[Fic] Too Good To Be True - FFVII, Zack/Cloud, 15/21+
Okay, this didn't go quite the way I expected it to, though I probably should have known it was coming after the way they'd been setting things up. Ah well, it was fun to write this for a change. ^_^
Title: Too Good To Be True
Series: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/Aerith
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.
Chapter Length: 5486
Total Length: 78,369
Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.
When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?
This chapter is not worksafe!
By the time they finally escaped the Silver Oasis grounds and headed for the villa, Cloud was more than grateful to be away from the crowd. He enjoyed the thrill of the race and the joy of victory, but being trapped in a flurry of fans fawning over him had never been his favourite part of being a jockey.
Especially since his soaked racing silks had been more than a little uncomfortable, and as they'd dried they'd left behind a crust of salt that itched. At least having Zack with him to help run interference had made things a little more tolerable than usual.
For his part, Zack was just glad when Cloud had finally been able to change back into his casual clothes. The wet silk had clung to his friend's body in a completely indecent way, and Zack had been having difficulty keeping his attention off the blond. As it was, he was still fighting a sappy urge to reach over and brush Cloud's salt-crusted bangs back out of his blue eyes.
"So, what now?" the ex-SOLDIER asked cheerfully, firmly steering his thoughts away from anything to do with Cloud's body. "The night is young, but I bet you're dying for a shower."
"Just a little," Cloud agreed with a grimace, running one hand through the bedraggled spikes of his hair and feeling the grit of salt and sand left behind. "I was half afraid if I took the time to grab one in the locker room, Dio would manage to corner me afterwards with more sponsors and investors and the like."
They were walking along the beach, headed towards the villa that Cloud and his friends had bought years ago. Looking out over the water, sparkling black and silver under the light of the moon, Cloud paused thoughtfully. "Then again," he said, a smile slowly curving his lips, "unlike you I didn't get to the beach today. The race doesn't count. There's more than enough moonlight for us to be able to see, and the villa has its own stretch of beach. Let's go swimming."
"It has its own beach?" Zack exclaimed, shaking his head. "I thought the only private beach in the area belonged to Shinra."
Smirking, Cloud shrugged and continued to walk towards the low-slung building that rested at the edge of the beach, away from the main part of town. "It used to belong to Shinra," he corrected his friend, trying not to sound too smug. "I don't know why Rufus decided to sell it when his father died, but it seemed like poetic justice to use it as our base of operations for this continent."
"You bought the Shinra villa?" Zack stopped short on the boardwalk and stared at his friend in shock. He was starting to get used to being startled by things Cloud had done during the years they'd been apart, but this... "Where the hell did you get the money?" Zack had never been stationed in Costa del Sol, the SOLDIERs were too valuable for what amounted to cushy guard duty, but he'd heard stories from the troops who had been. President Shinra had never been a man inclined to deny himself any sort of luxury or pleasure, and the villa in Costa del Sol had been his vacation getaway.
Grinning outright now, Cloud laughed at him. "Do you have any idea how much you could sell a mastered All materia for, back then?" he asked his friend. "Over a million gil. And we had several of them by the time we were done chasing around after Sephiroth and were waiting for a chance to get into the crater. Most of what Tifa and I had has gone into rebuilding Edge, but there was no point in trying to sell the villa after everything was over. There wasn't anyone with the sort of money available to buy it."
"Holy Shiva," Zack said, shaking his head in helpless awe. "You... that's just... damn." Impressed, he had to laugh as well. "Ifrit's balls, kid, you are something else."
"So, are we going swimming, or what?" Cloud asked, starting to walk again and forcing Zack to either move as well or be left behind. He didn't look back over his shoulder at his friend, not wanting Zack to see the speculative anticipation that was building in his expression. He'd made his decision, and he couldn't have asked for a better chance than what had been given to him right this moment... if only Zack would cooperate.
Well, Zack had been wishing earlier that Cloud had been with him on the beach. "Yeah, sure," he agreed. He'd been dying to get into the water since they'd arrived, and maybe it would help cool him off a little. "Sounds like fun. Last one in the water has to muck out Kinya's stall when we get back to Midgar?"
"You're on," Cloud agreed, and with no further warning he broke into a run, pounding down the boardwalk towards the villa and leaving Zack shouting laughing protests about cheating as the brunet raced behind him.
Cloud hit the door first, but he had to stop long enough to unlock it and that gave Zack a chance to catch up. They shouldered their way through, laughing and shoving and trying not to break anything. Once inside Cloud had a slight advantage in that he knew his way around, but Zack stayed right at his heels and didn't let him get more than a step ahead.
Lunging into the first of the bedrooms, Cloud grinned at Zack's dismayed look and slammed the door in his friend's face. It took him all of about thirty seconds to strip out of his clothes, find his swim shorts in his bag and pull them on, and he snatched up a towel and bolted for the back door of the villa.
Only to discover as he nearly tripped over Zack's bag that the older boy had turned his own tactic against him, stripping down right there in the hall rather than taking the extra few seconds to find the door to the second bedroom. Now Zack was the one in the lead, laughing at Cloud's shouted curse as they pelted through the hall.
The door out to the beach was another bottleneck, and they were side by side as they hit the still warm sand of the beach. Shoving at each other again and doing their best to trip or otherwise slow each other down, Cloud and Zack ran at a speed most people could never even dream of as they charged for the water.
Except for that inhuman speed, anyone watching them would have thought them an ordinary pair of friends, enjoying a break on the beach away from the stresses of life. Nobody would ever have guessed that they had been through hell and back, had seen more death and destruction in their short lives than any man should ever have to witness, and had the weight of the world on their shoulders.
At that moment, Cloud could almost forget all of that himself, lost in the thrill of victory from the race and the joy of horsing around with his best friend. This was how it should have been; the two of them on leave, both SOLDIERs and an equal match for each other, teasing and laughing and generally having a blast.
Like the chocobo race it was a photo finish as they both splashed into an oncoming wave and dove under the water the moment it was deep enough. Of course they didn't have a photo to look at, so they had to settle for cheerfully arguing about who had won once they surfaced again.
"In your dreams, Strife!" Zack protested with a laugh when Cloud insisted that his foot had hit the water first. "Here, you want water? Have it!" He cupped his hands together under the water and sent a huge wave at his friend, swamping the blond.
Sputtering and coughing, Cloud splashed back at him and sparked a water fight of epic proportions. Anyone else would probably have been knocked under and half-drowned by the strength of the waves they sent at each other, but they were both having the time of their lives.
Finally a particularly large wave from Cloud knocked Zack back a staggering step, and it took the ex-SOLDIER a moment to clear the stinging saltwater from his eyes. When he looked around in preparation for splashing back, however, he discovered that he was to all appearances alone in the water. There was no trace of where Cloud had gone or even that he'd ever been there.
"Cloud?" Bracing himself against the push and pull of the waves, Zack looked around cautiously. The water here was clear all the way to the sandy bottom, but in the dark of night it was hard to see into it. The moonlight reflecting off the surface didn't help any, nor did the foam of the waves as they broke and raced around him. "Cloud!"
Zack wasn't worried; he'd never heard anything about monsters in the water off Costa del Sol, and anyway he was sure Cloud could handle himself at least well enough to leave some sign of where he'd gone. Which meant the younger man had gone under voluntarily, and that meant...
Even though he'd half expected it, the strong hand that wrapped suddenly around his ankle and yanked him off his feet caught him off guard. Zack flailed and went under, with just enough presence of mind to draw a deep breath before the water closed over his head.
He caught a brief glimpse of Cloud grinning at him through the dim water before the blond was twisting to swim away again. There was no way Zack was having any of that; pushing himself off the sandy bottom with one hand to change his momentum, Zack lashed out and managed to catch Cloud by the arm, hauling the younger man back towards him.
They wrestled for dominance under the water, surfacing just often enough to keep from drowning and otherwise not holding back at all. The resistance of the water was enough to keep them from really hurting each other with their punches and kicks, and the waves tumbled them this way and that as they struggled.
It was all Zack could do to keep from laughing and losing all his air. No one else had ever played with him the way Cloud did, and it was so much more fun now that they were equally strong that it didn't even bear comparing. And the fact that the blond had unbent enough to scuffle with him like this meant he'd managed to set aside his worries about Sephiroth and everything else long enough to unwind, which was exactly what Zack had been hoping for when he'd urged the trip to Costa del Sol in the first place.
Indeed, there was little on Cloud's mind at that moment beyond the struggle and half-guilty thoughts of how good Zack felt against him. Even that lingering guilt was fading as he threw himself into the fight, tangling arms and legs together and wondering if Zack was enjoying the contact half as much as he was.
The next time they surfaced Zack was standing further up the beach than Cloud was. The slight difference in depth, plus the inch or two in height that Zack still had on Cloud, gave the older boy enough of an advantage that he was able to drive the blond back down through the water and pin him briefly on the bottom.
For a moment their eyes met through the water, and something about Cloud's expression made Zack suddenly and intensely aware of how intimate the position they were in was. They were wrapped around each other like a pair of lovers, Zack pressed full length against Cloud as he pinned the younger man to the sand, and Zack felt his body react as everything he'd been trying to ignore came rushing in on him at once.
Seizing his opportunity, Cloud shifted his grip from Zack's shoulder to the back of his neck, and closed the distance between them in a fierce kiss. Startled and already off-balance, Zack found himself responding before it even occurred to him that he should be pulling away.
Just as in the crater, they lost themselves in the touch and taste of each other. This time, however, there wasn't a sense of fear and desperation overlying everything, only passion and need and longing that reached back over nearly a decade. The waves lifted them and tumbled them around, but they hardly noticed except for the way the motion made them rub against each other as they clung together.
Cloud was about as close to Heaven as it was possible to get outside of the Lifestream. This was like every teenaged fantasy he'd ever had about Zack come true, only better. Refusing to think about anything that might distract him from how good this felt, he did his best to put his feelings into the kiss and hoped Zack understood.
They broke apart only when the need to breathe was too urgent to ignore any longer, surfacing to gasp for air and stare at each other. The waves had pushed them up high enough onto the shore that Zack was able to keep his head above water just by staying on his hands and knees, and Cloud only had to push himself up on his elbows in the sand.
"Cloud..." Zack faltered, searching for words, torn between his conscience urging him to remind Cloud about Tifa and his body screaming at him to forget about everything but the feel of his friend beneath him.
"Was I wrong?" Cloud asked him hoarsely when Zack paused and didn't continue. "The way you kissed me in the cave, the way you've been looking at me lately; was I wrong? Do you want me as badly as I've always wanted you?"
"Hades, Cloud," Zack groaned and hung his head, resting their foreheads together as he squeezed his eyes shut and fought for control. His body was definitely winning out over his conscience. "I can't do this casually. Not with you," he warned the younger man. He shivered when a stronger wave hit them and pushed him against Cloud and he felt the blond's hard cock pressed against his thigh though their wet shorts.
"Good," Cloud replied fiercely, his eyes lighting with something close to triumph. "Because there's no way in hell I'd risk fucking up our friendship for a fling. All or nothing, Zack. Since when did you ever do anything halfway?"
That was exactly what Zack hadn't even dared to hope he might hear from Cloud, so notoriously skittish about emotions and commitment. "All or nothing," he agreed, his voice husky, as he shifted to kiss Cloud again. He'd worry about all the complications this was going to cause later. Right now, all he wanted was to feel his best friend pressed against him like this, knowing there was better yet to come.
Moaning into the kiss, Cloud clutched at him and rocked up against him. They were close enough in height that they were evenly matched, and the motion pressed their cocks together in a way that made them both groan. The thin, wet cotton of their shorts provided so little in the way of a barrier that it might as well not have been there at all, and the waves pushing and dragging over their bodies only made them even more sensitive to touch.
Zack could be patient when he needed to be; he'd never have succeeded in winning Cloud as a friend if he couldn't. But it didn't come naturally to him, and patience was absolutely the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. He shifted to brace his weight on one arm in the wet sand, reaching down with the other hand to fumble with the strings holding Cloud's shorts closed. When he couldn't immediately undo the knot, he made a frustrated noise and tugged sharply instead. The string and cloth parted with a wet tearing sound, leaving Cloud's hip bare to his exploring fingers.
Breaking off from the kiss to laugh breathlessly, Cloud threw his head back and arched up into the touch. "Those are my only swim shorts," he informed Zack in mock-indignation.
"So? It's a private beach, right?" Zack grinned back down at him, indigo eyes lit from behind by the glow of mako and looking both eerie and beautiful in the moonlight. Since the shorts were ruined anyway he didn't hesitate to gather the material in his fist again and pull it the rest of the way off Cloud's body. "What do you need them for?"
"Now you're overdressed," Cloud countered, moving to return the favour. If he didn't need shorts then neither did Zack, right? The material tore easily in his grasp, and when he let go the cotton was washed away from them by the next wave. Now, at last, they were bare against each other. Cloud felt hypersensitive, as if he could somehow be aware of every inch of Zack pressed up against him.
Shifting, Zack untangled their legs and moved so he was seated between Cloud's, their cocks rubbing together and making them both gasp. "Cloud," Zack groaned, his hand trailing down over the blond's hip and moving inwards until he could brush his fingers against the younger man's erection.
His mind was racing, trying to figure out what the best way would be to do this. They didn't have anything to use for lubrication, not unless one of them went back into the villa and searched for something, and there was no way in hell either of them was going to be willing to wait that long. Contrary to popular belief water wasn't much good, especially salt water, and he didn't really want to hurt the younger man. He wanted this to be something Cloud was willing to repeat, for one thing!
Pushing himself up against Zack's fingers, Cloud looked up into his friend's eyes and read some of his conflicted thoughts there. His eyes narrowed, and he decided it was time to remind Zack about a few essential points.
With no further warning, he tensed his muscles and pushed off against the sand as the next incoming wave lifted them, catching Zack completely by surprise and managing to flip their positions before the brunet even realized what was happening. Now Cloud was the one pinning Zack, his hands on the older man's shoulders and his thigh pressed against Zack's cock. Startled indigo eyes looked back up at him, and Cloud gave him a slightly feral grin.
"Stop thinking like I'm breakable," Cloud reminded him, his voice gruff with need. "I'm as tough as a SOLDIER, remember? One of these days I'm going to pound it into your head once and for all. You're not that big, you're not going to hurt me that badly."
Pausing, he added thoughtfully, "And what makes you so sure you're going to be on top, anyway?"
Zack sucked in a sharp breath, startled more by that simple question than he had been by the move that reversed their positions. It wasn't that he was against the idea, though somehow he'd always ended up being the one on top in his infrequent encounters with other SOLDIERs. It was just... this was Cloud, and every errant thought he'd ever had about the blond had very definitely involved Zack being the one in control. Largely because most of that time Cloud had been about two thirds his size and in total awe of him, and the idea of the little trooper taking Zack would have been somewhat laughable.
Now, though... Zack realized that Cloud was right, he'd still been thinking of the younger man as if he was that young, awestruck boy, even though the evidence to the contrary was right there in front of him. Here and now, there was no reason the encounter couldn't go either way. Shivering, he became conscious of a thrill running through him at the idea. No, he wouldn't really object if that was how it ended up going.
Not that he was going to let Cloud take control from him that easily. "Oh, yeah? What makes you think I won't be?" he challenged the blond, and shoved hard at the solid body pinning him to the sand.
They rolled, picking up sand and splashing through the surf as they resumed their earlier struggle for dominance with an entirely new intent. This time they weren't punching or kicking, more interested in the way their bodies slid against each other than in inflicting any damage. The struggle was interspersed with heated kisses and muttered curses with about equal frequency, and their eyes both shone bright with mako and desire.
In truth, until he'd uttered the words it had never occurred to Cloud that the encounter could end any other way, either. Certainly the very idea would have seemed ridiculous to him before, and old fantasies and habits of thinking were hard to shake. Now that he'd thought of it, though, he was determined that this first time at least would be with him on top, just to drive it home to Zack that things had changed between them.
The battle ended when Zack discovered - rather abruptly and somewhat to his dismay - that Cloud wasn't above using dirty tactics. The blond got his hand around Zack's balls and tugged gently, rubbing his thumb up over the base of the older man's cock, and this time when Cloud rolled into the dominant position Zack went still instead of fighting back.
"That's... hitting below the belt," Zack gasped, digging his hands into the sand and fighting the urge to jerk away. He knew Cloud wouldn't hurt him, but the implied threat made his heart beat faster. Or maybe that was just the intensity of sensation as Cloud rolled his balls between his fingers, playing with the loose skin. "Or something below the belt, anyway. Maybe not hitting."
"Right, because you've never resorted to dirty tricks to win a fight or an argument," Cloud retorted dryly, making Zack grin breathlessly up at him. "Do you yield, or not?" He tugged again, making Zack gasp and toss his head back, his eyes going half-closed but the glow in them growing stronger with need.
"Yeah, okay, I yield," Zack grated out, squirming helplessly under Cloud's touch. "You win this one. Next time..."
"Next time you can do whatever you want with me," Cloud promised him, leaning over to breathe the words directly into Zack's ear and making the older man shudder. "After that we can figure it out as we go along. But this one is mine."
Letting go at last, Cloud dropped his hand further and ran his fingers over the tight pucker of Zack's ass. He tried not to show how uncertain he felt; he knew the theory of what went where thanks to plenty of talk in the barracks, and he'd even learned somewhere along the way about how you were supposed to prepare your partner, but he'd never actually done it. He'd already gone further with Zack as of this moment then he ever had with Tifa, and he desperately didn't want to screw this up.
No way in hell was he asking for help or guidance after claiming top like that, though. Surely it couldn't be that hard to figure out what to do and when.
Zack had stopped fighting him, at least, lying back in the waves and the sand like some kind of beach sea god, the moonlight playing over his body and making the water on it gleam. Cloud slid one finger inside Zack's body, marvelling at how tight it was and trying not to think of how incredibly good that was going to feel around his cock. Zack would never let him live it down if he embarrassed himself by coming too early.
Panting and forcing himself to relax against the intrusion, Zack moaned at the odd sensation. It felt good in a weird way, though not really like he'd thought it would. There was a lot more to come, of course. It wasn't hard to figure out that Cloud was going slow because he was trying not to fumble his way through it, but Zack did his best to wordlessly encourage the younger man with little moans and gasps of need. Not that he needed to try very hard to produce them; indeed, it would have been damn hard to get himself to stay silent.
Letting go of his death grip on the sand with one hand, Zack waited for the water to wash the grit off his fingers and then wrapped them around Cloud's cock, retaliating in the only way he could. The blond made a needy noise and thrust into his hand, his finger curving inside Zack's body in response, and that made the brunet squirm against him.
The second finger was a little harder to get in, especially with Zack distracting him like that, but Cloud managed. He knew there was supposed to be something he could touch with his fingers that would make Zack see stars, and he wanted to find it. He was determined to make sure this was just as good for his friend as it was for him, and that was one sure way to do it.
It took him a few moments, but he knew when he'd found the right place. Zack gasped and tightened his hand, forgetting to actually stroke for a moment as he trembled under that touch. "Ramuh's beard, Cloud... do that again," he begged shamelessly, grinding down against Cloud's hand. Cloud obliged him, feeling a little smug as Zack made a helpless sound of longing and kept rocking back against his hand.
Carefully Cloud worked his fingers in and out, trying his best to stretch the muscle enough to take him. "Hey," Zack finally groaned, shuddering beneath him. "I'm not breakable either, you know."
Cloud didn't need to hear any more than that. "Right," he agreed hoarsely, withdrawing his fingers. Zack cried out and arched his back like he was trying to get the contact back, but Cloud was already moving to position his cock to replace his fingers.
For an endless moment their eyes locked, sky blue to indigo, and there was a flash of something indefinable between them. Cloud pressed forward, trying to take it slow but having to fight his own body and the way Zack kept rocking up into him.
Wincing as Cloud stretched him open, the salt in the water stinging slightly in the small tears that resulted, Zack was grateful to have a SOLDIER's tolerance for pain. Otherwise without lube or a lot more preparation this could have been really bad, and if he'd had to wait much longer he thought he might have gone insane.
As it was he still needed a moment to adjust once Cloud was all the way inside him, wrapping his arms around the younger man's shoulders to keep him in place. Cloud held as still as he could, ignoring the faint tremors that wracked his body as Zack squeezed down around his cock in the most incredible way.
"Zack," he groaned, lowering his head to lick at the side of his friend's neck. He tasted salt from the water and Zack's skin, an almost addicting combination.
"Yeah," Zack replied somewhat vaguely, tipping his head back to give Cloud better access. "Yeah, okay, go ahead."
Taking a deep breath, Cloud eased himself partway out of Zack's body, then thrust back in again. Zack made a noise somewhere between pain and intense pleasure, his fingers digging into Cloud's back. The second thrust was a little harder and faster, even though Cloud was trying to hold himself back, but that time Zack's responding noise was almost entirely need instead of pain.
"Do it," Zack urged him, looking up at him with burning heat in his eyes and arching up to encourage him. The next thrust was harder still, and Zack moaned as Cloud drove home inside him. Oh yeah, he definitely didn't mind if they did it this way sometimes, not if it was going to feel this good. Why hadn't he ever done this before?
It didn't matter now. All that mattered was the way Cloud felt inside him, and the way the water washed over him like a caress almost in time with Cloud's thrusts. Shifting so his legs were wrapped around the younger man's, Zack cried out when the change in angle made Cloud hit that spot inside him again. "Holy... nng. Cloud!"
Feeling a bit smug that he'd managed to wring such a sound out of Zack, Cloud smirked and thrust in again, angling himself a little deeper to make sure to hit the spot again. The new angle also ground Zack's cock in between their stomachs, and from the sounds of it the older man wasn't going to need much more stimulation than that.
Which was probably a good thing, because Cloud's arms were already shaking with the effort it was taking to hold himself back. Zack felt even better around his cock than he'd imagined, and just as he'd been afraid it was all he could do not to embarrass himself.
It was a bit difficult to maintain a steady rhythm because of the way the waves kept lifting them and pushing them against the sand, but neither of them really minded. Or rather, they were too far gone to care. Cloud growled into Zack's throat and thrust harder to compensate, and Zack arched up into every stroke with greedy little moans that drove Cloud wild.
In the end it was Cloud who broke first, but not by much. As his rhythm faltered and orgasm hit him hard, he fumbled one hand down between them to tug at Zack's cock, not wanting to leave the older man unsatisfied. That was all it took for Zack to hit the peak as well, convulsing around Cloud as they came hard together.
Panting, drenched in sweat where the water didn't touch them and covered in salt and sand, the two men lay entangled in the surf for long minutes after they'd finished. "Fuck," was Cloud's eventual succinct evaluation, and Zack started laughing.
"Yeah, that about covers it," he agreed, his voice a little unsteady still. Leaning up he kissed Cloud hard and fiercely, letting everything he was feeling at the moment come through in the embrace. Cloud returned it with interest, savouring the taste and feel of his best friend and a dream he'd never thought he would actually have.
When the kiss was over they separated with a groan, hauling themselves to their feet on limbs that felt like jelly. Zack winced slightly at the soreness he felt, but it wasn't anything a first-level Cure spell wouldn't fix. Or hell, given how fast SOLDIERs healed he could probably just wait it out and he'd be fine in the morning.
Well enough to retaliate and take Cloud up on that 'anything you want with me' offer, anyway. Grinning in anticipation and smug satisfaction, Zack slung an arm around the blond's shoulder. For once Cloud didn't even try to pull away or duck out from under the touch, just wrapping his arm around Zack's waist in turn.
"C'mon, let's hit the sack," Zack urged, tugging him towards the villa. "Or maybe the shower, then the sack. You wore me out, kid."
"Shower?" Cloud raised an eyebrow at him with an expression that shouldn't have held that much heat. Damn it, Zack thought ruefully, they weren't teenagers any more, much though part of him still felt like he should be only eighteen.
"Don't give me that look," he retorted, shoving at the younger man. "There's no way you have any more energy than I do, after that race and what we just did."
Slowly, Cloud smiled at him, a predatory expression that would have looked completely out of place on him when he'd been a teenager, but which oddly suited him now. "Want to bet?" he asked, walking out from under Zack's arm when the brunet stopped to stare at him. "If you're tired, though..."
He sauntered off towards the villa, the moonlight highlighting the heavy muscles on his frame, his pale skin all but glowing and his blond hair shining damply. Suddenly sleep didn't feel all that urgent to Zack, and the potion was sounding like a better option with every moment that went by.
"Not that tired," Zack declared, and headed after him with a predatory grin of his own. Two could play at this game. And have a damn lot of fun doing it, too.
Title: Too Good To Be True
Series: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Zack/Cloud, some Cloud/Tifa, mention of Zack/Aerith
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, sex, yaoi, the usual.
Chapter Length: 5486
Total Length: 78,369
Author's Note: This takes place after AC, and is slightly AU in that Zack would not have been present with Aerith in the moments when Cloud touched the Lifestream. Or just tell yourself he was hallucinating Zack, if you like.
When things seem too good to be true it usually means there's a catch hidden somewhere. But hasn't Cloud earned his happy ending ten times over?
This chapter is not worksafe!
By the time they finally escaped the Silver Oasis grounds and headed for the villa, Cloud was more than grateful to be away from the crowd. He enjoyed the thrill of the race and the joy of victory, but being trapped in a flurry of fans fawning over him had never been his favourite part of being a jockey.
Especially since his soaked racing silks had been more than a little uncomfortable, and as they'd dried they'd left behind a crust of salt that itched. At least having Zack with him to help run interference had made things a little more tolerable than usual.
For his part, Zack was just glad when Cloud had finally been able to change back into his casual clothes. The wet silk had clung to his friend's body in a completely indecent way, and Zack had been having difficulty keeping his attention off the blond. As it was, he was still fighting a sappy urge to reach over and brush Cloud's salt-crusted bangs back out of his blue eyes.
"So, what now?" the ex-SOLDIER asked cheerfully, firmly steering his thoughts away from anything to do with Cloud's body. "The night is young, but I bet you're dying for a shower."
"Just a little," Cloud agreed with a grimace, running one hand through the bedraggled spikes of his hair and feeling the grit of salt and sand left behind. "I was half afraid if I took the time to grab one in the locker room, Dio would manage to corner me afterwards with more sponsors and investors and the like."
They were walking along the beach, headed towards the villa that Cloud and his friends had bought years ago. Looking out over the water, sparkling black and silver under the light of the moon, Cloud paused thoughtfully. "Then again," he said, a smile slowly curving his lips, "unlike you I didn't get to the beach today. The race doesn't count. There's more than enough moonlight for us to be able to see, and the villa has its own stretch of beach. Let's go swimming."
"It has its own beach?" Zack exclaimed, shaking his head. "I thought the only private beach in the area belonged to Shinra."
Smirking, Cloud shrugged and continued to walk towards the low-slung building that rested at the edge of the beach, away from the main part of town. "It used to belong to Shinra," he corrected his friend, trying not to sound too smug. "I don't know why Rufus decided to sell it when his father died, but it seemed like poetic justice to use it as our base of operations for this continent."
"You bought the Shinra villa?" Zack stopped short on the boardwalk and stared at his friend in shock. He was starting to get used to being startled by things Cloud had done during the years they'd been apart, but this... "Where the hell did you get the money?" Zack had never been stationed in Costa del Sol, the SOLDIERs were too valuable for what amounted to cushy guard duty, but he'd heard stories from the troops who had been. President Shinra had never been a man inclined to deny himself any sort of luxury or pleasure, and the villa in Costa del Sol had been his vacation getaway.
Grinning outright now, Cloud laughed at him. "Do you have any idea how much you could sell a mastered All materia for, back then?" he asked his friend. "Over a million gil. And we had several of them by the time we were done chasing around after Sephiroth and were waiting for a chance to get into the crater. Most of what Tifa and I had has gone into rebuilding Edge, but there was no point in trying to sell the villa after everything was over. There wasn't anyone with the sort of money available to buy it."
"Holy Shiva," Zack said, shaking his head in helpless awe. "You... that's just... damn." Impressed, he had to laugh as well. "Ifrit's balls, kid, you are something else."
"So, are we going swimming, or what?" Cloud asked, starting to walk again and forcing Zack to either move as well or be left behind. He didn't look back over his shoulder at his friend, not wanting Zack to see the speculative anticipation that was building in his expression. He'd made his decision, and he couldn't have asked for a better chance than what had been given to him right this moment... if only Zack would cooperate.
Well, Zack had been wishing earlier that Cloud had been with him on the beach. "Yeah, sure," he agreed. He'd been dying to get into the water since they'd arrived, and maybe it would help cool him off a little. "Sounds like fun. Last one in the water has to muck out Kinya's stall when we get back to Midgar?"
"You're on," Cloud agreed, and with no further warning he broke into a run, pounding down the boardwalk towards the villa and leaving Zack shouting laughing protests about cheating as the brunet raced behind him.
Cloud hit the door first, but he had to stop long enough to unlock it and that gave Zack a chance to catch up. They shouldered their way through, laughing and shoving and trying not to break anything. Once inside Cloud had a slight advantage in that he knew his way around, but Zack stayed right at his heels and didn't let him get more than a step ahead.
Lunging into the first of the bedrooms, Cloud grinned at Zack's dismayed look and slammed the door in his friend's face. It took him all of about thirty seconds to strip out of his clothes, find his swim shorts in his bag and pull them on, and he snatched up a towel and bolted for the back door of the villa.
Only to discover as he nearly tripped over Zack's bag that the older boy had turned his own tactic against him, stripping down right there in the hall rather than taking the extra few seconds to find the door to the second bedroom. Now Zack was the one in the lead, laughing at Cloud's shouted curse as they pelted through the hall.
The door out to the beach was another bottleneck, and they were side by side as they hit the still warm sand of the beach. Shoving at each other again and doing their best to trip or otherwise slow each other down, Cloud and Zack ran at a speed most people could never even dream of as they charged for the water.
Except for that inhuman speed, anyone watching them would have thought them an ordinary pair of friends, enjoying a break on the beach away from the stresses of life. Nobody would ever have guessed that they had been through hell and back, had seen more death and destruction in their short lives than any man should ever have to witness, and had the weight of the world on their shoulders.
At that moment, Cloud could almost forget all of that himself, lost in the thrill of victory from the race and the joy of horsing around with his best friend. This was how it should have been; the two of them on leave, both SOLDIERs and an equal match for each other, teasing and laughing and generally having a blast.
Like the chocobo race it was a photo finish as they both splashed into an oncoming wave and dove under the water the moment it was deep enough. Of course they didn't have a photo to look at, so they had to settle for cheerfully arguing about who had won once they surfaced again.
"In your dreams, Strife!" Zack protested with a laugh when Cloud insisted that his foot had hit the water first. "Here, you want water? Have it!" He cupped his hands together under the water and sent a huge wave at his friend, swamping the blond.
Sputtering and coughing, Cloud splashed back at him and sparked a water fight of epic proportions. Anyone else would probably have been knocked under and half-drowned by the strength of the waves they sent at each other, but they were both having the time of their lives.
Finally a particularly large wave from Cloud knocked Zack back a staggering step, and it took the ex-SOLDIER a moment to clear the stinging saltwater from his eyes. When he looked around in preparation for splashing back, however, he discovered that he was to all appearances alone in the water. There was no trace of where Cloud had gone or even that he'd ever been there.
"Cloud?" Bracing himself against the push and pull of the waves, Zack looked around cautiously. The water here was clear all the way to the sandy bottom, but in the dark of night it was hard to see into it. The moonlight reflecting off the surface didn't help any, nor did the foam of the waves as they broke and raced around him. "Cloud!"
Zack wasn't worried; he'd never heard anything about monsters in the water off Costa del Sol, and anyway he was sure Cloud could handle himself at least well enough to leave some sign of where he'd gone. Which meant the younger man had gone under voluntarily, and that meant...
Even though he'd half expected it, the strong hand that wrapped suddenly around his ankle and yanked him off his feet caught him off guard. Zack flailed and went under, with just enough presence of mind to draw a deep breath before the water closed over his head.
He caught a brief glimpse of Cloud grinning at him through the dim water before the blond was twisting to swim away again. There was no way Zack was having any of that; pushing himself off the sandy bottom with one hand to change his momentum, Zack lashed out and managed to catch Cloud by the arm, hauling the younger man back towards him.
They wrestled for dominance under the water, surfacing just often enough to keep from drowning and otherwise not holding back at all. The resistance of the water was enough to keep them from really hurting each other with their punches and kicks, and the waves tumbled them this way and that as they struggled.
It was all Zack could do to keep from laughing and losing all his air. No one else had ever played with him the way Cloud did, and it was so much more fun now that they were equally strong that it didn't even bear comparing. And the fact that the blond had unbent enough to scuffle with him like this meant he'd managed to set aside his worries about Sephiroth and everything else long enough to unwind, which was exactly what Zack had been hoping for when he'd urged the trip to Costa del Sol in the first place.
Indeed, there was little on Cloud's mind at that moment beyond the struggle and half-guilty thoughts of how good Zack felt against him. Even that lingering guilt was fading as he threw himself into the fight, tangling arms and legs together and wondering if Zack was enjoying the contact half as much as he was.
The next time they surfaced Zack was standing further up the beach than Cloud was. The slight difference in depth, plus the inch or two in height that Zack still had on Cloud, gave the older boy enough of an advantage that he was able to drive the blond back down through the water and pin him briefly on the bottom.
For a moment their eyes met through the water, and something about Cloud's expression made Zack suddenly and intensely aware of how intimate the position they were in was. They were wrapped around each other like a pair of lovers, Zack pressed full length against Cloud as he pinned the younger man to the sand, and Zack felt his body react as everything he'd been trying to ignore came rushing in on him at once.
Seizing his opportunity, Cloud shifted his grip from Zack's shoulder to the back of his neck, and closed the distance between them in a fierce kiss. Startled and already off-balance, Zack found himself responding before it even occurred to him that he should be pulling away.
Just as in the crater, they lost themselves in the touch and taste of each other. This time, however, there wasn't a sense of fear and desperation overlying everything, only passion and need and longing that reached back over nearly a decade. The waves lifted them and tumbled them around, but they hardly noticed except for the way the motion made them rub against each other as they clung together.
Cloud was about as close to Heaven as it was possible to get outside of the Lifestream. This was like every teenaged fantasy he'd ever had about Zack come true, only better. Refusing to think about anything that might distract him from how good this felt, he did his best to put his feelings into the kiss and hoped Zack understood.
They broke apart only when the need to breathe was too urgent to ignore any longer, surfacing to gasp for air and stare at each other. The waves had pushed them up high enough onto the shore that Zack was able to keep his head above water just by staying on his hands and knees, and Cloud only had to push himself up on his elbows in the sand.
"Cloud..." Zack faltered, searching for words, torn between his conscience urging him to remind Cloud about Tifa and his body screaming at him to forget about everything but the feel of his friend beneath him.
"Was I wrong?" Cloud asked him hoarsely when Zack paused and didn't continue. "The way you kissed me in the cave, the way you've been looking at me lately; was I wrong? Do you want me as badly as I've always wanted you?"
"Hades, Cloud," Zack groaned and hung his head, resting their foreheads together as he squeezed his eyes shut and fought for control. His body was definitely winning out over his conscience. "I can't do this casually. Not with you," he warned the younger man. He shivered when a stronger wave hit them and pushed him against Cloud and he felt the blond's hard cock pressed against his thigh though their wet shorts.
"Good," Cloud replied fiercely, his eyes lighting with something close to triumph. "Because there's no way in hell I'd risk fucking up our friendship for a fling. All or nothing, Zack. Since when did you ever do anything halfway?"
That was exactly what Zack hadn't even dared to hope he might hear from Cloud, so notoriously skittish about emotions and commitment. "All or nothing," he agreed, his voice husky, as he shifted to kiss Cloud again. He'd worry about all the complications this was going to cause later. Right now, all he wanted was to feel his best friend pressed against him like this, knowing there was better yet to come.
Moaning into the kiss, Cloud clutched at him and rocked up against him. They were close enough in height that they were evenly matched, and the motion pressed their cocks together in a way that made them both groan. The thin, wet cotton of their shorts provided so little in the way of a barrier that it might as well not have been there at all, and the waves pushing and dragging over their bodies only made them even more sensitive to touch.
Zack could be patient when he needed to be; he'd never have succeeded in winning Cloud as a friend if he couldn't. But it didn't come naturally to him, and patience was absolutely the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. He shifted to brace his weight on one arm in the wet sand, reaching down with the other hand to fumble with the strings holding Cloud's shorts closed. When he couldn't immediately undo the knot, he made a frustrated noise and tugged sharply instead. The string and cloth parted with a wet tearing sound, leaving Cloud's hip bare to his exploring fingers.
Breaking off from the kiss to laugh breathlessly, Cloud threw his head back and arched up into the touch. "Those are my only swim shorts," he informed Zack in mock-indignation.
"So? It's a private beach, right?" Zack grinned back down at him, indigo eyes lit from behind by the glow of mako and looking both eerie and beautiful in the moonlight. Since the shorts were ruined anyway he didn't hesitate to gather the material in his fist again and pull it the rest of the way off Cloud's body. "What do you need them for?"
"Now you're overdressed," Cloud countered, moving to return the favour. If he didn't need shorts then neither did Zack, right? The material tore easily in his grasp, and when he let go the cotton was washed away from them by the next wave. Now, at last, they were bare against each other. Cloud felt hypersensitive, as if he could somehow be aware of every inch of Zack pressed up against him.
Shifting, Zack untangled their legs and moved so he was seated between Cloud's, their cocks rubbing together and making them both gasp. "Cloud," Zack groaned, his hand trailing down over the blond's hip and moving inwards until he could brush his fingers against the younger man's erection.
His mind was racing, trying to figure out what the best way would be to do this. They didn't have anything to use for lubrication, not unless one of them went back into the villa and searched for something, and there was no way in hell either of them was going to be willing to wait that long. Contrary to popular belief water wasn't much good, especially salt water, and he didn't really want to hurt the younger man. He wanted this to be something Cloud was willing to repeat, for one thing!
Pushing himself up against Zack's fingers, Cloud looked up into his friend's eyes and read some of his conflicted thoughts there. His eyes narrowed, and he decided it was time to remind Zack about a few essential points.
With no further warning, he tensed his muscles and pushed off against the sand as the next incoming wave lifted them, catching Zack completely by surprise and managing to flip their positions before the brunet even realized what was happening. Now Cloud was the one pinning Zack, his hands on the older man's shoulders and his thigh pressed against Zack's cock. Startled indigo eyes looked back up at him, and Cloud gave him a slightly feral grin.
"Stop thinking like I'm breakable," Cloud reminded him, his voice gruff with need. "I'm as tough as a SOLDIER, remember? One of these days I'm going to pound it into your head once and for all. You're not that big, you're not going to hurt me that badly."
Pausing, he added thoughtfully, "And what makes you so sure you're going to be on top, anyway?"
Zack sucked in a sharp breath, startled more by that simple question than he had been by the move that reversed their positions. It wasn't that he was against the idea, though somehow he'd always ended up being the one on top in his infrequent encounters with other SOLDIERs. It was just... this was Cloud, and every errant thought he'd ever had about the blond had very definitely involved Zack being the one in control. Largely because most of that time Cloud had been about two thirds his size and in total awe of him, and the idea of the little trooper taking Zack would have been somewhat laughable.
Now, though... Zack realized that Cloud was right, he'd still been thinking of the younger man as if he was that young, awestruck boy, even though the evidence to the contrary was right there in front of him. Here and now, there was no reason the encounter couldn't go either way. Shivering, he became conscious of a thrill running through him at the idea. No, he wouldn't really object if that was how it ended up going.
Not that he was going to let Cloud take control from him that easily. "Oh, yeah? What makes you think I won't be?" he challenged the blond, and shoved hard at the solid body pinning him to the sand.
They rolled, picking up sand and splashing through the surf as they resumed their earlier struggle for dominance with an entirely new intent. This time they weren't punching or kicking, more interested in the way their bodies slid against each other than in inflicting any damage. The struggle was interspersed with heated kisses and muttered curses with about equal frequency, and their eyes both shone bright with mako and desire.
In truth, until he'd uttered the words it had never occurred to Cloud that the encounter could end any other way, either. Certainly the very idea would have seemed ridiculous to him before, and old fantasies and habits of thinking were hard to shake. Now that he'd thought of it, though, he was determined that this first time at least would be with him on top, just to drive it home to Zack that things had changed between them.
The battle ended when Zack discovered - rather abruptly and somewhat to his dismay - that Cloud wasn't above using dirty tactics. The blond got his hand around Zack's balls and tugged gently, rubbing his thumb up over the base of the older man's cock, and this time when Cloud rolled into the dominant position Zack went still instead of fighting back.
"That's... hitting below the belt," Zack gasped, digging his hands into the sand and fighting the urge to jerk away. He knew Cloud wouldn't hurt him, but the implied threat made his heart beat faster. Or maybe that was just the intensity of sensation as Cloud rolled his balls between his fingers, playing with the loose skin. "Or something below the belt, anyway. Maybe not hitting."
"Right, because you've never resorted to dirty tricks to win a fight or an argument," Cloud retorted dryly, making Zack grin breathlessly up at him. "Do you yield, or not?" He tugged again, making Zack gasp and toss his head back, his eyes going half-closed but the glow in them growing stronger with need.
"Yeah, okay, I yield," Zack grated out, squirming helplessly under Cloud's touch. "You win this one. Next time..."
"Next time you can do whatever you want with me," Cloud promised him, leaning over to breathe the words directly into Zack's ear and making the older man shudder. "After that we can figure it out as we go along. But this one is mine."
Letting go at last, Cloud dropped his hand further and ran his fingers over the tight pucker of Zack's ass. He tried not to show how uncertain he felt; he knew the theory of what went where thanks to plenty of talk in the barracks, and he'd even learned somewhere along the way about how you were supposed to prepare your partner, but he'd never actually done it. He'd already gone further with Zack as of this moment then he ever had with Tifa, and he desperately didn't want to screw this up.
No way in hell was he asking for help or guidance after claiming top like that, though. Surely it couldn't be that hard to figure out what to do and when.
Zack had stopped fighting him, at least, lying back in the waves and the sand like some kind of beach sea god, the moonlight playing over his body and making the water on it gleam. Cloud slid one finger inside Zack's body, marvelling at how tight it was and trying not to think of how incredibly good that was going to feel around his cock. Zack would never let him live it down if he embarrassed himself by coming too early.
Panting and forcing himself to relax against the intrusion, Zack moaned at the odd sensation. It felt good in a weird way, though not really like he'd thought it would. There was a lot more to come, of course. It wasn't hard to figure out that Cloud was going slow because he was trying not to fumble his way through it, but Zack did his best to wordlessly encourage the younger man with little moans and gasps of need. Not that he needed to try very hard to produce them; indeed, it would have been damn hard to get himself to stay silent.
Letting go of his death grip on the sand with one hand, Zack waited for the water to wash the grit off his fingers and then wrapped them around Cloud's cock, retaliating in the only way he could. The blond made a needy noise and thrust into his hand, his finger curving inside Zack's body in response, and that made the brunet squirm against him.
The second finger was a little harder to get in, especially with Zack distracting him like that, but Cloud managed. He knew there was supposed to be something he could touch with his fingers that would make Zack see stars, and he wanted to find it. He was determined to make sure this was just as good for his friend as it was for him, and that was one sure way to do it.
It took him a few moments, but he knew when he'd found the right place. Zack gasped and tightened his hand, forgetting to actually stroke for a moment as he trembled under that touch. "Ramuh's beard, Cloud... do that again," he begged shamelessly, grinding down against Cloud's hand. Cloud obliged him, feeling a little smug as Zack made a helpless sound of longing and kept rocking back against his hand.
Carefully Cloud worked his fingers in and out, trying his best to stretch the muscle enough to take him. "Hey," Zack finally groaned, shuddering beneath him. "I'm not breakable either, you know."
Cloud didn't need to hear any more than that. "Right," he agreed hoarsely, withdrawing his fingers. Zack cried out and arched his back like he was trying to get the contact back, but Cloud was already moving to position his cock to replace his fingers.
For an endless moment their eyes locked, sky blue to indigo, and there was a flash of something indefinable between them. Cloud pressed forward, trying to take it slow but having to fight his own body and the way Zack kept rocking up into him.
Wincing as Cloud stretched him open, the salt in the water stinging slightly in the small tears that resulted, Zack was grateful to have a SOLDIER's tolerance for pain. Otherwise without lube or a lot more preparation this could have been really bad, and if he'd had to wait much longer he thought he might have gone insane.
As it was he still needed a moment to adjust once Cloud was all the way inside him, wrapping his arms around the younger man's shoulders to keep him in place. Cloud held as still as he could, ignoring the faint tremors that wracked his body as Zack squeezed down around his cock in the most incredible way.
"Zack," he groaned, lowering his head to lick at the side of his friend's neck. He tasted salt from the water and Zack's skin, an almost addicting combination.
"Yeah," Zack replied somewhat vaguely, tipping his head back to give Cloud better access. "Yeah, okay, go ahead."
Taking a deep breath, Cloud eased himself partway out of Zack's body, then thrust back in again. Zack made a noise somewhere between pain and intense pleasure, his fingers digging into Cloud's back. The second thrust was a little harder and faster, even though Cloud was trying to hold himself back, but that time Zack's responding noise was almost entirely need instead of pain.
"Do it," Zack urged him, looking up at him with burning heat in his eyes and arching up to encourage him. The next thrust was harder still, and Zack moaned as Cloud drove home inside him. Oh yeah, he definitely didn't mind if they did it this way sometimes, not if it was going to feel this good. Why hadn't he ever done this before?
It didn't matter now. All that mattered was the way Cloud felt inside him, and the way the water washed over him like a caress almost in time with Cloud's thrusts. Shifting so his legs were wrapped around the younger man's, Zack cried out when the change in angle made Cloud hit that spot inside him again. "Holy... nng. Cloud!"
Feeling a bit smug that he'd managed to wring such a sound out of Zack, Cloud smirked and thrust in again, angling himself a little deeper to make sure to hit the spot again. The new angle also ground Zack's cock in between their stomachs, and from the sounds of it the older man wasn't going to need much more stimulation than that.
Which was probably a good thing, because Cloud's arms were already shaking with the effort it was taking to hold himself back. Zack felt even better around his cock than he'd imagined, and just as he'd been afraid it was all he could do not to embarrass himself.
It was a bit difficult to maintain a steady rhythm because of the way the waves kept lifting them and pushing them against the sand, but neither of them really minded. Or rather, they were too far gone to care. Cloud growled into Zack's throat and thrust harder to compensate, and Zack arched up into every stroke with greedy little moans that drove Cloud wild.
In the end it was Cloud who broke first, but not by much. As his rhythm faltered and orgasm hit him hard, he fumbled one hand down between them to tug at Zack's cock, not wanting to leave the older man unsatisfied. That was all it took for Zack to hit the peak as well, convulsing around Cloud as they came hard together.
Panting, drenched in sweat where the water didn't touch them and covered in salt and sand, the two men lay entangled in the surf for long minutes after they'd finished. "Fuck," was Cloud's eventual succinct evaluation, and Zack started laughing.
"Yeah, that about covers it," he agreed, his voice a little unsteady still. Leaning up he kissed Cloud hard and fiercely, letting everything he was feeling at the moment come through in the embrace. Cloud returned it with interest, savouring the taste and feel of his best friend and a dream he'd never thought he would actually have.
When the kiss was over they separated with a groan, hauling themselves to their feet on limbs that felt like jelly. Zack winced slightly at the soreness he felt, but it wasn't anything a first-level Cure spell wouldn't fix. Or hell, given how fast SOLDIERs healed he could probably just wait it out and he'd be fine in the morning.
Well enough to retaliate and take Cloud up on that 'anything you want with me' offer, anyway. Grinning in anticipation and smug satisfaction, Zack slung an arm around the blond's shoulder. For once Cloud didn't even try to pull away or duck out from under the touch, just wrapping his arm around Zack's waist in turn.
"C'mon, let's hit the sack," Zack urged, tugging him towards the villa. "Or maybe the shower, then the sack. You wore me out, kid."
"Shower?" Cloud raised an eyebrow at him with an expression that shouldn't have held that much heat. Damn it, Zack thought ruefully, they weren't teenagers any more, much though part of him still felt like he should be only eighteen.
"Don't give me that look," he retorted, shoving at the younger man. "There's no way you have any more energy than I do, after that race and what we just did."
Slowly, Cloud smiled at him, a predatory expression that would have looked completely out of place on him when he'd been a teenager, but which oddly suited him now. "Want to bet?" he asked, walking out from under Zack's arm when the brunet stopped to stare at him. "If you're tired, though..."
He sauntered off towards the villa, the moonlight highlighting the heavy muscles on his frame, his pale skin all but glowing and his blond hair shining damply. Suddenly sleep didn't feel all that urgent to Zack, and the potion was sounding like a better option with every moment that went by.
"Not that tired," Zack declared, and headed after him with a predatory grin of his own. Two could play at this game. And have a damn lot of fun doing it, too.