Little paws make light work:
** I’m not apologising for what I’ve done here.**
Picking through the rubble of what was once Midgar was harrowing on the best of days…
Cloud had been avoiding thinking about how many bodies would never be recovered all because of his failure. Tifa would argue with him that he wasn’t to blame for this but the fact remained that he had been the one to hand Sephiroth the black materia. He had failed Aerith, gotten Zack killed. He had been the one who had weakly failed to drag himself to his mother -
Green flashes behind his eyes and his centre of gravity tilts dangerously. There’s a voice ringing out, “CLOUD RUN! RUN AWAY CLOUD YOU HAVE TO LIVE! PLEASE BABY RUN!” His vision blurs with tears at the memory of her voice and he’s suddenly on the floor.
It’s not the place to be having a breakdown. He can’t be crying in a pile of rubble that could have people under it. But he is, and there is no way to stop this hurtling Frait-train of emotion that slams into his chest.
He’s sobbing on his knees, tears mixing with the masonry dust that coats his cheeks. He can’t breath. It’s all wrong, all of it! He should be the one who died! Zack should have left him to die! Zack was the hero, not Cloud. If Zack was here Aerith would still be alive. He would have saved her, she wouldn’t have been put in that position.
Oh Gods the world was swimming in front of him. He was going to be sick.
Hewasgoingtobesickhewasgoingtobe-
Meow
What?
Meow
“He-hello?”
Meeeeow!
Cloud crawls on his hands and knees to the edge of the slab he’d been balanced on, face ruddy, Noe’s and eyes still streaming. He’s sniffling pitifully but now his eyes are lit up with curiosity rather than agony. He locks his foot in a hole in the cement to try and lower himself into the gap between the broken slabs.
It’s dark in the hole, and if he hadn’t been enhanced he probably wouldn’t be able to see a thing. As it was he could see the gray little face of a meowing fluff ball…
It was a kitten!
He sniffs trying to force the tears to a stop and reaches his hand down towards the kitten who latches on to the leather of his glove without a second thought. With a little bit of manoeuvring, Cloud manages to get the Kitten out of the hole without too much drama and once he’s got a good look at them he realises that the poor thing isn’t grey at all, it’s covered in dust.
He huddles it close to his chest, using the edge of his shirt to wipe off the worst of the dust from the cats watering eyes. There’s a hint of brown peeking through and from the two tone of the dusty coat, Cloud would guess that they’re mostly brown except for the ruff.
“There you go little one, I got you” he mutters to the kitten who murps weakly in reply.
He was thanked with a sneezing fit that sent up a little plume of dust that would have been funny if it wasn’t caused by something so horrific. So he continued to sacrifice his shirt for the sake of taking the worst of the dust off of its coat.
There was a collar with a rather big tag on it around the kittens neck and as Cloud tucked the tiny baby close to him, he rubbed the tag between his forefinger and thumb to see if this little guy had a name.
SQUALL was printed on it in big letters. Cloud resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the universe as he turned the tag over to see if there was a contact number or a name that he could trace. Of course the cat had an air related name, one so close to Cloud too. He’d think it was fate except he and fate were not on speaking terms right now.
The back side of the tag did indeed have an owner name, but it wasn’t what cloud had expected to see.
“For Cloud” it read. “From your bro, Wedge.”
The tears were back again. Streaming down his face at a force that he could never hope to stop. This can’t be real. This wasn’t FAIR. What the hell did the universe want from him so badly!? Why does it keep throwing things in his way just to cause him pain?! He just wants to stop crying over dead friends! Is that too much? Was he asking too much of Minerva? Of Gaia? What had he even done to deser-
The kitten meowed again butting it’s head into the bottom of his chin and nibbling at his jaw.
“Ow,” cloud said, more out of reflex then reaction. It effectively pulled him out of the spiral though, and maybe that was the point.
He remembers very briefly, before the plate drop spiralling in front of Wedge. He had been helping the other man feed his cats and Cloud had been locked inside his own head thinking about how he couldn’t differentiate between his feelings on the animals or the phantom opinion he now knew to be Zacks.
Zack had never been a big cat person. He wasn’t against them, but he’d always preferred the company of dogs. Said they were always pleased to see you and cloud tended to agree. However Cloud liked both animals, he always had. There had been a few strays around Nibelhiem that he fed and Tifa’s cat was forever coming to cuddle with him on nights when he’d been excluded or beaten up. Dogs were really cool, and Wolves were even cooler, but Cloud had a special place in his heart for cats.
Wedge had watched, intrigued when a momma cat had come to say hello to him whilst he spiralled. He’d been particularly interested to watch Clouds breathing re-regulate itself when she did.
Cloud had never thought much about it… but apparently wedge had thought about it enough to pick out a kitten from that same momma cats litter for him.
Squall squirmed and Cloud suddenly realised that he wasn’t actually all that small. He had the lanky signs of kitten hood but he was a big baby. Absently Cloud considered that he might just end up being something the size of a Gongagan jungle cat or a Mideel coon. If that was the case he’d need to think over his food options…
“Your gunna cause me all sorts of problems Hm?”
Squall batted at a strand of his hair and purred.
“Yeah yeah, your lucky your so cute.”
In the distance Cloud could see Tifa and Yuffie climbing over rocked to get to him. He secured Squall in one arm and began to climb down towards them.
How to explain this new house guest without a home?