A/N: Summery chapter! And gosh, it turned out long...more like a short one-shot than a drabble, really. xD I'm sorry that I can't guarantee regular updates because of the workload I have, but hope you're all enjoying this. Thank you so much for reading and for the feedback so far. I really appreciate it. :)
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy and its characters are property of Square Enix, not me.
Chapter 5: Beach
Cloud
Going to the beach with Zack drove me crazy.
It wasn't often that both of us got to go to places like Costa del Sol at the same time, so we really tried to make the most of it when we did. It's freeing to just get out of the city for a while, feel the summer sun and the saltwater and the cool wind, and nothing's better than being there with Zack. I don't think anyone loves summer and the beach as much as him.
Today we got there in the afternoon after doing missions around the area for the whole morning. A few people were there, mostly other SOLDIERs and infantrymen that were either done for the day like us or sneaking out of their duties. I didn't blame them. The beach seemed too perfect and natural to be real after being cooped up in Midgar, so much white sand and blue sky and crashing waves that it almost made me dizzy.
For a few moments Zack and I just stood at the top of the beach, feeling the sand seep between our toes and gazing out at everything in front of us. Zack was grinning. I knew I was staring at him again but I'd pretty much given up on trying to stop. We'd changed out of our dirty uniforms and into swimming trunks and plain t-shirts. The thin cotton fell over his torso like water, not doing much to hide the outlines of muscles. I tried to not pay attention to that and watched the way the breeze rustled his hair, how the sun touched his face, how the light made his eyes glisten and look even brighter than they usually did.
I was still just standing there when he took off running towards the shore, laughing and pulling off his shirt and shouting at me to hurry up. I shouted back at him to wait. He didn't listen. I scrambled to get my own shirt off and then both of us were racing to the water, laughing and trying to push each other out of the way to get there first, like a couple of kids. For now we could forget all our responsibilities, all our problems. We were just Cloud and Zack. The world was ours.
It never felt like it lasted long enough.
The daylight faded too fast. Time passed in a flurry of reckless races to see who could swim out the farthest and sandy wrestling matches and volleyball games of SOLDIER versus infantry that just got frustrating after a while (for the infantrymen, anyway; the SOLDIERs were loving it). When the sun started to set, washing the sky and the ocean in orange and pink and turning the clouds to fire, just about everyone had left.
But Zack and I lay side by side on the warm sand, our skin and hair sticky with saltwater and sweat and sand but we didn't care. Our arms were outstretched on the ground and one of his was lightly brushing against mine. Where our skin touched it was voltage, sparks of energy that amplified and coursed through my veins until my whole body tingled a little. I tried to ignore it by staring up at the sky, still blown away by how big it looked here and how small it made us seem, how it felt like it could just swallow us up if it wanted to. Zack had been telling me about a girl who felt that way about the sky.
He was weirdly quiet now. I turned my head to him and saw that his eyes were closed, a content smile on his face, his breathing smooth and even. I shook my head and smirked as I turned away. It was kind of amazing that he'd just fallen asleep like that. But suddenly his voice spoke up, cutting through the hushed sounds of waves lapping at the shore and a few seagulls calling high above us.
"Hey. Cloud?"
I looked at him, only to see that his eyes were still closed.
"Yeah?"
"I'm really glad you're here."
Such simple words. And for some reason I froze up, my breath hitching in my throat. It was the way he said it. With some undertone of conviction and complete sincerity that hardly anyone had used with me before. He must've noticed the sudden tension in my body because he turned over, sliding his arm away from mine to prop himself up on his elbow and lean over me.
That just made me tense up more. My mouth opened slightly to ask him what he was doing but no sound came out. I tried to meet his blue-green gaze without showing emotion. It was hard when I could feel his hot breath on my face and his hair was almost touching my cheek and all of my senses were filled with him. He smelled like salt and sweat and sand and Zack, all smile and bright eyes and bare tan skin, summer in physical form. He was so close that his breath crept into my open mouth and the briny taste of it settled on my tongue. I felt heat rising to my face as he kept gazing down at me, and then he snickered, turning over to lie on his back with his arms outstretched the same way as before.
"What?" I questioned him, pushing myself up to see his face. He grinned up at the sky and closed his eyes again. Stifled another laugh.
"Your cheeks are all sunburned."
I didn't say anything. Just lay back down and let my arm rest against his, listening to the steady waves and looking up at the seagulls in the fire sky and feeling like he was silently telling me something in the way his charged skin brushed mine.
Going to the beach with Zack just drove me crazy.
