To anyone who knew what they were talking about, motorbikes were the pinnacle of transportation. They were fast, fuel-efficient, lightweight, could travel
over a wide range of terrain, could be mounted and dismounted in seconds, sometimes didn't even need to be dismounted for combat, and to round it all
out, they just were cool. There wasn't a single instance in Cloud, Zack, or Sephiroth's delivery/mercenary careers when their bikes had failed them.

Of course, grocery shopping did not fall under the umbrella of their careers. While packages could be tied down securely, numerous flimsy bags of spillable
groceries were another story. Yet they had no other real options, save for walking all the way to market with Aeris's flower cart, an idea that she and
Zack had refused to consider.

"You good? Got it?" Zack asked, getting off his bike and starting to load his arms up with bags.
Sephiroth swung his leg over the back wheel so Cloud could also dismount and gather their things. (Because there were so many people living at "the new
Avalanche HQ," as Tifa sometimes called it, Cloud often enlisted their help to manage the sheer amount of groceries that couldn't be hauled by Fenrir alone.)

"Yeah," Cloud huffed with a bag in each arm, settling his chin over a loaf of bread to keep it steady. He saw the door open and Aeris came out to greet
them.

"Welcome back~ woah, you guys were busy!"
"Tell me about it," Zack said emphatically, suddenly pretending to struggle and acting as if the bags weighed a ton. Aeris laughed and took one from him to
free his arm.
"Woah, Aer, those things are heavy, have you been working out?!"

"Oh, stop," she chided with a grin. "Did you remember my strawberries?"
"Got them," said Cloud. Beside him, Sephiroth cursed under his breath.
"Are you ok?" Cloud asked.
"I forgot my broccoli."
"Oh, I got that, too. Since you said you wanted to make a stir fry,"

"Did you?" Sephiroth asked. Cloud spared him a glance over his armload and was rewarded with an expression that made his chest feel warm. Sephiroth
seemed pleased, and was looking at him fondly. Then, he said, as if it were the most natural thing on Gaia, "Good boy."

Cloud tripped on thin air. With his arms full, he was saved from crashing face first into the dirt only by a gloved hand grabbing the back of his belt.
"Shit," he muttered, feeling his face heat up.

"Woah, Cloud, you okay?" Zack called, hurrying back over now that he'd set his things down.
"Fine, yeah..." Fortunately, nothing had fallen, as he hadn't lost his grip on the groceries even to brace himself. He took his delivery job seriously, damn
it.
"Be careful!" Zack chided, laughing a little now that he'd checked up on him. "Keep tripping up like that and you won't stand a chance next time we
spar!"

"It wasn't his fault, Zack," Sephiroth said, and to the uninformed observer this may have seemed like an attempt to defend Cloud, but in reality
(Cloud thought, with a rush of mixed emotions,) this was only the beginning of a display of Sephiroth's lingering sadism. "I said something that
must have surprised him,"
"Oh? What'd you say?" Zack asked with a tilt of his head, curiosity piqued.

"I'm going to go drop these off," Cloud said hurriedly and ducked his head so that an apple rolled out of the bag and thudded to the ground.
"Wait, um..."

"That he did well to remember," Sephiroth explained easily. "The term I used exactly was 'good boy,'"

The harsh, whispered, slightly higher pitched than normal "Seph!" that Cloud hissed was drowned out by more of Zack's laughter.
"Well, Cloud does do a good job!" he agreed, taking unfair advantage of the fact that Cloud was currently crouching to ruffle his hair, almost pushing him
off balance in the process. He was already having difficulty trying to set the overstuffed bag down long enough to pick up the fruit without anything else
falling or tearing. Zack didn't seem to care, and he adopted a teasing tone, his palm still on Cloud's head. "He is a good boy, aren't you, Cloudy?"

"Za—! I-If this is because of the 'puppy' thing, I didn't even come up with that, okay?" Cloud sputtered, holding the apple so tightly that it was now
definitely unsalvageable. "Seph was the one who brought it up! Help me with this bag, I only have one hand free—"

"Zack asked you a question, Cloud," Sephiroth's voice was not harsh but still unmistakably authoritative. Meanwhile, Zack looked like he found the whole
situation funny.

"I..." Sephiroth's eyes were dark slits, and Cloud realized that looking up at him was definitely a mistake when meeting his gaze sent a shiver to his core
and made him rock forward onto his knees. Desperately he looked over to Aeris, who, like Zack, seemed rather amused, and would clearly not be
offering help. "Okay. ...Y-yeah. Please, Seph, it's the middle of..."

Sephiroth must have been feeling merciful that day, as Cloud hadn't really answered the question properly. Or maybe he decided that Cloud's request
could be considered "begging," given the position he was currently in, and that it would have to do for now. Nevertheless, he smirked. "Good boy," he
said again, and only just stopped himself from purring when he saw the expression that flicked across Cloud's face as he gave a pulse of energy that
made their shared cells sing, just for good measure. "Zack, help him with the bag,"

"Sure thing, Commander," Zack teased. He scooped it up and offered Cloud his hand.

"Thanks," Cloud muttered. He could feel his own blush and made sure the bread that poked out over the top of the remaining bag covered the lower
half of his face. He quickly headed to the door, where Aeris was waiting to accept the bag to put it away inside, as was how their assembly line usually
went. "Here."

Aeris took it from him. "Cloud?"

Cloud, who had already turned on his heel, stopped, and with some trepidation faced her again.

She smiled innocently and raised her free arm to pat the top of his head. "You are a good boy."

"Oh, my God."