#short thread.

@dreamingsoldier:

At the request, Zack turned his head to the side, from where he'd been leaning against the wall and staring out the window.

He didn't really want Cloud to see him crying, but he wasn't going to just deny Cloud's gentle beckon, either.

He raised his wrist with a sigh, running it across both eyes to erase as much evidence as possible.  He knew his nose and eyes would still be red, though.

And then, he turned and approached, head hung low and avoiding eye contact. Without even a question, he stepped right up to Cloud and let his arms fall loosely around his waist, head bowed to rest on his shoulder.

The warmth of their bodies bleed together. Cloud wants to stay that way for a while, where seconds blur into minutes. For Zack to know that he’s there, even if Cloud didn’t say the words out loud. His hand finds the back of Zack’s neck and his fingers work small, tight circles along the stiff muscles there.

“   well ,   whenever  someone  tells  me  i  can’t  do  something ,   i  prove  them  wrong .   ”

Aeris sipped her own drink and pushed a trash can over to him. “Aww what’s wrong Cloud? Or should I say Lightweight?” She cackled a little before reaching behind the bar and grabbing him a unopened bottle of ginger ale.

“Alright tough guy- Sit down and put your head between your knees- I’ll find you a snack or something to soak up some of that” Aeris practically skipped behind the bar to the store room where Tifa kept the pretzels. While Aeris did feel a little guilty that her friend was now blasted beyond belief she couldn’t help the sense of pride that swelled in her chest at the thought of her being able to out drink a SOLDIER.

“If you need to puke its okay. It really is my fault- I thought you could handle it”

“Not gonna puke,” Cloud mumbles, his voice coming muffled from behind the hand pressed to his face. Most of his nausea eventually subsides enough that he can trust himself to take the few precious steps it would take to reach the nearest bar stool and drag himself onto it. Notably, he ignores Aeris’s recommendation to put his head between his knees. He’s drunk, not undignified. Only moderately undignified. “Pretty shure y’...spiked that drink or somethin’.”

Where do ghosts spend most of their days? What do they do to pass the time? Cloud has those questions every time he looks at Vincent.

That isn’t to say that Vincent Valentine is ghost-- the ex-Turk is very much flesh and blood. Yet he possesses a strange ephemeral quality, perhaps owed to his manner of dress with thick, furling red cloaks and the dead silence with which he can pass through an empty room.

“There aren’t many other people who I know that can travel light and fast. Monster attacks have been growing more frequent...and Reeve is still working out a master plan on the electrical grid to get light going as far out from Edge as possible.”

Ironically, it is Cloud who feels the need to talk at length about any given subject to fill the vacuum in which Vincent Valentine’s silence resides.

“   i’m  a  winner  when  it  comes  to  successful  relationships .   ”

“   you  turned  your  back  on  me  when  i  needed  you .   ”