Title: Waking Up
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Zack, Cloud
Prompt: Lovers.
Word Count: 859
Rating: PG-13/R-ish
Author's Notes: Stemming from a comment made by artimusdin about tee-shirts du jour in Gaia. I have to practice writing Cloud.


"So Sleeping Beauty's finally awake."

Still bleary-eyed, Cloud forced himself to focus on the sound. Zack. The other side of the room. Why'd he have to come barging in at... at... at whatever time it was? Cloud's brain helpfully supplied that there was a digital clock on the nightstand. It seemed to have forgotten that grunts didn't have nightstands. It also forgot that ten-thirty was Really Late for grunts, especially ones with sadists for instructors. Stupid too-good-to-be-true dream. Stupid hormones, reacting to the dream. Stupid Zack, who'd see what the stupid hormones are making stupid Cloud do and never. Let. It. Die.

Zack must have noticed Cloud's change in mood, because he said reassuring things. "You don't have class today." Good. "We planned it like that, remember?" ...out of context, but still good. "I mean, sure, being able to go on an hour or two of sleep would be some sort of training, I guess. Seph said as much, but you know what an asshole he can be." More sleep thanks to Zack? Cloud owed him. Zack grinned. Cloud knew that whenever Zack smiled like that, it meant something Very Wrong was about to happen. "But shit, when he fucking attacked you like that... Heh, we all knew that making sure you had the day off was a good idea."

Cloud tried not to take things out of context. Zack wasn't talking about his dream, unless the Soldier was some kind of mind reader. Zack was talking about the sparring match last night. He still ached from it. Trying to call up the accurate memory, his mind only gave him images from what had to be a dream. No, hormones, that wasn't a cue to react...

"Gaia to Cloud. Gaia to Cloud... I asked if you were all right." Zack snorted. "Guess I know the answer."

"I just need more sleep." The bed was very inviting, and it still hurt to move. Maybe the owner wouldn't mind very much if he just stayed here for a while longer. Who was the owner? The room was too big and too neat to be Zack's room.

"Spike, I thought we you got over ogling Seph's room last night." Zack rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "You are such a fanboy. Oh, before I forget, here's a little gift for you." The Soldier reached for a wadded-up piece of clothing and threw it towards the bed. It landed in a heap near Cloud. "It was impossible to find, but the Great Zack pulled through." He smirked. "Think of it as a 'welcome to the club' gift."

Ignoring the fact that he was in General Sephiroth's room, in General Sephiroth's bed, and that many, many people would happily kill to change places, Cloud instead focused on Zack's gift. He started at the wad of fabric, mentally bracing himself for one of Zack's jokes. He pulled the wad towards him and smoothed it out. It was a shirt, emblazoned with "I Did Sephiroth" in bold letters. Underneath, in black marker, someone had hastily written "...and I did Zack, too."

He stared at the shirt, then at Zack, who was howling with laughter. There was no way, no way Zack could have known about the dream. The evidence suggested otherwise. If it didn't hurt so much to move, he'd have slaughtered Zack, First Class or no First Class.

The Soldier's laughter died soon enough. "You don't like it?" Obviously. "Seph hating 'em I understand. Back when this was the shirt he wanted to burn them all. Damn near succeeded, too." Zack smiled. "I've still got mine, though, and I thought you should have one, too. You're part of the club, like I said."

Cloud had forgotten that detail while focusing his rage towards Zack. So he asked. "The club? What club?"

Zack's smile grew. "Why, the 'I Did Sephiroth' Club, but of course!" He thought it over. "Well, he did you, not the other way around, but I guess that sometimes he'll let you--"

"Wait, wait!" Cloud interrupted. "I... I had sex with Sephiroth?" He wanted to add in "for real", but he'd learned by now that one shouldn't give out anything that could be used as ammo later when Zack was around.

Zack put on a mock pout. "And me, too. You can't have a proper threesome without three people, you know. Sheesh, I know that Seph's like, a freaking sex god but there was someone else in the sack." Cloud could tell that Zack was trying very, very hard not to laugh at him. "And I'm good, too."

Cloud was still taking the news in. He was elated, of course, but annoyed that he'd forgotten. His hormones also wanted to know if there would be any attempts to jog is memory. If so, they'd like to know when. Even with the rush of thoughts, he still managed to respond to Zack. "So I'm not hurting because of a sparring match?"

"The sparring was the warm up." Oh, so he wasn't delusional. Zack snickered. "I'd think that if you thought about where you hurt, it'd be obvious how you got hurt."

Cloud retaliated by throwing a pillow.