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The first thing to enter Cloud’s awareness was the pounding of his head. He winced and pushed himself up on his forearms, blinking at his surroundings. He was in a small, stone room, the bricks the same brown as the arena. He was still in the Coliseum, then?
Cloud tried to think past the pain and remember why he was there. He got flashes of fighting some kid. He felt a little bad about that, the guy was clearly inexperienced. He also remembered Cerberus bursting through the door, and falling to the ground, and then… someone had carried him to safety, right?
Who?
The door to the room swung open and Hercules stepped through, a worried look on his face.
Oh god. Literally.
Hercules’ expression cleared when he met Cloud’s gaze, and he crossed the room in two grand strides.
“Cloud! You’re okay!” The relief in Hercules’ voice felt like a physical blow to Cloud’s chest, and he thunked back into the pallet as if it was. This was the worst part about talking to Hercules: his earnestness. Cloud didn’t know how to handle it.
He would rather the child have dragged him to safety.
“Cloud?” Hercules’ tone was tinged with worry now. Cloud resolutely did not respond. He would pretend to be unconscious again until Hercules left and he could escape unbothered. It would be easy, it would-
Fingertips grazed the bare skin of his arm. Cloud revised his earlier thought. He would actually rather Cerberus have done away with him altogether.
Cloud’s eyes flew open, and before he could stop himself his hand had grasped Hercules’ wrist, holding it just above his own arm.
“Don’t,” he said, voice low and shakier than he expected. Hercules’ eyes widened.
“Right, sorry. Forgot you’re not much of a touch guy.” Hercules let out a nervous chuckle. “Except in, uh, in the arena I suppose.” Another chuckle, more strained this time. Something in Cloud twinged at his words, probably a sore muscle from the Cerberus encounter and nothing more.
He held Hercules’ gaze, saying nothing.
“Although, it’s really your sword doing most of the touching, not you. Not much of a, um, wrestler, are you?”
Cloud did not reply. He was beginning to get the feeling he always did when talking to Hercules, that of being cast suddenly into the ocean, the riptide dragging him out to sea.
“Which isn’t to say that you couldn’t be a wrestler! I mean, look at you!” Hercules continued to ramble, the barest hint of panic in his voice, “That- that isn’t to say that I’ve looked at you. It’s just- I mean, obviously I have looked at you. I’m looking at you right now. I just meant that- it’s not like- Um. Could you let go of me please?”
With a jolt, Cloud realized he was still holding Hercules’ wrist, his grip getting tighter the longer Hercules spoke. He let go like he’d been burned.
Hercules took half a step back, his freed hand rising to rub the back of his neck as he looked decidedly at the plain stones in the wall like they were the most interesting thing he’d seen all day. Cloud told himself he was imagining the red in his cheeks.
“What do you want, Hercules?” He would just have to muscle his way through this encounter, it seemed.
Hercules dragged his eyes back to Cloud.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” And there it was again, that damn earnestness. “It was a nasty hit you took instead of letting the kid and his friends take it-”
“Now hold on, I wasn’t trying to save them,” Cloud attempted to cut in, but Hercules took no notice.
“-and I’ve grappled with Cerberus before. It’s difficult, and I’m, well, me .”
Cloud crossed his arms, annoyance chasing off the more confusing emotions tumbling through his head.
“I could have handled it if I weren’t distracted by the end of another fight, which I won by the way.”
“Sure, sure.” Hercules raised his hands placatingly. “I don’t doubt it. But, just in case, if in the future you ever want to attempt to fight a huge three-headed hound again, I would feel better if you let me know ahead of time. Just so I can… cheer you on.”
“Cheer me on?” Cloud scoffed. “What are you, my boyfriend?”
Cloud regretted the choice of words immediately. Hercules’ face reddened spectacularly, and this time Cloud couldn’t convince himself the blush was imagined. He didn’t have time to grapple with that, though. He was busy trying to manage whatever undecipherable feeling had burst through him out of nowhere.
He blamed this mix of emotions for why when he opened his mouth next what came out was, “Why do you even care?”
Hercules blinked at him.
“Why wouldn’t I care?” The unsaid about you was just as clear as if it had been spoken aloud.
“You don’t even know me.” Cloud had only been at the Coliseum for a few weeks. He’d been slowly fighting his way through successively harder battles in the arena, working towards fulfilling his contract with Hades. Sure, he’d run into Hercules quite a few times, the guy always seemed to have time to chat, but Cloud always found a reason to end the conversations early with a biting remark. They weren’t friends.
“I don’t,” said Hercules, and then, “but I’d like to.”
Cloud stopped breathing. This… this was… He had to get out of this, had to find a way to retaliate before he was forced to actually deal with the feeling he’d been having since the first time he saw Hercules.
“Hades hired me to kill you,” he burst out, desperate.
“Oh,” said Hercules, remarkably unphased, “I know.”
This, at least, had the effect of derailing Cloud’s mounting crisis.
“What do you mean you know?”
“Hades isn’t exactly known for his subtlety,” Hercules said, amused, “There are only so many times I can see you two skulking around and shooting what I assume were supposed to be sneaky looks at me before I caught on.”
Cloud stared, bewildered, back at Hercules.
“So, so what? This whole time you’ve known your life was in danger and yet you- you just-” Kept seeking me out? Cloud didn’t say. Kept trying to talk to me and making awful jokes to get me to laugh? Even after all the times I brushed you off. He faltered and went silent.
“Well, yes.” Hercules gave a small shrug. “Like I said, I wanted to get to know you.”
Cloud hadn’t even begun to formulate a response to that when Hercules continued, “Also, I wasn’t worried for my life.”
The number of times Cloud’s train of thought had had to switch tracks entirely during this conversation was going to make his already aching head worse.
“What?” He couldn’t muster more than a flat tone.
“This isn’t exactly the first time Hades has tried to kill me. All his attempts have failed before.” Hercules grinned. Cloud pointedly did not think about it. “And I’m a demigod. You’re clearly a skilled fighter but you wouldn’t be able to beat me.”
“ What? ” Cloud said again, his tone sharpening to anger.
“I’m not trying to brag. It’s just a fact. You couldn’t.”
Before his brain could catch up and tell him what a stupid decision it was, Cloud launched himself at Hercules.
Hercules reacted instantly, hands snapping up to grab Cloud by his forearms and hold him at arm's length.
“What are you doing?” He sounded baffled.
Cloud realized quite suddenly that Hercules was nearly a foot taller than him. Looking up and up into Hercules' face made something low in his stomach start to burn, and he forced himself to stop thinking about it.
“Training for my new career in wrestling,” Cloud snarled. He dropped down, slipping out of Hercules’ grip and springing forward again, aiming low. He collided with Hercules at waist level, succeeding in making him take a step back. Cloud’s arms reflexively wrapped around Hercules as he struggled to force Hercules back another step.
Hercules let out a deep sigh, and in two seconds had yanked Cloud back by the collar of his shirt, spun them around, and slammed Cloud into the wall, pinning his arms by his sides. Cloud might have been embarrassed were he not too busy trying to reclaim the breath that had been knocked out of him.
“Cloud.” The frustration in Hercules’ voice was clear. “I don’t want to fight you.”
“You’re going to have to eventually.” Cloud struggled vainly to slip out of Hercules’ grasp. Hercules only pressed closer, leaning down to bring his face dangerously close to Cloud’s.
“Maybe. But I-” Hercules huffed out a breath. Cloud felt it across his cheeks, and stilled. Hercules continued, quieter, “I guess I was hoping I could change your mind.”
Cloud huffed out a laugh.
“Listen,” Hercules continued, “I know I don’t know you very well, but I just don’t think you would align yourself with Hades out of malice. I think there’s something more going on.”
“Hercules,” Cloud said, but had nothing to follow it up with. He hadn’t realized he was so perceptive.
“Maybe I could help instead?” Hercules spoke so softly Cloud almost didn’t catch it. The hope in his voice was so fragile Cloud couldn’t believe it came from someone so powerful on the battlefield.
Cloud thought back to the various times Hercules had approached him since he’d arrived at the Coliseum. He thought about the genuine delight in Hercules’ voice whenever he responded to an overture, even if he did so coldly. He thought about how dogged Hercules had been in his attempts to get to know him, how he had held on to the scantest of details and remembered them when they talked again.
All at once he realized he was tired of pretending he didn’t ache to let Hercules know him. Maybe Hercules could help him find the information Hades had promised and maybe he couldn’t. Cloud was done with Hades either way.
This revelation didn’t make it any easier to translate the swirl of emotion and thought in Cloud’s head into words.
“Hercules I-” He was becoming frustrated with his inability to say anything substantive. He had an arsenal of snarky retorts ready to fire off at any provocation but when he searched for words with meaning he came up empty.
“It’s alright. I get it, this was too much. I’m sorry.” Hercules was trying to keep from looking crestfallen, but he didn’t have the years of experience Cloud did with projecting a blank wall of emotion. Experience which, at the moment, was doing a great job of helping Cloud fuck everything up.
Hercules loosened his grip as Cloud scrambled with what to say to make Hercules understand. There might as well have been cobwebs in the part of Cloud’s brain where emotionally intelligent conversation was stored.
Fuck it, Cloud thought. He had always been a man of action.
Cloud leapt forward yet again as soon as Hercules released him and relished how Hercules’ look of exasperation morphed to shock as Cloud, rather than try to attack him again, grabbed the collar of his tunic and pulled him down to kiss him.
Hercules froze, not kissing him back right away. He was still for long enough that Cloud began to worry he had completely misread the situation. Shit . Cloud’s thoughts raced. How had he messed this up even worse? He started to pull away, trying to formulate some sort of apology in his head.
Finally, Hercules reacted, letting out a small gasp that made Cloud’s chest clench. He wrapped his arms firmly around Cloud and tugged him back into his chest, returning Cloud’s kiss vigorously.
The last coherent thought Cloud managed before thought ceased altogether was that he had never felt so secure as he did in Hercules’ arms. He had no concept of time passing as they kissed, his awareness totally encompassed by Hercules’ hand in his hair, Hercules’ lips moving against his, Hercules’ heartbeat against his own chest.
How had he gone weeks resisting this?
Minutes or perhaps centuries later, they parted. When Cloud opened his eyes it was to Hercules gazing at him in a wonder so tender it threatened to break Cloud. He took refuge by burying his head in Hercules’ chest. They remained that way for a long moment.
“I’m looking for someone,” Cloud breathed, not wanting to break the reverie of the moment but needing to explain himself.
“... What?” Hercules said, still dazed from the kiss. Cloud leaned back to look up into his face.
“That’s why I struck up a deal with Hades.”
“Oh!” Hercules beamed at him. “I can help you find them!”
“Yeah?” Cloud hoped he didn’t sound too fond. Hercules’ enthusiasm was catching, but he wasn’t ready to let go of his walls entirely yet. Though, for the first time, he thought he maybe would be one day.
Hercules nodded fervently.
“I have great eyesight.”
Despite himself, Cloud laughed, and Hercules looked at him like he was the rising sun.
“Yeah, alright.” Cloud leaned up to kiss him once more and then pulled away, linking his fingers with Hercules’.
“Let’s get going then.”