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The slums at night, at least in sector seven, could be pretty quiet. More than the forest, anyhow. No litany of bugs to sing them to sleep, no small animals scurrying around the underbrush… The hum of electronics was a constant that Zack had forgotten how to tune out while he and Spikey had been travelling. Zack never used to think anything of it, really, when he’d been working for Shinra. It had kept him awake, those first few days when he’d stumbled into the city from the wastes, enthusiastically signing his life away. The hum was much quieter in Gongaga, where people only used mako power for a select number of things. In Midgar, the hum was everywhere, always, at all hours.
In the lab it was everywhere, always, at all hours.
Zack hadn’t decided if he’d missed the absence in their travels or not. Either way, for now at least, it meant relative safety and peace. For him and his little Cloudy, held tightly against his chest in their small, one-bed room.
It had been a couple weeks since they’d arrived in the slums, now. After he’d recovered enough, Zack had starting leaving Cloud with Tifa to look after him while he went about earning them some gil. It had made him incredibly anxious to have Cloud out of his sight, to entrust him to someone else, but needs must, and they needed money. So, Zack took the buster sword and started clearing monster bounties and doing odd jobs. He didn’t go too far, frequently coming back to check up on them, much to Tifa’s amusement.
Hanging around the bar so much meant he eventually met Tifa’s friends. After getting over an initial bit of weariness and clearing up any misconceptions about Zack harbouring any remaining loyalty to Shinra, they were welcoming. And hiding something, but who was Zack to judge? He hadn’t quite managed to tell Tifa what had happened to him and Cloud yet. She probably had her guesses, but…
Zack didn’t want to talk about it. Not yet, maybe not ever, but especially not without Spikey’s input.
At the end of the day, Zack took Cloud back to their appartement. Tifa had offered to keep him at Seventh Heaven, but the thought of him being so far sent a jolt of panic through Zack. Yes, Tifa was his childhood friend, and he appreciated everything she’d done for them… but looking after Cloud was his job. Even if he needed a bit of help sometimes. Zack always smiled and declined but thanked her for the offer whenever she made it, thinking of how Cloud had refused to take off his helmet in front of her all those years ago. How he hadn’t wanted her to recognize him.
The bed in their apartment was too small for them both to fit comfortably, not that Zack minded the cuddles. Holding the younger man had become essential for him to relax enough to sleep he’d found, having spent so long doing so for safety, warmth and comfort in the wilderness. It wasn’t exactly a hardship, but he wished Cloud was able to provide some opinion on the matter. On any matter, really.
So, with Cloud snoozing away on top of Zack, he let his muscles relax into the stiff mattress. When he felt some shifting on this chest. Zack went very, very still.
“… Cloudy?” He practically whispered.
After a moment, he got a small grunt in response and the shifting turned to a light nuzzle before Cloud settled again with a sigh.
Zack waited, holding his breath, but Cloud didn’t move again. Gently, gently, he raised his hand to card through Cloud’s hair; blissfully clean and soft now that they had consistent access to water and soap.
He let out a breath and a small smile, finally feeling like he could start to relax, at least a bit.
-0-
Cloud opened his eyes that morning. Just a little, to squint at the light streaming in through the window. Zack’s chest felt instantly lighter, seeing a familiar grumpy frown etched into Cloud’s soft features.
Zack, dressed for the day, knelt at the bedside with a warm smile. “Morning, Sunshine,” he said softly.
Eyes that were still a little unfocused but much clearer than Zack had seen them in so, so long settled on him. The bright, poisonous green of them had faded, retreating into a tight ring around Cloud’s pupil. They glowed subtly in the dim-ish underplate morning light, but Zack knew they’d be much brighter come night.
It felt bittersweet, finally seeing that telltale SOLDIER glow on Cloud. He’d always believed he would—albet under kinder circumstances, if Shinra employment could have ever been considered such a thing—but Zack suddenly felt like he’d miss that unpolluted sky in his irises.
Zack gently brushed Cloud’s bangs back as he sleepily blinked at him. “Zza…” he mumbled, brow furrowing again.
“I’m here,” Zack whispered, tenderly brushing the blond’s cheek. “Just take it easy, yeah? Here,” he reached for the water bottle he kept at the bedside, helping Cloud sit up a bit to drink it. Still blinking sleepily, he accepted the water easily.
Once Zack had capped the bottle and put it down, Cloud caught the hand that had gone back to running through his hair and weakly tugged on it. “Zzaah… seep,” he muttered, eyes closing again but not releasing Zack’s hand, who smiled helplessly at the cute little chocobo sliding back into its nest of pillows and blankets.
Well… with his hand being held hostage, there was no way Zack would be able to make it a few feet, let alone down to the Watch to pick up some monster bounties.
Zack’s shirt, having been on his body for a whole ten minutes, was summarily pulled right back off and he snuggled back into bed with Cloud, content to enjoy a lazy morning. After sending a quick message to Tifa, saying he’d be keeping Cloud today, Zack tossed his PHS toward the end of the bed and settled in, hearing a contented little sigh as he wrapped his arms around his sunshine.
Gaia, he’d missed Cloud so much.
-0-
After that, Cloud got better. In just a few days, he was up and able to walk around on his own. Zack had brought him to Seventh Heaven so the childhood friends could reunite. Cloud was somewhat awkward about it, but Zack had expected that, knowing how he was the last time they’d seen each other.
Zack had no trouble remembering anything from before the lab, but Cloud struggled, and sometimes he’d remember things he had no way of knowing. Zack didn’t know exactly what Hojo had been trying to achieve with them, but whatever it was, clearly Cloud had gotten the worst of it.
Along with some pretty wicked enchantments, apparently. Zack knew his eyes would be bright, but he was beginning to think Cloud’s enhancements went beyond even his own.
So, reasonably, Zack had brought them out into scrap boulevard to get some exercise and test out his strength. Usually, when people get their first mako injections, they have to spend some time relearning their bodies and strength, often breaking things by accident or tripping over themselves when they move faster than they expect.
Cloud didn’t have that problem.
Sure, he’d had the mako for quite awhile now, but he hadn’t been able to use it. So when Cloud had offered to help Tifa around the kitchen, after getting back on his feet, while Zack had been distracted playing with Marlene, proved himself perfectly capable of handling delicate glassware, Zack had been amazed. After he’d finished being terrified that Cloud was about to break several very expensive bottles, that is.
Zack had wisely shut his gaping mouth and not mentioned it. It wasn’t the only thing weird or different about Cloud. He’d noticed a few very familiar gestures and phrases that he’d never seen Cloud use before. He’d noticed the familiarity he’d use when hefting the Buster Sword up—one handed—and passing it to Zack. He’d noticed the way Cloud would sometimes get confused when Zack told him stories about things from SOLDIER or Gongaga.
So. He had a theory to test.
Zack handed the Buster Sword to a bemused Cloud And grinned at him. “Let’s see what you can do, Cloudy! We have a reputation to keep up, after all.”
“You mean you have a reputation to keep up,” came the wry response. Still, he shifted his grip and led the way into the depths of the scrapyard.
Cloud fought brilliantly. The monsters hanging around weren’t particularly challenging for a SOLDIER, but Cloud wasn’t a SOLDIER. He didn’t have any of the training, even if Zack had sparred with him several times to help prepare him for the exam, he shouldn’t have been able to fight like this, enchantments or not, he fought with experience. He fought…
He fought like Zack.
It wasn’t exactly the same, Cloud was smaller with a different build, prioritising speed more than Zack ever did, but he could see without a doubt the echoes of both his and Angeal’s style in his stances.
Zack ran a hand down the bottom half of his face as he stood to the side and watched, something uncomfortable blooming in his stomach. What did Hojo do to him?
-0-
Another thing with new SOLDIERS… their bodies weren’t used to burning such an excess of energy. So, they slept a lot and were hungry a lot. Cloud did have that problem, apparently.
“Mh… tired…” Cloud murmured, falling asleep in his barstool, leaning half on Zack’s shoulder, half on his chest.
“I know, buddy,” Zack chuckled, ruffling his hair.
They’d gone to Seventh Heaven after turning in their bounty, Cloud practically dragging his feet the entire way. He’d woken up enough to devour whatever Tifa had put in front of him—it had been gone too fast for Zack to see—then had promptly decided Zack’s shoulder was a good enough spot to crash.
Tifa was concerned. “I thought he was doing better…?”
Zack’s smile was reassuring. “He’s fine, just getting used to the mako. Swinging such a massive sword around wears you out,” he grinned at Cloud, ruffling his hair again, “especially when you’re such a little guy!”
That comment earned him a sleepy, grumpy protest and a swat. Zack laughed, earning further grumbling from Cloud, who wasn’t very happy about his pillow moving around so much.
-0-
They got Cloud his own sword. He was used to the heft of a buster, so they found something of a comparable size. Not an easy feat; most people couldn’t even pick up a sword that big, let alone wield it, and the slums didn’t exactly cater to SOLDIERs.
With the practically, if unimaginatively, named Iron Sword on his back, Cloud was ready to take on jobs with Zack. At this point, they were already familiar faces to the slum-dwellers, although most of Cloud’s fame had come from people seeing Zack carrying him to and from the bar, passersby often asking after his health.
Zack knew that he probably shouldn’t have been carrying him around so openly, especially since it meant basically the entire sector knew that he had a vulnerable weak-point, but there really hadn’t been another choice—bar leaving him with Tifa, of course, which Zack had never been able to bring himself to do.
He’d trusted Tifa to watch over Cloud in the daytime while he took on jobs and she ran the bar, but even if he wanted to, which he didn’t, he couldn’t leave him there any longer than that. Taking care of Cloud was his job, and he’d long lost the ability to sleep without his sunshine safely tucked in his arms. He liked to think it helped Cloud sleep better too. His muscles had always seemed to relax a little when they curled up together.
It was great having Cloud around more, though, especially now that he’d woken up, and it was great having a partner to watch his back when monster hunting. However, the past few years had apparently made Zack something of an incurable worry-wart. At least when it came to Cloud, anyway. It wasn’t news, exactly, but his anxiety about Cloud’s continued safety definitely took on a new life as he watched the blond fearlessly face down any monster they came across. He suddenly understood the stress Angeal felt watching Zack do the same and probably worse.
After defeating said monsters, Cloud would then take promptly pass out wherever they happened to stop moving. The bar, their apartment, the dust-filled ground, some crates, random infrastructure, the park, benches and the favourite: Zack’s chest, were apparently all fair game for napping purposes.
Zack had often resorted to piggyback rides to get Cloud back home. The meagre weight was no hardship for him and it was a familiar sight to the local residents. The poor blond wasn’t used to expending so much energy and sometimes couldn’t bring himself to walk. Zack had been tired all the time too when he’d gotten his shots, but not to this extent. The difference, of course, was Cloud got his Third, Second and First class shots all without any adjustment period.
So, he expended a lot of energy and then ate and slept a lot.
Zack had eventually started packing food and a blanket for them to sit on instead of trying to get Cloud back to the shops for lunch. They’d find a decently flat spot cleared of monsters and remains and enjoy the limited sun that filtered through the cracks between the plates. Cloud would eat then lay his head on Zack’s lap for a quick power nap.
It was nice, to just sit still for thirty minutes or so, his Sunshine in his lap, the actual sun, (somewhat), on his face, with nothing in particular to demand his attention. Decompressing, he thought it was called.
And then Zack remembered he had yet to inform Aerith that he hadn’t died, actually, in the last five years, sorry for disappearing out of nowhere, I definitely didn’t forget, please forgive me.
Right.
New mission: introduce Sunshine to the Flower Girl. Easy.