Hello, friends! This chapter is kinda short but hopefully I won't have you waiting too long on the following chapter. Thank you so much for your reviews and for adding the story to your follow and fav lists. You're all amazing :D

~Twelve~

After his phone call with Zack, Cloud thought about maybe just leaving the hotel and going back to the hospital to keep him company. For some reason though the idea of Marco waking up to find he'd ditched him made him feel guilty. And he was tired, maybe just mentally more than physically because the idea of having to walk himself even the distance to the street outside seemed like a feat in itself, and yet he still found himself unable to sleep.

It was hours past the time he was supposed to take it if he was going to, but he decided to just take one of the sleeping pills he'd been prescribed. That seemed to do the trick because he was finally able to sleep and when he woke up it was to what sounded like the shower running in the bathroom off the bedroom.

Lifting his head, he looked back over his shoulder to confirm Marco wasn't next to him. He was a little surprised he hadn't heard him get up or go into the bathroom. Lying there listening to the somewhat muffled sound of the water falling against the tile made him feel like he was back in the Shinra tower. Waiting.

Reaching over to the side table, he picked up his phone and sat himself up to check the time and see if there were any messages for him. It was later than he thought based on how dark it still seemed in the room. There were thick curtains over the window that must have been blocking most of the sunlight. He had messages on his phone from Zack from about an hour and a half earlier letting him know that Kunsel was going to be discharged that morning some time and he'd keep him updated.

Setting his phone back down, he moved the bed covers off himself and his legs out of the bed, putting his feet on the floor. He'd brought his bag with him when he'd returned to the bed earlier, leaving it on the floor within close reach. He swallowed down his morning medication just before Marco exited the bathroom holding a towel around his waist. He'd already known it but hadn't thought much on how fit Marco actually was until then. Lean but still muscular. Strong. He used to be like that before losing so much mass during the coma he was in. He still had some muscle but he was thinner than he wanted to be and it was going to take a lot of work to look like he had, if that was even possible.

"Good morning," Marco smiled and said to him when he saw he was awake.

"Morning," he said with a short nod. He felt awkward suddenly. He didn't do the whole 'waking up in the morning still with the person he'd had sex with' thing. Then again, excluding Tifa, he didn't do the whole 'hang around for longer than it took to get dressed' thing either. "You mind if I…" he started to ask, implying he was hoping to use the shower now that Marco was out of it.

"No, please have at it," Marco told him. "My stuff's in there if you want to use it. Or there's the hotel shampoo and soap," he explained as Cloud was getting up off the bed and picked up his bag by the one strap to bring with him.

"Thanks," Cloud said to him, not really looking at him as he headed toward the bathroom.

"Hey," Marco said to him as he reached out to take hold of his shirt gently, his fingers taking hold of the cotton material at Cloud's chest and pulling him toward him a little. Cloud looked up at him finally then. "That was nice last night," Marco told him.

"Nice," Cloud said in return, questioning the adjective a little. The guy smelled good, a mixture of scents from his shampoo, soap and mouthwash.

"Yeah, it was fun," Marco replied. "Thank you," he added.

"Glad I could be of a service, I guess," Cloud said back to him and he could see the guy's face redden a little.

"Sorry, that was probably a dumb thing to say," Marco said as he shook his head.

"It's cool," Cloud told him. "You're welcome," he said lightly, patting the guy's upper arm in a casual sportsmanlike way before making his way to the bathroom.

Inside the shower, he could see Marco's bottles of hair and body products. He had his own stuff with him from his apartment to use but couldn't help popping open the caps on Marco's bottles to just smell them. Every time he was near a fragrant scent it was always like he was expecting the one that had lingered in the apartment he'd shared with Rand at Shinra. The one that he attributed to his Keeper and which seemed to cover everything. He sometimes wondered if having lived in the same space as Rand, if even he had started to smell like it to other people.

When he was done in the bathroom, he saw that Marco was mostly dressed. He had on a light blue button up shirt that was still open over a white tee and a pair of dark blue boxer shorts. The light-blocking curtains were open over the window, with just the sheer second set left to cover over the glass. Marco was sitting in the armchair in the corner of the room concentrating hard through a pair of black framed glasses while pushing a needle and thread through the fabric of a pair of navy dress pants. It looked like he was trying to fix something with one of the pockets.

"You're sewing?" Cloud asked with some surprise when he saw him.

"I am," he confirmed without looking up. "Got a sales call today and this is my lucky pair of pants."

"I saw you last night in the casino, you don't need luck," Cloud pointed out as he sat himself down on the end of the bed to put on a pair of socks.

"Everyone needs luck," Marco argued, glancing up once and then looking up over the top of his glasses at Cloud when he realized he was looking at him. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," Cloud said. "I just realized, you're kind of a nerd," he stated.

"I'll have you know I'm a huge nerd actually," Marco told him with his attention still on what he was doing, pushing and pulling the needle through the dark fabric in his lap. "Crosswords, man I'm the master, and I make math my bitch. Balancing the books for work? Ooh boy!" he joked making Cloud smile a bit in return. "Hope I haven't tarnished your image of me," the guy said.

"Not so far," Cloud said back.

"Thank god," Marco replied. "Oh, your phone was ringing. A few times," he said then.

When Cloud looked he could see the calls had been from Zack. Maybe Kunsel was getting discharged. He figured he'd call him back when he got outside.

"I gotta go," he told Marco as he stood up and took hold of his bag. "Thanks for putting me up a second night," he said as he slung his pack on. "Good luck with your sales call," he said, emphasizing the word luck before turning to leave the bedroom.

"Well, hey," Marco called, setting aside his pants he'd been mending and going after him. He slid his glasses up onto his head as he approached. "What about later we—" he began to say and Cloud stopped him.

"I'm busy," was all he said though.

"All evening and night?" Marco asked a little skeptically.

"Yeah," he confirmed then shook his head a little. "What does it matter?" he questioned.

"I like hanging out with you," Marco said.

He exhaled deeply through his nose. "I'm probably racing tonight," he told Marco.

"Out in the wasteland, right?" the guy asked. Cloud looked back at him critically.

"I'm afraid to say yes," he admitted.

"Why?" Marco inquired through a chuckle.

"'Cause you've got this look like you're thinking of showing up there, or something," he pointed out.

"Would that be a problem?" Marco countered.

"Not a problem if you're cool with being ignored," Cloud said with a shrug.

"I see," Marco replied in understanding. "Suppose you want me to stay quiet about, you know, all of this," he said.

"All of what?" Cloud said back one eyebrow raised.

Marco grinned. "Right. Well, never could say no to a pretty face," he said in acceptance. The guy put his arms around him and slid his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

"Hmm," Cloud hummed as he reached back and took hold of Marco's wrists. He pulled Marco's hands from his pockets and maneuvered them behind him, leaving them in reach of the guy's own ass instead. "I don't have that problem," he told Marco through a bit of a smug smirk.

They said bye to each other and he left. When he got down to street level he called Zack back. His friend picked up after a moment.

"Hey, I'm on the train, reception's going to be crappy," Zack said without greeting when he answered. His voice crackled a little on the line.

"Left the hospital?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah. Kunsel's with me," Zack told him. "I'm taking him home. I'll call you in a bit, okay?"

"Okay," Cloud said. He waited a moment then, not sure if Zack was still on the line. He wasn't.

So Kunsel was out of the hospital. That seemed promising. Zack said he was bringing him home, which seemed a bit of an unclear statement. He didn't know if he meant Kunsel's home, or his and Aerith's place. By the looks of Kunsel the night before, he had his doubts the guy was staying anywhere in particular. He'd have to wait to talk to Zack to find out.

"That was Cloud," Zack told Kunsel, though his friend didn't acknowledge him at all. He sat slumped in his seat staring straight ahead at the window across the centre aisle, as he had since they boarded the train together.

During discussion of Kunsel's discharge, Zack had been in the room. The doctor had told Kunsel he was prescribing him some medication and told him he was going to need to fully abstain from drinking alcohol. The doctor wanted to schedule a follow up appointment with him in two weeks and asked for a phone number he could be reached at. Kunsel said he didn't have one to give him so Zack gave him his own phone number. Kunsel didn't have an address to give either. As far as Zack could tell, Kunsel wasn't living anywhere. His friend hadn't said so but he gathered he'd been shelter hopping or just sleeping outside. Zack said he would bring him home to stay with him. There was no fight from him. He didn't turn down the offer but he hadn't exactly accepted either. He'd left the hospital with Zack and gotten on the train with him without saying a thing.

"Seriously man. We haven't seen each other in a year. I sat up all night waiting to talk to you. I'm bringing you home with me and you can't even look at me or talk to me?" Zack spoke a little sharply then, fed up with the silent treatment he'd been getting. He needed to get to the bottom of what had happened to Kunsel the last year.

"I didn't ask you to do that," was all Kunsel said to that. His voice was toneless like he couldn't have cared less.

"You're my friend," Zack pointed out. "You gave the doctor the run around but it's not happening with me. You need to tell me what's going on, what happened to you."

"Nothing happened," Kunsel tried to claim.

"Nothing? Aerith and I got a postcard from you like eight weeks ago from the western continent saying you were helping a non-profit organization build houses. There is no way that's true," he argued.

"Why?" Kunsel asked.

"Why? You look like crap. You couldn't lift a hammer right now, let alone build a damn house!" Zack fired at him. "That doc said your liver is showing serious damage from the chronic alcohol problem you apparently have. Have you been doing anything for a year other than getting drunk out of your mind?" he asked angrily. Kunsel said nothing to that. "Were you ever out of Midgar at all?" was Zack's next question that also went unanswered. He exhaled heavily, getting frustrated. "Was that really you sending those postcards, 'cause I seriously doubt right now your ability to string a full sentence together."

"You're such a detective, huh?" Kunsel spoke finally, clearly annoyed then.

"What?"

"What does it matter, Zack? You've been happy enough with the lie, what does it matter?" he asked as he finally looked at him.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Zack said, in shock. "Am I happy you lied and made me think you were living it up somewhere on some free-spirited eternal road trip? I know I'm not happy knowing you have no job, no home, and have been living inside of a bottle for months right under our noses and lying about it. And don't talk to me like I've just been merrily enjoying life here. I've been worried about you. I've tried to contact you dozens of times. The last conversation we had in person, you told me you broke into my rented storage locker and stole from me and that you were quitting SOLDIER. You disappeared and we didn't hear from you for weeks! I thought the worst had happened until you finally called. Then it was all 'yeah I'm fine, great, I just decided I'd like to go off on my own. Travel and see family'. Why would you lie like that?"

"Well, probably because I didn't want to see you," Kunsel told him simply.

"Why?" Zack asked, turning as far as he could in his seat to face Kunsel straight on.

"Didn't want to see anyone," Kunsel said, looking away again. It was a long tense moment of silence. Zack let the words sink in but knew there was far more to it.

"What did they do to you?" he questioned his friend softly.

"Who?" Kunsel said back.

"Shinra."

"About what?" was his friend's next question as he still tried to avoid giving any information to make everything make sense.

"Did they fire you?" Zack asked.

"I left, like I said I was going to," Kunsel replied.

"And?"

"And what?"

"They let you go? All nice and easy?" Zack inquired doubtfully and Kunsel scoffed.

"No. Not nice and easy. Nothing is nice and easy with Shinra." He shook his head and pulled his hands from his coat pockets to cross his arms defensively. He looked at Zack and shrugged. He seemed annoyed but he began to explain.

"I broke protocol by visiting you at the jail without approval," he said, "and I didn't report back to SOLDIER when they told me to. When they tracked me down they questioned me and I told them I wanted to resign and leave the company. Course they assumed it had to do with you or some kind of ulterior motive. Weren't willing to accept the reasons I gave. They offered me a raise to shut up and stay and continue to do as I was told, promising my life would be hell if I refused. I told them where they could shove their offer and when I turned them down they dishonourably discharged me from SOLDIER so they wouldn't need to pay me out my banked retirement sum," his friend revealed.

"How? On what grounds?" Zack asked. It was a pretty horrifying thought. The banked sum was what the SOLDIERs relied on to live when they were retired or discharged due to injury.

"They decided I was selling intel to the eco-terrorists. Less than twelve hours after I was out, the company evicted my family from the Shinra-owned home they live in out west, even though they were capable of paying their expenses. The company spread around out there that I was a traitor and a terrorist and anyone who rented to my family would have their supply of mako energy cut off," Kunsel went on.

"Seriously, what—where are they living?" Zack questioned, his stomach twisting as he heard what Kunsel was telling him.

"At home," Kunsel said and quickly he had tears building in his reddened empty-seeming eyes. "I got down on my fucking knees, literally, and begged the company not to make them suffer," he said with the tears resting on his lower eyelids. "They told me they'd let them stay in their home if I stayed away from you and anyone from the company and if I kept my mouth shut about everything I know. But the damage was done with my family. Everyone in town thinks they're garbage now for what was said about me. Their lives are ruined. They don't have enough money to leave and go somewhere else and I have no way of helping them. They don't even speak to me now."

"What about the postcards?" Zack asked softly and Kunsel shook his head. As he did his tears broke away from his eyes and started rolling down his cheeks.

"It's bullshit," he stated.

"It's your writing though," Zack pointed out. After having worked with him in SOLDIER he knew Kunsel's handwriting enough to know it was his.

"I wrote like ten of them at once. I sent them in a package to someone I know and asked him to send one every three months to you," he revealed.

"Why? Why wouldn't you talk to me? You could have told me what was happening," Zack argued, partly angry but mostly just devastated.

"No. I couldn't. That was the deal," Kunsel said firmly while wiping the tears from his pale skin.

"I don't get it though, what do they think would happen if we were hanging out together?" Zack asked, confused.

"It's not about what could happen, it's about punishing me," Kunsel stated plainly. "And it's worse than an execution or fucking prison."

"Was it Rufus?" Zack asked.

"No, it was the President's damage control people," Kunsel told him.

"I just, are you sure? The president was dead just days after you said you were leaving. What if Rufus—"

"It was fast," Kunsel said, cutting him off. "It was so fast. Everything that happened. When I look back I can see that they must have had the plan ready to execute for a while. Since your video you sent to the media aired and they asked me to find that evidence you mentioned, maybe even before that. Maybe since the day they knew I was searching for you after you disappeared in Nibelheim or when I hired that private investigator. They were ready to retaliate at a moment's notice."

It was so hard knowing that he was probably right. Back when the company had declared him dead, Kunsel had refused to believe it and did his own investigating. They'd kept Kunsel close, promoted him to first class, likely believing it was better to keep him where they could control him. Kunsel too had stayed knowing there were more advantages to being with the company than against or outside of it.

"Tseng said you were on voluntary leave...I believed him," Zack uttered then, mostly to himself. He and Aerith had asked him to his face and he had seemed genuine when he said Kunsel had left on personal leave and that there was nothing else behind that.

"I don't know if he knows anything," Kunsel said. "There were no Turks involved that I know of. The people who dealt with me...I'd never seen them before. They're something different," he explained.

"So, you never left Midgar?" Zack questioned after a few seconds of silence.

"I have no way to leave. I don't have any money anymore. Anything I did have I sent to my family," he said.

"Was there no one you could stay with here? What about Cassidy?" Zack asked of his girlfriend he'd had.

"They made threats…" he said, not going into any detail. "I needed her away from me. No way was I involving her in any of this twisted shit," he claimed bitterly. "SOLDIERs shouldn't have anyone. I know that now."

It hurt Zack to hear him say that and it was hard to hear because he had felt the same often. He'd agonized over the danger he put Aerith and his family and friends in just by being who he was.

"What about the guys from SOLDIER. There must have been someone to go to, to stay with if not with me?"

"I can't!" Kunsel shouted at him then, drawing the attention briefly of a few other passengers. "Don't you get that?! I get nothing! I'm allowed nothing! I gave up any right to anything, any support from any possible Shinra connected source, including friends, so that my family could still have a roof over their heads. I'm cut off! It's over. My life is over."

"No, it's different now," Zack said, trying to reassure him. "Rufus is president. Tseng would probably be able to help, to get Rufus to—"

"To what?" Kunsel shot at him, interrupting him. "To what, Zack? You think I want them to save me after taking everything from me? After holding me hostage for years?! Forcing me to stay and work out of fear. They can't take back what was said about me back home. They can't take back the hell my family has gone through the past year," he declared strongly. "They lost their jobs. My one brother was turned away by the army because of me. The other was jumped and had the shit beat out of him." He lifted his left arm and slammed the side of his fist against the empty seat back next to him. He leaned forward then and put his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry," Zack said after a moment. He didn't know what to say. "Kunsel, I'm so sorry. Please, you can't just give up," he told him.

"Yeah? Why not?" Kunsel asked sharply, turning his head to look back at him. "Why. Not."

"You can't let them win," Zack spoke quietly but clearly, placing a hand on Kunsel's back. Kunsel laughed at him then. The sound of it was unnerving.

"They will always win. You think you and Cloud won?" he questioned challengingly. "What did you win?" He asked. "They still own you, Zack. You're just too stupid to see it."