Closed Starter for @ghostofnibelheim
Confiding in Zack had been a bad idea, the worst in fact, but compusivity and heat of the moment jitters made the suggestion impossible to refuse...
... typically, when Fair had been so damn insistent that his idea would even work.
Shame had crippled the blond since the moment the team had crossed the borders of the Western Continent; just how many times had Cloud written home telling his mother of all the adventures he'd taken part in as a member of SOLDIER?
Too many. And was any of it true?
Well... no...
So here he was, dying of exposure in the icy chill of Nibelheim's nighttime mountain air, dressed in Zack's uniform, which was - for all intents and purposes - at least two sizes too big for him.
And despite how he and the dark-haired First had attempted to make it fit - rolling up cuffs, synching the waist at the back by jerry-rigging carabiner clips twisted into the cloth and hooked to his belt - he still looked like he'd been launched through his dad's wardrobe.
He could just go back into the hotel and hide in his bed for the remainder of their stay, but facing Zack seemed far worse a humiliation than at least giving his plan a try and making his mother believe that he was SOLDIER as he'd stated in so many letters.
Facing that lie was something he simply could not bear to even think about.
And so, it was with the deepest, most regretful sigh that the blond SOLDIER wannabe began taking those first fateful steps towards his old family home on the other side of town, one sickening stride at a time.
Little did the young infantryman realise that this evening was about to get a whole lot worse~
