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Insomnia isn’t anything new for Cloud. It’s a closer friend than he’d like, one that visits no matter how exhausted he is, no matter how he tosses and turns, no matter how comfortable or warm his bed is. So it’s no wonder that the unforgiving ground doesn’t help matters, as he lays wide awake, some time in the middle of the night; judging by the chill, and how long he thinks it’s been, it’s somewhere around three in the morning.
He’s not sure. It doesn’t really matter.
There’s a scuffle outside his makeshift tent, the crunch of gravel beneath boots. Intently, he listens, his hand already hovering over the hilt of his sword, ready to defend himself and his friends—what a strange phrase it is, “his friends”; one that he’s not often used in life.
He recognizes the step: light, almost as if a beat in a carefully timed dance.
Aeris.
That soothes him, his hand withdrawing from his sword, but also piques his curiosity. What’s she doing up at this hour? She needs her rest—and he knows she’d tell him the same thing with a wink and waggle of her finger—but still, he feels drawn out to check on her.
Slowly, he sits up, and then, he hesitates. It could be something as simple as her going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and it would be more awkward than anything if he interrupted that, but as he listens, the footsteps continue, crossing back and forth in front of his tent. She’s pacing.
There’s been something captivating about Aeris ever since he met her; an understanding between them, maybe, if he dares to hope, but then again, he’s never been very good at reading people when it comes to things of this sort. Those winks and jostles and little flirtatious—he thinks—lines could very well be empty, a consequence of her character more so than any true attraction. And yet she doesn’t tease the others like she does him, doesn’t seem to delight in anyone else’s humor like she does his dry remarks, and she definitely isn’t as cozy taking anyone else’s hand or arm as she surely as she does Cloud’s—although there was those few times with Tifa, and he’s certainly seen Tifa blush around her a few times almost like she used to do with Jessie before—
There’s the snap of a twig that makes him jump, and after a moment of silence he exhales, shaking his head and those thoughts away. Memories won’t bring back the dead.
He wonders if Aeris is troubled by the same thoughts.
Steeling himself, he emerges finally, the scratchy fabric of the tent flap catching on his dry, calloused skin as he looks for her. There she is, standing at the edge of camp, one of the threadbare blankets they picked up on the road wrapped around her shoulders, her voluminous hair cascading like a stormcloud down her back and her chin tilted upwards to the stars. Her ears are sharp, too, like his—for more reasons than one, he knows; Shinra trained them both well—and she turns at the sound of rustling fabric, curious. When their eyes meet, shining in the dim light, she smiles, and waits for him to slowly, awkwardly approach her.
“Can’t sleep?” he asks simply, in a hushed tone, and she shakes her head.
“Why would I sleep, when this is right here?” she grins, extending her hands to the sky above. Cloud looks up to where she points; it’s pretty, sure, but—
“They’re just stars,” he almost says, but something about Aeris’ wonder over something he’d always taken for granted reminds him—she'd never woken up to any lights but Shinra’s above her, cold and manufactured and a harsh mako green, if any at all, and certainly never to the thousands of little pinpricks above them, something that Aeris, of all people, should never have been deprived of—so he nods instead. “You know,” he begins, after a moment, “when I was a kid, my mom taught me some constellations. I might remember a few.”
“Really?” She sounds utterly delighted. “I’d love to hear about them!”
“Mmhmm.” He crosses his arms, looking at the sky, and the chill that settles over him isn’t necessarily from the cold around them. Mom.
Aeris sees that—of course she does, she’s Aeris—and moments later, Cloud feels the warmth of her blanket settling over his shoulders. “Can’t have my favorite bodyguard catching cold,” she says by way of explanation, with a wink.
“Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be keeping you warm?” he asks, the hint of a smile tugging at his lips, and she giggles as he gingerly opens his arms to her, the blanket billowing in the slight wind behind him.
“Sure!” She makes herself comfortable almost immediately, drawing his arms across her chest, her back to his; suddenly he’s keenly aware of every breath he takes, how warm she is in his arms, the press of her slender (and nearly bare) shoulders as she leans back against him.
Well, he’s fairly certain he’s never seen her do this with anyone else.
“I bet the stars are beautiful in the mountains,” she breathes after she’s settled into his careful embrace. “I’ve heard the air is so clear up there, and crisp… it’s like biting into a fresh apple when you breathe.”
He’d never really thought about that. “Well… it’s definitely not as dry as here.”
“Mm.” For one moment, the stars lose her attention, and she turns to him, the night sky above them reflecting in the deep green of her eyes. “Will you take me there, one day? To the mountains?”
Without thinking, Cloud nods, and she smiles at him. “Of course,” he adds after a silence that stretches just long enough to start being awkward.
They talk for what feels like hours, of constellations and stars and mountain ranges where the pine trees rustle in the wind, where clear, cool brooks run between their roots as the snow melts in the spring, where the chirp of crickets rises into the warmth of summer nights, where smoke billows from chimneys in the autumn as the first creeping fingers of winter bring their chill into homes and hearths.
Aeris is quiet for a moment, when the conversation falters, and then she asks “Keep me warm?”
“Thought I already—” That’s not what she meant, he realizes, as she tugs him towards her tent.
“You need to sleep. So do I. We’ll be warmer together, right?”
“...yeah.” He takes a step toward her, then another, as she leads him across the camp, drawing him in like a moon bound by gravity. Even if neither of them get much sleep—and they probably won’t, judging by the faint edge of dawn lining the horizon—he doesn’t think he’ll mind it, with Aeris at his side.
Under the starlight, she shines.