When you walked into Seventh Heaven, Cloud disappeared as usual. You found Riley and Tifa sleeping at one of the tables. Vincent rushed over to you.

"You didn't have to wait up" you told him.

He shrugged "I wanted to, you were so upset"

"Thank you Vincent, you're always looking out for me," you said with a smile.

"Since when do you call me Vincent?"

"Maybe I'm finally going to act like an adult"

Vincent just gave you skeptical look; you giggled and walked over to your brother, you gently picked him up and carried him upstairs and tucked him into bed. The poor little guy waited up all night for you.

When you walked back downstairs, Tifa was up and making coffee. When she saw you she paniked for a moment. Vincent sat in a chair glaring at her. You had to admit Vincent's glare was pretty intimidating.

"Vinny play nice, she doesn't know, you can't blame her," you told him. Vincent seemed conflicted but let it go.

"Autumn I'm so sorry, I didn't know the party would upset you." She continued to ramble an apology. But you cut her off.

"Tifa its alright, I really appreciate that you planned a party for me, but my birthday just holds too many bad memories for me, celebrating just brings them all up." You told her. You were surprised at how calm you stayed, talking to Cloud really helped. Usually you wouldn't be able to even think about that day without crying.

She nodded in understanding, "do you want to talk about it?" she asked. You could tell it frustrated her that you would never talk about things that bothered you, but you were always there to listen when someone else had an issue. You couldn't help but feel bad, between you and Cloud Tifa deals with so much.

"Tifa I can't, it hurts too much. I already poured my heart out to Cloud last night, I don't think I can handle it again." You explained.

"Wait you talked to Cloud about this?" she was so confused.

A spiky haired blonde walked into the room silently, so as usual you didn't notice him.

"He comforted me…it was nice…" you trailed off. Tifa's jaw dropped, even Vincent looked surprised.

"It was nice" Cloud said as he walked out of the bar carrying a few packages.

Your eyes widened in embarrassment, "oh god he heard that" you mumbled.

You decided to finally go to bed, even though it was mid morning. Thankfully no one disturbed you, probably because of your reaction last night, you wouldn't be surprised if everyone avoids you for a while. You had a strange dream. You were lying in a field of flowers, the sky was blue and the air was warm, you couldn't help but feel like someone else was there but you couldn't find anyone. It felt so comforting. As you woke up you felt as if someone was just out of reach, it was the strangest feeling. Thinking about the field of flowers reminded you of your mom's garden, she did always love flowers and the garden was always so pretty.

You glanced at the clock it was a little after four. "At least I didn't sleep the whole day away," you mumbled, as you tried to brush out your bedhead. You've been so overwhelmed lately, with all of your new friends, and Vincent being extra protective of you. You love having them around but after being alone all the time for so long it was difficult for you to be around people so much. It was refreshing to have some alone time. You decided to take a nice hot relaxing shower.

You picked up your towel and headed towards the shower, it was right across the hall. You started to hum a song, but you stopped yourself because if you didn't you would sing in the shower, then someone would hear you and you'd be embarrassed. As you turned on the water and waited for it to warm up you felt a pain in your spine. You winced in pain as the warm water hit the jagged scar on your back.

(Cloud)

Even though you stayed out all night with Autumn you weren't tired so you decided to finish your deliveries for the week. You tried to focus on your job but your thoughts kept drifting back to Autumn, you really enjoyed talking to her last night and you were glad you were able to help her. You found yourself thinking 'maybe I'm not useless, maybe I can protect her.'

For a while you hated being around Autumn, she was a constant reminder that your two best friends are dead, but now that you've gotten to know her, you didn't mind seeing her, actually you really enjoy spending time with Autumn. She's quiet but fun, gets embarrassed easily and whenever she's around you can't help but feel like you aren't alone, like she can actually understands everything you've gone through.

Then you remembered her past, you suddenly felt guilty. "I can't do this," you mumbled feeling ashamed, you felt like you were betraying Jace with every thought.

You walked into seventh heaven, and thankfully it was empty. You really didn't want to have to talk to Tifa, you know she means well but she can be pretty overbearing most of the time. All you wanted to do was get to your room and sleep. You rushed up the stairs and down the hallway; your room was next to the bathroom at the end of the hall. As you passed the bathroom, the door opened and Autumn tired to scurry into her room, but the two of you collided and she fell to the ground.

"ow" Autumn said childishly without looking up. "Sorry about that" she sounded embarrassed.

You looked at her; she was only in a towel. Good reason to be embarrassed. "Its fine" you replied.

"Oh god Cloud" she said in shock, you couldn't help but stare at her. Her checks became a dark shade of red as she pulled the towel more securely around her body. "Well I should be going," she said as she quickly stood, pulling her towel closer around her body. As she scurried past you, you saw part of her scar. It was a jagged indent of purple flesh; it looked like it got horribly infected while it was healing and it was bleeding.

"You're bleeding" you said stupidly, but Autumn had already shut her door behind her.

(Autumn's POV)

"Well that was awkward," you mumbled as you slipped on your undergarments. You put on a pair of jeans and grabbed the bandages from your desk draw. You've gotten use to bandaging your scar, it never healed properly because you and Ryan were fighting and running away from Shinra's Turks while it was healing. This is the worst its been in a while, you could feel the blood trickling down your back, your towel was already covered in blood so a little more wouldn't hurt. You sloppily bandaged it and put on a loose black sweater with a wide neckline.

Someone knocked on your door as you were attempting to comb out your hair. "Come in"

"Are you alright?" Cloud asked as he walked in. Your face turned a light shade of pink, you didn't expect to see him so soon and you were still very embarrassed. At least you're wearing clothes now.

"I'm fine," you avoided eye contact as you continued to comb out your hair.

He looked at the bloody towel on your bed, "But you're bleeding"

"You're very perceptive aren't you" you said sarcastically. Cloud just stared at you a look of concern plastered on his face. He's worried about you and you're being sarcastic, you felt terrible about it. You sighed "But seriously I'm fine, the scar just healed wrong and sometimes it reopens, it's fine, really" you rambled and explanation.

Cloud looked skeptical and just stared at you, you were about to say something when Cloud spoke:

"He did that to you..." he trailed off as he looked away.

You sighed, remembering masamune cutting into your flesh, you're lucky to be alive. You shivered, as your collar slipped off your shoulder, "Yeah…"

"I'm sorry." You were about to speak but he cut you off, "I won't let anyone hurt you again"

You were speechless; all you could manage to whisper was his name. For a second he allowed himself to smile before returning to his blank expression and left the room.