"I'm telling you, it's totally there," Zack whispered to the Second Class beside him.

Kunsel shook his head, expression hidden by the helmet. "No way," he hissed "Cloud doesn't swing that way at all." He leaned back slightly, fitting the lip of the mug under the rim of his helmet. While he was drinking, Zack continued to prattle at him.

It was in the morning, in the break room. They were all getting up, preparing for another day with copious amounts of coffee, sugar, and snide comments.

Zack and Kunsel were leaning against the counter by the coffee as Cloud and Sephiroth went over a few pages of paperwork at the table.

"When they look at each other, it's so obvious," Zack countered sternly. "Like, here watch." The First proceeded to sit up, coffee in hand. "Hey Cloud," he gestured from one side of the table. Cloud glanced up, startling blue eyes glancing his way. "Can you pass me the napkins?"

Cloud's hand automatically reached out toward the napkins, but as he started to look back up toward Zack, Sephiroth looked upwards from his paperwork.

Green on Blue, for a split second they absorbed each other's attention.

Then, Zack felt the napkins in his hand and Cloud continued reading his paperwork. Zack sauntered over to the other side of the room. "See?"

Kunsel scoffed. "What do you mean, see? They looked up."

Zack put down his coffee, waving his arms around enthusiastically. "No, feel it, in the air?"

Kunsel stopped drinking his caffeinated tar for a moment, and his shoulder's stiffened. "There's so much tension in the air," he whispered, looking around as though he could spot places it was hiding.

"Sexual tension." Zack corrected, the mug already in his hands and at his lips.

"No," Kunsel countered "you can't convince me that isn't rivalry tension."

Zack grinned slightly, putting his glass down and reaching for the coffee pot. "Well, maybe it's both. I mean, when they're fighting they are in close proximity a lot."

"Don't even go there."

"You could say their materia is heating up on the field-"

There was the sudden clatter of glasses and condiments hitting against each other as Cloud's and Sephiroth's hands both slammed onto the table they were sitting at.

"Excuse me," the silver haired General interrupted "but we both have first class hearing. And I'm sure Cloud and I would rather you stay quiet about whatever theories you have about our rivalry."

The chocobo head himself opted to stay silent, but his eyes were burning with fury and maybe a touch of embarrassment. Zack made a sound between a sigh and a scoff.

"If you can hear me, why don't you do anything about it?" Zack sprinted to the other side of the table, between the two First's. He swept himself onto one knee putting his hands out palms up dramatically, saying a tad too thunderously "Sweep those condiments off the table and give into the passion!"

Before either of the flustered men could make a comment, a muffled gasp was heard in the doorway. All the faces in the room turned around to see Angeal holding some paperwork with a confused expression painted on his aged features and Genesis standing behind him stifling laughter. It wasn't working.

Angeal sighed, putting a gloved hand to his temple. "I was going to have you sign this, Sephiroth, but if you're too busy… giving in to the passion, I can come another time." The silver haired general was silent this time around, an angry vein pulsing in his forehead as he snatched the papers from his fellow General.

"The only passion here is Zack's obsession," Cloud retorted coldly, running one of his hands through his hair. The furious scribbling of a pen was the only noise that could be heard as Sephiroth signed the papers.

It was a moment later when a young voice, far younger and more naïve than any of the people in the room spoke up. "What does Zack mean, giving in to the passion?"

All eyes were drawn to the young Cloud, who was standing behind Genesis. He was holding a stack of papers himself, no doubt for one of the lucky Generals to sign. There was a collective realization that perhaps they shouldn't hold any adult conversations while the chocobo chick was in the room, but he had been attached to Genesis' side since they had cleared him for paper duty.

Zack laughed, although it was a little nervous. "Ha, that's something Genesis'll talk to you about when you're thirty."

"Eighteen," Genesis corrected. Kunsel coughed up his coffee. "I'll tell him when he's eighteen. That's a good proper time." He patted the chocobo's head affectionately, but before a second pat could be distributed the grown chocobo pulled the child away from the poet general.

Tiny Cloud sighed, handing the paper over to Sephiroth, who responded with a grunt.

"Cloud," older Cloud commanded "I think you should go see if Lazard needs you to organize more paperwork. Genesis is busy right now," and it did not go unnoticed when the man shot a flaring blue glare at the dramatic redhead "and he needs to stop distracting himself."

Genesis pined at one end of the room while Kunsel dropped his mug in the sink, cellphone in the other hand. "Hey, guys, when do your missions start?"

Zack was the first to respond. "My first mission starts at ten, but I need an hour before then for the ride alone."

Cloud and Sephiroth both responded "Nine." They glanced to each other slightly, before turning back to Kunsel.

"Well, Aerith just invited us to join her for breakfast at the joint near her church. Apparently some guy calling himself the Don or somethin' paid her big for a basket of flowers."

Cloud stiffened. "I thought…" He put his hand to his chin, thinking hard. Kunsel cocked his head. "It's nothing, I just thought that the Don was younger than that…" Obviously Cloud had met this man from the future, but he seemed blatantly disturbed. Angeal slapped his hand between Cloud's shoulderblades, his kind of pat, but the chocobo head flinched. His back would sting for a while now.

"Well," Angeal continued "It seems that our schedules are open. Breakfast?"

Of course they Aerith was surprised to see every single one of them filing into the small diner, but the rest of the slums was even more surprised. People backed away as though they were on fire, a few newspaper junkies taking pictures.

Aerith continued her chipper attitude. "Wow, you're all here! Ah, but my last payment might not be able to pay for everyone…"

Sephiroth waved a hand. "We didn't expect you to pay for us, just Zack. He's a loafer."

They ignored Zack's protest as they were given a long table nearby the far end of the diner. Cloud was more that self-conscious, but luckily there were plenty of other people around him that the public focused on.

Unlike Zack, everyone ordered a modestly small meal. Genesis was paying for little Cloud's food and was more than delighted to service him, but Kunsel felt shivers up his spine when he looked at Genesis' sunny smile.

Aerith very pointedly sat Sephiroth and Cloud next to each other, with a cat's smile on her face. They obliged, but were obviously nervous when they brushed elbows.

"So," Aerith asked with her cat's grin "I heard from a little blackbird that the Silver General and the Golden First want to give in to the passion."

Sephiroth was a very dignified man. So it was surprising to see him cough mid chew of his waffle, and even more surprising to see some sort of a blush creeping up his features. Cloud simply turned around, hand on first Tsrugi, fully prepared to cut Zack into little nuggets and feed him to the predator cat Cuahls by Gaea's cliff.

Zack put up his hands in a pleading sign of innocence while Genesis and Angeal attempted to calm the enraged bird man beside them. Aerith very pleasantly gave Sephiroth a small cup of water to down while they finally suppressed Cloud's rage.

Genesis tried to ignore little Cloud's upset requests to know about the passion and giving into it as Kunsel tried not to laugh from one corner of the table.

Whoever was in the small restaurant promptly left after that, save the one maid that had shaky knees as she served them their desserts and took away their dirty plates.

"Zack," Cloud stated with an arctic tone "refrain from spreading any rumors."

Zack was about to oblige whole heartedly when Angeal, who was leaning against the table and slowly munching on cooling bacon asked aloud "But what's the deal? I mean, you two obviously have some sort of fervor going on. I can understand if it's because of the rivalry, but-"

"Passion, you people want passion?!" Cloud demanded in a high pitched voice as his fists slammed into the table. Everybody backed away except for Aerith, who watch with interest.

Before anyone could possibly predict what Cloud's intentions would be, fighting, screaming, blowing up the entire city block using comet, he grabbed Sephiroth by his shoulder's and dipped him downward into what would be called a passionate kiss. The silver general was stunned only for a moment before his hands ghosted up Cloud's back and knotted in his golden hair.

Genesis instantly covered little Cloud's eyes.

Zack, whose face was a brighter pink than the two lip-locked beauties before him exclaimed "We need to leave right now." Kunsel and the remaining General obliged imminently Genesis practically dragging the chick with him, although Aerith seemed more than compelled to sit and watch.

Moments later, they were sitting in front of the diner.

Genesis' chicklet was the only one who had the sense to drag his plate of food out with him, and so he munched quietly as the rest of them sat in awkward contemplation. All that could be heard was the quiet creak of old metal dangling from uncertain buildings and the quiet chewing from Cloud's younger counterpart.

"How long do you think they're going to, uh…" Zack pulled on his collar, trying to cool down. Angeal cleared his throat.

"If we had teased them at a more… secluded location, then maybe this wouldn't be a problem…"

Genesis, ever imaginative, muttered "I can only imagine what they're doing in there, tables destroyed, dishwear shattered…"

"They're not doing anything," replied tiny Cloud with his hands cupped around his eyes as he looked through the window. Genesis let out a "Hey!" but Aerith was by his side, looking through the tinted glass. "He's right, they're just sitting there… Ah!"

Zack stood up abruptly. "What? What is it?"

Aerith spun around, finger on the glass. "Cloud is eating your dumapple pie!" She looked astonished. Angeal and Genesis both relaxed, putting their hands on their heads. Zack made a whining noise.

"What? My pie!" He was quick to throw the doors open and rush inside, the rest of the group on his heels.

They were sitting, rather pleasantly, eating everyone else's food.

"Cloud, that's my pie!"

Cloud polished off the rest of Zack's food. "Then you shouldn't have left it unattended," he chided.

"Well if you two hadn't-" Aerith stopped Zack with a waffle in his mouth.

"Now now, don't get upset. The entire thing was rather refreshing!" She was sparkling. Cloud decided it was because she was a cetra, not because she was a teenage girl who had just seen two very attractive men go at each other. It was because she was a cetra.

"Well, I hate to cut this short," Kunsel stated "But we have places to be, things to sign, and monsters to kill." There was a collective sigh as they checked the time.

They all thanked Aerith for inviting them and left the restaurant a hefty tip, one for the loss of customers and the second for the trauma. As they were walking back to their van, the streets long since abandoned after hearing about an angry First, Genesis took the opportunity to slide over to the Golden First who was gliding down the road.

"So how was i-"

"If you finish that question I will personally ask Lazard to assign Cloud over to another General." Strife's voice could have frozen a bomb by that point.

Genesis stayed quiet, but on the ride back to ShinRA, thoughts were brewing. Poetic thoughts. M rated thoughts. Thoughts that, when put on paper, could theoretically make it into the Soldier's newspaper if he worked through the editor.

The young Cloud was the only one who noticed his dark chocolate chuckle on the ride back.