...I'm on a roll today. ;) about the summary-- I know 'everyone' would then make 'they' be 'he or she.' But I thought 'As far as Sephiroth was concerned, everyone else just didn't know what he or she was missing' sounded awful, so. There you go. :P

Disclaimer: MENOOWNFF7OMGNOWLEMMELONE!

Sephiroth was not an emotional man.

Having been raised in the labs, the Silver General had always been a bit… unique. He had been accused of being a cold, unfeeling bastard many a time, and he didn't deny it.

As he was such a cold, unfeeling bastard, Sephiroth knew he should have been calm. Today wasn't exceptional in any way—he still had paperwork to do, and his current behavior was wasting precious time.

But even so, he was excited. He couldn't help but be, and the glances he kept shooting the clock were embarrassing him, even though he knew there was no one around to see.

Cadet classes ended at five. If you added the three and a half minutes it took to get from classroom B-29 to the barracks and the four minutes, seventeen seconds it took to get from the barracks to the main elevator, then added the forty-five seconds it usually took for the elevator to arrive, and then added on the two point five minutes it took to get to his floor—no, better have another two minutes for employees entering and departing the elevator, Sephiroth decided—and it took about fifty seconds to get from the elevator to his office door. That meant his visitor was due to arrive at roughly 5:13 and 52 seconds… give or take.

It was 5:12.

As the clock hit 5:13, Sephiroth fiddled with his fingers, something Zack would have laughed at, had he witnessed it. The General waited a little less than a minute, and there were a couple timid knocks at his door, disrupting the silence. He didn't mind.

Sephiroth schooled the grin off his features and said in a stern voice, just in case his visitor was not who he wanted to see, "Come in."

The doorknob turned, and his favorite Cadet (not that he'd admit to having a 'favorite Cadet') walked into the room.

"Cloud," Sephiroth breathed, amazed as always. Every time he saw the boy his breath was stolen.

Cloud's face erupted into happiness for a moment, but then shyness took over and he ducked his head, giving a salute and closing the door behind him. Sephiroth said nothing for a moment, and Cloud shifted, nervously adjusting his pauldrons.

The softness in Sephiroth's gaze drew Cloud forward, but he approached in a way Sephiroth always hated: head down, arms around himself, afraid that the General would come to his senses and shun him like the rest of the known world.

Sephiroth chuckled and embraced him when he came close enough. Cloud's thin arms wrapped around his chest, squeezing tightly.

The boy didn't have to worry. Sephiroth thought he was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"…H-Hi Sephiroth," Cloud stuttered sweetly, shaking his bangs in front of his eyes and peering up at him.

"Hello," Sephiroth said warmly. It was always a chore to warm Cloud up to him, but once he succeeded, it was always worth it. Pink lips curved into a smile, and Cloud looked up at him fully.

There was silence in the General's office for a moment, and then Sephiroth yanked Cloud onto his lap and grabbed the horror-stricken face.

"How did this happen?" Sephiroth asked in a tight voice. His fingertips brushed the thick frames of the glasses resting on Cloud's nose.

In a tiny, slightly scared voice, Cloud stammered, "U-Um… I'm really, really sorry, Sephiroth, Sir, but I was late getting out of the swords training this morning, and they got me in the locker room… I'm really, really, really sorry, Sir…" Cloud's voice trailed off to a whisper at the end and he shrunk in on himself a little.

Sephiroth frowned. He knew about Cloud's bullying problem, of course. Some parts of Cloud seemed to inspire negative attention. He didn't understand it, but it seemed to be so.

Cloud's previous glasses had been hazardous—they had been held together with so much tape in the center, the bump lifted the glasses about a centimeter away from his face. It had been Cloud's birthday last month, and he had bought the boy a new pair with an updated prescription. There was a neat piece of clear tape on the bridge of the new glasses, and a bruise forming on the pale skin beneath it, as well as on the boy's cheek.

"Don't be angry," Cloud said, clearly distressed because Sephiroth's gift had been broken, even if it wasn't he who had broken them.

Sephiroth shushed him and kissed the spot of the breakage, sincerely sorry that the other Cadets felt the need to physically injure and mentally harm the one he most cared for. "I am not angry," he murmured, resting his forehead against Cloud's. Cloud squeezed his upper arms and he continued, "…at you." He gave a crooked half-smile at the alarm on the boy's face, and Cloud gave a nervous giggle.

Cloud tilted his face up, still looking a bit upset about the glasses, and Sephiroth kissed him slowly, trying to ease the boy. He had learned how to deal with Cloud in the past months, and for a man raised in the labs, he thought he was pretty damn good at it.

"I do not understand," he breathed huskily into the dazed boy's face, "what they have against you, nor why they hurt you so."

Cloud bit his bottom lip, giving Sephiroth a view of straight white teeth, covered in the colorful bands of his braces. The colors Cloud picked out always amused him—this time, he had picked out a bright, neon green and pink.

"You and Zack are the only ones who 'don't understand'," Cloud said with maybe a hint of sadness, adjusting his glasses. Back in Nibelheim, he had been the small, weak, illegitimate, nerdy Cloud Strife, with the broken glasses, braces and inhaler. The kid who couldn't play dodgeball in school for his life, and who wasn't even one of those smart nerds—his grades were laughable.

All that had carried over to Shin-Ra, but for some reason, Zack had befriended him almost from the start. General Sephiroth had awkwardly approached him a few months after arriving, seeing something special in him (or, rather, not seeing all the 'bad' things.)

Sephiroth smiled at him, and Cloud's pulse went haywire. He still didn't quite get why his hero, the famous, dashing, General Sephiroth wasn't a bully like everyone else was. But he supposed that he should just accept it and stop questioning. He smiled shyly and kissed the other man's cheek, giggling quietly when his glasses went askew.

Sephiroth stilled Cloud's face with his hands and tilted his head back, kissing him again before murmuring, "You are 'okay,' yes?"

"Uh-huh…"

Sephiroth turned his head when Cloud tried to lean up and draw him in again, and the boy's lips crashed against his jaw line instead. "Do you wish to be Cured?"

"I'm fine, really," Cloud stressed, poking himself in the sore cheek and not wincing, admirably. Sephiroth didn't press him further, resolving to Cure him when he was asleep and couldn't protest. He gave Cloud an agreeing smile to pacify him for the moment.

Sephiroth reached out and gently eased Cloud's glasses off his face. Cloud smiled shyly when they were placed on the desk, and the General took a minute to appreciate the view. Cloud was so ridiculously beautiful—how could anyone try to hurt such a sweet and pleasant boy, and with such a pretty face? How could no one want to be his friend? Cloud had such a big heart and cared deeply for him and Zack.

He was more than lucky to have him.

Cloud seemed to have recovered from his shyness and wrapped both arms around Sephiroth's neck when the General descended on him again. A gloved hand came to rest on the blond's hip, squeezing gently in a promise to attack all those who hurt and bullied him. There was nothing that riled up the usually-emotionless General like Cloud, and the people who hurt Cloud. Granted, the feelings brought up were drastically different—affection and loathing—but it was emotion all the same.

Cloud smiled against Sephiroth's mouth as Sephiroth peeled off his gloves and ran his bare hands against the warm skin of his stomach. Their tongues lazily rubbed together somewhere not quite in Cloud's mouth and not quite out in the air, and Cloud breathed in deeply through his nose when Sephiroth began fiddling with the buttons of his pants. It wasn't like they hadn't done this sort of stuff together before, but Cloud always got a little shy every time nonetheless.

There weren't any appointments on his schedule today. Sephiroth knew that he could indulge himself a little here and not risk anyone walking in; it was only about quarter 'till six, too, so they had time.

There was a grunt as Sephiroth's fingers delved into Cloud's pants, but Cloud wasn't the one who had made the noise.

It was a pained noise, and Cloud immediately tried to jerk back, but Sephiroth's hands shot out and forcibly held his head still. There was a brief pause as their passion ebbed for the moment, and Cloud realized what had happened.

Sephiroth's bottom lip was somehow stuck in his braces.

"Shid!" Cloud garbled, getting a wince from Sephiroth.

"Ode moobe," Sephiroth said, sounding ridiculous. Cloud pondered the statement and decided Sephiroth had tried to say 'don't move.'

"Sorry!" Cloud wailed despairingly, keeping his mouth, teeth and lips as still as possible as he said it.

"Idd okay," the General mumbled. "Clode your eyed."

Cloud put a hand on the General's bicep, eyes pleading 'No!'

"Uh-uh!" he protested. Sephiroth would hurt himself!

Sephiroth's eyes answered with a look that said, 'well, we have to get out of this mess somehow.'

"Ugh." Cloud squeezed Sephiroth's arms for good luck and clenched his eyes shut. Sephiroth moved, there was a ripping noise, and Sephiroth let out a swift breath.

Cloud peeked his eyes open. Gaia, he could taste Sephiroth's blood in his mouth—and as he predicted, the older man's bottom lip sported a nice gash, blood dripping halfway down his chin. Cloud clapped a hand over his mouth—he had caused the General to be injured—and gave Sephiroth a completely horrified look.

Sephiroth procured a tissue from somewhere and daintily held it to his lip, dabbing it to clean his face. Green eyes met blue ones, and there was silence.

Cloud giggled quietly, and Sephiroth snorted. Both lost it.

When the slightly hysterical laughter had died down, Cloud apologetically kissed Sephiroth's lip. The silver-haired man tongued the cut a few times curiously, then smiled at him. "…When do you get your braces removed, again?"

"Next month!" Cloud said happily. He couldn't see much other than colorful fuzzy blurs, but he thought Sephiroth's eyes looked thoughtful.

"I think Zack will want to arrange a party for you," he said gravely. "But at least you will be able to chew the sugary heart-attacks he gives you."

Cloud giggled again. "True."

Sephiroth smiled and laced their fingers together. Even if the whole world decided to hate Cloud for reasons he had yet to grasp, he and Zack would still be there, possibly blissfully ignorant. He didn't really care. He was usually not an emotional man, but Cloud was one of the only ones who could draw him out, make him feel human. He was truly fortunate to have Cloud at his side.

As far as Sephiroth was concerned, everyone else just didn't know what they were missing.