Slave AU; Zack and the firsts buy Cloud from his hometown.
When the news of the Jenova clones broke, ShinRa put it in as good a light as they could. The Clones weren’t experiments...they were attempts to save people who had been exposed to mako, the monsters in the reactor tanks were too late to be saved. Somehow...it worked. People accepted the story. Most of the clones were too far gone to remember their families, but towns accepted them. Some tried to rehabilitate them, with some success. Other towns...found uses for them.
Claudia Strife had died before she found out what happened to her son...and Nibelheim wasn’t sure what to do with him. He was given room and board at the inn...and then they found Cloud tended to do what was asked of him. Didn’t complain, sometimes needed explanation, but was a good worker. He didn’t need pay so long as he was cared for, so they earned a silent handyman. For the first two years he was treated well...it started to devolve after that. Cloud didn’t complain when he was yelled at or hit, so that became another use for him. In the end, Tifa, the innkeeper and one of Ms. Strife’s former neighbors became the few people who would take care of him, wrap his wounds and speak kindly to him.
When the monsters came, the SOLDIERs followed. The native Nibelhiemers didn’t want to risk their own lives, so Cloud had the job of guiding them. Both Zack and Sephiroth had seen clones like Cloud before, but they treated him kindly. They’d seen some who could respond to questions and Cloud could grunt an affirmative and shake his head. Zack cracked a joke and Cloud snickered quietly. It was a lot more than they had seen from other clones. They didn’t like the bruises and scars they saw, but Cloud refused to acknowledge them.
Both ended up having to protect Cloud from the dragon, but outside of some singed hair it ended fine. They spent three days up in the mountains all together. Zack spent some time trying to teach Cloud some Gongagan sign language (courtesty of Gramps Fair) with some success. Cloud admitted he didn’t like living at Nibelheim and Zack was surprised to hear Sephiroth offer to help remove him. Cloud shook his head.
When they returned, Zack and Sephiroth had to wait for the villagers to decide how to pay them. Zack and Sephiroth very subtly dropped hints that they appreciated Cloud. Cloud’s few caretakers were horrified when Cloud was sold like an object...until they saw how the SOLDIERs treated him. Tifa watched Zack teach Cloud how to sign goodbye and almost cried. Cloud was terrified, until Sephiroth ruffled his hair a little awkwardly.
“We have a place for you,” Sephiroth said.
“And we’re buds now, right?” Zack said.
Cloud nodded in affirmative.