This was an idea that just came to me one night. Beware of the angst! And I know it's short but you know me, I never could write long prologues without giving away half the plotline lol.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or places in this story. They belong to SquareEnix. And I'm also not making any money from this, it's just a little fun for a Clerith fangirl :)
Loveless
Prologue
"Cloud? Can you hear me?"
"Hello? Hello! Can you hear me?"
Gaia his head hurt like nothing he had ever felt before. The voies calling out to him were slowly becoming clearer in his mind as he struggled to open his heavy eyelids.
"Come on lazy bum! Wake up!"
That was undoubtably Yuffie's voice, he thought to himself. He let his eyes crack up, taking in seven blurred figures that surrounded him. He blinked and they all came into focus, staring at him with a mixture of worry and curiousity.
"What happened?" he asked, struggling into a sitting position but strong hands placed themselves on his shoulders and gently pushed him back down.
"You fell through the roof. The flowerbed must have broken your fall."
"Do you remember anything at all?" Tifa asked gently, running a hand through his hair in a motherly fashion. Cloud frowned as he searched his memory for anything that could indicate what had happened. He remembered the group travelling to the Northern Cave to finish Sephiroth once and for all. He remembered that after they had broken through Sephiroth's defences, the ex-General had forced Cloud to come and fight him on his own. But after that, he remembered nothing.
"Did I...?"
"Yes," Tifa cut him off with a proud smile. "You did it Cloud!"
"We knew you could do it," Nanaki added, placing his front paw on Cloud's knee and regarding him through his good eye with a wise look.
"So what happened?" Cloud asked, looking around.
"After Sephiroth disappeared into the lifestream, we came to find you. When we did, you were unconscious," Tifa explained, shifting slightly to allow Cloud to finally sit up properly. "Meteor is gone. The lifestream came up out of the ground and destroyed it. It's all over now."
Cloud nodded in response and looked around the group. His friends stared back at him with expressions of equal joy. They were all safe and well. He gave them all a smile of his own - Barret, Cait Sith, Cid, Nanaki, Tifa, Vincent and Yuffie. And then a strange feeling came over him as he looked at them all again. For a brief second, he thought he saw a girl in pink, standing among them. Her long brown hair was held in it's braid by a bright pink ribbon. She smiled at him with all the warmth and kindness that shone in her green eyes. But she was gone instantly.
He searched his memory, trying to find if he knew this girl or not. Something told him, deep within his soul that he did know her, that she had been a major part of his life. But at the same time, he couldn't put a name to the face. He looked at his friends in turn, thinking he must have just bumped his head and forgotten this woman for a brief moment.
"What about that other girl?" he asked. "What happened to her?"
The joyful expressions fell and were replaced with confused glances. Cid chewed the end of his cigarette and mumbled something about "mind muck-ups" to Vincent, who seemed to be the only one with a neutral expression. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Tifa finally locked eyes with Cloud and calmly replied.
"What other girl?"
