Vacancy

Disclaimer: Nothing but the idea is mine. I think.

A/N: Wait! This is not fluff, this is not humor, and above all it is NOT angst. Takes deep breath I missed writing in this style, just feels more like home...Shocked was trying to eat me. Hope I haven't lost my touch!

It's the glowing sign outside a hotel letting a traveler know there's space for rent. Vacancy. Unused space.

It seldom stays that way.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Plants will grow in an empty field, animals will move into an abandoned building. A prolonged vacancy implies the space is unlivable.

Emptiness in a livable place is unnatural and unheard of.

Even to humans.

Zack'd never really thought of it that way. Nothing he owned had ever been left vacant. In his mind if you weren't going to use it, why not make it available to others?

Let's not be selfish, right?

Or perhaps it was a sign of the ultimate selfishness. He'd never really thought of it that way until he was dying.

And there was a vacancy sign written in his companions eyes. Or so he'd thought.

But the boy was still in there, but he wasn't hanging on tightly. At least, until Zack tried to force him out.

No one back at home would've thought him to be the one doing it. Zack Fair'd always been a good boy, a hero. SOLDIER First Class.

But he was the same kid who could completely ignore his parent for years, had fought ruthlessly enough in the Wutai war to be promoted so quickly. The same kid who was just fine with ShinRa and it's policies.

ShinRa demanded her soldiers be hard. Zack was no exception. He'd seen all of the misery of the slums, the underhanded things ShinRa had done. Knew about the infighting and the greed of the higher ups.

And did nothing. Because he couldn't care less.

But he did like to sugar coat it. Zack had a price. He was perfectly willing to take a slum girl to be his girlfriend, but he was also willing to ignore the others. Ignore the unnecessary squalor.

Because ShinRa'd given him the laurels of a hero. First Class had its benefits, its luxuries. He wasn't ready to give that up, no matter how underhanded the company. As long as it wasn't directed at him, he couldn't care less.

When it had, it'd been too late. For those who might've spoken for him were already gone ahead of him.

And as he was dying, Zack knew he didn't want to. Heroes didn't die. He had a girl to get back to, a life to live.

Cloud wasn't using his body, surely he wouldn't mind?

Let's not be selfish.

Even if he'd had to force parts of the boy out, and absorb others.

In the end, Zack was ShinRa. They only said "You're not gonna use it."

But he hadn't managed to force the boy out completely. Only enough so he could become a part of whoever Cloud was now. Kid was stronger than he'd thought.

Zack would watch that strength later. See how a soul with one foot in the grave could drag its broken bleeding self against Sephiroth the Great and win.

Zack would bitterly lament how that soul hadn't been his.

Some 'hero' he'd been.

Review. Now. Go. Shoo.