Zack tore open another bag of chips, this time potato, and Cloud just didn't know anymore if he was getting any real studying done by that point. Probably he should've just refused Zack and pored over his notes by himself.

--but no. He couldn't have ever turned down his friend at all. Whatever help it was he'd meant to offer, even.

Cloud slid his gaze back down to the weapons chart on his notebook, tapping his pen against his chin. By now the entire page couldn't look any more stupid, and he knew he should just stop drawing those silly little hearts already.

The soft, wee sigh out of him couldn't be suppressed.

Probably he shouldn't like his friend so much in the first place, anyway.

"Okay, so --"

Cloud's eyes flicked up and he clutched his notes to his chest -- just to be safe. He didn't know if Zack could see from over the pile of books across the table.

"-- gimme at least three uses of the pink Materia." The SOLDIER dipped his fingers into the bag and then chomped on a handful of chips, his crunching noise not distracting Cloud on purpose.

"Um." He had an answer, Cloud thought. "It lets you, um, wait..."

"Got ya." Zack's head tossed back, and the spikes of his dark hair bent like grass blades in a gust of wind. "Pink Materia don't exist!"

Cloud blinked. Of course he knew that. ...or did he?

Oh, crap. Cloud could say that for a 15-year-old small-town boy he wasn't particularly dumb in most things, but around Zack, probably he'd say otherwise.

Zack broke into a chuckle, and Cloud didn't want to know if it was because he found him as smart as a stoned chocobo. "Looks like we're gonna have to cram 'til dawn at this rate, huh?"

Cloud didn't really know why Zack would spend the night in his room instead of out someplace where all the fun was, but he wasn't about to bother and question his luck. And so even though Zack had mostly just actually been bugging him -- though admittedly far from a bad way -- more than helping him prep for his tests like he'd said he would, Cloud was quick to nod, "Yeah, looks like it." Nobody claimed getting into SOLDIER would be a breeze, anyway.

When Zack shot him a grin, Cloud didn't know why it gave him a funny feeling in the stomach. What was glaringly clear to him though, against the little wall mirror behind Zack, was the growing abashed color of his face.

"Um." Cloud darted up out of his chair as if someone had just barked at him to Stand ten-hut! "I gotta get us more drinks then."

"Alright. Thanks!"

Cloud didn't know how he was able to cross the room without his limbs cracking like brittle ice, the way they seemed to be freezing with his every step. He could feel Zack's eyes on the back of his head, or somewhere on his back, and he wished he knew why it had to feel so uncomfortably nice for heaven's sake.

The moment he pulled open the door to the mini-fridge and dipped his head to take a peek in, he had no idea, all of a sudden, why he was standing there at all, or at least what he was supposed to take out to begin with.

He sneaked a look over his shoulder, then snatched it back before the older boy noticed.

Cloud was, as a matter of fact, lost on a lot of things at the moment. He didn't really know what Zack was doing there. Why Zack had approached him in the cafeteria line that first day. Why Zack had seemed so eager to know his name. Why Zack seemed to be talking unusually less tonight. Why Zack always looked at him like he could use a kiss. Why Zack always smiled at him like he cared...

Bit by bit, Cloud's blurry gaze focused itself on a soda can. Oh, yes. The drinks.

He grabbed himself a pair of cans and tapped the door shut, feeling his bare shoulders shiver in the momentary frost.

Oddly enough, his mouth felt suddenly parched, as though he'd been breathing air from inside a burning house. He tucked one can in the inside of his elbow while he ripped off the tab of the other. Instantly he felt his throat jump from the rush of chilled lemon-lime.

The pounding in his chest was hard enough to hurt, if he hadn't noticed it all along. It scared him silly, although he didn't know if his heart could actually kill him by beating that fast.

One more thing he didn't know, at this critical point, was how to deal with the tightness growing in the crotch of his pants. And it was only becoming unbearable. Even if he knew better, Cloud rubbed himself against the edge of the countertop, if only for a tiny second and a half.

"Don't these chips just make you thirsty?"

With a start, Cloud flicked his gaze to the side to find Zack standing right next to him. He didn't even know when he'd left the table.

Cloud made a nervous little sound. "Um, sorry, here's your drink."

"Looks good." Zack reached for the soda can, but Cloud didn't know how he could take the one he'd already drunk from. Suddenly they were caught in an awkward pause, and Cloud just didn't know why Zack would barely move and only stand there looking at him.

This close, Cloud could feel Zack's immense heat. And smell it, almost.

Then, the moment Zack pressed his lips against the dampened tab hole and took a long, slow drink of the blond's remaining soda, things started to dawn on Cloud all at once -- and he knew, with only the slightest of doubts, even before he felt a certain hardness brush against his hip and a foot slip between his feet, that he wasn't going to get any more studying done for the night, after all.

END

And it's all Zack's fault Cloud didn't make it to SOLDIER. :P