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On a bright, breezy, and autumnal day, Cloud couldn't find Sora.
That in itself was strange enough—ever since he'd first arrived, the boy had grown quite attached to Cloud, constantly asking about his adventures after his battle with Sephiroth, and listening with wide, attentive eyes when he acquiesced and spoke of all the places he'd been and all the things he'd seen.
(Cloud didn't know how or why Sora knew him, but he didn't quite have the heart to brush him off. He also chose to leave out… certain details about his adventures. Sora didn't need to know about everything he'd been through.)
But what made Sora's current absence stranger was that he had a doubles match with Cloud in fifteen minutes, the two of them against Zelda and Simon Belmont. And ever since he'd first arrived, Sora never turned down an opportunity to compete.
So that was what had Cloud Strife trekking up the stairs leading to the rooftop, for Isabelle, bless her soul, had told him that she'd last seen Sora moving in that direction. He seemed kind of gloomy, she had said. Maybe he's homesick? I think you should talk to him.
Cloud had never been the best at talking to people, a trait for which Tifa chided him very often. But, he thought as he opened the door to the rooftop, it was worth a shot, especially for someone as upbeat as Sora.
It certainly was late autumn. The last of the foliage was slipping off the trees, scarlet and gold cascading from above, and the sunlight was soft and cast everything in a golden haze.
It was chilly, though. A bit too cold for this time of year. Cloud was beginning to wish he'd brought a coat.
Sora, for his part, didn't seem to notice. He was still dressed in his black-and-white short-sleeved hoodie, his spiky brown hair fairly conspicuous against what was left of the leaves. He was sitting at the edge of the rooftop, facing away from Cloud, staring into the sky.
Cloud took a step closer. Only a slight movement of Sora's head told him the boy had heard him at all. But he remained still.
"Sora," said Cloud, by way of greeting.
"Hey, Cloud," replied the boy, his voice flat. There was no sunny smile to greet him, as was the case every other time he'd chirped his name.
Cloud silently exhaled. This was very strange indeed. Something wasn't right. "Didn't expect to find you up here. Everything alright?"
"…Yeah, I'm fine," mumbled Sora, his voice barely a whisper.
Cloud frowned and stepped closer. Sora was an even worse liar than he'd thought. "We got a match in fifteen minutes, and you're up here brooding? C'mon, kid, that's my job."
The joke did not earn Cloud the laugh he was looking for. A chill wind gusted by, making Sora hunch his shoulders. Sensing that this was going nowhere fast, Cloud sat beside Sora on the rooftop. "It's cold out. You sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine," repeated Sora. At least he was starting—somewhat—to act like his usual self again, idly kicking his legs as they dangled off the edge. "I'm not bothered by the cold."
Cloud had a growing suspicion that he was not fine in this regard, but those two little kids wore their heavy parkas everywhere they went, no matter the weather, so he chose to take his word for it. But he hadn't come up here for idle chit-chat about the weather. It was time to change the subject. "But seriously, kid, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
Sora was quiet for a long time. Then, he said, "So… I heard something really bad happened before I got here. Like, at the start of the tournament."
Cloud nodded, slowly. "Mmm."
"And there was a…" The boy hesitated. "There was that Galeem person that showed up. He called himself the Lord of Light."
Cloud paused, having an inkling as to where the conversation was going. "Yeah."
"He… destroyed everything, right?"
Cloud squinted into the horizon. "Almost everything. He tried to remake the universe. Luckily Kirby was able to make it out of there."
"Yeah." Sora gave an almost imperceptible nod. "Good ol' Kirby."
The two of them sat in silence for a while. Cloud swung his legs over the edge of the rooftop to match Sora, glancing down at him as he did so. The boy had huddled in on himself, shivering in the temperate cold.
"C'mon, kid," said Cloud suddenly, making Sora jump a bit. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"
Sora squirmed uncomfortably in his spot. He made the mistake of looking up at Cloud, and was met with the look of stern, almost fraternal concern in his icy blue eyes. No one under the age of seventeen could resist… for long. "It's just… he used light. He took light and he used it to just wipe out everything.
Sweat gathered in beads on the back of Sora's neck. His breathing quickened. Cloud remained quiet, patiently waiting.
"He used light, and he turned everything—everyone—into spirits." The boy kept staring at Cloud, his eyes wide and his knuckles white. "All my friends—Riku, Roxas, Xion, His Majesty…" He swallowed hard. "K-Kairi… A-are they—?"
"They're fine, Sora," interrupted Cloud. "We beat Galeem, and all the spirits went back to their home worlds. Simple as that."
It was an admittedly flimsy attempt at comfort, but it was an attempt nonetheless. Sora's breathing slowed, just a bit. "Yeah, but…" He fidgeted with his hands. "The li—Galeem took them. If I was there, I probably could've done something to…"
Sora's voice trailed off as he stared into the wide meadow before him. Cloud felt his stomach tie itself in sympathetic knots. The boy shut his eyes tight, and when he opened them again, their blue had gone dull and dim.
"I already lost my friends once. I don't know what I'll do if I lose them again."
It was then that Cloud noticed the deep, dark circles under Sora's eyes as he spoke, and how they contrasted against the sudden paleness of his face, and how his normally spiky hair seemed to go as flat as his voice sounded.
Sora couldn't have been older than sixteen, Cloud realized. His stomach gave an unpleasant turn. "You've been carrying this for a while, haven't you?"
The boy remained still. When he spoke again, his voice was very, very small. "Ever since I received the Keyblade, I fought for the light. And then, when I heard about what Galeem did… how he destroyed the world, and turned everyone into spirits with his light…"
"You feel upset," Cloud finished, "that something you believed in wasn't actually true."
Sora glanced up at him.. "Y-yeah. I guess," he murmured, blinking at Cloud in surprise. "How'd you know?"
"Yeah." Cloud stared back into the horizon. "It was pretty obvious by the look on your face." Seeing the boy still staring up at him, he continued, "Call it learning through personal experience. I thought I was… someone I wasn't."
"Really?" Sora leaned in closer as Cloud nodded. "Who did you think you were?"
"I won't bore you with the details." Cloud waved away that question, and any others like it. Sora didn't need to know everything about him. "Besides, we're getting off track. This is about you, right?"
Sora deflated a little bit. "Mm-hmm."
Cloud turned to Sora, his blue eyes sharp and unblinking. "Listen, Sora. I don't know what things are like in your world, but from what I can gather, light is used by you and your friends to save the world, and the people trying to stop you use the darkness. That's what you were taught, right?"
"Yeah, that's what I learned." nodded Sora. Then, remembering something, he added, "But some of my friends used darkness to help me out."
Cloud nodded. "And then there was someone that used light to destroy everything, and it's messing you up, right?"
Slowly, reluctantly, Sora nodded. "I… I don't know if I've been doing any of this right." He swallowed, his voice taut and troubled. "Like, I don't know if… if I'm going down the right path."
Whatever expression Cloud had on his face, he felt it soften. Evidently, this was difficult for Sora to admit. He sighed. "Again, I don't know what things are like in your world, so… I don't know if I can give you a simple, easy answer. I don't think anyone can, really." He wiped at his face. "But you know what I think? I think it's good that you're going through this right now."
Lines formed between Sora's eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
Cloud slouched and rested his hands in his lap. "What I mean is… look, you're a good kid, and it's good that you're taking the time to think about this. I've learned that it's better to question your beliefs than just follow them blindly. Believing that light is automatically good and darkness can only be evil is pretty naive."
The bristle that snaked through Sora at the word naïve was quickly stamped out by shame washing over him, like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on his head. His ears burned, and he turned his eyes towards the grass.
"But," continued Cloud, and Sora looked back up. "The fact that you're so… worried about this is pretty telling." Seeing Sora's look of confusion, he went on, "Lemme ask you this. How does Galeem make you feel?"
Sora's brow furrowed. "I feel… sad, mostly." He tugged at a lock of his hair. "I feel upset, for my friends, and everyone that had to go through that. But, I also feel… angry."
"And why is that?" asked Cloud.
"Because…" Sora tapped his fingers on his lap. "I feel mad, because he would try to erase everything with his light. Like, it…" His hands clenched into fists, tight with the passionate rage of a sixteen-year-old boy. "It makes me mad, because I couldn't fix it, I can't go back and stop him, and that he would have the nerve to use light for—"
Sora stopped mid-rant, as he noticed that Cloud was looking at him, and smiling. A soft, understated smile, but a smile regardless. This was a rare sight indeed. He would have considered it a great accomplishment if it weren't for the embers of his anger still smoldering inside of him. "What's that look for?" he asked.
"It proves my point," Cloud said with a shrug. "You'd probably fight Galeem with nothing but a wooden sword on your back if that's what it came to. The fact that you're so worked up about this shows me that you're trying to be a good person." His gaze hardened a bit as he looked out towards the meadow. "Which is more than I can say for some people."
Cloud stood up, stretched, and invited Sora to do the same, holding out his hand towards him. He did, and Cloud knelt down to put a hand on his shoulder. Sora stood and stared at him, listening keenly.
"Sure, both of you use light," he continued. "But that's the thing, you see. You use light for good—to protect others and help your friends, while Galeem used his light to destroy everything and remake everything for himself. You're just good and virtuous and sincere and just… good." He straightened up and lightly punched the boy in the shoulder. "So don't worry so much about it, alright?"
It wasn't a perfect answer, or even a great answer, or at least Cloud thought so. But mercifully, wonderfully, hearteningly, Sora had brightened considerably. "Yeah, I won't!" He smiled a wide, lopsided, familiar smile, a sight that brought Cloud a welcome wave of relief. "Thanks, Cloud!"
"Don't sweat it," smirked Cloud, taking up his Buster Sword and starting to walk off. "Now come on. We've got a match in five minutes, and I'm on a thirteen-match losing streak. I really wanna win this one."
"O-oh, yeah! I nearly forgot about that!" A shower of sparkles, and the Keyblade appeared in his hand. He jogged over to match Cloud's stride, shoes squeaking against the pavement. "Whoever gets the least points buys lunch for the day?"
Cloud grinned. "Only if you can handle it."
They strolled back down the stairs, the light of the sun shining brightly on their backs.
When the dust had settled and the points were tallied up after the match, it was Cloud who emptied his wallet that day.