Hey there! It has been a short but hasn't it? Either way we had another chapter finished up. I'm also home from vacation so that is good. Let's get to it!

Ch.34

Cloud had been home only a day now after having been fully rested in the infirmary a few days earlier. After Cissnei told the nurses that Cloud had experienced head pains, they thought to try and look into it more. He had been evaluated at length after that for those few different issues he had been having, including of course his odd head pains that encompassed his supposed memory issues. However, despite many attempts, the doctors were unable to deduce anything about the cause or even the effects of those such issues, only citing them as an "odd occurrence", much to Cloud's dismay.

Though, he had been given a one day reprieve at home, which would end after the current day. He had stopped worrying about the what-ifs for the time being, and focused on finally trying to get things back to normal. Zack had left already for work once Cloud had awoken from his sleep, so Cloud shifted in his bed to his side, not wanting to wake as the overwhelming urge to sleep more had taken him over.

Once on his side he blinked a few times before trying to close his eyes. However, his eyes bolted back open as he thought he had seen something unfamiliar in the corner of the room. When able to focus a bit more, he screamed.

"Woah! W-What are you doing here?!"

The person sitting in the corner opened her jade green eyes directly at him. "Well… I just, uh, wanted to make sure you were okay. Zack told me it was fine. Plus, he was worried and wanted someone to be here with you while he was gone. So he requested that I come check up on you if I had the time."

"Um… okay," Cloud replied, still unsure as to why Cissnei was there. "But, why you?"

"What do you mean 'why me?' I just told you that Zack asked that I come to watch over you. Is there something wrong with my being here?" she accusingly asked him with a sharp tone in her voice.

"Uh, no no, it's not like that. I just, uh… I didn't expect it is all…"

"Didn't expect me to be sitting here in your room? Yeah I guess I can understand that. Sorry if I startled you before."

"Uh it's okay. But you don't really need to be here now. I'm fine and everything," Cloud replied, still a bit nervous to have Cissnei just sitting in his room.

"Zack asked me though, so I really should stick to the task given to me. Besides I have nothing else to do anyway right now. And…" Cissnei glanced away from Cloud before she could finish. "I thought we could talk some more. We never did get to finish the other day."

Cloud suddenly remembered their conversation and how it was quickly interrupted by Zack. At the thought of what he was going to say, his cheeks reddened. "O-Oh yeah. That stuff…"

"If you don't want to talk about it now you don't have to. Though… I am unsure when we may get another chance alone like this, without Zack coming to interrupt us."

Cloud thought for a moment over it. He knew she was right, Zack was at work now and wouldn't be back to later most likely. And with Cloud having the day to rest at home, it was the perfect time.

"You're right… but… I, um.. I still don't know how to phrase it..."

"Take your time then," Cissnei replied as she leaned back in the chair. Her lips then curled up in a small smile. "I can wait."

Cloud found himself smiling back at her, feeling a warmth surge in his chest. Even though he knew he was going to struggle to tell her, he had to get it off his chest.

"Okay Cissnei. What I wanted to tell you before was… was that…" Cloud breathed in deeply as he tried to finally get his words out. "I wanted to tell you that… that I think I like you. I mean like actually like you."

Cissnei's eyes widened as she hear Cloud's words. "You think you like me?" Her voice was quiet as she asked, not knowing fully how to respond.

"A-Yes. Sorry if it sounds weird… but ever since I met you… I've always felt a bit nervous when around you. Never felt like that before around anyone. I don't know actually if it means anything… if it's love or not… or whatever… but I wanted to let you know."

"Ah I see…" Cissnei replied quietly as she looked away again.

Cloud bit his lip. He started to worry if he had said to much. Had he upset her by telling her his feelings? Did she not feel the same way towards him? Or did she already have someone that she liked? These questions surfaced in Cloud's head as an uncomfortable silence entered the room. Neither of them spoke or did anything. They couldn't even look at one another now, making Cloud all the more worried he had messed it up.

But finally Cissnei let out a long exhale. "It's very nice… I mean you're a nice guy Cloud. But I think we're both too young to be thinking about that stuff…"

"Yeah.. figured… but I needed to tell you. So now you know…" Cloud said with a defeated sigh. He hadn't expected it to go that way at all.

"Maybe someday though."

Cissnei's simple words dared his attention back to her. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, maybe when we are older. You know… the more proper age for this stuff…" Cissnei said as she shifted her body position slightly. "Besides I'm sure Reno would come after you if he learned what you just told me. Don't worry though, I won't tell him." Cissnei smiled before giving a small chuckle.

Cloud was startled at first at her mention of Reno, but then had a sort of relief come to him. "Oh, okay… yeah, I guess that makes sense then for the reason…" Of course that was what she had meant. Cloud had suddenly gotten lost in all of the what-ifs and other possibilities that were swirling around in his head after hearing her utter those other words beforehand. As much as he wanted to push for more information, he felt that maybe he should leave things as they were.

However, now there was a deafening silence that encompassed the room they were both sitting in. Neither of them were exchanging looks, and were instead each looking off in other directions. The tension could almost be felt between them. The air they breathed felt thicker and far heavier than before.

Finally though, the silence was broken. "Okay, it seems that you are up at least now. So I guess I'm not really needed anymore," Cissnei said softly, standing up from her chair and straightening her black suit.

"Hmm okay…" Cloud started to say, ready to say goodbye. He was still unsure what to do now, still worried he had ruined any chance he could have had. He could have ruined it all because he spoke too early about his feelings. But he felt maybe he would try one last thing. One last hope to see how things could go.

"Do you think you could stay? I.. I mean if you want to. If you wanna… um well talk maybe? I know what you said before… but we could maybe get to know each other better? Just so we can at least… be friends?"

He knew his words were coming with a risk. If he wasn't careful he would only end up as friends with Cissnei and nothing more… or worse she would end up ignoring him. But he hoped that if she didn't think he sounded weird… then they could become friends. From that held the hope that one day they could get closer. But that was a long way away to tell. Friendship was the only reasonable option right now. He had to chance it.

The words made Cissnei hum in response as she tapped her finger on her chin lightly, trying to decide. "Well… okay then. I suppose I can stay for a bit then. I guess I did say that we should do that huh?" she asked in a rhetorical manner.

After pausing for a couple of seconds, she continued. "Though, I'm dressed for work so you know I will have to leave at some point later. Speaking of, don't you think you should get dressed?"

"Ah!" Cloud exclaimed as he suddenly remembered that he was still sitting in his bed. He was only in boxers and a t-shirt, and he knew for sure that was no way to be presentable to a lady. "Okay! Just give me a few minutes and I'll meet you in the kitchen!"

Cissnei then strode over to his bedroom doorway and exited out of his room, closing the door gently behind her. Though, Cloud could have sworn he heard her snickering to herself as she did that. 'There's still so much I don't know about her. Or girls in general. This is just strange. It's like a puzzle, but the pieces keep changing.'

Cloud quickly shook his head and tried to regain a calm composure. He finally raised up out of bed and threw his legs off the side, his feet landing squarely on the hard floor. Since he was not venturing out of the apartment today, he thought a normal t-shirt and sweatpants might be fine; so, he retrieved those garments from his drawer and was going to put them on.

However, he had a guest. And that guest was Cissnei. He had to do something decent.

He threw the sweatpants to the side and decided to just dress as though he could be going someplace. The t-shirt would still be fine, but he ended up throwing on some regular jeans he had lying around, as well as slipping into his spare pair of boots. Finally, he opened the door and was able to step out of his room and into the kitchen area; or rather, the living area, considering it was all close together anyways.

Cissnei was simply sitting on the couch waiting for him patiently. One hand was laid to her side whilst the other was holding one of their cups. In fact, it was the cup that Cloud always used. He was about to say something on it when she threw a glance his way, having heard his door open.

"Ah, there you are," she said, raising the cup and taking another sip or whatever she was drinking.

"Yeah, it just, uh, took me a minute… But hold on, how'd you find that?" Cloud pointed towards the cup.

"I was thirsty and it was the first thing I saw lying around so I used it. Oh! This is your cup isn't it? Well, I hope you don't mind."

"N-Not at all. I was just wondering… I think I'm gonna get something as well. I'm a bit parched as well."

Cloud eyed Cissnei to see if she would say anything else at the moment, but she just turned back forward and proceeded to drink from the cup. He took that as a cue to leave the area and walked over to the counter, grabbing a cup from the cabinet and filling it with some tap water. Once that was done, Cloud strolled back towards the living area in which Cissnei was. He hesitated at first when looking for a place to sit, but decided to sit down on the sofa with her finally.

After he had sat down, she turned her legs and then her whole body towards him. "So, now that you are here, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"

Cloud had not even had time to really think about that yet. He just wanted to talk to her honestly, but about what, he had no idea at the time. The main thing that he wanted was just to spend all the time that he could with her. It seemed to be one thing that made him happier than most other things.

"I'm not entirely sure. Maybe about our likes and interests? We talked a bit about our pasts, but we still don't know much about one another."

"We could do that then. You already know I was pretty much raised by Shrina, so my work is very important to me, but… I do enjoy the time I get to relax," Cissnei said, starting off the conversation.

Cloud was slightly surprised to hear that last part. "Oh, you do? I actually wasn't entirely sure."

She dropped her glass from her face and shifted even more towards cloud now. "Really?" she asked, wearing a slightly surprised look. "What, do you think I'm all work all the time? Sure, I enjoy the Turks and am dedicated, but I'm still a teenager and like some time off. I'm not a slave to them."

"Oh, I mean, I, uh, never said you were. I just… I guess I assumed the Turks were all business," Cloud trailed off and looked downward a bit.

Cissnei has always seemed to be so into her work that cloud never really gave it a decent though. There was the occasional slack that would happen as he had seen, but most of that had still been while at work. If he were honest, this prospect made her seem much more approachable now.

A small chuckle came from the girl, which made Cloud glance back up at her. "You know, you talk about me being all business, but it seems like you're the one that needs to lighten up a bit," she hinted, poking his arm gently.

Blushing slightly, Cloud tried to reply. "W-What do you mean?"

"I mean that you need to relax. You're always stammering some too. Look, I can tell that it's probably because you like me. I mean, you did tell me earlier. But we both know that now, and now that it's out of the way, you should feel more at ease, right?" she asked, wondering what his response would be.

Maybe she was right? Was he really being too uptight about all this? Now that he thought about it in depth some more, he did notice that he was usually jittery around her. It's true that it was mainly because he liked her. But that brought another thought to his mind. What if it was bothering her with how he was acting?

Worry set into his being as he started to almost overthink things, but then he looked back over at her to see that she was just giving him a gentle glance. "If she was annoyed with me, she probably wouldn't be this close to me, or even try to help me I suppose…" he thought quickly, logic beginning to shine through to himself.

He knew that he would have to do better though. Not only had Zack mentioned something similar to him many times before, but now he was hearing it from the person that he seemed to have fallen for. As a matter of fact, Sephiroth had also made mention of Cloud trying to be more composed and calm about things, much like the silver-haired man always was.

Then, his mind began to click. Sephiroth. He could go to him. He was now Cloud's mentor after all. He could be able to teach Cloud how to be more calm and collected. That would work out for many reasons, in both his training for Shinra and also for his interactions with Cissnei. A small smile came to Cloud's face without him even realizing it as he began to see that he might have a chance at trying to better himself.

"Cloud!" a stern female voice rang in his ears.

Shifting slightly, Cloud found he has ducked his head in thought once again. "Oh uh, what?

"I said, that you should feel more at ease now right? After having… you know, said what you did earlier."

"I'm not as tense as before. Um… I just don't know. I'm trying though. It just might take me a bit okay?"

"At least you answered me," she began. "Not rushing you. Just trying to help."

Cloud eyed her for a few more moments, not really noticing that he was staring again; which in hindsight, is how all of this started with her. He almost chuckled. "Okay. Thanks, Cissnei."

And the wrap up has finished. More interactions between Cissnei and Cloud though are a good thing! We shall develop them more as more story goes along. Thanks for the read!