Zack could never find the right word for the color of Cloud's eyes. He could mull about it all he wished, but that the shade escaped him every time. Even after asking Cloud, he wasn't safistfied with the confused response of; "Huh? Well, they're blue..."

Blue wasn't good enough. Zack could stare into the blonde's eyes for hours, days, monthes (though not when he was looking, of course, because that would be creepy, and Zack totally wasn't a creeper, man), and he could still never seem to find the right color to name it.

It wasn't just 'blue'. It was blue with flecks of lighter and dark colors, if he paid close attention, a dark or light fleck of some other shade could be seen, but nothing that made it a 'not blue' color. It wasn't cerulean, it wasn't topaz...Definately not just azure...

Slowly, he had begun to get more closer to the young cadet who he considered strictly a coworker- hell, an officer several ranks below him by then. He began to pick up on his mannerisms: he would blush if under too much attention, he had a tendency to hide behind the green scarf he wore with his uniform. Earrings were allowed in most styles throughout the corps, but he usually seemed to wear just a small silver stud.

He wondered if the other couldn't afford anymore. Cadet's pay...he remembered it, and it wasn't exactly at a level to afford much more than food.

Zack found himself offering to take the other out to lunch more and more- if just to give himself much more time to stare at the other's eyes, trying to work it out. Zack realized he was becoming obsessed, but even still...he enjoyed the cadet's company, he enjoyed teasing him and making friends with him.

Monthes passed, and he found himself even neglecting work, just a bit, to spend time with the blonde. Eventually, he found himself closing in on the truth.

One night, passing by a closed jewelry store, he finally realized the color of the young cadet's eyes. The next morning, he passed by the store again, before heading out on a mission with Sephiroth and Cloud to Nibelheim. Finally he found time to give it to Cloud during one of the many nights while Sephiroth was shut up in the ShinRa Mansion at the top of the hill.

It was on the water tower, where Cloud sat and joked with the male over how he'd always sat under the stars as a child and weaved his dreams about being a 1st Class, just like Zack was.

As he slid the box out of his pocket, Cloud turned to him, his cheeks a dark red, and the blonde gave a quiet murmur of; "I really like you, you know."

Zack was taken aback for a moment, though common sense finally snapped into him, and he merely offered a grin, extending the box to the younger male, who blinked in alarm, and opened it- to find a small pair of jeweled, stud earrings.

"They're lapis lazuli. They match your eyes."

They shared the night dozing under the stars before they returned to their beds. The next day, Nibelheim was destroyed, and Zack would never see those lapis lazuli eyes with the same spark of love in them that he'd seen that night again.