Disclaimer: The Final Fantasy VII universe and charaters are owned by Square Enix. I make no profit from this fanfiction.
Standing Offer
Darkness followed the fading daylight to the horizon, a light wind chasing a few cloud after it as well. The evening was peaceful, settled, much more so than their trip to Nibelheim with the monster attacks. So many monster attacks. It was barely safe to venture out of cities and towns anymore without a sword or gun. When would it be unsafe even within populations?
Zack leaned back, putting his hands to either side of him to hold up his reclined position. He breathed out a full, relaxed sigh through pursed lips, his head tilted back as he watched the stars gradually appear.
Cloud sat next to him, his elbows on his knees, his head pointed to the ground. Even if the SOLDER had been looking at Cloud, he wouldn't have been able to tell what the guy was looking at with the trooper helmet he refused to take off. Zack tried to not let his friend's dark preoccupation with something or other bring him down. He couldn't understand why the guy was down, especially when Cloud had seemed ecstatic over returning to the place of his birth before they'd actually arrived.
"So, this is what you used to do with your spare time? Sit on the water tower?"
The trooper huffed a laugh and finally removed his helmet in the darkness. He shook his head, making blonde spikes of hair dance back to life after being pressed to his head for so long. "Yeah, this and sneak off to the mountains. But they're not safe anymore."
"Monsters?"
"That and, well, a few years ago, someone got hurt up there." Cloud's words grew quieter with each one until Zack had to strain to hear them.
"Who was it?"
"Tifa."
"The brunette?"
"Yeah. That was the scariest day of my life."
"Oh, you, were you, you know?"
"Nah. She was just my friend." Cloud huffed a laugh but Zack didn't hear any humor in it. "My only friend, really. If I'd lost her that day... I don't know what I would have done with myself."
Zack smiled, grabbed the back of the blonde man's neck and shook him a bit, trying to shake some sense into him, saying, "Then why aren't you talking to her?" When Cloud shrugged, he dropped his hand back to his side.
"I... Things were supposed to go differently in Midgar. I was supposed to..."
Zack wished the guy would have talked a bit louder. Instead of asking him to, he pushed forward and put his own elbows on his knees, copying Cloud's position, and looked at the side of his face. "Supposed to..."
Cloud turned his downcast head just enough to give Zack a look over. "I was supposed to be like you. I was supposed to join SOLDLIER. I told Tifa, well, everyone here that I was going to be the next Sephiroth." Then the man let his lips curve a bit. "And look at me. I basically lied to them."
"Ah... You applied to SOLDIER?" Zack asked and Cloud nodded. He looked down to Cloud's hands as they fidgeted with the helmet. "You know, you can always try again when we get back. You wouldn't be the first. Not even I got in on the first try."
"Seriously?"
Zack grinned at the memory. "Yeah, they thought I didn't have the right attitude for it. Too happy, too much of a daydreamer. I know because I sneaked a look at my report when Lazard left the room for a minute. Who would have thought a requirement for being a SOLDIER is being a depressed asshole?" Cloud snorted, shaking his head, still obviously hesitant to believe. "But hey, I trained, became better at everything, and became an asset. You know. I didn't give them a choice but to let me in!"
Cloud attempted a smile but it floundered with the grimace attached to it.
Zack wrapped his arm around the trooper's shoulder. Accentuating his words with his other arm, he offered, grinning again, "Look, how about this: When we get back, I'll train with you. Show you the ropes. Make you a badass soldier. How about it?"
"You'd do that?"
"Yeah, of course I would!" The trooper's smile finally became real, making Zack's grin larger. "The two baddest-assed SOLDIERs out there!"
Cloud burst out with a short laugh and shook his head. "We'll see."
"Have faith, my young friend," Zack said with squeeze of his shoulder, before he let him go to wave at Sephiroth as he walked out of the Inn. The general looked at them with clear expectation in his frown. "Oops, I think it's bedtime. Early day tomorrow, you know."
"Yeah."
Zack stood up, offered Cloud his hand which was accepted, and hoisted the shorter man to his feet. Then he jumped down, landing gracefully, although not as gracefully as the man still lending them his cold stare. He watched Cloud climb down the ladder and, out of the corner of his eye, Sephiroth walk back into the Inn.
"That guy's worse than my mother!" Zack said with a laugh.
Cloud grinned, offering, "No worse than mine," before he slipped his helmet back over his head and walked with Zack back to the Inn.