FFVII ~ 7 minutes in Heaven: Zack

Special Setting:
The night after the party you go to sleep in your bed, laughing at all that had happened. No sooner do you close your eyes, you reopen them to find yourself back in the living-room, where the party had been. The room is full of people you have never met. You look around and spot three males sitting just away from you on the sofa, all looking at you. One of them smiles.
“You didn't think we'd let our old friends have all the fun, did you?”
You take a step back.
“What do you mean?”
”Let's just say we all used to know Cloud...”
“No, I mean what do you mean by have all the fun.”
One of the males, a boy with black hair and a goofy grin on his face, says,
“You're playing seven minutes in heaven with us!”
You nearly fall over.
“C-come again?”
To cut a long story short, you realise you must be dreaming and decide to play along with it. You end up sitting in between two of the males, and then the third passes you a...
“A glove?”
The boy shrugs.
“It's all we've got.”
You laugh and pull out a piece of paper. What's on it?
“A sword?”
You say half-heartedly, stuffing the paper into your pocket and pulling your iPod out as you rise to your feet. Even if this is a dream, you're still no where near excited about playing seven minutes in heaven... it had been embarrassing enough the first time. Why did you have to get Cid of all people!?
You walk over to the closet, knowing fine well where it is by now, and open the door. You don't hear anyone getting up, but you don't bother about it and walk into the darkness. You close the door behind you then walk to the far corner of the closet. You turn around and drag your hands down the wall, finding the floor.
You watch the door for a little while, but no one comes in... that's weird.
You shrug. What can you expect from a dream? Things never stay the same for long, for all you know, the second you open the closet door you could be in an alien space-ship... it could happen.
You put the headphones of your i-pod into your ears and then switch a song on, loudest it will go.
You watch the door for a few moments more, but when no one comes in, you close your eyes and start to sing along to the song, tapping your toes against the floor to the beat.
A few minutes later and the song's over. You sigh and open your eyes, then you scream.
“When did you get in here!?”
The black haired boy from before smiles.
“Sorry, I just wanted to hear the whole of the song.”
You twitch.
“And you heard me singing?”
Your head droops. You hate when people hear you singing. The boy replies,
“Yes I did, and you're really good.”
“Oh, jeez, thank- wait, what?”
You look back up at him, shocked at the compliment.
“I said you're a good singer.” He tilts his head slightly. “Do you not get told that often?”
“Does this look like the face of someone who does?” You say, your eyebrows almost as high as your hairline. He chuckles slightly.
“You're cute.”
You look back at the floor, a blush on your face.
“Um..thanks.”
You hear shuffling, then look up to see the boy sat down in front of you, his legs crossed and his arm outstretched.
“Name's Zack. What's yours?”
You take his hand and shake it.
“____. Nice to meet you.”
Zack grins.
“Yeah.”
You let go of his hand and drop yours back to your side. You look around and say,
“So how come we're playing seven minutes in heaven...?”
Zack shrugs.
“We just wanted to, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Yeah, we had no real reason.” He says, laughing and scratching his head. You tilt your head. “Oh, okay...”
He stops laughing. “What?”
You shrug. “Nothing, I was just wondering, you seemed very eager before..”
“Well yeah, I wanted to be in here with you-”
“Hold up, cheesy-puff! Don't get cliché on me!”
He blinks. You continue, “If this is my dream, I don't want you being a sap- no offence.”
He raises his eyebrow and smirks.
“And what do you mean by 'dream' exactly?”
You laugh. “Well you know, I'm asleep and I'm thinking you guys up...” You cock your head to the side. “Though I hear you have to have seen the person to have them in your dream... and I think I would have remembered you.”
He laughs. “Now who's being cheesy?”
You giggle.
Zack suddenly gets to his feet. You look up at him, curious to his action, but then he offers you his hand. You take it so he pulls you to your feet, then wraps his arms around you waist. There's a gentle smile on his face.
“Well then if this is all a dream, and we won't be here when you wake up, I think I want to make this count.”
He lifts you up easily in his arms and pressed his lips to yours.
You had already melted into him by the time he'd finished talking.
You place one arm over his shoulder and one against his chest as he holds you against him, your feet too high to touch the ground. His kisses are soft and delicate and you feel him holding you close against him - not forcefully, lustfully. He is holding you as if you are flower he wants to protect from the icy winds.
He draws back from your lips, leaning in again only to kiss your nose, the same gentle look on his face.
“Sometimes I wish this was a dream - my dream - and then I'd wake up from it, back with the rest of the world.”
You look closely at him, noticing the sudden sadness in his eyes. Feeling compelled to do so, both your arms find themselves around his neck, pulling him so his head is resting on your shoulder and your hands are stroking his hair.
“Zack... what do you mean?”
He sighs against your neck, breath tickling the skin, and lowers you back to the ground. For a moment he does not know what to do, so he wraps his arms around your waist again and rests his head on top of yours, comforted by the closeness. You know there is something very wrong but can't bring yourself to force the question from your lips so you simply wrap your arms around his stomach - or as much as you can, considering his toned stomach muscles prevent your fingers from touching across his back - in an attempt to console him. He sighs.
“I was real... once...a few years ago really... but not any more.” He pulls away then looks at you, placing his hands on your shoulders. “____, I'm... I'm not alive any more. I died two years ago.”
You look at him, your eyes worried - not for your sanity or your safety, but for him. You are fighting with yourself on the inside as you have no idea how to comfort him. You can't exactly say 'don't worry, when I wake up you'll disappear and it'll all be over'...- or can you? No! Bad idea!
“Well if you died.... how are you here?”
He looks at his feet, the expression on his face pulling at your heartstrings.
“Well like you said, I'm just a dream. A memory.”
You frown, realising now that something does not add up.
“That can't be right. You can't be a memory. I've never seen you before in my life before today- uhh, tonight.”
Hearing this, Zack also frowns,
“Hey you're right,” He sits down, crossing his legs with a thoughtful expression on his face. “It was Angeal who organised tonight so I guess he'll know something...”
You sit down with him and laugh, preferring the thoughtful face he has now, to the sad one from a moment ago,
“You know what? It doesn't matter. You're here now, I'm here now, that's all I care about. I might not have known you long but I know I would've loved you when you were alive.”
Zack looks up from the floor, his thoughtful expression replaced by a shocked one, then, after a moment, he smiles,
“Thank you, ____.”
You sigh in relief, glad to see you have managed to change the subject. Zack, with a smile that could put models to shame, suddenly leans forward, one hand supporting him on the floor, and cups your face with the other. He strokes your cheek, leaning in further until his lips connect with yours for the second time, knocking the breath clean out of you. His lips begin to move rhythmically against yours, pulling yours into motion as well, as if in a dance. Together you kiss and break, kiss and break, his hand leaving your cheek to run fingers through your hair, stroking down the side of your face now and then; shivers tingling down your spine.
It is just as his lips part, his tongue trailing a line across your lower lip, that the closet door opens.
“Time's up, puppy.”
You both break away, reluctantly, and look up from each other to see a man with black hair stood in the doorway. What he has just said registers in your mind and you turn back to Zack, your lips pursed and an eyebrow raised amusedly,
“Puppy?” You say, laughing at Zack's expression. He sighs and lets go of you, glaring at the man. The man raises his hands as if to defend himself against all accusation of being the reason Zack has to end his time with you,
“Zack, you know she can't stay forever.”
Zack barks back resentfully,
“You know what? No I didn't, actually! You never decided to explain this to me at all, Angeal.”
The man in the doorway looks almost taken aback. Deciding it is best for Zack to cool down before trying to talk, he clears his throat and walks away, back into the main room. Before he is out of ear-shot he calls to the pair of you,
“You've only got about a minute or so left.”
Zack, suddenly panic-stricken by this information, jolts his head round to look out of the closet at his black-haired friend,
“What?!”
“Sorry, Zack. It's just time differences.... -I'll explain later.”
Zack turns back to you, his eyes wide and his thoughts scattered. Unable to think many thoughts clearly, he grabs hold of you, pulls you against him then wraps his arms around your shoulders. You have no idea what is going on, but guess you probably don't have time to ask.
“____, thank you so much. These have been some of the best moments of my life- well... not life- you know what, it doesn't matter, I'm just happy I met you. When you wake up, find Cloud and tell him he's doing great and I'm proud of him, and to always wash behind his ears.” He sighs, frustrated, “There's never enough time when you need it...”
He smashes his lips against yours, trying to get all of his feelings across. He pulls away and says, “You'll probably never see me again so just remember me, keep me in your head. Don't worry, I'll be watching over you, we'll probably meet up again, but for your sake I hope it's a long, long time in the future. And one last thing, I love you.”
He presses his lips to yours again, and you kiss back, having a gut-feeling that what he's saying is true. Dreams are horrible things - you never get the same one twice.
You open your eyes to see Zack looking slightly paler... no... see-through. You panic.
“Zack, you're disappearing! What's happening!?”
He smiles, holding onto you ever tighter.
“Don't worry, I'll see you again. Dreams are like that. Expect for the unexpected.”
Your voice starts to crack as you feel tears welling up in your eyes.
“Zack... I don't want this dream to end... I feel like I actually know you.”
He smiles, his ever-fading lips touching yours,
“Don't cry over something that isn't real.”
“But, Zack...I-”
Your eyes open to sun-rays hitting your face. You roll over and throw the pillow over your head, blocking the light.
Suddenly you take the pillow off your head and look at it. It's wet. Come to think of it...
You raise your hands to your cheeks and feel the liquid running down them.
“W-why am I crying?... it was only a dream... he wasn't real...” you say softly; almost angry at yourself. You get out of bed and walk over to your wardrobe. You pick out a clean top and the jeans from yesterday and put them on, trying to stop the tears somehow. Music! That always cheers you up!
You reach into the pocket of your jeans and pull out your iPod, only you notice something else flutter to the ground. You look down and see a folded piece of paper. You frown slightly and pick it up. With one hand holding your iPod, you flick the piece of paper open with your free hand.
You do not care that you start to cry again; seeing the drawing of a sword on the piece of paper finally makes you realise it had not been a dream. You hold the paper close to you a give a shaky smile to your reflection in the mirror.

For the rest of the day you stay around your house, wandering from room-to-room, never really paying attention to the scene, always daydreaming. A pity your daydreams never seem as real as actual dreams.
You almost seem happy to go to sleep that night, waiting in anticipation. Isn't it annoying when excitement keeps you awake? You lie in your bed for three hours, unable to sleep but willing yourself to. You even contemplate a mallet to the head, but in the end you do not resort to that, as your body grows too tired and eventually shuts down of its own accord. You smile when you feel your eyes close.
You open your eyes and look around.
“..too good to be true, huh?” You say to yourself, sighing when you see the large pink field of smiling daisies in front of you (What? Were you on something when you went to bed?! SMILING DAISIES!? C'MON). You know you probably would have loved this dream had it been any other situation, but instead you walk over to a purple rock and sit down, swatting the singing bumble-bees away. You pull the piece of paper from your pocket and look at the sword again. You sigh.
“Hey, ____, don't sigh like that, you'll get wrinkles.”
You look round, your eyes wide.
“Z-Zack?”
He stretches his arms out to you and smiles. “Who else?”
You jump up and run at him, flinging your arms around him when you're close enough. He picks you up and spins you around in circles.
When you're well and truly dizzy, he sets you back on the ground and you try to stay in one place. As you're regaining your balance, Zack calls,
“Thanks guys! We're good!”
You look around, accidentally falling backwards into Zack, and realise the dream is... moving around. The sky is shifting to one side, the field is going another and the purple rock-
“Uhh, Angeal... is it? Yeah! Angeal?!”
He looks at you with a stoic face.
“Yes?”
“Why are you moving my rock from my dream? I might like it there.”
He sighs and drops the rock back on the ground, then walks off. You blink a couple of times, then look up when you hear Zack laughing.
“What is it?” You ask. He looks down at you and ruffles your hair.
“This is a set. It's not real. Me and the others set it up, so I could surprise you.”
You stare open mouthed at him.
“Y-you knew I was coming back...? YOU KNEW I WAS COMING BACK AND YOU MADE ALL THAT FUSS LAST NIGHT?!”
Zack raises his hands in defence.
“I didn't. After you left, Angeal explained everything to me.” He leans down and takes your chin in his hand. “I'm always going to be in your dreams, only for ten minutes, but I'll be here.”
“Why only ten minutes?” You say with a small pout. Zack smiles. “Ten minutes here is a full night over there.”
You sigh and look down, then you feel Zack lift your chin up, and he presses his lips to yours. You melt and wrap your arms around his neck, so he lifts you into the air as he trails kisses along your jaw-line. He stops and leaves his mouth by your collar-bone.
“And, ____, you must know by now this isn't a dream, it's an alternate dimension, so this might leave a mark.”
“What might leave a mark?”
He smiles and bites down on your collar-bone. You grab hold of his hair to stifle the moan.