Let me guide you through the rain

“An…Angeal…?”

Zack’s voice quavered softly as he turned to look at the other dark haired man, his close-friend, and his mentor. Angeal. Zack felt ashamed. Quickly, he wrapped his arms around himself and looked away from the other first, not knowing what kind of convincing excuse that he could make.

“Zack, what’s wrong?” Angeal’s voice was insistent as his eyes scanned over the younger male’s trembling and shaking frame. Something was dead wrong, but Angeal couldn’t detect what it was. Angeal could see Zack’s unusually mussed hair and he could hear the quiver in his voice and then when Angeal moved in front of Zack and knelt in front of him, he could see it.

Zack’s lips were bruised dark and violently, his face was flushed and burning brightly. But more than anything, it was Zack’s eyes that sent tremors of fear up through Angeal’s spine. Zack had always been a brave man, going through so much struggle and resistance in life, something absolutely terrible must have happened if Zack was giving Angeal this sort of expression.

“Zack, tell me what happened,” Angeal demanded out of concern, moving his hands to the younger male’s shoulders as Zack tried to avoid his gaze.

“Ang…Angeal, Stop…” He pleaded weakly, shaking his head as his eyes watered. Angeal couldn’t see him like this. He couldn’t allow it, “Please, stop,”

“Tell me what’s going on,” Angeal wasn’t asking, he was commanding it.

“…I…I can’t,” He said shakily as he tried to get to his feet. He had to get away from Angeal. He couldn’t let Angeal know about what had happened. Unfortunately though, due to the shock of the previous event, Zack’s steps faltered and he crumbled to the ground, landing on his hands and knees before swaying to one side and landing with his back away from Angeal. It was at this point that Angeal noticed something.

Between Zack’s legs, there was a hard bulge; he could even see the slightest amount of dampness gathered there.

Zack was in frenzy, with tears in his eyes and an erection straining in his pants.

Angeal feared the worse.

Zack hid his face by dropping his head and draping his arm over his eyes, “D…Don’t,” He warned as if he didn’t want Angeal to touch him, almost as if he didn’t trust him.

“Zack…It’s alright,” Angeal said in a soothing manner as he moved forward and touched a hand across Zack’s forehead, the boy shuddered like a leaf. “I’ll take care of you,” He promised solemnly as he moved forward and scooped Zack up into his arms. Instinctively Zack tried to squirm away, but Angeal held him tight to his chest, running a hand across the back of his head and briskly walking down the hall with Zack in tow.

Zack buried his face in Angeal’s shoulder, not wanting to see the confused stares that the SOLDIERs in the hallways gave to him. All he wanted was to…to…Come to think of it, Zack didn’t know what he wanted. Part of him wanted to go back to Cloud, but not like this. In short, Zack was confused, he just wanted the confusion to go away. Yea, that’s what Zack wanted.

Before he knew it, Zack could hear a door opening and he soon realized that he was in Angeal’s room. Zack knew these walls all too well, he knew the floor and the ceiling and particularly the bed. Angeal’s room had always been kept impeccably clean, it was always spotless and never once had Zack seen it cluttered. Somehow, there was something comforting in the fact that one didn’t have to worry about stepping on something like stray materia or sword-oil every time they came into the room. Zack’s room however, was always a mess.

Zack gave a small grunt as his back met the covers of the bed, he rolled slightly and turned his head away, avoiding Angeal’s eyes. Softly, he ran a hand over the blanket and couldn’t help but smile slightly. There was just so much comfort here and it felt good to Zack to be laying in Angeal’s bed again like this. Now this was no time to assume that Angeal and Zack’s relationship had ever been sexual, oh no, it wasn’t like that at all, it never had been. It was more correct to assume that they had a brotherly bond. Many times, especially when Zack had first joined SOLDIER, he would suffer from lonely pangs to the point where he couldn’t sleep at night, eventually it showed in his training. So Zack began to sneak into Angeal’s room and would curl up beside him on the bed.

However, after Zack had met Aerith, he stopped making nightly visits to Angeal.

“Zack…” The first class in question lifted a brow and looked toward Angeal, his eyes still watering as Angeal moved a hand forward and ruffled his hair softly, “You need to tell me what’s going on, or I can’t help you,”

Reluctantly, Zack pushed himself up onto his hands as he slowly shook his head, trying to smile, “I…It’s okay, Angeal, you’ve already helped me a ton, you don’t need to help me anymore. I can take care of myself,” He was trying to be confident, and it was failing.

“Don’t lie to me, Zack,” Angeal said in a clipped tone that made Zack’s over exaggerated smile shrink, “You can’t always do everything on your own, you should know this by now. Let me help you,” He insisted.

“You…really wanna help?”

Angeal nodded firmly and said nothing.

“Don’t tell anyone about this…okay?” Zack asked shakily, “And…and don’t say anything to Sephir…” Zack’s eyes widened and he slapped his hands over his mouth as if he was trying to push the words back inside. Fear swarmed his insides like a virus.

“Sephiroth?” Angeal questioned, the hairs on the back of his neck standing, “Is he the one who did this to you?” The other first demanded, obviously on edge about this entire thing. He pushed himself to his feet as though he were ready to stalk down the hallways and find Sephiroth to demand some sort of answer. Zack sensed his intentions and lashed his hands out, grabbing onto Angeal’s uniform.

“Angeal, wait!” Zack cried out in panic, “Don’t do anything, please! It’ll only make things worse!” At this point, Zack was half stretched out of the bed, hanging onto Angeal and nearly sliding off of the covers. Luckily for Zack, Angeal pulled him back up.

“You’re just going to let him get away with something like this, Zack?!” Angeal was in a frenzy by now.

“Angeal, stop! Going down there like this is just going to cause problems, you can’t take on Sephiroth by yourself!” He didn’t like doubting Angeal’s strength, but Sephiroth had advantages over Angeal. Sephiroth didn’t have the honor that Angeal did and that was Angeal’s weakness, “Please, Angeal…” Zack’s voice faltered at this moment and became heavy, “Please…I want you to stay here with me…” The grip of Zack’s hands loosened and he dropped his head.

Angeal’s temper lowered and the furrow in his brow disappeared with a sigh. Slowly, Angeal’s fight or flight reflex began to vanish and he moved back over to the bed beside Zack, he lifted his arms and pulled the younger male up to his chest. “I will deal with Sephiroth later, but for now…you should rest,”

Zack didn’t want to sleep, and he tried to shake his head, but the way that Angeal held him like that, almost like an elder brother, it was so comforting and soothing that he couldn’t help but close his eyes. “O…kay…” He whispered out lightly, his weight going limp against Angeal as he fell into a dream.

As Zack’s mind was swept away into a dreamland so far away that it really was a fantasy, he couldn’t help but smile. The scenery that his mind had pulled together was perfect. From what he could gather, he was back in Gongaga and the season growing late, the leaves on the trees were all changing colors and even the smell in the air was different now that winter was steadily approaching. He could nearly see the water of the nearby lake crystallizing over and before he knew it, he could hear footsteps behind him.

He was ready to spin around and fight, he even drew his blade, but when he turned on his heels, he faltered.

It was not the image of an enemy that was behind him. No, there was blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and the most amazing smile that he’d ever seen. Cloud. Zack only smiled and dove forward, trying to wrap his arms around the image, but it disappeared into the swirling green light of the lifestream and before Zack could react, there was a new image beside him all made of malice and merciless bloodlust all embodied in silver hair and leather.

Sephiroth.

It was at this point that Zack’s eyes opened, his chest heaving as his heart pounded in his chest. Something was wrong, he had the gut feeling, an instinct. Panic swept through him as he forced himself away from Angeal. The fear had him stumbling and he landed on the floor loudly, which in turn pulled Angeal to his senses.

“Zack?”

“I…I’ve gotta go,” Zack stammered as he stumbled up to his feet, running for the door, “I have to see Cloud,” He had to make sure that Cloud was alright. He had to.

As he ran through the halls, Zack didn’t register that all of the other SOLDIERs were now gone. The halls were empty and it made it easier to move, but he should have found it suspicious. The sound of his feet and the pounding of his own heart in his ears were the only sounds that he could register at this moment.

‘You better not touch him Sephiroth,’ He swore mentally as he skidded down the hallway and turned sharply to avoid a corner as he ran past the Materia room. His shoes squeaked in protest as he rounded another corner and bolted down the hallway, leaping down the stairs and not bothering with the elevator. He had to get down to the rooms where Cloud was, he had to.

Unfortunately, Zack’s concern and panic had clouded his mind. Zack didn’t realize that he’d past Cloud already, he didn’t realize that Cloud was on the opposite side of the sound-proof glass that was between the Director’s room and the Briefing room.

If only Zack had checked the briefing room, he would have seen that Sephiroth’s task was already half complete.

Author’s Notes: Some how…I have the feeling that this is going to end up like my Reks and Vaan fic…started out small but became a weed and won’t stop growing. Hahaa. Anyway, ugh, writing this was hard because I have an absolutely horrible burn on the roof of my mouth and I keep getting distracted because it hurts, and agh…I’m not a happy smut-writer…