THE FIRST THING HE FEELS WHEN HE COMES TO IS WARMTH, too warm to be his own. his face is buried in a mess of hair - his chin rested against her collarbone. he makes no effort to lift his head, still exhausted from the wounds. his body might have healed the majority of them - but the toll was undeniable. PAIN was something he couldn't escape, no matter how durable that his body was. there was no blood to be seen on his body, surprising for the wounds that he had suffered. though, he knows that he can amount that to her. her own special abilities, she had made him look clean.

Their relationship had started somewhat unsteady, looking back on it. It wasn’t as if Cloud had made it easier, but it was a work in progress between the two. ShinRa had wanted Zero for their agenda, another round of making better SOLDIERs. How she escaped couldn’t have been easy, but since stumbling upon her one day in the Slums, they hadn’t precisely separated. He was still unsure of how he felt about her overall, but she hadn’t been a terrible companion for the most part. She was eager to take down ShinRa just like the rest of Avalanche, and her weapon skill was on par with his own when taking down fiends. They worked on several missions together, primarily mercenary work that Cloud had picked up thanks to the help of Aerith and Tifa.

A hand clutched tightly to the side of his head where pain ebbed and flowed like an erratic tide. The headaches were becoming more frequent, and his delusions felt more real with each one, but for the most part, he was able to ignore them and move on; Zero was perceptive, far too much for his comfort.

She had quickly taken down the flying beasts in the area and approached him with what he could perceive as a shuddering vision of concern. Slowly, her hands lifted to reach for the hand upon his head but paused mere inches from their goal. “…Say the word, and I’ll stop.”

A sigh flows from his lips.

He looks at her with slight irritation. She was a new enigma to his world, and he had yet to grasp how to deal with her. It wasn’t as if she was terrible, but how she handled things and spoke was starting to get on his nerves. He was never the type to be the better of the group. He was usually thought to be more of the hard ass, but she was starting to take his place. Did he mind? Not really…but Cloud only had so much patience.