10/07/2015: Some corrections and fiddling. (There'll still be some mistakes as English is not my first language. Feel free to point them out.)

The castle lay dark and foreboding over the ghostly town. The silence was unnerving as they made their way through the empty streets.

Cloud remembered a time when the city had been bursting with life. Wealthy merchants, commoners and lowly thieves had all walked these very same streets, talking, haggling and sometimes fighting; fights that the castle guards had always been quick to end. Cloud had been one of those, once upon a time. A proud young guard, aiming for that feat of arms that would get him noticed, that would earn him the knighthood he wanted so much.

There was nothing left of it.

No knights, no guards, and certainly no commoners. They had all been gone for a long time, driven away by sheer terror… or killed by the creatures that now hunted in the city's shadows. As Cloud and his companions pushed through the packs of monsters jumping at them from rooftops and dark alleys alike, snarling and howling, all the warrior could do was absorb himself in the fights so that the past would not swallow him whole.

Most in their group were not as affected as he was by the eerie atmosphere of the dead city. Yuffie was happy enough whooping and throwing gibes and insults at the monsters, all the while jumping from walls and barrels alike, quick and agile as a cat. Cid's foul mouth and Cait Sith's high-pitched voice were not far behind, and Barret gave shouts of joy every time one of the creatures fell before the magical contraption strapped in place of his missing arm.

Nanaki, though, was affected. He fought quietly and there was a heavy weight on his shoulders. Cloud wondered if the wise feline could feel the hundred of souls that had found their doom here, the void left by so many lost lives, the wickedness slipping from the castle and shrouding the land.

As always, it was difficult to tell how Vincent felt. He had known this city, though. He knew what had been lost. He had his own burden to bear, but it was one he wouldn't share with anyone, even now.

As for Tifa, she didn't care about the city. Cloud could see it; she was only worried about him, perpetually glancing at him from the corner of her eyes, as if she feared he would lose himself here.

She didn't have to fret. He had a task to accomplish; he wouldn't yield to his ghosts before it was done. After that, well…

By the time they reached the castle gates, they were all exhausted. They had known what to expect, though, and had come prepared. They didn't have the luxury to rest in the middle of enemy territory, so they shared all the magic potions they had managed to acquire in the course of their journey and saved for this very day.

Today was the end. They had gathered together and come this far, travelled through a desperate kingdom and battled countless enemies, just to stand before these gates. Today, they would rid the kingdom of its blight or die trying.

They took a moment to breathe, then exchanged stern nods.

"All right, everyone," Cloud said. "Let's mosey."

The castle was empty of even monsters. Evidently, the one who dwelt here did not appreciate company.

Cloud led them to the throne room, trying not to think of a time when these corridors had not been dark and sinister, when the colours of the rich carpets and tapestries had not yet been dulled by dust and lack of care. He knew where to go. The man had a taste for the spectacular, and no reason to fear them.

And indeed, as they boldly stepped through the tall doors and spread at the entrance of the room, Sephiroth merely sat on the throne, looking as regal as the prince he once was. He gazed at them with an indulgent smile, unsurprised by their arrival.

He was as always dressed in black leather, with those smart high boots and that long coat that streamed from the seat. His arms lay on the armrests, his back was straight against the throne, not from tension but from a royal upbringing. One leg crossed over the other, silver hair tumbling over one shoulder to pool by his side, he was the very picture of calm and patience and made them look like nothing but foolish children.

Cloud made a conscious effort to keep breathing through the pain in his throat.

"So," said a voice like dark velvet. "Here finally come our brave heroes."

"We have come to end this, Sephiroth," Cloud said.

His voice didn't shake; he had had a long time to prepare for this moment.

"Have you, really? Come now, Cloud. Won't you stop this foolishness?"

He couldn't help the flinch that escaped him. This man, saying his name... Tifa stepped up to his side.

"Don't think you can talk your way out of this, monster!" she shouted, furious. "You killed our families, killed everyone in our village!"

"Your place is by my side, Cloud," Sephiroth went on with no sign he had even heard her. "You swore your life to me. Are you really going to break that oath?"

It was true. He had sworn. Once upon a time, he had left his backwater birth town and travelled across half the country to the big city, all to enrol in the castle guards, for the sake of a prince whom everyone in the kingdom had loved and adored. Cloud had been no different. He had been in awe of the handsome prince, so talented and charming and brave, best warrior in the land, best strategist in the land, best diplomat in the land, best prince there ever could have been.

He had trained under the prince's windows, patrolled the streets wearing his arms, battled drunk citizens and assassins alike for his sake. He had wanted to be a knight, to fight by his side and receive orders from his very lips.

But before he had made it, the dream had been cut short. All the knights had died that night, the night when monsters had begun to roam the land and the perfect prince had become the first of them, at once monster and man, the darkest of them all. Cloud had been visiting his mother, then. That's how he hadn't died with the rest of the castle dwellers. Instead, he had watched his birth town burn, his mother die under the claws of some creature which could only have come from a nightmare.

He had been bewitched half out of his mind, left to pick up the fragments of his memory, barely able to remember his name. He had battled day after day, just to stay alive, then to protect friends, then to find the truth. The terrible truth, the horror that the man he loved most had become. He had fought ghosts of him too, monsters that wore his skin and his voice but were never him. He had watched one of them kill a very dear friend, the only one who could have helped him understand what had happened to his beloved prince.

"I have told you time and again, Cloud. Come to me, and we will rule this land together. I am giving you this last chance to take the place that is rightfully yours, as my trusted knight."

But he had only ever been a knight in his most feverish delusions. The prince had never even known his name, because he had been a nobody, a young and inexperienced guard among dozens.

He didn't know this man anymore. Prince Sephiroth was dead.

Cloud closed his eyes.

"My answer hasn't changed."

He lifted his sword. It was the only signal his friends needed. Sephiroth countered Nanaki and Yuffie's assaults by flinging them away with a flip of his hand. Magic; something the real Sephiroth had never possessed. Cloud breathed more easily. He could do this.

The man rose from his throne, gaze now openly condescending.

"Very well. Then you shall find your death."

This monster was not his prince.

Cloud met the wall with enough force that he nearly let his sword go. He sunk to his knees and gasped for the breath he needed to get back to his feet, to stand again and keep fighting. He had become so strong these past few years, so much stronger than the nameless guard he once was. But Sephiroth made them all seem like flies. If they hadn't been fighting him eight against one, they would have had no chance of winning.

Cloud checked the progress of the fight. Sephiroth had begun to morph, unnatural wings stretching from his shoulder blades. He fought them with an incredible speed and a legendary swordsmanship Cloud had never thought he would get to see in such circumstances, but also with a powerful and dark magic that made him that much more dangerous.

Aerith had been the only one of them knowing enough about magic. Cait Sith and Nanaki dabbled in it, but it was barely enough to protect them from the worst of these spells. Cloud once more felt a familiar pang of grief, but he let it go. Now was not the time.

He got to his feet, ready to rush back into the fight, but something fell from his belt and chimed against the floor's beautiful flagstones. It was Aerith's; a small and round white stone she had kept with her at all times, saying it came from her mother.

"It's enchanted, you know," she had said once. "It can detect curses."

And she had smiled knowingly. Curses? Cloud had thought. Those only existed in fairy tales.

But then why was the stone suddenly black as despair?

He glanced at Sephiroth then back at the stone, heart in his throat. It couldn't be true. These kind of things only happened in stories. In real life, when someone became bad, there was no excuse to be found in magic. It just didn't work that way. But if it did…

He saw Vincent spot an opening in Sephiroth's defence and raise his pistol. Sephiroth was weakening. It was good news, right? They would soon be done. If that one shot made it, it could be the end of this.

"Wait!"

Cloud dashed forward, snatching the stone from the ground. He saw Vincent hesitate, his window of opportunity disappear.

"Wait!" he yelled once more. "He is cursed. Sephiroth is cursed!"

He brandished the stone like a talisman, like it was all the proof his incredulous friends needed.

"What are you yappin' about?" Cid screamed back, dodging a strike that could have beheaded him. "We nearly got this guy! Let's just finish him!"

"This is Aerith's enchanted stone," Nanaki said. "I remember it. Cloud is right, it's picking up a curse!"

"What the heck! Should we really worry about this now?" Barret grunted, struggling for a clean shot.

"Yeah, I want dibs on all his magic items!" Yuffie yelled.

"Oi lass, don't be stingy!" whined Cait, their magic cat doll.

Sephiroth's wings rose and, without warning, they were all blasted away by some wall of power. They jumped back to their feet to find him hovering over the ground, more monstrous than ever.

"It really is the curse," Cloud breathed. "That's why he is looking less and less human!"

"He has not been human for a long time, Cloud," Tifa pleaded. "Remember what he did to Nibelheim! All our families and friends, everyone from the village—"

"But don't you see? If he is cursed then he is as much a victim as us!"

"Cloud is right," Vincent said suddenly, to everyone's surprise. "We cannot kill another innocent."

"Innocent! That guy is so not— Ugh!"

Barret barely avoided one of Sephiroth's latest strings of attacks, and for a while it was all they could do to evade and counter until he fell back to the centre of the throne room, hovering placidly. He didn't even seem to be paying any attention to their words. An eerie smile played on his lips. There was nothing human about his expression anymore.

"Well even if he is cursed, so what?" Cid yelled. "Do we know how to break the curse? Uh?"

Cait hummed and awwed, while Nanaki merely looked uncertain and miserable. Cloud felt his heart clench. If Sephiroth really was still there, somewhere, and he could not save him, wouldn't it be a hundred times worse than to have lost him to madness?

"Just try not to kill him," he stalled. "Let's try to get him unconscious."

"You mad, kid!"

And yes, maybe he was a little. Sephiroth was a formidable foe. Every time they seemed to bring him down, he managed to find new resources in himself, more power; but Cloud would not be fooled. This was not the man, it was the curse. Knowing this didn't make it any easier to bring him down, though, especially when they were trying not to wound him mortally.

When he finally slammed to the ground in front of the throne and didn't get up, Cloud was pretty much ready to do the same. They all were.

"Well?" Cid whizzed. "Now what?"

"Can I steal his magic items?"

"No," was the unanimous answer.

"Geez lass, at least wait 'til the poor man is dead," Cait Sith added.

Cloud actually glared at him.

"No one is killing him unless it's our only solution."

"Well, what other solution do we have?" Tifa asked, frustrated. "Neither Cait Sith nor Nanaki can break such a powerful spell. We can't go back and search for a stronger mage! We'd never be able to fight him a second time!"

"Yeah, I say killing him is still the best way," Barret grunted. "So okay, it may not be the guy's fault. It's still the only way I see to free the kingdom from all these beasts. As a prince, isn't it the kind of things he should do anyway? Sacrifice himself for the sake of his people?"

Cloud closed his eyes and gulped. He didn't want to believe it would come to this. Fate just couldn't give him that kind of hope and snatch it back so soon. It was too cruel.

"There has got to be another way," he breathed. "Anything. There has got to be."

Aerith, where are you?

"Well, there is always True Love's Kiss."

They all stared at Cait Sith like he had gone mad. The cat shrugged.

"What? It's a very powerful spell, you know. It always works in this kind of cases!"

"Yeah, in stories for kids!" Cid groaned. "What the hell, fur ball? Are you really a mage?"

"Well, wait," Nanaki said. "I am pretty sure it's supposed to work too. It's just that True Love is hard to come by."

A silence fell upon them. Then a whisper.

"I'm trying it."

Tifa gaped at Cloud, not quite believing her ears.

"Wha… wait, Cloud, what are you…"

"I'd never forgive myself if I didn't at least try. Just… I'm trying it. If it doesn't work then…"

He didn't finish, only turned and walked to the throne platform. His friends stayed close together and stared at him, not knowing what to say.

Cloud warily stepped up the stairs, his gaze pinned to the unmoving form lying on the ground. He had trouble breathing. If it didn't work then…

Aerith, why did you have to go?

This was not the end he had hoped for. A fight to the death with a ghost was one thing, but if he had to give up a second time on this person, he thought he might break and never heal.

The monster that had been Sephiroth was still unconscious. Was there really something of him left in there? Even like this, his face remained eerily beautiful.

Cloud kneeled by his side, watching him for even the slightest movement. It was easier to think about the possibility of the monster feigning unconsciousness and stabbing him at the moment he would be most defenceless than it was to think about what he was going to do. About what would happen afterwards.

Taking a deep breath, he leaned closer and carefully brushed against pale and dry lips. He drew back and stared intently, wishing with all he was, all he had.

Sephiroth didn't move.

He didn't change. Nothing happened.

Cloud waited and waited, and nothing happened.

A great wail suddenly filled the room and a creature materialized out of a portal of pure darkness. Although feminine in appearance, her pale purple skin, long white hair and inhuman features lent her no beauty but that of a monster.

Cloud jumped to his feet, sword in hand, and his friends readied their stances.

"And what do you think you are doing to my son, human?" the creature said, glaring at him with pure venom.

"Your son?" Cloud repeated without understanding. "Who are you?"

"I am Jenova, the Calamity from the Skies, the most powerful sorceress in this world, puny human. And you are nothing but parasites looking to steal my son's beautiful kingdom!"

What the hell?

"Sephiroth is not your son. He is son of Queen Lucrecia and…"

"Silence!" she screamed. "You will not speak to me with such impertinence! I am Queen Mother of this land, and I will not let you harm my son!"

He barely dodged her first attack. The spell smashed into the throne and dissolved it in a slithering pile of dark spirits. Cloud didn't even think, he leapt forward and destroyed them all before they had a chance to reach Sephiroth.

By the time he turned back, his friends were in a dire situation. They were all exhausted; they had nothing left with which to fight another fight of this magnitude. He jumped from the dais and ran to their help, but the battle was already hopeless.

Barret was knocked unconscious, the latest of many. Only Vincent and Nanaki's speed still kept them out of Jenova's reach. Cloud fell in with every last bit of energy he could dredge up, rose his sword again and again, refusing to give up. Not yet. He had been so close! If only he could cure the prince. If only…

Nanaki was flung back, then Vincent, until even Cloud fell to his knees and his legs refused to obey him. Jenova's unnaturally long hands came to lift his chin and she gazed coldly into his eyes.

"You are my son's plaything," she hissed. "The little soldier boy he wanted so much. Stupid human. Did you not realize what he was offering you? How useless you are."

She was right, he thought. He really was useless. Here was obviously the sorceress who had cursed his prince and stolen everything he had ever held dear, and he couldn't even find the strength to lift his sword against her. He had failed and Sephiroth would never be free. He realized now that even death had to be better than the kind of life Sephiroth was shackled to. Why hadn't he thought of this before? He should have been strong. If he had been, his prince would at the very least be free from this wretched existence.

But he hadn't been, and now he really had failed in everything.

His hand squeezed the handle of his sword, but it was so heavy and his limbs felt like lead. Jenova smiled icily at him and raised a hand, in which a long and sharp crystal appeared.

"It is just as well that I should rid him of such an aimless fancy."

Cloud could only stare back through the haze of his exhaustion. For a while, he thought the ringing was just his ears playing games on his tired mind.

Then he realized a sword had stopped the crystal.

It was a very long blade, slim and elegant. He knew it like he was the one to have born it everyday.

He could feel long locks of hair tickling his shoulders and neck. From above him came a voice.

"Hello, mother."

With a screech of steel against crystal and an indignant shriek, Jenova was flung back. Cloud fell to his side and looked up, dazed.

Sephiroth had assumed his usual battle stance, Masamune raised horizontally along his shoulder. His leathers were tattered and stained with blood, but there was no trace of the disfigurements he had been exhibiting just moments ago. He was deathly pale and his eyes shone, but Cloud saw no madness in him; only an immense anger and pure, undiluted hatred.

"No," Jenova moaned, and Cloud heard her as if from a great distance. "My son, come back to me…"

From her hands, an eerie glow began to shine. Sephiroth must have recognized it, for he threw himself forward with a cry of such powerful rage Cloud was certain he had never before heard it.

Another battle started, but Sephiroth too was exhausted. He had fought against Cloud and his friends and the strain was still here, even when the curse had taken most of the damage with it when it left. Cloud struggled to his knees, nearly fainted when he tried to stand. His breaths came in short gasps and his limbs shook. He was useless like this.

No, he thought, in a panic. No no no no, please no. Please, someone… Anyone…

Sephiroth was back. He was back! He was here, right under his eyes! He couldn't lose him now!

He hadn't noticed Aerith's stone turning back to its white hue, but he did notice when it suddenly emitted a bright light from his belt. The glow washed over him, bathing him in a warm and gentle feeling, and he recognized it. Healing magic. He thought he heard a voice talk to him, and a familiar laughter.

"Let's go!"

A small and feminine hand brushed against his. The light disappeared, and suddenly he could stand again.

He threw himself into the battle just as Sephiroth was starting to give, prompting a surprised glance from the prince. Jenova shrieked in rage and tried to drive him back, only to open herself to Sephiroth who lost no time in taking advantage of it.

Cloud fell into a rhythm with him. It was like a dream, a little boy's dream he had thought broken long ago, suddenly finding its way into reality; him, fighting by Sephiroth's side. He didn't realize how equally powerful they were, then. He didn't realize how close he had come to the master swordsman he had admired so much, looked up to so fiercely.

The only thing that mattered was to get rid of the one creature that could enslave the prince again, break his world once more.

A pistol shot rang, and Cloud glanced around to see most of his friends finding their way back to consciousness. Vincent lowered his weapon once more, out of bullets, but his last one had at least counted.

Shot right in the leg, Jenova began fighting like a dying beast. She tried opening a portal to escape and Cloud aimed for her knees, tripping her up and forcing her to raise her shields once more.

When Masamune finally found its way to her heart, it was nearly anticlimactic.

Cloud drew back, gasping for breaths. Sephiroth inclined his blade and, slowly, the witch slid to the ground, her eyes still wide open. Masamune flashed up and down. Jenova's head rolled further, neatly severed from her body.

They heard distant screams, inhuman in their pitches. It felt like the entire land was dying all at once.

"What the…!" Barret exclaimed.

"The monsters," Sephiroth said. "Dragged back down to their dark world."

They waited a few seconds before silence fell once more. A religious silence, serene and awed, as if the very air itself had changed in an instant.

Slowly, light began sipping through the throne room's tall windows. The dark clouds that had hovered over the castle for years now, smothering the land in darkness and death, were disappearing into nothingness. In a few minutes sunlight was bathing the room in golden hues, wrapping them in warmth, changing the eerie and dangerous castle into the welcoming shelter it had always been meant to be.

A blade clanged to the ground. Sephiroth pitched forward. Cloud's sword joined Masamune as he dived to catch him.

"Sephiroth!" he cried out, terror sizing him once again.

Sephiroth gave a breathless laugh against his chest.

"So you do still agree that we are on first name terms? I am glad."

Cloud could only open and close his mouth, not knowing what to say. What an idiot, calling his prince and lord by his given name! He was not a madman anymore, that he had to be denied even this small courtesy!

"Are you gravely wounded?" he said instead, because he was barely able to think of anything else.

"Just exhausted," Sephiroth murmured, eyes slipping closed.

Before anything else could be said or done, a series of popping noises sounded and the room suddenly filled with mayhem and panic.

"What the hell?" screamed Cid and Barret in perfect unison, jumping back from the persons appearing out of nowhere.

"Oooh, so many shiny items!" Yuffie exclaimed, stars in her eyes.

"Cloud, watch out!" Tifa yelled.

And then a very familiar voice:

"Whoa hey, what the hell is happening? Who are you guys and what are you doing in the throne room?... Spike, 'that you?"

Cloud could only stare, mouth hanging open, as Zack peered closer at him. His friend Zack, Sephiroth's First Knight and right-hand man, that he had thought killed with everyone else in the castle when the monsters had appeared years ago. Behind him were standing two other very famous men, Angeal and Genesis, the prince's brothers. And even further, was that the Queen and… and so many other people who looked like they had no idea of what had just happened.

"Hey, how come you look older?" Zack said, clueless. "And holy shit, Highness, what happened to you!"

"Ah, yes," Sephiroth said, paying more attention to Cloud's shock than to his friend and brothers running forward to inquire about his health. "I believe she cast some sort of spell to imprison them. It would have been too inconvenient for her to reach me otherwise."

Cloud could find nothing to answer. His brain felt completely numb. It was all he could do to not let go of the man who meant everything to him.

"Zack," Sephiroth said when his lieutenant reached him and began fussing over him. "I believe you know Cloud. Kindly prepare his knighting ceremony and inform Mother he just saved the kingdom."

Then the prince calmly fainted in Cloud's arms.

One week later, Cloud was called to the prince's chambers.

It had been one very long week. Persuading the noblemen that they had just disappeared from the face of the world for a few years had been hard enough, but it turned out going back to ruling a country that had had no crown for so long was even worse. Thankfully, the citizens seemed quite happy to go back to paying taxes if it meant being permanently rid of monsters.

In all this mayhem, Cloud and his friends had been welcomed to stay and rest at the castle. Since Prince Sephiroth had said so, everyone was quite content to believe they had saved them and treated them with the highest of regards. They had even all been offered places among the castle guards, but not many of Cloud's companions were considering it. Most of them had something or someone to go back to.

During that long week, Cloud had only seen Sephiroth once, for his knighting ceremony. It had been a rushed affair, as both Cloud and Sephiroth were still recovering and the prince was busy. Queen Lucrecia requested help from all her sons to put the kingdom back on its feet. But Sephiroth had insisted on doing it himself, and Cloud had stood there in a daze while another dream he had thought long dead and buried gained colours and sounds.

Zack and all his friends had abundantly congratulated him. But the one thing that had felt the most real to him on that day had been the smile Sephiroth had graced him with before leaving the room.

Now Cloud was knocking on the door to his lord's chambers, wearing his very new knight uniform and his heart in his throat.

"Enter."

He let himself in and closed the door. Sephiroth was dressing himself for the day. Clothed in a sharp green shirt and the leather pants he favoured, he was leaning against a table and pulling one of his boots up. He glanced up and smiled.

"Cloud."

"You asked for me?" Cloud said in a quasi-whisper.

"Yes."

Sephiroth finished with his boots and pushed away from the table. He grabbed his sword belt and proceeded to strap it on.

"I trust Zack had been informing you of your duties?"

"Yes, of course, Your Highness."

As the second head of the knights, it should not have been Zack's duty to train a newcomer, but Cloud was quite the exception. After what he had pulled to become knight, his friend would never have let him be trained by anyone else.

Sephiroth threw him a strange look and Cloud mentally back-pedalled. Had he said something wrong?

"I thought we agreed these formalities were hardly needed, Cloud."

"Uh…"

It was probably not an appropriate answer to his prince, but Cloud felt blindsided. Luckily, Sephiroth didn't seem to be waiting for anything more articulate.

"Mother and I have been talking recently, and we agreed it would be best if things changed. I will be giving up my position as crown prince."

"What?" Cloud blurted out, wide eyed.

He immediately began blushing for his impudence, but kept talking anyway.

"But Your Highness, everything that happened was—"

"—not my fault?" Sephiroth finished, smiling. "Thank you, Cloud, but don't worry, I am aware of this. Not everyone is as well informed, though, and some of the people will inevitably resent me for their misery. It is something I can understand, and they should not have to look at their ruler and think of him as the brutal beast that was responsible for the death of their families and the destruction of their homes. Angeal will bring peace and stability to this land, and I will be happy to simply assist him in the task."

Cloud frowned unhappily, but he could understand the logic in this. Sephiroth would have been an amazing king, he was certain of it. But he supposed carrying on as if nothing had happened would have been too naïve.

"I understand," he could only say.

Sephiroth nodded.

"It has been agreed that to best second Angeal, I would stay head of the knights and army."

It made sense. Sephiroth had been responsible for the kingdom's military power for years now, as Queen Lucrecia had been preparing him to take the throne.

"However, once crowned, Angeal will keep under his direct orders a group of elite and private knights. Zack has already accepted to head them."

"… I see."

Cloud felt at a loss. Why was he here? Why was Sephiroth telling him all of this? The prince smiled.

"And so, in a few years at most, I will find myself without a lieutenant."

Cloud's mind blanked. He stared.

"Zack rather enthusiastically agreed you were the ideal candidate for his succession. I am afraid he will be driving you quite hard to prepare you for this duty. Please accept my apologies."

Cloud's jaw worked, but he had no words. He wanted to say he wasn't worthy of such an honour, but you weren't supposed to dispute your lord's words, were you? His dilemma seemed to amuse Sephiroth.

"You are a modest man, Cloud. Zack warned me."

"Your Highness," he blurted out, "I really don't think…"

Sephiroth was suddenly before him and he had to shut up lest he swallowed his tongue. The prince leant closer and, with no small amount of dread, Cloud felt himself blush.

"Will you serve me, Cloud?"

"With my life," jumped from his lips like he had no control over the words.

Sephiroth smiled.

"Then it's settled."

He opened his mouth to protest again, but Sephiroth's hand landed on his cheek and once more he had to shut up. The temperature on his face was sky-rocketing. What was wrong with him? He had thought himself rid of these embarrassing teenager reactions years ago!

A predatory glint lit in Sephiroth's eyes.

"As for our other unfinished business…"

Cloud raised his eyebrows, clueless. Then Sephiroth was kissing him. Oh boy, was he kissing him.

He blanked out for a minute, hands hovering stupidly in midair. What was happening? What was he supposed to do? This was so inappropriate his brain failed to fully grasp the situation.

But when Sephiroth insistently pushed past his lips, his spine proceeded to turn to goo. He threw caution to the wind and decided that what his lord wanted, his lord would get.

They drew apart, both fairly winded.

"Excellent," Sephiroth breathed.

His green eyes shone, with something far from anger this time. Cloud could not stop staring at them.

"I expect you to call me by my given name when we are in private. Also, would you humour me with a sparring session later today?"

"Sure," he replied dreamily.

"Fantastic."

He went back to kissing him. Cloud proved he had no protest to this by enthusiastically gripping his shirt and yanking him closer.

That morning, Sephiroth was quite late to his duties.