Chapter Text
Cloud, to his own surprise, manages to avoid actually throwing up until their transport stops, and then he stumbles out of the van and vomits in a flowerbed he hasn’t seen in almost two years.
“This is your hometown?” says Sephiroth, and Cloud wipes his mouth and nods.
“Yeah. Doesn’t look like it’s changed much,” he admits, and stuffs his helmet back on as soon as he’s sure the nausea has passed. And it really hasn’t; Everyone is just as they were when he left - there aren’t any new faces and he’s pretty sure nobody else has left, either. He keeps his mouth shut as they move into town, but as Sephiroth and Zack aim for the inn, he says, “Wait.”
Sephiroth turns back to look at him, one of their eyebrows raised, and Cloud’s glad the helmet hides his blush.
“My mom still lives here, you know, and our house is pretty big. Why pay if you don’t have to?”
“Huh,” says Zack. “Thought you didn’t want anyone knowing you were here?”
“My mom doesn’t count,” he says, because obviously she doesn’t. There’s no way he could have come through here and not gone to see her.
The front door is the same as it’s always been, though it looks like it’s had a fresh coat of paint since he’s been away. He takes a deep breath and knocks on the door firmly, and tries not to think about how disappointed his mother is going to be.
When she opens the door, the first thing Cloud thinks about his mother is that she looks so small, now. Her eyes are wary, too, until he takes his helmet off, and then her whole face lights up and she throws her arms around his shoulders.
“Hi, Mom,” he murmurs into her hair, and she squeezes him a little tighter.
“Come in, come in,” she says, and practically drags him inside by the wrist.
Cloud introduces his companions and asks if they can stay the night, and after his mother has said that of course they can stay, she stands in front of Sephiroth and looks them up and down very seriously. It’s almost comic, because they’re almost a foot taller than she is, and when she reaches up and puts her hands on either side of their face, Cloud almost chokes.
Then, his mother turns Sephiroth’s face from side to side, studies the braid she must recognise as Cloud’s handiwork, and after a moment, pats them on the cheek and smiles gently and says, “You’ll do.”
“Mom!” Cloud hisses, mortified, and she smiles at him over her shoulder.
“They’ll both do, my love. Now, there are potatoes need peeling. Shoes off, please, gentlemen.”
And that’s how Cloud gets to see two SOLDIERs, First Class, chopping vegetables in his mother’s kitchen.