Twelve Days 'til Christmas
Day One: Blow
By S.J. Kohl

Pairing: Cloud/Sephiroth/Zack
Rating: PG-13, over all
Summary: Zack discovers Sephiroth's never gotten Christmas presents before.
Disclaimer: Not mine.

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"Hey."

Cloud paused and looked behind him. The corridor was empty. Shrugging, he turned and continued walking toward the small room he shared with two other cadets. But he'd only taken a couple of steps when he heard it again.

"Hey! Cloud."

Narrowing his eyes, Cloud stopped, his last step echoing hollowly across the grey walls of the barracks building. It was a whisper, a deep, husky whisper he suspected he knew all too well. With an inward sigh, Cloud cast his eyes up to the ceiling. He didn't bother looking around again; there wouldn't be anything to see. "What do you want, Zack?"

A shameless chuckle in response, then…

Cloud's eyes widened slightly as a silver vent cover was shifted out of its place among the white ceiling tiles and Zack's head slid through the gap, bright violet eyes peering mischievously--upside down--at Cloud.

"How did you even know I was walking by here?" Cloud asked, not quite daring to ask why in the godforsaken world Zack was crawling around in the ventilation system.

Zack grinned. "I'd know your footsteps anywhere, Spiky."

"Umm…thanks. I think."

"No problem." Zack didn't say anything else. He just kept grinning down at Cloud as the blood filled his face, lending him a strangely attractive red flush.

Cloud cleared his throat. "Zack, what do you want?"

Zack's eyes gleamed. "Come up here."

"What?!"

"Come. Up. Here."

"Why?" Cloud's voice was flat, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Any plan of Zack's was bound to get him in trouble. The last great idea Zack had come up with had almost gotten Cloud court-martialed. The only thing that had saved him had been the General's interference.

"I need your help, of course."

"Zack…"

"Oh, come on, Spike! It's for a good cause…" Zack's eyes were wide and intentionally innocent, his voice soft and coaxing.

Cloud was getting a headache. "Do I even dare ask?"

"It's for the General."

Disbelieving silence. "The General asked you to crawl around in the ceiling?"

"Well, no…not exactly."

"Zack…" Cloud tried again, but then footsteps were echoing from around the corner at the end of the hall. Before Cloud could even blink, Zack was leaning down, his strong hands seizing Cloud beneath his arms and jerking him upwards and through the gap in the ceiling tiles.

When the vent cover was safely back in place and the footsteps had faded into the distance, Zack turned to Cloud, his mako-bright eyes gleaming in the darkness. "Thanks."

"For what?" Cloud whispered, a knife's edge honing his words. "I don't want anything to do with this!"

"Aw, sure you do, Spike."

"No. Really, I don't."

"But…Sephiroth. I just found out, Cloud."

Despite himself, Cloud found his interest growing at the mention of Sephiroth's name and the almost melancholy tone of Zack's voice. But he wasn't going to ask. He wasn't. Cloud ground his teeth together. "What about Sephiroth?"

Cloud could feel the satisfied grin spreading across Zack's face. "Well…" Zack drawled. "Sephiroth's never had a real Christmas before. Never even gotten a present! Can you believe that?"

"Um…" Cloud said.

"I know, right? Anyway, so I wanted to do something for him this year. Something special, so he knows we love him. That somebody loves him." Zack's voice grew quiet, husky. "Will you help me?"

Cloud bit his lip. No Christmas? Life in Nibelheim might have been rough, but even he'd had trees and presents and…his mother. It hadn't occurred to him that Sephiroth, having grown up in ShinRa Corporation, wouldn't have had these things. Cloud took a deep breath. He would do anything for Sephiroth. Even allow himself to be dragged into yet another of Zack's half-cooked conspiracies. "Yeah." He licked his lips. "I'll help."

"Great." There was some shuffling and the clang of something heavy against the metal of the ventilation pipe they were sitting in. There was a click, and the ethereal white light of a small flashlight filled the small space. Zack grinned.

Cloud gulped.

"Sephiroth's office is that way," Zack murmured, pointing over Cloud's shoulder. He fished around in his back pocket for a moment, then held something small up to the light.

Cloud groaned when he saw what it was. It was bubblegum. A small pack of strawberry bubblegum wound around with a bright blue ribbon. "That's your gift for the General?"

"The first one, anyway. There's gonna be twelve, one each day 'til Christmas. I'm trying to give him things he's never had before. Good things. Some that he can use; some he's just missing. All of 'em things he deserves. We're starting with the smallest."

Cloud squinted and looked closer. There was a tiny slip of paper attached to the gum. "What's the note say?"

Zack smiled smugly. "Don't ask, just blow."

Cloud groaned. The General was going to murder them. "And what do you need me for?"

"Seph's not in his office right now, so we can deliver this now. But I'm too big to fit through the vent in there, so I need you to drop down and stick this on his desk."

"Let me get this straight. You want me to break into the General's office, mess with his desk, and leave him notes with insulting, even suggestive messages?"

"Yup."

"All right." Cloud sighed and held out his hand. For Sephiroth. He would do this for Sephiroth. And if the General killed him…well, was there any better way to die? He smiled. "Hand it over."

Zack just grinned.

Sephiroth closed the door of his office slowly behind him and stood, silently, just inside the doorway. Someone had been in here. He scanned the room carefully, his eyes missing nothing. But it didn't look any different; nothing was so much as a millimeter out of place. But the air smelled different. Amid the clinical scent of industrial cleaning products was a faint touch of…vanilla and cinnamon?

Sephiroth smiled a small, tight smile. Cloud. No Turks, none of Hojo's sniveling operatives. Not even his secretary with more paperwork for him to look over. Cloud had been in his office. Sephiroth let out an almost soundless sigh of relief. If it had been Zack's scent in the room, he would have been a lot more worried. But Cloud…he would've had a good reason for breaking into Sephiroth's personal space.

Then Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. How in Odin's name had the boy gotten into the room in the first place? He certainly didn't have the skill to pick the lock, or the power to get around it, and the door itself hadn't been tampered with or damaged in any way. And there wasn't anyone else who could have gotten him in…except for Zack.

Images of the last time Cloud had been involved in Zack's scheming flashed through Sephiroth's head, and he closed his eyes against the memories. That had been close. Cloud had actually been caught in Captain Johansson's bedroom, shirtless and drenched in sweat, bracing himself above the naked body of the Captain's wife. Sephiroth groaned. Of course, despite what it had looked like, Cloud and Zack had actually been helping the woman escape the apartment of her abusive husband, and the Captain had eventually been dishonorably discharged and Cloud cleared of all charges, but still...it had been close.

Trepidation flaring in his stomach despite his cool, collected appearance, Sephiroth strode across the room to his desk and settled himself determinedly in the leather chair. Whatever Cloud had been doing in his office, he didn't want to know. Sighing and brushing a strand of silver hair from his eyes, Sephiroth reached for the stack of hated paperwork that was always waiting for him. He glanced at the surface of his desk, searching absently for a pen, but there wasn't one.

Suppressing an irritated growl, Sephiroth pulled back the drawer to his left, but when he stuck his hand inside, his fingers encountered something smooth, rectangular, and… Sephiroth frowned. …slightly squishy. So this was what Cloud had been doing in his office. He pulled the object out.

And stared. It was a blindingly pink package scrawled with green lettering and wrapped with a blue ribbon tied into a crude bow. Sephiroth arched an elegant eyebrow as he untied the ribbon and set it aside with the note. He read the lettering on the little package. Bubblegum?

Brows furrowing in confusion, Sephiroth flipped the note over and studied Zackary's messy scrawl. Don't ask, just blow.

Sephiroth growled. He was going to murder them both. Yes. That was exactly what he was going to do. But the fingers of his left hand toyed with the smooth material of the bubblegum package, ripping the seal even as red images of his slashed and bleeding boys danced through his mind.

And as he popped the first piece of chewy, tart-sweet gum into his mouth, he smiled a small, tight smile. He knew he'd just gotten his first Christmas present.