OOM - Helping and contemplating
There is always something that needs to be done in Hollow Bastion. It isn't exactly the sort of thing one would find exciting, but it makes Cloud feel useful, like he has a job to do and he isn't wandering aimlessly, looking for something (his light) he wonders if he'll ever see again
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Someone has been watching him.
Soft footsteps barely make any sound as their maker carefully treads across the broken ground - sidestepping this hole, that chunk of broken concrete, this twisted metal grate - each foot placed carefully, one after another. There's no cause to hurry.
It would take a foolish person, to come at this former soldier at a run. Very foolish indeed, when he carries a sword taller than most grown men. He's fierce, he's even been called dangerous by some (but seldom ever in his presence) - but the person who walks toward him is not afraid.
Could never be afraid. Not of him.
There isn't room to sit beside him, so instead the person stops behind the rock on which Cloud is sitting and gently tucks a small flower behind his ear.
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But he knows better than that. He knows it's real, and he knows who it is. He knows because there is only one person he would allow to do it, only one person who would dare to do it, and the thought both calms and unnerves him.
He doesn't deserve kindness like this.
Opening his eyes once more, he turns his head, hand reaching for the flower by his ear, and faces her. His usually hard expression finds itself softening almost against his will.
Still, he is quiet.
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"May I join you?"
She has to give him the choice. He might say no, though that's unlikely. She knows him better than most - knows when to press him and when to stay silent. This, she thinks is not a time to stay silent.
So she waits, twirling a flower stem between her thumb and index finger.
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He turns back to stare ahead, flower also in his hand, though now quite forgotten, and nods.
"What brings you out of headquarters?"
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She looks at him. "And I found you."
Her tone suggests that everything is as it should be.
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"Yeah," he says, and there is a significantly different change of tone in his voice from his usual, much harder voice. It's almost ... gentle.
He shifts a bit, giving Aerith enough space to join him if she so wishes.
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He shifts to make room for her and it causes happiness to bubble up inside her. The gesture is sweet, though she will not tell him so. It would only make him uncomfortable.
"Thank you," she says instead.
Smiling, she settles beside him on the boulder - perching slightly so they'll both fit.
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"How long do you have?" he asks her, referring to her break. He'd like to tell her some things, because she's Aerith and he wants to.
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As long as it takes is what she says - though only in her head.
"There's no rush." she says instead, opening her eyes again. "I'd like to spend some time with the sky over my head, I think..."
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"It's nice," he remarks in agreement.
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And deep down, she thinks he knows that.
After several minutes, she says:
"...I've noticed you've been disappearing a little more than usual lately." her tone is conversational, curious. "It makes me wonder where you go."
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There was only one other person who knew where he went when he wasn't in Hollow Bastion, and that was Leon. But it makes him feel ... well, good, that someone notices him. That Aerith notices him.
"Yeah," he says. "It's ... this place." She won't believe him even if he told her.
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She turns her head now, to look at him.
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"It's a bar," he explains, simply. "It's hard to believe, but it's at the end of the universe." He pauses. "So I'm told."
He looks at her, then. Waiting for her reaction but not being obvious about it.
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"A bar at the end the universe," she repeats, smiling slightly "...it sounds like something out of a story, doesn't it? Something impossible."
She pauses, trying her best to keep a straight face. Does he honestly think she won't believe him after everything that's happened?
"Of course, I could never believe such a thing, could I? After watching my home destroyed and ending up on another world, fighting heartless with help from a wizard?"
She can't help it. She smiles.
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"Yeah," he agrees, shrugging slightly, expression a little more relaxed now. "True."
He pauses.
"We really live in a messed up universe," he allows. There might be humour in his words, but it certainly isn't said like that.
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