[fic] FFVII: Letters Home
For enishi_sama, a Zack and Cloud friendship fic long overdue. As a disclaimer, I am not familiar with any of the Compilation canon that comes before the game, so this might be a bit AU. If so, sorry 'bout that =P Nothing much happens in this though, so it's probably ok...

FINAL FANTASY VII
Letters Home
[Other header stuff: PG, Zack, Cloud, pre-game]
Zack writes letters to someone in Midgar. Sephiroth goes for a walk. Cloud reminisces.


Letters Home


Zack spent the last two nights of their sojourn in Kalm writing a letter.

Cloud Strife wasn't exactly sure what this letter was about or whom it was addressed to, but both nights, Zack had refused to go out with the others, shutting himself in his room at the inn and scribbling on pieces of paper with his light burning long into the night. Cloud would have asked how his roommates got any sleep, except he didn't think that Sephiroth needed sleep, and the other guard who was sharing the room with them had apparently decided that getting drunk was a more important priority.

The morning they left for Nibelheim, he'd rousted his own hungover roommates from bed, thrown all his clothes into his suitcase, donned his uniform and tucked the mask under one arm to knock on Zack's door.

Sephiroth opened it.

"Up early, I see," he said.

"I'm looking for Zack, sir," Cloud said, a bit shyly. The man seemed to fill the whole doorway with his presence. Sephiroth was tall, but it wasn't usually his height that people talked about. Instead it was something about the way he stood, arms crossed over his chest, dignified and proudly graceful. "I've got some of his extra luggage in my room."

"Over here, Cloud," he heard Zack call over Sephiroth's shoulder. "Let him in, man."

Sephiroth smirked a bit, drawing back from the doorframe. Cloud let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding, crossed the room almost on tiptoe. Zack was sitting at the writing desk by the window, and Cloud didn't see any sign of the third man who was supposed to be sharing the room. Zack saw him looking, and laughed.

"Seems like he's been staying out nights. There's a...ladies' parlor down the road that the bar's on. If you catch my drift."

Cloud did. He wasn't sure what to say; some of his fellow guards liked to frequent those places when they were out on patrol, but he'd never gone. Somehow, the idea of it seemed a bit repugnant to him.

"I'm going for a walk," Sephiroth said from the doorway. "I'll be back in an hour, Zack, and then we're leaving."

Zack gave a careless wave. "See ya later." A moment later, they heard the door close and the sound of boots fading down the hallway. Zack sat back in his chair. "You sleep well?"

"Mostly," Cloud said, still uncomfortable at the fact that he was standing in someone else's room, but mostly at the fact that Sephiroth had been here and had spoken to him at all. It was obvious which corner of the room the other man had occupied; there was a rucksack leaning against neatly folded and stacked blankets, spare boots and a curved sword lined up at the foot of the bed. Zack's side of the room, on the other hand, was a mess of toiletries and socks and blankets in a floor-hugging wad.

"How you doing?"

Cloud shrugged. "All right."

Zack put down his pen, slouching in his chair with arms crossed behind his head. He always looked so natural, Cloud thought - relaxed, but poised, like a part of the landscape, in motion. Theirs was an odd friendship, a partnership of the elite and the common become something more comfortable and deeper. He wondered if other SOLDIERs had friends from different walks of life, and then he thought of Sephiroth, who had no friends, except maybe Zack, if that could be called friendship.

"Yo," Zack said. "You're quiet today."

"I'm always quiet."

The darker man laughed. "Yeah, that's true." He paused a bit, looking out the window at the rustic streets of Kalm. The edges of the windowpane were wet with morning dew. "I wonder if we'll be back here again? I like it."

"You'll like Nibelheim," Cloud said, with a sudden desperate hope that Zack really would like Nibelheim, if he liked Kalm. "It's nothing spectacular. But it's...it's nice there."

Zack seemed amused. "I'm sure I will. You told your folks you're coming home?"

He shrugged. "There's no phones there. And...I'm not good at letters. Besides, it's just my mom."

Zack's forehead wrinkled. "Wasn't there a girl?"

Cloud felt his face grow hot and he thought of Tifa and her innocent eyes looking up into his, asking why he was leaving. He wondered if she still remembered him. The memory was a warm knot inside his stomach, but she'd probably gone on to better things. "No. No girl."

"You sure?" Zack looked intently at him, and then a slow smile spread across his face. "Oh, ok. Right. I see."

"What?"

"Nothing." His friend turned back to his desk, stretching and pursing his lips in a soft whistle. "You should get out more, Cloud."

"I get out," Cloud said defensively. "And what about you? I haven't seen you going out lately."

Zack gestured carelessly to the desk, and Cloud saw the letter, a neat, square envelope sealed and addressed. He squinted, but couldn't quite make out Zack's messy handwriting. To Midgar? "Who's in Midgar?" he asked.

Zack shifted guiltily and shoved the letter under the edge of a book. "Someone important."

Cloud thought of Tifa again, of that night at the well and shy goodbyes. He wondered if she would have liked it if he'd written her a letter. Probably not; what would he say anyway, to a girl he hardly knew? He imagined himself stepping into Nibelheim, taking off the Shinra helmet and meeting Tifa's eyes, imagined her frowning slightly and asking, Do I know you?

It was one of those fears he'd always had, because he had told her he was going off to make SOLDIER and do Nibelheim proud, and all he had become was some lowly Shinra guard.

"Snap out of it," Zack said, and he was aware that the other man was out of his chair, crouched down next to him and waving one finger in his face. "You think too much."

"I've got a lot to think about," Cloud said. "You talk too much."

There was a pause, and then Zack burst out laughing. "Yeah," he said, "I suppose I do. I'm talking so much that I'm not gonna have time to pack before we leave, and then Sephiroth's gonna kick my ass."

"I brought the rest of your things," Cloud said. "I'll help."

The packing, which was mostly just as bad as Zack predicted, took the better part of the hour until Sephiroth returned, looking thunderous and out-of-sorts. Cloud shrank against the wall and hoped the tall man did not see him. Zack didn't seem to notice, chattering away. It was not until they were out on the streets of Kalm, trudging out of the town entrance towards their troop vehicle that Zack stopped and snapped his fingers. "Damn," he said.

Cloud glanced at him quizzically, and he said, "I was going to drop my letter off at the post office on the way out."

"No dawdling, Fair!" Sephiroth called sharply from the truck.

"You can always mail it from Nibelheim," Cloud said, tasting the familiar, strange shape of that name on his tongue. Nibelheim. Nibelheim. Tifa. "We have a post office there, too."

Zack grinned at him a little affectionately, and Cloud shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, probably the best," he said. "Though we might be back in Midgar before the letter gets there."

"Then you can just tell her that it's on its way."

Zack narrowed his eyes. "How do you know it's a she?"

Cloud felt himself flush, with the Shinra helmet as a shield from the world. For once, he was glad of it. "I was just guessing," he said. "Is it?"

Zack just grinned again. "Nice try. Wouldn't you like to know?" They reached the truck and he held the door open for Cloud to climb in, and then he said, "I'm really looking forward to this town of yours now. It should be fun."

Cloud settled back against the seat bench, waiting for the butterflies to settle, wondering if the town he still loved would recognize him and welcome him home. There would be home cooking, he thought, and the familiar spire of Mt. Nibel in the distance from the window of his room, and there would be Tifa Lockhart. "Yeah," he said. "It should be."





Next up is Tifa in ch 13 of Gunpowder & Firecrackers, and then ch 13 of Cacophony of Angels (yes, yokozuki, you read that right! XD I'm actually working on it...)