Okay, let me say right away that this is not a new story; actually it's a rather old one. I posted it on my LiveJournal years ago and never bothered to upload it here. I actually forgot about it until recently, when a friend suggested I write more Genesis/Zack. So, for those of you who haven't seen this one before, and those who come in for a trip down memory lane, enjoy!
WARNING - This story contains non-con and strong language.
FEELS LIKE FATE
Zack paced the floor of the 1st Class gym, from the polished wood section to the padding of mats, and back again. It wasn't like Angeal to be late for a training session, even one that had been hastily rescheduled. The 3rd had been in class when the note was delivered, setting their spar for an hour earlier and in a different location than planned. Fine by Zack, that meant less time he had to wait to see Angeal, but where was he? The huge room was empty and silent, nothing to do but pace and let his mind wander. Maybe this was intentional, a lesson in the patience Angeal gently scolded him for lacking?
"Where are you, Angeal?" the sixteen-year-old groaned as he approached a wall.
"Perhaps I can help."
Zack whirled around to face the silky voice, and found a tall figure approaching him from one of the three sets of doors. Slender but imposing form, deliberately tousled auburn hair, stylish jacket in a rich scarlet color. Zack knew him on sight, as all young SOLDIERs did. Genesis Rhapsodos, the personification of cool, the 1st Class everyone wanted to be and no one especially wanted to meet in a dark alley, or anywhere else without witnesses. For all Sephiroth's intimidating reputation, a SOLDIER could at least be certain the general would not harm them without good reason. There was no such assurance when it came to Genesis, who was rumored to be as mentally unstable as he was talented.
The 1st approached with a self-assured smile, displaying a calm and pleasant manner, but Zack found himself frozen and staring. This was not like meeting Angeal for the first time, Angeal had never made him feel like backing away.
"Zack Fair, right?"
"Y-Yes, sir." He couldn't move himself enough to salute, but Genesis didn't seem to mind.
"Angeal is running a bit late. He'll be with you soon."
"Thank you, sir."
"Not at all. So, you're Angeal's student. Angeal's never taken a student before."
Genesis was coming closer, turning to take an almost circular path around the boy. Afternoon sun pouring through the high windows fell in streaks of gold on his hair and gave his eyes an amber glow. The famous SOLDIER was strikingly handsome, no doubt about it, but there was something cold about him, a feline and predatory slink to his walk.
"I'm very grateful to Commander Hewley," Zack said uneasily, "for giving me so much of his time."
"Why does he, do you think?" Genesis mused languidly. "Something to do with dreams and pride, perhaps? Are you part of the destiny the Goddess has laid out for him?"
"I don't know, sir."
"No, you wouldn't know," the 1st said with an indulgent smile. "You are just a baby puppy, after all, aren't you?"
Zack's eyes widened, and he pouted without realizing it. He didn't really mind Angeal's pet name for him, since it was always used so affectionately, but the way Genesis said it made it sound like something else. Something Zack didn't understand, but didn't like anyway. And how did Genesis know that nickname? Was Angeal casually blabbing it to all the 1sts? Zack spoke with a forced calm, the way you might to a dog about to bite you. "Have you known Angeal a long time, sir?"
"All my life. We grew up together, came to ShinRa together. We shared everything." Genesis smiled, and there seemed to be a secret in it, half-hidden and half-revealed. "I always think I know Angeal, that his motivations are clear to me. Then he does something unexpected, and I am confronted by a mystery. You, for example. What do you indicate? What could you mean?"
"I don't understand, sir."
"Of course you don't, child. You are merely a character in Angeal's story, as he is a character in mine. How could you play your part if you knew your true purpose? No. You symbolize something. The question is...what?"
Zack's lips parted just slightly, though he had no idea what to say. Genesis is mad after all, he thought, though the words did make a bizarre sort of sense. It was the way he spoke them that was eerie, not with the idle, arrogant tone he had begun with but in a low voice that was all seriousness. Did he expect an answer? His probing stare made it clear he wanted something.
"Are you afraid of me, little puppy?"
Zack shook his head, a little too wide-eyed, a little too fervently.
"Why is that?" There was no implicit threat in the question; Genesis seemed thoughtful still. "Most people are afraid. They find my presence unnerving, even more so than Sephiroth's. Sephiroth is not the kind of intimidating anybody minds, you see. They are drawn to him and would be even if it meant their deaths, the way men blind themselves to stare at the sun. He is beautiful, isn't he?"
Zack made no answer, assuming the question was rhetorical. A the very least, it was too obvious to require a response. He had seen Sephiroth a few times and found him almost unnaturally perfect, a star that made the rest of the night sky blacker and colder. That kind of beauty was dangerous, it put all the ugliness around it into sharp relief, made every color more dull and every ache sharper. Not like Angeal, who brought a sort of glow everywhere he went...Zack pushed that thought aside, would have repressed it even if Genesis hadn't been coming closer.
"Why aren't you afraid? Is it because of Angeal? Because I am his friend? Or is it because he protects you from everything, whether his past or your own future?"
"I..." The trailing word barely came out, and the rest of the sentence turned to wind in his mouth.
"I will not hurt you," Genesis said softly, "but you are afraid, aren't you? There must be a reason."
"I should..." A lump of trepidation formed in the teenager's throat; he quickly swallowed it. "If Angeal's gonna be late, he would probably want me to spend this time studying."
"He won't be long." Genesis smiled, adjusting his jacket with an elegant tug at the collar. "You will remain here."
It sounded like an order, and only a SOLDIER who cared nothing for his life or career ever disobeyed a 1st Class. "Yes, sir."
"I will wait with you."
"Thank you, sir, but really, I don't want to take up your time - "
"It's no trouble," Genesis said, eyes bright with amusement at Zack's pretended politeness. "Angeal would want you looked after in his absence. You and I have him in common, don't we? Or, perhaps, Angeal and I share you now, as we have shared so many things."
"If you'll excuse me for a few minutes, sir," Zack attempted clumsily, "I left something in my apartment, I should get it before - "
"No, you didn't." The admonishment was gentle, even kind. "You are a terrible liar, little puppy."
Beneath his steadily growing fear, Zack felt a flush of anger. He didn't want anyone but Angeal to call him that.
"It's not your fault. You play the part you were meant to play. Something pure, no doubt, some symbol of the innocence Angeal lost long ago and continues to mourn. I wonder, then..."
He continued to draw closer. Zack unconsciously took a step back, and then another, sensing the wall behind him nearer and nearer, like a fence or a pair of arms trapping him.
"Does he fuck you?"
The air left his lungs, left the room, the shadows of vanishing sunlight circled tightly and squeezed it all out. Zack gaped at the impropriety of the question, his feet glued for a moment to the floor. Even worse was Genesis's face, not smirking, not teasing, but curious, and seeming to feel rapture at the mere thought.
"Wh-What?" the boy squeaked.
"It may be the key to everything, young one. If Angeal guards you from his own desires as he does from everything else, then it is innocence he prizes in you, and you are a mere symbol, albeit an important one. But if he craves your body as he watches it develop, if he strokes himself at night dreaming of your warmth and softness, and especially if he opens you up with his cock and makes you cry with pleasure, then that's quite a different thing. Let me close enough, and I can find the answer in you, little puppy, because it isn't clear to me yet. You are innocent. But that isn't all you are."
"You're sick," Zack hissed, his face hot with embarrassment or some other emotion that was knotting his stomach. "And don't call me 'Puppy', only Angeal - "
Genesis stepped forward again, and Zack's fury gave way to fear as he sprang back and met the padded wall that stopped him behind and offered him to the 1st like a sacrifice. He gasped, a sound that carried loudly through the still air, and Genesis's smiling mouth opened sensually, as though he were drinking the boy's fear in like wine. He lifted his arms, slowly to watch the young one cower.
"I won't hurt you. I only want to see..." A bare, cool hand caressed Zack's cheek, following the face as it tried to turn away, insistently cupping that smooth skin. "So soft. Look at me. Look at me."
His body was nearly touching Zack's now, pinning him to the wall, towering over him and around him to cut off all possibility of an escape. He tilted the lovely face up, examined the trembling lips and the pale eyes filling with pale tears. The answer he sought was not here on the surface, only a glimmer of it. He would have to go deeper.
"Beautiful," Genesis murmured, and the boy whimpered and cringed as though he'd spoken a curse. "Whatever you are to Angeal, he too must find you beautiful."
"Don't - " Zack's plea dissolved into a soft wail as the 1st pressed his body against the shorter one. "Please, sir, just let me - "
"Tell me if he fucks you."
"No, okay? He doesn't, I swear!"
"But does he want to? You wouldn't know that. Angeal wouldn't let his precious puppy see so base a part of himself. Yet such things too are the will of the Goddess." Genesis smirked. "Not a very good mentor, is he?"
"Yes he is!" Zack retorted angrily, his need to defend Angeal overpowering his fear for a moment.
"A good teacher would see what you are meant for, and guide you to become that. Not fill your head with heroic nonsense. Does he talk to you about dreams and pride, little puppy?" A cold sneer twisted the 1st's sharp features. "Angeal rarely condescends to dwell among lesser mortals and their imperfections. So...just what is it about you that he makes an exception for?"
Genesis reached around to stroke the spiky black hair, down to the soft skin of the boy's neck. "Maybe it's only this, after all. You are a prize any man would risk much for."
Scarcely realizing what he was doing, not thinking that you do not attack a 1st Class if you want to live, Zack's arms flew at Genesis. What he would have done, he had no idea, but it didn't matter anyway. His wrists were caught in one hand, held against his stomach between the two bodies, and Genesis smiled as though this were all part of his plan. He made a sympathetic cooing noise as Zack began to weep quietly, knowing that this man could do anything to him and he wouldn't be able to stop it. Wouldn't be able to report it, even if he wanted to, for who would take a 3rd's side against a legendary 1st?
"Do you cry because you see what Her plan is for you," Genesis whispered, "or because it remains hidden? She is wonderful and terrible both, my poor, frightened child, cruel and kind as men are. As they will always be."
Zack turned his head away and squeezed his eyes shut, praying to wake up, to find that the day had not begun yet and that no 1st but Angeal would touch him and call him 'Puppy'. He shuddered to feel Genesis's nose nuzzling his face, sniffing him with deep, rapturous inhales. Soft lips placed a kiss on his forehead, a gesture that had always been chaste, even Angeal might do that...no, don't think of Angeal, don't bring him into this horror...
"Fate is strong in you, I feel it. I must know your place in our story. I must know what you are. Ssh, be still, and let Her speak to me."
"I don't understand," Zack choked out. "Please just let me go, I won't tell - "
"I won't hurt you. I could snap your pretty neck now, break the thread She weaves for you, but then I'd never learn how tangled it is with ours. I could watch the light leave your lovely eyes, and Angeal's, but I would never know..."
Holding the boy in an unblinking, hypnotic stare, Genesis put his middle and index fingers into his mouth and sucked them, keeping a tight hold on the slender wrists. He pressed in closer, locking Zack against the wall, and his wet hand squeezed behind and slipped down the back of the 3rd's loose fatigues. Zack opened his mouth to scream, but the fingers were pressing inside now, and he could only get out a barely audible croak. It was as dry and fragile as a desert breeze.
"Never trust the surface," Genesis said, in a voice any instructor might use. "The surface is pretense. The truth hides in dark places that only the truly free dare to explore. You feel wonderful, little puppy."
"Please stop." He couldn't say it, only mouth it.
"She rewards us for letting our true selves be laid bare. I want an answer, but I won't take and give you nothing in return. Let me show you. 'From the Goddess's bow, the fated arrow is released.'"
The fingers had been trying, probing lightly. Now they joined together and sped along their short and fated path, meeting something that sent a spike of terrible, unwilling pleasure all through Zack's body. He cried out (able to make noise at last), and it was a pained sound. But this wasn't pain, he would have preferred pain to this. The fingers thrust mercilessly, giving the pleasure no chance to ease off, and somewhere in Zack's brain that was still capable of thought one phrase popped up - not fair. How appropriate, because for once in his life the cheerful, bouncy boy didn't want to be Fair, or Zack, or anyone standing here being molested by his mentor's childhood friend.
"Patience, Puppy. She has not begun to approach yet. We must be watchful, for She comes in many guises, but we don't want Her too soon, do we? We want to savor this."
Genesis pushed his thigh between the boy's legs, rocked it up and down. Zack made another pitiful noise of protest and tried to squirm away, but he was trapped by pleasure both inside and out. Every movement he made caused him to rub against Genesis or shift the thrusting fingers deeper, or into a different angle on the same target. Defeated, Zack went still, save for his trembling and soft crying. His eyes flickered around the room wildly, then rolled back, and closed.
"Ah-ah, you're fighting me still. Don't you want to know, Puppy? Aren't you curious?"
The doors of the nearest entrance swung open. A 2nd that Genesis didn't know by name walked in whistling, then froze as he caught the strange sight before him. He must have had a good reason to be there; maybe he was even sent by Angeal to find out why Fair was not in the VR Training Room as they had planned. Angeal, after all, knew nothing of the note Zack had received that had directed him here. It would not be the first time Angeal had been unable to find his easily distracted student.
But the 2nd did not offer any excuses, merely stared with bulging eyes at Commander Rhapsodos and the boy he was restraining and said, figuring to hell with the proper forms of address, "What are you doing?"
Genesis looked at him pleasantly, with a hint of surprise. "I am fucking him with my fingers. What does it look like I'm doing?"
A harder jab than all the previous thrusts punctuated his answer, and Zack started and let out a yelp. It was a noise of refusal, and though his eyes remained stubbornly shut, tears dripped down his face. The 2nd did not fail to notice this, and his fists clenched.
"The correct thing to do," Genesis went on, in an eerily calm and instructing tone, "would be to run and tell Commander Hewley."
The 2nd turned at once and left the gym in a sprint. Zack wanted to be relieved that Angeal would be here soon, he would make everything better...but in the meantime it was he and Genesis still, alone here. And Genesis was more insistent now, pushing harder from every direction.
"If you want to come, little one, you'd better do it before Angeal gets here."
He didn't want to, it was the last thing he wanted, but too far, too late, and it happened. Afterward, Zack was released and allowed to slide down the wall to the floor, curling up in as small a ball as he could. He watched with dumb, horrified fascination as Genesis smiled benevolently down at him, then put his fingers between his lips and sucked them with a groan of satisfaction.
"Genesis!"
Even Zack cowered from the bellow that echoed up to the tall ceiling. Genesis continued to look calm and interested, standing a little apart from the boy and taking note of the fury in Angeal's voice, the outrage burning in his eyes. A bit beyond what you'd expect of him if it had been any other young SOLDIER in his care, but that in itself was not conclusive. He must be made to choose, and the choice would reveal at last what Fair was, whether or not he was a real force in their story. Something that might have to be reckoned with.
Genesis began to back away, not in fear, but as though daring Angeal to follow. "What will you do, old friend? Come after me, as honor demands, or comfort your precious, ravaged puppy?"
Angeal looked down at Zack, and his expression softened at once. Without hesitation, he dropped down to his knees and pulled the boy into his arms, guiding the wet face to hide itself in his sweater. Zack clung to him, and Angeal, distant Angeal, did not object, only hugged him tighter. Bare hands that could kill as well as the Buster Sword were tender now, soothing the young one like this was what Angeal had been meant for, not battle or heroics.
"So, not merely a symbol then," Genesis mused aloud. "Tell me, old friend, it's not only innocence you want from him, is it? Is it love? Is it something I can't rip away from him?"
"Get out," Angeal growled.
"We have our answer, child. Congratulations, you're part of the story after all."
"Don't talk to him, don't look at him, or I swear by Gaia I'll - !"
But Genesis was gone, and Angeal could turn all his attention to Zack, whose breathing had become quieter and steadier in his embrace. He took the boy's face in hand, intending to wipe away the tears and see how much trauma the pale blue eyes stored, but Zack surged forward and pressed their lips together. Angeal would normally have gently drawn away, murmured things like you don't know what you're doing, you only want to feel safe...but Zack didn't kiss like an over-eager boy trying to cover his wounds with something that stung less. He kissed like an over-eager boy tired of holding back what he felt and determined to make a grab for what he wanted at last.
Angeal gave in, requiring little convincing to abandon his own struggle, and took possession of the mouth that opened for him. His only demand seemed to be gentleness, cautioning care and patience in this as he did in training and everything else. Zack wanted more, faster, everything at once, but the hand smoothing his hair and stroking his cheek told him it was okay, there would be plenty of time. He accepted this, let his face fall against Angeal's warm neck, murmured "I love you" and made a single relieved sob when the words were repeated back to him.
Genesis's talk of tangled threads and fated paths made sense now. Here was a truth he no longer had to hide, and a fate he was very happy to have found.
THE END