Neither of them said a word on the way home. Even when they stopped at the pharmacy to pick up Zexion's pills, Cloud couldn't say anything. Words eluded him. In his mind he was recalling all the times Zexion called Aerith by her name, or shuddered at the sound of his father's name. Something clicked in Cloud's mind, and suddenly his nephew wasn't a complete mystery. It all made a sick, twisted sort of sense that only scared Cloud more.

As they entered the apartment, Cloud called after Zexion before he could make it to his room and do God knows what with his hidden knife, "Zexion."

The boy stopped and turned his head, waiting expectantly.

"I… How long have you been hiding this? Years? Why?"

Zexion faced him fully when he realized this wasn't going to be a small talk.

"Haven't you learned anything?" Cloud's fingers were clenched tight enough to turn white, "Keeping secrets hurts you. And others."

"Telling them hurts more."

"But it stops! Zexion, if you tell me everything, then this can all stop!"

"Doubtful."

"Zexion!"

"What do you want from me, Cloud?" he sighed, "You knowing everything won't help me. It doesn't matter."

"If it doesn't matter then why can't you just open your fucking mouth and let me know what's in your head? I need to know!"

"For what? To get evidence on Sephiroth? The case has been closed for years."

Cloud was yelling by now, "And he's free, and you're fine with that?"

"No, I'm not. Trust me, Cloud, I'd love to kill the bastard myself. But, I don't have anything that can help anyone."

"It hurts you! It hurts me! Just fucking tell me!"

"Why? Aerith is dead. It's my fault… All my fault…" he shook his head to diminish the horrid images in his head, "I ran away. If I hadn't, I could've stopped her from…"

"Zexion, you and I both know Sephiroth would have done a lot worse to you if you stayed any longer than you had."

"What, this?" Zexion brought up a hand to run over the right side of his face, "This is nothing. I'd die for Aerith."

"So would I-"

"Then why didn't you marry her first?"

Cloud's entire demeanor fell away. The haze of his anger faded away to reveal the sadness that lay underneath. He had to give Zexion credit. The boy never yelled, because he knew raising his voice was pointless, but he always found the perfect words to get to anyone's core. The blonde stood there, dumbstruck.

"I know you loved her. You treated her so much better than he did. Why, Cloud, why? Is it because Sephiroth is the older sibling? Did he actually love her at some point? Was he ever worthy?"

"No man could ever amount to your mother."

"That's it, then. You thought she was too good for you."

"Too pretty, too kind, too damn perfect…" Cloud groaned, defeated, "Seph was aggressive but I never thought he'd turn out like that. They married young, rushed into it… I wished them the best of luck because, if not me, why not my brother, you know? But, Aerith eventually stopped calling, stopped visiting me. I thought she hated me or I did something wrong or maybe both but I found out later it was because Seph wouldn't let her out of the house."

Zexion was silent for a minute, almost sick again. He hated it when Cloud referred to his brother as Seph, like they were still close enough to have nicknames for one another, "Me neither."

"Yeah... But, Zexion, I knew your mom like the back of my hand. She was strong. I still don't believe to this day that she'd actually do something like that. I always thought she'd stick it out for you. You were her pride and joy; she loved you with all your heart. After you were born, you were her life."

"Were. Loved. That's the past. She hates me now. She haunts me, my dreams, always reminding me of what I did. When I left, she saw no reason to carry on."

They let the silence hang for a heavy moment before Cloud crossed the gap between them and wrapped his arms around Zexion. The teen stood there, frozen, as the last time anyone hugged him was when he was little. He felt Cloud's grip tighten when he muttered, "Zex, I'm glad you ran away. You should be too. You were smart enough, by some miracle, to know to contact the police. If you hadn't, you would've been killed. And now, since you told someone the secret Sephiroth had been keeping, you're here. You're with me, and you're safe. I swear to God and every deity that I'll protect you with my life. You can call me Uncle Cloud, 'cuz I'm proud as fuck that you're my nephew."

Zexion let a few tears spill over before he held Cloud back, "Thank you. Just… thank you."

"No problem, Book Boy."

He laughed, releasing Cloud and going back to his room. Cloud heard him call over his shoulder, "By the way, I learned from watching you."

Cloud smiled as he cleaned up the broken glass of the forgotten mug. Of course Zexion learned it from him. His uncle was the only one who read to him. As a kid he must have pieced together the letters and the sounds all by himself. The feeling of pride grew. Maybe at some point Cloud had also taught him who the police were and to call 911 if he was in trouble.

Now that I think about it, Cloud thought to himself, He never told me anything when I was babysitting. Every time he came over he was a normal, happy-go-lucky kid, like this dump was a kind of vacation house… Seph probably threatened him into keeping quiet…

The blonde shoved the shards of glass into the trash can, and looked to the clock on the stove. He didn't think it was that late, considering Zexion only awoke hours after noon on his days off. It was only 6 pm, just enough time to go out. True, all his friends were busy, but that didn't mean he couldn't spend some time with his only family. He thought of taking Zexion to Xehanort's Zany Books, the boy's idea of a candy store. With a spring to his step, Cloud went down the hall and knocked on his door.

There was no answer. Cloud waited a few seconds before knocking again. No response came. "Hey, Zex?" he let his worry weigh down his tone, "Everything okay?"

He wearily opened the door and his heart stopped altogether. Zexion was lying on his side in the middle of the floor, not even twitching.

"Zexion!"

Cloud rushed to him, only to find him breathing normally with a steady pulse. In Zexion's hand wasn't a blade, but a vial of prescription sleep-aids. Careful not to disturb him, Cloud pried the orange cylinder from Zexion's loose fingers and read the back. The label told him Zexion wouldn't be around for at least another nine hours, which left more than enough time for Cloud to get him ready for work tomorrow.

I'm getting the weirdest sense of déjà vu...Cloud chuckled quietly to himself as he lifted Zexion and put him in bed. Memories of tucking in Zexion as a child coursed through his mind as he pulled the covers up to his chin. Then, just as he did during his nephew's childhood, he brushed aside Zexion's hair and gave him two kisses: one on his forehead, and the other on the marred side of his face. He muttered "sweet dreams, kiddo", placed the pills on Zexion's nightstand, and left the room, gently closing the door on his way out.

A smile brushed his lips as he entered the kitchen, hands raised to ruffle his hair. He was about to open the fridge when his cell rang in his pocket. Tifa again.

"Hey!" she beat him to the salutations, "How did it go?"

"It went okay." he sounded contently relieved, if not tired, even to his own ears.

"Did anything happen?"

"Um, yeah. I'll tell you later."

"Or you can tell me now. Wanna head to Xiggy's?"

"Mmm, no thanks. I already have plans to microwave a pizza and spend a lovely evening with Bruce Willis."

"Bruce? Again? Really? Cloud, you've seen Die Hard, like, a thousand times."

"And I shall watch it a thousand times more. It's a kickass movie."

"No objections to that... C'mon Cloud, please?"

"Only if you come pick me up."

"That's alright with me."

"Oh, and chauffeur? We need to stop at the bookstore."

"Okay, okay, fine. Anything else?"

"Yeah. Look behind you."

He heard a startled gasp on the other end and covered his laugh with his hand. She made an indignant noise and hung up. Cloud didn't worry though; he'd done a lot worse before and she still tolerated him enough to pick him up. After grabbing the keys, he paced the threshold, waiting for Tifa to pull up. All he heard was the approach of her red truck before he walked out, locked the door, and hopped into the passenger's seat.

"Shall we?" he asked with a smirk, to which she replied, "You're paying." and drove off.