It was by chance that Cloud happened to even be walking down that particular street after another unpleasant day dragging his heels in the pursuit of contracts to line his pockets. This place was no different from all the rest; just another dive beneath the Plate, filled to the brim with unfortunate people with nowhere else to go.
There was a reason they called these places the slums, with their ramshackle little hovels all packed together and a smell akin to rotting vegetables and musty untreated wood. It was something the mercenary figured he would never get used to, not that he’d been raised in a life of opulence by any stretch of the imagination. It was during this fit of absent observation that the woman crosses his path, jostling him out of his own head with a start and a disdainful glare shot in her general direction.
“Watch where you’re going, lady…” he’d grumbled, not even caring enough to realise that he even recognised her, never mind anything else. It wasn’t until she takes him by the arm, forcing him once again to gaze upon her, hearing the words tumbling out of her mouth that the sheer gravity of this woman’s presence weighted on him. Pulled into an embrace, one that he’d all but forgotten, Cloud simply stands there, stiff and unmoving. He’s having another episode, caught hopelessly in the throws of a hallucination, this woman who holds him so tenderly, she can’t be his mother… she’s dead.
That final notion settled in his guts like a brick, heavy and sickly, and as if by instinct Cloud grabs the woman by the shoulders in order to push her away, to gain back that much needed personal space to process the information she’d just delivered.
But the opposite happens, the contact of leather clad hands against her triggers all those old memories not quite forgotten. Overwhelmed then by the vision of her, the smell of her cooking, the wildflowers set at the table, the sound of her voice and those bright blue eyes he’d inherited from her that always shone with her smile in the glint of the late afternoon sun. It was too much to take in, even as his arms circle her smaller frame and pull her just that little bit closer.
“You’ve gotten smaller…” was all he was able to even say, a choked murmur against her neck amidst the crowd which still moved about them.
It had made her heart sink into the depths quite quickly , that her son . Her precious child had hugged her back and so tightly too . This could still very well be a hallucination , given the next words she’d spoken to him . ‘ Oh Cloud , how’s Zack doing ? I really miss him . And that other nice man Sephiroth ... why ... why aren’t they with you ? ‘ Claudia had seemed unbothered by this , she was only a distance good memory . Seeming clueless to what her fate would have brought her .
It was concerning to her that those two weren’t with her son this time around . Cloud did look older , the shift in time . Smiling as she changed the subject and moved her hand onto his cheek . ‘ Ah ! you’ve grown so much . You look just like your father .... It makes me so proud ... ‘ Caught in that time loop it would seem . ‘ He wanted to be a SOLDIER so bad , it only makes sense I suppose . ‘ Saying to him as she moved to check out what he was wearing.
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