Thanks alot, mary, for noticing the errors in the prologue. I can't believe I managed to do the same error so many times. xD I will make sure to look thoroughly after the same error in the next chapters so it hopefully won't happen again. Haha, thanks!
--
UNITY
"What would you like to see first?"
Cloud asked, figuring that it was stupid to walk without any destination when he had offered to actually show him around, but Kadaj just shrugged, having put his arms over his chest again as he walked with his head down, staring at his own feet as he walked. It made Cloud question even more why Kadaj had been allowed to see life once again, when the youth didn't even bother to see more than his own two feet.
"I don't know…enlighten me." Kadaj mumbled, sounding almost uninterested. It caused Cloud to sigh. This was pointless; Kadaj didn't bother about life, did he? Why was he doing this? Cloud stopped up, startling Kadaj slightly who'd been walking a little behind him, almost crashing into the taller man.
"There got to be something you want to see. Why else would you be brought back?" Cloud stated matter-of-factly, looking at Kadaj, who stared blankly back before he sighed as if annoyed.
"Fine," he then replied, "I…" Kadaj thought for a second, "I want to see…Edge. And the world…no, drop the world; I can't see that in only three days. I want to see how people live their lives, what people do normally. I want to know what life is about, if it at all has a meaning. Not that I think it has…"
There was silence for a bit then. Kadaj seeming embarrassed, staring at Cloud's arm, obviously not really aware that he was, though. And Cloud looked at him. Maybe, just maybe…there was a reason for this.
"What people do normally…" Cloud thought out loud, "…follow me." He then said, starting to walk again, Kadaj quietly following.
--
"A café?" Kadaj asked, unsure and rather surprised at where they now stood, right in front of a small café. Cloud simply nodded at him, so he continued, "…why a café?"
"Because you wanted to see what people do normally. People go to café's now and then, normally." When Kadaj just kept looking at him questioningly, Cloud further answered, "people go here, have a cup of coffee or tea and talk. Talk would be a good idea, I think."
"…talk about what?" Kadaj asked.
"About you. I want to know more about this." Cloud answered.
"Know more about wha—HEY" Before Kadaj had finished the question Cloud had already entered the café, making Kadaj pout. Though without knowing why himself, he followed after. Once inside, he stopped up beside Cloud, who was looking at the selection of warm drinks that were listed on the wall. Seeing Kadaj, Cloud gave him a quick glance before asking, "What do you want to drink?"
"…I don't have any money."
"Figured that much. I'm paying. So what do you want?"
Kadaj looked at him for a while, not really getting why he would bother buying him anything, but soon turned his head to look at the list. Not really used to such a big selection of warm drinks, Kadaj simply went for plain coffee, and once having told Cloud that, he was asked to go find a table and sit by it. Surprisingly enough, even though he hated being ordered, he just walked over and found one, sitting down and waiting for Cloud, who came soon after with a cup of coffee to Kadaj and himself.
They were both quiet, Cloud unsure where to start, Kadaj unsure at what they were actually going to talk about. Why did they have to talk in the first place..? Yet, Cloud seemed to finally have found the words to start with, and begun speaking.
"What are you actually doing here?" he simply asked, taking a sip of his coffee while Kadaj raised an eyebrow.
"I already told you that."
"I know. But it doesn't make sense. Three more days as only you?" Kadaj nodded, "…what do you mean only you?"
Kadaj sat back for a second, having still not touched his coffee at all. He thought for a while before he shrugged, trying to explain something he didn't really understand himself.
"Without…Mother. And Sephiroth. To have my mind for myself, alive, for three days."
It would've sounded completely strange for most, but Cloud found himself understanding this. It wasn't like he hadn't been controlled by those two once himself. Would this mean that all the time he'd fought Kadaj, he'd been controlled? Had Kadaj been controlled all his life? It would at least explain why Kadaj now suddenly was calm enough to accept a cup of coffee, calmly sitting by a table on a café answering questions.
"So you've always been controlled by those two?" Cloud bluntly asked, watching as Kadaj furrowed his eyebrows, looking at him with an annoyed look as he didn't bother to answer this question.
"Why do you want to know all this?" he asked instead.
"I'm curious."
"Why?"
Once again they sat in silence, looking at each other. Kadaj with a questioning look, awaiting Cloud to answer properly, but Cloud clearly didn't intend to do so. Realizing this, Kadaj made his usual annoyed sound, like a cat's, and shook his head.
"It's not like you answer my questions!" He then stated, debating if he should maybe just walk away from this stupid blonde man who supposedly was his enemy. Still, he couldn't help but being a little curious himself, about Cloud.
"Why aren't you trying to kill me?" Kadaj asked coldly, glaring at Cloud with his emerald eyes.
"Because you're not trying to kill me. And so far you haven't done any damage." Cloud answered. Kadaj's glare faded slightly as he tilted his head as a sign that he didn't fully understand, and Cloud sighed, "Unless you try to hurt someone, I don't see the reason to hurt you. I only do so if it's completely necessary, and even then I dislike hurting."
It surprised Kadaj, that answer, and his glare faded completely as he asked, "So, you disliked killing me?"
Cloud looked down, suddenly, as if the mention of it actually hurt him.
"Of course. But it had to be done." He then said, taking another sip at his coffee as he slowly looked back up, seeing Kadaj having a shocked face of some sort. He then looked down at Kadaj's still untouched coffee, making Kadaj realize that Cloud was almost done with his coffee while he hadn't drunk any. In which Kadaj grabbed the cup and swallowed it all down quickly. Not before he'd sat the cup back down and ended up coughing as a reaction to the amount of foul taste down his throat he realized what a stupid action that had been. All Cloud did was watch. He couldn't help but think that Kadaj's action had been rather cute, sort of.
"Are you alright?" Cloud asked once the youth had calmed down the coughing, eyes full of tears almost spilling due to the coughing Kadaj glanced at him, but didn't bother to answer. It was rather embarrassing, so instead of saying anything at all, he just stared in a different direction while drying his eyes with the sleeves of his sweater.
Cloud shrugged, finishing his coffee, without coughing, and stood up.
"Let's go then." He said, Kadaj looking back up at him with a slightly surprised look.
"Where?" The teen asked, but Cloud just started to walk towards the door, Kadaj hurrying to follow soon after.
"You wanted to see the world?" Cloud asked once they were outside of the café again, getting a quiet and unsure yes in reply, "…I can't show you that much, but follow me." Cloud then said, beginning to walk once again.
--
"Cloud, why didn't you bring your bike if you were going to follow me?" Kadaj asked, annoyed, they'd walked rather far now. Not that Kadaj would have had any other choice but to walk if he was by himself, but when Cloud first decided that he wanted to 'come along' he could've brought his bike. It would've brought them to places so much quicker. Again Cloud didn't answer, though. He had probably not thought of it, and Kadaj pouted in annoyance once more.
They were walking on the road that leads to nowhere, the one that just suddenly stops. Where Kadaj and Cloud had fought before, falling down the hill and ended in the slums. When Cloud reached the end of it, he stopped. He didn't say anything, he just stood there without even turning towards Kadaj, who stopped and looked at him, confused.
"Here?"
Cloud gave a small nod in reply, still not looking at Kadaj.
"…this isn't the world." Kadaj stated matter-of-factly, looking at Cloud as if he was the weirdest creature Kadaj had ever seen.
"But you can see it." Cloud stated. Then he pointed, right forward into the horizon, where one could see past the dead lands around Midgar, to the trees and mountains past that, and the orange skies as the sun had begun to go down. Kadaj looked, and was about to say that that were a rather dumb way of 'seeing the world', but he never got himself to do so, cause as he looked, he realized that it actually was very pretty. So he simply looked, quietly without caring about the guy standing beside him, who was now thinking thoroughly once again at the matter. It was around 6 pm now, after this walk. If Kadaj first wanted to see life, flying past it on Fenrir wouldn't work, Cloud thought. Now they'd been walking, passing people who were on their way home from work, on their way to shopping, eating out, and so on. They'd passed a couple who'd been kissing passionately in the middle of the street, and Cloud had noticed Kadaj giving them a quite questioning look, obviously finding the action weird. Now they stood here watching 'the world', and it had occurred to Cloud, that if sunset were now, then how much of Kadaj's three days had the youth already spent, alone? He ended up asking, causing the youth to finally look away from the mountains, looking at him instead.
"I've been around since this morning. I don't know the exact time, but it was early."
Cloud nodded.
"So there's only a few hours left until it's the end of your first day." He said, in which it was Kadaj's turn to nod, "…where are you going to stay?"
"Stay?"
"Yes. To sleep."
Kadaj looked at him as if he was dumb, saying, "I'm not going to sleep."
"Won't that make you tired?"
"Tsk. If I sleep, I'll waste half of the time I have. I don't care if I'll get tired."
It was understandable, so Cloud didn't ask further. Yet this would make Cloud have to stay up for three days as well, to follow his own plan of looking after Kadaj to make sure the youth didn't do anything bad. Cloud sighed, which Kadaj noted, telling him, "It's not like you have to stay awake with me. You've showed me things now. Thank you. If you want to go home, you can do so."
"I'll stay with you." Cloud quickly replied.
"…why?" Kadaj clearly didn't get this, but again Cloud didn't bother to reply, annoying Kadaj more. The youth shook his head, looking back at the horizon just like Cloud did. Some minutes later Cloud moved to sit down against the side of the road, still not saying anything.
"…the ShinRa building is ugly." Kadaj commented randomly, as he could also see that one when looking out at the horizon, it stood there as the main ruins of Midgar.
Cloud chuckled lightly at that comment. "Yeah…" he said, looking at the ShinRa building as well, "ever been inside it before it got ruined?" he asked Kadaj, a way of getting to know where Kadaj had been before they met. By Kadaj's nod, Cloud asked another question, "An experiment, were you?"
"…I guess you could say that." Kadaj mumbled, moving away from the edge of the road to sit down beside Cloud, though a meter or so away from him, changing the subject with, "do you still live in that church?"
"No."
"Where do you live now then?"
"With my family." Cloud said, that is what Tifa called them, so…which reminded him that he should've headed straight back to Seventh Heaven after work. Tifa was probably mad or worried now, but it was too late to change that.
"You have a family?" Kadaj asked with slight surprise in his voice.
"Kinda." Cloud mumbled, "We act as a family."
"So you have a wife? And children?"
"No. And they're orphans. That's why we just act like one."
"I see…" Kadaj mumbled, glad Cloud was finally starting to answer his questions as well, "You're a delivery boy, right?"
Cloud nodded, and then there was silence. Silence seemed to occur a lot, as both of them were deep in thought. Then Kadaj furrowed his eyebrows as he said, "I've always been controlled by them." An answer to Cloud's earlier question. All Cloud did was glance at him, without replying, so Kadaj continued, "I couldn't really control it all. In fact, I didn't really care about Mother as much as it seemed like…"
"She's not you mother." Cloud mumbled.
"I know." Kadaj's voice was vaguely irritated, "If they hadn't…said so much, I don't think I would've done what I did."
Cloud was a little surprised at this. Was Kadaj trying to apologize? Or perhaps he was just explaining. Cloud wasn't sure.
"You understand…right?" Kadaj then asked, and Cloud thought he could hear a slight tone of hope in the youth's voice. Looking up, he saw Kadaj straight into the eyes for a few seconds before replying.
"…I guess."
At once a smile was brought to Kadaj's face, and before Cloud had time to react, he was hugged by the teen. A tight hug that lasted long enough for Cloud to get used to the feel of Kadaj's silky hair brushing his nose, and that soft cheek against his. He was simply too stunned to react at first, only a little after was he able to stutter out, "Kadaj, what...?"
The teen let go of him then, sitting down in front of him as he said, "It's what people give someone when they're grateful, right? A hug."
"Grateful for what?"
"That you understand."
"I only said 'I guess'."
Kadaj shrugged, "good enough." And then he smiled at Cloud, a kind smile Cloud had never thought would ever appear on those lips that had always shown cruel smirks and nothing else. Kadaj tilted his head a little, and once he noticed that they were about to go back to another moment of silence, he began to talk.
"I want us to be friends, Cloud, or at least not enemies." He said, "I don't want any enemies during the last three days of my life. First I thought I would just make sure not to crash into you, but now that I have, I want us to be friends."
"Why the sudden kindness?" Cloud said dryly, and Kadaj seemed almost hurt at how uncaring Cloud seemed.
"…because she got them out of my mind." He answered, "besides, they're dead…there's no reason for me to fight for them."
Cloud didn't answer. Just turned his head and stared up at the sky, and so did Kadaj.
