Author's Note - I'm not updating too fast (or sporadically), am I?
I'm really just writing this as they come to mind (though for some reason, this chapter was like pulling teeth, because I want to reveal so much but can't 'cause that would kill the mystery... or whatever nonexistent thing is here... )
And no, I promise you these OCs aren't Mary-frickin'-sues. Just... oh, god... that sent chills down my spine. Gah!
If someone/anyone wants an update schedule, I'll make one up (possibly). If not, I'm just gonna do what I'm doin'. Cool?
And I fear that Cloud is horribly OOC... ugh... *facepalm*
Oh. And as for what Zack and Cloud are currently wearing... well, it's not the SOLDIER outfits, but the outfit descriptions wouldn't fit in the story anywhere, soooo... I'll leave that up to the imagination. (Though you can imagine they're still wearing combat boots, ja?)
Hrm... let's make these A/Ns shorter next time...

Pairings - Yeah... it's gonna be a Cloud/Zack thing... sorry. It's gonna be extremely light, though, and it won't actually show up for a long while (like... not for a LOOOOOONG time). Still, if that's not your cup of tea, I'd... you know, turn back now. And Blame Yuubinbasha. *facepalm again*

Warnings - OC involvement, blood, story/canon butchering, language etc. You know...


Chapter 2 -

The little shack was, oddly enough, very easy to reconstruct. Cloud helped the armoured youth while Zack, who claimed he couldn't feel his body at that point, sat resting against the Buster Sword while an ever-energetic Sasha continued to run around in circles around him. Once or twice, the ex-SOLDIER had attempted to calm her down and succeeded for a full minute or two, but the child had simply gotten up and ran around, jumped, even started drawing in the dirt. And miraculously, her pure white dress was only... off-white at this point.

It wasn't hard to notice that the armoured teen was strong. While Cloud managed to finally get the rubble out of the way, the youth had already managed to put up the first wall.

"So," Zack started as the two blonds worked, earning both their attention. However, it was the one with onyx-black eyes that the ex-SOLDIER was more focused on, and Cloud found himself pausing in his work to hear the man's questions. "Why don't we start with... your name. 'Cause you apparently know mine, and I'm assuming you know Cloud here." Zack had finally found a way to keep Sasha still, though it consisted of the child repeatedly playing with the dangling strand of his hair while she sat in his lap. Like some kind of cat. Ah, well...

"Ru-Ru is Ru-Ru!" the child stated matter-of-factly, giggling happily. Zack raised a brow in confusion, sighing when the child began playing with his hair again.

"My name," the armoured youth corrected as he propped up another wooden board up and tied it down, "is Tohru Kiroi."

"And the little girl?"

"Sasha, my sister."

"Cute. How come you two live out here?"

"Because we can."

"How is that even an answer... "

"Can your questions wait, perhaps, until after the house is rebuilt?"

Zack reluctantly conceded, and Cloud and Tohru spent the rest of the time building in silence. Only Sasha's cheerful little humming seemed to break through it all, keeping them at least mildly entertained.

By the time night fell, they'd managed to reconstruct the house (minus the roof, which would require more wood as most of it had been obliterated with the dragon's attack). The bed and couch were really the only things that managed to survive, which was a surprise in and of itself. It could keep any gusts of wind out, and as it didn't look like rain would be coming anytime soon, there were really no complaints. Tohru had apparently gone into town for extra supplies anyway, so luckily damage was minimal. They built a fire using the remains of the chair, and more or less sat in silence as the armoured youth set it up to cook some 'half-decent food,' as he claimed it to be.

It seemed that no matter what, Sasha was bound to be playing around with something. It was a wonder she actually ate her food at all. Tohru seemed to be constantly watching her, making sure her food wasn't too hot for the little thing. Still, after the meal, she was soon fast asleep in Tohru's lap, his cloak draped around her.

Cloud... Cloud still didn't know what to really say. He kept glancing over at Zack, who clearly had several thousand questions on his mind. He could only guess what some of them were: Where were they? How did Tohru come into play? Why was he alive? Truthfully, Cloud had these same questions himself. With Zack's survival, he knew he could find out why he was missing a good five years of his life and how he'd survived Sephiroth's attack.

Sephiroth...

The thought of the silver-haired monster made him sick, almost physically so. Flashes of Nibelheim burning to the ground, of the General losing his mind in the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor, of finding Tifa and Zack injured, of stabbing him, of—

"Cloud?"

He snapped back to reality, a brief moment of panic washing over him when he couldn't move. A small shake from his left dispelled that, however, and he lifted his head up, blue eyes blinking once or twice to adjust to the dark before he noticed Zack's worried face looking at him. Cloud realized he was shaking and breathing a bit heavily, lying on the ground on his side, slowly wrapping his arms around himself in an effort to calm down. The little campfire Tohru had made had almost fizzled out, and the armoured youth was watching them from a short distance away, Sasha sleeping soundly on the bed.

What had just happened?

"He's still getting over Mako poisoning?" Zack asked, looking over to Tohru, who nodded somewhat stiffly. Cloud pushed himself up with some effort, curious now.

"When he first brought you, he collapsed almost as soon as he made it here. He slipped in some kind of vegetable state for a good week before he started being able to move around right. I've noticed he slips back into it every so often, though less and shorter periods of time."

Tohru folded his arms and muttered something under his breath that neither could quite catch.

"Gee. Aren't you friendly," the ex-SOLDIER remarked, rolling his mako-blue eyes.

"What is it you want to know, exactly?"

Zack opened his mouth to speak, but promptly shut it again. Cloud could understand why. Truthfully, even he didn't know where to begin with what to tell his friend, and he didn't even have all the facts himself.

"How long... "

Tohru looked up, onyx-black eyes visible only due to the slight green tinge around them. Zack shook his head, staying quiet for a couple minutes.

"You know," the ex-SOLDIER said, voice fairly quiet, "I don't even know what to ask."

"Then I'll just explain the basics of how you got here." The armoured youth began taking off his gloves and boots, tossing them aside none-too-gently. He apparently had gloves and socks beneath the two metal pieces of his armour. He looked back to the two ex-Shinra employees, eyes falling on Cloud, who stiffened slightly, before turning back to Zack. "I found you by following the sound of gunshots. It sounded like someone was getting kicked around pretty badly, and I figured I may as well help. By the time I got there, though, you were saying your dying words.

"Your friend here—" Tohru jerked his thumb at Cloud, who scowled slightly but stayed silent. "—was about ready to throw a fit. So I threw the biggest Cure I could just to get you breathing. Broke one of my materia thanks to that, but it kept you breathing long enough to get you here, where I could properly heal you up. When Spiky was in that weird vegetable state he was in, Sasha was the one who managed to keep him fed. As for both of your uniforms... well... I managed to guess at your sizes and got you some better clothes. Those SOLDIER uniforms stank to the high heavens, and they're not exactly the best things to walk around in these days."

"Don't tell me you threw them out!" Zack exclaimed, eyes wide.

At this, the armoured youth glared a moment then pointed towards Sasha's sleeping form, to which the dark-haired man seemed to get the hint and shrank down a little. "Spiky made me keep them."

"Please stop calling me that," Cloud sighed in annoyance, glaring at Zack when his friend snickered at the nickname.

"They're under the bed and washed, so they don't stink," Tohru continued on, as though he hadn't heard Cloud. "I'm no tailor, though, and I wasn't about to find anyone willing to fix it up without blowing off my head, so yours is kind of obliterated. You can get it tomorrow morning and do whatever you want with it."

"Alright, alright... "

The three sat in silence for a long time, each lost in their own thought. Or at least Zack was, Cloud noted. And Tohru seemed to be waiting for some barrage of questions or something. the ex-infantryman sighed, bringing his knees up to his chest and resting his forehead on them for a moment. He honestly wished he could help Zack out somehow...

"How old are you, anyway?"

Cloud blinked, looking up and at Zack. The question was directed to Tohru; and had apparently caught the youth off-guard, judging by the wide eyes. Truthfully, he was startled as well, even if it was... the kind of question Zack would ask in a situation like this.

"Sixteen," the armoured youth replied slowly, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "Why?"

"Curious. How old's the kid?"

"Five."

"How come you two live out here? Why not inside Midgar?"

"Zack," Cloud said warningly, already knowing how the conversation would end up. He'd taken the same path when he first came to the right state of mind, and Tohru had closed off even more if at all possible. Sure enough, a glance at the young boy showed himself falling under a cold mask, and Cloud didn't doubt that there was deep pain in his mako-black eyes.

"It's complicated. Let's just say Midgar's too dirty for us."

And with that, Tohru stood and climbed onto the bed next to his sister. No more words were allowed to be said on the subject. Cloud made it a point to shoot an annoyed glare at Zack, who looked utterly confused. He didn't blame him, but...

"You have no tact," Cloud muttered, keeping his voice quiet.

"Hey, c'mon... I've been sleeping for two months," the ex-SOLDIER chuckled, giving off a weak grin. "Cut me a little slack."

"Whatever... "

After a while, when it was obvious Zack was falling asleep, Cloud made him go sleep on the couch.

He couldn't bring himself to ask any questions just yet...

Part of him was honestly afraid of the answer, especially since the last thing he remembered was being skewered on the end of Sephiroth's sword.

Cloud sighed in annoyance, flopping back on the ground, hands clasped behind his head. Sky-blue eyes stared up at the sky, clouded by pollution due to the several mako reactors in Midgar. It was a shame, seeing the stars hidden because of it. Nothing like in Nibelheim, where the vast sky was cloudless and pure, and the stars twinkled with no hesitancy.

Nibelheim...

He rolled over onto his side, doing his best to shove aside the pang of pain.

When and how he went to sleep, he didn't know. When he woke up, he wasn't entirely surprised to find Tohru already gone to who-knows-where. Sasha was still sleeping peacefully on the bed, Cloud noted as he sat up slowly, rubbing at his eyes. He glanced around the little room, eyes falling upon Zack's still form on the couch.

Zack... who was curled up... with his back towards him...

Cloud would have thought he was still asleep, if not for the groan coming from his form.

Curious, the blond got up and walked cautiously to his side, brows knitting together in worry at the look of pain on the ex-SOLDIER's face. His arms were pressed against his stomach, which led Cloud to believe that maybe he was feeling some kind of ghost pain.

"Zack?" he asked, reaching down and lightly shaking his friend. "Are you—"

A loud - emphasis on loud - growl suddenly came from the curled-up form, startled Cloud into retracting his hand, confusion written all over his face. He jumped as mako-blue eyes slowly looked towards him, a forced grin soon making itself evident on the being known as Zack Fair.

"When the hell was the last time I actually ate?"

Well... it wasn't an unreasonable question. Cloud, however, had a hard time even trying to come up for an answer. While it was true they made sure to get some form of food into the ex-SOLDIER while he was unconscious, there was only so much they could put in him. It could hardly be said that... Zack really ate anything in his unconscious state. It was probably this knowledge that had Cloud quickly gathering whatever food supplies (noting most of it was either bread or non-perishable soup) he figured Tohru wouldn't mind losing and giving them to Zack, apologizing fiercely.

"You hardly ate anything last night, though... "

"I didn't even know I was hungry last night! Gah, you're cruel, not feeding me for two whole months... "

"I did!"

"Liar!"

The two stared at one another, both sets of eyes blinking. It was Zack who first broke into a fit of snickers, though pretty soon they were both laughing. Laughing... why? Laughing because they could, because it'd been so long, because they were both alive...

Any tension Cloud had felt around the ex-SOLDIER died instantly in that moment, and it became easier to be a little bit more natural around him. After a while, they more or less sat there, with Zack wearing a kind of goofy grin on his face as he ruffled up the blond's spikes.

"Really, though," he said, voice gaining some kind of softness and seriousness that Cloud didn't expect. "It's good to see you with some life in you again."

That brought all the questions flooding back, attacking and swimming through his mind. He couldn't tell which one would be the best to start with, which one would give him the right answer that he was looking for. His mouth, however, opened unconsciously, apparently already prepared to ask something—

"Ru-Ru... ?"

The childish voice brought him back to reality, following Zack's gaze to the bed. Sasha was sitting up, rubbing whatever sleep was in her big eyes. She still seemed kind of out of it, made obvious with the way she crawled lazily to the edge of the bed and out from under the covers, revealing her to be in an oversized white shirt that completely covered her arms and touched the ground when she stood. Both men watched her curiously as she wandered over to the food supplies, digging out a loaf of bread before plopping on the ground near the bed and nibbling on it.

"'Mornin', sweetheart!" Zack called out, successfully startling Cloud and catching the little girl's attention. She stared at them tiredly, blinking once or twice before recognition dawned on her face.

"Zack!" Sasha got up quickly, scuttling over to the two men, looking up in awe before giggling and smiling. "G'morning!"

"Say, where's your bro, anyway?"

"Out!"

Zack scratched his head, looking at Cloud who only shrugged. He really had no information on what Tohru actually did, and confronting him the first night he was aware of his surroundings didn't yield anything other than the youth telling them that 'Sasha knows you won't do anything, therefor I have nothing to worry about.'

Cryptic. As. Ever.

"Ah!" Sasha exclaimed before scattering off. She dug under the bed, pulling out both the two SOLDIER uniforms Zack and Cloud had worn when they first came there (Cloud noticed Zack winced as he saw the amount of bullet holes filling his shirt) and her own outfit, minus the white dress. She crawled underneath the bed covers, coming out a few minutes later dressed in her skirt and tank top. Finally completing the outfit with her boots, also from under the bed ("Is there some kind of bottomless pit underneath that bed or something?" Zack asked Cloud, who only shrugged in response as he really didn't know), she grinned to herself, clearly proud of her work.

She looked to them, bowing politely for a moment. "Then! Sasha will be right back!"

And she skipped out of the house.

"... She's a weird one... "

"You have no idea."

Naturally, the two followed after her. She wasn't anywhere in sight, but Cloud knew pretty much where she was going, having watched the girl pull off the same routine for about two months now. He ignored Zack's constant questioning until he saw the girl, stopping once he found her.

It was just a basic way to survive, he knew. Yet each time Cloud had seen her, it had still been odd.

She came outside only to gather water from a well nearby, one that apparently still had a water source and was within sight of the house. The pump itself was about her height, so she had something of a difficult time attempting to use it. Adding that onto the fact that she could only move the bucket with so much water in it, and Cloud was usually pretty eager to help her. Granted, the first few days of actually being conscious didn't give him much of a chance to help, since he could barely move his limbs during that time. After about the second week he'd managed to help her, against whatever childish protests she tried to put up. He knew she was glad for the help, though, deep down inside.

Today was, however, different. She was leaning heavily against the water pump, head hanging and eyes closed. At once, Zack and Cloud ran over to her.

"H-Hey," Zack said, slightly cautious as Cloud pulled the girl into his arms. "Is she sick or something?"

"No fever," the blond replied, checking her forehead. Sasha stirred lightly, nuzzling into Cloud's shirt and gripping the material weakly, causing him to tense up a little.

"Ru-Ru... lemme sleep more," she mumbled. The two boys let out a sigh in unison; well, at least she was okay and just tired... apparently...

"More trouble than she's worth," Zack remarked, standing and dusting himself off. "And that Tohru kid just leaves her alone?"

"Apparently," Cloud answered, shifting Sasha into his arms properly so he could carry her better.

"So, she just... pumps out the water on her own?"

"Well, I've been doing it for her since I've been here... "

"Huh."

Zack shrugged before he stationed himself at the pump, effectively filling the bucket with water. "Never thought I'd end up doing this sort of thing again. Do you know why these two are even out here?"

Cloud shook his head. "Tohru never said anything. Yesterday was actually the first chance I got to talk to him after... " He looked away.

"After you woke up to find me dying?"

He nodded.

The dark-haired man lifted the bucket, weighing it carefully in one arm before apparently deeming it enough. The two made their way back to the shack, only Sasha's mumbled sleep talk breaking through the silence between the two.

'Idiot,' Cloud berated himself as he tucked Sasha back into bed, taking off her shoes so she could sleep comfortably. 'If you keep brooding, Zack'll think you're weird. Just ask the questions you want to ask.'

Easier said than done.

He mentioned he had several thousand questions to ask, right?

"Hey, Chocobo-head." The gloved hand on top of his head snapped him back out of his thoughts. He let his head get tilted back, so he was looking up into Zack's mako-blue eyes. "Your worry lines are showing."

"Chocobo-head?"

"Yeah. Your hair reminds me of a chocobo's! Didn't anyone ever tell you that before?"

The blond swatted away the ex-SOLDIER's hand, ignoring the chuckle the man gave him. "You're weird."

"And you're avoiding the subject."

Cloud couldn't deny that one. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he sat up against the wall. He didn't look up when Zack knelt down in front of him, knowing that he was waiting for him. For something... anything...

"Hey, Cloud... " Surprisingly, it was Zack who spoke again first. "You want to know, don't you? About what happened at the Mako Reactor."

He nodded somewhat stiffly, hands gripping the material of his pants. Looking up cautiously, he was surprised when Zack's hand came and brushed a blond strand out of his eyes, surprised by the sadness and pain reflecting out of those mako-blue eyes. Suddenly, he wasn't sure he wanted to know...

"Before I start, Cloud," the ex-SOLDIER began, deciding to sit back on his behind, leaning back on his hands as he stared up at the sky. "How old do you think you are right now?"

"Sixteen," the blond replied rather bluntly, giving his friend an incredulous look. What kind of question was that? However, his stomach plummeted a good distance as Zack chuckled, looking at him now.

"It's been five years since that freak show. You're twenty-one, I'm twenty-three... a lot happened during those five years... "

"Like what?" Cloud found himself interested and scared all at the same time, watching Zack intently. He could see the hesitation all over his friend's face as he looked back up at the sky, but he would have none of that. "Zack... tell me what happened."

"I dunno know if I can tell you yet, Cloud... "