001 || dream a dream of me.
[Some dreams have some fluidity. They remain constant, with an overlaying theme - much like a storybook of the consciousness. Others can be sporadic, having no meaning, and easily shifting from one thing to the next. They can be serious, or strange. They can be hopeful, or heartbreaking
( Read more... )
Zack's dead.
It hits him like a hammer blow and his brows come down against it. He can make sense of the snow and the mountain and even the fact that he's walking. Obviously he's got a delivery of some sort - no package - or just finished a delivery - why is he going uphill then? - and had to walk because Fenrir's no good in deep snow - but...
Zack?
He really is losing his mind ( ... )
Reply
not Zack being dead.
Cloud can handle dealing with weird situations. And if Zack remembers him as a fifteen year old... then the answer was:
A shrug.]
I grew up, Zack.
[but kind of more importantly than that - his head ducks, just a little and he peers into Zack's eyes.]
And you don't remember that. What's the last thing you do remember?
Reply
So many questions. So many questions and none of them were getting answers.]
You... were right at camp. I talked to you a few hours, about SOLDIER. About your hometown and what we were going to do when we got back to HQ.
Are you...
Really from the future?
Reply
Maybe he still felt that way sometimes. Looking for that impossible to find dream that would finally make him enough.
At the moment though, Zack's question made him feel a little awkward. One of them was obviously out of their set time and since in his time, Zack was...
yeah. Cloud was the one that was unstuck in time. He just couldn't remember how. Had he gotten hit with an effect or a materia that he'd never heard of before? This time he didn't realize it in time to stop himself as he rubbed the back of his neck. With a shrug, he said:]
I - guess so? I'm sure not fifteen anymore at least. Zack - where are we?
Reply
...Modeoheim - where we met before, remember? [Or he hopes Cloud still remembers. It's been so many years...
He gestures a finger out, to a pathway not too far out. One that led to Genesis' old base.]
Right over there.
Reply
[he remembers. He'd had no idea at the time just how much that single meeting would change his life. Meeting Zack though - it was still one of the best things that has ever happened to him. Even before the mako and the madness, Zack had opened his eyes to what a real SOLDIER was like. He'd cared about a nobody like Cloud, called him a friend, made him feel important and remembered and - and like, somehow, he mattered.
And he was still humbled and honored that a man like that called him 'friend'.]
I remember.
[hoping, trying to make things easier, trying to remember to joke the way Zack so often did to ease the tension, he dryly added:]
And Gongaga really is a backwater place.
Reply
Yeah right! Still better than Nibelheim, kid. Way better.
[Of course, he hasn't actually been to Nibelheim yet but it had to be lamer than Gongaga. It had to!
He won't say that, obviously. Home is home is home, and everyone's home was special in some way.]
Reply
A fake town or an utterly ruined one? It would be hard to say which one was better. No. That wasn't true. At least Gongaga had still been real. Though Cloud thought it would have broken Zack's heart to see what had become of it - and his parents. Secrets from the future he'd never share.]
At least in Nibelheim you don't get attacked by frogs.
Reply
[Because if anybody was good at getting into embarrassing situations, it was Cloud. Just another thing they shared in canon?]
C'mooooon, spill the beans! What'd you do?
Reply
Wolves, Zack. Nibelheim has wolves. Not frogs. Our monsters bite you, not slap you. I think I like getting savaged over getting turned into something small and green that has to resort to slapping back as my only means of attack.
[he had to pause. Had to smirk. Had to dryly add:]
Though I guess that explains a lot about you.
Reply
Reply
Yeah. Yeah, Zack would protect him. WILL protect him. To the death. And if he hadn't been there to protect - then Zack wouldn't have died... So his voice comes out subdued as he answers:]
Yeah. I know that, Zack.
Reply
Cloud...? Hey, c'mon, I didn't mean it. If you don't like noogies anymore, just lemme know.
Reply
[he finishes pulling away though. He doesn't deserve Zack's easy acceptance. Not if his friend knew how badly Cloud would fail him in the end when he needed him most. Straightening up, his eyes stay on the snow that's coating the toes of their boots. So much he wants to say. So much he can't. Because Zack wouldn't listen. He can't tell Zack that when the time comes, he needs to leave a comatose Cloud behind and strike out on his own. Can't tell him to make a break for it and not fight the army when it comes. Can't tell him to shirk his duty and not go when he's sent to Nibelheim. Zack wouldn't be Zack if he took that advice. All he can do is look up at his friend and say:]
Thank you. For everything. I never deserved it but you never cared. Just - thanks, Zack. For all of it.
Reply
[But then he stops, remembering. his Cloud is from the future. Which means something should have happened in the future to make him this way. It obviously wasn't something the other was too thrilled about talking through, so he just smiles and tries to pull the other against his side again.]
No matter what happens, always got your back. Remember that, Cloud.
Reply
And he knows he wasn't worth it in the end.]
I know, Zack. That's why you're a hero.
...and talking to me - it was a big deal. To me.
Reply
Leave a comment