Aerith & Tifa

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith looked up to Cloud again as he was introduced to her, giving him a small, but warm smile. She watched him move over to the flower bed... just wanting to be sure he was careful with the flowers. She looked back down to Zack again, listening to him intently.
"This can wait Zack, if you're tired," she offered quietly.

[Tifa Lockhart]

"I don't know Aerith... i'm tired but... what if those people you mentioned come? Or someone after us..." Even as he protested he was beginning to doze off from a mix of exhaustion from the constant travel, long fighting and his wounds.

Cloud turned from the flowers to watched Aerith and Zack, still strangely emotionless.

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith shook her head, fringe swaying with the motion.
"We'll deal with that if it happens," she promised, voice quiet and soothing.
"Just rest..."

[Tifa Lockhart]

"Alright..." He breathed, eyes closed as he drifted off to sleep, "I AM sorry..." He added before he drifted off into a very deep slumber.

Cloud continued to watch from the edge of the flower path, Buster sword clutched in his hands. His eyes traveled up momentarily to the hole in the roof, which he frowned at, the only emotion that had shown in his eyes for some time.

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith held Zack gently, remaining still so she wouldn't disturb him. She watched him for a moment, eyes travelling over his bullet ridden body. He'd been through a lot, and yet he had dragged himself to her. It was obvious now that he hadn't just abandoned her, as she had feared.
She looked over to Cloud, who stood silently by the flower bed, looking up.

'You came falling from above, gave me quite a scare...'

"You know, Zack did that," she said, smiling at the memory.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Cloud slowly turned to face Aerith as she spoke to him, his eyes empty, though his voice was curious.
"He fell? Down here?" He asked.

[The Painted Lady]

"Mm-hm."
Aerith smiled and nodded.
"It was how I met him."
She realised she hadn't really introduced herself.
"My name's Aerith."

[Tifa Lockhart]

"Aerith..." Cloud repeated somewhat roboticly, regarding her with his strange eyes as he slowly walked over, still holding tight to Zack's sword.
"Cloud." He then said once he was in front of her.

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith smiled warmly up to him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Cloud," she said kindly.
She glanced to the sword the man carried, instantly recognising it as the one Zack had received from his mentor.
"You can put that down if you want. You look tired too."

[Tifa Lockhart]

Cloud seemed hesitant to do as she said, tightening his grip on the buster sword for a moment before he carefully, gingerly even, lowered the blade down to the ground.

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith's eyes were still gentle and warm while regarding Cloud. He seemed so... fragile, almost.
"You can sit if you'd like," she offered, running her fingers absently through Zack's messy hair.
"So, how did you meet Zack?" she asked, figuring the SOLDIER would be out of it for a long time. She might as well make conversation until then.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Cloud slowly lowered himself down to sit in front of the beautiful softly spoken woman in pink who handled his dear friend so very tenderly.
"I-" He began in reply to her question, stopping when he realised his memories were fuzzy, fragmented for quite some period of time, just snippets of Zack's face from time to time, and one particularly vivid memory of a rather hideous scientist with oiled back hair laughing manically as he peered at him through what Cloud thought was a wall of green flames.
"I don't think i reme-" He began again, stopping yet again when his strange blue eyes came to rest on Zack's face.

A very hazy memory of a man viewed through a visor of a shinra helmet waved into his mind. It flickered as if it were about to disappear from his grasp before it snapped into focus, as if a helmet had been removed and his head cleared.

With me and Cloud around there's nothing to be scared of at all!

"I... I met him.... at Modeohiem." He said a little hesitantly, staring at Zack for a long moment before looking up to stare slightly past Aerith.
"Gongaga... and.... Nibelhiem..." He murmured incoherently, his expression somewhat pained.

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith listened thoughtfully and silently to the boy as he spoke. He seemed to struggle with his words, and she waited patiently until he seemed to be finished. He didn't make a whole lot of sense, but she felt that Cloud must had been involved a lot in Zack's life the last few years. Something had happened to him too, but she noted with a small bit of disappointment that the baby-faced blonde would probably be incapable of recounting anything for her.
"Nibelhiem..."
Aerith looked down to Zack again. He had been in Nibelhiem when she last spoke to him. He had promised her he'd ring back when he wasn't busy, but she never received the call.
"Something happened there..." she said, her voice half questioning, half stating.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Cloud watched Aerith silently, feeling bad for his inability to help her like he would have liked to. He just didn't remember much of what had happened during the past few hours, months, years... however long it had been.
"Will..." He began slowly, eyes moving to rest on Zack's face again, "He be... be ok?"

[The Painted Lady]

Aerith looked down at Zack sadly. A gentle breeze seemed to appear from nothing and envelop the two as she sighed.
"I'm... not sure Cloud."
Her sorrowful expression was one that was foreign to her face.
"I hope so."