Glory and Gore

by cinnamorollroll

Summary:

The omega prince, Cloud Crescent, was waiting for his younger brother to return after five years away from each other. He couldn't wait to hug him and hear the voice that had always rung like little bells in his ears, innocent and happy simply to be allowed to play with Cloud after long hours of studying.

However, the person who stared at him now, grim and with poisonous green eyes, was very different from the memory he had of his brother.

Chapter 1: Prologue

Notes:

Hiii, I know I said I would only be writing my other projects after finishing "it's all about us", BUT... I couldn't resist. You only live once and all of that.

I hope you enjoy this story! Beware of the tags and I'll be updating them as I go.

Waking up that day was as bitter as the coffee from foreign lands that Cloud adored so much. The sun's rays had not yet broken through the curtains of his quarters and so he decided to snuggle back into the blankets, but failed in his attempt to fall asleep.

His freedom had always been scarce due to the status he carried for being an omega — even though such a rank was extremely rare and sought-after in society. When his hips began to take on a softer, rounder shape, he saw the court's gaze on his body change and knew that his life would never be the same. He became a good, a bargaining chip not unlike a horse or cow, raised and groomed for years simply to offer his royal womb to some decrepit lord who needed to continue his own pathetic bloodline. 

However, despite his woes, Cloud managed to be content within the dark walls of the castle, recognizing that there were far worse fates than his. And after all, he had already achieved the feat of delaying his own wedding as long as possible, rejecting every proposal thrown his way.

Now that he was twenty-one summers old, his honorable father wouldn't allow it anymore or else the merchandise might spoil, he said, he was too old and soon no respectable party would want him regardless of his noble title and superior station, because everyone would know there was something wrong with him and a dry womb would be the least of his problems.

As a result, all the unmarried and widowed lords would flock to the capital to have a chance to ask for the omega's hand in marriage, perhaps thus having a shot at the throne. Some even appreciated Cloud's reputation as a shrew, so it would be much more fun to break him.

All this was so different from the romance stories he grew up reading and then proceeded to read aloud to Sephiroth before they slept together. An honest alpha knight saving the omega maiden, the plots used to vary, but the outcome remained the same with a beautiful happy ending.

The only positive thing the courtship announcement offered was the return of his younger brother: Sephiroth Crescent, alpha prince and heir to the throne. They hadn't seen each other for five years, but Cloud had never stopped loving him unconditionally, he was his only family.

He would hug him and listen to his sweet voice, with the short silver hair that always tickled his nose and made him sneeze. This gift alone was enough to send him on his way to the chapel without complaint. 

And his father knew this, so before Cloud could go on another hunger strike, the king blackmailed him with the presence of the one he most wanted to see, inviting Sephiroth back home.

Lost in thought, the ladies-in-waiting invaded the royal bedroom to prepare him for the day. Before the alphas and betas of the kingdom arrived, a big party would be held to celebrate the return of his younger brother, after all, he would be king one day and that was even more important than announcing the oldest's wedding.

Cloud organized every detail of the feast, from the menu to the flowers that would decorate the hall. He hoped to still know something of little Sephiroth's personal tastes and please him.

His attendants bathed him and perfumed him from head to toe with essential oils, his long messy hair was combed with appreciation and the pink make-up on his lips would catch anyone's eye, even if he wasn't looking to win his younger brother's favor, it was the standard to be followed as an available omega.

But he did want to look decent after so many years, he was only a teenager when Sephiroth left and he didn't care much about his appearance at the time. He wanted to show how much he had grown.

"Ouch!" Cloud groaned in pain as he was squeezed by the corselet, narrowing his waist and making his chest bulge out of his cleavage. This was the only positive aspect, as the omega prince had always found his breasts small compared to the others at court. 

“Forgive me, Your Highness,” Layla, the youngest, pleaded with him. She always seemed frightened, but she was extremely loyal. Perhaps one feeling fed the other.

Cloud only asked if they were ready to go when the wolf sigil was placed on his silky blue dress; Fenrir, symbol of his house.

With the expensive choker around his neck, preventing the release of his scent, Cloud was finally allowed to leave his own chambers and ate his breakfast at the empty table. Which wasn't always a bad thing when you could steal as many pastries as you wanted.

All his royal duties were put on hold until further notice with the arrival of the Prince Regent, so Cloud walked out onto the balconies overlooking the sea and enjoyed the salty breeze, wondering if every boat that passed was carrying his brother. 

A few hours later, he was summoned to the throne room by the King and every hurried step made his heart beat faster, but he tried not to show it in view of his father's mercurial disposition.

The hall was filled with members of the court and Cloud greeted them cordially, but he couldn't even remember what he had said to them or who they were, so focused was he on just one thing when the doors to the hall were opened by the guards and his presence was announced.

“Prince Regent and Protector of the Realm, Sephiroth Crescent!”

Everyone turned to see him, and Cloud's breath caught in his throat with every step the dark boots took towards him. The smell of blood, iron and something else invaded the omega's sensitive nose, his brother no longer carried the smell of a pup's milk and it broke his heart with the sense of danger that surrounded him at that moment, the scent of something vile embracing him against his will. 

The long silver hair, longer than his own, swayed with every movement and fell over the dark armor that looked more like dragon skin than the leather they were used to, with pointed bones designed to protect the shoulders. But what shocked him most was the height of the alpha who had once been a little boy hiding his shy face in Cloud's belly, he was tall and stared down at the omega with scorn. 

His matured face no longer bore the childish chubbiness of his cheeks and his long nose complemented him well, even if his fleshy mouth drew a cruel, predatory smile. A scar under his right eye ran down to his cheek, too thin and clearly well cared for not to ruin the prince's face, but Cloud couldn't help the surge of concern that seized him at the moment and clenched his hand to avoid touching the tarnished skin.

The parted hair didn't hide his poisonous green eyes, so different from the light blue that the omega could remember every emotion reflected in them by heart. His little brother had become such a handsome boy, but his scent almost suffocated him, bringing tears to his eyes.

The throne room was deadly silent, and the alpha ignored the court rules of greeting the King first, preferring his brother. Cloud didn't dare say anything when Sephiroth — he had trouble assimilating his name to what he saw in front of him — opened his arms and smiled more gently, to make him docile.

“Aren't you going to give your brother a hug?”

Notes:

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Chapter 2: I

Notes:

Hope you like it!

The “Realm's Delight” was how Cloud Crescent became known by the people when he was born with a loud cry after hours of labor, showing off his strong lungs. Bells rang throughout the land announcing his arrival and good health, and weeks of festivities and the like were decreed to celebrate his name day.

Little Cloud didn't know, and this would be a delicate subject for his mentors to deal with in the future, but his birth symbolized that peace would finally fall upon the kingdom, which still slumbered in fear of the return of war. One hundred years was the time that Great House Strife reigned, but it succumbed to the power of House Crescent, which decimated much more than it had lost in battle.

To prevent the blood from being completely wiped out, the council came up with a proposal that, for centuries, prevented the terrible conflicts from getting even worse: a wedding. 

The starving people could hardly care about matters of nobility, they were part of another reality, but still people always remember. And they couldn't forget that what was uncertain finally came to an end with the birth of the prince, preventing them from eating each other with hunger.

The promise of peace baptized him as a saint, a martyr.

His blond hair was inherited from his mother, Queen Claudia, Strife by birth and Crescent by marriage. But his eyes, as blue as the ocean that bathed the Royal Keep, came from his father, King Marius Crescent. That's what everyone said.

After years of waiting and trying, the royal lineage was finally blessed with a child, but this being, even with his legion of worshippers, would never ascend to the throne due to his status as an omega. His class could only ever reach the rank of King Consort, but Marius would never allow another House to take the place of the Crescent family to reign after everything, which left him with an uncertain future as long as he didn't have an alpha or beta son. 

A man, the preferred choice of the Church.

And almost four years later the request was fulfilled with the birth of their second child; Sephiroth Crescent, alpha, clear-eyed, bearing a name common in his mother's house, as well as the silver hair.

Cloud didn't remember in detail, too young for that at the age of three, but he followed his mother's pregnancy closely — laying the head on her belly and listening to every move Sephy made, sometimes kicking his chubby face when he got too close. 

“I love you, Sephy,” speaking Sephiroth was too complicated for his tender age, but that didn't stop him from adoring the babe even before he was born. 

Claudia used to read to them both when she was pregnant. Tales of their home containing magic and myths, faraway and exotic lands, so distant from the kingdom where they now resided that they could have been merely a dream of their ancestors. 

A castle in the clouds of Ancient Nibelheim, high enough that only dragons could find it.

“That's why you're called ‘Cloud’, my love,” his mother explained to him in one of her readings.

The omega prince remembered the birth of Sephiroth because it had brought a horrible snowstorm, where anyone who entered the castle could no longer leave and a great bloody tournament was held to celebrate it, where the men consumed more than enough alcohol to keep their bodies warm.

A prince of summer and a prince of winter, gold and silver, alpha and omega. 

“Do you want to hold him?” Claudia asked him when Cloud had escaped from the party in the main hall, he thought it was strange that his brother was being celebrated, but he wasn't there and their mother looked increasingly pale.

The King had only glanced once at Sephiroth, noticing his distinctive silver hair and dark scales, and had not set foot in the young prince's nursery again.

“I want to, Mother, please,” Cloud said with a nod.

“How polite,” Claudia joked.

The Queen arranged him on the armchair so that he could hold the babe. He was so small and drooled on his fingers, but he kept looking at Cloud curiously, with his vertical pupils.

“Why are his eyes like that?” he asked at the peak of his innocence.

“It's in both your blood, like dragons and snakes are the House's sigil,” she explained calmly, stroking Cloud's hair and then his shoulder covered by the golden ornament of his dress. 

“I thought our prorectors was the wolf.”

“Protectors,” she corrected, finding it funny and coughing weakly. "It's a sigil from our family, well... my Strife family. Look, notice how he pays attention to you, he must recognize your voice."

“Really?!” Cloud exclaimed too loudly, startling the babe, but the infant was so quiet that he didn't complain.

“He must smell your omega scent too, I've always heard that babies love it, but I'm a beta,” the Queen said, watching Sephiroth cuddle up to his brother and drool all over him.

“Ew!” 

Claudia laughed and, after a while, her firstborn blinked longingly, feeling sleepiness visiting him. So she put them both to rest on the large bed where the servants had changed the sheets that had previously been covered in blood. She watched over them throughout the night, with maesters coming and going at every moment.

“We need them to leave to look after you, Your Majesty.”

“Let them stay, please.” Despite the words, she used her strength to make the order clear.

The movement inside the room didn't bother the omega, but Cloud felt a familiar scent cover him like a fluffy blanket, he thought his father had left the festivities to visit them, but when he opened his eyes he saw only his uncle, Sir Thoren Strife, Commander of the Royal Guard.

“The maester said that if my mate scented me, my health would improve.”

That was the last thing he heard before falling into a comfortable sleep.

 

---

 

Since the birth of his baby brother, their mother's health had only deteriorated. The queen had spent two days in labor, resulting in a very complicated, painful birth. Poor Cloud didn't understand what all this meant exactly, why several caregivers were coming in and out of his mother's room with bandages full of blood.

The prince was advised to stay away so as not to distract the maesters from their duty and thought about spending some time with the King, who was always present during the alpha son's festivities. At first, all the attention of the evening was attractive to Cloud, all the ladies and lords said how delicate he was, so very cute with his round cheeks and that he would make a good husband one day. Oh, how rare omegas are!

The child soon tired of it all; the liquor breath and noble talk quickly lost their magic. So for that first week after Sephiroth's birth, the omega spent most of his time in the nursery with the wet nurses who looked after the newborn in the absence of the incapacitated Queen.

Sephiroth was generally very quiet, hardly any trouble at all, but even so, the little being was vulnerable to missing his mother and when he cried, Cloud was the only one who could calm him down, perhaps because of his omega scent, the nannies said, it was a strong instinct and soon he would be a good mother. However, Cloud didn't want to be a mother, he just wanted Sephiroth to grow up soon so that they could play and ride horses as he saw the knights doing every morning.

“Grow up soon, grow up soon,” he hummed to his brother who followed him with his gaze, fascinated by that off-key song.

His paradise surrounded by childish daydreams was interrupted at dawn when he was summoned by his uncle to the Queen's chambers to say goodbye. 

The mother's quarters, once so fragrant with roses and essences, now smelled of medicinal herbs and milk of the poppy, the latter used to soothe the patient's pain. Cloud sneezed because of his sensitive nose and frightened Sephiroth into his arms. 

“Come here, my sweets,” Claudia said weakly, immersing herself in blankets to bring out the warmth that insisted on leaving her pale body. 

“Your Majesty, perhaps it's better that-”

“Leave us,” she said and when she wasn't obeyed, the queen raised her voice. “That's an order!”

Thoren led the masters to the door and closed it behind him, standing guard as he watched the little family on their mother's dying bed. Cloud climbed onto the bed and offered the baby, who was strapped to his chest. Claudia watched Sephiroth's scaly cheeks and silver hair before cradling Cloud with a free arm, hugging him against her trembling skin. 

The queen showered the two princes with kisses and apologized; the omega accepted them all, but couldn't understand why she was saying sorry if she hadn't done anything.

In the middle of the nest, the mother asked Cloud to tell her how he was doing, if he was struggling in his lessons, if he was eating too many lemon cakes and what he dreamed about at night.

“I dream about the three of us playing together,” he said. “With Dad and Uncle Thoren too, of course.”

“That sounds like a very sweet dream,” Claudia laughed. “You're a great big brother, my dear Cloud, please, I need you to keep looking after him when I'm no longer here.”

“Where are you going?” The prince asked, curious, but bathed in an ill feeling.

“I'm going somewhere far, far away.”

“Like the Castle in the Clouds?”

“Yes,” she smiled at her son's innocence, even though she was dizzy.

“And I can't go with you?” 

"And who would keep little Sephiroth company? He may only be a babe now, but he'll grow up soon and then you'll play together as you have dreamed of, and then you can visit me."

“Really?” 

“Really,” she swore and her blue eyes looked red in the candlelight. “I want you to have this, it belonged to our Strife family and now it's yours.”

The Queen removed the dark necklace from around her own neck and placed it in Cloud's small hand. It was made of dark iron and the twisted cord had small red stones until it reached the dragon-designed pendant, the beast's tail glowing red along with its claws and teeth.  

That would be the last conversation she would have with her children. Queen Claudia died of blood loss and the celebrations finally ended, a week after Sephiroth's birth, the bells rang once again to signal his mother's passing.

 

---

 

After the Queen's death, Marius Crescent became a grumpy and bitter King, putting the blame for her death on his heir. He said that his monstrosity was reflected in his scaly skin, bringing harm to his own mother.

As well as evil whispers that ran through the castle walls, especially about that fine silver hair.

Cloud couldn't believe it, Sephy was just a baby! He couldn't kill someone if he tried, he couldn't even speak his own name. And it was beneath his father to attack his mother's image when she was already dead, Sephiroth was a gift from her, that's what Uncle Thoren told Cloud when he guarded Sephiroth's room at night.

So the church was called to perform the prediction of the heir to the throne, guided by a holy prophet, they said. The King's council opened a circle for the baby in the cradle in the middle of the hall. The King stroked his black beard impatiently, the dark circles deep in his tired eyes.

Wearing his long blue dress, as blue as his father's eyes, Cloud looked at the whole scene with the understanding of a child. He touched his own necklace left by his mother and wanted at all costs to go to Sephiroth, who was looking at the candles around him with rapt attention—or as much attention as a baby could have. The omega prince tried to go towards Sephiroth, but his uncle's hand stopped him.

“Calm down,” he whispered. His lilac eyes were sad and his platinum hair messy, not at all appropriate for the commander of the royal guard. "This is standard procedure, Prince Sephiroth has survived for a year and as future King he will receive his prophecy. If we're lucky, it'll be a good one."

“And if we're not lucky?” But his uncle said nothing, keeping his hand on his sword.

Cloud went back to watching his little brother in the cradle, hoping that he would feel comfortable with the plush wolves and dragons that the omega had placed next to him. He scratched his nose with the incense in the room as the door to the hall opened, and several priests passed through in their ceremonial robes, and finally a little girl who looked about his age.

She had long brown hair tied up in a braid that almost dragged on the floor, was wearing a light pink cloak with red dye on the hem and her feet were bare.

Eyes as green as the dense forests shone like emeralds, where each light reflected a different destiny. 

The religious men, together with the girl, knelt before the King sitting on the throne. 

“Your grace,” the oldest of them said and stood up again. "It is an honor to envision the future of your son, the heir to the throne. May his prophecy be benevolent, for the sake of the whole kingdom."

“Proceed,” the King ordered.

Then the ritual began with all the priests praying around the baby, who drooled during the whole thing. Maybe he wanted to take a nap, Cloud thought. The fire in the candles began to flicker and the girl put both hands together and closed her eyes, speaking in a language that Prince Omega didn't understand.

Suddenly, green dust gathered on the floor, illuminating it and like fireflies making the council gasp at the display of magic as everything stopped and the girl fell to her knees.

She had come to a verdict and Cloud hoped it would be positive, he prayed without knowing how to, hoping it would be good, because Sephiroth was just a little child, his little brother.

The Oracle opened her eyes and faced Cloud, who clutched his mother's necklace in fear, but she only smiled at the omega.

“Attention to the prophetess' prediction,” said the elderly priest and all the other religious stood up. “Tell us what you saw, Most Honorable Oracle.”

She beckoned to the man with her finger and he bent down to hear her whisper in his ear.

“Prince Sephiroth... will live a long and happy life... and will be a good King for his kingdom, merciful and just.” 

“You don't want me to believe this child's words, do you?” Marius asked, frowning. He couldn't accept it, as he searched for an excuse in his immense hatred for his own son. 

"Your Majesty, Aerith is young, but she has already demonstrated a vast knowledge of world events, even without having read history books. She underwent extensive tests at our temple and excelled in all of them. She draws wisdom from the Earth that has felt everything, every drop of blood and rain. I swear on my life."

“Wisdom often comes from the mouth of a child, Your Grace,” said the King's lord advisor. “We should celebrate a revelation as good as this, we are a very fortunate kingdom.”

“A creature of this appearance can bring nothing but strife,” he replied. “Let alone be King of a nation.”

“Are you afraid of a baby?” Cloud questioned loudly and all eyes turned to the prince. “He can't even go to the chamberpot on his own, what harm could he do?”

His reasoning drew several laughs from the royal council, who pretended to cough to escape the king's fury at being contradicted by his own five-year-old son in front of everyone. 

Before the King could say anything, Aerith raised her hand.

"If I may, Your Grace, if it's his appearance that bothers Your Majesty, we can perform a purification ritual. These traits are very common in children with... with blood from Ancient Nibelheim."

Intrigued, the King allowed them to proceed with the ceremony. First, the little priestess asked them to bring a tub of boiling water, towels and salt. 

When Aerith lowered the baby into the steaming water, Cloud almost asred for her head, but the baby only laughed in the boiling pool. 

"Don't worry, my prince, look how happy he is. Come here, Your Highness, please," she called to him and Cloud approached and took the towels in his small hands. “Roll the cloth in the salt and rub it on his scales.”

“But it's only salt,” the omega said innocently. “What can it do?”

“Ah, but it's salt that's been blessed in the temple, Your Highness,” Aerith explained. "See how it's darker than ordinary salt? They say that it came from the volcanic beaches of Ancient Nibelheim."

“Ah...” Cloud followed her instructions and watched as the thick scales on his cheeks seemed to fall off painlessly in the hot water. Even his dark fingernails and fingertips looked like those of a normal baby now.

“This temperature is perfect for a little dragon like him,” Aerith whispered in his ear. “This water won't burn you.”

After the ritual, a great feast awaited them to celebrate the fortunate revelation of the future King. Sephiroth slept in his nursery, away from all the noise while everyone ate and drank as usual, with good music and dancing, but Cloud kept looking at the guests of honor, especially the girl. 

He waited for her to get up and followed Aerith, but it was to be expected that the Oracle would guess everything, as she turned around as soon as the two of them were alone on the balcony at the side of the hall.

The boy closed the door behind him; he was young, but old enough to know that not everything should be heard by the people of the capital.

“Can I help you, Your Highness?” she asked and Cloud realized that they were the same height.

“Your hair is beautiful,” he said at first. “And I'd like to be your friend.”

“People in my position don't usually have friends, but... I know we'll be good ones, Your Highness,” she joked, holding Cloud's hands, her cold fingers between the omega's warm ones. “You don't believe my prediction about Prince Sephiroth Crescent?” 

"I don't mean to insult you, but you knew I wished for something good and... you looked at me at the same moment. I appreciate that you wanted to protect Sephiroth, but tell me the truth, just for me."

“Sephiroth will be the ruin of the kingdom, the calamity of House Crescent,” Aerith recited. “That is the truth, Your Highness.”

Notes:

What do you think? :D Leave comments and kudos if you liked it, please! I think I could have written more, but the goal was just smut and no plot, so I think it's good enough when you look at it this way.
Next chapter we're gonna have sefikura interacting as cute little kids! And they have a three-year age difference, Sephiroth is younger than Cloud here. One of my friends thought it would be strange, but I guess it's nice for Cloud to be older here and then Sephiroth getting taller than him in a few years. And of course, their uncle has the appearance of a typical Targaryen, they're my favorite House, I only watch the show because of them. I've been binge-watching GOT these weeks to get in the mood to write this one, but I'll try writing the next it's all about us chapter <333

Hope you liked it, have a nice weekend!

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Chapter 3: II

Notes:

THIS CHAPTER IS SO LONG I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!!! 😭😭😭😭 Like, I was going to split this, post the first part yesterday and the other one today because it wasn't supposed to be this long, but I didn't want to "break" the rhythm of the chapter, so here we are. Also, let me tell you a secret: I was only going to write a oneshot for Glory and Gore.

PAY ATTENTION TO THE TAGS AND WARNINGS!

Anyways, hope you enjoy it.

Cloud had a habit of observing his younger brother's flawless pinkish skin whenever they played together and, now that he was mature enough to understand that his mother hadn't simply traveled, the omega missed the heritage of Old Nibelheim in Sephiroth. As if those details were the little connection to Claudia and what was left of her house. 

“I miss you,” he used to whisper before the looking glass, the spitting image of his mother.

He cried himself to sleep when the emptiness in his heart grew too much, the loneliness consuming him, swallowing the prince in one bite, a little thing compared to that huge castle.

Cloud attempted to imitate the late Queen, the colors and jewelry she wore, the way she walked, reading the same stories he learned to Sephiroth... trying to keep her memory alive, but sometimes he couldn't even remember the sound of Claudia's voice or the warmth of her hugs.

During his history lessons, Cloud learned that he, Thoren and Sephiroth, were the only people left with pure Strife blood, the rest of the family having been annihilated during The Great Rebellion that stripped the house of its throne, in a dynasty that lasted for years until then. 

“The King joined the other powerful houses of the kingdom and married Claudia Strife in an act of benevolence,” his caregivers said without further explanation. It didn't make sense and it didn't change the feeling of longing for something he had never experienced.

So yes, he was feeling a bit lonely and even dared to say melancholy. Everyone looked so different, it was strange to look at his relatives on his father's side and see how they had dark, curly hair, nothing that little Cloud could look at and say: “Look, we have the same nose!”

Cloud even tried to play with the other children in the castle, children of lords, but in the end, he preferred to spend time with Sephiroth, trying to teach him what he learned in his lessons so that he could grow very intelligent in the future.

Normally he only babbled, but he seemed like a happy baby most of the time. When he managed to get him to say “Cloud”, his first word, the prince twirled him around the room until they got tired.

“A Strife alone in the world is a terrible thing,” uncle Thoren used to say. The knight, once so desirable even with his oath of chastity, now constantly scratched his own neck and had deep dark circles under his eyes after spending sleepless nights in Sephiroth's room.

“But I'm here with you, uncle,” Cloud said and saw the small smile forming upon his thin lips.

"Yes, you're right, Cloudy. Thanks for keeping me company."

So while Sephiroth was still a (very big and happy!) baby, the omega prince spent most of the time at his lessons, in his brother's nursery or at the temple with Aerith. His new friend was always very welcoming and waited for him with a dessert ready whenever he visited.

A much more useful companion than his ladies-in-waiting, who would reprimand him if he ate too much pastry.

“How did you know this was my favorite?” Cloud asked as he ate the lemon cakes.

“Intuition!” Aerith replied jokingly. 

After a while, Cloud learned not to ask such obvious questions, given the prophetess's power to predict and know things. 

“But I can't control everything, for example,” she once explained. "A big ceremony like Sephiroth's will certainly show me something, but I can't control exactly what I'll see most of the time. I saw that you'd be eating lemon cake and saying it was your favorite, but that was before I met you."

“That's why you knew we'd be friends,” he concluded and saw his friend's smile, all smeared with cake.

However, Aerith was more adventurous than she appeared, yet no matter how much the temple's priests insisted on treating her like a porcelain doll under lock and key, she always found a way to escape—being a seer was advantageous in many ways. Cloud, of course, went with her and one or two guards whom the omega ordered to stay well away so as not to ruin their disguises, which consisted of frayed pants and cloaks that hid their faces under the hoods. 

The two friends liked to visit the city or simply go to the orphanage in the capital. Aerith was very compassionate, able to understand someone's side of the tale even if she didn't share their fate, something that gradually softened Cloud's heart. Or so he claimed, but the priestess was keen to expose him.

“You've always had a soft heart, Your Highness,” Aerith said with a smile, her milk teeth missing. “I remember how you protected your brother that day.”

“But Sephiroth is my brother, of course I would defend him!” But his excuses fell on deaf ears, especially when he was teaching underprivileged children how to read the stories his mother had told him once.

Cloud still couldn't believe the prophecy Aerith had shared with him, the real one. His brother would never be capable of something like that, he was sure. However, his friend always explained that a prophecy could have several interpretations and there was no stopping it, no matter how hard you tried.

“Then why did you lie? The King could have your head for this if he knew,” Cloud asked her curiously. 

“Whatever shall happen it's already decided, only fool men would try to change that. And you seemed worried to death… because you have a soft heart.”

“Aerith!”

 

---

 

Even though Sephiroth no longer bore his draconic features, the King still didn't seem satisfied. He appeared to want something to be wrong with the boy so that he could get rid of him with good reason.

His impatience made the atmosphere in the castle tense and the firstborn couldn't concentrate on his studies for fear that Sephiroth would disappear just as his mother had done. The same father who had pampered him and treated him so well had changed completely with Sephiroth's arrival and Claudia's departure. The omega no longer sat on his lap in the throne room or accompanied him to council meetings.

Until one day, the perfect opportunity presented itself when a terrible fever struck the Crescent territory, killing several commoners and plaguing some of the Fortress's employees. In order to protect the royal bloodline, Sephiroth was secretly sent to the protective Lords of the Valley, far from the capital.

Cloud thought he would go with him, but he was ordered to remain in the castle. Seeing the sadness in his eyes, Thoren left with Sephiroth and promised to take good care of the pup.

He only saw Sephiroth again when he was ten and his brother was seven.

The first-born ran to the castle gates, giving his nannies a lot of trouble, but the blond pup didn't pay any mind on account of being so anxious. The last time they had seen each other, he had held the baby in his arms and wet his cheeks with his salty tears, saddened by the separation. Sephiroth probably didn't remember him now, but Cloud had loved him and that feeling had never gone away despite the distance.

The carriage stopped and Cloud jumped a little, not knowing what to do with so much energy, until the door opened and out came his uncle Thoren, older than he remembered, and the septas who were responsible for the child. Finally, he saw a trail of silver and his heart pounded; Sephiroth was no longer that chubby baby he had looked after, he confessed that he couldn't even remember exactly what he looked like and if it hadn't been for his gray hair, so different from the others, he might even have doubted whether this was really his brother, but the aroma of milk that invaded the omega's senses didn't fool him, it was the scent of the pup he hadn't smelled for a long time. 

The pup was dressed in black, very somber for a child, but he also wore a light blue cape, the color of the Crescent house.

And even with his designation, he didn't have any alpha characteristics like the other boys at court, who were always loud and energetic. Sephiroth behaved extremely shyly and hid behind the skirts of the septas who laughed at his introverted, but sweet manner. Sephiroth stared at the ground and did everything he could to escape Cloud's gaze.

The omega didn't hold back because of this and quickly went up to the pup, holding out his hand. 

“Hi, I'm your big brother!”

“H-Hello, Your Highness,” the alpha whispered and Cloud laughed to think that the boy's voice sounded nothing like the baby's cry that had given him such a headache a few years ago. 

The omega tried to introduce himself with all the politeness he had been taught, but his manners failed him when Sephiroth went to shake his hand and Cloud pulled him into a tight embrace, feeling the boy shiver at his touch. 

He didn't seem to know exactly what to do and didn't even return the hug, so it was like hugging a rag doll, but the warmth coming from Sephiroth proved to him that he was real. 

“Come on, we're going to play now,” Cloud said and pulled him into the castle, intending to show every inch of the boy’s old home.

The two passed by the stables and Sephiroth seemed to enjoy the presence of the animals, quickly making friends with the horses there. Cloud even jokingly remarked that Star—a white-coated mare—would be his companion because they had the same hair, but the kid didn't laugh. They walked together to the fields and gardens of the castle and even while they were picking flowers, Sephiroth made a point of keeping a considerable distance from Cloud and jumped at every mention of a touch; the omega couldn't put up with that behavior for another minute.

“Sephiroth, I’m tired of this,” the omega said while holding a hydrangea flower, the blue petals were as delicate as the alpha’s eyes. “We’re supposed to play and have fun with each other, we’re brothers after all.”

“It’s not…” Sephiroth mumbled and stuttered, but was unable to finish his sentence. 

“So you don’t like me, is that it?” Cloud assumed and controlled his need to cry, pouting his lips as if the act alone was enough to erase the tears that were blurring his vision. He condemned his own father for this, if Cloud had grown up with Sephiroth he would love him back now, the younger would not see him as a stranger. “You’ll be king one day, say what you want to say.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“Yes, I do,” Sephiroth said and for the first time that day, he looked into Cloud’s eyes. Two different blues. The words sounded mechanical, as if he had been preparing to say them for a long time, but Cloud could feel the loneliness that mirrored his own.

“I’m sorry for killing your mother, your highness. They say that you look like her and to imagine that I was the one to… I’m sorry.”

“Is that what people told you?” Cloud asked after a few moments, Sephiroth seemed ready to flee, but he was expecting the punishment the omega deemed fit. “Who told you that? Tell me right now.”

“I heard people talking and Ser Thoren, he never said it, but… I can say that he misses Queen Claudia very much, so I’m so–”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Sephiroth,” Cloud interrupted him and dropped the flowers that ended up ruined under his grip and held the alpha’s childish face. “You are her son too, you know? Mother loved you so much, her only regret was that she couldn’t be with you for longer.”

“Really?” Sephiroth asked, his voice sounded so weak and small, Cloud vowed to never let him feel that way again.

“Really, so don’t ever tell me you’re sorry again, alright?”

“I’m so–,” Sephiroth started saying and then corrected himself, looking at his feet in embarrassment. “Alright.”

“Here,” Cloud said and removed the serpent necklace he wore religiously and put it on Sephiroth’s hands, the alpha seemed confused and pursed his lips, looking so much like the baby he once knew. “She gave me this and now I’m giving you, so don’t say any more stupid things.”

“I promise,” and as soon as the words left the alpha’s mouth, Cloud hugged him, but for the first time, he was hugged back. Tiny arms and wrists embraced him fiercely despite how weak they looked. 

The Prince Regent's return was not met with parties or any great show of celebration and, as much as guilt consumed him, Cloud was happy that the two brothers could spend the whole day together, without any real responsibility. The pair retired to a more secluded area of the gardens, an open field, where they could lie on the soft grass and sit against trees as old as the fortress they resided in. 

As Sephiroth told him, very shyly, how he had spent those years away, Cloud smiled at the thought of how he was the cutest pup in the whole kingdom, his opinion not biased at all. His short silver hair charmed him relentlessly and despite the introverted personality, he hadn't let go of the omega's hand for a single minute, squeezing it to find comfort. 

But he could offer much more than that and so the first-born prince pulled his younger brother onto his lap to scent him, the latter immediately falling silent without knowing how to react.

"You've never done that? Scenting?" Cloud asked and only received a nod in reply. “I used to do it with you when you were very small, it's to bring comfort and as we're brothers, it's ideal to share our scent.”

It makes you realize that you're part of a family, he wanted to say.

“How... How do I do that?” Sephiroth asked innocently.

“Like this!” Cloud instructed him animatedly and rubbed his own cheeks against Sephiroth's, watching them turn pink from friction and embarrassment, his blue eyes and light eyebrows the only ones to escape the redness. “Can you smell that?”

“Uh-huh,” Sephiroth murmured and began to explore Cloud's scent more and more. It was sweet, but not cloying, and soon the scent of happy puppies was strong in the air, like warm milk.

The alpha snuggled against the omega's body and rested his icy nose against his older brother's neck, where the scent came from more intensely. The two of them talked slowly until they fell asleep and as soon as the sky turned lilac and the night began, the pups were woken up by the septas who were desperately searching for the King's children. Sephiroth still didn't have the courage to say what he wanted so openly, but his actions showed the truth and the way he squeezed his brother between his arms said that he didn't want to be separated from the comfortable bubble they had built together. 

Before it became a big problem, Cloud promised him that they would see each other after the bath, at dinner and every other day after that, so he didn't have to worry.

Sephiroth seemed to want to say something more, but he just said goodbye to Cloud and went to his quarters with the septas. Cloud, for his part, already knew the way and went to his own room, knowing that he was expected to bathe before supper. 

However, he found Uncle Thoren waiting for him in front of the door to the royal chambers and then realized that he had completely ignored him earlier because of Sephiroth, but the older man didn't seem angry about it and just welcomed him with open arms, scenting the top of his blond hair like family usually did. It's been so long since he scented someone like this besides Aerith or Sephiroth, it was almost enough to bring tears to his eyes.

“Uncle,” he greeted him as he was placed on the floor.

He observed the adult more closely and saw how his lilac eyes remained as attentive as before. The child had never seen the older alpha fight, but his tales were legendary for his bloody victories, and he had taken part in many wars in the past. The former Prince Strife was known for inspiring the respect of the Night's Watch, a branch that did and practiced justice and security for the kingdom and many still followed him without a second thought, even though he had surrendered during The Great Rebellion, kneeling and swearing allegiance to King Marius Crescent. Cloud was almost sorry to see such beautiful, almost white, shoulder-length silver hair. Thoren justified the length for safety in fights: “What if someone pulls my hair?” he always joked.

And no matter how much time passed, Ser Thoren still carried the air of royalty; he didn't turn his nose down at anyone and wasn't in the habit of asking twice to have his demands met. The former prince was known for his violence and carried a sword as dark as his draconic armor.

But to Cloud, he had always been uncle Thoren, loving and stable. The omega wondered how he and Sephiroth had spent all those years together, even with the letters he had no way of knowing.

"Hello, Cloud. How have you been?" Thoren asked. “You smell like Sephiroth, did you roll in the grass together?”

“Something like that,” Cloud laughed. "I'm fine, thanks for asking. And you?“

”Glad to be home, I've been away a long time," he commented. “What about your brother?”

“He's fairly quiet, but he's a very cute puppy.” Thoren laughed at the younger boy's description. 

"That sounds like him, quiet and polite to a fault, but still so stubborn. You'd think I was sending him to his death every time I encouraged him to make friends with some boy from the Valley. I'm glad he warmed up to you so quickly, he needs friends."

“What did you do in the Valley, Uncle?” 

“I supervised his upbringing and made sure that no assassination attempts succeeded.” 

“Assassination attempts?!” Cloud asked, shocked. 

"Many would gain from the death of the prince of the realm and as much as we tried hard not to let the information of his whereabouts come to light, some knew where Sephiroth was. He'll be safer here."

“Don't worry uncle, I'll take good care of him!” 

“I'm sure you will, but you don't have to worry so much, I taught him how to use the sword,” Thoren commented and ruffled Cloud's hair once more before heading off down the corridor. “See you later, Cloud.”

“See you...” 

As talented as his uncle was with the sword, Cloud's heart squeezed uncomfortably; after all, Sephiroth was so young and already needed these skills to defend himself against the world, it was not hard to imagine why he acted so closed off. 

Lost in thought, the omega prince had his body bathed by the maids in an almost boiling bath, the temperature was never high enough for Cloud's liking, but a heat stronger than this risked burning the loyal servants.

The clothes prepared for him were loose and comfortable, with a long dark blue skirt, and he couldn't help remembering Sephiroth's black robes. When he was deemed “ready” by the servants, Cloud walked to his brother's chambers so that he could accompany him to the dining room, but as soon as he opened the door, he realized that there was a great commotion in the royal bedroom.

“What's going on here?” Cloud asked. “Where's Sephiroth?”

“Your Highness!” The eldest of the servants exclaimed, as if the omega were a phantom, but you could still see the relief in her eyes. “Prince Sephiroth doesn't want to bathe, we've tried everything, but...”

How could they not tame a small child? That's what he wanted to ask, but instead Cloud just went to the bathroom and found two septas and Sephiroth inside the large copper tub with a less than pleasant expression.

“Your Highness, please let us bathe you or the water will get cold,” one of them called out, but the younger brother remained impassive.

“Then leave so I can bathe alone,” he ordered while covering his naked body as much as possible. “Please.”

“But that's inappropriate, we need to make sure the prince is properly looked after,” another servant spoke, fearful of answering to royalty even though Sephiroth was a child. They needed to follow specific rules to ensure the Prince Regent's hygiene.

“You heard the prince, leave us, please,” Cloud interrupted them and saw how the other three looked at him with surprise and hesitation. “I'll make sure he bathes properly.”

Still hesitant, the servants sensed that Cloud's tone left no room for discussion and left the bathroom, closing the door behind them. 

The omega walked over to the younger man and noticed how he was staring at the water, avoiding Cloud's gaze once again. 

"How did you used to bathe in the Valley? Didn't you have help?" the blond asked. 

“When I was a child, yes, but after a while... it was better for me to do it alone.”

“You're still a child, Sephiroth,” Cloud replied plainly, dipping his hand into the hot water. “It's all right now, I'll help you in the bath.” 

“But–”

“There's nothing I haven't already seen, Sephiroth,” Cloud joked to ease his brother's tension, watching his face take on a red tinge. “I've even risked changing a cloth diaper of yours before.”

With no escape, the youngest relaxed his posture and let his brother do as he saw fit, and through the hazy illusion of soap and oil, Cloud understood the reason for his resistance; the pale skin was covered in dark scales blooming over the bones of his spine as if to give the appearance of a tail, more dragon than boy. The curious omega sighed and lightly fingered his brother's backbone and the boy almost jumped under the touch, Cloud stared at his face and could see the rosy cheeks covered in tears.

Regret soon embraced his heart.

“I'm sorry, does that hurt?” the omega asked. 

“D-Don't look at me like that,” he cried and hid his face between his knees, his voice completely choked. “I'm so ugly, I don't want Your Highness to see me like this, please...”

“Ugly?” Cloud repeated the word incredulously. “Oh, Sephiroth, you’re the furthest thing from it, you’re so beautiful.”

As much as he said it, he could sense that the younger one didn't believe him and his sobs became louder and louder. Cloud hugged him until he calmed down, until he understood that he meant what he said. 

“When you were a baby, you were born with these marks and mother said it was a symbol of the house of Strife,” he explained calmly. “I loved them fiercely, but there’s a way to make them disappear. I did it once and I can do it again.”

“Truly?”

“Yes, it’s simple and harmless. Although I missed them, I would understand if you wanted to get rid of them. Is that what you want?”

“It is…” Sephiroth said it quietly after some time, muffled by knees against his mouth, but Cloud could understand the boy perfectly.  

“Then, it’s settled, you don’t need to worry about it, okay? I’m going to take care of this.”

“Thank you, Cloud.” and that was the first time Sephiroth said his name after so many years. Cloud cherished the moment and he felt tears prickling in his eyes, but contained himself. The older brother started bathing the younger as his servants used to do; applying soap to the body and massaging Sephiroth’s beautiful short hair, to keep it clean and pretty!

Now that Sephiroth was no longer agitated as before, Cloud could observe him closely and Sephiroth looked too prideful to be in that position—he was still an alpha and a prince of the realm, he was supposed to have some pride in him—but he seemed to be enjoying the care just as much. Maybe he was not so used to it. 

The omega thought the tiny alpha was falling asleep, but when he was done drying the hair with a towel, Sephiroth revealed something to him almost casually as if he wasn’t there at all.

"The septas took care of my bath, but when they saw signs of my monstrosity, they didn't have the courage to touch me anymore. Uncle asked me if I wanted him to threaten them, after all, they couldn't reject the prince, he said. But I didn't want that and started bathing alone," Sephiroth said. “And when I was by myself, I tried to pull the scales off with my nails, but it bled too much and gave me a huge scar, so I never tried again.”

Cloud looked down and saw the white mark on Sephiroth's lower back and stroked the area gently with great sadness.

"Please don't do that again. Never."

“I won't, you said you like them.”

After that, the two brothers went back to the bedroom and found out that the servants had already prepared the alpha prince’s clothes and shoes. Cloud helped him as much as he could, but the omega didn’t know how to deal with his boots, but Sephiroth seemed used to the process already and put on his shoes by himself. 

“Why do you dress all-black?” Cloud asked curiously.

“I like it,” Sephiroth answered simply, like he had no other reason for it.

“Fair enough.” 

When they arrived at the dining hall to eat together, the King had already left due to such a long wait and Cloud felt bad for Sephiroth that Marius hadn't made an effort to welcome him after so long, but the alpha even seemed relieved about it, a clear tension leaving his body. 

The two chatted throughout the night and the omega insisted that his brother sit next to him at the table. While Cloud enjoyed all kinds of desserts tremendously, he discovered that Sephiroth liked lamb and fish—the last one was a rarity in the Valley—but his favorite food was pasta, of all kinds. Cloud would make a point of memorizing his preferences for the kitchen, doing his utmost to ensure that Sephiroth would enjoy living in the castle with him.

 

---

 

“Cloud, I got these for you,” Sephiroth said and offered pink roses to his older brother. Surely ruining the gardener's work, but he thought it was worth it when he smelled the sweet scent of happiness coming from the omega. He usually did things just to see if he would receive the same reaction again and again.

“Sephiroth!” Cloud greeted him, putting a book aside to hold his gift, but the moment he did, the omega noticed the blood on the alpha’s hands. “What happened to your hands?”

The boy didn't answer, he actually looked quite bashful, but Cloud grabbed his hands carefully and saw the wounds provoked by the thorns. He made his way to the luxurious fontaine in the middle of the garden and called his brother, then he submerged the injured hands into the water, until the redness faded. 

“ Argh ! It burns,” Sephiroth complained.

“It's just water, my crybaby,” Cloud said softly.

“I'm not a crybaby…”

“But you're so cute. The cutest pup in the realm!”

“I don't wanna be a pup, I wanna be an alpha!” Sephiroth explained grumply. 

Then the omega kissed the wet hands so they could “heal”, his mother did that to him when he used to fall on his knees and Cloud wanted to give the same comfort to Sephiroth.

“Be careful next time, okay?”

“Alright,” they gray-haired answered, his face all red.

“And you don't need to be so eager to become an alpha,” Cloud said, already imagining Sephiroth all grown-up and tall. “Grow slower so I can hold you for longer.” 

“You can always hold me, Cloud!” he said, full of eagerness. 

“You say that now, but one day you'll grow up and become an important person from court and think differently.” 

“I won't, I promise,” Sephiroth vowed and kissed Cloud cheek as an apology.

Cloud sighed thinking about how cute his little brother was, acting as if he really could stop time and there was nothing wrong with that. 

“Can you read to me again?” Sephiroth asked innocently, trying to change the subject seeing how his older brother seemed lost in his own thoughts—and stopped giving attention to him.

The content of the books were all romantic and Cloud was young but he knew that the reality was drastically different and most of the weddings were a political matter, not love. In the future, there wouldn't be a shining knight out of nowhere save him and Cloud would marry someone that he wasn't infatuated with, but it was nice to think about those different universes that were far away from his reach.

So he read the stories and teased the pup when Sephiroth said that he didn't wish to get married. 

“But you'll have to,” Cloud said.

“No,” he whined cutely against the blue fabric of the dress. “I'll just marry you, you're my best friend. We'll eat sweets and read books forever.”

And Cloud laughed like it was the most childish thing to say, not the goal of a marriage at all. He would be worried if he didn't go around saying he would marry father when he was the same age, it seemed most of the kids went through that phase. He was the only reference of an omega to Sephiroth. 

But the omega prince could admit that his heart clenched a little bit when he imagined Sephiroth being King and married to some stranger. Cloud would be living far, far away giving kids to some alpha lord, performing his duty instead of protecting his little brother.

“I will have to marry someone in the future too,” and as soon as the words came out of his mouth it seemed like the wrong thing to say at the moment. Sephiroth was too dignified to throw a tantrum, even at such a young age, but he seemed very close to starting one.

When he disclosed this piece of information to Aerith, she said that Sephiroth was probably feeling very vulnerable right now as he spent most of his life alone and secluded, but now finally had someone he valued, any threat to that peace wasn't appreciated.

A few seasons have passed since Sephiroth started living at the Keep. He was quiet and shy around strangers, always hiding behind Cloud’s skirt, but at least now he acted freely around the omega. The counselors always stated that the King was too busy with royal affairs, so they were used to being each other’s company. Sephiroth didn’t enjoy feeling anyone else’s touch and yet the older brother bathed the younger sometimes, especially if Sephiroth wanted to check if his skin was free of scales, he could act really obsessed about it sometimes. Only later that the blond understood he wanted to be rid of the most prominent aspects of House Strife, thinking that like this he would gather his father's appreciation. 

But the alpha religiously wore the dragon necklace regardless, one could never catch the pup without the accessory decorating his slim neck. 

They were still learning some facts about each other. As Cloud grew older, he needed to learn how to be a proper omega while Sephiroth  resumed his lessons. Even if the other noble boys from the court were given wooden swords, the young alpha was able to perform his training with uncle Thoren using a steel one. 

The two spent time together while sharing information about their activities.

“How do I look, Cloud?” Sephiroth asked him as he showed off his new silver armor with a chestplate depicting a detailed wolf, the blue cape flying from the wind.

“You look so handsome, as always of course,” Cloud said and truly, he never thought that Sephiroth looked bad. At times, some might even think that the boy was fishing for a compliment, but then the older brother remembered how ugly the alpha considered himself before, he didn't shy away from showering him with praise. 

Especially when they were all deserved.

Cloud on the other hand, was holding his recently finished embroidery and it was… crooky at best. He tried drawing the House Crescent's sigil again and again with no success. He was doomed and the septas were definitely going to give him an earful.

Why did he have to spend time doing that anyways? It was so stupid, that was all Prince Cloud thought the whole day.

“What do you think?” he asked his younger brother.

Sephiroth looked at the embroidery and the omega noticed how long it took him to come up with something to say and decided to save him from this fate. 

“It's awful, I know,” Cloud admitted. “You can say it.”

“No! It's modern and beautiful,” Sephiroth argued. “It deserves to be displayed all over the realm to be admired.

The omega honestly thought that he was pushing it a little, however Sephiroth always delivered his compliments so earnestly, that maybe he really believed that...

“Here, let me help you.” After that, Sephiroth dealt with the needle so effortlessly that it was maddening. Well, the ladies didn't need to know that the perfect embroidery was made by his younger brother. 

Besides making sure to put Cloud on a pedestal, he’s also tremendously good at his lessons. Their maesters jested that Queen Claudia had swallowed many books and a candle during her pregnancy because Sephiroth made a habit of it, reading until the sunrise as he had a curious mind. Sometimes, Cloud felt ashamed of asking for help from his brother (who’s three years younger), however Sephiroth loved being able to help the omega because he always felt it was the other way around. 

Although the silver-haired boy preferred history and philosophy, he loved when Cloud read the romantic stories to him, he would lay on the omega's lap and listen to the novels again and again. 

The two would also run together in the gardens, feeling the sweet smell of the grass as the loud sound of laughter followed them. Enjoying a summer that seemed endless.

 

---

 

Sephiroth held his new sword in complete awe, bulging clear eyes, while Thoren snickered. The pitch-black blade shone like the night sky and it was made from Old Nibelheim steel, the same material as the Cloud's necklace. Commonly called “dragonglass” because of its color and theories that came from past volcanic areas, it was no longer possible to forge one, all secrets of it lost to time.

“Wow,” Sephiroth said again and again.

“It's beautiful, Sephiroth,” Cloud spoke, happy for his brother.

“Thank you, uncle!” 

“Happy birthday, kid,” Thoren said and patted the silver hair, now longer and constantly braided by Cloud. “It's called Festering Sting.”

“I thought the only person who wielded one was you, at least that's what the book says.”

“No, after the fall of Strife House, many families got hold of these, but of course, I have most of them,” Thoren explained. When the rebellion against the throne happened, Ser Thoren Strife was in a long dispute in the south, far away from the capital. By the time he came back, the prince found his sister married to Marius and the rest of the house gone.

The alpha made an oath to become a knight and swore loyalty to the king—trying to protect what was left of his family.

But neither the books nor the teachers told in detail what happened that time, Thoren thought as the two princelings looked at him curiously. 

He cleared his throat and said. 

“I know for a fact that your father will commission a new sword to be a family heirloom for you and then for your son, to protect the realm in the future, but… I wanted to give you a gift of my own as well, I trust you to take care of it.”

Surprisingly, Sephiroth hugged his uncle, pressing his head on the man's belly and smiled from ear to ear. 

“Thank you!”

After that, the two brothers had fun looking at the sword the whole day. Ser Thoren went on a mission and would miss Sephiroth's name day festival for the first time, but they could all agree that the gift made up for it. 

Cloud thought it was kind of cute how small his younger brother looked holding that absurdly long sword. 

Then the omega prince got up from his seat in the training area and opened his mouth to say that he would be leaving for a moment but before Cloud could say something, Sephiroth looked at him with a scrunched up face. 

“Where are you going?” He started interrogating pouty lips. “You're going to Aerith, aren't you?” 

Sephiroth, even after the help and bathing salt from the priestess, didn't appreciate her as much but he never outright made that face, always respecting his friend. As Cloud grew agitated the past few weeks, Sephiroth became more protective and needy. Usually pursing lips and rolling his eyes giving an ultimatum to Cloud.

“Don't you want to stay here with me?” 

Unfortunately to Cloud, he found the whole ordeal rather cute. Especially when Sephiroth had planned something for them beforehand, like stargazing or a new romantic book he found in the gigantic library so the omega could read to him.

“Why are you acting like this?” 

“The city is going to be crowded because of my name day, filled with robbers and worse. It’s dangerous.”

“I thought she was your friend too,” Cloud pointed out because of the times Aerith grabbed Sephiroth's cheeks—besides the fact that she had protected him when he was a baby, but had no idea.

“Well… okay, but you're my brother, that's more important than being friends, yes, that's it!” he explained as if that was the truth he needed to convince Cloud.

“Do you want to go with me?”

“...”

“Really?”

“Yes. If you're so worried you can be my knight and protect me with your brand new sword.” 

Sephiroth couldn't let that opportunity go out of his grasp so he accepted, of course. And Cloud laughed quietly, he would not let his younger brother have his away so easily, he liked seeing him huff and puff for his attention and the omega was certain that there would come a day that he wouldn't be able to refuse the alpha anything, but right now he wanted to tease him a little. 

By the time the two brothers arrived at Aerith's she was waiting for them with a blackberry pie, ten thin candles on top of it. Something she made for Cloud before and now for Sephiroth.

“Blow the candles, little dragon,” she said full of care and while Sephiroth didn't enjoy sweets as much as his older brother, however he appreciated the gesture immensely.

The three laughed at their tainted mouths and purple tongues by the berries juices and ate until their bellies were full. They came back to the castle with no danger as Sephiroth feared and he held Cloud's hands calmly.

“She's kind of nice,” he said, a breath of fruit. He seemed lost in thoughts but when he looked at Cloud the younger one made sure to correct himself. “But not as nice as you, of course!”

“I'm glad you liked it. Happy birthday, Sephiroth,” the omega spoke and kissed the top of his head, covered by the hood, while drops of snow painted their path.

Back at the castle they didn't receive any lecture from the septas, but Cloud could see how badly they wanted to grab the prince for almost missing his own celebration, making them look for the silver-haired regent through the whole castle.

After boiling hot baths and long preparations, Sephiroth looked ultimately regal and respectful, his hair slicked back, reaching a little bit past his shoulders and a dark blue cape over his right shoulder, Strife and Crescent swords on his hip. The two were in the throne room, waiting for the lords and ladies to bow for the King and then for the princelings, offering all types of gifts to the future of the realm.

When a young lord slowly kissed Cloud's offered hand, making a performance out of it, Sephiroth glared daggers at him, trying to thicken his scent to appear threatening, but as a pup there was little he could do about his milky aroma.

That didn't stop him from scoffing though. 

“What got the birthday boy’s panties in twist?” Cloud joked when they sat down to watch the duels to celebrate the silver-haired boy. The omega never appreciated these very much, he considered jousting matches too uselessly bloody and preferred to stay in the throne room that was warm and full of music than watching a bunch of men riding horses and wielding spears to see who made the other fall first. 

But it was okay because they already had the perfect day earlier and Sephiroth enjoyed observing the knights analytically, studying them. 

“You're talking like a seasoned sailor,” Sephiroth said unamused. 

“Well, are you going to say it or not?” 

“That lord has no chance with an omega, especially a prince of the realm, he should know his place,” he explained while the public gasped when a sword cut the neck of a knight.

“What made you so overprotective these days, brother? But it's okay, I would never marry him. Even if he became my betrothed, maybe he would suffer a terrible accident before our wedding, who knows?” Cloud said and heard Sephiroth laugh, finally unwinding again.

“He's not your type anyways.”

“And what would you know about that?” 

“It's clear by the books you have re-read and the ones you dropped. I used to dream about the Knight of Flowers and his long hair because you were so infatuated with him.”

“Well! That's merely speculation, you can't prove anything!”

“Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love,” Sephiroth repeated out loud and kissed Cloud's hand, erasing the mark of that undeserving man. 

“You're the worst!” the omega exclaimed and removed his own hand from the alpha’s grasp to cover his red face. That was his favorite quote and he thought he was going to die with the unexpected teasing.

“But you said I was the cutest pup in the whole realm, remember?” Sephiroth blinked innocently. 

Although embarrassed, the alpha's feelings for him reflected what was inside his own heart, especially during those moments the unmated ladies, watching the joust with them, would be all over Sephiroth trying to woo his small heart as if he wasn't turning ten years old today. He heard of nobles younger than him getting married, but Strife wouldn't let that happen.

“Who braided your hair?” one of them would ask, the need to be a queen way too strong.

“My brother.”

“If I may say, your highness, it's so beautiful. I've never seen hair like this before.”

“And his eyes, too! So exotic.”

“Thank you,” Sephiroth said and the only consolation the older brother had was that as a young pup, he seemed totally uninterested in the pleasures of the flesh.

And before one of them could touch the prince regent, Cloud grabbed Sephiroth's warm hand and dragged him with no explanation whatsoever and got closer to the King's seat at the front, away from that circus.

Unbothered by his brother's actions, Sephiroth simply rested his head on the available shoulder, rubbing his nose on the white winter fur the omega was wearing, content.

After countless boring hours of the festivity, the King's Hand whispered something in his ear, then the blue eyes widened with the information. Everybody turned to him when he got up from his seat and walked directly to his two children.

“Ser Thoren was attacked on his way to the mission,” Marius stated. 

 

---

 

Cloud ran through the trees of the field until he was out of breath, the cheeks were all red and his lungs burned. He neither even knew where he was right now nor the way back to the castle, the green sea of plants and trees looked all the same to him, however the omega prince knew he had to keep going, every cell of his being, every instinct telling him to run fast.

Even if the adrenaline was addictive and he slowly felt a smile taking over his face. 

He stopped his tracks when he noticed that the walls of the castle were near due to the sound of waves crashing on the beach outside, Cloud had nowhere left to go, end of the line. The prince tried to control his own breathing, the heartbeat so loud that the buzzing resounded in his ears.

Despite his efforts, he suddenly felt himself being pushed on the floor, leaves and dust dirtying his favorite blue dress, Cloud heard a deep breathing on his neck and hair covering his face and started laughing, unable to control himself.

“I found you, Cloud!” Sephiroth asserted and then let Cloud turn his own body to face him properly. The omega could see his brother's and notice how composed he seemed to be even after all this exercise while he was dirty, sweaty and tired, it was infuriating.

“It's not even fun anymore, you always win.”

“But who's the one smiling right now?” the alpha retorted and started to patiently remove the dry leaves off the long blond hair. 

“I'll not accept it when you ask me to play this again in the future.”

“Please do,” he agreed, but he knew Cloud didn't mean it. 

“And technically, you didn't say ‘tag, you're it’, so I won.”

“Whatever you say, Cloud. Shall we go back to the keep?”

“Only if you carry me, but you're so short you wouldn't be able to do it,” the omega prince teased the alpha's weak spot, he hated being reminded of his height even if he drank milk as if it were the greatest delicacy that ever existed. 

“Oh, you shouldn't say that to the person holding you down, because I can do something really evil.”

“A pup like you? I would like to see that.”

It turns out that the evil thing Sephiroth had in mind was a tickle attack. When Cloud felt that he was going to pee, he said he was sorry and Sephiroth held his hand when they went back.

A long time had passed and no sooner after Sephiroth’s tenth birthday, Cloud presented as an omega and now he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere unaccompanied. Sephiroth was "alright" since they were brothers and all, but when the young alpha wasn't available, the King assigned him a knight called Zachary Fair, a handsome black-haired man that enchanted Cloud instantly, which was the bane of Sephiroth's existence.

“He's supposed to protect you and not try to take advantage of your virtue!”

“Sephiroth!” Cloud screamed scandalized.

Now he's sixteen years old and Sephiroth was thirteen, but has not presented yet. So he could smell Cloud's sweet scent all over the place when the omega didn't wear his special collars, but couldn't understand the hormones that were blurring his brother's mind to the point that the blond started flirting back with his own knight. 

However, as much as Sephiroth didn't appreciate touch from other people, he liked to embrace Cloud like a snake.

And Cloud let him, every time. 

His alpha fangs were growing and it agitated the young brother until tears ran down his soft face, making his clear blue eyes shine. The omega couldn't stand it and lent his skin to the brother, becoming a chew toy, his thin arms covered in bites. The oldest prince felt the judgment from his omegas and betas in waiting, gladly they knew better than to say anything to Cloud, unable to risk the position of being one of his noble companions.

“Say,” the blond started asking when they were all together drinking tea and learning gossip from the realm, one of his unofficial tasks now that he was a presented omega. “You have siblings, don't you? What is it like?”

“Oh, they are younger than prince Sephiroth, your highness,” a beta lady commented.

“Yes. And they have their own milk maids and septas, there's no need for us to deal with them.” 

Cloud thought that he would never be able to have this distance from his brother, even if they haven't had their hard childhood. The blond caressed his long golden hair, lost to his thoughts. He dreaded the day Sephiroth would become King and he had to be alone again, fulfilling his own duties somewhere far away. 

He didn't want to be alone, never again.

Maybe that's why he let Sephiroth cover him in bites, so he could remember his brother was here with him, perhaps that fear of loneliness followed the same reasoning which allowed Zack between his legs. The two lovers never ventured too much, only kissing (his first kiss) and hugging, but the omega got all wet down there when he felt the knight's rough hands, wielding him like he did with the sword.

“Zack,” he whispered as if in a trance after being relentlessly kissed, he never felt like this before, lips wet and plump from the abuse. “Zack … ”

“You sound so pretty, your highness. And just for me,” he growled and that distinctive alpha tone made him tremble and fear he would stain his own dress. 

Fair pushed the front of his dress down, almost ripping the whole thing, exposing his teats to the cold wind from their secret spot in the garden, but the pebbled nipples were soon swallowed by the alpha's greedy mouth. He almost screamed when Zack, they were so sensitive lately that it was nearly painful.

“A-Aren't you scared of doing this? If anyone saw you with me, they would certainly cut your head off...”

The knight simply laughed and ran his hand under Cloud's dress, touching the soft leg until he reached his wet center.

“Anyone would die for a taste of this,” he explained and sucked his own fingers, covered by slick, to the point that it dripped down his hand. 

Cloud pulled his face for a filthy kiss and grabbed the black hair. Zack moved his underwear to the side and touched the bare pussy until the omega trembled all over. The alpha tried to put one finger inside with no success.

“You're so tight, this cunt won't yield to me,” Zack laughed and kissed Cloud's warm cheeks. “If you want to take my knot, you need to relax, your highness, or I will ruin you.” 

“Ah!”  

Just imagining that was almost capable of making Cloud cum while feeling the saliva dry on his teats and that insistent finger trying to open him up. He heard the sound of a stick breaking, but when his blue eyes desperately tried to look around, he didn't find anything.

And ironically enough he thought about Sephiroth and his words.

“No, we can't, it's my virtue,” he said. “My reputation would be completely ruined.”

“Nothing bad could happen to the Realm's Delight, I will just have to marry you.”

“Zack, please…” he wasn't strong enough to resist, but he knew that he couldn't trust Zack's words in a simple moment of pleasure. The man was a knight and would soon make an oath to never get married. Unless he was willing to give up everything for Cloud's quim.

The alpha moved away and gave a long resigned sigh ignoring the bulge on his pants. But then, when he tried to help the omega get dressed and look proper again, he saw the bitten arms, wearing deep markings of teeth. 

“Is this about Prince Sephiroth?” Zack dared to ask. 

“What do you mean?”

“Look at these,” he held the omega's arms close so he could see it too. “That's not okay.”

The inquiry made Cloud unease immediately, all lust forgotten.

“I don't like those who speak badly of my brother,” he said fiercely. He could go against the King himself to protect Sephiroth, who did Zack think he was? 

“I don’t mean it like that, your highness…” the knight said patiently. “I’m just trying to help, I swear. You two are too codependent, even for brothers—you reek of him, not like a sibling, but an alpha. You should let him go on more adventures by himself, not to meddle on his affairs, like that time.”

Right then, Cloud was uncomfortably reminded that Zack had a big and happy family, not blue blooded like him, however the smile was never away from his face. He never suffered a loss in life, so he couldn’t understand how it felt. 

He dressed himself and tried to brush the blond hair with his fingers. 

“I appreciate your concern, but mind your tongue, Zachary,” Cloud said and parted ways, going back to the castle. “Please do not try to follow me.”

“Yes, your highness.”

Sephiroth was like him, his kin, they understood each other, they only had each other and the brothers didn’t want to be alone in this world, but that’s how it felt like every time they were not together. Especially after what happened to Uncle Thoren… the memory alone from three years ago was enough to wet his blue eyes. 

When Ser Thoren left for his mission, he was attacked not too far away from the capital. The numbers were unfair and premeditated, maybe because of revenge from the time Thoren was younger. But none of the reasons mattered when on his tenth name day, Sephiroth looked at the person who was together with him since birth, slowly fading away on a bed. 

The knight was bleeding all over his stomach, drunk on analgesic medicine to withstand the pain to a point that Cloud wished his attackers were kind enough to not let him leave alive. He couldn't say it to Sephiroth, but he knew their uncle wouldn't survive for long, the stench of blood bringing tears to his eyes. It was happening again.

The young pup was desperate, looking completely lost and begging the maesters to do something. 

“Sephiroth… it's alright,” Thoren said in a moment of lucidity and patted the bed on his side. “S-Stay here with me, boys…”

The two nephews laid down as best as they could not to hurt the injured knight. 

“I never said something extremely important and now I see how foolish I was–” he paused to cough and then blood tainted his pale lips. “But I love you, I l-love you dearly, you're the most important part of my life.”

“Uncle,” Cloud whispered.

“We love you too, please, don't leave. Get better, uncle,” Sephiroth cried, hot tears dripping on the knight's skin.

“You're making… difficult to me, kid,” he laughed weakly. He touched their hair as he usually did, but the touch lacked warmth. “You two need to take care of each other, you are brothers and family is… t-the most important… thing.”

Even as Thoren died, Sephiroth refused to leave his dead body, crying until he had no strength left and Cloud stayed with him. 

No, nobody knew what it felt like.

After the death of their main protector, it was difficult to feel safe at the keep, even with every other guard out there. The uncle was their rock and now, the omega felt like he had to be strong for the two of them, but he held onto Sephiroth just as desperatly, not so fit to be his honorable defender, so he tried to offer everything he could, to give every part of himself to Sephiroth. 

If he wanted to bite his arms, scent him relentlessly, he didn't care. 

For most nights, they slept together after Thoren's death. The younger brother hugged him like he might just disappear, but Cloud was always there to kiss his tears and chase the nightmares away.

“It's okay, I'm not going anywhere,” he said every time until Sephiroth started sleeping the whole night without interruption.

They were shameless in their affection and the maids often found them together in the morning under the same sheet, this information came to the King's notice and he dared to say that Sephiroth was too old for this. And because of these comments, Cloud burned with hatred for his once kind father, who now drank countless cups of wine and couldn't be there for his kids, wanting to take away Sephiroth's only comfort.

The omega was glad that someday, his brother would be a better King than Marius.

So after that, Cloud waited until everything was quiet and entered the secret passages of the old castle to jump on Sephiroth’s bed again.

“How did you get here?” The young alpha seemed so happy to see the omega prince, he was ready to cry.

“I have my ways.”

After that they continued sleeping together.

As for the incident Zack mentioned, it happened a few weeks after Thoren's death and Sephiroth was still jumpy and teary-eyed, but he was trying to impress the King by his abilities with the sword. As he no longer trained along with his uncle, Sephiroth had classes with Zack while Cloud watched.

The omega was paying attention to a book on his lap when he heard Sephiroth's voice and commotion in the training yard. He got up immediately and saw his brother being pushed to the floor as Zachary attempted to make amends.

But a single word was heard: “Bastard.”

The omega prince looked to the side and saw who was trying to fight his brother and it was an older man, too old to be fair, and he had dark red hair and brown eyes, certainly a Lord's son by the arrogance of his smirk.

“Care to repeat that? What you said to my brother, your future King,” Cloud asked and saw Zack helping Sephiroth stand on his feet again, but his lip was bleeding from a punch.

“He's a bastard and everyone knows it,” the man said, boldly looking at Cloud's figure. That irked his already hot blood. “He's not and will never be my king, he's a dragon freak.” 

“Your Highness, please, excuse his behavior. He's drunk, he didn't mean that,” a blonde knight defended him and Cloud sighed. “We respect Sephiroth as the rightful heir to the throne. 

The omega knew that if Thoren was still alive, that wouldn't happen. 

“Alright then, it must have been a simple mistake certainly, he's your prince, after all,” the omega said and saw the more sensible knight try to take her friend away.

“Thank you, Your Highness,” the girl said but Cloud interrupted them. 

“Just one more thing, please.”

The omega prince grabbed a dagger that was strapped to Zack's thigh and cut the man's face when he turned around, watching him scream in pain as his eye ended up being stricken too. 

“You took my eye! You took my eye!” the man screamed, making everyone afraid in the training yard, but the prince was unbothered.

“Please, measure your words next time so I won't need to remove the other one,” Cloud said and gave the bloodied dagger back to Zack who looked dumbfounded to see the thirteen year old omega at the time, the Realm's Delight, coldly blind a man. “Let's go, Sephiroth.”

The young alpha grabbed Cloud's hand and followed him obediently, however his usual milky scent was rotten with sadness.

They went to the omegas quarters and he made his brother sit on the bed so he could tend to his wounds. No matter what he did or didn't do, the world kept on hurting Sephiroth and he wanted to take his pain away so badly, but he was always late.

Cloud cleaned the blood on the busted lip and then held the handsome face, so he could look at Sephiroth's teary eyes.

“Talk to me, brother,” Cloud asked but the alpha's lips trembled.

“I never stopped to think that the reason why the King doesn't like me is because I'm a bastard, but it makes sense now,” he whispered and the warm tears covered Cloud's hands.

“It's not like that at all.”

“It's the truth, I know now.”

“Sephiroth he does like you, listen to me. He's always been that way, especially after mom died, he's closed off like that. I swear.” Cloud was insistent and he could sense that Sephiroth wasn't so sure anymore, his brother always seemed to know what to say to sway his opinion. “He loves you, do you want to know what he told me?”

“Hm?”

“That he's proud of your skills with the sword.” Ironically, that was true, not with those exact words, but Sephiroth didn't need to know that now.

“Really?”

“Really, don't be so hard on yourself, my love,” Cloud hugged him and the pup snuggled against his scent gland.

 

---

 

Now, he still refused to speak with Zack after the man said those things about his relationship with Sephiroth and the knight always followed him quietly, knowing that small talk wouldn't work on the omega. He regretted mentioning about the “eye incident” to Cloud, because three years ago, their uncle's death was still fresh and he forgot about that. But the blond wouldn't listen to him anymore.

They walked together through the library and then the gardens, except that after these walks, the omega always went back to his brother at the end of the day. So when the sun went down, they found themselves at the training yard, but prince Sephiroth wasn't there.

“Where's my brother?” he asked the few men  left there. 

“Your Highness,” they all made a reverence to the omega.

“He is celebrating with his friends, Your Highness,” one of them said.

“May I ask what is he supposed to be celebrating when his thirteenth birthday was a season ago? And tell me his location this instant since you seem to know where he is.”

“It's not appropriate to talk about this matter to a noble omega, Your Highness.”

“You will tell me,” Cloud threatened and looked in Zack's direction, who grabbed his sword.

“It's a tradition as he is a man now,” one of them started explaining. “Whenever one of us has our first rut, we need to go out and celebrate.”

Rut?

“The place, please,” Cloud requested impatiently.

Turns out that celebration place was a brothel and Zack took him there with other knights of the crown to make sure to protect the two princes. Cloud entered every room that smelled like sex and incense until he found Sephiroth in the most luxurious one with an older man, a whore, and he ran away after seeing Cloud's dress and recognizing the omega prince. 

He walked to the red bed in the middle of the room, but the alpha brother seemed totally out of his mind, face all red and scent upset from the alcohol.

“Cloud,” he called after smelling his brother, furred eyebrows and hazy eyes.

The omega ran to him and put his own cape over the alpha, to protect his nude state. 

“Shh, it's okay, I'm here,” Cloud held him for a few minutes and then proceeded to carry the boy on his back. He was older now, but the omega was still taller than him. 

Sephiroth kept his nose on the omega's scent gland on their way to the castle and the blond tried to understand how something so terrible could happen with such simplicity. He didn't want Sephiroth to smell his anger, but it was unavoidable.

“Ser,” he called Zack when they reached the castle’s gates. “Have you been through this celebration too?”

“Yes, Your Highness. It serves to make your official entrance into alphahood.”

“I want them dead, those who dragged my brother to that damned place,” Cloud said without thinking twice. “It's an order.”

Zack clearly hesitated and asked:

“Your Highness, but how will the prince go through a rut alone without a whore's help? It can be extremely painful.”

“I won't let him near those strangers, he's in a vulnerable state and they could do anything to him, he's a prince of the realm,” he said, it must have been extremely easy to drag this boy when the feverish state hit because Cloud knew Sephiroth would come to him if something was amiss. “And you seem to forget that I go through the same thing with my heats, but I always spend them alone.”

“It's different for an alpha, Your Highness.”

But Cloud wasn't interested in that conversation anymore when they reached his quarters, he called for the maesters and they soon started taking care of the prince; putting wet, cold compresses on his forehead, armpits and groin, to lower his temperature. Next, the wise servants prepared a special tea, similar to the ones he drank during a heat so as to numb its effects.

After everything, Cloud laid on the bed too and started caressing the silver hair, seeing how relieved Sephiroth seemed to be now.

“Are you feeling better, pup?”

“You'll have to start calling me something else now…” the boy smiled tiredly, now capable of understanding his brother, until he needed to drink another cup of tea later again . 

“What ‘the most fearsome alpha of the realm’ ? Please, alpha, have mercy on me,” Cloud joked and heard the most beautiful sound in the world right now, that was Sephiroth's laughter. It warmed his heart that his younger brother could react like this after the hellish day he had.

“Something like that.”

“Sephiroth… did anyone at the brothel touch you?”

“No, before anything, we all got really drunk,” he scrunched his face up due to the memory of the alcohol. “You got there right on time.”

“Then I'm glad.”

“Thank you for taking care of me,” he said,  blinking those baby blue eyes at him, the vertical pupils dilated.

“I'll always do.”

Then sleep came naturally for the two, Cloud had every intention of staying awake the whole night to observe his brother's well being, but he was also tired after the adrenaline and fear of looking for Sephiroth around brothels of the capital. However, what he didn't know was that alcohol shortened the medicine effects and soon Cloud woke up with Sephiroth on top of him.

“What?” The omega mumbled sleepily, finding it hard to associate everything that was happening. The front of his dress was pushed down and Sephiroth sucked his already tender teats until it hurt. “Baby, stop… Please, it hurts, Sephiroth.”

As he tried to get away, the alpha pushed him against the mattress with more force, like those times whey they played tag, hunting the omega. Only then did Cloud notice that something was dripping from his nipples, making the boy even more ravenous: milk.

He heard about omegas who weren't pregnant but still lactated, only to offer comfort to their pups or alphas, except that Sephiroth was none of those, but that didn't deter his brother to keep on sucking like he had every right to, like he was feasting on his sweet milk. The painful pressure that kept his right breast full was soon eased as the alpha emptied one and moved to suck on the other.

His heart was beating so damn hard, he wondered if Sephiroth could hear it.

“Sephiroth, please,” he moaned. His protests fell on deaf ears and it only seemed to motivate the alpha. “We shouldn't–”

Even as he claimed that, Cloud felt slick dripping from his slit as the rut pheromones and an eager Sephiroth grinded his knot over the omega's dress.

Before things could escalate more, the door of his room was opened and his brother growled and kicked, but was still removed from him by Zack, and behind his lover, he saw a bunch of knights and Marius enter his bedroom. Cloud immediately tried to cover himself.

“What is the meaning of this?” The King's voice was thunderous and the omega was afraid of what might happen. The smell of milk and slick were incriminating, but it was simply a mistake.

“Father, it's not what it looks like–”

“Take this boy from here,” Marius ignored Cloud and ordered one of the knights, the man grabbed his wild brother firmly and took him away. 

Cloud tried to follow Sephiroth, but Zack didn't let him.

“Father, where are you taking him?”

“Somewhere far away, so you two won't be able to continue this depravity.”

“Please, let me see him. He didn't mean any of that, he's in rut,” Cloud was full on crying now, desperate to go to his brother. He couldn't bear to be separated from him yet again. “He needs a stronger dose of medicine–”

But his speech was interrupted by a slap from the King to shut him up, the ring he wore cut the thin skin of his cheek, making Cloud bleed.

“It's your fault he's like this, of course he's going to grow obsessed with his brother if you keep riding his knot every night, you think I don't know that? How could you be so naive?” he spat, pointing a finger to Cloud's face. “Your knight told me you smell like him, like he's your alpha, that he covers you in bites with his fangs, I should have believed him sooner.”

“We never did anything like that before,” Cloud said and looked at the King through his blond eyelashes. Courageous even if blood dripped down his face. “You can see my virtue if you don't believe me.”

After glaring at his son, the King called a maester to check on the omega and his blue eyes burned with the need to cry, but he refused to let these people see any more of his tears. The prince, who wasn't being treated royally now, opened his legs and let the maester touch him under the dress to see if his opening was still intact as he said, looking for blood and cum.

“He hasn't been deflowered, Your Grace,” the maester dropped his skirt and confirmed the information to the King.

But Marius only looked at his own son with disgust, noticing how the milk from his breasts stained the fabric all over him. He left with no other word and every knight followed him, except Zack.

“Cloud,” he started saying, but the omega bare his tiny fangs to him. 

“You told him! I don't want to see you again! This is your fault and your stupid celebration.”

“And you'd rather have your own brother mounting you? I'm just trying to help and it was not my intention to–”

“Leave! Get away from me.”

The knight looked at the scared and angry omega, tears threatening to drop from his eyes and he asked himself if he had made the right choice. Perhaps if he tried differently, Zack would still carry his trust, but now it was all gone. 

“Excuse me, my prince,” he said weakly and closed the doors behind him, listening to the omega's lament coming from inside the room.

 

---

 

The official excuse was that Sephiroth would leave the capital to study and train overseas, becoming the perfect warrior, able to protect the kingdom through thick and thin after gaining real life experiences. 

Cloud still felt his own breasts full, the maesters said that only time could mend his heart and he would soon get better again. 

He wrote countless letters, but received no answer and only when he refused to eat for a week, a raven arrived with a message and Sephiroth's perfect handwriting.

“Cloud, 

I'm sorry for everything, there's no excuse for what I did. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me one day.

I miss you constantly. From the ship, I look up at the stars and I think of you, I think of you, I think of you until I feel like my sanity is slipping.

We'll see each other again, if that's your wish, so don't suffer because of me anymore. Eat, sleep and be happy. Read every novel to your heart's content.

Love, Sephiroth Crescent.”

Notes:

So what do you think? 👀

Thoren is totally inspired by Daemon Targaryen and I wanted to write sefikura relationship toxic and codependent, but still innocent because they are young and naive, you know? But shit happened along the way. I enjoyed writing this Zack x Cloud spicy part and I'm sorry that he was a snitch ahahahaha And I hope you could understand the flow of the chapter at some parts because I kept going to the past and back to the present again and again.

And now I have twitter account ! If you follow me on my personal one, it's okay you can keep following me there! I only made this new one so I could post about my fanfics and rt nsfw art without scaring my irls to death.

Bye bye, see you and have a nice week :)

Chapter 4: III

Notes:

Hello! Sorry for the wait, I spent the whole day writing this lol I was kinda of cofcof delirious with fever writing some of this chapter, so... ignore any mistakes please ahaha and I will come back here to fix some things later.

Enjoy!

“Prince Regent and Protector of the Realm, Sephiroth Crescent!”

Everyone turned around to see him, and Cloud's breath caught in his throat with every step the dark boots took towards him. The smell of blood, iron and something else invaded the omega's sensitive nose, his brother no longer carried the smell of a pup's milk and it broke his heart with the sense of danger that surrounded him at that moment, the scent of something vile embracing him against his will. 

The long silver hair, longer than his own, swayed with every movement and fell over the dark armor that looked more like dragon skin than the leather they were used to, with pointed bones designed to protect the shoulders. But what shocked him most was the height of the alpha who had once been a little boy hiding his shy face buried in Cloud's belly, he was tall and stared down at the omega with scorn. 

His matured face no longer bore the childish chubbiness of his cheeks and his long nose complemented him well, even if his fleshy mouth drew a cruel, predatory smile. A scar under his right eye ran down to his cheek, too thin and clearly well cared for not to ruin the prince's face, but Cloud couldn't help the surge of concern that seized him at the moment and clenched his hand to avoid touching the tarnished skin.

The parted hair didn't hide his poisonous green eyes, so different from the light blue that the omega could remember every emotion reflected in them by heart. His little brother had become such a handsome boy, but his scent almost suffocated him, bringing tears to his eyes.

The throne room was deadly silent, and the alpha ignored the court rules of greeting the King first, preferring his brother. Cloud didn't dare say anything when Sephiroth — he had trouble assimilating his name to what he saw in front of him — opened his arms and smiled more gently, to make him docile.

“Aren't you going to give your brother a hug?”

Cloud gulped and didn’t dare back down from what seemed to be a direct challenge, he took one, two, three steps and then stood before the younger man. He snuggled himself against Sephiroth’s chest, trying to make a home there, searching for any resemblance from the shy boy he knew back then. Those arms encircled around him in no time and like this, the alpha’s scent was so potent it was almost unbearable, each breath he took was a lot, too much dominance in a way that slowly put his body under a lethargy trance. His need to cry, to submit, just increased—Cloud was a prince of the realm, delicate and sheltered, therefore no alpha was allowed to release strong pheromones around him. 

So by this simple gesture, the omega felt like he came across a new, and almost wild, world. Barbaric.

Making him whole again.

Despite the turmoil manifesting inside Cloud, Sephiroth’s arms held him carefully, like he was a most breakable teacup, terribly fragile. It was very endearing how he minded his own skeletal amour so as not to hurt the older prince. 

“You are… finally taller than me now,” the omega prince said, trying to find a sense of normalcy between the two of them.

“Your neck is going to hurt dearly, brother. Should I kneel before you to make it more pleasant?” Sephiroth whispered just for him, creating their own world.

“Brat…” Cloud murmured and when he was reminded of where they were, the omega hastily separated himself from Sephiroth. 

But even as the alpha laughed quietly and walked toward the throne, Cloud felt drowsy, almost as if he had a chain around his neck, pulling him back to the other. 

The omega watched as Sephiroth kneeled in front of Marius Crescent and vowed his loyalty once again. 

“I have returned, Your Grace,” the younger alpha said. 

“Welcome back, son,” the King greeted him after a long time, apparently deriving pleasure from seeing the heir in his rightful place, finally domesticated. He stood up, and his blue eyes shone just like the dark hair of his beard. “Let your return be celebrated. My son has finally come home.”

The whole day inside the castle was dedicated to preparing a worthy feast—so different from the first time Sephiroth returned home, Cloud thought. But he realized he could finally breathe properly after seeing Marius hugging his brother.

The omega was more than concerned with this certain reunion. After all these years, the King's drinking habits haven’t improved, as a matter of fact, it only crumbled further his already unstable mental state. Sometimes, the omega was called to his father’s chambers so they could interact with each other, as if the growing resentment between them was non-existing. It was bittersweet when Cloud remembered how he sat on his father's lap during council meetings and was a loved child—he craved that same feeling even, missed them terribly even if the hatred was also there, in his heart. But most days, the omega couldn't bear to look at him and wait for his mood swings to pass.

Cloud was blamed for every single problem under the sun, especially for not being an alpha or for attitudes that led to Sephiroth's exile, “offering his cunt for his own brother like a common whore,” he said. The King couldn't be reasoned with and because of that, Cloud preferred solitude within the castle—or else he feared he would end up being slapped on the face again because he couldn't control his tongue. 

So seeing the two together was unsettling (What were they talking about? Should Cloud interfere and protect his brother?), but it also brought sweet relief to the omega, if only for a moment. He just wished he could have his brother all to himself after all this time, know where he had been to, what he did and what he wished to tell Cloud, how he got that scar…

The blond prince had written many unsent letters and proceeded to sleep with them under his pillow—in hopes that his words would be delivered to Sephiroth in dreams. However, Cloud believed that his brother would seek him out later. With that in mind, the blond omega walked around aimlessly, simply waiting for time to go by until he needed to get ready for the celebration.

When that time finally came, a line of servants asked for permission to enter his chambers. Usually, he enjoyed taking a hot bath, so scalding that his maidens couldn't help him during this process at the risk of burning their hands. But tonight was special and Cloud was somewhat disappointed by the lukewarm water, but the soapy caress on his scalp was redeeming enough. At last, the prince found himself wearing a light blue dress, shimmery at the edges. Its skirt was flowy and somewhat “playful” for an unmated omega like him, as virginal as he was, these types of dresses hinted at could be found underneath them. He wore the long blond hair up and jewelry adorned his features, a delicate silver necklace protected his scent glands. The cherry on top was a pair of gloves, the same shade of the dress and they were long enough to reach his elbows. 

Every omega in waiting was preening all over their prince, saying how pretty he looked and even though he wasn’t the person being celebrated tonight, Cloud would certainly catch everyone’s attention. But before he could leave, he discovered that the King himself made a specific request to go under his skirt. 

“Not this again…” Cloud murmured as he looked at the silver cilice and its spikes meant to pierce the soft flesh of his thigh. 

“I am sorry, my prince,” his servant Layla apologized, kneeling in front of him and waiting for his permission to lift the blue skirt. “But your Grace said it was so you would not forget it. ” 

Back then, when Sephiroth had just been sent away, spiritual repentance was not enough for Marius who grew more repulsed by his older son each passing day—telling Cloud he was a disgrace, carrying filthy blood in his veins just like his draconic ancestors had, demonic, monstrous. The King notably disliked the moments Cloud “lied” as the omega denied every accusation of sleeping with his younger brother and even the symbol of his virtue, the untouched hymen, was not enough proof for him. He wished that the prince would admit his sins and be branded by that.

Every member of the council tried to stop him since a prince could not bear any marks of mistreatment—like those only slaves carried around. Then, the leader of the Crescent line found something used at the church for people who did not follow the divine teachings and abstained from light's way, a tiny thing seemingly harmless enough to go under Cloud’s clothes and nobody would get to see it. 

What should have been an instrument of correction for the sin of incest became a recurring torture for Cloud's skin. The boy could never get used to what felt like rose thorns piercing him, and whereas he had once loved the plant immensely, now it was just a cherished memory that had been ruined, left to rot in Cloud's mind. Sometimes, while walking through the garden, the omega found himself observing the plants, and the red petals reminded him of the blood that ran down his thigh when the servants squeezed the strap too hard. Each step he took through the castle with the weight on his leg, he remembered what he had lost, for the sins of whom was he paying? And when would the king's sadism decide that this demonstration was no longer enough?

That reasoning was proven right as the prince's heat came and the cilice was branded onto his skin once again. Cloud was more delirious than aroused while the high fever took over his being and the pain in his empty womb pulsed as strongly as the beats of that saddened heart. 

“W-Where's Sephiroth?” Cloud remembered calling out for him, gripping the clothes of the servants in his bedroom. “Where is uncle—why am I alone again?”

It hurt badly, everything was so hot he felt like he could spit fire. But screaming Sephiroth's name against the pillows (pleaseIneedhimpleaseIneedhim) only served as a sign of his continued perversion in the King's perspective, then the cilice became a constant during his most weakened states. The omega prince was even offered different designs of it, like a twisted kind of jewelry or leash.

Cloud sighed deeply and then nodded his head to Layla, giving her permission to touch him. The servant lifted the skirt, almost reverently and took a long breath, the metallic cilice in her hand was white and carried tiny blue stones on top of its wires, matching the prince's clothes. Layla circled the undergarment around the soft flesh of his thighs and didn't stop even as her highness hissed. If it weren't for the irritating spikes, one could even say that it looked beautiful on the royal omega. 

“It's done, your highness,” she stated and watched as Cloud stood up slowly and left the quarters without saying a word, his light dress making him resemble a ghost and not like the Realm's Delight everybody was used to. 

The omega walked toward the hall being used for the festivities, hearing the music and smelling the food near. The two guards opened the doors for him and every head turned to stare at the beautiful prince enter. The people gathered there got up from their tables or stopped dancing in respect, but Cloud smiled in a fake way and let them at ease:

“Please, be seated.” It was not his party after all. 

Once the song started playing again, he discreetly looked around behind the detailed hand fan. It was impossible to miss Sephiroth and his silver hair and he took some time to admire the younger man who wore a lighter armour, but now there was a red sash around his waist to carry the gifted sword around. 

As the heir drank from a goblet, the red wine tinted his full lips—reminding Cloud of blood. Sephiroth had his long legs resting on top of the table, seemingly no care in the world while two unknown alphas stood by his right side: a burly, dark haired one and the other a red-haired man. Cloud had never seen them before and he wondered if they were Sephiroth's companions while he traveled the world. 

Then, Cloud took slow steps toward his brother's table and shivered as that green stare fixed at him, but kept going forward. 

“What do you think you're doing?” Cloud softly said as a way of greeting.

“Sitting.” Sephiroth smirked and arched one silver eyebrow, the scar on his face moved with it. “Celebrating my feast.”

Sephiroth's companions looked at each other somewhat apprehensively as from what they experienced and knew of the man, nobody had the guts to talk to him with so much pomp and nose up in the air. Except those who did, always bitterly regretted their actions later. So the two knights were shocked, to say the least, when Sephiroth's smile only grew and mirth visited his eyes, encouraging that behavior instead of acting violently like he used to.

“You spent a long time away from court, perhaps you ended up forgetting your manners,” Cloud explained and nudged his brother's legs off the table briskly, choosing to sit where they were before even if it was not polite to do so, crossing his thighs under the dress.

“Hm, court is dreadfully boring,” Sephiroth said and rolled his eyes but the curve of the smile never left his lips. “You, on the other hand… maybe you could live a little, Cloud.”

After that provocation, Sephiroth offered his own goblet to Cloud who blinked slowly at it.

“I can't,” the prince denied since that would be too improper even for him—people of his station could only consume alcohol in public after marriage and if their spouses allowed it, it wasn't omegalike. Sephiroth had to remember that at least.

“Who is to say you can't? I am letting you,” the alpha voiced his stance on that matter and even if the cilice tightened around his thigh, Cloud accepted the cup. 

The older prince held the goblet near and watched the dark liquid moving around, he smelled it and made a disgusted face with no restraint and heard Sephiroth laughing, low and rich. That was the only motivation he needed to drink the wine, letting the liquid burn its way down his throat, it was strong and different from everything he tasted before.

He was still deciding if he liked it.

After Cloud lowered the cup, he knew that his lips matched Sephiroth's tint, ruining the innocent look his servants wanted to paint for the party.

He was removed from these thoughts when a hand touched his covered elbow. The Crescent prince turned around, thinking that perhaps it was dear friend Aerith, but then he was met with a stranger's face. 

“Care for a dance, my prince?” the man asked and held his hand, kissing the scent gland located on his wrist longingly, even if the true object of desire was under the glove. 

No one was allowed to touch the royal line without explicit permission and Cloud could have his tongue for that, but most nobles thought they were their kin, usually using any chance they had to court the prince for an opportunity at ascending to the throne. 

He felt a heavy stare on his back and tried to meet its owner, finding out it was his father, waiting for what he would do. So this lord was probably encouraged to pursue the omega, given the King's blessing and all. It was almost admirable how much Marius wanted to get rid of him, offering the rare omega prince to any desperate nobleman out there. 

“I accept it, my lord.”

Cloud left the table and allowed himself to be led by the other's hand. This lord didn't seem to be that bad, he just wasn't the prince's type with his short hair and wrong scent, they didn't fit at all. The blond man had a huge bird drawn on the front of his clothes, which Cloud knew was the sigil of House Griffin. 

When the song finished, the lord bowed in appreciation and asked:

“I take you fancied the sigil of my House as you observed it during the whole dance, your highness,” he said accompanied by a small smile. “It could be yours one day too. As my Lady Queen.”

“My brother will be King one day, sir,” Cloud answered after some time, the Lord's words were bordering on treason. “Thank you for the dance.” 

After all, he sat by the King's table on the chair reserved for him, Sephiroth joined his side, but wouldn't look at his face. 

Marius stood and tapped on his goblet with a spoon, soon everybody went silent for the King's announcement. 

“Thank you all for coming here tonight as we celebrate my heir's return to court,” he paused his speech as claps were heard around the place. “Sephiroth also came home to fulfill his responsibility with House Crescent and is going to be present at his brother's wedding…”

Even though Cloud was already aware of that, it didn’t fail to surprise him and he waited for the next words while biting his own lips, tasting the wine residing in them. Craving comfort, he desired to reach for Sephiroth’s left hand, but the omega felt unsure as he had no idea where they stood. Cloud was, after all, the main reason why Sephiroth got exiled and the omega blamed himself constantly, his inner voice sounded like his father’s during those times. 

What if his little brother resented him for being robbed of the life he could have lived in the capital?

But before the omega prince could dwell on that any longer, Marius resumed speaking.

“The council and I have decided that Cloud’s betrothed will be chosen during a mating hunt, any unmarried Lord or Lady under fifty will be able to prove their worth through their physical and reasoning skills. The first one who claims the prince’s neck during his heat, will be the winner.”

The hall exploded in cheers and excited shouts, but in counterpart, Cloud felt as if his own world had shifted suddenly. The whole concept sounded absolutely barbaric and heartless—to be chased like an animal by a stranger with no say in it was something that hadn't happened in decades. The omega couldn’t believe that his own father felt such a sadistic need to humiliate him before the whole realm, showing that his omega son was no more deserving than a cow or a horse even if he had been born in the royal line, he wouldn’t even be given the opportunity of being courted as he constantly dreamed that someone out there would manage to sweep him off his feet. 

Now any old lord, old enough to be his grandsire, could try taming Cloud, forcibly breaking his skin with long teeth and filling him full of pups.

Tears were threatening to fall from the sad blue eyes and his face burned with shame, but he tried to control himself even if everyone seemed to be more than content with the cause of his despair. Cloud went for the torture piece on his thigh and forced it down until it pierced his skin uncomfortably, hoping to feel pain rather than embarrassment. When the splotches of blood stained his pretty dress Cloud felt happy.

No matter how much they tried to make him presentable and perfect, that was how he truly felt on the inside: ugly, bloody and aching.

But then, a heavy hand found his under the table as he had probably smelled the blood—the same one that ran through Sephiroth's own veins. The alpha didn't even look at him so as not to catch anyone's attention, but his gesture offered some sort of comfort especially because Cloud wasn't used to touch anymore, not really. Ever since Sephiroth left, the act of feeling another person's body heat became scarce, nobody was allowed to touch him and there was nobody Cloud wanted to besides—

“Are you hurt?” Sephiroth asked in a whisper and Cloud shook his head, ignoring the persistent sting on the tarnished skin.

Then, Sephiroth pulled his own hand back and Cloud shamefully missed it straightaway, but the blond didn't have to worry about it as his younger brother decided to go under his skirt. The omega needed to contain a shocked gasp when he felt hot fingers fondling the most private parts of his inner thigh, so close to the underwear and scorching cunt. The prince's toes curled and he looked in his father's direction, only to find the King laughing and drinking with members of the council, no idea what was happening under the table. 

That fact didn't slow his heartbeat which seemed visible even under the light fabric of the dress. Sephiroth slowly traced the metallic drawings of the cilice and Cloud opened his legs wider, wanting to moan out loud as pain radiated from the torture device. 

Slick started to run from the virgin opening and the omega grabbed his brother's wrist, trying to scratch the scent glands there with his gloved nails. He wanted to stop, he wanted more and even though Sephiroth's intentions weren't malicious, this would never be appropriate, siblings or not. But at the same time, Cloud couldn't help but imagine a finger being pushed inside of him, underwear and all. Pussy lips open and little clit flushed, the squelching sounds would certainly be heard throughout the whole hall, letting everyone know what they were doing.

Maybe he was sick and depraved like his father usually stated, finding hot and unknown pleasure due to a simple caress from his own brother. However a small voice inside of him insisted that Cloud was merely not used to touch, reacting in pure innocent exaggeration. Perhaps his heat was near and there was nothing related to who was provoking these fantasies. 

Sephiroth's hand retreated and Cloud felt he could finally breathe again, skirt in a disarray and naked thighs over his seat. 

Even through his own teary vision, the older prince could see the tip of his brother's fingers tainted by blood, his blood. Entranced, he observed as Sephiroth brought his hand up and sucked on the fingers, sighing deeply as the pink tongue danced and lapped at the redness. 

The omega wondered if he could taste himself in Cloud as they were the same, if he liked it. 

“Please excuse me, I am going back to my quarters,” Cloud said over the conversation in the hall, tidying his dress as much as he could. “I am tired.”

Before anyone could have a say in this, the prince got up in a haste, almost stumbling his way out of that place. The doors were closed behind him and Cloud had no idea where he was going, he just kept on walking while the blood dripped from his right leg. Eventually he found an empty balcony surrounded by potted plants and couches, showing the immensity of the night sky and the horizon of the city. 

Before he could take off the cilice himself, Sephiroth came after him and stood tall and imposing in front of Cloud, just like he did earlier that day, but now his venomous green eyes didn't look as terrifying as before, possessing a gentleness that could only belong to his younger self.

“Show me,” he asked softly, one hand holding Cloud's face and the other his hip, closing the fingers over the curve of the bone there, moving the thumb onto the soft blue fabric in a slow caress. Only then, Cloud realized tears were running down his flushed cheeks, being cleaned by Sephiroth.

“Show you what?” Cloud retorted, he tried directing his gaze somewhere else but the hold Sephiroth had forced the omega to keep staring at him. 

“Your thigh is bleeding, brother, let me see…” Sephiroth insisted. “Please.” 

Even if his face burned, the omega nodded and sat down, lifting the blue skirt enough to display what Sephiroth wanted, imagining he was in front of a maester instead of an adult alpha. If anyone saw them like that, Cloud would forever be known as promiscuous, reputation ruined, but he couldn't deny Sephiroth after so long.

The white gold cilice was stained by blood due to Cloud's actions and it slowly ran down his leg, creating a most gruesome image. Sephiroth knelt in front of him and held the leg in his hand, analyzing the twisted piece of jewelry. 

“The King put this on you?” the heir asked and Cloud didn't answer as they both already knew the truth. “It looks like white lace, a wedding garment.”

At that, Cloud let out a small surprised gasp, he had never associated the two things before. Said garment went under a bride's dress, around one of the thighs, but during a wedding ceremony it was common to be taken off and thrown at the guests—carrying a sweet scent as it was so close to the groin. The lord husband could also receive the lace as a favor from the bride before the nuptials or battle.

Sephiroth was not his soon-to-be husband and the bloody cilice was not a lace garment, but the embarrassing thoughts burned his face all the same. Especially when his brother decided to undo the bow at the back of his thigh, catching the chain before it could fall onto the couch and immediately put it inside his pocket, gaining his brother's favor. 

“Omegas of the faith wear this whenever they are aroused, whenever they can feel themselves getting wet, considering lust a terrible stain in their pure souls,” Sephiroth whispered with a smile and spread Cloud's legs, forcibly getting between them. “What sins have you repented of, Cloud?”

“W-What… what are you doing?” the older prince questioned after Sephiroth's face got closer, hot puffs of breath touching his sensitive skin like he was in front of a dragon, ready to strike. The alpha licked the trail of blood, staring at Cloud while he did so and then the vertical pupils dilated immediately at the iron taking over his palate, finally drinking from him again. Nobody in this world should be allowed to taste so sweet, it was almost unfair. He could feel himself getting addicted. “Stop! Sephiroth, don't– stop .”

“I am kissing it better,” like you used to do to me once, when the heir's hands were wounded after grabbing roses to give Cloud—roses that had painful thorns just like his pretty cilice. “Don't you trust me?”

He wanted to, desperately. However, Cloud feared that the man was not the same young brother who used to hide in his skirt. 

“That’s not kissing, you’re…” abusing the skin with his sharp teeth and rough tongue, one step away from devouring Cloud whole. 

The alpha's scent was so strong it choked him, forcing Cloud to breathe through his mouth or else he feared he would become drugged from what smelled like venom in the air. The pain, the relief, the impending hunt and Sephiroth's green eyes following his every move was too much, making hot and insisting tears flow without control. 

Wetness pooled in his underclothes, the blonde prince trembled and squirmed on the couch, trying to close his legs and escape from that debauched position but Sephiroth's body was in his way and the rough tongue kept on sucking, lapping, licking his thigh, leaving a sea of bruised skin behind. Cloud was reduced to a mass of pleasure and denial of it, he sighed and observed as the silver-haired man carried a grin too full of satisfaction and fangs, triumphant.

Sephiroth covered a cute mole with spit and let out a small laugh when he remembered he had one at that exact place, too. Cloud's shoes fell and he pressed the heel of his feet against the strong back available to him. 

“Look,” the alpha said and drew Cloud's attention to the flesh he had been treasuring. Besides the few love bites and harsh licking, there was no trace of the cilice's torment. “It's all gone now.” 

“Why is that?” Cloud asked and blinked those blue dazed eyes, his voice had suddenly become slow, like poison seeped into his veins. He barely observed as Sephiroth grabbed the shoes on the floor and started carrying him, body totally pliant. 

“I can not reveal all my secrets yet,” Sephiroth said and smiled at Cloud's confused state. “I will take care of you now. Sleep.”

Cloud closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

 

---

 

The news of the mating hunt took over the whole realm, bringing a certain kind of excitement among people who were informed that the Realm's Delight would be partaking in this unusual competition. “A barbaric thing to do to such a delicate omega!” was the most common whisper around, but they were fascinated all the same like something terrible you couldn't bear to look away even for a single second,  hungry for entertainment. Many other noble omegas would participate as well, hoping to find matches of interest and high compatibility.

The appeal of the hunt was to let their inner animals roam free, giving in to instincts and rejecting appearances from the wandering eyes of the court. The participants only needed to follow the scent that enticed them most and bite —which would result in a fertile conception. However, while the hunt created fruitful unions, it often got in the way of more political matches.

Thus it stopped being arranged as a mating ritual in the last decades.

Every book Cloud found about this subject said the same thing, but the prince still couldn't understand why it was necessary to go through this, to be won like a prize. It certainly eased the prince's mind to know he didn't need to worry about every predator out there chasing him as there would be others, but it still made him sick. 

After Sephiroth put him to sleep, murmuring comforting—terrifying—promises onto his sweaty hair and neck, scenting the omega, the next days passed by in a haze while people from all over the kingdom came to the capital to compete for Cloud's hand. 

Each day, despite his brother's words, he ate alone. In the mornings, afternoons and evenings. 

It broke his spirit a little bit whenever the doors were opened and he didn't have anyone waiting for him, perhaps Cloud expected too much of Sephiroth, things that the silver-haired man wasn't ready to give yet. When the omega refused to come out of his bedroom, food started being delivered to his quarters along with lemon cakes (his favorites) , more than it was appropriate for someone of his station.

“You need nourishment, my prince,” Layla often said. “So your highness can withstand the hunt.”

Because of those wise words, Cloud made some effort and ate a little. There was no use to all of this if the wind managed to knock him down before an alpha did, he supposed. 

Besides that, the prince's routine could be resumed by looking pretty, trying on dresses and doing nothing. It was calm enough and the omega could pretend that for a moment there was nothing wrong in the world.

That was until one day he was reading in the gardens after escaping from yet another conversation with his ladies-in-waiting about what his marriage life would be like, how to please his spouse and many other tips he had no interest in learning. The wind was warm and pleasant enough and the repetitive reading comforted his weakened heart when all of a sudden, Cloud was surprised by a vile scent assaulting his sensitive noise.

He closed the book immediately and turned around, getting up from the stone bench and staring at a face he hadn't seen in a long time—the prince hoped he would never get to see again.

The man in front of him now was the same one he had taken off the eye years ago after he drunkenly insulted Sephiroth, calling his small brother a bastard in the training yard. He had curly scarlet hair, reaching his shoulders, and a single brown eye while the left side of his face was covered by an eyepatch, but Cloud could still see the ugly and uneven scar under the dark leather.

That day, after Cloud calmed Sephiroth down, he discovered that the man's name was Eric and he would be the future Lord of the Tides, a title given to the leader of House Blackstream. A family consisting of seafarers and merchants, selling goods from different parts of the world which made them quite wealthy. 

“Admiring your work, your highness?” Eric asked with a sneer after catching Cloud's stare. 

“What are you doing here?” The prince almost felt compelled to show his fangs and make the other retreat, but before he could do anything, Eric grabbed his face and brought it near his, almost touching lips with Cloud.

“I came to ask for your hand in marriage,” he explained simply.

“You are a fool if you think I will accept you!" Cloud screamed and felt nails digging into his cheeks. 

“You don't actually have a say in this, my prince. The King has already blessed our union,” Eric revealed and then saw the marks his nails left on Cloud's perfect skin. He stood so close to the blue eyes that followed him in dreams and nightmares, he could simply pluck them off now like one would do to a flower, maybe forget-me-nots were almost as blue as Cloud's eyes. 

Every night he spent in pain and drunk on sedatives, Eric imagined Cloud tending to him, providing sweet breast milk or removing his own eye as a peace offering. But his favorite fantasies were bloody—Cloud would cry on his knees and ask for forgiveness like it was the only thing he needed to live, the only thing to put an end to his torture which kept growing more creative each day.

But the fire that burned on Cloud's stare told him everything Eric needed to know: it would take time to break him. But the future Lord of the Blackstream House was a patient man, they were going to drown together. He would remove every part that made the omega a dragon and transform him into a siren.

Cloud owed him that.

The prince was going to pay his debt one way or another.

“The hunting–” the omega started saying but was interrupted.

“It is only a ruse. The Realm's Delight is extremely coveted and everybody wants to fuck a royal cunt,” Eric said and the prince gasped, immediately offended by that gross way of speaking. “But the Crown doesn't have enough money and my father could be very generous if I married the right omega. So let the others think they have a chance.”

“You… you bought me?” Cloud whispered in shock. 

“Your father sold you, almost begging us to accept it, if you ask me,” Eric explained and smirked poisonously as the prince clearly became more and more desolated because of his words. “I am sure he would let every man in this realm play with you if he got to keep his position on the throne.”

Really, Cloud should consider himself lucky as the only men Eric would let have a taste of him were the ones from the ship crew. He knew how to share sometimes.

“But Sephiroth–” before the rest of the words could leave his mouth, Eric put a hand around the tiny neck, choking the prince. Going as far as lifting the body until his feet didn't touch the floor. 

“Darling, he's a bastard,” he said sweetly as if he wasn't strangling Cloud, who uselessly gasped, moaned and moved his own legs trying to escape. “I'll make sure to fuck a child into you who will have more chances of being King than he ever will.”

Then, he dropped Cloud who fell with no elegance on the hard ground and started coughing nonstop, spit running down his chin. Eric observed that pitiful display hungrily and got on his knees to touch Cloud's blond locks in a gentle caress, but the omega trembled and pushed him off.

“My little bride is used to having his way, isn't he? Back then you destroyed my life, you drew the first blood, but were off the hook with a slap on the wrist and now I came here to collect your debt.”

“You want me to beg for your forgiveness? You hope to intimidate me with your lies?” he rasped, voice broken due to the prolonged pressure on his neck. He looked up at Eric and spit on his ruined face. “The only thing I regret that day was that I didn't blind you completely, every minute your gaze falls upon me I grow sick with it. I would rather kill myself than have your pups.”

Eric just smiled like Cloud was a cute little pet, all bark and no bite. The future Lord of the Tides rubbed the saliva on his face and brought his own fingers down to observe the wetness on them.

All of a sudden, he red-haired grabbed the blond strands he was gently touching a second ago and twisted the hair on his wrist, whispering against Cloud's ear: “I will hunt you with a fucking crossbow if I need to and when I smell your wet cunt in the forest, I will have you on every way I want to and my whore of a bride will love it, you will love my pups.”

The more Cloud resisted his advances, the more Eric enjoyed him. They would have fun together, the omega could grow to like it or not.

 

---

 

Panic made Cloud extremely tense, the omega unconsciously contracted his muscles and pain visited him in waves. He was scared that Eric would return and torment him more, unable to wait until the hunt, so his first instinct was to find solace in Sephiroth, who was an alpha, who would be King regardless of what these men had to say—he needed to trust this or he would be ruined.

The omega stood on shaky feet and cleaned the dust from his lilac dress. He grabbed the open book and ran toward the castle, looking for Sephiroth everywhere with no success. Until he went to the heir's quarters, which were in the opposite direction of his own, and opened the doors with no hesitation. However, instead of finding his brother like he expected, Cloud saw the two alphas who accompanied the prince before in a compromised position.

They were naked and the red-haired one was on top of the other's lap, grinding on what Cloud could only assume was a knot—he had never seen one in person, even during his escapades with Zack, but he read some forbidden books when the maesters weren't looking. Their groins were wet and that allowed the slide to happen more pleasantly, which confused Cloud for a moment as certainly neither of them produced slick, but a vial of oil nearby explained things.

“Hello there, little omega,” the red-haired greeted, but didn't stop his sensual movements. The omega prince, immersed in his fascinating curiosity, kept on watching them like there was nothing wrong in the world until that comment came out of the smiling alpha’s mouth. He turned around immediately, cheeks burning with the same intensity of the bruise on his neck. 

In a show of ironic innocence, Cloud covered his own eyes even though he wasn't observing what was happening anymore. The blond heard a boisterous laughter and moaning and that didn't help his already shy state. Cloud couldn't understand… he wasn't the one who was caught having sex, so why was he feeling terribly embarrassed? 

“What…” he started saying and coughed as the smell of arousal reached his nose, overwhelming him. “What do you think you are doing?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Cloud heard the rebuttal with a thick accent, not used to the common tongue.

“But you are two alphas ,” the prince argued, a little bit petulantly. 

“So? I lost count of how many blond prostitutes Sephiroth fucked that looked just like you.” 

(And the fact that they were brothers went unsaid.) 

“That’s…” Cloud murmured and was unable to come up with anything as shock took over his body. What that single sentence implied was wrong on every level and if it had been said in front of wrong people, the consequences would be unimaginable. Hysterically, the omega thought to himself that it wouldn't be the first time others mistakenly assumed that something was going on between him and Sephiroth. 

He could still remember the stares he got for the bite marks all over his arms as if Cloud was the young alphas chewing toy. However, the omega knew that arguing was useless and people would believe whatever they wanted to.

His honoured father was a good example of that.

“Cat got your tongue, little omega?” the red-haired alpha kept on asking, sounding truthfully interested instead of being a tease this time. “A hunt is in order, right? Ah —maybe you should watch and learn then.”

Cloud almost turned around at the suggestion, but forced his feet to stay exactly where they were. No looking, no peeking, no dirty thoughts! 

“Or maybe you’re interested? Join us,” Genesis proposed and right after it, something covered his mouth, interrupting the speech.  

“Stop torturing him,” another voice, deep and rich, exclaimed. The prince assumed it was the owner of… the red knot. “Excuse us, your highness, we are not used to court and its manners. I am Angeal and Genesis here never learned how to speak with someone from your station.”

“ Humpf !”

“You are forgiven,” Cloud said while sweating under his dress. He was mortified and intrigued. 

He heard some movements, what he assumed were non sensual ones, like fabric and clothes being handled. The prince cleared his own throat and then he was instructed to turn around. After he did, Cloud noticed that Genesis’ face was as red as his hair and that he covered his body with a silk sheet. 

The other alpha had some dark facial hair which made him seem older and more mature, experienced. The omega prince could barely stand to look at him in the face because of what the man carried between his legs, the image branded his mind. How no one died during intercourse on a daily basis was a wonder to Cloud, even imagining something like that near his private parts was intimidating, to say the least. 

His extended silence made the two alphas look at each other and wait for whatever he had to say, no shame in them whatsoever. As a prince, he wasn't taught to say “sorry” unless it was (absolutely) politically necessary, but at that moment Cloud had to admit he was apologetic for intruding and interrupting whatever it was happening in that damned room, Sephiroth’s room. 

“Why is your neck hurt, omega?” Genesis asked at the same time Angeal spoke: “Who did this to you?”

“Where is Sephiroth?” Cloud questioned instead, covering the neck with his hands. “These are his quarters, aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Angeal answered. “But he let us stay here for the time being.”

“So where is he?” 

“You are a demanding little thing,” Genesis mused and sighed. “Well, if you must know he is at a brothel.”

For an insane second, Cloud almost asked: “doing what?”

Everyone knew what people did in those places, but Cloud had no idea what to feel or how to react to that information. Although Sephiroth had told him years ago that he would not become a typical alpha from the capital, the omega knew better than to believe in childish promises. Has he changed so much from that time? And why did it bother Cloud so badly? 

The omega had difficulty breathing, not due the the attack he suffered before, but because of the hurt crawling inside his heart. Weirdly enough, it felt like betrayal. 

Even if Cloud knew what was coming for him, he always enjoyed his happy endings and books with a charming knight in shining armour, long pretty hair and kind eyes. The omega often thought to himself that it was okay, he knew his own duty and that birthing babies for the crown was the most important part of it, the blond wouldn’t be the first person to be dragged to the septum against their will. But now that said duty grew closer, he didn’t like it. Not a bit. 

The prince’s ladies in waiting often said that marriages were not that bad, truly, he would just need to worry about bedding his husband once in a while to produce offspring and tolerate their drunk “shenanigans.” Eric went against every notion Cloud imagined he could forgive in an arranged marriage, the man had every intention of torturing the prince and making his life a living nightmare. 

Sephiroth was his only hope. If there was someone like Eric wanting to hurt Cloud, then the heir would certainly not let that happen or that was what he thought. The omega desired to ask his younger brother where he was? What was more important than being here with Cloud, licking his wounds like he had before? Now that he knew the answer, he wanted to forget about it, the blond felt like a fool for the failed expectations. 

But if what Eric said was true—that Sephiroth would not be King—then the only viable options were Marius getting wed again and having another alpha child or Cloud birthing one himself, then Sephiroth’s claim to the throne could be contested if enough members of the council thought he was unfit for the role. 

This way, the only person standing in Sephiroth’s way was Cloud. If he got rid of his older brother, achieving the throne would be an easy task.

Disappointed and sick enough, the prince thanked both alphas and excused himself without looking back. He made his way to the only person he could confide in right now. 

Whenever Cloud arrived at the temple, nobody questioned his presence there unless, maybe, Aerith's new “body guard”, a girl called Tifa. The beta was a former assassin from a far away land and landed the job of a lifetime; she would never have to worry about gold again if she succeeded in killing the famous priestess of the West Temple and brought the corpse to her contractor. 

Needless to say, Aerith saw her coming and instead of attacking Tifa, she tended to her wounds—those you could see and those you couldn’t. Now, the red-eyed girl served Aerith day and night, making sure that no other assassination attempt was made to her precious priestess, standing close enough to glare at everyone she found suspicious. Taking into consideration everything she might have seen, it was no wonder she behaved like that. 

Now she stood in Cloud's way, not to stop him, but to give the prince a warning. 

“Something occurred, your highness, do not let Aerith perform her abilities mindlessly,” she said calmly in her red clothes. Cloud nodded and entered Aerith's room.

He found his friend sitting on the floor,  among old books, open parchments and lit candles. 

“Cloud!” Aerith called as soon as she saw him. “There you are, I thought Sephiroth had already kidnapped you.”

“Why would you say that?!” he snapped at her, but regretted immediately after seeing the smile fall from her face. “Forgive me, I did not come here to fight, I just had a long day.”

After a few moments, Aerith said, “Sit here with me, Cloud, please.”

When he did, knees touching the priestess’, she held his small hands and kissed them gently, a singular care only she provided ever since mother passed. Growing up as a prince was a lonely and paranoid experience, everybody wanted to be on his good side and went out of their way to prove it—almost unbearably so—but at the same time, the omega needed to know those were not his friends and loyalty was a fleeting thing in this kingdom. Before Sephiroth, Cloud had no one, no one but Aerith. 

For as long as he knew, she had been protecting him and his baby brother. Each touch was pure and free of ulterior motives.

She brought him closer and Cloud bowed his own body, making himself smaller to fit in her arms. The prince snuggled his face onto Aerith's scentless neck and let the tears that were burning his eyes finally fall, the sad aroma dancing in the air.

“I do not like when people joke about me and Sephiroth. I do not like it because you are wrong… Sephiroth doesn't want me,” he said each word between a sob and a sigh. Why did it hurt so badly to say it out loud? To know that it was the truth? “He does not want me.”

“Oh, Cloud,” Aerith cooed and hugged him tighter. “Tell me what happened.” 

And he did, Cloud told her about the hunt and the fear Eric instilled in him, about Sephiroth escaping to a brothel as soon as he returned home, leaving the omega to face his own fate alone. 

“I would like to know if…” Cloud cleared his throat and found courage to keep on saying the words he was so afraid of. “If Eric will be able to do it, if he will be successful in biting me.” 

After Sephiroth’s prophecy many moons ago, the omega never bothered his friend about the future again, after all she often said that becoming obsessed with it would “bite your prick off every time.” He did ask silly questions like what would they have for dinner or if the crooked embroidery would finally please his demanding teachers.

But never like this, about something so important. He needed to know.

Aerith merely looked at him with remorse and Cloud's heart filled with sorrow, knowing what that meant, his worst fears would become true.

“I am terribly sorry, my sweet prince. But things have changed ever since Sephiroth returned.”

“What do you mean?”

“Right after he was born it was almost as if the magic flowing in the world got stronger. It felt easier to see what people asked of me, like I was feeding off his enchantment and dragon blood,” she explained apologetically for her falling in predicting the future now at such an important time. “But then, now that Sephiroth returned it's… every time I close my eyes and try to see , all I can find is blurriness. A vast sea of darkness which makes it impossible to navigate, there's something sinister in the air: old sorcery.”

“So you think Sephiroth has something to do with it?” Cloud asked and thought about how different his brother seemed now, appearance and personality-wise.

“There's no way to prove it right now, but we must be careful,” Aerith responded. “And I refuse to let you suffer from your father's sadism. Tifa!”

The girl all but materialized besides them after the calling, like a dog answering its owner's call. Aerith simply said “knife” and Tifa responded by placing a dagger on the priestess' open hand. 

“Here,” she gave the weapon to Cloud who ignored Tifa's bloody stare and held the gift so hard he could almost feel the blade cutting his skin, even with the protection of the pretty decorated sheath separating them. “Take this with you and also…”

Aerith got up and searched for something in her shelf, she let out a small “aha!” when she did and the atmosphere immediately became lighter. Cloud smiled and felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. 

“Now, if the worst comes to happen, which it won't , but…” she started saying and kneeled before the prince while holding a small wooden box. “If something happens, you can make use of this.” 

“What is it?” Cloud asked, grabbing the tiny box. He opened it and smelled the strong herbs inside of it. 

“Tansy, mint, wormwood, a spoon of honey and a drop of pennyroyal. Moon tea.”

Cloud gasped at the revelation and closed the lid in shock as if someone caught him doing something wrong with this abortive tea.

“There's no use for a maiden, but if an alpha’s seed gets inside you, promise me you will drink it. Ask Layla to prepare it for you.”

If Eric or anyone managed to impregnate him during that hunt, Cloud would make sure to drink every drop of moon tea—that was if he didn't get to use the sharp dagger first.

“Thank you.”

 

---

 

At night, Cloud returned to the Keep and inside his bedroom yet another gift awaited him, although the prince wanted nothing to do with its sender, the future Lord of the Tides.

A big box was placed on top of his bed and Cloud was almost scared to open, but the weight of the dagger strapped to his thigh gave him enough confidence to undo the bow and then remove the lid. What he found was a sea of white fabric, a wedding dress. 

What a tasteless joke. 

The omega tried it on and he could barely recognize himself with it in the mirror, it was more extravagant than everything else he had—and Cloud was a prince of the realm. Since it was a House born from the sea, the cloth was accompanied by a set of jewelry made with pearls, dripping from Cloud's neck, barely hiding the bruises decorating his skin.

Someone knocked on the door and Cloud prayed it was not Eric. He didn’t say anything and then a familiar voice was heard. 

“Cloud.”

“Come in, brother.” 

Cloud watched in the looking glass as Sephiroth opened the doors and smiled when he saw the omega, green eyes shining brighter. The omega reciprocated the gesture without turning around, still maintaining the stare in the mirror. 

“You look beautiful. The most beautiful bride in the whole realm,” he said and each step his boots made, a commanding sound echoed on the floor. He came up behind Cloud and grabbed his shoulders delicately, but it burned anyway. 

“Only the realm?” Cloud teased even if shivers ran down his body because of Sephiroth's hot touch. “Help me close it please?”

The alpha peered at his naked back and caressed his knuckles over each ridge of Cloud’s spine, stopping at the tail bone. Could he see how much the older prince trembled and how his pulse fluttered? His own face flushed after remembering Genesis’ provocation, but at the same time his loins turned with arousal; it also caused a painful sting deep in his heart. 

What business did Sephiroth have here in his quarters after spending the whole day at a brothel? Cloud wanted to ask him, but he wanted to make it hurt , to make his dear brother pay for these conflicting emotions tormenting him so then maybe Sephiroth would understand what he felt—even if Cloud himself didn’t know how to name these feelings.

Wickedly, Cloud wondered if Sephiroth made his “blond” whores drink moon tea as well or if he fathered bastards during his exile. 

He meant to hold in his breath so as not to smell any sex scent on him, but a masochistic drive made him give in to curiosity and Cloud found nothing. Maybe some smoke and alcohol here and there, but nothing else besides his alpha perfume. 

“You should eat more. Did you like the lemon cakes I sent you?” 

“That was from you?” 

“They are still your favorites, aren't they?”

“Yes… I enjoyed them very much.”

“Then I am glad.”

Sephiroth buttoned up his wedding gown and left a soft kiss on top of his blond head. 

“There.”

“Thank you, Sephiroth, but don’t you have somewhere else better to be? Like a brothel maybe?” Instead of anger or hurt, amusement crossed Sephiroth’s face and he laughed. 

“Jealous much?”

“I do not have anything to be jealous about.“

“Of course you don’t. Men all over the realm are tripping over themselves and trying to impress you, some tripping more than others,” he joked and the smile showed his dangerous fangs. “Have you heard about the Griffin boy?”

“I have…” 

Sephiroth was talking about the man who asked for a dance with Cloud during the heir’s celebration. Shortly after that, he fell down the stairs at the Keep and died. Just like that. 

Nobody saw how it happened, the guards simply found his body on the floor in the morning. 

But Cloud knew better, he understood that every man who got close to him or asked for his hand in marriage ended up dead. Maybe there was something vile in the omega, like a curse that made him a widow even before walking into a church. He hoped that the same thing would happen to Eric now.

“Oh, it was a tragedy,” Cloud murmured. “Poor James, he was a fine dancer.”

“You pronounce his name sweetly like that?” Sephiroth asked like he was controlling himself not to spit fire like a grumpy dragon and that thought made Cloud smile—which only increased Sephiroth’s visible anger. “You didn’t even know his name before this morning, when the news came.” 

“Well… I guess it does not matter anymore as he is dead now.” Unless his brother decided to be jealous of the deceased. 

“Humpf!”

The act alone drew a laugh out of Cloud. Like this, he was exactly how the omega remembered him, but soon his joy turned into sadness and he tried to move away so Sephiroth couldn’t see the tears brimming in his eyes. The alpha did not let him and held his chin delicately, forcing him to look at the picture they made together in the mirror. Sephiroth had grown so much his body almost swallowed Cloud up, the dark clothes now contrasted to the omega’s white gown. 

He had missed him. So, so, so much . 

But now, Cloud wouldn’t get to spend any time with his little brother like he used to after being treated as a broodmare far, far away from here. 

The alpha kissed his neck over the pearls and the tears fell down. He wanted Sephiroth to rip off that despicable necklace and give him the feeling of his full lips as a comfort.  

“It is so sad that you returned and I am leaving,” Cloud whispered, trying to contain his sobs. “That happens so often that I am starting to believe we are not meant to spend any more time together.”

“Do you want me to kidnap you? It is not too late yet, I could take you from here, just you and me away from all this court trap…” Sephiroth proposed against the soft skin behind his ear. 

“I can not run away, I have been… putting this off far too long now and we would have to spend our whole lives being chased down, it is not worth it. Besides, who would sew my dresses?” Cloud said, finding something to joke about in the middle of his despair. “Once you said that you wanted to read books and eat candies with me forever, that's what I wanted too.” 

“I am rather skilled with the needle,” Sephiroth answered, holding the omega’s small body against his chest. “I bet I could make you something to wear.”

“Promise you will visit me when I move away? And promise to like my babies even when they cry and have snot all over their faces?”

“They will be beautiful because they came from you,” the alpha said and turned the other’s body, licking the salty tears raining over his hot cheeks. “Don't worry, I'll take care of everything. If you want to run away or if you want to stay, no one is going to hurt you. I promise you that.”

“You don’t understand, brother. Your destiny is… of glory and power while mine is to birth pups until it kills me one day. Eric is going to make sure of that.”

“Cloud, look at me…” he asked and Cloud opened his azure eyes to stare at his younger brother who looked downright serious. “Our world may burn so that not even ashes remain. And even then, I won’t end nor will I have you end. I would soon kill them all until we are the only ones left in this world. Nothing else matters to me.”

The omega prince gulped and waited one, two, three heartbeats until he calmed himself down before opening his mouth. 

“They do not want you to be king.”

“I know.”

“You do not sound worried.”

“You will find, dear brother, that I am very convincing,” he said with a smile. “Now, Angeal and Genesis told me something about your neck. Show me.”

Cloud sighed and thought about how they had been in that same situation before. If Sephiroth kept on taking care of him like that, he would easily be considered his older brother. But the omega liked it, it was difficult not to when his care felt so nice. 

He removed his own necklace and dropped harshly on the floor, silently hoping that it broke so he wouldn't need to think about Eric any longer. Until the memory of him consisted solely of ruined pearls. His only legacy: a forgotten piece of jewelry among Cloud's things.

Sephiroth observed his bruised neck and hummed, lips turned down and displeased eyes. 

“Lie down on the bed.” 

Cloud followed the command without questioning and was almost swallowed by the huge skirt of the dress. Before he could say anything, Sephiroth pushed him down and placed himself on top of the omega. The silver-haired alpha always liked to feel Cloud under him, ever since they were kids and played tag. That was how they both knew Sephiroth had won.

The young man started kissing his sore neck and scent gland. Cloud moaned so loud he was afraid that someone would hear it. But he felt glad knowing that every mark would disappear and Sephiroth's scent would remain on him.

“That… feels funny,” Cloud whined and moved his hips up, silver hair between his fingers. 

“Yeah?” Sephiroth whispered slowly against his shoulder, hot breath puffing on the spit licked skin and making the omega shiver all over. 

“Ah–”

“Does it still hurt here?” 

Afraid of letting out more embarrassing sounds, Cloud simply shook his head. 

“Where else does it hurt? Here?” he asked with lips over his collarbone. Cloud shook his head again and then he moved to the chest covered by the dress. “What about here?”

He wanted Sephiroth's rough tongue between his legs, it hurt so badly. Like he would die if he didn't find release soon. Even if he burned in hell for that, it was what he wanted the most.

But then, the alpha ran his hand up Cloud’s thigh, under his skirt, and found the dagger there.

“What is this for?”

“F-For the hunt.” 

Sephiroth smiled proudly like he was amazed at Cloud's violence. 

“You will do well. You always gave me a challenge when we were kids.”

“ You always caught me.”

“Yes and the men you are going to face are not me,” he reassured, touching Cloud's hair. His emerald eyes shone in the darkness of the room, the candles were not enough to compete against him. “If it's not me chasing after you in that forest then you do not need to worry about anything. You only have to think about me, you only have to worry about me.”

“You… You are not the same Sephiroth I knew,” Cloud whispered and silver hair fell around him, caressing his cheeks.

“No, but my feelings for you have not changed. Please accept me even if I am not the pup you once knew,” he pleaded between kissing, lips on any glimpse of skin he saw. Cloud's shoulder, neck, collarbone, chin and cheeks. “Embrace me, please, please.” 

And Cloud did the only thing he knew what to do with Sephiroth. He let him.

Notes:

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? It's kinda weird because I'm such a yapper and I always have a lot to say, but then I come here and I forget everything 🤡 OH YEAH!! Okay, so NEXT CHAPTER we'll have the hunt AND hehehe CLOUD'S WEDDING. Who is going to claim this omega? :p

Glory and Gore was also meant to be a shortfic little thing, it'll probably end in two chapters (if I can control myself).

Now, if you read my other sefikura fic "it's all about us", I started a poll there with three options on what I should write next (I didn't respect the voting system and started writing what I wanted which in that case was glory and gore hehehe). BUT ANYWAYS, now I'm planning on writing a sefikura endgame office au with a little bit of zakkura and EC Sephiroth meeting pregnant Cloud from the future. But for the other projects, I still don't know, so we still have a) lesbian vampire girlfriends sefikura or b) daddy issues/daddy kink sefikura. Help me in the comments below, please!

I think that's it :) Hope you liked this chapter, I had lots of fun with it. Mwah, mwah, have a nice week!!

 

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Chapter 5: IV

Notes:

Wow, we got 40 comments in the last chapter, I know half of those are mine, but omg you are all insane hahaha But really, I feel so happy because I really didn't expect this positive reception for Glory and Gore when I started writing it and it feels so amazing to share this with you, guys 😭 thank you for your love, I know that we all have our busy lives, but it feels really special to see your thoughts (here and on Twitter too) and to receive your kudos. Thank you for reading my silly little story and liking it, I want to finish all of my fics and have more fanfic adventures with you in the future 😊 hope this update can make your day better.

Also, I didn't proofread this.......... maybe I'll do it......... later....... who knows.

Enjoy!

Each day before the hunt was an unbearable experience, agonizing hours passed by slowly and Cloud often had to force himself to function, reminding himself that he was an actual human being with needs, hot and pulsating under that whole expanse of skin, a walking bag of blood, and not a doll made to please others, being played with until it was dropped on the floor by tired children. He walked through the castle slowly, he ate, bathed, drank and read—but the omega never felt concentrated enough to interpret the meaning behind all those words tangled together. The prince almost wished that he could be done with the “tournament” already so time wouldn't torture him like this.

When he was in a better mood, Cloud imagined the hunt being called off and life full of lemon cakes, pretty dresses and Sephiroth being small enough that the omega would be able to lift him up again. 

But he had never been lucky. 

Sometimes he felt guilty about wishing to see his brother as a kid once more, grieving a person who was very much alive, just… different. Cloud was thankful for Sephiroth being allowed to grow into a man, but at the same time he missed the precious time they spent together when everything seemed simpler and Thoren was still alive. Would he be forced to take part in any of this if his uncle was here, acting as a family to support him? 

“The King is your family too. And all of his cousins and siblings,” a tiny voice whispered inside his mind. They shared the same blood, but no bond could flourish from such a hostile soil. His father only loved him when Cloud used to be too dumb to understand things and speak full sentences correctly, if that could be called love. He only appreciated perfection and lack of personality. 

His true family made him company every night. 

It was Cloud's favorite time of the day; when he tried to fall asleep, with no success, and then another weight could be felt on his bed. Sephiroth always returned to the Keep smelling like something many would consider off-putting—ash and blood,  for instance—, but Cloud found comfort in that the same way people did with flowers or a freshly baked bread, it was like a fireplace burning only for him, reminding the prince of the time the alpha had been born during a harsh winter.

Whenever Sephiroth laid down on Cloud's bed in the middle of the night, the omega pretended to be asleep (at first), waiting for his reaction. He would feel long fingers touching his exposed knee and blond hair, but they never ventured more than this, except that Cloud himself would open his water-blue eyes and stare at Sephiroth's green ones. He didn't seem ashamed after being caught touching his not so asleep brother, as a matter of fact, his silver hair created an otherworldly halo on the pillows he shared with Cloud, faces so close their breaths caressed each other's cheek, he was the image of innocence.

“Good dreams?” Sephiroth would ask him softly, with a quiet voice and sweet eyes in the darkness of the night.

“I can only have them after you come to my bed,” Cloud answered because it was only the truth. Even with the dagger under his pillow, he just felt safe with Sephiroth here, climbing onto his sheets. 

“Then I will make sure to come earlier tomorrow,” he reassured. “Your rest is most important.”

(If he came back to his room tomorrow after the hunt while Cloud was mated and bred.)

“Are you going to tell me how you got the scar on your face one day?”

“I am.” 

The heir had a different answer every time Cloud asked him. “It was an unruly cat,” he said it once or maybe “when I was climbing up a tree to grab its fruit and fell,” a branch slicing his face on the way. Reasonably, it could be nothing more than these silly stories but the stormy expression on Sephiroth’s face told Cloud everything he needed to know. 

“It is okay if you don't, I only wish I was there to protect you,” the omega declared, always so protective of his little brother—even if Sephiroth's feet were almost falling off the bed due to his height on Cloud's small nest, probably the last person in the kingdom who needed protection. 

“You can always hold me, Cloud!” he said once. The blond prince didn't know if this statement still held any truth, but he needed to do it and would only stop if Sephiroth asked him to. 

So the omega did just that and crossed his leg over the alpha’s hip. Sephiroth was scorching hot, but Cloud had never been afraid of getting burned by the fire. His tall body radiated warmness that covered Cloud like a fluffy blanket. 

“Did it hurt? Did you cry?” Cloud questioned with a singular fascination and held Sephiroth's face between his hands, touching the scar with his thumb and watched as the alpha closed his green eyes, letting out a sigh and savoring the contact. 

“This mere scratch would not be enough to hurt me,” he joked soothingly. 

“Is that so? Funny because I remember how much you cried when you grabbed those roses for me when we were kids.” The silver-haired man immediately touched the soft meat of his thigh under the covers, where the cilice resided before, making Cloud tremble and burn in more ways than one. “You were so cute…”

“Am I not cute anymore, brother?” Sephiroth fished for compliments and blinked those viridescent eyes, vertical pupils growing larger as Cloud massaged his hair, perpetually enchanted by its length. It reminded him of the love stories he always loved, besides the charming knights depicted in it. 

“Of course, you will always be the cutest pup in the realm,” the omega said and then a low purr could be heard, Sephiroth's chest started rumbling from how pleased he was. 

The sound was almost enough to put him in a deep slumber—comfortable, hot, safe—, but he enjoyed listening to the voice that was so different from before, obsessed and absorbing every little change. The cadence was no longer soft and boyish, but rather deep and sharp, caustic. 

“Tell me about your travels again.” 

And Sephiroth did until Cloud fell asleep. Tales of far away lands and mystical beings being fed to his unconsciousness.

When the older prince woke up in the morning, his breasts were heavy and sweet wetness could be found between his thighs, the petals of his inexperienced cunt throbbing. The alpha was nowhere to be seen, but Cloud tried not to feel too sad about that because he always left before the sunrise and no matter how badly the omega tried, he never saw him leave. If it weren't for the alpha scent in the air and the few silver strands beside his pillow, Cloud could almost imagine it was all a dream.

But perhaps that was for the best, otherwise Sephiroth would get to see how depraved his own brother was, even after all these years and that catastrophic rut that separated them, milk still threatened to spill from his nipples again. He felt deeply inappropriate, a flawed thing from the way he was not capable of experiencing an innocent touch without the need of presenting on all fours in front of his younger brother. Sephiroth was not his alpha, he was not his and soon Cloud would be married to another, however, the lustful body never understood that, it seemed.

He sighed and swallowed the need to hide his body while Layla got inside his room and started changing the nightclothes. Her nose twitched at the strong smell of alpha, but she never dared to say anything, always too polite to do so. 

“Today is the day, your highness,” Layla commented and Cloud was grateful that he had allowed only one maid in his quarters today. He wouldn’t be able to bear those many voices near him right now, complimenting the prince on the hunt about to happen like they had been doing for the past week, wrongly thinking that it pleased the blond beauty. 

You will be such a good omega, your highness, your spouse will become the luckiest alpha in all the realm, among every person involved in this competition, you are by far the most beautiful one. 

Fed up with their despicable fawning, Cloud ordered everyone away. 

“Indeed,” the prince answered Layla. Could she smell how afraid he was? How sour his scent had turned?

He would wait until she was out to grab his dagger. 

“You have received something to wear, your highness, it was requested,” Layla said and Cloud became instantly rigid, fearing it would be another cilice or worse. 

“I will not wear it!” he said with a finality. Wasn’t it enough to be participating in this horrific demonstration? Now his father would ask for more of him on top of everything? He would not accept it. “You can lie to the King for all I care and say I accepted it.”

“But it is not from the King,” Layla explained calmly. “Prince Sephiroth asked me to give you this.”

“What?”

Now, this caught his attention. 

He turned around and looked at Layla who had a small smile on her delicate face. The girl held a box, not so different from the one Eric had gifted him, and put it on the bed.

“You can trust this, your highness. It's meant to help you today, I believe,” she explained, looking younger than she seemed to be. Cloud was glad that there was another person rooting for him. “Prince Sephiroth told me to ignore everyone on my way here and deliver this to you and only you.” 

“Let me see.” 

Layla opened up the box but did not touch its content, allowing the prince to get closer and look inside. Cloud saw the dark leather and brought it closer to his own nose, almost rolling his blue eyes at the familiar aroma, this coat was Sephiroth's. This way, sleeping together and wearing his new gift, Cloud would be so thoroughly scented that one could easily mistake him for an alpha. 

It was a thoughtful thing. Sephiroth's way of saying that he cared and didn't wish for Cloud to face this.

Inside the box there was a note.

“As an omega, you are going to receive a head start. Run, Cloud, run away. You have to leave, you have to live. Hide yourself in the huge tree near the pond we used to play in, wait until you hear the horn announcing the end of the competition. If someone dares to mark you after that, I'll kill them. It will be over soon.

Sephiroth Crescent.” 

The promise of violence, of death, shouldn't be so appealing, so relieving to Cloud, but it was. He felt like he could breathe again after so long, knowing that Sephiroth was not going to force Cloud to accept this. He read the note again and again, memorizing the handwriting and threw the paper inside the burning fireplace—the omega couldn't run the risk of others discovering this or Sephiroth's safety would be compromised. 

“You were very brave, thank you for putting yourself at risk because of me,” Cloud said to Layla. Sephiroth could at least protect himself, but the girl had everything to lose for such a simple message. “I will never forget this. I owe you now.”

“Please, my prince, it is simply my responsibility to serve you.”

“Still… thank you.”

Clous looked at himself in the mirror and observed the sheer dress he was made to wear, almost as silver as Sephiroth's strands. The design was plain and flowy. His private parts were hidden by small underclothes; his breasts were practically naked to the eye due to the transparent fabric, but the cold left them visibly hard. 

The prince was expected to run in this absurd attire in a cold forest for hours, giving an easier access to whoever wanted to have their way with him.

“Humiliating,” he thought, biting his lips so hard, Cloud thought they would bleed. Is that what he deserved? 

Fortunately, now he had Sephiroth’s coat to put on and conceal his figure. 

After Layla left, the omega strapped the dagger to his right leg and tried out a few movements, preparing himself for an unwanted company in the forest, hoping that it wouldn’t be needed. Then, knocks were heard on his door and Cloud was finally called to exit his quarters for the grand event, two knights accompanied the prince—to make sure an escape attempt was not made, certainly. They got close to a camp, many blue tents were stationed to an area where the forest started, green grass meeting concrete floors. 

Music and loud laughs invaded Cloud’s ears at the same time his own stomach grumbled due to the smell of food being served at each table. The prince could see the King in the middle of this arranged feast, talking and drinking while treating his own son as entertainment. They were to stay there, waiting for the moment Cloud would be dragged back bred and bitten, smelling of blood and cum, but he would rather die than give them the satisfaction. 

Only omegas were there now, standing ready to enter the deep woods. Some were visibly more nervous than others who had the same mentality as his own omegas-in-waiting, perhaps it was a defense mechanism, fake it till you make it! 

But they were all wearing revealing clothes, even more so than Cloud under the coat, and he didn’t know if he felt better or worse about it all. 

Before the guard could announce the beginning of the event with the earsplitting horn, maesters started to walk toward every omega, including Cloud himself. The prince was offered a hot cup of tea and he did not like the smell at all. The omega was almost tempted to cast it aside, but he knew that he would not get his way. 

“You should not wear this coat, your highness,” was the first thing the healer said. 

“What is this drink? The least you can do is tell me before offering it like this,” Cloud inquired. “Is it poison?”

At the mention of poison, the maester’s eyes became wide as saucers and he forgot all about the prince’s attire. 

“I would never dream of poisoning a prince, your highness!” The man defended himself. 

“Then do enlighten me please. What if I fall dead on this floor right here? An omega of the royal line getting killed before he could wed and birth offspring. Could you imagine such a tragedy?”

The underlying threat was more than enough to make the maester speak: “It’s a fertility potion, your highness, a tea to make things more bearable.”

“In what way?” He didn’t have a good feeling about this. 

“You shall produce slick and smell sweeter. It induces a small heat that will last until the event ends.” 

If his scent became strong it would be easier for others to find him, a complete disadvantage. Immediately, Cloud started thinking in a way of vomiting the drink, but avid eyes watched him and it would probably be too late until the hunt started, every second of running counted. So he drank the tea in one single gulp and the hot liquid went down his throat like the alcohol Sephiroth had offered him before, his head pounded and Cloud felt dizzy for a moment before it all stopped. 

The omega was led to a chair by the maester and rested there for a few more minutes before his cheeks started to redden and sweat drenched the back of his neck. Soon, Cloud became out of breath, chest rising and falling in fast movements. But he had no time to pull himself together and was forced to stand on trembling legs by the guards, hastily guided to the starting line. 

The omega prince felt weak, feverish. Blond hair was sticking to his sweaty skin. He forced his own nails down, digging them into the palms of his hands, using pain as a tool to stay alert, concentrating on the here and now. Anger made him somewhat light-headed and that would not help at all, so he would pray for the ruin of those people watching him another time. 

Cloud stared at the endless forest where tall intimidating trees waited for him. But the omega knew those lands, he evaded Sephiroth perfectly until the fatigue took over his muscles and the alpha jumped at the opportunity, ending the play. He knew every corner, every three… his brother was right, none of these people could compare to the alpha, so Cloud should not fear them. 

And whatever happened that day, his brother guaranteed that the outcome would remain the same: no one would endanger Cloud's freedom. 

He took deep breaths, one and two, three and four, trying to calm himself until it didn't feel like the uneasy heart would jump out of his ribcage. The horn was played, its sound loud and clear, then Cloud started running. 

The dew moistened the grass in the dawn, which in turn, ended up damping Cloud's calves, but none of that bothered him. He felt the softness of the green floor under the thin shoes and the cold wind that caressed his face and felt free. Slick ran down his thighs and he kept going, running until the camp was no more than a cruel joke, a nightmare that he would forget during the day while eating desserts and reading for Sephiroth.

The omega could not run as fast as he would have liked due to the coat limiting his movements, the skin sweaty under the heavy leather, but it was okay because the effects of the tea seemed to get stronger and stronger with time. He soon arrived at the pond when a distant noise resounded again, now the “hunters” would join the event too. His confidence wavered a bit, but Cloud only walked to the water and cupped his hands, drinking as much as he could, hoping to lower the effects of the tea.

The omega took a moment to wash his own face and neck to get rid of that intoxicating heat scent when he heard a stick breaking behind him. How someone arrived that fast was beyond him, but Cloud touched the outline of the dagger strapped to his leg and slowly turned around to face his enemy. 

What he found, however, was not the intimidating alpha he expected, but a rather frightened figure of a small girl. She had short dark hair and confused green eyes, she seemed to be holding her tears and could barely stand as her bare feet were bloody.

“Who are you?” Cloud asked, but the girl refused to answer with words and simply shook her head, curly hair bouncing. “Are you participating in this hunt?”

An affirmative nod. 

“How old are you?” 

The girl raised her hands and all of her ten fingers, then only two. Twelve years old. A child.

Something inside Cloud broke, a missing piece of him twisted and ached, the need to vomit stronger than anything else. He was not stupid and knew these things happened quite frequently. “As soon as one presented, they were ready to mate,” that was what everybody said, but the omega doubted that the poor and scared kid in front of him knew the true consequences of a bite, getting knotted and birthing another child—if that act alone didn’t kill her in the process. 

“Come here,” he asked and regretted that as soon as he was reminded of her feet. Cloud stood up and held her, carrying the girl to the pond. The omega asked her to drink the water and then cleaned her wounds carefully even if she was hissing all the time. Cloud was no healer, but it didn’t look like it could get infected, as long as she didn’t walk for some time. 

The prince wondered and asked himself what he should do. He wanted to carry her with him to a more secluded place, but their scents would attract more people if they stayed together as well and Cloud was not sure he could protect them both. Suddenly, a flash of red hair came to his mind. If Eric found him, then what would happen to the girl?

Then he remembered a newly-presented Sephiroth he found in that nasty brothel, his naked body exposed for all to see, totally out of his mind. 

In the back of his mind, he heard Aerith’s voice telling him that he had a soft heart and Cloud sighed. He knew that he would pay for the decision he just made, but it was okay. At least, he had Sephiroth to protect his future and pick up the pieces of his broken self, this girl had no one. 

So Cloud carried her small body to the hole of the tree he and Sephiroth used to hide in during their games. He laid her down and took off his brother’s coat, dropping it on top of the girl so the alpha scent could conceal hers. 

“Do not take this off, okay? Keep it near your neck like that, yes.”

He immediately felt the cold wind dancing around his sweaty body and trembled from head to toe, but he willed himself to be brave, to be courageous in front of that kid, so Cloud grabbed the dagger and offered it to her. 

“Do not make any noise and if someone finds you, use this with no fear, wait until they get close enough to aim for the neck. Promise?” Cloud asked but was surprised when the girl lifted her own hand, every finger down but the little one. 

The prince locked their pinkies and smiled. 

“I will come back for you after the hunt. Stay here.” 

She nodded again and Cloud prayed for every entity out there to keep her safe. He wished he had a power so magnificent that no girl or boy had to suffer the King’s misdeeds. 

The comfort of the water soon left his body as the prince started running again, his long hair sticking to his now uncovered arms and back. He went to the total opposite to where the small girl resided, determined to keep any predators far from her and moved in the direction of another pond in the forest, far less secretive than this one, but it would do. 

It should be around noon when Cloud finally encountered the place he had in mind and it seemed decent enough. The lake was shallow and small, but he scrubbed his glands clean until it hurt, neck and wrists. Cloud foolishly looked around before dipping his hands into the water and then under the transparent dress, removing the excess of slick down there. He was much more vulnerable now without his borrowed coat and dagger, he needed to pay attention to every little detail.

The tea was strong enough to keep him hot and bothered until the next morning, the time that the hunt would finally come to an end, so Cloud would only need to repeat this process every few hours. But at the moment he thought that, his stomach chose to rumble, leaving him rather weak as Cloud noticed how hungry he actually was. So he hid himself behind some rocks and trees, hoping to be safe.

Unfortunately, Cloud meant to only rest for a little bit, but then he woke up with a terrible fever, noticing that a few hours had passed and the sky turned orange and purple. His body shone with sweat, damping the thin piece of fabric he wore and his quim throbbed terribly and he knew that there was a pool of slick under him, wetness dripping from his virginal opening and over the meat of his ass. 

Cloud wandered both hands on his sensitive breasts, massassing them until a moan tried to make its way on his throat. He desperately covered his own mouth with one hand and hovered the other over his groin, it would be so easy to simply plunge his fingers inside and give in to the most basic need, but he couldn’t, he couldn’t and his head ached. 

His frail figure remained unmoved for some more minutes until Cloud was strong enough to sit and think about his next move. He got up to bathe himself in the water and clear his head, but then the prince heard something, it was a faint noise, maybe one could mistake it for an animal or the wind, however, the prince could not take any chances and that sobered him up pretty quickly. So he waited and waited for any sign of safety and heard the same noise again, but far from where he was this time. 

The prince left the hideout and suddenly his head was pushed to rock behind him, leaving him dizzy for a long moment until Cloud opened his eyes and stared at an unknown man in front of him. 

“You fell for such a trick, huh?” he asked, voice deep and rude. “Not smarter than a rabbit if you are following the sound of a tiny rock.” 

Cloud groaned and looked up, away from that face and he tightened his own hands on the soil, waiting until the man got close enough to release the dirt he had gathered right on his attacker's eyes. 

“You bitch!” he growled and Cloud tried escaping in that moment, heart beating faster than ever. However, the man grabbed him by the hair and the omega whined, the pressure on his scalp was too much and his hands instinctively went to those fingers that twisted the blond strands among them. 

“Stop!” the omega gritted between his teeth, wishing he had a dagger with him just to cut his own hair short. “Please, s-stop!”

The pain paralyzed Cloud and he would not move in fear of hurting himself. The stranger used this forced obedience to his advantage and touched the omega's body with greed and brutality. His sweet scent turned rotten, but that only made the attacker want him more because the prince's soft skin was too precious and the sounds he sang went straight to the hard dick in his pants. He wanted to rut inside the prince until he started to like it, until he gladly opened his “royal” legs and offered that untouched cunt—one that would make him rich as long as he kept fucking the Realm's Delight full of kids. 

“Ahn, no, not there,” Cloud begged when the man's hand ventured lower. “Please I will do anything, you can use my mouth, but–”

“You think you can tell me what to do?” He felt offended at the suggestion, the omega was at his mercy and still thought that he could talk back. So the assailant stopped feeling up his feverish body and used the now free hand to slap his groin many times, strongly, before groping the pussy—wet against Cloud's will due to the induced heat, making it seem he wanted that, but he did not like it, he did not like it at all. “Someone has to teach you some manners…”

The pain on his private parts was striking and the pressure on his scalp didn't relent, so tears threatened to fall from Cloud's sad eyes, unable to believe this was happening to him even if he felt the hard manhood grinding on his back. 

“What… What about money? Y-You will have every need fulfilled. Please, do not do this, you don’t have to…”

“Dumb omega, everything I need is right here.”

Disgusted, the prince kept telling himself to react, to do something, the only weapon he had was his voice and it kept being ignored. Fear held him down like chains and he tried to accept the situation, looking up to the darkening sky and flying far away from that place to a magical castle in the sky where only dragons could reach, like his mom told him. Nobody would hurt him there.

In his fantasies, this man was killed without mercy.

Despite those dreams, an opportunity made itself present. The aggressor became distracted by the omega's sudden calm and pressed the fingers inside Cloud's mouth, intent on getting them wet to stretch every hole, but the prince immediately bit them with all his might and didn’t let go, fangs and all. Blood pooled in his mouth deliciously. 

The man’s pained screams could be heard through the whole forest and the attacker released the blond hair from his hand, using it to hit and slap the omega repeatedly, trying to stop Cloud at all costs before the deceiving little thing could bite his fingers off. However, the prince, once so delicate, now acted like an unrelenting dog with a bone. 

“You are going to submit! Know your place, omega,” the man used his alpha voice on Cloud in a last desperate attempt. The attacker knew that his own timbre was not strong enough against other alphas in the kingdom, but it was effective enough on omegas, especially those who were sheltered their whole lives and barely had had any contact with true alpha dominance. 

Dominated, Cloud opened his own mouth and showed the pretty unmarked neck, forcibly submitting. He wished to flee, but his body would not yield to his commands, ignoring every desire just to obey the unknown alpha. But before the attacker could make any more advances on Cloud, his body was thrown onto the floor by a newcomer. 

“You liked using your voice on my brother? Did you have fun with it, you cunt?!” A familiar person asked, completely irate and Cloud's aggressor started babbling desperately, saying how much Cloud liked it to the point he was dripping with need, was asking for it. 

“Sephiroth!” Cloud called, but was still unable to move, until he heard the other prince growling. Then, he looked behind and saw the unknown man on the floor, staring at Sephiroth defiantly despite his position. “It is a lie, don't believe him please.”

He did not like, he did not like it, he did not it—

“This is an alpha voice, know your place,” Sephiroth said and a shiver ran down Cloud's body, the need to submit and to urinate, was almost too much to bear. Every sense went haywire and the omega only thought about Sephiroth, Sephiroth, Sephiroth nonstop.

He was released from the other's command as his brother's voice overrode all else, Cloud stood on shaky legs and adjusted his own dress. 

Sephiroth held his sword in his left hand, the one their uncle gave him, and its metal was darker than the night sky, a blade that consumed any amount of light given to it. 

“Sephiroth,” he whispered and those green eyes finally looked at him again, Cloud could almost taste the relief on his tongue at those viridescent irises he was growing to associate with safety. 

“Don't look,” the alpha said.

“I want to,” he stated determinedly. “I want to look, please.” 

Then Sephiroth kept his stance, his pointy sword under the man's chin, keeping him in place, but the prince paused after the omega's words and instead of slicing the man's head off as Cloud expected, his gloved hand went to belt around his waist and Sephiroth dropped a dagger on the floor next to the omega. 

Cloud looked up to his brother who smiled, showing his fangs. He nodded to the blond prince as if giving him permission.

“Go ahead.”

The omega grabbed the offering and removed the knife from the flowery sheath, watching his own reflection on the silver blade, stormy blue stared back at him. 

He walked to his attacker who started pleading for his life immediately.

“Please, my prince, it was a mistake,” he said. “Forgive me, if we just talk—I can give you what you want!”

There was only one thing he had to offer that Cloud wanted. 

Sephiroth pulled his sword back and the unknown man tried to escape, but before he could be successful, Cloud jumped on top of him and the attacker grabbed his neck, strangling the prince. However, in one swift movement, the omega plunged the dagger down, opening a way into the other's skull. Everything I need is right here, everything I need is right here.

The man gobbled and choked, whining like a pig to the slaughter as his face became a gory mess and Cloud couldn't breathe for an entire minute. The omega felt dizzy, almost losing his balance on top of the stranger, when the man's hands finally dropped to his side like a marionette after having its strings cut. 

Cloud coughed and touched his own neck softly, trying to take in as much air as he could. He looked at the other alpha's face; dead eye open while the other was no more due to the dagger stuck to its brain. He removed the knife and then kept on stabbing the dead man countless times, causing a crashing sound that Cloud would never forget.

The omega blinked and felt warm wetness land on his face, a red rain of blood that sprayed up, dirtying his hair and dress. But the omega wasn't disgusted by the whole scene—as it wasn't the first time he watched a man die and would probably not be the last—, as a matter of fact, he didn't feel anything for killing an alpha who tried to force himself on him, only a relief so strong that it overwhelmed the omega completely, leaving his heart light at the same time his azure eyes burned with the need to cry.

He realized that it was happiness. 

“Seph–” but before Cloud finished saying his name, his brother had already come to him, cradling the omega in his strong arms, lifting him off the dead man like a dragon protecting his most precious treasure. “You came…”

“I am here, you are okay now,” he whispered against his blonde hair and felt the omega's thighs around his waist. “I am so proud of you, my Cloud, with all my knowledge and intrusion, I could never entirely predict you. But what you made here… was beautiful, you never looked more beautiful than today, taking what you want, what is yours by right.”

Cloud looked up from the safe space on his brother's chest, finding Sephiroth's face so close to his own that they started sharing the same air. The alpha smiled serenely, and the purple sky behind him created a beautiful painting.

The omega grabbed his face and pulled him down at the same time the alpha opened his mouth, kissing Sephiroth passionately. 

He moaned against those full lips, forgetting their shared blood, the atrocity he had done and where they were right now, Cloud did not care, he needed this. Gladly, it was not Sephiroth's intention to leave him wanting for long and soon swallowed all of his small sounds, devouring Cloud completely, invading his hot tongue inside that inexperienced mouth as he had the pleasure of tasting his own brother’s lips for the first time. 

Sephiroth touched the fat of Cloud’s thighs, ass and waist over the transparent silk greedily. “Finally, finally,” he thought, feeling heaven under his fingertips as he went mad after years of desire. 

Cloud melted and grinded his wet core over Sephiroth's abdomen, he tried to follow the alpha's rhythm but it was too hard and violent—everything that he didn't have courage to ask for, but still craved badly. Sephiroth grabbed his breast roughly and Cloud pulled at his silver hair in turn, biting his brother's lips until he tasted iron, blood of his blood, the same one that ran through his veins. But instead of interrupting the lock at the pain, Sephiroth only kissed Cloud harder. 

“Sephiroth,” the omega whispered against those spit-licked lips, fuller after kissing Cloud senseless. “It hurts…”

He complained and it was almost ironic, Sephiroth had blood dripping from his chin, but it was Cloud who ached, his opening kept on fluttering painfully, dripping sweet slick from his thighs and over his brother's middle in a filthy claim.

Still, the younger understood what he meant and softly dropped Cloud on the grass like a doll, the one he would never share, and got on top of him immediately, as if he were a beast ready to close his fangs into the omega’s soft flesh, unbothered by the fresh corpse near them. 

Cloud was a sight to behold, Sephiroth had been honest when he said that he was beautiful, especially now with long blond hair in disarray, skin tainted by blood and silver dress leaving nothing to imagination—a chest plumper than he remembered, ready to mate, and a waist that was perfect for grabbing. So much violence and anger inside such a lovely body, it fascinated the alpha endlessly, enchanting him to a point of no return. Flowy dresses and romantic books never deceived him of the wrath hiding underneath Cloud's pretty skin.

He was so desperate to be considered worthy in Cloud's eyes, an alpha that he would want and not the pup that he used to be, capable of bringing pleasure and being more than a brother. He allowed his own hair to grow simply to have a chance at being Cloud's type, similar to those knights the omega loved to read about when he was younger.

But little did he know that the omega desired the same thing.

Even in his inexperience, the omega prince felt himself burning to be more daring, like everything was possible after taking that man's life and drowning himself in the adrenaline of killing. So he opened his legs wider to fit Sephiroth's huge body onto his feverish one and started to seduce him— despite not knowing how to do it. 

He moved and the dress strap fell from his shoulder, creating a tantalizing image.

Cloud observed the black clothes his brother wore and thought, with a blushing face, that Sephiroth wouldn't need any whores if he took Cloud. He found the omega, a prince, and killed every opponent standing in his way just to get to Cloud, did that mean that he won the hunt? “Would Sephiroth become his husband now?” he asked himself with a feverish mind, losing more and more of his composure as his slit got wetter.

“Brother, help me get rid of this pain here,” he whispered and trembled, careful not to let the quiet forest hear, this moment was only theirs. Cloud made his best attempt at bedroom eyes and put his right hand over the clothed pussy, sore by the attacker's mistreatment. He didn't say “please” because he would have his way.

Sephiroth merely laughed, almost giddy at the whole prospect. 

“I really tried to stay away and be a proper brother at first,” the alpha said as his hands went under Cloud's dress and removed the soaked underclothes, putting them inside his pocket. “But you crave me, your pussy craves me, too. Always did.”

“N-Not always,” Cloud answered weakly because he was too ashamed to admit that maybe it was true, that it had always been true. While the omega was lost to his thoughts, Sephiroth lifted up his legs and stared hungrily at his naked petal lips, gushing and pink, like he was seeing a jewel among the blond hair. Cloud felt really embarrassed and every idea of seduction was forgotten as cool air touched his flushed opening.

“No? You smell like you want me to bury my knot in your boy-cunt.”

“No knots!” Cloud said without thinking because the sheer size of Sephiroth's hard manhood on the inner part of his thigh reminded him of what he had seen before, between Angeal and Genesis. He certainly wouldn't be able to take it. But Sephiroth chose this exact moment to penetrate the virgin cunt with a finger, or tried to, forcing his way through the tight channel and the prince simply whined. He was expecting some touching but still jumped at the contact, but he couldn't run because Sephiroth held him down by the hips.

“Why is that? Because of your virtue?” Sephiroth asked casually, watching as his fingertip found an obstacle each time it tried to move. Cloud was painfully tight and he couldn't blink, obsessed with trying to memorize every little thing—how Cloud opened and closed his bloody mouth, overwhelmed, blushing all across his cheeks, chest rising and falling, his body contorted prettily as Cloud learned how to receive pleasure, trying to fit all of these sensations inside of him.

“That’s—please, Sephiroth. Don’t make me say it.”

“Please stop? Please more?” Sephiroth tilted his head to the side, questioning

“Ahn!”

“What is it, Cloud? Tell me,” he demanded a tad sadistically and tried to penetrate the blond faster, listening to the wet sounds while slick pooled on his hand. He wanted to know every thought, every desire his dear brother had.

“I do not want you to ignore me, I want to feel your eyes on me all the time,” Cloud answered between sighs and moans, open wide legs twitched against his will and each time Sephiroth attempted to pierce his fingers deeper, Cloud unconsciously tightened around him, stopping the movement all together. Fearful of the pain spreading over his poor cunny. “I want you to remove every trace of that scum off of me with… your tongue.”

The alpha removed his finger and licked the blood resting on Cloud’s cheek. 

“Relax, how could I help you like this? It is me, brother, you have nothing, no one to fear,” Sephiroth started saying and his words instantly calmed the omega down. The alpha went for the swollen clitoris and massaged it gently, thumb moving in circles, hoping that it could make him more relaxed. Such a narrowing channel limited his movements, it was impossible not to imagine something larger and throbbing forcing its way inside, Cloud would take his knot one day. “Many of these nobles deflowered an omega before, but you know what makes you different? Why does your scent make them ravenous like beasts? Because as delicate and sweet as you seem to be, they know you will not bow down to them. So they want to put you in your place, but I won’t let that happen.”

But Sephiroth had killed before and would do it again to anyone who was a fool enough to get close to Cloud. Noticing the older prince distracted enough by his words, blue eyes almost black and pink mouth whining every time his clit was pinched, the silver-haired man controlled his own need to be aggressive and made yet another attempt to enter the tiny hole, able to go further this time. 

“Honestly, our honorable father wanted a rather old-fashioned bedding ceremony,” Sephiroth whispered against Cloud’s ear, sending shivers all over his body as he slid a finger inside again and again, stretching his hymen deliciously. “Something about a noble omega going in heat and being tied to their bed, getting fucked by alphas, tons of them. They would knot the omega one by one until the seed took.”

“H-How would they know who the father was?” Cloud asked between squelching sounds that made his face burn in embarrassment, but the pleasure was too good to stop. 

“By the scent.” 

“Hah,” he sighed and it sounded like a laugh, even though there was nothing funny about it. He actually tried to imagine it, unable to flee and hands tied, his virginity being taken without a second thought by unknown men, one after the other. He would be ruined by the end, too full of cum to care about anything else. 

Then he would grow a child, not knowing who the father was. Who would be able to go through that without going insane? 

“Absurd, isn't it? But I can see the fire in your eyes, you would certainly rip their tongues off with your teeth,” Sephiroth murmured, amusement dancing in his words. “My storm Cloud.”

The prince's toes curled as the nickname was whispered so gently on his ears and Sephiroth pushed inside, digits working on his throbbing clit. He was such a tiny thing even Sephiroth wondered if Cloud would be able to take him, he clenched around the alpha's veiny hand as if he were receiving more, something larger and more dangerous that could release into his womb and fill him with pups. But the alpha would make it fit, eventually. 

“Yes, open up to me, you're such a good boy,” Sephiroth whispered, pupils blown wide and strong jaw locked. He plunged his finger all the way down to the knuckle and watched Cloud shyly cover his own face for a moment. He did look like a prince after all, so delicate and unreachable for all but Sephiroth who could do whatever he wanted with his older brother even when he was still a pup. “So wet…”

Tears threatened to fall from the pretty blue eyes when Sephiroth fucked his oversensitive cunny faster, Cloud could only moan, whine and sigh in response. Sometimes it seemed like he could feel every ridge of the alpha's bones. 

“You like that, brother? Can you take one more?” he asked and the older prince trembled all over.

“Yes, please,” Cloud answered politely, princely and Sephiroth smiled. The omega didn't know what he wanted, but he trusted the other to deliver to him.

Sephiroth removed his fingers, slick stretching into a transparent thread, and inserted them again, twice this time. The alpha sighed deeply as feverish wetness enveloped his fingers, the heir hoped to feel the sensation on other lower parts too. Soon, he thought. 

The squelching sounds made Cloud groan out of embarrassment and Sephiroth kept going, faster and deeper, for the visual was almost too much to bear, he didn't want to stop looking at the omega who threw his head back, beautiful long blond hair around him and so easily displaying that tantalizing neck, maybe unintentionally—Cloud was practically offering himself on a silver platter, it would be so easy for Sephiroth to mark him, to spread those pussy lips further and force the tender insides accept the shape of his cock so Cloud would only ever get to know what his brother felt like and no one else.

The alpha did none of these things, instead he merely felt his own fangs elongate and curled his fingers deeper into the heat.

Sephiroth licked his brother's open mouth but the kiss felt unresponsive due to the overwhelming assault Cloud was experiencing, but the silver-haired alpha kept invading his tongue there like he did with his fingers.

“Sephiroth…” the blond meowed while he moved his own hips up against the thick fingers, rising entirely from the grass, as if this was a genuine heat, so needy and feverish that drool escaped from his mouth, running down his cheeks. So tame and flustered he didn't seem like the wild thing from before, showering in blood.

The probing did not stop and Cloud rolled his blue eyes, hot tears prickling at them as Sephiroth kept fucking his holes—cunt and mouth—every sob being swallowed up by his greedy brother. 

“Something… something is coming–ah! I can't, I can't.” It was unusual and unstoppable, about to explode. 

“You can, you will. Cum on my fingers, brother,” in an almost alpha voice, Sephiroth ordered, pressing a searing kiss between Cloud's breasts and plunged his calloused fingers harder, thumb over the throbbing clit. 

Then, the omega came long and intensely for what felt like an eternity, squirting all over the alpha's arm, dirtying his dark clothes. His walls fluttered and embraced Sephiroth's fingers, translucent fluid spurted in abundance, but Sephiroth forced his hand in place, determined to feel everything. 

When it was over, Cloud breathed deeply, breasts rising up and down against the alpha's face who kissed him senseless; his red mouth, neck, cheek, the curve of his waist and the bellybutton over the dress, going lower and lower. 

“What…” Cloud murmured almost deliriously from how delirious he felt. However, when Sephiroth removed his fingers, whined because he wanted him to stay, but the alpha didn't disappoint and soon lowered his body to the ground.

“Does it still hurt here?” he asked and the words were whispered close to Cloud's wet core, every draft of air caressing him intimately. 

“Uh-huh,” Cloud answered. “Can you kiss it better?” 

As soon as he finished saying that, Cloud let out a little surprised scream when he felt Sephiroth's strong hands grabbing his thighs and putting them over his shoulders. But first Sephiroth teased him and licked his belly and the softness of his thighs, biting it weakly before he finally looked at his brother's tiny pussy, entrance fluttering and dripping slick. Sephiroth wanted to have his mouth on him until he begged to stop, dry from the alpha’s infinite thirst.

Their smells combined reminded the older prince of their scenting afternoons years ago, not as innocent as the memories he had from that immaculate childhood, but still precious. 

Sephiroth closed his mouth over the soaked cunt, careful with his fangs, and moaned enraptured by the flavour—if his milk and blood tasted good, then Cloud's purity was heavenly, unlike anything he had before. He licked and sucked every inch available while Cloud moved his legs anxiously. Sephiroth started fucking his tongue just like he did to Cloud's pink mouth earlier, filthily kissing his lower lips, tasting every fold. 

The omega cried and drooled, using his hands to grab Sephiroth's silky strands, the alpha growled against his pussy and Cloud circled his thighs around his head, aroused beyond reason, hungry for it—exatcly how Sephiroth wanted him. Anyone would feel scared of letting such a dangerous beast between their legs, but he would always be his safe place, both his protector and protégé. Each flick of tongue erased the true aggressor's touch, filling him with relief as pain became pleasure. 

As a prince, Cloud wasn't used to waiting so he impatiently started riding his brother's face, long nose over his sensitive clit and breasts swayed by the movement. 

“Brother, I need you, please…” Cloud keened, a throaty noise. “Sephiroth!”

The alpha held his naked waist and ceased Cloud's squirming, forcing him to take it. He sucked the small pulsating clit and teased the prince with his fangs until the blond came on his awaiting mouth with a silent scream. Even after drinking his fill, Sephiroth kept on stimulating his intimacy, making tears roll down Cloud's face.

“Too much,” he whispered with a broken voice. He was boneless, melted on the floor like snow at the beginning of spring, like he just had an out of body experience. “That was…”

“Did you like it?” 

“It was… Wow,” he finished saying with a small laugh, an excitement thrumming under his skin like he spent a whole day laughing and was left weak, a hollowness in his ribs. 

Sephiroth smiled, lips shiny with slick, and sat in front of Cloud, tidying him up as much as he could. He placed a hand over his forehead and sighed disappointedly. 

“You are still absurdly hot.”

“I am always hot.”

“And talking nonsense now too, the sickness has taken over you, my prince,” Sephiroth joked but Cloud merely smiled at him. 

“It is not nonsense, I am… happy, in a way I haven't been in a long time. Thank you for helping me… and for coming here to save me.” 

“I am happy too,” Sephiroth grinned, boyish and free, looking totally different for a moment even with the scar on his handsome face. He grabbed Cloud's hands and placed it over his own heart. “Even when I was far away, miles apart between us, I knew that our feelings were the same and that we would be reunited again.” 

“Your confidence never wavered?” Cloud teased, because the gods knew the omega grew melancholy during Sephiroth's absence, wondering if he would see the sweet boy he knew again. 

“Never,” he assured his brother seriously, green eyes shining at the dark night. “I just hoped that you would forgive me for my past actions.”

“There was nothing to forgive, you were just a pup. I should have taken care of you.” Cloud said and felt Sephiroth's heart beat faster under his fingerprints, but before he could say more, pain immobilized him, blooming from his womb in waves.  

“It seems the effects have not passed yet,” Sephiroth mused out loud and, out of nowhere, removed his own clothes, dropping them unceremoniously onto the floor. 

“W-What are you doing?” Cloud asked and covered his eyes before he could see that pale skin and more. 

“You can open your eyes,” he said and the omega did, noticing Sephiroth still had his underclothes on, however, the pale skin littered with some scars was now visible. “You used to bathe me when I was little, let me return the favor.”

It would not be considered appropriate for them to be naked around each other, brothers or not, but Cloud still raised his arms so Sephiroth could remove his bloody dress. Shy, with slick dripping from his hole and a pinkish flush painting his face, the prince covered his breasts and crossed his legs, trying to hide the blond hair coming from his core while Sephiroth lifted him up, taking the omega to the pond.

The cold water touching his feverish skin made him gasp and Cloud hugged Sephiroth's neck who only held him more firmly in his strong arms, full of muscles and so different from the tiny things he had years ago, the older prince thought deliriously—he was slowly getting used to it as there were some advantages.

Sephiroth dipped him into the water until his face was the only part of Cloud that was not submerged, he blinked those blue eyes slowly and felt the stream caress his hair, embracing his limbs. The alpha brought him up again and despite not having soap, he rubbed the omega's skin to clean it from the grime and sweat—his back, the dip of his waist, the fat of his ass and the folds between his thighs. Feeling rather demure from all the attention, Cloud circled his legs around Sephiroth's waist who laughed at his antics of “running away” from the alpha's touch only to get impossibly closer to him.

“You are hugging me as tightly as a little monkey.”

“Do not tease me, you meanie,” Cloud snapped at him and pouted like the spoiled prince he was. “I am older than you.” 

Sephiroth chuckled and the omega felt the vibration of it on his bones. He removed his face from the safe space of the alpha’s neck and looked at his face illuminated by the Moon, transfixed by the satisfied smirk he had

“If you weren't my brother, you would have won the hunt.” 

Green eyes turned darker, more poisonous.

“I would. Is that what you wanted?” But instead of waiting for an answer, Sephiroth kissed his mouth delicately and Cloud let him for a moment, tasting himself on the other's tongue before turning his head.

“You do not need to kiss me anymore, I am feeling better now.”

“Is that so?” Sephiroth asked amusedly, moving his lips to Cloud's pierced ear and licked it, making the omega tremble all over. 

“U-Unless I fall or get hurt, then there is no need for… for your healing lips.”

“Send for me if you ever change your mind.”

“Or fall.”

“Or fall,” Sephiroth repeated in agreement. “It is my duty to serve my brother, the prince.”

After that the alpha gently rocked Cloud against his chest until the omega's cramps stopped. Then, they left the water together and Sephiroth tried his best to dry the omega, dressing him in his long leather coat for the cold night. The two brothers held hands and walked for some time, away from everything that had transpired before, from the blood and dead body, as if the time never passed between the two of them and they shared every day together. 

Eventually they laid on soft grass and Cloud grabbed some tiny white flowers that surrounded the two to put them on Sephiroth's hair, like he used to when they were kids and the omega wanted to play with dolls. 

The alpha merely let him and observed Cloud attentively, blinking far in between just to keep looking at him for longer, he damned his own body's needs. 

“Having fun?” he asked and Cloud smiled, almost childishly.

“How did you find me? How did you know?”

“I will always find you, I just have to smell my own blood, that's how I always did it.” 

They shared the same blood, but Cloud never thought it would be enough for Sephiroth to find him like that.

“And I had some help,” Sephiroth said and grabbed a cilice from his pocket. Cloud immediately became mortified. “This favor had me protected.” 

“You brought this here?”

“Of course, it is my lucky charm,” he revealed while shaking the undergarment piece between his fingers. “But I confess that at first, I found someone else with your dagger and coat in our secret spot.”

“That little girl?” 

“Yes, I had Genesis and Angeal take her back to the Keep.” 

“Oh, I am so glad,” Cloud said and laid on top of Sephiroth, hugging him. “I worried about her and… she reminded me of you.”

Sephiroth looped his arms around Cloud's waist and shushed him. 

“I was terrified that you had given all of your weapons away and that someone got to you before me. Although I understood why you did it, I wouldn't have forgiven myself if something happened to you, my Cloud.”

Suddenly, Cloud thought about the worst outcome. One where he could not defend himself and Sephiroth found him, ruined and deflowered, but instead of taking care of his wounds, the alpha would take him, force his knot inside to erase any trace of another through his loose walls. Treating him the only way he knew how.

Sephiroth, standing there, not as a saviour, but as something else: a ruthless thing, hungry like he had been the day he had been taken away, like Cloud knew he had the power to be.

But as soon as the omega prince blinked, that image disappeared. 

The blond didn't know how to say sorry right now, since it would not be entirely genuine—he wasn't regretful for ensuring the girl's protection—, but he understood Sephiroth because he always put his safety above all else. So he simply rubbed their cheeks together in a small apology, soon Cloud heard the low purr coming from Sephiroth's chest. Scary alpha or not, he would always be his pup.

“Fortunately, nothing happened and you will always protect me, isn't that right? A big and scary… pup!”

“On second thought, I do not think you need that much protection. When I found the omega, she tried to slice my throat. Did you teach her that?”

“That's my girl.”

That night, Sephiroth taught him about the constellations in the sky, the ones he used to guide himself, but Cloud only paid half attention to it, much more interested in listening to the heartbeat against his cheek. 

“You can sleep now, I will watch over you tonight.”

When Cloud woke up in the morning, he realized he was being carried by Sephiroth and that they had reached the camp where the King and the whole court waited for the lucky person who got to bite and mate the Realm's Delight. But the look on their faces demonstrated that none of them were ready for the change of plans. 

Marius was not pleased. 

 

---

 

Cloud missed his bed terribly and after the hunt, when he finally had the opportunity to feel its soft cotton against his skin, the prince thought of his brother's body that was not that bad—chest falling and rising after each breath and their combined scents washing away the smell of blood that cursed Cloud's nose, it was a completely different world, only theirs. It reminded him of the time the two of them would play and fall asleep on the grass, legs tangled together, only to be found hours later when it was time for supper. 

Except that back then, a shy boy like Sephiroth wouldn't have the courage to touch Cloud the way he did in the forest, to keep his legs open just to lick between his wet folds and press that rough tongue against the fat swell of his clit. Never.

Cloud's hands often found themselves going lower and lower, trying to imitate each and every thing Sephiroth had done that day in a desperate attempt to prove that his reactions were natural and not due to the person who provoked them—that any man would do even if deep down he knew the truth. However, even if he twisted his own nipples and plunged his fingers as deep as he could go inside, tears would soon fall from those blue eyes in pure frustration since he couldn't reach that sweet pleasure he had experienced before, so overwhelmed he felt he was dying. 

Whenever the omega was awake, Sephiroth consumed all of his thoughts, eating away each word he came up with, leaving Cloud unable to divert his mind to something else. And now, the silver-haired alpha invaded his dreams too, different ages and eyes, but all of them were Sephiroth. 

It seemed he was going insane.

His ladies-in-waiting worked hard to make the dark circles around his eyes disappear, as well as the finger marks around his neck, but it was all in vain. Cloud slept poorly, uselessly rubbing his sore cunny against the pillows  while his brother spent every night with the King, who fell ill shortly after they came back from the hunt. The maesters had no idea what could have made Marius feel this way, feverish while his body rotted, unable to close each wound together. 

“It's simply from sitting on the throne for hours on end,” the King said, since the seat was made from swords of Strife's enemies years ago. It had been partially melted by a very powerful fire, but some edges were still sharp. 

Unfortunately, these factors only rushed the council and the King in organizing the prince's wedding with his betrothed Eric. 

Therefore, Cloud's days were dedicated to tasting cakes, trying on dresses and saying what color he wanted for the party. All of them extremely boring affairs for what was truly his demise, a funeral organized by himself. 

What little time the omega prince had left was spent in the company of his omegas-in-waiting, not even a flicker of silver hair around. 

“You are so beautiful today, your highness!”

“His skin is glowing,” one of the ladies said and soon agreements were followed by the rest. 

Cloud missed Layla and Sully's quiet company—Sieglinde Sullivan, or just Sully, was the name of the noble child thrown into the hunt. Her family tried to retrieve her, but Cloud claimed the girl as one of his new servants. From such a small House like hers there was no higher honor than serving the prince, but in reality she just read and drew all day-long, stopping only to show the drawing to the prince.

“Thank you,” he said and they all happily preened.

Of course, they were supposed to be pleasant and take care of the prince's needs, truth be told that if it wasn't for them,  Cloud would feel terribly lonely as he couldn't visit Aerith everyday. Still, some comments and compliments could be too much for the omega's sanity at times, so he always tried to change the subject of the talk to the latest gossip or tune out their voices. 

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't 

“Have you heard that Lady Lucy is going to wed to a knight of her own personal guard?”

“So scandalous!”

“I thought those knights made a chastity vow?”

“He also swore to serve Lady Lucy,” one of them said and laughed at her own joke. 

“I heard that she has a babe in her belly, that is why her father gave him a castle and a title.”

“Well, I am sure that it will not be as great as our prince's wedding.” 

And there it was.

The blond omega munched on his lemon roll slowly. It was a beautiful day, comfortable enough to let his blond hair down, the sea air comfortably caressed his nose and the sunlight covered him like a huge coat, making the light blue satin dress he wore shine brighter. So Cloud decided to have a tea party with his omegas-in-waiting, but the prince already dreaded the earnest comments about to come—the ladies controlled themselves enough at least, they seemed to barely be able to contain the excitement flowing through their bodies.

After Cloud's mating hunt went wrong, his dear companions created a whole new narrative in which none of these insulting alphas and betas were worthy of him and therefore prince Sephiroth rescued Cloud of this awful destiny! 

(They constantly fawned over the alpha prince, sighing and whispering compliments like he was the greatest alpha to ever exist and Cloud tried to elegantly tell them to stay quiet.)

As perfect as Cloud was, he did not deserve to be left alone, the prince needed to have an offspring with a proper match. Then, prayers were answered a miracle happened and Eric asked for his hand, now the omega could live “happily ever after.”

“Lord Eric comes from one of the wealthiest families in the kingdom. We are about to see the biggest wedding ceremony yet.”

“And he is devilishly handsome as well.” 

“He has a huge scar on his face, doesn't it bother you, my prince?”

“You fool! It adds to the mystery and charm, a true alpha has scars of war.”

“There was no war actually,” Cloud said, gladly ruining the atmosphere, drinking his tea like there was nothing wrong in the world. Proud of his past actions. “I was the one who took his eye a few years ago.”

And I would have taken the other one too if I knew I would be forced to wed him, he thought but did not say it because the shock on their faces was more than enough for now. He sighed happily and asked for more lemon cakes. 

Eric was a scary thought in the back of Cloud's mind, like a parasite he couldn't get rid of and logically so since the man would be his husband in a few days. 

Husband, what an odd word, it almost tasted like venom on his tongue. He could not imagine himself calling anyone by this title, maybe—

No, the omega thought, like he was locking a door and throwing away its key. Cloud would not entertain these thoughts, he could still remember the weight of the cilice on his thigh for these depraved thoughts in the past. What happened during the hunt was… something else entirely, he was hurt and in heat, receiving help from his dear brother. The prince should not feed his own imagination with impossible fairy tales and happy endings.

Cloud had his wedding to worry about and one day Sephiroth would find his own match too. He knew that, he knew that for years.

So why did he feel tears prickling in his eyes at the thought of being separated from Sephiroth? 

Before any of his companions could come up with a new subject of conversation to clear up the tension in the air, another person made himself known in the courtyard. 

“Prince Sephiroth, your highness!” the guard announced and Cloud's heart beat faster. The omega was full of contradictions as he wanted the alpha to be with him all the time, but did not know how to look at his brother after the way he exposed and offered himself, legs open and wet for him.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said gallantly and Cloud felt jealousy corrode his guts. 

“Good afternoon, my prince!” they said in unison. 

But then Sephiroth chose that moment to walk toward the omega without sparing a glance to anyone else and kissed the back of Cloud’s hand, moving his lips down until they hovered over his engagement ring, breathing hotly over his brother's fingers. 

“May I steal my brother from you for a minute?” he asked them while staring at Cloud's azure eyes, kneeling in front of the omega.

The ladies-in-waiting quietly laughed, commenting on how charming the alpha prince could be and left the courtyard.

“Would you mind walking in the gardens with me, Cloud?” Sephiroth asked and nuzzled against the open hand, unashamedly. The omega stood up while his face was on fire and started walking, accepting the invitation without a word because he didn't trust himself at the moment. 

Sephiroth slowed him down by holding his hand and then touching Cloud's shoulders with his gloved hands. The omega took his time to look up at him then, trying to be braver—Sephiroth wore a high ponytail and wore a royal uniform, dark fabric and golden details, looking like the handsome prince he was who made all these omegas sigh whenever he passed by.

The alpha stared at Cloud and the omega pouted, feeling a blush spread all over his own face. What was Sephiroth looking for? 

“What is it?” Cloud questioned as he was unable to control himself. 

Instead of giving an answer, Sephiroth's stare fell to the omega’s exposed cleavage. The prince released his hand to cover his own skin, but Sephiroth didn't let him and merely tried to raise the light blue dress as much as he could, intent on hiding Cloud's chest from view. 

“Stop it! What are you trying to do?”

“It is too tight. And revealing.”

“It is a hot day,” Cloud explained himself. “You jealous beast, nobody is going to be looking at me in the gardens besides the flowers and you.”

“I do not like sharing, even with flowers,” he joked.

“Then the castle is going to be a dreadful place without their perfume.”

“They had it coming.”

Cloud laughed at his brother's silliness and bit his lips to contain his genuine smile—the first one that day he couldn't help but notice. He was intent on walking deeper into the garden, but Sephiroth didn't move and looked behind when a metallic sound echoed, a heavy armor.

“I think I can protect my brother just fine,” Sephiroth told the guard who tried to follow them and showed the sword on his hip. The man, from the prince's personal guard, simply accepted the implicit order and left them be. 

“Is the King well?” Cloud asked. The omega kept on glancing furtively at the alpha while their fingers brushed against each other once they started walking again, side by side. The Crescent prince wanted to grab Sephiroth's hand, but he feared he wouldn't be able to let go of it once he did. 

“Not at all,” he answered. “His health did not improve as the masters expected, there is something… wrong on some patches of skin, resembling a decaying corpse.”

“Is that contagious? You should not spend too much time with him in that bedroom.” 

“And what subject would they even have in common to talk about?” Cloud thought selfishly, venom dripping from his mind. Perhaps Sephiroth was not the only jealous one. 

The wedding was approaching faster than Cloud would have liked and he honestly thought he deserved more attention from the alpha than a rotting piece of meat who only mistreated the two of them, even if he seemed to enjoy Sephiroth's company now. Let him rot, let the crows feast on his body for all Cloud cared. He was very much alive, certainly Sephiroth would appreciate warm flesh and blushing cheeks more.

Sephiroth sighed amusedly as if he knew each of Cloud's treacherous thoughts—the King could have his head for that once he started reading minds like Sephiroth seemed to be doing right now. Cloud should feel shame, but his need for attention overrode the rest. 

“It is most unpleasant, but fear not. Father needs to trust me, he named me his Hand today.”

“What?” Cloud asked, shocked until Sephiroth showed him the pin worn by the King's Hand.

“Then I will be able to make better decisions in his stead once he becomes too sick to rule.”

“That's…” Since Cloud would be forced to live away from his hometown, he momentarily forgot that Sephiroth had his own position to worry about. By gaining the King and the council's support, his journey would be smoother, not even Eric's power-hungry whispers would be able to buy the throne rightfully belonging to his brother.

Soon, he would ascend to the throne with no other repercussions, marry a fertile omega from a powerful house to support his claim, court them and have children. For a moment, he was glad that he would be living far away by the time that something like that happened.

Then, a vision of silver-haired babes invaded his mind: they were ravenously suckling on Cloud's breasts which were full of milk, little hands trying to make more liquid fill their mouths. But as soon as this thought came, it went away. Leaving Cloud miserable and cold, forced to face the harsh reality instead.

Quietly, the two brothers entered the hedge maze and Cloud grabbed Sephiroth's on instinct—they always explored the labyrinth together as kids and the omega guided the small alpha so they wouldn't get lost, when they were young it was one of the few places they could go to without any disturbances from court or classes. 

The green walls were decorated by flowers, Sephiroth's so-called enemies, and Cloud's clues. The boy tried to discreetly twist some branches once in a while so he could remember the way back—although he already spent such a long time there it was hardly necessary. 

The smell of roses hugged the omega in a perfumed blanket and he took a deep breath as they got to the center of the labyrinth. There, they found a stone bench and a water fountain. 

“Sephiroth…” he called his brother but suddenly, the man kissed his painted lips without asking for permission, grabbing Cloud's waist and taking his breath away. “Seph! Stop–”

Relentless, the alpha swallowed all of his complaints, his tongue was hungry to taste every inch of the omega's mouth. “I missed you terribly… I could not stop thinking about your taste, your scent… it drives me crazy.”

“No, we should not do this–ah! Please, Sephiroth, stop!” he tried to sound stern, but his voice turned into a high pitched whine instead. The silver-haired alpha closed those lips over his throat and sucked, making Cloud arch his back, offering more of himself for the other. He grabbed Sephiroth's shoulder with one hand and hit his chest with the other until Sephiroth forcibly pulled his dress down just to greedily pull a pink nipple inside his mouth.

The omega's scent started to spread through the air, sweeter than the desserts the prince was so fond of. Cloud moaned and felt like melting against Sephiroth's body, almost losing balance, but before he could drop to the floor, his brother's arms circled his waist like a pair of chains, imprisoning him. He was getting wetter and wetter, a throbbing heat between his thighs, but they shouldn't, not again. 

If he could not be with Sephiroth the way he wanted to, as his wife and omega, then all of that would only break his heart further, corrupting Cloud beyond repentance. They simply could never be, not in this life. Cloud was doomed to be his brother and nothing more. 

It hurt so badly it brought tears to his blue eyes. 

“What happened before…” he started, interrupting himself to breathe deeply each time that wicked tongue licked his exposed breasts, air caressing the wet path made with saliva. “You caught me in a vulnerable state, it will not happen again. I do not want it.”

“You do not want it…” Sephiroth repeated, burying the words onto Cloud's sweet chest. “Do you really think I will believe that, Cloud?”

“What?” Cloud mumbled weakly as the alpha grabbed his face, forcing the blond to look at him. 

“Is that what you tell yourself?” he taunted, green eyes burning bright. “When you touch your wet cunt, wishing there was something better than your fingers to fill you? My dear  brother who rides my leg and whispers my name so sweetly in his sleep… but when I come to collect what is mine, he does not let me.”

“Yours?” Cloud asked in pure outrage even though his cheeks burned from his brother's words. “You do not take me seriously, always going to these brothels. You just want to play with me like every other alpha."

Sephiroth laughed, but Cloud stood his ground even if a snake coiled up his body, even if Sephiroth's laugh seemed more like shattering glass than the boyish one he was used to. 

“Is that so?” He said and those huge hands danced over the blue dress, grabbing his ass and the back of his thighs, bringing Cloud impossibly closer, almost making him sit on his lap. “It seems my brother misunderstood… You are the one who is not taking me seriously, Cloud. I want to touch you all the time and it is only natural, right? As my brother you were made for me and I was made for you, to keep you company.”

Sephiroth took Cloud's hand and put it over the volume on his pants. Despite his own protests before, the omega touched it curiously and listened to the alpha’s deep moan in his ear, making him tremble all over.  

“It is huge,” Cloud observed, somewhat hesitantly. 

“It is yours, whenever you want to touch me,” Sephiroth confessed. “And I dare you to say you do not desire me too when I can smell your milk, it is all for me, right?”

Cloud looked down and gasped when he saw the wet spots on his dress, ruining the blue fabric. Once again, he tried to cover his own chest with both hands, but Sephiroth held the thin wrists like it was nothing. 

“Doesn't it hurt?” the alpha kept on whispering, corrupting Cloud's mind like poison, tainting the poor indecisive thing completely. He released one of the wrists and let his hand go under the omega's dress, teasing his soaked underclothes. “I can make it all feel better if you ask me. But you need to choose me first, you must accept all of me.”

Then Cloud imagined how it would be to surrender to Sephiroth, to be swallowed whole by him—spiky thorns and soft petals, beautiful and hungry for the blood of his hands if handled carelessly like the roses surrounding them. Sephiroth had always been eager for Cloud's praise and attention, being raised as an endless pit who would never be satisfied unless he could bite every inch of skin, unless he could drink every drop of milk, drain him of his blood. This, in front of him, was the result of his actions, but he couldn't regret letting things turn this way, not when he knew, deep down, that Sephiroth's emotions mirrored his own.

But was he daring enough to do it and live with the consequences? To eventually watch Sephiroth marry another when he knew how he tasted like and how his knot stretched his pussy lips? Would Cloud give birth to red-haired pups or silver-haired ones?

The omega envied his younger brother for his recklessness, determined to go after what he wanted, even if this obsession was his own brother. Suddenly, he remembered the hunt, when he killed a man for the first time and Sephiroth said he never looked more beautiful. The alpha was not the only one with conqueror's blood, Cloud was half a dragon too and he would take what he wanted even if he ended up killing some parts of himself in the process, but then, hadn't Sephiroth done the same? Fighting everything and everyone just to be reunited with Cloud again? Turning soft spots into hard, impenetrable ones to the point he was almost unrecognizable? 

Even after everything, shaped by love and obsession, he was still Cloud's. So the omega held that handsome in his hands and saw the moment Sephiroth's vertical pupils grew larger.

“Sephiroth… I think I ended up falling earlier. Can you help me ease the pain?”

The alpha smiled, showing his fangs. 

“So clumsy,” he purred before kissing Cloud once more, every time felt like the first. Sephiroth kissed with tongue, tasting the wet heat and then licked the corners of the omega's mouth, slow and exploratory. He knew many tricks and Cloud wanted to learn too, so he nipped on the other's bottom lip as if asking him to slow down. Then he felt his brother smiling against his mouth, he must have done something right. 

Sephiroth started to bend down and played with his object of obsession: Cloud's chest. He fondled the breasts, simply observing at first—how they shook and bounced back after his touch, how the cold air left each nipple pebbled and some precious milk came out if he pressed them hard enough, dripping down his fingers while Cloud gasped and sighed.

“I felt so guilty sometimes, when I was away, but then I remembered the milk I drank from you, no omega would do that if they were not aroused. Has my brother always been a slut in disguise?”

“Don't say that! It was just for you, no one else.” Only your whore, he meant to say—moan, whine. The milk was a delicacy made just for him, to nourish and appease his innocent little brother.

Not so little or innocent now.

“Mine? Am I your alpha, Cloud?” But before the omega could nod and say yes, yes, you are he started sucking his left breast. Each suck, loud and embarrassing in the garden, made his cunt pulse while Sephiroth emptied his sore teat to go to the other one. 

He used his teeth, pinching a nipple between them and Cloud needed to hold onto his silver hair or else he would truly fall due to the assault on his chest. Sephiroth is in his own world drunk in warm omega milk, lapping and moaning as it flooded his mouth until I dripped from the corners of it. A pup if not for the hard cock inside his pants. 

A particularly harsh suck caused Cloud to twist and move against his brother's hold which made the alpha bite his sensitive skin, mixing blood and milk together, it was the best thing he ever tasted. Sephiroth licked every crimson drop, painting his tongue red and he growled in warning when the omega twitched too much, he shouldn't escape—Sephiroth would chain them together if possible.

“Sephiroth…” Cloud whispered. “Down there.”

The alpha gladly followed the order and dropped to his knees without any shame, getting under the long skirt. He didn't even remove the small clothes, Sephiroth only moved them to the side, far enough to put his mouth on that slit. But Cloud was so wet Sephiorth could drink from him through the fabric. 

“I am obsessed with your cunt,” the silver-haired man murmured against wet folds, starting to kiss his plump clit sweetly. 

Cloud sighed since he was finally getting some stimulation there. He twitched, trembled and keened at every movement, like he never had a tongue priding him open before, a virgin. Sephiroth put one of Cloud's thighs over his shoulder and the omega could see some of his long silver hair again amongst the baby blue fabric. The alpha sucked his brother's opening, where he was most soaked and sensitive, scent powerful in a way that left him feeling drugged, he wanted to nuzzle against the frizzled blond hair and stay there forever.

The omega closed his eyes and mouth opened in a quiet moan as Sephiroth firmly licked his pussy, almost painfully so.

“Feels so good, brother. Keep using your tongue like that, please.” An uncontrollable heat curled in his belly, building a home there, burning in the most delicious way.  

Sephiroth's cock never filled so fast before, usually just sniffing a bit of Cloud’s sugary aroma was enough to get him aroused, but now the way he moved and shook, a delicate thing calling out his name, letting Sephiroth know that he was the reason for that arousal made him dizzy. His chin was wet from drool and slick while Cloud touched his partially covered head, rubbing himself on the offering tongue.

“Good?” Sephiroth mumbled against his pussy, words wet from making a mess out of his brother. 

“Yes! Don't stop! I am almost there,” Cloud whined, cunt open wide and devoured, like he was sitting on the greatest throne from all the realm. “Ah, don't stop, Sephiroth, please don't–”

Then, his pussy contracted when Sephiroth sucked kisses on his clit and he came just like that, sobbing and whimpering as the alpha didn't pause, didn't let him breathe. Walls clamped down on nothing, sadly empty, but he still filled Sephiroth's mouth with flow after flow of slick, keeping his brother well-fed. Feeling the omega cum on his tongue, dripping hot over his face, was the best feeling Sephiroth could have experienced, every heartache finally cured. Cloud trembled and scratched his short nails on Sephiroth's neck, near the scent glands, face sweaty and pink. 

The omega was still cumming when Sephiroth grabbed him, like a doll and laid Cloud down on the stone bench. Touching him everywhere like he didn't know where to start first, a brand-new toy.

“Seph…” he whispered, his insides pulsing in pleasure, Cloud was totally out of it, weak and breathless, not used to so much pleasure, but that didn't stop Sephiroth from opening those plump legs pretty wide and fishing his own cock out of the tainted trousers. 

Pre-cum dripped in excess from the red tip,  making masturbation easier. Sephiroth growled as he fisted the angry prick and then laid the member on top of Cloud's pussy, rubbing himself between the fat lips, creating an obscene picture as those folds dragged around his cock. The blond prince felt something strange in his privates and tried to watch the movements happening between the two bodies and then he saw Sephiroth's dick, long and intimidating, covered with dark scales all over his dormant knot.  

Scared, Cloud gasped and Sephiroth wickedly smiled against his sweaty temple. 

“Not to your liking, my prince?”

“This is…” Monstrous, mouth-watering. “Doesn't it hurt?” 

“No, it will only make defiling you better. For you and for me.” Cloud decided to trust him and used two fingers to open his cunt more so Sephiroth could use him however he wanted to get off, even if the overwhelmed clit hurt from the friction. 

The alpha grinded one, two, three times more and then ropes of cum, white and warm, landed on top of Cloud's belly. Sephiroth looked down and saw the raw cunt covered by his semen, tainted and ruined. 

“Your seed,” Cloud murmured aloud, like Sephiroth wasn't even there. “I need to take moon tea now.”

Sephiroth laughed and kissed the corner of that pink mouth, like he couldn't help himself at his brother's lovely innocence.

“You will not get pregnant, only if I come inside of you like this,” he said and demonstrated by scooping the white mess with his long fingers, only to plunge them inside that tight heat, fucking his cum deep into the omega. “I want you to go somewhere with me… the night before your wedding.”

“That is six days from now,” Cloud observed, breathless as Sephiroth played with his pussy.

“Exactly.”

“C-Can I refuse?”

“No,” Sephiroth said and kissed his mouth soundly.

“So where are we going?”

“I can not spoil the surprise. You will just have to wait.”

 

---

 

The next few days before the wedding passed by quickly and nothing much changed for Cloud. The prince still avoided Eric like the plague around the Keep—accompanied by Angeal and Genesis at all times now, Sephiroth's orders while the alpha was with their King—, he tried on wedding dresses and let Sully decide which cake they would have for the party. Perhaps, the only significant aspect of his routine happened during bed time. 

“My dear brother who rides my leg and whispers my name so sweetly in his sleep.”

Sephiroth's mocking words haunted him day and night and he refused to do that when he was sleeping, unaware and vulnerable. So now Cloud tried everything to stay awake and finally watch the silver-haired brother enter his quarters. 

“Do not dare grabbing me in my sleep!” Cloud declared, claiming the right size of the bed and going as far as putting a pillow between them to limit each territory. “You pervert.”

He acted all regal and proper even if his lips were red and shiny by spit from their nightly kissing session. Sephiroth said Cloud was getting better and better because he was such a good teacher—full of himself, as most alphas were.

But prince Cloud was stuck in a dilemma since Sephiroth's room served as Angeal and Genesis’ quarters now and he could not sleep without Sephiroth on his bed. However, grinding on the man during his sleep was more than mortifying, so they needed to solve that situation somehow.

“It was you who were the perverted one in this scenario, if I recall correctly,” Sephiroth reminded him. 

“Even if that were true, you still let me touch you which makes you the real harlot here,” he argued, but Sephiroth simply shrugged his shoulders as if saying “Well, who could blame me for it?”

Unbothered.

“From a prince to a harlot, oh how the mighty have fallen,” the silver-haired man murmured and, fast as a snake, looped his arms around Cloud, imposing himself over his body and invading a territory that wasn't his. “But if I am a prostitute, then you are my most precious and prized client, Cloud. And I am nothing if not thorough with my services to make sure you will come back to me and cum as many times as you want. Oh, your highness, away from your cold marital bed and this whore is the only one who—ouch!”

Before he could whisper more nonsense in Cloud's ear, the omega grabbed a pillow and hit the alpha right on his big perverted head. Where was his sweet and innocent young brother who blinked those clear blue eyes at him and asked if they could cuddle before sleeping?

But despite his best efforts, Cloud always woke up on the wrong side of the bed, tangled up in silk sheets and Sephiroth's remaining body heat. 

Today was the day before his wedding ceremony to Lord Eric, but the only thing Cloud could focus on was the outing Sephiroth planned for them. The omega wondered what could be and spent every minute trying to find a trace of those silver hair around the Keep while Genesis and Angeal ran after him. “Slow down, little omega,” the red-haired guard often said. 

Cloud merely sighed tiredly, he was used to Sephiroth chasing him down and not the other way around. When night came and there was still no sight of his younger brother, the omega retreated to his quarters.

The blond prince was removing his accessories and clothes, trying not to step on Sully's drawing all over the floor, when he saw clothes that did not belong to him under the candle light. Dark clothes of cheap fabric and a map of the hidden passageways inside the castle—just like the one he made for Sephiroth all those years ago when they were first separated.

“Meet me tonight. 

S.”

Cloud felt so giddy he could jump. 

The omega prince dressed the clothes Sephiroth chose for him and they swallowed his whole form, hiding the body underneath, no longer looking like an omega or a prince, but a peasant. Cloud hid the blond hair inside the worn-out hat and smiled when he saw his own reflection in the mirror.

“Where did Sephiroth find these?” he asked himself, amusement dancing in his voice. Well, the alpha did have his ways. Some peasants' clothes were the least of his worries.

Cloud removed his engagement ring and left. 

Not used to these clothes, as they weren't one of his flowing dresses, Cloud walked through the tunnels like he was a completely different person. He touched the stones on the walls, following the map so as not to get lost and held the candle tightly in his hands. 

When Cloud got to the end of the tunnel, he walked up the stone stairs and then he could see the whole kingdom, awake and alive, and in front of it: Sephiroth. The city painted a red and yellow background for the silver prince, creating a contracting picture that made Cloud's heart jump faster inside his ribcage. 

The younger brother wore a dark cape with a hood, disguising his lunar appearance—moonstruck. 

“You look like a villain from a children's book, waiting for me here at night, wearing this cape,” Cloud jested, but grabbed Sephiroth's hands as soon as he could, he needed to touch him at all times and know that his dear brother was there with him and not far away from his reach. 

“For all you know, I might just be one,” he joked back and tightened his hands around Cloud’s before cordially kissing the back of them, like a good and respectful knight would. “You should be careful.”

“You may fool them, but I know you are a pup.” 

They walked away from the castle together, hands intertwined, while Cloud excitedly talked about his clothes like a child would.  

“I look like an alpha!” Pants and all, you see. Some small folks even told him to watch where he was going since Cloud wasn't used to seeing so many people together besides his days with Aerith. “That man even called me one.”

“He did.”

Sephiroth said he wanted to show him how freedom looked like, when you didn't have to follow court rules or stand someone watching you all the time. But simply visiting the city during the day wouldn't do, according to him, they needed to go to a street fair in Wall Market, you could find all kinds of entertainment there, dancers, fortune-teller, plays and more.

“Is that how you felt during exile?” The words left Cloud's mouth before he could notice and he watched as shock painted the other's  handsome face, but Sephiroth smiled. 

“Yes, few people knew who I was so I needed to earn respect using other ways besides my name,” he explained. “I will take you there one day.”

It was a nice fantasy, but Cloud knew that this courtesy was the last thing he would have, a real taste of freedom to nourish him for many years to come. Still, he smiled at Sephiroth. 

Cloud drank liquor and beer, tried some food he had no idea what the names were and the ones he didn't like, he gave it to Sephiroth after making an ugly face. The older prince did not like rich flavors, but the sweet ones pleased him deeply—even if the alpha complained that they were too sweet. 

“Sephiroth, look!” Cloud read a small wooden plate calling everyone to see a “real dragon”, the idea seemed beyond absurd to believe, but Sephiroth indulged him. 

Then, the blond watched as a man ingested some pinkish liquid and, out of nowhere, started spitting fire. Cloud was so close to the spectacle happening right there on the street, that he could feel the warmness of the flame spreading over his face. The omega touched his own cheeks, impressed.

“I wish they were still around, dragons I mean,” Cloud lamented after the show was over. It had been interesting enough to see a single man doing that, it could be even better from a gigantic beast covered in scales. “Mother said they even spit flames in different colors. How could you even train something like that? Or ride it?”

“Hm,” Sephiroth murmured. “Even though this city is home to House Crescent now, it had been under Strife’s rule for many ages. So draconic architecture and performances are still present, even if Father got rid of most of it.”

“What about your travels? Did you find out more about these things?” The dragon boy desperately tried to be a wolf, but he couldn't deny the fascination with the fantastical stories and myths from Old Nibelheim.

“Not much actually. Most of the information was kept secret by House Strife.”

Which meant that all of it had died with uncle Thoren. 

Cloud sighed but kept on walking with the alpha—stopping only to look at a jewel seller or two, even if he were an alpha boy in disguise right now, he would like some new additions to his collection. Whenever someone looked too closely at him, suspicious of his disguise, Cloud deepened his voice and said something about buying this nice necklace for his bride and they all left him alone again.

“Do you still have the necklace I gave you?”

“Of course. I looked at it whenever I missed home, missed you.”

Cloud's heart fluttered wildly and even more so when Sephiroth picked a ring from the stand and put it on his finger, the one it would be decorated with a ring as well after his wedding tomorrow.

“Beautiful.” Silver metal and a red stone.

After Sephiroth bought that jewelry piece they left and Cloud feared their night was coming to an end. It happened so fast, they barely did anything, the omega thought depressingly.

“I do not want this night to end,” Cloud whispered, but Sephiroth heard it all the same. “I wish that… I could forever live a night free of the burdens of my duties. You and me.”

“There is still a place I want to take you, come,” he said after silently observing Cloud for a few moments.

Sephiroth went and Cloud followed. Together, they entered what appeared to be some sort of business, the walls were painted red and pink silk was hanging from the decorated ceiling. A smoking incense filled the air with a smell that left Cloud a little bit dizzy.

Then, his brother took off his own cape and a practically naked man, blonde and blue-eyed, covered with a mere sheer fabric, walked up to them. 

Then, Cloud shockingly realized this place was a brothel. 

“Oh, my prince,” the man, an omega, greeted and kissed Sephiroth's cheek. Cloud seethed and immediately let go of his brother's hand. Sephiroth tried to hold his fingers again, but the omega prince didn't give him a chance to do so. “And you must be his bride, it is an honor to finally meet you, Sunny. My name is Leanor.”

Cloud wanted Leanor's head on a spike, but he merely watched his pathetic bow and then realized he was talking to him.

“Likewise.”

“Prince Sephiroth only talks about you, about your beauty,” he said and the alpha coughed.

“Does he?” Cloud touched his hat self-consciously. He knew that the attire he wore right now could hardly be considered attractive. And the man in front of him didn't have anything to hide, from the flat chest to his small waist, it was all beautifully exposed. 

“Oh yes and he warned us you were coming. We worked really hard and we hope that you enjoy your honeymoon tonight. Here at Honeybee we take our job very seriously.”

“Honeymoon?!” Cloud screamed, forgetting his manners.

“As you can see, my wife is very surprised at the moment,” Sephiroth explained. “Please, prepare him like we discussed.”

“Of course, Your Highness.” 

“Sunny” was delicately dragged by his hand and he did follow Laenor, however, the prince stopped walking at times to observe the halls filled with erotic paintings and sculptures. Curiously, he looked through the key locks and saw arched backs, repetitive movements and white goo that looked just like the one which dripped from Sephiroth's manhood when he was aroused. 

Alphas laid with omegas, alphas laid with other alphas, omegas laid with omegas and they didn't seem to have a single care in the world besides seeking pleasure, feasting on each other's bodies. Cloud, a sheltered prince, was astonished just like the time he caught Angeal and Genesis inside Sephiroth's quarters, but warmness still made its way to his core, getting him aroused and wet. He rubbed each thigh together, uncomfortably trying to feel relief.

“These omegas… they are so loud,” he murmured. “Do they really like when an alpha puts that inside of them?” 

“It can be quite pleasurable, yes,” Laenor answered with amusement. “Fucking can be pleasurable for an omega, even without penetration.”

Thanks to Sephiroth, he knew that too.

When he lost interest in watching more of those lascivious actions, Cloud was led to a room full of other omegas waiting for him. They weren't so different from the company he had back at the Keep, but instead of gossiping about the realm and telling Cloud how pretty he looked that day, the ones from the brothel explained him how to pleasure a man and complimented his assets, even if Cloud blushed terribly whenever they talked about his chest. 

He was scrubbed clean, free of the smoke from the fire-breathing performance and sweat from walking for so long. In the end, he smelled like honey and had oil dripping down his thighs. Cloud met Sephiroth again in a different room with only the two of them, the alpha wore pants and nothing more, exposing his chest full of white scars and the dark necklace hanging from his neck.

“You look beautiful,” Sephiroth said with a smirk, observing the flowery robes and golden jewelry hugging Cloud's figure, as if he was a courtesan and not a prince of the realm.

“As your brother or as a wife?” Cloud asked, annoyed by his own perfume and make-up, in a haze of wine and luxury. He walked toward Sephiroth and observed his inviting lap, but refused to sit on it. “If I recall correctly, my wedding is tomorrow, I am not married to Eric yet.”

“Do not say his name. You do not want to marry him,” Sephiroth said and his viridescent eyes darkened in irritation. “Besides, is that not what you wanted? A night free of responsibilities? I can give you that…”

Sephiroth touched Cloud's hand and kissed its back, a gesture full of longing. He guided the omega to sit on lap, legs around his naked waist. Trapped in a hypnotic trance, Cloud opened his lips and touched noses with Sephiroth in an innocent kiss, breathing into each other's mouth. 

“Let me take you tonight. Let me leave my mark before he does, be mine. Please, Cloud.”

Cloud nodded as Sephiroth petted the blond and put a strand behind his ear. 

“I need to hear you say it.”

“That is humiliating…”

“It is not, brother,” Sephiroth laughed. “There is no need to be insecure. That is what our ancestors did ages ago, they conquered with their dragons, with fire. It is in your blood, my blood. I told you before… You are beautiful when you take what is yours and here I am. No one else shall have me besides you. Do not reject me now.”

“Sephiroth,” he started saying but the words felt like cotton in his mouth, blood pumping loudly in his ears. But he needed to say them, as vital as the air he breathed. “Make me yours tonight, f-fuck me. Have me so thoroughly that I will still feel you inside when I walk into the sept tomorrow. I want your seed dripping from my slit, brother… my alpha.”

For a second everything was silent until Sephiroth dropped Cloud's body onto the bed and kissed him fervently, demanding, lips akin to flames. The omega felt feverish from the warmth coming from the younger brother, sweating under the light robes while he was being consumed, there was no other way to describe it; Sephiroth wanted to eat him whole. Just like a dragon hoarding treasures, the alpha wanted to keep him safe for all eternity among his own guts, close to the beating heart that pumped only for him, to make sure no one could steal his Cloud. 

In a show of pure eager aggression, he ripped the fabric covering his brother's body which trembled under the attention. Cloud felt naked in more ways than one since only an intricate body chain covered him now, the delicate jewelry shone after each intake of breath and Sephiroth watched him hungrily, ready to devour. The alpha opened Cloud's legs and a sweet aroma caressed his sensitive nose immediately, his mouth filled with water and those canines grew longer. Like a moth to flame, he positioned himself on his knees in front of the sacred altar that was Cloud's flushed body and grabbed the aroused cock from his pants.

While fucking his own hand, he groaned just from the tempting picture Cloud made and decided to put the pulsating length over his brother's belly, his womb, feeling a singular kind of madness for the obscene image. How far would it reach inside Cloud? Would the princely omega feel it deep in his stomach and cry for Sephiroth to go slower? Faster? Would he bleed after Sephiroth took what was his?

Before depravity could take over his mind completely, Cloud surprised him by covering his wet private parts with both hands and rolling on the bed, showing his naked back to Sephiroth in a shy demonstration. Since when was he this helpless in the silver-haired man's arms? Wasn't he supposed to be the older one?

Besides, he didn't feel ready. No, that's not right. There was some truth in this statement, but perhaps he was way too ready. Because if Cloud felt Sephiroth inside of him, he would not be able to leave things at that—the omega would ask for a knot, a mating bite, he would ask for silver-haired pups and to be filled to the brim until he could taste his cum. 

Cloud was not in heat and despite what Sephiroth had “demonstrated” so vividly before, he still drank moon tea afterwards until there was no more left. He could not ask the maesters for more when he was supposed to be a virginal soon-to-be married omega. How could he explain himself when the only alpha he smelled of was his own brother?

“Are you feeling shy now?” Sephiroth asked while leaving a path of kisses and bites over the omega's back and shoulders, branding him every way he could. “No need to be, I don't bite.”

He did, almost excessively so ever since he was a pup, but Cloud didn't point out this lie.

“I know what I said before, but you can not put it here,” the omega said and opened his legs again, touching the unsullied opening with his fingerprints. “I need my virtue for tomorrow.”

“So what am I supposed to do with you? Your pussy is drooling for me, but I can't put my knot inside it.”

“Be creative!” 

“You hurt me so.” 

Truth be told, Cloud also felt scared of letting Sephiroth… put that thing inside of him. He constantly used the excuse of his virtue, how important it was for the Realm's Delight to walk down the aisle as an untouched virgin. But the way he moaned and came around Sephiroth's fingers these past few days, squirting on his rough tongue, contradicted that “pure” statement. The omega's body twisted all over the sheets and he begged to be fucked, but despite his lustful wishes, he never let Sephiroth fulfill that command.

“I know something that would make me feel more… inspired,” the silver-haired alpha said and made Cloud touch his hard cock. 

The omega gulped and felt his own face becoming hotter in a second, red as a tomato. Even if he tried, the vision was so compelling that he couldn't look away. It pulsed around his hand, hot and heavy, drawing gasps from his brother if he handled it curiously, his small finger touching each vein. Whenever they kissed in secret, Cloud felt its silhouette growing fuller, but looking at it was another thing entirely—the head was an angry pink and the knot, even dormant, would ruin Cloud's slit completely with its dark scales.

He felt terribly nervous.

“Use your mouth on me,” Sephiroth proposed while fucking himself onto Cloud's soft palm.

“I am a prince of the realm, not a whore!” Cloud huffed and puffed in spite of feeling his own mouth fill with water. Couldn't he just lay down and let Sephiroth deal with everything?

Sephiroth always brought Cloud over the edge first and when he needed to pleasure himself too, the omega just had to let the alpha cum over his belly or between his thighs, looking up at Sephiroth while he groaned and bit his skin, licked his nipples.

“I am not supposed to be doing something like this.”

“You are also not supposed to sleep with your brother and yet…” Sephiroth said. “Or will you deny this? Say that we are just relieving tension?” 

“That's…” Cloud started, but didn't finish his own sentence. He was not ready to admit what they were doing, with his younger brother no less. To make it mean something more than just one night.

Noticing that he had upset the omega, Sephiroth grabbed his face and kissed the softness of his cheeks sweetly. “Shh, it is alright, I did not want to offend you.”

“H-How do we do this?”

“I will teach you,” Sephiroth said and smiled around his long fangs. 

Then, the alpha crawled over Cloud's body,  casting a huge shadow of him. The omega gulped as he looked up and felt hypnotized by those abdominal muscles tensing and how the intimidating hard cock hung so close to his face, leaving him drunk on the strong alpha musk. 

“I am going to take care of everything, brother…” Sephiroth said and Cloud's legs twitched. One could think that the omega didn't want to be reminded of their shared blood, of the sin they were committing, but Cloud felt guilty pleasure dripping copiously from his opening whenever he was reminded of it. He liked to be called ‘brother’ which only proved the sickness corroding his veins as he has never felt wetter than that moment. “Open your mouth.”

Cloud did and Sephiroth felt a sick satisfaction at those sweet lips, that only whispered words of love and care when he was growing, opened up so lewdly. First he pressed his fingers inside the wet heat, feeling its softness and poking those cheeks until he could see the volume of the digits under the skin. Sephiroth removed them and watched as a thread of saliva stretched over Cloud's lips.

“Stick out your tongue,” he orders and rubs the tip of his cock against the pink muscle, smearing salty precum over the other's tastebuds. Like this, Cloud could only smell, see, taste and feel Sephiroth. “You can play with yourself down there while I fuck your mouth. Touch your clit.”

Receiving permission to touch his own body was something else, but Cloud blushed and obeyed, hands going lower. It wasn't the same as Sephiroth's touch, but it felt good either way. 

Sephiroth pressed his own cock deeper and deeper into that small mouth, feeding Cloud just a little so he wouldn't feel overwhelmed with it. “Close your mouth around it, yes. Taste it, play with it using your tongue, suck it–”

Cloud did and the loud wet sound echoed in his ears, he whined in embarrassment, but couldn't say anything because his mouth was full. He looked up to Sephiroth and noticed that he was already observing him, watching his every move. The omega prince sucked on the head delicately like he did to his fingers after they were covered with sugar from the desserts, feeling every ridge and drops. He moaned and tilted his head to the side as if to ask “Like this?” but the answer he received was Sephiroth groaning and grabbing his blond hair, forcing the length deeper.

“You were born for this, born only for me, to please me, to be under me like this… I am going to claim all of your holes.”

He thrusted his cock and it hit the back of Cloud's throat, he widened his eyes in shock and the muscles around Sephiroth convulsed like he was going to cough. The younger brother dragged his cock back and let the omega breathe in and cry, pretty tears fell down his cheeks. 

“Too much for you? My poor little princess,” Sephiroth whispered and Cloud didn't correct him, too busy trying to recover himself, saliva covering his mouth and face.

“S-Seph…” he tried to whisper but only dug his small fingers deeper into his own cunt, wet and horn as Sephiroth slapped the spit-licked cock over his cheek, it was humiliating, it was good. He wanted to ask Sephiroth to let that go, since it was impossible to take all of him, but the alpha was relentless in his goal to play with his mouth.

“Then just suck the tip and let me do the rest. I will train you later.” 

Then Sephiroth put his cock back inside, where it belonged, and Cloud could barely take half of it but tried to lie there prettily and accept whatever Sephiroth wanted, even if it pressed his limits and almost choked him. Tears clumped his light eyelashes and Sephiroth smiled.

“You are so good for me, the best brother I could have,” he praised and Cloud opened his legs wider. “Taking care of his young brother's needs like he should.”

Sephiroth jerked himself off, his hand closing around the length outside Cloud's mouth, the part it didn't fit. He fisted his cock shamelessly, hands over the sensitive scales while he stared at the only person he ever wanted in front of him. He paused as pleasure overcame him and then Sephiroth removed the member in time to cum over Cloud's lips, neck and chest, hot seed landing on cold jewelry. 

Cloud had barely received his gift when Sephiroth started kissing him again, licking the insides of his mouth, tasting himself. But it was okay because Sephiroth was such a good kisser, he knew how to undo his older brother in simple gestures. 

Sephiroth was still hard and his cock rubbed the soft flesh of Cloud’s thigh, he felt compelled to grind on it and reach his climax again, but the alpha had something better planned for tonight's honeymoon. Suddenly, Cloud felt his body being positioned on his side and Sephiroth laid behind him, grabbing his waist and caressing his skin, inducing goosebumps. That was not unusual as Sephiroth often chose this position to fuck his thighs before they slept, but the way his brother grabbed his ass and touched his hole was. 

“What are you doing?” Cloud blushed for being so exposed, nobody should see him there. 

“I said I was going to claim all of you.”

“You couldn't do that! It's–” dirty, prohibited, improper, a sodomy. The priests of Faith often said what a sinful act that was, that his flower was the only thing meant to be used and for conception purposes.

But his words and clear confusion weren't enough to convince Sephiroth who rubbed the puckered asshole harder like he often did to Cloud's clit, feeling it twitch under his fingerprint. 

“You beg to be mine, but fear getting pregnant or losing your virginity, so this is the only alternative left,” he explained simply and grabbed the golden chains around Cloud's waist like it was a piece of cloth and grinded his long cock between the soft ass cheeks. “They prepared you here, right? It feels as soaked as your cunt… Aren't you curious to see how it feels? You are going to like it, I promise I will make it good for you.”

Cloud groaned at the embarrassing words and the traces of cum, spit and tears grew heavier on his skin. Sephiroth dragged the tip of his cock over his most private places and spoke as if he was certain Cloud was going to give in, to beg for Sephiroth to fuck him in the ass everyday after that. Even his younger brother knew he was Cloud's biggest weakness. 

Then, the omega asked himself if there would be anything of him left after Sephiroth was done taking all of him. Consuming, conquering, dominating. The idea sounded more tempting than it should.

“It won't fit,” he said weakly, already accepting what was about to happen, curious even.

“I will make it fit. I will make your pretty little hole hungry for me.”

Sephiroth's cockhead breached his hole, prying him open and Cloud took a deep breath, bracing himself for what was about to come, excitement flowing in his veins. He felt like a whore for getting fucked in the ass before his pussy just so he couldn't get pregnant by his own brother.

“So tight,” Sephiroth whispered, out of it.

Cloud wanted to look over his shoulder to see, but the pain was felt greatly, even if Sephiroth went slow, his body fought to make him leave, but the alpha wasn't easily convinced and forced his way into Cloud's tight channel. At the same time, Sephiroth acted ravenously, grabbing his chest while feeling each nipple turn rigid under his fingers and kissing, biting, licking, teeth grazing over his scent glands. 

“Gentle, brother… it hurts,” he mewled. It burned, like Sephiroth was fucking another hole inside him, bullying his most sensitive places. 

“You will get used to it and it will feel good. I need to break you in first,” he said and smiled when he saw Cloud's face, sweaty and flushed, rolling his eyes and biting his lips while he was split open by Sephiroth's cock.

When the alpha's silver pubes finally met Cloud's skin, the omega felt like he could breathe. He was sweating and didn't know what to do with himself, holding the bed sheets and unconsciously grinding against Sephiroth as he wanted to flee and stay at the same time. 

It was impossible to ignore the way the huge cock pulsed inside of him, like he was made of an open bruise, poking his insides. Deliriously, Cloud touched his own belly feeling him deep into his stomach.

“Sephiroth,” he said around a sob and the alpha hugged him immediately, feeling his distress. 

“Shh, it's okay. Take deep breaths with me, I'm here with you.”

Cloud was dragged back to reality as he calmed himself and listened to Sephiroth's dirty words in his ear. How heavenly it felt, how he would ruin Cloud's holes, knotting his pussy and ass every day and night. As Cloud got used to the unnatural invasion in his small body, a greedy hand made its way down his womb, forcing his cunt lips open. 

Sephiroth petted his clit, circling around it and then his hole before fucking a finger inside , a simple thing to do since Cloud was so wet. The omega moaned as he felt stuffed full, so full he could barely hold himself together, contracting around Sephiroth's cock and fingers, once, twice, three times. 

“Sephiroth, Sephiroth, Sephiroth,” Cloud babbled and prayed, words rolling out of his tongue uncontrollably. His voice was a mere whisper because he found himself afraid of sobbing if he did it any louder. 

The alpha loved how he said his name, he grew hungry to hear it from Cloud's sweet mouth for so long it seemed like a mirage, the sweetest of all, so good for him that Sephiroth decided to give him another finger and the omega's breath hitched.

“You are everything I ever wanted,” Sephiroth said. “Ever since I was a boy, I longed for your attention, your eyes on me, for you to say my name. But even now, I can't have you all for myself. Not yet.”

He fucked those long fingers deeper and a squelching was heard Sephiroth kept going faster until his left hand was drenched. Cloud humped his own clit against the alpha’s palm and tears pooled in his blue eyes, when he came it only ache and sweet euphoria mixed together, like Sephiroth was coaching it out of him by force, playing an instrument, and Cloud wet the whole bed. 

“But fret not, dear brother. I will make sure to make everyone understand you are mine. Then, no one will be able to take you from me.” 

Insanely, the blond omega thought about a prince living far away from the city. Locked up while a dragon “protected” him from any harm. But that fantasy didn’t scare the prince. 

Silver hair and green eyes hunting him for all eternity was everything Cloud needed. 

Before Cloud was done spasming around Sephiroth fingers, the alpha removed them and started fucking him earnestly. The omega’s tears rolled down his face and voice became hoarse as cries scratched his throat like needles, then another harsh thrust was made inside his body and Cloud felt Sephiroth’s burning length reach his middle, rhythm deep and unrelenting. Sephiroth panted on his ear and stretched his older brother to the limit, knot breaching his hole. 

The omega mumbled more words that did not make any sense. Overwhelmed as he was, there was little he comprehended now besides the cock fucking him open, over and over again, too much for him to bear. Hot ropes of cum branded him inside and Cloud’s jaw slacked immediately, pretty eyes rolling back. 

Sephiroth kept rutting inside him, gasping his name while his hard cock was milked by the omega’s contracting walls. But that was the last thing Cloud remembered before he passed out. 

 

---

 

When Cloud woke up on his bed at the Keep, none of what happened between him and Sephiroth felt real, but the ache proved it was. However, he was a prince with responsibilities again and didn’t have time to think about last night. 

The day of Cloud and Eric’s wedding was a chaotic one. The omega was dragged from one place to another and wrong hands touched his body all the time; cleaning, washing, perfuming and dressing, the list was endless. Layla was the only familiar face he looked at while getting ready, Sully was nowhere to be seen that morning and Cloud didn’t want her to witness his suffering anyways. He hoped to free her of the same fate. 

He put on a nice white dress, one only a rich Lord could provide, and felt sick to his stomach. When people looked at him, they saw a beautiful bride covered in the finest fabrics of the world, a veil sewn with delicate pearls and a bright future ahead of him. But Cloud was simply not there, no more than a ghost. 

The sept’s doors opened for him and Cloud couldn’t move, his own father wouldn’t participate in his wedding, too sick to get out of bed or maybe not that interested in his omega son. He stood alone in front of all these people who did not care for him, like vultures waiting to get on his body, praying for a favour or opportunity to be in his place—something he would give away freely.

Before he could take one single step, a hand touched his elbow and when Cloud looked over his shoulder, he saw Sephiroth. Handsome, imposing and not his. 

“What are you doing here?” Cloud whispered. 

“The King can not take you, so I must do it in his place, as Hand and your brother,” he explained and circled his arm around Cloud’s. Suddenly, he was not as blue as the flowers of his bouquet anymore. 

They walked together and Cloud felt safer even when he looked at the altar and saw his worst nightmare waiting for him. He repeated the vows mechanically and wished Erich would die before they left church, praying for it when he felt that disgusting tongue defile his mouth where only one should do it. 

The ensuing celebration was akin to a funeral, in Cloud’s humble opinion. None of his friends were there and he had to sit beside Eric while he laughed, drank and touched his thigh under the table. People came close to the table and offered gifts—many useless things that had no use whatsoever. 

Until, Sephiroth walked up to him, carrying a dark huge box and a bottle of what he assumed was wine. 

He immediately grew interested and smiled when he grabbed the box. With a silent nod, Sephiroth allowed him to open his present then and there, but when Cloud did, he found himself confused. 

“What is it?” he asked Sephiroth, observing a huge pearly rock laying on a velvet bed.  

“It is a dragon egg. I am sorry I kept this secret for so long, I was waiting for a special opportunity to give it to you.”

“How is that possible?”

“Dragons died many ages ago,” Eric said, suddenly too interested in what the two brothers talked about. Cloud’s husband looked at the egg in disdain and scoffed. “You were tricked, your highness. That is no more than a decoration made to be forgotten and covered in dust.”

Cloud’s temper boiled and the need to defend Sephiroth grew stronger, but he knew that his position demanded him to be “docile” now, even if the knife resting on his table seemed too tempting, but Sephiroth only smiled. 

“Is that so? I could swear the merchant assured me it was a dragon egg, even if it is petrified right now. Maybe putting on a fire will make it hatch one day.” 

“I will do it, thank you… for your gifts, brother.” Cloud’s vision trembled as tears made themselves present in his eyes. Keeping his childish innocence alive was the sweetest thing Sephiroth had done for him. He wanted to excuse himself and cry, but was brave enough to take a deep breath and stare at Sephiroth who looked at him fondly. “Thank you.”

“I have one more thing,” he said and lifted the bottle he brought by its neck only to fill Cloud’s cup with a dark liquid. “A delicacy from the east, men from those lands spent the whole night drinking straight from the bottle. But you shall have one cup for now, that is more than enough.”

Cloud reached for the cup and intended to consume it as he had before when Sephiroth offered him a drink all those nights ago, but Eric did not let him and drank it in his place. 

“He's my wife now, prince,” he said and stood up only to stare at Sephiroth. “I am to decide if he should drink wine or not.” 

“Very well. I wish you a happy marriage,” Sephiroth said and turned around, his silhouette only one more in the middle of many in the hall. Cloud missed him instantly, especially after Eric grabbed his wrist violently, possessed by jealousy. 

“Don’t you dare listen to that bastard now,” he muttered in his ear. “I am your alpha and you are going to get rid of that egg, I do not want that inside our castle.”

“They are my gifts, not yours!” 

“You think you can fool me? Are you really so dumb that you think I do not know where you were yesterday? I have informants everywhere and it was not hard to find out the brothel you both went to.” 

Cloud was shocked for a moment and didn’t say anything, feeling the weight of that one eye on him.

“Can’t you look at what you did to my face, my beloved wife?” Eric spit the words in irony. “Is my hair not silver enough for you?”

“Silence, I do not want to hear you any longer.”

“You are not a spoiled prince anymore to give orders. And I will fuck these fantasies out of you,” Eric promised, a wicked smile taking over his scarred face. “Then, I shall bring you your brother’s head.”

“Or maybe he will give me yours.”

At that moment, Cloud knew that Eric wanted to strike him. Pure hatred dominated his single eye and the muscles of his arms visibly jumped. But he controlled himself and dropped the gifted wine bottle on the floor, shattering it and dirtying Cloud’s dress in the process.

“You should change your clothes and remove that veil, virginal innocence does not suit you.” 

Cloud followed the order, but kept the veil on simply to irritate Eric even more. When he came back to the ceremony hall, everybody was dancing in couples. The prince joined them, no care in the world, his only wish was to distract himself before the bedding ceremony, he danced and danced until his feet hurt. The omega laughed along with the knight who held his hands and then a person interrupted them.

“May I, sir?” Sephiroth asked the knight. 

“Of course, my prince.” 

His new dress made it easier to dance and the fluttering heart in his chest grew in size when Sephiroth touched his waist, not a single inch separating them when they started moving together. But there was still something he didn’t understand, because before yesterday, the blond prince was ready to accept the moments he got to live with Sephiroth were only a gift and then be forever locked away with Eric, but now Cloud couldn’t imagine a life without his brother by his side, but the other seemed to be content enough about tonight.

“Why aren't you doing anything?” 

“What do you mean?”

“I thought you were supposed to be an alpha,” he said and Sephiroth laughed, amused. “Won't you take me from here and get what's yours by right? Deflower what I have been guarding all these years between my legs only for you? This was your plan all along, wasn't it?”

Even if Sephiroth’s eyes darkened from arousal, he still didn’t take his older brother seriously.

“And how do you think I would do that?”

“You are certainly armed, cut through Eric’s guard, take me away from here and make me your wife.” 

Despite the couples moving around them, the two brothers had long stopped dancing. Sephiroth grabbed his face and for a moment it seemed he was going to kiss Cloud who readily opened his lips. 

“Now is not the time.”

“He is going to torture me.”

“I would kill him before that happened. Worry not, brother, everything is going to be alright.”

But even as Sephiroth said those comforting words, Cloud couldn’t help but feel his own heart shattering.

“I thought you wanted me.”

“And I do, more than anything else in this world.”

“It does not look like it to me. You think I do not know how much our father wishes to get rid of me and now you too? You wanted to have fun and then, what? Punish me for all these years? You said all of those things only to leave me now?”

Now that I am ready, now that I burn for you too. We are meant to burn each other.

“You do not understand. I need you to trust me,” Sephiroth said, but how could he expect the omega to do so when he was giving Cloud away like it was nothing?

“You do not understand.”

The song was over and Cloud left, trying to control the tears from falling.

 

---

 

“You are going to burn yourself, your highness!” 

“It is okay, Layla. This does not bother me,” Cloud explained and put the light egg over the flames from the fireplace. He was back in his own room and had not removed his wedding clothes yet—too worried about taking care of the egg after his argument with Sephiroth.”

The two of them observed the egg that was being caressed by the fire and Cloud almost wanted to get his knife and open it to see its insides, believing that if he did it, there would be a tiny dragon there, sleeping peacefully just like Sephiroth when he was a baby in the cradle. He smiled at his own silly thoughts, however, the door was opened brutally, scaring those inside the room. And before the omega could think—run, scream for help, grab his dragger—vile hands grabbed him by the hair and pushed his face to the wooden floor, harshly and cruel.

“My prince!” Layla screamed, shocked due to the violence, but she was afraid to fight the menacing alpha and make matters worse for her prince.

“What was the scene in the hall about? Do you wish to humiliate me that badly, you whore?!” Cloud was unable to face his attacker because of the pain blooming on his face, but he knew it was his husband. “Were you going to open your legs for your brother in front of everyone?”

“Let go of him immediately!” Layla ordered and Eric pushed his face against the floor in answer. Banging Cloud's head once and thick blood started dripping from his nose, Cloud tasted it on his tongue. 

“Tell her to leave now or I will take you in front of her,” Eric threatened.

“L-Layla, it is okay… leave us," he groaned through his teeth, tiny fangs showing.

“May I change his clothes at least, my Lord?” 

“He is my wife now and I will do whatever I see fit.” 

Cloud looked up at his loyal servant and if she did not leave any time soon, she would suffer too and the prince would not stand that. 

“Please, Layla,” he pleaded quietly, trying to be brave enough for her.

“Call for me if you need anything, your highness.” 

When the door closed behind him, Cloud knew that she would stand there the whole night even if that meant listening to his cries. He felt less solitary somehow, knowing that his humiliation would be shared. 

Eric grabbed him by the hair, twisting the blond strands around his wrist, and the omega groaned in pain, he was handled roughly as his Lord Husband ripped the skirt of his dress, leaving his legs exposed and pieces of white fabric fell around him.

“I will fuck you until you bleed.”

“Not if I kill you first,” Cloud trembled and cried, but refused to stay silent, to let a man like that intimate into submission. He wanted to rebel against him until his last breath.

But then, Eric held his face with no care, pressing his fingers on Cloud’s cheeks painfully, digging his nails.

“You are such a fool, you end up forgetting yourself,” the alpha spat angrily, however an unusual glee took over his voice, cruelty seeping through his pores as he forced Cloud’s legs open. “Do you want to see my wedding gift for you?”

“I do not want anything from you!” Cloud screamed, trying to break free, but his husband merely laughed at his attempts. 

“You have seen it already… small, green eyes and short hair. She’s so young and fragile, I bet she would break easily.” 

Then, Cloud stopped fighting. 

“Sully,” the omega thought desperately, he hadn’t seen her the whole day and now Eric chose this moment to threaten him, it could not be a coincidence. 

“My men tried to make her speak. She shed tears, but even then, she would not say a thing. She will be coming with us when we leave the capital, what do you think?" 

“You are lying, you would not dare! I would not let you touch a single hair on her head."

“Then behave, you are the only thing protecting her now and my patience is thin already,” Eric said and put something in front of Cloud’s face, under his nose. 

It was a lock of dark hair. 

Cloud wanted to rage, to grab his dagger and kill Eric right then and there, but all he could do was fall into despair and vomit, acidic and bitter on top of his carpet as tears fell from his eyes, uncontrollably. 

“You are mine to play with, mine to torture and you are going to learn this sooner or later,” he muttered and grabbed his cock, sliding it over Cloud’s dry opening. “My poor little wife, no one is going to take you from me and your dear brother will not save you.” 

Cloud cried helplessly but he swore to himself he would kill Eric one day with fire and blood, he would make him suffer terribly for weeks and when he was about to die, Cloud would be the last thing he would see. Butchered by the same omega who blinded him. The blond looked at the dragon egg Sephiroth had gifted him and wished he could light the whole place on fire and hear Eric's scream like it was a lullaby. 

Before the prince could be deflowered, Eric stopped moving, grabbing Cloud's waist while he tried to find balance. He scratched and panted but no air would come in or not of his mouth as much as he wanted to, choking was all he could do. The alpha spat bright redness all over Cloud's white gown, baptizing the omega in blood. 

The future Lord of the sea grabbed his own neck and mouthed "help" to Cloud, but the omega's blue eyes shone, fascinated as a shadow of death seemed to take over his husband. He fell to the floor trembling as one fighting a fever would do, but then his purple body ceased, not longer trying to resist. Eric was unmoving, eye wide open like he had seen a demon, blood dripping from his nose and mouth.

When Eric died, the dragon egg cracked.

Notes:

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK 🤓 we have some hannibal and kuroshutsuji references here and there and don't worry because I have something special for sefikura first (vaginal lol) time. I really wanted this anal sex at first because BELIEVE IT OR NOT, that made me create this fic like................... omg forbidden love, but Cloud needs to remain a virgin and can't get pregnant because they are brothers or something and here we are. aLSO, the ending is a little bit rushed, but I'll come back to it later, I just needed to post it now or I would go CRAZY.

ALSO LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL FANARTS WE HAVE FOR GLORY AND GORE NOW:

LOOK! LOOK! ♡♡♡♡♡♡
ROTTY'S! ♡♡♡♡♡♡

I CRIED SO HARD YOU HAVE NO IDEA, I can't stop looking at it aaaaaaaaaa. like, THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME, I AM IN LOVE!! And also rotty started writing a fic inspired by glory and gore (I didn't invent the idea of royal aus and all of that, but I'm glad that I could inspire people through my works in this community, the more, the merrier!!!). So go read it, rotty worked hard and it's very interesting 😋😊 here here

We'll have a special chapter and then the final one, hope you liked that and please tell me what you thought!! Mwah mwah.

Cloud's clothes this chapter.

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