Not If You Ignore Me for a Week- Chapter Two: Tuesday
Disclaimer: Me broke. Me no own wonderful Final Fantasy VII, all belong to Square Enix and their wonderful creators.
Title: Not If You Ignore Me for a Week
Pairing: Zack/Cloud
Genre: Humor/Romance
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Yaoi, maybe some language
Author's Note: Here's Chapter Two of 'Not If You Ignore Me for a Week', hope ya'll like it so far! Now, Zack's gonna put Operation: MCHAMMER into action. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! -throws up confetti-
Dedicated to my wonderful beta, OmniStrife, author of Zack/Cloud story, Collide.
Cloud furrowed his yellow brows, concentrating on making sure that his toast got into his mouth and not into his yellow chocobo hair. That already happened once. He was confused about what Zack had said that morning when they woke up.
Zack did his normal routine; he woke up, showered, gave Cloud an over-enthusiastic kiss on his forehead and grabbed the papers he was supposed to do the night before and then he ran off. But before he left, he looked at Cloud with a shit-eating grin on his face and said one word, Flies.
"Flies? What the hell is that?" Cloud muttered angrily, stabbing his food with a fork. He wasn't quite sure why he was eating toast with a fork. Maybe he was too lazy to pick it up. That happens sometimes.
"Hey, Cloud! Come on, O'Reily wants another practice in!" A voice came at the door, pounding some odd beat on the other side. Cloud gulped the last of his food and grabbed his silver practice sword, opening the door and locking it behind him.
His good friend, Ken stood there, grinning at the lopsided look on Cloud's face. "What's the matter Blondie? Zack not give you any last night?" Cloud blushed horribly and shoved his red-haired friend away from him.
"And you call yourself my friend," he muttered and Ken just grinned. He grabbed Cloud's arm and started to tug him down towards the training gym where O'Reily was probably standing there, smoking a cigar and wondering when his favorite taunt toy was going to get there.
Zack sighed for the millionth time that day. Ever since he had gotten in the office that morning, Sephiroth had sat him down and promptly piled his desk up to the ceiling in papers that needed to be approved… signed…and later thrown to the Shinra peons.
There hadn't been a single second all day where he could slip away and start working on Mission: Annoyance, Operation: MCHAMMER. Sephiroth was even standing at his door right now, looking at his second-in-command with something akin to sadistic amusement on making the SOLDIER work till his fingers were tired from signing and he couldn't read straight.
"Sephy…" Zack whined, stopping from his work for a moment to look up at the General who was flicking off invisible dust from his leather clothes. "Let me have a break!"
"So you can go check up on the Strife kid?" Sephiroth asked nonchalantly, looking over at his friend who suddenly had a little blush on his cheeks. "Zachary, if you want to go check up on him, just tell me."
Zack's mouth dropped open. "Y-you mean that if I wanted to all I would have to do is tell you and you would have let me go!"
Sephiroth moved out of the doorway. "Make sure that you get back in time to finish the rest of the training forms by midnight tonight. Tseng is coming to pick them up in the morning."
Zack closed his gaping jaw and grabbed his Buster Sword that was leaning against his wall, surrounded by boxes of items that he had never bothered to unpack. He grabbed his second Buster sword that was lying there from where he had been polishing and cleaning it up earlier. He darted past Sephiroth grinning and shouting over his shoulder, "You're a sneaky bastard Seph, but that's why I stick around!"
Zack ran into the elevator and pressed the ground floor level. He chuckled, grinning at himself and Sephiroth. If he had known that all he had to do was ask, he would have been out of there as soon as he got in that morning after giving Cloud that little hint on what his annoyance would be like.
The elevator dinged and he walked out and through a side door, thankful for the way that Shinra had set up the facility so that the training grounds were right next to the offices in case the higher-ups wanted to look out over the recruits and cadets.
As he walked past the open fields, he saw many other recruits just practicing on their own and sparring, getting worked up for the SOLDIER exams that were the next day. Zack eyed them as he walked by, placing each recruit into a class in his mind. Disappointment filled him. There seemed to be far too many to-be officers here. Only a few that would make it into SOLDIER and even then those numbers would be cut in half when many got sick and died from the Mako experiments.
A sigh escaped his throat and then he was slipping into the training gym, looking for a familiar blonde head. He wandered over to O'Reily who seemed to be shouting obscenities at Cloud. Irritation welled up inside Zack but he ignored it, instead tapping the Sergeant on the shoulder.
"What do you—Oh, Zack!" O'Reily immediately brightened up and Zack mentally wondered if O'Reily had more than appropriate feelings for him.
"Sergeant O'Reily, I'm here to work with Strife again," Zack said, professional voice back in place. O'Reily's eyes widened. "I told you once, O'Reily, he's SOLDIER material. Mako treatments will be nice to him, I'm sure."
O'Reily stuttered with his next sentence and Zack walked past him, going straight to Cloud who was sparring with Ken. "Strife," He said once, sharply and surprised baby blues darted around to connect with Zack's glowing violet ones.
All Cloud did was give him a short nod of acknowledgment and Zack leaned both Buster Swords against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm just here to study you," he said and gestured for Cloud to go back sparring. "This is a SOLDIER examination."
Ken's dull brown eyes widened and he looked to Cloud. "Hey, you better be on your best." He said, warning his friend. Cloud just scoffed but didn't say anything.
Zack gave a mental cheer when Cloud first slid into his stance. Sure the stance was perfect! Zack made him get it down, but today was Mission: Annoyance and he was here to make everything annoying. "Strife, spread your feet further, keeps your hands closer around the hilt." The blonde's eyes widened for just a moment before he did as he was asked and then gave a mocking look to Zack as if saying, 'There, anything else your highness?'
"Continue." He waved his hand and watched as Ken charged Cloud, the tip of his blade dragging along the ground as he brought it up, aiming it towards Cloud's crotch. Cloud mentally sighed. What was it with everyone trying to castrate him? He brought the silver blade up and expertly deflected the blade, bringing his foot up with the swing to swipe out Ken's feet from underneath him.
"Strife, act quicker. That was too slow for SOLDIER." A small tick seemed to form above a pale yellow brow and Cloud moved back to his former position.
Why was Zack here? Cloud questioned himself, defending himself from Ken's next attack, this time at his neck. He acted as quick as Zack had taught him and spun around, kicking out at Ken's lower back, surely leaving a boot imprint and then when Ken landed, he pressed the tip of the practice sword into Ken's neck.
"Hey, Cloud, you're doing good," Ken gasped out between breaths and Cloud removed his foot and sword, helping his friend up. "Guess you're getting SOLDIER tomorrow," he said softly, just so Zack wouldn't hear.
"Strife, that was better, but the dead time between when your foot hit his back and your sword hit his neck was enough time for a fourth class SOLDIER to escape from underneath you. Remember, speed it everything," Zack said, walking around them.
He was actually having much more fun than normal. While he was slowly driving Cloud to insanity, hence Operation: MCHAMMER, he was helping the recruit with things he needed to pick up on to get into SOLDIER. He was already planning on getting strings pulled to see just how far the kid could get and if he was first class material.
"Strife—"
Too quick for him to see, Cloud had slammed him up against the wall with a booted foot and at the same time—or so it seemed—a silver practice sword was pressed against his neck, drawing a thin line of blood. Zack gave a sheepish grin and Cloud raised a brow as if saying, 'Fast enough?'
"Great, Strife." His hand next to his thigh twitched. "But you ought to watch where you pin your enemy." He shot his hand out, grabbing his Buster Sword and swinging it up towards Cloud.
The recruit jumped back and looked at Zack who was spinning his sword lovingly with one arm. Ken stared in awe at the strength of the first class SOLDIER. The Buster Swords were known to be incredibly heavy, heavier than what most SOLDIERS could use. Zack picked up the second one and tossed it to Cloud.
Ken's mouth dropped open when Cloud caught it, only buckling slightly for he had never had the Mako treatments that made it seem as light as a feather. "C-Cloud?" He asked and Cloud just gave him a tight smile.
"Come on Strife. I know you can do this. Let's give these recruits a show." Cloud shrugged and rested the tip of his sword in the ground, watching Zack warily. The SOLDIER brought his sword up and charged Cloud, quick legs making his speed unmatchable. Cloud brought his sword up as soon as he saw Zack move and blocked the first attack, buckling a bit under the combined weight of his Buster Sword, Zack's, and Zack.
"Cloud… how are you?" Ken trailed off and Zack grinned.
"Strife here lived near a Mako Reactor in Nibelheim." Cloud frowned at that fact. True, his home he and his mother had lived in happened to be right next to a Mako Reactor. When he was younger he decided to go play in the water that was polluted with Mako extracts and he got doused with a small dose of Mako that gave him just enough strength to make fights lean towards his way.
"Oh… no wonder…" Ken mused to himself and by now the neighboring partners had stopped sparring and were watching Cloud and Zack knock it out.
Cloud grinned and wrapped his leg around Zack's waist, pulling their hips together and he used the surprise to his advantage, flipping Zack to the side and falling to the ground, their swords unlatching and Cloud rolled off to the side, jumping up.
"That was nice, Strife. You're movements were far too wrong. What if I would have liked that movement instead of being surprised? You could have been in a nasty disposition there," he warned and a barely noticeable blush covered his cheeks.
Swell job I'm doing here… Ignoring him for a week. I guess the silent treatment works better than nothing. He is my commanding officer and he wants to spar in class… I guess I have to pay him some sort of attention.
"Strife!" O'Reily's voice rang out. Cloud cringed and Zack got up, both pushing the tips of their Buster Swords into the ground. O'Reily marched over and Zack decided to defend his friend, roommate and hopefully—in Zack's mind—one day a lover.
"O'Reily, I was just teaching him how to be quicker against SOLDIERS," Zack tried but O'Reily shoved by him.
"I don't care about that! I care about this!" He immediately tried to pull on Cloud's Buster Sword but all he got was a flushed red face and strained muscles trying to pull it out of the ground. "He shouldn't even own a Buster Sword!"
"It was my spare," Zack butted in.
"I don't care. You should know better than to let him use something like this." O'Reily gestured to the sword and Cloud picked the sword out of the ground with only a small amount of strain. He couldn't train with it for long, that's why Zack built him a much lighter one that he kept in his room.
"Sir." Cloud handed held the Buster Sword up for examination and O'Reily's eyes just barely widened. Zack grinned triumphantly at that one small word. He hadn't caused it, but at least he got to hear Cloud's delectable voice!
"Strife…" O'Reily sighed. "Don't bother me for the rest of the day." He marched off and when he noticed that the rest of the recruits had gathered around he waved his arms. "Everyone! Back to your places! SOLDIER exams are tomorrow! You better be in tip-top shape!"
Ken shook his head and went back to his self sparring and Cloud handing the heavy Buster Sword to Zack who grinned. "Sorry, I didn't have time to go back to the dorm and get your lighter one. This one I was just cleaning up in my office."
Cloud shrugged and picked up his silver practice sword. It felt too light in his hands after wielding the heavy Buster Sword and it must've shown on his face fore Zack laughed and patted his shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah. It's always like that. Now… back to getting your stance right." Cloud's eye started to twitch.
- - - - - - -
Dinner in the cafeteria was a mess in Cloud's mind. As soon as he walked in, Zack had snagged him by the waist, hauled him into his lap and wouldn't let him go, even thought he was struggling madly.
"Calm down, Spiky," Zack said but Cloud kept trying to wiggle around of his hold. "Stop moving or I'll talk about corn again." Cloud stilled.
Earlier, when Cloud had shifted classes from training to materia basics, Zack had decided to go into a rant about the cafeteria corn and how there was a Shinra Government conspiracy where the corn was not really corn, but Mako-enhanced rocks dyed yellow.
His rant went on for TWO HOURS.
How someone can rant about cafeteria corn is beyond Cloud's mental capacity. But, he mused, if anyone was able to do it, it would be the raven-haired SOLDIER.
"Just think, tomorrow's your SOLDIER exams…" Zack sighed in reminiscence. "I remember getting ready. Seph was my mentor. He drilled me deep into the night." Zack abruptly stopped at that and scooped mashed potatoes into his mouth. It wasn't as good as Cloud's home cooking but the blonde chocobo was probably pretty ticked at Zack for coming into his class, that he would probably put rocks into it.
"You'll remember you stance, right?" Zack asked the recruit on his lap. Cloud gave an annoyed sigh and nodded. "Your placement on the hilt?" Nod. "How quick you have to move?" Nod. "Remember, speed is everything." Nod. "Use your weight to your advantage." Tight nod. "Kick only when they're standing up." Tight nod. "When you're—"
He was cut off my two hands around his neck and Cloud's eyes glaring at him. Zack grinned and let him go. "Alright, talk to you later. Go get something to eat, Spike."
Cloud scurried off his lap and Zack leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back two legs. Truth be told, he was a tad nervous about Cloud making SOLDIER. Sure, he knew that he was at least going to hit fourth-class, but if he didn't at least make second, Zack wouldn't be able to watch out for him and something might happen. Like when Zack had first met Cloud in the hallway.
The chair next to his squeaked a bit and he opened his violet eyes to see Sephiroth sitting there, a cup of coffee in his elegant hands. Another long night, Zack supposed. "Did you finish those papers?" Sephiroth asked, turning to look at his honorary friend. Zack nodded.
"I sat them in Tseng's office." There was a companionable silence between them, until…
"I heard that you were sparring with Strife. No surprise that he can wield that Buster Sword of yours," Sephiroth said and drank deeply from his cup.
"I was just getting him ready for SOLDIER exams… while completing a mission of my own operation," Zack said and scooped another gulp of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
"What's this operation?"
Zack sat down his spoon and turned to Sephiroth and calmly crossed his legs, cloth scratching against cloth. "It's called operation MCHAMMER." Sephiroth choked on his coffee slightly.
"So, what does MCHAMMER stand for?" Sephiroth said after a moment and wiped his lips clean.
"Make Cloud Have A Mental Meltdown En Route." He smiled when Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "So, how's it sound?"
"Zachary, I wonder about your intelligence. Good night." Sephiroth dropped the empty cup into a trashcan and pulled himself up to his feet. "I'll see you in the morning."
Zack looked towards where he had seen Cloud settle down and frowned when he didn't see the spiky-haired blonde. "Guess he went to bed… or study on the materia. He's not too hot there."
He threw the rest of his food away and picked up his armor that he had taken off earlier. With a yawn, he made his way towards the dorm, wondering just how Cloud's exam was going to go tomorrow.
Cloud was awake when Zack came in later. He hadn't even bothered to show up for their practice and Zack probably wasn't even bothering to wonder where Cloud was. The blonde was curled up in the large bed that he and Zack normally shared… well, until Cloud had started ignoring the SOLDIER.
He opened his eyes and pulled the cover down to look at Zack as the SOLDIER undressed. His eyes followed every thin white scar on the tanned back and then below the waistband of the pants over firmly muscled and smooth globes of his ass. Cloud flushed and ducked his head back underneath the covers
He knew Zack's ritual by heart; he'd get undressed, then admire himself in the mirror for a moment, then he'd pull on a pair of shorts and slip underneath the covers, stretching out on his side.
But, tonight, it was different. Nobody slid underneath the covers. No heat surrounded Cloud like it normally did when Zack would scoot closer and drape an arm over his lean and almost feminine waist. Cloud sat up in the large, dark blue bed and the silk slid down his bare shoulders. He looked around the darkened room, and frowned when he didn't see a familiar form standing anywhere.
He slipped out of the bed, Zack's dark blue sweat-pants hanging loose on his hips as he padded towards the dark living room, the mandatory red light hanging in the corner, casting an eerie glow around the room. And there was Zack, asleep on the couch, shivering slightly.
Cloud smiled and grabbed the blanket, laying it over the SOLDIER. He may be seriously mad at Zack, but he was too nice at heart to let the SOLDIER get sick over a simple ignorance of his best friend.
Cloud padded back to the room and fell asleep, going over the materia that would be on the written portion.
Hmmm… longer chapter. I liked it end. It was kinda sweet.
And to my lovely reviewers, Andrea Roberts, Vivi orunatia, Heir to the World, Sekre, animeobsession, Meza, Nyoko Iso, yukiislikesnow, and Omni Strife.
And to Vivi orunatia, sounds like a peachy idea! I'm finishing up the editings and if you still want to do it, I'll drop you a line.
And then to Meza, I realized my mistake and went back, fixing them all to "O'Reily". He's now an Irish Sergeant.