Title: Affections in Writing
Author: Apatheia
Pairing: Cloud/Aerith
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: She sat by the light of a lamp late at night and began her reply with a fond "Dear Cloud".
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Square Enix and Disney. Please don't sue; the only thing you would get is a few dollars in change and some Kingdom Hearts tee-shirts.
01. Coddle
For weeks after Cloud's unexpected, yet not entirely surprising, departure, they had handled her as though she was a piece of delicate china that had cracked and was now on the verge of breaking from anyone's care other than their own.
02. Name
Not one of them dared to mention his name around her, their avoidance of the issue an obvious attempt to keep her thoughts from straying to the blond-haired swordsman that had only just so recently left (her) them unannounced.
03. Reunion
Any reference to his absence was forbidden, and even the possibility of his return was not spoken of; if any of them truly believed that this time around there would be another reunion to look forward to, they gave no hint of it.
04. Taboo
Rather than stay with them, Tifa opted to leave, her journey one that was to be once more spent searching for him, and on a basis of association alone she, too, was never mentioned in polite conversation.
05. Desirable
Aerith managed to curb such undesirable behavior only be pointedly bringing up what the others had deemed forbidden, and even then, the reprieve from their (silly) almost endearingly adamant silence on the matter lasted too briefly to be truly appreciated.
06. Demand
As the days passed, Leon would ask for less and less of her assistance despite his obvious determination to restore their hometown to its former glory, and although his driving logic was beyond her comprehension, she was not oblivious to just what it was he was doing.
07. Idle
It was hard to miss such things when she suddenly found herself with too much free time on her hands and not enough ways to spend it; while she appreciated the quiet moments spent in Cid's company with a cup of his homebrewed tea in her hands, and she enjoyed having more time with Yuffie, she wanted to be out there with them during the busy hours of the day, helping out as she once had.
08. Indulge
Still, she allowed them all a week to believe that Leon had won before she walked into the bailey with a pair of gardening gloves—the only type of gloves she owned—and threw herself back into the restoration efforts, her stubbornness giving her the strength to ignore Yuffie's loud protests and Leon's silent, almost disapproving frown.
09. Family
Deep down, it bothered it her that they thought her so fragile a creature that she could not handle his absence again, but she had long since learned that it was just their way of showing they cared and because they were family—the only family she had, really—she loved them for their attempts to spare her further hurt.
10. Letter
She only wished they would give her the chance to tell them about the most recent letter the moogle in the town square had been so kind to deliver to her, the one that began with an expectedly straightforward "Aerith" and ended with the awkward, spindly curls of his signature; but in their insistence to avoid the issue of him they did not, and so she simply sat by the light of a lamp late at night and began her reply with a fond "Dear Cloud".