And we are now back with chapter 12! Right where we left off with the story!

Ch. 12

Cloud heard the soft sound of footsteps grow louder until he heard them at the door as he heard the doorknob click. Then, the door opened slowly and before him stood his mother.

"Welcome back," she said as she looked at him and then to the ground. "I see that you got the groceries and-" she paused as she noticed something else, or rather someone else's feet, behind Cloud. "Did you bring a friend with you or something?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah! This is my friend Prompto! He is the one who let me and Zack ride the chocobo those years ago," Cloud replied before his mother looked back up from the groceries.

Prompto stepped forward from behind Cloud, and greeted the mother. "Hello ma'am. Nice to meet ya," he replied casually.

The mother wore a look of shock on her face briefly; not because of what he had said, but because of his appearance. She studied him carefully, noticing his his short, spiky blond hair and bright blue eyes. His skin also seemed fairer than anybody else around the area too. She paid no attention to the rest of his person as she stared at his face more.

She thought in the back her mind that Cloud and Prompto looked similar in that way, though she couldn't quiet figure out why she had that though. She wondered slightly if the two of them could have come from the same area, not that it mattered much now as Cloud was her son. However, curiosity made itself ever present in her mind nonetheless.

Prompto seemed to notice that she seemed fixated on something. "Umm, do I have something on my face? Wait! Don't tell me you think my hair is...ugh," he said with a sigh as he assumed why she was staring at him.

Cloud laughed slightly at that assumption, which seemed to pull his mother out of her thoughts.

She recomposed herself and responded as quickly as she could. "Oh, uh, no no that's not it. I was just thinking that you… looked like someone is all," she trailed off slightly, bowing her head before continuing "But please, come in. Make yourself at home."

"Thank you," Prompto replied.

Cloud picked up the bags again and then headed into the house. Prompto followed right behind and looked around at the small house. His eyes soon came to the table where an adult man was sitting, looking through some papers. Prompto figured that it was Cloud's father, but then from that he was struck with an odd thought. Cloud didn't look like either of his parents. When he had first met the boys he thought that maybe one looked like one parent and vice versa. But now he saw that Cloud didn't resemble either of them. He brushed off the thoughts again though as he knew it was none of his business.

The father looked up from his papers to see Prompto standing there, though he remained sitting for the time being. "Well hello there young man. You must be Prompto. I'm David, Cloud's father. I overheard the conversation out there. I hope that our son hasn't been too bothersome or distracted to you has he?" he asked, almost in a joking manner with the look he wore on his face.

"Daaaaaaddddd," Cloud sighed loudly with his words as he got farther into the house.

"Ha ha, oh no it's fine. I was just enjoying my time here today and I saw Cloud. I remembered him from the last time I saw him and thought I would say hello," Prompto replied.

The father smiled. "Well that's good that he made a friend. Make yourself at home here like Emily said. It's not much, but we're happy to have you," he said politely.

"Thank you very much," Prompto said as he went to take a seat at the table.

After Prompto took a seat, he and Cloud's father talked about a good many things. Cloud eventually joined them for a moment, only to be paraded off by his mother to help with cooking the food. Prompto watched haughtily as Cloud dashed in the kitchen while helping his mother. He then turned back around as he and David continued to talk about various things.

Cloud wanted to join in, but he knew that he had to help his mother for the time being. After quite some time had passed, the food was finally prepared as Cloud then scurried off to the table and plopped down beside Prompto. Soon after he was there, his mother brought the food over and sat it down on the table in front of everyone, along with some plates. She then took her place at the table as everyone then gathered their food and began their meal.

"So Prompto, where are you from?" David asked after a little while.

Prompto was surprised by the sudden question, but he was glad to answer. "Oh, I'm actually from Midgar. Grew up there actually my whole life. It's a nice place actually with a lot to explore," he answered, trying to make sure to cover the basics of the question. "But every once and a while I like to take a little vacation and do some traveling."

"Midgar?!" Cloud nearly shouted with wide, excited eyes. He nearly jumped up from his seat as he stared at Prompto. "That's where Zack is. You haven't seen him though?"

"Cloud, inside voice please," his mother said with a calm but strict tone.

"Oh… Sorry," Cloud said sheepishly as he sat back down.

Prompto nearly wanted to laugh at Cloud's excitement, but he held it in. "Well I haven't run across him at all, no. I didn't even know that's where he was until earlier today, otherwise I might would have looked for him."

Cloud sighed slightly at that response. He didn't really know why though, since he knew Zack was okay from the letters that he had been writing. The only thing Cloud could think of is that he wanted to know Zack was being seen and that he could hear about it.

"Well that's okay. From what we can tell he seems to be doing okay so far. It's nice to know that you are in the same area though," the father said with a calm and understanding tone.

"Do you think maybe you could look for Zack when you go back?" Cloud asked, still feeling a bit hopeful.

"Cloud you don't just ask someone something like that," his mother said in her strict tone again.

"Oh, I don't mind," Prompto replied promptly. "Besides, it would be nice to see him again too."

"Well you're free to do whatever you want. But thank you," the father replied in a courteous manner.

"Yeah thanks Prompto! You're awesome!" Cloud exclaimed as he almost bounced out of his chair again.

After that, they all continued to talk some about different things as the table was cleaned off. Prompto entertained them with various stories from his travels around different parts of Gaia. Cloud was enthralled by these stories especially, as it spurred his desire to want to travel even more. The parents were listening intently as they had never ventured beyond their small village. More time passed through the evening as the sun had moved over to one side of the sky, and it was now mid-afternoon.

"Well I guess that I better try and head back then," Prompto stated as scooted his chair backwards and stood up.

"Aw you gotta go already?" Cloud asked.

"Yea I suppose so. Before it gets too late and all so that I can get back to where I am staying. It's been quite fun here though. I'm glad you guys had me over," he replied as he gave a toothy grin.

"You sure you can't stay a bit longer?" Cloud asked as he gave a wide-eyed pleading look at Prompto.

Cloud's father gave him a quick glance with narrowed eyes. "Now son, if he needs to go then let him go, okay?" he spoke with a stern but calm voice.

"It's okay Cloud, we might run into each other again," Prompto said as he smiled at Cloud. "Especially when you head to Midgar one day."

The room fell silent for a moment as Cloud's heart skipped a beat. He had not told his parents yet that he intended to follow in Zack's footsteps and go to join SOLDIER with him. He was unsure how they would really take that news. He knew they had expected Zack to leave one day, but he was quite sure they probably did not expect him to leave. He waited for the response of someone else as he did not want to speak up at the moment.

Prompto looked back and forth at Cloud and then the parents. He could feel a light tension in the air so he cleared his throat. "Ah sorry if I said anything bad or something. I was just saying that maybe-"

"You don't have to apologize Prompto," Cloud's mother said. "It's all right. We just haven't… talked about that certain subject yet with Cloud."

Cloud looked over to his mother, a nervous and perplexed look in his eyes. "You… you knew? I mean, I was going to tell you but I-..." he trailed off, not really having a good excuse as to why he had neglected to tell them so far.

"Yes we knew Cloud. We were not born yesterday. We had a feeling with you training with Zack that you might choose to take the same path as him. And it seems that you have," his father said calmly, not wavering from his cool demeanor.

"You.. You're not mad then? Not mad that I wanna leave next year and go to Midgar?" Cloud asked.

"Of course not sweetie. We're not mad at all," his mother replied as she placed a hand on top of his head. "It's just hard to know that both our sons wanna grow up so fast."

His father finally stood up and walked over to cloud and placed a hand on his shoulder. "There's just some things we need to talk about of course. That can come later. Right now," he said as he motioned to Prompto, "we need to see this young man off."

Prompto finally mustered up the ability to speak again. "Oh yeah, that's what I was going to do. So, err, I suppose then this is goodbye for now then," he proclaimed as he moved towards the door now and began to open it.

"Bye Prompto!" Cloud said as he ran up to Prompto and embraced him in a hug. "It was nice to see you again."

Prompto was a little startled by the sudden hug, but then he smiled and bent over slightly to return it. "Same here Cloud."

"Can I say goodbye to your chocobo before you go?" Cloud asked as soon as he stopped hugging Prompto.

"Of course!" Prompto replied as he stood back up straight.

The two headed outside where Prompto's chocobo had been waiting. Cloud petted her and said goodbye. Then Prompto mounted up onto his chocobo and prepare to head out.

Cloud's parents came to the door and stood behind their son as they looked upon Prompto and his chocobo. "Safe travels young man. If you see Zack, tell him we said hello," David spoke with a last request. Emily nodded in agreement with her husband as they all stood there together.

"All right, will do. Goodbye for now," he waved as he turned around and started to trot away.

Cloud waved back at him with his arm raised high. "Bye chocobo butt!"

Prompto laughed. "And goodbye to you chocobo head!"

"Cloud?!" his mother exclaimed with a shocked expression. "Don't be so rude."

"Oh but it's not rude. It's a joke that we have between us. Cause my hair is like the head of a chocobo, and his is like the butt of one," Cloud stated, chuckling at the thought of it again.

Cloud's parents looked at each other for a moment with a confused looked. They then looked at each of the two blonds carefully.

"You know Emily, he's kinda right," the father said as he stared off after the chocobo.

"Huh, what do you mean David?" she asked as she stared in the same direction as him. That's when she noticed it and let out a slight chuckle. "I guess that Prompto's hair does look like a chocobo butt after all," she admitted more loudly than she thought, now understanding what the young man had thought she meant much earlier in the day.

After hearing Cloud's explanation and seeing the sight for themselves, they could in fact understand where he was coming from about it. They did find it rather amusing that Cloud happened to come across another blond who hair spiky hair in a similar fashion to his own.

"Aw great..." Prompto could be here sighing heavily and a bit over dramatically. "Now everyone thinks that."

Prompto's words could not be heard by the others though as he had gotten farther away from them. Slowly, the family of three witnessed his silhouette fade below the slight hill. They stood outside for a few more moments as they stared up into the bright blue sky, watching the clouds slowly drift onward.

"So you guys are really okay with me leaving in a year?" Cloud asked.

After Prompto had left, the family had gone back inside to discuss the subject of Cloud's plan. Cloud was still a bit uncertain about how they were going to take it, but he was relieved that they said they were not mad at him.

"Well, I wouldn't say okay exactly. At least, not at first. We understand why you want to go, and it took some time to accept that fact. We had thoughts that you might leave if Zack ever did, and eventually we knew we would have to talk. So, here we are," his mother said with a calm and concise voice.

Cloud tilted his head to the side slightly. "Talk about what though? About me leaving or something?"

"Well sort of. I assume you are pretty set on leaving already. Even though we don't want to see you go, it's your dream. And as your parents, we both want to support you in that. Just want to let you know that we're here for you," his father interjected with some reassuring words.

"Yeah, and we just want to talk about a few things now that it is on everyone's mind," his mother added quickly to the end.

"It is my dream of course. Zack and I made our dream together and everything. But… what else is on your mind then?" Cloud questioned, not really understanding what his parents were trying to get at.

His mother spoke up again. "We do worry about you when you will go off. Like, where will you stay? What do you plan to do while you're there? We just want to make sure you're prepared if you're determined to go."

"Oh! Well Zack has told me all the places he stayed while he made his way to Midgar. So I thought I would go there as well. Then when I actually get there, I was going to stay with Zack. He has his own apartment now. He just told me in his most recent letter. Sorry I didn't get a chance to tell you guys that yet."

"Ah yeah we did not know about that at all that he had written us more recently. It's okay, we can read the letter now that we know at least. So Zack was helping to make things easier for you when you get there then from the sounds of it. Sounds just like him to be so responsible about things," his father finally spoke again.

"Well dear, I guess that Zack really is going to still take care of Cloud after all," his mother added, feeling relieved at knowing what Zack was doing as well.

Cloud smiled cheerfully. "Of course he is! He is my older brother and that's what older brothers do."

Both of his parents smiled warmly at him. "Well, we just wanted to make sure of a couple of things while it was on our minds. But there is still time until then, so we'll get there when that time comes okay?" his mother finally said.

Cloud nodded. "Okay! Got it!"

He knew that soon, he would be able to be with Zack. He was relieved that his parents were so understanding and supportive of his decision to go, and he felt more at ease than he had in quite some time. It seemed as though most of his worries lately had been lifted from his shoulders. All that was left now was to enjoy his time here and wait until time to go.

Hope you guys enjoyed having Prompto back again. It's just random fun to have him around and all.

But next chapter, Cloud will finally be ready to leave for Midgar! He will get to see Zack after two whole years!

Thanks for reading!