Title: Cosplay
Author: mirroredsakura
Fandom: FFVII
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: SephirothxCloudxZackxAeris
thirtyforthreeChallenge: #12 Alone, #3 Giving Up, #27 Fluffy Things
Warnings: Er... well... if you don't like foursomes...

Summary: Seph and Cloud come around--after all, Zack and Aeris combined are like a force of nature.

Disclaimers: Not mine.

~+~+~+~

#12 Alone - At My Side

Sephiroth didn't take well to The Plan. Neither did Cloud for that matter.

Zack couldn't tell if it was because Sephiroth had answered first (before Zack had been given time to wheedle and inaugurate the blond into his ranks of total insubordination—it worked sometimes) or because Cloud genuinely had something against dressing up as the cute little ChocoCloud that they knew he was and always would be.

Either way, Zack got a towel-snap to the head for suggesting it.

"You can't… you can't seriously suggest that… that the General wear that!" He looked horrified at the thought, on behalf of his idol's pride.

So it wasn't an altogether brilliant plan. Zack liked to leave those to the illustrious General himself, although those tended to lean towards a good deal more death and destruction than was his wont for this particular day. But as plans went, it contained attractive men and a beautiful woman, ludicrous costumes, a complete and utter disregard for decency and decorum… and copious amounts of sex. Zack thought this made it a particularly good plan, himself.

The innocent bundle of fabric over which so much fuss was being made lay perfectly conspicuous on the sunny yellows, pinks and blues of Aeris's coverlet; black as ink and glittering here and there with bits of metal. But there was no mistaking the telltale pointed ears or the bright shiny cat bell strung on a gold necklace. Sephiroth didn't even seem to want to look in the direction of the bed, while Cloud couldn't seem to stop glaring at it and bristling over the indignity of the entire affair like a cat that'd just had a bucket of dirty dishwater dumped on its head.

Together, the two of them made a formidable pair.

Well, if that's what it would take to help prove to the two of them that they were in this together, that there was such a thing as we, and not just them and me…

Besides, Zack had Aeris on his side.

"!"

If it weren't real life, the others could've sworn they saw a gigantic exclamation mark flash into existence in the corner of their eyes and which immediately tore all their attention to the wisp of a brunette in the doorway, just in time to see the way her face fell at the sound of Cloud's words. Even the cheerful pink bow in her hair was drooping. "You… you don't like them?" she asked in a little voice that trembled and threatened to burst into tears at any moment.

Cloud immediately had the distinct impression that he was lower than even the meanest Touch Me molester and Sephiroth was reminded of all the little orphans who looked up at him with their large, tearful eyes and asked why? whenever he told them he would not let them touch his chocobo's tail feathers. She threw up her hands to hide her face, and her body was beginning to tremble as much as her voice, overcome with emotion.

Zack was quite sure she was the single most brilliant actress he had ever had the incredible luck of meeting.

"I—Miss Gainsborough, I—"

"—Aeris—" Her voice still managed to be insistent and reproachful even when muffled against her palms.

"—Aeris, I'm certain you spent innumerable hours on these… these… creations of yours and I'm very… ah… grateful… that you had some of my… more unusual physical aspects in mind when you designed them but…"

Standing innocently in his corner, Zack could barely muffle the snort behind a raised fist, hurriedly disguising the choked noise that resulted with a cough.

*

The two of them lounged in a comfortable corner of Aeris's garden, a stray sunbeam filtering through the plate above in a pool of light just next to them, making the flowers glow. Down in the slums, that was all it took to make it seem close enough to paradise.

Zack's back was braced against the fence that was just high enough to discourage any suspicious looks from Elmyra's upper window, Aeris situated cheerfully between his legs and leaning back against his chest chattering amiably as she pored over sheets of foolscap—the secret blueprints detailing The Plan.

"He should be a kitty cat. Just look at those eyes… so pretty… our perfect little General Kitty Cat."

Zack couldn't hold back the good-natured chuckle at her half-completed sketch. "I wouldn't call him that to his face, babe… you aren't fast enough to outrun his Fire3's after all and I'll have a hard enough time holding back Spike—he's got reflexes like you've never seen if you dare insult his precious idol."

"But he'd look so cute! Should I add whiskers? Would he kill me for it?"

"…Aeris, you and I have a very different measuring stick of 'cute' if that's what you're putting him in."

"Well if I'd said he was a sexy beast, you'd have just spluttered—ahah, you spluttered! See, you're spluttering! This is obviously why I said 'cute'!"

"Babe, he's as good as naked in that!"

"I know," she beamed unrepentantly back up at him, "isn't it wonderful?"

"How in the Planet's name will we ever get him to agree to this?"

"Leave it up to me, of course!" her grin was impossibly cheeky, "Don't tell me you could even think of doing this alone!"

"Never," he replied, nuzzling against the soft curve of her neck, "that's what we're up against, after all."

*

"…but you won't wear them. Even after I worked so hard on them and they would look so nice on you… and do you know how hard it is to hunt down someone who knew your measurements? I couldn't come after you with a measuring tape myself now, could I, and you don't exactly give out the exact number of inches around your manly, manly hips."

"I…" Sephiroth nearly spluttered and was silent, turning hopeless eyes on his golden-haired subordinate in a silent plea for help against this barrage of madness. The boy just looked at him with an expression of inevitability slowly forming on his face. It was far from reassuring. "Did it have to be so… tight?"

"It's stretchy," Zack pointed out helpfully, though his broad grin belied his tone. He was lounging near the window, a bundle of dark furry fabric held nonchalantly in his arms that he kept stroking idly with the roughened tips of his fingers. "We still couldn't get accurate measurements for everything after all, so Aeris had to eyeball and played it safe with the stretchy."

All bullshit, Zack reasoned, needed to have some basis in fact.

Cloud shot Zack a look that would have had set his hair bristling if it hadn't already been spiked half-way to the ceiling anyway, silently calling him on it. Zack decided it was a better idea to let Aeris handle the situation. She seemed good at that.

And she was.

"I thought we were going to have so much fun," she said finally looking up, her expression mournful. "I knew you wouldn't want people prying into our business, so I had to wait until you all had a day off together—and you General Sephiroth sir, almost never allow yourself a day off—and then shuffle my mother off to go visiting, and you don't know how long it took to convince her to be gone all day just so I could be here and indulge with my boys and have you all with me instead of wasting away of boredom and loneliness… just what's wrong with my idea, anyway?"

She rounded upon Cloud, who stared back with wide suspicious eyes as if he imagined she'd taken it upon herself to change his clothes for him. Which, she thought with a chuckle, would be rather enjoyable and it'd certainly get the boys' attention, but then we'd never get to the putting-clothes-on stage and I have worked too hard on those things to miss out on the fun now! "Why don't you want to wear them?"

He blinked. "They… they're yellow!" he replied, and if his arms hadn't been loaded with feathers and chocobo-yellow cloth, Aeris had the impression the boy would be flailing, "And fluffy! It's embarrassing!"

She paused, and what might have been a frown passed over her features for a brief moment. "What's so embarrassing about having fun with the people you love?"

The tactic-switch struck even Zack by surprise. Certainly it brought a streak of red to Cloud's cheeks at her frankness. Sephiroth just looked mildly relieved that her gaze wasn't pinned on him.

"I… well…" It seemed very foolish now to whine and say, "But you'll laugh at me…!" although he was sorely tempted to say it anyway for lack of any other response.

"After all," she continued as if he hadn't spoken, "it's not as if you'll be the only one. We do these things together, you know?"

Cloud couldn't really think of anything to reply to that either.

*

#3 Giving Up - Yield

There it was again… that acceptance and utter inclusiveness that both Aeris and Zack doled out so easily. Sephiroth stood braced against a wall and watched them, content to be temporarily out of their focus, content just to observe. He could see the effect the girl's words had on the blond—the way the big blue eyes widened just a fraction, how the lips tightened and tried to hold back the want, the utter yearning that had taken Sephiroth so long to realize he knew all too well. Why was it so hard?

It was getting harder to hide the frown that might belie his frustration. He was no fool—he could see the effort Zack went through to draw him—them—in, could see how much he worried whether or not he was doing the right thing, could imagine how tiring it must be, even for Zack who was never too tired for those he loved. It was the times when he realized this, when he allowed himself to think about this, that he could almost entertain the notion of letting go, of giving up, giving in to that irresistible pull of theirs; that unspoken promise that it could work, that it would be okay… that they would always be there.

But he had been alone too long and it was so hard to try when he wasn't sure, when he didn't know what to do. He had never thought himself proud, had never thought himself a coward until he had to face his insecurities, had to face his fear of failing himself, failing them…

And there was always the chance that they could fail him. Promises of forever couldn't really come true, could they?

Still. The earnest look in Miss Gainsbo—Aeris's face, the undeniable hope Zack tried to keep hidden behind his customary half-smile… sometimes he might almost believe it.

Well why not? Zack and his puzzle of a girlfriend were an unstoppable force when it came to having their own way—it was so much easier to give up on resisting while he still had a say in the matter.

"I will agree to this bizarre game of theirs, if you do, Str—Cloud."

The words felt slow and awkward on his tongue and he nearly bit them back as he watched them with hooded eyes, waiting for a reaction, any reaction. There was a moment of shocked silence as the others turned in a synchronized swivel to face him. The round 'o' of Strife—no, Cloud's slack jaw was worrying although Sephiroth wasn't entirely certain whether it was because of his use of the boy's first name—a liberty, should he apologize?—or because the boy had never though he'd agree to such a ridiculous idea. But the undiluted happiness that radiated from Zack's sudden, utterly brilliant grin was gratifying. reassuring him that yes, he might actually be going about this correctly—and then there was a blur of pink flying at him.

His hand was halfway to his side where the Masamune would have been sheathed—Zack had firmly persuaded him to leave it behind in his quarters, perhaps this was why—before relaxed his arms enough to catch her against his chest. She had her arms around his neck in a moment—quite possibly to keep from sliding down to the ground, although she had certainly pounced on him like gravity had no meaning—and he froze when he felt her press her lips quickly, impulsively, to the corner of his mouth, pulling away with a bright smile as if to match Zack's with sheer luminance.

"You," she told him as he leaned forward to set her firmly back on her feet again, "are the best other, other, other boyfriend ever!"

It sounded like quite a mouthful to say. "Then I am glad to have pleased my… other, other boyfriend's girlfriend." He stopped short. No matter what way he looked at it, that did not sound right, as if he were taking more liberties, making presumptions, and—

"I can be yours too, you know." She was still smiling, and behind her, Zack had crept up to Cloud, holding the boy and touching him as if he needed to, though his eyes never strayed from Sephiroth's face, as if waiting to reach out to him—no, both of them—too. "Perhaps someday you'll let me."

"I…"

The brilliant grin faded somewhat into a quiet half-smile—her utterly mercurial personality could not be normal, could it?—one that she made sure the boys at her back couldn't see. "If it did…" she murmured, almost as if to herself, and it was as if he could see the depths of her green eyes blur, look through him, past him, at a distant something only she could see. "When that day comes… If I really could say 'you were my boyfriend'… how much more might it hurt?"

"…Babe?"

Zack's voice was uncertain, and though she didn't so much twitch, the sound of his voice seem to jar her back to the present—her eyes sharpened, "I never know," she added, with that cheerful smile of hers and just a hint of a sly leer, "with all the excitement, you boys might all be too much for me!"

That made Zack choke, and Cloud splutter a horrified "AERIS!" as she turned to flash that smile at him, "Can't let you have all the fun now, can I?"

Cloud had turned a deep brick red and if Zack's arms hadn't been firmly locked around the boy's waist, it was quite possible he might have bolted. He did, however, prove a distraction for Aeris once more and she turned fully to face him, eyes gleaming. "Well we've had one voice of approval," she said—although Sephiroth was of the opinion that it was more 'grudging acceptance' than 'approval', but it was Zack's way to debate semantics, not his. "How about a second?"

Sephiroth raised his mental estimation of her for not taking the obvious route and implying, "Well, now the General has agreed… are you going to follow like a good little soldier?" There were others, he was sure, that would not have so much tact.

It still might be putting too much pressure on the boy. He mentally reviewed his words—had that been how they'd sounded? That hadn't been at all what he had intended. He frowned. Was there any way to reassure the blond of this without potentially embarrassing him in the process?

And Cloud Strife was all too easy to embarrass.

But Cloud wasn't all that embarrassed, not yet—this was relative of course, everything had to be put in perspective when faced with Zack and Aeris and the General at the same time—but he was feeling particularly flabbergasted. The idea of General Sephroth agreeing to anyone putting cat ears on his head was, in his opinion, something worth several minutes of slack-jaw. And he had said Cloud's name. Not 'Strife', not even a rank—there hadn't been a single formal thing about it. That had to be worth a few minutes more.

And even after Aeris had taken it upon herself to express all the glee she was capable of in a gravity-defying leap for his chest, and Zack had pulled him back into his arms, he still sat somewhat dumbfounded. Because what General Sephiroth had said was tantamount to letting him choose for the both of them. If he thought hard enough, it might almost mean I'm on your side, and that was almost too much to believe.

He gazed up at the man who'd been his idol—who still was his idol, even after he found out the man didn't like dogs, had to be forced to drink a second glass of orange juice, and looked at chocolate as if it were a lump of indigestible matter… even after realizing that the man was human and more than just some great, grand legend his mother had whispered to him at night. And he thought maybe, just maybe…

Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to hope for forever because the Genera—Sephiroth was here now, watching him, waiting for him, and Zack was so warm against him, and Aeris was practically dancing on the spot with barely-restrained knowing glee. He wanted all of this so badly… maybe… maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to believe that this might last.

He opened his mouth. Closed it. Glanced up furtively at Sephiroth, who gave him the barest of nods, as if in encouragement. He opened it again. "Well… why not?"

He had a few moments before he felt the devilish smile spreading on Zack's face behind him to realize anew exactly who he was talking to and just how many 'why not' s there were and just how stupid an idea it was to surrender to the madman.

But no turning back now...

*

#27 Fluffy Things - Aeris's Sketches

(AN: This theme I did as a fanart theme. As FF doesn't let me link to images, copy/paste—and remove the spaces—if you want to see them? ; Sorry for the quality, I've yet to scan them in properly yet.)

Sephikitty: http/ img138.imageshack.us / img138 / 7498 / sephikittyqc1.jpg

ChocoCloud: http/ img469.imageshack.us / img469 / 9603 / chococloudni7.jpg

ZackPuppy: http/ img138.imageshack.us / img138 / 2280 / zackpuppyqs6.jpg

MoogleAeris: http/ img99.imageshack.us / img99 / 6554 / moogleaerisjw8.jpg