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Cloud does his training late at night. It’s just easier to do it then, away from the jeers and laughter of his classmates. It’s not that Cloud’s behind them really, or anything like that. Their tutors say that Cloud’s doing pretty well for someone of his stature, and that they won’t be surprised if he does make SOLDIER. But all kids need someone to pick on, and, like it or not, Cloud is shorter and prettier than the rest of them. When they aren’t laughing at him, they’re making crude jokes and asking Cloud to suck their cocks.
So Cloud does his training late at night. It’s less hassle. And the other advantage is that Cloud doesn’t have to share the showers with other cadets, which is really a major plus. Dick jokes get old after a while, and Cloud’s so fair skinned that his bruises don’t fade for weeks and well. He’s just not as well built as some of the others, and he doesn’t have any scars yet. Showering tends to consist of the other boys pushing Cloud around and making thrusting motions at him, which gets pretty annoying after like a minute.
There’s never anyone in the showers this late, so when Cloud finally traipses into them, he doesn’t bother to look around. He just strips efficiently and wanders over to the showers. He’s actually underneath the spray before Cloud notices that there is someone here.
Cloud is so surprised he drops his soap.
The other occupant glances up, pushing his hair out of his eyes.
“Cadet,” he says evenly, nodding slightly.
Cloud absolutely does not squeak, he just nods and tries to go back to washing. But he can’t. His eyes keep wandering. He can’t concentrate on the shower, or on his soap, and keeps dropping it.
Sephiroth is showering not six feet away from him.
Cloud keeps on seeing flashes of silver hair and pale skin – is Sephiroth really paler than Cloud? – and his brain keeps on unhelpfully reminding him about that other thing cadets tend to do in the showers. Namely, check out everyone’s dicks. Not, they would hastily say, because they’re that way. Just to compare. Cloud always had to fight not to roll his eyes at that. Not a single one of them wouldn’t like it if Cloud did blow them.
Cloud scowls to himself and scrubs a little harder. He shifts a little, reaching for the shampoo. It’s not where he expects it to be, so Cloud flails his hand, hoping it will hit the shampoo bottle. Instead, another hand catches his wrist and presses what must be a bottle into his hand. Cloud blinks the water from his eyes and looks up to meet curious green eyes.
“Thank you, sir,” Cloud says, flushing lightly.
“It was no trouble,” Sephiroth replies, shaking his head slightly. His eyes are so focused on Cloud it’s almost scary. He drops Cloud’s wrist, and shifts back under his own showerhead. Cloud squirts out a blob of shampoo and starts working it into his hair, blinking furiously and looking away from Sephiroth. He can feel Sephiroth’s eyes on him, and it’s- it’s not like with the other cadets watching him, there’s nothing malevolent in Sephiroth’s gaze, it’s just… intense. Goosebumps rise on Cloud’s skin that have nothing to do with the water.
Cloud resolutely doesn’t look at Sephiroth. It’s bad enough that he’ll probably remember this every single time he’s showering alone from now on. Seeing Sephiroth – naked, his brain helpfully reminds him, seeing Sephiroth naked – is just. It’s not something Cloud needs right now. Besides, Sephiroth probably has everyone drooling all over him. Adding Cloud to the mix would just be vaguely insulting. Probably. Especially when Zack finally drags Cloud over for a ‘proper meeting,’ whatever that entails. It would just be awkward and weird, and there are more than enough awkward and weird things at ShinRa for everyone to be going on with. Also puberty. Puberty is the height of awkward and weird. Sometimes Cloud wakes up in the middle of the night and half the dorm is having an awkward boner moment which, haha, Cloud really doesn’t want to listen to. It’s not even like he can say “Please stop jerking off,” because then he’d be the weird one.
Cloud kind of hates teenagers.
Suddenly the water goes cold. Cloud squeaks again – in front of Sephiroth seriously, Zack is going to find out and die, he’s going to be insufferable – and glares at the showerhead. Stupid cheap ShinRa plumbing. Cloud would kick the wall, but with his luck he’d just break his toes. And if the heat’s gone from one that means it’ll be gone from all of them. Cloud shoots a glance in Sephiroth’s direction and- okay, he’s still showering. In cold water. Maybe his dick is made of stronger stuff than Cloud’s? Although seriously, Cloud doubts that. He once bathed outside in the middle of winter in Nibelheim. Not by choice. Okay, so maybe Cloud hadn’t been forced into it. But he had been terribly, terribly sick and feverish and his mother hadn’t been at home and look, it had seemed like a good idea at the time and so what if he’d caught pneumonia? Cloud had survived, genitalia intact.
He just doesn’t like cold showers is all. Especially if they’d been hot before. Cloud hated to play the blame game, but Sephiroth had used all the hot. If he hadn’t been so attractive – and if he didn’t have such a fantastic ass, honest to god, it was a shame he always wore a long coat, people should be able to marvel at that ass – Cloud would have been thinking some very unsavoury thoughts. He was still thinking some unsavoury thoughts, but they were more along the lines of ‘I wonder if he’d let me lick him.’
Look, just because Cloud doesn’t feel the need to jack off every single night doesn’t mean he’s not a teenager. He’s just more subtle about his desires.
Sephiroth swings around – Cloud’s brain does the silent equivalent of shrieking “Suddenly, dick!” – and fixes his eyes back on Cloud for a beat.
“Cadet,” he nods. And then he sashays out of the showers, his long silver hair clinging to his back and-
Cloud quietly thunks his head against the shower wall.
~
A week and a half later, Sephiroth is once again in the showers. Cloud executes his master plan; Ignore Sephiroth At All Costs and showers as quickly and as efficiently as he possibly can. He still sees Sephiroth’s fantastic ass and gets a few choice shots of his really amazingly attractive chest and back.
Cloud tells himself he isn’t fleeing when he leaves without properly washing off his conditioner. Really. He’s not.
Cloud’s nether regions tell him differently.
~
The third time it happens, Sephiroth’s eyes crinkle and his lips quirk and how is Cloud meant to function when Sephiroth is smiling at him? He drops the soap like fifty times, falls over while trying to pick it up six times, and gets shampoo in his eyes when Sephiroth bends over in front of Cloud. There should be laws against Sephiroth. He should be illegal. He should be especially illegal naked in the shower with Cloud. He-he-
He’s smiling.
Cloud really wishes he could jump this ship. He really wishes he could just say no, I do not find my commanding officer the most attractive person on the planet. He wishes Sephiroth’s smiles didn’t look so dorky. That wasn’t a thing Sephiroth should be. But there you had it; Mr-Body-of-the-Gods came equipped with a really dorky, adorable smile.
What was Cloud’s life?
“Are you all right, Cadet?” Sephiroth asks, and suddenly there are hands on Cloud’s face tipping his head back so Sephiroth can see Cloud’s eyes and there’s this teeny frown just in the centre of Sephiroth’s forehead and Cloud cannot do this anymore.
“Shampoo in my eyes, sir,” Cloud says, aiming for perky and landing squarely in squeaky embarrassed teen instead.
“Ah,” Sephiroth says, and he smiles again like a massive dork and his thumbs brush under Cloud’s eyes like he’s trying to help. Cloud could just die.
“Thank you, sir,” Cloud replies. Squeaks. Whatever. Sephiroth is intimidating, even if he is a dork.
Sephiroth looks really pleased to have been able to help, so Cloud sticks out the rest of their shower until the water runs cold and he can finally walk without embarrassing himself.
~
“Wait wait wait, he touched you? Cloud, you know you can talk to-”
“If you even suggest that he was sexually harassing me, I will end you, Zack,” Cloud mumbles, stabbing his food.
“I was going to say talk to Lazard. He’s the one who bitches Sephiroth out about inappropriate conduct and all that stuff,” Zack replies. Around a mouthful of chips. Because Zack and table manners are not even remotely acquainted.
“It- Zack it wasn’t inappropriate. He was just getting shampoo out of my eyes,” Cloud hisses.
“Sure, touching your face while you’re both naked and wet. I wouldn’t call that inappropriate at all.” Zack leers.
Cloud harrumphs and folds his arms. “He wasn’t the one- Zaaaack. You are the worst friend.”
Zack cackles like a madman because that’s what he is. He claps Cloud in the shoulder. “I mean it though, Cloud. He takes you anywhere you don’t wanna go, you shriek like a banshee, okay?”
“You’re stupid, you know that right? You’re really dumb. Like Sephiroth could take me anywhere I didn’t want to go,” Cloud replies.
“He is like twice the size of you.”
“And so far all he’s done is smile like a dork and get shampoo out of my eye. I’m so scared.” Cloud bites into his unidentifiable ShinRa meat slab and hopes for the best.
“Well, I’ll leave you to your late night showers then, huh? And maybe speak to Sephiroth about jailbait,” Zack grins.
“Sixteen is legal here and in Nibelheim, Zack, so there is no jailbait around here, no siree,” Cloud tells him through a mouthful of gross.
Zack just smiles and swaggers away. Because he can. He can swagger. Cloud just looks like- well Cloud doesn’t know what he looks like, but he can’t swagger. Damn these SOLDIERs and their ways of walking that begin with the letter ‘s.’
~
The fourth time it happens, Sephiroth is washing blood and guts down the drain so Cloud thinks he can be forgiven for not rhapsodising about Sephiroth’s butt. Also for passing out and cracking his head on the tiles. Not actually because of the blood – you see one dead monster you’ve seen them all – but because it stinks like malboro breath and Cloud is just not ready for that.
He’s even less ready to wake up to find Sephiroth hovering worriedly over him. Naked. But. At least the smell is gone?
“How are you feeling?” Sephiroth asks, and he just. Cloud wants to hug him and kiss his nose and okay, this is getting mildly worrying. These are not the sort of feelings you get for a potential shower hook up.
“I’m fine,” Cloud says. And doesn’t squeak for once. Finally.
“Are you sure?” Sephiroth’s got the little frown again. “You fell quite hard. Perhaps I should get-”
“No!” Cloud insists. “Really, sir, I’m fine.”
Sephiroth keeps on frowning, like he doesn’t believe Cloud at all, but at least he moves back and helps Cloud up. He’s even nice enough to catch Cloud with his really hard and generally amazing chest when Cloud almost topples over.
“That doesn’t look fine to me, cadet,” Sephiroth says, wryly. He probably says something else after that, but Cloud isn’t listening because Sephiroth joked at him.
Cloud spends the next half an hour completely zoned out and then Zack turns up and starts cooing over him and saying crap about boo-boos and Cloud has to shove him to the floor to get him to shut up.
Sephiroth sighs. “When I called you to come and help, I really wasn’t expecting to end up with two concussed people.”
“Like that would give Zack a concussion,” Cloud mutters.
“I’m gonna give that one to Spike, Sephiroth.” He taps his skull. “I’m really thick headed.”
“Of course you are,” Sephiroth says, but there isn’t any heat in it.
It’s at times like this that Cloud has to wonder how this became his life.
~
As it turns out, materia doesn’t have any effect on possible concussions, and Sephiroth and Zack can’t agree on which of the medical staff they trust with Cloud’s fragile brain so he has to crash with Zack and be woken up every four hours to make sure he isn’t dying.
It turns out Zack is basically just like Cloud’s entire dorm. But worse.
“As your friend, I do this with great solemnity,” Cloud announces, before he hits Zack in the face with a pillow, thus starting possibly the greatest pillow fight in the history of ShinRa.
It gets kind of dangerous at one point, when Cloud nails Tseng in the face with a projectile pillow. Tseng utterly destroys the pillow in about five seconds flat, and almost gives Cloud a heart attack. At some point he’s pretty sure Sephiroth magically appears and wrestles Zack to the ground, but Cloud is pretty out of it by then (and almost definitely cackling like Zack). When he next wakes up, he’s no longer on Zack’s sofa and has this horrifying notion he might be in Sephiroth’s spare bed, but he’s thankfully not awake long enough for that to process.
Then he does wake up properly, and he’s made a cocoon out of all the blankets and pillows on the bed he’s in and it is, terrifyingly, Sephiroth’s spare bedroom.
Tseng is watching him like he’s a particularly fascinating beetle.
“I’m going to die,” Cloud says, mournfully.
“Unlikely,” Tseng replies, and then he saunters out.
~
The next time Cloud showers while Sephiroth is in the room is really awkward because Reno is there and keeps trying to touch Cloud’s butt. It’s distracting. Plus Sephiroth keeps making the frowny face, which is more distracting and also Reno won’t shut up.
“So is it true that you hit Tseng in the face with a pillow?” Reno asks. His hand goes for Cloud’s ass again.
“Yes,” Cloud says, slapping at Reno’s hand. “I’m a cadet. The general of SOLDIER is standing right there. Stop it.”
“But it’s so perky,” Reno says and that is it.
Reno probably won’t say things about assaulting a superior officer. Probably.
~
Sephiroth smiling is something Cloud is really used to by now. It still makes his heart do backflips in his chest. It also makes him want to hit Sephiroth and just get him to stop because they still barely know each other, even if they do spend inordinate lengths of time naked in each other’s presence.
“Cloud,” Sephiroth says and it is unfair the way he says it. Cloud wants to drop his pants and bend over on principle.
“Sir,” Cloud replies, nodding.
“I hear Reno is fully recovered,” Sephiroth comments.
“Good for him,” Cloud replies. This is a thing they do now. Talk to each other while they shower. It should be awkward. It should be weird. But it isn’t.
Sephiroth snorts. “I doubt you’ll have to suffer his attentions again.”
Cloud shrugs and starts to wash his hair. “I let people know if I’m not interested,” he says, carefully. It’s probably a risky move. It’s stupid in like, thirty different ways.
“I know,” Sephiroth says, warmly, and is it really possible to get emotionally attached to a guy you only know from showering with?
Cloud doesn’t leave until the water runs cold.
~
Possibly the greatest thing about this pseudo-friendship with Sephiroth is that hardly anyone knows. All his tutors treat him exactly the same, and so do his asshole classmates, and so do the cafeteria staff, and so do all the SOLDIERs – and then after putting up with their shit all day, Cloud can go and relax in the showers and maybe chat to their boss about the assholes and stuff. It’s great. Also great – when his classmates talk about Sephiroth and Cloud can sit there and smirk because he’s the only one who talks to Sephiroth anyway, and that’s not something they can take away from him.
Of course, then one of his stupid drill sergeants has to go and let Cloud’s leg be broken. And he won’t authorise materia for a cadet. And he makes Cloud shower with the other cadets, just with his cast wrapped in a bin bag. It’s probably going to be a fondly remembered moment for all time – when that short blond kid with the broken leg had to shower wearing a bin bag. Hilarious. Cloud hates everyone, especially asshole drill sergeants who don’t understand the delicate balance Cloud has achieved with meeting Sephiroth.
That’s why he struggles out of bed and limps his way to the showers, where he finds Sephiroth staring mournfully at the showerhead Cloud usually uses. It makes Cloud’s chest twist with weird almost-pity.
“Hey,” he says, softly. Sephiroth probably gives himself whiplash turning around – there’s a second of fragile joy on his face and then he notices Cloud’s cast. “Yeah, sorry I’m late.”
“Don’t be,” Sephiroth says, and then he’s in front of Cloud and kneeling down and holding Cloud up like he’s about to collapse which- you know, fair enough.
“Accident in training today,” Cloud says, by way of explanation.
Sephiroth scowls. “Why wasn’t it healed?”
“Waste of resources?” Cloud shrugs. He’s really not surprised when Sephiroth darts across the room and returns with a shining materia. Ten minutes later, Cloud no longer has a broken leg and his cast has been sliced off very carefully by a man with a seven foot long sword. Double entendre not intended. So sue Cloud for noticing. He’s a human being dammit, and a sixteen year old teenage one at that – dicks are kind of his thing.
“Better?” Sephiroth asks. Cloud really has to resist the urge to pat him on the head. He suspects Sephiroth might have more dignity than that.
“Yeah. But how am I going to explain this tomorrow?” Cloud asks, and he’s in the unique position of seeing Sephiroth rendered momentarily speechless. Maybe not for the reasons Cloud would want, but he’ll take what he can get.
“I’ll have Zack deal with it,” Sephiroth says, tightly.
Cloud grins at him and pats his arm. “It’s fine, sir,” he says.
“Sephiroth. Call me Sephiroth.” He looks really, really earnest about it too, so Cloud nods.
“Sephiroth.”
It feels like beginning.
~
Zack makes it sound like he booty called Cloud, which leaves him in much the same situation as Reno.
“Worth it,” he croaks from his position on the floor.
A rumour starts going around that the short blond kid will go for your balls if you piss him off, and suddenly everyone’s a lot nicer to Cloud.
~
The day Cloud finally gives into temptation is kind of gross.
It’s raining and miserable. Cloud spent half the night listening to his peers jacking off around him (they’ve instituted circle jerks because they- actually Cloud doesn’t know why, he just knows it’s weird and awkward and he doesn’t want to get up close and personal with his classmates’ junk) and then their logistics class is cancelled because someone is drunk somewhere probably (Cloud has a lot of opinions about the way ShinRa is run) so he gets to listen to some of his classmates describe the hookers they found under the plate last weekend.
At lunch they seem to be serving sautéed malboro tentacle and extract of Midgar Serpent, so Cloud goes hungry (Zack brings him some chips because SOLDIERs are allowed off ShinRa to get food but regular army and cadets aren’t) and then Drill Sergeant Stockland tries to get into a screaming match with Cloud over bribing his SOLDIER friends to heal his leg for him. Also he believes that Zack booty called Cloud. Because Drill Sergeant Stockland is thick as lard.
He assigns Cloud latrine duty for sassing him. Seriously, sassing him.
The showers can’t come fast enough. Cloud even gets there first, by some miracle, and he’s washed off most of the gunk from the day’s efforts, so when Sephiroth comes in, Cloud doesn’t actually look or smell like he cleaned the latrines anymore. Thank god.
Sephiroth smiles and walks closer, taking his usual place next to Cloud and setting the spray to his preferred temperature. For a few moments, there’s just the sound of the water.
Then Cloud reaches out and touches Sephiroth’s arm. He can feel Sephiroth tense up, and those striking green eyes of his stare at where Cloud is touching him, but... he doesn’t do anything. After a beat or two, Sephiroth’s breathing evens out, and he looks into Cloud’s eyes.
“Cloud?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.
“I’m. You know I said earlier, that I let people know if I’m not interested?” Cloud glances away from Sephiroth. “Well. Uh. I just wanted you to know that I’m.” He licks his lips. “I’m interested. Very interested. If you want.”
“Oh,” Sephiroth says, and then he smiles like the sun shines out of Cloud’s face and it’s soppy and ridiculous and there might be kissing and making out but then the hot cuts out and they’re standing in a cold puddle, sopping wet and laughing and it’s kind of perfect.
~
Their first time – or more accurately, Their First Time – is in a bed. It’s not a good first time, according to Zack, because both of them end up limping and the sheets are ruined in a very bad way, and it should be awkward, but they just keep laughing about it instead and Zack insists this means that Cloud and Sephiroth are both from outer space if they’re laughing over terrible sex.
They try again and it’s better, and then they try again after that and Cloud declares that they have cracked it at last, the miracle that is good sex and after that it kind of gets better until they decide to try out something new (bondage goes hilariously wrong, role-play is basically awful and the less said about syrup the better). The good thing is that they can laugh about the bad sex, because, in a move that will shock and horrify the Silver Elite, Sephiroth was just as much of a virgin as Cloud was, so they’re not exactly trying to impress each other with their sexual prowess.
Zack spends a lot of his time complaining that his two best friends are awful terrible people, but Cloud doesn’t really pay attention.
Then one day, he’s grimy from practice and Sephiroth’s been out doing monster routs and they kind of stumble into the shower together – Sephiroth’s shower, because Cloud filched Zack’s key card and so far no-one’s questioned the cadet wandering around the higher floors of the building (possibly because Reno stuck up flyers about ‘the cadet who will stomp on your balls if you piss him off’). Sephiroth’s shower doesn’t run out of hot water, so it’s win-win all around.
And for a while, it’s like old times. Just showering peacefully, albeit in slightly closer quarters than before, and Sephiroth has purple blood in his hair which should kill the mood, but then he encourages Cloud to wash his hair for him and the next thing Cloud knows, he’s licking Sephiroth’s spine and Sephiroth is purring (as if the eyes weren’t enough to convince everyone he was a cat) and yeah, Cloud is doing this. Shower sex is a thing that is going to happen.
“Cloud,” Sephiroth says, turning around – his cock bumps Cloud’s chin and Cloud makes this noise in his throat that he will deny making and wraps his lips around it because yeah blowjobs – and Sephiroth’s voice can make Cloud’s name sound like sex, which is awesome.
Cloud hums, which he hopes conveys the “I’m busy” sentiment. Sephiroth’s the one who makes the noise this time, and it’s a pretty epic noise too, which defies quantification, so Cloud can’t even describe it to himself and he’s not sure if that sucks or not. Sephiroth’s fingers tighten in Cloud’s hair (but he never pulls, and Cloud is always really careful with Sephiroth’s hair because there’s obviously an issue there) and his hips twitch like he wants to move, but he’s careful and manages to stop. Cloud sucks a little harder, and settles his hands on Sephiroth’s hips to really get down to it. Sephiroth isn’t really quiet, which Cloud had thought would be weird but actually he really likes it – Sephiroth makes these little noises high in his throat, and his breath stutters and much as Cloud likes all of this, part of him still doesn’t really like the whole come business, so he sits back on his heels and grins up at Sephiroth.
“Come here,” Sephiroth says, and his hands are gentle as he helps Cloud up. He palms Cloud’s dick for a moment, then turns him around and slinks up behind Cloud. Sephiroth’s cock slides against Cloud’s back (the height issue was kind of a pain to be honest), but he pulled back and nudged closer. “Close your thighs,” Sephiroth murmurs, right in Cloud’s ear and then, yep, that’s definitely Sephiroth’s dick squeezed between Cloud’s thighs.
“Oh,” Cloud says, and he squeezes his thighs tighter together, just to make Sephiroth groan. He twists a bit so they can kiss, but it’s really uncomfortable, so he stops after a while and besides, Sephiroth’s hand is on his dick and he really needs to concentrate on that (Sephiroth had been really bad at handjobs to begin with, but he’s a very quick study). “Yeah,” Cloud breaths, rocking back against Sephiroth, and he can tell it’s going to be quick because Sephiroth’s breaths are coming shorter and shorter and then Cloud is there and yeah.
“We’re doing that again,” Cloud mumbles later, when he’s managed to get his legs working again.
Sephiroth huffs out a laugh, but he obviously agrees. Shower sex is awesome.
~
Cloud wakes up in the morning, and the first thing he does is touch Sephiroth’s butt.
It’s worth it.