Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.

A/N: There are some music lyrics in this chapter and this song greatly influenced this chapter. The song is "Nothing Even Matters" by Big Time Rush. My kids used to watch that show all the time, and I became a fan of a lot of their music. As I've said before, sometimes I hear a song and it just makes the chapter flow and that happened with this song.

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"If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up some place else." –Yogi Berra

To You I Give My Heart

Chapter 29

~Teasing the Lion~

Zack stood out in the front yard of the house, the shadow of the new morning cast long shadows on the ankle high grass that covered the small area. Still trying to shake the trauma and feel of the lab assistant's hands on him from his psyche from the nightmare a couple of nights ago, he closed his eyes and let the bright sunshine that filtered through the treetops to warm the tanned skin of his bare torso.

Anticipating the new mother to come out of the house, he began his warm up exercises without her as he thought of how she had talked him into teaching, re-teaching really, the kata that she had forgotten…

As he held the newly fed baby, Cloud's eyes begged as her voice pleaded proudly, "Okay, well, you say that we're in danger, I need to learn how to defend myself."

"You got me and Red to protect you," Seeing that she was not taking that as an excuse, he snorted and exclaimed almost painfully loud, "You just had a baby two days ago!" Crossing her arms over her now ample breasts, she glared that dangerous glare that he had become accustomed to during their entire friendship and he knew then that she had made up her mind. Turning to his red friend, "Tell her Red, she needs to finish healing… or… resting or whatever!"

"I do believe that she has a valid point Zackary. Besides, with her enhancement, she appears as though she is healed and healthy, despite your terrible cooking."

"You're no help at all, who asked you anyway? -Wait a damn minute, I don't cook that badly do I?" A soft coo from Charlotte in his arms made him look down into her eyes just as she fitfully fit one of her tiny fists in her mouth, beginning to suck loudly. With a sigh, he looked up at the blond, "Fine. We'll start tomorrow."

With his back to the door, he vaguely heard her exit the house. Turning during a movement in his warm ups, his focused eyes fell upon the woman of his desires.

She stood, fidgety on the top step with an extra pair of his pants that hung from her much smaller frame. The bottom of the pant legs, she had rolled up, showing very little of her combat boots, and a belt cinched in the waist, effectively bunching the extra material in several places. She made the white t-shirt better because she wasn't wearing a bra, not that she had one to put on, and it hung from her shoulders in an erotic mimic of a woman wearing her man's button up shirt that fit loosely and only covered the parts that were important, but leaving tantalizing legs showing. She had pulled her hair back in a braid that hung over one shoulder, teasing all the way down to her waist.

"This was really all I could find to wear. I didn't think that a sundress would be easy to move in."

A small curl of his lips lifted his downed spirits from just a few moments ago, Gaia she was beautiful. Unable to speak at first, he heard Marshmallow wark excitedly, jerking him from his musings, "Um, I guess that will be okay, can you move in it?" He had to remember to get her some clothes that she could work out in, not that he didn't like the look of her in his clothes.

Nodding slowly, she looked down at herself, pulling at the material of the pants, "I think so."

With a quick wave of his hand, he called, "Well, come on, we'll start with the basics."

Cloud had an uncanny ability to pick up the movements, Zack just figured that it was muscle memory. All morning, with one break to feed the screaming infant, Cloud had picked up the entire kata movements and was able to mimic them back perfectly. After they ate some lunch, and Cloud fed the baby some lunch, Zack proposed that she move on to using a sword while performing the exercises.

Pulling his sword from the house, he handed it over to Cloud and took up a spot right behind her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he slowly ran his hands from her shoulders, to her upper arms and on down to the grip she held on the grip of the sword. Correcting her hold, he held firm and started the movements to the first stance, allowing her to move loosely in his arms.

The smell of her hair, just below his nose, he caught himself losing his breathing with the movement, but her smell was intoxicating.

'Cause the world stops
When I put my arms around you, around you
And nothing even matters
And nothing even matters

The feel of her in his arms once again was almost more than he could handle, but he didn't want to say anything, he almost didn't want to move to ruin the moment, maybe causing her to pull out of his encircled arms of protection.

This wall we built together,
there ain't no way of knocking it over
We'll be here forever, getting closer, and closer baby

Together, they began to move as one, one like oil, the other like water. Where one moved, the other took that space, although oil and water didn't mix, they complemented each other, keeping their movements fluid.

It's like the sound goes off and the people all freeze
They disappear and it's just you and me
Anything you want to do, anything you please
Forget about our problems, forget about our past
I've seen the future and I know we're gonna last
Every second I'm with you just goes so fast

Both of them had worked up a sweat, and gone through the kata a few times already, but Zack couldn't force his hands from hers. Getting to the fourth pose, she asked, "We were good friends, weren't we?"

Clearing his throat, his voice betrayed his nervousness of the subject, "Yeah, we were."

"Did you teach me all this before?" Moving in unison to the fifth position, she continued, "It's just that this kind of feels familiar."

Stopping and backing away, Zack couldn't hide any emotion, "Really? You remember that?"

Not looking at him, she kept her back to him as she started into the next pose, "Yeah, I think so, I just seem to get this stuff pretty quickly. So it makes sense that you taught me before."

Realizing that she didn't mean the way she felt in his arms, he swallowed and covered his mistake and backed away a couple more steps, "It's possible." Reaching down and taking one of the canteens of water, he tilted it back and gulped down the water. His sweat drenched hair dipped and tickled his back; pouring a little water over his head, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the cool water trickling through his hair and down over his face and down to his chest.

Opening his eyes, he noticed that she had stopped her purposeful movements and stared at him, mouth slightly open and hungry eyes urging her to move to him. He had seen that look on her before, back when they were a couple in the labs, when she felt especially needy for his touch. Unconsciously, she licked her lips slowly and he couldn't help but play on it a little, tease her.

Seeing that she only half-heartedly moved in the exercises, her eyes stayed fixed on him and roamed in a dream-like state on his bare, sweaty chest and abdomen, he took some of the water and poured more of it on his head again and wiggled his head just enough for the water to run more down his chest, across the tight muscles that covered his large frame. With a mischievous grin, he took his other hand and touched his chest, spreading the water over the rest of his skin, over the few scars and the well-developed pectoral and abdominal muscles, perfectly etched.

Still with a grin, he asked with a hint of flirtation, "You like what you see?"

Her eyes snapped to his face so quickly that he could swear that he heard air move like it did around a rapidly moving object when you swing it. Her cheeks flushed brightly as she returned to the exercises. With a laugh, Zack moved to her side to correct her stance. Placing one of his hands on her left shoulder and the other on her right elbow, he changed her positioning slightly. Noticeably keeping her eyes anywhere but him, she moved to the next position silently.

He couldn't help the smile in his voice as he corrected her movements, "Now that I'm not behind you, you're having more trouble. Do I need to help you again?"

With a sideways jerk of her head, she adjusted her grip and focused directly in front of her and curtly said, "Why don't you put a shirt on and then you wouldn't have a problem."

With a tap on the bottom of her elbow and a nudge of his foot on hers, his correction culminated when he lightly slapped the back of her hand. Watching as she fixed her grip, he said like silk, "It seems that I'm not the one with the problem." Again he moved her elbow as she moved to the next position, "If you can't do this without distraction, then why do it at all? I thought you wanted to be a Soldier." He internally smiled at the struggle that he could see in her eyes.

Their whole friendship had been them challenging one another, keeping the other on their toes and furthering both of their skills. The Cloud that he had known before knew most of his tricks, but this new amnesic Cloud didn't really know what to look for in his comments and when he was goading her. It made him sad because at some point in their relationship, it had become a game, but now it was too easy, not being a fun challenge anymore. However, at the same time, she always reacted the way he anticipated, making it somewhat easy to manipulate her, thus making it easier for her to stay with him, where he thought it was safest.

Clearing her throat, she furrowed her eyebrows at the tap on the back of one of her knees, "I don't have a problem," Lowering her arms and letting the tip of the Buster sword fall to the ground, she almost growled, "Maybe I could go shirtless too and see if you can concentrate!"

Raising his eyebrows, he liked that idea, but he playfully said with a shrug of his shoulders, "It would be difficult to concentrate, but I could do it."

Bursting out in a semi-angry yell at his nonchalant attitude, "You might as well have boobs like Shiva. Big blue ones! With ice coming out of them! Your-your-muscles are just as distracting to me-" Stopping abruptly, she bit her lips closed as her face turned bright red.

With a sly smile and a strategically raised eyebrow, he asked slowly, "So, you do like what you see?"

Throwing the sword down, she yelled, "That's not what I mean!" Crossing her arms, she huffed, "Oh, forget it."

Laughing out, he watched as she fumed in place, wanting to leave, but her pride wouldn't let her, she had asked him to teach her. Handing her the other canteen, he inquired, "Listen, dinner is in a couple of hours," The wail of their child interrupted his thought, so he changed his statement and said to Cloud, "While you feed Charlotte, I'll get us some dinner together and maybe we can have a civilized talk."

Visibly swallowing, Cloud's anger dissipated and a sadness replaced what the anger had left behind. She lowered her arms, "That sound fine." As she passed him to go into the house, Zack heard her mutter, "I'm only good for feeding the baby anyway."

Ducking his head down, he reminisced about the look on her face while he teased her. The blush of red was perfect across her skin. With Red gone making a larger perimeter check, it fell to Zack for everything so after his shower, he walked into the living room to see Cloud sitting on the couch, rocking the bassinette with her foot as she read one of the many books that the researcher left.

The baby was fussy, and Cloud's disinterest curdled Zack's blood in his veins. For almost a week now, the only time she held Charlotte was to feed her, never just so she could be close, she had yet to call her by her name, Cloud always referred to her as "the baby." Cloud's unspoken duty as the baby's food cart was all the woman thought of herself.

Zack made up his mind, he was going to take the both of them on a walk tomorrow, hopefully bring them together as mother and daughter. "Hey! What's all the fuss, guss?" Zack asked the baby with a loud laughing tone. Charlotte stopped fussing and looked directly at him as he picked her up, Zack asked, "How about we go and fix some food for mommy?" Stuffing a fist in her wet and toothless mouth, she relaxed in his arm as he headed to the kitchen.


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