Bodyguard

"What're ya gonna do now, punk?"

Zack heard the mocking voice just as he rounded a corner. Great...he thought, Those bastards are at it again. There had been discipline problems with a small group of the middle ranked troopers for about a month. They seemed to think it was a good idea to seek out those weaker than themselves to beat on and ridicule.

Sure, enough about halfway down the hallway, just outside one of the training rooms, was a group of about ten guys shouting insults and kicking their target, who was currently on the ground.

Zack stalked toward them. "What is going on here?" he said, using the tone of voice he'd heard Sephiroth use many times.

The group froze and all of them turned in his direction, revealing their target. Zack's stomach gave an unpleasant lurch; he'd recognize that spiky blonde head anywhere.

He stopped in front of them and glared, his anger flaring. "Explain yourselves."

The one directly in front of him gulped and looked at him with wide eyes. It was clear that he knew they'd just been caught by the second highest ranking person in the entire military.

"S-sir, we...um...we..." the man stuttered.

"That's what I thought," Zack said, "Leave now, before I make it so you can't sit down for a month."

"Y-yes, sir," the man said, giving him a sloppy salute.

"And I expect to see you all in the General's office at 8AM tomorrow morning," he said, "If you aren't there, I will hunt you down and you will not like it."

There were scared nods and the group took off in the opposite direction, practically pushing each other to get away faster.

Zack sighed and let the anger fade. He went over and knelt beside his trembling friend.

"Spike?" he said, gently.

Cloud pushed himself up, gritting his teeth and looked at him. There was a large bruise on his cheek and blood running from his nose and split lip.

"I-I'm sorry, Zack..." Cloud said.

"What're ya sorry for?" Zack said, "You didn't do anything wrong."

Cloud looked down at the floor, a slight flush rising in his cheeks.

Zack grabbed onto his arm. "C'mon, let's get ya cleaned up."

Zack helped him to his feet and Cloud winced. It looked like they'd gotten him good.

They headed over to the elevator and Zack hit 44, since they were only two floors below his room, he figured he'd just take Cloud there.

"I'm taking you to my place," Zack said.

The doors opened and Zack helped him down the hall, stopping at his door. He punched in his key code, but paused before hitting the button to open the door.

"I'll warn ya now. I haven't cleaned in awhile," he said.

He opened the door and then helped Cloud over to his couch, brushing the clothes that were draped on it off before easing Cloud down. Then he fetched some paper towels from the kitchen and wet it in the sink before bringing it back out.

He sat down and started to wipe the blood off Cloud's face, but Cloud stopped his hand.

"I can do it myself..." Cloud said.

"Fine." Zack gave him the cloth and he started wiping his face.

Zack leaned back, kicking a few papers and wrappers off the coffee table and propping his feet up in the freed space. "So, what happened?"

"It...was my fault," Cloud said, looking ashamed, "I ran into one of them because I wasn't paying attention..."

"Bullshit," Zack said, "That was no excuse for them to start beating the crap out of you. There were ten of them!"

Cloud dabbed at his nose with the paper towel.

Zack took that to mean that he didn't have anything else to say about it. He decided to let it go for now.

"Think I made them piss their pants?" he said, with a grin.

Cloud nodded. "You were real scary."

"Learned from the master," Zack said.

"The General?" Cloud said, "I heard he's scary."

"Nah," he said, "He's just kinda intimidating, I guess."

Cloud smiled a little. "You do a good impression of him, then."

Zack laughed and was pleased when Cloud laughed too.

When the laugher died down, Zack looked at Cloud seriously. "If those punks ever do anything like that again, tell me, and I'll be your bodyguard. Okay?"

Cloud looked down at his lap. "I can handle it..."

"Hey, I said I'd look after you, remember?" Zack said.

"I know..." Cloud said.

"Please..." Zack stuck out his lower lip and pouted.

Cloud looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. "Alright...Just stop making that face."

Zack grinned and pumped his arm. "Score!"

"You make it sound like you just picked me up in a bar..."

Zack laughed. "Hey, you finally developed a sense of humor." He sniffled loudly and wiped one of his eyes. "I'm so proud."

Cloud rolled his eyes.

Silence fell between them and Zack laid his head back on the couch. He was glad that Cloud was going to come to him if anything like that happened again. He really hoped that after he met with those guys, they'd leave Cloud and everyone else alone. Because if they didn't, he would make them regret it. No one messed with his friends and got away with it.

"Zack?"

Zack looked at Cloud. "Yeah?"

Cloud smiled. "Thanks."

Zack smiled back. "Anytime, buddy. Anytime."

I know this scenario has been done a gajillion times. Sorry about that...but it fit the theme. Done for theme #21: Guardian at 30 fantasies on LJ.