Cloud finished his breakfast, hesitating for a moment, wondering if he could afford the few extra moments to wait for whoever was stirring upstairs to say goodbye to him. While waiting was sorely tempting, he was well aware that he had a number of complex deliveries today and the sooner he started, the sooner he could get back and spend more time with everyone. He unlocked Fenrir and wheeled the bike out into the chill air of early morning Edge.
He'd made a habit of not starting the vehicle up right outside the Seventh Heaven any more; he'd grown increasingly concious of the noise it made and didn't want to wake the kids or Tifa. With his enhanced strength, pushing the bike wasn't difficult and by the time he reached the Meteorfall memorial, the ambient noise of other Edge denizens and their vehicles had risen in volume, other early risers now busily traversing the roads. With a deep roar, Fenrir's engine awoke and Cloud sped out of the still growing city.
His delivery schedules and route had gotten somewhat... longer and more unusual ever since he resumed his vocation after the curing of Geostigma. He occasionally wondered if his trip through the Lifestream had had anything to do with the changes, and that was why he now had some very weird addresses and even odder phone numbers for contacts. Both Tifa and Denzel had queried on more than one occasion whether some of the orders were strictly accurate or anything more than a practical joke. Cloud could readily understand why they'd think that, but as soon as he looked at the scribbled orders, the knowledge of how to get to these places seemed to just drop neatly into his head.
Despite that, he knew there was no way he could direct anyone else to these places; as such he was never going to be anything more than a one man delivery company. If he really thought about it while driving he still couldn't be entirely sure how he could be heading towards the Chocobo Farm and oddly never manage to drive past it, instead arriving somewhere new. It paid well at least, he got to see so many places, and there was that additional, guilty pleasure the arrangement afforded him.
First things first though; Healin. A twinge of unease slipped into his stomach. Theoretically the visit should be nothing more than routine and what could be worrying about visiting the dwelling of the few remaining patients afflicted with the aftermath of Geostigma? Nothing, although it was also the current seat of power for the remnants of the Shinra Electric company and his first delivery was to Rufus, though the name the delivery was to no one remotely related to the Shinra family.
Cloud found Reno lounging against a wall once he arrived at the small group of buildings. The red-haired Turk gave him a sloppy salute and a knowing grin as he stretched his hand out for the package. Cloud fought the usual desire to just go for his sword, pre-empting any ambush. He took a breath telling himself to calm; the Turks were pretty harmless, but even after their assistance with Sephiroth's remnants, he could still never fully trust the shady underlings of the former rulers of the world. Reno signed with a flourish below the printed name of 'Cecil Harvey.' At least Shinra paid well, and the quiet channelling of funds to the WRO was not something he would ever oppose. Reno lost interest in Cloud as soon as the package was in his hand, and Cloud quickly stalked away, catching glimpses of both Rude and Elena as he made his way back to Fenrir; he nodded curtly to both.
There was always a slight edge of anxiety whenever he delivered to this area, a touch of paranoia that maybe Shinra would betray him once more, booby-trap his bike or put a bullet through his head as he drove away. He released a breath he hadn't realised he held; not this time at least. He roared away from the settlement, cutting across the wasteland and to the rapidly growing Kalm.
The small town, once the final port of call before the mega-city of Midgar, had tripled in size after Meteorfall. While Edge still housed the greater part of the capital's surviving population, a large number of refugees had made for the existing town rather than huddle with the masses at the edge of a dead city. It took longer than he would have liked to navigate the bustling streets; the outer edges of the town were perpetually lost beneath various housing projects as the town grew. He made his delivery to the weapon store and then took advantage of a long-standing offer.
Elmyra smiled as she answered her door, pleased to see him again. Her home had become an unofficial second home for Marlene; she'd spent so long time here while Avalanche pursued Sephiroth, she was now always happy to go visit Aunt Elmyra, who in turn welcomed the young girl. The house had been bought outright by a rather guilty Reeve in final days of Shinra's dominance and had allowed the older woman to weather the changes to the world with relative ease. Cloud chatted with her agreeably, the older woman prying for details on Tifa, Denzel and Marlene. Elmyra remarked she'd seen Yuffie recently on some mission for the WRO, but no other members of Avalanche for some time. Cloud made a mental note to tempt her to one of the group's gatherings as he sipped at his tea.
As much as he would like to have stayed longer, he needed to get moving; especially as his next delivery was one of those odd ones. He promised Elmyra he'd see her again the next time he was in the area, and then he quickly sped off into the wilderness, heading towards the Chocobo Farm. Critically he couldn't just head straight for the farm; that would just lead him there. Not a terrible situation; Cloud loved visiting the stabled birds, but it certainly was not conducive to his job. So, instead he needed to head past it and let his thoughts drift for a moment or two.
Cloud concentrated again as soon as he saw the sky shift overhead. It became darker and overcast as the road beneath Fenrir's wheels seemed to age; no longer smooth tarmac but instead thousands of individually laid bricks. He knew from prior visits that there was a major technological disparity in this place to what he was used to. While they had machines and electricity here, something always seemed slightly off; the technology was clunky, inelegant and bodged together. More than once he had needed to head off questions about Fenrir, and in addition he avoided splitting his sword at all; that would raise far too many questions about just how that worked.
Still, despite the discomforting feel of this place, he was glad to see it. It always weighed on his mind the one time he'd done something slightly wrong and found himself trapped on a tiny floating island of sand in a featureless void. That had been been increasingly unnerving until he figured out how to escape, though he could not help but worry each time he made the trip.
Fenrir rolled to a halt outside a huge, squat building and Cloud powered the bike off. The sign above the door declared the place was called "Dragon's Neck Coliseum", and given the nature of his deliveries these days he wasn't going to dwell on that small fact that neither he nor anyone else he knew had ever made mention of the place. And he very much doubted anything would make him voluntarily enter into conversation about the place's secretary. The purple octopus greeted the swordman with at least four tentacles as he strode across the lobby, placing the package in front of the fanged creature.
"Hey Cloud. Want to give the arena a shot today?"
There was a hopeful look in the creature's eyes and Cloud sighed. "No; too many deliveries today."
"Ah. How about tomorrow?"
"I don't think so; I have plans."
The idea of fighting in an arena reminded him in an appealing way of the simulator at the Gold Saucer, though it also uncomfortably reminded him of all the fighting he'd had to do to live his life peacefully. Not really his idea of recreation.
The octopus sighed in disappointment, clutching the package in one tentacle while another plucked a pen from the pot in front of him and scribbled on the pad Cloud held out.
"Why are you so reluctant to fight when you carry that thing on your back?" the secretary asked as his limb skittered across the page, the nib catching and splattering ink. A third tentacle gestured behind the swordsman, indicating the fully assembled blade that hung there.
Cloud smirked at the questioning look as he checked the pad (the creature always signed slightly illegibly. Was that 'Ultros' or 'Orthros'? Well, as long as he had a signature).
"It's to dissuade anyone from attacking me."
"Oh!" The sea-creature exclaimed. "You're worried you couldn't handle them?"
"No," Cloud replied with a new edge in his voice. "Worried I'd wind up hurting them badly."
The octopus spoke again as he turned. "Hey, just so you know; there's this other arena I've been too recently. There's a fighter there who looks just like you."
Cloud turned back, the yellow-fanged grin widening as their eyes met. "Though, I like her better. Much nicer on the eyes. More sensible hair too."
The swordsman turned and walked away without another word as the octopus vainly tried to regain his attention. He roared away quickly away from the Coliseum, heading North. As before he let his attention wander for a moment, and the next thing he knew, a wave of heat rushed over him as the rocky road beneath Fenrir's tyres turned to sand. As a shadow blotted the blazing sun above him, Cloud once again wondered about mentioning this place to Cid; the air teemed with airships.
He parked Fenrir at the outskirts of the large city he had appeared near and was pleased to find the heavy outer-gate was open; he wouldn't have to tangle with any overzealous guards or make his way inside via the subterranean city. He shook his head slightly as he strode through Rabanastre; how could other people make the same mistake that Shinra had with Midgar? Living in the shadow of those above you was no recipe for a stable community. That said, the lower city sounded kind of attractive at the moment; it was always far cooler down there.
He watched with careful, quick glances as the children dodged and weaved through other pedestrian traffic on their own various errands. Hopefully no one would try picking his pocket. Again. That kid, Vann was it? He'd gotten the shock of his life when Cloud tracked him down. Or maybe he'd been less scared of swordsman then of his nominal boss finding out that he had been messing with one of the couriers. That same boss, Migelo, was out when theswordsman reached the correct shop, but a cheerful girl signed 'Penelo' to his pad in exchange for the latest package.
Cloud tried to keep his tunnel vision as he walked back to Fenrir, but it was hard when the populace of this city was just so varied. The viera drew his attention in a way he wished they didn't; he got little prickles of guilt as his eyes were drawn to their physique and exposed skin. The moogles were safer to wonder at; he'd never seen a real one before, just the mechanical replica that Cait Sith roamed around on. As always, it was tempting to explore the city in more depth, but that would only delay later and duty called.
Cloud's next destination was in a thankfully much cooler clime; and here at least were paved roads once more. He found himself automatically looking for the scarring of the grassland that surrounded the town out of habit, before he remembered it seemed that these people had seemingly never dabbled with Mako power and that there was no slow retaking of damaged areas by plant life. This town was deceptively large, but thanks to the roads he could drive directly to this destination; here there were other ground-based vehicles.
The Timber Maniacs building always seemed to be in a state of perpetual chaos; even getting someone to see what he wanted more effort than it should have been. Whenever he delivered here he briefly contemplated just leaving the package on the counter and heading back out. No, that was unprofessional he reminded himself and so he waited, drumming his fingers on the wood as his eyes idly glanced over the magazine racks. One publication in particular caught his eye and he stared at the visible portion of the cover trying to figure out if it really was what he thought. Yep; Timber Maniacs appeared to be printing pornographic magazines. With a nervous glance around, he plucked the magazine up and flipped through checking it really was as graphic as it appeared from the cover.
It was, and he was rapidly engrossed in page after page of provocative imagery. A cough beside him drew his attention to a slightly embarrassed looking man.
"Can I help?" he asked, eyes drawn down to the magazine in Cloud's hands.
The swordsman flushed and hastily stuffed the magazine back into the rack, the pages catching on the plastic dividers preventing it from settling into position. The magazine flopped over, pages tumbling open exposing the nude figures within to those present. 'Girl Next Door' fell to the floor taking several other publications with it. Cloud's reflexes kicked in and he plucked his delivery pad from his belt and held it out.
"Please sign here." Somehow his voice didn't quaver. The employee signed 'L. Loire' as a grimace flashed across his face. He picked up the package and abruptly limped away into the chaos of the office. Cloud wasted no time getting away from the scene of his crime with as few additional embarrassments as possible.
Cloud suppressed a groan. While it was helpful that his next two deliveries were in the same general place, the first had a habit of wandering so could be problematic to locate. The second, well, he had places everywhere and theoretically he should be able to leave the package in the nearest. If he got this over with quickly... He glanced at his watch. He could spare some time to indulge his guilty pleasure if he got these delivered quickly. First things first.
He hid Fenrir in a copse out in the wilderness while he crossed open ground looking for his first delivery. The first time he'd come here, he'd made use of the provided road to drive Fenrir, unprepared for the looks of shock, horror and revulsion as he did so. The resulting skirmish had been unpleasant and it took some time too to find out that it was Fenrir specifically that they were objecting to, referring to the bike as a 'machina'. Despite the other technology on obvious display here, something as obviously mechanical as his transportation was apparently totally unacceptable.
No one bothered him on subsequent visits after he took to hiding his vehicle and made his deliveries on foot. While definitely preferable to fighting, it made getting around that much more awkward and long-winded. Still, a job was a job, and he did promise to delivery anything, anywhere. To his relief he found his first customer, the wandering salesman, not far outside the city of Luca. It was additionally helpful as an establishment of the second customer was little more than five minute's run away. He glanced at his pad, wondering if the man really needed to add 'XXIII' after his name. At least the wanderer no long saw fit to critique everything from his clothes to his hair. And he had been easy to find this time.
Cloud was used to drawing stares as he jogged down the road with his increased endurance, but being the centre of attention still unnerved him slightly; far better to stay out of the spot-light wherever possible. To his surprise the owner of the travel agencies that were dotted all over the world was actually in this one. Usually, like O'aka, he could be found all over the world, but at least there were consistent points of contact for this one.
The man was in the midst of a heated argument once Cloud approached; he tried to stay out of the discussion as the man carried on without pause. The client scribbled 'Rin' on the delivery pad and the would be SOLDIER was able to get out of there, heading on as direct a line as possible back to Fenrir. Now that he had a few moments spare he was definitely going to indulge himself; he took that turning, this turning, veered the right there and then slowed to a halt. He was always a little more wary here, technology seemingly less developed than at the Coliseum. Sadly he rarely had to make a delivery here, but couldn't help but feel a deep, quiet thrill whenever it was necessary or when he had a moment to spare to visit. He walked along the quiet streets, splashing through muddy puddles until he saw her.
"Cloud!" the girl exclaimed, beaming at him.
"Aerith," he smiled as he approached the flower girl.
It had been such a shock to find himself staring into those green eyes that first time and it had not been as much of a surprise as it probably should have been to learn her name. Certainly not when she had those eyes, that brown hair, and sold those flowers on the streets like that. He'd caught sight of her by chance on his first visit to the town, and took several minutes to get his thoughts in order as his entire mind simply shut down at the sight of her. He had wanted to talk to her. He had needed to talk to her. Cloud understood well enough that this was not the Aeris he knew; the Cetra he met in Midgar and he had been forced to watch die. This flower girl was someone else entirely, a different life, an alternate possibility who knew nothing of the Lifestream, the Planet, Sephiroth or Jenova. She was a poor flower seller who scraped by in life as best she could.
Ivalice currency was too different from his own gil to allow him to try and help her out; not that he expected this flower girl to accept it, however bad things were. He did at least always buy one of her flowers whenever he received any of the local currency. More recently he had taken to preparing various helpful items to trade her for flowers, always stacking the arrangements significantly in her favour. They chatted agreeably, Cloud managing to negotiate two potions and an ether for three flowers this time. He promised the girl he'd be back sometime soon and reluctantly headed back to Fenrir.
Leaving her was always a wrench, but he'd done all he could for her. He shook himself and started off. This next delivery was adjacent to one he'd flat out had to decline; it was all very well delivering to what appeared to be a vending machine, but when there was no clear way to open the thing up to restock it had been just been frustrating. That and it was deeply confusing that the quantity of merchandise to be placed inside was several times that of the the floating device. At least this delivery was to a person. Someone with decidedly 'unique' dress sense, but a person nonetheless. Cloud took a deep breath and braced himself for the influx of attention this usually entailed.
Fenrir saw fit to betray him as he approached her, the engine now making an irregular clunking sound. He sighed as he dismounted and pushed his bike forwards. As always and at full volume the attractive shopkeeper hailed him in a flurry of red and yellow feathered costuming. She awkwardly took his pen and scrawled 'Chocolina' on his pad. Delivery made he made a point of sitting with his back to her as he levered off one of the bike's inspection panels and got to work on the repairs.
He tried to ignore the little sounds of encouragement and admiration that drifted from behind him as he worked; he knew from experience that the shopkeeper was watching him with interest. He was glad when something finally distracted her. He chanced a look behind him to see Chocolina extend a similar over the top greeting to the newcomers; a girl with pink-hair, a black-haired boy and a floating moogle. They stared at him curiously as he got back to work; he could feel questioning eyes on the back of his neck and he turned back to see the girl seemingly about to say something before reconsidering. Then in between one glance and the next they were gone; he had Chocolina's full attention once more. He hastily completed the necessary repairs and left the shopkeeper with a quick goodbye.
Cloud looked at his last delivery note, knowing full well what it said. He did this every-time, not minding that it was always the same, that Tifa insisted on appending it to his job list and that it was always phrased the same way.
The item to be delivered was listed as '1 x Cloud Strife' and the destination was listed simply as 'Home'. Cloud smiled as he always did, always getting a little kick out of this tiny act of affection. He glanced at his watch. If he hurried he could easily achieve the delivery tonight, already anticipating the look in those wine-coloured eyes when he stepped through the door to the Seventh Heaven. If he got there quick enough, he'd see both Denzel and Marlene before bed too. His family, waiting for his safe return.