Come Home
Description: Inspired by the Ashika Sakura story of the same name. A single night's mistake separated them for six years. When chance throws them back together, it will take more than love to heal the wounds and bring them home. Cleon, Soriku, AkuRoku, Zemyx, and Yuffietine.
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square-Enix. This should be nothing new to anyone.
2. Cloud
His sneakers slap loudly against the stones as he sprints down the sidewalk. His lungs are burning, each breath a taste of salty fire, but he does not dare stop. Finally, the building appears, and he puts his head down and draws on his last reserves to make it the rest of the way.
When he enters the auditorium, chest heaving, face slick with sweat, he looks around and his heart drops. He is not late -- the professor has yet to arrive -- but hundreds of students already fill the seats. Hopefully, he casts his eyes about, looking for one vacant seat on the ground level, but he can find none. With a sigh and a muffled curse, he turns and looks up at the balconies. There are seats up there, but they are extremely high up and his legs are already screaming at him from the run. The thought of climbing makes him want to howl hysterically and start hitting things.
"Hey."
The voice startles him. He looks over at the first row of balcony seats to find a strange brunet regarding him with a bored expression. The other man removes a coat and backpack from the seat next to him and says, "Sit down."
Practically fainting with relief, he falls into the chair and puts his own bag on the floor in the aisle. "Thanks," he breathes.
The brunet just half-shrugs and fiddles with his mechanical pencil. His gray eyes watch as the tired blond pulls out a spiral notebook and his own pencil in preparation for class. He comments, "You look like you just ran here from the other side of campus."
"I did," he answers in annoyance. He blows a breath upwards to clear the bangs from his face before stating, "Next time I go to register for classes, I'm taking a goddamn map with me."
The other chuckles but says nothing else, and eventually the professor appears and starts class. He listens and dutifully takes notes; he has no real interest in this subject, but he needs to take a few humanities classes to appease his advisor. This class has a reputation for being easy which is probably why so many people are taking it along with him.
When class ends, he shoves his notebook back into his bag and rises, intending to go to lunch, but his neighbor stops him again.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to be sprinting to get here next time, too?"
He sighs. "Yes. And every time after that. I really fucked myself with this schedule."
The brunet smirks at him. "Well don't. I don't have a class before this one, so I'll come early and save you a seat."
He gapes for a moment in thrilled astonishment before crying, "Really? Thanks so much … um …" Blinking, he realizes that he never asked the other's name.
"Squall," he answers the unspoken question. "Squall Leonhart."
"Squall," he repeats, smiling. "Nice to meet you. I'm Cloud Strife."
Squall nods, his smirk widening to a small smile, and throws his bag over his shoulder. He picks up his coat and moves past the blond to the aisle. Before he leaves, he calls over his shoulder, "See you Wednesday, Cloud."
xXx
Cloud sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing away a threatening headache with ink-stained fingers. He really had to stop daydreaming like that. He had several deadlines coming up, architects and project managers calling all day long, and an enormous stack of shop drawings which certainly weren't going to mark themselves. The last thing he needed was to slip into another of his periodic bouts of depression brought on by thoughts of the past. That part of his life was over; the door had closed. He needed to concentrate on the here and now.
As if summoned by his thoughts, one of the small company's drafters appeared in his doorway. "Cloud? You got a minute?"
"Yeah," he replied, pushing back from his desk to get to his feet. "What do you need?"
The two fell into an involved conversation about one of Cloud's jobs, referring to the drawings the drafter had brought when necessary. Like many of the projects he dealt with every day, this one had started off relatively simple but had become more and more complicated as the clients added things and changed their minds about what they wanted. Cloud wasn't a bit surprised that the man he had recruited to help him was confused. For the better part of half an hour, he listened to his co-worker's questions and answered them as clearly as he could.
When his phone rang, he ignored it. He was in the middle of an explanation and didn't feel like allowing the interruption. Whoever it was could leave a message and he would return the call as soon as he was finished. But then, his phone beeped once and the secretary's slightly distorted voice came through the intercom.
"Cloud? There's a call for you on line two."
He sighed and took his pencil out of his mouth where he had stored it so that he could use his calculator. "Can it wait, Jean? I'm in the middle of something."
"I … I don't think so," she replied. The hesitation in her voice surprised him. "It's someone from St. John's Hospital. Cloud, he … mentioned something about your wife."
Pencil, papers, and calculator tumbled to the ground as Cloud lunged for his phone. His shaking fingers punched the buttons to bring up line two. As soon as he heard the little click of the connection, he barked, "This is Cloud Strife."
"Ah, yes," a man's voice responded, sounding surprised at being taken off of hold so abruptly. "This is Dr. Michael Hopkins from St. John's Hospital. Mr. Strife, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you concerning --"
"What happened?" Cloud demanded, cutting off the doctor's gentle flow of words. "Is Aerith hurt? How badly?"
The doctor paused to clear his throat and compose himself after the rapid-fire questions. When he spoke again, the softness had left his voice. "Your wife was in a car accident, Mr. Strife," he stated crisply, guessing correctly that Cloud did not want anything sugar-coated. "Right now, she's unconscious and critical. I strongly suggest that you get here as quickly as you can."
"An accident," Cloud repeated to himself. Speaking again to the doctor, he asked, "When did it happen?"
"About twenty minutes ago."
Cloud's eyes sought the clock over his desk, and what he saw sent cold realization shooting through his body. It was only a little past three. Twenty minutes ago, Aerith would have been returning home after picking up the boys from school. His hand slammed down on the desk next to the phone, causing his forgotten co-worker to jump in surprise. Heads turned towards his office from all over the main room as he shouted, "My sons! What about my sons?"
"Calm down, Mr. Strife," Dr. Hopkins urged. "Your sons will be fine. They both sustained minor injuries, but they will make complete recoveries. Your wife, however, was broadsided. She's receiving emergency surgery right now, but it doesn't look good. Again, I strongly suggest --"
"I'll be right there," he announced and hung up before the doctor could say anything in reply. As he snatched up his coat and bag, he yelled out rather than use the phone, "Jean! Tell Gary I'm taking the rest of the week off!"
"The whole week?"
Cloud stopped and sent a look of death towards his co-worker who had remained in his office. The drafter fidgeted under his gaze a bit before gesturing with the papers he had recovered from the floor. "What if Henry calls?" he asked.
"If Henry calls," Cloud replied in an icy voice that grew hotter with each word, "you tell him that my wife and kids are in the hospital and that if he so much as opens his mouth to complain about my absence, I will take a fucking wide flange and shove it up his ass!" He paused for a breath before asking, "Got that?"
The drafter swallowed painfully. "Yes, sir."
"Good."
As Cloud flew through the main room heading in the direction of the front door, some of the other employees tried to offer their support with low-voiced words and sympathetic glances. Cloud raced by all of them. The only sound he could hear was the drumming beat of his shoes on the carpet and then on the outside pavement as he ran and ran.
xXx
It simply wasn't fair, he thought to himself as he stood against the far wall of the viewing room. She had deserved so much better than this. She had been beautiful, gentle, kind, and all she had wanted was a quiet life with a loving family and a happy home. Instead, she had suffered through a broken heart, a marriage to a man who didn't love her, and the painful realization that she was physically unable to carry a child to full term. And then to have her life cut short like this, in such a violent way. It just wasn't fair.
"Dad?"
He looked up at his boys as they approached. A short stab of pain shot through him as he realized they were holding hands, just like they had done for months after bringing them home from the orphanage. This wasn't fair on them either. To give them the love and security of a real family that they had always longed for, only to pull it out from under them again.
Sora, who had gotten his attention, half-smiled and said, "We're done. It's your turn."
Cloud nodded and stood up from the wall. He gently laid a hand on each boy's head and smoothed their hair as he took a moment to look at them. Sora had fractured his left arm and Roxas had a massive black eye and other bruising on his face, but that had been the extent of their injuries. Their mother had taken the brunt of the collision, almost as if she had gathered all the force from the impact and directed it to her own body.
Which she most certainly would have done anyway had she been given the choice.
Sighing gently, he walked past his sons and towards the rosewood coffin that sat on the other side of the room. Dozens of people had come to pay their respects to her that evening. High school and college friends, family members, co-workers. But they had all left, leaving the woman's children and husband to speak to her alone.
Cloud knelt on the little stool that the funeral home had provided and folded his hands on the edge of the coffin. Inside, Aerith lay peacefully, surrounded by flowers. She wore her favorite pink dress and pink ribbons in her hair which framed her face in a soft mass of brown curls. Sora and Roxas had insisted on doing her hair themselves, brushing and curling for almost an hour, quietly crying the entire time. They had done their best to hide the gashes in her head and neck, and what they couldn't hide with hair they had covered with flowers. In the quiet of his mind, Cloud thanked them for their efforts as well as for the funeral home's suggestion that only the top half of the casket be open for viewing. He didn't think he could handle seeing her mangled lower body right now.
A slow breath in, another out, and he opened his heart.
"Aerith, I'm sorry. Not for the accident. Believe it or not, I do realize that that wasn't my fault. For everything else. I know I'm not the one you wanted. In spite of that, I thought I could at least ease your pain, but it turned out I couldn't do that either. And you …" He paused, ran a finger down her cold cheek. "You never complained. Even though I had dedicated the rest of my life to helping you keep a smile on your face, you're the one who moved on first, suggested we adopt. You're the one who brought light back into my life. It should have been the other way around, Aer." He paused, bit his lip as tears began to slide down his face. "I'm sorry. I did my best, but I can't help feeling that I should have done more. I just … I really wanted one of us to be happy."
The tears fell fast, and he closed his eyes against them. "Rest now," he whispered to her. "I'll take care of the boys. Don't worry about us; we'll be fine."
Feeling tired and far older than his twenty-five years, Cloud lowered his chin and rested his forehead against the cool wood of his wife's coffin. He sat there for several heartbeats, listening to the sound of his own breathing, and waited for the flow of tears to stop. When they had, he rose and crossed the room to his sons. Gently, he untangled their hands from one another -- they didn't resist -- and, holding a smaller hand in each of his own, he guided them out the door. Sora and Roxas looked back, but Cloud did not.
They would be back tomorrow morning to say their final goodbyes.
xXx
He had expected a little more resistance. After all, Sora and Roxas had spent the last three years growing accustomed to this place. They had finally begun to make friends and participate in school activities. When Cloud had played out the discussion in his head, it had involved far more whining and refusals to leave. So when he sat them down to talk about it, he explained the move in terms that he thought they would most appreciate: a higher salary and better benefits meant more money to be spent on a bigger house and more luxuries.
"Will we have our own rooms?" Roxas had asked.
"Yes."
"And a bigger yard?" Sora had added.
"Yes, if you want one."
They had looked at each other in that twin way that he found so fascinating, looked back, and said in unison, "We want a dog."
And then they had both risen and gone up to their room to finish their homework before going to hang out with their friends.
Cloud had spent a full minute at the table with his mouth hanging open.
So here he was, standing in the airport being squashed to death by Yuffie. The sheer amount of energy the girl had never ceased to amaze him. When Vincent had first introduced her, Cloud had thought his best friend had gone mad, but she had quickly won him over with her cheerful personality and her pure spunk. He still had no idea what Vin of all people was doing as her boyfriend, but as long as they were happy, he was glad to have her around.
After Yuffie had greeted the boys and the three of them had laughed at the obligatory joke about Cloud's ever-present motion sickness, she grabbed a suitcase from him and pulled away. "My boss Leon graciously agreed to drive you to your hotel, so be sure to thank him, okay?" She lifted a hand and waved at someone a fair bit behind her.
Cloud followed the gesture with his eyes, intending to thank the man immediately, but the words of gratitude froze on his lips. A set of eyes had been staring at him from a few feet away, waiting for him to notice. Gray eyes, bright, fierce, and terribly, terribly cold. Eyes that Cloud had never been able to forget, set in a proud, handsome face that likewise had been etched permanently into Cloud's memory.
This wasn't possible. He wasn't supposed to still be here. He was supposed to have moved on. That door had closed. Cloud didn't think he could handle it being opened again, especially in the face of the other's hard, unforgiving expression.
Yuffie had stopped moving, Sora and Roxas a few paces behind her. Confusion clear on her open face, she turned her head first to one frozen man, then the other. "What's the matter?" she asked after a minute. "You guys know each other?"
A distant part of Cloud's mind registered the question, but he could not answer. He was lost within himself, drowning in shock and the pain of having old wounds ripped open and made to bleed once more. His chest had constricted to the point where it was hard to breathe and his body felt as if had been filled with concrete, but somehow he managed to take a single step forward and ask in a fearful whisper, "Squall?"
The brunet in front of him did not answer. Instead, storm-cloud eyes narrowed for the briefest of seconds before vanishing completely. The other man had turned his back on him and was rapidly walking away with long-legged strides.
"Hey!" Yuffie yelled, effectively breaking Cloud out of his trance. "Leon! Wait up!"
She lunged forward, Sora and Roxas following, but the luggage she carried and her naturally shorter legs kept her from catching up. By the time Cloud had shaken himself completely awake and caught up to the three of them, Yuffie had given up the chase.
"It's okay," she told them as they continued to walk, more slowly now. "I remember where we parked."
When they got there, however, the space was empty. The string of swear words that Yuffie let fly made Cloud wince and want to cover his own ears to say nothing of those of his boys. They stood silently by, shoulders touching, both sets of blue eyes watching him warily. The expressions in those eyes more than anything snapped Cloud back to normal.
"Yuffie, Yuffie," he soothed, taking the irate girl by the arm, "let's just go back in and get a taxi."
She continued to swear violently under her breath but allowed herself to be led back to the airport and the line of taxis that waited outside the doors. Cloud picked one, ushered the other three into the back seat, and then calmly helped the driver load their bags into the trunk. He gave directions to Yuffie's apartment first and then to the hotel before climbing in himself.
Yuffie was leaving a scathing message on Leon's answering machine. When she finished, she snapped her phone shut and turned on him. "What's the deal, Cloud? Do you know him or what?"
Cloud turned his face to the window and answered simply, "Yes."
The brunette waited impatiently for more, but he had no intention of explaining further. Not in front of his sons. Eventually, she gave up and called Leon again, leaving another message, this one even nastier.
By the time the taxi arrived at Yuffie's apartment complex, Leon had four messages waiting for him and Sora and Roxas were trying hard to suppress their sniggers. When the car stopped, Cloud got out as well, shutting the door behind them. With one hand still on the door, he dug out his own phone and turned it on.
"What's his number?" he asked lowly.
But Yuffie planted her fists on her hips and frowned. "Uh-uh, no way! I am not giving you his number until you tell me how you know him."
He sighed but capitulated. "He's my ex. That's all you need to know."
"Seriously?" she cried, eyes going wide. "I didn't know you were bi! Did Aer know?"
"Yuffie!" he hissed, indicating the closed door. "Lower your voice."
She rolled her eyes at the implication but obeyed. "Well, sorry for the awkwardness, but I didn't know."
"It's okay," he assured her. "Now, the number?" She gave it, and he entered it into his contact list. "Thanks," he murmured, closing the phone again.
"Not a problem," she replied, suddenly serious. Before he could question her, she stepped forward and slipped her arms around his neck. "I'm here for you if you need me, Cloud. You know that, right?"
"Yeah," he whispered, hugging her back. "I know."
She nodded against his shoulder and then pulled back with a smile. "G'night." Suddenly grinning, she leaned down and rapped her knuckles against the window. "Night, rugrats!" she yelled to the boys inside.
"Good night!" they yelled back, although Roxas added, "And we're not rugrats!"
Laughing, Yuffie waved one final time before disappearing into her building. Cloud watched the door shut behind her and then climbed back into the taxi for the drive to the hotel.
When they arrived, he went through the motions of checking in and settling into the room. He hustled Sora and Roxas around, getting them ready for bed as if they were five instead of fifteen. They let him do it, still watching him carefully as if they understood what had happened that night, as if they knew his history as well as he did. He refused to let himself think of that, however, until both boys were securely in bed and the lights were turned off. Then, there in the quiet darkness, Cloud stood next to the window, placed one hand gently on the glass, and gazed out at the stars.
So Squall still lived here. Now that the shock had worn off and he took a moment to think about it, Cloud supposed that it wasn't really that surprising. The brunet had grown up in this town, and he had mentioned a few times that he would probably inherit his grandfather's bookstore. The more Cloud thought about it, the more he realized he should have expected something like this evening's confrontation to happen eventually.
Yet, that knowledge would not have stopped him from wanting to move here. Cloud had never doubted for a moment that Squall had forgotten him and moved on. How could he have not? Cloud had broken up with him so abruptly -- almost cruelly -- to ensure that his love would have no qualms about discarding him for another. And while Cloud had loved Squall deeply and always would, he doubted that his boyfriend had returned his feelings that strongly. Six whole years had passed. Surely Squall would have found someone else, and without a doubt, he wouldn't want Cloud back.
And yet, those eyes had told of a different story. With growing horror, Cloud wondered if he had been wrong all this time. The storms in those eyes had spoken of years of suffering, of a pain as intense as the one Cloud had endured. A sudden nausea gripped him as memories began to pour forth unbidden. After Aerith's first pregnancy had failed, she had offered to set him free. The baby had been what had bound them together in the first place, and without it, he had no reason to stay with her. She had offered him a divorce. He had refused. She had still needed him to help her through the grief, and he had thought -- no, he had known -- that he no longer had a love to which to return.
In the darkness of the hotel room, Cloud clamped a hand over his mouth and bent nearly double with the weight of realization. Squall hadn't forgotten him. And if he had taken that divorce five years ago and come back, more than likely Squall would have accepted and forgiven him. But now … now it was too late. The icy anger in those eyes had stated with perfect clarity that forgiveness could no longer be obtained. He had been wrong, terribly wrong, but there was nothing now that he could do to correct his countless mistakes.
Cloud's knees gave out. He collapsed into a nearby chair and, with one hand covering his eyes and the other fisted into his mouth, dissolved into desperate, hopeless tears.
A/N: I'm not sure what a wide flange is, but my engineer husband assures me that it would hurt quite a bit. He's very happy, btw, to see me writing about his chosen profession. Yes, dear, I have in fact been listening to you these past ten years. :)
So, you know the drill. Push the button, leave a comment, and receive my undying gratitude.
