A/N - I don't own Final Fantasy or any of its characters or ideas.

So far, Cloud's day hadn't been the best. The night before, he had found Tifa at Aerith's church. She was hurt and only because conscious for a short amount of time. Cloud had fallen victim to his geostigma shortly after finding her and fallen unconscious. He had woken up to find that she was still unconscious in a bed near him. It was daylight and Reno and Rude had brought the two of them back to the bar. What had made matters worse was that not only were the children missing but Fayte was as well.

Cloud stared out the window. Tifa still hadn't woken up. He worried more about Fayte than anything. 'Why do I care?' he thought. 'I told her to come here and she couldn't wait so she got herself into trouble.' Still, he worried about something that he felt he shouldn't care about. He had only known her for two days… and the note… was it fake?

Cloud,

I'm going out for a walk because the bar was closed when I got there and I didn't want to break and enter. I'm leaving Atlatl and my stuff. I should be okay on my own. Hopefully I'll get back before you do.

Fayte

Sure she was strong but something could still happen and something did. Reno and Rude had gone out I search of the kids and Fayte earlier that morning. They hadn't been back in a while and he began to wonder when they would come back and if they found Fayte.

A moment passed as he stared out the window and then Tifa suddenly stirred and woke up. She sat up a bit and Cloud looked to her. "Reno and Rude are out looking" he said.

Tifa looked away from him. "You have geostigma, don't you?" she said. "You're going to give up and die, is that it?" When Cloud didn't respond, she brought her knee up and hugged it a bit. "So it is."

"There's no cure" said Cloud.

"Yeah, but that's not stopping Denzel, is it?" she exclaimed. "Don't run! Let's fight it together. We can help each other, I know we can." She got excited as she spoke but Cloud's lack of response once again dampened her mood. "I guess that only works for real families" she said.

Cloud's eyes remained fixed upon his lap. "Tifa… I'm not fit to help anyone… not my family, not my friends, not Fayte. Nobody" he said.

"How do you know Fayte?" she asked.

"She helped me fight off Kadaj and his gang" he answered. "Then I found out she was Rufus ShinRa's adopted daughter and that she's an ex-SOLDIER and she knew Zack. I understand her because we have similar pasts… but I can't protect her."

Tifa looked away from Cloud. "Dilly dally, shilly shally" she said. Cloud looked up in shock but didn't say anything. He also didn't see Reno slip quietly into the room. "Dilly dally, shilly shally" repeated Tifa.

"I think she wants you to move on, man" said Reno. They both looked over in surprise at his appearance.

Tifa quickly moved forward towards Reno "Did you find them?"

Reno stood with his arms crossed. "No, only an interesting and familiar witness. She says Kadaj's gang took the kids."

"She?" asked Cloud.

"Yeah, Fayte. She was kidnapped by them, too" said Reno.

"Where were they? Is she okay?" asked Cloud.

"They were at the Forgotten City. We didn't find her there though. She was unconscious in an alleyway. Right now she's in the next room over. She's awake and moving again" replied Rude.

"What did they do to her?" asked Cloud.

"I don't know. She would only tell me that they hurt her" said Reno.

Cloud looked away thoughtfully for a moment and then back at Reno. "Go" he said. He stood and looked at Reno and Rude. "I have to talk to Rufus."

"Stop running!" yelled Tifa. "I know, even if you fund the kids you might not be able to help them. Maybe something will happen that can never unhappen. That scares you, doesn't it? But you need to think about now, really take it in! Look at you! You think you've got it so damn hard!" Reno shifted uncomfortably. This wasn't really the conversation to be in. "Well, you hate being alone, so let people in! Sure, you don't answer your phone, but I don't see you throwing it away either! If you need information, talk to Fayte. They kidnapped her. She must know something. You want to talk to her anyway, don't you? When Reno said they hurt her I was sure I had seen concern in your eyes and things like that don't happen with you. You really care about her, so don't push her to the side!"

"You go, the base is all yours" said Reno and he and Rude left the room.

"What is it? A memory or us?" Tifa asked Cloud.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Reno was taking so long.

"So it didn't work" a male voice said behind me. I turned quickly and the room around me turned white. Zack was standing with his arms crossed. "I've never seen you like this" he said. I looked down and blushed as I realized I was practically naked.

"You've walked in on me before" I said.

"I mean your left side" he said as he walked over and ran his hand down my arm. "It really does look painful."

"It is" I said. "If I die, will it go away?"

"I hate it when you talk like that. People still need you. Cloud needs you" he said. "I know that you don't think you need him, but you need him just as much. You thought of him when you were in danger. Maybe you should depend on him. You already want to, even if you don't admit it."

"I did think of him but I don't need him. I can't let anyone get too close, for I may die soon" I said. The light faded back to the regular room. The door was at my back and startled me when it opened without warning. I only turned my head and looked at who it was.

"I thought Reno would have told you to knock, Cloud" I said, crossing my arms.

"This was outside the door" he said as he threw my bag past me and onto my bed.

"Is that all?" I asked. He still stood in the room as if thinking. "Well?" I said as I looked at him again, keeping my body so he couldn't see my left arm. After Zack had so suddenly popped into my head, I wasn't so flustered by my lack of clothing. He seemed to be bothered by it, though. His eyes were fixated on the ground. I looked away.

"What did they do to you?" he asked.

"They hurt me."

"How?"

"You don't need to know any more" I retorted.

"I need to know what they did to you and what they wanted. I need to know if it worked" he said.

"All you need to know is that hey hurt me and that it didn't work."

"What were they trying to do?" he asked.

"I don't want to talk about it" I said.

"If you didn't want to talk about it then why didn't you stay here in the first place?" he asked, getting more frustrated. A bit of force showed in his voice.

"I explained it in the note" I said.

"You know bad people are running around! Why didn't you take a weapon?"

"They grabbed me and drugged me from behind."

"You could have struggled."

"I'm not strong enough."

"At least look at me when I'm talking to you!" he yelled as he grabbed me and spun me around. At first he was angry but then his expression changed to shock. "Geostigma" was all he said. He withdrew his hands, the one on my left arm first.

I took a step back. "Yes, I have geostigma" I glared at him angrily. "It's why I can tell you that I don't have much time left."

"I've never seen someone who has it so bad" he said.

"I was one of the first" I said as I walked over to my bag and pulled out a jar of medicine and a rag.

"There's so much of it" he said.

"It started on my neck and spread from there to the entire left side of my body" I said as I wiped my geostigma infested arm and leg with the rag. I also took a moment to wipe down my side and chest and then move up to my neck. As I wiped my neck, more of the geostigma was revealed.

"There's more?" he asked. I looked at him and nodded. My eyes wandered to the rag and I held it out to him.

"Take it" I said. He reached out and took it carefully and then looked at me. "I can't see my face right now so it never works well for me to clean it without a mirror." He reached out timidly and pressed the cloth to the left side of my face.

"What's on this rag?" he suddenly asked as he gently dabbed my face.

"It's medicine" I said. "It numbs the geostigma and cleans it. It's also the only way to take off the makeup on my face." He looked taken aback as he revealed the first of the geostigma on my cheek. "My makeup and clothing are waterproof because it is painful for water to touch my geostigma."

He continued his gentle caress of my cheek until he hit the edge of the geostigma and then moved up the side of my face to my temple. I tilted my head into his hand, enjoying the painless touch. 'It's just the medicine' I reminded myself. He was being very gentle and I liked the feeling because no one had touched me in so long.

Suddenly, he stopped and handed me the rag. "It's bad" was all he could say. He finally got the full view of my geostigma. It spread from my ankle, up my body, as far as the middle of my chest and down my entire arm. It then went back up my neck to the left side of my face and over my nose a little. The highest part of it extended up over my forehead and to the middle of it.

He suddenly reached over with his left hand and took my left. As he picked my arm up, I caught a whiff of geostigma and I knew it wasn't mine because I couldn't smell my own. "You have a bruise" he said, looking at the skin on the inside of my elbow.

"I was struggling when they used the needle to draw my blood" I said.

"Needle?" he asked.

"Yes, needle. They took some of my blood and injected it into Kadaj for their reunion or whatever and it must not have worked because they got really mad and I collapsed from blood loss. Next thing I knew, it was who knows how many hours later and Reno was leading me onto his motorcycle" I said.

"Why wouldn't you tell me before?" he asked as he squeezed my hand, reminding me painfully that he was still holding it.

"Because it's embarrassing. I'm afraid of needles, Cloud. Ever since the procedures to make me a Jenova clone. They did terrible things. Needles felt like fire to me and they would strap me down and… I was so scared" I said. I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the ground in my moment of weakness. Cloud suddenly wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. My eyes widened and I stiffened up. The last person to have hugged me was Zack.

"Sorry" he said as he felt my unease and withdrew. My mind resumed its function and as he tried to move away, I reached out and took his left hand. He cared about me and suffered the same way I did. My mind raced to find the words to thank him but something else came out.

"You have it, too" I whispered as I pulled his hand towards me.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"I can both sense and smell geostigma" I said as I slowly loosened each finger of his glove and then removed it.

"What are you doing?" he asked as I pulled his sleeve up his arm.

"Let me take away your pain" I whispered like I was in a trance. My lips met the soft skin of his arm and pain flowed through me. I gently kissed up his arm, feeling his pain added to my own. Our geostigma was on the same arm. My own geostigma was pounding and for a moment, I felt faint. When I reached the top of his arm, I grew dizzy and clung to his arm, leaning my head on his shoulder as his pain burned me. When I regained my composure, I looked up a single black tear escaped my left eye.

He looked at his arm in wonder. "What did you do?" he asked.

"When I kiss someone's wound, I can take the pain they feel and make it my own" I gasped. I was still adjusting to the pain when he suddenly picked it up and placed me on my bed. He picked up the rag and flipped it to a clean side taking the medicine and putting more on. "What?" I asked but he ignored me and ran the rag down my arm. I hissed in pain when he pressed down but then the pain slowly went away as he continued to rub up and down my arm. Neither of us said anything for a while. When I realized how very intimate the moment had become, I turned my head and looked away from Cloud. What would the others think? If one of them walked in right now and saw us the way we were, they would really have something to say.

"Why did you do that?" he asked, breaking the silence that had enveloped us.

"Why are you doing what you're doing now?" I responded pointedly.

"I don't know" said Cloud.

"I think that you care" I said. "Now that I think about it, I do too." I looked back over at him with determination in my eyes. These people, although the time I knew them was short, make me feel as if someone cared, as if living one more day wouldn't be quite so painful. I could help them. "I know what he meant now" I said.

"Who?" asked Cloud.

"Zack" I replied. "He said that I'd meet someone who would need me. Sometimes, he comes to me in my sleep or when I'm not expecting it and tells me things like that. Maybe, I'm crazy…"

"Maybe you're not" said Cloud. "It's not impossible."

"Maybe I just want to see him again. There's so much regret and remorse in my heart tied to his death" I said. "I always wonder what would have happened if I hadn't run away. I was strong enough to stop Sephiroth on my own. I always think that if I had stayed I would have defeated Sephiroth and no one would have had to suffer" I turned my head slightly to meet his eyes. "I loved him, Cloud" I admitted. "I really did but I never told him. Sometimes, I really wish I had."

"I guess we have more in common than we thought" he said. "I lost someone close to me, too."

"Is it really our fault?" I asked. "Did we kill them?"

"I don't know" said Cloud. "But I want to be forgiven."

I sighed and let my head nod limply to the side. "I forgive you, Cloud" I said.

He took my good hand and gave it a squeeze. "I forgive you, too… but you know it isn't what we need." I nodded in response as he picked his glove up off of the floor and put it on. "I'm going out to find them" he said.

"I'm coming with you!" I said as I sat up quickly. A shooting pain filled my head and I passed my hand to it.

"No, you're not" he said as he placed a hand on my shoulder and pressed me back down onto the bed. "Please rest" he said softly as he placed a blanket over me and put the rag and medicine away. "You're in no condition to fight."

I didn't argue, which was rare for me. He had an effect on me that no one else had. Maybe my father could have done it, ShinRa, not my real father, and Zack would but he never really tried. "Cloud" I said as he turned away from me. He looked back and stared, waiting for me to say whatever it was I needed to say. "I need to put my makeup back on. My face hurts."

"Should I get you a mirror?" he asked.

"I was hoping you could do it for me quickly" I said. He looked scared for a moment. "Don't worry" I said. "It goes on easy and covers pretty well."

"Okay" he said, rather unsure of himself.

"It's in a tube in my bag" I said. He reached in my bag and pulled out a small tube of beige paste. "You can use the other rag in my bag."

He pulled it out and walked over. I sat up and took it, putting some of the cream on the rag and handing it back to him. "Start on my cheek" I said as he took it and pressed it to my face. I closed my eyes as he slowly rubbed it on. The pain subsided a little now that the air wasn't hitting it. He rubbed the cloth against my forehead and down the side of my face. It was an incredibly unfamiliar feeling to have someone touch my face, yet I didn't mind. He went over the bridge of my nose and then over the rest of my lower cheek and to my jaw. As his hand then traveled down my neck I came to my senses and stopped him.

"That's good, thank you" I said and I took the makeup, medicine and rags and put them in my bag. I placed the bag at my bedside and lay down. "Be careful, Cloud" I said.

He nodded and walked out the door, closing it softly behind him. I reached up and touched my face where he had so softly caressed it moments before. Was I falling in love with Cloud? He was handsome and we seemed to have so much in common but did that mean I could love him? I barely knew him.

'Don't die, Cloud' was my last thought before I drifted off to sleep. 'I need to know.'