Two Letters and a Number

Sighing softly, Cloud tightened his grip slightly on the slender form that he was wrapped around, ignoring the faint chill that plucked at his bare back as he rested his forehead on the other man’s back. Daniel hadn’t hesitated when Cloud had offered to share his bedroll with the Tau’ri or when Cloud put him between the blond and the fire.

Closing his eyes, Cloud relaxed and smiled when he felt a soft brush of grass against his skin, knowing what he’d see when he opened his eyes. He wasn’t disappointed to find an almost glaring white sky and surrounded by flowers as he sat up, having been lying on his back when he arrived.

“What’s going on? What is this place?” demanded a voice that didn’t belong in this place, and Cloud looked over to find Daniel was standing up, gazing around with a confused look on his face.

“Um, oops,” came a more familiar voice, and Cloud turned to find Aeris standing there with Zack with an embarrassed look on her face. Aeris grimaced as she gazed at Daniel. “I’m sorry. I must have pulled too hard to get you as well.”

Daniel stared at the two people in surprise. “Who are you? And what do you mean ‘pulled’? We were asleep in the glowing forest and then we’re here.”

“Ya know, if I’d know you asked this many questions, I would have asked Aeris to pull you up first to answer them before we got Spike up here,” drawled Zack, an amused smirk on his face.

“Aeris?” asked Daniel, looking at the brown haired girl in the pink dress. “Cloud and his friends talked about an Aeris, but she died.”

She nodded. “I did,” she agreed with a small smile even as Cloud felt his heart clench again at the knowledge that Aeris wouldn’t be with him when he returned to his body. “And this is the Lifestream.”

“Does that mean we’re dead?” The confusion on Daniel’s face was clear as he glanced around. “Or is it because we camped so close to where you died and the Forgotten City?”

Zack’s glowing violet eyes focused on Cloud with a wry smile. “He does ask a lot of questions doesn’t he?”confirmed the dark haired man.

Cloud shrugged a shoulder. “He’s an archaeologist from some world called Tau’ri,” the blond explained. “From what I understand, it’s his job to ask a lot of questions so his companions can understand what they’ve arrived in.”

Aeris giggled. “Cloud is here because we wanted to talk to him while you are here because I accidentally pulled a bit too hard when I brought Cloud here,” she admitted with an embarrassed smile. “I wasn’t expecting you to be quite so sensitive to the Lifestream.”

“What do you mean?” asked Daniel again, and Aeris glanced at Cloud, her green eyes asking for permission to speak to Daniel alone and the blond nodded. Perhaps she would be able to answer Daniel’s questions better than he had, and she grinned, pulling Daniel a slight bit away before urging him to sit among the flowers with her.

A strong and familiar arm looped itself around Cloud’s shoulders as Zack pulled him a few more steps away. “Let ‘em talk for a while. It looks like your guy has a lot of questions for our girl to answer.”

Cloud shook his head. “Daniel’s not ‘my guy’. Shinra paid me extra to take him with me while delivering some letters so Daniel could get a mostly unbiased opinion of our world,” he explained, hoping he didn’t sound too wistful. There really hadn’t been anyone he could claim as a bed partner since Aeris died. Tifa had tried, but Cloud couldn’t help but compare the brunette fighter to Aeris. His last male bed partner was standing next to him, a part of the Lifestream. Cloud trusted Vincent enough to have considered the ex-Turk a possible bed partner, but the two had been busy with their own lives to really get together as anything other than friends.

“Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to either of us to try a relationship beyond acquaintances since he lives on an entirely different planet, and there’s no guarantee that he’ll ever be back when he leaves,” added Cloud, staring at Zack with serious blue eyes before he looked away.

“We hate to see you so alone,” murmured Zack, his arm sliding from Cloud’s shoulders to his neck as he pulled the blond closer, and Cloud curled his arms around Zack’s waist, tucking his head in the crook of Zack’s neck to breath in the subtle spice and leather scent that always meant comfort to the blond. A scent that he had almost forgotten after Zack had died.

“If the gods will it,” replied Cloud, closing his eyes and relaxing against Zack. “Wish you and Aeris could come back.”

Strong arms slid around his waist, and Cloud melted against Zack, content to just be held for a while with someone else being the strong one. It was so familiar, this embrace, yet so different because Zack’s chest didn’t rise and fall with breath nor was there the beating of a heart under Cloud’s ear. All he had was the scent of Zack swirling around him and the feel of those arms around him to tell him it was as real as possible.

There was a soft footstep behind them that was the only warning before a voice spoke.

“It’s been a while, Cloud.”

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Daniel laughed as Aeris finished telling him about how she and Cloud had to rescue Tifa from Don Cornelo and Cloud had to dress in drag to do it. She hadn’t been able to tell him much about the Ancients and had instead offered to tell him more about Cloud and his friends. A flicker of silver out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he glanced over to find someone with long silver hair standing behind Cloud who was wrapped in the dark haired man’s arms like a lost lover.

The person was dressed entirely in black leather, probably a coat from what Daniel could tell, and the archaeologist saw Cloud stiffen when the silver and black person spoke.

“It’s been a while, Cloud,” the person purred in a deep smooth voice.

A small growl came from Aeris as she jumped to her feet. “We didn’t get the chance to explain to Cloud and he was suppose to wait for us to signal that it would be okay,” she grumbled, before grabbing Daniel’s hand and hauling him to his feet with surprising strength for someone who barely came up to his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get there to keep the damage down.”

Instead of releasing his hand, Aeris used her grip on him to drag Daniel over to where Cloud had twisted free of his friend’s arms to stand between the dark haired man and the new arrival. Glowing blue eyes flickered over to them briefly before returning to the silver haired person as an even more determined look appeared on Cloud’s face. “Aeris, stay back. I don’t want you or Daniel getting hurt.”

That didn’t seem to stop Aeris as she dragged Daniel over to stand next to Cloud and the dark haired man, and now the archaeologist could see that the person the blond was facing off with was a man. He had pale, sharp features that were quite attractive, almost beautiful, and glowing green eyes that had strange slitted pupils, the same eyes that the boy Denzel had briefly acquired when he had served them back in the Seventh Heaven. There was a small smile on those pale lips, but in those strange cat-like eyes there was a flicker of regret buried under a cool mask, making Daniel wonder who this was to put a look of fierce determination and absolute fury on Cloud’s face.

“What do you want here, Sephiroth?” demanded Cloud, enough venom in his voice to kill a dinosaur, and his arms outstretched to protect the black haired man at his back despite the fact he didn’t have any weapons.

Daniel’s eyes whipped over to stare at the silver haired man with a look of surprise. So that was Sephiroth, the famous general who went insane and destroyed so much, but if he was still a danger, would Aeris be dragging him so close to the man who had ended her life?

“Zack, you were suppose to explain it to Cloud,” she admonished, tossing a brief glare at the black haired man.

He smiled a bit sheepishly, but the delighted glow in his violet eyes didn’t dim any. “I didn’t get the chance before Seph showed up, doll,” he apologized, spreading his hands in a harmless manner.

“Explain what? Zack, what’s going on here?” demanded Cloud, backing up to face all of them with a wary look on his face, like someone who was wondering if the one person he trusted above all others had just turned on him.

Zack held out his hands in a calming gesture. “Easy, Spike,” he soothed, taking a couple of steps away from Sephiroth, and Daniel noticed some of the tension drain out of Cloud. “You know as well as I do that Jenova doesn’t have any hold over anyone here, and when we stumbled over Seph after your last confrontation with him, he managed to convince us that he wanted to explain a few things to you. That’s all.”

“Explain? Explain what?” Cloud demanded again, those glowing blue eyes turning to pin Sephiroth with a burning glare. “Explain why he went crazy at Jenova’s prodding? Explain why he decided to destroy *everything* I ever knew? Explain why he didn’t trust us enough to come to us before it reached that point? Explain why he used me like a puppet, gave me some small measure of belonging only to be tossed aside *again* when he had gotten what he wanted?”

With each accusation, Sephiroth winced, not much but enough to let Daniel know how much the blond was hurting him, yet Daniel could also see how emotionally tangled up Cloud was as anger, fear and hurting burned in those glowing blue eyes. Cautiously, Daniel stepped forward, hoping to get the blond’s attention and perhaps calm him down before something happened that would damage everyone here permanently. “Cloud, you trust them to back you up, right?”

The blond gave a jerky nod, an almost bird like action, and Daniel returned the nod. “Then it seems to me that Sephiroth is out numbered here with the four of us against him should he decide to attack any of us,” the archaeologist reasoned with a comforting smile, one he had offered to his young brother-in-law whenever the boy crawled in with him when the night storms grew too loud on Abydos. “So how about we hear him out and if you don’t like what he says, then I’m sure Aeris and Zack will keep him away from you whenever you visit them here.”

Those blue eyes turned to pin Sephiroth in place. “Start talking.”

And Sephiroth obeyed.

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