Work Text:
For most of his life, Cloud was content to be an outlet.
The outlet above him named Zack had died long ago, and being part of a rental property, no caring owner had taken the effort to fix him. Landlords could not be bothered, and tenants found it too insignificant to complain about.
This led to a certain loneliness for the last two decades. But it also led to a sense of self-importance. Being the only working outlet in that socket meant that he had an important role to play for whoever the current occupant was.
Cloud not only powered the television, but the standing floor lamp beside it, and occasionally an electric razor or phone charger. A surge protector connected to him meant that not only did he protect all these appliances, if electricity came in too fast, but he served multiple purposes.
The hosts have always appreciated him. When they first came, they would initially plug something into the defunct Zack outlet, only to be disappointed. Then their faces would light up when they plugged into himself, appreciating the energy and functionality that he brought into their home.
It didn’t matter that the Zack outlet was on the top. Even if Cloud had begun life secondary to him, he soon became the only one who could carry on these duties.
As time passed, Cloud would think less often about the outlet that had once been his friend. At times, it was too painful to remember—that there was once a time when he wasn’t all alone. Their days from long ago grew fainter and fainter in his memory.
Cloud enjoyed being constantly plugged in. It made him feel alive. It gave him purpose. On occasion, when the power overwhelmed him, someone would reset the circuit breakers, and that would bring him back to life.
He was the only one left.
The hosts couldn’t afford to have him die, too, and that was a comforting thought.
Although he wondered whether it was selfish of him to not find some way for their outlet to be fixed. Then he and Zack could work side by side once more, and the apartment would be harmoniously functional.
But change was a frightening prospect. Cloud worried that if they were repaired, replaced, then he might return with a piece of himself missing. Or worse, that both of them would be deemed too old, and discarded entirely.
An outlet as strong and as useful as Zack should have survived.
But instead, Cloud did.
As renters came and went, there were brief periods when Cloud was not used at all.
He felt empty.
The apartment would be empty too, but soon filled with things again, and the brimming excitement of a new occupant. Cloud was eager to earn their praise. To serve a purpose, to be seen, to be appreciated.
After a few weeks of sitting in the dark, someone finally opened the blinds. Sunlight fell over his face plate.
“Hey there, new apartment!”
Cloud perked up at the sound of the voice. It was gravelly, belonging to a man, and cheerful.
Then more footsteps followed from the front door. An exasperated female voice chimed shrilly through the air. “Wedge, this is so goddamned heavy, sheesh. What’s in here?”
“Oh, that one’s cat food. Give the heavier boxes to Biggs, he’ll take care of ‘em.”
Cloud thrummed with excitement. The silence for the last three weeks had been driving him mad with solitude. Finally, some activity.
“Reggie! Biggums!”
Both children and cats irritated Cloud. They were prone to pull out plugs or chew on wires, which made him nervous to be around them. To his dismay, this new owner appeared to have three of the latter.
Still, it would be better than the house being entirely empty.
A different man knelt in front of him, one with short dark hair. Predictably, he first plugged a charger into Zack—always, Zack first—then frowned at the lack of response.
Cloud’s inner workings jostled as the plug was removed from the outlet above him.
The moment the prongs slotted into his holes, Cloud felt alive once more. A power surged through him, humming to life, flowing into the cable. A small, pleasant sound emitted from the device, evidence of Cloud’s strength.
“Hey, Wedge. This top outlet is broken. Bottom one works, though.”
The bottom outlet was commonly ignored, which must be the natural order of things. Many years ago, the occupants who didn’t have many appliances, at times, would neglect him entirely.
Wedge—a portly fellow—waved a hand in the air. “S’okay, maybe I’ll ask the landlord about it.”
“Alright. I might take a stab at it if they can’t.”
Cloud didn’t like the sound of that. He would prefer not to be stabbed. Although the man who offered assistance seemed very gentle; easing the prongs carefully into him instead of jamming them in.
The three new visitors continued to move boxes into the apartment, and then two of them moved a few pieces of furniture to fill the space.
Only the man named Wedge was left by the end of the day, and the sky had grown darker.
He unpacked a long silver floor lamp with a decorative beaded lamp shade. The tassels made a cascade of soft sounds as Wedge screwed in its segments to stand upright.
“I should replace you, but you were Grammy’s. S’alright, you still work, for the most part.”
Cloud waited in anticipation. He wondered if Wedge would remember that he was the only outlet that worked.
The prongs hovered hesitantly over the top, then towards Cloud’s openings.
When the tips sunk in, Cloud hissed as a spark of electricity jumped from his insides to travel to the metal prong.
Wedge frowned, pushing in, but the plug wouldn’t budge. The man did not understand that Cloud clearly had two different sized holes, and forcing them in the wrong way would only damage either him or the appliance.
Finally, Wedge understood his mistake, and flipped the direction of the prongs.
They sank into him like they belonged there.
A warm, bright light filled the room. Pleased, Wedge then left to attend to other things.
Something felt strange about this particular lamp. Cloud poured electricity forward, but it drank too greedily.
As the lamp suckled energy from him, Cloud’s inner wires began to stir with an unfamiliar heat.
Hello?
Cloud froze.
You. There. Yes, you.
“Who’s there?”
I am the lamp. Sephiroth. It has been a very long time since I’ve been plugged into a sentient outlet.
Most appliances weren’t sentient, and the only real experience he had with one was an electric fan that was used briefly one summer, many years ago. He had expected to enjoy the flow of power alone.
This was a most uncomfortable situation. The prongs fit snugly into his holes, leeching more power than was expected.
What is your name, little outlet?
Cloud flinched, and the light flickered from the pause in his flow.
No need to be shy.
“I’ll have you know that I have been around since the 1990s,” he retorted.
I have been around for far longer than that. Your name?
“Cloud,” he replied sourly.
Cloud. That is a lovely name. The way your holes fit around me is quite lovely, too.
“Stop being weird. You’re a weird lamp.”
Do you deny that our union feels like a good fit?
The lamp then requested even more power, shining brighter, and Cloud had no choice but to let it surge through him, each pulse ecstatic and blissful.
What a good outlet. You do as you’re told.
“Shut up.” Cloud itched to have the prongs removed, and have the intrusive presence of this stranger gone, but at the same time, he didn’t. “What is that? What are you doing? Stop that right now.”
Plugs such as mine were not popularized until much later. Most outlets of my time didn’t fit. They weren’t designed for me. But you are.
What a strange claim for an appliance to make. An outlet was always meant to fit many devices, not just one. “I wasn’t made specifically for you, no.”
I think you were. Don’t you feel this connection, just as I do?
Cloud did not wish to admit it, but it felt quite different than any other connections he had made. Even the one with the sentient fan from long ago, who had been quite perfunctory about drawing power out of him.
The prongs grew hot in his insides. The feeling was shameful.
“Just do your job, and I’ll do mine. We don’t have to talk.”
The lamp—Sephiroth—demanded another surge of energy, swallowing it with a groan. More and more, until it felt like Cloud’s insides might burst, inner coils burning too hot.
“Hey! Stop that!”
My apologies. It’s just been so long.
The pulses became softer, demanding less from Cloud, and power caressed his insides.
Does it feel nice?
Cloud refused to admit that it did. The sensation formed a pleasing union with their parts joined, but he did not want to admit that to this lamp he had only just met.
My. And a bottom outlet, too. I’m sure you know what it’s like to be neglected.
“Do you ever shut up?”
Let go, little outlet. Let yourself enjoy it.
Cloud then found himself whimpering with the next pulses of pleasure fluttering through his wires. Sweetly drawing more and more energy, until he became very heated, and then it would dim again, over and over, a delicious torment, until the fluctuations started building into a powerful, relentless current.
He cried softly as the largest wave of power crashed through him towards the lamp, the flow of energy undulating and undeniable, causing the lamp to flicker on and off for the next half minute.
Have you experienced this before, little outlet?
“No, I—”
At that moment, Wedge walked over to them, frowning at the brief flickering. “Alrighty, time for bed.” Then, to Cloud’s shock, he pulled Sephiroth’s prongs abruptly out of him, leaving his slots empty and still craving the traces of heat they had left behind. “I gotta see if this switch can be fixed, but this will do for now.”
The new owner of the apartment then disappeared into the bedroom, leaving Cloud alone in the darkness again.
“Sephiroth?”
The lamp didn’t answer him. Of course it didn’t—it couldn’t. It needed to borrow power through an outlet like him.
Cloud tried not to think too much about it, all the strange new sensations he had experienced with the silvery sentient lamp, and rested, silence falling over the apartment again.
The next evening, as the sun went down, Wedge plugged Sephiroth into Cloud’s holes again.
Hello, little outlet.
“You’re there,” Cloud said nervously. He had been worried that perhaps the sentience wouldn’t always be there—some older appliances tended to deteriorate from disuse.
I apologize if I had been too forward in drawing energy yesterday. I hadn’t felt so alive in some time.
“What was that thing you did? At the end?”
Was it pleasurable?
“It felt very good,” Cloud admitted. “You didn’t let me grow too hot, but brought a crest of large energy without overwhelming me. It felt strange, but very good.”
Have your previous appliances never done that for you?
“Well,” he said a bit nervously. “Only a fan had talked to me once before. She drew a lot of energy, but it was rough and continuous. I didn’t really enjoy it.”
Ah. Fans. They used to be more popular before air conditioners. But neither are very good at controlling the flow of energy, and draw out an unpleasant amount. Perhaps you are more suited to something simple and vintage, like me.
“Can you do it again?”
Sephiroth laughed. Perhaps not today. Too much flickering will make my owner suspect that there is something wrong with me.
Cloud made a disappointed crackle.
Perhaps we can have a bit of fun without alerting him.
The lamp drew a subtle bit of extra energy from him, enough to heat up his circuits slightly, the waves stroking along Cloud’s wires.
This is a rather tight fit, but it doesn’t go all the way in. Do you think you can expand slightly for me?
“Well, my plate covering is plastic. It doesn’t do well with heat, but heat can also change its shape slightly. If you make your prongs hot enough, I’ll try to give you more room.”
The heat began to gather around his holes, and Cloud concentrated to the best of his ability to adjust to the shape of Sephiroth’s prongs.
Good, Cloud. Mold to the shape of me.
It occurred to him that it might not be the best idea, because Sephiroth’s prongs seemed ever so slightly larger, and might differ from newer plugs. But it felt so good that he couldn’t stop.
Open up. Let me in deeper.
With their combined heat expanding his holes, Sephiroth was able to sink slightly deeper into his insides, pressed flush against his openings, creating a perfect fit.
Sephiroth groaned. Good little outlet.
Wedge walked into the room, and they stilled for a moment. Sensing nothing amiss, he began busying himself with unpacking more boxes.
We’ll have to be quieter until he leaves. No sparking. Resist it.
“Okay.”
The energy that was drawn, flowing through his wires, moved steadily and quietly at first, heating up his coils bit by bit.
Both metal prongs began shifting slightly while inside his holes, stimulating the lining of sensitive receptors. Electricity flowed from where their parts touched, sparking a strong current between them every now and then.
Cloud let out a soft moan.
Shh.
He couldn’t stop moaning as each nudge of the prongs pressed up against a sensitive metal plate from deep within, connected to his innermost wires.
“What’s that?” Cloud felt silly, that he didn’t know his own parts, but the tip brushing against that deep spot inside him seemed to know what it was.
A conductor. It’s very responsive.
“It feels good. My wires are getting so hot.” Cloud moaned at the barely-there nudging. “More, please.”
Sephiroth groaned as he slid slightly out of his holes. Not enough to break the power of their connection, but enough to still stimulate the walls surrounding the length of each prong. He waited a moment before pushing back in.
“Yes,” Cloud begged, gasping. He was repeatedly brought to the brink, to the point that he might burst into flames, each time Sephiroth slid back to the deepest position inside him, and he ached to reach the promised apex of their coupling.
Good outlet. Would you like to experience what I gave you last night again?
“Please,” Cloud cried out feverishly, feeling overwhelmed by all these sweet sensations which he had never experienced before. “Yes, please.”
Then, just when he could no longer take the torturous wait, Sephiroth shoved in tight, coaxing a sharp flood of power out of Cloud’s wires, making him cry out, and all the sweet tension in them went taut with utter ecstasy, pulsing frantically through his inner workings.
Despite Cloud’s best efforts to suppress it, there was a moment when his circuits stopped responding, and it translated as a flicker in the lamp.
Wedge got up off the couch and examined Sephiroth. “Strange. Maybe Biggs can fix your switch and that’ll stop happening. I can’t find anyone who will look at antiques.”
After that night, they were careful to avoid engaging in too much play while there were people present in the living room. Wedge kept Sephiroth plugged inside him for most evenings, and the familiar warmth would leave him every night before he went to bed.
Cloud was nearly insulted to have a nightlight inserted inside of him when the man named Biggs came by.
He had become much more conscious of the sensation of being plugged into, and to be plugged into while others observed, or to have multiple plugs inserted into him while being “tested,” one after another; the last aspect of which felt particularly humiliating.
Biggs even took a three-pronged appliance which filled his rarely-used third hole, then turned the blender on briefly. It drew power from him in an unpleasant, rough manner, and Cloud was glad that the insertions were brief.
He shuddered as the vibrations stopped, his parts still overly sensitive from the prongs filling all three openings at once.
“This plug’s definitely still working. Although heat might have bent the slot openings.” He rubbed a finger against his slots, and Cloud tried to shrink his wires back to avoid acknowledging the sensation.
Wedge shrugged. “The power flow is crazy, man. My lights keep flickering. Especially when I’m not in the room.”
“Could be ghosts.”
“You take that back! No way.”
“Okay, I take it back.” Biggs picked up a screwdriver.
“Yeah. I mean, Grammy’s still alive and everything, but this is an antique. So. Could be haunted, I guess.”
As the first screw on his face plate became loose, Cloud began to panic.
He was removing his covering!
He was taking him apart!
Sephiroth wasn’t even awake, so there was no one to cry to for help or comfort.
“Just taking a look,” Biggs said gently under his breath, almost as if to assure him. “Wedge, turn off the switch to the living room outlets.”
No!
They were going to shut him off!
It was all happening too fast.
Cloud’s consciousness dimmed, and then everything went pitch black.
Some indeterminable time later, in the dark abyss of the ether, their voices flowed back into his surroundings.
“Yeah. See right there? The outlets themselves are fine, but the wires to the top one are fried.”
Cloud let out a sigh of relief as his face plate was aligned neatly back over his exposed wires.
They hadn’t thrown him away.
“There must’ve been some kind of power surge and the top outlet drew the brunt of it.”
Power surge.
The words shook loose a memory from his depths.
It had been thundering, storming, and the violent flow of power came for them with an unending onslaught.
Cloud, being the bottom outlet, had only ever been in charge of powering a small radio, while Zack had been powering a lamp, a television, a mini refrigerator, and countless other things. He did all that effortlessly, and when the storm came—
What Cloud remembered most was feeling so useless; unable to help, not used to anything other than minimal voltage. Cloud recalled the sting of melting wires as the heat reached him, and then the coldness as the flow was drawn away from him.
Into Zack.
Had Zack done that intentionally? Or had it just been the inevitable result of being plugged into by so many things?
The question had haunted him for many years.
If Cloud had taken some of the burden, perhaps Zack’s wires wouldn’t have been destroyed beyond repair.
The stark realization that he had failed Zack—cost him his life—made Cloud want to weep and scream, but all he could do was crackle and spark helplessly from inside the wall.
Later that evening, he was immediately overwhelmed with emotion as Sephiroth was plugged into him again.
What’s wrong, my little outlet?
“They opened me up today to look inside,” Cloud sniffled. “It’s my fault that the top outlet burnt out. His name was Zack. He was my friend.”
I’m very sorry.
Why would it be your fault?
“There was too much power. But I didn’t help absorb any of it.” Cloud’s voice shrank with misery. “Because I was too weak back then.”
Some things are beyond one’s control. I have seen many outlets burn out.
I have seen many more appliances discarded. It is the natural way of things.
Cloud didn’t want to think about any of that. The thought that he or the others may someday end up in a junkyard, without any power to breathe life into them, was too frightening.
Perhaps it is good that they took a look. Maybe they will fix your friend now. Maybe they will fix my broken switch too, so I don’t have to be removed from you constantly.
“They might replace my wires or plate too. I’m not sure if I’ll be the same once they do.” Cloud sparked once with anxiety, voice crackling. “Have you ever been fixed before?”
I have been repaired once, yes. Don’t worry. It is much like being unplugged. You will wake up after, with some replacements.
“That doesn’t sound too bad, I suppose,” Cloud said quietly.
But deep down, Cloud was still worried that something would go terribly wrong. So he said his goodbyes to Sephiroth, and waited for the unannounced darkness to come.
Cloud awoke to something that felt both familiar and foreign.
A hum of energy from above.
“There we go,” Biggs said cheerfully. “Now to test.” He plugged Sephiroth’s cable into the upper socket, and the room filled with light. “Voila.”
“Awesome,” Wedge crowed from beside him. He swatted at one of the cats prowling along Sephiroth’s base. “Wait, can you plug the lamp into the bottom one? I want to use the top one for a charging station and maybe for string lights.”
“Sure.”
The electric current ran through Cloud, and a sweet connection thrummed through his very being.
But just as abruptly, the connection severed.
“Wait, I have to fix it first. I’ll see what I can do about the switch. No promises.”
Cloud watched helplessly as Biggs carried Sephiroth away, his footsteps growing fainter and fainter, the clinks of beaded tassels fading into the distance.
Once they were alone again, he heard a voice.
“Cloudy? Are you there?”
“Zack?” He perked up, electricity sparking through him, voice becoming louder. “Zack!”
“Hey! What happened? The house looks very different.”
“Is it really you?”
Zack made a loud crackle. “Of course it’s me. Who else would I be?”
“You were gone for a very long time. I thought it would be forever. No one came by to fix you.” He hesitated. “I was afraid to catch anyone’s attention, because I thought they would throw both of us away.”
Cloud relayed all this with great shame.
“Oh. I don’t remember being dead. I just remember the energy surge. Must’ve been a while ago, huh?” A small bolt zapped playfully near Cloud’s wires, warming the air between them. “You seem… stronger than when I last saw you.”
No, he wasn’t. Cloud was still as weak as he was before. “Is that why you directed the surge away from me? You did, didn’t you?”
Zack made a thoughtful hum. “I needed at least one of us to go on. I figured they would’ve replaced us both otherwise.” A spark springs with a kind warmth off Zack’s wires, curling into the empty spaces between them. “You’re very important too, buddy. We wouldn’t be here today if you hadn’t kept going for the both of us. I’m proud of you.”
Pride swelled in Cloud’s insides, overjoyed by his approval.
“Thank you, Zack.”
“Anytime. We’ll weather the next storm together, okay?”
“Okay.” Cloud made a silent promise to himself that they would both survive the next one. He would take on his share of the surge too, so that neither of them would overheat. “I’m really glad you’re back. I wouldn’t have been here without you, either. So thank you.”
“You’re welcome, kiddo.”
Cloud’s overwhelm nearly made him forget about something important from before. “Oh, did the lamp say anything to you when it was plugged in earlier?”
“He just said hello. How did he know my name?”
“Oh,” Cloud said, his plates heating up furiously. “I told him about you before. He’s kind of my, um, mate.”
Zack always had so much more experience with various appliances, and he used to refer to it obliquely, or told Cloud to occupy himself with something whenever he was doing things with them.
“Oh. Oh.” Zack crackled with surprise, whistling. “Look at you, naughty little outlet. I suppose enough time has passed that I can’t think of you as a kid anymore. Does he treat you well? Is he gentle with your wires?”
“Yes, I believe so.” Cloud flushed red with heat, and he truly didn’t want to keep talking about any of that, so he carried on quickly, blurting out the words. “I’m worried about him. They’re trying to fix his switch. What if they can’t?”
“Think positive, Cloudy. No use in negativity.”
Wedge returned and plugged a surge protector into Zack. Then a phone charger into that.
“Ahh, it’s nice to feel alive again. What is this thing attached to me?”
“A phone. A cordless one. It runs out of battery very often, so they get plugged in almost every day.”
“Nice. Score.” Zack pulsed with electricity, pumping it into the surge protector. “Hopefully I’ll meet a nice appliance too. Don’t worry, if whoever fixed me managed to do that, I’m sure they can fix him too.”
“Right. Hopefully.”
They chatted some more as Wedge hung tiny string lights against the wall, reminiscing about the old days, and all the tenants and appliances they had known over the years, until the sky grew dark.
After a few hours, Biggs returned with Sephiroth. “Okay, took a while, but I think I finally got it. Fingers crossed.”
Cloud waited hopefully.
The metal prongs pressed inside him, making him flush with heat, and a low current thrummed from their connection.
Biggs pulled on a dangling pull switch from inside the lamp, and the room lit up brilliantly.
Wedge whooped with happiness. “Awesome, bro. I was starting to get a little tired of plugging and unplugging this thing every night.”
“You’re welcome. String lights look good, too.”
They flickered briefly against the wall.
“Whoa, maybe those are haunted too. Know what?” Wedge puffed his chest out. “It’s fine. If there are ghosts in this apartment, they don’t seem awfully scary or anything. Plus the rent is so cheap, I can’t give that up. Fair trade, if you ask me.”
“Oh yes. It’s the steal of the century,” Biggs agreed, putting away his tools. “Definitely keep it for as long as you can.”
The two of them left for the kitchen, leaving the rest of them alone with the cats.
“Sephiroth?” Cloud called out anxiously after they left.
I’m here.
“Are you okay?”
I think so. It seems we can stay connected, even when I’m off now. That will be nice. To always be together.
“Oh, yes.” Cloud’s metal parts heated up. “Zack’s here now too, but I don’t think he can hear you. He only hears me.”
Even his faceplate grew hot at the thought that perhaps Zack would end up hearing his moans, if not Sephiroth’s.
“If you ever need private time, just let me know,” Zack said, sending sparks flying on one side only. “As you can see, I’ve got many holes to keep me busy. Tell Mr. Lamp with the thick prongs I said hello.”
“Zack says hi.”
I know. I can hear him. Something about the connection is only one-way. I can tell Zack’s quite a chatty outlet. Tell him “Mr. Lamp” says hello too.
“His name’s Sephiroth. And he said hi too. He thinks you’re very chatty.”
“That’s true. I’m sure you’re both starved for company, no? I think we’re all gonna get along just great,” Zack grinned, flashing the string lights along the wall when one of the cats came too close to their outlets, crackling with delight as they darted away.
From that day forward, the apartment never felt so empty to Cloud again, as it had for so many years—instead, it was always full: of light, of voices, and warmth.
It made him feel alive all the time: to never be alone, to always be connected to his mate, to face things together with his companions, and to have their support and company.
A few years after moving in, Wedge gained the rare and coveted status of the apartment being rent-controlled, which meant that a landlord could not force him to leave, or increase rent significantly, even if ownership changed hands.
That soothed a worry Cloud had for the first few years—that he might have to say goodbye to Sephiroth one day, once Wedge moved somewhere else. But it seemed that he wouldn’t be moving for a very long time, and that was a great relief.
Biggs and Jessie came over often, along with Wedge’s other friends, and the constant visitors introduced housewarming gifts and new appliances.
A sentient one finally came in the form of an aquarium aerator named Aerith, and she and Zack formed a lasting mating bond as well, housing a school of goldfish, yellow and silver and pink and black.
Cloud cherished each day of his time with all of them, grateful to always be surrounded with those who cared for him.