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Jul. 8th, 2018 02:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moseyin posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
kickitover[It happens in the middle of nowhere.
Just another nondescript hole Zack's found to curl them up into. Sometimes they're lucky enough to get a bed in the slums somewhere, the outskirts of some crappy little village or the deep, dank alleyways of a larger city. Most of the time they have a tent, if they're lucky, if Zack manages and money allows, and sometimes they're not lucky and they forfeit shelter for food, for potions for when Zack gets a wound that grit and gumption can't close.
Well- Zack does all of these things. They're a 'they' in bodycount only.
It's Zack dragging himself and Cloud across the countryside, it's Zack finding them shelter, finding them food, tearing into monsters to scrape together enough gil to keep them alive. It's Zack looking after the few wounds Cloud acquires during their journey, it's Zack who talks to him, who feeds him, who carries him on his god damn back for days and days and days on end. Weeks. Months.
Cloud isn't often awake, but sometimes he is. Things are hazy like a dream, sloppy like slumber, slips and strips of memory, of experiences that barely thread together to make something patchwork. And that's how it is when it happens too, because it was only a couple times, fighting to break the surface of a pool of tar. He emerges not with a gasp but an awareness, only for a few moments before he's pulled under. Each time Zack was gone, or asleep, clutching Cloud to his chest for protection but too exhausted to hear his breathless whispers of Zack, Zack as Cloud tries desperately to rouse him, if only to reassure him of I'm here, I hear you, I see you, you're not alone until the mako curls around and into him and pulls him back under.
And then, that middle of nowhere.
Cloud wakes to the sun on his face; weak morning sun, wobbly, not yet hot. They'd slept outside. Zack is already awake, humming to himself, murmuring something, fiddling with a fire. He's going to make a hot breakfast for them. A luxury.
Cloud waits those few minutes, tense and unnerved, waiting for the coils of mako to pull him back under. His limbs still feel weak but something is...different this time. Things feel sharper. He can hear things more than Zack this time, more than the beat of his heart and the hush of his breath; he can hear the crackle of the fire, the chirp of far off birdsong. Cloud can feel the humidity clinging to his skin, sticking his clothes to his chest and back. He can smell the outdoors around them.
He is present. At last, he is.
Zack's turning around towards him, probably to collect him and bring him closer to the fire, to feed him again and once Zack reaches for him, once Cloud is sure he'll see he reaches, just barely, and closes a hand around Zack's wrist.] Zack.
Just another nondescript hole Zack's found to curl them up into. Sometimes they're lucky enough to get a bed in the slums somewhere, the outskirts of some crappy little village or the deep, dank alleyways of a larger city. Most of the time they have a tent, if they're lucky, if Zack manages and money allows, and sometimes they're not lucky and they forfeit shelter for food, for potions for when Zack gets a wound that grit and gumption can't close.
Well- Zack does all of these things. They're a 'they' in bodycount only.
It's Zack dragging himself and Cloud across the countryside, it's Zack finding them shelter, finding them food, tearing into monsters to scrape together enough gil to keep them alive. It's Zack looking after the few wounds Cloud acquires during their journey, it's Zack who talks to him, who feeds him, who carries him on his god damn back for days and days and days on end. Weeks. Months.
Cloud isn't often awake, but sometimes he is. Things are hazy like a dream, sloppy like slumber, slips and strips of memory, of experiences that barely thread together to make something patchwork. And that's how it is when it happens too, because it was only a couple times, fighting to break the surface of a pool of tar. He emerges not with a gasp but an awareness, only for a few moments before he's pulled under. Each time Zack was gone, or asleep, clutching Cloud to his chest for protection but too exhausted to hear his breathless whispers of Zack, Zack as Cloud tries desperately to rouse him, if only to reassure him of I'm here, I hear you, I see you, you're not alone until the mako curls around and into him and pulls him back under.
And then, that middle of nowhere.
Cloud wakes to the sun on his face; weak morning sun, wobbly, not yet hot. They'd slept outside. Zack is already awake, humming to himself, murmuring something, fiddling with a fire. He's going to make a hot breakfast for them. A luxury.
Cloud waits those few minutes, tense and unnerved, waiting for the coils of mako to pull him back under. His limbs still feel weak but something is...different this time. Things feel sharper. He can hear things more than Zack this time, more than the beat of his heart and the hush of his breath; he can hear the crackle of the fire, the chirp of far off birdsong. Cloud can feel the humidity clinging to his skin, sticking his clothes to his chest and back. He can smell the outdoors around them.
He is present. At last, he is.
Zack's turning around towards him, probably to collect him and bring him closer to the fire, to feed him again and once Zack reaches for him, once Cloud is sure he'll see he reaches, just barely, and closes a hand around Zack's wrist.] Zack.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-20 07:28 pm (UTC)Shit, it's been almost ten years, hasn't it.]
...We'll start training during breaks tomorrow, too, so you can be ready for any trouble. The Turks are no pushovers.
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Date: 2018-08-21 06:06 am (UTC)Yeah, a little maiming and mayhem might help with that.
Cloud glances up and catches the look on Zack's face as he peers down at the map, that painfully hopeful expression, and he reaches up on instinct to hook a hand at the back of Zack's neck, squeezing lightly.] We're gonna make it fine. You can tell everybody you're okay.
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Date: 2018-08-26 02:47 am (UTC)It's subtle, but something in his shoulders, in his posture, shifts. Relaxes, as if a bit of the weight's been lifted, replaced by the weight of Cloud's hand.]
Right... hey, you can meet my mom this time.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-26 08:04 am (UTC)His hand doesn't move from Zack's neck but he goes still, head down as he wonders things he probably shouldn't. Was it quick? Did it hurt? Did she think of me? Did she even know what was going on?]
...Zack, [Cloud says lowly, thumb brushing softly against his skin, his own new mako eyes glowing softly in the shadows of the night,] after we get you back to Aerith, I'm gonna hafta leave for a little while.
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Date: 2018-08-29 02:25 am (UTC)What? Why?
[Was it the mom comment? Shit, that was insensitive, wasn't it. He hadn't even thought of it, but Cloud had lost everyone in Nibelheim, and here Zack's going on and on about seeing his family and girlfriend again- god, what an ass he's being.]
no subject
Date: 2018-08-29 05:36 am (UTC)Hojo's gotta pay. Maybe all the ShinRa brass. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but- but after what they let happen, after what they did to me and my mom? I gotta take 'em out somehow, Zack.
[And he's not going to ask Zack to do that with him. Zack might want it too maybe, revenge, or maybe Zack just wants to grab Aerith and get as far away from this continent as possible; Cloud wouldn't blame him for it. He deserves some happiness.
Cloud's just not sure that's in the cards for him anymore. Not that long-term kind, with the girl and the kids and the career. Cloud's sure he'll crash and burn at some point, he just wants to take the entire fucking ShinRa tower down with him when he goes.]
no subject
Date: 2018-09-03 01:39 am (UTC)I... I mean, that's fine, if it's what you wanna do.
[Cloud's not wrong- they do need to be stopped with what they're doing. They've hurt too many people at this point, ruined so many lives- not just theirs, but the people of Nibelheim, Banora, hell even Wutai's been pushed too far, even for an enemy nation. They'd created monsters, over and over, never learning from the mistakes they've made in the past. The trio of old guard that betrayed and abandoned ShinRa only showed them what the power of Jenova could accomplish- and he and Cloud are living proof that they've just carried on where they'd stopped before, pumping chemicals and the cells of some dead alien into people to try and build the next generation. And Zack? He'd stood by and let it all happen for far too long already. Big dreams of becoming a hero, but he'd worked for the villain for years. Going against them had been far too easy- it just took them going against him first. Truth be told, it's a source of unspoken shame.
Going against ShinRa ain't the problem at this point.]
...You don't want me to come along?
no subject
Date: 2018-09-04 06:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-05 03:02 am (UTC)[Zack offers up a faint smile, carrying with it an ache that runs old and deep.]
It's been years. We both know that, even if we don't know exactly how many. I don't know if she's my anything anymore. I don't know what'll happen when- if I find her there.
[That isn't the point of his going back; he doesn't expect to show up out of the blue and see her waiting for him, same as ever. She's beautiful, smart, witty, kind. She's a dream and the best girlfriend a guy could've hoped for.
She deserves better than a broken promise and the lonely life of waiting for a soldier who might never come home.]
I just... need to see her again. I promised I'd come back. After that, I dunno, but do you really think I can just settle down somewhere and live peacefully?
no subject
Date: 2018-09-05 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-06 06:05 am (UTC)Deserve it or not, it isn't really me. Gimme like, a week's vacation, and I'll get bored.
[He lifts a hand- arm up, fist clenched. He gets what Cloud is trying to do now, giving him a chance like this, and while he appreciates the gesture he wants none of it.
"Safe" ain't his style.]
Let's fuck 'em up, buddy.
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Date: 2018-09-07 05:16 am (UTC)So when Zack insists just that little bit further, Cloud can't even find the spine to try and dissuade him. Going into this revenge plan of his with Zack at his side makes him feel like he can do damn near anything, that maybe they can cut their way up to Hojo or even the President, and make them pay. Zack, he probably wants to do it for some blindingly noble reason, like to keep other people from getting hurt but all Cloud can see is his mother's corpse in the fire, Tifa cut open and bleeding in the reactor.
Zack's face through the bright green burn of mako.]
...okay, [is all he says, though he also pulls Zack down to tap their foreheads, closing his eyes. Okay.
Yeah, okay.]