Entry tags:

angeal/zack, fanfic, fic: the mission, seph/genesis/cloud, yaoi

Fic: Reconnaissance
Title: Reconnaisance
Series: FFVII: Crisis Core
Characters: Sephiroth/Genesis/Cloud, Angeal/Zack
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1910
The Mission: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Art: Hot Dinner | Alt Link: DeviantArt


“... so, I guess I'm saying, if this isn't too awkward for you or anything, if you wanted to go out sometime, I'd like that.” The kid looked so pink-cheeked and hopeful. And cute. Unbelievably, unbearably cute. Shiva, it was going to be so hard to turn him down.

“Um, I'm flattered, Cloud, I really am.” It was the truth. The kid was one cute package, with a pretty face and lovely eyes and a butt that filled his uniform out just right. Oh, come on, a guy would have to be blind not to notice! “It's just that... uh....” Okay, easiest way out: Tell him you're straight.

Except that would be a lie and not fair to the kid, because he was bound to hear the buzz sooner or later and then he would know he had been lied to.

“Um, you see...” Crap. Cloud's eyes were shifting. He was starting to get the picture and it wasn't going over so smoothly. “It's not that I don't like you, Cloud, I just... I have somebody.”

Cloud blinked. “Oh.” He smiled a little the way he sometimes did. A little more nervous-looking this time, but he also seemed relieved. Good. Perfect. Momma was right, there really was nothing like the truth. This way it wasn't an outright rejection. Cloud could go off without feeling that there was something wrong with him. Kid was reddening up something good though.

“So, is it serious?”

Damn. Was the kid more hot to trot than he looked? Always the quiet ones, wasn't it? “Yeah, it's pretty... intense.” Don't scare him with the details, don't scare him with the details.

“Been going on a while?” Now there was a smirk nobody else had probably ever seen Cloud wear before.

“Yeah. A really good while. I don't want to brag or anything, you know, but he's the one.”

That was better. The smirk turned into a real smile now. Sweet goddess, the boy had a mouth that would work just right with a bit and bridle. “He's good to you, then? That's great.” Cloud was ducking his head back into his scarf. “Because you deserve that.”

Gaia, talk about shit fit to break your heart. Didn't everyone deserve somebody like that? Didn't Cloud? Poor kid, he was so young and still on the small side. Didn't he deserve somebody to take care of him? And wouldn't that somebody be one lucky son of a gun too, to have somebody all cute and earnest and fierce inside like Cloud?

“Hey, chin up, Cloud, you'll find somebody! With an ass like that you could get yourself a partner in no time!” Damn, the kid's hair was like silk, and the squawk he made when people ruffled it was so cute!

Cloud was smiling as he batted the hands out of his hair. “Yeah, maybe.” It was like he was trying to hold back a gigglefit. “So, can we maybe forget this whole thing?”

“Sure, don't worry about it. You'll always be my little chocobo buddy.”

“Hey, quit it with the hair! Hands off! Yours is way worse anyway!”

“Is not!”

Whoa. Now that was an 'Oh, really' look if there ever was one.

“I gotta go. Maybe we'll get another mission together sometime.”

“Sure we will! I just know it! See you then, Chocobo.”

“Pfft, back at you, featherhead.”

Yeah... Cloud was definitely a cutie, and a firecracker under the fluff and prettiness. He'd have somebody to take care of him in no time and that somebody would have their hands full. He did have a way of making a body wonder what it would be like to be responsible for him, to have to somebody to care for instead of being the one getting the care. Too bad a guy couldn't have it both ways.

Could he?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“So much for that.” Cloud sighed and bent down to get his boots off.

“Is that you, Cloud?” Genesis emerged from the kitchen wearing an apron (and, unfortunately, everything else under it) and wielding a sticky wooden spoon. “Would you like some honey apples? I managed not to singe this batch.”

“Did you turn the heat down before you came out here?”

Genesis's face fell. He spun on one heel and fled back into the kitchen. Cloud snickered and pulled off his socks. “It's okay!” Genesis called. “Got it just in time. Just let me get some bowls. Do you want ice cream with yours?”

“It's okay, Gen,” Cloud hollered back, heading towards the big, spacious living room and the big comfy couch to watch some big, high-definition tv. He flopped belly-first onto the couch and let himself droop.

“Cloud?” Genesis came out of the kitchen with a bowl in each hand. He flew over and set the bowls down to check Cloud's temperature. “Cloud, are you sick?”

“No, just tired.”

“Long day patrolling?” Genesis buried a hand in Cloud's hair.

“Not really.”

“Lots of drills?”

“No.”

“Then what's wrong, chickabo. You can't tell me you're not feeling down.”

Cloud looked up at him past a fringe of wild hair. “I talked to him today. The other SOLDIER.”

Genesis's hand paused a moment, but he quickly resumed his stroking. “Did it not go well?”

“He's taken.” Cloud sighed. “I'm glad I got that over with anyway.”

“Taken taken, or just occupied?” Genesis asked, eying the vanilla ice cream that was melting on beds of hot, honeyed apples.

“It's serious.” Cloud rolled over and put an arm over his eyes. “It's no surprise, thinking about it. He's too hot to stay single long, if he doesn't want to be. It was still kind of embarrassing though, you know, asking him out.”

“Asking someone out is embarrassing?”

“I've never done it before.”

“Oh.” Genesis swooped in and planted a kiss on Cloud's brow. “First time for everything. At least it's out of the way now.”

“Yeah.”

Genesis picked one of the bowls up and handed it to Cloud. “Here you go. Eat this.” He took up his own bowl and settled back cross-legged on one end of the couch. “Now, tell me about this hot young SOLDIER boy of yours.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Angeal? Angeal” Zack chucked his responsibilities at the door and pounced on the bed. “Hey, ANGEAL!”

Angeal sprang up, swatting out half-blind from sleep. “Dammit, Zack, let a man nap a minute, will you?”

“Oh, okay.” Zack sat back on his heels and waited.

Angeal sighed. “What's the story?”

“I was just wondering, what's it like taking care of me like you do? You know, like your puppy?”

Angeal pondered it over. “Well, you do tug on the leash a lot, but I wouldn't have it any other way.” He reached out to ruffle his student's hair. “Pup's got to become a big, fighting dog sometime, right?” The boy wriggled under the pet in a way that was almost like wagging. “What brought this on, pup?”

“I was just wondering what it was like to be on the other side.”

“What, you found a puppy of your own?”

Zack scratched his head. “Ah, not really.”

Angeal smiled at him and reached over to rub the boy's head. “Come on, you can tell me. Did you spot some fine young thing and feel the urge to chain him up and make him your own?”

Zack blew a raspberry. “Not the chaining up part, but... hey, is that what you felt with me?”

“I confess nothing. So, you found somebody?”

“No, I didn't, he found me. I mean, he asked me out.”

“... What?”

Zack rolled his eyes. “I said no, Ange.”

“Oh.” Angeal wasn't sure if to be pleased at that, or mad at his own surge of jealousy. “But you were curious.”

“Well, yeah, I mean, it's this guy I kinda know from some of my mission lineups. He's smaller and he's just so goshdarned cute!” Zack grinned to himself, grabbing a pillow to hug half to death. “I have a hard time already trying not to pick him up and hug him to pieces when we're out on assignment sometimes. He's just adorable! Like a little baby chocobo! So, yeah, I kinda did wonder what it would be like to be the one keeping him.”

Angeal leaned back, shaking his head. “If you want to take care of a chocobo that badly I can get you a shift or two of stable duty.”

“Angeal!” Zack protested. “I am NOT shoveling poop. Besides, cadets are potty trained.”

“A cadet, Zack?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

Angeal's eyebrows arched. “Some of them are pretty young.”

Zack rolled over onto his back, indulging in his honorary puppyhood in a way he did only in private, and only ever with Angeal. “They're not that much younger than me, Angeal,” he said, with a coy gaze upwards. “In fact, it would be a more 'age-appropriate match' if anything.”

Angeal crossed his arms and frowned. “Are you calling me a dirty old man, Zack?”

“Hey, I said nothing.” Zack held his hands up in mock-defense. “You drew your conclusions all on your own.” He let his wrists drop and stretched his neck out to wriggle on the bed in a very doggy gesture. “Not my fault you feel like a pervert.”

“Puppy,” Angeal warned. Zack yipped, nipped and got the bellyrub he'd been hoping for.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Genesis? Are you home?” Sephiroth took stock of the boots by the doorway. He directed his attention in the direction of the bedroom. There were voices, rather boisterous and almost giggly. “Do you have Cloud in there with you?” He let out a heavy breath and began to unbuckle his boots.

“I just had a strange meeting with Lazard,” he continued, trusting the others to come out when they heard him. “Something about insurance beneficiaries and tax deductibles. Then for some reason he got sidetracked on adoption policy and I can't for the life of me figure out why. He said it might have been going too far ahead but of what, I don't know. And he gave me a gift certificate for some place called 'Spa and Skin Works'. He said he was sorry it was late.” Sephiroth pulled his boots off and stood silently.

“Gen, do you think he was making a pass at me?” He hurried through the apartment in sudden need of a second opinion. “Gen, what do you think? You know I'm not good at spotting it when people don't come right out and say. Was he making a pass?”

He swung the door open just in time to see Cloud run by squealing with laughter. Genesis pounced after him, stripped of his red coat and looking almost like any other SOLDIER. Especially with the black wig on.

“The little chocobo better watch his tail,” he was saying, “because the Devil Dog wants a piece of it!” He leaped and tackled Cloud to the ground in a wriggling heap of tickles.

Sephiroth quietly shut the door and went to get a sandwich.