Disclaimer: I own a copy of FFVII, but not the characters or rights. Tear.
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It was Friday night.
"An iced frappe," A kid demanded, leaning on the counter. "A pumpkin one, with coconut." He pointed at the menu as if to further elaborate. Cloud didn't need elaboration. It was his freaking job to make coffee for punk ass college kids. He had the menu down pat.
'A pumpkin one with coconut,' Cloud thought dully, pouring milk into a machine. "Right. Coconut." He mumbled, ducking under the counter to fish for the bag of shredded coconut.
"And pumpkin." The kid reminded annoyingly, tapping his fingernails on the counter and watching Cloud closely. Like he was going to slip something into his coffee. It was tempting.
Cloud's stared mindlessly at the clock as the milk frothed noisily, steaming. Nine fifty. Ten more minutes and he was free. He just hoped some bastard didn't come in at nine fifty nine to order ten cups of something complicated.
The frothing machine made a loud, clunking noise, indicating it was done. Cloud stared at it for a moment.
"Are you gonna make my coffee or are you gonna stare at it all day?" The kid behind the counter taunted, making Cloud want to shove his face into the blender and press 'smoothie'.
"Here's your coffee." Cloud mumbled, pressing the cup across the counter.
The guy stared at his coffee, nonplussed. "Uh, dude. Are you retarded?"
"Excuse me?" Cloud wasn't retarded, just preoccupied.
The guy frowned. "I ordered an iced frappe. This shit is steaming, man."
Cloud looked. Hey, it was. Oops. "Sorry about that."
"Whatever. I won't be coming back here." The guy said snarkishly, grabbing his unsatisfactory coffee. He shot Cloud a dirty look. Cloud gave him a blank stare, blond hair falling in front of his face.
Cloud watched as the kid stormed from the coffee shop, coffee in hand as he made sure to slam the door. He checked the clock.
Nine fifty nine. One more minute.
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It was Friday night one of his all time favorite parts of the week. People going to parties, or taking walks with their significant other. Aw, how sweet.
"This is nice, almost like we're married or something." Of course, no night could be perfect.
"Zak, shut up." The taller man rubbed his temples and wondered if it were possible for him to get headaches.
"What? I was just saying. I mean, what do you think we look like? Two guys, walking together, taking a little moonlit stroll," the spiky-haired brunette made little movements with his hand that the other could only assume meant strolling even though it looked like he has a twitching disorder.
"We are not 'strolling'. We are . . . 'scouting'," he corrected his companion.
"We are? But Seph, I thought you were taking me out to dinner!"
If there had been a convenient brick wall around Sephiroth would have been torn between smashing his own head or Zak's into it. Too bad it wouldn't kill him.
"We are 'scouting' for dinner," he growled between clenched teeth, "Remember?"
"Nope!"
Oh what he wouldn't give for a stake through the heart about now. Whose heart remained a question.
"Zak, please shut up. We are not going to find anyone if you keep making a ruckus."
"You're too uptight, Seph! Look! There's someone now! Dude, look at that butt! Did I ever mention how nice the invention of jeans was?"
"Quite a lot, actually," the other grumbled, but he couldn't really complain since Zak did find dinner.
"Mm hmm," Zak nodded absently, eyes fixed on their prey. Or more accurately, their prey's butt. "I'm telling you, that is a nice a-"
"Zak. Do try to focus," he sent an emerald glare at him before starting toward the person in front of them.
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Great. Not only did he forget the key to the coffee shop at his apartment but it was also his night to close, which meant Cloud had to walk four blocks to his apartment and four blocks back. Luckily no one really came to the shop after nine, with a few exceptions, like the iced-frappe jerk.
Cloud quickened his pace, digging his cold hands into the pocket of his tight-fitting hooded sweatshirt. Never again would he buy tight clothes in the name of fashion. Not that he was fashionable, of course, but the salesgirl had been very persuasive, meaning she had slammed Cloud with doses of cheer and happiness until he bought something just to get away from her.
...man, how much homework did he have? Didn't he have an essay? Crap. Now he would have even less time to do it. What a crappy day.
Cloud paused in his self-pity, have a sudden feeling of... oddness. That was the only word. Like... like someone was watching him. Odd. But it was, after all, a busy neighborhood... Yeah. No biggie.
He continued walking, nervous.
No big deal.
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Zak hummed happily as he slid through the shadows behind their prey, ignoring Sephiroth's glare that clearly meant 'shut up'; he, for one, was enjoying the view.
"You do know it's a guy?" Seph said acidly, obviously trying to spoil his mood.
"A guy with a nice backside," Zak smiled back.
"Will you quite talking about his posterior? Every five seconds it's some random comment. We're after his blood not his butt."
"Doesn't mean I can't enjoy the view while we follow him," Zak shrugged.
"Didn't the obvious idiot who turned you tell you vampires are supposed to be asexual?"
"I am a-very-sexual vampire thank you very much," he poked his head out from behind the dumpster they were hiding behind; "I think he's heading for that apartment."
Sephiroth peered around him, "Very nice. Horrible lighting, bad condition. People are just asking to disappear."
"Hey, Seph," the only response he got was the slight shift of Sephiroth's attention toward him, "It's Friday night right?" A nod "Why do you think he's not at one of the fifty bajillion parties we saw on the way here?"
"Maybe he wasn't invited, I honestly don't care," Sephiroth said simply.
"With a-" he was cut off by Seph's quick "No more butt comments."
"I mean, he's cute enough, he should be invited to everything!"
"Not everyone is a raging homosexual like you," Sephiroth commented dryly.
"I take one look and I'm automatically gay? Can't I LOOK?"
"Not at another guy's rear-end for that long and with those comments. Nice try though, homo."
"I do believe you just made a joke!" Zak grabbed the taller man around the shoulders because he couldn't reach high enough for a proper headlock.
"You must be mistaken, now come along before we lose him," the silver-haired man stepped quickly from the shadows, leaving Zak to follow in his wake.
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Clothes. Bed sheets. Counter. Where the hell was that key? Cloud sighed loudly, throwing a pair of underwear over his shoulder, picking up a pair of jeans to search through a pocket, futile. Okay. Okay. Calm down.
Cloud sat on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands, fingers smoothing over his cheeks. Okay. If I was a key, where would I be?
Fuck. He wasn't a key. He was Cloud. He was Cloud and he was going to get fired if he didn't find that key. He cast a despairing glance at his backpack, hoping that he really didn't have that much homework. He probably did. He had no luck.
"Okay. Key." He said softly, standing to walk from his bedroom. "I...came home this morning from school. I walked to the counter." He walked to the counter. An ant scurried across its surface. He frowned at it.
"I... I got out the toaster." He opened the cabinet, ducking as some dust flew from it. There was no key. His eyebrows creased. "Ah."
A few moments passes silently, Cloud leaning against the counter unhappily. Man, was it cold in here or was it just him? His scrubbed at the back of his neck with his hand, chewing his lip. Not like his heater worked or anything.
...Or... maybe it was because his window was open. He stared at it, suddenly aware of its presence. That was pretty weird, considering that the window was pretty impossible to open. Or maybe... maybe he sleep-walked. Yeah.
With a frown, he walked to his window and slammed it shut. Yeah. Weird.
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"Has he ever cleaned this place?" Sephiroth frowned down at the floor as he snuck through the window while their prey was occupied frowning at something on the counter. Maybe he was crazy.
"He's a college student, cleaning is like . . . doing homework." Zak responded as he slid through the window behind him. Luckily they were talking too low for human hearing or else they would have been caught exceptionally easily.
"So, can we eat now or are you gonna stare at him more?"
"I wanna see his eyes first, with a- I mean, they should be hot. Quick, get naked and lay on his bed."
". . . what." It wasn't a question, more like a statement of I-obviously-imagined-that-because-I-didn't-think-you-had-a-death-wish.
"Er, I'll get naked and lie on the bed?"
"No one is getting naked. I'm hungry."
"Fiine."
By this time he had finished in the kitchen and was walking over to shut the window. Zak smirked and waited until he heard the low thud before grabbing the blonde by the shoulder. (Seph should be very proud of him, he had almost just walked up and grabbed his butt . . . well after considering reaching around and-)
The kid squawked.
It wasn't a scream. More like a scream's illegitimate child with a chicken and the sound cats make when they cough up hairballs.
"Hey, hot stuff," Zak whispered in his ear.
Sephiroth met the metaphysical wall that Cloud was so fond of. The boy was supposed to be scared for his life not his virginity!
"You finish up, I'm going to go find a quiet place with a nice view to quietly commit suicide," he murmured through the headache he just knew was developing.
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A/N: I hope you liked it, I'm new to this whole RP thing so I'm relying on Voodoodoll's guidance. Sorry if anything seems too OOC . . . I thought they were ok but then again I'm biased. Tell us what you think!