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[fic] Sephiroth/Cloud: The Tension and the Spark
Oh for the love of God, not ANOTHER story.
Plot bunnies: *munch much munch*
The Tension and the Spark
[trailer/test]
Summary: AU. He could handle being in a foreign country with Professor Havon because he did not have a crush on Professor Havon. It was purely because everyone looked up to him. He did not like Professor Havon--Sephiroth, Zack called him--because he did not have a crush. Clouds did not get crushes on human beings, he did not have hormones! ...Dammit.
Pairing: Eventual Cloud/Sephiroth
The Tension and the Spark
[trailer/test]
Summary: AU. He did not just develop a crush on Professor Havon. It was purely because everyone looked up to him. He did not like Professor Havon--Sephiroth, Zack called him--because he did not have a crush. Clouds did not get crushes on human beings, he did not have hormones! ...Dammit.
Pairing: Eventual Cloud/Sephiroth
A/N: Havon - Jenovah --> havon. Genesis Gackt ---> Genesis. I'm so original.
A/N2: Includes a few Kingdom Hearts characters in passing; Sora, Riku, Kairi. Just names, nothing too important/you don't need to know them.
-------------------------------
Plot bunnies: *munch much munch*
The Tension and the Spark
[trailer/test]
Summary: AU. He could handle being in a foreign country with Professor Havon because he did not have a crush on Professor Havon. It was purely because everyone looked up to him. He did not like Professor Havon--Sephiroth, Zack called him--because he did not have a crush. Clouds did not get crushes on human beings, he did not have hormones! ...Dammit.
Pairing: Eventual Cloud/Sephiroth
The Tension and the Spark
[trailer/test]
Summary: AU. He did not just develop a crush on Professor Havon. It was purely because everyone looked up to him. He did not like Professor Havon--Sephiroth, Zack called him--because he did not have a crush. Clouds did not get crushes on human beings, he did not have hormones! ...Dammit.
Pairing: Eventual Cloud/Sephiroth
A/N: Havon - Jenovah --> havon. Genesis Gackt ---> Genesis. I'm so original.
A/N2: Includes a few Kingdom Hearts characters in passing; Sora, Riku, Kairi. Just names, nothing too important/you don't need to know them.
-------------------------------
[It was, to say it beautifully, hilarious. Cloud contemplating pick up lines? I basically had my camera phone on 24/7 just in case.
(Zack)]
He cleared his throat and corrected him before going back to hide behind the menu. "Cloud."
He smiled and pronounced it like it was the first time. "Cloud."
"Yes?" Stupid pulse skipping…
"Oh, it just seemed like you were somewhere else. If you didn't want to do this tonight…"
"No.” He set the list of entrees aside. He glared at his water. “My apologies. I've been a little distracted lately."
"I noticed."
Oh shit. If you stammer I will kill you. "You have?"
Sephiroth nodded to the waiter offering more wine. "Mm-hm. It's hard not to. You're usually very focused; I had wondered about it but didn't feel…"
Cloud's eyes snapped to his. "Yes?"
Sephiroth's fingers threaded together and came to rest on the table. "Well, I didn't feel like it was something I could approach you about."
"You can ask me anything. My apologies again for making you uncomfortable, sir."
"I told you, no 'sirs', you made me feel I'm back in the ROTC." He shook his head. “And that’s not what I meant. You don’t make me feel uncomfortable at all.”
-----
To be continued/expanded/otherwise made into a more intelligent insult to intelligence at a later date...
-------------------------------
*Cloud's lines in the airport are that horrible BECAUSE I basically copy and pasted "How Could This Happen to Me" into it. It's the ultimate emo song. *hates it*
I'm testing one of a few ideas I've got. One is for Office!AU, a Labyrinth one (:3), a behemoth epic!fic lurking in my Text Edit, and a Speed-Dating one. Just testing some of the responses I get to them. For this I'm not going for angsty, the story went (or will go) slightly cracky since Cloud doesn't really understand what really went on anyway. And I just gave Genesis/Sephiroth a last name because I had to. It bugs me! *cries*
Only in the planning stages, more than this, but not enough to know where I'm going, other that on this trip Cloud will save the president of a country by complete accident. (Gimme an 'R'--R!) *thud* Not sure to have Cloud be in grad school and Sephiroth one of the profs, or on the TA teaching staff and Sephiroth is professor or head of a near-but-not-connected department. *shrug* Suggestions would be great!
(Zack)]
He did not just realize he'd been developing a crush on Professor Havon. No. No no no no no. It was too random, completely out of character and there was the Rational Rule of Cloud's universe that said this was Not Right.
So, like most problems he tried shoving it out.
Like most problems this didn't work out so well: his supposed "unconscious" was currently spending an unhealthy amount of time envisioning after-class rough desk sex.
Hello, a nameless voice giggled. That was another scary thought. He didn't giggle. Ever. He might have spent his younger years in an intimate relationship with high school lockers, but he never, ever, giggled.
"Dropping the class? But why! Cloud, I was so excited to finally have one with you this semester! And you've been doing fine in it, why not just wait for the fourth week to make sure this isn't what you--"
"No." He was about to say something else when there was a point over his shoulder he froze at, and stiffened.
She looked back at the building behind her, but didn't see anyone like Zack or even Tifa. "Cloud?"
"I'm headed back to the apartment," he said stiffly. "I'll see you later."
She stomped her foot. "Will you stop being so mean?"
He blinked and then lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry." He said softly.
She forgave him, sighing. "Cloud, what's wrong? You haven't been to this class all week and avoid the building like the plague. You won't even do lab work!"
"I just..." He looked away from her, behind him across the campus' Oval. "I don't want to be there. Okay, Aerith?"
-----
He would sign up for the abroad program. Get credit that way. And then he'd be thousands of miles away from men who were too pretty to be legal. Or illegal, if his sulking hormones were to be consulted. Which they were not, because he hated them for making his life so damned complicated. Even if it meant suffering while being with the pompous idiot Genesis plagiarizing from Loveless like he wrote it personally, it was better than--
Cloud un-clicked his belt to look up over the rows at the commotion up front. What was going on? Where was Professor Gackt? He didn't meet them in the terminal or even security, but Cloud assumed the TA calling out something prior to the first boarding call had been about Gackt just being delayed so he hadn't bother to listen, and only bothered herding his apparently mentally challenged honors students to the terminal...why was the door opening again? Was the flight getting cancelled? Was the trip suddenly canceled? He finally was able to angle over a younger-looking kid's spiky brown head when he heard at the front of the class's section of the plane. He turned down his iPod--
"Due to Professor Gackt suffering from a personal crisis, I was called in."
Cloud's mind went blank. His eyes probably popped out of their sockets and if anyone were paying attention to him they might have keeled over that he was proving he had a second facial expression.
It's not possible.
His trip.
Encountered error, his brain went. Reboot.
Reboot. Project a rational binary.
"Is there anything anyone would like to add before we take off?" Sephiroth asked around.
0010001FUUUUUCK!!111one, shot out Cloud's brain.
-----
"How could this happen to me? There's nowhere to run, I just wanna screeeeam out loooud, how could this happen to--"
"That's not funny." Cloud snapped loudly into the phone, gripping his bangs tightly. Why did he torture himself by calling Zack as soon he got off the plane?
The song cut off and there was some fumbling for a moment and then, "Of course it's funny. It's hilarious!"
"Did you know about this?"
"Of course not." Zack sounded completely innocent. Cloud wanted to strangle him. "I am but a lowly-yet-strapping boy-genius in the field. I could not possibly have planned that you would fly four thousand miles and cross five time zones and ended up alone, in a country who's language you can't speak, with Sephiroth. For a field neither of you are professionally tied in. But I am completely honored you bestow such God-like capabilities upon me."
"We're not alone, there's about sixty people in the group," Cloud paused at the sheer implausibility of his situation in Zack's words and narrowed his eyes. "...You did do this didn't you? Or was it Aerith? What did you--text Genesis and said his mom died or something?"
"Paranoid much? You don't make jokes about people's mothers! If anything I'd say I was going to burn his back up copies of...Loveless," Zack yawned on his end, and Cloud remembered it was about seven hours earlier back home, and felt a bit guilty. "Just face it Bud,' you should just start going to Church while you're there 'cause God is pissed at you for somethin'."
Nevermind. "I hate everything."
"Aw cheer up, Sunshine. Have you talked to him yet? I don't see what the big deal is; I like the guy 'cause he's saved my sorry ass when even Angeal was refusing to bail me out, but he has maybe less personality than you. Hell, you two might accidentally make a whole person!"
Cloud ignored that. "I can't. There's way smarter kids on this thing. And even when I do, it's like..." He slumped to the ground, thinking hard. "I open my eyes, I try to see but I'm blinded by the light of him, you know? When he talks I feel stupid, like I can't remember how, and I can't remember why, and I--"
"--can't STAAAND the PAAAAIN," Zack blasted out helpfully.
Cloud gripped the corner, snarling as he got to his feet: "Shut up! I do not sound like that!" He ignored the concerned looks he was getting from passerby, his 'pod' group looking bored waiting for their luggage to maybe, hopefully, churn out. This was Europe.
"You're right. Maybe more hard core jing a ling with Linkin Park? THESE WOUNDS THEY WILL NOT HEAAALLLL--"
"ZACK IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP--"
"Is that Cloud?" a happy voice cut through on Zack's end.
Cloud smacked his head on the side of the wall a few times.
"Cloud?" the feminine voice came on his cell phone while Zack was apparently struggling to breathe though his laughter somewhere in the background. "Cloud are you all right over there?"
Crap. He couldn't yell at Aerith. It wasn't her fault, and even if she had she'd only done it for him. Dammit. He could almost hear Zack smirking in the background. He swallowed the colorful sentence he'd learned from Barret and decided to save it for later. "I'm fine," he exhaled tightly after a minute.
"Are you sure? Your voice sounds strained--are you taking enough vitamins I threw in your bag?"
"Yes."
"I don't want you getting sick over there, you're sulky enough as it is!"
Oh for the love of... "I'm not sick."
"Be sure to take the vitamins. I'm never willing to trust how they prepare food abroad. Cloud, promise me you'll be careful around dairy products okay? Because when Zack went to Bulgaria last year he had a really awful reaction to some yogurt--"
"I'm fine. Take care of yourself, okay?"
"Hmph, you're so stubborn! And it's not me you have to worry about, you know," She clucked her tongue. "But all right, you can hog Zack some more...be safe!"
"I'll e-mail you a tutorial on picking out condoms if you want." Zack oozed through the phone, his voice smug. "Anything else Buddy?"
"Yes," Cloud said. "I just realized you have an Oedipus Complex." He hung up triumphantly at the sound of Zack sputtering on the other end.
-----
"Strife?"
He glanced up and met his eyes. Eyes were safe. They were a very unique shade of blue-green: endless, deep, and…
Dammit.
Focus. Think history. Think...of anything but eyes apparently. Think that this is only two colleagues getting dinner. You can do it.
So, like most problems he tried shoving it out.
Like most problems this didn't work out so well: his supposed "unconscious" was currently spending an unhealthy amount of time envisioning after-class rough desk sex.
Hello, a nameless voice giggled. That was another scary thought. He didn't giggle. Ever. He might have spent his younger years in an intimate relationship with high school lockers, but he never, ever, giggled.
My name is H. Ormone! You like, never use me, or even abuse me! So, I'm going with this whether you like it or not, because I'm fed up with you.
He tried to rationalize it: it was purely because everyone looked up to him. That was all.
Because he did not have a crush. Clouds did not get crushes on human beings, he was a completely self-diagnosed, self- and Aerith/Zack- assured asexual. He did not have hormones!
"Strife? Do you need me to repeat the question?"
...
Cloud swore loudly in his head well enough to do Cid proud.
Good luck with that, H. Ormone taunted, while he struggled a coherent reply to the waiting face occupying his insane thoughts.
-----
[I didn't get it at first because, until I met Zack's random and sometimes weird knowledge of Cloud, I was all, 'Boys can do that?' But then after a few weeks it became so obvious. I felt for him, Cloud, and wanted it to work out. I wanted him to be... happy for once. Instead of grumpy.
(Aerith)]
(Aerith)]
"Dropping the class? But why! Cloud, I was so excited to finally have one with you this semester! And you've been doing fine in it, why not just wait for the fourth week to make sure this isn't what you--"
"No." He was about to say something else when there was a point over his shoulder he froze at, and stiffened.
She looked back at the building behind her, but didn't see anyone like Zack or even Tifa. "Cloud?"
"I'm headed back to the apartment," he said stiffly. "I'll see you later."
She stomped her foot. "Will you stop being so mean?"
He blinked and then lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry." He said softly.
She forgave him, sighing. "Cloud, what's wrong? You haven't been to this class all week and avoid the building like the plague. You won't even do lab work!"
"I just..." He looked away from her, behind him across the campus' Oval. "I don't want to be there. Okay, Aerith?"
-----
[They're both so scary it was like Destiny. With a big 'D.' Not 'itty bitty, you move one piece of paper from one end of the room to the other and back again and then no one cares if you die' d. Like, D IS FOR DESTINY. Shut up Riku I am too making sense! Kairi, tell him to back off!
(Sora)]
(Sora)]
He would sign up for the abroad program. Get credit that way. And then he'd be thousands of miles away from men who were too pretty to be legal. Or illegal, if his sulking hormones were to be consulted. Which they were not, because he hated them for making his life so damned complicated. Even if it meant suffering while being with the pompous idiot Genesis plagiarizing from Loveless like he wrote it personally, it was better than--
Cloud un-clicked his belt to look up over the rows at the commotion up front. What was going on? Where was Professor Gackt? He didn't meet them in the terminal or even security, but Cloud assumed the TA calling out something prior to the first boarding call had been about Gackt just being delayed so he hadn't bother to listen, and only bothered herding his apparently mentally challenged honors students to the terminal...why was the door opening again? Was the flight getting cancelled? Was the trip suddenly canceled? He finally was able to angle over a younger-looking kid's spiky brown head when he heard at the front of the class's section of the plane. He turned down his iPod--
"Due to Professor Gackt suffering from a personal crisis, I was called in."
Cloud's mind went blank. His eyes probably popped out of their sockets and if anyone were paying attention to him they might have keeled over that he was proving he had a second facial expression.
It's not possible.
His trip.
Encountered error, his brain went. Reboot.
Reboot. Project a rational binary.
"Is there anything anyone would like to add before we take off?" Sephiroth asked around.
0010001FUUUUUCK!!111one, shot out Cloud's brain.
-----
[I was completely supportive.
(Zack)]
(Zack)]
"How could this happen to me? There's nowhere to run, I just wanna screeeeam out loooud, how could this happen to--"
"That's not funny." Cloud snapped loudly into the phone, gripping his bangs tightly. Why did he torture himself by calling Zack as soon he got off the plane?
The song cut off and there was some fumbling for a moment and then, "Of course it's funny. It's hilarious!"
"Did you know about this?"
"Of course not." Zack sounded completely innocent. Cloud wanted to strangle him. "I am but a lowly-yet-strapping boy-genius in the field. I could not possibly have planned that you would fly four thousand miles and cross five time zones and ended up alone, in a country who's language you can't speak, with Sephiroth. For a field neither of you are professionally tied in. But I am completely honored you bestow such God-like capabilities upon me."
"We're not alone, there's about sixty people in the group," Cloud paused at the sheer implausibility of his situation in Zack's words and narrowed his eyes. "...You did do this didn't you? Or was it Aerith? What did you--text Genesis and said his mom died or something?"
"Paranoid much? You don't make jokes about people's mothers! If anything I'd say I was going to burn his back up copies of...Loveless," Zack yawned on his end, and Cloud remembered it was about seven hours earlier back home, and felt a bit guilty. "Just face it Bud,' you should just start going to Church while you're there 'cause God is pissed at you for somethin'."
Nevermind. "I hate everything."
"Aw cheer up, Sunshine. Have you talked to him yet? I don't see what the big deal is; I like the guy 'cause he's saved my sorry ass when even Angeal was refusing to bail me out, but he has maybe less personality than you. Hell, you two might accidentally make a whole person!"
Cloud ignored that. "I can't. There's way smarter kids on this thing. And even when I do, it's like..." He slumped to the ground, thinking hard. "I open my eyes, I try to see but I'm blinded by the light of him, you know? When he talks I feel stupid, like I can't remember how, and I can't remember why, and I--"
"--can't STAAAND the PAAAAIN," Zack blasted out helpfully.
Cloud gripped the corner, snarling as he got to his feet: "Shut up! I do not sound like that!" He ignored the concerned looks he was getting from passerby, his 'pod' group looking bored waiting for their luggage to maybe, hopefully, churn out. This was Europe.
"You're right. Maybe more hard core jing a ling with Linkin Park? THESE WOUNDS THEY WILL NOT HEAAALLLL--"
"ZACK IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP--"
"Is that Cloud?" a happy voice cut through on Zack's end.
Cloud smacked his head on the side of the wall a few times.
"Cloud?" the feminine voice came on his cell phone while Zack was apparently struggling to breathe though his laughter somewhere in the background. "Cloud are you all right over there?"
Crap. He couldn't yell at Aerith. It wasn't her fault, and even if she had she'd only done it for him. Dammit. He could almost hear Zack smirking in the background. He swallowed the colorful sentence he'd learned from Barret and decided to save it for later. "I'm fine," he exhaled tightly after a minute.
"Are you sure? Your voice sounds strained--are you taking enough vitamins I threw in your bag?"
"Yes."
"I don't want you getting sick over there, you're sulky enough as it is!"
Oh for the love of... "I'm not sick."
"Be sure to take the vitamins. I'm never willing to trust how they prepare food abroad. Cloud, promise me you'll be careful around dairy products okay? Because when Zack went to Bulgaria last year he had a really awful reaction to some yogurt--"
"I'm fine. Take care of yourself, okay?"
"Hmph, you're so stubborn! And it's not me you have to worry about, you know," She clucked her tongue. "But all right, you can hog Zack some more...be safe!"
"I'll e-mail you a tutorial on picking out condoms if you want." Zack oozed through the phone, his voice smug. "Anything else Buddy?"
"Yes," Cloud said. "I just realized you have an Oedipus Complex." He hung up triumphantly at the sound of Zack sputtering on the other end.
-----
[We believed in Cloud. I mean, after a while, when the crush faded--"
"And something else got kicked up."
(Aerith and Zack)]
"And something else got kicked up."
(Aerith and Zack)]
"Strife?"
He glanced up and met his eyes. Eyes were safe. They were a very unique shade of blue-green: endless, deep, and…
Dammit.
Focus. Think history. Think...of anything but eyes apparently. Think that this is only two colleagues getting dinner. You can do it.
He cleared his throat and corrected him before going back to hide behind the menu. "Cloud."
He smiled and pronounced it like it was the first time. "Cloud."
"Yes?" Stupid pulse skipping…
"Oh, it just seemed like you were somewhere else. If you didn't want to do this tonight…"
"No.” He set the list of entrees aside. He glared at his water. “My apologies. I've been a little distracted lately."
"I noticed."
Oh shit. If you stammer I will kill you. "You have?"
Sephiroth nodded to the waiter offering more wine. "Mm-hm. It's hard not to. You're usually very focused; I had wondered about it but didn't feel…"
Cloud's eyes snapped to his. "Yes?"
Sephiroth's fingers threaded together and came to rest on the table. "Well, I didn't feel like it was something I could approach you about."
"You can ask me anything. My apologies again for making you uncomfortable, sir."
"I told you, no 'sirs', you made me feel I'm back in the ROTC." He shook his head. “And that’s not what I meant. You don’t make me feel uncomfortable at all.”
-----
[And how do you possibly screw up love anyway? Oh wait, this is CLOUD?
Oh Jesus...screw 'Destiny'--D is for Doomed. Or at least H, for HAHAHAHHAHAHA--Ha...oh, hey Ciddie! What's this? Well, I, um...
(Yuffie)]
Oh Jesus...screw 'Destiny'--D is for Doomed. Or at least H, for HAHAHAHHAHAHA--Ha...oh, hey Ciddie! What's this? Well, I, um...
(Yuffie)]
[Dammit Yuffie, stop snatching my fucking #$@#$@# wallet you @$!@#$# nut job! Vincent! Jump her @#$!@$ bony ass at the %)$#)* door! You can take her! Strife, get fucking laid already or shove it @!$@#$!@# yourself already -- it's not that hard!
(Obvious)]
(Obvious)]
To be continued/expanded/otherwise made into a more intelligent insult to intelligence at a later date...
-------------------------------
*Cloud's lines in the airport are that horrible BECAUSE I basically copy and pasted "How Could This Happen to Me" into it. It's the ultimate emo song. *hates it*
I'm testing one of a few ideas I've got. One is for Office!AU, a Labyrinth one (:3), a behemoth epic!fic lurking in my Text Edit, and a Speed-Dating one. Just testing some of the responses I get to them. For this I'm not going for angsty, the story went (or will go) slightly cracky since Cloud doesn't really understand what really went on anyway. And I just gave Genesis/Sephiroth a last name because I had to. It bugs me! *cries*
Only in the planning stages, more than this, but not enough to know where I'm going, other that on this trip Cloud will save the president of a country by complete accident. (Gimme an 'R'--R!) *thud* Not sure to have Cloud be in grad school and Sephiroth one of the profs, or on the TA teaching staff and Sephiroth is professor or head of a near-but-not-connected department. *shrug* Suggestions would be great!