This was a request for The Stained Narrator, who needs to write more amazing smutty fanfiction for the good of the internet. Everyone get on his case and in his face!
Now, the two prompts I got for this fic were "Cid x Zack x some kind of fruit" (The Stained Narrator) and "zack gives cid an apple and cids all :-O:D and then theyre like no he doesnt like me! and then erm aeris is like go for it, i know he likes you to them and theyre like OMG i love you to each other" (xSTARTxSOMETHINGx, who knows nothing about FFVII but plenty about chick flicks, ha ha.)
I would also like to add that in order to write this fic I had to mess up canon all over the place, so please don't pull me up for it D: The biggest changes I've made are that the whole Nibelheim incident hasn't happened and in the extra year between then and now, Cloud was able to join SOLDIER. That and a few minor tweaks to better fit the story...
So, FINALLY, without further ado, I present...
"Apples"
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Chapter One
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Cid stretched, feeling his spine creak and his shoulders protest. "M'too young for this shit..." he muttered, shuffling the last of his paperwork into a relatively clean corner of his desk before standing, kicking the cheap computer chair behind him, and leaving the office with a slam of the door.
It may have only been his first day, but he was worrying. ShinRa headquarters confused the hell out of him, with its sixty-something floors and countless rooms on each floor and departments and fields, et cetera et cetera. Cid only just knew his way from the entrance to his office, to the staff cafeteria and then back out.
He stopped as he realised he'd taken a wrong turn somewhere on the third floor and found himself at a window that looked out onto the training fields. He took a glance outside and almost stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the SOLDIERS doing their morning practices.
They were practising with swords, rifles, hand-to-hand combat, magic, ridiculously complex moves that Cid hadn't even known were possible, with plumes of fire blossoming randomly over the field. He saw the great General Sephiroth- the Wutai war hero- marching up and down, black leather coat and silver hair billowing behind him as he bellowed instructions that even Cid could hear the tail end of.
As Cid squinted, he could see the same terrified, awestruck and desperately excited expression on every young Mako-lit face, every young cadet clutching their unwieldy swords, desperate to impress.
It was just as Cid turned to leave with a wondering smile on his face that he caught sight of a flash of black and purple tearing up the fields. Cid had turned back and gaped as this newcomer had leapt and thrown himself around the General's shoulders, and wasn't even pushed off.
Cid found himself grinning at the SOLDIER's courage, and seeing him ushered into line, continued on his way. Maybe he could make it down to the field during his break.
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Zack stretched, rolling his neck and shoulders, swinging his arms back and forth. Sephiroth hadn't been thrilled with his late appearance and somewhat unorthodox entrance, and had given him nothing but the most tedious and tiring drills to run with the new SOLDIERS.
Luckily, Zack's favourite- and the newest addition to SOLDIER's ranks from ShinRa's guards- had been among the group, and so Zack had amused himself by sticking blatant innuendo into every aspect of their sword training. Zack still smiled at the memory of Cloud's face, glowing bright red under all that blonde fluff finally freed from the helmet of the ShinRa guards.
Another thing had come to his attention- he'd apparently had an admirer. As he stood in line for registration, he'd seen another blond- older than Spike, and with a pair of goggles and a flight jacket identifying him as someone from the new space program- standing on the other side of the chain link fence and watching him.
He was watching nobody else, not even the active groups who were off blowing each other up with the Fire2s that had come in yesterday. Just Zack, as he stood doing nothing. Zack had given him a wink and a grin before beginning his laps around the pitch.
Zack stretched once more before tugging his training vest off and slinging it in his vacant locker, pulling on a fresh shirt and leaving the locker room for lunch.
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Cid stared blankly at his lunch tray. This had to be a joke. No, seriously. It had to be. There was no way this was actually food. He'd heard that the ShinRa cafeteria wasn't up to much, but this...
In front of him sat an old, tattered, muddy boot.
He could barely believe it.
"Now just what the SHIT is this supposed to be?" he demanded, slamming his tray back down before the lunch hall worker. "Seriously! It's a fucking BOOT! I don't eat FOOTWEAR!"
Getting no response, he gritted his teeth, stemming the steady flow of abuse that threatened to lose him his job, and stomped out of the cafeteria with his tray in hand.
He roamed the grounds, searching for some deserted place to vent some anger. There was no such place. Not even a decent cafe nearby to get a cup of tea. And Shera was away skipping lunch to work agonisingly slow on some other piece of machinery, so he couldn't get her to use the kettle she kept in her office.
Oh how he longed for tea. Just one cup of tea. Since arriving at ShinRa that morning, all he'd found was that repulsive, cheap and nasty coffee. He picked the boot up by the laces between finger and thumb, and slowly turned it over to inspect the sole. Chewing gum.
That was it. He marched back into the entrance hall. If he couldn't have a decent lunch, he'd go back to work and finish earlier so he could go home and get some tea. He shoved wide-eyed staff out of his way as he stormed up the stairs, bystanders ogling the semi-fried boot that dangled from his fist.
"What'cha got thar?" piped up a young brunette with a bouncy ponytail. Cid glared, before hurling the boot and nailing her squarely on the head.
...He felt somewhat calmed afterwards.
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Zack milled around the cafeteria aimlessly, having gorged himself on his own large SOLDIER-sized lunch and half of Cloud's. The blonde had then had to run off to tend to some other boring thing that didn't concern Zack and so had been tuned out. Sephiroth was eating in his own room as usual, and was refusing to open the door.
And of course most of the other second-class SOLDIERS were surrounded by little newbies, which meant Zack couldn't get close without getting a face full of teenaged boy affection.
Lunchtime was indeed a sad affair.
Zack decided he was still hungry.
He poked around in some of the baskets that lined the tables on either side of the large hall, finding a single, pretty apple. He grinned, polishing it on his shirt. He hadn't seen an apple quite this nice in ages. They normally came in bruised, half-rotten, sour or with bites already taken out of them. He'd have to savour this one.
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Fifteen minutes later Cid's stomach got the better of him and he slowly crawled his way back down to the cafeteria, passing the very brunette he had hit as she threw the same boot against the wall before her over and over.
The cafeteria was now full of people and empty trays, and unfortunately completely devoid of anything edible. Cid could feel his stomach gnawing on itself. He resigned himself miserably to an orange plastic chair and slumped onto the sticky table before him.
What a stupid way to start his new career. With a boot for lunch. Which he didn't even eat. He was so hungry now he was sure his stomach had somehow collapsed in on itself. He wouldn't be able to go back to work like this.
"Hey!"
Cid looked up blearily, head snapping up as he realised who was calling him. It was none other than the SOLDIER that had tackle-hugged General Sephiroth, grinning widely and dressed casually.
"Uh. Hello," Cid replied uneasily. Had he seen him staring earlier?
"Noticed you were lookin' kinda down..." Almost reluctantly, he produced an apple from his shirt pocket.
"Here." He held it out, looking questioningly at Cid as if daring him to take it. Cid hesitated, wondering if there was some kind of unspoken rule not to take food from SOLDIERs. He ignored the thought, deciding that he either got food or got a sword to the face, and either way he wouldn't be starving any more.
He took the apple with a grateful smile. "Thanks. Y'have no fuckin' idea how much I could do with this," he grinned. The SOLDIER beamed back.
"I saw you at practice. You new to SOLDIER?" Cid snorted.
"Not quite." He laughed and held out his free hand. "Cid Highwind. I'm workin' on the space project."
"Oh!" The SOLDIER's eyes lit up. "ShinRa Number Twenty-Six, right? And don't tell me, you're the same guy behind the Highwind?"
"Sure am. That baby's my masterpiece."
"Wow! I've actually been shipped in the Highwind before, it's really, really cool!"
Cid's grin widened. "Ain't she just? But, anyway, what's your name?"
The SOLDIER looked at him blankly, as if forgetting who he was talking to. "Aw, yeah! Zack Fair, SOLDIER, First Class. Nice to meet you!"
"Nice t' meet ya too, Zack."
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What will happen next?! Will Cid join the football team?! Will Zack ask him to the prom?! Will Sephiroth take up gardening?! OH THE SUSPENSE!
Please read and review! 3 The next chapter will be up soon.
Spaerle