InsaneJournal

- TS -

It was increasingly obvious.

It had taken a curious redheaded Turk, putting two and two together, and the interaction itself: the random visits, the strange endearments of brotherhood, and the bizarre new closeness between his Boss and his former Enemy.

And soon enough, it had taken the same Turk to spill the words to Tifa, and the others around them had certainly heard. As always, the words spread out faster than the Geostigma and then…

…who knew what would happen next.

- TS -

From his seat, Cloud raked a hand through his hair and glared at Rufus. “This is ridiculous.”

Rufus rose from his seat and feigned a sigh. Cloud knew Rufus wasn’t at all frustrated with what was going on like he was, because if anything, that would remind people that Shin-Ra was still here, whether that was a good or a bad thing.

“What do you suppose I should do, Cloud?” Rufus inquired, making his way over to the blond. Cloud frowned as he felt a strangely gentle hand over his shoulder; he almost wanted to shake Rufus off if not for the fact that he wasn’t entirely pissed off at him. He was just pissed off at the Turk.

“I don’t know, debunk the rumors? We’re nothing alike,” Cloud said softly. That same hand trailed up his neck and caressed his cheek. He shivered at the burning touch. “Reno must have been listening during the time we talked about…”

“Yes, I remember it well,” Rufus murmured. His arms wrapped around Cloud’s neck and Cloud sighed at the intimate contact. Luck was on their side with Reno reading all the signs wrong. It was better than revealing the real and absolute truth.

- TS -

“Do you really think that they are brothers?” Rufus inquired. Another visit in the Junon office, another delivery and another discussion, of deep conversations that in the end, would leave them both questioning the nature of life and everything else.

Cloud gazed at the rising sun and glanced at Rufus. Minutes passed by and after constructing all of his thoughts about the certain topic (because his memories were all scattered and at times he couldn’t tell which was reality or fantasy), he gave his answer.

“They’re all remnants of Sephiroth,” Cloud paused, “but they are also connected through Mako.” He glanced at Rufus again and wondered if Rufus got the implications of it. “Though, I guess, people who were exposed to a large dosage of Mako automatically makes them brothers.”

“As if bound by blood,” Rufus whispered. He swerved his office chair and laughed softly. “I suppose that makes us brothers too, Cloud. Can you imagine that? It’d explain a lot of things.”

Cloud wanted to reply, but the subtle sound of fading steps made him stop. He looked at the door and narrowed his eyes. He knew those steps well.

Just how much did Reno hear and what did Rufus mean?

- TS -

“It’s not entirely a bad thing,” Rufus said with a catlike smile. Cloud stood up rather stiffly. “Even if you get questions of whether you and I are related, we certainly are in other ways.” He chuckled at that and leaned forward for a kiss.

As they locked their lips together, the tension around Cloud’s shoulders began to ease off and Rufus himself began to relax. With their passion slowly building and intensifying, they sought after something much more fulfilling. Clothes fell to the floor and Rufus glanced at the door.

After that little mishap with Reno, he had made sure that the walls of this office were soundproof. He should have done that a long time ago, but the office and along everything else in Junon was still new.

And with the truth and the lies weaved into a new kind of web of what could be and what might happen, it was hard to entangle the thread that revealed the truth. It was certainly better this way and a lot more thrilling.

- TS -

“Is it true?”

Tifa. That must be Tifa.

Was she talking to him?

It had been a while since…

“That depends on how you see it.”

- End -

A/n: LOL. =D this makes me happy. I hope it makes people happy too.