Summary: A short, sweet moment between the two sparked something that made them finally think they can protect and love. A young amnesic woman and a young fretful man find peace with each other. CloudxTerra.

Personal Thoughts: ...ever since Dissidia, CxT (Terra) was even more possible. I doubt they could actually work together as a couple, but its still cute, I guess. I remember back in 98' when a CloudxTerra (sorta) fanfiction was made. Great stuff there. It basically told the Dissidia story line. Now that I think of it, its almost like...Dissidia was stolen off of it *laughs*

Anyway, enjoy, review or die.

Chapter: Horizon

All he could hear was the sound of her soft footsteps over the crunchy ground and her gentle breathing. It was getting late and he knew she was tired and he had to admit he was too, but he didn't know where to set up for the night — everywhere held danger. He paused along a gap between the forest and pointed to a low set of rocks, a small grotto could be seen. The young woman with mint green hair came to stand beside him, a weak smile appeared on her face. She was defiantly tired. The young man couldn't help but feel relieved as well, his bones and head ached from fighting all of those manikins.

"We'll rest there for the night...." he dragged his sentence on and turned his head slightly enough to look at her. "Any problems with that?" she shook her head quickly, thankful for the soon to be rest.

"I'm fine with it — I've slept in worse." she muttered, a little quietly as she plodded down the foothill to the rocky wall in front of them. The young man sighed and headed after her.

The fire they built was fairly decent; it wasn't warm enough nor big enough, but it would keep them a little bit warm from the chilly night. In the background of the little forest, he could see tall, gloomy castles. They were far away, but not too far. They would make it to the towers in about four-five days, depending on the enemies and food supply they run into. He stirred the coals around of the fire with a stick and turned his head to the young woman. She was staring at the fire's flames, the light flickering across her face and her eyes sparkling. She looked like she was battling something deep inside, and he knew that kind of feel all too well. He frowned just a bit.

"I don't have much food left — you?" he asked, gently. She looked over at him with a soft expression.

"Just a little bit of meat....you can have it if you want." she dug through the pouch attached to her belt and held the food out to him. "I'm not that hungry anyway." he blinked and shook his head.

"No, you'll need it far more than me, Terra. I can easily go days without food. You can barely walk without rest, I'll be fine. You eat it and I'll get something tomorrow." she frowned at him with both disappoint and sorrow. She obviously didn't want him to starve because of her.

"Are you sure, Cloud?" he nodded to her and glanced up toward the grotto's opening, watching the forest ahead of them with unease. She smiled faintly and cooked the meat to finally fill her stomach up for extra warmth.

He watched her sleep that night, all curled up by the fire, her face turned up with a warm smile of content. During the day, she was so quiet and gave off the impression that she had witnessed a massacre — too afraid to speak. He remembered when he met her, she was so frightened after he helped her out from her Esper transformation. He could still feel the marks she gave him while he fought her. That was probably a week ago and he still felt it. He sighed and threw a few more pieces of wood in the fire, it popped and hissed with life. He decided to just sit back and rest his bones even though he wasn't going to be sleeping.

———

The next morning Cloud was true to his statement that night. He had found his own food and managed to hunt down something to eat — a small lizard — for Terra. He cooked it well because she commented about not wanting to eat a lizard, but he did get her to admit she had tried it before and it tasted no different than a bunny or anything else. He guessed it was just her moral thoughts that corrupted her idea about the lizard meat.

After they ate, they headed on. Their destination was the blue castles. On their way, they ran into a few manikins and Cloud was surprised that Terra knew how to use her sword so well. He began to wonder who she really was and what she was hiding from him. He knew that she had to have been trained by a master or some-sort, she was defiantly skilled in the craft. He noticed that her dagger was used almost as much as her thin sword and wanted to ask which she trained with first, but decided against it. He could tell by looking at her when she fights that she puts a lot of concentration into her power, she was probably avoiding morphing and going into a heated rage, or to make sure her attacks hit where she wanted them to.

She handled most of them, muttering something about repaying him for helping her. Of course he didn't like it, but he didn't want to argue with her or get her upset...who knows what would happen. He shrugged and handled a few himself, glancing back to her to make sure she wasn't overwhelmed by them. After they finished off the last few manikins, Terra sighed in exhaustion and turned to Cloud, a little bit of dirt smeared over her face. She was thrown to the floor a few times, nothing too bad though. She was a tough woman.

"Is that all of them?" she asked, a little worried. He knew she wasn't worried for herself, but for him. He nodded, slowly.

"I didn't see anymore. We should...you should check that out." he nudged his head toward her and she frowned, bringing a index finger to the cut over her lip. She felt the wetness and slightly smiled.

"I'll be fine, it's just a little cut...besides, you're the one with the wound." she gently walked over and laid a hand over his bruised cheek. He noted her warm hands and slightly pulled away. With a grunt, he said:

"I'm fine. We should hurry on." and then he started off in front of her. She frowned and watched him for a few seconds before running toward him.

"Wait! Wait for me!" she shouted, a little too loud.

———

The next day went basically the same as before, only they missed out on a meal and was running on empty. Terra surprisingly didn't drag him on, she was very silent about it. Only the tired, hungry burning look in her eyes gave him enough to know what she really felt. He wondered what would happen if she didn't eat, would she get upset and morph on him while his back is turned? He shook his head and dug through a pocket and frowned when he found a small energy bar. That must have been in there before he was taken by Cosmos. He checked the date and it had a few months before becoming bad. He called Terra's name and when she looked toward him, he threw the bar to her.

She gave him and the odd food she's never seen before a worried stare and then unwrapped the bar. "Its a energy bar I had. A...friend gave it to me before I headed out and was sucked up by Cosmos." he stated and she nodded, biting into the bar. She smiled.

"Thank you Cloud...I wish I had something to give you." she whispered and he shrugged tiredly.

"No need." he paused on a small hill and gazed in front of him. "Well, we're almost there....here." at the sound of his voice, she looked up as well and could see the blue castles in the horizon. "Another day or so..."

"What do you think it is?"

"A city." he answered, quickly.

"I meant...oh, forget it." she pouted her lips and stomped ahead of him. He sighed. What did I say?

———

Working beside a man like Cloud only confused her. She never thought Onion Knight would be so much different than the other members she's met. She was shocked at how...quiet and weird Cloud was. Although she had no where to speak, she attacked him and Onion Knight because she was weird. She sighed and glanced back and saw him staring down at his feet, a hard expression on. What was he thinking?

Probably something negative about me, she growled in her head. Have I been annoying? She became flustered. Did I say something? Do something I wasn't suppose to? Why is he so upset with me...gah, I knew I shouldn't have eaten that food, it has only upset him. She sighed and crossed her arms at the thought of Cloud only acting nice because of her morphing ability. Was he afraid of her? Well, who wouldn't be. She was a emotional wreck — she could literally tear him up if she got upset or lost control.

She felt hard fingers grasp her elbow and pull her back. It was Cloud. "What the heck, Cloud!" he put a hand over her mouth and shook his head, pointing toward the sky. She followed his finger and jumped a little bit when she saw a scary looking woman flying across the sky with tentacles whipping about. Terra swallowed and stepped back against Cloud. She was searching for something...someone. Her? Cloud? both? "Did she see us?"

"I don't think so..."

"....What if she finds us?"

"We fight, I guess."

"But isn't that...suppose to be Onion Knight's enemy? Can we win?"

"Maybe."

"You know, your half answers are getting on my nerves." she growled.

"I'm sorry...?" Terra pinched the crook of his arm and elbow, he jumped a little bit. "what the hell did you do that for?!" he hissed.

"You're acting like a jerk."

"Well I'm sorry I'm not peachy enough for you at this moment..." he muttered, searching the sky. That horrible woman was gone. Terra turned from him and crossed her arms.

"Doesn't mean you act like this..."

———

The rest of the day their journey was silent and the tension between them was heavy. Cloud was ahead of her by at least ten feet and Terra's usually sweet demeanor was...sunken. Before he could practically see sunshine beaming off of her smile and birds and animals gathering around her. But now it was stormy looking: it looked dark and gloomy all around her. He must have upset her more than he thought he did. What did he say that was so worthy of her anger? He turned his head back and saw her eyes on the ground — they were focused with rage.

"...." he paused in his tracks and Terra looked up. "I'm...sorry if I did something, Terra." he grumbled.

The green haired woman smiled warmly. "See? That wasn't hard!" she chirped, running up to him. She poked his cheek with her fingers and then pushed his lips up into a smile. "And look, you're happy!" she smiled at his red face and giggled when he pulled away and stomped off. "Oh, I'm sorry Cloud! Please forgive me." he growled. She couldn't even stop laughing while she `apologized'.

At least she was in a cheerier mood. He didn't want to deal with a upset girl with outrageous powers.

When they paused for a break, it was a little pass noon and Cloud's stomach growled and churned, wanting something to hold it down. He noticed Terra double checking her little pouch for food and decided to check his as well. He found nothing and heard Terra's sigh of defeat.

"We should split up and search for food." he suggested, standing. Terra's eyes went wide.

"S-split up?" she shook her head. "No, that is the last thing we need to do. You need me as much as I need you, Cloud."

"Me? I can handle myself...."

"Then why are you even here helping me find Onion Knight?" she asked, offended. "You need my help, stop acting like I can't help you or that it's not enough." she snapped and he rubbed his tired eyes.

"That's not what I meant...."

"What did you mean then? You should say what you mean!"

"I thought I did." Cloud muttered.

"But you just said that's not what you meant!" she shook her head. "we aren't going to split up, okay?" he frowned. When did she become the leader?

"Fine, whatever. We should go before it gets any later...." she nodded, agreeing with him on that. "alright, we'll start north first and then west."

———

When they went out to gather food, they didn't expect to find a patch of berries. While Terra plunked the berries, Cloud hunted the three bunnies he saw across the field and brought them back. He knew they wouldn't be able to catch anything for the night, so he made up a plan. Which he relayed to Terra, or she might get upset again.

"Look, we won't be able to hunt at night. We should share one bunny so tonight we have something to eat."

"The berries should be enough anyway, Cloud. You didn't have to kill anything."

"I'm hungry."

"So am I, but death—"

"I wasn't going to die of hunger because you don't like killing rabbits." she pouted at him with a sadden face and then turned to her berries, whispering something about him being a jerk. He sighed. Not again. She was a very confusing woman to understand. She was different than Tifa, Aerith or Yuffie by a lot. She was harder to understand, got upset but was always cheerful and content. It was a little odd to him. Yuffie's personality was always full of cockiness, Tifa was caring and courageous, and Aerith was caring and spirited. But Terra was a mix of some of those things plus even more.

It dawned on him he might have some problems with her, but...they were almost the same. He felt like he shared something with her...but what?

Well, that's it for chapter 1. I hope you guys liked it. Report errors please.

Any thoughts and stuff, even reviews, would be great. Thanks for reading!