Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection of ditties is mine, as is Jake.

So this took way longer to write than it should have. I knew almost from the get-go where I wanted to go with this prompt, but I went through nearly five or six different plot ideas before settling on this one. Then I decided to wait a few days to post it for timing's sake-April 15th. No other postings on this collection will take as long as this one, promise. I have no ownership or affiliation with the movie referenced throughout this ditty.

..:-X-:..

002 – Ship of Dreams

(For BeastWithinProductions; Prompt: 'referencing movies')

"—if she had lived, she'd be over a hundred by now!"

"Hundred and one next month."

"Okay…so she's a very OLD god-damned liar!"

"Oh for Christ's sake."

The yelled conversation jerked Cloud out of the doze that he hadn't realized he'd fallen into. For a wild second, he couldn't remember where he was or why he felt so uncomfortable, but quickly remembered. He had come back to Merlin's house after cutting his round of patrols short…It was hard to keep an eye on the perimeter when your vision kept slurring.

He hadn't been feeling one hundred percent since that morning, but he had tried to shake it off and make it through the day. Well, clearly that effort had failed, as he forced open one eye to find himself horizontal on Merlin's couch, a bright sunny day out on the ocean depicted on the widescreen television in front of him. Aerith was sitting on the adjacent couch. Her body was aimed toward the screen, but she was looking behind her into the kitchen, where, by the smell of cigarettes, Cid was. Cloud guessed that's where the 'oh for Christ's sake' came from, as the two characters on the television screen were still arguing about some lady's age.

"What?" Aerith questioned Cid, who was out of Cloud's line of view.

"Don't 'what' me." Cid grumbled. "Remember what happened last time you popped that movie in?"

"If I recall correctly, you cried." Aerith flashed that cheeky grin of hers.

Cid snorted. "I think you have me confused with Leon...And you bawled like a toddler."

Aerith looked unashamed. "It's a beautiful story."

"It's not even to the ship yet and Cloud's already bored into a coma." Cid snarked.

"Am not." Cloud mumbled, frowning at the hoarseness that had overtaken his voice.

Aerith looked at him softly. "Hey. How are you feeling?"

Oh no, her Puppy Eyes were in full force. Did he really look that bad?

"M'fine." He said thickly, trying to find the ambition to get up from the couch.

"You have a fever." Aerith countered. "And you barely moved when Leon threw a book on you."

Cloud blinked and looked down to see that one of Merlin's thicker spellbooks had been dropped on his legs. "And…why…did he throw a book on me?"

"To see if you were alive." Aerith answered.

And with anyone else, that wouldn't have been a valid answer, but with Leon, it was downright reasonable.

With a grunt, Cloud started to push himself up. He could feel indentations from the couch's upholstery on his bare arm and the side of his face, and it made him grimace. How long had he been there?

"You just lay yourself back down and get comfy." Aerith stood, straightening her dress. "You're sick; so you need to rest up."

Cloud ignored that and sat up anyway. The rest of the room moved, as did the blurry image of a sunken ship on the screen. He must have teetered a little, because Aerith's eyes widened.

"What did I just say?" She huffed.

"I'm fine." He managed to garble out. His throat punished him for his effort.

"You're pale and you look dazed."

"Doesn't he always look like that?" Cid snorted.

Cloud tried to glare at the man, but at this point, he doubted its effectiveness. Aerith paused the movie and went into the kitchen.

"Aerith—hey—I'm not sick—" Cloud tried to convince her.

Cid shrugged, "Too late, kiddo. Mother Hen Mode has been activated. All you can do now is sit back and take it like a man."

Cloud groaned and slumped back to his previous position across the couch.

"There ya go." Cid said snidely. "And good luck trying to convince her to take the estrogen explosion off the TV."

"I'm going to make you some soup." Aerith chirped from the kitchen.

"And with that, I'm out." Cid raised his hands, as though in surrender, and left the living room.

Feeling embarrassed and hating being coddled, Cloud could do little but fume on the couch, as the rest of his body had decided that movement was highly discouraged. He glared at the screen. He recognized the movie immediately, but he had never seen it in its entirety. As his eyelids began to droop, it looked like that streak wasn't going to be broken today.

..:-X-:..

"You're crazy."

"That's what everybody says, but with all due respect, miss…I'm not the one hanging off the end of a ship here…I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over…and let me off the hook here."

There were a few chords of soft music before a dramatic turn and a sudden outbreak of a woman screaming for help.

It was enough to jostle Cloud again from the impromptu nap and open one eye. His eyelids felt sticky and his throat felt worse. His body felt heavy and he could only hear out of one ear, but the night scene on the television was less offensive to his light-sensitive eyes than the earlier sunny scene that he'd woken up to.

And…as before…Aerith was curled up on the adjacent couch, hugging a pillow, eyes glued to the screen. Then he remembered: waking up on Merlin's couch, feeling crappy, the movie, Cid, Mother Hen Mode.

His throat clenched suddenly and he coughed, unable to stifle it. The motion jarred his sore muscles and ricocheted down his spine. That put him back in Aerith's crosshairs, and she looked over at him.

"Hello again." She smiled. "Feeling any—"

"Shh!" Yuffie announced her presence, where she was sitting on the floor in front of the recliner, staring at the movie scene, where some men—supposedly cops or some kind of authority—were clapping handcuffs on another man.

"—better?" Aerith whispered the end of her sentence.

Cloud started to nod, but the world nodded with him, so he guessed that was a lie. He settled for lifting one shoulder in a shrug. "How long was I asleep this time?"

"About an hour." She replied.

"Shh!" Yuffie hissed.

"Women and machinery do not mix!"

"Oh screw you, buddy!" Yuffie shook a fist at the screen.

After that, the scene lapsed into more dialogue and Cloud fell back asleep without realizing it.

..:-X-:..

Utter silence, followed by…

CRASH! SCREEEEEE! THUD, THUD, THUD! SWOOSH!

Cloud physically jumped from his sleep at that, his hand involuntarily reaching for his weapon, which he didn't have at the moment. His stunned reaction got a snort from Tifa, who was perched in the recliner on his right. Aerith looked over at him in concern. Yuffie was oblivious, hugging her knees to herself as she stared at the scene on the TV with wide eyes. From what Cloud's muddled mind could register, water was gushing through broken steel and flooding several rooms. A grey-white mass bobbed past the scene of the two people on the deck of the boat.

"Easy, Sparky." Tifa chuckled.

"EASY?" Yuffie jerked her head around for a split second. "They nearly hit that thing HEAD ON. Everybody almost DIED!"

Both Tifa and Aerith looked at her for a tragic moment and Tifa canted her head. "Have you ever SEEN this movie?"

Yuffie's eyes widened. "No…why? Shut up! Don't tell me!" She spun back around to watching the scene.

Tifa quirked an eyebrow at Aerith, who grimaced and looked to Cloud. "You were out for a while that time."

I would actually be able to get some sleep if you weren't watching some movie about…water and explosions and people yelling, Cloud mentally grumbled. His head felt heavier and it felt like his limbs had been packed full of sand. The fever that he'd denied earlier was harder to deny now, as he felt chilly and hot at the same time.

God, being sick was annoying.

Not that he was sick.

"Do you need anything? I started to make soup, but you fell asleep. And you look worse, sorry. Maybe a—" Aerith started.

Tifa waved her off. "Let him sleep. It's just getting good."

Cloud glared at her.

Tifa pointed, "The movie, not your illness, ya imp."

..:-X-:..

Cloud didn't know much about boats, but he knew the position of the ship on the screen was wrong. It was almost completely perpendicular to the ocean surface, and the angle was steadily increasing. This time, he wasn't sure when he'd woken up…or if he'd fallen asleep at all, but it felt like he had been actively paying attention to the movie for a while now.

He could hear sniffling. For a while moment, he thought that it was him, as his nose was starting to betray him too, but a slide of the eyes revealed Aerith, still hugging the pillow, tears shamelessly breaking free from her eyes. Yuffie was still entranced from her spot on the floor. Tifa was still in the recliner, but she'd grabbed a blanket and was more somber than she had been earlier.

This time, Cloud was smart enough to keep the others unaware of his being awake, preferring to enjoy the silence as they left him alone and focused on the movie.

A man sudden plummeted from the top part of the ship, falling briefly before nailing one of the propellers. All four of them in the living room shuddered as the character spun the rest of the way to the water.

..:-X-:..

Somewhere between Propeller Guy and the ship breaking in half, Cloud must have dozed off again, because when he next opened his eyes, the entire ship was gone. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but Aerith and Yuffie were both sobbing on the floor. Tifa's eyes were moist by the light of the screen—since he now noticed that the living room lights had been turned off—but she wasn't actively crying.

The sloshing water on the screen made his stomach roll and he closed his eyes, not caring for this movie at all anymore.

..:-X-:..

When Cloud braved opening his eyes a while later, the ship was back. Wait…huh? He blinked, looking at the large ship on the screen…but that didn't make…

Some dialogue came from the screen, but his brain felt too muddled to bother deciphering it. It felt like things were winding down, in the movie at least. The girls in the room with him were no longer sobbing—thank God—but it was eerily quiet in the living room. A hiccup sounded somewhere behind the couch, but Cloud couldn't be bothered by it.

Over the next few minutes, the ending of the movie fluttered by in a haze, and then the end credits started to roll with a song…of course.

"Wait a minute!" Yuffie barked, breaking the silence that had engulfed the audience.

Tifa twitched on the recliner and Cloud noted that her eyes were closed. It looked like she'd dozed off a while ago. Aerith looked at Yuffie and shushed her.

"No!" Yuffie climbed up to her knees. "THAT's the ending? That's horrible!"

"Yuffie—"

"Is she dead or not?"

"What?"

"That…weird…fade away thing…Does that mean she died…like Jack told her to…and that thing at the staircase was a reunion? Or is she just dreaming?" Yuffie fumed.

Her voice grated on Cloud's ears and he grimaced, raising a heavy hand to rub his neck.

"Yuffie, hush." Aerith chided.

"Too late." Cloud rasped, shifting on the couch.

"Cloud!" Yuffie barked, and he winced again. "What do you think? Dead or dream?"

"What does it matt—"

"Clearly she died!" came a tragic outcry from behind the couch.

Cloud, Aerith, and Yuffie all twisted their necks to look back there. A light was flipped on and all of them hissed and rubbed their eyes. The light revealed Jake Alms, sitting at the table, tears shamelessly pouring down his cheeks.

"Jake? How long have you been back there?" Aerith asked.

"Since Jack declared himself king of the world." Jake choked, clearly still emotional from the story of the movie. He saw Cloud lift an eyebrow at him. "DON'T JUDGE ME!"

Yuffie recovered first. "So she died?"

"It's an open ending." Aerith attempted to say. "You're supposed to make your own interpretation."

"She died." Jake stood dramatically. "She did all those things that they talked about. She lived the dream! She had a full life and died an old lady, warm in her bed! And they were reunited together in the end!" He shook a righteous fist.

Yuffie looked unimpressed. "But…she got married and had a family after the whole…sinking…Shouldn't she be spending the afterlife with her HUSBAND?"

"Silence, you enemy of love!" Jake pointed melodramatically at her.

Cloud groaned and stood, peeling himself out of the couch and happy to find himself relatively stable. Aerith looked worried.

"You're still sick." She said, matter-of-factly.

"I'd rather be sick upstairs away from these two." He grumbled, making his way to the stairs.

"So…what…her husband of probably 70 years gets second slot after the guy she spent three days with?" Yuffie snapped. "That's twisted!"

"But he saved her life! They were souls bound by fate!" Jake interjected.

Aerith chuckled, "Jake, I didn't know you had such…feelings."

"Listen to the song!" Yuffie pointed to the rolling credits. "Her heart WENT ON."

Tifa snorted in her sleep on the recliner.

Cloud started the laborious task of climbing the stairs. He was just glad that the stairs weren't swinging back and forth like things had been earlier. At least now he could see straight. But as he reached the top of the stairs, he paused and then cursed.

That song was going to be stuck in his head for DAYS.

..:-X-:..

A/N: With apologies to Titanic (1997).