Well, this is just something that came up in my head while playing Kingdom Hearts 2 when watching Aerith talks to an (Emotional) Cloud. I figured out: Why won't we let Zack duck up in this one and makes Cloud a happy person again?

Type: Final Fantasy VII/ Kingdom Hearts 2 fan fiction

Story name: Living Again

Cloud Strife & Zack Fair © Square Enix

Disney stuff © Disney

Story written by: Kari Anne Therese. B

Chapter I:

Back again…

As they came out from the unknown portal that the mysteriously person in a black coat had made for them, the two boys finally slipped out from the end of the teleport tunnel. The first one, who landed with his face in the dessert ground, was the blond one named Cloud Strife. The second one, who landed on top of him, was his best friend Zack Fair. Cloud started to cough out some of the dirt which has gotten into his mouth and as for the blue haired guy, he was laughing out so loudly. He went of Cloud's back and stared around the area they both were in.

"Hey Cloud, are you okey? Or are you enjoying eating dirt?"

His smiled went up his face as he helped his friend up. The blond boy stood. It seemed that his smile had jumped over to Cloud since he was smiling too even though he had dirt all over. But suddenly it went away.His eyes changed. Zack noticed that something bothered his friend.

"Yo… what's bothering you--" Zack suddenly realized. They both stood on the empty cliff which faced the direction of the destroyed Shinra Facility. The bad memories of the past both flowed trough their minds like a river.

This wasn't just any coincidence place. This was the place where they both last were together.

The place Zack had died.

The old sword of his shone in the light beam from the sunrise and the blue haired boy gave Cloud a pat on his shoulder. He looked at him.

Then suddenly he started to walk against the weapon of his. Cloud watches him as Zack's hands grabbed the rusty thing.

"…" Cloud didn't want to say anything, he was still thinking of that day still when he crawled with all his strength to his best friend's aid. The feeling of guilt still lingered around him. Zack giggled like a small boy as he brushed of the dirt of the shaft.

"Geeze, I remember still those soldiers who ran after us two. Nah Cloud?"

He held the sword up in the air as brown clouds of dusts fell off and got cough in the silent wind. The blond boy was still far away in his mind. There was no reaction from him at all. Zack raised an eyebrow, as he waved his hand in front of Cloud's eyes.

After getting no reaction, the FIRST-SOLDIER made a funny squeaky noise to get Cloud's attention.

"Earth calling Cloud. Heeeelloooo?" Zack spoke with an annoying voice. Cloud looked up on him.

"What are you doing? If you don't stop thinking, you'll end up crazy. Plus if you're thinking about the day that I died… forget that. I'm back, alive and living. That's all there is. And bless god for that. Well, bless Hades for him to let me alive again haha,"

Zack smiled as he said that. If Blondie here was going to think himself to the death, he surely would kick his butt. There was a silent moment between them.

"But… I can't… it's impossible that you're alive again. What about Aerith? Did you meet her on the…other side?" Cloud's voice got deep and disturbed.

"Hmm… let me think… yup. She was so happy to see me again, plus I met Angeal again. But I got bored being up there after watching you turning into an Emo, so when the so called 'Hades' summoned someone I don't know who, I got the opportunity to sneak out… let's go to your place now. I wanna see what have changed since I last was here."

Zack took his long Buster sword and fastened it behind his back.

"Oh, and yeah I nearly forgot. Do you have anything that I can use to fix my sword? It looks like hell."

Cloud nodded as a small, tiny sign of a smile appeared in his face.

He was truly grateful of having someone he loved back again, in a living state, breathes next to him.

"Yeah."

The two of them had a long walk and soon enough, they arrived to the city. The smell of rust and metal hang like mists over the sad city. Zack looked around with his eyes.

The place surely had a lot of things changed different then before. There where more ruins of the after time, and there were lot of people roaming around. Especially there were a lot of children who appeared to be like street kids. Their clothes where dirty and they weren't clean at all.

"Um, are we there yet? I wanna clean up the sword before doing anything else," Zack whispered to Cloud as they both went near the monument statue.

The yellow haired man pointed with his fingers towards a big sign. It was black coloured with red letters on it, but the house had a second floor apartment. Cloud turned his head to face Zack.

"That's where I live."

Zack tried to see clearly and took up his left hand.

"I see. So, what's your hobby then? Are you a mercenary who people hire you and you earn big bucks?" Zack asked as he entered in thinking mode. Cloud shook his head as an answer.

"Nah. I'm a delivery boy. Tifa is the one takes care of the bar, while I'll do the delivery."

His best friend started to make a funny expression on his face; it was like he was being electrocuted. He had thought that Cloud was doing awesome things that where a little bit… more exciting.

"Delivery boy? You're joking right? That's just…." Suddenly Zack remembered that Cloud had just said that Tifa was the bartender.

"Tifa? How have she been? Is she alright?" the last thing the blue spiky haired guy remembered, was that Tifa got knocked out after having approached Sephiroth during the fight in the Shinra facility.

The blond boy raised his shoulders; he hadn't been near the bar for a time since he had spent most of his time in Hollow Bastion that had changed into Radiant Garden, where he was waiting for the final fight against his own darkness.

"I'm not sure. I haven't been near the place for a while but I guess Tifa is alright. But first, we can't let her and the others know that you're back for they'll find it suspicious."

Zack smiled as he showed sign to excitement. This was going to be a game of 'adultish' Hide and Seek. Well, but he'll be running around for his life. He still feared that the Turks were still after him. But maybe they stopped after seeing Zack got killed.

And now at last he has gotten his freedom. But the problem was… what should he do now?

Become the same as Cloud and do boring deliveries? Nah. Zack was rather more for action then deliver things.

Maybe he could convince Cloud on making an own "Hire and Do" jobs like real Mercenaries or maybe like a 'Handyman'. And they could call their affair for "Fair & Strife". That would be funny.

"You know the cloak with the hood that was given to us? You can use it when you want to walk outside. That would protect you from getting spotted by Tifa and the others," Cloud whispered. Zack nodded as an answer while both of them entered the house.

The black bar inside stood still, and its shiny plates reflected the sun streams that came in from the windows and the tables along with the chairs where well-treated. Zack gasped a little when he saw this. There where such good space inside.

"Wow, and you live here? This is awesome," Zack said with an excitement in his voice.

He took his hands and felt the black plate near the bar. It was soft as glass while it tickled under his fingers tips. Then suddenly he noticed that the blond boy was on his way upstairs.

Zack decided to follow after him, since he was curious on what they had in the second floor.

When Zack entered the room he noticed that there where two, red coloured medium sized beds in front of him. A lot of plushies were decorated in the large window.

He started to laugh when he pointed towards the toys. Cloud looked at him. He didn't know why Zack had started to laugh and he raised an eyebrow.

"Are those your toys?" Zack asked with a large smile. Cloud giggled while his wolf earring in his left ear sparkled.

"Those are Denzel and Marlene's."

Zack scratched his spiky blue hair. Kids in the house? Then suddenly Zack became quiet. He got a weird expression on his face that was mixed of humour and seriously.

"Aaah!! Do you have kids with Tifa?!" He pointed at the blond haired boy.

Cloud stared shockingly at Zack and his cheeks turned red like fresh tomatoes. He waved his- hands as a sign of desperation.

"No-no-no!! Marlene is Barret's daughter, and Denzel is an orphan Tifa and I took in! They both live here! Don't get the wrong idea!!" Cloud said as he gave Zack a weird stare. Zack took another look at the toys in the windows. He sighed relived.

"Oh, that's why there are toys here. You kinda freaked me out there," Zack sighed as he lies down on the bed nearest to the door out. Cloud walked towards the other bed that was placed the large window. He sat down and let his head rest in his gloved hands. They both looked at each other.

Zack stared at the room for a moment. There where lots of drawings on the grey, lifeless walls. All the drawings where done by kids. Two big papers caught Zack's turquoise eyes. They had two faces on it, and both resembled very Tifa and Cloud with the long brown hair, and a blond spiky hair. Except for that the one who h ad Tifa's face on smiled.

But Cloud's face was so sour like a lemon face. He snickered. It seemed that Cloud was a usually sour guy here in this family. But that have changed since Zack's now back again. He yawned.

"Looks like you're the lemon face according to the kids' drawings."

Cloud gave a stare at the drawing of him.

"Yeah. I guess so… I haven't been so well after I got--"

"The Geostigma?" Zack gave Cloud a look. Cloud nodded and lied down too on the hard bed beside Zack.

"But I thought Aerith removed the sickness when you fought with that… Kadaj kid?" said Zack with a tiny voice. Cloud nodded again as his answer.

"During that time when I got sick, I isolated myself from the others. That's all…"

Zack answered back with a serious voice.

"I know that well Cloud. But that didn't give you a good reason for why you left the kids. They missed you very much after what I've seen." Zack pointed upwards as he let his eyes look at Cloud.

Cloud was focused on what his friend said, but didn't respond back. He sat still with an empty stare on his face. Zack took the closest toy that was putted beside the pillow and meddled with it. It was soft, round, chicken-like with feathers on it. It reminded Zack of the big, yellow Chocobo. Suddenly he threw it right in the face of Cloud. Cloud fell out of his thinking and shook his head.

"What the heck did you do that for?!" He yelled at Zack while he was laughing his head off and rolled off the bed. He landed on the floor with a loud thud. Then some seconds later, his blue coloured hair popped up behind the red beddings. His eyes smiled when Cloud looked back at him.

Zack had definitely changed his personality into a little kid. But he still had his pride.

"I'm bored. Let's do something fun. I wanna enjoy my freedom a little," Zack said as he took his broadsword Buster from the wall. He took a piece of cloth beside him and started to brush easily on the giant sword. The area he cleaned properly started to shine with its silver colour.

"Um… we could go motor cycle? I could call Cid and ask if he haves a second bike he could lend us," said Cloud as he took out his black flip cell phone. The sun was still up high in the air so there was enough time to go and take a visit to Cid's place. Zack thought that it wasn't a bad Idea after all and gave thumbs up. The blond haired person typed in the phone numbers to Cid and beeping could be heard. Some one picked up the phone.

"Hello? Cid here!"

Cloud responded back as Zack made funny grimaces when Cid talked. He started to laugh.

"Haha, hi Cloud here." a lot of talking could be heard on the other side. It was Yuffie the ninja and Barret's voice yelling out to each other.

"Yo Blondie! Rare of you to call us! What can I do for ya?" Cid was yelling as high as he could because of Yuffie and Barret's arguing.

"I was wondering if you have an extra motor cycle that I could borrow," Cloud asked back to the phone.

"Yeah sure! Just wait a second…" Cid got interrupted and as Cloud tried to listen closer, his ear got nearly exploded and he took his phone away from his ears. Cid was yelling at Yuffie and Barret to shut the hell up. Then suddenly some one else talked in the phone.

"Hey Spiky!! I wanna talk to Marlene!! Is she there??"

Barret was on the line. Cloud answered no and that Marlene and Denzel where with Tifa, even though he didn't know were they all where. That was supposed to be a good answer.

Zack still waited at Cloud to be finished with the discussion about the motor cycle.

Then he got the good to go sign.

"Give me the phone Barret!! Cid here again! You can pick it up to day if ya want."

"Mm."

When Cloud closed his mobile, he started to write a letter and had it hang in front of the door. Then he gave sign to Zack to follow after.

"So, where is your bike then?" Zack looked at Cloud when both of them went outside the bar's area.

The black cloak he wore moved as the wind blew, and his face was hidden under it. It felt like he was a secret agent who was very important. The blond boy scratched his spiky hair as the turned around a corner of the street.

"Heh, right here. I usually don't park it far away from the bar," Cloud smiled friendly to the cloaked man beside him. In front of them both stood a shiny, big black vehicle with two, large wheels on it to drive. It stood in the middle of the empty street way. Its metal sparkled against the sun. Zack stared with awesome. The motorcycle was huge in size.

"Damn!! This is sweeeet!"

He clapped with his hands a couple of times before he nearly jumped like a child towards the vehicle.

"So? Let's go out on an adventure!!" A large grin came up from his fine face, while Cloud twirled the keys around his fingertip.