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A young cadet's journey in life... -- An independent RP blog for ¢ℓσυ∂ ѕтяιƒє from Final Fantasy VII Compilation Single Ship/Multiverse -- Cloud’s Little Shop of Convenience 80/2000gil

[brighteyedinfantryman]

zackoftrades‌:

The more Cloud spoke, the more the tension visibly shrunk from Zach’s body.  At the other’s touch, he absolutely melted.  Eyes half-lidded, breath slow, his gaze followed Cloud’s hand so he could watch the other’s fingers as they wrapped over his arm.  

During the day, Zach rarely got the chance to see the blond’s hands. Cloud wore leather gloves when he was working, one long and one short. Underneath, the skin was roughed up. Calluses along the fingers from handling his sword, raw, pink knuckles from Cloud’s panic-biting, as well as natural nicks and tears from the hazards of growing up told the story of the other’s life without Zachary needing to ask.  

He unfurled his own hand.  Zach was different from Cloud.  His hands were certainly rough from hard work, but the callouses from handling the buster sword had since softened and faded.  He now had a hard spot on his left palm and a few across his fingers from holding his gun during the practice missions that Reeve and Kunsel needed him to go through to make sure Z2’s reflexes were working as they should.   And because he was occupying Z2’s body, there was never any sign of Zack being young. No little cuts on his hands that healed badly, no finicky joints–He only had one scar on the left side of his face.  Zach was sure it only existed for aesthetic or sentimental purposes.  Perhaps both.

Part of him wished he could pluck up the courage to ask someone–but something inside him told him it was a bad idea.

Wiggling backwards into Cloud’s side, he pulled the other’s arm a little closer.  

“I’m touch-starved,” he admitted shamelessly. “Hug me tighter.”

He yawned.  

“Anyway, chocobos,” came the next line of thought, “I really didn’t think you were listening.  Give me a second to think about where I was planning on going with that story–”   He sighed softly, his mind running off to that night. Tensions were so high that he had no choice but to make up a stupid lie to try to sway Cloud’s attention from whatever he was thinking about.  It hadn’t worked.  

“So five chocobos came and tried to rob the bar,” Zach started.  “Bigger than horses, these things were knocking shit over, breaking glasses, one even had a shiv he’d made from a whiskey bottle.”  He made a wild stabbing motion in the air.  “Politely, I told them to leave.  You know how I am.  I’m nothing but a perfect gentleman,” another bold faced lie, but he was going to keep going with this monstrosity of a tale. “But you see, they wanted our lettuce and we hadn’t gotten our produce delivery yet–that comes on Wednesdays, you know.”  

“The main chocobo, you know, the one with the shiv–he said, ‘No, give us your greens!’ and so I told him to shove it–but then I was like, ‘Hey, I recognize you!  Do you know Cloud Strife?’  And they were all, ‘oh yeah, he’s my cousin we’re cool.’ and then I told them that you happened to live at the bar still and those were your personal greens and so they politely apologized and left.”

It was warm. Not the temperature, rather the soothing raspy voice of a slightly sedated sounding Zack. He felt his own core heat up gently, the cold frost of loneliness melting away replaced by the warm pulse of longing. It mildly amazed him how just being close and having the other focus on him was all he needed as a band-aid for his soul. Although the small voice in his head told him this wasn’t real, he placed a lid on it. He’d take the moment and think about it later.

Much, much later.

For now, he would wait patiently for the story to come while his fingers danced on the hand that pulled him close.

A snicker appeared, tugging at the corners of his lips as Zachary told the bizarre tale of a chocobo heist at 7th Heaven. “Tifa wouldn’t have liked that.” he responded to the destruction of their pub. He rolled his eyes at the mention of this rowdy teenager having self-proclaimed to be a gentleman.

At the end, he pinched the other’s side for the obnoxious story. “They’re probably gonna go back and tell mum the whereabouts of my hideout now.” he said, in a fake-sulky tone before letting out a long sigh and curling tighter into the other’s form.

“Hey…” he spoke into the mane of dark hair, taking a moment to breathe in the scent that he was almost too familiar with. “… thanks for c--” he started before stopping short of continuing his sentence. It occurred to him that this would have raised suspicion for the whole mrs whatever episode. He was supposed to offer the other a place of refuge while the made-up angry ghost frolicked in Zach’s room. This, in turn, made him chuckle. To be honest, it was the funniest thing he’d done in a while.

As the bliss faded away, he tapped the other’s arm twice if only to get his attention and making sure he wasn’t asleep yet. “Your life, you probably had it all. Did you ever think it would change? Did you think about things like… if you perished, what would happen to the people you left behind?” Changing the topic, he decided to pick on the other’s brains. “Do you want to be missed or do you want the people left in your life to move on…”

Because he seriously missed Zack.

He wondered if the mercenary would even remember him, remember them. Would he have just resigned to his situation? Forget the past and move on, to live in the moment?

Because he can’t.

As much as he liked Zachary, their bond was different.

Once they had established the fact that he was, in fact, not Zack and the whole body switch thing came to light, Cloud had decided to keep this person at arm’s length. It was useless to get to know the guy, if he was going to leave again. So he sort of dumped the responsibility to Tifa and Aeris.  

But now, he didn’t know if he would be able to let Zach return to his time as well.

Them being close was inevitable. Cloud just couldn’t help but fuss about his wellbeing, even though he ran away a lot. Zach was like a magnet, and he was pretty entertaining. Also there was the fact that he did open the can of worms by losing control and literally ripped into the guy.

[firstsurugi]

‪which zack are you today? 🐶‬

[brighteyedinfantryman]

zackoftrades‌:

 Zach twisted, staring out into the dark room behind him for a moment as a chilling shudder went down his spine.  He was silent, wrapping his arms around himself as he considered all of the decapitated people that could have had enough will of vengeance against him to try to jump entire universes in order to pursue him.

“–Mrs. Henderson,” Zach hissed urgently into the phone.   His blood felt like ice at the mention of the old broad’s name.  In an instant, he’d started pushing himself out the window to get onto the fire escape.   “God, the biddy can’t let it go.  I’m coming over.”

“Did you try and flirt with her daughter?” Cloud asked.  Zach looked across the alley at the blond in the slightly opened window.  Instead of continuing the conversation via phone, the raven hung up in order to use his hands to better maneuver.

“N-Not exactly,” he stammered, as he rushed down the side of the building, clanging on the fire escape all the way down.

“Wait,” Cloud continued guessing from his spot across the alley, “She thought you were going to have a one night’s stand with her and you bailed. I didn’t know you were into older women, Zach.”

As he finally hit pavement, Zach laughed.  “Wrong again!”  Looking up at the other, he shrugged, a bit embarrassed. “I used to frequent an establishment–”

Cloud’s expression didn’t change.

“–to visit a gentleman,” Zach admitted, heart squeezing. It had been one of the first times he’d felt smitten with anyone!  To make matters worse, it had been a man. The gentleman had been a colleague of sorts, though he ran in different circles most of the time.  Zach typically took orders under the Queen. The other took orders from whomever had the most cash to offer at the time. And like Zachary, this man had a day job.  It just wasn’t as elegant as the Fair’s weapons industry.  He worked in a brothel in London.

“Did you grab this gentleman’s ass?” Cloud guessed.

Zach blushed.

Well, he grabbed a lot more than that.  Zach shifted from foot to foot, trying to move the image of the silver-haired man from his mind. Devilishly feminine and masculine at the same time, Zachary had never been able to figure out what he’d really liked most about Crescent.  

“Indeed,” he admitted.  

The Crescent of this world could snap his current body like a twig.  That fact alone was terrifying and left Zach with little interest in learning more of “The General”.

“How is that tied to Mrs. Henderson?”

“Like any concerned noble woman would, she attempted to castrate me,”  The tone in his voice was layered as if it was a joke, but his expression was serious.  He could still recall the woman coming at him through the shadows with her hatchet in hand.  It was probably the most horrifying drunken evening he’d ever had–

“Though, I’m sure there were multiple reasons for her wanting to do that–you’ve met me.  I’m an asshole.”  Zach crossed the alley to the building’s door and pulled on the handle of the door.  When he realized it wouldn’t open, he shouted frantically.   “–Hey, I can’t get up!  Help me out!”

When Cloud had thrown one end of a sheet down, Zach didn’t question it.   He simply gave it a tug to check the safety and proceeded up the side of the building.  

“She was nuts but I hadn’t meant to kill her!” he continued, keeping his footing against the wall.  He knew if a fall should happen, Zack’s body would keep him safe anyway.  “But I can’t say I have any regrets, either.”  He was sure any man would defend himself if they were threatened like that with their pants down.   He looked back at his room and nodded at the entity inside.  Maybe by chance, something toppled over in a room across the way.

“BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN I’M NOT SORRY!” He pleaded with her, voice shaking.  He was only trying to protect his assets.

When he’d reached the window, he’d waved his arms at Cloud to help pull him inside.  Once he’d passed through the window, the raven tossed his arms around the other, dragged him into his bed, and yanked the blankets over them both for protection.

If he was to be honest with himself, he was unfamiliar with this… japery they were currently engaged in. Granted, it was unplanned and they got into the situation only because he wanted assurance that Zack was here. He didn’t even have time to lament the fact that this person was indeed not Zack, but the flow of happenings halted him from thinking about it.

They were currently under his thin sheets hiding from Mrs. Hen-whatever-son.

And through their odd interactions, Cloud just had to wonder if they both were destined to stain their hands with blood no matter what world they were from.

When he turned his attention back to the other, he realised that Zach was visibly shaken. Cloud felt bad – only slightly, though. He ought to at least attempt to distract the guy. “Don’t worry about Mrs. Hansen.” he gingerly reached to pat the raven’s arm. “She can’t come through the window. Tsurugi has a Holy Materia.” he didn’t know if it worked as a barrier of sorts, but he was hopeful that Zach would buy his bullshit. Since, there really wasn’t any Mrs. Hansem. Personally, he was never scared of such things. Ghosts in this world can be casted off by Holy Materias and some are rather harmless. They were also tortured souls, bound in limbo due to some unfinished business.

Cloud proceeded to distract him further. Asking him about mundane things, about how he’s actually settling in. From observation he could see Zach integrating himself well. It was almost a year after all. He’d gotten quite tech savvy, gotten used to his current body – with its perks and shortcomings, enjoyed watching streaming sites and even had a few social media accounts. He was essentially your run of the mill teenager – a teenager that had sass and vigour.

Sometimes the sass part annoyed Cloud – since he wasn’t used to such things. His normal approach to being sassed at was to sass back or ignore the person since he wouldn’t waste time with nonsense. Yuffie was a great example of him ignoring her when she bothered him about Materias.

At least that was the only part Cloud needed to tolerate. Zach diligently washes himself and took maybe a bit more care about his appearance on his own now. He goes out and shop for clothes – clothes that Zack doesn’t wear. He takes tips from the girls to heart and was getting real popular with the regulars and the new patrons alike – much to Tifa’s delight.

He didn’t only look good, but smelled pleasant almost all the time too.

Where they’re at, Cloud wondered if this would have been them when they were younger; if they had met in Midgar, but never actually associated themselves with ShinRa – albeit it being an impossible scenario given why they were both there in the first place was because they were determined to join SOLDIER. But if, they had normal jobs where they could spend actual time together and know him. Because really, back then Cloud didn’t really know Zack much.

He sighed and relaxed into the bed, and could feel the body next to his relax as well.

“Turn around.” he told the other, but didn’t wait for a response before the blond moved the larger body so he was pressed against the other’s side with them both on their sides. Moving so he’d tucked the other’s head under his chin and his arms around Zach, he ran his hand over his hair in a soothing manner.

“So tell me about the chocobo robber the other day.”

[incorrect-strife-quotes]

Reno: How are you?

Cloud: That’s a personal question.

[cloud-slash]

twitter is going ham over this

[naturesass]

farm boy

[queenmercurys]

well, i’ve had just enough time

[firstsurugi]

cloud “i’m a huge baby” strife

[wizqevelynart-deactivated202603]

Honestly all I can do is make memes with my action figures until my camera battery finishes charging…

[zacksoldiers]

— Abby McDonald  

[firstsurugi]

tfw ur own boyfriend photobombs u???? rude

[enigmaphenomenon]

Zack - Last seen at the Coliseum. Black feather drifts to the ground indicating Sephiroth’s presence. 

Aerith - Knows Cloud is looking for someone. A friend. And that he was at the Coliseum.

Cloud - Encounters the black feather at the Coliseum just like Zack and Sephiroth appears. Cloud says he’s been looking for Sephiroth. 

Ultimania - states Cloud was looking for Sephiroth, but who he’s searching for is not limited to one person. 

Cloud was searching for Sephiroth, and we know he wasn’t searching for Aerith because Aerith knew where Cloud was (the Coliseum) and said he was looking for someone and wonders if Cloud found that person yet. A friend. This means it couldn’t have been Aerith given that she knows where Cloud is and about his search, and acknowledges who he is looking for is not herself. 

Cloud encounters Sephiroth at the Coliseum which is where Zack was last spotted. 

Conclusion: Cloud is looking for Sephiroth in order to find Zack. Seph and Zack are his targets. 

(Plot twist: Zack is Cloud’s light)

[nctis]

[zackoftrades]

[03:21 ex-roomie] Zach. Something’s outside your window

The light from his phone burned his eyes.  He blinked at Cloud’s message for a moment before swiping his thumb across the screen to answer the text.  What on earth could be outside his window? He was on the 2nd floor!  Then again, it wasn’t totally out of the ordinary.  He’d had people come through his window before when he lived in England.

He tapped a sloppy message back into his phone and pressed send–he couldn’t understand why people just couldn’t call!  

[03:25 C.Strife] Ot ia 3am.

Zach reread his text. Damn. He’d messed it up.He corrected his sentence. 

[03:25 C.Strife] IT IA

[03:26 C.Strife] IA

[03:26 C.Strife] I A

Zach called and waited patiently for the other to pick up as he crossed the room. He’d heard the other answer the phone as he’d pushed his curtain aside to look out the window. 

“’s three in the morning,” He said, as Victorian tones slipped into his voice that was still thick with sleep. “Why are you up?” He looked down the side of the building, then upwards toward the roof, then side-to-side.  “–Don’t see anything. What did you see?”

[brighteyedinfantryman]

-------------  He called, cried for him, yet only his back was facing him. Couldn’t he hear Cloud call out to him? He ran, as fast as his lethargic legs could carry. His footsteps fall into dreary thumps, dull, sucking his feet in. He gazed down to see that he was stuck in mud. Another desperate cry for the raven to stop going away as he looked back up.

            --------   Emptiness…

                        -----------  Nothing...

        ------ gone...

He was standing on water that reflected nothing but himself and the skies now.

“Zack!”

His eyes snapped open so fast he thought they were to pop out of his sockets. Clammy fingers were still fisting the sheets, shaking, before he scrambled and looked for his phone in between the crumpled linen.

Once the device was in his hands, he tapped something on the brightly lit glass, stumbling his way to the window as he sent the message. Eyes trained onto the closed window across the street. It was dark. Curtains drawn.

Cloud leaned against the window sill, peeking from behind his own curtains. Nothing happened. If he couldn’t touch him, to seek comfort from the warmth of close proximity, he was going to settle with just seeing him alright.

He just needed to know he was there.

The blond zoned out, staring blankly at the quiet night, his mind reeling; wondering if Zach was even at home tonight, or if he was out, who was he with? Was he going to be okay—

A flurry of texts came in and it made him jump a little – weird, considering that he was expecting some sort of a response. The right corner of his lips curled up at the gibberish reply, finding it endearing. He’d have laughed if he wasn’t feeling so wound up.

The phone vibrated in his hands and the blond let it pulsed three times before he picked up the call, placing the phone against his ear. His voice, husky and... sleepy... and he could immediately feel the tight strings loosen within himself. He let out a breath that he didn’t realise he was holding and his breathing started to level. Zach’s accent never failed to amuse him, especially now.  

He watched, still from behind the safety of his own curtains, at the young man looking for whatever that he had alerted him in the first place.

I… just… needed to see you…

Then again, of course he wouldn’t say it out loud. But now that he’d gotten the other’s attention...

“A headless woman. I think it went into you room.”

Ah. Well, he didn’t mean to say that.  

[circuitrin]

hey, would you say i became a hero?

[pilot-doodles]

Made a cute lil’ Zack Fair sticker for myself tonight during my stream.

this is zack any time he sees Aerith in Crisis Core.

what a nerd

[kvgua]

ive regressed to my mid-2000s emo boy roots