A/N: AU. Shameless Valentine's day fluff. This might be the cutest thing I've ever written.
Cloud just wanted to sleep. Zack couldn't allow that.
"Zack… it's four in the morning…" Zack grinned and nodded.
"Yep! Might as well get an early start, eh? So let's go get some coffees and start shopping for Valentine's Day! Chocolate goes on sale this close to Valentine's. Plus, I wanna get something for that Vincent guy who lives next door to the post office." Zack snickered, obviously referencing to "that Vincent guy's" last name, which was Valentine.
"…at four in the morning?"
"Why not?"
Cloud just groaned and flopped back down on his bed, letting Zack drag him out of his bed and across his room to his dresser.
Zack stood there in triumph for a moment before prodding Cloud with his foot.
"Come'on Cloud! I wanna goooo~" Cloud groaned again, burying his face into the carpet. Zack prodded. Cloud groaned. Zack prodded. Cloud ignored him. Zack picked him up by his arm.
"Ow ow ow ow ow okay okay! I'll get up!" Cloud yelped, standing up irritably and fishing through his dresser for something to wear. Zack grinned sheepishly.
"Great! Now that you're up, I'll go get the car started!"
Cloud sighed, finally deciding on a brown turtleneck and a pair of old white jeans, and dragging himself into the bathroom tiredly. He quietly cursed Zack's everlasting energy and his annoying habit of waking up at insane hours of the morning. Zack rose with the sun, and of course, when Zack was up, the whole house was up with him.
After slipping out of his pajamas and into his clothes, Cloud managed to brush his teeth sloppily and spritz some of Zack's cologne on to make it seem like he'd actually put effort into getting ready.
Cloud exited the room only to find the rest of the house deserted.
That's weird… where's Zack?
He heard a rumbling outside.
"Oh heck no. He wasn't kidding when he said he'd go start the car!"
After grabbing a bagel from the counter, Cloud swore angrily, stomping outside towards the car. It was on alright, and Zack was lounging comfortably in the passenger's seat (he wasn't allowed to drive Cloud's car after the accident that he had involving his own vehicle).
Cloud attempted to open the door, only find it locked, so he knocked on the glass with an I-want-to-murder-something expression on his face.
Zack rolled down the window, and blinked at Cloud curiously. He really was clueless.
"Why are the doors locked?" Cloud asked calmly, crossing his arms.
"'Cus I was afraid someone would come in and try to, like, steal the car or something…" Zack blinked again, still looking completely innocent.
Cloud took a deep breath.
"And why is the car on?"
"So it would be warm when you came out!"
"GAS ISN'T CHEAP ZACK!"
"Well how was I supposed to know you'd take half an hour to get out here?"
The clicking noise that meant the doors had just been unlocked broke the awkward silence. Zack grinned stupidly.
Cloud took a bite of his bagel, staring evenly at Zack. Silently, he went around to the driver's seat and got into the car.
"I hate you."
"I love you too!"
"What do you want to drink Cloudy?"
"Don't call me that."
Starbucks was packed with people bustling around trying to get their drinks and get out.
"I don't care. Something strong." Cloud was still ornery. Zack pouted.
"Okay Mr. Grumpy Face. Geez, it's not like I'm trying to kill you, a guy needs his coffee in the morning!" Cloud didn't respond.
"I want a white chocolate mocha, and he'll take an iced Americano. Please and thank you." The cashier swiped his card without a word. Cloud wondered how Zack could still look so giddy even when they get coffee around three times a week.
After around six and a half minutes (yes, Cloud timed them, it wasn't like he had anything better to do), their coffee arrived and Zack sighed happily as he gulped the first few drinks down.
"Ahhh… nothing better than white chocolate in the morning…"
"How about sleep?" Cloud murmured, sipping his own coffee.
"How about Valentine's day shopping?" Zack joked. Cloud was not amused.
After finishing their coffee, Zack followed through with his plans for Valentine's day shopping.
"Alrighty! So… let's go somewhere cheapish because I'm next to broke." Zack grinned happily.
Cloud grunted his approval.
"Oh come on are you still angry?" Zack puffed out his cheeks like a chipmunk. "You can't stay angry at me forever! I'm adorable!" Zack put on his puppy dog eyes, and if you knew anything about Zack Fair, it was that once he whipped out the puppy dog eyes, the battle was lost. He'd have you at his mercy in seconds.
Cloud sighed in defeat after withstanding the adorableness for a whopping nineteen seconds.
"Whatever… Let's just go to the dollar store and get this over with." Zack cheered and slung an arm around Cloud's neck.
"Yay! Cloud forgives me! And he's finally happy again~" Zack whooped, arm still around Cloud. Cloud scoffed and shrugged it off.
"You're so obnoxious; sometimes I wonder why I stick around."
"'Cus you loooove me~!" Zack teased, hands on his hips confidently.
Cloud only sighed dramatically. Then smiled.
"Guess so…"
"CLOUD THIS IS AMAZING EVERYTHING'S ONLY ONE DOLLAR!" Zack was entirely too excited about this. Cloud supposed that was the way it was with him. He got overly excited about everything.
"Yeah. That's why it's called the dollar store." Cloud deadpanned. He leafed through an empty sketchbook in annoyance.
"Nuh-uh. There are tons of dollar stores that charge way more than a dollar for things." Zack had a point.
"Okay, yeah, that's true." Cloud murmured, still fingering the sketchbooks pages. Zack looked over his shoulder.
"Oh yeah, I forgot you like to draw."
"Mmhmm… just get your dumb chocolates so we can leave." Cloud put the sketchbook back to stop any conversation about his art that Zack was bound to start.
"Right, chocolate. And a present for Vinnie of course!" Zack chuckled boyishly. Cloud rolled his eyes.
Zack started for a shelf chock-full of cheap sugary chocolate, pink plush rabbits and plastic hearts.
"Hmm, this one, and this one, and… oh! I love these!" By the time Zack was done, he had a shopping basket filled with chocolates, a penguin holding a heart that said: Happy VALENTINE'S Day!, and something else that Cloud didn't quite make out at the very bottom.
"Alright Cloudy! Done!" Cloud blinked.
"Do you have enough to pay for that?"
"Hopefully!"
Facepalms ensued.
It was Valentine's day, the day Zack wouldn't shut up about.
"Let's go give this to Vinnie now!" Zack had woken up early again, like a little kid on Christmas morning, eager to get to opening his presents.
"You can."
"Don't make me drag you out of bed Mr. Strife." Zack imitated a mother threatening her son who wouldn't get up for school.
"Leave me alone." Cloud groaned into his pillow. Zack just grinned and repeated what had happened a few days. Except he didn't lock the doors this time.
After delivering a stuffed penguin to a very much disheveled and irritated Vincent Valentine, Zack and Cloud had returned to the comfort of their home. Or so Cloud was hoping. As it turned out, Zack had planned a fricking party at their house.
"What do you mean you planned a party without telling me!?" Cloud was beyond peeved. Zack shrugged.
"I meant exactly what I said. I didn't think you'd care." Zack smiled happily as he continued hanging up streamers colored in shades of red, white and pink.
Cloud proceeded to bang his head on the wall a few times, before retreating to his room.
Just as Zack had said, the party started at seven, and Cloud could hear the extremely loud and obnoxious music blaring throughout the house even up in his room. He'd managed to sneak a bag of trail mix and a jug of fruit punch into his room before Zack noticed they were gone. Cloud doubted he'd notice at all.
Zack was talking excitedly to everyone who approached him. The guy was so loud; Cloud could hear him over the music. Through the crack between his door and the wall, Cloud saw multicolored lights flashing in a headache-inducing way. And induce a headache they did. Where did Zack even get a disco ball from? To Cloud's knowledge, they didn't own one.
After around six hours of nonstop noise, everyone left. Cloud let out a sigh of relief as he heard the door slam loudly for the last time that night. He only subconsciously heard Zack padding up to his room, after blocking out the noise for so long. He silently hoped Zack had the decency to at least clean up a little.
Zack didn't bother knocking, like he ever did, and barged right into Cloud's room giddily. He flopped down on Cloud's bed, effectively knocking the aforementioned blond's laptop off of him.
"Cloudy! I gotcha something!" Zack exclaimed excitedly.
"From the party?" Cloud asked tiredly. He was so done for the night.
"No silly, for Valentine's day." Cloud blinked in surprise.
"…why?"
"Wow, I can tell you're so grateful." Zack joked, shoving a pink package into Cloud's lap.
"Open it!" Cloud unwrapped it cautiously. Who knows what sort of thing could be in there?
Inside was a medium sized sketchbook, the exact same one he'd been looking at the other day. Like the EXACT same one, Cloud could still see the place where he'd torn off a corner of one page.
Zack was awaiting his response eagerly.
"You… got this for me?"
"No, I got it for Vincent." Zack responded sarcastically. "Do… you like it?"
Cloud's expression softened. Zack was so eager to please, like a dog.
"Yes. I love it. Thank you Zack." Cloud smiled, before giving Zack a hug. Zack almost didn't hug back out of sheer surprise. Cloud was not a hugger.
"Heh, no problem! My pleasure!" Zack was grinning broadly. Cloud wondered absentmindedly how his face didn't get cramped up because of all the grinning he did.
Eventually, the two fell asleep on Cloud's bed, exhausted. Zack's breath smelled like chocolate, and Cloud's like fruit punch.