Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Price for a Memory ❯ Those Hands, Those Fingers ( Chapter 9 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

9.

Cool hands slid down his flesh as he tried to suppress another moan. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His mouth was dry. Those long fingers forever etching their way into his lightly tanned skin. The feeling of soft lips on the side of his neck sent tiny jolts of electricity throughout his now shaking body. The swirling of a moist tongue just below his earlobe sent his toes curling. Another moan escaped his parted lips. Lips just begging to be kissed.

Those fingers. So strong. So domineering. He turned to jelly as they worked their way down his taught stomach. Nails lightly scratching at the skin.

Cloud snapped his eyes shut. The hot kisses moved from the side of his neck to lightly nibble on the collar bone. Another soft moan crept out the blond’s lips.

That wandering hand. Oh that hand. Still it creeps down.

Cerulean eyes open then dart down to stare. Long spidery fingers slowly glide up and down his hardening sex. Another raspy moan escapes him. The hand begins to move. Roughly stroking the rapidly hardening skin.

Cloud squints and stares at the male giving him so much pleasure. Despite another wave of euphoria washing over him, he manages to focus. Shadows cast their gaze on top of him. Shadows cover his tiny, sweat soaked body.

Glowing aquamarine eyes bore into his soul.

“You’re mine.”

Light streaming in the window shook the blond from his dream. Slowly his eyes cracked open. He could hear the wake up sirens going off. Their sound reverberated throughout the entire compound. All around him he could hear moans of disproval from the other males in his dorm.

He tried to roll over but the sweat cocooning his body stuck the covers to him making him cringe and wince. Cloud also became painfully aware as he began to sit up that he had a huge problem. He lifted the covers slightly and peered under.

“Shit….”

He couldn’t remember the last time he woke up with such a prominent hard on. He had to get rid of this before he moved. He had already got off on the wrong foot with his room “mates”, the last thing he wanted was to be forever ridiculed for wandering around with this problem after dreaming about a shadow with enticing, seductive, erotic eyes. Oh those fingers. Those hands.

Cloud thought about boring things. Nothing seemed to work. His mind still cast him back to those fingers. Those domineering fingers.

He glanced over at Zack’s bunk. It was empty. Cloud assumed he was in the showers. He cold hear a few of them going. The light bulb went off in his head. Cold shower! Grabbing his towel from the top of his dresser he loosely wrapped it around his waist, shot into the bathroom and into the fist empty shower stall.

Turning the water cool Cloud stood looking up into the endless stream of water. His first day of training. Proper training. God he hoped he didn’t make a total arse of himself infront of the training officers.

Thirty minutes later he stood nervously in the massive training arena. He glanced around the room. No faces he recognised. Well, apart from the boys he shared with.

“Hey! Your that guy that totally spazzed out during the mako injections aint ya?!”

Cloud whirled round angered. He came face to face with a boy his age with sparkling emerald eyes and long flaming red hair. He was quite stunning to the blond. Still, the immediate anger took over.

“Excuse me? Who the hell do you think you are?!”

The red head extended his hand. “Reno! Pleased to meet you dude!”

“What? Is that how you make friends? Piss them off?”

“Yeh! Why how do you? Stand about looking nervous hoping that someone like me will come and piss you off?”

Cloud pouted, stamped his foot slightly, crossed his arms over his chest and turned away from the red head.

Before the young male called Reno could say anything else, three burly drill sergeants hurtled into the room demanding attention.

“Cadet’s attention!”

Each boy jumped at the sound of their voices and shot into a long straight line. Much to Cloud’s distaste he was stuck at the end of the line right beside the flaming, bloody, damned red head. Just standing near him pissed the blond off.

The tallest sergeant began pacing up and down the length of the line. He eyed up each and every Cadet with a bored look etched across his aging face.

“Well! You all look like useless dumb fuckers! Twenty laps! NOW!”

Once again each young male jumped to attention and started jogging around the room. After around the tenth lap Cloud could feel the sweat forming on his forehead. His spiky bangs began sticking to his face as he continued running.

As he glanced to the side he saw the red head speeding up towards him.

“Hey dude!”

“It’s Cloud!” The blond managed to pant out.

He glared at the boy slightly as he drew him a toothy grin.

“So you do stand around looking nervous waiting on guys like me to piss you off huh?”

Cloud nodded slightly. He did stand about looking pathetic just waiting for someone to pick him out of the crowd.

The laps ended. Each boy stood sweating and panting heavily back in their straight line. Cloud stood trying to tie his hair back into a normal pony tail. It just was not happening. Each boy noticed huge weapon carts being pulled into the room. Cloud couldn’t help the grin creeping across his features. He loved weapons training. He loved fighting. As the carts were opened up he had already picked out the sword he would choose. Fair enough it wasn’t Masamune but it was the second best albeit just a blunted training sword for now.

Hours passed. Cloud had lost count after a few. Hours of hard training. Hours of practising stances. Blocking. Attacking. Parrying. Dodging. Hours of learning and listening intently to the basics of Materia use. Cloud watched a few of the boys struggle with all this new information. However, he himself soaked it up like a sponge. Both himself and Reno were partnered together. Both progressed further in that one morning than many of the other boys would given ten years of hard graft.

Zack stood at the far end currently screaming at two of the dumbest Cadet’s he had ever met. He was never the one for shouting. That was Sephiroth’s job. But these two were thicker than the thickest, densest vat of molasses. He was convinced that if they had not been shown they wouldn’t even have known which end of the sword was up.

As he turned to storm away from them, he spotted Cloud sparring under another drill sergeants tutelage. He watched him pick up the basic fighting moves with so much ease it almost made him feel jealous. Not in his years here had he seen anyone pick up so much on their first day. Well, no one except himself and of course the General.

He watched the blond block, parry, attack, dodge, block again and again. He didn’t even notice he was heading in the blond’s direction until he was standing five feet away.

“C-Cadet?!”

Cloud stopped mid sword swipe. Reno wiped his brow in relief. That would have been the killing blow.

“Sir!”

Cloud shouted while pulling his best sweating, knackered salute.

“Me and you. I wanna see your stuff. I know this isn’t your first time handling a sword.”

He took Reno’s training sword from him and proceeded to the centre of the training arena. Cloud followed but lagging behind. Great. Now he was going to be seen as a kiss ass. Preferential treatment. Teachers pet. That old gooseberry.

Both males stood far apart, facing each other. Both fell into their most natural stance. Right leg bent. Left leg pushed far behind supporting the entire body. Both arms outstretched gripping onto the blade.

“Your stance is flawless Cadet.”

Cloud said nothing. He just smiled shyly to himself. Time to show Zack what he was made of. Without a second though the lithe young blond charged his commanding officer. Raising the sword high above his head he went to drop it right onto Zack’s head. A swift block resulting in a sickening grinding was his reward. Both males strained under the others strength. Zack slyly swiped at Cloud’s unguarded feet with one of his own. Cloud skidded backwards trying his best not to fall on his backside infront of the rest of the Cadet’s. Before he could even stand up right he was smacked in the ribs by the blunted edge of Zack’s sword. Grunting in pain he glared at Zack. Now he was pissed off. With a guttural roar he threw himself at the raven haired male. He spun on his heels bringing his sword with him thus swinging it into Zack’s bare arm.

“Ah you fucker!”

Zack lunged forwards sword pointed, ready for the kill. Cloud read through his attack.

“He’s gonna side step and take me out from the….left….”

Cloud thought to himself while observing his friends body language. How he knew he could read people like so, he would never know. He had always had a knack for doing it. Sure enough the raven haired male stepped to the left. Cloud smirked, turned to the side and blocked his impending doom. The clang of metal hitting metal sounded throughout the entire arena.

Cloud allowed himself to glance to each side.

Silver and green caught his line of vision. Those eyes. Sparkling. So deep. So unattainable. Those fingers. Ghosting down his quivering flesh. Those eyes. Those fingers.

“Your mine.”

Cloud weakened his grip. His sword dropped to the floor. All concentration gone. He never even noticed the gloved hand make for his face.

Only when his jaw crunched to one side did Cloud snap out his stupor. He fell to the wooden floor clutching at the side of his face. Tears threatened to fall. He couldn’t let them. He couldn’t show he cried like a girl when he lost.

He vigorously rubbed at the now swelling flesh on his face. He could feel the heat radiating from it. He would be black and blue in a matter of minutes, he just knew it.

“I-I lost.”

“You put up a good fight Cloud. No wonder Sephiroth has his eye on you eh? Good work.”

Every Cadet stood in silence. It was palpable. No one uttered a single sound. They all seemed to be in shock on seeing a fellow new start take on a commanding officer. A first class SOLDIER no less. They all backed away as Zack made his way to the exit. Each gauping as they turned back to stare at Cloud.

The blond stood upright. All signs of bruising gone. It was as if he had never been punched. The tiny cuts on his arms from Zack’s brutal assault seemed to vanish. He indeed stood as if nothing had happened.

He wasn’t sure what was happening. He felt heat rush to the wound on his face. Then the pain was gone. In truth he felt great. He didn’t feel as though he had been training for hours. Totally refreshed.

“I will get you Zack.” He grinned to himself.

------

Hours turned into days. Days slowly turned into weeks. Weeks of endless training and classes. Classes on almost everything conceivable. They had to take biology lessons. Each crevice of the body had to be known about in the process of attacking and healing. Internal damage had to be found before it caused massive damage. Weak spots on ones anatomy needed to be known inside out so as to always protect that area.

Materia classes were compulsory. In just one week Cloud had mastered how to use basic fire, thunder, blizzard and cure materia. He was currently learning how to use command and add on materia.

Gunnery classes were one of Cloud’s most hated classes. He had no interest in shooting guns. Shooting moving targets or improving how fast he could assemble his gun. He much preferred sword training and hand to hand combat.

Martial arts were always a good way to let off steam. Beating the shit out of the punch bags turned out to be quite a pleasurable pass time, especially when the blond woke up from yet another erotic shadowed dream. At this rate he would be able to beat Tifa’s ass in a fist fight. He grinned at that thought whenever it passed through his mind.

Each week for the past three Cloud had to endure those damned mako injections. It turned out he needed them as often as the General. To his great joy he was scheduled to go at the same time as the silver haired male. It made him feel better sitting in that sterile room to have someone else going through the same thing. Today was no different.

“Friday again….”He muttered to himself.

He caught the General glancing over his way.

“I know. Trust me. They have been doing this to me for years….I still hate it.”

“Yeh. I hate how I feel afterwards. I hate the feeling that my skin is trying to crawl off my body. That’s every week Zack has caught me in the shower trying to claw the skin from my bones.”

Sephiroth seemed to glare at the blond slightly. Jealousy twanged his usually emotionless face.

“Ummm Sir? How am I doing training wise?”

“I would have to say that you are the best cadet I have ever seen.”

“But! What about Zack?”

“He got lucky that day he beat you. I know for a fact that if you had not been distracted by something you would have pummelled him into the ground. I for one can easily defeat him. You? I’m not so sure about.”

Cloud gasped at this bold statement. Was the great godlike General saying that he would actually have to try and beat Cloud. He wouldn’t just sweep him under the carpet as he has done so many times with so many others?

The shock of Sephiroth’s statement almost prevented him from feeling the needle intrude into his skin. That oh so familiar stinging, rushing, cooling sensation flooded his body. He was just thankful that they had adjusted the potency of the mako so he would not go into Cardiac Arrest again.

Sephiroth too felt that rush filling his blood stream. The pain still had not subsided after all these years. He had lost count of just how many injections he received. The medics now struggled to raise a vein on his arm. Forever he had questioned why he had to continue getting these? Surely scientists had found a way to counter the mental breakdown one went through after injections stopped? Questions he would never be able to find the answer to.

Still no progress had been made in finding out about the former General. The man who mysteriously vanished. The man whom Cloud starkly resembled. It was pissing him off. He tried to get into the archives. He tried breaking in. Bribing the key holder. Bribing his superiors. Hell he even tried sneaking in through the air vents. Perhaps he was not meant to delve into this. Perhaps it was best left alone. Each and every time he though about finding out the truth about Cloud he felt an uneasiness stirring in his gut. A feeling he couldn’t shake right at this moment as he looked at the boy on the next table.

Cloud sniffed back the tears. His arm ached. It felt numb. His body felt sick. He looked over at the General. He seemed to show no side affects. He simply stood and pulled on his black leather coat.

Cloud slid off the table but stumbled as his wobbly legs touched the ground. Before he fell a strong hand latched onto his arm. Glowing green eyes looked into his now glowing green orbs.

“Cloud? Would you like me to….”

“Hey Blondie! Come on man! Lets go! Get you rested up.”

Zach burst into the lab to fetch Cloud, immediately pissing Sephiroth off. He wanted to escort the blond back to his quarters and now here Zack was wasting it.

“I-I’m coming Zack.” Cloud muttered as his arm was dropped by the General.

The silver haired male watched in silent jealousy as the raven haired Commander put his arm around Cloud’s shoulders and lead him out of the lab.

“Soon. Very soon.”