icedark_elf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
icedark_elf) wrote2006-11-05 02:54 am
icedark_elf) wrote2006-11-05 02:54 am
OGToF: Interlude Three-part two
OGToF again. You guys are going to be sick of me writing, aren't you?
Wordcount: 4390
Just as an idle note, this chapter is the demon. It is. If I had kept all the stuff I had planned for it, it would have been even -longer-. How insane is that? A few things got moved around, and the order of a few others changed. Now let's see if I can get it all worked out.
This, in the original plans, started as one chapter. Then it split into two, with the Table Lamp of Doom, being the splitting part. Then it grew -more- and had a child. Then I wrote this, and there was so much that I decided to just go ahead and split it again. Now, next chapter is the fun part. Do I split it again, or do I leave it one gigantic piece? We'll see. What's the character limit for LJ posts again? *runs away*
Chapter One: Escape
Interlude One
Chapter Two: Clean Up
Interlude Two
Chapter Three: On the Run
Interlude Three-Part One
Interlude Three: Part Two
1990
Gods, it had been a long, long last few days. He was tired, sore, and more than ready to just collapse somewhere that was at least halfway soft. Hell, the carpet was more comfortable than the place he had been sleeping while on this mission.
It was so good to be home.
Tiredly shoving open the door, Zack stared blankly, blinking a bit in confusion as he tried to take in the scene before him. Things just weren’t wanting to process properly in his brain and Zack knew he stood there for a few minutes, trying to sort it out.
Seph was stretched out on the couch, limp and lax, jacket missing and in a pile on the floor next to him. His boots were next to it, leaving him clad in just a pair of socks and those rather tasty leather pants. His eyes were shut and it looked like he was sleeping, silver hair everywhere.
Nearby, missing his shirt and collecting something up off the floor, was Cloud, who hadn’t noticed Zack yet, and Zack grinned tiredly at the mussed look of the spikes on top of his friend’s head.
Well, well, he wondered what had happened here.
“Did you wear him out or something? That’s impressive.”
The reaction he got was not one he had expected. Not at all.
With a squeak and a low sound of what was almost fear, Cloud bolted to his feet, spinning around and looking at him with large, large eyes. Zack froze, eyes narrowing as he studied the other boy. There was a red mark across the front of his throat, and a bruise spreading along one shoulder, already black and painful looking. Even as he saw the sheer fear in the blue eyes, he saw blood start to drip from where the blond had gripped tight on what looked like sharp shards of something.
The sheer fear in Cloud’s eyes made Zack tense up. What the hell had he missed?
“Spike? Cloud? What’s wrong?” Zack kept his voice calm and quiet as he took a slow step towards the other. When Cloud jerked a bit, he stopped and held his hands up and apart. “Not going to hurt you, Spike, I promise. I just want to make sure you’re okay. Your hand is bleeding and I don’t like it when you’re bleeding. Will you let me look at it? Please?” Soft, steady tones.
Slowly, as if in a bit of a fog, Cloud nodded and sank back to the floor. Zack, still moving slowly and carefully, moved towards him. Settling down on the floor, he took Cloud’s hand in the same careful motions, and turned it over. “Open your hand, Spike.”
It took a second for him to realize that there were broken pieces of something all around them, and that was what was currently slicing up Cloud’s hand. Starting to pick them out of the bleeding hand, Zack began to talk again.
“So, what did this used to be a part of? Just out of curiosity and all.”
A moment of quiet as Cloud seemed to have to refocus on him. Zack didn’t like this at all. Cloud was dazed, paler than normal, which was amazing enough in and of itself, and he was shaking. Struggling to not frown, Zack waited for the answer.
“Lamp,” Cloud said softly, at least. “One you tease Se….Sephiroth about. It broke.”
Ah, yes, the Lamp. Zack had picked it up at some little flea market or another just because he knew it would offend Seph’s sense of, well, everything, really. Then he had made sure that it was prominently displayed at all times, just so he could watch the twitch Seph gave every single time he saw it.
Now was not the time for that, however. Right now was for Spike, and trying to get him back up to working speed. “So, any idea of how it might have reached this state of being broke?”
Slow blink. “You’ll get mad at me. I don’t want you mad at me too.”
Oh, hells, it was damn near heartbreaking to see that fear and worry on Cloud’s face. “Come on, Spike, how many times have I ever been mad at you? And, really, all you did was break a really, really tacky lamp. Nothing at all to really be mad at you for.”
A tiny sound. “Sephiroth was mad at me. And I…. I didn’t do anything! I know I didn’t! I was all quiet in my room and everything!”
Zack glanced over at Seph and was really starting to worry now. What was going on here? Leave home for a week and everything goes to hell while you are gone. “Well, we all know how much calmer I am than Seph. Why don’t you give it a try? I promise, I won’t get mad at you, okay?”
A few long moments passed as Cloud focused on him and studied his face, hard. Then, still shaking and not even noticing that he was still bleeding, he started up again. “I broke it on Sephiroth’s head.” It was a small voice he said that in. “I didn’t mean to, I really didn’t, but I was…. I had to! He wouldn’t let me go and… He wouldn’t, and he already had hurt my shoulder, and had kissed me and tore my shirt and I don’t know why he wouldn’t let me go! I had to kick him and bite and punch at him and he wouldn’t let me go! I didn’t mean to break it, honest.”
The sheer despair and fear in Cloud’s voice made Zack want to cry, and he was angry, but not at Cloud. At Seph. Some of that must have shown, Cloud hunched down and made a small sound. “Promised not to be mad….”
“Oh, Spike, I’m not mad at you. I still promise that. Seph, however, I am very not pleased with.” He smiled, trying to calm down the other man, looking the hand over again. “Tell you what. It looks like we got all the shards out. Why don’t we go get this washed off, let me cast a cure and get it all sealed, and then you can take a shower. It’ll help you feel better and warm you up, plus you won’t be in the same room as Seph. Won’t that be nice? Be all nice and warm and clean? I can get you a pair of my sweatpants, you’ve finally grown enough that I think you can wear them and not have to worry about them falling down. Then you can crash in my room. Sound good? Seph won’t get you in there, promise.”
Large eyes, and then, after far too long a period of quiet, Zack got a nod of acceptance. He smiled a bit more. “Come on,” he said, voice keeping the smooth, soft tone, rising to his feet and offering Spike a hand. “Why don’t we get started on that, okay?”
Still shaking slightly, Cloud took it with his good hand. “I thought I had killed him. But he was breathing. That’s good, right?”
“Yeah, Spike, that’s good. How long do you think he has been down?” Zack was curious as he helped his friend stabilize, and they paused for Cloud to look at the clock before they started down the hall to the bathroom.
“Bout half an hour. His head made a weird thud sound. Or maybe it was the lamp…?”
“We’ll find out. Come on, shower. Really proud of you, you know.”
Wide eyes. “Why?” Genuine curiosity from Cloud at his words.
Zack grinned at him. “Well, you took the great General down. For a half an hour at least. Hell, I’ve never been able to do that, and I know people who would have given their firstborns to be able to do so. You’re pretty amazing, Cloud.”
A shaking, tiny, tentative smile. But it was a smile, and Zack smiled back. “You did good. Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
It took a bit to get that all set up, and Zack left him alone so that he could take the shower in peace.
Now it was time to talk to Seph. He moved back down the hall
Well, first thing was first. Kneeling next to the couch, Zack did a quick checkup of Seph. He hadn’t been kidding when he said it was impressive for Cloud to put the older man down for so long. Zack had never done it, and the only time he had seen it done was after Seph had fought over a half hour on the field while trying to bleed out. And even that hadn’t lasted for too awfully long.
It didn’t take long to see the bruising that was still present on Seph’s head, and Zack had to shake his head with a low whistle. “You are a tough, tough bastard,” he told his friend softly. If he had been anyone who wasn’t enhanced as much as he was, that would have been a crushed in temple, and Seph would have been dead. “Note to self, do not piss Spike off while he’s armed with a lamp.”
Even as he was examining him, Seph was starting to come around, and he pushed at Zack’s hand weakly, still nowhere close to conscious quite yet. But the push gave Zack the clue to why Seph had done what he did. At least enough to give him a good idea.
Catching the hand pushing at him, he turned it over and sighed when he saw the dark greenish discoloration that surrounded a fresh needle mark. Mako booster. Damnit, what the hell had happened? Seph knew what boosters were like. He should have known that he needed to warn Cloud and get him to find someplace else.
Damn Hojo, anyway. Couldn’t wait until there was someone home who could handle Seph if need be. No, had to do it while the man was vulnerable, and now look what had happened. Chaos all through their house and who knew how long it would be before everything had settled down back to comfortable again.
Zack really, really wanted to strangle the man. He had fond fantasies of getting to drop kick the little ratty bastard and not having to deal with him or his gods be damned shots and tests and theories. Problem with rising so fast in the ranks meant that Hojo was almost as fascinated with his reactions to some tests as he was with Seph’s.
Very agitating. Luckily, he and Seph could back each other up and avoid most of the more irritating things that Hojo would plan out for them. This time the bastard had managed to snag Seph. And he had generally fucked up Zack’s happy home.
He was going to have to do something to get the man back. Time to figure out what he could prank of his again. Security on his office should have died down by now, and it had been a while since the pie thing.
That was for later consideration, though. Right now, he had other things to deal with.
“Seph,” he said, keeping his voice low enough for the general fucked up sensitivity of post-booster senses, and to keep Cloud from overhearing them. “Up, Seph, we got a few things to chat about.”
Slowly, far more slowly than expected, Zack saw Seph’s eyes flutter open. The pupils were far more dilated than he had expected, looking almost round, just a thin line of the mako green that gleamed brightly around the pupil. After a few moments, the black contracted and became the more familiar slit pupils Zack knew.
“Zack?” Rough, ragged voice, and Zack could see the faint lines of pain that were all Seph would allow himself, and that was only to the worse headaches. “When did…?” He shut his eyes. “What happened?” Starting to smooth out already, lines and voice. Zack did have to admit, it was impressive to watch Seph recover from things.
“That’s a good question, Seph,” he said softly. “If you were any less tough than you are now, I think Spike would have brained you good with that lamp. A lesser mortal would have died.” He tugged lightly on silver hair. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
A flicker of confusion in the back of Seph’s eyes, and he started to sit up. It was a sign of how bad Seph still felt when Zack put his hand against his shoulder and Seph actually stayed down without a fight.
“You got your booster, I can tell that much on my own,” Zack started. “I got home, all ready to sleep the sleep of the exhausted, and you are unconscious on the couch, in just your pants, and Spike is missing his shirt and you both are looking mussed. Thought maybe, finally, you had finally made a move to do something about that crush of yours. Only, to my surprise, Spike is bruised up and somewhat in shock. Not a good thing. He had apparently been forced to brain you with a lamp to keep you from doing things that shouldn’t be done in your condition with anyone who isn’t at least a 2nd Class.”
Zack continued to watch Seph, looking for any spark of remembrance. What he got was confusion. “I…vaguely recall that. I warned him, though, that I was going to be getting the booster. I made sure to tell him.” The tone was the closest to panic that Zack had ever heard Seph, and that was saying something. The man started to sit up again, looking around the room, and Zack pressed his weight against Seph’s shoulders, pinning him down.
“Down, Seph. If you’re looking for Spike, he’s taking a shower. And he’s going to sack out tonight in my room. You scared him, Seph. Bad. You are a lot stronger, a lot faster, and, though he’d hate to be reminded of it, a lot bigger. You freaked him out. And I know how talkative you are normally, and how talkative you are when you’ve had your shot, which is not at all. I don’t think he knew what to expect. So you, Sephiroth, are going to talk to him and work this out.
“Not,” he said as his friend tried to rise again, “now. Tomorrow at the soonest. You try now, you’ll panic him right out the door. Like I said, he’s going to sack out in my room, you are going to clean up what he didn’t get out here, I’m going to make sure he doesn’t have too bad of nightmares, and tomorrow you can try to apologize and work this out. I will not be happy if you guys mess up our lives over this for long. I’m tired, and this was not a happy thing to come home to.”
When he said that, he saw Seph focus on him, actually focus on him for the first time since he had woken up. “Bad?”
“Not the worst I’ve seen,” he said lightly, “but not fun. You can see why I was less than pleased to come home and find a war zone in progress, right?” A slight nod was his answer. “I have a plan, Seph, you know the plan, and, for once, we are going to follow the plan, all right?” Another nod. “Good. Do you need me to get anything for you before I go get ready to crash?”
“No.” A moment of quiet. “Welcome home. It is good to see that you are back unharmed.”
Welcome home was still a bit stilted, but he was getting better. Zack grinned. It had taken lots of training to get to this point.
“Yeah, wasn’t the best thing to find when I got here, but it’s good to be back.”
A small nod, and when Seph tried to rise this time, Zack let him, keeping an eye on him just to make sure that there wasn’t anything lingeringly wrong. Seph was steady and didn’t seem to be ready to nosedive, so Zack also stood. He grinned lazily at the man.
“It’ll be okay, Seph. Just have to work things out is all.”
Then, after getting the small nod from Seph, he turned and headed for his room.
Finally, maybe he’d get some sleep.
///
Reno felt the need to smack something, he really did.
He didn’t know what had happened, but all he knew is that out of the three of them, only Zack was acting somewhat close to normal, and even that was a bit strained at times. He had spent enough time hanging out over there with Cloud and Zack between everything else that it was blaringly obvious that something was wrong. He was a Turk in training, he was being taught to watch for stuff like this.
So he studied, as best he could.
The most obvious was Cloud. The blond was great fun to hang out with, if a bit quiet, but that just gave Reno more room to talk, so he didn’t mind that at the least. But that quiet was different; at least when they were at the house he shared with Zack and Sephiroth. He always kept one eye on their surroundings, and if Sephiroth entered the room, that eye fixed on him. Cloud had always been aware when the older man was in the room before, but Reno had never seen him so fixated as he was now.
Sephiroth was also acting odd. It wasn’t so easy to pick out on him, but Reno was pleased that he had noticed it. If they had been in the barracks, or an office setting, he was sure that he wouldn’t have. However, given that this was his home area, the place he was the most relaxed at, he gave away more clues here than he would have if it had been some place where he had needed to be on guard.
He had a habit of coming in and taking a step towards Cloud, then stopping the moment he spotted Reno in the room as well. A moment of hesitation and then he would turn and leave the room. If it had just happened once or twice, Reno figured he probably wouldn’t have noticed. He did after the fourth or fifth time, though. He wasn’t nearly as unobservant as people seemed to think he was. It was the smart mouth. He noticed they did the same thing to Zack a lot as well.
One of those wouldn’t have told him much, but both of them made him wonder.
He didn’t like the picture they were presenting. Not at all. Cloud was his friend, and even if Sephiroth was the Silver General, the Demon of Wutai, if he was hurting Reno’s friend, Reno was going to have to do something incredibly drastic and stupid about it.
The only thing that saved Sephiroth from jelly was the fact that Zack wasn’t doing anything. Reno knew the man was loyal to the general, but that Zack wouldn’t let anyone hurt his friends. And though Zack counted both Sephiroth and Cloud in his group of friends, he would never let one of them hurt the other in a bad way.
So that meant a fight of some type, which Zack was staying out of. That still was not good, but as long as it wasn’t actually physical, Reno figured that Cloud could hold his own. He had been on the wrong sides of Cloud’s tongue before. He could cuss up a hell of a streak. One day he had even made Reno blush.
Still, he had hunted down Zack one day just to ask. The man had studied him for a long moment, and then sighed, running a hand through his hair. Reno realized that he looked tired. And, for a second, really old, which made no sense, cause he was just a year older than Reno himself.
“It…. Trust me, they need to work it out themselves. I’m ready to strangle them both, but it won’t mean anything if someone has to step in and stop this circling of theirs. And I will not have dealt with this for none of it mean anything. I would be forced to go mad and none of us want that. I’m the sane one among us, and if I lose it, who knows what will happen.”
Rubbing his eyes, he grinned at Reno, and Reno smelled a fast distraction coming up. “I need your help. Need to prank Hojo’s office. Interested?”
Oh, yeah, distraction, but a good one.
He’d let this go for now, but it wasn’t for good. Reno would keep an eye on things, and if it didn’t get any better, he’d get the big guns. He knew where Zack’s girlfriend hung out. It was a certainty that she’d want to help things get better.
She was scary enough that she’d probably enjoy it.
///
“Cloud! Hey, Cloud!”
Pausing at the sound of his name being yelled, Cloud turned to look at Reno, who was running down the hall towards him. He didn’t seemed panicked, so Cloud wasn’t worried, but he was curious on why Reno was running around looking at him.
“Hey, wanna spar?” panted the redhead when he caught up. Not an uncommon request, especially since the other guy had gotten his magrod from the Turks, which was a sure sign that he was going to be accepted. It was interesting to see how their styles differed between that and Cloud’s preferred sword.
Something about the look on Reno’s face though set off warnings in Cloud’s head, and he studied Reno a bit more. The grin on his face never faded, even when Cloud frowned. “You’re looking for an alibi, aren’t you?”
The innocent look that covered Reno’s face was more than enough to let Cloud know he had hit the target. Reno only looked that innocent when he was hiding something. For a long moment, Cloud was curious as to just what his friend had done. Then he realized that knowing, especially around Reno at times, was hazardous to ones health. Especially when Reno was wearing his innocent look.
“You know, I don’t want to know. If I know, then they can blame part of it on me somehow. Don’t want to know, and I’ll pretend I never asked, all right?”
“Sure,” Reno grinned. “Still, you wanna spar?”
Cloud grinned at him. That was a nearly stupid question. “Sure.”
The two of them headed for the gym to see if any of the rooms were open. Cloud was almost grateful for this, anyway. The stress at home was starting to get to him, and this was a good way to get rid of it.
For the moment, he was happy to shove his problems away and just focus on the now.
///
It had been a long, long day. Zack wondered if he could claim being too old for days like that, but at seventeen and a SOLDIER, he didn’t think he’d be able to get away with that claim.
Hojo was furious, Shinra was obviously tired of hearing from the scientists, and Zack was somewhat pleased his plan had had a better effect than he had been expecting.
Someone had vandalized Hojo’s office, in a very messy, but rather security issue free way. However, the man had thrown a major hissy fit over how his precious research might be ruined. As if he actually kept anything of importance up there. It was his official, Shinra-given office, most kept for when the President wanted to show off his pet scientist, who was then to show off his pet projects. Given that, Hojo only kept copies of parts of his real files. Usually just the impressive results and not all the steps taken to get there.
Zack knew, he had looked at them once. It had been a risk, but he had been curious, and there had been an opportunity when he was stuck playing bodyguard for various officials during one round of healing. Best incentive he knew of to not get hurt again.
But it had been vandalized, and after listening to Hojo, who had stormed into the middle of a meeting that had been going on too long anyway, rant about it for almost a half hour, Shinra had told him to go take up some research in one of the other labs, which were on a whole different continent, and then ordered Zack, who happened to be there for something completely different, to investigate the matter.
Well, this was going to be interesting.
Especially given he knew just who had done it.
Seph did as well. Hell, when he had heard about it, he had looked at Zack and quirked a brow in a way that was asking “Why did you do it?”
Zack had answered with a tiny smile, which meant “You should know why.”
The tiny downward curve of Seph’s lips translated to “Shouldn’t risk such things for me.”
“You’re my friend. Isn’t so bad a risk,” was the answer the almost shrug Zack gave.
Then they had gone their separate way.
And Zack was just now getting back home, far, far too late in the morning, especially when he had to be up in about three hours.
Nearly shuffling down the hall, ears perked to the sounds of the house, Zack didn’t hear Seph, which meant the man was probably in the office still. Would have to call and poke him to come home. And he heard Cloud’s breathing, only….
Cloud wasn’t alone.
The door to his room was open, and pure, completely morbid curiosity had Zack peek in. He shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t. It was an invasion of Cloud’s privacy, and he knew it was going to kill Seph if Cloud really did have someone else he was interested in….
That was red hair. That was familiar red hair. What the hell?! Why was Reno, of all people, in Cloud’s bed, he and the blond all curled around each other under the covers?
Feeling his brain frazzle a bit at the image, Zack retreated.
Well, he wasn’t tired anymore.
Maybe Seph would appreciate some company at the office.
Interlude Three-Part Three
Wordcount:
Nov 4(which is when this was written and posted for Nano): 4,382 (I was being lazy)
November so far: 24,687
OGToF: 25,260
Nano: 16,870
Wordcount: 4390
Just as an idle note, this chapter is the demon. It is. If I had kept all the stuff I had planned for it, it would have been even -longer-. How insane is that? A few things got moved around, and the order of a few others changed. Now let's see if I can get it all worked out.
This, in the original plans, started as one chapter. Then it split into two, with the Table Lamp of Doom, being the splitting part. Then it grew -more- and had a child. Then I wrote this, and there was so much that I decided to just go ahead and split it again. Now, next chapter is the fun part. Do I split it again, or do I leave it one gigantic piece? We'll see. What's the character limit for LJ posts again? *runs away*
Chapter One: Escape
Interlude One
Chapter Two: Clean Up
Interlude Two
Chapter Three: On the Run
Interlude Three-Part One
Interlude Three: Part Two
1990
Gods, it had been a long, long last few days. He was tired, sore, and more than ready to just collapse somewhere that was at least halfway soft. Hell, the carpet was more comfortable than the place he had been sleeping while on this mission.
It was so good to be home.
Tiredly shoving open the door, Zack stared blankly, blinking a bit in confusion as he tried to take in the scene before him. Things just weren’t wanting to process properly in his brain and Zack knew he stood there for a few minutes, trying to sort it out.
Seph was stretched out on the couch, limp and lax, jacket missing and in a pile on the floor next to him. His boots were next to it, leaving him clad in just a pair of socks and those rather tasty leather pants. His eyes were shut and it looked like he was sleeping, silver hair everywhere.
Nearby, missing his shirt and collecting something up off the floor, was Cloud, who hadn’t noticed Zack yet, and Zack grinned tiredly at the mussed look of the spikes on top of his friend’s head.
Well, well, he wondered what had happened here.
“Did you wear him out or something? That’s impressive.”
The reaction he got was not one he had expected. Not at all.
With a squeak and a low sound of what was almost fear, Cloud bolted to his feet, spinning around and looking at him with large, large eyes. Zack froze, eyes narrowing as he studied the other boy. There was a red mark across the front of his throat, and a bruise spreading along one shoulder, already black and painful looking. Even as he saw the sheer fear in the blue eyes, he saw blood start to drip from where the blond had gripped tight on what looked like sharp shards of something.
The sheer fear in Cloud’s eyes made Zack tense up. What the hell had he missed?
“Spike? Cloud? What’s wrong?” Zack kept his voice calm and quiet as he took a slow step towards the other. When Cloud jerked a bit, he stopped and held his hands up and apart. “Not going to hurt you, Spike, I promise. I just want to make sure you’re okay. Your hand is bleeding and I don’t like it when you’re bleeding. Will you let me look at it? Please?” Soft, steady tones.
Slowly, as if in a bit of a fog, Cloud nodded and sank back to the floor. Zack, still moving slowly and carefully, moved towards him. Settling down on the floor, he took Cloud’s hand in the same careful motions, and turned it over. “Open your hand, Spike.”
It took a second for him to realize that there were broken pieces of something all around them, and that was what was currently slicing up Cloud’s hand. Starting to pick them out of the bleeding hand, Zack began to talk again.
“So, what did this used to be a part of? Just out of curiosity and all.”
A moment of quiet as Cloud seemed to have to refocus on him. Zack didn’t like this at all. Cloud was dazed, paler than normal, which was amazing enough in and of itself, and he was shaking. Struggling to not frown, Zack waited for the answer.
“Lamp,” Cloud said softly, at least. “One you tease Se….Sephiroth about. It broke.”
Ah, yes, the Lamp. Zack had picked it up at some little flea market or another just because he knew it would offend Seph’s sense of, well, everything, really. Then he had made sure that it was prominently displayed at all times, just so he could watch the twitch Seph gave every single time he saw it.
Now was not the time for that, however. Right now was for Spike, and trying to get him back up to working speed. “So, any idea of how it might have reached this state of being broke?”
Slow blink. “You’ll get mad at me. I don’t want you mad at me too.”
Oh, hells, it was damn near heartbreaking to see that fear and worry on Cloud’s face. “Come on, Spike, how many times have I ever been mad at you? And, really, all you did was break a really, really tacky lamp. Nothing at all to really be mad at you for.”
A tiny sound. “Sephiroth was mad at me. And I…. I didn’t do anything! I know I didn’t! I was all quiet in my room and everything!”
Zack glanced over at Seph and was really starting to worry now. What was going on here? Leave home for a week and everything goes to hell while you are gone. “Well, we all know how much calmer I am than Seph. Why don’t you give it a try? I promise, I won’t get mad at you, okay?”
A few long moments passed as Cloud focused on him and studied his face, hard. Then, still shaking and not even noticing that he was still bleeding, he started up again. “I broke it on Sephiroth’s head.” It was a small voice he said that in. “I didn’t mean to, I really didn’t, but I was…. I had to! He wouldn’t let me go and… He wouldn’t, and he already had hurt my shoulder, and had kissed me and tore my shirt and I don’t know why he wouldn’t let me go! I had to kick him and bite and punch at him and he wouldn’t let me go! I didn’t mean to break it, honest.”
The sheer despair and fear in Cloud’s voice made Zack want to cry, and he was angry, but not at Cloud. At Seph. Some of that must have shown, Cloud hunched down and made a small sound. “Promised not to be mad….”
“Oh, Spike, I’m not mad at you. I still promise that. Seph, however, I am very not pleased with.” He smiled, trying to calm down the other man, looking the hand over again. “Tell you what. It looks like we got all the shards out. Why don’t we go get this washed off, let me cast a cure and get it all sealed, and then you can take a shower. It’ll help you feel better and warm you up, plus you won’t be in the same room as Seph. Won’t that be nice? Be all nice and warm and clean? I can get you a pair of my sweatpants, you’ve finally grown enough that I think you can wear them and not have to worry about them falling down. Then you can crash in my room. Sound good? Seph won’t get you in there, promise.”
Large eyes, and then, after far too long a period of quiet, Zack got a nod of acceptance. He smiled a bit more. “Come on,” he said, voice keeping the smooth, soft tone, rising to his feet and offering Spike a hand. “Why don’t we get started on that, okay?”
Still shaking slightly, Cloud took it with his good hand. “I thought I had killed him. But he was breathing. That’s good, right?”
“Yeah, Spike, that’s good. How long do you think he has been down?” Zack was curious as he helped his friend stabilize, and they paused for Cloud to look at the clock before they started down the hall to the bathroom.
“Bout half an hour. His head made a weird thud sound. Or maybe it was the lamp…?”
“We’ll find out. Come on, shower. Really proud of you, you know.”
Wide eyes. “Why?” Genuine curiosity from Cloud at his words.
Zack grinned at him. “Well, you took the great General down. For a half an hour at least. Hell, I’ve never been able to do that, and I know people who would have given their firstborns to be able to do so. You’re pretty amazing, Cloud.”
A shaking, tiny, tentative smile. But it was a smile, and Zack smiled back. “You did good. Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
It took a bit to get that all set up, and Zack left him alone so that he could take the shower in peace.
Now it was time to talk to Seph. He moved back down the hall
Well, first thing was first. Kneeling next to the couch, Zack did a quick checkup of Seph. He hadn’t been kidding when he said it was impressive for Cloud to put the older man down for so long. Zack had never done it, and the only time he had seen it done was after Seph had fought over a half hour on the field while trying to bleed out. And even that hadn’t lasted for too awfully long.
It didn’t take long to see the bruising that was still present on Seph’s head, and Zack had to shake his head with a low whistle. “You are a tough, tough bastard,” he told his friend softly. If he had been anyone who wasn’t enhanced as much as he was, that would have been a crushed in temple, and Seph would have been dead. “Note to self, do not piss Spike off while he’s armed with a lamp.”
Even as he was examining him, Seph was starting to come around, and he pushed at Zack’s hand weakly, still nowhere close to conscious quite yet. But the push gave Zack the clue to why Seph had done what he did. At least enough to give him a good idea.
Catching the hand pushing at him, he turned it over and sighed when he saw the dark greenish discoloration that surrounded a fresh needle mark. Mako booster. Damnit, what the hell had happened? Seph knew what boosters were like. He should have known that he needed to warn Cloud and get him to find someplace else.
Damn Hojo, anyway. Couldn’t wait until there was someone home who could handle Seph if need be. No, had to do it while the man was vulnerable, and now look what had happened. Chaos all through their house and who knew how long it would be before everything had settled down back to comfortable again.
Zack really, really wanted to strangle the man. He had fond fantasies of getting to drop kick the little ratty bastard and not having to deal with him or his gods be damned shots and tests and theories. Problem with rising so fast in the ranks meant that Hojo was almost as fascinated with his reactions to some tests as he was with Seph’s.
Very agitating. Luckily, he and Seph could back each other up and avoid most of the more irritating things that Hojo would plan out for them. This time the bastard had managed to snag Seph. And he had generally fucked up Zack’s happy home.
He was going to have to do something to get the man back. Time to figure out what he could prank of his again. Security on his office should have died down by now, and it had been a while since the pie thing.
That was for later consideration, though. Right now, he had other things to deal with.
“Seph,” he said, keeping his voice low enough for the general fucked up sensitivity of post-booster senses, and to keep Cloud from overhearing them. “Up, Seph, we got a few things to chat about.”
Slowly, far more slowly than expected, Zack saw Seph’s eyes flutter open. The pupils were far more dilated than he had expected, looking almost round, just a thin line of the mako green that gleamed brightly around the pupil. After a few moments, the black contracted and became the more familiar slit pupils Zack knew.
“Zack?” Rough, ragged voice, and Zack could see the faint lines of pain that were all Seph would allow himself, and that was only to the worse headaches. “When did…?” He shut his eyes. “What happened?” Starting to smooth out already, lines and voice. Zack did have to admit, it was impressive to watch Seph recover from things.
“That’s a good question, Seph,” he said softly. “If you were any less tough than you are now, I think Spike would have brained you good with that lamp. A lesser mortal would have died.” He tugged lightly on silver hair. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
A flicker of confusion in the back of Seph’s eyes, and he started to sit up. It was a sign of how bad Seph still felt when Zack put his hand against his shoulder and Seph actually stayed down without a fight.
“You got your booster, I can tell that much on my own,” Zack started. “I got home, all ready to sleep the sleep of the exhausted, and you are unconscious on the couch, in just your pants, and Spike is missing his shirt and you both are looking mussed. Thought maybe, finally, you had finally made a move to do something about that crush of yours. Only, to my surprise, Spike is bruised up and somewhat in shock. Not a good thing. He had apparently been forced to brain you with a lamp to keep you from doing things that shouldn’t be done in your condition with anyone who isn’t at least a 2nd Class.”
Zack continued to watch Seph, looking for any spark of remembrance. What he got was confusion. “I…vaguely recall that. I warned him, though, that I was going to be getting the booster. I made sure to tell him.” The tone was the closest to panic that Zack had ever heard Seph, and that was saying something. The man started to sit up again, looking around the room, and Zack pressed his weight against Seph’s shoulders, pinning him down.
“Down, Seph. If you’re looking for Spike, he’s taking a shower. And he’s going to sack out tonight in my room. You scared him, Seph. Bad. You are a lot stronger, a lot faster, and, though he’d hate to be reminded of it, a lot bigger. You freaked him out. And I know how talkative you are normally, and how talkative you are when you’ve had your shot, which is not at all. I don’t think he knew what to expect. So you, Sephiroth, are going to talk to him and work this out.
“Not,” he said as his friend tried to rise again, “now. Tomorrow at the soonest. You try now, you’ll panic him right out the door. Like I said, he’s going to sack out in my room, you are going to clean up what he didn’t get out here, I’m going to make sure he doesn’t have too bad of nightmares, and tomorrow you can try to apologize and work this out. I will not be happy if you guys mess up our lives over this for long. I’m tired, and this was not a happy thing to come home to.”
When he said that, he saw Seph focus on him, actually focus on him for the first time since he had woken up. “Bad?”
“Not the worst I’ve seen,” he said lightly, “but not fun. You can see why I was less than pleased to come home and find a war zone in progress, right?” A slight nod was his answer. “I have a plan, Seph, you know the plan, and, for once, we are going to follow the plan, all right?” Another nod. “Good. Do you need me to get anything for you before I go get ready to crash?”
“No.” A moment of quiet. “Welcome home. It is good to see that you are back unharmed.”
Welcome home was still a bit stilted, but he was getting better. Zack grinned. It had taken lots of training to get to this point.
“Yeah, wasn’t the best thing to find when I got here, but it’s good to be back.”
A small nod, and when Seph tried to rise this time, Zack let him, keeping an eye on him just to make sure that there wasn’t anything lingeringly wrong. Seph was steady and didn’t seem to be ready to nosedive, so Zack also stood. He grinned lazily at the man.
“It’ll be okay, Seph. Just have to work things out is all.”
Then, after getting the small nod from Seph, he turned and headed for his room.
Finally, maybe he’d get some sleep.
Reno felt the need to smack something, he really did.
He didn’t know what had happened, but all he knew is that out of the three of them, only Zack was acting somewhat close to normal, and even that was a bit strained at times. He had spent enough time hanging out over there with Cloud and Zack between everything else that it was blaringly obvious that something was wrong. He was a Turk in training, he was being taught to watch for stuff like this.
So he studied, as best he could.
The most obvious was Cloud. The blond was great fun to hang out with, if a bit quiet, but that just gave Reno more room to talk, so he didn’t mind that at the least. But that quiet was different; at least when they were at the house he shared with Zack and Sephiroth. He always kept one eye on their surroundings, and if Sephiroth entered the room, that eye fixed on him. Cloud had always been aware when the older man was in the room before, but Reno had never seen him so fixated as he was now.
Sephiroth was also acting odd. It wasn’t so easy to pick out on him, but Reno was pleased that he had noticed it. If they had been in the barracks, or an office setting, he was sure that he wouldn’t have. However, given that this was his home area, the place he was the most relaxed at, he gave away more clues here than he would have if it had been some place where he had needed to be on guard.
He had a habit of coming in and taking a step towards Cloud, then stopping the moment he spotted Reno in the room as well. A moment of hesitation and then he would turn and leave the room. If it had just happened once or twice, Reno figured he probably wouldn’t have noticed. He did after the fourth or fifth time, though. He wasn’t nearly as unobservant as people seemed to think he was. It was the smart mouth. He noticed they did the same thing to Zack a lot as well.
One of those wouldn’t have told him much, but both of them made him wonder.
He didn’t like the picture they were presenting. Not at all. Cloud was his friend, and even if Sephiroth was the Silver General, the Demon of Wutai, if he was hurting Reno’s friend, Reno was going to have to do something incredibly drastic and stupid about it.
The only thing that saved Sephiroth from jelly was the fact that Zack wasn’t doing anything. Reno knew the man was loyal to the general, but that Zack wouldn’t let anyone hurt his friends. And though Zack counted both Sephiroth and Cloud in his group of friends, he would never let one of them hurt the other in a bad way.
So that meant a fight of some type, which Zack was staying out of. That still was not good, but as long as it wasn’t actually physical, Reno figured that Cloud could hold his own. He had been on the wrong sides of Cloud’s tongue before. He could cuss up a hell of a streak. One day he had even made Reno blush.
Still, he had hunted down Zack one day just to ask. The man had studied him for a long moment, and then sighed, running a hand through his hair. Reno realized that he looked tired. And, for a second, really old, which made no sense, cause he was just a year older than Reno himself.
“It…. Trust me, they need to work it out themselves. I’m ready to strangle them both, but it won’t mean anything if someone has to step in and stop this circling of theirs. And I will not have dealt with this for none of it mean anything. I would be forced to go mad and none of us want that. I’m the sane one among us, and if I lose it, who knows what will happen.”
Rubbing his eyes, he grinned at Reno, and Reno smelled a fast distraction coming up. “I need your help. Need to prank Hojo’s office. Interested?”
Oh, yeah, distraction, but a good one.
He’d let this go for now, but it wasn’t for good. Reno would keep an eye on things, and if it didn’t get any better, he’d get the big guns. He knew where Zack’s girlfriend hung out. It was a certainty that she’d want to help things get better.
She was scary enough that she’d probably enjoy it.
“Cloud! Hey, Cloud!”
Pausing at the sound of his name being yelled, Cloud turned to look at Reno, who was running down the hall towards him. He didn’t seemed panicked, so Cloud wasn’t worried, but he was curious on why Reno was running around looking at him.
“Hey, wanna spar?” panted the redhead when he caught up. Not an uncommon request, especially since the other guy had gotten his magrod from the Turks, which was a sure sign that he was going to be accepted. It was interesting to see how their styles differed between that and Cloud’s preferred sword.
Something about the look on Reno’s face though set off warnings in Cloud’s head, and he studied Reno a bit more. The grin on his face never faded, even when Cloud frowned. “You’re looking for an alibi, aren’t you?”
The innocent look that covered Reno’s face was more than enough to let Cloud know he had hit the target. Reno only looked that innocent when he was hiding something. For a long moment, Cloud was curious as to just what his friend had done. Then he realized that knowing, especially around Reno at times, was hazardous to ones health. Especially when Reno was wearing his innocent look.
“You know, I don’t want to know. If I know, then they can blame part of it on me somehow. Don’t want to know, and I’ll pretend I never asked, all right?”
“Sure,” Reno grinned. “Still, you wanna spar?”
Cloud grinned at him. That was a nearly stupid question. “Sure.”
The two of them headed for the gym to see if any of the rooms were open. Cloud was almost grateful for this, anyway. The stress at home was starting to get to him, and this was a good way to get rid of it.
For the moment, he was happy to shove his problems away and just focus on the now.
It had been a long, long day. Zack wondered if he could claim being too old for days like that, but at seventeen and a SOLDIER, he didn’t think he’d be able to get away with that claim.
Hojo was furious, Shinra was obviously tired of hearing from the scientists, and Zack was somewhat pleased his plan had had a better effect than he had been expecting.
Someone had vandalized Hojo’s office, in a very messy, but rather security issue free way. However, the man had thrown a major hissy fit over how his precious research might be ruined. As if he actually kept anything of importance up there. It was his official, Shinra-given office, most kept for when the President wanted to show off his pet scientist, who was then to show off his pet projects. Given that, Hojo only kept copies of parts of his real files. Usually just the impressive results and not all the steps taken to get there.
Zack knew, he had looked at them once. It had been a risk, but he had been curious, and there had been an opportunity when he was stuck playing bodyguard for various officials during one round of healing. Best incentive he knew of to not get hurt again.
But it had been vandalized, and after listening to Hojo, who had stormed into the middle of a meeting that had been going on too long anyway, rant about it for almost a half hour, Shinra had told him to go take up some research in one of the other labs, which were on a whole different continent, and then ordered Zack, who happened to be there for something completely different, to investigate the matter.
Well, this was going to be interesting.
Especially given he knew just who had done it.
Seph did as well. Hell, when he had heard about it, he had looked at Zack and quirked a brow in a way that was asking “Why did you do it?”
Zack had answered with a tiny smile, which meant “You should know why.”
The tiny downward curve of Seph’s lips translated to “Shouldn’t risk such things for me.”
“You’re my friend. Isn’t so bad a risk,” was the answer the almost shrug Zack gave.
Then they had gone their separate way.
And Zack was just now getting back home, far, far too late in the morning, especially when he had to be up in about three hours.
Nearly shuffling down the hall, ears perked to the sounds of the house, Zack didn’t hear Seph, which meant the man was probably in the office still. Would have to call and poke him to come home. And he heard Cloud’s breathing, only….
Cloud wasn’t alone.
The door to his room was open, and pure, completely morbid curiosity had Zack peek in. He shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t. It was an invasion of Cloud’s privacy, and he knew it was going to kill Seph if Cloud really did have someone else he was interested in….
That was red hair. That was familiar red hair. What the hell?! Why was Reno, of all people, in Cloud’s bed, he and the blond all curled around each other under the covers?
Feeling his brain frazzle a bit at the image, Zack retreated.
Well, he wasn’t tired anymore.
Maybe Seph would appreciate some company at the office.
Interlude Three-Part Three
Wordcount:
Nov 4(which is when this was written and posted for Nano): 4,382 (I was being lazy)
November so far: 24,687
OGToF: 25,260
Nano: 16,870