no matter any weather

[exsurgo]

[ It’s funny how things come full circle, sometimes. They’d been on holiday in Costa del Sol when Zack pulled the fantasy of working a little farm together out of thin air. Now they’re moving everything into the little farm they’ve bought for cheap because the previous owners won big at the Gold Saucer, wanted to sell up and move to Costa del Sol. So lucky, it’s like something straight out of a dream. Fitting, since the process of getting here had seemed like a nightmare.

It started with Wutai. No, it should have started with Wutai. All those people who just wanted to live their lives on their own land, and Shinra sent in SOLDIER to make sure that didn’t happen. And Zack had done as he was told; loved it, even, thinking only of impressing Director Lazard. But then there’d been that girl who tried to scam him, sending him off to find materia, and it was only after Zack had made her cry a couple times that he started asking questions. Like, what did a little kid need all that materia for anyway, and where were all the adults in her life when she was out trying to swindle a member of Shinra’s elite fighting force?

He'd gone to Angeal hoping to be talked out of his doubts. That? Had not happened. What happened was a fast track to honorable discharge (with documentation that Zack strongly suspects was faked, because Shinra doesn’t let anyone go easy) for him and Cloud both, money that Angeal had said he wasn’t going to need with a funny sort of smile on his face. Zack hadn’t understood, but by the end of Angeal’s explanation he’d been in tears, and never more grateful that Cloud, at least, had never made it into SOLDIER. Although even if he had, it probably wouldn’t have stopped him from looking like he was going to faint when Angeal gave them both goodbye hugs and told them to live well.

He'll never forget it, but it seems very far away now. They didn’t have a lot of possessions to move. The farm equipment was included in the sale, and the house on the land is small but cosy; lots of polished wood surfaces, a fireplace in the living room, faded floral curtains that the owner had said would need to be replaced, but that Zack kind of likes. Best of all is the little stable with a pair of work chocobos; they’d been wary of Zack, fluffing up their feathers to seem bigger, but when Cloud had gone in and quietly said hi to them it had only taken about ten minutes for one of them to nestle her head in against Cloud’s neck and the look on his face had made it all worth it.

Tomorrow, he’ll be planting all day. There’s a tiny crop of corn and greens for chocobo feed, but the rest of the fields have lain fallow since the old owners made their plans to get out. It’s gonna take work to get it running profitably, but it’ll be good work. Honest. And he’ll have Cloud here with him; Cloud, who has just put down the last box and is standing there looking around the room like he can’t quite believe it. Zack can; he believes in this, because he believes in Cloud. He walks over and loops his arms around him from behind, nuzzles his face into Cloud’s hair. ]

Welcome home.

Comments

[meteorics]

[ a little groan of marked relief. ]

Bully.