Chapter Two: Kyoudai
"Spiiiiiiiiike!"
The loud, rambunctious yell pierced the thin walls of the ruined building like a bullet. Eighteen-year-old Cloud Strife looked up from his position by the stove, only to be met with the most violent leap-tackle-hug in all history. He tumbled from his stool, trying in vain to push the older man off of him. "Zack! You're crushing me! I can't breathe!"
"Donovan, get off before he suffocates." The bored voice of Sephiroth said from the next room. Twenty-year-old Zackary Donovan obeyed sullenly, only to grin broadly again when Cloud got up.
"Didn't you miss me?" he asked. Cloud sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Zack, you were gone for three hours. I don't think that warrants being crushed." he said emotionlessly. Wait for it...
"You're so mean, Spike!" Victory!
"And you're so predictable, Zack." Sephiroth said. The silver-haired man finally bothered to actually enter the "kitchen". "Did you actually manage to get dinner during your three-hour excursion?"
Zack threw open his pack triumphantly to reveal some fish. Cloud's eyes widened.
"Where the hell did you get fish? The only way to get fish that aren't contaminated is to buy them, and we don't have the gil to..." He paused at the look on Zack's face. "You did not steal them! Oh, Zack, we don't need SOLDIER or the Turks after us too!"
"Like they'll come after us for a few lousy fish." Zack smirked. "Besides, we've worked too hard to get by living here to die of protein deficiency or whatever the hell vitamins you get from fish. I just know we haven't had a decent meal in forever!" He glanced in the pan on the stove, making a face. "See, look. You were fixing gruel. We have gruel every damn night."
"It's not gruel! It's soup." Cloud protested.
"Soup, gruel, same thing. Just 'cause you can make it taste good doesn't mean it's actually good for you. Shut up and cook the damn fish."
"He has a point, Strife. It's not like he can give them back." Sephiroth said. Cloud grumbled and took the fish, cursing Sephiroth for being right and Zack for stealing. Again. Just because they lived in the slums didn't mean that they had to stoop to being thieves. He pulled out the tiny amount of butter they'd gotten their hands on and set about frying the fish, listening to Zack and Sephiroth talking in the next room.
He had come here about two years ago, after a strange fire had destroyed his hometown of Nibelheim. It was probably lightning, because there had been a lightning storm that night, and it had been very dry. There had been rain too, but not enough to stop the raging fire. Only two people had gotten out. Cloud, and a girl called Tifa Lockhart. Only one building had survived, an ancient mansion belonging to Shinra.
Cloud and Tifa had come to Midgar separately. Tifa's father had been mayor of Nibelheim, and she had a bit of extra money to get by on. She opened a bar in Sector 7, called Seventh Heaven. Cloud had wandered, until he had run into Zack and Sephiroth, who had thankfully taken him in. Zack was on the verge of poisoning them all with his horrid cooking skills, so Sephiroth was just happy to find someone who could cook. He and Zack treated Cloud like a brother, though.
They lived in a wrecked building in Sector 4. He and Sephiroth had managed to patch most of the floor, ceiling, and walls, to make the space livable. Zack roamed the city, filching whatever materials he could get his hands on to help. Cloud did the cooking, merely because Sephiroth could not use a stove to save his life, and Zack would poison them all. All in all, aside from the poverty, the pollution, and the lack of sky, it was a pretty decent life. Cloud had family, siblings, something that he couldn't boast of in his hometown. There, his mother had been the only one to care about him. Now...
Cloud sighed, taking the fish off the stove. "Zack! Seph!" Both came back to the kitchen. Zack was moping, having had to listen to Sephiroth's we-don't-steal-it's-wrong lecture for the third time this month. The first time had been when he'd stolen an entire crate of apples from behind the market. The second was when he tried to steal a bottle of Wutainese rum from Tifa's bar. She had hit him over the head with a barstool. No one seemed to notice that even though she ran the bar, she wasn't of legal drinking age. Neither was Zack, but that didn't stop the black-haired man from getting totally drunk there sometimes.
Zack was still sulking.
"It's not like it matters. Shinra's got all the money anyway. What difference does it make if I take something here or there? I haven't stolen anything else!"
Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "Apples? Wutainese rum? Honestly, Zack." He took a bite of fish and continued, "This is good, Cloud. And Zack, I'd be fine with it if you were stealing from Shinra, but you're not. You're stealing from people like us, just trying to get by."
"That guy with the apples was a rich merchant from Junon!" Zack protested. "And Tifa has more money than she knows what to do with. Between the money her dad left her and the small fortune she makes running that bar... With all of her customers and AVA- average locals, she could live on top of the plate soon!" Zack expertly covered up his momentary slip of the tongue. He took a bite of fish as well, agreeing with Sephiroth that it was excellent.
"What about the widow Gainsborough?" Sephiroth asked. "She's fairly wealthy. Not rich enough to live on the plate, but for the standards of the slums..."
"Zacky has his eye on her adopted daughter. He wouldn't dare steal from them." Cloud sing-songed, watching Zack from the corner of his eye. His elder friend was turning red.
"I don't even know her name!" Zack protested. "How could I...?"
Sephiroth sighed, poking at his dinner with the bent fork. "That's nice to know. I heard the girl was dumber than a fence post anyway..."
Zack turned crimson and yelled, "AERITH IS NOT DUMBER THAN A..." He stopped as Cloud laughed outright and Sephiroth managed a smile, both very rare occurrences. He fumed as he realized he'd been tricked. "You... you..."
"Us, us." Cloud said, still grinning. "Really, Zack. You thought we hadn't noticed? That's dense, even for you."
Zack grumbled incoherently for a few minutes, finishing his fish in silence. He had just known that the two would tease him about his crush on Aerith, which was why he had neglected to tell them. It seemed they had found out anyway. He finished his dinner, dumping the plate in the cracked, chipped sink. Sephiroth seized his arm as he went by, back to the "living room".
"Zack, don't mope. It makes me feel like the apocalypse is coming, or something. You not being happy is definitely wrong." said in the typical stoic Sephiroth style. Zack grinned.
"Yes, beware, the apocalypse is coming!" Zack shouted melodramatically. "Next thing you know, Cloud will grow a demon wing and we'll find out that Midgar was really Hell all along!"
"Ha ha." Cloud laughed mockingly. "Like that would ever happen."
"I'm going to bed." Sephiroth said. "You two can continue your discussion without me." He got up, brushing silver hair from his face before walking away farther into the building. Zack grinned as Sephiroth moved out of earshot.
"He doesn't get dessert then!" Zack laughed. He reached into his pocket, pulling out three chocolate truffles. "Here, Spike. Have some chocolate."
"Zack! You didn't steal chocolate too?" Cloud yelped. Chocolate, in fact, sweets of any kind were rare in the slums. Tifa occasionally got her hands on some chocolate, and would sell it at the bar for a smaller amount than you could find it anywhere. To steal chocolate from someone who had managed to get some...
"You're too suspicious, Cloud." Zack pressed one of the truffles into his hand. "Aerith gave them to me when I saw her while I was out. She got them from a friend who lives above the plate."
Cloud took the truffle. "We should save these, and have them tomorrow, when Seph's actually awake to enjoy it with us." Zack nodded, putting them in a cup in the beaten up cabinet. "We should go to bed too. Try not to wake us up at the crack of dawn again." He and Zack split. The abandoned office building offered more rooms than many other places in the city, giving each of them their own sleeping space. Cloud rolled up in his blankets and fell asleep, letting his head droop onto the armrest of the old couch they had dragged in there. Sephiroth had an actual mattress, even though there was no bed to go under it. Zack had a gigantic pile of squashy cushions that they had found somewhere. It was comfy, and that was all that really mattered.
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To say that Sephiroth was mildly surprised to find chocolate the next morning would have been the understatement of the century.
"You did not steal chocolate." he said in a low voice. Zack sighed exaggeratedly.
"I'm hurt that you two don't trust me. Aerith gave them to me. She got them from a friend who lives on top of the plate." His violet eyes gave off an air of innocence even Sephiroth could not ignore.
"All right, Zack. We believe you." he mumbled. Zack grinned triumphantly as they unwrapped the truffles and savored the rare taste of chocolate.
Cloud's eyes were closed, and he looked utterly at peace with the world. "Tell Aerith thanks many times over, Zack." His hand absently crushed and smoothed the truffle wrapper as he spoke, until Sephiroth reached over and took it from him. Zack patted him on the back.
"You two need to meet Aerith sometime." he said. "I'll have to take you. She lives in Sector 5, in an old church. But first, my friend and I are going to the Seventh Heaven tonight for a drink. Wanna come?"
"I'll go." Cloud said. He wanted to see Tifa, and see her success for himself.
"I'll pass. I have better things to do than watch you get drunk off your ass, Zack." Sephiroth said. Cloud hid a smirk, as Zack stuck his tongue out at his silver-haired friend. Sephiroth ignored the gesture, striding out the "front door", if it could be called a door. It was a piece of plywood over the doorway. Zack bounced off to listen to the radio, and Cloud settled onto his couch to read.
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At about seven that night, Zack was leading Cloud through the twisting streets of the Sector 7 slums. Seventh Heaven was hard to find unless you knew where it was. Zack's eyes glowed softly, a trait he had picked up in his hometown of Gongaga. Zack had told him the story many times. He had lived in the town of Gongaga, where one of Shinra's Mako reactors had exploded. Mako was a refined version of the planet's Lifestream. It was known to cause genetic oddities, if it didn't kill you. Zack had been exposed to Mako, and it made his eyes glow. The comforting violet light looked back at Cloud as they stopped in front of a simple storefront.
"Zack... are we sure this is the right place?" Cloud asked. Zack grinned.
"Appearances can be deceiving, my dear Spike." he laughed. "Look, there's my friend!" He waved at a man in the crowd across the street. "OY!"
A man with flaming red hair broke away, and came over laughing. "Zack, dude! Who's your buddy there, yo?"
"This is Cloud. He's kinda like my roommate/adopted brother. Remember me talking about him?" Zack said.
"Oh, yeah! I remember him. Yo, Cloud." Fire-hair laughed. Cloud was pale, and gaped at the man. He dragged Zack back momentarily.
"Zack... You realize that that's Reno of the Turks, right?"
"So?"
Cloud smacked his forehead and followed Zack and Reno into the bar. It was going to be a looooong night.
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Li: This chapter is dedicated to my friend Rainbow Aeris, who was the first to review and is madly in love with Reno. I tried to keep the areas of Midgar close to the way they are originally, but hey, this is AU. I'd also like to thank my imaginary Zack plushie for the inspiration for this chapter. All I had to do was look at it and think "idiot". But I love Zack anyway. His comment about Cloud growing demon wings was a tribute to Kingdom Hearts, and Zack mentioning Midgar being Hell is from another story titled "This Army Life". It is hilarious! Go read it, after you leave a review of course!
EDIT: This chapter is now cohesive with the timeline! w00t!