Title: Water
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Character/s: Cloud
Notes: For 15 Minute Ficlets, #54.

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He dreams about her sometimes when the air is soft and clear.

He dreams about her and she's tending her flowers in the church and it makes him so angry because he knows she isn't there. He knows because he wakes up every time he dreams about her here and he goes to the church even though Tifa's clutching at his arm and begging him not to go, please Cloud, you know she isn't there, you know she won't be there, you know, she's never going to be there again, you know it - but he doesn't want to know it; he wants to believe she'll be back some day and it makes him so angry when she isn't there, when she's never there.

He dreams about the feeling her spine makes as it grates and snaps against the sword in his hands, dreams about the way the sword shudders as she lets go of her life, of her everything.

He dreams about the way she smiled at him, so forgivingly. You're not what I want, but I'll take care of you anyway. He was never what she wanted; he's never what any of them want.

He's not Zack.

He's not her hero.

He's not his puppet.

He's not himself.

He can't--

He can't--

And he dreams of her and she smiles at him as the sword goes through her spine, and she says, I guess I'm an underwater thing.

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