Author's Note: While this story initially focuses on Cloud and Aerith, Tifa will come into it around the third chapter or so. There are appearances by numerous other characters, as well. :) I hope you enjoy it, and I deeply and sincerely appreciate your reviews. :) Thank you. :) I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, etc.


A playful breeze willed shoulder-length auburn hair helplessly into the wind. It fluttered fervently, like a butterfly trapped in a spider's snare, until a small, delicate hand tucked it behind it's owner's right ear. The hand belonged to a young girl who looked to be ten or so. Her hair attended to, she resumed her true task: that of gathering wildflowers. A small stack rested at her knees, while two had been pulled astray, again the work of the mischievous gust, in her grasp's absence.

They were common, to say the least, and one could find the same varieties scattered endlessly in all directions of the world surrounding her. This did not in the slightest dampen her appreciation for them, however. She gathered them all back together and clutched them firmly but lovingly. Not a stem was broken in her care. A smile, faint and gentle, graced her features as she clutched with utmost consideration her small bouquet. She stood then, carefully brushing a few wisps of grass from her dusty-pink sundress.

It was time she set out for home, for her sake as well as that of her water-reliant flora. Her boots, nearly the same shade as her hair, trod over the verdant meadow that adorned the area. She inhaled the constant fragrance of flowers that was present here. In the close-distance, she saw a cottage that bordered the nearby town, which was also visible from her current position. Beyond the town, though more noticeable due to it's immense size, was the castle. It stood over all that was around it like a great sentient being, watching over those who would reside in it's midst.

She paused a last moment to inhale the sweet aromas that danced across the area, and to watch once more the fragile blooms that the softening breeze coaxed into waving their elegant petals. As she turned once more towards her nearby home, a muffled cry, deadened by the obvious distance of the speaker, touched her ears faintly. It came a second time, and a third, and at last the girl could distinguish her name. She turned as the one from whom the voice originated became a shape sprinting towards her from the town.

"Aerith!"

The tone was one of great alarm, which initially concerned the recipient of the message. However, Aerith could soon distinguish the figure, and relief flooded her mind. It was Yuffie, with whom all announcements were a cause for running and shouting at the top of one's lungs.

"Aerith!"

This call was more frantic even than those formerly released. At least it seemed so to Aerith, who in reply started jogging as quickly as was possible in a dress, towards Yuffie.

"Aerith! Aer...ith...!"

Yuffie gasped violently for breath, having at a steady pace run considerably further than one might expect of a nine-year-old girl.

"Yuffie? What is it?" mild uneasiness was present in Aerith's tone as she addressed Yuffie, as one could never tell quite how urgent the situation really was with her.

"I was... with... Squall... and then this... swirly purply thingy... open...ed," the smaller girl paused periodically to catch her breath, and yet still seemed to be talking too fast. "Squall told... me to... get somebody... but I could... tell... he was about... to wet... himself... So I stayed and this kid about... our age... fell out of... the purply-swirl-thing."

Yuffie seemed to have mostly caught her breath at this point and stood up more fully, unbending her knees as she stretched.

"Do you have any... water...?" Yuffie pleaded hopefully.

Aerith shook her head apologetically as Yuffie allowed a near-deafening groan to escape her.

The older of the two was still trying to piece together an image in her mind of what had happened from the younger's hurried explanation.

"So... Where did you see all this? Where are Squall and the kid now?" Aerith spoke in more rushed a manner than was typical of her, but didn't reach nearly Yuffie's rapidity.

"Oh yeah... The kid was unconscious, so me an' Squall started arguing over who'd go get help... We were over by that alley between those two buildings... kinda on that one road, only you go to the left an'... Umm... Anyway, you gotta come or Squall will win!" as the last words left her, Yuffie grabbed Aerith by one arm and weakly tried to pull her along.

Aerith, both curious and piteous gave in and did her best to keep up with Yuffie, who had somehow mustered the strength start sprinting again. Elmyra, who had cared for Aerith since her parents disappearance during her infanthood, would be out for some time to come, anyhow.

As they set foot in the town, Aerith began to feel as though she would pass out from exhaustion, while she noted that her friend had slowed only slightly. She was led through twisting roads and alleys, until at last they reached what must have been 'that one road where you go left an'', because Aerith soon found herself facing the obvious scene of this event.

Squall stood at the entrance, his face consumed by a bizarre look of fear and amazement at Yuffie's choice of 'help'.

"You brought another kid?" Squall stated in a derogatory way, placing his forehead in his right hand. "A town full of adults, and you went the extra mile to leave town and bring another kid?"

"Well maybe you should have gone yourself!" Yuffie spat back in a strangely pompous and satisfied tone.

As Aerith contemplated her role in Yuffie's revenge on Squall for his 'laziness', she suddenly recalled the situation. Her eyes darted to the back of the alley. There was no 'swirly-purply-thingy' in sight, but a boy about Squall's age was propped up against the back wall. He had fair hair, which was pulled into rather messy spikes, and his eyes were tightly shut in almost a wince. His jaw was clamped into a grimace, and he looked as though his teeth were probably gritted together.

Aerith approached him with a mixture of apprehension and interest as her two friends argued heatedly. She cautiously put her hand on the boy's shoulder and shook him gently, then letting it occur to her that she didn't even know if he was human. The boy failed to stir for a moment, then appeared to tighten his facial features and let out a quiet moan.

Startled, Aerith nearly leapt back, but ultimately took only a retreating, slow step or two back, never taking her eyes from him. Squall noticed as well, and halted his fight with Yuffie to turn in shock at the waking 'alien'.

"Ha ha, you're so funny! I might have fallen for that when I was kid and you'd say-," she was cut off by Squall, who took it upon himself to firmly grasp her shoulders and turn her to face the end of the alley.

There was a long silence as the three watched the frightening and yet captivating spectacle before them. Aerith found herself unable to step any further away from the stranger, her body becoming limp and her jaw falling slightly ajar as she watched.

The boy's eyes fluttered several times before at last opening and attempting to take in the unfamiliar sights around him. He groaned a bit and attempted to stand, failing to reach even his knees, and finally settling back where he had been.

"Wh... Where... am I...?" he muttered weakly at last.

Aerith paused, wondering for a long moment whether or not it would be wise to answer.

"Ra... Radiant Garden," she choked out at last.

"Where?" the boy's tone had now become one of utter perplexity.

"Radiant Garden," Squall repeated Aerith's words, trying to sound calm.

"What...?" he seemed to say this to himself as he drew himself up to a full sitting position.

After a long pause, the boy let out a soft cry and held his head. He closely sealed his eyes for a few instants, before his vision eventually drifted up to the girl who had first spoken to him.

"Who are you?" the boy said this in either a kind or weak tone, or perhaps a combination of the two.

"Aerith Gainsborough...," she replied hesitantly.

The newcomer to Radiant Garden, in obvious pain of some sort, attempted to stand once more. This time he managed to do so, though by leaning heavily on the wall for support.

"Are you... alright?" Aerith's question was timidly spoken, though for an indeterminable reason she felt far less anxious now.

"...Yeah...," he gasped, staggering a bit as he attempted to gain balance.

Yuffie continued to stare blankly, occasionally opening her mouth just slightly, as if to speak, though in the end maintaining her awe-struck silence. Squall made an effort to appear unshaken by the current situation, wasted though it may have been, as no eyes were on him.

"What...," Squall's voice faltered here, as he contemplated his choice of words. "How did you get here?"

"...I...," the boy's reply was cut short by his fatigue and confusion.

There was a momentary silence as the boy attempted to get a sense of his surroundings and his interrogators pondered whether he might soon fall unconscious again. Aerith at last took a meek step forward, twisted her neck to see the eyes within his drooping head, and placed a hand caringly on his left shoulder. Fearful knots in her stomach though there may have been, she found enduring the look of terror and bewilderment possessing the face of the boy no older than herself to be more unbearable still.

"What's your name?" Aerith's tone was soft, and her words nearly whispered.

There was a pause of fair amount before the boy at last drew a long, fragile breath and spoke.

"...Cloud... Strife..."

Aerith dipped her head faintly in soundless acknowledgement.

"Umm... Like... What now?" Yuffie cut in at last.

"He obviously can't walk far, if at all... and leaving him in an alley doesn't seem like a great plan...," Squall speculated. "At the same time, there'll be too many questions if we try to get help... We'd get dragged into it."

"It would probably be best if no one found out about the...," Aerith paused, racking her mind for a better term than 'purply-swirl-thingy'. "...portal. It would bring too much worry, and people might begin to see him as a threat."

"We still don't know that he isn't," Squall reminded them, a note of mistrust overtaking his speech.

"What a thing to say in front of him!" Yuffie scolded, her hands resting on her hips.

"We don't," was the reply the younger girl's companion offered her. "Forgive me for not sharing in your blind trust."

"Either way, we can't leave him here," Aerith cut in in hopes of ending yet another of friend's arguments swiftly.

"Oh... yeah," Yuffie recalled.

"I suppose...," Aerith pieced together a hap-hazard plan in her frenzied thoughts. "...we could take him back to Elmyra... She usually knows when things are best left quiet, and hardly anyone ever comes to the cottage..."

Squall looked thoughtful for a time, and at last seemed to agree, as he nodded.

"How do we get him there, though?" he asked blandly.

"...I can walk... Just give me a few more... minutes," Cloud himself at last stated.

"Are you sure?" Aerith questioned, turning to him in surprise.

"...Yeah...," stuttered though it was, his response was stronger than before.

The three Radiant Garden residents gazed at him wonderingly, having formerly expected him to collapse at any minute. They were, in all honesty, surprised he had even been capable of enough awareness to hear their conversation.

As if he had received some unheard signal, Cloud pulled himself into an entirely erect posture and unsteadily let go of the wall. Aerith seemed to understand, and walked slowly alongside him, guiding him back to Elmyra's dwelling.