There were five reasons Cloud Strife was not happy. For one, he had been dragged by a stranger to a room full of more strangers. He was also sitting less than five feet away from the great General Sephiroth, who was drinking tea, no less, with a man in a red cloak and golden claw. Not only that, there were at least two Turks sitting on either side of him. Fourthly, the blond man sitting across the room from Cloud was looking at him hungrily. This was most definitely the effect of reason number five. Cloud was in a dress. A maid dress.
"He's so adorable!" The man who had dragged him into this mess squealed in delight. "Don't you agree, Seph?!" He asked, turning to the leather-clad man. Cloud was appalled, if not slightly jealous; who was this man to talk to The General in such an informal way?
Sephiroth glanced over at Cloud with a small smirk on his lips and nodded. Cloud could practically feel the rest of his body cool down as all the blood rushed to his face. "What's his name?" Sephiroth asked indifferently, eyes turned back on the red-eyed man.
"It's-!" He stopped, face dropping and turning towards Cloud. "What's your name, kid?"
Cloud frowned, pushing Zack's face away, "wouldn't you like to know, jerk?!"
"Jerk?" He asked, looking hurt.
"Yes! You drag me down here to who-knows-where; dress me in this, all without asking my name or giving me yours!" He pouted, tears in his eyes, which he rubbed away angrily.
Zack smiled widely at him, "sorry, kid. Name's Zack. Now, what's yours?"
He turned his head away, "Cloud."
"Sorry, I don't have super hearing, what was that?"
He glared at the SOLDIER, "Cloud."
"And you are a-"
"I'm in infantry."
"There, I'm SOLDIER, 1st class." He turned towards the silver haired man, "That's Sephiroth, the general." Cloud bowed to him shyly when he nodded at him. "The dead weight he's talking to is Vincent Valentine; he's an ex-Turk. I think he's friends with Cissnei, she should be around here somewhere." He mumbled, looking around the small room as if he'd find her in the pile of plushies in the corner. "This is her room, that's why it's so girly." He said, flashing Cloud his infamous smile.
"Cissnei? The Turk?" Cloud asked softly.
He nodded, "know her?"
Cloud nodded, "she was my instructor once."
"Ah. Anyway, those three in the suits are Reno, Rude and Tseng, all Turks if you can't tell. Don't worry, they're stupider than flies. Except Tseng." He said, absentmindedly ducking the combat stick that was thrown at his head. "The blond guy is Rufus Shinra. Don't mess up too badly, or he'll tell his daddy." He said, smiling at Rufus' glare. And... I think that's it. Now you shouldn't be uncomfortable."
The blonde looked at Zack as if he had grown another head. He shouldn't be uncomfortable? Was this man stupid. Well, SOLDIER was known for brawn, not brains.
"I'm out of here." He was standing and at the door in less than a minute.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Zack said, grabbing Cloud at the waist from behind to stop him, "where you going, Cloudy-boy?"
"Out of this hell!" He said, struggling against the mako-injected SOLDIER.
He pouted, "Hell? Aww, Cloudy, what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're crazy! Let go of me!" He said, having turned around and pushing Zack's body away.
"Ugh, Cloud, if you don't stop, we'll have to keep you here by force."
"You wouldn't do that!" He said, continuing to struggle.
Okay, so Zack was crazy enough to do that. Every other guest had gone on with whatever it was they were doing, Zack having joined Vincent and Sephiroth, while Cloud sat in the middle of the room with rope around his wrists and feet and a gag in his mouth. God, this night was turning to be so wrong.
"What did you guys do?" A voice asked from the door. Cloud turned to see another Turk with red hair, a female this time. "And who is that?"
"He's an infantryman I found on my way down here. He seemed a little lost so I told him to follow me. He came here completely willingly."
"Then why is he tied up?"
"Because he wanted to leave."
"Zack!" The red-head huffed, dumping her burden, which Cloud just noticed, of junk food onto the table by the door. "You can't hold a hostage! And why did none of you do anything?"
"Not our problem." Reno said with a shrug, getting back to his card game with Rude and Tseng.
"Can I at least have a good reason to why he's dressed as a Gothic Lolita maid?"
"Because I thought it would compliment his figure. Turned out, I was correct. How can you not like that?" Zack asked her, placing his hand on Cloud's head, who turned to glare at him, making muffled noises through the piece of cloth in his mouth.
"And the gag?"
"He had heard someone walking passed and starting yelling."
She rolled her eyes and pushed Zack away from the boy. "Sorry. Zack's a spaz. God, Zack, didn't you think you scared him enough with the dress?" She asked, freeing Cloud from his bonds.
"Thank you." He said quietly, rubbing his wrists gingerly.
"No problem." She smiled.
"Aww, Cissnei! Your going to let our ickle Chocobo go?" Zack asked with a pout.
"I'm not your ickle Chocobo!" He said, "and where are my clothes!?"
"Your clothes?" Zack asked, confused.
"Yes! The things I was wearing before this!"
"Your clothes, your clothes, where did I put them?" Zack mumbled to himself. "Oh! That's right. I sold them."
"W-what?" Cloud asked, shocked.
"I sold them. You know how we kinda knocked you out to get that dress on you? Yeah, well, I needed some money to get the dress, so you were sorta lying here naked for a while."
The blush that had gone away during his time in the bonds had come back ten-fold. "N-naked? Completely naked?"
"Nah, you still have your boxers on, don't you?" Cloud looked down. Indeed, you could see the end of his boxers sticking out the end of the dress. "They're nice; by the way, I have some just like it, wearing it now, see?" Without any more preamble, Zack had his pants off to expose his blue boxers with chocobos on them.
Cloud looked away quickly, much too innocent to have a conversation like this with the other man. However, judging by what he could tell of this Zack character, he would guess any sort of conversation with him.
"Zack, get your pants back on, no one wants to see that." Rufus grumbled, a blush across his face.
"This is the future of our company? A man that can't even stand the boy's changing room? Besides, this is a sleep-over! And I happen to sleep in nothing. You're lucky I'm keeping these on." He had already ripped off his shirt and thrown it to the corner.
"What was I thinking inviting men to a sleep-over?" Cissnei muttered, gather things around the room to make her own pajamas, completely ignoring the fact she was the only female there. "You all should change now, as of this moment, the fun begins." She said, and everyone scrambled.
Cloud slipped to the door, hoping the pandemonium would cover him. "Hey, kid! Where ya' going?" Zack asked, catching Cloud on the shoulder. "You heard Cissnei, the fun is just beginning! Stick around." He flung Cloud around easily and lifted him bridal-style, sitting on the floor cross-legged and holding Cloud securely.
"Why are you doing this?" The blond boy asked exasperated, eventually ceasing his fighting when he realized it was futile against a mako-enhance SOLDIER such as Zack.
"Because!" Zack said happily, smiling down at him. Cloud blushed, even if Zack seemed unfazed.
"Alright! Let's begin!" Cissnei announce. Cloud looked around, having been distracted, to see everyone in their own pajamas.
Sephiroth, having more modesty than Zack, was wearing boxer and a shirt. Vincent hadn't changed, and Reno was wearing blue flannels with penguins.
Zack dumped Cloud on the ground next to him, "Yahoo! What's next!?"
"Did you at least get him pajamas?" Cissnei asked, pointing to Cloud.
"Nope! I'll guess he'll have to go the night in that."
"I could go to my room and get them?" He asked, hoping to fool his superior.
"No chance, Cloud! Besides, if any of the other guys see you in that, they'd eat you." Zack responded and by the way his eyebrow wriggled, the eat the SOLDIER and the infantryman had been thinking of two different definitions of the phrase.
"Better than here." He finally responded with a cute frown.
Ignoring Cloud's pessimistic response, he sat the boy in the circle in between him and Sephiroth, who seemed almost as keen in keeping the boy as Zack, even if he didn't show it. No way was the blond escaping now, as if he had any sort of chance before. That was the last time he accepted any sort of help from strangers.
Sighing in defeat, Cloud turned his attention to the circle, just in time to hear something about 'truth or dare'. Whatever the hell that was.
"Okay, Zack, you first." Cissnei said, turning to Zack with a smirk. "Truth or dare?"
Cloud shook his head. The point of this game was…?
--.--.--.-
A/N: I realize I just posted another chapter for my other fiction, but I owed this to my friend Eve since before school let out.
So this is for here. I finally dug it up, made some changes, and decided to end the chapter with no more added information.
Fun party games begin next chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. I do own Cloud in a maid dress. He is mine. He's in my closet with Zack and Vincent doing… things. .
No beta-d. Kay go.