Watching Cloud dance was an exercise in futility, because Cloud's take on dancing was folding his arms and staring at Zack until the older teenager gave up the foolish notion.
"You just hate all good music," Zack groused as he paused in his own footwork to hit 'eject' on the stereo.
"I'm not a dancer," Cloud answered.
"Everyone's a dancer. You're a stubborn one."
The blond huffed slightly, turning his head to the side. Zack's response was to chuck the binder of CDs his way, making the boy snap to attention and catch it.
"Good reflexes," Zack teased. "I'm gonna get us some sodas. Find something you like in there."
He didn't bother asking Cloud what he wanted, because the response was invariably the same: "whatever you want's fine." He was like that a lot, always going along with Zack: you know the city better than I do, you can pick where we go; you've been here before, tell me what's good; I don't listen to music that much, you decide. Made him easy to get along with, sure, but also made Zack curious as to what the hell Cloud actually liked.
Well, he knew one thing for sure: Cloud didn't like dancing. Which was a shame, since Zack had been hoping to get him to loosen up a little. Although, maybe...Zack paused, considering a small experiment.
(The fact that his plan qualified as an 'experiment' in his mind was exactly why Hojo sniped about his lack of scientific knowledge.)
Back in Zack's dorm, Cloud felt his company phone (a very basic model, the fancy stuff saved for SOLDIERs and executives) vibrate in his pocket, and he opened it to see: "S-man wants a doc dropped off. Might take 40 ms, wait for me."
Cloud couldn't understand how Zack could refer to Sephiroth as "the S-man", even if it was only in private conversations and texts. He flipped the phone closed, opened up the binder and took a survey of the eclectic collection; with forty minutes of free time ahead, he knew Zack would be disappointed if he came back to find that no music had been picked out.
...He had no idea who any of these bands were. Sure, Zack poked plenty of fun at himself for being a country boy, but he'd been in Midgar longer than Cloud and seemed infinitely more worldly and knowledgeable to the younger teenager. Cloud idly leafed through plastic pages covering CDs, waiting for one to leap out at him. They, of course, just lay there, and after going through the whole thing once he decided to open to a random page. (It proved something about their budding friendship that Cloud never even thought of leaving, comfortable with being in Zack's room alone.) A mixed CD caught his eye. The sounds of techno made him frown, but he decided to try at least the first song. By the time the second started, he'd gotten more used to the strange music and shut his eyes while lying back on Zack's bed. Towards the end, he was even bobbing his head to the beat a little.
Twenty-five minutes later and ten earlier than he'd been expected back, Zack crept towards his dorm, two cherry-flavored sodas in hand (the errand, of course, had been a total fib) and budged the door ajar as stealthily as he could, to find--
Cloud was a liar, because he was most certainly dancing.
He was dancing on top of his bed.
Cloud was dancing on top of his bed to a fast-paced song with enthusiasm. And his eyes closed.
Zack bit back a laugh, dying to get the video phone out. He didn't, knowing Cloud got embarrassed easily and doing that would probably set their friendship back from Midgar to Wutai. But God, this was golden.
Cloud might have lied about not being a dancer, but there was truth to the fact that he didn't do it often. He was copying some of the dance moves he'd seen Zack use and his movements were awkward, like he was self-conscious even in supposed privacy. Still, there was a certain eagerness and passion in how he moved that was--well, cute.
The refrain returned as the song wound down, and Zack was rewarded for his silence when Cloud's body slowed with the song and he sang, quietly but earnestly: "So hold on, so hold on, so hold on, so hold on, so hold--huh?"
This being the very first time he'd listened to the CD, he'd expected one more repeat than was actually in the song. He opened his eyes to look at the stereo, noticed Zack first, and froze.
Zack could not even think to conceal his grin and quickly found himself having to dodge his own pillows. "And you said you couldn't dance!" he laughed.
Author's Note: Written for a friend, who suggested the song "Dance Like No One's Watching" by Drive-By Argument as the prompt. This is the song Cloud is dancing and singing to, yep. Obviously, I don't own either the song or Final Fantasy VII.