The Drinking Game | Final Fantasy VII
Oh no! While editing entries, I deleted this one accidentally. Sorry to post it again, but I don't want to lose it.
Title: The Drinking Game
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Rating: PG
Characters: Zack, Cloud, Reno
Word Count: 889
Summary: Cloud has a lot to put up with some nights.
Notes: Supposed to be in time for Cloud‘s US birthday, 19 August, but obviously I finished early. =D Only real warning is for my sad attempt at humor. I should stick with my strengths, but eh. Haven’t written anything in a while as it is, so I figured, what the hell. Go for it. =P
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Cloud couldn’t remember the last time he had paid any attention to the bars that lined the streets, certainly couldn’t recall ever wanting to go into one. He knew them only as the shady places that rowdy boys went to to get rowdier; the places that reeked of booze even out on the streets; the places where those trashy women came and went at all hours of the night. He never found any reason to even give such places any thought except for when it came to Zack.
Zack went out about every week at least once or twice with the Turks and always returned with an air of suspicion and a guilty conscience. Cloud knew from personal experience that a drunk Zack plus that Reno guy did not bode well. Not to mention the fact that Zack was a rather affectionate drunk and Cloud was pretty sure that Reno didn’t know the meaning of sobriety, much less put it to practice.
Cloud was thankful for every day as a minor and dreaded the day he would be legal and no doubt dragged off to celebrate with obscene quantities of alcohol and even more obscene women. However, being under-aged also meant that he had no way of making sure Zack stayed out of trouble.
As a result, Cloud had learned to push any impending worry to the back of his mind when he was up late studying. It didn’t do him any good to stress over something he couldn’t control, such as his friend’s behavior, when he had more important things to attend to. Especially when studying kept him up late enough as it was.
The last time Cloud remembered checking his watch before falling asleep, it read 0200. The fire alarm went off at 0300, and the dormitory was completely evacuated three minutes later. Around 0310, it was determined that the fire alarm had been a prank, no cause for concern, and the cadets were all sent back to bed.
Cloud shuffled along at the rear, half asleep, arms wrapped around himself to block the cold from his thin nightshirt, when he heard a hushed voice beckoning him from behind the building. Recognizing the voice immediately through the grog of sleep, he hesitated, considered going inside to the warmth of his bed and leaving his friend to sleep it off in the cold, blinked more of the sleep away, and shuffled in the direction of Zack’s voice.
“Cloud! Cloud! You should’ve seen it!” He was assaulted to the ground before he had even seen Zack standing there. “It was amazing! You should’ve seen it.”
Cloud struggled from beneath his friend, breathed in the heavy scent of alcohol, finally pushed Zack off of him. Once Cloud had gotten back to his feet, grumpy now that he was fully awake past three in the morning, he tried his hardest to glare at Zack, but any attempt to convey his irritation was lost in Zack’s drunken high. He was babbling incoherently about attacking a vending machine with a sledge hammer, eyes wide, and motioned with his thumb to someone behind him. Sure enough, there was Reno leaning against the building, taking a long drag from his cigarette. He grinned at Cloud and the blonde could feel a chill run down his spine.
“So the thing breaks off and goes flying back at the wall and breaks the alarm and-”
“The what broke off of what? And hey--Hey! You’re the ones who set off the alarm and woke us all up! You ass. I have an exam in the morning.”
Zack stopped mid-sentence and blinked down at Cloud, incredulously. “What are you doing up, kid?”
Cloud sighed. “I’m going to bed.” He turned around, intent on heading back to his dorm where he hoped he could sneak back in quietly so as not to anger his roommate, but Zack grabbed his wrist and spun him around.
“I didn’t even get to the best part!”
“Did they kick you out again? Because you know, SOLDIER or not, it’s not going to reflect very well on the rest of us.” Cloud frowned and wanted to add that he didn’t find Reno to be a good influence as it were, but considering that the guy was standing only feet away with the freakiest grin on his face made Cloud keep his mouth shut. Best not to have his face messed up right before exams.
“Nah, nah, nothing like that,” Zack assured him, shaking his mane of dark hair for emphasis. “See, after we beat up that brat from the Squad One, we went back to Headquarters and wanted food. That’s when-”
“You got into another fight?” Cloud shook his head; Reno laughed to himself.
Zack turned to the redhead. “Hey man, you started it.”
“Yeah, but you were the one who took out his shins-”
“Goodnight!” Cloud called back, already halfway to the door. That hard bed had never seemed more inviting. He knew he would feel all of this by the training started in the morning.
Once he reached his own dorm room, he was relieved to find his roommate sound asleep. However, it was fifteen minutes after he had lain down and finally begun to drift off that the fire alarm sounded for the second time that night.
Cloud vowed never to drink.