Firstclasshewley's secretsanta fic

Chapter 4

Laguna stomped through the hallways of the Presidential Palace the next morning with a look that sent people scurrying out of his way. He burst through the doors of his assistant’s private rooms and jumped onto the bed, straddling the man and shoving the barrel of his gun under the startled man’s chin.

“You have one minute to convince me that I shouldn’t just blow your head off right now!” he screamed. His whole body was shaking with anger. The damage that Kiros had caused was unforgivable.

“L…Laguna. What the fuck is going on?” Kiros blurted out, confused and disorientated with being woken up by the raging President.

“You now have fifty seconds. I suggest you use it,” Laguna growled, clicking off the safety and pushing the gun harder against his assistant’s throat.

“Fuck, Laguna! What in Shiva’s name are you talking about?” Kiros yelled, finally waking up enough to realize that he was in serious trouble.

“I’m talking about one missing General, a boy in the hospital with a cracked skull and another who looks like he ran face first into a truck! All, because of you and your fucking untrustworthy, big mouth!” Laguna screamed. “Well? Thirty seconds left!”

“Laguna! You can’t just shoot me, for god’s sake. I don’t know what the hell you are talking about. Please, just…just move the fucking gun and we can talk about this,” Kiros begged, his eyes wide and still full of confusion. Laguna stared at him, breathing hard and trying to decide what to do.

He was so angry after spending all night sitting in that hospital room holding Zack as he fell to pieces next to the bed of his broken friend. All because of Kiros’ backhanded betrayal of his trust. All because his assistant was so fucking over protective of him that he wouldn’t let anyone get near him.

“Laguna, please! Just…put down the gun and tell me what I’ve done,” Kiros whispered. “At least give me a chance to explain.”

“You told the General,” was all he said, clicking the safety on and moving the gun to rest against his side. “I trusted you and…and now everything has gone to hell.”

“I…,” Kiros’ eyes clouded over in thought and Laguna stared down at his gun, waiting impatiently. “The General’s gone and the other two are hurt because I told him about the intercom?” The President nodded slowly, still not able to look at his so-called best friend.

“But…but I didn’t…I just told him so he’d tell the boy off and stop him from wandering around at night. Laguna, what the fuck happened,” Kiros murmured, the worry in his voice clear.

“The General beat the shit out of Zack and when Cloud tried to intervene he threw him into a wall. After that, he just seems to have disappeared. Zack called for medical help with the intercom. Luckily, Casey was manning the line and ran me immediately. So far only the medical staff that treated them know about it and they’ve all been told to keep their mouths shut,” Laguna rattled off, running a hand through his hair. “What the fuck are we supposed to do now? The General is one of those damn ‘super soldiers’ that intelligence told us about so only the gods know how we’re ever going to find him. Cloud has a fractured skull and still hasn’t woken up and Zack…fuck he’s falling apart.”

“Laguna I…I’m so sorry. If I’d thought for a second that he was going to hurt them, I would never have told him. Fuck, he was always so polite and controlled. Tell me what I can do to make this better.” Laguna didn’t answer. He got up off the bed and simply stood there staring at his feet. Kiros was right. There was no way to foresee that telling Genesis would cause the man to react the way he had. The problem was now, he didn’t know who to blame which meant there was nowhere for his anger to go.

“I need you to get together a group who can be trusted to search the city for any sign of Genesis. If this gets out, that fucking crazy Shinra President will probably declare war on us for taking away one of his prize fighters. While the cities automated defence systems will keep us safe from any sea or air attacks by their army, if just one of the other two Generals got inside the city walls we’d all be fucked. We can only hope that Genesis’ loss of control was only temporary and try to find and talk some sense into him. I think he would have started killing people by now if he planned on doing so.” Laguna finally looked up into the eyes of his best friend. “Can I trust you with this, Kiros?”

“Let me prove to you that you can, Laguna,” Kiros said as he stood and faced the President. “I can’t take back what I did but I can show you that it will never happen again.” Laguna just nodded and walked out of the room.

**.**

Zack opened his eyes to find himself in the hospital room with Cloud. There were only two beds in the private room and Laguna must have moved him onto one after he’d fallen asleep in the President’s arms on the floor. He got up off the bed slowly, his head thumping and eyesight blurring. When his sight finally cleared he walked into the bathroom to relieve himself before washing his hands and looking up into the mirror above the sink.

Bandages covered his nose from the doctors resetting the break and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked like hell but he could feel that the mako in his blood was doing its job to speed up his recovery as the swelling had already gone down significantly from last night.

Walking out to sit back in the chair next to Cloud’s bed he put his head in his hands and tried to think. He remembered Genesis’ rage, how frightened he’d been of the General at that moment. Zack had controlled the urge to fight back in the hope that one hit would be enough but the look in those mako orbs had told him it wasn’t to be. He’d seen that look before in battle and he knew what it meant. The redhead was going to keep hitting him until he killed him.

Cloud had saved his life by intervening but paid a heavy price for his heroics. He could still see the blond hanging from Genesis’ fist with a look of complete terror shining out from his eyes as he’d begged the General to stop. Cloud had been tossed aside with a flick as if he was nothing but a minor distraction. As soon as he’d hit the wall Genesis’ eyes had opened wide in shock and the anger had disappeared. Zack had been released to fall to the ground on his hands and knees, trying to breathe through the blood that filled his nose and mouth. A noise that sounded like something between a sob and scream had erupted from the redhead and he’d run past Zack and out the door.

It was like some kind of fucked up nightmare. Only this morning they’d all been sitting together and having breakfast. Now Cloud wouldn’t wake up and Genesis was gone. No matter what Laguna said, this had all started because of him. He felt so lost and wanted to be back in Laguna’s embrace. After slobbering all over the President last night, he didn’t think that the man was going to come back. The door opened and proved him wrong as Laguna came inside and he stood up to greet him. Without pausing the older man took him in his arms. Zack hugged him back so tightly that the President squeaked.

“Sorry about that,” Zack mumbled into his neck.

“How you feeling this morning,” Laguna asked as his hands rubbed Zack’s back in a soothing motion.

“I’d feel better if Cloud woke up,” Zack whispered as tears threatened to fall. He held them back and swallowed it down. Being the only one left standing, it was up to him to sort out this chaos and he couldn’t do that if he kept falling apart.

“I just talked to the doctor and she said that he is healing fast. I take it that’s normal for soldiers?” Laguna asked.

“Yeah, it’s the mako in our blood. My nose should be fully healed in a week or two.” Zack pulled back to look into the older man’s eyes. “Thank you for everything, Laguna.” The President smiled back and reached up a hand to move a stray strand from the young man’s face.

“I’ve got people out looking for your lost General but we’re keeping it quiet. If we find any signs of him, you’ll be the first to know.” Zack just pulled him back against his chest in response and sighed.

“Is this why Genesis beat the fuck out of us,” a weak voice asked from the bed and Zack turned around to find Cloud smiling weakly at him.

“Cloud!” he yelled and the blond flinched at the sound. “Shit, sorry buddy,” he continued, dropping his voice to a whisper. “I didn’t mean to deafen you. Just so fucking good to see you awake and talking.” He was smiling so hard at his friend that his nose began to throb.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Cloud insisted, looking up at Zack.

“Um…well…no. Laguna was just comforting me ‘cause I was so upset and all…,” Zack’s voice trailed off in a very unconvincing way and Cloud began to laugh.

“You two look like a couple of kids caught kissing by their parents,” the blond giggled. Zack turned around to see Laguna blushing furiously behind him. He thought the older man looked even more attractive when he was embarrassed.

“I…I’ll just go and get the doctor,” the President stuttered out, before fleeing the room. Zack smiled after him before turning back to his friend who was still giggling.

“I think they better cut the dosage on your pain meds, little buddy.”

“Yeah you might be right there.” Cloud stopped laughing and sighed before a shadow crossed his face. “Hey, Zack? What happened to Genesis?”

“He stopped when you hit the wall. It was like he clicked back to normal and…and then he ran. Cloud, I’m sorry. If I hadn’t….”

“Don’t you even think about blaming yourself for this, Zack. Genesis must be sick or…or something! General’s don’t try and kill their men,” Cloud said, cutting Zack off. “Where did he go?”

“We haven’t been able to find him yet…,” Zack trailed off. Cloud had no idea that Genesis’ temper was known to get out of hand, although Zack had never heard of the redhead ever getting this mad at someone before.

“Zack, we have to find him. If Shinra gets wind of this, they’ll hunt him down and blame us. I don’t want to get thrown out of soldier,” Cloud begged.

Before Zack could say anything else the doctor came back in and ordered him out to wait in the hall so she could check Cloud over. He was relieved to find the President standing there and smiled at the slight blush that still painted the older man’s cheeks.

“How about we grab a coffee while we wait?” Laguna asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, okay,” Zack replied, following the President down the hall. He knew finding Genesis was their only option but he couldn’t help worrying what would happen when they did.

**.**

Laguna met with Kiros after leaving Zack with Cloud in the hospital. The doctor had told them that the blond would be released back to their suite in the next week or two as long as he kept healing at the same rate and there were no complications.

Kiros greeted him formally when he entered the President’s office and Laguna sighed, too emotionally and physically drained to ignore it.

“Damn it, Kiros. I’m still pissed at you but that doesn’t mean we aren’t friends anymore. Call me Laguna or I’ll fucking throw something at you,” he growled out. Kiros’ eyebrow rose up at the President’s words and a grin spread across his face.

“I’m very happy you still consider me a friend, Laguna,” his assistant replied. “Though as a friend, I feel I must tell you to get some rest. You get terribly grumpy when you don’t sleep.” Laguna glared at him across his desk before closing his eyes. Maybe his friend had a point.

“I plan on getting some sleep as soon as I finish with you so the sooner we get on with this, the sooner I can sleep,” Laguna muttered, opening his eyes to look at his friend. “Has there been any sign of Genesis?”

“Our men are investigating some leads as we speak. As soon as I hear anything, you will be the first to know. Laguna, please go and rest,” Kiros insisted. “Look, I need to apologize to them both anyway." Laguna tried to hold back a yawn but failed.

“Okay, you win. Just don’t be a prick to Zack. He’s got a lot on his mind and he doesn’t need to deal with your hostility right now,” Laguna growled out as he stood and walked around his desk. Kiros smiled at the President and reached out to squeeze his shoulder.

“I will be on my best behaviour, I promise. After all, I do not want to wake up with your gun in my face again. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience.”

**.**

Zack looked up, expecting to see Laguna entering the room. He was disappointed to find Kiros instead. The President’s assistant bowed deeply to him and Cloud, keeping his head downcast as he spoke.

“I owe both of you my most humblest apologies. What I did was not only a breach of Laguna’s trust, it also endangered both of your lives. My intention was to protect the President from what I perceived to be a threat to his security. I over reacted and will do whatever is in my power to assist in fixing what I have caused to transpire,” Kiros said softly.

Zack stared at Laguna’s assistant. Well, he hadn’t seen that one coming.

“I….umm,” he mumbled, glancing back at Cloud who looked just as shocked. Scratching his head he ran what Kiros had said over in his mind once more and found it did make sense and besides, they needed all the help they could get.

“You were only trying to keep Laguna safe and I’ve gotta respect that,” Zack said before walking over and holding out his hand to Kiros. “How about we start over and just forget it ever happened.” Kiros looked up at him, surprise clear on his face as he shook Zack’s hand.

“I think I’m beginning to understand what Laguna sees in you,” Kiros said with a grin.

**.**.**.**.**.**

tbc