Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Rewards Come to Cowards Too ❯ Foresty Goodness ( Chapter 1 )

The Margin of the Paper: Been a while since I've written anything, especially that I could upload here... So I just got the game, and I couldn't wait to start churning out some shounen-ai. ^_^ Tis usually how it goes. Could be very slightly out of character, but who cares... And we'll assume the average disclaimer, ne?

Muy early in the game, when they're going to Galbadia, I believe. (I wrote this on vacation.)

~

They were in that "dream world" again.

He knew it. He knew because he'd been there before. Which in turn made him wonder why he wasn't there now...but whatever. He grinned mischievously, sneaking a peek at Rinoa. She was dozing a bit, herself, after he had assured her-several times-that Squall (and the others, but he knew as well as any fool just who the princess was worried about) would be just fine. Good. She was properly distracted, then.

He stepped away from the tree he'd been propped against and padded over to their fearless leader. Although Squall had fallen forward, his head was still turned to the side. His breath, steady and slow, propelled a few feather-fine tufts of hair away from his face. A closer look revealed a small bulge of flesh where the SeeD leader's cheek met awkwardly with the ground.

The man was truly something else, even when he couldn't possibly be trying.

It made his onlooker smile.

Another quick glance at everyone around him (especially Rinoa) in order to make sure he was truly unobserved, and then he leaned forward, placing a cautious hand in the middle of his leader's back. "Squall? You there man?" He shook lightly at first. Then, receiving no reply, he shook a second time with more aggression.

He was met with only the slight, gentle rising and falling of the muscled back he caressed.

With a brilliant, victorious grin, he placed one hand on a leather-clad shoulder; his other hand smoothed its way over a belted hip. Then, in one smooth, self-assured motion, he turned Squall Leonheart onto his back. The slumbering body didn't stir in the least.

Of course, he knew that what he was doing was probably wrong on some level, but...it was too good of a chance, and it was just this once...

His fingers twitched in anticipation before lacing themselves together. He wedged the makeshift cradle underneath Squall's head, lifted it into his own lap to be pillowed, and then untwined his fingers gently, taking care not to tangle them in the waterfall of chestnut that flowed around them.

Beautiful...

He reached around to Squall's forehead and, using both hands (just so he could feel more of the silky hair at one time), parted the tousled mane. This action revealed the swordsman's perfect skin and trademark scar, and he couldn't have resisted touching it if he tried. One lone fingertip traced the line of tissue, down between the eyes, and he found himself wanting to follow with his lips.

...But that would be going a little too far.

Instead, he guided his hands down the soft skin of his leader's throat, feeling out twin paths all the way down the muscular chest and abs. He parted the jacket slowly and gazed upon his friend's cotton- and leather-clad body as if it were fine china or a winning lottery ticket. His own pants were beginning to feel slightly constricted from the sensation of hardened muscles and warm cotton sliding against his palms. He ran his digits down around the man's sides, groping lightly and mapping out otherwise untouchable flesh.

In the back of his mind, a tiny voice tried to scold him for his next actions, but it was the same voice that had tried to tell him to go vegetarian the summer prior to, and so he blatantly ignored it again, just as he had before.

Curling his fingertips under the clean white shirt's bottom hem, he slowly edged it up, dragging his scarred knuckles against the belly of the man beneath him. His mouth went dry at the feel of the terrain of his friend's body. The slight grooves and bulges formed from years of training were absolutely perfect, and once the shirt was hiked up past the ripple of a toned stomach, he stopped for a moment to simply admire.

His skin was a pretty color: tanned, but not excessively so. His body leaned forward on its own accord, and he laid his forehead against the other teen's abdomen. A few deep breaths revealed that his leader smelled like leather and fresh laundry - which really wasn't that exotic or surprising, considering the obvious, but still...

It was different...because it was him.

He turned his head and let his cheek rest against his friend's belly instead, taking in the heat and the texture and just the simple niceness of it all. How many nights? How many nights had he stayed behind to watch and enjoy and yearn silently for the object of his desire? His hands strayed lower, smoothing against powerful thighs that amazed him worth perfect katas-perhaps even more perfect than his own.

He chuckled and nuzzled the navel beneath his nose at the thought. Maybe he should voice that thought aloud? It would certainly be worth the bruise to his ego to see the look of utter disbelief on his best friend's face.

He knew he was taking the coward's way out, but he also knew that he had a better chance of watching Shiva sunbathe than actually getting together with his idol.

...And suddenly, something was off as the flesh against his face rumbled to life.

"Zell?"

His body tensed like a bow and he froze, expecting the worse even as he enjoyed the way the baritone purr echoed through the gut of the man beneath him. "Yeah?"

"Lean back for a sec."

The order was carried out immediately, albeit slowly. The tension still flowed throughout his body, making it feel as if his back would snap in two. When he was upright once more, his breath was shocked from his body when the man below him shifted and, instead of sitting up and decking him good, moved closer. Closer, in fact, until his back was nestled in the curve of his crossed calves, and -holy shit-- his head found a resting place right against the inside of his left thigh. He watched in a slight haze of disbelief as his friend shifted a few more times, adjusting limbs and clothing, and then stilled once more.

It took every ounce of willpower in him to force his voice from his body. "B-better?"

"Yeah."

He ran his fingers through Squall's hair, receiving a very small, very rare smile for it.

And after that, nothing else mattered.