Author's Note: Well, here's my very first fanfiction! This series of drabbles takes place during a relatively peaceful time during Crisis Core, and switches perspectives between Cloud and Zack. It'll be in a more-or-less chronological order, with the characters' feelings getting stronger little by little as the series goes on. Thank you so much for taking some time to read it. =) Reviews are welcome!

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy and its characters are property of Square Enix, not me.

Chapter 1: Sharing

Cloud

Sharing with Zack drove me crazy.

We shared everything. We shared an apartment, we shared clothes, we shared chores and shampoo and food and money. I guess he kind of took advantage of my generosity. At first, it wasn't a big deal. He'd say "My shirt's still in the dryer, can I borrow one of yours?" Sure, no problem. "Forgot to eat lunch today, gimme those chips." Wasn't gonna eat them anyway. "I'm broke, can I borrow some cash?" He always paid me back. Eventually. And it was nice having my best friend around all the time, to talk to and learn from and laugh with, to do the laundry and empty the dishwasher. Sometimes. He didn't pick his clothes up off the floor, but that was okay. I didn't either.

It all got annoying pretty fast. Soon he was snatching my sandwich from me while I was eating it; he'd take a huge bite and hand it back. He used a whole bottle of shampoo in a week or two. He probably wore my clothes more than I did. I caught him using my toothbrush, my towels. Drinking juice right out of the container. The word hygiene clearly wasn't in his vocabulary.

Then I started getting addicted to sharing. To Zack.

It started when I was with the other infantrymen one morning, standing at attention in my row as some lecturer droned on about something no one was listening to. Then I realized that Zack had been wearing my uniform shirt. That Zack smell was all over it - a warm and familiar smell, like a mix of cinnamon and copper and my shampoo. I closed my eyes, breathed it in. It was like having him right here, surrounding me, wrapped around me. My stomach tightened. I was hyper-aware of the fabric against my skin, the same fabric that was against his skin not too long ago.

I was just sharing a damn shirt. That's all I was doing, wearing his shirt. Why did it feel like something inside me was aching? I briefly lifted the shirt collar up to my nose, let his scent wash over me for just a second before I returned to my infantryman stance. I tried to ignore it. Tried to stop thinking about Zack the way I was starting to think about him. I tried.

But he was everywhere.

There wasn't a "my clothes" and "your clothes" anymore, just "clothes". What was mine was his and vice versa. I kept noticing traces of his scent in the fabric, found a strand of his jet-black hair on one of my shirts. I told myself I hated it. But that was a lie. I found myself sifting through the clothes on the floor for the ones that really belonged to him, clothes with his smell embedded in them, and I wore them when I could. Soon there were strands of light blond hair on his shirts.

It got worse. He took naps in my bed every now and then, and sometimes I'd lie down in it after he left, felt the warmth of his body in the blankets and inhaled his scent in the pillows. The taste of his mouth was on my toothbrush. I started drinking straight out of the juice container to taste him. His scent was soaked into the towels, I tasted him when we shared food. It's a wonder I didn't get sick. None of it disgusted me anymore. When he wasn't actually with me, I looked for him in all the stuff we shared. I don't know why I tormented myself like that. I couldn't have him in the way I knew I was longing for.

Sharing with Zack just drove me crazy.