Life is Good : Warmth
Warnings: Awwwww
"I had a dream just now," Cloud whispered, breaking the silence. Thunder woke him up half an hour ago, and left him restless and sentimental about the bitter past.
"Hnn?" It was more of a half-awakened grunt than a legitimate response.
He felt a slightly-stubbled chin resting heavily on his shoulder. Strong sinewy arms reached out from behind and hooked slightly below his waist in a tight embrace. Cloud felt himself blush as he leaned against the warm torso.
"The world was covered in sunshine, green forests and blue seas, just as it used to be," the blonde continued.
He felt a nose rubbing the back of his neck, inhaling deeply. "Thinking about the past again?" the voice rumbled on dreamily.
Cloud looked outside his – their – temporary home through the small window. The storm was already breaking up, revealing silver-lined clouds and patches of clear, starry skies.
"I don't think so," he replied, absorbed in the memory of his dreams. "I think... it was about the future."
A loud chuckle escaped from the other's lips, echoing off the dilapidated walls.
"My little chocobo darlin' is an optimist after all." A soft peck on his nape. "So, was I in your dream? Was there a handsome spiky-haired brunette pole-dancing for you, or was he partying with the pretty girls?" An upward curl of lips brushed against the neckline of his shirt.
A quiver ran down his spine when sleep-warmed breath ghosted over the sensitive spot beneath his ears. Deciding to ignore the other's playfulness as punishment for such tactless suggestions, Cloud pushed himself away from the embrace. He stopped just at an arm's length away from his bed partner. "Hmm.. I didn't see either of us in there."
"Eh?"
"… but I remember seeing Nanaki," Cloud continued calmly.
The blonde wondered briefly if his dream had any significant meaning. To this day, Cloud was not sure if Red XIII survived the mako-active fallout. The blonde had stopped keeping tabs on the living, including his friends, and he refused to count the mounting numbers of casualties; he had long steeled his heart against such mournful, depressing acts since the day Aeris left his life.
Red XIII was last seen heading towards Cosmo Canyon, where the people thronged in a frantic bid to seek refuge from the mako-active poison. The Elders, as Cloud last heard, were working on a cure, but all forty members of the Grand Cosmo Council were overwhelmed by the illness before any antidote could be created. If there were any survivors six months after the first of countless lethal specks precipitated from the skies, chances are they would be at the Canyon, protected from the elements and kept safe from wandering monsters.
Which is why Cloud decided to travel towards there; he was desperate to know what had happened to his world ever since he came out of hiding.
The other person looked confused for a moment and scratched his stubbled chin. Then realization dawned upon him and he let out a bark of laughter. "Nanaki… you mean that red furball? Shit, Cloud, you never told me you had a thing for four-legged critters!" A light smack on the shoulders, and Cloud had to suppress the urge to snicker at his partner's half-asleep-half-forgetful state of mind.
"Yeah. And I think he's got two cubs too. Miniature-sized Reds running behind him and then up some rocky cliffs," the blonde added as his fingers raked the fine golden spiky hair. Slowly, jumbled fragments of his dream began to piece together.
"Hmm… I thought you said that he was the last of his kind?" came the expected question.
Cloud shrugged. He had long understood that his dreams were sometimes weird, sometimes unexplainable, but ultimately, they seemed to be pointing towards something, someone or somewhere – just as that first dream he had about Aeris in the Forgotten Forest. Her ethereal beauty and her last wistful smile were forever etched in his memories, haunting him for many years to come.
The blonde shook his head to clear his mind of such melancholic thoughts. "Anyway, all three of them got up the cliff and the next thing I knew, the view panned out and… I saw the whole of Midgar."
"Damn.. sorry, Cloud.." came the remorseful, genuine apology. Midgar was always a dangerous subject to broach.
"Don't. We've been through this already many times. You're past apologizing for everything that has ever happened to me, remember?" The blonde raised his voice in irritation and crossed his arms, mentally withdrawing himself away from his partner. He didn't feel like arguing with the only other person in the room, who happened to be the one he was sleeping with.
The pain was mutual, Cloud realized. Midgar was where both of them met, trained as SOLDIERs, grew up together, fell in love, and lost everything in the end.
"I know, but.. I shouldn't have.. and.." The other man bit his lips and scratched his chin uncertainly, looking like a lost puppy in the dark. Finally, after a hesitant pause, the brunette closed the space between them, and embraced Cloud from the back again. Cloud presumed his partner had nothing else to say, or could not find the right words to comfort the sorrowful heart.
Perhaps a human touch was all that was needed to mend everything.
Both fell silent, and the mood became sullen. Cloud continued his vigil, mesmerized by the sight outside their home, and the warmth and comfort encasing his body once again like a cocoon.
Slivers of moonlight filtered through the crystalline iced windowglass, dimly illuminating their small home with feeble silvery gleam. Snow and storm clouds had already retreated into the far horizon, leaving behind a clear nightsky.
"It's beautiful," Cloud whispered with a faraway look on his face.
"Mmm?"
Cloud reached out to the window's edge and flicked its latch. He let it creak open a little, allowing fresh air into the room. Surprisingly, there were no cold blasts of biting cold; only moist, mildly chilled air. Has spring – or even summer – finally arrived?
The young ex-SOLDIER took in a deep breath, "The Midgar in my dreams.. it's beautiful. It was in ruins, but it was covered with trees and undergrowth. The place was teeming with life, but there wasn't single human around." He closed his eyes, trying to visualize the scenery again. "I think a few hundred years must have passed," he added thoughtfully.
For some reason, his partner tightened his grip around him. Fingers toughened from months of hard manual labour, from wielding swords and grappling onto mountain ledges, splayed broadly across Cloud's stomach.
"Nanaki's roar echoed throughout the continent, there was a rush of air, and white birds flew overhead. And then the scene faded," Cloud sighed softly, feeling at peace with his surroundings.
"Heh.. like the perfect ending for a sappy movie," the other person interjected, and belatedly clamped his mouth shut when he noticed the blonde's clenched fists. A string of muttered apologies followed, but Cloud decided drop the whole thing. He knew his partner well enough than to take heart to every offending comment – intentional or not.
Cloud closed his eyes, permitting his senses to explore the world outside their shelter: the lingering scent of fresh snowmelt, the silence that pervades the land, and the sensation of a slightly humid breeze against his skin.
"Peace. Happiness," Cloud murmured.
He felt a small tug on his waistband. Fingertips brushed against the fine trail of blond hair below his navel, moving downwards.
"Alive," the other suggested.
Cloud turned around to face his partner, and gazed directly at iridescent maroon eyes. "It's a beautiful feeling, you know?" the blonde said softly, not really expecting an answer.
The other man stared at him in the moonlight. Cloud did not doubt that he probably looked like an angel in the night; the pallor of his complexion, the shine of mako-blue eyes, slender and graceful limbs – he'd never truly possessed a body of a warrior, even after years of toiling and fighting. Cloud smiled when he realized that his partner looked absolutely enchanted by the beauty of that moment.
The brunette leaned forward to kiss the blonde's forehead, enjoying the tickle of soft, spiky golden hair against his cheeks. "Hnn," his beloved's low voice rumbled, and added a few affectionate nips on the earlobes.
The black-haired man continued his tender ministrations, rubbing circles on the blonde's back and eventually sliding into his pants to cup his behind. "Wish both of us were there in your dreams.. I mean, in that Midgar of yours. I kinda miss the ol' days when everything was normal, and well, good," said the voice, huskier than before.
Cloud moaned when the first tingles of pleasure started to pool in his groin. He pressed closer to his partner, relishing the friction of hardening flesh rubbing against one another. "Yeah, it was good back then," Cloud replied with a strained voice, when the other man lowered himself and started planting delicate suckles and kisses along his jawline and neck.
"Too bad humans would be extinct in a few decades' time. At least Nanaki has cubs, if your dreams are a foretelling of the future," the brunette murmured between gentle bites on the blonde's collarbones, slowly inching towards the final destination below.
Three buttons had come undone before the blonde realized it, and soon, the loose shirt slid down quietly onto the floor. Cloud shivered at the sudden chill, but that was quickly replaced by the rising heat from within his body. He allowed himself to be lovingly fondled and touched, caressed and warmed.
Cloud reciprocated his partner's actions, by letting his own hands roam the expanse of the other's muscular build, pausing only to grip a handful of spiky black hair as an subtle, unspoken demand for attention to certain parts of his body. His partner was more than willing to oblige, and attacked these sensitive spots with renewed vigour.
"You know, we're probably the only two humans left on this Planet," the brunette whispered between hungry licks around his navel, while his experienced fingers moved deftly around Cloud's thighs in all the right places. Cloud felt tiny sparks of delightful, raw sexual desire building up and coursing through his spine, leaving his body arching in a silent, desperate plea for more.
Cloud's pants were pulled down to his ankles. More coldness assailed his senses, but the he was already melting under an increasingly unbearable assault by his lover. Hot breath tickled his pubes, lips rubbed fervently along the lengthening hard flesh, wet tongue licked and molested his tightening sacs, persuading the sweet thickness within to rise. There was plenty of throaty growling and slick sounds of saliva-wet kisses down there – wonderful, erotic music to his ears. Fingertips teased and brushed the entrance from behind, promising a night full of excitement and pleasure.
"It's… It's alright," Cloud moaned again, loudly this time, when he felt warm lips touching the base of his throbbing cock, nibbling hungrily up to the leaking tip,
"As long as I'm with you… Zack." The pressure to release was fast mounting.
Then, without warning, his arousal was engulfed by sweet, moist warmth, followed by the sensation of an incredibly tight suction around it.
From the small wooden shelter, a sudden cry of ecstasy echoed into the still of the night.