A/n: This is a small Christmas piece for Rainbow. Thank you so much for your writing and support and supportive writing, lol! You're the best! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Do. Not. Own…

Warning(s): Mature content in this one…

You Make It Real

His biological clock told him that it was a couple of hours past midnight, which would make this day, officially, Christmas. It wasn't the reason he had forgotten to check the time on the nightstand before he was up and out of bed, walking through the long and dark hallways of his lover's SOLDIER 1st class quarters in a semi-awake state, praying his senses weren't playing a trick of him. He wasn't sure whether he'd be able to handle the disappointment if he were wrong and a part of him was reluctant to reach the front door for fear of not finding anything there. The other part of him was so positive though and insistent enough, it wouldn't let him rest peacefully without physical reassurance that Zack was indeed away on a mission and not home.

To his surprise, he found the sable-haired SOLDIER standing on the doorway of the apartment with his large black duffle bag right next to him on the floor. He was fondling with his back pocket, probably sliding his keycard back into it, and looked up at Cloud once he was done with the menial task.

"Hey babe," he greeted softly, a small grin spreading on his lips which turned sheepish the moment he really took in Cloud's drowsy features. "Sorry I woke you up," a gloved hand reached back to scratch at the back of his head. "I was trying to open the door but the key wouldn't work and it's cold so I—"

"You were due back next week," was the only thing Cloud come up with in his awe.

ShinRa wasn't huge with holidays and it was strangely different, coming from a backwater town that practically drowned in decorations for the occasions, seeing as chances to celebrate something at all were scarce to come by, he had to say it felt relaxing to a point. He hadn't loved Christmas back in Nibleheim. It wasn't like he had a reason to be 'jolly' at the town parties. He didn't dance, he didn't drink and he certainly didn't socialize. He hated the food, the treats, covered in sugar, stuffed with sugar then frosted on the outside with sugar with more sugar sprinkled on the top. He didn't get gifts that he could show off around the village the next day with his friends, he didn't have friends and he only got stuff he needed, clothes and underwear mainly since he'd been in his awkward growing stage before he'd left for Midgar.

ShinRa remained decoration-less and calm enough that it was hard to tell the season at all. They did give the day off to cadets and lower ranked SOLDIERs within the compound but their very best weren't exempt from arduous work and missions that required immediate attention. Their very best had obviously meant Zack, among others. Cloud had been disappointed to learn that his boyfriend of almost a year had been assigned to a month-long mission at the beginning of the month. He'd done his best to keep a straight face and to not say offhanded comments that could give away his disillusionment, knowing Zack had felt guilty enough for the both of them as it was, but it had been a blow. He hadn't had anyone special—bar his mother—to spend this particular occasion with before and had hoped they would be together the one time he did have someone to share with.

"I pulled a couple of all-nighters last week," Zack breathed tiredly, leaning down to grab his bag. He closed the door behind him with his foot, then put the duffle down again, pulling his gloves off now in the warmth of his apartment. "I wanted to spend Christmas with you, spiky. It's been ages since I've had someone to do that with. I mean, Seph's alright but he's never around and the guys are not as good a company as you are, and…" Zack's words became indistinct to Cloud. He blinked and remained quiet, at a loss for words. Blood was rushing to his face, he could feel his cheeks and his ears burning. It was all so surreal.

Not used to someone doing something for him as extremely sweet as this, he wanted to run and hide anywhere and not come out until this fear had passed, the fear that the scene before him wasn't real, that it was somehow a lie or a joke, all those years he was picked on back in his small town weighing down on the reality of the matter. Truth was, he had never felt so loved and wanted in his life. It both startled and terrified him.

"…we can curl up on the couch and watch TV or something, I'll make something to eat and…and…you're crying," Zack faltered in his rambling, furrowing a brow. Cloud sniffled and shook his head, drying his tears hastily with the back of his hand, the ruddiness in his face darkening. When had he turned into a girl?

"I'm fine," he whispered hoarsely.

"You're not fine," Zack closed up on him and cupped his face in his hands, gently drying the trail of tears with the pads of his thumbs. They locked eyes and Zack leaned closer for a chaste kiss.

"I missed you so much," he whispered against his lips and Cloud clung to his hips with tender fingers.

"I missed you too." They kissed again, their foreheads remaining lightly pressed when they parted.

"Yeah?" Zack asked, his grin turning mischievous. "I'm not sure I believe you, chocobo. You'll have to show me."

Cloud rolled his eyes with a knowing smirk, his face flushing brightly again, despite knowing what a horny tease Zack could be. Trust his one-of-a-kind lover to turn a fairly romantic moment such as this into a sexual invitation. "I'll show you…"

.o.

"Oh Cloud…" Zack let his eyes roll to the back of his head, the burning wetness around his cock threatening to blow his mind. They had left a trail of clothes all the way to their room and had tumbled into bed naked and aching with need, three weeks without this turning out to be too much for them after all. He shivered as Cloud got as close to the base as he could with his lips around his hardened length and sucked hard to the tip, repeating the process a few more times without letting up, lewd wet sounds echoing in the quiet of the room that only served to fuel his already singeing nerves. Teeth gently graced the head and the blond switched to kiss and nibble down the shaft, pressing it against his lover's lower stomach with deft fingers that kept lightly stroking up and down the underside of his length while he kissed in between the base and his sack.

He gave playful sucks to his testes then flicked them with the tip of his tongue, guiding himself by Zack's low whimpers and quiet moans to know how he liked it best. Then he trailed lower, reaching his perineum with skillful precision, what he'd determined was the man's most erogenous zone based on their previous sexual encounters. He teased it with his tongue first then massaged it gently with the knuckles of his index and middle fingers, putting just enough pressure to make the man jerk underneath him.

"Mnnn baby…feels good…haah…shit, Cloud…" Zack unconsciously spread his legs wider, the stimulation too little and too much at the same time. His whole body was quivering with desire, flushed and overheated from the pleasure only Cloud could incite in him. The boy was a god in the blowjob department, Zack had no doubt about that and he didn't mind recognizing it, after all, he'd only learned from the best.

He watched the drops of precum leaking from the slit of his cock with heavy-lidded eyes as Cloud kissed his way up again, his knuckles still teasing the small space underneath his balls. Cloud pressed the flat of his tongue against the underside of his shaft and licked up to the head, lapping up the clear fluid that had dribbled down the length. Then he supported himself with his hands at either side of the man's hips on the bed and took him fully inside his mouth, suctioning hard, his head bobbing in frantic, almost erratic movements. Zack hissed, eyes fluttering closed in bliss, his jaw clenching tightly. He managed to prop himself up on his elbows to better watch Cloud working him, driving him to the brink steadfastly, he had to hold tight to what little control he had so not to cum right here and now.

"Cloud…" The husky whisper was meant to come out warningly, but Cloud seemed to have gotten the message and stopped, bringing him out of his mouth with a soft suction sound. Zack's cock immediately sprang erect toward his lower stomach and Cloud took the opportunity to prepare himself for penetration while committing the sight to memory. He liked pleasuring Zack, bring him to a point of insanity only to have him boil down. Zack had good control when he was aroused, probably a product of having done this kind of thing a lot more than Cloud had before they had gotten together. It was sometimes hard for Cloud to drive him into this kind of state, though certainly rewarding, reason why he never passed the chance when it was presented to him.

He gave the raven time to cool down, otherwise he'd release much too soon while doing him, and he wanted tonight to last. Reaching into the nightstand drawer, he shuffled through random objects in his quest to find the small tube of lube always kept there. Once he had it, he got on all fours and began the process of prepping himself. He could hear his lover's breathing calming down while he thrust and pulled two of his fingers inside himself.

"God baby…you know you look hot doing that, right?" Zack's more sober voice broke through the silence and Cloud looked up, blushing a little at being caught like this, Zack's intense stare only making it worse.

"Yeah well," he muttered shyly, looking away abashed. Zack smirked and raised a brow, seemingly amused.

"And he blushes…right after giving me the most amazing blowjob in Gaia," he bent his arms under his head and stared at the ceiling for a moment, fully relaxed, before his amethyst eyes fell on Cloud again. Cloud's whole body tensed as the boy fondled the bundle of nerves that made his body sear and shudder. He lowered his head and rocked into his fingers, his cock hard in between his legs. A small moan escaped him and Zack sat up, unable to contain himself any longer. He cupped his face in his hand, urging him to look up.

"Come here," they locked lips, one laying back, taking the other to crawl on top. Cloud straddled Zack's hips without much difficulty. He poured more lube onto his fingers and stroked Zack lightly only to spread the gel-like substance well. Then he got on his knees and positioned the head of Zack's cock at his puckered, stimulated entrance, feeling it twitch violently in anticipation. He was just about to lower himself onto his lover's length when—

"Wait!" Zack sat up and Cloud held still, questioning sapphire eyes staring straight into bright indigo ones. The sable-haired fighter turned on his side and reached blindly under the bed, sitting upright again once he found what he was looking for. Cloud arched a thin golden brow in horrification.

"It's Christmas," Zack said, as if it would do justice to the two Santa hats in his hand. The blond let out an unmanly squeak. Talk about anticlimactic. He wasn't given a chance to protest for his boyfriend swiftly squeezed his own fuzzy red hat on with white feathery edges and big white ball of cotton at the peaked top. His wild spikes of hair still stuck this way and that and the longer Cloud stared, the more he realized, in an embarrassing sort of morose fascination, that Zack looked hot like this. Then again, Zack looked hot in just about anything, he should've foreseen that.

Cloud tried to consider his options under the circumstances, the blood pumping in his head, making his ears buzz from how painfully aroused he was not making it easier for him at all. He was hard, aching for his lover after the month-long-turned-three-week mission without him, fully stretched, above him, all he needed to do was lower himself onto him. He felt more than saw Zack slip the hat on him and allowed it, to hell with it. He might not be a fan of Christmas but being with Zack sure had changed his life and the way he saw things now. Why not let him influence in yet another aspect of his life?

"You look—" Zack stopped mid-sentence under Cloud's say-cute-and-die glare. Right. It's not like he was going to say it, anyway. After almost a year of being together, he knew better than that.

.o.

They lay spent in bed, Cloud on his side with Zack behind him, still intimately connected. Zack's hat had fallen off at some point during the peak of their passion and Cloud found it extremely unfair that his hat had stuck firmly in place, even after Zack taking him he on top, on his hands and knees and twice in the position they were in now. He would've reached up to take it off now but he was way too comfortable and warm in his lover's arms. The sun had come up by now, giving their room a nice golden glow that seemed to go with their contentedly quiet post-coital mood.

"I got you something for Christmas," Cloud started shyly. Zack stopped running the tips of his fingers up and down his younger lover's arm and pursed his lips to leave a kiss on the boy's bare shoulder.

"I got you something too," he said and Cloud turned as much as he could in their position to look up at him. He would've said that just being home for the holiday was enough for him but it sounded corny even to his own ears. "Though coming home to you was the best gift of all," and something definitely only Zack would say. Zack grinned and Cloud allowed his lips to spread into a small and timid smile. If he hadn't been certain already, he would know then that his boyfriend was quite the catch.

The season to be jolly…it was, indeed …

The End. I hope you had a good time while reading, Rain. Thank you again and Merry Xmas!