Mrs. Strife picked up her son, hugging him close. He was filthy; his face, sweater, and hair were full of dirt and a blade of grass was stuck next to a twig in his hair. But Mrs. Strife didn't care about that at all.

Cloud was alive and in one piece. He had been with Sephiroth the whole time. Most importantly, he had been safe.

"What's wrong, Mama?" Cloud repeated. He started to sniff. "Don't cry. You make me want to cry."

Mrs. Strife wiped her eyes with one hand. She put Cloud down. Sephiroth looked on, a look of sympathy on his face.

"I was asleep, and when I woke up, you were gone." Mrs. Strife scrambled to find a way to tell the whole story without mentioning what had happened last night. "I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find you. I got scared."

Cloud hugged and buried his face into her legs. "I was with Sephiroth, Mama. We played outside. I'm sorry." He started to cry.

"It's okay," she said, trying to comfort him. "Just tell me next time so that way I'll know where you are. You can still go and play outside as long as either I'm with you or Sephiroth is with you. How about that?" Mrs. Strife said reluctantly. She didn't want him to go outside again. It didn't happen this time, but what if he got hurt? What if he got sick? What if he never came home?

What if he died?

"Okay," Cloud mumbled. He pulled away to rub at his face with his sleeve. Mrs. Strife stopped him.

"Your sweater is dirty." Mrs. Strife started to make her way to the kitchen before Sephiroth offered her a napkin. She accepted it and wiped Cloud's face. Cloud stood there and let her without any complaint.

"Did you have fun?" Mrs. Strife asked when she finished. Cloud nodded vigorously.

"Yeah!" he said excitedly. "Right, Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth nodded. He kept looking at Mrs. Strife like he knew that she was hiding something. Mrs. Strife nearly shuddered.

"That's good. But look at how dirty you got!" She gestured mainly to Cloud's sweater. "Do you know what that means?"

"We get to go outside again?"

Sephiroth snorted and Mrs. Strife tried very hard to stifle her giggles. Cloud looked confused.

"It means that you need a bath."

"But I don't wanna! I wanna go outside again!"

"It's cold outside now." Sephiroth picked up the black jacket that had fallen from Cloud's shoulders when Mrs. Strife had picked him up. He threw it over his shoulder, joining it with what looked like a backpack. "You really do need a bath."

"But you're dirty too. You gotta take a bath if I gotta," Cloud argued.

"I do," Sephiroth agreed. He went up the stairs.

"Bath time for you, too." She took Cloud's grimy hand and brought him to their room. Cloud dragged his feet and tried to pull away.

"I don't wanna take a bath!" he whined.

"You have to." Mrs. Strife tried, with difficulty, to pick out an outfit for Cloud. Cloud fought to escape from his mother's grip, but he wasn't trying very hard. It took much less persuasion and patience to get him to cooperate than usual.

Cloud pouted. "Okay," he said, defeated. Mrs. Strife slowly released his hand, turning away to rummage through the clothes when she was reassured that he wouldn't run off.

"Mama?" Cloud sat on the toilet seat, lifting his leg up so Mrs. Strife could take off his socks and shoes. Mrs. Strife wondered just what exactly Cloud and Sephiroth had been doing. Cloud managed to get dirt everywhere on himself; even the bottoms of his white socks were an earthy color.

"Yes?" Mrs. Strife placed the shoes against the wall and busied herself with getting the bath water ready.

"Are you still sad?"

"No. I was scared before because I couldn't find you. Now that you're here, I'm not scared anymore." She stood up after the tub was filled.

"Don't be sad or scared anymore, mama. I won't go nowhere." Mrs. Strife was absolutely surprised by how guilty he sounded.

"Don't worry about it." She really didn't want her son to feel bad over anything. It wasn't his fault that he wanted to go outside. If anybody was to blame for this, it was Sephiroth for not letting her know in advance. After thinking about it, Mrs. Strife really would have protested against it. She couldn't help it; Cloud was the only loved one she had left. She didn't want to lose him.

Cloud appeared less down. He had an excited look on his face, as if he remembered something.

"Can Sephiroth get me some beer? He said he would bring me more."

Mrs. Strife was shocked. "He let you drink beer?!"

31 October 1979

Cloud stood outside the door to the room that Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo shared. He had tried to sneak into Sephiroth's room the first chance he got, but all he found was an empty room. He had seen no trace of Sephiroth the rest of the day. Mrs. Strife had made Cloud practice his reading and writing skills for a little bit and allowed him to take a break as long as he was within calling distance. Upstairs didn't seem too far away from the table downstairs to Cloud, so he decided to look for Sephiroth.

Cloud needed more drawings to color. He also needed to know just where Sephiroth had been this whole time. He was going to get mad if he ran away to go with his brothers without taking him, too.

Cloud hoped that Kadaj wasn't in the room (the dirty poop eater was the meanest, baddest, rottenest person Cloud had ever met) and entered, not bothering to knock on the door. Sephiroth never minded, so it was probably okay to do the same here.

Loz was building something on the floor; something out of things that stayed stuck together when connected. It was a small castle. Loz, after smooshing the last block on top of another, placed random little figures on certain sections of the castle. Most of the figures were little green soldiers, but animals filled in the empty sections. A little car stood guard at the bottom of the castle. Cloud took the car.

"That's mine," Loz said sternly. Cloud put the car back down.

"Where did Sephiroth go?" Cloud asked, remembering what he came for.

"I don't know." Loz stood a cat figure next to the car. Cloud really wanted to grab the car and stick the cat inside so the cat could drive it. "Do you know where he is?" Loz asked Yazoo.

Yazoo shook his head. He flipped a page in his book while sitting on the bed. The book had a picture of three people and a house on it. Cloud made out the word The, but could barely read the rest of the letters covered by Yazoo's fingers. S-H-I-N... Cloud couldn't see the rest.

"Can you talk?" Cloud asked. He had never ever heard Yazoo say anything 'cept for "Happy birthday".

Yazoo shook his head again.

"I can teach you to talk!" Happy birthday was probably the only thing Yazoo could say. Cloud decided to start with easy words. "Can you say um.. uh.." Cloud looked around before catching a glimpse of the cat toy. "Cat! Say cat!"

"C-c-aaah..."

Close enough. "Now say dog!" Maybe if Yazoo could say dog, a real dog would appear. Cloud hoped Yazoo could say dog.

"D-d-d-d-"

"You're funny," Loz said, laughing really hard. He offered Cloud the car. Cloud took it happily, glad that he had made another friend.

Cloud and Loz made up a story in which a cat wizard with a mighty car sidekick fought for the castle ruled by green soldiers and wild animals. Although Cloud was having fun, he'd rather do something with Sephiroth. His mind wandered towards where Sephiroth could be, coming back to the present when Loz tensed.

"I think you'd better go," he said nervously.

"Why?"

"Kadaj is coming back."

"So? He can't do nothin'." Kadaj had never been able to do anything to him before; somebody, usually Sephiroth, would defend Cloud and make Kadaj go away.

Cloud heard the door open. He turned and saw Kadaj who stared back menacingly.

"Get out," he said slowly.

Cloud crossed his arms and pouted. "No." Kadaj couldn't make him do anything. He wanted to stay and that was what he was going to do.

"Nobody wants you in here."

Yazoo looked up from his book, peering cautiously at Kadaj.

"That's not true!" Cloud exclaimed. "I was playing with Loz."

"Oh, really?" Kadaj glared at Loz. Loz tried to make himself as small as possible. "Well, he wants you to go now. He really hates you."

"No I don't," Loz mumbled.

"Yes he does." Kadaj grew livid.

"Sorry," Loz quietly said to Cloud. He looked extremely guilty.

Cloud still didn't move. He wasn't going anywhere. Upon seeing that, Kadaj forcefully grabbed Cloud by the arm and dragged him to the door. Cloud desperately pulled back, but Kadaj was too strong.

Yazoo yanked Kadaj and held him in place. "Let him go," he commanded.

Kadaj refused. Instead, he shoved Cloud out the door. Cloud tried to stop and ended up tripping. His head and nose exploded with pain after hitting the opposite wall and the floor.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. Cloud had never felt anything like it. He screamed, squeezing out tears as he ran down the stairs calling for his mother. He didn't hear the fighting going on behind him.

Notes:

Started: 2013年3月27日 （水）

Finished: 2013年3月29日 （金）

It's-it's short! Gah! It would've been longer, but I felt that I've held onto it too long. Don't worry, Kadaj will get his punishment.

Quick heads up: I have a few major things to do on the first and second, so the next chapter may take a while. I'll try to get another one out quickly if I can.