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“Goddamnit,” Cloud huffed, wiping irritably at the sweat on his brow. Not that it helped much when he was sweaty and overheated everywhere.
“Gotta agree there. Kinda shitty, how things turned out, huh?”
Zack’s easy attitude wasn’t helping matters. Sure his chuckles were more soothing than not and the strokes of his fingers over Cloud’s hair as his head rested in Zack’s lap was heavenly, but it didn’t change the fact that Zack’s rut had just ended not eighteen hours before Cloud’s heat began.
He shuddered through another wave of heat over his skin and cursed his body right then and there.
“This is such bullshit. Why couldn’t your rut wait?”
Zack laughed again, switching to scratching his nails lightly over Cloud’s scalp—and god fucking damn did that feel good—as he snorted out a response.
“More like why couldn’t your heat be on time. What’s it so late for anyway?”
Ugh. Probably because Cloud was working overtime to make ends meet, considering how Zack was still recovering from numerous injuries and couldn’t quite take on higher paying jobs yet. Being riddled with bullets and just barely dragging both himself and Cloud back to Midgar wasn’t exactly the easiest of tasks, even for someone as strong as Zack. He needed his rest so he could be in top shape. The unfortunate trade off was the extra stress it put on Cloud’s body, but he could handle it. He’d handled worse.
Of course, if Cloud said that, he’d probably get chewed out to hell and back. Zack had a heaping dose of SOLDIER pride dumped on top of that already innate alpha pride, and it meant that Cloud taking extra work where Zack couldn’t would just insult him.
Ah, how typical.
Granted, Zack was pretty laid back as far as alphas went, but Cloud didn’t want to chance him pouting through the entire week’s worth of heat. Or worse, trying to prove himself.
He’d just exacerbate his injuries that way.
Not to mention… Cloud wasn’t really up for it.
Zack’s rut had just ended. They’d already spent an entire week fucking like bunnies, and Cloud didn’t have the energy he would’ve were he in heat during that time.
It made things more than a little frustrating, honestly. Now that he was in heat, his body was being demanding and insatiable, despite how exhausted it already was. Just laying there on their bed, the centerpiece of a very half-assed nest that Cloud would’ve cared more about if he didn’t feel like he’d been hit by a truck, surrounded by Zack’s scent and shivering through every touch to his oversensitive skin, was maddening. He wanted to turn over until his face was buried in Zack’s lap and Cloud’s mouth was full with him. He wanted to rip both of their clothes off and ride Zack until his eyes were rolling back. He wanted this fucking heat to end.
“There is literally nothing about how I’m feeling right now that justifies being this horny,” Cloud mumbled irately under his breath in lieu of answering Zack’s question. He was met with yet another peel of laughter.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” he chuckled. His voice was softer, lower, and it shot a bolt of need straight through Cloud’s groin.
There wasn’t a chance to respond or refute or even inhale really before Cloud was lifted up by his armpits and settled properly against Zack’s chest, head rested into the crook of his neck. He peeked up at Zack, ignoring the well of scent that met his nose, and pursed his lips in thought.
“Thought you’d be too tired to screw around.”
After all, rut took a lot out of an alpha by itself. Paired with a week straight of getting laid? On top of a number of taxing injuries?
It was a wonder he could stand.
“And leave you hanging like this? No way, I’m not out for the count yet.”
Before he could even get it out, Cloud’s smart-ass comment was cut off with a choke when Zack grabbed a handful of him and squeezed lightly.
“You asshole,” he groaned instead, though there was no kick behind the insult. Face turned so that there was nothing but that warm, inviting scent meeting his senses, body arching at the friction of layers between Zack’s hands and his own dick, hips bucking in search of more…
He was already gone before he’d had a chance to grab hold of something.
“Oh fuck,” came tumbling out of his mouth in a garbled whimper, frame jerking as Zack rubbed over him in slow, even movements.
He couldn’t stop his own hands from flitting down in jerky, unthinking grabs, brushing Zack’s hand aside for a second to push his own pants down. They were the same sleeping pants he’d gone to bed with, and then woken up with, and started to feel uncomfortably hot in as the morning hour ticked by. He didn’t know what time it was now, but it had to have still been early going off the sunlight filtering through their flimsy curtains. It was too bright for it to be midday; the plate would’ve muted it by then.
What a way to start the day.
“Cloud, holy shit, slow down,” Zack chuckled again, and it was annoyingly pleasant despite the hands grasping Cloud’s wrists. “Let me handle this. You just sit back and enjoy, okay?”
“You want me to be a dead fish,” Cloud deadpanned. It was barely a question and more of an accusation, and it was met with a single, sharp, sarcastic bark of laughter.
“I was going more for ‘pillow prince’, but sure Negative Nancy. Dead fish me; it’s my job to take care of you when you’re like this anyway.”
‘Not interested’ hung on Cloud’s tongue, but he swallowed it back when the grip around his wrists tightened. He had a feeling that Zack wasn’t going to let him put in too much work anyway if he argued, and he supposed he could understand the mentality when that was how Cloud was treating Zack in regard to their merc business.
Fine. Whatever.
He couldn’t really complain further when Zack continued Cloud’s work of shucking his pants down, letting Cloud finish the job by kicking them off. They’d officially become part of the nest the moment they touched the blanket-covered floor.
God, and then Zack’s hand returned to its previous task of working Cloud towards what would likely be a pitifully fast orgasm, and everything in him clenched. His throat tightened, hands balling into fists, leg muscles contracting, and all Zack was doing was stroking him with a firm, steady hand. His palm was rough from weapon-handling, warm and perfect, fingers squeezing around Cloud’s tip and twisting with every upward stroke, a thumb swiping occasionally over the slit where precum gathered, and Cloud was done before he could even comprehend what was happening.
Spend spurted out in ropes, leaving a stain of white over Zack’s still moving hand and Cloud’s—well actually it was Zack’s too—shirt, and the thought that it too had to go was fleeting when Cloud felt too heavy to move.
That wouldn’t last. He’d get it back up in under a minute with the heat coursing through his veins.
Ah, yup. There it was now. He’d barely even gotten soft.
“Fuck me…” he grouched contentiously; brow furrowed as another wave of arousal hit him.
“That’s the idea.”
“Don’t back-sass me.”
A smiling kiss was pressed into Cloud’s cheek as an apology. He hated that he accepted it without a second thought. Zack had just that much of an affect on him, even outside their mating cycles.
What a dork. A beautiful, lovable dork.
Damn, Cloud was in it deep.
He couldn’t help melting into Zack’s touch, sighing quietly as fingers ghosted over him again.
“You gonna get to the actual ‘fucking me’ part or are you just gonna diddle me all day?”
“That sounded so wrong, I can’t believe you just said that.”
Despite his words, Zack was snickering as he shifted from behind Cloud, cradling his head and his side as he gently laid Cloud down on the sheets. In contrast, it took barely the blink of an eye for him to throw his own clothes off before he settled in.
Cloud quickly got comfortable, letting his body instinctively shift in a way that allowed Zack easy access. Typically he’d turn over and pull his hips up into mounting position, but he’d been on his hands and knees all last week and he decided he’d rather see Zack’s face this time around. His legs spread out instead, bent at the knee, and he pulled a pillow from the unoccupied side of the bed to settle it under his butt. It’d be ruined by his excessive slick alone in point-two seconds, but he found himself uncaring. They could buy more later.
Zack did his part by pushing Cloud’s shirt up until it was bunched under his neck before setting to work on riling him up. It wouldn’t take too much effort; hell, he was already throbbing with need and covered in a sheen of sweat from the warmth under his skin alone, but Zack had always been the type for foreplay and that wasn’t going to stop for Cloud’s heat.
It always started out gentle. Always.
Cloud couldn’t stop the moan that slipped past his lips at the first touch, feeling a flush bloom across his entire torso. Hands gripping into the sheets as Zack leaned down, hair tickling Cloud’s chin while sucking kisses were pressed into his neck and fingertips ghosted over his chest. His body shivered at the light scratch of nails over his skin, trembled at the patterns traced over his pecs, arched at the rough rub of fingerpads over his nipples. Slow and methodical, sending sparks of pleasure straight to his groin in rhythmic, pulsing waves. Lips pressed to Cloud’s once, twice, in sweet pecks, before diving back down to his neck. A wet tongue traced over his claim bite and fuck.
He nearly came again on the spot.
“Zack,” he repeated aimlessly in a mantra. Zack’s name left his lips like a prayer, reverent and heavy with emotion. Hitching in his throat when teeth pressed lightly into his scent gland, unable to process the immense pleasure he was receiving from what should have otherwise been simple gestures. Unable to stop his hips from grinding up in search of more. Fuck, he wanted more. More and more of Zack’s attention, more of his kisses, his bites, his hands, his knot, his everything.
“Shh, baby, I got you,” Zack whispered against his skin, and even that had Cloud’s overstimulated skin erupting into tingles. He was shaking. He was needy and overheated, and Zack’s touch was simultaneously too much and not enough.
One more kiss was pressed to his claim bite before Zack’s lips started their journey downward, detours taken to flick an eager tongue over red and abused nipples, another smile pressed against Cloud’s skin when his hips jerked upward again, before more open-mouthed kisses continued the trip. Nips and bites were placed here and there, a wet tongue dipping into Cloud’s navel, and his fingers were clawed into Zack’s hair before his nose even bumped against Cloud’s pelvis.
He was taking his time, and Cloud was about to lose his fucking mind.
He yanked at a fistful of hair and earned a bite at the junction between his leg and his groin in retaliation, and even that set his skin on fire.
“Don’t rush me,” had been tossed at Cloud in a reprimanding tone, but he couldn’t pay it much mind. There wasn’t much mind he had to spare. All of his brain cells had taken a break while the blood rushed to his dick.
“Can’t help it,” he mumbled in return, chewing at his bottom lip in hopes of not moaning too loud. They had neighbors for one, and for another…
Honestly, he was just in disbelief that a few hickeys and nibbles had him this overwhelmed.
Yeah, yeah, heat and all. But still.
It didn’t help that Zack was bad at not giving in when Cloud was being demanding. He let an amused huff warm the patch of coarse blond hair just next to his face, dragging his fingers over it before they played at the underside of Cloud’s dick once more.
And yes, okay, maybe that alone sent yet another flash of pure pleasure racing up Cloud’s spine, along with a fresh stream of slick pooling between his cheeks. He couldn’t help that.
Zack didn’t seem to mind. His fingers traveled further down until they were rubbing delectable circles over Cloud’s hole, earning a sticky coating of slick in return. Not too much; only the slightest of pressure was applied, yet it still felt just right. Still electrifyingly good. Dragging uneven breaths and half-swallowed moans out of Cloud as his body tried to follow Zack’s movements. Tried in vain to ride his fingers, even though they hadn’t pressed inside. He wanted that so bad. Wanted Zack to finger him until he was drooling and sightless behind squeezed shut eyelids. Until his throat was raw from the sounds Zack could and would pull out of him.
He got none of that. Instead, Zack sucked him into his mouth hard and Cloud nearly screamed—
“Ohfuckohfuckohfuck!” He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t talk straight, couldn’t see straight. His hands scrabbled uselessly at every surface he could grab; the sheets, Zack’s hair, Zack’s shoulders, the soak-to-the-core pillow under his ass. Back arching at an almost impossible angle as his body throbbed with need in time with his already frantic heartbeat.
Fuck, it felt so good.
Little whimpers emitted from the back of his throat, hips shifting with every slide of Zack’s lips over his too-sensitive sex. His entire body trembled and jerked when Zack suckled over his tip, tongue flicking over his slit and lapping up every pearly bead that escaped. His fingers clenched until he was sure his knuckles were white when Zack licked over the underside of his dick before dipping his head down to mouth at his sack. Fingers still playing gently between Cloud’s cheeks, filling the air with a series of lewdly wet noises.
Cloud came again before he even realized what was happening. Before he could even prepare for it. It struck him like a bolt of lightning, a thunder spell gone awry. He hadn’t even realized how loudly he’d cried out at the sensation until the scratchy feeling in his throat started to register to him. Ears and mouth filled with cotton, still trembling and overstimulated as Zack continued to suck him until he’d started to go soft yet again.
That wouldn’t last either.
Fuck this heat; they’d be at this longer than Cloud could handle. Already he was biting off more than he could chew, and all he’d gotten was a damn blowjob.
“Oh my fucking god,” he exhaled, fighting to draw in each breath as his pulse raced in his ears.
Too much. This was too much. Zack’s hands and tongue and scent and fuck, Cloud still wanted more.
He wanted more even as Zack set to licking over his quickly renewing arousal. More than Zack’s mouth alone could give.
“Hang on,” Cloud panted, spreading his legs a little wider in invitation. “I want you to…”
He trailed off into a flushed silence, conscious of his loud, heavy breaths and the shaky quality of his voice. Damn did he hate feeling like this. Like he wasn’t himself, instead locked under the thrall of rambunctious hormones and an intrusive libido.
“You sure?” Zack quirked an eyebrow at him, pausing his efforts to drive Cloud up a wall with nothing but too wet, too hot licks. “Aren’t you still a little tender?”
Yeah, under normal circumstances, Cloud wouldn’t have been up for sex for at least another week. Zack was a little wild when he was in rut, and it left Cloud sore and drained by the end of each day.
But there was no way he’d be able to handle heat without Zack inside him. Every cell in his body practically screamed for his alpha to comfort him, sate him, claim him. He needed this. There wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in Cloud’s fervent nods.
“How about this? I’ll go slow and work us both up to it. Don’t wanna hurt you or anything,” Zack offered.
Cloud knew it was necessary and Zack was just being careful because he cared, but he couldn’t quite help the sting to his own pride at that. He wanted to say he could handle it if Zack went a little harder or a little faster. He wanted to say he’d only be satisfied if Zack fucked him like he had during that week of rut, but…
He’d really come out of this with a bad case of raw ass if Zack committed to another week of rough sex. Slow and gentle was really the only way to go about this if he wanted penetration at all.
“Alright fine,” Cloud sighed.
Zack’s fingers continued to rub circles over Cloud’s hole, almost teasingly gentle. Practically coaxing the slick out of him now. He settled himself down over Cloud’s body, his weight comfortably familiar, and Cloud readily accepted him. His arms slid around Zack without a second thought, hands wandering over every inch of explored skin and rubbing soothingly at the raised scars that marred it. He reveled in Zack’s responding shivers, grinning into yet another series of kisses pressed to his lips. They were sweeter somehow. The taste headier, the meeting of lips fuller.
A finger slid inside him and he barely even noticed it, so wrapped up in Zack that the world fell away. There were no responsibilities hanging over their heads. No bills, no worries, no obligations, no jobs. No Midgar, no Shinra. None of that mattered. It was just here and now, with Zack’s finger rubbing against Cloud’s inner walls while their tongues rubbed together hungrily. Eyes closed in peaceful bliss, body relaxed even as that finger was pulled out and his hips were hiked up. Even as Zack’s own hips lined up with him and a familiar pressure pushed against his slicked entrance. A hand slipped between them, likely so Zack could hold himself steady, and Cloud only barely braced himself with the tightening of his hold around Zack’s waist, not wanting to clam up and cause himself pain.
Turned out it didn’t help as much as he hoped.
Zack pressed in, finally, and Cloud couldn’t quite hide his flinch at the twinge of pain. It was tiny, barely anything compared to the shit Cloud had been through out in the field, but he was already incredibly sensitive with little time to recover.
Much to his chagrin, Zack stopped moving entirely.
“Shit, are you okay? Fuck, I didn’t want it to hurt—”
“Zack, stop.” Cloud locked his legs around Zack’s waist when he felt him starting to pull back out. “I’ll be fine. Just go slow.”
“Are you sure? I mean—”
Cloud huffed at that, tightening his hold in hopes that it’d give Zack a clue.
“I’m sure I’ll kick you in the balls if you don’t hurry up and fuck me.”
Zack saw through the empty threat enough to let out a quiet laugh, worried expression melting away as he shifted his legs so that he was more comfortable before trying again. Fingers clamped softly around Cloud’s hips, stroking light circles into his hipbones as that pressure reappeared at Cloud’s hole, the skin slightly cool from residual slick. There was still a small twinge, but Cloud soldiered through it with a blank expression and a bitten lip.
It…did start to burn a little as Zack pushed further in.
“Fuck.”
“You could stop being stubborn and let me jack you off for the rest of the night.”
“No.”
Cloud would be damned if he had to suffer heat with his mate right there, not mating him. He’d spent enough years of his life jacking it to pilfered nudies and scent-imitating candles to know that it did nothing to sate the hot flashes under his skin. He’d lose his goddamned mind if Zack wasn’t inside him in the next three seconds—
“You stop being stubborn.” His voice hitched a bit at another twinge of pain and he grimaced down at the image of their bodies joined. “How much is in yet?”
“…The tip.”
Tch. What the fuck.
Cloud’s head fell back onto the pillows as an exasperated sigh left his mouth. They’d be at this all day without ever getting to the actual sex at this rate.
“Distract me.”
That’d be the only way this would work. Zack had been diligent about the foreplay, but Cloud needed just a bit more. Once they were in the swing of things, the heat would take over enough for him to ignore the soreness.
He was determined now.
And yes, stubborn too. It wasn’t like it hurt so bad that they couldn’t continue; his body was made for this. As annoying a fact as that was in any other context, it was worth it to know that he could handle a little more than average during his mating cycle.
“Alright.”
Zack’s answer was followed by yet another sweet, open kiss pressed to his lips. The sort that had the sounds of lips smacking floating through the air. That facilitated the exchange of saliva and the meeting of tongues. Cloud sucked Zack’s tongue into his mouth, tasting an odd mixture of minty toothpaste and spunk, and swallowing every moan that he earned in return.
Once again, a set of tingles crawled the length of his skin as Zack’s hand wrapped around his sex, massaging it with slow, soft squeezes. A few gasps escaped his lips unbidden, barely held back by the mouth against his. It was almost as if Zack with tasting them with every swipe of his tongue, as if he was drawing each sound out with every lick, every stroke.
Good, good, good. He was such a good alpha. Cloud’s head buzzed with the intoxication of breathing in nothing but the musky, overwhelming tang of sweat and sex in Zack’s scent; so much so that he barely realized it when Zack’s knot brushed against his cheeks.
Ohhh fuck, he needed his mate now. He needed him to move.
“Move, move.” The word spilled out of Cloud’s mouth in broken sobs, interrupted by his own sharp intake of breath when Zack heeded his demand.
It was slow. Gentle. Just like Zack said it would be.
It was perfect.
Whispers of “baby” and “got you” fluttering against his lips, punctuated by quiet grunts that sent shivers down Cloud’s spine. A slippery slide of thick flesh filling him up completely, methodical in tempo. Pushing in, sluggish and thick and pressing against Cloud’s prostate with a lingering pressure that wracked his legs with shakes. Sliding back with a mouthwatering drag, though not too far. They were shallow thrusts meant for Cloud to feel every inch of him. Meant to make him full and sated. Reminiscent of the sway of a boat on the waves, bringing with each meeting of their hips another flash of pure, indescribable pleasure.
Good, good, good.
Amazing, perfect, fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck, yes!
“Shit, I’m gonna…ngh, fuck, fuck…!” He was going to cum again, he could feel the buildup this time. Slow and simmering, like a burning ache both inside and out. Most intense where Zack’s slow rubs over his sweet spot flickered at his every nerve like a nascent flame. Mind blank, too blissed out to even comprehend language anymore, his previous cries of pleasure tapering off into wordless moans. Loud and carefree. He wanted, no needed his alpha to know how good this was. He needed Zack to know he was doing such a damn good job.
He didn’t want it to stop, even after he tipped over the edge. Even after the gradual buildup of pleasure came to an apex, leaking onto his stomach and gushing out from between clenched cheeks. Even as his oversensitive flesh started to register a tired, abused ache. He started to come down from his high just as Zack sped his thrusts up in a sign that he was close, and Cloud was reduced to a puddle on the bed, ignoring the ache in favor of listening to the pleased gasps that escaped his mate’s lips. He wanted Zack to feel good too.
“You want me to knot you?” Zack grunted, voice strained and breathless.
“N-no…” he stuttered through gritted teeth.
Now that would really fuck Cloud up. As much as he’d have gladly accepted the offer any other time, there was no way he’d handle a knot right now. That’d be a few minutes of pure torture just waiting for it to go down again, and he was already pushing it with Zack’s cock.
Thankfully, Zack was quick on the uptake, pulling out before he even came and leaving an extra coating of white on Cloud’s stomach. His entire body shuddered through his orgasm as he stroked himself to completion, while Cloud ran his hand through sweat-soaked strands of black hair.
It was the eye of the storm.
One of several storms, due to repeat for the rest of the day. And then tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.
“I’m gonna die. They’re gonna print my obituary in the papers tomorrow and everyone will know I was killed by a good dicking.”
Zack’s entire body was beset with giggles by the time Cloud’s complaint was finished. He couldn’t help but feel mildly accomplished by that.
“Imagine that. Cloud Strife, former Infantryman. Taken down by some good dick.”
“You laugh, but I’m serious.”
Zack shifted his head up just enough for Cloud to catch his eyes rolling.
“Oh but no, ‘I want you inside me, Zack’,” he mocked. “‘Just downright murder me with that phenomenal alpha cock. I won’t be satisfied if you jerk me off’.”
“You’re a jackass.”
“I fucking told you, you nerd.”
Okay, fine. To Zack’s credit, he did offer the easier route. Cloud was going to be incredibly sore by the time this was over. Their merc business would have to be put on hold until he could walk again.
“Whatever. We’re not starting again until I get a break, though.”
Seriously. He needed one.
“Take as long as you need,” Zack shrugged easily, pressing one more chaste kiss to Cloud’s lips before nuzzling against his neck again and settling over him like a warm blanket. A comfortable silence followed as hearbeats slowed and muscles relaxed. Cloud rubbed circles into the small of Zack’s back absentmindedly, letting his thoughts drift towards nothing in particular. Too tired and sated to think.
Enjoying the peace before the chaos of heat took hold of him once more.
“Hey, Zack?”
“Yeah?”
“…Thanks.” It didn’t really need to be said, but Cloud did so anyway. Besides, there was more to it than just that one word.
He knew Zack understood when a pair of arms slipped underneath him and held him tight.
“Love you too, Cloud.”