knees in the little bedroom trying to fuck him the night before. The only solution was for Cloud to get on top and ride while Sephiroth just stayed still and tried not to knock anything over. It wasn't the worst solution of all time, but after getting incredible head in the Jeep, Sephiroth really just wanted to pound him into tears. He did his best from below, but did accidentally kick over a clock and a pile of decorative books in the process.

Once they were out of bed, they found that the shower was sort of nice. Though it was even smaller than the one in Cloud's dorm, they had plenty of hot water... and it led to them spending a little time enjoying being slippery and crammed in together. But again, Sephiroth didn't have enough room to fuck Cloud properly, though he badly wanted to... all he could really manage was a flirtatious wedging of his cock against the soft, curved cradle of his lower back as he ran his hands over Cloud's rippled stomach and up to pull a little at his peachy nipples.

Cloud didn't pick up on the hint and turned the water off with a little, "Excuse me, dear!" on the way out. He was distracted, because he was never more excited to put clothes on Sephiroth.

Cameron had let him borrow a red and black flannel shirt for himself and a black and gray one for Sephiroth, and he planned on keeping them forever. They just looked like a cute straight boy's shirts, there was some innate quality about them that all of Cloud and Sephiroth's clothes lacked. Even if they went to a store and bought a flannel shirt it still wouldn't be the same, Cameron had infused them with straight boy energy.

Cloud threw a shirt at him, and then dug through Sephiroth's bag to see what pants he'd brought, and was delighted that he'd brought the black jeans with the hole in the knee. He whipped those at him, too, "Put on a white shirt underneath it and leave it a little unbuttoned! No, all the way unbuttoned!"

Sephiroth's arm hit the ceiling trying to pull a white shirt over his head and he huffed in frustration, "Get out for a second."

Apparently Cloud had to physically leave the bedroom to give him enough space to get dressed, so he went to the kitchen to make them some coffee before they ventured into town for lunch.

Sephiroth finally emerged in his straight boy drag, and even had the sleeves pushed up like a little 90's grunge band fantasy, "Well?"

Cloud let out a cry of adoration, "You're so cute!"

"You're cuter," Sephiroth kissed the side of Cloud's face as he sat at the booth – or tried to. He looked like a giant praying mantis as he tried not to hit his knees on the opposite bench, "What's wrong with this place? Were people smaller back in the day or what?"

"Some people are small now," Cloud icily stated as he poured coffee.

Sephiroth said nothing. There was no safe reply.

Silence was the correct answer because Cloud then picked up both cups and happily chirped, "Come outside with me!"

He'd been dying to get a better look at the outside of the RV since they'd arrived the night before, it was just too cute! There were little fairy lights strewn all over, tons of cacti growing all around and a few little cactars captured and happily domesticated in pots, and there was a fire pit with lots of pillows for cozy sitting. It was chilly even at mid-day, and nice to sit in the sunshine without Sephiroth's poor knees being mistreated.

They made their way into the little town for lunch, and discovered what kind of bougie, annoying place Raycraft was. Trying to find somewhere that would actually help Cloud meet his daily calorie goal was difficult, all the outside display menus seemed to be tiny plates of fancy, obscure food. But they did find a barbecue place, and even if they were trying to be elevated and fancy about it, it was still loaded with calories and helpful in getting Cloud to his target. They also had cactus ice cream with a desert flower flavored whipped cream that they couldn't help but try, and it was definitely the best part of the meal.

Shopping in the town's little main strip of stores was... confusing. There was a belt buckle store where everything was dirty and covered in fake working man grime and nothing cost less than 2000 gil. There was a jeans store which was literally called Jeans Store and they sold ugly, raggedly hemmed "raw vintage denim" jeans for 1200 gil. There was one entire store that held nothing but like five leather purses with cowboy tassels, and they were like 6000 gil each. The RV's were cool because they all were cool, old, and vintage. Everything else in Raycraft was trying to fit into that retro theme but missed the mark entirely, who the fuck wanted any of this shit?

Even the highly anticipated hot chocolate bar was a let down because they didn't even serve alcohol! They had this thing they called "choctails", which was a chocolate mocktail that tasted like what morning-after hangover poop smelled like. What the fuck!?

The more things they found to hate about Raycraft, the more fun Sephiroth and Cloud had. They explored every inch of it; they judged every piece of self indulgent, vainglorious "art", laughed at the price tags of obviously stupid shit like designer soap shaped like a cactus, and took pictures in front of all the dumb spots that people were supposed to take pictures. If one squinted, it was almost as though they were enjoying this little town like a couple of ordinary tourists, but they were different, they were the cool ones, they were both wearing flannel.

They stopped at the town's little grocery store and got things for cooking over their fire. Even the hotdogs in Raycraft were stupid – they were proudly labeled 'classic juicy wieners' which was a stunningly repulsive trio of words. But a lot of the food there was designed to roast over an open fire, and the RV came with anything they'd need, so they got a lot of hot pocket-style, stabbable food. There was pre-packaged diced up salads that were a lot like the one Cloud made for him, so Sephiroth even took it upon himself to choose something vegetable-based. And instead of a bakery with cookies or cakes behind glass, this grocery store had an enormous selection of decadent marshmallow varieties, including a bacon wrapped marshmallow. They got two of almost everything to try, including a bag full of the classic marshmallows if they all sucked.

Since the time zone was different, Sephiroth had a brief phone call appointment to attend to that evening – he didn't really want to say the word 'therapy'. Cloud gave him space by staying in the RV and letting Sephiroth talk on the phone and pace around outside for 45 minutes. He was very proud of himself because he didn't even attempt to listen in, and even put in his earbuds to listen to music just to remove all possibility of overhearing anything.

When Sephiroth was done he called Cloud outside, he had already started a fire and discovered that the RV had outdoor space heaters. They ate hotdogs and strange little campfire hot pockets full of barbecue and cheese, and had a marshmallow smorgasbord over their little fire pit in a cozy, warm little pillow fort underneath the stars.

Cloud eventually asked, "... We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but how was your phone call?"

Sephiroth didn't seem bothered by the question, but all he said was, "I dunno."

Cloud really wanted to know what Sephiroth was 'dunno'ing about, but he held back from asking.

Sephiroth eventually said more through another marshmallow, "... She's mad I'm still not writin' that much in my journal. It's stupid. I feel stupid even sayin' it."

"It's not stupid, there must be a reason she's telling you to do it. Just try it..." Cloud pulled his latest marshmallow from the fire and blew it out like a birthday candle. "I'd read it if you let me."

"You'll read it even if I don't let you."

"No I won't, I promise!"

Sephiroth made a very unconvinced noise.

Cloud laughed guiltily as he ate his marshmallow, "When I read your old therapy journal, the Roadhouse one, it was actually kind of... funny. And even the reports you write – "

"Classified reports."

"Fucking sue me, they were open on your laptop and your password was too easy to guess so I read them! But they were like... fun to read. My seminar review, too. You're funny when you write, Sephiroth. You're funny all the time."

"No I'm not."

"Why do you think I love you so much?"

"I throw decent dick at you once in a while."

Cloud threw a marshmallow at Sephiroth, "It's much better than decent, but it isn't why I love you!"

It landed in his collar bone area, and he picked it up and ate it, "What else am I good for?"

"Want another burnt one?" Cloud asked.

"One more."

Cloud really thought about an answer as he gently impaled two marshmallows, "... I dunno if this really ranks as the number one reason why I love you, but what comes to mind right now is like... I went my entire life with nobody really giving a shit about anything I say or really seeing me at all, then when I talk to you or get to be with you it's like... such a relief to feel like things I'm saying actually reach you and you give a shit and really respond, you just..." he let out a long breath, thinking.

"I think your friends and mom and whoever else is lucky enough to be in your life see you, listen, and care about you way more than you think."

There was a dismissive and doubtful look on Cloud's face as he held his skewer over the flame. The way the firelight was hitting his eyes, it was like they were portals to clearest, brightest blue sky imaginable. Cloud was so beautiful that it seemed impossible for a negative thought to even enter his head, like his angel aura should have blocked it or something. Instead it seemed to absorb it.

Those blue eyes turned to him, "... What?"

"What number on your list is my dick?"

Cloud's downturned mouth burst into a grin, "Number two reason why I love you – your classic juicy wiener!"

Sephiroth grimaced. Loathed vocabulary words were fun to torment one another with, and he had way more ammunition at his disposal, "Number one reason why I love you is your pink, puckered assho -"

"Eww!" Cloud screamed, smothering his mouth with his hand.

Sephiroth kissed Cloud's palm until he was free, "... Serious question - do you write in a journal?"

"I did for a while, when I was like twelve."

"Why'd you stop?"

He pulled the marshmallows off the flame and gave one of the skewers to Sephiroth, "I got bored."

"So you admit it's boring and stupid!" Sephiroth victoriously accused as he ate.

"I guess it's boring if nobody else reads it..." Cloud glanced guiltily at Sephiroth. "I kind of wanted my mom to read it. I left it out all over the house. I don't even think she noticed it, other than to tell me to put my shit away. So I got bored and quit."

"What'd you want her to read it for?"

"I don't really remember," Cloud instinctively lied as he shoved his nicely toasted marshmallow into his mouth, and then reached further for the truth as he chewed it. "... It was getting really bad at school. I already knew I liked guys, but the older I got the more obvious it was to everyone else. Mom wanted to go out more around that time, I was getting older and she wanted more of a life for herself, which I totally get. Most of the time she'd bring me with her, or I'd stay with my great-grandparents. But then great-granddad died and great-grandma wasn't able to babysit me by herself... so when I turned twelve mom made this big, grand deal about how I was almost a teenager and I was mature enough to be home alone like it was some kind of privilege for me... but it's not like I had anything to do or anyone to hang out with. It was kind of weird seeing mom having friends and dating and acting like she was a teenager, but I literally almost was and nobody wanted to be around me. So I just... wrote a bunch of dramatic shit about how I hated my life and I wanted to kill myself, and how I missed my dad. I had no memory of him, but I wrote it to piss her off and left it out thinking she'd freak out and take me to a therapist and they'd give me some medication that would make me normal. She never read it, though."

Sephiroth finally understood why Cloud was always looking through his stuff. To him it was an act of noticing things, of taking action toward someone you loved, of giving a shit.

He didn't say any of this. What he said was, "Fuck April."

They both laughed a little, but the unspoken part was hanging in the air. Cloud set his skewer aside and settled in closer beside Sephiroth, "I'm sorry I always go through your things. I won't anymore."

He looped an arm around him, "Lookin' for anything in particular?"

"I just like everything about you, and I wanna know everything about you... and I guess I was selfishly curious if you were gonna write anything about me."

"I didn't write long enough to get to the sexy part."

Cloud didn't laugh at the attempt to humor him, "I'm gonna start respecting your privacy, I promise. I don't want you to feel like you can't write things and be honest without me looking at it because I'm a nosy, insecure dumbass."

"I don't really mind. There's nothin' I'd write about you that I wouldn't say to you," Sephiroth looked at Cloud. "... Did you really wanna kill yourself?"

"Nibelheim made me feel hopeless sometimes, like the only way I'd get out was to die."

"Same," Sephiroth agreed. "I was only there a couple days and I wanted to end it all. Why does anybody live there?"

"... I have some bad news about that while we're on the subject... the whole family is thinking about moving to Junon."

"It's not bad news, it's inevitable. What are they waitin' for?"

"Just finding the right place, and a doctor for great-grandma," Cloud then perked up, "Stella's coming to Midgar, though!"

"Yeah? She's cool. Tell her to enroll and become a Turk."

"She wouldn't last a day. She's going to some beauty school, she found another girl in the same program to be roommates with. She graduates in May and then she'll move over sometime this summer. She wants to know if she can use you as a hair model for her class – not for cutting or coloring, just for treatments and styling and stuff, they get lots of extra credit for doing long hair."

"I'd be down for that. And if the roommate falls through tell her she's welcome to stay with us, it's not like we don't have room."

"I'm not telling anybody in my family how big your place is!"

"It's your place, too."

Cloud suppressed a smile, "She didn't even think to ask, she's excited about living with her friend and sharing clothes and doing whatever goth girls do. Gus already talked to her and said she could have a job at Dirty Rubbers! I warned him she's ugly, but he talked to her and liked her pictures so he's gonna give her a chance."

Sephiroth squinted down at him, "She looks exactly like you. Tell me that you realize this."

Cloud dismissed this fact with a roll of his eyes, "It works out because I won't be able to keep working there after August... so she'll be coming in just as I'm getting ready to..."

Sephiroth kissed the side of his face, "You're gonna rock the exam, baby."

"... Are you okay, Seph?" Cloud asked, evading the whole topic of the exam. "About... everything? The Crater stuff? Me saying I wanted to kill myself as a dramatic kid isn't a big deal. But... I know this whole thing is bringing up a lot of stuff for you. Are you okay?"

"When I was little I wanted a different life, too. And I always had my mind made up... if they ever tried to take me back there permanently, I'd kill myself before they got the chance to get me in the door. But that was before you."

Cloud couldn't help but notice how similar it was talking to Sephiroth and talking to little Crater about the doom mongering of his own reality, "You're not ever going back to the lab. It won't ever happen."

"But if I did..."

Cloud was trying to wait for him to get words out, "What, Seph?"

"... I'll live. If you're stickin' with me, I'll always wanna live. I know you'd find some way to..."

Cloud took his face and kissed him, rescuing him from having to say any more out loud. He left Sephiroth's lips and kissed his forehead, wrapping his arms around his neck as he came in closer to be held.

Sephiroth whispered into his neck, "I love you, Cloud."

"I love you," he agreed, kissing between Sephiroth's eyes and down the line of his nose. He was left looking at him up close, "... Anything else on your mind tonight?"

He murmured, "I got a weird, sad boner."

A wide grin spread across Cloud's mouth, "Welcome to my world."

"It sucks. I like angry boners better."

"I'll find some way to make you mad... then you'll have to try to make love to me in that teensy tiny bed again," Cloud showed his teeth and snarled a little bit, and they quietly growled at each other and kissed until the pesky emotions had dissipated and all that was left was smoldering physical attraction in flannel underneath a huge, starry Western sky.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Unfortunately, the snowstorm in Midgar wasn't nearly as big a deal as everyone was making it out to be, and class was to resume on Monday as usual. It would have been nice to have one more day, because they discovered hiking around the Canyon to be much more fun than Raycraft, and there were so many trails to choose from. The dude at the motorpool wasn't lying, there really were a ton of cars that had skidded off the road and fallen into the Canyon.

But the real shit was a huge vehicle graveyard where an entire parking lot had been established way too close to the edge, and the whole thing had come crashing down to the Canyon floor one day in the 80's. They spent their morning hurrying to the bottom so they could check it out.

Cloud was treating this graveyard like a thrift store, he wanted a souvenir from this trip. He came across a few funny, vintage bumper stickers and was looking for a piece of glass or metal to cleanly scrape them off with, but then he stumbled across a sleek, black, totally fucking annihilated 80's coupe. The thing was crushed like an accordion, but Cloud could tell how sexy and cool it once was, and could practically hear the George Michael music that no doubt used to blast from the speakers.

He walked around to the front and discovered that it still had a hood ornament attached and undamaged, a beautiful, detailed chrome wolf's head. It was just by itself down here in the wild, and there was something so romantic and Old God about it that Cloud almost thought to leave it alone. But how had nobody ever taken it in all these decades? Maybe it was rusted in place or impossible to pull out.

Cloud gave it a tug and it moved a little, so he yanked and it easily came off in his hand.

Cloud looked at it in disbelief. Almost panicked, he ran to find Sephiroth.

He was sitting behind the wheel of an ancient, destroyed semi-truck and looking at the buttons and controls, and Cloud jogged over to him with his prize, "Look what I found!"

He took it from Cloud and his eyebrows rose, "You just found this?"

"Yeah!?" Cloud hesitantly agreed, almost embarrassed. "I bet they'd sell this for like a million gil in one of those stupid stores."

Sephiroth slid down out of the driver's seat to his feet and handed it back to him, "I bet they'd overlook it or throw it away, they have no fuckin' idea what's actually cool."

Cloud looked at it with a new perspective. The wolf had appeared to him because he knew it was cool – he was King Arthur of 80's drug lord cars! Or maybe just cool things that were hiding in plain sight, waiting for an energetic match to notice them and take them someplace better in life. Cloud looked up at Sephiroth, who was climbing back up into the semi-trailer and couldn't resist giving his adorable butt a loving grab under the guise of a boost.

The sun was high in the sky as it passed behind one of the tall, cathedral-like pillars of rock and it started to absolutely freeze at the bottom of the Canyon, but they took some very cool, Mad Max looking pictures before they started to hike back up... which is where the fun and games ended. By the time they were halfway up, even Sephiroth was getting winded. They dragged their asses up the rest of the way to their RV, where they collapsed into the pillows beside the fire pit.

They had time to make an afternoon fire and eat the rest of their hot dogs and marshmallows, then they had to clean up and gather their things for the return home. Once inside that little bedroom together again, Cloud couldn't resist pulling Sephiroth down for a kiss... and another one... and then running his hands up into his hair to invite any unfinished business he might have before the long journey home.

They went to tumble into bed together and Sephiroth knocked his head so hard against the window frame that it rocked the entire RV. He went still, silent, and expressionless in the face of true, actual pain.

"Let me see!" Cloud urgently checked his scalp. He wasn't badly hurt, just a red blushing mark that began on his forehead and spread underneath his silver hair. Cloud kissed him there gently, "I'm so sorry, pretty... I'm really learning about you this weekend, I never knew being tall was such a disabilityyyy – !"

The last word extended into a yelp as he dragged Cloud down onto the floor to take his frustration out on him where it was safe, or at least safer. They both hobbled away with bad rug burn from the retro carpet on their knees, but it was absolutely worth it.

They returned the Jeep clean, refueled and in one piece, but the motorpool manager wasn't even there. Instead there was a much younger guy and he was both scared to death and thrilled when Sephiroth rolled up. Catching a ride back to Midgar was just as easy, and Cloud even managed to fall asleep against Sephiroth's side on the gentle, zero-turbulence glide home.

It was a beautiful trip! But it did not have the intended effect to distract Cloud from wanting to go home to the apartment. At all.

In fact, when they landed in Midgar Cloud still wanted to drop by the apartment to check if perhaps the fumigation was completed early, or at least see the building being tented like a circus. If it was hard to lie to Cloud over the phone it was a billion times harder in front of his sweet lips and eyes and hands and cute little fucking self. But Sephiroth remained strong and dropped him off at school on Sunday night like a good Cadet.

"I suppose you'll be busy all week since you're having three days off for Christmas with me?" Cloud asked, unbuckling his seatbelt as they pulled up.

Sephiroth kissed him just for the pure relief that this suggestion was coming out of his mouth and he wouldn't have to be the hard ass to say it himself, "... I'm sorry, I prob'ly won't be able to see you 'til Friday after school."

Cloud pouted, "Okay... I have a lot of stuff to do, too."

"You got exams to study for."

"Yeah, and I have to work at the store Wednesday night, and I have to finish Christmas shopping. And I still have to fix the toilet, Cam's getting mad at me because his ass hair keeps getting pinched."

Sephiroth had to sputter a little laugh and pulled him in by the back of his head for another kiss, "I'll see you in a couple days."

Cloud was still pouting when their lips came apart, "Five days."

"Aren't you sick of me, yet?"

"Never," he said against his neck as he leaned up to hug him one more time. "... I'm think I'm just a little homesick, too."

Sephiroth felt a tremendous wave of guilt, "You'll be home soon baby, just a couple more days."

"A couple is not five!" Cloud lamented.

Home was currently in a state of absolute chaos, but the crew was excited when Sephiroth showed up so they could give him a report of the progress.

The snow storm, mild as it was had pushed back delivery of the bathtub and new sink and new mirrors and new toilet and new shower, but there they all were... sitting in the middle of the bedroom. And the bathroom was currently completely gutted, the wall to the closet busted down, the floor ripped up, the tiles all smashed, pipes were jutting out of the wall, and the bathroom door was now a cavernous opening big enough to get the tub in and allow all these men to work. Not to mention the new closet was currently nothing but a cavern of steel beams where drywall would eventually hang.

Sephiroth was already trying to compose a groveling apology to Cloud, "Look... this thing just wasn't possible in the time frame I gave you. If you can just – "

"We're gonna be done by Thursday, lunchtime. We're way ahead of schedule," the foreman assured him.

"This is personal," a very big and strong crew member said, glaring at the tub. Sephiroth was willing to bet he was one of the ones who'd had to drag it upstairs.

"We're gettin' a bonus to have it done Thursday!" another, much skinnier one agreed.

So they were planning on installing everything, rebuilding the wall, tiling the entire bathroom, finishing the floor and doing drywall in four days. Sephiroth blew out a chestful of air as he doubtfully looked at the complete destruction that had become of his bedroom, "If you can actually get this all done by Thursday afternoon, I'll double your bonus, whatever it is."

There was joyous outcry, it was a Christmas miracle!

"So we get double wings!?" one of the crew members cried.

"The bonus is lunch at Wingstop on Thursday," the foreman said quietly to Sephiroth.

Sephiroth felt more nauseous the longer he looked at how much work needed to be done in four days, "If you can pull this off I'll get you all the fuckin' wings you want. But this is a shit ton of work, talkin' about it and seein' it are two different things... I don't think you quoted me enough for this, and we weren't doin' the closet when you quoted me, anyway. Would another 30% be okay?"

They all glanced at each other in shock, a few of the crew members immediately got back to work.

Sephiroth looked again at all the destruction and despite his sudden urge to vomit, he was still inspired, "I think I kinda like the bathroom door bein' big like that. If I bring you one, can we make it a double door?"

The foreman was overcome with emotion and pulled Sephiroth into a hug, "We'll do whatever you want, man!"

Sephiroth looked at him with wide eyes, "... You okay?"

He quickly released Sephiroth, "It's been a tough year for us. This big job comin' through at Christmas has really helped these guys... I did lowball the quote, we just really needed this job."

"Then lemme pay you what it's really worth. I appreciate you doin' all this for me so last minute, it's fuckin' nonsense, but once I thought about it I just really wanted to do this for him."

"It's not nonsense. Nothin' about interior construction and design is nonsense. It's for your family, it's home. It's one of the few things that matters."

Sephiroth let that sink in, "Well... thank you."

"Thank you," the foreman said, and gave the crew members still standing there a sweeping look, "Don't just stand there, let's build a fuckin' bathroom! We got ninety-six hours!"

Sephiroth had never been nervous about interior design before because he never had to please anyone but himself. The landlady always loved anything he did, mostly she was just happy not to have to make a bunch of aesthetic decisions and leave it to someone she trusted.

But this was Cloud's home. This mattered.

Sephiroth really began to regret doing this as a surprise, because what if he didn't like it? What if the feng shui was off for him? What if he just didn't like the concept of Sephiroth taking these kinds of liberties with their bedroom... this was a really important area of their lives, their relationship.

Someone began grinding down pipe. If power tools could talk, they would scream, Oh fucking well, too late now!

The sound of grinding made all the sore spots on his body hurt – he might have had a SOLDIER's ability to heal faster, but his knees and ass and legs and head still hurt. At the very, very least, in this new bathroom, Sephiroth would always have enough space to fuck Cloud.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Something weird was going on, Cloud could just sense it... and it activated all the relentless, annoying energy he was capable of.

On Monday he asked to come over and check for roaches and begin decorating for Christmas. And then on Tuesday he wanted to come over to try cooking a Christmas bread recipe he saw online. And then on Wednesday he asked Sephiroth to come hang out with him at work so they could have another hookup in the dressing room after closing.

It was hard having to say no to all these sweet ideas, but Sephiroth couldn't crumble to Cloud's demands. Not only because of the bathroom work, but because he had so much shit to do that week – everything from year end budgeting meetings, to planning and strategy meetings for the following quarter, to giving the Cadets who won at the seminar their time, to showing up for the SAAAD training slots, to the bullshit holiday type stuff that happened around HQ. It was like everyone crammed everything into that last week, but all Sephiroth really wanted to do was go home and help the construction crew lay tile.

Then on Thursday Cloud called Sephiroth during his first morning break and in lieu of hello he said, "I have brain fog, I'm cranky as fuck, I've been dropping everything all morning... I'm gonna fail my exams if you don't help me! Help me!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Me?" Cloud answered, a little teasing sexiness curling that single word request up into a purr.

Sephiroth did not feel sexy. He was trapped in a long line at Home Depot with a bunch of ladies all griping to each other about the wait. He was just trying to exchange a faucet handle because it was a different shade of steel than the new drain. This was not important and he knew it, but there was so much to do that he was lost in minutia and he just needed to complete this return, he needed dominion over this fucking faucet handle, "I can't do anything tonight, baby. I'm so sorry... you know I wanna see you and love on you, but I really can't, I have so much to finish – "

"Half an hour?" Cloud bargained. "Ten minutes? One minute?"

Not only did he have more end of year meetings that night at HQ, but the crew was officially finishing by 1pm, at which time Sephiroth was providing a Wingstop feast. Some of the guys volunteered to stay for a few hours of overtime pay to help Sephiroth with the final detail work; cleaning, painting, opening the windows and running fans to air out the dust and renovation smell, and moving stuff back into the bedroom and bathroom.

And then it would be Sephiroth in the apartment, alone. Alone with hysteria, alone with his choices, alone with whatever the fuck else came into his mind to do to try and salvage this entire mess of a Christmas gift.

Sephiroth felt heat spread over his face and chest, "... I have to work all day and night, baby."

"Doing what!?"

"Stuff!" and it was true, both as General and as an exhausted interior designer. "Seriously, I have no time today, I'm sorry."

"When do you get off work?"

"Friday, 4pm."

"So you're really working all night long until we go home tomorrow!?"

"Yes," he answered truthfully. And he hadn't slept since Tuesday night.

"... Who's at the apartment right now?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nobody, just leave the app alone for fuck's sake. They already told you somethin' happened when the exterminators were there, they must have sprayed on one of the heat sensors or some shit that they need to replace," he growled in annoyance. Even Tseng agreed to back him up on the lie when Sephiroth told him what was going on, but Cloud still refused to just shut up and buy it. Sephiroth sprinkled in some truth hoping it would throw Cloud off the scent trail, "Everything'll be back to normal by tomorrow, I promise."

"Then just come here," Cloud pleaded. "Or I'll come to your office, it doesn't have to be anything big, just ten minutes to just eat something with me? I'll feel so much better."

Sephiroth closed his eyes and reminded himself that this annoying Cadet was the love and the light of his life. He was just more tired than usual. He was creatively bankrupt and scared shitless, and the closer the bathroom was to complete the fucking uglier and stupid it looked. But none of that could be an excuse to brush Cloud off when the request was so simple and so possible.

Sephiroth opened his eyes, "... I'll come see you at six, I got half an hour to eat between meetings. I'll bring you some Burger King, okay?"

Cloud tsked, "Aww, Seph, you really don't have to do that, I know you're busy. I can come there, let me bring you something instead."

The zen left Sephiroth's body very quickly, but he tried to speak slowly and calmly, "... I'll text you when I park."

"But you don't have to – "

"Why do ya always do this – ?!" Sephiroth realized he was drawing attention from the rest of the line and whispered, though his voice eventually grew louder with righteous indignity, "You always do this thing where you nag and nag and nag and then you gotta twist it and make me insist on doin' whatever it is you wanted in the first place! So now I'm fuckin' insisting that I'm gonna come shove a burger down your throat at six! Does that make you happy?"

"Yes!" Cloud was laughing like the maniacal genius that he was, "But only if you insist!"

"I insist," Sephiroth drawled through his teeth and hung up on him, and accidentally made eye contact with the lady in front of him.

She was staring at him, "... Men."

Sephiroth tightly smiled at her, then gave in with an explosive sigh, "He knows it's fuckin' Christmas, can't he get off my back for two seconds?"

She lifted up the power tools in her arms, "Mine waits until four days before Christmas to tell me what he really wants. I'm just tryin' to make a simple return!"

Sephiroth nodded desperately, "Where are the fuckin' workers around here?"

The lady behind him barked her agreement, "I know right!?"

"We should be able to do it at self check out ourselves!" another lady with two bored kids hanging off of her chimed in.

Anarchy coursed through Sephiroth's veins but he tried not to incite a riot as King Karen, and instead just looked back at his phone to wait impatiently in silence.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was snowing hard and Cloud was running blind with his hood up as he hopped up into the tank. He only realized Sephiroth was in the backseat when he was grabbed and yanked backwards like a piece of prey being dragged into a predator's den. Despite begging for this encounter, Cloud instantly reprised his role as the helpless victim and screeched all the way to the backseat, only stopping when Sephiroth's lips crashed into his.

It took nine frantic minutes for them both to get a fix of each other. It was fast, half clothed, and desperate; Sephiroth was tired and overwhelmed and nervous and wanted to take it all out on Cloud. And Cloud's body and mind were exhausted, and he had this unshakable dread that Sephiroth was keeping him at arm's length since their trip and was worried that he'd done something wrong, been a boring travel partner, or was somehow losing his love by some act of Universal cruelty.

Post nut clarity allowed them both to realize that neither of them had done anything wrong, and both were mentally torturing themselves for little to no reason.

They panted together in amused disbelief, both victims of a carnal tornado. Cloud's sweatpants were still hanging off of one of his Converse and his legs had been haphazardly thrown upwards, and as Sephiroth's grip on them relaxed they came down to wrap comfortably around his waist.

Cloud let out a long sigh as Sephiroth came down to rest his weight on top of him for a moment, and he cleared his throat professionally, "Thank you for meeting with me this evening."

Sephiroth smiled against his forehead, "Best meetin' of the day by far."

Cloud was brushing his fingers over the small of Sephiroth's back and over the subtle rise of his ass where it peeked over the top of his leather pants, "... I know I've been annoying you this week. I'm annoying myself, too... my thoughts are racing, I'm anxious."

Sephiroth leaned on an elbow above him, "'Bout what?"

"I suck."

Sephiroth refrained from taking that comment to a sexual place, "From everything you tell me and other people tell me, and from what I can see with my own eyes you're doin' great."

"You haven't seen me this week, I can't seem to hold onto anything, I dropped everything all day yesterday and today. I can't do shit, I can't think, and I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get all A's this time."

While he was ranting, Sephiroth could feel Cloud's stomach growling, "You need to eat."

"Do you have time to eat with me?"

Sephiroth craned his neck to look at the tank's clock and let out a heavy sigh, "Not really. I only have a few minutes... I'd rather kiss you."

Cloud smiled and gladly accepted as many of those slow, relaxed kisses as he could get. Maybe this is the part he'd really been hounding Sephiroth for all week, just a calm moment where his brain and body weren't screaming at him.

"I got more for you, just get through tomorrow," Sephiroth kissed him one more time, and then shifted up off of him and reached into the food bag for some napkins to clean Cloud up a bit.

"Thank you," Cloud sighed, although most of his own mess had shot up inside his hoodie. The smell of the food caused his stomach to rumble again, "... I have a hundred things I should be doing. Cam wants me to come to the gym. The study group is having another cram session. I was supposed to do some extra credit for Wutainese to turn in tomorrow. I don't wanna do any of it."

"Scratch all that shit, I'm giving you official orders," Sephiroth said in his best General voice as he balled up the napkins. He didn't know what to do with them, so he just shoved them into Cloud's hoodie pocket, "First, throw that away. Then eat – take my food too, eat it all. When you're done, take a shower, then fuck around on your phone or do somethin' where you don't have to think. No more studyin', if you don't know it by now, fuck it. And no gym, nothin' you do tonight is gonna help you tomorrow. You already packed for the break?"

"Yeah."

"Good, don't do shit tonight. Just eat, lay down, chill out, and go to sleep."

Cloud pouted in earnest relief for these wonderful orders, "Yes, Sir."

They zipped up, pulled back on and straightened their clothes which now contained each others' DNA, and crawled over each other into the front seat. After one more kiss goodbye, Cloud took the food bag and his drink and hopped out. It was still snowing hard, and Sephiroth watched with a tired smile as Cloud stuffed the food bag up inside his hoodie to keep it warm as he dashed back towards his dorm.

He rested his forehead against his steering wheel for a full minute, feeling that falling sensation of deep tiredness. He eventually he picked his head up and looked at his phone.

There were about fifteen texts, mostly from the guys still working at his apartment showing him pictures and asking his opinion, from his landlady trying to get his attention about something she wanted him to help her with in the new year, from the director of his next meeting asking if he wanted any dinner ordered, and from Rhonda and Julie talking to each other about the babies in a friend group chat instead of messaging each other privately.

Then a new one popped up from Cloud.

Cloud won out in importance and Sephiroth tapped his message, 'I didn't get a chance to say you're doing great, too! Try to rest tonight, I know you're doing a lot of important stuff but you deserve some sleep, too. Everything's gonna be perfect tomorrow when we both get to go home and have a beautiful Christmas break! Love you!'

That hit Sephiroth's nervous system like an ointment.

And then, post-post nut clarity : all of this was for Cloud. Everything. It would always be all for him.

Sephiroth sat up straight, shook off his drowsiness and started returning texts and phone calls as he made the short drive back to HQ.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

With a celebratory whoop, Cloud bolted up the steps of Sephiroth's apartment. He'd brought his usual overnight bag, and also bags full of gifts and little things he'd picked up for the holidays throughout the month and they bounced joyously as he made it to the top of the stairs. His hands and body were too laden to open the door, and he looked back down the stairs.

Sephiroth was standing at the bottom, looking up at him. The expression on his face was unreadable.

"Everything okay?" Cloud asked, his energy fading just a little.

Sephiroth hadn't said very much on the drive there, he let Cloud excitedly chatter away – the dreaded exams had been a breeze! It was a day full of celebratory treats from his instructors, and endless food from Chik-Fil-A all day in the cafeteria as a surprise for the boys! They could spend their stupid money hating gays all they wanted, it didn't stop Cloud from gobbling free chicken nuggets and waffle fries by the fistful! Even the weather that day had been sunny clear skies and crispy cold, which made for much easier combat exams, especially those using materia. But the best thing of all was when his Wutainese professor offered them the surprise opportunity to use Google translate up to three times during the exam, closely monitored and only using the professor's phone. Google translate wasn't very useful for Wutainese without actually understanding the basics of the language, and Cloud found that he didn't need it for most of the exam. But three of the aspect-type questions were tricky and he opted to use it under the professor's watchful eye, but found that his guesses were mostly accurate, so it was more like checking his own answers. He fully expected to receive straight A's once again, and if he received a high B in Wutainese that was perfectly okay, too!

Overall, it was a fabulous exam day! And now he had three days and four nights with Sephiroth to watch stupid Christmas shows, go visit his mom, go visit Sephiroth's friends, and hopefully get fucked while Sephiroth wore a Santa hat!

But he was still standing there at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at Cloud with that strange, tight expression.

"What's wrong, dear?" Cloud paused for a few heartbeats before swallowing, "... Roaches?"

"Mm-mm."

"... Something worse?"

Sephiroth began slowly climbing the stairs. He opened the door for Cloud and took some of his bags, helping him in.

"Oh hey, they did finally fix the heat signatures," he said, looking at the little screen as he skipped inside and dropped his stuff. Everything looked the same, nothing seemed out of place. Maybe it was a little more tidy than usual, "So... where did the roaches come in from?"

"There were never any fuckin' roaches!" Sephiroth finally admitted with a gust of relief to tell Cloud the truth. "There was never a fumigation. The heat thing was never broken."

Cloud blinked up at him, "... Okay?"

Sephiroth drew in a long breath, and he took Cloud's hand and began to grimly lead him to the bedroom.

"Have I been bad, am I getting a spanking?" Cloud asked, trying to lighten this strange mood.

The door to the room was shut. Sephiroth stopped in front of it and crossed his arms, letting out a long, drawn in breath.

Cloud looked at the bedroom door, then up at his nervous beloved, "What's wrong?"

"I'm so fuckin' scared right now."

"Why!?"

"I have a present for you. I'm afraid it's dogshit and you'll hate it."

"I'll love it, whatever it is!" Cloud's eyes widened at the term dogshit, "Did you get us a puppy!?"

"No, no, no," Sephiroth tried to smile a little, but it was strained. "I... did somethin'. With lots of help, but I... built some stuff."

He considered what could be built in their bedroom, "A sex dungeon?"

Sephiroth was humorless, "No."

"Is it like, furniture or something?"

"... Kind of?"

Cloud's head tilted a little, "... Is it a drum kit?"

Sephiroth bit the inside of his mouth, because that would have been an amazing gift for Cloud and he hadn't thought of that whatsoever, "... Just go in and see."

Cloud stared up at Sephiroth with a curious smile as he opened the door and peeked inside. There was nothing in the bedroom that suggested anything new had been built, nothing wrapped or out of place. Again, things were a little more tidy and put together and un-lived in than they usually were. The bed was nicely made, the armoire was closed where the TV was, there were the same drawers against the far wall and all the huge windows were letting in streams of pinkish, orangey-late afternoon winter light.

Cloud walked in and turned in a circle, looking all around for something new, until he realized the closet door was fucking gone. And the bathroom door was now a double-door. And there was now a new door on the other side where one never had been one before.

Cloud looked back at Sephiroth with a wild grin, "What the hell?"

Sephiroth opened his mouth, but all he did was put his hands in his pockets and let out another long gust of air.

Cloud approached the bathroom doors curiously, and turned the handle of the one on the right. There was a certain smell of newness that escaped, not an unpleasant odor, but like fresh work having been done. Cloud felt for where the light switch used to be, and instead of just one toggle switch there were now three. He turned all of them on one by one, and different lights came on over a shower, over an enormous tub, and over the sinks – plural, there were was now a long counter top with two.

Cloud stood there in complete shock. A black tub big enough to completely lay down in took up a large corner of the bathroom, and there was now a separate shower stall with a glass door, and a huge counter top with two sinks.

The floor was made of an interesting, somewhat celestial-looking swirled pattern of tiny white tiles, and Cloud's eyes followed the tile work up the walls – small, white tiles of varying sizes began at the floor, and became darker smoky gray, then a jet black the closer they got to the ceiling. The ceiling was this strange, black, highly reflective surface. It was like the interior of a spaceship.

When Cloud took a step into the bathroom, he discovered almost everything was mirrored. The tiny tiles reflected the colors around them, and as Cloud moved around the bathroom they created the craziest, most visually fascinating effect he'd ever seen. He got closer to one of the walls to see what the fuck was going on – it was like every other tile was reflective, creating a fragmented effect. The only real, solid mirror hung over the sink, but as Cloud walked around the bathroom he could see himself everywhere.

He leaned down a little and touched the edge of the huge black tub in sheer wonder, then turned to gawk at Sephiroth.

He was standing in the doorway, stretching his eyes until they were nearly closed and wincing at Cloud.

Cloud was speechless. He opened the glass shower door and looked in, it was wide and spacious and just as beautiful as the rest of the bathroom, and their products were all neatly arranged and stacked in a little built in corner shelf. He reached his arm in to see how the reflective effect looked in there, and even the bottom of the shower was reflective, too.

He shut the glass door and continued on to another door, where he found a little private toilet room, and had to laugh a little bit as he turned on the light. There tiles in there were the same design but not reflective, and there was a scented candle and a little potted cactus that was very reminiscent of Cosmo Canyon placed on the toilet's tank. While it looked very nice and editorial, Cloud picked the cactus up to free it from this poop prison. The candle could stay.

There was another door, and Cloud anticipated a towel closet but instead he found another enormous room. He searched for a light switch, and let out a sharp gasp when he was greeted with the kind of closet that only existed in rom-coms. There were drawers built into the walls, a row of lockers and a floor-to-ceiling mirror, and it seemed like it'd been sectioned off with the idea that their clothes could be arranged by type. A couch and a rug Cloud recognized from Sephiroth's home office had been brought in, and while Cloud and Sephiroth's clothes hung in there, they barely took up a fifth of the space – there were hundreds of empty hangers.

Cloud walked the perimeter of the closet and found Sephiroth standing in the doorway.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud finally cried out, unable to form anything else to say.

"Cloud!" he cried helplessly back.

"This is beautiful!" Cloud accused, almost angry as his emotions caught up with him. "This is fucking beautiful!"

"It's weird," Sephiroth lamented.

"It's not weird, it's art!" Cloud approached him with wide arms and pulled him down into a hug, careful not to poke him with the baby cactus, "Is that who was here? Workers doing all this?"

"I had to lie to you," Sephiroth said, wrapping him in a hug. "Do you hate me?"

"I love you!" Cloud felt a few shocked tears seep down his cheeks, and wiped them away as he pulled back from Sephiroth to continue looking. He rushed back into the bathroom and let out a sudden gasp as his rational, thinking brain finally caught up to him, "Did you do this for me?"

"You said you wanted a bigger tub."

"You did all this for me!?" Cloud repeated at a higher octave, the magnitude finally settling on him. He spun back around on his heel and collided with Sephiroth again, "I can't believe you did this! When the fuck did you – how?"

Sephiroth sat on the edge of the tub with Cloud and finally told the tale at length – sadness and boredom and lovesickness and missing Cloud that led to a little flame of inspiration. Sephiroth walked him through the whole space, talking about all the choices he'd made. Some were perverse – there were obvious benefits to so much reflective surface in a place where they were often intimate together. Some were artistic – the scattering effect of the tile was something he and the crew had stumbled upon together, but as they worked it became something almost therapeutic and fun to arrange and he hadn't slept very much that week because he just enjoyed doing it. Some decisions were practical – he'd always liked the look of couples' bathrooms that had double sinks or a separate shower. And one was purely personal – pooping was best done enclosed in a private tomb.

And the closet was a blank slate for them to grow into their life together – there'd be more uniforms, more gear, and they needed more space to keep it all. There were even two doors to get into it, one from the bedroom and one from the bathroom, so they would have all the space they needed as Cloud graduated in a few months and they really began their life together.

Cloud held the little cactus in his lap, running his fingertips over the sharp needles while he listened to Sephiroth's thought process, in pure joy and wonderment of all the fucking money and effort he'd expended to make this happen. It was more than a gift, it was like the setting for a new chapter of their life.

Then Sephiroth told him all about his own internal torment of the past month trying to coordinate this and put it all together. Lying to Cloud was hard, finding the time to be here often enough to direct choices and help as much as possible was harder, but actually standing back and letting Cloud see the finished product had been the hardest thing of all.

"Why would you ever think I wouldn't love this?" Cloud had to ask.

"Dumb reasons," Sephiroth admitted. "Maybe you'd think I'm a control freak by doin' it on my own as a surprise. Maybe you just would think it's ugly."

"It's beautiful," Cloud said for at least the twentieth time, smiling as he looked at Sephiroth's reflection in the tiles and up on the ceiling. It was almost like this room was a little window into Sephiroth's black and white and silver soul, like a little piece of his heart was out on permanent display like the fucking Taj Mahal or some shit, "... Have you tried it, yet?"

"What?"

"Any of it?"

Sephiroth's eyebrows rose and he looked all around the room, "They tested the water and everything, but I actually don't really know how to work the shower or the tub. They left manuals, we'll have to figure it out."

"What do you wanna do first...?" Cloud asked flirtatiously, but the look on Sephiroth's face said it all. "... You want me to get out and give you some privacy, don't you?"

"I don't mean to sound gross but I've been so fuckin' stressed out for so long, and I am so relieved right now, my ass just unclenched for the first time in like a month – "

"Say no more, my love!" Cloud giggled, and pushed several little kisses onto Sephiroth's cheek as he got up with the cactus to take it somewhere to live in the light.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That weekend before Christmas was one of the happiest of Cloud's life. Unlike the year before, Sephiroth went with him Saturday morning to pick out a tree, buy a few new things to decorate the loft, and a few groceries to cook with for the holidays. It was wonderful to navigate through all the miserable people of Midgar in their own bubble of bliss.

Last year their love was still a new, uncertain thing, they were still being careful and unsure with each other. But this year Cloud got to enjoy the warmth of Sephiroth's breath as he murmured 'I love you' against his ear on the freezing train platform, and the feeling of his hand protectively resting against his lower back as they considered trees, or the squeeze of that hand around his as they walked through the grocery store together.

Saturday evening Cloud took a bottle of cheap red wine that was inexplicably Sephiroth's new favorite thing to drink, and put some orange slices and sweet, aromatic herbs in it and let it simmer on the stove, filling the loft with the wonderful smell of Christmas. They put up the tree, decorated here and there with a few little lights and furry strings of garland, and then sat down to watch It's a Wonderful Knife. Cloud agreed to sit through it if Sephiroth would watch Gremlins, and there were no regrets on either side.

They hung a short string of white fairy lights across the new bathroom mirror just to enjoy the play of sparkle and reflection splash across the tiles... and it'd been pretty romantic to share their first bubble bath in the new tub with only those lights on. Making love to Cloud in the new bathroom was even better than Sephiroth imagined, it didn't only feel amazing, it was uplifting and inspiring.

Sephiroth wondered about the practicality of mirroring the entire apartment.

Rhonda and Julie's gathering at their place on Sunday night was just a casual pot luck with a few of their friends, they said to bring anything and Cloud volunteered to bring bread. Per Sephiroth's request was already planning on making onion rolls, two pans of rosemary focaccia, garlic knots, a couple loaves of rye bread in their bread maker, and cinnamon rolls. Most of it was for Sephiroth, but he was baking enough for Rhonda's pot luck and to bring to his mom's apartment on Monday night for Christmas Eve.

Cloud spent most of Sunday busy in the kitchen baking while being mercilessly edged.

It was hard work following bread recipes, timing, and putting everything together, but unfortunately for Cloud he was insanely hot while he was cooking and Sephiroth had nothing but time to torture him. He made sure not to get anything gross in the food, and backed off when Cloud was handling the oven or something hot, but Sephiroth spent languid hours eating Cloud's hole, appreciating the musculature of his back and thighs, exploring with his fingers and sucking his long, hard cock, and occasionally sliding inside his upturned little ass and pounding it to the very point of no return just before backing off... all while Cloud was trying to accomplish his little recipes, and even providing little taste-test samples between more intense moments.

It was a damn near perfect day in Sephiroth's opinion, and they drew it out probably way too long. Cloud just finished packing up the bread to bring to Rhonda's and they were already fifteen minutes late, but they couldn't just leave in their condition. Both of them were achingly stiff and nearly purple, but actually achieving an orgasm after spending so long in edge mode wasn't so simple – it could be painful if not done right. Not to mention Sephiroth didn't want something to go haywire in his anatomy and burn the fucking building down. So he gave Cloud a kiss over his shoulder and started slow, but it quickly became grinding and desperate for both of them.

"Please, please!" Cloud cried out, his head almost hiding in his arms where he was bent over the counter. His cock was drooling and bucked in Sephiroth's hand when he finally reached underneath and began fucking him at the perfect angle.

It felt so good inside Cloud that it ached, and Sephiroth finally kept fucking past the point he'd been stopping all afternoon. He gripped the back of Cloud's hair with one hand and twisted his fist around his cock with the other, "I'm gonna fill you up – "

"Yes, fuck!" Cloud nodded and lifted his head up to glare back at him.

"I'm gonna come so fuckin' hard inside you," Sephiroth whispered again, wrapping his arm around his neck and holding him in place.

"Please don't stop, please do it!" Cloud begged him. "Feels so good, please don't stop! Seph! Seph!"

Sephiroth pushed his forehead against Cloud's and didn't stop until his balls were pulsing and draining and Cloud was up on his toes and his legs were shaking. He'd splattered the front of the cabinets and the floor between his feet, and his blonde spikes were matted feverishly against his face. Sephiroth had expelled a lot of unnatural body heat but thankfully, no scorch marks anywhere. He was still balls deep and stood up tall, looking at the perfect line of Cloud's back where it split and opened for him between two beautiful, soft cheeks.

"I don't wanna stop..." Sephiroth thought out loud, squeezing two handfuls of that perfect ass.

"We're so late..." Cloud whimpered from where his head rested on the counter.

"They'd understand if they saw this ass," Sephiroth muttered, thrusting his hips against Cloud again just to make it bounce and hear him moan one more time.

They finally disconnected and quickly went about making themselves presentable and hustling over to Rhonda's place.

They were almost an hour late, but everyone cared way more about the bread than their tardiness, so it was the perfect crime! They had a stellar excuse as Cloud began uncovering steamy bowls full of fresh baked bread that was still soft and warm, "Sorry, the yeast needed a little extra time to rise!"

Zack and a now visibly pregnant Aerith were there, Rufus and Genesis came with their strange little black demon catdog who was wearing a Christmas sweater and boots, Angeal had come with Skylar who didn't celebrate Christmas but was always down to party, as well as Elena and a freshly released Cissnea whose arm was slow and careful but functional.

Cissnea really was the star that night, everyone wanted to see her arm. Her scars were minimal with the help of Cures and proper care, and she was determined to do as much as possible for herself, but still needed some help.

Despite not wanting to go to Sephiroth's place initially, once they saw Cloud's pictures of the new bathroom, a field trip was immediately organized to go see it in person. The babies would have to survive a ten minute walk without their diaper bags and accoutrements, and everyone crowded into the bathroom to admire Sephiroth's vision.

There were varying degrees of awe from everyone, even Rufus and Genesis were impressed and poaching ideas for their own place in the future. Cloud was a little bit bashful about Skylar being there, just because he'd been pretty candid spilling tea about their sex life and knew what Skylar would think when he saw all those mirrored tiles. But even if he was thinking anything like that, he was nothing but complimentary to Sephiroth for his design.

"It smells so good in here from you baking!" Aerith chirped, and flipped the light switch in the kitchen to have a look.

There was still sexual evidence all over – a cushion from the couch were Sephiroth had spent almost an hour kneeling with his face pushed between Cloud's ass cheeks, clothes they hadn't picked up yet, and Cloud realized there was even a fucking tube of Pleasureglide just sitting on the counter right out in the open among the bread ingredients! He quickly killed the lights before anyone could ask questions and yelped, "No, don't go in there! Uh... I didn't have time to clean up, I don't want you to see how messy of a baker I am, too embarrassing!"

She innocently shrugged and headed for the front door with Elena and Cissnea, but Genesis wasn't fooled, "Embarrassing indeed."

Cloud looked down the hallway where others were now making their way out and then whispered up at him, "The bread's totally sanitary, nothing weird happened to it!"

"That's a disappointment. If I'm gonna eat carbs, something weird better have happened to it."

They got back to Rhonda and Julie's just in time for the boys to need diaper changes, and they spent a few hours together eating, having some drinks, and talking about the weirdness of this year of their lives. The Northern Crater battle, Julie giving birth to twins, the Rolling Stone article, Cissnea losing a limb, Aerith getting knocked up, everything.

It just felt... correct, the way things were in that moment. Rufus was sober and cooing over a strange little demon with Genesis, Rhonda and Julie were enjoying being moms in an exasperated way, Aerith looked absolutely stunning as a pregnant woman and Zack was catering to everything she wanted or needed, Cissnea was back in one piece and in great spirits while Elena was fast to help with whatever she needed, Skylar and Angeal were trying to play cool but clearly spending more and more time together.

And Cloud was curled up tight underneath Sephiroth's arm, pleasantly sore from a couple of days of attentive sex and listening to him talk, listening to him laugh, and receiving kisses every time their eyes met.

This was all correct.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The morning of Christmas Eve was busy and hectic, only because they had a last minute side quest.

Cloud woke up with the nagging feeling like they should do something for Crater. It was the sort of thing that wasn't worth even attempting to argue about, so they decided to head to one of the more casual malls and pick out some toys, which was probably the stupidest decision ever. It was a madhouse, but being in the thick of parents doing last minute toy shopping was sort of fun.

Sephiroth tried not to get too invested in the toy selection process, but he couldn't help but look at toys he would like. Things that shot, things that stabbed, things that had pieces and buttons and parts. Sephiroth picked up a mean-looking Nerf automatic, and a little child's tactical vest that held an arsenal of bullets. If he was ever allowed to have such a thing in the lab he would have pegged foam at those researchers all day long.

Cloud on the other hand knew Crater liked books with lots of diagrams and pictures, and found a whole set of them that went into great detail about space travel, kid-friendly physics, and the solar system. He'd also noticed a lack of cuddly things among Crater's possessions, and picked up a gigantic Squishmallow that looked like Jason from Friday the 13th. It was adorable, and splattered with red patches of blood and holding a little plush butcher knife.

"Is this silly?" Cloud asked.

"Nah it's fine," Sephiroth said, not wanting to verbally admit that he would have kind of liked that as a pillow now. They had the store gift wrap their selections then went to the lab.

Crater wasn't in his room and Cloud felt a drop in his stomach – all his toys and books were gone. But then he looked to the left and saw that there were plastic storage boxes stacked up next to the door, and a little child's book case where everything was neatly lined up. Cloud peeked inside one of the boxes and let out a sigh of relief that it was stuffed with crayons and action figures – they were just making him keep tidy, not throwing away his things.

"Hey," one of the lab techs said, poking his head into the room. "You lookin' for the little guy?"

"Yeah!" Cloud answered.

"He's at the kid's Christmas party."

"Kid's Christmas party?" Sephiroth snorted. "There's never been a kid's Christmas party in this place."

There certainly was now, the lab break room was full of the noise and commotion of lab workers and their children. There was a little tree set up on one of the tables, there was evidence of a pizza party and cupcakes, and it looked like they'd done some sort of activity gluing together stockings and decorating them with fuzzballs and plastic candy canes and glitter glue.

Crater was sitting on the floor with a few other kids who could sit still long enough to listen to a cheap-looking, slightly terrifying mascot Grinch read aloud the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

He noticed Sephiroth and Cloud in the doorway and waved to them before scrambling up to his feet, "Hey guys!"

"What's all this shit?" Sephiroth asked in sheer disbelief.

Rhonda came to the door bouncing one of the twins, "Long time no see, welcome to the party!"

"Why didn't you tell us there'd be a party today?" Cloud asked her, slightly offended.

"Well, it's kinda a lame thing for parents and kids, I truly thought you'd have better things to do."

"We don't!" Cloud took a look at Rhonda's baby and despite holding both the night before, he still had to guess at which one it was, "Hello... Matthew?"

"That's right," she grinned and gave the little boy over to Cloud. He followed her to sit near Julie, who was bouncing Johnny in her arms. The twins were of the baby age where bouncing was necessary, and it caused their little santa hats' bells to jingle softly.

Sephiroth looked down at the not-clone, feeling fucking ridiculous, "... Merry Christmas."

He was eyeing the bags Sephiroth was carrying, "What'd you get me?"

"... C'mon," Sephiroth went to sit next to Cloud, and began giving him his gifts. The sight of presents being opened drew the attention of some of the kids, and a cluster of boys were all bursting with excitement to play with the Nerf gun. The books were less than thrilling to the collective, but Crater was very appreciative. The Squishmallow was the big hit, although one of the mothers disapproved.

"That's not age appropriate," she said. "He doesn't understand what that is."

"This is Jason Voorhees, get fucked!" Crater told her, hugging him tightly. He left it by Sephiroth and Cloud for safekeeping, then went to help the other boys rip open the gun box and the tactical vest, and soon foam darts were being launched all over the room. One flew dangerously close to Julie and Johnny and knocked a mostly empty cup of ice off the table.

"Hit my babies one time!" Rhonda dared the group in her boldest outdoor voice. "Any of those pellets get near my boys and you punks are gonna pay!"

The boys all screamed in terror and ran out into the hallway, and the sound of the gun's automatic mode reverberated through the lab.

"I feel like I'm losin' my mind," Sephiroth said to Cloud calmly.

"Join the club," Julie smiled and handed him a baby for a while.

They had time to eat a slice of cold pizza and a holiday sprinkled cupcake before having to take off to Junon. The party was winding down, anyway – the kids who weren't bouncing off the walls were tired and cranky, the parents were over it, and the Grinch had taken his head off and the dude inside the costume was on his phone and vaping.

Cloud called Crater back from the group of the wired, bouncing-off-the-walls ones and crouched down to envelope him in a tight hug, "We've gotta leave now, I just wanted to say Merry Christmas!"

He squeezed Cloud back happily, "You too... thank you!"

"No thanking! I..." Cloud's mouth was open and 'I love you' was on his tongue. But saying that wasn't fair, because he wasn't sure if it was even true... or if it was, this wasn't the time or place to say it. So he said, "I just want you to have a happy Christmas!"

"I will," he smiled, then glanced up at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth looked down at him uncertainly. He knew everyone expected them to hug. It was fucking Christmas, everyone had to hug.

Crater looked up at him, knowing he held all the power in this interaction as Cloud, Rhonda, and Julie watched. He could make this weird or he could make this end. But what he chose to do was give Sephiroth the choice, and he lifted his arms just a little.

Sephiroth braced himself for some existential fuckery, but he wanted to know how full of shit Crater really was. He wanted to know what was happening to him at the lab. He wanted to know how it felt to be back there. He wanted to know if Crater was as okay with this new kid life as he seemed to be.

Curiosity won out as Sephiroth reluctantly dropped down onto one knee, and he pulled Crater into a hug by the bare skin exposed at the back of his neck.

Nothing happened. There was no exchange of visceral experiences or memories. But there was still something when they touched... something strange, but real.

Crater wasn't made in a lab and wasn't a clone. At least not a clone in the medical sense, but more like a piece of Sephiroth that had fallen off and grown its own individual self.

Starfish do that, I read it in a ZooBook, Crater thought, and Sephiroth heard it.

So they weren't trading memories or experiences, but in that moment it was like they were breathing together, thinking together.

I'm okay here, Crater thought, feeling Sephiroth's suspicion and concern.

Slowly Sephiroth began to see Crater's experiences, but it wasn't that rush like he was living them himself, more like he was having an instant conversation with Crater where he completely understood everything. Sephiroth felt Crater's sanity being restored with a routine and with regular medication, he felt how every day had been better and better for him. Sephiroth experienced a detached optimism like he hadn't felt since he was a child – a bemused witnessing of adults and their strangeness, a certainty that the future was going to be good, a feline fearlessness of punishment or pain. Death would have been okay. Life was okay, too.

Crater felt Sephiroth's more complex and layered adult emotional pain, and his envy. He felt Sephiroth's sense of betrayal at seeing him be treated so much more favorably than he'd been. But he also felt Sephiroth's adult freedom, his love for Cloud, his potential for so much more power within this company that he'd been hesitant to take.

Things really are different, Crater said to him. It's not so bad for either of us, anymore.

There had always been a stream in Sephiroth's subconscious, a dark flow like inky water that he could notice when he wanted to, but he never wanted to. He'd worked all his life to ignore it with the help of anti-psychotic medication and sheer will. It terrified Sephiroth because it invited Jenova's touch, her thoughts, her insanity.

Their combined energy activated this dark stream, and for the first time he really felt like he wasn't alone with this demon's DNA, it made him feel like he could acknowledge her with some backup.

Go for it, Crater thought.

On the surface they'd only been hugging for three heartbeats, but time seemed to elongate into disorienting fragmentation as Sephiroth took Crater's psyche with him into that inky black flow of evil to face Jenova. It was the first and only time Sephiroth ever did it on purpose.

She was livid, What are you doing here!? You both failed, you're both disowned! Don't come here ever again, we don't want to talk to you, we don't want you, we have no use for you!

Good! Sephiroth said back to her, and in their language it came across as the sound of laughing, the feeling of vomiting uncontrollably, the energy of a tongue lolling out, it was pure contempt all aimed directly at Jenova. Crater's energy was hiding behind Sephiroth's, but he was there and that's all that mattered.

War! she declared, a barking, grunting, repeating message over and over, like millions of voices were joining in but they were all her's. War in her communication was total destruction, a pulverizing mauling until nothing was left even on the cellular level, it was everything worse than death.

I'm not afraid of any war you got, Sephiroth said to her. I'm here, I'm ready.

You hate that planet and yet you choose it over us every single time! How I loved you, Sephiroth! You were the most beautiful one! You were the chosen one! You were the messiah! You were supposed to free me and we would have created things together! I was going to give you a new body and we would have been reunited!

She didn't know what love was, she was a parasite who needed the human part of him to make it on this planet. Sephiroth had received many repulsive visions throughout his life of what all this reunion talk entailed. It was a living death of drowning in reproductive fluid, placenta, vomit and shit as her stud breeder while she populated the planet with their kind until the place was destroyed, then they'd move on to new ones. The level of loneliness and self hatred he'd have to reach for a reunion with Jenova to sound better than life on Earth was unfathomable.

His lack of passion, remorse, or even a response incensed Jenova with anger, I'll fucking kill both of you ungrateful brats and you'll DIE in those disgusting human bodies. My cells are everywhere on that planet, I'll reproduce, I'll send more of your brothers, we'll kill everything that lives!

Sephiroth and Crater were both thunderstruck, not at the laughable threats but at the term brothers. They both understood what they were, what each other was. This conversation was over, so Sephiroth imparted a sentiment only a Jenovian could really understand, Mom, I'll swallow every cell of you and vomit you up a dead whale's asshole.

Crater said nothing, but his amusement was palpable.

WAR! She bellowed. All she could do on this planet for now was scream, her parts scattered and impotent, anyone or anything that cared for her was galaxies away, if present in this physical dimension at all. But scream she could and scream she did, WAR!

Bring it, was their response. Sephiroth wasn't sure if it was him or Crater, but it didn't matter. They ejected themselves back up out of the connection, there was nothing more to say.

They were back on the floor of the kid's Christmas party, and it seemed like this entire thing had happened in the span of just three more heartbeats.

Crater pulled away from the hug and looked up at Sephiroth as if for the first time, not seeing someone he used to be but as an older brother, "... Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Sephiroth agreed, an immense sense of knowing washing over him that Crater really was his little brother... he smirked at the weird little miracle of such a person existing, "We'll come see ya soon."

Rhonda and Julie's attention waned as the babies began gurgling, and Cloud turned away to pull on his coat to leave. In the few seconds of relative privacy, Crater's little hands tightened with determination on Sephiroth's jacket, "We gotta get ready, figure out a way to get me into the Academy, I can be a Junior SOLDIER in three years – "

"In three years you won't even be ten, yet. Not to mention you're gonna be doin' time, so shut up and be a kid for a while."

"But what if they come – ?"

Sephiroth yanked his little brother back into a rougher hug, still feeling that pull, that Jenovian thing that must have been a family thing. He scraped his knuckles across the top of Crater's silver hair as he loudly announced, "You're spoiled as hell, you know that? Kid's Christmas party, I never got a fuckin' thing around here!"

He shook Sephiroth off of him and gave him a wide grin, "They like me more, deal with it!"

Clueless to anything else but Sephiroth and Crater sharing a brief, tender moment, Cloud was smiling warmly down at him and rubbed across his shoulders. When Cloud touched him he felt a different, but no less potent kind of connection. It was grounding, it made him feel more human, and it was helpful in pushing out any remaining static electrical charge of Jenova's presence.

Sephiroth stood up and pressed a kiss against Cloud's temple, "Let's get outta here."

Crater didn't look back at him or Cloud as he returned to the group of little boys who had commandeered his Nerf gun. His internal compass was calibrated and he was never more relieved to settle into this second childhood reality.

He was a kid, and he would be a kid for a long time. But Crater would grow up, he'd become strong, he'd become a leader, and he'd go to war.

Not any of Shin-Ra's wars, though. He and Sephiroth would use the army to fight their war.

That was a future worth living this shit life in the Shin-Ra medical lab again for.

"Alright men, fall in," he confidently announced to the rest of the children and aimed his gun at one of lab technician's butts where he was bent over cleaning up some of the party mess. "We're gonna play alien killer."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

That afternoon they arrived in Junon, and April had cooked the feast that Cloud had made the year before, and it was very clear how amateur his attempt had been when compared to her cooking. Sephiroth was more familiar with all the Nibelheim holiday food, but he did kind of miss the kidney casserole being burnt on the bottom, it had added a little something.

They ate unhurriedly and then sat in her living room with peppermint cocktails and exchanged gifts, and it was so nice not having to worry about mailing them or trying to spend time on Christmas together over the phone. April also found it sort of refreshing to be on her own and independent for once, though next year the rest of the family would all be relocated and it'd be loud, screaming, drunk business as usual. But this one Christmas was quiet, calm, a special one for her.

Cloud got her flirty, but still mom-like clothes from Dirty Rubbers; an off the shoulder sweater dress, some colorful parachute pants that were reminiscent of the kind she wore as a teenager, and a pair of OG punk girl boots that were clearly not for work.

"Fuck that, I'll totally wear these to school," she said, immediately pulling them on with the practice that only came from years of yanking on Doc Martens. She stood up with her hands on her hips, and was once again as tall as Cloud, "Maybe I'll get some respect from my students!"

"I'm afraid not," Cloud informed her grimly. Becoming 5'7" had not earned him an ounce of respect from anybody.

Sephiroth and Cloud together had gotten her the latest Dyson hair curler that all the girls were crazy over in a pastel color, plus some attachments and products for doing her hair that Sephiroth's stylist highly recommended. She scolded them on spending so much money on her, but they had fun plugging it in and trying it out on her hair, giving it a little salon-esque body very easily. She then tried it on Cloud, and one of his spikes swirled into a unicorn horn and stayed that way until he threw water on it in panic. They threatened Sephiroth with it, but he continued to eat caramel potato pie while watching them in amusement, almost daring them to come closer with the thing. They left his hair alone.

April got Cloud an array of little punk band shirts, a Funko pop figure of Benji from Anal Orgasm, and a stocking filled with his favorite candy, skin care, a bottle of the cologne he wore, and a Christmas card that contained a hefty gift card for Ticketmaster.

She explained, "I wanted to take you to see Henry Rollins in March– "

He gasped, "Can we!? Can we go!? Why can't we? Why is this a gift card and not a ticket?"

"I wasn't sure about buying you tickets because you might be – I dunno, sent to the butt crack of the earth to war or something, I don't know what your schedule will be like. So you can use the gift card for whatever you want, but if you're free he's playing in Midgar – "

"Let's go!" Cloud cried, and opened his phone to buy the tickets on the spot. The gift card was more than enough for Sephiroth to also come, and Cloud put three tickets in the cart without asking his consent, "Oh – do you even like Henry Rollins?"

Sephiroth had no idea if that was a band or a person, "Do I?"

"You'll love him," Cloud decided, and pulled the trigger on buying the tickets.

April then presented Sephiroth with a huge box. He was slow to accept it from her, "You didn't have to get me anything."

"Too bad."

He awkwardly opened it, and was delighted when he found she'd created a full on movie date night kit for him and Cloud. There was a variety flavor box of microwave popcorn, candy, a tabletop s'mores maker, a gift card for a streaming new releases, a gift card for pizza, and a deck of cards for couples to spark conversations about movies. Then at the bottom of the box, April had custom printed them both a pair of fur-lined socks with hearts and their own smiling faces on them – she'd used a selfie they'd posted from the bottom of Cosmo Canyon, and there was a size medium for Cloud and an extra large for Sephiroth.

"You guys love staying in and watching movies!" she reasoned as they laughed over the socks. "And I know for sure you don't have those!"

"I sincerely, whole heartedly, fuckin' love these," Sephiroth told her.

She packaged them up Tupperware containers full of food and treats, and they left just after midnight when it became officially Christmas. The drive home was quiet, they were happy, full, satisfied in every way and ready for a long winter's nap. They left their gifts in the kitchen and the leftovers in the refrigerator and went to bed.

They slept until late morning, but Cloud was still excited to wake up and give Sephiroth his gifts, but balked when Sephiroth gave him the first box from under their tree, "You didn't get me more did you?"

Sephiroth did, Cloud had to have things to open on Christmas morning. It wasn't anything over the top, just some stuff for him to use at school. Cloud went through band-aids and foot pads and gauze like crazy, and often complained about his friends stealing his shit and never having any when he needed them and having to hobble to the CVS across the street from the Academy. They knew their market and did a huge markup on things the Cadets needed, and he'd spent a small fortune there.

So Sephiroth had found an enormous box of high performance, Ironman grade, waterproof, Hello Kitty printed bandages and first aid supplies, including a pack of limited edition "pink" flavored potions.

"Thank you! There's probably enough here to last half the semester!" Cloud said happily.

"Half?... How many band-aids are you actually goin' through?"

"Pink cotton balls!" Cloud marveled as he looked at the contents on the back of the box.

"Why don't you just come find me and let me Cure you? Why are you bleedin' so much?"

Cloud continued to ignore the question, "Pink tweezers!"

He also got Cloud his own pair of brightly colored, chocobo-print boxing gloves to get him more excited about his upcoming boxing classes, and also so he wouldn't have to use the nasty community ones. It also came with a bright yellow mouth guard and more hand wrap gauze, so Cloud was all set to live out his manly boxing fantasy!

"It's not about a fantasy, you're workin' on your hit force," Sephiroth reminded him.

"That too!" Cloud agreed, and pretended to dramatically upper-cut himself and sprawled backwards on the floor under the tree.

Cloud of course had gathered Sephiroth's gifts way before even a whiff of knowledge of the bathroom and had no hope, no prayer, no chance of coming close to matching that amount of cost or effort. But he gave Sephiroth his gifts anyway, and just hoped he enjoyed them.

Sephiroth unwrapped the first one and he recognized it as some sort of tablet but he didn't really get what it was at first.

"It's a digital notebook," Cloud said, turning over the box to show him. "It comes with a stylus and you just fill the page with writing, or notes, or whatever, and then you just click and it gives you a fresh page. So you can just have one notebook forever, and it stores everything you write for you. And you can put a strong, non-obvious password on it and turn it off, so nobody nosy can just pick up your journal and read it! You can also read books on it too, if you want."

"This is such a cool idea, thank you," he said, actually wondering if the digital aspect might make writing in a journal easier than paper. He hadn't said it out loud, but sometimes looking at the things he wrote was somehow embarrassing, so being able to hit a button and have a new page might actually be really helpful. Cloud also got him a cover for the tablet that had an illustrated butcher knife that said 'Read and Die' and it even folded up to provide an angle for writing.

Cloud also got him some clothes from Dirty Rubbers, because of course he did. At this point he worked just to shop there, but they'd received all these cool, destroyed, post-apocalyptic looks for winter and it was hard to resist when he had a tall, gorgeous man to put them on!

Sephiroth knew the drill and stripped right then to try the new clothes on. Cloud knew Sephiroth wouldn't want something too try-hard and 'fashiony', so he got him this sleeveless shirt with a hood that was the color of rolling around and fucking in the desert sand, and then these sexy black pants with moto detail stitching that just beautifully followed the musculature of Sephiroth's long, lean legs.

He looked princely, he looked amazing, he looked like a sorcerer's bodyguard from a distant sci-fi future!

Sephiroth looked down at himself and thought he looked like an even gayer Robin Hood. But Cloud so clearly approved that he searched for a compliment, "I actually like the pants... the shirt's cool, too. Maybe not together, though? Not sure where'd I'd go in this."

"It's a summer club night vibe," Cloud marveled. "You look so hot!"

Once the fashion show was over, Sephiroth returned to his sweatpants and hoodie and folded his summer club night vibe clothes for a time when he needed to do alchemy in the desert, or whatever the fuck these clothes were for.

Cloud had also put together a fun little package for Sephiroth's office, it was full of snacks he liked, framed pictures of the two of them to put around, a really nice quality eye mask for him to put on and catch some sleep a little more comfortably when he could, a cup that said 'World's Okayest General', and to his surprise and delight, a miniature handheld version of almost the exact same automatic Nerf gun he'd gotten Crater.

Cloud laughed when he finally got to the gun, "When you picked up that same gun yesterday, I was like yes! I nailed it! I could just imagine you shooting Zack whenever he comes in to ask you to do something!"

Sephiroth reached out and pulled Cloud into a kiss, and told him what he'd been too afraid to say last Christmas, "I love you so much, baby."

"I love you, too," Cloud said. "... You hungry? Want some coffee? Want some pancakes? Want some head?"

"Yes."

They spent the better part of the day tucked in tightly on the couch together wearing their new socks, and were bemused when both of their phones began lighting up on the coffee table in front of them. It was too warm and cozy to answer them, and the constant back and forth of the lab trial drama had desensitized both of them to obeying their phones' demand for attention every fucking time it lit up or made a sound.

Then Cloud's phone buzzed with a citywide broadcast alert. He finally sat up and reached for it with a lazy groan, "What's the big deal?"

"Is it a weather alert? Snowstorm or somethin'?" Sephiroth guessed.

"It was supposed to snow tonight, I think..." Cloud agreed as he began reading. He didn't move or say anything for several moments.

"Everything okay?" Sephiroth asked. When Cloud didn't answer, he leaned forward and squinted down at Cloud's screen, "What is it?"

"The President's dead."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

1 – Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!br /

2 – Maybe one of these days I'll learn when to stop a chapter and just post it instead of making one megachapter that's like three chapters long. I just wanted to get past the holiday in the story, writing about Christmas when it's no longer Christmas is a drag, I tried to have this done in time for real Christmas but it just didn't happen. Better late than never!