We've had you guys wait long enough now for this chapter (unless you are reading this for your first time and didn't have to wait for the big moment haha). So here it is! Cloud and Zack finally will reunite again!
Ch.14
As the door opened, Cloud's face started to light up with joy. Before him stood his big brother, whom he had not seen in about two years. Upon first glance, Cloud noticed Zack had grown even taller than he was before as he was now having to look slightly more upward at his brother. He also seemed to have built up a bit more muscle now, as it had been two years of course. He assumed Zack had not been back at his house very long as he still wore what appeared to be the same outfit that some of the soldiers back in Gongaga wore all those years ago.
He tried to process more thoughts, but he knew he could figure the specifics out another time. After those few seconds of gawking, he began to get slightly choked up as he wanted to speak. But before he could attempt to say anything Zack grabbed him and pulled him close. Cloud was now tightly pressed against Zack's chest as he felt Zack's arms wrap around him.
A happy sob was heard from Zack as he rested his head next to Cloud's. "Cloud!"
"Z-Zack. I've missed you a lot. It's so good to see you again," he uttered slowly.
"I've missed you too buddy," Zack replied as he continued his tight hold on his younger brother, not wanting to let go. "I can't believe it's been two years already."
Cloud sniffled slightly. "Yeah, I know. It seemed really slow at first. I thought I would never get to see you again. But then, time seemed to move by in no time. I'm just glad to be here now," he trailed off as he buried his head back into Zack's shoulder.
"I know it must have been hard for you, but I knew you would pull through. You made it Cloud. I'm just so happy," Zack said as he moved one of his hands to behind Cloud's head. He started to rub it slowly in a comforting motion. "I'm so happy right now, I don't even… I don't even know what to say."
There was a pause before Zack did managed to find more words to say. "Come on, let's step inside. I wanna get a good look at you since it's been two years." Zack then finally let go of Cloud and stepped back into the apartment.
Cloud stared for a few seconds and then he followed suit and walked through the doorway. He then turned and closed the door behind him before doing anything else. He just had started to look around the apartment with awe at the sheer size of it all when Zack spoke up.
"I can see you have done some growing," Zack said as he smiled. He then stood right up next to Cloud, showing that he was now a few inches taller, opposed to when they were a bit closer in height when the last saw each other. "But you aren't as tall as me yet."
"Well I didn't ask you to grow any taller," Cloud replied childishly.
Zack smiled back as he ran a hand through his hair. "What can I say, maybe moving to Midgar helped my growth spurt."
Cloud chuckled softly. "Well, maybe. But don't you worry, I'll be there with you before you know it. Besides, you hair is more spiky than mine now for sure," he asserted as he started to play with his own hair, feeling the parts that pointed out as a way to reassure himself he remembered correctly.
"Heh, I guess you're right about that. But," Zack paused for a moment as he smirked slightly. "has mom been feeding you enough? You're still growing like a twig."
"Hey, I've been eating. I'm just still small. Maybe I'll get bigger," he looked down as he was flustered slightly. He then snapped his head back up at Zack as he thought of something. "But look I have been training at least and have some good muscles now," he claimed as he showed off his slender physique, trying his best to flex.
"Yeah some good muscles of a thirteen-year-old," Zack said as he laughed. "But hey, don't worry. We can do some training sometime together and I can see how much stronger you've gotten."
"It's been so long since we've been able to train together. That would be great! When could we do it do you think?" Cloud pondered to Zack.
"I don't know yet, how about you get settled here first and then we can think about training. The trails to try out for SOLDIER are in less than a week, so we have some time."
Cloud pondered that for a moment and then finally conceded. "Okay then, that sounds like a good idea. I need to get used to this place anyways."
"Yeah, check it all out for yourself. It's really nice here too," he said as he stood up and held out his hands on either side. "So, tell me what you think then," he said with a smile across his face.
Cloud grinned at his brother's enthusiasm as he began to search the apartment with his eyes. He could tell that they were standing in the living area of the house from where the door was. It seemed to be quite large, much larger than the entire area they had for area in their hometown house. Then he looked to either side of him to see what else was there.
To his right looked to be another door, but it seemed to lead ot the outside and onto a platform that overlooked other parts of the city. To his left there was an entire kitchen area, which he found hard to believe since it seemed to be just as large as the living are space he was still currently standing in. This was much larger than what he had anticipated, but he was enthused by it all.
After taking everything that he could see, he turned to Zack after having been looking around for the past few minutes. "This place is so big! I can't believe you scored a nice place like this. It's more than we had back home for sure. But it seems like a lot to manage too," he stated clearly as he still admired the work.
"Yeah it might be a bit to manage, but it won't be as bad now with two people here," he admitted. "Oh that's right. You still haven't seen it all yet since we've been catching up. There's more back here," he said as he started walking towards the back after motioning Cloud to follow.
Cloud picked up his bags from the floor and walked close behind Zack as they moved towards the back of the building and down a short, narrow hallway. He could see one small room directly in front of him once he was closer to it, and to either side of that room was a door on each side.
"This is where the bathroom is, just so ya know," Zack said, pointing to the small room in front of them. Then he turned to Cloud. "The other two rooms are the bedrooms. One is mine and one is yours. The one here to the left is yours, so go ahead and check it out."
"All right then that sounds good. You know Zack, this is the second time now that I've moved in with you. I just suddenly thought about it," Cloud admitted as he chuckled.
Zack rubbed the back of his head while grinning. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It is kinda funny. But hey, at least we're together."
Cloud nodded as he reached out his hand slowly and grabbed hold of the doorknob and turned it to open the door. Once the door opened, Cloud could hardly contain his excitement.
Inside he could see a large room in front of him with an absorbent amount of free space. This room seemed more than twice as large as the one that he and Zack had shared back home. The best part was that he had this room all to himself.
There was a full size bed that was placed up against the wall, which was to the left of where he was standing. On the opposite wall appeared to be a chest of drawers, which would be handy for keeping up with his belongings. In the back of the room opposite of the door was a small door, which cloud assumed to be the closet area. Other than that, the rest of the room was a blank slate
"Wow, this is so nice! I can't believe I have a very own room to myself," he stated aloud as he took it all in.
"You got your own room for two years back home, so it shouldn't be much different," Zack said as he stood besides Cloud. He then ruffled Cloud's hair slightly. "But at least I am right across the hall."
"Hey, two can play at that game," he squirmed and then reached his hand up to ruffle Zack's hair as well. The two brothers started laughing at each other's childish antics before finally stopping.
Cloud then continued on. "Oh yeah, I guess you're right about that. Staying here I mean. It's just so much bigger than I expected. This place is so cool," he admitted.
He then walked over near the bed and leapt into the air before crashing down on the soft bed, back first. It was far softer then the one he had back home, and much lager too. He then relaxed his body and began to stare aimlessly at the ceiling. A second later though, the bed suddenly bounced hard once again as he saw, from the corner of his eye, Zack land right next to him. The two shared a glance with each other before Zack then reached out his arms and began to tickle Cloud on his sides.
"Hey, stop," Cloud tried protested as laughed. "I'm very ticklish there you know." He tried to should shout for Zack to stop, but he only ended up laughing more. He flailed his arms as another attempt to stop Zack also proved to be useless as Zack still was older and far stronger.
Zack then turned over more to face his little brother so that it would be harder for Cloud to get up. He gave a hearty chuckle. "Come on, think of this as...training. You gotta get past me,"
Cloud tried his best to get Zack to cease his antics but was unable to move him away. Soon enough Cloud realized that there were tears in his eyes. But he knew they were not tears of sadness, but tears of joy as he was having fun with his big brother again. From what he could see through blurry eyes, Zack had a big grin on his face as well, indicating that he too was having a blast.
Finally, after a few minutes of struggling, Zack relinquished his hold on Cloud and allowed the blond boy to rest. Now that he had been released from the grip of his brother, he finally had a chance to calm down and relax. He slowly inhaled and exhaled slowly while he started up at the ceiling.
"Gosh, I'm so...glad you stopped. It was...fun though. But, I guess...you're still too much...for me," Cloud admitted through exasperated words.
Zack chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you still have a bit to go buddy." He turned away and fell onto his back once again. He then started to stare at the ceiling, along with Cloud doing the same thing. The two of them kept their positions like that for quite some time.
They relaxed peacefully for a few minutes as they calmed down some more. Finally Zack sat back up and stretched. "So what do you wanna do now? We still got the whole evening to do whatever we want. Do you wanna see around Midgar or the Shinra headquarters? Or maybe just relax since you've had a long trip?"
Cloud weighed his options for a moment, but the decision was a rather easy one. "I would rather just stay here and relax. Besides," he started as he sat up in the bed and looked over to Zack. "We have a lot more to catch up on too since it's been so long."
"You got a point there. How about you get things settled here and I start to make some dinner," Zack said as he walked over to the door.
"Wait you know how to cook now?" Cloud asked with a small laugh. "I didn't think you could do something like that."
"Hey!" Zack said as he turned around. "I've learned a lot since coming to Midgar. Had to manage and take care of myself this whole time."
"Well that is cool. Maybe you can show me how to cook too. I can help you if you want me to," Cloud suggested with anticipation written all over his face.
"Of course you can help! You've always were better at helping mom prepare dinner than I was," Zack commented.
Cloud sharply smiled at Zack as he stood up and walked over to him. "Oh thanks a bunch big bro! It's something that we can do together too while we try to catch up. I've got so much to talk about with you."
"Yeah I know! It's still a bit crazy to think it has really been two years now," Zack commented as they walked down the short hallway towards the kitchen area. "So tell me all about it. Anything crazy or fun happen while I've been away?"
Cloud immediately started to tell Zack about almost everything that came to mind. From the long, boring days at school, which he had to endure by himself for quite some time until he had finally grown familiar to it. Nothing of interest seemingly happened during any of his time there though. Then, there hard training he pushed himself through. At least, when he was able to overcome his sadness and fears in order to proceed with that task.
Cloud proceeded to describe in detail the events that had happened to him while trying to train. He started talking as Zack listened while they prepared things in the kitchen. Cloud went from the start of Zack leaving, up until the very last day before he finally left to come to Midgar. Time seemed to escape the room as it meant nothing to either of them at that time as Cloud continued with his rambling. Soon though, Cloud eventually stopped to take a breather as he was mostly finished with his story.
Zack then saw the opportunity to interject. "I was going to ask when you were gonna run out of breath," Zack laughed with a small grin. "Well, at least we can continue talking over dinner now."
A few hours had passed them by as now they could finally sit down to eat the food they had prepared for themselves. Only as they were just finished up their food, did a certain thought come to Cloud's mind. One question he was surprised he had forgotten to ask about.
"Oh! Zack! You gotta tell me, how is it being in SOLDIER now?"
Zack looked up from his plate that was now empty and swallowed the remainder of his food hard. "Oh yeah, I do need to tell you about that. Hmm, let's see," he said as he raised his head at an angle to think. "Well I am a 3rd class SOLDIER right now, which I know is at the bottom. That's where you have to start. But I'm working my way up and should be 2nd class soon. I hope. It's...quite a lot of hard work too. But nothing I can't handle of course," Zack grinned as he radiated his proud nature.
"Wow really? You think you'll be 2nd class soon? You must really be working hard then. But that's so cool!" Cloud replied with a wide grin. "I bet I can make it up to 2nd Class too real fast once I join."
"Yeah, I'm sure that you can do it too Cloud. But you'll have to work extra hard if you wanna catch up with me," Zack replied with a snarky and playful tone.
"I know I can catch up! Just you watch," Cloud said as he bounced up and down slightly in his seat.
"Well I guess we'll just have to see then huh. First though, you gotta get registered at Shinra before the trails to try out. And we can do that training we talked about. Then you can be on your way to becoming a SOLDIER as well. How's that sound?" Zack proposed.
"That sounds great," Cloud said as he got up from his chair. He ran over to the other side of the table and threw his arms around Zack. "This is going to be fun!"
Zack braced for Cloud's sudden impact as he returned the hug to his brother. "Yeah it will be. Just like old times. But I suppose maybe we should get some sleep in order to get started early then tomorrow," he said to Cloud as he began to yawn slightly.
Cloud nodded. "Okay. I can't wait," He then paused for a moment as he just relaxed within his brother's arms. "I'm just still so happy to see you again Zack. This is probably one of the best days of my life."
Zack returned his words with a warm smile. "Yeah, I'm glad to see you too buddy," he uttered softly as the two embraced for a few moments. Then, Zack pulled away from the hug slowly and started to get up from his chair. "Well, I don't know about you Cloud, but I'm hitting the hay. I'm sure you're getting tired. I mean, you did have a long trip."
Cloud gave another nod before he ended up yawning himself. The two brothers cleaned up their dishes before headed down the hall to the bedrooms. Once Cloud was ready and dressed for bed he plopped down on the soft mattress. He couldn't stop smiling as he thought his cheeks were going to start hurting. It still almost felt surreal that he was finally here in Midgar. And that he was with Zack again. While he knew it would be a long road ahead for him with trying out for SOLDIER, he was just mostly happen to be by his brother's side once again.
It's just a happy nice little reunion chapter with a lot of rambles lol.
But it's also another step closer to Cloud trying out for SOLDIER! We're almost there!