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Cloud stamped his feet, trying to ignore the way his breath steamed in the air as he exhaled through his mask. His watch had to be mostly over by now -- it was dark, and that meant it was after 1700 hours, and somebody had to be coming to relieve him soon.
Heavy, solid weight collided with his side, someone throwing an arm around his shoulders, and damn the way the trooper's helmet messed with his peripheral vision. "Hiya, kid. Chilly out, isn't it?"
"I'm fine," Cloud said automatically, stiffening at the familiarity -- and then, because just about everyone on the base outranked him and it was better safe than sorry, "sir."
"Ah, don't be like that." His assailant pried off his helmet and looked him straight in the eyes, grinning disarmingly. "It's Strife, isn't it?"
Cloud blinked, staring in surprise. "Y-yes, sir." He knew Zack by sight -- Zack was the youngest person ever to make SOLDIER First Class, and that made him a celebrity -- but apart from the fact that Zack had been the officer supervising their platoon during Cloud's first round of SOLDIER field tests, they'd never actually spoken.
And now Zack was giving him this big smile like they were friends, or something. "You don't mind the cold, Strife?"
"I'm, um, from Nibelheim," Cloud explained. Which was the middle of nowhere. Zack had probably never heard of it. "It's a, a mountain town. I'm kind of, ah, used to the cold."
"That's kind of a shame," Zack said mildly. "It's nasty out here." It didn't look like he was feeling it -- he didn't even have a coat on, and his uniform overshirt wasn't buttoned. He gave Cloud a little sidelong conspiratorial look. "Here I was going to offer to give you a little something to help you warm up when you go off duty."
Cloud felt his face go hot, and hoped Zack would blame the blush on the cold air. Either Zack was offering to get him drunk, which was against regulations, or he was proposing to...Cloud didn't even think he could finish that thought, much less count the number of regulations that would be breaking. "S-sir, I, ah, I --"
"Hey, no big deal, right?" Zack pushed Cloud's helmet into his hands. "Come by the SOLDIER quarters if you want to. You can ask anybody where my room is." And then he winked before he turned and walked off.
Cloud stood there staring after him for a good solid minute before he remembered to put his helmet back on to try and save his ears from frostbite. Zack was seventeen and a SOLDIER First Class, which made him one of the coolest people on the entire planet -- almost as cool as General Sephiroth. And he wanted Cloud, who had lied about his age to get this far and hadn't even passed all the qualifying exams to get into SOLDIER yet, to come back to his room and hang out with him.
When Martin came to relieve him on duty, Cloud could barely remember the proper phrases to acknowledge the changing of the guard; he was too busy arguing with himself about Zack. The idea of going over there was ridiculous. Who did he think he was kidding? Zack was a SOLDIER First Class, so far above Cloud's level it was painful. But Zack was also only two years older than Cloud, and most of the rest of the SOLDIER corps was a lot older than either of them. Zack probably missed normal company sometimes.
Cloud's feet seemed to be making the decision for him: his boots were crunching through old snow toward the SOLDIER barracks. He'd never been there before; everyone knew where they were, but most people had no reason to go near them. No reason to risk running into an officer when you didn't have to, after all.
Except maybe if he was really friendly and cool and had offered you...a drink, Cloud decided. Zack had offered him a drink.
He let himself into the SOLDIER barracks -- way nicer than the drafty old building the cadets had, warmer and better built and, it looked like, with private rooms if you were First or Second Class. Zack's room was way at the end of the hall, across from the one with no name on the door at all. Cloud stood there for a good thirty seconds, helmet tucked under his arm, before he could find the courage to knock.
Zack's face lit up as soon as he saw Cloud standing there. "Strife! Hey. Glad you made it." He stepped back and let Cloud in. "I was starting to think you'd been eaten by a pack of Kalm fangs or something."
Cloud managed a little smile. "No such luck. Just freezing, like usual." Zack's room was small but comfortable, regulation-neat with a few photos taped up on the wall: Zack outside a temple in the jungle, grinning; Zack and a pretty girl in what looked like Midgar; Zack with a bunch of other guys in ShinRa blues at the Gold Saucer; an older couple who looked like they were probably Zack's parents -- the woman had his eyes.
"Yeah, it's a bitch out there, isn't it?" Zack grinned. "Not so much if you're from Nibelheim, maybe."
Cloud shook his head, managing to smile back and not feel entirely like a tool. "Even then, it's pretty bad." He pulled his gloves off and stuffed them into a pocket, unzipping his coat. "Nice in here, though. What's your secret?"
"Misuse of materia," Zack said flippantly, opening the latch on his footlocker. He pointed at a squat little box heater in one corner. "The fire materia I got issued from corporate when I made SOLDIER goes in there any time I'm not using it. Rigged the heater myself."
"Cool," Cloud said, crouching in front of the heater and looking at how it worked. It was pretty good work for amateur engineering -- was there anything Zack couldn't do? The materia glowed green in the center of the chamber, suspended in a cradle of stiff bent wires.
"Pretty sure it's against regulations," Zack said casually. "Fire hazard, and all. But it works, right? ...Here, you want some of this?"
Cloud looked up; Zack was holding out a bottle of something sort of yellow-green and translucent like whiskey. "Sure," he said. "What is it?"
Zack laughed. "You're my kind of guy, Strife." He handed Cloud the liquor. "It's bottle rocket. Pretty sure I have a cup around here somewhere, if you don't want to share the bottle."
Cloud shrugged, trying not to feel too much like a hopeless kid. "The bottle's fine," he said. "I mean, alcohol kills germs, right?"
"Right." Zack winked at him. "No chance you'll catch my cooties or anything." Cloud blushed, and Zack went on, "Give it a try. It's a little harsh, so go slow at first."
Cloud nodded, unscrewing the bottle cap. The smell hit him immediately, sharp and high, the burn of strong liquor. No shit, this was harsh stuff.
But Zack liked it, so it had to have something going for it. Cloud lifted the bottle to his lips and took a quick swig: it tasted exactly the same color as it looked, bright and herbal green, not quite medicinal and not quite familiar -- and then it hit the back of his throat and he was coughing, sputtering, totally making an idiot of himself.
"Easy, there, Strife, you okay?" Zack rested a hand on his back, firm and warm, steadying him as the hacking subsided.
"Fine," Cloud insisted. "Really, I'm fine."
Zack grinned, a little sheepishly, like he was the one who'd just made a total jackass of himself. "Sorry. I really should have something nicer for company, huh? Sephiroth says he doesn't see how I can drink this stuff."
If Cloud had had anything in his mouth he'd have choked again. "You and General Sephiroth are drinking buddies?" That was just too weird to contemplate, the Silver General getting drunk on bootleg liquor, maybe even right here in this room.
"I guess you could call it that." Zack shrugged. "He's really a pretty cool guy when you get to know him." He took a drink from the bottle, swallowing easily.
Cloud had no idea what to say to that. He reached out when Zack passed the liquor back to him, studying the yellow-green glint of the bottle rocket.
It went down a little smoother the second time -- he was braced for it, at least, which meant he could swallow slowly. It still made his mouth tingle, and he couldn't help the way his lips twisted as he swallowed it -- but it was better. And then there was the heat that followed it down through his chest to burst in his stomach, and that was good. "Wow." He took another careful swallow, and the heat spread a little further. Between this and Zack's misused fire materia, he could really get pretty comfortable in here.
Zack reached out, and Cloud passed the bottle back to him with a smile. "I think most people are probably pretty decent when you get to know them a little," he went on.
Cloud nodded. Sephiroth was a hero; the problem with imagining him like this wasn't the decent-guy thing as much as the idea of Sephiroth relaxing. "Most people, huh?" Cloud asked, watching Zack drink. The cadets had had to assemble earlier that week for a recorded speech from corporate. "How about President ShinRa?"
"Okay, maybe not him," Zack grinned. "What, you guys just get the Ninety Percent of You Aren't Fit to be SOLDIERs speech?"
"Yeah." Cloud laughed a little, shakily. "You got that, too?" He'd done his best not to take it to heart, the idea that he could come this far and still not make it, but it sure wasn't helping him sleep any better.
"Shit." Zack's smile was contagious, and his dismissive little snort somehow made Cloud feel much better. "I have it on good authority that everyone gets that speech. I remember hearing it a few years ago, and I'd bet you it was the exact same back when Sephiroth was a cadet, too. It's bullshit." He offered Cloud the bottle rocket again.
"Thanks." It helped a lot, the liquor and the warmth and Zack's confidence, his certainty that everything would be fine. Cloud found himself relaxing, getting comfortable as they passed the bottle back and forth, as they talked about nothing important -- Zack's hometown, Cloud's platoon, the odds of there being another war, the likelihood of them all getting some stupid peacetime assignment so ShinRa could justify the expense of a private army. Zack never quite sat still -- he talked with a constant stream of gestures, shrugs and expressive head tilts and graceful shapes traced in the air with his hands. His eyes shimmered with mako, a strange light blue that looked gray at some moments and purple at others, and he had the kind of smile you could bask in. Cloud realized after a while that accepting this invitation was the best thing he'd done since he signed his papers with ShinRa in the first place. It came out kind of awkward when he tried to say so, but Zack just smiled and set the bottle down.
"You drunk, Strife?"
"No," Cloud said immediately. Zack looked skeptical, so he thought about it for a second longer. He wasn't sober, definitely, but.... "I don't think so. Not really."
"Good." Zack scooted closer, his eyes locked with Cloud's. "Cause it wouldn't be right for me to do this when you were drunk."
And then he leaned over and Cloud thought, he meant the other things after all, and then they were kissing. Zack's lips were soft, and he kept his eyes open, and his tongue oh god was slipping into Cloud's mouth, and -- 'gentle' was not really a word that went with 'SOLDIER,' but it seemed like there really was nothing Zack couldn't do, and Cloud shifted, leaning into him. One of Zack's hands came up to cradle Cloud's face, and the sword calluses were rough, but that was okay, better than okay, because they were a reminder that this was Zack when Cloud's eyes slipped closed so he could just feel the kiss.
Zack kissed like he could do it all day, like he was really enjoying every second of this, his tongue curling against Cloud's, and then he made this low sound in his throat that slid down Cloud's spine like the liquor earlier and made him feel warm, dizzy. Cloud reached out blindly, holding tight to the thick fabric of Zack's shirt -- Zack was kissing him, and he was getting hard just from this, Zack's mouth on his and Zack's fingers in his hair.
They needed to be closer. Cloud shifted, got up on his knees to straddle one of Zack's thighs, and that felt a lot better than he expected it to, hard and muscular. And then Zack rocked his hips, pressing up between Cloud's legs. "Oh," Cloud breathed against his mouth. "Ah."
"You okay, Strife?" Zack asked, steadying him with a hand on his hip.
"Cloud. And yeah. I'm -- this is really good." He managed a weak little smile, looking Zack in the eyes. Any second now, Zack was going to realize he'd never done this before.
But Zack just smiled back and cocked an eyebrow with a little shrug. "Bed?"
This was so out of control. It was going to go too far if he said yes. But Zack wanted him here and this felt good so far, tingly and hot and just a little dizzying, and Cloud sat back, giving Zack room to move. "Okay."
He sort of expected that this was the part where they'd strip, but Zack just tugged him down onto the cot with their clothes still on, pulling him close. Cloud shivered a little at the solid warmth of Zack's body pressing him down into the mattress, and when he realized that was Zack's cock hard against his hip, he made a little whimpering noise before he could help himself.
"Mmm," Zack hummed, nuzzling at Cloud's throat. "Am I making you wait too long?" He shifted a little to the side, and his hand slid down to work at Cloud's buttons, and the friction made Cloud gasp. He was really doing this. They were going to...he wasn't even quite sure how it worked, but Zack seemed to know, and that was Zack's hand reaching into his shorts and easing his cock free -- that was Zack's hand curled around his cock, callused and strong, and stroking him in a slow, steady grip -- that was Zack's breath warm against his neck, and Cloud realized that there were words, that Zack was speaking, saying things like, "Fuck, I love those noises you make, you sound so hot, yeah, look at you move, Cloud, feels good, doesn't it, don't stop," and all Cloud could do was hold onto him and thrust up into his hand -- and then the tone of Zack's voice got a little more urgent, a little less like purring: "Pull your shirt up, come on, don't want to make a mess on your uniform," and that took a second to get through but then it was really good advice and Cloud thought maybe he should have been embarrassed that Zack was about to make him come all over himself but the idea that Zack was about to make him come all over himself was so hot it was just about all he needed, and he fumbled to comply, tugging his shirt up one-handed and arching his back and this was like that first time they'd let him try casting lighting but better and he arched his back and Zack kissed him hard to muffle the noise he made.
Zack was grinning at him when Cloud caught his breath enough to look up. "Feel better?"
"I, um." Cloud laughed shakily. "Yeah. Thank you." He glanced down, and he could see the outline of Zack's cock through his fatigues. "You wanna, um. You want me to...?" And then he wasn't sure how to finish the question, wasn't sure how to volunteer for what Zack probably wanted.
"Yeah," Zack said softly. "Please."
Cloud took a deep breath, and he was reaching down to take his pants off, because he was pretty sure he'd have to, when Zack took hold of his hand.
"Here," he suggested, and wrapped Cloud's hand around his cock. "This okay?"
"Oh," Cloud said, before he could help himself. "Yeah. Yeah, this is really -- really okay." Zack's cock felt bigger in his hand than his own, thicker, and the angle was really weird but if he shifted onto his side he could do this okay, and it looked just amazing, Zack half out of his clothes, fatigues pushed down and shirt hiked up to bare his cock and the sharp angles of his hips and the hard muscle of his stomach, and he'd closed his eyes for this, one arm still wrapped around Cloud's waist to hold him close, and his breathing was sharp and ragged in time with the flex of his thighs as he rocked up into Cloud's hand and Cloud thought maybe he should say something, maybe he should try to tell Zack how amazingly hot this was and how much he wanted to make him come, but the words just weren't there -- and then Zack was shuddering, barely making a noise, his cock pulsing in Cloud's hand as he came.
For a second it was quiet enough in the room for Cloud to hear the soft ping of metal as the heater kicked back on. Then Zack opened his eyes and smiled at him, and that look, like Zack was really pleased with Cloud, made him feel even warmer inside than the bottle rocket had.
"Thanks," Zack said. He reached down, off the side of the bed, and Cloud couldn't see where he got it but he produced a rag from somewhere -- it looked like one of the cloths that came with the standard-issue boot polishing kit -- and used that to wipe the mess off his stomach. "You too, right?"
"Oh, ah, yeah," Cloud agreed, reaching out, but Zack just leaned over and did it for him, wiping him clean and dropping the rag off the side of the bed. It was funny, Cloud thought; he hadn't felt drunk earlier, but he sure felt something now, something off-balance and too-bright the way being drunk was supposed to feel.
Zack smile and reached for him, and Cloud slid into his arms easily, stretching out beside him and leaning up for another kiss. He'd have to get back to the barracks by lights out, and he was pretty sure that eventually he'd be sorry he'd skipped dinner for this, but right now, well, breaking regulations had never felt so good.