#ic: cloud.

[grandschemed]

anonymous asked: as your shujin

no!  it can’t be — !  no, not now!  not him!  agh, his head is splitting.  agony, pain, suffering, despair ... 

“get out of my head, get out of my — ”

[grandschemed]

@radhalaus​ / rufus & cloud.

just follow the commanding officer’s instructions.  how hard could it be, right?  oh, how familiar the sound of the piercing whistle and yet, the memory is so distant.  left, left, left, right, left, cloud marches, doing his best to blend in with the rest of the militia, pretending he doesn’t feel the weight of everyone’s gaze.

before he knows it, his squad is separated from the rest, now up close to perform for the new president himself to celebrate his grand promotion — rufus shinra.  in cloud’s humble opinion, he’s nothing more than a smirking bastard born with a silver spoon in his mouth and just as poisonous as his dead father, if not, five times worse.  just a sliver too late, cloud reluctantly salutes him alongside his fellow officers, posture tall and back straight, eyes looking ahead.  under his uniform, cloud sweats, silently begging any god for an ounce of compassion, but the show goes on.  

“congratulations, mr. president.  sir!”

[grandschemed]

 @warpaved​ asked: sephiroth remembers what cloud used to look like as a young cadet so 😬 which means. tolerable

“FUCK OFF.  I CUT OFF THE DAMN PONYTAIL.”

not that he wants sephiroth to call him a pretty boy in the first place, but ‘tolerable’?

[grandschemed]

“ let’s admit, without apology, what we do to each other. ”

@warpaved / sephiroth & cloud.

cloud tenses, reluctant to think out of fear that if he does, he won’t be able to stop.  won’t be able to stop imagining warm lips whispering into the soft shell of his ear.  won’t be able to stop thinking about big hands roaming across his flushed skin, mapping out every rib, exploring every inch of him until he’s scorched with his touch.  

the hallucinations grow worse over time and nothing helps.  

cloud doesn’t know why, but he can’t help but feel like he’s forgetting something important.  like … remembering a scene from an outsider’s point of view.  he remembers a late night out, neon, hazy and electric, seated diagonal of sephiroth, out for a drink, out to relax.  neither of them are very good at it, but they try anyway.  nice company dinner.  the others talk mostly, fill in the silence with their usual chatter.  cloud forgets how to eat, forgets how to drink and spends the entire night drinking in the sight of his hero-made-flesh, burning the sight of him into his memory.

fuck, he’d scowl now, if he could.

remembers the warm weight of sephiroth’s hand resting on his bare shoulder — ultimate praise and more than enough sensation to fuel his fever dreams for a week.  remembers a lot more than that, but he doesn’t want to think about it because then he’d be forced to confess there’s a small part of him that misses it too.  misses it more than just a little bit.

( misses sephiroth a lot. )

but there’s no going back to those days.

sucking in a breath, cloud raises his sword, pointed at the man he once considered his idol, lying through his teeth and he knows sephiroth knows it too.  “don’t have anything to confess to you.”  he sighs, shaking his head at how much history remains between them, pretending their lives won’t always be so closely tangled.  

pretending one day, he’ll be free.  pretending he even wants to be.

“now, let’s just get this over with.”

[grandschemed]

@engineroars​ asked: 😳 // but also. cloud bc cmon.

“you think i’m pretty?”

despite himself, cloud immediately flushes pink, gritting his teeth as he looks away.  by now, the compliment should be utterly meaningless to him and yet ...

 “... if you say so,” he sucks in a breath, still furiously avoiding roche’s gaze, idly rubbing his heated nape with a weak shrug.  isn’t roche technically the ‘pretty’ one?  oh, well.

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@shinrako​ asked: “ ... any chance ya’ would let me off scot-free ? ” he knows it’s a dangerous game every time he sends strix off on a mission. he’s learned to circumvent most situations ; a quick escape, a distraction, but he’s got his back against the wall here, and he takes to protecting his kits first before himself. “ come on, big guy walking aroun’ with a sword like that — can spare a couple materia, can’t he ... ? “ his eyes are darting. one path, one escape, that’s all —- // for cloud 😳

shit, cloud doesn’t have time to deal with this.  he pauses, considering his options while holding the thief’s wrist hostage.  frankly, he’s inclined to release him.  after all, there’s plenty of petty thieves and everyone’s hurting to make some kind of living, but targeting his materia ain’t cool.  

with a sigh, he pockets the stolen materia, shaking his head.  “it’s your lucky day, pal.”  he doesn’t like the way he’s looking around like he’s ready to bolt any second, but cloud lets him go against better judgement.  after all, the man’s got two hissing mouths to feed.  “careful who you try to rob next time,” he reprimands, despite his own lack of honor.

“... next guy might not be as nice as me.”

[grandschemed]

anonymous asked: pspsps cloud join me

FUCK OFF, SEPHIROTH.

[grandschemed]

🤗 Pull my muse into a hug (Zack @Cloud)

@shinrasfirst / zack & cloud.

surprised, cloud stumbles into zack’s chest, locked into his embrace before he can say or do anything about it.  truth is ... he doesn’t dislike it.  hell, he can’t remember the last time he’s been held at all.  the tension slowly seeps from his muscles, so unused to friendly touch and simultaneously loathing himself for such weakness.  

( but what if he never sees zack again?  why would he think something like that? )

“what?” cloud huffs, more than a little embarrassed, but surely enough, he raises his own arm to wrap around zack’s waist, gloved fingers clutching a fold in the fabric, reluctant to let go.  “c’mon, i’m fine,” he insists, pressed against zack’s warm chest, not sure who he’s trying to convince, but cloud’s fingers remain right where they are.  

well, maybe it’s okay just this once.