This is the second one-shot writing exercise taken from Rhino7 (who got it from Scribbler): Pick a character. Now put your iPod on shuffle and write a fic to the song that comes on. You're supposed to finish before the song does, but I'm a little slow so I let it play 3 times (that's my current standard, lol). I have gotten some really interesting results (to me anyway) so far. Any feedback would be appreciated!!! Without further ado, I give you:

Cloud Strife

"The Road" by Tenacious D (-- I know, right? wtf)


His road was long and arduous, but as Yuffie had pointed out once, where else did he need to be anyways?

He was stuck in a rut and part of him knew it, the part of it that actually cared that Tifa was chasing after him, clinging to his light for him and trying to make him face it. The larger part of him—the one that was weak enough to let her pleas, her good intentions, to be ignored was the part that he always ended up listening to. The part that kept his boots pounding on the earth in search of that which he was destined to pursue until one day he defeated it, or he allowed it to consume him.

Sephiroth.

It was a rut and he knew it, but it was his road to walk, rut or no. Tifa would have to wait, and wait she would. He had to go and she would keep trying to follow him where she couldn't—both of them knew that. If he had told he knew that part she'd have gone silent with rage and thumped him upside the head with one of those not-so-feminine fists of hers. She'd have kicked his ass, then she would've gone on a tirade about how he was needed and loved and that he wasn't as lost to the Darkness as he seemed to think he was and….

….blah, blah, blah. That larger part of him, the side that kept chasing. It was also the part of him that kept running. Sephiroth was his responsibility, and truthfully he understood that this singular consumption kept him from having to confront a whole multitude of other issues he wasn't ready for. Not until he'd pieced himself back together anyways. He'd seen what the responsibility of the bigger fight had done to Leonhart and knew he couldn't handle it until he could confirm to himself what side he was actually working for. Taking out Sephiroth would answer that for him and until that happened, he would keep chasing.

It was his road to walk, self-chosen and condemned to his feet alone. The rest would wait until he'd done what he had to.

He had no other choice.