He shrugged as he tucked away the glasses. “I guess? They’re not the same color as they were before, you know. That.”
“True. They were really striking before, y’know? I always liked ‘em. But there’s still a hint of it in there, even now!”
“If you don’t like my sunglasses, you can just say so,” he huffed.
“Well, okay. A part of me prefers when you don’t wear ‘em. But that’s just because I can’t see your pretty eyes.” Smooth.
Yup. Just totally cool here. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing! Nothing at all...” His grin gives him away.
His blue eyes lowered toward the floor. Before Cloud could lift his gaze again Zack had closed in on him. With his senses already on high alert Cloud was acutely aware of where the other man was. He tried to calm himself, but he didn’t have any luck for the moment.
It was hard not to jump when he felt Zack lay his hands on his shoulders. As soon as he felt the other nudge him towards him, Cloud gave very little resistance and stepped forward all too eagerly. With Zack smiling at him again Cloud would look up at the man. Hanging onto what words he spoke for some sort of clue as to what was going on. But it seemed they were both at a loss. And yet for once, he didn’t care. Cloud knew why he was there. And this world was as strange as seeing Zack stand before him.
“Then I don’t want to wake up,” was all Cloud said as he quickly wrapped his arms around the other’s torso. Holding on tightly as if afraid to let go. Never again, he thought. Not again. Pushing his face away from Zack’s hand Cloud would plant his on Zack’s torso as he hugged him. “I don’t care about the why anymore. I don’t want you to leave me again.”
When Cloud moved away from his hand, it had left Zack wondering -- but only for a moment. The blond pressed his face into him, wrapping his arms around him, and instantly every single bit of rigidity that would’ve remained within Zack’s demeanor softened. The neediness within that hold touched upon an old part of him that’d fallen silent within the lifestream, an old part that reached out specifically for Cloud.
So of course, only very little hesitation preceded his own arms moving to hold the other man in response, his head settling on top of Cloud’s.
“I’m not gonna,” he murmured. “I promise.” Nothing would be able to rip him away from Cloud. Not again. He’d defied death once for him; why not over and over? He wasn’t going to blow this second chance, even if a part of him wasn’t sure that it was all real.
If it wasn’t, then no matter; he’d be doing in his dreams what he normally did when alive, anyway. If it was... Then he needed to try his hardest, regardless. For Cloud’s sake.
“...” Guess who has to attempt to smother his giggles.
“I forgot how lame your humor can be.” It was an attempt to get back at Zack, but it didn’t have the same impact as before. Cloud tried to ignore how his face looked before arching a brow. “Besides.it’s not my fault your thoughts are clouded by dumb jokes.”
Oh. Oh. ‘Clouded’.
Yep, Zack lost it.
“Cloudy! You’re learning!” he cheered, looping his arm over the blond’s shoulder while he shook with laughter. It wasn’t even the fact that the pun itself was funny -- it was the fact that Cloud was the one making the joke. “Soon I will entirely infect you. There’s no escape.”
That did it. The feeling of Zack’s hand caressing his warm cheek. The comment the older man made nearly sent Cloud’s head in a spin. But luckily the smaller blond kept it together. Somehow. Cloud would lift a hand and brush the hand off of his face before leaving his own in it’s place. There Cloud would just stare up at Zack. His face still red. His own fingers tracing quietly where Zack had touched. His eyes staring as if he was trying to say something without actually speaking.
“What, never been touched on the face before?” Adorable. If anything, Cloud appeared even more flustered than he had a moment ago. He relocated his hand slapped away by Cloud to his shoulder, which he gently patted. “C’mon, you can try again. Maybe I’m playin’ unfair.” Though at this rate he kind of doubted that Cloud would be able to get him.
“I’m NOT blushing!” Cloud could try to deny it, but he knew they both knew perfectly Cloud was blushing. “My face is just red from you being a butt for asking too many questions.”
“Uh huh.” Zack gently ran his fingers along Cloud’s cheeks. “Yup. Definitely hot.” He probably should’ve elaborated that he meant the red cheeks, but no, when he thought about it, the ambiguity was way funnier.
“Well–” Cloud paused as his face turned red. “I guess we’ll just never know!”
“...” Okay, that was cute. “Really? Never?” Zack grinned. “You know, when you blush like that, your freckles are even easier to see. It’s adorable.”
“It’s okay. I always thought you smelled, nice. Like rain. Or something.” Now he had to glance away from the soldier.
“... Can’t tell if you’re teasin’ me, or that’s a legitimate compliment.”
“Wow. Are you implyin’ I don’t?”
“I don’t know.. You were kinda dead for a while.” He sniffed the air lightly teasing the other.
“How mean! An’ after I complimented you...” Zack melodramatically wiped at his eyes as if he’d been crying. He wasn’t, of course.
It was all so very familiar. The way Zack stood, the concern that filled his face as he watched Cloud react poorly to the older man. Cloud would swallow hard as he wouldn’t pull his eyes away from the other. Not even for a moment to possibly look for an exit. Try as he could, Cloud couldn’t get his heart to stop beating as quickly as it was going. There was just a flood of emotions hitting him all at once. Seeing his dead friend walking around. Normally it was a welcomed sight, but he was afraid it would just as quickly turn into a nightmare.
However, there was a small ray of hope. A crack as Zack started to smile down at the blond. His heart skipped a beat as the pain swelled for that moment. All of the loving feelings he harbored for the other came down on Cloud listened to the lame joke uttered by the other. It was just like him to say something like that. Something that not even on Cloud’s best try could imitate. If this was some weird and twisted dream, he didn’t want to wake from it.
That’s when something in Cloud finally gave way. The hands that he held up to keep the other away grew heavy and fell to his sides. Cloud’s panicked expression would melt away into one of pain as he continued to stare up at Zack. Quietly his eyes filled to the brim with tears. Quickly he lowered his head and began pawing at his eyes as if ashamed to show the other how upset he was. “Zack, it really is you isn’t it?” he choked out. Lighting his head up to look at Zack there was a desperate look on his face. “I’m not dreaming, right?”
The way that Cloud melted -- certainly, he wasn’t panicking anymore, but Zack didn’t know if he liked this reaction any better. Indeed, he melted, revealing a sort of agony that struck Zack with a raw chord deep within his heart, and the uneasy grin became quickly replaced with a frown. He didn’t like seeing Cloud in that much agony, and it even worsened when tears shivered from the other man’s eyes. An understandable reaction, to be sure, but...
He didn’t know what brought him back, or why. He only had cursory knowledge of the guilds that he made himself home in. But he did know one thing, and that was that he couldn’t just sit there while Cloud cried.
He moved forward, stepping cautiously toward the blond until he managed to get close enough that he was within arm’s length, and his hands glided over to Cloud’s shoulders, gently urging him in his direction. Cloud could resist, if he wanted to, but Zack felt this was a time when the two of them needed that physical contact. No matter how bewildered Zack was about his situation, no matter how real this may or may not be, he didn’t care. If Cloud needed him in any reality, Zack would be there. “Well, I don’t really fully get it, but... If you’re dreamin’, so am I.” He offered a soft smile that he hoped was welcoming, so he could sweep those tears away from him.
That protective streak never left him after all.
For the moment Cloud was oblivious to his surroundings. He wasn’t accustomed to his new surroundings. They made his head spin. And while he wasn’t sitting that far away from the bar area it was far too tempting for Cloud to just easily go over to it and nose around for a bottle of fruity like the wine Tifa kept at Seventh Heaven.
Sitting up straight like a jolt to his spine Cloud perked quickly at the sound of his name being called. Was he hearing things!? It couldn’t be! Standing up the blond would whirl around only to catch what should, by all accounts, be a dead man. Frozen in place Cloud felt the world shift around him like it was suddenly going slant. His hands began to tingle with a numb feeling as his throat grew dry. His blue eyes were wide circles as he stared back at his most treasured friend.
His mouth moved, but he failed to talk. At first Cloud could only get out mumbles as he gurgled Zack’s name in returned. It was clear that the smaller blond looked spooked. In an attempted to take a step back he would bump into the window he was sitting at just a moment before. He jumped, nearly flying out of his skin when he touched the window. Now his hands were raised unsure what he were to do next. Was this some cruel dream? More horrible tricks from his damaged mind? But this was the clearest image of Zack his mind had conjured up if it were simply a dream.
“Get out of my head!” He finally spatted loudly. His hands now held up in a more defensive gesture. Part of Cloud wanted to bolt. But he knew if this was truly something from his mind there was no amount of running he could do to get away from it.
The way that he stared at him -- the haunted look in his eyes -- sent shivers down Zack’s spine. He met the gaze evenly, softening his own, but it was very evident that the man in front of him had a shock sent straight through his system. Quickly, he realized this was going down south when repeated attempts from the other man to say his name resulted in failure, backing up several steps and even bumping right up against the window behind him. He’d more than spooked Cloud, it seemed; the man appeared almost as if he’d been going through re-traumatization, of all things.
Shit.
“Cloud--” he began, but before he could go anywhere with that, Cloud suddenly yelled at him to get out of his head, which made Zack flinch as the man prepped up his hands, almost as if Zack would attack him. The ex-SOLDIER’s eyebrows twisted upwards; why could Cloud think he would ever harm him? He would never...!
“I’m not--” But then, how could he tell him that he wasn’t from his head if he didn’t even know if he was alive or not? Surely his imagination wouldn’t conjure up an image like this; and yet, it made no sense that he was alive at all. He’d just woken up in some other world, without any of his injuries that he sustained, bullets and all? That just didn’t happen. At least, it shouldn’t. It didn’t make any sense for it to happen.
At the same time, he couldn’t leave Cloud panicking like this. He tried for what he did best: a casual smile, which appeared more uneasy than anything when legitimately attempted. “Heeey... If I’m in your head, couldja imagine up a bunch’a girls, too?” Deflect with humor, deflect with humor. Fuck, how did he handle this?
I don’t mind not getting a happy ending if it means ——————–
you get yours.
famous first lines of poetry pt. 1: bold the ones that apply to your muse. REPOST. DON’T REBLOG.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked // Tyger Tyger, burning bright // I have done it again. // Do not go gentle into that good night // The sea is calm to-night. // Let us go then, you and I, // April is the cruelest month, // Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. // There is a place where the sidewalk ends // I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart) // Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, // Whose woods these are I think I know // Let us twain walk aside from the rest; // Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, // I taught myself to live simply and wisely // It so happens I am sick of being a man // I wandered lonely as a cloud // Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? // O my Luve is like a red, red rose // O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; // Out of the night that covers me, // It was many and many a year ago, // You may write me down in history // Do not stand at my grave and weep // Some say the world will end in fire // Some say in ice. // Hope is the thing with feathers // The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, // No man is an island, // Remember me when I am gone away, // I met a traveler from an antique land // ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves // This is thy hour O Soul, // We wear the mask that grins and lies, // Death be not proud, // And death shall have no dominion. // Laugh, and the world laughs with you; // The art of losing isn’t hard to master; // To see a World in a Grain of Sand // Is there anybody there? said the Traveller // Nobody heard him, the dead man, // That crazed girl improving her music. // Come to me in the silence of the night; // Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high // When you are old and grey and full of sleep, // In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow // I thought of you and how you love this beauty // Life, believe, is not a dream // It may be misery not to sing at all, // If tarry space no limit knows // Come live with me and be my love, // Had we but world enough and time, // My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains my sense // Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art- // Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness // How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. // Heaven is what I cannot reach! // My dear, my dear, I know // In visions of the dark night // Shall I compare thee to a summers day? // Break, break, break // She walks in beauty, // I had a dream, which was not all a dream. // He clasps the crag with crooked hands
The air felt cold. It was normal for the coming fall. It was such a rush to Queensdale for what felt like such a short time to now Divinity’s Reach, put Cloud in a head spin. The city wasn’t what he was expecting, but it was oddly refreshing. For now he was held up in the Moombabs guild house. With being so new to this world and city in general the former soldier didn’t have much any other place to go to for now.
At first he would idle about the place. Training, cleaning in spite not really wanting to, and finally attempting to cook something only to end up burning said food. With it in the trash Cloud found himself a window to sit by and gazed out the window. His eyes looking here and there curiously at the outside world.
This was going to be his to protect. “To become a hero!” The words echoed in Cloud’s head. With a frown lightly painting his lips Cloud would lower his gaze. “I’m not a hero,” he would mumble to himself. Maybe if he just worked hard enough he might become one.
Zack Fair marveled at the size of the guild house. Back home, where he lived, Planet was littered in small towns and not much else -- with the only place with anything fancy being Midgar, and even that didn’t have something as luxurious as this. The only place that might have come close was the housing in Wutai, which Zack never lingered in long enough to examine, only coming in those territories toward the tail-end of the war; and as a result, he never obtained the chance to examine the inside of those housings except where they kept their local monsters to sic on him. With the ceiling reaching that far into the sky, he bet it had several floors.
Maybe it has a bar, too. His interest became even further piqued when that thought passed through his mind, and he nodded to himself. All right, in we go!
He pulled open the doors (natural disaster hazard, he filed that away in his brain) before he was greeted to the main guild area. Indeed, he found some guild members stationed behind desks, and the stench of alcohol certainly lingered somewhere. Maybe a sanctioned off room? This was probably some sort of mission room or gatheringplace. He stepped forward, examining the wooden floors beneath his feet. He might’ve wondered about the wood that they used there for more than a few seconds, when his peripheral vision caught the sight of something very particular that made Zack’s eyes widen.
No way.
He lifted his gaze upward, having been convinced up until now this was some death-dream that he was having, but then he locked eyes with him, and suddenly nothing made sense.
“Cloud!?”
@freedomisfair
“I think that creature has taken a liking to you.” She couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of the moomba following the young man around the common area of the guild house. With how close the unique creature was to the man upon entering, it would not have been surprising if it considered him a friend. She placed aside her newly-crafted bow and her polishing tools on one of the counters to observe the interaction further. “That’s one of the guild mascots, is it not?”
“Huh?” Zack blinked, turning his gaze around -- and indeed, he found himself eye-to-eye with a small creature who stared up at him, blinking, before squealing for him as it reached out with its pause. Being so used to monsters who wanted to simply attack him, it made him lift an eyebrow with one behaving so affectionately... But hey, why look a gift horse in the mouth, right? He grinned, placing his head square on the mascot’s head, spreading his palm over its fur and splitting the hairs with his fingers. “Guess so! Gotta be honest, never seen one’a these li’l guys before.” It did look like the guild’s emblem, at least. She might be onto something with that one.
He tilted his head, eyeing the equipment she’d just been crafting. “Didja make that?” He indicated with a flick of the head toward the bow. He had to say, pretty impressive. Women who worked for themselves did offer to be rather attractive.
