Categories > Games > Final Fantasy 7 > Homecoming
The only person he saw when he reached the tiny farm was, to his disappointment, a woman with long, dark hair. A part of him tried to insist that she looked familiar, but the rest was simply taken with the fact that she wasn't who he was looking for. In the end, at that point, it was all that really mattered.
She turned to look at him as he came through the break in the fence, with curiousity and a healthy amount of caution showing clearly on her face. He didn't look like much, he had to admit-- dusty shapeless clothes, dusty everything. Probably smelling of too many days out in the wilds without benefit of a bath. If he'd been in her place, he'd probably have been cautious, too.
When he stopped just a few strides from the porch, though, the puzzlement on her face changed to something almost like recognition, though she also looked like she didn't believe her own eyes.
"I'm looking for someone named Cloud Strife." He'd been wandering from house to house and town to town asking the question for so long, he barely noticed it coming out of his mouth. The people at the last place he'd stopped had said to come here, had seemed to actually know Cloud-- even after so long, he couldn't help but hope. "Is he here?"
The woman looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the right words, and in the end she just nodded her head and turned away. She led him around the building to the back, where he could hear voices and squawks-- and there in the middle of a tiny wooden pen was a group of small children gathered around two tall, golden chocobos. Some of the children were holding grooming cloths or bits of food, others simply watched and occasionally held up their hands for the birds to inspect.
And in their midst, leaning over and carefully explained something to the smallest of them, was a man that for a moment he didn't recognize.
The hair looked right-- he fixed on that fact desperately, wanting so badly for it to be real-- a familiar mass of unruly gold, bright under the sun, and his fingers twitched as he remembered how it might feel. But the rest-- the shoulders were broader than he remembered, or maybe they were just held straighter. There was the easy, casual strength of a SOLDIER in the way he stood, and an understated confidence in his movements that was definitely new. So many little things that were different from how he remembered.
He found, in that moment, that he almost couldn't bring himself to believe.
But then he and the woman came close enough to be noticed, and that blonde head lifted. Two bright, blue eyes fixed on them-- fixed on /him/-- blinked once, widened. He stared into those eyes, and knew that this man was, despite all the changes-- Cloud.
And Cloud stared with his mouth gaping open, words stopped in mid-sound, not seeming to remember what he had been doing just seconds before. He took an almost helpless step forward, and another, and again until he was only a pace away and still staring, breathing like he'd been punched.
His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before he managed a nearly inaudible whisper.
"Zack?"
Zack gave him a grin that only felt a little forced, and lifted a hand to wave. "Hey."
She turned to look at him as he came through the break in the fence, with curiousity and a healthy amount of caution showing clearly on her face. He didn't look like much, he had to admit-- dusty shapeless clothes, dusty everything. Probably smelling of too many days out in the wilds without benefit of a bath. If he'd been in her place, he'd probably have been cautious, too.
When he stopped just a few strides from the porch, though, the puzzlement on her face changed to something almost like recognition, though she also looked like she didn't believe her own eyes.
"I'm looking for someone named Cloud Strife." He'd been wandering from house to house and town to town asking the question for so long, he barely noticed it coming out of his mouth. The people at the last place he'd stopped had said to come here, had seemed to actually know Cloud-- even after so long, he couldn't help but hope. "Is he here?"
The woman looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the right words, and in the end she just nodded her head and turned away. She led him around the building to the back, where he could hear voices and squawks-- and there in the middle of a tiny wooden pen was a group of small children gathered around two tall, golden chocobos. Some of the children were holding grooming cloths or bits of food, others simply watched and occasionally held up their hands for the birds to inspect.
And in their midst, leaning over and carefully explained something to the smallest of them, was a man that for a moment he didn't recognize.
The hair looked right-- he fixed on that fact desperately, wanting so badly for it to be real-- a familiar mass of unruly gold, bright under the sun, and his fingers twitched as he remembered how it might feel. But the rest-- the shoulders were broader than he remembered, or maybe they were just held straighter. There was the easy, casual strength of a SOLDIER in the way he stood, and an understated confidence in his movements that was definitely new. So many little things that were different from how he remembered.
He found, in that moment, that he almost couldn't bring himself to believe.
But then he and the woman came close enough to be noticed, and that blonde head lifted. Two bright, blue eyes fixed on them-- fixed on /him/-- blinked once, widened. He stared into those eyes, and knew that this man was, despite all the changes-- Cloud.
And Cloud stared with his mouth gaping open, words stopped in mid-sound, not seeming to remember what he had been doing just seconds before. He took an almost helpless step forward, and another, and again until he was only a pace away and still staring, breathing like he'd been punched.
His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before he managed a nearly inaudible whisper.
"Zack?"
Zack gave him a grin that only felt a little forced, and lifted a hand to wave. "Hey."
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