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entraya inbox
" this is aerith! sorry i missed you, but - leave a message? i'll get back to you soon ♥ "
this is NOT a spoiler-free zone!
" this is aerith! sorry i missed you, but - leave a message? i'll get back to you soon ♥ "
this is NOT a spoiler-free zone!
no subject
You were on your way - not we.
Cloud is very used to her face looking like that, though it's been a little while here in Etraya. He wishes she wouldn't. Though it's a little weird, since she seemed legitimately content with how things went, last he saw her - so maybe she's still missing events, or maybe she's from further on than he is now. Hmm.
"...yeah, sure." He leans an elbow on a nearby piece of furniture, the Cloud version of getting comfortable. "I mean, there's a lot. So, guess I'll just start with the last thing I remember." Could be this is Cloud's subconscious creating an excuse for not talking about the whole black materia thing. Could be just a coincidence. Who knows? Not Cloud.
He doesn't look directly at her as he speaks. "We caught up with you in the Forgotten Capital. You were praying. The Whispers were everywhere...all of 'em, not just Sephiroth's. He tried to keep us out, but we managed to open the way enough for me to get through. When I got there..." His expression darkens. "He was there. He tried to kill you." There was more going on there than that, but Aerith doesn't need to know the Whispers tried to make him kill her himself if she doesn't already.
"But, I stopped him. Just barely." If he hadn't, if she'd died there, Cloud never would have forgiven himself. A sudden flash of something, something painful, flickers through his mind, and he flinches - but he recovers quickly enough. Whatever that was must not have been all that important.
"Then you...well, I'm not really sure what happened. But you were okay." He looks up, as if the truth might be written on the ceiling. "I think...you must've used that white materia to travel between worlds. Like Sephiroth does. So you decided to go stop the meteor out there while we went to stop Sephiroth up north. Last thing I remember's getting back on the Bronco...and parting ways with you."
no subject
All I want...is one thing. To keep the others safe.
Their memories were finally matched up, then. ...More or less. Aerith closes her eyes now as he speaks, and can easily recall Cloud's anguished yell as he'd fought the whispers, his blade held high over both their heads. The crash of his sword against Sephiroth's. The feeling of relief, and happiness, when Cloud had held her tight, and she been safe and sound.
The wrenching pierce of Masamune, anchoring her to the floor: impossibly sharp. The blood, pooling. Everything going white."Seems like we're on the same page now." When he looks back at her, she's watching again, with that same, mild smile in place. "We've both got things we need to do. I'm just sorry I won't be along for the ride anymore."
There's a pause, and she moves to stand by one of the windows. That inscrutable, green gaze scans the city beyond her apartment, though what she's looking for isn't clear. Eventually, she turns again, hands behind her back.
"...Thanks. For saving me." Whatever happens, don't blame yourself. "You've been doing a lot of that lately. It's a dangerous world for little old me."
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"Well, you've saved me a lot, too, y'know. Dangerous for all of us." A slight smile creeps onto his face, but it doesn't last long, fading as he stops leaning and stands up straight again.
"'It's okay.' That's what you told me, right? Might not be along for the ride for a while, but we'll see you again when the mission is done." He tilts his head. "You okay?"
no subject
"Yeah." But it's something she intends to sort out for herself, and so she offers him another little smile. "I'm okay. Just need some time to...get back up to speed."
It's a lot of memories to have flood back into your head in an instant, after all. The times where they'd had to pretend to be married, or went to the beach for his birthday, feel...so far away. So too, though, does their 'date' in that world where the sky had been fractured.
Looking at Cloud, it feels like an impossible gap is stretched between them. She wants more than anything to cross it, and that feeling clutches at her heart like a vice.
"You'll have to tell me all about it, next time I see you. Back home, that is." She moves her hands behind her back, leaning forward slightly in her signature pose. "And no skipping any details, got it?"
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"Heh. Wouldn't dream of leaving anything out." He takes a step closer to her. "If you need any help catching up, you know where to find me. You helped me when I first got here, after all. Only fair."
There are questions he could ask her now, questions that feel like yawning holes in his understanding of things. All those coy non-responses she'd give him back then that really didn't explain much, cryptic things she said, things she seemed to know...and why the materia she gave him had no color. What it meant. What he was supposed to do with it.
But he's not going to bring any of that up now. She's overwhelmed enough as it is. He'll give her time to settle in again, to get used to things, to process. Then he'll ask.
no subject
He doesn't ask about anything that happened, doesn't mention the details. She's grateful, honestly, because...it's complicated. It's all more complicated than ever, and Aerith herself feels...overwhelmed. She's always had things like this that were hard to talk to anyone about, and she'd grown used to that. More recently, it'd been a relief to have Nanaki to share some of it with, but after what happened - and in Etraya - all of it is in her hands again, and in her mind. A jumbled mess of a life. Of a death.
She shifts where she stands, watching him.
"...How're you feeling, Cloud? Not just right now, I mean. Just - lately."
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"Dunno. Not too bad. Been a little too quiet around my place, I guess." There's this creepy feeling of being watched, too, but he doesn't want to tell her it reminds him of Sephiroth. "Why?"
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If it's too quiet, that can be easily remembered...
"Just asking. I haven't seen 'this' you in a while, after all." At his core, though, he's the Cloud she'd just left. The one Sephiroth had his hooks in, who'd been compelled to chase the black materia, and...
There's a lapse, and then she steps forward, reaching out to take her hand in his.
"I'm glad to be back. Know we didn't say goodbye that long ago, but it's not the same on my own." She doesn't keep his hand hostage for long, though, offering a squeeze before releasing it again.
no subject
He nods - right, last she saw him, he hadn't yet come to Etraya. Weird thought.
She takes his hand, and he glances down at it with a slight smile. He wonders if...if she might want to make 'next time' sooner rather than later. He's not sure if she'll remember that, though. Was she 'his' Aerith, or another one from another world? Definitely not something he intends to ask right now.
"Yeah..." He looks back up to meet her eyes. "Not the same without you, either. Nice to be on the same page again, too." It was uncomfortable, hiding everything from her for so long. Important things, but also...smaller, more personal things.
He squeezes her hand back, but then she lets go, and he tries not to look disappointed.
no subject
Aerith can nearly hear the musings, the questions, circulating in Cloud's own brain. She looks up from their joined hands to his face, searching for a moment before she releases the hand again.
"Right. Yeah, it's better this way." 'The same page,' huh? That obviously isn't...really true, though. Not now, and...maybe not ever.
Her stomach twists.
"You don't have to leave or anything. But I'm also okay, y'know. If you have to be somewhere."