Hello and welcome to chapter 1 of my new Zack/Cloud fan fiction 'Love Law' *applause* :P
Planning isn't finished but I'm hoping to make this quite a few chapters long.
Chapter 1 is none other than that loveable Zack Fair so please enjoy.
Disclaimer: Zack and Reno aren't mine though it pains me to say so. All of the characters here belong to Square Enix but the story idea is mine.
"And I really need those reports before Friday… Zack, are you listening?"
Hey there. My name's Zack Fair; I'm twenty-six years old, six foot tall exactly, 180 pounds of rippling muscle with this awesome black, spiky hair and blue eyes. I'm also a pretty nice guy if I do say so myself, to top it off I'm self confident and charismatic, even if everyone else does say I'm just cocky. But hey, it's all part of the charm.
The guy who's talking to me, that's my boss and mentor Angeal, he's the one person who can handle my attitude without resorting to throwing something at me, and we work for the Shinra Law Firm; run by none other that Rufus Shinra, the most well know lawyer in… probably the world -this guy's legendary. Angeal? He's one of the next best along with Sephiroth and Genesis, they're pretty creepy guys.
Genesis spends a lot of his working day reading poetry, which is a bitch for his secretary Aerith, but when it comes to representing he knows his stuff, and being one of the best, he's not the kind of guy who loses his case. He's also the youngest looking out of the three, even though he's not, that would be Sephiroth, and he might be the youngest, but his looks and experience could sure fool anyone, it did me when I arrived, I think I actually laughed out loud, not the best idea in front of this guy.
Sephiroth is a complete workaholic -and has this crazy long silver hair, we say it's because he never leaves the building so he doesn't go to the hair dressers- and refuses to even have a secretary. I mean, even Rufus has a secretary, but Sephiroth seems to do fine on his own. We call him 'the General'. He has that sort of presence around the building, just don't get caught saluting him, or he'll fire you on the spot. I think Genesis and Angeal are the only two who don't see him as an intimidating person… Actually I don't either. Sure I look up to him as a lawyer and the way he works, but he's not a scary guy, I've seen him when he hangs out with Genesis and Angeal, he can actually crack a joke… well… he did once.
Angeal's the sane and calm one of the trio… unlucky for him that he got me as an apprentice, a hyper active prankster if there ever was one, but I don't think he could fire me, he's too soft, and I have the puppy dog eyes, gaining me my personal nickname from Angeal of 'Zack the puppy'. "Zack!" Oh shit, I zoned out.
"Yeah, I'll have the reports done." I responded and Angeal just sighed, probably as surprised as I am that I'd been listening.
"Go home Zack." he said and I nodded - more than happy to take the offer- and wave as I leave, sighing as I make my way to my car.
Ok, so here's the deal. I have a good job, making my way up the career ladder which will one day lead me to become a successful lawyer, hopefully somewhere close to Angeal. I earn good money, I have great friends, an awesome half sister and you know what?… My life… it kind of sucks. Seriously though, I'm surprisingly lonely for someone so good looking. I have a lot of love to give in this inflated ego of mine and no one to give it to. Odin knows I've tried. I dated, a lot of different people, I got so desperate to find someone that I started trying different things, it pretty much explained why I'd never found love in the direction I was going, and changed my life completely… Yeah, I turned gay basically. I found that out during a threesome with my now ex girlfriend and another guy. Figures.
But I don't do that crazy shit anymore. I was a curious and adventurous teen, but it got boring faster than you could say Ifrit. That's where my half sister entered the picture, -she's a few years younger than me since my mom and dad divorced and my mom re-married-, she gets kicks out of setting me up on blind dates. That's what I call awkward. But I guess I owe her one since that introduced me to my best friend; Vincent Valentine. Ironic name since he has the emotional capacity of a spoon. And I'm pretty sure if he ever saw Cupid, he'd shoot the kid in the face.
So here I am, making my way to my sister's bar, 'Seventh Heaven,' to drown myself in alcohol and bitch about my life… what? It's the weekend. By the way, my sister's name is Tifa Lockhart, of Tifa Heartless as I like to call her, since she goes through guys like a man would air; once they've served their purpose, they're cast aside as quickly as they were taken in, but I'm not going to judge her for it, she's still my sister after all.
"Hey Zack!" Tifa calls from behind the bar, waving and smiling as usual. Vincent's already sitting with his first beer and I join him as Tifa leans in and hugs me, revealing even more of her cleavage through her low cut top and I send death glares to the drooling customers who are getting more than they paid for, and soon a black eye to go with it.
"Hey Tifa, Vincent," he nods at me and I sit down, Tifa passing me a beer before walking down the bar "how's your day been?" I ask and he just shrugs at me, which is normal for Vincent, he's not much of a talker unless something interests him.
"Same as ever, Reno almost lost every case file the company computers have. Tseng almost had a heart attack, as well as nearly firing Reno." I laugh. Vincent's part of Shinra too, but he's in a different department, along with a few of my other friends Reno, Rude, Elena and Tseng.
"But he does that at least once every week. Tseng must really have a soft spot for such a knuckle head." I said and Vincent shrugged. This was a common event, I'd sit and occasionally spark a conversation with Vincent and glare at the drooling men sitting at the bar, tonight didn't seem like it was going to be anything special, there was a smash of a glass which was pretty normal too -we're in a bar after all- so I ignored it.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" I heard one angry customer say and sighed, looked like I might end up being the bouncer again tonight.
"S-sorry." I turned around to see the commotion, -though I wasn't entirely sure why, probably because a fight would normally ensue rather than an apology,- it sounded like some underage kid was getting hassled, and I'm not the type to just let that happen, what do you think these muscles are for anyway? -Apart from intimidating the guys perving on my sister.
What I saw though. Completely surprised me.
There was a guy, about three inches shorter than me with bright blond, gravity defying hair which almost made up the lost height, he had a thin frame, from what I could see from his sleeveless t-shirt he was toned and his pale skin clashed with his black top. His head was down as he picked up shards of glass from the table then crouched onto the floor while the customer glared down at him for spilling his beer. "Zack," I looked round at Tifa who had also been staring at the scene and she handed me a cloth, "be a darling big brother and go help him please."
I complied without a complaint, this guy looked cute, but more importantly, I didn't want to see some drunk guy try to start a fight with him, it's not like he didn't look like he could protect himself or anything! I just had an urge to protect him… or something… I'm getting cheesy aren't I? "Let me help you with that," I said as I started cleaning up the spilt beer.
"Thank," he said while he collected the glass and put it in the cloth once I was finished.
I stood up, the customer was a round man about an inch or two smaller than me and not nearly as muscular and when I glared at him he promptly turned away mumbling under his breath. I scoffed and turned back to the blond who had finally stood up and was brushing himself off. "Thanks for your help" he said but I couldn't find the words to say back. He looked straight at me with the must wonderful blue eyes I had ever seen, and I was stunned to silence, and if Reno was here, he'd probably say the world was going to implode or something… because nothing makes me silent for more than about a second.
"No problem." I rushed out, sounding like an utter idiot and I mentally kicked myself, I mean I'm Zack Fair! I'm pretty much known for being a smooth talker and this guy totally threw me off balance.
"Excuse me." he mumbled and dropped his head as he walked away, bringing me back to earth. I tried to reply but couldn't get the words out of my mouth quick enough before he was gone. So I sighed and walked back over to the bar where Tifa had a full blown smirk on her face.
"Cat got your tongue?" She said as I sat down and handed her the cloth and I pulled a face as she giggled.
"New in town?" I asked. Tifa knew everything about most of the people around here, the bar was a great source of information for her.
"Yeah, he moved here last week." Tifa giggled again and smiled brightly. She always knew I was interested in someone when I started asking questions about them, then she'd usually set me up on another date, I wouldn't be surprised if she tried it again.
I looked over at the guy as he stood and spoke to Yuffie, one of the servers at the bar and a thought hit me that he probably wasn't gay. I always hear the saying 'the cute ones are always taken or gay' well, it's often the other way around for us.. The gay part anyway.
I grimaced and turned back to stare at the bottles behind the bar, glancing at Tifa as she flirted with another customer and rolled my eyes -saying anything to her now was pretty pointless. I found myself taking another glance at the blond, who was standing with his back against the wall to the right, facing the bar, and my heart shot to my throat as I caught those gorgeous blue eyes look my way before quickly looking away and a pink blush appear on a perfectly pale face, and I smirked happily, looking back at the bar as I finished off the beer I'd had since I sat down before saying good night to Vincent and Tifa and leaving Seventh Heaven.
Don't worry, I'm not encouraging drink driving or anything, I actually live literally around the corner, and I keep my car parked outside the bar instead of driving it there, I'm not that lazy. I walked into my apartment and took off my shoes, promptly falling on the couch and stretching out, my legs hanging lazily over the end as I flicked the T.V on. It didn't take long for my phone to ring. I took it out of my pocket and looked at the message from Tifa:
IZack, could you help me clean up tonight please? Be here in about an hour. Love you./I
I sighed and flicked my phone back down. Having Tifa ask me to help out was a common occurrence for me on a weekend, and she's my sister so obviously I'd help out. Besides, if I'm helping it means Vincent had successfully escaped when he was asked.
I walked back into the bar when I was told and looked over at Tifa who was standing with the other server Yuffie since they were all made to clean up once the bar was shut. "Thanks Zack I really appreciate it." Tifa smiled at me and I waved it off carelessly. "Where's Cloud?" she wondered out loud as she scanned the room.
"He spilled beer down his shirt so he went to change," Yuffie answered and Tifa rolled her eyes as the staff door opened and the blond from earlier appeared in the room. "All set Cloud?" Tifa asked.
"Yeah," the blond answered. So he was Cloud huh? Well at least I have a name to go with that pretty face, and he works here. Guess I'll be seeing a lot more of him. He looked over at me and blushed again, probably remembering what had happened when I caught him last time and I couldn't help my grin.
"Zack, can you clean the tables and stack the chairs for me?" Tifa asked me and I saluted her lazily.
"You got it sis," I said, and grabbed a cloth from behind the bar before walking over to the nearest table.
"Cloud, grab the mop and clean the floors please." I heard Cloud shuffle over to the storage room and the door closed behind him. "Yuffie, can you clean the bar and refill the fridges, I'll get Zack to change the kegs with Cloud later." Usually I'd complain about the command, but if it got Cloud talking, then it wasn't such a bad thing.
Everything went pretty smoothly, Tifa was standing at the now clean bar counting her profits from the night and everyone else had finished their work, I was just waiting for the last command. "Zack, there's two kegs that need changed downstairs, can you take Cloud down and show him what to do please?" Tifa asked, not looking up from the paper in front of her.
"Sure thing sis," I said and the blond followed me through the staffroom to another door leading down to the basement. "So," I said as we removed the first empty keg, this things were heavy, but nothing I wasn't already used to, I'd been changing these things for about four years. "You're the new server, is this your first day?" I asked, even though I knew that it was since I was here almost every night, but I was hoping for a conversation, I had no idea what this guy was like, if he was the silent type or not, and if so then I had a challenge on my hands.
"Yeah," he answered, and I waited for a more detailed explanation as we put the new keg in it's place and moved onto the next one. "Tifa was kind enough to give me a job. Though it doesn't look like I'm any good at it."
"Don't worry about it," I said, smiling as we walked back towards the stairs once the last keg was attached and the old barrels placed out of the way, "everyone has a bad first day, you probably did better than a lot of the last servers, Yuffie's the only one who's survived yet for a while," I laughed and my heart fluttered as a tiny smile graced his features, it was extremely cute. "I hope you stay kid," I said, clapping him on the shoulder, because honestly, he looked no older than nineteen, making me hope I was severely mistaken, and by his scowl, I'm guessing I was.
"Not a kid," he said and I grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry, you don't look older than about nineteen, guess I shouldn't have presumed." He seemed to forgive me which was a relief.
He sighed, "I'm twenty-three, and I get that crap all the time." Wow. I was going for twenty-one, but hell, I'll take it.
"Must make you popular with the young ladies," I said with a laugh and he rolled his eyes but gave a small amused smile anyway.
"Unfortunately yes, unlucky for them that I'm not interested." That could mean three things; one, he's gay, two, he goes for older women -or men if I'm lucky- or three, he was already taken. Three sounded the most probable.
"Oh really? Who's the lucky girl?" I asked, and if I was right in my suspicion I'd give up on trying to win him over and just settle for flirting, because even though I would never try to steal someone away from another person, I don't think I could leave this guy alone.
"Cloud, come over here for a sec would you?" Tifa said as we both emerged back in the bar again and Cloud gave me one last glance before walking over to stand with Tifa. "You did well for your first day, a few spills here and there but you got through it, and I'm happy to officially welcome you to the team," Yuffie whooped as Tifa handed Cloud the 'initiation badge' as we like the call it. It's basically a badge to clip onto the uniform shirt with the bar's logo on it, something Tifa had forced onto every server since she opened the bar.
"Congratulations," I said with a grin and he gave another small smile. After that Tifa told us all to go home, and though I'd usually stay back I was beat and desperately needed some sleep, so I said my good nights before walking away. I took a deep breath when I walked out onto the street, if there was one thing I liked about leaving that bar so late at night was the cold air in my lungs after the smell of so much alcohol, I turned towards my apartment, a pair of car headlights immediately catching my attention and I watched curiously as Cloud climbed into the rather expensive Mercedes.
Now there's a question, why was someone who was obviously somewhat well off -by the looks of that car anyway- working in a little bar like Tifa's? I guess I could ask the next time I see him, whenever that was, I didn't even know his shifts. I sighed, making my way back home and collapsing once again in front of the T.V, and again my phone started ringing.
"Hello?" I said, rubbing my eyes and looking up at the clock on the wall, it was almost 11:30 already.
"So what do you think?" Of course it was Tifa, she's the only person who would call at this time of night, -except that idiot Reno of course- and since I didn't hang around I should have known she'd call.
"Looks like a fighter, he might actually survive," I said, relaxing back into the comfort of my sofa.
"You know what I mean Zack I saw you checking him out, and no one's ever managed to shut you up like that before," Tifa giggled, knowing full well that she was right and there was no way I could deny it since she had all the evidence and witnesses.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, "Is there something wrong with me finding the guy attractive?" I'd ask this every time, because if there was Tifa knew that I'd give up on them, she always seemed to know when I was going for the wrong guys, and she was also always right about them.
"No, from what I've heard about him he checks out fine though no one seems to know much about him yet, but this one's for you to chase I'm not setting you up this time." That kind of surprised me, Tifa would always demand to set me up if the guy 'checked out' ok. "I'm not even sure if he's gay, so good luck," she laughed again.
"Thanks Tifa," I said sarcastically but grinned.
"Good night Zack, and could you be a dear and go shopping for me tomorrow? I could really use the help since it's Saturday and I'm busy all day."
"Sure Tifa, just write me the list and I'll be there in the morning, good night," I said and flipped my phone down when she hung up. Tomorrow would be another long day, and shopping was always a drag, not that I'd say no to going though.
"Cloud huh?" I leaned back to stare up at the ceiling as his face invaded my mind, those eyes were still so shockingly clear, and I smiled before finally getting up and heading for bed, at least I'd get a chance to see him tomorrow if he was working. "Lucky for me he picked Tifa's bar," I laughed, changing and finally dropping myself onto my bed, curling up for a well deserved nights sleep.
VII Cloud P.o.V VII
"You're home, brother will be pleased." This is where my nightmare begins again, and I don't think anyone can get me out of this. For once I could be myself and it was over so fast.
"He wants to see you."
I want to be myself again.
A/N: This little bit here ^ is a little intro/taster into chapter 2 I'll be doing that in every chapter in this story.
So I hope you liked the chapter, I like 1st person PoVs lol.
Anyway I really appreciate any reviews they help me with my writing drive, anyone who reviews will be written in a list at the end of the last chapter because you're all so awesome.
So again ENJOY AND REVIEW!
Thanks. Kit~