-------------------------------------------

"You can't hit anything that way!" Zack snarled. "Put your weight behind your blow. Your life may depend on how hard you hit!"

He didn't give Cloud a chance to respond with anything more than a glare as he launched a new attack. The blond growled, deep in his throat, and swung his blade in a downward arc, hard this time.

The force of the blow shivered up the steel blade Zack held. "Better," he grunted through clenched teeth. He blocked Cloud's next blow as well, turning the boy's attack off to his left.

Cloud stumbled, over-balanced, and Zack landed a light blow across his shoulders with the flat of his blade. Using his forward momentum to his advantage, Cloud tucked his head down and rolled neatly away from Zack. He surged to his feet again a few paces away, spinning quickly to face his opponent.

"Nice," Zack grunted as he leapt forward again.

They were attracting a crowd of watchers, Zack noted with interest as Cloud deflected his blow. The boy skipped sideways. Zack spun and leapt, his sword falling like an axe into the space Cloud had occupied seconds before. Grinning, he turned the axe-fall into a sideways sweep, forcing Cloud to jump hastily backwards.

Cloud recovered quickly, thrusting in over Zack's extended blade and very nearly scoring a hit on his chest. His reach was still a few inches too short to match Zack's.

Zack crouched and swung his blade up, pushing the tiring boy back. Cloud just didn't -- couldn't yet -- have the strength and stamina that Zack had. A quick cross-slash was barely parried. Zack's sword flickered in past Cloud's guard and blade twisted around blade for a moment. Then Cloud's sword flipped up and over and fell neatly, hilt-first, into Zack's outstretched hand.

"Yield," Cloud panted as Zack levelled both swords at his throat.

A smattering of applause broke out around them. Cloud grinned, but didn't take his eyes off Zack's.

After a moment, Zack lowered his sword and handed Cloud's back to him. "Good job," he said, dragging his forearm across his forehead. "But next time...."

Cloud groaned and staggered exaggeratedly over to the towel rack. "Next time? Oh, you're killin' me, Zack!"

"If I don't, someone -- or something -- else might," Zack said in his best "senior-officer's-Truth" voice. It was as much for their audience as for Cloud.

"Aaa...." Cloud sighed, mopping his face with a towel. "And it would be soo much better if you got to kill me, ne?" he said under his breath as Zack joined him at the towel rack.

Zack feigned surprise and dismay at him. "You. Are too saucy."

"Me?" He tried to look innocent, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

Zack laughed. "No. The spikey-headed blond beside you. C'mon. Let's go get a drink and a shower."

"In that order?" Cloud asked, tossing his towel into the hamper and shouldering his sword harness.

Zack just shook his head.

      *       *       *

"Where are we going?"

Zack grinned amiably at Cloud. "There's a nice little bar a couple blocks down. They open early, close late, and don't ask you for I.D. It's a great place, but best of all, it's not run by Shinra."

Cloud looked confused. "But... you work for Shinra."

"Yeah. But that doesn't necessarily mean I like Shinra." He glanced back over his shoulder, absolutely certain for a moment that they were being tailed.

The narrow road was empty.

"Oh." Cloud pondered this for a moment. "But you enjoy what you do, right?"

"That's different," Zack said, lengthening his stride a little. Cloud had to quicken his step to keep up. "What I do, I do for love of the work --" and for Seph, he added silently. "-- not for love of the company." He glanced around again. "This isn't exactly the place to discuss it, though."

The blond nodded. "I understand."

Do you? Zack wondered, but he held his peace.

As Zack had said, the man at the door of the Dragon's Zoo didn't ask for I.D. He simply waved Zack and his guest in with what might have been a smile. Most people would have assumed it was a grimace, but the scar that sliced across the corner of his mouth and ran almost to his ear didn't give him much control over expression.

The bar was small, holding only a half-dozen round tables and as many booths along the right hand wall. A counter ran the length of the back wall, with raised and well-stocked shelves behind it. The floor was concrete, but clean, and the tables, stools, and chairs were all in good repair. There were no windows, but fairly bright lamps hung safely out of reach from the high ceiling.

Zack waved Cloud over to a table with two stools in the near right-hand corner while he himself went up to the counter.

"Got yourself a young one today," the bartender quipped softly.

Zack laughed. "Two of your best. He's a candidate."

"Him? Hunh...." He walked over to the standing cooler at the far end of the bar. "Never woulda guessed it." Removing two bottles, he walked back over to Zack and set them down firmly on the counter. "Looks too soft."

Zack glanced back at Cloud while the bartender opened the bottles. The boy was studying the layout of the bar, it seemed. "Nah, not soft," he said, turning his gaze back to the bartender. "He's too spikey for that." He grinned and picked up their drinks.

The bartender snorted. "You're a fine one to talk about spikes," he said, glancing pointedly at Zack's black hair.

Zack shrugged widely. "What can I say? Like attracts like?"

"Ha, not bloody likely," the bartender replied with a laugh. "Go drink those before they get warm already!"

Zack saluted him with one bottle and headed back to the table. Behind him, the bartender chuckled.

"Here you go, Cloud. Best beer in town." Setting the bottles on the table, Zack smiled.

Cloud eyed the bottle dubiously as Zack sat down opposite him. "Took ya long enough. Friend of yours?"

Zack considered. "Guess you could say so. He knows me pretty well."

Conversation stopped for a moment as they both drank.

Setting his bottle down, Cloud said, "Mmm... it is good."

"Told you so," Zack replied with a grin.

Cloud grimaced behind his beer bottle. "Know it all."

Zack laughed. "Not really. Let's see," he took another drink while he thought. "How'd you get to Midgar, anyway? That I don't know." He took another swallow. "Long hike from Nibelheim."

Cloud sighed. "You got that right. It never occurred to me that Midgar was on a different continent. Just getting to Costa Del Sol -- hitching rides, but mostly on foot -- took me a couple months." He shook his head. "I was pretty clueless about travel."

Zack smiled sympathetically. "Why didn't you got to RocketTown and get a lift from there? The Gelnika helicopters often stop there for re-fueling. You could've got a ride."

"You kidding me?" Cloud exclaimed, sounding irritated and frustrated. "What makes you think that they'd've taken a scrawny would-be SOLDIER like me onboard?"

Zack ran his eyes over Cloud's trimly muscled form. "I'd hardly call you scrawny --"

"You should've seen me back then," Cloud said with snort.

"-- but you're right. I'm just too used to status in the ranks, I guess." Zack grinned a bit sheepishly at him.

"Yeah, lucky you." Cloud sighed.

"So," Zack prompted. "You got to Costa Del Sol...?"

"And I stowed away on a cargo ship headed to Junon." Cloud chuckled. "And spent most of the trip puking. Fortunately, I found a port hole that wasn't sealed."

Zack made a face, leaning forward to rest his forearms on the table. "Motion sickness?"

"In a bad way. Never occurred to me to expect that either, mostly cuz I'd never left home except on foot before." He sighed, staring somewhat forlornly into his half-empty bottle. "Lotta stuff I didn't know before leaving home."

Before his mood could turn anymore introspective, though, the front door opened and a trio of SOLDIERs -- Third Class, by their uniforms -- strode in.

"Hey, I thought this was your day off," Cloud said suddenly, pinning Zack with a sharp gaze.

"It is," Zack replied, wondering why Cloud was asking.

"So what are you doing wasting your time here with me?" the boy asked, somewhat defensively. "And putting in extra practice time and all?"

"Enjoying my day off." He watched intently as the blond worked his way through the implications of that. Something -- hope, maybe? -- sparkled momentarily in his blue eyes.

"Thanks," Cloud said softly. A blush crept up the back of his neck.

A smart-aleck response would have demeaned the sincerity of Cloud's thanks, so Zack simply nodded.

Cloud glanced at his wrist-com. "Shit, I've got guard duty in half an hour. I should go." He rose abruptly.

"I'll walk back with you," Zack said. He stood as well. "There'll be other days --"

"Promise?" Cloud interrupted with a wicked grin.

"Threat?" Zack replied, dead-pan.

"Pardon?" Cloud blinked.

Zack walked around the table and tugged on his arm to get the boy moving. "Well, you don't know what I have planned for those other days, now do you?"

Cloud gaped at him, a familiar blush creeping up his neck.

"I was teasing, Cloud," Zack laughed. "You have to stop taking me so seriously."

As they stepped outside, he was suddenly struck by the urge to take a walk instead of returning to the barracks. "Hey, Cloud," he said. "Changed my mind. Gonna go for a walk. See you tomorrow, lunch, alright?"

The boy nodded eagerly. "You bet. And... thanks again, Zack."

He winked at Cloud, resisting the urge to lean over and kiss him. The boy was just too adorable, espescially when he was being vulnerable like this. "Any time," he said, and he meant it.

Leaving Cloud on the sidewalk, he crossed the street, heading away from the barracks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
© 8/20/99 Tavam Shaytar
http://www.leafwind.com/Lifestream/
All characters are the properties of their respective owners.

Chapter 5
Chapter 3
Back to the Planet