Cloud gave a light gasp as he twitched awake, his skin peeling off the black leather of the couchcushions...

...the couch? Why was he on the couch? Groggily, the boy looked up, examining his current position. He was, in fact, splayed out on the sofa, a light blanket half-falling off onto the floor, but twined around his left leg, and therefore not having come completely off of him. He was still in his festival clothes... and fighting armor, for that matter, the rumpled, baggy blue pants, spotted with embroidered designs near the bottom, his leather half-skirt tangled with the fabric of the blankets even more than his feet were. The plain white foldover shirt, was sleeveless and edged in gold, hanging half-open over an exposed chest. Matching detached sleeves of the same style and meant to be worn with the shirt had been laced tightly around his upper arms last night, but now sagged at his elbows. The wolf-emblazoned shoulder pauldron was in its usual spot on his left, slightly askew from having been slept on… his leather gloves bunched at his wrists. Brightly colored beads were sagging off of his deflated hair, and he imagined the smeared brown patterns of henna were still faintly visible on his face.

Nevertheless... running a hand over his eyes, he continued trying to figure out why he was on the couch in the first place. He briefly noted the closed blinds, and commended himself for doing that much at least... he remembered leaving the window open and unshaded last night so that his home would soak up as much of the smoky campfire smell he loved as was possible. This morning, though, it was certainly a blessing not to have to deal with glaring sunlight.

Why, though, had he closed it? He could have kept the blinds up, and the sun would not have disturbed him if he were sleeping in his bed... Squeezing his eyes shut, he forced himself down into the murky pool of memories... and slowly, slowly they filtered back up to the surface towards him.

A square of silvery moonlight sat planted in the middle of the floor, and he'd wanted nothing more than to stamp it out, like a big ember about to light a grassfire. The only way to do that, though... he'd rushed over and haphazardly tugged down the shade, effectively blocking out enough of the terrible light to create a bridge across the middle of his relatively empty livingroom floor: a space wide enough for two to cross.

...two? And why the moonlight?

A flash. His sword cutting through ropes, cords of silver that weren't really there, a dark, scared form. Vincent.

Sitting bolt upright, now he remembered... and glanced down the hall toward his room. He'd shut Vincent up in there after returning yesterday... or maybe it had been earlier this morning. A pang of guilt hit him square on in the forehead as he remembered the harshness with which he'd shoved his friend into the bed and slammed the door shut behind him, his only intentions being to safeguard him, at least for a little while, while his own vision passed. Apparently that had taken the whole night, or he dozed off sometime in between with his face buried thoroughly into a throw pillow to prevent the temptation of looking up and seeing the no-doubt distorted world around him.

And now it was morning, daylight, and safe, and he had no desire to let in the sun... what he could really use was a gigantic cup of coffee... yet he lacked the motivation to move his leaden legs, get up, and make himself some. He found it damn near inconceivable to even wash off and get changed, though he supposed he desperately needed it. The parts of him that weren't decorated and temporarily tattooed were probably sweatstained... on silk. If Nanaki caught him with his ceremonial clothes in such a state he would never hear the end of it.

But speak of the devil, there came a dull scraping near the bottom of his door, a signal he'd come to recognize as the animal's coming. Claws on wood, the only means a beast without hands for knocking had of alerting anyone to his arrival, aside from verbally calling out, which he did do as well for good measure. "Cloud? Are you up?"

The swordsman groaned softly, wishing he could just lay back down and sleep the rest of the day away... knowing that was an impossible option, especially now that Nanaki's sensitive ears had certainly heard his complaining. There was no further prodding, however, from him for Cloud to wake up, and the blonde could even imagine the creature just sitting there politely, waiting for the door to be answered for him... as it would certainly have to be, since paws couldn't use doorknobs.

He groaned again with this realization: that he would have to stand up, and lazily struggled to his feet, "Just a minute." he nearly snapped, shuffling barefoot (at least he'd remembered to take his boots off) over the soft carpeted ground on his path to the entryway.

With a click of the lock and a slight tug of the door it opened just a crack, and Cloud, his work done, stumbled back toward the couch. Nanaki peered through the opening with his single good eye, and nudged his way in.

"That was quite a show we had from you last night, Cloud." the sarcasm wasn't meant maliciously, but the short and even tone Nanaki had to his voice meant that he was far from pleased with the swordsman's actions.

"I'm sorry." Cloud half-growled, flopping down heavily on the leather couch and hunching his shoulders, letting his head sink down as he glared out at the golden outline of the shaded window. He hated to apologize... not because it meant swallowing his pride (what little he still hand), but because it meant he'd done something bad enough to merit apology. It was the guilt that got him, and that thought sent him glancing down the darkened hallway toward his room, the shut door, Vincent in there.

"What did you See?" now the animal's voice took on a more gravelly quality. Ferocious and stern, and he turned his lazerlike yellow eye onto him to show he meant business.

Cloud, on the other hand, did not respond well to force, sighed, and leaned back, pressing his body fully into the stuffing of the backrest. "I didn't look too closely." he grumbled.

"Why?" Nanaki queried, sniffing almost imperceptibly, his gaze glistening over the small livingroom, scanning for anything that could be amiss.

"Maybe because..." Cloud paused and considered for the briefest of moments, before shaking his head and forging on, "...I was afraid what I might See."

"More like afraid what you might do when you Saw it." the beast offhandedly suggested. Cloud winced. Nanaki turned his red-maned head on the swordsman, looking him over. Cloud did the same. Nanaki, he saw, also bore telltale, leftover signs of the festival last night: chipped blue paint was still caked onto his fur in choice places: his snout, his back haunches, rings around his tail... and he still wore the shroud of tattered leather, though it was noticeably more frayed and beaten than it had been at the start of the celebration last night. "I went down into the canyon after you... left last night." the creature mentioned, padding slowly over to the window and nosing under the shade to look out, "I saw the sword-mark on the ground." he slipped back under and into the room, turning around to face him. "What did you See?"

The wince became a grimace as flashes of the readily-suppressed vision resurfaced like shark's fins around his mind. The grappling tentacles of moonlight, the war of silver and gold, Vincent caught in the darkness in between... He shook his head to clear it, and stuttered, "N-nothing... I mean... it meant nothing." he shifted awkwardly on the couch, crossing his arms over his chest, "The vision I saw meant nothing to me." he at last managed to explain.

Nanaki heaved a sigh that came out sounding more like a bestial hiss, and thwacked the shade frustratedly with his tail, which, in reaction, snapped up and rolled back into the top sending the blinding sunlight straight in, hitting Cloud in the face like a brick wall. He groaned and closed his eyes as the animal walked up, "Meaningless only because you do not wish to understand!" his voice then softened, sounding almost tainted with pity, "Cloud... don't you see? If you learn to decipher the images, if you can decode them, you've nothing to fear from them..."

Something furry and warm brushed Cloud's knee, and looking down he saw that Nanaki had rested his chin lightly on it, looking up with a somewhat pleading gaze. "If you can understand them..." the beast went on, "...you may not have to learn to suppress them."

"But I don't want to understand them!" the swordsman snapped, slamming a fist down onto the couchcusion with a rather unsatisfying flop. He realized, dimly, how much like a tantrum-throwing three-year-old he must sound right now, but went on without a care, "I never asked for them! I have enough terrible real life memories and images floating around my head that I'm still trying to sort through, even after ten years! I don't need to See the things I See, I don't want to!" emotion flared in his voice at the end of the tirade, and with a frustrated groan the blonde leaned forward, planting his elbows firmly onto his knees with barely enough time for Nanaki to dodge out of the way, and cupping his face in his hands.

"...it's a shame..." the animal said after a long pause. Cloud didn't bother to look up. "...that you would waste such a blessed gift from the planet." he frowned and reconsidered, "No... forget I said that. Not waste... I..." he sighed, "I understand the trauma associated with having the Sight. Precious few are awarded, by the planet, the ability to see the truth behind these skin-shells we living beings walk in... but that truth, for some, is too shocking for them to handle. Many people, probably some that you don't even know of, possess the Sight in Cosmo Canyon... but almost all of them lock it away, learn to control it as you wish to. Those who embrace their gifts become... wise elders, prophets..." his voice took on a tone of admiration and nostalgia.

"I just don't understand why I'm having so much trouble doing that." Cloud broke in, looking up from beyond his hands. Nanaki was seated on the floor in the center of the light, looking as wild and simultaneously regal as ever. "If sixteen-year-old Shandra the innkeep can do it, if crippled old Matthias can at eighty-seven, why can't I? I'm a three-time world savior, for Shiva's sake, and only thirty-one." his voice turned desperate as he gently lowered his face back down into his palms, "What the hell is keeping me from blocking it."

For the longest time Nanaki didn't answer, just sat and breathed heavily. "I just thought..." a hint of regret crept into his voice as he finally spoke, like a child who'd just realized their hero was not quite as invincible or amazing as they'd originally thought them to be, "...that a person as strong and worldwise as you would not have been satisfied with further deception... would have wanted to See."

"Existence with a wall is better, we consider, than not exist at all." Cloud rambled bitingly.

"Don't quote at me." Nanaki scoffed, "Your far less well-read than I am." a point of pride on the animal's part. "To flee from memory, had we the wings, many would fly." he demonstrated, lightly stepping up close to Cloud again and tilting his head with a clack of beads, as if trying to meet the man's eyes by boring a hole straight through his hands with his sharp stare. "But you know all about that, Cloud?" it was not a question. "You know you cannot run forever."

Dropping his hands and glaring evenly down at the beast, easily matching his heated look, Cloud frowned, "I'm sick of this." he spat, "You can't force your bizarre esoteric talents onto me if I don't want to have them. You've already said... plenty of people at the Canyon suppress their Sight their entire lives and never have a problem."

"But you were meant for greater things than being an innkeep or a half-senile old cripple." The animal seemed completely unphazed by the swordsman's scathing frustration. "Please, Cloud... I'm not the one who's forcing you. It's no lack of skill, I think, that keeps you from controlling your Sight. You're quite qualified, in my mind, to be able to do so... but the planet is stubborn, and I doubt she will give up this fight so easily. There is something you are meant to see, and she will have you see it." his voice was lighter now, meaning he was satisfied with such a conclusion to their otherwise impassioned and even bitter conversation. He nuzzled Cloud's knee again sympathetically and looked up, youthful mischief gleaming out of his eye.

It was often very hard to remember how a creature so wise and noble could still be, at least by his race's count of years, so young. Cloud often forgot that Nanaki aged and matured differently... how old was he now, pushing sixty? How much life did that mean he had left? About four times what he'd already lived, he guessed. And how long did he himself have? Maybe twice as much. It was a dark path that he tried not to let his mind wander down during the grateful silence that strung between them in that moment. He let his own remaining doubts drop behind sealed lips... he knew they would resurface later in some other heated exchange between himself and his self-assigned mentor. For now, the quiet and the comforting warmth of his friend nearby was enough to sate him as he lazily ruffled the auburn mane atop the creature's fiery orange head.

At last, Nanaki stiffened and looked up. "I smelled it earlier." he mentioned, standing and straightening his back, "But we got caught up." an almost apologetic glance over one shoulder. "Vincent." he mentioned.

Cloud tensed at the word, and turned his gaze down the hall... no windows down there. It was still shaded and dark, and he winced slightly at the thought of that. "Yes..." was his only answer.

"Where is he?" asked the beast.

"In my room." Cloud replied softly, "I... didn't have time to..." he fidgeted, "...last night, before I... fell asleep."

Nanaki hid, relatively well, the slight eyeroll as he started across the room for hallway, his body angling back and forth with an animal's grace. Cloud watched from his seat for a long time, before at last forcing himself up to his feet, and diving out of the harsh light. By the time he reached it, Nanaki already had a furry ear pressed lightly against the wood of the door.

"I don't hear anything." the beast mentioned.

"He's probably asleep." Cloud shrugged.

"No..." Nanaki shook his shaggy head with more jingles and clacks resounding from last night's forgotten beading and adornments, "...we spent nearly a year adventuring with him, I know the sounds of when Vincent sleeps... his breath, his body movements... he would be dreaming, making noise, if only slightly. I mean I don't hear anything, and the only time he's completely silent..." the creature brought his voice down to a gravelly whisper, "...is when he's awake." Eager and curious, Nanaki sat back on his hind legs briefly and pawed at the doorknob. This one, unlike the one at the main entrance, was not a simple round ball, but a somewhat artfully swerving handle which paws could grip and turn with relative ease…

"No, wait!" Cloud hissed suddenly, his own hand darting out and pushing Nanaki's away to keep the door closed.

The animal looked confused, but waited for Cloud to offer the explanation…

"Vincent is…" the swordsman sank back thoughtfully, into the cool, pillowwy enclaves of his memory until he hit a jagged shard within it. His wax-statue-like stillness, his… smallness, curled and hunched as they tunneled through the dark, the rusted claw raised to the moon, his bone-pale face and those torpid eyes… Cloud flinched. "Something happened…" his voice was low and apprehensive. "…he's different, he's…" he struggled to find the right explanation, "…not himself."

Nanaki slowly nodded, instantly understanding, and inched away from the door.

"He barely recognized me last night." Cloud said distantly, straightening and staring directly forward at the door without really looking at it.

"It's been ten years, Cloud," the animal mentioned, "and you've changed alot. I'm not entirely surprised he didn't recognize you." the eye ghosted over the blonde's bizarre and mismatched getup, and his lips quivered into a brief smirk. "Especially given the circumstances."

Cloud's eyes, on the other hand, darkened as he spoke. "I haven't changed nearly enough..." he sighed. "Still, though... I think it…" words came haltingly, "…might be better if… you don't go in yet." he looked down at Nanaki, who again seemed confused. The boy offered a sad smile, "…just a feeling."

An animal himself, Nanaki new better than to mistrust Cloud's frighteningly accurate intuition, and further backed away. "Do you want me to look into it?"

The swordsman choked on a laugh, "I don't know what you do or how you do it…" he began, running a hand through his hair, sending more baubles tumbling off the spiky mop onto the floor, "…but whenever you 'look into it' with anything… it always seems to work." he sighed and his shoulders sagged tiredly, "Yes, Nanaki. Do whatever you can."

The beast nodded and turned away, starting off for the exit, "I'll get on that." he informed quietly on his way out, "But you do what you can too, Cloud." he paused right before the door, looking back to make sure his message was understood, "You say he recognized you… that's a start. Remember that at the moment we know nothing but what your own observations have told you, yet I'm sure… contact of any sort can help. Vincent was never social…" another laugh bubbled feebly and died in Cloud's throat, making him have to swallow down dryness, "…but a little bit of… humanity might very well help right now." and clawing open the doorway, Nanaki stepped out.

Cloud let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the far wall, his hands jammed into his pockets, tracing the patterns of the wood grain on the door in front of him with his eyes. After a few minutes of absolutely unhelpful thinking, he stepped forward and extended his hand. Who knew what he would see or See in there? Who knew what was wrong with Vincent, if it was still wrong now, or if it had been merely a temporary bout of… whatever, insanity, perhaps, last night? Who knew what he could do to help his friend? Who knew? But there was only one way to find out…

He pushed the door open and stuck his head inside. "Vincent?"

xxx

Author's Ending Note Thingy: Totally crappy ending, I know... uhm, oh well. Yeah, no-one's reading this fic anymore... XD or at least no-one's reviewing... Maybe I'll do a repost, I dunno. Anyway, this is officially into new territory again, I've written farther than I had back before my laptop died, so... yaaay! I'm happy with it. Hope you guys are... So anyway, is this getting confusing enough yet? XP I tried to explain it as best I could, I'll fill in a little more later, I suppose. Anybody recognize the quotes Cloud and Nanaki use? XP If you do, you get a cookie! In other news, I'm going camping... I leave tomorrow. I know my updating schedule has been patchy at best, but you can be sure I won't be so much as thinking about writing a new chapter for two weeks. Nevertheless... hope you liked this chapter, hope you come back for the next one, taa.