A/N: And so the events of Shouldn't Feel Like A Crime begin from here. Time to spice up the drama!

It's not hard for Cloud to see it.

What Zack's trying to do as he speaks to Tifa for the first time.

He does it all the time to women he finds attractive.

His overfamiliar manner. His inviting smile and frisky laughs. The compliments he's making about her eyes and earrings. The way his hands can't seem to leave Tifa's hands and back alone. The way he centres most of the conversation on her.

The signs are clearly also not lost on Tifa.

She's responding to him in the way that she often does to attention that she doesn't ask for but welcomes. Cloud recognizes this all too well, has seen this for far too many times and has learned not to make a big deal out of it.

On this occasion though? He's pissed.

He doesn't even know what he's more pissed about.

The fact that Zack's hitting on his girlfriend. Or the fact that Tifa has taken the bait and there's a likely chance of her 'snatching' Zack away.

"Cloud talked a lot about how you're good with your hands," Zack says while they're making their way to the first framed photograph in the exhibition room.

"Good with my hands?" Tifa lifts an eyebrow and briefly shifts her gaze from Zack to Cloud, then back to Zack. "Oh… you mean pottery making."

Zack laughs softly. "Yes, that's what I meant. What do you think I was referring to?"

Colour rises to Tifa's cheeks – from the suggestive tone of Zack's remark or from the man's genuine admiration of her skills, who knows.

"Cloud's blowing it out of proportions. I'm just lucky that people noticed the vase I made for Mayor Domino on that TV show," Tifa replies, humbling herself.

"Oh, come on! Don't sell yourself short."

There it goes again. Zack's arm back around her shoulders.

"People loved that vase. They saw how good you are. They know how good you are."

Typical Zack and his need to uplift others. It's what eased the process of warming up to him for Cloud. But watching him do it to Tifa now with a particular intention in mind is annoying.

"Maybe someday you can teach me how to do it," Zack suggests. "We can have one-to-one classes together."

The other man glances at Cloud, then holds up a hand to his mouth as if he's sharing a secret with Tifa. "Cloud doesn't have to be there," he whispers, loud enough for Cloud to hear.

Tifa giggles. "I'm down for anything. Just make sure that you book the sessions with my personal assistant."

It takes every inch of his body for Cloud not to roll his eyes.

The first day of the exhibition runs smoothly.

Zack opens it with a speech that he has helped write from beginning to end. So he zones out entirely until Tifa drags him for a tour around the room.

He listens to her make small comments here and there about the exhibited photographs, and tries to offer his response at any time he can.

But most of the time, his eyes are just following Zack wherever the other man is.

Zack's moving from one point of the room to another recurrently as he interacts with all of his guests. After an hour of doing so, he leaves the room for what Cloud guesses to be his smoke break.

Perfect time for Cloud to speak with him alone.

"Tifa, I'll be away for a while. They need help with some stuff."

"Yeah… sure," Tifa absentmindedly replies. She's too engrossed with studying the photograph hanging at her front to think too much about what he's saying to her.

He rushes to make his exit, then spots and trails behind Zack who's heading to the sunroom.

In the sunroom, Zack realizes his presence a few seconds late.

"Didn't think you would actually follow me," the other man says, flicking a lighter to the cigarette in between his lips.

Cloud halts just a few steps away from him.

Zack puffs out clouds of grey smoke. "Very hot girlfriend you got there. Makes me want to fuck her all over."

An urge to yank Zack by his collar hits Cloud but he resists it.

"I can tell," he counters.

Zack releases another billow of smoke that drifts into the air. "On second thought… I don't really want to fuck her."

"And why's that?"

Zack grins. "I like her man better."

Cloud inches closer.

"Do you now?"

He trains his eyes onto Zack's, never moving them away while he crouches all the way down to the floor.

Zack tosses his cigarette away and crushes it underneath the sole of his sneaker.

"What are you doing?" the other man asks, gazing down and caressing Cloud's jaw with his fingers.

Cloud doesn't answer.

His hand finds its way to the zipper hiding the bulge that he's aiming for, and pulls it down slowly.

Down and down the zipper's teeth goes, unveiling a carmine red briefs – the last thing that's getting in Cloud's way. He sneaks his hand underneath it and drags out Zack's slightly hard cock.

He nears the cock to his lips, then without breaking his gaze away from Zack, pushes it deep into his mouth.

A flame lights up his body as he sees Zack closing his eyes and arching his back.

Cloud starts moving, clenching the insides of his mouth and throat around the shaft from one end to another.

His tongue rags the most sensitive parts of the stiff organ.

The glans. The opening of the glans. The frenulum. The balls. The area under the balls. He licks them all and leaves none to dry.

With each swing of his tongue and blow of his mouth, Zack grows harder, leaking pre-cum that blends with his saliva and dribbles out of the corners of his mouth.

He feels his own self hardening.

"Fuck… that's it, Cloud… Just suck me like that," Zack moans, fisting chunks of his hair.

He pulls his mouth away just to smear Zack's wet cock all over his face.

This cock is all his.

Zack is all his.

No one can take Zack away from him.

No one can have this man but him.

Not even Tifa.

He sinks the cock back into his mouth and picks up his pace.

Zack starts swaying his hips, groaning while burying his cock much deeper into Cloud's throat than it already did.

The other man's nearing his release but Cloud moves his head away just in time to deny it.

Zack gapes at him, face flushed and hardly hiding his frustration. "Why did you stop?"

Cloud removes his pants and briefs, then lays down onto a nearby three-seater couch.

He spreads his legs apart and demands, "Come and fuck me."

Zack quickly climbs above him, almost frantic to plunge his cock in.

So consumed are they with their need for each other that they don't even realize that someone else has arrived at the sunroom.

"Zack…?"

They stop short at the sound of a familiar voice calling Zack's name.

At the doorway, Aerith stands still with a frown and her green eyes watering.

Cloud hears Zack swallowing.

"Aerith-"

Aerith doesn't let Zack finish. She storms away, leaving him scrambling to fix up his pants.

Zack briefly glances at him and tells him, "Just give me a sec."

With Zack gone, Cloud waits at the couch, unsure of what to feel or how to process what happened.

The clock keeps ticking. For how long, he doesn't know. All he knows is that it has been too long and he's starting to feel stupid sitting there on the couch with his bare legs.

So he decides to wait for Zack to return with his pants back on.

Zack does eventually.

With messy hair. With his shirt wrinkly and missing a button or two.

And the smell on him. The fucking smell.

There's a nauseating thick fruity scent stuck on him. It's not his smell.

They fucked.

Zack fucked her. Zack left him to fuck her.

The realization sends a sharp pain prickling his chest and he just wants to get out of the room.

His face must have shown that he knows because Zack's reaching out to touch him.

His hand moves on impulse and smacks the other man's hand away.

Zack stares at him, bewildered. It's almost as if he doesn't understand what he did wrong.

Now this really ticks Cloud off.

"Fuck you, Zack!"

Those words spill out of his mouth without him thinking. They bounce off the walls and gather into a heavy tension that fills in the gap between him and Zack.

Zack can't seem to stand it and takes his leave without saying another word.

Cloud remains in the room, too numb to move.

A commotion breaks outside and he hears yelling.

They sound very much like Zack and Aerith. Probably another one of their screaming matches.

He doesn't want to give a shit. He just wants to go home.

And it just occurred to him that he has a girlfriend who he needs to bring home too.