It all start with an accident

Prologue

Cloud Strife lifted his eyes up to look at the dark haired SOLDIER that was bending over him. "Hey, are you doing ok?" He pushed the hand he was offered away. "I'm fine." He tried to stand up but the pain that rose from his broken ankle made his eyes water.

"DAMNIT!" Yelled the young trainee. Zack looked down at his injuried barefoot. "That doesn't look good Spike, we should go to the nurse's office." Cloud shivered, the nurse, who he saw too often to for his taste, just freaked him out. Always hurting him more than he already was. "Please Zack, I don't want to see her." The raven haired man grinned. "We don't have a choice, I'm not good for fixing wounds."

The SOLDIER wrapped one arm around the smaller boy's waist and hold him up. Cloud blushed, the feeling of his body being pressed against his friend's was making his brain want to disconnect. "Am I embarassing you?" He didn't answer, staring down at his barefeet. "Spike?" He grabbed his chin with his free hand and forced him to look him in the eyes.

"Do you like me?" The blond trainee felt the part of his brain that controlled his speech shut down, he just nodded. drowning in the mako infused eyes staring at him. "I like you too." The next thing the cadet knew was that the SOLDIER's lips were on his, making his blood rush. "As much as I like to kiss you we have to see Ms. Hart." He sighed but let his friend support him to the nurse's office.

The tall, large, masculine nurse that was ironicly named 'Hart' wasn't happy to see the first-class SOLDIER carying in the blond cadet. "Zachary, what have you done to him this time?" The ebony-haired man just grinned and answered the same thing he always did. "Just a dumb accident." She shook her head and walked up at Cloud with a strange looking instrument, the cadet was shaking in fear. "Calm down Spikey, I won't let her experiment on you." The older man whispered in the trainee's ear while slidding his hand in his.

Even if she was scaring the shit out of him, Cloud calmed down. The nurse didn't use magical healing means on cadets, just to teach them a lesson. She looked at the strange angled ankle, took it in her hands and turned it back in place. The blond yelled, crushing Zack's hand while tears started to fall from his eyes. "I'm here baby, don't worry, It's almost over, I love you." Whispered Zack while the nurse was putting a cast on the smaller's boy foot. Two curious blue eyes turned to look at him, wondering if he had heard rigth.

She handed out a vial of painkilling liquid with a serynge. "1 ml each four hours, not more, not less, and you..." she pointed at Zack. "Don't bring him back any time soon." He smiled and dragged his smaller friend out in the hallway. They walked up to the cadet's room without saying a word.

'You can't leave me alone after what you said!' A voice in Cloud's head yelled. "Don't worry, I'm just picking up clothes for you." The SOLDIER said, as if he had read his thougths. He knocked on the door and the young man's roommate openned. "Cloud?! What happend?" He exclamed seeing the cast on his friend's rigth foot. "Nothing, just a training accident." The blond replied. Zack got in the room and fumbled througth Strife's closet, he took a small travel pack and stuffed it with clothes and personal stuff for a couple of day. The roommate was staring at Zack. "I'm taking him to my quarters for his recovery. I'll bring him back in one piece." The dark-haired man grinned.

The other trainee looked at his friend. "Well. I hope you get better soon enough. See ya in a while." The blond rookie smiled and left with Zack holding him up.
*****

They got to Zack's private quarters. It was the first time the SOLDIER brougth him here, on the door you could read 'First-Class SOLDIER, Zachary Steel' Cloud smiled, wondering if he would ever get something like that. The ebony-haired man slid his keycard in the reader and the door unlocked with a beep. He helped the blond trainee walk in and installed him on the couch, sitting beside him.

"Zack..." He gently put his index on the younger man's lips. "Shhh..." he replaced his finger by his lips. Cloud melted in their tongue tango. "Do you really love me?" Asked the rookie when they broke the kiss, looking for air. Zack nodded. "I love you."

He stood up and got the painkiller medication out of his pocket. "You want me to shoot it?" He was serious, a weird expression on his always grinning face. "Ok." answered the young man, only wanting the pain to go away. Zack filled the serynge with the rigth amount of liquid, hit on the younger man's forearm, just beneath the elbow. Then he slid the needle in the vein. Cloud was amazed of how he knew to give shoots without any pain. The burning that was raising from his foot started to faint away.

"Where did you learn to do that?" The SOLDIER bit his lip. "I once was a mako addict, in another life." He forced his self to smile. "Are you hungry kid?" Cloud nodded and Zack went in the kitchen. He got a plate of leftovers and started the microwave.

"What are you making?" asked Cloud when Zack brougth him apple juice. "Some stew my mom made for me." Cloud smiled. "Does your mom cook everything for you?" Zack grinned. "Well I can eat at the cantine and she sends me tons of homemade frozen food every week." Cloud shook his head and the microwave beeped.

The SOLDIER came back quickly with a plate of steaming hot stew. "Eat now, talk later." Cloud obey, eating as fast as he normally did, being in the military doesn't allow you to take your time to eat. Zack sat beside him, turning the TV on, waiting for him to finish.

Exactly seven minutes later, Cloud was finished. He discarded the plate on the coffee table and the SOLDIER sitting next to him wrapped his arms around him. "You should sleep baby. Rest is the most important part of recovery." Cloud leaned against the older man and started to feel groggy. Maybe it was the meds, maybe it was the proximity of a warm body but it took only a couple of minutes and he was sleeping.