Before we get back to the story, I just want to thank everyone for the follows, favorites, and reviews. They make writing this story so much fun, and I love reading about your insights, what scenes you look forward too, and your general thoughts of how the story is progressing. Again, thank you! I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as the previous ones :)


September 20th – Two Days Before the Nibelheim Incident


Dear Zack,

How have you been?

With you gone, things are pretty quiet here. I've been going to the church everyday to tend the flowers. Even though the weather's starting to get cold, the flowers are so strong. They're growing, blooming, and will be ready to sell soon. Maybe I'll even try going to the upper plate to sell this time! Can't be afraid of the sky forever, right?

But how about you? Last we spoke, you mentioned that you've been assigned a mission with Sephiroth. Where will you be going? Are you excited? Please stay safe – and when you're done, maybe you can visit? You did promise me you'll fix my cart, after all. I hope you haven't forgotten!

Always thinking of you,

Aerith


Present Day


Zack reread the letter, the first of eighty-eight, before gently folding it back into its box. His heart stammered in his chest. It was only one letter, but he felt drunk on her words, her thoughts, her worry for him. For the first time in a long time, he felt something in the realm of good. A good night's sleep had certainly helped matters as well.

Speaking of sleep...

He glanced at Cloud, who was still lying on the bed beside him. Now that he was bathed in the morning light, Cloud looked more ghost than man – thin, pale, his breaths faint and nearly nonexistent as he gazed at the ceiling with half-lidded, dazed eyes. Zack's warm feeling faded slightly. If he leaned closer, he could see the mako in Cloud's sightless gaze. At how the green mingled with the blond's natural blue and pulsed in rhythm with his quiet heart. It wasn't right. Unnatural even, and to make things worse, there was no improvement from yesterday. But Zack felt optimistic. Call it a feeling, call it intuition, but he knew that things would get better.

Thought after what they had gone through, pretty much anything was better. Besides, Cloud wasn't having another nightmare - that had to be a good sign, right?

A sudden knock on the door altered him to another presence, and to his credit, he didn't jump or flinch from the noise. Moments later the door opened, and a nurse stepped into the room with a trolley full of medical equipment. Zack instinctively tensed at the sight of it.

Seeing his discomfort, the nurse offered him a kind, gentle smile. "Don't worry," she reassured him. "Most of this stuff isn't for you. You two aren't the only patients here, you know."

Somewhere between her smile and her sentence, it occurred to Zack that no one had smiled at him like that in four years. The thought was instantly sobering. "I'm not worried," he said.

"Of course you aren't." She spoke to him like she was speaking to a child, which irked him, but it wasn't like he wasn't used to it. When he was still Angeal's Puppy, everyone treated him like a child. Never mind that he was a SOLDIER. "Anyway," the nurse continued, "don't mind me. I'm just here to change your bandages and make sure that Cloud is comfortable. And then I'll leave you two alone."

Zack arched an eyebrow. Leave, just like that? That didn't seem right. Cloud needed more than comfort. He needed treatment, something that would make him better, something to wake him up from whatever dreams he currently wandered. He needed… more.

"Like, this isn't my area of expertise, but…" Zack shook his head. "Shouldn't you be treating his mako poisoning, or something?"

The nurse's smile shifted until it was a little sad – and was that pity in her gaze? - and she gently set the roll of bandages back onto the cart. "Zackary," she began, "you need to understand that Cloud has one of the most severe cases of mako poisoning that we have ever seen. By all rights, most people would already be dead."

Dead? "But Cloud isn't most people." Zack felt panic warp his words, make them sharper, a little more pitched. "He – He killed Sephiroth as an infantryman, something that even I couldn't even do as a SOLDIER. And I don't know how, but -"

"Zackary, please don't misunderstand," the nurse said, effectively cutting him off. Her voice took a new tone to it, something a little stronger. "We're going to do everything we can to make sure he recovers. And right now, that just means making him comfortable and wait for him to wake up on his own."

Zack leaned forward. "But -"

"And he will wake up, Zack," the nurse continued. Zack vaguely noted that she used his nickname, but it didn't seem important as she placed a hand on his shoulder. He could feel the warmth through his cotton shirt, and she added, "Don't lose hope. These things have a way of working out, and when it is over, you'll look back and wonder why you ever worried in the first place." She smiled at him, again. "And don't forget… because you had taken such good care of Cloud on the way here, that Cloud now has a fighting chance. You saved him."

You saved him.

Those three little words broke something in him. Broke and burned and splintered, and he tore his gaze away even as his throat tightened and eyes stung with unshed tears. He could still remember Angeal's parting words – I don't need such a pathetic SOLDIER - as he turned away, leaving him alone in Hojo's mako pod with nothing but guilt and the acidic taste of mako in his mouth. He had dreamed those words so many damn times. Sometimes, even if he wasn't dreaming, he could hear those words ringing in his ears.

"Thank you," Zack managed. And he meant it. He really, really meant it. The hand on his shoulders squeezed slightly. "That means a lot."


"You said that you wanted to talk to me about something?"

Tifa's voice snapped Cloud out of his thoughts as she sat beside him on Nibelheim's water tower. Her blue dress fanned over her thighs as she kicked her legs out beneath her, and her wine-colored eyes inquisitive and wondering as she watched him. Cloud was suddenly unsure. He had called her out here after all, but he wasn't really sure what to do now that she was here.

"Well, I..." Cloud thickly swallowed and balled his hands on his lap – hands that were somewhere between a child and a man. Everything that he had wanted to say, everything that he had wanted to tell her… the moment she looked at him, it all faded from his mind. Damn it. Why couldn't he do anything right? "Well, come this Spring…" He cleared his throat. "I'm, um, leaving town for Midgar."

Tifa turned back to the distant horizon, her lips pursed in a pout. "All of the boys are leaving town."

"Yeah, well, I'm different from them." He raised his gaze so that the stars were reflected in the blue of his eyes. "I'm going join SOLDIER. One even greater than Sephiroth."

"Sephiroth?" Tifa turned to her scowl back to him. "Like, the Great Sephiroth?" When Cloud didn't respond – truth be told, he wasn't sure how to – she changed subjects. "Isn't it hard to join SOLDIER?"

Cloud's fists tightened in his lap. It was difficult. Notoriously difficult, and the mere thought of SOLDIER exam made his stomach clench with anxiety. But… But if that meant he had a chance…

He glanced at her, an apologetic smile curving his lips before even that slipped away. "I… probably won't be able to come back home for a while," he admitted.

Tifa watched him for a moment, at how serious his expression was, before turning away giggling. Cloud scowled at that. Was what he said really that funny? Was she making fun of hi-

"If you make it," she said, and her grin short-circuited his thoughts, "will you be in the newspapers?"

He blinked in surprise before returning her grin, though his was more lopsided, more unsure. "I'll try."

Tifa nodded, like that was the most obvious thing in the world. But then, to his endless surprise, she blushed. He saw it in the starlight, and he couldn't tear his eyes away. Tifa, blushing from something he said? What did he even say?

"Hey," she began, her voice shy. "Want to make a promise?"

Cloud cocked his head in confusion. First she was blushing, now she wants to make a promise?

Tifa kicked her feet out. "Like, um… if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind..." She glanced at him, and her eyelashes cast shadows on her cheekbones. "You'll come save me." Her lips curved into a smile, and Cloud's throat went dry. "Right?"

He didn't know what that meant. Didn't know entirely what she was asking, but it would have been a crime to say anything but, "I promise."


Sunlight shifted through the broken rafters and spilled onto the flowers below. The yellow blooms stretched towards the sun, their yellow petals open and broad, their stems thin and strong. Just the way they should be.

Aerith ripped out a weed and tossed it into a pile beside her. Her fingernails were caked with dirt, every crease in her palms were lined with brown, her dress was mud-stained, and she wouldn't have changed anything for the world.

Well. Maybe not anything.

Her gaze drifted to a certain cart in the corner. It had already been broken, but the years hadn't been very kind to it. The paint at all flaked off, a wheel had snapped during a particularly nasty storm, and at one point, rats had chewed through the handle. But she didn't mind. In fact, a small smile dusted her lips. Zack certainly had a challenge ahead of him, once he came to visit.

And he would visit. She was certain of it. For the first time in four years, she was certain of it. She couldn't put it to words, exactly. All she knew was that it was like someone had opened a window and she could feel his warmth for the first time. His presence. He was no longer hidden from her sight and she lifted her head to the rafters, to the pale sky above, and the clouds were reflected in her emerald eyes.

So when will you visit, Zack?

As always, thinking of Zack visiting brought tears to her eyes. She impatiently wiped them away – she had cried over him enough times, thank you very much – and took care not to streak dirt across her cheeks.

Or maybe I should visit you for a change, she wondered, turning back to the distant sky again. It wasn't the first time the thought had crossed her mind, but something always held her back. Her mother. Her flowers. The orphanage. But now that she could sense him again…

She glanced at her bag, a simple brown thing filled with a bottle of water and a sandwich for lunch. She eyed it for a moment, frowning… before she smiled and shook her head, almost embarrassed with herself. Her, traveling across the world on a quest, like some storybook character? Her? She couldn't even imagine it. No, her place was in the slums. Always was, always would be. And as she ripped out another weed, she knew that she happy with that. She was content. It was enough.

Suddenly a new presence pressed against her like a whisper, and she immediately knew who was there. Footsteps – strong, sure, and even – echoed against the wooden floor moments later, confirming her thoughts.

"Tseng," she said in greeting. She didn't even bother turning around. "Visiting me again so soon? Keep that up, and I'll start to think that you miss me," she teased.

Tseng cleared his throat. He never could handle her teasing, but that was part of the reason why it was so much. "Not me," he finally said. "However, someone else misses you."

She paused. Her hands stilled around another weed, her fingers pinching its green step. "You..." She glanced over her shoulder, her green eyes wide, hopeful, preparing to be crushed. "You don't mean..."

Tseng smiled, one of his rare smiles, and nodded.


Sorry for the little cliffhanger, everyone. I know they're not fun, but at least you got to see Aerith! That's not so bad, right?

Anyway, I said this before thank you again for all of the support! It genuinely means a lot. Again, feel free to let me know what you want to see in this story, what you're most looking forward to, what you like, what you don't. It's honestly my favorite motivation. I love reading what you all have to say.

Also, since this story looks like it's gonna be HELLA long, I'm going to try to start setting up an update schedule. Right now I'm leaning towards once a week (writing a new chapter and publishing every single day isn't practical long-term), but I'll keep you posted on what happens. Until then, enjoy the daily updates :)

Thank you, and until next time!