Cloud Strife's rather desperate apologetic look went rather unnoticed as the disgruntled bar owner shut the door eagerly behind them. She made it pretty clear to him, a meager Cadet, that the only reason she didn't kick his ass out on the street hours ago was because of the certain SOLDIER: 1st Class in the Cadet's company. Said SOLDIER: 1st Class, was currently draped heavily around Cloud's shoulder and making it his new life's mission, to knock Cloud face first onto the pavement. As loud and as obnoxious as SOLDIERs can get in bars on their few nights of leave, a smart bar tender learns to serve them what they desire and just pray until they leave that they do not break too much in the process, they are with ShinRa after all.

Zack may have not broken anything in the bar, but Cloud was starting to be pretty damn positive that it was him who was going to have something broken in him if this night did not end soon.

"Zack! Stop it!", Cloud cried with an unashamed air of desperation as his drunken and much stronger friend caused him to stagger sideways into a wall.

Zack laughed and continued to lean on Cloud, who was now nearing a certain collapse under his weight. "But Spike, your hair, it matches the wall, you two should be together!", Zack said between bouts of wild laughter.

Looking at the wall that was far from any shade of blonde, Cloud was not amused. It was sometime in the middle of the night and Cloud was attempting to guide his incoherent friend who had far too much to drink (the amount would have killed a non-mako enhanced person) through the dangerous streets of Midgar's Sector 6 in the Bottom Plate.

If Zack had not been staggering around, dragging Cloud and yelling at inanimate things...he would have felt perfectly safe in his friend's company. No one would mess with any SOLDIER, let alone a 1st Class, but a little Recruit like Cloud?

Cloud could picture it now, some backwards thief lurking in an alleyway, just waiting for a common Cadet like him to pass by. In his current condition, the only protection Zack would offer Cloud would be petting Cloud's attacker to death. Cloud was sure of it, for thats what Zack was doing right now. Stroking his hair and murmuring ridiculous, indecipherable things into his ear.

Cloud threw Zack's offending hand off of his head. "Zack! Stop petting my head, I am not a Chocobo damnit!"

"Spikey and yellow, you're not fooling me!", Zack slurred lazily with a wide grin, "Chocobo Cadet, I should call you. Yes..."

How far was the train station from here? Cloud racked his mind trying to remember, he recalled passing that shady looking cafe on the way here not long after they got off the train...not much further...

The sight of the cafe was suddenly interrupted by green in every corner of his vision. "Whoops!" Zack cried and he yanked at Cloud's arm. "I didn't mean to push you into the bush, Spikey!"

Cloud started to pull back on Zack's arm to help himself out of the bush he had careened into after Zack "accidentally" pushed Cloud, but realized his mistake as Zack pulled him straight into a tight embrace...a really tight embrace. Gasping for the precious resource air is, Cloud struggled against his much stronger friend. Thankfully, Zack loosened his grip and Cloud took his chance and leapt away from him.

Trying to hide his blush he was sure was forming on his face from the close proximity, he began brushing little pieces of bush off of himself. Cloud lost his patience. He was never really, a patient person to begin with. "Zack! Watch where you throw your drunk ass around...!"

"Now, now Spike, you are being an insubordinate...chocobo...I mean Cadet," Zack interrupted with another wild, much too loud laugh, hardly a real threat. Cloud wrapped his arm around Zack's waist and started forward again.

Ignoring Zack as his continued to threaten him through drunken giggles, Cloud turned the corner to a very beautiful sight. The train. The train that would take them back to the Upper Plate and back to the ShinRa headquarters, where he would not be on the News the following night under the headline "A Cadet was found crushed to death by a 1st class in Sector 6 last night..."

Cloud managed to escort Zack onto the mercifully empty train without any further meetings with shrubbery. Zack crashed into a bench and sprawled out. Cloud chose a seat across from him and was silently offering all the thanks he could to the Planet for Zack's current silence. He was probably crashing into a drunken slumber. Cloud didn't dare look behind him to check, for fear of provoking Zack into another hyper craze.

The whistle sounded and the old train lurched forward, its lights flickering on and off overhead. Cloud pressed his head against the cool glass and watched the depressing scenes of the Bottom Plate of Midgar pass by. In the back of his mind, he hoped they wouldn't find daylight when they reached the Upper Plate. Cloud realized he had no real idea what the time was. His energy low, he didn't feel like begging whatever Superior officer caught him for mercy for breaking his Cadet curfew after he deposited Zack in front of apartment and returned to sneak into his dormitory afterwards.

The train entered a tunnel and Cloud's view of the outside went black, he stared at the reflections of the inside of the train instead. His hair was wild as usual. Cloud's gaze wandered to the reflection of his friend. Zack was not asleep, and oh no, Cloud's heart sunk, Zack was grinning at his reflection in a way that only a madman would...

Cloud felt a powerful tug at the back of his uniform, and suddenly found himself across the train, next to Zack.

"I want you to sit with me." Zack declared, as if Cloud had a choice in the matter. Zack wrapped his arms around Cloud and leaned against him. Cloud wasn't about to be let go, he could tell and he resigned himself to the role of Zack's pillow.

The tunnel disappeared and the sky became visible again, it was still dark out. The ShinRa headquarters stop would be coming up soon.

Zack shifted a bit and pulled Cloud closer, resting his head against Cloud's. Cloud could feel himself blushing again. For the moment, he was glad that his friend was drunk and couldn't see Cloud's embarrassment over his crush being so close. Or was he more disappointed that Zack was drunk, and was not meaning to embrace Cloud in this way? He couldn't decide.

A feminine voice over the loudspeaker broke Cloud's thoughts, "ShinRa Electric Power Company Headquarters Stop! Please collect all belongings and watch your step!"

"Thats us, Spikey!" Zack detangled himself from Cloud and stood up. Cloud hurried to grab his friend's arm and steady him, but Zack; SOLDIER reflexes never failing, suddenly grabbed Cloud and pulled him very close...

Cloud did not have time to react, nor think, as he felt Zack's lips meet his. Zack deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around Cloud, who was too stunned to kiss him back. After a moment, Zack pulled away. Cloud was the one staggering this time as he grabbed on to the closest bar for support as the train jerked to a stop rather roughly.

He found himself frozen on the spot; all he could do was blink up at his friend, his crush, who had just given him what he had only fantasized about.

The doors slid open and Zack, not even acting like anything had just happened, pulled the still speechless Cloud out of the train.

"I think," Zack began as walked with his arm linked around Cloud; "I can make it to my apartment just fine by myself! That nap on the train did me good."

Cloud could only nod as Zack whirled him around and gave him a push in the direction of his barracks. "We should do this again sometime soon!" Zack called as he walked away from his friend.

When Cloud was out of sight, Zack walked in a straighter line. He grinned widely to himself as he slid his key card in the first of many gates guarding the SOLDIER apartments.

He hadn't told the new Cadet yet, and apparently no one else had either...

With all the mako in their systems, SOLDIER's were utterly incapable of getting drunk.

-fin-