Soda

by Rin and Court

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Rin: Buh-wee. WEEEEEEEEEEE. I was gonna say something important, but... Oh, yeah. Our Lady Peace KICKZ_AAAZZZEEESSSS. OMG SO many songs that apply to Soda/Soda SEEQUUEELLL.

Court: Lotsa goodstuff happens in this chapter. :D

Rin: Mwee. Hojo is vunderbar. Not that he's IN this chapter, but he will cause much trouble for our main character. Muwaaahhh.

Court: Ummm.... yeah. And HE __________________.

Rin: That was a spoiler, so it was considerately censored. ;D WONDERFUL AMERICAN FREEDOM OF SPPPPEEEEEEEECH. HALLELUJAH PRAISE JESUS.

Court: Mwahaha.

*~*~*

I depend on you

For the wings of life

And the air that you move

And I defended you

For this one last time

For the nerves you abuse

*~*~*

5: Boxed Inside

*~*~*

Zack was starting to get dizzy from eyes scanning over figures and numbers for what must have been longer than thirty minutes straight. His fingers were numbing from constant button pressing, and his headache had, if anything, gotten worse from staring at paper after paper, but for some reason he felt accomplished...

Feeling a lot better now that he was on his own in the small office that belonged to him, cramped as it was, this immense amount of work didn't even seem that bad. He lifted Mako-flooded eyes from the freshest piece of paperwork and his forefinger ceased button mashing for a moment as he assessed how much work he had actually done in the small amount of time.

Eyes were widened as he saw the differing amounts between the two piles of 'done' and 'not done'. And surprisingly enough, the 'done' pile was the significantly bigger one. He was good at this. Blinking at the piles of paper for a moment, he felt a grin sprawl across his face as he rolled up both sleeves of his shirt, still visible bruise long forgotten as he was now determined to finish this as quickly as he could. Yeah, that would show Cid, wouldn't it? Licking his lips, he went back to the tedious work.

A knock suddenly came at the door, causing Zack to start suddenly. Jeez.... that was probably Cid again, coming in to check whether his new "assistant" had gone and done all the menial tasks he was supposed to be working on. Probably leaving Cid time to go down to the vending machines and get a snack.... Zack could use a coke about now....

"Just a second," he muttered, making sure it was loud enough to at least be heard by the person on the opposite side of the door, as he finished the equation he was working on, punching in the last few numbers and then scratching down a total number on a piece of paper.

Lifting his head and trying to make himself look at least somewhat cheerful and presentable (and not like he had a pounding headache), he called out, "Come in."

The door opened, and a head was meekly poked out from behind it, but it wasn't Cid. (God knew Cid never did anything meekly....) It was the girl from the supermarket---Shera O'Connor, he now knew her name was---and in her arms were several large rolled-up blueprints.

"Um....." With one hand, she readjusted her glasses and blinked through them at Zack. "The Captain isn't here.... they told me to drop off these copies with him...."

Zack was rather surprised to see her of all people walk in, and he even felt his cheeks redden slightly at the sight of her again. He didn't know why he had been so attracted to her initially... When he had first spotted her that long week ago... But it didn't seem to have worn off, even if she had turned out to hardly be his type. Him with someone so shy would never work, and he knew it.

Work on the brain, work on the brain! He motioned for her to walk in a bit more, the way she was lingering by the doorway causing him to feel uncomfortable. He then gave a blink as her words fully registered.

"Wait... Captain? Who's...?" She didn't even get a chance to answer before he was bursting out into peals of laughter. "You mean Cid?" He tried to calm himself, but couldn't help sniggering a bit between words. "Why do you call him Captain?"

"Be-because....." She stuttered, then looked down embarrassedly, the blueprints clutched tightly in her hands. "The other people working with me--that's what they all call him. They said to call him that, too---said everyone calls him Captain around here... something about the war......" She trailed off.

Didn't know how to assert herself, did she....?

He listened to her explain carefully, wincing at how she stuttered. What was she---scared of him or something...? No... she was just a shy person, and his straightforward personality probably intimidated her. Lay off, Zack.. he told himself, trying to be a bit less harsh when he answered her this time.

"Ohhhh. Well, I didn't know about that...." He smiled broadly, then pushing himself up from his seat at his desk to walk over to her and accept the blueprints. He wasn't sure what Cid wanted him to do with them, but he needed to take them from her either way. "Where did he go, anyway?" he asked as he took hold of the blueprints.

Shera shrugged, looking up at Zack with wide eyes. She was a good head shorter than him. "I.... I don't know."

"I see," he replied with a nod, trying not to be his regular self, to tone down a little if he could, but it wasn't easy. He had to wonder about where Cid had gone off to, but it was probably just part of his job.

Shera looked away. "If I knew, I would've gone and given them to him...." She gulped, looking back up at Zack. "Is it true, what they say about the Captain...?"

His eyes then narrowed in a frown at her question. The way she said it made him uneasy. "What are you talking about?" he asked as calmly as he could with a tilt of his head.

"Uh, well...." She began wringing her hands together. "He yells at new employees for no reason, will send back three days worth of work if it isn't done properly........ no one's really friends with him around here---they say they don't invite him to this monthly get-together down at a little restaurant that they always have--they invited me, of course....."

Initially, his eyes widened as he plunged into worse thing after worse thing about the blonde pilot, but he soon realized that he actually wasn't that surprised. "I could believe it," he muttered bitterly as he thought of the events that had occured earlier that morning... heck, the events of the past few weeks, even. Cid was never nice to him if he acknowledged him at all. Sometimes he really had to wonder why he was even living with the guy.

"Huh....?" Shera blinked her wide eyes up at Zack. "Are.... are you friends with him, then....? It..... I don't know, he doesn't seem like that bad a person...."

"Well..." He bit down on his lip for a moment as he tried to think of how to describe Cid; granted, he was sure he didn't know all of the faces of the disgruntled pilot, but he could infer from the week he had known him. Tracing his tongue over his teeth, he finally tried to take a shot at it. "...I guess he's just a pretty angry person. I mean... he just gets mad easily, but... who knows, he might have a soft side under all... that.... mean...ness." He gave a shrug, grinning at her. "I wouldn't know. I've only known him for a week."

"Huh?" A quizzical look as she wrung her hands again. "You mean.... you didn't get recruited yesterday like the rest of us from the lower departments....?" Since she hadn't stayed long enough to see the fight between Cid and Zack ensue in the store, she obviously didn't know of Zack's current living accommodations. (In fact, it had been her departure that had caused the brawl, but of course, she didn't know that.....)

He blinked as her words began to sink in and then shook his head. "Oh, no... I wasn't in Shin-Ra until he got me this job since he said I needed one. We, uhh, live together." He rubbed at the back of his hair -- he had never had a problem with staying in Cid's apartment, enjoyed it, in fact, but sharing that with someone else, someone he had been attracted to beforehand, made it just a bit embarrassing.

Shera's eyes widened even farther, and it seemed she was about to respond when a loud, fairly familiar voice to both of them came from the next room.

"ZACK!!!!!" The black-haired one cringed. Aw, man. He could see why the guy was excluded so much.... The door was slammed open within a matter of seconds, and Cid barged in, looking to Shera in indifference as she was standing directly across from the door, and then to the porcupine. A box of what looked to be old files was under his left arm. "Hey, you done with all that shit?"

Zack eyed the files suspiciously, hoping it wasn't more work now that he was almost done with the piles that had already been dumped on him, but he wasn't going to get his hopes up. He turned to look at the small pile that was still undone, and gaze returning to Cid again, he settled on a nonchalant, "Yeah, pretty much." He winked over at Shera as he spoke the words, as if to say 'watch me deal with him'.

Zack seemed to be out of luck.

"Good," was Cid's gruff reply. He didn't even bother to compliment Zack about his speedy calculations; he only swung his arms forward, dumping the box of the rickety old desk that Zack was surprised didn't buckle under the increase of weight. He began to turn around, but then remembered something and whirled back around, grabbing something from his pocket and slamming it down on top of the box with his hand. A folded piece of paper.

"Your job app," the blonde said in a tired yet angry monotone. "It'd better be on my desk in an hour. The bosses've been hounding me about turning in all the new ones since the cuts...."

Zack would have thought he'd get some sort of praise, but even the 'good' that Cid managed to bark out wasn't praise, more like a statement barely above being chewed out by him. He sighed, narrowing his eyes in disgust. The blonde was seeming worse and worse with each second, and he was really reconsidering his living arrangements. But he was so fun to tease... And so easy too.

Yes, more work... and an application to fill out as well. That was not good; he was sure they'd ask for information he wouldn't want to give, so he'd just have to lie about it or something. He hoped his name didn't give away enough... he had been pretty well known as a SOLDIER and he was worried enough about people just recognizing him. Seemed there was no other choice, though.

"Yes, Captain..." He trudged back over to his desk and slumped into it, grabbed the application and starting to read over it. Yes... a LOT of lying.

"........What......" Cid had been on his way out the door (mindlessly pushing past Shera in the process) when he froze on the spot and slowly, slowly turned around. "....Did you just call me.....?"

Zack blinked at him, a bewildered expression on his face as if there was absolutely nothing unusual about the name used. Raising a single eyebrow, he repeated it, a bit more chipper with it this time and even giving a little salute as he said it. "Yes, Captain!"

"............" Cid glared bloody murder at Zack as he advanced upon him. He slammed the palms of his hands on the table and leaned in close towards Zack--so near, in fact, that Zack found himself able to make out the single rings of blue and lighter blue in the pilots eyes.

"Do NOT----" he grated "START WITH THAT."

He smiled cheerfully and was very tempted to say 'all right, captain', but instead he just settled on a, "Yes, sir." He smiled faintly at Shera, attitude just a tad dimmed by the new pile of work he had been assigned. He started on the application first, since that seemed to be the most important, hand dancing across the pairing, equipped with a ballpoint pen, as he lied through his teeth about most of the information. A few things were kept the same, but there were some obvious pieces of information that could not be given out.

He was back into work mode again, sleeves still pulled up from his earlier bit of determination, and the other two were pretty much dead to him now unless they decided to speak in order to get his attention.

Cid seemed to be glad enough that Zack had stopped calling him "Captain," (the only thing that name brought up in his mind was bad memories...) and he finally exited with an indiscernible grumble, leaving a bewildered Shera and a busy Zack.

"......You don't SEEM to be on very friendly terms..." She said after a few moments of taking it in.

Zack laughed softly at her comment, looking up to direct his gaze to her auburn eyes. "Maybe not... I guess you'd call it a pretty strange relationship." He gave a crooked smile as he watched Cid down the hall, yelling at someone else, no doubt. At least I'm not special. It seems he treats everyone like that. Shaking his head in dismay, he filled in another box on the application sheet. This was one he was actually telling the truth about, simply because he had mentioned it to Cid and he didn't want his information conflicting; his hometown.

"So, um.... I guess I'll go, now....." Shera hesitantly went to the door, opening it a tad from when Cid had left. She looked back at Zack. "I'll see you a bit later...."

After filling in the correct answer, "Gongaga", Zack looked up to grin her a good-bye. "All right, then. And... hey... why don't you have lunch with me? I mean... it's both of our first days so I figure we should... you know... at least get to know each other. And besides..." He ran his tongue over dried lips. "I doubt you want to be eating with Cid."

"Huh?" Shera paused from her gait, looking back at Zack with surprised eyes. "I mean.... I'd love to." She smiled, a sweet looking thing that brightened up her face tenfold, and suddenly, Zack realized that was it---she didn't smile at all, not fakely, not in amusement.... The bare sight of one was enough to even upturn his lips slightly.

"It's a deal, then. I'll see you at the cafeteria." He winked playfully as she stepped out, closing the door behind her, and went about finishing up the application, which he tossed aside before hoisting the huge new pile of paperwork over and starting on THAT batch. Well, at least he now knew not to expect praises anymore... Letting out a sigh, he turned his calculator back on and commenced punching equations in again.

*~*~*

Later that night...

Well, they had never managed to get some more Coke since Cid had wasted those two packs a few days ago, so Zack found himself going through a serious withdrawal. No caffeine and no sugar since lunch... Geez. He would have asked Cid for some money to buy some more (not that that would have worked, but it would have been worth a try...) but he hadn't seen his "boss" at the cafeteria all lunch long. He was too busy trying to get Shera to laugh as it was--he'd garnered a couple of giggles and even a snort, but nothing more than that. She didn't seem like one who was usually cheery....

In any case, he was already feeling a headache conveniently forming as he watched the TV with a mild interest, the Solitaire game he was playing taking up more of his attention. He had found the raggedy old pack of cards laying around the junk room.

Wincing as a shiver inched its way up his spine, he realized how cold he was. Laying down the cards he had in his calloused hands, he got to his feet with a groan and headed over to the heater packed away in the corner. "Okay, let's see..." Leaning forward, he started to turn the dial upwards but it didn't take long for him to realize that it was broken. "Good for nothing..." he grumbled, kicking at it and then pacing over to the closet where Cid had pointed him to when he had first let him know that he needed some clothing. He hoped he could find a sweatshirt or a jacket or something.

After a bit of digging through it and coming up with nothing, he found a box tucked in the very back of the closet, and decided to make the effort to drag it out. It was pretty heavy, and he was surprised to see it wasn't bigger than an ordinary cardboard box one would get in the mail---two feet by two feet, with postage stamps and stickers covering its exterior. He blinked for a second; there was a thin layer of dust on the top of the box, as if it hadn't been opened in a long time. He blew off the top and stared at the return address in the upper left-hand corner. S.R.A.F. Shin-Ra Air Force. Huh.

Without giving a thought to Cid's privacy or anything else that might have hindered his comfort, Zack tore through the box, opening it to find a bunch of packing peanuts. He didn't mind those either, and a few were launched over his shoulders as he dug through the mess.

Goggles.

Medals....

Some cloth....? Hm, now what was this...?

He dragged it out of the box and unfolded it, to find that it was a cobalt blue jacket. The sleeves were still folded up from the last time someone had worn it. This looks good enough... Stuffing the other stuff back inside, closing the box up, and pushing the box back into the closet, he then picked up the jacket from where he had left it on the floor and pulled it on. It was surprisingly warm, a lot warmer than it looked, and he gave a soft smile as he felt his body soaking it in by the second.

The warmth also managed to make him drowsy, and so he staggered over to the living room, turned off the TV, and was about to head to the usually-colder-than-the-rest-of-the-apartment junk room when he had a change of thought. Grinning wickedly, he instead changed his route towards Cid's room, and collapsed on the rather soft bed before he could even edge under the covers, curling up in the middle of it.

And that's the way Cid found him, coming in at twelve o'clock at night after a rather strenuous sub-board committee meeting. The keys turning in the lock, Bronco starting up from her sleep in Cid's workroom. She trotted out from behind the door, greeting her tired master to only see him grumble something in a disgruntled fashion as he walked into the bedroom. Bronco hung her head and went back into the work room. Didn't seem as if Cid was in a very good mood....

Cid did what he always did when he got home late. He went to the closet, opened it and pulled the string that hung down from the too-short chain of the dirty, old lightbulb that was attached to the ceiling above his (rather sparsely filled) racks of clothes. It flickered slightly with a dim light, and although it wasn't much, Cid was used to it and with that light, he managed to strip down to his boxers and then pull on a pajama shirt. He didn't have enough energy to throw on anything else unneeded. God, those damn meetings drained the shit out of him...

Then he turned towards the bed.

And Zack was still curled up on the bed, on his side as he almost always slept, feet curled in and arms pulled upwards so that he could rest his head on them pillow-style. He was in the very middle of the bed, head actually nearer to the foot of the bed with feet almost brushing against the pillows. His breathing was steady and controlled, the type of breathing one could only maintain in deep slumber. Yes, he looked rather peaceful and comfortable laying there, much like a little angel just laying there, though Cid was quite aware of the terror he actually was.

......Fuck. He stared at Zack in a sort of sleepy disbelief, reaching under his shirt absentmindedly and scratching his chest. How the fucking hell did the fucktard get here....? He marched forward, raising a hand over Zack's head, fully ready to backhand the little mother fucker for daring to come in here and use his bed when the kid hadn't even paid the damn bills, or bothered to shop for anything other than his stupid fucking soda, or even to ask about when the hell they were planning on paying off the fucking convenient store for the fucking cigarr--

Damn, he looked sexy.

......Wait.

........What......?

Cid blinked, his hand frozen in the air. He slowly dropped the arm to his side and looked away, bringing the same hand to his forehead and scratching his fingers through his hair.

What the fucking hell....?

They really must've overworked him in that meeting. Damn fuckers. Making him present all those fucking blueprints in front of all his fucking coworkers. At fucking eleven at night. Fucking... fucktardful.... fuckers. In any case, he didn't feel like kicking Zack out of the bed anymore. Too much work. Yeah. Definitely. He shot one more glare at the kid before he blearily staggered back towards the bed and jumped up slightly to reach the bundled-up blanket bunched up on the top shelf of his closet. Sometimes he really wished he was just a little bit taller.

Anyway.

Cid turned back towards the bed and snatched up a pillow from its surface irritably before letting his legs give way and falling to the floor with a loud thud. Stupid crack monkey child wasn't using one anyway. With an audible grumble, he set the pillow on the floor, laying his head down against it and pulling the cover over himself. It was cold, as was proven when the drafty air blowing across the floor caused Cid to shudder and pull the thin blanket tighter over himself and curl up just a bit more.

Stupid fucktard. I'll kill him when he wakes up, I swear to fucking God.

And then Cid was too tired to do anything else but sleep.

He didn't really remember anything in the morning.

*~*~*