FFVII (Sephiroth/Zack/Cloud)
Title: Heart and Home
Author:
cleflink
Rating: G
Warnings: woobins
Word Count: 1597
Summary: It was the perfect solution to the situation. No, really.
A/N: Prompt - Seph/Zack/Cloud - Domesticity: "making a house a home"
“Alright.” Zack set down the box he was carrying and straightened with a satisfied nod. “That’s the last of ‘em.”
“My apologies for intruding on your sense of self-achievement,” a voice came from behind him, and Zack turned to see Sephiroth blinking at him bemusedly from just inside the doorway. “But would you mind explaining why you’re filling my apartment with cardboard boxes?”
Zack shrugged, rubbing his neck absently. “I’m moving in.”
One silver eyebrow arched gracefully. “Moving in,” Sephiroth stated. It came out as more of a question than was likely intended.
“Yep! Oh hey, could you pass me that box over there? No seriously,” he added, when Sephiroth gave him a look. “I’ve got some more space over here where I think it’ll fit.”
“Might I ask whose authority you used to get permission for this?” Sephiroth asked, dangerously calm even as he handed over the box in question.
Zack rolled his eyes. “Yours, of course.” He grinned ingenuously. “You don’t mind, right?”
Sephiroth didn’t seem to know quite how to respond to that. Zack continued on before he had a chance to try.
“And sorry about the mess,” he apologized, sheepish. “It really wasn’t supposed to look like this when you got home, but we didn’t expect you to get out of that meeting for another good couple of hours at least. Of all the times for Heidegger to cut it short… Oh, but don’t worry. We’ll have it cleaned up in a jiffy, I promise.”
If it had been anyone else, Zack would have suspected that Sephiroth was trying very hard not to swear.
“…we?”
“Me and Spike.” Zack jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the kitchen door. “It was easiest for me to move the boxes so he’s in the kitchen making something to eat instead.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Although I hope you like sandwiches ‘cause I didn’t think it was a good idea to let him use the stove without supervision.”
The General gave him a long-suffering look. “Zack.”
“I’m not being mean, honest! He’s the only guy I’ve ever met who can burn soup.”
“…ZACK.”
Violet eyes blinked innocently. “Yeah Seph?”
“Why have you and Strife invaded my apartment?”
Zack shoved his hands in his pockets and offered Sephiroth a noncommittal smile. “Well let’s see. Couple of reasons really. First off, it’s a helluva lot closer to your office than the SOLDIER dorms or the regular barracks so we won’t have to go nearly so far to harass you. And having Cloud here with us means he doesn’t need to go tearing off across the base every night to get in before curfew. Secondly, your place is a lot nicer than mine and has its own kitchen which, once we teach Cloud how to cook without burning the place down, should come in pretty handy. And it’s not like you’re using the space, really, considering you’re hardly ever here.” Zack shrugged, leaning absently against one of the precariously balanced stacks of boxes. “Those are really just perks though. If you want to know the real reason you’ll have to ask Cloud.”
“Strife?”
Zack nodded. “Sure. This was his idea, after all.”
“DON’T YOU START BLAMING THIS ON ME, ZACK!”
The diminutive form of Cloud Strife appeared suddenly in the doorway of the kitchen, charging into the living room with an expression that could have stripped the paint off walls. The impact was undermined somewhat by a long smear of mustard across one cheek and the overlong apron he was wearing rolled over several times at the waist to keep it from trailing on the ground, but Cloud didn’t seem to care.
Ignoring Sephiroth’s presence completely, the blond Private glared hard at Zack. “I can’t believe you!” he declared stridently, gesturing angrily with the paring knife he held in one hand. “Why’d you have to go and say something like that?”
Zack grinned at him, completely unrepentant. “Because it’s true and the nice General asked?”
“No it isn’t! And you promised me you wouldn’t say anything to…” Cloud faltered suddenly, a belated flush colouring his cheeks as he turned slowly to face the room’s other occupant.
Sephiroth raised a wordless eyebrow and Cloud ducked his head instinctively.
“Um,” he tried, cheeks pinking. “Welcome home General?”
Sephiroth stared blandly at the boy wearing his apron. “This was your idea?”
“No! Well, kind of, not really. I mean, I might sort of have said to Zack about wanting to… But it was him who thought I meant it for real and actually went and made it official and -”
It wasn’t in his nature to interrupt, but Sephiroth feared he’d never hear the end of the story at this rate. “What did you say to Zack?” he asked, trying for gentle.
“It’s just that…” Cloud suddenly seemed to find something incredibly interesting about his feet, his voice dropping until even Sephiroth’s enhanced hearing was hard pressed to catch the words. “You always work so hard in the office, but you never seem happy to go home at the end of the day and it’s always so quiet and lonely in here. And it doesn’t really seem like a home at all even when you’re in it and that’s just not fair because you deserve to have a place that makes you happy - and I was thinking that it might be nice, y’know, if um, maybe Zack and I were here too ‘cause then we’d all have a home to go home to together and then you might be happier here and… yeah.”
Staring at the ground as he was, Cloud missed the slight softening of Sephiroth’s expression, the fond, knowing look Zack was wearing as he grinned at the pair of them. Cloud’s shoulders hunched slightly as Sephiroth began weaving his way towards him, heavy bootfalls ominously loud in the relative quiet.
Then a careful hand carded through blond spikes, tilting his head up. Cloud made a soft sound of surprise as Sephiroth seized his mouth in a brief, tender kiss.
“So, um,” Cloud coughed when Sephiroth released him, sheepish but pleased. “Then I made the mistake of telling Zack about the whole thing and, well, here we are.” Blue eyes looked up hopefully through pale lashes. “You don’t mind?”
Sephiroth sighed in mock exasperation. “Not enough to go through the necessary paperwork to put things back the way they’re supposed to be.” He looked around the cluttered room with a resigned air. “I suppose we had better come up with a system for moving you both in or I doubt we’ll ever see my living room again.”
“Yeah,” Zack agreed with affected nonchalance, eyes shining with a satisfaction he didn’t even try and hide. He looked around the room himself and groaned theatrically. “Man, these boxes are going to take forever to unpack.”
“Indeed.” Sephiroth eyed the forest of boxes. “There are certainly a lot of them. Even together I wouldn’t have thought you owned these many things.”
“Oh,” Zack said offhandedly. “That’s because we don’t. But you can’t move into a new home without a huge stack of boxes to open, so I borrowed some stuff from a couple of the guys to make up the extra.”
“I see.” Sephiroth’s expression was carefully neutral. “Are any of them aware of this?”
Zack flashed a grin. “Only if they needed any of their things recently.”
Cloud shook his head in fond exasperation. “I’m nearly done with the sandwiches,” he told them, then turned a skeptical eye on Zack. “Will you be alright unsupervised until then?”
“Sure!” Zack breezed, waving one hand negligently. “Seph’s here now anyways - he’ll keep things on track.”
Cloud gave him a narrow look. “Don’t cause trouble for the General, Zack.”
“Me? Cause trouble?” Zack batted his eyelashes. “I’ve never heard such slander!”
“Your ears must need cleaning out then.”
“Ouch.” Zack was grinning as he sauntered over and looped his arms around Cloud’s waist. “You wound me kiddo.”
Cloud tilted his head back against Zack’s shoulder, eyes sparkling in amusement. “You’re tough - you can take it.”
“Flatterer.”
Sephiroth shook his head slightly. “I’m beginning to wonder what I’m getting myself into.”
Zack looked over with a grin. “Oh, that’s easy.” He tugged Cloud more firmly against him, gesturing imperiously for Sephiroth to come closer. “First off, we’re going to experience a whole lot of unpacking and sore shoulders, then follow it up with the joy of moving the whole house around to make room for us two cuties.”
Stopping a handbreadth away, Sephiroth made his unamused Commander face. “You don’t say.”
Zack laughed and stretched over Cloud’s head to plant a cheeky kiss on the end of Sephiroth’s nose. “Oh, but I do. And once we’re all moved in there’ll be slumber parties, pillow fights at said slumber parties, clothes all over the floor, laundry runs, getting to balance three different schedules at once -”
“Zack at any and every hour of the day…” Cloud interjected dryly, free hand drifting an absent caress across Sephiroth’s arm.
Zack grinned. “You know you love me. And let’s not forget the early-morning sparring sessions and mandatory midnight snacks, crumbs in the bed, lots of hot sex, a complete and utter lack of privacy and, maybe somewhere along the way,” his smug, happy little smile was a mirror image of the expression on Cloud’s face, “A house you can call a home and actually mean it.”
“Well.” Sephiroth’s smile was very slight, but Zack and Cloud caught it effortlessly. “I suppose I can work with that.”
~owari
Author:
cleflink
Rating: G
Warnings: woobins
Word Count: 1597
Summary: It was the perfect solution to the situation. No, really.
A/N: Prompt - Seph/Zack/Cloud - Domesticity: "making a house a home"
“Alright.” Zack set down the box he was carrying and straightened with a satisfied nod. “That’s the last of ‘em.”
“My apologies for intruding on your sense of self-achievement,” a voice came from behind him, and Zack turned to see Sephiroth blinking at him bemusedly from just inside the doorway. “But would you mind explaining why you’re filling my apartment with cardboard boxes?”
Zack shrugged, rubbing his neck absently. “I’m moving in.”
One silver eyebrow arched gracefully. “Moving in,” Sephiroth stated. It came out as more of a question than was likely intended.
“Yep! Oh hey, could you pass me that box over there? No seriously,” he added, when Sephiroth gave him a look. “I’ve got some more space over here where I think it’ll fit.”
“Might I ask whose authority you used to get permission for this?” Sephiroth asked, dangerously calm even as he handed over the box in question.
Zack rolled his eyes. “Yours, of course.” He grinned ingenuously. “You don’t mind, right?”
Sephiroth didn’t seem to know quite how to respond to that. Zack continued on before he had a chance to try.
“And sorry about the mess,” he apologized, sheepish. “It really wasn’t supposed to look like this when you got home, but we didn’t expect you to get out of that meeting for another good couple of hours at least. Of all the times for Heidegger to cut it short… Oh, but don’t worry. We’ll have it cleaned up in a jiffy, I promise.”
If it had been anyone else, Zack would have suspected that Sephiroth was trying very hard not to swear.
“…we?”
“Me and Spike.” Zack jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the kitchen door. “It was easiest for me to move the boxes so he’s in the kitchen making something to eat instead.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Although I hope you like sandwiches ‘cause I didn’t think it was a good idea to let him use the stove without supervision.”
The General gave him a long-suffering look. “Zack.”
“I’m not being mean, honest! He’s the only guy I’ve ever met who can burn soup.”
“…ZACK.”
Violet eyes blinked innocently. “Yeah Seph?”
“Why have you and Strife invaded my apartment?”
Zack shoved his hands in his pockets and offered Sephiroth a noncommittal smile. “Well let’s see. Couple of reasons really. First off, it’s a helluva lot closer to your office than the SOLDIER dorms or the regular barracks so we won’t have to go nearly so far to harass you. And having Cloud here with us means he doesn’t need to go tearing off across the base every night to get in before curfew. Secondly, your place is a lot nicer than mine and has its own kitchen which, once we teach Cloud how to cook without burning the place down, should come in pretty handy. And it’s not like you’re using the space, really, considering you’re hardly ever here.” Zack shrugged, leaning absently against one of the precariously balanced stacks of boxes. “Those are really just perks though. If you want to know the real reason you’ll have to ask Cloud.”
“Strife?”
Zack nodded. “Sure. This was his idea, after all.”
“DON’T YOU START BLAMING THIS ON ME, ZACK!”
The diminutive form of Cloud Strife appeared suddenly in the doorway of the kitchen, charging into the living room with an expression that could have stripped the paint off walls. The impact was undermined somewhat by a long smear of mustard across one cheek and the overlong apron he was wearing rolled over several times at the waist to keep it from trailing on the ground, but Cloud didn’t seem to care.
Ignoring Sephiroth’s presence completely, the blond Private glared hard at Zack. “I can’t believe you!” he declared stridently, gesturing angrily with the paring knife he held in one hand. “Why’d you have to go and say something like that?”
Zack grinned at him, completely unrepentant. “Because it’s true and the nice General asked?”
“No it isn’t! And you promised me you wouldn’t say anything to…” Cloud faltered suddenly, a belated flush colouring his cheeks as he turned slowly to face the room’s other occupant.
Sephiroth raised a wordless eyebrow and Cloud ducked his head instinctively.
“Um,” he tried, cheeks pinking. “Welcome home General?”
Sephiroth stared blandly at the boy wearing his apron. “This was your idea?”
“No! Well, kind of, not really. I mean, I might sort of have said to Zack about wanting to… But it was him who thought I meant it for real and actually went and made it official and -”
It wasn’t in his nature to interrupt, but Sephiroth feared he’d never hear the end of the story at this rate. “What did you say to Zack?” he asked, trying for gentle.
“It’s just that…” Cloud suddenly seemed to find something incredibly interesting about his feet, his voice dropping until even Sephiroth’s enhanced hearing was hard pressed to catch the words. “You always work so hard in the office, but you never seem happy to go home at the end of the day and it’s always so quiet and lonely in here. And it doesn’t really seem like a home at all even when you’re in it and that’s just not fair because you deserve to have a place that makes you happy - and I was thinking that it might be nice, y’know, if um, maybe Zack and I were here too ‘cause then we’d all have a home to go home to together and then you might be happier here and… yeah.”
Staring at the ground as he was, Cloud missed the slight softening of Sephiroth’s expression, the fond, knowing look Zack was wearing as he grinned at the pair of them. Cloud’s shoulders hunched slightly as Sephiroth began weaving his way towards him, heavy bootfalls ominously loud in the relative quiet.
Then a careful hand carded through blond spikes, tilting his head up. Cloud made a soft sound of surprise as Sephiroth seized his mouth in a brief, tender kiss.
“So, um,” Cloud coughed when Sephiroth released him, sheepish but pleased. “Then I made the mistake of telling Zack about the whole thing and, well, here we are.” Blue eyes looked up hopefully through pale lashes. “You don’t mind?”
Sephiroth sighed in mock exasperation. “Not enough to go through the necessary paperwork to put things back the way they’re supposed to be.” He looked around the cluttered room with a resigned air. “I suppose we had better come up with a system for moving you both in or I doubt we’ll ever see my living room again.”
“Yeah,” Zack agreed with affected nonchalance, eyes shining with a satisfaction he didn’t even try and hide. He looked around the room himself and groaned theatrically. “Man, these boxes are going to take forever to unpack.”
“Indeed.” Sephiroth eyed the forest of boxes. “There are certainly a lot of them. Even together I wouldn’t have thought you owned these many things.”
“Oh,” Zack said offhandedly. “That’s because we don’t. But you can’t move into a new home without a huge stack of boxes to open, so I borrowed some stuff from a couple of the guys to make up the extra.”
“I see.” Sephiroth’s expression was carefully neutral. “Are any of them aware of this?”
Zack flashed a grin. “Only if they needed any of their things recently.”
Cloud shook his head in fond exasperation. “I’m nearly done with the sandwiches,” he told them, then turned a skeptical eye on Zack. “Will you be alright unsupervised until then?”
“Sure!” Zack breezed, waving one hand negligently. “Seph’s here now anyways - he’ll keep things on track.”
Cloud gave him a narrow look. “Don’t cause trouble for the General, Zack.”
“Me? Cause trouble?” Zack batted his eyelashes. “I’ve never heard such slander!”
“Your ears must need cleaning out then.”
“Ouch.” Zack was grinning as he sauntered over and looped his arms around Cloud’s waist. “You wound me kiddo.”
Cloud tilted his head back against Zack’s shoulder, eyes sparkling in amusement. “You’re tough - you can take it.”
“Flatterer.”
Sephiroth shook his head slightly. “I’m beginning to wonder what I’m getting myself into.”
Zack looked over with a grin. “Oh, that’s easy.” He tugged Cloud more firmly against him, gesturing imperiously for Sephiroth to come closer. “First off, we’re going to experience a whole lot of unpacking and sore shoulders, then follow it up with the joy of moving the whole house around to make room for us two cuties.”
Stopping a handbreadth away, Sephiroth made his unamused Commander face. “You don’t say.”
Zack laughed and stretched over Cloud’s head to plant a cheeky kiss on the end of Sephiroth’s nose. “Oh, but I do. And once we’re all moved in there’ll be slumber parties, pillow fights at said slumber parties, clothes all over the floor, laundry runs, getting to balance three different schedules at once -”
“Zack at any and every hour of the day…” Cloud interjected dryly, free hand drifting an absent caress across Sephiroth’s arm.
Zack grinned. “You know you love me. And let’s not forget the early-morning sparring sessions and mandatory midnight snacks, crumbs in the bed, lots of hot sex, a complete and utter lack of privacy and, maybe somewhere along the way,” his smug, happy little smile was a mirror image of the expression on Cloud’s face, “A house you can call a home and actually mean it.”
“Well.” Sephiroth’s smile was very slight, but Zack and Cloud caught it effortlessly. “I suppose I can work with that.”
~owari