Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII or anything in it. Or Wikipedia
A/N: I think I finally know where the term lemon comes from. I was looking because I read somewhere that it only applied to homoerotic scenes, but I notice people here use it to describe homo and hetero both. I believe the latter is correct, since the term seems to have originated from a noteworthy hentai series titled Cream Lemon. According to Wikipedia "Cream Lemon is a collection of somewhat surreal stories having different settings and situations at different points in time, with genres including fantasy, comedy, suspense, sci-fi, action, drama and mystery. The overriding theme of the series is sex of almost any kind imaginable."
"Cloud, I think you're burning." Zack's shadow passed over the blonde's back, but the sleeping form didn't respond.
"Hey, Cloud!" Zack nudged him with one sand coated foot and received only a resistive grunt. "Seph, he's burning."
The green eyes came open and Sephiroth lifted his torso to look at Cloud. Zack's attention veered away from Cloud as he looked at Sephiroth. He had gotten kind of two toned, but he wasn't getting red or brown. The side that had been facing the sun was looking rather silvery. Like his hair. Zack remembered learning in some fool class that the cells from skin and those in hair were similar. Maybe Sephiroth's skin was actually silver. As he watched the line between the cream color on his front side and the silver on his back moved to cover the new area where the sun hit. Zack hadn't noticed this behavior of his friend's skin before. Maybe it was some reflectivity sun defense. He'd have to ask about it later, right now he was being stared at questioningly as if he were the odd one.
"Sunburn?" Zack tried. Sephiroth stared blankly back. "The sun damages the skin, it turns red and hurts?"
Finally there was some recognition. "Yes, I've seen the phenomenon. It hurts?" Sephiroth looked down at Cloud, now a bit worried.
"Well, yeah, it can. Pasty blondes like Cloud can get burned pretty bad. Their skin is really pale."
"Your skin is fairly pale."
"I'm from Gongaga, if I hadn't been loaded up with mako as a teenager I'd be pretty dark skinned, and hairy."
Sephiroth made a face showing his distaste.
"We don't burn. Even though I'm pretty pale now I still don't burn easily. But blond Soldiers, they burn."
Sephiroth looked down at his own chest. "I don't think I do this."
"Nooo. You seem to be turning silver."
Sephiroth frowned at himself once more before returning his attention to Cloud.
"He looks OK."
"Naw, he's all pink."
"He's lying in the sun, maybe he's just warm."
Zack pressed a finger to Cloud's back. When he removed it a whitened oval remained briefly before filling in with pink.
"Burnt," Zack declared.
Sephiroth imitated the test on Cloud, frowning, unsure of what it was supposed to mean. He repeated it to himself, decided he was probably useless as a comparison to anyone, and did it to a spot on Zack's leg. It behaved in roughly the same way. Maybe not as dramatic. He did it to Cloud again. Zack poked Cloud again.
"Quit, you guys! Leave me alone, I'm fine," Cloud said into his towel.
"There, he's fine. Let him be," Sephiroth said, and lay back down.
Zack shook his head and joined Aerith under the umbrella.
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"That's it, Cloud, you're getting out of the sun." Zack stuck his foot under the boy's torso and rolled him over. Cloud must have been turning over during his basking because his front was also distinctively pink. The afternoon was well on and Cloud had been sleeping in the sun for at least three hours.
Cloud squinted at Zack in defiance.
"I don't care what Seph says, I can't let you lay out here one minute more."
Sephiroth sat up. 'I don't care what Seph says' was not something that normally came out of Zack's mouth. And Cloud did look really... pink. He tugged a bit of Cloud's waistband downward. There was a definite contrast between the exposed and covered skin.
"Come on inside, Cloud," he said and waited for Cloud to get lazily to his feet. When he laid his hand on Could's back he heard him hiss slightly.
"Hurt?" Sephiroth asked.
"Just a little," Cloud said.
Sephiroth moved his hand to Cloud's butt, an area presumably safe from the dreaded 'sunburn'.
"This better?"
"Oh yeah, that's good," Cloud said, smiling lazily.
Sephiroth smiled back. If the pain was minor it couldn't be anything that terrible. Zack was probably overreacting. But he didn't care to have Cloud untouchable all night, even if some of his favorite parts were spared. They'd take a visit to the medkit inside.
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'Ow! Don't touch!"
"Cloud, I don't know what else to do, I'm being as gentle as I can." Sephiroth had resorted to a clear gel found in the medicine cabinet that promised to be 'cool and soothing' to sunburn, but it appeared Cloud found it anything but.
"Hey I told you so." Zack came in looking smug.
"Shut up Zack, you might also have mentioned that materia cannot heal sunburn."
"Well I didn't know that. It's not like we ever tried burning up materia on sunburn before. Did you try a potion?"
"I tried everything. Now I am stuck with this archaic home remedy."
"I'm going to be sick." Cloud stumbled into the bathroom where they could hear him retching.
"He's vomiting? Seph, that's really bad, I've heard that can happen but I've never seen it before."
"He's starting to blister, too. I'm going to take him to the med facility in town. I don't suppose there's much they can do for him besides shoot him up with painkiller and let him lay in a bed for a few days. Damn it. Poor kid, this trip was supposed to be for him."
Aerith peeked in from the doorway. She felt terrible for Cloud, but the look on Sephiroth's face was heartbreaking. In her wildest dreams she would never have imagined the devil of ShinRa moving her heart to pity because of pain he felt for another. But there the strange eyes were, clearly awash with worry, guilt, and anguish. And Zack looked like he was feeling same. Cloud came out of the bathroom, and now that they were indoors it was obvious how lobster-red he was over his entire body. He was even burnt on his scalp where his spikes parted.
Sephiroth looked at Cloud, his affliction as visible as Cloud's sunburn, then turned pleading eyes to Aerith. She sighed. She was not born to watch people suffer and do nothing.
"Cloud, be still," she said. She shut her eyes and opened the door inside of her full force to the planet. It was a disturbing sensation, like willfully drowning as her sense of self slipped away. It took all her concentration to shape the force and direct it outwards toward Cloud. A wind, tainted green, circled around her body then left her in favor of Cloud, swirling around him like a cocoon. Cloud was wide eyed in confusion, but he was rapidly turned from red to white. Then the small cyclone was gone, and Cloud stood looking fresh and normal in his new swim trunks. A long fingered hand reached out and caressed his arm.
"Cloud?" Sephiroth said, and seeing he no longer cringed at his touch he enfolded Cloud in his arms and kissed his forehead.
"What was that?" Cloud asked, "Was it some kind of Cure?"
"Yeah, some kind." He looked at Aerith and mouthed a silent 'thank-you', then brought his gaze over to Zack, who was looking puzzled and maybe a bit angry.
"I think we're going to go upstairs for awhile," Sephiroth said. He nudged a confused but grateful Cloud up the stairs.
When their door shut Zack turned to Aerith. "Do you have something you want to tell me?"
She nodded, her large eyes liquid with developing tears. Where to even start? And now to have to deal with it as if it were being forced out of her, when in fact she had already decided to tell Zack that night. Among other things.
"I'm different," was all could manage.
"I see that. But that's not what's bothering me. This connection with my commander is what's upsetting me. He knew about this 'difference'."
"It's not a connection!" she blurted out. "I didn't even know he knew about me until..." She shook her head. This was coming out all wrong. "I thought I was successfully hiding from him. From him and all of ShinRa. That's why I didn't want to come here, on this trip. But when yourGeneral came to me and asked me to come with you and told me he already knew where I was..."
"Seph visited you? After I left?"
She nodded.
Zack cut his eyes. Sephiroth was going to get it for this one.
Aerith took a slow breath. Maybe she should start over.
"My mother was the last living full blood Cetra," she said, her astonishing statement effectively interrupting Zack's thoughts. "And she was a prisoner and test subject of ShinRa. One day one of the scientists fell in love with her," Aerith smiled at this romantic family history story. "He stole her and whisked her far away. Then I was born and for a few short days I guess things were good. Then they came. They killed my father and put mother and me back in the lab."
All of Zack's irritation towards Sephiroth was overshadowed by that indignant anger he always felt regarding ShinRa 'test subjects'. Normally that anger was for Sephiroth, bourn from knowing only a small part of what Sephiroth had suffered there. And now he found Aerith had been in the lab, too. He had been more right than he knew; she and Sephiroth did have a connection. An ugly one.
"How did you escape?" he asked.
"There was an explosion one day. The electronic lock on our cell door failed, and there was smoke and confusion. We managed to slip out and work our way through the building. But somebody shot mother, just as we were almost free. I was so scared, but I knew she was gone. I could hear her immediately from the Lifestream. That's what we do, hear the Lifestream, you know that right?"
"I know a little about it," Zack said. In truth his knowledge of the old Cetra legends was pretty shaky, and he hadn't believed any of it. He was going to have to ask a lot of questions later.
"My mother told me to run so I ran. I got down onto the lower plate and never stuck my head up out of it since. I don't know how your friend found me."
Zack considered. Nobody just waltzed out of ShinRa even if there was smoke and confusion. Somebody let them go. Somebody with a good understanding of the lab and the outer security. Not lab personnel. That pretty much left Turks. Or Sephiroth.
Aerith turned away from him, her arms hugging herself. "I was going to tell you, tonight. I know you might not believe that now, but it's true."
Zack considered. He recalled the warming to him on the beach. She was still skittish, but he got the distinct impression that tonight was going to be his night. She had made some sort of decision about him, something that had trust all wrapped up in it. He put his arms around her, their bare skin still warm from the afternoon sun, and kissed her temple.
"I believe you," he said.
Her eyes looked up, full of unexpected hope, and she kissed him for the first time without nerves or worry or reserve, passion spilling from her lips onto his, her body pressed full against him until she could feel a shifting in his groin.
"Wow," Zack said, breaking this kiss. He didn't want to, but there was still something he had to do while he still had a little ire left to do it. And before his body got into an inappropriate state.
"Excuse me just one moment," he said, and then clambered with a tremendous jump right over the rail to the second floor.
Aerith shook her head. As many times as she'd seen him do things like that she never got used to it. There was something wholly unnatural about it. She heard one loud bang on a door.
"Seph! Get you ass out here!"
Oh no. Aerith ran up the stairs. The last thing she wanted was for Zack to fly off the handle at his friend and boss on account of her. But when she reached them she found both men frozen, Zack's face a conflicted jumble of emotions, the General's completely blank. She had never seen a face so blank before on a live person. She reached for some help from the planet as to what he was feeling.
He's confused. He doesn't know how to proceed.
That was it? All that blankness because he was confused? She blinked her eyes a few times in disbelief. What a strange creature he was.
One of Zack's emotional states must have finally won out, because Zack let his forehead fall against Sephiroth's shoulder. Now the mask broke as Sephiroth at least seemed to know how to respond. He put his hand lightly on the back of Zack's head. But his comfort was short lived as in a moment later Zack jerked up and gave him a forceful shove.
"How could you?" he yelled. "How could you not tell me, day in and day out?"
"Zack, please!" Aerith stepped nimbly in front of him, thinking rather too late that darting between two Soldiers who might take to swinging at each other at any moment might be fatal for a girl her size.
Zack looked at her in surprise. He'd gotten the distinct impression she did not care much for Sephiroth, and now she was defending him?
"He..." Aerith stopped, also finding it hard to believe she was defending the ShinRa general. "He did it because he loves you. Because if he told you it would have robbed you of the chance to hear it from me." Aerith shut her eyes as she said this, because until that moment she hadn't fully accepted that bit of truth, that Sephiroth's complaint was valid. Zack was hurt a little bit every day that he didn't know. And Sephiroth had risked their relationship by withholding that truth for her.
Zack stared at Sephiroth in disbelief. Aerith might be buying that the General would do such a thing, such a considerate, socially adroit thing, but she was giving him too much credit. Zack knew better. "You? You figured all that out?"
Sephiroth blinked at him twice. "No. You told me to do it."
Now it was Zack's turn to blink in confusion.
"Two months ago. I put it to you as an abstract hypothesis."
Zack had to wrack his brain as to what he might be referring to. Then he remembered- an obscure, stilted conversation.
"I thought you were talking about Wilson, and his cheating wife," Zack said.
"Wilson's wife is cheating on him?"
Zack rolled his eyes.
"We should tell him," Sephiroth said.
"She already did," Zack said dismissively. "They worked it out."
"Oh."
There was an uncomfortable lull where none of them were sure how to proceed.
"So… is this the source of your problem with each other?" Zack asked.
Aerith and Sephiroth looked at one another.
"Oh, don't act all surprised. I've just been pretending not to notice in hopes that it would go away."
Sephiroth smiled at the girl, and this time she felt no malice in it. His eyes flicked back into his room to Cloud. The boy was sitting on the bed with his knees pulled up, his blue eyes anxious as he watched them. But he was not in pain.
"I'll find no fault with you today. Not so long as you treat my Zack well," he said.
"Your Zack?" Zack pulled Aerith into his arms and coaxed her face into his shoulder so that he might hold Sephiroth's attention to himself. "You put me in harm's way, commander. You let me blindly move about a ShinRa target. I could have been Turked."
Sephiroth frowned. "Since when do I not compensate with Ops when intelligence is withheld?"
"Never, sir." Zack winced. Sephiroth always took care with his men and he knew it.
"I've kept a very close eye on you the last few months. As far as I know you've not been followed or interfered with in any way."
"Gee, I don't know whether to be flattered or creeped out," Zack said. How embarrassing. His love life had come under the category of operations.
Sephiroth studied Zack, then reached over and squeezed his shoulder. "Be flattered. I could not have done this for a man I loved less. On the other hand, had I loved you less it wouldn't have been so painful to keep this from you. Kind of a conundrum, really. Are you finished with me now?"
"Yeah. No. I gotta know something. Was it you? Did you help her escape?"
Aerith shook her head free of Zack's hand so she could look at Sephiroth. Why would Zack think something like that? Of course, it would explain a few things...
"I'm sorry," Sephiroth said, the green eyes fixing on hers. "For your mother. I was pretty young and didn't know how to circumvent Turks at that time. Especially trigger happy rookies. He paid, though." The malicious half-smile was back, and he noticed Aerith shrinking away from him. "Not me, the Turks did not want to keep him after he destroyed such a valuable subject."
Zack shifted uncomfortably. Turks never got fired. They didn't like to have ex-Turks out of Turk clutches. They just disappeared.
"Let's all relax a little bit before dinner." Sephiroth stole another glance back at Cloud. "Then go out? Cloud has a penchant for pizza."
"Sounds perfect." Zack squeezed Aerith and smiled at the thought of pizza. He liked to eat almost as much as he liked to fuck, and it looked like maybe he was going to get to do both tonight. "And Seph? Thanks. For everything."
Sephiroth smiled and shut the door behind him.
"Are you OK?" Sephiroth stroked Cloud's cheek with the back of his fingers.
"I don't like to see you Zack fighting."
"I think we're OK now. He let me off pretty easy. I know you're curious about this, and we can talk about it more once Zack feels more settled with the whole thing."
Cloud nodded. He brought his hands tentatively up to Sephiroth's waist, his fingers tracing the waistband of his maroon and white patterned swim trunks. He had been told to stop earlier, gently, but Sephiroth had never told him to stop before. He hoped the General had perhaps just been waiting for Zack to make his appearance.
"Now?" Cloud asked quietly.
"Now," Sephiroth said, smiling warmly and kissing Cloud.
Cloud tucked his fingers shyly inside Sephiroth's waistband, and then slowly and carefully undid the tie. But he didn't push the trunks downward; instead he ran his fingers back and forth between skin and fabric.
Sephiroth looked at Cloud, curious. Cloud was moving cautiously, a sign that he was doing something new and was unsure of himself. The boy had undressed him before, even yanking clothing off in fits of passion. But this time was a little different. He was working alone, Sephiroth hadn't made a move to remove Cloud's trunks and Cloud was still covered, at least in the most important respect he was clothed. Normally Cloud was the first one undressed. Clothing equaled power, control, and Sephiroth smiled, guessing what Cloud wanted. It excited him to see that adventurous side of Cloud, that desire to try something different. Sephiroth lifted his hips and pushed his own trunks down until he could kick them free. Then he laced his fingers behind his head and stretched his full length onto the bed.
"Is this what you want?" Sephiroth asked, his low, velvety tone enough to induce a prickle on the back of Cloud's neck that ran down the backs of his arms.
Cloud nodded, swallowing and licking lips that had gone dry. It looked like Sephiroth was going to let him touch and gaze at him to his hearts desire. And his desire was considerable. He'd never had this type of leisure to admire Sephiroth physically, and the General was so utterly beautiful. Every muscle on his body was visible under the skin, his erection a trophy centered atop his long, lean frame. Cloud started with one fingertip at one of Sephiroth's upturned elbows, tracing the groove between well developed biceps and triceps. He ran them over Sephiroth's armpit, moving a smattering of pale hair so fine it easily went unnoticed. He slid a cupped hand around pectorals and then to the top of his stomach, ridged and resilient under his palm. Another very fine line of fine hair graced the center of his body below his navel, lying directly under Sephiroth's stiffened member. Cloud gazed for a long minute at Sephiroth's genitalia, nestled in a bright corona of sliver tendrils. But he didn't touch. He ran his fingers around the edges, into the corners between his testicles and thighs, tracing up over the top on his stomach. Sephiroth groaned softly and shifted, a glistening drop appearing at the tip of his phallus.
Cloud resisted the temptation to flick the small, sparkling drop with his tongue and looked to Sephiroth's face to make sure the older man was interested in continuing this indulgence. Sephiroth was smiling gently, but his eyes exuded anything but patience. They held the quivering excitement of a waiting hunter. The anticipation was catchy, and Cloud's heart rate picked up as he looked back down at his work. He wasn't finished yet. He ran his fingers down the tops of Sephiroth's thighs, so light the man twitched under the attention. He stroked over both calves, finally to feet which jerked as Cloud stroked the arches. They jerked even more as fingers danced just under the toes.
"You're ticklish," Cloud said, wondering why he hadn't spent time investigating Sephiroth's feet before. Sephiroth made a noise half way between a yelp and laugh as Cloud bit one big toe lightly, his teeth scraping across the surface, the edge of his lip picking up stray grains of sand that still clung there. Then Cloud ran both hands up the inside of Sephiroth's legs until they cupped his sack. He dragged the point of his tongue up Sephiroth's shaft then engulfed the head in his mouth. He sucked out slowly, once twice, then stopped. He did this again, and heard Sephiroth moan as he lifted slightly upward, his hips seeking those warm, wet lips again. Cloud repeated the two slow sucks, and stopped again. He could feel the tension and heat in Sephiroth's body, and he meant to force him out of his self imposed containment. Again, one two, stop.
Cloud heard what he might only describe as a growl and then he was on his back, hands pinned to the mattress in a grip so strong his wrists burned with pain. Sephiroth was over him with a look so feral that Cloud exhaled a terrified whimper.
"Shhh, shh, it's OK." The grip loosened and the face became the lover once more. Sephiroth dipped his head forward and kissed Cloud carefully on the corner of his mouth, on his forehead, and over his eyelids until the boy's fearful panting ceased. Sephiroth looked down at him.
"Do you like being pinned this way?"
Cloud immediately shook his head no. Somehow he thought he should like it, but it kind of encouraged panic in him.
"So do something about it. Toss me."
Sephiroth's tone was playful now, and Cloud considered his position. He shifted his legs which were pinned between Sephiroth's. The General's hands immediately opened as alarm took the green eyes.
"Shiva, not that one if you want to make use of me for the rest of this vacation. Choose another; send me sideways."
"I won't be able to do it. You're heavier and too well settled."
"So wait until I'm distracted." Sephrioth brought his lips to Cloud's, caressing them with his own, his tongue dancing and teasing. Before long his left hand came down off Cloud's wrist to touch face and neck and chest. Cloud's brain registered that this was the moment, although he was seriously distracted himself. But he popped his right hip up and shoved with his right hand and Sephiroth went over sideways, Cloud following so he might be on top. Sephiroth laughed and continued the roll to reverse their positions again, realizing they were both going over the edge, Cloud on the bottom. Sephiroth had meant to wind up on top but didn't want to land on top of Cloud on the hard floor to do it. With one last desperate acrobatic maneuver at the corner of the bed he flipped them both over and he thudded his back into the floor, Cloud on top of him.
"Ow." Sephiroth squinted. He had actually hit his head on the nightstand on the way down.
"You OK?" Cloud asked.
Sephiroth smiled. Whatever pain he had was already subsiding, and Cloud was lying full length on top of him. He couldn't complain. Except...
"Take these off," he said, tugging at Cloud's trunks.
Cloud managed, and Sephiroth guided him until he was sitting ontop of his thighs, straddling him with his knees. He pulled Cloud forward until the skin on their scrotums softly melded together. Sephiroth lifted his own member off his stomach with his thumb and hooked it together with Cloud's in his long fingers.
"I've been thinking about this for awhile," he whispered, pleased to see Cloud mesmerized by the sight of both of them being held together. He reached up to the nightstand and snagged their bottle of lube, and drizzled the viscous fluid around and between both tips the way one might adorn a desert with chocolate sauce.
"I want us to stroke together." Sephiroth said.
Cloud lent a hand to the effort and they moved their grips around so as maximize squeezing. But they'd be stuck with same rhythm and Cloud's was quite a bit faster than Sephiroth's. They could compromise, but Sephiroth was unsure whether Cloud could use anything less than optimum given they had already been together once today and he had been retching less than an hour ago. But Cloud didn't look tired, anything but. After receiving what he believed was called the "healing wind" from Aerith Cloud was remarkably restored all around. He probably wasn't even sore anymore.
"Ohhhh," Cloud moaned, watching the show in front of him. Sephiroth watched Cloud's face, the rising excitement plain in the pink of his cheeks. Sephiroth was pretty sure he could pop off at any time, just watching Cloud's face. The beauty of this maneuver was to go together. He encouraged them to a faster pace and Cloud's whole neck and face reddened, his breathing accelerated, and he stiffened just a bit more under Sephiroth's fingers. Now he thought, made sure he got the last squeeze he needed, and in tandem bodily spasms they sent up streams that mixed together into the air, sparkling briefly in the light before landing, some of it on Sephiroth, some elsewhere.
"Oh," Cloud said, already getting drowsy. "Sorry."
Sephiroth smiled gently and reached for a tissue. He dabbed some off his chest and cheek.
"Don't you ever apologize for getting jism on me. Or in my hair. Or on my leather couch. Or my walls, the carpet, the window sill that one time..."
Cloud smiled and Sephiroth moved him forward, up and over his member until Cloud was straddling his stomach. He propped up his knees so Cloud could lean back and rest against his thighs. He adored watching Cloud in his post-coital state.
"You hungry?" Sephiroth asked after a few minutes. "Pizza?"
Cloud smiled happily, but then both pricked their ears at new sound. A woman's voice, she was... moaning. Higher pitched cries accented her sounds. Cloud and Sephiroth looked at one another, eyebrows raised.
"Or I guess we could wait a little while," Sephiroth said.
Cloud leaned his weight into his makeshift chair, a little embarrassed thinking the thin walls must work both ways, but overall too happy to care.
A/N: So, one of you asked in the reviews to explain that naked sandtrap story. What the hell.
I used to think when I saw some undergarment lying at the edge of the sidewalk or in a bush (this kind of thing only happens on campus I suppose) that the owner, walking along with his or her amore, was suddenly possessed with desire to have sex right then and there, loosing garments in the process. But now I believe that's not what happens. Not that those scenes don't occur, just that they usually don't result in forgetting where the underwear was. This is more the behavior of drunk. The drunk is strolling about in the wee hours of some beautiful summer night, and is suddenly possessed with the desire to run amok naked. If you've never had this urge I probably can't help explain it to you. But as a nudist at heart I promise you that alcohol increases the inclination. The drunk is apt to range far and wide in this blissful trek and is particularly ill suited to find all the items cast aside.
One night, while drinking Jose out of the bottle at my friend's apartment on a lovely summer's eve, we looked out over the golf course visible from his balcony.
"You know," he said, "My friends and I used to go play golf at night on the local course. It's free then."
"Do you have clubs?" I asked
"No. But we should go out there anyhow."
"We should bring the tequila."
"We should be naked." (I forget who said that part).
"Wait!" I said, "This is exactly how people lose their underwear. This isn't going to happen to me!"
I took off my clothes, put my underwear on the coffee table, and put my clothes back on.
We walked (probably staggered) out to the golf course, stripped off our clothes, and ran around in beserk alcohol and nudity induced joy. We had the little sand trap incident. And we tried to swim in the water hazard. Don't do that, those things are nasty. And as it was Michigan returned back with about eight million mosquito bites, which we counted on each other. We had a very long, intense conversation in the shower which was probably about nothing, and then we passed out. I still had my underwear, and although the evening was rife with nudity no sex was involved (that I recall).