Are We There Yet? (Zack/Cloud, T) (birthday fic for fantasia0829 )
Title: Are We There Yet?
Pairing: Zack/Cloud
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own neither Kingdom Hearts nor Crisis Core/Final Fantasy 7.
Warnings: T. Spoilers for Crisis Core and for Kingdom Hearts 2.
Summary: When Sora said it would ,take a few stops to get to Cloud, Zack didn't think he meant a few worlds.
A/N: Happy Birthday, fantasia0829 ! Granted, where you are, it ALMOST isn't your birthday anymore, but it's totally morning here, so yeah. Thanks to RS for the quick beta, and um yeah. I should explain this -- canon lies with Zack after Crisis Core and after Kingdom Hearts 2. And I suppose this is quite crack-tastic, but it works! Promise!
When some giant talking mouse said that Zack would be able to find Cloud Strife again after talking to some kid named Sky, Zack leaped at the opportunity. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was conversing with a talking mouse. Course not. Even though he’d always found mice to freaked him out a bit.
This Sora kid, however, was the most awesome child ever. Considering the boy fought with a giant key (a key! How awesome was that?!), traveled with a duck and a dog (which was slightly less awesome, considering the duck electrocuted him…a lot), and had a smile that only rivaled his in brightness, this Sora kid was pretty awesome.
Or would be, if he stopped frowning.
“You’re…you’re not supposed to be here,” Sora pondered aloud, tapping his chin. “I know Cloud has mentioned you, but it was never…you know, recent.”
Zack frowned. Why hadn’t Spikey mentioned him recently? Weren’t they close? Sure, he had disappeared for a little bit, but that was no reason for Spikey to not mention him. Zack knew that Cloud was a part of his fan club, and when they met up again, he was planning to ridicule him.
“So…” Zack rocked back on his feet. “I can meet him?”
The duck approached him and all but sniffed his pant leg. Zack resisted the urge to jump away and shriek. “I don’t think he’ll fit. He’ll have to find his own ride.”
Zack narrowed his eyes at the vindictive duck as the dog shook his head. “Nah, he’ll fit! Besides, he smiles! That’s what the Gummi runs on!” Zack deemed the dog kind of awesome too. …Well, if the thing was a dog.
Sora nodded and grinned. “Yeah. It’s just, before we go to Hollow Bastion, we have to stop by a few places, okay? But we’ll get you to Cloud Strife as soon as we can!”
Zack grinned back. “Alrighty! Let’s head on out!”
--
Sora said they had found him in Disney Castle (which didn’t help him much), the mouse king was King Mickey, and the dog and duck were named Goofy and Donald, respectively. Zack knew he’d be able to handle this. He kicked his feet onto the dashboard, unable to resist a smile. Everything would be alright. Spikey would be found in no time and -
He jumped, his skin suddenly feeling on fire. He turned around to see Donald glaring at him and gesturing at his feet. Zack slowly lowered them, frowning. Alright. Maybe this would be a bit of a problem.
--
The first place - Sora called them “worlds” - was the Beast’s Castle. “You’re joking, right?” Zack asked with a small grin. Sora blinked and exchanged glances with Donald and Goofy. “I mean, ‘Beast’? What kind of name is that--?”
A roar permeated the air, and Zack was not responsible for the scream that bubbled from his throat.
A ginormous animal appeared in the doorway, flanked by a candlestick and a young girl. As Zack rubbed his eyes, Sora approached the girl and gave her a hug. “Hey Belle!”
“Sora!” she exclaimed, smiling at the three of them. “Donald, Goofy! And…” She blinked up at Zack. “You are?”
“Trouble,” Donald muttered before Zack could say a word.
Zack frowned. “I’m Zack. Just sticking with this Sora kid to find a friend.”
Belle gave a laugh. “That’s a good idea. Stay with Sora long enough, you’ll certainly find long lost friends.” She gave an affectionate smile to the beast and Zack blinked again.
“I was just making sure everything was okay after Organization XIII,” Sora explained, and Zack promptly zoned out. It wasn’t his fault - he had no idea what this organization was. But Sora certainly reminded him of Spikey. He frowned, and rubbed the back of his neck, wondering how long he’d been out. The last thing he remembered was giving Angeal’s sword to Cloud and everything went black for a long time.
He let out a sigh, and when everyone turned to look at him, he grinned. “Um, oops?” He beamed, and Belle let out another laugh.
“I was just saying, have fun on your adventures,” Belle said. “And I hope you are reunited with your friend soon enough!”
“Thanks!” Zack said, though her words bothered him. ‘Soon enough?’ Certainly, Sora didn’t have too many worlds to stop by…
--
The next world, he was turned into a lion. He was a very handsome lion, thank you very much, but a lion nonetheless. The demon-erm, Donald turned into a bird, and Goofy into a turtle. But as he and Sora were lions, they got to prance around on the Pride Lands, as Sora called them.
Zack grinned and scratched his fur. He had a lot to tell Cloud when they got back.
--
Zack deemed Jack Sparrow to be an awesome guy too. Granted, that Will fellow and Sora gave them both disapproving looks when Zack and Jack (it even rhymed! It was destiny that they met!) disappeared into the cabin of the Black Pearl and ended up “testing” the wine that was stored there. Due to the mako, Zack couldn’t get properly drunk, but he and Jack still traded stories.
So Zack got a long, long history of how this lovely ship of Jack’s kept getting stolen, and Jack endured how much Zack had adored Spikey, and why he could never tell Cloud anything.
“From wha’ I’m seeing, mate,” Jack hiccupped, both of them ignoring Will and Sora. “You better tell this Spike fellow about your feelings ‘fore it’s too late. See, you keep forgettin’ and missin’ your chance, and he’ll be off with some other lad. You understan’?”
Zack sniffed, and grabbed the bottle of wine he’d been nursing and nodded deeply. “I do, and I’ll… I’ll try my hardest with him! But you better… You better stay with this ship! Never let it be parted with you!”
“I’ll drin’ to that!” Jack grinned, and they eagerly toasted their drinks.
It took Donald knocking Zack out cold before Goofy and Sora could lug him back onto the Gummi Ship.
--
Zack was now a merman. He was a very sexy merman, considering how that Ariel chick was smiling at him and how her father kept glaring at him. But he had bigger concerns.
“Hey, Sora?” he asked, swimming next to the brunet. It was pretty weird fighting like this, he’d admit, but it wasn’t so bad. Nothing like fighting in swim trunks with an umbrella to demean any other fighting style. “When are we going to get back to Hollow Bas…Bas…”
Sora smiled. “Radiant Garden, you mean?”
Zack narrowed his eyes. Sora had never mentioned this Garden before. “Um, sure.”
“Erm…” Sora glanced up, seeing Ariel gesturing for him to swim to the top of her cave, and shrugged. “Soon!”
With a frown, Zack watched Sora swim away before attempting to kick a globe. It didn’t work, due to his lack of legs, and he propelled himself into a circle with no way to end it.
--
“I make one sexy vampire,” Zack declared, glancing at his now sharpened teeth in the reflection of a metal gate. Donald narrowed his eyes at him.
“We’re supposed to be working, not inspecting you!” he snapped, whacking Zack with his staff. Zack frowned.
“You guys said we’d be going to Cloud soon!”
Goofy shrugged as the three of them watched Sora talk with some skeleton about presents. No - really. “We have to check out every world.”
Zack sighed and out of the corner of his eye, saw another vampire not nearly as amazingly good-looking as him. This vampire was somehow glittering in the almost non-existence daylight.
He pointed this vampire out to Donald and the glittering vampire went up in flames a moment later.
--
“I’m in a computer! Wait till Kunsel hears about this!” Zack paused and tapped his chin. “Maybe I could email him from this! Dude!” He rushed up and shook Tron’s shoulders. “Do you think I could?!”
Tron blinked. “You could try accessing the main owner of this computer… but I’m sure we could enter this ‘Kunsel’s’ email address as well.”
“Awesome!” Zack beamed before turning back to Sora. “Okay, now when are we heading back to Hollowed Garden, or whatever?”
Sora grinned. “We’re actually here. We called Leon and Cloud to meet up with us in Ansem’s Computer Lab, so you’ll see him soon.”
Ansem? Leon? Zack didn’t honestly care about the rest so long as he got to see Cloud again. After typing out an email for Kunsel, Tron gave the four of them a wave and sent them back out of the computer.
--
“So like I was saying.” Zack heard someone say as they were beamed back into existence. “If we raised the defense around the city, the civilians woul-oh my god.”
“Spike!” Zack grinned turning to face Cloud and almost jumped back in surprise. Cloud was…different. How long had he been out, Zack wondered, as he tried to take in all the changes. No longer an infantryman for Shinra, he had an outfit change and looked a lot older. But besides the physical changes, the thing that caught his attention was the hand the brown haired man had on Cloud’s shoulder. Zack was taken aback and let Sora do his introduction as that random guy who appeared at King Mickey’s castle. He would’ve rebutted that if he wasn’t so surprised.
“I know him,” Cloud interrupted, shrugging out of the guy’s touch. “Zack, it’s... it’s been a while.”
“I …I uh…” Zack shook his head and grinned wide. Even if he was surprised to see that Cloud got over him so quickly didn’t mean he had to act so shocked. “How’ve you been, Spikey? How long has it been?”
“Over five years, Zack,” Cloud said, his face still shocked. “I’ve…”
The guy next to him seemed to take Zack’s hint of It would be awesome to talk to Cloud…alone… and introduced himself. “I’m Leon. Sora, I found something in Ansem’s library I thought you should see…” He grabbed Sora’s shoulder and dragged him out of the computer lab. Donald and Goofy quickly followed them as well.
When the door clicked shut, Cloud apparently lost his persona and fell to the floor, face in his hands. “I can’t believe you’re here,” he said softly, shaking his head. “There was so much blood…”
Zack slid on the ground next to Cloud and gave him another grin. “Well, Spikey, the mouse dude…”
“King Mickey,” Cloud said softly, and Zack laughed.
“Of course. You still follow orders to the T, doncha?” Zack ruffled Cloud’s hair and continued. “Anyway, Mickey said that you were causing some trouble in Hollow Bastion, and that I needed help you out. I’m not really sure what he meant, but then I had to travel all around with that Sora kid and let me tell you, he’s craaazy…”
“It’s Sephiroth.”
Zack blinked, and Cloud gave him a tired look. “Sephiroth sensed my…darkness, I guess, and he’s been trying to fight the rest of the light out of me ever since.”
Zack blinked again. “Spikey, that made no sense. But if it’s Sephiroth, I’ll help out.”
Cloud laughed dryly. “Yeah. I guess once you live here for a while, the terms light and dark make more sense.” He looked up to Zack again and lowered his head in defeat. “I worked for the devil to see you again.”
“No shit?” Zack asked, grinning a bit. Cloud rolled his eyes but Zack only smiled more. “No, that’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. Did you at least get a good deal?”
“No,” Cloud admitted, chuckling. “Sora beat me, so I got kicked out my contract.”
Zack hopped to his feet and reached an arm down to Cloud. “Well, I’m here now! So, let’s go fight Sephiroth together, hm?”
Cloud accepted Zack’s hand. “I still have your sword.”
That threw Zack for a loop. “Angeal’s?” he asked softly. Cloud nodded.
“I don’t fight with it now, because I felt somewhere, in the back of my mind, that you’d be back to get it.” He sighed before giving a small smile. “I guess I was right, huh?”
“Yeah…thanks,” Zack said.
Cloud shook his head. “Let’s just get to my apartment. Where my equipment is, and all.”
“Aw, Spikey! You sound so important nowadays!” Zack grabbed Cloud and put him into a headlock. “Makes me nostalgic for the old days.”
As Cloud gave an uncharacteristic shout and tried to wiggle out of Zack’s grip. Zack only grinned wider.
--
On the beaches of Costa del Sol, a guy heard his phone beep. He flipped it open, only for his face to be screwed up by the tagline. “Zack Fair?” he asked softly, before laughing. “If anyone could come back from the dead and send emails, he could.”
With that, Kunsel snapped his phone shut and closed his eyes.
Pairing: Zack/Cloud
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own neither Kingdom Hearts nor Crisis Core/Final Fantasy 7.
Warnings: T. Spoilers for Crisis Core and for Kingdom Hearts 2.
Summary: When Sora said it would ,take a few stops to get to Cloud, Zack didn't think he meant a few worlds.
A/N: Happy Birthday, fantasia0829 ! Granted, where you are, it ALMOST isn't your birthday anymore, but it's totally morning here, so yeah. Thanks to RS for the quick beta, and um yeah. I should explain this -- canon lies with Zack after Crisis Core and after Kingdom Hearts 2. And I suppose this is quite crack-tastic, but it works! Promise!
When some giant talking mouse said that Zack would be able to find Cloud Strife again after talking to some kid named Sky, Zack leaped at the opportunity. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was conversing with a talking mouse. Course not. Even though he’d always found mice to freaked him out a bit.
This Sora kid, however, was the most awesome child ever. Considering the boy fought with a giant key (a key! How awesome was that?!), traveled with a duck and a dog (which was slightly less awesome, considering the duck electrocuted him…a lot), and had a smile that only rivaled his in brightness, this Sora kid was pretty awesome.
Or would be, if he stopped frowning.
“You’re…you’re not supposed to be here,” Sora pondered aloud, tapping his chin. “I know Cloud has mentioned you, but it was never…you know, recent.”
Zack frowned. Why hadn’t Spikey mentioned him recently? Weren’t they close? Sure, he had disappeared for a little bit, but that was no reason for Spikey to not mention him. Zack knew that Cloud was a part of his fan club, and when they met up again, he was planning to ridicule him.
“So…” Zack rocked back on his feet. “I can meet him?”
The duck approached him and all but sniffed his pant leg. Zack resisted the urge to jump away and shriek. “I don’t think he’ll fit. He’ll have to find his own ride.”
Zack narrowed his eyes at the vindictive duck as the dog shook his head. “Nah, he’ll fit! Besides, he smiles! That’s what the Gummi runs on!” Zack deemed the dog kind of awesome too. …Well, if the thing was a dog.
Sora nodded and grinned. “Yeah. It’s just, before we go to Hollow Bastion, we have to stop by a few places, okay? But we’ll get you to Cloud Strife as soon as we can!”
Zack grinned back. “Alrighty! Let’s head on out!”
--
Sora said they had found him in Disney Castle (which didn’t help him much), the mouse king was King Mickey, and the dog and duck were named Goofy and Donald, respectively. Zack knew he’d be able to handle this. He kicked his feet onto the dashboard, unable to resist a smile. Everything would be alright. Spikey would be found in no time and -
He jumped, his skin suddenly feeling on fire. He turned around to see Donald glaring at him and gesturing at his feet. Zack slowly lowered them, frowning. Alright. Maybe this would be a bit of a problem.
--
The first place - Sora called them “worlds” - was the Beast’s Castle. “You’re joking, right?” Zack asked with a small grin. Sora blinked and exchanged glances with Donald and Goofy. “I mean, ‘Beast’? What kind of name is that--?”
A roar permeated the air, and Zack was not responsible for the scream that bubbled from his throat.
A ginormous animal appeared in the doorway, flanked by a candlestick and a young girl. As Zack rubbed his eyes, Sora approached the girl and gave her a hug. “Hey Belle!”
“Sora!” she exclaimed, smiling at the three of them. “Donald, Goofy! And…” She blinked up at Zack. “You are?”
“Trouble,” Donald muttered before Zack could say a word.
Zack frowned. “I’m Zack. Just sticking with this Sora kid to find a friend.”
Belle gave a laugh. “That’s a good idea. Stay with Sora long enough, you’ll certainly find long lost friends.” She gave an affectionate smile to the beast and Zack blinked again.
“I was just making sure everything was okay after Organization XIII,” Sora explained, and Zack promptly zoned out. It wasn’t his fault - he had no idea what this organization was. But Sora certainly reminded him of Spikey. He frowned, and rubbed the back of his neck, wondering how long he’d been out. The last thing he remembered was giving Angeal’s sword to Cloud and everything went black for a long time.
He let out a sigh, and when everyone turned to look at him, he grinned. “Um, oops?” He beamed, and Belle let out another laugh.
“I was just saying, have fun on your adventures,” Belle said. “And I hope you are reunited with your friend soon enough!”
“Thanks!” Zack said, though her words bothered him. ‘Soon enough?’ Certainly, Sora didn’t have too many worlds to stop by…
--
The next world, he was turned into a lion. He was a very handsome lion, thank you very much, but a lion nonetheless. The demon-erm, Donald turned into a bird, and Goofy into a turtle. But as he and Sora were lions, they got to prance around on the Pride Lands, as Sora called them.
Zack grinned and scratched his fur. He had a lot to tell Cloud when they got back.
--
Zack deemed Jack Sparrow to be an awesome guy too. Granted, that Will fellow and Sora gave them both disapproving looks when Zack and Jack (it even rhymed! It was destiny that they met!) disappeared into the cabin of the Black Pearl and ended up “testing” the wine that was stored there. Due to the mako, Zack couldn’t get properly drunk, but he and Jack still traded stories.
So Zack got a long, long history of how this lovely ship of Jack’s kept getting stolen, and Jack endured how much Zack had adored Spikey, and why he could never tell Cloud anything.
“From wha’ I’m seeing, mate,” Jack hiccupped, both of them ignoring Will and Sora. “You better tell this Spike fellow about your feelings ‘fore it’s too late. See, you keep forgettin’ and missin’ your chance, and he’ll be off with some other lad. You understan’?”
Zack sniffed, and grabbed the bottle of wine he’d been nursing and nodded deeply. “I do, and I’ll… I’ll try my hardest with him! But you better… You better stay with this ship! Never let it be parted with you!”
“I’ll drin’ to that!” Jack grinned, and they eagerly toasted their drinks.
It took Donald knocking Zack out cold before Goofy and Sora could lug him back onto the Gummi Ship.
--
Zack was now a merman. He was a very sexy merman, considering how that Ariel chick was smiling at him and how her father kept glaring at him. But he had bigger concerns.
“Hey, Sora?” he asked, swimming next to the brunet. It was pretty weird fighting like this, he’d admit, but it wasn’t so bad. Nothing like fighting in swim trunks with an umbrella to demean any other fighting style. “When are we going to get back to Hollow Bas…Bas…”
Sora smiled. “Radiant Garden, you mean?”
Zack narrowed his eyes. Sora had never mentioned this Garden before. “Um, sure.”
“Erm…” Sora glanced up, seeing Ariel gesturing for him to swim to the top of her cave, and shrugged. “Soon!”
With a frown, Zack watched Sora swim away before attempting to kick a globe. It didn’t work, due to his lack of legs, and he propelled himself into a circle with no way to end it.
--
“I make one sexy vampire,” Zack declared, glancing at his now sharpened teeth in the reflection of a metal gate. Donald narrowed his eyes at him.
“We’re supposed to be working, not inspecting you!” he snapped, whacking Zack with his staff. Zack frowned.
“You guys said we’d be going to Cloud soon!”
Goofy shrugged as the three of them watched Sora talk with some skeleton about presents. No - really. “We have to check out every world.”
Zack sighed and out of the corner of his eye, saw another vampire not nearly as amazingly good-looking as him. This vampire was somehow glittering in the almost non-existence daylight.
He pointed this vampire out to Donald and the glittering vampire went up in flames a moment later.
--
“I’m in a computer! Wait till Kunsel hears about this!” Zack paused and tapped his chin. “Maybe I could email him from this! Dude!” He rushed up and shook Tron’s shoulders. “Do you think I could?!”
Tron blinked. “You could try accessing the main owner of this computer… but I’m sure we could enter this ‘Kunsel’s’ email address as well.”
“Awesome!” Zack beamed before turning back to Sora. “Okay, now when are we heading back to Hollowed Garden, or whatever?”
Sora grinned. “We’re actually here. We called Leon and Cloud to meet up with us in Ansem’s Computer Lab, so you’ll see him soon.”
Ansem? Leon? Zack didn’t honestly care about the rest so long as he got to see Cloud again. After typing out an email for Kunsel, Tron gave the four of them a wave and sent them back out of the computer.
--
“So like I was saying.” Zack heard someone say as they were beamed back into existence. “If we raised the defense around the city, the civilians woul-oh my god.”
“Spike!” Zack grinned turning to face Cloud and almost jumped back in surprise. Cloud was…different. How long had he been out, Zack wondered, as he tried to take in all the changes. No longer an infantryman for Shinra, he had an outfit change and looked a lot older. But besides the physical changes, the thing that caught his attention was the hand the brown haired man had on Cloud’s shoulder. Zack was taken aback and let Sora do his introduction as that random guy who appeared at King Mickey’s castle. He would’ve rebutted that if he wasn’t so surprised.
“I know him,” Cloud interrupted, shrugging out of the guy’s touch. “Zack, it’s... it’s been a while.”
“I …I uh…” Zack shook his head and grinned wide. Even if he was surprised to see that Cloud got over him so quickly didn’t mean he had to act so shocked. “How’ve you been, Spikey? How long has it been?”
“Over five years, Zack,” Cloud said, his face still shocked. “I’ve…”
The guy next to him seemed to take Zack’s hint of It would be awesome to talk to Cloud…alone… and introduced himself. “I’m Leon. Sora, I found something in Ansem’s library I thought you should see…” He grabbed Sora’s shoulder and dragged him out of the computer lab. Donald and Goofy quickly followed them as well.
When the door clicked shut, Cloud apparently lost his persona and fell to the floor, face in his hands. “I can’t believe you’re here,” he said softly, shaking his head. “There was so much blood…”
Zack slid on the ground next to Cloud and gave him another grin. “Well, Spikey, the mouse dude…”
“King Mickey,” Cloud said softly, and Zack laughed.
“Of course. You still follow orders to the T, doncha?” Zack ruffled Cloud’s hair and continued. “Anyway, Mickey said that you were causing some trouble in Hollow Bastion, and that I needed help you out. I’m not really sure what he meant, but then I had to travel all around with that Sora kid and let me tell you, he’s craaazy…”
“It’s Sephiroth.”
Zack blinked, and Cloud gave him a tired look. “Sephiroth sensed my…darkness, I guess, and he’s been trying to fight the rest of the light out of me ever since.”
Zack blinked again. “Spikey, that made no sense. But if it’s Sephiroth, I’ll help out.”
Cloud laughed dryly. “Yeah. I guess once you live here for a while, the terms light and dark make more sense.” He looked up to Zack again and lowered his head in defeat. “I worked for the devil to see you again.”
“No shit?” Zack asked, grinning a bit. Cloud rolled his eyes but Zack only smiled more. “No, that’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. Did you at least get a good deal?”
“No,” Cloud admitted, chuckling. “Sora beat me, so I got kicked out my contract.”
Zack hopped to his feet and reached an arm down to Cloud. “Well, I’m here now! So, let’s go fight Sephiroth together, hm?”
Cloud accepted Zack’s hand. “I still have your sword.”
That threw Zack for a loop. “Angeal’s?” he asked softly. Cloud nodded.
“I don’t fight with it now, because I felt somewhere, in the back of my mind, that you’d be back to get it.” He sighed before giving a small smile. “I guess I was right, huh?”
“Yeah…thanks,” Zack said.
Cloud shook his head. “Let’s just get to my apartment. Where my equipment is, and all.”
“Aw, Spikey! You sound so important nowadays!” Zack grabbed Cloud and put him into a headlock. “Makes me nostalgic for the old days.”
As Cloud gave an uncharacteristic shout and tried to wiggle out of Zack’s grip. Zack only grinned wider.
--
On the beaches of Costa del Sol, a guy heard his phone beep. He flipped it open, only for his face to be screwed up by the tagline. “Zack Fair?” he asked softly, before laughing. “If anyone could come back from the dead and send emails, he could.”
With that, Kunsel snapped his phone shut and closed his eyes.