Title: White Coat, Clear Eyes
Pairing: Cloud x Aerith

Teaser: "Aeris ducked her head to get a glimpse through the slot in her cell door, and saw only a white coat. Just like all the others." Slight AU one-shot. Pairing: Cloud x Aeris.

Final Fantasy VII © Squaresoft / Square Enix

"Miss Gainsborough?"

It was the first time in days that she had heard her name. Normally they just called her "The Ancient," or worse,"Specimen 8479."

"I've brought your dinner," the voice and the plastic tray came through the slot that opened in the cell door.

"But I was so looking forward to picking my dinner off the floor again," she sniped at the voice, folding her arms, though she knew whoever it belonged to neither saw her nor cared.

"Um...the floor?"

"What, you don't remember shoving every other tray through here without any warning at all?"

It was humiliating, having to eat scraps off the ground after her captors threw her food inside the cell, but if she wanted to stay alive, she had no choice. She tried to comfort herself by remembering that it was something most other people from the slums had probably done before.

"Sorry, I'm not normally on meal duty," said the man on the other side.

Aeris ducked her head to get a glimpse through the still-open slot, and saw only a white coat. Just like all the others.

"So how'd you get stuck with me today? Are you not meeting your weekly specimen-mangling quotas or something?"

"The others will have mangled more than enough for all of us. I asked to come here."

Aeris bent her knees, looking up through the slot to try and catch a glimpse of the man's face. She managed to get his mouth into view, and saw it was turned down.

"Why did you ask for me today then?"

"Because I...the voice trailed off. Then, quietly - "I know what it's like to be locked up."

"Oh? Criminal record?" asked Aeris, not missing a beat.

"Locked up by them, I mean. By Shinra."

"...Oh..." she hadn't expected that. "Are they torturing their own employees now?"

"It was before I worked here," he answered. "I was..." He took a breath, let it go, and took another. "...a test subject, like you."

"Why in the world did you come to work for them, then? How can you take part in what Shinra does to people, knowing what like's from the other side?"

Her voice was rising, but when he answered, his stayed low.

"I didn't have a choice," he said. "I wasn't strong enough to withstand the testing. They told me I nearly died, but Hojo said I had a good mind even if my body was useless, and he was going to make me use it to pay back the time and effort he wasted on me."

"Why don't you leave? You're not locked away like me."

"My body is useless, remember? How far do you think I could run before they caught me?"

He had a point there. Shinra was relentless in tracking down its targets. She knew that from twenty two years of experience. Even she had been caught eventually, and she was strong and healthy. If this man was sick or weak, he likely didn't stand a chance. She tried to look at him through the slot, to see what was wrong with him, but she couldn't see anything new, just that same sad - and she had to admit - pretty frown.

"You'll find a way," she said, though a little absently. An idea had just occurred to her, and she wondered if it was very smart at all.

She had friends who were coming to free her. Of that she was certain. If they were already busting one prisoner out, would it hurt to bust out one more?

"You never know where hope might show up. That's what my mother used to tell me. She escaped Shinra once, too."

"I know. I read your file."

Aeris blushed, glad he couldn't see her through the door. What else had he read about her in there?

"What happened to your mother?" asked the orderly. "The report ends with the escape."

"She died."

"Oh," the voice was quiet. "Sorry."

Now she knew he wasn't a Shinra lackey at heart. Nobody who was truly sold to Shinra would ever say 'sorry.'

"No, it's alright. My adoptive mom has been really great, so I'm not lonely."

"My mom died, too," he said. "Only there was no one there to take me in. Well...I did have one friend, but he's gone now, too."

"Only one?" Aeris repeated. Could she herself have survived with only one friend? Her adoptive mother, all the friends she'd made since coming to live in Midgar - they had all supported her, every step of the way. If they hadn't been there, would she have ended up like this quiet man with the downturned mouth, working for Shinra and hating every minute of it?

She didn't get to ask, for a voice outside yelled "Move it!" just before a painful-sounding thud, and the door shook and shivered under a series of heavy, angry pounds, then "Forget it, I'm shooting it in."

"Stand back, Aeris!" cried a voice she recognized as Tifa's, and she pressed herself back against the wall as series of gun blasts brought the door crashing inwards.

There stood Barrett, his gun arm smoking, and Tifa behind him, her eyes wide. And there, on the ground, was the white-clad figure. Had they killed him? For the first time in her life, Aeris found she actually cared whether a Shinra member were dead or alive.

But no, he was moving now, raising himself up from the ground. Wiping the dust from his hair, he lifted his head, and Aeris gasped. He had the bluest eyes.

Unnatural as she knew the glow was - he was a Shinra experiment, after all- - the color itself was all his. She'd seen Mako eyes before, and they hadn't equalled this exact shade of forget-me-not blue. These eyes that had seen horrors didn't carry the same deadness as the eyes of the other orderlies. They were still so clear and pure. They were unhappy eyes, yes, and they carried a deep -seated confusion she couldn't penetrate at the moment, but they were clear, like the conscience she now knew was behind them.

"Come on, Aeris, we ain't got time to play around," said Barret. How long had she been staring at the man like this?

"Wait! I can't leave my friend."

"Friend?!" Barret cried, stamping his foot and eyeing the white coat with impatient indignation. "Girl, this had better be your soulmate if you expect me to bring a Shinra goon along."

"Trust me, he's on our side. My Cetra powers can feel it," she tapped her temple, hoping he wouldn't know she was half-making it up. She turned from him and knelt beside her "friend."

"What's your name?" she whispered urgently.

"Cloud," he said, peering up at her from behind messy blonde bangs.

She smiled, and held out a hand to help him up. When he took it, she could have sworn she felt sparks, like countless glittering drops of the planet's energy, passing between them. Maybe Barret had a bit of Cetra in him, too, for what he'd said now suddenly felt a lot like a prophecy.

"Let's go, Cloud," she said.