Work Text:
Rooftops
The mournful dark of the room lets Cloud know it is late into the night when he hears a thump coming from outside the window. His light-sleeping habits never really let him fully succumb into unconsciousness; any sort of sound, in a quiet town nothing like the frenetic bustle Midgar was, quickly wakes his senses back to alert.
The darkness felt heavy so he had to give his eyes a minute to adjust to the grey shades of the room before sitting up on his bed and run a hand through his blond locks of hair. The see-through curtains drawn on the window blur the lights of the few lit lamps on the street tinging the fabric with smudges of white and yellow.
Sword placed up against the wall, ready for him to reach for it if needed be, he pushes the curtains aside in search for the source of the noise he had heard. The dark shape of her slender body sitting on the sloping rooftop of the Inn makes his eyes widen in surprise; she looked as gentle as a graphite-drawn shadow lightly contoured by the silvery glow of the stars.
The soft pink of her dress shimmering in graceful ease under the moonless starlit sky is the only bit of color his eyes can make out in the dark.
Heart racing, he hastily opens the window and climbs onto the roof into the hot humid air of the night, to join her on the cold tiled floor she was sitting on gazing up at the sky with arms folded on her bended knees.
As he sits, the trees whisper in the wind along with the rising and falling voices of the crickets singing under their leaves in a tuneless concert all around them.
“Hi…” her soft voice interrupts the hypnotizing chirping.
“Hi…” he replies, watching as her gaze slowly falls upon his. “Little high above the ground to be sleep-walking at.” He says before he thinks. His tone a little more imperious than he intended.
“You think so?” Her lips quirk up, her eyes didn’t really show any signs of tiredness as they smiled along. “You’d catch me if I was wouldn’t you?”
“That’s right.” He nods in certainty and it makes her smile widen. “Still… if you could not expose yourself…”
He had to do something about her tendency to place herself in dangerous situations. She remains silent for a moment before she calls him.
“Hey Cloud?” He lingers his gaze on her beautiful face thanking the darkness for partially shadowing the look of bewilderment on his features he feels he can’t control as he waits for her voice to continue.
“I miss the slums’ rooftops.” She finally says quietly, reminiscing on a time not so long ago when there was only just the two of them and the sea of metal scrap rooftops long enough for them to start getting to know each other. “Those I jumped across with you when you found me.” She pauses to take a deep breath. “Everything was simpler then.” He knows what she means. Somehow he feels it too, the want of going back to the moment in time when there were no fallen plates or fallen friends. Just a lonesome bodyguard and a cheerful flower girl running away from a threat that couldn’t yet compare to that sort of pain.
“Could you pretend…” she continues, and he can feel the fading tremble of her voice, the heaviness it carried. “For only one night… could you pretend nothing of that happened and we’re just two people sitting on a roof watching the night turn into day?”
She wasn’t asking him much but he doesn’t know what to answer her.
“We could try.” He says, lifting his gaze into the stars as if maybe they could help.
“I don’t want to forget it, it’s not that…” she trails off. “I just… want to feel normal for a minute.”
“I know.” He answers, normal, he can’t remember a time when he felt like it too. What could feel normal to her? Everything about her was… different. What had been once normal to him as well? Ever since he was a child, it has always been fighting. First mentally, against the walls the world had placed around him. Then physically, to try and prove he was good at something, to try and break those walls he had to place himself up against the world instead.
The corners of his lips slightly turn up involuntarily as an idea forms in his mind, one he hoped could help her achieve what she asked for.
“How was your day today, did you get to plant all you wanted?” His eyes turn to her, a flickering greenish blue light in the night. His lips pressed together nervously waiting for her to play along. He knew she’d find comfort there, the flowers.
She stares at him for a fragment of a second, studying the look on his face, processing where he wanted to go. Deep green eyes widen in bemusement as she draws a quick breath.
“Why I would have! I planted as much as I could with what little water I could drain from the well.” She replies lightheartedly, her lips spreading into a small smile. “I waited for my bodyguard friend to come help me but he was so late into the day I finished the work all by myself!”
His eyebrows lift. “Which is he? A bodyguard or a friend?” He wasn’t going there, but since she mentioned, he is curious to know where he stands.
“Can’t he be both?” She asks, her lips pucker playfully. As secret as the moon is, she loves the idea of him being her bodyguard but she also loves it when he shows her a side of him that tries to go beyond those two things. A little out of his character but close enough to his heart. “For now, who knows what the future brings.” She doesn’t let the opportunity pass to dig deeper into his shell.
He nods once, the coy look on her face sends his mind racing, he decides to leave it at that, for now. He might have gone too far asking, should have known better. He clears his throat. “Maybe he had better things to do.”
She gasps dramatically. “Mean! Better things to do than help plant flowers on a garden? With his most important person?” Her cheeks insufflate in an angry pout that looks more cute than threatening. “I’m definitely discounting that on his payment.”
“Not that he’s getting paid much anyway.” He rolls his eyes and his arm feels the light bump of her warm knuckles.
They stare at each other a silent moment before Aerith bursts out laughing, because of his efforts to drift her mind away from their journey and also for his attempt at humor. But she immediately covers her mouth with her hands to contain the loud sound her spontaneous laughter echoes helplessly through the air. He half-smiles at her, engaging at how carefree she looks in comparison to the last few days of their travels. He notices as the light briefly returns to her eyes, a sparkling light he hadn’t seen since about the time he came crashing down her church.
“Pretty sure you’ve just woken the whole town.” As much as he tried not to, he couldn’t help but chuckle. He should have known by now, she makes him lose whatever grip he had on his emotions.
“Well first of all, the town has about seven houses, so it’s not a lot of people.” She muffles her own dimming chuckles. “Second… you made me laugh so you’re to blame too.”
“I had nothing to do with it.” He says nonchalantly turning his gaze at her.
“Cloud.” She calls, biting her lip to sound serious. She appreciated his company. As the crickets continue their endless electric singing eclipsing the silent beats of their hearts. “Thank you.” She whispers and her fingers gently curl around the gloveless hand he’s laying down on the tiles under them. His skin feels surprisingly soft, she notices.
“You shouldn’t wear gloves so much.” She says, her fingers circle along his hand absently.
“It’s the sword…” he replies, his hand twitches under her touch, reaching out for hers. “Have to make sure I use it properly… I have a very important job.”
Green eyes locked on half-lidded blue ones, he slightly shifts towards her as she leans closer against his shoulder.
“Hey!” Barret’s incredulous shriek thunders behind them through a window he’s holding open with a big spread hand. Cloud let’s out the breath he was holding as they turn around and see their friend’s head poking out of his bedroom window. His eyes wrinkled small in sleepiness with a hint of confusion. “Go blabber at someone else’s window why don’t you? Some of us are trying to sleep!”
“Shut up!” Cloud shrugs a glare his way in frustration.
“Sorry!” Aerith’s shoulders cringe guiltily, but a playful giggle escapes her lips.
“So rude! I can expect anything from the merc, but I thought better of you, Aerith.” And even after closing his window shut, they can still hear him mumble into his bedroom for a few seconds before going silent again.
The flower girl and her bodyguard exchange quiet glances.
The smile on her face is as beautiful as the bronze light lining up the dark sky as morning breaks the night away and slowly creeps up the rooftops to reach them, kissing their skins softly in warm beams of timid sunlight. After some persuasion from her, they agree to meet in every rooftop they can from that day on, quietly, not to wake anyone.