[Cloud, meanwhile, settles back into his body with almost startling clarity. The past is in the past. They need to focus on the here and now, on getting to Midgar, on bringing the fight to Shinra's doorstep and wrenching every fucking skeleton out of their closet they can.
Calm descends on Cloud, swirling around them like sitting in the eye of a typhoon. The rain this close to Gongaga is too warm to be uncomfortable, won't set a chill in their bones even if they weren't SOLDIER...or something like it.]
I figure a lot, [Cloud says honestly, voice still low, but for good or for bad Cloud can't find himself agonizing over it. People are dead, and maybe it's their fault for not realizing sooner...or maybe not. Whoever's fault it is, they're still going to need to move forward, and they should do it knowing they're not going to do things the same. That's enough to assuage Cloud's (admittedly muted) guilt into something almost negligible. Maybe it makes him a bad person, to not dwell on things like this. Maybe agonizing over it like Zack would mean he still has a good heart, a good soul, if he ever did.
But it doesn't matter. Cloud can concentrate on just Zack, for now. If he needs to change later...then maybe he will.]
I figure more than just us, people killed people under Shinra orders. Other SOLDIERs, other troopers- hell, Shinra scientists mighta killed more people than we can imagine. It'd be stupid to think we're the only ones Hojo put his claws into. [Cloud turns his head so his mouth and chin are against Zack's hair, murmuring into it almost like a kiss, unease mysteriously gone the second something in Cloud had shifted back into himself...or further away.] That's why you're gonna keep going. You 'n me. We're gonna go right to Shinra's core and we're gonna tear it apart so nobody else like us can use the excuse of orders to hurt people. [Now he does kiss Zack, a hard press of his closed lips against his wet hair, fierce and protective, arm curling around Zack like Cloud would pull him inside and keep him safe that way, if he could.]
joke's on you i'm slower and not even on vacation
Calm descends on Cloud, swirling around them like sitting in the eye of a typhoon. The rain this close to Gongaga is too warm to be uncomfortable, won't set a chill in their bones even if they weren't SOLDIER...or something like it.]
I figure a lot, [Cloud says honestly, voice still low, but for good or for bad Cloud can't find himself agonizing over it. People are dead, and maybe it's their fault for not realizing sooner...or maybe not. Whoever's fault it is, they're still going to need to move forward, and they should do it knowing they're not going to do things the same. That's enough to assuage Cloud's (admittedly muted) guilt into something almost negligible. Maybe it makes him a bad person, to not dwell on things like this. Maybe agonizing over it like Zack would mean he still has a good heart, a good soul, if he ever did.
But it doesn't matter. Cloud can concentrate on just Zack, for now. If he needs to change later...then maybe he will.]
I figure more than just us, people killed people under Shinra orders. Other SOLDIERs, other troopers- hell, Shinra scientists mighta killed more people than we can imagine. It'd be stupid to think we're the only ones Hojo put his claws into. [Cloud turns his head so his mouth and chin are against Zack's hair, murmuring into it almost like a kiss, unease mysteriously gone the second something in Cloud had shifted back into himself...or further away.] That's why you're gonna keep going. You 'n me. We're gonna go right to Shinra's core and we're gonna tear it apart so nobody else like us can use the excuse of orders to hurt people. [Now he does kiss Zack, a hard press of his closed lips against his wet hair, fierce and protective, arm curling around Zack like Cloud would pull him inside and keep him safe that way, if he could.]