And that's part of it I hadn't thought of, from Kadaj's side of things--Cloud's was right there, but yeah, yeesh, Kadaj's is *wibble* Cloud's the only one who really would have understood him, but they never had a chance.
(And it hit 31 pages today before I yelled, "OK, dude, I have to write other fic now! Ones with due dates!" and vowed to set it aside until the three-day weekend I've got coming up...which I expect to last, like, a day given the way this fic has eaten my brain. Oh, and I edited a bit from what you've got; clean up and, more importantly, I had thrown in a mention of a big ol' fight pre-story between two of the characters, and then decided it would be much more fun to have that be a fight that had been brewing and decide to come out now when everything's going to hell. *chomps at bit* I hope you're happy; this monster fic is SO all your fault.)
And contractors, does this mean basement repairs and de-grossifying? :D