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“So, what exactly do you do, again? In SOLDIER, I mean.”
Angeal turned towards the small blond woman who’d sidled up beside him and was currently nursing a beer larger than his own. He eyed the drink. ‘Ma Strife’ had insisted that she was a hardy mountain woman who knew perfectly well how to hold her liquor, but that was taking things a bit far, surely?
She gave him a knowing smile as she took another sip.
Shifting his attention back to the conversation at hand, Angeal considered how exactly to answer that question. The most reassuring thing would be to lie. Lie and tell her that they mostly just watched over the city and otherwise spent most of their time doing paperwork. But he had a feeling Ma Strife wouldn’t be so easily misled. Cloud certainly never was.
“Well, I personally help oversee the training of the new recruits when I’m not on a mission.” Which was true. “When I am on a mission, it can be anything from clearing out enemy bases to retrieving rare materials for experimentation to protecting the engineers who set up the mako reactors. Basically anything ShinRa needs me to do.”
He was one of the company’s elite weapons and soon Cloud would be too. There was little chance he would fail his mako sensitivity test a second time. Not when he’d had so much in him lately.
Angeal took a swig of his own drink. If Cloud’s mother understood anything at all about mako and how it worked or why that particular section on her son’s charts had shifted from ‘intolerable’ to ‘building tolerance,’ she didn’t mention it.
She smiled at him before wandering off, apparently having gotten whatever she’d come to get.
He looked around and found his own mother sitting with Sephiroth, who was apparently content to be used as a yarn rest as she quietly knitted in the corner. Angeal shook his head, amused.
A dark-haired man not much shorter than Angeal caught his eye and started making his way over. Behind him Zack was making frantic ‘Abort! Abort!’ motions. Ah.
“Mr. Fair.” Angeal waited until he’d reached shaking distance before holding out his hand. At the back of the room, Zack covered his face with his hands and slumped down into the sofa he was currently occupying with a ‘sleeping’ Genesis. His old friend peeked open an eyelid just enough to watch the show.
“Angeal, yes?” The man narrowed his eyes and made no attempt to take Angeal’s hand. “My son’s ‘personal-mentor-turned-lover’, yes?”
“That would be me.” Angeal let his hand fall. Zack made to stand, no doubt to come rescue him, but Genesis yanked him back down by the back of his shirt. “It’s good to meet you, finally.”
“Yes. If only we’d met before. Maybe then my son wouldn’t have been tricked into this…” Mr. Fair glanced around the room. “…thing you have going on.”
Angeal’s lips twitched, which earned him no points from Zack’s father, but which seemed to calm Zack down a bit. He’d momentarily stopped struggling against Genesis, at least.
“Now that Zack’s a First Class, he regularly leads missions with three or more other people and has even taken to helping me get the new recruits settled. He’s a responsible young man with a lot of sense on his shoulders. I assure you; he wasn’t tricked into anything.”
Zack darted forward unexpectedly, Genesis having to release him or risk exposing the fact that he’d been pretending to be unconscious for the past half-hour. “Yeah! Angeal didn’t trick me! I told you, I asked him out.”
Mr. Fair’s eyes softened. “Of course you did.” He patted Zack on the shoulder. And then went right back to giving Angeal the stink-eye.
Zack gave Angeal a ‘what do I do?’ sort of look.
Angeal shook his head. Not much he could do. They’d been expecting this sort of reaction from Cloud and Zack’s parents. And Hojo, though that man hated them for reasons entirely unrelated to the questionable relationship built around differing ranks and potential power imbalances.
It was one of the reasons Genesis had chugged an entire bottle of Bahamut’s Breath not two minutes into the party and then promptly ‘passed out’ on the nearby sofa. The other reason being that Cloud had spent the first twenty minutes of socializing doting on Genesis until the mako had burned the alcohol out of his system.
“Mom!” Zack cried when his mother came into view. She’d been off doing who knew what with Gen’s parents. Probably trapped listening to them enthrall her with all the tales of Genesis’ many accomplishments.
“Yes?” She sounded far too amused to be truly angry with the situation. Perhaps things were looking up.
“Tell Dad to stop being so mean to my boyfriends.”
She held up her hands and Zack obediently bent down so that she could kiss him on the forehead. “Oh, sweetheart, you know your father is just looking out for you. You have to admit that your relationship with them is a bit unusual, yes?” She glanced towards Angeal as she said that last part.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Angeal wasn’t about to argue with that.
Zack gave her the puppy face. His mother merely kissed him again before releasing him and taking hold of her husband.
“Why don’t we go say hello to that nice blond boy over there?” she said, patting Mr. Fair on the arm.
Cloud’s head immediately shot up, his wide eyes turning towards them.
“I’ll come too,” Zack tried, only to have his mother shake her head at him.
“No, no, you stay here. We’ll just be gone a moment.”
Zack’s father gave Angeal a parting glance that said he wasn’t close to being done with him before allowing his wife to drag him over to their newest member of the relationship. Angeal tried not to laugh. Poor Cloud looked terrified.
So did Zack, for that matter.
He placed a hand on Zack’s shoulder and Zack jumped.
“Sorry.” Zack gave him a sheepish grin before directing his attention back to Cloud. “Do you think I should go save him?”
“I think Cloud might be the only one here safe from their wrath,” Angeal joked. And, indeed, even Mr. Fair seemed pleasant enough.
Of course, it was difficult to be too upset when the person looked like a startled chocobo chick. If only they knew how their Cloud really was once he got going…
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Across the room, Genesis’ ruse brought to an unfortunate end when his own mother came over to sit beside him. Traitor.
“And just what do you think you’re doing, young man?”
“Dying, hopefully.”
She shook her finger at him. “All of these people are going to have a terrible impression of you if you don’t start socializing.”
By the Goddess, they couldn’t have that, could they? Imagine the gossip!
His mother gave him a look that said she knew exactly what he was thinking, and she was Not Impressed.
Sighing, Genesis slid to his feet. He adjusted his coat and hair before selecting his first target. The most difficult one of the lot, but at least it’d give him an excuse to set something on fire if things turned south. And they would turn south.
“As you wish.” He gave his mother a mocking bow before sauntering over to the dear Professor. He caught Sephiroth’s frown out of the corner of his eye and promptly ignored it.
“Professor. I’m surprised you deigned to grace us with your presence. Surely you have some small creature to be torturing right now?”
Hojo waved him off, not even glancing up from his notebook. “I’m observing how Sephiroth handles intense social situations. Or so I’ve been told.” His voice dipped into a sneering drawl. “This is hardly what I would consider a worthwhile testing environment.”
Yes, after going through hours of strenuous mental exercise until forced to break down from the stress, a simple parental meeting was hardly a noteworthy situation. Genesis held a ball of fire behind the man’s back and silently asked Sephiroth if he was allowed to Firaga him yet. Sephiroth shook his head and went back to being Mrs. Hewley’s dutiful helper.
Genesis let the materia cool.
How disappointing.
“Still, I suppose it holds some use,” Hojo continued, though whether he was truly speaking to Genesis or just muttering aloud was uncertain, “I can see that Sephiroth’s choice of mates is marginally appropriate for his station.” He gave Genesis a look of disgust. “Not Hollander’s failed experiments, of course, but the other two… Fair is a fine example of my work with the SOLDIER program. And the other one has mako absorption rates that are most interesting. Most interesting indeed.”
Genesis gave Sephiroth another look. Can I burn him now?
Sephiroth seemed to consider it.
Genesis was prevented from extolling upon the many benefits of murdering ShinRa’s top scientist through means of head tilts and raised eyebrows when Mrs. Strife made her way over to him. Or, rather, to both of them.
“Hello. Genesis, yes?”
He nodded.
“And you must be Professor Hojo. My son has told me so much about you.”
“Oh? I can’t imagine the boy understands the intricacies of my work enough to tell anyone about anything.”
“Oh, of course not. We can’t all be that brilliant. But you don’t have to be the head of the ShinRa Science Department to see the amazing results. Why, just look at your son.” She nodded towards Sephiroth. Genesis twitched at the inclusion of the word ‘son’ anywhere near the mere idea of Hojo. “You must be very proud.”
“He is my greatest work, yes.” Hojo admitted.
“I’m so glad my Cloud is with him.” She gave Sephiroth a fond smile. “I can’t wait to see what changes they bring about in each other. Though I imagine Sephiroth will change Cloud far more than the other way around. It’ll be interesting to watch, won’t it?”
“Hmm, yes, interesting.” Hojo tapped his pen against his notebook, his eyes darting between the two of them as if he was mentally calculating the potential outcomes right that very second. “It will be a most useful experiment.”
Mrs. Strife nodded. She took Genesis by the arm and gently let him around the medium-sized bar they’d rented out for the occasion.
“If I may be so bold, I would like to point out that you are an amazing woman, Mrs. Strife.” Not everyone could single-handedly convince that unrepentant bastard that it would be more worthwhile to see how Sephiroth fucking things might change their genetic make-up than simply kidnapping them and experimenting on them himself.
They would still watch him, of course. Genesis was not naive enough to think the Professor had been satisfied, but it might have bought them some time.
“Thank you. I must say, you’re not anywhere as rude as my Cloud made you out to be.” The glint in her eye said that she knew exactly what she’d just said and she was proud of it.
Genesis snorted. ‘Rude’ was he? He would have to show Cloud just how ‘rude’ he was later that evening.
She brought him over to Sephiroth and Mrs. Hewley.
“Hello again, Martha. Genesis.” She nodded at the both of them.
“I see you’ve introduced yourselves,” Genesis said, taking a seat to the left of Sephiroth.
“Oh yes, us single mothers have to stick together, you know,” Mrs. Strife said before turning to Sephiroth. “I don’t believe we’ve met, though. Not officially, anyway. I know of you, of course. What with all the posters Cloud has of you in his bedroom.”
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. “Cloud has never mentioned any posters.” He shared a look with Genesis.
Oh yes, they were going to have fun with Cloud tonight.
“No, I don’t imagine he would have. He can be a little shy when it comes to those sort of things.”
Couldn’t they all.
“He’s written to me about you as well, of course. He says you’re quite wonderful.” She patted Sephiroth on the hand, as if to assure him that Cloud wasn’t just some fanboy who’d manage to fulfill his fantasies.
Genesis narrowed his eyes. He was rude, but Sephiroth was wonderful.
Cloud would pay.
“As well as other things,” she continued, “Such as the mako.”
They both squirmed. Just how detailed had Cloud gotten? There were certain…techniques that needed to be followed to increase one’s mako tolerance through such…unusual means.
“Cloud is very open with you,” Sephiroth responded after a moment of silent back and forth with Genesis where they both tried to force the other to answer first.
“Not directly. But a mother knows these things.”
Genesis blinked. Had they just been tricked?
“Yes, we do,” Mrs. Hewley confirmed. It was their turn to share a look while he and Sephiroth sat quietly by the wayside and tried not to let the overwhelming sense of humiliation engulf them.
How had he gotten roped into this ill-advised parental meet-up again?
Oh yes, Angeal. Genesis mentally set a reminder to stab him later.
Mrs. Strife appeared to take pity on their poor souls.
“I can take over here, dear.” She took the yarn from Sephiroth’s limp hands. “I’m sure Gillian and I can find all sorts of things to talk about while you two wander around.”
“Of course.” Sephiroth stood, Genesis not far behind.
They made their way over to the bar, but a gloved hand snatched the bottle of SOLDIER Special #9 out of Genesis’ hands before he could down it.
“I don’t think so.” Angeal cracked it open and poured each of them an insufferably small glass. He pointed at finger at Genesis. “You’ve had enough. Take this to Zack.”
Genesis was tempted to down the glass Angeal handed to him, if for no other reason than spite, but one look at the puppy’s frantic dashing around was enough for him to decide that perhaps he could be kind. Just this once. He would give the drink to someone who needed it more.
He wasn’t rude.
“For you.” He handed the glass to Zack, who’d somehow become engaged in conversation about the latest fashion in Mideel with Genesis’ parents.
“Is he even old enough to drink?” his father asked.
Genesis rolled his eyes. “No. I’m in an illicit five-way with a minor.”
Zack gave him a grateful look before swallowing it down in one gulp. He then proceeded to cough and hack like Genesis had rammed poison straight down his esophagus. His father didn’t look impressed.
“What was that! It’s disgusting.” He made a face.
“It’s designed to get you drunk, not to taste good.”
Zack eyed the empty glass as if half-expecting it to latch onto his face and proceed to mate with him.
…Genesis was ashamed to admit that he had, perhaps, been more entertained by those awful sci-fi movies of theirs than he would have liked.
“Angeal wants to see you.” Genesis nodded towards the bar. If Zack knew it was a lie, he didn’t say so, taking the chance to escape while he had it.
“And I have to use the restroom. If you’ll excuse me.” He gave them a parting nod.
Perhaps if he removed some of the ceiling tiles, he could hide up there until this awful ordeal was over.
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Rosalina Fair had only ever wanted her baby to be happy. And she’d vowed the very first time she’d seen that little grin of his that she would do everything in her power to make sure that happened.
So when he’d wanted to learn how to use a sword, she had pushed aside her worry, found him a teacher, and stood back and watched with a fond smile as he practiced. And when he’d grown up and decided he wanted to join SOLDIER, she had waived him off with a teary glint in her eye that hadn’t been nearly strong enough to overtake her obvious pride. And when he’d written to her and said that he was in a relationship and wanted them to come to Midgar to meet his mysterious lover, she had hopped on the first transport she could find and made her way over here, just giddy as when she’d met her own love for the first time.
And when he’d introduced her to them…well…
She just wanted Zack to be happy. That’s all she wanted. But surely this was taking things too far?
She glanced around the room at the not one, not two, not THREE, but four young men that her son had apparently decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Over half of which were not only older but of a higher rank than him, and one of which was his direct mentor and teacher.
She was, needless to say, a little concerned.
“So, what do you think?” Zack asked, for the sixth time in the past hour alone.
“I think you should tell us more about that nice woman you met the other day in the church,” John said, crossing his arms.
Zack bit his lip and turned towards her expectantly, his eyes clearly pleading with her to do something.
“Now, now, dear.” She patted her husband on the arm. “Cloud seems like a sweetheart.”
Zack nodded quickly. “He is! Cloud’s the best.”
“The best of four?” John muttered.
Zack deflated. “I didn’t mean it like that! I meant…” He looked around for someone to save him, before seeming to realize that that someone was him.
He took a breath and puffed himself back up. “The others are the best too! Gen is really great with materia and words and he tells me stories and poems when we’re on missions away from home and he even sits and watches ‘those terrible sci-fi movies’ with me that he hates, though between you and me I think they’re actually kinda growing on him, and he makes me his special dumbapple pie even though he doesn’t actually like to cook, and he tells the best jokes when no one else is around.
“And Sephiroth can be a little awkward with the social issues but he’s the best at trying to make you feel better when you’re down, even if he kinda fails most of the time due to, you know, being awkward with social issues, and he’s really great at giving me one-on-one training sessions when Angeal’s gone even though his skill is way above mine and it’s probably really annoying to try to teach someone so far beneath him and he’s really good in be- I mean, he’s great for cuddling. And Angeal-”
John held up his hand. “Angeal, yes, the one who you spent the majority of your time alone with these past few years? The Angeal who was mentoring you from the instant you joined SOLDIER, if I remember correctly. What exactly drew him to you again?”
“John,” Rosa chided, though she had to admit that she wasn’t far off in her own thinking.
Zack’s cheeks took on a little pink. “It’s not like that! He didn’t scope out my body or anything shady. He said I had great potential!”
“Did he now?”
“Well, I did make it to First Class in only two years…”
“And we’re very proud of you for that,” Rosa said.
John nodded. “Yes, good job.”
“Thanks.” Zack ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck.
Rosa smiled. “Why don’t you run along and say hello to the other parents? We’ll just mingle some more.” Zack looked uncertain. “Shoo! The longer we mingle, the more time we have to get to know your boyfriends.”
He perked up at that. “Yeah! And once you know them, I know you’ll love them!”
“That’ll be the day,” John muttered.
Rosa jabbed John with her elbow.
“I mean, yes, of course. Lots of…love.”
“Yeah!” Zack pumped his fists and then darted off towards the woman Rosa had learned was Mrs. Rhapsodos.
She shook her head. So full of energy, their boy.
“Now then, who should we interrogate next?” John asked, eyeing each of the contenders.
Rosa hummed. They had their work cut out for them.
==============================================
“Oh yes, Angeal could be a little troublemaker at times. I remember one time he climbed up to the top of the tallest tree in all of Banora and used the slingshot his father had given him not two nights before to shoot an apple at the neighbor’s son.”
Cloud blinked. “That doesn’t sound very honorable.”
“We’re not born with honor, you know. You have to learn it,” Ma chided.
“I know that, Ma. I just thought…” He’d just thought that maybe Angeal had started really young. He certainly acted like ‘dreams and pride’ ran through his very bones.
He fiddled with his napkin.
“Well,” Mrs. Hewley continued, saving him, “I can’t say that Joseph was exactly innocent himself. He used to give poor Genesis a terrible time. He even threw him into the lake a fountain of times. Angeal just wanted to protect him. Without getting caught fighting, that is.”
“I can’t imagine Genesis needing protecting.”
“Not any more, no. But he didn’t always know how to wield a sword or cast those fancy spells of his. And he was a rather small child, until he hit his growth spurt.”
Cloud wished he’d hit a growth spurt.
“I’ll have to remind Angeal of all this the next time he tries to lecture us.”
“Us?” The twinkle in Mrs. Hewley’s eye said she knew the answer all too well. “You and the puppy?”
That startled a laugh out of him. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you know that nickname. He uses it all the time.”
“Yes, I see why,” Ma said.
Their eyes found Zack, who was busy telling some tale to Genesis’ mom, his arms swinging this way and that as he described some (probably mundane) thing to her. Zack could make anything seem interesting just from the way he moved his body when he talked about it.
“He’s very full of energy, isn’t he?” Mrs. Hewley said.
“Yeah.” Cloud tried not to think about all the things that energy was good for. He would have no choice but to jump out the window if he started having obvious sex thoughts in front of the two moms.
“I hear that Angeal isn’t the only one who used to be a little rabble rouser,” Mrs. Hewley continued, turning back to give Cloud an amused look.
“Oh no, certainly not the only one. Why, Cloud here-”
Cloud decided then that it was time to make a hasty escape.
==============================================
Zack didn’t bother to remove any of his clothing before he collapsed face-first into the bed. He hadn’t felt so exhausted in his entire life.
“Need some help?” Angeal asked, sliding in behind him and pulling Zack up so that he could wrangle his shirt off him. Zack allowed himself to be flipped onto his back so Angeal could work on his lower half.
“Tell me about it,” Cloud said, following Zack’s example and swan-diving into the blankets.
Angeal chuckled. “Don’t tell me I’m going to have to undress everyone tonight.”
“Only if you want to,” Genesis purred, leaning down to give him a kiss on the cheek.
“I suggest sex. Lots of sex.” Sephiroth sat on the edge of the bed and proceeded to remove his boots.
Genesis snorted. “What woes are you trying to sleep away? They thought you were ‘wonderful.’” He sent a pointed glance towards Cloud that Zack didn’t understand.
“Pretty sure they just thought he was awkward,” Angeal joked.
“Agreed.” Sephiroth tossed his boots into the open closet. “Though it did little to stop Zack’s parents from engaging in their attack.”
Zack groaned and threw his hands up over his eyes. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize they were going to be so bad!”
“It’s fine. They’re your parents. It was to be expected given our odd situation.” Angeal kissed Zack’s stomach, as if to soothe him.
“They are right to be worried,” Genesis said, leaning in until he was close enough that Zack could feel his breath on his skin. “We are going to devour you tonight.”
“Just tonight?” Cloud asked in that impish way of his that only seemed to come out when they were alone. He sat up so that he could run a finger down Zack’s sternum.
“And as for you-” Genesis grabbed Cloud by the front of his shirt and pulled him across Zack so that they were face to face. “I heard the most interesting thing from your mother tonight. Something about being one of us being ‘rude?’”
Cloud’s eyes widened. “I just meant in the beginning…and to some of the other SOLDIERs…and the infrantrymen…and-”
Genesis kissed him.
“She also mentioned posters,” Sephiroth added.
Cloud jerked back. “I-”
Sephiroth took his turn, pulling Cloud in for his own kiss.
Cloud’s cheeks were flushed and his lips puffy and wet when Sephiroth finally released him.
Angeal slid Zack’s pants off. He rubbed Zack through his briefs.
“Why don’t we give our parents something to worry about?”