Chapter Text
For a moment, when Cloud woke up, he wasn’t entirely sure where he was. It only took one brief glance to the side for him to recall. Sephiroth was fast asleep, curled up against Cloud’s side, looking incredibly comfortable and probably more relaxed than Cloud had ever seen him before. Jeez, they’d been through some intense shit over these last few days…
All right. What now? Cloud tangled his fingers into Sephiroth’s hair and tried to think, unable to hide a smile when Sephiroth made a content sound and shuffled closer. There were so many things to do… He should probably make a list or something. Yeah. A list seemed like a good idea. One: overthrow Shinra. Two: kill Hojo. Three: get rid of all the Mako reactors. Four…
“…Cloud?”
…Four: make out with Sephiroth a lot more. As Sephiroth stirred, Cloud pulled him in for a kiss and got only a surprised yet content noise as a response.
“Hey. Feeling any better?” he asked, pulling away slightly to get a good look at Sephiroth.
“Mm…” Sephiroth’s lips curled into a smile. “Much better. Still tired, though…” He did look exhausted, but at least he didn’t look unhappy. Cloud combed his fingers through Sephiroth’s hair and leant in to kiss him again, relieved that they were finally doing okay.
Still, it was hard to feel completely relaxed, knowing how easily it could all still go wrong. The Aerith from his future had been able to send him back once, but what if he messed up again? Actually, what about Aerith herself? Would she still be trapped in the Lifestream, all alone? That sounded like a nightmare. Was there absolutely nothing he could do to help her?
“How are you feeling, Cloud?” Sephiroth asked, sounding vaguely concerned.
“Huh? Me? I’m fine.” No need to worry Sephiroth. Cloud wasn’t going to let him get involved, especially not now, when he needed to recover. He pressed a kiss to Sephiroth’s jawline to assure him, but Sephiroth didn’t seem convinced.
“I’m not going to go running back to Shinra, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Shinra’s not gonna be pleased about that… You think they’ll come after you?” Cloud wondered how Shinra might retaliate. Was Nibelheim safe? He didn’t want anyone he cared about to get caught in the crossfire…
“Maybe. There’s not much they could possibly throw at me, though. After all, there’s only
one of me.” Sephiroth had the nerve to sound smug about that…
“Hey, don’t get cocky”, Cloud retorted. “If I was Mako-enhanced, I could kick your ass any day of the week!”
“Who’s the one being cocky now?” Sephiroth laughed and ruffled Cloud’s hair, clearly not taking him seriously. “I’ll be looking forward to the day I can get my ass kicked by you, then.”
Cloud didn’t reply. He simply shifted closer to Sephiroth, wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed his head against his chest, well aware that he would probably never be able to reach that point in this timeline. He wouldn’t be able to join SOLDIER – not that he particularly wanted to, that childhood dream was long gone – and he had no intentions of throwing himself into Hojo’s arms to let himself be experimented upon again.
Neither of them moved or spoke for a while after that. Then, Cloud was suddenly struck by two realisations: that he was very hungry, and that nobody knew that he and Sephiroth had been in the Shinra mansion for however much time had passed.
“We should probably head back to my place.”
“Good idea… We’ve been gone for a while.” Sephiroth sat up, wrapping himself up in the same sheet he’d been using to cover himself earlier. He turned to look over his shoulder and frowned. “The wing is gone. I’m not sure what makes it appear and disappear…”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out eventually”, Cloud said as he grabbed his own clothes and started getting dressed. The Sephiroth from Cloud’s future had seemed to be able to control it, after all, revealing his wing in the heat of battle like the drama queen he’d been…
“Hopefully it won’t give me a lot of trouble…” Sephiroth sighed as he stood up, wobbling a bit. Cloud darted to his feet and grabbed Sephiroth to keep him steady, earning a frustrated look in response. “I can walk on my own, you know… You don’t need to be so gentle with me.”
“I want to be, though”, Cloud said. “I think you deserve a bit of pampering after everything that happened.” Sephiroth’s expression softened at that; Cloud finally managed to get a smile out of him.
“You’re too kind”, Sephiroth murmured and tilted his head down to nuzzle Cloud’s hair. “Maybe I should just make you carry me all the way back…”
“Oh, trust me, I would if you weren’t such a giant!”
“I’m not, you’re just tiny…”
It was easier than expected to drag Sephiroth back home. He was mostly able to walk by himself, so Cloud only had to support him a little bit when he occasionally stumbled. They managed to reach Cloud’s house without too much trouble, but just as Cloud was about to open the front door, it flew open and Zack spurted outside, nearly knocking them both off their feet.
“There you are! We were worried about you! Where were you…?” His eyes darted from Sephiroth to Cloud and then back again as he let out a gasp. “Sephiroth! You’re feeling better!” He marched right up to Sephiroth and threw his arms around him, giving him no chance to escape. Cloud watched in amusement as Sephiroth squirmed but remained firmly trapped in Zack’s tight embrace.
“I am… Sorry if I made you worry.” Sephiroth’s expression grew concerned. “And for… all the trouble I caused too, of course.”
“Hey, it’s fine! I’m just glad you’re okay…” Zack kept squeezing Sephiroth, and Cloud could see that Sephiroth was slowly starting to lean more and more against him. Sephiroth didn’t say anything, but Cloud got the feeling he was getting tired.
“Zack, I think Sephiroth needs to lie down”, Cloud said.
“Oh!” Zack let go of Sephiroth, clearly a lot more suddenly than Sephiroth had expected, because he nearly lost his balance and Zack ended up having to grab him again anyway. “Shit, you sure everything’s fine?”
“I just need rest… It’s all right.” Sephiroth moved past Zack, into the house, and Cloud quickly followed along.
“You’re back!” Claudia, of course, was all over Sephiroth instantly. “Oh, sweetheart… I’m so glad you’re feeling better, we were all so worried…” Before Sephiroth could say anything, she was already dragging him up the stairs towards Cloud’s room. “C’mon, let’s get you back into bed…”
“Your mom’s awesome”, Zack stated as they vanished out of sight. “She doesn’t seem to care at all that he’s, you know… Sephiroth.” He let out a laugh. “I’ve been here all morning and the only thing she’s been talking about is how happy she is for you and that she hopes Sephiroth’s gonna feel better soon…”
“Did you… tell her anything?” Cloud asked as he began digging around the kitchen cabinets in his desperate search for food, somehow only managing to find a single raw potato. Fuck it, it’d have to do.
“What was I supposed to tell her?” Zack shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t even know what’s going on either!”
“I mean… good point…” Cloud took a look around the room – while taking a bite and wondering just how old this potato was, because it certainly tasted like it had been there for a while – and realised that there was nobody else in sight. “Where did everyone else go?”
“I sent them to check out the reactor, in case that was where you’d gone…” Zack let out a laugh. “…Okay, more like Vincent decided to go up there himself, and I sent Dick and Cher with him. And then Tifa invited herself along too.”
“Weren’t Dick and Cher scared shitless of Vincent?”
“I mean yeah, but he seems like a pretty cool dude once you get to know him, so I figured it was fine.” Zack didn’t seem too concerned as he hauled out his phone and started typing out a text. “I’ll just let ‘em know that you guys turned up…”
“What are you gonna do now?” Cloud asked. “You said you were gonna head back to Midgar…”
“Mm… I get the feeling Shinra’s not exactly gonna want me back after that stunt we pulled”, Zack said, his carefree expression shifting into a frown. “I need to talk to Aerith in person… so I can figure out what to do next.”
“Did you talk to her over the phone about it?”
“Nah… Who knows, these phones could be bugged or something…” Zack said, glaring down at his phone before tucking it away. Cloud wasn’t about to question that Zack had used that very phone for certain questionable activities just a few nights before. “What about you? Did you decide what to do yet?”
“No. Not yet…” Cloud sighed.
A part of him wanted to go back to Midgar with Zack, maybe start working on taking down Shinra somehow… but Sephiroth had to rest and recover, and Cloud found himself reluctant to leave him behind. But he didn’t want to get Sephiroth involved either… After all this time, his life had clearly just forgotten what the word ‘simple’ meant.