Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Suspicious Thoughts

Zeno sat alone once more, this time in his room, on his bed that was placed directly next to his open window. There was a new moon tonight; only the faint, dark smudge in the dark sky told of the moon's existence. The stars were out in full force, glimmering gently as they swung from their scattered perches in the fabric of the night. Wutai was silent and still, the stream a thread of shining silver and each building lit from within with life and light.

"Zeno?" Cloud knocked on the door to Zeno's room, opening it cautiously and peering in. Zeno looked up at him tiredly, leaning against the windowsill wearing his long-legged black pants with his shirt slung carelessly over the back of a chair nearby. Cloud entered and closed the door quietly behind him, taking the seat with Zeno's shirt hanging over its back.

"Yes?"

"Zeno, Tifa told me what you said this afternoon. She was…upset." Cloud leveled his sapphire-eyed gaze with Zeno's light-devouring one, unflinchingly keeping his eyes steady. He was one of the very few rare people who could actually meet Zeno's gaze without looking away in the next second. "Care to explain a bit more?"

Zeno blinked slowly at Cloud. "I meant what I said," he replied simply. "I don't feel like I belong here."

"Why not, Zeno? This is your home. You've lived here your whole life."

"I've lived here my whole life, true," Zeno acknowledged. "But I'm different from everyone else here. Who were my parents, anyway? I don't even know; you've never told me. I just feel like something out there is calling me to it in the back of my mind. And…" he hesitated. "…I saw my reflection in the stream after Tifa left. I saw something that left me slightly…disturbed…but it opened up some emotion…something that was walled up within me before…that told me that there was much, much more to the world than just this life."

Cloud snorted softly under his breath, shaking his head as he shifted his position on the chair. "I'll be damned. You're just acting like a normal kid, Zeno, and…I'm not going to try and sugarcoat things at this moment. You are not normal, not in the sense of people like Tifa or me. Any idiot could see that you age and develop physically and mentally abnormally quickly. From what I've taught you with a sword, you've a natural talent and your reflexes are almost too quick to be human. You've read practically every single book you could get your hands on, either in the Wutai language or otherwise. The only thing you don't do is act like a normal twenty-four-year-old. Admit it," he cut in sternly when Zeno opened his mouth in apparent protest, "you don't. You've showed no interest at all in any girls, you didn't act like a little bastard throughout what we consider your 'teenage' years, and…jeez, kid, you have an unreal obsession with reading."

"Is that so wrong?" Zeno asked softly.

Cloud threw his hands into the air in mock surprise. " 'Is that so wrong', the kid says. Guys don't read as much as you do. Yeah, maybe they've done it a lot during their adolescent days, but once they're your age—and I'm referring to your apparent physical age—they concentrate more on trying to get a family. You're…you're only a year younger than me, for crying out loud!" He tilted his head back and slid his eyelids halfway downwards, giving Zeno a sly stare from beneath his half-closed lids. "You're also not only celibate, but a virgin, I assume. No activity going on at night, is there?"

Zeno carefully refrained from exploding at his uncle and instead replied with, "What about you, Uncle Cloud? You haven't been exactly very active, either." He promptly imitated Cloud's prospecting stare, managing to make his look more demeaning and sardonic. "I'm not deaf or blind, either."

Cloud stared at Zeno in open-mouthed surprise, eyes complete open now and blank with shock. Zeno's dry, sarcastic comeback and tone of voice strongly reminded him once more of a person from the past who bore that same proud voice and almost condescending sense of humor. Narrowing his eyes in the mere slightest, Cloud inspected Zeno, taking in the young man's features and stance.

Zeno dropped the pose and looked at Cloud bemusedly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Cloud shook his head instantly as if Zeno's voice had brought him back to the present. He appeared extremely scared, exhibited both by his suddenly pale face and wide eyes. "N-nothing, kid. I…think I need some sleep now. Tifa and I'll talk to you in the morning." He stood and left without another comment, closing Zeno's door behind him.

Cloud walked slowly down the hallway, dragging his feet on the floor and one hand along the wall as he moved. Finally, he stopped and leaned on his side, tilting his head to come in contact with the wall.

"Damn," he murmured out loud. "Damn. You're who that kid looks like…and if my theory is right…you are him."

Cloud clenched his hands into fists out of sheer frustration and sudden anger, doing his best to restrain himself from pounding his fists into the wall and bringing the entire house down. How, how, how…How could he test his theory to see if he was right? The Lifestream? All of the Ancients, the one race that could communicate easily with the Lifestream, were dead…

…Aeris…

There was only one way to test his idea out, and that was to satisfy Zeno's sudden wandering hunger and to go with him to a place where there was Lifestream in contact with the outside world.

The North Crater…

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