Chapter Text
It didn’t seem like anyone had expected that Zack would actually wake up, let alone so quickly and with all of his mental faculties in check. If not for the scarring on his chest and back, it was as if nothing had happened at all. Despite this, the hospital had insisted on keeping him overnight to ensure that he remained stable.
The hospital had actually wanted to keep him for a couple of days, but Cloud had protested. Any monitoring could be done at home. It didn’t need a doctor poking and prodding him every few hours.
Another thing Cloud had protested about was being sent away for the night. If it wasn’t for who he was, he was sure that his protests would have fallen on deaf ears. Luckily, the hospital caved without too much argument, and Cloud was allowed back into Zack’s room when the doctors had finished with him.
It was still a novel concept. As he entered the room and looked at Zack sitting there, perked up and smiling at him, it felt like something out of a dream. But this wasn’t a dream, a reality that was becoming easier to accept the longer Zack didn’t dissipate in front of him. Cloud couldn’t help but smile back at him as he took his seat. “How do you feel?”
“Better than an hour ago.” He responded, experimentally rolling his left shoulder. Cloud had to agree: his voice was stronger, his movements were fluid, and his eyes were sharper. If the overexposure to mako had done any damage to him, it was clearly minimal. Cloud shouldn’t be surprised, considering what happened the last time Zack was left in a mako tank for years on end.
As Cloud settled, Zack’s countenance suddenly shifted dramatically. Cloud watched as his easy going expression dropped into something serious, eyes probing the room. It made his own guard heighten, subconsciously bracing himself for a fight.
“I think we’ll have enough time. Cloud, can you keep an eye on the door?”
Before Cloud could ask what he meant, Zack had pushed his blankets back and grabbed hold of his IV tube, ripping the tape off. Alarmed, Cloud grabbed his wrist to prevent him from yanking it out all together. “What are you doing?”
Mako eyes flicked up to meet his look, brows furrowed in confusion. “Getting out of here? We can’t stay here for too long. They know my name, which means Shinra can’t be too far out. If we leave now, we can get ahead of them and go underground.”
Cloud’s mouth closed with an audible click. Of course Zack would be on edge. As far as he knew, he was still on the run, and he had barely escaped death. Being in a hospital in what he assumed to be Midgar was like being a sitting duck.
Zack twisted his wrist in an attempt to free himself, continuing in oblivion to Cloud’s realization. “I think we’re low enough that we can make it to the ground without breaking our necks. We just need to avoid any security by the doors. Cloud, let go of me.”
He and Zack both knew that he could break out of Cloud’s hold pretty easily. Even with Cloud’s enhancements, Zack had the luxury of years worth of proper SOLDIER training. However, doing so would hurt Cloud, and he knew that Zack would never do that. So he felt confident tightening his hold, welling up his courage to rip the bandaid off.
“Zack, no one’s after us. We’re safe. Shinra’s gone.”
Zack paused, lips pressed into a thin line. Cloud could see the gears churning in his mind, the doubt present in his eyes. “Cloud, I-”
“No.” Cloud gave his wrist a squeeze, trying to convey all of the patience and softness he knew Zack would give if their situations were reversed. “Shinra’s not coming after us anymore. They don’t exist anymore.”
He could feel Zack’s muscles tense under his fingers as the words sunk in. His eyes searched Cloud’s, as if looking for deceit, as if Cloud would ever lie to him. Cloud remained resolute under his gaze. “You’ve been out for a while, Zack. A lot has changed.”
“How long is a while?” Zack shot back, a tinge of something wounded entering his tone. It made Cloud’s heart ache for him.
“Years.”
~-~
The conversation had gone as smooth as it reasonably could have.
Cloud outlined all of the major points that had happened since the cliffs. He told him about Sephiroth’s return, Shinra’s destruction, Meteor Fall, and Geostigma. He even told him about Aerith, her untimely death, and her work from within the Lifestream. It was hard for him to talk about, even after all of the growth he had accomplished. While it no longer felt like he was summoning him by merely saying his name, talking about Sephiroth still elicited a shiver.
Even so, Cloud felt pretty damn proud of himself for remaining composed throughout it all. Speaking about it now felt different in a way he couldn’t put his finger on. Perhaps it was the absence of guilt, the acceptance of events. He didn’t feel at peace, but maybe this was as close as he could get.
Zack, on the other hand, was clearly rattled by the revelations. Not only had he been assumed dead for years, the world he had returned to was unrecognizable from the one he had left behind. Shinra was gone, Midgar was gone, and Aerith…
The look of heartwrenching despair that Zack had fixed him with had been physically painful to look at.
It had been rough to process but, in the end, Zack did what Cloud had always known him to do; let the grief roll over and off him and try to look on the bright side. “It really sounds like you came into your own, Cloud. I knew you were going to do good one day.”
The rest of the evening was passed with lighter, amicable conversation. And though Zack had insisted he wasn’t tired - “I just woke up after, what, years of sleeping? I’m not going to bed so quickly!” - he had dozed off in due course.
Now it was the next day, Zack’s first day of freedom. Considering the state in which he arrived, the hospital was generous enough to give him some clothes to wear for his discharge. It reminded Cloud that Zack really had nothing now. Whatever accommodations Shinra had granted him were most likely long gone, along with any possessions he had.
The only things Zack had to his name were those gifted clothes: worn red sneakers, some khakis, and a dark gray t-shirt with the words “Puppy Tricks” printed on it, along with several images of dogs.
Zack had balked at the shirt, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Mind you, Cloud had never had any plans on letting Zack just waltz back out of his life, even if he did have a home to return to. As soon as he left Zack’s room after he had woken up, he had started plotting out where he would stay and how he would slot into his little family. Denzel would like him, and Tifa would understand. Tifa always understood.
Luckily, Zack hadn’t protested, at least not verbally. He had simply accepted Cloud’s plans, nodding along as he spoke of locations and rooming. He remembered Zack for being strong and independent, always insistent on spearheading tasks himself. He was glad that Zack’s pride hadn’t prevented him from accepting Cloud’s help.
A quick ride on Fenrir later - “Cloud you didn’t tell me you drove a motorcycle!” - and they had pulled up at Tifa’s bar. Cloud pulled the goggles off from his face, glancing back out of habit to make sure that Zack was okay from the ride. Zack, meanwhile, seemed caught up in his own world, his arms still encircling Cloud’s waist as he gazed up at the bar’s sign.
Cloud determinedly ignored the faint fluttering feeling in his stomach at the contact.
“Seventh Heaven…” Zack mused. His head tilted sideways, scrunching his face up at the lettering. “Why does that sound familiar?”
“There was one in the slums.” Cloud answered with a shrug. Fenrir’s keys jingled from his fingers as he stowed them away in his pocket. “... You went down there a lot, didn’t you?”
Zack still hadn’t moved from Fenrir yet, deep in thought. It took Cloud giving him a gentle nudge for him to snap back to himself and finally relinquish Cloud from his hold. Cloud unconsciously smoothed out his shirt, sliding off of the bike.
“Sure, but I didn’t go down there to drink.” Zack followed his lead, stretching his arms above his head and bouncing up onto his toes. “I was underage. Angeal would have killed me if I went to a bar.”
That was true. Zack hadn’t been that much older than Cloud when they were at Shinra. He remembered the pang of jealousy well: why had someone like Zack been so successful while Cloud had floundered? What did he have that Cloud didn’t?
Childish feelings from an immature boy: he felt embarrassed thinking back on it. Luckily, those feelings had pretty much vanished when the two of them finally met. Zack had a charm to him that made it almost impossible to hate him.
“Maybe you recognize the sign then.” Cloud said, making his way up the stairs. This time, Zack fell into step beside him without further prodding.
“Nope, that’s not it either. Ugh… This is going to bug me.” Zack crossed his arms, his pensive expression returning. Cloud elected to leave him to it.
As he stepped through the doors to Seventh Heaven, he felt a sinking feeling in his chest. It was the feeling that he had once again made a fatal mistake. As Tifa emerged from the kitchen, rag and glass in hand and levelling him with a flat, unimpressed stare, it dawned on him just what that mistake was.
He forgot to text her that Zack had woken up. She must have been waiting for him to come home last night. Strike one.
“Tifa… I-” Cloud started, wincing to himself at just how weak his pleas already sounded. However, before he could continue with his lame excuses, Tifa’s focus shifted to something just past his shoulder. Her eyes widened.
Cloud turned to where Zack stood just a step or two behind him, frozen in the doorway. He looked like a deer in the headlights as he met Tifa’s stare, equally wide eyed and… Guilty?
It was at this moment that it dawned on him: he hadn’t told Zack about Tifa either. Strike two.
But why would that be a problem? What had happened between these two for Zack to look like that?
“Oh. Uh- Hey… Long time no see?” Zack did his best to cover up his clear discomfort, offering a smile that stretched just a hair too wide. He must have known what a poor imitation it was because, moments later, the facade dropped and Zack’s faux confidence seeped out of him. “Yeah, I know. I’m probably the last person you want to see right now.”
Any irritation that Tifa had been showing Cloud before was replaced by a grimace, eyes shining with pain. Cloud almost reached out for her, an instinct so deeply ingrained in his psyche that even peace could not allay it, but he resisted. Tifa didn’t need his protection right now, least of all from Zack.
Had… Zack hurt her? No, of course not. Zack would never have done that. Right?
But something had happened. Cloud felt lost in the shuffle as Zack stepped fully into the bar, wearing a bitter smile. It was so out of place on his optimistic friend that he wanted to reach out for him too.
“Look, I know how you probably feel right now, and I get it. You were right to hate me.” His head tilted up momentarily, searching the ceiling, before he huffed out a self deprecating laugh. “It should have been me. I should have dealt with Sephiroth. But I didn’t, and because of that…”
Oh.
This was about Nibelheim.
Cloud wanted to snap at Zack, to point out how it wasn’t his fault, how he couldn’t have known. Instead, he found his voice trapped in his throat, suffocated by the feeling of ash. He was sure that if he opened his mouth, black smoke would spill out in billowing clouds.
No longer was he playing spectator in Tifa’s bar. For a brief moment, he was standing in the middle of his burning childhood, rooted to the spot and helpless.
With a harsh blink, the vision dissipated, and Cloud allowed his breathing to even out. He was back in Tifa’s bar, older and stronger and safe. Tifa was there, Zack was there, and Sephiroth was not.
Zack’s voice was warbling indistinctly, sounding as though he were underwater. Cloud struggled to focus in on it, to parse his words into something understandable and audible, but his ears were ringing too loudly. Come on, pull yourself together!
“...The point is, I understand. Cloud, it was nice of you to try and put me up, but I think- Cloud?”
All of a sudden, the ringing ceased, and Cloud became aware of two pairs of concerned eyes on him. Fingers gently touched his arm, hesitant and soft, and his attention was once more pulled in Tifa’s direction. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t need to.
Are you alright?
“...Yeah.” Cloud breathed, carding a self conscious hand through his hair. “I’m here.”
Zack didn’t look so convinced by his words. If anything, he only looked more concerned. Distantly, Cloud was reminded of Zack’s old nickname that had spread among the SOLDIERs. With how much worry was packed behind those wide blue eyes, he could understand the similarities. The shirt didn’t help.
While Zack opened his mouth to speak, it was actually Tifa who spoke first, breaking the moment and saving him from further scrutiny. “I appreciate the words, Zack, but you don’t have to do that. I know…” She glanced away for a moment, chewing her lip as she searched for her next words. “I know you’re a good person.
Luckily, Zack's attention pivoted back to Tifa as she spoke, and Cloud breathed a silent sigh of relief. However, he didn't miss the heavy expression that crossed Zack’s face, no matter how quickly it was covered by a tentative smile.
"Then… Let's start over, huh? I'm Zack. I may not know much about mixing drinks, but I bet I can help keep the place tidy." He stuck out his hand, ratcheting that smile up into something disarming. It was like a switch had been flipped, and Cloud was once more reminded of just how endlessly charming and genuine he was. Was it intentional, or was it really something that just came naturally?
Regardless, it did the trick. The lingering vestiges of tension popped like a balloon as Tifa tried to smother her laugh, shoulders shaking with the effort. After a moment, Zack's offered hand was taken and given a firm shake. "Tifa, and really: don't worry about it. You can stay here as long as you need to."
"I insist! If you're putting me up, I want to earn my keep!" Zack argued heartily, his hands finding their way to his hips as he struck an unintentional pose. Cloud thought back to his cadet days and how the importance of the SOLDIER image had been hammered into their heads. One must always be ready for a picture to keep the company's image pristine.
It seemed that years of mako sedation and being on the run couldn't sever the SOLDIER influence from Zack.
"Besides, I'm not sure what the market will be like for my mercenary gig." He chuckled to himself, warmer than the previous laugh. "The way I hear it, there's not much use for muscle around… these…"
Realization cracked across Zack’s features as he trailed off, eyes widening. Cloud's hand twitched minutely towards the absence his sword left behind, mind running free with worst case scenarios. Seconds later, Zack hit his fist against his open palm before slapping his hand to his forehead.
"Seventh Heaven was my name!"
Oh, it was about the bar. Cloud forced his instincts to relax.
"Pardon?" Tifa raised an eyebrow in Zack's direction, looking skeptical. For his part, Zack was unperturbed, grinning with pride as he took another look around.
“This place! I named it!” He nodded to himself. “Seventh Heaven: Paradise in Sector 7!”
“You named it?” Tifa echoed, disbelieving.
“I sure did! Some guy was in a bind in the naming department and asked me for my thoughts, so I gave him a pitch. He was kind of weird about it though…” Zack frowned for a brief moment, but eventually his smile was fixed back in place. “Eh, oh well. What a small world! See, now I have to help out here, since I named it an’ all.”
So Seventh Heaven was Zack’s concoction in a way. Cloud turned the revelation over in his mind, filing it away with the other ways that Zack had touched some aspect of his life. It was as if, no matter where he went, Zack’s influence followed him. Aerith’s stories about her past love, this bar, the buster sword, the stolen memories…
My honour… My dreams… They’re yours now.
As Tifa and Zack happily chatted away, Cloud felt the corners of his lips tugging up into a smile. Perhaps those things had been his once upon a time, but they weren’t anymore. Zack’s eyes caught his partway through the conversation, his face lighting up with one of his usual sunny smiles. Cloud felt the corners of his lips stretch wider.
Yes, those things weren’t his anymore. He could give them back to their rightful owner. With this new life, Zack would have plenty of time to fulfill them.
Cloud would make damn sure of it.