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Zack Fair knocks a cue ball into a corner pocket. The balls it ricocheted off of clack on the pool table in disarray.
“Dammit!” He exclaims, throwing his head back in exacerbation. The pool hall is filled with a few guests chatting, drinking, smoking, though not many for a Saturday night at Seventh Heaven. Neon signs advertising beers and whiskey cast a low glow throughout the barroom and a jukebox cornerside plays a popular tune Cloud Strife recognizes but can’t remember the name of.
“Your turn,” Zack surrenders the pool cue over to Cloud. “Go easy on me.”
“I thought you said you were good at this,” Cloud smirks, plucking the white orb from the basket and then placing it strategically on the table. It’s gloss against his fingers is reminiscent of materia.
“Apparently not as good as you,” Zack grumbles into a frothy mug of beer as he takes a hearty swig, draining it.
“Need a refill, Zack?” Tifa leans over her shoulder carrying a tray full of empty glasses, calling at him.
“Only from you, sweetheart,” Zack winks, raising the glass. “Besides, I’ve got the world’s most experienced designated driver.” He gestures in Cloud’s direction.
“Is that so?” Cloud sighs.
“Cloud, you gotta knock some sense into this dude sometime. He’s bound to drink this place dry,” Tifa rolls her eyes, smiling. “I’ll snag an ice cold cola for you on the house, okay?” She winks at Cloud, who averts his eyes and thanks her quietly.
“She doesn’t like that,” Cloud says vexedly, stretching his shoulder against the pool cue after Tifa returns to the bar counter. He then leans into the shot and releases it with a crack. Two striped balls glide then rebound into a center and a corner basket with ease. Zack sighs at the play, which has pretty much ended the game for him. Cloud composes himself calmly, though with a slight smug look of victory on his face.
“What? Flirting?”
“Yeah, she gets it all the time from the creeps that crawl in here. She doesn’t need it from you.”
Zack bumps Cloud with his elbow playfully, then leans in.
“I know she’s your childhood friend and all, but she’s more than capable of speaking for herself, don’t you think?”
Cloud glances over at Tifa, who is talking lightheartedly with an older woman at the bar counter as she fills Zack’s beer from the tap. He knows she is more than capable of handling herself, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t ever worry about her. He cares about her, a woman as close as family to him. The thought of men causing her trouble raises a fire of protection in him, despite the fact that he knows she could definitely kick their asses, being a martial arts instructor and all.
Zack suddenly slips his arms around Cloud’s waist, causing him to stiffen.
“Hey…” Cloud warns.
“Or, is it that you’re jealous?” Zack says into his ear with a sing-song tone. Cloud can smell rank beer on his breath.
Cloud clicks his tongue and removes Zack’s hands from around his waist, lowering his voice. “You know that’s not it…”
“Aw, don’t be like that,” Zack whispers disappointedly, though he doesn't persist when Cloud expresses embarrassment at the affection. “You didn’t mind this so much earlier…”
“Here you go guys,” Tifa sets the two brimming mugs down on a table behind them, causing Cloud to jump. Zack stifles a laugh through his nose at Cloud’s exacerbated face. She eyes them almost with a look of suspicion, but redirects her glance to the pool table with a hand on her hip. “Any plans for the rest of the night? Looks like Cloud’s pretty much won already…again.”
“Hey! I still have...one, two...two chances left to win,” Zack insists.
“Nah, let’s call it,” Cloud leers. “Finish your beer.”
Zack raises his eyebrows at the display of brash confidence, picking up his mug, and smiling flirtatiously at him.
“Going somewhere else tonight?” Tifa inquires.
“You know, I gotta lug his ass home before he gets any more obnoxious.”
Tifa eyes Zack knowingly. “Mhmm.”
“No, not you too, babe! God, you guys really think I’m a clown don’t you?” Zack sighs, downing the rest of his drink. “Oh, but little did you know, in town they call me … Big Papa. Ladies love me out there,” he runs a quick hand through his dark hair with a smirk at Tifa.
Cloud presses his fingers to his forehead.
“Sure, Mr. Four Beers and Counting.” Tifa says assumingly, turning to walk back up the short staircase to the barhall. “Remember to close your tab out.”
“Yeesh,” Zack throws a hand over his chest. “Heartless.”
“Hey,” Cloud grins impishly at him after Tifa leaves. “Big Papa, huh?”
“What, you don’t believe me?”
Cloud looks him over expectantly, arms crossed, leaning against the pool table. Zack looks behind his shoulder with a grin, then approaches him, slipping a broad hand over his ass. He grips it in one motion, pinning him gently against the pool table with his hips.
“How ‘bout now?” Zack growls in his ear, tucking back some of Cloud’s blonde hair behind his ear. “Don’t get all flustered again, c’mon nobody’s watching this time…”
“You’re such a fuckboy,” Cloud rolls his eyes petulantly, but then relaxes slightly at Zack’s fingers twirling at his hair, a smile forming at the corners of his mouth.
“And you’ve changed,” Zack says with a gravelly voice. “Look at you, throwing shade and shit. I’ll be honest, I kinda liked it when you roasted me back there. Pretty hot to see you tease me like that.”
Zack kisses his cheek gently and Cloud relaxes into him, if only for a minute. He enjoys this...a man who makes him feel so wholly safe, someone who, despite the joking, he looks up to as a person. Zack is someone who makes him a better man every time he encounters him. He’s not quite ready to come out and say they’re dating yet, not because he doesn’t think Zack wouldn’t approve of going public, in fact, he’d urged him to, but because … because he’s afraid. He’s afraid of how much deep down he loves him. Going public would formalize his feelings and present a risk of loss if anything were to ever happen. Not that it ever would...but this was Zack...the most flirtatious man he’d ever met. What if-what if Zack found someone he loved more than him? What if-
“I wanna drive somewhere,” Zack whines with his chin against the top of his head. “I’m sick of the same places that we go to every Saturday night.”
“Where?” Cloud says, still slightly hesitant to the public display of affection, resting a hand softly on his back.
“You’ve got your bike? Let’s drive out to the ocean.”
“The ocean? It’s midnight.”
“Yeah? So? I wanna smell some fresh sea air!”
“If that’s what you want…” Cloud says doubtfully. “I just filled the tank so we can go anywhere, really.”
“C’mon, baby. Just you and me,” Zack whispers in his ear, slipping a hand into the front pocket of Cloud’s jeans where the keys to Fenrir were tucked away. Cloud feels emotion and arousal well up in his entire body. He’s dying for it too, the time away, the privacy…
He presses his hand against Zack’s hard chest to gently push him off.
“Pay Tifa first, I’ll go start it up.”
Zack smiles and tosses Cloud’s keys back to him.
--
Fenrir’s motorcycle engine roars as the two men drive, the only vehicle on the road, on the oceanside highway. The moonlight is full and casts a stark white-blue light on the pavement, the streetlights passing in intermittent orange. Zack has his arms wrapped tightly around Cloud’s waist as he passes by at lightning speed. The wind pushes against them, cool, invigorating, nothing less than free. The air simply smells like fresh salt and sea. The ocean is beautiful at night, blue flecked with white glitter framed by a shimmering beachfront. Cloud pulls into the parking lot and dismounts, kicking the kickstand down and removing his helmet. Zack is already barefoot, running through the sand towards the ocean.
“Get over here!” He yells, waving his arms in the air. At some point he’s removed his shirt. Cloud meticulously rolls his jeans up and removes first his boots then his socks, rolling them carefully and tucking them inside his shoes. The sand is cool against his feet as he walks towards Zack with arms crossed against the wind. Zack jogs over to him with something cupped in his hand.
“Here, don’t I owe you money?” he says breathlessly.
He presses a sand dollar into Cloud’s palm. Cloud looks up at him with lips pressed together, braced at the awful joke.
“That was a pretty bad one, even for you,” Cloud says, putting it into his pocket.
Zack smirks and grabs Cloud’s wrist, pulling him into an embrace. He wraps him fully and warmly into his strong arms.
“Look, we’re here. We’re together.”
Cloud nods with his head pressed against Zack’s chest. Zack smells like leather, like amber and wood. His heart feels so full and here, in the full face of nature, solitary he feels emboldened to say,
“Do it, Zack. Kiss me.”
Zack cups his hand behind Cloud’s head and then, looking full into his blue eyes, glittering in the light of the moon, says,
“No, this time, you kiss me,”
Cloud averts his eyes in astonishment and anxiety. He wasn’t expecting that. He feels his lips part and twitch slightly.
“I-” he hesitates. His heart is racing.
“What is it?” Zack says, his voice low. He puts a hand to Cloud’s chest, feeling his heartbeat.
“I-” Cloud knows what it is. If I kiss you, I won’t be able to let you go. He will have attached himself to him, sealed himself to him, despite these gradual oncoming feelings that had crescendoed into this moment, here and now. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Cloud finds himself welling up in a surprising bout of tears, them stinging in the corners of his eyes and his nose sniffing. His emotions feel so confusing and nameless in this moment. He feels vulnerable and scared, like a child. But then, he realizes. Since childhood he’s done nothing but act brave, act tough - he was the boy who wanted to be a SOLDIER, after all. But here, in the arms of Zack, he was nothing more than who he was at his core, someone scared, someone wanting to give and receive love more than anything else.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Zack whispers against his forehead, kissing it softly while patting down his hair in consolation. “It’s okay, just kiss me.”
Please, I never want to forget this. Please.
Cloud closes his eyes and rises up to meet Zack’s lips, which he feels soft and warm against his. The ocean crashes in light hisses distantly. Cloud is aware of how utterly alone they are together. That notion warms him to his core. Zack meets his kiss with ferocity, pulling him deep and close to him with a deep inhale. His tongue grazes against Cloud’s as it slips between his lips.
“Mmm, that’s good,” Zack says after pulling away, wrapping his hand around Cloud’s face, wiping his cheek streaked with tears. “Thank you.”
“C-Can we start dating?” Cloud stutters.
“Dating?” Zack laughs softly.
Cloud’s heart drops.
“You don’t want to after all?”
“No, babe, no that’s not it,” Zack hugs him tightly. “It’s just, I love you, and that word...man, that word sounds so lame when you love someone doesn’t it?”
Cloud sighs through his nose in relief.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Zack smiles and Cloud looks up at him expectantly. “God, your eyes look amazing in this moonlight. Come here.”
He kisses him again. Deeply. Cloud can feel all of him in that kiss, his honesty, his strength, his integrity and passion.
“Mmm, I think I wanted to come here because you remind me of the ocean in a way,” Zack muses. “Wild, powerful, kinda temperamental…”
“Hey!” Cloud protests with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah. You know I love you,” Zack says, gently ruffling his hair. “And don’t forget it, okay?”
They spend the rest of the night stargazing in the sand, Cloud snuggling deep against Zack as they fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing and the steady breathing of one another.