Cloud frowned reluctantly down at his full cup of tea. It had been an hour since they had left Zack to fend for himself while tied to a pole in the middle of a harsh rainstorm. The others at the party didn't seem to even think of him, but Cloud was worried. The rain hadn't relented; in fact, it seemed to be going at it harder than before.
"Worried about him?" a deep, grumbling voice asked to his left, causing Cloud to jump, causing the tea to spill everywhere. Luckily, the tea had had ample time to cool off and did no damage beside make his bare thigh wet. In his thoughts he had become unaware of his surroundings, he hadn't even noticed the odd ex-Turk anywhere near him.
Yes, he was worried about the SOLDIER. But he couldn't let them know that, it would ruin his own façade. "No, I'm not!" He snarled, lip pouting out stubbornly. "Why would you even think-?"
"I used to be a Turk, kid. I pick up the details. And it's no use lying to me." The man in red stated. Vincent was his name, if Cloud recalled correctly, the only one in the room that seemed indifferent to Cloud. Him and Rude, but Rude seemed to care only about Rufus and Reno. As if reading his thoughts, the ex-Turk asked, "you're name is Cloud, correct?"
He nodded, "Vincent?" The red-eyed man nodded and Cloud held out his hand to be shaken.
Vincent took it and looked over the rim of his cloak at the smaller boy. "Why don't you let him down, then?"
Cloud frowned, "because! He needs to learn a lesson!"
"And if he gets hypothermia and dies?" Vincent asked him, shaking his head as Cloud opened his mouth to retort then trailed off as if he hadn't thought of that outcome. Vincent chose to keep Cloud ignorant of the fact that the mako in Zack's bloodstream could probably ward off any such disease.
Cloud was up and out of the room before anyone could even think of stopping him. Vincent cursed, not having realized how volatile a distressed Cloud could be. He stood quickly and followed the boy, easily catching up to the regular human. "Were you going to try and get him down yourself?" He asked the infantryman, humor not even hiding in his voice.
"Well, we can't leave him out there! He could die!" He said, voice shaky.
"He's not going to die, Cloud." Vincent replied, hoping to calm the boy's nerves; he seemed to be about to have a panic attack. "He's probably fine. A little wet, but fine none the less."
Cloud turned to him angrily, "how can he be fine?! We left him to rot out in the rain!" Vincent frowned at the boy's angry tears, but his face didn't change.
"You're forgetting we don't all have as weak a body as you, Cloud." Vincent said in his normal, indifferent voice. Cloud glared at the insult, even if it wasn't meant to be one. The ex-Turk had been simply stating fact. Cloud was the weakest of all present in that room. Except maybe Rufus. No, Rufus could still give up a pretty good fight.
The blond turned without replying, having no real comeback. He did, however, seem much calmer than he had a few minutes ago, so he must have, at the very least, taken into consideration about what Vincent had said.
Said man continued to follow along silently, having to open the door for Cloud when they finally arrived (Infantryman didn't have such access and he still had his old password from being a Turk).
Cloud rushed out onto the roof, ignoring the raging storm and easily spotting Zack in just his boxers, he seemed to be yelling at some bird that had landed on this bush of hair and taken shelter from the pounding rain. The blond-headed boy had stopped to take in the comedic aspects of the situation, falling into fits of giggles, not even paying attention to the two darker-haired men.
Zack did look utterly ridiculous, yelling up indignantly to the bird and shaking his head back in forth in a wild motion, hoping to scare the bird into thinking that his shelter from the storm wasn't as safe as he had thought. The bird, however, looked just as indignant and was pecking Zack's forehead every once and a while.
Vincent coughed, hiding a chuckle while at the same time bringing Cloud's attention back to why they were all standing out in a raging storm. Zack and Vincent would be fine, but Cloud, dressed in almost nothing and without the protection of mako could catch all sorts of sicknesses.
Cloud stood alert, face now completely serious. "Zack!" He yelled, voice still muffled by the blowing wing. Vincent noticed that Clouds hand were busy holding the front of the dress down in an attempt to keep it from exposing his boxers, and his hair was matted from the pouring rain. Cute. He thought to himself, allowing the small part of him that was a pervert to come forward.
Zack had turned his attention away from the bird, which now lay still as Zack was no longer bothering it, to see Cloud. Despite his circumstances, Zack's face lit up in a smile when his eyes fell on the blonde-haired boy, but the wide grin narrowed into a smirk, obviously taking pleasure in the sight of wet Cloud. "Cloud-y! Did you come to save me?!" He called through the storm, eyeing the boy like a piece of meat.
Cloud blushed, having noticed this, "shut up, you jerk! I did come to save you! You could at least be polite about it!" He yelled, punctuating it with a stomp of his foot.
He crossed his arms and glanced away stubbornly, refusing to look back at the SOLDIER. He heard Zack laugh, "Aww, c'mon, Cloud! Get me down from here!" As Cloud turned back, Zack's smile turned into a pout, just barely visible to Cloud through the rain, but it still softened him. "I think I learned my lesson, puh-leeeeeease?"
Cloud huffed, hands dropping back down to his sides, "fine!" He turned his head to Vincent, frustrated face quickly turning into a persuasive smile, "can you help me get him down, Vincent?"
Vincent would have said yes without the whole smile, but it just compounded on to his willingness. He nodded and without any warning at all, whipped out Cerberus and shot at the rope keeping Zack tied up.
Cloud and Zack yelped in horror at the same time; Cloud due to the unsuspected gunshot and Zack due to the ten foot fall.
At least the bird had flown away.
-..--..--
A/N: I wrote a few more paragraphs and planned to continue writing (this chapter was 1.1k, I prefer them around 2k,) but I thought that last one was a cute line to end on.
Thanks to the readers who inspired me to finish this up. ;D And Gili, who forced me.
Good news is, I took the writings that I was going to add in here and moved them into the fourth chapter, so I got an extra head-start on it. And if I finish my chemistry homework, maybe I'll work on that one tonight too.
Review, plox, makes me feel good. 3
To anyone who cares: It would have been updated three hours ago, but my comp exploded and then I fell asleep. :
O I hope you all enjoy it as much as the last two chapters!