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Chapter Nine: Much Ado about Materia
"I know our time underground was disorienting, but why are we traveling east when Junon is to the west?" Red XIII asked as he padded at Cloud's side.
"I was wondering the same thing." Aerith brushed a curl behind her left ear and looked up at Zack. "Weren't you wondering too Zack?"
The scowling former SOLDIER blinked out of his sulk. "What?"
"We're wondering why Cloud is leading us east when Junon is to the west," Tifa supplied.
"If he'd been paying attention, he'd already know where we're going." Cloud tossed back.
Pleased by the vote of confidence, the young man took in their surroundings. The sun hung low in the sky behind them and thick grass spread before them, the rolling surface broken by a few rocky ridges. Off in the distance, he noticed a blackened patch of earth. Further on was a similar marking. He smiled. "Good thinking Cloud."
The corner of Cloud's mouth quirked up in a half smile, and he nodded back.
"Mind lettin' the rest of us in on the secret?" Barret grumbled.
Zack raised an eyebrow at Cloud, who shrugged and waved a hand to his friend. Chuckling, Zack pointed at the nearest black patch. "That's a reactor footprint. There will probably be some sort of town around it, which means-"
"Showers!" Aerith and Tifa cheered.
Despite their enthusiasm, the burly sentry at the base of the reactor-topped mesa barred their way. "Listen buddy," he glared up into Zack's face. "We're not letting Shinra come and harm the condor. So get your black spiky butt outta here and take your friends with-" something in the man's pocket buzzed and he pulled out a PHS. Scowling, he scanned the message. His jaw dropped while his eyes widened. He looked back and forth between Cloud and Zack.
"I-I'm sorry! I should have realized..." He bowed in apology. "Please come up, I'll have a room prepared for you." The bald man scurried back into the crack serving as the reactor entrance.
"What... just happened?" Barret gaped at the opening.
Cloud sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kunsel."
"Damn it Kunsel!" Zack cursed, searching the cliff for surveillance cameras. "How are you doing this?" Zack yelped as his PHS vibrated with a message.
It read: "It's a secret!-Kunsel"
An inarticulate cry of rage caught in Zack's throat. Aerith leaned around him and read the message. "That's... actually kind of creepy. Do you think he put some sort of tracker on us?"
Cloud shook his head, "He doesn't need to."
"Interesting choice of words." Red flicked a fly away with his ear. "Please explain what you meant by that."
Shrugging, the blond shook his head again. "Even if I told you, I don't think you would believe me." He looked back to the west, the sky gleamed a blood red with the setting sun. "Let's get inside, it will be dark soon." Cloud slipped inside the crack.
"You got any idea what that meant?" Barret asked Tifa, jerking a thumb after the departed leader.
She shrugged helplessly. "There were stories when I was a kid but..."
Zack's phone buzzed again. "Don't forget to stock up on Hypers and Tranquilizers.-K"
"Damn it Kunsel! Do you watch me shower too?"
Seconds later, his PHS vibrated again. "I'll let you wonder."
"Cloud!" Zack howled, bolting into the fort waving the small device.
"I knew Kunsel could find out a lot more information than most people but this is a bit much." Zack confided as the party settled in the large sleeping area the people of Ft. Condor provided.
"It's a trick he does sometimes Zack." Cloud soothed his friend while digging in his pack for a whetstone. "Kunsel can't watch you all the time, but he knows you well enough to guess what your next thought would have been. He used that knowledge to tease you appropriately."
Slightly mollified, the tall man fell back onto his bed. Cloud leaned his Hardedge on his knees and ran the whetstone over some nicks.
"I probably shouldn't have been surprised, Kunsel has a member in the Turks," Aerith said, looking up from drying her hair with a towel.
"What?" Zack sat up and gaped at her.
Cloud nodded, testing the edge of his blade. "Elena gave Tifa something back in Midgar." He raised an eyebrow at her.
Tifa averted her eyes, suddenly fully focused on combing her own damp hair. "She didn't give me something, she was returning it."
"Returned what?" Zack asked. He leaned towards her, violet eyes wide.
"N-nothing."
Zack's grin grew toothy at her stutter.
Cloud's eyes flicked from his childhood friend to his male friend. He really wanted to know what Elena gave Tifa, but unlike Zack, he noticed the spark of growing irritation in the brunette's whiskey-toned eyes. "Speaking of gifts from Turks," Cloud interjected. "What did Tseng give you?"
Zack stiffened, eyes flicking to Aerith. "Um, well he-" Zack paused and ran his fingers through his hair. A pout fell across his face and he looked down. "He was returning something."
"Now where have we heard that before?" Barret asked, tossing a small wink at the barmaid. She sent him a small, grateful smile. Amidst the resulting laughter, Zack's expression grew pensive. He climbed up the ladder and out of the room.
Zack sat on the rocky bluff at the base of the reactor. His fingers clung to the small rectangular package as he stared across the dark plains to the distant, sparkling line of the ocean. He twitched at the sound of a purposefully scuffed footstep and then relaxed when he recognized the creak of Cloud's sword harness. The blond sat to his right and a little behind to join in watching the ocean.
A cool breeze ruffled their hair and whistled hauntingly through some unseen hollow in the plateau. The nearly full moon above cast a pale light that even normal eyes could travel in with some time to adjust.
After several minutes of silence, Cloud whispered, "It's her 88 missing letters, right?"
Zack whirled around so fast his back popped in protest. "How did you know about that?"
Keeping his eyes locked on the distant ocean, Cloud sighed. "You know I remember bits and pieces of our trip, right?"
Zack nodded slowly.
"Well, sometimes you read aloud." Cloud ducked his head, a lopsided smile on his face.
Laughing despite himself, Zack scooted backwards so he could talk in a more comfortable position. "So what do you think I should do about them?" He stroked the seam of the paper wrapping, lifting it slightly but not enough to open it.
"What do you want to do?" Cloud asked.
"I want to read them of course! But at the same time, I don't... I don't want to read about her giving up on me for not answering her letters." Zack's brow furrowed and he hung his head.
After a moment's thought, Cloud shrugged and said, "Then answer."
"What?"
"Answer her letters."
Zack blinked, "But I don't remember what I was doing back then."
Cloud shook his head. "Well, then write about our feelings as you read her letters."
"But why should I write them when she's just downstairs?" Zack cupped his chin in his left hand and braced his arm against his knee.
"You can still tell her your feelings," Cloud chuckled, "but getting them in a letter... well, women seem to like that a lot. My mom had a box of letters my dad wrote when he was courting her."
Zack's expression screwed up into a mixture of disbelief and confusion. "No way. Are women really that sentimental about letters?"
"A lot of them are." Cloud shrugged. "My mom kept every letter I sent home while in training." A wistful smile crossed the blond's face.
Meanwhile, Zack's horrified face visibly paled even in the faint moonlight. "Uh oh," he whispered, remembering the contents of his last and only letter home. "Dad's going to kill me..." He clutched handfuls of his hair and shook his head moaning.
"Huh?" Cloud tilted his head to the side. "Zack? What do you mean?"
"N-nothing!" His laugh had a slightly hysterical note to it. "Thanks for the idea; I've got some letters to write." Waving his hand in a half salute, half wave, he ignored the ladder and jumped down the hole leading back into the fort.
The next morning, Cloud stretched and lightly grimaced as several of his vertebrae popped. A choked off laugh escaped his lips when he spotted Zack. The man dozed in his bed surrounded by small purple wads of paper. Aerith's shockingly pink pen loosely clasped in his hand.
Resisting the urge to bounce one of the paper balls off his friend's black, spiky head he hissed, "Zack!"
Years of training stepped in and Zack's eyes opened, instantly alert and scanning for danger. "What?" he whispered back.
"The girls are going to wake up soon, you'd better clean up." Cloud couldn't fight the edge of humor that crept into his voice.
Zack flinched violently and tried to hide the evidence behind his back and then his shoulders slumped in defeat. He turned pleading eyes on his younger friend. At Cloud's unmoved expression and raised eyebrow, he added a lip quiver.
Zack whimpered, and finally Cloud looked away, shuddering. "Alright, alright! I won't tell anyone about this, but you owe me!"
The pout vanished. "Thanks Cloud." He slipped Aerith's pen and last few slips of paper in her pack while Cloud gathered the purple scraps of paper into a pile on a blackened portion of the wooden flooring. A small fire spell swiftly erased the evidence.
Cloud ground the ashes into the old burnt patch and snickered at his friend. "Let's see if the item shop has a more masculine selection of paper and pens."
Grimacing in agreement, Zack led the way up the rope ladder. "Much as I hate to admit it, Kunsel was right; we need to stock up on Hypers and Tranquilizers. We should probably pick up some Maiden's Kisses while we're here too." Zack mused as they walked up to the counter a neon sign labeled as the item shop.
Cloud glowered at his Zack's back, but before he could respond, an old man's rusty laughter rang out. The pair gaped at the short yet surprisingly energetic figure. The top of his silvered head wouldn't have reached Aerith's shoulders.
He squinted up at them, his right eye half-closed and a toothy smirk on his face."Heh, Maiden's Kiss, that's the pansy way out." The old man snorted. "In the good old days, we took being turned into a toad and fought fire with fire. If you turned into a toad, cast Toad again and you were back. Potions are expensive, but mana replenishes." He trailed off, muttering to himself.
Zack raised a sardonic eyebrow at the man's odd, white and green striped attire topped with a bright crimson cape.
Before he could comment, the old man snapped his head back up. "And another thing! You boys missed out, being born in this era. In my day, there was another transformation spell, one even more humiliating than a little frog spell: Piggy!"
Zack and Cloud exchanged a glance when the man leaned forward, eyes expectant. They turned their backs to him and shook their fists three times. Zack kept the fist while Cloud laid his hand flat and then grinned. Zack rolled his eyes and they turned back around.
"What was Piggy?" He asked in a tone dripping with forced interest.
"Hah, Piggy, that was the spell. Embarrassing as all get out, but damn useful on the trail." He sighed lustily and his squinty eyes sparkled. "Never had to carry rations when you had Piggy."
Zack paled and a hysterical giggle escaped Cloud.
"You laugh boy," The old man scolded, waving a finger. "Things were hard then and we had to survive! Sahagin tastes awful and you can't get much meat off a frog. But a pig!"
Cloud stopped laughing and frowned thoughtfully. Zack shook his head.
"I see at least the Chocobo is starting to understand. Think of it this way Porcupine; bacon whenever you want it."
The silence stretched as Zack's eyes grew wider and wider.
"Why doesn't that spell exist anymore?" Zack wailed. "Do you have the materia for it?" He asked hopefully.
The old man waved a dismissive hand. "Din't use materia boy. All of our magic was learned. Not every yahoo off the street could perform magic, was safer that way too."
"Can you teach it to us?"
"Heh, sorry Porcupine, looks like my friend is here. Wait a moment and a young man will be out to help you. Have fun saving the world boys." He shuffled out from behind the counter and smiled at a little old woman whose face and outfit seemed remarkably like his own. Taking her arm, they headed toward the nearby stairs.
Pouting, Zack whirled away, arms folded. Thus, only Cloud caught the man's cheeky smile as he and the woman faded away.
A young man stepped out of the back room, face flushed. "Sorry, I was in the back, what can I help you with?" Cloud stared where the couple vanished, eyes wide and only vaguely heard Zack's huff of disappointment over the lack of Maiden's Kisses.
Tifa and Barret joined them just as Zack turned around to ask for money for his purchases. Physically shaking himself, Cloud looked blankly at his friend. "What?"
"It's going to cost five thousand gil," Zack repeated. Cloud bit his lower lip. Rations and restocking were important, but that was a hefty sum.
Tifa shrugged, and pulled a few dozen pairs of Grand Gloves from Cloud's pouch. The blond looked from his pouch to the gloves, an expression of confusion on his face.
Barret whistled. "How did you steal all those without any of us noticin'?"
Tifa grinned. "My materia leveled, so now I can attack and steal at the same time." She walked up to the the counter and handed the stack to the merchant. "Will this cover it?" She asked. The stammering clerk nodded and even returned a few hundred gil in change.
As the party walked away from the reactor, Cloud shook off the last of his shock and turned to the former SOLDIER. "You know Zack; I always wondered... why is there a reactor out here? From what I understand, the fort is a recent addition."
Zack blinked, frowned, and then scratched the back of his head. "I have no idea. Heck I still don't know why Gongaga got a reactor." Shaking their heads they headed towards Junon, the early morning sun casting their shadows in long lines before them.
Despite the usual monster encounters, they party traveled at a good pace across the rolling plains. They skirted the edges of several small wooded areas but the forest stretching out before them was too large.
Cloud shook his head with a scowl. "We're going to have to go through. I hate Cappawires," he muttered the last under his breath as he led them through the trees and fern-choked underbrush. It only took one run-in with the thorny, wood monsters for Cloud's opinion to spread to the others. A handful of encounters later and they all regretted taking the shortcut.
Cursing, Zack tried to smooth down his electrically modified hair. "Damn it, my hair doesn't need any help!"
"'Least you ain't got a metal arm." Barret snarled while Aerith cast a recovery spell on him.
"Or fur," Red hissed rolling his shoulders and lashing his tail in discomfort. "I thought wood didn't conduct electricity."
Patting his own charged locks down, Cloud peered through the trees. "I think we're almost out."
Everyone sported scratches and burns from the swarming monsters, so a weak cheer rose at the announcement. The sound of something running through the ferny undergrowth dashed their hopes of a clean escape. With a final crash, a young Wutaian girl with short black hair wearing a rather sparse outfit landed in a crouch before them. A large, four pointed shuriken gleamed in her right hand.
"Ha ha! Foolish travelers, prepare to have your burdens lightened! If you value your lives and dignity, drop your money, items, materia, and flee." She rose from her crouch, looked up, and paled. "Hey! What is this, a tour group? Why are there so many of you?"
Not giving time for a response, she continued, "It doesn't matter, six or six hundred, you will all fall before the might and fearsome beauty of the white rose of Wutai. The one, the only-"
"Yuffie?" Zack interrupted, gaping at the teen.
"How did you...? YOU!" She stared at Zack pointing a finger. Her extended hand trembled and the color drained from her face. "But you're dead!"
The Shuriken fell from her hand, one prong embedding in the soft forest loam. She crumpled to her knees, eyes wild. "Auntie Miako told me a vengeful spirit would come for me if I didn't eat my veggies. Why didn't I listen?" She curled into a ball, sobbing. Zack's eyes widened as he looked down at the young woman.
"Um... I'm not dead. Shinra lied."
"Shinra? Ha, of course they lie; I don't need a ghost to tell me that!" Yuffie sat up on her knees. "When you stopped answering my messages, I called your phone company and they told me you were dead."
Tifa and Aerith blinked and looked at Zack for his response. Zack's brow furrowed, trying to come to terms with believing the phone company but not Shinra... when they probably got the information from Shinra. All he managed was a rather confused, "Huh?"
She rolled her eyes. "If the phone company says you're dead, you must be. They'd do anything to keep someone on contract."
"She's got a point." Barret shook his head with a grin.
The girl returned to her wailing. "Why didn't I stock up on Papi Hiiro's warding charms? Why didn't he make me take them! When I become a ghost I'm gonna haunt him!"
Cloud rolled his eyes and patted her on the crown of her bowed head. "Hey, Yuffie was it? Zack can't be a ghost."
"Prove it!"
"Look at his legs," Cloud said in a soothing voice. The young ninja reluctantly pulled her hands from her face and looked.
"Now, look down." Cloud urged.
Yuffie looked down and after a moment, blinked. Her color swiftly returned. "Oh... He's not a ghost!" She reared up and punched Zack lightly on the arm. "Don't scare me like that!"
As she demanded to know where the man had actually been, Barret looked down at Red XIII. "Any idea how that worked?"
Red hummed and nodded. "Very wise of Cloud. The Wutaians believe that ghosts don't have feet."
"How in the world would a kid from a backwater town like Nibelheim learn something like that?"
"Three guesses and the first two don't count," Tifa sighed, shaking her head when she caught the grimace on the listening Cloud's face. The three shook their heads and returned their attention to the ninja and former SOLDIER.
"But seriously," Yuffie tugged on Zack's left hand. "How did you make the phone company think you were dead? I could use some tips."
"Why would you want them to think you're dead?" He raised his arm, but she clung tight, her feet leaving the ground.
Doggedly retaining her grip, she grunted. "I told you, they have ways of finding you..." She swung a moment more and let go. "What, you don't think I'm roaming the wild for fun do you?"
Zack shook his head. "Even if I could teach you a skill I don't have, I don't have time."
"We're on a mission," Cloud explained.
Yuffie turned and looked at Cloud for long moment, nodded, and said in a wise voice. "You... have awesome hair." She turned her attention back to the former SOLDIER. "Anyway, if you're in a hurry, why don't we cut to the chase and you give me your materia? That Thunderga of yours is calling my name."
Zack shook his head. "Can't, Hojo stole it all. I think he destroyed them."
"That monster!" She clenched her fists, eyes flashing with anger. "So now you're on a quest to avenge yourselves?"
Zack opened his mouth to correct her but she barreled on. "Very well. Your quest is just and I shall aid you. I only require your materia. A paltry sum for my presence, but I'm feeling generous." She smiled benignly; hand over her heart and eyes closed modestly.
The silence stretched for a few seconds. Finally, she opened her eyes to see an empty clearing. "Hey!" She cried, snatching her weapon and scrambling after the party.
Finally free of the forest and its violent fauna, Tifa stretched her arms to the sun and then turned to Cloud. "Speaking of materia, what about that one you found in the mine?"
"Indeed," Red nodded. "Have you determined its use and who you will assign it to?"
Cloud hummed and pulled out a magenta materia.
Barret's eyes widened at the familiar color and raised his arms in a warding motion. "I ain't takin' it!" he declared, shuddering slightly.
The blond rolled the orb in his palm. "It is called Long Range. From what I sense, it makes it so you can attack from further back yet keep the same attack power."
He lobbed the small orb underhand to Zack. "You pick who gets it while I deal with our little tag-along."
Zack caught the materia and watched as Cloud snatched Yuffie's 4-Point Shuriken out of the air. Ignoring the teen's howl of shocked outrage, Zack studied the magenta sphere. Humming thoughtfully, he finally handed the materia to Aerith. "You take it Aerith."
"I'm curious to know the reasoning behind your choice," Red asked, his brow raised.
Zack shrugged and scratched the back of his head. "Well, she'll be safer in the back and..." he hesitated, catching Aerith's narrowing eyes. "And... and...
Meanwhile...
"My Shuriken!" Yuffie squawked at Cloud and stomped her foot. "Give it back!"
Mimicking her earlier stance, Cloud threw the weapon far beyond the Wutaian princess. She snorted in disgust. Cloud cleared his throat and pointed behind her, she spun around just in time to catch the weapon on its return.
She looked from the weapon in her hand and then back to the blond. "Why did you give it back that way?" She asked, securing it to her lower back.
Cloud shrugged and scratched his right eyebrow. "You're used to catching it that way and it is less strain on your wrist to catch it after it has lost some momentum."
"True." Yuffie nodded slowly, and then shook her head, gaze turning intent. "So about that materia..."
Cloud folded his arms, channeled what few memories he still had of his mother, and gave the girl a stern look.
Yuffie's eyes widened and she hung her head slightly. "What about one? Two?"
"I thought you were using the forests to hide, why would you want to come with us?"
Yuffie rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, but even if there are lots of monsters around, it gets old fast. It looks like you guys are up to something interesting so I want in!"
"Cloud!" Zack wailed.
Fighting a resigned laugh at his friend's desperate tone, he turned his back on the ninja and rejoined the others. Curious, and unwilling to be left behind, she followed.
Tifa and Aerith scowled down at the cowering young man while Barret snickered in the background.
"Zack?" Cloud asked, raising an eyebrow in a silent demand for an explanation. Zack whimpered but didn't respond. "Ladies?"
"He gave me the materia because he thinks I'm weak," Aerith growled.
"He doesn't think I'm feminine enough to need protecting," Tifa snarled.
The former SOLDIER First whimpered again.
Cloud hummed thoughtfully. "Yeah, I would have made the same decision. Aerith's healing and magic are the strongest in our group. Zack was thinking that in the back, she'd be able to keep an eye on our status and still be able to perform a physical attack in a pinch."
The pair relaxed slightly, and Zack tentatively pulled his hands from his head. He peeked up at the girls, puppy-eyes full blast. Aerith resisted a minute before giving in and patting him gently on the head.
Tifa slipped to Cloud's side. "Do you really think that's why he did it?" she asked in a whisper, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Cloud shook his head and snorted. "Don't ask questions you already know the answer to," he chided lightly. "Zack probably only wanted to protect his girlfriend, you can't fault him too much for that."
Tifa grudgingly nodded, her pout smoothing into fond resignation as she watched Zack crouch at Aerith's feet while she combed her fingers through his hair.
"Smoothly done." Red's voice was tinged with admiration. Yuffie's jaw dropped and she stared down at the red-toned feline.
"I once again feel justified in my decision to nominate Cloud as our leader," he continued.
Barret grunted. "Yeah, I'm glad I voted for Cloud too."
The lion-beast quirked an eyebrow up at the larger man.
Reading the unspoken question, the man huffed, "Jes- 'cause I don't use that flowery speech don't mean I can't understand it."
A distance away, Cloud yelped as Zack grabbed him in a headlock and knuckled his hair.
Barret snorted at the spectacle and smirked down at Red XIII. "And don't think I haven't noticed you crankin' up the vocab either."
"Hm, touché." Red shot him a toothy grin.
Finally regaining her voice, Yuffie squealed, "It talks!"
Everyone stopped at her exclamation to dumbly follow her pointing finger. Stealing the opportunity, Cloud slipped free from Zack's headlock and ruffled his hair back to normal.
Red XIII sat up on his haunches, an affronted look on his face. "Young lady, I'll have you know I'm most assuredly male."
"Huh?" Yuffie blinked.
"Red's a 'he' not an 'it'." Barret translated. "You wouldn't like it if someone called you a boy would 'ya?"
Yuffie stiffened, and her eyes went from Aerith to Tifa. She looked down, eyes watering, and patted her chest sadly. "I'm still growing..."
"Barret!" Aerith scolded.
"If, damn it! IF someone called you a boy!"
"Couldn't you tell from his voice?" Zack raised his right eyebrow at her. "He has a really deep, manly voice."
"So does Lady Haruka!" Yuffie snapped, cheeks puffing in a pout.
An awkward silence fell and Cloud coughed into his fist, eyes swiftly judging the angle of the sun. "Let's get moving. We can probably travel a few more miles before dark."
"What about me?" Yuffie cried, waving a fist. "You owe me your materia!"
"Hey, we don't owe you anything," Zack scolded. "Don't be a spoiled brat. You can't just get things because you demand them."
"You tell her!" Barret folded his arms and nodded.
Yuffie's face scrunched into a pout, and a chill of apprehension traveled down Cloud's spine. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?" he asked.
"Not until I get what I want," she answered in a low, petulant voice.
He folded his arms and looked down, brow furrowed in thought. Yuffie tapped her foot impatiently until Cloud finally sighed and uncrossed his arms. "Most of our materia is the common kind you can buy anywhere," he admitted. "But, if you swear on your honor to stop demanding our materia and help us on our quest... If you can do that, I'll let you have this."
Cloud dug in his pouch and held out a polished red orb. Yuffie's breath caught in her throat, her eyes locked greedily on the summon. Shaking her head, she huffed and tried to look disdainful, but her rapt gaze betrayed her.
"What is he doing?" Zack hissed to Tifa.
"I have no idea." Tifa shook her head. "That's the only summon we have, why would he give it to her?"
"Very well." Yuffie folded her arms and raised her head in an imperious gesture. "I will accept your terms. Now gimme!" The royal demeanor fell away, and she reached for the materia.
"Ah, ah, ah-" Cloud chided, raising it above his head. "You haven't sworn on your honor yet."
Yuffie snapped her fingers in disappointment.
After a hearty meal from Yuffie's skillfully hunted boar, they gathered around the fire while Zack explained their mission to the young fugitive. Eager to avoid reliving the details of Sephiroth's descent into madness, Tifa and Cloud conversed as they slowly walked the perimeter of the camp.
Zack sat back as he finished, "And finally, hacking things up like a wild animal is a waste of energy. It isn't something a SOLDIER First in his right mind would do." Zack spread his hands.
"You mean like you did with your dinner?" Barret raised a questioning eyebrow.
Zack blinked, "Hey! I was hungry!" Then he pouted, "Anyway, I never really acted like the other firsts. If you want to know what they acted like, look at Cloud."
They looked up in time to see the blond pause in his conversation with Tifa and casually behead a Nerosuferoth that came too close to camp. Without missing a beat, he sheathed his sword and continued talking.
"...Just like that." Zack shook his head. "Of course, Sephiroth was like that all the time." He waved his right hand. "But the other firsts and Cloud joke around sometimes."
Behind Zack, Cloud stooped down and picked something up from the ground, a wide smirk on his face.
"Hey Zack, catch!" Cloud tossed a pebble sized item at the man. With a slight fumble in the half-light of the setting sun, Zack caught it.
Aerith and Yuffie peered down at the red and green beetle in his hand. Zack frowned and scratched his head. Red XIII peered over his shoulder and barked a laugh. "A Junon Dung Beetle. How thoughtful, Cloud remembered your favorite."
Zack's left eye twitched and he glared back at the blond. "Cloud..." he growled in a low voice. The blond laughed and sprinted away, the snarling former First close behind. Tifa sighed, a tolerant expression on her face as Zack passed her. She slipped into Zack's spot, rolling her eyes at the beetle Zack left behind.
Yuffie blinked at the small insect and tossed a confused look at the pale Aerith and guffawing Barret. "I don't get it."
Red shook his head at the ninja and stooped to sniff the beetle squirming on its back. Shrugging once, he licked the insect into his mouth and crunched it a few times. "Hm, he was right. It does have an interesting flavor."
The three women grimaced at the feline while out of morbid curiosity, Barret asked, "Yeah? Like what?"
"It's a bit like a mixture of caramel and mint," he replied, rolling the flavor around his mouth. "I'm honestly unsure what to think about it."
Half an hour later, Zack's laughter rang across the grassland as he returned to camp with Cloud's right arm slung over his shoulders. The blond's head bobbed with each step, and a trickle of blood ran between his glazed eyes. Zack's hair was scrambled in worse disarray than usual and he sported a few seeping gashes and bruises.
"What happened?" Aerith gasped, activating her Restore materia.
Zack laughed sheepishly as he lowered the dazed blond to the ground. "Well... remember when I told Chocobo Billy that we'd buy a Chocobo Lure if we needed to breed chocobos?"
Tifa looked up from dabbing at the blood on Cloud's face with a handkerchief. She paled and her eyes widened while Aerith numbly nodded.
Zack sat down with a groan and prodded a knot on his forehead. "Well, apparently it is mating season and we busted up the party. A couple went after me too." He sighed in relief as Aerith's healing spell washed over him. "On the bright side, Cloud won a new Enemy Skill."
Cloud scowled at the former SOLDIER and blinked in surprise as Red XIII approached, head hanging in guilt. "I fear I must ask your pardon Zack. I gave in to my curiosity and deprived you of the snack Cloud gathered for you."
Zack growled at the beast, a hint of red darkening his cheeks.
"Totally worth it," Cloud laughed weakly, flopping onto his back.
"You guys are weird," Yuffie declared, her brows knotted in confusion.
Barret snorted, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
Chapter Notes:
-On Final Fantasy Wikia, under FFVII special viewable items, there is something listed as "Zack's last letter". A few of the kanji are too blurry for me to make out, but in the letter he apologizes for running away from home, but that he really wanted to join SOLDIER. In the P.S. he mentions that he's found a girlfriend... Obviously, Zack isn't a big letter writer...
-Pig vs Piggy: It was Piggy in the version I played (shrugs)