Tiny Dancer
folder
Final Fantasy VII › Yaoi - Male/Male › Cloud/Sephiroth
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
19
Views:
1,059
Reviews:
48
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Final Fantasy VII › Yaoi - Male/Male › Cloud/Sephiroth
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
19
Views:
1,059
Reviews:
48
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 4
Title: Tiny Dancer
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Author: Lynsey
Websites: http://lynsey-schadegg.livejournal.com/ and http://lotr.adult-fanfiction.org/authors.php?no=1296789875 .
Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fiction_by_Lynsey/
Beta: None
Chapter: 4/?
Pairings: None yet
Rating: PG so far
Warnings: Very AU, language
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Do not sue, all I got are college loans, and this isn’t helping to pay them off.
Summary: Opening night for Midgar Dance Company’s newest show may be the beginning of something more than just a hot new act.
Cloud woke up feeling like he was hit by a truck.
Or hungover.
Whatever.
And what the fuck was that incessant noise?
Fucking alarm clock.
His arm reached out the throw the sonuvabitch into the wall but instead knocked over a bowl of water sitting on the nightstand and spilling water everywhere. Cursing and peeling his sticky eyes open he surveyed the wet mess that had been made of his bed and floor.
"Cloud?" came a sleepy inquiry.
The blond focused blearily on the figure in the chair next to the bed. "Tifa? Have you been here all night?"
"Ya. So was Aeris until just a little while ago. She wanted to make sure you would sleep off the morphine. When you started waking up she left for work."
"Shit," Cloud muttered for no particular reason. He sat up and rubbed his face, grimacing at the feeling of dried sweat and tears gumming up his cheeks. "I'm disgusting. I'm gonna pop into the shower real quick."
Tifa nodded and yawned hugely, shrugging of the threadbare blanket she had been using. Cloud stood up carefully, testing his foot gingerly.
Surprised, he stood and placed his full weight on the appendage. He did a couple little jumps, waiting for the excruciating pain that usually followed. Nothing came, just the smooth roll of his foot as it reconnected with the floor.
"Awesome," he smiled.
"Ya," Tifa agreed. "He fixed you up pretty good."
"You don't sound to happy about that."
"I'm just worried, Cloud. The last time someone influential and wealthy took this much of an interest in you..."
The blond frowned and shook his head. "Don't go there Tifa. I'm not in the mood."
"This could be dangerous Cloud!"
"So what?! So what if one more thing in my life gets fucked up? Who the fuck cares anymore?"
"I do! I care about you and what happens to you."
"Only because if you don't your career would be over without your fucking star dancer."
Tifa's face dropped. "That was a low blow, Cloud."
"Shit," Cloud mumbled under his breath and fell back onto the bed. "I'm sorry, Tifa. I don't know why I said that." He grimaced and stood up again, grumbling, “Fucking bed’s all wet.”
Tifa sighed exasperatedly. “I’ll clean it up. You get in the shower and get your ass to warm-ups or the boss’ll shoot you.”
Cloud nodded and shuffled into the dark bathroom, flipping on the dim bulb that hung from the ceiling. He peeled off the sweats he had on and started the shower. The water got lukewarm, the hottest it ever got, and he stepped in. He washed and lathered everything twice, still feeling sticky and ick after one scrubbing. He turned off the water and shook all over to remove as much water as possible. After wrapping a towel around his waist, he sat down on the toilet seat and brushed his hair. It really didn’t matter what he looked like when he got to the theater. The makeup and hair department would make him into the Midgar Dance Company’s starlet as soon as he got there.
He sighed heavily and stared at the brush in his hands blankly for a few minutes. He couldn’t believe what had happened last night. The General, The General had taken an interest in him. The man was the second most influential man on the planet, right beneath Shinra the Senior. Not only had he noticed him, but he had taken it upon himself to meet with him. Then heal him.
Tifa was right. This could be bad.
The blond winced at the remembrance of the last time something like this had happened. It had been a Shinra executive. Not someone of extreme importance, but an executive none the less. He had promised so much: money, health care, a safe, clean place to live, food…and Cloud had fallen for it. He had fallen for it hard. He had just once wanted to believe in the goodness of others, in the kindness of strangers…
He had almost been raped for his stupidity.
Cloud knew he had been lucky, really lucky to get out of that situation intact. It was just so hard not to believe the General was just trying to help. That he admired him for his dancing and wanted nothing in return.
But he had learned the hard way that everything had a price.
“You better be ready to go! The bus will be leaving soon and you’ll miss your ride if you dick around any longer!”
He needed to get his ass to work.
*******************************
Sitting in his dressing room and slowly cooling down his muscles after the performance, Cloud honestly couldn’t remember the last time he had been able to get through a whole act without pain trying to cripple him.
There was a knock at his door and without waiting for a response the person on the other side barged in. It was Tifa and Aeris, who made themselves comfortable on the ottoman and one of the folding chairs.
“Hey,” he greeted softly as he switched to another stretching position, hoping to slowly loosen up tensed muscles.
“How are you feeling?” asked Aeris.
“Better than I have in a long time.” He was surprised when he actually meant it. He’d been lying to the EMT for so long that he had a veritable stockpile of answers for that particular question.
Aeris took something out of one of the multitude of pockets in her scrub pants and handed him a tiny piece of stiff paper.
He took it and looked at it blankly. “Aeris, could you…please…?”
She smiled a little sadly and took the card back. “It says, ‘General Sephiroth, SOLDIER Division, Shinra Electric Company’ then it has a phone number on it. He told us last night it was his direct line.”
Cloud took the card back and ran a finger over the words that had no meaning to him. Let it be said that his mother was not a stupid woman. When she found out she could no more teach her little boy to read than she could their cat, she found a career for him that didn’t require literacy as one of its skills.
Little did she know it got him about as far as anything else would have.
“Thanks, Aeris.”
She nodded.
“You’re…not going to contact him are you?” Tifa questioned, a worried look on her face.
Cloud pondered the card for a moment and then placed it on the floor by where he was sitting. “No…no I won’t. I don’t have any need to.”
Tifa breathed out in relief. “Good. I’ll see you later, I have a few new dances to perfect before I go home tonight.”
“’Kay,” Cloud said as he resumed stretching. They usually spent the evenings together, since their apartments were right next to each other after all.
Aeris said her goodbyes and left as well, leaving Cloud alone in the dressing room. He huffed as he moved from his current pose and flopped down onto the ottoman after snatching up the card from the floor.
He stared at the piece of paper for a long time, much like he had stared at his hairbrush earlier that day. He was, like, starting to develop a problem or something. What the fuck was up with all the staring into space in the last day?
…what would it hurt if he did call him?
There were worse things than being the boytoy for someone like Sephiroth. If that was what the General wanted. Wants. Whatever.
Maybe…that’s not what he wanted at all.
But even if it was…ya. Definitely worse things. Like, knowing that when he got home there wouldn’t be any food and he didn’t have any money to get any. Like, knowing that there would never be anything better than what he had now. Like, knowing he owed his freaking soul to Shinra, courtesy of his mother.
Debt. Mountains of it had buried the Strife household. She couldn’t afford to send him to school. She couldn’t afford to feed him. She couldn’t put him into a good job when he got older since her son had to be…special. So she did the only thing she could. Ms. Strife had pulled her tiny son away from playing house with his friend Tifa, marched up to the Shinra office in Nibelheim, and asked what it would take to get her son into the best dance academy the world had to offer. He had talent she told them. Lots of talent! He was a prodigy!
She signed a paper that said Shinra would pay for all of his boarding and school fees. However, Cloud was now a ward of Shinra and he belonged to them completely until he was able to pay back the debt collected during his schooling.
Cloud only counted himself as a lucky bastard in that he really had been a good dancer, even as a small child. He didn’t even want to think about what would have happened to him if he had sucked…
So Shinra owned his ass nine ways to Sunday, and now he worked at the Shinra owned Midgar Dance Company pulling in thousands and thousands of gil every night of which only a small handful actually went to paying off the debt and keeping him alive.
What would it matter if Cloud became the pampered pet of the General? It wasn’t like it could be totally terrible. Ok, so the first guy was kind of a creep…well…he was more than a creep but who’s keeping track? It wouldn’t be so bad to be with Sephiroth would it? He was handsome, obviously polite…
Rich.
Famous.
Yes. There were worse things in life.
Cloud stood and went in search of the house phone.
TBC….
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Author: Lynsey
Websites: http://lynsey-schadegg.livejournal.com/ and http://lotr.adult-fanfiction.org/authors.php?no=1296789875 .
Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fiction_by_Lynsey/
Beta: None
Chapter: 4/?
Pairings: None yet
Rating: PG so far
Warnings: Very AU, language
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Do not sue, all I got are college loans, and this isn’t helping to pay them off.
Summary: Opening night for Midgar Dance Company’s newest show may be the beginning of something more than just a hot new act.
Cloud woke up feeling like he was hit by a truck.
Or hungover.
Whatever.
And what the fuck was that incessant noise?
Fucking alarm clock.
His arm reached out the throw the sonuvabitch into the wall but instead knocked over a bowl of water sitting on the nightstand and spilling water everywhere. Cursing and peeling his sticky eyes open he surveyed the wet mess that had been made of his bed and floor.
"Cloud?" came a sleepy inquiry.
The blond focused blearily on the figure in the chair next to the bed. "Tifa? Have you been here all night?"
"Ya. So was Aeris until just a little while ago. She wanted to make sure you would sleep off the morphine. When you started waking up she left for work."
"Shit," Cloud muttered for no particular reason. He sat up and rubbed his face, grimacing at the feeling of dried sweat and tears gumming up his cheeks. "I'm disgusting. I'm gonna pop into the shower real quick."
Tifa nodded and yawned hugely, shrugging of the threadbare blanket she had been using. Cloud stood up carefully, testing his foot gingerly.
Surprised, he stood and placed his full weight on the appendage. He did a couple little jumps, waiting for the excruciating pain that usually followed. Nothing came, just the smooth roll of his foot as it reconnected with the floor.
"Awesome," he smiled.
"Ya," Tifa agreed. "He fixed you up pretty good."
"You don't sound to happy about that."
"I'm just worried, Cloud. The last time someone influential and wealthy took this much of an interest in you..."
The blond frowned and shook his head. "Don't go there Tifa. I'm not in the mood."
"This could be dangerous Cloud!"
"So what?! So what if one more thing in my life gets fucked up? Who the fuck cares anymore?"
"I do! I care about you and what happens to you."
"Only because if you don't your career would be over without your fucking star dancer."
Tifa's face dropped. "That was a low blow, Cloud."
"Shit," Cloud mumbled under his breath and fell back onto the bed. "I'm sorry, Tifa. I don't know why I said that." He grimaced and stood up again, grumbling, “Fucking bed’s all wet.”
Tifa sighed exasperatedly. “I’ll clean it up. You get in the shower and get your ass to warm-ups or the boss’ll shoot you.”
Cloud nodded and shuffled into the dark bathroom, flipping on the dim bulb that hung from the ceiling. He peeled off the sweats he had on and started the shower. The water got lukewarm, the hottest it ever got, and he stepped in. He washed and lathered everything twice, still feeling sticky and ick after one scrubbing. He turned off the water and shook all over to remove as much water as possible. After wrapping a towel around his waist, he sat down on the toilet seat and brushed his hair. It really didn’t matter what he looked like when he got to the theater. The makeup and hair department would make him into the Midgar Dance Company’s starlet as soon as he got there.
He sighed heavily and stared at the brush in his hands blankly for a few minutes. He couldn’t believe what had happened last night. The General, The General had taken an interest in him. The man was the second most influential man on the planet, right beneath Shinra the Senior. Not only had he noticed him, but he had taken it upon himself to meet with him. Then heal him.
Tifa was right. This could be bad.
The blond winced at the remembrance of the last time something like this had happened. It had been a Shinra executive. Not someone of extreme importance, but an executive none the less. He had promised so much: money, health care, a safe, clean place to live, food…and Cloud had fallen for it. He had fallen for it hard. He had just once wanted to believe in the goodness of others, in the kindness of strangers…
He had almost been raped for his stupidity.
Cloud knew he had been lucky, really lucky to get out of that situation intact. It was just so hard not to believe the General was just trying to help. That he admired him for his dancing and wanted nothing in return.
But he had learned the hard way that everything had a price.
“You better be ready to go! The bus will be leaving soon and you’ll miss your ride if you dick around any longer!”
He needed to get his ass to work.
*******************************
Sitting in his dressing room and slowly cooling down his muscles after the performance, Cloud honestly couldn’t remember the last time he had been able to get through a whole act without pain trying to cripple him.
There was a knock at his door and without waiting for a response the person on the other side barged in. It was Tifa and Aeris, who made themselves comfortable on the ottoman and one of the folding chairs.
“Hey,” he greeted softly as he switched to another stretching position, hoping to slowly loosen up tensed muscles.
“How are you feeling?” asked Aeris.
“Better than I have in a long time.” He was surprised when he actually meant it. He’d been lying to the EMT for so long that he had a veritable stockpile of answers for that particular question.
Aeris took something out of one of the multitude of pockets in her scrub pants and handed him a tiny piece of stiff paper.
He took it and looked at it blankly. “Aeris, could you…please…?”
She smiled a little sadly and took the card back. “It says, ‘General Sephiroth, SOLDIER Division, Shinra Electric Company’ then it has a phone number on it. He told us last night it was his direct line.”
Cloud took the card back and ran a finger over the words that had no meaning to him. Let it be said that his mother was not a stupid woman. When she found out she could no more teach her little boy to read than she could their cat, she found a career for him that didn’t require literacy as one of its skills.
Little did she know it got him about as far as anything else would have.
“Thanks, Aeris.”
She nodded.
“You’re…not going to contact him are you?” Tifa questioned, a worried look on her face.
Cloud pondered the card for a moment and then placed it on the floor by where he was sitting. “No…no I won’t. I don’t have any need to.”
Tifa breathed out in relief. “Good. I’ll see you later, I have a few new dances to perfect before I go home tonight.”
“’Kay,” Cloud said as he resumed stretching. They usually spent the evenings together, since their apartments were right next to each other after all.
Aeris said her goodbyes and left as well, leaving Cloud alone in the dressing room. He huffed as he moved from his current pose and flopped down onto the ottoman after snatching up the card from the floor.
He stared at the piece of paper for a long time, much like he had stared at his hairbrush earlier that day. He was, like, starting to develop a problem or something. What the fuck was up with all the staring into space in the last day?
…what would it hurt if he did call him?
There were worse things than being the boytoy for someone like Sephiroth. If that was what the General wanted. Wants. Whatever.
Maybe…that’s not what he wanted at all.
But even if it was…ya. Definitely worse things. Like, knowing that when he got home there wouldn’t be any food and he didn’t have any money to get any. Like, knowing that there would never be anything better than what he had now. Like, knowing he owed his freaking soul to Shinra, courtesy of his mother.
Debt. Mountains of it had buried the Strife household. She couldn’t afford to send him to school. She couldn’t afford to feed him. She couldn’t put him into a good job when he got older since her son had to be…special. So she did the only thing she could. Ms. Strife had pulled her tiny son away from playing house with his friend Tifa, marched up to the Shinra office in Nibelheim, and asked what it would take to get her son into the best dance academy the world had to offer. He had talent she told them. Lots of talent! He was a prodigy!
She signed a paper that said Shinra would pay for all of his boarding and school fees. However, Cloud was now a ward of Shinra and he belonged to them completely until he was able to pay back the debt collected during his schooling.
Cloud only counted himself as a lucky bastard in that he really had been a good dancer, even as a small child. He didn’t even want to think about what would have happened to him if he had sucked…
So Shinra owned his ass nine ways to Sunday, and now he worked at the Shinra owned Midgar Dance Company pulling in thousands and thousands of gil every night of which only a small handful actually went to paying off the debt and keeping him alive.
What would it matter if Cloud became the pampered pet of the General? It wasn’t like it could be totally terrible. Ok, so the first guy was kind of a creep…well…he was more than a creep but who’s keeping track? It wouldn’t be so bad to be with Sephiroth would it? He was handsome, obviously polite…
Rich.
Famous.
Yes. There were worse things in life.
Cloud stood and went in search of the house phone.
TBC….