A/N: OMG! I am so delighted to tell you guys that I'm now working on this fanfic with Namine23, my first beta reader! She's so amazing and helpful! Thank you for all your editing and patience, Namine sensei ! :3
So, from this chapter onwards, there will be more interactions between our beloved Zack and Cloud! Yay! Finally they are having normal convos lol
Tell me what you think by reviewing or sending me pm. I really need some feedback from you guys. Thanks and enjoy! :)
Warnings: In this fic, boys are gonna be romantically attracted to boys. Leave this page and fly to mars if you cannot accept gays. Contains strong language, violence, and may contain adult scenes in late chapters, so rated M for safety.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of its characters. But I own the plot of this story.
Chapter 4
An awkward silence fell between the two teens as they stared into each other's eyes.
The thought of having the blonde be his tutor had never crossed Zack's mind. He was expecting someone like the class prefect or some other smart kid.
To Zack's surprise, Cloud was acting unexpectedly calm. Even with Cloud's discomfiture, witnessed by Zack on the previous day, he did not seem embarrassed at all upon meeting the teen again. The blonde, with a stoic expression on his face as always, took a seat opposite to Zack and placed his school bag down on his lap.
"So… Can you show me your term papers so that I can at least know what to teach you?" Cloud said softly.
"There's no one around, why bother keeping your voice down?" Zack let out a chuckle upon the blonde's act, afterall, they were the only ones in the library.
Cloud scowled at his classmates teasing.
"Could you just show me your term paper?" the blonde repeated, raising his voice this time and starting to become a bit irritated.
That's better, thought the raven-haired teen, smirking. He then took out a pile of term papers from his bag and handed them to the blonde.
Cloud promptly scanned over the papers. Once he finished, Cloud could not control the sigh of despair that escaped his lips.
"You didn't study at all, did you?"
"Nope." Zack replied proudly.
"To be honest, you and an elementary school kid make no difference to me."
"Must be because you're too dumb to realize the difference."
"Obviously, your scores prove that there's no difference between you two."
"Yeah, yeah. Fine. Whatever." Zack found it meaningless, and tiring, to argue with the blonde.
It's not that he minded being commented based off his performance in the tests, he just simply didn't want to spend time arguing on issues that he didn't care about. Zack rested his head on the desk, letting the other teen know that he had no interest in continuing the spar.
Cloud was left speechless because of his classmate's attitude. Even though Cloud hadn't even started teaching yet, he was already having a hard time dealing with Zack.
"Anyways, I think we should start on some basic stuff like logarithm or-"
"Hey!" Zack threw himself back into a sitting position. He didn't miss out on seeing the slightly furrowed brows on the blonde's forehead from being interrupted.
"Look, kid. I'm pretty sure this isn't gonna work for me and it'll just be a waste of our time to, you know, keep having this kind of tutoring session. So let's just forget about it! C'mon, what do you say?"
The blonde set his eyes on a certain spot on the desk in silence, acting like he was arranging the thoughts in his head. Zack was wishing for an agreement from Cloud, but the latter's reply disappointed him.
"I've promised Mr. Leonhart to improve your grades. I must continue my job to teach you until you start showing improvement," The blonde said in a stern tone.
The blonde's stubbornness was getting to Zack. The raven-haired teen could feel his patience slipping away bit by bit.
"He won't know if neither of us tell him," Zack said through clenched teeth.
"No way, that's not right."
What. The. Hell.
"Dammit! What are you? A teacher's pet, huh? Why's it so important to keep the fucking promise?!"
Zack could no longer keep his tone of speaking. He was enraged because of the blonde's attitude and his inexplicable insistence on keeping the stupid promise he made to his teacher. Cloud was driving him mad! The raging teen could even feel his blood boiling from the irrepressible anger.
It was just like the time when they had first met, the blonde was giving no response to Zack, despite his classmate's disrespectful criticism. Cloud was showing no fear of the furious noirette and was instead sending him an emotionless gaze. For sure, the blonde was standing firm on his ground, and Zack seemed to understand that there is no way to change the decision of the obstinate teen.
"This is just insane!"
Zack let out an angry roar while he stood up and kicked his chair aside in a reckless manner, tending to leave.
"I will report to, Mr. Leonhart, if you choose to leave."
Zack paused upon hearing the blonde's words. He hated being threatened. He hated to obey. Yet, he couldn't risk letting Squall know that he was not cooperating with his tutor. The man would definitely call his mother and inform her of his misbehavior at school.
The raven-haired boy shot a frightening glare at the blonde before returning to his seat.
"Fuck. You. Strife."
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Though Zack did not want to admit it, Cloud was actually doing a really good job teaching him. The blonde kept his notes clear and straight, and he managed to teach in a pace that Zack was able to catch up. Still, academic things were not included in the rebellious teen's list of interest. His mind would wander, or doze off, sometimes. Whenever Cloud discovered that the teen wasn't paying attention to his lesson, he would use a pen, a ruler, or whatever stationery he had in hand, and stab at Zack's forelimb real hard.
A week's time had passed by since the first tutoring session. Zack had been experiencing a mood swing throughout the whole week. He was exhausted and frustrated by the mandatory tutoring he had to attend every day after school. On the other hand, he was delighted to have met a hot girl named, Cissnei, at some of his friends' house party on the weekend.
Because of this, Zack had begun to stay away from the after school tutoring once he and Cissnei started dating. At first, Cloud believed the excuses the raven-haired teen made up. However, as the excuses were getting more dubious, and ridiculous, the blonde stopped trusting Zack and no longer allowed him to skip out.
"If you even dare and skip out on one more session, I will tell Mr. Leonhart that you're skipping out on the tutoring sessions without a reasonable excuse!" Cloud warned his classmate, who was caught attempting to skip the tutorial for the umpteenth time.
"Whoa, relax blondie. Look, I really need some private time. Could we cut down on the number of lessons to, maybe, like one or two per week?" Zack pleaded.
Of course, it's not easy to obtain an agreement from the blonde.
"That would be too less. You're already making a slow progress."
"Okay, then, three lessons a week! How's that?"
"No, that's still not enough."
After all, the blonde wanted to have a tutoring session every single day.
Zack clenched his fist in annoyance, at the same time trying hard to resist from punching the blonde in his face.
In fact, Cloud somewhat understood how the other teen was feeling. If he had a date every day after school, he wouldn't be willing to attend the insipid tutoring either.
"What if," The blonde spoke, and paused at the moment when he realized Zack was looking at him with his pair of sparkling, hope-filled eyes.
"What if I let you have your free time in the afternoon, and then we have tutoring at your place at night?"
"That sounds perfect to me!" Zack replied with a wide grin on his face.
"Okay then. I'll meet you at 8 tonight."
Zack gave the blonde his address right before he left for his date with, Cissnei. As willingly as the raven-haired teen seemed in accepting his tutor's suggestion, evil ideas on how to tease Cloud started popping up in Zack's mind.
He couldn't wait to get to the blonde.