Chapter Two:

Machines.

Machines were all around the room, plugged into walls, plugged into the ceiling, and plugged into the bruised arm attached to Zack. Life support.

Zack had asked to be put on life support until Cloud got there, and he could say his good-byes.

Cloud didn't like the thought of it, but he couldn't avoid the fate that stared him in the face.

Around Zack's head, were bloodied bandages in need of changing. He suffered numerous bruises, but none of them accounted for the rose blossoming on his chest. His broken, shallow breathing chest.

Cloud choked.

"Ch…Chocobo. Is that you?" Zack asked, too weak to turn his head or move his arm in the slightest. "Cloud?"

The blonde was having trouble getting air to his lungs the more he looked at his best friend. Zack was so strong, he was a fighter, and never once had Cloud seen him weak. It was such a tragic difference. The one thing that hadn't been damaged was Zack's ability to fight.

Zack fought… just for Cloud.

That, itself, brought stinging tears to Cloud's eyes.

"Hey… are you mute now?" Zack joked, laughing.

Cloud gasped the moment Zack did, reaching to grab his chest and cough.

The rose blossomed more upon Zack's chest. He coughed so much that Cloud was worried he was going to be gone that moment.

"Ah.. It doesn't seem funny, now… Does it?" Zack asked hypothetically. He knew the answer to that question as much as anyone else.

Cloud slowly stepped closer to the bed, listening to the machines as they beeped continuously. He met up at the side, and felt Zack take hold of his fingers. His hands weren't warm, but they were neither cold. They felt soft, like they always did.

The grip was still strong. The reassurance wasn't.

"What… what…" Cloud choked.

Zack shook his head, "You know… you always told me not to drink and drive." he began, "It never occurred to me that I shouldn't call and drive either."

The smile was faint. Soon, Zack knew that Cloud would figure it out on his own.

Cloud clenched his jaw.

The voicemail.

It clicked in Cloud's mind.

Zack wrecked while leaving him a voicemail. It was the sound of a car horn in the background that Cloud hadn't been able to make out, and the static got worse… when he crashed. Whatever else Cloud heard in that voicemail wasn't anything good, he was sure of that now…

He was just sure of what he heard. Cloud couldn't handle the news. He couldn't process why his best friend was telling him either. Cloud could have went on not knowing how Zack ended up in his accident.

Cloud was blaming himself at that moment, and he rest his head on Zack's shoulder.

Zack used his other arm, with as much potency as he could muster, and laid it across so he could run his fingers through those blonde spikes.

"I'm still going to be with you, Chocobo." he murmured.

Cloud jerked his head up, "don't talk like that… Why are you talking like it's the end?"

"Cloud… It is…"

"You can't do this…"

"But… I am." Zack looked sad, and there were hints of tears in his blue eyes, just as much as there were in Cloud's. He was scared. Zack didn't want to die at such a young age… but in the end, Zack knew that it was his own fault… Had he only taken in consideration all the consequences.

It had to be on that day… of all days. Cloud's birthday.

Cloud shook his head violently, glancing over the blood-stained bandages, and sheets that Zack was enveloped in. There was no lying to what Zack was trying to tell Cloud.

"Cloud… I'm dying. I won't be here tomorrow, or… the next day…" he hitched in a breath. Zack was sweating, "The other driver… was kill…killed instantly."

"You're giving up too easily."

"And… you're stubborn."

"Don't leave me."

Zack chuckled, "N-not my place to decide that."

"After all you've been through, Zack?" Cloud shouted, tearing his hand out of Zack's. "You never let anything touch you, and then you die like that? You expect me to believe this?"

"Cloud… you're not thinking… clearly." Zack said placidly.

The blonde turned for a moment, as if he were to leave the room without another word. Zack watched him with a straight face, and flinched slightly when he spun around on his heel and threw the cup of ice chips against the wall.

Cloud's eyes were overflowing with tears, becoming rimmed with a light red tint.

Time was slipping by… and Zack was slipping away.

He could barely breathe without sweat trickling down his temple from exhaustion.

Cloud saw Zack grow more weary by the second, and all previous feelings of anger left him at that moment. Hurriedly, he jumped back to the side of Zack's bed, and clasped he ice-cold metal bar that went halfway down, preventing Zack from moving too far.

"Z-Zack." Cloud whimpered.

He lifted Zack partially out of the bed and into his arms as he hunched over the bed. He was going to make Zack stand. Zack moaned helplessly as the boy did so, and tried to talk Cloud back into reality.

But Cloud didn't listen. He didn't want him to die.

Ultimately gravity took over in spite of Cloud's attempts, and they both toppled onto the tiled floor. Zack fell on his back, and upon impact, the machines went buzzing, whirring wildly in the room. The cry that left Zack when they fell rang in Cloud's ears. It was a cry that would end up living with Cloud forever.

Cloud was defeated… knowing that at any moment, he would be the only soul left in the room.

Cloud sat there, then, and held Zack as close as he possibly could in the floor.

Zack breathed sharp, "Y…you have to move on, Cloud."

The tears were more than he could handle, as were the sobs spilling out of his throat one after another, "No." Cloud cried.

Zack nodded lazily, "Yes." he persisted, "You have to."

"I can't."

"Tell my stories." he smiled.

Cloud cried more, pressing his forehead against Zack's wet one. He was sweating so much, but he was clammy, and trembling.

Zack shivered, and sucked in, as if a rush of pain shot through him suddenly. He coughed violently, Cloud watching in fear the moment blood trickled from the corner of his lips.

"Promise me." Zack pleaded.

"Z-… Zack… don't."

"Pr..omise me, Cloud."

There was a single thread of life left in Zack's body. He struggled to breathe, struggled more to hang onto that thread. Cloud knew he would be gone the moment he promised… he didn't want it to happen, but he knew. And it killed him to think about what would happen next.

Laying there in the floor, Cloud squeezed Zack to his chest, and cried pitifully. Zack was smiling, wincing, begging.

Cloud needed to let go.

"Promise… me… If you love me."

"I do." Cloud sobbed.

Zack nodded, and stretched his arm one last time to brush knuckles across the skin of Cloud's right cheek.

Cloud sputtered, whined, and touched Zack's fingers, "I… promise. I promise, Zack… I promise."

They lay there for another few seconds in which Zack captured Cloud's lips and kissed them faintly. Cloud responded as best as he could, and continued far after Zack's lips came to a stop.

Cloud refused to believe it… and he wouldn't. It had to be a dream, a terrible nightmare that he would wake up from.

Surely…

It has to be!

Cloud clung to Zack's now lifeless body, and rocked back and forth like a child. Zack was gone… He was gone, and when Cloud opened his eyes to try and wake himself up… He couldn't deny the truth that it wasn't a dream.

The sobs were frantic, relentless, and merciless. Cloud yelled at the top of his lungs to the ceiling, while still holding his best friend in his lap.

Nurses came in, followed by Cloud's mother, who dropped to her knees and told Cloud he needed to leave the room with her.

Cloud refused.

It broke her heart to see him crying so much.

"Baby… he's not here anymore… Please…" Mrs. Strife said, pulling her son's arm.

The nurses had taken Zack out of Cloud's embrace forcefully. Cloud stayed in the floor, crying.

Mrs. Strife gave up on her attempts, and called on Sephiroth.

The silver-haired man grabbed Cloud underneath his arms, and hoisted him onto his feet. Cloud wouldn't walk, and he wouldn't respond to anything else going on around him.

Not Aerith's voice, or Yuffie's embraces. Nothing could comfort him.

Not after losing the one person that ever meant anything to him…

I hated writing this chapter :( please drop a review if you can!