AN Warning: This story contains strong sexual content.
Come Together
The bathroom air, warm and humid from the heat of the bath water and smelling of soap, coated the mirror with steam. Crouched beside the deep, claw-foot bathtub with a damp cloth in his hand Zack Fair stroked suds and water along a muscular shoulder, unconsciously tracing the puckered line of scars there. "You did good today," he said.
The comment was met with familiar sullen silence.
"Ten steps. I'm impressed."
Blue eyes, sharp and accusing, flicked up from beneath damp lashes. "I had no idea you had such low expectations of me, Zack."
Zack slid the washcloth up under a defiant chin and scrubbed down corded tendons and tense pectorals. There was tension in his own hand, but he ignored it. "I have no expectations of you," Zack answered back without much pause, almost as if he'd expected the retort. "But I know what you expect of yourself."
Despite months of inactivity, Cloud's upper body was still strong and well-defined. Perhaps if he had looked frail then the weakness of his limbs wouldn't have been so pronounced—to either of them, but as it was now, his immobility and limp posture were stark contrasts to the sculpted definition of the muscles beaded with bath water... and a harsh reminder to Zack of his failure.
"And what is it you think I expect of myself?" Cloud's eyes followed Zack's hands as they slid down his arm.
"Too much at times. Not enough at others." Zack dipped the cloth back into the water before bringing it up to lather Cloud's abdomen in smooth circles. "You keep pushing your body while neglecting other things."
Cloud snorted derisively. "It's my body that's broken."
"It's not the only thing." Zack leaned across Cloud's chest, sudsing the other shoulder.
"It's the only thing I can fix," Cloud growled in return.
"That's not true."
"Don't pretend you understand. You can't."
"Cloud— "
"It's always been so damn easy for you," Cloud continued, in a voice that was distant, hard and void. "You're the guy with the charm, the skill. The guy who always gets the girl. No matter who they were." Cloud narrowed a dangerous look at him. "You walked out of that desert without so much as a limp."
Zack shifted in his crouch, uncomfortable beneath the cold malice emanating from his friend, as well as the heavy burden of guilt resting on his shoulder. But he couldn't change what had happened, so he continued to hold the cloth and the stare; waiting.
"It must be nice to be able to be with her like that. Without the pity."
Zack didn't think the last statement was intentional. In fact, Cloud seemed downright irritated that he'd spoken it and immediately turned his face away.
There was no point in trying to pretend not to know whom Cloud was referring to. "Tifa is a wonderful girl, you know this. She's a loyal friend."
"She's more than that, though, isn't she, Zack?"
There was accusation in the question. Bitterness laced with hurt snapped between them and it stung. Zack angled his head, stroked the washcloth from navel to chest before carefully responding. "To who? You or me?"
"I can hear you," Cloud hissed. "At night; against my wall." Cloud's eyes were heavy lidded and veiled and his face still carefully averted. The motion of the washcloth paused against his chest as Zack found himself, awkwardly and conspicuously, at a loss for words—and explanation.
He didn't deny it. He couldn't.
Months of shared worry and concern for Cloud's well-being had drawn him and Tifa together in friendship, but their physical attraction was strong, and the line between comfort and consort had been crossed weeks ago. It hadn't been intentional, or planned, nor was it regretted or shameful—so he'd thought. But at the moment, staring at Cloud's sharp profile and with those cutting, acidic words hanging between them, Zack felt the first stirrings of guilt.
"Cloud..." Zack opened his mouth, his tongue thick with indecisive apology, but Cloud refused to acknowledge he'd spoken. In fact, Cloud seemed inexplicably fascinated with the squares of tile on the wall. "Cloud," he tried again. "What's between me and Tifa...the sex—"
"Don't!" Cloud cut in. He swallowed hard, a tick now keeping time at the base of his jaw.
Zack sighed and sat back. He ran one damp hand through his hair, agitating the thick black strands and let his gaze fall down into the water where he spotted the head of Cloud's cock just above the water—demanding attention.
Startled eyes shot up to search Cloud's face. Behind the closed off profile there was a subtle tension that gave Zack pause... For the first time in months there was more than depression and bitterness lurking inside Cloud, and Zack finally understood what it was.
With new purpose, Zack gripped Cloud's chin between thumb and forefinger and forced his head around. "And how does that make you feel, Cloud?" he sneered. "When you hear me fucking her. When she's panting and moaning my name."
"Fuck you."
"No, Cloud. Tifa. I. Fuck. Tifa. And I fuck her well."
Cloud's nostrils flared and the green ring in his blue eyes snapped to life.
"You should see her when she comes," Zack continued with a smile that was swift and bordered on cruel. He knew he was pushing some dangerous emotional buttons, but he couldn't stop himself. For once there was something aside from defeat in Cloud, and Zack would be damned if he let it slip away. "And her mouth! Gods, her mouth is so hot and wet when she's sucking my dick."
Cloud's face flushed red and his erection thrust up even further.
Zack allowed his gaze to linger over the straining flesh and his lips twisted. "Well, well, Cloud... Look at that. You like the idea of her sucking me off? Can you picture it? Or are you picturing yourself?" Zack demanded. "Do you have greedy little fantasies while you listen to us fuck?"
"Shut up!"
"I bet you do," Zack's voice was brutally cool. "I bet you lay there and pretend it's you she's fucking. But it isn't, is it? It's me that's balls deep inside Ti— "
"Shut the fuck up!"
As the echo of Cloud's shout bounced off the bathroom walls the narrow door banged open and a worried looking Tifa stood in the entryway.
She'd raced up the stairs when she'd heard the shout from the laundry room, where she had been laying out Cloud's clothes. A number of thoughts had skirted through her mind in the few seconds it had taken her to reach the bathroom: Maybe Cloud had fallen, or maybe Zack had irritated him with one of his long-winded (although usually amusing) stories, or maybe Cloud was in another of his moods.
The scene that greeted her as the door swung open, however, was not one of those imagined and it pulled her up short. Leaned in close to Cloud, Zack was glowering intensely, his normal, jovial expression replaced by something that appeared almost sinister.
"Zack..." Her brow creased and her gaze flickered warily between the two, both of whom appeared somewhat alarmed by her sudden arrival. "What the hell are you doing?"
Zack was the first to recover. He leaned away from Cloud marginally, but didn't release his chin, forcing Cloud to remain where he was. In a scathing voice, that was very un-Zack, he replied, "I was just telling Cloud how good it feels when you suck my cock."
Tifa blanched; mortified. "Zack!" The blunt statement brought forth uncomfortable embarrassment and a rise of blood to her cheeks.
Zack swiveled so that he was turned fully toward her and motioned her to him. "Better yet, come show him."
The angry—near violent—retort Tifa felt bubble up died when she saw Cloud's hand clench into a fist beneath the water. Beside that hand, nearly as red as her face, his erection stood, straining and pulsing under her curious gaze. She looked to Zack, who nodded, near imperceptibly.
Another searching inspection of Cloud revealed to her blue eyes shining with more emotion than she'd seen in forever. Not flat. Not lifeless. Alive.
Her throat tightened and she swallowed, nearly choking on the knotted ball of hope lodged there.
Over the past long months Tifa had come to view hope as an ugly thing. A lie.
When Zack had shown up at her door step six months ago with news of Cloud, gravely injured but alive, Tifa had felt a renewed well of hopefulness. However, that well was slowly sapped dry as weeks of grueling therapy and ineffective potions and cures offered Cloud little to no relief from the agonizing pain of his body.
He had thrashed, wept, and screamed for days until his voice was gone and throat too bloody to function. Then had come the silence. Those nights were the longest. Knowing he was awake and in pain, yet he had refused to let it out, started to bottle it up inside so that it withered more than muscle and bone.
Zack had tried to resurrect his spirit, had tried to encourage him. He had encouraged her as well, to believe that someday they'd have their Cloud back, but she was becoming increasingly doubtful. Nothing got through to Cloud no matter how hard they tried. Not laughter, not kindness, nothing.
The constant care he required and his silent, angry brooding had long ago driven away everyone except her and Zack.
Even Aerith, ever-patient and ever-kind, had left. Deeply saddened by her inability to heal Cloud from the tortures Hojo had inflicted, and the barrage of bullets Shin-Ra had rained on him, and saddened further still by the rift that inability had forged between her and Zack, she too had gone.
The parting of the others had been hard, but not so hard as watching Cloud continue to spiral down into a well of depression as his body refused to heal, refused to work. Random muscle spasms, debilitating headaches, horrific pain and near paralysis all conspired together and had seeped out any vestige of the Cloud she had once known and left an empty, hollow shell in his place.
That was when Tifa's hope had died.
Looking at him now, with his face flushed and eyes snapping, Tifa lifted her chin resolutely and prepared to do battle for hope once more.
For Cloud.
The door latched quietly behind her.
Zack gave Cloud a sideways look, noticed the tautness of his features, but also the parted lips and increased breathing. His faintly glowing eyes were fixed on Tifa, who stood just inside the door.
Cloud's expression was a mixture of wariness, hurt, longing and want. It made Zack want to comfort him, be he quelled that urge ruthlessly. Cloud had to be the one break. Not him. Not Tifa.
Zack motioned for Tifa again with his free hand. "Come here."
Careful, as not to shatter the fragile tension in the room, she strode forward and sat on the edge of the tub, facing the two men.
Zack saw a million questions in her dark eyes, but also, buried deep, down where crimson flecks hid, he saw a broken sliver of wistfulness. She knew what was at stake.
"Do you want to finish his bath?" Zack asked her.
She gave a slow nod and faced Cloud. "May I?"
Cloud's lashes quickly dropped down and he averted his eyes.
"Look at her, Cloud." Zack tightened his hold on Cloud's jaw, jerking his head up. He gave a minute shake of his head when Tifa looked ready to protest his rough handling. She bit her lip and sat back, trusting him. Zack held Cloud's head up until he finally met Tifa's inquiring gaze. "Answer her. She deserves that much from you."
Cloud flushed, whether with guilt or embarrassment it was hard to say. He wet his lips and slowly nodded. "...Yes."
With a tenderness and a shyness that Zack himself had never received from her, Tifa brushed damp strands of hair from Cloud's eyes and traced her index finger down the slope of his nose and over the pout of his lips.
She removed the washcloth from Zack's hand. She dipped it against Cloud's Adam's apple and across his collar bone in an almost reverence.
Her touch was tentative; uncertain.
"No, Tifa," Zack's breath was hot and moist against her ear. "Wash him."His fingers wrapped around her wrist and he pressed her hand down, into the water, breaking the surface. The pads of her fingertips slid against taut flesh and Cloud's head jerked back against the porcelain, breath cut short and eyes squeezed shut.
When she hesitated still, Zack laced his fingers with hers and curled their joined hands around Cloud's attention-seeking erection and stroked along the length. Slowly—so achingly slow—they traced ridge and vein, balls and head.
Somewhere along the way Zack's hand had left hers and was now curved beneath her breast, his wet thumb swirling against her nipple through her tee-shirt.
Tifa stroked her own thumb over the weeping head of Cloud's cock in the same rhythm, squeezing and tugging and bringing forth the most rewarding sound she had ever heard.
"Look, Cloud," Zack instructed again as he lifted Tifa's shirt, revealing her lace bra and erect nipples to their hungry gazes. "Beautiful." His hands cupped, stroked, fondled. "Isn't she?"
Cloud exhaled a slow breath, his heavy lidded eyes locked on her chest. "Yes," he finally rasped.
Tifa reddened further still but kept up the motion of her hand. A sharp breath hissed between her teeth when she felt the subtle inclination of Cloud's hips into her hand. The movement was small, but purposeful, and it had her wanting to feel it again.
She squeezed tighter, pulled up and gently used her thumbnail to scratch the underside of his cock.
Cloud gave a strangled sound, somewhere between growl and moan and once more he lifted, ever so slightly, into her palm.
Excited, both physically and emotionally, Tifa lifted wide eyes to Zack. His small smile was encouraging. He leaned against her and rimmed her ear with the tip of his tongue. "Strip for us," he whispered.
With a nod, Tifa rose to her feet. She didn't miss Cloud's frustrated groan as she released his member. The sound pleased her.
With fingers that trembled, in anxiety and anticipation, Tifa removed her belt, unzipped her jeans and slid the material down. She kicked the pants aside, watched with interest and a sudden, damp heat, as Cloud's eyes darkened from sky to cobalt and his erection swelled even more, the head bobbing slightly.
She crossed her arms and jerked her top off over her head. Nearly sheer white lace did nothing to hide the dusky hue of her nipples or the shadow of curls between her thighs and both men stared up at her with avid interest. It was intoxicating, having such lust filled gazes riveted on her, and Tifa felt empowered and wanton.
She tossed her head and shook the thick mass of her hair over her shoulders and down her back. With deliberate, teasing slowness, she curved her hands beneath her breasts and plucked her own nipples with her thumbs before unclasping the bra and shaking it to the floor.
Zack's grin was appreciative. He was good for expressing his desire for her body.
Cloud's mouth was drawn tight, but his desire was evident—pulsing just above the water.
"Tell her you want to see the rest of her," Zack urged Cloud. "I know I sure as hell want to."
Cloud swallowed, opened his mouth, then shut it, and jerked his head from Zack's grasp. Once more his dull red face was toward the wall. "You've seen her," he snarled.
Zack nodded. "Yes, I have. But you haven't, and I know she wants you to."
The statement—phrased that way—prompted Cloud to return his attention to Tifa. The question hovered in the air between them and she nodded once. "Yes," she whispered. "I do."
Holding his gaze, Tifa hooked her fingers beneath the elastic of her underwear and shimmied the scrap of material down her long legs. Completely naked, she stood facing them. Everywhere their eyes roamed tingled, causing her breasts to feel heavy and her thighs to wear the evidence of her arousal.
"Let's take this to the bedroom," Zack suggested getting to his feet. He tugged against the uncomfortable tightness of his pants. Watching Tifa strip was enough to get him hard and ready for more.
"All right," Tifa agreed.
Zack reached down to help Cloud to his feet.
A flare of frustration sparked in Cloud's eyes before he turned his face away again.
Zack shrugged and lifted him to his feet regardless. Bathwater sloshed onto the floor and rolled down contoured abs before it dripped off Cloud's jutting cock.. "By the looks of it, I'd say you want this just as badly as I do," Zack commented. "But by all means, if you choose to stay here all by yourself, I won't stop you." He released his arm and stepped back and away, moved to stand at the door behind Tifa where he began to shed his clothes.
Tifa took a step forward, pressed her face to Cloud's chest. "Come with me," she whispered against his steamy skin. She risked a tongue glide around a now available nipple. "I want to be with you." She felt him shudder and took a step back to allow him from the tub.
Zack, now shirtless, stroked the flat of one hand along her spine, dipped it low, then brought it to his lips and smirked at Cloud.
Blue eyes clashed in a battle of wills—one set mocking, the other seething.
With his jaw clenched Cloud lifted one leg over the rim of the tub, wobbled a bit, found his balance, and then the other. His effort was rewarded by a happy sigh and a slender, but strong, arm around his waist.
He lowered his eyes to hers and familiar unspoken words hovered against his lips, buzzed against his teeth. Instead of giving them voice he nodded once.
This time when Zack approached him, Cloud didn't refuse.
Boots and socks left a makeshift trail to Tifa's room, as it was the closest, and therefore the trio's destination.
Just inside the threshold Zack stopped. He removed his arm from it's bracing position beneath Cloud's and stepped away. Tifa glanced up at him and unspoken understanding passed between them. She too stepped away.
Zack made an open palm gesture towards her bed and winked at her before working the buckle of his belt.
With a lingering look at Cloud, Tifa strolled to the bed and pulled the counterpane back. She crawled onto the mattress, turned and waited.
"Fifteen steps." Zack—now divested of his remaining clothing—sat himself on the edge of the bed. He pointed to the floor between them and Cloud. "She's fifteen steps from you." His hand slid up one smooth thigh and down again. "How bad do you really want this?"
Cloud's eyes darkened as he followed Zack's hand. He grit his teeth and took a step.
Tifa's hand fisted against her sheets, knuckles white.
Cloud swallowed, lifted his head, met her eyes, held them, and took another step, then another and another. Until he was there, shaking and falling into her arms.
"Cloud!" She caught him up, held him tight before rolling them so that he was beneath her.
Cloud gasped at the first feel of her slick heat against his thighs. She was so hot and wet, and so close. Closer than he'd ever dreamed she could be and his damn body was denying him. He tossed his head back, frustrated at his body's unwillingness to cooperate. He wanted to touch her so bad...
He gave a startled jerked when he felt strong, deft fingers lace with his. Zack murmured something unintelligible and lifted Clouds fingers to his lips where he licked them, suckled them, then guided them between Tifa's legs. Zack pushed and pulled, silently directed Cloud, helped him stroke Tifa until both of their hands were wet and coated with her.
Tifa moaned, soft, throaty sounds that lifted dual sets of blue eyes to hers. She rode their joined fingers with her eyes closed and mouth parted for harsh, hurried breaths.
Cloud's eyes were wide as he watched her. He'd only ever dreamed of her like this and to see her, lost in the throes of passion, touching her...he bit off a strangled groan.
That sound drew down a garnet stare. She shifted above him, slid along their fingers. "Cloud." Her eyes were luminous in the shadows. Her body bowed down and she pressed her lips to his heart. Lightly her fingertips grazed down his sides as her mouth brushed and tongue circled flat nipples. She felt his muscles quiver as she trailed open-mouthed kisses across his chest and along his neck, giving him a gentle bite every so often.
Zack leaned back on one elbow and watched with interest as Tifa worked Cloud. As her hands roamed, so did his. He gripped himself, stroked his dick in slow, even strokes,but he knew the grip of his own hand, and he couldn't feel the heat of their bodies. Maybe he could pretend enough, but it wouldn't be real. He wanted to be right there with them.
Sweat slicked skin was explored with unguarded delight. Tifa cooed and sighed at each of Cloud's responses, telling him without words that she found him pleasing. That she enjoyed him.
For Cloud it was more of a gift than he could have hoped for. The walk to the bed had strained him and his once turgid erection was wanning, drooped against his thigh. He worried that she'd think he didn't share the same enjoyment she was, that she didn't excite him, because Gods above she did. He wanted her so much, but more than that he wanted to please her. To show her...
She shimmied down his torso, her breasts dragging against him. Was she leaving? Had his lack of participation offended her? Cloud felt a choked plea lodge against his larynx just as Tifa circled the head of his semi-flaccid cock with her tongue, licked the tip and slid the length of him into her mouth.
Cloud's surprised gasp was nearly drowned out by her own hum of pleasure.
She lifted her eyes to his face, intently watching his expression as she sucked, licked and stroked his neglected flesh.
"Tifa!" His voice was torn from somewhere deep and it shook.
She smiled around his stiffening cock, kissed the tip. "Let me?"
Cloud swallowed and dropped his head back against the pillow. Like he could deny her. "Yes."
Tifa resumed her task, ardently. She never did anything halfway and within moments she abandoned herself completely to the joy of pleasuring him. She relished in the way his head tossed back and forth on the pillow and the way the tendons stood out in stark relief against his throat as he struggled to maintain his composure. But most of all she loved the broken moans he couldn't hold back.
She scratched her fingernails over his thighs, cupped his tightened sac.
He watched her lips slide over his shaft, felt the slick curl of her tongue and the teasing edge of her teeth. "Harder," he bit out through clenched teeth. "Please."
She looked up at him and there was such unexpected emotion in her eyes. For him. For her ability to give him this pleasure. She smirked, a sexy little smirk he had never before seen and lowered her head. She tightened her mouth, did something fantastic with her throat muscles and his hands rose up off the bed to tangle in her hair.
"Tifa!"
"Come for me, Cloud," she whispered huskily. "I want to taste you."
Zack groaned throatily, his hand flexing to near painful around his throbbing erection. Watching was no longer enough. He ached. With a soft murmur, he maneuvered himself behind Tifa. He leaned in to smell her skin before trailing a soft, teasing path of butterfly kisses along her spine. She stirred beneath his touch. He halted, waiting for her response.
She reached behind her, threaded her fingers through his hair, stroked his cheek, welcoming him. He needn't have worried about intruding.
"I want to taste you," he told her and lowered his face to her dripping core and suckled. He used his teeth to graze her exposed skin and nudged her lips apart with his tongue.
He licked her in much the same manner as a cat would cream, lapping at her hypersensitive flesh. He knew every spot on her body intimately, every secret hollow and just what his touch could do to her. He drew slow, lazy circles around her swollen bud with his tongue and slowly kissed his way along her seam.
Her thighs tensed and her hips jerked when his fingers slipped up into her, adding pressure as his tongue continued it's slow assault. He suckled and stabbed at her with wicked expertise. Just when she reached the edge, he would draw back and blow small puffs of air against her, prolonging the erotic torture that much longer.
Tifa bucked helplessly against his seeking mouth and when his lips nestled themselves firmly against her center and Zack flattened his tongue and pressed down against her small bud she was undone.
"Zack!" Tifa reared up, her hips spasming reflexively as she came in a long, rolling wave.
Zack growled in satisfaction as she writhed against him. He lifted his head, gripped her hips and positioned himself against her quivering heat. "Finish him," he panted into her ear as he drove himself deep. He snaked his arm around her waist and slid his fingers down through her damp curls, slid the pads against her clit in quick circles.
Tifa lowered her head and greedily sucked Cloud back into her mouth. His quick intakes of breath and subtle pulses in her mouth told her that he was close. With renewed vigor she worked him, coated him and teased him. She wanted—needed—to give this to him. She tightened her lips, rolled her tongue and felt a second, finger induced, orgasm swell within her just as the hot splash of Cloud's seed coated the back of her throat.
Zack's eyes squeezed closed when he felt her body tightened around him; clamped down on him in hard spasms that sent pleasure/pain shooting along his spine and straight to his balls. He kept up his pounding rhythm, dragging her hips back to him with every forward surge so they came together in borderline aggression.
He bent over her, holding her close, kissing her back and nuzzling neck. Gods, she felt so good.
Below them Cloud watched with eyes veiled behind thick lashes, but Tifa felt his saliva wet cock stir against her belly. She knew from her experience with Zack that their Mako enhanced bodies took less time to recover—sexually at least.
Some things took longer.
Tifa felt her heart trip over itself when he finally lifted those electric blues and she saw the hunger and longing there. Quickly she leaned forward and lay her lips over his.
He met her open mouth eagerly.
It was the first kiss they'd ever shared, she realized, and deepened it.
Her tongue dueled with his in a dark and sensual foray that ignited the kindling brush fire that was ever present between the two of them, the one that they both had tried so valiantly to ignore while he recovered.
She sighed into his open mouth when the tip of his tongue traced over her bottom lip before dancing over her teeth and across her palate. He tasted like heaven, she thought with a swirl of tongue into his mouth. She poured herself into the kiss, all of her pent up emotion, her fear, her frustration, and her want. All of it.
He gasped beneath her assault, moaned and bit her lip.
Agile, piano fingers danced over the hard length of him, and Tifa gave a lusty murmur of approval as he grew thicker in her palm. She lifted her head, nibbled his lower lip in return. "Cloud...I..." She didn't have the right words. She wasn't sure she ever would.
She turned, sent a pleading look over her shoulder to the only other person that could understand. "Please, Zack... I want him. Inside."
Zack nodded and obligingly withdrew from her. "Scoot up, baby," he kissed her shoulder, lifted her bottom.
Tifa rose to her knees, giving Zack the room he needed.
A sure grip enfolded slick flesh as Zack angled Cloud's cock beneath her. "Okay. Slowly...Fuck that's hot." His breath hitched as he watched Cloud's engorged head slip between Tifa's damp folds.
Cloud's fingers flexed into the sheets. "Tifa!" His voice was gravel over smoke.
Tifa gasped. The feeling of him inside of her was intense. She felt full—swollen—and needy all at once. Finally. "Oh, Cloud." She blinked rapidly, turned her head and smiled. "Zack."
Zack moved up beside her, kissed her ear, her neck, her shoulder. He drew her mouth to his, held it with a slow kiss. Languid, exploratory...possessive.
Lips locked with Zack's, Tifa began to move on Cloud. Zack adjusted himself, moved closer so that he could frame her hips with his hands. He placed open-mouthed kisses across her cheek to her ear. "Arch your back, Tifa. That's it. Ride him, nice and slow."
Zack's hands smoothed their way up her ribcage, over the aching peaks of her breast and along the slender column of her throat. Strong, deft fingers traced the delicate line of her jaw, trailed the graceful curve of her shoulders, before tightening on her hips once more to guide her, setting a slow, steady pace. "That's it," he encouraged. "So good." He watched her atop Cloud with passion heavy eyes.
She leaned back and slowly unhurriedly undulated herself up and down on Cloud, enjoying the way his lip curled and his eyes rolled.
Once she found her rhythm Zack removed his hands so that Tifa controlled the pace, gyrating in slow, continuous circles, taking Cloud deep and rocking against him, then lifting until she was almost free and sinking back down.
Cloud groaned as she picked up her rhythm, her hands pressed into his shoulders, her eyes locked on his. He felt her inner walls clench him and he bit his cheek, pushed past the pain in his back and surged up to meet her downward momentum.
Tifa wiggled atop him, her body on fire, screaming for release. She clutched at his slick shoulders, stared down at the face of the man bringing her to the edge of completion. His features were set in harsh lines, even as hers contorted in pleasure. Tifa lifted her fingers to his face, up past his ear and into his thick hair, tugging at the strands even as she dropped down to lower her mouth over his.
Cloud convulsively gripped her hips, ignoring the sharp pain in his arms. This was his moment with her and he wouldn't let it go. Slick juices spilled from her body, coating him and he growled, low and deep and sexually charged. His eyes rolled back in his head as she took on a more aggressive pace, thrusting her hips, pounding furiously.
She was close...so close.
Beside her Zack moved his hand over her stomach and down to part her short curls, his thumb flicking over her swollen clit. She shivered and turned her head to bury her face in his neck. He heard her strangled gasp against his salty skin.
Cloud's fingers tightened reflexively against her and Tifa felt his reluctance to give her to Zack. They were both trying so hard to be attentive lovers—and anything other than open with each other. They were using her as a wall between them, and she couldn't allow that.
With a soft, but determined sigh, Tifa took her mouth from Zack's neck and stroked one hand down his cheek. She trailed that same hand along his shoulder and down his forearm to grip his wrist. "Here," she whispered, drawing his hand deeper between her legs where she and Cloud were joined. As his fingers brushed past her damp curls she moved, letting him feel the slide of her and Cloud and him together.
It took a moment for the tension to leave his arm but it did and his eyes soon glazed over with lust as he watched his hand stroke her and Cloud simultaneously.
Satisfied that he wouldn't pull away, Tifa released his wrist and grabbed for one of Cloud's hands. She placed it to her lips, took each finger into her mouth, one at a time, and sucked in time to their rhythm. When his eyes fluttered and he moaned, she relinquished her treat and drew his head up to her breast.
Cloud's tongue was hot as it laved her nipple and she gasped. With a breathless whisper she called to Zack, pulled him to her other breast and whimpered at the scrape of his teeth. Together they suckled and licked, nipped and tugged until she was squirming and panting.
Her fingers laced through thick strands of night and day and she pressed the two closer to one another...and was rewarded when Cloud unexpectedly released her breast and captured Zack's open mouth with his own.
Tifa watched Zack's eyes widen in surprise, watched them swirl with mixed emotion, and watched them close as he lent himself up to the kiss full measure. Tongues bathed lips and teeth clashed.
A full groan was wrung from Zack's throat when Cloud's hand slid over his thighs and tentatively touched his jutting cock. "Shit, man," Zack hissed, biting Cloud's lower lip. His hips rocked and their kiss deepened.
"I'm glad," Cloud murmured raggedly between tongue and hand strokes. "I'm glad you made it out--"
Zack's face scrunched with emotion and his hands fisted blond. He pressed his forehead to Cloud's as his hips rose and rocked into Cloud's eager touch. "I'm sorry," he whispered between labored breaths. "So sorry."
"Don't." Cloud kissed him again. "Don't." Again. He grappled weakly for Tifa and she leaned forward so that she was included. All three mouths moved incoherently against one another. None could tell where one kiss ended and another began.
The slick slide of lips and tongues blended together and hands moved, stroked, touched, cajoled forth sounds of strangled pleasure and wanton lust, coupled with genuine longing.
Tifa continued her gyration atop Cloud, savoring the hot, wet feel of him.
Her breath stopped, a quick little shock, when she felt Zack's lips unexpectedly against the back of her neck. When had he moved? He brushed her hair over one shoulder, licked along the curve of her spine.
Impatient hands reached around her, cupped and stroked her breasts and she felt the nudge of his erection between her ass cheeks. Zack stroked himself in time with her and Cloud, using his grip on her to help lift and lower.
Agile fingers played beneath her and slicked over hot skin. She felt the prodding head of Zack's cock against her anus and she cast him a questioning glance over her shoulder. He'd never asked this of her before, but then again, they'd never been in quite this situation before either.
She leaned back, offered up her mouth.
Zack took it swiftly, plunged and tasted. "Please," he murmured.
"Yes."
Zack lathered his fingers in her juices. He swirled his index finger against the smooth skin at her opening and bit by bit pressed inside. Patiently he worked her, used his fingers to stretch her and prepare her. When he felt she was relaxed enough he finally pressed the throbbing head of his cock inside. He pushed forward slowly, achingly slowly. He stopped when he was fully inside and dropped his forehead to her shoulder.
Tifa gasped at the fullness of it.
Cloud beneath her, Zack behind her. She whimpered. It was too much, Too much and... Oh! She threatened to buckle at the first slap of hips.
"Are you okay?" Zack asked, his throat tight and voice constricted.
Tifa moved hesitantly, testing. "Y-yes. I think so."
Beneath her Cloud shifted, the motion minimal but enough to jostle them all and she gasped, her fingernails digging convulsively into his chest. "Cloud!"
For the first time in six months Cloud Strife smiled. "You like that." It wasn't a question.
She let out a sigh of pleasure when she felt his hands on her thighs, lightly stroking her soft skin. Cloud inclined his head and she saw that his eyes had gone dark with only a ring of green visible, glittering with possession. She reveled in that look.
And that was what he saw. No pity, no rejection, only joy. It was more than he had a right to ask for, but he would bask in it regardless. His hands moved slowly upwards, over thighs, hips, abdomen and breasts. He pinched the taut peaks and was rewarded by a wanton cry.
"Don't over do it," she warned gently. This was the most he'd moved since Zack had rescued him, and she worried it may be too taxing on him.
"Tifa, let me."
"He knows what he can handle," Zack added, lifting his hips and causing all three of them to moan. His teeth nipped her nape. "Do you?" With that he hunched over her, sending her sprawling forward against Cloud. Zack reached around her to grip Cloud's hands and drew them up over his head, pressed them to the pillows and meshed their fingers together.
Cloud found Zack's gaze over the smooth curve of Tifa's shoulder and held it as the other man began to move. He clenched his fingers, tightened his grip on Zack's hands, and anchored them together.
Zack, with arms braced above Tifa and hands linked with Cloud, surged, retreated, pushed, and pulled, silently demanding the other two to follow him. Tifa rasped out his name and his tempo increased, his pace becoming harder, faster, deeper.
Zack blinked sweat from his eyes and with his teeth grit tight he pounded against her, over and over, and she in turn used that momentum to ride Cloud, all three lovers suddenly insatiable.
Cloud felt the first tingling signs of climax in his gut, his muscles tightening, cock throbbing, his whole being feeling heavy. He tightened his fingers around Zack's and licked his way from full breasts to trembling lips. "Tifa…?" He didn't recognize his own voice. Strained and hoarse, with a plaintive note in it.
"Yes, Cloud, Gods, yes!" She screamed then. Bawdy wails for them to fuck her, to love her, and to never stop. All of which he was more than willing to comply with.
Zack leaned back, jerked Cloud up with him. He pulled their joined hands behind his neck so that they encircled Tifa. and his hips pounded out the last few strokes that culminated in his low groan of bliss. He buried his face in the thick mass of Tifa's hair and rode out his orgasm.
Cloud followed suit a moment later with a silent, shuddering release that left him limp and sated.
They stayed in that sweat salted huddle for what seemed an eternity before Zack finally moved, pulling his flaccid dick from Tifa's backside. Without Zack to hold him up, Cloud flopped back against the pillows, a brief, but satisfied, grunt emanated from lips more accustomed to scowls than smiles, but were now curved up at the sides.
Tifa swayed on her knees and she flushed at Zack's smoldering chuckle beside her ear. "Too much for you?" he teased.
Her witty retort would have to wait until morning, she mused, leaning against him as he turned her and lowered her down to lay beside Cloud. For a brief moment Zack hovered over the both of them with a look of intense love on his face and she felt the sting of tears in her eyes. Oh, Gods, how they'd needed this.
Zack dropped down on the opposite side of Cloud and looped his arm across his chest to touch Tifa. She smiled, linked their fingers and settled their joined hands over the steady drum of Cloud's heart.
She pressed a soft kiss to Cloud's sweat dampened temple and met Zack's eyes over blond locks.
They lay silent for a long time, and just as the chill of night prompted Zack to reach for the counterpane Cloud spoke.
"Thank you." He turned his face to Tifa first, brushed his lips against hers. "And you." To Zack, and the same. A soft, gentle kiss that held none of the lust from minutes ago, but all of the affection.
Zack smiled and closed his eyes.
A naked mass of tangled limbs, they slept.
AN: I want to thank and share credit with Bof for collaborating with me on this story. Without her insights and encouragement it never would have been written. Thank you so much!