A/N:

The Cloud/Zack side of Shouldn't Feel Like a Crime is not going to write itself, so I decided to write it!

Idk how this will go tbh. It probably will not last as long as Aerith/Tifa's side because the 'mysteries' are long solved. I just want to explore Cloud's relationship with Zack!


Heartbeat: U're late again tonight? :(

You: Yeah. Sorry. Need to sort photos for customer review trmw morning

Cloud sighs and switches his phone screen off.

From outside the windows, he observes neighbouring offices lapsing into darkness, one after the other.

That must have been lie number 26 that he did to Tifa in the past 3 months.

Wait. Maybe it's number 27, or 30. Who knows? He lost count.

The first few times, it wasn't easy to scrape off the guilt burning his tongue and chest. It made him feel like the world's biggest asshole.

But he did it again and again, until the lies would slide out of his mouth like how easy it is to slip on black ice.

What has become more important to him now is to have a space that's away from her.

And the only place that seems to offer him that is the photography studio he works at, which is located in the busiest area of Sector 0.

6 sectors away from the apartment where he lives with her. Far away enough to make her dismiss any plans to ambush him while he's at work.

The door to the studio swings open and he jolts.

In comes Zack, shirtless and with a short beige towel perched on his damp black hair. A pair of grey shorts cover the lower half of his body.

"Cloud! You're still here?"

He smiles and nods.

"If it's about tomorrow's early morning review, you really don't have to… we have plenty of time," Zack says, rubbing his hair with the towel vigorously.

Cloud shakes his head. "No… I'm just looking through some photos I took yesterday."

"For your online portfolio?"

He nods his head again.

Zack joins his side as he browses through the scramble of photographs on the table.

"These are good," Zack remarks, pointing lightly at a coloured print of a nude man reclining on a sofa, and a black and white print of another nude man sitting by a window.

"Agree." He separates the photographs from the rest.

"You can do this back at your home, you know…"

He turns to find Zack grinning at him.

He reddens. "I know but…"

He doesn't finish his sentence.

I'm here because I'm avoiding my girlfriend is not something you should be telling a colleague.

Lucky for him, Zack's phone rings and the other man's quickly preoccupied with answering it.

"No, I told you so many fucking times already that I can't be home tonight. Dinner? Fucking make some sandwich for yourself, or get something from Midgar Eats!"

Zack stops yelling at the phone to pinch his brows.

"Stop fucking screaming-!"

There's another silence before Zack aggressively shoves his phone back into the pocket of his shorts.

"Aerith?"

"I don't know what's wrong with that bitch lately. She's acting too fucking clingy."

Zack's right. Aerith has been extra clingy. She's around the studio far too many times for the staff's liking.

But somehow, Cloud's not surprised. Zack has started sleeping around in the past few months and he's not even hiding it from her.

"I know what you're thinking. I did this to myself. I shouldn't have fucked around."

Zack doesn't sound like he takes offense with the judgement on his character.

He sounds rather cocky and Cloud wishes he isn't.

"Yeah, you shouldn't," Cloud deadpans.

Zack scoffs. "Not my fault. My cock's not exclusive to one person. I've never told her that she would be the only one to have it."

That's an entirely foreign concept to Cloud. The only person he has ever loved is Tifa.

Ever since they were 8. And he's now 27. That's how long he has been in love with her.

He's 21 when they finally started dating. There were several others before her but none of them were as serious as he's with her.

He grabs a plastic bag full of food he bought from a street hawker operating some feet away from their office building and shows it to Zack.

"Food?"

He just wants to shift their conversation away.

"Sure," the other man replies, eager to get his hands on something to bite.

Takeout plastic containers of fried noodles, smoked meat and other street snacks line the table as Cloud dumps the contents of the bag.

"Octopus balls for dinner? Really?"

Cloud pokes a toothpick into one of the fluffy balls and brings it into his mouth. "Yeah. What's wrong with it?"

Zack chuckles. "Nothing, I guess. If it makes you happy."

Zack runs his eyes over the food once again. "You're going to finish all of these by yourself?"

Obviously, they're not all for him. He actually wanted to bring some home, especially the fried noodles because Tifa loves them.

But he doesn't want Zack to feel bad about taking them.

"You would be surprised with how much I can eat."

Zack laughs – his typical open-mouth laugh that allows you to spy on his teeth and the colour of his tongue. Cloud knows that a lot of women are smitten with this laugh alone.

They spend the next few minutes just sitting on nearby chairs and working with pairs of chopsticks as they munch and ingest their food.

Cloud's finishing the leftover octopus balls when he notices that Zack's staring at him.

"What?" he shoots, when the stare carries on for too long.

Zack reaches a hand out and starts dabbing a corner of Cloud's mouth with the tip of his thumb.

The thumb soon drifts along the fullness of Cloud's lips in circular motions, until it halts halfway through.

Zack's fingertip feels hot on him.

He swears that his stomach's about to pop.

When their eyes meet, he squeaks out, "Why…?"

Zack removes his hand and smiles. "Sorry. You had flakes from the balls all over your mouth."

"Oh…" He rushes to wipe his mouth with the heel of his palm.

He wipes and wipes…

…was touching his lips really necessary?

Zack disappears into the pantry and returns with two bottles of Costa del Sol beers. One, he gives to Cloud, and the other he unplugs and chugs in no time.

Cloud doesn't realize that he's taking a glance at Zack as the other man's gulping his drink.

Crawling down Zack's well-defined pecs are water dripping from the tips of his black strands. They're passing by a name inked below his left breast, and another tattoo of white and yellow flowers on the lower right side of his stomach.

His Adam's apple is moving up and down.

It's bewitching.

So bewitching that Cloud starts mimicking the movement.

He doesn't know why he's breathing fast and swallowing air.

When he looks up, he finds Zack smiling at him.

"Uhh… I think I'll head home now."

He rises from his seat and starts packing.

He doesn't even care that he's just messily cramming his stuff into his bag.

Why is he panicking?

Fuck it.

He just wants to leave.

"You're not going to stay around and help me choose the photos for the exhibition?"

He feels Zack's eyes nailed onto him.

"We can… do that tomorrow."

"Fine. But I'll start doing it by tonight."

Zack sounds gutted and it's tempting to appease the other man.

But he wants to go home. He has to go home.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he tells Zack, then walks himself out of the studio.

He can't wait to slide himself underneath Tifa's arms.