A Letter to Home

[theheroics]

Sender: Zack Fair
To: All
Subject: No Subject (Backdated to the first week)

[ Words that begin to appear in the journals are written slowly, as if with intent. The handwriting is... coherent at best at this slower pace, but every word is coming in gradually and seemingly with more frustration.

Guess who thinks this is just a plain ol' journal to use? ]

Dear Aeir
What's up!?
Hello! Hey th———

Hey Aerith.
Hope things are going well?? good for you

[ UGH ]

Sorry it's taken so long for me to write back... I know youve been waiting a long time
I can't call right now but soon, okay?
how are the flowers? you swimming in gil yet?
Theirs theres lots of weird stuff going on that I'll explain when I get back.
So... yeah. See you soon
Regard [ No that was SO STUPID ]
bye

[ The words at the bottom of the page are suddenly cut out, as if completely disregarded or tossed away.

But seconds later another one appears: ]

Hello!

[ Nope that one is gone, too. ]

Comments

[theheroics]

[ ...

Zack tried to hold back his surprise. His heartbeat so loud it drummed against his ears he was sure Cloud could hear it.

"You know about Sephiroth, right?" ]

He's... alive? [ No. No. This couldn't be right. Cloud had defeated him, he was sure of it. He could remember the noises coming from the other room in the reactor, he knew Cloud had finished the job... that he had avenged his hometown.

That against all odds he had defeated Sephiroth. So then how...? ]

That can't be right...

[ Zack folds his arms over his chest to try to keep himself still. Trying to not let himself be too involved. His hands squeezed against his arms to control his breathing. ]

[spikyheaded]

[All Cloud can glean from Zack's expression is that this was the first time he's heard of this.]

Whatever you've heard in the news, it's all Shinra propaganda. He's alive somehow.

[theheroics]

Have you actually seen him alive? Did you run into him- [ He was going to say again but the words halted in his throat before he could say it.

How much did Cloud know? Did he actually remember anything that happened that night? ]

[spikyheaded]

Yeah, we did. Just at the edge of Midgar... [He shakes his head, one hand tightly gripping on his arm. The words Sephiroth said to him still didn't make sense but he remembered them clearly.]

No, the edge of creation. Whatever that meant.

[theheroics]

The edge of... creation? Sorry, that doesn't ring a bell. [ But the fact that Cloud had seen Sephiroth again just makes him sick to his stomach. But if he knew anything about Firsts, is that they didn't go down so easily... ]

But man, that's wild to think about. [ He turns his gaze away, staring into his lap. ] Do you, uh, remember any of the details about how he died in action? Hard to believe someone could just show up again after an announcement like that.

[spikyheaded]

[Cloud doesn't fault Zack for his reply. It wasn't something he could explain either, even if he tried.]

Unfortunately, no.

[His reply is accompanied by a shake of his head.]

I remember finding him at the reactor in Nibelheim. He'd gone mad and burned the whole village down. [There's a pregnant pause. It's hard to recall the events of that day in his mind, even more so having to recount it like this. He grunts, deciding that he shouldn't go into further detail.] I went up against him on my own. But I can't remember actually fighting him.

[A lump formed in his throat, imagine all sorts of scenarios on how that actually battle went down. And yet, for some reason, Sephiroth didn't kill him. That alone made was hard to believe on some days.]

All I know is that I lived somehow.

[theheroics]

[ ...

Wordlessly Zack will pick himself out of the chair, almost abruptly, and begin to pick up the pieces of paper thrown about his room.

He had to move, he couldn't sit still. The words that Cloud spoke to him tightened a deep knot in his chest. His body felt cold. He needed to move. To occupy his mind. Anything but think about the obvious hole of his existence that was somehow was left out of Cloud's mind.

Why... why couldn't he remember him?

What the hell was going on? ]

... I see. [ He uttered after leaning down to take another piece of paper off the ground, never looking back to read the man's facial expressions. He just couldn't do it. ]

Gotta be someone pretty special to take on Sephiroth by yourself. [ What does he even say? His mind was too clouded to try to navigate the conversation to make it seem normal- like the events Cloud was explaining didn't have to do with the both of them.

He felt sick. ]

I'm sorry that happened... but you can count me in the next time he tries to square up against you.

[spikyheaded]

[The noise of Zack getting up from his chair was enough to make Cloud look up from the ground and toward the other man. Was he taking the news of Sephiroth's return that hard? He wouldn't have blamed him. Sephiroth was a legend who just fell off the face of the Planet suddenly. To hear about his reutn was no easy feat.

But Cloud doesn't comment on that or Zack's suddenly shift of tone. Instead, he watches him for a while as he paces around the room.

Considering it was just himself, Zack, and Tifa who he assumed knew about Sephiroth's existence in the dream world, that vote in confidence to aid him helped, no matter how little.]

It might not happen, but I'll be counting on you if it does.

[His gaze still follows Zack cleaning the room, realizing just how many times he's tried to work on this letter. Since deciding to room with him, they had mostly been cleaning up after themselves. But now...]

Do you need any help with that?

[theheroics]

[ Even though Zack had only met Cloud for around a year before the events that followed in Nibelheim, he found himself slowly trying to pick up the pieces of their scattered friendship much like the papers on the floor. Maybe it was alright for Cloud not to remember, as traumatic as it was. But regardless of reason or whether any of it made sense, he felt a sort of calmness wash over him to know that Cloud was still reliant of him.

That through all of this, he was still able to protect him.

He felt a small sting of pride to know what Cloud could count on him, and it was with a half smile that Zack shook his head. ]

Nah, I'll take care of it. Gotta get rid of all this evidence anyway.

[spikyheaded]

I'll leave you to it then.

[Well, if Zack didn't need his help, he'll make his leave, straightening up and heading towards the door. But when he gets there, he pauses at the threshold, considering what comes to him next.

Looking over his shoulder, he casts a glance back at Zack as he cleans up. His mako blue eyes move to stare at a balled-up wad of paper in his roommate's hand.]

You should tell her all that. Aerith. If she shows up.

[He raises a brow slightly, maybe as a sign of encouragement if Zack meets his gaze. But it's gone as quickly as it arrived. Cloud looks back out the room, his tone shifting slightly beneath his breath in an amused exhale.]

Even "what's up".

[Then he takes a step and heads back to his room.]

[theheroics]

[ Zack doesn't make any further inclination when his roommate moves to exit the room. He'd much rather work to get up all of these papers as quickly as possible and pretending this entire fiasco never happened (and telling by the new writing being scribbled in his journal it was likely more nosey people were replying to his mistake).

However as the man reaches down to pick up another piece he pauses, hearing Cloud's voice from the entrance of the room. He turns, just fast enough to see the little bit of expression leaving the man's face as the words settle into the pit of his stomach.

You should tell her that. It takes him a moment to react, his fingers frozen mid grab and a sincere look of thoughtfulness causing his brows to furrow together. ]

Yeah... I will. [ Cloud had long since walked away by this point, but as Zack turns his head to look back at the papers thrown around his room, there's a fond smile across his face.

He'd keep practicing in the meantime until he could say those words to her- everything he's been dying to say for so long.

Maybe even starting with "what's up". ]