raisedbymoogles

Title: Text
Fandom: Final Fantasy 7, pre-game
Rating: G
Summary: Cloud knows how to read between the lines.

"My mother's name is Jenova. The Jenova Project... can this just be a coincidence?"

Sephiroth lay the journal down slowly; Zack picked it up. "Knowing Hojo? Doubt it," he said, thumbing through its musty pages.

Sephiroth muttered agreement and picked up the next journal. The books in front of him were carefully arranged in neat stacks by subject and date, small strips of paper serving as bookmarks. Zack's half of the table, by contrast, was a giant blob of dog-eared pages and scribbled margins and cracked spines with no organization that Sephiroth could discern. Though his inner book lover was aghast at Zack's treatment of the journals, Sephiroth let him do as he liked. As soon as they were done, they planned to set the whole collection of them on fire.

"The placard above the door in the reactor," Sephiroth murmured, staring down at the open page without seeing it. "It had my mother's name too."

"Like a big, flashing neon sign," Zack agreed, and Sephiroth could see the hairs prickling on his arms. "I'll tell you what, Seph, I know bait when I smell it, and that was a big fat piece of cheese in a mousetrap. And I'll bet my sword I know who set it, too."

"But what does he want from me?" Sephiroth cried in frustration and anguish, and thumped his head down on the table. "Professor Gast... why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you die?"

Zack looked on, worried but paralyzed by indecision; behind him, perched on the windowsill, Cloud looked up from Zack's PHS. Technically the General and Zack were breaking regulations just letting him be in the room with Hojo's journals, so he'd elected to keep himself occupied reading Zack's texts to his girlfriend and her texts to him. Currently on the screen was her most recent one.

Whatever you do, it read, don't let Seph be alone. Hugs, Aeris.

Cloud was done boggling over her calling the General "Seph," but he was beginning to think that Aeris had an uncanny way of knowing things when it came to the people she cared for. And Cloud could take a hint. He pocketed Zack's PHS and walked over to where Sephiroth was just dragging himself upright again.

"Sir - permission to touch?" he asked shyly. Surprise, as much as anything else, made Sephiroth nod. Cloud took a deep breath, put on a smile, and slung his arms gently over the General's shoulder.

"You looked like you needed a hug break, sir," he explained into Sephiroth's silky hair.

He didn't pull away, even feeling the tension and confusion in Sephiroth's shoulders. "Strife," he began, then, "Cloud, this isn't-" He stopped himself sharply mid-sentence and took a deep breath of his own. "Hell with it," Sephiroth muttered, sounding grumpy and petulant and more human than Cloud had ever heard him before, "I'm off duty." He put his arms decorously around Cloud's waist.

Cloud imagined he could hear the soft thunk of Zack's jaw dropping onto the table. He smiled into Sephiroth's hair and held the older man closer. The man even smelled like that creepy basement, musty paper not quite masking old blood and sharp metal, and Cloud didn't even have enhanced senses. He wondered what a Soldier would smell - what Zack would smell, if he were to bury his nose against Sephiroth's scalp.

Apparently Zack had the same thought, or he just didn't want to be left out if there were hugs going on. Strong arms wrapped around them both, incidentally (or perhaps deliberately) pressing Cloud and Sephiroth closer together. "You've got the best ideas," Zack purred, propping his chin on Sephiroth's crown. "Doesn't he, Seph?" Cloud flushed and pinched his friend's ear.

"It wasn't my idea," Cloud muttered, nudging Zack with his hip. "It was your girlfriend's." Don't let Seph be alone. Hugs. Aeris. Aeris knew what she was talking about. "You're introducing us both to her, by the way," he stated. "As soon as we get back."

Zack chuckled, a vibration that meshed perfectly with Seph's sleepy-warm purr. "Yes sir, Private Chocobo sir." He ducked before Cloud could pinch his ear again.