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emerald_embersTitle: Pinions (The 'What Are You For?' Remix)
Original Story: Pinions bylaylah
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Kadaj/Loz/Yazoo/Zack, Sephiroth/Zack
Rating: NC17
Word Count: 4001
Summary: The brothers wake, but they're not alone.
Kadaj dipped his hands into the green water and drank, offering it to his brothers afterwards. Loz accepted readily but Yazoo seemed distracted, and Kadaj repressed his anger at the absent-minded refusal, more interested in finding out what had caught his attention so.
"There's someone else here," Yazoo spoke at length, rising from his knees and looking around the cave, trying to see what he already sensed. "Not one of us. Someone who should not be here."
Loz looked frightened, but calmed a little when Kadaj gripped his shoulder before speaking for the two of them. "An enemy?"
"I'm not sure..." Yazoo cocked his head, eyes closing for a moment with a small frown of concentration. "No. No, he's strong. But he does not hate us." Bright green eyes flashed open again and the long-haired brother took off, trusting his brothers to follow behind as he ran through caverns, occasionally pausing to make sense of his direction before heading off again, until at last they stood near one of the rarer crystalline pools. This was not like where they had come from; it was not green, it was that iridescent blue colour that seemed more suited to ice magic than anything else.
Sure enough, the dark-haired man was waiting for them. Not deliberately by any means, but Yazoo had known and the others through him that he would be there. Bronzed skin, skin that reminded them of vague memories of daylight and stepping into it for the first time, and he was whole.
None of them could work out why that was important, they just knew it was, knew the unsettled feeling in their stomachs at the sight of him was related to this wholeness.
"What's going to happen to him?" Loz asked, the end of the sentence quieter after Kadaj's gesture for silence.
"We take him with us for now. We can work out what to do with him later."
"Are we going?" Loz asked, slipping his arms underneath the stranger's and hoisting him up, slinging him over his shoulder when he wouldn't stir.
"You know what to do, don't you?" Yazoo added, feeling in his gut that Kadaj was their leader, the one who would know where to take them, but wanting confirmation.
"I think I do," Kadaj replied, face contorting slightly as he looked at the dark-haired man again, trying to remember what he was for, why he seemed familiar. "We're leaving."
Zack bounded in with the enthusiasm of a puppy on a caffeine drip. "Aeris? You wouldn't believe who I met the other day. No, seriously. Go on. Guess."
"General Sephiroth?"
"How the hell did you guess?"
Aeris gave him a short 'I have my ways' look before winking and replying, "I didn't. It was on television. Don't worry, you didn't gawp more than anyone else in your squad, or whatever it's called."
"Squad's alright, I like to think team." He kicked off his shoes and slumped down on the sofa for all of two seconds before sitting up and frowning in thought. "I don't think there is a proper name for a group of SOLDIERs, y'know."
"So, how was he?"
"Didn't get to speak to him much, he pretty much just gave us the mission and then... well... we did it. Nothing that exciting. But God, he's gorgeous."
"Prettier than me?" She grinned, twirling a curl around her index finger until Zack's mock-expression of thought was replaced by energetic head-shaking. "Wouldn't mind if he was anyway. Come on, I made fairy cakes."
"Are you hinting at something?"
"No, not that it would be hot and you could do with someone to look after you when I'm not around." Aeris looked off innocently into the distance. "You would take photos for me, wouldn't you?"
"God damn I love you."
"Language. You'll make the fairies blush."
The dark-haired man didn't wake up for a long time, giving them a chance to know each other first, for Yazoo to show how he knew where materia was before seeing it, for Loz to become stronger with purple materia, Kadaj all the more versatile with fire and lightning magic that glowed green like the streams in the caves. For them to discover how they fought together, how Loz always knew how to boost their attacks, the rhythm they reached when attacking something strong enough to withstand more than a handful of lightning blasts.
Their guest only stirred at last long after they had left the caves, after they had found their way to populated land, when Loz accidentally bumped his head against the side of the car they had acquired. Kadaj was still trying to figure out how to drive it with a little guidance from Loz, and the experience was terrifying. Loz knew how to work mechanics but his wording wasn't helpful and Kadaj was too excited with the thrill of learning something new to let his oldest brother drive. "Heaven doesn't have concussions does it?" The dark-haired man murmured, the car's brakes being slammed on with a screech as all three brothers' attentions were suddenly focused on their travelling guest.
"Zack," Kadaj said with breathless realisation as he stopped staring ahead at the road and turned to their companion. "Your name is Zack. You're good."
"Thanks, but I don't really know you guys -" Zack looked about at the brothers, blinking. Deja-vu, and lots of it. "Woah. Um... how hard did I hit my head?"
"Loz hit it. He didn't mean to."
The eldest brother looked away guiltily, was brought back to earth with a pat on the shoulder and wide, forgiving grin from their slightly dazed... well... captive? Friend?
"Loz, right?" So why did that name seem so familiar? "Where are we headed?"
"Icicle, Kadaj is - ow!" Loz turned and pointed at Yazoo with a hurt expression. "What was that for?"
"We're headed to Icicle. We can leave you there."
"Sure thing, I'm not nosey." Zack appeared to be distracted a little, was feeling his side and frowning a little. "That said, how did you find me?"
"You just... were. I don't know. We all were."
Zack decided the last thing he needed to do was piss off three questionably sane people who reminded him all too much of the person who was part of the reason he could not stop feeling for wounds.
Oh shit. Cloud.
"Was there a blond kid with me?"
"No. Should there have been?" Yazoo's question trailed off slightly when Kadaj fixed him with a firm gaze.
"We're not going back. If someone else was there, we'd have felt him.
Right?"
Zack wasn't comforted much by the answer, but survival instinct and common sense told him not to press the point further. God he hoped Cloud was alright, that he hadn't dreamed the blond boy being ignored by the gunmen who'd...
And why was he alive anyway? He remembered being shot. He remembered dying, the whole cliché, going cold, spitting blood he couldn't feel from shock, vaguely noticing being poked at before everything went blinding white, and then... oh. Aeris.
Disorienting as the entire situation was, he was pretty certain Aeris was behind his being here. Somehow. She just had that whole effect on things, and he'd seen the way life seemed to spring up around her even when it shouldn't. She'd brought him back, and while God only knew what he was supposed to do, he was fairly certain he had to do something for these kids.These terribly pretty, terribly psychotic, disturbingly reminiscent of Sephiroth kids.
Zack wasn't stupid and as a result wasn't surprised to find out that not only did Sephiroth have issues but he tried to deal with them, and that mostly through totalling the training centre. It certainly explained why Shinra grunts ran around in hand-me-down uniforms because of 'funding issues', but the training centre always seemed to be decked out in brand new equipment.
Seemed, because it actually was.
"Want a hand with that?" Zack asked after a moment, deciding that there was no way this was healthy, especially given the animalistic snarl that graced his superior's face every time a training dummy exploded into foam and splinters.
"I'm fine thank you," Sephiroth replied, clicking into calm with worryingly practised ease.
"You sure don't look it. Come on, you need to spar and I'll put up a better fight than any of these guys."
"You also happen to be less durable than rubber."
Zack shrugged, walking down onto the floor and taking the buster sword from his back, brandishing it loosely. "Prove it."
It hadn't been as unwise a decision as anyone else would have expected, Zack only splattering blood across the practice mat in three places before Sephiroth's mako-induced migraine overpowered his lingering frustrations and they called it a draw. Impressed, Sephiroth had asked what Zack would like in return for becoming his training partner.
He'd been a little taken aback by the answer "Ice-cream", but accepted the conditions regardless.
The brothers wouldn't let Zack inside the hut with them but he wasn't about to complain. Anything with a Shinra symbol pretty much had the instinctive effect of making him look for nearby cover and the sounds from inside weren't making him feel any less inclined to run for it. He didn't need to as he was free to go now, but something just made him feel weirdly attached to the kids. Probably an Aeris effect again.
Smashing glass. Definitely, definitely not helping, but just as he'd prepared himself to make a hasty retreat the brothers emerged, Kadaj looking as if he seriously needed to vent some steam and the other two appearing slightly disturbed but calm nonetheless. Yazoo's mildly frustrated expression wasn't that surprising, all things considered the long-haired brother seemed incapable of reaching a higher emotional state than 'placid'.
"Hey, what-"
"We're leaving," Yazoo stated so quickly it was almost a snap, looking about before walking over to four motorcycles that definitely weren't for sale.
Judging by the fact Kadaj was sitting on one almost before anyone else had caught sight of the vehicles this wasn't going to be an issue anyway. Zack shrugged before walking over and taking the last one, which Loz had looked at quite fretfully until the dark-haired man approached it. It really was a gorgeous machine, made for hard work and real roads, dirt paths instead of the tarmac you'd find in maybe three corners of the world if you were lucky. He couldn't resist groping the handlebars as he settled himself into place and revved the engine, earning a string of curses from an upstairs window as the motorbike owners realised they weren't owners anymore.
"Purrs like a kitten anyway," he muttered in appreciative tones under his breath before feeling a heavy hand thump down on his back.
"You're coming with us, right?" Loz asked, curing Zack's heart attack from the sudden attack of physical affection, and bringing an unavoidable grin to his face just on sheer account of the tone the question was posed in. It was so goddamn hopeful. Loz wanted him to come.
"You don't mind?"
The others seemed fairly non-committal about the whole issue, but Loz's sunshine smile was well worth the mild guilt trip about stealing motorbikes.
Not that he would have had much of a guilt trip in the first place. They were really nice bikes. And judging by the sounds that accompanied the four of them as they sped off into the distance, the motorcyclists in question weren't the type you could feel particularly guilty about stealing from.
It was maddening. Here was the greatest of them all - or, at least, so said the papers - and he hadn't noticed the streak of whipped cream sitting on his cheek. It wasn't as if it had just appeared by magic; when a passerby knocked into Sephiroth (and nearly had a heart attack on realising who he had collided with) and caused their great leader to slip with his ice-cream spoon, he'd done a rubbish job of wiping away the results.
The streak had been sitting there and downright teasing Zack for a good minute now, and he couldn't take it anymore. He was going in.
"Zack, what are you doing?"
"You missed a spot," The dark-haired boy replied, leaning across and gripping Sephiroth's chin with one hand, catching that damned spot of cream on his thumb and sucking it off with a victory grin.
He had intended to let go, he really had. It was Sephiroth's fault for giving him that stunned look of utter disbelief.
It was.
Zack pressed his lips to Sephiroth's, feeling him freeze up utterly before responding just slightly, the barest push. It was enough, and he allowed himself a small smile when breaking off the kiss.
"What was that for?"
"... You had whipped cream on your cheek." Zack cursed whichever part of his brain had wimped out with that response, took in a deep breath and added uncomfortably loudly, "And you are too many shades of gorgeous."
Sod the gutwrenching panic in his... gut. It was totally worth it.
It was only when they pulled up at the dead city that Kadaj realised Zack hadn't complained once during the journey despite the fact that fatigue, hunger, even poor sight from the dark should have caused him problems. And it wasn't as if he was just staying quiet out of politeness - when a passing creature took their presence as a threat Zack was the first to notice, leaping into action before realising that bare fists weren't much use against an aerial beast. The warning was enough to galvanise the brothers into action though, Yazoo getting ready to sense the creature's weaknesses but not needing to courtesy of Kadaj running straight in with Souba. The poor creature barely registered the approach of its attacker, falling to the ground in three ribbons of flesh, no challenge at all to the dual-bladed weapon.
Zack did not bother to hide how impressed he was with the whole display, applauding quietly before running over to the shredded creature and scouring its remains for anything of use. Yazoo felt a little put-off that he hadn't had to educate Zack as he had his brothers.
"Who taught you to do that?"
"I did. Well, being a city boy before joining Soldier did, anyway. You won't get far in Midgar if you don't frisk everything that used to have a pulse."
Kadaj laughed before covering his mouth, most likely out of embarrassment at how high-pitched the surprised sound came out, and welcomed Loz back from scouting. The largest of the brothers looked crestfallen at the sight of the fallen enemy. "I missed playing?"
"It wasn't worth playing with," Kadaj reassured his brother, folding his arms. "Did you find anything?"
"There was a huge... huge... swirly thing. It looked alright." Loz hated describing things he didn't entirely understand, having enough trouble describing the things he did know, and gestured for the others to follow. Sometimes thinking with limbs was just so much easier.
There were faint tracks in the paths they traced to the enormous hollowed-out shell, suggesting that either they weren't alone or there had been other visitors in the too recent past, but regardless of the unsettling scenery - white only held bad memories, for all four men - it would do. Loz wasn't about to shut up about how he felt, though.
"I don't like this place," He said, voice strangely quiet for a man who could have sent most creatures in the area running with a look.
"Scared?" Kadaj asked, voice slightly contemptuous even if it wasn't meant to sound quite so cruel, and Zack rolled his eyes before tossing one arm around Loz's shoulder and squeezing tight.
"Don't worry about it. Doesn't matter if you are, there's nothing to be scared of here."
Kadaj frowned at Zack for a moment as if to ask what the dark-haired boy was up to, but a flash of memory, of that same arm around him and that sun-kissed skin above and beneath him - he remembered now. Loz seemed to have had that same flash or something similar, because he turned to Zack and reached one hand up to stroke dark hair away from the tanned man's face, before gripping Zack's shirt with his free hand and leaning in for a kiss.
Kadaj nodded, eyes wide as he drank in the sight of his brother and friend kissing, reached for Yazoo and pulled him over so they could surround Zack, take turns tasting his lips. They'd never figured out that taste, it was... it was like hot vanilla milkshake, but nice, like - like hot ice-cream.
Zack clutched vaguely for something to hold as Loz's travelling lips started having a negative effect on his sense of balance, failed, and he fell to the floor with a bump that would bruise but he didn't seem to notice much. None of them noticed much, Yazoo and Kadaj fighting with each other's clothing while Loz was still utterly enamoured with gnawing Zack's side and the sounds it brought from the dark-haired man. None of them could quite shake the feeling of lacking as many limbs as they'd like.
And Yazoo knew suddenly, knew as Kadaj's naked chest pressed against his in search of contact and Loz slipped an arm around Zack's hips, that this was what they knew the dark-haired man for. It was the warmth, the warmth that never stopped, that glowed from him even in... even in the swamps, the swamps they hadn't yet seen but all remembered. Damp and wet and terrifying but they stood strong and he stood strong alongside them. Their partner. Their friend.
Zack was relieved when around five minutes into his first attempt at sex with Sephiroth he figured out why it just wasn't doing anything for him. Beforehand there had been a simply horrific moment of thinking maybe sleeping with Aeris had spoilt him, but now he had the turn-off nailed and he could climb off Sephiroth's stomach without feeling like a complete bastard.
Goddamnit. Okay, he still felt like a bastard in response to Sephiroth's small, perplexed glare, but it had to be done. "I'm not a lesson you know," He began gently, not wanting to actually make his friend scarper. Doing things wrong wasn't exactly a forte of Sephiroth's, nor dealing with the times when he did. "You're not doing anything wrong, exactly, but... but that's the problem, you don't do this by numbers. That's not the point."
"What is the point then?"
Zack kept moving his fingers across Sephiroth's skin before finding there was a ticklish patch under the silver-haired man's armpits that made him squirm. It was marvellously normal.
"Things like that. People are different, it's not just a game of buttons." He laughed quietly, moved his hand up into Sephiroth's hair and rubbing the back of the silver-haired man's neck. "I mean, buttons are fun, but it's the weird things that make it... you know... worth doing, otherwise we'd just go at it with anybody."
"As long as they were attractive."
"Well, yeah." Zack grinned before moving down the bed, taking the sheets out from beneath Sephiroth and pulling them over so they were virtually tucked in, and short of space to manoeuvre.
"Zack, what are you aiming to do with this particular exercise?"
"We are going to make out like confused and horny teenagers who don't know what they're doing," Replied the dark-haired man, grinding his hips against Sephiroth's and catching his breath at the feel of his friend's cock rubbing against his abdomen.
At last. Junon, we have a boat on the horizon, full mast.
"We know how this works, though," Sephiroth grumbled although he had to admit there was something quite appealing about Zack's particular method of seduction, clumsy as it was.
"Yeah, but..." Zack shrugged, reaching a hand down between them to stroke both their erections. "You missed out on all the fun, like the 'is it always like that?' feeling and that really sucks, and I think we should remedy it with a bit of teenage awkwardness."
"This isn't exactly a relaxing situation."
"And that's a good start," Zack replied, grinning, sliding his free hand up Sephiroth's side over the seriously impressive musculature until the silver-haired man was forced to wriggle to get the hand away from his armpit. "Gotcha."
Zack had no idea why but he could not stop laughing. It had started with Kadaj, who despite being totally exhausted kept letting out little peals of laughter at the smallest, silliest things. No-one got the joke but there was something about Kadaj's smile, it was just so bright and sharp and fast, and no matter how he used it you could not help finding it beautiful and infectious. Even Yazoo's virtually icy demeanour had been dropped in favour of a slightly stunned expression, caught up completely in the moment.
Neither complained at Zack slumping back against the bed with them in his arms, for which he was somewhat grateful although really, he was pretty much all grated out. There was a point somewhere in the middle of being sucked off by Loz while watching Yazoo fuck Kadaj from behind where he decided that if there was a God, then they were on such good terms by now he didn't really need to say thank you much more. Or he owed him so many thanks he ought to build a couple of churches, even if they would just get vandalised these days.
A little more concerning for Zack was the fact that when it came to his life, normally instances of extreme good luck - getting into Soldier, meeting Aeris, scoring with Sephiroth - would be balanced against instances of extreme bad luck, like getting shot to death in front of one of his best friends.
How life could possibly begin to balance out getting sandwiched between three smoking-hot triplets who were all figuring out how the sex thing worked for the first time and being really, really enthusiastic about the results was beyond him. All he could figure was that it would take roughly as much bad shit as burying Wutai, mountains and all.
Loz stayed awake long after the rest of them had fallen asleep, unable to shake the feeling that in a place like this someone had to keep watch, and he just happened to have the fastest recovery time of them all. It wasn't a particularly unpleasant task, either - there weren't many sounds from outside to spook him, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd gained so much by waking up and waiting back in the caves. He had brothers now, beautiful, silver-haired spirits who he didn't so much know as feel part of, like they were all extensions of each other. On top of that he also had Zack now, a friend. Some small part of him whispered that Zack should always have been with them, should never have been left behind, but he couldn't quite place it - like so many things he knew he couldn't question the feeling, but couldn't trace where it came from either.
Kadaj stirred briefly, clutching at nothing with a small frown on his face and calling out "Mother?", but before Loz could placate him Zack's hand patted down on their youngest brother's back and the dark-haired boy mumbled in return, "Go back to sleep, Seph."
It didn't make sense, not entirely - but Loz was sure this was the way they were meant to fit, felt in his bones that the dark-haired man with them was a good thing who would never mean to hurt them, not any more than his brothers ever meant to make him cry. It was a comfort, and he could not help smiling; this had to be how it was meant to go. The four of them, riding wherever Kadaj would eventually take them. Together.
The End
Original Story: Pinions by
laylahFandom: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Kadaj/Loz/Yazoo/Zack, Sephiroth/Zack
Rating: NC17
Word Count: 4001
Summary: The brothers wake, but they're not alone.
Kadaj dipped his hands into the green water and drank, offering it to his brothers afterwards. Loz accepted readily but Yazoo seemed distracted, and Kadaj repressed his anger at the absent-minded refusal, more interested in finding out what had caught his attention so.
"There's someone else here," Yazoo spoke at length, rising from his knees and looking around the cave, trying to see what he already sensed. "Not one of us. Someone who should not be here."
Loz looked frightened, but calmed a little when Kadaj gripped his shoulder before speaking for the two of them. "An enemy?"
"I'm not sure..." Yazoo cocked his head, eyes closing for a moment with a small frown of concentration. "No. No, he's strong. But he does not hate us." Bright green eyes flashed open again and the long-haired brother took off, trusting his brothers to follow behind as he ran through caverns, occasionally pausing to make sense of his direction before heading off again, until at last they stood near one of the rarer crystalline pools. This was not like where they had come from; it was not green, it was that iridescent blue colour that seemed more suited to ice magic than anything else.
Sure enough, the dark-haired man was waiting for them. Not deliberately by any means, but Yazoo had known and the others through him that he would be there. Bronzed skin, skin that reminded them of vague memories of daylight and stepping into it for the first time, and he was whole.
None of them could work out why that was important, they just knew it was, knew the unsettled feeling in their stomachs at the sight of him was related to this wholeness.
"What's going to happen to him?" Loz asked, the end of the sentence quieter after Kadaj's gesture for silence.
"We take him with us for now. We can work out what to do with him later."
"Are we going?" Loz asked, slipping his arms underneath the stranger's and hoisting him up, slinging him over his shoulder when he wouldn't stir.
"You know what to do, don't you?" Yazoo added, feeling in his gut that Kadaj was their leader, the one who would know where to take them, but wanting confirmation.
"I think I do," Kadaj replied, face contorting slightly as he looked at the dark-haired man again, trying to remember what he was for, why he seemed familiar. "We're leaving."
Zack bounded in with the enthusiasm of a puppy on a caffeine drip. "Aeris? You wouldn't believe who I met the other day. No, seriously. Go on. Guess."
"General Sephiroth?"
"How the hell did you guess?"
Aeris gave him a short 'I have my ways' look before winking and replying, "I didn't. It was on television. Don't worry, you didn't gawp more than anyone else in your squad, or whatever it's called."
"Squad's alright, I like to think team." He kicked off his shoes and slumped down on the sofa for all of two seconds before sitting up and frowning in thought. "I don't think there is a proper name for a group of SOLDIERs, y'know."
"So, how was he?"
"Didn't get to speak to him much, he pretty much just gave us the mission and then... well... we did it. Nothing that exciting. But God, he's gorgeous."
"Prettier than me?" She grinned, twirling a curl around her index finger until Zack's mock-expression of thought was replaced by energetic head-shaking. "Wouldn't mind if he was anyway. Come on, I made fairy cakes."
"Are you hinting at something?"
"No, not that it would be hot and you could do with someone to look after you when I'm not around." Aeris looked off innocently into the distance. "You would take photos for me, wouldn't you?"
"God damn I love you."
"Language. You'll make the fairies blush."
The dark-haired man didn't wake up for a long time, giving them a chance to know each other first, for Yazoo to show how he knew where materia was before seeing it, for Loz to become stronger with purple materia, Kadaj all the more versatile with fire and lightning magic that glowed green like the streams in the caves. For them to discover how they fought together, how Loz always knew how to boost their attacks, the rhythm they reached when attacking something strong enough to withstand more than a handful of lightning blasts.
Their guest only stirred at last long after they had left the caves, after they had found their way to populated land, when Loz accidentally bumped his head against the side of the car they had acquired. Kadaj was still trying to figure out how to drive it with a little guidance from Loz, and the experience was terrifying. Loz knew how to work mechanics but his wording wasn't helpful and Kadaj was too excited with the thrill of learning something new to let his oldest brother drive. "Heaven doesn't have concussions does it?" The dark-haired man murmured, the car's brakes being slammed on with a screech as all three brothers' attentions were suddenly focused on their travelling guest.
"Zack," Kadaj said with breathless realisation as he stopped staring ahead at the road and turned to their companion. "Your name is Zack. You're good."
"Thanks, but I don't really know you guys -" Zack looked about at the brothers, blinking. Deja-vu, and lots of it. "Woah. Um... how hard did I hit my head?"
"Loz hit it. He didn't mean to."
The eldest brother looked away guiltily, was brought back to earth with a pat on the shoulder and wide, forgiving grin from their slightly dazed... well... captive? Friend?
"Loz, right?" So why did that name seem so familiar? "Where are we headed?"
"Icicle, Kadaj is - ow!" Loz turned and pointed at Yazoo with a hurt expression. "What was that for?"
"We're headed to Icicle. We can leave you there."
"Sure thing, I'm not nosey." Zack appeared to be distracted a little, was feeling his side and frowning a little. "That said, how did you find me?"
"You just... were. I don't know. We all were."
Zack decided the last thing he needed to do was piss off three questionably sane people who reminded him all too much of the person who was part of the reason he could not stop feeling for wounds.
Oh shit. Cloud.
"Was there a blond kid with me?"
"No. Should there have been?" Yazoo's question trailed off slightly when Kadaj fixed him with a firm gaze.
"We're not going back. If someone else was there, we'd have felt him.
Right?"
Zack wasn't comforted much by the answer, but survival instinct and common sense told him not to press the point further. God he hoped Cloud was alright, that he hadn't dreamed the blond boy being ignored by the gunmen who'd...
And why was he alive anyway? He remembered being shot. He remembered dying, the whole cliché, going cold, spitting blood he couldn't feel from shock, vaguely noticing being poked at before everything went blinding white, and then... oh. Aeris.
Disorienting as the entire situation was, he was pretty certain Aeris was behind his being here. Somehow. She just had that whole effect on things, and he'd seen the way life seemed to spring up around her even when it shouldn't. She'd brought him back, and while God only knew what he was supposed to do, he was fairly certain he had to do something for these kids.These terribly pretty, terribly psychotic, disturbingly reminiscent of Sephiroth kids.
Zack wasn't stupid and as a result wasn't surprised to find out that not only did Sephiroth have issues but he tried to deal with them, and that mostly through totalling the training centre. It certainly explained why Shinra grunts ran around in hand-me-down uniforms because of 'funding issues', but the training centre always seemed to be decked out in brand new equipment.
Seemed, because it actually was.
"Want a hand with that?" Zack asked after a moment, deciding that there was no way this was healthy, especially given the animalistic snarl that graced his superior's face every time a training dummy exploded into foam and splinters.
"I'm fine thank you," Sephiroth replied, clicking into calm with worryingly practised ease.
"You sure don't look it. Come on, you need to spar and I'll put up a better fight than any of these guys."
"You also happen to be less durable than rubber."
Zack shrugged, walking down onto the floor and taking the buster sword from his back, brandishing it loosely. "Prove it."
It hadn't been as unwise a decision as anyone else would have expected, Zack only splattering blood across the practice mat in three places before Sephiroth's mako-induced migraine overpowered his lingering frustrations and they called it a draw. Impressed, Sephiroth had asked what Zack would like in return for becoming his training partner.
He'd been a little taken aback by the answer "Ice-cream", but accepted the conditions regardless.
The brothers wouldn't let Zack inside the hut with them but he wasn't about to complain. Anything with a Shinra symbol pretty much had the instinctive effect of making him look for nearby cover and the sounds from inside weren't making him feel any less inclined to run for it. He didn't need to as he was free to go now, but something just made him feel weirdly attached to the kids. Probably an Aeris effect again.
Smashing glass. Definitely, definitely not helping, but just as he'd prepared himself to make a hasty retreat the brothers emerged, Kadaj looking as if he seriously needed to vent some steam and the other two appearing slightly disturbed but calm nonetheless. Yazoo's mildly frustrated expression wasn't that surprising, all things considered the long-haired brother seemed incapable of reaching a higher emotional state than 'placid'.
"Hey, what-"
"We're leaving," Yazoo stated so quickly it was almost a snap, looking about before walking over to four motorcycles that definitely weren't for sale.
Judging by the fact Kadaj was sitting on one almost before anyone else had caught sight of the vehicles this wasn't going to be an issue anyway. Zack shrugged before walking over and taking the last one, which Loz had looked at quite fretfully until the dark-haired man approached it. It really was a gorgeous machine, made for hard work and real roads, dirt paths instead of the tarmac you'd find in maybe three corners of the world if you were lucky. He couldn't resist groping the handlebars as he settled himself into place and revved the engine, earning a string of curses from an upstairs window as the motorbike owners realised they weren't owners anymore.
"Purrs like a kitten anyway," he muttered in appreciative tones under his breath before feeling a heavy hand thump down on his back.
"You're coming with us, right?" Loz asked, curing Zack's heart attack from the sudden attack of physical affection, and bringing an unavoidable grin to his face just on sheer account of the tone the question was posed in. It was so goddamn hopeful. Loz wanted him to come.
"You don't mind?"
The others seemed fairly non-committal about the whole issue, but Loz's sunshine smile was well worth the mild guilt trip about stealing motorbikes.
Not that he would have had much of a guilt trip in the first place. They were really nice bikes. And judging by the sounds that accompanied the four of them as they sped off into the distance, the motorcyclists in question weren't the type you could feel particularly guilty about stealing from.
It was maddening. Here was the greatest of them all - or, at least, so said the papers - and he hadn't noticed the streak of whipped cream sitting on his cheek. It wasn't as if it had just appeared by magic; when a passerby knocked into Sephiroth (and nearly had a heart attack on realising who he had collided with) and caused their great leader to slip with his ice-cream spoon, he'd done a rubbish job of wiping away the results.
The streak had been sitting there and downright teasing Zack for a good minute now, and he couldn't take it anymore. He was going in.
"Zack, what are you doing?"
"You missed a spot," The dark-haired boy replied, leaning across and gripping Sephiroth's chin with one hand, catching that damned spot of cream on his thumb and sucking it off with a victory grin.
He had intended to let go, he really had. It was Sephiroth's fault for giving him that stunned look of utter disbelief.
It was.
Zack pressed his lips to Sephiroth's, feeling him freeze up utterly before responding just slightly, the barest push. It was enough, and he allowed himself a small smile when breaking off the kiss.
"What was that for?"
"... You had whipped cream on your cheek." Zack cursed whichever part of his brain had wimped out with that response, took in a deep breath and added uncomfortably loudly, "And you are too many shades of gorgeous."
Sod the gutwrenching panic in his... gut. It was totally worth it.
It was only when they pulled up at the dead city that Kadaj realised Zack hadn't complained once during the journey despite the fact that fatigue, hunger, even poor sight from the dark should have caused him problems. And it wasn't as if he was just staying quiet out of politeness - when a passing creature took their presence as a threat Zack was the first to notice, leaping into action before realising that bare fists weren't much use against an aerial beast. The warning was enough to galvanise the brothers into action though, Yazoo getting ready to sense the creature's weaknesses but not needing to courtesy of Kadaj running straight in with Souba. The poor creature barely registered the approach of its attacker, falling to the ground in three ribbons of flesh, no challenge at all to the dual-bladed weapon.
Zack did not bother to hide how impressed he was with the whole display, applauding quietly before running over to the shredded creature and scouring its remains for anything of use. Yazoo felt a little put-off that he hadn't had to educate Zack as he had his brothers.
"Who taught you to do that?"
"I did. Well, being a city boy before joining Soldier did, anyway. You won't get far in Midgar if you don't frisk everything that used to have a pulse."
Kadaj laughed before covering his mouth, most likely out of embarrassment at how high-pitched the surprised sound came out, and welcomed Loz back from scouting. The largest of the brothers looked crestfallen at the sight of the fallen enemy. "I missed playing?"
"It wasn't worth playing with," Kadaj reassured his brother, folding his arms. "Did you find anything?"
"There was a huge... huge... swirly thing. It looked alright." Loz hated describing things he didn't entirely understand, having enough trouble describing the things he did know, and gestured for the others to follow. Sometimes thinking with limbs was just so much easier.
There were faint tracks in the paths they traced to the enormous hollowed-out shell, suggesting that either they weren't alone or there had been other visitors in the too recent past, but regardless of the unsettling scenery - white only held bad memories, for all four men - it would do. Loz wasn't about to shut up about how he felt, though.
"I don't like this place," He said, voice strangely quiet for a man who could have sent most creatures in the area running with a look.
"Scared?" Kadaj asked, voice slightly contemptuous even if it wasn't meant to sound quite so cruel, and Zack rolled his eyes before tossing one arm around Loz's shoulder and squeezing tight.
"Don't worry about it. Doesn't matter if you are, there's nothing to be scared of here."
Kadaj frowned at Zack for a moment as if to ask what the dark-haired boy was up to, but a flash of memory, of that same arm around him and that sun-kissed skin above and beneath him - he remembered now. Loz seemed to have had that same flash or something similar, because he turned to Zack and reached one hand up to stroke dark hair away from the tanned man's face, before gripping Zack's shirt with his free hand and leaning in for a kiss.
Kadaj nodded, eyes wide as he drank in the sight of his brother and friend kissing, reached for Yazoo and pulled him over so they could surround Zack, take turns tasting his lips. They'd never figured out that taste, it was... it was like hot vanilla milkshake, but nice, like - like hot ice-cream.
Zack clutched vaguely for something to hold as Loz's travelling lips started having a negative effect on his sense of balance, failed, and he fell to the floor with a bump that would bruise but he didn't seem to notice much. None of them noticed much, Yazoo and Kadaj fighting with each other's clothing while Loz was still utterly enamoured with gnawing Zack's side and the sounds it brought from the dark-haired man. None of them could quite shake the feeling of lacking as many limbs as they'd like.
And Yazoo knew suddenly, knew as Kadaj's naked chest pressed against his in search of contact and Loz slipped an arm around Zack's hips, that this was what they knew the dark-haired man for. It was the warmth, the warmth that never stopped, that glowed from him even in... even in the swamps, the swamps they hadn't yet seen but all remembered. Damp and wet and terrifying but they stood strong and he stood strong alongside them. Their partner. Their friend.
Zack was relieved when around five minutes into his first attempt at sex with Sephiroth he figured out why it just wasn't doing anything for him. Beforehand there had been a simply horrific moment of thinking maybe sleeping with Aeris had spoilt him, but now he had the turn-off nailed and he could climb off Sephiroth's stomach without feeling like a complete bastard.
Goddamnit. Okay, he still felt like a bastard in response to Sephiroth's small, perplexed glare, but it had to be done. "I'm not a lesson you know," He began gently, not wanting to actually make his friend scarper. Doing things wrong wasn't exactly a forte of Sephiroth's, nor dealing with the times when he did. "You're not doing anything wrong, exactly, but... but that's the problem, you don't do this by numbers. That's not the point."
"What is the point then?"
Zack kept moving his fingers across Sephiroth's skin before finding there was a ticklish patch under the silver-haired man's armpits that made him squirm. It was marvellously normal.
"Things like that. People are different, it's not just a game of buttons." He laughed quietly, moved his hand up into Sephiroth's hair and rubbing the back of the silver-haired man's neck. "I mean, buttons are fun, but it's the weird things that make it... you know... worth doing, otherwise we'd just go at it with anybody."
"As long as they were attractive."
"Well, yeah." Zack grinned before moving down the bed, taking the sheets out from beneath Sephiroth and pulling them over so they were virtually tucked in, and short of space to manoeuvre.
"Zack, what are you aiming to do with this particular exercise?"
"We are going to make out like confused and horny teenagers who don't know what they're doing," Replied the dark-haired man, grinding his hips against Sephiroth's and catching his breath at the feel of his friend's cock rubbing against his abdomen.
At last. Junon, we have a boat on the horizon, full mast.
"We know how this works, though," Sephiroth grumbled although he had to admit there was something quite appealing about Zack's particular method of seduction, clumsy as it was.
"Yeah, but..." Zack shrugged, reaching a hand down between them to stroke both their erections. "You missed out on all the fun, like the 'is it always like that?' feeling and that really sucks, and I think we should remedy it with a bit of teenage awkwardness."
"This isn't exactly a relaxing situation."
"And that's a good start," Zack replied, grinning, sliding his free hand up Sephiroth's side over the seriously impressive musculature until the silver-haired man was forced to wriggle to get the hand away from his armpit. "Gotcha."
Zack had no idea why but he could not stop laughing. It had started with Kadaj, who despite being totally exhausted kept letting out little peals of laughter at the smallest, silliest things. No-one got the joke but there was something about Kadaj's smile, it was just so bright and sharp and fast, and no matter how he used it you could not help finding it beautiful and infectious. Even Yazoo's virtually icy demeanour had been dropped in favour of a slightly stunned expression, caught up completely in the moment.
Neither complained at Zack slumping back against the bed with them in his arms, for which he was somewhat grateful although really, he was pretty much all grated out. There was a point somewhere in the middle of being sucked off by Loz while watching Yazoo fuck Kadaj from behind where he decided that if there was a God, then they were on such good terms by now he didn't really need to say thank you much more. Or he owed him so many thanks he ought to build a couple of churches, even if they would just get vandalised these days.
A little more concerning for Zack was the fact that when it came to his life, normally instances of extreme good luck - getting into Soldier, meeting Aeris, scoring with Sephiroth - would be balanced against instances of extreme bad luck, like getting shot to death in front of one of his best friends.
How life could possibly begin to balance out getting sandwiched between three smoking-hot triplets who were all figuring out how the sex thing worked for the first time and being really, really enthusiastic about the results was beyond him. All he could figure was that it would take roughly as much bad shit as burying Wutai, mountains and all.
Loz stayed awake long after the rest of them had fallen asleep, unable to shake the feeling that in a place like this someone had to keep watch, and he just happened to have the fastest recovery time of them all. It wasn't a particularly unpleasant task, either - there weren't many sounds from outside to spook him, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd gained so much by waking up and waiting back in the caves. He had brothers now, beautiful, silver-haired spirits who he didn't so much know as feel part of, like they were all extensions of each other. On top of that he also had Zack now, a friend. Some small part of him whispered that Zack should always have been with them, should never have been left behind, but he couldn't quite place it - like so many things he knew he couldn't question the feeling, but couldn't trace where it came from either.
Kadaj stirred briefly, clutching at nothing with a small frown on his face and calling out "Mother?", but before Loz could placate him Zack's hand patted down on their youngest brother's back and the dark-haired boy mumbled in return, "Go back to sleep, Seph."
It didn't make sense, not entirely - but Loz was sure this was the way they were meant to fit, felt in his bones that the dark-haired man with them was a good thing who would never mean to hurt them, not any more than his brothers ever meant to make him cry. It was a comfort, and he could not help smiling; this had to be how it was meant to go. The four of them, riding wherever Kadaj would eventually take them. Together.
The End
