Title: Nothing If Not Strong
Author/Artist:
purplekittePairing: Cloud/Zack/Sephiroth/Aeris overall, this one: Zack/Sephiroth, Zack/Cloud, Zack/Cloud/Sephiroth (I'm sorry, Aeris. I'll try to get you into the next fic!)
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Theme: Jaime's themes #2--Strong
Ratings/Warnings: PG-13 (bit of language and kissing, but nothing really enough to bump it to R)
Sephiroth was faster than him and stronger than he’d ever be, no matter how much he trained. Sephiroth attributed it, like he attributed most things, to the mako. That just made Zack wonder: how much more mako did the General have in him than even a SOLDIER First Class?
That was before he really understood what they had done to the General, before “the General” had been replaced with “his best friend” in his mind.
Not that Zack was half-bad himself. Who else could the General go all out with, after all? They were a close to evenly matched as they could be, for all that Sephiroth was better.
But on the days that Sephiroth kicked his ass particularly hard and his usual lying on the mats joking or complaining was replaced by a sprawl of broken bones and actually not being able to move, Sephiroth carried him back to his office. Zack was dropped unceremonially in the comfiest chair in the office while Sephiroth went off to find a Cure material.
Zack had his feet propped up on the next nearest chair and his dead weight pushed the back of the chair he was on back so far he could see the wall behind him and could almost see the floor.
This office was worth however much paperwork Shinra could possibly put anyone through. He’d say it was worth everything, except he hadn’t forgotten Wutai yet. Anyway, this had to be the best office ever. They could have fit another swordfight in here. It had the comfiest chairs. A desk you could fit four people on (he decided not to think about that at the moment if he didn’t want Seph to kill him again). If the gods had offices, they would be just like this.
He heard the door open and managed to force his gaze that direction. His eyeballs hurt, but he was a big, strong SOLDIER, after all.
Cloud stared wide-eyed at the battered SOLDIER lying prone.
Zack managed the smile, failed at the wave, and resorted to “Kiss it better?”
Cloud did his stand-perfectly-still-and-twitch in the doorway. “Z-Zack?”
Cloud was shielded from view by the silver cloud of Sephiroth’s hair between them.
“Lieutenant,” Sephiroth warned him second before casting the Cure on him. Zack resisted letting even a hiss escape; he had had mako injections, after all. He was not going to upset Sephiroth by showing anything other than melodramatic pain.
“Okay, Seph. Ready for another round?” Sephiroth flinched as Zack’s hand lazily moved to the hilt of his buster sword. “Seph, what’s wrong?” he asked softly.
Sephiroth tried to bolt, or at least brush it off, but Zack reached out and snatched a handful of hair before he could turn away. Zack had never been anything if not bold.
“I hurt you.”
“It was training.”
“Training is supposed to be improving, not trying to hurt someone you--”
Zack didn’t want to see how much trying to continue speaking would hurt Sephiroth. He tugged forward on his handful of hair to pull Sephiroth into a kiss.
Sephiroth remained completely silent and unresponsive, even with Zack’s tongue halfway down his throat and when he pulled back Sephiroth was muttering a litany of “I’m sorry; I’m sorry” that could have put to shame Cloud--
Cloud!
Cloud was standing perfectly still, eyes wide. He had forgotten how to blink.
Zack did not get to be considered stereotypical for a certain type of behavior by not exhibiting it. He stretched luxuriously in a purely seductive way, instead of a counting-broken-ribs manner. “Want to join in?”
Cloud had forgotten how to breathe. And fainted. The report he was supposed to be delivering drifted listlessly on the air conditioning currents toward Sephiroth.