"They're going to scratch him."

"No they won't. He's in good hands."

"…No, I'm pretty sure they don't know how to drive him right. Why don't I just—"

With an exasperated "Cloud," and a firm hand on his shoulder Angeal stopped Cloud's attempt at escaping the event to go rescue his newly-restored motorcycle from the valet service. The blond would have struggled but there were currently far too many cameras for his taste trained on the two of them.

"If anything happens to Fenrir…" the blond murmured darkly to his companion.

Angeal's arm fell around his shoulder. "Relax," he said simply, and moved them both further towards a loud throng of excited people. There was someone with a microphone in front of a camera that Cloud vaguely recognized from one of those entertainment shows but Angeal walked right past, Cloud safely tucked against his side.

They posed for a few pictures together, Cloud trying to keep his eyes open despite the bright flares of camera lights. Angeal stopped to kiss the forehead of a girl behind the short metal fence who was in great, sobbing tears upon seeing him on the red carpet in person but otherwise kept moving, weaving through celebrities and friends.

It was overwhelming how busy a movie premiere could be.

Lazard was beaming under a huge Materia for Two poster—the promotional one, with Zack and Aerith smiling tenderly at each other in that field that made Zack come home with all kinds of bug bites on his shins—and the author looked happier than Cloud had ever seen him.

Angeal and Cloud were both present as friends and supporters of the actors, not as part of the film themselves so the focus wasn't on them as much as some others but people were always happy to see Angeal Hewley. It was a great thing, how quickly Cloud had gotten close to Angeal after meeting Sephiroth again—Genesis and Sephiroth were best friends after all; they were rarely far from each other.

Yeah, Sephiroth's husband was intimidatingly famous but he was kind, had a ton of puppies that Sephiroth always claimed to hate and had even gotten him and Zack a bunch of plants to put in their apartment to give it some life. To Zack Angeal had become something of a mentor in the acting world but they were close on another level too, and these days Genesis jokingly claimed that he was jealous of all the time Cloud was spending with Sephiroth instead of him.

Some close friends could make all the difference in a city like Midgar.

"Where are Gen and Seph?" Cloud started to ask, but then there was a microphone in Angeal's face and he was eloquently praising Zack's acting ability and how he was a great young man, et cetera. The camera and microphone were both turned on Cloud next and he blinked owlishly for a moment before saying, "Um, sorry, what was the question?"

Angeal laughed loudly, and luckily the woman doing the interviews—Gaia, they were probably live—did too. Cloud was known to the world firstly as "Genesis Rhapsodos's boyfriend" and secondly as "Zack Fair's best friend" and although that was sometimes frustrating it was okay for him—he was just Cloud the Mechanic at his core anyway.

He was pathetically ignorant of his closest friends' world sometimes but he knew enough to get him past painfully awkward impromptu interviews like this one, at least. Cloud nervously praised Zack, said a little something about Genesis when prompted and then hauled Angeal away, neck straining as he attempted to spot their friends.

"I don't see them," he said, "Oh, wait—" Sephiroth's silver head towering over most people was unmistakable. Angeal's face lit up and he waved; about a minute later Zack, Genesis and Sephiroth emerged from the crowd.

"Spike!" Zack roared, full of energy and excitement to the point where it look like he might burst. He grabbed Cloud in a hug and spun him in a circle just because he knew it would embarrass and enrage the blond—lights flashed and Cloud plastered on an obviously fake smile.

"You're dead," he whispered in his roommate's ear as he put him down.

The threat though slid right off though and Zack started goofily smiling for everyone, talking a mile a minute to the viewers at home. Genesis' warm and steady presence appeared at Cloud's side and the blond turned his head to smile at him, instantly less nervous about the public appearance than he had been moments earlier.

"Having fun?" the man asked, his hand finding Cloud's. Genesis already knew the answer, judging by his sly smile.

"Not really."

"Smile!"

While Zack was occupied the couple posed for a bit with Angeal and Sephiroth, but soon wrapped it up and headed inside where the film would be shown. There was a small circular table with their four nametags on it—Zack's being the only name not present.

The men sat down, Genesis immediately scooching his chair closer so that he could hook one his ankles around Cloud's. The man cocked his eyebrows at Cloud and stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth playfully.

Angeal and Sephiroth's soft conversation beside them blended with the voices of those who continued to filter into the venue. There were so many people, and prolific ones too—Aerith was inside now, glowing. Zack eventually appeared beside her, soaking up the attention. He looked as happy as he deserved to be.

Lazard and the head of production made a short speech, and soon after the lights dimmed. Cheers went through the small audience—Cloud clapped the hardest.

The first few seconds of the movie began to play and the blond settled into his seat, stiff in the suit Genesis had bought him. He hardly noticed now. His hand went to Genesis' lap where his boyfriend's hands were neatly folded; the actor wrapped both around the one of Cloud's and the blond absently stroked the man's knuckles with his thumb.

It was strange.

Cloud had lived in this sad city for a long time. Everything he'd experienced here, everything he knew told him that Zack shouldn't have made it. Like Azul he should have struggled until it became too much and he lost himself. Genesis Rhapsodos should have been a dick like everyone else in this city, someone who didn't give Cloud Strife the time of day. Someone cruel and snotty, not someone whose humor was sharp but whose hands were gentle and knew him—as a person, not as 'poor' or 'mechanic' or 'delivery boy'—better than anyone.

That was the thing, though: correlation wasn't always causation and despite this being a cruel and unfortunate world Zack was still somehow able to succeed and Genesis was somehow the opposite of all the things Cloud hated after a little digging.

But, he figured—that's life. They were lucky. Why, however, he wasn't going to let himself ponder; better to appreciate than question.

Content, Cloud took the opportunity to really appreciate all Zack had become.

Much later, after the excitement had died down and the crowd had mostly trickled away, Zack found them. Sephiroth had swiped some wine out of the reception and they were milling around nearby in a secluded corner (or as secluded as they could get it).

Sephiroth held out the bottle of deep red wine to Cloud, who reached out to take it while smiling as Zack fought his way out between the crowd a short distance away to join them. The bottle didn't move and the blond's gaze snapped up to the Sephiroth's. They held eye contact as Cloud gave another fruitless tug. The older man finally smirked and let go; Cloud let out a grunt and took a long swig from the neck.

Chuckling, Genesis moved behind Cloud and wound an arm around his waist. Teasing about how Cloud still wasn't quite past his starstruck-over-Sephiroth phase was sure to come once they were alone behind closed doors for sure, but for now he was content to snicker at Cloud and shoot his best friend a mock-dirty look. The four friends greeted Zack warmly as he approached, cheeks flushed with happiness. He had just said goodbye to Aerith for the evening; the two of them had come far since meeting in Highwind Auto all those months ago.

Angeal clapped him hard on the back. "Good job today."

"Heh, thanks."

They stayed around a little longer to wrap up some things, saying goodbye to Angeal and Sephiroth who had something else undoubtedly important to squeeze in before the night was through. As they walked toward the valets to pick up Fenrir and Zack's car the dark-haired man put an arm around Cloud's shoulder and said lightly, "So, hey. I was looking at some condos near the waterfront. That'd be nice, yeah?"

Cloud almost stumbled, his limbs going cold. "Oh," he said, trying to hide his disappointment. This was Zack's life now… it made sense that he was going to leave their cramped apartment and move on to something better.

He had made it, after all.

It was funny—he didn't anticipate getting nearly as attached to his roommate as he had back when he was doing all those interviews.

"You're finally moving?" he asked.

Zack frowned and stopped walking, his arm sliding off to fall by his side. "Dude," he said, eyes bright and earnest, "No way. I told you ages ago. We're moving. We're in this together, yeah?"

"…Yeah. Yeah, we are."

Genesis' arms were warm around him as Cloud straddled his bike. The engine's purr sounded even better than he remembered. "See you at home!" Zack called through his rolled-down window, still insisting he was too good for a fancy chauffer like Genesis usually had.

"Hold on tight," Cloud advised, briefly covering Genesis's clasped hands above his belly button with one of his own and getting a tired, mumbled affirmation in response. "You heard the man—let's go home."

If you made it this far, congratulations! Thanks for this one - it's been a lot of fun.