Chapter Text
Cloud never knew how his infatuation with flowers began.
When he was little, the kids never wanted to play with him, so he’d go on little adventures near the outskirts of the villages.
The flowers were nice. They didn’t judge Cloud for being a loner, didn’t judge him for his spiky hair. They didn’t judge how shy and quiet he was. Cloud found solace in the flowers.
Eventually, he got curious. There are so many different kinds of them. Some petals were smooth and soft like his cotton shirt, while others were as thin and fragile as paper. They were colorful compared to the dull village he stayed in.
He eventually found a flower field near the abandoned mansion, hidden behind the trees. Whenever the name-calling and pressure got too much, he snuck away to the flower field and sat quietly in the grass. He would fidget with the flower petals gently, admiring their beauty.
Whenever he returned home smelling like flowers, his mom would raise a questioning eyebrow but never asked anything about it. She probably thought smelling like flowers was better than being full of bruises and scrapes from picking fights with others.
As he grew up, he got curious. He saw the flower shop in the village had bouquets for special days like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. The flowers had many meanings. He knew that. But what did they symbolize?
Cloud saved up his pocket money and saved up enough to buy a book called “Language of Flowers”. His eyes widened in awe as he read through the book, admiring the vibrant illustrations of flowers. He spent days reading up on the symbolization of flowers as he sat in the middle of the flower field.
His hand gently caressed the soft petals of the flower. Petunia, he noted, as he moved his hand away from the purple flower. He looked to the side and smiled gently at the blue, pink, and white bundle of small petals. He found the name Forget-Me-Not to be interesting.
He continued to read the book and hummed a random tune to himself. The book mentioned a flower called a sunflower. He decided that sunflowers would be his favorite flower.
The petals were the shade of his hair, and they would follow the sun when they were young, eventually facing a certain direction when they were fully matured. There weren’t any sunflowers in Nibelheim, and from the book, it said that they were tall. The book also said they grow in places with a lot of sunlight, so maybe he could see them in Gongaga or the Grasslands.
He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the giggles of the other kids in the village. The sun was setting. He stood slowly and walked around the fragile flowers to avoid stepping on them. He carefully peeked around the trees to see if there were other people around before dashing into his house.
As he got older, the urge to grow his flowers got stronger. He bought a few wildflower seeds from a merchant near the general store and a small clay pot with soil inside. He followed the instructions in the book carefully, making sure to water it every day.
He didn’t care if the other kids teased him about it. What mattered was whether his flowers were growing or not. A few days later, he saw a stem and a few leaves emerge from the soil and stared in amazement. A childlike sparkle appeared in his eyes and his mom watched from the side, smiling softly.
A month later, the Strife residence was full of many different flowers. Lavenders, lilies, daisies… The house was a burst of color compared to the other houses.
Even as Cloud slowly got enthusiastic with the idea of joining SOLDIER, he took care of his flowers daily, treating them as if they were his siblings.
When the time came for Cloud to leave for Midgar, he practically begged his mom to take care of the flowers, teaching her methods to water them and plant new ones.
“I’ll be gone for a while, but I’ll be back. I promise.” He murmured as he sat at the flower field. He closed his eyes and breathed in the floral scent around him.