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silverflqmes · 5 months ago

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໒⦂ 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐘 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄.

synopsis. the fates were cruel. peace was restored to the planet, the incurable illness had at last been quelled, but was all that awaited the hero a somber morrow?

genre. angst + eventual fluff

tw. gore, detailed descriptions of blood, self resentment, descriptions and implications of death, abandonment issues, ac cloud being ac cloud ( that should explain enough ), tiny bit suggestive.

notes. this has been rotting in my drafts for almost three months and taylor swift makes me absolutely disgusting, so enjoy this word vomit and lowkey character study. lyrics are in smaller fonts and italics! my tears ricochet is the song if anyone is curious</3

sephiroth x cloud strife.

we gather here, we line up, weepin’ in a sunlit room.

a frigid breeze swept through blond, unruly bangs, mako tinted sapphires dulling as they flickered to the dented metal surface.

blotches of scarlet still remained, now a shade of burgundy from age, like the finest of wines, pressed of the sweetest grapes. only, it wasn’t wine at all. but under certain circumstances.. what made blood any different from wine, when spilled from someone who dubbed himself to be the planet’s heir?

perhaps, that had been the reason the stains remained. a sign that the fallen angel would rise once more, and claw his way back to the surface. even if it meant swimming through burning waves of mako — the river of jades that rejected his being for his desires to seize what rightfully belonged to him; his birthright.

and.. if i’m on fire,

except, the personified calamity had yet to make his move. the game of back and forth that had been at play for the last eight years was left at complete standstill — unyielding, pieces covered in a sheen of dust and ivy. untouched. unmoving.

at this rate, the board may very well have been abandoned with no choice but to erode until another act would be made.

but having it abandoned was a good thing, right? it was meant to be.. at least.

cloud should be happy — relieved that the fight was over and that all was well again on the planet he’d fought to save all these years. and yet, he found himself feeling empty again, the hollowed sensation having occupied his chest almost ten times worse than the time before.

the blond feared whatever purpose he had was all but lost in his mundane lifestyle of playing delivery boy and house. dulled like the great sword resting a little more heavily than usual on his back.

he was honed and molded to become a soldier.. but what good was a soldier with no battle left to fight? no people left to save? no sephiroth left to-

abruptly, cloud peeled his gaze away from the damage, closing his eyes to calm himself. to breathe.

but even that was no good.

flashes of the battle came back in blurs to him, a broken mirror of memoirs with sharp-edged shards hailing down upon him. in his mind, protection was nonexistent — only a fool would bring an umbrella unless they wanted its fabric shred to pieces.

and so, cloud just let it happen as it always did. he stood and allowed the slices to wash over him. each one splintering impossibly deeper than the last — the more intense memories. otherwise, open wounds left unhealed with ichor left to spill.

cuts adorned his lightly tanned skin the more he stood, watched and endured, rouge pouring from the cracks as they met with lucid streaks that tumbled from his lashes.

was this.. punishment?

you’ll be made of ashes too.

but what for? had he not suffered a sufficient amount of it already? was there no end that finally meant ‘enough’?

even on my worst day,

for whatever reason, his father left his mother to fend for herself and play both roles to cloud, only for her life to be claimed soon after during his untimely return to a place that once was his hometown. a horror scene forever imprinted in his mind of his childhood hero’s slow descent to madness while his dying mother cried out final words for him to run away from it all.

however, cloud did not heed her warning — he did anything but. in fact, he went straight into the core of the flame, uncaring of how it decorated his once unblemished skin with puffy pink welts and smudges of dusty onyx. all insignificant pain when it boiled down to that which his heart had felt- witnessing his safe space crumble before his eyes into the ash that painted his lightly freckled cheeks.

did i deserve, babe.. all the hell you gave me?

it hadn’t stopped there. of course it hadn’t, as there was much to be added to his anguish. the sight of his collapsed friend — another to the list of people he could not face upon his return to nibelheim. his new friend, battered and bruised on the steps, pleading for him to finish off the man he once idolized. the figure in the posters he’d begged his mother to help him hang up on his walls — a pile of ash now, dead at her side. for a monster had killed the hero and taken up residence in his body once his mind had been at its weakest.

without a choice, cloud ignored his broken heart to lunge, cleave and toss aside the man that had once filled him with ambition — with dreams of purpose, and a desire to one day fight alongside him, even.. if fate was to be kind for a change.

it wasn’t, but cloud knew that, despite his aching wish to be proven wrong — to have his delusional, hopeless wants fed into.

'cause i loved you, i swear i loved you..

as if things couldn’t get any worse than killing someone he’d once called his hero, an entirely different form of agony filled his chest later down the line. one that erupted into screams of sorrow on the bloodied precipice outside of their journey’s final destination. almost there, yet so far away.

repetition came to haunt him, attachments stupidly created for cloud to wound up getting broken all over again by the narrative. by the man who repainted a fate that should have belonged to another. someone that slotted perfectly into the role of a hero.. only for it to get handed down to the understudy without a clue and a worn down heart forced to go on despite himself. despite the chipping away at his most vital organ, loss after loss.

and somehow, the greatest one of them all.. had been the very person that brought said losses. a person he should resent, and feel relief to not have walking the earth.

instead, cloud felt as empty as the billowing gray wisps in the sky that would not weep, and stood atop shinra ruins. head hung low, eyes sunken from the lack of rest and shivering skin that he’d refused to cover.

what did it matter, anyway? there was no such thing as a SOLDIER getting sick. death was so out of reach.

yet the greatest SOLDIER to have lived met his end. several times.

'til my dying day.

a strained breath left the former infantryman’s lips as he gazed up at the sullied welkin, puffs of fluff obscuring the usual azure tint that reflected the ocean. it was the same sky as that day, and many encounters before the most recent one.. only, today’s sky was just filled with rain. it thankfully or sadly, had nothing to do with.. him.

part of him wish it had.

what were the last words that had been uttered- vowed to him? that he would never be a memory. that was the response that had been made to cloud’s demanding of him to stay in his memories, where he belongs. it was a promise, to remain. to persist. to defy his nemesis.

but he didn’t.

i didn't have it in myself to go with grace.

sephiroth had gone against his own final monologue and heeded his instead.

the self proclaimed ex-SOLDIER should feel content that for once in the years of their feud, his enemy had finally listened. he went quietly with some petty last words and the peace was restored.

everything on gaia was great, life was carefree and edge was slowly being rebuilt. tifa, denzel and marlene were fine too, his old friends were doing great as well, even if they had their own lives now — ones they had fought to have.

even cloud had made a life for himself, a small business to pair. arguably, he should be at ease, finally retired from having to play the hero for everybody. happy, for a change.

and you're the hero flying around, saving face.

only, there was no feeling of contentment.

how could there be when the one persistent thing in his life — the single stagnant fragment of it throughout all the changes, was gone in spite of the amount of times he’d escaped his demise?

leather scrunched when his gloved hands clenched at his side.

had the possibility existed of taking his words back?

“no.” cloud immediately reprimanded himself, tearing his mako orbiting sapphires away from the last place the late general had been as he forced his legs to take him away. “don’t be stupid.”

but he was very stupid. someone who was smart would not cast aside happiness to go straight to reason behind his grief.

and if i’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?

someone in their right mind wouldn’t be standing there like a fool, risking their very life atop an unstable building, wishing for the source of their anguish to return. to come back and breathe life into them as their foe had on advent day.

“you swore you would never be a memory, but here we are.” cloud whispered the words into existence, hanging his head low. “it’s been so quiet.” he followed somberly, sucking in a breath.

cursing my name,

there was no humming in his head, no excruciating migraines that froze him in his tracks at every corner. hallucinations no longer frequented him, either, but nightmares haunted him till dawn, per norm.

for once, he hated the silence. loathed the tranquility that he nearly destroyed himself to provide.

wishing i stayed,

at least he felt alive when he had purpose, even if it was because his nemesis came back to provide him with one each time he lost his way.

so why.. why not now?

was it the final straw, or something? had sephiroth dubbed that enough was enough? that their endless fight was officially.. over?

cloud gritted his teeth to stop his lips from quivering. “you’re a liar..” he let out brokenly, shaking his head when his vision began to blur over. “you’re such a fucking liar!”

look at how my tears ricochet.

in the end, just like any other relationship, be it a friend, relative, beloved, or in this case, an archnemesis, cloud was left all alone on the planet to mourn those that have gone.

unable to hold himself up any longer, the blond sunk to his knees, clutching at the harness strapped across his chest.

we gather stones,

it was wrong, he knew it was wrong. tears should not be spent crying for his enemy. they should not flow so carelessly as hostility pours from his lips, when really..

he was just pleading to have him back.

he had meant to say.. something else.

never knowing what they'll mean.

sloppily, the former mercenary rubbed at his eyes, tasting the blood on his tongue after biting his lower appendage to still his cries.

sephiroth wasn’t coming back, and cloud.. should not want him back. even at the chance of feeling alive again, instead of the husk of a man that he now was. a boring, fruitless life would have to do. it was safer for everyone.

his choice did not matter, it never did.

a shaky breath spilled from his lips as he removed his hand from his eyes, but kept his head low for measures. not that anyone would be as idiotic as him to scale the shinra remains.

some to throw,

“he’s gone.” he muttered to no one in particular, an affirmation mainly to himself while he cleared the phlegm out of his throat when he swallowed. “you’re gone.”

no response came, of course. except for the light drizzle that finally began to spill over. impeccable timing.

dots littered the scuffed tiles, painting them a shade darker while once eccentric chocobo styled bedhead.. now resembled a rather deflated, depressed looking bird.

it probably suited him better.

some to make a diamond ring.

the wails of the heavens only made his own tears fall freely down his cheeks, gathering into a tiny puddle beneath him. perhaps he should have chosen another, more even spot to drop in, but there was little left to care about.

“you could get sick, kneeling in the rain as you are.” a voice echoed back in a low purr, but cloud kept his eyes snapped shut. of course he was imaging his voice now, that was the only thing that was missing.

delusions that belonged in his dreams to haunt him because his nightmare no longer existed.

you know i didn't want to, have to haunt you..

even still. “SOLDIERs don’t get sick.” he fired back with a sniffle rather than any bite, feeling his messy bangs cling to his forehead.

“interesting. i thought you were ex-SOLDIER. so perhaps,” the voice stilled, a noise akin to a snort following. “there still is a possibility of getting sick.”

cloud clicked his tongue, furrowing his brows. “once a SOLDIER, always a SOLDIER. now would you stop already? i-i shouldn’t even be answering my own delusions in the first place, so quit stoking them.” he mumbled, opening his eyes to glare down at the ground. “i sound desperate enough as is, i don’t need to be having conversations with myself..”

but what a ghostly scene.

“oh, cloud.. even after pleading for me to manifest once more, you still wish to neglect my existence and insist on your being alone.” the voice despaired, a soft sigh expelling from their lips, which this time.. sounded a little too real.

too real to have come from the mess that was his mind.

if only to quell his curiosity and just get his hope shattered already, strife lifted his head slowly, turning after a deep breath toward the direction of the source.

and there he stood, in all his horrific beauty.

clad in leather that shone from the rain, liquid moonlight dampened- darkened a little from the rainfall with an abundance of belts that glimmered against onyx.

you wear the same jewels, that i gave you..

only he could appear this mystifying in the pouring rain.

even on the last day that he’d seen him, oozing smoke after unleashing his omnislash upon him before dissolving into a flurry of charcoal feathers.

as you bury me.

even then, he had been beautiful.

“you- you’re not..” cloud paused, swallowing the lump lodged in his throat as he staggered to his feet. “you’re not real.”

a silver brow raised before a soft hum fell from the mirage’s lips, one that again, sounded too real to be imagined. “haven’t we been through this once before, cloud?” he spoke a little more solidly this time, less echoed, but there a hint of exasperation. “is it so difficult to accept that i am here? you wished for my return, did you not?”

i didn't have it in myself to go with grace.

the blond had, that much was true — but he was so ready to accept the male across from him wasn’t coming back.. he hadn’t accounted for the surprise he would feel upon seeing him.

it was just.. completely surreal. “i did,” he began a little hastily, blinking a few times before looking downward. “but i.. you didn’t come back, even after what you said.. and after all that i’ve done — that we’ve been through.. i was starting to think that you wouldn’t be coming back this time..” he finished in a small voice, praying it wouldn’t waver.

he wasn’t sure why he was being so honest, so.. vulnerable. there was usually a bite to his words, certainly whenever the other party was sephiroth.. but there was no hostility, just.. raw emotion.

maybe the man across from him wasn’t real after all, if he was allowing himself to be this honest.

“just as it isn’t simple for you to kill me, it isn’t so easy for me to come back either, cloud.” sephiroth lilted, ripples forming beneath the strides he took to reach the other. “but your memories of me suffice enough to return me to you.” he smiled back, not as cruelly as he normally would. “it just takes time, and perhaps,” he paused, slipping two fingers beneath his chin to gently lift it. “i may have wanted to prolong our reunion to hear your true feelings.”

'cause when i’d fight, you used to tell me i was brave.

cloud shuddered at the phantom contact, it felt all too real.. maybe, just maybe.. it had been.

but could he trust it?

mako-azure glistened as he gazed up into those familiar slitted jades. once upon a time he felt instant fear looking into them, wonder at an even earlier point in his life, but now.. he felt both, all at the same time, with an overwhelming feeling of familiarity.

relief.

he wanted to trust it.

“so you’re not mad at me?” cloud dared to ask, so quietly, it may very well have been a whisper in the wind. he’d allowed zack to die, aerith, his own mother, and sephiroth. even if they had never explicitly expressed disappointment or resentment for his incompetence.. he still couldn’t help but ask, if only to ease his intrusive train of thoughts.

something sephiroth knew all too well.

a chuckle sounded from above the blond, an indicator that his assumption might have been incorrect. well, he hoped so, at least. or that his inquiry had somehow been comical.

“should i be?” his adversary asked, sliding the hand on his chin to hold his cheek. “to further add to your guilt?”

it nearly had cloud flinching at the shift in touch, but he remained in his place, despite the blood that rushed to his ears. “no.” he mumbled back, averting his eyes. “just checking, that’s all.” half true.

sephiroth traced his thumb over his skin, smile stretching. “i see. well, i felt the need to ask, myself. given your history of self torture.” he answered bemusedly, reaching up to catch what might have been a fallen tear.

“i don’t-” the latter swallowed, searching for the words. “i don’t know what you’re talking about..” he grumbled finally, withdrawing himself from his enemy’s touch to turn away. “none of that.. is intentional.”

the silver haired swordsman lowered his hand, surveying his body behavior — the evident self denial.

while he could correct him, humoring his game had more appeal. “truly? perhaps i must be mistaken on my interpretation of you leaving to mourn for a year or two until my return.” sephiroth mused, approaching the other once more to place a hand on his bare shoulder. “why else would you be here, rather than amongst your found family?”

and if i’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?

cloud parted his lips to protest, only to end up flattening them instead. “because i can’t look at them. i don’t.. i don’t belong there.”

when the one winged angel received no reply, he took it as a sign to continue, fluttering his eyes shut. “you would prefer the company of the dead?”

“they don’t judge me, usually.” he returned in a murmur, hyper aware of the leather fingers on his skin, but he couldn’t bring himself to move away. it felt.. oddly comforting. grounding.

sephiroth looked up at the sky, weighing the words expressed to him. “is that why you wished me back?”

cursing my name, wishing i stayed,

was it? no, there was another reason. “i just..” cloud paused, feeling his heart in his throat. “wanted to feel whole again.. alive. and with you gone, i just don’t..”

“know what to do with yourself?” the self proclaimed heir of the planet tested, tilting his head towards him. “or was there another reason?”

there was. it just, wasn’t easy to convey, let alone put into words. so cloud shook his head. “it’s complicated.”

“i have all the time in the world, cloud.”

a sigh left said male’s lips. “i’m sure you do.” he rolled his eyes, folding his arms. where would he begin to explain himself? feelings weren’t his best conversation topic — he sucked at understanding them, let alone expressing them.

but one look at sephiroth’s patient visage told him he wasn’t going anywhere without an explanation.

which left him with little choice. “i guess i just, always expect you to be the one stagnant aspect of my life.. that you would be there, even when everything else changes, or when the planet decides it’s time to take someone else away.” he tried elaborating, shutting his eyes. “so when you didn’t come back, like you said you would have.. i thought that i.. had really done it this time.”

look at how my tears ricochet.

slowly he turned to look up at his nemesis, knitting his brows together glumly. “i thought that you were finally done with all of this- that the planet took you, too.. and that scared me.”

and i can go anywhere i want..

sephiroth was silent as he listened to his killer speak, noting the fear that flashed in his eyes, the instability.

he’d anticipated to hear something along the lines of what cloud had said, but nothing at all like this. nothing as raw as this.

“as much as i hate you, for everything that you’ve done to me.. i feel so incomplete..” he took in a sharp breath, lowering his head into his open palms. “when you’re not with me.”

anywhere i want.. just not home.

was he seriously crying now, in front of sephiroth? he could only imagine what was going through his head now. probably how pathetic he sounded.

“it’s stupid and weak, i know it is. you don’t need to remind me over it.” cloud continued when he received no answer, wanting to just brush over the topic already to avoid any further humiliation. “anyway, there’s your reason. satisfied?” he exhaled, wiping at his eyes.

it wasn’t often that he cried, least of all in front of sephiroth, but his tears seemed to have no end to them. if anything, the rain had been some kind of sick encouragement for more.

although there had been no judgment. silence, yes. but no judgment was expressed.

cloud seemed to be looking for it as he lifted his head up after a few beats of silence to find whatever face his nemesis had been making- to get an idea of what he might have been thinking, but as always.. his countenance said nothing. a plaster of indifference, perfected throughout the years.

the urge to interrogate him was strong, but he chose not to.

instead, he turned his body away, scoffing. “well geez, if i had known that would shut you up, maybe i should have said so back when- mmph!”

and you can aim for my heart, go for blood.

all at once, rose, vanilla and some other, less prominent fragrances overtook his senses, the realization slowly settling about the newfound contact pressing into him.

otherwise, the bare, soaked chest his face was smushed against, paired with the strong arms that encircled his body.

he might just be hallucinating, but sephiroth- sephiroth.. was hugging him.

and no, not an embrace paired with stabbing. just.. a normal, well needed hug.

his cheeks dusted with pink before he could think to fight the color off, not quite used to the proximity, let alone the addition of wetness due to the rain. but he couldn’t find it in him to shove the other away. not when deep down, it was.. something he had wanted all his life.

cloud found himself unable to stop his next act, which was wrapping his own arms around the taller man, even going as far as to shut his eyes and just.. slip.

but you would still miss me in your bones.

no judgment, after all. and the touch felt real.

sephiroth was real.

he wasn’t a fragment of his mind or a lingering memory. no mirage or shadow that followed him at every twist and turn. and definitely not the flurry of feathers that scattered across the parting clouds.

and i still talk to you..

maybe it wasn’t the man from the poster that was now the ashes of a village erased, replaced and deserted.. but neither was cloud.

the hero had died alongside the nobody, and in their places stood the remains of those men. two hollow souls, lost without their other halves, now reunited, and made whole.

for the first time in a long time, cloud felt he could breathe again as he let out an exhale, unknowingly clinging tighter to his the man he dubbed his nemesis. as though he might slip away from him again and leave him screaming at the sky as he once had on the outskirts of midgar for another that was taken from him.

when i’m screaming at the sky.

but sephiroth had no intentions of leaving, he never had. for as long as his other half persisted, he would continue to return.

“your reasoning is neither stupid nor weak, cloud.” he finally filled their silence, gazing up at the cracks in the sky — the shade of blue bleeding through puffs of gray. reminiscent of the sapphire irises obscured by the mako tint on the eyes of the male in his arms. “our lives are forever intertwined. to be apart from one another is.. death in itself. be it in reality for me, or a feeling as it has been for you.”

tenderly, sephiroth then brought his hand to cloud’s freckled, flushed cheek, meeting his gaze with a small smile. “why else would i have continued to defy my demise?”

and when you can't sleep at night..

the blond pursed his lips, growing slightly embarrassed the more those jade orbs bore into his. was he really being asked this right now? “world domination, i dunno.” he tried, rolling his eyes. “planet being your birthright and all — whatever shit you normally spew during your monologues.”

that made sephiroth laugh, a smirk coming to his lips. “perhaps,” he answered at length, moving a dampened lock behind the other’s ear. “but i always had you in mind, cloud.”

said male rose a brow before letting out a humorless laugh. “yeah, okay. i was a ‘puppet’ in those plans. you would choose your goals in a heartbeat over me, don’t even.” meteor was proof enough of that.

you hear my stolen lullabies.

or was it?

“would i?” sephiroth questioned, still adjusting his bangs. “if it was between the planet and you.. hard decision, but i know my answer. sadly, it does not align with your own.” he chuckled, leaning in closer. “i’ve said once before that i would be loathe to live in such a world without you in it.. and that statement still holds, cloud.”

a fuzzy memory filled cloud’s mind before he felt his breath hitch at the one spilling over his lips- a warmth amidst the chilling rain. “not a dream, real.” he chanted in his head, willing himself to remain calm through the blend of rose and vanilla that hit his senses. “so then,” he began, feeling the hand pause on his cheek, “you’ll stay.. for good this time? no more taking over the planet or trying to destroy it..?” asking the question aloud felt awkward, as though he had been that eager teenage boy once more, with silly dreams and high hopes of meeting his hero.

and maybe, to some extent, he was. despite everything.

i didn't have it in myself to go with grace..

“if it means this,” the former first class SOLDIER stopped, resting his forehead against the other’s, “then i suppose there is no planet to be had that i don’t already have.”

cloud blinked up at him, furrowing his brows together in confusion. “no planet to be had..? what do you mean by.. oh.”

oh.

sephiroth tilted his head, innocently. “without my assistance, you seemed to have pieced the answer quite well.” he commented, eyes half lidded. “but.. perhaps you will tell me, for certainty.”

and so the battleships will sink beneath the waves.

for certainty. yeah, right.

cloud tugged at a handful of platinum, an unspoken warning, only to receive a rather pleasant suggestive noise in return. don’t think about it. “asshole.. if you know already, then i don’t have to tell you.”

“you don’t, no. but i wish to hear it from you, anyway.” the silver haired swordsman insisted, smirking like a cat. his default. “go on.”

the ex-SOLDIER let out a frustrated huff, burying his face in his foe’s shoulder. “i’ll die of embarrassment, do you really want that? for me to die?”

a shrug was the response he received, along with a quiet laugh. “of course not, but as if i would allow you to do so. now come on, cloud.” sephiroth pressed, leaning closer to whisper in his ear. “won’t you do me the pleasure of hearing your response?”

the blond was almost tempted to bite his shoulder right then and there if it weren’t for the massive silver pauldron blocking his way. even for something like this, his foe was always one step ahead.

he wasn’t going to give this up, was he?

a sigh left his lips at the realization. for as stubborn as he was, his old idol was just as bad, if not, worse. and cloud was willing to bet that they wouldn’t be leaving shinra’s rundown building anytime soon if he withheld his response.

of course he gets stuck with the most meddlesome guy ever by the planet’s sick idea of fun, but it didn’t matter.

you had to kill me, but it killed you just the same.

at sephiroth’s, dare he say, eager expression, cloud flattened his lips, annoyed at how much he seemed to be enjoying himself ( at his own expense ). meddlesome, indeed.

though the spiky haired male wouldn’t go down so easily. “your metaphor, and don’t even bother correcting me on poetics, was referring to me, i guess. now can we move on from this topic?” he grumbled back, trailing his gaze away. “..please?”

silence enveloped them once more, save for another soft hum that drew from his enemy’s rosewood appendages- a thoughtful one. as though he had been weighing his plea- or, at least, that was it seemed like on the surface.

in reality, the ex-general had just wanted to leave him in suspense for a moment longer. “so soon? i rather enjoyed your reactions.” he finally relented, releasing a soft exhale. “but i suppose, since you asked so nicely. i do expect something in return, however.”

cursing my name, wishing i stayed,

relief flooded cloud, though it had been short lived. because who was he kidding, it was sephiroth. there was almost always a catch when it came down to him. “something.. in return? like what?” dare he assume a kiss?

yeah, sure. in his head, maybe.

“something heartfelt, perhaps.” he mused, curling his lips just slightly. “or will that cost me?”

cloud nearly spluttered. something.. heartfelt? was sephiroth aware of who he was speaking to? he was the least heartfelt person on the planet, he was no poet!

but at the mention of a price, he found himself unable to suppress his snort. “oh ha, ha, very funny. i’ll charge you double for mentioning that.” he rolled his eyes, but failed to hide the smile that reached his face. “you’re lucky i just have the delivery service now.” a mercenary drove a higher price, after all.

yet sephiroth could only chuckle. “what an intriguing pricing system you have. does the same apply for your courier services, then?”

“depends.” cloud began, eyeing the billowing masses that scattered to at last reveal the sun. “distance, weight and size has to be taken into consideration for a fair price to be made.” he continued absentmindedly, trailing his eyes back to his enemy’s cat-like ones.

he’d seen them so many times before, be it on paper, gleaming on his blade or directly in front of him. he thought little of them before, but right now, in this instance.. they felt like everything to him.

you turned into your worst fears.

it was strange how time away from continuous battling with his enemy had turned him into.. whatever he was now. feeling something he knew he shouldn’t, but could not help.

for whatever reason, fate wanted to entangle their lives in the cruelest way imaginable, dooming them with the weight of the world to save, and an intrusive alien entity that wished to see it destroyed. each of them played their parts, whether they’d desired those roles or not.

now, however..

the curtains had come down on the stage, encores ringing on deaf ears as they were faced with a new route to their intertwined lives. the ones they should have had.

“and for something heartfelt?” sephiroth inquired softly, hovering over his lips. “how would you calculate that, exactly?”

cloud felt the hairs stand on his neck as though they hadn’t just been soaked from the downpour, swallowing thickly. “that’ll.. be an additional fee..” he wasn’t even sure himself what that entailed, but the words left his lips before he could think.

his client, needless to say, seemed to face no qualms with his answer. in fact, it encouraged him more. “will this do?”

and you're tossing out blame, drunk on this pain,

the question of whatever ‘this’ had identified as fell silent on the blond’s tongue at the soft pressure that brushed against his baby pink lips. he’d carelessly thrown around the idea of sephiroth wanting a kiss, thinking the odds were too low of it happening.. and yet, here they were.

once again, cloud was reminded of how real sephiroth felt as he slowly reciprocated the act, wrapping a gloved hand around one of his suspenders to pull him down closer. if only to feel more of that electricity that transferred through to him.

it was most certainly the last thing he’d expected to be doing today, atop the war zone they had made out of the company that once doomed them. the agenda he had in mind was an abandoned spot to think and mourn, which happened, yea.. even if it was cut short.

but it was for the better, perhaps. it was.

bitter endings to drown away in the rain while new beginnings blossom as a phoenix would from its ashes to the light of the sun.

crossing out the good years.

an exchange of delightful sounds left the two before they broke from one another, having remembered the existence of air. a tedious necessity, but it was well needed ( much to somebody’s dismay — who was eager to prolong the kiss ).

when cloud recovered his breath, enough to speak at least, he dropped his head against sephiroth’s chest, closing his eyes. “it will,” he answered in reference to the inquiry the other had made, smiling tiredly. “for now, at least.”

the latter shifted his hand to the small of his back, letting out a contemplative noise. “i see more convincing is needed.” he hypothesized, leaning in again for what could be a second round. “shall i kiss you again?”

and you're cursing my name, wishing i stayed,

securing his arms around sephiroth’s neck, cloud brought him down closer, leaning up to his ear this time before whispering, “only one way to find out, right?”

look at how my tears ricochet.

notes. oh goodness this might very well be 6k words and a hot mess but i needed this to gtfo of my drafts😭 originally it was purely planned as angst.. but i caved because these two deserve happiness🥺 anyway, i’m still working on the sfkr fic i planned, not sure when i’ll be dropping it.. but if anyone is interested in joining the taglist, let me know via ask / comments!

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