Magnet
Because sarraceniaceae got me thinking again and consequently set off another bunny to come charging in my direction.
Notes: For those of you who know/care, this is the 'sequel' to Armed Escort--some might call it an extra long omake. Therefore, it's MercVerse fic and AU. Canon in here is: Cloud's immortal, Sephiroth's a mage adept, Zack's just that much more demon than most humans, and Vincent and Chaos are half-demon twins. Armed Escort had Zack running into (and promptly having sex with) Aeris in a ladies' bathroom. This basically tells of what happened after.
~+~+~+~
"…And so that is why I have to come all the way down there, just to bail you and your new girlfriend out."
Zack at least had the decency to sounds incredibly sheepish. "Er… about that. C'mon Cloud, just come and get me out here would you? The charges are completely unreasonable anyway, I don't know what's up with these guys—they should be out catching… uh… assassins and uh… really bad men… and…"
"You mean men like you…"
"Oh right. But that's legal, damn it! And I'm so off-duty, right now… Anyway, that was completely beside the point, and I did nothing of the sort! We weren't doing anything wrong, Boss."
"You were louder than the band outside, Zack. And disrupting the peace and public fornication is against the law, idiot."
"We weren't in public!"
"Tell that to the lady in the last stall again."
"Aww damn it Cloud, I—h-hey! Aeris, no, no you're not allowed to talk to him yet, I haven't finished—what? What do you mean my time's up? You can't just—Cloud? Cloud? Oh for chrissakes, you've gotta come—"
The blond closed his eyes and dropped the phone carelessly on the table beside the couch before melting back against the comfortable warmth of their resident mage adept's bare chest.
"I take that as a reason to assume Zack's gotten himself in trouble again?" Sephiroth's voice was mild and completely unsurprised, "What has he done this time?"
"He's gone and gotten himself arrested for having sex in a public bathroom."
"Ah."
Cloud tilted up to stare at him through the shining waterfall of hair, "You were expecting it?"
"I was expecting him to get wildly drunk, picking a fight, and eventually landing the entire bar in an Emergency Ward somewhere perhaps along with a few of the local authorities. This is positively mundane compared to that."
"I guess when you put it that way…" he sighed and closed his eyes again, absent-mindedly running his fingers along the clearly-defined muscles of the arm Sephiroth had slung so casually around him. "Have to go get him…"
"Will there be trouble?"
"It's just a petty violation."
"But he is down at the station. And policemen are notoriously against our kind."
"We're licensed and we're legal—through several loophole clauses or not. The Turks have just as much trouble sometimes."
"The Turks have the royals on their side more often than not."
Cloud could feel the smile working itself onto his face, "If you want to come with you me, you really just have to ask, you know."
Sephiroth did that shrug of his—that somehow managed to mean everything and nothing at the same time. "If you'd like."
The blond grinned as he struggled to an upright sitting position and began hunting for his boots, "You know I always like you at my back."
The noise the other man made in response was very much like a purr of utmost satisfaction.
"Besides," he added, reaching for his shirt as Cloud tossed aside something a loafer too big to be his own, "I want to meet this woman who Zack finds so arresting."
"If that was a joke, it was a rather bad one."
"…Oh."
And then Cloud really did laugh. It wasn't until afterwards that he wondered if that'd been Sephiroth's intention all along.
"Took your time, didn't you?" Zack called out, grinning as the unsmiling officer behind him shoved him forwards, "Did you want to try and leave me in here long enough for me to pick up some tips in the sack from the inmates?"
"Getting you out of here is somewhat more difficult than you would think. Especially when you insisted you had to get that girl out along with you."
"Aww, c'mon Seph—"
"There are a few men outside wanting to know why I was the one bailing her out too." Cloud added, walking in noticeably disgruntled. "Of all the girls you could've gone after, you pick one the Turks are already set on."
"I guess she really is just that lovable—and oh man, you guys have to see her, and in all that leather too. She was naked and had a gun to my head the entire time and everything—it was awesome!"
The two men just stared at him, and Cloud muttered that he probably should've left the idiot in his cell overnight. "You've been reading way too much porn again."
"No, I'm serious man! And she was on top of me and everything and—oh right, and Cloud, she wants to hire you."
Cloud blinked.
Sephiroth frowned. "As much as you'd like otherwise, you know as well as I do that we don't offer those kinds of services…" he trailed off at the sight of the blond's expression. He turned to take in the sight of the slim brunette, and the way both his comrades seemed to stare in near slack-jawed awe—and frowned. "Or so I thought," he muttered.
The Aeris-girl immediately bounced over to Zack to kiss him thoroughly, "Thank you for getting me out!" she told him happily, as if she hadn't just spent several hours in jail.
"Uh… actually Cloud…" He waved a hand towards the blond, "was the one who…"
"Oh yes!" Swiftly she moved over to the blond, tipping up his chin just the slightest so she could kiss him too. She pulled away enough to hug him, "Thank you for getting me out!" Cloud's eyes looking slightly unfocused when they followed her. Sephiroth's frown deepened.
"You're a…"
Cloud knew that glow—Cetra, Ancient… but never this pure, never this powerful. It was utterly intoxicating.
She was eyeing him oddly too, a strange smile slowly dawning on her features, almost sad as those eyes drew him down and looked as if they saw through him, to the very beginning of his uncertain history. "Your eyes speak of eternity," she told him, "They go on forever."
"And you!" She was looking at Sephiroth now, who nodded politely to her. "…You look like you want to run me through with a really big sword."
Sephiroth though that was a bit dramatic for simply being protective of his pack.
Zack laughed out loud, "Aww, don't worry about Seph, he doesn't carry the big knives. Now fire—fire on the other hand…"
"I am that much more reassured," she deadpanned before smiling up at Sephiroth. "You're powerful. I can taste your magic it in the very air you walk in."
Sephiroth thought that was something of a compliment at least.
"Now," she continued brightly. "I need bodyguards. Can I hire you?"
Judging from the expression on Cloud's face, Sephiroth had no doubt as to what his answer would be.
Perhaps the twins would be somewhat less hasty. They were as territorial about their pack as he was.
~+~+~+~
Short, sweet and to the point. More for cementing down the specifics of MercVerse ideas than anything else, really. ;p