Hello~ Long time no see, I know, sorry! This is a one-shot that I wrote for the lovely Soyna (check out her stories, they are teh awesome!). She only requested something about Genesis and Zack, and this is what I came up with.
So this is for her and another person, that I love very very much.
Enjoy^^
Polyamory
Genesis' left eye twitched. Repeatedly. It twitched ad twitched and twitched in severe irritation but still his pupil couldn't turn away from the gloomy figure occupying the roof of the ShinRa SOLDIER barracks.
The last thing he felt like was dealing with depressing brats. He'd come here for some quiet, to settle down in a cozy corner and read his precious Loveless (without having to listen to the imbecile, ignorant mocking of some people that dared to call themselves his 'friends').
But upon rounding the corner he was faced with the uber-depressing back of a glum youth that was so palpable that Genesis swore he could see black tendrils ooze slowly from the teen, trying to grab Genesis and drag him down too.
Well, the runt hadn't seen him yet, so maybe he could just pretend that he hadn't seen him either...
The honorable and fearless SOLDIER First Class Genesis Rhapsodos was just about to turn and quietly tiptoe to another, unoccupied corner, when suddenly the boy stiffened and turned his head in slow motion towards him.
"Genesis?" the puppy piped weakly, sniffing his runny nose and staring up at the redhead with incredibly red and puffy eyes.
His bottom lip trembled.
"What." Genesis said stiffly, without a question mark. As he felt his features harden his resistance melted, though. Sometimes he damned the fact that he was the sensitive one out of the three of them. Angeal would have clasped the boy's shoulder and told him to deal with whatever it was that bothered him by himself, acting like a man. Depending on Sephiroth's mood he'd just grunt something under his breath and turn to leave - if he was in a good mood. In a bad mood he'd just walk off without acknowledging the crying boy at all.
Zack's bottom lip trembled harder, he actually bit it and communicated his misery through another very long sniffle that sounded too juicy for Genesis' liking.
"I-...I got a probleeeeeeem!" he hiccuped, fresh tears brimming in his eyes. He rubbed his wet nose with a finger and gave Genesis the world's saddest, guilt-inflicting puppy eyes ever.
With a snap the redhead closed his beloved book that he'd flicked through in anticipation before he had found … this.
He closed the distance between the puppy and himself, summoning a pristine white handkerchief from his pocket that he held towards the crying boy with two fingers. Then he gracefully sat down beside Zack on the cold, windy floor.
The sun was just about to set, only the rims of the horizon starting to get tinted with a soft rosy color. The sun turned orange, but the majority of the sky above them was still blue and mainly cloudless.
Beside him, Zack took a deep breath and blew his snot into Genesis' precious handkerchief.
"Th-thanks," he mumbled, staring at the green and yellow contents before crunching up the cloth and handing it back to Genesis.
"... Keep it."
"Thanks!" The puppy at the nerve to beam at him, as if Genesis had just gifted him with a rare materia and not a snot-infested piece of – nevermind.
"So, what is it." Not that Genesis was terribly interested in the problems of a little boy. This was Angeal's job anyway, taking care of his pupil. It probably was something stupid and trivial such as a failed test, the usual worries about progressing in the SOLDIER program, some dead comrades... yada yada. He'd been there, done that. People told him for a reason that he came off as arrogant and ignorant. Genesis thought he was entitled, he was a First Class. But the truth was... Genesis couldn't walk away right now. Despite his attitude, and despite the fact that he hated and fought it, he inwardly cringed at the sad little boy sitting next to him. And he'd definitely not sleep tonight unless he had made sure that Zack was somewhat better... he'd just also have to make sure that no one got to know about this.
The brief moment of gratitude and happiness on Zack's face was wiped away by the tendrils of doom, as Genesis reminded him of his misery.
Turning his head down and staring into his lap, Zack kneaded the used handkerchief and struggled for words, slowly choking them out. "I... I think I'm in love!" he finally blurted, as if the world was coming to an end.
A cold shiver ran down Genesis' spine and he wanted to shake it off, but he refrained. His face had taken on a slightly panicked expression, though.
"Did they reject you?" he finally asked tentatively.
"Nooo," Zack stretched, looking lost.
Genesis remained quiet.
Zack fidgeted. The wind blew stronger, wiping dry leaves and dust over the bland rooftop.
Zack fidgeted some more.
"Aren't you going to ask me why I cried?" he finally questioned, impatiently looking up at Genesis, failing to notice the urge to flee that radiated from the man.
"...Why are you crying?"
Zack took a deep breath. "It's complicated," he then said with importance, a morose air surrounding his words. He looked back at his hands that held the handkerchief, but were still now. Beside him, Genesis shifted.
"I'm not a bad person," Zack finally continued quietly, strangely maturely. "I don't want to hurt anybody. I want to be an honorable person. I know what's right and what's wrong. And I really like Cloud." He took another deep breath, as if gathering the courage to continue. This problem... he'd tried to push it away, to ignore it and not think about it. The shame had consumed him though and wouldn't leave him alone. His feelings had caught up with him, no matter how much he had tried to fight them. Just why was it so hard to behave right? "But... I also like Kunsel," he finished, miserable, his shoulders slumping. He didn't even dare look at Genesis and face the disgust he expected to see on his face.
To his surprise, Genesis was calm and faced him with a hint of interest. A great weight fell from the boy's shoulder.
"So you are in love with two people... at the same time."
Slowly, Zack nodded. "Yeah."
"Do they know that?"
"Of course not! I could never tell them! They'd be... devastated. I feel so bad." Zack made an extremely guilty and unhappy face.
"Why is that?" Genesis queried, shifting and getting more comfortable. The book lay by his side, forgotten at the moment. "I mean, why do you feel bad about it?"
"Well... well, I mean it's like betraying them, both of them. It's not normal... to feel like this. I know they both like me, so it's really awful to not be able to decide. It's like betraying them both." There was a frustrated sigh.
"I assure you, it's perfectly normal," Genesis said drily, leaning his head back to stare at the sky. "What you experience is called 'polyamory'. It means the ability to be in love with more than one person at the same time."
"It sounds like an illness," Zack objected weakly.
Genesis gave a low chuckle. "It is seen as an illness by most people. They are caught up in the moral assumption that, to be in a happy, successful relationship you have to be faithful to just one person. They view their partner as their possession, their good that they have exclusive access to. They get jealous when their partner even so much as indicates that they have an interest in a third person."
Zack frowned. "But isn't that kinda... I don't know... normal?" This was what all his misery was about, after all.
"It is, if you define 'normal' as that 'what most people do'. You do know what a harem is, don't you?They were quite common and in some cultures they are to this day. To us that seems 'archaic' nowadays and most people claim to live in monogamous relationships. Or so it seems. Most people are unfaithful, too." Genesis gave a sardonic shrug. "They do it behind the backs of their partners because they cannot do it openly. Society forbids. When they are found out at one point it's a big drama with tears and accusations – you know the drill. Personally, I think that is awful."
Zack nodded. He hadn't thought about it like that.
"You should be happy that you have that much love inside you to give to more than just one person," Genesis said, watching the boy from the corner of his eyes. He looked pensive, but a little less frustrated and embarrassed.
"I have a lot of love inside me," the puppy muttered, squeezing his snotty handkerchief with a sniffle. "But... I don't know if they'll understand. I can't tell them, they might hate me."
"They'll hate you even more if you fool around behind their backs."
"I'm not fooling around!" Zack immediately objected indignantly.
"Hm, but you thought about it," Genesis confidently pointed out with a smirk.
Zack's shoulders slumped a bit as he looked away and admitted meekly, "...I did. But I didn't do anything!"
"Maybe not yet. But you can't fight the feeling forever." The sun fell down the sky slowly, touching the horizon now and casting it in fire. Genesis watched the orange flames spreading through the blue air.
Stubborn, Zack remained quiet. Then he gave in with a sigh. „How come you know so much about this?"
The redhead could feel the boy's intense gaze boring into his skull.
„I have a friend with a similar problem," he said, lazily watching a bird fly by.
„Oh. What did your friend do?" Zack flopped down on his belly, chin on a palm, curiosity unhidden.
„Well... At first he tried to fight it. He thought it was just a sexual fantasy, his desiring two people, a fantasy that would soon enough pass. A lot of men like to watch porn or have sex with two women. He thought it was something like that. But gradually he came to realize that there was more, that he liked to be around them both, preferably at the same time. The fantasy expanded and it was not just sex, but also experiencing things together, as equal partners in a relationship of three."
Again, Zack nodded. He could relate. Oh, how he could relate.
"My friend despaired over that. He started two separate relationships with the two of them, when he couldn't fight it anymore. Even though they were all friends they didn't know about each other being in a relationship with the same person and it worked a while, at least on the outside. My friend however was eaten away by guilt and an unfulfilled desire. There was something missing, a huge part. But he was afraid that they would reject him, if he came out to them. So he got increasingly unhappy which showed in him becoming aggressive and moody. Neither of his partners knew what was wrong and they blamed themselves. It wore them out. Then, some day, my friend came to realize that this couldn't go on anylonger, not like this. It would destroy him and it would destroy his relationships. In the end he had nothing to lose. And he told them. He took the time to speak to them separately, trying to explain what was going on inside him as well as he could, even though it was difficult." Genesis paused for dramatic effect.
Beside him Zack tried to wait patiently for the elder to continue, but eventually he couldn't hold out anymore. „How did it go? How did they take it?" He feared the worst.
„One of them didn't mind. He barely shrugged and was willing to give it a try. The other... didn't take it that well." Again, Genesis paused, preparing his next words carefully. „In fact, that other guy was pretty devastated. His views on how a relationship was supposed to function were... conservative, to put it mildly. He also felt betrayed and hurt and retreated for a while. However he didn't blame my friend, but said that he had suspected something like that. In that part he was understanding, at least. It was just that their ideas of love and a relationship didn't seem to match up. So my friend retained his relationship with only one person, but the feeling of loss was heavy. His partner was understanding and didn't blame my friend for feeling unfulfilled. It was also helpful that that partner didn't develop any inferiority complexes for not being 'enough' for my friend."
"How sad," Zack said, making a sympathetic face. This didn't give him much hope.
Genesis nodded. "It was. But my friend was lucky. His other partner, the one who cut their ties, found that he missed my friend. After a while he came back, saying that he had thought about it. He still didn't like the idea very much, but he did miss my friend and was willing to at least give it a try. So they tried."
The puppy didn't dare breathing. Something like hope started to blossom in his heart. Maybe for some people it could work out? Maybe it could work for him, Cloud and Kunsel too! He knew that Kunsel was pretty open-minded. Cloud was a shy boy, but he was sweet and Zack was almost certain that Cloud and Kunsel would get along fabulously once they got to know each other.
"What happened? Did it work?" he finally breathed, biting his nails unconsciously.
Genesis gave a small shrug. "It did. As far as I know they are still together."
"Whoa..." Zack made a weirdly solemn face, as if he'd just been touched by the Goddess or something. Genesis almost laughed at him, but settled for clearing his throat instead. The first stars appeared on the darkening sky and the breeze turned chilly.
"He got really lucky! Thanks Gen, that really helped a lot!" Zack babbled eagerly, jumping up with barely restrained enthusiasm. His plan was set! There was no second to waste, he'd go find them and break the news to them, right away! And then they could all live together, happily ever after!He was almost back to being his old, exuberant self.
"Hold it," the redhead tried to dim his actionism. The puppy looked as if he just wanted to run down the stairs and jump his confessions on his potential lovers. "It's not as easy as it sounds."
"...Really?" Zack sat back down on his ass, disappointed. There went his dream, burst like a bubble. Why couldn't life be easy for once? And after he had gotten his hopes up!
"Have you been in a relationship before?"
"Yeah, but it didn't last long," the boy confessed, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.
"Really." Genesis couldn't help the sarcastic edge. "Anyways. Since you got experience, you should know that making a relationship with two persons work is hard enough. You have to talk things through, you fight, there are misunderstandings and different expectations. The need for communication is a lot higher when you have to manage a relationship with three people."
"Oh. But that's okay, I can talk a lot," Zack laughed. The corners of Genesis' lips twitched upwards for a second, but then he got serious again.
"It's not just about talking. It is about listening too."
At that Zack's expression sobered a bit. Genesis continued.
"It will get easier after a while when you have a certain routine and got used to it. But at the beginning there can be a lot of potential conflicts, especially when one of the partners isn't that comfortable with the idea and clings to concepts that aren't really suited for this kind of thing. They can get jealous of each other, thinking in old ways of love. They might even see each other as rivals. They might feel as if you only have a certain amount of love in your heart and instead of just giving it to one person they have to share that amount, meaning that you love each of them less since you have to split your contingent of love. That is not true, of course, but it is hard to explain to someone who is in an emotional crisis."
"You might have three very different characters involved in an intimate, highly emotional affair and the possibilities of mayhem are infinite. You have to be really sensitive, you might have to be a mediator. You certainly have to be very patient. And in the end it still might not work out. Be prepared for that and don't blame them. Give them a chance to get to know each other. Let them spend time together without you. See if they have sympathy for each other, because if they don't, if they cannot love each other it will be a lot harder."
Zack kept nodding, taking mental notes. He wished he had a pen and paper. And he was really glad that he had met Genesis, of all people. The man seemed to be a never ending fountain of information and wisdom. Which wasn't much of a surprise, Genesis had his nose stuck in a book most of the times Zack saw him. When he wasn't killing someone, that was. "I'll do as you said, to the last letter. I'll let you know how it goes too!"
"Please don't." The redhead got up, wiping some dirt from his coat before picking up his book. Zack stood too, stretching his lean, long body.
"Thanks man," the puppy then said, uncharacteristically serious as he turned towards the SOLDIER First Class. Genesis simply nodded, acknowledging the young man's gratitude. He had his doubts whether Zack would manage to make a polyamorous relationship work, hyper and impatient as he was. That was not to say that Genesis didn't wish for him to make it work, though. Everybody deserved to get as much love as they could.
"Well... I better go now," Zack suddenly grinned. His eyes were almost back to normal, if maybe still a bit red. Most of the traces of his earlier crying fit had vanished."Gotta take care of some stuff." He winked, and then he rushed off, the door banging shut as he marched inside with a light bounce to his steps. Kunsel and Cloud were in for some surprise...
Genesis looked after him, then he shook his head. His eyes fell down on his unread book, but then he shrugged. Now he wasn't in the mood to read anymore, thank you very much Zack Fair.
Turning on his heels, Genesis strolled towards the stairs, leaving the setting sun behind him.
He'd see what Angeal and Sephiroth were up to.
If they had started fucking without him again he was sure to cause some full blown drama and make them very, very sorry.
end
Can you guess who Genesis' "friend" was? XD
As always, comments, criticism and feedback is very much welcome :)
Disclaimer: I don't own much. I wouldn't mind a harem with the FFVII boys though... *cough*