A/N: Yes this will be a yaoi but, I don't intend to have any lemons. I am useless at writing them and will not put one in because it will ruin all my efforts to write something good. Also beware this story came about while playing Crisis Core drunk, may it serve as a warning to others not to do so. This is kind of AU because it doesn't really follow the games at all only because I want a sane Sephy! ^_^ The main paring is Zack x Cloud but there will be other pairings I promise ( If you squint and tilt your head sidewards!). Anyway on with the story!
Zack thought that his friend was happy, he was wrong. He'd never been more wrong, ever. He'd always remember that day. That one day that had made him finally realise his big mistake. It had changed his life forever and his perspective of the world around him. He knew that he took his friend's happiness for granted but, everything had changed dramatically by the time he realised. He didn't want to see the receding laughter or the broken smiles so he had ignored them.
It had been one of those days in autumn where it was all dark and gloomy, and had rained none stop all day. In a way, he felt bad for the cadets running around outside getting soaked while at the same time being glad it wasn't him. He had taken a stroll down to the canteen around midday to grab a hot drink and something to eat. Preferably something that hadn't been molested by Hojo since he was in front of him in the cue.
He sat down at his usual table munching lazily on the bagel he had bought and sipping coffee while having an intense staring competition with Genesis who was sat on the opposite side of the canteen.
" Hi Zack." A young secretary girl said as she passed.
She looked soaked to the bone and her short brown hair was plastered to her head, properly from dashing across from one of the dismal buildings that sat by the headquarters.
" Hello." He said back.
This was a daily routine now. She'd walk past say hello, buy a sandwich and a muffin, walk back past and say hi again. Being a 1st really did have some nice pros but, then there was the cons which were everyone below the plate pretty much hating you and people screaming as you passed for no apparent reason. At least people didn't know him as well as Sephiroth, the poor guy had fangirls throwing themselves at him from every direction. It took Angeal an hour to coax him out from under one of the many tables in headquarters ( after taking two to find him! ).
He cast his vision around for his friend. He was younger than he was and had a shock of brilliant blonde hair that reminded him of a baby chocobo. Strangely, he wasn't in the canteen today, he never missed lunch ( even though the kid didn't eat hardly anything anyway ).
' Maybe he went to change after getting soaked still, I'm a bit worried.' Zack thought.
He saw the instructor waltz in with his usual arrogant attitude. He made up his mind to go and ask him where his friend had gone. The guys who trained the cadets were cold hearted dicks in ugly red neckerchiefs.
" Hey, Mr." He said behind him.
" Y-yes sir?" The man stuttered from being addressed so respectively by a member of SOLDIER.
" Have you seen Cloud today? He hasn't turned up for lunch yet."
The man furrowed his bushy brows.
" Who would that be, Sir?" He asked tilting his head.
" Cadet Strife."
" Oh! No I haven't seen him. He didn't turn up for training today." He answered.
" What? He never misses a training lesson!" He exclaimed.
The instructor smiled lightly and hurried off. Zack stuffed the rest of his bagel in his mouth grabbed his coffee and rushed off to the living quarters.
" Maybe he's got a cold..." He whispered under his breath not wanting to look crazy like Hojo ( it was common knowledge that the scientist talked to himself. ).
He reached the infantry quarters in no time due to the speed he was running. The actual corridors were kept clean like the rest of the headquarters but, inside the room's were a different story. He remembered from all the times he had spent inside Cloud's room how bad living conditions were. All they had was an old steel framed bed and a small wooden wardrobe that sat in the corner of each room plus about five people had to live in the same god-damn room! He reached Cloud's room and knocked on the door. No reply. He grabbed the handle and attempted to yank the door open. Strangely the door remained shut. He tilted his head in utter confusion, Cloud never locked his door unless he was out.
" You looking for Spike?" Somebody asked.
Zack turned to see a young man dressed in the usual army garb. The man wiped his face with his limp dripping neckerchief which pretty much made him more wet. He looked like your usual grunt, brown messy hair and dark eyes. He was probably from the slums the lay below the plate and was working to get some cash to improve living conditions for his family. That meant that the conditions at Shinra were hell of a lot better.
" Yeah. And don't call him that you know he hates nick names." Zack scorned.
" He went out a bit ago ,way before training started. It was properly about what happened yesterday. Poor kid was crying all night. I should know I was comforting him!" The cadet replied.
" What? What happened?" Zack snapped.
" Whoa don't take it out on me! Take it out on them bullies who've been beating him up. Just cuz his room buddy got shot in the head by one of those bastard Wutai ninja dudes."
" Who have?" He asked dangerously not even paying attention to the guy's ramblings about ninjas.
" Those three guys from the place where he comes from. I don't really know them very well. Anyway, if your looking for Cloud, go check out the gardens."
Without thanking him, he took off in direction of the main door. Several guys yelled at him to slow down but, were ignored anyway. He burst out the doors in a flurry and fell face first into a large muddy puddle. He jumped up again, soaking and filth covered. He quickly set off again desperate to find his friend. He found him almost immediately as there was only one seat in the whole garden. The gardens were more like a giant mud trap, basically a giant plot of earth which had no bloody use. Unfortunately Cloud had some bad company.
" Hey chocobo head, what you doing out here?" A guy taunted pushing the blonde.
All of the guys were a higher rank than Cloud. You could tell that because they wore those nasty red neckerchiefs.
" Look, it's not our fault your stupid and didn't show for training today. It's yours because your inbred. Come on kiddo, why do you think your mam never talked about him? "
" No I am not! Don't talk about my family like that you bas-" Cloud snapped.
He was swiftly silenced by a fist in the mouth but, what the bullies didn't see was Zack stood behind them with a murderous rage burning in his eyes sword ready in his shaking hands. Fury raged in his veins as he made a deep angry hissing sound.
" Leave him alone you sons of bitches." He growled.
A look of pure terror crossed each one of their faces as they realised who was stood behind them. They ran away as fast as their legs could carry them afraid that their heads were about to get hacked off by the sword in his hands. He watched them disappear into the main building and then turned to face his friend.
" You okay? Did they hurt you much?" He asked squatting down so they were face to face.
" I'm fine." He replied wiping a trickle of blood from his bottom lip that stubbornly replaced it's self with a fresh stream.
" You should get that seen to." He said rubbing the blood away again with his thumb.
" It's okay, really Zack. It's nothing." Cloud insisted forcing a smile out.
Zack flinched for what he didn't know. Maybe it was seeing the pain in his eyes or the false smile that seemed so out of place. Cloud didn't look right faking a smile, it made him feel sick.
" Don't even try to argue with me. Your going to get your lip seen to and going to get some food. Then your going to get some rest back at my room, okay?" He told him.
When the blonde didn't move, he sighed and turned away. He could be so stubborn sometimes.
" Is there something you need to tell me? Your hiding something but, I know your not going to tell me so I'm offering you time to think about it. If your going to be like this then I'm just going to stand here until you tell me." Zack reasoned.
He walked over to his friend and sat down on the bench next to him. He ran a hand through his soggy hair in annoyance. Cloud never spoke about his feelings. The last time something like this happened he didn't come out his room for four days.
" I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you sooner but..."
Cloud suddenly burst into tears, grabbing onto him for comfort much to Zack's surprise.
" I'm sorry. I wanted to sort it out myself but, all I did was make it worse-"
He hiccuped.
" And I just wanted to try and be stronger, like you. They've always been like that to me, I suppose it's because of my name and that I haven't got a dad. It's not my fault..."
The raven haired man realised that his younger friend was rambling on now which he usually did when he was tired. With that in mind Zack realised that Cloud looked exhausted and more wet than he was. The words had stopped pouring out now only to be replaced by a even more worrying silence. He looked at Cloud who had fallen asleep clinging to his top. He shook his head in sheer wonder. This had always fascinated him. The guy would be all smiles one minute and the next he would be asleep or pissed off about something. He shivered. Cloud was relatively calm but, once he gets really mad he goes for it. He had been on the receiving end more than once. Zack rubbed a couple of bruises from his last run in with an angry Cloud. ( He now had a permanent mental note not to call him Fluffy ).
Zack lifted him up carefully as to not to wake him up. Then he remembered that he had to change him into fresh clothes and leave them out to dry. He reminded himself not to touch anything or think about doing anything while in the process.
If the blonde knew about that thought he would never see him again. He was easily frightened. He kicked his door open once they were inside and laid him on the bed. Deciding not to change his clothes because it would just be too awkward, Zack turned on the heating.
" Sorry your just going to put up with being soggy for a bit." he said to him.
He'd realised that he talked a lot to himself sometimes, especially when Cloud was around. He sat next to the younger man and ruffled his blonde hair fondly. He was already beginning to dry off or was his hair just resistant to water? Whatever it was at least he wouldn't get sick.
" You amaze me sometimes." He chuckled laying down next to him, " I don't know what it is that you do to me but, you make me act so weird. I just wish you could be happy all the time..."
The reply was a content hum and having his chest nuzzled. A smile grazed Zack's face as he let himself drift asleep with the warm body of the younger man next to him.
It was long after supper that Cloud finally woke up, a little groggy but, with all the earlier upset cleared away. He would of swung his legs out of bed to be able to stretch them had Zack not been laying over him very ungracefully in a spread eagle position.
" Zack, wake up." He groaned giving his friend a light shove and attempting to remove the palm that was feeling up his face.
" Five more minutes..." He whined.
" Get up, your crushing me."
Once again, Zack replied with a ' it's not time for school yet mum' and ' I don't want to got to work!'. Cloud decided if he wasn't going to move voluntarily, he'd have to force him. Luckily he could bend enough to be able to yell into Zack's unprotected ear. Knowing that his friend could probably sleep through the end of the world or an nuclear war he had to wait until he was beginning to come to his senses which he wasn't far off doing. After giving himself a minute to compose himself Cloud bent over and yelled into his friend's ear: " Good morning!"
Saying that he was surprised would have been an understatement. The black haired man jumped up and almost flattened the infantryman.
" Holy... Cloud you've got a right good set of lungs on you, jeez!" He mumbled rubbing his temples.
Said young man was currently finding it extremely difficult to stop giggling at his friend's reaction.
" Wha- what's so funny?"
" Your face! You should of seen it! You looked like..." He laughed.
He didn't have any dignity left to be able to finish off the sentence. Zack smiled.
' At least he's happy. It's been a while since I've seen him like this but... I've got this really bad feeling that this just wont last much longer. We better make the most of it...'
He turned back to look into Cloud's face. When he smiled it was as if the whole of his body smiled too. It really was a wonderful smile.
