A/N: I wanted to give a little background on the genesis of this story. While i was playing Crisis Core i became rather attached to Zack's NPC friend 'Kunsel', and found myself wondering whatever happened to him? I was particularly moved by the emails he sends Zack towards the end, and I really wanted to give the poor guy some closure. So here is chapter 1.

Cloud was sitting at a table in Seventh Heaven, playing some sort of board game with Tifa and the children when the phone rang. It was strange for it to do so, because Cloud had taken a few weeks off of his deliveries in order to spend some time with his family. The community knew that, and so the phone-line had been silent for a good week.

"Excuse me…" Cloud apologised, taking his turn and then hurrying off to answer the phone, that continued ringing even when he took his time to see if it would stop, this suggested that the call was important, and despite the looks Tifa was giving him, pleading him to ignore the phone, he picked it up.

"Hello, Strife delivery service," he said in his usual monotone, making no effort to make the caller feel like they were welcome.

"Hello Mr. Strife," a friendly sounding male voice said on the other end of the phone, "you are an awfully difficult person to get hold of, you know that?"

Cloud frowned lightly and glanced over at Tifa, who was regarding him curiously as the children left the table to get themselves a drink.

"May I ask who is speaking?" Cloud asked, keeping his voice firm.

"You wouldn't know me," the voice replied light heartedly, the speaker actually sounded overjoyed that he was speaking to Cloud, "the name's Kunsel… but I have a bit too much to explain to do it over the phone… would you be able to meet me in the monument Square in Edge tomorrow at… mmm… 7?"

"In the morning?"

"Yeah, then. That OK?"

Cloud frowned, unsure whether to accept this man's proposal or not, though he was intrigued to find out what it was he wanted.

"Alright then, monument square tomorrow at 7," he repeated the time and place to check he had it right.

"Right then, enjoy your evening Mr. Strife," the speaker then hung up without another word.

"Who was that?" Tifa asked, quirking an eyebrow as Cloud sat back down and rolled the die.

"I don't know… I guess I'll find out tomorrow morning."

The sun hadn't really even begun to rise when Cloud woke and pulled himself out of bed gently so he didn't disturb Tifa, who remained in peaceful dreams by his side. He watched her sleep with a tender expression on his face for a few moments before he got dressed. He was contemplating over and over in his head who this 'Kunsel' character was. He didn't recognise the name at all, but something about the way the man spoke made him think that maybe this man knew more about him then he was letting on, and that always made Cloud uneasy. He was lacing up his last boot when Tifa stirred at sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes.

"Where are you going so early? Not a delivery?" her voice sounded mildly accusing and disappointed as she finished her question.

"No, not a delivery Tifa," he replied, giving her one of his half smiles as he stood and fetched a smaller component from his sword from its rack in the corner, "I'm just meeting someone… I should be back later; I'll try not to be long."

Tifa regarded him cautiously for a moment before she nodded and smiled, "Alright then, hurry back."

Cloud nodded and turned from the room, making quickly for Fenrir, which was parked down an alley beside their bar. The bike's loud purr broke the silence of the morning as Cloud started it up and headed down the street towards the heart of Edge where the Meteor monument stood, it did not take long to get there, and when he did it did not take long to identify his mysterious caller.

The square was empty bar one man who sat near the monument toying with what looked like a mobile phone. He looked up when he heard the bike drawing near and pulling to a stop close by.

"Ah Cloud. I would recognise your famous face." he called as Cloud stood his bike and walked over, shedding his riding goggles to regard the man with hard blue eyes.

"You must be Kunsel." Cloud replied, keeping his tone and expression reserved.

"Indeed I am," the man said, reaching into his coat to withdraw what looked like a piece of paper, "I was hoping you might be able to tell me a little about this man," he passed the object to Cloud who flipped it face up so he could see.

The eyes that stared back at him from the paper tore open a recently healed hole in his heart; his eyes were wide as he stared at the smiling face of his best friend in the whole world.

This was a photo and it showed two people, one was dressed in the uniform of a SOLDIER second class, and Cloud identified him as Kunsel, the man he was presently speaking to. The other wore the same uniform… it was the blue eyed black haired man who'd saved Cloud's life all those years ago… it was Zack.

"H-How did you know Zack?" Cloud asked, looking back to Kunsel with wide eyes.

"We joined SOLDIER around about the same time and were friends for his entire career, even after he got first," Kunsel's smile was one of a man reminiscing times long lost, "but after Zack left on that mission with Sephiroth to Nibelheim I never heard from him again… I checked Shinra's database after the fall, hoping to find out more. I was told by Shinra that he was dead, but I wanted more proof," he offered Cloud the phone he'd been toying with, and when the blond opened it he found a message on the screen. The sender was named "Shinra" and the message read simply that two SOLDIERs, First Class Zack Fair and First Class Sephiroth and three unnamed infantryman had been killed in the line of duty.

"One thing I did find in the database…" Kunsel continued, interrupting Cloud's thought, "is that you were one of the infantrymen sent to Nibelheim… and the official message said they were all killed… what happened in Nibelheim Cloud? What happened to Zack? I need to know… it's been too many years, waiting for him to message me."

Cloud looked up from the phone to meet Kunsel's gaze, his blue eyes filled with pain.

"You'll have to come back to Seventh Heaven with me… it's a long story…"