Choco-Kiss

Word Count: 945

Zack let out the rein after crossing the finish line, giving Chocobro his head so they could take a cool-down walk. Zack leaned down to stroke the bird's feathers gently, combing his fingers through them and fluffing them up a little. Chocobro had a specific destination in mind, and Zack let him guide them to the long, low tray of cool water a few of the other racers were wading into. Like other birds, chocobos couldn't sweat, but the racetrack was set up to address their needs in advance.

Zack dismounted before sending Chocobro off to cool down, and looked around. A number of other jockeys were standing around congratulating each other, and Zack would go over there in a minute to chat with them, but there was someone he wanted to see first.

"That's quite a bird you've got there," a low voice commented behind him.

Zack turned to see a dark-skinned brunette staring at him calmly. "Thanks," Zack replied genially. "Not good enough to beat you, though." Zack was more than a little put out. He and Chocobro had been racing a lot, and lately Chocobro had been winning fairly regularly.

The first place jockey laughed. "Hyperion would never lose to a yellow," he said lightly. "Frankly I'm surprised you managed to come in second. It's not often you see a yellow chocobo make A-rank."

Zack wasn't sure how to respond to that. He had been hearing other comments of a similar nature lately and wasn't really sure what it was about. Why couldn't a yellow chocobo win? And why was everyone so insistent that he breed Chocobro? People kept asking him – "Is Zack wild-caught? Or bred?" – that.

Zack made a face. When he first started racing, he had been asked to fill out a bunch of entry forms, and under "name" had written his own. Now Chocobro was registered as Zack. Zack didn't really mind: he had a good name, and he didn't mind sharing it. It was a little annoying putting up with Genesis and Sephiroth's teasing, renewed with each race, but overall Zack was kind of pleased with how everything worked out. Still, "I call him Chocobro when we're not racing," he corrected lightly.

The jockey was right, Chocobro was an awesome bird, and while they could be one when they were racing, Zack felt Chocobro deserved the professional courtesy of having his own name.

The jockey smiled pleasantly. "Yeah, Hyperion uses Teioh as his race name. Shame there's such a strict character limit on race names, isn't it?"

It wouldn't have made a difference in Zack's case, but he nodded along anyway. "You're, um," he wracked his brains, thinking for sure he had seen this jockey around, "Joe?"

Joe nodded. "And you are…"

"Zack." Joe stared at him for a moment, recognizing the shared name, but Zack met his eyes shamelessly and in the end Joe decided not to comment. Instead, he abruptly burst out laughing. "What – what?!" Zack yelled. Seriously, was it THAT funny?

"It's nothing, it's just – I've heard a lot about you, since you've been winning so much lately, and everything people say about you is so true, it's just very surprising. In a good way," he hurried to add. "So what about – Chocobro, did you say? Wild, I take it?"

Zack shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know anything about it, honestly. He was a gift from my boyfriend."

"How unusual. Most wild chocobos will only obey the person who caught them. But yellow chocobos that are bred in captivity are not usually considered suitable for racing."

Zack shrugged again. He didn't know Chocobro's origins, but he seemed fine at the races, so Zack had no grounds for complaint. "One way or another, we do alright," he said cheerfully.

Joe smiled. "Chocobro's doing well enough for now, but if you want to keep winning your way up, you'll need to leave your yellow in the stables. Why not breed a colored chocobo?"

Zack frowned, feeling a little miffed on Chocobro's behalf. "It doesn't matter if we can't scale mountains or cross rivers. As long as he's happy running, even if it's just on the plains, how could I be disappointed?"

The jockey looked surprised. "If you were only riding outside, that would be fine, but these are professional races. If you're going to join in as a jockey, don't you think it's your obligation to race the best bird you can? Around here, that means trading up from yellow. Your bird's done well so far – why not breed him? You can still ride Chocobro when you want."

Zack shrugged again, noncommittal. He raced because it was fun, and it was entertaining, and because Chocobro enjoyed it and was good at it – not because he needed to win. Turning his back on Joe, he scanned the room to check up on Chocobro. It had been long enough that he had probably cooled down some, but Zack was in no rush. Hyperion had wandered over to him, and was dragging his long pinfeathers behind him and spreading his tail feathers in a wide fan to show them off. "Kweh!" he squawked, rushing forward.

Chocobro took a few quick steps in the opposite direction before turning back to observe, clucking in surprise. The display continued for several more minutes, Hyperion's plumage fanning out more and more as he continued the ridiculous dance. Zack had no idea what he was doing, and Chocobro seemed both interested and highly offended by the display.

Joe watched the display with an odd look on his face. "Zack," he said finally, "you keep calling Chocobro 'him,' but… isn't she a hen?"

A/N: Happy Birthday, Heroism! I'm not a huge fan of the execution of this chapter but I haven't been able to improve it so… enjoy.