Disclaimer: Final Fantasy belongs to Squaresoft and various other interested parties, not me. I'm not making any money from this, and no infringement of copyright is intended. This is a work of fandom, intended as appreciation of the original work.

Chapter 14

The darkness around him was comforting, like a warm blanket you could snuggle into when it was cold enough to make your breath frost. He could have stayed there for hours, maybe forever, and been happy.

Something was nagging at him, though. A sense that he'd left something undone, something important. He couldn't finish it without leaving the darkness, so despite his reluctance he forced himself out of it.

It wasn't until light struck him and made him blink that he realized the reason everything had been dark was that he'd had his eyes closed. Dazed, he squinted against the harsh brightness and trailed his gaze over his surroundings. Bed, dresser, another bed, a chair, Zack, a door...

Zack! Realization hit him like a Bolt 3 spell, and he wrenched himself up to a sitting position with a gasp. "Did I kill it? Did it count?"

"Hades!" Zack yelped, dropping the book he'd been reading and jerking half out of the chair with surprise. Staring back at Cloud with overly wide eyes, the dark-haired boy visibly tried to calm himself. "Don't scare me like that, Cloud! I thought you were still asleep."

Impatient with trivialities, Cloud gestured sharply with one hand and winced as the motion pulled at sore muscles. "Never mind that. Did it count?"

Sighing, Zack unfolded himself from the chair, raking a hand through his hair. "I don't know," he admitted as he walked over to sit on the edge of the bed. "It was a mutual knockout, essentially. They were still debating it when the medics brought you up here to sleep it off. Said that would be better for you than forcing you awake with a spell or a phoenix down."

Fists clenching in the sheets, Cloud looked back at him with his heart in his mouth. "Then... then I might have failed?" At that moment he realized that although he'd been nervous, some part of him had always been sure he would pass. That part of him had been fuelled largely by Zack's continued lack of any doubt that Cloud would be with him in SOLDIER, and the mere idea that he might not be was enough to make him want to scream.

"Whoa, hey, take it easy," Zack said soothingly, resting his hands on Cloud's shoulders to help steady him. "We don't know yet. Just calm down, okay? I don't want you knocking yourself back out again. Here," he handed Cloud a familiar little bottle, and Cloud blinked at it. "I got it off the first guy, the one who left after his first round," Zack said in response to the younger boy's bewildered expression. "Resting should have put you back good as new, but just in case. You didn't sleep as long as they said you should."

Uncorking it, Cloud drank it down without even really tasting it. It didn't seem to make much difference, though when he moved again he noted he wasn't quite as sore as he had been before.

Once he was satisfied that Cloud wasn't about to collapse on him, Zack nodded and stood. "Come on," he said, offering the younger boy his hand. "They've probably posted the results by now. I didn't want to leave you to find out."

Despite himself, Cloud couldn't help a brief moment of uncharitable bitterness. Of course Zack hadn't been frantic to see the results; he was almost guaranteed to have made it in. Shaking it off, Cloud took his friend's hand and scrambled out of the bed.

Instead of letting go, though, Zack tugged him in close and kissed him fiercely. "I've wanted to do that since the endurance run," he said when he pulled away, smiling down at Cloud. "You are amazing, you know that?"

Normally Cloud would have leaned in and luxuriated in the rare opportunity to be able to touch the older boy without fear, but at the moment there was only one thing his mind could focus on. Celebratory kisses could wait until he knew for sure they had something to celebrate.

"The results, Zack!" he said urgently. Nodding, Zack released him and followed him to the door.

It didn't take him long to realize he must have been brought to whatever hotel serviced the patrons of the Gold Saucer. The lobby was crowded with guests as they came down the curving stairs, most of them talking loudly and gesturing at a television screen mounted on the wall.

By the time they were halfway down the stairs, Cloud could see what was on the screen as well. He froze, his knees threatening to give way beneath him, as the impact of it hit him. They were showing replays of the highlights of the races and the battles, but beneath that there was a scrolling marquee that showed the results of the top ten candidates and the odds placed on them. His was the second to scroll by as he watched, and it was written not in the bright mako green they'd highlighted the winners with, but in a dark blood red.

Failed. He'd failed. All the effort, all the studying, all the pain and fear and struggle... all for nothing. He'd failed.

"Cloud..." Sounding like he didn't know quite what to say, Zack put his hands on Cloud's shoulders from behind. Probably bracing him, just in case the younger boy really did collapse.

"I... I didn't make it?" Cloud whispered, the words disbelieving. As he watched the list came to the end before looping back to the beginning, and Zack's name went by in gold rather than green. First place, Cloud realized when he saw the little crown next to his friend's name. Zack had been the top scoring candidate.

And Cloud had failed.

"Look, do you even realize how amazingly well you did?" Zack was saying, his words hardly registering in Cloud's fevered brain. "Out of fifty candidates, you're one of only ten who made it to the finals."

"But I failed," Cloud repeated, in shock. What difference did it make how far he'd made it, if he didn't make it all the way? It wasn't like there was any kind of consolation prize. He stifled a hysterical laugh at the very idea. Here, you didn't make it into SOLDIER, but have a ribbon to show you made it this far.

"Cloud, you're barely fifteen," Zack said, trying for reason. "They don't let you into the army until you're sixteen for a reason, you know. Any younger than that and your body is still developing, not strong enough yet for what they ask of it. Odin's blood, other than Sephiroth I think I might be the first person to make it into SOLDIER younger than eighteen. If you did this well now, just wait until next year. You'll be the top score for sure."

Some part of that managed to register with Cloud, but it probably wasn't the part Zack had been hoping for. "You..." he said, panic and disbelief slowly curdling into anger inside him. "All this time, for months, you've been telling me over and over that you knew I could do it. And you were lying?"

"What?" Blinking, Zack shook his head. "Hey, no, wait, that's not what I..."

"You never believed I could do it!" Cloud shouted, uncaring that he was making a scene and drawing the attention of the crowd below them. In his pain and fury and shame he lashed out at the nearest target, unwilling and unable to listen to comforting platitudes. "You bastard! Were you laughing at me the whole time, or did it just make you feel good to be able to look at me and know you were that much better than me?"

"Cloud!" Now looking more than a little hurt himself, Zack frowned at him. "You know that isn't..."

"Shut up!" Cloud yelled, tears forming in his eyes and making Zack's image waver. Suddenly he was desperate to get out of there before he started crying in front of everyone, in front of Zack. "Shut up! Just leave me alone! Go... go celebrate with the rest of them. Congratulations." He spat the last word more like a curse.

Turning, he bolted back up the stairs. All he wanted was to get away; away from Zack and his triumph, away from the crowd and their smirks or laughter, away from his own overwhelming shame. The latter wasn't possible, but at least he could manage the first two.

"Cloud! Hey, don't... Cloud!" Zack called after him, but desperation lent wings to Cloud's feet, and he quickly outpaced the older boy's voice.

He slammed back into the room they'd just left, locking the door behind him and leaning against it. Tears ran freely down his face, though he stifled his sobs as best he could. He remembered the way the people who finished too late in the races had looked, and suddenly he had all the sympathy in the world for them. He couldn't imagine how they'd restrained themselves from killing everyone who had passed and left them behind.

"Cloud!" Zack rattled the doorknob, then pounded on the door hard enough to make it vibrate against Cloud's back. "Come on, don't be like this. Let me in. Please?"

Frantic, unable to face the thought of having to deal with Zack and pretend that he wasn't horribly jealous of the older boy's success and hurt by his friend's true lack of belief in him, Cloud scanned the room for a hiding place. In the closet and under the beds were both far too obvious, but the window at the far side of the room caught his eye.

Darting over, he threw open the window and looked outside. There was a three-story drop to the base of the building, and a steep hill down from there. Heights had never bothered him; he'd been born and raised on a mountain, after all.

Scrambling out the window, he hung from the sill by the fingers of one hand while he shut the window again with the other. He had few illusions about Zack's ability to get into the room if he was really determined, and he was hoping the older boy would waste time searching for him inside.

Climbing down the outside wall was easy enough, and shortly Cloud was on the ground and running. It took him a moment to realize that the transport tubes had been disguised as grave markers, but he picked one at random and jumped in.

He emerged to find himself in what seemed to be an amusement park. Well, the whole Saucer was one big amusement park, but this area fit the more traditional definition of one. Dominating the landscape was a roller coaster, the wooden framework towering over everything else.

Like a carrier pigeon instinctively homing in on his roost, Cloud headed straight for the coaster. He dodged the security around it easily enough, concentrating on that so he wouldn't have to think about how devastated he was by the exam results and Zack's betrayal. When he reached the base of the tallest part of the track, he started to climb.

He knew he shouldn't be out here, that Shinra would probably be gathering up the exam participants soon and heading back to Midgar. If he wasn't there he'd be listed as AWOL, and that was a black mark on his record he didn't need.

At that moment, he found he really didn't care. He'd failed the SOLDIER exam. What difference did a black mark make? He would never achieve his dream, no matter how spotless his record was. He wasn't even sure he wanted to go back, to have to face everyone in his platoon and company, and tell them he'd failed. He wasn't sure who would be harder to deal with: the ones who pitied him, or the ones who were smug.

And worse, to have to go back and watch Zack pack his things and head off for SOLDIER training. Except for the first few miserable days of boot camp, and that far more horrid week in Mideel, Cloud had never been far from Zack's side. They were something of an inseparable unit in the minds of their fellow troopers; he'd heard more than one person refer to 'ZackandCloud' as if they were one entity. Now that would change; he and Zack would be living in entirely different worlds.

Reaching the last crossbeam before the track itself, Cloud paused and took stock of the area, panting for breath and still struggling against sobs. The whole structure rattled every time the car went by overhead, and he could hear the screams of the riders clearly as they plunged down over the other side of the hill, but the beams were wide enough for him to curl up on one with his back against a support.

There, finally, he gave in to his pain. He pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his face in them, wrapping his arms around them to hold them close. And he cried like he hadn't since the days when Tifa had been in a coma and nobody knew if she would wake, and everyone had blamed him. Harder, maybe.

He'd been focused so hard and for so long on making SOLDIER that he'd never even really considered what he might do if he didn't get in. How could he ever go home and admit that he'd failed? He'd never be able to look Tifa in the eyes again, let alone all the other people who'd always scorned him. He would only be proving that they had been right when they'd predicted he would never make anything of himself.

Shoulders wracked with sobs, he sat there curled in a ball and tried to decide what to do. None of his options seemed appealing; his dream had been crushed, his best friend had turned out to have doubted him all along, and he couldn't even go home.

"Cloud." So lost was he in his misery, Cloud didn't even jump at the sound of the familiar voice or the hesitant touch on his shoulder. "Cloud. Look at me, please?"

Belatedly realizing Zack had somehow found him, Cloud scrubbed at his face with the back of one hand. "Go away," he said, trying to sound fierce and only managing miserable. "Just... just go away, Zack. I don't want to see you right now." Him or anyone else, but especially him.

"Cloud, I wasn't lying when I said I knew you would make it into SOLDIER," Zack said firmly, swinging himself up to sit on the other side of the support Cloud was leaning against. He kept his hand on the younger boy's shoulder, squeezing in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring.

"Then why did you say all that, about me being a kid?" Cloud spat at him, turning his head far enough to glare. "You condescending bastard, you never expected me to be able to pass!"

"I knew the odds were low, but I figured if anybody could beat the odds, it would be you," Zack countered, his gaze level. "I still believe it."

"I failed, Zack," Cloud grated out, shaking his head. "There are no more chances. The odds beat me. There's nothing to believe in."

Now Zack lifted his hand, but it was only to smack Cloud across the back of the head hard enough to sting. "Now you're just being self-pitying," the older boy said, though his voice was still gentle. "It's not like there will never be another SOLDIER exam held again, you know. Most people don't make it the first time. Did you give up when you got to Midgar and they told you that you were too young? Hell, no. You told them to go fuck themselves, and you stuck it out until you got what you wanted. And now you're going to just give up and slink home with your tail between your legs because you lost once?"

"It's not the same!" Cloud half shouted, his voice cracking with strain. Lifting his head, he snarled. "It's not at all the same! Don't you get it? We were supposed to go together! Now that's gone. We'll be separated, we'll probably never even see each other, and... and..." His voice broke again, on a sob this time.

Shifting so he was straddling the beam, Zack moved forward until his chest was pressed against the support beam, and wrapped his arms around both it and Cloud. "I will not leave you behind," Zack promised fiercely. "I'm just paving the way for you. We won't see each other as often, that's true. And believe me, I hate the thought of it. But it's only for a year, maybe two at most. Then we'll be SOLDIERs together, running around having adventures and being heroes and becoming as famous as General Sephiroth. You'll see."

"You're an idiot," Cloud said, but there was no heat in his words. "You'll forget all about me. I'll just be that kid in your unit from before you were a SOLDIER."

"I will not," Zack shook his head. "I will never forget you, Cloud. You're my best friend. The best friend I've ever had." He made a frustrated sound, and shoved at Cloud's shoulders. "Move. I want to hold you, not this stupid post."

Reluctantly Cloud shifted forward, and Zack carefully swung over to his beam, settling in straddling it with his back against the post. "How did you find me?" Cloud asked as Zack tugged him back again, until he was leaning against the older boy's strong chest with Zack's arms around him.

"You have a habit of heading for the high ground whenever you're upset," Zack said, shrugging. "Must be the mountain boy in you. Me, I go looking for a tree to climb. Not many of those around Midgar, so you've got the advantage there. But I just checked the highest spot in every area until I saw you up here."

Zack really knew him far too well. A fresh pain stung Cloud as he was reminded that Zack wouldn't be around enough to know when Cloud was upset any more. "It's not fair," he choked out, shaking his head. "I'm losing my dream and my best friend at the same time."

"Stop that," Zack smacked him on the head again, harder this time. "Your dream is only delayed, and you're certainly not losing me. It'll just be a little harder for us to find time together. We'll still have leave, and off-duty hours. If one of us had been transferred to another unit, would you have just given up and decided you would never see me again?"

Cloud wanted to protest again that it was different, but... it wasn't, really. It was just an extreme case. "You swear you really believe I can do it?" he asked, not entirely mollified on the issue of Zack's attempt to 'comfort' him on his loss earlier.

"May Odin strike me down if I lie," Zack promised solemnly. "There is not a doubt in my mind that you are 1st Class material. Provided, of course, that you get your head out of your ass and don't stop trying just because you feel sorry for yourself!"

Sighing, Cloud turned sideways and let his legs dangle over one side of the beam, tucking his head under Zack's and wrapping his arms around the older boy in turn. "Aren't we going to get in trouble for being out here?" he asked, not willing to apologize for his earlier behaviour. All things considered, he thought he'd earned a tantrum or two.

"Nah. Well, I might, but I don't want to have to sit around and smile through a million congratulations ceremonies anyway." Zack shrugged, the muscles of his shoulder rippling under Cloud's cheek. "Dio gave the ten finalists and the officers a free night's stay here. They've already shipped everyone else back to Midgar, but that was actually our room you snuck out of. Unfortunately we've got a roommate, or I'd totally suggest heading back there and seeing what it feels like to make out on a bed for once."

For once, Cloud honestly wasn't sure he was in the mood for messing around. There was still too much emotional turmoil twisting him up inside.

Then again, maybe it would get his mind off everything. Screwing around with Zack had always been guaranteed to distract him in the past. Without warning, he lifted his head and caught Zack's lips with his, kissing the other boy with a fierceness that was more desperation than passion.

It seemed like Zack understood, because he didn't resist or try to protest the precariousness of their position. He just kissed back, running his hands slowly over Cloud's shoulders, urging him closer still. It had been an emotionally charged day, and Cloud felt the heat between them build faster than ever before.

"Zack," he gasped when the older boy pulled back enough to trail his mouth over Cloud's neck. "Please... oh please. Make me stop thinking about it." It still hurt too much, the wound was still too fresh, no matter how many assurances Zack tried to give him. If he could lose himself for a while, maybe it wouldn't be so raw afterwards.

"Fuck, Cloud," Zack groaned, dropping his hands to the younger boy's hips and holding him tight. "Shit, I want you so bad. Damn it, why couldn't they assign us two to a room?" He nipped at Cloud's neck, making the blonde shiver.

"At least we don't have to worry about anyone walking in on us," Zack muttered, the fingers of one hand slowly tracing their way around Cloud's waistband. They were both still wearing their clothes from the tests, the horribly coloured shirts looking even more garish under the artificial lights in Gold Saucer's 'night'.

Squirming, Cloud shook his head and fumbled to get under Zack's tunic as well. "Just touch me," he demanded, pleaded. "Make it good. Please."

"Yes, sir," Zack replied with an irreverent grin, and dipped his fingers beneath Cloud's waistband. The younger boy was still only a little hard, too tired and wrung-out to respond as fast as usually did to Zack's touch. Not seeming to mind, Zack stroked him slowly, teasing him to life as Cloud panted in his arms.

"These pants have got to go," Zack said decisively as he tried to work his hand in further and couldn't. "Think you can get them down without falling off the beam?"

It took some cautious manoeuvring, but somehow they managed to get Cloud's pants off without either of them falling, or losing the pants. Zack reached back and draped the fabric over the beam he'd been sitting on earlier, then tugged Cloud towards him again. "Here, swing your leg over so you're straddling it too," he said, tapping Cloud's thigh.

"I'm going to get splinters up my ass," Cloud said dubiously, shifting cautiously. Grinning, Zack shook his head.

"Can't have that," the older boy agreed. "Swing your leg over."

Cloud obeyed, and as he did Zack grabbed him by the hips and lifted him. He found himself pressed chest to chest with the older boy, his legs draped over Zack's thighs in a way that left him embarrassingly spread open. He didn't touch the beam at all; he was literally sitting in Zack's lap.

From there he could feel it every time Zack breathed or shifted, and more importantly he could feel Zack's hard length pressed up against him through the older boy's pants. "Shouldn't we have gotten your pants off first?" Cloud asked with a groan.

He yelped when Zack ran his hand down over Cloud's ass and the older boy's fingers brushed over his hole. "Zack?" he asked breathlessly.

"I'm sure I don't need to ask, but you're not afraid of heights right?" Zack asked him idly, his eyes alight with the look Cloud had come to recognize as a sign that his friend was about to propose something wild. "Do you trust me?"

"Usually, but it makes me nervous when you feel the need to ask," Cloud replied warily, squirming as Zack rubbed a finger over him again. It was an odd sensation, pressure in a place that didn't normally get much in the way of stimulation. When Zack carefully pushed just the tip of his finger inside, Cloud gasped and shuddered. It felt weird, but not entirely unpleasant.

"I was hoping we'd find a way to slip off and celebrate, so I came prepared," Zack murmured into his skin, the words almost lost as another set of cars went rattling by overhead. He was fumbling with something in his other hand, and made a frustrated noise as he almost dropped it. "Damn it. Help me, will you?"

"What..." Cloud reached out and took the small object from him, and his eyes widened as he read the label on the small tube. "Zack... you can't be serious. Here?"

Zack just grinned at him, the expression tinged with more than a little frustrated lust. "We'll see how far we get. Odin only knows when we'll get another chance, at this rate. Don't you want to?"

There was something of a thrill to it, Cloud had to admit. One wrong move and they could go tumbling down off the beam to fall a very, very long way. Anyone could look up here and spot them, though they were probably high enough to be unrecognizable.

Well, he'd wanted a distraction. This definitely qualified. Unscrewing the cap Zack had been struggling with, Cloud squeezed some of the cool oil out onto Zack's outstretched fingers. He braced himself as the older boy slipped his hand back around and under Cloud's body, and gasped as he felt strong fingers smoothing the oil onto and around his hole.

"Relax," Zack murmured, kissing him gently and supporting him with his other hand cupped over Cloud's ass. "Don't tense up, I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm trying not to," Cloud said through gritted teeth as he took deep breaths in an attempt to relax. He hissed as Zack slid one oiled finger inside him, and with the lubrication this time the sensation was more pleasurable. Still weird as hell, but an intriguing sort of weird.

Zack kissed him again to distract him as he worked a second finger inside Cloud. Now the stretching sensation burned a little, but Cloud had more or less expected that. He'd gone a bit soft again, but he rocked forward to rub himself against Zack's stomach. The motion reminded him that Zack was still fully dressed, his straining cock trapped by the fabric of his pants. Reaching down, Cloud worked to free him.

To his surprise, Zack withdrew his fingers and caught Cloud's hand, shaking his head. "You touch me now, and I'm done," the older boy said, a rare blush staining his cheeks. "The way you looked just now... it's too much."

"You don't want to be, you know... inside me?" Cloud asked, feeling suddenly awkward. They'd never really talked about it, not in detail. Just general statements like 'I want you' or even 'I want to fuck you'. It wasn't an easy subject to discuss, especially since they tended to spend their few moments of privacy messing around rather than talking.

"More than you can imagine," Zack groaned, rocking up against him slightly. He returned his fingers to Cloud's ass, pushing inside him slowly and curling them to rub against Cloud's insides.

"Then what are you waiting for, an order from the general himself?" Cloud demanded, his impatient words covering the nervousness he still felt. He reached down again and rubbed Zack through his pants, and this time the older boy didn't try to stop him.

"Cloud," Zack gasped, thrusting up against his hand. "Fuck, Cloud. Oh, fuck." Something Cloud did must have felt particularly good, because his whole body tensed and shivered. Inside Cloud, his fingers curled again, and this time the motion sent a wave of fire and lightning shivering over the younger boy.

"Shit!" Cloud exclaimed, throwing his head back, startled. "What was that?"

"That would be the reason it's not just the guys on top who keep coming back for more," Zack said with a grin that was only a little shaky. "You liked that?" He did it again, and got an incoherent groan from Cloud this time in response.

"Do it, Zack," Cloud said, his voice low and intense. "Do it, fuck me. Please." Maybe if they could get as close as it was humanly possible to be, he would stop feeling like he was about to lose Zack forever.

Fumbling, he freed Zack's cock from the prison of his pants, and poured more of the oil over him. He used his hand to slick the cool fluid down over Zack's length, and discovered he liked the easy way his hand was able to move over the heated flesh. "We should use this stuff more often," he said. "Not just for this."

"Yeah," Zack agreed, shivering again. "Here, you'll have to lift yourself up, then come down on me."

When Cloud had pictured them doing this, it had usually been in a hotel on a bed and there had been nothing awkward or ungainly about it. Trying to move him so Zack could press inside him was a bit of an exercise in frustration in comparison.

Finally Zack managed to tug his hips into the right place, with Cloud holding the post above Zack's head to keep himself high enough. Zack's cock rubbed against him, and a little tendril of panic and apprehension wound through Cloud. That felt a lot bigger and harder than Zack's fingers had been. This was going to hurt.

"Relax," Zack admonished him when he tensed up, his voice thin with strain. "It's okay. Just relax."

"Just... just do it," Cloud panted. He figured it was kind of like taking a bandage off; you could do it slow and torture yourself, or you could do it fast and get it over with.

Zack seemed determined to do it the slow way, though, easing Cloud down over him as his cock felt like it was literally tearing Cloud in half. Gritting his teeth, Cloud ignored Zack's guiding hands on his hips and shoved himself down. He was the one with all the leverage in this position; there was nothing Zack could do to stop him.

A pained cry escaped him despite his best efforts, and Cloud came to rest shivering against Zack's chest. He felt like his ass was on fire, and it wasn't the sort of mind-blowing pleasurable fire he usually felt when messing around with Zack.

"Shit, Cloud!" Zack sounded dismayed, holding him tight and not letting him move further. "Damn it! What'd you do that for?"

"Give me a second," Cloud gasped. "Let me adjust." If he could adjust. It was like trying to work through the pain of a wound so you could keep fighting; you just gritted your teeth and rode out the waves of agony until you could ignore it a little.

He wasn't really paying attention to what Zack was doing, so he was startled when a warm hand closed around his now mostly limp cock. Zack's hand was still slick from the oil, and the feel of it stroking over him would have been unbelievable if Cloud hadn't been distracted by pain. They were definitely going to have to put that stuff to good use in the future, but he wasn't so sure he wanted to do this again.

Refusing to give up until Cloud was hard again, Zack kept stroking and rubbing his cock. Cloud could feel the way his friend's body was shaking with the effort of restraining himself; clearly the experience was more than just 'good' for Zack.

Only when Cloud was mostly hard again did Zack finally give in and rock his hips upward. The worst of the pain had faded, Cloud realized; he still felt stretched to the point of breaking, and the movement burned a bit, but it wasn't agonizing. He let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and relaxed a little, and that helped more. Zack was still stroking him, and the position they were in meant he couldn't thrust much. Overall, it wasn't as bad as Cloud had thought it was at first.

"Damn it, I have no leverage," Zack muttered, panting into Cloud's shoulder as he continued to rock upwards. "Cloud..."

Deciding at least one of them ought to get something good out of this, Cloud tensed his legs and lifted himself up a few inches, dropping back down again. The movement drew a gasp from Zack and nearly wrenched a startled scream from Cloud; whatever it was Zack had been touching inside him earlier, the angle of their position meant his cock was rubbing over it if he moved far enough.

"Do that again," Zack pleaded, his other hand clenching on Cloud's hip, and Cloud obeyed. He lifted himself further this time, and when he dropped back down the shocking wave of heat and pleasure was almost enough to make him forget about the pain. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

They settled into a rhythm, the thrusts becoming faster and deeper as Cloud's body started to respond at last. Zack stroked him in time to their motion, and before too long Cloud forgot about hesitating and threw himself into it with abandon.

Tension began to coil deep inside Cloud's body in a familiar way, but stronger and more intense than he was used to. If messing around with Zack was a hundred times better than just jerking off by himself, this was a hundred times better still. Cloud was crying out with every thrust now, leaning back against Zack's supporting hand to try to get more pressure against that amazing place inside him.

At first he thought the bursts of colour and noise that flared across his vision were just a reaction of his body to reaching orgasm, but then he realized the tension inside him hadn't snapped yet. "Fireworks," Zack said, strangled laughter in his voice. "That's... way too... appropriate... oh fuck, Cloud..."

Panting, Cloud threw his head back. His legs were getting tired; he wasn't going to be able to keep this up much longer. With an effort he lifted himself until Zack was almost entirely out of him and thrust himself back down again, as Zack rubbed his thumb over the tip of Cloud's cock.

It was enough, and Cloud's whole body convulsed as he came hard. He shouted, glad the sound was lost in the noise of the roller coaster and the booming of the fireworks. He'd never felt anything this intense in his life.

His body clenched down around Zack, but he didn't have the strength or coordination to lift himself again. Zack rocked up into him as hard as he could manage in their awkward position, groaning wantonly into Cloud's shoulder as he shuddered. As Cloud began to recover from his intense orgasm, Zack lost his rhythm and cried out sharply, stilling as he came hard. Cloud imagined he could almost feel it inside him.

They sat there like that for what seemed like a long time, neither of them really wanting to move and break the spell of drowsy contentment that had fallen over them. Cloud forgot to feel exposed, and more importantly he forgot to be hurt by or ashamed of his earlier failure. All he could think about was the way Zack felt against him and in him, and how much better this would probably be in a bed.

Though there was something to be said for the thrill of danger, Cloud admitted as he glanced over Zack's shoulder and down to the ground far away.

The fireworks were still going off, beautiful bursts of colour against the sky. "You want to get back?" Zack asked as he finally pulled away from Cloud.

Wincing as Zack's withdrawal reminded him that he was more than a little sore down there, Cloud shook his head. "Not really," he muttered, trying to hang onto that dazed contentment and not think about reality for another few minutes. "I do want my pants back, though," he added with a grimace as a breeze ran over him and made him shiver.

"Here," Zack said, fumbling in his belt and handing him another potion. Cloud blinked at it in surprise as the older boy cautiously reached back to retrieve Cloud's pants.

"Did you clean the guy out?" Cloud wondered after he'd gulped the potion. It made the stinging burn in his ass fade, turned it into a tolerable ache.

"More or less," Zack agreed with a laugh. "I have my ways."

Getting Cloud back into his pants proved to be even more awkward and dangerous than getting him out of them in the first place, but they managed somehow. They settled down again with Cloud's back pressed to Zack's chest, leaning together against the support post and just quietly enjoying each other's warmth. If he didn't let himself think about what was waiting for them when they finally did leave, Cloud could almost be happy.

At least the fireworks were beautiful. Cloud turned his eyes up to watch them, and did his best to ignore everything but the flowers in the sky and the feel of Zack behind him.

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