A/N: I'd like to thank my new beta, Lily Bri, for stepping up to help me. Now I feel a lot better about posting. :D
Disclaimer: Characters not mine.
...
"Rape," Cloud hissed in an affronted tone as he angrily paced in front of the currently-unconscious Zack Fair. "That peasant wishes that I'd lower myself to bed him!"
Sharp blue eyes shot to the prone form lying on the bed, and a blond tail bristled once more in indignation.
"I hate mortals," Cloud decided, scratching at the worn robe he'd procured from the ebony haired male's bureau. His nose twitched at the subtly pleasant spicy aroma he was surrounded by before he stubbornly ignored it and reluctantly sat by the male's side to study his slumbering face.
It wasn't that the man looked bad...it was just that it was so obvious that he was of common stock and had no glamour whatsoever to enhance his sexual appeal.
Cloud paused, eyes narrowing in contemplation. Did humans even have glamour or magic? He'd heard tales of course, but surely witches and wizards were merely a myth.
He gave Zack a distasteful grimace. This mortal certainly had no magic about him.
Not that the wild haired one needed much of it, he reluctantly admitted, poking curiously at a ripped bicep. The muscle twitched and Cloud watched in amusement as a rather perfectly shaped nose wrinkled in sleepy annoyance.
Still...for this mortal to assume such a dishonorable thing of him... the fey prince's glare returned, "He would be more than willing if I wanted him," he sneered, and began to give Zack's cheeks firm, just-this-side-of-painful pats.
Zack groaned and lightly raised his hands to try and fend off the stinging slaps to his face.
"Hey, hey!" he eventually spluttered, swiping the offending hands away. Frosty blue eyes met his own and his mouth dropped open in awe at the sight of beautiful blond hair framing an aristocratic face.
"Are you done fainting yet?" the other male said snottily. His very presence screamed "brat!" to Zack, who furrowed his own face into an injured pout. "Or should I get the smelling salts, woman?"
"What?" Zack growled, abruptly sitting up. A brief twitch from the blond's head caught his attention and he stared blankly at the cat shaped ears pulled back defensively on top of blond hair. What the heck? Those couldn't be real! Maybe they were some kind of new robotic appendages?
Cloud narrowed his eyes before reaching his hand forward to snap his fingers in Zack's face. Did wonders ever cease? First the mortal had the nerve to try to adopt his feline form and now he was ignoring him when he was able to communicate with him?
"Well? Are you going to sit and stare like a fool all day or what?"
Zack twitched. "Who the hell are you again?" he paused, giving the blond's extra appendages a baleful stare. "And just what the hell are you?"
"Mortals," Cloud scoffed, rolling his eyes and wrinkling his nose. "Are you deaf as well as annoying? I am Prince Cloudious the Second of Avalon, kingdom of the fey, and you are a lowly human with no concept of the things that I can do," the blond told him haughtily.
Zack stared.
And stared.
And stared some more.
Having had enough, Cloud clapped his hands in Zack's face once more, his cheeks reddening in anger at the lack of the proper respect and fanfare being given for his station. Either this mortal loved to insult him or he was losing his touch with his own natural authority. "Human!" he growled. "I need to know where I am at once!"
"...come again?" Zack asked, giving the indignant blond on his bed an incredulous look.
Sky blue eyes narrowed at him, and Zack found himself leaning away from the other male, who seemed to have no concept of personal space. "Where are we?" the blond bit out, his cute, little pink lips (what a thing to notice right now, of all times) lifted to show unnaturally sharp canines. "I cannot stay here like some disgusting pet; I have a kingdom to run!"
"Pet," Zack echoed questioningly, but not even a second later, his eyes widened in understanding. "You were my cat then!" he gasped, his large hands grasping Cloud's shoulders.
"I am not your-"
"Why did you try to rape me?" Zack demanded, cutting the prince off sharply with a brief shake. "Because seriously, not cool man! Even freaky cat people need to ask before going off and molesting-"
"Imbecile!" Cloud shrieked, and jerked away from Zack, clenching his arms over the fabric of the gaping bathrobe.
He was fairly vibrating with indignation but Zack couldn't care less. He'd been molested in his home by some weird cat boy, so he damn well had a reason to be pissed off, too! So what if the guy's eyes looked pretty bright against the dark color of the robe he was huddled into-
Wait a minute. "Are you using my bathrobe?"
The prince gave him a look that clearly insulted his intelligence. "Well, I can't very well go around in the nude, now, can I?"
"Oh," Zack said, suddenly at a loss for words. Answers, he decided. He should try and get some answers before he started to freak out. The thunderous expression on the blond's face was less than reassuring, though.
"We're in Midgar," he told him, absently scooting away to give them both some space.
"I am going to destroy Sephiroth," Cloud growled after a moment of contemplation, and Zack shivered at the dark tone of promised violence.
That name, he thought. Why is that name so familiar? Sephiroth...
"Wait," he breathed. "You don't mean The Sephiroth, right? Tall, sexy guy, pretty green eyes and likes to wear leather?"
"You know him," the prince said suspiciously. "How?"
Zack gave Cloud a strange look. "Well, not only is the guy a famous model here, but he's also one of my Uncle's friends."
The prince abruptly invaded his space once more, eyes glinting with urgency as he clutched his clawed hands into Zack's pyjama shirt. "Tell me where to find him."
Zack felt his heartbeat flutter at the sudden proximity; whether it was from fear or something else, he didn't know just yet. "Uhh..."
Cloud shook the other male, his tail lashing with irritation. "Listen, mortal, that insufferable pest cursed me to look like this," he gestured angrily to his head and flicked his tail for good measure, "and I need him to change me back. Now tell me where I can find Sephiroth!"
"Look...Cloudilocks," the glare he received made him wince. "Er, Cloud. I'd be happy to help you out and get you off my hands but they're all the way out in some remote area without phones or anything technological doing the whole rugged, country boy thing. So until they come back, I have no way to get in contact with them."
Cold blue eyes stared intently into his own as if searching for any hint of a lie. The honesty in Zack's eyes never wavered, unfortunately, so the blond haired male snorted and released Zack's shirt. He sighed, ears flattening in displeasure. "Damn him," he whispered.
Uncomfortable, Zack watched the dejected prince as he huddled on the bed. It made for a sad sight, and despite the strange, pretty male's rude awakening and demeanor towards Zack, he felt pity stirring.
He tentatively reached out and touched the fair skinned male's shoulder. "Hey, uh, Cloud..." listless blue eyes glanced up to meet his own. "If you want, you can stay here with me until they get back, y'know."
The sheer disgust that crossed that almost feminine face was pretty insulting; it was so insulting, in fact, that Zack nearly retracted the offer. Luckily for the prince, he quickly gained control over his features.
"I suppose I have no choice," Cloud said reluctantly.
"Don't sound so thrilled," Zack muttered back.
Cloud just shot him a dirty look; the light of the rapidly lightening sky made his bright blue eyes gleam oddly in the darkness. "You should feel honored that—meow."
Zack blinked.
Cloud slapped a hand over his mouth in surprise before scowling and opening it to try once more. "I don't—meow."
A sudden "poof" broke the silence of the room and Zack gaped as the blond male disappeared, leaving nothing but a pile of robes behind. After a moment, he reached out to grab them, only to jerk back warily as they began to shudder oddly.
A golden kitten popped its head from under the clothing, blue eyes wide with confusion, and stared at Zack accusingly as it freed itself from its prison.
"Well, fuck," Zack said.
