Work Text:
Jessie paused from a moment from where she was curiously poking at the monsters that they had just defeated when the corner of her eye caught sight of Cloud standing there, still and silent, staring down at one of the monsters with an expression that Jessie couldn’t read.
“Hey, are you alright?” Jessie called as she walked closer to her and Biggs’s unknowing soulmate, “One of them didn’t manage to hurt you, did they?”
Cloud looked like he’d been jerked from his thoughts, and he frowned as he looked up at her. “Even if one of them had, I would have healed by now.” He finally murmured as he focused his eyes back on the monster he had been staring at before she walked over to him.
She picked her way carefully until she was by his side, skirting debris and looking out carefully for broken glass that might be strong enough to cut through the sole of her boots. She wasn’t that bothered by the necessity, though. Difficult as the fight between their team and this sudden group of unusually strong monsters had been, the team had been lucky it had happened far away from any potential civilian casualties.
When she’d finally reached him, Jessie rolled her eyes at him and leaned comfortably against one of the broken down trains beside him.
“That doesn’t exactly make me less worried about you, Cloud. Just more sure that you hide wounds from the rest of us. You shouldn’t. You’re Avalanche now. That means something, you know? We’re here to watch your back and help you when you need it if you just give us a chance.” She said, giving him a pointed look as well as not-so-casually checking him over for any signs of blood or tellingly torn or slashed clothing.
“What if I don’t deserve your help?” Cloud asked idly, too idle for it to really be casual, “What if I told you I’m only a short step up from the monsters that we just fought?”
Jessie tensed slightly. The way that she answered next was important, she could tell.
“Is this an existential question, or a literal one?” she asked carefully.
Cloud smiled humorously back at her, “Maybe it’s a little of both. But mostly,” he said turning his gaze back to the monster at his feet, as if he had a hard time looking away, “It’s literal.”
Well, what they hell could Jessie say to that?
“I’m not saying that people can’t act monstrously sometimes, Cloud, because everyone can. But that doesn’t actually make them monsters.” She said, resting a tentative hand on Cloud’s shoulder.
“Except for the fact that these people actually are. Monsters. And they weren’t always. Until Hojo got his hooks on them, they were humans. Just like you.” Cloud said, and Jessie’s breath caught in her throat.
She looked around again, taking in the corpses that hadn’t yet gone back to the Lifestream with fresh eyes. Humans. These twisted, mangled beings had been human. Jessie felt cold all over, her heart rising to her throat as her stomach twisted and she began feeling physically ill.
People. These horrible, twisted monstrosities that had been terrorizing the local area and killing adult and child alike had been people once. How had they turn into something like this? What had Hojo done to them to make them lose their humanity to this extent? To the point that they were no longer human physically or mentally?
Jessie’s heart ached for the victim’s in front of her, lying cold and dead and hopefully- really, really hopefully- at peace. She wished she could have done more for them, saved them somehow. But she’d been far too late.
She was suddenly, selfishly, fiercely thankful that Cloud had managed to get away from Hojo before he’d gotten to this point in his experimentation. Or maybe before he’d entirely reached this point? She didn’t know, and either option was horrible. What had been done to Cloud for him to say something like that, and mean it?
She had no idea.
But she did have the abrupt suspicion that she and Biggs were even luckier to have him in their life than they’d already thought they were.
It made her all the more determined to support him in any way she could, even if he did eventually chose to refuse to bond with her and Biggs.
If that was his choice, she would just be the best damned friend he’d ever had. Because if there was one thing that was for sure, it was that she was always going to be there for him if he needed her.
And if they were lucky enough that he did chose their bond? Well, then she would make damn sure to never let anyone hurt him like this again.
Not that she said any of this out loud, of course; she still didn’t even know how to make everything she was feeling for the man before her clear. She’d have to figure it out, eventually, but for now…
She just wrapped her arms tightly around him from behind, and hope that conveyed at least a fraction of how much she cared about him. How much she wanted to protect him.
“Cloud.” She whispered to his stiff form as she clutched him tight, “You’re the farthest thing from a monster of anyone I’ve ever met. Don’t let the monsters that hurt you make you think otherwise.”
And they stood there like that until the rest of Avalanche came looking for them, Jessie trying to provide as much comfort to her soulmate as she could, and Cloud relaxing back against her in slow degrees.