edgeoflife | Night Out on the Town?

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Night Out on the Town?

True enough, Zack hadn't been joking about going out. For him it's been a pretty long time so why not go all out? The people that had seemed interested all got a message explaining where they we going to be. Someone that Zack thought could use a little social get together got a message regardless if they answered his call out. He isn't sure who all is going to show, but who cares?

All that matters is that he is here at some bar that Cloud has picked out. Friends will be here too, hopefully. They can cut loose a little and have a good time out tonight. If they manage to have a little too much fun... Well then it makes for some good memories and new stories to be retold. Who knows, maybe someone it won't even be remembered in the morning.

(( ooc: but no seriously. do what you want. it's kind of an open mingle sort of thing for anyone and everyone. make your own threads or join in others. sky's the limit for real. ))

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Zack. Zack no. Stop it. What are you doing??

"This wasn't--we're not--" Cloud cuts himself off with a scoff, shaking his head and trying to dislodge the other a bit again.

Okay it was definitely time to get Zack home now.

"You know what I meant. We're going home and you're sleeping. Alone."

Fine, fine. Zack tried to right himself, just a little. Thank goodness he was at least able to walk, eh Cloud.

"Wasn't in th' plan to sleep alone," he replied, a bit of a whine in his voice. "She would have, yanno. Can't you just take m'back?"

Shame on you, Cloud Strife, for taking away his night.

"Eh... Guess there are worse things than being dragged off by a jealous blonde."

"I'm not jealous."

See that was what he'd been trying to avoid talking about. Deep down, he knew that he was and it was ridiculous. Zack was his friend, sure, but that didn't mean--he shouldn't have--

This..was a mistake. He should have just let Zack do what he wanted and just left on his own.

He glances off to the side with a frustrated noise, the arm around Zack's waist loosening a bit.

"You can go back. I shouldn't have made you leave."

All right, out of everything that Cloud could have said... That just made Zack laugh. Actually laugh. With his free hand, he reached over to run his hand through his hair, shaking his head. Then he went to repeat the action with Cloud. He missed the first time, but he managed on the second attempt.

"Nah," he grinned. "It's kinda cute. The jealous part. Coulda been nicer to th' girl though. Not her fault."

It was Zack's. Cloud was being fairly transparent and Zack wasn't so far gone that he didn't recognize that. It sobered him up, just a little.

"Don't really mind anyway."

Cloud ducked his head slightly as Zack managed to land his hand in his hair, the blonde not sure how to take that laughter for a moment. But then Zack spoke and he...

"I'm not jealous," he reiterated though there wasn't a whole lot of conviction in his voice as he shook his head, trying to shake off the other's hand. "I know." And he felt bad, he did. What was done was done though.

He glanced up at Zack at the next comment, studying the other's face with a slight..confused frown.

"You don't?"

"Mmmno," Zack confirmed. "More flattered than annoyed."

Sure, he wouldn't be getting anyone to share a bed with tonight - and it had been a really long time, but that was all right. Spending a little bit of time with Cloud was an all right trade off. At least it was a fairly all right trade off.

"Always been pretty fond of ya, Spikes."

As if that wasn't apparent from the start, right?

~~Well you could have someone in your bed if you tried, Zack.~~

Even though Zack was the younger person in this situation, Cloud felt like he was sixteen all over ago with a hero-worship crush on the other. The other just...he was a lot better at this than Cloud.

Someone still had a lot of life skills he needed to hone.

"You had Aerith." Back then. Crush or not, Cloud had been well aware that Zack's attention was elsewhere. "I always figured I was just the tag along you couldn't shake." At least in the beginning. There were still a lot of things that were hazy--memories that had been lost in the time he was caught in a Mako haze. But why would Zack Fair have bothered with him anyway?

~~Oh he might!~~

"I did. So did you for a little while. And ya weren't a tag along."

Back then yes, he did have Aerith. However that didn't mean that Cloud was unimportant. He and that kid of an infantryman clicked almost immediately. Zack was always glad to see Cloud Strife. If the kid, at the time, was nothing more than a tag along, Zack wouldn't have talked to him as in depth as he had. Zack was a friendly guy, sure. Yet he didn't exactly have a lot of close friends, did he?

"In th' end, Cloud... You were the only person I could save. You're important. You matter."

"I was, to some extent," Cloud half-heartedly joked, managing a slight shrug along with it. He'd been a troublesome teenager that Zack had taken under his wing and..he would always appreciate that. He'd always appreciate what the other had done for him even after that--what he'd given up for Cloud.

The other's next words make him flinch, eyes closing as he ducks his head once more.

"...I held you back...I got you killed." The words come out softly and for a moment he can't help but think about his younger self's world. "If I hadn't been in the picture, you would have...you.."

"All of us were," he amended. Zack knew what his nickname was when it came to Angeal. Fair was also aware that he really was the tag along for those missions and he likely annoyed Sephiroth and Genesis to start with. It wasn't until he mellowed out, just a little, that any sort of comradeship formed.

The way that Cloud ducked his head, the words that he was trying to push out... No that wouldn't do. Zack wasn't going to let Strife finish that sentence. He pulled the blonde off to the side, into an alley so that they'd be off of the main road and so that he'd be able to lean against the wall.

"Don't," he warned, a bit more harsh than what he intended. Cloud didn't need to think that Zack regretted anything. He didn't.

Things were still a little fuzzy in his brain, but that wasn't going to stop him. He shrugged Cloud off of him and held that stupid kid's face in his hands. It was the only way to get Cloud to look at him.

"You didn't do anythin' like that. You didn't get me anythin' okay?" he tried to reason. "If you hadn't been in th' picture, then Tifa an' me might have died."

He swallowed and sighed, trying to find the words to say because wow Cloud, wow. His head was heavy still and it fell onto Cloud's with a soft thump. "And even if we had... You stopped Sephirth. More than once! If you weren't there when I broke out I dunno if I would have. I dunno if I wouldn't have turned myself in if I didn't have you to think 'bout. I might've died for you, Cloud Strife, but I don't regret any of it."

Even if he wanted to say something, he doesn't really get the chance to considering how Zack pulls him off to the side and into an alley rather suddenly. He starts to object, getting as far as saying the other's name in a bit of a scolding tone but then there are hands on his face. Hands making him keep his head up and his eyes focused on Zack's because now that he's looking at the other he can't look away.

Especially when Zack starts talking.

It's the press of the other's head against his own that has him finally closing his eyes, attempting to steady himself as shaky hands find a hold in Zack's shirt. He wants to argue; wants to point out that there's proof living in Edge that Zack would have made it. That he would have been alright but he can't find the words. Each time he tries they die on his tongue until all he can do is press his head closer to Zack's.

"It should have been me," comes the whisper in a shaky voice, the alcohol in his system making it near impossible to keep himself in check. "You didn't deserve that--any of it. You deserved to live. I was just...I was nothing."

The things he'd thought for so long now but had never said.

Zack would have liked to have been around longer. He would have liked for the chance, then, to talk to Aerith and get things sorted. What he wanted to do was to be there for Cloud every step of his recovery. All of the things that he wanted to do... He knew that there was another Zack here but he also saw the price that was paid.

"No one deserved anythin' that happened," he corrected. None of them did. Not him. Not Cloud. Not Angeal, Genesis, or Sephiroth. They were all victims here.

He shifted then, pulling Cloud's head down with a sigh. Stupid kid. Even technically older than Zack now he still didn't get it. Zack pressed his lips against Cloud's forehead, emboldened by the alcohol coursing through his veins and the need for action - to make the blonde understand. "Never nothing, Cloud Strife."

No..that's right. None of them had deserved any of it. Unfortunate circumstances and outside forces had led them all down paths that hadn't been good for anyone.

A muffled sound of protest escapes him as his head is tugged down but the sound is short lived thanks to the press of lips against his forehead. The tension that had been building his shoulders seeps away enough that he's able to breath properly again, a soft exhale escaping him. It was going to take a long time for him to get to the point of not blaming himself for what had happened, to get to the point that he didn't hate himself sometimes, deep down.

But for right now, at least, he felt a little lighter.

Though the jury was still out on whether that was, in part, due to the alcohol as well. Given the way he lifts his head and only momentarily locks eyes with the other before he's leaning in to brush their lips together?

It's probably the alcohol.

Cloud worked himself up good all right. As soon as he relaxed, the knot that was starting to form in Zack's gut released as well. Maybe Cloud wouldn't get over these thoughts in a single day. However, now that Zack knew they still persisted, he would do his best to help him get over them. It was the least that he could do.

Now for Zack it really was a mixture of the alcohol and emotions running a little wild and loose. That and, again, it had really been a long time since he'd had any sort of contact of this nature. Cloud maybe wouldn't forgive him for it tomorrow, but Zack closed the distance readily enough. That gentle, tentative brush of lips becomes something more deliberate from him.

If anything, Cloud's going to be a flustered mess tomorrow once he realizes just what had happened--what they did. Right now? He's more than happy to melt into the contact, allowing the kiss to become something more as he presses closer to Zack without too much hesitation.

His hands work themselves free from their tightly clenched place in Zack's shirt so he can bring his hands up to cup the other's face, fingers partially tangling in Zack's hair. There's a bit of desperation in Cloud's actions, a need for this. For Zack. For contact that he's denied himself for so long.

Gods was he going to be embarrassed come morning.

Chances were that Zack would feel a little bad come morning. Embarrassed? No. Ashamed? Nope. There was a good chance that he would feel a little smug though. Then again perhaps that would go without saying. Of course he wasn't thinking too hard on anything like this at the moment. Definitely not with Cloud reciprocating as he was.

Zack's hands fell from Cloud's face, resting more on the blonde's hips. Whatever is spurring on Cloud's need doesn't concern him at the moment. It seemed more prudent to keep those lips occupied, tongue sweeping across them with a little sigh. Fingers tangled in his hair? Definitely a weakness.

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Night Out on the Town?

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