Never Tear Us Apart: Part II

by tir-synni

 

Wow, I don't have the slightest clue as how to spell Aeris' last name.  This is passable, tho.  And yes, I love my mush.  I can't help it!

 

Chapter I: Sanctuary

 

      Through the acidic fumes and thick smog of Midgar, the sweet fragrance of fresh flowers swirled like a single rose in a valley of poison ivy.  The citizens of Midgar's slums regarded that innocent scent with cynicism, their owner even moreso.

      Aeris Gainborough knew of so many people's reactions to her beloved flowers; they had the same reaction to her.  Yet, for the few people who did see the true beauty of her flowers, for the few people whose eyes lit up at the rare sight in Midgar's harsh, mechanical world, Aeris continued selling her flowers.

      And such thought kept her warm when she returned home with no gil in her pockets.

      "Hi, Mom!" Aeris called, stepping into her brightly lit home.  "How was your day?"

      Elmyra smiled gently at her adopted daughter, pausing from her chores.  The dust rag in her hand stilled as the elder woman turned.  "Same-old, same-old," she replied lightly.  Her aging, but still sharp hazel eyes glanced at Aeris' basket. It was overflowing with multicolored flowers...just like that morning when Aeris had left.

      Aeris noticed Elmyra's gaze and smiled ruefully.  "Same-old, same-old on my side, too," she admitted.  "Many looked at my flowers as if they were rabid chocobos."

      Smiling sadly, Elmyra reached out and stroked Aeris' dark tresses.  "People fear what they don't understand.  Flowers symbolize so many things, so many things alien to the darkness of the slums.  They just don't understand, Aeris."

      Aeris gently kissed her mother on the cheek.  "I know.  Why don't I go cook us some dinner?  Something from the garden should cheer us both up."

      Aeris felt her mother's hazel eyes staring intently at her back.  The young brunette acknowledged her with a soft smile tossed over her shoulder.  She knew Elmyra worried about her.  After years of being hunted, Aeris could blame her, but she refused to live in fear.  She had a destiny, a duty to the Planet...she could not cower from it.

      "I'll be right back," Aeris added, putting her basket of flowers on the table.  She headed back outside.  "A small meal, with a salad on the side.  Perfect."

      Elmyra laughed softly at her choice of meals: the usual.

      Aeris smiled slightly at the sound.  During such times of sorrow and despair, laughter was more valuable than any amount of gil.

      The small smile still lighting her lovely face, Aeris walked to the door, her beloved garden and flowers blooming cheerfully outside.  However, before her fingers could touch the doorknob, a hard knock shook the door.  Elmyra gasped behind her, and Aeris tensed.  Frozen like a startled chocobo, Aeris' intense green eyes stared at the shaking door.  Several more knocks thundered down, but neither Aeris nor her mother moved to answer it.

      Could it be...them? Aeris wondered, totally focused on the door.  Have they come for me?

      Squaring her shoulders, Aeris reached out the rest of the way and turned the knob.  With a snap of her wrist, the door flung open.  The resulting sight shook her more than if her expectations had been right.

      "Oh...." Aeris whispered.  "Oh...."

      Braced in the doorway, carrying a limp, beautiful blond stranger in his arms, Zachary Stoker grinned weakly at her.  His handsome face had changed little over the years, but strain still showed, the strong visage gaunter than she had last seen it, slick with sweat and pale as her lilies.  His muscular body was thinner than before, and he shook with some unknown strain.  It couldn't be the boy's weight.  The boy looked too slight to weigh much, and he was skinnier than even Zack.  He looked starved.  What had Zack been through, they both been through, to hurt them so?

      Despite his exhaustion, Zack's eyes sparkled as he looked at her.  "Hi, Aeris," he whispered.  "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

      Still cradling the boy tenderly in his arms, Zack closed his shining silver eyes and slumped against the door.  The small stranger never leaving his protective embrace, Zack crumpled to the floor.

~~~~~~~

      What...?  Where am I...?  Cloud?  Cloud?!?  Cloud, where are you?  When I sleep, I always have you against me, so I can feel your breathing, hear your heartbeat.  Oh, Holy, why can't I sense you?!

      Startled and afraid, Zack's eyes shot open.  A strange sight met him.  It wasn't the open sky, or the dark stone of a cave.  Yet, it still looked familiar.  Warily, Zack looked around.  A bright, cheerful room lit before  him.  So warm and inviting...when had Zack slept in a room like that before?  How many years?  So long.

      "Zack?  You're awake!"

      That voice...Something shone brightly in Zack's heart.  "Aeris!" he cried, snapping his head around.  "Aeris, Aeris...it's really you.  We made it!"

      Always beautiful, Aeris had never seemed as lovely as she did right then.  Zack laughed as Aeris ran over and embraced him tightly.  He laughed even as tears began to flow down his cheeks, but he still couldn't stop, only clutching Aeris close.  Aeris wasn't doing any better.  She was sobbing softly into his broad shoulder, holding him like she would never let him go.

      Finally, they pulled away, sniffing and smiling.  "I thought you were dead," she whispered.  "They said you and Seph were dead, killed in Nibelhelm."

      Zack's smile faded.  "Seph did die," he murmured.  "I couldn't save him.  I was barely able to make it, and Cloud..." Zack closed his eyes.  "For a while, I didn't think I'd be able to save him, either."

      Aeris' eyes widened.  "That's Cloud?  That's your lover?"

      Zack only nodded.

      Aeris clutched him close.  "Tell me what happened these past five years," she ordered.  "What happened to you two?  What happened to Seph?"

      Closing his eyes, Zack felt a familiar pain flash through his heart.  Haunted memories blazed behind closed lids.

      "Hojo's experiments..." Zack whispered hoarsely.  "They drove Seph insane.  He destroyed Nibelhelm...Cloud's hometown.  We arrived too late to do anything.  Nibelhelm went up in flames.  We fought with Sephiroth in Nibelhelm's Mako reactor.  I was put down without effort, but Cloud..." Zack sucked in a shuddering breath.  "He was able to beat him.  Tossed him into the Mako.  But Sephiroth had already run him through.  He still bears the scars on his chest and back from where the blade had slid through, and scars on his palms and fingers from where he had held the sword.  Hojo found us afterwards, dying from our wounds.  He and his goons took us to the old mansions in Nibelhelm and--"

      Zack cut himself off, unable to say it, unable to even think it.  The pain was still too fresh, the freedom too tentative.  Fortunately, Aeris understood, as shown by the horror in her eyes.

      "No," she whispered.  Zack only nodded in affirmation.

      "When...when we were finally able to escape," Zack resumed, his voice halting, "Cloud was totally senseless.  Hojo was--Hojo had--I had to get him out of there.  I was finally strong enough to free us.  We traveled here to become mercenaries together.  When...when we were on the bluff overlooking Midgar, Cloud woke up.  He spoke to me, Aeris!  I hadn't heard him speak for so long...."  Zack gave his head a quick shake.  "From there, we walked here.  Cloud passed out as soon as we hit the slums.  I carried him the rest of the way."

      Zack closed his eyes, exhausted.  Aeris seemed to realize this and held him close until he recovered.

      Finally, Zack took a deep breath and raised his dark head.  "Is Cloud all right?" he asked quietly.  "He's been through so much...."

      Aeris summoned a small smile.  "I just came from there.  He is very weak, and his illness lingers, but I expect him to make a full recovery."  She squeezed his shoulder.  "He's very beautiful, Zack.  I've never seen eyes that blue before.  Quite lovely."

      Zack stiffened.  "His eyes are open?" he gasped.  "He's awake?"

      Another small smile, but Aeris' emerald eyes remained sad.  The dark-haired man never noticed.  "Awake and wishing to see you."

      Zack's ecstatic shout startled Aeris almost as much as his wild hug did.  She yelped, and the sadness in Aeris' eyes eased at his obvious joy.  "Thank you!" he whooped, kissing her hard on the lips.  Then, despite all his exhaustion, Zack threw himself out of the bed and raced to the bedroom down the hall.

      Still sitting on the bed, Aeris watched him go.  Her hands settled primly on her lap.  Idly, her eyes traced down to her trembling fingers.

      "He will recover," Aeris murmured to herself.  "I just don't know how long it will take.  Either way, it doesn't matter.  He'll never be the same way again."

~~~~~

      "Cloud!  Cloud!" Zack cried out, bursting into the other bedroom.  "Baby!"

      The door flew open, and gasping slightly, Zack stared at the single bed by the window.  Gently glowing blue eyes met his own shining silver ones.

      "Zack," Cloud whispered, his beautiful face strikingly pale, but still lit with a brilliant smile.  "Hi, Zack."

      "Baby!" Zack choked out, running across the room.  Cloud held out his arms, his tearful smile trembling on parched lips.

      "Zack," Cloud repeated, right before Zack yanked him into his arms.  Cloud clung desperately to him.  Next thing Zack knew, they were both lying on the small bed, on their sides, and he was tasting Cloud's lips with his own.  Finally, they had to part, neither strong enough for a long, drawn-out kiss.

      "Are you all right?" Zack whispered.  "Are you okay now?  Do you need anything?  Water, food, anything?"

      Cloud sniffed, shaking his head.  "Just you," he whispered back.  "Just...talk to me."

      Zack smiled reassuringly.  "Of course."

      Cloud nuzzled his head against Zack's shoulder.  "Are we truly free?"

      "Of course."  Zack's hand began automatically stroking Cloud's soft spike.

      Cloud's wondrous eyes closed.  Old pain and sorrow and fear haunted his pale face.  "Are we truly free from Hojo?"

      Zack's reaction was immediate; he crushed Cloud's slight body to his chest.  "Free forever.  He'll never touch us again."

      Cloud's lovely eyes never opened.  Quietly, he murmured, "Will the memories fade in time?"

      With a convulsive shudder, Zack tightened his grip on Cloud.  Behind eyes that had darkened to nearly black, Zack saw Hojo's henchmen dragging Cloud's still, bloodied body back into the room.  He heard Hojo's smug taunting, heard Hojo's obscene grunts, heard Cloud's agonized screams.  Zack buried his face in Cloud's hair so his love wouldn't see his tears.

      "The memories will fade," Zack whispered, "and we'll make whole new ones.  We'll be mercenaries for a while, and it'll make us rich.  Then we'll leave Midgar, taking Aeris and her mother with us, and we'll go somewhere with a wide open field, and a big fishing pond, and I'll show you how to hold the fishing rod just right...."