If Today Was Your Last Day [Active/Closed]

[not_asoldier]

Characters: Aerith and Cloud
Content: The Healers dissapear, including Aerith, he just couldn't protect her from this. 
Location: The Avalon
Time of day: One hour after Tagruato's post
Warnings: Cloud's gonna be pissed

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[radianthealer]

Aerith had been resting in a chair with a book she'd found in their new apartment when Cloud came in. She blinked up at him, setting a bookmark in her place and reaching up to stand, holding onto the hand he'd taken in his. Something had worried him recently, she could tell, but she didn't know what it was.

"What happened, Cloud?" the Healer asked, voice full of worry. Cloud didn't get upset over nothing.

[not_asoldier]

"The people who are keeping us here finally made themselves known." Cloud explained, "They said they were gonna 'consoldate their assets'... it's like we're not even people to them..."

He didn't want to dwell on this, though, it was too depressing. He didn't want to worry her over this. "Everything will be okay. I won't let them hurt you"

[radianthealer]

Aerith searched Cloud's eyes as best she could, holding onto his hand still. "I'm not worried. As long as I have you with me, I know I'll be okay." She smiled. Even if she had somehow missed seeing all this new information, she knew everyone would be okay in the end. Frightening as it was, she trusted their capabilities, everyone she'd known here.

They'd be all right.

"Cloud? Are you all right?" She knew him well enough to tell when he either wasn't telling her everything or was still worried about something. She intended to help him feel better.

[not_asoldier]

"I'm fine, I'm just..." He hesitated for a moment, trying to find the words. While he was putting on a brave face for her, and trying to be strong, it was obvious how he really felt. He hadn't felt like this since the day their world ended. "I'm just scared..." Terrified, was more like it, though.

And while he wasn't going to let anything happen to her, he just had to say something to her. He didn't want things to be left unsaid if worse came to worse.

"Aerith, you know how important to me you are, right?"

[radianthealer]

Aerith leaned over a little bit and tilted her head upward at him, the better to peer up into his eyes as she always did when she was trying to really see what he was feeling. The hand holding his squeezed gently.

"We'll be okay, Cloud." She paused, though, smiling warmly up at him as he spoke those words that meant so much coming from him.

"I do..." Or she had guessed and hoped. "And you know how much I care about you, right?"

[not_asoldier]

"Of course I do," he replied, smiling back at her, it was a melancholy one, but it was genuine, none the less. "I'm sorry I was never there, so sorry. I'll make it up to you..." He just trailed off. He didn't know what else to say.

What more else was there to say? Other than...

"I love you."

[radianthealer]

Something wet slid down Aerith's cheek at the sound of all of those words, feelings rushing through her chest as she straightened up and looked at him. Maybe he'd left her before, but the important thing was that he had always returned to her, as she had known he would.

And he was here for her now.

"Cloud... I always knew you'd come back for me. I knew you wouldn't be gone forever." Resting her hands on his shoulders, she lifted herself up onto her toes so she could gently brush her lips against his cheek, the softest kiss imaginable and the most tender of gestures.

"I love you, too," she whispered into his ear.

As she was pulling away to look back at him, the pressure of her hands on his shoulders disappeared and she vanished from sight without a trace left behind.

[not_asoldier]

For a brief, fleeting moment, Cloud was truly happy, and at peace.

Then suddenly she was gone, and it was like his world had shattered around him.

His knees gave out, he fell too the ground and just stared at it as the horrible feeling of dispair washed over him. They took her, they took her right out from underneath him. He wasn't able to save her from this.

The dispair turned to rage. How dare they. They would pay. Those bastards would pay.

Not knowing how else to react right now, he screamed out in inarticulate rage and grief.